The "I need a cool title" trip report, new Day 3, pt 1 (pg 2)

oh Meghan, what a bummer of a start to your vacation, so sorry!
Hope it got better.
 
Mehgan, I'm really enjoying your trip report.

Your lack of title caught my eye and the anti-Dis husband story got me interested. You have a very funny writing style, though I feel sorry you have to jump through hoops to please everyone.

Although my husband doesn't laugh out loud. He doesn't even crack a smile. Later he'll tell me he thought something was funny. Go figure. :confused3

I look forward to reading more. Good Job!
 
Anxious to hear the rest! Mine walks slow too. I felt like I was always looking over my shoulder to make sure he was still there!

Allyson
 
Day 2 continues

We (I) decided to book the DDP when I got a good room discount that pretty much equaled what we would spend on the DDP. I knew that DD#1 and I wouldn’t really eat enough to make it worth it, but DH would easily make up the difference. I also knew that DH would be able to relax if he wasn’t pulling out his wallet at every meal. As someone else reported in their trip report (sorry, I read so many of them that I can’t remember who posted this) it feels like you are eating for free because you have already paid for all of the meals. Anyway, I know some folks love the DDP, and some folks do not. All I can say is that for our family, it pretty much was the difference between a miserable vacation and a good time. I could not have predicted how much DH was going to LOVE the DDP. :confused3

I left off with our sad little trek from Philharmagic to Liberty Tree Tavern. When we got there, I went in (past the numerous people without ADRs – what are those people thinking?) and checked us in. I found out that they do not have the infant highchairs there, but they were more than willing to let us keep DD#2 in our stroller. Just be warned, we had to carry it up three steps. Not a big deal for us, but could be an issue for some people. DH and I were both very happy that we wouldn’t have to hold DD#2 and we sat down to wait in the lobby. DH thought the theme was pretty neat and kept commenting on how nice the place looked. (I decided not to strangle him at that point.) We were seated very quickly at a table in a great location.

And then it happened. The magic arrived. :wizard: I mention to the server that we are on the DDP. He gave us our menus. DH asks me if we have special menus because we are on the DDP. I say nope and tell him that he gets to order an appetizer, entrée, and dessert. He stared at me in disbelief and confirmed that this was all “free.” Then he got a huge smile on his face and commenced his ordering. We both got the salad for our appetizer and DD#1 got the kid’s chicken noodle soup. DH got the turkey sandwich, I got the pot roast, and DD#1 got the mac and cheese. All of us loved our entrees and had no complaints. DH got the chocolate thing (can’t remember the name), I got the berry shortcake, and DD#1 got the ice cream for dessert. Wow, the desserts were fabulous! DH didn’t stop talking about that chocolate thing for the rest of the trip. I knew that no matter what, at least we were going to have happy meals.

After lunch we (I) decided to head over to MGM. This turned out to be a great decision as MK was now very, very crowded. Also, DH had told me that we really wanted to see the stunt show at MGM. I am normally not a huge fan of MGM because I don’t do thrill rides and I have never really taken the time to watch many of the shows, but in the interests of selling WDW to DH, I was willing to do whatever I had to.

We exited MK and went to wait for the ferry. DH loved the ferry and thought it was one of the best parts of the trip. I contemplated leaving him there to ride the ferry back and forth for the rest of the afternoon, but decided against it. For all I knew, we might never see him again. DH was a little bummed that we couldn’t take the monorail to MGM, but with a promise that we would ride it later in the trip, he cheerfully headed for the MGM bus.

Once we got to MGM, I went to rent a stroller for DD#1 because I was getting a little tired of carrying DD#2 in her sling. With each of us pushing a stroller, we headed all the way to the back of the park to secure fastpasses for the stunt show. As we walked, I tried to explain the concept of the fastpass to DH. He just didn’t get it and I eventually left it at “just trust me on this one.” When we got to the fastpass machines, we ran into a cast member who just handing out the fastpasses to anyone who wanted them. I thought this was pretty nice because that meant we could have picked up fastpasses for another attraction without waiting. Because we are whimps, we didn’t need fastpasses for anything else, but the thought was nice.

We had a little time to kill before the show, so DH and DD#1 went to do the Great Movie Ride while I pushed a, now sleeping, DD#2 around in the stroller. This ride got a big thumbs up from DH. Clearly we have different tastes as I find the ride somewhat “bleh.” Anyway, we went back to get in line for the stunt show and as we dump the strollers and I put DD#2 back in her sling, a very nice cast member warned us that the show is very loud and DD#2 might not be able to handle it. He suggested sitting at the very top of the bleachers (which I already planned to do because I knew that we would have the best view from there) and told us we could leave during the show. I thanked him for his advice, but inside I was laughing because I knew DD#2 was going to love this show.

How did I know? Well, you have to understand that I am a HUGE Indy car race fan. (Not NASCAR, Indy cars. The ones that race during the Indy 500 and don’t look like taxi cabs. No offense to any NASCAR fans out there.) So huge that I actually became somewhat upset when I found out last January that I was pregnant when I was planning to attend my very first Indy 500 (The Greatest Spectacle in Racing!) that May. My first question for my OB was “Can I still go to races this season?” I was concerned that the loud engines would somehow hurt my future child’s hearing. Silly me, he told me that the baby would be just fine, and with his approval, I not only purchased tickets for the race, but I got a special pass that would allow me in the garage area during the entire month of May. We live less than 2 hours from Indy and I spent every spare minute in May at the track. I can see your eyes glazing over from boredom, so I’ll try to get to the point here. I just knew that all that time at the track, attending the Indy 500 (what a finish!), and the Indy car race in Milwaukee (less than 4 weeks before DD#2 was born, thank you very much) meant that DD#2 was more than used to the sound of loud cars.

I was right! DD#2 was a little fussy during all the talking parts of the show, but as soon as those cars came out she went right to sleep. I think that I need to start taping races so that I can play them for her when she can’t fall asleep. Anyway, the show was awesome and all of us absolutely loved it. All of us were happy and life was good.

We were getting a little hungry again and decided to head to Pizza Planet for dinner. Because I am not as familiar with MGM as I am with the other parks, we managed to walk right past Pizza Planet and ended up in the neighborhood of the big hat. This turned out to be a good thing because we ran into my sister and her family, who were also headed to Pizza Planet. We did a few minutes of “are you sure you don’t mind if we join you” and then went off to eat together.

We all got the veggie pizza combo with Mickey rice crispy treats for dessert (because we could save them for later). DH was again very happy with the amount of “free” food and we had a great dinner. I spent a few minutes feeding DD#2 while DH took DD#1 downstairs to play some of the arcade games. Now, I would have never taken the time to let DD#2 play the arcade games and this was one of the best parts of the evening for her. I made a mental note to remind myself that sometimes DH has good ideas and it was okay if we slowed down and didn’t see everything. The important thing was to allow for some unscheduled fun. I am so glad that I learned this little lesson early in the trip, because it would later serve me very well.

After dinner, we enjoyed the now dancing Osbourne lights, which we all loved (especially DD#2 who was just kicking her little feet like crazy with the music) and went back to Pop. Late nights just weren’t going to happen on this trip and we were all ok with that.

Next: Epicot, some family disharmony, and more lessons learned…
 

Hi again! I'm still working on my next installment, but I have a mini-update. My DH was reading over my shoulder and he says that I am making him sound like a terrible person. So at his request, I am supposed to mention that in real life, he is a great guy who makes me very happy. He just isn't so great at the whole traveling and spending money thing.

There, happy dear? :wave2:

Thanks for reading!
 
Tell him we don't doubt for a second he's a great guy! He's a key to your very enjoyable trip report. We can't wait to hear what he does next....

My DH loves when I mention him in my posts.

:banana: :yay: :flower3:
 
Great report . . . looking forward to the rest. popcorn::
 
I hate when you stop. Your DH reminds me alot like mine so I enjoy reading your posts.....great bedtime stories!
 
I swear our DH are so much alike. My DH hates taking trips and spending money on one. If he does go on a trip, he thinks he should do what he wants when he wants. No planning. A lot of times I just leave him at home because I know it will be more fun that way. We did go to the beach a couple of years ago on a trip and we had a great time. I was so glad DH enjoyed it because it made the trip awesome. Can't wait to hear about Epcot....
 
Thank you for all of your great responses! I think it is so funny that so many of us have similar DHs. Notice, we haven't had anyone mention that their DW is just like my DH!

Day 3

I was so excited for our third day because we were off to Epicot. Depending on the day of the week, Epicot is either my first or second favorite (to the MK, of course) park and I couldn’t wait to show it to DH. I suspected that he would like it better than MK. Well, except for the character meal I was going to surprise him with. Anyway, I repeated my breakfast strategy from the day before, except that when I came back to the room with our food, DH was refusing to get out of bed. He did not appreciate the need to be at Epicot at opening in order to ride Soarin’ sometime during this trip.

Frankly, I was about done with him. I couldn’t understand why he continued to doubt my planning abilities when I have been to WDW once or twice a year for the last 8 years. If I say that we need to hustle in order to avoid standing in line all day, we need to hustle! Only the promise of the river raft ride at AK could get him out of bed. More on that later.

We make it to the bus stop and DD#1 starts to pitch a fit because we aren’t going to do anything she wants to do today and she is not happy about it. I just ignore her because I refuse to give in to her temper tantrum and I know that sooner or later she will get over it. However, DH starts telling me that maybe we should do what she wants since this trip is for her, blah, blah. Excuse me? Who said that this trip was for her? And how are we helping her be a better person if she gets to run the show? :confused3 I remind everyone that tomorrow will be MK day and DD#1 will get to ride all of her favorites. This calms everyone down and we get on the bus.

We arrive at Epcot and make our way through “security” without incident. We manage to pick the slowest moving line at WDW and I watch in frustration as hoards of people make it through the turnstiles while we continue to stand still. I have that little debate in my head where I try to decide if we should stay where we are (“we’ve already waited this long”) or move to another line (“that one seems to be moving much more quickly”). We finally start inching forward and I am able to see that the problem is that one of the turnstiles is open, but we have two lines because the crowd assumed that both turnstiles would open here as they did at every other station. People are merging politely, but it is still causing a bit of a backup. Add to that one very slooooooow moving cast member and a bunch of people who can’t seem to understand the fingerprint scan thing and what you get is a very long and slow moving line.

We all perk up as a manager-person arrives. She goes through the turnstile, says something to the cast member, and continues on her way. Perhaps she was looking for the register journal? All we know is that she did not open the other turnstile and it started to get ugly. People are upset that the cast member is moving rather slowly. People are upset because the cast members let us form two lines knowing that we would have to merge. People want to get to Soarin’ darn it and they are not happy about the delay!

My lovely DH picks this moment to rant about Disney collecting his fingerprints and something about invading his privacy. I honestly wasn’t really listening to him, so I can’t provide any details about that conversation.

We FINALLY make it through the turnstiles and I send DH with the kids towards Soarin’ while I go to pick up a stroller for DD#1. I catch up with them before they even get to Ice Station Cool, Club Cool, whatever it is called now. DD#1 hops in the rental stroller and we make our way to the land. I leave them in that little courtyard area near the entrance to the Living Seas and run to get fastpasses for Soarin’ because I know the line is going to be really long by now. When I come back, all I find is an empty stroller with our name on it. No DH, no DD#1, no DD#2 in our stroller. Um, okay. Where is everyone?

I call DH and learn that they are all in the bathroom. I was supposed to figure this out when I spied the empty stroller. Because really, nothing says we had to go to the bathroom like an empty stroller.

After that little pit stop, we all head to the new Nemo ride. As we are walking though the very long, and fortunately, very empty queue, DH says, “is there a reason why we are walking though this empty line?” I asked him if he would rather wait until there are a lot of people in line to slow us down. He did not want to wait for company and we proceeded into our clam mobile. I loved the ride, DD#1 thought it was okay, DH thought it was okay, DD#2 thought it was a good time for a snack. Of course the ride is so short that she wasn’t even thinking about being done by the time we had to get out of our clam and I got the opportunity to demonstrate my mad breastfeeding skills by feeding her as I walked to the line for Turtle Talk and as we waited in said line for the our chance to see the show.

Turtle Talk was great and we all enjoyed the show a lot. I had seen it last year during a solo trip (that trip was looking better and better by the minute), but they had changed a lot of it since then and I thought it was even better than before. Finding Nemo is one of the few Disney movies that DH really likes, so he even liked the show.

After Turtle Talk we went over to Soarin’ to use our fastpasses. I love Soarin’ and I couldn’t wait to share it with DD#1 who is now tall enough to ride it. She was a little nervous, but I managed to talk her into going with me while DH waited with DD#2. I wouldn’t say that she loved it, but she liked it enough to ride it with him when it was his turn. DH loved Soarin’ and the day was looking up.

After Soarin’ we went upstairs to the Garden Grill to check in for lunch. I suspected that DH wasn’t going to enjoy eating with several large rodents, but I knew that the “all you can eat” part would win him over.

Next: we dine with characters, DD#1 learns the difference between Chip and Dale, and DH gets very wet
 
Sorry I have been MIA! We just finished up a round of sinus infections and my maternity leave ended. Now that I am settling in back at work, I will be posting an update soon!
 
I am so sorry your family has been sick. I hope going back to work is going ok. I remember having to go back after my babies. It was always a little hard for me. I can't wait to hear the rest of the story.
 
My DH had never been to Disney. We had our first family trip planned and I surprisingly got pregnant...so we just moved the trip back a month and went anyways...anyhow a week before we left I got a horrible case of mastitis...and DH said lets just cancel...I said oh no way, and he was a big pain in the butt while we were preparing to go. Once we got there he finally "got" how magical WDW is...and still apologizes for how he acted...he says "I just didn't know how amazing it was" LOL



Hi again! I'm still working on my next installment, but I have a mini-update. My DH was reading over my shoulder and he says that I am making him sound like a terrible person. So at his request, I am supposed to mention that in real life, he is a great guy who makes me very happy. He just isn't so great at the whole traveling and spending money thing.

There, happy dear? :wave2:

Thanks for reading!
 
Great Report, can't wait to read more. I am a lucky woman as my DH loves Disney just as much as me.
 




New Posts





Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom