We're back from Cade's surprise trip!!

[cadesfirsttrip]

On August 13, we finally did the scavenger hunt for Cade. I'd thought long and hard about how I was going to do this, and I ended up printing a page that gave him three locations to go to. Each location had a sheet of paper and said:
"We know you are excited about going to the beach."
"We're sorry, but we can't go to the beach."
"Because we are going to Walt Disney World instead!!"

He just kept saying "Really? Really? Are we really going?"

So, the next night we loaded the car, and at 3am Monday morning, we set off for Orlando! We got to All Star Movie's Resort at noon and checked in. I hadn't done the express check in, but I will do it next time. Even without it, the wait was only about 30 minutes. There are a lot of people in training all throughout the resort and parks, and we got a very enthusiatic trainee. I had requested the Toy Story building when I'd made the reservations 90 days before, but didn't mention it to them at check in. The CM asked my son when his birthday was, and he said April Fool's Day. The CM said "close enough" and have him a "It's My Birthday Pin", as well as a "First Visit" pin and gave both Jeff and me "I'm Celebrating" pins. Our room wasn't ready (although others checking in had rooms ready) but I wasn't worried at all. We were just going to get something to eat and hang out. We ate, and then went to get our luggage to give to the CM, had just gotten through checking it with the valet, and we got the text that our room was ready - and we were in the Toy Story building! Cade was so excited.

Jeff laid down for a while (he'd done all the driving) and Cade and I hung out at the pool. We went to bed early, because it was going to be an early day on Tuesday!

Interesting note, everywhere we went CM's and random guests would say to Cade "Happy Birthday, Cade!" It took him a little while, but he started responding with "Thanks!" At first it felt weird to him because it wasn't really his birthday, but then he decided that it was OK to celebrate 4 1/2 months late at WDW!

Next - EPCOT!!! And what about all those carefully planned ADR's??

 

[cadesfirsttrip]

Our first full day, we went to Epcot! We'd gotten up at 7am, at breakfast at the hotel and headed out to the buses. We missed the 8am bus, but made the next one. When we arrived at Epcot, I headed to the ticket area because I was using tickets from 1998 and when we checked in, I was told that they would need to be converted. The ticket person told me that they didn't need to be converted - we could just use them. Which we did!

We got in at rope drop and went immediately to Soarin' to get a FP. By the time we got through the FP distribution line, our time to return was about 11:30. We headed over to Test Track, where we only waited for about 15 minutes to get on the ride. I didn't realize that I shouldn't seat Cade on the ourside and by the time it was over, his neck and shoulder had an imprint of the seat belt. If we ever did this ride again, he'd be in the middle. Then we went to Mission: Space, where Cade was completely freaked out thinking we were really going to Mars! When he realized we weren't, he really enjoyed it.

We worked our way around and got back to Soarin' about 11:45. After riding it (it was Cade's least favorite ride of the entire trip) we headed to Finding Nemo. This was our longest wait for the entire trip! Probably about 45 minutes. By the time we got through Turtle Talk and walking around, it was time for our ADR at Coral Reef. We got to the restaurant, and we decided that we just didn't want to eat anything that heavy so it was back to the Land for us, where we had our first of many amazing quick service meals.

After we ate, we finished up all the attractions in Future, (sometime in all of this we got FP for Mission: Space, which we'd already done as "green", but Jeff wanted to get a little wilder) and headed over to World Showcase. We made our way around the World, stopping to listen to the drummers and watch the sites. It started to look and feel like it was going to pour but it never did. After going all the way around (we were finished by about 7pm - had ADR's at San Angel Inn for 7:45.) We did our FP for Misson: Space and went back to San Angel Inn, getting there right at 7:45. The line and wait was going to be very long according to the host, so we opted to eat outside at the quick service Mexican place. It was great! So crowded, but when a family saw that we were waiting, they finished up quickly and let us have their seat. We returned the favor to another family after eating, although we could have stayed there for another 45 minutes or so to see Illuminations.

We walked over to the dock and sat on the ground so we could watch Illuminations. No one was pushing or shoving or tried to step in front. We had a great view, and we all really enjoyed it. Except for the fact that we were downwind and ended up with a lot of embers in our eyes. I even gave some eyedrops to a guy next to us afterwards.

When it was over, we decided to use our EMH at Test Track, but the wait was going to be over an hour, so we nicked that. We walked around a little and ended up at the character spot, where Cade got to see his first characters! We waited about 30 minutes, and then it was Mickey first. The look on his face when he rounded that corner and saw Mickey Mouse was a memory I'll have forever. I think that there was Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald and Pluto(?). I had signed up for a Photopass share, so I know that I got lots of great pictures.

Afterwards, it's back to the hotel. I think we got back around midnight. Jeff was cranky by this time, but Cade and I were still full of energy.

Since I've been many times, I knew that Epcot was best seen over 2 days. We just didn't have the time to do that. But we did get to see just about everything. Cade's favorites were Sum of All Thrills and Captain EO (he is a huge Michael Jackson fan). Jeff's were Test Track, Misson: Space and Soarin'. I love absolutely everything about Epcot, but I think that the music that is piped throughout it is my favorite!

Next up: Hollywood Studio's, "I peed my pants a little", and "I just can't hang with you guys" - involving an early departure!