Since I never got around to actually finishing my 2007 trip report, I will briefly cover our trip. In general, the trip started out the way most do...with a visit from Tinkerbell. While I don't keep our trips a secret from DD (how can I with yearly trips) but we don't tell her the ACTUAL day we are going. She knows that it's "Disney day" when Tinkerbell comes. Basically Tink comes to our house (after, of course, closely monitoring DD's behavior all year) and leaves a pixie dust trail from the window to a basket of goodies
Ya, Tink goes overboard! The basket includes goodies for the trip/plane and this particular one had a Snow White gown to wear to CRT. So, when Tink comes, that means we are going to Disney. After we got all the Tink gifts packed up, I took DD to get her first pedicure. Oh you should have seen her. The poor women working there couldn't keep up with her. She had a thousand questions and was very excited to tell them all about Disney. On the way home from the pedicure, we stopped at Dunkin Donuts for a treat (You can start eating the junk food before you actually get to Disney right???). Then we went home, picked up DH, and headed to Logan for our flight. Airport went extremely well. DD took the opportunity to work on her "homework" at the terminal. Yes, this child actually requested that her day care provider give her homework to do on the plane.
Flight went reallyl well. God Bless Jet Blue and their individual tv screens. It's only 3 hours from Boston to Orlando so it was over before you know it. So we headed down to check in for ME. This time using ME was the longest we have ever had to wait for a bus. We were literally the first and ONLY people on the bus for the longest time. So we just sat and waited and waited. Luckily everyone was in good spirits.
Oh wait....I COMPLETELY forgot to introduce everyone to our other Cast Member. How could I have forgotten our beloved Puppy (you'll see him in the above picture)? We don't go ANYWHERE without Puppy. Seriously, she doesn't even go up/downstairs at our house w/o Puppy. He never leaves her side. This Puppy is actually our 2nd Puppy. Here is the first:
. This Puppy mysteriously disappeared one day while DD and DH were out running errands. They had gone to the park and several stores. It wasn't until 9pm that we noticed he was missing. So at 9pm DH and I had to call our inlaws to babysit so we could go look for Puppy. This was about a year ago. He was never found. So we got a new Puppy (the one you see in the above picture) who was a close subsitute. Actually, to be safe, we got two of them and I rotated them w/o DD's knowledge. Thank God we did (and that I thought to hide the extra in my suitcase for our Disney trip). I will explain that later.
Well anyway, back to the TR. So, we finally got to AKL and the first impression was overwhelming, as I mentioned before. I should also mention that we had some friends who went to Disney the same week as us so on our first night, they made ADRs at Boma so we could all meet up. We let the kids go to the Storyteller and participate in the parade. After that, they left and we went to our room to get to bed early.
Day 2 we went to MK. It was an excellent day in general. We got to see TONS of characters, ride TONS of rides, and of course, meet the Big Cheese
That night we went to Mickey's Backyard BBQ with our friends. I will say that the kids wore themselves out dancing but it is definately not something I would do again. One, it takes FOREVER to get there on Disney transportation. Two, the food was awful. Three, it's definately not worth two
DDP credits and I still can't tell you why you have to pay a gratuity since the only workers I saw were the characters and the guy pouring the beer/wine. The best part of the night was the boat ride back to MK. I don't know what it is about Disney at night but it's just SOOOO pretty and feels so magical!
Day 3 we went to AK. Of course we ran STRAIGHT to the Safari so that we could actually see the animals before it got to hot. We spent the rest of the morning at AK. It was a fun day but so hot that we rode Kali over and over and over again and still were dry in minutes. Here is a shot of DD before she got soaked!
Disboutiquers...notice my very first applique. I like to point out that it's my first applique because I held the darn zebra stripes the wrong way!
The rest of the Day at AK was okay (Festival of the Lion King was my personal fav) until DD had a bit of a meltdown waiting to meet Pooh and Friends (the CM had assured us that it was a very short wait...yup, LIE). We took our Pooh photos and left.
We then went back to the Pool for a swim and change. We then headed out to Epcot for dinner at Le Cellier and for Illuminations. Lookee at what we had for goodies at Le Cellier:
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We also had the Grand Marnier and Grey Goose slushies from France while waiting for Illuminations...VERY NICE in that heat.
Here is Illuminations OR Epcot on FIRE!!!
Day 4 we went to CRT for breakfast. I have to note that this was a far better experience at CRT than when DH and I went for dinner a couple of years ago. Breakfast had decent food and the character interaction was great. Plus they gave us etched champagne flutes for our anniversary. Here are some of our favorite photos:
After breakfast, we continued to explore MK. I would like to take this opportunity to ask: Does anyone know WHERE Snow White gets the lipstick she uses for those kiss marks? Seriously...DD had lips marks on her face all day, including after the pool, and I still had to scrub her head to get it off. Only to have Snow White kiss her again the next time we went to MK.
DD wore that Snow White get up even though she was burning up in it. We finally had to take her onto Splash Mountain so that it would get wet and she would change. And she changed into my second applique attempt.
However, before we changed her...we went to the Laugh Floor. And guess who got picked as that show's princess (yes, now know that I wasn't supposed to take a photo...missed that announcement)
. The best part for her was the several people who were in our showing saw her later in the day and refered to her at the Princess Of Massachusetts. She LOVED that.
Anyway, while were in the Laugh Floor...guess who went missing. Yup Puppy. He was in the stroller (not wearing the dog tag that I had made for him with our contact info...DD told me that it was itching his neck). We came out of the ride and he was gone. Luckily DH and I were able to distract her for a little while. Then she got tired. Luckily she just konked out before the meltdown got bad. When she asked where Puppy was, I quickly thought on my feet. "He ran back to the hotel to go potty" Yup, that's what I said. And she bought it. When we got back to the hotel, I ran and got the backup Puppy out of the suitcase and literally threw him in the bathroom. DD ran into the bathroom and congratulated him for being a big boy!!!! Crisis averted. I then immediately took my cell out on the balcony and called my mother asking that she immediately go to Hallmark and get another Puppy...well, she got 4. So there are now 5 of them. I continue to rotate them every two weeks and keep the 4 backups hidden! Hopefully this year, Puppy will keep his tags on!!!
That night we went back to MK after having dinner at Chef Mickeys. There were dark clouds rolling it but we were really hoping to see Wishes and Spectro since it was the only night on our trip that both were running. Well, we went to Adventureland and decided to ride Aladdin before meeting up with friends for the fireworks. While we were on Aladdin the heavens just opened. Luckily, I had DD's poncho in my purse so I was able to get it on her while we were on the ride and before she got soaked. DH and I didn't end up as dry. I ended up throwing on my poncho but it was pretty much useless. I was drenched. DH didn't even bother putting his on. We ended up eventually riding out the storm at POTC. DD and DH literally rode it 8 times in a row. I rode in one but it was so cold in there and I was so wet, I couldn't do it again. I stayed outside talking the Dream Squad that was hiding under there too. It worked out well since I got the update that Spectro would be cancelled but WISHES was still on. Here is DH and DD at POTC:
. We ended up getting to see Wishes and then headed back to the hotel for the night.
Day 5 we went to MGM (it was still MGM then so that counts). When we entered, DD didn't want her pic taken and started to cry. A CM dressed like a 20's gangster came over and told her not to cry and that he was going to make her a BIG Star. Her gave her some $$ and a jeweled ring (that he gives to "all his girls") Well this cheered her up immediately and we had a good day.
DD conned my DH into paying for her face to be painted...and got to have her first Mickey rice krispie treat
The most exciting part of our day was that DD was picked at the Princess of the Show for Beauty and Beast. We got VIP seating and she got to go up to get the Rose from the Beast. She was overly excited about it. After the show, a couple of little girls asked her to see the rose and how she got picked. What did she tell them? (I almost died of embarrassment)...she told that that she was the prettiest girl there. Seriously, I've taught my child better manners than this.
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That night we just hung out at the hotel and had dinner at Boma. We were going to go see Fantasmic but DD was just way too exhausted.
Day 6 was our last day. We went back to MK (DD's wish) and then to DTD. And then we were sadly off to the airport. We were the only people on the ME bus back to the airport so DD spent the entire time talking to the driver. We did find out that the video you watch is GPS controlled so if you are stuck in traffic, it will still say "you are about to arrive at your resort" at the right time. That was kinda cool.
So there it is....6 days at Disney World. Not nearly enough! 2008's trip will be 9 days so I'm hoping that we'll have some down time and be much less rushed. Thanks again for reading!