Our Christmas Gift Trip!

[mrp4352]

Hallo all! No, we didn't go over Christmas to the World (well, Mom and I did, but that is a different trippie for a different day). No, this Christmas by brother (Scott), his lovely wife (Kassie), my Mom and I all decided that for our Christmas gifts to each other, we would take my two nieces to Disney World for a long weekend in February! Works out rather well - Scott and Kassie used DVC points to put us up in Wilderness Lodge, Mom bought tickets and dining package and I provided airfare (yup, I'm an airline Employee and luv it, and the perks I get!). Best of all Alyssa and Allison got to go to Disney World!

So, quick intros all around since I've already managed to throw you into the middle of everything without proper explanations.

Me - Aunt Shell, the single aunt ready to spoil at a moments notice (and ready to hand back at the strangest smell)
Mom - the single Nana who is ready to spoil at a moments notice (and doesn't seem to mind the strange smells)
Scott - my younger brother, who (don't tell him has turned into a wonderful husband and father
Kassie (pronouced Casey) - my sister-in-law, she's been a close friend of the family since her older brothers were in high school band with Scott
Alyssa - Scott's oldest, 3 1/2, and all grown up already
Allison - 18 months and darlin', but trouble waiting to happen

So, Thursday morning, Feb 1st, I rose at an unbelievably early hour to find that Mom can barely make it out of bed, much less try to go on an airplane. So, I quickly repack my stuff into a smaller suitcase and run out the door. I met Scott and Alyssa, we checked our bags and made it through security without any problems. (Kassie had already purchased a ticket to fly out that evening with Allison because of work commitments.) Luckily we had decided to go on an earlier flight, the flight we originally had planned to take ended up being cancelled! A short, very bumpy, flight on a blue airplane and we are in San Antonio , dining on pizza and sandwiches. (Alyssa had a “pickle” sandwich she had made her mother pack for her, it was actually summer sausage, but she was fixated on the pickle part of it).

We hopped on board our second flight (‘a yellow one’) and off we went – this flight was much smoother. Alyssa watched her video and colored for a while, then settled in for a nap as soon as we started to descend. Her timing’s not what we would have liked, but it worked. Our pilot actually got us in 20 minutes early, so we were getting on our Magic Express bus when we should have been landing!

Alyssa enjoyed the video on the way to the ‘lodge home.’ We were the third stop and very ready to get up once we were there. We checked in (my room wasn’t ready yet), dropped our gear in Scott’s room and headed to Roaring Fork for a snack. We split some chicken fingers and fries and got our refillable mugs. We also got to participate in a kids activity – cookie decorating! They had plenty of cookies, so the nice lady let Scott and I decorate and eat cookies too.

Then we piled into a bus for MGM, grabbed a boat for the Swan and Dolphin and walked across a street to play mini-golf at Fantasia Gardens! Ummm, no clue who won. We played about 12 holes (skipping some to bypass slower parties, skipping others to get out of the way of groups on our tail) and Alyssa helped us get our balls in the holes. She had the pretty purple ball – that was magical! On one of the holes, Scott was helping her and they managed to knock the ball into the brush – and can you believe it? The grass turned her ball green! She told people about her magic golf ball the whole trip – and it was so funny. You could see the gears turning in their heads while they figured out what must have happened.

We were going to try to make it back to watch Wishes from the TTC, but the Magic Kingdom bus was slow in arriving at the Swan. When it did, we were treated to a bunch of families going to the Pirate and Princess party - they were all dolled up and looking spectacular! Since we missed Wishes, we hopped the boat back to our hotel and had dinner at Whispering Canyon . Good food, lots of fun, pictures of Scott doing the hokey pokey and Alyssa in the wooden horse race. After dinner, we rode the boat to the Contemporary and caught a monorail to the TTC (front section and co-pilots licenses all around!). We found a lovely little place with a great view of the Pirate and Princess party fireworks – very cool! Lots of pretty hearts and mean frowny faces in the fireworks. We were exhausted at this point, especially Alyssa, so we took the monorail to the MK and caught a boat back home. My room was ready, so I went and collapsed into bed – as Alyssa also did, evidently.

Kassie made it in about 2:30 – the flights out of Dallas were delayed because it had snowed Thursday afternoon, and flights into Orlando were rough because of the cold front/storms/tornados. But, she and Allison made it in safely and were able to sleep in the next morning…

 

[mrp4352]

I woke about 8 to news of the horrible storms and tornados. The plan was for Scott to call and give me a 45 minute warning before heading out. So, I watched some tv, checked in with Mom who still felt she was on her deathbed, had my poptarts and coffee and was quite ready to go by 11 (when they were ready).

We piled into a boat (love that!) and headed to the Magic Kingdom . Straight to Pecos Bills for lunch, then onto Pirates. Scott and Kassie had to work very hard, but finally convinced Alyssa to ride. She made it through with flying colors after finding all the animals. Allison, however, wasn’t too sure about it. She just stared with big eyes the whole time. So, while there were no shouts of joy and laughter, there were no tears either – we deemed it successful!

Off to Small World (Scott and Kassie very wisely decided that Haunted Mansion would probably be too much right then), and after grabbing Peter Pan fast passes, we rode the carousel and watched Philharmagic. After our spin over London , the girls were ready for naps, so we headed back to the room. I decided to go with them. I knew I wouldn’t nap, but I was trying to fight off the cold, so I decided the downtime would be smart.

After naps, we had to run, run, run to Epcot – where we slid in the door of Coral Reef about 5 minutes after our reservation. But, they let us in. Unfortunately, this was about our worst dining experience of the trip. It was very loud in there (we decided that was because we were on the second row); our server was not friendly (“It’s written down right here, you ordered the vinaigrette, not blue cheese dressing.” “The ice cream doesn’t come with the kids meal you ordered – you’ll have to pay for it.” – but that’s ok, I paid for the ice cream and made him get a manager to use my Dining Experience card discount for that $1.99 bowl of ice cream that was pure joy for Alyssa); and worst of all, the food wasn’t very good. But, thanks to the dining plan – it was free!

After dinner, we got our Extra Magic Hours bracelets and headed out to the lagoon for Illuminations seats. We got right next to a fence in Canada - not bad for 20 minutes 'til show time. After the spectacular show, we let the crowd thin a little, then headed over to the Living Seas to ride Nemo. We walked right on! And Alyssa really enjoyed playing in the Finding Nemo section after the ride.

We stopped to visit the characters on our way out to the bus. Pretty much had them to ourselves - I wonder why more people don't visit the character connection? And then we were home and collapsed into bed by 11:30!

 

[mrp4352]

I woke up and lounged until I got the “45-minute warning” call. However, this one ended up being a 15 minute warning… So after a whirlwind getting ready, we were off to Epcot for our meal with the Mouse at the Garden Grill. We were seated on the lower level of a stationary restaurant. Hmmm, the rainforest section is awfully loud. We ended up seeing all the characters about 3 times and eating until we were stuffed to the gills! They’ve changed the dessert since I ate their last September, it’s now a vanilla bread pudding with Irish Cream flavored whipped cream. And both the girls played and played with their gummy worms, but would NOT put them in their mouths!

Scott had grabbed Soarin’ fast passes for us before the meal, so he, Alyssa and I headed off for our flight. Alyssa just popped right up into the seat, let Scott buckle her in and flew sitting Indian-style!

We wandered over to the Imagination pavilion next, Allison grabbed my hand and walked (pulled) the whole queue line with me, then toddled right on into the car pulling me along. I looked at Scott and he said, “Sure” so I got to ride with Allison! She cuddled in close when it got dark or when the wind blew really hard, but even with that made it through the ride with shining colors and a very, very happy auntie! We came out and decided to take a major restroom break (everyone stopped, including diaper change for Allison – vs. a minor stop where one or two of us would run in quickly).

When I came out, everyone was watching this squirrel. It seems that they had watched him crawl up onto a rented stroller and start rummaging around in the pocket on the back (yes, Scott tried twice to scare him away, but he wasn’t scared). Suddenly, this cone of pecans pops out of the back pocket and the squirrel grabs it and pulls it about 15 feet away and starts stuffing himself. When he’s finally as full as can be, he starts grabbing nuts and burying them in the ground for later!

After figuring out we don’t have anyway to leave the poor family a message telling them that their nuts had been stolen by a 4-legged thief, we headed off to Energy. But we didn’t make it there. Allison started getting very, very sleepy. So, rather than trying to haul her out of the stroller just as she fell asleep, we decided to walk around the World Showcase. And we had such success with this method of putting little one to sleep - NOT! She talked and chattered the whole way around, even hung upside down out of the side of her stroller for a while - all in the name of "Staying Awake." But it was a lovely walk and a beautiful day (although the temperature was a bit brisk).

We ended up in Mouse Gears where Alyssa got to spend some of her piggy bank money on any piece of candy she wanted. Of course, she chose the lollypop that’s bigger than her head! But Scott would break off pieces of it for her throughout the rest of the day and she was as happy as a clam with it. (Not to mention, awfully cute holding it.) I do have to tell you - there was absolutely no flavor in the piece I had; if you're a lollypop afficiando, don't waste your money on one of these babies.

We decided to ride Spaceship Earth before heading to the Magic Kingdom . Allison finally gave up the fight and was asleep before the top of the first hill. She slept all the way through the monorail and ferry boat ride to the Magic Kingdom ! A nice, long nap. During which, I got the magic call from Mom - she was feeling better and on her way! She hoped to land around 10:30 that night! YEA!! It had been so rotten after all our planning and scheming about the trip that she hadn't been able to join us. At least she was going to get one full day with us.

Scott left us at the MK to go back to the hotel for coats and blankets – it was decidedly colder than we had thought it would be and the girls were already wearing everything we had with us and the sun hadn’t gone down yet! Kassie and I headed to Casey’s for corn dog nuggets, then we rode the TTA before meeting Scott at the hat shop. 4 pairs of ears (with personalization) later we stepped out and found a spot right on the rope for Spectro (which was starting in half an hour). We did have to break out some of the rain gear, but it wasn’t too bad and it stopped right as the parade started, which made things much more comfortable.

After the parade, we headed against the crowd up to the front of the castle. I just grabbed the back of Scott’s coat and brought up the tail of our group. I was willing to give it up and stay put about halfway down Main Street, but they kept pulling me along. It was almost worth the crowd to stand where we did for the fireworks. We were on the Main Street side of the Partners statue – about 15 feet away, perfectly centered on the castle. FANTASTIC!

After the fireworks, we headed out – the park was open another half hour, but we decided to try and beat the crowd out. Of course, we did stop at the Main Street Bakery on the way out – can I tell you how good the banana nut bread pudding is? WOW! We got on board our boat (unfortunately outside, but better outside than waiting for the next boat). The timing should have been perfect, we should have gotten back to our hotel about 5 minutes before the Electrical Water Pageant. However, because of the way they work it at night, we ended up following the EWP over to the other side of the Contemporary. Which would have been fine, except it CRAWLS through the water. The 5 minute boat trip took about 15 (remember - we're sitting outside in the wind). And then, because the pageant was about to play at our hotel, our boat driver had to reverse directions and take the boat to Fort Wilderness first – which meant we missed the water pageant at our hotel…

Oh well, we did finally make it back to the hotel. I dropped the kids at their room, grabbed my book and snack, went down to the snack bar to refill my mug, then settled in to wait for Mom to get in! She made it in about 11:30 and we tumbled into bed about 12:30.

 

[mrp4352]

We had to get up Sunday morning, after all, the royal invitation specified an 8:50 arrival. So, bright and early we were up and on the way to the Magic Kingdom – where we got to bypass all the people waiting to get in and got Main Street practically to ourselves! We got pictures of our family in front of the castle with no one else in the shot. I don't think I've ever done that before.

It was very cold and windy, and we got to wait outside in line until about 9. Then we were brought into the waiting room where it took Cindy a good 10 minutes to come in to greet everyone. But she finally came in, ooh’d and ahh’d over all the kids, smiled lovely for our picture and shoo’d us upstairs for breakfast. Which was every bit as good as I remembered from last May. And I must admit, the new weapons (read: wands) for the little girls are really nice, soft plastic edges, and pale blue; much better than the pokey stars on thin wooden dowels. We had several visitors – Snow White (“Oh, are you named Bashful? I have a good friend named Bashful, too.”), Belle (she was the ‘smile, pose, move on’ of the group unfortunately), Jasmine (so sweet and beautiful), and the Fairy Godmother (who called Allison on being a chipmunk that morning – she poked her cheeks and said, “I think you’ve got enough food in there to last all winter”). Our server was very good, present when we needed him and gone when we didn’t.

With full bellies and happy hearts, we headed off to the carousel and Small World. We wandered over to get Buzz Lightyear fast passes, then rode the TTA and Carousel of Progress. Then Alyssa turned to Kassie and said, “I think I need to go back to the Lodge Home and take a nap.” Well, who can refuse that? So, Scott and family headed back for naps. Mom and I used the Buzz Lightyear fastpasses (why let ‘em go to waste??). We went over to ride Pirates, but it was closed and then we found out that they don’t do the Pirate show on Sundays. So, we grabbed Dole Whip floats and headed back to the Lodge Home for some down time ourselves.

Scott called us from the bus stop at the hotel, but we weren’t able to make it down before the bus got there. So we caught the next one and met them at MGM for the Great Movie Ride, some dinner (unexciting) and Fantasmic. Alyssa started sitting with her Nana, but moved up to sit with her Mommy during the villains part. Allison just sat with big eyes on her Daddy’s lap. But they both made it through and were really happy when Mickey came out at the end.

We decided to hop a bus to the monorail hotels. Then we hopped a monorail to the Magic Kingdom for Extra Magic Hours. And, yes, you know it’s coming, we went to Fantasyland. However, we did go by way of the TTA in Tomorrowland. Actually, Kassie and I went for drinks while everyone else rode it. Then we stopped at the tea cups – Alyssa really wanted to ride, so Nana and I volunteered. Afterwards, we loaded her up in the stroller, gave her the camera and got a very interesting 36 picture photo essay of a child’s view of the walk from the Tea Cups to the Carousel. They’re fun. Lots of shoes, backs of knees, bushes…

Allison wasn’t entirely convinced she wanted to ride anything. So we left the strollers at the carousel, but went over to Small World. After that, she remembered how much she loves to go! It was off to the carousel and Dumbo. We wanted to try to get some milk for the girls, so we headed towards Frontierland and ended up at the Carpets. It was getting close to closing time and the girls were obviously tired, so we went up to the Emporium for a little shopping on the way out. (Side note: have you seen the amazingly beautiful Minnie dresses for the Year of a Million Dreams? They have fiberoptics in the skirt so it shimmers - beautiful!! however, even Nana had to say no to a $100 dress)

I think we dropped into bed at 12:30.

Unfortunately, we had to get up Monday morning, too. We needed to pack before our 8:50 breakfast at Whispering Canyon . That place has the BEST breakfast! (well, maybe not quite as good as Cindy’s, but a whole lot less expensive) And the girls got to race stick horses, sing “If You’re Happy and You Know It” and eat fresh fruit. They were happy campers. After breakfast, we said goodbye to Kassie and Allison – they were heading to Downtown Disney before going to the airport, their pickup time was 1 and ours was 11:30.

We did a little shopping at the hotel before it was time to catch the bus and fly home. We had a wonderful trip - it made a great Christmas gift for each other and I know that Nana and Aunt Shell are hoping it's maybe one we start giving every year! (although we did all agree that this one wasn't long enough...)


PS - dear mods, I tried to post directly into completed trip reports since I knew I was getting it all in tonight. But I'm afraid I couldn't figure out how. Would you please move me over there? Many, many thanks!

 

[DebIreland]

Just getting started on part 1 but had to stop to say, wonderful so far!. Off to read the rest now, "strange smells" and all.