TRIP INTERRUPTED - or V's Summer Vacation(s)

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

Is it Tuesday?

It's definately Tuesday at my house.

 

[Lauralee131]

I had to double check, as the last time I thought it was Tuesday, it was really Wednesday...

But yes, yes it is TUESDAY...

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

I had to double check, as the last time I thought it was Tuesday, it was really Wednesday...

But yes, yes it is TUESDAY...

I've got your back, LL. We've all been there. It's just that I know it's Tuesday because I have company that leaves on WENESDAY!!!!!!!

 

[Lauralee131]

I've got your back, LL. We've all been there. It's just that I know it's Tuesday because I have company that leaves on WENESDAY!!!!!!!

Oh no...do ya need backup???

 

[PrincessV]

Know what? I'm in a slump. I've got me some major TR-writer's block. I'm hoping completion of School Paper #2 will fix that right up. I wrote the conclusion today, so maybe my TR juices will start flowing again later this week.

Thanks for hanging in there everyone!

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

Oh no...do ya need backup???

Apparently I need back up in the typo department. I know how to spell Wednesday...I promise.

And, nope, no in-laws. He's my dad.

 

[PrincessV]

Wow… what to say about the day following Laputoxication?

It was early.

It was bright.

It was hot.



Most importantly, though…

I was NOT hung-over.


I know – it’s craaazy! But no hangover for me. I won’t bore you with all the minute details, but trust me when I say that my body metabolizes things in strange and ever-changing ways. It’s always a mystery as to how alcohol will affect me the next day. I’ve felt badly after a single glass of wine at 9pm the night before and I’ve felt fine after several glasses of scotch at 2am. Beats me.


All I know is I awoke, though a bit tired, feeling pretty darned good.


ULP.

Except for the feeling that mass quantities of juice had infiltrated every pore of my body. It started upon wake-up and continued throughout the day; every time I burped, I could taste pineapple. Orange. Whatever-the-heck-juice they put in Lapu Lapus.

TMI? Sorry.
But it’s true.



Anyway, knowing my way around a Florida summer, I skipped the shower, (I took one less than 12 hours earlier – I was clean enough!), and went for a face-wash/tooth-brushing with the hair yanked back. No point in showering when I’d soon be drenched in sweat, right?

Leo and I were fed and out the door in record time. Off to the Grandstand bus stop and, don’t you know, a MK bus rounded the corner only minutes after we arrived! A few stops later, we picked up Lauralee… but no Michael or Tony. They’d had a late night and really needed sleep – a situation I completely understand and can relate to.

LL did have a little person with her, though. Apparently a little girl had befriended her at the bus stop and was not ready to let go. See her TR for more on this – it was pretty funny. Plus, I missed most of what was happening on the bus. I am NOT a morning person. Really. I’m not good for much until about 9:30am Oh, I’m pleasant enough, just not all that quick, KWIM?

As the three of us made our way back to Fantasyland to search for Tracy and Jo, I was surprised by how not-as-hot-as-I-thought-it-would-be it was. Really – it was hot, but I wasn’t uncomfortable. What a difference an August morning at WDW is compared to an August morning at my house, 1.5 hours to the west. Apparently the Gulf keeps things a lot more humid where I live.


We did find Tracy and her family… and Jo and her family… where was s’late???

Uh, yeah, she wasn’t planning to come, V.

Really??? I don’t know where I got the idea that she was meeting us, but I feel better knowing that LL did, too. Of course, it’s possible that I’m the one that told her that...

So I was feeling badly about not saying a proper goodbye the night before. S’latey, I’d have gladly waited for another bus in order to give you a hug before going our separate ways!


And what did we do for LOEMH? Well, I seem to recall Tracy’s family finishing up a ride on Dumbo as we arrived, then we all headed off to the 100 Acre Wood. Everything happened so quickly, there wasn’t any good opportunity to meet the rest of Tracy’s family. Isn’t that funny?! There we all were, riding the same rides, but never really met.

So “HI!!” TE, Donald, Daisy and boys!

Someone decided to hit Snow White next and Leo surprised me in a big way – “Mommy – I wanna ride Snow White now.”
“Really? I thought it was ‘too scary’ for you?”
“No, I wanna ride it.”

He hadn’t been on Snow White since he was a baby, so I was pretty surprised, but he sounded sure of himself, so off we went.



He spent most of the ride with his head in my lap.



But when we got off, Leo was so proud to tell LL that he’d mustered up the courage to ride Snow White. I asked if he’d like to ride again and he said, “Nope.”


What else did we do? Peter Pan was in there somewhere, and IASW. As IASW was wrapping up, Jo called to let us know they were heading to EP or the rest of the day. LL, Leo and I exited and found Jo & family waiting for a final goodbye.


Meanwhile, we’d lost Tracy. And it was LL’s time to leave. She was heading home that afternoon and really had to skedaddle to make the ME bus in time. We tried calling T, but no answer, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways, too.

Leo was on a mission and we headed toward Tomorrowland, figuring we’d catch up with T at some point. Lo and behold – there she was, right in front of us! With Maddie and Waldo. I finally got to meet Waldo! I said how pleased I was to finally meet him and he said, “Tracy likes to write about me, doesn’t she?” Let me tell you, Waldo’s just as adorable in real life as he is in cyberspace. Though T may have another view.

More goodbyes were said and final hugs given.



Shoot. This “Magic Hour”, was turning out to be pretty depressing. I knew I likely wouldn’t see T or Jo for another two years. I knew by then that I’d see LL in January, but that was still 5 months away.


Time to shoot off some angst.

Leo and I hit Buzz with little or no line! We may have even ridden it twice. I forget. Remember? Not a morning person.


But I do remember this: after Buzz, Leo announced that he’d like to do the rocket ships next.


As in Astro Orbiter? The ride he chickened out on last Dec.?

Yep, that’s the one.

Leo was all about challenging his fears that day.

Again, practically no wait and we were loaded into our rocket. And went hurtling through “space”, Leo whooooping and shouting with glee. “MOMMY? This is F U N!!!!! WHEEEEEE!!!”

He must’ve looked really, really happy because, as we exited, the CM on the platform asked how many were in our party – “Two” I replied. And he handed me some little white cards. I didn’t get a good look at them, as we were carried along by the group into the elevator. I looked closer when we got out at the bottom….

They were FASTPASSES! Good for ANY ride in the MK!!

And, he gave me four, so we could do TWO rides with them!!!

What’s more – these were no ordinary Fastpasses – no expiration. NO EXPIRATION! We’d be heading out of the MK shortly, but remember – we’d be back the following weekend, baybee!



We had one last stop before heading back to the hotel – BTMRR. Leo first rode BTMRR a year earlier and it’s been on of his faves ever since. We made our way over and… it was closed. Urgh. Poor Leo. He was not a happy camper. It appeared likely to re-open later in the day, but we couldn’t wait around for that. It was starting to heat up, big-time, and Gramma was waiting to do some swimming with us that afternoon. I reminded Leo that we’d be back to WDW the next weekend and we’d try again then.

We(I) decided lunch at Columbia Harbor House would make a nice end to our MK day and we enjoyed a lovely meal of mac & cheese for Leo, magical tuna sandwich for me. Mmmmmmm. Nectar of the gods, that tuna salad is.


Getting back to SSR, we found Gramma waiting for us, enjoying a leisurely morning of reading the paper and drinking coffee. She’s not a morning person either. TFI.

She did mention that she'd enjoyed a great night's sleep on the sofa-bed. In fact, she said it was very comortable and, for once, her back felt great. Remember that.


The afternoon rain clouds weren’t on the horizon yet, and we all headed over to the Grandstand pool.

Just another reason why I love SSR – two, count them, TWO theme pools! This one was a regular pool coupled with an awesome spray zone for the kids. And every inch of the place is visible, no matter where you sit. Meaning: you can sit down with a snack/book/magazine/project/what-have-you and not worry about where your little one’s taken off to.

It was blazing HOT by that time and Leo had wonderful time in the water! He found another boy there to play and they had a blast.

While I was, indeed, enjoying myself, I was getting more and more tired by the minute. When my eyes began closing of their own volition, I gave up and headed back to the room for a nap. I love vacations!



Leo never napped, but he did have some down-time, resting on the couch while watching a mellow movie. It did the trick – we both felt 100% better by the time we headed out!


And, yes, for the record, I did take a shower.


Our evening plans called for some EP time, beginning with a yummy dinner at Biergarten. Once again, our wait for a bus was short and we entered EP right on time.



Right on time for the rain, that is.



It started sprinkling as we passed Mousegears. We pulled out the umbrellas and covered the stroller in rain gear. By the time we rounded the corner around Norway, it was a full-force gale and raining horizontally. But look – Leo was nice and dry!

Note how well the rain gear fits the stroller. Not a drop fell into the stroller or onto my sweet boy. Quite a difference from back in May…

In case you haven’t read that TR, here’s how well that worked…
Pretty funny, no? I had NO problem dropping the money on a Maclaren stroller last year. That sucker turns on a dime and weighs, like, nothing! But. I was totally unwilling to spend $50 on the package one would need to get the Maclaren rain cover. Instead, I bought a $14 Combi one and made due. When we got back to the stroller…. it was a total WRECK. As some of you may already have guessed, my idiotic attempt at saving a few bucks resulted in one soggy mess of a stroller. The cheapo rain cover was flipped backward, protecting only the freaking handles of the ride. The seat was soaked. Lucky for Leo, I was also too cheap to spring for the seat cover, so the mesh could probably be dried off with some paper towels. Unluckily for V, the rain poured right through the mesh seat. Into the bag with my friend’s Tink clock. The clock was fine, but the packaging was a little rough.

We spent a good 20 minutes in the Norwegian ladies’ room drying the whole mess off. Two days after we got home, I ordered the Maclaren rain cover.

Let that be a lesson – buy the rain gear made for the stroller. This is not the place to be a tight-wad.


So, yeah – Leo was dry and happy. Gramma and I were… not. Dry.

Wet. Is what we were. Soaking.

Always a pleasant way to begin dinner.

Luckily for us, the Biergarten was not chilled to the usual Florida summer standard of 62 degrees. We stayed warm and enjoyed our dinner immensely. The stein of beer may or may not have helped.

If you haven’t tried Biergarten yet… DO IT!!!! Where else can you eat something called wiener salad and not be turned into CPS for encouraging your child to hold their glass up proudly while engaging in drinking songs? Well, sure Britney’s house, but really, where else?

Okay, that was a cheap shot. And, for the record, I hope she gets the help she needs and gives those boys the mom they deserve.

Till then, she’s still free-game. Heh heh.


Dinner was great, but the rain had done us in. No one was much interested in hanging around for any longer. While not horizontal, it was still raining and we were all ready for the comforts of Home. After an insanely long wait at the bus stop, (clearly, my mojo had left on LL’s flight to NC), we dragged our weary selves back to our room for a final night of SSR bliss.



Coming soon: Fish Pizza, the sequel.

 

[scottny]

Great.

Loved the Britney comment. bit no longer there either, the kids are being taken away.

The pool with the spray guns look like so much fun.

 

[sharkB8HooHaHa]

Yay, V! Does this mean you got some of your paper finished? Perhaps all of it?

I am impressed that you were able to pull of Laputoxication without any repercussions...I'd have been with Tracy. Hand me a Guiness and I'm good to go, but give me fruity liquor and I'm a disaster.

Sounds like you were able to pull off a nice relaxing day despite tough good byes in the morning. And just what is itabout the air conditioning in Florida? Is it some kind of statewide secret pact to keep the setting on "as close to freezing as possible without actually needing an ice scraper"?

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Great update V

I am the same way with drinking. I never know how it will effect me. I can do 8 shots of Tequila and feel nothing and then a few days later I could have a drink and be wasted and wake up with a killer hangover.

Leo is such a cutie pie. I think that is really cute that he was so proud of himself for riding Snow White.

How awesome that you got 4 fastpasses with no expiry!

Too bad it rained on you before dinner. The same thing happened to my family when we were eating in Italy except we were not so fortunate when it came to the temperature of the restaurant. Alfredo's felt like the arctic.

 

[cmp1111]

I was NOT hung-over.

Except for the feeling that mass quantities of juice had infiltrated every pore of my body. It started upon wake-up and continued throughout the day; every time I burped, I could taste pineapple. Orange. Whatever-the-heck-juice they put in Lapu Lapus.

TMI? Sorry.
But it’s true.

Sorry, but I've been there.

I am NOT a morning person. Really. I’m not good for much until about 9:30am Oh, I’m pleasant enough, just not all that quick, KWIM?

Ah, a sister in spirit...

He spent most of the ride with his head in my lap.

But when we got off, Leo was so proud to tell LL that he’d mustered up the courage to ride Snow White. I asked if he’d like to ride again and he said, “Nope.”

That's sweet!

figuring we’d catch up with T at some point. Lo and behold – there she was, right in front of us! With Maddie and Waldo. I finally got to meet Waldo! I said how pleased I was to finally meet him and he said, “Tracy likes to write about me, doesn’t she?” Let me tell you, Waldo’s just as adorable in real life as he is in cyberspace. Though T may have another view.

Ooh, more jealousy... The Famous Waldo!

They were FASTPASSES! Good for ANY ride in the MK!!

And, he gave me four, so we could do TWO rides with them!!!

What’s more – these were no ordinary Fastpasses – no expiration. NO EXPIRATION! We’d be heading out of the MK shortly, but remember – we’d be back the following weekend, baybee!

Oh, my gosh! We got Dream FP's, but they were only good the one day! Way to go!!!

She did mention that she'd enjoyed a great night's sleep on the sofa-bed. In fact, she said it was very comortable and, for once, her back felt great. Remember that.

Foreshadowing...

Right on time for the rain, that is.

Well, of course!

Note how well the rain gear fits the stroller. Not a drop fell into the stroller or onto my sweet boy. Quite a difference from back in May…

I was going to mention this, but then YOU did. Glad this one worked better!

Okay, that was a cheap shot. And, for the record, I hope she gets the help she needs and gives those boys the mom they deserve.

Till then, she’s still free-game. Heh heh.

I feel that's totally fair.

I'm glad you felt OK physically, if maybe a little sad... It sounds like a good productive day! Woohoo!

 

[Goofyluver]

Brittany AND wiener salad? Where else can I read that???

Great install! Lovin' it!!!

 

[boysmom5150]

OMG, i forgot to order the rain covers!!!my 1st Maclaren came with it but I loaned it to a friend and she left it somewhere. my 2nd one didnt come with any so I was going to order them.Ooopps!!I guess I know what I will be doing tomorrow

I hear lots of good things about Biergarden but I just cant do it...not liking the menu. Maybe we can pop in for a quick adult beverage and song tho

Glad you were ok after Lapupalooza. All that pineapple and no allergy problems???I was just retested and there will be NO I repeat NO pineapple for me. I used to be able to have a bit before I swell up like a balloon but the Dr. informed me thats not a good idea any longer.....NO taste of a dole whip for me, Im so disappointed .Bye bye pina colava

Yeah for Leo conquering his fears. Adding new rides to the list is always great

Happy to hear you were able to say goodbye to everyone. It must have been amazing to meet everyone. I must work on P to see if we can somehow squeeze in Aug. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

[princessjv]

I bet it was sad leaving everyone. I am so happy for you all! What a great pleasure to meet you DIS friends!

Leo is growing up... But what a brave little man he became that day. Did the bravery last past the trip?

It my have been a good thing that you got sogged put...that way you were able to go back and rest! Vacations are great aren't they?

 

[KimAshton]

Hey if the adults are wet the kids should be too. LOL. Just joking.

 

[dismom9761]

Great update!

Leo was feeling mighty brave!

 

[Lauralee131]

I have to go get ready for work, so I'll be back later but great update!!!

Have a great day my friend in case I don't talk to you later!!

 

[UtahMama]

ACK! I'm late for the party!!!!

V!!!!!! I have to go back and fill in the blanks between your first installment and this last one but THIS is one great TR! It's so good to see you and these fockers!!!!!!! Hope you don't mind if I come play too

I "toadilly" agree on the rain gear designed for the stroller. We just got the pink Mac with rain gear included and it worked fabulously with my 3 year old! I just had to remember to counter-balance it whenever she got up....it wants to FLING backwards.

 

[DisneyJo]

It was so great to spend that short time with you and Leo in MK, it was so quiet wasn't it!

Well done to Leo for being so brave and great score on the FP's

I see you got your Tuna at CHH again and it was good again!

The other SSR pool looks cool

 

[Disneyolic]

Glad you got your much needed shower. After all those other trip reporters stating how rank you were ... Oh heck, you know I'm kidding.

I'm not a morning person either until it comes to Disney. Then give me my Diet Coke and I'm off!

I'm thinking Biergarten will be one of our next choices thanks to your TRs. Just not sure on the food but I think it will be fun.

Yes ... I thought the Britney joke was funny, sorta. Poor kids but she's got a real problem. Hoping Kevin is a better mother, er father.