We celebrated dd's 1st b-day at WDW(and lived to tell about it!)*EPILOGUE p.6, #81*

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Tasha - Good job with the second installment of your trip report! I'm laughing now as I imagine you trying to get your shorts changed! :teeth:

I can't wait to read more!
 
We do a lot of road trips and I wear comfortable clothes. We once drove form midnite till 7:00 a.m. to Mall of America. I get out of our vehicle and my kids are screaming at me to change my clothes. They didn't want to be seen with me wearing sweats and nike flip flops. I had to do the quick change in our vehicle too. Hope you can find time to do your trip report.
 
Tasha+Scott said:
Okay, back to more important matters since I can sense your boredom.


TO BE CONTINUED…
Up next:
The lost binky episode
And Dinner at Whispering Canyon Café (complete with reviews)


TASHA: NO WAY...we are not bored at all :sad2: . I love TRIP REPORTS :love: !!! Your trip is awesome!!! Keep going with ALL the details!!!! Looking forward to the NEXT installment!!! :thumbsup2
 

very funny Tasha. I'm enjoying your adventure. I need to get back to mine some time this weekend! It's hard with little ones at your feet :sunny:
 
STILL Day 2 (I know, I know! I’m hoping to finish that up in this installment though!)

Now that my clothing is halfway acceptable we are ready to officially start our day as well as our trip. We had eaten breakfast only a couple hours earlier so we aren’t terribly hungry just yet and we have no room to go to so we discuss what we want to do. We decide to go to Epcot. I honestly don’t know why but this seems to always be the first park we choose to go to on every trip. I LOVE Epcot! It is my 2nd favorite park. Only MK beats it in my book! Dh likes it but it is not his favorite or even his 2nd. It’s more like his 3rd or it may even be tied for last with MGM to him, I can't remember. It is always the one we find most relaxing when we are tired for some reason though so Epcot it is! We go out to the bus stop and are lucky enough to arrive just as the Epcot bus pulls up and there is not a very long line so we are able to sit down and not have to worry about standing. So far this day is turning out okay, I think to myself.

We arrive at Epcot and I marvel at the beauty of the scenery. We are there during the Flower and Garden Festival which seems to be the only time I have ever been to Epcot and yet I still always find it so gorgeous! Kylie is in a great mood and all smiles and dh is starting to get over his weariness in anticipation of things to come.

We decide to have a few photopass pictures taken since we were given a voucher for a free 5x7 for staying at Pop. It’s FREE! How can I turn that down? We then head to Spaceship Earth. I am not sure exactly how Kylie will handle the ride as this is a new experience all around for her so I make sure her binky (or pacifier to those of you that don’t know what a binky is) is clipped to her outfit and we make our way to the entrance. We practically walk right onto the ride. Kylie does okay throughout most of it but toward the end she started getting restless since she wanted to get down and play. She is not the type to sit still unless something REALLY interests her and unfortunately Spaceship Earth became boring to her after a while. As we are going down backwards on the ride she keeps trying to climb all over me and is fussing to get down. I’ll admit that was one long ride once she started doing that! It still wasn’t too bad as I was expecting her to get restless on a few rides and she didn’t get scared or throw a tantrum or anything so it was okay.

We exit the ride and then decide to head over to Universe of Energy since it is scheduled to close for rehab the very next day. We put Kylie in her stroller and make sure her binky is on her and head for the ride. We get to the stroller parking section, get Kylie out of her stroller, and head to the entrance. About ¾ of the way there I notice she doesn’t have her binky. I am not sure how she will do on U of E without it since that ride is a bit long as well. I ask dh if he has it and he says no. I never saw her drop it so I figure it must be in her stroller. Dh heads back to her stroller and confirms that it is gone! She had lost it somewhere along the way. That is when I realize that even though I brought 5 binkies from home (just in case) I had forgotten to put any in the already bulging pink diaper bag! Figures, right? So I ask dh if we should go ahead and ride U of E anyway or skip it for now. He says we should ride it and he thinks she will be fine. So we go inside and decide to give it a shot. Once again, Kylie finds part of the ride interesting but quickly gets bored toward the middle of it. This is when I realize that this ride really is way too long and that the only interesting part is the dinosaurs and that part is over too quickly. Funny how I never noticed that until Kylie pointed it out to me. Hmmm…

I decide to fix Kylie a bottle while we are on the ride to help keep her calm. She really didn’t need a bottle but hey, I was desperate and it did work! The never ending ride is finally over and I tell dh there is no way I am doing anything else until I get her another binky. He agrees. We are left with 2 options. We can leave the park and go all the way back to the resort or we can buy her a new binky at the park. This is a tough one for me since I hate the idea of leaving the park just for that but I also hate the idea of buying a binky at the park since they definitely charge you way too much for almost everything there. The cheap side of me lost this one though. I figured Kylie probably needed her diaper changed anyway (this is how I rationalized this ridiculous purchase in my mind anyway) so we headed to the Baby Center. I changed Kylie and bought her a new Nuk as well as new clip on for it. It cost me nearly $8! Sigh, this child is expensive! Did anyone ever tell you that babies are expensive? Well, they are…especially when they lose their binkies at Epcot! The Baby Center at Epcot is really nice though. It was also nice to get into a nice air conditioned room so it wasn’t all a loss. This would not be our last visit to Epcot’s Baby Center either but thankfully it would be the last time we made a purchase there!

After we were done at the Baby Center I was starting to finally feel the exhaustion creeping in. I had not been to sleep in more than around 28 hours by this point and it was starting to catch up with me. Plus, it was very hot right then. It was now around 1 p.m. so I had dh call on his cell phone to see if our room was ready. It was. We left the park and headed to our bus stop (I guess I didn't have to buy the binky at Epcot after all but I did need the clip so it worked out either way.) One bad thing about staying at Pop is how far away the bus stop is to the entrance of the parks. Pop is the newest resort and it is also a value so it is almost always the furthest bus stop in relation to the other resorts. This is normally no big deal unless you have been on your feet all day or you are really tired. Just thought I’d throw that in since some of you will be staying at Pop and might like to know that.

We arrive back at the resort and head to the food court before going to our room. Dh wanted to buy refillable mugs since we are such good law-abiding citizens and would never dream of reusing our 2004 refillable mugs from a different resort. Besides, we forgot our old mugs anyway! :rolleyes1 I will say that although dh got a lot of use out of his refillable mug it was practically a waste of money for me this time. For one thing, we rented a refrigerator this trip and I stocked it full of bottled water that I bought at Walmart. Plus, if you are on the dining plan you automatically get a drink with any meals you eat in the food court whether you have the mug or not. We didn’t think about that so we ended up having extra water to take with us to the parks when we ate at the food court (which we only did 2-3 times) which was nice but not really necessary since I brought so much water with us. Plus, I am not a big soda drinker and about the only thing I do drink is water so the only thing I put in my refillable mug was apple juice anyway. Oh, well, though, I’ll know next time and at least I do have a souvenir now. I also got the one that fits into the cup holders in my car so I can always use it when I go out I suppose.

After we bought our refillable mugs we took a quick look in the gift shop. This was our first stay at Pop but I had done a lot of research about it beforehand. So I did know that the food court and gift shop were somewhat connected before we ever arrived. A lot of people talked about how this was a good thing but I thought it made it seem a little too crowded and crammed and did not like this at all. I like it when they are separate personally but even that wasn’t a big deal in the grand scheme of things since we didn’t spend our whole trip in that gift shop anyway. Thought I’d add that too though in case anyone was wondering.

After browsing briefly in the gift shop we headed to our room. We were on the 2nd floor in building 3 and stayed in room #3259. It was a bit small but that wasn’t a huge concern since we don’t spend every waking minute in the room anyway. Dh told me to stay in the room with Kylie and he would unload the car. We had a bunch of stuff and I told him it would probably be better if he requested something to load our luggage on but my dh is a stubborn one and he refused. Okay, whatever. While he was gone I checked to make sure we had a refrigerator and a “crib”. Check and sort of check. The “crib” is actually just a playpen. I had read that online though so I wasn’t surprised. That was the reason we decided to get 2 full-sized beds instead of just 1 king-sized bed. We knew there was a possibility Kylie would refuse to sleep in the playpen and might end up in the bed with us and it would get crowded. We decided 2 beds would be better and that if she did end up sleeping with us that dh could have 1 bed and Kylie and I would share the other. That was one of the smartest decisions I ever made! I am getting ahead of myself though…

Dh returned a while later hot, sweaty, out of breath, and loaded down with our junk. He gave me a look and told me he had to go get the rest. Uh-oh, my over-packing was earning me some evil looks from my sweet dh. Oh, well, I told him he should have gotten something to load it on, didn’t I? He ended up making 3 trips back and forth to the car and the last trip he took Kylie’s stroller and loaded it up too! After he got back he told me that I had better drink every one of the bottles of water out of the 24 pack case he had just carried in, lol! I managed to drink 14 I think. I got a lecture when we left to head home about how I was supposed to drink all of them but I just smiled.

I unpacked our luggage and put everything on hangers, in drawers, in the bathroom, on the sink, etc. I tend to over pack but we never forget anything really important at least. Plus, I never realized how much you have to pack when you take a baby/young toddler with you out-of-town for a week! A good majority of the stuff was Kylie's. After I was done unpacking I tried to get Kylie to take a nap but she was too excited and wound up wanting to check out our new temporary living space. She set out to explore the room. Thankfully I had also brought outlet covers and had plugged those into the outlets since I knew she would want to explore. I may over pack but I am prepared for things such as that at least! I gave Kylie a few toys that we had brought her in case of boredom and let her play and explore. Dh and I attempted to rest for a little while. I couldn’t sleep though knowing Kylie was awake and playing in the floor. Dh did doze for a little while. I decided to watch tv. I was thrilled to discover the wide variety of channels we got! Last time we only got a handful of channels and most of those were WDW related. This time we had a lot to choose from. I watched some Lifetime movie (can’t even remember what now) for a couple hours. We then started getting ready to leave for our reservation at the Whispering Canyon Café at the Wilderness Lodge. Dh had never even seen the WL (other than in pictures) and I was excited to finally show it to him as I knew he would love it. I had never eaten there but had read good reviews so we were eager to get there. Plus, we had not eaten anything since 7 that morning and we were starting to get hungry.

We headed to our bus stop only to discover that a lot of other people were also headed to the MK. We weren’t able to get on the first bus that stopped. We were first in line to get on the next bus though. We arrived at the MK and headed to the boat launch that takes you to the WL and Ft. Wilderness. We ended up just missing the boat and had to wait till it came back 10 min. later. When it came back we were once again 1st in line and had 1st pick on where to sit. We chose to sit at the very back so Kylie could see the water and the scenery. She loved the boat ride! I did too but I always do.

By the time we arrived at the WL we were late for our reservation! Dh was stressing about it but I wasn’t. I figured the worst that would happen is we would have to wait for an available table as I didn’t think this would be completely booked up. I went to the front and told the host we had an ADR but that we were (16 min.) late. He looked it up and told us that was okay and gave us our buzzer. I swear to you that as soon as we sat down in the waiting area the buzzer went off. We waited about 30 sec. and were seated! You can’t beat that, especially when you are late to your own reservation!

We ordered milkshakes for our drinks. We were thrilled when our server told us that you can now order milkshakes as your drink on the dining plan. I know it didn’t used to be that way from everything I had read and heard. So we ordered milkshakes- chocolate for me and strawberry for dh (Kylie had a little of mine and LOVED it!) and we ordered the all-you-can-eat skillet. While waiting on our food we watched the chaos (er, I mean, entertainment) going on around us. Kylie loved this place because it was LOUD and she fit right in. Every time any screaming, yelling, or hollering went on Kylie would join right in! She was entranced with all that was going on around her and I was glad she could be as loud as she wanted there without disturbing anyone. Our food arrived and dh ended up being stingy with the ribs and wouldn’t share. Kylie ended up eating most of the baked beans and I mainly just ate chicken and potatoes. That was okay though as I am not a huge meat eater and I do not like baked beans. We ordered our dessert to go as we were stuffed!

Here are our reviews for the WCC:

Kylie: Good food! I can get loud! Tables are close together so I can be nosey! Love it!
Scott: Good food, I like to eat and it’s all you can eat! Love it!
Tasha: Okay food, atmosphere is just okay. A bit crowded and very noisy. The noise didn’t bother me at all but if you don’t like noisy restaurants or kids running by your table riding pony sticks then this is not the place for you!

I would go back in the future when Kylie is a little older simply b/c I think she would love how she can join in on the fun. It's a great family place. If not for Kylie I wouldn’t care one way or the other. It was okay but nothing I feel the need to do again. Out of all the meals we did on the dining plan that week I think this was probably my LEAST favorite. I still enjoyed it but I don’t think it even compared to the others. Dh would go back though (he rated this his 3rd favorite out of the 7 table service meals we ate) so I guess my opinion may be in the minority here!

After dinner, we toured the WL for a few min. and dh did fall in love with this resort. He is the one that decided he would rather stay at Pop for a week vs. staying at the WL to save money. He regretted his decision after seeing the WL. He liked it that much! After dh saw the WL we got back in line to board the boat. I was hoping we might make it in time to watch Spectromagic but I knew we were pressed on time and might not make it. It was also EMH that evening at the MK and it was also the last night POTC was going to be open before it was under rehab again and that is by far my favorite ride! I was determined I would get to ride that at least once or twice.

Well, we arrived and had to wait in line to get our bracelets for EMH and the line was moving so slow. Finally someone in charge realized how slowly bracelets were being put on and finally told the CMs to start just handing them to people and not to worry about putting them on us. So we grabbed our bracelets and put them on ourselves and headed inside. Due to the long wait to get our bracelets we got inside during the middle of the Spectromagic parade and it was jam-packed! We had already missed half the parade so we decided we’d watch that another night and TRY to head to POTC. That was an uphill battle and then some! We made it down most of Main St. but there was no getting past the crowd at a certain point so we just stood there until the parade passed by us.

After the parade passed by us we joined the mob in the street trying to go down Main St. I could not believe all of the people that thought it was smart to try to cut in front of my stroller! I am sorry to those who left that evening with sore ankles, really I am, but it was way too crowded to be trying to cut off a moving stroller! Apparently these people had never seen me drive! After running over about 50 people (again, sorry!) we managed to get out of the mob of people and headed towards POTC. Most of the park-goers were looking for a good place to watch WISHES at that point so we walked right onto POTC and were able to ride twice with no wait. I was so tired though that it is a bit of a blur to me now unfortunately! But did you know they changed the dog at the prison scene? He is not a yellow lab type dog anymore. He is now a floppy-eared, spotted, mangy-looking type dog. Interesting. :scratchin

After we rode POTC dh decided he wanted to ride BTMRR. I told him that was fine and asked him if he wanted to ride Buzz after that and then head back to the resort. He said an emphatic yes since BTMRR and Buzz are his 2 favorite rides. I told him that Kylie and I were heading to Tomorrowland to wait for him and to go there and meet us in front of Buzz when he was through. Kylie fell asleep in her stroller during the walk to Tomorrowland. It also was starting to get chilly which surprised me. We live in Mississippi and our weather tends to be hot and humid like Florida and we had just gotten over a heat wave with temps in the mid 90s so I sure wasn’t prepared to be chilly in Florida! But it was and all we had brought was shorts, tank tops, t-shirts, (and onsies and sundresses and things like that for Kylie.) I had brought a couple of receiving blankets with us but had not thought to bring one to the park with me. Okay, no sweat. Dh will be here before we know it. WRONG! I waited and waited and waited and it got chillier and chillier and chillier!

After a while I decided I needed to do something to keep Kylie from getting too cold and I was pretty tired of looking in gift shops so I covered her up with a cloth diaper that I use as a “spit rag”. This is when having a smaller child comes in handy. It covered most of her body much to my relief. After about 45 min. Kylie woke up and I fed her a bottle. It was getting late, the park was still pretty crowded, despite the EMH, and I was freezing. Okay, now I was starting to get irritated! I called dh on his cell phone and asked him where in the world he was. He proceeds to tell me that he has looked all over the park for me! “Uh,” I ask him, “Did you bother to look by Buzz Lightyear since that is where we agreed to meet?” He tells me he can’t find Buzz. Okay, then how can he say he had looked all over the park I wonder but instead I ask him where he is. He is by the Tea Cups. Okay, that’s not too far from us so I give him directions on how to get to us and tell him if he gets lost again to ask someone that works there for directions and they should be able to help him. Okay, he’ll be here any min. now at least. WRONG!

By this point Kylie has woken up and is no longer my smiling happy angel. She is tired (it’s now past her bedtime and I had expected to have left the park before now), hungry, and more than likely chilly. I make her a bottle and I feed her and that helps but then she doesn’t want to be put back in her stroller. 20 more min. has passed and dh is still no where to be found! I am really getting annoyed now! I am tired and cold as well and there is no cloth diaper to keep me warm darn it! I call dh back on his cell phone and ask him where he is and this time I can hear the annoyance rising in my voice but am trying to remain calm. He tells me he is by Dumbo! WTH?! How can he only be by Dumbo? He says that he asked a CM for directions and they gave him bad directions. Yeah, okay. I am not buying it. I remember now why I am always the navigator! I tell him to stay put and that we will find him! I realize if we wait on him to find us that it will be morning before he does. It is a bit of a hassle since Kylie did not want me to put her in her stroller and it is way too difficult to steer her stroller with one hand while holding her in the other arm in that type of crowd. I ran over so many ankles while steering with both hands. Can you imagine how awful it would be for ankles everywhere if I steered with only 1 hand?! I decided I had to put Kylie back in the stroller. This royally pisses her off and she starts to throw a tantrum but I plop her $8 binky in her mouth and she calms down. For $8 it had better calm her down anyway!

About 5 min. later we are at Dumbo and we walk around the entire ride and don’t see dh. I am about to lose it now. I am fuming! What part of “stay put” confused him? I am so pissed I could…:furious: Oh, there he is! Lucky him! He is very sheepish and apologetic and I decide to forgive him and let it go. I do tell him however that Buzz will have to wait until another day since Kylie and I have had enough. He agrees and he did get to ride BTMRR twice so he was satisfied too.

We go to the bus stop an hour and a half before EMH ends and I about faint! The line is ridiculously long! OMG and I am sooo tired by this point and it’s cold out! Ugh! What can you do though? Besides I imagine it would be a lot worse when EMH ends anyway! We get in line and Kylie has once again fallen asleep. An hour and quite a few busses later Kylie wakes up. She is back to her happy smiling self and starts flirting with people in line. They just don’t know how deceptive her charm can be and she has them right where she wants them. She has a great time waiting in line and is so happy that it eases some of my tension at least. Finally we get on the 5th bus that stops for Pop, I think, and we don’t have to stand so that's always a plus. I am so tired by this point that I would probably have stood despite my fear of holding Kylie while standing. Thankfully I didn’t have to though.

We get back to the resort and somehow manage to drag ourselves to our room. I get Kylie ready for bed and then attempt to get ready for bed myself. Kylie suddenly becomes very clingy and doesn’t want me to put her down and she doesn’t want Daddy at all! She cries as I get ready for bed and Scott can not console her. After I am ready for bed I pick her up and I already know this is not going to happen but I decide to see if she will sleep in the playpen. Nope, she isn’t having that at all! I am so tired so I grab her and put her in bed with me. We kiss Scott goodnight and he gets into the other bed and we all fall asleep. I was so tired and by the end of the night things were not going so well and I had started wondering if this trip was worth it or not. Kylie was being exceptionally good most of the day but it just didn’t feel as magical as previous trips for some reason. I was really hoping it was because I was so tired and that the trip would pick up once I got some rest. Tomorrow is another day so we shall see!

TO BE CONTINUED…
Up Next:
Kylie’s 1st Interaction with the Characters
Dinner at Le Cellier (complete with reviews)
And Kylie’s Magical Duck Experience
 
Great report Tasha. I can't even count the number of times I've thought to myself "she's exactly like me"! I have to laugh about you being cold at MK, we're from MI and thought it was great that night! I am now convinced that we were on POTC at the same time, we rode it once before and twice after Spectromagic (and fought that same crowd with a DOUBLE stroller :crowded: ) If you saw a little boy chasing a laser pointer outside the entrance that was us!
 
Still loving the report, Tasha :sunny: ! Thanks for the tip about the outlet covers. I'll have to put them on my packing list :thumbsup2 .
 
Hi Tasha. I'm exhausted reading about your day. I'm curious, after waiting for the buses so much did you opt to drive later in the trip?
 
Lol, Ryan! I knew that anyone from up North probably would enjoy the weather that night and would think I was crazy for thinking it was cold! There were people swimming in the pool during that crazy weather and my thought was, "No freakin' way!" You can tell who the southerners are compared to the northerners, can't you? :teeth: I am cold when the weather hits 60 degrees, lol!

Day 3 (May 1, 2006)

I had decided after our long drive and lack of sleep the day before that we would start the day late and sleep until whenever we naturally woke up. Unfortunately for me I slept for about 3 hours and that was all! I had a hard time staying asleep with Kylie in the bed with me. She always sleeps in her crib in her own room at home and she has slept through the night most of her life so this was new to me. Sure, she sometimes takes naps with me in my bed during the day but that is for an hour or 2 and never at night when it is dark and I might be disoriented. My mom instincts are actually pretty good and I am a VERY light sleeper but I couldn’t help but feel panicky that she might roll off the bed or something while I slept. So I didn’t sleep, not much anyway! Kylie and Scott slept very well though. I’d say they got at least 9 hours although that detail is a little blurry to me now. While Kylie and dh slept into the early afternoon I watched yet another Lifetime movie! We don’t have anything except basic cable at home since we don’t watch a ton of TV anyway so I don’t get Lifetime at home and there was really nothing else on TV at the time. Really, there wasn’t! I don’t remember what I watched that day either truthfully.

Finally, dh woke up and took a shower and started getting ready for the day. Shortly after that Kylie woke up as happy as ever. That is the one thing I enjoy about her when she first wakes up. She almost always wakes up with a huge grin or giggle!

After getting Kylie ready to go and getting ready ourselves we headed to the food court for lunch. We were on the dining plan so we were able to get a meal, drinks, and dessert! Plus, we had our refillable mugs. So we had burgers (well, I had philly cheesesteak wrap), cheese fries (which dh has decided has made the food court worth it since he is obsessed with cheese on his fries!), 2 bottled waters (which we took to the park with us), and 2 rice crispy Mickey head treats (mine was chocolate covered and I saved it for a couple days later, dh’s was just plain and he ate his after his meal), and we had coke and apple juice in our refillable mugs. I tell you, you get a lot on the dining plan! Last trip it seemed we never had enough water and this time we had plenty, not counting the water I brought with us. So, 2 thumbs up for the dining plan from us! And I guess I should add that we saved about $300 with the dining plan! It’s not free dining of course but since we aren’t able to go during that time of year it was still a total score for us!

Anyway, after we ate, we headed once again to Epcot. We had left without really doing much the day before and I was anxious to do a little more there so Epcot it was. The wait at the bus stop was no problem. I think someone asked if we ever drove to the parks or just took the bus the whole time. Ah, this was such a big issue with me on whether we stayed at Pop or not. I knew that I would not want to stand on the bus while holding Kylie as she is not the type to sit still and I was really worried about her getting hurt. I also didn’t think dh would enjoy folding our stroller and lugging it onto a bus, especially a crowded bus, over and over. I liked the idea of staying at the WL and taking the boat to MK and then the monorail from there if we went to Epcot. It would have been much easier since you don’t have to fold the stroller and most of the time you can get a seat and not have to stand except during the busiest times like park closing and things like that. It would have meant a shorter trip this time though and that is why dh did not want to stay there and chose Pop. I asked him if we could take our car then if the bus became too much work and he didn’t really want to do that. His feeling is while he is on vacation he wants a vacation from everything including driving since free transportation is one of the perks of staying onsite. I told him that if it got too bad then I wanted to drive to the parks though. He reluctantly agreed but I could tell it wouldn’t happen easily. So no, in the end we never did drive our car there or anything. We took the bus the entire time but most of the time we didn’t have a long wait and it wasn't too bad. It was only when we stayed late at a park that we had any real wait so it wasn’t too bad. I still don’t regret not staying at the WL b/c I think we would have been too rushed had we had a shorter trip. Dh was regretting that he didn’t pick WL though b/c he did get pretty tired of loading the stroller on the bus, lol, but that was his decision.

Okay, now back to our trip. We arrived for our full day at Epcot. The first thing we did was ask a Photopass photographer some question and I can’t remember what now honestly but it led to him telling us about Character Connection and for that I am grateful. I would probably have just walked right by it and never gave it a 2nd glance if he had not told me about it. We entered Character Connection and I immediately loved how this was set up. Nice and air conditioned, out of the sun. Plus, there were several separate lines for characters and after you were done with one character you moved on to the next. To make that even better the lines were never excessively long. Silly mommy forgot to bring her own camera inside though so we were stuck doing Photopass pics only. This was the moment of truth though! Kylie had been terrified of the Easter Bunny only a couple of weeks earlier so we didn’t know if she would be okay with Mickey and pals either. She had recently discovered Mickey at home though and knew who he was so we were hoping that would help. It was our turn and Mickey was the 1st character. At first she just stared at him funny. Then he started playing with her and she grabbed his finger. Before we knew it she had warmed up to him and was biting his nose and smiling at him! What a relief! How sad would it be to realize our dd did not have the appreciation for characters? I would have had to reevaluate my parenting skills for sure! After Mickey, she saw Minnie, Donald, Chip and Dale, and Goofy and Max. It was so awesome the way she got all excited for each one! That’s my girl! We skipped characters on our last trip as dh had no interest in them at all then. I was determined by the end of this trip he would be a character convert though and this was phase 1 of that plan. So far he was neutral toward them at best but there would be plenty of other opportunities I thought with an evil gleam in my eye! pirate:

After character connection we headed to The Land pavilion. I grabbed a fast pass for Soarin’ and we got in line to ride Living with the Land. Living with the Land has always been one of my favorite rides so it was a must-do. Kylie fell asleep in line and slept through the entire ride. Traitor! :sad2: Anyway, after L w/the L we headed to Circle of Life. I normally skip this one but I thought Kylie would enjoy it and she was awake now. She did enjoy it and kept squealing at Pumba, Timon, and Simba throughout the whole thing. Again, she is at that age where people turn around and just smile at her. I am sure that will change in a year or 2!

After Circle of Life we headed to the Living Seas pavilion. This is also a must-do for us and I knew Kylie would enjoy it. Plus, not to brag, but my uncle designs and builds aquariums for a living and he is one of the ones that helped build the aquariums in the Living Seas. Too bad Kylie is still too young to appreciate that fact. Oh, well, guess we will just have to take numerous trips there throughout her lifetime, right? I know, I’ll use any excuse to go back to Disney! :rolleyes1 Anyway, we viewed the fish, the dolphins, the gigantic Sea Turtle (which I always have to see as I love turtles), and the manatees (also something I love that I always have to see). After viewing all of this we saw the long line for Turtle Talk with Crush. Dh did not want to wait in that line and I wasn’t sure if it was something I wanted to wait in either. I did not fully understand what this attraction was supposed to be despite seeing videos about it and hearing about it. I still had some time left before my FP slot for Soarin’ though so I asked a CM how long the wait was. He said something like 20 min. and said the show was about 12 min. long. Dh did not seem happy to go to this attraction but we went anyway.

I am so glad we did! We did not wait more than 10 min. and got a spot near the front. Kylie was still too little to sit in the floor with the other kids so we sat on a bench. She got so excited when Crush came out. He started talking to the little kids and I guess Kylie wanted to get his attention so she started yelling really loudly. And OMG! Crush talked to Kylie! Basically, he came in her direction while she was yelling, looked at her, and said something like, “Yep, I totally know what you are saying, dude!” Everyone cracked up and that has become one of the highlights of Epcot for me. I knew he was supposed to interact with the kids but I guess I didn’t realize he would actually be able to interact on that level. I thought it was going to be a show that never changes up but it is personalized for each show and it is great! So worth it if you have kids and still worth it if you don’t because it’s pretty funny and cute. Dh was cracking up during it too so he got over not wanting to do it and ended up having a great time.

When the show was over it was now my FP time for Soarin’. I couldn’t get dh to ride b/c he is scared of heights and was afraid he would be terrified on it. I don’t think he would have been and he probably would have loved it (it is so up his alley) but he doesn’t budge when he gets an idea stuck in his head. Dh sat in the Sunshine Seasons eating area and fed Kylie a bottle while I went through the FP line and waited until it was my turn. There were 4 ladies behind me around 60 years old. And let’s just say I never needed to know so much about their weights, their b**bs, or menopause! Yikes! Some people are an open book no matter whose around that’s for sure! I was thankful that I was not put on the same ride as they were b/c I had a feeling they would yak throughout the whole thing and I had already heard enough from them for one day thankyouverymuch. Instead I sat beside a very nice lady and her son and we chatted until the ride started.

Soarin’ is pretty cool, not my favorite ride but still pretty cool. I like the ending but I won’t give that away b/c not everyone has been on it yet. After the ride was over I went to find Kylie and Scott. Kylie was once again asleep! It was a hot day though and we had done quite a bit in just a few hours so I can’t say I blamed her!

It was almost time for our ADR at Le Cellier so we headed toward the World Showcase. First a quick stop in the Baby Center. I love the Baby Centers, especially Epcot’s! Anyway, I changed Kylie and then we were off to Canada. We checked in and were told it would be a few min. There were quite a few people that walked up hoping to get in without a reservation. They were sent away after being informed that they book up weeks, sometimes months, in advance. I made our ADR a few months in advance and I was told that they were nearly booked for the night I made our ADR for even back then so this was no surprise to me. I was really excited to eat here since it seemed like every review I had read for the place was positive. We waited quite a while though and Kylie was getting restless. Plus, I was starting to feel the exhaustion set in again. I had only slept about 3 hours in the past 50+ hours and I was pretty beat! I know we probably didn’t wait as long as it seemed but with Kylie getting agitated and me feeling tired it felt like we waited forever. In an effort to calm Kylie down some I took her to see some ducks. She has a fascination with ducks and has since she was only a few months old. The ducks calmed her down immensely…for the time being anyway.

The buzzer finally went off and we were seated. The only negative things I had heard about Le Cellier was the lighting was bad and the tables were too close together. Well, our table was kind of off by itself so we didn’t have that problem and I thought the lighting went well with the atmosphere. I liked the inside of the restaurant personally. We also had a very friendly server. Unfortunately, Kylie did not do as well in Le Cellier as she had at WCC. It was much quieter for one and she was tired and hungry. We had been trying to hold off on giving her another bottle because she was at the age where she eats whatever we eat and I knew dinner would be there any min. She wasn’t a happy camper though so I made her another bottle and that helped a lot. While giving her a bottle the breadsticks were brought to our table. She spit the bottle out of her mouth like it had burnt her. She does prefer table food to formula at least. I couldn’t get the bread to her fast enough though. The girl was apparently hungry! The pretzel bread was one thing people seemed to rave about. It was good, the best bread of the 3 that was brought, but not as good as I would have expected based on reviews. I ordered the cheese soup and dh ordered shrimp cocktail. He wasn’t feeling the shrimp cocktail if I remember correctly. The cheese soup was good but again I found it to be overrated and it was not the best soup I had ever ordered, that's for sure. I ordered the mushroom filet mignon for my main course and dh ordered the regular filet mignon. It was VERY good but they skimped on the mushrooms as I only had 1 tiny mushroom. The portions are a bit small looking and don’t really come with good side dishes. Dh has raved and raved about how good his meal was though. He loved his filet mignon. This was his favorite meal of the whole trip. I enjoyed it but again, I did find it a bit overrated. We will be eating there next trip though b/c dh loved it and I did like it quite a bit so it will be a must-do next time if that tells you anything.

For dessert we ordered crème brulee to eat then and chocolate mousse to go. It took FOREVER for our dessert to arrive! I was so tired that I actually found myself falling asleep on and off! That is, until Kylie decided she didn’t want to be there any more and I had to hold her to keep her from getting too upset. That woke me up anyway!

Dessert FINALLY arrived and I mean, it really did take a LONG time! Our server apologized for the long wait at least. Dh did not like the crème brulee but I thought it was delicious! Kylie loved it as well which was no surprise since she has a sweet tooth. She was spoiled on sweets this trip and hasn’t had any since we’ve been home so it evens out I guess. We ended up getting the chocolate mousse to go and they designed it into a cute Moose head, complete with antlers, eyes, and mouth! Very cute! Unfortunately we never did eat it so I don’t know if it was any good or not (we actually forgot all about it until it was too late.) And did I mention that the dining plan is a beautiful thing? It really is! Our meal would have cost $104!!!

After dinner, we decided we were tired and ready to head back to the resort. Again, the bus was no problem. We got back to our room and proceeded to get ready for bed. Kylie once again went nuts if I tried to put her down and would not let Scott touch her. She only did this at bedtime for some reason and it didn’t last the entire trip thankfully. The only way to get her to calm down and let me get ready for bed was to have Scott take her outside. He took her down to look at the pool. They were gone for a while and I was starting to worry a little. Finally they came back and dh was smiling. I asked what had happened. He said Kylie got to pet some of the ducks. They came right up to her and they let her pet them! One kept trying to bite her little toes though so dh had to shield those but other than that they were very tame. He even said that some of the security guards were riding in their cart and stopped to watch and were laughing at Kylie and talking to her! I was sooo jealous and still am! I wish he had the camera and had caught that on film but he had no idea that would happen. These are some of the things we never would have thought to take the time to do before having Kylie and now they are some of our fondest memories! She was a very happy child when she came back in our room to say the least!

I was exhausted and could tell Kylie was as well. She ended up in bed with me again but this time I slept ALL night long with no problem and Kylie was fine too. We had ADRs for Chef Mickey’s for breakfast the next day so sleep was a must if we wanted to get up early. This day had gone sooo much better than the day before but I was still exhausted so I was hoping I would be fully rested and able to enjoy our 3rd day even more.

TO BE CONTINUED…
Up Next:
Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s (complete with reviews)
Our day at MGM
The not so fantastic Fantasmic nightmare
 
Great report! We are going in September for Peighton's 2nd birthday. We are staying at the WL. Your DD is adorable. Can't wait to read the rest of your report!
 
Tasha - Once again a great report! The pictures of Kylie are so cute too! :love: I can't wait to read more! :thumbsup2
 
Kylie and my DD are only about a week apart...I can't wait to take my DD to the World and for now I'm living vicariously through your report!!
 
Loving your TR Tasha!! :goodvibes

Kylie is getting so big!

I was at WDW the same time as you! What are the chances?
 
Brillaint trip report really enjoying reading them.Your daughter is adorable
 
Tasha - great report! I have to admit, I'm not looking forward to the not so fantastic Fantasmic nightmare. We booked the Fantasmic dinner package at the Brown Derby and plan on taking Lucas along. :rolleyes2
 
Briarmom~ I could have sworn you were one of the ones planning to to Atlantic City at the time we were at WDW! If I had known you were going to be there we could have met up! Oh, well, maybe next time!

Day 4 (May 2, 2006)

I had been so exhausted our whole trip up to this point so it was nice to finally get a good night’s sleep! When our wake up call came I woke up refreshed and feeling great. Dh did not really want to get up and to my surprise Kylie slept through the call. That was unusual since she is a light sleeper like me normally. I guess she really was tired. I told dh he could sleep a little longer if he would get in the bed with Kylie while I got ready. He did not argue of course. I figured since they were both tired it would do them good to sleep a little longer. Dh was the one that was the most excited about trying Chef Mickey’s though so I knew he would be in a great mood after a while too.

After I was done getting ready I woke Kylie and Scott. Dh was groggy and not too happy with me for waking him so I said four magical words that made him spring out of bed with a smile on his face: “Chef Mickey’s for breakfast.” We had never eaten there before but it had gotten great reviews and I knew that Kylie and I would like seeing the characters and I knew if it was breakfast food dh would be happy. He is a breakfast food kind of guy. All I had heard about since I made our ADRs is how he couldn’t wait to eat some pancakes! As far as the characters, this was to begin phase 2 of my character convert plan on dh. Bwwaaahhaaahaaa! :stir:

I got Kylie up, changed her diaper, and fed her a bottle. Dh was done showering and dressed by that point so I had him entertain Kylie while I washed her bottle and prepared her diaper bag for the day. This brings up one thing that I absolutely hated about Pop. The water pressure! I hated washing bottles and sippies there. The water pressure in the sinks was so freakin’ low it wasn’t even funny. This is something I probably wouldn’t have even noticed if I didn’t have a child and didn’t have any dishes to wash while there. However, I did have a child and had bottles and sippies to wash every day and the water pressure stunk. I felt like it took forever to wash a bottle due to how weak the water pressure was! On the plus side the shower had a lot of hot water for showers and baths all around so that was a positive anyway. See how fair I try to be? One con and one pro all in the same paragraph! ;)

After preparing her diaper bag I searched for my sunglasses. I cannot go out into the nice sunshine without my sunglasses now can I? Well, apparently I had no choice. My sunglasses were missing! I was so tired the night before that the details were hazy but I distinctly remember handing my sunglasses to dh on the bus ride back to the resort. Kylie was fascinated with my sunglasses and tried to grab them every chance she got so on the bus ride I felt the need to protect them from her claws (uh, I mean hands) and gave them to dh. Dh swears he gave them back to me in the room. Either way they were gone! Okay, I would just have to see if I could find a reasonably priced pair at WDW. Yeah, right! Reasonably priced to me is about $5-10. I am a total cheapskate on sunglasses since I have broken so many pairs and *ahem* lost a few in the past. :blush:

We headed to the bus stop and decided we would look in one of the gift shops while in the Contemporary and see what they had. We arrived at the MK and hopped on the monorail going to the CR. This was our first ride on the monorail for this trip and I was thrilled to be on it. Dh loves WDW but he doesn’t quite get why the monorail is a must-do. :sad2: I always tell him it isn’t quite WDW until you have seen the castle and rode the monorail. He doesn’t get it but I am still working on him. Remember this was only the 2nd time I had taken him so he was a work in progress. I liked that we could carry Kylie on it while still in her stroller but I knew that her staying in the stroller wouldn’t last long. She is as nosey as her daddy. Sure enough, she was fussing within seconds to get out so she could see what was going on too. So I got her out and she enjoyed looking out the window and talking to who knows what the entire ride.

We arrived at the CR and we were actually pretty early so off to the gift shops we went. I had a hard time finding sunglasses at the first 2 I went to which kind of surprised me. Finally at the 3rd one (okay, well it was actually one that connected to the 2nd gift shop…you know what I am talking about if you’ve been to the CR) we found sunglasses. Of course the cheapest pair I could find was $16. I know that is actually pretty cheap for sunglasses, especially at WDW, but I hated the idea of paying that much because I just knew as soon as I did I would find my other sunglasses. That is always my luck. So I decided to wait and look at our resort later.

We headed to Chef Mickey’s to check in and man, does that place get packed! After checking in we were directed to a line to have our family picture made. Our family picture actually turned out decent but I had no intention of buying it since I would rather have a better family picture than one that simply has a sign saying Chef Mickey’s. Does that make sense? If it would have been with a character or something I might have bought it. Ever notice how WDW uses EVERY opportunity to get money out of you. Sheesh! You can’t even eat breakfast without having someone trying to get you to buy pictures but I digress.

Anyway, after doing the whole family photo thing we went to the lobby where Goofy was and got in line. Dh said he would take our photo and I took Kylie to see Goofy when it was her turn. We now knew that she liked the characters from our interaction at Epcot the day before. She was a much easier character convert than her daddy so this should be a piece of cake…I hoped! It was. She looked at Goofy funny at first, probably because he is so freakin’ tall, but after a few seconds she was grabbing his nose.

As soon as we finished with Goofy our buzzer went off. Talk about perfect timing. I had this funny feeling that the CMs were spying on us and had planned it that way to make up for trying to empty our pockets and wallets with the whole family photo thing. That’s okay though because that worked in our favor and they didn’t get any money out of us for the photo either…although I will admit I was tempted to buy it but I had to remain strong and I did. We took our buzzer up to the podium and a host took us to our seats. We were seated in the section that is kind of off by itself near the kitchen but toward the back of the section so not directly beside the kitchen. (Did you get all that?) I know a lot of people hate this section but I liked it personally. It seemed a little less crowded and a little more private. As soon as we were seated our server came and took our drink orders. That is when I realized I had forgotten Kylie’s sippy cup. That was okay as I asked the server if we could get a little cup of milk for Kylie and she said sure. She also let us know how the character meals work since this was our 1st one ever. We could see Pluto a few tables over and she told us we should stay in our seats until after Pluto visited with us because if we didn’t it would probably be at least an hour before he came back around. She didn’t have to tell me twice! A few minutes later Pluto came to our table. Kylie was so enamored with him. Remember how I mentioned once that Kylie loves dogs? Pluto is no exception. He snuck up behind her and surprised her but after that she was all smiles and squealed in delight for him.

After Pluto left Minnie was right behind him. After Minnie left dh got up to go get his food and I stayed at the table with Kylie. He was being very patient but I knew he was dying to get to that food so I couldn’t make him wait any longer. While he was gone our server brought our drinks. For whatever reason she brought Kylie a Sprite. I don’t drink soda all that often and I am not ready to give it to Kylie at her age either so I decided I would have to catch our server’s attention when she came back by. Dh was still getting his food when Chip came by. He snuck up behind Kylie and started rubbing her head. Dh came back to the table around that time and grabbed the camera. Chip would hide every time she tried to see who it was messing with her hair. She laughed when she finally spotted him. He continued to play with her a few more min. before he had to move on to other tables. Kylie was having a blast!

After Chip left I went and got my food. Shortly after I returned our server was back and she apologized because she realized she had brought a Sprite earlier and she replaced it with a glass of milk for Kylie too. I didn’t even have to tell her! We were done with characters for the moment and were enjoying the food. Dh went back for seconds and while he was gone Dale came by our table. Kylie and Dale were very entertaining. Dale played with Kylie more than Chip had and Kylie was just laughing the whole time. Dh came back during the middle of it and Kylie bit Dale’s finger! He yelped like he was in pain and then started acting like he was giggling. The whole thing was pretty funny and cute and the 4 teenage girls at the table beside us were laughing hysterically. We were having a great time!

A few min. after Dale left Pluto was already back at our table! We had seen Mickey come out of the kitchen and head to the other side of the restaurant but he was still nowhere near us. Kylie was thrilled to see Pluto, her main pup, though so it wasn’t all a loss. After Pluto left I went to get seconds at the buffet. While I was gone Kylie and Scott got to see Minnie again. When I returned a few min. later Chip was back, then Dale. We had seen all of the characters twice but STILL hadn’t seen Mickey!

I was starting to wonder if Mickey would ever come our way. We were done eating by this point. I guess our server (who was great btw…I wish I had gotten her name!) realized what we were waiting for because she told us that Mickey should be there in a few more min. She was right! A few min. later he finally got to our section. Unfortunately I heard his CM person asking if he wanted to take a break. I guess he decided to finish our section first and then take his break because thankfully he came to our table and the surrounding tables before heading to the back. He was really quick though. I actually had to go up to him because I think he was about to skip our table if I am completely honest. Kylie got to kiss his nose and he was gone. He went to the next 2 tables and then headed to the back for his break I guess. But at least we finally got to see him even if it did seem like he was a blur of color and then gone.

After Mickey left we left too. I think you pretty much know what our review of this place is but in case you don’t here it is. We ALL loved breakfast at Chef Mickey’s! The character interaction was great, the little dancing and twirling our napkin parts were fun, and the food was delicious. All 3 of us ate like pigs! Even Scott admitted he enjoyed the characters some. The evil gleam was back in my eye as I realized phase 2 of the character convert plan had been a success. We still had a little ways to go with him but we would convert him yet! Kylie had such a great time and would have stayed there all day if I had let her. I think it’s safe to say we will be eating breakfast there again on our next trip! This was definitely one of our favorites. :thumbsup2

After we left Chef Mickey’s we toured the CR. This is something else I never would have thought to take the time to do before Kylie. This trip we had agreed needed to be slower and more relaxed since we did have Kylie and it really was nice and relaxed which I think made it even more enjoyable. It was nice touring the CR and this was the 1st time either of us had been there. I really liked the pool area and beach area and think it would be fun to stay at this resort sometime. Of course if we did dh would want to eat Chef Mickey’s every morning which gets pricey so that might not be a good idea after all!

We finished touring the resort and hopped back on the monorail to the MK. We decided to go back to the room and rest for a while before heading to MGM that evening. We stopped by the gift shop at our resort before heading back to our room and I decided to finally cave in and buy the $16 pair of sunglasses. At least they were kind of cute if nothing else I told myself. Plus, they did keep the sun out of my eyes, right? I really hated buying them so I was thinking of every reason why this was a good purchase. We got back to the room and I went to the bathroom. When I got out I’ll be darned if dh wasn’t wearing my old LOST sunglasses on his face! I asked him where he found them. Apparently housekeeping must have found them because she had laid them neatly on the table by the bed and I promise you they weren’t there that morning. I had bought this stupid pair of sunglasses for nothing, had already cut the tags off, and had already worn them so I knew getting my money back probably wouldn’t happen. I decided I would be wearing them the rest of the trip then to get my money’s worth! I knew that would happen. It’s just my luck! :rolleyes:

Anyway, Kylie was tired and she took a nap without a struggle of any kind. Dh and I rested a while. After a while we turned on the TV and once again put it on a movie on Lifetime. Don’t ask me why so much Lifetime TV? Maybe the heat was getting to me? :confused3 I don’t know. It was starting to get late and we would only have a few hours at MGM tonight so I told dh we needed to get going if we were going to go. He had gotten into the Lifetime movie! He’d kill me if he knew I told you that but it’s true. He was a little upset he missed the ending but he also wanted to do MGM so it was a sacrifice he had to make. He’s a real trooper, my dh!

We headed to MGM and our first stop was The Little Mermaid. Last time we did not see The Little Mermaid as we were pressed for time. I had seen it before and thought it was cute and figured Kylie might like it. Dh hadn’t seen it but I figured he’d like it too since he has a bit of a crush on Ariel I do believe. Kylie thought it was great and tried to “talk” to the cast from her seat. Again, she mostly received smiles. It's a good thing she's still cute and little because she really does have a big mouth! She talks a lot and usually gets really loud!

When the show was over we were waiting while our row cleared out and this man nearly shoved me while I was holding Kylie and rudely said, “Excuse me!” like he expected me to push people out of my way so that he could get out of the building. I was like, “I am going as fast as I can!” and he gave me a pissed off look. I thought 'WTH is your problem, buddy?!' But I didn’t say that as I am genuinely a nice person until pushed too far. Of course when I am pushed too far watch out! :furious: Well, when we finally made it through the exit he turned to the woman beside him (spouse or girlfriend I’m sure) and proceeded to chew her out. He said, “I can’t believe you drug me to this sh*t!” and stormed off cursing her the whole way. Ah, the magic of WDW! I wanted to slap the thug for the woman as I’m sure I would have been doing her a huge favor! Of course she now looked pretty pissed herself but I am sure he was the reason for that and I felt sorry for her. That was the first moron (that’s the nicest word I can think of for this jerk) we encountered but unfortunately it would not be our last. I am so glad we met more nice people than people like that but we did meet a few like him too. I am just glad they weren’t with me. That would have been a crappy vacation. You spend all this money to go to WDW to have some idiot in your party ruin it for you. Ah, but thankfully dh and I aren’t like that so we had a great time! :goodvibes

After The Little Mermaid we went on The Great Movie Ride. I don’t know why but I really love this ride! Kylie seemed entranced with it too. After the ride was over we practically ran trying to get to Playhouse Disney in time for the next show. We got there right as they were closing the door and they refused to let us in. Bummer! We had never been to this before but this was something else we figured Kylie might enjoy and we were too late. We decided we’d do it another day. We headed to Muppets 3D and watched that instead.

After the show ended we were starting to feel hungry. We originally had not planned to eat at MGM but we did anyway. We ate at the ABC Commissary and I made the mistake of ordering the curry chicken meal and fruit for dessert. I thought Kylie would enjoy the rice and the fruit. Dh got the fish and chips. He said it was pretty good. The curry chicken was just awful and the fruit was a little too hard for Kylie to eat. Great. Thankfully we did not use any of our CS credits on our 1st day there so I asked dh if he’d mind ordering me something else b/c I was hungry and I could not eat what I had ordered. It was just that bad! He ordered me the Cuban sandwich and ended up coming back with one for himself as well! He had eaten half his fish and chips and still ordered something else for himself. He said it looked good and he was starving. Okay, that’s his call, lol! The Cuban sandwich was pretty good and the fried banana chips were good too. I might eat there again if ordering the Cuban sandwich or a burger but I will never be brave enough to order something other than a sandwich or burger there again!

I was ready to leave the park by this point but dh really wanted to watch Fantasmic. Now I love Fantasmic and think everyone should see it at least once, don’t get me wrong. By this point though Kylie was starting to act tired and I was a bit tired myself. Plus, the last 2 times I had been to Fantasmic we had a Fantasmic dinner package and had excellent seats in the reserved section so we didn’t have to worry about getting there extra early to find seats! This time we did not do the dinner package and I knew it would get crowded. I also knew we would have to get there early to get good seats. Add to that the fact that you can’t bring your strollers with you into the theater and it made for a queasy feeling in my stomach. Kylie was tired and I knew if she could stay in her stroller she would have been fine and went to sleep. I didn’t think she’d do well sitting on a cement bleacher for an hour or more waiting for a show to start though.

Dh really wanted to see it though and thought she’d be fine. He agreed that if it got too bad we’d leave. We decided to go to The Little Mermaid one more time thinking it might put Kylie in a better mood since she seemed to like it. It did and she really did enjoy that show.

After the show was over we headed to a bathroom so I could change Kylie and then we joined the throng of people heading toward Fantasmic. By the time we got there it was packed. They were directing people to sit all the way at the top in a really bad section. Kylie reacted just as I knew she would. She wanted down. There was no way she was going to sit on my lap that long waiting on the show. If the show had started right then she would have been fine but we still had a good while before it started. She started crying. I told dh I was sorry but we needed to leave. As soon as we started heading out of the theater she calmed down. She was fine as long as we were standing.

Dh noticed an area overlooking the bleachers where people were standing and asked if I wanted to try that. Not really but I relented. We waited for a while and the show finally started. Kylie started getting fussy again and I could tell all she wanted was to leave so she could get some sleep. So I sat down on the ground and rocked her. I couldn’t see the show but by that point my feet hurt and I was tired and I just didn’t care. I told dh he could watch it and I was fine. I wanted him to see it since I knew how much he liked it. After about 2 min. dh took pity on me and said let’s go. So we did and I was sooo relieved. It also meant we got to the bus stop before a good majority of the crowd which was a relief as well.

I LOVE Fantasmic but I won’t do it again unless we book a dinner package. I had even asked dh if he wanted to book one this trip and he said no. We originally were going to just skip Fantasmic but he changed his mind while we were there. Next time I am booking the package either way just in case!

We got back to our room and Kylie was a living nightmare! Fantasmic was the last straw for her and I think she was overtired. She usually goes right to sleep on her own but not this time. It took about 30 min. to help calm her and get her to sleep. She finally did fall asleep though and of course it was in the bed with me! I didn’t care though. I just felt bad for dragging her to Fantasmic and so did dh. We really had taken the day pretty easy and only did the park for a few hours tops but we made the mistake of staying out past her bedtime. It would have been okay if she could have slept in her stroller but we messed up by taking her out of it and we paid for that mistake at bedtime that night. We learned our lessons though!

Day 4 was wonderful other than the whole Fantasmic/bedtime nightmare. We all had a great day and this trip was now becoming so magical! I no longer wondered if it was a mistake! It definitely wasn’t! I couldn’t wait to see what the next day had in store for us! I fell fast asleep with visions of Mickey Mouse dancing in my head.

TO BE CONTINUED…
Up Next:
Lunch at Sci-Fi (complete with reviews)
Our last day at MGM
Our evening at AK
 
LOVING :love: IT, TASHA!!! I am so enjoying your whole TR!!! Looking forward to another chapter.

KYLIE is just so beautiful and with the characters...precious memories for sure!!! :thumbsup2
 
Day 5 (May 3, 2006)

On this particular day we decided to sleep in until it was time to get up and get ready for our lunch ADRs since Kylie had seemed so tired the night before. I woke up first as usual. What is weird is at home I am such a night owl staying up nearly all night. Dh and Kylie go to bed early and rise early. This trip I went to bed a little earlier but not terribly early (probably never actually fell asleep before 1 except on the one night I was so exhausted from lack of sleep) and I was still the first one to rise. I usually was the last to fall asleep too. Kylie is a light sleeper like me but she goes to bed early and sleeps at least 10 hours every night just like her daddy (when he can). It’s neat to see that she already has those things in common with us but again, I digress.

I had dh get in the bed with Kylie again while I got ready and prepared Kylie’s diaper bag for the day. Finally my lazy little family decided to rise as well. After we were ready we hopped onto the bus for MGM. We had an ADR for lunch at Sci Fi so we headed there first thing. After a short wait we were seated at the front of one of the cars. Kylie sat in a highchair at the side of the car. About 10 min. later a cute Japanese couple joined us in the back of the car. Kylie was fascinated with them and kept playing with them and smiling her new scrunched up flirtatious smile. They were just as easy to manipulate as the rest of the people she had encountered up to this point and she took advantage of it.

We had a waiter that seemed like he would rather not have been there. He was all business but at least he got our orders right. He wasn’t very friendly though. We had the onion rings and artichoke and spinach dip for our appetizers. The dip was very good. The onion rings? Not so much. I ordered the smoked ham sandwich and dh ordered the turkey sandwich. My sandwich was very good I thought and Kylie ate quite a bit of it as well. Dh did not like his sandwich at all. For dessert we each ordered shakes. I had the cookies and cream. I should have ordered chocolate. What was I thinking? :confused3 I don’t like vanilla and cookies and cream is basically vanilla with cookie bits in it. That was my mistake though so I can’t complain. Dh ordered strawberry and really enjoyed it. Of course my spoiled little monkey and her sweet tooth started whining until I shared a taste (or 10) with her. Apparently she really approved of the milkshake.

I had read such mixed reviews of the place that I wasn’t sure what to expect and was a little worried. I really wanted to see the inside though as the pictures of the place on allearsnet seemed really cool. As far as our reviews I think Kylie could have cared less one way or the other. I thought she would enjoy the atmosphere but she wasn’t fully awake yet so she wasn’t in her cheeriest of moods. She did enjoy watching Tom and Jerry on the big screen and of course she loved manipulating that poor young couple behind us. But all in all she just didn’t seem enamored with the place. Dh did not like the food and it would have cost us $63 if not for the dining plan. I mean we really didn’t get much and $63 for lunch is steep! He truthfully hopes we never eat there again. He said the inside of the restaurant was “okay” but not something that would make him eat there again. Me? I actually really enjoyed it. I thought the inside was really neat and my sandwich was very good. The price was ridiculous but it’s Disney so that’s to be expected. I would definitely recommend eating here at least once but dh would say no way! So that would have to be your call I suppose. I would eat there again if on the Disney dining plan but that isn’t likely to happen unless Kylie just really wants to eat there when she’s older. Her daddy is just as easily manipulated by her charm so he would go for his “princess” but he wouldn’t do it just for me. I would have to hogtie dh and drag him in screaming but that might actually be fun! I’m sure you can see the evil gleam in my eyes through your computer screen right about now, can’t you?! :teeth:

After we finished our meal we noticed it was nearly time for the next show at Playhouse Disney. We decided to make this our first stop of the day since we had missed it the day before. We entered the building and dh was not thrilled to see we would have to sit in the floor. At least we didn’t get there way too early so I was able to keep Kylie entertained until the show started. She enjoyed the show but she would have loved to get down and crawl all over the floor too if I would have let her. I was happy when the show ended because I have a bad back as a result of fainting and falling on a hard floor flat on my back when I was 12. It hurts like heck to sit in the floor with no back support for long periods of time. Toward the end of the show I actually stood up with Kylie over next to a wall to relieve some of the soreness. Other than that it was a cute show for kids. We will have to do it again on our next trip when Kylie can more fully appreciate it. I would never do it if I didn’t have a child though.

After Playhouse Disney we headed to Rock n Rollercoaster. I had told myself on every one of the last 3 trips I took to MGM that I was going to ride it. I am in no way scared of rollercoasters and before I met dh I was a huge thrill ride seeker. Dh on the other hand is not into rollercoasters or anything that has drops. He can ride a rollercoaster if it doesn’t have huge drops though. One of his favorite rides is BTMRR and I had to trick him a little to get him to ride that the first time. :rolleyes1 There was no way he was going on a rollercoaster that’s in the dark though so I knew I would be riding that alone. I tried to get my mom to ride it with me on our girls-only trip a couple of years ago but she gets motion sickness and was afraid she wouldn’t be able to do it. So I skipped riding it that trip even though I could have rode it by myself. Then dh and I went on our trip a few weeks later and he told me I could ride by myself but we were so pressed for time I decided to skip it again. This time I told myself I would be riding that and Expedition Everest no matter what. I was determined this was the day I would enjoy the music of one of my favorite bands while on a rollercoaster. So off to Rock n Rollercoaster we went and I grabbed a fastpass for it.

I actually didn’t have a long time before my time slot became available for my fastpass. We decided to ride The Great Movie Ride again while we waited. After the ride was over we headed back to my date with the rollercoaster and I got in the fastpass line. I was riding as a single rider so I ended up in the back row with a Japanese boy who was about 15 who was also riding as a single rider. I will say that the only part of this ride that I found the least bit thrilling was the takeoff. That made my heart nearly jump into my throat and the boy next to me and myself both screamed like frightened little girls during takeoff. After the initial takeoff though the boy next to me was giggling and hooping and hollering like a madman. Guess he was enjoying himself. I on the other hand thought the ride was okay but seemed to be over rather quickly and I just wasn’t feeling it the way I thought I would. I guess rollercoasters just don’t have the same appeal to me as they did when I was a kid and a teen. I don’t know. I was happy to have done one of the rides I swore I would finally ride though. I have no desire to do it again unless someone wants me to ride with them though.

*Side note: I still have yet to ride ToT. I am not sure about that one. I think I am going to make that a must-do for our next trip. I need to see what the fuss is all about. I had no desire to ride that previously but now I am intrigued and must give that one a try next time.*

After I exited the ride I found dh and he was getting excited because it was time to head over to the new stunt show. That was on his list of things to do this time. I was not thrilled at the prospect of going to an outside show with Kylie. It meant yet another show where we had to arrive early and keep her entertained until the show started. It’s amazing what love will make one do though. I knew it was something dh really wanted to do so we went. We got there early and got excellent seats. I kept Kylie occupied by giving her sips of juice out of her sippy cup to keep her hydrated. Babies need hydration too you know! I am thinking about making that into a new motto or perhaps making it into a bumper sticker. What do ya think? I know, I know. I am crazy. Anyway, back to my report. I kept Kylie hydrated with sips from her sippy cup and let her play with our $5 mister/fan that we had bought at Wal-Mart before our trip. The child was fascinated with that thing so it came in handy during wait times like shows.

Kylie was being extremely good and we truly had no problems out of her. I couldn’t say that about the family sitting diagonally in front of us unfortunately. There was a mom, a dad, and a little boy who was around 4 years old. It was really hot outside that day and the little boy had had enough. He seemed overly tired and probably hot. He was crying and asking to leave and making a huge scene. There was a dad and son sitting behind us and the dad was starting to get irritated. He was saying, “Can’t these people see their kid does not want to be here? Why are they forcing him? They should get up and leave!” His son was quietly trying to get his dad to shush. I guess he was getting embarrassed. There was also a woman and her dh sitting directly beside the screaming child who were getting pretty irate too. But I should be clear here and say that nobody was really annoyed at the child the way they were at the parents, especially the boy’s mom. She was a real piece of work. First the parents ignored the kid and he got upset and kept putting his hand on his mom’s arm trying to get her attention. She would get this irritated look on her face, roll her eyes, and practically yank the boy’s arm out of its socket by grabbing it so hard and flinging it down as hard as she could. I was starting to get whiplash just watching her do that! When that didn’t do any good she started slapping his arm until there were red marks!

This went on for at least 15 min.! The show had not started and I couldn’t believe anyone thought this show was that important. Dh and I had made an agreement when we had Kylie and had talked about going to WDW for her 1st b-day (or any time for that matter). We decided that when she is really young we are going at her pace and by her timetable. WDW can be a big adjustment for really small kids and I know it’s easy to get tired, hot, and hungry. We decided if Kylie had a meltdown at any time we would leave. I have this thing where I know Kylie didn’t ask us to bring her to WDW this young and I also know I don’t like to disturb people next to us if I can help it. So we decided these 2 things alone were good reason to get up and leave if we needed to. The only exception would have been during meals. We would have tried to calm her but we had to eat. Thankfully the only time she got even a little overly upset was at Fantasmic and I not only got her to calm down but we still decided it was best to leave. I know you pay a lot of money to come to WDW but really is a stunt show that freakin’ important? :rolleyes: Okay, sorry, rant over.

Anyway, after about 15 min. the couple sitting beside the family had moved down the bench and would not sit next to the family. I also think the girl was about to say something. I could tell she wanted to. Before she got a chance the dad finally had enough to and grabbed his little boy and left. I could not believe that the boy’s mom did not get up too! She was going to stay and watch the show! The guy behind us was just as incredulous as I was. Finally after about 5 min. I guess the woman heard all the people muttering about her and was starting to get embarrassed. Or maybe she felt bad for her dh since he had left with their son. I don’t know. All I know is she finally got up and left. I think some people cheered a little, but more to themselves than out loud. I heard a lot of, “About time!” type remarks. I can’t adequately put the scenario into words so I am not saying parents should always give in to temper tantrums or anything like that. It’s just the way the mom handled the situation that was the problem. If you had witnessed it you would have been shocked too. Okay, I just needed to get that off my chest. I still feel kind of bad for that child as I am sure his mommy really gave it to him when she got out of the stadium. Now I really am done ranting about it. Sorry! Moving on…

As far as the Lights, Motors, Action: Extreme Stunt show? Well, I think dh did enjoy it. It was a bit too long for me and I wasn’t too impressed. Kylie absolutely loved the stunts with the cars though but grew bored during the parts where they told you how they did it. I would do it again for my dh or Kylie but other than that I feel no need to watch it again.

After the stunt show was over we decided we were officially through with MGM for the remainder of this trip. I really like MGM but it isn’t the greatest park to me with a wiggly, impatient 1 year old since it is mostly shows. Dh and I had seen everything there before and we had managed to do everything there on this trip that we set out to do and we were ready to leave.

It was EMH that evening at Animal Kingdom. It was now about 3:30 so we decided we would head there. First I stopped at the Baby Center at MGM to change Kylie. Wow! This definitely wasn’t the nice spacious baby center that Epcot had. This place was tiny! Oh, well. I changed her and we left. On the bus ride to AK Kylie became intrigued with a nice German man sitting beside us. She “chatted” (at the top of her lungs) with him. He was laughing as were the 3 women sitting across from us. Kylie has never been quiet but she has always been a bit shy around strangers until she really got to know them. That all ended literally from the day we left to drive to WDW. Remember the KFC story? It was like that the whole trip and it still is now that we are home. It’s like she really came out of her shell on that trip.

Before we knew it we were at AK. I was absolutely thrilled to see Baloo standing off to the side outside the entrance. There was absolutely no line so we went over to see him.

After seeing Baloo we went inside and got our bracelets for EMH. We then headed to Dinoland and got in line for Triceratop Spin. We almost witnessed a fistfight! I kid you not. People were flipping out this day. It was bizaare. We were at the front of the line next to the gate to go on the ride next while they were loading people to ride before us. This lady and little boy sat in the front of one of the dinosaurs and a man went over to the side near the gate and was snapping pics. He was nowhere near the dinosaur though. Another man and little girl got in the back of their dinosaur. This woman completely lost it and started screaming at the man and his little girl to get out of the dinosaur. He looked bewildered and asked what her problem was. Apparently the guy snapping pictures was her husband and was going to ride with them and was planning to sit there. Who in the world stops to snap pictures while they are supposed to be loading on the ride anyway? This ride loads fast and then takes off. There isn’t time to take pics. Well, the lady is screaming and making a scene and literally just going off on this guy. Finally, the husband comes over there and they start all getting into it. I didn’t hear this but dh said the guy called the lady a b*tch. The husband then started cursing at him and about the time the guy stood up and you could just tell blows were about to happen a CM came over and broke it up. He made the man and little girl move and that was that. Ah, only at Disney, right? There must have been something in the water that day or something. I felt bad for the kids that were with these adults during these incidents!

We rode Triceratop Spin and then headed to Festival of the Lion King. After that we rode the Safari. Last trip we ended up missing it and I really wanted dh to get to ride this time and I thought Kylie might enjoy it too. We had several animals cross right in front of us or directly behind us and Kylie thought that was pretty neat. She tried to chat with the animals when they were close to our ride. Dh really enjoyed the safari as I knew he would. The ride was relaxing, breezy, and enjoyable. It was a winner to all 3 of us. :thumbsup2

We then headed to Kali River Rapids as this is dh’s favorite ride at AK. Kylie and I found a table outside the entrance while dh went to ride solo. I entertained Kylie with the mister/fan again and she had fun while waiting on daddy. The kid loves water and I would spray her directly in the face and she would laugh and want me to do it again. We had fun. Dh tried telling me he didn’t get wet last time we were there and rode KRR together. I know that we did but he insists he didn’t. He also said he wouldn’t get wet this time either. I couldn’t resist the “I told you so!” when he walked up with a sheepish grin and soaked clothes!

Now it was my turn to do a ride solo. I was determined I would get to ride Expedition Everest on this trip so we headed to it. We get there and they tell us they are having issues with it and had to close the ride down early. Darn it! That is just my luck. We had not planned to come back to AK again on this trip so now I am racking my brain trying to decide whether to come back or not. We decide we will come back the day we are leaving just so I can ride it before our trip is over.

We head to ITTBAB. The park will be closing in about 10 min. so we have just enough time to watch it. Kylie thought it was pretty cool. I am sure she will not think so when she’s older and she may even be afraid of it but at her age nothing scared her and most things fascinated her so it was great.

After ITTBAB dh went to get our stroller and I took Kylie to look at some ducks. There was a guy talking on his cell phone about business and pretty upset about some proposal not going in his favor or something. I feel sorry for those that can’t or simply won’t leave work at home while at Disney. I know sometimes you have to bring work with you but I would hate to have to do that while on my vacation. :(

Dh rejoined us and we left the park and went back to the resort. Kylie fell asleep and missed dinner. She slept in her stroller while dh and I ate dinner at the foodcourt. Dh had another burger and cheese fries. I had the nachos supreme (minus jalapeno peppers!) which was pretty good. I think it is probably pretty hard to mess up nachos though. For dessert I had the "worms in dirt" (which was actually very good despite the name!) and dh had another Mickey Mouse rice crispy treat.

Kylie woke up when we got back to the room and completely flipped out because I wasn’t holding her. So once again dh had to take her outside so I could shower and get ready for bed. After she came back in she was fine and we all went to sleep. I don’t know why she only chose to do that at bedtime but thankfully this was the last night she did this while we were there. If that is the worse thing she did the whole trip then I think we were doing pretty well! :goodvibes

TO BE CONTINUED…
Up Next:
Kylie’s reaction to Mickey’s Philharmagic
Dinner at Ohana (complete with reviews)
Kylie’s 1st glimpse of Spectromagic
 
I'm really enjoying your trip report! My DD will be 2 in July. Kylie reminds me a lot of her :goodvibes . My DD is also a "chatter" and is now getting tons of laughs with the cute and funny things that she says to stranger.

We've had two great trips at Pop with DD. I think that it's a great hotel for toddlers, especially with the Goofy Pop Jets. We are splurging and staying at the Contemporary this fall, but I have more than once thought to myself since booking the trip that maybe we should just change our reservation to Pop! It sort of feels like our Disney home.

Looking forward to the next installment.
 











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