Funny Faces and Haircuts:The Princess and The Duck-First Trip*3/9 Earning Our Ears

Well my plans to return after the weekend turned into returning in a month! Just finished page one and am loving your TR! The ditching DH on the WL elevator cracked me up! Looks like the princess lunch was a hit. (Your Ariel was much more true to the orig than ours.) Sorry Snow White never showed up. That's a bit odd. Looking forward to reading more.
 
Just made it through page 2. Glad you felt the Epcot love! Isn't evening EMH the BOMB! That Pop stop is insane though isn't it? Glad you finally scored a Pack N Play. We still have ours, even the the girls have outgrown it. It's come in hand more than once when my sisters & in-laws have brought their kids for a visit.
 
Well my plans to return after the weekend turned into returning in a month! Just finished page one and am loving your TR! The ditching DH on the WL elevator cracked me up! Looks like the princess lunch was a hit. (Your Ariel was much more true to the orig than ours.) Sorry Snow White never showed up. That's a bit odd. Looking forward to reading more.

I still can't believe I did it, it is so unlike me. I guess that's what happens when WDW overwhelms you!


I have had the next update ready for a while but it took me forever to find the time to upload pictures and resize them. Thing have been so hectic with Thanksgiving and Black Friday. I was one of the crazy people who stood in line at midnight at Toys-R-Us to buy a Sleeping Beauty Vanity for 65% off. DH said I was crazy and I went alone, luckily the couple behind me were wearing WDW jackets and as I learned had just got back from vacation so the time flew talking to them of course. I will post the update in the next few minutes.

I had to add some pictures of the kids on Halloween (wow I am slow at uploading pictures) as a Princess and Buzz Lightyear. Lorelai was going to be Tinkerbell but it was just too cold out and I ran out last minute to find a princess costume for her and couldn't find a Disney Princess costume that was in the least warm. This was the last time Ethan could possibly wear his Buzz costume he barely fit in it this year.

At a zoo Halloween Party:
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A bit blurry but too cute..
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Trick or Treating
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I'm not sure how many photos are allowed per post so I might have to break this into two....

Even though our table had been by a window neither of us had noticed the weather outside while we ate. When we emerged from the Crystal Place we were amazed that the day had not lightened one bit and it was drizzling. This was actually great news to us! The park was still pretty empty and if we could get on most of the rides in Fantasyland with little wait our day would be perfect!
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Onward to Dumbo!

Not before a Photopass stop (we ended up not getting the Photopass since we didn’t take that many photos).
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Gotta add this for DH since he laughs that I took so many photos just like this of his back.:thumbsup2 But you can see my Dis homage Lime Green Mickey tag.
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This was one of only two times we actually walked through the Castle, which was surprising to me since for some reason I thought you had to enter it get to the other side. It was pretty crowded so we didn’t get to look around much, but the mural is beautiful.

Our goal was to wing our touring plan since I forgot ours at home and our first ride was Dumbo of course! I remembered enough to know to ride Dumbo early or be prepared for a wait! But when we emerged from the castle DH headed to the left to Tinkerbell’s Treasures, he remembered me telling him that DD could wake Tinkerbell up possibly. Turns out now they let anyone who wants to call her do it, neat little hidden secret. DD wasn’t sure what was going on but she played along ringing the bell and calling for Tink and there she came! DD was stunned. Too bad we didn’t get any photos but it was a pretty quick process anyway!

While we were there we saw our first pressed penny machines and we let the kids make pressed pennies and DH bought them both a book to keep them in. These were a huge hit and very inexpensive! The only problem is they are slightly time consuming digging out the m&m holder and getting the change for both of them, picking the penny, changing their mind a thousand times, making the penny, putting the penny in the book. In the long run a few pennies were lost in pockets and the backpack but it will be a book to be filled over the course of our many trips to come!

Finally we were headed out toward Dumbo with minimal fights over merchandise; boy does Disney merchandise it up at DW! They sure do know how to market that is for sure. Since we had watched many of the rides on YouTube the kids already recognized a lot of them and they were very excited to ride them. By the time we made it to Dumbo it was starting to do a little more than drizzle but since it was hot out we didn’t care. I pulled out the Dollar Tree shower curtain and covered the stroller when we parked it and it covered the double stroller completely. What a fantastic idea I got from the Dis!

Dumbo was nearly empty and only had a 5 minute wait, whoohoo Pixie Dust! We jumped in line and we were the next group on. Since I had the camera here is DH and DS….
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DD loved being able to control Dumbo and figured out quickly how to stay at the top. She was in heaven! As soon as we landed it was a round of “Again Again” from both of them. Since there was still no line we headed back to board and ride again, this time I gave DH the camera. DD looks so happy, she had that smile nearly the entire trip, she was on cloud 9.:cloud9:
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After our double Dumbo we decided to leave our stroller and head over to Snow Whites Scary Adventure. I had read that it was a rated a little scary for preschoolers but our kids are very good with make believe scary as long as they don’t have to touch anything. There was a 10 minute wait if I remember right but we walked right on. DD and I ended up in a different car than DH and DS but that was fine. Neither of the kids were frightened by the ride but they never mentioned it again either, good thing since there was always a long wait every other time we passed it.
DD and I are in the back...
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We grabbed the stroller and continued our tour of Fantasyland and headed to Winnie the Pooh. The kids watch Playhouse Disney but Tigger and Pooh are not their favorite show and after one failed attempt at letting them watch the original “Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” I thought that this, like Snow White, would be a onetime ride. The wait said 5 minutes and we walked right on…
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All I can say about this ride is again how amazingly simple the concept was and how perfect that makes it! Since the kids and DH had never watched the movie they didn’t know the story line but it doesn’t matter. It was an instant hit, especially the bouncing with Tigger part! Of course this meant we had to ride again… so we did.
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They actually wanted to ride again but DH and I wanted to take advantage of the empty park for as long as possible and there were still many rides to go. Next up was the teacups and DH was very wary about these. He does not like to spin, I do, LOL. I offered to ride with the kids alone and let him take photos but he wanted to ride so he took DD to attempt a no-spinning teacup (DD likes to spin too) and I took DS to see how fast we could spin. We hurried to find the “right color” teacup and ended up blue and pink cups. DS loved spinning and kept yelling faster, faster.
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Of course to DH’s horror the kiddos wanted to ride “again again” and we were on again with a small wait. The crowd was beginning to pick up. While waiting for the ride to begin DS began our photos of funny faces!
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Since we had no touring plan I knew we had a decision to make should we head to Toontown now or head toward Tomorrowland. We decided to go ahead and ride the TSW since the wait said 20 minutes and I thought that would be the shortest of our trip. We don’t have any photos of this since it started to rain at this point, yay. Luckily we were able to stay under the umbrellas most of the time but the wait was not 20 minutes it was closer to 30-40 and neither of the kids really liked the ride.

After allowing DD to “steer” since I would not have been able to deal with her if I didn’t allow her to try she went around a corner and when the car hit the guides and it shook (pretty hard) she let me steer the rest of the way happily. She was happy to get out of the car! DH says it was pretty much the same story with DS. Needless to say when we walked by it again there was no one asking to ride it again!

DH took a picture of the raceboard (is that what it’s called?) since his favorite driver’s number was #1! Woohooo Go Tony! LOL
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We were all in need of a potty break but we didn’t want to break up our serious park mojo! So far we had far surpassed our hopes for rides in less than two hours. We were blowin’ through Fantasy Land and WDW didn’t know what hit it! We ended up pulling out our trusty MK map that informed us of a restroom right across from TSW and we did a happy dance. Well DH did a potty dance, he really had to go. He had informed me of this BEFORE our longer than anticipated wait for TSW and I am sure the bumps didn’t help, LOL.

While the men were taking a potty break I decided to try out Toon Town. I figured that Pixie Hollow would already be a long wait but it was planned for priority on another day. Since the park wasn’t too crowded yet, but getting more crowded by the minute, I figured that we might be able to tour a few attractions. ToonTown here we come.
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Well let me just say ToonTown is where they were keepin’ the people that day! It was packed from the moment we entered, pretty deceiving since you don’t see it until you round the corner. There was people everywhere and every parent seemed to be in charge of 52 children. Yikes! I am pretty sure we thought about turning and running but the kids had spotted Goofy’s Barnstormer and there was no turning back now!

Since DD is a tiny little thing I was convinced she was too short for the Barnstormer and was ready to ride out the fit that was going to ensue when DS got to ride and she didn’t. I left DH and DS parking the stroller and walked up to the CM at the entrance to measure DD. Wouldn’t you know she was plenty tall enough. Over an inch! I was amazed since I had measured her at home before we left and she didn’t make the cut. DH and DS finally fought the crowds and caught up to us and we began our journey in the very long queue, it goes on forever! We finally stopped right before the hill to the loading deck, surprisingly very little wait with the crowd outside the place.
We boarded and DD and I got the front row, that was when I realized just how tiny she is. Surely they made a mistake and she was too little. It felt like she was going to fly out the side of the ride but she kept trying to push my arm off of her so I finally gave up until we got going and she didn’t notice it was back (cue evil mom laugh).

Before the train had even stopped she was yelling “again again” and I could hear DS with his coruse behind me. So we made the LONG trek back to loading area to ride again, this time DD threw a fit and wanted to ride by herself. That’s right folks if you were in line behind a completely embarrassed woman trying to board Goofy's Barnstormer with her daughter all the while her daughter screamed like a banshee and pushed her away, that was me. The CM ask if she was afraid, I said “No she’s just indepent”.:headache: I finally fought myself into the seat and we were off.

Continued in NEXT POST...
 


We managed to pull the kids away from Goofy with promises of Minnie’s house, believe me it was not easy. We left our stroller parked and covered by the shower liner and I thanked the Dis silently again for not listening to DH and thinking it would be useless. It was raining pretty hard at this point and I was glad to be going inside with no line to stand in. Minnie’s house didn’t disappoint, even if it was a bit crowded with other parents with the same idea to get out of the rain. Since everything is so “safe” we let the kids explore and make their way through the house. The kitchen was the most crowded by far so I was a bit disappointed DD was timid about exploring it.
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We strolled through Minnie’s garden and exited back out into the drizzling rain. We loaded the kids into the dry stroller and a mom next to us told us what a good idea the cover was. We pulled out the very long shades on the strollers between that and the cover the kids were completely out of the rain. DH and I thought about the ponchos but after pulling one out and it sticking to my hand with humidity we thought we were fine. LOL Next time we are investing in good ponchos and bringing umbrellas. The rain wasn’t so bad with the heat, famous last thoughts.

We made a quick swing through the Hall of Fame tent and found a 90 minute wait for Pixie Hollow so we made a few pennies and headed out of Toontown toward the exit. By the time we reached the Carosel we noticed the crowds had cleared out again and of course we should take advantage of it. Since IASW was right there with no wait we decided that was our first ride. As we passed Peter Pan we grabbed our first FP of the trip and the return time was almost immediate. We parked the stroller and joined the 10 minute wait right behind a very large church group, I am sure the wait went up.
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We made it to the loading area when DS very urgently declared he needed to pee, NOW. So we boarded and walked right across to the exit and rushed to find a bathroom.

DH and DS turned to the left in a desperate search and DD and I waited at the entrance of IASW for them to return. I have to say a lot of the CM’s are attuned to the facial expressions of parents and one noticed DH was searching for a potty and told me there was one right across from us. I couldn’t for the life of me see DH although the CM pointed him out a few times. The episode ended with me sitting in Pinnochio’s waiting on DH to come back the way he went, only to figure out by cell he was back at IASW waiting on me and DD.

We reentered the queue and it was a VERY fast line this time and we boarded for our first ever ride on the Disney classic. I was beyond excited and the dancing/singing dolls did not disappoint. We placed the kids on the outside so they could take it all in and they were entranced. It became an instant favorite and we would have rode again but we wanted to make our way to the exit, but first we had a ticket to Neverland to use.

Using our first FP ever we boarded our flying boat with no wait and off we flew (on the same boat amazingly) with Peter Pan and Wendy. I am not sure why there was always such a long wait for this ride since it is one of the more boring ones IMO, but it was one of DH’s few memories from his trip 10 years ago that he liked and the kids seemed to like it as well. After we stepped out of our boat onto the moving walkway that always worried me we decided we really needed to get going. We grabbed the stroller and we had every intention on leaving as we passed by Mickey’s Philharmagic. We noticed it was a 5 minute wait and who could pass that up?

Apparently not us and we quickly parked the stroller and hurried inside straight to the queue area and grabbed our first pair of Opera Glasses and joined the couple dozen other people waiting. Within a few minutes the door lights flashed and we entered and found our seats. I am pretty sure we sat right in the middle of the theater since it wasn’t crowded. Soon we were off on an 3-D adventure with that wacky Duck, full of jewels and wind and water. It was an instant favorite of everyone, although this was the one and only time DD wore the glasses for any of the 3-D films. I think the 3-D spooked her a little, they both reached for the jewels and the pie, it was a great movie. The end with Donald in the wall was DD’s favorite part and she cracked up every time.

After depositing our glasses we decided that we absolutely needed to get back to the resort if we were going to sneak in a midday nap before meeting the head Mouse that evening. I am not sure what time it was but I am guessing it was around noon. We had got a LOT done for our first morning at MK and it was hard to let go of the fact that the crowds were low and we could probably push for a few more rides but it was comforting to know we had 3 days planned for MK.

As we were heading under the tunnel exit a CM walked up and handed us a handful of “Honorary Citizen” pins and walked away. Not the most magical way to receive them but I was excited none the less, I am easy to please. It was then I realized I had forgotten to ask at check-in for our 1st Visit pins, I know next time I will have a checklist at check in time, lol.

We headed out the turnstiles and easily found the boat launch back to the WL… if only the rest of the afternoon was that easy.

Next up: 10 Sets of Clean Towels and Sleeping at the CR
 
Wow, looks like fun! You got a lot of stuff in early. I would have been exhausted after the long first day!
 
Wow, looks like fun! You got a lot of stuff in early. I would have been exhausted after the long first day!

I know, we were so surprised to have hardly any wait for any ride. We were blessed with Pixie Dust for sure!
 


The next update was nearly done when life decided to kick up and be busy!

Turns out it was all for the best! DH finally landed a good job and bonus it is literally 5 minutes from our house. I recieved a raise and promotion at my job and now I will be making twice the money, which can be saved.

All of this adds up to one thing! WE'RE GOING BACK TO DISNEY WORLD!!!! I am starting to try and figure it out but right now we are planning for the middle of November!!!
 
The next update was nearly done when life decided to kick up and be busy!

Turns out it was all for the best! DH finally landed a good job and bonus it is literally 5 minutes from our house. I recieved a raise and promotion at my job and now I will be making twice the money, which can be saved.

All of this adds up to one thing! WE'RE GOING BACK TO DISNEY WORLD!!!! I am starting to try and figure it out but right now we are planning for the middle of November!!!

Congrats to both you and your husband!
 
That is so awesome!!! Sounds like you brought Pixie Dust back with you from your last trip!!!!
 
That is so awesome!!! Sounds like you brought Pixie Dust back with you from your last trip!!!!

We did! We are so thankful for the blessings that have showered on us! It is hard sometimes to see the forest for the trees.

I am uploading the photos for the next update right now...
 
I just joined and love the TR so far. Your kiddos are absolutely adorable! I love Lorelei's face when she met Eeyore. Priceless!
 
Last we left, our first morning at the MK was nothing less than perfect in our eyes. The kids were having a blast and it was very hard to tear ourselves away and return to the WL for a afternoon break. We headed to the boat launch for our first ride on a Disney boat. While we waited the kids blew off a little steam and before we knew it we were headed “home” on a nearly empty boat.
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Like expected the kids loved the riding on the boat and since it was basically empty we were free to spread out in the back, which became our favorite. The kids played with their penny books and Epcot masks and DH and I enjoyed the relaxing ride back to the WL. I can say with all certainty that we would not have traded the boat rides on this trip, even if it added 20 minutes on our commute to the park. With the exception of only a couple they were all very comfortable and relaxing. I managed to catch DS mid-yawn even though he claimed he wasn’t tired at all.
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Our plan: Get back to our room, take a nap or quiet time, get ready for our ADR and catch a boat by 4:00pm to get to the CR. Since it was only 1:30 we had enough time and we were defiantly ready for some rest! I was starting to feel pain in one of my feet that wasn’t the normal “walk too much pain” and the kids were defiantly ready for naps. It literally took us 15 minutes to figure out a way to get into the building with our stroller, thank goodness we figured it out after that, and we passed mousekeeping a few doors down from ours. Our chances were 50/50 that our room was done….
Verdict was NOT done.

This instantly put a quash on our plans since we stupidly thought we needed mousekeeping. Looking back on this moment I could kick myself for not staying put, hanging our “Do Not Disturb” and taking the much needed nap. Can anyone see where this is going? Probably not if you are smarter than we are. We had no idea that you could schedule your mousekeeping or that is what we would have done, instead we decided to head down to the pool for a quick swim and give the mousekeeper time to get to our room.

We changed and were down by the pool in less than 5 minutes, it was fast since we found a elevator closer to our room that came out right next to the RFC and the exit to the pool. This made DH VERY happy since he could run down for coffee now in a jif. To say the kids loved the pool is a gross understatement. They were enamored by the pool and DD could not be drug out of the kiddie pool. She was head over heals for it! I wish I had brought the camera down for pictures but I didn’t want to worry about laying it down. We moved to the empty warm “hot tub” and the kids played with the bubbles and DH and I relaxed. In the back of my mind I still thought we would have time for naps, who was I kidding? We stayed at the pool a good hour before we headed back to the room.

We were positive she had gotten to us when we saw her cart had moved past our door the opposite way by a good margin, think again. We were greeted by no mousekeeping but by this point we didn’t care. All we wanted was some clean towels and to relax a few minutes before we had to get ready. DH called the front desk and ask for clean towels and we dried us and the kids off with our pool towels we brought up (yeah, I know I broke the rules). We had just got the kids sorta settled when there was a knock at the door.

Was it our clean towels? Well yes and no, it was Mouskeeping and apparently it was training day since there were two and one looked helpless.
They ask if we wanted our room cleaned and we said no just towels since we wanted the kids to settle down. They grabbed our dirty towels and left us clean ones and went on their way. The fact they were training took the edge off of it not being done yet but it was still a headache. DH and I laid down and the kids were still talking but they were at least laying down, when the someone knocked on the door again. DH was a little annoyed even though I pointed out we didn’t have the DND sign on the door.

Who was it you ask? Well it was our clean towels we had requested from the front desk…10 sets of them! The CM had a luggage cart filled a quarter of the way up with towels it was hilarious. She laughed and said she should have known there was a mistake, why on earth would we need 10 sets of clean towels. Now 10 towels I could possibly understand a little, but 10 sets. I felt bad telling her we already were visited by Mousekeeping. By that time we were about to give up on any quiet time and I figured it was time to start getting ready.

I pulled out our coordinating outfits to honor the main mouse and prayed that we would make it through the evening without any major meltdowns. I can’t imagine how many clothes I could have bought for this trip had I had a long planning time, but in the month of planning I had I managed to buy quite a bit of Disney themed apparel. DH and I donned our Mickey t’s, DS had on his new Mickey Mouse outfit and DD had a new Minnie outfit. I had an extremely hard time finding a lot of things I liked for DS in his size (the outlet had almost nothing in his size) but DD was easy since she can wear 18 or 24 months. After doing DD’s hair and pretending to ignore the rat’s nest on my head we headed out ahead of schedule. I let DH go out first and I stayed behind long enough to set out some Tinkerbell surprises for the kids to find when we got back.

We headed down to the lobby so I could use a pair of scissors at the front desk to cut some moleskin for my now throbbing toe. We headed down to the boat docks and got in line for the CR boat. We were a little ways back in line but it wasn’t long before a boat arrived and they are deceptively accommodating. DH did end up sitting toward the front with the stroller while I sat in the back with the kids. DS made a friend with a little boy sitting next to him and they had a nice conversation about their “favorites” and something about fish before we arrived at Ft. Wilderness and the boy left with his family.

The boat cleared out and DH moved back to sit with us and we had the back to ourselves again. The kids were in great moods concidering they hadn’t taken a nap. The boat ride was relaxing again and I surprised them by pulling out their Minnie and Donald stuffed animals. The kids became rock stars with their new shades before we docked…

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We unboarded at the CR and immediately saw how different the themes really are. It is easy to accept the WL as the common when you are there since the themeing is so grand so even the outside of the CR was a little shocking to us. Not to say we didn’t like the CR but we knew immediately it wasn’t our comfort style, although the pool looked amazing! We loaded the kids into the stroller and walked to one of the tables so I could doctor my toe, since I was beginning to limp.

We learned quickly that comparing the resorts was pointless since every resort we visited was so vastly different it was like comparing apples and oranges. The inside of the CR, though vast, seemed a little cold to us. We headed up to Chef Mickey’s in an elevator and I told DH to park the stroller and I would check us in. As I was standing in line I looked around and noticed the counter service area almost blends in with Chef Mickey’s but Chef Mickey’s was defiantly empty. That was when I realized we had the first seating for dinner. The line was pretty long and not moving so they were not seating people yet.

DH was taking a very long time to get the kids when I saw that he was carrying DD and that was strange. When he reached me I learned that she had fell asleep naturally and she was so asleep that she didn’t wake up when he picked her up. This is VERY strange for DD since she is a very light sleeper; she was OUT like a light. DH handed her over and she didn’t even stir. The wait was quick and they checked people in fast. We had our photo taken but since DD was asleep I didn’t purchase it and ours came out very blurry.

I then made the mistake of sitting on the couch and felt like I nearly sank to the ground. Those are some low couches!
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We were called very quickly and seated very close to the buffet to the left. Thankfully we had a half booth table and I laid DD down and she barely stirred, I knew this was tricky since she would probably wake up GRUMPY and hungry but we could deal with that when it came.
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Since we booked our trip a little over a month before I had worried that I wouldn’t be able to get any ADR’s that I wanted and Chef Mickey’s was on my wish list. Luckily I got all my ADR’s and more and ended up moving them around so much it made me dizzy. Our dinner at Chef Mickey’s was a last minute addition after reading GreatBiscuit’s TR and their ease at going between the CR and MK. We had already scheduled a CM’s breakfast for our AK day since I wasn’t able to get into the Tusker House (our only ADR we couldn’t get), but I kept it since I figured who could turn down more Mickey and gang! I was a little weary about eating here since the reviews on the Dis usually go to one extreme or the other but DS getting to meet Donald Duck was a big positive.

We settled down and gave our waitress our drink orders before we headed to the buffet. Although they have a “kiddie bar” there really wasn’t much to the buffet I hate to say. I was slightly disappointed but mostly in the salad bar portion it was practically non-existent. I grabbed a salad and DS had mac & cheese and pizza. DH had a bit of everything and he can only remember the pasta in red sauce and hashbrown casserole, personally I think he is blocking it from memory so he doesn’t have to relive it. Harsh I know but just wait! I ended up picking at a bit of the buffet as well and also had some of the hashbrowns and that is all I really remember. On to the more important part of our meal… the characters!

When we sat down the characters were pretty far away from us so it gave us time to get our food and relax a bit before they came. DS was getting excited since he saw Goofy as they were sitting us. He kept standing on his knees watching him. Before long Goofy made his way to our section and DS couldn’t sit he was so excited. He wasn’t intimidated in any way! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves…
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Then he saw who was next and he literally didn’t look at us again until he came. His eyes were all for his Duck, it was adorable.
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He was standing ready with his stuffed Donald Duck behind his back waiting when Donald finally made it to our table. I am so happy to say that our Donald Duck did NOT disappoint! He was fabulous and when DS “surprised” him with his stuffed Donald the real Donald jumped up and down kissed it and rocked it like a baby. DS was so excited! Finally they calmed down enough to take a picture and we waved goodbye to our new friend.
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DS had now learned a valuable lesson for dealing with characters and he was going to use it to his advantage. Since Mickey Mouse was right behind Donald he didn’t sit down, instead he was clinging to the chair. I ask him why and he said he was going to surprise Mickey with his head on the chair. It was adorable but when Mickey got to us he was so animated DS forgot all about showing him. He kissed Mickey’s nose and his nose shook it was so cute!!
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Next up was the napkin twirling and DS was so excited he just didn’t understand why I kept trying to pull him at least back to our table. He assumed it was like CP and there was a parade. He was really into the twirling!
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Next came Minnie and boy did DS love her! I was surprised but Minnie was his girl! I just love this picture!!
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We grabbed our desserts quickly since Pluto was on his way and we had our first (and only of the trip) Mickey Oreos! How cute are they! DS had me and another guy cracking up at the ice cream buffet. I was adding toppings to his ice cream and he kept saying “Okay and a little bit of that and a little bit of that and a little bit of that.” But he kept going back and forth between the few toppings they had, very precise.
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Next up was Pluto and he was so quick that these are the ONLY pictures I got. It was FAST let me tell you! I think DS got whiplash!
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We were all done eating and ready to go when the inevitable happened and DD began to wake up and SCREAM. I mean scream like she was on fire! It was LOUD and everything and everyone stopped and looked at us. We were in for it I could tell...

Next up: The Meltdown and our night at MK.... if we make it that far... where's the closest restroom! RUN!!!
 
Loved the character interaction. Great photos! The Mickey karate moves had me cracking up. Sorry to hear about DD! :scared1: Hope you were able to recover!

You guys have a Merry Christmas!
 
Since this is my first post....I would like to thank my DW (PrncessA) for inviting me to join...and I hope that I won't bore anyone with my rants and stories...


As for the trip report...Love it so far...maybe because I was part of it...or maybe just your attention to detail about every aspect of our trip! I can't wait to go back.

But for those that are reading...let me take you back to the beginning of it all for a quick moment...

Back in July I came to find out that I would be 1 of 1500 to lose my job with the company that I was at. DW and I new that things would be tight, but we also new that we had to maintain our sanity in the months to come while I searched for a new job.

I remember it so well as I sat in my favorite chair thinking of things that could help decrease the stress that we were already going through. As DW arrived home from work, she walks in the door...and I simply suggest to her that we go to Disney. It was a dream of ours for years, and now that I was out of work...well what better time than the present.

DW was a bit skeptic as she continued to ask me...reassuring herself and my intentions. "Are you serious?", "We are really going to go?"

LOL...I assured her that we were...I wasn't much the planner so I was going to have to rely on her for the majority, but that actually worked out for the best, seeing as for the past two years I had bought her the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World.

As we started to discuss the possibilities of our trip, I conveyed to her that we should go for it all....my last trip to Disney, back in 1998 was not all that magical, and I did not want the same to happen with this one.

We agreed that we needed the dining plan and I told her that I simply loved all the photos she showed me of the WL so I think that we should try and stay there if we could.

She made it all happen...from finding a good airfare...to the stay at the WL, to securing numerous ADR's that would insure a wonderful and magical stay at the happiest place in the world. Grant it, I wasn't all that much help, but offered my opinions when and where I could.

But the end result is that from the moment we landed and stepped foot in Disney....I felt like a big kid and it was not only magical...but it was the best vacation I have ever taken before....which is why we are planning on going again in November.
 
Welcome to my wonderful DH to the TR and the Dis!!

Slight amendment to the last segment:

As I was cutting some veggies last night I was thinking about our first day at the MK and I was sure we had ate lunch somewhere but I hadn’t wrote about it. I ask DH and he had no clue… then I remembered. After we FINALLY figured out how to make it into the WL from the pool area with a stroller (I couldn’t believe how simple it really was) we stopped at the RFC for a quick lunch. It had to have been after 2pm since they had the cookie table set up.

Using the DxDDP for quick service the first time was NOT fun. The kids were grumpy in the stroller so DH left me to figure it out myself. At first glance (and a few after that) the Roaring Fork Café is not user friendly, but I eventually ordered 2 tuna sandwiches and a PBJ and applesauce for the kids. When I got to the register I was informed that I needed a dessert for the adult meals, but not for the kid meal (little weird IMO). I think I got an extra applesauce and a bag of chips as snacks. We ate pretty fast since our plan had been to nap but we learned NEITHER kid liked the Uncrustables at all. Good thing we had bought bread and PB and jelly!

Now on with the show!!!!

After trying to calm her down at the table for a minute and it NOT working I took off to the lobby and left DH to handle the bill and DS.

One thing you have to know about DD is that she is a screamer more than a crier. She is a very loud screamer! When DS was a baby we had nice meals out and shopped without worry, it was fantastic. Since DD came ALL that changed. Quiet restaurants seem to mock her and she gets loud! She is completely defiant and once something upsets her it is very hard to change her mood, she is a lot like me. I tend to be able to handle her better since I can sympathize with her moods.

I headed to the restrooms to change her diaper and wipe her face off. Getting her out of the restaurant did not help, she was not giving up. I knew she had to be starving but going back to the restaurant was not an option and I wasn’t standing in the cafeteria line with her. DH arrived quickly (like he could lose us when DD was a portable siren) and I RAN to the café to fine something (ANYTHING) the DD would eat happily. I found a big banana muffin and grabbed it and found the shortest line, behind one guy.

I have a knack at picking out bad lines; I should really ignore my first instinct and go with my next choice it would serve me better. Turns out this was the guys first time using his meal plan and he was buying for 4 different people (none of them were up there helping him) and his TWO trays were overflowing. By the time I made it back to DH he was a nervous wreck and DD was still crying loudly. I wish I had video of this because her stamina when screaming is amazing! As soon as she saw the muffin she went silent!

When it was safe to move we loaded DS in the stroller and we headed off to find the Monorail. Turns out we were right in front of the elevator that takes you to the monorail level, but we of course walked to the other elevators went to the wrong floor before figuring that out! We finally made it on the monorail and DD was still mildly upset but the crying was mostly over and it was more whining than anything. Luckily by the time we made it to the MK we she had calmed down completely.

DD recovering:
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DS wondering when she will stop:
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DH and I on the other hand were NOT feeling the Disney love. Turns out something at Chef Mickey’s did not agree with us AT ALL! DH was feeling bad and I told him to head through the no bag entrance and I would meet him at the restrooms. I made it through the bag check and made haste to the restrooms. To spare details I can safely say that we did not enjoy how Chef Mickey’s treated us after we left. The ONLY reason we didn’t head back to the resort is there were not restrooms on the boat, lol. We did however end up touring MANY restrooms between the two of us that night!

We made it onto Main St. right at dusk and decided to head to Aventureland and Frontierland for the evening. I don’t have a lot of pictures from this portion of the evening since it was drizzling and I didn’t get the camera out.
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The kids saw the Magic Carpets but there was a line and I figured it was die down soon. Our first stop ended up being The Enchanted Tiki Birds since DH had seen it on his last trip and wanted a revisit. Why I don’t know, but to each their own. I was afraid that the storm was scare the kids but they didn’t mind, but I don’t think they understood the concept. I’m not sure I followed along either but it was inside and we got to sit down.

We exited to find a longer line for Aladdin and we convinced the kids to hold off a bit longer. We headed next to the Jungle Cruise with no wait and ended up sitting right up front. Our guide used DD as example many many times but she was clueless. DS was hilarious and followed every order that was given including ducking a zillion times. It was fun ride and certainly classic Disney but I wondered what it would be like in daylight.

We made our way to Pirates next and boy was DH excited. This was one ride that he remembered loving and he couldn’t wait for DS to ride it. I have to admit that I was excited as well since this was one of the rides that I had dreamed about for what felt like a lifetime. We made our way through the long queue without encountering anyone before we boarded our boat. The ride was a hit all around and remained DH’s favorite ride throughout the trip. DS was singing along after one ride! It is one of my top rides as well; it is just so fun and BIG. The scene with the ships on either side of you is fantastic, you feel right in the middle of it all. We spotted our Jack Sparrows and we moved on.

Finally when we made it back outside we saw the line for Aladdin was practically nothing and we jumped in line. We were flying in no time and the kids loved it! DD loved the fact that it “bounced” a bit if you went up and down.
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We decided that the Haunted Mansion would be our next adventure but on the way we made a pit stop for DS. When I returned from the restroom with DS, DH was laughing hysterically and holding the pink fan… and it was attached to DD’s head!
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I have no idea how she did it but she had managed to get her hair on the back of her head wrapped around the fan. She wasn’t crying which was surprising; I think she was shocked herself. I tried to untangle it from her hair but it was not budging and I was worried that working on it too much might cause her to become upset over it and that wouldn’t be fun for any of us. I sent DH into the gift shop next to us to ask to borrow a pair of scissors and they let him. And then (only days away from her first haircut) I had to cut a fan out of my daughter’s hair. This is was the first time she had ever had a hair cut from her head and I had been saving it for Disney world… just not in that way, lol.

After DD hair debacle we were all getting a bit tired but we decided that experiencing the Haunted Mansion at night first could not be missed. We headed toward the Haunted Mansion and I began to worry that our very rarely frightened kids might start to get frightened. There was no wait and we headed straight into the stretching room, where we held our 30lb kids for what felt like eternity. I didn’t catch hardly any of the monologue in the stretching room since DD felt like she weighted about 200lbs and I am sure I was more exhausted than she was, since she at least got a nap.

We boarded our Doom Buggies and began our happy haunt. I rode with DD and she loved it. She was silent through the entire ride, just wide eyed and taking it all in. It was fun to see everything for the first time and I tried to follow along with the story line a bit but I was keeping an eye on DD making sure she wasn’t spooked. When we came to the graveyard I and things kept popping up I tried to shield her eyes but she kept pushing me away. I was very impressed with both kids that they weren’t afraid in the least.

We were now all getting tired and we decided to head back home. I am not sure of the time although it had to be well before 10pm since Wishes hadn’t started that we had heard but there wasn’t much of a crowd on Main St. We walked with little crowd to wait in line for our boat back to the WL. DD couldn’t understand why DS was asleep, she was happy and awake.
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This was our most crowded boat ride of the trip and DD ended up getting VERY upset again that she had to stay in the stroller on the boat (one of the large ones) but it was crowded and we were standing and there simply wasn’t room to hold her safely. She eventually calmed down but it wasn’t a fun boat ride. We were one of the first to unload and head up the hill. As we were walking I made a decision about our next day of touring. We literally felt like the walking dead and I knew we would never be able to make rope drop at DHS the next day.

When we made it to the room the kids unloaded and found their first Tinkerbell surprises and boy were they happy! We had decided to buy them each two sets of figurines before we left and spread them out throughout the trip. We had no idea what a huge hit these would become, at WDW and home.
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DD's hair:
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They are still the most played with toys they own. You can very rarely find DD not holding one of her Princesses and she sleeps with a few every night (she falls asleep slowly so she plays with them). The only thing is that the Wall-E set that we got for DS had a very fragile Wall-E and within hours of him getting it the arms were missing and the head had popped off. The head luckily pops back on (as does the larger one he has now) but it is not uncommon for me to go in their room and see two decapitated Wall-E’s on the floor.

We let the kids play with their new toys for a few minutes and I began to notice my throat was getting pretty sore. I knew this was a bad sign since I have chronic sore throats and usually lose my voice at least once a year. I can’t sleep in a breeze (even if I am burning up) or I will wake up with a horrible sore throat. The day of rain was catching up to me fast and I wasn’t happy about that. We had opened the patio door and all of the sudden we started hearing fireworks. That’s right folks we had a view of Wishes from our patio!

I remember thinking that I thought it was later than 10pm but it had to be around that time because of Wishes. We were all spent and ready for some good sleep. I sent DH downstairs to fill our cups and I plopped the kids in the bath. I let them play while I tried my best to work the knot out of DD’s hair bit by bit. She was a good sport about it but I know it didn’t feel good. By the time DH got back I had barely been able to work any of the knots out and decided I was just going to have to cut it out. I grabbed the fingernail clippers and got the rest of the knot out of her hair and finished their bath. We got them in bed and this time they were asleep within minutes.

DH took his turn and I downloaded our photos and charged the camera batteries. I hoped that my shower would make me feel like myself again but no such luck. I felt like death run over twice, but I was willing to get up early and start again. DH and I however decided that our morning plans would NOT have us making rope drop at DHS the next day to run to TSM. Instead we would take our time and our only goal was to make by 10:05 for our ADR with June & Leo at Hollywood & Vine.

We left the patio door open since it was too quiet for us and I was only up half a dozen times during the night to change the temperature or grab another cough drop. There was no way a sore throat or a cold was going to ruin my trip!

Next up: Is Disney known for MONSOONS?
 

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