Quick Trip to Insanity

[DisneyAprilFool]

The morning of the 11th dawned bright and early… Make that too bright and early- for me, anyways. The night before had been a whirlwind of activity from packing, repacking, checking the packing, feeding/bathing kids, and cleaning the house. Even though the morning was fresh and new, the air was already crackling with activity- or perhaps that was my brain crackling from being overworked and 1/10th of an inch away from a serious migraine?

Anyways, back to the 11th. It dawned- at least we can agree with that point. It dawned and the kids were up and the bags were packed and my Mom, Dad, and little sister were at our front doorstep before we were expecting them. This prompted me to kick my lovely husband out of the warm bed he was still burrowed into and finally get the ‘show on the road’.

The players this trip- me, my Hubby, my little sister who is 19, and my 3 kids- my older son, who is almost 12, my daughter who never quite shuts up, who is 7 going on 21, and my baby boy who turned 2 over the course of the trip. Everyone- take a bow.

Back to the story… So we toss everything into two cars and drive out to the airport. We arrive with plenty of time to spare and after giving kisses to Grandma and Poppa, they take off and we are stuck in the airport with 3 hours to spare.

We check our bags, go through security (ah, now that’s fun with 6 people- 5 of these 6 people not being frequent fliers), and then sit down for a breakfast at Burger King. What would the total be for 4 meals, split between 6 people? Four breakfast meals, mind you? Almost $50.

I guess that sets the tone for the rest of our trip!

We were one of the first families to board- having Bubba and his carseat to strap in. This flight, Hubby, myself and Bubba sat in the front three seats and then my little Sis, Daughter, and older Son were in the seats right behind us. This was my Daughter’s first real airplane ride and she enjoyed it immensely- during the turbulence involved with landing- she even put her hands in the air! She’s a real thrill seeker- that one!

Anyways, the ride went fairly smooth without a hitch. I think we hit a bit of turbulence, but nothing major. And then finally- we landed in Orlando. Yes, the Mother Country of all things Disney.

We packed everyone back up, tossed Bubba in the stroller, strapped bags across our chests, hitched them over our shoulders, and hiked through the airport to the Magical Express- that beautiful white and blue bus that promised us entry into Walt Disney World… What a wonderful machine the Magical Express truly is!

Our arrival into Orlando was at 7 PM, so by the time we settled into our hotel rooms with the promised pizza from the food court and an array of $60 worth of refillable Disney mugs (they’re like GOLD, people! $12 a mug with unlimited refills! Do the Disney Math- they probably saved us $200 on this trip! And after the trip- you can still use them!), we were bushed. Ready for bed. Ready for the morning to come.

The next morning… Well, I know you already guessed it- it dawned pretty bright and early as well. I think me and my Sis were up first- this tended to be typical the entire trip. We worked well together- taking care of the kids, taking care of the rooms, and of course, trudging 6.5 miles to the Food Court to get our Refillable Mugs refilled! (I forgot to mention- they put us in the farthest outpost of a building possible for Pop Century- which was the resort we were staying at. Between the heat, the humidity and the distance- I’m sure we were about 6.5 miles from the main building- positive, in fact!).

That morning, we took the family to Animal Kingdom. Even though only my Hubby and I had been to WDW before, the Animal Kingdom had the Ride of All New Rides- Expedition Everest and everyone wanted to go on it. Not to mention I had to get my Daughter on this ride ASAP before her courage waned under the hot, humid, beating sun and she chickened out.

So that was the first ride we obtained Fast Passes to at Animal Kingdom- although I don’t think it was the first ride we actually went on. Ah, no- we took my Daughter who is indescribably afraid of loud noises and the dark on ‘Dinosaur: The Ride’- which is extremely dark with… yes, yes, loud noises. She wasn’t too pleased. This was the only ride she refused to go back on the rest of the trip.

Expedition Everest was a good ride. Basically, you are on a roller coaster, going the ‘right’ way (is there a right way on coasters?) and suddenly, you find your track has been broken and you end up zipping through the mountain at an increasing speed going backwards, only to reverse once again and go forwards. My stomach? May have been left at the first reversal a time or two.

We had a good day, that first day- we managed to hit every ride we wanted to go on and with the rider swap (someone has to stay with the 2 year old when he can’t ride)- we even managed to ride a lot of rides twice! That day, we went on Dinosaur, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Kali River Rapids, and also just enjoyed the park- although I was dismayed that the lions were not out on the safari nor were the tigers in their habitat (refurbishing).

Quick note on both of the older kids- they were pretty amazing when it came to their change in attitude towards riding ‘big’ rides at WDW. Last time we were at Disney Land, they refused to ride most of the bigger rides or it took incredible coercion to get them on certain rides- just to mention a few- Pirates of the Carribean, Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, etc. On this trip, we had informed them we had one simple rule- they would ride every ride we wanted to ride on once and then if they did not like it, they did not have to ride it again this trip. They hit all of the major rides more then once- and they were the ones wanting to ride again and again! They even rode Mission Space multiple times and I only managed to stomach it once (I dared the orange side once again- for those not in the ‘know’- the orange side is the original intensity and then they have a green side that is less intense- next time around, I’ll go green. Yes, I’m getting old). My point, however, is that I am immensely proud of the kids’ attitudes towards going on the rides at the different parks- it was literally night and day for both of them. I think my older son may have even picked up the intense ride bug from my Husband- although my daughter only sat out a time or two herself (after riding the ride once- we typically went on it a second time due to the rider swap).

That night, we headed over to Epcot to eat at the Biergarten. Ja, ja- good German food! Even better- a great German wine sampler! Basically, it’s three cupfuls of wine- sweet, sweet wine. I ate, I drank, my older son actually went down and danced to the Oompah players (really, I don’t know what you call them- the German musicians- I should know this, eh?) for a dollar, and everyone enjoyed the festive atmosphere of the Biergarten.

I think we rounded out this night with Test- Track and the kids went on Mission Space with my Hubby- I decided to… sit down and enjoy the night versus torturing myself on that ride again. Then, we returned to the hotel where we all crashed and fell asleep.

This is where I need to mention… This night, Bubba started seeming a little sick. He had started the trip with what looked like teething issues; he has never been one to cause trouble while teething, but he had seemed a bit warm the day before and a bit grumpy. This night, however, he felt extremely warm to the touch and was coughing all night. Poor baby.

So the next morning found my sister and myself at the Pop Century store, shopping for items to soothe my savage little beast’s cold. A $50 bill later and two meds and one 4 pack of Pedialyte, we were set.

Of course, he did not touch the Pedialyte- what do they put in that stuff? He absolutely hates it!

The second day, we decided to head to the Magic Kindom, if memory serves me right (which it may not since I have a pissy toddler trying to climb onto my lap at the moment). I had planned on getting Bubba’s first haircut in the parks to get a set of ears and a certificate, but let’s say- even the best laid plans tend to go amiss when you are on vacation!

We went on Stitch’s Great Escape first- that was a cute show, but don’t take any children who are deathly afraid of the pitch dark because for a few moments- you do endure total darkness. We next went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor- now that- I recommend everyone go to! It’s basically an animated comedy show, but the neat thing was- the animated monsters interacted with the audience! As we were being seated, a video shot of Bubba showed up on the front screen with the title underneath, “Daddy’s Little Monster” (Wish I had captured that on video- and oh, how he is being my own little monster at the current moment! Hahaha- he willingly left on the mission to go give Daddy a kiss! Freedom!). The show itself was cute as can be- really interactive and it can be hit or miss- if the audience members choose not to interact, it’s not quite as much fun. We really enjoyed this show though and the second time around with my Hubby’s parents, the monster at the end actually told my older son’s joke that Hubby text messaged right before the show began (a whopper of a joke- ‘where do cows like to go on dates? ‘ ‘a moooovie’)- so that was cute as well.

That evening, we were eating at ‘The Whispering Canyon Café which is located at Fort Wilderness Lodge. We packed up and took the bus over there; it is a beautiful hotel, very rustic as one would expect.

I was a bit worried about whether or not the waiter would be in the mood to actually play with us- I don’t know how else to explain it, but they are supposed to interact with their customers unlike eating at Denny’s or IHOP. Oh, our waiter was a doozy- a young man with a chip on his shoulder about the size of a boulder. Wait- that was a part of the act. He was hilarious- sarcastic- and well, I enjoy a bit of sarcasm here and there so I interacted well with him. My little sister, at 19 years of age, hates this type of stuff- you could see her shuddering in her chair, waiting for him to say something to her- he didn’t, though. Seemed like he could tell who to play around with and whom to avoid. I wonder, though, how a polite family would respond when he threw their straws on the table or fluttered the pile of napkins towards us. We just laughed.

My Hubby, my older son, and I all had the shared platter- it was delicious! The pulled pork was out of this world good- and I usually hate pulled pork! Bubba enjoyed eating kernels of corn from the corn on the cob- no, literally. My poor Sis was pulling off kernels and he’d eat the kernel, but he refused to chew on the cob! Nope, my kid isn’t spoiled- not one bit!

We about fell over laughing, though, when our 12 year old son finally was brave enough to ask the waiter how to eat the shrimp with the nasty little legs still attached. "They ARE called 'peel and eat' shrimp, aren't they, kid? So- you PEEL and then you EAT them!"

I’m sure we hit Epcot again after this dinner, but my mind- it fails. I’m almost 30, people- that’s old.

Our next park to conquer was MGM Studios. The kids both went on Tower of Terror first thing. Mind you, it sounds like such a little detail- such a minor accomplishment, but PEOPLE, my children went on Tower of Terror! I have video of my Daughter when Tower of Terror first opened in California stating that she was going on the ride (she was about late 4 or early 5) and that she was brave and this silly ride doesn’t scare her! I also have video of her after we slunk down the ‘reject’ elevator stating that the Tower was ‘s-s-s-so SCARY’ and how she would never ever ride it! My older son, while not having his failures caught on film, has also taken us on the ‘I’ll ride it- no, I won’t!’ adventure a time or two!

Older son, he didn’t even tremble this time around. He was very confident about the ride- like I said earlier, I think he’s finally caught the bug. Not a bad age to catch it- right before he becomes a teenager. My daughter, well, she had a bit more trepidations about the ride (her original attitude going into WDW was, “It’s JUST a ride!”)- but in the end, she was laughing as the elevator dropped time and time again- although I don’t believe she cracked an eyelid once to peek out.

We finally caught the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ show on stage. It was wonderful. I am a huge B&B fan; I’ve always loved the lusciousness of the movie, the music, everything about it. So I was thrilled to actually catch the show this time around- Hubby and I had missed it on our honeymoon. Bubba- he wasn’t so thrilled to sit through it, but c’est la vie for a toddler.

We managed to catch all of the shows this day from what I can remember. Oh, Bubba did really enjoy ‘Playhouse Disney’; I was a bit disappointed, though, that they are still showing Stanley and characters that kids nowadays don’t recognize (toddler and infant age). I’d love for ‘Playhouse Disney’ to retain Bear- because who doesn’t love Bear- I just want to give that fuzzy brown mug a kiss everytime I see him and I love, love, love singing his songs with him- but they can drop the older shows that Playhouse Disney doesn’t play anymore- and add some ‘Little Einsteins’ and perhaps ‘Higgly Town Heroes’ in to the show (I hate ‘Higgly Town Heroes’, by the way).

The kids and Husband enjoyed the Indiana Jones show as well as ‘Lights, Motors, Action’. Hubby expected Bubba to love the car show, but it was extremely loud and that bothered the Bub’s ears a bit.

Dinner tonight was at the 50’s Primetime Café. We arrived a bit early for our reservations and therefore ended up sitting there forever. When we were finally seated, we had an excellent view of a waitress that was in full form for the evening; however, our waitress was not as feisty and therefore, the kids didn’t even receive one ounce of teasing from her (we, however, actually scared our older son into trying collard greens- hahahaha- and once again, my little sister was petrified).

A little comment on the Primetime Café… Really, I think this is the second time I’ve thought that the food is sub par. If you don’t care for the atmosphere (basically, you are a part of the family there and you’re expected to mind your P’s and Q’s)- skip this restaurant. The food is just really blah; the atmosphere, though, is hilarious.

Dessert was excellent; I had a brownie sundae, I believe. Brownie drizzled in chocolate syrup with whipped cream and M&Ms on top. Decadent, I say!

After witnessing an event at the other table where a man received a phone call during dinner (this is when the waitress whipped the phone out of the man’s hand, very calmly told the caller, “I’m sorry, but Bobby is eating dinner and Mom does NOT allow phone calls during dinnertime- you should know better.”), my Hubby tried to text my Mom, asking her to call my little sister, but well… Mom never received the message.

Tonight was the night of Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I really wanted to go- I didn’t really want to spend $200 additional dollars on tickets and more money on costumes for the kids and adults (aw, c’mon- even adults should dress up for Halloween in Disney World!). I kept waivering, even at this point in time, should we or shouldn’t we? Well, we hit a park for an hour or two after dinner and then it happened…

First, it was a drizzle… We come from the desert so a bit of rain- it’s enjoyable. You tend to just… indulge yourself in it. Laugh a little, smile a lot more. Rain- it’s a precious commodity here. We ended up heading back towards the hotel and I’m still thinking about going to MNNSHP; my Hubby was starting to feel a bit off and the two older kids were starting to throw some attitude around, so I made a fantasy in my head- it’d just be me and my lil sis. We’d go together!

So we sent the family up to the hotel room and we bought a few snacks downstairs… As we headed up- crack! Boom! The skies literally split open and Heaven poured upon us. Wow. It was gorgeous. It was a bit frightening. Mother Nature had other plans for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

Therefore, we stayed in that night. Least we were nice and warm!


That's all for now... Not as exciting as most people's trip reports, but it's mine- ALL MINE!!!