Trip With the Terrible (Yes, Terrible) Twos and Teens

[AC7179]

Hello and WELCOME to my very first trip report!

I guess I should introduce the cast so that everybody knows who I am talking about. I guess we start with the most important, right? That would be.........

ME!---27 year old school teacher from Central Texas. Was taken to Disneyland almost every year growing up by my beloved Granny (AKA: Iggy). Wonderful, wonderful memories for me. I grew up loving Disney! Sadly, Granny passed away about 3 and a half years ago.

Jaybird----34 year old computer programmer. His first trip to Disneyland was in 2002. He had proclaimed everything Disney to be "lame" before that trip, but after his first character breakfast and Disneyland experience he definitely came around. Now, he is a Disney lover and pin collector.

Tinkerbell----13 year old 8th grader high on the cuteness and attitude. A good girl---just very, very, very 13. Loves Disney and VMK. Tinkerbell is actually my stepdaughter but lives with us pretty much the whole year and has since she was five. Her biological mom is definitely less than involved.

Minnie Mouse---2. Very, very, very 2. What were we thinking in having a 2 year old and a 13 year old the same year? Not our brightest plan, that's for sure. Very fun loving and had her first trip to Disneyland when she was 18 months old. Had a fabulous time.

Cinderella---18. Tinkerbell's 1/2 sister on her Mom's side. Lives in Michigan. We love her. She's been with us to Disney once before when we flew her down two years ago.

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Our trip started because Jaybird's Mom lives in Florida. His sister and her family go to Florida over Easter for their Spring Break. Even though it's not our Spring Break, we decided to play hooky and go meet with the family at Disney.

I knew we had to act fast since Spring Break is so busy........so I booked plane tickets from DFW to MCO and for Cinderella from Flint to MCO, and then hopped on Priceline and bid in the resort category. I was happy to get the Hyatt Grand Cypress for six nights.

Then.........things began to unravel.
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First, Jaybird's mom calls. He excitedly tells her we are going to FL to visit her over Easter.

She pauses.

For a long time.

Then, she speaks the words he didn't want to hear.

"Well, honey, we might be moving to TN before that."

WHAT?!?!?!?

She explains that she and her S.O. had decided to relocate when she gets laid off. She is working in the housing market and her boss had told her he would keep her on as long as possible, but her work was diminishing and she could see the writing on the wall.

Well..........poo. We like Disney World but we LOVE Disneyland. Also, if we were just going to plan a trip, we could have gone to Michigan to see his Grandma, who hasn't even seen Minnie Mouse yet. But, remember those Priceline reservations???? Nonrefundable. Oops?

So, looks like we are going to WDW, ready or not!

Jaybird's Mama says she will try to meet us down there, even if it's just for a day. His sister is going to arrive on Easter Sunday, and we will arrive on the Thursday before Easter.

The plan is to do Epcot on our first day with lunch at Askerhus, then Magic Kingdom the next day with lunch at Crystal Palace at 11:00.

 

[NMAmy]

Well, you are even braver than me! I took two teenage girls--I can't imagine adding a 2 yo to the mix.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[princessjv]

Oh...I hear your troubling 2 pains! My dd is 2 and boy she is trouble! Hope the trip went semi smooth. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[AC7179]

So, I leave school at noon, taking Minnie Mouse with me. Her toddler teacher said I rescued her right before naptime, which was my hope. You know, we have a 2 hour drive to DFW, and then a 2.5 hour flight to Orlando. We want to save those Zzzzzs for important times!

We go home, I put her in her crib watching Peter Pan and resting while I get the car loaded and shower. Sure enough, ten minutes later it is silent in there. GAR........yep, she's out. Well, I deserve it because that was way dumb of me, afterall.

Jaybird comes home and we go pick Tinkerbell up from Middle School. She is in all Pre-AP classes and missing 3 days of school is no joke. She says she has gotten her work done in advance, so we shall see. We head out on the road for DFW. Traffic is a little busy, it being a holiday weekend and all.

Minnie Mouse is talking, "Hey, Mama........"
"What, Minnie?"
"Hey, Mama?"
"WHAT, Minnie?"
"I got an owwie. A skeeto bite me!"
"I'm sorry, baby. You'll be okay."
"RUB IT, Mama, peese?"

So.........I spent the entire drive rubbing a two year old's mosquito bitten leg. Did I mention I was in the front seat? Did I mention she was in the back seat? Not all that fun.

After getting stuck in a little traffic, we finally get to the airport where we decide, since we don't want to pay an arm and a leg to park for six days, to park in remote parking.

When they say remote parking, they mean REMOTE parking. Picture my sweet hubby with stroller, carseat, 1 big bag (BIG BAG), and 2 small bags. Not pretty, folks. Not pretty, at all.

At this point we get a call from Cinderella, who was supposed to arrive in Orlando two hours before us. Uh oh. Chicago's snowed in. Nothings leaving or going. She'll let us know. Gah.

We finally check in and get through security, where we meet our first problem.

Seems Minnie doesn't want to go through "that do-wah". (That's Minnie Speak for that door, meaning the metal detector."

"Honey, just walk through. Look, Tinkerbell is on the other side waiting for you."

At this point Tinkerbell sighs. Loudly. Making things so much easier, don't cha think?

Here goes the 2 year old volume. Turned up super high.

"I DON'T WANT TO GO THROUGH THAT DO-WAH!"

Finally, my knight in shining armor, aka the airport security man, has pity on us.

"You can just carry her through, M'aam."

Have Mercy! Crisis averted!

We eat dinner at an overpriced airport cafe, and as we pass a Starbucks Tinkerbell asks, as she has asked at every Starbucks we have passed on the two hour trip to Dallas, "Can we get frappucinos?"

Jaybird has told her to shut up about the coffee already, but perhaps he is already worn down because he consents this time. I take Minnie Mouse over to some other kids who are running around at an empty gate and let her burn off some energy. The kids playing were all 4-7 or so and included her very nicely and played with her very well. They were very kind little children and I appreciated them including Minnie when she asked if she could "pay."

DUN DUN DUN
Here we go. Time to board the plane. Although not diagnosed, I can tell you fairly confident that Minnie is going to have ADHD. My grandma had it. My mom has it. I have it. The signs are there, folks. She can't sit still. Already, in true family fashion, she has conversations like.

"Mama, I love you. You bee-u-tee-ful. You so----hey, Mama LOOK---a doggie!"

So you can see why I was a little worried about the airplane ride, and all. We are the last to board to keep her time on the plane a minimum. The seats on the airplane are *** Aisle ***. I had booked us ***Aisle*. I put Minnie at the window. She was carseatless at this time because Jaybird didn't want to carry it through the airport. I sat next to Minnie, and Tinkerbell sat next to me. Jaybird sat on the aisle next to two nice college kids. Jaybird asks Tinkerbell if she minds if he sat with me to help with Minnie and visit with me, since she has other means of occupying herself. He is met with a "Cha! I mind!" and eyeroll. Tinkerbell promptly ignores me visiting with her and plugs in her ipod and gets out her book. Jaybird looks at me with an "Are you kidding me?" look and kicks her out of that seat, since she is being antisocial and all. She is put out that she has to listen to her ipod and read her book next to people who aren't interested in talking to her---but hey. Slight attitude but nothing major.

Minnie sits down and thankfull her feet are too short to kick the seat in front of her. We occupy ourselves through takeoff by tap tap tapping our hands on our legs to get more power. As the plane leaves the ground she yells, "BLASTOFF!" thanks to our friends Quincy, June, Leo, and Annie.

We're in the air about 15 minutes before she decides she wants to sit in my lap. I patiently and lovingly explain to her about the seatbelt sign. She impatiently lets me know she could care less. We have a bit of a scene but the whole two year old meltdown is averted. Thank heavens.

We finally land in Orlando and as we get off the plane we find Cinderella has left a voicemail.......................................her plane will be there about 30 minutes after ours. Not too bad, but today has not been a super smooth start to our trip!

 

[VanniGirl]

Looking forward to reading the rest.

 

[dddisrunner]

Loving it so far! Wasn't it a blessing that your DD couldn't reach the seat in front of her to kick it! Can't wait for more!

 

[ballarinamom]

Where are you from in central Texas? I was born in central Texas and a two drive from from DFW- Cameron- and just seeing if we're from the same neck of the woods!

 

[IkeandMike]

Great start!!! Looking forward to reading the rest.

An aside here: One of my best friends said to me the other day that she wouldn't be able to stand my children for long because they are always coming over for hugs and kisses. And I told her that my plan was to give and get all the hugs and kisses that I can get right now because one day they WILL BE just like your Tinkerbell. It's inevitable. Soooo not looking forward to those days.

 

[LITTLEKID58]

Love the TR so far subscribing... TFS

 

[Goofyfan1]

Just Subscribed This should be quite an adventure

 

[ILMICKEY]

Teens and two's at the same time?? Oh my !

Great Start!

 

[crossfamily]

I so understand where you are coming from... I have a dd2; a ds4; and a ds10 and let me tell ya I know how the patience are tried... At least you had dh to rescue you if you lost it... I am going to DW this summer alone with my 3 kids plus friends from hockey a 73 yo grandma and her 2 grandsons 10 and 14... I see lots of headaches heading my way... I can't wait to read more... Please post any tricks in entertaining a 2yo.. I so need lots of help... thanks for sharing...

 

[Marion]

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Halloweenqueen]

This is going to be good!

 

[swilshire]

When my youngest was two, my other kids were 7, 13, and 15. Luckily, the youngest waited and was a terrible three instead of a terrible two. By then the oldest wasn't quite so bad.

#2 is still pretty hard on me, though. I told DH yesterday, if I ever drop dead from a heart attack, I want him to check my phone log to see if I was talking to my oldest son at the time!

Sheila

 

[AC7179]

Okay, folks, my ADHD was kicking in at the end of my last segment, so I need to rewind a little more and further discuss our flight.

First when Minnie was having her mini(teehee)-meltdown, and the seatbelt sign had finally gone off, I was able to take her in my arms in my seat. She was loud without screaming, crying without sobbing, etc. Anyway, I was doing my best to avert the meltdown when the woman sitting in front of me turned around, looked at me, looked at Minnie in my lap, and turned around.
They weren't ugly looks, or mean looks, more observation than anything else.

So, she knows exactly what kinda incident we are having in the seat behind hers, she knows we are dealing with it, and she...............proceeds to recline her chair back as far as it will go.

Now, seriously...........
Seriously!
Seriously?

I get her right to recline her seat. I GET it. I don't begrudge her that.........BUT could she have waited the minute and a half it took to calm Minnie down before reclining her seat to prime kicking position and effectively diminishing the space we had to work with by 1/2?

Okay, whatever. I'm over it. I know she paid a lot of money for her seat and didn't owe us anything, but really............a minute is all I'm asking for here!

So, Minnie finally quit crying, and I am thinking she will go to sleep. She doesn't. She doesn't sleep the entire flight. Nor did she sleep one nanosecond of the drive to the airport. She goes to bed at 8:00 at home. We arrive at Orlando at 10:00. Nothing. Until, that is, the plane pulls up at our gate...........at which point she leans her head against the window and falls peacefully asleep. NICE.......

Of course she wakes up when I pick her up to get off the plane, we deposit her in the gate checked stroller and head off. We decide to divide and conquer. I get the luggage, with Tinkerbell's help, and he gets in line for the rental car. This all goes without a hitch. We have been stuck in rental car lines for an hour before, and he is done within 20 minutes. FABULOUS! Now all we have to do is wait for the call from Cinderella. That even comes after only about 10 minutes or so! Success! We can get to our hotel and get to bed, since we are noticing Minnie is STILL awake.

So we tell Cindy to meet us at the National Rental Car desk. We wait, and wait. She calls, "Where are you?"
"We're at the gate," Jaybird replies. "Where are you?"
"At the gate. You're not there."
"Of course we're there. We're right in front of the sign."
"No, I'm right in front of the sign and I don't see you."

And on it goes. At one point we realize Cindy has gone outside to the outside terminal for rental cars. So we go outside, at which point we realize Cindy has gone inside. Jaybird gets a little annoyed at perceived attitude from Cindy but (shhhhh) he was giving off a little attitude himself. We were all tired and sleepy and annoyed that we couldn't find each other.

Finally Cindy calls again.

"Uhhh, Dad?" she asks.
"What?" Jaybird replies.
"Are you guys at Terminal B?"
"No, we're at Terminal A."
"Oh....cause there are two different National Rental Car desks."

D'Oh! We're really not stupid, I just have to attribute this to the long, long day. Minnie is crying and sleepy, so we get our car, put her in her seat, and go to pick up Cindy. Minnie is sleeping by the time we get Cindy picked up. After hugs and kisses and being happy to see each other, we are finally on our way.

We drive from MCO and decide we are all hungry. On the way to our hotel we see a McDonald's (the one by DTD) and stop in. It's close to midnight but the place is PACKED. The drive through line is forever so Cindy and I go in! Gross! There is spilled drink all over the floor. The sodas are all out and so we get blue powerade and head out to the car, where Minnie has woken up and is not so happy. Not so happy at all.

We find the Grand Cypress and Jaybird drops us off at the front while he parks. Check in went smoothly. I had asked for a crib in the room and they had told me they had pack-n-plays or full sized cribs. I requested the full size crib. They told me it would be no problem and I was happy to hear that.

We got a room on the sixth floor. The hotel is gorgeous. I get a silent kick out of paying $135 a night for it while others are paying $350 for the same nights, but I understand some don't like Priceline. No biggie. Cinderella doesn't get to do a lot of traveling and money is pretty tight for her in Michigan. She lives with her grandma while she is finishing school and is working two jobs. She doesn't have the best life, but we try to do what we can to include her on things like this so she has the experience for later and because we love her, of course.

Anyway, we get to the room at after midnight, with Minnie drooping in my arms, and there is no crib. Seriously? I call and remind the lady and she tells me they wait for us to check in to bring it up. Of course they do........so I can tip them.........which I don't mind, but an additional 20 minutes with a sleepy 2 year old at midnight---not so much. At this point, Minnie says the words I never, ever, ever thought I would hear her say at Disney World.

"I WANNA GO HOME!"

 

[AC7179]

I couldn't fathom it.

Here I was, in the middle of Orlando, and my 2 year old wants to go home.

Hrmph.

I do realize that she is cranky and tired, and finally the crib arrives, which she quickly points out is not to her liking because the space between the bars is too big.

Good grief.

She finally goes to sleep, as do the rest of us. We have a big day at Epcot in the morning. I'd been asleep for about an hour or so when Minnie starts crying. "I want my bed, Mama! I want my own bed, Mama!"

So, even though I generally am not this kind, I pull her in bed with her father and I. It's definitely a tight fit, with him on one edge, Minnie lying horizontally by the pillows, and me on the other edge, but what the hay. She finally sleeps and we all wake up at 730 the next morning.

I pull open the curtains and find a beautiful view of Orlando and wake up Tinkerbell and Cinderella. They get up and get dressed and we are off to Epcot!

They grabbed some powdered donuts that we had brought for breakfast because we had ADRs at Akershus at 11:00. We were able to get into Epcot without too much of a problem, even though we were not there for ropedrop but about 10 minutes later but there is only so much you can do when you arrive so late the night before. Anyway we head to Soarin and the wait is already 90 minutes! 10 minutes into the day! My goodness! Cindy and Tink wait in a 10-15 minute line to get fastpasses and then we head over to the Nemo ride.

Yay! Minnie is finally acting like her old self! She LOVED the Nemo ride and was so excited to see Nemo and Dory. Then we did Turtle Talk with Crush and headed over to Norway for our reservation to eat with the Princesses. We dressed Minnie in a Snow White gown that her Mimi had gotten for her especially for the occasion. She was beautiful. The two older princesses passed on the opportunity to dress up, although Cindy did ask, just curiously, she tells, at what age the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique quit doing makeovers.

 

[AC7179]

Well, you are even braver than me! I took two teenage girls--I can't imagine adding a 2 yo to the mix.

Can't wait to read more!

The 2 year old was both more difficult than the teens and more enjoyable to watch---making for bipolar like emotions on the trip. The highs are very, very high, and the lows are---well, you know.

 

[AC7179]

swilshire When my youngest was two, my other kids were 7, 13, and 15. Luckily, the youngest waited and was a terrible three instead of a terrible two. By then the oldest wasn't quite so bad.

#2 is still pretty hard on me, though. I told DH yesterday, if I ever drop dead from a heart attack, I want him to check my phone log to see if I was talking to my oldest son at the time!

Sheila
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Oh Lordy, I can't handle if 3 is worse than 2! My 2 year old is not bad---but just drains me of all energy!

 

[AC7179]

I've been busy---will try to write some more this evening!