I'm Going Over The Hill and I'm Taking Everyone With Me!--HUGE 3 post update 7/9

[jham]

Yes, I turned 40 at Disneyworld and had friends, family and Disboutiquers there with me to help celebrate!
Let's start the good old-fashioned way with some intros!

DH: 39 (for another month anyway) a converted Disney freak, although he denies it. I think buying your OWN passport at Epcot and enjoying every minute of getting it filled, and telling the kids they can’t touch it just MIGHT be a sign. Loves pin-trading and Ohana, HATES spending money.

Me: TURNING 40 and no better place to do it than at Disneyworld! A proud Disney freak and Disboutiquer, meaning I LOVE making custom Disney clothes for my kids to wear on our Disney vacations! This was my 3rd trip to Disneyworld (First time was 2001, when I only had 2 kids, second time was January 2008). Yep, back so soon, couldn’t help it! I love Princesses and Mickey, Chip & Dale, character meals, Wishes, I hate crowded busses and tour groups.

DD11: LOVES Disney, I think as much as her mother. She doesn’t think she’s too old to act like a little kid, thank goodness. She really loved Pal Mickey this trip and carried him everywhere with her. She had so much fun with him and loved everything he said. We managed to get all excited every time he knew exactly where we were. Yes, we’re like that. Loves: princesses, BBB, fast rides Hates not being in charge of our touring plan (not that we have one).

DS9: Also loves Disney, is a big fan of Walt. He loves trivial facts and info about Disneyworld. He’s a great kid, but has challenges that can make travelling difficult at times. He loves: fast rides, figment, Walt Disney, video games and arcades, Cosmic Ray’s hates: oh where do I begin? Not getting his own way, personal space invasions, especially at meals and especially by his siblings, and apparently Pinnochio’s Village Haus, but we’ll get to that later.

DS6: Very calm and easygoing—WAIT, I mean usually. This trip he was bouncing off the walls with excitement and energy. I don’t know what got into him, but I don’t think letting him drink Coke helped. The other side of that is he also got very tired at times and we ended up renting a stroller for him! Loves: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain…yes there’s a theme here. Oh, and Tessa. More on that later too. Hates that he was still too short to go on Rockin’ Roller Coaster and in a new development, hates walking. Running, yes! Riding in a stroller, yes! Walking? Not so much.

DD3: The best traveler ever. She never complained and never even cried until several days into the trip when she was so exhausted she took to crying for about 10 minutes every evening before passing out asleep wherever she was. How is it that the 3-year-old is the easiest child to travel with? She also loves everything Disney, especially princesses, and rides. She begged to go “in the big ball” (Spaceship Earth) and on the magic carpet ride. She kept calling Disneyworld Disneyland no matter how many times we tried to correct her. She is always game to try anything. Hates: being pestered by her brothers and waiting while we go on rides that she can’t go on yet.

At some point we will be joined by my:

DSIS: like me she grew up going to Disneyland often and anything Disney feels like home.
DBIL: Like DH does not admit to being a Disney freak, but trust me, he is.
Dnephew8: Best of friends with DS9, kind of quiet, a true Disney fan. Loves all things not girly.
Dniece 2: Full of life, energy and…noise. She is LOUD and very much a princess who loves “Mi Mouse” (works for either Mickey or Minnie) and all princesses (“Lella”).

(My family and my sister’s family were also staying at POR with one of my children “technically” staying in her room, in case you wondered)

And my
DF (dear friend)
DFH
DFDD 11 (aka DDBFF)
DFS 7
DFS 5

Got all that? It was their kids’ first Disney trip and they stayed at the Poly. Maybe I can get them on the Dis and posting some photos of their own!

And THE DISBOUTIQUERS!
A group of 13 of us and our various traveling companions who met up in the World. We have a great thread on these boards and are actually a pretty close group of friends so it was fun to meet some of them IRL!





And now for the reason behind our trip, sometime last summer I started planning for a family vacation to celebrate my big 40. Where we live, winters are cold, and February is often grim so I wanted somewhere warm! We were thinking Hawaii but having lots of problems with the planning (couldn’t narrow down a place to stay, airfare was atrocious, and on and on) my good Disboutiquer friend Heathersue was planning her trip to be at Disneyworld February 3-10 I believe. Well, I got jealous and told her it wasn’t fair that she got to be there for my birthday (almost, my birthday was the 11th) and I didn’t! WAIT! Why not! I could go there for my birthday and even meet Heather and her mom and her kids! (But not her DH who is a Disney Hater). Now this was kind of a big deal, because my DS6 is somewhat smitten with her DD5, and vice-versa. They even send each other letters and packages in the mail. How fun would it be for them to meet in person! Let the sewing begin! (or not, I’m kind of a procrastinator). Eventually my BIL started looking into joining us, and when the buy 4 get 3 free deal came out, who could say no? Our friends and neighbors were planning to go around the same time so we convinced them to join us. Their kids are similar ages to ours and get along very well and play together often. In fact my DD11 is best friends with their DD11. Eventually many Disboutiquers jumped on board, some for family vacations, others for a weekend getaway but the big gathering was planned for February 8.

Next up: Day1 Luke and Tessa Meet at Last!

 

[jham]

ETA: (yes, just to rub it in) Florida's Weather today: High temp 69 degrees, Precipitation, 0.

It is a long way from our house to Mickey’s East Coast digs, so in order to arrive in Florida before bedtime, we had to get up and leave very early in the morning. I had everything pretty well packed and DH had loaded the car, so I got up and showered and loaded up the kids and we were off to the airport. Fortunately it wasn’t snowing so our commute to the airport probably took about 25 minutes. We have this traveling with 4 small children thing down to a science pretty much. We’d checked in on-line and already had our boarding passes. DH drops the rest of us off curbside at the Skycap who take our luggage directly from the car, (even though the poor guy had some sort of cast on his foot) and don’t even bother weighing it (thankyouverymuch!) and we are off to security while DH parks the car. By the time he gets to the airport we are safely through security and eating breakfast at Burger King. My kids do pretty well with getting shoes off, lining up bins, helping the siblings get shoes back on, etc. and we made it through in a pretty organized manner.

Our flight was completely and blissfully uneventful. The kids were great, they played with the stuff in their backpacks, DD11 indulged DD3 with some serious Princess Barbie playing and all were happy. It was about a 4 hour flight, then we had about a 1 hour layover in Atlanta where we grabbed lunch at my least favorite food court, and then another 1 1/2 hour flight to Orlando.

not sure which airport this is:

The Orlando Airport monorail:

When we arrived, we marched, straggled, whatever to the ME counter which all went well and before you knew it, we were on the bus! Where we waited…and waited…until it filled up.

The kids were getting pretty anxious to get going! Then of course our bus had to make about 8 other stops on the way to our hotel. During this very long bus ride, my cell-phone rang. It was Heather!!! We had plans to meet up later at DTD. I let her know the whole ME experience was taking a long time, but we were on our way! We got to the hotel and DH took the kids to the arcade while I checked in. The check-in kind of took the wind out of my sails so to speak. It was a little deflating. I think the girl that checked us in was fairly clueless and took FOREVER with every little step or question I asked. The hotel was really full and she assigned me to a room in what was possibly the worst location ever. She did the car-salesman thing and “checked with her manager” for 15 minutes then said, nope, nothing better. Then I told her my sister was checking in later and we had requested adjoining rooms because one of my children was staying with her. WELL, that took about another 25 minutes but she did get us rooms next to each other and miracle of miracles our new room actually was in a better location than the first room! (but not by much). We were in room 3414 which is 4 miles from the main building but right next to the West bus stop, so that was okay. It was 4 miles and a boat ride to POFQ for the pool because the POR pool was being refurbished. We ended up not getting any mugs because it was just so far to the food court, we knew we wouldn’t be walking there every day! If you have stayed at POR before, you may know that in the Alligator Bayou, the pathways can be very confusing. Everything is circular, the best route is not the route that is marked with signs, and one missed turn and you could be wandering (in the dark) for half an hour. Not that I’d know anything about that…but it was nice being so close to the bus stop.

We dropped off our carry-ons in the room and went back out to walk all the way back to the main building and the boat launch for the ferry to DTD. Unfortunately we didn’t make it on the boat that was loading and had to wait for the next one. However, because the ferry was so busy, they were running no more than 10 minutes between boats. I called Heather again (on DH’s phone because I left mine in the room) and let her know we were finally en route to DTD. When we arrived the kids were racing to our meeting spot (McDonald’s), especially Luke who was SO EXCITED to meet his Tessa in person! Heather and I were unsure of how they would act when they first met, but we needn’t have worried, they got along very well (too well at times, but more on that later…) Heather and I were so intent on capturing their first meet on film that it was a minute before we even greeted each other. It was funny because I felt like I was just getting together with an old friend that I see all the time!

McDonald’s was really busy and we couldn’t find a table for all 10 of us, or even 2 tables near each other, so we settled for a table that would comfortably seat about 5. I somehow missed getting a picture of this! Heather’s mom was such a good sport. Kids had to climb over and around her to get in and out and I was practically sitting on her lap. The big kids were at one end of the table chatting away, telling jokes, and getting along great. Sawyer and Lily were wedged in between Heather and myself in 2 high chairs. I think there was occasional confusion as to whose Happy Meal was whose, but no one was complaining. When everyone had eaten enough we moved over to the Lego store to let the kids play for a bit.

DH chose this moment to run off and leave me in a crowded place with 4 children. He had a good excuse though. We had forgotten a cell-phone charger. Our phones take the same charger so we had hoped to pick one up somewhere. I asked my not so lovely front desk girl at the resort and she, of course took 20 minutes to “go check” but informed me that “there is NO PLACE ON DISNEY PROPERTY TO BUY A CELL PHONE CHARGER!” Um, are you sure? Not even DTD? “No, I’m sure, I checked with my manager.” Well I noticed a Virgin Megastore at DTD and told DH to try there, (I just didn’t mean run off and go by yourself, leaving me to supervise 4 small children at DTD on a Saturday night) and BTW they DO have cell phone chargers at the Virgin Megastore.

The kids had fun playing Legos with Sawyer and Tessa. Finally it was time to head back to our rooms and get some rest. It had been a long day! I was operating on 3 hours of sleep! It was SO fun to finally meet the Heathersue clan in person! She is even more gorgeous in person and just as nice and funny as ever. Tessa is so cute and so much like Luke! And Sawyer is adorable and was so well behaved. Heather (and Teresa) have a wonderful mom who reminds me a lot of my mom. We went our separate ways and we took the boat back to our resort and to bed!

 

[Disney 4 Me]

Great start! (Am I the first to post?) I love the pics of Luke and Tessa. Love is in the air.

I'm anxiously waiting for the next update.

 

[spongemommie05]

yea i am glad your plane ride was very uneventful.. LOVE LOVE the pictures of luke and Tessa 's meet up (YOU planning the wedding already?)
Can't wait for more

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Subbing now...going back to read

 

[karamat]

Can't wait to read more!! And see more pics of those cute kiddos!

 

[MouseTriper]

Yeah so glad you are doing a TR. Count me in. How exciting that Luke and Tessa finally met in person. They were so cute together. Looking forward to your next installment.

 

[MaryAz]

Glad the plane ride was uneventful. Ah-they meet, soo cute. Happy belated 40th!!

 

[jessica52877]

Aww, I feel some love in the air! Tessa and Luke are so cute together! What a great start to a wonderful trip!

 

[sohappy]

I'm here! Can't wait to read more!

 

[my*2*angels]

HAPPY belated BIRTHDAY JHAM!!!!!!! What a great start, can't wait to read more! And how cute are Tessa and Luke!!!

 

[karebear1]

Jhammers- I'm so happy you posted the link to your TR! What an event.... T-H-E Meeting!! Those pics are so cute! And how cute is that pic of grandma, tessa and Luke walking hand in hand? You've got me hooked! I can hardly wait for the rest of the report.

HAPPY BELATED B-DAY by the way!

 

[kstgelais4]

Great instalment!! They looked so cute! But where oh where was the pic of Lily's outfit?!

 

[abc123mom]

Sounds like a great start to your trip. Can't wait to hear more. That's a lot of flying with 4 kids...glad it all went well!

 

[snubie]

They finally met in person. You got some great photos of the two of them - definite blackmail material if something materializes between them when they are older.

 

[MinnieVanMom]

I love the pictures and your report is great. Keep up the good work on the report and keep us updated as how the rest of the trip goes.

 

[minnie2]

Great start!
How cute are Tessa and Luke?!?!? So when is the wedding and are the Disboutiquers invited? I am assuming it is at WDW

 

[castmemberb4]

Loved your last TR so glad you're doing another one
How darn cute are Luke and Tessa !?!
Can't wait to read about your Birthday happenings as I'm going for my 50th in a few years.
Lynn

 

[eeyore3847]

ohhh love the TR So far!!!!

 

[PrincessLeighsDaddy]

Great start! I agree, POR is rather large! We stayed there our first time, and I did get lost one night getting back to my room! We stayed in one of the mansions though.
We were close to a bus stop too, which made it bearable!