When You Wish Upon A Star....My Surprise Trip Report part 1

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

Two Days Before We Left

It's Tuesday night. DH informs me we are leaving on a trip on Thursday morning, though he does not mention where. He knows I have a BIG mouth and a hard time keeping a secret. The trip is a surprise for DS4 and he doesn't want me to ruin it. So he doesn't tell me either. And it's driving me crazy.

One day Before We Left

DH tells me exactly what we need to pack and based on what we're packing, I assume we're going to somewhere theme park-y. I pack shorts, teeshirts, socks, comfortable shoes and sunscreen. DH is STILL not telling me where we're going.

Day of Departure
DH gets up at 3 am to start going over things, to make sure everything is in order for our 6:30 flight. I get up at 3:30 and dread getting DS up. He never gets up this early and I'm afraid that waking him so early will make him extremely cranky.
Surprise! He's excited because he knows we are going somewhere even if he doesn't know where. We nomnomnom some Poptarts, a ch ocolate milk for him and a soda for me (because without at least a cup of coffee or the caffeinated equivalent I am absolutely USELESS in the morning ). We get everything into the car, get about 5 miles from the house and.......



we forgot to lock the door. So we go back and lock the door. Finally we are on our way. We arrive at DFW and make it to security, where we run into problems. Well, one problem really. The screeners want us to fold up DS's stroller and push it through the machine.

Only it doesn't fit. Not even a little. In fact, it gets stuck. After a few minutes of tugging, grunting and ominous mutterings by the security screeners we get it back out again.
Now, this stroller is fairly lightweight and there's nowhere to hide ANYTHING unless you stuff it under the pad, which is removable. I don't know where they thought we were hiding things on the stroller really.

So finally we make it through security and thank God McDonald's is open because I am now starving. It's been over an hour since I ate that PopTart which didn't even come close to filling me up. So we tromp over to McDonald's and grab some breakfast. DH is STILL not telling me where we're going, which is really starting to drive me crazy.

We get to the gate and I notice the city of arrival is, in fact, Orlando. DH tells me we're going to The park Which Must Not Be Named. I almost burst into tears but manage to hold it together.

Now, seeing as I got up at the buttcrack of dawn, I am really, really tired. I hope to catch a nap on the plane, but unfortunately, I get seated next to DS.

"Mama, where we going?"
"Mama why the airpane going up?"
"Mama who's dat wadey?"
"Mama, guess what? We're fwying!"
And on and on. The entire time. By the time our flight was over I was even more exhausted from answering his nonstop questions.

The trip to the rental car place and lunch was uneventful. By the time we arrived at our hotel, it was nearly 3 pm and even if DS didn't want to take a nap (he was denying he even needed one), I did. So I grabbed a quick nap while DH unpacked our stuff.

We got in the car and headed out. Our GPS didn't know where we were and so we ended up getting a little lost. About 20 minute later, howerver, it decided to start working again and DH turned it away from me to program it so I wouldn't see what destination he was putting in.

I figured it out though when we drove through the entrance to a parking lot with a VERY familiar sign.

Welcome to the happiest place on earth.

DH: Oh no wait..I messed. We weren't supposed to come here.
I start squealing and bouncing in my seat. DS looks at me and says "Mama where are we?"
Me:Sweetie, we're at Disney World!!!!
DS: Dinny World?
Me: Where Mickey Mouse lives.
DS: Ooooooooooh..where Mickey Mouse lives.

DH had decided to surprise us both with DS's very first trip to Disney World. I couldn't believe it. I was so excited that when we got to the "Will Call" ticket window to pick up our park passes, I was bouncing up and down. The CM, a young man named Kent, looked me up and down with a grin on his face.

K: Is this your wife's first time here?
DH: No..this is like hers and my fourth or fifth trip. But it is our son's first trip.
K: Scuse me a minute.
Kent gets out a "My First Trip" button for DS from under the counter. While I'm pinning it to his shirt, Kent disappears for a moment. When he comes back, he has two "Honorary Walt Disney World Citizen" badges for DH and I.

They say this year is the Year of A Million Dreams. Kent was the first of several CMs to give us a little bit of pixiedust to make the trip that much more special.

POR FAVOR MANTANGASE ALEJADO DE LAS PURETAS!
DS has never ridden a monorail before, but he loves trains so we thought he'd get quite a kick out of the monorail. And boy did he ever. He thought it was the greatest ride at Disney World and even after we got home, he begged to go on it again.

The first ride we decided to do was IASW, my personal favorite. I loved seeing the wonder in his eyes as he watched the puppets dance and sing. He loved pointing out the various animals and birds throughout the ride which made me smile. I knew this was going to be a great trip.

The second ride we did (which we were a tad apprehensive about) was the Winnie The Pooh ride. We weren't sure how DS would react because although he loves Pooh, I wasn't sure how he'd react to the Heffalumps and Woozles bit.
No worries. He sailed through it just fine. We decided if he could handle that he could probably handle Mickey's Philharmagic. He didn't like wearing the glasses, but he really enjoyed the show.

The rest of the evening seemed to fly by. Sooner than I thought it would be, it was dinner time. I worried that DS wouldn't want to eat whatever it was we picked out for him, but again I was worried unneccesarily. We went to Casey's on Main Street for hotdogs and got DS something called corndog bites. He gobbled them right up without even blinking.

DS was proving to be the perfect first time visitor. Even though he was totally exhausted, he wasn't cranky and he ate everything he was given. He drank plenty of water when we asked and showed a lot of patience when we had to wait in line for things. I was truly amazed.

After dinner, we decided to see if he was up to The Haunted Mansion. I was a little worried that the ghosts and ghoulies might frighten him, but he thought they were really funny.

DS (after we got off):That was so funny Mama!
Me: I'm glad you liked it.

Phew. Another hurdle cleared.

We decided even though we were really, really exhausted to stick around for Wishes. We found a decent spot to watch the show and parked the stroller with DS in it. Within five minutes, he was out. He put his hands behind his head and slept with a giant grin on his face. He was so tired by this time that not even the fireworks exploding and people oohing and aahing around him could wake him up. He slept all the way back to the monorail and back to the hotel. He barely even woke up long enough for me to put him in a Pullup so he could go to bed.

I fell into the bed exhausted and extremely stinky from all the heat and humidity. You could see the waves of stinknasty rising up off me, like they do with skunks in cartoons. But I was beyond exhausted. I didn't care if I smelled like a heap of rotting socks. I just wanted to sleep and have Disney dreams, because I had no idea what kind of magic was in store for us.

 

[kellig]

How exciting and fun! I was patiently waiting to hear where your husband took you for your surprise trip. I can't wait to hear the rest of your weekend!

 

[KadysMom]

I cant wait for more. What a great surprise

 

[kcork1026]

What a wonderful thing for your husband to do. I read this with tears in my eyes. My hubby goes along with us on our trips, but would never think to plan a trip without me doing all the work. Oh well, can't wait to hear more.

 

[EmmersIsTheMommy]

AH! Kent had me crying!

I can't wait for more either!

 

[MariDisney]

I followed you over here from the other thread. I am SO excited you got to go to WDW. I was SURE you were going somewhere way less cool. I can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip. What hotel did you stay in?

 

[Mickeefan]

I'm so jealous of your surprise trip. Although, I really enjoy the planning part of a trip, I'd love to be surprised, too. I'm here, waiting for more! Bring it on!

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

I was actually a little annoyed that I didn't get to plan anything. I LOVE to plan and research and when he didn't tell me, I didn't get to do that. :-/

I was sure we were going to someplace way less cool too. I really thought we were going to THERE. That OTHER park.
Mari--we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Orlando. My hubby only had about a month's notice that he was even going to get to take vacation days at this time, so it was hard to get onsite rooms. It didn't really matter, since we rented a car and didn't have to worry about getting from place to place.

And now..on with the show!

1. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS stop at WalMart FIRST and buy some Dr. Scholl's gel inserts for your shoes.
I neglected to do this and now not only do I have blisters, but I have bruises on the bottom of my feet. Ow.

I have bad feet. I know this. You'd think that, knowing this, I would avoid situations where I had to do a lot of walking on hard pavement and standing for long periods of time. You'd think.

By the end of Thursday night, when we got back to the hotel, my feet really hurt. But that was only the beginning. Friday night the pain was worse. I went to bed around midnight and woke up at around 3 am with intense shooting pains in both feet. I got up and as soon as I stood up, both feet cramped up so badly I could barely walk. I stumbled over to the bar so I could take some ibuprofen and prayed I'd be able to walk the next day because I didn't want to miss a single moment. I don't know how I was able to go to sleep with as much as I was in, but somehow I did. I woke up around 7 the next morning and took some more ibuprofen, because the pain had lessened but not gone away entirely.

By the end of Saturday, I was in so much pain I was almost in tears as we stood there waiting for the tram to take us back to the lot our car was parked in. I soaked my feet in the bathtub for half an hour and took some ibuprofen praying I would be able to make it through just one more day. I felt like I had nails driven through my feet it was so bad.

I don't know how I made it through four days of walking/standing with the pain I was in almost constantly but I knew I had no choice but to soldier through it no matter what. DS was going to have a great vacation even if it killed me.


2. Going to Florida in the summertime is generally a BAD idea.

Not because of the tourists, but because of the humidity. And the rain. It rained every day we were there at least once and the rest of the time it was so humid you could drink the air through a straw. If it had just been hot, I would've been ok. I can deal with heat. What I couldn't deal with was the humidity. It was so humid that you just sweated and sweated and got extremely funknasty. It didn't matter that I had waves of stank rising off me like a skunk in a cartoon because so did everybody else.

3.If the park is invaded by red (or blue, yellow, green or rainbow tyedye)shirts--DO NOT PANIC. Just avoid them.
Every single day we were there the park was invaded by red shirts.
Not these redshirts.

Foreign (most South American, it seemed like) tour groups. You could tell them by the massive group of colored shirts following one person carrying a tall flag at the front of the group. We couldn't not seem to avoid them because OMG they were EVERYWHERE. Every single ride we went on or show that we saw had at least a dozen of these touurgroup people, if not more. NO matter what we did to try to avoid them, they were around every corner. I think the only place we escaped them was when we saw Playhouse Disney Live On Stage at Disney's MGM Hollywood Studios.

4.Nap Schmap--who needs a nap?
Apparently not DS. All four days he managed to somehow avoid taking a nap even though it was usually pretty clear by about three o clock or so that he needed one desperately. However, being the parents we are, we decided to just tough it out and pray he fell asleep anyway.

Nope.

Didn't happen.

He would usually end up falling asleep by 9 pm each evening because he was just so worn out by then his body couldn't function any longer. The first day he'd been awake since 3:30 with no nap (well, except maybe 15 min in the car from the ChickFila where we had lunch to the hotel). He fell asleep during the 10 pm fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom, his arms behind his head and a goofy grin on his face.

5.If your kid doesn't poop, don't panic!
DS is a pretty regular pooper. Poops 3-4 times a day. When we were at Disney World, that went from about 4 times a day to one the first day, NONE the second day, one small one the third day and none until we got home the fourth day. I would always ask him if he had to poop when I took him to the potty (which was pretty often, because of the amount of water I was forcing him to consume) but he never did. A couple of times he tried, just to please me, but it was like he couldn't poop. I was so worried about him being backed up but we've been back since about 11 pm last night and he's already pooped twice. Both of them huge massive gigantic stanknasty poops. So I guess he'll be alright after all.

6. Fish are actors, not food!
So we saw Finding Nemo the Musical at Animal Kingdom. OMG..I hope they don't do anything to mess that up. That was quite possibly the finest theme park performance I have ever seen. The puppets were really cool and the actors were really emotive despite the fact they were walkiing (and dancing and jumping ) with giant fish in their hands.

7. Magical moments totally kick butt.

The first day we were there, we recieved a "My First Trip" badge for DS, as well as "Honorary WDW Citizen" badges for DH and myself. That was unexpected and we were like ZOMG! It was the first of many magical moments to come.

The second day we were there, we were at Disney's Hollywood Studios. There was a character greeting for Mater and McQueen (from Cars) so we decided to go, since McQueen is DS's favorite person next to Mickey Mouse. However, due to inclement weather, the greeting was cancelled. When the Castmembers saw how sad and disappointed DH was that we weren't going to get to see McQueen, they had an idea. They told us to show up for the next greeting time (about 40 min later) and if the weather had cleared they would do something special for DS.
So we show up at the appointed time and the CMs take DS and DH aside. They give Ds a little lightstick thingie to hold and he got to direct Tow Mater/McQueen into the greeting area. His eyes were as big as saucers and he had this huge grin on his face. It was totally awesome.

The third day, we got to see Minnie and Mickey at Disney's Animal Kingdom, which was totally awesome. A CM told us if we showed up as the first family of the day to see Mickey/Minnie the next morning we'd recieve something special.
So DH was TOTALLY on a mission that fourth day. As soon as we got in, he and Ds peeled off for Camp Minnie-Mickey to get in line and be the first family of the day while I ran like hell for Expedition Everest (scared the crap out of me, btw. GO YETI!!!). As I was walking back towards Camp Minnie-Mickey, a cast member stopped me.

CM: There's nothing DOWN THERE, honey.
Me: I know.
I started to walk away.
CM: There's nothing DOWN THERE. It's..just nothing! Really!
Me: I know. But my husband and son are down there and I need to go meet them.
CM: Alright just so you k now. THERE IS NOTHING DOWN THERE.

I shrugged and kept walking. True, there really IS nothing in Camp Minnie-Mickey except character greeting huts, but it's close to The Lion King show and the Pocahontas show. And random characters show up there every now and then. We saw Kenai and Koda from Brother Bear there that morning.

We were totally the first family of the day, which got us a 15 minute private session with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. We also got a certificate and a VIP pass to the 11 am showing of the Lion King show. DS liked the show, until they started twirling fire which freaked him right the heck out.

8. Ponchos are a really bad idea.
I think the second day, when it started raining in the afternoon, we decided to go ahead and buy ponchos. So we walked around in the rain and it was incredibly, incredibly hot. It was so hot under the poncho and the air was so humid, it was like walking around in a sauna. When it quit raining and I took off my poncho, it was like I was instantly fifteen degrees cooler. I probably lost fifteen pounds of water weight alone from running about in a poncho for a portion of each day.

9. Carousel of Progess is a GREAT place to take a nap.
The first day, we got fastpasses for The Laugh Floor Comedy Club and the machine also spit out surprise fastpasses for Carousel of Progress, which DH and I had never seen. So we went to CoP and almost as soon as the lights went out, I fell asleep. I slept through Carousel of Progress.

 

[adaygaby]

more more I want to read more!!!!

How exciting that Kent took you to THE PARK WHICH MUST NOT BE NAMED!!

 

[kellig]

What exciting Magical Moments! It sounds like you had a wonderful surprise trip so far (except for the foot situation!). I can't wait to hear more!

 

[diznygirl]

8. Ponchos are a really bad idea.
I think the second day, when it started raining in the afternoon, we decided to go ahead and buy ponchos. So we walked around in the rain and it was incredibly, incredibly hot. It was so hot under the poncho and the air was so humid, it was like walking around in a sauna. When it quit raining and I took off my poncho, it was like I was instantly fifteen degrees cooler. I probably lost fifteen pounds of water weight alone from running about in a poncho for a portion of each day.

Seriously the best piece of advice. Sorry you had to learn that the hard way.

Really enjoying reading your trip report!

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

I took a couple pairs of shorts with me that fit comfortably when we left. After a day of wearing the poncho, I must have lost some weight because my shorts were a little bit big on me.

On our last day, we also got awarded a magical moment by the parking attendant. When we drove up to pay for our parking, the attendant gave us a free parking upgrade so we were really close to the front of the park and didn't have to walk far.

kellig--I knew something like this might happen. It's happened before and the last time I ended up renting a wheelchair because my feet got so messed up. I was determined for that not to happen this time, so every time we went from one park to the other, I would take off my shoes in the car and massage my feet. I also sat down as often as I could, when we were in line or whatever.

 

[Jillpie]

Please, we desperately need pictures. This is one of the funniest reports I've read in a very long time. Ok, stinknasty?? I can't wait for more!

 

[kellig]

kellig--I knew something like this might happen. It's happened before and the last time I ended up renting a wheelchair because my feet got so messed up. I was determined for that not to happen this time, so every time we went from one park to the other, I would take off my shoes in the car and massage my feet. I also sat down as often as I could, when we were in line or whatever.

I hate that you have such problems...I know that has to be frustrating. It is a good thing you were able to have a car and give you feet a break! I can't wait to hear more about your surprise trip!

 

[Jillpie]

giving this a bump, we need more!