Toddling through WDW...updated 8/12 Ohana breakfast & photo session

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Great TR, I really like the idea of some adult time in the parks. I think for our next trip we may bring a stitter with us.

On our trip for Mardi Gras, I used a Snugli and carried the little one around on my back and thought it was wonderful especially when waiting in some lines.

The BabyBjorn was great for my youngest nephew and it really saved my sister's arms from having to hold him while waiting in line, especially when we had to wait awhile due to the problem on the Safari. I did read one person on the boards who was warning people against wearing baby carriers (They saw someone fall with one and the mom and the baby were injured), but you can trip and fall while holding your baby in your arms as well! I wish DD could use our Baby Bjorn but she has serious skin issues. I wore her in a baby bjorn for about an hour when she was 5 months old and and she got a rediculous rash (she was even wearing pants) tht didn't go away for weeks. Our doctor advised us not to use it anymore but we were still able to use our sling. I think anyone bringing a non walker should bring either a sling or a front baby carrier, like you said they really help when you have to wait in line

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Still loving your TR! We leave in 33 days, and I can't wait, although now I'm nervous about the Pooh ride!

Can you tell me where in DTD the silhouette lady was? That's the one souvenir on my must do list, and I want to make sure I don't miss her. I heard you get an extra copy there compared to MK. Thanks!

The silhouette cart was near Once upon a toy and the Pin store. You actually have to pay for the silhouette at the Pin store (I guess she doesn't have credit card access?) and bring the receipt that you paid over to the cart before she will begin.

Since most people on the boards seem to love the Pooh ride, don't worry, maybe we are the weird ones since we didn't like it! It just wasn't what I expected, I thought it would be like a cart ride through the 100 acre woods and it certainly wasn't. Here's a video of the ride I found on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGJIpa_ZXug It isn't really Winnie the Pooh "cute" until the last 30 seconds of the ride.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

So we had a great quick day trip to WDW, so back to the TR for our July trip...

After dinner at the hotel, the adults decided to spend one more night at DTD. DBIL volunteered to stay behind with the kids since he hates shopping. We spent most of our times in the Christmas shop and all of us combined bought 15 ornaments! We love Christmas in our family. I had to stop at Goofy’s Candy Co because I am now officially addicted to their rice krispy treats. We picked up one for the ride back home to Jersey (dipped in dark chocolate and pecans and then drizzled with caramel- it was like one of those chocolate turtles.

While we were in Goofy’s we got a call from DBIL that we had to come back to the hotel immediately. My nephew Pooh had taken DBIL’s key card and hid it. In our hotel we had a 2 bedroom unit connected to a 1 bedroom unit. While he was babysitting he had kept all of the kids in the larger 2 bedroom unit since there was a big living room. However, Roo’s formula, Pooh’s dinner and the boys’ diapers were in the other 1 bedroom unit. My DD wears cloth diapers due to a skin allergy so she wasn’t affected, but the boys were hungry and in dirty diapers so when Pooh lost the key card all holy heck broke loose. DBIL had called maintenance an hour before he called us and told them his predicament- apparently the person who answered the phone LAUGHED at DBIL. There were 3 kids screaming in the background (when one kid cries they all cry) and the maintenance staff at the Westgate didn’t feel this was an emergency at all. My sister called Westgate maintenance and gave them a piece of her mind as we were driving back and not surprisingly, they unlocked the door for DBIL about 5 minutes later.

We managed to calm all of the kids down and get them to bed. Mimi and Grandpa stayed behind while the rest of us headed out to see Wishes and the second Spectromagic parade. It would be close, it was 9:15 and Wishes started at 10. We headed to the TTC and got on the monorail- as it pulled into the station the doors didn’t open. Then, the air turned off and the hum of the monorail stopped. We heard someone on the outside PA calling for someone (Ron, John, Tom?) It was muffled since we were inside the monorail car. The person started telling Ron, John or Tom that the monorail lost voltage. It was now 9:50 and people in our car started freaking out that they were going to miss Wishes. I started to feel a bit claustrophobic and a few of us even started looking around for the emergency exit (the window). The CMs in the station were outside of the cars telling the passengers to remain calm. After almost 10 minutes the doors finally opened and we all RAN to Main Street to check out Wishes. It started about 2 seconds after we got our spot.

I love the heart fireworks!

After Wishes we went up closer to the castle to see Spectromagic. This is one of the only things (besides the pool at the Poly) that I remember from my first trip when I was in kindergarten. The street was FILLED with trash, but at about 15 minutes before the parade started a few CMs came by to clean up the streets. Spectro was as awesome as I remembered. We snacked on some Mickey ice-cream bars during the parade.

Prince Charming looks like he wasn't having an enchanted evening

Afterwards we took a leisurely stroll down Main Street and popped into a few shops, then headed home- without any monorail problems!

Coming up next- our last day in WDW- breakfast at Ohana and a portrait session at the Poly

 

[that's nice]

Your pictures are awesome!

I love Spectro too.

What kind of camera do you have?

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

Thanks, we LOVE our camera. It was a baby shower gift from my step-dad. It is a Canon Digital Rebel XSi- I think it is a 12 MP. It is bulky but nothing compares to the pics it takes. We also have what we call our "diaper bag camera", a digital camera that we received as a wedding present over 6 years ago, we don't mind if that gets wet or if we leave it somewhere.

 

[GinnyBear's_mom]

We had 7:45am ADRs at Ohana, but we were a tad late since we had to wait at the TTC for 10 minutes due to some sort of monorail issue. As soon as we sat we told the host that the sun was directly in our faces- it was sooo bright! The host said there was nothing he could do (ummm, how about lower the shade??). When our waitress came by to introduce herself we told her about the sun problem and she got some help from a very tall food runner and lowered the shade I had left a note on our ADR that DD has an egg allergy. Shortly after we were seated one of the chefs came over to discuss Tigger’s allergy. She told us she could make an egg-free waffle and we were super happy. The character interaction was great, we were only there an hour and they all came by twice!

Our waitress was very good, but our food runners were HORRIBLE! We blew through the first family style bowl of food in about 30 minutes, then we asked our waitress for a refill on everything. About 10 minutes later we saw the waitress again and asked where our food was. She said she had asked the kitchen to refill our bowl so she went back to the kitchen to check, then returned and said it would be out shortly and she apologized for the delay. Another 10 minutes goes by and still no food. Finally our waitress sees the food runner and asks him where he has been taking the food that she had requested (now 3 times). Apparently he had gotten his table numbers confused and kept bringing the refills to the table behind us! They had their bowls refilled about 4 times in one hour, so I’m sure they were happy!

We finally got our refill, but it was time to go to our portrait session. I actually left this breakfast hungry and so did DH. We were about 15 minutes late to the photo session and our photographer mentioned several times to us that she shouldn’t really have taken us and the only reason she did keep our appointment was because the family after us cancelled. That was annoying. She also got offended when I asked if we could get a refund if we weren’t happy with the pics. The photographer did very little to get the attention of the children in our family besides making this weird bird noise, they stopped paying attention to that after the first 5 times she did it. She also didn’t pay attention to shadows, or how the picture was composed. We got 1 really good picture, but I could have taken it. I think next time I’ll just bring my tripod and skip Disney’s “professional” photographer. We had plans to go to EPCOT for an hour or so after the photo session, but I didn’t realize it would take close to an hour after the pics were taken to get them on the CD and printed out. It was a good thing we didn’t want to go to EPCOT because once again we sat on the monorail for about 20 minutes while we waited for another monorail to switch off the track.

Our 1 good picture- I think we had about 80 on our CD- that's Mimi, Grandpa and all 3 grandkids

 

[that's nice]

Wow, I'm sorry you had a bad start to your day....between the hostess, runners, and pictures. I hope the rest of your day was a bit more magical!

Your DD looks like she was having a great time interacting with the characters at breakfast!