Mickey Valentines - February 2011

[kaetra]

This was our THIRD trip in 13 months, because I’m just that good (addicted)! It's Mickey Valentines! Lotsa Pics!

Dates: Thursday 02/10/2010 through Tuesday 02/15/2011
Resort: Disney's Pop Century
Package: Magic Your Way Plus (FREE!) Dining

The Cast
Me, Traci – 42, DH Brad 37, DD Kythe – 8

(Pic from Canada vacation 2010, with our puppy Pepper)

The No-Plan Plan
Being our 3rd trip in just over one year I decided to relax this time. The only plans I made were: The Day – The Park – The ADR. It was a great decision, it worked out wonderfully for us and now that we know the ropes I think we’ll be doing at least some form of this loosey goosey planning from this trip forward.

Why WDW Again So Soon?
It’s not just the addiction, it’s the DEALS baby! Free Dining for my favorite time to go to Florida was too good to pass up. Also, it gave me a chance to get into the groove of proper scheduling for our annual pilgrimage out of Chicago’s horrid February to someplace nice and warm.

Let’s get this show on the road –

LINKS LINKS LINKS
I love links in trip reports, it makes reading SO much easier don’t you think?
Day 1 – Fresh Faces for Mickey
Day 2 – Surviving Epcot with an Under-The-Weather Kid Part I
Day 2 - Surviving Epcot with an Under-The-Weather Kid Part II (Chefs De France)
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom sort of and Chef Mickey's the Hard Way

 

[kaetra]

Due to wonky flight times not allowing us an early flight in, we decided to fly in the night before, grab a quick cheap hotel with an airport shuttle and then head back to the airport in the morning to catch the Magical Express. Priceline hooked us up with the Orlando Airport Marriot and it was a great hotel, especially for $53! I was so happy we chose this route because for an extra few bucks we got a full 5 days at WDW.

About 10 minutes before we left for the airport, DD said she had a headache - not a good sign. She was OK on the flight but after we arrived at the Marriot she came down with a fever. I had packed the Children’s Advil and we got through the night with good sleep, her fever breaking by morning. Thankfully Advil and a blanket was enough to keep her comfortable during the two days she was not feeling well, and I was very grateful I had brought the tiny umbrella stroller. I know what you may be thinking - “She’s 8 and you brought a stroller?! OMG what’s wrong with people these days?” I mainly brought it as a carry on luggage cart and a just-in-case day bag/necessity cart. Unpredictable February weather, the potential need for lots of extra clothes options at the park and high locker fees are really all the reason I needed. My husband nearly choked me over bringing the stroller before we left, but was he glad we had it when it turned out we had a sick peanut on our hands. We’ll leave it at home next time, scout’s honor!

 

[kaetra]

I woke up really early, felt DD’s forehead – her fever had broke and she was sleeping soundly, so I slipped on my swimsuit and headed down for an early morning dip. Once everyone was awake we packed up and headed downstairs to check out at around 8am. We took the shuttle for a quick 10 minute ride back to the airport, headed down to the Magical Express and we were the only people there. Our Magical Express bus had us and I think only one other family on it. We arrived at POP in good time, got checked in (very long lines, even in the Online Check In), checked our luggage and hopped on the Epcot bus.

It was pretty cloudy and about 60 degrees ....

Since DD was feeling under the weather we took it very easy. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so the plan was to just mill around Epcot keeping her comfortable and entertained, then see how she was feeling when the room was ready and head back to the room if we needed to. We figured if she was feeling this same level of sick at home she would be sitting on the couch with a blanket watching TV and taking it easy – so really the semi-reclined stroller, blanket and Disney World to look at wasn’t terribly different.

First we headed to The Land Pavilion and picked up some Soarin’ Fast Passes and breakfast type things from the fridge cases - fruit salad, yogurt, etc. DD did really well with the fruit so we thought an easy trip through the very warm Livin’ with the Land was doable. She relaxed next to me and even giggled at the giant lemons. We headed back out, casually strolled around for a while taking in the sites. We hit Nemo then headed over to the World Showcase.

As soon as she saw Norway she perked up considerably, remembering how panicked I got last time when I thought I had been kidnapped by Norway. “Mom! Look! NORWAY! Let’s go! Mom’s gonna get kidnapped by Norway again!” I could hardly say no could I? This required a bit of acting on my part since, now that I knew what was going on, I didn’t actually feel like I was being kidnapped. We even stayed for the movie this time, which wasn’t bad. And this time I was more inclined to browse the shop than run around like a maniac, trying hopelessly to get out of all the locked Exits. This was the new Disney me, the relaxed me. I like her.

For the first time we were actually able to visit and browse each country in the World Showcase. We got to see the Fife and Drum Corps in America and DH got some fantastic photos. He really digs his new camera.

DD wasn’t feeling up to joining in, so she hung back and watched as all the kids lined up with them and at the end and were sworn into the Corps, or something like that anyway.

Attack of the Killer Gulls
Around lunch time we were near France and popped in to husband’s favorite bistro for some sandwiches and chocolate croissants. I couldn’t finish my croissant at the table, so I took it with me as we continued walking towards England. HUGE MISTAKE! I was holding my uneaten croissant in my hand, walking along when suddenly I felt a whoosh of feathers on my head. A seagull swooped down on me, grabbed the whole croissant right out of my hand and made away with it! I was yelling and chasing it (like I was gonna catch it??!) hollering “bring back my croissant! That’s mine! You Devil!” People were staring at me because clearly I’m insane. Learn from my mistakes! Protect the Deliciousness!

 

[tybrilinja]

LOL....great start to your trip report. I will be along for the journey! And.... good advice about not taking food along with you, might get ugly if a bird takes MY chocolate croissant!!!!

 

[kaetra]

LOL....great start to your trip report. I will be along for the journey! And.... good advice about not taking food along with you, might get ugly if a bird takes MY chocolate croissant!!!!

Welcome and thanks!

I couldn't beleive it! There was a whirlwind of feathers, a flash of claw and I swear it screamed at me.

 

[kaetra]

Fearing more gull attacks (hehe not really) we wrapped things up for the time being in the World showcase -

Then we made our way back to Future World where I finally got a text saying our room was ready. We asked DD if she was feeling like heading to our room for a nap, but she said she wanted to stay so we headed in to Innoventions for some more casual browsing. After we walked around a bit, I heard the tell tale sounds of a child sleeping. My feet were ready for a rest, so I went to “Take a Nanooze Break”, the area with benches where you watch the microscopic presentation. I locked the stroller wheels and leaned it all the way back onto a bench so DD got a full recline for a good nap. DH went to check out Sum of All Thrills which he had always wanted to do but DD doesn’t meet the height requirement so now was the perfect time. When he got back some time later she was still sleeping so I had a turn. I am a bit claustro, but it was really fun and didn’t bother me at all. When I got back she was just waking up and she asked if our Soarin’ fast passes were ready yet! They had been for quite a while, so we went to Soarin’ (love love it!) and I gave DD a paper bag just in case – but she didn’t need it. She wasn’t puky that day, but you never know! Even the FP line for Soarin’ was really long, but this adventure is always worth a bit of a wait. We also went on Spaceship Earth, which was a first for me believe it or not as I was afraid I’d get claustrophobic. These fears were unfounded though and we had so much fun, especially with our funny face future pics!

We did Nemo one more time (always a hit!) then it was time to head to Chef’s for our ADR. DD was getting pretty tired, picked at her food and started getting grumpy. We were going to head to the room after dinner but it was nearly 8pm by the time we were finishing up at Chefs (which was delicious as always). We asked DD if she wanted to go to the room or stick around one more hour to see the fireworks and she wanted to see the fireworks. We picked a camping spot for IllumiNations and I remembered my beach towel this time! We laid it out on the ground, relaxed and chatted until the show, with DD’s head in my lap all snuggly in her new personalized Tinkerbelle blanket from disneystore.com. After the show we headed back to the room, successfully spending a full day at Epcot with an under-the-weather-kid, but all of us having a magical time anyway!

I was still awake after DD and DH fell asleep so I got up and hung our Valentine hearts on the window. Afterwards I climbed into my Pop Home bed, and drifted off with thankful prayers for how truly lucky our little family is, and for all the joy and love we get to experience and share.

 

[kaetra]

It’s Magic Kingdom day number 1! The weather on Friday was a bit warmer, still cloudy but not gray. DD was still not feeling well and I seriously considered staying in, but neither DD nor DH would have none of it. So, we loaded up and set off, completely skipping Everything POP and went straight to Magic Kingdom. Once inside the park we used some snack credits for a quick breakfast. Right away I could tell that DD seemed worse today than yesterday, and I was feeling guilty for having her out and about being sick. We didn’t do any rides at all this day with one exception – the People Mover.

We stuck to the light things, Philharmagic, Monsters Inc., etc. We had a 6:45 rez at Chef Mickey’s, which I consider very late and it was not looking like we were going to make it. So we went back to the room at about Noon and poor little DD slept and slept and slept – she couldn’t eat anything and she looked terrible. DH went to Everything Pop and picked up some food which was barely eatable to be honest. Burgers, fries, all cold by the time it got back to us. Blech.

Around 5pm I was picking up the phone to cancel Chef Mickey’s, but DD woke up and said she was hungry so we got our things together and headed out. We arrived a bit early for our reservation and they said they didn’t have a table ready. However when we looked around there were tons of empty tables and a buffet full of food with no diners even at the buffet. I really didn’t understand it. Then we had to wait, and wait and wait for nearly an hour after our reservation time. We went up to the hostess to check several times. We had requested a ½ booth so DD could be more comfortable and finally they called us and tried to seat us at a regular table directly next to an empty ½ booth. They actually made a bit of a protest when we said we wanted the other table but we just ignored them and sat down in the 1/2 booth anyway. I really didn’t care what they thought about us at this point I was so irritated. The place was at maybe half capacity - empty tables everywhere. Anyway, we had our meal which DD was fading fast throughout, though she did manage to cheer up for the characters and she did manage to eat a few things. The food was very good I thought for a buffet.

She loved this but couldn’t eat it, so we took a picture –

After Chef Mickey’s it was a weird monorail trip allllll around the property. We were a bit confused as we thought the monorail would go to a bus station that would go to POP, like the transit center or something. But we very stupidly wound up coming all the way back to Magic Kingdom. We noticed the lighted raft parade while on the monorail, so once we got off the monorail DH hustled down to get some pics of it as it passed around.

Then we managed to finally get back to our room and I said that we would have to play it by ear tomorrow to see if we would even be able to make our 9:15 Crystal Palace rez. Poor Miss Kythe. I felt soooo bad for her.