Tricks, Treats, Toddler, Food & Wine. An October 2011 Pre-Trip Report.

[exwdwcm]

The kids all slept in the pull out couch downstairs!

So after spending Tuesday doing the mountain thing, we used Wednesday to check out the "Forbidden Caverns" which was about 20 minutes or so away. We got there early and were the first tour. It was a little cheesy (at least hte script was) and the tour guide had the thickest southern accent and so it was sort of funny and hard to take her seriously (not that my TX accent is any better!)

Mom was very nervous about managing the caves. She has a hard time with steps. She has almost completely lost vision in her left eye and has no peripheral vision at all, so steps or changes in the incline are really hard (or folks walking up from behind her). She managed just fine though and was glad she tried it- she is trying to do as much as she can now in fear of totally losing her vision at some point.

We left the caverns, headed back to the cabin for lunch of sandwiches and leftovers. Then it was off to the waterpark, which was right across from Dollywood, right near our cabin (few minutes away). The waterpark was amazing- lots of trees and shade, great lazy river and 3 amazing kids areas. Best waterpark I have been too, other than maybe the original Schlitterbahn in San Marcos, TX. It had more of an infant/under 3 play area with splashing and slides, then the typical kids area with the bucket dump and at least 5-6 slides there. Then a third area with foam bottom, 3 more slides and more splash areas and toys. It was great. We arrived about 4pm or so. It was overcast, so we knew it might not last long and it didn't. We were almost relieve as the water was super cold. Lightning was spotted and so they closed down. We exited after only an hour there and headed back to the cabin.

We all enjoyed some much needed downtime relaxing on the upper deck and watching the storm roll in.

notice that everyone is on their phones? lol

check it out, we were in the clouds. they were rolling right on top of us!

That night, we just relaxed, had a few drinks on the deck and cooked tacos at home for dinner. Nice easy day! We also had entertainment this evening.....a large church bus was trying to get in across the street. There were two huge cabins across the street that appeared to house lots of room for groups like that. This bus got stuck and bottomed out on the hilly incline. It wasn't moving. it was sort of funny to watch, but not. It was blocking the road too, so cars trying to get up to their cabins couldn't. After about 45 minutes, a tow truck arrives and after an hour or more, they finally break them loose.

The next day, Thursday, we hit up the same pancake house again. Why, i am not sure since we had about 100 to choose from. But my dad finds something he likes and sticks with it. Today was another mountain day. We were driving up near the Normandy gap and Clingman's Dome. The drive was shorter today, but we went much higher up to 6500 ft. We arrived at the Clingman's Dome area and had amazing views into NC.

there were lots of great views, but you could also walk up this paved trail to the observation tower too. It was over a 1/2 mile each way and was a pretty steep incline. We were all huffing and puffing to get up there. DH carried Will almost the whole way, not sure how he did that!

On the drive back down, we saw some waterfalls and areas were folks were swimming and jumping off cliffs.

Oh and of course, my mom, sis and I are all disney nuts. Wendy and I realized we were wearing the same shirt that morning too!

 

[exwdwcm]

.....continued

That afternoon, after hitting the mountains, we hit up the waterpark again about 3pm. It closed at 6, but we figured we wouldn't stay past then anyhow. We all had a great time and the kids were in heaven!

That night, we enjoyed dinner at a local oven pizza joint that was pretty good and had an arcade that the kids enjoyed.

My sister, BIL and her two kids were making this their last night as well. They were going to drive back on Friday, while the rest of us would stay until Saturday. The boys enjoyed playing and "hunting for bears" with the new binoculars (toys) my mom bought them at the observation tower gift shop that day.

Friday morning, my sister and her family were off by like 5:30am. The rest of us slept in a little and then tried to eat up all the leftovers at breakfast. Then it was off for a few hours at Dollywood. I made a horrible rookie mistake, one a Dis'er should never make. I didn't check the park hours. It had opened at 10am all week, so I assumed the same for Friday. So we arrived at 9:45, hoping to get in early and see this new bubble show that was starting that day for their "kidsfest". But we arrive and it is packed. They opened at 9am. DOH! There were tons of church groups and tourist groups. The bubble show already had a crazy line and the show wasn't for another 45 minutes. So we headed to do a coaster- the Mystery Mine......this was amazing. It went literally straight up vertical and the drops were just insane and some good special effects too. We used the baby swap- since it was just us and my sis/BIL and the baby. My parents had dropped us off so they could go shopping instead.

We enjoyed a few more kiddie rides and exploring and finally got the cinnamon loaf which was great. Will drove a car with me.

We headed to the "beach" sand area, but it was closed. Instead, they were selling those sand art things where you pour sand in a jar. Will was disappointed. So by about 1pm, we were ready to go- it was just so super crowded and we had done all we wanted to do. My parents were on their way to get us.

We stopped off in the bakery on the way out and saw the 25lb apple pie, featuring on the travel channel. Alan bought a piece of the 5lb pie (almost $10!).

So parents picked us up and we decided to head home for a little break. Then we went off in search of a creek to let Will throw rocks. My dad had found a good handicap accessible creek area for my mom earlier that day, so we went back there. She had wanted to get down to see the creek areas so bad, but it was very hard to get down most of them out in the mountains.

Then it was off for some shopping. We drove into Gatlinburg to explore some of the craft shops off the main strip. We found a nice area and explored a few arts and crafts stores. One had this live baby racoons he was caring for! Sadly, my sis Wendy wasn't there and she loves raccoons- while Mandy loved teddy bears and i favored penguins, raccoons were her favorite animal growing up. and she missed it!

We found a cute small old fashioned soda shop, the kind where they actually mix the soda themselves.

We all enjoyed a treat and then headed back to the cabin to get ready for dinner. We found a place in Pigeon Forge across from the pizza place, owned by the same folks called Alamo cafe- it was a steakhouse. The food was great and was one of the best (and biggest) burgers I have ever had. Great last meal to wrap up the trip.

Off to bed and we were up at 5:30 to head out on Saturday. WE drove straight through- 15 hours with about 6 stops for diaper changes etc. William for some reason was urgent about going potty all the time. He would be fine and then suddenly pop up and say, i have to go potty RIGHT NOW!!!! it wasn't like him, so not sure what his deal was. We had to stop on the side of the road once he had to go so bad. We stopped and picked up subway for lunch, but ate it in the car. You know when vacation is over and you are just ready to get home!

The drive wasn't too bad. I watched the Princess and the Frog on the portable DVD for the first time - so cute! (Will wasn't interested) and the kids slept more on the way home than on the trip there. The drive wasn't too bad. We arrived at my parents and still had another 20 minutes to drive to our house after loading our car up.

of course on the way home, William suddenly has an urgent potty call again, after he had just gone. Maybe he had a bladder infection or something, who knows. Alan thought he was crying wolf, but the kid has never lied about going potty, if he says he has to go, he goes. Finally Alan stops and of course Will went a lot. Then Alan felt bad. lol....poor kid. Not sure what the deal was, but he was fine after the trip.

IT was a great time in all, not as relaxing, since we tend to go go go. I wish we had rafted, but we decided not to as we would have to split up so someone could watch the kids/baby while others went and mom was afraid the water would be too cold. I regret not doing it now. We also skipped the aquarium, but i wished we had done that. I've been to a lot of great aquariums though, so no biggie. Alan would like to go back and enjoy more of the mountains and hike some trails, but it was too hard to do with a large group and all the kids this time. But a great time was had by all!

Now onto planning the next trip!

 

[mousescrapper]

Michelle...

loved the mini trip report...this kind of trip would be right up my family (and my parents siblings too) sounds like a bunch of fun...would love to know the name of the cabins to investigate pricing and such

glad everyone had a good time despite a few things that didn't pan out...and I love the Americana MM shirts (I bought the same one too)


onto Disney...DISmeet right? be silly not to when we are at the same resort...

I'll PM you some info on how to contact me off the DIS so we can plan one out...was thinking Tues at MNSSHP plus maybe a "bump" into at the resort too


J~

 

[MARsMama]

Looks like you had a wonderful trip, full of fun times with family, and some beautiful photos as well

 

[stephielela]

Awesome mini TR! It sounds like something my family would LOVE. Where did you find the cabin again? I might actually suggest this to them!

 

[exwdwcm]

Michelle...

loved the mini trip report...this kind of trip would be right up my family (and my parents siblings too) sounds like a bunch of fun...would love to know the name of the cabins to investigate pricing and such

glad everyone had a good time despite a few things that didn't pan out...and I love the Americana MM shirts (I bought the same one too)


onto Disney...DISmeet right? be silly not to when we are at the same resort...

I'll PM you some info on how to contact me off the DIS so we can plan one out...was thinking Tues at MNSSHP plus maybe a "bump" into at the resort too


J~

Hey there, the name of the cabins was Hidden Springs and I think the official address is in Sevierville, but it was literally right behind Dollywood. The street you turn on to get into the Dollywood parking lot dead ends into our cabin area. here is their site and we stayed in the 4bed/3 bath Smoky Mountain Retreat. There were some even higher up that looked to have amazing views, so be sure and ask for a pic of the view from each one too.
http://www.hiddenspringsresort.com/

yes, would love to meet- saw your pm and will send you an email to get something nailed down!

Looks like you had a wonderful trip, full of fun times with family, and some beautiful photos as well

we had a blast! now so excited for our little family only disney trip. My family is very close- my parents and sisters, so we travel together a lot. However, I think it is important for my own little family of 3 (hopefully one day 4) to make our own memories with just us too. so looking forward to WDW for that! it will be the first trip with just us 3.

Awesome mini TR! It sounds like something my family would LOVE. Where did you find the cabin again? I might actually suggest this to them!

Thanks! yes, Hidden Springs Resort- http://www.hiddenspringsresort.com/ it was a great location- just next to Pigeon Forge, like 5 minute drive to the main PF strip. Then the entrance to the national park (and Gatlinburg) were just down the street too!

 

[stephielela]

Thanks!! I've already started mentioning it to my family tosee who is interested!

 

[Drumteacher]

Subbing! We have a trip planned for October 2011, too. Will catch up reading later!

 

[exwdwcm]

Thanks!! I've already started mentioning it to my family tosee who is interested!

Great! We had no problems with them at all and really enjoyed it. They have a community pool too (covered) that looked nice, but we never used it.

Subbing! We have a trip planned for October 2011, too. Will catch up reading later!

Yeah! WELCOME!!!!

 

[exwdwcm]

HAPPY 4th of JULY All! Hope you are enjoying some wonderful food, fireworks, family and friends.

It's been a busy weekend. Great "ladies night" we have every other month with the neighbor ladies. Wine and chatting on Friday. We had a great little cookout with my parents and family on Saturday to celebrate the 4th. Saw fireworks on the way home and pulled over to watch. Sunday we hit the local waterpark where we have season passes. Good thing we got there early, it got packed! Ropedrop works for the waterpark at home too. beat the crowds and left after 2 hours before we fried. We are in Dallas afterall, where it is 100 by 10am most days it seems. We chilled and cleaned house today. There are tons of fireworks to see tonight, but we passed. We just hate dealing with the traffic and crowds and really, nothing can compare to WISHES or Illumninations. Anyone else feel that way? It's like I feel I've seen the best fireworks there are, so why bother? lol- we do have an awesome show in Dallas (Addison) that is ranked one of the top 5 in the country- KaBoom Town, but it is a mad house to drive even within 10 miles. People are parked everywhere possible to watch. So i am chilling tonight!

So I thought I would post a few updates from the past few months since things have been so crazy! Besides working like a maniac and our vacation in the mountains, we did try and check out the Lightning McQueen tour that came through town last month.

I took a half day off, expecting to have a fun afternoon with Will. We head to Northpark Mall- a high end mall in Dallas, where the tour was coming. It was in the parking lot and of course was SUPER HOT that day. We saw the huge line and I said no way jose. The line literally wrapped around the parking lot twice. it was crazy, at least 200 people deep if not more. In like 100 degree temps on a hot parking lot? Crazy. And what were they in line for? To take a picture in front of Lightning and Tow Mater. Only, there were ropes around both cars and so the kids couldn't touch or get near them, only take pictures standing like 3 feet in front of the car, on the other side of a rope. What? stand in line for hours for that? no thank you. We will wait until we can see them in WDW and get up close and personal.

They also had the trailer that carried the cars and people were taking pics in front of that. Lastly, was a bounce house. THat was way too hot to even touch, much less jump in. Sitting on an extremely hot parking lot with no shade. The thing was on fire almost, no way a kid could jump in there without getting third degree burns! William so wanted to jump, but I told him it was broken, there was no way he could get in there safely. So we headed inside to the disney store instead. This location has one of the newly updated "interactive" stores. We went for the grand opening. But i have to say, it isn't all that great to me. It is small too. I prefer the disney outlet store we have closer instead.

So the CARS tour was a bust. But we did go see the movie last weekend and Will held up pretty well. It was only his third movie. He say Toy Story 3 and Tangled too. He tends to want to sit in my lap the entire time. He did enjoy CARS 2 a lot! wearing his cars hat and shirt!

We also saw Pirates of the Carribean today (finally!). Caught the early show (hello $5 movie ticket!) and it was his first time seeing a feature length movie that wasn't a cartoon. He did well too and once again ended up in my lap the whole time. He asked when we could see pirates again.

And finally in actual related trip news- we made our countdown calendar! it is just a simple posterboard that i drew calendars onto and added some stickers and old pics from past trips. Each day, William adds a sticker to it. He seemed to love this last year. WE are at 102 days today, so i figured now was a good time to start the countdown- near 100 days. I am so excited about WDW, that I keep forgetting I have to get through a week long Vegas work trip and a short San Diego weekend get away before we hit up WDW! Funny how WDW overpowers everything else planned.

Stay tuned, this week I'll get back to posting more of our schedule day by day!

 

[Parla]

I totally agree about the fireworks. I say the same thing. Only I add, "Let's save the gas and parking money for Disney." I would like to see them live in Boston or Philadelphia one time though. I want to do an East Coast trip some time and plan on doing it in July just for that reason.

I don't think my kids would care about a countdown calendar. Neither of them does well remembering stickers (DD actually can't stand stickers) and they would probably want to know where the presents were like when I got them each a Lego advent calendar a couple of years ago.

Glad to know we didn't miss anything with the Cars Tour not coming to our town. Nothing like that ever comes to Indy. Hello! Indy 500! Sheesh!

 

[mousescrapper]

Hey there, the name of the cabins was Hidden Springs and I think the official address is in Sevierville, but it was literally right behind Dollywood. The street you turn on to get into the Dollywood parking lot dead ends into our cabin area. here is their site and we stayed in the 4bed/3 bath Smoky Mountain Retreat. There were some even higher up that looked to have amazing views, so be sure and ask for a pic of the view from each one too.
http://www.hiddenspringsresort.com/

yes, would love to meet- saw your pm and will send you an email to get something nailed down!

thanks for the link, saved it to come back and look at and can't wait for our meet


also sorry the Cars tour was a bust...what a shame...but he looks most cute is his shirt and hat! we saw the movie on Sat and enjoyed it. love the countdown claendar...very fun!

 

[Pixiedust530]

What a bummer that the Cars tour was a bust! I took Caden to see Cars 2 also and he seemed to enjoy it for the most part. I'm still undecided. I loved all the Mater humor and his storyline but I feel kinda EH about the rest.

I love your countdown calendar. I really really really want to make one, but since this is a surprise trip for Caden that might spoil the surprise!

Can't wait to here more about your day by day schedule.

 

[TinyDancer]

I love your Smoky Mountain pics! We just went there the first of June.

 

[exwdwcm]

another great summer weekend! I hosted a baby shower for my BF, so that was fun, but glad to have it done. Hit the water park for 3 hours today and had a ball. The next 3 weeks are going to be hell at work. OUr big user conference is in Vegas in 3 weeks and I leave in just 2.5 weeks for it - 6 nights in Vegas. I am going to miss DH and DS so much. 3 nights in Vegas is enough for me! So work is super busy and my coworker just went out on maternity leave, which means more work for me (but so happy for her!).

I am also trying to plan for our short San Diego weekend trip the weekend of August 25th. But after that, it's all strictly disney planning baby!!!!!

I totally agree about the fireworks. I say the same thing. Only I add, "Let's save the gas and parking money for Disney." I would like to see them live in Boston or Philadelphia one time though. I want to do an East Coast trip some time and plan on doing it in July just for that reason.

I don't think my kids would care about a countdown calendar. Neither of them does well remembering stickers (DD actually can't stand stickers) and they would probably want to know where the presents were like when I got them each a Lego advent calendar a couple of years ago.

Glad to know we didn't miss anything with the Cars Tour not coming to our town. Nothing like that ever comes to Indy. Hello! Indy 500! Sheesh!

yeah, the CARS tour was a huge letdown!

lol at saving the gas money for the fireworks- you ain't kidding. Nothing can quite live up to disney.

thanks for the link, saved it to come back and look at and can't wait for our meet


also sorry the Cars tour was a bust...what a shame...but he looks most cute is his shirt and hat! we saw the movie on Sat and enjoyed it. love the countdown claendar...very fun!

thanks, he loves that hat!

What a bummer that the Cars tour was a bust! I took Caden to see Cars 2 also and he seemed to enjoy it for the most part. I'm still undecided. I loved all the Mater humor and his storyline but I feel kinda EH about the rest.

I love your countdown calendar. I really really really want to make one, but since this is a surprise trip for Caden that might spoil the surprise!

Can't wait to here more about your day by day schedule.

i don't know how you are keeping it secret, you are doing such a great job! i'll try working on my day by day schedule more tonight or tomorrow hopefully- that's my goal at least!

 

[MARsMama]

I have been trying to work on my day-to-day schedule as well, but it seems that something always comes up and I don't seem to get it done!!

Sorry to hear that the Cars tour was a bust, atleast in Disney you can get closer, and with a shorter line!

Your countdown calendar looks great! We opted for a paper chain where the kids remove a link each day. They seemed to enjoy making it, and really like seeing it shrink!

 

[exwdwcm]

I have been trying to work on my day-to-day schedule as well, but it seems that something always comes up and I don't seem to get it done!!

Sorry to hear that the Cars tour was a bust, atleast in Disney you can get closer, and with a shorter line!

Your countdown calendar looks great! We opted for a paper chain where the kids remove a link each day. They seemed to enjoy making it, and really like seeing it shrink!

I know, i just haven't had time still! but working on it some now actually while laying on the couch dealing with as they said in the old days "woman's pains". Hopefully have a few posts here in a few! Thanks on the calendar! how hard/how long did it take to make the chain? I might want to try that in the future with him.

 

[exwdwcm]

UPDATE-

So i finally got some more goodies for Will's surprise basket when we arrive. Only I realized once I got our my green disney tub of junk, that I have way too much!

I made a trip to the local disney outlet store. I was able to pick up a few great things to add to his surprise!

They had this cute glow in the dark Pirates skeleton shirt for $10 on clearance. I figured it would be cute with the halloween theme to wear at night!

Perry sunglasses ($1.99), pooh expanding washcloth, donald pen

toy story cup, toy story stackable bowls (figured will be good for snacks), and not for his basket, but still thought it was fun to get for now in the bath- a small world boat!

This is some of the stuff i already had from previous shopping!

So i think we are pretty set for the gift basket! I just need to figure out how i want to display it or what to put it in and how to get it in the room first to surprise him. I might get the keys, go on up to the room while Alan takes William to see something else down the hall, like the trash room at BLT (he does love the trash! lol) while i set up the basket a few minutes before they come in.

Also have scored lots of free samples lately for the trip. There are some great free sample sites on FB that i like and they post up free samples all the time you can get. I got a Tide sample, lotions, toothpaste, even wet wipes etc. All perfect size for the trip and all FREE!

also got a pop up laundry basket, lime green of course. I got DH some portable coffee cups. We used these last December and it was great for him. I am not a coffee drinker, but his mom and him are. So we brought these along last December (when it was FREEZING that week) and he would brew coffee in the room in the am (we brought along our own coffee) and then he could take a cup with him in the car on the way to the park. Since we drive (or walk to MK), it was easy to do. Saved money from buying coffee and these come with lids too. also got some cute lime green small bags to stick in first aid supplies or anything else for our backpack.

 

[exwdwcm]

[FONT=&quot]DAY ONE REDUX! Travel day changes:
[/FONT]
So finally catching up on my day to day plans. So back here, I posted about our day one plans, which I’ve since updated a bit. You can view the plans here. I was debating what do to upon our arrival that evening since we need to activate Will’s AP, plus eat somewhere. Since then, our Airtran flight changed. BOO! We still leave at the same time from Dallas- about 12:15. We land in Atlanta at about 5:00pm now, it was 4:30 before they changed it up. Then we land in Orlando at 6:30pm as opposed to 6pm previously. Let’s hope if they make any more changes, it is a bit earlier, not later.

[FONT=&quot]So we will arrive at 6:30pm now. Boo hoo! A loss of 30 minutes, so precious at Disney. I figure with us arriving then, grabbing the rental car quickly and our bags, hopefully we can arrive at BLT by 7:30 or 8pm. The MK is open until 10pm that night, so the plan will be to check in quickly, drop off our bags and then right back out, walk to MK to activate Will’s annual pass at the ticket window outside. I assume the outside ticket windows remain open until park closing? If not, we can go inside to Guest Relations.

[/FONT]
Assuming we don’t arrive to the hotel until 8pm, I figure we will be done activating the AP by 8:45 or so. Depending on how tired we are, we will either walk back to the BLT to have a quick dinner at Contempo Café, or ride the monorail around to the Poly for dinner at Captain Cook’s. After dinner, back to the room and off to bed. We have a very early morning tomorrow for AM EMH at DHS (enough acronyms for you?) The other option, if we are just really too tired for all that, is to just grab dinner at Contempo and get his AP activating in the morning at DHS (but I want to avoid that if we can to save precious time doing the TSM mad dash!). Do you know if they will let an adult activate the AP for a child without the child being there?

[FONT=&quot]Another change in plans involves the groceries. I just fear I will be pretty beat after traveling most of the day. Not sure I am going to want to make a solo trip to the grocery store at like 10pm or later at night. I think I am going to use Garden Grocer again and have them deliver groceries that afternoon prior to our arrival. We will only be ordering some basics, water, cokes, cereal, fruit. I will make a trip to the grocery store later in the week (just to check out the cheapo souvies at Walmart!) while Will naps one day. I plan to also stop off at the outlet down 535 too. That way I can shop while he naps and not have to worry about rushing (since DH hates shopping, so I end up feeling rushed).



Friday, October 14 [/FONT]
12:15 flight departs DFW
3:15pm- flight arrives Atlanta
5pm- flight departs Atlanta
6pm- flight arrives Orlando
7pm- arrive at BLT by rental car
7:30pm- walk to MK to activate AP
8pm- to Contempo Cafe or Capt Cooks for QS dinner
10pm- hopefully in bed!

 

[exwdwcm]

UPDATE

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011

So now back onto our first full real day- Saturday, October 15th! The plan today is extra magic hours at the Studios. They open at 8am for EMH. We will probably wake up at 6:30am, eat a granola bar or cereal in the room and out we go. I’d like to leave our hotel at least by 7:30am, so we can arrive just before opening hopefully.

We will send DH to the mad dash for Toy Story Mania fastpasses while I take Will into the standby line. IF DH can meet up with us, great, if not, he can wait for us to get off and then we will all ride again later. I figure by then, it will be 8:45am or so. We will probably head towards Star Tours. Not sure we will sign Will up for the Jedi Academy. He has watched some of the movies and knows what Star Wars is and who Darth Vader is (He’s a bad bad guy, mommy!), not sure he is old enough to really get the whole experience. So if he seems into it, we will sign him up. But I think I would rather save it for a future trip when he is older- as something special to do in the future instead.

Otherwise, we will all ride the new Star Tours. DH gets motion sickness and these motion simulator movie rides are the worst for him. BUT……he is a huge Star Wars fan. We are both sci-fi nerds at heart. So given it is a new version, I think he will ride, but only once. Will should be tall enough, the minimum is 40” and he met that last December. I think he is close to 42” now. Hopefully Will enjoys it. We took him to see a 3D short movie at Legoland discovery center this weekend and it was about an evil sorcerer and they broke out all the good 3D tricks- a spider popping out at you and evil monster etc. Will was screaming and crying and asking to leave. So now he asks if he has to wear those ‘sunglasses’ before going to the movie and gets scared. He’s watched 3D before just fine, but this one was just a scary one. So hoping that won’t dissuade him!

After Star Tours, I am thinking it will be about 9:30am. We will head over towards ToT. I’ll grab a FP for RnR. Again, DH is much on RnR. He does enjoy Tower. Depending on if he wants to ride, we will just do the child swap. But that means we each have to ride alone. I don’t mind doing that all, I’ve done solo days at the park before. He might not really want to do that though. But I am riding! I LOVE ToT, it is one of my favorites, so it is a must. RnR was closed last year on our DHS day, technical problems. So it’s been 2 years since I rode it. So I want to do both! If DH isn’t interested, I figured they can go do something else and meet up with me later.

After riding both ToT and RnR, it will probably be 10:30am. We will head to Starring Rolls for a late morning snack/treat! We visited Starring Rolls for the first time last December. I had the famous butterfinger cupcake and it totally lived up to its name. It was awesome. So we will be stopping by for one of those and whatever else looks good. We will just enjoy some time sitting on the patio, resting, people watching and smiling at this being our first day!

After our delicious snack, we will probably head to Disney Jr. and check out the new show. We will try and get some character autographs too at that point over in that area. I figure by now, it will be close to 11:30am. So if there is a noon show, we could catch that. William really loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Since he is in day care (montessorri) all day, he doesn’t get to watch many cartoons. We usually have MMC and Pirates on in the morning while he is eating breakfast, so he sees them then before school. He doesn’t know who the little einstein’s are, so he won’t care about them.

I figure after the show, we will head to grab some lunch, maybe over to Pizza Planet. We enjoyed sharing a pizza there last year and sitting out on the patio area. We will be back to DHS another day later in the trip and will spend an afternoon/evening doing the rest.

After lunch, we will head back to the room for a rest and break. I want to leave DHS no later than 1:30pm, so we can be back in the room by 2pm, getting William down for a nap. He does take a 2 hour nap at school still, usually from noon-2pm each day. On the weekends, we try and fit in a nap, depending on what we have going on. However, we know if he doesn’t get a nap, we can’t plan on going out anywhere, because he will usually be tired and therefore start acting out (i.e. no going out to dinner). So at WDW, a nap is a must for him, especially with us doing such early mornings for rope drop and late nights. We manage to do it all successfully because we do take the midday break. And to be honest, we’ve always done it that way, even on adult only trips. We all feel refreshed that way.

After a nice break, I want to be up by 4pm and getting ready and out the door to the MK by at least 4:30pm. We can walk right over and I LOVE being able to do this- it is one reason we bought DVC at BLT! We have 5:45pm reservations for CRT! We will head directly in (maybe grab a fastpass for Mickey if they are still available) towards the castle to check in for dinner. Now you may be wondering why we are doing CRT since I have a son, not a daughter. Well William does love Cinderella and loves singing "Sing Sweet Nightingale". So he is excited to eat in the castle and meet Cinderella. I figure I can only get away with a princess meal for another year or so before he outgrows it, so I am taking my chance now! Hey, he likes blondes!

MK is open until 10pm this night, so we will just go as long as we feel we can. Not sure we will stop to see MSEP or WISHES. We know we will see Halloween WISHES at the party and then regular WISHES on our pirates and pals cruise later in the week, so I don’t feel we need to see it a third time. We saw MSEP in December, so it’s not a must. MSEP is at 8pm this night.

After dinner at CRT, I figure it will probably be 7:30pm or so. We might head back to Fantasyland as folks are getting ready for MSEP and see how bad the lines look for Snow White, Pooh, Peter Pan, Dumbo, Small World. We’ll tackle whatever we can and maybe even try for the Haunted Mansion or head back towards tomorrowland. NO real plan this night, just fit in what has short lines and whatever Will wants to see.



Tomorrow? Well we will be doing RD at MK and character breakfast at Crystal Palace, one of Will's favorites!