The beginning of the vacation didn't start off very relaxing. Tate cried and fussed almost the entire 2 hour flight, because he was tired and would rather have been napping in his bed. That put us all on edge. Then we battled crowds at the airport, schlepped three oversize bags, three carseats, backpacks and cranky kids to the rental car area. We fought for 20 minutes to find a car that could fit three carseats across the back, sweaty in the blazing heat and humidity. We took the seats in and out of three cars unsuccessfully before I was close to tears. The rental people felt sorry for us and quickly found us a Tahoe to accommodate all of our kids and crap. Things were finally starting to look up, when Wyatt's hand got slammed in the tailgate. Thankfully it scared him more than it hurt. Then we got to the hotel and met up with my parents. And they had alcohol. And the trip improved significantly from there.
We had a fabulous 3 bedroom condo in a resort with a ton of things going on. They had 7 pools, including a pirate ship water slide, two lazy rivers, splash pad, playground, ice cream socials and a craft room. We had a second floor room overlooking the pool and it felt like we were in our own private cabana. We sat outside and enjoyed a nightly cocktail and we listened to the music coming from the pool area. It was so much fun. Wyatt took his breakfast and lunch out there to eat every day. The condo was the perfect set up - my parents in one room, the big kids shared a room and Davyen and I had our own room with Tate bunked up in our closet. We had a full kitchen which was great for breakfast, lunch and snacks. All this right on the Disney grounds for a fraction of what we would have paid for a "Disney" hotel. It's our new fav spot!
We spent the entire next day at the resort, just exploring and swimming in the different pools. Poppy and Hadley checked out the craft room and we all went for ice cream in the afternoon. That evening we went to Downtown Disney to see the new Lego store and have dinner at the Rainforest Café.
The following day Dayven and I took the big kids to the Magic Kingdom while my parents watched Tate. We love you Tate but your naps cramp our style! It was so much fun to see the park through the kids' eyes. I hadn't been in almost 15 years but so much of it was just as I remembered it. It wasn't very crowded which was great. The longest we ever waited for a ride was about 10 minutes, even less than that when we had a fast pass. We went hard all day and went on pretty much every ride we wanted to do. Hadley was so brave and did the haunted mansion with me. She wasn't scared at all, which surprised me because I remember being scared as a kid, but she's tough. Wyatt is much more apprehensive on rides and made it to the front door before he yelled "NO!!" and ran away. Dayven waited outside with him. Wyatt retold this story at least 5 times on the trip. He did muster up the courage to do the Pirates of the Carribbean, after much coaxing and a few pep talks in the line. He was so proud of himself for making it through. Dayven bought him a sword at the end and he told everyone he saw how he earned it! I'm not sure what the favorite ride was. They loved Dumbo, Pirates, Winnie the Pooh and the Little Mermaid. Wyatt loved It's a Small World. I don't think it's changed in 30 years. It's so nostalgic and made me so happy. It made Wyatt happy too. At the end, he clapped and yelled "That was spectacular!" That got a few chuckles from our boatmates. Hadley loved the race cars. She thought she was so grown up because she got to drive. At one point, I was taking her picture and she said "I have to keep my eyes on the road! No more pictures!"
By 5pm, the kids were beat and begging to go back to the hotel. We got burgers (and a beer for the grownups) at the hotel pool bar and discussed our plan. The kids were so tired they said they didn't want to go back. We hung out for a bit and put them to bed, then Dayven and I headed back to the park since they were open until 11pm and my parents could watch the kids. We watched the fireworks and rode a few more rides that we thought were too scary for the kids, including Space Mountain. I have been to Disney more times than I can count, but I've never done this ride. I'm a huge wimp, but decided I needed to conquer my fear. I decided that being violently thrashed around in the pitch dark is not for me. I'll stick to the Thunder Mountain railroad where I can see where we're going.
The only thing that bugged me about the parks is the whole character experience. When I was a kid, I remember them just walking around the park, waving and shaking hands. Now they all have "appearances" and if you do seem them walking, their bodyguards (a.k.a speaking human) cut you off before you approach them and say "Kids, Jasmine would LOVE to see you, please come back to the Gazebo at 2pm!" Mind you, there will be a line starting by 1:30. I heard some people were waiting 45 minutes to see some of the more popular ones. Insane! We waited for a bit in the Goofy line, then he just up and left. Since he can't talk, we got no explanation (I'm guessing shift change) but the sweaty people in line were not happy. Dayven said that's it, we're outta here! We left before he punched Goofy. We figured out some characters have a fast pass and decided that was our only hope. We got a fast pass to meet Mickey and a few of the Princesses. We waited for about 10 minutes to see them and right when we were up next, Wyatt decided he couldn't hold it any longer and had to go to the bathroom. Dayven took him out while Hadley and I worked our way down the princess line, collecting autographs and posing for photos. As we got to the last one, Wyatt and Dayven burst back into the room and they graciously allowed us to go backward down the line so Wyatt could say hello to them all again. They princesses were quite magical and you really don't feel rushed at all. They were chatting with the kids about their favorite rides and what they'd been doing on their trip, signing autographs and posing for pictures. I guess that's why the lines take so long!
We had one more day at the pools and the resort and rode the monorail before heading on to the next part of our trip, Cedar Key!
1 comment:
I could hardly wait until you got back home and wrote this blog. I still remember its a small world. I loved that. I also could spend hours and hours in a lazy river just floating along. Such a fun time. I didn't realize you were taking off and I kept wondering why you didn't blog. I took lunch one day to Barbara Anns after her knee surgery and we had such a good visit and played Go Bananas.
Post a Comment