My Mouseketeer's Surprise Trip- AKA: "She's been to Disney HOW many times?"-9/28-10/8

We’re back home from the world, and while I’m kinda sad to be home, I’m okay with it. Really. Anyways, though it’s time to get this Trip Report started!

The players: Me, my wonderful DH, Marc, and my 2 year old Anastasia (25 months old, to be exact)

A little background. This trip was SO not supposed to happen. We went last September. We went in January. We went in March (never got around to finishing that TR, but I’ll finish this one if it takes me till 2010!), not to mention we've got a trip planned for this coming January. so we had already had our Disney allotment for a while. It wasn’t in the ever tightening budget. Anastasia was starting preschool. Lots of reasons not to go.

So back in August, one of our dear members went on a trip with a view of the Magic Kingdom from the Contemporary. Every day I’d check their trip report and then tell Marc all about it… “Look how much fun they’re having!” “Awww! Look at that picture!” and so forth. Not really meaning to sound like I was wishing to go, (I was really really happy this certain person was there and having a great time!)

But my Marc… I REALLY should know better by now. Turns out that he had contacted our DVC rep and added on enough points to cover a quick trip this September (in addition to a few we had banked). He had all these grand plans about how to surprise me. He actually changed the mailing address on our account so all the paperwork went to his parents’ house. He was going to either tell me the week before we left, or (this was his favorite) get me out of the house for the day, steal my packing lists off my computer and get us all packed and ready to go. Then he’d wake me up at 5 AM and tell me we were headed to Disney!

All this was going on unknown to me…. Until one day I got a letter in the mail from the DVC about “Welcome Home! More points blah blah blah…” Uh… More points? We didn’t get more points. I called Marc, but he was in meetings all day. Then I called the DVC and asked why I was getting this letter. They told me that their records show that we had purchased XY points and were scheduled to go in September. Uh… and I quote “And I see here on my notes that it was supposed to be a surprise.”


Yeah.

Oops.

When Marc called back, he was livid. How could they spoil the surprise!?! All the other paperwork had been arriving at his parents’ house, why did this one get mailed back to our address? He called back to complain, but nothing came of it, other than my spoiled surprise.

So, even though it decimated our savings, we were going to Disney! He was happy as a kid to be going. He works REALLY long hours, and doesn’t get much quality time with Anastasia. So I let it go, and we were soon in packing mode!
 
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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

Active Member
Original Poster
Anyways, fast forward to…
Monday September 28th

Got up early, threw all the stuff in Marc’s parent’s van. Woke up Anastasia at the last moment, threw clothes on her and hit the road.
Got to the airport in a decent amount of time, thanks to leaving so early.
However, when we got to the airport there was a HUGE line at check-in. We waited almost 20 minutes in line to check our bags! Then once we got through there, we headed over to the security line, which extended beyond the roped off queue. Another 20 minutes later and we got to the checkpoint, which is where I realized that they were only running two security lines instead of the available four. Then it hit me. It was Yom Kippur that day and they were probably short handed. Sheesh.
Anyways, we barely got through the x-rays and had a potty break, and when we got to the gate, they were already lining us up to board the plane! Poor girl sat in the car all the way to the airport, then sat in a stroller through two endless lines, then didn't have any time to run around before getting strapped onto the plane seat.

The flight went okay. I was SO paranoid about having potty issues with her on the plane. She’s been pretty good about going potty but you just can’t tell when you’re in a new environment. She did ask to go potty twice, but I think she developed performance anxiety or something, because by the time I got her wrangled into that tiny bathroom and got the potty seat out and sat her down, she was more interested in the barf bags on the side and the paper towel dispenser. Sigh. :rolleyes: Thankfully she went accident-free the whole flight. She managed pretty well, although she did have a minor meltdown when my borrowed laptop refused to go beyond the menu screen on her Tinkerbell DVD. She really wanted to watch the movie.
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Then it was off to get the 3 rolly bags, one car seat, one stroller, one laptop bag, one backpack, and ourselves to the rental car.

First Monorail ride of the trip!
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Thankfully we didn't get lost on our way to the resort like we did last time. We checked in at Old Key West and found out that we got the exact same villa that we were this time last year! It's wonderful! My favorite villa by a mile. But it wasn't ready yet, so we headed over to the Magic Kingdom to renew our Annual Passes and pick up my birthday button.

The monorail - "Der it is! I find it!"
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"Ooooooh!"
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"Da Mashic Kingdom!"
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We got halfway down Main Street before we got the message that our room was ready. Doh! :hammer: We decided to take in a ride or two just to make the trip worthwhile. On our way down Main Street the piano player at Casey's sung me Happy Birthday. :)

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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

Active Member
Original Poster
We haven’t been in the parks at this time of day in a long time – it was nearly 3:00, so we were stunned to see the line for Small World. Anastasia KNEW where her favorite ride was, despite it being six months since she’s been there. And she would NOT be dissuaded from riding it. She did get a little frustreated though. What were all these people doing on HER ride? Every other time we’ve ridden we’ve either had an entire boat to ourselves, or at least just walked on.
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But we eventually got on (front row!) and she had a grand old time taking it all in with her mouth hanging open in amazement. Then she started pointing out all of her favorite scenes. "Elephant!" "Hippo!" "Dance Hula!" (Don't know where she picked up that one from).

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Then it was back to the room for a badly needed nap for her and a trip to WalMart for me.

"What nap? I'm in Disney World!"
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We stayed in for dinner that night. Mmm... frozen pizza!

Funny side story: Marc asked Anastasia if she wanted to go to Epcot te next day. "Okay!" She said. Then he asked her if she wanted to see Nemo. "Okay!" Then he wanted to know if she wanted to go home tomorrow: ".......... Nooooo."

After dinner we took a walk up to the playground by the Hospitality House and dug around in the sand for a while.

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Then we headed back to the villa to unpack and rest up for a full day of park hopping the next day.

I love Disney sunsets
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The Marina
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Welcome home! Ah... I love this resort.
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Since it was hot as blazes, and we had been traveling all day picking up who knows how many germs, we decided to give Anastasia a bath. But Marc never goes halfway with things. This was her first REAL bubble bath. (She has horrible excema and I usually don't give her them back home. But the humidity always does wonders for her skin when we're down there) She was in HEAVEN. Who needs the parks when you've got a foot tall wall of bubbles to play with!
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Needless to say, we all slept very well that night. I hate travel days. They're always SO exhausting.
 
DisneySam

DisneySam

Active Member
Loving the trip report so far! :sohappy:

DisneyBunny said:
But we eventually got on (front row!) and she had a grand old time taking it all in with her mouth hanging open in amazement. Then she started pointing out all of her favorite scenes. "Elephant!" "Hippo!" "Dance Hula!" (Don't know where she picked up that one from).

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I love that she already has her favorite scenes in Small World! "Dance Hula" that's just adorable!
 
popsicletrees

popsicletrees

Well-Known Member
She is so, so, so, so cute! And what a bubble bath! Now I know she is significantly smaller than I am, but having a bath full of bubbles up to my chin would be the perfect ending to a Disney day.
 
DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

Active Member
Original Poster
Tuesday, September 29th

Got up early for a fun-filled day at Epcot! Anastasia had been eagerly anticipating this place for a while. When her grandmother asked her where she was going on vacation, she replied matter-of-factly “Ehcot Ball!” And Epcot is where two of her favorite people live – Nemo and Figment!
She was shouting “Ehcot Ball!! Ehcot Ball!” as soon as we were in range this morning, and had an awesome time pointing out all the monorails that went over us as we walked to the gates.

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We waited in line at the rope drop and were joined by a surprising number of people as we hurried off to the Character Connection first thing in the morning. What the heck? Don’t these people have Soarin to go on or something? :veryconfuWe got passed by two families on our way in, and weren’t the first people in line, which was fine. But we were almost edged out of third place by a rather aggressive couple who wanted to see the characters. I mean, really? I get that you’re excited to see them and all, but how about not shoving the toddler out of the way and waiting your turn like everyone else? :brick:
Anyways, much nose kissing, hugs, and “Awwww’s!” were to be had.
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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

Active Member
Original Poster
Then it was off to Nemo! Nemo! Nemo! We actually gave her the choice of what to see next, and she told us that that building over that way was “Nemo’s house!” and pulled us along by our fingers so we could go see him. Not a problem. We rode twice, and she had a blast in the play area, since it was deserted so early in the morning. Is it sad that one of her favorite characters is Bruce? I just find it so funny.

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Making sure she pushes EVERY button in the place
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Then we had to head over to Figment's House of course. I just love it first thing in the morning. Especially since we usually have the ImageWorks area allllll to ourselves.

"Der he is!"
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She was actually heavy enough to trigger the sounds this time!
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Big kisses for Figment
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Figment love is a beautiful thing
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Marc had to take a conference call then, so while he talked on the phone, Anastasia and I caught the Jammitors, or actually the re-dubbed “Jammin Chefs” in honor of the Food n Wine Festival. They were awesome as always.

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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

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Original Poster
Then we wandered around in Innoventions for a while. I really wanted to spend some more time there this trip, since it always seems that we skip it, or just dash through it on our way elsewhere. Anastasia had a grand old time playing with the Velcro frogs at the SlapStick area. She kept pulling piece after piece off to put on her frog, and while we kept trying to remind her to keep it to a minimum, and save some for others, the CMs actually encouraged her to stick to her heart’s content. This is how we ended up with one VERY well dressed frog.

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"This one goes... HERE!"
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We thought the StormStruck exhibit would be a bit too intense for Anastasia, so we wandered over to the Waste Management area. Even though it might be a lot over her head, we thought Anastasia would enjoy pushing the recycling truck around and pushing all the buttons. We were right. We did pretty well, especially considering that we registered as a group of “3”, but as the CM explained too late, that computer thinks that there are three adults/old enough kids to play the games. Oops. We still did okay considering.

Push push push..
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MUST. Push. Buttons.
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I love her expression in this one. "GRRRR!!!" I may have a future video gamer on my hands..
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They had these nice stools to help littler kids reach the buttons..
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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

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It was starting to get mighty miserably hot out, so we stopped in the Coke place to get some drinks. Anastasia especially enjoyed the Smart Watermelon. Quite a treat for her, since we don’t let her drink soda at home.

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We headed back to the villa then for lunch and Anastasia’s nap. While she was sleeping in the bedroom, I actually pulled out the sleeper sofa and took a nap myself. Apparently I passed out cold, because I don’t actually remember falling asleep. I tried to get some reading done, but next thing I know it’s 2 hours later. Goodness. I guess that’s what vacations are for, right? :snore:

Anyways, we thought that we’d head out to the F&WF for lots of nibbles that would make up for a dinner. But after Marc’s teeny tiny $5 fishermen’s pie in Ireland, and my $4 Rock Shrimp Ceviche, we realized that this was making for a dang pricey dinner.
Yummy, but SO not worth what I paid for it.
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So we cut our losses and headed on the boat (because it was so dang hot, and Anastasia is really into Disney transportation) over to Morocco, where we headed to the Yakitori House for some decently priced food. I hadn't been on the boats in a LONG time... it was nice. But still a pokey and slow way of getting around.


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Poor girl's freeze-dried fruit snacks were re-hydrating in the humidity!
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The front-side of Morocco!
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I got the Tempura Shrimp Udon bowl. Even though it was WAY too hot for soup out, the inside of the QS place was nice and cool and almost completely empty! Loved that. Marc got the Shogun Combination with the Teriyaki chicken, and sukiyaki beef. Anastasia actually chowed down on a lot of it. Loved the udon noodles, the rice, and noshed on the chicken too. I was making a coserted effort this trip to not buy her unnessesary kids meals. A two year old just doesn’t consume that much food to warrant her a large kids meal. Plus, it gets pricey! :dazzle: So we made out okay with dinner.
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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

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Afterwards, I changed Anastasia into her bathing suit, and we let her run around in the fountains on the pathway to the World Showcase. They’re still not running as many fountains as they were last year, and I don’t know why. It was just the center fountain and the ring of smaller fountains around the outer circle. But last year, a bunch of the inner fountains were spouting too. Don’t know what that’s about. Either way, she had a blast.

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Although, poor planning on my part: I brought no towel to dry her off. So I had to carry her all the way to the Baby Care Center, dripping wet, where we used paper towels to dab her dry, and changed her into her clothes again.

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The last thing we did was head over to the UK for a meet with Pooh and Co. Man she loves them so much. And she’s really got the whole waiting in line thing down pat too. We told her that she had to wait until the other people were finished (So much so, that by the end of the trip she was telling US “Wait your turn!”… we may have said it only a couple of hundred times…)




"You're so TALL!!"
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Hugs for Pooh
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Squishy Eeyore
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The gang
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DisneyBunny

DisneyBunny

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Then it was back to the villa for bedtime. While we were relaxing, I noticed this little guy on our window! :eek:
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I felt bad for using the flash on this one, but he was so hard to photograph!
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Marc thought I was nuts for taking a picture of him, but how often do you see honest-to-goodness frogs these days??? Toads we’ve got back home, and we had to always carefully watch our step to make sure we didn’t squish any lizards on our way to and from the villa, but a frog? I thought it was special.

So that was day 2. Day 3 is coming soon!
 

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