Post depression trip report Apr10-18.

[crazybones27]

I hope everyone is doing well. We have been home since last Tuesday and this is really the first time I can sit down to tell you about some of our trip.

On this trip it will be myself, DH, DD(2), and DS(18mons). Ever since having our children we only drive to Disney or anywhere for that matter. We like having our car for the kids. With this being said we do most of the driving while the kids are sleeping since anyone who has had kids knows it's very difficult to reason with children 2 and under as to why we can't stop every 20 mins lol.

April 8th - Friday
Our drive started as planned. In the car at 9:30pm and off we went. Everyone aside from me was asleep by 10:15. Phew this looks like it's going to go well. The hubby and I agreed we'd top off the gas tank at the last top in Jersey before crossing into MD. It was a good thing I did too as the price jumped 10 cents across the boarder. While sitting there waiting for the tank to fill all of a sudden a bus figured out it could squeeze between me and the truck next to me on my left getting gas. Let me tell you the bus didn't even slow down!! It was not even an inch away from my side view mirror, our car shook, my husband JUMPED awake thinking something happened. It took everything I had not to be sitting in his lap screaming. Seriously as fast as it came through it was gone that quick to get ANY info on it. You could see the people next to me shakin too! So... going forward everything else on our drive was smooth LOL.

April 9th - Saturday - April 10th - Sunday
We arrived in Savannah the next day around 12pm. We had decided this trip we'd stay somewhere the night before in Savannah to sleep the previous night off and feel more rested when we arrived at Disney. We stayed at the Embassy Suites. It was newer and modern. I'd stay there again, but their made to order breakfast could had been better. I've stayed at Embassy before and this ones breakfast was probably at the bottom of the list of stays. No biggie though, we ate, packed up, and left for our drive. The kids did fine for the most part. Only a few moments of wanting to pull my hair out. Again we go back to the ever try and reason with small children as to why their in the car for so long and can't get out every 20 mins lol.

FINALLY we arrive in Orlando. Our DD caught a sign that had Mickey on it. She thought that was cool so we were desperate to find another. Well we were coming from Universals side so most of the billboards were for them. See we didn't tell them where we were going. We didn't want out DD to get all excited that she made herself sick. She gets carsick so we take every precaution we have too in order to avoid it lol. Well... finally after looking for all the signs that we didn't see we pull up to the Disney World sign! We point out Mickey and Minnie to the kids and they get excited. Then we say do you know where we are??? We're in Disney!! Their faces light up! Our DD was like... "Disney couple weeks" and we said "No we're in Disney right now!" She almost lost it she was so happy!! We decided to take a trip for our 4th Anniversary and since it's the week before DD's bday we squeezed in another trip before she was 3. As a little background we used going to Disney as a helper to getting her potty trained. We told her if she did well we'd take her to Disney to see Mickey again. We had started her 2 months or so ago. And we kept telling her we'll go in a couple of weeks, but you need to do a good job. Well it worked because she's trained lol. We thought it was a good bribe LOL.

Ok... back to Disney. We checked in to the Boardwalk at around 2pm. This was our 1st stay here. And as many of you know or I've read the rooms aren't usually ready. Well... ours wasn't lol. We waited till 4:05pm when our text came through. That was ok since we toured around the resort checking things out. We had a standard studio view on the 4th floor, room# 4085. It wasn't a bad location since out our door was a window view of the pool. Not the greatest view through trees, but none the less a window and not a neighbor. We were also the room right next to the ice maker which was nice to be able to pop out for ice and pop right back in the room. The room was clean and nice. The room was so clean the mousekeepers even left us some extra cleaner pooled in the corner of the tub lol. No biggie, cleaned it out and we were good.

For our 1st studio stay the size was good. We got a crib sent up for our son since the pack n play was conveniently missing. I called to tell them it was missing, and requested a crib since my DS would be more comfortable in it. We have very tall children so the crib worked out better for him. Even with the crib and couch pull-out at night we found we had room to move. We also had our double stroller parked in the door way off to the side with plenty of room open. I think the only thing we lacked space on was countertop around the kitchenette, but we did fine. We didn't hear any noise from the outside at any point during the day. We were in the room at plenty of different times during the week and heard nothing.

Once in the room we settled in quickly, threw on our bathing suits and off to the pool we went. Our DD saw the slide and that was it! DH and I were puzzled as to where all the life jackets were lol. I was like waaait they have to have them. This doesn't make any sense. Then we over heard they were at the other pool. Ok no problem walked over there... again... where are they. WAAAAIT community hall! I saw a woman getting one for her son and jumped in line lol. I thought it was great that you got to keep the same ones the whole trip!!

After some pool fun we got cleaned up and headed out to Downtown Disney. It was about 7 or so at that time. We always eat at Earl of Sandwich when we arrive and we were so happy it wasn't busy when we got there. We just loooove eating there. Our DS paaaaaasssssed ooooout before we even got to Earl so we left him be ! After eating we did a little shopping and went back to the hotel for bed. All in all it wasn't a bad first few days. Oh... it was HOT though but then again it IS Florida !

 

[arthur06]

We were there at the same time at BWV's! Weather was awesome glad you had a great time!

You can see my TR in my signature...

 

[crazybones27]

So today we woke up slowly. The kids ran us in circles a bit while we were getting ready, but hey they're kids lol. The hubby ran down to get us some breakfast at the bakery and once we were done we were out the door. We took the ferry over to DHS at around 11 or so. We had reservations at Hollywood and Vine at 2 so I wanted to make sure we had enough time to get over there.

We LOVED the ferry!! The kids had a great time being on a boat. We loved that we could just roll the stroller onto the boat without having to fold it up. This convenience alone made our stay so much more enjoyable! As you can probably guess this was our first experience with any of the ferries found on property. Normall we drive or had taken buses. We will definitely be using the ferry transportation so much more now!

Anyway we got to DHS and headed straight for Playhouse Disney on stage. On our last trip in Sept. my DH and I both wound up not feeling so great on our HS day and wound up back at the hotel sleeping most of the day away. We didn't do Playhouse Disney that time around and we kinda felt we cheated our children a bit lol. So this time we weren't missing it!!! Well we stood in line for no more then 20 mins and we were in. We sat down, the kids looked around, and then the girl came out doing her dance that she's suppose to do and my DD for some reason FREAKED out! She was sitting on my husbands lap and I told him to take her out because she was loud. I don't believe in keeping a screaming child around and ruining others experiences. He took her away and there me and my DS sat enjoying songs. About 5 mins or so later my DH and DD came back and I was so happy to see them. I really thought he took her outside. It seems the screaming scared her and once she calmed down in the back corner she was good! The kids LOVED the gold dabloons that fell, the bubbles, and the streamers! Even though it's the same just with Jake and Pirates instead of Pooh and friends we still really enjoyed it. I don't care about the story or anything just as long as I see my kids are having fun!

From there we went and got pics with Mickey and Lotso(yes he smelled of strawberries!) We walked around for a little while, did the honey I shrunk the kids playground for the first time(sooooo hard to pull the kids away from here), and then we were off to Hollywood and Vine for lunch.

I could not waaaaait for this meal. It had nothing to do with the food what so ever. I couldn't waaaaaaait for my DS to see Oso from Special Agent Oso. This is the ONLY place you can see him from what I've seen. He LOVES him! Well... they sat us down, everyone was having fun, DD loved getting the Einstiens signatures, and Handy Manny's. Then all of a sudden Oso came over behind my DS and all you saw was my DS just get so scared! I mean come on think about it... a HUGE yellow bear creeps up behind you while your eating, you turn, and he's all up on you lol. The poor thing. Poor Oso too he was upset also lol. He did sign my DD's book and take a pic with her lol. As soon as ANY character got a foot away from DS he'd waive and say hi. If they took that one foot step closer he'd clam up LOL. Unfortunately 2pm ws the only reservation I could get at the time and it happened to be naptime for my kids. My DD showed no signs of sleeping and our DS NEEDED his nap. Once we were done we left and he was out within 5 mins of leaving the restaurant. We figured hey we did most of what we wanted here lets go back to the hotel and swim. We got back to the hotel and our DS was still sleeping. He transferred to the crib without waking up. So DH took DD to swim and mommy got a nap!!! I think my last nap was 2 months ago maybe LOL.

After swimming and naps we all cleaned up and went over to MK. I honestly don't remember what we did there, but I know it was something lol. What I do remember was us leaving very late to come back to the hotel. We didn't realize what time it was walking around and riding Dumbo and what not. When we had decided to head back it was almost 11:30pm! So we got back and off to bed we went. Tomorrow is MK and Epcot!

 

[crazybones27]

We were there at the same time at BWV's! Weather was awesome glad you had a great time!

You can see my TR in my signature...

That's SO funny!! I'm checking your TR right now! I swear I see my husbands head in one of the pics that you took of the boardwalk on the 10th! We were walking around that Boardwalk alot that day due to having to wait to get our room LOLOL.

I wanted so bad to do a live trip report but each day we were exhausted by the time we settled down long enough in the room lol. The heat at the beginning of the week was a little overwhelming. The end of the week though was so nice!!

 

[sarahk0204]

Love your TR so far

We also drive everywhere with our kids, so I know what you mean. DH and I do not do well driving at night, though, so we had to resort to other methods of keeping the kids occupied. The dual screen DVD player is our friend, and when our twins were your kids' age, they would nap in the car, too.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[katmittens]

We did the same thing about potty training whit our son. He was going to be 3 in June and we were going to Disney in May, he kept telling us he would go on the potty in Disney. We did not think it would happen, but sure enough once we got there he put on the Mickey underwear and we never looked back. I think he followed in my footsteps to bribe or do whatever to get to Disney. This was many years ago. He is now 25 and still goes with us when he can.

 

[crazybones27]

Love your TR so far

We also drive everywhere with our kids, so I know what you mean. DH and I do not do well driving at night, though, so we had to resort to other methods of keeping the kids occupied. The dual screen DVD player is our friend, and when our twins were your kids' age, they would nap in the car, too.

Thanks so much . We actually purchased a dual dvd player for our last trip in September, but each time we used it our DD would get car sick. We actually have to drive with the passangers headrest taken off all the time now and her window open(rain or shine lol). We figured due to the long ride a dvd player would be great. Unfortunately there was a HUGE downside to them for us lol. So this time around we didn't even include them in the car. Unfortunately though we did forget movies for this reason and we had to buy one down there for the train ride home to watch on the computer lol.

Can't wait to hear more!

We did the same thing about potty training whit our son. He was going to be 3 in June and we were going to Disney in May, he kept telling us he would go on the potty in Disney. We did not think it would happen, but sure enough once we got there he put on the Mickey underwear and we never looked back. I think he followed in my footsteps to bribe or do whatever to get to Disney. This was many years ago. He is now 25 and still goes with us when he can.

It's so funny the pull that Mickey Mouse has on children LOL. No matter what we were going, but we really didn't want to have to deal with two kids in diapers, and we didn't. She was great! She had no accidents the whole time we were there! Granted the rush to find a bathroom when she needed it sometimes made us a little crazy, but we'd deal with that any day over the price of diapers LOL.

 

[crazybones27]

Since we have a studio we really didn't plan our morning meals all that well before hand. For some reason for this trip I just didn't feel up to planning days aside from sit down meals for the kids. So breakfast was whatever we felt like at that time. I believe we did another Bakery run in the morning.

Today we hopped in the car and headed over to Animal Kingdom. It was another hot day so it was probably the wrong day to do Animal Kingdom just because it always seems waaaay hotter in that park lol. We knew we'd only be spending a few hours here anyway since we have ressies at Coral Reef at 7pm.

Anyway we get to the park and everything seems fine. We showed our AAA diamond parking pass which didn't matter because the spots were all filled by that time. No biggie, but we did have to fold the stroller for the tram which isn't always the easiest task to get on the tram. This was our first tram ride since the doors had been added. I liked them since the kids won't fall out lol. The kids enjoyed the tram ride and off we went.

We did a quick photopass tree of life pic and started heading towards the tigers. Our DD wanted to see the tigers so bad for some reason. We have no idea what prompted it though lol. On our way over to the tigers I was so hot I said I wanted to do Kali River Rapids by myself cause I was so hot LOL. Well we went over and our DD(2 3/4) saw the ride and almost JUMPED out of the stroller to go on it. Now most people would think a kid not even 3 yet wouldn't be tall enough nor would want to go on. NOPE my DD hit the height mark and then some and not only that she raaaaaan to go on it. Of course you know she didn't want to go on with mommy. Mommy is no fun apparently lol. So the hubby took her. It's so great since they have these lap bars for the kids who aren't tall enough to reach the center one. I waited on the bridge with my DS while they went on. We had a nice breeze up there so I cooled off pretty good. When they finally came down the look on my DD's face was so great!! She had such a blast! Apparently the people on the other side of the raft when down the hill backwards and got soaked and she thought that was hysterical!!

She was trying to waive at me, but couldn't see me very well lol. From here we headed over to the tigers and other animals. I didn't get any good pics of them since they were all sleeping far away in the shade.

After walking around looking at the tigers we decided we would see how long the safari would be, but out DD had passed out all of a sudden. We took this opportunity to eat lunch. Our DS always eats well without a fight so we knew now was a good time to have a peaceful lunch lol. In Animal Kingdom Flame Tree BBQ is always a MUST! We got our food and headed over to sit down. We have been wearing our Anniversary pins since we arrived and getting a ton of "happy anniversary greetings" from CM. There was a nice CM filling the bbq and napkin station where we were sitting. She asked how long we were together and just other stuff. While we were sitting there she came back with 2 cupcakes for us. It was so nice of her to do that! We don't expect anything while we're there so that was really nice .

After lunch we started walking around looking in the shops. It was so hot that we had decided it was time to go. It was about 1 something so our DS was going to need his nap soon too. Our DD threw us off a bit falling asleep when she did, but no biggie we expect them to randomly fall asleep here and there. By the time we got out the front gate my back was acting up. I have bad back problems so sometimes it'll act up out of nowhere. My husband had elected to walk the kids back to the car since now they were BOTH sleeping. He didn't want to wake them up getting on the tram. I stayed and waited. I told him I would walk, but in all honesty I wouldn't have made it with how far away the car was. Wouldn't you know it he got to the car before me LOL.

We got back to the hotel. Our DD woke up and the DH took her to go play in the arcade while I showered and DS napped. Around 4 or 5 we took the ferry to Epcot. We walked around again for a little bit looking at flowers. Tried to get in line for Tinker Bell, but we had missed her for the rest of the day. Went over to Figment so the kids could play. On our last trip our DD freaked out due to it getting dark and the loud noises. So DH took her to the play area after the ride and DS and I went on the ride. He loved it as he did before which I like cause I love that ride lol. We let the kids play for a little bit and then headed over to Nemo. We wanted to do Nemo close to our reservation since it was at Coral Reef lol. We did that, let the kids run around, and wouldn't ya know it... it rained for 10 mins just as we were coming out. Well... it was Tuesday!

We have a double stroller that is fairly new to us and it didn't occur to me until the day we left that I didn't have a rain cover. Thankfully while looking for something else I found an old Mickey Poncho the hubby and I bought back in 2004. I took that with us figuring it would be a great addition to the ponchos in the owners locker. Well wouldn't you know it, it was a great stroller cover also! Now we had taken about 10 mins to cover the stroller with the poncho cause let's face it it's a poncho and not a stroller cover. It took us that long to get it to stay properly. Well... we had also parked under a tree to help shade the stroller. When we came out and the rain had let up we went over to it and some nice person have moved our stroller and parked theirs in it's place. Their plastic able to wipe dry Disney stroller. I know cast members move the strollers, but the reason why we know it was someone else was because it wasn't facing the same way as the rest of the strollers or placed neatly. Anyone who parks a stroller knows the CM's go through a great deal to park the strollers the sameway making the most room while caring not to move or touch anything else. There was NO way a CM had moved this stroller.

After about 10 mins of just being not happy we put our smiles back on and headed for Coral Reef. Here's where we actually laughed a bit harder at ourselves. We got over to the Reef and wouldn't ya know it there was a covered spot for strollers. We laughed about it now, grabbed our stroller brought if over and checked in. This was our 1st time eating at Coral Reef. I only picked it since I figured the fish tank would distract the kids and allow us to eat more in peace. Well... we were all the way in the back lol. It was ok since the kids actually ate pretty well. We got them the Tink and Buzz kids cups which helped a bit too. Loved the fact that they had kids pizza with apples and carrots and celery. This was probably their favorite meal that didn't involve a character lol.

After dinner we just walked about again and let the kids lead. I love allowing them to lead sometimes because you get to find so many things you didn't know about. There were giving probably 1000 stickers during our whole stay LOL. We made it a fairly early night since we had a reservation at Chef Mickey's the next morning.

All in all it wasn't a bad day. Coming up... Wednesday... Chef Mickey's, DS 1st haircut, MK, Epcot, MK - wishes dessert party.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I enjoy reading your tr, and must say that on my last trip to AK, I had the best ribs ever at Flame Tree! Yummy and so tender. I can't wait to go back!

Bobbi

 

[crazybones27]

Ok finally Chef Mickey's Day!! After our last trip we did Chef Mickey's for the
1st time. My whole family LOVED it! The kids for the characters and my husband for the food. He's a BIG breakfast lover and this buffet is his favorite now! I don't eat eggs so for me as long as the waffles and pancakes are good I'm happy lol. Oh and coffee there MUST be coffee lol.

Our reservation was for 10:10am. I wanted something early, but not too early. Ya know eat enough to make it too about 2pm without having to stop for food lol. Anyways we arrived at about 9:45 and checked in. They took us to the Mickey statue to take a picture that I knew I wouldn't be buying. We didn't do it the last time because honestly I think it's silly. I'm sure its for some people, but I can take a picture standing next to a statue with my own camera LOL. The kids ran around the waiting area until we were called. While waiting I had realize "OMG we DON'T have my DD's autograph book!" Thankfully being in the land of Mickey there is a gift shop every 5 feet lol. I ran out and bought one quick. This was our DD's first time getting autographs and she was having so much fun that if I didn't have that book the world would have been over lol. So crisis averted!

We sat down, met our server, got our coffee and juice and started to enjoy our meal. We ate everything they had to offer!! They had Goofy, Donald, Mickey, Pluto, and Minnie(normal ones). We got our pics and autographs and had a very nice meal! We did the celebration napkin waiving thing lol. My DH and DS had fun with this!! Mommy is always the photog so there's really never any pics of me lol. After that I grabbed an apple, banana, and orange for the road for the kids and off we went to MK!

Celebration fun

My son wondering why Donald was so close to him!

Now on to MK! As you can see in the first pic above my DS's hair is very long. It was my GOAL this trip to get his 1st haircut done! We tried 6 months ago and it was so busy and we never got back. SO THIS TRIP I WAS GONNA GET IT DONE! LOL We walked over to MK and as we were walking in the parade was just almost ending. I thought to myself this was PERFECT, and it was! We rushed over as the parade had gotten the last float through the doors! There was no real wait, but as we looked at my DS he was passsed out! I was like "OH NO this is still happening!" LOL Even if he had to sit on my husbands lap sleeping this was going to happen lol. We picked him up out of the stroller and brought him in. Asleep on my DH shoulder he woke up to the sound of the old register being opened and closed. YAYAYAY! I know what mom is happy about their child waking up way to early from a nap right lol. We sat him down and you could see the confusion on his face as to what was going to happen. He was sleepy and no sure about this seat lol. The CM gave him what looked to be about 50 or so stickers and you saw his face get a lot happier and more willing to sit. As she made the first cut my eyes started watering because she was cutting off all these baby curls he had that I couldn't bare to cut myself. My DD(who is now 3) still have her original baby curls. I won't cut her hair LOL! My DS unfortunately NEEDED his hair cut!
He did sooooo well in the seat. He had quite the face on most of the time, but he did well. Once all done he got his 1st haircut ears, pixie dust baby hair, and certificate of bravery! OOOOOH I almost forgot! While he was getting his haircut the Mainstreet Cortet came in and sang to us! It was PERFECT!! I mean it was the greatest memory and I know I almost forgot to tell you guys .

Before

1st cut

Cortet guy doing 1 for 1st haircut!

Mainstreet Cortet

After

I could not had been any happier with the woman who cut his hair! She was WONDERFUL! I mean I've read on here how well they take care of the little ones, but she was so great! Now our DS could actually see what was going on in the world !

 

[crazybones27]

So after my DS's haircut we wanted to go over to Epcot. We headed for the exit and the monorail. We hopped on board and went to the TTC. We were leaving our car at MK because we had all plans on coming back later to end our day there. We weren't going to go back to the hotel and just let the kids nap in the stroller today. Well.... we got off at the TTC and went down the ramp to get to the Epcot monorail side. I had forgotten normally you can just walk through. Unfortunately the Epcot monorail had broken down for a little while and the nice CM was like you are more then welcome to take the always late bus transportation over to your right. While I got a chuckle out of the "always late" part this was not an option lol. We got back on the monorail for MK and headed back to our car and drove back to the hotel. I believe we did a little swimming instead of Epcot since we were so thrown off at that point. After swimming and naps we headed back to MK for the Wishes Dessert party. We headed over around 6 and grabbed some food and the Lunching Pad since the park was so crowded and it was pretty open there. We rode the People Move, Buzz Lightyear, and something else lol. Then at around 8:45 we headed over to Tomorrowland Terrace for the party.

The Dessert party was nice. We arrive early and was given a bracelet so they knew we belonged there. They had a table with our name on it which was great! The desserts were very good and plenty of stuff to drink. I wished though they had some apple juice for smaller children, but they did have milk so I was covered on my kids. I had juice for them anyway so no biggie there. Our kids enjoyed the desserts that's for sure! Mommy and daddy didn't get as many as they wanted due to the kids lol, but all was good. Once parade, castle Let the Memories Begin show, and Wishes were done we stayed behind until we saw the HUNDREDS of people clear off mainstreet! Our DD fell asleep in the stroller when the fireworks were going off and my DH was chasing our DS around. I sat and enjoyed the night air and just took it all in.

Castle after everything was over.

DD passed out!

Front of the Boardwalk as we were coming back from MK.

All in all it was a good day. Went back to our room and slept till morning lol.