LIVE TR Mar13-26: 1wk DW, 4nt Cruise & Clearwater DH, me, DD5, DS3: DAY 8-11 updated

[NatMomto2]

Welcome one and all!
I’ve never done a trip report but thought I might give it a whirl this time seeing as how I really enjoy reading others trip reports on here. I’m also going to attempt this “live”…Please pardon my rather lame title but I know when I read a TR I’m always looking for the TR’s of those like me. I like reading about the experiences of others that have young children and the land/sea adventures (because that’s where we are headed). So instead of trying to come up with something creative, what you see is what you get. We are spending 1 week offsite at Windsor Hills in a 3brdm condo (lots of room to put kiddies to sleep and I can keep up with my episodes of Lost & Grey’s…yes I know I’m a TV junkie and I readily admit it!), then we are off to Port Canaveral for 1nt, 4 nt cruise on the Disney Wonder and then a quick drive to the other side of FLA for 2 nts at Clearwater Beach.

This is us: :
DH 37 works in presales for an IT Consulting company and is permanently connected to his Blackberry (he seems to do reasonably well disconnecting while on holiday),
Me 36 was a SAHM for 3 yrs, then decided to back to work in my field of HR almost 2 yrs ago now.I enjoy my work and the flexibility it affords me.
DD 5 still loves princesses (I think) although the other day she asked me if they were people in a costume. Really? And so it starts already at 5….
DS 3 adores his sister and has followed her love of princesses up until very recently, now he says he doesn’t like them or rather that boys don't like them. He is firmly entrenched in the world of Diego. Poor guy…no Diego at Disney . But he loves Buzz and Lightning McQueen and of course Mickey Mouse. He is however terrified of Goofy. I was that bad mother last year snapping a picture of my screaming child when Goofy came around at Chef Mickey’s…let’s see if I can dig that picture up somewhere. It was really quite hilarious and he calmed down as soon as Goofy left so no harm done (I think).

This is trip #3 to Disney for us. We are hooked although we’ve promised to break free next year and try an all inclusive in the Caribbean. Our families and friends think we are kinda nuts…”you are going to Disney again”. Well yes we are! Year #1 DD was 3 and DS was 18mths. We stayed offsite for 2 weeks at Bahama Bay at my inlaws timeshare exchange. It was very nice but far from the parks (25mins). That trip was a lot of work. An 18 mth old boy is well an 18 mth old boy but DD’s interactions with the princesses are some of our best memories. I mean what’s not to love about a little girl twirling her skirt in the gardens of France with Aurora. These are the memories we choose to remember and not the absolute disaster that was our lunch at Cinderella’s palace….again I say 18 mth old boy…

So after trip #1 in 2008, we said we’d wait till they were older to return…then the Fall arrived and we started talking about our Winter vacation and we kept coming back to the idea of a Disney vacation. So back we went for trip #2 for another 2 weeks in March 2009. We stayed at WH in a 3bdrm condo with my inlaws (who I adore so I don’t have any horror stories to share) and we had a great vacation. Our kids are still young and not tied to school vacations so we love taking a 2 week vacation in winter to escape the snow. Although this year there is not much snow in Montreal to be escaping from. Its been a strange winter here. We really only had 1 snowstorm and were completely envious as parts of the Northeast kept getting walloped with snowstorm after snowstorm.

We are rope droppers…is that even a term? Our kids are up at the crack of dawn so getting to RD feels like a leisurely morning to us. We like to stay till about lunch time, come back to the condo, swim, relax and sometimes we go back (with all the fast passes we collected in the morning!) and sometimes we don’t. We are by no means commando visitors and while I like to plan and have a pretty good idea of where we are headed and when, we go at the kids pace and when they are done, we leave. This seems to have worked well in the past as there’s really only one meltdown (happened at DD last year as they were getting their silhouette’s done…that was a doozie! We put them in the car and headed back to the condo after that one, made me miss my Earl of Sandwich lunch which put me in a foul mood because those are the yummiest sandwiches on the face of the planet). We don’t go to the parks every day, just hanging out at the resort pool & park is fun for us too. And of course we are Canadian so no trip is complete without an outlet day and of course let’s not forget the trips to Super Target. Oh how I love Target. I wish we had Target here…but we don’t .

So there we go..that’s the quick intro on us. Next post will be the plan and after that you’ll have to stay tuned (if you want, that is ) as I post the first live update on Sunday March 14th!

 

[NatMomto2]

The PLAN:
Sat Mar 13: Leave Montreal
We are flying out of Plattsburgh with Allegiant. You really can't beat the price (got the 2 week car rental as part of the package too). It irks me that I live 10 minutes away from the Montreal airport but the Canadian taxes on flights are prohibitive so for year #2, we are driving down to Plattsburgh (1hr away) to fly the skies with Allegiant (who btw are great). Also I have to say Plattsburgh has the most kids friendly airport I’ve ever seen. Its 1 building. You park your car (free) outside, walk over to the front door, 2 feet to you right you do your baggage check, then 4 feet to your left you walk through security and then 10 feet ahead you sit down and wait to board. Super kid /stroller/ friendly.
The only “ick” factor is that it’s a 6pm flight so you really don’t get to WH until about 11pm. Plus you land at Sanford which is about 15 mins north of MCO. Again I remind myself that you can’t beat the price which is why we do this.

Sun Mar 14:
TARGET!!!!
Kids will go to the WH park with DH (perhaps swim…please oh please warm up a bit more glorious Florida weather) and I’ll go grab my beautiful Starbucks latte and peruse the isles of Target (oh and pick up some groceries for the week!).
Kids will go down for an early nap (because of the previous day) and when they wake up (2ish) we’ll head to DHS. My only real plan here is to see Beauty and Beast. DS loves Beauty & the Beast. He thinks Lumiere’s name is “Be our Guest” and I’m not kidding when I say he knows all the words to the song. And yes I did mean to write DS and not DD. Maybe we’ll see McQueen (we saw him last year and I can do without the 1hr wait), maybe see Playhouse Disney again, Little Mermaid …I might ride RnR coaster…I LOVE the start of that thing! We’ll eat CS at the park and see how everyone’s doing . Fantasmic is on …we’ve never seen it as its always on at 9pm and that’s way too late for our little ones. BUT…Sunday is when we move to Daylight Savings Time…so 9pm is technically 8pm plus they might have had a really good nap so we’ll play it by ear and if we see it great, if not there will be many more Disney trips in our future!

Mon Mar 15
EPCOT
This year we are only bringing 1 stroller (Peg’s Pliko w/the the option to stand in the back) but Epcot is big so we’ll be renting another single for the day today. The must do’s in FW are Soarin (don’t think DS will make the 40in cutoff though ), Nemo and Turtle Talk. We have a coveted lunchtime reservation at Le Cellier. Never eaten there before but I make a mean Cheese soup myself so can’t wait to try the “real deal”. After lunch we’ll take our time through World Showcase. DS will most likely nap in the stoller, DD we’ll see. If we make it to dinner we’ll “eat around the world” otherwise we’ll head back to the condo.

Tue Mar 16
Bit of a break here
Pool and Park time followed by an early dinner reservation at Boma. I’ve wanted to visit AKL so we’ll probably head over nice & early so we can explore a bit.

Wed Mar 17
Magic Kingdom here we come! We have an early breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace. Those early ADR’s at MK are the best. I love getting those castle shots with the kids with NO ONE ELSE in them. Plus the CP breakfast is quite yummy and what’s not to love about Winnie the Pooh and the gang! Next its off to Fantasyland and all of our favorite rides. Plan is to eat lunch at the condo, nap and then head to Downtown Disney around 4pm. DD has an appointment at BBB (her aunt’s bday present to her) and then we have dinner at T-Rex. I know right? BBB and T-Rex…strange mix. We are eating at 1900 Park Fare on Friday and we tried to get BBB on the Friday but we couldn’t so Wednesday it is.

Thu Mar 18
Animal Kingdom
AK is a funny park for us. After year #1 we sort of wrote it off. It was so HOT and humid in there and it was BIG. Then last year MIL wanted to bring FIL to see it (particularly the Safari) so we went back. In the rain…and it was the best day of the trip! Funny how that works out. The safari in the rain is fantastic because all the animals come out to play. Then we went to see Nemo. This is our favorite Disney show. We ordered the CD upon our return and all of us know the words “Together, we swim together, cooperation is the secret to our success , we swim in harmony and we study dentistry we’re the fish of Pablo Sherman DDS”…see I wasn’t kidding! “Go with the Flooooooooow, don’t be a highstrung fellow kick back and keep it mellow” Ok that’s enough now. I’m not quite sure how we’ll keep quiet but we’ll do our best. If you see a family singing along in AK on the 18th it’s probably us LOL
So asides from Nemo, we love the FOTLK and of course Safari. Some time in the boneyard for the kids and maybe one of the trails – we’ve never done that. We’ll have a CS lunch here and head back around 2/3pm or when the kids are done.

Fri Mar 19
Magic Kingdom
RD till lunch, back to the condo for nap/lunch, Dinner at 1900 Park fare, Back to MK for more rides and Spectromagic, then take a boat over to the Poly to watch the Wishes from their beach. Ahhh…paradise

Sat Mar 20
Check out of WH
Now you didn’t think I forgot those outlets did ya?
Today is our Outlet morning…then we’ll grab a quick lunch and drive to Port Canaveral and check into our hotel.

Sun Mar 21
CRUISE!!!
We’ve never cruised before. Have no idea what to expect . When the kids sail free promotion came out , DH & I thought why not, let’s do something different this year so we booked.
I love boats and the motion of the waves. DH on the other hand not so much so we’ll stock up on motion sickness meds (pre-kids we used to scuba dive and poor DH was always the one leaning over the side of the boat on they way out to the dive site…but he loves the water.)

Mon Mar 22
Nassau Day
Plan is to disembark at our own pace and explore
We looked into the excursions but with such young kids nothing really jumped out at me so we’ll do our own thing.

Tue Mar 23
Castaway Cay day
Please oh please let the Captain be able to dock the boat and oh forces that control the weather please give us a nice beach day. One can only hope….

Wed Mar 24
Sea Day

Thu Mar 25
Disembark and drive over to Clearwater. Drive is just over 200km so should take about 2hrs or so.
Check into hotel, play on the beach, explore

Fri Mar 26
Explore Clearwater

Sat Mar 27
DH’s birthday (poor guy…a big travel day on his bday)
So we’ll drive back to Orlando and stop for an early bday lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. I LOVE the Cheescake Factory. Another thing I wish we had in Canada. But we don’t . Then back up to Sanford to fly back to Plattsburgh. Arrive at Plattsburgh, wait in line at the Lacolle border (there is always a 1hr wait here no matter what time of day you go…drives me crazy..again I say can’t beat the prices with Allegiant , deep breath ), then drive home. Ok this is really an icky travel day but what can you do…the previous 13 will have more than made up for it!

So there ya go…that’s us, that’s the plan. I look forward to updating this live TR on Sunday! Bye for now….

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Live report, sign me up.

 

[NatMomto2]

Ahhhh naptime. It really is a beautiful thing. I think I shall be very sad when our naptime days are over.

So I better get started on this live trip report .

We left Montreal at 2pm yesterday. Plan was to let the kids nap in the car on the way to Plattsburgh. They did but woke up at the border. We had a lovely customs officer who asked DD who her favourite princess was. To which DD replied, Jasmine, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty and she kept on going! We knew we had some time to kill before our 6:15pm flight (it was only 3pm at this point) so we stopped at Borders and got the kids a couple new books each for the flight and off we drove to the airport.

Plattsburgh airport has clearly grown in popularity in the last year. We couldn’t find a parking spot and were getting worried when we saw a sign “overflow parking open”. Whew thank goodness. We parked and made our way to the terminal. This airport is really only equipped to handle one flight at a time but there 2 of them so it was a busy place. We arrived there at 4pm and made it through security at 5:30 – let’s remember this is a 1 room airport so there was a lot of waiting involved. No sooner past security, we bought some drinks for the plane, and they were calling pre-boarding for those with little ones! That would be us! Last year I made the error of buying preboarding seats (5$ each but still) and then I heard them call those with kids for preboarding so this year I saved my 5$.

We took off on time, ate our dinner (really just sandwiches that I had made at home)got the kids some colouring out then they asked to watch their movies. I plugged DS into his new Diego movie on the portable DVD player (thank you to whoever invented those) and DD into the itouch with the first Harry Potter movie on it. Ever since those books came out I’ve been waiting to show them to my kids (and I didn’t even have kids at that point!). She’s still a bit young to maintain interest in my reading it to her but I thought we could start with the first movie (but I’ll wait on the others for a couple more years!). She seemed to like it but then got scarred at the part when Snape is talking to Professor Quirell and Harry is hiding under the invisibility cloak so we turned it off and she went back to her color Wonder (again thank you to whoever invented those over at Crayola – sheer genius!). We were about 2 hrs into the flight at this point and DS was getting tired so we shut down the dvd player and he tried to get comfy to sleep. And then all hell broke loose. He had a meltdown of epic proportions. “I HOT” “ I TIRED” I WANT TO GET OFF THE PLANE NOW” . Poor little guy was just tired (it was about 8:30pm now) and the more he moved around (well flailed is a better word), the hotter he got, the angrier he got, the more unable to sleep he became. I tried to hold him, put his head on my lap, put him the other way, nothing worked. Then after about 15 minute he was out like a light. DS’s involvement in the rest of the evening looked like this: while remaining completely asleep: disembarked the plane, transferred to stroller, transferred to car rental, transferred to bed.

So that pretty sums up the rest of our evening as well…disembarked from plane we landed just after 9pm, got the bags, got the car, drove down to Windsor Hills and arrived around 11pm. Figured groceries would have to wait till the next day and we’d have breakfast out. Put the kids to sleep, then put ourselves to sleep after moving the clocks forward.

 

[cmp1111]

Sounds like a great start, and a great trip!

 

[NatMomto2]

DAY 2
In the light of day of condo looks great! It’s a 3 bdrm in Windsor Hills not to far from the main pool and very “disneyfied” which is great. DS came pitter pattering into our room at 7:20 this morning. 6:20am old time which is pretty standard. 10 minutes later DD came in. We are a get and breakfast right away kind of family and we all had rumblies in our tumblies so we got dressed and went off in search of food. IHOP will do the trick! We had eggs and pancakes and were sufficiently sufficed for the trip to Target. We all went to Target, got what we needed and then I dropped DH and the kids off at the park to play while I unpacked. Did you know a stroller doubles as a grocery cart when your condo is not on the ground floor? It DOES ! My expected 6 trips (milk and juice bags and a case of water are heavy!!) became 2 thanks to the stroller.

Next a trip to the pool. The early morning was bright and sunny (I’m wearing capris, a tshirt and flip flops) but the clouds are rolling in and the wind is picking up. I think I’ll be sitting this one out! DH got to go into the pool much to his delight hihi ! The water is nice and warm but everyone had some rather blue lips once they get out. It feels about 18-19 celsius over here which is warmer than home so I’m not complaining.

Back to the condo for an early lunch which brings us to the aforementioned naptime from Day 1. As I was updating the TR, I went to the SteveSoares website to get the show times and oh JOY what do my wondering eyes see…but an 8pm Fantasmic show! 8pm..which is really 7pm. I’m very mindful of bedtime because my kids are creatures of habit and as we saw from yesterday’s fit on the plane, not something to be messed with lightly. With an 8pm show we might really be able to see it…to be continued…..

Its now 9:40pm and everyone is all tucked in so time for an update. Kids woke up from nap at 2pm and we headed off to DHS. We arrived right around the time of the Block Party Bash. We caught pieces of it here and there and I don’t know but I don’t really think I’ve missed anything but I’m not sure parades are my “thang”. The park was PACKED. Busiest I’ve ever seen any of the parks. Cheerleader central too. That being said DHS was a park to avoid today so we knew what we were getting into. That being said, arriving at this time really just confirmed my "must arrive at RD or else" attitude. We made it through the crowds to see if there were any fastpasses left for TSM but there weren’t standby was 90 minutes… maybe we’ll actually get on that ride before the kids turn 16! Off to Beauty & the Beast show at 4pm and that was great. Next we got the kids those tattooes- DD chose a princess collage and DS chose Sheriff. They really do last 1 week! Then off to see McQueen and Mater, take a picture on the pod racer (it’s a tradition!) and we headed for the HISTK playground but there was a line to get in. Ummm I don’t think so…so off we went to have a bite to eat at the ABC Commissiary and then we got in line for The Little Mermaid. We waited about 40 minutes and saw the 6:45 show. Very cute and they seem to have some new effects that make you feel like you are under the water. Pretty cool.

Kids were in a good mood so off we went with the whole rest of the population in the park…to Fantasmic. Who knew that this giant area existed behind the TOT…. We were in the 2nd row a little to the left and starting chatting with the family beside us. I had brought the kids spinny light up things from home because really how many of those spinny light up things does one person need? So they played with those then I pulled out the glow sticks that become braclets/necklaces and that took care of a good 30 minutes then it was time for the show to start. Conceptually this is a very cool show. The water, the backdrop and the images on the fanned out water. Definitely entertaining. I think I was ready to be blown away and I wasn’t but I do think its worth seeing. Weatherwise it was cool – We had on capris & tshirts, sweaters and windbreakers and we were barely ok. It’s the wind that really isn’t very friendly at the moment. Here’s hoping it dies down a bit overnight!

So that’s the March 14 update. Tomorrow Epcot …and the question is will the original Cheese soup taste as good as mine…

 

[NatMomto2]

Day 3
We made it to Epcot for 9am and went to Spaceship Earth first. This was my first time on the ride, last year the family with the IL did it while I went to get the Soarin FP’s. I love this ride. Really very cool and the bit at the end on the screen is hilarious. DD thought it was awesome that in the future she’ll be able to order new clothes from her closet computer and BAM they’d be on her after breakfast. Next off FP for Soarin. We got a return time for 11:30 and we only got 2 tickets for DH and DD. DS is missing about 1 inch and I knew he’d pitch a fit if we did child swap so it would be easier if I stayed with him outside. Then we went to the Land. Another good one. Nice relaxing boat ride. Its kind of like the Epcot equivalent to the TTA. Then we went to the Nemo ride and Turtle Talk w/Crush. Totally entertaining! Next off to Club Cool where I told the kids the Beverly was delicious …love the look on their face!
Then we went to Mouse Gear and DS got a stuffed McQueen and DD got a baby Simba with the blanket. We exited on the other side to go get some FP for Test Track. We’ve actually never been on that side of Future World. We walked through the Fairy garden and then over to get those FP’s and then I saw the cars whizzing by. HA…I don’t think so. I thought maybe DD & I could try the ride but when I realized how fast it was and that she is not exactly one for speed or thrill rides, I figured this will be another we keep for when they are older.

It was now close to 11:15 and we had an 11:45 reservation so off to Le Cellier we went. With some time to spare, the kids went to the Kidcot stop to start their masks while we listened to the servers singing Oh Canada with a slight rock twist. Cool. Then it was time to sit down.. Guess what we ordered? Cheese soup and filet mignon! I call a draw on the cheese soup. The taste is very close (it is their recipe after all LOL) but I keep my bacon, carrot and celery pieces bigger. The filet mignon was DELICIOUS. We both agreed this was the best Disney meal we’ve had. We all shared a crème brulee which was an extremely generous portion and also yummy. Oh and I have to say the pretzel bread was just as good as everyone says it was. DD has a peanut allergy so she was told to stay away from the bread but she had some soup and the Mac & Cheese.

After lunch it was time to walk around WS. The sun was out and it felt a bit warmer than yesterday. And the people. Wow. So many people everywhere. The lines for food (it was now well past 1pm) were insane. If this is a 7, I hate to see what a 9 looks like. A quick jaunt through England, France and Morocco. We saw the characters but again there were between 20-30 people waiting for each character ,crazyiness! We did most of the Kidcot stops to get the charms for their masks and then we arrived at Norway. The line for the Maelstrom was out to Akershus. Ah, I don’t think so. We got FP for 40 minutes later and decided to go do Soarin and then come back to Norway.

As we started walking towards Soarin, my vision started getting blotchy. I know, nice medical term . If you’ve ever had migraines you know what I mean. I used to get them once a year, then twice a year, my last one was last month and they are definitely coming more often now. I took some pills asap which definitely help but they don’t make it completely go away. So we said so long to our Epcot day as DS was falling asleep in the stroller and I was on automatic pilot as we made our way to the car. Back at the condo, I went for a nap and woke up about an hour later feeling better.

Pizza dinner tonight at the condo (nice & easy) and then DH & I watched 2012 (they have some movie rentals here at WH which is nice!)

 

[NatMomto2]

Day 4 Tues Mar 16
Today was an easy day. We figured after an evening of Fantasmic followed by a day of Epcot that everyone would be tired. It was nice having a relaxing day. I had hoped today would be a swimming day. DH and DS got in the water for about 2.5 seconds and then got out. I think Montreal was warmer today and I’m not kidding.

There were really only 2 things planned today: BBB for DD followed by dinner at Boma at AKL. Both turned out to be really great! DD & I went to Downtown Disney around 2pm after putting DS down for his nap. Another very busy place. We had a 2:40pm appointment and they ended up calling us at 3:30pm. We had a great Fairy Godmother and she and DD were chatting up a storm as DD kept trying to sneak a peak at how she looked. She chose the Disney diva with blond hair (2yrs ago it was the pink alternative!). I had ordered an Ariel dress online several months ago and she looked just adorable. As we were there, we noticed a man being given a tour of the place and our Fairy Godmother shared the following news (well at least it was news to me) – they are opening a BBB on the new Disney Dream and he’s checking out the existing BBB’s so he can get his up & running. How cool is that? A BBB on a cruise. Awesome.

Back to the condo to pick up the boys. DS’s reaction to his sister all done up was priceless. Remember he’s 3 and he was just looking her up and down trying to decide if that was really her. Then he said I want to dress up too! And off he went to get his Captain Hook outfit (his Halloween costume + his costume for the pirate party on the boat). Soon we were off to AKL. First impression: wow this place is dark. But really beautiful and check out the details everywhere. We walked out back to a Savannah area and saw zebras and giraffes and water buffalo. Very very cool. We went back in and down the stairs where you could see Boma but we still had about 30 mins before our ADR so we went out back by the pool. Beautiful pool area and the kids found the playground and were happy to run around. Got some great shots of Ariel and Cpt Hook on the slides!

It was ADR time so we headed back inside and we soon sat down at our table. Boma, while dark, is a beautiful restaurant. The chef came over to take me through the buffet and what DD could and could not eat w/her peanut allergy. Disney is AMAZING in managing allergies and the chef’s who come out to talk to you are always so very very helpful. My first reaction to the buffet was yum! The food looked great! I got some butternut squash soup for the kids and chicken and some corn & spinach pudding and brought those back to the table. OH MY GOODNESS. Words can not describe how delicious this was. The soup was sweet and thick and tasted more like a dessert. The pudding was unbelievable. I went back for more of both of those things! We got some pork shoulder, tamarind salmon, salad w/coriander and mango dressing…all delicious. Who knew that African food was so delicious (not me but I’m a convert now!). The Zebra domes as promised were yummy too. Boma was an extremely pleasant surprise and I’m adding it to my “must come back to” list.

We came back to the condo and put the kids in bed. DD kept her hair and said she wants to wear her Ariel dress again tomorrow. Okeedokee ! Tomorrow is 8am ADR time at MK so that means we need to leave the condo by 7:15 at the latest. G'Night!

 

[NatMomto2]

Ah ha! Now I get it...
Its not just me thinking wow its really busy here. I went over to Touringplans and this week has all been upgraded to 10's. 10's!!! Ugh . How did I manage to pick the week with 10's and we are headed into the Lion's Den (MK) tomorrow.
Ok chin up here's the plan. 8am ADR at CP, get out of there by 8:55 and hightail it over to Dumbo while DH gets FP for either Pooh or PP. Maximize our FP's and try to do as much as we can by lunchtime then get the heck out of dodge.
10's.

 

[NatMomto2]

Day 5 MK or should I say the Lion’s Den…

Alarm went off at 6:30, out the door by 7:15 as planned. Pulled into MK parking at 7:25. First row parking ! Its amazing how the little things give us so much pleasure!! Kids were glad to be on the Monorail again and we were at the gates at 7:40 waiting w/others who had early morning breakfast reservations. Gates opened at 7:50 and up main street we went. They seemed to be filming some Disney promotional stuff because Main St was filled with folks, we walked around them up to Walt & Mickey and took a picture, then backtracked to CP. Breakfast was yummy – Pooh’s puffed French toast is delicious! The gang came by in the following order Piglet, Tigger who signed the books on the kids heads which they thought was funny, then Eeyore (“why is Eeyore always sad Maman?” and Pooh. All this was done by 8:30! We were done by 8:50 and walked through a deserted castle to wait for the rope to drop. Once it did, DH, DD and DS went over to Dumbo and I grabbed some Peter Pan FPs.
Here’s what we ended up accomplishing before 10am
Dumbo
Pooh
Speedway
Buzz
2X Barnstormer
Between 10 and 12 we did:
Tea Cups
Scary Adventures of Snow White
Peter Pan
It’s a Small World
Haunted Mansion – first time for us on this ride.
Philharmagic – LOVE this!
Carousel.

Crowds got thicker as the morning wore on, definitely the busiest I’ve seen . Peter Pan had a 60 minute wait at 11am. Not sure if it was a 10 yet but a definite 9. Oh and did I mention it was freezing this morning. Sweaters and jackets for us. Have you ever seen Ariel (DD wanted to wear her princess dress again today) with a sweater and windbreaker? Not quite the same...

We were losing steam around 12:30 so we grabbed some Mickey graham crackers to tide us over beside the HM and slowly started walking out. Plan was to snack our way around lunch seeing as how we had a huge breakfast and we had a 5:30 reservation at T-Rex. We saw Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen in Liberty Square- they looked really great! Main Street was wall to wall people they were all coming in. Egads!! Do they know what they are getting into? Arriving at a park at midday when its supposed to be a 10. Yikes

So overall yes it was busy but we had a plan and knocked off all of Fantasyland, Toontown (well really its just the Barnstormer) and most of Tomorrowland (we will have to do the TTA on Friday though!) Adventureland will wait till Friday. Frontierland is a non starter for us. DD won’t go on Splash mountain or BTMRR without her brother and he’s missing a couple of inches so that will wait for another trip.

Back to the condo for a nap for DS and quiet time for the rest of us.

We headed back out around 4 to Downtown Disney. We got a few new pins and our 2010 Christmas ornament, then went to play w/the Lego a bit and I checked us in at T-Rex. 10 minutes later we were seated basically at 5:45 on the dot! What a cool place.We were seated in the meteor shower area right at the entrance of the ice cave. DS was not very impressed with T-Rex so I put him facing the ice cave where the only ones he could see moving around were the baby mammoths! Dinner was delicious and afterwards it was Lightsaber time. The cousins have these and the kids love them when they visit so now they have their very own purple and blue lightsabers! Downtown Disney was packed – crowds were high again with lots wearing their St Patty’s day green proudly!

That’s today’s update.

PS Is anybody actually reading this?

 

[cmp1111]

Yes, and always look at your views vs. your replies. A lot of people don't comment, but you have a lot of readers.

I have to say, I'm glad I've not ever seen a 9. Great news on the on-time seating!

 

[Señor DonDuck]

Yep, I've been reading an just forgot to reply. Sounds like you made out pretty darn well for a 10. Kudos.

 

[wisegal]

Hello fellow canadian, I am enjoying your report. i had just said to my DH that I could go in March because the weather was not to hot (we went in sept and i could bearly handle the heat) but then you describe the crowds and I decided that maybe it is not the best time for us to go.

 

[Cathy baby RN]

I'm so enjoying your live trip report! Getting to the park at rope drop is the most important tip you can give I think. We have 6 kids, so getting them up and out is no easy task but a must do.
Let us know what you get at the outlets......since you're going on Saturday it will probably be mobbed, so get there at "rope drop" too
Cathy

 

[SnowWhite09]

I am absolutely reading your live report all the way from Australia and enjoying it immensely - keep it coming.

I can't wait to hear how the cruise goes!

 

[NatMomto2]

Day 6 Animal Kingdom aka could it get any colder?

Ok I think it was about 10 degrees (Celsius) this morning when we left the condo. Pants/sweaters and windbreakers were the order of today. And it’s a really humid cold too. All of our hands felt really clammy and cold in the morning, not particularly pleasant. Ok enough about the weather. Wait...one more thing...today I saw people wearing UGGS and there are so many North Face fleece and coats around here. Something we see in Montreal all the time but I never expected to see down here. Ok now that’s really enough about the weather.

We had breakfast at the condo and left around 8:15. We made it to the opening show at 8:45 (first time we see it). Mickey & Minnie are on a safari truck and they are running through the things they need on their adventure like sunscreen. Cute. RD didn’t seem too bad and we made our way to the Tree of Life with the rest of the crowd. Half turned right to Everest and we were with the other half on the way to Safari. About 10-15minutes later our driver was saying JAMBO to us and we were off. Our driver was great. He was a gentleman of a certain age and I said to DH “best retirement job EVER”. Anyways I made a little mental note to self for 30 years down the road . Our driver gave us tons of good info on the animals ..did you know that a lions mane gets darker as he ages? The good thing about the cooler weather is that most of the animals love it. The antelopes (or cantelopes as DS calls them) were running after the little Thomson Gazelles, it was adorable. The warthog and little monkeys on the other hand weren’t too impressed with the weather and were tucked away in their caves/nests.

After Safari we boarded the train to the Rafiki Planet Watch. The theming of the train (like everything else Disney does) is top notch. You really feel like you are boarding this train in Africa. It was our first time up there – its neat. They were examining a Baboon at the veterinary center and we got to pat the goats and sheep. Then we saw Rafiki and Jiminy Cricket and then headed back to Africa. It was nice & quiet up at Rafiki Planet Watch and when we arrived back in Africa it was like a zoo. Literally, we were against the 'traffic" trying to move to Asia and finding that single spot to walk a straight line was a challenge. Granted AK is an easy park to feel crowded in because there’s really only one way to get from A to Z but still, another busy day for sure. We walked past Everest and the line was 50mins (this was around 10:15).We wanted to see the 11:30am Nemo show so got in line around 10:20. The show was great as always. I know I’m in the minority here but I think this is Disney’s best show. I love it and it was hard not to sing along! Next we had a bite to eat at Restaurantosaurus. Bleh. How are 2 adult hamburgers meals and 1 kid meal $30. Seriously overpriced for such crapola food. I said to DH, if we ever stay onsite and do the dining plan we are going to have to do the Deluxe one because I can’t eat hamburgers everyday.

Then the kids got some of their energy out at the Boneyard – you need a GPS to track your kid in that place. All these parents are trying not to trip over each other as they keep an eye on their kids – it would be rather comical if we weren’t all trying so desperately not to loose our kids. A quick jaunt over to the “Dumbo” of Dinoland aka the Triceratops and then it became clear we were nearing meltdown land as the kids fought over who got to sit in front. We had wanted to attempt Its tough to be a bug but it was not meant to be. DS fell asleep in the stoller before we even made it to the gates and DD was asleep in the car before we left the parking lot.

Knowing our kids needed to sleep and that they "transfer" badly, DH said “hey why don’t we go get some Starbucks and then head over to the outlets I’ll stay in the car while they sleep and you can shop”. EXCELLENT IDEA! We were wondering when to fit the outlets because as of now they are announcing 26 degrees on Saturday. BEAUTIFUL! So I’m not sure I want to spend that one nice day in the outlets…so off we went to Premium outlets. The kids ended up sleeping almost 90 minutes so I got to visit all my favourite spots.

The stores that were good to me this year were Banana Republic and for the kids Carter’s. Its strange – last year Carter’s had nothing of interest and Osh Kosh was great. This year it was the reverse. I also saw some shoes I liked at nine west but really do I need more shoes? The answer I talked myself into was no. I also saw a beautiful spring purse at Coach. I am currently thinking about it. If I am still thinking about it on Saturday, then I’ll go get it. In the meantime I am being responsible. Yeah me!

Back to the condo for a put the “lasagna in the oven” dinner which was surprisingly good. Tomorrow is a big MK day (morning, then break, dinner at 1900 Park Fare back to park for Spectro and perhaps Wishes) so we had the kids in bed by 8pm and I won’t be too far behind them….

 

[cmp1111]

I've never seen Nemo - I'll have to put it on the list. My DH and kids are NOT into the shows. I saw FotLK in 2000 when with my BFF but not my family (well, we weren't married nor did the kids exist then...) and loved it, but I can't talk them into skipping rides to sit around a show.

You are being nice and responsible. Good work! If you're anything like me, I don't think twice about dropping $80 at Target or whatever, but if it's something just for me, I won't spend more than $30.

 

[NatMomto2]

Day 7 MK

Its now Saturday morning and we are checking out of WH this morning and heading to Cocoa Beach for the day/night before our cruise on Sunday. Definitely getting excited for some R&R. DisneyWorld vacations are great but they certainly aren’t restful. Plus this is the first year our IL’s aren’t with us and let me tell you that those extra hands make a very very big difference!

So Day 7 Friday March 19th – BEST DAY YET….We arrived at MK gates nice & early around 8:40, waited a few minutes for the opening show and then “Good morning Good morning” started. If that doesn’t put you in a good mood I don’t know what will! Mickey & the gang arrived on the train and the park opened.

I headed to Buzz to get FP’s and met up w/DH and kids at Peter Pan. MK seemed slightly less busy in the morning. Here’s what we were able to accomplish (we did a lot of things again as the kids said they wanted to do these rides again):
Peter Pan
Pooh
Speedway
Barnstormer *2 (as you can see the kids love this)
Mickey/Minnie House
DH and the kids went on It’s a Small World (they love this one whereas I feel like that is 10 minutes of my life I will never get back LOL)
Meanwhile another FP window opened so I got some for PP for the evening (this is our “last ride” tradition) and went to get some Funnel Cakes
I love Funnel cakes. We don’t have these at home and I discovered them at Disney a couple of years ago. YUM!
DD wanted to do Haunted Mansion again so off we went – she’s funny she likes the song in the graveyard and was dancing away in our buggy! Meanwhile DS has figured out that he does not like this ride. No major tantrum just not very happy.

It was about 10:30 at this point so we went to Adventureland to Pirates and it wasclosed. Technical difficulties. Hmmmm….Ok then, so I got FP for Jungle Cruise for the evening and then:
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Pirates was still closed so we checked out the Pirates League – looks awesome!
We backtracked to Fantasyland and saw Philharmagic again.
It was around 12:30 at this point so we started heading out and stopped to watch Move it Shake it Celebrate it parade and then went back to the condo for nap.

The weather was beautiful today so I went to the pool and it was packed! Everyone had the same idea. I lay in the sun for about an hour, went back to the condo, kids were waking up so we all put on our bathing suits and went for a dip!

At 4pm we came back to condo again to change for dinner for Cinderella and Prince Charming. We arrived at the Grand Floridian at 5:15 and checked in (ADR at 1900 Park Fare was 5:35). What a beautiful hotel this is. Absolutely lovely. We were soon seated and Prince Charming came up right away. DS was having nothing to do w/any of the characters. Prince Charming was indeed Charming and I think DD liked him. Cinderella was next and she was lovely and quite chatty. Next came Lady Tremaine. What a hoot! She took one look at our kids and said “ Hmmm blond hair and blue eyes, just like my maid”. Her whole demeanour was hilarious. DD asked her if hair was real to which she responded “of course, is yours real?” all the while looking down her nose. Next came Anastasia who was ditzy and funny. DS was still not too impressed so Anastasia told him to come back in a few years with a ring. DD was like “a ring, why does she want a ring”. Funny. Then came Drucilla (am I spelling that right?). Anyways she was nice too although nothing stands out.

Now let’s talk about the food. OMG. Seriously. I don’t know where to begin. Ok, yes I do. The strawberry soup. OMG OMG OMG. So awesomely delicious. But of course it would be its made with 35% cream. I tell myself I walk a lot on a Disney Vacation. The kids adored it and I think we each had 2 bowls of it. Next the salmon with dill sauce was awesome, the edamame salad, the tomatoes and bocconcini salad, the noodles. Everything was delicious. We went back for 2nds and 3rds and our kids who I consider to be very picky eaters were eating everything. They had roast beef too but that was tough and not so good. The salmon more than made up for it! Dessert was good too (but who am I kidding, the strawberry soup was dessert!)

Back to MK where Pirates was still closed. UGH, no pirates for us this trip. We did Jungle Cruise and had an awesome tour guide. This ride is all about the driver and this guy was FUNNY! Next we checked out Splash for in a few years time when DS makes the height requirement and then crossed over to Buzz and the TTA (way better pre-refurb, now it just feels like another train ride), then onto the last Peter Pan ride of the trip. Finally we got a spot around the castle for Spectro and DS fell asleep before it even started. DD enjoyed it perched atop her Dad’s shoulders. We made our way out prior to Wishes and headed back to the condo.

So I have no idea when the next update will be. Not sure if our hotel at Cocoa beach has internet and am not sure at all about what happens on the boat. So if we do have a connection, I will get on and give updates. If not, I’ll be back on the Thursday the 25th with a full cruise trip update!

Bye for now!!

 

[NatMomto2]

Hello again! Apologies for the rather long departure. Turns out Disney keeps you way too busy on a cruise to write a trip report. We had a wonderful time so here are the updates from day 8, 9, 10 and 11!



DAY 8 – To The Beach

After a busy early morning of laundry and packing, we left the condo at 10am. A stop at Starbucks, some very long toll lines (we had a whole bunch of long toll lines coming in from the airport a week ago…is this “normal”?), and a gas detour we arrived at the Best Western in Cocoa Beach a little before noon. As we were approaching Cocoa Beach, there she was! THE DISNEY MAGIC was in port and we were all very excited to see the sister ship there. Makes it a little more real that tomorrow we are embarking on our very first cruise!

I chose this hotel because a) I had some aeroplan points I wanted to use and b) it was right on the beach. We had a beautiful sunny day and I have a bit of a sunburn which feels great after the last week of cooler weather! We grabbed lunch at a Seafood place and went to check out the beach before attempting nap. Nice beach, nice water – we are right beside the Cocoa Beach pier. Its safe to say its spring break because the college kids are out in force. Nap time was a bust – the kids were just so excited to be at the beach. So out we went and they actually played in the waves (despite the water being very cold), then came back to the pool, had a pina colada and went swimming. Dinner was very low key. Sometimes with young kids the question: “do I want to go spend some more money and be shushing them all the time” brings about a resounding NO! So we picked up some salads from Publix across the road and ate dinner in the room. Shortly thereafter DS was begging to sleep (the problem that results from no nap time) and DD followed an hour or so later.

Ok that’s a pretty boring update but there it is. It gets better I promise

 

[NatMomto2]

DAY 9 – To the WONDER!!

The day started grey & cloudy – it looked like the sun might pierce through at certain points but it was not to be.

Continental Breakfast was included at the hotel and after we went to check out the Cocoa Beach Pier. We walked to the end and made friends with all the pelicans. Back to the room, got all the bags sorted, checked out and we were on our way to the terminal with Cocoa Beach Shuttle. We dropped our bags at the curb and the next time we saw them, they were outside our room around 4pm. Through security at the terminal, up the escalator and into the main area. It’s a beautiful spacious area. It was about 10:40 at this point and we checked in very quickly and were given boarding group #6. After that we made our way to the kids club, got the kids their GPS bracelets and a pager for us, then went to sit down. Terminal was filling up at this point and then Captain Mickey came out to take photos in front of the Wonder replica that sits in the middle of the terminal. Later Chip & Dale came out too. Some Mickey & Donald Movies were playing on the tv’s in the waiting area so the kids watched that. Boarding started around 11:45 and group 6 was called about 12:10. Through the Mickey ears we went, took our photo beside the map, crossed the gangway, was asked our name, then heard “Please welcome aboard the Wonder, the Z…. family”. Cool. We followed the crowd to Parrot Cay which had a nice little line then took the elevator up to Beach Blanket. Buffet lunch was actually pretty good and although the weather was overcast and windy, we sat outside right at the stern of the boat.

We walked around a bit and I went to see if we could get Palo reservations. I hadn’t booked before because I didn’t know what our dining rotation was and I didn’t want to miss Animator’s or Triton’s. Our rotation is APPT so we have 2 Parrot Cay’s. We were able to book a 6pm dinner at Palo’s for Tuesday which is our second Parrot Cay night. I want to add here that several weeks prior to departure, the online Palo reservation system was showing as no availability…so you never know!

Next, DH & I had decided that we deserved some quiet time so I booked us massages. Not together though as we figured wouldn’t it suck if one of us had to be interrupted by the pager during the massage…

It was almost 1:30 at that point and the rooms are ready announcement came. I really wanted to get DS to take some kind of a nap before the safety drill so we headed to our room on the 7th deck. We booked inside. Now would I have liked to have a balcony, yes but did I want one for $1000 more? No. A window wasn’t that big of a selling point to me. Now I had also read that the inside staterooms were good for naps because they were nice & dark (which I can attest to as I sit here in the quasi darkness typing this out ). So let’s talk about this itty bitty room. Its not bad at all! Our Best Western room was triple the size but I like this one better. There is a curtain that closes off the master bed from the sofa/ceiling bunk bed and the tv rotates out & around said curtain so if the kids are sleeping in their beds, you can watch tv on the other side. Or now at nap time, they are both in the king bed with the curtains closed and I’m sitting on the sofa. The storage area is adequate. The bathroom is definitely small, we don’t have the split one – I assume you have a bit more space w/that one.

DH stayed with DS for most of nap time and DD & I went to explore the ship. DS really really really needed a nap. He was in a foul mood today and I’m not sure why. He was pushing all of our buttons(DH in particular) and was extremely contradictory. I hoped a nap would help. DD & I checked out the Oceaneer Club for a while then booked a hair braiding appointment, then we went back to the room and relaxed. At 3:30 a voice came over the intercom to tell us about the drill at 4pm. That woke up DS. Hmmm. Another 15 mins would have been nice. Ah well, we put our lifejackets on and marched up to our station at 4pm. We could see the folks on the Freedom of the Seas doing the same as us!

DS was not pleased with the whole the life jacket situation and removed his. After several failed attempts to put it back on, I kept it off and it didn’t appear to be an issue with the crew. Did I mention that it was pouring rain now? Yup it was. Buckets. I figured we’d put our ponchos on and head up to deck 9 for the sailaway party. Back to the drill… A few minutes later we were sent back to our rooms and Christian our cruise director comes back on the intercom to say “due to the inclement weather, we will be having our sailaway party on decks 3, 4 and 5”…so basically the Lobby and the areas that overlook it. We left our stateroom and the minute we hit the stairs/elevator areas we see staff ready w/sailaway party punch and drinks. Disney thinks of everything! There they are ready to swipe your little card at any moment. Very clever indeed. We passed on the punch but at this point I started worrying about what my stateroom bill was going to look like. We went down to deck 5 to watch the festivities and I’m sure much was lost due to it being inside. Just didn’t feel quite the same.

We went back to the room to get showered and changed for dinner and then we headed off to Animator’s. Very cool restaurant. Its all black & white with drawings on the wall that change colour (and become animated – hence the name!). We met our servers Wayan and Sanya. Wayan seems a bit overbearing, like he’s trying too hard to please and it comes off as annoying. Sanya is our “assistant server” but seems to be doing most of the work and she is great! Kids ordered soup and cheese pizza and we had tuna tartare (yummy!) and I had the Asian Beef tenderloin (very good) and DH had the salmon (way overcooked). For dessert the kids had mickey ice cream bars (of course) and we decided to have a lemon mousse. Sanya had recommended the apple crumble but neither one of us was ‘feeling it”. When she brought dessert, she also brought the crumble and she was RIGHT! Our mousses were left relatively untouched and we devoured the crumble. From now on we will listen to her . The “show” was neat and the restaurant went from black and white to all colored. Kids behaved well during dinner and I had high hopes we would make it to the golden mickey’s. Alas it was not meant to be as DS was continuing to be a beast and then DD started crying b/c she had managed to tie a knot around her finger in her dress and her finger was turning purple. We got it sorted but up they went to bed. I went back out and watched the Golden Mickey's which was really fun.

I wouldn’t characterize our first day as a success. DH has very little patience when DS acts up. Combined with the bad weather and the fact that we didn’t really have our bearings yet, well it wasn’t great. It felt like we were going up and down stairs all afternoon and moving from "aft" to "forward". One day in and we were wondering if we were cut out for the cruise vacation... Hopefully tomorrow’s Nassau day is better.....