Trip Report Always two there are. No more. No less.

Remember how in the final push for my previous TR when I had to make a bullet point list of the wild events in my last year?

Here comes a list of the things that happened in between writing the end of the last TR and the start of this one.

“How much could have possibly happened in a day and a half BES?!?” you are surely asking yourself.

Well…

• There’s an area rug sized hole in our family room ceiling.
• We have to replace a furnace
• DH decided not to go on the trip (due to above)

There might have been more stuff tbh but I’m too tired to fully process all of this now. More detailed explanations coming later.

So now it’s just me and lil BES on the trip.

I still don’t have full use of my left hand due to my fracture in November. I’ve only gotten a few hours of sleep. And lil BES has thrown some epic tantrums lately.

If I wasn’t sticking with Star Wars themed titles the runner up was:

Special lady time the vacation edition has already commenced.

May the Force be with us all.

Spoiler: Track 1:

 

[cgersic]

Count me in as a Brave fan! I'm the youngest of 4 girls that were raised by our Mom, who taught us everything we needed to know to become independent young princesses

 

[erstwo]

Friday January 24th (Day 1) continued:

The person flying in DH’s seat was a lady traveling to FL for some event without her kids. You could tell she was a little nervous about flying and about being away from her kids.

Lil BES living her best plane life:

View attachment 877885

View attachment 877886

Flight was uneventful. Our time in MCO? Well… nothing out of the ordinary but we were running on “lil BES time”.

It took 2.5 hours to get from landing to getting on our bus to the hotel.

We had airport pizza for lunch:

View attachment 877887

Our next goal was to pick up the stroller. At some point on our way there I got talked into expensive airport M&Ms.

At some point this happened:

View attachment 877888

(I know! So gross! But wait…)

And then this:

View attachment 877889

She didn’t fall. She was cycling between crawling and walking on her knees.

Finally made it to the stroller.

Now that lil BES was contained I could pick up the pace. Well kinda.

Had to go to other MCO side to get luggage. Found our carousel was empty. Our bags were moved to another holding area.

Got our bags and now I had two suitcases and lil BES’s tiny roller bag and a stroller to get to the Mears area. (Reminder one of my wrists wasn’t back to full strength either)

Got on a bus relatively quickly. Not a lot
of people on it but Lil BES wanted to sit right behind an annoying family.

The husband and wife both constantly kept calling each other “babes”

“Ok babes!” “ Hey babes.”

Their kid looked 2ish. Super cute. Acting pretty well for their age but parents already seemed annoyed that he didn’t want to sit still. I got to listen to the lady give the entire trip itinerary to the guy.

A lot of time doing table service restaurants with a toddler. Oh boy. Best of luck.

Brave was playing on the bus. Lil BES hasn’t watched it entirely but I sure hope she does eventually. A movie about an independent little redhead and her mom? All the feels.

Spoiler: Track #8:

Heard this one in the car today. Also all the feels.

Was the couple English?

My daughter’s friend from south London area calls everyone (EVERYONE!) ‘Babes’.
Cracks me up.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Was the couple English?

My daughter’s friend from south London area calls everyone (EVERYONE!) ‘Babes’.
Cracks me up.

Nope. Ohio.

I think it would be physically impossible for me to be annoyed by a British accent.

 

[Tuvalu]

I think it would be physically impossible for me to be annoyed by a British accent.

Woody and I were just saying the same thing, as WDW is currently overrun with Brits. (And their polar opposite - Jerseyans!* )


*No flaming arrows please, as I have beloved family and friends from Jersey (and have lived there myself.)

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Woody and I were just saying the same thing, as WDW is currently overrun with Brits. (And their polar opposite - Jerseyans!* )


*No flaming arrows please, as I have beloved family and friends from Jersey (and have lived there myself.)

I’ll back you up @Tuvalu (even though I am in no position to judge with my Michigan vowels and “yeah no” and “no yeahs”)

 

[Tiggerish]

“yeah no” and “no yeahs”

Not for nothing (that's a Bronx-ism), we say those here too!

 

[littleroo]

Woody and I were just saying the same thing, as WDW is currently overrun with Brits. (And their polar opposite - Jerseyans!* )


*No flaming arrows please, as I have beloved family and friends from Jersey (and have lived there myself.)

We noticed the same thing when we were there. Everyone was from Jersey or UK.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Friday January 24th (Day 1) continued:

Got this text on the Mears bus:

I was happy with the location as lil BES wanted “ a mermaid room”

I *think* the bus dropped off POP/AoA/Riveria then CBR.

We unloaded and walked thru the lobby and started the trek to our room.

I knew when we booked that the desired mermaid rooms were a distance from Old Port Royale. I didn’t know then my current predicament of being the solo adult on this trip.

Lil BES loves to help. She insisted she could push the stroller and I could do the bags. You all know how that went.

We took a break at the first beach along the path.

She made a sand angel:

We drew in the sand with a stick:

We added the aforementioned stick and a palm leaf to our collection of items.

Eventually we will ended up at our building and I made a horrible discovery. (Well horrible at this point in a really long day)

The CRB buildings don’t have elevators.

Normally not a problem. But this trip wasn’t normal.

Took multiple trips and a lot of negotiations with lil BES on where she needed to stand but I got everything upstairs.

We both liked the room a lot. Lil BES was so excited about the tiny Murphy bed.

I really like being able to keep one of the queen beds up for more space.

Our room was so close to the Spyglass Grill but we ended up at Centertown Market for dinner.

Maddox helped us order and was genuinely friendly and fun to talk to.

Here we encountered our next conundrum of a solo parent trip. Do I leave lil BES at a table and pick up the food/silverware/more napkins etc or make her go with me?

It was pretty empty so I let her stay put. It depended on the situation but I ended up doing that a lot during the trip.

Lil BES is an expensive friend to have (especially at WDW) and talks non-stop. If anyone took her I figured they would bring her back real quick.

Here was our dinner:

Spoiler: Track #9:

 

[Tiggerish]

Lil BES is a hoot. Probably an entire hootenanny, even.

Lil BES is an expensive friend to have (especially at WDW) and talks non-stop.

For the same reasons, I have no worries that anyone is going to try to steal my husband.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Lil BES is a hoot. Probably an entire hootenanny, even.

She really is. Yesterday we took her to McDonald’s (which she insists is called Old McDonald’s.)

After lunch she started to climb onto a nearby table. I stopped her and asked what she was doing.

“Getting on the table to dance!”

For the same reasons, I have no worries that anyone is going to try to steal my husband.

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Friday January 24th (Day 1) continued:

We explored the quick market where shockingly Lil BES declined a cupcake on our way back to the room.

She did allow a peek in the gift shop. An older lady made a big deal about her red hair and even touched it.

I mention her age only to say I guess she gets a grandma pass on the touching?

I know people are coming from a good place on this but it just seems weird.

On our way back to the room lil BES witness another child’s epic meltdown. Her reaction was:

Finally back to the room for bath and bedtime. The tub didn’t hold water well but well enough to get the job done.

We unpacked at lil BES’s insistence. Left up to me I would leave everything in the suitcases.

After all of the excitement about the tiny Murphy bed lil BES ended up in bed with me.

We were both zonked out by 9. It was a long, long day but a good one.

Spoiler: Track #10:

One of lil BES’s hot jams this summer

 

[Tuvalu]

As a grandma I would never touch a stranger’s child like that.