Well we are back! We reluctantly came home on Friday 12/22 and have had to work through our Post Disney Depression on Christmas weekend. Not a good combination. Note to self, next time if you travel that week stay through Christmas. It is a major downer to come home from Disney and have your most blue days during what should be the most wonderful time of the year. Not good at all.
So let's begin this trippie with Day One!
December 15th I woke bright and early. I was up by 5:45 and the rest of the house was sound asleep. I showered, got dressed and went on the computer for a few last looks around the DIS. I found the printable pages on the Family Board and printed out quite a few for the kids to color on the plane. I also found a place where you can create your own word searches and crossword puzzles. I made up Disney themed ones and printed those too. I wanted to be armed with lots of distractions for this first ever airplane ride for the kids.
Eventually they all awoke and we all got ready and double and triple checked everything. Then it was time to wait. Wait, wait, wait. Our limo was to come at 8:45am. He called and was running late, just about 5-10 minutes. So we waited some more.
At this point we are all out on our front steps waiting. The kids still don't know a limo is coming, we told them it was just a shuttle van. So imagine their suprise when up our little street comes a huge white limo!
And man this was one pimped out limo! Inside it had the funky lights all around and the ones on the ceiling that changed color. It had to seat 10 or 12 so plenty of room for the 5 of us. Frank the driver encouraged the kids to drink the bottled water in the champagne glasses and they were all over that.And we had Radio Disney coming over the speakers. All was well and we were on our way to Boston!
My biggest fear, well one of them, had been the weather. December in New England you just never know what you are going to get. A snowstorm would have really put a damper on things but we were blessed with great weather for flying and no delays.
Got to the airport by about 10:30 and checked in. Check in and security went well and after bathroom breaks and Dunkin Donuts stops we were waiting at the gate to board.
This was the kids first time flying. I have always been too afraid to fly with them. I hate the idea of being somewhere and if you have cranky/crying/loud children there is just no where to go. So I avoided air travel with them for a very long time. Now that they are older (9, 7 and 4) I felt better but I was still nervous. Not about the girls, they would be fine. But Goofy. Goofy has two modes, sleeping and loud. It isn't that he screams, no that isn't it. He is just exuberant, he is passionate about life and his indoor voice can be some people's outdoor voice.
He just gets excited about alot of things and talking VERY LOUDLY is his way of sharing that with you. Again, it is a good thing he is cute!
Flying to Orlando I figured the flight would have lots of children but I was very wrong. It was a fully booked flight but there were maybe 8 children and 3 of them belonged to me. I was shocked! You know I was hoping for more kids so that if mine were a tad loud they would just blend amongst the other cherubs. No such luck.
So we pass out the gum and sit tight waiting to take off. I asked a passing flight attendant if they still gave out the little pins that look like wings for kids and she told me they did not. The look on her face was one of "Come on lady they have not done that for years!" but she did use a very sweet tone with me. Hey I remember getting them when I was a kid and flew for the first time. Granted that was 34 years ago but I thought Goofy would have loved one.
The flight is fine. I sit with the girls and Grumpy sits across the aisle with Goofy. The girls and I colored, did crosswords and played a very long round of War. Goofy colored, listened to his CD with his headphones and played his Leapster. He was amazingly quiet! When the flight ended the older man behind us said to Grumpy what a seasoned traveller Goofy is. Grumpy told him it was Goofy's first time on a plane and older man could not believe it! Proud Mom moment here.
I just know when older man got his seat and saw Goofy across the aisle he probably thought "OH NO" and to have him be impressed with his airplane behaviour, well that made my heart swell!
Okay, this is getting long winded huh? I'll try to pick up the pace a bit.
We deplane and head to baggage. There we see a man holding a sign with Goofy, Belle and Bashful's name on it. They are feeling pretty special at this point! It is Bob from Sunray Transportation (shout out to Bob!). He helped us collect our things and off we went. He picked us up in a very nice and clean SUV complete with both booster seats that I had requested. He was very friendly and we would use Sunray again in a heartbeat. We made a quick grocery stop (I was in and out within 10 minutes) and we were off to Pop.
The ride was quick and the anticipation was building! Finally we saw the Pop sign and I felt just so happy inside. We were here! We were finally here!
We unloaded, told Bob we would see him in a week and went into Pop. Grumpy and the kids went to the waiting area and I went to check in. There were maybe 3 people ahead of me so the wait was not very long. Check in was easy and I was anxious to see what rooms we got. My biggest request had been connecting. My TA had told me that since our kids outnumbered us we were assured of connecting rooms. Other DISers told me otherwise and so I was nervous. TA was right and we were in connecting, yes! Plus we got our other requests of a high floor (3rd) and non smoking too. Even better our connecting consisted of one room with 2 double beds and one room with a King! We were in the 70s building, the one the huge Mickey with the Phone. We faced the unfinished buildings (which are kind of sad to look at, I hope they finish them someday).
So the CM went over the keys with me and explained that our dining plan was split up. One room had me and the kids, the other had DH by himself. I wish they could put it all together on one when you are sharing 2 rooms like this. It would make it easier.
We walked over to find our rooms. Not too far from Century Hall, a few minutes walk. We were in 6322 and 6323. I would recommend these rooms as being very nice and quiet.
I had read on the DIS about how small the rooms were. When we opened the door I was pleasantly suprised by the size. Bigger than I thought! Reading things here you would expect a phone booth sized room. I thought they were just fine. I would not want to have 4 in one room but for 2 it was great and with the 5 of us having the 2 connecting it really worked out well. We had towel animals waiting for us when we arrived which was cute. Little dogs in the windows.
Okay so at this point we ditch our bags, freshen up quick and we are off to the bus. We have an ADR at Chef Mickey's to make. We find the bus stops and get in the MK line. We don't wait long and that is how it was all week. I was pretty happy with the bus service from Pop. We never waited long at all. We probably had to stand 3 times during the week but the rest of the time we had seats.
So we get to MK and walk over to the Contemporary. The tree out front looks so nice and as we are walkng the 6pm Wishes is going off so we can see some of that. A great way to start our trip!
Check in at Chef Mickey, do the picture in front of the big plate and sit to wait. As would become a pattern all week we wait no more than 5-10 minutes to be called. Another thing I had been concerned about but it worked just fine!
Dinner was great! We loved the buffet and the different selections. The kids enjoyed it as well though they didn't eat much. Belle had 3 mini corn muffins and a slice of pizza. Yup, that is worth the price of a buffet.
But no worries because we are on the dining plan and even though we paid for this months ago not having to pull out the wallet makes it feel like you are eating for free! So Belle, you want to make your own Sundae after such a substantial dinner? Go ahead, you are on vacation!
Characters came around and we got pictures of all. We forgot Goofy's autograph book in the rush to get to the bus but we knew we'd see these guys again throughout the week so it was okay. Goofy loved seeing all the characters. Belle is getting to be that age. She would do the pictures with them but I could tell that sometimes she felt funny about it, like she is too old for it or something.
I think she is getting ready to enter those funny pre-teen years. Wish me luck! And Bashful well she committed a cardinal sin. She pulled on Goofy's whiskers. My shy little girl gave them a good yank! Goofy acted all sad and dejected when he left. We had to explain to her that it was not nice to do that. So out of character for her.
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We finished our desserts, the kids all had the sundaes and I had several yummy little pastries,and our server brought the bill. He told us he could take all the credits off just one card (remember we have 2 rooms). This would prove to vary from restaurant to restaurant and server to server as the week went on. I really think if they could just put it all on one card in a multiple room situation it would be much easier.
I asked Grumpy to guess what the bill was with tip. He guessed something like $80. Ah no silly man, this is Disney World, try $118. I was SO happy to be on the
DDP at this point. $118 that he didn't have to fork over at the moment. The perception is everything when you are married to an el cheapo so I felt good that he felt good.
We monorailed it back to the MK. We never did get a chance to sit up front, maybe next trip. I was suprised at how packed the monorail was. Remember I haven't been to the World in almost 10 years, you forget somethings. Once at MK we got on a very uncrowded bus back to Pop.
It had been a very busy day. Travelling is tiring, even when you have a later leaving flight and you are really just sitting around all day. I was really glad that we didn't go to a park and that instead we just did the dinner and came back. We were all tired and bedtime went off without a hitch.
Day one, a success!
MVL (Most Valuable Lesson)--Take it easy on that first travel day. As much as part of me had wanted to hit a park that night, other seasoned folks told me to rethink that and I took their advice. It was well worth it. We needed rest to be up for Rope Drop and the dinner at CM was great to get a taste of the Magic!
....dork!
If you were wondering how if mom took me 8 times so far how april will be ten that is because I talked my grumpy dad into taking us in Aug. It only took 18 yrs but I did talk him into going!
