We Survived WDW but my Stroller Didn't!

[Disneychix]

We're back! Well we got back 2 weeks ago but thanks to the wonderful person sitting next to DS on the plane ride home we've been sick for 2 weeks. But what was I supposed to say, "Please stop playing with my DS and just let him scream and kick because I don't want you spreading your germs all over us. Thank you!" I knew right away that we'd all end up sick. She was coughing a disgusting cough even before the plane took off. And DS just LOVED her. Gave her all his books to read!

BUT-We're doing much better now and thank goodness this was on the ride HOME and we weren't sick in WDW!

SO-On with the TR!

Here's a recap on the Cast (for more info please see my PTR):

Me-(Rosie) playing the part of wife, mother and daughter on this trip

DH-(Pat) playing DH, father and SIL

DS- Playing cutest kid in the world!

DM-Playing Grammy and Momma (to me!)

We had a wonderful 6 night vacation at POFQ planned for Free Dining! Please keep reading to see if WDW with your mom, husband, and 20 month old is any fun. (here's a hint: IT IS!)

 

[Disneychix]

Monday morning:
I woke up extra early mainly because my DH didn't turn off our pre-set alarm that wakes us up for work at 6:15am! I did have a pretty busy morning though so I wasn't all that upset. You see the previous Friday my husband "threw' out his back and couldn't move all weekend. He had been icing and heating it on and off and sitting in the hot tub at our gym. monday morning he had an 8:00 Dr appt at the chiropractor for one last realignment before getting on that plane! We were booked on a 12:00pm flight direct to Orlando on Jetblue. I have never travelled on a plane with DS before so I was very nervous about the amount of stuff we had and how we were going to get it all through security without the help of my DH who couldn't really move or carry anything at this point.

So DH left for his appt and I showered and got DS up and dressed. I begged DH to bring me home some iced coffee and a bagel (this will work against me so keep reading! )
I packed up the last of our luggage and was busy getting our stroller ready and all our odds and ends together. Now the stroller was a HOT topic for me for the last few months. I purchased a Peg Perego Aria at a garage sale and had used it for shopping trips and stuff throughout the summer. I loved that it was so light, I didn't love that it was kind of small. My other option was my big ole Evenflo. It had everything I wished but was so darn heavy. Well I went with the last min decision to bring the Evenflo, and let me tell ya, It was the RIGHT decision for us. DS was comfy, it had tons of storage (we practically carried our whole room around with us!), and it had good steering, the sunshade was big and covered DS well, and we rented a car so the heavy issue wasn't too bad.

Now onto the next dilemma! Getting to the airport: Well we have 2 vehicles at our house. A Mountaineer and an Escape. Dh is a drummer and on Thursday night he packed up his drums to play a show on Friday. Well Friday morning he hurt his back and couldnt' play and therefore all his drums were still in the BIG truck. I can move most of the drums but some parts are reallllly heavy. I told him all weekend our stuff would NOT fit in the Escape. He clearly thought it would. Monday at about 9:45am I was trying to smoosh our stuff into the small truck and it was clear it would not fit. So I freak out and start yelling that this is a waste of time and we need to pick up Grammy and get to the airport. So now I start unloading HEAVY drums and am getting madder and madder! DH did help but I was sooo scared he would hurt his back and not be able to get ont he plane. Well, when all was said and done guess what fit in the BIG truck? ALL our stuff!

So with barely time to breath I buckled in DS and grabbed my iced coffee and out the door we went!

Now, why can no one figure out how to successfully make a lid for an iced coffee cup? On the way to pick up Grammy my iced coffee leaked onto my white hoody which was then white and brown splotched!

We get to Grammy's and I fly out of the truck and throw my hoody at my momma. I ask her to please HELP! We then load up her suitcases and she magically appears with my cleaned hoody only slightly damp Yeah Grammy!

Grammy only lives 10 min from the airport so we were there in no time. It was about 10:30am. There was no one in our airport. I made a good decision to pick that flight! We checked the bags and got in a very short security line. I took DS out of his stroller, loaded the carseat, laptop, shoes, jackets, and diaper bag on the belt and tried to put the stroller up there. Well it was just too BIG. Security was very nice though and they took it through the back way

We were through security!

And because everyone likes pictures here's what's to come:

 

[Pryncesa]

Great start! Love the pictures too!

 

[sherreis]

Great start. Your little boy is adorable.

 

[Disneychix]

Great start! Love the pictures too!

Thanks! I'll try and put up an update now!

Great start. Your little boy is adorable.

Thanks, he's going through some serious "terrible 2" moments at only 20 months. But he's just so darn cute that sometimes I just have to laugh it off!

 

[Disneychix]

Still Day 1: The Plane, The Plane

We made it through security with no problems. I was so excited!! I was really worried about travelling with DS but everything was going great. We all put our shoes back on and walked to our gate. (we have a pretty small airport so it was only about 20 steps away!)

My mom and I took Brady to go look for the little play area in the airport and also to get in one last diaper change. The play area ended up being quite a ways down. We played for a bit and then took Brady to change him. When we were on the way back to the gate I see DH waving his hands at us furiously. Well, I guess we took a tad too long and they already boarded the plane! There was one other family right behind us so we weren't the last ones on! DH was not too happy with me but we never heard any announcments at all! Oh well, we made it on the plane and at least we weren't stuck sitting there forever waiting for late people!

The place had 2 seats per side. Grammy and me shared one side and DH ended up having no one sitting next to him. Great! A spot for DS! We got everyone settled and soon we were off and in the sky.

Brady soon fell asleep and stayed that way until we landed in FL! It was an uneventful flight. I think I watched the latest Project Runway as I had missed it the week before. Then only one episode of What not to Wear and we landed!


The Bags, The Bags

Now when I say we were loaded down with carryons, I mean LOADED down! We put Brady in the stroller and I put the carseat on my back and grabbed the laptop for the other shoulder. My mom had her carryon bag and DH (remember the hurt back!) had just his backpack.
We argreed that DH would go down to get the rental car as he couldn't really lift the bags off the carrousel so mom and I collected the 3 BIG bags. This turned out to be not such a good idea as now mom and I had to get the 3 big bags plus the carryons down to the rental car area. We somehow managed and god forbid if anyone heard my language in that elevator and met up with DH who successfully used the KIOSK checkin at Alamo (got a great rate for $92 for a full size SUV week!)

We now had to get the bags over to the ramp across the street, again not an easy feat. (DH and that dang hurt back!!) We were able to choose a Toyota 4Runner and I have to say for as expensive as those Toyotas are we were not that impressed. Nothing was wrong with it but it just had that plasticy feeling, like eveything would break off if we got in a crash. We own a Mercury Mt and that just feels like a nice heavy truck. IDK. Anyway, we managed to fit everything in the 4 runner and I got out my trusty notebook with directions to the closest Walmart! We were getting closer to the MAGIC!

 

[I love OKW]

Can't wait to read more. Your DS is adorable!!

 

[john398]

Here's a recap on the Cast (for more info please see my PTR):

Me-(Rosie) playing the part of wife, mother and daughter on this trip

DH-(Pat) playing DH, father and SIL

What does SIL stand for? I usually can guess these but I cant in this case

 

[noahdove]

Great start SIL I believe stands for sister-in-law..

 

[MousekaMaddi]

wonderful start, Im in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[john398]

Great start SIL I believe stands for sister-in-law..

I thought that at first
I figured it out must be son in law in this case

 

[Disneychix]

Can't wait to read more. Your DS is adorable!!

Thanks! I'll try and update more today. I'm a little bored at work...

What does SIL stand for? I usually can guess these but I cant in this case

In this case Son-In-Law! Thanks for reading!

Great start SIL I believe stands for sister-in-law..

It does, but I don't think my DH would like to be called a girl, so in his case it's Son-In-Law!

wonderful start, Im in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks, I'm trying to get past day 1!!

I thought that at first
I figured it out must be son in law in this case

Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[Disneychix]

Added Info:
So You might be wondering why this is called "we survived WDW but my stroller didn't." Well stay tuned, you'll learn right at the end (my ploy to keep you reading and for me to actually finish! )

Let me just say I was so anxious about this whole stroller thing. I was actually losing sleep before we left. I didn't want to bring the big one but I just knew that it would be better if we did. This whole business of strollers and bags in the Parks was so new to us. We are the park-pass in the wallet type!

Also, DH is NOT a fan of the WDW busses. He's also not a fan of lugging around tons of junk. You'll learn how we made out using WDW transportation in a few days.

So, anyway, keep reading to learn the fate of the stroller.

 

[Disneychix]

Still Day 1: The Rain The Rain

Well it seems everytime we make the drive to/from MCO it's raining. Not just raining, pouring! This time it was more of the same. It started as a little rain, then got worse, and soon we were just trying to stay in our lane and not veer off the road! Would WDW be this rainy the whole vacation? I hoped not.

With me as the navigator you never know where you'll end up. Sorry but it's the truth, I stink at reading a map and giving directions! (DH says if you fess up to something then you can't get made fun of for it! ) So we were trying to find Wally World in a rain storm while trying not to get run over paying those stupid tolls (if you've ever driven from MCO you know what I mean, how do they expect tourists to have EXACT change and be able to get all the way over to the RIGHT lanes??) and to top it all off we were HUNGRY!!!! Well it was now 3:30 and we had missed lunch!

I only took us on one wrong turn and there was the Shiny sign for Walmart, (SuperWalmart to be exact!) In front of Walmart there was a plaza with a Subway. DH hates hates hates Subway but we were hunrgy and I pointed out a Liquor store next door and told him to go pick up some beer , he agreed and Subway it was!

After blowing our first $15 on food I ran into Walmart for 'neccessities' for the week. Those smarty pants Wally Workers put a whole Tourist section right at the front of the store! After browsing for a few secs I resisted everything but a $2.50 laynard that came with a pouch! Perfect for us! I then went and got some diapers, cheerios, milk, pop-tarts, water and Grammy wanted chocolate so I picked up some hersheys kisses. I think I did pretty good by not going overboard!
Then I saw it! Sonic in Walmart!!! DH and I always see the tv ads for Sonic shakes and sundaes. We don't have any near us so we've always said we would try it in Fl. Well here was my chance. I ran over to the counter and there was one person in line. Then I noticed there was one worker and she was making 3 sundaes and moving like M o l a s s e s. OMG! This had to be the slowest person in the history of the world. I waited and actually counted the seconds it took her to dip the dipper in chocolate sauce, 1,2,3,4,5...Oh no. A cherry slushy will not be worth this wait...I have WDW waiting for me!!!! So Sonic still is a mystery to us. We'll probably never get there!

I ran outside and it was still pouring. Now here's the next dilemma: Where's our car and what does it even look like?? You see SuperWalmart is very big and i had come in one side and gone out the grocery side way across the parking lot. Now it's raining and we have a rental car and what kind and color was it again?? You'd think my mom and DH would be looking for me but NO! I was running in the rain looking for a big blue truck. Yuck!

I finally found them and tried to find room in the truck for our purchases. I told DH and sonic story and he was bummed but we had a Mouse waiting for us so that didn't last! I again pulled out my directions to get to POFQ. I think we made it with NO wrong turns. We pulled in and DH went to check us in. We finally let Brady run around the lobby. Man, he LOVED the fountain and the doors. He was running non-stop around that place!
By now it was about 4:30. I had an ADR for Chef Mickey's at 6:30 and knew we had to leave at 6:00 to make it there. That didn't leave much time to settle in our rooms. IT turns out they didn't have connecting rooms until Weds (it was Monday) but they did have 2 rooms next to eachother. We were in Building 5 overlooking the park area. It was sooooo pretty! (well, through the rain anyway!) I was a bit bummed about the connecting rooms. I really wanted that so Brady could go see Grammy more easily. We decided not to unpack and maybe we would change rooms Weds.

Find out how Chef Mickey's is next time! I'll leave you with a teaser...

Who's that Big Guy with the Ears???

 

[heaven2dc]

Great report so far! I too was wondering why your hubby was being called a SIL until you clarified that one! (I thought maybe a sister-in-law was supposed to come on the trip but didn't so he was taking here place? ) Sorry about that!

Your little boy is darling - now I will definitely read to the end to see what happened to the stroller. I'm also anxious to see how your mom enjoyed the trip (my daughter may join me and my son in December for a few days but lately I've been feeling more like babysitter than Grandma - not that I don't usually mind but also don't like being taken advantage of either - when she comes in the door to visit, she hands him over to me and says "here you go Grandma" so I'm curious to see how DD does on the trip).

 

[Disneychix]

Your little boy is darling - now I will definitely read to the end to see what happened to the stroller. I'm also anxious to see how your mom enjoyed the trip (my daughter may join me and my son in December for a few days but lately I've been feeling more like babysitter than Grandma - not that I don't usually mind but also don't like being taken advantage of either - when she comes in the door to visit, she hands him over to me and says "here you go Grandma" so I'm curious to see how DD does on the trip).

My DH gets really worried about taking advantage of the grandparents. I am really lucky that both my parents are retired so my mom watches Brady 2x per week and my dad 1x. Ds is VERY attached to both of them.

My mom really enjoyed her vacation. She is married but her DH doesn't like to travel so she chose to go to WDW with us! She said it was the first time in her entire life she didn't have to plan one single thing for an entire week! We enjoyed having her there and it was a big help with DS. But my DH was adament about separate rooms! He said "no way!" to sleeping in the same room as his MIL!

 

[ScotsMinnie]

Great report so far! We always take My Mum with us too. She loves it and it does work out great. She has a close relationship with my girls too so its nice for them all to share disney.

Lx