Princesses, Slushes, LEGOs, and a maxed CC - Sept 2009 1st Timer TR

[stacikristine]

First of all, YES!!! Animal Kingdom Lodge is the GREATEST!!! We loved it. And secondly, love the pics--can't wait to read more! Oh--and I'm really curious about the maxed out CC story

 

[crocko]

Woo Hoo, I'm very happy I got some extra pixie dust for replying first!!! And Now................. I'm impatiently waiting to hear about your trip

Your patience may relax...I'm about to post my first update!

First of all, YES!!! Animal Kingdom Lodge is the GREATEST!!! We loved it. And secondly, love the pics--can't wait to read more! Oh--and I'm really curious about the maxed out CC story

Yeah...great Lodge!
Oh and the CC story is coming......eventually.....at some point.......

 

[crocko]

Day 1 (Departure Day)
Chapter 1 -- When is Grammy going to get here!?!

Well, as expected Wednesday night, Bridgette and I slept fitfully. It’s funny…I’m 28 years old and I still sleep fitfully the night before a Disney trip. LOL.

I woke up somewhere around 3:30 to take a shower and get dressed and ready. First picture of the trip was making sure I captured the haul that we were taking with us for our 9-night/10-day Disney trip. On the left and middle, we have 8 bags…2 carry-ons for each person. On the right, we have the 2 big bags that would get checked. Although, one of them was fairly empty with the job of carrying two more bags inside of it, so that we could bring back 4 checked bags when coming home. (Not seen: the two strollers that came with us as well)

At about 4am, the kids were still snoozing….

But Joshua was VERY QUICK to wake up and he surprised with how incredibly excited he was. He always gets excited to go on fun trips somewhere, but I’ve never seen him this bouncy and ecstatic.

Samantha….she was more of the mindset that she had not received enough beauty sleep…

At this point, we were dressed, packed, and ready to go. Just waiting on Bridgette’s mom to come pick us up.
And for Joshua, Grammy was taking way too long to get to our house:

She arrived at about 4:30 and at about 5am, we were finally at the airport and it was time to say goodbye to Grammy for 10 days

OKC (Will Rogers) Airport is pretty small, so not too much early morning traffic to get through as we took of our shows and stuffed our plentitude of bags through the scanning machines. Then, off to go sit and wait for our plane

Here’s a cool butterfly “statue” in the terminal

While waiting, Samantha looked at her cool book about Airplanes and Joshua played with LEGOs (yeah…there’s a reason LEGOs is in the title)

Finally…..ON THE PLANE!! First time on a plane and the kids did great. Samantha really got into it and was excited about the moment that we actually were in the air and flying.

Some plane pics:

Samantha playing a happy/sad game

After awhile….Leapster Time!

We had a good trip into Houston. At Houston, we had a 2.5 hour layover, so we were in no rush to hustle off the plane. Took our time and casually walked to our next gate. Kids played some games while waiting (we had brought some Pooh and Mickey stencil sets….)

Here, though, is Samantha working on some puzzles:

And NOW………the first food pics of the trip. (Warning: I’m new to the realm of taking pictures of food, so I sometimes forgot to take pictures and when I remembered, I had usually already started eating….my apologies in advance)

At Houston, I had an egg & cheese biscuit from Wendy’s and Joshua had a big cinnamon roll (all cut up for him). Cinnamon roll was good. Egg & cheese biscuit was good, but as expected the biscuit was on the hard side.

Then, after a lengthy wait, we’re finally called to get onto the plane headed to Orlando. Woohoo!!


On the plane:

Joshua having put together one of those move-around puzzle games and then…antsy to get out of his seat (while playing with LEGOs of course)

Fortunately, here is what Samantha did during the Orlando flight

(she needed it!)


The plane that brought us to Florida

And everyone ready for our strollers to get brought up so we can get headed to MickeyLand!!

Up next: Missed signs and Mickey buses….

 

[crocko]

Pictures fixed....ugh, stupid hyperlinks.

 

[California Jenn]

What a fun start! Isn't it amazing how much stuff is necessary to take along once kids enter the travel picture???

Love the pics of DD sleeping on the plane and DS playing with the puzzle. Super cute!

 

[jordanyosh]

Okay, I'm in.

 

[chicagoshannon]

Great start! Can't wait for the next installment!

 

[stacikristine]

I can't believe Joshua was so excited so early in the morning!

I'm hoping the missed signs just means that you forgot to look at the signs...not that the driver missed the signs!

 

[WrightFamily06]

Great introductions Cute pictures from departure day , looks like your trip has started off w/ no hitches , which is always a plus especially when traveling w/ kiddies Can't wait for the next update !

 

[crocko]

What a fun start! Isn't it amazing how much stuff is necessary to take along once kids enter the travel picture???

Love the pics of DD sleeping on the plane and DS playing with the puzzle. Super cute!

Oh man...so much stuff. We plan on travelling MUCH lighter in November.

Okay, I'm in.

Awesome! Glad to have you on board

Great start! Can't wait for the next installment!

Got busy this afternoon, but it should be coming tomorrow.

I can't believe Joshua was so excited so early in the morning!

NO KIDDING! 4am and that boy was wired for Disney World....he wore down come evening b/c of it, but man he was ready to go.

I'm hoping the missed signs just means that you forgot to look at the signs...not that the driver missed the signs!

Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner. Yeah, as you'll see...it references my horrible lack of focus and how I missed the oh-so crucial moments of entering WDW.

Great introductions Cute pictures from departure day , looks like your trip has started off w/ no hitches , which is always a plus especially when traveling w/ kiddies Can't wait for the next update !

Yes....1st day travel went very well. Kids did great on the plane. Flights left on time and arrived on time. Last year, our Houston-to-Orlando flight ended up with a 2-hour delay.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

Isnt it great when the kids fall asleep on the plane. The pics are great and I cant wait to hear more.

 

[crocko]

Isnt it great when the kids fall asleep on the plane. The pics are great and I cant wait to hear more.

I don't mind if they are having fun, playing on the plane --- but sleeping is MUCH nicer than whininess. FOR SURE!

 

[3princesses+aprince]

All right!!! !!!!! I love travel day. Even though, exhausting, it is so exciting.

The picture of Joshua waiting for his grammy at the door is so precious. It shows pure anticipation!!

Can't wait to hear about your first Disney Day!!!!

 

[crocko]

All right!!! !!!!! I love travel day. Even though, exhausting, it is so exciting.

The picture of Joshua waiting for his grammy at the door is so precious. It shows pure anticipation!!

He was cracking us up. He was so excited that he couldn't even say words....just weird grunts & squeaks kept coming out.

 

[crocko]

Hey all....sorry for no updates the past 2 days. I've focused my energy on getting all our PhotoPass enhancements done instead...and I am finally done.

Whew!!

There were 211 total PhotoPass pictures on our cards. I have managed to turn those 211 pictures in 1,106 photos that will be put onto our CD.
My first time with PhotoPass and I went enhancement/editing crazy!

 

[chicagoshannon]

LOL! I can't remember how many we ended up with but I think I chose almost every border for each picture.

Can't wait for an update!

 

[crocko]

LOL! I can't remember how many we ended up with but I think I chose almost every border for each picture.

Can't wait for an update!

Should get another update today.



Also, we took the kids to see the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 in 3D double-feature on Saturday. It was fun. Those movies are great and they look awesome in 3D!

 

[crocko]

Day 1 (Departure Day)
Chapter 2 -- An Illegal Bus Trip

Alright! We’ve made it to Orlando. Now let’s try and get through the terminal and down to the Magical Express area.

Yay! The airport Disney store

Finally to the other end of the airport, down the elevator…and look! It’s Grandpa!

And Grandma!

Bridgette and Mary went to take care of ME check-in…..we didn’t wait too long before getting on a bus. Yay! Off to DisneyWorld!!

Okay….now for my Missed Signage. Every trip report known to man…everyone gets a picture of the Walt Disney World sign upon entering. Well, we got there a little quicker than I was expecting and I totally missed the sign!!
Then, as we got close to Animal Kingdom Lodge there was a cool sign for the Lodge but it caught me off-guard and I missed it. Bridgette was upset, but I told her we’d be coming by that thing plenty of times. Plenty of chances to get a picture of it (eh?)
Well, finally focused…I did atleast get a picture of the Kidani Village sign

Here’s the cool Kidani Village trash can. I discovered on this trip how cool the DisneyWorld trash cans are…in fact, I started a Disney Trash Cans photo collection. LOL

We’re here! And the kids got their First Visit buttons. Cool!

We quickly got settled into the room but then were ready to get over to the MK resort area (we’ve got ‘Ohana dinner tonight). Not too fast, though…need to get a few pictures before everything gets messed up:

On the way out, though, we took a few minutes to relax on the savannah and watch some giraffes & zebras

Okay….let’s get over to the bus stop and get on an MK bus.

Well – Maybe Not. Our first hiccup of the trip! As we’re waiting for our bus, we overhear that all bus transportation has been halted. They must all return “home” and then hopefully bus transportation can resume. Probably a 1-hour hiatus. Ach!!
Fortunately, though, there was a helpful cast member who was trying to get guests to their destinations as soon as possible. A couple minutes went by and an Epcot bus came by to drop people off. The cast member asked the bus driver if he was going back to Epcot. He said he was going back to Epcot and then to the “bus home”. We acted quickly and hopped on the bus.

No, we weren’t going to Epcot, but I knew that we’d at least be closer. From Epcot, we could get on a monorail to get over to the Polynesian and the other resorts. Before going to Epcot, though, the bus driver had to stop at Jambo House to let more guests out. The cast member at the Jambo House bus stop was less helpful and more by-the-books. When not everyone got off the bus, he asked the driver where he was going. He told the bus driver that he should not be transporting anymore and that he was to head “home”. Luckily, our bus driver played kinda dumb about it…so, the cast member just told him to go to Epcot and go straight to “home” after that.

Whew!! I was gonna be annoyed if they made us get off at Jambo House.
So, the bus driver shut the doors, and pulled out. We were now on a bus that shouldn’t be still carrying guests. Very against the rules…very dangerous. Yeah, that’s how we roll.


Made it to Epcot! We waited in the area between the gates and the monorail for a few minutes while my mom and sister went to get their official tickets for the trip.
This meant that to my surprise….Magic Kingdom was not the first park to be seen, but in fact Epcot and Spaceship Earth. We didn’t go inside, but we got to see the big ball.

My mom and sis finished up and so now….the kids’ first ride on the monorail!

Up Next: Many Monorail rides and a Packed Polynesian Paradise

 

[chicagoshannon]

Great update! I can't wait to hear about Ohana.

 

[stacikristine]

Great update! Our rooms look similar, but not exactly the same. I love the lion king headboard!! I forgot. Were you all in a one bedroom? Those wall circles are gorgeous. And that's great that you all broke the rules--I would have been all for that too! Can't wait to hear about 'Ohana!