365 Days round. Wait whats that, Flamingos? A toddlers first trip. (Report)

Hello, and welcome to my trip report. I created a PTR back in January, but didn't keep up with it, so lets try again. Our trip was May 14th - May 19th, and we stayed at a Studio Villa at Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge - Jambo House.

The title of our trip is a story in itself. Last year on May 20th, out to see the latest pirates flick, my wife and I decided that it was time to get something planned to take our daughter. It just so happens exactly 365 days later, we would be arriving back home from our trip to WDW.

Before I go any further, lets introduce the members of our trip.

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Me: Paul, 30 yrs old, 5 Time visitor (84’, 96’, 97’, 99’, 00’) to WDW. My last time in the park was for my youngest sisters make a wish trip, and we actually only visited MK and HS.

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Wife: Christina, 29 yrs old, recently graduated from nursing school. Visited WDW when she was a child, and doesn’t remember much.

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Daughter: Lorelai, 4 yrs old, going on 5. A humongous fan of flamingos. Most of her pet fish, gerbil, and a past box turtle had the name flamingo in it. She loves animals, and her favorite pet is Pascal the house cat. Rapunzel (Lorelai), Flynn (me), and Pascal have wonderful adventures around the house.

We packed up the car on the 11th, and slept in on the 12th in preparation for the long drive ahead. Lorelai had a T-ball game that afternoon, then we were off. On saturday morning, my wifes cousin, who works for a non-for-profit animal shelter texted my wife about a puppy that arrived that morning. We had been talking about getting a new dog after we got home, because our other dog seemed to be very lonely. We had to put our lab down in march, because he had bone cancer, and the little dog seemed to be depressed after he was gone. Plus we just wanted a new dog in the house because we are animal lovers. Anyway, she sent us photos and we instantly fell in love. Lorelai and Christina named him Lucky, which was a great fit I thought. Indianapolis just got Andrew Luck in the draft, so now Lucky can have his own jersey. :D

So around 6:30, we headed out on our trip. First stop, an hour away to meet our new puppy. He was going to stay with my wife's cousin while we were gone, but we wanted to meet the little guy before we left. After that we grabbed a quick bite to eat, and started the long journey south. Around Seymour Indiana, it started to rain. That rain lasted all night, into the morning, when we stopped for breakfast in Valdosta Georgia. Other than the rain, and the drunk guy at the gas station who almost vomited on me in the bathroom the drive down was uneventful.

I didnt take any photos on the way down, so sorry for the lack of photos in this first post. I promise with the posts to come there will be plenty of photos to look at. Until then, take care, and have a magical day!
 

foreverbelle

Well-Known Member
It was a great trip report, I absolutely loved loved following your report and am sad to see it go....I think the flamingo experience thing at the end was simply incredible and was a perfect way to end this trip. I hope you guys can get to head back down to the World sooner rather than later.

You have totally gotten me stocked for my upcoming trip down there.

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us..
 

tehSAC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What an amazing trip you all had! Loved reading it and enjoyed all your photos. 25 minutes for TSM is awesome!

We took a gamble and it paid off. I would have waited longer though. We all enjoyed the ride. Thanks for following. I'm glad you enjoyed.
 

tehSAC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It was a great trip report, I absolutely loved loved following your report and am sad to see it go....I think the flamingo experience thing at the end was simply incredible and was a perfect way to end this trip. I hope you guys can get to head back down to the World sooner rather than later.

You have totally gotten me stocked for my upcoming trip down there.

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us..

Yea my wife and I agree with you. The flamingos were the icing on the cake.

I'm happy you enjoyed my report. As I was writing, I wasn't sure anyone would enjoy. Knowing that it has brought happiness to you and others that have read it, puts a smile on my face.

Hopefully in the future, I can do another. I hope you enjoy your upcoming trip. I'll look forward to reading your report!
 

ExtinctJenn

Well-Known Member
Love love love this report! So much I want to comment on that I don't know where to start. The Croc story cracks me up. I love your photos. Your little girl is adorable. The fact that she got some special moments with characters like Rapunzel and the White Rabbit is just so wonderful. Her reaction to Dinosaur made me laugh (not that she was upset but I remember "forcing" my kiddo who was 5 at the time onto the ride last year and he did that rollercoaster of emotions thing where he was excited, terrified, excited, terrified, and finally glad it was over lol). Just a great report! :)
 

tehSAC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Love love love this report! So much I want to comment on that I don't know where to start. The Croc story cracks me up. I love your photos. Your little girl is adorable. The fact that she got some special moments with characters like Rapunzel and the White Rabbit is just so wonderful. Her reaction to Dinosaur made me laugh (not that she was upset but I remember "forcing" my kiddo who was 5 at the time onto the ride last year and he did that rollercoaster of emotions thing where he was excited, terrified, excited, terrified, and finally glad it was over lol). Just a great report! :)

Thanks so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
 

disneyny

Member
I enjoyed your trip report so much. Your daughter is just a little older than my son and it seemed like she had a great time. The flamingo trip was a perfect ending and I loved her flamingo outfit! Your love for your daughter shows in this report- she is very lucky.
 

clee687

Member
Loved your report and pics! I felt so bad for you during your Haunted Mansion situation. My son can be quite the scaredy cat and if we never pushed him he would do NOTHING. But it is hard to know when to push and when to hold back. Sometimes you get it wrong. It was also unfortunate you had to be criticized for it by a stranger that decided what kind of parent you were by the whole 3-5 minutes he was near your family. Your adorable daughter seemed to enjoy the rest of the trip and did not seem to be scarred for life by the incidence though.(please note HEAVY sarcasm here:))AND you sooooo made up for it by finding the flamingo place! I am not in love with flamingos like your daughter but I could easily understand how awesome that must've been for her to get up close and feed "her" flamingos!! You get lots of "good Daddy" points for finding that and then driving so far out of the way when you had 1000 miles to home ahead of you! Good job! I loved her cute dress with the flamingo she wore to meet them. Oh! I loved the leopard print skirt she wore to Animal Kingdom too-I used to try to coordinate my son for the park we would be going to but those days are probably over. He's almost 8 and has his own ideas of what to wear now...mostly Mario Bros. and Angry Birds! Hope you get your December trip!
 

tehSAC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I enjoyed your trip report so much. Your daughter is just a little older than my son and it seemed like she had a great time. The flamingo trip was a perfect ending and I loved her flamingo outfit! Your love for your daughter shows in this report- she is very lucky.

Wow thank you. Yes she is my little buddy. Makes life all that more special. I just wish I had a few more. One day we will have another, but I have always wanted to adopt too. I love kids. I'm only thirty, but I will always be a child at heart.

Loved your report and pics! I felt so bad for you during your Haunted Mansion situation. My son can be quite the scaredy cat and if we never pushed him he would do NOTHING. But it is hard to know when to push and when to hold back. Sometimes you get it wrong. It was also unfortunate you had to be criticized for it by a stranger that decided what kind of parent you were by the whole 3-5 minutes he was near your family. Your adorable daughter seemed to enjoy the rest of the trip and did not seem to be scarred for life by the incidence though.(please note HEAVY sarcasm here:))AND you sooooo made up for it by finding the flamingo place! I am not in love with flamingos like your daughter but I could easily understand how awesome that must've been for her to get up close and feed "her" flamingos!! You get lots of "good Daddy" points for finding that and then driving so far out of the way when you had 1000 miles to home ahead of you! Good job! I loved her cute dress with the flamingo she wore to meet them. Oh! I loved the leopard print skirt she wore to Animal Kingdom too-I used to try to coordinate my son for the park we would be going to but those days are probably over. He's almost 8 and has his own ideas of what to wear now...mostly Mario Bros. and Angry Birds! Hope you get your December trip!

Hahaha thanks. I was never a fan of the color pink, or flamingos, but I love them now, because they bring her so much joy. Also she picks out most of her outfits too. The day we went to AK, she asked to wear that outfit. Plus she insisted on taking that very dress to sarasota. She asked most of the flamingos if they liked her dress. Hahaha


I'm glad you enjoyed the report. She isn't traumatized, but she insists that she will never ride HM again. I also hope we get to head down in December, but right now that looks bleak.
 

tehSAC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Small little update with another moment of pixie dust.

When we returned home, I wrote to Disney expressing my pleasure with the CM's we encountered, especially the CM who helped us become VIP's for "The Festival of the Lion King", but I did not know her name. I did not expect to hear anything back, but I wanted to express my pleasure.

Well on Wedensday I received a call from Florida while I was at work, and it happened to be a representative from Disney. We spoke about my message, and about our experience, and my desire to send my thanks to the CM without a name. We needed up talking for almost a half hour before we moved on in our conversation. He asked me if I had any other special experiences with anyone else employed by Disney. I mentioned our special meeting with Rapunzel and how it was special to us. We ended our conversation after 45 minutes with the promise from him he would find out our CM without a name and make sure how grateful we were to her.

Well tonight, we get home and there is a large package in the mailbox from Disney. It has a hand written address located on the envelope and I'm puzzled to what it might be. We all sat down at the table and opened it up. To our surprise and of course Lorelai's, within the envelope, there was a 8x10 photo of Rapunzel and Flynn. On the photo was a small message to Lorelai. It said "Lorelai, Live Your Dream! Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.". She was so excited, and mom was wondering how I did it. I shrugged my shoulders, but quickly remembered the conversation I had on Wedensday. Of course I didn't let the cat out of the bag. ;)

So now it's framed and above Lorelai's bed. I am so shocked and happy that they even took the time to send that to Lorelai. The Icing on the cake IMO.
 

fractal

Well-Known Member
Small little update with another moment of pixie dust.

When we returned home, I wrote to Disney expressing my pleasure with the CM's we encountered, especially the CM who helped us become VIP's for "The Festival of the Lion King", but I did not know her name. I did not expect to hear anything back, but I wanted to express my pleasure.

Well on Wedensday I received a call from Florida while I was at work, and it happened to be a representative from Disney. We spoke about my message, and about our experience, and my desire to send my thanks to the CM without a name. We needed up talking for almost a half hour before we moved on in our conversation. He asked me if I had any other special experiences with anyone else employed by Disney. I mentioned our special meeting with Rapunzel and how it was special to us. We ended our conversation after 45 minutes with the promise from him he would find out our CM without a name and make sure how grateful we were to her.

Well tonight, we get home and there is a large package in the mailbox from Disney. It has a hand written address located on the envelope and I'm puzzled to what it might be. We all sat down at the table and opened it up. To our surprise and of course Lorelai's, within the envelope, there was a 8x10 photo of Rapunzel and Flynn. On the photo was a small message to Lorelai. It said "Lorelai, Live Your Dream! Rapunzel and Flynn Rider.". She was so excited, and mom was wondering how I did it. I shrugged my shoulders, but quickly remembered the conversation I had on Wedensday. Of course I didn't let the cat out of the bag. ;)

So now it's framed and above Lorelai's bed. I am so shocked and happy that they even took the time to send that to Lorelai. The Icing on the cake IMO.


great story! Thanks for sharing
 

tehSAC

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I finally got around to take a photo of her surprise. Decide I might just go ahead and show it to you all. ;)

Disney Magic at its finest.

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cetta28

Member
I love your trip report and hearing about all the Disney Magic you and your family experienced brought a tear to my eye. I also live in Central Indiana and we are going on our Disneymoon in September. You are so lucky that you have these memories to cherish forever!
 

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