Our Disney Trip to get rid of our bad karma 6/7 - 6/12

[Twingle]

That's about as catchy of a title I could come up with, but really, it's a fairly short TR, and hopefully someone will get something out of it!

First, the Kingdom of Backstory:

We went to Disney in December, 2005, and then proceeded to have the unhealthiest winter of our lives. I was in the hospital for the eleven days before Christmas with an infection in the lining of my brain, and then our little family of five did not have two healthy members to it more than one weekend in a row from January until May. Stomach flu, achey flu, strep, ear infections, colds, fever, teething, etc., etc., etc. If you could catch it, we did. If it would make you feel like crud, we had it. Twice.

So, about March I decided we HAD to go back to Disney, if we all lived through the next two months. I was able to get a Studio at OKW from June 8th until June 12th, and I know that the title says our trip was from JUNE 7TH, but I'll get to that point.

Since my DH works ungodly hours and his busiest time of the year is from May to September, he got to stay home, while my mother and I took my three kiddos to Disney. Poor guy.

So, our cast of characters is:

Moi, Twingle, starting to feel better Momma, who celebrated her 32nd birthday while at Disney, although my son felt the need to tell every cast member we encountered that my birthday was NOT until after we were HOME.

My Mom, Nana, 55 years young, spoiler of the grandchildren, whom I am close enough to that I often don't even need to speak outloud to her and she still knows what needs to be happening.

My DS, Scooter McGrooter as his sisters call him, 6 years old, wants nothing more to do on this trip but go to Tom Sawyer Island. I'll end the suspense for you now - we didn't make it there.

My twins, the LOUD ONE and the Wild One, 2 years old, did pretty well on our trip in December, other than the fact that I took them on Pirates, and every other boat ride was met with tears and loud screams of "BIG DARK BOAT!" whether it was high noon and outside or surrounded by twirling robotic children. Boats were not high on their must do list.



Wednesday, June 7th, Day One:

The plan was that my son would attend HIS last day of Kindergarten (yes, HIS last day, school did not actually end until the 9th), I would sleep, my DH would take care of the wonder twins, and then my mom would arrive after dinner and bathtime and we would go about our merry way, traveling down I-95 to the land of Magic.

Right.

In real life, Scooter McG did make it to school. And my husband did stay home and help with the wonder twins. But me sleep? Ha ha ha ha ha. Every time I was just on the verge of going to the Land of Nod, I would picture myself driving in my car and falling asleep, and whoops! I was awake. After doing that several times, I gave it up as a lost cause, and painted Mickey heads on the windows of my Suburban. I finished packing (and just let me toot my own horn about the fact I was able to bring 10 outfits for each of my twins, eight outfits for my son and myself, jammies, socks and unders in ONE tote bag. Toot, toot.) fed the kiddos, my mom arrived, we got her stuff in the car, and off we went, leaving the DH waving sadly in the garage, as he had to go to work tomorrow and not see Mickey.

We stopped about an hour from home, and got Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks coffee, because what's better than locking five people in the car for fifteen hours, three of them six years old and younger, and hopping them up on sugar? Why, adding sugar and caffeine to the adults, of course!

So, off we went, singing songs, talking about Mickey and the Gang, rolling down the highway. Nana was the map reader, and let's all be thankful that we just needed to go South on I-95 to 4, because apparently whatever driving instructor my Mother had taught her that whatever direction the car is facing is NORTH. Even if you've just done a U-turn, you're still going NORTH. But, we drove, and drove. And for something different, we drove some more. The kiddos finally passed out about midnight, and I had a grand time looking for the "Welcome to" State signs.

Yes, I drove it straight though. From Culpeper, Virginia, to the Old Key West parking lot, it took me fifteen hours. I stopped for coffee and donuts, potty break, gas break, the Wild One had a crying jag about 4 a.m. that I stopped for, and then we stopped at a Mickey D's for run around time and stayed there for close to an hour, potty break, and we were there. Whoot - whoot! My mother did drive once for about an hour while I dozed, but that was quickly put to a stop once she said she couldn't concentrate on her driving with all the big trucks around her.

So, we make it to Old Key West, without getting lost ONCE, thank you very much, and off we went to check in, even though it was only 11 in the morning.

Next up - Old Key West and why we needed to get a doctor to the room!

 

[OhMari]

Wow, weren't you tired at all driving. My husband likes to leave on vacations at 10:00 at nite on our first nite. Except, he is the one that gets up at 5:00 a.m. to go to work. So by midnight he is up over 16 hours and he usually pushes it till 2:30 and sleeps on hour on the road until I wake up and then I drive 3 hours til sunlite then he drives again. We are such road warriors.

Don't leave us hanging, who got sick?

 

[roberrl187]

I'm hooked.

 

[tripplanner2]

I am hooked too! Where is the rest??? Can't wait to read more.

 

[littleteapot]

Oh I just hate this kind of TR. When will I learn that I need to search through old archives and only read complete reports. The suspense will keep me awake at night. Great so far!

 

[jugglinfish]

More please! I'm hooked as well.

 

[Twingle]

OhMari - nope, wasn't really all that tired after driving. I was on the way to Disney! What could be more exciting than THAT!?! Childbirth, college exams, pre-wedding jitters? Nah - just get me to the Magic Kingdom! Besides, I have three children that all think they are roosters - I haven't slept past 6:00 a.m. since about 1999. Also, I'm a stay at home mommy, and I'm more accustomed to little sleep than I think a third year resident (doctor) is.

OhMari, robberl187, tripplanner2, and littleteapot, I promise this won't be the kind of TR that goes on for days and days and days. Unless my kiddos don't co-operate. Which sometimes happens. My plan is to kick this bad boy out during nap time, bed time, and when I can pawn the children off on their daddy. Honey, I've got work to do on the computer, don't cha know.

Anyways . . . .

This was our first visit to OKW. We became Disney Vacation Club Members in 2003, shortly after I found out I was expecting the twins. Which was a shock. In a big way. As in, no twins in the family for over 100 years, no fertility drugs, not trying to get pregnant kinda way. But, Disney is my A+ number one fav vacation spot and my DH was a Disney late bloomer. He went for the first time at 33, on our Honeymoon. Yes, he did have an abusive childhood. What kinda parent doesn't take that once in a lifetime trip to Disney (asks the obssessed Disney addict)? So, after much looking at the money (on his part) and much daydreaming about how many points we would need to get to Disney every 10 months or so, we purchased at Saratoga Springs, which is where we were at in December, 2005. Yes, it did take me two years to get to Disney, and am I allowed to say it sucked in a big way?

But, let's get this train back on track. Old Key West - very lovely. It made my son so happy everytime we pulled into the gate and the guard would mouth a very exaggerated "Welcome Home!".

So, we went ahead into the little check in area, even though it was just a little bit before 4:00 p.m. You know, just like five hours or so. Not much, right? And this VERY happy go lucky man (Hi Darren!) got the joyous job of checking in my gang. Which would have been a non event, if:

1) There had not been a penny squisher in the lobby.

and

2) There had not been balloons waving merrily in the breeze in the lobby.

Because, my son is all about the penny squishers. And, being as my twins think their purpose in life other than to keep me on my toes is to shadow their brother, they immediately jumped on the penny squisher band wagon. As in, everyone is now crawling up my butt for pennies, quarters, and which scene do I want squished on my penny anyway? After throwing a handful of change in the penny squisher direction, and my kiddos flocking to it like a buch of seagulls after a pretzel, I tried to turn my attention back to Darren, aka Mr. Happy Go Lucky, which I should call him because I first wrote Mr. Happy, and that didn't seem right for a family website.

In the two seconds it took me to tell him my name, the pennies were all squished. Now it came down to the balloons. My son, Mr. Polite and Sweet (really he is. I'm not the only one that says it. Perfect strangers have told me quite often what a sweet kid he is.), asks Darren if he could please have a balloon if he has one to spare, and would Darren mind if he also had one for each of his sisters? Of course we could! Pixie Dust was on our side, and my kids even got a CHOICE of what color. Which is where it all went wrong. Because the LOUD ONE could not make up her mind. Green! Mickey! No Red! Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star! NO PINK! No! I'll take the WHITE! ALABAMA! Finally Darren just threw three balloons in assorted colors my kiddos way, and said they could change them whenever. Bless him. He must not have kids.

After wishing me a Happy Birthday (which I told them I would be celebrating when I made the reservations, yes, I'm THAT kind of Disney person), I got to talk to Goofy on the phone. The real Goofy, not my DH. He wished me a Happy Birthday and even told me that he was glad I was there! *sigh* After Darren and I talked about whether or not we'd be using the bus (not! we drove, remember?), and how much time we thought we'd spend in the pool (not much! I'm here to get my Disney groove on!), he put us in building 32, room 3210, which sounded great. A studio, no upgrades for me, even though it WAS my birthday (in seven days). We got our packet of info, Darren talked me through how to get to our home, talked like Mickey Mouse for me, and we were on our way. All of this took . . . I am embarrased to say . . . . nearly one hour. Yikes! Really, there wasn't anyone behind me waiting. They all ran for the hills after watching the LOUD ONE twirl around like Cinderella with her balloon. "Grace" is not the childs middle name. Remember Fantasia? My girls are just like the ballerina hippos. But smaller. And cuter. And human.

So, off we go to find our room. Our car ride went like this: Look! There's a fountain! Look! There's a Disney Bus! Let's ride the Fun Bus (which is what we called it in December, when we had to wait *F*O*R*E*V*E*R* for the thing)! Lookit the BIG sand castle! Look there's a person! Lookit the Disney leaves on the Disney trees! Smell the Disney air! WOW!

The kids enjoyed the ride too.

Now, I've just re-read this, and really, Nana was there with the kiddos. She was just trying to keep them in the same general area. When the kiddos outnumber the adults, you have to go to a zone defense. And keep the breakables out of reach. And smaller children and animals.

I'll post later about when we actually GET to the room, and why that doctor was called. Really, it ended up okay - I'm writing the TR AFTER the fact.

 

[Twingle]

And now for:

The room, and why the doctor was called.

We find our room, no problem. I was able to park at the closest parking space, and we just went down a little sidewalk to get to our front door. We even saw a few lizards on our way, much to the childrens delight. Get to the room, it's lovely. Just what we need - beds, little fridge, sink, potty. Fab.

I unpack the car while Nana keeps an eye on the kiddos. Scooter McG turns on the Welcome Home channel, which he *loved* in December. It really takes a long time to unpack that car! Where did all this stuff come from?!? Apparently it breed while we were rolling down the highway.

Now, during this time, the Wild One is out of sorts. The one that had the crying jag at 4 a.m. She's normally my very, very sweet little lady. Not a big crier, doesn't fuss much, very easy to distract kind of child. She's now crying every time I leave the room, when someone turns off the light, when she hears a loud noise, etc. I figure she's just sleepy, everyone will take a little zizz after the car is unpacked. So, we do. At least, the girls do, and my son talks about how he'd really like to do something, anything Disney related NOW, if not sooner. The girls sleep until about 5:00 or so, and something is definately up with the Wild One. She is now channeling Grumpy, but on a much bigger scale. My lady is not a happy lady. I'm thinking, okay, she's just taken an awesome nap, maybe she's hungry? Or not sure of her surroundings? Let's go outside, and look at lizards while we wait for our pizza to arrive (since we'd ordered pizza for dinner, you see.) And what do you think happened when we all decided to go outside and look for lizards?

Why, we got locked out of our room of course.

So, we went to our neighbors next door, in room 3211. Very, very, VERY nice people. They had been upgraded from Pop, and boy were they impressed with the one bedroom! They let us in, let me call maintance, and tried to entertain my now sobbing Wild child. Didn't work.

We finally get back into our room, and knowing my kiddos the way I do, I'm pretty sure my little lady is either getting ill, or is now suffering from an ear infection. Call it the Mommy Psychic Factor. Mommies know when stuff is up. It comes with the territory.

So, I call the front desk with my now hysterical daughter in my arms, and they connect me to the East Coast Medical Network (at least, that's what it says on the paperwork. We called them the Disney Doctors.) Boy, are they ever nice! Totally sympathetic, send a doctor right to the room! THE ROOM! I felt like royalty, or a famous person. I was impressed.

The doctor arrived in what seemed like an instant - about 15 minutes. I have no memory of what his name was, and he has the typical doctor handwriting on the paperwork he gave us, so we'll just call him Dr. Fix It. Which he did. My lady had an awesome ear infection, to the point Dr. Fix It was amazed her ear drum had not ruptured. Within 30 minutes of giving her some meds, she was good to go. Yes, the doctor had the medication with him! See, Disney can fix just about anything!

By the time she was feeling better, it was pretty late. About 8:00 or so. So, since my DS needed to do SOMETHING, ANYTHING Disney related, we went to . . . the Old Key West gift shop. What's more Disney related then shopping? We purchased ice cream for all the kiddos, a few postcards, some loud Buzz Lightyear thingy for Scooter McG, and some breakfast stuff. Then back to the room went we, to get ready for nighty-night and some fun adventures tomorrow. Bedtime was a total non-issue. The kids were sleepy, as were Mom and Nana. I was a bit concerned about the ladies, as they are still in cribs at home. But, all I said was that it was time to sleep in the big beds, close your eyes and breathe deep and slow, and know what? It worked! Amazing, but true. At home, they'll sing and talk to each other for an hour after bedtime, but at Disney, they were out like lights. Thank you, Pixie Dust.

Everyone slept through the night, no problem there. Friday morning, the sun was shining like a big shining thing, the Wild One was her regular happy peppy self, and we were in DISNEY! Beautiful, beautiful day. If you were there on June 9th, wasn't it amazing? I had been very concerned about the heat and humidity while we were getting ready for the trip, because we are a pasty pale family. We glow in the dark. My husband is Scottish and I'm Polish. Our kids are screwed if they ever want a tan. Freckles we can do. Tan - not so much. On Friday, it was about 82 degress with NO humidity. That's right folks. NO humidity in Florida! Lovely way to start our trip. Because the car ride and the sick evening don't count as part of the trip, you see?

So, we're up, we're fed, we're dressed and raring to go! So, what do to first? Why, tickets of course! Off we go to downtown Disney, so I can purchase tickets for us, but not the wonder twins, as they are still "infants" and will not be "children" until September 27th.

Downtown Disney is great, we have a little snack at the McDonalds there, because we can. Why are those fruit and yogurt parfaits so big? They are not that big here in Virginia. It's like a parfait on steriods or something. Huge. The kids have a grand time playing with the little paper cups that you're supposed to put ketchup in while Nana and I have some coffee and wait for everything to open up. After checking out all the statues (my son insists that Grimace is a big chicken nugget), we head for the Service Desk. On our way we stop and look at the Lego statues, and I get a sweet picture of all three of the kids looking at the water, with SSR in the background. So nice. And then my wonder twins take off their hats and throw them over the fence. So, I got to scale the fence in Downtown Disney to fetch the hats. Fun. If you were the nice man that pointed out to me that I almost wiped out on the grass, thanks for noticing. 'Preciate that.

Made it to the Service Desk, tickets are purchased, and then my son notices the Pirate windows and such at the Disney store. Of course, he wants to go in. Nana, the amazing spoiler of granchildren, takes him in to "look", which means to "buy for" in grandma-ease. The wonder twins and I look at Stitch for a while, then they find a lovely puddle of water right next to a window by the Disney store, and have a grand time splashing and sitting in it until Big Brother and Nana are done "looking". We head for Goofy's candy store for a few sweets and a frozen drink, and they we're back on our way to OKW so I can change the ladies shorts and have a bite of lunch before we head for the Magic Kingdom.

You know all that planning you do before your trip? How you research, and post your questions, and maybe join Tour Guide Mike, just so you have all your ducks in a row? Yah, we didn't do that in December. I thought, we'll just wing it, and what happens, happens. What happened was, we had a hard time figuring where to go and what to do! So this time around, I planned. I calculated. I posted questions and I researched. I had enough planned that we would get done what we wanted to, but not so much planned that it would be a commando-Disney-or-Die trip. My agenda looked something like this:

Thursday: check in, relax for a bit, Magic Kingdom for parade and fireworks
Friday: MGM (Star Wars weekend you know) in the am, Epcot (Flower & Garden show) in the pm
Saturday: All day at Magic Kingdom, it's my "birthday" as far as Disney is concerned, and then dinner at Chef Mickey's then back to the Magic Kingdom for the parade and fireworks again
Sunday: MGM in the am, Epcot in the pm
Monday: Downtown Disney before we decide to go home

I would like you to know, that in no way, shape, form or fashion is what took place!

Once we were pack in the room, ladies now in dry clothes, pb&j's made and consumed, we were off to the Magic Kingdom! Whoo hoo! I'm not embarrased to say that I cried when I went through those pearly gates. I "needed" my Disney fix!

Later: What exactly is the correct response for when people tell you your children are sleeping in the stroller the same way?

 

[heaven2dc]

Howdy Neighbor!!! Can't believe you drove straight thru - what a road warrior and trooper you are! Awesome job (I live in Fredericksburg between Rte 3 & Courthouse Rd. We had to postpone 2 trips so far this year - one in March due to car problems then the one in Sept 06 when Mom passed away last month. We had rented points from a DVC owner who had Boardwalk views too - hopefully after July 1st I can rent from someone again who will be as lucky to get BW view again ).

So glad you got to finally take a trip after your rough winter and am really enjoying your report!

 

[gopack]

Great report!

 

[averill94]

Great report-
My mouth is still hanging open after reading" infection in the lining of my brain"

Thank goodness for that doc!

We are taking Nana for the 1st time in Oct! Cant wait!

 

[cherokeemamma]

great report.
You are one brave woman taking 3 kids under 6 to WDW!!!
Hats off to you!

 

[Twingle]

jugglin fish, heaven2dc, go pack, averill94 and cherokeemamma: welcome! glad that you've found my little TR and are enjoying it!

heaven2dc: well, HOWDY right back to ya! I know exactly where you are talking about, my DH's office is just off of Rt.3. Now, driving straight through was not the plan. The plan was, drive until I didn't want to anymore. And that time just didn't come. So, that's why we drove it straight through - I wasn't hell bent on getting there in x number of hours. So sorry about your mom and that you've had to postpone your trips - sending pixie dust your way!

averill94: yes, my sickness in December was not a pleasant time. I'd never been in the hospital before, except for when I had my babies. The doctors were stumped for several days, as I was in their words "totally healthy . . . . except for the fact that you're sick." But, I made it through and am feeling much better every day. I highly recommend bringing a Nana along. They can be HUGE assests to have at Disney!

cherokeemamma: bringing three kids under six years old was really more an act of faith than anything else. I "had" to get to Disney, and as I'm the SAHM in the group, they "had" to come with me. Besides, my kids are really pretty great kids. The wonder twins are finally starting to listen a bit . . . okay, they're starting to listen a bit more than they used to, which is a big step, believe you me. We try to raise the kiddos remembering that they are children, and will be child like at times as they should be. But also, we are raising them to contribute to society as they age, and really, what 40 year old CEO should be allowed to have a temper tantrum because his memo is not done right?

So, now on to: What exactly is the correct response for when people tell you your children are sleeping in the stroller the same way?

We've made it to the Magic Kingdom, the big one, my personal fav. Got a great parking place, walked to the TTC and decided to take the monorail since I wasn't sure if there were going to be any "BIG DARK BOAT!" flashbacks. The monorail was great, my son thinks it's the first ride of Disney. My girls were not pleased, since they were securely belted into the stroller, and couldn't see out the windows. It was okay, they got over it.

Wandered over to the bag check area, and then onto the ticket entrance. This one always throws me, because I'm afraid that someone will think I'm trying to "cheat" Disney by not purchasing tickets for the wonder twins. Really, they are just 2 1/2, but they are very tall. In December it was a total non-issue, because most people that weren't realated to them could understand what they were saying. The super nice ticket taker drums up a conversation with my ladies, and asks him how old they are. The LOUD one says "uuuhhhhhmmmmmm . . . . I don't know!" The Wild one just smiles her somewhat scary/nice smile. Then, the LOUD one says "I'm 32!" Which is pretty much the only age we've been talking about recently, since my DS is so excited that I'm now going to be an even number.

Off we go down Main Street, gawking at all the sites and soaking up that Disney essence. There was a CM selling balloons right outside of the bakery, so I purchased three, one for each of the kiddos. Not because they asked, but because I STILL remember wanting one of those when I was six (my first trip to WDW) and my parents wouldn't buy me one because they were three bucks. So, the kids got them because I wanted one twenty-six years ago. Makes perfect sense.

My DS was hot to go to either Tom Saywer Island or Buzz Lightyear, and I decided we'd go for Buzz, to see how the wonder twins felt about it. We worked our way over to Tomorrowland, and got fast passes for Buzz. While we waited, we decided to ride the Tomorrowland Transist Authority, which my DS has always liked and the ladies had never been on. I wasn't sure what they'd make of it, but figured I'd go for it! There is never a wait to ride on it, and you see all of Tomorrowland. We got right on, and my Wild one LOVES it. Her commentary was "WHEEE! This is fun! HA HA HA!" and so on. The LOUD one, on the other hand, is not impressed by the dark parts. She doesn't cry, mind you, but her commentary was "Dark tunnel. Daarrrkkkk tunnel, mama. Loooonnnnggg daarrrkkkk tunnel, mama." Until we made it back into the sunshine. And then at the next dark part it would start again.

After TTA our fast pass time was up, and off we went for Buzz. I figured that the LOUD one would be okay, since even in the dark parts of Buzz there is some glowing thing . . . . glowing in the dark. Other than us, with our pasty pale skin. I was right, she did fine. We all had a great time, spinning and shooting the targets. My son was mucho impressed with his score of 1200, up from 700 in December.

Let me now give you a brief summary of what we did after Buzz:

lots and lots of stuff.

If you need a blow-by-blow, PM me, and I'll make it as exciting for you as I can. Really, not much happened that would be exciting to anyone other than family members, and even they would have to fake it.

After a while, the ladies conked out in the stroller. And this is when the fellow Disney guest commentary comes into play. Now, let me say, I understand that twins can be a novelty. Before I had a pair myself, I was interested in seeing them when I was out and about. It's neat to see two little people that look so similar and see how they act with each other. Really, I get the interest. Since I've had the ladies, I've often been subjected to let's call them . . . . . unique comments. After almost three years, I'm still unsure of what exactly I'm supposed to say when I get the twin comments. The main ones that day at Disney were:

"aahhh, they're sleeping in the same position!"
"oohhhh, you have twins sleeping the same way!"
"wow, she looks just like her sister, and SHE looks just like HER sister!"
"gosh, do they always sleep like that?"
"they're sleeping the SAME WAY at the SAME TIME! Honey, come see this!"

there were a few more, but you get the jist. What exactly is the correct response? Yes, we've trained them to sleep the same way? YIKES - I have twins in there? Thank you, they are sleeping the same way? Yes, even at home I make them sleep in their stroller? I don't know. Usually I just smile and say yes, or thank you. No, those responses really doesn't make any sense to me either.

After a bit they woke up, and then we ate dinner at Cosmic Ray's. By this point in time, it was too late to go to Tom Sawyer Island, but I stepped around that fit waiting to happen by asking the DS if he wanted to hop over to MGM and see what Star Wars stuff might be happening. Crisis avoided.

Later: Where's all the Star Wars stuff?