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

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]

That was everyone but we weren’t done eating yet plus I needed more coffee! We were fortunate enough to have all the characters stop by our table a second time! Minnie was able to sign our book this time too.

Joseph drew a picture of Goofy and showed him…Goofy clapped and patted him on the back.

Then Joseph showed Daisy a picture he drew of her and Donald with a heart between the two of them.

He was rewarded with more kisses!

We were finally done eating and headed out. Oh, our server was amazing! She was willing to go above and beyond our needs. For example, as she was helping the table next to us, she overheard me tell Sadie that they were out of strawberries at the buffet and the CM would have more in a minute because she had to go in the back and get more. Our waitress came over and said don’t you worry about getting back up, I’ll bring you a bowl of strawberries when she gets them out. WOW! so awesome!

 

[Cetta]

While I went to get the stroller all two feet away, the kids sat down and enjoyed a Mickey cartoon.

It was around 11:25 when we left Cape May Café and we were in no hurry to get back to our hotel, so we headed out the back to get on a boat to DHS. Joseph had to pretend to be Spider-Man for a minute.

We took a nice relaxing ride to DHS and then waited maybe 10 minutes for the bus to pick us up to take us back to All Star Music. Our Tragical Express was scheduled to pick us up at 4:05, so we had a couple hours to enjoy the pool. Before we changed into our suits, we hit up the giftshop to get something for my future niece and I let the kids pick out whatever candy they wanted. Well not exactly whatever candy they wanted, because I should have seen all the signs that this was a bad idea. Joseph picked out Goofy sour gummy worms and (sign #1) Sadie wanted M&M’s but I was like “no, you can have M&M’s anywhere in the world, get something special you can only have at Disney!” well she finally decided on Sugar-Free Mickey shaped gummies. We got the candy, headed to change into our suits and swam for a bit. The kids were loving it!

My brother’s best friend’s little sister, Alexis, goes to school in Orlando and when she heard we were in town, she wanted to come visit us. I told her today would be the best day for it and to meet us at the pool. After swimming for a little bit, my mom went to go get us adults some drinks and the kids wanted to eat their candy. (sign #2) Sadie’s candy bag wouldn’t open, we all tried but it just wouldn’t, so my mom took that to the bar with her to get it cut open. Alexis had just gotten to the pool with her roommate Jenn so we all started to catch up, while we had drinks and the kids ate their candy. Before we were done with our drinks or Joseph even ate half of his candy, Sadie says “look there are only two left and they are both red” um what?!?!?!?! She ate almost that whole bag…oh no! we joked about it and didn’t think much of it and continued to catch up. Alexis didn’t tell my brother that she was meeting up with us so she took some selfies with the kids to send to him.

I took a picture of them all together.

They sat on the edge of the pool while we played in the pool some more. Around 3:30, we said goodbye and changed back into our clothes. (Sign #3) when I went to throw away our drink cups and candy wrappers, I realized that Sadie’s sugar free gummies bag had a warning on it. I can’t remember what it said exactly and of course I can’t find it on google but it was something like may cause stomach discomfort. UGH! Should have known what was to come.

We got the bags and then headed to the Tragical Express pick up spot. We still had about 15 minutes so I asked the kids and my mom if they wanted anything because I wanted one last treat. I decided on:

Which is impossible to eat…like completely impossible!

Joseph enjoyed writing and drawing in his journal some more.

 

[Cetta]

Warning…the ending of this trip report includes multiple episode of vomit…no pictures but if you don’t want to hear about it, this is probably the end of the trip report for you. Thanks for reading!

Our bus came at 4:02 and we loaded up. The kids got on first and I told them to go to the back and find a spot where all four of us could sit, Joseph just went directly to the back of the bus. I sat with Joseph in the very last row and Sadie and Gramma sat right in front of us. About halfway to MCO, Sadie threw up all over my mom and herself. I checked the bathroom and they had nothing, so I tried to clean them up with the baby wipes I had and the one little sandwich Ziplock bag I had in my purse. The look on the DME driver when we told him she had thrown up. I cleaned it up the best I could, but he totally had to get it cleaned afterwards. Sadie was for sure sick…she sat in the stroller the whole way through the airport holding a Meijer bag my mom had in her suitcase in case she had to throw up again. We got to MCO around 5 and our flight was for 7:10. I took Joseph to the bathroom while my mom sat with Sadie and then Joseph wanted some pictures while we walked through the airport.

Joseph also gave me a tattoo while we were on the bus…it’s a heart that says Dad because that’s who I love.

It was now about 5:45 and we were in line to get through the TSA. The estimated wait was 22-24 minutes or something like that. Sadie wasn’t doing too well but she had her bag.

We got to this one spot where two lines become one and it was going every other person (you know, like it should be) and some business man tried to jump in front of us in line…I understand, why would he want to be behind a group with two small kids? So, I let him go ahead. Then we got split back into two lines right before we have the TSA guy check our tickets and ID. This is when Sadie really started to complain that she wasn’t feeling well, she kept saying she had to throw up, but we were too close to the end now. The TSA guy was taking a group/person from every other line and we were next, and that businessman would now be helped after us. That businessman kept inching up while the TSA guy was helping his current group…I mean to the point where another TSA agent said something to the man. He was not happy…like maybe he was going to be late for his flight or something, but if that is the case, say something and we would happily let him go ahead of us. He was just being rude at this point and actually said something like “I’m next” to the TSA agent checking tickets and ID. That agent wasn’t having it and said no they are and pointed to us. So this is how this goes….I am holding Sadie on my left and holding the Meijer bag to her face while she is throwing up, while using my left hand to give the TSA agent my ID, gramma’s ID, and my phone that had the kid’s tickets already pulled up, he got those just fine. Then the agents says, the adult tickets aren’t loading…ugh! Why me???? Poor Sadie is still throwing up in this bag I am holding to her face. I asked if the screen shots I just happened to take this morning when I checked in for the flight would work, his reply was yes! Thank God! I had to scroll through all the pictures I took from our breakfast at Cape May Café to find the screen shots of mine and gramma’s tickets. The businessman that was behind us now I could see him turning red with anger…oh well dude! We got through the ticket check and now it was time to check all the bags, I threw away the puke bag and hoped that she wouldn’t throw up again until we got somewhere to find another bag. All I remember from this point is Sadie telling me she needs to poop and me telling her we can’t right now because we have to get through this before we can go anywhere else. We finally get through bag and person examination and I ask a TSA agent where the closest bathroom is and she tells me “when you get off the tram” oh no! I told Sadie if she poops her pants that it is ok and mommy has a change of clothes and everything will be fine and no one will be upset about it. Oh by the way she is still in the clothing she threw up all over on the bus and so is Gramma. Sadie was a trooper and held her poop until we got off the tram and I ran her to the bathroom. We also changed but of course the extra outfit I had for her was a summer outfit and we were flying home to snow. She seemed all smiles afterwards but kind of pale.

My mom was able to change her outfit before boarding the plane. Since I felt like we were running late, I didn’t go and get our seats changed to all be seated together at the Frontier counter like I did before our flight to MCO. Joseph (20D) and Sadie (20E) were ticketed next to each other and I (20C) was seated on the other side of the aisle and Gramma (19C) in the seat in front of me. I switched with Joseph, so that I could take care of Sadie, but he was still next to me, just across the aisle. At first, Joseph was a little weary about sitting with strangers but the girls that sat next to him were young and nice. Sadie ended up throwing up in another bag we had found while we were still boarding, I asked the flight attendant if they had another bag I could use and they gave me two. Sadie fell asleep before takeoff. She did end up waking up during the flight and throwing up one more time. Joseph watched Peter Pan on the iPad the whole flight and barely made a peep. I mean the turbulence was pretty bad at one point and I thought I was going to throw up from it but he didn’t even blink and Sadie slept through it. Since Sadie was in her summer outfit, I covered her with Joseph’s jacket and my shorts while she slept on the plane. We landed to see a bunch of snow out the window. The kids both ran to their dad when they saw him at the airport. We hadn’t eaten since our breakfast, so we were kind of hungry, so we had chic-fil-a at the airport. The two girls who sat next to Joseph on the flight decided to do the same thing and they said to me that they were really impressed with how well-behaved Joseph was on the flight. I really appreciated that because my kids aren’t angels all the time lol. We got home safely around midnight and instead of going to school and work the next day we all called out sick and spent the day watching Disney movies!

Thanks for reading my trip report…hope you had fun because we sure did!

 

[KellBelle]

Sounds like a fun time, other than poor Sadie getting sick! Happy she was a trooper and hopefully it was short lived!

 

[Swissmiss]

So sorry to hear how the trip ended, but I’m glad you had fun all the same!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Sounds like you had a fun trip, bummer about Sadie feeling so sick on the plane.

 

[Darstarr]

Wowee!!!
That is some story....
Note to self, stay away from the sugar free gummies (unless using them as a weight loss tool)
Thanks for the TR! You and your Mom are awesome! And your kids are amazing!!!

 

[MickeyCB]

Such a fun trip report, ty for sharing!
Very sorry about the ending though!
Hope she ended up feeling better.