Quest for an Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich: 9 Days of Free Dining

[emh1129]

Can't wait to read more!

 

[momtolandm]

Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep well on our first night. For starters, my pillow was just not acceptable at all. I’ve never tried to sleep on such a lumpy pillow in my life. I finally remembered that there was an extra one on our shelf and managed to feel my way over to it in the dark. Then Maggie woke up crying around eleven, right after I’d finally managed to fall asleep. And then I noticed that our room, and specifically our bed, smelled like smoke. We hadn’t gotten the non-smoking room I’d requested after all. I hadn’t noticed it at all when we were up and moving around but for the first two nights it was a problem when I tried to go to sleep. I didn’t notice it after that and Cardell never noticed it at all. I finally got up around 5:20, used the bathroom and tried to go back to sleep to no avail. I then tried to read for awhile and laid back down one more time, but I still couldn’t sleep. I got up and showered around 6:30 and was ready for the day before our alarm went off at seven.

By the time the alarm went off Maggie had also gotten up. Cardell and Libby weren’t far after her. Cardell showered and then went down to get milk for the girls and a refillable mug of coffee for himself. Even though it was still before the time we had decided to leave we finally just decided to get going. We drove to the TTC and parked close enough that we didn’t have to take the tram. We were parked in the Minnie lot which Libby was very excited about. Libby could always remember the parking lot we parked in at every park all week long. It was rather amazing.

Unfortunately, we had a little trouble when we went to get ready to walk to the park. The stroller we had bought Libby the day before at Target only had three wheels. How annoying. We hadn’t even taken it out of the package before we went to put her in it. And now we would have to back to Target that afternoon to exchange it. I was hoping she would be able to handle walking for the morning. If not, we could rent a stroller for the day.

We walked to the TTC and stopped to take a picture next to a sign with Mickey on it. Maggie was very excited about it. Apparently, Mickey’s that do not try to touch her are okay. Living Mickey’s are terrifying. We got on the monorail and even though we thought we took the express one we stopped at all the resorts. Maybe they don’t run the express one in the morning because we found this was true every time we got there early. We went through our first bag check, which was painless and a little exciting because the guy’s name was Gary just like my dad, or Papa as we call him now. And then we got to wait.

I was a little nervous about the amount of people who seemed to be there. I thought there would be less but it was pretty crowded. It was Saturday, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. We’d forgotten Libby’s sunglasses in the room so she complained about that for awhile. Then she and her daddy got to sit on his very first bench. He’d been teasing her for months and months that he was most excited about the benches and that all we would be doing would be sitting on every bench. We told him we would sit on one bench since that’s what he wanted to do but after that we weren’t sitting on any benches unless our feet hurt. I think she was glad to get that one bench out of the way.

There were a lot of people already lined up to go under the train station but I wanted to watch the Welcome Ceremony from out front. It was really cute. The mayor came out first and made an announcement and then some dancers came out and danced to a song about Main Street USA. Then a train full of characters, and the family of the day, came pulling into the station. Libby watched the whole thing from her daddy’s shoulders and Maggie didn’t cry so it was a success.

When the show was over we made our way inside and down Main Street. I was feeling a little stressed because of all the people. I wanted to see Libby’s face when she saw the castle for the first time but we had to walk so fast because of the crowd that I didn’t really get a good look. She seemed overwhelmed anyway, so I don’t think there was much of a face. We stopped to get our photo taken on Main Street because we were all wearing matching shirts. That took a little time, especially since we had to get our first photopass, and then we made our way up to the castle where we waited for rope drop. There were a lot of people in front of us and I was kind of wishing we’d skipped that photo.

It didn’t take long before we were heading into Fantasyland and toward Dumbo. We had to get Maggie out of the stroller and I had to keep myself from smacking my husband when he started to walk away from me after asking Libby who she wanted to ride with. “Oh,” he says, “Maggie can go on this?” How many times has he heard Libby say that she is going on a pink elephant with Daddy and Maggie is going on a green one with Mommy? Sometimes his listening skills exasperate me. We ALL got in the line, with me saying, “Did you think Maggie was going to be able to go on ANY rides?” No, he really didn’t. I swear, if I didn’t think he was so cute I’d be REALLY annoyed by the fact that he never listens to me.

A nice family took our picture in front of the Dumbo topiary. (Just as an aside. I love topiaries.) We probably waited about ten to fifteen minutes to get on this ride. It seemed like it was taking forever, especially after we got out from under the canopy and had to stand in the hot sun. As we were just about to start going up the ramp a CM asked us how many people we had in our party and then directed us to move forward a bit. Then he had the family behind us walk down the aisle so he could start blocking the chains to make the line hold more people. He directs them down a row and they walk all the way down only to come back and end up exactly where they started. In the exact same spot. It was really funny. The CM made some weird comment about it and how it somehow helped him, but really, I think he didn’t know what he was doing. I thought maybe he didn’t think they would get enough walking in on their vacation and he was just helping them get enough exercise.

Finally we collected our colored chips to place on Dumbo’s ear and were corralled inside the waiting area. I was so nervous that Libby would have a fit if she didn’t get a pink Dumbo but she was so excited to ride she didn’t really care what color she got. In the end, I think hers was orange and ours was green. Even Maggie liked it, although she seemed to think it should have been a little shorter.

Next up was Snow White’s Scary Adventures with no wait. Now, obviously this ride is scary. It’s right in the title. Libby knew it was scary and she wanted to go on it anyway. She said she would just cover her eyes when she saw the Mean Queen or the Naughty Witch. Well, that ride was much scarier than I remembered it being. Poor Libby had her hands over her eyes for the entire ride and wouldn’t even look when I told her that she could see the dwarves. I was really wishing we had saved that ride for the last day of our trip. Now we were going to have to pay for therapy for two kids!

The carousel was next, also with no wait. Luckily, no one was scared of that one. Cardell thought Maggie didn’t like it because she wanted to get off right away. Peter Pan was next, still no wait. I was really wishing we’d waited on Snow White when Libby barely looked at the entire thing because she thought it would be scary. Cardell was sitting with her and he thought she saw most of it through her fingers. We should have gone back on that one a second time but we never ran across it with a short line again.

Next we went on It’s a Small World. Nothing scary there and both girls loved it. Maggie danced and Libby laughed through the whole thing. Whew! I was starting to get a little worried. The tea cups were up next, but first we had to stop and watch while Maggie screamed and squealed at the carousel like it was the neatest thing she’d seen in her entire life. Libby was very excited to get a pink tea cup and insisted we spin the entire time. As soon as it stopped she said, “Let’s do it again!” but I wasn’t up for it twice in a row. Luckily, I was able to distract her with Tweedledee, and she got a hug and an autograph. It took her parents about three days to figure out that the signature was so strange because it was written so that it would look normal in a mirror. Maggie looked very nervous while Libby saw Tweedledee but we kept her a ways back and she didn’t cry.

We headed off to Toontown next. I originally planned to get there right at ten when it opened but that didn’t happen. Even though we hadn’t had many lines at all it seemed to take forever to get Maggie in and out of the stroller and get anywhere. We stopped at the bathroom here and then headed over to Goofy’s Barnstormer. Cardell and Libby went first. It seemed like it took them a long time but another lady who was waiting said there wasn’t really a line. When they came off of it I asked Libby if she wanted to go again with me and she did so we headed in the line. That explained the long wait. It took forever to walk through the line. There was a ton of theming and I was wishing I had brought the camera. We got right on and flew through Goofy’s barn. As we were getting out the CM heard Libby say that she wanted to go again and told her that she could get right back on if she wanted to. The look on her face when she heard her wish granted was just priceless! I think that was my favorite part of the day. We spun around one more time and then went to find Cardell and Maggie who had already guessed that we got to go two times.

Our next stop was going to be Frontierland so we got in line to wait for the train. The conductor told us it should be there any second because it was already a minute late. We had to fold up the stroller which made it a little difficult to get on. The other thing that made it a little difficult was Maggie. She did not want anyone to hold her on that train. This meant I had to do the whole bear hug thing to keep her in my lap while she whined and struggled. It was a lot of fun.

In Frontierland we headed straight to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We got a child switch and I took Libby. There wasn’t a long line at all. We probably waited about three minutes. She was just bouncing as she got into the seat she was so excited. This made it all the more disappointing when the ride started out in the DARK. With BATS. She made me cover up her eyes with my hand. She did like the outside part and screamed just like she said she would but the dark at the beginning scared her off and she didn’t want to do it again with Cardell. Cardell and Maggie had spent their time looking at some ducks.

Cardell didn’t want to go on the ride badly enough to go without Libby so we tried to figure out a plan for the rest of our day. We walked past Splash Mountain so Libby could look at it and decide if she wanted to ride. She had originally promised me that she would go on it with me and then changed her mind about two weeks before we left. I finally got her to agree to look at it first before she decided. Let me tell you how long that decision took. I’m not even sure she got a whole glance in before she gave it a big no. We were going to try to see the Tiki Bird show but we weren’t sure how far it was from where we were. We tried Country Bears but a show had just started so we would have had to wait fourteen minutes. We weren’t up for that either. Finally we decided that we would just go have lunch. Somewhere along the line Libby had seen a popcorn cart and somehow got it into her head that she could have popcorn for lunch. There was quite a bit of whining before we convinced her otherwise.

We finally made a decision to eat at Columbia Harbour House and Libby was distracted from the popcorn by the promise of mac n cheese. This was our first time using our dining credits for a counter service and Cardell was confused about it so he sent me up to order while he found a table with the girls. The set up here was a little weird. I think they had the line going the wrong way or something because you had to go back out through the middle of the people with all of your food. The lady taking my order seemed to be having a bad day. She was not friendly. I got chicken strips and fries for Cardell and I and mac n cheese, which came with mickey cheese crackers and grapes for Libby. We also got three chocolate cakes, the only dessert choice. Cardell got a pop, Libby got chocolate milk and I got apple juice. I also ordered an extra milk for Maggie. I decided to pay for it out of pocket instead of using a snack credit since it was pretty cheap and that decision managed to confuse the rest of the restaurant. First the lady tried to give me my milk and was confused when I didn’t leave. Then she finally figured it out and put the milk on my tray. Then the guy behind her couldn’t figure out why there was only one person behind me when there was a number in between so he tried to give that guy’s food to the next person in line. I was wishing I had just used a snack credit. Eventually they got everything together and I went and found my family. The food was really good; hot and fresh. The only problem was there was so much of it. Actually, there were two problems. We never remembered to ask for an extra plate so it was always hard to feed Maggie. At this restaurant we managed to give her her mac and cheese in the tops of one of the chocolate cakes. Both girls ate really well. Cardell and I could have easily shared one order of the chicken strips. We also ended up giving our cake to someone else who wasn’t on the dining plan. I don’t really like cake, and I don’t like frosting at all, so I just took a few bites of mine around the edges and then gave it to Libby. She only eats the frosting. Maggie can’t eat cake so we had one left over. All in all, this was a good restaurant and one I would definitely go back to again.

I took Maggie outside to run around a little bit while Cardell got Libby cleaned up. We were planning to do the Haunted Mansion and then head back to the room. Libby decided she wasn’t up for it, though, even with the promise of holding her pen light, so we started heading out. We stopped and picked up a Fastpass for Winnie the Pooh to use later and then went over by the partners statue to get another family photo in matching shirts. Libby had a huge fit because she wanted to sit on the bench instead of being up by her family but the photopass guy somehow managed to miss the entire thing. We got out photo but she does not look like a happy camper in it. I was feeling a little crabby myself. There had been way too many fits so far this morning in my opinion.

We were planning to stop at the hat shop on Main Street on our way out, but first we were sidetracked by the same dancers we had seen that morning during the welcome ceremony. Now they were in the middle of Main Street dancing to the same song. Libby really enjoyed them so we stopped for a few minutes before continuing on. I couldn’t resist trying for one more photo, just to make sure we got a good one in our matching shirts, so we stopped one more time towards the end of Main Street. We had two ladies who were working as photographers and neither of them seemed to know much about it. First, I wanted Libby to hold her hands out in front of her so they could put Tinkerbell in them. They had no idea what I was talking about. I’d seen that on the internet but I thought maybe they’d stopped doing it. I asked another guy later in the week, though, and he knew what I was talking about. Then I asked them where the hat shop was. I thought I knew, but since they were there I thought I would just make sure. They had no idea.

We found it anyway, right where I thought it was, and headed in. We decided on pink mouse ears with the girls names embroidered in the back. While Cardell waited in line Libby tried on, and modeled for photos, nearly every hat in the store. It was very cute and helped to restore both of our crabby moods.

With hats in hand, at least for Maggie (she never would wear hers), we headed back to the car. We waved at Chip and Dale who were out near the front for autographs, and then waved again at Goofy, Max, and Mickey who were out in front of the train station. We took the monorail back to the TTC and then walked to our car, realizing that we could have taken the tram and saved a lot of steps. For me, that definitely would have been worth it.

Up Next: Non-cooperative children at naptime and supper at All Star Movies

 

[momtolandm]

We got everyone into our nice bright Saturn and headed back to the resort. We’d made sure to turn around this morning and look at what the sign for our exit said so we made it back to the hotel with no problems. The toys we had brought, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Princess Minnie, and Sorcerer Mickey, were all sitting on the bed watching TV. Libby thought that was hysterical.

We got the girls settled down for a nap and Cardell headed back to SuperTarget to exchange our stroller for one that had all four wheels. Unfortunately, this meant I got to deal with the power struggle that ensued when Libby decided she didn’t want to take a nap. I tried bribing and threatening and nothing would get her to settle down. I was certain she was tired after walking all over the Magic Kingdom that morning. In retrospect, I think she was feeling a bit powerless on our trip. She wasn’t being given too many choices and I think she decided she could make a choice as to whether or not she would sleep and she chose no. I finally dozed off myself but about five minutes later Cardell came back. He had forgotten his key so I had to let him in. Libby woke up too, if she was even sleeping, and another power struggle ensued. She really needed to take a nap if she was going to make it to the fireworks that night. I tried laying with her but that didn’t work. Finally she gave up and fell asleep. Of course, Maggie woke up about two minutes later. Cardell got her to go back to sleep for a little bit, but she was restless. And funny. She had both of her blankeys in the crib with her and she kept trying to pick them both up at the same time and then dropping them. She finally managed to stand up holding onto both of them and as soon as she got upright she fell right back over, landed on her tummy, shut her eyes and went to sleep just like she’d planned it that way. It was a very entertaining five minutes for me.

Libby woke up from her very short nap around four. We no longer had time for the pool so we decided to go to the playground and check out the rest of our hotel instead. After spending a little more time in our courtyard we headed over to the playground. The playground had a very soft sand bottom which we didn’t like at all. I much prefer wood chips. So does poor Maggie who managed to do a face plant and get sand in her mouth and eyes. We felt so bad for her. We didn’t actually notice her eyes at first but later on in the evening they were red.

Libby didn’t want to leave the playground but I managed to convince her we were pirates looking for a Dalmation treasure, so off we went. Both girls loved the Dalmation courtyear. Maggie couldn’t stop waving at all of the puppies. I kind of wished I’d requested that building. We passed the closed Fantasia pool. It did kind of annoy me that we never saw them working on it the entire time were there. We then walked down to look at the Mighty Ducks pool and take Libby’s picture in front of the cute statue of Goofy playing hockey. We promised her we would take her swimming as soon as we could fit it in.

It was only 4:30 but we were already hungry considering we ate lunch at 11, so we decided to beat the crowds and headed over to our food court. Libby wanted pizza so I got that for her while Cardell went over to another station to order for the two of us. I felt a little guilty that I was using Libby’s meal credit to pay for an adult meal but they didn’t have an option for anything like pizza on the kid’s menu. We split up to make it go faster but I had the pizza in about three seconds. Cardell was still ordering. He got roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and mac n cheese. I wanted one of the chef’s special’s which was asiago chicken pasta. There was some confusion about how to order this. Cardell said I needed to tell the chef but the chef wasn’t paying any attention to me. Eventually the same guy who had helped Cardell came over and told him what I wanted. I then had to wait for him to cook it. Meanwhile, we were confused about how to order our desserts. If we got our ice cream it would melt before we ever got a chance to eat it. I went and asked and they explained that you would just tell the person at the cash register what you wanted and they would give you a receipt to get it later. I picked up a white milk for Maggie, a chocolate milk for Libby and a strawberry milk for myself (Cardell got a fountain drink in his refillable mug) and went back to where Cardell and the girls were still waiting for my pasta. Their food was about to get cold, so I sent them to pay for the two meals while I waited for mine. I also had to exchange Libby’s chocolate milk for a strawberry one. After she saw that mine was pink she couldn’t be left out. Pink is her favorite color after all.

When I went back to switch the milks I made what was, according to my husband, a disastrous decision. I saw a variety of fruit, including apples that came with caramel dip and I thought to myself that since I really, really wanted a chocolate chip ice cream cookie sandwich for a treat before the parade I probably didn’t need ice cream from the food court as well. I could have a little of Cardell’s brownie sundae and be fine with some apples. Well, you should have seen the backlash from this decision. Every restaurant we went to I had to hear about whether or not I was getting apples for my dessert. Considering that the brownie sundae Cardell got was big enough for at least three people I thought I made the right decision. And the apples did come with caramel dip, so it wasn’t like they were all that healthy.

I paid for my food and sat down with the family. Everything was very good. My pasta was really yummy. The only problem, once again, was that we had so much food. We easily could have shared. I actually took another picture of my pasta after I ate it just to show how much was still left. It looked like I hadn’t even touched it. Maggie loved the potatoes off her daddy’s plate and she also loved dipping some of my apple slices in the caramel sauce once I was done with it. So I guess that wasn’t such a bad purchase after all.

Cardell took Libby up to get their desserts when they were done. I had a moment of panic when I looked up and saw they were gone. They had been in line and then it was just like they vanished. I think I must watch too much Without a Trace. They came back in a little while after a sudden trip to the restroom. Cardell got the aforementioned, and huge, brownie sundae and Libby got an Itzakadoozie – a very colorful popsicle. She was really excited because she was having a hard time deciding between the colorful popsicle and cotton candy for her treat during the parade. Now she got to have both! While we were cleaning up a lady came by and gave the girls some more of those Mickey stickers.

We headed back up to our room to pick up the camera battery I’d forgotten to charge (unfortunately for me, this was a common theme) and Libby’s journal. Libby was really excited about her journal. She was currently in the process of making a very detailed map of our hotel in different colored squiggles. Once we got everything together we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the parade and fireworks.

Up Next: Who's afraid of the big bag wolf?

 

[momtolandm]

We made our way easily from All Star Movies to the Magic Kingdom, this time taking the tram and then the boat to mix things up. I had to stop at the restroom on the way because I wasn’t feeling too well. I had been anticipated that it wouldn’t take long before eating more than three times the amount of food I was used to would catch up to me.

Our first stop once inside the park was at the candy store at the front of Main Street to get Libby her cotton candy for the parade. While they were in line I went back to the hat shop to get Libby some bobby pins for her Mickey ears. Unfortunately, Libby has really thin hair so I couldn’t get enough of it in the bobby pin to hold it to her head. She didn’t wear her hat much because it was constantly falling off. I grabbed a water to add to the cotton candy purchase and we headed down Main Street through the stores. Libby was putting things on her shopping list left and right. We told her we were going to have a shopping day and that she wasn’t buying anything until then. So far it was working. I considered getting the girl’s silhouette done but decided to hold off for a little while. We didn’t have a lot of time before we wanted to line up for the parade.

We started out by going to Fantasyland so we could ride Winnie the Pooh. Libby really liked it, but Maggie wasn’t a fan of the bouncing. When we left Libby had something in her shoe so I stopped to help her. Cardell said that Maggie, who didn’t like the ride, was SUPER excited about looking at the sign with all the characters on it.

We took a walkway from behind the castle to get over to Liberty Square. I wouldn’t recommend walking that way if you can help it. It’s a designated smoking area and I thought we probably gave ourselves lung cancer by the time we got out of there. We found a spot for the parade in front of the Hall of Presidents. I settled in with Maggie and sent Cardell and Libby to ride Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. I soon regretted the decision. I found myself spending the entire time worried that they wouldn’t get back in time. Not only that but there were CMs in the street playing Duck, Duck, Gray Duck with the kids and Libby would have been totally entertained by that. Not only that but Maggie was pretty fussy. Snack appeased her for a while, but not long enough. Not only THAT but by the time they got back there wasn’t enough time to go get my ice cream cookie sandwich. Although I still wasn’t feeling the best so that was probably for the better.

When they came back Cardell sat down next to Maggie and I got Libby. I was very happy with his decision but he soon regretted it. Maggie had had enough by this point. Libby happily ate her cotton candy during the rest of the wait. At one point she excitedly said to me, “Look, Mickey!” I was looking all over for him when she held up her cotton candy and showed me a Hidden Mickey in the bite mark. That’s my girl. Cardell got up to run get Maggie some water and a guy tried to have his daughter, or maybe his granddaughter, sit in his spot. When I tried to explain that my husband was sitting there he said, very snottily, “I hope he enjoys it.” I don’t think he understood that Maggie was also our child and that his daughter probably didn’t want to take care of her during the parade. I was a little annoyed. I’d been sitting there for a good forty minutes so I didn’t need this guy to be snotty to me when he couldn’t find a good seat five minutes before it started. The last thing we did before the parade started was watch the two little girls next to us who got to shut off the lights for the parade. They were so excited. It was really cute. Libby was a little nervous about the whole thing. I think shutting off the lights sounded like a lot of dark to her.

Soon it was time for Spectromagic to start. I loved it. Maggie was a little scared. I think she was afraid the characters were going to come up to her. Libby liked most of it. Her face when Cinderella’s carriage appeared right in front of her was priceless. She was afraid of the mean people though and she was absolutely terrified of the Big Bag Wolf. She even cried when she saw him. I was trying to distract her with the Three Little Pigs but it didn’t quite work. The Three Little Pigs was her favorite story for a very long time even though that wolf scared the daylights out of her. She used to have dreams about him about twice a week and once I even had a dream that the Big Bad Wolf was after me. At one point I had to convince her that the Big Bad Wolf would never be able to get in her house because a) it was made out of bricks (a small lie) b) we don’t have a chimney (another small lie) and c) the Big Bad Wolf doesn’t have hands so he can’t open doors. It worked. Snow White came over to Libby and shook her hand and said, “How do you do?” and then Pluto came over and tried to lick her face. For months, every time anyone mentioned Pluto, Libby would say, “I hope he licks my face!” because I told her that he licked my face on our honeymoon. When it actually happened, the reality of the situation must not have been what she had imagining. She leaned as far back in her stroller as she could get and Pluto backed off. I guess she hadn’t taken into account how big Pluto’s mouth is in contrast to her little face. I think she was still happy that Pluto had tried to lick her face, though.

When the parade was over it was naturally very crowded so we went the back way through Fantasyland to find a place for the fireworks. Libby spent the walk whining because Sleeping Beauty wasn’t in the parade and listing all the things about the parade she didn’t like. I was getting very frustrated and annoyed. Mainly, I was disappointed. We had been thinking Libby would be so excited about every little thing and instead she seemed to be focusing on every little negative aspect of the trip she could find.

Maggie got to wave at the carousel again and we found a spot on the bridge from Fantasyland to watch the fireworks. Libby was so whiny we were both ready to lose our minds, but we chose to ignore her instead. The fireworks started and we had a great view of Tinkerbell flying from the castle but after that our view was not good at all. We should have stuck it out and tried to find a spot in front of the castle. We couldn’t see well at all. At one point we thought it was over so we moved down a little in anticipation of leaving. It wasn’t over at all and we had a slightly better view. I think it would have been an amazing show if we had seen it in front of the castle.

At the end of the show there was something about making a wish. I convinced Libby to make one and she seemed to be back to her normal, happy self. That moment was ruined when I told her we could go on the tea cups again before we left. For some reason I thought the park was open until twelve. It wasn’t. Everything was closed and she was naturally upset. We headed down Main Street with about 100,000 other people. I swear it took us a half an hour just to get out of there. I was desperately trying to think of something we could do instead of standing in the middle of that mob of people but nothing came to me so we just went with it.

We decided to take the ferry and had quite a long wait. I entertained myself by watching a man who was desperately jockeying for the best position even though the CM kept telling us that everyone would get on the boat. Poor Maggie was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open but that didn’t stop her from trying. She was actually tilting her head back so that she could see because her eyes were just open in slits. It was pretty funny but we also felt pretty bad for her. She is never up that late and she normally gets a much longer nap as well.

We finally managed to get on a boat and I was glad that we got a seat. The German guy next to me spent the entire time laughing at Maggie. Besides the barely open eyes, Maggie also has a blankie that she shoves as far in her mouth as humanly possibly. It drove me nuts when she was tiny because I was sure she was going to suffocate herself but by now we are so used to it that it we don’t remember that other people will think it is strange. I’m not sure how many people I had to explain to on our trip that she has always shoved her blanket in her mouth like that. She never used a pacifier, she used her blankie instead. My niece always says, “She’s going to cough up a fur ball.”

The boat was back to the dock before I even realized it was moving. I guess I was pretty tired too. I took Libby to the bathroom and then we stood in another very long line for the tram. We were both wishing we could have somehow sprung for a monorail resort. We managed to get both strollers and both children on the tram when it was our turn. Libby got a second wind and was suddenly very, very excited about going to the Pluto parking lot. We were so tired by this point that we were giddy. We made our way back to the hotel and had a small snack of cheese crackers (I needed to fill my belly with something) before heading to bed at nearly eleven.

Up Next: A morning at Animal Kingdom

 

[momtolandm]

I slept better this night than the first one. The smell of smoke was noticeably less. Maggie woke up once crying and went right back to sleep. I think she must be teething. And Libby also woke up once thanks to a nighttime visit from the Big Bad Wolf. I was really hoping that wouldn’t continue throughout our vacation and luckily it didn’t. I explained to her that they don’t let any of the “mean people” do mean things at Disney World because it is only a happy place. I think she eventually believed me.

Cardell woke up before seven and took his shower, then went to get milk and coffee while I took mine. We ate breakfast in the room (mmm, Pop Tarts) and I stilled as much as possible because I’d forgotten to charge my camera battery and I wanted to give it as much time as possible. I did have one that was partially charged from yesterday, but I wasn’t going to be able to take as many pictures as I wanted to.

We drove to the Animal Kingdom and parked in the unicorn lot. We just missed the tram and my darling husband nearly caused me to have a heart attack by suggesting we walk. He really hated folding up the strollers for the tram but my feet hurt enough with the regular walking; I’m not adding any when there is a tram I can take. We spent our time waiting watching all the birds that were perched on cars and signs all over the parking lot.

We made our way up to the gates of the Animal Kingdom and got in line. A lady in front of us had the grown up version of Libby’s dress on. She was being her now normal crabby self and didn’t want to get excited about anything. I was trying my best to ignore her but it wasn’t working very well. We saw a talking tree at the other side of the entrance but he never got close enough for us to get a good look at him. Eventually a CM came out and explained to us that we were going to count down to open the park and we would have to be enthusiastic or they wouldn’t open the gates.

Some kids opened the park and we made our way through the Oasis until we could see the Tree of Life in the distance. We all gathered there and waited for the opening ceremony. This was really cute. Minnie and Goofy and Pluto came out in a Safari Jeep and were going over the list of things they needed for their safari. At the end they realized they didn’t have their guide and there was Mickey with a telescope way back by the Tree of Life. Maggie really liked pointing at them but Libby wasn’t nearly as excited about it as I thought she would be.

At this point we had already determined that we were going to split up. Cardell was going to walk to Asia, ride Expedition Everest and then pick up three Fastpasses so we could each ride it twice. I was going to take the girls to Dinoland where we would ride Triceratops Spin and then go to the Boneyard until Cardell caught up with us. We said good-bye and headed on our way. We saw Tigger and Eeyore and Libby excited me by being excited about them. She even wanted to go get a picture and autograph but I was afraid that Maggie would have a complete conniption if no one was right with her to comfort her so we continued on.

Dinoland was much different than I remembered it. We got right on Triceratops Spin and sat in the back of our dinosaur. Both girls seemed to like it but weren’t interested in riding it again. Libby ran around the area a little bit and got her pictures taken with some of the dinosaurs and then we headed into the Boneyard. The girls played for a while but this area was much better for Libby than for Maggie. She couldn’t do the ropes and she wouldn’t let me help her on the stairs. It was a little nerve-wracking.

Cardell came back before too long and I went over to Primeval Whirl. The sign said there was a ten minute wait but I got right on. This ride was fun but I wasn’t wowed by it. I didn’t feel the need to do it again. I was surprised by the fact that there seemed to be two complete rides, but only one was open.

Back in the Boneyard I found my family still playing happily. Cardell wanted to ride Dinosaur so I sent him to do that. The girls continued playing. Maggie managed to walk straight down one of the small slides and nearly give me a heart attack. Libby went all the way to the top and found the dig site across the bridge. I had been under the impression that the entire Boneyard with a dig site so I was confused when we went in and there was no sand. I thought maybe they took it out for some reason. It made a lot more sense when we found that area. Libby happily played in the sand but when I tried to put Maggie in one of the little sandboxes she immediately fell down and once again got full of sand. At least this time she didn’t get any in her eyes.

I was afraid that Cardell wouldn’t be able to find us so I told Libby to stay where she was and hung out on the bridge watching for him. I saw him go in and it took forever before I finally flagged him down. For some reason, instead of coming up to where I was, he went and got the stroller. He had to put it right back. I guess he thought we were in an entirely different spot.

When he came back I went and took my turn riding Dinosaur. I was going to skip it but he said it was fun and I couldn’t remember if they had changed it since we had been there before so I decided to check it out. The wait on the sign said twenty minutes but I walked right into the pre-show and then right on to the ride. I went on this before but I didn’t remember it being half this scary. I rode most of it with my hands over my eyes. In the photo at the end I was totally ducking down. Maybe going on it myself made it more scary. I don’t know what it was but I wasn’t going to repeat the experience.

I found Cardell waiting for me on a bench near the Boneyard. He had also tried to put poor Maggie in the sand and got a very terrified reaction. Poor little girl is never going to play in a sandbox. I had walked past a sign for a dinosaur trail so we walked through that. I thought Libby would like to see some non-threatening dinosaurs. It was a bust. There were only two. One had a million kids climbing all over it and the other was a Triceratops hidden way back in the bushes. That is her favorite dinosaur but she could barely see it.

Next up was my turn on Expedition Everest. I was really excited, especially since Cardell said it was really neat. We walked over there and got the girls some ice cream for their wait – a Mickey bar for Libby and an orange juice bar for Maggie. After I got them all settled and took a few pictures (it was Libby’s first Mickey bar, after all) I went to use my Fastpass. I really loved it. Even in the Fastpass line there was a ton of theming. I didn’t have a long wait at all and I loved the ride. It would have been a little better if I had been surprised by some of it but I’d seen the special they did on the Discovery Channel, or maybe the Travel Channel, so I already knew what would happen.

I came back just as the girls were finishing their treats so I got the wonderful task of cleaning them up with their daddy went on his second Expedition Everest ride. Maggie really liked that orange juice bar, but it was so sticky and hard to clean up. Cardell came back feeling a little yucky and wishing that he had stuck to just one ride. I went again and got the second row this time. The yeti was much scarier closer to the front of the ride.

Back with the family I got in line to get my own treat: a frozen chocolate covered banana. For some reason I had been craving one of these ever since I’d seen it on the internet. The line was long and the CM was understandable annoyed by the millions of love bugs that were landing all over her. I don’t think she was having a very Disney day. Those bugs were obnoxious. When we would go back to our room in the afternoon they would be covering the entire door and surrounding walls. Yuck! I got my banana and it was good, although I wished I could have gotten it without nuts.

We continued on our way to the Maharajah Jungle Trek. Maggie managed to drop her cut about three times on the way and some lady very helpfully told us that when her kids dropped the cup that meant they were finished. I think she was having a hard time hanging on to her cup, personally. We were sidetracked by some fountains that Libby stopped to play in. It was really hot this day, so you certainly couldn’t blame her. Then we headed over to look at some monkeys that Libby couldn’t see. We also saw a family that had been on our airplane. What a small world!

We made our way into the jungle trek and stopped first at the Komodo dragon. When Libby heard that they will occasionally eat people she wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. The bats were next and Libby really seemed to like them. She also really wanted to see a snake that was in a cage but when she got up to it she was scared of it. The tigers were taking a nap, and Libby didn’t really want to see them anyway. I was really trying hard not to be annoyed by her lack of enthusiasm about everything but I don’t think I was doing a very good job.

We stopped on a bridge and talked to a CM who showed Libby a tiger paw print and told us about the geese that were walking around underneath us. We also saw a Colobus monkey with very long hair and a Golden Pheasant. Libby was excited to tell her Papa about all the birds she saw. When she told him about the pheasant he said he could have bought some of those once, but he didn’t because he didn’t think they could survive in Minnesota. Huh? That was random.

We were getting a little hungry for lunch. I wanted to go to Flame Tree Barbeque because that sounded good but then I remembered that Tusker House had air conditioning. It was also inside, so it was the clear winner. We headed off in that direction.

Up Next: Lunch, two of Libby's four favorite animals, more therapy for our children, and flowers from a special friend.