Some pixie dust, some magic, and our dreams came true! Sept 20-27 W/Pics *COMPLETED*

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Wednesday, September 26th

Traci and I have known each other since New Years Eve 1994. We were roommates for a few years until she met the man of her dreams and got married. We went to Europe together for a week and a half ten years ago. We are very different, yet our personalities compliment each other perfectly. I am Obsessive Compulsive, heavy on the Obsessive side. I get all caught up in the minute details. She is laid back, fun and tends to look at the overall picture. Travelling to WDW is far more successful if you have one or more of each of these personality types. I did the touring plans, the exhaustive research, budgeting and cost cutting. Traci kept her eye open for those unscheduled opportunities that tend to arise which cannot be planned, purchased or scheduled. As you're about to hear, she was darn good at it:

We awoke at 6:45am and got ready, brewed coffee, packed the park bags, etc. By this day I had learned to bathe grace and dress her in her park clothes the night before so ther was no argument about what to wear when we were on a schedule and out the door. We drove to the Transportation and Ticket Center and were ON A MISSION to be there at rope drop at 8am for Little Ones Extra Magic Hour. The TTC was deserted because we arrived at around 7:20am.

The "express" monorail was for some strange reason stopping at very resort this morning. We arrived at MK, went through bag check and through the turnstiles (we were pros at this by now: feed adult card, place finger on biometric reader, advance turnstile, feed child card, pick up both cards and walk though stroller entrance) and waited at the rope under the bridge to drop.
We had to wait about 15 minutes and I could tell Traci was gung ho to get ahead of the crowd and was staying right there at the rope. At one point she whispered to me while nodding at the elderly couple with a child in a stroller next to us: "We can take them! I'll create a diversion."
It wasn't clicking in my brain WHY she wanted to get ahead of everyone. All I could think about is how I wanted pictures of MK empty. Meanwhile all the people in line for pre-opening reservations at Ciderella's Royal Table or Bibbidi Boddidi Boutique were let into the park ahead of us-about 25 people or so. The rope finally dropped and Traci and I RAN towards the castle. I was snapping photos as I ran

but she was 20-30 yards ahead of me and she was running FAST-see her in the picture above in brown. I distinctly remember passing some British people who I overheard say "why in the #$@! are they running?" I thought why would you ever use foul language in the most magical place on Earth (unless you had a good reason of course?
I followed Traci as she ran to the right path of the entrance to the castle, through the castle and right up to the other rope drop at the entrance to Fantasyland. This is what we saw:

I was mesmorized as the characters called to us saying to Grace "Would you like to ride a ride with me?". I turned to find Traci and she was nowhere to be found. I was thinking man, she is missing this!
Then, I heard her scream to me to follow her. I was thinking, no! -Grace wants to ride the Carousel with Chip n Dale. She said "COME HERE!!!"
She led me into this shop:

and told me the girls were the first ones and they were going to wake Tinkerbell! I was amazed! I thought FOR SURE the people who were admitted before us would've woken her-but Traci was the first one in!

So the shopkeeper gave each girl a wand and counted one, two, three and had each girl tap the chest above the register and Tinkerbell flew through the store and into the dresser on the other side of the store. They were very excited to do this!
They each received Certificates with their names on them.

We then made our way out to the carousel and found the characters still out playing with the children. Peter Pan and Wendy were playing hide n go seek, Minnie was leading a round of the Hokey Pokey, and Mary Poppins was on the Carousel!

We rode Pooh and Peter Pan with no line at all:

Then we went over to the Teacups and here was the line we found:

Then we went over to The Lunching Pad and got 2 Frozen Cokes (healthy breakfast?).

Traci and I switched off at Space Mountain with ABSOLUTELY no wait. Then, Tatum went to go meet Stitich:

Stay tuned for more MK fun!

 

[JoAnnPan]

- waking up Tink - how special for them (and you guys also)! Making great memories.

Way to go Traci

 

[Tatum@disney]

What a relief! I kinda thought you would be a little put off by bypassing the characters and not stopping to play. That woulda been really fun. Sorry. Waking up Tinkerbell was pretty cool. Very short and sweet. I kinda thought the girls would have gotten to keep the cheap plastic wands. But, the CM took them back

Jen, you are the sweetest person! I'm SO grateful that you were in charge. We would have never seen and done all the great things that we did if it was up to me. Here's a pic that I took while I was sprinting to the castle. I thought it was pretty good for being in motion.

 

[melsmom12]

Awww, how absolutely perfect that your girls got to wake Tinkerbell. I'm learning so much about the tiny little details that go into making Disney such a magical place. I never knew about that before.

Loving this TR, it's so fun to read it, I feel like I'm there with you.

Sorry if this is a personal question, but are your DD's your only children? I would love to take DD to WDW when she's about 4, but I'm thinking I might have another baby by then, which will make the mother/daughter thing more complicated. This is a very neat and special trip you all took!

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Grace is my only daughter and only child. Traci has Tatum and a one year old boy named Walker. Walker got to stay home and have a boy's week with his Daddy. I don't think Traci is going to go again until Walker can come so that would be at least 2-3 more years. However, we have been back two weeks and I am already watching Ding fares, etc and wondering how long it'll be before I get to go again.

It was very much a bonding experience for me and my daughter, not to mention with all four of us. Tatum and Grace have known each other since birth (they are 2.5 months apart) but we live 150 miles apart so we only get to see each other about every 2 months.

I only have one child so I can't comment on the complications of spending time with one child when you have more than one, but I think spending quality time with your older child alone would be a good thing. And then you can take the next child at that age level also!

WDW can be very expensive but we took this trip on a tight budget, believe it or not-even though we had a first class experience IMHO. We spent $2900 total on: airfare (40-frequent flyer miles), park tickets (956), hotels (1184), car rental (120), food (400), BBB (100), and the Garden Grocer order (100). You can barely do any vacation for less than that so I think if you budget properly you can make these trips an annual event and not break the bank. $40.00 per week in a vacation fund is how I do it.

Just my opinion!

 

[melsmom12]

Thank you so much for breaking that down. It's great to know that it's manageable. I think with the right "babysitter" that a trip with just my DD would be a magical thing to do.

A-ha! You said BBB, now those are some pictures I can't wait to see! I'll bet they loved that!

 

[Tatum@disney]

I had to post something....I couldn't find our TR until the third page.
Here's one of Splashmountain. She doesn't look so sure..

 

[ProudMommyof2]

We want more! We want more!

 

[KimAshton]

More More more.

 

[disfanalicia]

bump

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Sorry I've abandoned all of you. Been very busy. I know that's no excuse-next post up soon!

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

When last we left off, we were in Tommorowland enjoying ZERO crowds. We rode Buzz Lightyear at LEAST three times in a row with no wait.

Look ma, no lines!

After Buzz, we all rode the Tommorowland Transit Authority:

Then, we took the path to Toontown and everyone explored Mickey's House

while I ran over and rode Goofy's Barnstormer with about a 5 minute wait. We had all ridden it together the night of MNSSHP and Grace was terrified and proclaimed that she would not ride it again. After riding it this day I found that it is quite tame in the daylight (we had originally ridden at night). So once I exited I tried to tell Grace it was not scary at all and we all proceded into the queue but she backed out and we walked back out the way we came in. We explored the dump shop and she got some Goofy's Candy Co. spiral lollipops that were 6 to a bag for one snack credit.

Tatum and Traci came off of the ride very quickly and we proceeded to the train depot there in Toontown. The girls were given princess tattoos and Traci applied them while we rode the train:

We took the train to Frontierland, disembarked, and Traci and Tatum decided they wanted to ride Splash Mountain. Grace and I waited at the bridge.
Look ma, no lines at Splash Mountain!:

Tatum's not so sure about her decision to ride:

Can you spot them in the backseat?:

Shame on Traci for taking pics inside the ride! Such irreverance!

Afterwards we were getting hungry so we went to Pecos Bills. I ordered a Taco Salad, a diet Coke and a brownie. These were very good, I really enjoyed the Taco salad. I ordered Grace the Kid's Meal Chicken Nuggets with applesauce, french fries and milk. Traci ordered a Chicken Wrap with Fries, a brownie and a diet coke. Her Chicken Wrap was huge and she really liked it. Tatum had the chicken nuggets with applesauce and fries, just like Grace. As we were eating, Traci noticed the family sitting next to us had Texas A&M tshirts on, her husband's alma mater. So she told the girls to walk over, put their thumbs up, and say "Gig 'Em Aggies!". They did and the other family got a big kick out of this!
Pecos Bills was extremely crowded and chaotic so our lunch was not very relaxing. We decided to get out of there as soon as possible.
We headed over to Adventureland to ride The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

Grace especially LOVED this ride so when Tatum wanted to go over and get in line to see Genie and Jasmine, Grace and I rode The Carpets about 5 more times in a row!!!

Jasmin went on break before they got to tha front of the line and they decided to wait for her to return. About that time, the heavans opened up and in true Orlando fashion it rained HARD for about 30 minutes.
Unfortunately we made an amateur move and forgot our rain ponchos this day! So we had to hide out in the Aladdin gift shop with about a hundred other people! It's a VERY SMALL shop.

I wasn't about to buy a poncho when I brought about 12 on our trip that were back in the hotel room!
Jasmine never returned and we headed over to Frontierland where Traci took the girls in Country Bear Jamboree while I went and rode Big Thunder Mountain with about a 5 minute wait. After I returned, Traci went to ride BTMRR and I sat with the girls and watched Woody's Cowboy Camp:

After the show everyone was lining up for the parade and we debated whether we should stay and see it again. The girls were getting tired so we decided to head for the car.

Magic Kingdom is somewhat of a pain to get to and leave when you have a rental car because you have to monorail to the TTC. But it wasn't that bad and we made it back to our "home" away from home in no time.

 

[momtoccc]

Another great update! I can't to hear more!!

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Eventhough the last part was titled "Rain, Rain Go Away", as you can see so far we had very little bad weather. We were very lucky because the week before and the week after had heavy rain on a daily basis.

After we returned from MK, Tatum needed a nap so Traci put her down:

Aww! How cute!

I took Grace to the pool down Tutle Pond Road, not too far from our building. That pool is very nice and we practically had the place to ourselves. There is also a playground there with a play element and swings.

The clouds started to form so we ran back to our room before the storm hit. We sat on the balcony of our room and enjoyed the rain:

I cannot say it enough-OKW is a beautiful resort with tons of room for your family to spread out.


Traci and Tatum decided to go back to Downtown Disney but Grace and I stayed in the room and packed (how sad it is to pack when you are leaving! )

Traci bought her husband a GIANT caramel apple drizzled in many chocolates and I thought there was no way that thing was going to make the trip back! She truly is a thoughful friend and brought me some more pretzel rods from Goofy's Candy Co!

We had an early night, we were all very tired and our most action packed day was up tomorrow! You will NOT want to miss my next post!!!!!!! Chaos finally catches up to us...you didn't think all of the pixie dust, magic and dreams could last the WHOLE trip, did you???

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Another great update and pictures. I can't believe the lack of people in the ride lines - how wonderful! Looking forward to more.

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

Thursday September 27

We awoke at 6:15am and hustled to get out the door. I had forgotten to set up Bell Services and called around 6:30am and they said they'd send someone right over! The nice man arrived at 7am and took our four HEAVY suitcases down three flights of stairs. That was the best $10.00 I ever spent! Things were pretty tense this morning because we had a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique reservation for 8am and we needed to make sure we were checked out of the room. The bill they hung on the door showed no additional charges so we didn't bother stopping by the lobby. We were all in the car at 7:15am and driving towards MK. I took a wrong turn right by the hotel and had to course correct but we were confident we would make the 8am reservation. Once we arrived at the TTC "Magic Kingdom" car toll booth I was sure we would be on time as it was only about 7:30am. BUT after leaving the Toll Booth I don't know what I was thinking when I veered RIGHT to the road that goes to the resorts, NOT the TTC!!!!

Oh, Traci and I immediately realized the error and began to FREAK OUT!
We took the first right and began to drive to what appeared to be the middle of nowhere! So I did a U turn and we had to take a right at the road that goes to all the resorts. First resort was the Contemporary on the right so we drove up there and I thought since we had parked there before we could get away with it again. The security guard at the gate asked for our ADR number and when he realized it was for BBB he told us to hit the road!
By this time it was 7:45am AT LEAST and we were freaking out. The security guard told us to make a left out of the Contemporary and then make the first right. Well, I was speeding as fast as I could, we were taking corners on two tires, and the place he directed us to was the KENNELL!!! Oh no!!!! A further set-back!

For someone who is OCD super planner you can just imagine I was freaking out! Poor Traci and the girls had to see me at my worst!

So we turned around and RACED around the road that goes by all the resorts, made it back to the Car toll Booth, entered and arrived at the TTC at 8am. We jumped out of the car, grabbed everything and SPRINTED to the monorail. We didn't make any note of where we parked the car, didn't even think about it. (Remember this!)

We waited an ETERNITY for the monorail to show up. Once again, the monorail stopped at EVERY RESORT on the way to the MK!!!!! And, the monorail sat there and waited for additional passengers at every resort.

We were VERY stressed!!! I tried to get the monorail attendant to call BBB and tell them we would be late but he said don't worry about it!!! What he didn't know is we had a Cinderella's Royal Table reservation at 9am so these reservations were back-to-back.

I cannot tell you from where the energy came but we RAN- no, we SPRINTED out of the monorail, through bag check, through the ticket turnstiles, down Main Street and up to BBB. We arrived at 8:30am. Will they honor our reservation?

Check out my next post to find out!

 

[GraceLuvsWDW]

I also wanted to mentioned that Traci left the giant caramel apple in the car all day. Our plane didn't depart until 7:50pm this evening.

Raise your hand if you think the caramel apple will be edible after this day!?

 

[melsmom12]

Oh no! There's nothing worse than being late AND lost, you poor things! What a mess. Can't wait to read what happens next!

 

[Tatum@disney]

I'll have to admit that I thought I was going to die that morning! It seemed nothing was going right for us. We were literally on two wheels going around WDW. Now that should be a new "ride" at the Magic Kingdom. Way more intense than Test Track!

 

[Tatum@disney]

And faster! Speeds topping 70mph.