Tasha+Scott
<font color=red>BL II - Red Team<br><font color=pu
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2004
- Messages
- 4,622
Day 1: The Drive Down (the evening of April 29, 2006)
First a little background on us so you can feel like you know us and we arent just some strange Internet personality that is sharing our vacation with a bunch of strangers. My name is Tasha and I am 25. My dh is Scott and he is 27. We married young. I wasnt quite 19 and dh wasnt quite 21. We have been married 6.5 years now. Weve had our ups and downs just as any couple but we are very happy and as in love as ever. Sappy, I know, but its true! We had our beautiful little girl on May 5, 2005. Quite a wonderful day to have a baby I think. It was the beginning of the 50th celebration for all of us Disney lovers. It was also Cinco de Mayo. And she has quite the memorable b-day 05-05-05. See, I told you it was a good day to have a birthday! She was, however, 4 days late, caused me severe back labor and an emergency c-section. But you take the good with the bad and its all worth it when you get to hold that wonderful little person and know that someday you will be taking them to WDW! See where my priorities lie?
I had been to WDW several times as a child and teen since I not only used to live in Florida but most of my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) still does. I went twice after dh and I were married but both times he stayed home and worked. I went with my mom and younger brother the 1st time and just my mom the 2nd time. I finally convinced dh to go with me in June of 2004. We went only 2 weeks after I got back from the trip with my mom. Yep, I was Disney spoiled that year. I wanted to show dh absolutely everything and we only had 4 days to do it since we also planned to go to Sea World 1 day and Universal Studios 1 day and Islands of Adventure 1 day. So we were complete commandos during those 4 days. We were crazy! We practically ran from ride to ride and took advantage of EMH. Back then you had to pay $12 for the bracelets to stay after the park closed though. Now of course it is free as long as you stay onsite. But anyway, we had a fantastic time but we were always in a hurry and never really stopped to take in any of the scenery or do any of the smaller things. It was all about the rides, a quick counter service lunch or/and dinner, and one night we managed to take time to watch Spectromagic. But we even skipped Wishes. No time for that as we had rides to ride while the other park goers watched the fireworks. We were able to pretty much walk onto any ride we wanted during the fireworks so thats what we did.
We had such a fantastic time that we talked about going again the following May of 2005. But around July 2004 we started talking about starting a family. We decided that we were ready and that we would start a family first. We completely thought for some reason that it might take a few months before I became pregnant so we thought it was possible that we might get to go in May 2005 afterall and that I would be somewhere between 4-6 months preg. But nope! I got pregnant right away and was due to have our little one May 1, 2005. So out went the WDW plans for 2005 since dhs job only allowed him to take his vacation time between April and August and going in April was way too close to my due date and we decided we didnt want to go during the summer months with a newborn. So we began talking about maybe taking our baby when she turned 1. I mean that was the perfect time of year for a WDW vacation so why not?
Well, our dd was born May 5, 2005, as I mentioned earlier and we pretty much began the early planning stages of a May 2006 trip. Unfortunately every time we thought we would be able to go something would happen that made us postpone planning our trip. We finally thought everything was okay and actually booked a 4 day stay at the WL for Kylies 1st b-day, but then dhs company was bought out in October and they completely screwed his pay periods up and it hurt us some financially and we didnt know when or if it would get any better. We even thought dh might have to look for a new job but we were playing the waiting game for a couple of months there. We decided to cancel our trip and go the following year, sometime in 2007. We were disappointed but we decided that would be best. But then, things straightened up with dhs job and he got a raise! Plus, 2005 was the first year I had not worked since I was about 16. And on top of that we had Kylie that year so we got a pretty good income tax refund. Dh said around January to start planning a vacation, that we were going to WDW! Woo hoo! He didnt need to tell me twice! So planning I did. We decided not to stay at the WL this time because we knew we could stay longer and have more spending money if we stayed at a value resort. Plus, the theming at the values would probably appeal more to a 1 year old I reasoned in my mind. So we booked a trip for Pop Century for April 30-May 7, 2006.
The next several months seemed to go by sooo slow! Dh was getting burnt out on work since we did not take a vacation at all in 2005, unless you count the 2 weeks he took off when Kylie was 1st born to help me with her since I had a c-section and all. I was ready to get away too. I made our ADRs since we were on the dining plan and I tried to plan things that I thought would be good for Kylie as well as my very picky dh. I bought everything you could think of to bring on our vacation. I looked on allearsnet.com and read the email newsletters every week. I read things on the DIS and did just about everything you can think of until there was nothing else I could do but wait!
But miraculously one day the waiting was over and it was time to go! I packed our bags, we loaded up our car and we were on our way! We decided to drive through the night for several reasons. Gas prices were high and we werent sure how much it would cost to get down there and back so we didnt want to spend any unnecessary money on stopping at a hotel for the night on the way there. Plus, we figured Kylie might sleep the whole trip if we drove at night. We also knew traffic wouldnt be as bad. We filled up my gas tank (around $40) before leaving and went to KFC for dinner. We had the buffet. I did not like it but I am not a huge KFC fan but Kylie seemed to really like it. And something happened that had never happened before. Kylie suddenly decided she NEEDED to talk to everyone she saw! She has always been loud but she never really talked to strangers before. But suddenly she turned around in her highchair and started babbling at the top of her lungs at a couple at another table. She also began waving at them, telling them hi, and then there was another 1st. For the first time ever, she smiled this cute smile where she practically crinkled her entire face. Luckily she is at an age where people think she is adorable and dont seem to mind when she is nosy which is lucky because little did we know this would not be a one time thing, but an every meal type thing from now on! I asked dh if I could turn around in my seat and start saying hi and bababa, gagaga and kicking my legs and flapping my arms at them to see if they would find me half as cute. Dh said no. Darn. It might have been fun!
We finished our meal and washed up and we were on our way. Kylie did in fact sleep pretty much the whole trip. We were making great timing too, better than we had anticipated. And we discovered my car gets great gas mileage. We only had to fill up one more time on the way down and last time we rented a car and had to fill up about 3 times so this was nice surprise. It also meant we saved money on gas! So more money for souvenirs or something! Woo hoo!
Day 2 (aka the first official day of our trip- April 30, 2006):
We stopped the following morning after being on the road for nearly 10 hours and ate breakfast at a McDonalds/gas station. Kylie woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and once again began to flirt with a couple sitting at a table near us. I think this may prove to be embarrassing when she is older but right now everyone is fooled by her charm so it was okay. We finished breakfast and continued our journey.
We made our way onto the Florida Turnpike shortly after breakfast and I was a bit delirious from lack of sleep as well as excitement. So I would wait for passing cars to get right beside us and I would start to do this extremely obnoxious stupid dance for them. I got a few looks and double takes which I seemed to find really hilarious. Much to dhs dismay that only encouraged me to dance even more!
Suddenly we saw our exit and were finally there! We had made such great timing that we arrived about 2-3 hours earlier than we thought we would. We arrived around 9:30 a.m. I told dh I didnt think a room would be ready for us that early but that was okay. I was so excited and just couldnt wait to be there. Kylie had slept all night so she was set to go as well. And even dh couldnt contain his excitement, although he didnt dance for anyone much to my disappointment.
We pulled into the parking lot and got out. I was such a giddy idiot that I kept giggling and smiling this gigantic moronic smile as we made our way to the lobby. Dh kept rolling his eyes but even he couldnt hide a smile. We had arrived! We were finally there! Let the fun begin!
TO BE CONTINUED...
Up next:
The nearly naked parking lot experience
The lost binky episode
and dinner (and reviews) at the Whispering Canyon Cafe
part 2: page 2
part 3: page 2
part 4: page 2
part 5: page 3
part 6: page 3
part 7 & 8: page 3
part 9: page 4
part 10: page 4
part 11: page 5
part 12: page 5
Epilogue: page 6
ETA: Pics have been removed as of July 22, 2006. I hope everyone got to see them before I removed them! ~ Tasha
First a little background on us so you can feel like you know us and we arent just some strange Internet personality that is sharing our vacation with a bunch of strangers. My name is Tasha and I am 25. My dh is Scott and he is 27. We married young. I wasnt quite 19 and dh wasnt quite 21. We have been married 6.5 years now. Weve had our ups and downs just as any couple but we are very happy and as in love as ever. Sappy, I know, but its true! We had our beautiful little girl on May 5, 2005. Quite a wonderful day to have a baby I think. It was the beginning of the 50th celebration for all of us Disney lovers. It was also Cinco de Mayo. And she has quite the memorable b-day 05-05-05. See, I told you it was a good day to have a birthday! She was, however, 4 days late, caused me severe back labor and an emergency c-section. But you take the good with the bad and its all worth it when you get to hold that wonderful little person and know that someday you will be taking them to WDW! See where my priorities lie?
I had been to WDW several times as a child and teen since I not only used to live in Florida but most of my family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) still does. I went twice after dh and I were married but both times he stayed home and worked. I went with my mom and younger brother the 1st time and just my mom the 2nd time. I finally convinced dh to go with me in June of 2004. We went only 2 weeks after I got back from the trip with my mom. Yep, I was Disney spoiled that year. I wanted to show dh absolutely everything and we only had 4 days to do it since we also planned to go to Sea World 1 day and Universal Studios 1 day and Islands of Adventure 1 day. So we were complete commandos during those 4 days. We were crazy! We practically ran from ride to ride and took advantage of EMH. Back then you had to pay $12 for the bracelets to stay after the park closed though. Now of course it is free as long as you stay onsite. But anyway, we had a fantastic time but we were always in a hurry and never really stopped to take in any of the scenery or do any of the smaller things. It was all about the rides, a quick counter service lunch or/and dinner, and one night we managed to take time to watch Spectromagic. But we even skipped Wishes. No time for that as we had rides to ride while the other park goers watched the fireworks. We were able to pretty much walk onto any ride we wanted during the fireworks so thats what we did.
We had such a fantastic time that we talked about going again the following May of 2005. But around July 2004 we started talking about starting a family. We decided that we were ready and that we would start a family first. We completely thought for some reason that it might take a few months before I became pregnant so we thought it was possible that we might get to go in May 2005 afterall and that I would be somewhere between 4-6 months preg. But nope! I got pregnant right away and was due to have our little one May 1, 2005. So out went the WDW plans for 2005 since dhs job only allowed him to take his vacation time between April and August and going in April was way too close to my due date and we decided we didnt want to go during the summer months with a newborn. So we began talking about maybe taking our baby when she turned 1. I mean that was the perfect time of year for a WDW vacation so why not?
Well, our dd was born May 5, 2005, as I mentioned earlier and we pretty much began the early planning stages of a May 2006 trip. Unfortunately every time we thought we would be able to go something would happen that made us postpone planning our trip. We finally thought everything was okay and actually booked a 4 day stay at the WL for Kylies 1st b-day, but then dhs company was bought out in October and they completely screwed his pay periods up and it hurt us some financially and we didnt know when or if it would get any better. We even thought dh might have to look for a new job but we were playing the waiting game for a couple of months there. We decided to cancel our trip and go the following year, sometime in 2007. We were disappointed but we decided that would be best. But then, things straightened up with dhs job and he got a raise! Plus, 2005 was the first year I had not worked since I was about 16. And on top of that we had Kylie that year so we got a pretty good income tax refund. Dh said around January to start planning a vacation, that we were going to WDW! Woo hoo! He didnt need to tell me twice! So planning I did. We decided not to stay at the WL this time because we knew we could stay longer and have more spending money if we stayed at a value resort. Plus, the theming at the values would probably appeal more to a 1 year old I reasoned in my mind. So we booked a trip for Pop Century for April 30-May 7, 2006.
The next several months seemed to go by sooo slow! Dh was getting burnt out on work since we did not take a vacation at all in 2005, unless you count the 2 weeks he took off when Kylie was 1st born to help me with her since I had a c-section and all. I was ready to get away too. I made our ADRs since we were on the dining plan and I tried to plan things that I thought would be good for Kylie as well as my very picky dh. I bought everything you could think of to bring on our vacation. I looked on allearsnet.com and read the email newsletters every week. I read things on the DIS and did just about everything you can think of until there was nothing else I could do but wait!
But miraculously one day the waiting was over and it was time to go! I packed our bags, we loaded up our car and we were on our way! We decided to drive through the night for several reasons. Gas prices were high and we werent sure how much it would cost to get down there and back so we didnt want to spend any unnecessary money on stopping at a hotel for the night on the way there. Plus, we figured Kylie might sleep the whole trip if we drove at night. We also knew traffic wouldnt be as bad. We filled up my gas tank (around $40) before leaving and went to KFC for dinner. We had the buffet. I did not like it but I am not a huge KFC fan but Kylie seemed to really like it. And something happened that had never happened before. Kylie suddenly decided she NEEDED to talk to everyone she saw! She has always been loud but she never really talked to strangers before. But suddenly she turned around in her highchair and started babbling at the top of her lungs at a couple at another table. She also began waving at them, telling them hi, and then there was another 1st. For the first time ever, she smiled this cute smile where she practically crinkled her entire face. Luckily she is at an age where people think she is adorable and dont seem to mind when she is nosy which is lucky because little did we know this would not be a one time thing, but an every meal type thing from now on! I asked dh if I could turn around in my seat and start saying hi and bababa, gagaga and kicking my legs and flapping my arms at them to see if they would find me half as cute. Dh said no. Darn. It might have been fun!
We finished our meal and washed up and we were on our way. Kylie did in fact sleep pretty much the whole trip. We were making great timing too, better than we had anticipated. And we discovered my car gets great gas mileage. We only had to fill up one more time on the way down and last time we rented a car and had to fill up about 3 times so this was nice surprise. It also meant we saved money on gas! So more money for souvenirs or something! Woo hoo!
Day 2 (aka the first official day of our trip- April 30, 2006):
We stopped the following morning after being on the road for nearly 10 hours and ate breakfast at a McDonalds/gas station. Kylie woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed and once again began to flirt with a couple sitting at a table near us. I think this may prove to be embarrassing when she is older but right now everyone is fooled by her charm so it was okay. We finished breakfast and continued our journey.
We made our way onto the Florida Turnpike shortly after breakfast and I was a bit delirious from lack of sleep as well as excitement. So I would wait for passing cars to get right beside us and I would start to do this extremely obnoxious stupid dance for them. I got a few looks and double takes which I seemed to find really hilarious. Much to dhs dismay that only encouraged me to dance even more!
Suddenly we saw our exit and were finally there! We had made such great timing that we arrived about 2-3 hours earlier than we thought we would. We arrived around 9:30 a.m. I told dh I didnt think a room would be ready for us that early but that was okay. I was so excited and just couldnt wait to be there. Kylie had slept all night so she was set to go as well. And even dh couldnt contain his excitement, although he didnt dance for anyone much to my disappointment.
We pulled into the parking lot and got out. I was such a giddy idiot that I kept giggling and smiling this gigantic moronic smile as we made our way to the lobby. Dh kept rolling his eyes but even he couldnt hide a smile. We had arrived! We were finally there! Let the fun begin!TO BE CONTINUED...
Up next:
The nearly naked parking lot experience
The lost binky episode
and dinner (and reviews) at the Whispering Canyon Cafe
part 2: page 2
part 3: page 2
part 4: page 2
part 5: page 3
part 6: page 3
part 7 & 8: page 3
part 9: page 4
part 10: page 4
part 11: page 5
part 12: page 5
Epilogue: page 6
ETA: Pics have been removed as of July 22, 2006. I hope everyone got to see them before I removed them! ~ Tasha
!!! And I love your Trip Report!!! 
Waiting for MORE.... 
Thanks! I fixed it!
Hi Tasha,
