Goofy's Great Birthday Bash NEW 6/2 page 34

[jaycns]

Welcome Trip Report Neighbors!

If you have read along with my crazy planning ramblings, feel free to skip down a few posts. I thought it might be best to start with the introductions again...just in case I can lure a few new friends into reading about my Disney adventures. Which brings me to offer a HELLO NEW DISer FRIEDNS! It's grand to see you here. I love writing about my family's time at WDW and welcome you along for the fun, sweet, crazy, funny and sometimes even wacky reliving of my Disney adventures. Having DISers to share my Disney obsession with makes life a whole lot more fun. So...THANKS for jumping in and enjoying my memories with me.

If you are interested in reading any of my family's past WDW (and some DCL) adventures feel free to click the links below.

TRIP REPORT 2006 (Contemporary, The Disney Magic, Polynesian)- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1246511


TRIP REPORT 2007(Animal Kingdom Lodge, Grand Floridian)- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1585715


TRIP REPORT 2008(Wilderness Lodge, My Dream Disney Day, The Disney Magic)- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1976201


TRIP REPORT 3/2009 (Stitch's Great Escape a Mom and Me Birthday Trip with my 8 year old son at Coronado Springs)-
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2131621

Now let me get back down to the introductions for those of you who I haven't been lucky enough to 'meet' before. My name is Jay and I'm a thirty something mom of four amazing little guys and the wife of one amazing big guy as well. And, if you haven't guessed it by now (me being here at the DIS and all), I am a huge fan of almost all things Disney. Here I am with my boys at the WL last September. Some of my favorite characters include more than a few troublemakers. Naughty but sweet Stitch, Donald Duck, Figment, Abu, Beast, Karl (from Up) and Sebastian. My favorite princess is definately Belle. She's smart, strong, kind, reads a lot and even has a little bit of sassy spunk. She is everything I want to grow up to be.

One of me (note the DCL sweatshirt).

And another snapshot of my little Buzz and I.

Here is another picture from our 9/08 trip. This one is of my four little guys and my big guy together. You see Aladdin, Goofy, Stitch and dh holding our little Buzz

One of just the boys.

And to show just how much they have changed in under a year, one from this past spring.

Our youngest, Buzz Lightyear, is 18 months old and doted on by our entire family. He loves Buzz Lightyear (fittingly enough), Mickey Mouse, Woody, Lightning McQueen, Sully and Stitch. Here is a recent picture of him.

Our second youngest is Stitch. He was lucky enough to have celebrated his 8th birthday at WDW this past March. I took him for a week long mom and me birthday trip. I cherish every moment of the one on one time we got to spend together. His favorite characters are Stitch, Chip, Buzz Lightyear, Donald Duck and Crush.

Our oldest is Aladdin. He is just now 13 and I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that he is now a teenager! Where did the time go! Here he is with dh. He likes Aladdin, Will Turner, Capt. Jack Sparrow, Benjamin Gates (from Disney's National Treasure movies) and King Peter (from the Narnia movies).

Speaking of my dh, we very happily celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary shortly before Goofy's birthday bash trip. I could go on and on about what a wonderful husband I have, but suffice it to say, he (along with my boys) are the reason I smile when I wake up every morning. Dh acted hard pressed to come up with favorites when I asked him but he did manage to come up with a few (and I was even surprised at the thought he did put into it). He came up with Kuzco, Mike (from Monsters Inc) and Timon.

Now that I have introduced you to the rest of my family, I will save the star of this trip report for the next post. This tale being all about Goofy's very own birthday bash it seems fitting that he get his own post!

 

[jaycns]

Meet Goofy Himself!

Even as a little baby, he was a Disney fan!

Between his 'babyhood' and now he has grown (so quickly) into a terrific little guy. Here is a quick look at how he got from there to here.

And some more recent snapshots of my Goof.

Goofy is sweet, silly, smart and shy. His favorite characters include Goofy, Pluto, Dale, Lucky, Squirt and Nemo. I could go on and on about him (as I bet most moms could about their own little ones). Being able to take him to Walt Disney World and spend one on one time with him there is going was one of the best treats (for me and hopefully for him too) ever! He knew we would be going on this trip but had no idea when we were leaving, where we would be staying, how long he would be at WDW or what I had planned for our time there. I almost popped planning out so many surprises and not being able to talk about any of them with my traveling companion. I couldn't even share much with his brothers because I really wanted to keep the surprises that I worked into my plans a surprise. To say I was excited beyond belief would have been an understatement. I was bouncing off the walls by the morning of our departure(at which point he still didn't know he was leaving). I had been planning a whole slew of surprises for him and I was about to burst.

You might ask, why I took just one of my boys to Walt Disney World? That answer lies somewhere in between the fact that my husband (loving and wonderful in every other way but his Disney deficiency) doesn't feel a strong desire to return to Disney for extended periods of time year after year *GASP* while I feel the pull of the mouse most all of the time. The fact that I am a busy mom of four, so I very much appreciate the value of one on one time with each of the boys also weighed heavily in the decision.

So, in order to get my Disney fix and to allow the boys special time with each of their parents (dh will be sure to spend a lot of fun father/son time with the boys still at home) we came up with the birthday trip system for this year. Each of the boys gets to pick a destination (within reason) and I (because I love to travel) will take them there while dh(because he would rather do his relaxing at home) enjoys time at home with the remaining boys. Throw in a separate family vacation with a few shorter family get aways so we still all get time away together and everyone is happy.

As a mini cliff hanger rotfl I will list the list of final resort choices Goofy made for me to pick from (he wanted the actual resort he ended up at to be a surprise, so he just gave me his top 5 choices).
1. Animal Kingdom Lodge
2. Wilderness Lodge
3. Boardwalk Inn
4. Polynesian
5. Coronado Springs

Where did we end up staying? I will post that and the start of our trip in my next installment.

 

[jaycns]

And We're Off...

The morning of departure couldn't have come soon enough for me. I was almost in physical pain having to keep my mouth shut, pack, keep my mouth shut, sneak around making calls, keep my mouth shut, print out our boarding passes, keep my mouth shut. Basically, I spent the night before biting my lip for hours on end. I really wanted to spill the beans, lucky for me, dh is stronger than I am at keeping secrets and was there to give me crazy looks whenever I got close to bursting.

On departure day, Goofy woke up and I told him to put on the clothes I had set out. I offered up the vague excuse that I was planning on taking some pictures today as an excuse for why I would chose his clothes for him. He didn't think much of that since I am very snap happy and my boys are often the subjects of my photography. I have been known to ask them to wear coordinating clothes or dress them in similar colors if I have a certain look I am going for during a photo shoot.

**An important aside: Don't mistake the fact that I take lots of pictures with me being good at taking them. I'm not the worst amateur photographer out there, but I am far from the most talented either. I thought I would throw in this aside so that the expectations of my trip report photography wouldn't be too high. **

Once he was showered, dressed and ready to face the day he made his way downstairs. Dh and I were waiting for him at the bottom of the landing. It was here that dh yelled out (and yes, YELLED not just spoke) " GOOFY, TODAY YOU ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!"...it was so funny/fun to watch Goofy's face as he processed what he was hearing. At first, he looked a bit startled.

Then he slowly started to smile a sweet, shy smile as the reality of what his dad was telling him sunk in.

When dh handed him a new Nintendo DS game (G Force) to keep him busy during the flights, he finally found a full blown smile and I think actually started to believe that he would be at WDW that very afternoon!

Thanks to a very helpful DISer (I don't remember who posted the tip, my bad) we would be going first class! About 6 weeks before our trip that helpful DISer posted a free trial of US Airways Preferred Flyer Club. I signed up hoping for nothing more than being able to check our bags for free and kept my fingers crossed that the trail would actually work when we got to the airport. 24 hours before our flight I got an email telling me that we had been bumped to first class due to our preferred flyer status. THANK YOU SO MUCH DISer (who shall remain nameless because of my forgetful nature ) for the very timely tip that saved us money on our checked bags and allowed us to be bumped up to first class for free! You just have to love the DIS! Here's a picture of my little Goof enjoying all of the extra room in first class.

As we flew over the miles between home and WDW I couldn't help but smile.

I was on my way to spend a week at WDW with one of my favorite guys in all of the world. There was a moment when I looked out and saw those puffy white clouds (right before I snapped the above picture in fact) that I sighed and smiled and knew that I was in for an amazing vacation and was blessed beyond all I could ever have asked for.

The flight flew by (pun intended) and in no time at all, we were touching down in Orlando. A quick ride on the airport monorail and walk to the baggage claim area led us to the first surprise of the trip. Goofy was going to ride in style on his way to WDW. A chauffeur in full uniform was waiting to help us claim our luggage. When Goofy saw 'Jeeves' (I don't remember his real name, so that's what I think of him being called) holding a sign with his name on it he actually let out a little giggle!

Having already enjoyed the help of this particular chauffeur on a trip earlier this year, I knew we were in for a fun ride. Goofy though had no clue he was going to experience his first limo ride. He was really happy about it!

As the chauffeur loaded up luggage, Goofy gawked at the limo. I kept busy snapping pictures and in no time at all, we were off. Here are a few of the pictures I snapped.

Pictures snapped, we were shown into the limo and began our journey to the resort. Goofy was smiling from ear to ear the entire time he was in the limo. I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful start to his vacation. He was surprised, excited, stunned and thankful. JUST the reaction I was hoping for!
He wasted no time at all in calling home to his brothers and dad to tell them all about the plane ride and the limo ride that he was then experiencing.

A smile full of joy!

We used Sir Randolph's Limos and were very happy (once again) with their service. Having used them on Stitch's birthday trip and now again with Goofy, I would without reservation recommend them to anyone looking for transportation in the Orlando area. I give their service two huge thumbs up! From the friendly reservations agent to the even friendlier chauffeur they were helpful, professional, prompt and a whole lot of fun to work with.

After what seemed a very quick ride, we arrived at the 'secret' resort. The one I had picked from Goofy's list of the places he would most likely want to stay at to enjoy his birthday trip. It's not a great picture, I actually almost missed getting the snapshot all together BUT if you look at the next picture, you can see where we ended up staying.

And that is where I will leave off for now. Thanks for reading along and I will be sure to post the next installment soon!

 

[oregonmommyof2]

I am here!

Your boys are so stinkin' cute!

I was hoping we would run into each other but I never did see ya...

Can't wait to hear all about it!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Well, I wasn't first (darn travel time from work) but I wouldn't miss this for the world. Those boys have grown up right before my eyes. I have read every report you've done and watched all that growing. You know I'm partial to little boys. I believe that darling Buzz looks more like Goofy than ever. And Goofy is really looking like your DH. I still say Aladdin is one handsome hunk. That Stitch is still cute as ever but starting to look more young manish that lilttle boy. Not fair. They should not be growing so fast.

I'm glad things have settled at home and you were able to get this party started. I'm glad I'm along for the ride.

You still inspire me.

Ginny

 

[jess98ac]

I'm in!! Yay!

 

[deedeew80]

I'm here!!! Can't wait to read all about it!!! It's so exciting to read since some of us kinda know how it's planned out!!!

 

[29apr00]

Woo hoo I"m in!! I can't wait for this TR!!

Goofy looks so happy about his trip!!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Woo Hoo! You've started!

I know I say this everytime you post new pictures of your boys, but I just have to say that Goofy is looking very grown up. *Sigh* where does the time go?

 

[MouseTriper]

Alrighty, I am here and doing the dance!!! Yippeee, I have been waiting for this TR for FOREVER...okay maybe not forever, but I am excited just the same. Hahahahaha. Goofy looked so excited in the limo, I love the one of him on the phone talking to the guys back home. How sweet.

Can't wait for the next part!!!!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

got to love the spirit of Ecstasy hood orniment

 

[kafitty]

i'm here!!

 

[swankybeth]

Yay you started your trip report! Great start, looking forward to more.

 

[jmamom]

Can't wait to read all about it! Love the sleepy pics of Goofy, he looks so happy!

 

[Amy7979]

I'm in! Love these reports.

 

[LexisAuntieLala]

I'm in too! I can't wait to ready all about your adventures!

 

[mickeystoontown]

You've started your trip report. Looking forward to reading all about your stay!

 

[misskate]

I love the individual birthday trips. What a great way for all the boys to get quality time with you and Dad at different times!

I'm in!

 

[mdrob214]

I'm in! Can't wait to read more. Now, if only I could get DH to read and take notes for my upcoming bday trip!

 

[KatMark]

I found you...I'm here for the report.