Lurker comes out of hiding...And write a Trip Report!

[amyjoq]

It's true. I'm out of hiding. Been a member since January and have only posted 10 times but the amount of times I've read an entry or a trip report...countless. I absolutely LOVE reading trip reports and finally decided to write my own. Be forwarn, I ramble....a lot. And no doubt there are things that happen to me and only to me for no reason what so ever - which will probably be the highlight of your reading I'm sure, my siblings seem to enjoy it!

Let's get the introductions out of the way then we'll get onto how this miracle trip came about.

DH - Jason - A Blaster, he moves mountains. And an outdoorsman to the core, hunting, fishing, you name it, he does it. And for some crazy reason he married me, I think it's because I snort when I laugh - from what I'm told that's pretty darn sexy. Ask Mike Rowe.

Me - Amy - Clumbsy to the core. Bad speller, rambler, has wanted to go to DisneyWorld for as long as I can remember. Begged and Begged her DH to go and for 12 YEARS.... nothing. At the time of our trip I was a working mom - 50 hrs a week. A Controller. Driving an hour each way. Stress beginning to affect my health - and my sanity.

DD - Haley - 5 year old who just wanted to ride Dumbo and wear her pretty dress. Very fun little girl who smiles all the time and is just too funny for her own good. Loves to Dance around and sing silly songs. And Princesses - loves her princesses.

That's us. Now onto the Dream....

I had a Dream. A Dream to visit DisneyWorld. All my life. My kid sister got to go when we were little....with a friend. I was a tad been green with envy but not so much.

Then Haley and I watched an episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 and our lives were forever changed. It's the episode where they visit ...you guessed it...Walt Disney World. And Haley was running in and out of the room playing and then all of a sudden she just stopped in her tracked. The little kids were riding Dumbo. And she said 'I want to do that.' Oh my dear, me too! Let's tell Daddy!

So this is about October/November 2007. Hunting Season in Missouri and most of the country. Bow season to be precise. So DH was not at home and wouldn't be home till later. Occationally Haley will choose to sleep with us so that night as the three of us lay side by side Haley out of the blue says:
'Daddy, I want to ride the flying Dumbo'
I know - the cutest right!
His response was 'What's that?' WHAT!!! The things I have to teach this poor man. Once he was away it was a ride at Disney World his response to her was: 'Be good at school and we'll ride Dumbo'.

I have been begging this man to go to Florida for 12 years. 12 YEARS! And all I had to do was have our beautiful DD ask! Oh Geez! Haley had been having some behavior problems at preschool so the incentive now was DisneyWorld. And my thought was - he best come through with his promise.

November comes and goes, and before we know it it's Christmas night and we are once again joined by our DD in our bed. I had not gotten one thing under the tree from my DH and decided now was the time to say - 'What's up with that!' Well, he asked me what I wanted. ALL I wanted to hear -
'YES - We can go to DISNEYWORLD!' And that's what he said. I all but ran to the computer to start planning. But sleep came first.

Now, the monster was born. The planning monster that is. I immediately jumped up and down with excitement. Told all my co-workers the following Monday. One in particular - Marco, my one time enemy, a Jeff Gordon fan who taunted me daily about being a Junior fan - actually came in my office, sat down and said 'Here's what you need to do.' So I listened and all but ran to the book store on my break. His biggest advise was to get a guide book. Being a girl who's only ever visited Six Flags - and one time worked there - thought he was crazy. Till I got to the book store and saw the selection.

OH

So I picked up the Unofficial Guide for Families with Kids. Perfect! I read it that night. Found the DISBoard the next day while I was 'working'. And that was all it took. I quickly collected all of this:

I did realize that I did not actually NEED all this stuff. The book in the lower corner with Mickey and 'Disney' on the cover is an alterable notebook I picked up on a scrapbook website and created as my planner and daily journal. It is broken into sections by a divider page that holds whatever - I put double sided paper (Disney themed of coarse) in these divided with a Mickey head sticker used for the tabs. Each section was a new day of our trip. The very first section was my planning section. I researched which park to visit which day, tracked our reservations, etc, etc, etc.

Then over time I made this:

using a file a fellow DISer created. I made the spreadsheet into my own, adding a column which showed us which mode of transportation to take to each location from that particular park and how long it would take - should we do the unthinkable and vear from the plan. I then typed up our walking plan included our reservation numbers at the top of page. I attached each together using a binding ring and slid it in my planner.

We changed our week just once. Our original plan was to stay the week of March 24th through 28th. Our DD 5th Birthday was on that Wednesday and how great would it be for her to see Cinderella on her Birthday! Sometime in early January while reading this board I realized that was Easter week - the BUSIEST time for Disney. There was no way I was taking Jason to Disneyworld the busiest week of the year. So we moved it to arriving on the 21st and departing on the 25th of April.

We stayed at All Star Movies and used the Dining Plan. We had a fabulous time and I can't wait to share our trip with you! Thanks for reading!

Up next: Our first plane ride and Arriving at Walt Disney World!!!!
And much better photo posting!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

It all sounds good Amy. I'm joining in for the ride. Just one request. I need warnings for the first castle sightings. That's my weakness. My keyboard can't take any more moisture.

 

[amyjoq]

We left on a Monday - Needless to say I did not sleep much the night before and was completely wide awake before the alarm went off. My sister had come over on Sunday afternoon to help me finish packing. We laid all the outfits out on the bed we would need, then grabbed suitcases and thought we packed with half a brain. My half obviously - more on that shortly.

We live about an hour outside St Louis but getting to Lambert Airport from our house can be more like an hour and a half depending on traffic. It had been 5 years since I had flown, and Jason had never flown - in fact he had never been out of the county before he met me and now he's been to more states than I have - mostly with my Dad for car shows or races or what not.
I was surprised when he wanted to fly. I didn't think he would want to but when you compare a 2 1/2 trip to a 16 hour trip it just makes sense.

We got to our parking lot with a few hours to spare really. Our flight was at 11:55am and we pulled off the highway at 9:30am. I was a bit off on my time calculations - happens a lot to me but better to be safe than sorry - helps me sleep at night anyway. Haley decided she needed to help with the luggage so she pulled her little pink camoflauge suitcase beside her dad pulling our great big suitcase - only Haley was pushing hers in front of her. She didn't get it to pull the handle, not push. It was so cute but my camera was buried at the time and I had started getting my not sure whats to come jitters so no pic.

There were only a few people sharing the bus with us, they were looking us up and down. We had our Disney tags on our luggage and when the bus stopped to let one guy off he just laughed getting off stating he was going to colder weather for a conference and we were going to Disney World.

Newby lesson #1 learned at checkin. We didn't pay attention to weight and our large suitcase was 2 lbs over - Jason quickly transferred his size 11 1/2 shoes from our bag to Haleys and all was good. You would have thought he did this all the time. Lambert takes your luggage for you once you check in - I SO LOVE this!
Once we got to the gates to take off our shoes Haley was being so good doing everything we asked her too...except with her little pink puppy she chose as her sleepy friend for the trip. The security guard finally convinced her they had to take a picture of it so she handed it to him rather than to us but all was well. I went first through the metal detector, then Haley, then Jason so no problems with a scared little 5 year old. We found our gate rather quickly and had an hour to wait. Haley and I went to the bathroom, we watched the planes arriving. Watched our plane come in, unload, and was so excited when we were called to load. We were in group A and got to go on first - so great! Again, first time fliers - we had never flown with Southwest and didn't know we could pick our seats - I was so happy - we got to sit together a row in front of the wing. I loved it. Perfect weather. Smooth flight. Haley was so good, colored her Disney book, ate her snack, asked for her own juice. Such a nice start to our vacation.

We arrived in Orlando at 2:15pm Orlando time. We did ME and when we walked off the plane and down the hall to the big opening and saw a train and a gift shop, we were a bit confused. We were the family standing side by side staring ahead then looking at each other like what do we do now. I asked the gift shop clerk and she told us to get on the train. Really? Okay. Fast little ride that tram is! Haley thought it was so cool! We followed the crowd off the train and right on up and into the metal detectors of out going flights - obviously the whole big group of us was confused by the partision - one turn around and we found our escalators. At the bottom I just stood there looking for the direction to ME. After a few minutes that felt like hours Jason was like 'Hello Genious - Huge sign attached to directory stating Disney - this way'. OH. My bad. Off we went to no line at ME, we were first in line for the All Star Resorts and only had to wait a few minutes for the bus.

We were on the bus for about 5 minutes, Haley got really bored with the movie pretty quickly - I thought it was great. That ride in felt like an eternity and this would be the first time of many that Jason says 'I am so glad we didn't drive.' He has very little patience with traffic and my inability to follow directions in strange places - not a good combo - so I was pretty glad as well.

This was our first sign of Disney Magic - I was so excited to see the luggage carts looked like luggage.

We were able to stay at Movies - I was soo happy, Haley loved all the oversized friends from her favorite movies. There were only a few people ahead of us so Jason and Haley took in a few cartoons while I waited in line.

You can just tell from behind DH is so thrilled with the cartoon.

Our CM who checked us in was so great. Gave us all the first time buttons, gave Haley a coloring book and a rediculous amount of Mickey stickers. Then we got them - the coveted Keys to the World. I just had to breath in deep, sigh a little, and just grin. It was like angels started singing..AHHHHHH.

We had reserved a preferred room but there were none available at that time so we were put back in the Love Bug section. Ended up being a God send. We were on the main level, it was quiet, and not that much further of a walk. We were three doors down facing the courtyard by the wrench.

Once we checked out the room, unloaded some carry on stuff, re-organized the bag I carried everywhere we went, we were off. Knowing that we had a full travel day, we just planned to head to Downtown Disney. This was our first experience with the buses, our first experience with the overwhelmingness (is that word?) of just being at Disney. AWESOME!!!!

First we hit the food court and our Newby Lesson #2 - using the Dining Plan. Jason got a Meatball Sub w/ chips; a Cheese Pizza for Haley, and a Pepperoni Pizza for me. We picked up one refillable mug and had to go back in for stuff we missed once we were at the check out. The CM was pretty nice about it though - guess it was pretty obvious this was our first time. He marked our ticket so we could come back for dessert, we did but only finished half of it. Then off to Downtown Disney.

Haley and I - I'm the tall one in Pink looking ready to fall over.

I so enjoyed walking along and snapping pics of things I had seen on the DISboard. So need to see them in person. Haley was particularly taken with the Lego Family.

We had to steer Haley carefully around the BBB. She had an appointment the next morning in the Castle and we just KNEW if she caught the smallest sight of that store we were done. She was so cute in one of the stores. I tried to explain to her that she could pick out a My Little Pony and any accessories she could fill in the little box and we could take them home. She just wanted to play with the display ponies. She did pick a little white kitten from Aristocats that she had seen in the hotel gift shop we had convinced her to wait, she might find something else. She did find something else, the little white kitten in a different store.

We are not big shoppers. I could look around in every shop for hours but Jason and Haley have zero patience for that. It was our first day so I wasn't boring him with shopping. I did pick up a package of post cards for Haley to send back home.

Back at the hotel by 8pm and opening the door I waited for that magic moment when our luggage would just magically be sitting there....nothing. I called, they said it would be right down. Jason and Haley wanted to swim. Newby Lesson #3 - Pack swim wear in carry on. Jason fel asleep waiting, Haley signed her name to post cards as I filled them out. An hour passed, I called again - so very sorry, it's out for delivery now. Our luggage did not arrive till 10pm. Haley and Jason quickly changed and swam till about 11.

We were so tired. I unpacked as quickly as possible, laying out Haley's dress for her BBB day the next morning, we were all out by 11:30pm.

What a day! Next up - BBB and our MK day!

 

[amyjoq]

Sorry! Double Posting.....

 

[snowwhite325]

Great TR When is your DD's birthday? Mine is March 25th

 

[amyjoq]

Great TR When is your DD's birthday? Mine is March 25th

Thanks!!

March 26th! So close, how fun!

 

[addictedtothemouse]

My DM and I were there the same week. Wasn't the weather perfect?

At the bottom I just stood there looking for the direction to ME. After a few minutes that felt like hours Jason was like 'Hello Genious - Huge sign attached to directory stating Disney - this way'. OH. My bad.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Hi! I'm REALLY enjoying the trip report so far. Your family looks like they're all enjoying themselves so far. And what a great way to finally be able to go to Disney--having a 5 yo ask.
I was a first timer this last July as well and, even after reading all these TR's, nothing can compare to seeing everything firsthand. I begged my parents to go to Disney World every single day after I learned that it existed--it took them 15 years, but we finally went. I was also a lurker until recently as well. Can't wait to hear all about your day at the Magic Kingdom!!!

Oh, they looked WHIPPED!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

They really do need better signage in the Orlando Airport. You aren't the only ones who get confused.

I always pack a bathing suit, something to sleep in and an extra set of clothes in our carry-ons. Course I also "cross-pack" each suitcase. That's my term for making sure there is at least one outfit for each person in each suitcase. Yes, in my past I have had luggage lost and arrive days after I have before. Not necessarily with Disney but it has taken 10 hours for a bag from Disney to arrive in my room. I don't find the magical express luggage system all that magical myself.

Can't wait to hear about the BBB appointment. Bring on the glitter and pixie dust

 

[luckylady]

We always drive as it's a nine hour drive and DH is not to fond of flying( I hate the drive) What a great start to your TR.

 

[amyjoq]

My DM and I were there the same week. Wasn't the weather perfect?

So Perfect! Could not have been better. Part of our planning process was checking out the yearly rainfall on the weather channell website - such a great tool!

Hi! I'm REALLY enjoying the trip report so far. Your family looks like they're all enjoying themselves so far. And what a great way to finally be able to go to Disney--having a 5 yo ask.
I was a first timer this last July as well and, even after reading all these TR's, nothing can compare to seeing everything firsthand. I begged my parents to go to Disney World every single day after I learned that it existed--it took them 15 years, but we finally went. I was also a lurker until recently as well. Can't wait to hear all about your day at the Magic Kingdom!!!





Oh, they looked WHIPPED!

They were whipped! No complaining getting out of the pool this day!

They really do need better signage in the Orlando Airport. You aren't the only ones who get confused.

I always pack a bathing suit, something to sleep in and an extra set of clothes in our carry-ons. Course I also "cross-pack" each suitcase. That's my term for making sure there is at least one outfit for each person in each suitcase. Yes, in my past I have had luggage lost and arrive days after I have before. Not necessarily with Disney but it has taken 10 hours for a bag from Disney to arrive in my room. I don't find the magical express luggage system all that magical myself.

Can't wait to hear about the BBB appointment. Bring on the glitter and pixie dust

Great idea about the luggage - totally doing that next time!

We always drive as it's a nine hour drive and DH is not to fond of flying( I hate the drive) What a great start to your TR.

Thanks so much!!!

 

[amyjoq]

The alarm went off rather early for us but the excitement of our first sighting of the castle and our ADR at BBB had us getting dressed rather quickly.

Our plan was to leave the resort at 7:30am cause I wanted to get empty park pictures of the castle. We had an 8:50am ADR at the BBB in the Castle - then we would hit all the rides in Fantasyland. Well, almost all this happened.

Being first time DDP users, we didn't have an ADR for breakfast due to the BBB appointment so we went to the food court, refilled our mug, and got a yummy pastry to share. Jason wasn't all that hungry and neither was I but I knew our little princess needed something to start her day.

We were the ONLY people at the bus stop.

Being at the Movies resort we were last to be picked up but the bus wasn't all that crowded this morning so we still got the good butt warming seats in the back.

Going throught the turnstiles was relatively easy. Haley wanted to be carried through but once they asked her to give them her finger to fingerprint to get in she felt very big and did it like a pro. (This was the only time the whole trip they asked for our fingerprints)

**Warning - First sighting of the Castle - Warning**

Main Street fairly crowd free.
[

Let me just say that it was EVERYTHING and more. That's Jason and Haley on the left, J turned around to say 'You have ALL day'. Not like this I don't. Wiped away a tear and continued to take in everything down main street - Camera completely forgotten.

Here is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE picture of the whole trip - I got Haley and Jason walking behind Walt and Mickey.

We were actually quite a bit early for our ADR. We walked up at 8:20am. Our ADR was not till 8:50 but I checked in anyway. We no sooner sat down to wait when Haley was called. We had purchased her dress at a local Disney store for her birthday and brought it along, she also had the matching slippers. So cute.
This is when it happened - what I expected to see out of our daughter all day and the look on her face - totally different.
Here we are getting started - she had to bring the white kitty along and the FGMIT was so great - put the kitty right on the chair along with Haley - so great.

That look on her face - priceless. We had such a great time watching her. That look NEVER changed! Not once. We figured it out later in the day that she really did love getting all done up but didn't like the attention she was getting.

This is where I put my camera down and let the photographer take over. Mostly because they asked us to stand beside her for the big reveal and I didn't want them taking a picture of me taking a picture if you know what I mean.

What a magical moment! They turned her around and her hands went to her face RIGHT AWAY

and then a split second later she was reaching for her daddy.

This is where Newby Lesson #4 comes in....we didn't get a stroller this day thinking she was big enough to walk. This starts Jasons week long problems with his back and taking motrin at every given opportunity. Good thing I packed a whole bottle!

Continued in next post.... /COLOR]

 

[amyjoq]

After settling up the bill we stepped out the door at a few minutes before 9am and into a crowd of people waiting at the rope - Which put us right up front!

When the rope dropped the attention Haley got from the CMs - lot's of 'Have a wonderful day Princess!' and 'You look so pretty Princess' and 'We have royalty!' She was not fond of this at all. She clung to Jason and in the process started his own collection of pixie dust. I just giggled, glad she clinging to his arms. Again - didn't dawn on us to rent a stroller.

We started out at dumbo - the sole reason for our trip. We had a very short wait - we were on the first ride of the day! Only got this picture of the mouse on top.

Then the carousel with her daddy. I chose to stay off and take pictures of the area.

We then headed over to Peter Pans flight (pics of this later). This was so AWESOME! None of the reading prepared me for this! I had not idea the boats were flying! It was great. And the anticipation and worry in my chest when I saw we had to walked along and practically 'jump' in the boats was almost unbearable till you actually do it and realize it's not that bad!

Then over to It's a Small World. Jason was REALLY hoping to pass this one on by but the outside was pink and Haley headed right for it!

Jason was so happy to get off this ride!
We had like zero wait on all these rides. It was only 9:45! We walked around a bit and then headed toward the Jungle Cruise. (Yeah, we missed a bunch of stuff here but already have them on the list of DO NOT MISS on our next trip)

Up next...Jungle Cruise and one very sleepy little princess.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

What an adorable reaction from Haley at the BBB. Priceless! I'm sure at that age, I would have acted the exact same way. Sounds like a fun morning in Fantasyland, too. Can't wait for more.

P.S. I especially love that picture of your DD and DH behind Walt and Mickey.

 

[Poohtigeey]

HI! I'm jumping on board your trip report! Great job so far. Haley's a cutie. What a great picture of them walking to the castle. Can't wait to read more, and don't worry about your newbie mistakes. We've all been there. We used the DDP for the first time last December and it takes awhile to catch on. My hubbie used up 7 snack credits on cinammon rolls!! Also, I'm flying in 2 1/2 weeks for the first time in 10 years. Plus I'll be alone. I'm super nervous, but it helped reading your experience. Thanks for the Orlando airport tips.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

I'm scourring your pics to see of I see me or mom.
I love having an ADR for early in the morning to be able to see the park mostly empty.

 

[amyjoq]

Leaving It's a Small World we headed back in front of the Castle for a quick pic:

Haley still not liking the attention. Then onto Adventureland where I thought we were totally lost till Jason says - we're right here. Oh. Seriously - the park was so empty where we were, we must have hit all the right paths.
We jumped on Jungle Cruise - only a 10 min wait. I took this while waiting in line - I loved the Mickey in her hair.

We were one of the last one's on our boat but because we were 'royalty', or had 'royalty' with us - Miss Haley got to go right up front with the CM rather than back with us. I was a little nervous at first but she did great and was completely infactuated with the 'animals'.

A few of my favorite parts:

Haley still keeping her eye out for the 'animals' and listening to every word out of the CMs mouth. He was silly and we enjoyed him a lot.

We then rode Aladins Carpet Ride. Haley NEEDED her daddy's glasses, she just couldn't ride without them:

Jason is attempting to talk her out of them - afraid she will loose them on the ride - notice her ignoring him. Gotta love it.
I tried to get a pic of the water shooting out of this guys mouth, don't think I ever caught it.

We then did some suvinear shopping - Haley needed her own glasses. She chose a really cute pare that were Minnie heads for the eye pieces that opened to clear lens. Very cute. And she never put them on once...not one time. We also grabbed a lanyard since were had 6 packages of these:

We used 100 of our Disney Movie Club points for one free set of pins, and we kept getting them in the mail. I rec'd 8 packages in all, gave 6 away at Haley's birthday party in March, and took two to the parks with the intention of doing some trading. Haley was never really into it so we came home with the same 6 pins (plus one I bought for myself - Mickey and Walt in front of the Castle - LOVE IT). Oh well, maybe on the next trip.

Continued in next post...

 

[amyjoq]

Here's where the Princess in Haley comes out...and I don't think she even realized it.
We walked over to Frontierland and rode the raft to Tom Sawyers Island to let Haley explore. We passed this popular ride along the way:

Can I just say that the Disney magic was so wonderful. We were on the island and you could not even tell you in the middle of a theme park. It was wonderful. If we commented on this once, we commented on it a hundred times this week. It was nice to see Jason appreciating all this as well. His initial reaction to Disney was that he thought it was just for kids - he was so wrong and he is so ready for our next trip!

Came upon this first - I love this.

I've loved Mark Twain books since I was kid and for our 1 year anniversary we spent the weekend in his hometown of Hannibal MO - it was wonderful. And this island just brought it all to life.
We went through the spooky cave first. Jason led the way with Haley between us. I swear, the music playing and the darkness really messes with your senses. I was so ready for a pirate to jump out at me I darn near ran over Haley.

She was so cute - since there was such a small crowd on the island, Haley was just Haley, only in a princess dress. As she climbed the stairs on the paths, she had to lift her skirt in front, so cute. She kept her princess bag from BBB dangling from her wrist the whole time, and at times held her arm out, hand dangling down like she was true royalty. Must be all the goo they used to pull her hair back.
Haley sat here for a rest:

I love this pic of Haley and Jason walking toward Harpers Mill, she was faster than both of us to point out the birds inside the mill.

Another favorite. She's leaning over so daintly shooting bear, pigs, and deer. She was so cute whispering to Jason 'look dad, a bear, I'll shoot it okay.' Can you tell her dad is a hunter?

A shot of the flag and the fort.

Funny story walking back to the raft. We walked out of the fort through a back passageway that led to a bridge on the water - a bouncing bridge. Now Haley and Jason fly across this thing like it was standing still. I'm walking much more cautious and kept hearing a loud step behind me and the bridge moving. I turn around to give a look to the kid behind.....there was no one....it was me the whole time. It was the barrel bouncing back out of the water after I've stepped off of it. Why this didn't happen to Jason is beyond me - he does weigh more for crying out loud. And both were waiting for me at the end like I was an hour behind them.

Stepping off the raft and back onto the main land we had planned to take the train back to main street. The map said the train station was here, my plan said to get on the train, but we couldn't see the train station for anything. We asked a CM nearby and we were standing right in front of it. You just have LOOK UP. The stairs for the train are beside the queue for Splash Mountain. OH. Okay. Up the stairs we go.
I enjoyed the train ride. When we stopped at Toontown Haley really wanted to get off but we had plans to head to Epcot so we convinced her we would come back. We got off the train at Main Street and decided to grab something to eat.

We stopped at Casey's for a hot dog. We shared one meal and paid cash instead of using out DDP becuase that how us newbies role. Haley ate some fries, Jason and I split the hot dog. We had a late lunch ADR at Akershus at 2:35 but needed a little something in our bellies.

At this point, Jason is still carrying Haley pretty much everywhere. Jason had been working out of town since the previous August only coming home on the weekends so this was the longest we've spent time together in awhile. Pretty much whatever Haley asked him to do at this point, he did. She would walk maybe ten steps and then lift her arms to Jason and he would ablige. We do smarten up and rent a stroller later in the day.

She quickly fell asleep on the way back to the entrance giving Jason a bit more pixie dust to his growing collection.

We rode the tram over to Epcot which was really cool, Haley slept the whole way and only woke to walk into Epcot.

Up next - our lunch with the ladies and will Haley actually get her pic taken with a princess?????? We'll see...

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Love the last photo where Haley is sleeping on Daddy's shoulder.

My kids loved Tom's island too. They (like Haley) were a bit overwhelmed in the park but could relax on the island.

 

[amyjoq]

We last left off with Haley sleeping on her Daddy's shoulder, kindly sharing her pixie dust.

Once again, Jason had to take over directions. Not only have I never rode the monorail system before in my life, he was asking me questions like I ride it everyday. We had no idea you have to switch from one to the other at the parking lot. Learned real quick. Followed the crowd, did just fine. Haley continued to sleep through it all.

I was so happy this was in our plan. I really enjoyed the ride and seeing the sceenery. Seeing the Contemporary - sharing my Disney knowledge with Jason - his response - Are you sure? Yeah. I'm sure. Thanks.

Haley would have slept right through walking into Epcot as well had the CM made not made her walk in. Oh well. She walked in, got right back in Jason's arms. I snapped a few pics. So happy we were there during the Flower and Garden show! I loved looking at all the flower figures.

We found what we thought was a 'quiet' place to sit and let Haley continue her nap. She had appeared to have fallen back asleep on Jason's poor shoulders. We sat across from this beautiful fountain.

Then the music started....LOUD....we had to have been right beside one of the speakers, couldn't find it but knew it was close by. Haley perked right up and watched the water dance to the music for about oh 2 seconds and then she was well rested and restless. Ready to move. We still have 90 minutes till our ressie so we headed that way, exploring a bit as we went.

We found the Butterfly walk. Did someone say Butterflies? I LOVE Butterflies, it was a must do. I took pics of the flower figures on the way - these were my favorites by far!

And a new friend:

Upon leaving the butterfly tent we came upon Pluto's Playground. We let Haley play for a bit while we stood in the shade...by the trash can...as that was the ONLY spot open. Very popular little playground that day.
It was so cute to see our little princess playing with the common folk. She was the only royalty in the playground.

We headed over to World Showcase for our ressie at Akershus with the Princesses. (I couldn't get a ressie at the castle with such a short planning time) We passed Mexico, saw the tall building, looked at each other like 'What could that be?'. We should have checked it out a little more closely - I know NOW what it is and will definately check it out during our next trip. We did this a lot - rather than walking through and checking it out, we just snapped a pic of the outside and went along our way. Goofy we are. Oh well, at least there is another trip.

We were still pretty early for our ressie so we rode the Maelstrom - there was only a 10 min wait if that. This is the only pic I got.

Because as soon as we loaded these are the thoughts that went through my head.

This isn't so bad. (This is where the ride goes up and up and up)

Why is the boat sliding sideways? (this is whre the boat moved tracks)

OMG we are going backwards!!!!! (as the boat flys backwards down the hill)

I don't remember seeing a track outside? (as we plummet closer and closer to the opening)

OH THANK GOD we stopped - wait, we're going sideways again. (as the boat stops just shy of flying out of the building, and then slides to the next track)

Oh CRAP I'm going to get wet. (as we fly forward and down a quick little hill just enough for water to splash)

WHEW. Not wet.

We got off the mountain safe and sound. Cute ride, I'll probably ride again but won't stay for the movie unless I want to give Haley a history lesson - she'll be 8 or 9 our next trip.

Picture of the outside of the ride confirming that there is not a track outside the mountain.

We were still a few minutes early but went ahead and checked into our ressie. This is where I had slight heart failure and had to actually pull out our confirmation number. The CM had to go get the manager - simple computer glitch - they had to pull our name 'from here to here' is pretty much how the conversation went. We were told to stick close they'd call our name shortly. We found a spot in the shade in front of the building and no sooner had I sat down, they called our name. Yeah!

This is where I determined our last name - a very difficult name - must be Norwegian. The CM pronounced it PERFECTLY with no question from me when we checked in. Jason's family only knows that they came to Missouri from Kentucky. That's it. That's where the tree stops. More than one grandparent was adopted as a small child and both are gone so the history stops there. Such a mistery. Good project for another day.

I digress. Back to Epcot. This is Newbie Mistake #5 - and Jason's favorite part of the entire vacation - his picture with Belle. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a hundred times. Belle was HOT - she was I have to admit.

Belle directs us to the side where there are NO CMs - we look at each other, and decide to just sit down. That's mistake number 5. We sat, Aurora walked by and said she would be back out. I grabbed one of the 10 CMs who walked by us and asked if we did the wrong thing, yes yes we did. He could tell by our ticket we were in the wrong section. He directed us back to the lobby where we stood for another few minutes before a CM came and took us to our correct table (on the opposite side of the resterant. Ooops.

I have zero pictures of our experience at Akershus. Haley did not want ANYTHING to do with the princesses. Even Aurora - her favorite. Alice was really wonderful, talking to Haley on her own level. Telling her a story about her own friends who has a kittie very much like Haleys and what her name was and such. Very sweet. Haley ducked her head and colored, ignoring her. It was nice of Alice to try. Alice shrugged her shoulders at me and went on to the next table.
Jasmine came and went very quickly, she tried to sit next to Jason to get a picture, Haley ducked under the table, Jason enjoyed the attention. Should have took a pic anyway.
Ariel was great. She really tried to get a picture with Haley but instead told Haley to 'Have fun on your feet'. So cute. Aurora came by, commented on Haley's dress, put her arm around me while she talked to Haley. Haley had her arms folded on the table, chin on arms, looking up at Aurora but not really talking to Aurora. Like she REALLY wanted to see her but not be seen.

The nice CM came around with the picture package. $40. Of course Jason wanted it. What the heck, we're on vacation aren't we. One of the 4x6 pics hangs on our fridge. Belle was HOT. What can I say. Whatever gets him back works for me. If it's seeing Belle again, so be it!

We left after this. Took the bus back from Epcot to All Star. We were back in our room by 4pm. Haley changed out of her dress, watched a bit of Disney, Jason took a short nap - his back was starting to hurt. And he attempted to wipe some pixie dust away.....pixie dust does NOT wipe away. Poor guy.

Up next...more MK from Day 1