The Arrival of the Chosen One Demands Celebration

[DonaldTDuck]

About a year ago I finally got my sister's family to agree to go to Disneyworld with me.. I've made 15 previous trips including one each year since 2006. They were last there about 1987. And there has been a recent edition, The Chosen One. Okay, he's really Glancy, my niece's not quite 3 yo. I thought we should squeeze in one trip before we had to pay for him.
Last Christmas I gave each of them Halloween. At least, I promised I would buy them each a ticket to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. So that put trip as sometime in late Sept-Nov 1. But how could we resist free dining?
A quick word on our cast of characters is in order. (click pictures for full view)



This is my sister Elaine, Grammy to The Chosen One er uh I mean Glancy.




This is her husband Curtis, who for reasons nobody understands, is Glancy's Lala. Now everyone calls him Lala.




This is my niece Jenny, aka Mommie.




This is me with my best buddy, or at least he was before Glancy.




This is Uncle Andy, my nephew. He is Jenny's broother and the baby of the family, or was.





And last, but certainly not least, this is Jenny's younger sister Becky, or Aunt Beppi to Glancy. She's the one in the middle.
Andy and Becky joined us late. The rest of us arrived on Saturday Sept 25 and they joined us Monday September 27.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

Now just a few words about The Chosen One, I mean Glancy.









Glancy is nearing his 3rd birthday so we thought now was the time for his first visit. We told him a few months ago and we would spend afternoons looking at pictures of 'Dinseyworld'. We've taken Glancy to Nashville Sounds games and he always is wary of Ozzie, their mascot, so we wondered how he would react to characters. Well, he liked them just fine.







He seems a bit non-plussed about these, but you will see there were some characters he couldn't contain himself with. Sort of how I feel about my favorite Ducks, Donald and Daisy.

 

[DonaldTDuck]

I've been to WDW 15 times before this, but this would be my first trip with a kid. I've always been the planner, the motivator, and the one behind all the decisions. My friends here on the Dis informed me this would not be the case this time. Boy were y'all right. This trip was different in 1000 ways. I rode fewer rides, saw fewer shows and had less voice that ever before. But Glancy led us on an adventure like none I'd had before.
First off, I always drive to Disney. Twelve hours there and back. Ok, I understand. No kid should be subjected to that long in a car. So we flew. As whenever we fly, Southwest is our first choice. We bought tix for the first flight of the day, around 11. Our return we would get a much later flight. It was a Saturday, so the airport was a little busy. I ran into fans of our alma mater, WKU, heading to Tampa for a football game. They asked if I were going to it and I said no, just a touch east of there. Apparently, my trip held more fun than theirs. I think after our most recent trip to Florida, to Miami and Fla. International, our losing streak has hit 24. All Topper fans need a little Disney right now.
On the plane I sat next to a sweet recent high school grad from Small Town, Michigan. She wanted to know if I ever saw any celebrities in Nashville. Wish I'd known Steven Curtis Chapman was sitting in the front of the plane. Yeah, we see a few.
We had an uneventful flight and reached MCO just after 1. We got to ride the monorail at the airport to the DME desk, where we were herded in a line for POP. There were about 7 lines with resorts divided up by area and they loaded the buses using all in one line and filling with the next as needed. If not for a 2yo bathroom emergency we would have been on the second bus. We were in line and they let us come forward and wait for Jenny and Glancy. Then we got the next spots for POP. The bus was great, but aren't they always? They ran a Donald Duck cartoon on the on bus tvs to fill the time and everyone knew just how much Glancy enjoyed it. He doesn't talk loud, but that boy can lol. Emphasis second l. We arrived at POP by 2 and did express checkin, and headed to the food court..