fakereadhed
The Tag Fairy has me on "ignore"!
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2006
- Messages
- 3,083
First, a little background. Every single day since our vacation last December, DS has asked if we can go back to Disney. Yes, every single day. 
So when I scored roundtrip tickets on Spirit for $68 ea. I told him we were going!
Cast:
Me, married mom to 3 kids-2 teenage girls and one 3yo son. I am married to Grumpy. He is only interested in going to Gatorland in Orlando, although he has humored me and come to WDW a couple of times. And, BTW, we have never actually been past the gift shop in Gatorland, because he's too cheap to actually pay to get in.
The two teenagers thought the last trip to WDW was just slightly less than bo-RING. So none of them were invited, and they didn't really care.
DS, 3 yo old who loves characters and everything Disney as much as I do. (For now.The others turned on me in junior high.
) He was born prematurely, and is doing great but still speech delayed, has generalized low tone, poor balance, and wears ankle orthotics. He has sensory issues and is very sensitive to light, noise, and smell. He is very large for his age- looks like a 5 year old and weighs 45#. This will come into play later.
Travel Dates: 10/29-10/31
Plans: Stay at Pop Century, Character breakfast at Chef Mickey's, MNSSHP.
Day 1:What was I thinking?
DH dropped us off at the airport. I had two carryons, my Baggallini, and DS in a stroller. I stuck DS's backpack on top of my rolling carryon and off we went. Security was a nightmare with DS and all of our stuff! I swear I heard circus music playing in the background.
A TSA lady started screaming at me because I didn't pull the DVD player out of the case and I was so flustered I forgot to pull out my little baggie of liquid contraband and my Epipen. We got thru security and I did some deep breathing until I could no longer hear the circus music.
The flight on Spirit was fine, no problems. We sat next to a nice lady who had grandchildren and shared her chips with DS.
I was a little nervous because I was hauling around all my stuff(carryon only for the short trip)and hearing the circus music again, but we made it to the DME counter without a problem. We showed them our vouchers, and hopped right on the bus. This was our first DME experience and it was not one of the horror stories- it was truly magical. We waited a while for the bus to load and we were off! BTW, did I mention that the weather was lovely...for ducks? It was overcast, but who cares. We were going to Disneyworld!
The nice thing about DME and staying at Pop Century is that it is the first stop on the way back from the airport.
See, there ARE advantages to staying in the WDW Housing Projects besides price. We got in line and checked in- took about 20 minutes. Then we (cue the circus music)went to the Everything Pop foodcourt with luggage and stroller in tow to get food to take back to the room. I got the Chicken Penne Pasta(YUM!)and DS got the kids pizza meal. We headed off to our room.
I requested first floor, preferred. Last time we stayed at Pop we were in Egypt, I mean the farthest 50's building. This time we were in room 1068, 70's first floor in the Big Wheel building. I had a discount code, so it was $71, and well worth it IMO. It was near Goofy's Pop Jets so after dinner I put on DS's bathing suit and he had a blast playing there. I was sitting on the bench watching him have the time of his life and wondering why everyone doesn't love Pop Century.
After that, before we headed off to bed, we went to Bell Services to collect the Owner's Locker I won in the Mouseplanet contest.
I do have to first say that the folks at Pop didn't have a clue about the purple lockers. They had no idea what I was talking about and I had to point out where it was. Thank goodness it's purple so I could see it! I was surprised at how big it was. It's got really great dividers inside and a case to hold smaller stuff.
I really didn't need it for this trip, but was dying to check it out anyway.
Next up, day two.
So when I scored roundtrip tickets on Spirit for $68 ea. I told him we were going!Cast:
Me, married mom to 3 kids-2 teenage girls and one 3yo son. I am married to Grumpy. He is only interested in going to Gatorland in Orlando, although he has humored me and come to WDW a couple of times. And, BTW, we have never actually been past the gift shop in Gatorland, because he's too cheap to actually pay to get in.
The two teenagers thought the last trip to WDW was just slightly less than bo-RING. So none of them were invited, and they didn't really care. DS, 3 yo old who loves characters and everything Disney as much as I do. (For now.The others turned on me in junior high.
) He was born prematurely, and is doing great but still speech delayed, has generalized low tone, poor balance, and wears ankle orthotics. He has sensory issues and is very sensitive to light, noise, and smell. He is very large for his age- looks like a 5 year old and weighs 45#. This will come into play later.Travel Dates: 10/29-10/31
Plans: Stay at Pop Century, Character breakfast at Chef Mickey's, MNSSHP.
Day 1:What was I thinking?
DH dropped us off at the airport. I had two carryons, my Baggallini, and DS in a stroller. I stuck DS's backpack on top of my rolling carryon and off we went. Security was a nightmare with DS and all of our stuff! I swear I heard circus music playing in the background.
A TSA lady started screaming at me because I didn't pull the DVD player out of the case and I was so flustered I forgot to pull out my little baggie of liquid contraband and my Epipen. We got thru security and I did some deep breathing until I could no longer hear the circus music.The flight on Spirit was fine, no problems. We sat next to a nice lady who had grandchildren and shared her chips with DS.
I was a little nervous because I was hauling around all my stuff(carryon only for the short trip)and hearing the circus music again, but we made it to the DME counter without a problem. We showed them our vouchers, and hopped right on the bus. This was our first DME experience and it was not one of the horror stories- it was truly magical. We waited a while for the bus to load and we were off! BTW, did I mention that the weather was lovely...for ducks? It was overcast, but who cares. We were going to Disneyworld!
The nice thing about DME and staying at Pop Century is that it is the first stop on the way back from the airport.
See, there ARE advantages to staying in the WDW Housing Projects besides price. We got in line and checked in- took about 20 minutes. Then we (cue the circus music)went to the Everything Pop foodcourt with luggage and stroller in tow to get food to take back to the room. I got the Chicken Penne Pasta(YUM!)and DS got the kids pizza meal. We headed off to our room.I requested first floor, preferred. Last time we stayed at Pop we were in Egypt, I mean the farthest 50's building. This time we were in room 1068, 70's first floor in the Big Wheel building. I had a discount code, so it was $71, and well worth it IMO. It was near Goofy's Pop Jets so after dinner I put on DS's bathing suit and he had a blast playing there. I was sitting on the bench watching him have the time of his life and wondering why everyone doesn't love Pop Century.
After that, before we headed off to bed, we went to Bell Services to collect the Owner's Locker I won in the Mouseplanet contest.
I do have to first say that the folks at Pop didn't have a clue about the purple lockers. They had no idea what I was talking about and I had to point out where it was. Thank goodness it's purple so I could see it! I was surprised at how big it was. It's got really great dividers inside and a case to hold smaller stuff.I really didn't need it for this trip, but was dying to check it out anyway.
Next up, day two.
I would have taken it up with the front desk, but we were checking out the next a.m. so I decided to let it go. Note to self: request a non-connecting room next time at POP. I think the connecting rooms are where a lot of the complaints about noise at POP come from. When we had connecting rooms for our own family, we didn't have any noise issues at all. 
and we hopped on a bus to the Magic Kingdom. The first bus would have had us standing, and since I had him(with his balance issues) and the stroller we decided to wait for the next one. It came very quickly. No problem with the bus for us. 
But we made it out without incident. DS remembered "making flowers" in the lobby and that wasn't going on, so he happily colored a picture. I asked the greeter to take our photo by the waterfall and he said we were missing something, gave us leis and then took the picture. 
DS sat down on the bench and off we went! We didn't even make it to FW before DS crawled in his stroller, threw his blanket over his head, and went to sleep. I had no idea that the boat was such a great spot for a nap! We did the entire loop until we got back to the MK and it was very relaxing for me as well. Every time the boat would dock, somebody would ask didn't we need to get off? Nope, we're just here for the nap. 
