IT WAS LEGEND..(wait for it)..DARY!!!

[MeLaNie9]

If you don't know Barney Stinson (hilariously played by Neil Patrick Harris) from How I Met Your Mother (a favorite of DH and I), the title is a Barney-ism.... He (NPH) will actually figure prominently in this TR!

About US:
I was lucky to go to WDW a few times with my family as a kid. However, one such trip to WDW was also our last family vacation EVER I may relay this story in this TR as it is a classic!
DH (Ralphie) took his first WDW trip with me in 2000 before we were married, on a TIGHT budget. We're talking packing sandwiches for the parks each day tight!
Now we've been married for 5 years and have 2 wonderful boys - DS3 (Nemo) and DS1 (Brother Bear) - and have been to WDW 3 times since.

DH made a huge life change a year and a half ago - left his job and became a stay-at-home-dad. Much went into this decision and he is really doing a great job as SAHD. I work a lot. I mean a whole lot - days, nights, weekends, etc. etc. Any vacation for me is very, very WELCOME!!! So let's just say that we both needed this one!

How this trip came about:
My MIL (Dee) retired this past summer and decided she wanted to celebrate with her first trip in WDW. She also really wanted to see the Christmas decorations. So we booked POFQ with DDP for the week after Thanksgiving (11/26-12/2) for the 4 of us, Dee, and SIL Kay. And Ralphie and I started the planning

All good DISers know that you aren't REALLY planning if you aren't changing stuff around a zillion times! We ended up adding days: 11/26-12/3 for Dee and Kay, 11/26-12/4 for the 4 of us. (I felt that I would really last day to decompress and just be with Ralphie and the boys after a week with the in-laws! ) We also changed to CSR to save a few bucks and we made our ADRs plus a CP package ressie. Then we added another CP package - when we realized that my beloved NPH would be the narrator while we were there!

Ralphie and Kay had gotten a bunch of pins on Ebay and while we hadn't pin traded in the past we were all going to do it. We decided on doing a pin scavenger hunt where we each had a list of a bunch of pins to get during the trip (like Christmas pin, resort pin, ride pin, etc). Whomever had all pins from their list (we each had like 14 to trade) first would win.

Our "pin draft" - selecting pins that were either on our list or that we would trade:

Dee holding Bear, Me, Nemo, Kay, the pins and our lists

Up next: Why I became SCARED of this trip

 

[kmab00]

Great start!! Sounds like you guys had a fun trip!! A pin scavenger hunt sounds like a BLAST! What a neat idea!! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[MeLaNie9]

So... there were a few things about this trip that I was actually SCARED about.

#1 Travel with the in-laws...
This can try the best of folks, I'm sure. I really like Kay...she's funny, sarcastic, and Nemo adores her. She's a thrill ride fan, so we thought that she would enjoy herself.
But, I was worried about a week with Dee. I don't dislike my MIL, but she does try my patience at times. You'll see how long I made it before I said..."GRRRR - I can't take her anymore!"

#2 Plans to ride things that I was too wimpy to go on before...
Since we would have someone to watch the kiddos, I was planning on riding some new rides (new for me) since I would be able to ride with Ralphie this time (and hold...err, I mean squish and squash...his hand). I was really nervous about this - I planned to do Splash Mtn, Space Mtn, and Everest for the first time.

#3 THIS WAS THE BIGGIE
This guy:

Yep, this is Bear

How could this cutie-patootie scare me you ask??? Well, we had suspected that he had a milk protein allergy. We learned this the hard way, meaning he had a very bad and scary reaction to milk-based formula for which we rushed him to a local ER. Well, said allergy and an allergy to eggs were confirmed soon after we booked our trip. I had no idea how we were going to deal with this and feed him during this trip.
This is where the DIS came in, thank God for all of those folks who helped us - directed us to Brenda Bennett who got us in contact with various WDW chefs and gave us a list of dairy and egg free snacks available at the parks, etc.... (THANK YOU, THANK YOU DISers )
Thus, our trip was actually LEGEND....DAIRY-FREE! Ha ha!
How did we fare with this???? I'll let you know with some mini-dining reviews along the way!

Up next: The adventure begins!

 

[rrkman]

Suit up!!!!...

 

[MeLaNie9]

Prior to any trip we take, the night before we leave, we visit my FIL and his wife to drop off our dog Frankie. She is the most high-maintenance of our "kids". We cannot kennel her. We tried the crate/cage thing when she was young. She is absolutely terrified of being in a cage. She used to break it down on herself to escape! So, we couldn't travel if FIL and stepMIL didn't take her. She also has to have her daily pill crushed up and mixed in pure whipped cream or in a scrambled egg, it goes on and on...
Anyways, here she is:

So we dropped her off and headed home for a good night's sleep - we were off to Disney World in the morning!!!

Good idea , but...
Bear has these nights were he just won't sleep and he just screams and cries for no apparent reason. He is always fine and basically, he just wants to be out of his crib and playing. Well, he had one of these nights that night. Just great, huh?

Luckily our flight wasn't super early, but Ralphie and I were exhausted by the time we headed for the airport. And, our flight was delayed. And delayed. And of course we had 4:10pm ADRs!!! We knew we would definitely be cutting it close. Finally we took off. The flight was without incident except for Bear fussing a bit and falling asleep right as we were landing (of course) only to wake back up upon exiting the plane.

We have never had a problem with ME. In fact, I don't think we've ever really waited in a long line or for a long time for our bus. No exception this time. Finally, we were pulling into CSR! We were in a hurry to make our ADR, but luckily our room was ready. Well...they SAID it was "ready".

We had gotten connecting rooms in the coveted Cabanas 9A as requested (so that Dee didn't have to walk too far to the bus stop or the Pepper Market).
Our overall first impression of CSR as a whole was that it was really beautiful. The Christmas decorations and tree were gorgeous.

However...the room. UGH!!! I got there first and noted that there were food wrappers on the floor, the tub had hairs in it, the table was sticky - YUCK YUCK YUCK! I knew that DH would be upset. He really wanted this trip to be special for his mom and they had the connecting room - their room could be just as dirty. Well, I admit I cleaned up as much as I could before he got in the room. I thought that he might go complain, ask for a new set of rooms which would take time - a luxury we didn't have. We had to get to MGM for our Fantasmic Dinner Package at H&V!!!

Luckily, the room was cleaner the rest of the trip. I just feel that the place needs a deep cleaning or major overhaul.

No complaints from Dee or Kay about their room (although I now know that they were not impressed) so we caught a bus and headed to MGM for H&V, our 1st Fantasmic in years, and our 1st viewing of the Osborne lights!

 

[Auro877]

great TR! Subscribing!

 

[MeLaNie9]

Yay - a few people are reading! I was beginning to feel, well...all alone! But I am pushing on!

And yes...that is not a typo. I really do mean Mousse-fest...not to be confused with Mousefest!

We rushed to H&V in MGM and were only a few minutes late. We waited a few short minutes to be seated and there we were - faced with our first WDW DDP meal with a kid with food allergies...

Bear was just 1 at the time so he was not on the DDP, he would have been eating for free off of our plates at H&V. That is, if he didn't have to avoid milk and eggs (which he is allergic to) as well as other common allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish) that he hasn't been tested for yet.

Our server brought the chef out to see us. I think her name was Stephanie. She sat right down with us and was so kind. She just said - "you name it, whatever he likes, we will make it". So we placed his order and hit the buffet. Now, I don't think that this place gets a lot of good pub on the DIS however, we LOVED it!!!
Unfortunately I do not have any pictures of the food, but it is because by the time we arrived, we hadn't eaten since breakfast (before our flight) and we were starving and basically all scarfed down our food pretty quickly!
The highlights of this meal were the roast pork, prime rib, and a creamed corn bread casserole thing - I thought Ralphie, Dee, and Kay were going to take the entire serving plate off the buffet and lick it clean. The lady sitting at the table next to us asked for the recipe and they gave it to her - she loved it too!
Bear got his food - all allergen free - and ate it all up which was amazing since they prepared him adult portions. Well, this was the start of the amazing eating of this child on this trip!
Then we come to dessert and the official start of Moussefest. You see, I really don't like chocolate. In fact, I am not a huge dessert person which is why the new 2008 DDP doesn't really appeal to me - I would much rather have the appetizer than the dessert. However, I do like chocolate mousse. So at the dessert bar, I only got the mousse. Everyone else raved about the other desserts...but this mousse...OMG. It was heavenly!!! It had little chocolate pieces on top and within it. I think I ate 3 helpings! Well, it turns out that I had myself a whole lot of mousse at a whole lot of places in WDW - enough that I will gladly rank the "mousses around the World" at the end of this TR!!!

Dee and Kay were quite happy with this meal - Kay reports that it was one of her favorites of the trip. The one negative I do have about H&V was their restroom which they share with Prime Time. It was horrific - filthy, busy, smelly, cramped - just an absolute mess.

We headed right over to the early Fantasmic showing and were seated right away. Now, we hadn't done Fantasmic since our 2000 trip when it was just Ralphie and I. We remember long, long lines to get in and some fire and scariness that we didn't think Nemo would have liked so we skipped it on our last 2 trips.
Well, Nemo kept saying that he was scared, even before the show started - and he had no idea what it was like! Good thing we acutally lugged these around in our carry on diaper bags - because he soon forgot all about being scared!

DH smartly bought this Peter Pan light spinny thing and a Buzz Lightyear one at our local Disney Store on sale for like $4. ACK - you should see what similar light up thingys were selling for at Fantasmic!

We all liked Fantasmic - the fire part was neat and we really enjoyed all the characters on the boats. Dee and Kay especially enjoyed their first taste of Disney nighttime shows.

After the show, we headed to the Osborne lights. We all thought these were just amazing. We loved the faux snow (which Nemo was trying to catch on his tongue) and the dancing of the lights. We spoke with a great CM who told us all about the lights - where they came from, where each massive display was on the Osborne property, and how the CMs set them up each year.

Here we are - Dee, Kay, and I in the back. Bear and Nemo in the strollers.

The CM told us about the light up Halloween cat that the Osbornes threw into their Christmas light display as a joke and how each year, the MGM CMs put the cat at a different spot in the display. If you look at the upper right of this shot - you can see the cat!

After viewing the dancing lights, we were all feeling and looking pretty wiped out - so we headed back to CSR for some ZZZZZs.

Up next: Epcot, more Moussefest, and how brave will Nemo be???

 

[OhMari]

I have a question.

You said you switched from POFQ to CSR to save money. Isn't it the same price since both are moderate's?

 

[snowbell]

Great report. i am on board. We were there around the same time. I stayed at BW from 11-28 - 12/3. I hope you wound up really liking your hotel. it is one of my favorites. I cannot wait to hear more.
and btw -- I just LOVE Barney!!!

 

[MeLaNie9]

Great start!! Sounds like you guys had a fun trip!! A pin scavenger hunt sounds like a BLAST! What a neat idea!! Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks! I will soon get into how the scavenger hunt went!

Suit up!!!!...

Thanks for stopping in Wingman!

great TR! Subscribing!

Hi Auro877 - I am enjoying yours!

I have a question.

You said you switched from POFQ to CSR to save money. Isn't it the same price since both are moderate's?

OhMari - you're right, they are both the same price (mods). We had booked POFQ with AAA discount. Later we received a Disney Visa code but when we called our AAA agent she said that it couldn't be applied to POFQ and she said that to use it we would have to switch resorts. Because I wanted to stay at CSR originally, we decided to switch. We ended up able to apply both the AAA discount and the Visa code and so saved more by going to CSR. Our AAA agent (who was a bit clueless throughout) didn't know why we couldn't use the code at POFQ - We thought that maybe there are only a certain number of rooms at each resort to which you can apply the code and since POFQ is smaller there were a fewer number of such rooms and they were all booked already???

Great report. i am on board. We were there around the same time. I stayed at BW from 11-28 - 12/3. I hope you wound up really liking your hotel. it is one of my favorites. I cannot wait to hear more.
and btw -- I just LOVE Barney!!!

Welcome snowbell! Wasn't it a great time to go? We stopped in at BW, it is really a nice place! We took Dee and Kay through a bunch of the other resorts to see the holiday decorations. Some pics of our resort touring will come later!
Oh - and Neil Patrick will truly show up in the report later too!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I'm in. Great TR so far. Looking forward to the mousses around the world review!!

 

[kmab00]

Glad that Fantasmic wasn't too scary and that everyone enjoyed it!

I can only imagine how much those light up things at Fantasmic are! Good thing you brought your own! That's a good idea...I'm gonna have to remember that for when I have kids!!

 

[AuroraBorealis]

I had to click on your TR because I *heart* Barney and I knew exactly what your title was from! Can't wait to read more!

 

[MeLaNie9]

We woke up early on Tuesday, Nov.27th, excited for our first full day at WDW. We usually pack breakfast foods and eat in our room. It really helps us to get up and out the door quickly and we can bring no-milk no-egg stuff for Bear.
We were all fired up and at the bus stop early for Epcot. The bus service at CSR was really quite good. We used bus stop 1 exclusively and enjoyed hopping on and heading right to the parks. On the buses to the parks, we never encountered standing room only, which we found way too many times when using the buses at the Poly.

We quickly made it to Epcot and made it for rope drop in Future World. Epcot has always been my favorite park. I have always loved the "learning" with the attractions .

My first stop was MouseGear. You see, I had purchased a sweatshirt on our last trip (Feb 2007) there - grey with Mickey in black flocking (that fuzzy stuff). I followed the care instructions religiously and after only 3 wearings and washings, the flocking was completely gone such that I had a grey sweatshirt with a black blob on it. I had posed the question on the DIS - how good was WDW customer service? Would they do anything for me? Should I even bring it with me to find out? Well, I got mixed responses, but a fair number of DISers really thought that they would try to rectify the situation so I brought it with me. Unfortunately, the CMs there at that time just seemed totally confused. There was not a manager present and they couldn't help me but they thought the manager would let me swap it for a new one. They basically told me to come back some other time and I promised I would...

Our first attraction stop was for Soarin' FPs and then we rode Living with the Land. This is one of my favorites - I really enjoy this tour every time I take it! Dee really liked this as well as she does a fair amount of gardening. We thought it was cute that they had Christmas decorations on many of the plants.

Then, we headed to Imagination and rode along with Figment. Nemo really loves the activities at the end of the ride.

Here's Nemo with the Kodak lady

Nemo running and jumping around on the sound-making squares

Dee and Kay watching Nemo
Now I put this photo in so that you will note Kay's backpack. "Is it really as big as it looks?" you may ask. The answer to that is "Yes and then some!" She actually carried this enormous bag around the entire trip - full of her big fancy camera and lots and lots of camera equipment. I never thought that she would keep it up every day, but she did. She took forever to get through the bag check every day and that thing was ungodly heavy!

Next it was time to head to Soarin' to use the FPs. This was the first "moment of truth" for Nemo. You see, he was just 3 but quite tall. Tall enough to ride many rides without any question. The first of these was Soarin'. Surprisingly he said he wanted to ride and we headed on in. I kept thinking he would chicken out but he didn't. He rode with me on one side and Kay on the other, both of us holding a hand....and as soon as we "landed", he turned to me and said, "That was awesome Mommy!"

Next up was lunch. We really wanted to try Sunshine Seasons .This was another great food allergy experience. One of the workers immediately got a chef and he told us Bear's options and quickly got our choices for us. He had the chicken leg with vegetable and again ate it all up. Nemo had his first of many mac-n-cheese meals. Dee and I had meals from the Asian area and Kay had a sandwich. The portions were huge and everything was very good. Ralphie actually had a meal of all of our leftovers because the portions were that large! We were extremely pleased with this CS place and with our food allergy experiences thus far!

Everyone except for me went to the Circle of Life show. I hung out in the Sunshine Seasons seating area and watched the cookie baking demonstration.

Our next stop was Test Track. This was big moment #2 for Nemo. Well, his bravery was...
GONE Once he saw and heard the cars going around the outside track, he said "no way -too fast and too loud". So we split up and rode with baby swap (this meant that I got to ride twice ). Dee and Kay enjoyed this ride! I was disappointed that GM had changed the song that plays in the showroom when their featured cars are "unveiled" because I wanted to hear it again to try to figure out the song title. Well, it was gone and so it took forever for me to track it down back at home, but now "I'm a Punkrocker" is on my MP3 player!

Nemo and Bear had to wait outside during our Test Track runs. Bear really didn't care because this is what he was doing:

But Nemo was cranky about sitting around and doing nothing -even though Kay bought some delicious and ginormous chocolate chip cookies while they waited (without using DDP snack credits Yeah - I know!This will become a pattern for her and a "problem" by the end of the trip) So he wanted to ride his absolute favorite ride next....the monorail. Yes, we could travel to WDW and ride only the monorail and he would be satisfied, happy, ecstatic! There was no persuading him otherwise, so we exited the park and jumped on the monorail. We traveled to the TTC, rode the MK loop back to the TTC, then back to Epcot. During one of the legs of this trip, I noted that there were no guests headed to the front car, so I asked the CM if we could ride and he said we could. Nemo was thrilled - he rode up front with Kay and Dee. However, this was the start of problems because each time we took the monorail, Dee just thought we could saunter up to the front car and ride. She didn't realize that we just got lucky that the front was open that time!

A thrilled Nemo after his ride in the front car of the monorail

Back at Epcot, we headed into World Showcase and wandered a bit - looking at the rose bushes (which were so gorgeous in May) and the Christmas tree, (which was beautiful). We started by touring Canada and met up with Brother Bear himself. Then we watched O Canada, which Ralphie and I hadn't seen since 2000. Nemo stopped at the KidCot stop at the movie exit and decorated a mask.

Nemo by the Canadian waterfall

Canadian Santa

We had timed it well and were able to then check right in for our dinner ADR at LeCellier.

Next up: LeCellier - will it live up to the hype? and our 1st CP - with J. Peterman!

 

[Lauralee131]

Ok, PHEW! I'm all caught up. Can't wait to see how long you can go without your MIL driving you crazy...my bet will be 2 days...

And eeeewwwww...the room at CSR...I see all the moderates have something in common...

Looking forward to more!!

 

[disneyfanforlife]

Well i am in. I love the idea for the pins. I can't wait to hear now that worked. I know what it like to travel with some who can't eat some foods. My sister is like that.

 

[kmab00]

Yay he got to ride upfront on the Monorail! I bet he was super excited!!! Great update! Can't wait for more!

 

[MeLaNie9]

I'm in. Great TR so far. Looking forward to the mousses around the world review!!

Thanks 2xcited - LeCellier mousse up next!

I can only imagine how much those light up things at Fantasmic are! Good thing you brought your own! That's a good idea...I'm gonna have to remember that for when I have kids!!

Yes - I would highly recommend stopping at your local Disney Store a few times before a trip with kids. We got a bunch of stuff majorly on sale - those light up spinny things, some Buzz Lightyear sandals, even tshirts for Ralphie and I.

I had to click on your TR because I *heart* Barney and I knew exactly what your title was from! Can't wait to read more!

Welcome aboard AuroraB! I am so missing new episodes of HIMYM!!! He always has DH and I laughing out loud!

Ok, PHEW! I'm all caught up. Can't wait to see how long you can go without your MIL driving you crazy...my bet will be 2 days...

And eeeewwwww...the room at CSR...I see all the moderates have something in common...

Looking forward to more!!

Hmmmm - do you know my MIL??? Welcome LL!
Yeah - we were disappointed with the room. The resort itself was so nice, but the room
A colleague of mine attended a conference at CSR and stayed in the Casitas area and was not impressed - I had thought that maybe the typical conference/convention rooms might be better, but I guess not

Well i am in. I love the idea for the pins. I can't wait to hear now that worked. I know what it like to travel with some who can't eat some foods. My sister is like that.

Good to see you disneyfan! The pin hunt will begin to figure prominently on our next day....and will also figure prominently in the "how long it took for my MIL to drive me crazy" situation!
We were very pleased at this point with the responses to our food allergy issues. So far so good!

I hope to post the second part of this day soon - I am trying to download Kay's pictures to add to ours and I think she has thousands! I'm gonna reap the benefits of that humungous bag and her lugging it around!!!! Hey, I did have to wait and wait and wait for her to get through the bag check each day!

 

[DisneyTones913]

Love the trip report! But, i tuned in because of your title...How I Met Your Mother is a great show!

 

[MeLaNie9]

Love the trip report! But, i tuned in because of your title...How I Met Your Mother is a great show!

Thanks for jumping aboard DisneyTones!

I am still working on Kay's pictures - I wasn't kidding when I said she has a whole lot!!!