You've Got a Friend in Me:TINKGURL & XOKTENOX's Adventures in WDW~UPDATE: 6/9 p.74

[tinkgurl]

HI Tink!! Just a quick hello from my travels. Great post! so excited for your Contemp stay!

Hi Liesa! Hope the rest of the travels go well!

Your room at the contemporary looks AMAZING!

I love the sinks..they are a gorgeous design and your view is stunning.

Can't wait to hear how the little guy liked the MK

They were great rooms! Thanks for reading along!

you made it! The room looks fantastic and the view is wonderful!

I get excited seeing people reactions to WDW for the first time. And I still get all giddy when I see that gate, actually I see a Mickey head power pole from the interstate and get all excited. That when I know we are there.

Looking forward to hearing about the reaction to the monorail and the Castle!

It was so much fun seeing his reaction to everything.

Isn't it amazing how WDW brings out the kid in all of us?

Woo hoo, you're there! I don't know where I have been because I didn't realize you were staying at the Contemporary until one of those live updates. I guess I thought you were at OKW again!

haha, I am the same way about the brochures/guide maps. It's not like we need them but it's always fun to pick them up from each trip. We have a whole stack of old ones which are funny to look at and see all the old attractions!

We did stay at OKW...the week after my other family left! So you were right about that!

Oh my gosh, the old maps are fun to look at! It's funny to see how much has changed.

Your room was gorgeous! I would love to stay there someday. Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading!

Aw, I can just imagine your excitement as you showed the Little Guy all things Disney for the first time! I was practically bouncing up and down in my seat with you.

Your room is awesome and the view is awesome, too! I love how clean and modern everything looks. Can't wait to hear more.

I'm glad you could at least feel a little of my excitement! Thanks for reading.

Yay, you made it! I love that the little guy promised to make sure you were okay during the elevator rides and reassured you every time you made it down. So sweet! I can't wait to see what his first ride is and finally make it to MK

He is such a sweetie!!

 

[jenniferkeala808]

awww Tink!! i just loved ur update!! i can totally feel your excitement and ESPECIALLY the little guy's excitement!! heheeh he's sooo adorable! i'm so happy you folks got upgraded to the main tower and even though your view was of Bay lake, it still was very beautiful! i can't wait to hear about the little guy's reaction to the park!!

kristen! i can totally feel your excitement too! i can sooo relate to that "too excited to sleep" syndrome! hehe! Can't wait to hear about when you two meet! so exciting!

 

[MeMom]

Aaaah, that first day excitement! I remember being thrilled for you when you texted me a CR picture.

Love the pictures - especially the nice views and Fiance and Little Guy together.

It is definitely a nice things when rooms are ready. Looking forward to many more fun pictures.

 

[__disneygirl]

Tink ~ Ok... your fiance has got to be the most perfect guy ever LOL! I can't believe you said he loved when you read him your Disney book on the way there in March!! If he has a brother, do me a favor and drop me his number. Thanks! LOL.

I always grab the brouchures even though I don't need them either. I have an obscene amount of useless Disney Brouchures from every year we've been since 1995. I am a Disney Brochure Hoarder.

I didn't remember you guys were staying at the Contemporary, OMG! To be *that close* to the MK... talk about magic. Even though you didn't get the MK view, Bay Lake is still sooo beautiful. And how cute that the little guy said he would hug you on the elevator. What a sweet boy. I just absolutely love reading about his point of view because my dream is to bring my little cousins to Disney with me before they grow up too much.

It's also cool to read a report by two different people, I can't wait until Kristen gets there and you guys meet!

 

[tinkgurl]

awww Tink!! i just loved ur update!! i can totally feel your excitement and ESPECIALLY the little guy's excitement!! heheeh he's sooo adorable! i'm so happy you folks got upgraded to the main tower and even though your view was of Bay lake, it still was very beautiful! i can't wait to hear about the little guy's reaction to the park!!

Thanks girl! Glad you enjoyed it!

Our room was great. The view was beautiful!

Aaaah, that first day excitement! I remember being thrilled for you when you texted me a CR picture.

Love the pictures - especially the nice views and Fiance and Little Guy together.

It is definitely a nice things when rooms are ready. Looking forward to many more fun pictures.

I remember sending you that pic! Thanks for feeling the excitement with me, MeMom.

It was great being able to already take our stuff up to the rooms.

Tink ~ Ok... your fiance has got to be the most perfect guy ever LOL! I can't believe you said he loved when you read him your Disney book on the way there in March!! If he has a brother, do me a favor and drop me his number. Thanks! LOL.

I always grab the brouchures even though I don't need them either. I have an obscene amount of useless Disney Brouchures from every year we've been since 1995. I am a Disney Brochure Hoarder.

I didn't remember you guys were staying at the Contemporary, OMG! To be *that close* to the MK... talk about magic. Even though you didn't get the MK view, Bay Lake is still sooo beautiful. And how cute that the little guy said he would hug you on the elevator. What a sweet boy. I just absolutely love reading about his point of view because my dream is to bring my little cousins to Disney with me before they grow up too much.

It's also cool to read a report by two different people, I can't wait until Kristen gets there and you guys meet!

Hey disneygirlfriend! He did like it! He didn't go to WDW until he started dating me, so he finds all info interesting. Sorry though- he only has sisters!

Okay, let's start a club...hi my name is tinkgurl and I'm a disney brochure hoarder.

It was so great being so close to the MK again. I forgot how much I loved it! It was so worth staying in the main tower, we were happy with whatever view we were given!

Little Guy is so sweet. You'll see a pic of our elevator hug eventually!

 

[Spartangirl]

Tink ~ I LOVE all the excitement for finally getting to Disney World!!! The Little Guy is way too cute! Wow, the rooms at the Contemporary are really nice...I'll have to put that on my resort list!

Kristen ~ It's SO HARD getting to sleep before any trip, let alone Disney! Can't wait to hear about the 1st time you and Tink meet up!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Kristen, I am the same way the night before a trip -- it's hard to sleep when you know you are about to head out on an adventure!

 

[brianatwcc]

great job. thanks for the good read.

 

[__disneygirl]

Little Guy is so sweet. You'll see a pic of our elevator hug eventually!

Awwww! That will probably make me tear up, I just love kids so much. So adorable.

 

[tinkgurl]

Tink ~ I LOVE all the excitement for finally getting to Disney World!!! The Little Guy is way too cute! Wow, the rooms at the Contemporary are really nice...I'll have to put that on my resort list!

I am always so excited when we get to WDW, but this time I was excited 1,000 times more! ha

You will definitely have to try the Contemporary sometime! It is so nice to be that close to the MK.

Kristen, I am the same way the night before a trip -- it's hard to sleep when you know you are about to head out on an adventure!

It's true! And I couldn't sleep because I knew the next day I would be meeting her!

great job. thanks for the good read.

Thanks for reading along!

Awwww! That will probably make me tear up, I just love kids so much. So adorable.

I can't wait to show you!

 

[pinkpixie0920]

Hi!

I wanted to post something. I have read through your previous TR's but I am not sure if I ever posted. How wonderful is it that you two met on here and our now such close friends. I can't wait to read about your trips together!

 

[tinkgurl]

Hi!

I wanted to post something. I have read through your previous TR's but I am not sure if I ever posted. How wonderful is it that you two met on here and our now such close friends. I can't wait to read about your trips together!

Thanks so much for reading and posting!

It is pretty crazy how we just met on the DIS and now we were crazy close. We talk just about every day.

We can't wait to share the trip with you and everyone else!

 

[tinkgurl]

Day 3: July 19, 2010 *continued*

~tinkgurl’s day: We left off leaving our rooms and heading to the elevator. But first, I wanted to show Little Guy where Chef Mickey’s was, which was also where we were eating that night. Those of you who have been inside the Contemporary and on the concourse level know that people staying in the main tower can look down at the concourse level from their floor level. So, I lifted him up and pointed out the restaurant. Like I mentioned before, I had spent the whole month or so before our trip preparing Little Guy about WDW. So whenever we talked about Chef Mickey’s, he knew that was where we would be swinging our napkins and singing “C’mon and party!” He got so excited when he saw the restaurant and said, “We go there now?!” I said, “No bud, not until later tonight. Right now, we’re going to get on a monorail to go to the Magic Kingdom!” He, of course, liked that idea.

There are 4 possible elevators that we would be riding on. To pass the time every day, we would all guess which elevator would be ours. But when the elevator would come and the doors opened, I started to get that knot in my stomach. Me and the Little Guy were always in the corner. Luckily, the elevators here were really fast!

Our rooms were on the 8th floor, so we only had to go to the 4th floor. We got off, then turned to the right to go up the escalator to the monorail. Since this was Little Guy’s first time on an escalator, Fiancé held onto him. Knowing our luck, he would have fallen right at the top and sliced his hand where the escalator and the floor meet. I guess I’m a little paranoid about that since that happened to a family friend of ours when she was little. But, everyone made it off safe and sound.

We did not have to wait too long for another monorail to pull up. Luckily, we found an open car, so all of us had room to sit. Fiancé, Dad, and Uncle stood though in case someone got on our car and needed to sit down at any of the other stops. Of course, Little Guy just had to stand up too. We made sure he understood to hang on with both hands. He did good!

Here he is standing in front of Grandma and Grandpa…and you can see the shirts we had made!:

The whole way to the MK, I was pointing everything out to him. It was a lot for him to take in. Some of the things you would have heard me saying, “Look! There’s the Castle!” “This is the Polynesian, we are going here for the Luau tomorrow night and breakfast with Lilo and Stitch another day.” “Look! There’s the Castle! We’re almost to the Magic Kingdom!” “Look! There’s our hotel, the Contemporary over there!” I bet some people outside of our family thought I was crazy, but I don’t care. I wanted Little Guy to see it all!

As we pulled into the MK station and the doors opened, I looked around at us all again. This is it. His first park. We’re really here. And this is where one of the themes of the trip began: him riding on Fiancé’s shoulders. It was perfect. He could see more and we knew where he was at all times. Of course, we always had a stroller with us too, but to him, that was not as cool as being on Fiancé’s shoulders. *Remember this for later in the TR.*

As we made it through bag check, we went our separate ways. My group had to go to Guest Relations and renew our AP’s. The others went to rent our stroller for the day. They also got Little Guy a frozen strawberry bar. Those of you who have been to Guest Relations know that the line can get SO hot. It is not shaded. The line moves slow. Ugh. Not how we wanted to spend our first moments at the MK. Oh well.

With our new AP’s in hand, we made it into the park to find the others. They were waiting for us just on the other side of the train station. Little Guy, Uncle, and Cuz were checking out the Move it, Shake it! Parade. One of the first things we wanted to do once we got to the MK was find Little Guy a hat. He has such fair skin that he burns easily. I knew the perfect place to look- the hat shop right on the end of Main St. by Tony’s. We walked in there and saw the huge shelves of hats. There were so many choices we didn’t know where to begin. Then, I saw the most adorable hat of all. It had Mickey on the hat, he was wearing sunglasses, and his ears stuck out on each side of the hat. It also came with a pair of sunglasses for a kid to wear. Little Guy liked it as well, so we got it and headed to find a photopass photographer on Main St. Fiancé and Uncle flagged one down and we all huddled together for the shot. Of course, Little Guy is eating his strawberry bar, but we didn’t mind because he did smile for the camera.

We got our photo pass card and went on our way. As we walked towards the Castle, I couldn’t help but stare at the Little Guy. He was in such awe of the Castle. I thought to myself, “So this is what it feels like.” I finally knew what it felt like to see WDW in the eyes of your child (even though he’s my cousin, he sure feels like mine after what we’ve been through). I was so into his first reaction of the Castle that I completely forgot to take a pic. So I apologize for that. And I realize there aren’t many pics in this update, we were just so excited to finally be at the MK all of us that we forgot to take any pics!

The Castle was closed off for the stage show, so we headed up the left side of the Castle over towards Liberty Square. Little Guy’s request for the first ride was IASW, so to Fantasyland we were headed. As we walked by the back side of the Castle, I pointed out to Grandma and Grandpa where the windows were for CRT since last year was our first time ever eating there, and they obviously saw pics from the trip. I think they were still so amazed at how much had changed since they were last there in 2001.

As we got closer to IASW, we saw the FP return time for PP was 3:25-4:25, so we decided to get us FP’s just in case we were still there at that time. Then, Fiancé and I took Little Guy and the stroller over to the stroller parking area where the Skyway ride used to be. It still makes me sad every time I see it. That ride was SO cool and definitely a special memory from trips when I was little. I have to admit, it was weird having to park a stroller all the time. We weren’t used to that! Haha. We found a spot, took out the water bottles, grabbed the Little Guy and headed back to the IASW entrance where the rest of the family was waiting for us.

This is when I started to get nervous. The wait time was 20 minutes. We were finally going to see how Little Guy would handle lines. He really didn’t do bad at all. It helped to point out new things to him, like as the loading area came in sight, I would tell him all about everything. I kept waiting for the clock to go off the whole time we were in line. Finally, it went off just as we were the next group to get on a boat. Since we were a huge group, we ended up with a boat all to ourselves. We made sure Little Guy was in the front row. He sat on my Mom’s lap and propped his legs up on the railing in front of him.

Here you can kind-of see his hat:

Here’s how he sat the whole ride:

It was so cute. He already knew the IASW song from the WDW video I showed him, so he just started singing right along once the ride started. Other than that, he was pretty quiet the whole ride. He was just looking all over the place and trying to take it all in. There is a lot to see!

As the end of the ride approached, I started to get nervous again. We were finally going to see how Little Guy dealt with the ride being over and having to get off. Thankfully, we never had a problem once! He was always ready to find out where we were going next. “Where we going now? Where we going now?” He would say.

After we got off, the rest of the family went to see how busy Pinnochio’s was for lunch while Fiancé and I went to get the stroller. Halfway to Pinnochio’s, I remembered that we can’t bring strollers in. So back to the stroller parking we went. Then, as we were walking up to Pinnochio’s, Sis flagged us down. It was too busy there so we were going to head to Cosmic Ray’s since they have more seating. Ugh! So back through the crowds we went, this time with the Little Guy. We got him strapped in the stroller and gave him one of the waters to drink and we headed to Tomorrowland.

As we walked through Fantasyland, he immediately saw Dumbo. Of course, the line was long and we were starving, so I promised we would ride another time. Thanks to all the pics I have seen on the DIS, I was excited to see the construction walls and drawings. It was so weird to see Fantasyland like that! As we walked by the Pooh ride, I promised we would ride that one also. We were on a mission to get some lunch! Plus, he was starting to get cranky and tired. If you remember, he was falling asleep as we got to WDW but we kept him awake. So, he was hot, hungry, and ready for a nap. This was going to be interesting!

~Up next: Would we survive lunch?

 

[michael's mom]

Wow! Sounds like a great start to your trip. I've welled up with tears a few times remembering DS's reactions on our last trip. You are really allowing us to feel it with you by the way you are writing. Thank you! Little Guy is adorable, the hat is great! Can't wait to read more

 

[vamassey1]

I'm misting up! Such a touching start to your time in the parks. I love seeing the parks through a childs eye. They see all the wonderment.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Ok, I'm glad I am not going crazy thinking you did stay at OKW for part of your trip.

Aww, I love that picture of the little guy on the monorail. He looks so cute in his t-shirt and 1st visit button! I bet that was so much fun seeing everything through his eyes.

I miss the skyway too.

 

[MarieTheCat24]

OMG. I love the pictures of the little guy on IASW. I love watching little kids take in everything around them on that ride. Their eyes get so big and it's just adorable. I can't wait until I have a little one of my own to take on IASW.

 

[princess_momma]

I totally know how it goes not even paying attention to all the amazing stuff as you watch the wonder in a child's eyes. It's just so amazing. I remember our first night last year as we watched Wishes from California Grill, my mom kept telling me to watch the fireworks and I just couldn't take my eyes off Landon. So cute.

I bet he loved IASW! That really is a great one for little kids. There's so much to look at it and it's all so pretty. I'm so sad I just missed it!! It was closed for our trip, which wasn't even long after yours!!

MMMMM Cosmic Rays!! I love it there. Sonny Eclipse is pretty sweet!

 

[Megablocks]

I love that Little Guy had to stand up on the monorail, too! Was he doing it because the other guys were? Because on our first trip, when I was ten and my brother was seven, he always had to stand up, even on the empty buses. I guess it was just the novelty of standing up in something that was moving without getting in trouble for it.

I love the t-shirts, they're so cute! And I love Little Guy taking in all the sights on IASW

 

[mermaid764]

That's awesome to hear that he had such a great first reaction to being at WDW.

Can't wait to hear how the rest of your day went