TR: No, It's Not a Nice Wave Pool, It's Called Typhoon Lagoon. No, Like TYPHOON!

[IheartDDuck]

So we're back from our trip. It's a sad, sad day for me. If you need other information about my pre-trip report, please see the link in my signature. Boy, did we have a good time. The title of the TR will be explained later because it does have relevance for our trip in general. I am starting the uploading of photos, and hopefully photobucket cooperates with me.

I will explain our cast of characters soon in another post, but in the meantime feel free to check the PTR for those details as well.

 

[MEK]

Just read your PTR. Looks like this is going to be an interesting TR. Can't wait for it to start.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Hello everyone!
As promised, I am going to do a brief rundown of the players of our trip and the plans that we originally had (I say originally because things changed along the way, but we'll discuss that later).

Me: Danielle. Trip planner and overall a little crazy about Disney. Love it, and have been about 18 times. I just turned 28. Below is a picture of me and my mom.

Mom: Jackie. My favorite person in the whole world. People can definitely tell that we are mother and daughter. Love taking trips with her and we try to go with just the two of us periodically. She is just as crazy about Disney as I am (I actually think a little more so). There are not many pictures of her because she hates them and she doesn't like to smile in them either.

Dad: Rick (actually Rickey and trust me, we do make that a joke...R-I-C....K-E-Y...). He is not as crazy about Disney as my mom and I, but it is his favorite vacation destination still. He loves golf too and he's always trying to figure out a way to combine Disney and golf.

Jason: My older brother. He has slight center of attention sydrome problems, but I love traveling with him. He came on this trip with his son at the last minute, so they weren't there for the entire trip. He's 32 years old, doesn't look it, doesn't act it, and when people find out he's older then me, the response is always "noooooo, really?"

Joaquin: Jason's son, my nephew, 21 months old. Oh my god, this child is a ham all the way. He loves everyone and as you will find out, basically made friends everywhere he went. He's unstoppable, but we love that about him.

So the only thing that we tend to plan is where we're eating. We love food and one of the main reasons that we go back to Disney is to keep eating.

Jason and Joaquin were not set to show up until Monday 10/12 and we were there from 10/10 to 10/17. Here were our dining reservations:

10/10 - Grand Floridian Cafe at 8pm
10/11 - Marrakesh at 2pm
10/12 - Kona Cafe at 7:55am, Chefs de France at 5:10pm
10/13 - Tony's Town Square at 11:40 am, Le Cellier at 7:20pm
10/14 - Ohana at 9:30am, Liberty Tree Tavern at 4:30pm
10/15 - Prime Time Cafe at 2:55pm
10/16 - Yak and Yeti at 3pm

Many things changed along the way. Oh, I forgot to mention that we were staying at the Grand Floridian this time around for the entire trip. My parents are DVC members, and they decided to splurge this time around to stay there since we had never done it before. Let me tell you, being at a monorail resort was so handy with Joaquin since you don't have to fold the stroller on the monorail. I was sooooo happy about that. All right kiddies, everyone ready? Here we gooooooooo.....

 

[IheartDDuck]

OK, let me start this by saying that OMG, 4am comes sooooo early in the morning. I am not a morning person. I start work at 8:30am every morning, and even that's a stretch for me. It was very difficult for me to get up in the morning. My mom and dad are incessant morning people and they tend to be up and going right away. I don't do cheery mornings. I just don't. They make me crazy.

Well, I had made sure to crawl into bed around 9pm the night before, and it still felt like 4am came in an instant. Of course, mom came in all super chipper. Did I mention I hate morning people.....with a passion. I think the exchange went something like:

Mom: Good morning sweetie! Are you ready to go? I am.

Me: *grumble*

Mom: Aren't you excited? Don't you want to get out of here.

Me: *grunt* early

After this exchange was completed we were on the road by 4:40 am. We made it to Milwaukee Airport by about 5:30am. We prefer Milwaukee to O'Hare because it's easier to get to and there always less traffic along the way. This time was no exception, except there was a minor detour for us along the way, but it didn't really take much longer that way.

Check in was very smooth. I had upgraded us to business class the night before on AirTran and we were very excited. We always try to set aside some extra money for the upgrade. We took the stroller to the gate for check in. Even though Joaquin isn't with us yet, we explained to the lady that checked us in that Jason would be meeting us there and that he wouldn't be able to travel with Joaquin, the stroller, his luggage and the car seat by himself.

We made good use of that stroller. We popped that sucker open and put our carry on bags in it. Wooeee, let me tell you that people look at you like you are all kinds of crazy when you push around a stroller that way. They looked at you like they really think there could be a child in that stroller underneath all of the bags. Really people, really? Who would do that?

It was now time to eat. For some strange reason the earlier that I get up in the morning the hungrier I am. Doesn't make sense, but whatever. Let me say though that this is the exact reason that I don't like Milwaukee Airport. Food....selection....sucks! At least at O'Hare I have so many different options to choose from. Milwaukee? Nuthin. Just Burger King and pre-made BK at that. What happened to your way right away? I suffered through a croissonwich that was kind of gross. I'm really a McDonald's breakfast girl. I think Milwaukee Airport is the only place in the U.S. without a McDonalds. Whether or not that is a good or bad thing is up to you.

I have no pictures during this part of the Trip Report. Because I'm not a morning person, my brain wasn't really functioning all that well.

Okay, that's all I have for now. I have to go pick up my pup at the kennel, but I will post more when I return. The question at this point will be how did security go? Did we get the rental car we needed? Stay tuned to find out.

 

[IheartDDuck]

OK, last time we left off we had just had some bad Burger King at the airport. After we ate, we headed to security. There was a wicked long line for TSA for some reason. I've never seen it this bad before, even when I flew out to Vegas on New Years Eve. However, seeing as though I notice everything (I'm not bragging, I'm stating fact. One of my strengths is my power of observation. One of my biggest irritations in life too is an aggravation for people that don't read signs. Really folks, they're there as a benefit for us all, just open your eyes and read them).

Anywho, we're standing and there's a sign to the right of us saying "Business Class Passengers. Oh, now I'm relieved. We didn't have to kep waiting in this long line. We went down this aisle and got through security in 5 minutes. Once we were at the gate, I barely had time to go to the bathroom and they were already boarding. My mom and I came out of the ladies and there's my dad frantically waving us down to get on the plane. We boarded in the first group and took our seat.

My mom and I were together and my dad was sitting with someone else. He immediately began to chat up his neighbor. This is my dad's big thing and my mom and I simply don't understand it. He can strike up a conversation with someone anytime, anywhere and find something in common with them. My mom and I on the other hand are not so good at this.

Overall the flight was good. The only downfall to AirTran business class is that there's no food, just snacks. Oh well, it's no big deal. I just basically tried to snooze, another thing I can't do on planes, and I read my book. In no time we were making our descent into Orlando.

We landed around 11am and we were able to get our baggage very quickly. After that we headed to the car rental. I went through Thrifty because I get a corporate rate through them. Originally we had a full size car picked out, but with Jason and Joaquin added on at the last minute, we were going to need something more like a minivan. I checked the rate for a minivan and it was around $450.

My parents got in line while I waited with the baggage because I put the ressie in my dad's name. Here is a photo of them waiting:

This manager comes up to them who works for Thrifty and says to my mom:

Manager: You have a reservation with Thrifty?

Mom: Yes we do.

Manager: Well I just wanted to let you know that it's going to be about a 4-6 hour wait for a car right now.

Mom: *utter silence and a look of horror* (I wish I got this picture, but I wasn't quick enough)....Are you serious?

Manager: No, I'm just pulling your leg.

Dad: You know one of these days you're going to get popped when you say that.

Excellent observation Dad, I couldn't put it better myself. Well, after this exchange, they try to tell my dad that a minivan will be $900. Come again? I mean, I know Orlando is the land of suck you dry of money, but what? When I checked the rate before we left it was $450. Then the manager comes (the one who will one day get popped) and drops it to $700, then to $450. The entire time I'm waiting to the side, I'm telling my mom "That's crazy, is that the corporate rate? I have a corporate rate".

Here is my theory on this situation. I think what they do is quote and exhorbitant price and then they "come to the rescue with a good price". Kind of like making themselves look better. Yeah yeah car rental places, I'm on to you.

Since we were only partially sucked dry of money at this point, we were pretty happy. Getting the car after that went without incident and we were on our way.

Up Next: Pick up Jason's ticket and check in.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Oh man, I didn't realize I took so many notes in the first part of the trip. I have less and less notes the further we get along, so while these are really detailed, my others tend to be more like, woke up, got on monorail, rode rides, ate, went to sleep.

So now we're finally in the car and on our way, yeah!

On our way out of the airport:

Dad driving:

Mom and I:

Dad's happy face:

There are even loser Bears fans in Florida (sorry only Packer fans in this family). No offense to any Bears fans out there.

I love the cheesiness of this place, but the picture didn't turn out so good. No, it wasn't the waffle house I was taking a picture of...

Yeah, a Disney sign!

We had to stop at Orlando best tickets to pick up Jason's 5 day pass, because we purchased it through my corporate website so I could get my corporate discount on it. This only took a few minutes at best. Next we saw this sign:

The picture didn't come out that well because my dad drove in the back way through DTD, plus he was taking his turns kind of fast. My dad is typically the slowest driver on the planet, except when he is in Disney World. Then suddenly he's Richard Petty or something. I took a few other pictures along the way:

RCFD

Fort Wilderness

Finally, we arrived.

The Grand Floridian:

Check in was not as smooth as normal. Originally when we made our reservations we had wanted to stay at the GF for part of the trip and we were going to attempt to get into Bay Lake Tower or the Treehouse Villas for the other part of the trip. We coudn't get Bay Lake Tower or the Treehouse Villas, but like idiots, we had made our GF ressie first, and then tried to make the other one. Bad idea, should have reversed the order. So we decided to make the ressie at the GF the entire time. Well, instead of cancelling the original ressie and making one long one, they made us two separate ones, which I didn't quite understand. It makes no sense to me, but whatever.

So we're checking in and we tried to find out if we could merge them somehow. We can't. At first she couldn't even find our second ressie. Good thing my mom is OCD and packs all of this information for just these times. She had the ressie number all ready to go. She finally found our information and said that our room was ready, and that we would be staying in the same room the whole time and that they would drop our new room keys off to us on the day that we "check out" from the first ressie. That's a nice touch. The only annoying thing was that we couldn't pay for the DDP in full. We had to do it in two installments at two separate times since we had two ressies. Ugh.

We were in Big Pine Key or building 9. I swear, I thought I had a picture of this, but I don't. Bizarre.

Continued in next post.....

 

[IheartDDuck]

Oh my, I forgot my one little check in rant. I have personal space issues. I don't like people that I don't know to get close to me. It makes me panic. I know that it's weird that I like Disney so much, but typically I can deal with it in that kind of environment. You have to expect it. I have issues when there is no clear reason for the violation of personal space and it makes me very uncomfortable.

So my mom and I are checking in and these two guys were right behind us. I mean right behind us. One wrong move and they would have been all up in my grill. I was like . Then, to make matters worse, they were acting all frustrated, like we were holding something up. Ummm, I'm just checking in and you're invading my personal space buster. Then, my snarkiness got the best of me and I simply said, loudly I might add "personal space". They were heading away to check in at that time, but I was getting the evil eye the whole time. Really though guys, I'm sure you don't want to smell me, and I definitely don't want to smell you. OK, rant over.

Awwww

Our room:

We were this close to the pool:

Finally we were on our way. We had to go to the TTC first because Dad needed his annual pass picked up at willcall and we wanted to go to the MK anyway. Here's our first monorail pic:

Finally at the MK:

Cosmic Ray's for lunch. My favorite counter service restaurant:

For lunch my mom and I both had sweet tea, chicken nuggets and fries and carrot cake and my dad had orange something to drink, a bacon double cheeseburger and chocolate cake. We were all satisfied because at this point we were starving!

We wanted to go on some rides, but the park was hella busy at this point. Plus, we were all really tired (4am is early man!), so we decided to just do the Hall of Presidents and then go to the room. Even the Hall of Presidents was packed, which is something I've never seen. I really have to say though that I enjoy the changes that they've made. On our way over, I saw this guy:

On our way out of the Hall of Presidents it started to rain, so we got a little wet. Here's our drowned rat pictures on the monorail:

More resort:

We were back to the room by about 5:30pm, so we just relaxed until our ressie at the Grand Floridian Cafe at 8pm. We snoozed a little, read and relaxed. We were at GFC by 8pm and were seated almost immediately. We had a server named Lacey who was so cute! She was very sweet and called us her sweeties.

For drinks I had coke and a sweet tea-ka (sweet tea vodka). Ohh, that drink was good. Mom had pomegranate lemonade and an acai blueberry martini and dad also had pomegranate lemonade and a wildberry margarita. The drinks were very good.

Dad and I both had the New York Strip for dinner with mashed potatoes and vegetables. My mom had salmon with asparagus. For dessert I had chocolate fondue and mom and dad shared the sampler that had tiramisu, cheesecake, key lime pie and chocolate mousse. Everything was really good and we'd totally go back.

On our way back I attempted to use the fireworks setting on my camera for wishes. The first one came out bad, but I think it's really cool looking.

It was about 10:30 by the time we were ready for bed and I was totally ready for it because it was such a long day.

Next up: Day 2 at Epcot, lunch at Marrakesh, DTD shopping and dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express.

 

[IheartDDuck]

OK, I'm finally back with another update. Hopefully I'll get some readers this time around. Need to make things more interesting I guess.

When we left off we had just finished our first full day. Jason and Joaquin weren't coming until Monday the 12th, so it was still a full day with just my parents and I. I woke up around 8am this morning. My mom was already up, which she always is. She's always the first person out of bed. Dad was still sleeping when I got up, which is another thing that's par for the course. Let me start this by saying that we vacation in Disney differently then we used to. Before DVC we didn't go very often at all, so we would hit the parks commando style. Now that we go at least once a year, we take a more relaxed approach.

While Dad finally decided to get up and join the living, mom and I took the mugs to Gasparilla Grill. We filled our mugs and a the same time we ended up picking up some pastries with our snack credits. Mom and I got cheese danishes (I lllooooovvvveee these! They are very much a staple of my trips) and we got Dad a cinnamon roll. We were out of the room around 9:30am. We decided that we would head to Epcot since we had our lunch reservation there at 2pm.

We headed to the monorail and along the way I got some more pictures.

We got on the monorail quickly. We transferred to the Epcot Monorail at the TTC after that. I snapped a couple more pics on the ride through Epcot.

Once we got into the park we went over to the Land so we could get fastpasses for Soarin'. By now it was around 10:30am and the return time for fastpasses was between 2pm and 3pm. We grabbed some drinks and relaxed because we wanted a return time after 3pm to coincide with our lunch reservation at Marrakesh at 2pm. The time came and I went up to get the FP's with my mom. Ironic, a line to get a pass to skip the line. Fortunately, this was the worst fastpass line we would see all week.

Of course, in true Danielle fashion, I totally pick the wrong line. This woman was having problems. Because again, I have issues with being snarky, I tell my mom that it's typical, and that everyone must have taken their stupid vitamin this morning. I know, I shouldn't say it, I just sometimes say what I know everyone else is thinking. I'm working on it. Lo and behold, when I get up there, she was having trouble because the machine is broken. So I said my internal apology to the woman who was having problems for saying that she took a stupid vitamin.

We got a return time for 3:09pm, but by now we were starting to get hungry cause, let's face it, a pastry just doesn't last that long. We were planning on heading into WS, so we figured we would see if we could get into Marrakesh early. First though, we road Journey into Imagination! Let me say, I always ride this ride, because I love Figment. My first visit I was four, and Journey Into Your Imagination was my absolute favorite. I never went on it when they had removed Figment, but note to Disney. Simply adding Figment back did not make this ride better. Pretty, pretty, pretty please bring back the original!

I love my mommy!

My favorite part

After that, we headed into WS to stop at Le Cellier. We were going to attempt to plead our case for adding Jason and Joaquin to our ressie. When we got there the CM Ryan went to ask the head of hosting. They told us that it shouldn't be a problem because we would be at a 4 top anyway and Joaquin will be in a high chair. Great success!!

After that we began to wander over to Morocco. I took a few pictures of the F&W festival booths along the way. Oh booths, we will be together very soon.

This turned out to be my favorite booth..

OK, in all my years in WDW, I NEVER noticed this before. What a dee dee dee!

Yes, I would be visiting here soon to have escargot.

MMMM, beer....

Yeah we have arrived!

We got to Marrakesh around 12:30pm and they told us they could seat us right away and cancelled our ressie for 2pm. I am always amazed that there are no people in this restaurant. The wait staff is so pleasant and the food is really good. It's by far one of my favorite restaurants in the World. Never had a bad experience. Oh well, everyone else is missing out I guess. I can't remember the name of our server, but she was so sweet and seriously one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. Makes you feel a little self conscious.

A restaurant shot with an unaware mom.

The belly dancer

I got the mint iced tea, the Sultan's sampler with beef, mom got mint iced tea, the Sultan's sampler with chicken and Dad got Sprite and the Lamb Couscous. Everything was soooo yummy. I had made a plan to take food porn this trip, yet every time we ate I was so distracted by the food I completely forgot! When the belly dancer came out, in normal fashion we had to pick my dad's tongue up off of the floor. We all got the Moroccan Symphony (assorted pastries) for dessert. Yum. Love these pastries.

Continued in next post...

 

[crgfsu1]

Great start! I'll tag along for the trip.

I'm with you - I ate at Marakesh (whatever) once and loved it, but cannot convince my DH to try it. Oh well....

Looking forward to more.

Cathy

 

[IheartDDuck]

Continued from previous post.

So we finished lunch and headed back out into WS. Bye bye Marrakesh, I will see you again.

I decided after we left that I wanted to get some Henna done. Every time I've gone I've said that I was going to get it, but then I don't. I don't have any tattoos and don't plan on getting any in the near future, so this will have to do. Here's the conversation we had on the way to the Henna place.

Me: Mom, you want to get some?

Dad: She's too old for that.

Mom: What?

Me: She's not too old!

Dad: OK, she's not too old, I'm just too cheap!

Mom: Like that's any better!

Anyway, I got the henna and will post a picture of it later once it had set. But there was one small catch. I couldn't get it wet at all for one day. Well that kind of ruins my pool plans for later! Well, this is only our second day, so I've still got time. We began to walk through the rest of WS when my dad says:

Dad: I say it's time for a margarita!

Me: Not at the cart outside! They don't even qualify as margaritas!

Dad: No, at the tequila bar. I owe you a drink from last night.

Well, you don't have to tell me twice if someone else is buying! We headed in and there were A LOT of people in La Cava. There was this lady who was being totally indecisive about which tequila shot she wanted. The bartender was nice and was letting her sample some. She was going on about having her tequila here and her lemoncello in Italy. At this point, Im thinking "lady, some of us want to get some too!" She seriously took almost 20 minutes. She FINALLY choose a tequila that was $50 a shot. Holy moley! I mean, I know not all tequila is created equal, but wow! A little much for me.

Finally, we were up. Dad and I got Fruta de la Pasion and mom got the Pepino. They were all very good and let me tell you, it would not take many of those to get me schnockered! Woooeeee. Definitely going back though. Our FP time for Soarin' was fast approaching. Since we had a little time left we went to Spaceship Earth first. There was a little girl around 6 years old that decided she didn't want to ride and basically turned away and ran from her family in the queue. She's pitching a fit, running away and her Dad jumps out of line to catch her. Then her older brother is yelling to her "come on, it's fun". Her Dad finally catches her and drops to her level to give her a talking to. She then proceeds to yell at the top of her lungs "but I want to go on the ride". Now my mom turns to me and says, "If you would have done that to me, there's no way I would have let you ride after that episode". Well, then her mom gets back involved yelling to the Dad, "come on, bring her on", completely negating the fact that her Dad just told her she wasn't allowed to ride after that running away debacle and was trying to remove her from line. So they go on, while the little girl is still carrying on screaming, yelling and so on.

Again, my mom in all her wisdom says to me "united front", meaning that you have to agree with each other in front of your kids. She also says to me "that little girl was pushed beyond her limits. You could tell she was absolutely exhausted, which is part of the reason she had a meltdown. That being said, if your kid has a major meltdown, make them understand why meltdown's of that nature are not acceptable. I always headed meltdowns off at the pass by making sure you had plenty of rest times by going back to the resort. If WDW makes an adult tired, think about how a little one would feel". Mom, I love you and all of your wisdom! She's like a WDW sage!

Mom and I went on SE together and I tried to capture our pictures a the end.

After SE it was time for Soarin'. I have loved this ride since the first time I rode it in California Adventure in 2003 before its debut in WDW. After we Soared over California, we decided it was time for a rest so we went back to the Grand Flo. My dad has a lot of trouble with his knees from an injury he sustained in the Vietnam War and various other injuries while in the army. Basically one of his knees is plastic. They give him trouble, although he will never admit it. My mom and I just know his limits and know when he's had it, and he was done at this point. He also told us that he wanted to make sure he didn't go too far, because if he did he would basically be useless the next day.

After getting back to the resort Mom and I grabbed the mugs from the room and went to Gasparilla Grill to fill them. After our return to the room Dad took a nap and Mom and I read our books (I was reading Dan Brown's the Lost Symbol and I recommend it!). After chilling for a while, we headed out at about 6:45pm. It was so hot this day (and every other day in the rest of the trip!) so it was nice to relax and refresh ourselves.

We got the car from the valet and headed to DTD. They too were crowded (hopefully not a trend for the rest of the week). We went to the Design a Tee store and mom and I both got a shirt for Joaquin. They said about an hour, so we went to WPE for dinner. By far, this is the best CS value on the dining plan! I can't believe it's considered a CS. I got sweet tea, chicken alfredo and creme brulee, dad got the same, and the only thing different for mom is she got the bolognese.

What little food porn I got:
Chicken Alfredo

Bolognese

Oooo, creme brulee

I always seem to catch mom at bad moments

And dad is always a cheeseball

Our server was a cutie named Nat. He was very good and was always there for us, before we even need him. My dad gave him a 20% tip, and he was so surprised by it. He was so cute and said "is there anything else you want for dessert? Frozen yogurt?" We said no, we were too stuffed and that was why we were bringing the creme brulee to go.

Dad went to the car after that so the creme brulee wouldn't melt. Mom and I went to pick up the shirts since they would be ready. We also bought some vinylmation figures. We found dad at the car (however, on the way I almost got hit by a car in a crosswalk. Nice), then went back to the GF. We had an early breakfast scheduled at Kona, then mom and I get pampered at the spa while Dad picks up the boys at the airport.

Here is the shirt I got for Joaquin

And the shirt mom got

And here are the vinylmation figures I got

Next update: Pampering at the spa, the boys arrive and Joaquin's first visit to WDW!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Great start! I'll tag along for the trip.

I'm with you - I ate at Marakesh (whatever) once and loved it, but cannot convince my DH to try it. Oh well....

Looking forward to more.

Cathy

Hopefully one day he will try it! Welcome to my TR.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Today was the day that Jason and Joaquin were arriving. I was very excited, because this is the first time I am going to be able to see Disney through the eyes of a two year old. Our original plan was to go and eat at Kona at 8am. However, the night before we decided that we were not going to opt to go to Kona in the morning. This was an OOP ressie, not one that was going to be from the DDP. We have been so stuffed so far that we decided we would not do this one OOP.

We slept until around 8:15am. Mom again was up and showered already before I got up. We all went down to Gasparilla Grill at 9am. Mom and I had our appointment at the Spa at 9:30am, so we didn't have long to eat. We all got pastries again (hellllloooooooo cheese danish!). We were done eating around 9:20am so dad headed up to the room to relax for a while before he had to leave for the airport to pick up the boys and mom and I began our walk to the Spa. Here is a picture I forgot to show of the henna that I had done the day before.

Here is the Spa at the GF

Let me tell you that I love this place and when we come back next year, I think my mom and I are going to opt to do one of those bigger packages. So far, all I've had done is a manicure and a pedicure. I think an all day package would definitely be worth the money. My technician was named Neci and she was so awesome and so sweet. She worked on my hands and my feet for two hours. We chatted on about everything, from the weather back home in Chicago (boo!), to our disappointment that Pleasure Island is no longer around, to their closing of the Virgin Megastore. It was a very relaxing experience.

After we were finished, mom paid for both of our treatments. Thanks mom! Have I mentioned before I have the best mom ever??? It was about 11:15am when we left and I snapped a few shots on our short walk back to the resort.

Wedding Pavilion. Would love to get married here some day.

This was waiting for us back at the room.

As soon as we got back to the room I noticed that I had a text from Jason. He was letting me know that they had landed already and that he needed dad's cell phone number because he wasn't sure if he had a new one. I gave him a call and he immediately told me that they were already in the car and on the way and that dad found them right away. He also said that they were going to stop off somewhere quickly to make sure to pick up the diapers and the wipes he needed for Joaquin, because he wanted to pack minimally on the plane.

Mom and I decided to head down to the lobby then so we could meet them there. We read our books while we waited, so it really didn't seem to take a long time. They arrived around 12:30pm. We all went to the room so Jason could change into shorts (remember it's 30 degrees back home).

Here's Joaquin's first look at the room

Trying to climb on the ottoman

After Jason unpacked quickly and changed, we went down to Gasparilla Grill for a quick bite. We obviously visited this place often during the trip. Mom and I got nuggets, and carrot cake, dad got a chicken sandwich and chocolate cake and Jason got a bacon double cheeseburger and carrot cake. Joaquin had nuggets and fries from mom and I.

He obviously was too hungry to care I wanted to take pictures.

Jason trying to mug, but again, he was hungry!

After that we decided to head over to Epcot since our dinner ressie was at Les Chefs de France. We got delayed at the GF monorail station because apparently monorail orange was having problems and needed to be towed off the track. We waited about 30 minutes before we started moving. Joaquin was in a very happy mood (he always is actually) so I snapped some pics while waiting. This TR is full of Joaquin pictures because he's so much cuter then we are to take pictures of!

We didn't end up getting to Epcot until almost 3pm due to the delay. We had to get Joaquin some sunglasses, because Jason couldn't find the ones he brought and boy it was sunny! After getting his sunglasses we headed over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends for Joaquins first ride. On the way over, we wanted to stop in the Character Connection, but they had an 80 minute wait! Instead we kept walking and who do we run into? Chip and Dale and they had just come out, so we only waited about 5 minutes to meet them. This was Joaquins first meet and greet, so I was a little nervous.

A little hesitant

Cheesin'

Finally meeting them and asking Dale to Pound it (note the little fist)

Walking to Nemo with Ommi

Very fascinated with the seagulls (mine, mine, mine)

Continued in next post

 

[IheartDDuck]

Continued from previous post:

We got on The Seas without having the wait at all. I don't typically take pictures on the ride because my camera isn't the greatest. I am going to upgrade before my next trip though.

Here is Joaquin in the clammobile a little nervous

He did really well on the ride and had a good time. He kept saying "wow" throughout and "Ohhhh", so I think he liked it. After, we made a stop in the aquarium area. Joaquin really liked this.

Look Dory! This fish was freaking out because of the bubbles and that too made me think of Finding Nemo

Let me comment again that it has been sooo hot this time around. I was glad to be away from the premature cold weather back at home, but man it was hot. We headed into club cool on the way because it was so hot. Plus, we had ulterior motive and wanted to have Joaquin try Beverly. Mean, I know. But wait....

Trying Beverly

The reaction

Back for more!?

Officially the strangest kid ever. Didn't flinch at trying Beverly. Not once. Maybe that's a sign that he comes from a weird family?

We kept heading into WS after this for our ressie, but not without stopping at the water play area for Joaquin to cool down.

Don't get too close Jason!

Ohhh, he made a friend!

We made our way over to Les Chefs de France after this. I was very excited because the last time my mom and I ate there, we ate there on a Sunday, and Remy wasn't there. When I found out they extended Remy's time there, I was very excited at the possibility of seeing him. They checked us in right away and we were seated within about 5 minutes. We had a really nice server named Lidio. He really loved Joaquin and said that he reminded him of his granddaughter with his chubby cheeks. We all selected something from the Prix Fixe menu so we could get an appetizer, entree and dessert. I had french onion soup, and every else got lobster bisque. Dad and Jason had beef short ribs, mom had the chicken and I had the macaroni made with gruyere cheese. Joaquin basically ate something from everyones plate. This child, as proven by the Beverly, is not a picky eater at all. If it's food, he'll eat it. He only has some moments. He loved the macaroni with the gruyere. We all opted for the creme brulee for dessert.

We got a visit from this guy

So like an idiot, I totally thought I was filming Remy when he came to the table. Yeah, um, I had a blonde moment and completely forgot to actually start the video. OMG, how stupid!

So when the creme brulee came, Joaquin was so excited. This child literally has a mini heart attack anytime food comes to the table. I gave him a bite and was always met with mouth open and him saying "ready?", meaning more.

I put my glasses on him so he could mug a little bit and got this shot

Jason and I say he looks like Elton John. This shot resulting from me putting my glasses on him and saying "let me see". Well, in Joaquin's world, let me see means let me see how much food you have in your mouth. You see, this kid has a tendency to put way to much food in his mouth and continue to put in more, so Jason has to ask him to see so he doesn't put too much in.

Really excited about that creme brulee

After we left the restaurant, I decided I wanted a Grand Marnier slush, which no one complained about, they wanted something too. Jason and I got the Grand Marnier, and my dad got the Grey Goose, everything my treat. It was really good and this was the first time I had tried it. I will definitely be returning for more. The only disappointment I had is that they didn't put it in the nice cups, they put them into coffee cups. Huh? Oh well. It tastes the same.

We headed out of the park at this time, because Joaquin was needing to wind down after a long day. He still had not slept, but he was still raring to go. We made it to the monorail around 7pm. We gave Joaquin a glow stick and he was having a good ole time with it.

We made it back to the hotel at about 7:30pm. Jason was tired because his weekend was long (he moved into a new apartment before he left for WDW) and their flight was very early. We decided to take Joaquin into the pool for a while. Put that boy in floaties and a life vest and he just floats around the pool. We got out to put Joaquin to bed, because he definitely needed it. Our plan was to return to the hot tub after he was in bed in the room with Ommi and Poppy. I dried him off and was holding him and asked Jason to hold him while I wrapped my towel around myself. Jason looks at Joaquin and says come here, and Joaquin looks right at him and says "no". I thought that was awesome. That's right boy, TeeTee is better than Daddy! Jason laughed and called him a turncoat.

We put him to bed and then ran out to take a soak in the hot tub. That was a nice way to end the day. We ran back in after that and grabbed everyone's mugs and got everyone drinks after that. Joaquin was out like a light in the crib the hotel provided. We relaxed a while and then off to bed for the rest of us.

The next day: Magic Kingdom, Tony's Town Square and Le Cellier. Woo hoo!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I am really enjoying your trip report! You write well, but I also love reading about you and your mom and the fun you have. I lost my mom almost two years ago and now I always love mom/daughter trip reports to bring back my own good memories!

Love Marrakesh, my husband hates it. Go figure.

Your nephew is adorable, what fun to have that experience with him!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I am really enjoying your trip report! You write well, but I also love reading about you and your mom and the fun you have. I lost my mom almost two years ago and now I always love mom/daughter trip reports to bring back my own good memories!

Love Marrakesh, my husband hates it. Go figure.

Your nephew is adorable, what fun to have that experience with him!

Can't wait to read more!

Welcome to my TR! I am sorry to hear about your mom, but I am glad to know that you have a lot of good memories! I consider my mom to be my best friend and she and I always have such a good time together. We try to take mother/daughter trips often.

It was a lot of fun to have that experience with my nephew. Man is he a ham though. Friends galore were made along the way!

 

[Disneymoon09]

I'm loving your report!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I'm loving your report!

Thanks! Hopefully I can keep things interesting for you.

 

[IheartDDuck]

This day we had to change some of our plans. We had made a lunch ressie at Tony's Town Square and wanted to keep that. However, our original plans were to go to Typhoon Lagoon this morning. But, with the lunch ressie at 11:40am, we would have a difficult time making it the the ressie and enjoy the morning at Typhoon. So, we decided to go to Typhoon tomorrow and to just start the day at the Magic Kingom this morning. That was fine with me, because the Magic Kingdom is my favorite park and I knew we would have fun with Joaquin there.

We were out of the hotel room at about 9:30am. One of the things that tends to be a trend in any of the trips with Jason is that he is slow as molasses. We never get out of the room early with him. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it, but it is still frustrating to sit there in the morning while we're waiting for him to primp and polish so he looks .

We headed down to Gasparilla grill so we could use some of our snack credits again. We just got a selection of bagels and pastries, which was fine with me, since we would be eating a heavier lunch soon. Soon it was off to the monorail station. I snapped these photos of my dad and Joaquin which I thought were absolutely priceless.

The monorail came within a matter of minutes. Other then then time the day prior where we had a 45 minute wait because of the issues with the monorail, we were pretty fortunate this trip. Every time we would get up to the station the monorail would be close to approaching for us. As soon as we got into the park, we headed over to city hall to get Joaquin one of these.

After we got him his first visit button (a little side note on this. I wish they had come up with these things earlier, because I would have loved to have a picture of myself with one of these, but that was many moons ago. Our first trip was in '85 when I was 4), I decided to go over and get Joaquin a hat. You see yesterday his hat got soaked when we let him run through one of the water play areas, and it still hadn't dried. We needed a hat because he's not a big fan of his sunglasses and it was very sunny. So I got him this hat.

Then we had to take the picture of Jason and Joaquin in front of the castle. This is my one frustration with trips. I never get pictures of myself because no one else ever thinks to take pictures of me. They never volunteer to take the camera. Oh well, Joaquin is a cute enough subject. Jason, I'm not so sure.

We wanted to head over to Buzz Lightyear first thing. Jason and I are very competitive, so we always head here first. One thing I should mention is that I'm a very sore loser. Very. Very. Both of the guys were holding Joaquins hand through our walk, so I had to snap a pic, because I thought it was adorable to have three Voss' generations together.

Finally, we arrived

Jason was excited

Joaquin was fascinated with Buzz

Joaquin sat with Ommi and Poppy for this ride, because Jason is that competitive. Yup, he didn't want Joaquin as a hinderance to his beating me. Well, he beat me this time, but he wouldn't beat me again. We figured we would stick Joaquin in with Zurg for a while.

After we freed Joaquin from prison, we took a ride on the TTA (that's still such an awkward name for me. It's the Wedway people mover!) Joaquin was a little tired.

Totally trying to snap Space Mountain pics

Couple of Tomorrowland pics

Joaquin had fun

Up next:
Joaquin meets Buzz. Is his meeting ruined by a screamer?

 

[IheartDDuck]

We interrupt this Trip Report with a special announcement.....I just made plans to go to the World from 12/31-1/6/10!!!! OMG I'm so excited! This is completely last minute for me, but I really wanted to go somewhere over New Years and I have an annual. Well, I mentioned this to my Dad and he wanted to come along. So there you have it. I'll be in the World for New Years, something I've never done before. We'll be staying at Port Orleans French Quarter, because we were unable to get any DVC resorts. That's fine with me though. Now, I'm off to attempt to make dining reservations. Hopefully I'll be able to get something. Woo hoo!

 

[IheartDDuck]

So we left off just finishing up on the TTA. We saw Buzz Lightyear out for his meet and greet and figured this would be a good time to bring Joaquin over to meet him. So we get in line to meet him and Joaquin was very excited, already pointing to Buzz.

Now this is where my mention of the screamer comes in. We line up and there is a kid that is about 3 years old behind us with his mom. He was all over the place, grabbing the chains on the queue, rolling around on the floor, climbing all over his stroller. If there was a place for him to climb, he was on it. He had on one of those backpack leashes too. I'm not against the leashes, so let me begin with that. However, I am against them from perspective of using them only so you don't have to pay attention to what your child is doing. Joaquin does not wear a leash, because he listens to us very well. Well the little boys mother comments to him "look how well behaved he is. He's younger then you and he doesn't even need a leash!"

At this point the little boy starts to throw a temper tantrum. Whenever kids throw fits, Joaquins face tends to do this. He just doesn't know what to do with himself. So the little boy is screaming, throwing a tantrum, yelling at the top of his lungs "BBBUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZ!!!!". His mom proceeds to look at him and say "throw another tantrum and you won't see Buzz". Well, three more tantrums in (literally in the span of 15 minutes) and she didn't keep her promise that he wouldn't be seeing Buzz if he continued. Just kept up with the same empty threat. Jason leans in to me and says "FYI, it doesn't work if you don't follow through. I have a feeling Joaquin's moment with Buzz is going to be ruined somehow". I know how he felt. I think he was nervous that the little boy was going to continue screaming and shouting. I know that if I was filming this, I wouldn't want to hear some random kid yelling "BBBUUUUUUUZZZZZZ!!" in the background of the video of my childs experience.

So Joaquin gets up there and keeps yelling "BBBUUUUUUUUZZZZZZ!", but at this point Joaquin was ignoring it, so overall the experience was okay, albeit a little louder then we anticipated. He was a little scared of Buzz. He is a big guy.

But then he wanted to "pound it".

He wasn't scared in the end, and this was the only character that he was a little hesitant with. I have to remember to tell the characters what Joaquin's fist up means. I remembered later on though, so we have some good pictures.

We decided after this to get FP's for Winnie the Pooh that would be good to use after we had lunch at Tony's Town Square. While Ommi and Poppy got the FP's, Jason and I hopped in line for Joaquin to meet Tigger and Eeyore. However, the line was taking forever and the time for our ressie was fast approaching. We were making some progress, but then we got the announcement from the CM that Tigger and Eeyore would be going back inside but that Pooh would be coming out shortly after that. Jason and I decided to bail at this point so we could make it in time.

We headed down Main Street and made it to Tony's in time. We were seated pretty much right away, which was nice. It was another very hot day, so being inside with the A/C was really nice.

Such a cheeseball, I tell you!

We got Joaquin the salmon meal and he loved it.

I really like Tony's and it is quickly becoming one of my favorite places. I do prefer the lunch menu though. I had the Tony's Flatbread, Jason and Dad has the spaghetti with italian sausage and mom had the chicken florentine calzone. It was all very good and we had a nice relaxing meal. This is the part of the trip when Joaquin started something new with his shoes. I had bought him a pair of mickey crocs on his first day. Well he likes to kick him off, which is something that all kids his age do. However, Joaquin always warns you that he kicks his shoe off by saying "whoa my shoe!". Hence the fact that he's cheesing in the picture above. He just got busted for kicking off his shoe. Well, I have to give him this much. At least he warns you that he kicked off his shoe.

After we finished our lunch at Tony's it was time for us to head back so we could make our FP time for Winnie the Pooh.

Joaquin had a lot of fun on the ride and was pretty much just saying "whoa!" the whole time. It was very cute. Joaquin needed his daily cool down at this point, so we took him into the Winnie the Pooh play area.

After Joaquin was thoroughly cooled off, we decided that we wanted to cool off as well, so we headed over to Splash Mountain. Mom opted not to go on, so she watched Joaquin rather then doing the child swap. While she is a great fan of Splash Mountain, she has to be in the mood to get wet. Jason and I ended up in the front and Dad was right behind us. Jason and I got soaked. I don't think I've ever gotten that wet on Splash Mountain before. I don't have good luck with water rides. I always end up getting soaked, which you will learn later with my experience on Kali River Rapids.

We found Ommi and Joaquin very quickly after that. We thought for sure he would be asleep, but he surely wasn't. He was way to interested in everything else that was going on. She said that she just pushed him around and he was just asking "wazzat?" to everything. We decided that after Splash Mountain we would take our chances with some pirates. Joaquin very much liked this ride as well. I love Pirates of the Caribbean, but I really like the one in Disneyland better. But I do love this one too. We considered leaving Joaquin with the naughty pirates.

After this, we had to get our Dole Whips because we were in Adventureland after all! Joaquin could not get enough of what we gave him. Gotta love the Dole Whip! I was still pretty wet from Splash Mountain, and it was a good time to head back so Joaquin could get his afternoon nap, so we headed out of the park and got on the monorail. I tried to catch Joaquin making his silly face, but only got the end.

We got back to the room in no time and relaxed for a while so Joaquin could nap. We had to get our rest because we had our most sought after ressie that night....Le Cellier!

Up next: Dinner at Le Cellier and OMG where is my camera!?