middlepat
Dis Dad Member #325
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2005
- Messages
- 1,731
Cast of characters:
Erika
- 35
Brian
- 32
Mary - 2
Shannon - 1
Overall, our trip was much better than expected. The girls loved the parks! We expected to have to take a couple down days at the resort pool, but we ended up at the parks every day. The "crowds" were amazing. The longest wait we had was maybe 20 minutes with the average being 10 minutes or less. Many times we walked right on to a ride- even popular ones like "Its a Small World" or "Pirates of the Caribbean." It could be because we traveled over 9/11 or it could be because most kids were back in school. Some families we talked to with school age kids said their children were missing the first week of school.
Day 1 - Travel Day: A Van, A Train, A Plane, A Bus, and A Boat
We had been watching Tropical Storm Ophelia as it had been threatening Florida. We actually weren't set on going to Disney World until the day before we left. We left and got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the airport. We arrived there and Brian dropped me, Shannon, and all our luggage off. He took Mary and parked the van in extended parking. Shannon and I waited inside for them. Mary started to cry when we walked away from the van- which set the stage for the entire trip.
We were doing the Disney Magic Express option with our luggage, but that didn't pose a problem at check-in. In Orlando, they pick up our luggage and deliver them to our room. They also transport us to our resort. It was a nice feeling knowing we wouldn't need to deal with it- but my friend Thomas who works at Disney in Guest Relations joked that we wouldn't see our luggage for 3 days. When we received our Magic Express tickets, Mary and Shannon weren't listed on them. Brian had to call Disney for something (change resort from Port Orleans FQ) and mentioned it to them and they said it was fine since they were 2 and under. I called once as well to make sure - asking if there would be a problem and if they would have seats on the transportation to the resort and they said there was no problem.
Our flight was delayed. So, we had to keep the girls happy for a while at O'Hare. I ended walking a lot with them, especially Mary. Unfortunately, our gate wasn't near a good look-out spot and you really couldn't see planes that well. We finally boarded. In the airplane, we gave Mary a dum-dum lollipop for take off. It kept her happy and sucking. Then we ordered one of the fun-packs from United. The girls split that and it kept all of us relatively busy until it was time to land. The flight down wasn't bad at all.
We arrived at the airport and instead of reading the Magic Express booklet of where to go, Brian followed the airport signs so we went the wrong way. But that was ok because we passed a gift shop in the airport with a large 3d picture of Mickey etc. and Mary was happy. We finally found the people we needed to talk to and they directed us to where we needed to go. These people will be gone after November 1st, so just follow the signs to the car rental counters- the Magic Express counter is next to them.
We tried to go into the Magic Express lines, but the lady would only let one member of our party go in line. Brian told the lady that it was fine and that Shannon and the stroller would go with him. He didnt want me to deal with two kids and two strollers. The line wasn't long at all and it seemed kind of silly to split up a family like that. I ended up walking back and forth in front of the Magic Express and the car rental counters to keep the girls happy while Brian went up there. While he was up there, he found out that the girls weren't in the system (yes, we knew that!) and had to be entered in. That was a little annoying since we both had talked to Disney twice about it.
After that, we had to get in another line. These lines were broken down by resort. So, we got into the Wilderness Lodge line and waited. There was no one else in it. Soon, a cast member came and led us to a large bus. Then we sat and waited on the bus. I think we waited for about a half hour on the bus. It kind of sucked since we just sat on the airplane so long and then waited in two lines just to sit on a bus and wait some more. Brian got Shannon to sleep and I played with Mary.
When we finally left, it appeared as if we were heading to our resort first with stops also at The Polynesian, and The Grand Floridian. I was so glad we were being dropped off first. When we arrived, Brian put Shannon in the stroller and I walked with Mary to the lobby. It was just how I remembered it. I've been in that hotel twice, and it is so cool looking. Brian checked us in. Thomas had given us an upgrade from a standard room to a nicer one. He's so sweet. From reading the disboards, we decided to find out how much it would cost to upgrade to the concierge level. The lady checking us in did not speak English very well at all and also seemed confused at what she was doing a lot of the time. She told us it would be $171.00 Brian asked it was 171 total or per night. She told us total. For that price, we took it.
It took Brian about a half hour to check in. It seemed ridiculously long, but at that point, we were so happy to be there finally and the girls we having fun running around the lobby. Well, actually Mary was having fun running around. Shannon was still in the stroller. They had a little sitting area with kid size rocking chairs and a TV playing Disney cartoons. Mary and I were hanging out there for a while. Then when Brian was almost done, we went to the other side of the lobby where they had an inside fountain. I should have brought both girls there as soon as we had arrived instead of trying to distract them other places. They had so much fun running around that thing the whole time we were there.
The concierge level was on the top (7th) floor of the lodge. We obviously had a concierge desk on our floor. But the reason we wanted it was that throughout the day, there was a stocked kitchen of different foods and drink. We thought it would come in handy with the girls. Granted, they probably wouldn't be too interested in the wine and cheese course at 5-7pm LOL.
Our luggage wasn't in our room yet, but we were prepared for that. I had an order with www.wegoshop.com and it wasn't there either. I had a 6pm delivery and it was close to 5pm when we got to our room so I wasn't too worried. Shannon is on soy milk so we ordered that along with a case of water (before we knew we were upgrading to concierge) and diapers. Our cribs weren't either, but we knew that the girls wouldn't nap at this point. We decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom to maybe go on a ride and then have dinner. We picked this resort for its proximity to the Magic Kingdom. We walked down to the boat launch and away we went. When we got there, the first thing we did was to get hats for the girls. We ended up getting the Minnie Mouse ear ones for them. Mary called them her "Minnie" for the rest of the trip. Both Shannon and Mary did enjoy wearing them- still do actually. We got them at "Le Chapeau" near the entrance of the Magic Kingdom- on the right side of Main Street. We read online that it is the only store on property that does the name embroidery for free.
After that we headed to around the castle - Cinderellabration, the princess stage show, was going on- to Fantasyland. We went on Dumbo. I sat with Mary in the front seat and Brian sat with Shannon. Mary had fun. She couldn't really reach the lever to make it go up and down, but she loved the ride. Then we went to "It's a Small World". Mary was in awe. She was just looking all over the place and had huge eyes. After that, we decided to feed them, it was quite late by this point, and we noticed a restaurant right next to the ride. Nice placement, Disney. We went to "The Pinocchio Village Haus" for dinner. It was counter service fast food, but at that point, we were ready for anything. I stayed with the girls while Brian went to order the food. I got Shannon in a high chair, but at home, Mary is in a regular chair. She wouldn't sit still in a normal chair. She was running around the entire restaurant testing me so I tried to get her into a high chair. And of course, she got hysterical (over-tired and over-stimulated.) I eventually got her in, calmed her with fruit snacks and then they started singing to a lady who was celebrating her 91st birthday. It was so cute. She was wearing this big birthday hat. Brian finally came (that took FOREVER!) and proceeded to spill my drink all over the table. A cast member brought us another one so he got to live.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. We were so ready to crash. Both girls were tired- in fact, I think Shannon fell asleep on the boat back. I was tired. I'm sure Brian was tired. We got to the room and we did have the pack'n plays but no luggage and no order from www.wegoshop.com. I, of course, didn't have any phone number or order confirmation from wegoshop with me because I was stupid. So, Brian goes to talk to the concierge to find out about our luggage. I get the girls down in their clothes and they pass out. The concierge is able to locate our luggage. It is sitting in the room that was originally allocated to us before we upgraded. But our order isn't there. Brian called the credit card company to verify that we didn't have a charge for our purchases and when there wasn't one, he decides to take a cab and goes to the store to buy what we need. He finally gets back after a while and we go to sleep.
Day 2 The Magical Magic Kingdom
The first thing on the schedule for today was Cinderella's Royal Table Princess Breakfast. We thought it would be a good way to break the girls into the character aspect of Disney without the fully costumed ones. We once again got to the breakfast early, because, we really wouldn't be us if we weren't early, but they were able to get us right in. It was really kind of neat. You first walk into the castle and there is a large room with some castle decor. Then you have to go up to a winding staircase to get to the restaurant. We were seated right away as well. Breakfast seemed to go quickly. The food is pre-made and the adults and older kids (I think) get the same plate- eggs, potatoes, bacon or a fruit cup. Younger kids get French toast sticks. The princesses all stopped by to say hello and I think Mary thought she was meeting celebrities! We met Cinderella, Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, Belle, and Mary Poppins (not really a Princess, but where are you going to stick her?) After we ate, I ducked into the rest room where I saw the biggest bug I have ever seen. I've heard about Florida bugs, but this one just gave me the creeps. I let a Cast Member know it was there. We could have lined up to have a picture taken with The Fairy Godmother, but we decided to skip it and head back to Fantasy Land.
The park wasn't officially open yet and it was absolutely dead. We were able to go on It's a Small World, Snow White's Scary Adventures, the Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, Cinderella's Golden Carousel, and Dumbo The Flying Elephant. Mary remembers Small World from the night before and got more into it. We were a little apprehensive about Snow White because some kids are scared of it, but we took a chance and it went fine. The girls really liked the Tea Party. They loved spinning the cups and Mary kept saying "turn it!" Winnie the Pooh was fun. Mary and I were together and she kept pointing out Pooh. I think she got a little frightened during the storm, but it wasn't bad. Both girls loved the Carousel, but we knew they would from the carnivals. The horses are so big that we were able to ride behind them on one horse which was fun. I rode with Mary. Then we went to Tomorrowland Speedway. I rode with Shannon for this ride and it was way too hard to keep her upright and the car from not jerking around.
After this ride, we were going to go to Mickey's Toontown Fair and try to meet some characters, but it was only 9:45am. Yup, we did all of that before 10am! Amazing! At the entrance to Mickey's Toontown, a couple of characters came out. We met Rabbit from Alice and Wonderland and Tweedle Dum. Shannon went running up to Rabbit, arms open wide and gave him a big hug. Both of them warmed up right away to the characters. I felt so relieved. I was nervous about how they would react before we left for the trip and it was nice to see them not scared at all. We got some pictures and then they opened up Toontown.
In Toontown, we walked through Minnie's house. It wasn't all that exciting for us, but Mary liked the hands on aspect of it even if she didn't realize we were in Minnie's house. Also she liked being able to copy the other kids. Next to Minnies house was something called the Toontown Hall of Fame. I hadn't read about it anywhere and I thought it looked like a store. There seemed to be a whole bunch of people heading to it, so I asked a cast member what it was. He said that is where the characters were for pictures and autographs. It turns out, there are three different lines and in each line, you go in and meet three different characters. You can go in each line and there are no restrictions. So, the first line we chose, we met Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. The girls loved it. We also at that point, got a card for Disney's Photo Express. It sounded like a good concept at the time. They take the pictures for you, you give your card to the photographer and then when you get home from your vacation, you can see all your pictures online and buy the ones you want. They have photographers all over the place- but especially at character greetings and at "picture spots" like in front of the castle. Great concept. For Disney. The pictures are $15 for a 5x7! Crazy. Then we got in line for Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck. Shannon loves ducks so she was so excited and I think Donald had a special liking towards her too because she went back to him a couple of times. The third line was for the Disney princesses but since we "met" them at breakfast, we didn't go again. The funny thing was that we were in the last in line for the Pooh greeting so we were the last out and with Shannon walking, it took a while to get out of there. We ran into the Princesses on their way into their greeting. They said hello to the girls and flew on by, but it was kind of neat.
Goofy's Barnstormer was right near the Hall of Fame. We had absolutely no fears that Mary would love it after how much she enjoyed the carnival rides this summer. My only fear was that she would not meet the height requirement. We measured her and she was right at the bottom limit. Brian took her on the ride. I could see them from one point and saw that she was laughing. After the ride, Brian said that I had to take her because she loved it and I had to hear her giggle throughout it. So, I took her up. He was right, she giggled throughout the entire ride. When the ride ended, there was no one waiting. The lady said "do you want to go again?" I asked Mary if she was all done or again. She said again! And we proceeded to go on it four times in a row! When we got to the end, she would say "Again!" Then finally after 4 times a line did pick up. When we got back down to Brian he said he was wondering where we were at first, but then kept seeing us on the roller coaster. From here we headed to Tomorrowland.
In Tomorrowland, I took Mary on the Astro Orbiter which is a faster, higher version of Dumbo. We knew she wouldn't have a problem with it, but Shannon would. Later we realized I forgot Mary's hat here, but we were able to get it back. We then thought we'd try a nice, calm, quiet ride. So, we went to Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was fine at first. But then, it got dark when you go through the Space Mountain area and could hear people screaming. Mary completely freaked out. She got so scared and cried. We, stupidly, got in line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. She knows who Buzz is so we thought she might be happy to "see" him. The ride is all dark with neon lights. She started to whimper a bit in line and as soon as we got to the front of the line, we asked to be let out.
At this point, it was time to head back for lunch. We went back to the resort and went to Whispering Canyon for lunch. Brian and I have eaten there before when we went 4 years ago and I forgot how "obnoxious" the wait staff is. Granted they are supposed to be, but the girls are a little young (ok a lot) to get into it. The food was good, but if you aren't in the mood for a "rowdy time" it isn't the best place to go. I just wanted to go get the girls down as quickly as possible. But it was fun to watch the waitresses interact with the older kids at near by tables. I guess one kid was drinking a lot of coke, so at a refill, she came back with a small (like shot glass size small) mug and a very long straw full of coke. They are supposed to do something fun too when you ask for ketchup. They also let older kids go on a pony ride around the restaurant meaning they have wooden ponies and they ride those around. Parts were really cute.
After lunch we took the girls upstairs for a nap. We tried to sit outside on the balcony to read. The balcony was one of the reasons we switched from the Port Orleans to the Wilderness Lodge. We thought while the girls napped, we could at least be outside. The chairs were so high off the ground, we couldn't reach the floor. It wasn't comfortable at all. After naps, we went back to the Magic Kingdom. It started to rain on the boat on the way over. When we got there, people were lining up on Main Street for the parade. We decided to duck into the stores to first, get out of the rain and second to find blankets for the girls. They didn't provide a blanket with the pack n plays (I didn't even think about it because in Mexico they did) and our room was cool with the air conditioning at night. We couldn't find what I wanted - though we were told where to get them--- Tinkerbelles store in the Castle and because of the parade we headed towards Adventure Land. I bought a few of the clear disposable raincoats at Wal-Mart before we went so I put on one of those, and the girls already had their jackets on. We went on the Jungle Cruise while it was raining. By the time we got off the ride, it had stopped raining. We then went on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin which is another ride just like Dumbo. After that, we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room where we had to wait for a bit to go in, but once we were in it was nice to sit down and cool off. The wait was because of the show length and not the number of people there. It was about as hokey as I remembered and Mary did get a little scared when it got dark, but I was able to talk her through it easily with no crying.
We ended the day with one more stop in "It's a Small World" and went back to the hotel. The plan was to eat concierge food for dinner. I was able to have some salmon, but there wasn't really anything that the girls would eat. We gave Mary an apple while we all had a drink. While Brian and I were talking Mary said "bye-bye apple." I looked around the floor for the apple and couldn't find it. Then I looked down the 7 stories into the main lobby and saw the apple sitting on the lobby floor. Yup, that's right; Mary tossed her apple down 7 flights from the concierge floor. We were pretty embarrassed and high-tailed it to our room. Once we got the girls settled, Brian talked to the concierge who didn't seem too phased by it. He also went down to the counter service restaurant in our hotel and got dinner for the three of them. I think all three of them weren't all that impressed with dinner. Mary had a hard time falling asleep that night - she became very clingy to me on the trip and that hasn't stopped though we've been home for a while. Eventually I took her out for a snack- cookies and milk- and we stopped and said "night, night" to the concierge. I wanted to make sure she knew it was time to go to bed. It didn't work. LOL
Day 3 Jojo!
Today was our day to sleep "in (ha-ha, like that can ever be done with two toddlers) and take our time in the morning. We ate breakfast in the concierge. No apples this time and Mary was stuck in the high chair.
We took the Disney bus to MGM Studios. It was a little hard with the two strollers and two babies, but we managed. When we arrived, it was just about 10am. Brian thought he remembered reading that outside of Al's Toy Barn some characters appear at 10am. We walk over there and nothing. Some vendor-guy told us it was 10:30am. So, we went and saw Muppet*Vision 3D. The girls enjoyed it. Shannon didn't keep on her glasses, but Mary did. She, again, got scared at a few points but was easily talked through it. After the show, we were let out right by the characters and Woody was there. Mary has a Woody figure that she holds in the car a lot so we were excited for her to meet him. Brian went back to get the stroller and camera and I got in line with Mary. She gave Woody a hug. We really wanted to see Jojo, so we found out where she was and headed there next. There are trailers on Mickey Avenue and Jojo and Goliath appear in front of them. As soon as we got there, their handler told us it was time for them to take a break. Brian asked if they could please squeeze us in, but he wouldn't. That was fine with me because the characters do need a break. After 5 minutes or so, they came out and Mary and Shannon went running up to them and gave them big hugs. They didn't really want to let them go when it was time to go. Jojo was Mary's favorite for a long time so this was very special for her. We then went to the Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! show. We had about a half hour wait before it started (a timing issue again) so we just sat down on the ground in line and gave the girls a snack to distract them. The theatre was nice and air conditioned. The show was a lot of fun. We haven't seen Bear in the Big Blue House often, but they also had puppets for Pooh, Jojo and Stanley.
We accomplished everything we wanted to do at MGM, so we went back to the hotel for lunch- at the snack bar and naps. The girls had a nice, long nap. We then went to Epcot. We weren't planning on going to Epcot at all, but we had a few hours to kill after their nap. When we first got there, we stopped in Innoventions West. It was a nice, closed in area where Mary could run around and have a few hands on activities. She did have fun running around for a while. Then we wanted to go to the Living Seas, but it was closed so we ended up at the Coral Reef for dinner. There is not a bad seat in the place where you can view the largest inland saltwater environment ever built, containing 85 different species of tropical fish. If the girls have been taller, they would have had excellent views of the fish tank with people swimming in it to feed the fish. Our waiter, Steven, was the best waiter we had at Disney. He was so friendly, and excellent with the girls. We ordered the girls these glowing "blue" drinks which were basically juice with plastic cubes with blue lights in them. The restaurant was dark so they thought it was so cool. And we got to bring the cubes home. Mary still calls them her "blue." Dinner was excellent and also was a break from "Disney-ish" of Disney (Thomas says that this is one of the few places you can go in WDW and forget where you are.) We then went over to the World Showcase and decided to ride the two boat rides in Mexico and Norway since Mary liked those type of rides. She did enjoy both of them, even though they both had dark and scarier points. After that, we decided it was time to head back for bed.
We thought it would be fun to take the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then from there take the boat to the Magic Kingdom and then the boat to the Wilderness Lodge instead of taking the bus to the lodge. We weren't too smart thinking that because the trip took a really long time, much longer than if we had just taken the bus.
Day 4 - 95 degrees in the shade and where are the Animals?
Our 4th day started off with taking the small boat from the Wilderness Lodge to the Contemporary resort for breakfast at Chef Mickey. That was a lot of fun. The food was good, and it was buffet style so we could go up and get the girls fed right away which is always a bonus. Mary was especially excited about her Mickey shaped waffled. Goofy was at the entrance to greet people as they arrived. Even though we had priority seating, we had to wait a bit. I'm sure we were a bit early. We got some pictures of the girls with Goofy. Once we were seated, the characters came by. We met Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Pluto. After breakfast, we stopped in the gift shop of the resort to get Brian a hat. It was hot that day, about 95 degrees and his face was already starting to get a bit red. He bought a "Grumpy" hat and as he was checking out the lady said "oh, that's a serious hat." we took the bus to the Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did when we finally got to the Animal Kingdom was to go on the Kilimanjaro Safaris. We thought the girls would really enjoy seeing the animals and we did see some, but I think a lot of them were hiding out back in the shade. We decided to head to Camp Mickey and see if either two shows were starting soon. It turns out that Pocahontas & Her Forest Friends was just about to start, so we went in. We got really good seats because we walked as far to the left as you could from the entrance and there were wide open seats there, but it was jam packed by the entrance. Pocahontas was a really cute show with a few live animals.
After the show, we had lunch. And then it was time to head back to the resort for naps. We had scheduled a babysitter to come for that evening so we could go out alone somewhere. Thomas ended up being free so we decided to hang out with him. We got a babysitter from a service called Fairy Godmothers. She was wonderful. They come with their own toys (and dinner! I had figured she would have ordered room service for herself when she ordered room service for the girls.) We were happy with them and will use them in the future when we go down there. It was great to see Thomas. It had been 4 years and it was so nice to catch up again. First we went to MGM Studios to do two adult rides that we couldn't do when the girls are with us. We went on the Tower of Terror. We both have been on that before, but it is still a lot of fun. Then we went on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which was a complete blast. Both Brian and I love roller coasters and we had so much fun on this one! The first few seconds are amazing.
After that, we conned Thomas into taking us to Downtown Disney to do a little Christmas shopping. We thought it would be too hard to shop with Mary and Shannon with us so when we were free; we wanted to get that done. We also wanted to stop in the store "Once Upon a Toy." I had read about and heard from a friend that this store sells Mr. Potato Head pieces individually. You can shove as many as you can in a box for $20 box. The neat thing about these pieces is that some are Disney themed. So we bought two boxes. They also sell the potatoes, but you do not have to buy them and it makes more sense to buy those at home and not take up room in the box with that. One of Mary's favorite toys right now is Mr. Potato Head so we knew she'd love a Mickey ears hat, or Minnie Mouse bow and shoes, etc. If I had been thinking, I would have also bought a box for her therapist who uses Mr. Potato Head a lot in therapy. I plan to ask to Thomas to go there and ship me a box before Christmas. He works across the street in the main Disney office buildings. We then went to the World of Disney which is a 50,000 sq ft store of all Disney stuff. We found gifts for all our nieces and nephew.
We had dinner at Fulton's Crab House in Downtown Disney. It was great. I think we surprised Thomas with how liberal Brian and I were in some of our thoughts when it comes to gay rights. I, on the other hand, was surprised at how life is like for a gay man in Orlando. Dinner, although we were there for a few hours, ended too early and we left with promises to stay in touch better.
Day 5 - Last full Day at Disney
We had breakfast at the concierge kitchen again and then spent the entire day at the Magic Kingdom. Our first ride was the Magic Carpets of Aladdin (again), and the Pirates of the Caribbean. Mary didn't get scared at all so I was happy about that. We stopped and saw the "show" at the Country Bear Jamboree which the girls liked, but I thought it was pretty awful. of course, I'm not a fan of country music so that could be the reason. We went on the Haunted Mansion and there were a couple of times that Mary got scared, but she liked the ride aspect of it so she was fine. We rode Small World a few times that day. We had our longest wait of the whole time at Pooh's ride. In Fantasy Land we saw Mickey's PhilharMagic which was adorable. My only complaint was that the glasses did not stay on Mary as well as the glasses from the Muppets for some reason. I had to hold them on her. Mary tried to touch the 3D images coming at her. It was a great show.
We had lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern in Liberty Square. Towards the end of lunch, Shannon started to freak out a bit, so Brian left with her and went back to the hotel to put her down for a nap. When I was little, my parents took us to Disney World and had our silhouette pictures done. I remember having those pictures in our house for a long time so I wanted to get them done of Mary and Shannon. Mary and I went and got hers done. It took literally 3 minutes. Then we went and rode the Barnstormer a few more times. After the first time, the guy said if we wanted to ride again, we could go move toward the back of the car, so we did. Then we were able to go on it two more times in a row. After that, we went next door to Donald's Boat where Mary played for a while and got sufficiently soaked. She had a lot of fun. We rode the WDW Railroad while she dried off a bit. She loved it. She kept saying "Chootrain, Mama! Chootrain!" Too adorable! Brian called while we were on it and was on his way back to the park. It took about 20 minutes to get around the whole park. We got off at the same station we got on because I had left Mary's stroller outside Donald's Boat. I realized when I got on the train that the stroller rule only applies to the rented strollers - there were many personal strollers on the train. Brian and Shannon weren't back yet, so we went over to a little playground and Mary ran around for a while. I must admit it was very nice just having one child to watch in a playground. We then met up with Brian and Shannon and decided to have Shannon's silhouette done as well. on the way, we rode pooh (again), The Carrousel, Dumbo (Shannon at this point was saying "Dumbo"), the Teacups (again), Pirates of the Caribbean (again), and It's A Small World (again- we rode it a couple of times that day actually. After dinner at Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrowland, we went to the Carrousel of Progress. There were about 10 people total in the theatre. The girls really enjoyed the show. The loved the dog. If we had known how much they would have liked it, we would have gone to it earlier in our trip. Then we took the boat one last trip back to our hotel from the Magic Kingdom. This was the latest we stayed at the park and the bugs on the boat were absolutely horrible.
Day 6 - Check out day
Tuesday morning we packed and ate breakfast in the concierge kitchen. We could have gone to the park that day, but we had to be back at the hotel by noon for our Magic Express Pick up. They picked us up three and a half hours before our flight. When we were planning the trip, we were expecting to spend the morning at the Magic Kingdom, but we got a slow start and canceled that idea. We also received our bill. Brian looked at the charges as instead of charging us the $161 for the concierge floor, we were charged $161 total. That came to almost $800 extra! At first he was going to pay it so he wouldn't have to deal with it, but then, he went to talk to a manager. She deleted the charge and she even said the person who checked us in was new and had a language barrier issue. We had quite a bit of time to kill before we needed to catch our bus so we walked around the resort grounds a bit. The pools looked fun, but honestly, I'm glad that we didn't have to spend time there like we were anticipating. The girls enjoyed the parks so much and really, we can go to a pool anywhere. We explored one part of the resort that had a small beach and playground. As soon as we got there, these psycho ducks came charging at us. I swear they would have eaten our fingers right off our hands if we had offered it to them. When the psycho ducks realized we had nothing to feed them, they went away. But then Mary wanted to chase after them and up to a family that was feeding them, so we looked in the diaper bag and ran across some animal crackers. Well, psycho ducks like animal crackers. Mary and Shannon both were really enjoying throwing them the cookies. I'm sure they would have eaten out of Mary's hand at least, but we wouldn't let her. After we were out of food and Mary lost interested in the ducks, she was going to play on the jungle gym, but it was full of bugs so we skipped it. We then tried to waste more time at the snack bar by having a drink. Finally it was time to go. One of the reasons they picked us up so 3 1/2 hours before our flight was because we had to stop at 3 resorts and pick up other people. Even so, we still had a lot of time to kill at the airport so we had lunch at Macaroni Grill. There we had the worst waitress experience I've ever had. So bad we didn't leave a tip. And I have never done that. The flight home wasn't as great as the flight there, but I suppose a lot of that was the anticipation and excitement was gone.
Once we arrived home, Brian was going to take Mary again to get the car while I stayed back with Shannon and deal with the luggage. Instead he met me in Baggage Claim with Mary crying hysterically for Mommy. So, the 4 of us, and the 3 luggage, and 2 strollers took the train out to the extended parking lot. We've been home for quite a while now, and she is still completely attached to me.
Mary's reactions to the rides- in alphabetical order (if isn't on the list, we didn't do it):
Magic Kingdom
Astro Orbiter - Mary loved it. I don't think she realized we were as high us as we were so she wasn't scared. It did go faster than Dumbo but not too fast.
The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm - If I had to pick one favorite ride of Mary's, it would be a toss between this one and "It's a Small World." We went on this about 10 times and she giggled throughout all of them. She did just reach the minimum height requirement and I had to keep my arm around her to help steady her. I will never forget her saying "Again!" when the ride ended.
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - Mary was scared by the dark entrance line area (after being scared on a previous dark ride) and we gave up waiting in line.
Carousel of Progress - Both Mary and Shannon LOVED it. If we knew how much they were going to like it, we would have done it much earlier in our trip. I think they liked the dog especially. It also helped that the theatre was empty.
Cinderella's Golden Carousel - Both Mary and Shannon like it. The nice thing about this carousel is that on the inside are smaller horses and larger horses on the outside. Mary and I first rode together on a large horse. The second time we went together, I let her ride on her own smallest horse on the inside. She thought it was great.
Country Bear Jamboree - The girls weren't really all that into it. They watched it, but didn't really get what was going on.
Donald's Boat - She's a water girl so she had fun playing in here. I wouldn't have spent time here if it hadn't been hot.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant - Another favorite of both Mary and Shannon's. By the end of our trip, Shannon was saying dumbo when we would see it.
Enchanted Tiki Room - There were some parts where Mary was scared when it got dark and there was thunder and lightening. Another little girl a little bit older to Mary was dancing to the songs and that was cute.
The Haunted Mansion - I expected Mary to be more scared of this ride, but she wasn't. She did look a little scared when the room stretched, but once we got on the ride portion of it, she was fine.
It's a Small World - Loved, loved, loved it. I'm sure we went on it 10 times. She knew exactly where we were about the 3rd time we were getting in line for it.
Jungle Cruise - Mary got scared when the boat when into the Chinese ruins and it was dark, but aside from that, they liked seeing the "animals."
Mad Tea Party - They both loved this ride. Mary loved spinning the cups and kept saying "Turn it, turn it!" while spinning the disk.
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin - Another Dumbo-ish ride. They both liked it.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Mary really liked it. The first time we went, she did get a little scared through the storm, but was fine afterwards. She kept pointing out Pooh.
Mickey's Philharmagic - We loved it. I had never seen it before- either it wasn't around when we were there last time 4 years ago, or we skipped it, but it was really cute. The glasses did not stay on Mary well at all, I had to hold her on my lap and then hold the glasses on her, but she really enjoyed it. The effects were really cool. And it was neat to see Mary trying to touch the things that came out of the screen.
Minnie's Country House - We skipped Mickey's house and just went to Minnie's house. If the girls had been a little older, this would have been more fun for them. Mary did like that she could run around and touch things. She also copied some older kids in the kitchen and that was fun for her.
Peter Pan's Flight - Brian said she seemed to enjoy taking everything in, until she saw me in the "boat" ahead of them and then she said "Hi Mommy!" each time I was in view.
Pirates of the Caribbean - She didn't get as scared as we expected. The first time we went on it, I was able to tell her it was ok and talk her through it. Singing the Pirate song with the music helped a lot- she saw us having fun and relaxed.
Snow Whites Scary Adventures - Went fine. I don't remember her getting as scared as I thought she would from other reviews. I think in this case, age did help a bit because she doesn't know the story and doesn't realize that witches are scary.
Tomorrowland Speedway - I personally didn't care for this ride. It might have been better if I didn't have one hand on Shannon trying to keep her from tipping over while driving. I felt the car was really jerky and the steering wheel was hard to control.
Tomorrowland Transit Authority - Oh boy, what a mistake. This ride scared the bejeebus out of Mary. It is "sold" as a nice, quiet, boring ride and we thought it would be good for some downtime. There were extended dark periods and while going threw Space Mountain, you could hear people screaming. It was not good for her at all.
Toontown Hall of Fame - This was perfect for character greetings. We rarely waited outside in line for the main characters because we met them here- inside and in air conditioning.
Epcot
Future Word- Innoventions - Boring for me, but it was a good place to let Mary run around and touch some things. It wasn't geared towards kids her age, but she had fun.
World Showcase
"El Rio del Tiempo" - She had fun. By the time we did the rides at Epcot, she was past her darkness fright. I think she did like looking at the colors.
Maelstrom- Another ride where she was much better than we thought she'd be. She seemed to even like the drop.
Disney-MGM
Muppet Vision 3D- I think she really liked it. At first she didn't know what to think of it as we haven't been to see a movie or a theatre. A few times she got scared but that was because it does get a little loud at times.
Playhouse Disney-Live on Stage! - This was such a cute show. I wish they had real characters other than just Bear, but it was still fun. Both Mary and Shannon liked it.
Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safari- Mary had fun in the jeep. I held her on my lap so she could see better. It was a little annoying because the people behind us were talking so much we couldn't hear anything about the animals, but of course, that didn't bother the girls. I wish the elephants had been out as they are one of Mary's favorites.
Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends - Absolutely adorable. The live animals and singing captivated their attention.
Random advice I read and did:
Disposable placements for Shannon to eat off of - Excellent idea. Mary didn't need them as she keeps food on her plate.
Aerosol deodorant- This is going to sound disgusting, but I read on disboards that if you spray your feet with aerosol deodorant, you wont get blisters. I usually get blisters after walking a while so I tried it. No blisters!
Moleskin- Brian brought some for his potential blisters. He didn't want to try the deodorant and he did use the moleskin.
Baby Care Centers- We used them at Epcot and the Animal Kingdom- they were nice, cool and had toys and books for the kids. They also had adult restrooms which was nice. A lot of time we used the normal public restrooms to change diapers, but if we were around these, we used them.
Disposable raincoats at Wal-Mart- We didnt need as many as I brought, but they were cheap and didnt take up much space in packing.
Erika
- 35Brian
- 32Mary
- 2Shannon
- 1Overall, our trip was much better than expected. The girls loved the parks! We expected to have to take a couple down days at the resort pool, but we ended up at the parks every day. The "crowds" were amazing. The longest wait we had was maybe 20 minutes with the average being 10 minutes or less. Many times we walked right on to a ride- even popular ones like "Its a Small World" or "Pirates of the Caribbean." It could be because we traveled over 9/11 or it could be because most kids were back in school. Some families we talked to with school age kids said their children were missing the first week of school.
Day 1 - Travel Day: A Van, A Train, A Plane, A Bus, and A Boat
We had been watching Tropical Storm Ophelia as it had been threatening Florida. We actually weren't set on going to Disney World until the day before we left. We left and got stuck in a traffic jam on the way to the airport. We arrived there and Brian dropped me, Shannon, and all our luggage off. He took Mary and parked the van in extended parking. Shannon and I waited inside for them. Mary started to cry when we walked away from the van- which set the stage for the entire trip.
We were doing the Disney Magic Express option with our luggage, but that didn't pose a problem at check-in. In Orlando, they pick up our luggage and deliver them to our room. They also transport us to our resort. It was a nice feeling knowing we wouldn't need to deal with it- but my friend Thomas who works at Disney in Guest Relations joked that we wouldn't see our luggage for 3 days. When we received our Magic Express tickets, Mary and Shannon weren't listed on them. Brian had to call Disney for something (change resort from Port Orleans FQ) and mentioned it to them and they said it was fine since they were 2 and under. I called once as well to make sure - asking if there would be a problem and if they would have seats on the transportation to the resort and they said there was no problem.
Our flight was delayed. So, we had to keep the girls happy for a while at O'Hare. I ended walking a lot with them, especially Mary. Unfortunately, our gate wasn't near a good look-out spot and you really couldn't see planes that well. We finally boarded. In the airplane, we gave Mary a dum-dum lollipop for take off. It kept her happy and sucking. Then we ordered one of the fun-packs from United. The girls split that and it kept all of us relatively busy until it was time to land. The flight down wasn't bad at all.
We arrived at the airport and instead of reading the Magic Express booklet of where to go, Brian followed the airport signs so we went the wrong way. But that was ok because we passed a gift shop in the airport with a large 3d picture of Mickey etc. and Mary was happy. We finally found the people we needed to talk to and they directed us to where we needed to go. These people will be gone after November 1st, so just follow the signs to the car rental counters- the Magic Express counter is next to them.
We tried to go into the Magic Express lines, but the lady would only let one member of our party go in line. Brian told the lady that it was fine and that Shannon and the stroller would go with him. He didnt want me to deal with two kids and two strollers. The line wasn't long at all and it seemed kind of silly to split up a family like that. I ended up walking back and forth in front of the Magic Express and the car rental counters to keep the girls happy while Brian went up there. While he was up there, he found out that the girls weren't in the system (yes, we knew that!) and had to be entered in. That was a little annoying since we both had talked to Disney twice about it.
After that, we had to get in another line. These lines were broken down by resort. So, we got into the Wilderness Lodge line and waited. There was no one else in it. Soon, a cast member came and led us to a large bus. Then we sat and waited on the bus. I think we waited for about a half hour on the bus. It kind of sucked since we just sat on the airplane so long and then waited in two lines just to sit on a bus and wait some more. Brian got Shannon to sleep and I played with Mary.
When we finally left, it appeared as if we were heading to our resort first with stops also at The Polynesian, and The Grand Floridian. I was so glad we were being dropped off first. When we arrived, Brian put Shannon in the stroller and I walked with Mary to the lobby. It was just how I remembered it. I've been in that hotel twice, and it is so cool looking. Brian checked us in. Thomas had given us an upgrade from a standard room to a nicer one. He's so sweet. From reading the disboards, we decided to find out how much it would cost to upgrade to the concierge level. The lady checking us in did not speak English very well at all and also seemed confused at what she was doing a lot of the time. She told us it would be $171.00 Brian asked it was 171 total or per night. She told us total. For that price, we took it.
It took Brian about a half hour to check in. It seemed ridiculously long, but at that point, we were so happy to be there finally and the girls we having fun running around the lobby. Well, actually Mary was having fun running around. Shannon was still in the stroller. They had a little sitting area with kid size rocking chairs and a TV playing Disney cartoons. Mary and I were hanging out there for a while. Then when Brian was almost done, we went to the other side of the lobby where they had an inside fountain. I should have brought both girls there as soon as we had arrived instead of trying to distract them other places. They had so much fun running around that thing the whole time we were there.
The concierge level was on the top (7th) floor of the lodge. We obviously had a concierge desk on our floor. But the reason we wanted it was that throughout the day, there was a stocked kitchen of different foods and drink. We thought it would come in handy with the girls. Granted, they probably wouldn't be too interested in the wine and cheese course at 5-7pm LOL.
Our luggage wasn't in our room yet, but we were prepared for that. I had an order with www.wegoshop.com and it wasn't there either. I had a 6pm delivery and it was close to 5pm when we got to our room so I wasn't too worried. Shannon is on soy milk so we ordered that along with a case of water (before we knew we were upgrading to concierge) and diapers. Our cribs weren't either, but we knew that the girls wouldn't nap at this point. We decided to head over to the Magic Kingdom to maybe go on a ride and then have dinner. We picked this resort for its proximity to the Magic Kingdom. We walked down to the boat launch and away we went. When we got there, the first thing we did was to get hats for the girls. We ended up getting the Minnie Mouse ear ones for them. Mary called them her "Minnie" for the rest of the trip. Both Shannon and Mary did enjoy wearing them- still do actually. We got them at "Le Chapeau" near the entrance of the Magic Kingdom- on the right side of Main Street. We read online that it is the only store on property that does the name embroidery for free.
After that we headed to around the castle - Cinderellabration, the princess stage show, was going on- to Fantasyland. We went on Dumbo. I sat with Mary in the front seat and Brian sat with Shannon. Mary had fun. She couldn't really reach the lever to make it go up and down, but she loved the ride. Then we went to "It's a Small World". Mary was in awe. She was just looking all over the place and had huge eyes. After that, we decided to feed them, it was quite late by this point, and we noticed a restaurant right next to the ride. Nice placement, Disney. We went to "The Pinocchio Village Haus" for dinner. It was counter service fast food, but at that point, we were ready for anything. I stayed with the girls while Brian went to order the food. I got Shannon in a high chair, but at home, Mary is in a regular chair. She wouldn't sit still in a normal chair. She was running around the entire restaurant testing me so I tried to get her into a high chair. And of course, she got hysterical (over-tired and over-stimulated.) I eventually got her in, calmed her with fruit snacks and then they started singing to a lady who was celebrating her 91st birthday. It was so cute. She was wearing this big birthday hat. Brian finally came (that took FOREVER!) and proceeded to spill my drink all over the table. A cast member brought us another one so he got to live.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel. We were so ready to crash. Both girls were tired- in fact, I think Shannon fell asleep on the boat back. I was tired. I'm sure Brian was tired. We got to the room and we did have the pack'n plays but no luggage and no order from www.wegoshop.com. I, of course, didn't have any phone number or order confirmation from wegoshop with me because I was stupid. So, Brian goes to talk to the concierge to find out about our luggage. I get the girls down in their clothes and they pass out. The concierge is able to locate our luggage. It is sitting in the room that was originally allocated to us before we upgraded. But our order isn't there. Brian called the credit card company to verify that we didn't have a charge for our purchases and when there wasn't one, he decides to take a cab and goes to the store to buy what we need. He finally gets back after a while and we go to sleep.
Day 2 The Magical Magic Kingdom
The first thing on the schedule for today was Cinderella's Royal Table Princess Breakfast. We thought it would be a good way to break the girls into the character aspect of Disney without the fully costumed ones. We once again got to the breakfast early, because, we really wouldn't be us if we weren't early, but they were able to get us right in. It was really kind of neat. You first walk into the castle and there is a large room with some castle decor. Then you have to go up to a winding staircase to get to the restaurant. We were seated right away as well. Breakfast seemed to go quickly. The food is pre-made and the adults and older kids (I think) get the same plate- eggs, potatoes, bacon or a fruit cup. Younger kids get French toast sticks. The princesses all stopped by to say hello and I think Mary thought she was meeting celebrities! We met Cinderella, Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), Snow White, Belle, and Mary Poppins (not really a Princess, but where are you going to stick her?) After we ate, I ducked into the rest room where I saw the biggest bug I have ever seen. I've heard about Florida bugs, but this one just gave me the creeps. I let a Cast Member know it was there. We could have lined up to have a picture taken with The Fairy Godmother, but we decided to skip it and head back to Fantasy Land.
The park wasn't officially open yet and it was absolutely dead. We were able to go on It's a Small World, Snow White's Scary Adventures, the Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh, Cinderella's Golden Carousel, and Dumbo The Flying Elephant. Mary remembers Small World from the night before and got more into it. We were a little apprehensive about Snow White because some kids are scared of it, but we took a chance and it went fine. The girls really liked the Tea Party. They loved spinning the cups and Mary kept saying "turn it!" Winnie the Pooh was fun. Mary and I were together and she kept pointing out Pooh. I think she got a little frightened during the storm, but it wasn't bad. Both girls loved the Carousel, but we knew they would from the carnivals. The horses are so big that we were able to ride behind them on one horse which was fun. I rode with Mary. Then we went to Tomorrowland Speedway. I rode with Shannon for this ride and it was way too hard to keep her upright and the car from not jerking around.
After this ride, we were going to go to Mickey's Toontown Fair and try to meet some characters, but it was only 9:45am. Yup, we did all of that before 10am! Amazing! At the entrance to Mickey's Toontown, a couple of characters came out. We met Rabbit from Alice and Wonderland and Tweedle Dum. Shannon went running up to Rabbit, arms open wide and gave him a big hug. Both of them warmed up right away to the characters. I felt so relieved. I was nervous about how they would react before we left for the trip and it was nice to see them not scared at all. We got some pictures and then they opened up Toontown.
In Toontown, we walked through Minnie's house. It wasn't all that exciting for us, but Mary liked the hands on aspect of it even if she didn't realize we were in Minnie's house. Also she liked being able to copy the other kids. Next to Minnies house was something called the Toontown Hall of Fame. I hadn't read about it anywhere and I thought it looked like a store. There seemed to be a whole bunch of people heading to it, so I asked a cast member what it was. He said that is where the characters were for pictures and autographs. It turns out, there are three different lines and in each line, you go in and meet three different characters. You can go in each line and there are no restrictions. So, the first line we chose, we met Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. The girls loved it. We also at that point, got a card for Disney's Photo Express. It sounded like a good concept at the time. They take the pictures for you, you give your card to the photographer and then when you get home from your vacation, you can see all your pictures online and buy the ones you want. They have photographers all over the place- but especially at character greetings and at "picture spots" like in front of the castle. Great concept. For Disney. The pictures are $15 for a 5x7! Crazy. Then we got in line for Minnie, Goofy, and Donald Duck. Shannon loves ducks so she was so excited and I think Donald had a special liking towards her too because she went back to him a couple of times. The third line was for the Disney princesses but since we "met" them at breakfast, we didn't go again. The funny thing was that we were in the last in line for the Pooh greeting so we were the last out and with Shannon walking, it took a while to get out of there. We ran into the Princesses on their way into their greeting. They said hello to the girls and flew on by, but it was kind of neat.
Goofy's Barnstormer was right near the Hall of Fame. We had absolutely no fears that Mary would love it after how much she enjoyed the carnival rides this summer. My only fear was that she would not meet the height requirement. We measured her and she was right at the bottom limit. Brian took her on the ride. I could see them from one point and saw that she was laughing. After the ride, Brian said that I had to take her because she loved it and I had to hear her giggle throughout it. So, I took her up. He was right, she giggled throughout the entire ride. When the ride ended, there was no one waiting. The lady said "do you want to go again?" I asked Mary if she was all done or again. She said again! And we proceeded to go on it four times in a row! When we got to the end, she would say "Again!" Then finally after 4 times a line did pick up. When we got back down to Brian he said he was wondering where we were at first, but then kept seeing us on the roller coaster. From here we headed to Tomorrowland.
In Tomorrowland, I took Mary on the Astro Orbiter which is a faster, higher version of Dumbo. We knew she wouldn't have a problem with it, but Shannon would. Later we realized I forgot Mary's hat here, but we were able to get it back. We then thought we'd try a nice, calm, quiet ride. So, we went to Tomorrowland Transit Authority. It was fine at first. But then, it got dark when you go through the Space Mountain area and could hear people screaming. Mary completely freaked out. She got so scared and cried. We, stupidly, got in line for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. She knows who Buzz is so we thought she might be happy to "see" him. The ride is all dark with neon lights. She started to whimper a bit in line and as soon as we got to the front of the line, we asked to be let out.
At this point, it was time to head back for lunch. We went back to the resort and went to Whispering Canyon for lunch. Brian and I have eaten there before when we went 4 years ago and I forgot how "obnoxious" the wait staff is. Granted they are supposed to be, but the girls are a little young (ok a lot) to get into it. The food was good, but if you aren't in the mood for a "rowdy time" it isn't the best place to go. I just wanted to go get the girls down as quickly as possible. But it was fun to watch the waitresses interact with the older kids at near by tables. I guess one kid was drinking a lot of coke, so at a refill, she came back with a small (like shot glass size small) mug and a very long straw full of coke. They are supposed to do something fun too when you ask for ketchup. They also let older kids go on a pony ride around the restaurant meaning they have wooden ponies and they ride those around. Parts were really cute.
After lunch we took the girls upstairs for a nap. We tried to sit outside on the balcony to read. The balcony was one of the reasons we switched from the Port Orleans to the Wilderness Lodge. We thought while the girls napped, we could at least be outside. The chairs were so high off the ground, we couldn't reach the floor. It wasn't comfortable at all. After naps, we went back to the Magic Kingdom. It started to rain on the boat on the way over. When we got there, people were lining up on Main Street for the parade. We decided to duck into the stores to first, get out of the rain and second to find blankets for the girls. They didn't provide a blanket with the pack n plays (I didn't even think about it because in Mexico they did) and our room was cool with the air conditioning at night. We couldn't find what I wanted - though we were told where to get them--- Tinkerbelles store in the Castle and because of the parade we headed towards Adventure Land. I bought a few of the clear disposable raincoats at Wal-Mart before we went so I put on one of those, and the girls already had their jackets on. We went on the Jungle Cruise while it was raining. By the time we got off the ride, it had stopped raining. We then went on The Magic Carpets of Aladdin which is another ride just like Dumbo. After that, we went to the Enchanted Tiki Room where we had to wait for a bit to go in, but once we were in it was nice to sit down and cool off. The wait was because of the show length and not the number of people there. It was about as hokey as I remembered and Mary did get a little scared when it got dark, but I was able to talk her through it easily with no crying.
We ended the day with one more stop in "It's a Small World" and went back to the hotel. The plan was to eat concierge food for dinner. I was able to have some salmon, but there wasn't really anything that the girls would eat. We gave Mary an apple while we all had a drink. While Brian and I were talking Mary said "bye-bye apple." I looked around the floor for the apple and couldn't find it. Then I looked down the 7 stories into the main lobby and saw the apple sitting on the lobby floor. Yup, that's right; Mary tossed her apple down 7 flights from the concierge floor. We were pretty embarrassed and high-tailed it to our room. Once we got the girls settled, Brian talked to the concierge who didn't seem too phased by it. He also went down to the counter service restaurant in our hotel and got dinner for the three of them. I think all three of them weren't all that impressed with dinner. Mary had a hard time falling asleep that night - she became very clingy to me on the trip and that hasn't stopped though we've been home for a while. Eventually I took her out for a snack- cookies and milk- and we stopped and said "night, night" to the concierge. I wanted to make sure she knew it was time to go to bed. It didn't work. LOL
Day 3 Jojo!
Today was our day to sleep "in (ha-ha, like that can ever be done with two toddlers) and take our time in the morning. We ate breakfast in the concierge. No apples this time and Mary was stuck in the high chair.
We took the Disney bus to MGM Studios. It was a little hard with the two strollers and two babies, but we managed. When we arrived, it was just about 10am. Brian thought he remembered reading that outside of Al's Toy Barn some characters appear at 10am. We walk over there and nothing. Some vendor-guy told us it was 10:30am. So, we went and saw Muppet*Vision 3D. The girls enjoyed it. Shannon didn't keep on her glasses, but Mary did. She, again, got scared at a few points but was easily talked through it. After the show, we were let out right by the characters and Woody was there. Mary has a Woody figure that she holds in the car a lot so we were excited for her to meet him. Brian went back to get the stroller and camera and I got in line with Mary. She gave Woody a hug. We really wanted to see Jojo, so we found out where she was and headed there next. There are trailers on Mickey Avenue and Jojo and Goliath appear in front of them. As soon as we got there, their handler told us it was time for them to take a break. Brian asked if they could please squeeze us in, but he wouldn't. That was fine with me because the characters do need a break. After 5 minutes or so, they came out and Mary and Shannon went running up to them and gave them big hugs. They didn't really want to let them go when it was time to go. Jojo was Mary's favorite for a long time so this was very special for her. We then went to the Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! show. We had about a half hour wait before it started (a timing issue again) so we just sat down on the ground in line and gave the girls a snack to distract them. The theatre was nice and air conditioned. The show was a lot of fun. We haven't seen Bear in the Big Blue House often, but they also had puppets for Pooh, Jojo and Stanley.We accomplished everything we wanted to do at MGM, so we went back to the hotel for lunch- at the snack bar and naps. The girls had a nice, long nap. We then went to Epcot. We weren't planning on going to Epcot at all, but we had a few hours to kill after their nap. When we first got there, we stopped in Innoventions West. It was a nice, closed in area where Mary could run around and have a few hands on activities. She did have fun running around for a while. Then we wanted to go to the Living Seas, but it was closed so we ended up at the Coral Reef for dinner. There is not a bad seat in the place where you can view the largest inland saltwater environment ever built, containing 85 different species of tropical fish. If the girls have been taller, they would have had excellent views of the fish tank with people swimming in it to feed the fish. Our waiter, Steven, was the best waiter we had at Disney. He was so friendly, and excellent with the girls. We ordered the girls these glowing "blue" drinks which were basically juice with plastic cubes with blue lights in them. The restaurant was dark so they thought it was so cool. And we got to bring the cubes home. Mary still calls them her "blue." Dinner was excellent and also was a break from "Disney-ish" of Disney (Thomas says that this is one of the few places you can go in WDW and forget where you are.) We then went over to the World Showcase and decided to ride the two boat rides in Mexico and Norway since Mary liked those type of rides. She did enjoy both of them, even though they both had dark and scarier points. After that, we decided it was time to head back for bed.
We thought it would be fun to take the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center and then from there take the boat to the Magic Kingdom and then the boat to the Wilderness Lodge instead of taking the bus to the lodge. We weren't too smart thinking that because the trip took a really long time, much longer than if we had just taken the bus.
Day 4 - 95 degrees in the shade and where are the Animals?
Our 4th day started off with taking the small boat from the Wilderness Lodge to the Contemporary resort for breakfast at Chef Mickey. That was a lot of fun. The food was good, and it was buffet style so we could go up and get the girls fed right away which is always a bonus. Mary was especially excited about her Mickey shaped waffled. Goofy was at the entrance to greet people as they arrived. Even though we had priority seating, we had to wait a bit. I'm sure we were a bit early. We got some pictures of the girls with Goofy. Once we were seated, the characters came by. We met Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Pluto. After breakfast, we stopped in the gift shop of the resort to get Brian a hat. It was hot that day, about 95 degrees and his face was already starting to get a bit red. He bought a "Grumpy" hat and as he was checking out the lady said "oh, that's a serious hat." we took the bus to the Animal Kingdom. The first thing we did when we finally got to the Animal Kingdom was to go on the Kilimanjaro Safaris. We thought the girls would really enjoy seeing the animals and we did see some, but I think a lot of them were hiding out back in the shade. We decided to head to Camp Mickey and see if either two shows were starting soon. It turns out that Pocahontas & Her Forest Friends was just about to start, so we went in. We got really good seats because we walked as far to the left as you could from the entrance and there were wide open seats there, but it was jam packed by the entrance. Pocahontas was a really cute show with a few live animals.
After the show, we had lunch. And then it was time to head back to the resort for naps. We had scheduled a babysitter to come for that evening so we could go out alone somewhere. Thomas ended up being free so we decided to hang out with him. We got a babysitter from a service called Fairy Godmothers. She was wonderful. They come with their own toys (and dinner! I had figured she would have ordered room service for herself when she ordered room service for the girls.) We were happy with them and will use them in the future when we go down there. It was great to see Thomas. It had been 4 years and it was so nice to catch up again. First we went to MGM Studios to do two adult rides that we couldn't do when the girls are with us. We went on the Tower of Terror. We both have been on that before, but it is still a lot of fun. Then we went on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster which was a complete blast. Both Brian and I love roller coasters and we had so much fun on this one! The first few seconds are amazing.
After that, we conned Thomas into taking us to Downtown Disney to do a little Christmas shopping. We thought it would be too hard to shop with Mary and Shannon with us so when we were free; we wanted to get that done. We also wanted to stop in the store "Once Upon a Toy." I had read about and heard from a friend that this store sells Mr. Potato Head pieces individually. You can shove as many as you can in a box for $20 box. The neat thing about these pieces is that some are Disney themed. So we bought two boxes. They also sell the potatoes, but you do not have to buy them and it makes more sense to buy those at home and not take up room in the box with that. One of Mary's favorite toys right now is Mr. Potato Head so we knew she'd love a Mickey ears hat, or Minnie Mouse bow and shoes, etc. If I had been thinking, I would have also bought a box for her therapist who uses Mr. Potato Head a lot in therapy. I plan to ask to Thomas to go there and ship me a box before Christmas. He works across the street in the main Disney office buildings. We then went to the World of Disney which is a 50,000 sq ft store of all Disney stuff. We found gifts for all our nieces and nephew.
We had dinner at Fulton's Crab House in Downtown Disney. It was great. I think we surprised Thomas with how liberal Brian and I were in some of our thoughts when it comes to gay rights. I, on the other hand, was surprised at how life is like for a gay man in Orlando. Dinner, although we were there for a few hours, ended too early and we left with promises to stay in touch better.
Day 5 - Last full Day at Disney
We had breakfast at the concierge kitchen again and then spent the entire day at the Magic Kingdom. Our first ride was the Magic Carpets of Aladdin (again), and the Pirates of the Caribbean. Mary didn't get scared at all so I was happy about that. We stopped and saw the "show" at the Country Bear Jamboree which the girls liked, but I thought it was pretty awful. of course, I'm not a fan of country music so that could be the reason. We went on the Haunted Mansion and there were a couple of times that Mary got scared, but she liked the ride aspect of it so she was fine. We rode Small World a few times that day. We had our longest wait of the whole time at Pooh's ride. In Fantasy Land we saw Mickey's PhilharMagic which was adorable. My only complaint was that the glasses did not stay on Mary as well as the glasses from the Muppets for some reason. I had to hold them on her. Mary tried to touch the 3D images coming at her. It was a great show.
We had lunch at the Liberty Tree Tavern in Liberty Square. Towards the end of lunch, Shannon started to freak out a bit, so Brian left with her and went back to the hotel to put her down for a nap. When I was little, my parents took us to Disney World and had our silhouette pictures done. I remember having those pictures in our house for a long time so I wanted to get them done of Mary and Shannon. Mary and I went and got hers done. It took literally 3 minutes. Then we went and rode the Barnstormer a few more times. After the first time, the guy said if we wanted to ride again, we could go move toward the back of the car, so we did. Then we were able to go on it two more times in a row. After that, we went next door to Donald's Boat where Mary played for a while and got sufficiently soaked. She had a lot of fun. We rode the WDW Railroad while she dried off a bit. She loved it. She kept saying "Chootrain, Mama! Chootrain!" Too adorable! Brian called while we were on it and was on his way back to the park. It took about 20 minutes to get around the whole park. We got off at the same station we got on because I had left Mary's stroller outside Donald's Boat. I realized when I got on the train that the stroller rule only applies to the rented strollers - there were many personal strollers on the train. Brian and Shannon weren't back yet, so we went over to a little playground and Mary ran around for a while. I must admit it was very nice just having one child to watch in a playground. We then met up with Brian and Shannon and decided to have Shannon's silhouette done as well. on the way, we rode pooh (again), The Carrousel, Dumbo (Shannon at this point was saying "Dumbo"), the Teacups (again), Pirates of the Caribbean (again), and It's A Small World (again- we rode it a couple of times that day actually. After dinner at Cosmic Ray's in Tomorrowland, we went to the Carrousel of Progress. There were about 10 people total in the theatre. The girls really enjoyed the show. The loved the dog. If we had known how much they would have liked it, we would have gone to it earlier in our trip. Then we took the boat one last trip back to our hotel from the Magic Kingdom. This was the latest we stayed at the park and the bugs on the boat were absolutely horrible.
Day 6 - Check out day
Tuesday morning we packed and ate breakfast in the concierge kitchen. We could have gone to the park that day, but we had to be back at the hotel by noon for our Magic Express Pick up. They picked us up three and a half hours before our flight. When we were planning the trip, we were expecting to spend the morning at the Magic Kingdom, but we got a slow start and canceled that idea. We also received our bill. Brian looked at the charges as instead of charging us the $161 for the concierge floor, we were charged $161 total. That came to almost $800 extra! At first he was going to pay it so he wouldn't have to deal with it, but then, he went to talk to a manager. She deleted the charge and she even said the person who checked us in was new and had a language barrier issue. We had quite a bit of time to kill before we needed to catch our bus so we walked around the resort grounds a bit. The pools looked fun, but honestly, I'm glad that we didn't have to spend time there like we were anticipating. The girls enjoyed the parks so much and really, we can go to a pool anywhere. We explored one part of the resort that had a small beach and playground. As soon as we got there, these psycho ducks came charging at us. I swear they would have eaten our fingers right off our hands if we had offered it to them. When the psycho ducks realized we had nothing to feed them, they went away. But then Mary wanted to chase after them and up to a family that was feeding them, so we looked in the diaper bag and ran across some animal crackers. Well, psycho ducks like animal crackers. Mary and Shannon both were really enjoying throwing them the cookies. I'm sure they would have eaten out of Mary's hand at least, but we wouldn't let her. After we were out of food and Mary lost interested in the ducks, she was going to play on the jungle gym, but it was full of bugs so we skipped it. We then tried to waste more time at the snack bar by having a drink. Finally it was time to go. One of the reasons they picked us up so 3 1/2 hours before our flight was because we had to stop at 3 resorts and pick up other people. Even so, we still had a lot of time to kill at the airport so we had lunch at Macaroni Grill. There we had the worst waitress experience I've ever had. So bad we didn't leave a tip. And I have never done that. The flight home wasn't as great as the flight there, but I suppose a lot of that was the anticipation and excitement was gone.
Once we arrived home, Brian was going to take Mary again to get the car while I stayed back with Shannon and deal with the luggage. Instead he met me in Baggage Claim with Mary crying hysterically for Mommy. So, the 4 of us, and the 3 luggage, and 2 strollers took the train out to the extended parking lot. We've been home for quite a while now, and she is still completely attached to me.
Mary's reactions to the rides- in alphabetical order (if isn't on the list, we didn't do it):
Magic Kingdom
Astro Orbiter - Mary loved it. I don't think she realized we were as high us as we were so she wasn't scared. It did go faster than Dumbo but not too fast.
The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm - If I had to pick one favorite ride of Mary's, it would be a toss between this one and "It's a Small World." We went on this about 10 times and she giggled throughout all of them. She did just reach the minimum height requirement and I had to keep my arm around her to help steady her. I will never forget her saying "Again!" when the ride ended.
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin - Mary was scared by the dark entrance line area (after being scared on a previous dark ride) and we gave up waiting in line.
Carousel of Progress - Both Mary and Shannon LOVED it. If we knew how much they were going to like it, we would have done it much earlier in our trip. I think they liked the dog especially. It also helped that the theatre was empty.
Cinderella's Golden Carousel - Both Mary and Shannon like it. The nice thing about this carousel is that on the inside are smaller horses and larger horses on the outside. Mary and I first rode together on a large horse. The second time we went together, I let her ride on her own smallest horse on the inside. She thought it was great.
Country Bear Jamboree - The girls weren't really all that into it. They watched it, but didn't really get what was going on.
Donald's Boat - She's a water girl so she had fun playing in here. I wouldn't have spent time here if it hadn't been hot.
Dumbo the Flying Elephant - Another favorite of both Mary and Shannon's. By the end of our trip, Shannon was saying dumbo when we would see it.
Enchanted Tiki Room - There were some parts where Mary was scared when it got dark and there was thunder and lightening. Another little girl a little bit older to Mary was dancing to the songs and that was cute.
The Haunted Mansion - I expected Mary to be more scared of this ride, but she wasn't. She did look a little scared when the room stretched, but once we got on the ride portion of it, she was fine.
It's a Small World - Loved, loved, loved it. I'm sure we went on it 10 times. She knew exactly where we were about the 3rd time we were getting in line for it.
Jungle Cruise - Mary got scared when the boat when into the Chinese ruins and it was dark, but aside from that, they liked seeing the "animals."
Mad Tea Party - They both loved this ride. Mary loved spinning the cups and kept saying "Turn it, turn it!" while spinning the disk.
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin - Another Dumbo-ish ride. They both liked it.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh - Mary really liked it. The first time we went, she did get a little scared through the storm, but was fine afterwards. She kept pointing out Pooh.
Mickey's Philharmagic - We loved it. I had never seen it before- either it wasn't around when we were there last time 4 years ago, or we skipped it, but it was really cute. The glasses did not stay on Mary well at all, I had to hold her on my lap and then hold the glasses on her, but she really enjoyed it. The effects were really cool. And it was neat to see Mary trying to touch the things that came out of the screen.
Minnie's Country House - We skipped Mickey's house and just went to Minnie's house. If the girls had been a little older, this would have been more fun for them. Mary did like that she could run around and touch things. She also copied some older kids in the kitchen and that was fun for her.
Peter Pan's Flight - Brian said she seemed to enjoy taking everything in, until she saw me in the "boat" ahead of them and then she said "Hi Mommy!" each time I was in view.
Pirates of the Caribbean - She didn't get as scared as we expected. The first time we went on it, I was able to tell her it was ok and talk her through it. Singing the Pirate song with the music helped a lot- she saw us having fun and relaxed.
Snow Whites Scary Adventures - Went fine. I don't remember her getting as scared as I thought she would from other reviews. I think in this case, age did help a bit because she doesn't know the story and doesn't realize that witches are scary.
Tomorrowland Speedway - I personally didn't care for this ride. It might have been better if I didn't have one hand on Shannon trying to keep her from tipping over while driving. I felt the car was really jerky and the steering wheel was hard to control.
Tomorrowland Transit Authority - Oh boy, what a mistake. This ride scared the bejeebus out of Mary. It is "sold" as a nice, quiet, boring ride and we thought it would be good for some downtime. There were extended dark periods and while going threw Space Mountain, you could hear people screaming. It was not good for her at all.
Toontown Hall of Fame - This was perfect for character greetings. We rarely waited outside in line for the main characters because we met them here- inside and in air conditioning.
Epcot
Future Word- Innoventions - Boring for me, but it was a good place to let Mary run around and touch some things. It wasn't geared towards kids her age, but she had fun.
World Showcase
"El Rio del Tiempo" - She had fun. By the time we did the rides at Epcot, she was past her darkness fright. I think she did like looking at the colors.
Maelstrom- Another ride where she was much better than we thought she'd be. She seemed to even like the drop.
Disney-MGM
Muppet Vision 3D- I think she really liked it. At first she didn't know what to think of it as we haven't been to see a movie or a theatre. A few times she got scared but that was because it does get a little loud at times.
Playhouse Disney-Live on Stage! - This was such a cute show. I wish they had real characters other than just Bear, but it was still fun. Both Mary and Shannon liked it.
Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safari- Mary had fun in the jeep. I held her on my lap so she could see better. It was a little annoying because the people behind us were talking so much we couldn't hear anything about the animals, but of course, that didn't bother the girls. I wish the elephants had been out as they are one of Mary's favorites.
Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends - Absolutely adorable. The live animals and singing captivated their attention.
Random advice I read and did:
Disposable placements for Shannon to eat off of - Excellent idea. Mary didn't need them as she keeps food on her plate.
Aerosol deodorant- This is going to sound disgusting, but I read on disboards that if you spray your feet with aerosol deodorant, you wont get blisters. I usually get blisters after walking a while so I tried it. No blisters!
Moleskin- Brian brought some for his potential blisters. He didn't want to try the deodorant and he did use the moleskin.
Baby Care Centers- We used them at Epcot and the Animal Kingdom- they were nice, cool and had toys and books for the kids. They also had adult restrooms which was nice. A lot of time we used the normal public restrooms to change diapers, but if we were around these, we used them.
Disposable raincoats at Wal-Mart- We didnt need as many as I brought, but they were cheap and didnt take up much space in packing.
