Taking a break from the trip report...

I’m at my desk at school.  The students are working on their own blogs while I’m working on mine.  The Common Core curriculum requires students to use the internet for publishing.  This is yet another example of the fact that Education rules and guidelines are not written by educators.  I had to do a lot of leg work to make this possible and then more leg work to get it up and running.  Geesh! 

Anyway…

I’m exhausted.  Seriously exhausted.  The weekend cannot come too soon for me.  The kicker of today is that Jack and Julianna both have today and tomorrow off from school.  Their school district recognizes Jewish holidays, mine does not.  So my little ones rolled out of bed and off we went to Auntie’s in their jammies and with their little messy bedheads.  Plus it is a rainy day.  Oh, and I forgot my coffee at home.  I didn’t get the chance to get coffee until I got through traffic and to my regular Dunks.  I think I’ll offer to buy Jo a coffee if she goes and gets me one, too.

The kids are still doing well in school.  I’m supplementing Jack’s reading materials by having him read to me every night and during the day when I can.  Fortunately, he’s on an I Spy kick.  While these books aren’t particularly challenging, he enjoys them and he does have to sound a few words out.  He’s kind of a lazy reader.  If he can persuade someone to do it for him, he will.  He tries to convince us that he can’t read, but then he’ll ask us questions about signs he’s read along the road while we’re driving, giving himself away.  We’ve got a ton of little I Spy books that should keep him occupied for a while.  In the meantime, I’ll be on the lookout for something to replace them when he’s done. 

Anna is doing well.  I went to her IEP meeting on Monday morning.  That was good, I guess.   She’ll start going full day Mondays through Thursdays, with a half day on Fridays.  That should get her ready for kindergarten.  I also got them to add an amendment saying that they would base all instruction off classroom performance and not the Psych Eval.  Both the chair and Anna’s teacher swore up and down that Anna is not only not “borderline,” but that she is really very bright.  Thank you.  The fact that they said that makes me feel better, but the fact that they actually wrote the amendment makes me feel more comfortable with kindergarten looming on the horizon.  I would hate for there to be a miscommunication about it because that would hurt Anna, and I would have to get ugly.  No one wants me to get ugly.  It’s just so much better for everyone if I don’t have to get ugly. 

Anna’s teacher did say that Anna had a little problem with being appropriate with other children.  She likes them so much, that she just wants to be NEAR them.  Apparently she touches them (I’m assuming she tries to hold their hands; I’ve seen her do that at Disney), and she gets right in their faces.  I’ve definitely seen her do that.  I kind of wonder if it’s because she’s so much taller than everyone else that she’s got to bend down to make eye contact.  It does kind of freak other children out.

Ballet is going well so far.  We’re only two classes into it.  Anna loves it.  Her teachers come out and get the class and she goes off and gets in line with the other girls.  They make a train to get to the studio, so she’s there with her hands on the shoulders off the girl in front of her.  She doesn’t mess around in line, either.  She’s completely appropriate as far as I can see.  When the class is over, she comes back to me, very happy to see me, and she tells me what she does in the class.  I like that she does that.  I think she needs something just for her, at least for a little while.  This is just hers, not Jack’s and hers or just Jack’s.  She’s never really had that before.

Jack is headed back to Tae Kwon Do at the place he used to go.  If you’ve been reading along, you can understand that I had reservations about this, and I’m still not comfortable with it.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like the idea of the program, the ideals, the creed, etc.  I do think though that they’re a little overextended.  We took a break from it for a while for many reasons.  One is because it would have been about six months for Jack to move up to the next class, and he had been doing the same thing for a year and a half; he was a little bored with it.  Another reason is that the overextension of the Master came at the expense of my son.  Jack was slighted in many ways.  I know that they weren’t out to hurt him; they were just operating at a level they couldn’t really manage, but it just seemed that it was at Jack’s expense more than any other child’s.  It was not ideal.  I can’t tell you how many days I drove home from karate, trying very hard not to cry because Jack had been slighted and had known that he had been slighted.  If he hadn’t realized what was going on, that would have been one thing, but he knew and he asked me.

At first we looked at another place completely.  John found a place near us that was actually a little scary.  It was four nights a week, for an hour, even for the little ones.  Their demo team scares the shit out of me, to be honest.  John liked it because of the structure and because he thought it would toughen Jack up a bit.  But the commitment is a little too much, honestly.  Maybe he could have handled it, but I couldn’t have.  Not at all.

So since we liked the program of the place Jack had started in, we decided to go to another place that was part of the “chain.”  It seemed ideal to me because the time was 6:30 – 7, which meant that I wouldn’t have to drag Anna Banana, which is a big relief.  She can’t sit for that long with her game or her book or anything really.  And now that she doesn’t cry and hide with me when people cough or sneeze, there’s no way she will sit that long and wait for her brother.  So John brought him to a private lesson and to watch a class. 

John took Jack to the private lesson and told the guy who runs this particular dojo (or whatever it’s called) that he liked the program, but he was frustrated with the way it was run at the original place.  The problem with that is the guy who runs the new place is a former student of the guy who runs the old place who also happens to be the guy who developed the whole program way back in the ‘80’s.  So the new guy was very uncomfortable.  And I guess Jack mentioned that he wanted to go to the old place and not the new place (except his mama didn’t want him to—talk about heartbreak.  Yes, I sobbed about that one, folks, and spent a night with a stuffy nose and head because of it).    John took Jack to watch the class that Jack would be in the new place and I guess it’s tight with over 30 kids in the class.  John also said that the kids’ at the old place were more skilled.

So after they left the new place, John took Jack to the old place to see about getting him back into the old place, but in a higher class.  Apparently, the Master couldn’t speak with John at the time, but would call him back.  I’m not sure if he did or not, but last night John brought Jack to check out the higher class at the old place.  Apparently, the Master was excited to see John and Jack and was ready to take Jack back.  He told them that Jack could start right away, just jumping into the higher age group class—the class for 7-12 year olds.  Also, there’s this girl there—I shouldn’t call her a girl.  She’s got to be in her early 20s and she’s just an amazing teacher and organizer—who made a big deal about seeing Jack, so he felt welcomed.

I’m not quite sold on this one.  The one thing that’s preventing me from throwing a huge fit over this is that John has decided that he’s handling the whole thing and has even moved around his work schedule to accommodate it.  Even the fact that John will have to pick up Jack at ballet class on Wednesdays to bring him to karate isn’t a problem.  They tried it yesterday, and got there in plenty of time to spare.  There is one snag, and that is that sometimes, John won’t be able to do it.  If John has to work late one karate night, he can bring Jack on the following Saturday.  It’s really not a big deal. 

The big problem will hit in a little while.  With this age grouping, they only have three belt levels per class.  So once Jack gets to his purple bet, which may be in March, he’ll have to go at a different time—earlier in the day.  Which means that at the end of March-beginning of April, I’m back to schlepping the kid and his sister to karate two days a week.

We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

The next bit was added much later in the day:

My stomach hurts.  It absolutely hurts for two reasons.

1) I sent a very angry email today.  Not usually my style, but some times it happens.  I had a friend read the email, but she wondered if I should soften it some because I was so angry.  Because I had already sent the very angry email, I sent one that hopefully sooths the angry one a little bit.  Now I have to wait because I won't hear back from the sendee until tomorrow.  Yikes.

2) I had a little conversation this afternoon with the little boy next door.  Actually it wasn't a conversation--a dialogue.  It was a monologue.  His monologue.  I'm not sure what he told me, but it was either:

"I have new friends because we're not friends anymore and I need to get new friends."  

Or

"I have no friends because we're not friends anymore and I need to get new friends."

Couldn't make it out because his mother really hates us and doesn't want him to talk to us, so she was yelling at him.

I don't really care that she hates us.  Honestly, that doesn't bother me.  Hate away.  What makes my stomach hurt is that either way, whatever he said, it was sad.  The other reason why it makes my stomach hurt is because his affect was off.  He greeted me with a big smile and a "Hi, Jen!"  Before I could reply, his mother was yelling at him.

Commentary about Some Goods and Services

We chose our vacation dates primarily because of economy.  “Value” season at Disney World began on 8/16/11 this year, and a free dining package was rolled out beginning on 8/19/11.  We took advantage of both.

Here are some thoughts on some of the “options” we took advantage of during our trip.

“Value Season”

We very quickly learned that “value season” does not equate low crowd levels.  The place was packed.  Oddly, though, while we were sweaty elbow to sweaty elbow with the masses, we didn’t spend a lot of time in line.  Oh, we waited (for one ride over 70 minutes), but the norm was less than 20 minutes.  Of course we did avoid a lot of the “major” attractions because they really weren’t appropriate for our kids.  And the hotel room was about $20-$30 cheaper per night during value season.

Disney Dining Plan

The dining plan was good for us.  Because of the hotel we stayed at, we got the regular Disney Dining Plan.  This provided each of us with one snack credit, one sit down meal credit, and one counter (“quick”) service meal per person per night of our stay at no additional cost to the trip.  Despite our best efforts to “spend” the credits, we left some credits behind when we left.

The dining plan allowed us to eat “better” than we would have otherwise.  For example, we ate at four separate character dining restaurants.  While the character dining meals are not as expensive as some of the sit-down places, we probably wouldn’t have done four if we were paying for them ourselves.  John and I ate at a restaurant that is classified as a “Signature Dining Experience” for our “date night.”  We had planned to pay out of pocket for this meal because we had figured that we would have run out of table service credits.  We planned to spend about $200 for the meal—“Signature” apparently means “damned expensive.”  When we actually got the hang of the dining plan, we realized that we could use the dining credits to pay for most of the meal.  In the end, we shelled out about $50 and 4 dining credits, but that was definitely better than what we had planned.

I would definitely go for the dining plan again, if I could get it for free.  I’d need to think about whether or not I would shell out the dough for it or it’s “deluxe” and “quick service” counterparts.  While there is great flexibility in how you “spend” your credits, there is no way to really choose how many credits you get.  You are allotted one of each credit for each night you stay.  It’s difficult to use all of those credits, so it’s very likely you will be paying for credits you don’t use.  It’s also not an option to get additional credits.

It’s also not as easy to use as it could be.  It took John a couple of days to get the hang of it.  I think I understand it now…

The credits also expire at midnight on the day you checkout.  You cannot carry any that remain for your next stay.

Also, it’s not all inclusive.  Alcoholic beverages are not included, nor are appetizers for adults and the gratuity on the bill.

It also makes paying the bill a little hectic, particularly if you have people from different rooms (and thereby different dining plans) in your dining party.  First, your server will bring the check for the table.  Then you tell the server how to break up the check—what to charge to whose plan (at one point, we took out a pen and paper and wrote down what should be charged to whom).  Then the server comes back with the new checks that (hopefully) reflect the proper billing.  He or she will then awkwardly ask you how you would like to handle the gratuity and then bustle back to charge your plan for the meals you’ve eaten.  Then he or she will come back to give you the final bill to sign.

Then there is the absolutely outrageous amount of food.  It’s downright wasteful.  At buffets you can kind of control that by only taking what you will eat, but at other places it’s incredible.  There were several times when we ate at a counter service restaurant and John and I easily could have shared a meal; yet, we got both.

Having the dining plan allowed us to do some things that we would not have done otherwise.  As I said, John and I had a great meal at the fraction of the cost we would have paid out of pocket.  Also we did do a lot of character dining.  We would have done at least one had we paid for it ourselves, but all four of the meals were pretty awesome in their own ways.  The meals themselves were better than we had anticipated and the characters were great. 

Bottom line on the Disney Dining Plan:

I would gladly do it again if I could get it for free; however, I would have to do some serious math if I was paying for it out of pocket.  It would be interesting to see how much our meals would have cost us.

Disney’s Magical Express

We also opted to make use of Magical Express, Disney’s “free” transportation from and to the airport.  It is a service that is provided at no additional cost to whatever package you purchase.

I was on the fence about this one because my previous experience with the Magical Express was neither magical nor express.  In fact, they failed to deliver a piece of luggage and then told me that it never arrived at the hotel.  It had, in fact, arrived at the hotel.  They failed to deliver it, and bell services gave me a very un-Disney-like hard time about it.  Of course, the suitcase in question was the one with all of the baby stuff in it, like diapers and food.

The two key factors with this trip that tipped me in favor of Magical Express were:

1)    It’s “free”—there’s no additional cost above room and ticket prices to anyone staying at a Disney hotel for this service.

2)    It meant that I didn’t have to worry about car seats.  While there are some good things about car services, car seats can be tricky to manage.  By using the Disney’s Magical Express, a bus, we avoided the whole car seat issue entirely.

On the way down, the service was both magical and express indeed.  We waited very little and our luggage was delivered promptly.  I don’t even remember if we went to another hotel first to drop off passengers or not…The key thing, though, was that we didn’t have to deal with our luggage when we got to the hotel and our room wasn’t ready.  We only had to manage our take-on gear, not our suitcases as well.

The problem was really on the way home.  It was decidedly less magical and the bus actually arrived a little late.  That didn’t really matter because they got us to the airport ridiculously early. 

We didn’t use bell services because we had an early pick up (6:40 a.m. for a 9:50 a.m. flight).  So we schlepped our luggage down to the Magical Express waiting area.  As I said, the bus was a little late (not really a big deal, but annoying after having to schlep my own luggage to the bus, onto the bus, off the bus and to the sky cab.  We were at the airport way too early.

The wait at the airport was an ordeal.  We were all tired and ready to go home or ready to go back to the hotel.  The last place we wanted to be was at the airport.  We were crabby and we were just ready to be on our own.  For the adults and Jack, it would have been manageable, but for Anna this was awful.  She was glued to me.  She was jumpy.  She was biting (which is an old trick she pulled out just for this occasion).  It was all directed at me.  It was probably the worst nearly three hours of my life (to be added to the nearly 9 hours it took us to get home from there).

I think next time we go, I will use the Magical Express for the trip from the airport, but maybe hire a town car or something for the drive to the airport, even if that means schlepping car seats.  Then I can pick the times and not have to spend so much time in agony.

Photo Pass:

Disney plants photographers around their parks and you can have them take your picture.  You can have them use your camera or theirs or both.  When you get your picture taken, the photographer will scan a Photo Pass card.  Whenever you get your picture taken, just give the photographer your card.  Once you get home, you can access the Photo Pass Pictures from your computer and you can order a variety of products—photo books, CDs, mugs, t-shirts, etc.  You can also add borders and images to your pictures.  The CDs are kind of cool because you pay one flat rate to have your pictures put onto CD—regardless of how many CDs that takes.  The price for the CD is generally $140, but if you order it before you go it’s only $99.

I shelled out the $99.  We had 75 Photo Pass pictures when we came home.  Then, I went through and added images and borders to many of the pictures.  Then Disney added some additional content (some random pictures of characters).  When all was said and done, we then had 138 pictures.  Not quite worth $99.  I’m trying to rationalize this, though.  Part of the $99 is the licensing fee which means that I can take these pictures anywhere and print out as many of every and any picture on my CD as I would like.  That’s cool, but I’m not quite convinced that it is worth the $99.

Of course, I love the pictures.  I truly do.  On the other hand, it would have been worth it to have taken more.  But we either forgot, or we were in a rush to get somewhere or everyone was too tired.  You can easily differentiate the pictures from the end of the trip from the pictures from the beginning of the trip.  This is because Anna was so done at the end of the trip that one of the adults had to physically hold her in place to pose for the pictures.

Another down side is that while our Splash Mountain pics are stored on our CD and we can reprint them to our hearts’ content, we still had to shell out an additional $28.

Day Two of Vacation Part One

Friday, August 19, 2011

The alarm on my phone went off at 3:45 a.m., which is brutal by the way.  I got up and scurried around getting things together.  John was up not long after, having set his alarm for 4.  Once we were dressed, we got the kids up.  They were grumpy and slow to move at first, but the excitement was building.  Once we got out of the room and the kids were rolling their suitcases down the hallway, their excitement was palpable. 

Of course, our room was the last room at the end of a long corridor.  So I apologize to anyone who was in any of the rooms between us and the elevator.  The suitcase wheels were pretty loud, but so was Anna who kept stopping to make sure that I was following her.  “Come on, Mama!”

The shuttle was ready pretty soon after we got downstairs.  We were able to grab a couple of muffins and some juice and coffee on our way from the hotel lobby.  There were a few other people on the shuttle with us, and they were not as happy or as excited as my two little travelers.

The hotel was nice.  It was clean, the beds were nice, the restaurant decent, the breakfast free.  Having said that, I’m not quite so sure I would do this again—that has more to do with what happened on the last day of our trip than anything else.  And actually, the hotel was really not that close to the airport.  It certainly wasn’t much closer than my in-laws’.  No amount of swimming and free breakfast could make up for the issues on the last day.

The shuttle dropped us at our terminal.  I wanted to use the sky cab service which had no line.  John started the process and then decided that he didn’t like the sky cab guy and abruptly walked away.  I was at the end of the line of husband, children and luggage, so I didn’t see what happened.  He just didn’t like the sky cab guy, I guess.  He then decided we would go in and wait in line.  It was close to 5:00 a.m. by now, and we had plenty of time.  He expected there to be no line.  He was wrong.  We had to wait in line.  It wasn’t a long line, but the people working there were not really efficient.  Other families were checking in for their trips to Disney.  A couple in front of us was going to Nevada and bringing lobsters.  We chatted for a while.  We really didn’t have any place to go and we had plenty of time, but waiting in line was annoying.  It seemed to drag because there were only two people working and they weren’t working very fast.  I'm not sure if it was my imagination, but they seemed to be purposefully slow. 

Finally we got to check in.  As we were checking our luggage, we had two minor snags.  The first was that my careful packing gave us a bag that weighed 51 pounds—one pound over the limit--which just resulted in a tag on the bag warning whoever was going to lift it up that it weighed 51 pounds and not 50.  Again, this ended up not being a big deal, but I was afraid we were going to have to pay a fine or something.  The second was Anna’s separation from “Zuitcase.”

We really haven’t gone anywhere with the kids that has required a suitcase.  We’ve been able to throw whatever we need for a trip into our IKEA bag or a laundry basket or something.  We have really just done road trips.  In honor of flying, I bought the kids suitcases.  Anna’s is pink and has butterflies on it.  Jack’s is blue with airplanes on it.  They both REALLY like their suitcases.  They played with their suitcases a lot before we left on the trip.  I should have seen this coming.

Anna freaked when I went to put her suitcase on the scale.  She started to run from me.  John wanted to let it go—it really is carry-on size and a lot smaller than what most people carry with them.  But I knew that it would be one more thing I (not Anna, not John, but me) would have to deal with.  It was getting checked, dammit.  So I grabbed her by the armpit, wrenched the case from her little fingers and put it on the scale.  She screamed and sobbed.  I, cold-hearted mother that I am, just let her do it.  Mama created a scene.  John tried to rationalize with her that the suitcase would be there at Disney World when we got there…I waited until she calmed down before I attempted logic and reason.

She stopped screaming by the time we got to security.  There was something new to look at, so she was distracted from her loss.  She went through better than I thought.  She took her flip flops off, surrendered her back pack to pass through the ex-ray machine, and walked through the magic door (metal detector).  Jack had no problems with the whole thing.  He handled it like a professional.  By the time we were finding a place to sit near our gate, she had come to terms with her separation from Zuitcase.  She did ask for it.  I told her that Mickey was going to bring it to our hotel.  She stopped asking.  I’m pretty sure that she didn’t see the logic, but she was distracted by the new place she was in.

We were able to watch the sun rise over the airplanes.  When we sat down and looked out the window it was pitch black.  We could see nothing out the window.  In minutes the world lightened up and planes began to magically appear on the tarmac in front of us as if they were popping up out of thin air.  I have to admit that it was kind of cool.

We were boarding before too long.  Fortunately, the first and last legs of the trip were not filled.  No one had to sit next to us.

On the first leg, we sat toward the back.  Jack and John sat behind Anna and me.  This was a mistake because Anna kept kicking the seat in front of her which was occupied by someone who was not amused by her actions.  She wasn’t the worst behaved kid I’d ever met, but she was very fidgety.  The woman would sit up and forward so that she couldn’t feel Anna kicking.  At first I felt bad and I stopped Anna from kicking.  Then I didn’t feel so bad because I could see the woman looking back and giving me dirty looks.  She was also making comments to the person next to her.  When the plane landed, we moved so that Anna sat behind Jack.  It didn’t really matter if she annoyed her brother as that is not something he isn’t used to.  I wanted to swap out the parents, too.  It was exhausting to entertain Anna.  She wanted nothing of the stuff in her back pack.  She was more amused with opening and shutting the window screen.  Even more unfortunately for me, she wanted nothing to do with her father either.

During the second leg of the flight, the woman who had the misfortune to sit next to us ordered a rum and coke at 9 o’clock in the morning.  I was jealous.  She said that she had had a horrible return flight.  She had been to New Jersey and had been held up by thunderstorms and that it was taking her over 24 hours to get home.  Add Anna into that mix and anyone would need a rum and Coke.

During the first leg, the flight crew gave the kids bags that had wings in them and a coloring book.  Anna and I played with that for a little while over the course of the flights, but she was way more interested in bouncing and playing with the shades.

As I mentioned earlier, we got really cheap flights.  Super cheap flights.  There was a pay-off though.  Not only was the flight out super early in the morning, it also made two stops before it reached Orlando.  What was normally a 3 hour flight turned out to be a 5 hour ordeal.  I was exhausted.  Meanwhile, John and Jack played Angry Birds on the iPad.

It was glorious when the plane landed and we got off.  Anna asked for her suitcase, but she was excited by the new airport and didn’t worry about it too much (or at all) when we put her off.

We finally landed, boarded the people mover, and went straight to the Disney’s Magical Express.  The people mover was kind of cool.  I had been on it a few times before, but it was nice to see the kids’ faces.  It was a little bit of a hike to get to the waiting area for the Magical Express, but we just followed the families in front of us.  It was nice not to have to sort out our luggage, too.  We just had the back packs and the kids.  Easy.  We were put in a line.  The line wasn’t too long—I think there were only three girls in front of us.  We waited maybe 15 minutes and then were let onto a bus. 

On the people mover at MCO

On Magical Express Bus

Anna mentioned her suitcase once we were in line, but was easily distracted by what was going on around her and by the placating, “Mickey’s going to bring it right to your room!”

We found seats on the bus.  We did have to wait while other people got on, but before too long, we were on our way.  The kids were just buzzing with excitement.  That buzz lasted the whole trip.

I think we stopped off at some other resort, but it really wasn’t long before we were driving into Port Orleans—French Quarter.  In the meantime, Geri was texting me saying that she and Kristy were at the outlets.  Val was texting me, giving me updates on what was going on with Karen and the others who were driving.  It was a veritable texting frenzy.

Geri and Kristy drove in from Texas.  They arrived earlier than we did and they went to the outlets before checking in.  Karen, my parents, Liz and Haley drove from Connecticut.  They did the trip in two days and arrived shortly after we did.  My little family flew from Boston.  Val was flying out later from one of the smaller New York airports.

When we got off the bus, we went toward the lobby.  Before we had gotten into the actual hotel, the kids had been given Mardi Gras beads from a staff member who was out to greet the bus and doubloons from the doorman.  They were thrilled.  It really sounds hokey when you read it, but both were really nice touches that made us feel welcome and the kids feel excited.

Check in was a snap.  Since we had already checked in on line, everything was waiting for us.  There was only one family ahead of us in line, and they were a little disgruntled when we got called up immediately without having to wait.  They had not done on line check in and there was a lot of stuff that had to be done for them.  So even though we'd been called up after them, we were done before they were.  We had our room keys/park tickets/meal counter cards (AKA Keys to the World) and were headed toward the food court in five minutes or less.  I think they were upset because our check in was so easy and they had to go through a bigger process.

The food court was overwhelming to me and to John, too.  I think the kids were overwhelmed, too.  I got us quesadillas.  I didn’t use the dining plan we had because I was afraid we would run out of points, but I bought two quesadillas and we split them.  It honestly would have been a waste of dining plan points or money to have bought more food.  John got us our mugs which we immediately filled. 

It was a good deal.  The mugs were $12 a piece and we could refill them at any hotel, at any time without having to shell out more money.  I don’t think John really believed me before our trip when I told him that we should do this.  And honestly, I thought he would buy only two mugs and force us to share, but he immediately saw the value and ponied up the money for four mugs.  We each had our own mug filled with low fat pomegranate lemon aid.  The kids were thrilled because John had also thrown caution to the wind and bought them Mickey shaped straws. 

We at our lunch and looked at the packet of information that had been given us at check in.  Jack didn’t like the chicken in the quesadillas, so I had to pick it out for him.  Anna just ate.  She was just so happy.

There was a little flagging during lunch.  Jack started to border on weepy and Anna was not happy to have to stay at the table.  I think that they had been waiting to get to the hotel and to Disney for so long that they were just a little disappointed that we had to stop for lunch.  Besides which, they had been up since just after 4 in the morning.  They were tired, too. 

Our room wasn’t ready, but I didn’t think it would be.  So I had packed our bathing suits in John’s back pack.  We went to the pool area and directly to the bathrooms to change into them.  We had just come out of the changing rooms to meet up and were wearing our bathing suits when John got a text saying that the room was ready.  We postponed our trip to the pool and went in search of our room.

In the meantime, Karen, my parents, Liz and Haley had arrived.  We saw Karen unloading the car as we were walking toward our room.  We yelled down to her, and she looked exactly as I would have looked had I spent so much time in the car with my parents and her children (or anyone’s parents and children for that matter). 

Our room on the third floor of building three.  My parents, Karen and Val were in room 3335.  John, the kids and I were in room 3336.  The girls were in 3337 and Geri and Kristy in room 3338.  The rooms were “standard” which equates to “Parking lot view.”  That really wasn’t a big issue since there was some pretty thick landscaping between us and the parking lot.  We could also, as we found out later, see from the balcony the fireworks from Epcot with only a little tree interruption.

On the bed closest to the door was a Mickey head made out of rolled towels.  It was a nice little welcome, but it didn’t last long enough for me to take a picture.  Anna wanted to explore the room so she put her new cup on the bed and it, of course, spilled.  We needed to quickly use the towels to clean up the juice before it stained the bedspread.

The kids were happy to see everyone and to see the room, but they were itchy to see—and get into—the pool.  Just as we were about to leave to go to the pool, we were met by bell services with our luggage.  Mickey did not deliver it himself, but Anna was thrilled because not only was “Zuitcase” there, but so was her “perfect baby carriage.”



"our balcony"



I had thrown around the idea of renting a stroller, but had been unprepared to spend that much money.  It was outrageous to rent from the park daily and kind of expensive to rent from an outside vendor.  We don't use the stroller at home so we don't own one that is rated to the weight of our children.  John was absolutely certain we wouldn’t need a stroller for Jack, but we both recognized that we needed one for Anna.  She probably could have managed some of the walking, but it was certainly nice to keep her corralled at all times.  She loved that thing!

We sorted the luggage and unpacked a little.  I cut the elastic off the bottoms of a pair of sweatpants, threw a t-shirt over my bathing suit and we went to the pool.  Everyone else, including Geri and Kristy who had arrived in the middle of our chaos, stayed behind to sort out their own luggage. 

The pool was great, by the way.  It had a water slide that was not too big, nor too little.  There was someone working there at the pool who organized activities and games for the kids.  There was dancing and a lot of loud music.  It was good, and crowded.  People without kids might not have appreciated the entertainment, but it was good for the kids.  At the changing of the lifeguard shift, the new guards would come out and do a line dance with the person organizing the games and music and with any and all kids (and adults) who were willing to join in.  We found a place to store our stuff and then went to go get wet.  Nice!

In the meantime, Karen had a little something up her sleeve.  She and my mother had put together gift bags filled with stuff—toys, games, markers, etc. for the kids.  She had planned on having them delivered to the room to be waiting for the kids and telling them that Mickey brought them.  She sent Haley to the front desk with the bags and asked them to have Mickey really bring them.  That wasn’t going to happen, but the front desk asked for a little bit of time and then to come down to see them.

While we were swimming, Karen, Geri, Kristy, and my parents came down to see us.  Karen bought John and me drinks from Mardi Grogs (get it?), the bar at the pool.  The kids were happy with the pool, but were ready to go see and do new things.  So as a group, the four of us plus the five who came to join us, all went to the lobby of the hotel to see what was up.  Why would concierge want to see us?

We got in the guest services line, but then we were asked to step out of line.  The manager asked us to stay right there and he went behind the counter, into a back room.  When he came back out, he had the two bags with him, except they had tied balloons to them.  He asked Jack and Anna if they were “Captain Jack” and “Princess Anna.”  When the adults, not the kids, said that yes, they were, he handed over the bags saying that some very special people had left them.

Not only had the hotel staff added the balloons, which was very sweet, they had also included an autographed picture in each bag.  Jack’s picture was of Mickey and Minnie.  Anna’s was of the princesses.  It was magical to say the least.  The kids were thrilled.

So we went back to the room, and in still wet bathing suits, we rifled through the bags.  Lots of cool stuff.  The kids were thrilled.

Anna's bag

Jack's bag

It was cruising in on meal time.  We didn’t want to head into a park because the kids had been up since that morning and we didn’t know when the crash would come.  So we got dressed and headed toward Downtown Disney.  There is a shuttle boat from our hotel to Downtown Disney, so we went to the dock.  We waited only for a few minutes and then a boat came.  We really did enjoy the slow ride to Downtown Disney; however, while we were sitting on the boat, a storm seemed to be moving in.  When we got to the dock and got off the boat, they closed down the shuttle service because of the wind coming in.

Waiting for the boat to DTD

amusing himself waiting for dinner

The sky got dark and the wind kicked up, so we went to the nearest restaurant we could find.  It was the Rainforest Café.  We had just put our name in for a 15 minute wait, when one of the servers came out and said that there were tables on the terrace and that there was no wait.  So we went with her.  The terrace was right on the water with a big enough roof over it that we wouldn’t get wet if it rained.  It never rained.  It just got dark.

giant dragon made of LEGOs.

soooooo tired!

It was actually pretty good that we didn’t eat in the actual restaurant.  When we got our check, John waited to pay and I brought the kids to check out the inside of the restaurant.  Jack was a little intimidated by the noise and the animals.  We all, however, really enjoyed the fish in the fish tanks around the place.

The storm never came.  It cooled down and there was a strong wind, but no rain.  We strolled around Downtown Disney and caught a bus back to our hotel.  We watched the Epcot fireworks from our balcony.  Then we all fell into bed and fell sound asleep until…

What I Did Over Summer Vacation

Trip Report

Walt Disney World August 2011

Background information:

We had originally planned to bring the kids to Walt Disney World in August of 2010 to celebrate our tenth anniversary.  Unfortunately, John got laid off from his job of 9 years in December of 2009.  He remained unemployed for about six months--enough time for the little odd jobs around the house to get started, but never really finished.

He landed up with a great job (at that point any job would have been “great”), and was back to working by July 2011.  That was definitely good, but it meant we couldn’t take a trip to Disney—or anywhere for that matter.  So last summer, we went nowhere except the little pool in our backyard.  It was actually fine.  The kids and I had fun and John got adjusted to his job (and the job to him).

In August of 2010, we booked a trip to Disney.  We had initially thought we would invite a couple of relatives, but before we knew it, more of the Bailey family was coming than were remaining at home.  At first, I felt guilty about foisting my entire family on John for a week of what was meant to be an immediate-family trip, but the more I thought about it, the more I thought that the more the merrier.  I honestly don’t think my parents will make it back to “the World.”  And as my nieces are in their 20’s, we’re less and less likely to see them as they are making their own ways in the world.

So planning took on a frenzied pace and the trip loomed closer and closer.  I made plans and spread sheets.  I made dining reservations.  I got excited.  We went on the trip and then it was over.  There would have been a feeling of “What next?” but what was next was school a week away and that led to panic and stress.

Cast of Characters:

John, the kids (Jack and Anna), and Me

My parents, Margie and Howie

Karen, Valerie, and Geri—sisters and cousin

Liz, Haley, and Kristy—nieces and cousin

Big Anna—Liz’s friend

Alex—Kristy’s friend who came out to celebrate Kristy’s 21^st birthday with us

Here is the report:

Thursday, August 18, 2011

We had purchased our flights to Orlando in February.  The price of the flights was amazing ($65 per person per flight), but the departure time was 6:05 a.m. on Friday, August 19, 2011.  So we tried to figure out our options for getting to the airport on time.

I had thought we could spend the night at my in-laws (as they live closer to the airport than we do) and hire a limo or car service to bring us to the airport.  My father-in-law offered to drive us in, too.  John thought we should stay at a hotel, use their “park and stay” option, and use their shuttle to get to the airport.  Rather than argue with John over what would be a better option, we went with the hotel.  So John made reservations to spend Thursday night at the Comfort Inn and Suites in Revere.

On Thursday morning, I got the kids up and dressed and brought them over to Judy’s house for a little while.  There were things I needed to get done that would be accomplished more easily without them around.

I stopped at Stop and Shop and bought snacks for the flight down to Florida.  There would be no food on the flight and we would be travelling during breakfast time.  While there, I was texting with John.  I’m not sure why we just didn’t talk on the phone, but we were texting furiously.

I went home and finished packing up the bags.  Packing was not as easy as I thought it would be.  I had wanted to bring too much stuff, and had been throwing things in the suitcase as I thought of them for months.  I trimmed down some, but didn’t want to leave anything behind.  I did leave behind the closet organizers.  I had thought that they would help me organize the kids’ clothes, but they didn’t make it in the suitcase.  That was fine, by the way.  We were able to be organized with the space we had.  I pulled stuff out of the suitcase.  Put it back in.  Moved it around.  I had a panic attack because I had run out of room and still needed to pack our shoes!  We definitely needed shoes!  I searched through the house looking for bags.  We were flying Southwest, so we could bring with us 8 bags.  Thanks to some careful reshuffling, I ended up able to pack our shoes and some extra bags just in case.

By the time I had done everything I needed to do, it was close to 2:30.  I had wanted to check into the hotel early-ish so that the kids could swim in the pool.  So I loaded up the car and headed toward Judy’s to get the kids.  They were excited to go and excited to stay at a hotel.  They had stayed at one hotel before when we went to New York for a family gathering earlier in the summer.  The experience was still fresh in their minds.  They hadn’t been able to use the pool at that hotel; time had run out.  So they were very excited about getting to use the pool at this hotel.

We got to the hotel just after 4.  I hadn’t really factored in traffic.  I’m sure we missed much of it, but we sat for a while.  I decided that I’m really a South Shore girl.  Once you get through the tunnel, things just aren’t the same.  The birds stop singing and the air is grey.  OK.  Probably not, but it just seemed that way. 

Parking was limited at the hotel and for a moment I thought that we wouldn’t be parking or staying.  It wasn’t a big lot to begin with and it was pretty full.  When we got there, there were two empty spots.  One was for me, and the other for the guy who came in behind me.  The spot was not as close to the actual hotel as one would like, but it was a space.  Since pickin’s were slim, we took what they gave us.

The kids and I brought in some bags and checked in.  I have to admit right here and now that the sight of the children rolling their suitcases behind them and wearing their backpacks was super cute. 

Once we’d checked in and changed, we headed to the swimming pool.  The pool was not as nice as we thought it would be, nor as big as it appeared in the picture on line.  But it was bigger than what they were used to, and it had the novelty of being something different.  There were a couple of families there already.  One was just getting out and the other stayed and played with my two.  Anna bossed around the little girl.  They played well together; the little girl taking the bossing considerably well.  That family left and another family joined us.  This family was not so amiable.  I think they were put off by my children—particularly Anna.  By the time the other family arrived, my kids were cannonballing off the side of the pool at Anna’s command.  The mom was pretty frazzled, too, as she had the three kids who wanted to do what Anna was doing, but no dad to help her out.  Anna was in a floaty suit, so I didn’t really worry, but her three were free range and not really able to be as wild.  At about 6 p.m., we went back up to the room to get dry and wait for John.  The kids probably could have played longer, but I was cold and I wanted to give the other family a break.  Plus, we had to get dressed, get dinner and go to bed so we could get up prior to the crack of dawn to go to the airport.  He walked in the door pretty much immediately after we came back upstairs.  We dried up, got dressed and headed to the restaurant attached to the hotel:  Margarita’s. 

The appetizers were not very good, but the sangria was good and the entries themselves were good.  I forget what John had, but he liked it.  I had fried shrimp tacos that were really yummy.  I believe the kids had quesadillas, but don’t quote me.  Everyone was excited.

Then we went back up to the room.  The kids went to bed relatively easily.  You could tell they were excited, but they were good about going to bed.  The whole thing was cool for them because they were staying in a hotel on a pull-out sofa bed.  What could be better?

While the kids were in bed, John checked us in at the hotel at Disney using on line check in.  He watched the Patriots’ pre-season game that was on.  I think he was excited, too.

I showered and then went to bed.  I had a hard time falling asleep (because I was soooo excited!).  Once I did finally fall asleep, I heard the hall door opening.  Anna had gotten out of bed and had opened the door to the hall.  Fortunately, she hadn’t gotten out and when I called her, she closed the door and climbed back in bed.  I put the latch up on the top of the door and then lay back down, waiting for her to attempt another escape.

The Necco Wafer Factory was the view from the airport hotel.