Trip Report Solo turned Mommy & Me turned 3 Generations Trip

We came home less than 48 hours ago, and I am not sure where I should begin to explain our short and sweet trip. I will warn you this will be a little wordy up front because a lot changed from the time I booked to the time we left for this trip. I will introduce the cast before we start

Gramma-almost 65
Cetta (me)-32
Joseph-5.5
Sadie-3.5
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When: February 10-12 (I know it's too short but you'll see why)
Where: All Star Music
Why?
Let’s start with what triggered this trip…I received twice as much as usual for my end of year bonus…woohoo! So I thought I would spend a little of it on myself (which I never do) and take a solo trip for two shorts nights…flights were cheap, there was room only deal going on, and I needed some time away from real life. I booked my solo trip in the beginning of January for February 10-12, way last minute considering all our other trips have been planned months, if not years in advance. Then two weeks after I booked, I told my mom about the trip, she was intrigued and wanted to join. I was a little hesitant to say yes because I was looking forward to doing what I wanted to do and not stopping but then I thought about the fact that this is my mom, when will I ever get another chance to go on vacation with just my mom and make amazing memories with just my mom? So I told her yes and booked her flight and added her to the room. Now a little bit about my mom….she is turning 65 on March 8th, so this was going to be a pre-birthday gift and the last time she was in Disney World was in the summer of 2001, about six months after my father died suddenly in a truck accident. She doesn’t really remember much of that trip because she was still trying to adjust to her new life and my aunt and uncle came with us and planned it all, we were just along for the ride. I am also extremely lucky that when my daughter was about 9 months old my mother decided to quit her job and watch my children full time. It’s so comforting to know my children are being cared for by someone who truly loves them with all her heart. My mom sends me random texts sometimes thanking me for giving her grandchildren. With my mom coming with me, I had to figure out who was going to watch my daughter, and get my son, off the bus while we were gone. So I asked my in-laws, who are both retired, if they could meet Joseph at the bus stop after school, hang out at our house until my husband got home, and have Sadie sleep over those two nights. My husband would take Joseph to school, they would just have to meet him at the bus stop…super easy right? Apparently not because their response was yes, but Joseph is only in kindergarten so he can miss school those days and just hang out at our house while you are gone. For some reason that was really bothering me.

Every Wednesday my brother’s family and mine meet at my mom’s for dinner, so it’s about a week and half before our trip and my mom is like we should take the kids with us…my brother is like no, this is for you guys don’t waste your time. But the fact that my kids were going to miss school to sit at my in-law’s house was driving me crazy and my kids have been begging for a vacation recently. My son is also really into Peter Pan right now and of course my daughter loves Frozen just like all the little girls out there. So I was kind of starting to feel guilty about it, if it was just me going it would be easy to just tell my kids it’s a work thing and I brought them home gifts from the local Disney store where I went, but with my mom with me now it would be even harder to explain and I was worried my son would end up hating me for it. So I stayed up late Thursday (10 days before our trip was to start) changing our room reservation to include the kids and getting flights for them to join us. This relaxing vacation was turning into a family trip…ugh, I was torn about the choices I was making but I knew the kids would love it.

When it was just my mom and I going we were going to do two days in the parks but when we added the kids I knew we needed a day for swimming so we switched it to a one day park hopper. I also had to change all our fastpasses to include four people…so we had Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion…I knew I needed Peter Pan and was checking constantly to change our HM to PPF. I wasn’t getting very lucky until the Thursday before our trip I just happened to check at 5:30am when I was packing everyone’s lunch for the day and there was availability for 10:40am on our day!!! I was finally starting to feel like things were falling into place.

We decided we would surprise the kids the morning we left (I can keep a secret for a week and a half but probably not much longer). It was hard packing and gathering things without the kids noticing, especially trying to figure out if last year’s summer clothing was going to fit still them. Not only that but a bad stomach bug was going around work and school, the week before we were to go my daughter got sick on Monday, then my son got sick on Friday at school and my daughter got sick again Friday night. Everyone seemed fine all weekend, but we decided we would just stay home and not leave all weekend because we were leaving Monday. Sunday night, I was starting to feel sick too, ugh! NOOOOO!!! I couldn’t sleep very well of course but managed to get about 6 hours in. We did our usual Monday morning routine so the kids weren’t questioning things but they started to ask me why I wasn’t making breakfast….um….I came up with the excuse it was a 2-hour delay so they would just have breakfast at Gramma’s house. When we got to Gramma’s house I gave Joseph a letter and told him he had to read it.
 

Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Well as you can see Joseph was pretty excited! My mom had cute Oreo’s set up on the table to look like Mickey heads…the kids got to them before I could take a picture, that will happen a few times this trip.
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Then she gave them Disney fruit snacks and Joseph was happy to find Goofy, his dad’s favorite so I had to take this picture to send to my husband.
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They were pretty shocked and Joseph kept telling me that I tricked him because on Saturday night he had asked me if we could go back to Disney World and I told him it takes a lot of money and I didn’t have enough. He offered to get his wallet, I had to explain to him that it takes a lot more than $13 to go to Disney.

The kids and I had cinnamon rolls and watched the live action Peter Pan movie while my mom got ready. It is my son’s current favorite, I know it’s not a Disney movie, but he is obsessed.
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It is also pretty obvious we are at Gramma's because my kids have had nothing but sweets, I guess that is the downside of my mom watching them, they are a little spoiled.
 

Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I must have gotten a little bit of dust in my eye while watching your son in the video ;).

Seriously, that was a very sweet reveal! :)
thanks, my husband got some dust in his eye too.
Following and how sweet was your sons reaction!
thanks for tagging a long...it was a short trip but a lot happens!
I was there too! Would have loved to have met the generous, loving woman who pulled off this trip! (BTW, that’s you!!!)
I would have loved to meet up! I've read your trip reports before and I knew you were going in February but didn't know it would be the same time as us. Maybe next time!
 

Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We didn’t need to leave for the airport until noon but we were all so impatient, we ended up leaving my mom’s house around 11:15. Mark aka Pop Pop took us, I sat between the kids in the backseat which was not helping my stomach ache. We got to the Indy airport around 12:20, the ticket counter wasn’t even open for our 3:30 flight yet. Apparently, Frontier keeps their cost down by only manning their ticket counters for the two hours prior to their flight’s departures. We didn’t have any checked bags, but we didn’t pay for our seats and when I did the mobile check-in my kids were seated no where near my mom and I. So we went to the bathroom, my mom went in the woman’s restroom and I took both my kids into the companion bathroom so it was easier to handle them all. Good thing because after they both went to the bathroom, I ended up throwing up. YAY ME! Poor Joseph kept asking me if I was ok but I couldn’t answer him because I just kept throwing up. I felt a lot better afterwards but wasn’t very hungry. We sat down and Joseph decided he wanted Chic-fil-a. we ordered and found a table while my mom waited for the food, I just got a coke hoping it would help my belly and the kids shared a mini nugget meal…sorry no pics of our food. The kids were still pretty excited that we were at the airport!
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Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
They ate their nuggies and talked about what we were looking forward to the most. We also watched the TSA’s “Stop, Screen, Go” video about a half a dozen times. My kids have always enjoyed watching that little video before our flights. We stopped at the ticket counter because it was finally 1:32 to get our seats moved to all be together. Super easy! We had to take a silly “Indy” photo before going through TSA.
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As you can see my mom’s sweatshirt says New Jersey…we are originally from Madison, NJ but moved to a suburb of Indianapolis in 2006 after I graduated high school. When people ask where we are from, my mom still says NJ…I say Indiana because I have created two little Hoosiers so I feel like this is my home now.

We had borrowed a nice umbrella stroller from my mom’s neighbor for the trip. They bought it last year for their first trip to Disney and I only have our double stroller and I knew I couldn’t handle that alone on the buses. Going through TSA was the first time I needed to fold it and for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out. I was pulling and pushing and kicking…nothing!!!! I was starting to panic because um…closing this stroller is going to be a multiple day occurrence on this trip. Finally some young guy standing in line came over and did something to get it to close. He said he pushed on some lever and it closed right up! Life saver!!!! Thank you random guy in the TSA line at the Indy airport for helping!

Now that we were through the hard stuff, we found a seat and sat down. I brought crayons and printed mini Disney coloring pages for the kids and that is what they did while we waited for our flight.
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Since we had a stroller, they let us board after group 1 which was nice.
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The flight was pretty uneventful which is always nice. Sadie fell asleep about half way through the flight.
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Joseph caught up on some school work….his teacher gave him some books to write about his trip and some baggie books to read.
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The only thing I will say about this flight is I am absolutely amazed at the number of people who have to use the bathroom during a flight. There was almost a constant line of people waiting to use the rear bathrooms we were seated by. Do people not go to the bathroom before a flight? I mean, we do! Or is it because people drink so much Starbucks/coffee before flights that they can’t hold it two hours before we land? I think I have only used an airplane bathroom once…and that was on an international flight.
 

Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Mandatory Fonorail photo!
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On our way to Magical Express!
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We got to Magical Express and Joseph was ready to scan his band! The sign said 20-30 minute wait but as soon as we got in line, the front of our line started to load! Yay! Good timing!!! We were one of the last groups on and there was almost no seats for the four of us. We sat down in two seats and put the kids on our laps but some family got off the bus for some reason and we were able to all have our own seats. Not sure why they got off but I am grateful!
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On the bus ride I received two texts saying our room wasn’t ready which I was kind of surprised about since we were arriving so late in the day. I think it was about 6:30 when we arrived All Star Music and I immediately got in the check-in line because I needed to pick up our new set Magic Bands since we added the kids so late their new magic bands were not sent to us. They had the ones from last year so no biggie. I mentioned to the Cast Member that our room wasn’t ready yet and he told me it was. He gave me room number 9426 on the first floor of building 9.
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My immediate reaction was “is that a refurbed room?” and he said yes! Woohoo!! I was so excited!! I booked a standard room and requested Broadway and top floor. We were in for a very pleasant surprise when we got to our room….
 

Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
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That’s right…we were upgraded to the family suite! I was in awe!! Even the kids were pumped! Having three beds and two bathrooms was awesome! I think I used the fridge once and we used the coffee maker once too. If we were staying longer the little kitchenette would have been used more often. I can’t believe I didn’t take any pictures of the living room area….it had a table with four chairs and a couch. We put some stuff away, I switched my bags around so I had everything. I pulled the couch side down into a bed so we could put the kids right to sleep when we got back. We decided to head to Disney Springs around 7:30pm. We had Shirley status from All Star Music to All Star Movies….short lived but it was better than never lol
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Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My mom loves cheeseburgers so we decided on D-Luxe Burger….the line was long so I mobile ordered while in line. I got two kids cheeseburger meals because I still wasn’t feeling 100% plus my mom was set on having ice cream afterwards so I knew we wouldn’t be eating a lot. The two kids meals were perfect. Joseph loved the burger, I ate mostly just fries, and Sadie cried because she wanted Sprite. My kids are allowed to have CocaCola only at Disney World so I had gotten two cokes thinking they would be happy. Well I was wrong.
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It was at this point (a mere 2 hours after landing) that my mom looked at me and said “I completely understand why you wanted to come solo now.” You would think she would know why, I mean she is with my kids just as much as I am. Our food came out and Sadie seemed to be happy with the Danimal smoothie things.
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Joseph knew that the Lego store is nearby and was just dying to spend the $13 in his wallet. We told him we had to have ice cream first. We stood in line at Ghirardelli so they could get ice cream. I knew there was Dole Whip nearby so I waited until they made their order and we found a table before I walked over there. YAY! Dole Whip! No matter how upset my belly was, I was going to have Dole Whip!My mom had some kind of sundae, Joseph had the raspberry sorbet with chocolate fudge, and Sadie had what she always has, vanilla with sprinkles and only eats the sprinkles off the stop. Sorry for the blurry photo.
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After our ice cream we walked to the Lego store so Joseph could pick something out. We walked all around and he ended up decided on two blind bags, one DC superhero and one regular Lego, he wanted Superman and a knight. He told the employee there that he wanted those characters, he told me that if he opens them up and he doesn’t get them, I can bring them back with the receipt and they can exchange them for the ones he wants from the back. I was impressed! We walked out and sat down on the planter wall and opened up his two blind bags…guess what? He got the two characters he wanted!

Photography by Joseph:
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We headed to the bus stop and back to All Star Music for bed. I think we got back around 10. I have no photos of this but our little princess had a hissy fit. She wanted to open the room door but the door was too heavy so her brother tried to help. She didn’t want the help or at least didn’t want the help from him. She started to hit and scream at him, he backed away and my mom scooped her up and took her inside. She was screaming and yelling at just throwing a major fit, I am not sure if I have ever heard her like that before. My mom took her into the bathroom and put some water on her face to calm her down. Pretty sure we were out too late. She fell right to sleep.

Tomorrow is our only park day so it is all or nothing, let’s hope we are all feeling well and happy.
 

Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
February 11

I woke up around 6:30 and hopped in the shower. When I got out Joseph was just waking up and it took him a second or two to remember where we were and what we were going to do today. I told him to get ready while I was getting ready so we could go grab breakfast. My mom was about to get in the shower and Sadie was awake by the time we were getting ready to leave to get breakfast. I told Sadie to put her shoes on and she could come with us. Sadie was very concerned that she was going to get tired because I wasn’t bringing the stroller with us to grab breakfast. I grabbed a breakfast platter, Minnie cupcake, a water, and Joseph picked out a strawberry milk. I kept asking Sadie if she wanted anything, but I realized there were too many people in that small section where the drinks were, and she was getting overwhelmed. I told her she could just share with Joseph. It still amazes me how different my children are, Joseph can make a friend within 2 minutes of getting to a playground, tell you his whole life story, and always have a good time. Sadie doesn’t usually do well in new surroundings, she won’t usually talk to new people, and if we go to the playground, she usually sits with me and says there are too many people there even if there are only two other people. Sometimes she does get enough courage to play a little but usually only if Joseph is right by her side.

On our way back to the room the kids ate the sausage off the plate and then we stopped for some pictures in front of the fountain.
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We were back in our room by 7:45, I wanted to be at the bus stop by 8, so I knew we wouldn’t be exactly on time. My mom was just finishing up getting ready. Good thing we were in the suite because I didn’t grab forks or extra plates. The suite was full stocked with all that! Sadie ate the Mickey waffle, Joseph ate some of the eggs and bacon, and I ate the potatoes. Then we cut into this beauty…
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By the time the kids were done eating, my mom was ready. We got to the bus stop around 8:20…not bad! The bus didn’t take too long and we were at MK before park open but only by one minute. We stopped in City Hall to ask about my mom’s hip replacement surgery and what they might be able to do to help her if she is in pain. They said that every attraction has a wheelchair that we could use for the duration of the line. WOW! So awesome and that will come in handy later! By 9:10 we were in front of Cinderella’s Castle!
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We parked our stroller by the carousel. Our first ride was Winnie the Pooh…my kids have never really gotten into Pooh Bear and I am ok with that. Tigger was my brother’s favorite growing up so I knew my mom would enjoy it. Obviously, Joseph couldn’t stand still because all the pictures were blurry.
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We decided that instead of the kids fighting over who will sit with who each ride we will switch every other. We were on the ride by 9:23am and Joseph rode with me this ride.
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Cetta

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Then we headed to Dumbo! We missed this last year, so it was my kiddo’s first time on this classic. It had been almost two hours since breakfast, so my kids were hungry, nothing like Pringles and Goldfish at 9:30am lol.
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The wait was listed at 20 minutes and it was pretty accurate, and we were on the ride by 9:55am.
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Joseph was with Gramma because she needed him to protect her way up high.
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Afterwards we stopped at the bathrooms near the train station and then let the kids play in the splash area for a little. I warned them not to get too wet because I wasn’t going to change their clothes so early in the day. Of course, they got soaked!
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