The "We have one whole year to wait" Now a Trip Report

[Laura.bora]

 

[Laura.bora]

As you can see, Nathaniel was very excited that Mickey had called him. 15 minutes later the phone rings again and who is it but the beloved "Lala!"



After the phone calls are finished, we ship the kids over to my friend Janelle's house, so we can pack and get some last minute things done without the kids being underfoot or making a mess. What a blessing that was! We had aimed to leave around 3. At 4 Janelle sent the kids home because they had somewhere to go. At 5ish, we were finally ready to pack the car. We packed the car up, I took 2 pictures of Ken packing the car. We get in the car and I start snapping pictures of the kids in the car and suddenly my camera screen starts displaying the "unrecognized file format". This happened to me over Christmas! I had all my chirstmas photos on the card, it did that a few times before it completly deleted all of my photos and videos on the card. We had just bought branf new memory cards and I grabbed the wrong ones!!!!! No way was I going to head into Disney World only to lose all my photos!! So we turn around and head back in the opposite direction towards our Super Wal mart! At this point, I call my sisters boyfriend and ask him what I need to buy and how many cards I need to buy. We pick up 4 - 1MB SanDisc brand cards - just in case it was the 2MB piece of things that was messing with my camera(we bought 2 MB Toshiba cards before - don't by those!) Of course, the difference between 1 MB and 2 MB is about $4. I was so angry with myself because I had been meaning to check the cards out for the last 2 weeks, and never got around to doing it, and so here we are at the last minute buying cards and spending more money than we need to. My husband starts throwing the pixie dust reasuring me that finances are fine, we'll return what we don't use and to look on the bright side of things - at least it ate up only 2 pictures and not the whole kids reaction surprise because I had downloaded that in the morning. We take some time to pray for our travels and our upcoming trip and the whole anxiety attack I'm having (I am so my mother!) and we're off!

We make it up to Buffalo in about an hour and a half (so it's around 7:00). We stayed at the Sleep Inn, which I found through the Dis Boards.

I must say, this place was a steal! For a little over $100, we had a place to stay for the night, a GREAT meal in the morning, a place to park our car for the length of our vacation, and transportation to and from the airport. This set our vacation off on the right foot for sure! I'm prone to having panic attacks (still working on the whole "be anxious for nothing for today has enough troubles" thing) and to not have to worry about if we were going to make it to the plane on time was GREAT! Ken goes and checks in,

and then we go off to have dinner. We decide Denny's because it's right down the road and the kids love Denny's. We are seated right away, and as we are sitting waiting for our food, Ainsley is looking around. She turns to me and looks a little confused and asks "Is this Disney World?" Man - We could have done even cheaper than seabreeze. Trick the kids into thinking Denny's is Disney. Go on the kid's eat free night and we'd be set! But no darling! This is not Disney World, this is Denny's. We head back to the hotel after dinner, and get everyone ready for bed.

I pull down the covers to the bed and sit on it to get Ephraim in his PJ's. Aisnley and Nathaniel crawl on the bed. And then I see it. right in my covers. One piece of pubic hair. Now, I'm not sure if it was in the covers in the first place, or if the kids dragged it up into the bed from the carpet, but there it was. I called Ken to bring the camera over. I wanted a picture for the trip report, but he wouldn't let me take the picture. He picked it up and threw it out. I probally should have been way more grossed out than I was - but I was not. I didn't even bother to call housekeeping to change the sheets. Oh well, I'm gross. I kept thinking about my best friend Lauren and wondering how she would have handled it though....no doubt she would have pitched a fit(as I probally should have), and gotten her room free or something....she's good like that. Anyway, Ken, Ainsley and Ephraim were asleep by 11:30,

I fell asleep around 1. Nathaniel couldn't sleep. I woke up at 2 and saw he was awake, but by 3 when I woke up,he was finally sleeping.

The alarm went off at 5. We got up got dressed, packed the overnight toiletry bag, and went downstairs with our luggage to eat breakfast and wait for our ride.

The breakfast was GREAT! I had waffles, hot chocolate (they even had multiple creamers to choose from), and a hard boiled egg. The kids munched on cereal and juice, and KEn had hot tea, juice, and waffles with strawberry topping, butter and whipped cream. Very good start to the morning! Our ride came at 6 and drove us to the airport. We checked our bags and went to go wait for our airplane to board us.

Buffalo has a great little play area for the kids, so we sat there and waited so the kids could burn off some energy before getting on the plane.

While there, we met 2 friends who were also headed to Disney. They were going to stay at the Poly. Suddenly it was time to board the plane and we are OFF! We had an uneventful flight! Ephraim slept while NAthaniel worked on his journal (which was a big hit). Ken had Ainsley, and they both slept.

I'll tell you all about our ME ride and our first visit to the hotel and MK tomorrow, along with pictures!

 

[Laura.bora]

So, we had a slight mishap with losing one of the memory cards, which contained the pictures to the first half of our vacation! But all is well now, turns out it fell out on our bedroom floor when we were unpacking. So all is well now!

I'm going to add the pictures above!

 

[cjackearl]

Yea, pictures! I'm so glad you didn't lose lose your memory card.
Everyone looks very cute in their Disney shirts. We're going to stay in a sleep and park for the first time when we go to Sanibel for Christmas. Usually we get a shuttle to the airport, but I like the idea of being right there, instead of 45 min. away. Good to know it worked well for you.

 

[Shmu]

WOO HOO.
Great start. The kids are adorable.
I can feel the excitement.
We had a great trip too.
Can't wait to hear all about yours.

 

[Laura.bora]

We arrived at Orlando's airport at 10:10 - a few minutes earlier than scheduled! We took the all important bathroom break and then we got incredibly lost in the airport. Disney sent us directions on how to locate the Magical Express Bus from our gate, but we could not find it! Finally, one of the airport employees saw us wandering around with a hopelessly lost look on our faces.

"Looking for the Magical Express?" he asks us. Now how did he know that? Turns out we aren't the only people confused by Disney's map. Turns out we needed to take the monorail system across the airport.

We make our way on to our first "monorail" ride, and the kids love it.

Nathaniel and Ainsley were all smiles and so excited. Nathaniel kept giving us huge spontaneus hugs because he was so happy we brought him to Disney world. As we make our way through the airport, suddenly the hallway opens up into a huge courtyard with huge glass elevators, and palm trees. We've reached an airport Hilton. It was huge and seemed so strange in the middle of the airport.

I don't take long to gape because I suddenly spy a familiar face. We spy our first Mickey Mouse!

We reach Disney's magical express around 11:15. Now first off - we LOVED this service! We put our baggage on the plane and didn't see it again until it reached our room later that night. To not have to worry about that was very nice! Anyway - when we reached the DME line, it was very long, but ot moved very quickly. Before long we were on our bus and headed towards the Wilderness Lodge.

We arrived at the Wilderness lodge at 12:15. The resort was beautiful, just like all the pictures, only better! The detail in this place was amazing! They had Indian headresses all over the place, animal hides on the walls, 7 foot totem poles on either side if the lobby. The chandeliers were giant TeePees. In the hotel lobby, a hot spring bubbled up out of the floor and meandered out of the hotel lobby under the exterior wall to the courtyard where it went down a waterfall before streaming into the pool. I could tell immediatly that we were going to love our resort! I went to go stand on line and check us in while Ken took the kids to a little waiting area where Disney Sing A Long Songs was playing. The line was really short, but only one person was at the desk, so waiting took FOREVER! While I was waiting, I discovered a hidden "Hi o" in the woodwork.

I called Nathaniel over to see it, and thus beagn Nathaniel's love of the hidden Mickey. Finally it was our turn to check in and our room was ready! (but our box that we shipped down was not there yet) We were on the 6th floor! Room 6132. We went up to our room to unload our one carry-on suitcase (which of course contained 1 days clothes for everyone and a bathing suit for everyone just incase Disney's Magical Express turned out no to be so magical - Thank you DIS boards!)and to check out our room. On the way up to our room, Nathaniel discovered his first hidden mickey in the wallpaper.

We loved the room. It was spacious,

the view from the bacony was beautiful,

and there were hidden Mickey's everywhere much to Nathaniel's delight! While we loved our room, next time we'll ask to stay on the opposite side of the hotel (6th floor but on the roaring forks side). We were about as far away from roaring forks (the counter service place) as one could get, we were a hike away from the main pool and the lobby (but we were right outside the quiet pool which was nice). We were as far away from the boat launch (which we used often) and the laundry facility (which we also used often). And also, from the roaring forks side, you can see Wishes from the 6th floor. So Next time we'll know where to request!

 

[Laura.bora]

After we finsihed checking in, we headed down to the boat dock to wait for the boat to take us to the Magic Kingdom. It had been a unanimous vote to eat lunch in the Magic Kingdom. Before long we were off on the boat ride and it was great!

It was beautiful to see the Polynesian and Grand Floridian from the boat, and to get our first view of Cinderella's castle.

I missed the picture of Ainsley's face, but she was sitting back taking it all in when she suddenly spied the castle - her face LIT UP as she let out a big gasp and pointed and screamed out "La La's Castle!!!"

We arrived at Magic Kingdom at 12:50 and went inside to get something to eat before begining our day, but not without getting our first view of the castle and our pictures!!

Ainsley proceeded to do the "tinkerbell pose" the entire time we were there.

 

[Laura.bora]

We decided to grab a FP for the Jungle Cruise first so we could ride it after lunch. Jungle cruise had a 3 minute wait when we walked up, and although the cast members urged us to just jump on, we told them we wanted to eat lunch first, and we'd be back later. Now, here is where I have a "them" moment. Instead of saying we're in Adventure land, let's eat here, we wandered aimlessly throughout the park trying to decide what and where we wanted to eat. We decided finally on Casey's since I had heard good things about theie hot dogs. We went in, we're standing on the line when I notice that the hot dogs do not have the purple dining plan symbol next to them! That must mean that they are not on the dining plan. So we leave our spot on the line in Caseys and wander over to the tommorowland noodle terrace, which is of course CLOSED! I knew that. Why did we wander over there? A cast member notices us wandering around and asks if she can help us find something. I reply "Food!" and told her the perdiciment with Casey's. Turns out I didn't research the Disney Dining plan well enough! Those little purple boxes mean it counts as a SNACK on the DDP. Our "them" moment can come to an end! (by the way, a "them" is what Tour Guide Mike refers to as those not using TGM and just before I was a perfect example of why we needed TGM! Thanks to Mike, our vacation was not spent wandering aimlessly around looking for the next thing to do!) We munched on hot dogs and corndogs. I personally did not care for the hot dogs - I'm more of a hebrew National girl myself, and these just did not measure up. I won't be eating here again.
After munching lunch, we went back to Adventureland to go watch the Tiki Room. As we were walking towards the Tiki Room, who should apear but Captain Hook! Before I can even talk to him about character ettiquette, NAthaniel is RUNNING for Captain Hook and gives him a HUGE hug. Nathaniel has found his long lost friend....except Captain Hook in true form takes Nathaniel by the sholders and puts him to the side and brushes the dirt from himself and moves on. Nathaniel was a little hurt by this but on we go to the Tiki Room. Ainsley loved the Tiki Room, but I couldn't stand it. Way too much obnoxious Iago and Idol worshipping for our taste - bring back the old Tiki Tiki Room please! Although the audio animatronics were amazing. Watching the Tiki Goddess move was amazing! She moved like she was real! After the Tiki Room, we went to the Swiss Family Robinson Tree house which I have been waiting to go on for 10 years! But it is closed down for the day! Oh well, we have other days in the MK. We realize it's getting close to the parade, so we sit out infront of the country bear jamboree because the park is EMPTY. I didn't need to worry about finding a good spot - I had my pick!

I left my familysitting on the walkway in the shade at the rope and I ran to get a Fastpass for Buzz. I managed to make it all the way through the not so large crowd at the hub waiting for the parade to Buzz only to find that the Fast Passes had been sold out for the day. It was a few minutes before 3 and I knew the parade would be starting any minute. I started praying I'd get back to my family in time because I didn't want to miss their first glimpse of a Disney parade! I decide to make a mad dash to Fantasy land and grab a FP for Pooh. I made it back just in time for the start of the parade! Ainsley LOVED it! She spent most of the parade screaming out "Hi Pooh! Hi Peter Pan! Hi Cinderella!"

Well, she loved most of it. She started to cry and hide in my skirt when she saw "Naughty Naughty Stitch"

It was now almost 5. Should we see Mickey's Philharmagic or the Hall of PResidents. We are all hot and tired, so we decided on Hall of Presidents so we'll get a good long rest in the AC. And of course, we miss the show by 3 minutes! So we go and sit at some chairs and tables by the Haunted Mansion and we people watch and watch the Liberty Boat go by. At 5:20 we go and wait in the AC for Hall of Presidents. We take Nathaniel and Ainsley around and show them the pictures of the presidents and artifacts they have on display. The kids fall asleep during the Hall of Presidents show but Ken and I are glued! It was great. Well, now it's 6:00 and time to make our way over to the Polynesian for our first dinner reservation of our vacation. We catch the tail end of the Dream along With Mickey show and decide we need to see the whole thing at some point. As we leave, we can see that the Halloween crowd is starting to pour in for the Halloween party that night. We are on the Monorail at 6:02 and at Kona Cafe by 6:22! PErfect timing! We don't have long to wait and soon we are seated. The bread with Macadamian nut butter was SOOOOOO good! That may have been my favorite part of the meal! I ordered an appitizer of the STicky Wings I had heard so much about. They were good, but not as good as I thought they would be. Ken had the Mahi Mahi(yum!!), I had Prime rib, potatoes and broccolini (Yumm!) and the kids had grilled mahi mahi, rice, veggies fruit salad and yogurt parfait. The kids loved the fruit salad. For dessert we had Bananna creme brulee and the volcano lava cake with chocolate icecream. We found the desserts kind of blah. This was one of our favorite restaurants while we were here. We took the monorail back to the MK and then the boat to the Wilderness Lodge. It was a nice relaxing evening. The kids crawled into bed and Ken and I unpacked and went to bed to get ready for tommorow - The Magic Kingdom again!

 

[cjackearl]

Great update. You all look like you're having a ball. Great pics of the parade. Wow, you were close! I'm in agreement re: Hebrew National hot dogs. Even their fat free dogs are good. Your description of the WL is making me second guess our resort choices. Must resist, must resist....Can't wait to hear more! Christine

 

[Laura.bora]

Hey Christine - Where are you staying? I honestly cannot recommend the WL highly enough. The mousekeeping was great, the staff was always going above and beyond, the pool was terrific -the counter service place was delicious, Whispering Canyon Cafe Breakfast was alright, but convient for the lazy day off and it was a lot of fun, Artist Point was AMAZING and the highlight of our trip. We infact loved it so much that we are thinking of buying DVC in WL. We are in LOVE!

 

[JoanieS]

Great start to your TR!!! We only have a few more days to be the KOTS!!! I can't wait!

I have to comment on this:

"be anxious for nothing for today has enough troubles"

Thanks so much for posting that. I am having a few medical issues (praying it's nothing serious!) and I too am a WORRY WORT! I worry way to much. I am having some heart related tests done tomorrow and am pretty freaked out, since Disney is only 4 days away! Reading that passage helped me a lot today I keep telling myself "let go and let God"....

So, say a prayer for all my tests tomorrow - it would crush me if we had to postpone our trip

Looking forward to reading your next installment!

 

[cjackearl]

Hi Laura! We're doing a split stay: 5 nights at POR and 3 nights at BC. Our party size is an issue, 5 people over the age of 3, so our choices are limited. We liked the look of WL but we'd need a deluxe room on club level to accomodate us, and those are expensive! Maybe we'll do a villa there someday. It does look great!

 

[Shmu]

Loved your post.
Gets me teary eyed remembering the magic of that special age.
Mine are teens now.
Fun, but a different kind of fun.

 

[Laura.bora]

Ok, I found the missing part of my trip! When copying and pasting, I must have missed this section. It belongs right after the "Naughty Naughty Stitch" part! Thanks Thandine for pointing it out! (from TGM)



After the parade, we did a Mike no-no and went into Country Bear Jamboree, but it was fine because the park was SO empty. The theater was maybe half full and we were able to sit in the front row without a problem. It was a nice break from the heat. After that we did the Magic Carpets of Alladin because it was walk on.

And then on to the Jungle Cruise. Nathaniel wasn't too sure if the animals were real or not. At one point he ducked down to the bottom of the boat because of the giant "Python" behind him. Ok, so now we have done everything that was really on our list to do and it's only 4:15! We decide to wander into Fantasyland and get to ride the Mad Tea Party and Cinderella's carousel without any wait.

It's here where the unbelievable happens - I was attacked by Cinderella's horse!!! I have the bruise to prove it!

What really happened was I was riding the carousel Mary Poppins Style (aka Side saddle) because of my skirt. As I got down, I forgot about those permanant styrups attached to the horse, so full force I went down into it. I knew it was going to look bad when I sat down 10 minutes later and the bruise stung while I sat on it. Next up was Dumbo.
Dumbo we had to wait 2 loadings for and then we used our FP for the Pooh ride (which I LOVED).

It was now almost 5. Should we see Mickey's Philharmagic or the Hall of PResidents. We are all hot and tired, so we decided on Hall of Presidents so we'll get a good long rest in the AC. And of course, we miss the show by 3 minutes! So we go and sit at some chairs and tables by the Haunted Mansion and we people watch and watch the Liberty Boat go by. At 5:20 we go and wait in the AC for Hall of Presidents. We take Nathaniel and Ainsley around and show them the pictures of the presidents and artifacts they have on display. The kids fall asleep during the Hall of Presidents show but Ken and I are glued! It was great. Well, now it's 6:00 and time to make our way over to the Polynesian for our first dinner reservation of our vacation. We catch the tail end of the Dream along With Mickey show and decide we need to see the whole thing at some point. As we leave, we can see that the Halloween crowd is starting to pour in for the Halloween party that night. We are on the Monorail at 6:02 and at Kona Cafe by 6:22! PErfect timing! We don't have long to wait and soon we are seated. The bread with Macadamian nut butter was SOOOOOO good! That may have been my favorite part of the meal! I ordered an appitizer of the STicky Wings I had heard so much about. They were good, but not as good as I thought they would be. Ken had the Mahi Mahi(yum!!), I had Prime rib, potatoes and broccolini (Yumm!) and the kids had grilled mahi mahi, rice, veggies fruit salad and yogurt parfait. The kids loved the fruit salad. For dessert we had Bananna creme brulee and the volcano lava cake with chocolate icecream. We found the desserts kind of blah. This was one of our favorite restaurants while we were here. We took the monorail back to the MK and then the boat to the Wilderness Lodge. It was a nice relaxing evening. The kids crawled into bed and Ken and I unpacked and went to bed to get ready for tommorow - The Magic Kingdom again!

 

[Laura.bora]

Great start to your TR!!! We only have a few more days to be the KOTS!!! I can't wait!

I have to comment on this:



Thanks so much for posting that. I am having a few medical issues (praying it's nothing serious!) and I too am a WORRY WORT! I worry way to much. I am having some heart related tests done tomorrow and am pretty freaked out, since Disney is only 4 days away! Reading that passage helped me a lot today I keep telling myself "let go and let God"....

So, say a prayer for all my tests tomorrow - it would crush me if we had to postpone our trip

Looking forward to reading your next installment!

I will certainly be praying for you Joanie! I know how agonizing the waiting for the results is! A few years ago when I was pregnant with Ainsley I had a growth that showed up on my arm. I thought it was normal because of the hormones. by the time I finally remembered to show my dr., it was multi-colored, growing hair, and raised. She told me that was not pregnancy related and sent me to my Dr who told me he thought it was skin cancer. Waiting to find out if it was or was not was just plain torture. If you do wind up needing to postpone your trip - what a blessing that the kids won't know!

Hi Laura! We're doing a split stay: 5 nights at POR and 3 nights at BC. Our party size is an issue, 5 people over the age of 3, so our choices are limited. We liked the look of WL but we'd need a deluxe room on club level to accomodate us, and those are expensive! Maybe we'll do a villa there someday. It does look great!

Ohhhh -beach club - I'm jealous! If you could do a villa there one day, I'm sure it will be awesome! Yeah, club level just wouldn't be worth it!

Loved your post.
Gets me teary eyed remembering the magic of that special age.
Mine are teens now.
Fun, but a different kind of fun.

sniff sniff - Nathaniel is getting past that special age. He asked straight out if there were robots or people inside the characters. Broke my heart that we just missed the thinking they were real. At least we got to see that amazement in his face at Sesame Place. And through Ainsley's face.

 

[JoanieS]

I will certainly be praying for you Joanie! I know how agonizing the waiting for the results is! A few years ago when I was pregnant with Ainsley I had a growth that showed up on my arm. I thought it was normal because of the hormones. by the time I finally remembered to show my dr., it was multi-colored, growing hair, and raised. She told me that was not pregnancy related and sent me to my Dr who told me he thought it was skin cancer. Waiting to find out if it was or was not was just plain torture. If you do wind up needing to postpone your trip - what a blessing that the kids won't know!

THanks! I had my tests and my heart is fine!!!! Bring on Disney!

Hey...where did the other 1/2 of my post go?? LOL

I know how bad the waiting can be, and luckily, the doc doing the test was able to tell me right away that there were no abnormalities, and my heart reacted to exercise just like it should. Of course, he told me to reduce my stress level....3 more days I told him, 3 more days!

What ended up happening with your growth???

 

[Laura.bora]

Praise Jesus that there are no heart problems!! How many days until you tell thekids?

 

[JoanieS]

Praise Jesus that there are no heart problems!! How many days until you tell thekids?

We are telling them on Thursday (with a scavenger hunt) and we leave at the crack of dawn on Friday!

 

[Laura.bora]

oops! Guess you wanted to know the end of the story, huh? It wasn't skin cancer, but a dead nerve that was reacting to my hormones. The Dr. told me it would continue to grow with every pregnancy and I would eventually need to have it removed. I'm probally going to wait a few more pregnancies before I remove it. You'll see it in pictures if you look. Its on my left arm. I now lovingly refer to her as "my twin". I'm waiting for her to grow a set of teeth next. (have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding?)

 

[JoanieS]

(have you seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding?)

Just put Windex on it!!!! LOL!

I'm glad it's nothing serious