Up, down and all around...a trip we will NEVER forget - COMPLETE 1/19

[BellaSoleil]

Hot Rod Henry! Love it!

I also liked the cool family picture. We will have to try that.

How old is Henry, by the way? We have a 19 month old.

 

[pilferk]

They are coming! And hopefully I will keep up this pace of TR writing so you won't have to wait too long.

I wanted to THANK YOU again for all your toddler tips that you sent to me soooo long ago. The sippy cups, stroller advice, carrying milk in one of those cooler bags-all of it came in very handy during our trip.

Glad the info was able to help you out.

We leave again in 13 days...we're packing it all up, ourselves, right now. Ye GODS there's a lot of crud to carry when you're travelling with little ones. It's a tiny bit better than it was last trip, but it's still an awful lot of stuff to fit in the car. Thankfully (or maybe not...) we don't have to deal with getting it all past airport security. I'll let you know if that's a good thing (or maybe not...we'll see how the sanity holds out) in MY TR, after the 20-ish hour drive.

 

[jessily]

Henry is such a cutie! Your photos and trip report are great Thanks for sharing!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Sorry it took me four pages to get here Life has been crazy busy lately. I did read the first part, but just now got to the rest of it. I love seeing Henry at the kiddie pool! Keep the pictures coming!

Hiya MeMom! No problem, I know how busy life can get. Next week is gonna be nutty for us, we are going to Chicago for a wedding/Thanksgiving. I can imagine you are busy getting ready for your trip!!

Lots more pictures coming!!

Hot Rod Henry! Love it!

I also liked the cool family picture. We will have to try that.

How old is Henry, by the way? We have a 19 month old.

Henry is 14 months - have you been to Disney with a wee little one? It's so much fun! We loved seeing his reactions to everything.

When we were in NYC we took a couple family pictures like that-so now Joe is always watching for a funky family shot we can do. They are fun and different!

Glad the info was able to help you out.

We leave again in 13 days...we're packing it all up, ourselves, right now. Ye GODS there's a lot of crud to carry when you're travelling with little ones. It's a tiny bit better than it was last trip, but it's still an awful lot of stuff to fit in the car. Thankfully (or maybe not...) we don't have to deal with getting it all past airport security. I'll let you know if that's a good thing (or maybe not...we'll see how the sanity holds out) in MY TR, after the 20-ish hour drive.

You guys drove last time too, right? I recall it going pretty smoothly-so hopefully it will be the same this time around! I would like to be able to drive ONLY so we can easily take more things. Both our bags were at exactly 50 pounds when we left!

I look forward to your upcoming TR!

Henry is such a cutie! Your photos and trip report are great Thanks for sharing!

Thank you for joining in!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I am in love with so many of your pictures because of the unique camera angles -- especially the jukebox ones.

I am not at all surprised that Henry was fast asleep -- he had been busy all day long!

 

[John's Mom]

Enjoying your Pop adventures and pictures!

 

[BellaSoleil]

We are taking her on our next trip. DH and I are doing a 2nd Honeymoon in January and hopefully will be going again in September or October.

I'm very sad she's not going. I took her to see Disney Live a few weeks ago and just 2 hours around Pooh did her in. She was overly stimulated to say the least!!!! That made me feel better about not taking her quite yet.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I am in love with so many of your pictures because of the unique camera angles -- especially the jukebox ones.

I am not at all surprised that Henry was fast asleep -- he had been busy all day long!

Thanks! I purposely tried to take some at angles I hadn't seen before-or just something different. There is so much "loud" stuff happening at Pop you could take pictures of it forever.

I recall Joe mentioning this day that he wished he had a stroller to lay down in and someone to push him around. It really was a looooong day.

Enjoying your Pop adventures and pictures!

Thank you! We took sooooo many pics, but I'm glad, it's fun to share them and look back and remember every detail!

We are taking her on our next trip. DH and I are doing a 2nd Honeymoon in January and hopefully will be going again in September or October.

I'm very sad she's not going. I took her to see Disney Live a few weeks ago and just 2 hours around Pooh did her in. She was overly stimulated to say the least!!!! That made me feel better about not taking her quite yet.

Ya, by the end of the week Henry was pretty riled up and shrieking was common place. Your first trip with her will be very speical I'm sure!! And I love that you are doing a 2nd honeymoon...that will be awesome! DH and I have talked about doing that at some point as well. I just can't do it yet without Henry. I'd be worried about him all week. I'm thinking once he hits age 2 or 3 I'll be singing a different tune!

I want to read your PTR, I subscribed, but am so far behind on my other reports too, it might be a while before I get caught up.

 

[CJsMom]

Loving the pictures...and I hope Henry is not sick for too long! Poor little guy! More please...

 

[BellaSoleil]

Ya, by the end of the week Henry was pretty riled up and shrieking was common place. Your first trip with her will be very speical I'm sure!! And I love that you are doing a 2nd honeymoon...that will be awesome! DH and I have talked about doing that at some point as well. I just can't do it yet without Henry. I'd be worried about him all week. I'm thinking once he hits age 2 or 3 I'll be singing a different tune!

I want to read your PTR, I subscribed, but am so far behind on my other reports too, it might be a while before I get caught up.

Just check it out when you have time. It explains more of why we are going on a second Honeymoon instead of a family trip.

You are my hero with all of these updates, btw! I love it!!!!

 

[Donald is #1]

Great pictures!

I'm so sorry to hear that Henry was sick on your first day. I hope that he was better for the rest of the trip.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Loving the pictures...and I hope Henry is not sick for too long! Poor little guy! More please...

More coming soon-and tons more pictures!

Just check it out when you have time. It explains more of why we are going on a second Honeymoon instead of a family trip.

You are my hero with all of these updates, btw! I love it!!!!

Oh, I hope it doesn't mean your first honeymoon was terrible!

I wrote several more installments today while my work computer was misbehaving.

Great pictures!

I'm so sorry to hear that Henry was sick on your first day. I hope that he was better for the rest of the trip.

It was a bummer being worried about him being sick, I was always concerned on when the next episode would happen again, and from which end.... (but I'll let you know, that it did get better!)

 

[brookelizabeth]

Last I left off we were on our way to the Contemporary via bus to Epcot and monorail to the CR. We eventually arrived and were excited about having some time to explore the CR. We had never been inside before, but almost booked this resort instead because it looks very our taste and just plain cool with the monorail going through it!

As soon as we got off the monorail I noticed the giant murals by Mary Blair and commented on them to Joe. I’m a bit of an art nerd, so it was fun knowing who the artist was and getting to see her work.

Where is that 5 legged goat?

We still had about an hour to kill before our check-in time, so what did we do?

and SHOPPED of course!

More stuff I didn’t buy.

I so wished I needed this!

Now this I "needed". I don't have a chips & dip plate!

Mugs. My friend. Being coffee drinkers, we use our mugs! I used to buy a mug from everywhere I went, but it was taking up way too much cabniet space, so we switched to magnets.

The mug says "Mornings Aren't Pretty." and is HUGE. It was perfect for me. I think I'll buy it next time!

A mouse mouse pad

The ultimate DISer item

Here is an upclose of what it does. Note "Disney Trip Diary". How very cool.

Someday I will be buying this for Henry. I already know it.

And one of these too.
Because Joe wanted them.

Ah, NYC. I miss you!

I thought these were cute all lined up on the cash register.

While shopping I realized I had left the postcard for the very special DIS kid (thewesterberg’s little guy) back in our room. You see, her little guy asked her to send notes to Mickey on the days he does well in school. And the plan was for me to buy a postcard and have Mickey sign it during our dinner. I was then going to send the postcard to him, with “Mickey” telling him to keep up the good work in school. I was so excited to do this and was VERY relieved when I remembered I had forgotten it back in the room!

The CM working at the store pointed us to the sundries shop where we could purchase another postcard. They had an even better selection than Pop, so we got a cooler postcard this time.

Finally, we went to check-in at Chef Mickey’s. We were still a tad early, but thought maybe they could get us in a bit early since it was already getting so late and we had been up since 3:00 am.

We checked in and got our picture done and were directed to the waiting area. We waited for about 15 minutes and then were brought to our table, which was right in the main dining room, very close to the buffet. A great spot!

I brought along Henry's Mickey, which he instantly started giving kisses to.

I love you Mickey!

Joe went up first for the goods.

Joe's food - stuffing, chicken, ribs, bread, carrots, mashed taters and ravoli.

Almost immediately when he got back Donald snuck up on Henry. This was our first ever character interaction, I will admit I was a bit nervous on how it was all going to go. Henry was completely oblivious for a good minute,

Huh? What duck? Daddy's got food!

and finally realized a giant duck was standing behind him!

Duck!

Donald was so cute! He was playing with Henry and Henry gave him a “kiss” on his bill.

I love you too Donald!

After Donald left I scurried up to the buffet to get my plate. I made sure to grab some Henry friendly foods-mashed potatoes, mac & cheese (with Mickey noodles!) and corn. Some of his favorites.

When I got back to the table I started giving Henry some of the food, which he gobbled right down and was giving us loud “Yum, yum, yums!” about. He was enjoying the food way more than Joe or I….you don’t go to Chef Mickey’s for the food...because well, it’s not that good!

Anyway, Henry was eating/devouring the mac & cheese when suddenly he started to gag. Babies gag, it didn’t alarm me, but instantly caused horror scenes of a repeat at Everything Pop to go across my mind. He recovered from his gag, no problem! Yea!

But then….IT happened. Henry defied human nature.

Continued in next post.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Continued from the previous post.

Brace yourself, this is….gross.

He started to vomit.
And vomit.
And vomit.
He finally stopped.
Then started again.

It was EVERYWHERE. Down his cute shirt, all over the high chair, all over his pants, on the table, on the floor! He weighs about 25 pounds and there had to have been about 20 pounds of vomit. Seriously, it was so much, he had to have defied human nature. It was just wrong. Ugh.

And OF COURSE, this is right when the picture lady decides to come to our table. Here I am cleaning up vomit from the floor and every surface in a 3 foot area and she is asking me if I want to buy the picture.

Uh….uh…

She quickly realized our waitress was completely MIA and went to get us more napkins. Literally 9 giant cloth napkins later, everything was wiped up.

She took one more napkin, and unfolded it and held onto the corners. Joe took all the puke-laden napkins and put them into hers. She balled them all up and hauled them away like a pro.

I ran downstairs (silly location!) to the bathroom to wash my hands and bring back a wet papertowel for Henry. On my way in, a mother and her little guy (about 9 or 10) were leaving the bathroom, he was bawling and shirtless. The bathroom had a strong smell of throw-up (and it wasn’t just me!). I said “Ooooh.” and frowned for the little guy, he was so embarrassed. Another woman at the sink harshly said “I know! It stinks doesn’t it?!” I looked at her and said “That poor little boy, he’s so embarrassed, and I’m dealing with the same thing upstairs with my 1 year old.” That shut her up. vYes, it did stink, but it happens. It didn’t phase my boy obviously, but the other boy was MORTIFIED. When I came back upstairs his Mom was blocking him in a corner so no one would see him and the Dad was on his way to help-she pointed him in the direction of the gift shop to get him a shirt. Good Mommy! Even now just thinking about how embarrassed that boy was brings me to tears. I just wanted to hug him and tell him it would be okay.

I made it back to the table just when the picture girl came back around to us. The picture was really great, but $30? Uh, no thanks. I thanked her for the 90th time for helping us.

Our waitress was still MIA. She had no idea of the whole ordeal.

Just when I was about to settle down again, along came Pluto!

I was slightly embarrassed and said to Pluto, “He smells, he just threw up.” But Pluto didn’t skip a beat. Henry also enjoyed pulling on his whiskers!

Those whiskers are so tempting!

And that big 'ol nose!


Next came the Big Man, Mickey!! Henry was REALLY into his mac & cheese at this time and was completely ignoring Mickey.

If I pretend you aren't there, will you go away?


Mickey played right into it and tried to “steal” Henry’s noodles.

Henry just pushed him away and turned away trying to get him to leave him alone. It was hilarious!

I'm eating, later Mickey!

I went up at this time for another plate of food, since I ate the broccoli and meat off the first plate-the rest was fairly inedible.

When I came back I noticed Minnie at the table after ours. I had missed her!!!!!! NOOOO! I was so bummed. I wanted to meet her and get pictures of Henry with her.

Then the big Chef Mickey’s dance started and all the characters were running around, napkins twirling.

It was really fun…too bad our napkins were long gone, so we couldn’t share in on the fun. Our waitress still hadn’t come back to check on us and had no idea we were napkin-less.

A CM came by and asked if we had gotten to see everyone. My wonderful DH said “Yes, but she missed Minnie!” The CM said she would send her back around. (We also hadn’t seen Goofy, but I was so distracted, I forgot we hadn’t seen him yet).

Shortly after, Minnie came back to visit! She saw my ears and patted her head in response, and then she saw my shirt, which had Mickey and Minnie kissing and she got very excited, jumped up and down and put her hands to her cheeks. It was very cute.

Henry, still very into the mac & cheese. Though, he was probably starving considering the earlier happening...


I also want to add that every time a character came up, I apologized for the strong stench. None of them even looked at me. They are so darn good. I bet that happens once a day there with that many children filing in and out!

Then it was time for dessert. I was looking forward to this, hoping it was better than the regular food. I took a bunch of pictures of the buffet too.

The child offereings, pizza, corn, chicken nuggets, fish and THE mac & cheese.

Cold salads.

Beef & chicken. Joe did like the beef.

Rolls & corn bread muffins

Salad fixins

I believe the back was cobbler and the front was a chocolate/cherry gooey dessert.

Key lime tarts, carrot cake and chocolate cake.

Mickey Oreos and cheesecake.



While I was taking the pictures, a guy asked me “So you can remember what you eat?” I wasn’t sure how to respond… “Um, no, I belong to an online community and there is an entire thread just containing food pictures. And people really like to see the goods.” That sounded a bit crazy, so I just laughed and said “No, we just really like the pictures!” which is true…

When I got back to the table Goofy arrived again and Henry had such a good time with him.

My what a large mouth you have.


Out of picture space again...continued in the next post.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Continued from previous post.

The desserts were a tad better than the food, but not much. I liked the soft serve ice cream the best out of anything-and I tried quite a few.

Joe's plate

He even made a hidden Mickey. I love that man!

My plate.

This was the best dessert IMO. Note the little tiny corner that was grabbed by little tiny fingers...

As we were eating there, Donald came up again and started to play peek-a-boo with Henry.

WE HEARD DONALD TALK! No joke! He (she!) said “Peek a boo!” to Henry each time Donald covered his eyes. Ooooops! We honestly didn’t even notice until after Donald left. I looked at Joe and said “Did Donald just talk?!” and his eyes got big and we laughed.

Henry also gave Donald another kiss!

After Donald I realized I had not gotten Mickey’s signature for thewesterberg’s little guy!! I whipped out the postcard and waved down a CM and asked to have Mickey come back. “No problem!” was her response. The restaurant was practically empty and the characters were milling around at all the tables.

Mickey came back over and signed the postcard and played with Henry again for a few minutes.

After Mickey signed and played, the dance started again.

Our waitress had been to our table finally and I had asked for napkins, so we were able to join in on the napkin waving. Mickey ended the dance at our table and put his napkin on Joe’s shoulder and played with Henry again. This time Mickey got a kiss too.

Joe with Mickey's napkin!

We picked Henry up out of the high chair to clean him up a bit better and Pluto came back and smushed Joe and Henry into a hug.

Then Minnie arrived again!

I love this pic, Henry's eyes are shut, but you can just tell he's having such a good time!

Pluto then spotted Henry’s Mickey plush. He grabbed it off the table and tossed it into the air and tried to catch it into his mouth.

He missed, but tried again, and again. Several other characters came around to root him on and everyone in the restaurant was watching and “ooooh!”ing when he missed. After about four tries, he did it! Everyone clapped. It was so fun!

I have no idea if we got this special attention because the restaurant was almost empty and it was closing time, or if word was spread that our little guy had an episode and his mother was a complete emotional wreck or, if this is normal at Chef Mickey's….regardless, the character interaction was AWESOME. We were smiling so much our cheeks hurt. And THAT is Disney magic! An awful situation turned smoothly into a wonderful family memory.

After our bill was paid we removed the stained shirt from Henry and just put him in his fleece. Thankfully we had something along this time.

We said good-bye to the CR and headed onto the monorail. We had to wait for a second monorail to come because the first one was jam packed! We rode to MK

and then transferred to a bus. MUCH faster this time around, which was good, because it was about 11:00 pm…waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay past Henry’s bedtime and we were all pooped!

We made our way back to our room only to find NO PACK & PLAY. It was 11:30 pm, my baby was hitting hysterics and no stupid Pack & Play. He is well past the age where he will lay down with us and he had to have his own bed.

So, I called Mousekeeping again and explained this was now my FOURTH request for a Pack & Play. No apologies. Instead I got a “Hmm…I don’t know why you haven’t gotten one. I see the request here. Well, I’ll have someone bring you one.” I asked when/what time we could expect it. “It’s late, and it depends on who is working, maybe an hour?” Uh. NO! I explained it was 11:30 pm, my baby needed to go to bed, this was our fourth request. She was a bit short with me and said she would send it as soon as she could.

I was a bit annoyed, but what could I do? Both Joe and I were very thirsty, so I headed to Everything Pop to refill our mugs with some water. Looking back at this, I thought Everything Pop closed at 11:00 pm, so maybe my times are off? Who knows, it was late and we were ready for bed.

When I got back the Pack & Play had arrived, much to my relief. Joe said the lady delivering it was very nice and he felt bad not tipping her. I was irritated though and told him before I left they didn’t deserve a tip! In my opinion a tip is NOT required, but should be given if you are given even adequate service. We tip very well with outstanding service. This was awful service, so I do not think they deserved a tip. The lady who delivered it I’m sure was not at fault, but her department was. I do see it both ways…but, at the moment, I was not happy.

Before we went to sleep, I pulled out the Passporter to review our schedule for the next day. And what did I find? The postcard I had bought at Everything Pop! All well, I wanted to send one to an old friend anyway, so it worked out!

We all crashed very, very quickly that night and slept hard and good. I don’t even remember closing my eyes.

Up next: Momma almost looses it.

 

[Flossbolna]

Poor Henry! And poor you! It's great that you were still able to enjoy Chef Mickey, but it would have been nicer if there had not been any need for you to be impressed by how professional the characters were dealing with your situation. I agree with you: you experienced some true Disney Magic!

I was hoping that the next installment would be more positive, but the title sounds scary!

 

[kschafer]

And I love that you are doing a 2nd honeymoon...that will be awesome! DH and I have talked about doing that at some point as well. I just can't do it yet without Henry. I'd be worried about him all week. I'm thinking once he hits age 2 or 3 I'll be singing a different tune!

Yeah, I would give my kids to someone for awhile in a heartbeat to get away with DH. (Want a couple more boys for a weekend? )

 

[kschafer]

Wow! now that was an update! So sorry Henry got sick and you had an oblivious waitress (and the poor boy in the bathroom, I bet he was mortified )

sounds though like despite the so-so food, chef Mickey's was an overwhelming success. I can't believe you stayed up so late after such an early morning!

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Someday I will be buying this for Henry. I already know it.

Oh thank you for posting this. We purchased one for Daniel as a "when you are finally potty trained" bribery gift (Does that make sense )

It has disappeared somewhere and I don't have a clue where it could be . He liked to bring it places and could easily have left it anywhere. Then again, when he was naughty, it got taken away often and I may have "hid" it somewhere and have forgotten about it.

I was going to check Disney shopping to see if they have it.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh you poor guys!!! Throwing up in public has to be the worst! Thankfully your night wasn't ruined by it, and you had great character interactions! I can't believe it took mousekeeping so long to deliver the pack n' play -- that would have driven me completely over the edge!!!

I love Mary Blair, too! Did you know there are two children's books out right now, Cinderella and Alice in Wonderland, that have her concept artwork for those two films?

 

[2xcited2sleep]

You are an updating machine!! I love it! Let's see... what did I want to say:

AWESOME pictures. I also like the unique angles. Really great. I've been second-guessing the two nights I have booked at Pop and you are getting me excited to see it. Thanks!

H kissing his plush mickey is so adorable. And I am cracking up over the photos w/ him so focused on his mac and cheese that he was ignoring the real thing! I'm so glad that you had such great character interaction and that it turned the whole situation around for you!

Looking forward to more!!