I Got Work to Pay for My Disney Vacation! w/PICS - COMPLETE 11/21 - Last Hoorah at WL

[NorweJenNY]

You just reminded me that we still need to finalize what we're doing for a stroller. I'm pretty sure we're going to bring one, but which one (or buying another one) is another story.

Good luck with your own stroller saga!

Here's a little pixie dust for you...

 

[silverangel879]

So here's the schedule... carefully planned out around my conference schedule, but still flexible enough to take breaks as needed...

Can you tell I'm a DisPlanaholic? (I love color coded schedules!)

What's that in there? Dining reservations for practically every day? Ahh, yes!
We have the Disney Dining Plan for the first time ever![/I

I used to have one of those for my past 2 trips (2005, 2007) but thanks to Google Calendar is online and accessible from the iPhone! So, It looks the same only that I don't have to print it!

Love your report so far! OMG....just one more DAY!!!!!

Hope you have FUN!!!

 

[NorweJenNY]

I used to have one of those for my past 2 trips (2005, 2007) but thanks to Google Calendar is online and accessible from the iPhone! So, It looks the same only that I don't have to print it!

Love your report so far! OMG....just one more DAY!!!!!

Hope you have FUN!!!

Cool! Hubby used to have an iPhone. He loved that thing, except for horrible service where we live. It's ok... he didn't have it long. Little Guy urinated on it...



Yep, you read that right...




Needless to say, paper will just have to do for us!

I'm full of great stories, aren't I?


Let's focus on happier subjects...

LESS than one more day! Woohoo!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Finally Packed? I think so...

I packed the car myself!

Almost had another stroller saga... apparently it's a little longer than the one we had before... I made it work... just barely!

Seven hours 'til we hit the road means one thing...

I should probably hit the sack!

Can't wait!

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

O.M.G

I hope you guys are having fun on BG's birthday! I know you won't read this but HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR NEPHEW! Hope you made it on the Buzz Lightyear ride! I can't wait for a report on it .

but yeah back to O.M.G, First I thought you meant that Mom donated the stroller, but then realized it was Grandma K not Grandmom that did it. I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE DONATED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY MOLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was just thinking ya know it might even be better if we could find a triple stroller for the kiddo's. Less to open and close for September. I'll keep looking and see if I can find something at a fru-gal price 8).

I'm reeling for you right now! Anyway, Mom should be safe and sound on the ground with us in about 20 minutes.

Lata Gata

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

Well they are home safe and sound! I can't wait to hear the full post-report!

 

[NorweJenNY]

On the Road... YAY!

Friday, July 10, 2009

NOTE: My apologies as most pictures for this day were taken with my small point and shoot, which contains an XD card... our home computers only have the ability to read SD cards right now, until we can find the necessary equipment which is temporarily misplaced. Please excuse us while we make do with mostly text for just our first day. We will update with more pictures when able.


The alarm went off at 5:30, and our goal was to be on the road by 6am. Obviously, despite our efforts at packing up the van in advance, we just couldn't quite get ourselves moving fast enough at that hour.

Still, by 6:20am, we were in the car saying a prayer of thankfulness for this opportunity and requests for health & safety throughout our trip.

By 6:40, we were coming close to I-77, and I finally started remembering those things I forgot. There's gotta be something every trip, right? First off, some of the snail-mailed materials from Disney just didn't make it... like the $15 Planet Hollywood voucher! So after 7, I gave a call to WDW-DINE and cancelled our ADR for there. I figured we'd just do something else that night and not worry about me rushing over to Planet Hollywood after my conference that Sunday night that we had it scheduled for. No biggie, right?

Then another thing that I forgot came to mind... Big Guy's birth certificate! So much for the birthday fastpass... (we figured the FP would be a good option because of the fact that we don't like lots of little trinkets and souvenirs... Big Guy already had received some Disney dollars for his birthday anyway. Plus, we wouldn't be getting to the park by rope drop on his birthday, so we expected longer lines and wait times that day.) Oh well... not worth turning around for... just accepted that I goofed and we kept driving.

Well, planning to stop for gas in SC worked well... filled up for $2.22 while our station by our house was still up around $2.57. We also made great time. We expected to be to our Denny's brunch outside of Savannah by 11am or so, but we were actually there closer to 10:30! Sweet! Tummies got filled (followed by the potties getting filled), and we were back on the road. Apparently we waited a little too long before stopping at a gas station again though, and ended up paying too much for gas... I think it was around $2.50 when we finally filled up to avoid the higher Jacksonville prices.

Smooth sailing continued until Jacksonville, where every year, no matter what the time of day, we come across insane storms. This trip was no exception! It poured!

The good news is that the noisy rain didn't stop the kiddos from having their naps... we turned off the DVDs, took away the handheld Leapster games, gave the kids their blankets and stuffed animals and told them it was nap time. Little Guy must have been out in about 2 minutes! So good! Big Guy tried to fight it, but especially with getting up so early this morning, we were forcing him to nap... he closed his eyes and I think perhaps after 10 minutes or so, he was finally out too.

(At least I used my SLR with the SD card for this one! )

So Hubby and I utilized the peaceful, quiet hour to begin a car trip tradition... a game that apparently only I can recite the title to in our family: "The Game Where You Pick a Category, One Person Says a Word Under that Category, Then the Next Person Says Another Word Under that Category that Begins with the Last Letter of the Word that the Other Person Said." Got that? When you have all the instructions in the actual title, it keeps you from having to try to search for the words to explain how the game works...

So the category was "Anything & Everything Related to Disney," and we began... Magic Kingdom... Mickey... Yachtsman Steakhouse... Enchanted Tiki Room... etc., etc., etc.... We even continued when the kids woke up (and were entertained once again by DVDs)... until we got to Orlando. We had bright sunny skies, mixed with gray clouds and thunder in between for most of the trip... the weather did a 180-degree turn every 20 minutes or so... Gotta love that Florida weather... But it was pretty much straight downpours when we reached Orlando.

It looked like we were ahead of schedule, getting there by 4pm & wondering if we'd be ready for dinner. Well, we suddenly hit traffic... passed three accidents (very slowly, might I add.) It took about 30 minutes to go 2 exits... it was nuts! We finally got off, and after a few wrong turns, we found Friendly's! Fabulous meal! I finally let my low-carb eating habits go by the wayside... I indulged in mozzarella sticks and loaded waffle fries and sliders (with the buns... at least half the buns...) and a 3-scoop sundae for dessert (emailed coupon made dessert free!) I wish I could show you the picture... this sundae was a scoop of Reese's peanut butter cup ice cream, 2 scoops of cookies & cream, peanut butter sauce, and hot fudge, with whipped cream on top. YUMMMMY!

Anyhoo, we finished up dinner. (Tummies were REALLY full!) And we made it to the Villas at Regal Palms by about 7pm.

It was a little out of the way... maybe 20 min or so from WDW. However, the acommodations were fabulous! We had three bedrooms and three FULL bathrooms, which made it more than our own house at home (3 BR, 2 1/2 baths). The master bath had a jacuzzi tub. (We made use of that after the kids were in bed! )

There was also a full kitchen, a living room with dining area, and a den with a pull-out sofa. Practically every room had a flat screen TV! (I believe I counted 5... living room, den, & one in each of the 3 BRs.) And the one in the living room, which was HUGE, was positioned just right so that anyone working in the kitchen could see the full screen via a mirror on the wall over the sofa. Clever!

Despite it being late, we got our bathing suits on and checked out the pool area...

GORGEOUS! Palm trees and vegetation surrounding the pool area and river... laid out just perfectly!

The zero entry pool made it easy for Hubby to gradually trick Little Guy (remember... afraid of water...) into going into the water. They watched kids coming down the water slide. It was also connected to a fabulous lazy river, which Big Guy and I made lots of use of... Hubby and Little Guy joined us a couple times before they made us get out. Apparently, the pool area was closing up by 8:30 or 9... when it was getting dark... even though it was a well-lit area. Kinda stupid in a tourist-y area where people would just be getting back to the resort around that time... at least IMHO.

Nevertheless, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay. Even though it was far from the parks, we'd consider going back. The lazy river and pool area alone was well worth it! (For a fraction of the price of staying at Yacht & Beach for Stormalong Bay!)

After the kids were in bed (and Mommy & Daddy relaxed in the jacuzzi), we all got a good night's sleep (king-size bed for Hubby and me... ).

We were really excited about Disney though, so we got up early the next morning.

And Big Guy was really excited about his birthday!

But would some Disney mishaps actually hinder our first day's plans?

To be continued...

 

[NorweJenNY]

Finally in WDW! Checking In… and Checking In Again…

Saturday, July 11, 2009

We hit the road from Villas at Regal Palms early, as we were headed to Disney World at last! We arrived at our resort by about 8am…

Yes! At last! This was our first stay ever at Disney’s Port Orleans – Riverside. It was a beautiful place! I love the rustic Southern charm!

We requested a room on the first floor (so we wouldn’t need to worry about stairs – no elevators here) in the Alligator Bayou section (to get the trundle bed for Little Guy). Pretty general requests, right? I didn’t even bother asking to be close to the Riverside Mill and South Depot bus stop like so many people do.

Well, we got our room assignment, and guess what… we got Building 15! First floor… yes! Alligator Bayou… yes! Near Riverside Mill and South Depot… yes, without even asking for it!

All great… then I asked in Concierge to have the tickets taken off our KTTW card, just to make it easier to upgrade our 7-day tickets at a park Guest Relations later on, without messing up our dining plan. The girl said “we can’t do that.”

I replied, “well if we can’t separate the tickets, how will we upgrade to APs?”

She told us we’d just have to use all our DDP credits before upgrading our tickets.

No… no… I knew this girl didn’t know what she was talking about. People have upgraded package tickets all the time! I’ve heard of DDP difficulties, but I knew for lots of families (I’ve read my share of DISboards reports) that it always worked out in the end.

I also knew we’d have to upgrade soon… we intended on doing more than one park in a day, and we didn’t have the park hopper option yet (we’d get that included in our APs). I also knew we couldn’t use our DDP credits first… we had dining plans for the 8th day of our trip (before midnight on POR check-out day), and we couldn’t use up the tickets before upgrading!

Well, I tried to push this concierge gal’s comments out of my mind as best I could, but she really put a damper on my plans. That little piece of me still thought, “what if Disney changed their policies and procedures and what this girl is saying is really true?”

Meanwhile, we were feeling the rumblies in our tumblies.

Since we were near Riverside Mill, we picked up some breakfast using DDP credits for the first time ever! Hubby and I split an omelette (which took a while to get because they accidentally gave our made-to-order omelette to a woman who had gotten out of line and picked up the wrong order). Hubby and I got refillable mugs for our drinks. Since our meal came with two drinks anyway, we got one milk to put in the fridge for cereal the next morning), and one chocolate milk, which was 16 oz, making it easy to share between two little boys for breakfast drinks. The boys each had a chocolate chip muffin for a snack credit each. Those muffins were huge! Hubby had to help them finish… though I don’t think he minded.

So we had a little mix up with an uninformed concierge CM, and another mix up with our omelet order, but I was not going to let little things bother me. I was ready to finally check out the room we got in a perfectly awesome location!

So we drove our van over to Building 15 (even though it was an easy walking distance) and got what we thought was a great parking space. We grabbed as much luggage as we could, to get to the room as fast as possible, to get to the Magic Kingdom as fast as possible – needless to say, we were quite eager! We got made our way to the building and kept following signs… turn here… turn there… we were at the complete opposite side of the building from the parking lot. Oh well… we got the KTTW card out, opened the door, lugged our armloads of luggage inside, and…

Huh?

One king-size bed?

Huh?

We had four people on our reservation, but were given a room with one king-size bed? Never did I ever think that I would actually have to request a room with two double beds when there were four people on the reservation…

This is what I consider to be a “Disney mishap.” Don’t you think it would be common sense to put a family of 4 in a room with enough beds to sleep 4???

Uninformed concierge CM, erroneous omelet, and now an unusable room… this put me over the edge… instead of a mere straw breaking the camel’s back, it was like a sudden haystack dropped down to break this camel’s back.

Hubby sensed my frustration… all the excitement, and then one big let down. All the luggage we lugged to an unacceptable room… all the time we wasted… and how much more time would it take to make this right? Hubby got on the phone and someone told him to come back to check-in… they’d have a room ready right now in one of the mansions on the second floor.

I didn’t want a mansion, and I didn’t want second floor.

I expressed my frustration with hubby again on our way back to check-in. They managed to find us an available room in Alligator Bayou, but alas, it was a second floor room. We took it anyway. Building 17… it was midway between two bus stops, which meant we would have to walk, but at least it was in the same general ballpark as Riverside Mill. We could have ended up much further away from that. See?

We finally got everything to our room… tried to get the boys to help too (though, you know how it is with a 4 & 6 year old… part of “getting them to help” is not with the purpose of speeding up the process… it’s more of a way of keeping them occupied so that they don’t get into trouble while their parents are doing boring, but necessary chores.)

By 10:30am or so we had finally left our room. We made our way to the West Depot bus stop, just as the Magic Kingdom bus was pulling up. Woohoo!

No wait for the bus… maybe our luck was changing?

We’ll see… to be continued…

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

**shakes her head** what more could go wrong?

 

[MrsSpratt]

It can only get better....

Mrs. Spratt

 

[NorweJenNY]

**shakes her head** what more could go wrong?

It can only get better....

Mrs. Spratt

Ha! These are the exact to thoughts that kept ping pong-ing back and forth in my head at the time!

We've got a little mixture of both to come... but it all works out in the end!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Big Guy’s Big Day in MK

Saturday, July 11, 2009 (later that morning & afternoon)

We were on the bus, all set to go. Big Guy even had his special birthday pin on, one he had gotten from that concierge girl… (so she wasn’t really full of just bad news). This was indeed his actual birthday. Wasn’t it just perfect for him that his birthday was one day before my conference began?

The bus pulled up to the Magic Kingdom, and I must say, I had tinker bells in my tummy… we were super excited! You know that feeling when you finally get to your first park on the trip? I’m sure I’m not the only one!

We got the boys off, and we got the stroller off, and we got through security’s bag check, through the entrance, blah blah blah…

Ah… at last! Main Street USA & Cinderella Castle! What a sight to behold!

Where to first?

Well, just know that our family doesn’t get caught up in those ploys to keep us from getting to the stuff we really want to do… all those characters that suddenly appear and attract instant lines for autographs and photos, the parades that draw people to line the streets and make it impossible to get through… we take the short cut… up to the right, through the shops, until we come out at Casey’s. The air-conditioning in the summertime heat is certainly a plus!

Well, our family had a strategy. Everyone picked their “must do” and everyone was going to get to their “must do” at some point today.

Little Guy’s must do: It’s a Small World
Big Guy’s: Buzz Lightyear
Hubby’s: Mickey’s Philharmagic
Mine: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

How’d it work out?

Well, we couldn’t follow a touring plan exactly… I had mostly studied the early morning entry touring plans, and that was not likely suitable for late morning entries.

So, we just listened to the boys. You can tell by the screams and tantrums that people don’t always listen to their kids. A lot of parents, unfortunately have too much of their own agenda, and I know I have to watch out for that too, the planner that I am.

Little Guy spoke up first: “Small World!” And the rest of the family seemed to agree. Straight back to Fantasyland we went, and as soon as we got there, we came across the most interesting sign by Small World: “Wait Time: 5 minutes.” Ha! Good job, Little Guy! We were actually on it in just a couple minutes. The crowds weren’t there yet, thankfully!

Here are a few pictures I snapped:

Now, can someone answer this one? Is the correct form platypuses or platypi?

Logically, the next family must-do was hubby’s choice, see my eager Big Guy

and Bigger Guy

Once again, good timing! I don’t think we waited more than 5 minutes to get into our seats!

Hubby’s not the only one who loves Mickey’s Philharmagic; I do too! (It’s high up there toward the top of my MK faves.) I especially like the “Be Our Guest” sequence with the aroma of apple pie! Yummmmmy!

Little Guy, however, started showing his nervous side… he kinda snuggled close to Daddy throughout the show. He’s nervous about water in his eyes (though that hardly is anything to worry about in this show), and I think the popping of the corks from the bottles also makes him uneasy (in other words, he’s apparently afraid of air in his eyes too!) Oy vey!

Up next? Forget about Mommy’s must-do… it was birthday boy’s choice next! To infinity and beyond!

After having headed from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland, we got this strange question forming in our heads: where were all the people? It was late on a Saturday morning in July in the MK… IASW, Mickey’s Philharmagic, & Buzz had all been waits of 5 minutes or less… no FastPasses needed. (Didn’t I feel better about forgetting Big Guy’s birth certificate and not getting the birthday FastPass!) The lack of crowds really was bizarre. At least for Tomorrowland, we were wondering if the crowds were just thinner because of Space Mountain and TTA being closed for refurbs.

After Buzz, Little Guy made a new friend too:

So we had a successful late morning… three must-do attractions by roughly noon. Just as an added note, we did have good luck with our attraction waits, because when we left each one, the wait times were more than doubled.

Guess what? We did well at lunch time with wait times too! We beat the main lunch crowds to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. You know what I had? Well, I had to at least try the Chicken & Ribs Combo!

I tried, but I regret to inform you that I failed:

I simply could not finish it! And that was after giving a good amount of the chicken to Little Guy too! If I get another option to do this combo, I think I'll just stick with the ribs alone instead.

After lunch, considering we were in Tomorrowland, it seemed logical to go to not a family must-do, but a whole-family likes-to-do, the Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. I can’t get tired of that show! Hubby has been picked to be Sully in the past, but he has figured that sitting toward the back of the theater really decreases the likelihood of him being picked. Anyway, our wait-time luck was still with us… we approached the CM outside the entrance who said there was a 3-minute wait until the next show. Sweet!

Finally it was Mommy’s turn! Off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad! What kind of wait would we have there?

Well, it didn’t look good. We discovered where all the crowds in the park were! Frontierland looked like in front of Cinderella Castle on New Year’s Eve at 11:55pm. Navigating a stroller through it all? Not gonna happen… we parked it and walked.

Strange thing though… there was a 50 minute stand-by wait posted (I did expect more like 90+ with those crowds), but the fastpasses being offered were for a time frame that was only 35 minutes away. Duh! No brainer! Do that many people actually lack that much knowledge about fastpasses?

We grabbed our fastpasses and had 35 minutes to kill. (While other fools were waiting on line for the same attraction for 50 minutes! Yikes! )

Well, I have to say it was a particularly hot day. (I’m sure the concentration of crowds wasn’t helping!) So we wiggled our way through to Adventureland (leaving the stroller behind, of course!), and decided to quench our thirst and cool us off. It was time for hubby to have one of his taste buds' must do’s… Dole Whip!

Pineapple for Hubby, Vanilla for the boys and me to share (we weren’t very hungry, but Hubby always makes room for Dole Whip). Let me tell you, there is no time to take pictures of those things in the July afternoon heat! Sheesh! Hubby left a trail from the Aloha Aisle counter all the way to our table.

And hubby certainly couldn’t get it down fast enough…

This was his “I came, I ate, I conquered” face.

(I realize that it’s a tease for me to have two food pictures focus on just the remnants left behind, but let me tell you, I’ve got lots of GREAT food pics to come. In fact, I’m wondering if I should do a separate dining review thread… we’ll see.)

The boys decided they needed to cool off in other ways…

Just note Little Guy’s reluctance! He just didn’t want water in his eyes!

Big Thunder Mountain was waiting for us! To Little Guy, it was a “fast train ride.” That’s how we left it… and he was ok with trying this for the first time as we stood in our quick-moving fast pass line. ☺ Then we got on. The track started going up, and doh! I forgot about that little bit of misty spray! Once again, Little Guy doesn’t want water in his eyes! I covered his head and face as best as I could, and we were off. At first, it sounded like Little Guy was squealing and laughing with enjoyment, but I think the ride got to be a little too long for him, as he started saying “I don’t like this.” Well, I’ll tell you that I suddenly didn’t like this either! So much for my must-do! That was the one and only time we did BTMRR our entire trip. We got off that ride with Little Guy screaming, “I don’t like this ride!”

Meanwhile, Big Guy is on the other side of me screaming, “That’s was totally cool! Let’s do it again!”

Why can’t we all just like all the same things?

From Frontierland, we headed toward Adventureland, as we were thinking it was getting closer to the time to leave for our 5:05 ADR at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary for Big Guy’s Birthday Dinner.

On the way, Little Guy said he wanted to do Pirates of the Caribbean. It had a five minute wait (at least that was what was posted… it was really hardly a minute or two after walking through), and it was something that might make our poor, shaken up little boy feel better… another no brainer!

Well, we got on, and Hubby shielded Little Guy from that first little misty spray. (Did anybody else realize how many times you’re sprayed with water in WDW attractions?) Then Little Guy started getting afraid of the little in-the-dark dip. He had ridden this many times in the past, but this was the first time he had ever seemed so shaken. I have a feeling my BTMRR really ruined it for Little Guy! He kept being afraid of so many rides!

Since Pirates was so quick, we decided we still had time for another ride, so we were off to Jungle Cruise. (Would Little Guy really be scared on that one?)

The wait was posted as 15 minutes, but we were on in 10. Awesome!

Our guide, Rachel (if I remember correctly):

And I always get a kick outta the guy who just didn’t get it at first, but he finally got the point in the end.

The boys also played a bit after our cruise… all three in fact…

It was time to get moving though… time to wave good-bye to the Magic Kingdom (at least for a few days).

But on a brighter note, it was time for Big Guy’s Birthday Dinner at Chef Mickey’s!

Stay tuned…

 

[Dizzymrslizzy]

Poor LG! Well in Sept, I guess he can wait with Grandmom, and My LG while we all go on BTMRR! That's on my definitely MUST DO list!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Poor LG! Well in Sept, I guess he can wait with Grandmom, and My LG while we all go on BTMRR! That's on my definitely MUST DO list!

I'm so there!

 

[NorweJenNY]

Big Guy's Birthday Dinner at Chef Mickey's

Saturday, July 11, 2009 (evening)

We left MK with the kids in the double stroller, and I must say, the ramp to the Disney Resort monorails is not stroller friendly! It's steep! Hubby could hardly make it!

Well, we got on the monorail (pink, btw... didn't realize the pink one was functioning a mere week after that tragic accident... unless it was really coral or salmon colored - like a new color monorail that they just invented or something...)

We realized we were so early that we took the monorail around for a fun ride once, passing by each resort and the MK once again before finally pulling into the Contemporary and getting off. It was fun to get off with the expectation of eating there. We got our picture taken by the giant plate before we were seated, but forget about paying for it! I'm cheap! We'd remember the evening through my own pictures...

We were through much of dinner (which you can read details about in my dining report, I Got Work to Pay for My Disney Feasts!), but we were still awaiting Minnie's arrival...

Then Little Guy uttered those dreaded words, "I have to use the potty..."

We couldn't miss Minnie though! That would be tragic!

Hubby took Little Guy to the bathroom, and what do you know... there was Minnie at last. She came by and hugged Big Guy, posing for a few pictures.

I told our waiter, and Minnie herself, that Little Guy had a potty emergency, so please return in a few minutes. Well, she was on her way out of our section when hubby and Little Guy came back. She immediately came back to our table... so sweet!

Big Guy even got a special birthday treat!

It was a great evening, and I have to say, what started as a crappy day with problem after problem with our check-in morning, ended on quite a high note!

Especially when I had this in front of me...

But you'll have to check out my dining review for more about the food...

We decided to head back to our resort after browsing through the gift shop outside of Chef Mickey's. We got back on the monorail and took it to MK, where we got on the bus to POR... if my memory serves me correctly, we didn't have much wait once again!

We got off at the South Depot to refill our mugs at Riverside Mill, and I stopped at the bakery for some cheesecake to use for breakfast in the morning.

We were preparing for an early morning, trying to get to Epcot for extra magic hours... would we make it before the crowds the next morning?

 

[Disneychix]

I love your TR!! I've spent my whole morning at work reading

Your family is too cute and it looks like you have so much fun together!

 

[NorweJenNY]

I love your TR!! I've spent my whole morning at work reading

Your family is too cute and it looks like you have so much fun together!

Glad I can make your day more enjoyable!

My family is cute, if I do say so myself...

...and we do have lots of fun together, especially in WDW!

 

[niclodn]

Howdy neighbor (why is there no waving smilie )! I live across the border from you in Rock Hill.

Lovin' your trip report! Your boys are adorable and how fun that Big Guy got to spend his birthday at DW! I got a similar work-paid Disney trip back in January -- can't beat it

 

[NorweJenNY]

Howdy neighbor (why is there no waving smilie )! I live across the border from you in Rock Hill.

Lovin' your trip report! Your boys are adorable and how fun that Big Guy got to spend his birthday at DW! I got a similar work-paid Disney trip back in January -- can't beat it

Hi there, neighbor!

(I think you just have to click on the "more" smilies option... or just put "wave2" between two colons.)

You live in the wonderful land of cheaper gas for North Carolinians! Your area saves us money on every road trip! We purposely wait to fill our tank there instead of before we leave Charlotte.

Glad you got a work-paid Disney trip too! I actually just got my mileage reimbursement check today, and it was quite a nice one to add to my bank account!

 

[NorweJenNY]

An Early Morning at Epcot

Sunday, July 12, 2009 (morning)

Let me start by saying that we're not morning people.

But something about WDW made it a little easier... the anticipation actually made me want to get out of bed! It even worked for hubby, at least a little bit... I suppose you could say he just needed a little less prodding to get out of bed than usual. (I'll take what I can get.)

Well, at this point, we had an early Friday morning to leave by 6am (ok... 6:20), and early an Saturday to try to check-in at POR (even though we were still off to a late start ). Here we were having an early Sunday morning too!

The idea was that I had to leave Epcot by 11:30 or so to get to my conference this particular day. We had picked Epcot though because of morning Extra Magic Hours. How'd we do?

We started waking up at 6:45 (hubby took a little longer), but we didn't make it out until about 7:50... we had breakfast in our room first which probably took up a little time.

On the bright side, buses were still getting to the stop at practically the moment we arrived!

We were in the park by about 8:15, and we were on Test Track by 8:30. There was a posted wait of 15 minutes, and it was about that long by the time we got to the room with the TVs... about 20 minutes until we were in the car.

(Hubby isn't talking to himself, he's just siting next to Little Guy. )

Little Guy kinda liked it at first, but I think between the truck with headlights and the speed after the "barrier test," he was a little shaken, even though he had previously been excited about riding the "race car." I think he will eventually get back on this ride, but I think we may have to wait a while.

One thing he did enjoy, however, was the gift shop after. He loves all types of little toy vehicles, and how cool is it to have this many, all dedicated to particular characters:

We eventually got the car that was like Bruce the Shark... I know I personally thought the Pluto car was cute.

Little Guy decided to share an item on his Christmas/Birthday Wish List:

The guys decided to cool off at the Cool Wash:

Big Guy loves this!

Little Guy needed his daddy to take him by the hand, but even with his hesitation ("water in the eyes"), I think he liked it. A gentle mist and a sudden spray might be the difference between what he can handle.

After this, we headed to the other side of Future World.

On the way, I snatched a picture of this "hidden" Mickey, though I think this is one of the more obvious ones... still cute:

Mouse Gears is also a nice place to walk through for more air conditioning... it would be a bit of a short cut if you didn't have little boys wanting to look at all the stuff inside...

Knowing that Little Guy was not up to doing Soarin', hubby took Little Guy to see the characters (like he was asking for), and I took Big Guy to The Land to get on Soarin', but it was a long line, so we grabbed FastPasses - which we couldn't use for another hour and twenty minutes!

So Big Guy and I started by going on Livin' with the Land, as there were about 10 people on line in front of us, so we were practically right on. I love seeing the technology they're using to grow plants... and Big Guy likes looking at the "animals" in the rain forest, and then the live fish and alligators at the end. We got off and decided to try to call hubby to see where he and Little Guy were, but they met us as soon as we walked out!

Hubby did pretty well with pictures:

And good for hubby, he even found a good Hidden Mickey:

So after we regrouped, we went to The Seas with Nemo... we all enjoy that.