A Toddler at the Grandparents + Two Parents = An Amazing Disney Vacation

catnrob · Feb 2, 2012

We arrived at our resort, All Star Movies’ at 11:15am (yea, it took us like 45min to get to our resort – but the main issue was the radio thing…we didn’t get rolling at first cause he was trying to fix it) The red carpet that they had was such a great touch!!!

Check in went great and although we couldn’t get a king or queen size bed without paying for an upgrade, we were still happy. Hey, we’re at Disney World – what could get us down???? We were super lucky that they did have our room ready for us though! So, that was great.

We were in one of the furthest sections from the Cinema Hall (next time we will pay extra for a preferred room). This wasn’t a huge deal – but when you are returning at 1am after being in the park all day – it was a long walk. Heck, the walk from the bed to the bathroom was a long walk after being on your feet all day!

It was about 12:15pm when we made our way to the Magic Kingdom.

To say that we were like two little kids on Christmas morning is an understatement. Kids don’t cry and aren’t able to get a grip…. I, on the other hand had some issues. haa

When we walked through the tunnel onto Main Street it all just hit me. The planning, the dreaming, the late nights reading trip reports, the late late nights playing on google earth “walking” around the park, and all the love and hope that went into planning our trip.

catnrob · Feb 2, 2012

It was all in front of me. The sounds of children, the sound of inviting and exciting music, the smell of chocolate wafting from the Confectionary, the sight of the castle rising above the crowds… it was just so overwhelming. It was so overwhelming that I broke down and started crying. Now, not the ugly cry – the cute cry. Come on ladies, you know which one I’m talking about.

We started the picture taking as we walked down Main Street and as we approached the castle the Move It Shake It party was going on. We both just stood there laughing. It was like it was the only thing we could do. I started dancing all of sudden – I don’t know why, it was like I just became a kid all of a sudden… and that spirit didn’t leave me till we were leaving the World. I looked back and saw my husband with a HUGE smile on his face and giggling. Now, this may not seem odd but for my husband – this is WONDERFUL! My DH is fairly reserved and a big pessimist. He is hard on the outside but a teddy bear on the inside. He hates Christmas; he can’t stand carnivals/fairs and detests parades. Yet, here he was in a PARK at a parade… LAUGHING. Only the spirit of Disney could do that to a person.

We walked thru the crowd of the party and headed over to Adventureland! ARRRR!

]

The first thing on our agenda was to get a fastpass for Big Thunder! So, we headed on over to get the fastpass and then we walked back to POTC! (During my first and last trip to WDW when I was 16yrs old, it happened to be my birthday on our first day. That first day we spent it at the Magic Kingdom. AND, the first attraction we went on was POTC. So, keeping with “tradition” – on my 38th birthday, on our first day in the parks which was spent at MK, the first attraction was going to be POTC. So cool!) The wait wasn’t long at all, like 10min and I suddenly understood what everyone meant by, WDW water funk. haa haa The attraction was just as fun as I remember it to be and while we sat taking in the pirates and the YoHo YoHo – we held hands. What a nice memory. Maybe not romantic… but nice nonetheless.

It was time to head back to Frontierland but first it was time to grab a bite to eat. Following all the wonderful advice from y’all we stopped at Pecos Bill’s for a late lunch.
I had a cheeseburger, fries, water and some chocolate cake. My hubby had the BBQ Pork sandwich with chocolate cake.
The food was pretty good and boy, was that place hoppin! Now, this is where my politeness and I being overwhelmed - collide! Rob was ordering our food and my job was to find us a table during this CRAZY time. So, I’m walking around trying to find a table – finally, I see a family starting to move. So, I begin to slowly move in. I’m basically standing OVER the family (I know… please don’t judge) as they are leaving. I don’t want to push them out but I don’t want to be in the wings either. Well, anyway, I’m standing there and as the family leaves I pull out a chair and go to sit on it. Just then a family comes and all sits down at the table. They came out of nowhere!!!! The kids were embarrassed but mom and dad looked at them like “it’s ok”. I was shocked. So, what do I do? APOLOGIZE! Seriously? Seriously? Yep, I apologize and get out of their way. UGH, the little small town chick came right out of me.
I have to say though – from that moment on I realized that pixie dust is not the same as FAIRY dust. So, I stepped up my confidence a bit and although, I was always courteous and polite, I didn’t necessarily let anyone step on me.
From there we made a little “stop” at the restrooms and then it was off for more fun!

Onto more attractions….

Well, at this point we were able to get an additional fastpass – so we picked up one at Splash Mountain and then rode BTMR. OMGOsh!!!! BTMR was amazing!!! I wanted to just ride that one over and over again. It was so much fun – and something I had wanted to do ever since I left WDW years ago. You see, neither of my parents wanted to ride it back then… and I chickened out. But, it’s always been a big regret. So, I did it and LOVED it!

From there we made a little “stop” at the restrooms and then it was off to get wet on Splash Mountain!

For those of you who are tall (I’m 6”1) listen up… you may want to consider NOT sitting in the very back seat. We did and although my husband (he is 5”6’ – yeah, he’s shorter than me – REALLY shorter than me) did just fine I, on the other hand was EXTREMELY uncomfortable. This was the only thing I didn’t like about the ride. But, we tall people are used to this sort of a thing so I sucked it up and enjoyed the great music and bright colors! There was a little girl and her family in front of us and she was so excited that this was our first time on the ride. She had all kinds of hints for us like, “oh now look over there” or “if you are afraid of drops – one is coming up”, etc… I told her that she really needed to work at Disney some day and by my simple comment you would have thought I had given her the best compliment in the world. It was just a sweet moment and another reminder that Disney Magic was well and good. We bid our new friends goodbye (or so we thought) and headed through Frontierland to Liberty Square where the ghosts and tricks of The Haunted Mansion awaited us.

By this time we were REALLY starting to get tired. I was already getting a “hot spot” on the bottom of my foot and the lack of sleep and travel I think were starting to slow us down. So, in Liberty Square we found an inviting curb and decided to park it. It was great to listen to the fella outside of the Columbia Harbour House ringing a bell and to watch the crowds of people over every age and nationality and to breathe in all of the wonderful smells; turkey legs, French fries, apple pie and Mickey Bars!!! It was a great rest and now we were ready to forge ahead…
The wait for The Haunted Mansion was only like 10min (this was the average time we waited for most attractions) and before you knew it we were in our Dunebuggy watching the spirits dance away in the dining room!

At this point it was getting VERY warm out and we were starting to feel the heat. Hey, we are from the North… at this point in October we experience an average high of 54. That day in the park it was about 87degrees. So, we were starting to wilt a bit. Lucky for us we brought our own Brita water bottles (those worked GREAT) so we were drinking lots of water. But hot is hot!! So, what should one do when you need to relax a bit and escape the heat? Here’s a hint….

That’s right – experience the Hall of Presidents!!!!

(That was my dignified and colonial face)
The Hall of Presidents was great! We got there early so we sat on the floor (we offered our bench seats to some older guests) and relaxed a bit before the show. The show was very touching. I love how if you watch a non-focused President you will see that they even move. The detail is awesome! At one point I hear something and I look over and Rob is crying. Well, maybe not crying like a baby as I was when I arrived but he was “misty” (as he calls it). So, within a short matter of hours we both had gotten choked up… thank you Disney!

catnrob · Feb 2, 2012

From Liberty Square we headed over to FantasyLand… or what is left of FantasyLand. haa

The lines were starting to get pretty long at this point but over at Small World, the wait time was only 10min. So, BINGO – we were sold.

Small World was great! Yes, if our boat got stuck in there for hours I may have to be taken out by straight jacket, but the attraction really is awesome!

Using our “LINES” application (BTW – this is a great app and was very helpful for us), we saw that the lines everywhere were a bit nuts so, we grabbed a FP for “Winnie the Pooh” and headed over for some 3D goodness at Mickey’s Phillarmagic!

…oh and no, I had not been drinking.
We LOVED this attraction! Reading the description of it, it wasn’t high on my priority list – but I was very wrong. It made me think of our son and how much he would love this. Then I looked down our aisle at a family with a preschooler who was having a complete meltdown, and I was reminded that it was better that he was back in Michigan.

Again, the heat struck us and everyone it seemed was enjoying ice cream! So, what was another thing on our “must dos”? Have a Mickey frozen snack! So, I had a Mickey Ice Cream and Rob had a Popsicle. I’m not sure if anything tasted so wonderful before… it just hit the right spot!

We headed over to use our FPs at Winnie the Pooh. What a great feeling to wiz by the long standby line!!! Again, I was reminded though of Jonah and thought about how much fun he’ll have when we return to DisneyWorld. The ride was having some problems though… it kept stopping. So, it took us a bit to get through it but we enjoyed it the same.

We were Fantasyland’d out at this point (or at least tired of dodging strollers) so we were ready to move onto Tomorrowland where we were trade strollers for aliens!

The music in Tomorrowland is so cool!!!! I could listen to it all day! The lines were thinning out at this point so we thought we would relax a bit and get a “tour” of the place by going on the People Mover. OK … after reading Bricker’s trip reports I was looking forward to going on this. And it did not disappoint!!! That is such a relaxing ride!!!! We had great intentions on checking out some of the other attractions in Tomorrowland but we were keeping an eye on the time so we walked over to Adventureland again to ride Jungle Cruise, since we missed it earlier in the day.

Our wait on Jungle Cruise was about 10 or 15min, nothing major – but for whatever reason, it felt like forever! haa We had a GREAT skipper – Skipper Nick who encouraged all the kids on the boat to “stay in school”. He would poke fun at joke that bombed or imply he was a loser by saying, “seriously kids…stay in school”. It was a hoot!!! He really made that ride!

We felt like it was the perfect time to bid the MK a goodnight so we headed out of the park! We had 8:40pm ADR’s at Narcoossees, so we thought it would be better to arrive early than late. However – it was only like 6:30/7pm so we thought that a quick trip to Epcot (we were too excited to wait till morning) would be perfect. So, we took the monorail over to Epcot, went through the turnstiles, took a deep breath and swallowed down the tears (AGAIN) and headed over to SE!

We rode through the past, listening to the fella make papyrus, we smelled the downfall of Rome, we even gazed at the stars before making our descent to 2012. SE did not disappoint and it was just as great as it was back in 1989 (although… yea, the descent down was a bit lame, but I loved it anyway!).

After SE we booked it back up to the monorail platform and took it to the TTC where we got off and climbed back on to the resort loop… our destination – The Grand Floridian Resort (I’m having a Dame Judy Dentch moment).

By the time we got to the resort time was clicking by VERY fast! We had no idea how to get to Narcoossees but we knew it was a bit of a trek. So, I quickly took some pictures and then walked very briskly down the beautiful staircase and through the lobby, outside, past the pool (where they were watching a movie) and out to the little octagon building that Narcoossees resided.

catnrob · Feb 2, 2012

Dinner was, to say the least…A-Mazing! We were seated at a cozy table for two that overlooked the lake and had a great view of the castle. Our waitress, Lori was from TN and turned on the southern hospitality. So much so that she was a bit, well… annoying though. Her overly chatty-ness was a little much for a meal when we just really wanted to have time to talk and enjoy one another and the view. But, she was attentive and we weren’t ignored! Our celebrations through our reservations must have gotten goofed up because we were actually supposed to be celebrating my birthday and then later on in the week we were going to have a special anniversary dinner. But, when we arrived we discovered – we were celebrating our Anniversary at Narcoossees. Not a worry at all… they are both great things to celebrate! So, we had a drink while we waited for our food, nothing exciting – but good. I had a virgin pina-colada (I was battling a headache) and Rob had a Tropical Mojito. Both were great and Lori even included my drink as part of the meal plan so it was free! Yay Lori! For dinner we both had the Filet Mignon with the Lobster Tail, au gratin potatoes, wax beans, and a béarnaise sauce.

It was BY FAR the best steak we had both ever had. We still think about it and steak will truly never be the same again. While we ate we watched the Electrical Water Pageant. What a unexpected surprise and again… more magic!

After our main course the lights went low in the restaurant and Hallowishes began over at the Magic Kingdom. Again, it was so much fun, exciting and in a strange way (as much as a HALLOWEEN firework show can be) romantic. We sat there watching the fireworks while feasting on our dessert. Rob had the Crème Brule’ and I had the Gelato Sampler (Cappuccino, Verona Chocolate, Pistachio and Raspberry). Delish!

We wrapped up our meal and gathered our things and headed for the ferry. By this time it was after 11pm and the walkways were clear and peaceful.

Waiting at the dock for the next ferry… we were all alone! LOVE IT!

There really was not a sound – can you believe it? Disney World at night… with nothing but the putter of the ferry boats and the sound of the water hitting the shore. Lovely and romantic.

We had a quiet ride back to Magic Kingdom where we caught a bus back to the resort. Then the LONG walk to our room where we took showers and CRASHED! What a day… we couldn’t wait to start it all over again in the morning!

johndoh · Feb 3, 2012

Sounded like a perfect way to end your day (except for the long walk back to your room). And that was only day 1. Can't wait to hear the rest of your trip!

Kristia · Feb 3, 2012

Just started reading, but I had to say (before I forgot) I love the way the lady is looking at you in your Adventureland photo! Great start to your report! I also use others trip reports as a way to keep sane in between vacations!

Trouble · Feb 3, 2012

Fantastic Trip Report so far! Can't wait for more!

fractal · Feb 3, 2012

Great start to the TR! It is awesome to see how excited you were with the trip - main street USA can certainly be an emotional site!

I'm glad my TR helped get you thru the waiting - now you are "paying it forward" as this and other reports are helping me get to my next trip.

I love the pic of you in front of Adventureland making the "hook" - did you notice that lady looking at you?

Nothing better than doing the "jig" in MK - Awesome stuff!

catnrob · Feb 3, 2012

johndoh said:
Sounded like a perfect way to end your day (except for the long walk back to your room). And that was only day 1. Can't wait to hear the rest of your trip!

It was the perfect way to end a perfect day! Thank you for reading!!!!

Kristia said:
Just started reading, but I had to say (before I forgot) I love the way the lady is looking at you in your Adventureland photo! Great start to your report! I also use others trip reports as a way to keep sane in between vacations!

Oh, I know... that lady behind me is a hoot! That is my favorite picture, not because of me but because of that lady. Thank you so much for reading... it's nice to have others enjoy an experience that was so meaningful!

Trouble said:
Fantastic Trip Report so far! Can't wait for more!

Thank you! I'm having fun writing it, I just wish I had taken better notes while we were there. Oh well, live and learn!

fractal said:
Great start to the TR! It is awesome to see how excited you were with the trip - main street USA can certainly be an emotional site!

I'm glad my TR helped get you thru the waiting - now you are "paying it forward" as this and other reports are helping me get to my next trip.

I love the pic of you in front of Adventureland making the "hook" - did you notice that lady looking at you?

Nothing better than doing the "jig" in MK - Awesome stuff!

This may sound a little corny, but when I read your response I texted my hubby and said, "Fractal commented on my trip report!". Ha!!! I loved your trip report - you take wonderful photos and you make reading about a trip a lot of fun! I still laugh at how your kids pull jokes on you. haa

Ok, so the lady in the background of the "hook pic" is a riot! It's not even the face that she is making, it's the fact that I'm like a giant next to her. haa So funny!!!!
Thank you for reading, I hope I make the days between your vacations go a bit quicker!

disneyjes · Feb 3, 2012

Oh this was so lovely to read! Thank you for sharing! <3

catnrob · Feb 4, 2012

Day 2

Monday morning brought warm temps, cloud cover, rested minds and stiff legs, hips, feet and backs! That is when we began taking our daily Advil… haa haa . Advil would become our new best friend this trip. It’s not that we just sit around all day and do nothing but we are not used to the amount of walking that we were doing. After all, even though we arrived at noontime on Sunday we still managed to see 13 attractions (in like 6hrs), go to Epcot, eat lunch and dine at Narcoossees. So, I think for the amount of time we had – we did really well. But, for that accomplishment our bodies made us pay a little. That said, we were up and at em!

We brought granola bars and pouches of breakfast-to-go trail mix for breakfast and also instant Starbucks coffee (their Via’ line), disposable coffee cups (just like you get at the coffee shop) and an electrical tea pot. This worked GREAT! We would plug in the teapot, get ready, make our coffee, grab our breakfast and we would enjoy it while we waited for the bus! It was great! So, no Mickey waffles but we were focused on seeing the place so, we put the waffles on the back burner till our next visit! (and at some point there WILL be a next time)

We made it to Epcot for park opening – we didn’t see the “exciting” rope drop but we still made it there for opening. Of course the first thing we HAD to do is get our FP’s for Soarin. So, Rob DASHED off to get those while I stood near SE and took some pictures and checked the place out. Within moments my sweaty husband appeared with Soarin FP’s arreared!

Touring Plans had the park predicted at a 1.5 crowd level …I would have to say they were probably about right. There wasn’t a lot of people there (I mean there was, but I can imagine that place being nuts), so we were really lucky. That meant that SE was a walkon.

We walked up, climbed aboard and we were off……

I love this attraction! The first time I went on it 21yrs ago, I remember when the buggy turned and we first saw the stars and Earth I got choked up. It was really something! Even though I didn’t cry this time (surprise surprise), it brought back that memory of my mom and I both misty and overwhelmed by the beauty. After SE we spent some time at Innervision!

catnrob · Feb 4, 2012

From there we headed over to Test Track!

It was just a 10min wait time (Yay 1.5 Crowd Levels) so we walked through the que, snapping pictures away…

Go Michigan!

It was finally our turn – so, we hopped on in – front seat and everything! Score!

Test Track was great! It wasn’t as amazing as I had in my head it was going to be, but still it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, this would be the only time I rode it. Later on in the week it was closed down for problems. 

At this point our Soarin Fast Passes were ready so we walked across Futureworld and headed over to the Land Pavilion!

The obligatory Land Sign Picture…

Sunshine Seasons wasn’t very busy at this point and even though we were a little hungry…

…….Soarin was calling our names!

So, off we went – down the steps, through Sunshine Seasons, and down the long hall of Soarin!

To say that Soarin was great is an understatement. Now, I’m not sure about you – but when I go to the doctors and they take my BP I am always nervous and so it normally raises my BP. For the past few years I have worked hard on staying relaxed and “going to my happy place”. Up until our trip my happy place was at the beach of a beach house we spend a week at every year on Lake Michigan. However – since Soarin, my happy place is the ORANGE GROVE! Again, I cried (I know – I’m nuts) through Soarin. Not like bawling but I was misty! It was just so wonderful! What a great happy place I have!!!!

Stay tuned… coming up: The Nice Pound Lemon, Mission Space Orange, Wine & Food Festival and Rob crashes!

fractal · Feb 4, 2012

Sounds like a great first day!

1.5 day at Epcot? That is amazing - 10 min. wait for TT and did you use Fastpasses for Soaring or standby?

It seems like you had the park to yourself!

DisneyBergh · Feb 4, 2012

fractal said:
Sounds like a great first day!

1.5 day at Epcot? That is amazing - 10 min. wait for TT and did you use Fastpasses for Soaring or standby?

It seems like you had the park to yourself!

We used the fastpasses I had grabbed earlier in the morning. We had to wait about 10 or 15 minutes in the FP line, but standby was 70 minutes (I've heard that may be a short wait, but we got nowhere near that long of a wait)

DisneyBergh · Feb 4, 2012

Oh yeah,

I'm the Rob in 'catnrob' and the DH so lovingly referred to in this post!!

Cbum · Feb 4, 2012

What a wonderful trip report. You can feel the happiness from you two jumping out of my laptop into our hearts :sohappy:from every word you are writing. Can't wait for the rest.

catnrob · Feb 4, 2012

cont…..

Well, we left off at me being a crazy misty mess after Soarin. While we were walking out I couldn’t stop saying, “that was amazing” oh and sniffling. We didn’t leave though, without grabbing another FP for Soarin to use later – we knew the orange groves would be calling our names!

The plan was to walk back over to Mission Space before the lines got too long but as we were walking by “The Land” we decided to take advantage of the short wait. The standby was 15min so we hopped in line.

Again, when I was with my parents back in the late 80’s I remember thinking The Land was so boring! In fact, I remember sleeping through it. I wasn’t sure about “wasting time” riding it, but I’m so glad we did. I thought it was very interesting and I found all the different techniques of growing plants to be very interesting.

catnrob · Feb 4, 2012

We left The Land and headed off for space at Mission Space – Orange. Ok, so all of the warnings regarding the Orange attraction had me shaking! I don’t get sick on rides and I love anything that spins. But with all the warnings it was like I was about to embark on the most dangerous endeavor ever! We waited about 10min on standby… in no time flat we were in our teams and waiting our assignments.

I thought this Gravity Wheel was so cool… almost hypnotic. I tried getting a good picture of it – but I’m just learning my DSL. So, a stationary sign will have to do.

Just looking at this line gets me all excited – I can’t wait to go back!!!

Mission Space was a blast (no pun intended). If I could have I would have gone and stood in line all over again. Rob, on the other hand loved it but was in no hurry to do it for a while. I guess that would have to wait for another day!

The sun was starting to get very warm and our tummies were rumbling, so it was time to head off to World Showcase to take in the yummy booths at Wine and Food Festival!

No sooner did we turn the corner from FutureWorld and we saw the Australia kiosk. We had looked over the different kiosks and also listened to some podcasts about the Food and Wine booths and we had planned out what we were going to get for the most part. Australia was one of those booths. Side note: one of the cool things about having the Dining plan (oh, did I forget to mention that we had the Dining Plan?) was that you can use your snack credits for an item at the Food booths. This was a great use of our snack credits. The plan this day was to eat around the world at the kiosks using our snack credits. So, we both made the move to enjoy the Grilled Lamb Chop with Roasted Potato Salad and Red Wine Reduction.

It was perfect, well almost. The only thing that would have made it better is that if there was more of it. It was good though…I’m drooling just thinking about it.

After enjoying our Lamb Chop we began to make a bee line for Mexico. World Showcase was beginning to fill up with people at this point.

catnrob · Feb 4, 2012

We headed south of the border to Mexico!!! The Grand Fiesta Tour was basically a walk on so hopped on and off we went in search of Senor Donald. I loved the music! The music along with the bright colors would not only capture a 3yrs old attention but also a tired 38yr old.

As we were leaving the Mexico pavilion, we spotted a SHORT line to see Senor Donald. DS really likes Donald, so we figured that he would love to see a picture of us with one of his faves. This was our first time getting our picture taken with a character. Frankly, it’s a little awkward. I mean, if you have a child I can see it would be fine – but as an adult I felt kinda silly. But, eh – we’re at Disney World… who cares right?!

As we were leaving, the aroma of cinnamon hit me! CHURROS!!!! I had heard people talking about them on these boards hundreds of times and I was dying to try one. Being from up north, we don’t have anywhere near us who make them. I do, however, remember a restaurant here in town that used to make them. They were amazing! So, to load up on carbs I decided to try one. It was really good! So good I ate it before getting a picture of it! Sorry. However, I have to admit it wasn’t as good as the ones that we had here in town.

As we continued on we came upon a country we are semi familiar with. Well, not really – but we are more familiar with the Scandinavian countries than anything. Where we live is highly populated by Finnish people. So, we have finnish tv programs on our local tv, our landscape is similar to the Scandinavian countries and it’s COLD where we are from!!! That said, Norway’s pavilion is really nice. The green grass and quaint buildings reminded us of home a little.

We took in Maelstrom (boat and movie) which was very interesting. We didn’t have to wait long at all, just 10min. Oh gosh... I LOVE these crowd levels!!!!!

More to come… more countries, a ferry boat ride full of pixie dust, more orange grove and a nap……

A Toddler at the Grandparents + Two Parents = An Amazing Disney Vacation

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