The financially irresponsible WDW trip! [June 25th: p.45, posts 668 & 669]

[DebIreland]

What is it? Second trip to WDW

When was it? October 24th to November 9th, 2006

Where? All Star Music / Boardwalk Villas / All Star Movies / Cocoa Beach Doubletree Hotel

Who?
Me - 37 - Let's call me Deb

DH - 42 - Unless you're Irish you won't be able to pronounce his real name so let's call him Grumpy - hey, this is fun!

DS - 12 - Let's call him Wayne which is nothing like his real name

DS - 9 (turned 10 in WDW) - hmmm, well Goofy is his favourite but I just know he'll take offence to being called Goofy so let's call him Garth and keep everything simple

DD - 2 - who's left in the cast of Wayne's World? The guy who drinks so much he vomits in the back of the car? Somehow that doesn't really suit a 2 year old girl, lol!, so let's stick with tradition and call her Alice because she dressed as Alice (or Mrs. In Wonderland as DS12 referred to her) for Halloween.

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PART 1: Introduction...

Starting this is the tough part. I know that already. It kills me to be brief. I just don't seem to have it in my nature to be anything but long-winded but I will try my best to stay on track.... (that's probably not going to happen though!).

We're home now. Got home last Friday (10th). I wanted to write a trip report about our first trip in 2005 and never quite knew how to start it so this time, I'd really like to start and finish one and keep those memories fresh! Yes, I'm clinging on to anything that gets me back to WDW, even if only in my mind.

I don't think it's possible to even start writing about this trip to WDW without bringing our first one into it. Well that was in June/July 2005 and, while the preparations for that holiday started in February '05, the dream started way back in the early 70's as I imagined what it would be like to visit that magical, wonderful place that only a lucky few ever got to see. Back then, the notion of *actually* going there some day seemed as unlikely as travelling to Mars, although men landed on the Moon the year I was born, so perhaps I was somewhat optimistic about it even then. That dream stayed with me all through my life and, although eventually I knew that some day we would get there, we never seemed to find the right time to do it.

Money was always an issue and even when we might be able to pull it off financially, there was always something that necessitated putting 'Disney' on the long finger yet again.

But finally, we decided in early 2005 that that was going to be the year for our 'once in a lifetime ' trip and so we did it. And we fell head over heels in love with WDW. We knew it was going to be great. But just how great, we had no idea. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the wonderful CMs, the colours, but, most of all, the magical atmosphere just knocked us off our feet and left us wanting more. We didn't want to leave. The night before we were due to leave WDW after that first trip, my DS (11 at the time) was very quiet, lying on the bed and, when I went to check him, I realised he was crying. He told me he wanted to stay in Disney World forever. Needless to say, that started us all off bawling like babies (well one of us was a baby at the time but she was fine, just as happy really to be at home banging pots and pans) and we all (minus the baby) announced that we had fallen in love with this place and we would miss it greatly and needed to get back there again... who decided it needs to be 'once in a lifetime' anyway? We would somehow scrape the pennies together and go back - we didn't know how or when but we would do it. That was our consolation last summer as we took our long flight home and reminisced about the wonderful times we had experienced together. So...........

At Christmas we talked and decided we would, most likely, get back there in 2008. Knowing that we have a lot of bills, an ever-increasing cost of living to deal with (*yawn*) and zero savings, this seemed the most sensible time frame. But fast forward to February of this year. DH & I decided that we couldn't wait that long and so we would somehow do it sooner rather than later. We threw around a few dates. Summer or Easter seemed the logical ones. It never occured to me to consider Autumn/Winter but I realised I didn't want to wait until 2007 (I simply couldn't hold out that long) and yet I knew we needed more time to, er, save so as the kids get a mid-term break each Autumn, we settled on October/November and danced around in glee at the thought of going back and spending sunny days in MK, AK and Epcot leaving behind the Irish rain and cold.

If going to Disney World for the first time is a dream come true, then that moment when you realise you're going *back* is just sheer nirvana!

I am, as always, making this far too long-winded so fast-forward again (or at least, I'll try!). We definitely wanted to stay in Orlando for 2 weeks. Those flights are long and costly. We needed to justify them. Any excuse really! We stayed onsite the last time (thanks to the knowledge I gained on the DIS about AP discounts!) but I played around with the idea of staying offsite this time to save money but really didn't want to. I know there are wonderful offsite hotels/resorts/condos but as we didn't want to drive very much on the 'wrong' side of the road (the thought honestly terrified me) the idea of returning to onsite was just too inviting. And when you add up the cost of car hire, insurance, petrol (er, gas) and parking well, you know where I'm at.

I had heard and read about renting points from a DVC member and a very kind fellow-DISer gave me great info on it last year which I stored away for future reference. Well, having put a tentative, nervous post on the DVC boards asking what people reckoned my chances were of renting points for Oct/Nov, I got a very nice PM from a fellow DVC member saying that we could probably do business! He and his wife were new to owning DVC and I was new to renting. Long story short, it worked like a dream. I must confess I probably drove him around the bend a few times as I emailed with worries and date changes and various other neurotic alterations but, all in all, it was very smooth and I was very, very fortunate to 'find' him.

But back to deciding on where. Well when I first saw photos of The Boardwalk on Disney's website I knew that would be my dream hotel but, at the time, in the very early days of researching for our first trip, I knew nothing of DVC points or renting of same (!), so upon laughing hysterically at the prices quoted per night, I clicked off that page fairly sharpish. But this time, I knew it was a possibility. So our wonderful DVC renter checked availability for 10 nights (I later changed this to 9) at BWV and, lo and behold, we were in!!!! Oh joy of joys!! Of course, we had 16 nights to fill and definitely couldn't be doing with those weekend point rates (or cash rates for that matter) so what to do with the weekend nights? Well, I had always loved the look of the All Stars and just knew that the children would adore it there and I'd read enough to know that actually we'd all like it there. It seemed so Disney to me! So this is what we *eventually* came up with: Tues 24th to Fr 27th incl: ASMusic; Sat 28th: Doubletree Cocoa Beach hotel; Sun 29th to Thurs 2nd: BWV; Fri 3rd & Sat 4th: ASMovies and checking in again on November 5th to BWV. Tired yet?

So there you have it. The bones of the trip. Oh, in the first few months the children knew nothing about our impending trip. I surprised them on Easter Sunday with the news - I painted some eggs and decorated them. I gave them clues which led to the eggs distributed throughout the house. In each painted egg was a word and all words put together made up the sentence 'we're going back to Disney World in October'. What a happy day that was! They were on air!! My eldest DS cried with joy! I have another long-winded, ridiculously detailed thread dating back to then (where I got wonderful ideas on how to pull off the surprise from fellow DISers) and I detailed how it went, but I won't subject you to any more meandering posts.

Oh I forgot to mention that I neurotically checked airline websites a few times a day every day until I finally decided that flying through London (no direct flights from Ireland) with Virgin was too expensive and the best deal was flying with Continental from Shannon to Orlando via Newark. So flights booked, accommodation booked, UK 14 day ultimate park tickets purchased along the way, 57 drafts of an itinerary typed up, TGM subscribed to and read with passion, Unofficial Guide learnt off by heart, savings building rapidly (i.e. credit card being cleared so we could use it again! Yeah, that's my definition of 'savings'), shorts taken out of attic, pins dusted off, DIS read obsessively and we're there! Almost......

UP NEXT: Our not so relaxed pre-trip day but finally we're on our way! Woohoo! (this was meant to be Day 1 but I had to come back and edit as, upon reading it, it barely mentioned Day 1. Well I told you I was long-winded!

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Contents...

PART 1:'INTRODUCTION': You've just read it!

PART 2: 'Our not so relaxed pre-trip day but finally we're on our way!! Woohoo!': Right below this one:

PART 3: 'Day 1 - Flights, exhaustion and our arrival at Disney World': Page 2 - Post no. 20

PART 4: 'Day 2 - Swimming, playing, shopping & DTD and all with a big grin on our 'happy-to-be-at-Disney' faces!': Page 2 - Post no. 26

PART 5: 'Day 3 - AK, Blizzard Beach and some meltdowns, oh oh!': Page 5 - Post no. 64

PART 6: 'Day 3 - AK, Blizzard Beach and some meltdowns, oh oh! (contd.)': Page 5 - Post no. 68

PART 7: 'Day 3 - AK, Blizzard Beach and some meltdowns, oh oh! (contd.)': Page 6 - Post no. 78

PART 8: 'Day 4 - Magic Kingdom at last; to do or not to do Fantasmic & bonding time at the resort': Page 7 - Post no. 101

PART 9: 'Day 4 - Magic Kingdom at last; to do or not to do Fantasmic & bonding time at the resort (contd.)': Page 9 - Post no. 127

PART 10: 'Day 5 - Off to Cocoa Beach': Page 10 - Post no. 142

PART 11: 'Day 5 - Off to Cocoa Beach (contd.)': Page 10 - Post no. 143

PART 12: 'Day 5 - We finally get to Cocoa Beach!': Page 12 - Post no. 173

PART 13: 'Day 6 - Kennedy Space Center and The Boardwalk!!': Page 13 - Post no. 181

PART 14: 'Day 6 - Kennedy Space Center and The Boardwalk!! (contd.)': Page 13 - Post no. 182

PART 15: 'Day 7 - Waking up in The Boardwalk; MGM; waiting for JoJo; do we finally make it to Fantasmic?': Page 14 - Post no. 207

PART 16: 'Day 7 - MGM': Page 16 - Post no. 236

PART 17: 'Day 7 - MGM (contd.)': Page 16 - Post no. 237

PART 18: 'Day 8 - Magic Kingdom and the run up to MNSSHP': Page 19 - Post no. 284

PART 19: 'Day 8 - Magic Kingdom and the run up to MNSSHP (contd.)': Page 19 - Post no. 285

PART 20: 'Day 8 - Back at the Boardwalk and the run up to MNSSHP (still!)': Page 21 - Post no. 309

PART 21: 'Day 8 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!': Page 25 - Post no. 367

PART 22: 'Day 8 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (Contd.)': Page 26 - Post no. 388

PART 23: 'Day 8 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party (contd. yet again but finished at last!): Page 28 - Post no. 419

PART 24: 'Day 9 - Epcot: World Showcase & time at the pool!: Page 33 - Post no. 482

PART 25: 'Day 9 - Our Evening at World Showcase!: Page 35 - Post no. 521

PART 26: 'Day 9 - Our Evening at World Showcase (contd.)!: Page 35 - Post no. 522

A RECAP: Page 38 - Post no. 561

PART 27: 'Day 10 - Future World & Cirque du Soleil! Page 45 - Post no. 668

PART 28: 'Day 10 - Future World & Cirque du Soleil (contd.)!: Page 45 - Post no. 669

 

[DebIreland]

Part 2: Our not so relaxed pre-trip day but finally we're on our way!! Woohoo!

Monday October 23rd 2006
Our departure day (24th) started at 3.30am. Well let's rewind. My day started the previous day (23rd) at 9am. The weekend had been busy. Crazy busy. I was waaaaay behind with packing although I did have an extensive and rather neat (as in tidy) list made out with various headings and sub-headings. I could win awards for the quality of my lists. Sadly, *implementing* the 'to do' and 'to buy' and 'to pack' sections is another story entirely (as you will soon see). Still, I drool over my lists, ensuring that all heads and sub-heads match in style and italicisation is correctly implemented and gutter space between columns is just right etc. Here's a snippet of my 'to do' list for you to peruse. It's just a snippet mind!

I went to bed on Sunday night (22nd) in an exhausted panic. I spent as much time as I could the previous day and that day getting ready for the hols but we needed to pay a visit to both our mothers and also I still had about 5 hours of work to do. I work from home and needed to have 2 jobs to the printer at 9am on Monday. My only consolation was that I would get up at 6am and pack, pack, pack throughout the morning while the boys were in school and Alice was at her nana's house.

Imagine my surprise (aka shock, horror, sick-to-my-stomach-with-fright-and-sheer-panic) when I woke up on Monday morning and saw the clock reading 11.40 am. Sweet gentle Jesus, the whole holiday is messed up. Yes, you will learn as we go through this (both of you - hi Mammy, hi hubby) that I am prone to extreme exaggeration and melodrama. But still, make no mistake, I was shi..... I was quite, quite anxious. I'm glad this is a family friendly board. Should cut my word count down by about 300%. I'm from Ireland... we were brought up on hand-me-downs and swear words. Just kidding totally [hi again Mammy, sorry].

So, okay, the day before we leave for our much-dreamt-about and highly desired holiday I wake up almost 6 hours late with about 200 things to do / pack / write / think / say / organise etc. And, of course, at that stage there is no cushion, there's no "oh well, there's always tomorrow".

What happened is that I got to bed the night before at 5am, which was really earlier that morning, not the "night before" at all so Grumpy thought he would let me sleep in and as I usually rely on him to wake me (although in fairness, I do go through the motions of setting my alarm each and every night and then sleeping right through it) I had no say in the matter. Very mature for a 37 year old woman eh? Very nice of him too as he basically got the boys to school, the CDs to the printer and Alice to her nana's all whilst I slept. But dear God, of all days. I needed to be up early that day.

So after that long, meandering and most-likely utterly needless explanation of something I've forgotten, the end result is that with all that was now undone, much as I tried, I never got to bed at all on Monday night. So back to.....

Our day started at 3.30am......

Hang on though, I think I need to tell you more about the Monday. Hey, hey, calm down now, if I'm driving you mad imagine what I do to myself. Monday was the boys last day in school for 3 weeks. My word, were they ecstatic! They're good in school. They're good boys. But they both love, love, love days off and, if given a choice, they'd never go to school *ever*. In other words they're normal. I had a hair appointment for 4pm, Wayne needed a hair cut too which wasn't even booked yet, Garth had a piano lesson at 3pm, we needed to buy a ton of stuff for the plane and last minute items for the holiday, Garth had a music lesson (a different one) at 4.45, petrol (or gas as you call it on that side of the pond) needed to be purchased, fridge cleaned out and, oh yeah, we had no packing done yet.....

So it's almost noon on Monday and I start the day by running up and down the hall in a panic, not knowing what to do first. I make a list, yes another one. Except this time it's written with eye liner on the back of a torn-off section of cereal box - to hell with 'bold', 'italic' and gutter widths, our holiday is at stake. Help!!!

I should explain at this point that Grumpy is very, very, very laid back so I think I subconsciously try to balance that by being very, very, very hysterical and over-wrought most of the time. Also, there's a touch of the 'the girl who cried "the whole thing is ruined"' about me. I do over-react a lot (in my desire to get Grumpy to sit up and listen and stop being so laid back) so then, of course, when there is a real panic nobody takes me seriously. So, of course, Grumpy thought I was over-reacting and no amount of "we're leaving in just 15 hours and we have nothing done" would make him take me seriously.

Anyway, I eat something, can't remember what, I get dressed at some point and then we jump in the car, drive to a shop to buy food for the plane, drive to another shop to reluctantly buy a set of goggles for my eldest DS [he had a really good pair and lost them 3 weeks previously so although I didn't want to replace them, at this stage I had no choice.... grrrr! Do I have to tell you that the old goggles turned up that night? Of course they did! Grrrr!], phone (or call as you say on that side of the pond) the hairdresser, ask them to cut Wayne's hair too while mine is being cut - hopefully by a different hairdresser but at this stage I don't care), get to the school, pick up the boys, get Garth to piano, Grumpy waits for him and then goes off to get DD from her nana's and drop some stuff at my mother's, I take Wayne to the hairdresser, buy more stuff (magazines and 2 books) and finally get home at 6pm. Sweet gentle Jesus, the clock is ticking and still no clean house and no packing done yet..... oh just get a magnifying glass and read the to-do list back up there somewhere to see all that needed to be done. Oh and don't forget to cross out the 'Saturday' and 'Sunday' headings and lump all the 'to dos' into Monday because, of course, most of that stuff wasn't done at all at this point.

At this stage I'm a mess. In my mind, a faraway memory intrudes of what I had once envisioned the 'night before Disney' to be i.e. the whole family sitting down together in a spotlessly clean house, eating goodies, full of the joys of life, watching Pinochio with the cases packed at the door and many group hugs. The reality was just a tad different. Still I felt the need to put a mock smile on my face (didn't want to infect the kids with my overwhelming sense of panic) and I made quite a few contrived 'hee hee, tomorrow we'll be in Disney' type comments but I suspect my voice was reaching heights of sheer hysteria at that point.

I gave up then on the notion of leaving behind a spotlessly clean house. Some day I swear that will happen. I'm sure we fed the kids at some point, we usually do to be fair to us. I did not know how to start packing. I just didn't know how it could be done. It's 7ish now. Sweet gentle Jesus. Why oh why, how oh how did I leave things so late. I cannot begin to describe just how much planning and research I did for this holiday and yet, here I am just 9 hours before we need to leave the house and still no packing done. I did have some stuff piled up and I knew where most things were but most of the work still needed to be done. Oh sure, I knew the best spot to be in for the 3pm parade in MK, I knew that although the MNSSHP tickets says "7 to midnight" we could get in as early as 4, I knew where we were eating each day but how could we do those things without as much as a pair of knickers between us? 7 empty cases/bags. Help!!

So I tried to knuckle down. Did I forget to say that Grumpy was still out? He got delayed and so I hadn't seen him since we left each other in town around 3pm. He finally got home around 7.30 and went straight out again to take Garth to scouts. It was their Halloween party that night (very happy that he was still here to make it to that) so I needed to help him with his costume, which I gladly did, he's a good kid and off he went. Finally, 8pm and I start packing. But at that stage DD is home. Adorable and wonderful as she is (and she really *is*) you can't get a thing done with a 2 year old in the house so for every thing I packed, she managed to unpack or redistribute two things. Oh dear God. At some point we got her into the bath, under Grumpy's care, and got Wayne into the shower and finally at 8.30 I'm packing, for real this time.

Grumpy's sister rang to ask if it was a good time to call and I have no idea what we said but, needless to say, it wasn't the best time, ahem! I hope she didn't mind, she's great and I wanted to see her but I think she understood that we were just a little behind schedule.

So what I did was this. I sat down and, with Wayne's help, made a list (*another* one - this time in pen on the back of an old TGM print out - things are looking up) of categories of items we needed to bring i.e. "Garth's clothes", "Deb's clothes", "toys", "stuff for Alice" (blanky, special teddy bears etc), "footwear", "swimming stuff", "important print outs" etc. etc. I then gave each category a number (I think there were 17 categories), I then made a list of the cases and bags that we had and DS & I assigned each number (i.e. category) to a specific bag. I know I sound like a total anorak but it worked. Something was going right!! Woohoo!!

So we then stuck the list to the wall, lined all the bags/cases up against the wall and each time I'd pick up an item I'd check it against the list and put it in the correct bag! At this stage I had everyone's clothes out in piles and had eliminated the clothes we weren't bringing (i.e. I threw them in a corner to be dealt with in 17 days time). At around 9.30pm Garth came home from scouts, ran into the shower and then entertained DD who was hyper with excitement though she hadn't a clue why!! She just knew something was going on and expressed her delight by jumping in and out of the suitcases.

All the while, I was charging DVD players, camera batteries, mobile phones and, of course, still throwing stuff into cases. At various stages, everyone went to bed except for me. By the time the packing was done, it was 2am. I then ran around, tidied up as much as I could, threw away food out of the fridge in a frenzy, ran into the shower, ironed clothes for wearing on the plane, checked my purse for credit card, cash, DDE card, checked our passports, flight confirmations, ASMu reservations etc and, lo and behold, it was 3.30am. Time to call everyone!!!! Woohoo!!!! I'm smiling at last. I got no sleep but I did it and all in a very pleasant, relaxed, not at all rushed manner, wouldn't you agree?.....

So I entered the kids' bedrooms with glee, knowing that this is the morning they had looked forward to for many months and dreamt about for many more previous to that... the boys were up in a shot! Big smiles on their sleepy faces and dressed in no time. I dressed Alice in her sleep. Even after being dressed, she still slept...

She just loves bed. No idea where she got that from.

So we carried her out to the car and she stayed asleep!! Yes!!! The boys wrapped themselves in a blanket in the back seat and we all smiled knowing that, at last, we're off to Disney World again!!

Ups and downs of today:
Ups: Um, we're going to Disney World at last.... woohoo!!!!

Downs: Do you want me to just cut and paste the whole thing?!!!

UP NEXT(if DH and mammy are still reading!)... Day 1: Flights, exhaustion and our arrival at Disney World... - It's Page 2, Post no. 20 or just click here

 

[SusanMomOf2]

savings building rapidly (i.e. credit card being cleared so we could use it again! Yeah, that's my definition of 'savings')

Me, too!!! LOL!!! Hope you have a wonderful trip! I enjoyed your report so far!

 

[snoopy two]

I hope the c/d you delivered to the printer is the beginning of your book! I love your writing and look forward to the next chapter.

 

[DebIreland]

Susan, thanks for reading. Who am I kidding? "Thanks" isn't enough, I bow to you in praise because I feared nobody would bother reading this - yes I'm a martyr what can I say? Anyway, thank you dear Susan, you're now my very favourite person in the whole world.

Oh by the way, we've been and are back already. *Sob* I realised that wasn't clear so I went back and clarified it. But 'clarity' is all relative when it comes to my writing - let's say it's less vague and jumbled-up than it was!

 

[DebIreland]

I hope the c/d you delivered to the printer is the beginning of your book! I love your writing and look forward to the next chapter.

Mommy? Is that you? Another response? I'm positively floating on air with glee. Thanks a ton Snoopy! No, the CD contained the layout of two magazines. I'm a graphic designer. But thank you so much for the high praise. Let's see if you feel the same by the time we're on Day 10 (or 2 even!).

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

You sound like me with all of the freaking out right before the trip! For some reason, I can plan and organize and all of that for months beforehand, but when it comes down to those last few days, I have NOTHING DONE YET!

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

 

[Magic2000]

Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[mlill]

I'm hooked already! Great job so far! I can't wait to hear about the rest of your vacation! (I saw your son with the pink cake on the restaurants board!)

-Michelle

 

[averill94]

This is great! I am sorry we never heard of your last trip.

Your daughter looks like a little sweetie.

I love the way you disclosed the surprise to the children. What an original idea. Will have to remember that

 

[Cass]

Downs: Do you want me to just cut and paste the whole thing?!!!

LOL that made me laugh, that was very stressful to read - I felt your pain, I have often been the only one up in the middle of the night packing & ironing while everyone else sleeps.

 

[Bee]

I am feeling your pain.. I didnt sleep for like two days before our October trip last year.

I even forgot my suitcase.. all packed and ready to go... Everyone else had theirs though .

Cant wait to read more!

Oh, and I have a bit of Irish in me... one of my ancestors is John DeVoy.. he is buried over there.. on the other side of the pond .

I am told he is famousor should I say was famous.

Later,

 

[MomPlanner22]

Hi Deb

Great start! I hope you are going to post this on TGM as well! And I happen to know that despite your running amok on Monday, you found time to post on TGM and tell us all goodbye yet you never mentioned the craziness of your day!

Can't wait to hear all about it and how you like your Cirque seats after that frustration!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

great stuff!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[rie'smom]

Deb,I love your report! I too am a list writer. Does it ever work out to make our lives easier? However, it does make you feel organized-right!!!

 

[DebbieinWA]

Great report! Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[DebIreland]

Yay!! Thanks for the feedback everyone.

I really appreciate it!! In fact, I'm chuffed!

I've edited posts 1 and 2 to come up with fake names for the family which I can't help thinking is pointless really but, that being said, I hear it's the best thing to do.

DD has become ultra clingy since our holiday - she and I have always, thankfully, had a great bond but now she's going through a stage of not letting me out of her sight. Going to the bathroom involves me backing away slowly at first and then making a mad dash for the loo and usually before she's had time to figure out what happened I'm done. One of these days I'll be found face down in the tub with my pants around my ankles having somersaulted over the toilet bowl. I have no decorum But DH is taking her shopping later if we can manage to get her out of her pyjamas and into normal-people clothes (bear in mind it's 1.15pm here) so I'm gonna write more then.

 

[FayeW]

One of these days I'll be found face down in the tub with my pants around my ankles having somersaulted over the toilet bowl.

If there was ever a line meant for the tag fairy, THIS IS IT!

Loving your trip report Deb! Somehow I feel like we are kindred spirits as I have a tendancy to over-exaggerate the seriousness of, well, everything, and have a pretty constant note of hysteria to my voice too!

 

[NMAmy]

Oh, I'm loving your report so far, Deb! I think most of us have experienced that panicky day before Disney. Mine involves getting a procrastinating 16 yo girl to NOT pack everything she owns for a 7 day trip. So while most people are feverishly packing, I am feverishly UNpacking.

Your dd looks like an angel. Of course, I know with little girls that age, looks can be deceiving but they're so cute when they're asleep!

 

[DebIreland]

Part 3 - Day 1: Flights, exhaustion and our arrival at Disney World...

So it's 4am and the excitement is really setting in. Despite the mad panic of the previous few days I am somewhat impressed that we're packed and ready to go. Now would we fit everything in the car? We had, in the end, three big suitcases plus one small one and two gear bags (hold-alls?). Our carry-on bags consisted of one back-pack each, including Alice's one with nappies (diapers), do-dos (rhymes with low-lows or pacifiers as you call them on your side of the pon..... oh for heaven sake!), toys, books, crayons, green blanky plus one 'inferior' yellow blanky which sometimes suffices but is nowhere near as vital to her as her green (shabby, torn and old) blanky.

The boys had various things including books, Nintendo DSs, Disney pins and money - they just love dollars - the great thing about travelling to WDW from abroad is that *every* thing is a treat, the dollar bills, the American accents, *every* thing is exciting! We even took photos of their dollars just to get the holiday going and tell ourselves it had finally started!

Even though we tried to be disciplined about the carry-on stuff and not pile the floor of the airplane with crap (cause let's face it, even with the best intentions I end up on my hands and knees on the floor of the plane picking up our crap when the flight lands), we still had a lot. Luckily we fitted everything into the car and nobody had to ride with a bag on their face, two under their legs and one on their lap which is common for us when we go go anywhere.

Our drive to the airport took just under 2 hours. It was dreary and cold that morning which made thoughts of Florida even more enticing. Alice slept the whole way. So we arrived at 6am and unloaded everything. It was freezing - the kind of cold that hurts. So DH went to park the car in long-term (and extortionately-priced) parking and I took the kids into the terminal. Alice was not pleased to be moved from her slumber yet again!

Disappointingly, the board read check-in would not begin until 7. Our flight left at 9am and I know from experience that the entire customs/immigration process takes a lot of time so, even though it sounds like a lot, 2 hours isn't enough for us to get from check-in to gate with everything done, but it would have to suffice. I should explain that we can do the U.S. immigration process here in Ireland before we even leave the country. It is enormously helpful except the airlines still begin check-in at the same time as any other route so it's a rush no matter how organised you are.

After some breakfast we got to the check-in line at 7.05 and I was a bit taken aback at the length of the line. No sooner were we in the queue when DD spilled her juice all down herself and went ballistic in the process - it was cold and she no-likey on her lappy. I catch the looks of those around me who I know are thinking "oh please God don't let us end up sitting next to *them*".

Then I hear a muffled announcement and I can barely make it out but I can definitely hear the words "3 inch" bottles and "transparent bags" and "no liquids" and "heightened security". Oh sweet God in heaven, I haven't planned for this at all. I knew, of course, all about the security alerts in August but even back then, our restrictions in Ireland weren't nearly as bad as the ones in the U.K. Somehow this had changed and now they were clearly very strict. When did this happen? [In retrospect I think they had just heightened security that very morning].

So here we are with five carry on bags including lots of water and juice and tons of other stuff which I knew I couldn't possibly list when asked! Stress, stress, stress. First we are greeted by a very nice Continental clerk who asked how many bags we have etc. The boys were behind us looking after the luggage on the trolley and he called them up and gave them a speech about terrorists and bombs and about how the airline has to be very careful these days as there are bad people around. Okaaaaaaaay. He was genuinely nice and I guess he was just doing his job, but honestly I thought the speech was a bit over the top for our 9 year old who looked quite scared at this stage. He then asked them if they had packed their bags themselves and DS9 was stumped. I think he was just trying to figure out who else would have packed it and did Mr Continental think he had a man-servant who did his packing for him?! I confirmed that, yes, Garth packed it himself and that seemed to suffice. We then waited in line again to actually check in.

Now, this check in process seemed to take forever. We were checking in for our 2 flights so, of course, that would take longer but man, oh man, it took so long I was starting to fret big-time. 7.45am and we're still standing at check-in. The guy asks if we're carrying any liquids or food and I tell him that, yes, we have 5 cartons of juice, 5 bottles of water and a box of crackers. He said we'll have to drink/eat or dump those before boarding. I asked if we could keep 2 of the juice cartons for our 2 year old and he said "no problem". I then asked if everything needed to be transferred to see-thru bags and he said no. Oh thank God for that!!!!

He gave us the necessary forms to fill out before Immigration and I tried to start doing them there and then but I didn't get too far - they're small but detailed and require your name and address in 2 or 3 places, the address of where we're staying in the U.S. and some other info. A pet peeve of mine is that you have one line, about 3 inches wide for the "entire" address of the place you're staying in the U.S. and yet you're supposed to put down the full address. But FINALLY at 8.15 we're done at check-in and we're told we don't need to check-in again in NY - yay!!!!

We hurry upstairs and fill out the rest of the forms. Like I said it took a while (our names and addresses 3 times on each form x 5 forms is 15 times plus all the other stuff!!) so at 8.35 we finally join the Immigration queue. I'm panicking now and really think there's a chance we'll miss the flight. Those lines are long.

We dump the water, crackers and all but 2 cartons of juice before we reach the top. We get to the top of that line and the guy at the top points out that we had forgotten to put our names and address on one part of each form. Oh God, oh God. Off we go to get a piece of wall to lean on and we finish the forms.

I absolutely dread the Immigration questions. I understand it's a necessity but I'm the type who acts like I've done something wrong when I haven't. But we were blessed with a very nice gentleman who saw we were off to Florida and said to DS9 "hey, are you going to see the Mouse?". Only problem is, Garth couldn't understand what the man was saying and he just stood there looking petrified! lol So anyway in no time at all we were through to the gate.

So that's it, now we just get on the plane, right? No, turns out they had set up ANOTHER bag check just before our gate. This is un-freakin-believable. It's now 8.47am and I want to cry. I'm seriously starting to regret the whole holiday. The kids are stressed (because they can feel our stress and have been rushed from one part of the airport to another for 2 hours straight now) and I can't believe we need to unpack all our carry-on stuff again. We split up and I take the two boys to one bag-search desk and Grumpy takes Alice to another. Our guy was fast and again asked the obligatory "are you carrying any liquids?". I told him DH had just 2 cartons for our 2 year old and pointed to her in DH's arms and he said "hey, that's not a problem at all, have a great day". I just love when, at moments like that, when the stress is getting too much, someone is nice and kind. However, I noticed now that even though we were done, the guy DH got was grilling him and checking every toy, book, sticker, credit card, EVERYTHING in his and DD's bags. I was also horrified to see him take the two cartons of juice out of DD's bag and fling them into the thrash. At this, I looked back at the guy we had gone to and I saw that he had noticed this too and he just shook his head and rolled his eyes. Clearly he too thought this was over-the-top!

At this point it's just a few minutes to our flight time so we rush through the boarding area and at last we're on the actual plane. Halleluia!!!! We get our seats - Grumpy sits with Garth on one side of the aisle and I sit with Wayne and Alice between us on the other side.

Much to my surprise, DD didn't cry at take off despite the volume! She was an angel (so far!). The flight was long but fine. Continental staff were terrific. Couldn't have been better. No shortage of food and great service!

The one thing that caused conflict with Alice was the pull-down table. She left her seatbelt on when she was supposed to (except for a couple of times I had to force the issue!) but she couldn't figure out why she had to leave her table in the upright position at times. It's hard to explain these things to a 2 year old who's just settling into a game of "let's take cow and lion shopping" on her table top. She's as stubborn as a mule and we had lots of tears and tantrums about this. Though overall, she was really very good. Fortunately I had remembered to pack her favourite soft toy - the afore-mentioned "Lion", that's his name despite the fact that he's clearly a tiger. This gets embarrassing in public when I *must* refer to him as "Lion" but still he kept her very happy. He's a hand puppet and I do his voice. She just can't get enough (sadly, he now resides in the vicinity of Animal Kingdom - yes, we lost him 10 days into our trip and he wasn't at Lost and Found but I have inside info that his 'cousin' is coming to live here very shortly).

Finally we're landing. I didn't sleep at all on the flight - DD slept for a little while and DH slept. But who cares!!! We have the longest flight over! Now the NY part was simple, couldn't have been easier. We leave the plane, collect our buggy (called a 'stroller' on your side of the pond), collect our luggage, sail through customs, walk straight to 'luggage transfer', hand in our bags and we're free again!!! I'm impressed with this airport (Liberty International) and again, grateful, for anything that eases the travel stress.

When the boys heard, months ago, that we were flying through New York but not staying there, they had asked if we could find a shop in the airport to buy some NY souvenirs. We spent 3 days in NY last year before our Disney trip and we all loved it but the boys were keen on getting more NY stuff. So we went upstairs and found the 'America' store, bought some cool souvenirs. Here they are, pleased with their spoils.

We then trudged all the way to the other side of that terminal near our gate so we could eat and not have far to walk. However, just before sitting down to eat, I checked the board and our gate had changed. Now it was back in the other side of the airport, the side we had been in already! So we abandoned the notion of eating properly and just got MacDonalds fish fillets and tried to wolf them down.

It was now around 1pm (6pm our time) so we waved down one of those airpost passenger car thingies and the wonderful driver accommodated all of us and our bags and brought us right to the gate. It turned out to be one of the biggest thrill rides of the trip though as I held on for dear life as he whizzed around corners at a mighty rate! I had no idea what the protocal was for tipping for something like this. We gave him 10 dollars and he seemed pleased. Phew! Alice entertained a couple across from us with her cute little songs and her lengthy stories and then relished in mortifying us by using a particular swear word she picked up somewhere and won't shake off.

It was hard to face another flight after a 7 hour one previously but we knew this one wouldn't take too long - 2.5 hours or so. However time dragged after boarding because it took a long time for anything to happen. After a while, two medical personnel boarded the flight carrying two steel boxes which I can only assume were organs required for a transplant. Wow! Major kudos to anyone involved in that process and if that's what caused the delay, no problem whatsoever! But then there was another delay and two air stewardesses went up and down the aisle a number of times in a bit of a frenzy. 20 minutes later two airport security guys boarded the plane and escorted a guy off the plane! The stewardess later told us that she had told that guy to turn off his laptop until the plane was in flight and he refused, when asked again he became very abusive and absolutely refused to shut down his laptop and kept working on it so, eventually, after many requests to turn it off, they had no choice but to call security. Good for them!!!

I tried to sleep, without much success, on this flight as I was really and truly exhausted at this stage. It's 2pm U.S. time now and I'm up 30 something hours straight. Again, Continental were terrific, no shortage of drinks and snacks and finally we hear the "we are now starting our descent into Orlando" and there's smiles all round!!!

We leave the plane, collect the stroller, board the tram and, as we had decided to bring our own luggage on Magical Express, we head down to Baggage Claim and there are our bags, sitting there, ready and waiting. Bliss!! Having taken the elevator back up to Level 1 (or was it 2?), I joined the short line, got a lovely smiling CM who had all our details (much to our relief as we hadn't received anything in the mail) and told us which line to join. I collected the rest of the family and we joined the ASMu line and were brought straight onto our bus. Yay!!!! We used Magical Express last year, when it was only in operation a few weeks, and it was disaster from beginning to end so I must say, I'm really pleased we tried it again. Everything was very smooth and efficient. When the driver saw our luggage he looked aghast and distraught ('pretend') but then smiled, made chit chat, and helped us load it underneath. He was a real sweetie. DD is hyper! Here she is with DH and the boys ready to board!

The atmosphere on the bus was just great and the excitement of what was before us all was palpable!!! The driver put on the movie (a first for us as this wasn't shown on our bus last year - that driver was too mean, lol) and it was so nice to see the Disney characters on the screen as we approached the gates of WDW!! *Contented sigh* After stopping at a few other resorts on route, we reach All Star Music in what seems like no time at all and we went straight to check-in.

Unfortunately, I then encountered the grumpiest CM of the trip (in fact, I think she was the only grumpy one we came across in 16 days) and she clearly didn't want to be there at that time. I gave her my name, she muttered something about proof of identity so I showed her my passport, she handed me keys in silence, gave me a map and circled our room number. I asked her where it was and she said 'Country Fair'. Oh no. I wouldn't have minded any other location but I knew we were now at the back of the resort and, worse, it was the only theme we had zero interest in. 6 months previously I had requested "as near to the food court as possible". I know it's just a request but it's hard to not be disappointed when you're put in the furthest building from the food court. I asked if there was any chance we could be in a different building and she curtly said "only if you want to pay more for preferred". I said I was pretty sure that there was another section which was standard and she just said "no". Okay, not the end of the world. [I later realised she didn't give me the 'welcome folder' with park maps and she hadn't mentioned or explained the charge system where you can charge up to a certain amount to your room key although she had scanned my credit card.]

I collect the others, tell them we're in Country Fair, they say they don't mind though it did pain me just a tad to pass Jazz and Rock and I could have kicked myself for not paying for preferred.

At this point it's around 8.30pm. 'Tired' doesn't begin to descibe it. It's 1.30am by our body clocks. But still, we're all relieved and happy to be there. The walk seemed long to our room (but honestly, it didn't seem so bad at all after that first time). Turns out our room, 5555 was at the very back of the resort. So, in other words, you just couldn't possibly get any further away from the food court or buses! lol!! But when we saw the room we were very pleased! Comfy, friendly, clean and fun and just soooo Disney!

I didn't fully unpack (there simply isn't enough room) so I got out 3 full sets of clothes for me and the kids for the first 3 days (this turned out to be a life-saver in the mornings). We then fell into bed and looked forward to waking up on our first full day at Disney World!!!

Up next: Swimming, playing, shopping, Downtown Disney and all with a big grin on our 'happy-to-be-at-Disney' faces... - It's further down this page - Post no. 26