Mickey just called, he wants you guys to start the fireworks!!!!!!

[Lbg206]

So we're finally back and I'm finally getting started on this thing. Part of me is sad because it'll mean the trip is really over, but part of me is excited to get to relive it again with all of you.

Before we get started a little bit of background...

For those of you who followed along with my PTR and are jumping over here thank you!! For those of you who didn't see my PTR here it is if you're interested in pictures, a little more extensive background and how this all came about. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2503280

Our cast will include...

WHO
Myself - Lori, age 28
My Mom - Linda
My aunt - Karen
My uncle - Dan
My cousin age 7 - Rebekah
My cousin age 5 - Jake

For simplicity sake I'll stick with calling my mom "mom" obviously, Dan and karen I will probably jump between "aunt" and "uncle" or Dan and Karen. I tend to have a problem sticking with the same thing so just letting you know now so as not to be confused.

WHEN - Oct. 2nd - 9th

WHERE - Pop Century

HOW - If you had read my PTR you wouldn't be asking this now would you. LOL

WHAT - our first big family trip with all of us since both kids were born

and finally...WHY - I have NO idea!!!!!


Just a bit of a warning.....there will be times it sounds like I'm complaining throughout this, but in all honesty I'm not (not TOO much at least) There are just times you need to vent and venting to fellow Disney addicts who I know will understand will be good therapy for me. Plus if any of you have ever gone on vacation with family or friends and tried to stay on the exact same schedule and not do your own seperate things will definitely understand me.

And lastly, I'll spend the most time on the first four days since that's when my aunt, uncle, and the kids were there and there's TONS to discuss about that. After that the last three days they went back home and it was just mom and me. We had a fantastic time when it was just us, but I'm guessing without kids involved anymore most of you won't be as interested so I'll make those days a bit more brief. I apologize in advance if I get too long winded on the first half, but I"ve never been to Disney with kids so this was all new to me and so different, but so much fun as well. Seeing the magic through their eyes nearly made me cry on more than one occassion. Well, I guess that's it, that's all of our preshow so if you're all keep your arms, feet, and legs inside the moving vehicle at all times and please no flash photography we'll get started on our magical journey!!

Coming up very shortly....Day 1 Traveling day!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in!

 

[Lbg206]

Day 1

It's finally time!!!!! I got up bright and early and my DH drove me to my mom's house where we were all meeting If you read my PTR you know about all the magical surprises that Mickey and the gang had sent the kids and before we left out for the airport they had one last surprise waiting.......ear hats!!!!

Can you tell they were excited?


After a few thousand kisses goodbye to my wonderful DH we were off! Bekah (7) had been the one who was afraid to fly and had been talking about how scared she was for months, but suddenly when it was the day of all she cared about was getting to where Mickey lived. Jake (5) was the one who on that morning was suddenly really afraid. WE got to the airport early since Karen, Dan, and the kids hadn't flown before and were nervous and unsure about everything from checking bags to going through security. It was surprisingly a light day and we got through quickly and were to our gate with 20 minutes or so.

After a few snacks and a few thousand questions it was finally time to board. Since we were flying Southwest and it's open seating Bekah took it upon herself to assign seats. In one row it was to be be her, me, and my uncle and across from us would be my mom, Karen, and Jake. This was ok with me since Karen is TERRIFIED of flying and I was happy to let my mom dea with her and Jake. LOL From the second we set foot on the plane though both kids were over the moon excited. They loved all of it, meeting the pilot, the takeoff, looking out the window, etc. Bekah made me take a ton of pics to cronicle the whole thing, but I'll just share a few. Don't ask me what she's doing in this one because I have no idea.

And this was how Jake spent almost the ENTIRE flight.....his little nosed pressed to the window

He LOVED looking down at the ground. I love that little tail sticking up on the top of his hat. hehe

Once we got up high enough that you could start to see the curve of the earth and less detail Bekah suddenly got really excited and pointing and told me that it looks just like a globe down there. She's so cute!! Also several times during the flight she said it looked like the planet earth, to which I said I certainly hoped so. LOL I think the best though was when we started to descend a bit and you could make out more detail she turned to me and said "Florida sure has a lot of ants!!" I almost made this the title of my TR. I knew what she was seeing, but didn't say anything. A little bit later I asked her how those ants were doing and her eyes got huge and she said Florida has REALLY big ants!!!! Finally a few minutes later I heard her giggle and she realized that what she was seeing had been cars on the highways. TOO cute!!

After landing we quickly made our way to the Magical Express area and were on a bus within minutes. The kids at this point were ridiculously excited. Jake said to me "I thought the plane brought us to disney world....is this it? What are we doing on a bus?" It's amazing that with an hour drive to the airport, an hour and a half wait and then a two hour flight this simple 25-30 minute ride to our resort was the LONGEST of the day. Finally we saw it...the sign for Pop Century. Woohoo!!!

We've arrived!!!!!

 

[tksbaskets]

Subbing

 

[Lbg206]

Joining in!

Subbing

Thanks to both of you, glad to have you along!

 

[pigletforever]

looks like a fun trip. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[pinkxray]

Joining in.

We'll be at Pop in 7 months so I am really excited to read your trip report.

 

[Lbg206]

looks like a fun trip. Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks for joining in, I"m working on the next update right now actually, should be up within the half hour. I look forward to your comments.

 

[Lbg206]

Joining in.

We'll be at Pop in 7 months so I am really excited to read your trip report.

Thanks for joining in!! I"m working on the next update right now. I definitely have plenty pics of Pop and plenty of thoughts on it....some good some bad. Let me know if you any specific questions about the resort as we go along and I"ll do my best to answer them.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

Kids are so funny! Some of the things they say make you sit back and laugh.

 

[Lbg206]

Arriving at our hotel and our night at MK


Upon arriving at the resort Karen and I went to check in while everyone else made a bathroom break. I thought I was doing a smart thing by checking in online, but what I found was about 20 people in the online check-in line and only two in the regular check in......whoops! Apparently everyone has caught on to this online check-in stuff. Thankfully it didn't take but about ten minutes. I had requested connecting rooms for us as well as 60's section, lakeview, and upper floor. We ended up only getting one of our requests, at least it was the connecting rooms. We were second floor, building 10 in the 70's. I was slightly disappointed at first, but it ended up being just fine. Building 10 is SSOOOO close to the food court and buses it was great. Plus it was fun coming out our door every morning and seeing a giant Mickey phone right in front of you.

We got to our newly refurbished rooms and the kids went nuts over the towel animals left in the window. I believe we each had dogs. They were definitely cute, but you'd think the kids had just seen Mickey himself. lol

I'll stop here for a moment and just say that I have never stayed at a value resort before, nor had I ever even been to one so I wasn't sure what to expect. Karen and Dan couldn't afford anything so that's why we chose it. Had it been just mom and I or my husband and I we probably would have done at least moderate if not deluxe. The rooms were perfectly adequate for our needs, the new refurbishments were very nice with the flatscreen tvs and new paint, bedding, etc. The rooms are SMALL!!! It was fine for mom and I just being two, but not sure I could have stood it with my aunt, uncle, and both kids. Thankfully we had connecting rooms and left the dooor open most times so Bekah and Jake could run back and forth between the two. I personally didn't mind the size especially since I"m not the type to spend much time in the room, my mom however made up her mind instantly that she did NOT like value, but again this trip was mostly about the kids and it fit our needs just fine. I will say the one thing I disliked was the matresses. They are very VERY soft so if you're used to soft ones you'll be fine, but if you prefer a much firmer matress like I do than be prepared to sink down to the floor.....or at least it feels like it. Other than that I didn't have many complaints except a small gripe that I much prefer having a balcony and seperate enterance like at deluxe, but again just my personal preferance.

Anyway, back to the fun!!!!

We dumped our carry on's on the bed and changed the kids into shorts and off we went. Our orignal plan was to find some dinner at MK, but we knew once the kids got to the park and saw the castle and all the excitement they'd never sit still long enough to eat so we stopped off at the Pop food court to grab a bite.

Now I warned all of you I would be venting a little and you'd hear the bad, not just the good so here's the first time a problem came about. We were starving having not eaten since about 8:30 that morning and it was now about 4 p.m. so we just all grabbed burgers except for the kids who I believe both had chicken nuggets. My mom and I thought our meals were just fine. They weren't the greatest thing in the entire world I've ever eaten, but it was a simple burger at a counter service so we weren't expecting fine cousine. In all honesty though the burgers were actually quite good. The fries were a little cold and undercooked, but the burger itself was really good. My aunt and uncle however, they hated their food. They had the exact same thing as the rest of us and immediately started complaining that it was horrible and not fit to be dog food. Different people, different tastes and as I said it wasn't outstanding, but wasn't bad eithe rI thought. They made a huge deal over it though and mom and I just rolled our eyes and went on eating. I realize this doesn't seem like a major thing now, but I point it out because it will establish a pattern later on in the trip that did become a big annoyance.

As soon as we were finished we high tailed it to the buses and went straight to MK. A bus came within just a minute or so and it wasn't crowded at all so things were starting off well. Upon arriving there was some confusion over our key cards and them saying they hadn't been registered yet or something. We explained we had only checked in about two hours prior and eventually the problem was worked out. Apparently they had wrong numbers coded on them or something. I started getting a little aggitated....it had been a long day traveling, then the food complaints, and now this I think I was just a little tired and stressed. I forced myself to take a deep breath and relax and kept saying "Hey, you're in Disney....you're finallly here!!!" That helped me some and after only about 15 minutes or so the problem was worked out....we were in!!!

It was a bit more crowded than I expected, bu tnothing terrible. This was my first time seeing the fall decorations so I took a few pics as we entered.

The one thing I had really been looking forward to was that big "WOW" moment when Bekah and Jake first saw the castle and walking down Main St. Unfortunately though I didn't get it, but it worked out okay in the end. Just as we turned the corner and i was ready with camera in hand to capture their little faces these guys came down the streets telling everyone move back onto the sidewalks as the parade was about to come through. Oh great, I didn't realize we were gonna get caught in the middle and I'd miss my big moment of seeing the castle with them. I was a bit bummed, but had decided this was going to be a much different trip than I was used to with a larger group and the kids and my neurotic aunt. (I saw that with the most love and kindness possible. Haha) I just sucked it up and went with it and even snapped a few pics. It was the Move it, Shake it, Celebrate it show or at least I think it's called something like that.

It's a really short little parade so once it passed we followed it down main st. and to the main hub in front of the castle and continued to watch. The kids wer eexcited and dancing to the music when suddenly a CM came over and pulled Bekah and Jake out of the crowd and wanted them to come out and dance. What luck!!! They'd only been there 5 minutes and already pixie dust was coming their way. This was when I finally got through my head to not stress, calm down, and enjoy the experience through the kids' eyes.

Now you have to understand that in the "real" world back home Jake is the outgoing one and has never met a stranger and Bekah while she has personality by the gallons is much more shy and afraid to talk to new people so I figured this would be the way it was at Disney when it came to meeting the characters and joining in to things. Wow, were we in for a surprise. As soon as they picked the kids out Jake freaked out and ran to his dad and hid while Bekah didn't hesitate for a secnd and ran righ tout into the street and joined in. We tried ot get Jake to go, but he refused and we didn't want to force his so the CM told my mom and I we should go out there so we did. It was fantastic!!! We were all dancing and acting silly and the Mad Hatter pointed to my mom specifically and started having her copy these crazy dance moves. then it became a game between the two of them to see who could out dance the other. Haha

Bekah rna righ tup to Chip or Dale.....sorry I can never remember which one is which......anyone know which one this is? She started dancing with him and when it was finally over and they started to leave that girl wasn't going to stop there. She ran after him and gave him a HUGE hug, which unfortunately I didn't catch on camera.

WOW, what a start!!! I need to break for now since the little girl I babysit has just woken up from a nap, but I will continue soon.

Up next: the rest of our first night at MK.

 

[pinkxray]

Looks like a great start to your trip. It does kind of stink that you missed the reaction when the kids first saw the castle, but to be honest my DD wasn't too impressed. She just wanted to head for the rides.

Chip is the one with the brown nose. (Chocolate chip) He is my favorite, sorry Dale.

 

[mickeystoontown]

What a great start to a Disney vacation! I know what you mean about staying in a value resort. We have only stayed in a moderate resort and are worried about room size and bus transportation at the values. We are a family of three (me, my husband and a 13 year old) and I think the rooms may be a bit small for us.

We will be arriving a day prior to free dining and I need to book a room for one night. We thought about staying at a value resort for that one night but I just don't know if we want to do it. How was the bus transportation at Pop?

Sorry, let's get back to talking about your trip. Ummm, I'm hoping that this complaining about food pattern doesn't get too terribly bad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't.

Yay for the kids getting chosen to participate in the parade. From the way it sounds, all of you had a great time dancing with the characters.

 

[tksbaskets]

Off to a great start...can't wait to hear more. You crack me up (the comment about sinking to the floor with the soft matress!).

 

[Lbg206]

Looks like a great start to your trip. It does kind of stink that you missed the reaction when the kids first saw the castle, but to be honest my DD wasn't too impressed. She just wanted to head for the rides.

Chip is the one with the brown nose. (Chocolate chip) He is my favorite, sorry Dale.

Thanks again for joining in. You're probably right about the castle as far as Jake was concerned. To him it was neat, but it was ALL about the rides and finding Donald the Duck as he likes to call him. For Bekah though she'd been talking about the castle and where Cinderella lives for quite some time so I was most interested in her reaction, but oh well. It was worth it to get to see her and Dale shaking their tail feathers at each other. LOL

 

[Lbg206]

What a great start to a Disney vacation! I know what you mean about staying in a value resort. We have only stayed in a moderate resort and are worried about room size and bus transportation at the values. We are a family of three (me, my husband and a 13 year old) and I think the rooms may be a bit small for us.

We will be arriving a day prior to free dining and I need to book a room for one night. We thought about staying at a value resort for that one night but I just don't know if we want to do it. How was the bus transportation at Pop?

Sorry, let's get back to talking about your trip. Ummm, I'm hoping that this complaining about food pattern doesn't get too terribly bad. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't.

Yay for the kids getting chosen to participate in the parade. From the way it sounds, all of you had a great time dancing with the characters.

It depends on what your touring style and needs are as far as the hotel. If you're just looking for a place to sleep and a shower than you'll probably be fine with the three of you, but if you like to relax in your room or at your hotel from time to time or do a lot of midday breaks than you'll probably find it a bit cramped. There wasn't a HUGE differance doing value over moderates, but there was a major differance from deluxe down to value so again it's whatever you're used to. My mom and I did just fine in our room as far as the size and having room for everything and getting around each other. It was just the atmosphere that wasn't quite our style. Let me know how it goes for you or if you have any more questions.

As for the bus service I couldn't complain about this at all!! The buses were fantastic most of the time. And if you're going to go value definitely do Pop since it has its own buses and doesn't have to share with any other hotels. The ONLY thing I can complain about the buses other than the areas to line up are out in the sun and not nicely covered like many other resorts was that it's a very short walk to get to the bus stops at the hotel, but when leaving some of the parks they like to stick the stop for Pop WAAAAYYYYY down at the end like it's being banished. At HS it's VERY close, which is great, but at Epcot especially it's the very last stop which can add a pretty good walk at the end of the night when you're already tired. But other than that I can't complain about the buses, they were awesome!!

 

[Lbg206]

Off to a great start...can't wait to hear more. You crack me up (the comment about sinking to the floor with the soft matress!).

LOL Thanks, glad I could make you laugh. You really would have gotten a laugh if you had read my original draft of that part, but upon rereading it myself I decided ot make it sound a little less......shall we say......adult! You can use your imagination, but it was a little too much about being hard versus soft in bed. Not what I wanted to portray obviously so what you read was the revised version. I do like to add a little humor though.

 

[Lbg206]

Hi everyone! Thank you all for being so patient with me. I know it seems like I got this TR started and then just disappeared, but as we all know sometimes life can get in the way of things we'd like to do. In the past week I've had to go to a baby shower, a birthday party, had house guests, and been sick with a sinus infection. All of which was on top of work and regular day to day stuff. I still don't feel great, but everything else has slowed down a bit so let's just jump back in!

Unfortunately I left off at a really bad place last time, I'm not sure what I was thinking. The problem is I don't have any more pictures for that day. Luckily we left off around 5:30 at night so there's not much left of the day anyway, but the problem was my aunt forgot her camera and I only brought one of my two cameras that night and just after taking pics of the Street Show I realized my memory card was full because the picture size had accidently gotten bumped up so high it would only hold about ten pics. I apologize for not having pictures to go along with this segment, but I'll be as vivid as possible to help you out and I'll wrap it up quickly. Thanks for your understanding.

When we left off we had just gotten to MK on our first night and Bekah had spent her first twenty minutes or so dancing down Main St. with Chip and Dale. Afterwards we began strolling around the castle to see it from all angles and then off to our first ride. What would it be? Rebekah had said months ago that she wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean very first so off to Adventureland we went. We lucked out that it only had a five minute wait so we jumped in line. We all rode it together and had warned my aunt about the little waterfall you go over and she was freaking out a bit wanting us to tell her exactly when it was coming. I think when we pointed out there's no seatbelts or anything because it's that tame she relaxed a bit. Jake ended up loving the hill and for the rest of the ride Bekah just kept telling me over and over how real everything looked and asking if I was sure they weren't real people. LOL

Next in our adventure was supposed to be Splash Mountain, but no one wanted to get wet so we skipped it and went to Big Thunder Mountain. It had a 20 minute wait but we hopped in line anyway. A little back information on this one......When I was four years old and went to Disney the first time it was me, my mom and dad, and my uncle (not the one with us on this trip, but another one of their brothers). Knowing my mom HATES roller coasters my uncle tricked her onto this ride by telling her it was a slow gentle train ride and since there had apparently been no wait she just jumped right on and never realized. When they got off he was laughing hysterically and I think she was ready to kill him!! Now fast forward 24 years and she realizes it's a coaster this time, but compared to others like Space Mountain or Everest it's quite tame. She saw a show once that said it only does something like 24 mph and was determined to do it again on this trip and not be afraid. I thought she'd chicken out at the last minute, but she got in line with us and my aunt was terrified because she hates coasters too, but mom just kept saying that if she could do it so could my aunt and that it was pretty tame by coaster standards. When it was finally our turn we boarded with Jake and Dan together, my mom and aunt behind them, and me and Bekah in the back. This was when we discovered just how much the kids both LOVE coasters and thrill rides, especially Bekah. She was so excited as we started up the first hill, but after that for the rest of the ride all I could hear was my mom screaming at the top of her lungs!!!! Each time we'd hti a slow spot and climb another hill I'd hear "oh god not another one!!" Somewhere in the middle I heard my aunt let loose a certain four letter word beginning with an S and repeatedly screamed it for the rest of the ride. She later claims she only whispered it once under her breath, but even Dan and Jake up ahead of them heard it and were laughing because they knew it was her. Also each time we'd climb another hill Karen would yell back to me to hold on tight to Bekah because she was afriad she'd go flying out.....how she'd do that I have no idea. Forget holding her, heck forget even holding the bar...Bekah and I both had our arms straight up in the air the whole time!!! Needless to say that was the LAST coaster for mom and Karen both!

After Big Thunder Mountain my mom was apologizing like crazy to her swearing she remembered it not being quite that bad and the two of them were shaking with fright while the rest of us laughed. When we came back around the line was only 10 minutes now so me and the kids and Dan jumped back in line and did it again. I think they loved it even better the second time although mom said the whole time we were gone Karen was again a nervous wreck that the kids would fall out of the ride. We have got to get that woman some nerve pills!!!!

By now it was around 7:45 and we had meandered around and made our way toward the Haunted Mansion. The kids were a little nervous, but it's one of mom's favorite rides and there was NO wait so we decided to go. I rode with Jake and he nevered cried or yelled, but just kept asking if I was sure it was all fake and not real ghosts. I had to promise him about a billion times, but he wasn't so sure. In the end though the ride redeemed itself for him with the hitchiking ghost. We ended up with the real tall thin ghost which Jake thought was just hysterical so he got off the ride laughing. Bekah of course loved it like she loved everything. At this point it was about 8 and the kids were both complaining of being sleepy and wanted to go back to the hotel. It had gotten dark while on HM and once it's dark those two think they MUST be in bed or at least at home.....that's sure fun during the winter when it's dark by 5:30.

By the time we made our way toward Main Street the Electrical parade or whatever it's called had started so we hung out to watch about half of it. It was alright I guess, but from someone who love love LOVES SpectroMagic I want it back and quick, this one just didn't cut it for me at all. I'm hoping Spectro will be back by the next time I go.

We made our way out to the bus and back to Pop and to our rooms. We said goodnight and set the alarm for 5:45 a.m.......Yes, I really said 5:45 a.m. What genius had made ADR's for an hour before the park opens the next morning......oh wait.....that was me! Haha

We then went straight to sleep for the most part although over in our room mom and I didn't sleep much. I spent the night tossing and turning which I generally do the first night or so in a new bed, plus can't forget those sink to the fllor mattresses! Mom slept but kept waking up or yelling out in her sleep each time one of the turbo rocket toilets would flush in rooms around us. For those of you who haven't stayed at Pop YES they are that bad!!!!!!! After now staying at four different disney resorts I've come to the conclusion that they are all that loud, but the difference is at deluxe and even moderate resorts the walls are thicker and you only have to put up with your own and not every room within a mile of yours!!!!

Up next: Our first character meal......where would it be?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh your poor aunt and mother! I can just imagine them yelling on Big Thunder Mountain. Too funny!

 

[tksbaskets]

The Crystal Palace? Loving your report!

TK