So this is how parents relax at Disney! A June 8th-16th report.

[TeresaG]

Hello! Welcome to my first ever trip-report. I promise this report will be better than my pre-trip report which I failed at miserably.

Here the cast of characters.

Me: Teresa. This was my 30th birthday trip which turned into my sons birthday trip. Because I am a kind hearted mommy I allowed him to usurp my trip. My biggest hobby is photography (running is a close second and I hope to one day run the princess half marathon at Disney) so my report will have lots of pictures. It's just the nature of the trade.

DH: Kenny. A Disney lover since our first trip 3yrs ago. Also known as the family vacation pack mule. He has a love hate relationship with our double stroller. Pushing it with the kids inside and all our stuff hanging off it is difficult enough, add folding it and holding it on the buses and he positively detests the thing sometimes. However, it being a vehicle to allow us to navigate the parks efficiently as well as strap the kids down so they don't run away is reason enough to love it.

DS: Alex. My man. He's obsessed with Toy Story and Monsters Inc and has developed a love for Star Wars since this trip. He decided that since we were going in June and his Birthday is in June that this should be his birthday trip as well. Turning 5 is a milestone you know.

DD: Maddie. My baby. The princess. Likes to be referred to as 'her highness' or her rightful name 'princess.' Little Miss High Maintenance who gets away with almost everything because she's the baby and is so adorable. Mommy is her minion and she must approve of every step mommy makes.


Our trip dates were June 8th - 16th. The breakdown of parks each day looked like this:

June 8th: Arrival Day - MK
June 9th: DHS
June 10th: MK
June 11th: AK
June 12th: DHS
June 13th: MK
June 14th: Epcot
June 15th: MK
June 16th: Departure day


Next up, the start of Day 1!

 

[TeresaG]

Day one started nice and early. 4am early. Our flight to Orlando was 7am but thankfully we fly out of a teeny tiny airport 15mins from our house so there was no reason to get there 2hrs early. Kenny and I got up first, showered, packed the last minute items we had to pack and got ourselves pretty much ready before I went to wake the kids.

Alex was first, and I opened his door quietly and sat on his bed. Sometimes waking the kids is impossible but this morning I barley whispered his name before he shot up and said "We're going to Disney!" and hopped out of bed. Okay. That was easy. I told him to go potty and get dressed and I was off to wake Maddie. She was a touch more difficult and I had to whisper her name a few times before she groggily lifted her head to blink at me. "We're going to Disney baby girl. Aren't you excited?" "Disney?" she whispered back. Then she blinked a few times as the word sunk in and slowly she smiled and said "Disney!" in a more confident and aware way. I picked her up, changed her, dressed her, and brought her downstairs. Thankfully the kids were excited in a calm way so it wasn't pure chaos downstairs. I passed out everyone's milk, warmed up our breakfast sandwiches (not mine, my nerves were too crazy to even consider food so I left mine in the freezer) and then we were on our way to the airport.

We left our house at 5:15am (which I am very proud of -getting 2 kids and your husband out the door in a relatively timely manner proves to be difficult every.single.time I set a time to leave by). The kids were tired, but way too excited to sleep on our short drive to the airport. Silly mommy thought this was a good sign because surely they would fall asleep on the flight and make it a quiet and easy flight. Ahhh, love those hopeful mommy moments. We arrived at the airport with no fan fare. No traffic or other issues to deal with. Kenny dropped me, the kids, and all our luggage off at the terminal and went to park the car. Now, I know our airport is tiny, but I never expected him to park the car in 'long-term parking' and be back so quickly. I sat down with the kids and started taking pics and checking my phone and 2mins later he was back. He said he parked and walked back. I'm so used to flying out of Philly or Newark where you have to take 14 shuttles to get back after parking your car and the whole process takes 30mins minum, so seeing him back so quickly shocked me.

The kids all ready to get moving but patiently waiting for daddy

Sharing a private joke, probably about how mommy thought they were actually going to nap on the flight...

Oh such a silly mommy. We'll let her keep hoping.

Now that we're all ready we head to check in. Took 2 mins, and that includes checking our one suitcase (49lbs -phew!). I love our small airport. We head over to our family's worst nightmare: security. God I hate the mess of going through security with 2 kids. No matter how prepared you try to be it's always an ordeal. Especially with Alex trying to "help" by grabbing everything at the end and only making things more of a mess. Sigh. Our double stroller didn't fit through the security machine so they had to hand search it at the end. No big deal. They also let Maddie go through with her cup of milk (thankfully; she has a cow milk sensitivity and can only drink goat milk -which she will ONLY drink in regular refrigerated form, never in powdered or condensed form no matter how hard mommy begs any other form is beneath her highness and she won't drink it) so this was her last cup of milk until we got back from vacation. It is very difficult to have a baby with any sort of sensitivity when going on vacation. Thankfully she is getting better about handling cow milk in small doses so she is able to eat a little bit of cheese or ice cream (you know, ice cream is important to an almost 2yr old).

Anyway, the flight was full but otherwise uneventful. Neither kid napped -much to my dismay. I really thought they would. Darn kids. Maddie was a lap child, and I since am her loyal servant, I was the only one who could hold her. This was just the start to a long vacation of Maddie's rule of 'mommy only' when it comes to holding her. Alex played his DS the whole flight, daddy played on his iPad, and mommy held Maddie who did the twist on her lap the whole time. Something tells me mommy got the short end of the stick on this one.

After finally landing (truthfully the flight was quick, it just would've been quicker had Maddie passed out for 10mins so mommy could have a break) we headed over to claim our suitcase and walk to the Magical Express. It was around this time I realized I had forgotten the ME book at home. Oops. I knew there had to be something they could do for us since I couldn't possibly be the first person to forget it. I was worried about a long line at the counter though, so I crossed my fingers that we wouldn't take forever at ME because of my forgetfulness. When we arrived I was happy to see there was hardly a line at all. Phew. They printed up a new scan sheet for the family and we were off to wait in the Pop Century line.

Now, this is when I started getting nervous. Kenny wasn't thrilled with the idea of staying at a value since our last value experience was less than stellar (All-Star Sports), but I wanted to keep this trip cheap and have always wanted to stay at Pop. The line was empty which I took to mean we had JUST missed a bus. I was right. 20mins later a bus pulls up and we board the ME. We settle in and Maddie promptly falls asleep. On mommy, naturally. I was just happy she was sleeping.

Alex was happy to be on the Mickey Bus. I snapped one quick pic before Maddie fell asleep and wouldn't allow me to take any other pictures...

I was so excited to be on our way, but I was also nervous about the resort. Would we get a decent room? Maybe in the 60's or 70's like I requested? Would the lines for buses be unbearable? Would the theme not be as cute as it looks? Would we regret not staying at a mod the whole trip?

 

[amazingact21]

I'm in! Your kids are adorable; I can't wait to see what you thought of your resort.

 

[DWGal210]

Great start! What a sweet family!!

 

[ARmom30]

I'm in! My family got home from our trip on the 11th. Some of our days overlapped. And my DS turned 5 while there too! I can't wait for the next installment.

 

[MrsWEsq]

Joining in. I hope you loved POP. We had awesome stay there last year.

 

[TeresaG]

I'm in! Your kids are adorable; I can't wait to see what you thought of your resort.

Thank you! Thanks for joining in! In truth I absolutely adored Pop, but I'll get to that more in the next installment.

Great start! What a sweet family!!

Thank you! Thanks for joining!!

I'm in! My family got home from our trip on the 11th. Some of our days overlapped. And my DS turned 5 while there too! I can't wait for the next installment.

Hi! Thanks for joining! Sounds like a good amount of our days might have overlapped. I wonder if we were at any parks on the same day?

Joining in. I hope you loved POP. We had awesome stay there last year.

Hi! Thanks for joining me! We ended up loving Pop! I'll write more about it in the report, but I think it's my new favorite resort.

 

[TeresaG]

Finally we arrive at Pop. I was so excited to see the sign. I had wanted to stay at this resort for a long time so I was much more excited than Kenny was to see it. Since Maddie was sleeping on me I didn't take a picture of the sign, or the happy 'Welcome to the World' sign. Oh well.

Here's a picture that I didn't take, but still makes me happy.

After getting off the bus and collecting our stuff I quietly put Maddie in her half of the stroller (which was met by a slight complaint that her warm and cozy minion dared to put her into a cold and hard seat to sleep in) so she could continue sleeping. I had done online check-in so after stashing Kenny and the kids off to the side, I went to stand in the short line. When it was my turn I waited anxiously to see what room we were assigned. I knew better than to get my hopes up for the buildings I had requested, but I was firmly keeping my fingers crossed. I wasn't specific about what floor we would like because at the time I didn't think it mattered, I just wanted the 60's or 70's. I just kept reminding myself that I have never had luck with room requests before so don't be disappointed. I had only ever made a request for room placement at Caribbean Beach (ground floor since we have a double stroller and they don't have elevators -what is that about? seriously?) and since we didn't get THAT request I knew better than to hope for anything at check in.

He handed me birthday buttons for me and Alex and wished us a happy birthday so that was nice. Meanwhile, I'm trying not to sprain my neck from angling it so much to see what room we had. Finally he handed me our Keys to the World as well as the room number. Drum roll pleaseeeeeeeeee! 5129. Meant nothing to me. lol. I asked which building it was and he said "building 5." I must have done the whole wide-eyed blink at him a couple times because then he said "60's, building 5, ground floor." Waahoo! SCORE!! I got the building I requested and really wanted. I wanted to be close to the kiddie pool and I just generally preferred the Hippy Dippy pool over the bowling pin or computer pool so I was very happy.

For anyone doing the wide-eyed confused blink, here is a picture of the map and our building. They yellow arrow for building 5 actually is practically pointing to our room. We were so close to the kiddie pool and bus stops.

We walked over to find our room and I marveled at being on the ground floor. We've never been on ground floor so I wasn't sure if I was happy or nervous about noise (turns out ground floor kicks butt). To the right of Baloo and a few rooms back was where we were.

We found our room and we were right around the corner from the pools. Yay! And very close to Everything Pop. Yay again. I decided I was going to buy a refillable mug since we were so close we would surely be able to take advantage of refilling them every day (or multiple times a day as you'll see). Our room was the standard closet that most values are, but it was a cute closet with a nice view of the lake and super close to the pools, food court and bus stops. Plus not one complaint from my husband. So far I was a happy girl.

Here was the view from our room. Not bad.

We settle in to our room (well, I threw everything off me and jumped up and down chanting "Magic Kingdom! Magic Kingdom!" ) and after potty breaks and some freshening up we started getting ready to hit the park. Alex and Maddie were acting a little cranky and I realized neither one of them had eaten the breakfasts I made them so I pulled out the sandwiches and sat them down to eat. While they ate I noticed the voicemail light was blinking on the phone and thought it might be from the previous guests since we just got there -how could we have voicemail? Shrugging my shoulders I checked it anyway. It was a welcome call from Mickey. Smiling I had let my partner-in-birthday-trip-fun listen to it. The magic on Alex's face was adorable. Mickey called to wish us a magical trip. What a way to start.

As the kids finished up eating there was a knock on the door. I give Kenny the "how could we possible have someone knocking already? We've been here 10seconds?" look and hop up to answer the door. It was a cast member with a Birthday card from Mickey. How sweet.

Pop really gets all the magic out of the way immediately don't they? LOL. After we ooh's and ahh'd over the card I shoo'd the kids back to the table to finish eating and flopped on the bed. As I lay there I contemplated whether my children could possibly eat any slower and then glanced at the clock. 11:15am. "Kenny, could you fix the clock before we go? It's not right." Kenny springs into action at my request (hahahaha, even writing that out is funny) and glances at his phone and at the clock. Then at his phone and the clock again. "Umm , it is right." Me: "Whaa? Not possible. It is not only 11:15am" So I get up and grab my phone to prove him wrong only to say "holy cow it's only 11:15AM?!" I was shocked we were there so early. I figured at best we'd arrive at the hotel no earlier than noon and during all the chaos I never checked the time (what's the point right? I'm on vacation. Time ceases to matter unless it's near an ADR). So after that pleasant surprise I stopped chanting "MKMKMKMKMK" and let the slow pokes finish eating at their snail pace. When they finally were done, I sprayed us all with sunblock (I'm obsessive with sunblock) and we were FINALLY on our way to Magic Kingdom.

 

[rdkeim]

You're off to a great start - I'll be following along!

 

[Disneychix]

I'm in!

I also have a DH who detests our stroller! He got into a 'fight' with the stoller on our first trip with DS and bent the axle. I'm still not sure who won that fight!

You did make great time getting into your room. Nice that you got a great location and that the room was ready!

 

[bizeemom4]

We walked over to find our room and I marveled at being on the ground floor. We've never been on ground floor so I wasn't sure if I was happy or nervous about noise (turns out ground floor kicks butt). To the right of Baloo and a few rooms back was where we were.

We found our room and we were right around the corner from the pools. Yay! And very close to Everything Pop. Yay again. I decided I was going to buy a refillable mug since we were so close we would surely be able to take advantage of refilling them every day (or multiple times a day as you'll see). Our room was the standard closet that most values are, but it was a cute closet with a nice view of the lake and super close to the pools, food court and bus stops. Plus not one complaint from my husband. So far I was a happy girl.

Hi. We were in the same building at the same time - we were on the fourth floor and it was my DS's 12th birthday on the 8th. We weren't as thrilled with our stay at Pop though. Oh and we were also at Magic Kingdom that day too. We arrived at MK around 4 and left at midnight.

 

[TeresaG]

You're off to a great start - I'll be following along!

Thank you and yay! Thanks for following!

I'm in!

I also have a DH who detests our stroller! He got into a 'fight' with the stoller on our first trip with DS and bent the axle. I'm still not sure who won that fight!

You did make great time getting into your room. Nice that you got a great location and that the room was ready!

Hi! Thanks for joining!
Our DH's would get along great. There were multiple times I had to tell him NOT to break the stroller and to take a deep breath. LOL! I think in the end the stroller always wins. Not sure how, but I think it just does. At least in my DH's case.

Hi. We were in the same building at the same time - we were on the fourth floor and it was my DS's 12th birthday on the 8th. We weren't as thrilled with our stay at Pop though. Oh and we were also at Magic Kingdom that day too. We arrived at MK around 4 and left at midnight.

Hi and
How cool that were were in the same building at the same time. And at the same park. What a Small World indeed! I'm sorry you didn't have a good stay at Pop. What didn't you like about it?

 

[TeresaG]

We made sure we had all the miscellaneous stuff one needs to spend the day in a theme park (sunglasses, diapers, sunblock, etc) and we were finally off to the bus stop. But wait! I wanted to buy a mug before we left for the park so I detoured us into Everything Pop. Kenny patiently waited with the kids while I painstakingly deliberated on mug color. "Me and Maddie would like purple, but that's too girly for the boys. Alex would like black but I don't want black. Kenny could give two craps about mug color so long as I hurry up. Hmm." I grabbed blue and was off to pay.

Now, I will admit to something here and now. I brought my mug from our Year of a Million Dreams trip which was the only other time we had bought and used a mug. I brought it figured I could fill it with ice which would melt into cold water for the kids. That was all I did with it. So go ahead and judge me but I have no problem using my old mug to fill with ice. And a touch of lemonade. Once.

Now that we have that out of the way, I filled the Year of a Million Dreams mug with ice (from here on out known as the kids mug) and our new mug with Powerade. Then we were finally on our way. I was still flying high on our awesome room location that I didn't care about the lines for the parks. Which were non-existent. The queue for MK was empty and since the sun was shining high in the sky I parked us in the shade to wait (I doubted a stampede would arrive and keep us from getting on the next bus to arrive). I think this was when my kids started getting tired. Especially Alex. Maddie had already taken her quick nap.

I'm not sure what gave it away though...

Alex fell asleep as soon as the bus started rolling. On mommy -naturally. I'm not sure if my kids got the memo that daddy is right there and perfectly comfortable to sleep on. So he missed the fanfare music when we arrived at MK. Maddie was beyond thrilled when she heard the music the bus plays when you arrive at MK. She got this huge smile and said "Disney! Mickey! Horsie!" which meant the first thing we were to do was bring her to the carousel. Stat. Kenny got off the bus first to open up the stroller, then he came back for Maddie so I could pick up my 50lb monster and place him in the stroller so he could keep sleeping.

Kenny went off to security with the kids while I snapped pictured excitedly.

I have an obsession with taking pictures of the Disney balloons. But it's always hard to get a great shot because I can't draw too much attention to myself or I'll face the incessant "We want a balloooooooon" from the kids.

And finally, the holy grail. My first site of the castle. I felt like a big kid. It always takes my breath away the first time I see it.

And Alex was still sleeping. Through everything; getting into the park, seeing the castle, riding the carousel. I was a little sad to ride the carousel without him, but quickly dispelled that sadness when I realized the little bugger would soon be reaping all the rewards of our future parent swaps. Not to mention the fact that when I walk into Disney I turn into a kid and want to do everything right away (never would've guessed that about me huh?).

I brought her highness on the carousel since that was what she wanted to do most. The best part is there is almost never a line. We walked right on. Seeing Maddie's smiling face was the best gift for me. I wish Kenny had tried to snap a picture of us, but he fears my camera (even though the auto button is RIGHT there) and unless I complain he will never take pics. Therefore there are almost never any pics of me.

Alex woke up shortly after Maddie and I got off the carousel and guess what he wanted to do? Ride the carousel of course. Much to Maddie's excitement we all got back on the carousel for our first (sorta) ride at MK. This time I brought my camera.

After the excitement of the carousel we headed over to the wonderful air conditioned ride known as Small World. My kids love this ride. Every day we're at MK we have to ride it, sometimes more than once. It got old really fast to mommy, but at least I could appreciate the air conditioning.

Around mid-afternoon Kenny and I were starting to really feel that we were running on fumes. It was hot and we were exhausted (we were up this morning at 4am after all). The lines for most of the lines were 25mins or longer so we decided to hit a couple more before finding someplace to eat and then heading back to the room. I wanted us all to go to sleep at a reasonable hour so we could be rested and ready for our long day at Hollywood Studios.

 

[TeresaG]

First stop after the carousel was Small World. My kids adore this ride. This is all the magic of Disney to them

After Small World decided to head over to Splash Mountain and see what the wait was like. 15mins wasn't too bad so we decided to take advantage of parent swap since Maddie can't ride. Alex and I went on first and then Kenny and Alex. Maddie was happily sitting in the stroller but was starting to get a little antsy by the time it was Kenny's turn to swap. I knew we'd be eating soon, but I decided to give her a granola bar to tide her over. She was very happy with her granola bar and allowed mommy to pay attention to the logs on the big fall with the hopes of capturing a picture of the boys going down.

Score! I found them and snapped a couple pics. Now, my husband claims he loves this ride, but I somehow beg to differ. Notice Alex. He is so my son. When we went on together we held our hands up in the air the whole drop. He's 5yrs old. My DH is 33yrs old. They're in the front row.

I swear I'm going to frame one of these pictures. DH will probably kill me if he finds out I posted them but they are too awesome not to.

After Splash Mountain we headed over to Adventureland to ride the alternative to Dumbo known as the Flying Carpets. 5min wait. That's what I'm talking about. We all boarded (me and Alex in front Maddie and Daddy in the back). After our quick flight over Agrabah we decided to eat and go back to Pop. It was pretty early to be throwing in the towel, but it was hot and we were exhausted so I didn't feel too bad.

As Kenny and I decided where we wanted to eat, we let the kids out to play in the ever popular tiki sprinkler things

We decided to eat at our favorite CS at MK Columbia Harbour House. While Kenny and the kids went to find a table upstairs I waited in line for food. Note to self, one person alone has great difficulty carrying all the food the dining plan allows for three people. I had to make two trips because both trays were so full. Kenny got the fish and chicken nugget combo, I got the chicken nuggets and Alex got the kids mac and cheese. I shared my meal with Maddie as well as Alex and Kenny grudgingly gave up a huge fish stick to Maddie. The heat really does a number on my appetite so I was happy that Alex can eat enough for a small family. After inhaling his mac and cheese (and learning a valuable lesson of always letting mommy or daddy check the food to see how hot it is after he burned his mouth) Alex ate a bunch of my chicken nuggets. Maddie ate like the bird she is. Preferring her food to be room temperature and without too much breading. Alex loved the chocolate cake (one of many reasons he loves vacation is he's allowed to eat junk that he can't eat at home ), Maddie enjoyed the grapes we got for Alex's dessert and Kenny and I shared the apple crisp (which was served warm -unlike how I remember it being served- and was very yummy).

When we were done with our very filling dinner we headed back to the bus stop to go to Pop. The kids asked for a balloon but I somehow deflected the request for the next night. I think it worked because we were leaving and what fun is it to buy a balloon to bring straight back to the room? Regardless it worked and we dodged the balloon bullet the first day there.

After arriving at Pop Alex asked if we could please, please, please, PLEASE, go swimming. It was almost 7pm but still really hot. As he continued begging I thought to myself that I could fight this battle that will ultimately result in a crying/screaming fit, or I could give in and let them swim for half hour. I decided why not. Why bother getting a room so close to the pool if we weren't going to take advantage of it? So we went to the room, got the kids dressed in their bathing suits and went to the splash pool.

Maddie kept running back and forth from where we were to the pool I think she had to make sure we weren't going anywhere

Alex was a little hesitant at first, but got over that quickly

The fountains became his favorite part of the pool.

Maddie liked swimming too.

They LOVED it. I think they had more fun at the pool than they did at MK. Kids man. You buy the super expensive toy and they'll always prefer the box. Kenny and I settled in the shade on some lounge chairs while the kids ran around and played. After a few minutes we both had the same 'aha!' moment and looked at each other and said "So THIS is how parents relax on vacation??" It was pretty funny. I think we let the kids play for 45mins before calling them back to go to the room and go to bed.

After we got to the room, we gave both kids a quick bath, everyone put their jammies on and we were off to bed. Except we still didn't have the bed rails I requested while checking in. I called the front desk and they were brought right to us. After Kenny installed them we all relaxed in our beds for a little while; Alex played his DS, Kenny and I read our Kindles and Maddie watched a little TV (it was only 9pm, but like I said, we were wrecked from the long day), and after 10mins Maddie fell asleep so I suggested we all follow suit so we were ready for tomorrow. I said goodnight to the boys (who sleep on one bed while Maddie and her mommy minion slept in the other) and we all went to sleep.

 

[TeresaG]

Day 2 started bright and early for us. And not by choice. Going to bed early plus sleeping in a different bed meant Maddie was up by 6:30am. Just like normal. She's always the early riser in our family, but when we're home this usually means mommy pats daddy on the arm and says "do you want me to get up?" while daddy gives a big sigh and says "No." In which mommy says "Thanks baby, I'll be down in 5mins" before rolling over and promptly falling back to sleep for an hour. Alas we were on vacation so all I could do was try to snuggle the princess back to sleep. Maddie saw through my attempt and immediately started saying "Daddy? Ayex?" in order to try to wake them up. No matter what I tried to bribe her with there was no shushing her and soon the boys were up.

Since we were so early I turned the TV on and set the kids up to watch some Playhouse Disney -I mean Disney Junior- while daddy and I lounged and tried to pretend we had a shot in -you know- at going back to sleep.

Watching the mouse.

At least it kept both their attentions for a little while

Eventually the spawns threatened to implode the room if we didn't get moving so we gave in and got up. While daddy showered I dressed the kids and gave them a stellar breakfast of granola bars and dry Cheerios washed down with water. Ahh vacation. After Kenny and I were both showered and dressed we headed to fill our mug before hitting the park.

I asked a cashier if it was possible to get a cup for hot water (we hate the fact that coffee makes your mug taste and smell funny) and she was more than willing to give us one. We quickly downed some instant coffee we brought from home (yes, we are slight coffee snobs) and then headed to the bus stop.

Today was our Hollywood Studios day. We used to think this was our least favorite park, but I am pretty sure after this trip we'd both call it our second favorite park. We were going here twice this trip; once to see Fantasmic! which we've never seen, and once to experience Star Wars Weekends for my dorky husband. I expected the park to be busy, but surprisingly it wasn't too bad. Even though we were up at the crack of dawn we managed to miss rope drop by about 15mins. Still I knew I had to do the TSM dash to get FP so we decided to split up.

Some shots along the way. If I hadn't been sprinting these shots would have been a LOT better. Oh well.

Kenny and Alex went to ride Star Tours and Maddie and I ran to get FP for Toy Story Mania. Or, Maddie came along for the ride while Mommy high tailed it along with hundreds of other people. Good thing my other hobby is running. Maddie apparently found the jog quite enjoyable because she promptly fell asleep. I have to admit, I've never been a part of the TSM dash and was SHOCKED when the line for FP started way back at Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Wow. 15mins later FP's were obtained and I went over to Star Tours to find the boys. Who had already ridden it 25x and were now watching Jedi Training (OK, this might be a slight exageration, but with how long it took me to get fp's I wouldn't have been surprised if they had).

A shot of the boys watching the young...Jedi's? defeat Darth Vader. Or something.

We weren't sure how Alex would feel about Jedi Training so it wasn't on our radar to get him into it. Of course after watching he decided he wanted to do it. Naturally. We went over to try to get him a FP and were told they were done for today. Apparently daddy and Alex should have run for Jedi Training FP instead of Star Tours. Oops. Good to know for next time {forshadowing}.

So after we watched the mini-Jedi defeat Vader we went on our way. And what did Alex (read: Daddy) want to do after riding Star Tours? Why, build your own lightsab3r of course. So we went into the overpriced gift shop and I parked me and the sleeping princess in the corner and watched as my two boys built a lightsaber.

Discussing the seriousness of building a lightsaber

This is serious business folks.

Discussing various parts

Holding the newly built death stick

He meticulously checked it out before playing with it. He was very proud of this thing. Daddy was pretty giddy about it too. Boys.

Alex's favorite color is black, and since he understands nothing about Star Wars and the Dark Side he pretty much built an evil lightsaber but with a jedi blue light (no, this is not anything I know offhand -it was the first thing Kenny said to me when they were done). As they went to pay Maddie started stirring. She woke up in a relatively good mood which is always a good sign.

After paying for the new lightsaber (and having the cashier tape the top so it wouldn't open while we're in the park...what's up with that?!) we were on our way. Alex was ok with the lightsaber being taped closed, and even though Kenny and I were confused by the policy, we decided it was ultimately for the best. It was starting to get hot by this point so we decided to his something that was indoors and air conditioned to cool off for a few. The wait for Woody and Buzz was way too long so we decided to go watch Muppet 3D. Muppets are much more Kenny's bag but I had never seen the show so I was game.

It was a cute show. Of course, it was slightly difficult for mommy to enjoy with Maddie sitting on her lap (imagine trying to hold an octopus) but I got the gist of it. Alex seemed to enjoy it, but refused to wear the 3D glasses (as per his usual stance on it).

After Muppet 3D we decided to head over to Pixar and see if Monsters Inc. was out for pics yet. We forgot to grab a time sheet when walking into the park (doh!) so we only found out after walking all the way over there that they wouldn't be out for another 35mins. I grabbed a time schedule as we walked away and suggested the Phineas and Ferb meet and greet. Alex was very excited. So was I admittedly. I love that show. So we walk BACK over to where we were near Muppet 3D (definitely not one of my better planning moments..) only to find out the line for P+F was ridiculously long. Doh! Foiled again! We were not feeling the long wait in the hot weather so we went BACK to Monsters Inc to wait the 10mins for Mike and Sully to show up.

 

[lbuzz52]

great first day! my 2 year old is like that with Mommy phases too. Although now i'm starting to think its more of a ploy to get an extra minute before bedtime. Looks like they had great fun in the pool!

i can't believe that the line for TSMM FP was so long!

 

[DisneyRunner2009]

[

I love this balloon picture. What type of camers do you have?

 

[PirateKate]

The first day at MK sounds great. Beautiful pictures of the Castle and the balloons and the Carousel. Was anyone spotting Maddie or was she able to ride without falling off? I've never taken my boys because I figured we'd each have to stand by one of them and make sure they didn't fall and it just didn't sound that much fun.

I had no idea there were so many intricacies of light sabers. I know very little about Star Wars in general, though. I'll have to brush up on that once my boys get older.

 

[justakrazymom]

LOVING the report..I'm so in for the rest!! Can i ask about how much the light sabers are? My 9 year old is already wanting to build one!

 

[TeresaG]

great first day! my 2 year old is like that with Mommy phases too. Although now i'm starting to think its more of a ploy to get an extra minute before bedtime. Looks like they had great fun in the pool!

i can't believe that the line for TSMM FP was so long!

See, for a while I thought this was just a phase but she's been like this forever and is only getting worse. I'm not sure when she'll get over it. I started thinking it was a ploy at bedtime too so now my DH is the only one who puts her to bed. When mommy puts her to bed it's an ordeal with crying and clinging to me for the death, but when daddy does it she goes to sleep with no issues.

And yea, I couldn't believe the line was so long either. So crazy. I'm not sure if that's normal or just the way it was for that day. My only other experience was during Star Wars Weekend and people were more interested in other things so the FP line for TSM was non-existant

I love this balloon picture. What type of camers do you have?

Thank you! I have a Canon 7D and I used my 35mm lens for that shot.

The first day at MK sounds great. Beautiful pictures of the Castle and the balloons and the Carousel. Was anyone spotting Maddie or was she able to ride without falling off? I've never taken my boys because I figured we'd each have to stand by one of them and make sure they didn't fall and it just didn't sound that much fun.

I had no idea there were so many intricacies of light sabers. I know very little about Star Wars in general, though. I'll have to brush up on that once my boys get older.

Thanks!! I'm glad you made it over.

Maddie is really good about sitting on the carousel by herself. I usually spot her, but I wanted to take some pictures so I had to step away. Might've been a bad mommy moment on my part but... Otherwise either me or my DH were usually near her to spot her. After riding it 100x during the trip we became a lot more comfortable with letting her sit up there without us constantly spotting her.

And yea, apparently light saber construction requires a lot of thought. Who knew it was more than red=dark side blue=good? But then I'm not a SW fan so it all eludes me. And FWIW Alex has never seen the movies but knows all about it. Go figure.

LOVING the report..I'm so in for the rest!! Can i ask about how much the light sabers are? My 9 year old is already wanting to build one!

Yay! Thanks for joining! I am pretty sure the light saber was around $22 to build it. Not terrible. And it's pretty big. And it lights up and makes noise (jury is still out on the noise making part...)