Magic moments, making memories and mickey ice cream

[saraheeyore]

hello and welcome to my first trip report. I did a pre trip report but it didn't really get too far as I was much too busy planning and reading things on the disboards to get anything written. I am very grateful for all the tips and info everyone writes on here as it made our trip so much more special and easier with little ones.

First of all let me tell you a bit about us. We are a family of 4 me sarah 33 years old and disney crazy trip number 6, hubby 43 jaz loves disney will be his 5th trip, DD Abbie 4 loves princesses and mickey and minnie it will be her second trip, DS Luke 20 months loves tigger, handy manny,oso and mickey will be his first trip

We did worry about our kids being a bit young to handle this trip a little as we knew it would be much harder with 2 little ones and luke was younger than Abbie had been for her first trip. We've also listened to loads of people telling us that our kids are too young and that they won't remeber it or enjoy it. I think because we had been to disney a few times before and because we knew not to expect to do everything and to be flexible this helped us a lot. We also did another thing that everyone on disboards said was a bad idea and only went with one stroller as we decided my 4 year old would manage the walking ok. Ok so you want to know how this worked out well lets get started on trip report. I also have over 1000 pics to chose from so lots of pics to see as well

 

[jessidoll]

I'M IN!!!!!

 

[saraheeyore]

May 3rd
We got up at 3am and set off for airport at 4.20am. The plan was to get up get ready,load car and then put kids in car and get them changed at airport and leave at 4am but plans change and the kids both ended up before car was loaded so we thought we might as well get them dressed and was a little later leaving than we planned. We arrived at airport just before 7am though and before desk had opened so maybe it was a good thing we left a bit later. we checked in cases and went through security. Abbie was pretty good going through but luke was not impressed with it all and pretty much stressed at everything. Worst thing was he had to put his blanket through the scanner and that just made him kick off big time as he didn't want to let go of it. I have to say this trip manchester airport was such a nightmare and orlando airport seemed so much easier. He was excited to see all the planes when we got through though and we walked them from one end of the terminal to the other a few times to wear off some energy.
Flight was a long 9 hours. I had been so prepared and had filled hubbys bag with loads of games,toys and colouring things for them to play with and my bag was filled with snacks with them to eat on plane. This was pretty pointless though as for some reason they wouldn't play with anything or eat anything or watch the seat tv's even though tangled was on it to watch. We knew the flight would be a nightmare but it would have been good if they had at least played with something and passed a bit of time. They did both sleep for a little while but most of the time was spent moaning or crying. Yes it was a long long 9 hours. I guess the early start and the excitement and not knowing what was happening just didn't help things. When we arrived at orlando airport things started to go smoother. pushchairs were all set up and put up and ready to go as soon as we got past the first bit. Got cases and although you can take them with you now we opted to put them back on and collect from the other side. Really don't think we would have got 3 cases,2 rucksacks, 2 kids and 1 pushchair down the escalator somehow.
Virgin and Mears were brilliant. we picked up harry potter tickets and got on a mini bus and was on way to Port orleans French Quarter almost straight away.
I did think we took a photo of the gate on the way in but I can't seem to find that anywhere my first pictures are from early in the morning the next day. There was only 3 families on the bus and we were the first to be dropped off. We were the only ones checking in at that time although I have no idea what time it was probably about 4pmish Florida time 9pm british time the kids were doing well really it had been a long day. Got checked in pretty quickly and got a ground floor room as requested even though cast member who checked us one said it was a second floor room and gave us wrong directions. There was a cast member just coming out of out room as we got there as he had just put the travel cot in there for us.
The room at French Quarter was gorgeous. They has just been refurbed and they were perfect. We dropped off our stuff and headed out for a walk as kids were excited. We had a look at pool and river and watched the boats going to riverside and downtown disney. We got some refilable mugs and filled them and took them back to watch boats for a bit longer even Luke drank a full mug of coke (maybe not wise) We were planning on having a counter service dinner but we weren't that hungry so got some muffins and more drink but kids just ended up eating cereal i had bought (cereal and cereal bars were great. I had bought quite a few and at least kids ate something good) Even though it was still early Florida time we were still on British time so we put kids to bed and then kinda fell asleep ourselves and woke up a couple of hours later and actually went to bed properly.
photo taken later in week but its right time to post these i think

 

[saraheeyore]

I'M IN!!!!!

thanks and welcome to my trip report

 

[saraheeyore]

First proper day in disney

Well other Brits will know what happens on your first day at disney you wake up at a very silly time. We woke at 3am we tried to sleep a bit longer but it really didn't work as different time zone and excitment of first proper day in disney made us want to go to parks already

We got up and all showered or bathed and ready for breakfast at the food court but it was still only 4.30am so that wasn't going to happen just yet.

Umm so what to do now. time to walk round hotel and take pictures we think even if it was still dark and we would look totally crazy walking round hotel at 4.30am. We were actually suprised that one other person was up and sat near the water fountain but not sure if they were still up from night before as it looked like they had a pint next to them

see how dark it is and how quiet

the pool which was empty at first but then 2 people went in it for an early morning swim.

see 2 heads on the right. apologies if this is anyone

check out the sky on this one its getting a little lighter

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0265664667009_654307008_9075814_4531411_n.jpg
baby pool

we then headed to see if food court was open but i think they head drink going but no food so we waited for a bit

Lobby. I made my daughters dress. I made quite a few outfits for the kids this trip they actually got more attention when they were wearing these than when she wore a princess dress it seemed

 

[saraheeyore]

so we were still waiting for food so went back for a little more hotel walking

we now have a light sky

Port orleans french Quarter is so pretty. There was loads of squirrels and rabbits which the kids loved at first and got really excited about seeing at first but by the end of the holiday they just said "squirrel" in a matter of fact sort of way and took no notice. We loved this hotel as it was small so we could get to were we wanted quickly and get to food court to fill mugs and back in less than 5 mins. We were not far from main building at all which shocked us as we have stayed at pop and all star movies and we were in the furthest room away from the main building each time

Well we eventually had some breakfast. we had a full breakfast platter thing and kids shared mickey waffles and sausage they didn't even eat that much of half so pleased we hadn't paid for 2.

So were do you thing we was going to head to on our first park day well you'll have to wait till next post to find out

 

[saraheeyore]

so were are we headed on our first morning. MK of course
We grabbed stuff and pushchair and headed to bus stop to get bus to MK, we arrived in plenty of time for rope drope 8.30am so we had a while to wait for rope drop.

We now had a small problem though. If you remeber we had all been up since 3am and it was now 5 and a half hours later and although although 8.30am somebody was well ready for a nap so he was grumpy and letting everyone know about it. Opening show kind of changed his mood for a bit as it got his attention especially the train. Abbie however was getting more and more excited and was pretty much ready to explode when mickey got off the train.

Our planned perfect first morning was quickly changed and instead of getting nice photos of the castle and photopass pics of us in front of the castle we just walked as Luke needed to sleep and he won't go to sleep if we are stood still. Luckily the walk down main street and through the castle sent him to sleep and Abbie enjoyed hi-four ing all the cast members mickey gloves all the way down main street. She also did a little wow when she first saw castle.

Well we had reached fantasyland with one child sound asleep and one eager to go on everything as quickly as possible. So what was going to be first choice well when you walk through the castle a certain ride is straight in front of you and we have memories of going on that ride an awful lot of times last trip was it going to be the case again. yes of course first ride was going to be cinderellas carousel (and yes i know its technically not called that now but i still call it that and probably will carry on calling it that)

and yes i totally missed my child on the photo you would think the red dress would have made it easier but nope. we have tons of missed child on carousel pics from last trip too

Hubby actually did pretty well as she only went on it once and was just eager to go on next ride which was much better than last trip were she would have stayed on there all day and we had had to ride at least twice each time.

The pair of them then went on its a small world and i sat outside the exit people watching (well the few people there was over there) while my little prince slept

it was quite busy in fantasyland but hardly anyone small world side except for people going to park strollers

nice picture of columbia harbour house with hardly anyone about

When they came off small world Abbie was on a mission to do another ride so we decided to ride Winnie the Pooh as we wanted to check out new interactive queue. Hubby stayed with luke this time and me and Abbie went on. I think we saw Pinochio on way across and Abbie was excited and needed to get him to write in her book straight away so went went across. We had bought autograph books from cart as we had walked in magic kingdom. We were going to get them from the hotel shop but they didn't have princess pens to match the books so we waited and she decided when we got to Mk she wanted the blue book. the normal one with mickey and gang on it

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0269379407009_654307008_9111657_8335984_n.jpg

We rode Winnie the Pooh which abbie loved and went to find hubby. Luke was awake but still very grumpy (he was screaming his head off) so we thought we would try small world with him. He actually loved this and for a while he had stopped screaming

The screaming continued as soon as we got off small world though so i took him across to the baby care center as i had read how nice and calm it was in there and i was hoping it would calm him down and at least i could change him in there. Hubby and abbie went to get some minnie ears while i went across there.

Well I'm sure babycare center is lovely and calm most the time but now while Luke was in there. He continued screaming and was not impressed to be in there at all. I did manage to change him although thank goddness for pull ups as laying down wasn't an option at all.

Met back up with abbie and hubby and I took Abbie to watch castle show as it was just starting. We still had a stressing boy so we was thinking we was going to have to go back to the hotel for a while. Abbie really wasn't keen on that idea. We was trying to think of something calm, cool and quiet and came up with the tomorrowland transit authority people mover so we decided to give it a go and if not we would go back as it wasn't worth it with a stressy child.

We got into tomorrowland and he saw the people mover and that was stress totally over. he was getting very excited and shouting train train train over and over. We got on it and he loved it apart from dark space mountain bit. Abbie loved it as well and we now love it as it saved the day. It was pitch black the first few days when we went on people mover but then by second week the lights were on in that bit so we are not sure if they are supposed to be on or off

We then grabbed an early lunch at cosmic rays which the kids loved as they loved the dragon/alien thing that I'm sure has a name and Luke ate loads of chips and Abbie ate nothing so pretty normal really

Considering I have so many photos we didn't seem to take that many of our first day except small world

We went to get fast passes for jungle cruise as queue was quite long i think 40 mins. It had got a lot busier now than this morning. Abbie and Jaz went on flying carpets and me and Luke went to get drinks. He played on deck bit outside shop for a while which was cute as he was grinning at people as they went passed

we then saw this guy so we stopped for pics

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0269381387009_654307008_9111676_7986701_n.jpg

We then went back and did Jungle Cruise which the kids loved. Funniest thing was how much Abbie jumped and hid on the floor when they yell as you to get down

It was almost 3pm so we did something we nomally don't do and went to try and get a spot for parade last minuite. We normally are there early for parades but we wasn't sure we would still be in the park by this time so it was a last minuite decission. We got a spot near christmas shop and sat and watched parade

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0269383407009_654307008_9111708_1767944_n.jpg

 

[saraheeyore]

Well after parade the kids were very very hot

we decided to go have a look through the shops and head over to see mickey and minnie. We only have these pictures on photo pass so i will have to add them when i get them

We then went to check in for our first ADR which was at Crystal palace. As we waited outside castle show was on again so we watched that while we were waiting

hubby was saying that he bet i couldn't get a photo of the fireworks at the end

so of course I had to take a picture of them

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...0269384457009_654307008_9111728_3459193_n.jpg

and another

I love seeing the castle from crystal palace

Crystal palace was lovely. We've eaten there a few times before. Twice last trip and once on out honeymoon and before then with my parents

Abbie was on a major high as it was her first character meal this trip and as she was 2 last trip I'm not sure she remembers them from last trip. Luke was not quite so bothered with them he pretty much stayed this way the whole trip apart from a few occasions. He looked at them and carried on eating, not scared but that interested in them either.

you can see how thrilled with it Abbie was. She was loving it

tigger did get a grin

I was going to take pictures of all our food but that never happened but we have a few. Crystal palace desserts

food was lovely and we also did the parade round the room. characters were crazy and eeyore was a bit too lively for eeyore. Eeyore was doing a wiggling dance and luke was copying it as they were doing parade.

It stormed at some point when we were in crystal palace and we had a soaking wet stroller but it was 6pm and we were going to head back to hotel anyway. Kids were asleep within moments of going to bed. Abbie had definitly had a great day and had walked it all without moaning once. Luke had taken a while to get going but he was happy eventually. We did think we would have had a break and gone back to hotel but the time we would have gone back was when we just started having a happy boy so it really didn't seem like a good idea as we had just started enjoying day

 

[saraheeyore]

will hopefully write day 2 tomorrow evening

 

[justakrazymom]

I'm in and loving this so far!

 

[saraheeyore]

hello and welcome
glad u r enjoying it

 

[loobzuk]

I'm in - love the detail so far. Your dd's dress is gorgeous! Glad that Tigger & Co raised a smile from Luke. Hopefully it was just tiredness that did for him that first day.

 

[Pinkgirl]

Hi, I'm in. Great start. We are just the same on the first morning, up before crack of sparrows and raring to go.

Love your daughters dress. More soon please.

 

[saraheeyore]

I'm in - love the detail so far. Your dd's dress is gorgeous! Glad that Tigger & Co raised a smile from Luke. Hopefully it was just tiredness that did for him that first day.

hi. glad u found it. I think the first couple of days he was just unsure of what was going on. the airport on the way out really stressed him out. you can't really explain to them whats going on at that age

 

[saraheeyore]

Hi, I'm in. Great start. We are just the same on the first morning, up before crack of sparrows and raring to go.

Love your daughters dress. More soon please.

hiya and welcome

glad u like dress was first one i did and the strap is sewn on back to front. learnt not to do that again though

 

[saraheeyore]

In my earlier post i mentioned that i thought i had a picture of the disney gate but couldn't find it. Well its been bugging me for the last few days as I remeber taking pics of the gate and of the kids. Was thinking maybe i imagined it and didn't actually take any as it was on neither sim card. Well hubby decided i didn't take any as i couldn't find camera at the time so I thought well must have imagined it. Then he decides yesterday that i did take some as i took pictures of kids on mini bus so he looked and found them on another sim so here they are

disney gate

cruise line bus. just because we were in disney and it says disney on it

port orleans french quarter picture ruined by taxi that drove by

one tired little girl
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hpho...150275784637009_654307008_9178781_95448_n.jpg

 

[saraheeyore]

this is the picture from out previous trip when Abbie was 2. she had stayed awake the whole car journey and flight and still looked like this

not quite the same as this

does that really look like a girl thats on her way to disney

would post Luke's picture as well but i look really really bad on it so you don't get that one. he was frowning

 

[saraheeyore]

May 5th Thursday
Woke up very early again 4am. Got ready and kids had some cereal in room. We had some donuts for breakfast (nice and healthy) as I had ordered a few grocery bits which we got delivered. Kids were starving that morning for some reason so after cereal they pretty much had some of everything else we had in the room including crisps,donuts etc but was ok as although we had breakfast booked this morning it was still very early and breakfast was booked for 10am
Caught the bus at 8am and arrived at Hollywood studios at about 8.15am a little earlier than planned but this turned out to be a really good thing as we were only 3 families from turnstiles and we watched the families flood in behind us. Was actually suprised how mad Hollywood studios rope drop was even though I knew toy story mania was crazy. Somehow through the chaos my liitle boy fell asleep so the lets go straight to toy story and all ride plan went out the window.
New plan hubby would get fast passes with the sleepy boy and me and Abbie would ride. It was really funny listening to people's plans of how they were going to get one person to get fast passes and the others would go straight on ride and they would catch them up (yeah like u stand any chance). As we were right near the front and most people went for fast passes first we were right near front and could see cast member leading queue in front. Abbie absolutely loved toy story mania and asked to go on it again the second she got off. yes Abbie if you want to wait the 50 mins the queue now is. Told her we were gonna go for breakfast and then we could ride again with fast passes.
So were do you go for breakfast in Hollywood Studios with under 5's. yep you've probably guessed Hollywood and vine Play and Dine. Handy Manny, Oso and Little Einsteins heaven for little ones. I actually have to say I can't stand special agent oso he's a really rubbish special agent and is one of them kids programs that make you want to scream but for some reason my kids love it and so does nearly every toddler and pre schooler.

sorry for the blurry boy but he doesn't keep still long enough.

when oso came round all the kids in the room were going crazy including mine

loved the food here even if everyone seems to complain about it on disboards. the kids ate nothing but they had eaten half the grocery shopping already and I think they were much too excited to eat anything anyway. If you've ever been here its definitly not a very peaceful breakfast and you spend more time walking round the room following characters and dancing than you do eating but the kids loved it and thats all that matters

After breakfast its time for toy story mania fast passes. yay. this time i rode with Luke. I was worried he might not like it and it moves really fast but he loved it apart from when things blow on you

toy story mania fast pass queue would have been nice if we had got photos of main queue but the first time we went on it it was too crazy and every other time we used fast pass

After that we did the playhouse disney show or disney junior as it is now. the kids loved it and were up dancing and jumping around. Abbie also collected dubloon paper coins that came down (she was very into collecting bits from everything this year)

We then did the great movie ride which scared Abbie a bit but Luke seemed to love guess at 4 they understand so much more of the story of things. We then had photos taken with chip and dale i presume they are on my photo pass that I haven't got yet so you will have to wait for them

We had a little wander round Hollywood studios streets and saw this guy roaming about

Abbie was really tired by this time so we decided we would head back to hotel and go for a swim in pool.
Well Abbie loved the pool and was in straight away but Luke was not so impressed. He does go swimming but he's not very keen on getting splashed or water going on his head at all. Well he decided he really didn't want to be in the big pool so me and him ended up in the kiddy pool.
He was happy in there for a while but then bigger kids came in splashing. Their mum did apologise and told them to say sorry as well so i was grateful for that. She kept calling my little boy who had a green swim suit with rex from toy story on it and a blue float a girl though which was the first time of many times he would be called a girl or even a princess this holiday. I think maybe his curly hair convinces them he's a girl but really there's nothing girly about my little boy. he is such a typical boy he is so rough and is obsessed with cars and trains and to me he definitly doesn't look like a girl

After kids had had enough it was decided we would catch the boat and head to downtown disney

 

[saraheeyore]

So we left POFQ on the boat going along the sassagoula river (i hope i spelt that right)

the boat ride to downtown is the best way to get there although probably not the quickest. You go past the saratoga treehouses which we were told slept 9 people and had a kitchen a lounge and 3 bedrooms

I quite like these treehouses and would love to know how much they cost to stay in them if anyone knows. Not sure they are very practical though as I'm guessing you would have to walk to saratoga to catch bus or something and I am wondering if they are quite spooky at night after all the boats have stopped running

I also like these things that lurk on the side on the river waiting for fish

we arrived at downtown disney and had a look round the shops. I don't remeber if we bought anything that trip as we went to downtown quite a bit this trip

We decided to do wolfgang pucks express for dinner as we had been on the very last day of our last trip and couldn't believe how good it was for a counter service. i have a bbq pizza which has the be the best pizza ever

hubby had a turkey sandwich thing which he also loved and he finished off my pizza as it was huge

the kids i believe had chicken nuggets and chips which is pretty much what they had at every counter service. they loved this place though and so did we it was nice and peaceful and not very busy but i think we eat early than most people so that helped us

I also had a creme brule which was gorgeous and hubby had a choc brownie and kids a cookie. very very nice meal.

We then headed back and caught boat back to hotel and had an early night as we had a very very early day tomorrow. how early? find out in next post

 

[loobzuk]

Oh you teaser! Here I am trying to scroll down but the next post isn't there yet! Your photo of the Disney gate actually brought a tear to my eye, it's just one of those images!

We've not eaten at Wolfgang before so might give that a whirl next time - always on the look out for good recommendations where children are concerned even though mine are a bit older than yours.

Don't leave it too long for the next update...