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Chapter 1. Let’s Find Some Magic!!!

As many times as we’ve done this whole flying thing, you’d think we’d be experts at it. At the ripe old age of 18 Months, this will already be Owen’s 5th flying vacation (about 16 take-offs and landings). And Lily ( 8 years old) has done at least 5 or 6 times that many. It’s just the natural result of having family that lives across the country. And liking to travel, I admit.
But somehow, my luggage is always still an unorganized mess, it still takes us 30 minutes to get through security (even without a line), and the other passengers gawk and stare at the circus we create trying to get on the plane. Yeah, we’re that family you really don’t want to be sitting next to. And thanks to Southwest Airlines open seating policy, they are welcome to move when they see us coming. And they did. On both flights. But it’s okay, because despite all this, and getting up at 3am to make the hour-and-a-half drive to the Denver airport, we were going to Disney World! Well, sort of anyway. I was calling this my pseudo-Disney trip. Just a quick, non-park visit, as an added bonus on a trip to see my family, including my brand new nephew! But I was needing a little Disney Magic something fierce.
Brian wasn’t coming this time. He had to go out of town for a big work convention all week, so it made sense for us to slip away while he’d be gone anyway. But travelling on my own with 2 kids is challenging. I’ve done it several times, but it never seems to get any easier!

Our flight to MCO landed a few minutes early, and we were at the ME loading area by about 1:00. Unfortunately, I think a motor-coach must have just left when we got there because it was totally empty and we had to wait a while for one to get there, then a while longer for it to leave. And then it made 3 other stops before our resort, All-Star Movies. But I had allowed plenty of time in our schedule, and my parents were still fighting Orlando traffic to get there anyway. (They were driving up to meet us, they live in Naples, FL about 4 hours from Disney) And it was neat to see some of the other resorts. Nothing was going to ruin the Magic for me today!

We got checked in around 3:00, and headed to our room. We had gotten the Dalmatians building as Lily requested, and we even got our other requests- ground floor and adjoining rooms. We got our first look at the property on our way, and I was a little bummed when I noticed that the Mickey Statue at the Fantasia Pool had been taken down and the whole area blocked off, but surely they would have fun swimming anyway. Again, not gonna ruin my Magic!!!

We found our room… But the key didn’t work! A maintenance guy was walking by, but couldn’t help us, so he called the front desk and they said they would send someone. It took about 10 minutes for him to get there, and Lily got very grumpy while we stood around in the sun waiting. She was tired and hungry, and HOT! Finally though we got it sorted out. The CM at the desk had given me my parents room # by mistake, which was why our key didn’t work. Alright, Magic momentarily lost, time to get it back!

We dropped off our stuff and headed back to Cinema Hall to get our refillable mugs! We had sets from our last two trips, but inevitably we had lost one or two through the years and had been excited for some new ones. After a drink and snack we were feeling much refreshed, and headed over to the store. Lily was excited to get her Duffy Bear that she had been looking at online, and I wanted to get Owen some Cars stuff. (“Car” is one of his few words he can say, and he’s totally obsessed and in love with anything that looks like one, and he makes a cute “vrooming” sound whenever he hears the word) I also got him a cute mini-basketball with Mickey on it, that’s his other obsession – balls. Especially basketballs for some reason. (It would turn out that this particular ball was just not meant to be, but more on that later)

While we were in there, my parents arrived and found us at the register. The kids were glad to get to see their grandparents, and after many hugs we headed on back to the room, since I had promised Lily swimming time.

I have to stop here and mention my thoughts about the resort. Having stayed first at the Poly in 2008, then CBR in 2010, I could definitely tell this was a Value Resort. I certainly could find nothing to complain about, it was cute enough and very clean, well-kept, but it was somehow lacking that “other-worldly” feel that the Deluxes and even Moderates seem to have. It would serve our purposes for this trip though, and it would have cost almost as much to be at some boring chain-hotel off-site, so I was happy enough to be there.

Chapter 2. Time for some FUN at the Resort!
The kids had a blast in the pool. Owen, who had no fear of the water whatsoever, was beaming with excitement and splashed, jumped and paddled around, even jumped in from the side a few times, into my arms of course. He’ll dunk his whole head under water and come up smiling! Lily played all sorts of games in the water with my Dad, while my mom watched from the side.

Finally, it was time to get out. Owen was about to fall asleep on my shoulder, and even Lily was admitting to being a little hungry. She had been determined to eat dinner in the food court, for some reason she was very excited about it after seeing the pictures online. I was actually feeling a little restless by then and kind of wished we had ADRs somewhere, but knew that with the big day we had planned tomorrow, this was wiser anyway.

Dinner was fine, nothing fancy but nothing to complain about either.  Owen had fallen asleep in the stroller (which had arrived with our other ME bags), and ended up missing dinner. Oh well. I got him to eat a little of his turkey sandwich later when he woke up.

After dinner, Lily wanted to go in the Arcade, so I put $10 on a card for her, and she collected enough tickets to get an inflatable guitar. She was on cloud 9! We ended up back in the store for some reason, where she decided she wanted a pair of Mickey Ears. We must have looked at 20 different designs and she was very indecisive, until she picked up a pirate-princess one and saw her Grandmas’s reaction.

“Oh NO! I don’t want to see my granddaughter with those ugly crossbones, yuck! How about this pretty Tinkerbell one?”

Well that settled it, of course. No other pair of ears would do except the black and pink pirate-princess ones.  I thought the ears were really kind of cute.

It was getting late by now, but she wanted to get her caricature done in the lobby, and not knowing how late we would get back the next night I figured we better go ahead and do it. She was in a musical mood, having her guitar, so she picked the singer background, and the artist even added her guitar to the picture! It turned out really cute so I was glad we did it. She was super excited afterwards, and said she was “bursting with self-confidence”. Not something I usually hear from my rather timid and introverted child, lol! Definitely feeling some Magic 🙂

By now it was REALLY late, but she begged to go see the Toy Story statues, so  we went. It was really cool at night, and both kids had so much fun climbing and running around. I had tried to talk her into requesting that section instead, and I think now she was a little sad that she hadn’t listened to me. But we could still have fun over there anyway! And more Magic.

We finally made it back to our room and got settled in for the night. Getting Owen to be still and go to sleep was a challenge though, and would continue to be for the whole trip.

Chapter 3. Our Big Disney Day Begins
I had ADRs for breakfast at Boma, in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, so we had to get going pretty early. I wanted something where we could get a big breakfast so that we wouldn’t need a big lunch.

I had eaten dinner here once, and loved all the exotic food. But the breakfast buffet looked pretty tame, and AKL was close to ASM. Well, it would have been if we hadn’t made a wrong turn and ended up on some interstate thing that we couldn’t even turn around on for miles! So much for it being close and easy. That’s why I never drive at Disney.  My parents both thought Animal Kingdom Lodge  was beautiful, I guess they had never seen it before, and breakfast was a success, so it had been a good choice after all. Loooove the Jungle Juice! We spent just a little time outside, but none of the animals seemed to be up yet, so we didn’t linger long.

We headed to Downtown Disney for our day of fun! I was hoping to do the Design-a-Tee before Lily’s Bippty Boppity Boutique appointment, but there wasn’t time once we finally got organized, so we went on to World of Disney. Looked around a little, but soon it was time for her Princess Makeover! She had done the Fairytale and Diva makeovers before, so she wanted to do the Pop Princess this time, since she wasn’t in princess costume for once.

This was where it got tricky being one parent with two kids, even though their grandparents were there to help out. Owen was understandably fussy by now – he hadn’t eaten well, was out of milk, tired of being stuck in the stroller, and just not happy. And I felt bad because this obviously wasn’t going to be a fun part of the day for him, there wasn’t room in the salon, and he was getting so restless hanging around outside with my mom. I thought I really should take him and do something fun so he isn’t feeling left out. But then I thought, no, this is Lily’s big moment, I need to be there for her and he just needs to deal with it! Ugh. Pulled in two very different directions indeed.

My mom stayed with him for a while, then later my dad, who had been staying mostly inside with Lily, finally took him over to the Lego store and he had fun playing with the Duplo blocks outside. Her Pop Princess makeover turned out very cute, and we joined them at the Lego store when we were done.
While at BBB, I had missed a couple of calls from a strange phone number I didn’t recognize. My dad thought it might be my sister’s area code, but I assumed she would call me from her cell phone, since they don’t even have a landline. So I didn’t think too much of it. (She lives about 2 hours from Disney, and we were driving down there the next day to spend time with her and her brand new baby, Aiden!)

But soon after, I got a mysterious text, from another number I didn’t recognize (turned out later that it was my BIL), saying that her phone wasn’t working but that she was coming up to Orlando to meet us, and to be at Earl of Sandwich at 1:30! That seemed like a pretty daring thing to do with a 2 week old baby, especially not having any means of communication with her (and not even knowing for sure that I would get the message b/c she had already left when he sent it), but it would be cool to see them a day early!

We headed in the general direction of Design-a-Tee, but Owen saw the train and was determined to get on it right then! He was very tired and grumpy by now, but still had a great time and was smiling from ear to ear… until it was time to get off. Then we had a major meltdown. He was still screaming when we got to DaT, so my dad stayed with him outside so we could get to work! Lily made a Wall-E shirt, I got a rather plain one with a WDW logo that I liked, and I made one for Owen with Mickey and the gang that said “I’m quite a character”. And they both got their names on theirs as well.

Chapter 4. The New Cousin Arrives
Afterwards, both kids played in the fountains outside for a long time, I think that was one of their favorite parts of the day! Definitely some Magic there. Finally, totally soaked, and about to fall asleep standing up, he walked over to me and collapsed in my arms. I laid him down in the stroller (still soaking wet) and he was asleep within minutes. It was a little after 1, so we were going to look around a little more until Ashley got there, but my dad spotted her going into Earl of Sandwhich as we went by, which was lucky since she had no way to call us and was quite early!
Aiden was also asleep in his stroller, but we admired our new nephew/cousin from a distance. He was sooooo tiny! Both of mine were well over 8 lbs, so at 6lbs he seemed more toy-like to me than human! We went on in and got our food while the two littlest ones continued to nap in the stroller. I got two kids meals, thinking the 3 of us would share them since we didn’t feel like we needed much. I saved some sandwich for Owen, then forgot to ever give it to him when he woke up later, oops! It was good though.
Lily and I were finished well before everyone else, so I took her on over to the Toy store. She still hadn’t decided what she wanted to spend her saved money on (only about $26), and finally ended up making a charm necklace. Owen woke up about this time, and the rest of my family found us in there soon after.
We hadn’t done the carousel yet… I couldn’t get Owen to sit on a horse but he enjoyed just sitting with me in the carriage while Lily rode a horse. The only other thing we had wanted to do was the Characters in Flight balloon, or at least Lily did. Her Grandpa was going to take her on it. My mom and sister decided to head on back to the hotel with Aiden while we went to do that. But after walking a little ways, we realized we hadn’t seen it go up at all that day, it had been on the ground all morning. I suspected that we were going to walk all the way over there to find that it was closed.

So, being a little tired anyway, we settled for one more ride on the train and trip to the Lego store. This time Owen didn’t meltdown getting off, and Lily made some cute mini-figures in the Lego store, one to represent me, her, and her Dad.

Chapter 5. It’s Going to take some REAL Magic to get us there on time…
Lily wanted to have some time back at the hotel before dinner, so we went and relaxed in the room for a while, and got to cuddle some more with the baby 🙂 It seemed like we had plenty of time before we needed to leave, but suddenly it was 5:20… and we had to be at Grand Floridian  at 6:00 for our 1900 Park Fare ADR.
So I casually mentioned that we really needed to get going soon… I had thought we were basically ready to walk out the door any minute… but it was more like 25 minutes before we were out the door, and then several more minutes of juggling car seats and strollers so that we could take one car. In hindsight, we should have just taken 2.

I had been thinking of our ADR as being at 6:00, but technically it was at 5:55pm. We pulled out of our parking space at 5:52. Yes, that’s right, with 3 minutes to get from All Star Movies to Grand Floridian.

I had been looking forward to this dinner more than anything else we had planned, and was going to be so upset if they wouldn’t seat us. When we finally arrived at GF, (I couldn’t even bring myself to look at the clock, but we had to be at least 15 minutes late, probably more) they offered us free valet parking b/c of my mom’s handicap permit. They both tried to refuse, and were asking where the self-park was, but I spoke up, reminding them of how late we were, and they gave in. The valet guy, sensing my distress, told me they had “probably” held my reservation. I ran on in ahead to get us checked in.

When I told the CM my name, she had to scroll backwards quite a bit on her computer screen to find us, and seemed to frown and sigh a bit, but didn’t say anything. Whew! So relieved. I had initially been thinking I might try to request a table in the main room, even if it meant waiting a little longer, but now I was just glad they were willing to seat us at all.

Chapter 6. An Evening of Magic
We got our group photo done, and were seated after just a few minutes. I had heard them announce Prince Charming right before we came in, and our table, as luck would have it, was right in the center of the main room afterall, and he was at our table almost as soon as we sat down! He complimented Lily on her art set (one she had bought at DTD, and brought with her to use for autographs), and even talked to Owen a little. Our waitress told us our timing was perfect, all the others would be at our table within minutes, and then we could go eat.

So we had some very nice visits with Cinderella and the rest of her family. Owen wasn’t really phased by them much at all, just kind glanced them over then moved on. But Lily enjoyed it immensely, and several of them were just fascinated with tiny Aiden. It was turning out to be a perfect meal even though it got off to a rocky start! I had always wanted to bring my mom and sister to this character meal, mostly b/c they both love the Grand Floridian. So everyone was happy.

Later, as we were all finishing up our food, Cinderella and Prince Charming danced right in front of us, then Prince Charming walked directly to Lily and asked her if she wanted to dance with him! She had missed the chance two years before from being too shy and not “seizing the moment”, and seeing her hesitation again, I said “YES, you DO!”, and with the prompting got up and danced! It was so sweet, and she was positively beaming afterwards. So lots and lots of Magic here. No surprise, it’s always one of my favorite character meals 🙂
We finished up, and went for a monorail ride. It was very crowded, so not as enjoyable as I had thought it would be, and Owen didn’t like having to be still. He spent most of the time spinning around one of the poles!

Afterwards, we hung out in the upstairs lobby for a bit so that Ashley could feed Aiden. Owen and Lily had a blast playing on the stairs while we waited. Four years ago, coming to 1900PF for the first time (and dressed in Cinderella costume), Lily had declared those the “Princess Stairs”. It was fun to see her playing on them again, all grown up.
I had thought about trying to see the Electric water pageant, but it was still 45 minutes until it started, and we didn’t have the strollers with us, so we headed on back to ASM instead. Although I did have to make a quick run back to the restaurant b/c I had left the picture that I bought! Fortunately they had found it and were holding it for me.

It had been quite the Disney Day, and we were exhausted. But that didn’t keep Owen from laying in bed and tickling himself for about 15 minutes before falling asleep 🙂 But I had mostly found the Magic I was looking for, in between the more stressful and tedious moments.

Chapter 7. Finishing up at Disney 🙁
We didn’t have any big plans for the next day, just some swimming and then get checked out, and head down to Port Saint Lucie to spend a day with my sister. She and Aiden had stayed in my parents room the night before, so we could just follow her home. (My parents came up in two cars so that I could have one when leaving Disney, as they were headed back to Naples)
So after a quick breakfast in the food court, we set out for one last swim. There was a lot of loud construction going on at the Fantasia pool, so we decided to try out the Mighty Ducks one instead. We had it all to ourselves! Lily and my dad played more of their pool games, and Owen did more of his thing… but then we had to get ready to check out so I drug both kids, rather unwillingly, out of the pool. Unfortunately, as we were getting ready to go, Owen tripped and fell while playing with Lily under the Hockey net, and smacked his forehead on the concrete!
I could tell right away it was going to make a pretty good goose-egg, and of course he was hysterical. Back in the room I was trying to put some ice on it to keep the swelling down, but that of course made him very mad and he rolled away from me, right off the bed. And smacked the very same spot on his head against the wall on the way down.

I was feeling a little exasperated by then and let my dad take over with Owen for a bit while I tried to start packing. But the ordeal had set us way behind schedule, and with our room in such chaos I didn’t make progress quickly.

Ashley walked into my room about 15 minutes before check-out time, took one look around and said “Oh my goodness, do you need help?” I had to admit that I probably did. Somehow we had everything more or less in a suitcase or bag when Mousekeeping came knocking at 11:05 wanting to take over my room. I assured her I only needed one more minute to get the bags physically out of the room and then it was hers!

Finally we had everything loaded in the appropriate cars, and headed back to the food court for a last drink and snack. Then we said goodbye to my parents (though we would see them again in Naples in just over 24 hours) and headed out of town.

I had to make another stop by DTD on the way b/c they weren’t able to get Owen’s shirt ready in time at DaT yesterday, and I wanted to stop by the Photopass desk since I was having some trouble getting our picture from last night to load. It was a madhouse! It had been pretty laid back there the day before, but today was a different story. Took us over 30 minutes to even find a parking space and it was way down at the other end of the Marketplace from DaT. So it wasn’t as simple a stop as I had imagined it to be, but at least we got an extra hour or so in Disney 🙂

Chapter 8. The Non-Disney Days
(** Explanation – I initially wrote this report for a Disney World messageboard, so naturally I left out any detail about the “other” part of the trip after we left Disney. So I apologize, that my memory, now months later, is not as detailed as it was when I wrote the rest. That’s why this part is so short. Sorry! I’ll make up for it by including lots of pictures.)

We drove on down to Port Saint Lucie, and hung out at Ashley’s apartment until her husband Scott got home from work. Then we went to eat at a little restaurant down by the beach, though by that time it was too dark to see much. had a nice time visiting together though. Afterwards, the kids and I went to our hotel down the street, and made plans to meet Ashley the next day.

She ended up coming to our hotel for breakfast, and it took both of us to control a very Owen-child! Finally I let Lily take him back to the room by herself while we finished up and paid. She thought that made her feel very grown-up 🙂 We spend some time just hanging out in the room and enjoying each other’s company until it was time to check out.

 

 

 

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We met Scott in town for lunch, and took the kids to the park and for a walk beside the water. Ashley had a Drs appointment, and had asked if I could keep Aiden while she was there. So we dropped her off, then headed over to Wal-mart, mostly just to kill time, but also picked up a few supplies I thought we might need for the rest of the week. So I got a little taste of what having 3 kids would be like, ha! Fortunately Aiden slept for most of it.

After we picked up Ashley and dropped her off at home, it was time to make the drive to Naples, where we would spend the next couple of days with my parents. We spent an afternoon at the Naples Zoo with Lily’s cousins, Cassie and Cam. Though Cam wasn’t feeling well. But the kids had fun seeing the animals and especially playing on the zoo playground. The heat sent us home earlier than we would have liked – man was it ever a scorcher!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only way to beat the heat was in the water -so we spent a lot of time in the pool. Lily loved getting to chase and splash around with her cousins, and Owen was being his usual water-loving self.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The day before we left, Lily and I both ran in the “Get You Rear in Gear 5K”. The race didn’t allow strollers, so Owen stayed with Grandma and Grandpa. They both enjoyed getting to see us cross the finish line, and Lily and I both had really good times!

After the race, it was time to head back to Orlando (** and here is where my initial trip report picks back up, sorry if it’s an awkward transition!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 9. A Little More (Unplanned) Disney!
The following Saturday, we drove back up to Orlando, since we were flying back out of MCO, and went to Titanic the Experience (on I-Drive). Lily has been fascinated with the Titanic since studying it last year, so she really enjoyed it. We toured through a museum with artifacts that have been brought up from the ship, and got to pretend to be one of the passengers, seeing if we were “saved” or “lost”. Us 3 girls were lucky enough to be 2nd-class passengers and made it out alive, but Grandpa, being a 3rd-class male, stood little chance. Lily also bought a replica of the Heart of the Ocean.

I had thought we would just get a quick dinner near our hotel (Holiday Inn near the airport) but we ended up deciding to go back to Downtown Disney.

Traffic was horrible though, and at the last minute we decided to go to the Boardwalk area instead. I hadn’t ever been there, and it’s one of my parents favorites. Again, did I mention traffic was bad??? I hate driving in Orlando! But we finally got there, and Owen was so hungry and I just wanted to get him something to eat, and quick. We agreed to try to get a table at Beaches-n-Cream, the soda-shop restaurant at Beach Club, so we took the boat over across the lagoon.

40 minute wait for a table, as I suspected, but there was no talking anyone out of it now. Lily got pretty grumpy right away, and Owen was almost beside himself. I probably was being a little too hard on Lily, trying to deal with Owen and all, but still I was disappointed with her behavior. She went off with my mom for a little while, and I took off to find Owen some milk to hold him over until dinner, and Lily finally came back with my mom, sporting a new pair of flip flops.

Owen could see the beach balls on the booths through the window, and was screaming “Baaaaallllll” every time we went by. Unfortunately we didn’t get a booth though, and keeping him in his high chair was next to impossible, so my dad spent quite a bit time walking around outside with him.
Afterwards, it was getting very late, and we had a VERY early flight the next day so I was feeling stressed that we needed to get back, but… remember that basketball I bought Owen? Well we had somehow lost it in the last 5 days, so I thought, no problem I’ll just pick up another one. With all these shops it can’t be too hard to find, they had been all over the place at DTD. But, we struck out, one shop after another.

Finally found him a soccer ball instead at the ESPN store, so that would have to do. As we were getting ready to take the boat back, Illuminations was starting and we stood on the dock and watched the fireworks. Lily thought it was amazing, and I was glad we had stayed late enough, even if we would regret it in just a few short hours 🙂
On the way out, both kids were playing with their new balls as we walked (Lily had gotten a mini volleyball), and fortunately the other guests around us didn’t seem to mind when Owen’s ball would periodically roll in front of them or hit them. Several people even stopped and tossed or kicked it to him a few times, pretty cool!

We had a small confusion when it turned out the valet guy had left his cell phone in my parents car… they thought it was their phone at first and couldn’t figure out why the screen was all “messed-up”, lol! So we had to take it back. But then it was back to our hotel, for just a few hours of sleep before our early morning flight home. I was thinking all evening that if I had known we would end up coming back to Disney that night I would have just booked rooms there again, but oh well.

Chapter 10. Wrapping up, and Looking Forward
So, it was just a quick trip, but enough to satisfy my immediate Disney craving, and now I am super excited to plan our big trip next year. I found myself wishing several times that we were going to at least one park, but it was super fun just to be there and soak up the atmosphere. And Brian never would have forgiven me, lol! We did find out just before we left the info we had been waiting on about Lily’s school situation, and it looks like we will be able to make a spring trip (hopefully late April) work next year. All of our big trips before have been in June so this will be a treat.

I think we are still leaning towards the Contemporary, though Brian did bring up the Beach Club again when we were telling him about our Boardwalk Adventure. (We considered it when we went two years ago and stayed at Caribbean Beach Resort). And Lily still really wants to stay a couple of nights at Art of Animation. So we will see. More options means more pre-planning spreadsheets to make, Yay! (I know, I’m a dork)