Grumpy turned Happy for Christmas!

[Monknmom]

New Years Eve pics look like you had a lot of fun! Where was K? Taking the pics?

No he stayed for a job that had called him in. So we just went with all of my in laws! He was there with his parents about a week or 2 before we left for Disney so he wasn't much into seeing it again anyway

 

[veggiemama]

Love the Time Square Photos. I could never be there New Year's Eve, that many people would have me shaking in my boots! I do NOT like crowds like that.... Disney crowds yes... but only those ones.

 

[momabaarjo]

What a great New Years Eve-Eve! Looks a little cold though...I would love to do that some day, but Disney crowds about drove me crazy at times...I am sure Times Square would put me over the edge.

 

[Monknmom]

Love the Time Square Photos. I could never be there New Year's Eve, that many people would have me shaking in my boots! I do NOT like crowds like that.... Disney crowds yes... but only those ones.

Thank you, but that's the night before New Year's Eve!!! Can you imagine how crowded it would be on New Year's? Yeah I wouldn't bring Damien! When I was younger my grandpa told me that at midnight everyone in times square turns into a banana! I call Damien monkey and if he turned into a banana that would be horrible just kidding, but yeah it's crowded and dirty in the city! But what can you do about it?

What a great New Years Eve-Eve! Looks a little cold though...I would love to do that some day, but Disney crowds about drove me crazy at times...I am sure Times Square would put me over the edge.

It was cold, but there were so many people that we probably could have taken off a few layers and been fine! Do you see Damien? He has on a t-shirt, an osh kosh thermal, sweatshirt, hat and gloves and a jacket he was so upset that he turned so plump and had a hard time walking!!! Yeah it's crowded, but something that everyone should experience once in a lifetime! You have to put yourself in uncomfortable situations sometimes and the people are pushy, but in a hurry rush not a mean rush like the island!

 

[momabaarjo]

Okay...maybe some day I will take you up on the offer and we will go for NYE!

 

[Monknmom]

Okay...maybe some day I will take you up on the offer and we will go for NYE!

Sounds good!!!


I am going to come back later and type up the next chapter in the TR!

 

[Monknmom]

*This is not going to have too many pictures because I am driving and of other reasons (read on to find out)!*
Today I had plans that we were going to arrive at Disney around 3:30 pm for check-in, take a shower, get dressed and head over to Wilderness Lodge to explore, go to chip and dale's campout and then make it to the beach for the electrical parade! But before any of that could happen we had to get there first... once again I had attractions for us to see! I had planned the giant 7-up can, the civitas, the Disney welcome center and a giant cow on one side of town then seeing her giant mailbox on the other side of town. BUT Damien and K woke up (in the car in South Carolina remember?) and then instead of saying lets use the bathroom and let mom sleep at 4am they wake me up and ask how far away we are! Now Damien I kinda understand, but he has 2 state gifts left so he should know 2 more states and K well that guy knows how to read! So I tell them we have to make it through Georgia and Florida! They want to leave right away so they head to the men's room to wash up and I of course go to the women's room and I guess that I took longer than them because I got done and waited outside the men's room for about 10 minutes before just going to the car to put my stuff away AND THERE THEY ARE SLEEPING LIKE LITTLE BABIES!!!! I was mad, but let them sleep and drove and drove and drove very happy I might add because in NY we have 1 and a half country radio stations (I say a half because the 1/2 only comes through at certain points of the island since it's broadcasted from Conneticut) and here I had so many choices! The only thing I did not like is just about every other station had on rap or Christmas music-- not much choice! Another difference in NY the fastest that you can go is 55 MPH on the major highways, where ever we were they were telling me I could go 70 MPH!!! I was in happiness! As I was driving I guess that we didn't realize how close we were to Georgia because that rest area we slept at was the last one in SC and I was in GA before I knew it! The GPS said that if we drove right to FL we would get to Disney around 9:30 am, but we weren't driving all of the way there now were we? According to the driver no, but when K heard the blinker turn on he asked why I'm getting off the highway? "Well" I reply "you must to see the attractions, they aren't on I-95!" And all of a sudden I hear Damien chime in from the backseat out of no where "NO, can't we please just drive all of the way to Disney?" And K agrees with a cry in his voice. How can I say no? This is what they want... all of that reesearch and planning on my part for nothing! SO I just drive and only pull over for gas every now and then. When we got to FL the time to get to Disney was a little sooner since well I do around 5-10 over the speed limit (we had a Mazda 3 to go to Disney if you touch that peddle you go from 0 to 100 in a second! Very fast car!) so now we are going to get there around 8:55 am. I woke up K and told him that's way too early because check out time is 11am and check in is at 3 pm and we can check in sooner, but I think that 9am is too soon! So we stopped to eat at a Waffle House- we don't have pictures, but it was really good and then we walked over to the parking lot next to the Waffle House and bought a HUGE bag of oranges for $5!!! That's it!!!! I was so happy because I forgot the clementines I planned to eat for breakfast back at the house! So with our bellies full and the oranges in the trunk we were headed to Disney with a desitination time of 10:05am now! When we passed under the arch I had K take a picture! Damien was excited! I was pretty excited too!

Still too early so I tell K that we will check in and head to DTD for the afternoon and when our room is ready we will come back and take a shower, change and head out to complete my plans! Agreed we get to All star movies to check in and it apears that my TA asked for us to be in the Fantashia building but I requested that we have a Toy Story instead (my son loves toy story movies and the whole reason I did pick this resort I thought he would love that). So the lady helping us with check in (it's around 10 am right now) is very nice and my husband is talking to her about Australia because his family was supposed to move there and moved here instead and he has family there. So they are talking and she's great! She got us into a 1st floor (room 9725) and it's in the woody building. Our room is kinda facing a parking lot and right near the food court, the playground, the pool and the luandry (but I was not going to do luandry)! And she gives us our KTTW cards and tells us that we can head to the room now because it's ready for us! So quickly I asked K to distract Damien by taking him to clean out the car while I "find" the room for us and I will come back and get them when I "find" it! I had to lay out everything for Damien quickly and I did. This was in an envelope addressed to Damien:

Sitting on top of these packages:

Inside the packages each of us received a sweatshirt/jacket (K got Mickey's niightmare, I got a MK one and Damien got a red Mickey one) and an aluminum water bottle (K got Mickey, I got Minnie and Damien got Phineas and Ferb)-the pictures of these are in my PTR!
I was so happy now we can even take a nap before we do anything right?!?!

Nope I am the minority on this trip! And as we showered and got ready I said okay we can do DTD and then head over to the Wilderness lodge! I took Damien exploring while K (who LOVES coffee) filled up his reusable mug for the 1st time-this mug became his best friend the whole trip!

This big checker board on the ground that Damien and a little girl started to play on! It was so cute and a good way to release some of the car energy that he had!

Okay I am going to leave you with that!

Up next..... DTD and wilderness lodge?

 

[dara00]

wow, I'd love to check out asm just to see that toy story stuff!

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

Sorry about the stops you had planned! Best laid plans and all that! They don't appreciate all the planning sometimes lol!

Love all the resort pictures. We've stayed at Music and Sports a dozen and more times but never Movies... always the last on the bus route!

 

[annmarieda]

I am sorry you missed out on your final stops. HOwever, checking in early is super cool. I love the Toy Story icons!!! I have never considered ASM... usually, I always think Pop... but now? HMMM I mean it looks like Pop, but with Disney characters? Cool!

I love the layout you did for Damien. Santa was certainly good to him.

Can't wait to read more about your trip!!!

 

[swwake]

I noticed that Mickey made an appearance in your 3rd NYE picture!

Now to go back and catch up on your TR update...

 

[vikkil70]

HI! Joining in and loving your TR so far. I grew up on LI so I could relate to your travel problems. I live in PA now and hate facing driving in the Bronx when I come in to visit my father, turns a 2 hour trip into more like 3.
We drove down to Disney in 2010 but only stopped at South of the Border, next time we go down I might try to do a few more stops at the fun out of the way places, though I could see my boys being a lot like Damien and just wanting to get to Disney.
Can't wait to read more!

 

[annmarieda]

Heather, I am really hoping you are feeling better!!!

 

[Monknmom]

wow, I'd love to check out asm just to see that toy story stuff!

I guess that every building is something different? They have Mighty ducks, dalmatians and fantasia! We didn't end up seeing the rest of them during the trip except for when we were driving around looking for parking and stuff but I thought that it was fun!

Sorry about the stops you had planned! Best laid plans and all that! They don't appreciate all the planning sometimes lol!

Love all the resort pictures. We've stayed at Music and Sports a dozen and more times but never Movies... always the last on the bus route!

It's okay, thank you though! We id have fun anyway and it was nice because we had the car so we didn't really worry about the buses.

I am sorry you missed out on your final stops. HOwever, checking in early is super cool. I love the Toy Story icons!!! I have never considered ASM... usually, I always think Pop... but now? HMMM I mean it looks like Pop, but with Disney characters? Cool!

I love the layout you did for Damien. Santa was certainly good to him.

Can't wait to read more about your trip!!!

Pop looks fun too! I saw your pictures! They looked nice!

Yes on Christmas day the only things Santa really came with were a few lego sets, clothes, board games and the stocking stuff- Damien said he was surprised that Santa came with more gifts after letting him go to Disney and giving him stuff in Disney!

I noticed that Mickey made an appearance in your 3rd NYE picture!

Now to go back and catch up on your TR update...

Oh my goodness let me tel you about those Mickey's, Minnie's and pooh bears in NYC! Damien's grandma asked if he wanted to take a picture with them and say hi since he just saw them in Disney and he told her "no, because I can see that those aren't the real ones" We were all laughing because I showed them the pictures from Disney and these ones had on sneakers with nothing to cover the sneakers and you could see the shirts between the neck and the head part! It was sad looking! But YES they had lots of them walking around- I think that we even saw Dora and Spongebob and only $10 for a picture with each of them (I mean $10 for each character picture)! It was sad!

HI! Joining in and loving your TR so far. I grew up on LI so I could relate to your travel problems. I live in PA now and hate facing driving in the Bronx when I come in to visit my father, turns a 2 hour trip into more like 3.
We drove down to Disney in 2010 but only stopped at South of the Border, next time we go down I might try to do a few more stops at the fun out of the way places, though I could see my boys being a lot like Damien and just wanting to get to Disney.
Can't wait to read more!

Thank you for joining! LOL I know I don't think that people on the outside realize that the city they see in movies and stuff doesn't fully exist... To people that live here it's a hassle and a bother! I live on the east end of Suffolk County... where were you from?

Depending on where you are in PA some of the places (like the Route 11 potato chips) were not that far from the PA boarder! But yeah next time I know that my DH and DS can only go for little bouts in the car at a time!

Heather, I am really hoping you are feeling better!!!

Thank you Ann!!! I really do appreciate it!!! And just in time for a few busy weeks ahead!!!

 

[Monknmom]

I am sorry that I have been missing for so long! I am going to try to get back on and catch up by tomorrow night- I just have to catch up on some of yours first before I continue with mine! I'm good now! I went into the ER around 11am and I was admitted into the hospital on Thursday and stayed until Saturday morning as the snow was coming down! I was getting sick because my white blood cell count was low and I was dehydrated and my heart palpitations had started again (I think that was unrelated though?) so they hydrated me and put me on meds and that was it! I didn't bring my Ipod though I I didn't keep up with anything! Then this week I have been just sleeping and resting and cleaning up the mess that was left for me while I was there! SO I will be back tomorrow night with the new update!

 

[vikkil70]

I am so sorry to hear that you had to be admitted into the hospital but glad to hear that you are doing better, and getting rest.
LOL, I know what you mean about people who are not from the area not understanding the traffic. I grew up in Freeport, on the south shore of Nassau County. Only 5 minutes from the beach, which is probably the main thing I miss about LI.
I looked up the Route 11 potato chips, and while it's far from us now (we are in Northeast PA), we are moving to VA after the boys are done with school in June and we pass the exit off of I81 when we travel down. We are heading down next month when the kids have a long weekend to do some house hunting. I think we may stop there on the way down to break up the trip, since it's right on the way.
Hope your feeling better!!
Vikki

 

[Monknmom]

Okay so last I left off we were waiting for K so that we could go to DTD for a bit before heading over to the campfire at Wilderness Lodge! Here are a few more hotel details I forgot last post:
The army men scale the buildings for Toy Story!

And when you are walking from the food court and pools and stuff you walk through here to get to the hotel rooms! It says "Andy's room Keep out Except Mom"

When we got to DTD we parked right near Planet Hollywood and I was lost as to where to go. I knew that we wanted to go to the Lego store for Monk and I wanted to see the World of Disney store! I wasn't sure which one first though so we were standing there (neither of us are good at maps we plug things in the GPS and go, I'm not even sure I was driving before GPS was in my car) and I turned around and Damien was GONE! My very first time to lose my child and it had to be at DTD where he knows his phone number but doesn't know the area code for it and I didn't even put the laminated ID card in his shoe yet because I thought 'It's just like the tangers he can't get lost'. I am yelling and people are looking at me and this whole time I am panicked because I never really lost him before! It was maybe a whole minute before K tells me to stop and points behind us where Damien was standing next to the red statue. Relieved I tell him to hurry up lets go and he replies that he thinks the statue moved. I see people taking pictures of the statue but it's just that a guitar man statue so I didn't want to take a picture. But as I am starring at him wondering why/who/what it is people are taking pictures with I saw it... the statue gave the girl really quick bunny ears and then went back into pose. I realized it was like the ones in NYC and explained this to Damien (the whole time K is trying to read a map) and he insists on taking his picture with the man! So we did:

He also asked for an autograph but the statue doesn't do those!
So with K in the lead we went over to the lego store and took the following pictures:

Kaung still does not believe that the serpent is made of just legos:

Damien was given $200 to spend on the trip from his birthday and early Christmas gifts, but was only told about $100 so we split that up and told him he could spend $25 in the Lego store (knowing as his mom and dad that he's going to want everything else as we go by)! And he did pretty good he spent $30 (that's with tax) and asked if he could buy Kali (his cousin) her first lego set for Christmas and we did! This is him while he was waiting for us at checkout I knew he wanted so much more and I should have let him get it because all together Damien only spent $75 for himself-- he spent tons more of everyone else, but an honest $75 on himself I was so proud, but felt wrong I should have let him buy more!

They were hungry so I suggested we eat at EOS for lunch since it's right here and then go into the Days of Christmas store and the Goofy's candy company! But K went to look at the menu while Damien and I caught the last bit of the act:

He didn't like what they listed (he's not big on sandwiches) so I suggest WGP- the line is too long for him. So I tell him there is another one, but it's where we just came from that's okay he says we'll walk!!! I had to hear Grumpy the whole time asking why we didn't just eat here first and save the trouble of walking back and forth. I wanted to cry because I didn't plan on eating here I like sandwiches and so does Damien and this was his idea! So we get there and he still doesn't like what they have to eat but decides that he will get the california roll with a parfait as dessert. He enjoyed it but was in a bad mood and couldn't really enjoy it- I thought that this was going to be the mood of the trip and was really upset!

Damien got this white macaroni and cheese with the fruit cup dessert(they were really sweet K was not helping him carry it and I was paying so didn't see and he dropped his first fruit cup and started crying and quickly cleaning it up and as I was going over to clean it up one women told me not to worry about it (which I don't like when people do I want to help clean up the mess) and the other women gave him a new one at no charge! It was our 2nd dose of Disney magic (the first being in the Toy story building)! He did not like the mac and cheese (which he loves all kinds of cheese), they put this crunchy stuff on top and he didn't like that! So I tried to scrap it off and then he didn't like the cheese they used so he ate the fruit cup and a bit of my pizza.

And I got the Margherita- very good, but it was A LOT of pizza! And I got the fruit cup for dessert- I didn't get to eat the fruit cup because Damien did!

We walked around and back over to the world of Disney store, Damien didn't want to spend his money on anything in there and asked if we could go back to the lego store and we explained about all of the other stuff he's going to want and it's not good to put all of your money on the first day and not have any later! When we walked outside he got wet from the stitch that spits on you! It was funny because none of us expected it! He stood there playing with some other kids for a little while before we went over to the Goofy's candy company.

I told Damien that he could pick out something to decorate and eat later tonight and he wanted the pretzel rods, but he's not a big chocolate person so he had them dipped in white and sprinkled with cinnamon/sugar and no drizzle. I wanted the rice kristpie treat dipped in dark chocolate and covered in reese's and drizzled with white chocolate. I can't tell you how either of these tasted because we packed them away in the ziplocks I brought with us and we forgot about them the whole trip only seeing them again when we left! Then we didn't eat them in the car and decided to give them to my nieces and nephews we met up with in North Carolina. It looks really sweet and I love reese's, my sister in law said that she thought it was too sweet and the kids ate it right up confirming her thoughts!

So let's recap our DTD day so far: after all of the trouble we went through to walk back we bought candy we never ate, went to a store we didn't buy anything from and let Damien play in the stitch spitting thing for about 10 minutes! It was around 3pm I think and K and Damien were bored so I suggested we go tour some hotels before the campfire! And that is what we did.... we never got to any of the other things I wanted to go to, but I figured it is what it is and it's silly to be upset over something so silly so I put on my "big girl panties" and kept on to the hotels!
Next post.... To tour and camp or to sleep...

 

[annmarieda]

What a great update! I think we too did a bunch of walking back and forth. Go to one place..then decide to head in another direction.

Love the pictures!!

 

[momabaarjo]

I am so glad that you are feeling better and that we get a trip updated...not too happy about limiting your pictures on facebook though...

I think Damion did great in the Legostore. I kept feeling like the bad guy the entire time of the trip because I did not want the kids to waste all their money on the first couple of shops either...and at Universal they do not make it easy on you EVERY ride drops straight into a themed gift shop! I am happy with what the kids bought in the end...

Sorry about having to put your big girl panties on and not pout...I honestly had a couple of those moments...okay not just a couple but A LOT of those moments on the trip.

I so love all the theming at ASM...and happy that you got the Toy Story area! Hope fun!

 

[dara00]

aw now I'm mad I totally skipped the candy store! looks yum. too bad you forgot to eat them! hope you're feeling better!