Kids, Real Fun is Tiring!

[portocall]

Welcome to my trip report. I wasn’t sure I wanted to do one at first, but real life has a way of kicking your behind and I want to extend the magic just a little longer. First to the important stuff…

When: November 21st-26th

Where: Port Orleans Riverside

Who: Me, of course. I am a former Florida native who have had more trips to Disney than can be remembered. I have dreamed of bringing my children to Disney for an extended trip since I was 7 and was really excited to make this happen for them. I get itchy when I am away from Disney too long.

My DH. He tends to be a homebody, but was up for a vacation and thankfully green lighted this trip last December.

Our three sons: Logan, Fletcher, and Spencer. Spencer was celebrating his 5th birthday two weeks early, but it was as close as I could make it with the school holidays. My oldest, Logan is reaching that “too cool for school” stage and it was really evident on this trip. My middle guy, Fletcher is only a year younger than the oldest, but he was very much still into anything, which was really refreshing.

You will hear me reference some other players on the trip with us. My brother and his long-time girlfriend came over and spent the first two days with us. They also came back later in the week to bring my DH and Logan to the Orlando Magic basketball game. They live in central Florida and love all things Disney.

Also, we somewhat travelled with another family. Our very good friends, and fellow family of five booked their vacation last spring to match ours. I did spend some time worrying that things might get hairy, but none were needed. They were the perfect family to travel with as we spent just the right amount of time together as well as apart even though we were next door neighbors.

 

[misskate]

Joining in! (And maybe even first!) Can't wait to hear how your vacation went. Gotta love escaping the real world!

 

[portocall]

Part 2: The Arrival Day

We left New Orleans around midnight bound for Orlando. I love travelling overnight with the children because they sleep and it is much quieter. I had napped when I got home and was wide awake and excited. My DH slept so he would be ready to take over around sunrise. We stopped at a McDonalds in Tallahassee for breakfast. Then I napped the rest of the way down. In no time we saw this:

and then this:

Now, I had spent the last year reading the good, the bad, and the ugly about Port Orleans Riverside so my expectations were quite low. Well, I have to report that I was just blown away. We had utilized the online check-in and that helped save quite a bit of time as the magical express had just arrived. The cast member who checked us in was extremely friendly and helpful, and best yet, our room was ready and what a room it was. We had room 2764 with the most beautiful view of the river and next door to building 14.

I had requested to be near Old Man Island and I got that in spades. After checking out the room, we decided to have lunch in the River Mill with my brother and his girlfriend.

During lunch I was able to slip them a room key as they had a surprise for the boys . We went to Old Man Island for a swim after lunch and waited for the all clear to return. The weather was perfect and the boys loved the waterslide.

Before long, my brother and his girlfriend came out to the pool and we set back to the room to get ready to head out to the Magic Kingdom for the evening until our 9:15 reservation at Chef Mickey’s. But first the boys had to explore their goodies.

I had arranged for them to pick up mouse ears for the boys back in January, and they had added a few gifts themselves: puzzles, jump ropes, pool toys, and a big lollypop!

If I did have one disappointment the whole trip it was with the buses. We waited and waited for a Magic Kingdom bus to come, and when it did, it was standing room only. I wouldn’t have been bothered by this, but we had long waits and had to stand no matter what time, crowded or not. Still, my DH was very grateful not to have to drive anywhere and we just shrugged it off. It certainly would not keep me from staying at POR in the future, however I did notice that people who didn’t have as much patience lost it quite lot, there was always one huffing and puffing and being rude.

My goal for myself this trip was to take it easy and stop and smell the roses instead of the commando touring I am known to do. I do think I was able to accomplish this, of course with help from a laid back DH. For Spencer, it was his first sight of the castle that he could remember and he was in awe. We set our sights on the TTR as it is one of my favorite rides.

Next up was Stitch’s Great Escape, a first for me. Not a favorite, but not terrible. We then decided to go ahead and get Spencer on Thunder Mountain. Spencer is my most cautious child, but can be unpredictable with his likes and dislikes and he had never ridden a roller coaster. He loves trains and I figured he would be up to trying it. He rode it. He didn’t like it. I figured he needed to get to It’s a Small World quick, so he would know not all rides are like that. The rest of them however did not like the sounds of that, and knowing that the Haunted Mansion was a definite out this trip (he freaks out when approaching the Halloween aisle at the store) we split up so they could tackle the Haunted Mansion and Spencer and I could enjoy Small World in peace. Spencer loved it, but of course HE would. This would not be our last visit to this ride on this trip, I could tell.

After It’s a Small World, we hightailed it to our meeting spot near the monorail to head over to Chef Mickey’s .

We took the monorail over to the Contemporary and waited in the lobby for the L family to arrive. They made up the rest of our party of 12. They had just checked in at POR and were driving over. While we waited the sketch artist offered a free one to any one of the children and we got this: I love this drawing of Fletcher!

Chef Mickey’s was a blast and it was fun watching the monorails run through the building. The food was yummy, especially the prime rib. I ate so much, I forgot to save room for dessert. The kids loved seeing all the characters and collected their autographs. There weren’t a lot of people eating so they kept coming back and playing with the boys. We were there near closing, but didn’t feel rushed at all and the food looked fresh.

After rolling out of Chef Mickey’s everyone agreed that it was the perfect way to start out our vacation and we headed back to our resort. The boys were excited, but feel asleep in record time and I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow. The beds were soooo comfortable, I didn’t even notice that DH and I were sleeping in a double bed when we usually share a King.

Next Up: Animal Kingdom

 

[portocall]

Joining in! (And maybe even first!) Can't wait to hear how your vacation went. Gotta love escaping the real world!

Thanks for coming! Sometimes the real world needs an escape and WDW fits that bill for sure! Coming over to read your PTR!

 

[praisehisname]

Great start!

 

[MeMom]

I'll join in on this trip to Disney World with three lively boys!

Sounds like you had the perfect mix of together and not together with your friends. That's the best way. That's what we do with the family, too. Come and go as you please, and there are few expectations, if any. We like to meet up for a couple of the special meals, but other than that, everyone has their own idea of what makes their vacation good, so they should do those things.

We have visited Riverside many times for picture-taking, shopping, and eating. Love that water wheel and the peaceful laid-back feel of the resort. I'm looking forward to all of your pictures!

 

[portocall]

Great start!

Thanks! I am so glad you are here!

I'll join in on this trip to Disney World with three lively boys!

Sounds like you had the perfect mix of together and not together with your friends. That's the best way. That's what we do with the family, too. Come and go as you please, and there are few expectations, if any. We like to meet up for a couple of the special meals, but other than that, everyone has their own idea of what makes their vacation good, so they should do those things.

We have visited Riverside many times for picture-taking, shopping, and eating. Love that water wheel and the peaceful laid-back feel of the resort. I'm looking forward to all of your pictures!

I wish I could figure out how to make these pictures bigger. I can't figure out where the size button on photobucket went

We did have two special meals planned together, and that turned out to be just perfect. I was really pleased with the way everything worked out with our friends, and even better so are they so I think you are very smart too. By the way, I think that Brooklyn and Bella are two beautiful little princesses!

 

[KatMark]

Great start to your report.

 

[portocall]

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

With as many trips as I have been fortunate to have in my younger years, having grown up in Central Florida, I have never been to Animal Kingdom. It happens to be my brother and his girlfriend’s favorite Disney park, and they were super excited to show us around. In fact, it was the whole reason they came with us for part of our trip to the World. We were really happy to have them around. Some quick background on my brother’s girlfriend, she had been in and out of the hospital since August with a painful abdominal infection and had two emergency surgeries and a pretty nasty post-op infection that had her in the hospital until a few days prior to the trip. We didn’t think she was going to make it to Disney but she is a fighter and aside from needing a wheelchair to fight the fatigue of long walks, did great and had a blast. They have been dating over five years now and with probably be my sister-in-law in the near future.

So, after a long drive and late night the day before, I told everyone that we would wake up when we woke up. With that said, I put in a wake-up call for 9:00AM. We are not early people by nature and I knew that if I pushed too much at the beginning of the trip we would fizzle out for the end. We ended up waking up at 8:45 and making it to the park around 10:00. Not ideal, but not terrible either. Our friends had other plans for today, namely Magic Kingdom.

Our first impression of Animal Kingdom was WOW. It is a beautiful park. The only must-do I had for this park was the Lion King Show and the Safari. My older boys were heart set on going on Expedition Everest and Dinosaur. I am a well known park commando style tourist in my family and I was bound and determined to change my ways on this trip, mainly so I can convince my DH to agree to another Disney trip down the line. I had read a lot of trip reports to get ready for our trip and I noticed a lot of the smaller details in the pictures that I have never noticed before so I wanted to take notice of the attention to detail that Disney does so well.

First up for the day of course was a Turkey Leg for my DH. If there is one thing that my DH talked about leading up to the trip, it was getting one of those yummy turkey legs.

They didn’t disappoint and he was ready to enjoy the rest of the day. What is it with men and their tummies to make for peaceful days? We followed that up with a ride on Dinosaur. Knowing Spencer to be way more cautious than the other two ever were, I told him what to expect. Luckily, our zoo had a very realistic Dinosaur exhibit over the summer. At the zoo, Spencer jumped in my arms and hid his head faster than I knew what to do, however in the middle they had a partially uncovered Dinosaur to show how the aminatronics worked and even had buttons to push to control it so once he realized the Dinosaurs really couldn’t eat him, he wanted to go back to the beginning to see what he missed. This came in really handy for the Dinosaur ride. He asked if they were also metal inside and of course we reassured him that they were so he was game, thankfully. The boys had fun reading all the exhibits in the line and were actually frustrated that the line moved so fast because they were missing things. Go figure. The ride itself was a lot of fun, even though I did feel a little bit of motion sickness, it didn’t bother me too much.

My brother and his girlfriend wanted to take a break and offered to watch Spencer so we could take the boys on Expedition Everest. My brother wasn’t feeling up to it at the time for some reason. I think he just didn’t want to go without his girlfriend and she was afraid it would be too hard on her incision. The line was so neat and Logan and Fletcher really enjoyed offering their pennies and ringing the bells. We rarely get snow, and certainly don’t have any need for mountaineering equipment and they enjoyed seeing all of that. When we made it up to the cars, we ended up in rows 1 and 2. My daredevil boys wanted to take the first seat, and to honest I was grateful for that since I don’t like riding in the front row of a rollercoaster but I was surprised at their bravery. We loved the ride. In my opinion, it is the most exciting coaster in Disney tied with the Rockin’ Rollercoaster.

After that, we realized that it was 2:30 and we hadn’t left yet. We decided to get a few fastpasses for the Safari and get a bit to eat. We just got a few hamburgers from Tamu to split. They were the normal burgers, but we must have been starving because they were delicious.

The sky was overcast and we hoped to make it on the Safari before it started to rain. We did, and it was a family favorite. Spencer was beside himself spotting the different animals. Fletcher and Logan loved it as well. It did start to drizzle, but it wasn’t a big deal.

After the Safari, we decided to hit It’s Tough to Be a Bug. It looked as if we were in for a good shower but before we could get there we ran into the Jingle Jungle Parade.

We had decided that the parades were not a priority for us as the children were not really interested. They just like Mardi Gras parades, and they leave those parades with bags of trinkets. They have never been to parades that haven’t thrown tons of things to them, so I was very relieved when they watched the parade with the look of curiosity and not with their hands up yelling “throw me something”. The end reaction from them after it passed was an “ehh”. I thought it was cute. So after the parade passed we were off again.

I warned Spencer about what I had heard about the movie, spiders and all. His response was “I like spiders and I want to go” so in we went. He loved it. The others were in another row, so I didn’t get to see them react.

My must do for the park was The Festival of the Lion King. I think it annoyed my brother and his girlfriend but they were troopers and didn’t complain. The kids weren’t interested in meeting any of the characters in Camp Minnie and Mickey so we enjoyed a funnel cake while waiting for it to be time to line up. Before long, we were shown to our seats and Spencer and Fletcher were asked by a camp counselor to go around and show all the different sections the hand jive.

That was truly a magical moment for us. Once the show started, I looked over to see my DH and children in awe. Spencer was then picked again to roar for the Lion Section.

I think that this show was my favorite of the week.

By now, it was dark and we decided to hit the resort for dinner and take the boat to Downtown Disney. The boat was the biggest perk of the resort in my opinion and it was such a relaxing ride. We got a little shopping done and called it a night. We had another busy day tomorrow… Next up Hollywood Studios.

 

[portocall]

Great start to your report.

Thanks!

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

I'm here!

 

[portocall]

I'm here!

Yay! Good to see you Bethany!

 

[indimom]

please keep it coming. Oh, and Your boys are adorable.

 

[Where'sPiglet?]

It looked as if we were in for a good shower but before we could get there we ran into the Jingle Jungle Parade.

We had decided that the parades were not a priority for us as the children were not really interested. They just like Mardi Gras parades, and they leave those parades with bags of trinkets. They have never been to parades that haven’t thrown tons of things to them, so I was very relieved when they watched the parade with the look of curiosity and not with their hands up yelling “throw me something”. The end reaction from them after it passed was an “ehh”. I thought it was cute. So after the parade passed we were off again.

That parade (well, not necessarily the Jingle version) is one of my favorite Disney parades. I'm glad of all the parades, you saw this one!

 

[scoot241]

Looks like a great trip so far!

 

[TigerKat]

I'm here!

Great so far!!!!!!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Hey there!

Enjoying your report.

You got a coveted corner room with the two windows. Yay for you! We found the bus system extremely frustrating at POR too.

We're not parade people either so I understand but boy do we LOVE the lion king show.

Looking forward to hearing more!

 

[lori1043]

Cara- LOVIN it!!!

Glad you got to see the Lion King and my kids are the same about the parades-"eehh"- it's never a priority and if we run into them we enjoy them a bit and move on.

Can't wait for more!

Lori

 

[DisneysRedhead]

Good TR so far!! We just stayed at POR a couple weeks before you and we agree! It was so awesome, we loved it. I want to maybe stay there again when we go next time, it was just so nice!

Can't wait for more!

 

[Ms Marigny]

Woo hoo, you're doing a trip report! Love it!

I'm so glad you liked POR- we love it there!

We don't do the parades either...must be a New Orleanian thing.