"Look at those Chompers!!" A January 2010 AKL DxDP TR...FINAL Update: 6/12 Day 8!

[gellybean]

Hey everyone!


We just got back last week from 7 days in the world and had a fabulous time. I'm still doing laundry and trying to get back into a routine, but can't wait any longer to get this TR started!


The PTR link is in my siggie and if any of you are following me over from there, thank you for reading and following me over here!! If you're new to this journey, and feel free to read the PTR to find out the more detailed version of how this trip came to be!


Brief introduction to the cast:


Me aka gellybean aka Elastigirl (30) - I'm the one that started the Disney obsession in my family, after many trips as a child. I'm also the obsessive planner, logistisizer and directionally gifted one. I'm a SAHM. One of these days I plan to go back to work as an educator. But I'm not in a huge hurry!

DH aka Mr. Incredible (32) - Just turned 32 on this trip. He works in the restaurant business and works a ton of hours. For that reason, this was as much a relaxing vacation as a touring vacation. I think he got biten by the Disney bug on our 09 trip more than I realized. He surprised me several times this trip, with little things he did or knew or enjoyed about Disney.

DS1 aka Dash (7) - Turned 7 the day after we returned. Still loves Disney. Was really into the rides still but enjoyed some of the educational stuff more this trip than before. Had to do some homework while on this trip but says it was worth it!

DS2 aka Jack-Jack (2) - Turned 2 the day after we returned. He did really really well on this trip. He wasn't scared of the characters, really enjoyed the buses and slept in his stroller A LOT!


Details of the trip:

7 day base ticket, AKL standard view, Deluxe Dining plan, ME express to and from MCO for Southwest flights

This trip was planned after the 4/3 deal came out. We took the boys last year for their birthdays and had a lot of fun. We decided to try it again, knowing full well the buy 4 get 3 free deal won't be around forever.


My mother in law was planning to join us for 3 nights in the middle of the trip and my sister in law and brother in law were driving down to meet us for a few days as well!

As far as the title of this TR goes... you'll have to read and find out where this came from.

So there ya go.... I think we're ready to get this party started !!


Handy Dandy Chapter Links:
Introduction-post #1 - just read it
Day 1, Part 1: And we're off!
Day 1, Part 1: And we're off! CONTINUED
Day 1, Part 2: Animal Kingdom Lodge-Oh How I Love Thee!!
Day 1, Part 2: Animal Kingdom Lodge-Oh How I Love Thee!! CONTINUED
Day 1, Part 3: Star light, star bright....
Day 1, Part 3: Star light, star bright.... CONTINUED
Day 2, Part 1: Crowds.... what crowds?!
Day 2, Part 1: Crowds.... what crowds?! CONTINUED
Day 2, Part 2: I don't do pink food!!
Day 2, Part 3: Say what?
Day 3, Part 1: Case of the Missing Tooth and One Smug Momma
Day 3, Part 2: The Good, The Bad, and The Inedible
Day 3, Part 2: The Good, The Bad and The Inedible CONTINUED
Day 3, Part 3: Fate, Schmate
Day 3, Part 3: Fate, Schmate CONTINUED
Day 4, Part 1: Full of firsts!
Day 4, Part 1: Full of firsts! CONTINUED
Day 4, Part 2: A Near Death Disney Experience
Day 4, Part 3: A Delicious Date Night for Two
Day 5, Part 1: Scenic Shop-a-holics
Day 5, Part 1: Scenic Shop-a-holics CONTINUED
Day 5, Part 2: Boma can mean Family too! (but not as yummily as Ohana!)
Day 5, Part 2: Boma can mean Family too! (but not as yummily as Ohana!) CONTINUED
Day 6, Part 1: Food Overload... again
Day 6, Part 1: Food Overload... again CONTINUED
Day 6, Part 2: Test Track Troubles and the Great Pasta Pig Out
Day 6, Part 2: Test Track Troubles and the Great Pasta Pig Out CONTINUED
Day 7: So here's where all the people are!!!
Day 7: So here's where all the people are!!! CONTINUED
Day 8: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow!
Day 8: Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow! CONTINUED

 

[disneylovin24]

Can't wait to read more

 

[alabamagirl]

I'm in! We're staying at AKL villas standard view jambo house in May. Can't wait to hear how you liked the resort.

 

[gellybean]

Can't wait to read more

Thanks for joining in and

I'm in! We're staying at AKL villas standard view jambo house in May. Can't wait to hear how you liked the resort.

Thanks for reading!

AKL was AWESOME! I'm not gonna make you wait for that review

You'll love it. More details to come....

 

[gellybean]

Day 1- Arrival Day



For those that have read my PTR, please forgive my brief background explanation to set the mood....


Mr. I had a last minute meeting out of town that he had to go to the Sunday before we were scheduled to leave on Tuesday. This really threw me for a loop, packing wise. So late night Monday night, when he gets home, we start packing. I say start loosely because I had been collecting things and sticking them in the suitcase on the floor in the dining room. Eventually I moved the suitcases up to the dining room table and got semi-serious about it but honestly Mr. I and I had a lot left to do after the boys went to bed Monday night. I wanna say Mr. I got home about 8:30pm and we put the boys to bed around 9pm. We packed and did last minute laundry until around midnight. I posted my 'we're packed' update on the Disboards around 12:30am and we headed to bed. Surprisingly, I slept that night. Probably because I had not slept at all the night before with Mr. I being gone and visions of not getting packed in time running through my head.

Jack-Jack sitting on the suitcase. Brook- I could never get him in it... prolly cus I already had it full of stuff!

My alarm went off at 6:25am and while I briefly entertained the idea of hitting the snooze button, I quickly remembered this was THE day! We were heading to WDW and I had no business sleeping! Mr. I actually got up and in the shower within 5 mins. If you knew the man..... Just saying. I was impressed that he got his tush in gear as well as he did this morning. I am thinking someone else was excited to be going to Disney that day as well.

Proof we were up on time.

I let the boys sleep as long as we could-I think I woke them up around 7am. Mr. I got dressed first and left to take our beagle to the vet/boarders. I finalized all our packing needs after getting showered and dressed myself. I woke the boys around 7am. Mr. I returned by 7:15am with breakfast in hand. I had already called my sister to tell her it was ok to shoot for a 7:30am arrival instead of 7:15am. She arrived at 7:40am and helped dressed Jack-Jack while I ran around the house and made sure everything was set the way we wanted, lights were left on or off as needed, everything was packed that had been left out til the last minute... makeup, pillows, noise machine, cell phone charger. I triple checked for my camera and camera charger. I racked my brain for anything that I could possibly be forgetting and could think of nothing...... foreshadowing, perhaps?

Weighing our luggage to hopefully avoid over the weight limit fees.

Boys eating breakfast. Dash is dressed, Jack-Jack still in his pjs.

We left at 8:09am... not bad for us, really. And were at the airport by 8:29am! Love the new toll roads! We didn't hit any morning traffic and it was a straight shot to the airport. We said goodbye to my sister and at the last minute I saw that the back passenger side window was down. For whatever reason, I ran over to the car before she could drive off (she was keeping our car for the week while her's was in the shop) and opened the door and rolled the window up. It's not like she wouldn't have noticed on her own or not like I couldn't have just told her through the door to roll it up. My behavior was odd, even for me. And what do you think I saw laying on the floorboard of the backseat. Dash's backpack! We're talking snacks, extra diapers, wet wipes, toys and coloring books for the plane, Dash's homework which included his books to read and his journal for the trip, a sippy cup and harness for Jack-Jack. Thank GOD I went to roll up that stupid window. I must have been feelin' the Disney love at the moment cus I don't think I fussed at Dash at all for forgetting it.

We made our way into the SW check-in area, I, with one suitcase and pushing Jack-Jack in his stroller, Mr. I with two suitcases and Dash with one, plus two back-packs and my park bag disbursed amongst us.

We checked in seemlessly. The scales were broken so all that careful weighing of the suitcases.... not necessary. I presented Jack-Jack's birth certificate and we were done. Really easy check in. We got in line for security and let a young lady go ahead of us since we had a ton of stuff to get through the x-ray machines plus two kids, four pairs of shoes etc. Right as we got our 10 bins up to the machine ( I am SO not kidding about this, I counted) the x-ray machine broke. I think it took one look at our bins and went on strike. I was already through security, Dash and Jack-Jack were with me and Mr. I was stuck on the other side with all our stuff. They had to switch him and our 10 bins to the other x-ray machine and Mr. I got to cut in line.



All that drama behind us, we made our way to the nearest java hut and Mr. I got a quad espresso and I got a soda. He bought the boys a cookie...yes vacation eating had begun and we sat at the little food court and let it soak in that our vacation was beginning. I made a few trip notes.

Dash super excited... he's used to being up this early for school.

Jack-Jack, on the other hand, not used to it and looking half asleep!

We eventually got up to walk around and watch some airplanes from the window.

When we had first made our way through security we had noticed that our flight was delayed by 20 mins. I can handle 20 mins but was fearful it was gonna be one of those 20 mins turning into 2 hour delays. Thankfully by the time we made it down to our gate the flight had been switched back to on time.

We took turns walking Jack-Jack up and down the terminal hallway. We had just put his monkey harness on him for the first time and he was digging the freedom of running without holding our hand or being chased and captured.
We met a nice family waiting in the family boarding area that were heading to Disney as well. They had two girls, to our two boys and their youngest girl had a Mickey Mouse harness on. We talked deals--they had booked the Southwest friends fly, stay and play free. Every other flight, every other day and every other hotel night were free. Really great deal! BUT they were staying off property. Not something I was ready to take on.

Dash waiting in the pre-board area while Momma talked Disney with other families.

The flight boarded fairly well. We ended up over the wing, together. And as soon, AS SOON as we sat down, I smell *IT*!!! AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok... a brief digression. For those that haven't read my TR from 09, I say AGAIN because Jack-Jack did the exact same thing to us last year!

He apparently thinks airplane rides are his queue to poo his pants!




Thankfully this year I knew what to do... I didn't even attempt to get back to the front bathroom - where the changing table is. I just took him and a diaper and wet wipe pack to the back bathroom and made him lay down on the toliet and changed him. Except he and I have both grown since last year!

It made for an interesting experience, to say the least. I believe I told Jack-Jack as he lay there that he better potty train before our next trip to Disney because Momma wasn't playing this airplane bathroom, diaper changing, sweat inducing, experience anymore!

The boys sitting nicely before the plane took off. This didn't last long!


Continued in Next Post!

 

[gellybean]

Continued from Previous Post...


Our flight was smooth and landed a little ahead of schedule. Jack-Jack got tired but Dash and I did everything we could to keep him entertained, breaking out the toys in waves, using food and my Ipod to supplement when he got tired of playing with toys or coloring. We made it without any meltdowns and minimal disturbance of the passengers sitting in front of or behind us.

We deplanned and retrieved our stroller. Walked out of the little shoot thing and stopped at the potty. Mr. I called his mom and I called my mom. I believe I texted Sare (faerieprincess) and let her know we were there and that I was keeping an eye out for any rogue luggage that might be lying in wait to trip me! (again, if you haven't read my 09 TR... I tripped over luggage in the ME waiting area last year and busted it, resulting in some bum knees and hurt foot-age for the rest of the trip)

We made our way to the faux-monorail with no issue and were quickly switching to terminal B and heading down to level 1!

Jack-Jack riding on the first ride of the trip. He looks super excited.


We were met with this sight as we finally made it down to the ME area:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I cautiously got excited. I had NEVER seen ME this empty. Last year the line was a mile long and people were EVERYWHERE! I tried not to get my hopes up as to what this meant for crowd levels.

We were scanned through to the line for AKL and were the only people in line.

5 mins later we boarded our ME bus. We were one of 3, count them 3 families that boarded. And wouldn't ya know, we were each staying at a different resort.

Oh, well! We were on the ME! I struck up a conversation with a couple from Singapore. Discussed number of trips and the weather. They tried to get Jack-Jack to hold still for a picture, but to no avail.

Check out all those seats!!!!!!

Love this picture!

Finally we glimpse THE sign-We're on property!!!!!!

Little fuzzy but I got it!

A quick stop at CBR and Pop and we are finally on our way to AKL. I was so excited to get that first glimpse of the resort. We had only been there at night last year, so I knew it would look different and was anxious to see it. I missed my opportunity to take a picture of the sign...bummer. But snapped a pic of my first glimpse of the resort. I took a deep breath and let out a heavy, happy sigh at this point.

First glimpse of our resort....

We were off the bus and in the lobby in no time.

Dash showing me his "excited" face as we walked into the lobby for the first time!


Up next....


Would we like online check in?? Would we get our room request? Would we like our room request or did I back us into a bad room request corner?


Stay tuned!!!!!!

 

[disneylovin24]

The monkey harness is too cute

Can't wait for more

 

[Happydog]

So glad you are starting your TR! Can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[Disneyfan71]

I'm here!!! Waiting to see more. By the way I LOVE SWA!!! It's the only airline I'll fly from now on.

 

[faerieprincess]

i'm late, i'm late, for a VERY important date! But i'm here now! Having received the many (but not enough) text updates and seen the FB pictures, i can't wait to see and hear the rest of the story! i'm so glad your trip there was uneventful (other than the one smelly event!) and that you managed to stay safe in the airport!!!!

 

[meloneyb21]

Subscribing!

 

[gellybean]

The monkey harness is too cute

Can't wait for more

Thanks!! That monkey harness was a lifesaver! Best thing I did for preparation for the trip, hands down!


and thanks for reading!

So glad you are starting your TR! Can't wait to hear all about it.

Glad you found me!!

i'm late, i'm late, for a VERY important date! But i'm here now! Having received the many (but not enough) text updates and seen the FB pictures, i can't wait to see and hear the rest of the story! i'm so glad your trip there was uneventful (other than the one smelly event!) and that you managed to stay safe in the airport!!!!

Glad to have you along for the details, twinnie!! Sorry I didn't text you more while we were there.... I'm a bad twinnie!

Subscribing!

Thanks for subscribing!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Looks like a great start - empty ME area & an empty bus, hope that's a good sign for things to come!

 

[Disneymoon09]

Awesome start! I think I posted on your PTR, but honestly cannot remember! BUT I am totally in for this TR

 

[DisneyLifer87]

Great start! I'm subbing

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm here!!!

Your boys grew up since we last saw a pic! Slow down!!!!!

Loving the no lines...I hope it stays that way!

Jack-Jack sitting on the suitcase. Brook- I could never get him in it... prolly cus I already had it full of stuff!

Still completely adorable!!!!!!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

You have adorable boys! What a great start to your report. I'm so glad you thought to roll up that window and saw that backpack. *whew* I hope you get a good room at AKL!

 

[stayhomemom77]

So excited to hear more! Dash looks so much older than seven, I think. Can't wait for more.

 

[gellybean]

Looks like a great start - empty ME area & an empty bus, hope that's a good sign for things to come!

Empty ME was fabulous!!! Gave me hope, for sure! You'll have to wait and see if it was a false sense of security!

Hehe


Thanks for reading!!

Awesome start! I think I posted on your PTR, but honestly cannot remember! BUT I am totally in for this TR

Thanks!! No worries if you posted on the PTR or not

Great start! I'm subbing

Thanks and

I'm here!!!

Your boys grew up since we last saw a pic! Slow down!!!!!

Loving the no lines...I hope it stays that way!



Still completely adorable!!!!!!

Glad you're here! I know what you mean!! They grew up, all of the sudden. I swear there's this age curtain that lifts on each birthday to reveal the big grown up look. Even Jack-Jack is looking 2 all the sudden. I think maybe it's my perception. But they do grow up toooooooooo fast!

Lovin the no lines!! Hope it stayed that way too.



I so wanted a pic of him in that suitcase but not enough to unpack everything!

You have adorable boys! What a great start to your report. I'm so glad you thought to roll up that window and saw that backpack. *whew* I hope you get a good room at AKL!

Thank you!! Yes, I was so relieved we did not leave that backpack. Felt like our first dose of magic, ya know?

I hope we got a good room at AKL too.

So excited to hear more! Dash looks so much older than seven, I think. Can't wait for more.

He does look older, doesn't he? People think he's 9 all the time. He's tall for his age. That helps!

Thanks for reading and following over from your PTR! for having a stalker.






******************

Gonna try to get an update out tonight! Wouldn't ya know, true to form that Jack-Jack gets sick as soon as we return. Poor little guy. He seems miserable. I think it's allergies or maybe a cold. We'll see. If he's not better by Weds we'll have to go into the ped. BUT don't think I'm not all to aware that he could've been sick on vacation... so we'll deal with the post vakay sickness. He is just super cuddly clingy and wants me, so typing isn't as easy as normal. Will get it done after he goes to bed if another opportunity doesn't present itself before then!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Awwww, I'm sorry Jack-Jack isn't feeling well! Hope he gets better soon!