Some of you may have heard the beginning of this story, how a planned trip to Florida expanded to include the Disney trip with the 4/3 deal, but how we kept it a surprise till Christmas morning.
The kids found out in a treasure hunt that led them to an armoire full of Disney souvenirs and a big sign saying they were going...
They were appropriately excited...
And then....we had about a month to wait.
Finally, on January 29th, after having been in beautiful Florida for only about 36 hours (we arrived in Fort Myers at dFIL's condo and then headed to Orlando a couple of days later from there), we piled into the car (squishing considerably in the back seat - but eight days later on the way home, I realized I'd had all KINDS of space that day that could easily be filled in with new stuffies and helium balloons) and headed out. We left at about 7 a.m., with a very crabby Meredith feeling cross and queasy and refusing to touch her Mcdonald's breakfast, threatening to throw up for the first hour and a half. Since she'd thrown up most of the morning while we were flying to Fort Myers, we were not exactly immune to the fear of motion sickness, and felt somewhat tense. But as the morning wore on, she perked up, thank heavens. (We've come to realize that cars and planes don't bother her at all, and getting up early is no big deal, but mix them both together, and she is NOT a pretty sight.)
So we got to POP around 11:30 and got checked in. They said that our room wasn't ready, but dFIL's was, so we went up to move into
his room temporarily, and lo and behold, our room was just being finished when we got up there. We were in the 50's building, behind the jukebox, on the 3rd floor. We hastily tossed things here and there, grabbed our essentials, and hit the road. Sure, the forecast was for rain, but surely not, there was scarcely a cloud in the sky - it was all going to be
great. But in the short time we were settling in, the clouds started to roll on in. Onto the MK bus we climbed....
We got to the Magic Kingdom at a little after one in the afternoon. The part was pretty quiet, really. We snagged a quick photo with Pinnochio, and
just as we started with him a few drops began to fall, and his handler suggested they move under a little roof in the Town Square. He took Meredith by the hand and they wandered away, with us trailing, laughing at how cute they were together.
There were longer lineups in Fantasyland, so we moved on through to Frontierland and Adventureland. Haunted Mansion was our first ride - at Meredith's suggestion. It scared the PANTS off of her
- she was riding with dFIL and Caroline, with DH and I in the car behind, and all we could hear all through the ride was her sobbing...off to a great start, I thought. Meredith had been absolutely convinced that she was going to be a crazy person for all the rides, fearless and daring. The first ride undid her - but I'll say this - she consistently managed to bounce back, thank heavens!
After Haunted Mansion, John, Grandpa and Meredith headed for Splash Mountain. Caroline and I, far too chicken for that sort of thing (we've lived to tell about the ride before, but had no desire to do it again), hung back. Caroline munched on a Mickey bar that Grandpa had bought her, and we waited for them on the bridge. It
really started to pour, and although I hung out there as long as I could stand it, I started to worry my camera was going to get ruined, and ducked out of the rain -
just as they came down the drop. Sigh....missed the photo. Grandpa had actually decided not to ride at the last minute because he realised he didn't have a poncho yet, so he'd gone off to buy one. I'd managed to get Caroline into her poncho before she was drenched, but I was soaked to the skin - was more wet that John and Meredith were after getting off the ride, and they were pretty soggy, too! Meredith was actually much more wet than I was - soaked to her undies. She'd been pretty scared by the drop and said she wouldn't do it again, but that it was awesome, and she loved the inside.
We watched the parade in the pouring rain. I didn't realize then how abbreviated a version of the parade we were seeing - not till the last day when we saw the whole thing. It was pretty, and I took pictures, but they're a little dismal in the wet. Here's an appropriate pic of Mary Poppins and Bert:
After the parade, we went over to Pirates of the Caribbean for two quick rides in succession. We just walked right on both times (just like we'd done at Haunted Mansion). I got myself all worked up, the first time, trying to remember how bad that first drop was, and the girls keyed into that and were a little nervous. When we went through it and dropped, I laughed out loud - it's
nothing! How could I remember that as worrisome?? Anyway, I loved the reworking they did of the ride - it's great fun, and we loved seeing Jack here and there in the ride. The kids and I are huge Pirates fans, so it was a big hit.
But after that Meredith was really cold and shivery, and begging to come back to the hotel, so we piled back onto the bus after such a short little stay, and headed back. Caroline had mixed feelings, dFIL clearly thought they were freezing (it wasn't dry, but it also wasn't at all warm) and so we caved. Both John and I were a little sulky about it at first, to be honest, hating to waste almost all of the first day. We'd had scarcely three hours in the park. But both kids fell asleep on the bus, so it was the right thing to do. Oh, and on the way out of the park, I noticed that there was a security guard with an autograph book, getting kids coming in to sign it for him...I loved that. It was the first of
many, many touches of CM-created Disney Magic this trip.
We rested a bit at the hotel, hung up our wet clothes and showered to freshen up before heading to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian.
1900 Park Fare was perfectly nice. They had a nice spread of good food (I kicked myself afterwards, because I forgot to try the strawberry soup, which I'd meant to have, but the cream of asparagus was extremely tasty!). There was a bit too much going on for us to have a solid meal, but I felt full pretty quickly, and everyone else seemed to as well. The characters were lots of fun with the kids. We liked Lady Tremaine the best. When she first walked into our section, she stalked by the table, pointing her finger at the kids' books, and said, "Open them up," quietly and firmly with an arch to her eyebrows, before gliding past them. No real crazy antics, but just good consistent role-playing, and the kids were eating it all up. Cinderella was a little distant, as was the prince, but the stepmother and stepsisters were great fun.
After dinner - the shopping commenced. We started with an innocent lanyard pin and a 2009 fridge magnet. Then Caroline needed a new notebook to journal the trip, because she'd forgotten hers, and Meredith needed a fatter autograph pen....I considered buying a shampoo bar from Basin (I
love that store!, but didn't end up getting that for a few more days (got it at Downtown Disney). There was lots more we DIDN'T buy - I'm so glad Disney never minds when we try on the hats and take pictures in them, because we have so much fun with that.
(He's definitely going to cringe when he sees I've put this picture in, lol)
We hopped on the Monorail at GF just to do a loop. It's so pretty at night. We love the monorail. They were just regular that first night - on our last day as we were leaving, though, I saw two of the monorails, Monorail Orange and Monorail Yellow, decorated with the balloon celebration themes.
On the way home after that, I stopped in at POP and bought a couple of refillable mugs and some milk for cereal in the morning. When I got back, at TEN P.M., the girls were getting into their swimsuits to go out to the pool with John. I tsked and fussed, and thought about how they'd been up at 6 that morning, but went along with it for a half hour or so. Thank heavens we did - it was the last chance they had to be in the pool the rest of the trip.
By eleven o'clock, the kids were sound asleep in their beds, and our first day was done.
I get to be the first one!!!! 
