Nikolas & MAW-We're back from Mickey Mouse's House! Pre & Post trip reports

[maroo]

That really stinks...

I hope they can fix it very soon.

I am sure those video cameras have some issues since they are used by so many people...and the type of camera would be new to most everyone...so I imagine they get this issue fairly often...more often than normal.

Keep us posted.

So glad you had a great trip!

 

[2specialkids]

Christmas and Santa were AMAZING!! They even created snow for the kids!
Santa is willing to hold any child you are willing to put on his lap and that alone was nice since so many people are leary of touching much less holding our kids with all the equipment some of them have.
We got some neat gifts (a ball drop toy for Nikolas and travel Scrabble for Mikayla) then went outside to play in the snow and see all the decorations. We met up with Cathy and the kids and had a blast. She got some cute pictures of the kids playing together.
It’s a really nice way to spend a special evening with your kids and we had a wonderful time.

Almost all of my pictures from this are also on "the" disc but I do have a small bit of video here (from my camcorder), a few odd shots and the CUTEST Santa picture my kids have ever done! Thank you GKTW photogs!

Mikayla loves penguins so we had to stop here (notice the cotton candy she's "hiding" behind her...another love of hers).

Brain Freeze in action!

and last but definitely not least...
SANTA!!

and mommy too...

 

[kdzbear]

i love the penguin and Santa photos with your kids!

 

[maroo]

Oh, I just love Christmas at GKTW. What a magical evening!

I hope they find your pictures soon.

I am so glad that Santa will hold sick kids! Never thought about that being a problem before. I guess all of the folks I help are all too old for Santa's lap.

Great update!!

 

[yinyanggirls]

Very cute santa pics! Looks like a fun night.

 

[2specialkids]

Friday, Day 5 Sea World
Originally I planned to do another day at the Magic Kingdom today but since tonight was the Pirates and Princesses party at the Village I wanted to do a shorter park so we weren’t too tired to enjoy both.
Our visit to Sea World today was really so the kids could feed the different animals and to sight see. While we like the shows we just aren’t that into them and I’d rather take the kids to watch the animals in a more realistic environment. I know it’s not nature but they can enjoy them more this way. Besides since Nikolas is visually impaired and Mikayla has aspergers the crowds and confinement are not a great idea for us.

The Mikayla and my mom fed the stingrays while I tried to figure out how to get Nikolas close enough to see them. Well, it just didn’t happen so I took some video and we moved on to the dolphins. We didn’t get any video of the kids feeding and petting one (communication problems) but the Sea World camera got a few really nice shots so we have memories I couldn’t see since I was holding Nikolas. It was a really good experience for both kids.

After that we went to feed the Sea Lions. Mikayla tried her hand at feeding them but trying to keep the birds away and get the fish to the sea lions was crazy! They have a sign posted “do not feed the birds” yeah right. Good luck, those little buggers don’t give you much choice. I think they got more than half of her fish.
We decided that we were going to wander the park next and saw the manatees and some really nice garden areas. That was really all they wanted to do so we decided to gather up any pictures the park took and head out.

Since it was still early afternoon I decided to take Mikayla back to the Titanic Museum. We went there in 2005 at it’s old location and she really liked it so I thought we’d see how it was in the new location. Mikayla and I went in by ourselves while mom and dad took Nikolas for a walk. Most of the tour was very similar to last time but they are able to display things better and you can really get in and see the artifacts. They did change some of the things at the end of the tour because they show things from the more current dives and the gift shop doesn’t have the books and maps we bought but it was still very interesting. This is something she wanted to do but then changed her mind because she thought it was too expensive. Momma decided she deserved it and made sure the money was there.

We were back at the village before 5:30 so there was a few minutes to rest before we went to dinner and got ready for the Pirates & Princesses party.

 

[yinyanggirls]

Sounds like what I expect our day at SW to be. Phoebe's vision will make it hard to appreciate any shows, but we're willing to check out a couple before ruling them out. How funny about the birds! And where is the Titanic museum? Have never heard of it...

 

[buzz for boys]

Wow what a fantatsic trip report.
Cant wait to read more !!
Louise x

 

[pipersmom]

Great updates! That pic of the kids with Santa is an awesome one, they both look so happy! Piper is looking forward to penguins at Sea World..although I haven't checked to see if they have them..oh geez..might have screwed that up . I'm glad you guys had such a wonderful time...

 

[2specialkids]

Sounds like what I expect our day at SW to be. Phoebe's vision will make it hard to appreciate any shows, but we're willing to check out a couple before ruling them out. How funny about the birds! And where is the Titanic museum? Have never heard of it...

I've seen some of the shows before and they are neat but DS & DD don't really care about that stuff. The Indianapolis Zoo has a nice dolphin show we see sometimes so they get their fill of "shows".
The Titanic museum is on International Drive. It's a nice walk thru with some characters that interact with you for parts of it.
We did it 4 years ago, since then they moved down the street to a larger place (still in a strip mall). The entrace fee has also gone up. They don't have as much in the gift shop and some of the artifacts have been changed to things from the more recent dives to the wreck but it is pretty interesting. You get your ticket and become one of the people on the ship. My person survived the sinking both visits. Mikayla lived the first time and didn't make it the second visit. It's a very sobering but interesting hour and a half tour. You can see more at Titanic The Experience . com (make sure you get the Orlando site). If you're into history or the Titanic I do recommend it. We took lots of pictures again. I tried to duplicate some I plan to scrap side-by-side in our album. It is really neat to see the differences in Mikayla over 4 years.

Great updates! That pic of the kids with Santa is an awesome one, they both look so happy! Piper is looking forward to penguins at Sea World..although I haven't checked to see if they have them..oh geez..might have screwed that up . I'm glad you guys had such a wonderful time...

They have a really cool penguin section! We all had a great time in the penguin enclosure. There are several parts to see and everything is easy to get to plus they have a nice moving sidewalk so you can see the enclosure well plus you can be behind it if you want to spend more time looking. She's gonna have a blast! (I love the elf TPing the living room btw )

 

[kayrosek]

Sounds like a great trip so far. I'm glad Nikolas got his wish. You guys all really deserved this trip and it's wonderful to be able to read about it. Thanks for sharing your story. On a side not I have a child an the Autistic spectrum and I have have ADHD as well.

 

[yinyanggirls]

The Titanic museum is on International Drive. It's a nice walk thru with some characters that interact with you for parts of it.
We did it 4 years ago, since then they moved down the street to a larger place (still in a strip mall). The entrace fee has also gone up. They don't have as much in the gift shop and some of the artifacts have been changed to things from the more recent dives to the wreck but it is pretty interesting. You get your ticket and become one of the people on the ship. My person survived the sinking both visits. Mikayla lived the first time and didn't make it the second visit. It's a very sobering but interesting hour and a half tour. You can see more at Titanic The Experience . com (make sure you get the Orlando site). If you're into history or the Titanic I do recommend it. We took lots of pictures again. I tried to duplicate some I plan to scrap side-by-side in our album. It is really neat to see the differences in Mikayla over 4 years.

Thanks for the info on the Titanic. I love history, although I'm no officianado on the Titanic, I've seen "the" movie and heard enough stories to be interested. I'm pretty sure the rest of my group would be tortured to do it, so maybe if there's something we have to split up for. Anyway, good info to have. Thanks again!

 

[mrsksomeday]

This is a fantastic TR!! Everyone is having such a great time, I love all the pictures. Your children are beautiful. I can't wait to read more.

 

[dmbfan]

I see you have the EIO Pushchair, how was it taking the stroller up to some of the rides? Did you find it was a tight squeeze or easy to manuver? We went from the Liberty to the EIO since our last trip and it was tough moving the Liberty thru the wheelchair lines.

Looks like you had a wonderful trip...

 

[2specialkids]

I see you have the EIO Pushchair, how was it taking the stroller up to some of the rides? Did you find it was a tight squeeze or easy to manuver? We went from the Liberty to the EIO since our last trip and it was tough moving the Liberty thru the wheelchair lines.

Looks like you had a wonderful trip...

We did have an amazing trip! everywhere!

The EIO did well for us in the lines. It's maneuvered just like his old stroller and even though it's a bit bigger there was room. It was definitely much better than taking his bulky wheelchair. The Liberty looks pretty similar so I'm not sure how different it is but I know I really didn't have much trouble getting him anywhere (except PinnochioHaus but NOTHING fits in there). I did have to regularly check to be sure the front wheel were not locked but that was the only time it was tricky to get into places. (My parents kept locking them for some reason. ) Some of the shops are so tight that any stroller or wheelchair has issues but in general it was a nice way to get him thru the parks comfortably.

 

[dmbfan]

Thanks...how was it taking it on the plane? Did you bring down the ramp and they put in there? Did they treat the stroller nice? As you know it is not cheap and even though insurance paid for it, I still do not want it beat up..

The Liberty was LONG so it was hard to manuver. I just hope we can take it on the Disney buses easy...taking the Liberty on the little trams up to park was awful and it seemed that no one cared and just sat in the "wheelchair" section and we were squezzed with this large jogger stroller on our laps..it was quite the site...

 

[2specialkids]

I hope everyone had wonderful Christmas (or which ever holiday you celebrate) and a safe New Year celebrations.

It's been crazy here this last month! I love the holidays but mercy it was too much this year.

dmbfan-I didn't have any trouble with the size though we parked in the handicapped section so we walked instead of taking a tram. I felt like it fit the wheelchair aisles as good or better than our old stroller & it doesn't feel all that "long" so it worked well for us.

Now that things are slowing down here I'll try to finish up our trip report...I get really disappointed when I find one that never gets done. It's like reading a book with all the end pages missing so I won't do that to those who are reading our story.

With out further ado...

 

[buzz for boys]

wow cant wait to read more - I agree about trippies with no end - just as you get into them they vanish forever and you never know how wonderful the trip ended !!
Im a little obbssesssed with trip reports though as our trip is sooooooooooooooo long away x x x

 

[2specialkids]

The Pirates and Princesses Party was so much fun!



Mikayla and Nidra took the Deyki & Chantae wandering to see what the Princesses tables had while I took Nikolas to get his face painted. I decided he would only sit still for a moustache and it came out so cute! “Captain Nikolas” was here! (He really likes Captain Jack from the Pirates of the Carribean series.)

All three girls got made up like princesses and Deyki wore a pirate costume. They all looked so cute!

Next, Shamu and Dolly came out dressed in pirate and princess clothes. I got few minutes of really nice video of them interacting with all the kids. Mayor Clayton and Mrs. Merry were also dressed for the party and came in the cutest cars! The girls went to check out the cars and I got a good picture of them too. There were dances and the kids were presented as “Pirate…” or “Princess…”. Nikolas loved this part because they got all the kids on stage and they were the center of attention.

All too soon it was over and we headed back to our villa.

 

[pipersmom]

Suzanne..the kids look like they are having such an awesome time..I think Nikolas is smiling in every picture!! So cool that you all had the chance to hang out with Dekyi and his family too. Can't wait to read more....