Our Jan 2009-"2009 has to be a better year" trip

[sk8jdgca]

Introduction
Welcome to my trip report! Hope you enjoy the trip!
Cast
Me: Single mom, no longer in my 30s. I work as a financial planner so needless to say I have been very busy and very stressed in the past few months
DD (10) Maddy just turned 10, 2 weeks ago- didn’t think about this when I planned this trip, Disney now says she is an adult. She is my helper. She loves kids and can’t wait to baby-sit
DS (6) Ben is a flirt. That sums it up. He is a lover not a fighter (except with his sister) He has a string of girlfriends. I keep meeting mom’s who tell me that Ben is all their daughter’s talk about.

Both my kids are very outgoing and animated. They both dance and are skaters. They are not afraid to be center stage and love it. I must have done something right because strangers are always telling me how good and polite my kids’ are- It makes me feel so good when that happens. They do love to bug each other and drive me crazy with their bickering.

We have gone to Disney 2 other times both a Christmas. I planned for the week after new years because 1) the last 3 years school hasn’t started this early 2) I wanted to see regular Disney without Christmas- so school starts early this year and the Christmas decorations will still be up for part of our trip. Oh well!

I signed the kids up for the Mickey Marathon kids fest. This past summer they did the kids races at the Taste of Chicago and had fun.
My dad gave me a new camera for Christmas and I love taking pictures. It is the kind between a SLR and a point and shoot so I am excited to use it!

This time we are trying Windsor Hills, a townhouse with a splash pool. 3 Bedrooms. I had wanted my parents to come, however my mom passed away at the end of September and my dad is worried about traveling out of the country with his health. So its just the three of us.

That is us last year
2008 was not the best. I'm an only child and in sept my dad landed in the hospital with fluid on his lungs. He got out and the next day my mom had a heart attack. After she had quadruple bypass surgery, she was coming along okay, getting out of bed and walking short distances. The next day she woke up at in the morning, got out of bed and died. It was such a shock as she was so full of life.

Mom at Marine Land with her funky hat on

Mom on a the skywheel at Niagara falls


I am in the middle of a bitter divorce and my ex gives me nothing but grief (including no child support). He decided to keep the kids and not bring them back after Crustmas, he wouldn't let me talk to the kids and threatened not to give them back. I got them back and off we go.
In addition, I'm a investment advisor so these markets are not fun to live with, we cheer when the market is up one day and are stressed on the down days.
This the title of my thread!
Travel day
We left early today to head for Detroit. We planned to go to my best friend’s home which is half way between to do “Christmas” I was showing off my new camera that I got from Christmas when I realized I left the battery charging in the wall at my house. Thankfully, my goddaughter volunteered to drive to my house while I visited with her mom and the kids played. (frankly I don't think she really wanted to stick around)
I had been very bad and not renewed my health card, so I thought I should stop in Windsor and get it renewed (9 months late-not too bad). It worked out well and I’m glad I did later in the week.

We got to Detroit around dinner time and decided to shop at Target first. I had bought the kids new socks but Maddy’s were way too small. I realized hat I had forgot all my meds at home too (oops!) so I wanted to pick up some good drugs too. Christmas stuff was 75% off so we picked up some stuff there too. The kids love the dollar spot and found some monster Inc and toy story stuff for the trip. We ate at Panera Bread- we love Panera bread-my kids love soup

Hotel-Fairmount Inn
The kids went swimming and I sat in the hot tub- met lots of families going to Florida-all of them seemed like “them” the one man I talked to had a 5 year old boy with him-they were going for a week and might hit Disney 1 day cause he read that there wasn’t much there for a 5 year old???? Not sure what he was reading. I told him that this was our third trip and Ben was 2 on the first and that there were lots there for him to do at age 2! Interesting enough almost everyone I met was Canadian and one family was from the same municipality as us

I finally go the kids to bed and then-tick-tick-I couldn’t sleep, the heating system was loud-if I turned it off it was cold-tick-tick I got up and had a bath-took more tylonal night pills-nothing-oh well time to get up! The breakfast at the hotel was ok-pretty standard. The kids had bought little lunch containers (Disney) at target, so we filled them up with fruit loops. After we got to the airport, we found huge lines for the airlines and just kept walking-Southwest had no line (I’m starting to love Southwest). We got through security and waiting not long before it was time to line up in our spots. We ended up in the third row-(more southwest love) the kids couldn’t believe we got free snacks and drinks. I realized that I hadn’t bought gum-I asked the flight attendant if I could buy some and she said she had some in her purse and gave it to the kids.wow! She also gave them southwest wings.

We got our luggage no problem then marched on to Avis. I haven’t used them before but they were the cheapest. Wow are they slow! I used a different rental last time and it had computer check in. AVIS had a long line and they were so so slow. We also didn’t get to pick our car much to Ben’s chagrin. But we are in Florida and on our way to Magic Kingdom!

Magic KingdomOk I know not to go to MK on a Saturday, however this was the only day that splash mountain will be opened during our trip. We got there at noon, stopped at Casy's and had hotdogs-boy they were good. maddy and mine were so coveredin toppings that the buns melted away. We had to sit on the pavement outside but we didn't care, we were here! We made it back to Splash and got fastpasses. The standby line was 90 minutes so we kept going on. We all agreed we wanted to try things we have never done before..so off to the Tiki Room. No wait and the show was cute enough. It wasn;t something we wanted to do again and agian but it was ok.

We climbed up Swiss family treehouse- its not that exciting but I could get some cool pitures up there.

splash mountain from the tree house

we grabbed the railway to Toontown and took the back pathway-see how dead it was...

crowds as seen from tta
we rode TTA-we love TTA then left to check in

 

[princess~yo]

Hello! Looking forward to hearing more about your trip! That pic of DS is so sweet.

 

[DisDreamz]

I'm in! Couldn't pass up a trip report titled like it could be my own . Sorry to hear about 2008 being such a bad year. Here's hoping both of us having a great 2009 (especially if our EXs will let us ).

BTW I think it's interesting that we were probably there at the same time (and have kids close in age). Your kids are adorable though.

 

[sk8jdgca]

Check in and Back to MK-day 1
We got to our townhouse and explored. The kids jumped in the splash pool right away while I cooked the velveeta cheese and shells that I brought with me. No towel animals to greet us and I had to do the dishes...but the kids were happy with the pool. We went back to the parks just after 6 pm. Ok the crowds seemed bit better, we picked up some more fast passes for splash and went on the ride- we got a little wet but we all love this ride-we happily sing along and can't wait to get to the laughing place..."if this is your laughing place, why aren't you laughing". I didn't want to get trapped in adventure land during the parade (there were 2 spectro parades that night). so we took the train to Toontown-we rode the branstormer. Oh and one thing I forgot from earlier, we were strolling around trying to stay away from crowds, we went into the store in toontown. My kids started talking to cast members. We talked quite a while and told the girl we were leaving to check in but would be coming back later. I told her that the only reason we were there on this busy day was to ride splash-she commended me on how organized I was, she said everyone else would be there the next week complaining about it being closed. Anyways as we were walking through Toontown, we run into her again. She says to the kids "I see you got your mom to bring you back" and asked us how our townhouse was. I was amazed that she reconized us and made the effort to speak to us again. By this time the parade was on to we went to fantasy land , we rode tea cups, pooh, snow white Its a small world and then saw mickey's philharmagic, basically with no waits. Off we went to splash again then to adventure land. Did Pirates and found a dole whip- this was new to us and I got the float and Maddy got the whip-we all loved the float-but I had to have picked the longest lineup-the other 3 went really fast but not ours. So we get trapped by spectro- we watched some of it, then were allowed to cross and leave. As we left we saw the end of the electric water pagent... Up next Animal Kingdom and lots of Magic!

 

[sk8jdgca]

First let me say I am tour guide mike person. I love it and have used it for the past 3 trips. I highly recommend it. However try as we might we never make it for rope drop but make it a few minutes later- I guess in Jan this is OK
So Animla Kingdom- in the spirit of trying something new we were going to go to the Conservation Station and the Maharajah Jungle Trek.Santa had brough the kids and I pins to trade and the kids couldn't wait to start. They traded a bit on the way to Asia, then both kids rode everest standby while I got fast passes. This was Ben's first time so I got 3 fast passes thinking he wouldn't go on again and the Maddy could use all the fastpasses.

Well he loved the ride and we went over to Dino land to explore while waiing for our fast pass time.

We walked onto Dinosaur and Ben measured himself for the Primal whirl which he was too short for and the standby was long.

On Dinosaur!
Instead with did the tricera top spin (that satisfied our Dumbo need)

and we ran into this guy

we made it back to Asia and Everest-trading pins as we went- Ben wanted to ride again so I told Maddy to give away the other fastpass-she tried to but someone gave her another fast pass so they could both ride 2 times. On they went again and chicken Mom waited

We went off to kali and Ben and i wore throw away rain slickers and we gave them to others after.
Now our first new thing the jungle track. It was nice, we liked the bats, they were really up close and personal. Gorgeous theming throughout

It was almost lunch time so we tried Pizza safari-we were really hungrey and liked the pizza-but why does the kids pizza not have pepperoni on it-I gave the kids some of the pepperoni off mine.

Now off to something new Conservation station- Ok we loved, loved it. So educational and so much for the kids to see and do.

Ben listening to the sounds of the rainforest-it kind of freaked him out!
The kids talked to a vet, pet a very large rabbit and some goats and learned about feeding animals.

After I went over to get the kids an icecream treat. As I got to the front of the line, there was a shift change. The new guy asked the kids the names of 5 disney movies and then gave us our ice cream treats for free!

Maddy eating her free treat!
As we were eating, a talking recycling can came out and chatted with us. She liked us since we were from "Can" ada. We were her friends from canada and got to walk her back into the building

we then learned about vultures which was neat, then went back to the village... continued in the next post




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[sk8jdgca]

After the conservation station, we did the safari then headed to Its tough to be a Bug-another new thing- we hated it, really hated it! here is the only good part.

The kids asked a cast member to see him pins, they didn't see anything that they liked but started chatting with the CM. He asked what we were celebrating-the kids said nothing really..and he said then you are celebrating the magic. He had them both close their eyes and hold out their hands and say "I belive in pixie dust" He gave both kids a pin. On the way out we still had to use our last fastpasses for everest-we did kali first and only ben wore a rain slicker-see the results
(please ignore my pooh sized rear)

But Ben was dry

After leaving the park around 2 I head off to the Disney outlet store. We got a lot of great deals-shirts were take 40% off the lowest price. Then I made the mistake to try to get to the other outlet- I knew it was on I drive so I just drove down I drive instead of 4. I kept driving and driving and thought I was going the wrong way. I saw an Olive Garden and we stopped there for dinner. Maddy and I were so wet we changed into some of our new clothes.
After a yummy dinner, I thought i could find Walmart-somehow I found one but not too sure where it was( it wasn't on 192).
Here in walmart I had a scare that took a few years off my life. The Walmart was huge. We were looking at the Dinsey stuff when Ben said that he and Maddy were going to shop around. 2 minutes later, they are gone. I looked all over the Disney section-no kids, called their name-no kids-went to the front and reported them lost. It took so long and finally they announced they were looking for 2 kids (they didn't lock the store down). I kept looking and a few minutes later then kids came running to me. They took off to the far corner to the toy department-holy cow! I made sure to get it through their head that this was dangerous and how muchit scared me. It still stresses me out just thinking about it. We finished shopping then tried to find the way back to our condo. I must have drove around for another hour , stopped a few times then finally found it- we got home around 9.

 

[Cory's Gal]

Your children are adorable!! I simply loved the picture from Everest with them holding hands, so cute! I can't wait to read more! Thanks for sharing the pictures too!!

 

[sk8jdgca]

Thanks to those who are reading along..
We of course don't make it to rope drop but a little after.

The kids kept stopping and trading pins which casued us to get to Soaring a bit late and there was a wait for the standby. While in line we start talking to the family in front of us. They had been at a DVC presentation and got special fastpasses. They were leaving that day so they gave the fastpasses to us. Wow how nice!
After soaring we head over to the seas for Crush. None of the kids in the front row could speak english so crush gave up talking to the kids at the beginning. Now what were the kids getting out of Crush when they don;t understand english? When it came to the queston time, Maddy got called upon. Ben had a really good question about migration of turtles but he wouldn't put his hand up.
After the seas, we headed back to the lands and did "the land" this was new for us and we give it three thumbs up. The kids are still talking about the big lemons and the tomato trees. Take some time out and do this ride. We got fast passes for test track, got some free pop then off to the world!

we did canada, britian, france and morocco before we needed a rest. This time I bought the kids the passports which was great- Most of the cast members wrote lots in their passports. Unfortunatley the French guy was too busy flirting with a female cast member to pay any attention to the kids...but France had a cool photopass photo which I will post when I get them back

 

[sk8jdgca]

I think I need a better title-not too many people reading- oh well I'll soldier on...

As we left the world we stopped to see these guys

Those are some pretty big fish!In the spirit of doing something new we tried mission space- 6 thumbs up on this one. I liked the educational factor and kids liked the movie that you make at the end-well I liked it too! The kids rode together and kept pressing that they lives in the Northwest territories instead of southern Ontario.

After we left we explored Windsor Hills. Okay it was nice to have the splash pool and the extra room but I did feel that I missed out. I like coming back to a clean room with made beds and towel animals. The pool at WH doesn't have the same feel as a disney resort. There was so much going on when we stayed at Disney and the guest seemed to mingle more that the WH guests. It also bugged me a bit that my son was 1/2 inch too short for the water slide and they wouldn't let him go on. I asked if he could show her his swimming skills (I've stayed elsewhere and they will test the swimming abilities of those a little shorter, then let them go on)

 

[kty]

I have been reading, great report we stayed at windsor hills in november and really enjoyed the extra space. If we were to have stayed on site we would have needed two rooms or a suite (me, dh, dd 13, ds 9, dd 7)

I understand though that you booked windsor hills with the thought that your parents would be joining you I am sorry to hear about your mother. I am sure she is in a better place

 

[princess~yo]

Love the brother-as-a-backpack picture! My girls used to do that all the time before the little one got too big for her sis to carry!

Too bad about that 1/2 inch thing. When we went to DW and the following year we did Dollywood ~ both times it seemed Gabs was *this* much too short for something. Ah, well...gives her something to look forward to next year!

 

[quest4dl]

Sorry to hear about all the troubles you had in 2008. I am really enjoying your report and looking forward to more. Your kids are so photogenic and you all look like you are having a great time!

 

[MissMichelle]

Loving the report! Hopefully we can see days where crowds are as low as you experienced. I will be there in just a few hours!

 

[sk8jdgca]

So all day I started not feeling well. By 11 pm I knew I was sick. I had our of province medical insurance from both my credit card and my employer, so I called the insurance company. The lady on the end of the lne was great. I pretty much knew I had a UTI (once you've had one, you know when you're getting another). She aksed me how close the nearest hospital was. I tild her the one in clebration but that I was alone with my two little kids and would have to wake them up. " No Need for that" she says, I can send a doctor to your room" Wow! no waiting in emerg, lovely!

A few minutes later an RN called me and went over my symptoms. She told me the doctor would be there in 15 minutes. So I waited in my PJ's and watched some TV. Sure enough the doctor shows up. He does some tests on me. Tells me he thinks that I am also dehydrated and yes, I have an UTI. He gives me a couple prescriptions (already filled) and he is on his way. Brilliant- I love out of province medical coverage!! Take my meds and off to bed I go-no cost to me!

 

[sk8jdgca]

The kids are racing in the Mickey Marathon Kid races and we have no parks planned for the day.

This is what the kids got

Some photos fom the race. My thoughts on the race- Next time I would put both kids in the Mickey Mile- It is better organized and Mickey Mouse does the start. The kids get an official time and it seems more race like. The shorter races were crazy- a lot of parents stood with their kids at the starting line and ran with them which took away from the other kids experience IMHO. There was a lot of confusion, the kids couldn't hear the race official usless they were in the front line.

Both races had a place to take the kids picture with the medal but the Mickey mile had professional photographers taking shots during and after the race
Mickey starting the race

After the race

The area with all of the vendors in it was good- there was lots to do and see. Picking up the packets was well organized also. However the restaurant at WWoS didn't seem prepared for this large influx of people

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Hey! Just found you!

I guess the reason I haven't seen this before is because WE were in Disney while you were writing the previous Chapters! We were at WDW from January 19-29th, 2009! Isn't January THE BEST!!!! Although I think you had warmer weather than we did! We were there during the frost outbreak! OH Well! Still warmer than at home!

I am really enjoying your report! I am VERY curious about Windsor Hills! I have heard SO much about it! My WHOLE FAMILY (11 peeps - 6 adults/5 kids) will be heading down to the world in March of 2011 and we are trying to decide whether or not we will stay on site or not! We LOVE the benefits of staying on property but the cost in March is looking a bit prohibitive!

Please keep writing! I really would like to hear the rest of your story! Hope all is better in your personal life!

 

[sk8jdgca]

Thanks for reading-I got started onthis right away then life got in the way and my report got moved so I couldn't finish it. I finally figured out I could ask for it to be moved back so here I am. I like reading trip reports done at the same time as I am going so hopefully this would help someone planning for Jan.

Yes we had fairly good weather- it was a bit chilly and rained one day but the rest were fine...not really pool weather but when you are an Canadian kid as long as the pool is heated its fine! My kids love swimming in an outdoor pool when there is snow on the ground. They roll in the snow then jump in the pool

There were parts of Windsor Hill that were fine but others that I didn't enjoy. For a large group it would be great as you would have other adults around to share in the work load. It does give you more room to roam around in.

 

[sk8jdgca]

After the race, we stopped at Ponderosa for dinner- Yuck-yuck yuck

The food is cheap -I'll give them that. The food on the buffet was plentiful but cold and the meat was just gross. I don't even think my baked potato was good (and really how can you mess up a baked potato) So my recommendation is -do NOT go there.

We went back to the resort and the kids went down to the main pool and swam for awhile

After a bit we headed to Downtown disney. After we got there I noticed a margarita stand and thought yum, just what the doctor ordered. The cast memebr was quite nice and told me I could carry my drink anywhere in downton disney- How convenient! However I'm glad that I could as it was so, so, so strong-wow. I got some of it down and then went back and asked for more mix.

The kids were getting hungry and I was eager to try out Earl of Sandwich- everyone on DS says how good this place is and it didn't disappoint. Maddy and I each had the orginal, it was great. Ben had a kids meal pizza sandwich which really wasn't what he thought it would be. Not sure why kids meals seem to equal bland but I guess that is what some kids want. Anyway, the adult sandwiches were large so he ate some of ours.

It was just starting to get dark and the kids spotted the fountain. I know why Disney put these here-Its not to keep kids cool its so that parents have to buy a new wardrobe when they are there. The kids got so soaked theat i got soaked too buying them clothes. For Ben it was underwear and PJ's and Maddy a new sweatshirt

See how wet they got?

After the kids got dressed, they started to trade pins. There was a pin trading group set up outside. My kids really didn't get how serious these people were about their trading- They were used to trading with a cast member. They did start talking to a really nice guy about pins- he had pins that they kids wanted but they didn't have any that he wanted. Instead he told the kids what pins he wanted and all four of us went through the stores looking for cast members who had the pins that either of them wanted. I kind of wondered if I should be concerned about this guy but he seemed nice enough but I stayed very close just to be sure. The kids had lots of fun and did get a bunch of the pins they were looking for. Pin trading sure takes the pressure off of the "I wants" that I normally hear when we are at Downtown Disney.

 

[sk8jdgca]

Opps I realized that the race was actually on my day 7 but oh well. Now I'm back in order.

We got to MK quite close to rope drop, since we didn't need to race to Dumbo (m the kids said they were okay with not riding it this year-guess they are growing up), we leisurely walked towads space mountain. we used our special fast passes and went to the front of the line. It was so cool as the return time wasn't up yet so it was just us in the fast pass line.

It was too early for the opening of toontown and the kid talked me into the speed raceway-wow thei one got 6 thumbs down. It is so slow. We have go carts near hoem and they go so much faster

To make things worse, it took so long that by the time we got to toontown the line up was too long for the fairies, so we just went to see the princesses instead.

The highlight of this day was a trip to the barber. We only had to wait around 10-15 minutes and the result was great. I highly recommend this!

I am so glad that we did this instead of BBB. My kids were really happy with this cut.