We need a little magic- a trip report (Day 2 now posted!)

[JnEsWDWMom]

We need a little magic –a trip report

Cast of characters:
DH- Chuck- alias “the dad”, connoisseur of pod casts and all things Disney
DS- Jake- teen- loves Legos, Star Wars, frequently embarrassed by us, but loves to let loose at WDW
DD- Em- 10, lover of animals, stuffed and otherwise, daredevil, ready for anything kind of girl
And
Me- Lynn- Ultimate Planning guide, keeper of the schedule but who tries to let go and follow the magic. (No. I really do!)

First the back-story.
It’s been a rough year. In February Chuck took a new position at his job, one that promised set hours (9-5, Mon-Fri) and more time together. Well, guess what.
It lied!!!
Ok I'm a little bitter.
He was gone all the time and when he was home, the phone was ringing, calling him away. It took its toll. We’ve always been a close family and the truth is we began to fall apart. Finally, risking losing his job all together, he asked for his old position back and after a long week, they said he could have it. It felt like a black cloud had been lifted from us. But we needed something else. A fresh start. Let’s go to WDW, he said and we couldn’t pack the car fast enough. WDW is our special place, a place we can play together and remember what’s important.

And now a little disclaimer:
This was a poor trip. Not poor as in bad, but if you are looking for character meals and souvenirs and that sort of thing, you are out of luck. We had our Aps and got a great rate at the POP. We are usually all about the meals and stuff, but this time it was all about the fun. Can a family have fun at WDW without all the frills? Well, you’ll just have to wait and see.

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Day 1- On our way…..Slowly

Our children can’t miss too many days of school each year so sneaky people that we are, we found out if you are in school until 10:40 you are counted for the whole day. We picked up Em at 10:45 and Jake at 10:55. We always drive down, but usually we leave about 2 AM and drive at night. This time armed with the portable DVD player and a ton of movies, we were on our way.
We made amazing time. We were on I-4 outside of Orlando in about 6 hours. But then….oh then.
If you ever have the choice of having lemon juice poured into a paper cut or driving down I-4 in Orlando on Friday afternoon, take the lemon juice. Definitely. Without question.
After about two hours, tired, hungry, and a little carsick, we finally get off of I-4 and see that beautiful arch. We made it!!!
After a short check in with the security booth, (I wonder how we must have looked to him.) and an amazing short wait to check in, we were headed over to the food court to feast on a well deserved pizza. (Please note we brought our own water.) Here’s Jake’s first bite. Who knows why I always take a picture of them eating pizza on the first night, but I always do.

Our room was in the 90’s section on the third floor. The children were ecstatic! We’ve stayed at Pop before, and have swum in every pool but the computer one. All the way down they were hoping for the 90’s section. I was a little worried because the 90’s are a little far out, but because we never used the food court, it made no difference at all. We had trees outside our door and could see the arch from our window.

Too tired to go to MGM as we had planned, we took a quick dip in the computer pool

and tucked ourselves in to dream Disney dreams.

Coming soon: Day 2 or started with tears ended with smiles.

 

[pumba]

I love your report.......sounds like an awesome start to an awesome vacation.....thanks for taking the time to post this

 

[natale1980]

I'm sure you already know this but... A family can definitely without a doubt have a fantastic, wonderful, amazing, magical time at Disney on a tight budget!!!!
When I started reading other people's TR I couldn't believe how much money they spent!!! I hope one day I also can try out spending lots of money, but for now we have a budget and have a BLAST!!!
One time me and my DH spent 5 days in Disney (Hotel, Food & Gas from Chicago) for $1000. (we had park tickets from a previous trip)

Can't wait to read more!!

-nat

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Thanks Pumba and Nat! I'm so excited someone actually took the time to read it!!! Yes, Nat, we do find out we can have fun without the frills. You'll see it turns into quite an amazing trip. I've got Part one of Day 1 done, but I may have Chuck come in as a guest reporter , so I'm waiting until he comes home to post it. Thanks again. It is so much fun (And a bit sad) reliving it all.

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Oh Nat I forgot to say congrats on your baby on the way!!!

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Great start, hope you had a fabulous vacation.

 

[deide71]

Oddly enough, four out of five accountants have found no direct correlation between amount of $$$ spent on a vacatin and amount of fun had on said vacation .
(that fifth accountant owns DVC)
Can't wait to read more!

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Thank Backstage gal and Diede! Hopefully Chuck and can work on Day 2 tonight. I'm having a good time writing it.

 

[AshleyMWC]

Yay, I am hooked....again. Lord, these trip reports will be the death of me

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Day 2- Part one, Started with tears
Magic Kingdom
Here we are all smiles waiting for the bus to the Magic Kingdom. (Just a short walk across the parking lot to the Bus depot. Not bad at all.)

Jake took that one. Sorry it's sideways. Still new at this.

Love this one. (Chuck didn’t know until the picture came back from the developers.)
But then, disaster strikes. The camcorder is not working. Chuck hoofs it back to the room (no need to carry it if it’s not working) telling us to go ahead if the bus comes and yes you guess it. The bus came. We reluctantly went ahead. They were already letting people into the area in front of the train station, so we set up along the wall, all the while looking for Chuck. The CMs had a CD playing going and were teaching the children dances.
I danced.
My preteens looked on in horror. (I felt it my duty to try to cheer them up and what makes a kid smile more than seeing their mom make a fool of herself in front of a large crowd.)
9 AM came.
Still no Chuck.
The train arrives.
Emily begins to cry.
They let down the rope and we head down Main Street.
The children are silent.
Still no sign of Chuck.
Not quite the kind of morning I had hoped for.
But then right in front of the ice cream parlor, he was walking along with us. None of us noticed him for a moment and then, well, I’m surprised they didn’t hear us in ToonTown. We cheered and skipped (yes, skipped) all the way to the next rope in Tommorrowland.
Straight to Indy.

Three more years and he’ll really be driving.
We knew we had limited time, so we hit our favs in Fantasyland, Winnie, Peter, Snow White.
Closer to ten, our daredevils went off to find some thrills with a promise to meet back up in front of Pirates in an hour.
Jake has always wanted to try the shooting gallery

Then we played some checkers. It was fun to just hang out and watch the people go by.
Over to Pirates. I was anxious to see Jack Sparrow again. On our summer trip, we saw where he comes out to do his show so I sat down there to get a good, long look. (Cheap thrills.) I wasn’t brave enough to take a picture, but man is he hot!!! Not the original, but as close as I’ll ever get. (Ok sorry, moment’s over.)
Meanwhile Chuck and Em are zooming through canyons on Big Thunder.

After a train ride

they join us at Pirates.
After our ride through the Caribbean, it was time for lunch. We packed our own so we snagged a table across from Pirates to enjoy the atmosphere. Our first bit of thriftiness, but no one seemed to mind.

Next the Haunted Mansion.

and over to the TTA picking up fastpasses for Philharmagic and Buzz Lightyear for later.
On our way to Main Street we saw that the Magic Kingdom Tree was up so let’s get a picture!

Yep, that’s definitely one for the Christmas card!
We checked out the VMK place for Jake (definitely doing a quest next time.) and started to head out. I realized the time was open that we could get another fastpass for Space Mountain for later for Chuck, so we head over. The wait for Stitch was five minutes so we hopped on there. But it was at Space Mountain where we had our first Dream Come True!!!

Coming soon. Part two Ended with Smiles

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Day 2 Part 2 But Ended with Smiles.

Ok, so it wasn’t a big dream, but it was still fun. When you left us we were on our way to Space Mountain to pick up a FastPass for Chuck. I’m not sure why we went into the arcade, but we did. They had one of those dance machines so Em and I decided to try it. And wouldn’t you know it? It ate my quarters!! We were heading out when a Dream Team guy approached us and said, “How would you like to race all together?” Sure we said. It seems they were filling the whole wall of the racing game(eight or nine cars) and let us race together for free. They even had a guy with a microphone calling announcing the race as we went. Em ended up not wanting to race, but she got a picture of Jake in car number 4.

It was the first time they had tried this and we did have some technical difficulties getting started, but it was great fun. Jake and Chuck did well, but I finished last. We thanked the guy afterwards.
Ok, so you may be saying, “So what?” But you know, that little bit of magic stayed with us the rest of the day. We felt very special.
Back to Pop for Pool and a nap. Call me crazy but I always leave the TV on WDW Today. There’s just something about that channel that makes me fell like I’m at Disney.

That’s a pic from our summer trip if you are unfamiliar with my favorite channel.
Before we knew it we were back on the bus for our night at MK.
Chuck and Em got another fast turn on Big Thunder.
We hit Philharmagic (didn’t have to use the fast pass.) Buzz Lightyear (did need the fastpass) TTA (Spectromagic from TTA- very cool) and Space Mountain.
It was getting time for Wishes and I really wanted to try something different. Now we’ve seen Wishes A LOT. It usually involves scoping out a place in the Rose Garden or over by the Noodle Station and sitting and waiting.
This time we wonder over to Pooh’s Playful spot and found a nice bench about ten minutes out. It was so cool. It was like being surrounded by the fireworks.

Some were behind us and some in front. The children were speechless. The music was very low, but its didn’t matter. There was no one around us and it felt like we were all by ourselves. One of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
If you have never seen Wishes before, definitely see it from Main Street with the castle and get the whole breathtaking affect. But if you’ve seen it before, give Fantasyland a try. (Oops, giving away a secret.) It was very special.
We had one more hour before closing and Chuck has always wanted to do Jungle Cruise in the dark. It’s different. There was no line and the CMs were great, very funny.
A great end to an interesting day. Didn’t start great, but the finish was fantastic.

Coming soon. Day 3 We Love Epcot!!!!!!

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

I don't want to be responsible for loss of life! Thanks for reading.

 

[Goofster57]

Lynn,
What a great start to your trip, looking forward to more. Enjoying the pictures, not sure if it makes me an “A” or “B” personality, but I really enjoy the reports more when there are pictures to go along with the narrative.

I understand the job thing that your family went through; glad things are better and hope they continue to get better.

I spent five years in a job I loved, but the stress level and late hours made me a bear to live with, don’t know why my family stuck with me. I finally quit and took a job with a local University and after seven months has been the best thing I have done for my family and career.

 

[JnEsWDWMom]

Thanks for reading Goofster!!