No boys allowed! The birthday girl and Mom take on Disney

[Chelley00]

We still had tons of time to kill, so I told Riley we could try to ride a few things. She was all for Figment first

We actually had to wait for Figment, so I knew I was ready to go! We had fastpasses for Test Track, so we headed that way, stopping by Club Cool first.

After Test Track we made our way out of the park, stopping for one final ride on Spaceship Earth,

and then a final picture. Do we not look tired?

We got out to the rental car just as it started raining. Another reason to be glad we were leaving. We had highs in the 80's pretty much all week, and they were calling for 60's and rain from then on.

We arrived at the airport, returned the rental car and went to ticketing to print our boarding passes. When the employee asked for my ID and confirmation number, he said "I see you came business class on the way here. You can't fly home in coach after being in business class!" and gave us the free upgrade to first class on the flight home. Score again!

We had quite a bit of time before our flight left, so we worked on finishing up Riley's homework. Unfortunately I packed my cell phone in our luggage and not in my carry on so I couldn't call DH when we landed. Thankfully, a nice couple from Viriginia on their way home from a cruise let me borrow their phone when they found out so I could have DH just meet us in the airport.

Our flight home was smooth as glass. Riley finished watching UP on the laptop while I took advantage of XM radio and just relaxed.

All our boys met us at the airport, and DS5 tackled me before I had a chance to set my suitcase down. It was so good to be home!!!!



Will be back to post a couple of photopass pictures I missed, and with a few final thougths

 

[JLR]

What a wonderful report and what a good Mom you are. I really enjoyed this TR. It is helping me pass the time until my own trip.

 

[Tink9721]

That was a great report!!! It looks like you two had a lot of fun! I just got back last night from my mother daughter trip. We had a great time I wish I had gotten to ride RNR 14 times!!! I only got on once The line was at least 90 minutes both days we were at DHS. I got a fastpass around 11 AM and the return time was 7:00! Then on our second day there they were out of fastpasses and it was about 1:30. But on that same day...the TOT line was only 20 minutes! My mom can't go on TOT so I rode once in the stand-by line, then used both of our tickets to get fastpasses two different times that day. 5 rides on TOT in one day

 

[praisehisname]

Finally all caught up, and now it's over. I really enjoyed your report; thanks for writing it!

 

[Chelley00]

What a wonderful report and what a good Mom you are. I really enjoyed this TR. It is helping me pass the time until my own trip.

I can't wait to read your report!

I wish I had gotten to ride RNR 14 times!!! I only got on once

You should have went with us, and you could have ridden it with Riley while I sat and ate ice cream or something!!

Finally all caught up, and now it's over. I really enjoyed your report; thanks for writing it!

I enjoyed writing it. I try and get the report done so I can reference while scrapping!




I've been trying to make it back for a few final comments, but I've been in and out of the hospital for the last 2 weeks because of a kidney stone! Who knew those could be so horrible! Mine was almost 6mm, which apparently is pretty big, and I had to postpone getting it blasted because I'm on blood thinners for an autoimmune disorder that can cause clots and had to be off of them for 7 days. I spent 4 nights in the hospital after 4 ER visits to try and get the pain under control. I finally had to have a stint placed, then got to come home for a weekend and had the sound wave blasting last Monday. It was a little crazy here for awhile. I'm still tired and sore, but feeling so much better than I was. Now I'm ready to finish our scrapbook and our trip report!

 

[Chelley00]

Riley and I had a goal....to ride EVERY ride. I didn't realize she meant "rides that move" and not every attraction/show. A little miscommunication on our part, but once we got home, we went through her journals and the list of attractions on Allears.net and realized, we didn't do too bad at all if you take the non-moving stuff out!

The stuff we missed


Magic Kingdom
Astro Orbiter (have no idea how we missed it!)
Liberty Riverboat
Stitch's Great Escape (was down both time we tried!)

DHS
American Idol
Indiana Jones
Lights Motors Action
One Man's Dream

Epcot
Honey I Shrunk the Audience (Riley REFUSES to watch it)


Animal Kingdom - we had a second day planned, but the bus stop was busy and we were tired so we skipped it. This is my biggest regret of the trip!

Festival of the Lion King
Finding Nemo
Its Tough to be a Bug
Kali River Rapids




Everything else we rode at least once, and I'm happy to say that all the rides/shows/attractions we missed on this trip, we've experienced on another trip, so we can safely say we have ridden every ride, seen every show/parade/movie/attraction at Walt Disney World!!!

 

[Chelley00]

What I'd do again:

Stay at AKL and splurge on the savannah view room. Well worth the money and Riley LOVED it. We had no problems with busses, food court, check in or check out, mousekeeping etc. Our stay there was pretty much perfect. Also, the look on Riley's face when I surprised her with staying there instead of CBR was priceless!

Pirate League makeover. Riley thought it one of the best parts of her trip. She got lots of souveniers from it to bring home, and she got a lot of attention.

Let Riley call the shots (for the most part) We did a lot more downtime swimming and resort exploration than I would have never planned since I'm so park commando, but letting Riley dictate those things made it for a nicer, more relaxed vacation.

Pins! Riley loved buying and trading pins. I started her out with 4 and had I known, I would have bought more and encouraged her to trade more. It was a good lesson in eye contact and approaching CM's and speech as well, as Riley can be a little shy and introverted if you let her.

Coral Reef and Fulton's. Riley still talks about this meal, and her dinner at Fultons. Fultons made her feel all grown up and very special, and she loved eating near the fish at Coral Reef.

The birthday shirts made for Riley. She got a lot of attention and special birthday wishes because of them. She was almost sick of people wishing her Happy Birthday by the end of the trip! It was just an extra touch that helped make her birthday special.

Had our photopass taken every day. We do this every trip, and I use it on the scrap page for each day with park map etc. It's fun to see how we looked each day, what the weather was like, which park we went to when etc.

Ordered from Garden Grocer. It was a little more expensive than if I would have shopped myself, but having someone else shop, deliver it and bring it to our room was so well worth it. It was nice to have breakfast items in the morning, bottled water and fruit in the room whenever we needed it, especially on the last few days when we no longer had the dining plan.






Things I'd skip if we did it again

The dining plan. It was just too much food for us, but it was nice to have everything paid for in advance. We ended up wasting some snack credits, and a couple of meals we really couldn't eat because we were too stuffed.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. It was okay, but not really worth the money. The parade was cute, but just so so. Now, I'd do the Halloween party any day. We enjoyed it way more, the atmosphere is so much more exciting and it just seems like we had way better of a time at the Halloween parties than we did for the Christmas party. I wish instead we would have gone to the campfire at Fort Wildnerness, or just finished all the bead activities at AKL and went swimming again.

Sci Fi. Riley hated the campy horror clips, and the food was just not that good. The atmosphere was cute, but it just wasn't great.

The basket from memoriesbybetsy.com It was cute and Riley enjoyed it, but it was more stuff I had to try and cram in our suitcase to fly home, and it was expensive.

We would have flown home on Saturday instead of Sunday. Sunday was the Sunday before Thanksgiving so everything was super busy starting Saturday. The airport was really busy. We also got back late Sunday night and getting up for school/work on Monday morning was not fun!

Skip the rental car! It was a total waste of money! We were perfectly fine with the AKL busses, and I'm sure we would have been fine with Magical Express too.

Scheduled later dinners. I don't think we were truely hungry for dinner at 5-6pm every night, especially after such large lunches on the dining plan.

 

[ToriPeanut]

great report!

are you going back again this year??

 

[pipersmom]

I don't know how I missed your updates before hon, but I loved your TR. It was so cool reading about another mother/daughter team doing the world! I like the list of things you would/would not do over again as well. Looking fwd to seeing the photopass piccies when you get them!

 

[MeMom]

This was a wonderful report! Letting it all be about Riley was excellent, Mom. I can't wait to take my grandchildren when they are a bit older and let it all be about them one kid at a time.

We had our last meal of the Christmas trip at AKL. We visit nearly every trip and dream of staying there someday.

Thanks for sharing your pictures and your mother-daughter fun with us.

 

[Luvamouse]

Love these pics! She is so beautiful! I loved the caption in the Pirate's League one That's how I got to your trip report-- it is one of the best I've read! You are so funny and did a great job on balancing so many great pics with great captions!

Eyes next, in prostitute blue

 

[2littleprincesses]

Loved, loved, loved your trip report. Just wondering about the shirts you had. I love the pirate one for the pirate's league. Did you design it?

Also, more info on the pirate's league for girls. Do you know the pricing? How about the pink and black dress--how much was that? Thanks so much. Your daughter is great!!!

 

[reyasmommy]

I Love the close up of Sully. Too Cute!

Kudos to you for riding RNRC so many times. I LOVE that ride, but once is enough for me. I find myself with a slight headache and a little dizzy every time I get off. Couldn’t imagine going as many times as you did.

I too love ToT at night. I love that ride anytime, but especially at night. And I love how the building glows at night, so neat!

That sucks that Riley was feeling so crumby on your last day. Poor thing!

I understand the crowd thing. We were there from march 4th-14th. We chose that time so we could skip the spring break crowd. The crowds were light until our last full day. It was INSANE!! I’ve never seen Disney like that before. During our entire trip we mostly at 5 minute wait times, but on our last day it took us over an hour to get from where to pay to park to the front gates. I think we waited for 30 minutes just to get on the monorail. I will never ever going during spring break.

That’s so awesome that you were upgraded on your flight home. SCORE!

Thanks for sharing your report and pictures!

 

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Hey!!! Sorry I have not been on her for a long time...home took me away!! I read through the whole report and it was great!! You guys got so much done and had a great trip!!! When's the next one?

 

[Kellybelly777]

"Until Disney had to come along and throw out some new deals....specifically a Buy 4 nights get 3 free. That put Animal Kingdom Lodge within my budgeted amount for out trip. After going back and forth for days, I bit the bullet and booked it.

But didn't tell my daughter....


Dear Riley,

We know how much you love animals and thought maybe you'd like to stay here instead of the other hotel. Hope you enjoy it and take part in some of the animal activities when you aren't at the parks. We love you.

Mickey and Minnie
(and Daddy and Mommy too)"

That is such a smart and nice ideafor your daughter!!! this was clearly an amazing trip!!!

 

[jillianml]

subbing

 

[praisehisname]

So sorry you've been feeling cruddy. Is the kidney stone gone now?

 

[BippityBoo]

Your daughter looked precious after her Pirates transformation! So cute!!

PS: If you want, hop on over an sub to my TR! We both have 7 year old girls! I love the idea of a mother daughter trip

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2374556

 

[Chelley00]

Someone asked a page back when we were going again. As of today, we're going back in October! Totally unexpected! Come join our new pretrip journal and help me plan!!!!


http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2509040