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.
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| On the people mover at MCO |
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| 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.”
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| "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.
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| Anna's bag |
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| 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.
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| Waiting for the boat to DTD |
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| 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.
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| giant dragon made of LEGOs. |
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| 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…
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