Cast of characters: Me (DH), Jennifer (DW), Madeleine/Maddie (DD6), Charlotte/Lottie (DD3), Greyson (DS.2, 10 weeks old)
Beach Club Villas: September 11 - September 19, 2004
(I'll post a trip report for Day 0 (our travel and check-in day) shortly. This trip report is for our first full day.)
We start our vacation with Sea World today. We havent been here since September 2002. We buy Disney annual passes every two years and fit 3 of 4 vacations every two years onto those annual passes (we visit Jan and Sep every year). That means one vacation every other year we vacation without Disney annual passes and take the opportunity to visit non-Disney parks. I feel like a heretic when I do, but it's good to see other parks every once in a while. This trip is the one every other year when we do not have an annual pass. So we are planning on three days in the parks: Sea World, Islands of Adventure, and (of course) Magic Kingdom. (We're also doing Typhoon Lagoon for the first time.) The rest of the time will be spent hanging out in Stormalong Bay.
I wanted to leave our room at 8AM this morning to get a jump on the crowds at Sea World. We left our room at around 8:03 and I told my wife we were already behind schedule. She was feeling good about being "only three minutes late" so I fibbed and told her that when I said that I wanted to leave at 8 AM, I MEANT leaving Disney property at 8 AM, not just our hotel room. (Don't worry, she always sees right through me.) You have to keep the wife on her toes sometimes otherwise you won't leave the room until noon one day!
We ate breakfast in the car, parked in preferred parking, bought tickets and were waiting at the rope-drop at 8:50. No too bad huh? We ran right to the dolphin feeding pool, but had to wait until the fish window opened to buy the dolphins their breakfast. While we were waiting, we went to the underwater viewing area. Lottie had never seen one of these before. She was hesitant as she approached the glass and asked if she could touch it. I think she was afraid that the water would come crashing in if she disrupted the force field! The dolphins were really playful and we were the only ones down there. They put on a good show for us. Some were even tussling with one another.
Then I heard dogs behind us. Two Sea World trainers were walking about 7 dogs on leashes and decided to bring them to see the dolphins. (These were dogs from SW's Pet Show. The dolphins were very curious about those dogs and many came up to the glass to examine them.) Well my girls LIVE with a dog and see other dogs EVERY day. They do NOT live with dolphins nor do they see them every day. What do you think captured their enthusiasm?...They were just thrilled to see the dogs and spent about 5 minutes petting them. They didn't give the dolphins another glance.
We knew the fish window was open when the dolphins disappeared, so we headed back upstairs to feed the dolphins. I bought 4 trays of fish (3 fish in each tray) for $16. It lasted about 37 seconds before one single dolphin had conned my precious girls out of their fish by promising them affection. His end of the bargain went unfulfilled. As soon as the fish were gone, so was he. I used the event to teach my DD6 that boys are just like that in High School and college and to just steer clear of them until she's about 25. She just cried "Oh Daaaaaaad!"
Oh well, the girls did enjoy it and 37 seconds of fun is worth $16 bucks....isn't it?
We headed to the 10AM dolphin show and I made the mistake of pulling out two tubes of Disney Princess Chap Stix for the girls. They didn't have pockets so I had to hold them. But all day long, DD3 kept asking for her "blue lipstick." Dolphins are jumping 55 feet in the air, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?" An otter steals a treasure map, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?" Penguins are flying through the water, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?" Shamu throws his trainer half-way across the pool, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?"
When we first came to Sea World 4 years ago, when my DD6 was only 2, she was completely disinterested in the dolphin show too. We were first time parents at the time and had visions of our little girl being enchanted with the flying dolphins and shrieking "Thank you Mommy and Daddy for the best time of my life! I love you so much!" What we got was a two year-old more interested in our camcorder than with the flying dolphins. We thought our daughter might be defective, but have since come to learn that children are just that way sometimes.
So when DD3 was so obsessed with blue lipstick this time around, we took it all in stride. We are such mature and wise parents now.
Next was the Clyde and Seamore Sea Lion show. We missed most of the hilarious mime pre-show. We entered the stadium and saw him coming so we quickly ran up the nearest set of stairs. I feared he might be onto us, but he found other victims. So we escaped the mime degradation. I was thankful and sat down to enjoy others getting mocked. Mockery is more fun when it is happening to others and not to you, don't you think?
The girls did enjoy the show and laughed quite a bit. DD6 did seem to enjoy the shows a bit more than DD3 and I was thankful to be past the camcorder-affection phase with her. It's worth it all when you see your little girl thoroughly enjoying a show that you've enjoyed for years and enjoyed when you were a child yourself.
Well, DD6 may be past her I'll-focus-on-anything-but-the-show phase now, but she is now at the stage where she thinks vacation is all about shopping. (Her Mom seems to be stuck in this phase as well.) DD6 kept wanting to shop, her money was burning a hole in her Hello Kitty plastic wallet. A few months ago I told DD6 that I would match all the money she saved to bring on vacation so she started hording money. I could see my matching promise could get very expensive for me. I needed her to start spending money before vacation so I wouldn't have to match it. So I kept taking her into stores and dangling shiny things in front of her. But she' smarter than that and hung on to her money for Disney. She brought down $43 dollars. With my matching, she'll have $86 to spend. And she didn't want to wait a minute longer.
She found a pretty blue bracelet for $6.50 and was happy to finally be spending her money. We ate at the wood-fired pizza place at SW's new oceanfront area. It's a nice area reminiscent of World Showcase in a way. It has restaurants and shops and I think it's the main staging area for their nighttime fireworks spectacular. I think they did a pretty good job with this area. The restaurant was very nice inside and the food was very good (for what is was).
We then headed over to see the Shamu show and then headed out of the park around 2PM. It was getting very hot and naptime was getting closer. We prefer to just stay in parks for about 1/2 day so we don't over-do it too much. We got back to our 1-bedroom villa at the Beach Club Villas, ate a snack, and then fell into bed for a nap...a three hour nap.
We jump out of bed at 6:15 PM and head down to Stormalong Bay. DD6, DD3, and I float around the lazy river a few times. We really have a good time, but DD3 won't let go of me even though she has a vest float on. In all honesty, her trepidation about being in the pool with that vest on is my fault. We tried out the vest in a friend's pool in July. I strapped her into it and just threw her in the pool. (I get my sensitivity around pools from my Dad who once pushed my Mom into our pool five minutes before their dinner-party guests were to arrive.) She bobbed, and spun, and flipped,...and panicked. She was very upset with me for doing that to her. When I finally rescued her she gave me a mouthful. She spoke truth to power that day!
My wife and DS came down a few minutes later, so she watched the girls play in the shallow pool and I was free to float around the lazy river by myself. This is one of my favorite parts of vacation. I hang onto a noodle and just float around and around. I was basically all alone in the lazy river. I laid my head back and just enjoyed the underwater sounds and watched the backlit leaves against the navy sky as I floated by. Very relaxing.
Somehow, DD6's innate sense of when Daddy is more relaxed than Daddy's-of-three-little-kids are supposed to be found me and asked to go down the big slide on the shipwreck. We did so 4 times and really had a great time. We closed down Stormalong Bay at 8PM and headed to the Beaches and Cream restaurant. We got dinner and ice cream and ate outside on the tables. We really had a good time together as a family. The girls were well-behaved and polite. And Greyson was sleeping. We lingered for about an hour and headed back when we heard the Illumination fireworks start.
Back at the room, we took showers and tucked the girls into bed. A GREAT first day of vacation. It doesn't get any better than this!
Tomorrow: DD6 goes on a Pirate Adventure.
Beach Club Villas: September 11 - September 19, 2004
(I'll post a trip report for Day 0 (our travel and check-in day) shortly. This trip report is for our first full day.)
We start our vacation with Sea World today. We havent been here since September 2002. We buy Disney annual passes every two years and fit 3 of 4 vacations every two years onto those annual passes (we visit Jan and Sep every year). That means one vacation every other year we vacation without Disney annual passes and take the opportunity to visit non-Disney parks. I feel like a heretic when I do, but it's good to see other parks every once in a while. This trip is the one every other year when we do not have an annual pass. So we are planning on three days in the parks: Sea World, Islands of Adventure, and (of course) Magic Kingdom. (We're also doing Typhoon Lagoon for the first time.) The rest of the time will be spent hanging out in Stormalong Bay.
I wanted to leave our room at 8AM this morning to get a jump on the crowds at Sea World. We left our room at around 8:03 and I told my wife we were already behind schedule. She was feeling good about being "only three minutes late" so I fibbed and told her that when I said that I wanted to leave at 8 AM, I MEANT leaving Disney property at 8 AM, not just our hotel room. (Don't worry, she always sees right through me.) You have to keep the wife on her toes sometimes otherwise you won't leave the room until noon one day!
We ate breakfast in the car, parked in preferred parking, bought tickets and were waiting at the rope-drop at 8:50. No too bad huh? We ran right to the dolphin feeding pool, but had to wait until the fish window opened to buy the dolphins their breakfast. While we were waiting, we went to the underwater viewing area. Lottie had never seen one of these before. She was hesitant as she approached the glass and asked if she could touch it. I think she was afraid that the water would come crashing in if she disrupted the force field! The dolphins were really playful and we were the only ones down there. They put on a good show for us. Some were even tussling with one another.
Then I heard dogs behind us. Two Sea World trainers were walking about 7 dogs on leashes and decided to bring them to see the dolphins. (These were dogs from SW's Pet Show. The dolphins were very curious about those dogs and many came up to the glass to examine them.) Well my girls LIVE with a dog and see other dogs EVERY day. They do NOT live with dolphins nor do they see them every day. What do you think captured their enthusiasm?...They were just thrilled to see the dogs and spent about 5 minutes petting them. They didn't give the dolphins another glance.
We knew the fish window was open when the dolphins disappeared, so we headed back upstairs to feed the dolphins. I bought 4 trays of fish (3 fish in each tray) for $16. It lasted about 37 seconds before one single dolphin had conned my precious girls out of their fish by promising them affection. His end of the bargain went unfulfilled. As soon as the fish were gone, so was he. I used the event to teach my DD6 that boys are just like that in High School and college and to just steer clear of them until she's about 25. She just cried "Oh Daaaaaaad!"
Oh well, the girls did enjoy it and 37 seconds of fun is worth $16 bucks....isn't it?
We headed to the 10AM dolphin show and I made the mistake of pulling out two tubes of Disney Princess Chap Stix for the girls. They didn't have pockets so I had to hold them. But all day long, DD3 kept asking for her "blue lipstick." Dolphins are jumping 55 feet in the air, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?" An otter steals a treasure map, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?" Penguins are flying through the water, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?" Shamu throws his trainer half-way across the pool, "Daddy, can I have my blue lipstick?"
When we first came to Sea World 4 years ago, when my DD6 was only 2, she was completely disinterested in the dolphin show too. We were first time parents at the time and had visions of our little girl being enchanted with the flying dolphins and shrieking "Thank you Mommy and Daddy for the best time of my life! I love you so much!" What we got was a two year-old more interested in our camcorder than with the flying dolphins. We thought our daughter might be defective, but have since come to learn that children are just that way sometimes.
So when DD3 was so obsessed with blue lipstick this time around, we took it all in stride. We are such mature and wise parents now.
Next was the Clyde and Seamore Sea Lion show. We missed most of the hilarious mime pre-show. We entered the stadium and saw him coming so we quickly ran up the nearest set of stairs. I feared he might be onto us, but he found other victims. So we escaped the mime degradation. I was thankful and sat down to enjoy others getting mocked. Mockery is more fun when it is happening to others and not to you, don't you think?
The girls did enjoy the show and laughed quite a bit. DD6 did seem to enjoy the shows a bit more than DD3 and I was thankful to be past the camcorder-affection phase with her. It's worth it all when you see your little girl thoroughly enjoying a show that you've enjoyed for years and enjoyed when you were a child yourself.
Well, DD6 may be past her I'll-focus-on-anything-but-the-show phase now, but she is now at the stage where she thinks vacation is all about shopping. (Her Mom seems to be stuck in this phase as well.) DD6 kept wanting to shop, her money was burning a hole in her Hello Kitty plastic wallet. A few months ago I told DD6 that I would match all the money she saved to bring on vacation so she started hording money. I could see my matching promise could get very expensive for me. I needed her to start spending money before vacation so I wouldn't have to match it. So I kept taking her into stores and dangling shiny things in front of her. But she' smarter than that and hung on to her money for Disney. She brought down $43 dollars. With my matching, she'll have $86 to spend. And she didn't want to wait a minute longer.
She found a pretty blue bracelet for $6.50 and was happy to finally be spending her money. We ate at the wood-fired pizza place at SW's new oceanfront area. It's a nice area reminiscent of World Showcase in a way. It has restaurants and shops and I think it's the main staging area for their nighttime fireworks spectacular. I think they did a pretty good job with this area. The restaurant was very nice inside and the food was very good (for what is was).
We then headed over to see the Shamu show and then headed out of the park around 2PM. It was getting very hot and naptime was getting closer. We prefer to just stay in parks for about 1/2 day so we don't over-do it too much. We got back to our 1-bedroom villa at the Beach Club Villas, ate a snack, and then fell into bed for a nap...a three hour nap.
We jump out of bed at 6:15 PM and head down to Stormalong Bay. DD6, DD3, and I float around the lazy river a few times. We really have a good time, but DD3 won't let go of me even though she has a vest float on. In all honesty, her trepidation about being in the pool with that vest on is my fault. We tried out the vest in a friend's pool in July. I strapped her into it and just threw her in the pool. (I get my sensitivity around pools from my Dad who once pushed my Mom into our pool five minutes before their dinner-party guests were to arrive.) She bobbed, and spun, and flipped,...and panicked. She was very upset with me for doing that to her. When I finally rescued her she gave me a mouthful. She spoke truth to power that day!
My wife and DS came down a few minutes later, so she watched the girls play in the shallow pool and I was free to float around the lazy river by myself. This is one of my favorite parts of vacation. I hang onto a noodle and just float around and around. I was basically all alone in the lazy river. I laid my head back and just enjoyed the underwater sounds and watched the backlit leaves against the navy sky as I floated by. Very relaxing.
Somehow, DD6's innate sense of when Daddy is more relaxed than Daddy's-of-three-little-kids are supposed to be found me and asked to go down the big slide on the shipwreck. We did so 4 times and really had a great time. We closed down Stormalong Bay at 8PM and headed to the Beaches and Cream restaurant. We got dinner and ice cream and ate outside on the tables. We really had a good time together as a family. The girls were well-behaved and polite. And Greyson was sleeping. We lingered for about an hour and headed back when we heard the Illumination fireworks start.
Back at the room, we took showers and tucked the girls into bed. A GREAT first day of vacation. It doesn't get any better than this!
Tomorrow: DD6 goes on a Pirate Adventure.
