The Skeptical First-Timers made it back home, here's the TR! Completed!
- Thread starter FosterA
- Start date
Yay! Ive been looking forward to your TR!
Im very impressed with Ians homemade Mickey ears and his spotting hidden Mickeys in the clouds. Im taking this as a good sign, in terms of his ability to appreciate WDW!
What a sweet picture!
I love reading about the beginning of trips it brings back that wonderful start of vacation feeling. I also love a good Disney conversion story, so Ill keep my fingers crossed about Dave. Its terrific that you had great weather.
I remember my first trip to Epcot (when I was 7 or 8), I thought the entire park was in Spaceship Earth too.
As I saw your kids pictures inside the lobby, I could picture the way the Great Ceremonial House smells I
that smell!
What a beautiful view! I love the GF in the background.
I agree!
Cute!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Im looking forward to hearing more about your trip!
Im very impressed with Ians homemade Mickey ears and his spotting hidden Mickeys in the clouds. Im taking this as a good sign, in terms of his ability to appreciate WDW!
What a sweet picture!
I love reading about the beginning of trips it brings back that wonderful start of vacation feeling. I also love a good Disney conversion story, so Ill keep my fingers crossed about Dave. Its terrific that you had great weather.
I remember my first trip to Epcot (when I was 7 or 8), I thought the entire park was in Spaceship Earth too.
As I saw your kids pictures inside the lobby, I could picture the way the Great Ceremonial House smells I
that smell!
What a beautiful view! I love the GF in the background.
I thought it was so cool that I could see the Grand Floridian in the mirror from my bed!
I agree!
Allison created this masterpiece on the beach.
Cute!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Im looking forward to hearing more about your trip!
AprilRenee
DIS Veteran
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- Apr 7, 2010
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Yay!! Looks like so far so good!
Jumped over from your PTR and subbing now!
Jumped over from your PTR and subbing now!
treece2122
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- May 3, 2010
- Messages
- 15
Welcome Back! 
Followed you over from your PTR and I'm so excited to hear all about your trip. Sounds like you're off to a great start!
Glad your kids, at least, seem to be having a wonderful time, hopefully the husband comes around.... can't wait to hear their reaction to the Christmas party and seeing an actual park!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Followed you over from your PTR and I'm so excited to hear all about your trip. Sounds like you're off to a great start!
Glad your kids, at least, seem to be having a wonderful time, hopefully the husband comes around.... can't wait to hear their reaction to the Christmas party and seeing an actual park!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
heaven2dc
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 26, 2003
- Messages
- 4,126
Loved the location of your room at the Poly! If they ever add on DVC so I can rent points to stay there, I'll be one of the first to get a room.
I can sympathize with hoping that everyone has a good time and gets the Disney Magic. It seems your son is totally into it and your daughter is having fun and I hope your hubby comes around to getting that magical feeling.
Can't wait to read more (and was sorry to learn early on that you got sick!)
I can sympathize with hoping that everyone has a good time and gets the Disney Magic. It seems your son is totally into it and your daughter is having fun and I hope your hubby comes around to getting that magical feeling.
Can't wait to read more (and was sorry to learn early on that you got sick!)
204charity
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2011
- Messages
- 822
Oh and PS - that was a great hidden Mickey in the clouds!!!!!
heathsf
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2010
- Messages
- 1,611
Subscribed! I'm so excited to read every detail of this TR! First of all, I'm so sorry to hear that you got sick. I hope you still had a great time.
It was great seeing how excited your kids were when the trip finally came! I love that Ian was giving Allison mickey ears at the airport. So cute! And I loved that Allison drew those mickey ears in the sand. They are totally catching on to the magic quickly I really hope DH comes around! I want to hear that there were things other than the nametags that he enjoyed 
It was great seeing how excited your kids were when the trip finally came! I love that Ian was giving Allison mickey ears at the airport. So cute! And I loved that Allison drew those mickey ears in the sand. They are totally catching on to the magic quickly
I really hope DH comes around! I want to hear that there were things other than the nametags that he enjoyed glad to have ya!yep, there are about 3 touch screen terminals and that's how you order your main food and I love it because you can take your time picking your sides and whatnot. It then spits you out a ticket to take to the cash register. Before you pay though you can also pick up other little things from bakery or refrigerator and then the cashier totals your ticket and your extra odds and ends and gives you a little buzzer. When the buzzer goes off, you go get your food. It's fun.Whoa wait, you place your order at Captain Cook's on a touchscreen?!?! My kids would LOVE IT!!! I may have to go there next trip just to try it out!
Have a great Thanksgiving yourself! Glad to have you along!Yay! Ive been looking forward to your TR!
Im very impressed with Ians homemade Mickey ears and his spotting hidden Mickeys in the clouds. Im taking this as a good sign, in terms of his ability to appreciate WDW!
What a sweet picture!
I love reading about the beginning of trips it brings back that wonderful start of vacation feeling. I also love a good Disney conversion story, so Ill keep my fingers crossed about Dave. Its terrific that you had great weather.
I remember my first trip to Epcot (when I was 7 or 8), I thought the entire park was in Spaceship Earth too.
As I saw your kids pictures inside the lobby, I could picture the way the Great Ceremonial House smells I
What a beautiful view! I love the GF in the background.
I agree!
Cute!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Im looking forward to hearing more about your trip!
Nice to see ya!Thanks for following alongWelcome Back!
Followed you over from your PTR and I'm so excited to hear all about your trip. Sounds like you're off to a great start!
Glad your kids, at least, seem to be having a wonderful time, hopefully the husband comes around.... can't wait to hear their reaction to the Christmas party and seeing an actual park!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Nice to have ya!
Yep,Allison and I definitely get the magic. She noticed all the great little details!
Glad to have you along.
Hi there!Subbing, good thing you've just started
Cool, glad somebody else saw it too!
Yay! Glad to see you over here. On the entire trip there was only one time David showed lots of enthusiasm and you wont believe what it was over.Subscribed! I'm so excited to read every detail of this TR! First of all, I'm so sorry to hear that you got sick. I hope you still had a great time.
It was great seeing how excited your kids were when the trip finally came! I love that Ian was giving Allison mickey ears at the airport. So cute! And I loved that Allison drew those mickey ears in the sand. They are totally catching on to the magic quickly
It wont be til quite late in the report though.DAY 1-part 4
So I last left off talking about how everyone was perfectly content laying around the Poly yet I was needing to prod them along a little in order to catch a boat over to the Christmas party.
It was cute because Ian was having so much fun at the pool and he said "thank you mom" dozens of times. He's like "mom, if this is all we do, it's enough!" If we never went to a park the entire time he'd be completely satisfied with the vacation. Allison felt almost the same way. She likes to draw and took her tablet and would lay out in the hammock with her ipod and draw. She would have been content without ever laying eyes on a park either. David of course would love to lay around with a drink in hand also! BUT....if all we were going to do was lay around a beach, I could have saved loads of money and just rented a beach condo 3 hours away from home! So...I cracked the whip and got us all out to the friendship boat landing.
Here's a couple pics from the boat:
I just can't describe how perfect the weather was at this time. Plus, the sun was finally down yet it wasn't dark yet so everything was sort of glowy and "pink". Perfect time to arrive at the MK. Now...David did really enjoy the boat rides and after the trip he mentioned that riding the boats was one of his more favorite things to do. I think that's because he was wishing the boats would zip right off of Disney property and take him to some fishing hole where he could be away from all the crazy tourists.
So we arrived at MK and we all got to use our little cards for the first time! Ian was confused about putting his finger on the scanner because one of the CMs said to put his tongue on it I was in front of him so I didn't get to see if he tried to do that!
The CMs were all dressed up in their Christmas outfits and it was so stinking cute!! Very festive and the lights were gorgeous. Allison was blown away (like me) the minute we walked in. She took most of the photos and she would have been considered one of those infamous tourists that stops in the middle of the road to take photos and people run into them. Yes, that would be my kid. I had to tell her to sort of move to the side a few times. Here's a couple pics she took. Allison totally "got" Disney and was mesmerized by all the detail to each and every building and I get that too. Ian, beings that he's an 11 year old boy, really didn't notice that sort of stuff and was more on a mission to get ON A RIDE! any ride!. David was usually meandering behind us acting like it was just another day wandering the mall or something! What is wrong with this guy! He did not complain once nor was he negative, but he just showed NO ENTHUSIASM! I mean, at some point I thought he would comment on the cleanliness or something, but no. siiiiiigh
So, I decided at that point to forget about David and just enjoy the time with the kids since they clearly saw we weren't at some stinky 6-Flags. At one point walking up to the castle David asked what the significance of it was!!! Allison was like "Dad, it's Cinderella's castle!". He's like "oh".
David is a very relaxed sort of dude and is not aggressive in crowds and such so many many times we sort of left him back in the dust. I realized at Disney you have to be somewhat aggressive in a friendly sort of way if you expect to get anywhere. David would let everybody pass him and we always seemed to have people separating us.
Like I said before, I did buy party tix mainly for the parade and to take advantage of short ride lines. I know I know....sort of a waste of money, but I wanted to get some good MK time in before the Thanksgiving crowds arrived so I figured it was worth it. I can't give any info on character greets or party specific things because none of us 4 are really into characters. Well, Allison kind of wanted to meet Belle or Ariel but we didn't bump into them anywhere.
Now that we were actually in the park I got to put some of my touring plans and research into play. I did not have every ride or step of the way planned at all but I read enough to sort of know what was popular and whatnot. We worked our way all the way back to Haunted Mansion because I think that's my favorite ride at MK and I'd only been on it once in my life. I also think it's the most impressive and "Disney-like" at MK and thought it would be good to introduce David and the kids to the Disney type of attraction. The crowds weren't bad at all. Plenty of bodies everywhere but no problems walking at this point. We got up to the Mansion and there was no wait. As a matter of fact, no wait for any rides during the party!! yipee. We loaded right on. Kids rode together and me and Dave rode together. I kid you not, he did not say anything on the whole ride! No gasps of delight, no "how cools", nada, nada. If I said "that's neat how they did that right?' he'd say "yeah, it's pretty cool", but only after prompting. Soooo I had it with him. He's an engineer so maybe engineers can't feel the magic like regular people? Maybe he couldn't enjoy it because he was too busy thinking about how they did it? who knows? But....once we got off and met up with the kids they were flipping out and begging to go again and again!! They "got it" and that's what really mattered! I told them we had plenty of time to do it over but there were so many more attractions to see first and we'd come back later.
I think after Mansion, we did Philarmagic, Thunder, and Splash. Every single thing we did was "the best yet and let's do it again!". (from the kids that is, not David) They especially loved loved Splash. There was no lines for anything!! I also made good use of my Lines App to be sure of wait times and I highly recommend that because it was very accurate! I also had done enough studying up and memorizing the park layout so it was super nice not to have to be looking at maps and such. We may be getting a divorce right now if we had to deal with maps and being lost. But...thanks to the Dis and my studying up, we never got lost or had to backtrack or anything. You'd think I'd been to MK a million times by how efficient we were!
anyway...more to tell about the party night but I gotta wrap this up for now and help get the turkey in the oven!
So I last left off talking about how everyone was perfectly content laying around the Poly yet I was needing to prod them along a little in order to catch a boat over to the Christmas party.
It was cute because Ian was having so much fun at the pool and he said "thank you mom" dozens of times. He's like "mom, if this is all we do, it's enough!" If we never went to a park the entire time he'd be completely satisfied with the vacation. Allison felt almost the same way. She likes to draw and took her tablet and would lay out in the hammock with her ipod and draw. She would have been content without ever laying eyes on a park either. David of course would love to lay around with a drink in hand also! BUT....if all we were going to do was lay around a beach, I could have saved loads of money and just rented a beach condo 3 hours away from home! So...I cracked the whip and got us all out to the friendship boat landing.
Here's a couple pics from the boat:
I just can't describe how perfect the weather was at this time. Plus, the sun was finally down yet it wasn't dark yet so everything was sort of glowy and "pink". Perfect time to arrive at the MK. Now...David did really enjoy the boat rides and after the trip he mentioned that riding the boats was one of his more favorite things to do. I think that's because he was wishing the boats would zip right off of Disney property and take him to some fishing hole where he could be away from all the crazy tourists.
So we arrived at MK and we all got to use our little cards for the first time! Ian was confused about putting his finger on the scanner because one of the CMs said to put his tongue on it
I was in front of him so I didn't get to see if he tried to do that! The CMs were all dressed up in their Christmas outfits and it was so stinking cute!! Very festive and the lights were gorgeous. Allison was blown away (like me) the minute we walked in. She took most of the photos and she would have been considered one of those infamous tourists that stops in the middle of the road to take photos and people run into them. Yes, that would be my kid. I had to tell her to sort of move to the side a few times. Here's a couple pics she took. Allison totally "got" Disney and was mesmerized by all the detail to each and every building and I get that too. Ian, beings that he's an 11 year old boy, really didn't notice that sort of stuff and was more on a mission to get ON A RIDE! any ride!. David was usually meandering behind us acting like it was just another day wandering the mall or something! What is wrong with this guy! He did not complain once nor was he negative, but he just showed NO ENTHUSIASM! I mean, at some point I thought he would comment on the cleanliness or something, but no. siiiiiigh
So, I decided at that point to forget about David and just enjoy the time with the kids since they clearly saw we weren't at some stinky 6-Flags. At one point walking up to the castle David asked what the significance of it was!!! Allison was like "Dad, it's Cinderella's castle!". He's like "oh". David is a very relaxed sort of dude and is not aggressive in crowds and such so many many times we sort of left him back in the dust. I realized at Disney you have to be somewhat aggressive in a friendly sort of way if you expect to get anywhere. David would let everybody pass him and we always seemed to have people separating us.
Like I said before, I did buy party tix mainly for the parade and to take advantage of short ride lines. I know I know....sort of a waste of money, but I wanted to get some good MK time in before the Thanksgiving crowds arrived so I figured it was worth it. I can't give any info on character greets or party specific things because none of us 4 are really into characters. Well, Allison kind of wanted to meet Belle or Ariel but we didn't bump into them anywhere.
Now that we were actually in the park I got to put some of my touring plans and research into play. I did not have every ride or step of the way planned at all but I read enough to sort of know what was popular and whatnot. We worked our way all the way back to Haunted Mansion because I think that's my favorite ride at MK and I'd only been on it once in my life. I also think it's the most impressive and "Disney-like" at MK and thought it would be good to introduce David and the kids to the Disney type of attraction. The crowds weren't bad at all. Plenty of bodies everywhere but no problems walking at this point. We got up to the Mansion and there was no wait. As a matter of fact, no wait for any rides during the party!! yipee. We loaded right on. Kids rode together and me and Dave rode together. I kid you not, he did not say anything on the whole ride! No gasps of delight, no "how cools", nada, nada. If I said "that's neat how they did that right?' he'd say "yeah, it's pretty cool", but only after prompting. Soooo I had it with him. He's an engineer so maybe engineers can't feel the magic like regular people?
Maybe he couldn't enjoy it because he was too busy thinking about how they did it? who knows? But....once we got off and met up with the kids they were flipping out and begging to go again and again!! They "got it" and that's what really mattered! I told them we had plenty of time to do it over but there were so many more attractions to see first and we'd come back later.I think after Mansion, we did Philarmagic, Thunder, and Splash. Every single thing we did was "the best yet and let's do it again!". (from the kids that is, not David
) They especially loved loved Splash. There was no lines for anything!! I also made good use of my Lines App to be sure of wait times and I highly recommend that because it was very accurate! I also had done enough studying up and memorizing the park layout so it was super nice not to have to be looking at maps and such. We may be getting a divorce right now if we had to deal with maps and being lost. But...thanks to the Dis and my studying up, we never got lost or had to backtrack or anything. You'd think I'd been to MK a million times by how efficient we were!anyway...more to tell about the party night but I gotta wrap this up for now and help get the turkey in the oven!
heathsf
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 27, 2010
- Messages
- 1,611
Yay! Glad to see you over here. On the entire trip there was only one time David showed lots of enthusiasm and you wont believe what it was over.
Oh no - only one other time!
Even if he didn't totally "get" the Disney magic, I'm sure he had a fantastic time on vacation with his family.
204charity
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2011
- Messages
- 822
Lovin' the report. I gotta say though, our Husband's sound like they could be TWINS! My mother HATES buying gifts for him becuase no matter what she does, what effort she puts in - his reaction is ALWAYS the same - non-existant. I am so relieved that my DD's first experience at DIsney will be with my parents and I and NOT my DH for this very reason. I don't want to spend my whole trip griping at him to cheer up and put a smile on his face - so guess what?! He's not invited!! LOL - I know I sound wicked as can be, but after 6 years of it - I am ready to experience the joy the world has to offer - with or without him!!!
You know what, I don't really have a desire to take my husband back to Disney anytime soon either. I don't want anyone to think he was being a jerk or anything but he was just so.....unmagical I guess. Next time, only fun magical people invited! lolLovin' the report. I gotta say though, our Husband's sound like they could be TWINS! My mother HATES buying gifts for him becuase no matter what she does, what effort she puts in - his reaction is ALWAYS the same - non-existant. I am so relieved that my DD's first experience at DIsney will be with my parents and I and NOT my DH for this very reason. I don't want to spend my whole trip griping at him to cheer up and put a smile on his face - so guess what?! He's not invited!! LOL - I know I sound wicked as can be, but after 6 years of it - I am ready to experience the joy the world has to offer - with or without him!!!
Don't hold out too much hope
He had some moments where he pepped up but let's just say he didn't beg me to book another trip!DAY 1-part 5
Boy, I'm awful long winded here. Hope everybody is not bored to tears yet. I'm still on a break from work and still trying to hide out from my mother-in-law who has infiltrated our house for Thanksgiving. Only place to get away is in my office!
So, when I left off we were riding rides at the Christmas party. Nothing had a wait at all and it was bliss. I didn't want to zig zag around so we mainly spent time in the Frontier section. I got a nice compliment from Dave about how well I commanded them around and had an organized plan of how to do things and when to eat and so forth. Usually we run around like chickens with our heads cut off so he was thrilled that he didn't have to think or make any decisions and I just took the bull by the horns.
We did about 4 or 5 attractions in the Frontier section when everybody started to say how hungry they were. I had already decided that we would eat at Pecos Bill's since it was nearby. I did not ask the fam for their opinion on where to eat, they had no say and had to zip it! If I were to ask, I'd get 4 different opinions on where to eat and we'd be back to the chicken with the heads cut off mode. So, basically on this whole trip, they just followed me like little soldiers and I think they actually liked it! They got their own personal tour guide.
So we worked our way into Pecos. I sent my obedient soldiers to go find a table while I ordered food. It was pretty full in there but totally manageable. I wasted a good bit of time standing in a line that apparently was only for dining plan or credit card using people. Once I realized it wasn't for cash-payers I had to mosey over to another line. We all pretty much got burgers and fries and it was perfectly fine. Dave seemed to show a little excitement with the fixin' bar. Naturally me and Allison liked and appreciated the decor of the place. The decor and detail slipped right by Ian and David of course.
After eating I noticed it was about time for the first parade. I had originally planned to watch the second parade but since we were already in a fairly decent viewing area and I still saw sidewalk space, we decided to go ahead and grab a spot. We found a bit of sidewalk curb right up near the rope somewhere across from the Country Bear area. We were right in front of a little snack booth though I can't remember what the name of it was. It was great because we were able to sit and not have anybody in front of us! Once we got situated I thought I'd go round up cookies and cocoa. Nobody really wanted any and it was actually a bit warm and humid out but dang it!, they were "free" so we were going to get them! I hunted them down and it just took a second to get up there in line. They give you as many as you want. We all watched the parade which was stunning!! Allison went nuts and tried to take a photo of each thing but she inherited the non-ability to take photos at night from me so hardly any turned out. Allison loved the parade so much that she begged to watch the second one but it just didn't work out that way. bummer. Ian seemed to think the parade was ok and David mostly yawned during it. Here's a photo of the best part!
After the parade, I thought we'd head over to catch the fireworks. I was very excited about this because I thought David might really appreciate them. We got fairly close to the front of the castle but IT WAS SO CROWDED!! We managed but I could detect a little anxiety coming from Ian since he's got overstimulation issues that crop up sometimes. The pre-show with the castle projections was super cool and Allison and David were pretty impressed! As expected, David did really like the fireworks. yay Now he wasn't jumping up and down by any means but he did have a smile on his face and looked sort of amazed by how they must have done it. Here's a couple pics:
So this is where it got a little ugly......after the fireworks I THOUGHT we'd go check out Pirates and some other stuff since everything was complete walk-on. Welllllllll......complete gridlock set in. WE could not move an inch from the hub. After fighting like fish swimming upstream for a little bit, we all got a little irritated and thought maybe we'd just call it a night. After all, we saw the parade and fireworks, ate dinner, and did about 4 or 5 good attractions. We had been up since 4 a.m so we figured we'd better quit while we were ahead. I lost a little control over my family at one point because David would not listen to me. He wanted to barrel on through the crowd and head to the exit and go back to the Poly immediately after the fireworks but I thought it would be best just to wait out the mass herding of people and then work our way out. But...he got all frazzled and just started pushing his way out and I didn't want to fight so we all followed. This is sort of the theme for all of our park days....Dave is always trailing behind us going INTO the parks yet plows through in a hurry when LEAVING the parks! What does that tell you?
On our way out it was snowing on Main Street and it was gorgeous!!! I have no idea why we don't have photos of that though
It might have been that it was just so hectic and crowded that it was a matter of survival at this point. We did slip off into a gift shop and the bakery area there for a little bit just to get out of the crowd. Allison took this photo of the rice krispie treats. Her and I just loved how the CMs were dressed in old fashioned baker clothes. So cool!!! Ian was literally sitting on the floor somewhere in the store impatiently waiting to get the heck out of this crowd.
Once we finally got out, we worked our way back to the boat dock. It did take a load or two before we got to get on one. Once we got back to the Poly it was even more beautiful at night than during the day with the tiki torches all lit up. Amazing!!! Everybody was exhausted so we went straight to our room to call it a night! Lots happening tomorrow so gotta get our sleep!!
To sum up day 1: Allison and I are exactly alike in that we noticed all the wonderful Disney detail and quality. It was fun with her because I knew she "got it". Ian had a blast too of course but he's all about the rides and the pool. My biggest mistake probably was assuming my husband would love WDW and I think it was pretty clear to me after day 1, that he really wasn't that into it. boo hoo He didn't act like a big pain or anything but I did see lots of yawns and the speed he walked when exiting the park told me alot oh well...I made a decision this first night take my focus off of trying to make David like Disney and just enjoy the time with the kids
This will wrap up Day 1 (finally!). For those of you that followed my pre-trip report you'll remember me talking about how some friends were hijacking our trip...well they come into play on Day 2! stay tuned.
Boy, I'm awful long winded here. Hope everybody is not bored to tears yet. I'm still on a break from work and still trying to hide out from my mother-in-law who has infiltrated our house for Thanksgiving. Only place to get away is in my office!
So, when I left off we were riding rides at the Christmas party. Nothing had a wait at all and it was bliss. I didn't want to zig zag around so we mainly spent time in the Frontier section. I got a nice compliment from Dave about how well I commanded them around and had an organized plan of how to do things and when to eat and so forth. Usually we run around like chickens with our heads cut off so he was thrilled that he didn't have to think or make any decisions and I just took the bull by the horns.
We did about 4 or 5 attractions in the Frontier section when everybody started to say how hungry they were. I had already decided that we would eat at Pecos Bill's since it was nearby. I did not ask the fam for their opinion on where to eat, they had no say and had to zip it! If I were to ask, I'd get 4 different opinions on where to eat and we'd be back to the chicken with the heads cut off mode. So, basically on this whole trip, they just followed me like little soldiers and I think they actually liked it! They got their own personal tour guide.
So we worked our way into Pecos. I sent my obedient soldiers to go find a table while I ordered food. It was pretty full in there but totally manageable. I wasted a good bit of time standing in a line that apparently was only for dining plan or credit card using people. Once I realized it wasn't for cash-payers I had to mosey over to another line. We all pretty much got burgers and fries and it was perfectly fine. Dave seemed to show a little excitement with the fixin' bar. Naturally me and Allison liked and appreciated the decor of the place. The decor and detail slipped right by Ian and David of course.
After eating I noticed it was about time for the first parade. I had originally planned to watch the second parade but since we were already in a fairly decent viewing area and I still saw sidewalk space, we decided to go ahead and grab a spot. We found a bit of sidewalk curb right up near the rope somewhere across from the Country Bear area. We were right in front of a little snack booth though I can't remember what the name of it was. It was great because we were able to sit and not have anybody in front of us! Once we got situated I thought I'd go round up cookies and cocoa. Nobody really wanted any and it was actually a bit warm and humid out but dang it!, they were "free" so we were going to get them! I hunted them down and it just took a second to get up there in line. They give you as many as you want. We all watched the parade which was stunning!! Allison went nuts and tried to take a photo of each thing but she inherited the non-ability to take photos at night from me so hardly any turned out. Allison loved the parade so much that she begged to watch the second one but it just didn't work out that way. bummer. Ian seemed to think the parade was ok and David mostly yawned during it. Here's a photo of the best part!
After the parade, I thought we'd head over to catch the fireworks. I was very excited about this because I thought David might really appreciate them. We got fairly close to the front of the castle but IT WAS SO CROWDED!! We managed but I could detect a little anxiety coming from Ian since he's got overstimulation issues that crop up sometimes. The pre-show with the castle projections was super cool and Allison and David were pretty impressed! As expected, David did really like the fireworks. yay
Now he wasn't jumping up and down by any means but he did have a smile on his face and looked sort of amazed by how they must have done it. Here's a couple pics:
So this is where it got a little ugly......after the fireworks I THOUGHT we'd go check out Pirates and some other stuff since everything was complete walk-on. Welllllllll......complete gridlock set in. WE could not move an inch from the hub. After fighting like fish swimming upstream for a little bit, we all got a little irritated and thought maybe we'd just call it a night. After all, we saw the parade and fireworks, ate dinner, and did about 4 or 5 good attractions. We had been up since 4 a.m so we figured we'd better quit while we were ahead. I lost a little control over my family at one point because David would not listen to me. He wanted to barrel on through the crowd and head to the exit and go back to the Poly immediately after the fireworks but I thought it would be best just to wait out the mass herding of people and then work our way out. But...he got all frazzled and just started pushing his way out and I didn't want to fight so we all followed. This is sort of the theme for all of our park days....Dave is always trailing behind us going INTO the parks yet plows through in a hurry when LEAVING the parks! What does that tell you?
On our way out it was snowing on Main Street and it was gorgeous!!! I have no idea why we don't have photos of that though
It might have been that it was just so hectic and crowded that it was a matter of survival at this point. We did slip off into a gift shop and the bakery area there for a little bit just to get out of the crowd. Allison took this photo of the rice krispie treats. Her and I just loved how the CMs were dressed in old fashioned baker clothes. So cool!!! Ian was literally sitting on the floor somewhere in the store impatiently waiting to get the heck out of this crowd.
Once we finally got out, we worked our way back to the boat dock. It did take a load or two before we got to get on one. Once we got back to the Poly it was even more beautiful at night than during the day with the tiki torches all lit up. Amazing!!! Everybody was exhausted so we went straight to our room to call it a night! Lots happening tomorrow so gotta get our sleep!!
To sum up day 1: Allison and I are exactly alike in that we noticed all the wonderful Disney detail and quality. It was fun with her because I knew she "got it". Ian had a blast too of course but he's all about the rides and the pool. My biggest mistake probably was assuming my husband would love WDW and I think it was pretty clear to me after day 1, that he really wasn't that into it. boo hoo
He didn't act like a big pain or anything but I did see lots of yawns and the speed he walked when exiting the park told me alot oh well...I made a decision this first night take my focus off of trying to make David like Disney and just enjoy the time with the kidsThis will wrap up Day 1 (finally!). For those of you that followed my pre-trip report you'll remember me talking about how some friends were hijacking our trip...well they come into play on Day 2! stay tuned.
meggiebeth
WDW, DLR & DLP enthusiast
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2011
- Messages
- 2,481
Great TR so far! I know what you mean about your DH being reluctant to book the holiday- it took me a great deal of begging and moaning for my father to book our trip too! 
Ahhhh, you stayed at the Poly! You're SO lucky! I have always wanted to stay there! I like the masterpiece Allison created on the beach.
Ahhhh, you stayed at the Poly! You're SO lucky! I have always wanted to stay there! I like the masterpiece Allison created on the beach.
Carlyluvsdisney
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2011
- Messages
- 152
I am enjoying reading your TR. It's a great time of year for a Disney trip,the weather has been beautiful here in FL. And I can totally relate to your husband being less enthusiastic about Disney. Mine is the same way. The Poly looks beautiful and relaxing. I've only been there to have lunch..have a happy Thanksgiving,I look forward to reading the rest of your TR.
debrapagliasotti
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2011
- Messages
- 2,500
Joining in! Poly is such a pretty resort! Loved seeing the pics of the castle. Getting me so excited for our Christmas trip next year!
I totally saw the hidden mickey in the clouds...too cool!
Hope DH gets more into the Disney spirit, but I'm glad your kids are having a blast right off the bat.
Cant wait to read more!
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