Trip Report The Many Adventures of the Figaro Family in Florida

We are back! It's going to take me a little bit of time to organize the photos and my thoughts but I thought I'd at least get this trip report started. For anyone who wants to get to know us, you can read my pre-trip report "Everybody's Got a Laughing Place (and I can't wait to get to mine!)"
Quick re-rundown of the family: Me (Jo), my husband James, daughter Maddie (13), son Xander (10).
This was the longest vacation our family of four has ever taken together. Ten nights total in three different hotel rooms. It was a lot of togetherness but I think we all handled it pretty well, aside from various late night awakenings from loud snoring(James and Xander) and my daughter Maddie's sleep talking. I'm sure she does this at home too, but we don't hear her in her room. Every night on every vacation we've been on she'll sit up suddenly and start angrily lecturing about something while wildly gesturing. She never remembers it the next day and I'm left curious what she was dreaming about. No one complained about anything I did, so I assume I slept like an angel that does not snore or talk in her sleep.
I'll begin with the very end of the trip while it is still fresh in my mind then go back to the beginning when I get the photos organized.
The trip ended last night with a bit of good news then bad news. Good news was our flight got us home to Portland a full hour early!!!! It was a combo of being able to take off 15 minutes ahead of schedule and winds of some kind that shaved of the other 45 minutes. We were supposed to get home at 7:30pm pacific time but got in closer to 6:30. We were really excited because that meant we had a chance at picking up our three pets from boarding before the place closed at 9pm. We had thought we'd have to wait until this morning.
The first inkling of bad news came when we got our car from the long term lot and tried to pay the parking fee. James swiped his credit card but it got rejected. He tried again, rejected again. We try mine (same account), it gets rejected. "That's not good..." we say to each other. He pays with the bank card and we race home so we can drop of the luggage and James and Maddie can go to pick up the pets. I say "don't you think we should call the credit card company?" he says "I don't wan't to waste time with that, let's just get the pets home". They get to the boarding place and James tries to pay, the credit card gets rejected again. So there he is in the pet hotel calling the credit card company to find out what's going on. Apparently multiple fraudulent charges started showing up on our account while we were in the air and our cards got shut down. We use Disney Chase Visa and I do have to applaud them for catching this so quickly. James was able to get them to let our charge for the pet boarding go through before they fully shut down the account and we were able to identify all the charges that we did not make and don't have to worry about them. It didn't make for a nice relaxing homecoming at all! I have a bad feeling that it happened at the airport just before we boarded the plane. I went to one of those airport stands that sell snacks and picked up a few things for us to eat on the plane. I swiped the card instead of using the chip without thinking and even had a moment of unease about it at the time. I think it was an ideal place for someone to install one of those card skimmers.
This was truly the most drama filled moment of the entire trip. thought there were a few smaller ones that felt big at the time! I'll start at the beginning on my next post.
...stay tuned for part one: An extremely early morning drive to the airport.

 

[Figaro Family]

Following along-our oldest DS (6) is on the spectrum and our youngest DS (3) is now going through the evaluation/diagnosis stage. So much of what you describe we also face. We were set to check in at the Fort the day Irma so kindly made her appearance, so now we are checking in for the last week of October. Glad things were better once he realized he was in the Disney bubble.

I'm so glad you were able to reschedule your vacation! I'm sure it was stressful to have to change plans because of Irma. Good luck with everything diagnosis and evaluation wise, I know all those appointments and paperwork can be overwhelming! I haven't talked about it so far in my trip reports but I technically have two kids on the spectrum myself. Xander is what I call "obviously autistic" you can't be around him for more than 5 seconds and not know that something is different. It wasn't until he was getting diagnosed at 2-3 years old that we started to realize that all those quirky behaviors, anxiety, and social difficulties his big sister had been displaying had an explanation. Maddie is on the other end of the spectrum, highly verbal quirky TAG student in the mainstream classroom. She has had so much success over the years with her speech therapy for social skills that we just took her off her IEP this year! She felt she was ready to navigate school on her own and is doing really well.

 

[Figaro Family]

Wednesday August 23 continued. Disney World at last! (nothing but happiness and fun for the rest of this day!)

We met back up in the lobby, all taking deep calming breaths as it finally sunk in that the best part of the vacation had just started. I'd debated for a long time when originally planning whether to go to Universal at the beginning, middle, or end of the trip. I knew the moment I started taking in the special Disney atmosphere, smell, and music in the background that I'd made exactly the right decision. The Universal part of the vacation was so much fun, we'd had a great time and made a lot of good memories. None of that can compare to how instantly happy I was to be at Disney and to get to stay on property for a whole week!

After I got a mural picture, we headed up the elevator to the 9th floor and found our room. It was really close to the elevators and on the side of the gift shops. I had read that it was really noisy to stay over Chef Mickey's so I was pleased to be on the other side and happy that we had easy access to the elevators. I was a little worried that we would hear noise from people getting on and off the elevators at night but there ended up being no problem with that, it was noisier at Sapphire Falls and we weren't even close to the elevators there.

Views from outside our door.

Maddie got to be the first to use a magic band to open the door, it worked!

This ended up being my favorite room of the vacation, though the Beach Club property would win out with me on outdoor atmosphere and the pool. I loved the entryway, something about it made me feel like we were on a cruise ship(even though I have never actually been on a cruise ship).

Xander immediately claimed the bed that was in the same position as his bed at Sapphire Falls. By this time he was totally over that hotel. This hotel was so awesome, who would want to be anywhere else? Maddie started out claiming the other bed until she discovered that the couch opened into a twin bed just for her!

I feel very lucky that we were able to stay here for three nights. It has always been a dream of mine to stay at the "Monorail hotel" and now here we were! I had decided that if we were going to go to the Contemporary that we had to stay in the main building. It was harder to decide whether to go for a fireworks view. In the end I decided to "save" a little bit of money and opt for the lagoon view.

Here are the views from our balcony.
In the end it was the right choice for us. The first night was the only one we would have seen the fireworks since we were in the parks late the two other nights. Also, this view meant that I got to enjoy the Electrical Water Pageant twice!

Because of the craziness of our hotel transition, we got to our room a little later than planned. We didn't have much time to settle in and get ready for dinner. We cleaned up quickly and left the room. At least the restaurant was right downstairs!
Chef Mickey's here we come.

 

[Figaro Family]

We checked into Chef Mickey's right at 5:20 and our buzzer went off just as we were getting our family photos taken. We were excited that we'd be seated right away, we came here two years ago for dinner on the big family trip and had to wait a long time to be seated.

We finally got at least three family members to look at the camera and called it good!

Xander remembers this place and approves!

So happy to dive into the Disney portion of the trip. Mmmmm chocolate milk.

I almost forgot that I'd asked Disney Dining to make a note of James' 40th birthday on all our ADR's. They brought out this cupcake and a card signed by Mickey and the gang and headed toward... Xander?
Apparently the age hadn't been noted on any of the ADR's just that the birthday person was male. At all of our Character meals (the only ones that the birthday was acknowledged) they assumed that Xander was the birthday boy. James was a little annoyed because he hates being the center of attention but was gracious about playing along.

The first character at our table was Goofy. Character meals are the easiest way for Xander to meet characters but he does hate to be interrupted in the middle of eating. He's more receptive to character cuddles once he's full.

"Great to see you Goofy, but there's some mac and cheese calling my name."

"I will humor you with a quick smile"

Mmmm Mac and Cheese.

Maddie was in a good mood and not feeling too cool to meet characters.

 

[Figaro Family]

Mickey was next, Xander paid much closer attention to him.

Mickey insisted on taking Maddie's arm like a proper gentleman

Xander felt Donald deserved a smooch.

The interaction with Donald was a riot! He was great with Xander and Maddie couldn't stop laughing!

 

[Figaro Family]

I think Maddie was still laughing about Donald when Pluto came over.

I got in on the Pluto cuddling

Last up was Minnie Mouse.

Then some desert.
Last was the bill. That one hurt a bit, this is our first Disney trip since Xander passed the threshold and is officially considered an "adult" by Disney standards. Meaning we had to pay the price for four adult character meals. This was not a surprise, it's just a little jolting to pay over $50 for your kid to eat macaroni and cheese! We used Disney Visa points for this one which helped with the pain. It was worth it for the meet with Donald but I don't know if we'll do this one again, at least not for dinner.

 

[Figaro Family]

After dinner we went back to the room for a little while. Xander was pleased when we surprised him with Thing 1!

Maddie hung out with her hungarian horntail and Buckbeak, who she'd brought along from home.
It was a little too early to call it a night so we decided to go back down and explore the hotel. We checked out the gift shops first.

Then the kids spotted the arcade. "Chuck E. Cheese!" Xander exclaimed (We go there a lot). So we had to go in of course and spend way too much on arcade games.

Then it was time to go back to the room and get ready for bed. At 9pm we could hear the music from the Happily Ever After fireworks out on the balcony. Definitely did not have a view of them but could see some reflecting on the Bay Lake Tower. I was determined to watch the Electrical Water Pageant at 10:15 and got ridiculously excited when I started seeing the floats moving into place.
Xander was exhausted from his long emotional day so he voluntarily crawled into bed and started drifting off to sleep. We turned off most of the lights in the room for him and the rest of us went out on the balcony to watch the show. I loved every simple, synthesized, 70's style moment of it. Pete's Dragon song to start? Yes please! I loved that movie when I was little and watched it more times than I can count and also had a book and record set. The big finish was a perfect salute to all nations but mostly America.

It was a great ending to the day.
Tomorrow we would be up early for our first day at the Disney Parks.

 

[Figaro Family]

Thursday August 24, First Disney Parks Day!!

Xander's vacation schedule book came to the rescue for us this morning. As soon as we were on Disney property, Xander's single focus was to get to Magic Kingdom and his favorite ride Small World. To be fair, our tradition on any Disney trip up to this one had been to go to Magic Kingdom or Disneyland park on the first day, so his expectation was not unreasonable. Our plan on this trip however was to take advantage of all the extra magic hours for less crowds and less time in the heat. The way things worked out that meant we had to start out at Epcot with the extra magic hour on Thursday mornings. Xander woke up with Small World on his mind and "Magic Kingdom Small World!" were the first words out of his mouth when his eyes popped open. We read the schedule book together again and he was reassured that he'd get to go to Magic Kingdom after our break in the afternoon. This didn't stop him from bringing it up throughout the day though. We'd say "Xander we're going to go on the Test Track ride!" he'd say "First Test Track... then Small World!" "No Xander, First Test track then Spaceship Earth, then lunch and later in the afternoon we'll go see Small World." He'd keep very close track of our list and try to insert Small World wherever possible but was able to keep from melting down.
According to the time stamp on my phone with this picture we made it out of our room at 7:40, not too bad.

There was no line for security to get on the Monorail and we didn't have to wait very long for one to arrive!

Xander did his best impression of a clam in its shell on both legs of the Monorail ride to Epcot.

Whoo hoo! on our way to Epcot! Spaceship Earth is in sight!
Having to go through security twice to get into Epcot is a pain but at least this morning they were directing everyone getting off the Monorail around to a shorter line.
Even with switching monorails and going through security a second time, I think we made it in the park just after 8am. I was really loving staying on property now! We've always stayed at timeshare condos and had to drive in except for the one time we stayed at Port Orleans Riverside for two nights and used the bus system.

Spaceship Earth with no random people in the picture!!

 

[Figaro Family]

The first thing we did was stop and get a family photo. The first one is the best shot with our phone, although there are random people by my head. Didn't they get the memo that the park was supposed to stay empty just for us? I like this one because Xander is looking at the camera and giving a little smile

This is the one I downloaded from Photo Pass. Yay no people in the background! And though he's not fully smiling in this one, at least Xander is looking at the camera I'll take it! We were on a roll with decent family pictures at Disney now!

If you didn't notice, I must point out our awesome matching t-shirts. It was a must do on the first official Disney day.

 

[fractal]

Yes, the pain of all your children being considered an adult while on the Dining plan.

Great family photos in front of SSE!

 

[Figaro Family]

Yes, the pain of all your children being considered an adult while on the Dining plan.

Great family photos in front of SSE!

At the character meals they always ask the kids ages when you check in even though I'm sure it's already in the system. I feel like I'm being tested and might get kicked out if I lie (I guess I'm paranoid that way). I think Xander could still pass for a large 9 year old, they always looked surprised when I admitted his age. At all the other restaurants they automatically brought him the children's menu without my asking which was great. We saved a bit at those places and that food is more his speed. When Maddie turned 10 she got very offended if she was offered a kids menu at Disney, she was very serious about being considered a "Disney grownup"!

 

[Figaro Family]

After getting the family photos in front of SSE, our next move was to go to the guest relations building to get Xander set up with DAS (Disability Access Service) for the rest of the trip. This is something you can't do at Disney until you've entered one of the parks on your first day. It was a big advantage to do this at Epcot, our only other experience has been at City Hall on Main Street at both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. It's always hectic at those locations with a somewhat long line. By comparison there was virtually no one in the Epcot building. It was nice and quiet and we got helped quickly by two very nice guys. Xander got his picture taken and all the info for DAS was linked to his magic band along with the family info. We asked if it would be possible to add extra family members just for the next day since some of James' Florida family would be joining us at MK. They didn't think it would be a problem as long as we checked in at Main Street with the family to add them on! We also got a tag for the stroller to be a wheelchair if needed.
We decided to spend the rest of the extra magic hour at the Seas with Nemo and Friends.

I don't know who the kids were looking at on this first one

One without the sunglasses, a bit too bright for Maddie

Smooch for Daddy

"Please stop taking pictures" says James

I started feeling nostalgic when looking at these pictures so here is a throwback to April 2011

I'd really like to shrink Maddie back down to her little self! (at least for one day)

There was no wait for the ride so we hopped on and went to the Big Blue World.

We fed Xander to Bruce the shark.
View attachment 231393 Then visited the amazing Manatees (so cute!)

 

[Figaro Family]

We checked out the other tanks of sea life and then it was time to go upstairs to see the biggest tank.

If you are reading this and have also read my pre trip report, you know that I lost both of my parents within five years of each other. My dad most recently about a year ago. The big family vacation in October 2015 was hosted by my dad who was so excited to create special memories with his girls, sons-in-law, and grandchildren. It's still hard to believe that he died less than 10 months later. This last year has been really hard so I planned this vacation as a getaway for my family but I did realize that it might be difficult for me because of the memories of that last trip. Most of the time it was actually nice because James and I would take turns remembering things more clearly like "remember when we went here with your dad and he..." "He though that was so funny!" "I'd almost forgotten that dad and I took Xander on this ride while you and Maddie went on..." For the most part during the ten days, I was able to forget my worries and have an amazing time.

Going up to see the large tank at the aquarium was the hardest moment of the trip for me. My dad was a certified diver in his last 10 years and went on many dive trips, always coming back and proudly showing us his pictures and video he took in the ocean. I'd never seen him dive in person and on this trip he decided to splurge on the Epcot dive experience. We were able to see how much he loved it. He looked so free and effortless in the water after we'd watched him struggle with walking all that week in the heat and having other health issues. He was really excited about the video he'd gotten as part of the dive package but kept forgetting to bring it with him when he came for visits over the next several months. When he passed away unexpectedly and we had to plan his memorial service, I remembered the video and knew we had to use it somehow. I finally found it when we were cleaning out his house and got to watch it. It included footage of everyone that dived that day with different bits of each one of them and ends with them waving to the camera while credits roll over their faces. I couldn't believe it when I got to the very end. The very last shot of the video is the credits finishing then the camera focuses solely on Dad, he looks directly at the camera and waves goodbye then the image fades out. You can guess what a mess I was after that. This footage ended up being the final part of the video montage of pictures that I put together for the memorial service. I've watched that video so many times now between editing it, the memorial service itself and Xander wanting to watch "Grandpa video" daily for the first few months that I almost feel like that tank is the last place I ever saw him.

When we went upstairs I was relieved that there were only a few people around and we got to spend some quiet time there. If memorials were allowed at Disney, this is where I would put one for my dad.

I spent a good amount of time at this window wishing I
could see this person here again

Sorry to depress the h**l out of anyone reading this. I depressed myself again writing about it but didn't want to skip over and pretend it wasn't an important moment. It was actually kind of cathartic, and while the reality of the situation is still crummy, I'm glad I made myself go. I felt my dad's presence there more than any other place I've been here at home.

I absolutely promise, no more depressing posts after this one.

 

[Tuvalu]

What a lovely tribute to your dad.

 

[riverside]

Very touching. Thank you for sharing this.

 

[Figaro Family]

OK, moving on from the tear inducing visit to The Seas where I just barely managed to keep it together. Disney is truly the happiest place on earth but apparently is capable of bringing out the entire range of emotions!

We loaded Xander into the stroller and discussed where we would go next. It was shortly after 9am and our first fast pass for test track didn't start until 10am. I consulted the park map and discovered that we were really close to The Land. Maddie wanted to go on Soarin but the wait time was already 45 minutes. I should have gotten a return time with Xander's DAS but at that point I thought we would have another chance to ride it the next day. For various reasons we never ended up riding Soarin during the trip so I feel bad about that in hindsight. I was focused on making time for Frozen but I think we could have squeezed in a ride on Soarin after we went on the other ride in The Land... Living With the Land! Or as I've come to think of it from reading trip reports here on WDW Magic, The Farm Ride!! We had never gone on this before, I admit I skipped it because I thought it would be boring. However, all the "rave reviews" here made me want to give it a chance. I felt a little guilty keeping James in the dark about it all this time since he is the gardening enthusiast of the two of us. He's like Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh out in our yard creating his garden spaces, pruning roses, and yelling at squirrels to stay away. I am actually kind of afraid of plants. I like to look at them but I swear if I get anywhere near them they die. James will ask me to water something during the day and I'm like "No! I'm going to kill it!" So when I checked and saw that the "farm ride" was a walk on I described it to James and he wondered how I knew so much about it "Well everyone on WDW seems to love it." "Oh, in that case we have to go" he teased. It really was enjoyable for me. Maddie seemed to like it too, especially the part where the fish were swimming in the tank to provide nutrients for the plants growing above. We told Xander it was a kind of train ride, so he agreed to go on. James was geeking out over the gardening innovations. "I told you it wasn't weird to grow a pumkin upside down!" Last year he grew a pumpkin vine up a post and let it wind around our sunshade trellis so flowers, vines, and eventually a little pumpkin were hanging from overhead.

He was also excited to see the Sturgeon. He grew up Sturgeon fishing with his Stepdad and there are albums full of pictures of their family proudly holding up Sturgeon they had caught.

pretty picture of something planty.
While I know I will always be a plant killer, I am now a firm Farm Ride fan!

 

[gdisneyfans]

Thanks for sharing the story about your dad. It's amazing that one small little detail can trigger a memory So great that your family was able to go on one last vacation with him together.

 

[Figaro Family]

Thanks for sharing the story about your dad. It's amazing that one small little detail can trigger a memory So great that your family was able to go on one last vacation with him together.

I am so glad we managed to do that last vacation. Dad had been throwing the idea around for a few years and we finally pinned him down and said "If your serious about going we should pick a date and do it so we don't regret putting it off later." My mom had been wanting to do a family trip to Disneyland or Hawaii that never got to happen and I still regret that. Now at least we have a lot of special memories and pictures with my dad.

 

[amjt660]

Just so you know....

I will now walk into The Living Seas pavilion and stand in front of the tank and think about Figaro Family's Dad.

Extremely touching account of what happened and how it makes you feel
Thank you for having the courage to share with us

Max

 

[Figaro Family]

After the Farm Ride we set out for the World Showcase with the Frozen ride in mind. I got a return time with Xander's DAS for 40 minutes later which was perfect for a bathroom break and a visit to the Kringla Bakeri! It was just after 10am and we were pretty hungry since we'd just had a snack breakfast earlier. This whole area was pretty shutdown in 2015 with the Frozen ride being worked on and I had been hoping for a chance to get scandinavian treats from the bakery on this trip.

Our last name is obviously not "Figaro" but it is Italian since James' dad was an Italian New Yorker. I however am not Italian at all if you couldn't guess from my pale face and red hair. On my dad's side I am German, Swedish, and a little bit Norwegian. On my mom's side I am a little bit English, Irish and a whole lot of Norwegian. My mom's maiden name was Norwegian and my last name growing up was an unusual German one that I was happy to trade in for my Italian name 17 years ago. Both of my parents families are from North Dakota. There are still relatives living on the family farms near the Canadian border. I grew up with a few Norwegian/Swedish traditions, my favorite was eating Lefse with Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. We didn't have any this past year since it was always dad's job to track it down and no one felt like taking over. A woman in my dad's hometown used to make a batch that my grandma would buy and mail to us every year. More recently my dad would track it down in specialty stores.
I was really hoping to find it here at the Norwegian bakery.
When we went in, there it was on display! I think the guy behind the counter was surprised that I knew what it was and was excited to order it. Lefse is pretty bland when you come right down to it. Paper thin potato mash rolled out and baked then butter is spread on it and sugar sprinkled, then the whole thing is rolled back up. Bland yes, but such good childhood memories.

We also picked out some other treats including school bread and sat down to share.

Yummy treats and the Lefse! I know, compared to the other treat the Lefse does not look exciting. The kids don't think so either but both tried some anyway. I think it's growing on them!

After we were done eating I wanted to get a "Norwegians Only" picture in front of the Stave church. I didn't realize James didn't get much of the building in the pictures. Maybe he was being passive aggressive about my saying Norwegians only.

Then it was finally time to ride Frozen!
!

I didn't buy the photopass picture of us on the ride, it was pretty bad(the photo not the ride). We all liked the ride a lot! We checked out the gift shop afterwards and I liked that they had some troll references there from the original ride. I briefly considered a knitted sweater until we looked at the price tag. Then it was time to get to Test Track before our fastpass window closed.

But first, the sunglasses curse struck one last time...

 

[Figaro Family]

Just so you know....

I will now walk into The Living Seas pavilion and stand in front of the tank and think about Figaro Family's Dad.

Extremely touching account of what happened and how it makes you feel
Thank you for having the courage to share with us

Max

Thank you Max, that's really sweet of you!