A boy's first trip: Pictures and video

http://www.flickr.com/photos/34714768@N08/4045156523/

Sorry for URL, I seem to be having issues with Embedding. Anyway, I hope that works for everyone. Okay, so here it goes.

The Players:

Mom and Step dad.

Big Sister and Bro-in law.

My Wife and Son.

and last but not least, Myself.

The logistics of this trip were a bit of a nightmare. My Wife and son left two days before me on Friday, 10/16 so that she could visit her Aunt in Tampa. Unfortunately, I could not get that much time off so I flew out on Sunday the 18th. My Parents drove down from Connecticut and my Sister drove down from Delaware.

We all met at the Beach Club on Sunday. My flight and DME ride were uneventful and we all met in the lobby and then off to our room. My Sister and Bro-in-law had a studio and the rest of us had a two bedroom Villa. Room 177 to be exact.

It was a decent location since we were close to parking, the bus, and the quiet pool. The only drawback was that it was the furthest room from the lobby. Here is the view from just around the corner from our room.

Next up, dinner at Ohana and day 1 at MK.

 

[rsoxguy]

Man, that is one cute kid!

 

[LovingDisney]

Cute pics. I love the video of your son meeting Mickey and trying to eat his nose:lol:

 

[Jessie&Buzz]

Cute baby! I love the video. Great report so far.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Awww! Looks awesome!

 

[yankspy]

Man, that is one cute kid!

Thanks. He loved it.

Cute pics. I love the video of your son meeting Mickey and trying to eat his nose:lol:

Thanks. I was afraid he was going to do that.

Cute baby! I love the video. Great report so far.

Thank you.

Awww! Looks awesome!

Thanks Evan.

 

[maggiegrace1]

HOORAY!..I have been waiting Jimmy!...
Great looking family and Thomas is just so adorable!...Looking forward to the report!..

 

[yankspy]

10/18

So after we all got situated we took a walk around the Boardwalk and I grabbed a hot dog and a piece of Chocolate Mousse from the bakery.:slurp: A quick note on food. I ate so much as usual. As the report continues you may wonder how I was able to eat so much, however, I only gained about two pounds.

We basically relaxed for the rest of the day and then we were off to Ohana for dinner. I just love walking up to the Poly as a monorail is approaching.

Ohana was good as usual. The bread pudding was really to die for. There was one thing though. Nothing tasted wrong with the food but three of us got a little sick afterwords. I am not sure what it was but we felt sick for about three hours afterwords. Well, anyway, we went back to the room and went to bed early since we wanted to hit MK and Epcot tomorrow.

10/19

We slept until about 9:00 that morning since we were just tired in general. Everyone else just hung out at the resort but My Wife and Son and I hit MK at about 12:00 and it was not too crowded. My son's eyes were popping out of his head at all the sights and sounds around him. It was a special moment for me because I have been going to WDW since I was his age and so I have often wondered what it would be like to bring my child to WDW for the first time. We stopped at the bakery on Main Street and I had one of those huge cinnamon buns and a ham and cheese croissant.

His first ride was IASW since it is a classic and and a nice tame ride. His head was spinning around as he tried to look at everything and figure it out. We tried to hit up the TTA but it was down.

We headed over to Adventureland to go on Pirates but the line was about thirty minutes and my son was getting hungry so we decided against it. I did get a chance to pick up the Jungle cruise shirt while we were there though.:sohappy:

I got a real treat because I got to see something in MK that I have never seen before in all my trips. The Baby Center.:lol: Honestly, it was sort of cool because I have been to WDW so many times that I had thought that I knew every square inch of that park. Anyway, for all you that have yet to bring a baby to the parks, here is what the baby center looks like.

It sort of hit me on that first day that this trip was going to be different. We were there for four hours and we managed to somehow only go on one ride. It was okay though. I think that this is the first time that I have been in MK and not gone on HM. It was enough just to see my Son with a big grin on his face.

We grabbed some Ice cream from a cart and then we made our way to Epcot since we had ADR's for Les Chefs De France that night.

We took the Monorail over to Epcot and my son napped the whole way. (Which was a good thing). He woke up and he was restless so I figured a good long ride on SSE would keep him busy for a while. It worked like a charm.

We headed over to WS for some Food and Wine snacks. I had never been to Epcot for the festival so I was pretty excited about it. I sampled an Empanada from Buenos Aires, a Tenderloin with mango barbecue sauce from South Africa, and a Mango yogurt drink from India. All in all I think the portions were pretty good. The one tiny one was the Mushroom soup that my wife had from Austria I think.

After walking around for a while we were ready to meet up with everyone else for our ADR's for France.


I had a French Onion soup and the Steak au Poivre which was very good. Our little angel would not sit still so my wife and I ate in shifts. Thank God for the fountain in front because he loves fountains and it was the only thing that kept him mesmerized.

We did not bother staying for dessert since he was getting cranky so we walked back to the hotel and stopped at the marketplace for some carrot cake and a choc. chip cookie.

Once again, another first. I have never missed Illuminations in my life until that night.

So two parks in one day and only two attractions. We were definitely pacing ourselves.:lol: All in all, it was a great day.

Next up, MNSSHP. My costume was a big hit!!!!

 

[Spinky]

What a loverly looking familly you have there

 

[foreverbelle]

What a beautiful family. And it looks and sounds like you guys had a fabulous time! Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your memories with us.

 

[Gucci65]

Looking forward to the rest of your report

 

[corey154]

I love your trip report..can't wait to see your costume.

Your son is so cute, it really does change the way you see Disney and everytime you go it's so new to him, there's nothing like it. (and it'll make you appreciate when he's old enough to go on all the rides again...lol)

 

[yankspy]

10/20

We all slept in that day because three of us were going to MNSSHP that night. My parents had no interest in going snd neither did my wife since she is not as big a park fan as I am so it was Me, my Sister, and my Bro-in-law) I was pretty excited since I had never been to it and I was curious to see the reactions to my costume. I had not dressed up for Halloween since I was a kid so I felt kind of funny. We had a light breakfast in the room and went down by the pool for about an hour. By that time it was time to get ready for the party since we had 2:00 ADR'S for Whispering Canyon. We did not want to waste park time eating a TS meal so we figured we would fill up on the skillet meals and we would be good.

We got to Whispering Canyon and it was literally empty. There were only two other tables there besides us. I guess the secret to getting ADR's is going at off times. We all ordered skillets and they were great as usual. The server was nice but since the place was so dead there was not a whole lot of craziness going on.

We got to MK right at 4:00 and I was immediately greeted by a CM who told me how much he loved my costume. He grabbed another CM to show him but the guy had no idea who I was. (I guess he was new).

Hottest summer we have had in years!!! Being a fanboi of old school WDW I had wanted to go as someone from a classic attraction and this was a pretty inexpensive costume so this what I wound up with. I must have had a dozen or so CM's comment on my costume, including the announcer for COP who pointed me out during his spiel to the audience. I also had numerous guests who randomly started singing "There's a great big beautiful tomorrow" as they passed me by.

My Sister went as Alice and my Bro-in-law could not decide if he wanted to be a JC skipper or just a safari type guy.

Since we did not have the baby with us we started to go into Commando mode and we had done Pirates, HM, TTA, Peter Pan, IASW, Buzz, and the teacups by the time the party started. We also grabbed some Ice Cream on Main Street just before the first parade started.

We walked around Main Street for a while and shopped and then we hit up some of the candy spots to fill up. I have to say that they are very generous with the candy because we did not even try that hard and I managed to fill up an MNSSHP tote bag with candy.

It was just after the first parade when things really started looking like Halloween at MK. We were walking around LS and it was pretty cool seeing all the fog and special lighting, etc. We quickly jumped on HM again before the fireworks and then we decided to not fight the crowds on Main Street and we staked out a spot right in front of the stocks in LS.

I could not make out what this lady was saying. We saw her while waiting in line at HM and so we were moving through the line when she was talking. Anyone know who she is or what sort of story she was telling?

It was not necessarily the best spot for Hallowishes but I was still quite impressed with the show, especially the finale.

I think my picture limit is up for one post so I will continue in another post.

 

[yankspy]

We grabbed some provisions just before the parade, namely a pretzel and some glazed almonds for me, and we got back to our spot. The parade was great. Unfortunately, none of my pictures came out. The best part had to be the HM scene. The bloodhound was a nice touch and the servants sparking their shovels was a simple but cool effect. The only thing that confused me was why the Headless Horseman has such a long lead time. It was like fifteen minutes between his arrival and the rest of the parade.

After the parade we took some more pictures and this was where things got funny. Apparently, my costume looks similar to a Photopass person in the dark and the fact that I had a tripod did not help. There were several times when I was lining up a shot and a line had formed behind me and when I would turn around someone would be trying to hand me their photopass to scan. :lol:

My sister and Bro-in-law left and I stayed behind to take some more pictures. It was kind of fun to just walk around MK at night by myself and soak in the atmosphere of the party. Towards the end of the night the candy stands were getting even more generous and on my last trip the CM literally grabbed two handfuls of candy and dumped it into my bag.

Unfortunately my panorama shot of Main Street did not come out as well as I had expected but I guess it's not too bad considering that this is the first time that I have played around with this feature at night.

After that I headed home on the bus. MNSSHP was great. I would recommend it to anyone.

Next up, a very special day for my son and myself made possible by Disney CM's.

 

[maggiegrace1]

JIMMY!...Best costume EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!..

You look great!...

 

[yankspy]

JIMMY!...Best costume EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!..

You look great!...

Thanks Dana. I really was surprised at all the attention I got.

 

[yankspy]

What a loverly looking familly you have there

Why thank you Eliza.:lol:

What a beautiful family. And it looks and sounds like you guys had a fabulous time! Beautiful. Thanks for sharing your memories with us.

We did. Heck, it was great just not having to sit in beltway traffic for a week.:lol:

Looking forward to the rest of your report

Thanks!!!

I love your trip report..can't wait to see your costume.
Thanks. Hopefully you are a COP fan.:animwink:
Your son is so cute, it really does change the way you see Disney and everytime you go it's so new to him, there's nothing like it. (and it'll make you appreciate when he's old enough to go on all the rides again...lol)

 

[Jessie&Buzz]

Great costume! I really missed doing the party. We decided to skip it because of how much it was for the 4 of us now that our daughter is an "adult" ticket.

 

[DisneyPrincess5]

What a great costume!!!

 

[corey154]

I LOVE your costume! The COP was my grandmother's favorite ride when she was alive so for me it's such a special ride and brings back great memories. And it's funny b/c it's my daughter's favorite ride (and she never even knew my grandmother) So yes, your costume is my favorite that I've seen so far!