Hoppin' in my time machine and reliving the magic! A 2009 TR

[MyPeanut&Bug]

Who’s ready to go back in time with me? I’ve finished our ’11 TR and with no WDW trips on the horizon and a tentative 2013 Disneyland trip….I needed a fix. Two years away seemed a bit early to start a PTR, so I figure re-living a trip that happened 2+ years ago could provide that fix. A little pathetic? Maybe. Sad? You betcha. Welcome to my world.

This trip took place in May 2009. It was hands down my most favorite trip to date and I think it will take a whole heck of a lot to top it. It was our kids first trip and so magical for that reason. We also had 2 full weeks (counting drive time from NE Ohio) and weren’t yet having to deal with school schedules, which only added to the magic. Another big plus is that I also can’t even begin to imagine being able to do a trip this “cheaply” (a relative term in Disney terms, I know) again – our daughter was under 3, so no ticket required for her and free for character meals, we drove saving the huge costs of air travel and all those fees and the biggest plus – being able to take advantage of Disney’s Buy 4, get 3 free deal for our hotel stay and park tickets. When I started planning our ’11 trip and pulled out my receipts and cost sheets from ’09, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. (Ok, a few tears were shed)

If you need the intro, here’s our family:

Me: Alicia, the driving force behind our Disney obsession. My family thinks I’m a little nuts but that’s ok – I’ll take nutty and happy over sane and unhappy anyday. I’m a SAHM and also do child care for 2 awesome little boys at home.

DH: Buddy, along for the ride. He loves Disney, but he doesn’t LOVE Disney… you all know what I mean. His first trip was our honeymoon and he admits he didn’t think he’d enjoy it as much as he did (I still tease him for confiding in me on the way home from our honeymoon that “I thought we’d be the only people there with no kids. I was picturing us and a bunch of little kids) – but he also says crazy things like “Are we ever going to vacation anywhere else?” It’s a challenge, but somehow we stay married.

DS: Benjamin, 4.5 years old on this trip, currently 6.5 years old. Where does the time go? My shy, cautious, look-three-times-before-you-leap kind of guy.

DD: Eliza, a month away from her 3rd birthday on this trip, currently 5 years old. Seriously, where does time go?? My feisty, jump-in-with-both-feet, who-needs-to-look?? girl

(family pic from ’11 trip)
If you come along with me on this trip back in time, just be prepared for stops along the way for me to sob uncontrollably at all these pictures of my babies looking SO SO little. I promise to pull myself together as best I can. I also realize in reviewing these trip pictures that I didn’t take nearly as many scenery/sights pics and most are the kids.

So, let’s jump in our time machine and head out!

 

[jenseib]

I'm joining in!

 

[jenseib]

WE took advantage of that deal that year too and we went during the time we also got a $200 gift card as well as part of the package...I wish they offered that deal again!

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

WE took advantage of that deal that year too and we went during the time we also got a $200 gift card as well as part of the package...I wish they offered that deal again!

I know!! I hoped and hoped they would do it again for our last trip, but no such luck.

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

(Ok, let's get the boring, mundane stuff out of the way!)

We decided pretty early on in our planning that we were going to drive – airfare was way more than I wanted to pay in addition to really not wanting to deal with strollers and car seats on a plane. We knew we wanted to do as much driving as we could at night, so that the kids would hopefully sleep for large chunks of it. I was a little worried about that much time in the car, but it ended up being a nice drive and the kids were amazing travelers. I’d choose driving over the hassle and stress of air travel anyday! It was really nice to be able to just pack the minivan full and not have to worry about fitting everything in and baggage fees!

We decided that we would leave late in the night Friday, May 1 – technically Saturday, May 2 by the time we got on the road. Buddy came home from work about 4pm on that Friday, ate an early dinner and went straight to bed so that he could drive the first long leg of the trip. Thankfully I married a man who has no trouble whatsoever falling asleep at anytime of day. It’s a blessing and a curse.

I was so excited I could barely stand it. At that time I was watching a little girl who has since moved out of state. She got picked up for the day about 6pm – and her mom gave us a $50 gas card for the trip and told us to have a fabulous trip - they were the sweetest family, we miss them! After she left the kids and I had a quick pizza dinner, the kids had baths and were off to bed. They had a little trouble getting to sleep because they were pretty excited too – we had been watching the planning DVD, looking at pictures, YouTube videos, etc. for months and they couldn’t wait. I couldn’t either – I was so excited to see if all through their eyes.

Once they were asleep, I got to packing the minivan. As I was fitting in all the luggage/cooler/bags with snacks/bags with kids activities for the ride/etc, I appreciated all the time I spent playing “Tetris” growing up. I still kick myself for not taking a picture of the back of the van – Buddy was pretty impressed that I got everything packed in. It had taken awhile to get everything packed up. After I did that, I took a quick shower and made sure the kids had their backpacks with the stuff they wanted to keep at their seats. I walked around the house with that pre-trip, “what-am-I-forgetting??” internal checklist. I tried to sit and relax and watch TV for a little bit but I was too darn excited.

It was finally time to wake Buddy up, between 11:30-midnight. He said he had fallen asleep pretty much right away (how I envy that!!) so he’d gotten nearly 7 hours of sleep and was fine to drive. He got up and showered, we threw some last minute things in the car and it was time to grab the kids and go! I knew they’d wake up being put in the car, but figured even if it took a little while, they’d conk back out. They were both groggy but very excited when we carried them out of their beds and out to the car.
(A LOT of talk and not many pictures for this portion – I can’t honestly believe I didn’t take more! Even in these, my pre-DSLR days, I shot a ton. But apparently not too many before we got to Disney! I have all these bits and pieces of notes I jotted during the trip and at least now I’ll get them all in one place!)

We were finally pulling away just before 1am. The kids were hungry, so they snacked on some dry Fruit Loops…a choice I would regret when we made the unfortunate discovery, somewhere between West Virginia and Virginia, that Eliza is occasionally carsick on long trips. My, that was a colorful mess…

We drove though hilly West Virginia in some heavy rain. I believe it was somewhere in W. Virginia that Eliza threw up – not much, enough to scare me that she was getting sick on the way to Disney! It was only about the 2nd time that girl had EVER thrown up, so I cautiously chalked it up to being thrown off with being woken up and then eating cereal right away. I managed to climb back to her and clean her up – thankfully she was sitting with a blanket over her and the clothes she had on were spared, as was her car seat. I just stuck the blanket in a bag to rinse out once we got to the hotel we were staying at for the night.

We hadn’t even been driving 90 minutes or so when Benjamin sighed and said, “Why is this taking so long??” I got a little scared at that, with so many hours ahead of us.

The kids and I fell asleep after about 2 hours (I never thought they’d stay up that long!) and they slept pretty soundly until shortly before 7am. I was in and out of sleep. We were all pretty hungry by that time so we ate breakfast at a McDonalds in Virginia.

After breakfast we hit the road again.

(out the window in VA after breakfast)

The kids were wide awake now, so it was time to break out some of the goodies – for months ahead of time, I had been picking up trinkets from the Target $1 section, coloring books, stickers, anything I thought would make the time pass. They each had a backpack stuffed full of stuff and I also had a bag up by me with more stuff to dole out when they got restless. They each had little trays to put on their laps and they did really well – Benjamin even did playdough and monster trucks at his seat. Snacks and movies definitely helped too!

We got through the rest of Virginia (I don’t think there was much more to go thru after breakfast?) and North Carolina very uneventfully. We hit South Carolina…and had more car sick fun. Worse this time, no blanket on her and the car seat and her clothes paid for it. Ick. We found a rest stop and I took her in and rinsed clothes in the sink (gross, I know!) while Buddy pulled her car seat out and used a bottle of water and a towel to wipe it as best we could. I think we ended up putting a clean blanket on top of the car seat for her to sit on and I knew once we got to our hotel I’d be hauling that seat out and doing a better job cleaning. Yuck yuck yuck! Way too many nooks and crannies in the car seat. I wanted to get her some Dramimine or something but there weren’t any stores that we could see off the highway and didn’t want to venture too far – we checked a few rest stops and gas stations, but no luck.

We got that mess cleaned up and were back on the road – the kids dozed off and on and then we stopped for lunch. We had a good sized cooler with us and I had packed yogurt, sandwiches, fruit, drinks, chips, etc. for meals and snacks on the road. We ending up just finding a parking lot to sit and each lunch out of the cooler. The kids ran around and played ball in a little grassy area for a little bit after lunch. Once we were back in the car the kids put on a movie and fell asleep for awhile longer.

We got into GA, the kids were awake by that time and we were all ready to be out of the van – they had been AWESOME travelers, but that many hours in the car is still that many hours in the car! We had reservations to stay overnight in Savannah and thankfully we arrived there by about 3pm. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we went to a WalMart down the road and got a few things – one of them being Dramimine. Went back to our hotel and they said a room was ready. We got the key, found the room and ugh! Opened the door to find a mess and a room that hadn’t been cleaned. Buddy went back to the desk, we got another room and this one was only marginally better. It just wasn’t very clean, for a hotel room. I’m a very easy, no frills traveler and have pretty low expectations of a hotel room – clean, comfortable, safe neighborhood, I’m good to go. I just felt kind of icky all night. (Quality Inn in Savannah, GA, right off the expressway, about a ½ mile from a Wal Mart supercenter…I’d avoid it unless it’s changed drastically in 2 years!) We thought about driving around to find another but I figured it was doable for just one night – and it wasn’t like there were visible stains or grossness, it just didn’t FEEL hotel-room clean to me. (My husband kept saying he didn’t know what I was talking about, it felt fine…until we got to All Star Movies and he said, “Oh yeah, I see what you mean about that place in GA now.”)

Buddy went down the street and picked up Subway for dinner. After dinner he and the kids walked around a little bit while I tackled the cleaning of the car seat. YUCK. I managed to do a pretty decent job once I took the padding out and rinsed it in the bathtub – I set it by the A/C and hoped it would dry overnight.

We were all ready for bed early and I think Buddy and I were asleep by 10pm. Up early the next morning and ate breakfast – some donuts, muffins and juice (and 1/2 a Dramimine for Miss Eliza ) we’d gotten at Wal Mart the night before. Put the car seat (thankfully dry!) back together and I was more than ready to leave that hotel – I had spent the night dreaming of the cleanliness of our Disney hotel!!

We were on the road by about 8:30 – we only had about 4.5 hours from Savannah. It definitely worked well to do the bulk of the driving (I believe our TripTik from AAA put the drive at about 16 ½ hours?) in one day and then only have a little bit to finish up. But boy…that last hour of driving before we got into Orlando was dicey. The kids were just DONE and ready to be out of the car. Eliza amused herself by stickering up her face…hey, whatever it takes.

Finally we started seeing signs for the Disney parks and we were all SO excited. We were heading to Universal and lunch at Margaritaville first and we arrived there by about 12:30. YEA!!! It was hot and sunny with gorgeous blue skies and we were more than ready to begin our adventure! We ate lunch (delicious burgers for Buddy and I and I believe, mac and cheese for the kiddos) and walked around CityWalk for a little bit and then headed to the World. We all cheered when we started seeing the Disney signs and then…could it be?? Yes, there it was! The arch!!! I don’t think I’ll ever pass under it without tearing up.

Our long-awaited vacation had officially begun!!!

 

[mermaid764]

I'm joining in

Can't wait to hear all about your trip

 

[jenseib]

Oh no with the car sickness. At least you got it cleaned up. I swear they don't make carseats very easy to clean either.
let the adventure begin!~

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

Oh no with the car sickness. At least you got it cleaned up. I swear they don't make carseats very easy to clean either.
let the adventure begin!~

No, they don't!! And I always worry that I won't be able to figure out how to get all the padding and buckles and everything back together!

I think it must have just been the length of time we were in the car because she hasn't gotten carsick since! We make a drive to MI to see my best friend a couple times a year (about 3.5 hours from us) and the first time we did that after this Disney trip, I forgot Dramimine and she was fine. Go figure!

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

I'm joining in

Can't wait to hear all about your trip

Thanks for coming along and

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

We drove under those magical arches and found the All Star resorts. It was our first time staying value and I was a little nervous - but it ultimately came down to value level = more days in the park, a no-brainer for me. (And I'm pretty much a value convert now! I'll always choose more days in the park!!)

Benjamin loved all the oversized decorations we passed All Star Sports and Music on our way to Movies. It was just so exciting to finally be there! I hadn't been to Disney since our honeymoon in '02 and I told Buddy I never want to go 7 years between trips again!

We parked and all went to check in - we were all just ready to be out of the car for awhile. We got checked in pretty quickly and were assigned to the Mighty Ducks area. We drove over there and unloaded the luggage. As much as we just wanted to relax, we decided to make a quick run to the grocery store - it was nice having brought the cooler with us and we got breakfast stuff, juice, yogurt, and a small milk. I had brought a lot with us as far as snacks but hadn't wanted to bring too much cold stuff. We got through the grocery store quickly and promised the kids some swimming when we returned to the hotel.

And that's what we did. My little fishies were just dying to get in the pool!

We went swimming for about an hour and then decided we'd head to Downtown Disney for a few hours and call it a day. For Christmas the year before our trip, we had asked for gift cards in anticipation of our trip - Disney ones, gas and ones like McDonalds and Subway for the drive. We decided to just do a quick dinner at McDonalds with a gift card.

Benjamin was itching to spend some of his money, so we first did some shopping - he had been eyeing a remote control WALL-E at the Disney Store at home and Buddy and I kept telling him, "Wait until you're in Disney and you could get it with your money." (For almost a year ahead of time, we (and the grandparents) had been giving the kids $1 here and there, or Disney Dollars at holidays and birthdays and each of them had about $80) He quickly found the WALL-E and I was dismayed to see it was double the cost that it was at the Disney Store at home - $49.99 at home and $99.99 at DD! UGH! I absolutely expect a markup, but that much is completely ridiculous. No way was I going to let him drop that much when we could get the exact same thing for $50 at home, so we promised him that once we got home, we would split the cost of it with him. He was ok with that once we explained it still meant he had plenty to spend and he bought a few cars.

Eliza zereoed in on a Mickey and Minnie and wanted to buy those. After shopping, we had a quick dinner at McDonalds and walked around for a little bit.

Eliza was out cold in the stroller VERY shortly after dinner.

Benjamin discovered the fountains and was thrilled when we gave him the OK to run through. I made a mental note to bring a change of clothes next time we went to DD.

By then he was wet, a little cold and getting tired so we headed back to the hotel and it was lights out. The kids first walk down Mainstreet USA was just hours away!!

 

[jenseib]

They looks so young. What a nice first day.

 

[mermaid764]

What a fun first day, I totally agree about values being great for allowing more time in the parks.

Yikes about the mark up on the WAll-E, I shudder to think how many people sucked into that one.

Can't wait for more

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

They looks so young. What a nice first day.

I know! I can't get over it, especially since it feels like yesterday. I see it especially in Eliza, still all full of toddler chub and not even potty trained yet! Sniff.


(I can NOT get multi-quote to work for me right now!)

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

What a fun first day, I totally agree about values being great for allowing more time in the parks.

Yikes about the mark up on the WAll-E, I shudder to think how many people sucked into that one.

Can't wait for more

Yep, I think if we got to the parks more often, I may feel differently about resorts (though maybe not, I'm generally a pretty cheap person in everyday life! ) But knowing we'll only go every other year at the most, I'm all about as much time in the parks as we can possibly do!

I couldn't believe the mark up. My face was pretty much this when we saw the pricetag: Ridiculous!!