Prolly the least planned Dis Trip EVER! Our first family trip May 10-17th.

[PrincessBrideJo]

So my goal this trip was to make it to rope drop, any one would do. Hubby thought I was crazy. I thought you dissers were crazy. But I was gonna try the whole rope drop, afternoon break, and back at night. We both thought it was the dumbest plan but I kept telling him (and myself, but he didn't know that) that I had to try it at least once. Everyone says it is a best and I must try it. OH MY GOSH WERE THEY RIGHT. Ok so to ruin the suspense of my entire TR, we never saw the rope drop but we were close several mornings!

So this morning after going to bed early and me not being able to sleep we got up early. Had breakfast in the room and got ready. We left in plenty of time to catch rope drop actually but the dumb bus system was not the best in the mornings when we were there. So we waited the 20 minutes for our bus and got on and headed to........


Magic Kingdom. How could you do any other park first when it is your DS4's first trip to Disney World.

So we got off the bus and HEARD the music, we RAN to the ticket turnstiles but we just missed the ceremony. Darn it!

I had this big vision of getting ahead of William and getting this GRAND reaction to the castle and taking a picture. I saw it on someone's TR and I just knew I had to do it too. So I ran ahead of hubby and DS in the stroller and took the picture. This is what I got...

Isn't that priceless? Too bad it wasn't an actual excited reaction. I hope by the time I am 50 that I will forget that this wasn't excited-ness and think what a wonderful reaction he had. He was just playing "fishy face" as we walked into the park. He could have cared less about the castle. Darn it. And I had worked myself up. But oh well, we were at Disney!!!!!!!!

So we headed down mainstreet and took a right towards....yes....tomorrow land. I knew I wanted to ride buzz first and foremost so that is where we went. DS had had a bad experience on the scooby doo shooting ride at Six Flags so we were a bit worried about this. Of course I didn't have my camera out and we turned the corner to tomorrow land my son (the space LOVER, I should have known) got sooo excited and was "oooh"ing. Oh well. I can remember that at least!

So there was no line for buzz and I made hubby snap this picture quick as we were running through the rat maze...

Oh we have this one at the entrance too...

I am horrible at this game and DH kicked my tail even though he was helping DS with his shooting (I got him back later, don't worry!). DS LOVED it. He got off saying it was his favorite ride ever and it wasn't scary and wonderful, wonderful things about it (remember this for later....). Although he refused to get in the cage with zurg, I did manage to get him to stand next to him...

After that we headed to the speedway. I usually avoid this ride. It isn't air conditioned, the cars smell, and the line is HOT. But it claimed to be a walk on....about 20 minutes later we were finally on (and sweating like pigs, and pigs don't sweat! hehe). DS didn't want to drive because "he wasn't big enough" so I drove him and hubby drove the car in front of us so he could stop and take pictures. Here are a few...

After that we headed to fantasy land. Here we first went to Mickey's Philharmagic which once again William laughed during and claimed to just LOVE after it was over (once again, remember this for later...)

We then went on a ride spree with Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan and Its a Small World. I only took one picture and about got my head cut off as I was leaning out of the boat to take the picture and they let the boat go and yelled "Mam, WATCH YOUR HEAD"....I was so close to one of those poles...whoops. So I am a commercial for "please keep your hands, arms, legs, feet, and HEADS inside the boat at all times!".

So as a side note I need you to know how much I love my child for going on this ride. I HATE this ride....hate it bad. When I was in 5th grade my family took our trip to Disney. It was a wonderful trip and then we rode that ride......we got stuck, not even kidding, for over an hour. AN HOUR. They NEVER turned off the music. We were by the yodelers...I can still point out the exact position of our boat. Horrible, horrible memories. THEN we went on our honeymoon and I agreed to go on it with hubby (more of that mad love for my peeps, hehe) since it was his first time to Disney. Well we didn't get stuck and I thought I was in the clear.....till we got on the plane and for 3 hours the little girl behind us sang......you guessed it..."Its a small world". OH MY GOSH. So anyways, I love my son is all I am trying to say, haha.

Alright. And now it is getting late so I must end this trip report for tonight. Next installment - where will we eat lunch? Will William go on the haunted mansion? What will we do with our afternoon time off?

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Thanks for the update! Sorry for the misunderstanding regarding the waitress. I really thought she smelled bad!!! Oh, well!

Sounds like you had a great day at MK so far. You got some really good pics, too. I'm so envious of the pics your DH got from the Speedway. Priceless, I tell you.

My DS4 LOVES the castle! Every time he sees it, he screams LOOK, MOMMA! CASTLE!!!!!!! We got lots of grins from passersbys, he was so excited. He did that A LOT during our trip! I never thought to get his reaction on camera, so that was a VERY good idea you had! Oh, well!

Looking forward to more, as always!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

So last place I left off was riding its a small world. After that it was about 11:15 and I knew we needed to head to lunch if we didn't want to get caught in the crowd. Since we were over that direction we went to Harbour House. Now I THOUGHT this was a sandwich place, but not so much. It was a fish place, but man....the fish was GOOD. Hubby and I both got it and fries. He got a apple pie thing for dessert and I got a chocolate cake and this one was pretty good. I know people say that the cakes around the parks are standardized. And although they are very similar, I think they have minor differences. This was one pretty darn good I must say. Hubby's apple thing was good, but it would have been WAY better warm and with ice cream! DS had chicken nuggets and fries (you will see this pattern for the rest of the week, haha) and apple sauce, I think. He shared my chocolate cake too, yummy!

You got more fries than that but I had started eating before I took the picture!

I must have not taken a picture of my dessert, sorry!

After lunch we ran over to Peter Pan. The lines were down a bit since the lunch rush was starting so we waited about 30 minutes for the ride. This turned out to be one of William's favorite rides.

Here is my boys waiting in line. This was a common site as my husband had to talk DS into almost every ride we rode.

Next on to the haunted mansion. This one I was nervous about. I knew it was fun inside but still scary. The first scene is just so scary to get through! So anyways we took him on it and he flipped out. Not like the kid screaming next to you to run away or anything. He just started saying "it is not my favorite ride. i don't want to ride this daddy." Well we shoved him on a doombuggy and he hid his head behind me the entire time. He did look out to see bats one time but that was it. We kept trying to talk him into it but he was just too freaked out. Of course we got stuck on this ride. It wasn't for long but when it stopped I just had flash backs to the hour long wait on small world but only a ride that my son was freaking out about! So we got off that.

William really wanted to go back to the hotel, but we talked him into splash mountain. He was actually excited to ride this ride because he saw it in the Disney Video. So it was no problem getting him on the ride. Hubby, however, said it was a different story ON the ride. He hid behind hubby the entire time afraid to get wet. Poor guy, we are so mean to him! hehe.

Here he is waiting in line

Now let me just tell you that this starts a long line of questions that just kept growing the entire time. So now we have "Is it scary? Does it have ghosts? And do you get wet?". Trust me, it gets WAY longer each day! haha.

So after all the torcher we thought he deserved a break and a swim time. So we headed back to the hotel on our bus. Oh on the way to the bus hubby ran to buzz to get fast passes for buzz for the afternoon when we got back while I walked through a few stores on main street. So anyways then we got on our bus...

Yup, totally konked out! Poor guy, it was a long morning for him. So we got back to the hotel, laid him in bed and he sprang up like a TIGGER. I WANT TO GO SWIMMING. So my ever willing husband took him swimming while I took a much needed rest. I have been having medical issues that causes me to fatigue quiet easily so you will see I rest often!

And speaking of rest I am off to do just that. I was planning on going to bed 30 minutes ago but I either got some weird poison ivy or some weird mosquito bites that were keeping me up. So I slathered cream on and took a benadryl and just waited for it to all kick in so I wasn't so itchy! Now I am off to bed!

I will post the pool pics tomorrow (they are super cute!). and hopefully finish up our day at MK. Did we get William to ride anymore rides after our morning? What would we eat for dinner? Will we be able to keep him up long enough for the parade and the fireworks?

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Where'd you go??? I've been looking forward to hearing about your afternoon swimming! And your little angel looks so precious sleeping on daddy's shoulder!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Where'd you go??? I've been looking forward to hearing about your afternoon swimming! And your little angel looks so precious sleeping on daddy's shoulder!

Hello! I am back! Sorry started potty training the little one and all went downhill!!!! We jumped off the potty train as it was derailing so now I have more time. Let the fun continue!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

So here are our wonderful pool pics. William woke up the minute I laid him on the bed in the hotel so my wonderful hubby took him swimming. I, eventually, came down and took some pictures!

this one he is riding hubby!

After awhile we headed back to MK. As you remember DH had ran and got fast passes for buzz on our way out of the park. When we had gotten off this ride William had loved it. So we headed there to use our fast passes and William WIGGED OUT. He refused to ride it. Said it was too scary. So we didn't force him.

We did see no waiting for Monsters so we did that first. We all really enjoyed this as it was the first time we saw it!

I then saw that the Carousel of Progress was open and no line so we ran over there to ride it. I had ridden this one since I was very little so it was good to see it again. I thought William could fall asleep but we kept him entertained by looking for the dog, so cute!

After that we were getting hungry so we headed to our favorite CS from last time, Cosmic Rays. Hubby and I are big fans of burger bars so off we went. It was super yummy, of course!!!
I only got a picture of my food (William had nuggets of course and hubby had the same thing)

Now we were in future land but we hadn't done anything in adventure land so we trekked it over there. Over a big discussion ( it was a real discussion, i don't mean this as a special word for a fight!) we finally decided on Pirates. We were afraid of William hating this ride, but besides the big dip, he did great and really enjoyed it.

After that hubby and I once discussed where we were going and walked from ride to ride over and over...haha. He wanted to do the jungle cruise but I wanted to do the tiki room first as the line for jungle cruise was 20 minutes long. He then noticed that the return for the fast pass for the jungle cruise was in 20 minutes so we grabbed those and headed for the tiki room. I was really glad for this as we didn't know the tiki room closed early and we made it for the last show! Whew!
William was pretty scared of the tiki god's but LOVED the totem poles singing.

I made them pose by this when we got out!

Then we rode the jungle cruise. I had never ridden this in the dark and it was way fun! Our skipper was AWESOME and she had jokes I hadn't even heard on the ride!!!! Yeah!

Ok so after the jungle cruise we decided to get a spot for the parade. Oh my gosh what an ordeal! We found one right by the place that they leave open till the last minute. Well hubby wanted me to go get us dole whips while we waited. So I did. I had to carry 3 ice creams (2 floats!) by myself in 90 degrees. Yeah, I was sticky aftewords! When I came back hubby was like 3 people deep in the crowd. I asked him what happened? He said people were lining up in the space and a CM told them to get back so they just got in front of him. Grrr. So we ate our ice cream and waited for the parade. The CM was in a foul mood but I think I would have been too if the same people kept trying to line up in the break and I had to keep telling them to move back. Well he finally put the rope up and everyone CHARGED to the space. My gosh. I have never seen such viciousness and I shop on Black Friday! Chris got ran over by a scooter! We got separated and no one would let me get by to be by my family! Finally this lovely mom said "Honey you come right over here, you shouldn't have to miss your child's face when he sees the parade". SO SWEET!!! And then the scooter woman looks at me and says "Hey, I am gonna back my scooter out so my daughter can get in here and see the parade. Can you not steal the spot please?" I said "Yeah, no problem". Then I am not kidding she went on for 5 minutes or something saying "Don't you take it, you told me you wouldn't. This is for my daughter..." Wow, she needed a chill pill!!!!

Well we watched the parade (I didn't take any pictures as I obeyed the rule of no flash) and after all that it was one of my fav moments for it was the first time William saw Mickey. He started waving and yelling for Mickey. It was SO CUTE!!! We really enjoyed the parade!

After that we tried to head out. We decided we would watch the fireworks another night. But that was impossible. We couldn't get past the crowd to get out so we got a spot for the fireworks. I got the most awesome picture....

Isn't that cute?! Of course it is followed by this...

He thought the fireworks were too loud. But DH and I enjoyed them greatly!! i took some pics but they are bad.

After that we headed out. It was SO LATE - like 11? And we were up by the castle for the fireworks so it took us like 1.5 hours to get back to the hotel! Ugh! It was so late, but I think worth it. I took this picture as we were leaving just for memory sake...haha

Alright up next is AK!!! Will William be tall enough for Everest? Will he ride it if he is?

 

[crocko]

Sounds like a fun evening at MK. You know...in all my years, I have never done the Carousel of Progress.

I'll be taking a 3-year old and 5-year old....what's your thoughts?

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Sounds like a fun evening at MK. You know...in all my years, I have never done the Carousel of Progress.

I'll be taking a 3-year old and 5-year old....what's your thoughts?

My thoughts on the carousel of progress for kids? I hope that is what you mean as that is what I am going to answer! haha.

I think it is a pretty boring ride for a 3 year old, but like I said we kept DS4 entertained looking for the dog because he LOVES all animals. I also had heard that once you get on this ride you can't get off. Well I don't think that is true. I think once the ride is stopped at each scene you can get up and head to the exits. Of course if it is busy it might be hard to get out, but I have NEVER seen this ride busy! haha. But it a 20 minute "ride" or something like that. And it is just a guy talking about the latest "inventions" of that decade.

 

[heaven2dc]

First I want to say what handsome boys your hubby and son are (plus your 20-mos old is adorable!) Loved the pics of the two of them - how sweet

You and your hubby are such great parents - looks like your 4-yr old is having a blast (isn't it cute how one minute one ride will be fun and the next time you try to go on, they're terrified ) Can't wait to hear all about AK!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

First I want to say what handsome boys your hubby and son are (plus your 20-mos old is adorable!) Loved the pics of the two of them - how sweet

You and your hubby are such great parents - looks like your 4-yr old is having a blast (isn't it cute how one minute one ride will be fun and the next time you try to go on, they're terrified ) Can't wait to hear all about AK!

Thanks for joining up! I am hoping to get AK's day or at least part of it up tonight! We shall see.

Thanks for saying my boys are cute. I think so but I am pretty partial to them! And I don't think hubby and *I* are great parents, but I sure do think hubby is! I swear I wouldn't have lasted a day there without him. He could settle DS down instantly and got him to do so much more than I would have. I was really amazed at him. DH really understands DS a lot more than I do because they are SO ALIKE. So glad they were both there!!!!

Still trying to talk DH into going back next year, but he just won't budge. Since we are TRYING to move this year (our house has been on the market for over 6 months now, ugh!) he just doesn't want to put money towards a vacation. Which I understand but I am the emotional and irrational one. Poor guy has to be the best parent AND the rational one, haha. Right now I am trying to talk him into a guinea pig or a hamster too and once again he just won't budge!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great update and pictures. You really should post your food pictures over on the Disney Food Picture thread. You did a great job. I hate that it took you so long to make it back to your resort and the crowd picture. We usually find us a bench and sit for at 30 minutes to an hour before we ever attempt to leave the park.

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Great update and pictures. You really should post your food pictures over on the Disney Food Picture thread. You did a great job. I hate that it took you so long to make it back to your resort and the crowd picture. We usually find us a bench and sit for at 30 minutes to an hour before we ever attempt to leave the park.

If I ever finish up here I will go post my pictures over there! It has taken me forever just to do this, haha!!!! I would have totally found a bench but with William asleep we figured it would be fine waiting in line, which we did. We even did get a seat on the bus on the way back so that was nice!

AK coming up next! Gonna start it now!

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

So here we are up and ready to go to Animal Kingdom. Everyday we get a little bit later and a little bit later in the mornings, haha. We got there about a half hour after it opened.

We went to Everest to get fast passes and the stand by said it was only 10 minutes so we decided to do that. We had William officially measured there and YES, he was tall enough! Only cuz he has fluffy hair, but whoo hoo!!! We told William it was a rollar coaster and he likes those (from six flags he rode mild ones) so he was excited. He rode with me this time. He HATED it. Oh my goodness how he hated it. He kept asking me to make it stop and wanted to hold my hand. He was so cute, but yet I felt so bad for putting him on the ride!!!! So now our list of questions we got from him was - "Do you get wet? Does it go too fast? Are their ghosts? Do you go backwards?"

Yeah so we are a glutton for punishment so we headed to Dinosaur. Luckily we found nemo on the way and decided to do that first. William was a little scared sometimes but overall we all LOVED this. It was something new to all of us and we really enjoyed it. After that we headed to Flame Tree BBQ. It was about 11:15 and they were not open yet so we swung over to meet Winnie the Pooh and Friends. Our first character meet!!!

First up - pooh. I went with William because he was SCARED TO DEATH. We forgot to have pooh sign our book...

Next up was Eeyore. This was actually pretty comical as Eeyore had a really hard time with his mittens to grab ahold of the autograph book!

And last but not least Tigger!

After this we headed to Flame Tree BBQ. While hubby got our food William and I went to get a table. We found a bunny on the way and William was so excited about the silly bunny (ummm...do you know we are gonna see giraffes here? hehe ).

I did make him pose as well...

Our food...

I had the fruit plate - IT WAS AWESOME. And yes it counts as a CS meal! (hubby and I split our meals)

William got the hot dog, grapes and a cookie

Hubby got ribs (they were good. The BBQ sauce was great, but the ribs were ok. Cosmic Rays were way better)

My key lime pie. WORST DESSERT EVER. I think it had gone bad or something. It was really bad...

Hubby's chocolate cake - this was a really yummy one!

William had a very hard time eating this day as there were ducks, birds and bunnies around. But he finally gave in and ate....

Alright that is all for tonight I think!!! You will have to see what is next up! Will we stay till close? Where will we eat dinner? Will we get William on Dinosaur? What we will do after the park closes at 6!?

 

[heaven2dc]

Your son is such a trooper to go on scary rides! I don't think any of my kids when they were 4 would have tried the rides William has gone on (they're not scaredy cats, I would have been the one too scared to let them try them!). At least you aren't one of those parents that still insist he go on the ride if he really really doesn't want to go on it (I as well as many diser's on here have experienced that scene with the child crying and screaming and the parent still insisting which only ruins the experience for the child/parent but the other guests as well).

How did you like the CS dining plan? We are going to try it our next trip but a couple of my kids would like to experience some dinner meals that require the full meal service of the DDP but I want to save $$

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great update. I always seem to look at the food pictures right before my lunch hour.

 

[PrincessBrideJo]

Your son is such a trooper to go on scary rides! I don't think any of my kids when they were 4 would have tried the rides William has gone on (they're not scaredy cats, I would have been the one too scared to let them try them!). At least you aren't one of those parents that still insist he go on the ride if he really really doesn't want to go on it (I as well as many diser's on here have experienced that scene with the child crying and screaming and the parent still insisting which only ruins the experience for the child/parent but the other guests as well).

How did you like the CS dining plan? We are going to try it our next trip but a couple of my kids would like to experience some dinner meals that require the full meal service of the DDP but I want to save $$

Well we were those bad parents who forced him on haunted mansion but I do think that was the only ride we shoved him on kicking (no screaming). He never wanted to ride any rides except Toy Story, Soarin, Figment, annd peter Pan. But my husband could get him to get on the ride without any screaming or kicking. I don't think I can say enough of how my husband was seriously the most amazing dad on this trip. I swear every ride we went on he had to talk William into it, but he did it. And most of the rides William did enjoy after he went on them!

I LOVED the CS dinning plan. Not to mention it comes with 2 snacks a day a person! We were just buying snacks left and right. And we always went to lunch early (11/11:30) and dinner either early or late depending on our snacks that we had had that day. We never ran into serious crowds eating. My husband was very appreciative of my research on places to eat and snacks to get! We did eat at T-Rex out of pocket but that was it. Everything was the dinning plan. If I take kids back I will for sure get the CS dinning plan. With little kids they don't want to sit and eat a big lunch or dinner anyways! They want to get going and see the next thing. If hubby and I go just us which I want to do for sure in the next 2 years I will get the TS dining plan because we enjoyed that when it was just us!

Great update. I always seem to look at the food pictures right before my lunch hour.

Well at least it isn't after your lunch hour and you have to go get a snack then! haha.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Joanna, I am really enjoying your trip report and love the pictures, your son is adorable! Can't wait to read more.

 

[heaven2dc]

I wanted to clear up my earlier post as I wasn't trying to imply that either you or your husband were one of those "bad" parents! You are wonderful parents Your little boy is so lucky to have you both and he looks like he had alot of fun going on all the rides even if it took a little coaxing!