Our WDW trip report: Part 4- You win some, you lose some...

[ryan840]

Here are the links to the rest of my trip report:
part one- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=812631
part two- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=813524
part three- http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=813716

Since we got home so late, we decided that we should skip our character breakfast at Cape May Café (reluctantly) and sleep in a bit then go for a quick swim before checking out. Since I had done all the planning and packing before the trip, I told my husband (before we even got to FL) that it was up to him to pack us up and get us checked out- BAD IDEA!!! I made a specific packing list for him so that he could make sure he had everything, and this apparently made things too confusing… It took him just under two hours to pack everything, making us an hour late for checkout and leaving us with virtually no time to go for a relaxing swim, not to mention that we still had a couple of souvenirs to pick up and had been planning on going to Downtown Disney to do that. We had to have the car back at the airport by 2:00 and our flight left at 3:30, so we were really pressed for time at this point. Things surely would have gone better had I helped him pack, but I have ADD in a big way and to see everything all strewn about with the added pressure of getting out of there on time and the general stress of the trip, I couldn’t take it- I had a melt down! All I could do was cry, a much needed cry at that since I held it in the whole trip- but that really made things worse! My husband felt horrible, my son thought I was crazy, and I was totally embarrassed that I was unable to help and make things better. This of course caused a fight, delaying things even more. In the end he just shoved everything and anything wherever it would fit, leaving quite a few things in grocery bags so that we would have no choice but to repack everything at the airport. By the time we got out of there it was after noon and we had very little time to do quite a few things.

We decided before we left the room that we desperately need to go for a swim, even if it was only for a short time- it would allow us to leave our problems behind us and get a brief taste of our original plan to help us to relax. We also left the fight behind us and decided that we would start over the second we walked out the door. We swam for about half an hour and then the big rush to the airport began. Before leaving Old Key West we stopped at the gift shop to hunt down as many souvenirs as we could, and they informed us that there were two Disney stores at the airport to finish up our list. Phew, one less stop to make!

We left for the airport at 1:30 and pulled into the car rental return lane at 1:56- four minutes to spare! We had done it, we couldn’t believe it! (Let me mention the added panic we had about getting the car back on time- on our honeymoon we were late returning it and they charged us an entire day for it, we did not want that to happen again) As we start unloading and preparing to repack everything (which took us another half hour or so, this time I was able to help a little bit) my husband remembers that we forgot to top off the tank… OUCH!!! $5.99 a gallon they charged us - that’s just wrong! It cost an extra $42 for the half tank of gas they had to replace- we’d have been better off paying for another day! Had we remembered, that four minutes could have saves us over $40!!! We didn’t stress about it, what choice did we have? It sucked, but we will be sure it never happens again- I can tell you that much! At this point we have one hour before our flight leaves and we still have to get our e-tickets, check our luggage, pick up souvenirs and get something to eat… The rush was on- big time!

We flew through the baggage check, whizzed through the Disney store, and ran to our gate (my husband stopped along the way to grab us lunch, and for whatever reason returns with a single hot dog and a diet coke???) where they were already boarding! I literally sat down for two minutes, shoved the hot dog in my mouth, got up and boarded the plane. At least now we could breathe a sigh of relief, or so we thought.

We board the plane, and the man sitting next to us immediately rolls his eyes at the thought of having to get up so that we could sit down, and then he sees that we have a baby with us- clearly this was the end of the world as he knew it. He says nothing, just gets up and sits back down after we are settled, sliding as far away as possible… Maybe he was onto something- I gave my son a granola bar since he had no lunch, not thinking clearly about his “quirk” when it came to broken granola bars! It of course did break, and the tantrum began. I have no idea why it upsets him so much, but there is no making it better- he won’t eat it whether you put it back together or not, and if you try to take it away he screams harder. I felt like a real dope at this point, trying to calm him down but making things worse. My husband asks for one of those snack boxes they sell later in the flight (at this point we hadn’t even taken off yet!) and thankfully the goldfish calmed him down. After that, the plane ride was uneventful and my father in law picked us up at the airport and took us back to his house to get our car. We headed home, exhausted and crabby, but somehow with fond memories of our trip- we were already talking about going back, this time with a little experience under our belts. My husband worked the next day (Friday) and we then headed to my dad’s place up north for a vacation from our vacation. The weather was great and we had a great time, the perfect end to a hassling yet fun trip.

We learned a lot from this trip- first and foremost, never go for less that a week if you are traveling with young children! For us, it was the sole cause of our problems- no room for change and way too much rushing! The souvenir problem was a big source of the rushing, since I couldn’t find a thing for my 8(girl) and 10(boy) year old cousins who weren’t all that into Disney. I went to three places that sold beads so I could make her a necklace, and none of them had an “A”!!! I wound up getting her a Tinkerbell diary and personal planner keychain, which she loved! As for the boy, I just had no idea whatsoever what to get him- it ended up being a hat that I think (hope) he liked. We will also avoid using Disney transportation unless we have time to kill, it’s just not worth it, and park hopping will probably not be in our future either, although I’m torn on that one, since Animal Kingdom is only open until 5:00 in May. That leads me to our next lesson learned, a positive one- We will always return to WDW during the first week of May! The crowds were low, the topiaries were beautiful, the weather was perfect- what more could you ask for? (Aside from all of you waiting until the second week of May to go so as not to spoil it for us ) We have also learned that for us, there will never be a trip to which Murphy’s Law doesn’t apply and we will be prepared for it! Priority seatings just didn’t work out for us, in fact we saved a ton of money on food because we rarely had time to eat! We will limit them to a late dinner at Chef Mickey’s on arrival day and a possible character breakfast on departure day, and will ALWAYS make sure the day before we leave is a “no park” day, in order to pack things properly and without stress (and I will be in charge of that )! I know there are a ton more things we learned from this “test trip” as we like to call it, but I have a whining kid pulling at my pants so I will end it here. Thanks for reading, and maybe this will help some people when it comes to planning their trip!

 

[Ozymoe]

I'm glad your trip was salvaged...for a while there I was on the edge of my seat wondering if you would ever return to DisneyWorld after what you were experiencing.

You said it best when you said the bit about never planning too short a trip with children again. I always try to encourage "first-timers" (or in your case "been a long time-er") to spend at least five nights if they can't swing six...and seven nights is just about perfect, especially if the plane arrives early on day one and leaves after noon on day eight.

Have you seen a doctor about your stomach?...could be an ulcer...also sometimes adhesions can cause pain although that's a bit more unlikely.

 

[summersfam4]

I'm also glad your trip turned out OK. Also, as for the granola bar thingy, my DD went through a similar thing with bananas, but I think it's over now (if the banana broke while she was eating it, she wanted to throw it away while screaming and crying because she was throwing it away, but she no longer wanted it, nor did she want another one ), so there is hope Hopefully you next trip will be even better!

Kelly

 

[2BOYMOM]

Thanks for the great report! My DS15 was sick our entire trip in February. One morning he had a fever of 102.9! Thankfully, he is old enough to ride the buses by himself so he could come and go as he wanted. He never did spend an entire day at the parks with us. So I felt bad when I read that your DS and you were sick - I know it's such a bummer. But sounds like you did have a great time anyway!


Kim

 

[tubachick]

Sorry your son got sick... hope you had a little fun while you were there. Sorry about the gas$$$ thats a real bummer.

 

[Chicago526]

Yes, longer is better no matter who you are, kids or no kids, for first timers! On the other hand, now you know 100 times more about WDW than you ever could learn just from these boards (nothing replaces first hand experiance). When you go in May for a longer trip, you'll be able to plan better because of this quick trip.

Oh, and if your wondering what to do about AK since it closes early, and you don't want to park hop, you've got a couple choices. My first choice is to hang out at the pool for the evening. May should be more than warm enough in FL for an evening swim, and that will give you pool time without taking a day or even a half day away from park touring to swim.

Your second option would be to spend the evening at DTD to do shoping (actual or window) and just leisurely stroll around.

 

[Minniespal]

Great report ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Hey there, yes next time don't even try it for less then a week, it really helps taking the presure off and helps you to relax. With the new tickets anything over 4 days insn't that much more money so that is good too.

Next time don't skip Ohana's and CP, they are both great. (but I totaly understand why you did this time.)

As stressful as the trip was it sounds like you had a good time (at times) and there is always next time.

What airline did you fly? Did your fly into DTW? We flew spirit and had good luck with them. Unfortanly my baby screamed the whole flight home (she didn't on the way there, or last trip.) We were there some of the same days I think, my trip report is around here somewhere. With the whole views count of you never know if anyone is reading them unless they comment.

Hope your son is doing better now.

 

[ryan840]

Hey there, yes next time don't even try it for less then a week, it really helps taking the presure off and helps you to relax. With the new tickets anything over 4 days insn't that much more money so that is good too.

Next time don't skip Ohana's and CP, they are both great. (but I totaly understand why you did this time.)

As stressful as the trip was it sounds like you had a good time (at times) and there is always next time.

What airline did you fly? Did your fly into DTW? We flew spirit and had good luck with them. Unfortanly my baby screamed the whole flight home (she didn't on the way there, or last trip.) We were there some of the same days I think, my trip report is around here somewhere. With the whole views count of you never know if anyone is reading them unless they comment.

Hope your son is doing better now.

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, I haven't had time to DIS! We flew Northwest to/from DTW. I definately plan on eating at Ohana and doing the character breakfast at Cape May Cafe next time, I really wanted to try them!