TR: WOW! Take a picture of tha... oh, wait the batteries are dead again.

[lisateaches]

We completed our January Walt Disney Trip this past Sunday. So, in the absence of exciting things to plan, I will start our trip report. Please check out my pretrip report to find out the... well, pretrip info. It's not long, so it won't take too long to take a peek. Pretrip report: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39158972&postcount=1

1.)The Morning Of
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39599043&postcount=2
2.)Aiport and Flight http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39612085&postcount=3
3.)Arrival at MCO http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39643607&postcount=4
4.) Animal Kingdom http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39643687&postcount=5
5.) Animal Kingdom and How I May never Be Able to Face My Daughter When the Truth Comes Out http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39653634&postcount=15
6.) Back at the Resort http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39680255&postcount=16

 

[lisateaches]

The night before brought lots of anticipation and less sleep than I would have preferred. However, it wasn't the worst night's sleep I've had before a WDW trip. We were a little nervous because the predicted snowfall had started. It didn't seem to befalling as fast as predicted ( this is usual for St. Louis- every snow is portrayed as the next big blizzard- we haven't had one for close to thirty years. )
Four o'clock a.m. dawned pretty darn early. I quickly recovered and hopped out of bed. After getting myself ready I woke up Eve (DD8). We took an excited picture together in the bathroom of all places

and went in to wake the little one.

Isn't she just a vision of rest? Well, not for long!

She looks a little confused, does she not? Take a look at the back of her hair. Now you know what we deal with EVERY DAY!!! After getting the little one ready we were on our way. Luckily, Tom had been clearing off the driveway Here's a look see of the snow coming down.

It was a little worse than we anticipated and definitely slowed us down. Only one lane was semi-cleaned on the highway. I told him to relax, we would make it, but secretly I was a little nervous that we would be cutting it close and if the weather didn't deter take off we might be in trouble. Did the flight take off on time? Tune in tomorrow!

 

[lisateaches]

We arrived at airport parking and had to trudge through the snow with our three suitcases, carry- ons, stroller and children. Fun times at 5 something in the morning. We caught the shuttle to the airport and quickly checked our bags and went through security. Luckily, the kiddos were ok with taking off their shoes and walking through the metal detector ( I got to hold the two year old). All set! I stopped
to get DD 2 1/2 some milk for her cup, but I held off on the coffee. We were soon informed that although the airplane was ready, the pilots were not there. Evidently, the snow got in the way of their "pick up". Well, I kept wanting to get my coffee but it was a little far away. I didn't want to risk missing boarding to get a good spot. Finally, I decided those dudes weren't there yet so I should have enough time. Sure enough, as soon as I got the coffee they were boarding the plane. Soon we were boarding as well, an hour late. So much for the hopes to be in Animal Kingdom by 1:00 pm. I decided I'd sit with the girls on the way down to Florida and Tom could sit with them on the way home. Here are a few shots on the plane.

That's a shot of Emilia pasting some paper dolls I cut out from my friend's machine. Glue kept her busy, but she normally likes to color-- today she only colored a little-/

 

[lisateaches]

We arrived in Orlando about an hour later than anticipated, around 12:05. We gathered our belongings and headed towards the Magical Express. We had to wait and then we had to wait while the driver dropped some people off at their resorts, but it was still worth it to me. Our original plan was to arrive and head out to AK by 1:00 pm. I knew we weren't going to make it there by 1 and I was ok with that ( which is good because, um I didn't have a choice When we checked in, which was super simple because we did most of it on line prior, we were told our room was ready! We took our carry on luggage to the room and changed into some lighter clothing. Then we were off to AK! I have no pictures of the resort at this pt. because I was juggling Mimi and our stuff and that is just enough. Her business will attribute to my later forgetfulness too.

 

[lisateaches]

Before I dive into the AK report, let me give you a little background. During our last trip in 2009, I issued a decree- I shall never grace the pathways of AK again. It is hotter than all other parks and we have a perfectly good FREE zoo in St. Louis and my husband and I always seem to argue at this park. Well, fast forward to 2011 and I had agreed to spend a few hours here. My husband likes it and my daughter was dying to ride Expedition Everest. We arrived around two. They still had up the Christmas tree so I was so excited! I sent my husband to get two fast passes for EE, while I took the girls to order food at Pizzafari. I chose to eat here because it got decent reviews, was close to FOTLK, and we WERE STARVING! Mimi is 2 1/2 years old so she wasn't on the dining plan and you never can tell if she will eat or not. Unless it is candy, then it's a pretty sure bet. Evie swore she was not hungry and thought we should share something. We shared the veggie pizza. It was decent and it came with a caesar salad that was pretty darn good. We got some kind of chocolate mousse thing for dessert and she ate it. She did wind up eating a little bit of everything. Since my husband and I were really hungry, I got Mimi a cheese pizza with grapes and carrots. They also threw in a cookie, which I was surprised because I thought you had to request that instead of the grapes. I tossed that in my purse to give the grapes a fighting chance. She loved the grapes and carrots, but I don't think she ate the pizza. My husband got the pepperoni, but he liked my veggie pizza better. When we sat down I also noticed that they gave us two milks! Yeah, because DD 21/2 can drink a lot of milk. One thing about going in January, we didn't even put a dent in our large Diet Cokes. And without lids, they had to go bye bye. Our first lunch here was only interrupted by THREE potty breaks. She has the bladder the size of a pea! We decided to stick her in a pull up in case we were in line and couldn't get to a bathroom. This did not work out well for us when we arrived back in St. Louis. We headed off to Festival of the Lion King. It was getting ready to begin so we took our seats quickly. We were in the giraffe section and I will never forget that because Mimi kept hollering at the giraffe, " Giraffe, can you hear me?" it was so cute and everything was so loud that no one noticed. Everyone enjoyed the show. In fact, Mimi declared it was her turn about five minutes into it and started heading down the bleachers.Luckily, she listened to me and sat back down to enjoy the show.

What was next on our plan? Did AK redeem itself? Will I ever darken its doors again? Stay TUNED!

 

[I Believe In Magic]

Nice start so far!! Can't wait to read more!

 

[francis6306]

We went in Dec and my DD is 2.5 as well! Love the "never know" if she'll eat a lot or a little, but she isn't extremely picky about what she eats! I MIGHT have put off potty training until AFTER this trip since I knew we'd have lines and possibly not close bathrooms. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip goes!!

 

[wlake]

Ooh -- snow on the way to the airport! That would make me nervous too. Glad you got there!

 

[princessbrulee]

Good start so far!
I'm amazed that even with all the snow you still managed to get to AK by 2! My youngest daughter was 5 when we brought her to Disney, and I still had to contend with constant potty requests JUST as we were about to get on a ride. The worst was Test Track, I thought for sure she was going to get scared and wet herself! Thankfully she made it.

 

[lisateaches]

We went in Dec and my DD is 2.5 as well! Love the "never know" if she'll eat a lot or a little, but she isn't extremely picky about what she eats! I MIGHT have put off potty training until AFTER this trip since I knew we'd have lines and possibly not close bathrooms. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip goes!!

Aren't you smart? I never even thought about waiting to potty train! Although, we really hadn't planned this trip then. I'm queen of last minute (three months) Disney trips.

 

[lisateaches]

Good start so far!
I'm amazed that even with all the snow you still managed to get to AK by 2! My youngest daughter was 5 when we brought her to Disney, and I still had to contend with constant potty requests JUST as we were about to get on a ride. The worst was Test Track, I thought for sure she was going to get scared and wet herself! Thankfully she made it. [/QUOT

My older girl has the bladder made of steel- I guess she went to the bathroom in the parks maybe twice. We weren't drinking a super lot since it was so cold. That little one has the bladder the size of a sweat pea.

I was satisfied with 2, considering the late departure. I had had my daughter list three must dos for AK, and we got those done plus some.

 

[lisateaches]

Princessbrulee- sorry bout the weird response. First, I was given a fatal error and then it showed up like this.
Welcome!

 

[lisateaches]

Ooh -- snow on the way to the airport! That would make me nervous too. Glad you got there!

This week back has been filled with snow here in St. Louis and the week we left everywhere got tons of snow, so we were very lucky.

 

[lisateaches]

Nice start so far!! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much for the encouragement!

 

[lisateaches]

Animal Kingdom and How I May Never Be Able to Face My Daughter When the Truth Comes Out

Something that I failed to mention, which will happen often here because I do this late at night without any real plan, is that right before FOTLK we saw Pocahontas. There was no one around her and this is someone that my daughter has always wanted to meet! Well, guess what? My husband had just taken the bag with the camera to park the stroller. No problems, I remembered to have a CM give me a photopass so we could buy those. Evie was beyond words and Mimi just loved meeting her. So cute! And then that Photopass was NEVER SEEN AGAIN. And believe it or not this is not the only time this trip that the name Pocahontas will cause some trouble. Well, I'm kind of a coward you see. I still have not mentioned that there is no photo of the beloved character. I'm hoping that pass will show itself. In fact, while typing this I am thinking I will check a pocket on the stroller in case I put it there later. But, I bet it fell out of my pocket during the show. It gets better. Two days after we were home I asked my DD what her favorite part of the trip was. Oh, dear. You guessed it, meeting Pocahontas.

 

[lisateaches]

Around 4:45 we took a bus back to our resort POFQ. I failed to mention that we were put in building two. I considered requesting one of the refurbished rooms but I didn't for a few reasons. 1.) two queen beds wouldn't leave a lot of room for the pack and play 2.) I'm a believer and things happen for a reason and not having been there before I didn't really know which building would work out best for us. 3.)I think there was a three, just can't remember it now. Well, building two worked out just dandy. We were in room 2113. Earlier when we went to our room to check it out I think I freaked my family out. I immediately checked for bedbugs and then used the Clorox scrubby wipes to clean every smooth surface, including the tub. I am not a neat/clean freak. BUT I heard here on the DIS Boards about so many people getting sick in Disney and I figure you can't be too careful this time of year.Who wants to spend their vacation all sick? Not me. As far as the bed bugs- well, someone mentioned those on here too. I am happy to say there were none. The room was fine. A little worn. The girls seemed happy there. We took note that they still had not delivered the pack and play that we had requested. I told hubby not to worry about it for now. Evie wanted Mimi to sleep with her anyway. Yeah, that didn't work out well. We dressed a little warmer since the sun was going to set soon and headed out to DD for dinner. Where to go, where to go??? I wanted to try Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck Express. Stay tuned! I took some pictures of the food, which felt AWKWARD!

 

[BridgetR3]

I'm in!! Enjoying your TR so far!!

 

[lisateaches]

I'm in!! Enjoying your TR so far!!

Welcome Bridget! Thanks for joining in!

 

[lisateaches]

We took the boat from POFQ to DD. It was a little chilly but an enjoyable ride. We saw the Treehouse Villas (??) on the way. They looked unique!

When we arrived at DD my husband insisted that I did the research and that I should choose: Wolfgang Puck or Earl of Sandwich. Well, I chose WPE. We had dined at the restaurant on our previous trip so I couldn't resist. We were not disappointed! DD 8 1/2 got chicken strips and fries with a soda ( a mix of every soda thank you very much). She shared the meal with DD 2, but she did not really eat any. My husband got a warm turkey sandwich which he loved. They came with sweet potato fries, he enjoyed those. I got the rotisserie turkey cobb. D-lish! For dessert my DH got the cheesecake- soft and wonderful. I got the creme brulee- which led us to the discovery of our daughters love of this dessert.

WE were happy with our choices. I felt so uncomfortable taking pictures of food! I made them pose by their dishes, so it would look like I was taking their pictures. We then went around DD and did a little shopping and sight seeing.

After, we headed home. The ride was considerably cooler, but the boat let us off right outside of our building. Great location that building two. I worked on getting Mimi to fall asleep while Tom and Evie covertly went swimming. They said it was cool, but not terribly so. Evie got her life long wish and her sister slept with her. Oh, boy. Mimi kept waking up and feeling for Evie. Evie loved it but got very little sleep. I swear every time Mimi's breath changed I woke up cuz I knew she was awake. We all knew, ( including MIMI) that the pack and play would be necessary the next night.

 

[lisateaches]

We woke bright and early. Evie hadn't slept well because Mimi kept waking. She wasn't obnoxious or anything, but we were tired because of it. We stopped by on the way to the buses to request a pack and play. The girls got dressed in their Tinkerbell shirts. I purchased those from the Disney online store for 5.99 each! Organic cotton- softtttttt. I also purchased their lime green tutus on line for 2.99 each. I added glow in the dark paint to the bottom in case we were out at night. For some reason, the queen of tutus, Mimi, did not wear hers that day.

We had a 8:20 reservation at Crystal Palace so we were out of the room by 7:30. We bundled up because the temperature had dropped. The high was predicted to reach only 58 degrees. We stopped for a windy picture in front of the castle.

I really thought we'd get one with no one in the background since the park wasn't opened yet and we were there around 8, but no such luck. I was surprised at how crowded the Crystal Palace was this early. I think cold weather makes me think it was earlier than it was. Had it been summer I would have been on a ride by then anyway. We arrived early and checked in. We had time to park the stroller and unload it before our thingy buzzed. We placed our drink orders with our super sweet waitress. I saw that we would only have a few minutes before the characters arrived so I had Tom head off to get Mimi something and assist Evie.

We had a good breakfast and both girls ate something! Mimi's favorite was the strawberries. They both enjoyed the parade around the restaurant with the characters. While taking one of our last pictures we noticed the battery was low. We were pretty puzzled over this since we had just put new ones in before we left and hadn't taken many pictures yet. We replaced them before we left CP. I sent Tom and Evie off to Space Mountain to get FPs and Mimi and I headed off to Fantasyland. She immediately fell in love with Dumbo. What I don't get is that this ride is the same as the one in AK and basically the same as Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride. She loved those, but why is Dumbo always their favorite? She hadn't even seen the movie!

Tom and Evie rode Space Mountain AND got FPS. I took Mimi on the carousel and she loved that too! So we went on twice at her insistence. Evie was back by then and joined us. From there we rode Peter Pan, Snow White, Small World, Winnie the Pooh and a few repeats. Lines were very low and we loved it! From there we headed over to ride BTMRR. Evie loved this so much and we must have rode it 10 times on our trip. She really missed her favorite, Splash Mountain, but it was being refurbished. Plus, it was cold so I wouldn't have wanted to get wet on it. From there we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. After that, we went over to Tomorrowland. We rode Buzz, PeopleMover, Space Mountain and Stitch. This area was harder to do with Mimi since she could only go on PeopleMover (which she enjoyed) and Buzz. She really didn't care for Buzz at first, which worried me because it's one of my favorites. We only had 5 min. waits on Buzz and Space Mountain. We also got Rider Switch tickets for whatever rides Mimi couldn't go on- so Evie's fun was doubled. We were getting hungry so I wandered over to Main Street while DD8 and DH rode Space Mountain one last time.