House of Estrogen

Disney World 2013 Trip Report, Day 4, Epcot

Day 4 was Epcot. Easywdw had predicted really low crowds at Epcot that day. I wasn't too concerned about getting there for rope drop, but we somehow managed to head out from the resort pretty early anyway.

First stop was Soarin'.  Addie had cried all the way through this ride the last time we were there, so I was hoping for a better experience this time. We tried to prepare her fully for what it would be like. She ended up loving it! She cracked me up. She was smiling, laughing, and squealing through the entire ride. She would hold her arms out like she was pretending to be an airplane! What a difference two years makes! I love that ride anyway, but it made it even more fun to watch her enjoying it so much.

J.C. went to collect fastpasses for Test Track while I took the girls over to the Character Spot.

From there, we rode Soarin' again and then we were off to Test Track.  I wasn't sure how Addie would react to that one either, but after the success at Soarin' we decided to just go for it. She loved it! As soon as we got off she said she was ready to ride it again!

We didn't have a real agenda for the day besides making sure Addie got a nap in the afternoon, so we wandered around a bit checking out the topiaries that are part of the Flower and Garden festival.

Love Mater!

Elise and Nina as Phineas and Ferb

Addie as Tinker Bell.

It cracked me up that Mike Wazowski has a retainer!  I can't wait for Monsters University to come out.

For lunch, we strolled over to the U.K. in the World Showcase. We got fish and chips from the Yorkshire County Fish Shop. That was delicious! The food was excellent, and it was such a pretty day to be sitting outside next to the water and across from Captain Hook and Peter Pan.  If you're in need of a good counter service place in Epcot, I highly recommend the Fish Shop.

After lunch, we went back to the resort for some down time. We all needed it. On the way out, Nina spotted Goofy. She had been looking for him ever since she bought the Goofy hat.

When we got back to the resort, JC and Addie crawled in bed, and the girls somehow talked me into taking them to the pool.  Of course, finding the pool wasn't easy. We had to ask a couple of gardeners for directions, but we got there eventually.

This was when I finally found my love for Port Orleans Riverside. Riverside and I got off on the wrong foot. The resort is absurdly complicated to navigate, but I finally concluded that if you pay the upgrade for "preferred location", it is really quite a lovely place. The grounds are beautiful. The food is above average. The kids were completely entertained at the pool with a hula hoop contest, a dance party, and some sort of floating Mr. Potato Head game.

The best part of all though? The hammocks. This was my view from the hammock.

My new mandatory criteria for booking travel is that every hotel must have poolside hammocks and a bar that serves frozen margaritas.

I had told the girls I would let them swim for an hour at most. I think we stayed for three. The relaxing break from the parks midweek was so nice.  After a delightful afternoon half-snoozing in my hammock, it was time to head back to Epcot for our dinner reservations.

We had reservations in Canada at Le Cellier. JC and I had fond memories from Le Cellier five year ago. We had high expectations for another great meal. Isn't the area outside of Le Cellier beautiful?

We were seated fairly quickly, but our reservations were a bit later than Addie is used to dining. Before we had even placed our order, she began a complete and total meltdown. She threw a crayon at another table. When I tried to drag her out of the restaurant, she pulled the old, "I'm going to dislocate my arms at the shoulder and by manipulating gravity, make my body physically impossible for you to pick up" thing. I hoisted her up by the waist and dragged her butt outside. As I tried to calm her down, she sobbed, "I want my amimal blankie!!!"  I frantically texted JC for blanket delivery, but Le Cellier is in a cellar (thus the name), and he wasn't receiving any texts. Where is technology when you need it?  She eventually pulled herself together, and we went back inside.

J.C. ordered the pepper-crusted sirloin, and Elise ordered the New York strip. Both were tasty steaks - nothing spectacular, but certainly good. J.C. asked if he could get the potatoes that were normally served with Elise's steak rather than the starch that was supposed to come with his. He was told no. That really irked me. I know it is Disney World, but when you're paying $40 for a steak, is it really asking too much to slap a different sort of potato on the plate?  J.C. didn't mind, but it annoyed me to no end.

I ordered the Le Cellier Mushroom Filet Mignon. It was perfection... plain and simple. The wild mushroom risotto would have made a heavenly dish on its own. The steak was so tender I probably could have cut it with a butter knife.  My advice for Le Cellier is for every person in your party to order the Le Cellier filet. It was worth every penny and then some. The other steaks were "fine", but the filet is what had stayed in our memories from the trip five years ago. It was divine.

Nina and Addie both ordered the grilled chicken. It was tough and dry, so I wouldn't recommend that either.

Desserts were yummy. Addison got the chocolate moose,

and J.C. ordered some sort of chocolate deliciousness.

After dinner, J.C. and Nina took off for one last ride on Test Track. Elise, Nina, and I were planning on going straight back to the resort for sleep, but we took a quick detour on the Nemo ride.

Not surprisingly, after getting off the bus, we got lost trying to find our room again. We were completely befuddled by the sign that appeared to say "bldg. 14-18 straight ahead" on one side of the sign and "bldg. 16-17 straight ahead" on the other side of the sign. How is that possible? We needed building 17 and had no clue which directions to believe. Finally, Elise figured out that the "-" between 14 and 18 was actually a dot, not a dash. Apparently a dot (placed exactly where a dash would go) means "and" or "&" or ",". Why couldn't they use "and" or "&" or "," instead of a dot that looks exactly like a very short dash?  Sorry... I must get off the rant about the Riverside navigation... it completely ruins my pleasant hammock memories.

When we finally found the room, we arrived at the exact same time as J.C. and Nina. We had ridden Nemo with no line. They had ridden one of the most popular rides in the park. We had taken two different buses. We were lost long enough that they caught up with us. Nice.

We all fell into bed, having no idea what awful turn our vacation would take the next day.

Day 4 Favorites

Addison: Test Track, Soarin'

Nina: Test Track

Elise: Test Track, Soarin'

J.C.: Test Track

Ann: Spending the afternoon lying in the hammock with a margarita

Disney World 2013 Trip Report, Day 3, Disney's Hollywood Studios

Our Hollywood Studios day was the one day I was absolutely determined to get to the park by rope drop. We were NOT going to have a repeat of the morning before. We set the alarm, got up early, ate cereal in the room, and were at the bus stop right on time. We arrived at Hollywood Studios around 8:25 for an official park opening time of 9:00. 

Rope drop happened about 8:35... excellent. I told J.C. he was going to be our runner for Toy Story Mania fastpasses, "As soon as we get through the turnstiles, you run for fastpasses, we'll meet you there."  He said, "I don't know where it is though."  I just said, "Follow all the other people running who look like they know where they are going, and you'll find it."  Those instructions worked quite well... much simpler than pulling out a map. We met him at the stand-by line and walked right in... maybe a 10 minute wait. I love this ride. In fact, I think I may spend tonight playing the Wii game just to reminisce.

We hopped off and got right back in line.

At this point, I think the posted wait time was about 25 minutes. By the time we had ridden it a second time, the posted wait time was closer to an hour... gotta love rope drop happening 25 minutes before the official park opening time. We had already ridden it twice before most people thought the park had even opened!

With slightly sore arms from playing Toy Story Mania twice in a row, JC and Elise headed over to Tower of Terror while I took the younger two to get pictures with Buzz and Woody. Nina had so much fun in the queue.

We actually remembered to bring the autograph books this day too! Score!  Is Buzz the only character who rubber stamps his autograph? I've never seen any other character do that.

After that, it was a few more photo ops and then back to Toy Story Mania with our fastpasses!

Then we were off to lunch at Hollywood and Vine. Poor Hollywood and Vine gets a bad rap. No, it isn't 'Ohana or Boma in terms of food quality, but it serves a perfectly tasty buffet lunch. It filled us up, and we had no complaints.

Plus, you aren't there for an extraordinary culinary experience. You are there because your five year old is a HUGE fan of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. All Addie could talk about in the weeks leading up to our trip was the Dumbo ride and getting to meet Jake. She didn't care about Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Woody, Cinderella, or Mary Poppins. She was all about Jake. Unfortunately, this lunch was scheduled early enough in the week that Addie hadn't quite warmed up to the characters yet. Jake got to the table, and Addie froze. She wasn't about to get in a picture with him. Jake was great though. Addie had her stuffed Izzy (Jake's pal) with her, and Jake played a little hide and seek with Izzy.

Addie laughed hysterically.

That broke the ice, but she was still hesitant about a picture.  We knew she would regret it later if she didn't get a picture with Jake though, so JC grabbed her and hopped in the picture.

After lunch, we talked to a few of the "movie stars" who were out and about. They were hysterical!! We've never talked to any of them on previous trips, but they were so much fun!  They really cracked me up.

I think characters like these are part of what makes Disney World such a fun, unique, magical place!

We then hit up the Disney Jr. show for a little more time with Jake and Izzy before JC and Addie headed back to the resort for naps.

The rest of the afternoon, Elise, Nina, and I rode Tower of Terror (fun!!),

bumped into Stitch,

watched the Beauty and the Beast show (beautiful),

had a little chat with Chip,

went to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (great show... even Elise thought so after declaring with her tween tone and rolled eyes on the way in, "This is SO not going to be worth it."),

saw the Disney Channel Rocks Show,

and rode Rock n' Rollercoaster.  I hated that... shut my eyes through almost the whole thing. I won't be going on that again!  Elise didn't like it either. Nina loved it though. She'll have to convince JC to go on it with her for our next trip!

We got back to the room about the time JC and Addie were getting up from their naps. We were treated to a cute towel turtle from mousekeeping sitting on the bed next to Elise's turtle.

For dinner, we just went to the food court at the resort. I have to say that Riverside began to redeem itself at that meal. They have a design-your-own pasta bar that is fantastic. That was probably the best counter service meal of the trip. I got penne pasta with shrimp, fresh spinach, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts and pesto, all prepared fresh in front of me.  Delish! 

Day three was a busy day, but so much fun - Toy Story Mania three times, lots of other new rides and shows, Addie getting to meet Jake, and a great dinner.  After such a rough start the day before, it was wonderful to have everything go according to plan!

Day 3 Favorites:

Addie: Disney Jr. Show and buying Izzy

Nina: Rock n' Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror, stunt show

Elise: Tower of Terror, stunt show

Ann: Watching Addie laughing with Jake at lunch, Toy Story Mania

JC: Watching Addie with Jake at lunch, Tower of Terror

 

Disney World 2013 Trip Report, Day 1

Day one of our trip was mostly a travel day - car, plane, tram, bus, and boat. The girls were excited all along the way though.

We took the Magical Express to our resort. I love the Magical Express. They make transportation to and from your resort so easy. They deal with your baggage, so you don't even have to stop at baggage claim. You ride along in comfort while watching a video about Disney World and photographing your child squishing her nose against the window.

We got checked in to Port Orleans Riverside. Addison was running along the paths yelling, "Yahoo! Yahoo!!"  She was beyond thrilled and just looked so cute. J.C. turned to me and said, "We really need to capture that on video. It is so cute, and she won't do it much longer. It is the kind of thing we don't want to forget."  What a sentimental guy!  So, with my usual video prowess, I followed her along with my camera while she jumped for joy, ran along the path, and yelled, "Yahoo!"  It would have been such a sweet video for posterity. Instead, I got this:

I should never be trusted to capture video.

After we found our room (no small feat... more on that later), we took the boat over to Downtown Disney.  I love that the Port Orleans Resorts offer boat transportation to Downtown Disney. It is a nice change from buses. This night was chilly though, and about halfway there we were wishing for the warmth of a crowded, cozy bus.  After docking, we headed straight for the Lego store to meet up with my friend Allison Slater Tate, her husband, and their four sweet kids. We figured any table service places probably had ridiculous waits for our group of 11, so we headed to one of my favorite Disney counter service locations, Earl of Sandwich. I love that place!  It was so fun to see all our kids together.

Their three boys are almost the exact same ages as our three girls. I loved watching them interact and listening to their conversations about books they love, Disney World favorite rides, games, music, and more. Allison, the hubbies, sweet baby Lucy, and I sat at the adult table where Allison and I gabbed away.  It was a fun way to start the trip. Of course, I loved getting some baby snuggle time too!

After dinner, we wisely chose to take the bus back to Riverside to avoid the freezing boat ride. We got off at the bus depot that appeared to be closest to our room on the map. Then we started walking, and walking, and walking, and walking. We consulted the map, consulted directional signs, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked. It was ridiculous. We must have walked twenty miles, most of that in circles. It is a HOTEL! By nature of what it is, people are only there for short stays. Finding one's room should not be this complicated. We were cold, tired, and ready for bed. I muttered, "I hate this place. Stupid signs. I'll never stay here again." as we walked.  About the time I was ready to give up and sleep on the sidewalk we managed to find our room. Ahh... sleep at last.

Up next... a rough start to our first full day at the parks...

Disney World Trip Report, Days 7 and 8

 
Our last full day at the park was December 17, Addison's third birthday. The sun finally decided to warm things up, so we were treated to the best weather of the week. Addie was sporting her very cool birthday tee that my friend K made. (She also made the tees the girls wore to Animal Kingdom. Thank you K!!).

 

Our first order of business was to go by the front desk to pick up a birthday button for her. Even though the shirt pretty clearly spells out that it was her birthday, we knew all the cast members at the parks were trained to look for birthday buttons. The person working the front desk asked me her name and then asked Addie how old she was. She responded, "Free and a half." I told the front desk clerk that she was in fact just three, not three and a half. She had already labeled the button with "3 1/2" though, so we just took it and went on our way. This is a key piece of information for later that morning. In case you don't know, Disney World provides free lodging, park tickets, and buffet meals for children under three.

 

We had breakfast in the hotel at Captain Cook's. Elise and I split a piece of Tonga Toast since it was our last chance for that goodie. Then we hopped on the monorail and headed to Magic Kingdom. I walked up to the entrance like always, slid my ticket into the machine and placed my finger on the finger print scanner. Then I waited for the cast member to open the gate for Addie in the stroller. He looked at me and said, "She needs a ticket."  Crap. Stupid button and t-shirt! I said, "Really???? This is the last day of our trip. We've been here all week. She just turns three today."  He said, "No. She's three and a half", pointing to the button.  &*$# button!  "No! She just likes to say she's three and a half. She's not. She turns three today... later today. Really, this is our LAST day here. We've been here all week. Please don't make us buy a ticket on our last day"  He looked at me skeptically and then finally relented and said, "OK. I'll let you in." Whew! We promptly removed the button, went directly to Guest Services and obtained a new button with just her name on it.

Then we were off to Tomorrowland. J.C. went ahead of us to grab fastpasses for Space Mountain. Then we met up at Astro Orbiter. Addison loved this ride! It was so fun to watch her smiling and giggling through the whole thing!

 

Next, the girls and I used our fastpasses to ride Space Mountain. They loved it, but I have to say I was not a fan. It made my neck hurt. Clearly, I'm just getting old. After Space Mountain, we took a whirl on the People Mover. That was surprisingly much more fun than it looks like it would be! Do those sunglasses make me look like a fly?

 

 

By the time we were done with the People Mover, it was time for us to get to the entrance to Toon Town, so we could go in as soon as it opened. We followed Tour Guide Mike's instructions, and as much as I hate to admit it, I think he may have steered us wrong on this one. He recommended we follow his secret path to Toon Town. We did that, and it was definitely secret. We were the only ones on it. Unfortunately, I think they must have opened the main entrance a few minutes earlier than the secret entrance. By the time we got there, there was already a 30 minute wait to see the fairies in Pixie Hollow. Bummer. Honestly though, we can't complain too much since that is the longest line we had to wait in all week. As we got into the line, J.C. discovered that a pop tart had exploded in his backpack. Strawberry goop was everywhere, so he went back outside to find a bathroom and clean up the mess. That left me alone with the three girls waiting in the line. When we finally got to the very front of the line, within mere seconds of seeing the fairies, Addie yelled out a panicked, "I need to go potty!"  You really don't want to mess with a newly potty-trained just-turned-three year old when she says she needs to go potty. I looked around frantically trying to see if I could find a bathroom or flag down J.C.. I told the cast member what our problem was, and she responded, "Can't she just wait? You're almost there."  Clearly, she has never been the mother of a newly potty-trained just-turned-three year old. After waiting in that long line though, I decided to hope for the best. I knew we had spare pants in the pop-tart coated backpack if we needed them. I told Addie to hold it and crossed my fingers.

I don't know any fairies' names except for Tinker Bell, but there was an orangish one,...

 

a purplish one, ...

 

and the star of the show, Tinker Bell.

 

The second we were done, I picked up Addie and ran as fast as I could to the bathroom. Fortunately, we made it. Whew! After that, it was time for our lunch reservations at Crystal Palace. Addie had been talking all week about seeing "Pig-oh-lit", so we were all looking forward to lunch. Also, for the last few months, Addie has told us over and over, "My birt-day comin' up in December. I get candles for my birthday. I'm gonna have a cake with candles."  If you asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she always answered, "candles." She has not asked for a single thing other than that. When we checked in, I made sure they understood that we needed a cake with three candles... not just one, but three. A cake without candles would be no good. We needed candles.

Crystal Palace was nice. The food was good, and it was not rushed like 1900 Park Fare. J.C. said it was the best buffet we had all week, but he is wrong. Boma was the best. He is picky, so you have to take his food opinions with a grain of salt. Crystal Palace was fine, but really, nothing topped Boma in the buffet category. Plus, the characters were the main attraction anyway.

Here is the birthday girl with Pooh.

 

Of course Tigger and Eeyore were there too. Eeyore was looking appropriately gloomy.

 

 

Then Addie spotted Piglet from across the room. She yelled out, "PIG-OH-LIT!!" and started clapping.

 

She could hardly contain herself.

 

Then, her cake arrived. As cakes go, it wasn't particularly pretty, but it had candles. That was all that mattered. In the eyes of that little three year old, it was the perfect birthday - Pig-oh-lit and candles... what more could you ask for?

 

Actually, the cake fits in quite well with our run of ugly birthday cakes lately. She also got a birthday card signed by all the Pooh Corner characters which was really nice.

 

After lunch, we checked out the show at the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. It was a really cute show, better than we thought it would be. J.C. said he wished it had been longer. After that, J.C. and the girls used his parent swap ticket to ride Space Mountain. He was not crazy about Space Mountain either. He is so tall that he didn't fit in the ride well. With the entire ride being pitch black, he kept worrying he was going to hit his head on something!

While they were riding Space Mountain, Addie and I walked over to the castle to watch the Dream Along with Mickey show. It was fun too. Addie really enjoyed it.

 

 

After the show, J.C. and Addie were pooped, so they headed back to the hotel for naps. The girls and I decided to stay a bit longer. First we went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. Was that ever a disappointment! It felt like the low-tech, less fun, red-headed step-child to Toy Story Mania. If you are going to ride this ride, I highly suggest riding it before you ever ride Toy Story Mania. It might be fun if you don't have Toy Story Mania for comparison. Next we found a spot to watch the Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade. It was cute. I took some pictures, but they really aren't very good. For once, I'll spare you a few pictures and skip those.

After the parade, Elise convinced me it was warm enough to ride Splash Mountain, so we took the train over to Frontierland. I sat next to Nina for Splash Mountain, and the child literally giggled and laughed the entire ride. It was so fun sitting next to her and soaking up her joy!  We all had fun, but we were drenched. By the time we were done, the sun was starting to set, and we were COLD... miserably wet and cold. We took off for the hotel, but the express monorail was out of service, so there was a huge line for the resort monorail. The line for the boat looked much more manageable, so we opted for that. What were we thinking? An open-air boat... at night... in the wind... in soaking wet clothes?  Yeah... that was fun. Let's just say we were really, really glad when we got back to the hotel and could put on warm dry clothes. For dinner, we just hit up Captain Cook's in the hotel. Nina was dying to see fireworks after having missed them a couple nights before, so I went back out to the beach with the girls to watch the show. It was the Holiday Wishes show, and the music wasn't piped onto the beach. I was bummed about that. It was a good show, but not nearly as good as it would have been with the music. I was glad Elise and I were able to see Wishes earlier in the week.

Day 7 Favorites:

J.C.: watching Addie with Piglet ("Pig-oh-lit")

Ann - sitting next to Nina on Splash Mountain

Elise - Space Mountain

Nina - Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (OK, I guess somebody liked it), and the vanilla Dole Whip

Addie - "Pig-oh-lit"

The next morning, we got our boarding passes and checked our luggage at the resort (love that feature!) and boarded the Magical Express for our journey home. Lucky for us, it was a grey rainy day, so we didn't feel too upset about heading on home.

 

It really was a wonderful, magical trip. Disney certainly knows how to entertain. We enjoyed every minute of it.

Here are a few last thoughts and reviews:

Polynesian Resort - I have mixed feelings about the Poly. The location was superb. You really can't beat it with being on the monorail and so close to the Ticket and Transportation Center. With Addie still napping and dealing with a stroller, location was key. The volcano pool was also fantastic. The girls loved it. I just wish it had been warm enough to swim more. That said, there were a few things I didn't like. The whole place was very dark. I think that is just part of the theming, but I still didn't like it. The room was dark. The halls were dark. I felt like I could never get enough light. Our bed was not comfortable - like not at all. It also looks like it could use some renovations, and the cast members did not seem as friendly and helpful as the ones at Port Orleans French Quarter where we stayed last time. If I were to stay at a monorail resort again, I think I might try one of the others. If I were to stay off the Monorail, I loved the look of the Wilderness Lodge when we went there for dinner.

Best Meal - Boma

Best Character Meal - tie: 'Ohana and Crystal Palace

Best Characters at a Character Meal - 1900 Park Fare

Most Fun Non-character Meal - Whispering Canyon

Best Counter-service Meal - Earl of Sandwich

Favorite Ride - tie: Expedition Everest and Toy Story Mania

Best Holiday Decorations at a Park - Osborne Family Lights at Hollywood Studios

Best Holiday Decorations at a Resort - Grand Floridian

Things We Wanted To Do But Didn't - Test Track (too cold), Kali River Rapids (too cold), meet Jessie (Just didn't work out. She was in Frontierland, and we didn't spend much time there.), the Lion King Show (too hard to fit in both that and the Nemo show)

Things We Did That We Won't Do Again - Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (unless Nina is dying to ride it) and 50's Prime Time.

Best Tips and Planning Advice for a Great Trip - Tour Guide Mike

Disney World blogging is now complete. For those of you who have completely OD'ed on Disney, I will be back to regular programming tomorrow!  

Disney World Trip Report, Day 6

Day 6 was to be our relaxation day to catch up on sleep, do a little souvenir shopping, and just have some downtime from the parks. Instead, it turned into "Lose every child in the family at least once" day. This day was parenting at its finest, folks. Clearly, we should have used day 5 to catch up on sleep rather than waiting until day 6.  We managed to end the day with all three children in our possession though, so we called it a success.

In going through photos just now, I realized this was also, "lose a bunch of photos" day. Wow. We must have been seriously lacking in sleep. We started the day off where we ended it the night before - at 'Ohana. We went for the 'Ohana's Best Friends Breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. We saw Lilo, Stitch, Pluto, and I think maybe Mickey? If I hadn't lost the pictures from that morning, I might remember who we saw. How do people remember anything without photo evidence? Anyway, I really don't even like Lilo or Stitch, but from a food and organization standpoint, this was my favorite character meal. Once again, food was served family style - Hawaiian pork sausages, Polynesian breads, bacon, eggs, Mickey waffles, etc.. It is so nice to just relax at the table while food is served (and served and served and served again until you are popping the top button on your jeans) instead of trying to time your dash to the buffet line around a character visit. At 'Ohana, we could just sit, relax, and enjoy the food and characters. Too bad I have no pictures to share.

After our nice leisurely breakfast, we headed over to Downtown Disney for souvenir shopping.

 

 

Addie picked out the slightly disturbing Baby Tinkerbell doll which she proceeded to take with us absolutely everywhere the rest of the trip. It is nothing short of a miracle that Baby Tinkerbell made it all the way home with us.

 

Elise selected a stuffed panda because, uh, you know... there are so many pandas at Disney World. Doesn't a panda bear just scream "I'm a Disney World souvenir"?  No?  OK, well, that's what she got anyway. I've given up trying to figure it out. Nina must have spent at least a half hour agonizing over which princess Polly Pocket-like sets to buy. I loved her reasoning too. It was never, "I really like Belle" or "I love Pocahontas, but Cinderella is one of my favorites too."  There was absolutely no discussion of the princesses themselves. The decision was based solely on the fashions and accessories. The thought process went something like this.... "I like Cinderella and Belle because they both come with long gloves. I don't like Belle's cape though. I'm definitely not getting Mulan because she doesn't have ANY high heels. Aurora has high heels, but she doesn't have any gloves. I wish Aurora's dress came with Cinderella's glass slippers"  This little monologue went on and on. I honestly don't even remember what her final choice was, but you can be sure they will be the most fashionably dressed miniature princesses.

 The World of Disney was our first lost child incident of the day. The place is ginormous, and it was insanely crowded. Addie was locked up in her stroller with freaky Baby Tinkerbell. Nina was glued to the Polly-Pocket princess section. Elise wandered off though. The place is like a giant department store with departments like "Collectibles", "Men's wear", "Watches", "Plush toys", and "Pirate the Princess". Imagine losing your child in a big department store and not having a clue what department she was in. Fun, huh?  We searched and searched and searched. Just when I was about ready to call in some employees to help, J.C. spotted her in the Plush Toys section (which we had each checked several times already).  Fortunately, she didn't even realize she was "lost."  She was just "shopping."  We got the heck out of there and headed to Earl of Sandwich for lunch.  J.C. looked at the line and said, "I'm still not that hungry after our huge breakfast. The line is so long... why don't we just go back to the resort and eat there?"  I gave him a look that said, "Are you crazy? This entire day is planned around having lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We WILL eat here, and you WILL enjoy it."  He shut up and found a table with the kids. He's a good man. I think I'll keep him around. The line was long, but it moved fast, and we had our best counter service meal of the week.

After that, it was back to the hotel for naps and the second lost child incident of the day. We had all woken up from our naps and were just hanging out in the room  until dinner time. JC had gone off to check on something at the front desk. The girls were all watching TV, and I got in the shower. When I got out of the shower, I did not count children, assuming they were all still watching TV, and I laid down to read a book. A little while later, I heard some rattling at the front door.  I figured it was J.C. coming back from his errand having some trouble with his key. I kept thinking he would walk in any minute. He didn't arrive, so I looked up and noticed Addie was no longer watching TV. I asked the girls where she was, and the TV-zombies had no clue. I went to the door, and there she was out in the hallway!  Yikes!  Parenting at its finest... my not-quite-three-year old was wandering around the hotel hallway. I don't even know how long she had been out there. She must have left while I was in the shower. I brought her back in safe and sound, and from there on out, we locked the top chain lock every time we entered the room.

For dinner, we took the monorail over to the Grand Floridian which is absolutely gorgeous this time of year. The gingerbread house alone is worth a trip over there.

 

I love the list of ingredients... over 1000 lbs of honey, 700 lbs of chocolate, and 35 lbs of spices. Spices!  Can you imagine ever measuring spices in pounds rather than teapoons?

 

Our dinner destination was 1900 Park Fare for Cinderella's Happily Ever After Dinner. While 'Ohana had the best dining experience of our character dining meals, 1900 Park Fare definitely had the most colorful characters. Lady Tremaine and the step sisters were a riot. They stayed completely in character and were so much fun. One of the step sisters looked at Addie and said, "I really like your dress. It looks so much better on you than it does on my sister!" Addie was not about to take pictures with any of them, but I loved their expressions.

 

 

 

Addie was there for the main event... Cinderella and Prince Charming. Pink Crocs can pass as glass slippers, right?

 

 

1900 Park Fare was interesting... and not in a particularly good way. The food was fine, nothing spectacular, but reasonably good. The whole meal was so rushed though. It felt like you were on a conveyor belt trying to eat as fast as you could before you were dropped off at the end. The characters came through, and then BAM! They wanted you out of there. I've never seen a busboy clear tables as fast as the guy they had working our room. The family at the table next to us got up to simply get dessert, and their table was cleared while they were gone. That part of the experience was a big turn-off to me. The characters were so outstanding though that it is hard to complain too much.

After dinner, Addie decided the music in the lobby was wonderful for dancing.

 

When we got back to our hotel, we had lost child event number three. Elise and I were browsing in one of the shops in the lobby. J.C. had Addie in the stroller. Nina had to go to the bathroom, so J.C. was walking back and forth with Addie waiting for Nina to come out. Somehow, Nina must have come out, not seen J.C. and walked the opposite direction. He never saw her come out, and she never saw him. She decided to go back to our room. Apparently, she was outside the door to our hotel room banging on it and yelling for us when a hotel employee found her. The hotel employee showed Nina her white name badge (which we had told the girls numerous times to look for if they ever needed help or got lost), so Nina knew she could go with her. They were coming back to the lobby to take Nina to the front desk when J.C. spotted them and claimed her. 

With all three children safely tucked in their beds, J.C. and I high fived ourselves for not permanently losing any of them and called it a night.

Day 6 Favorites

J.C. - seeing Addie with Prince Charming

Ann - meeting the step-sisters

Elise - buying a book and a souvenir, and taking a nap

Nina - shopping

Addie - meeting Cinderella

Disney World Trip Report, Day 4

Day four took us to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Like every day, I had our itinerary mapped out and knew our plan of attack (using Tour Guide Mike's expertise). This day was the one day of the entire trip that I knew we absolutely, positively had to be at the park at rope drop. We wouldn't have a chance at two rides on Toy Story Mania unless we got there right at opening. The plan was to have J.C. run ahead of us to pick up fastpasses. Then, we would all get in line to ride the ride stand-by. Then we could use the fastpasses to ride again later. I rushed everybody around in the morning to eat a quick meal in the room, get dressed quickly, and get out to the bus stop in plenty of time to make rope drop. We were on schedule, ready to go, and at the bus stop at the right time. Then we waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. We kept debating whether to walk to the ticket and transportation center to catch a bus there, but there was always that thought that the second we walked away, the bus would arrive. We kept waiting. Finally, someone got mad enough about the wait that they walked over to the valet and asked him to call transportation. At this point, there wasn't a chance we were going to make rope drop. Every minute we stood there waiting for the bus was another 50 people in line for Toy Story Mania. So much for best laid plans. We finally caught a bus, and J.C. ran off to obtain fastpasses. The stand-by line was already way too long for our taste though, so we spent the morning running around doing other things.

Actually, the next item on the agenda was buying a new memory stick for my camera. This was our forgetful day. I pulled my camera out of my pocket to take a picture only to see "no memory card" flashing on the back. Ugh... there's nothing like paying Disney prices for something as basic as a memory stick to get your day off to a rocky start (especially coupled with the bus fiasco). I suppose I should be thankful they sell things like memory sticks though. Otherwise we would have no pictures from Hollywood Studios.

We went to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid Show, and watched the Disney Channel Rocks show. We met Handy Manny. Addie was thrilled about meeting him. She actually insisted that we go see him a second time later in the day too.

 

We met Quincy and June, and this was the first time Addie gave one of the characters a hug. She was definitely warming up to the whole character thing.

 

J.C. insisted on taking this oh-so-lovely picture of me in front of the Modern Family sign. I have a bit of a thing for Modern Family.

 

We had lunch at the ABC Commissary. Once again, food was sort of "meh". Do any of the parks have really great counter service places?  My Asian salad was pretty good, but J.C.'s burger didn't look appealing at all.

 

Nina was still using Addison's stroller some of the time because of her foot, so Addison decided to turn it into a double. Clever, eh?

 

After lunch, our fastpass time had arrived, so we were off to Toy Story Mania. We all had a blast. J.C. came away with the highest score in our family, but I was a close second.

 

Then we headed back to the room for naps because we knew we would have a late night. After naps, it was back to Hollywood Studios where our first goal was to find Buzz and Woody.

They weren't in here...

 

Or here...

 

Found them!

 

The green army men made Addie a little nervous. Can you blame her? He is a bit creepy.

 

As the sun started going down, we discovered our second forgetful moment of the day. We had only brought a thin windbreaker for Addie, no fleece jacket, no down vest, nothing. Due to that mistake, Addie is now the proud owner of a new Mickey sweatshirt. I'm betting Disney sold a record number of Mickey sweatshirts, hats, gloves, and blankets that week.

For dinner, we had reservations at the 50's Prime Time Cafe. The food was good and the schtick was cute, but I don't think we would go back. My children are completely incapable of speaking, eating, hearing, or communicating in any way when TV's are on. It is a most-irritating zombie-like behavior, but that's how they are. Instead of enjoying our pot roast and meatloaf, J.C. and I found ourselves saying, "Nina, take a bite!", "Elise, chew your food!", "Earth to Nina!", and "Elise! Wake up!" through the entire meal. I think I would enjoy it another time without kids, or possibly with somebody else's kids, but I won't go back anytime soon with my own children.

 

After dinner, we were off to the Osborne Family Lights. I absolutely loved this. It got me completely into the Christmas spirit! It was really magical and so much fun. I love the story behind it too. In 1986, a man named Jennings Osborne started putting out Christmas lights for his daughter around their home in Arkansas. Each year, he added more and more. He eventually bought the two properties next to him to expand the display. By 1993, his display used over 3 million lights. In 1994, Osborne's neighbors, tired of the traffic and congestion, sued to get the lights turned off. They won their case, and Osborne had to shut down his display. Disney offered to host the display at Hollywood Studios, and Osborne accepted. Now, the display is comprised of more than 5 million lights. The light ropes stretch 10 miles long, and 30 miles of extension cords are used. It takes 20,000 man hours to set them up each holiday season. It is really a sight to behold. Photos couldn't do it justice, so I took a video.

 

Day 4 Favorites

J.C. - Toy Story Mania

Ann - Toy Story Mania and the Osborne Lights

Elise - Toy Story Mania

Nina - Voyage of the Little Mermaid

Addison - meeting Handy Manny

Disney World Trip Report, Day 3

Day three was our coldest day. The high was only 48, and I think that was early in the day. By afternoon, the temperature kept dropping, and the brutal wind must have made the windchill at least 10 degrees lower. The temperatures certainly weren't going to stop us though! We bundled up and headed to Epcot.

 

We started out at Soarin'. We truly thought Addie might enjoy it, but given the fact that she cried through almost the whole ride, I'm pretty sure she didn't. After that, we went on Nemo which was more her speed.

 

We were trying to avoid wasting time in gift shops early in the trip, but Addie fell in love with a stuffed Nemo in the store near the Nemo ride, so we caved. Elise found the Hidden Mickeys book that she had so desperately been wanting, so she was thrilled. Nina ended up getting some of that colored sugar in a tube. Ick. She had crazy-colored poop for days. (TMI, I know).

 

We had impossible-to-get reservations at Le Cellier for lunch. We weren't in the mood for a heavy lunch though, so we cancelled them. The horror! I know! Le Cellier is second only to Cinderella's Royal Table for the most sought after reservations. I had scored them 180 days earlier, but we just weren't in the mood. I'm sure I made somebody's day though who got to snag our table. Instead, we headed over to World Showcase for lunch at La Cantina De San Angel in Mexico. I had been told their chicken tacos were excellent. They were quite tasty, but as with most Disney World counter service food, they didn't seem all that special to me.

If you ever read Disney message boards or talk to Disney fanatics, they will rave about four foods: the churros in Mexico, the Tonga Toast at Kona, the Dole Whip at Magic Kingdom and the Polynesian, and the Zebra Domes at Animal Kingdom Lodge. These foods are legendary. People talk about them as if the highlight of every Disney trip is eating these items. The hype is a little freakish, but I was determined to try all four. I had the Tonga Toast (a giant slab of fried sourdough bread filled with bananas and cinnamon) our first morning for breakfast. I have to admit, it was pretty darn good. It is huge though, so Elise and I split a slice later in the week. Since we were in Mexico this day, the churros were on my list. Churros are crispy fried dough sticks covered in cinnamon sugar. That isn't the best description, but you get the idea. They were tasty, but I won't be joining the "Disney Churros Addicts Anonymous" Facebook group. Yes... there really is such a thing. I told you, the hype over these foods is more than just a little odd. I tried the Dole Whip on the last day of our trip and it was a complete disappointment. It is essentially just pineapple flavored soft serve ice cream. What is all the fuss about? I know I would enjoy Tonga Toast, zebra domes, and churros on future trips, but I have no desire to ever have another Dole Whip.

After our lunch and churros, we started the walk around World Showcase. It was fun visiting all the different countries, and the girls were in princess heaven...

Mulan in China,

 

(Addie had a serious conversation with Mulan about foot fashion)

 

Snow White in Italy (was she Italian?),

 

Jasmine and Aladdin in Morocco,

 

and Belle in France.

 

The girls had a choice of quickly getting a picture with Belle or waiting in line to see both Belle and Beast. The decided Beast was a bit intimidating, so they opted for just Belle. I can see why they went that route... check out Beast! The dude is HUGE!

 

That was it for the princesses, but Addie was so excited when she saw this blondie in a blue dress, she yelled out, "CINDERELLA!!!" She was a little disappointed when she found out it was just Alice in Wonderland. I guess Alice doesn't hold the same appeal as Cindy.

 

We had really hoped to ride Test Track, but with it being so cold out, that seemed like a really bad idea. The big girls and J.C. went on Soarin' again, and then we ended our day with a meal at Boma at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. We took a cab over there because any other transportation just seemed complicated, and we were tired.

 

 

Despite reservations, we had a really long wait to eat. We went out to the observation deck to see the animals, and Elise searched the resort for hidden mickeys. We tried to keep occupied, but it was still a long wait. We eventually found out that the computer system was down, so they were trying desperately to ressurect the order of the list and reservations by hand. It was a big mess. By the time we finally got to eat, Addie was wiped out. This is how she looked for most of the meal.

 

Oh what a meal it was though! If there was ever a meal that was worth a long wait, it was the Boma meal. I pretty much died and went to food heaven. I think I could very happily live off the seafood gumbo, nut crusted salmon, and zebra domes for the next few years. I didn't necessarily like every item on the buffet (the food has an African flare), but of the items I did enjoy, I really, really loved them. Hands down, Boma had the best food of the week.

Our Epcot day was taken at a rather leisurely pace. We didn't accomplish a lot, but we all had a lot of fun.

Day 3 Favorites

J.C. - Soarin'

Ann - Boma and watching Addie interact with all the princesses

Elise - 4 way tie: getting the Hidden Mickeys book, Soarin', Boma, and seeing Beast

Nina - Soarin'

Addie - getting the stuffed Nemo

Disney World Trip Report, Days -1, 1, and 2

Yes, you read that right... day -1. Our Disney World "adventure" started the night before we left. Nina came home from ice skating camp complaining about her foot hurting. They had gone on a field trip to a bounce house place, and she said she hurt it there. Complaints and drama about injuries are par for the course around here, so I told her to shake it off and didn't think much more about it. After sitting down for a couple hours watching a Christmas movie; however, she was completely unable to walk. We looked at her foot, and it looked BAD... like broken foot bad. It was purple and swollen and certainly didn't look like anything that could walk around Disney World for a week. I rushed her over to urgent care. The doctor said it looked like she may have broken or "bent" a bone, so she had an x-ray. Fortunately, nothing was broken, it was just a bad sprain... not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but potentially huge the night before a Disney World trip. The doctor told us to keep her loaded up on Motrin and have her wear supportive sneakers. We spent the evening frantically trying to figure out whether to buy a new stroller that night, rent one there, or just cross our fingers that she could walk. We ended up just hoping for the best and figured she could use Addie's stroller as needed. Fortunately, by the next morning, it didn't look quite so bad. She was SLOW, but she could walk. Whew!

Day one was just a travel day... car, plane, tram, and bus. We checked into the Polynesian Resort, got our leis, and took the monorail over to the Contemporary for a quick dinner at the Contempo Cafe. The food was decent, and the kids enjoyed watching the monorail cruise through the building.

You generally think of Disney World being a G-rated, kid-friendly place, right? I certainly do, so words escaped me when I saw a woman boarding the monorail at the Contemporary wearing a super-skimpy Santa dress and red fishnet hose. You know those Playboy-esque Halloween costumes you always see advertised for women? Imagine one of those, Santa-style. That's what she was wearing with boobs popping out and thigh high red fishnets and red stilettos. There were just so many things wrong about it. She was on her way to "Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party" in that get-up. Who wears that to see MICKEY MOUSE??? Bizarre. After I picked my jaw up off the floor, we headed back to the Poly.

It had been a long day, so Addie hit the sack while I took the big girls to swim. We knew cold weather was on the way and figured it might be our only chance to swim. The girls absolutely loved the water slide at the pool at our resort, but I have no clue how they kept getting out of the water to go up the stairs to it. It was ridiculously cold when you got out of the water. I think kids' temperature sensors don't really work quite right. You couldn't have paid me enough to get out of that water more than the one required time to get back to the room. They had a blast though, and I'm glad we had the opportunity to swim. Then it was off to bed for an early start at the Magic Kingdom the next day.

We got there early to beat the crowds. This is an awful picture with the girls in the dark shade, but I loved how there is nobody around! According to Addie, "Doofy helped Cinderella build her house." So if you ever wondered who built the castle, now you know.

  

We headed straight for Fantasyland where we had our first character spotting, White Rabbit.

 

Addie was hesitant, and Nina was downright petrified, so Elise was the only one brave enough for a picture.

 

Then we tackled Fantasyland.... Dumbo,

 

 

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,

 

Peter Pan's Flight which completely terrified Addie (she'll be in therapy for that some day, I'm sure), but fortunately, she got over it fairly quickly with a ride on the carrousel.

 

We got to meet Mary Poppins. Doesn't she look practically perfect in every way?

 

Then the girls convinced J.C. to go on the Mad Tea Party with them. This was one time I was grateful when Addie proclaimed, "I need to go potty!!!", so I could race off with her and avoid the tea cups!

 

Next it was off to Goofy's Barnstormer. This picture is horribly blurry (who knew it was so hard to take pictures on a moving roller coaster?), but do you think Nina was having fun?

 

The Barnstormer was part two of "Project Traumatize Addison." She was not a fan.

 

After the Barnstormer, we decided to take the train around to Frontierland. The train was already in the station as we were walking toward it, so we took off in a run. J.C. was a bit behind us pushing the empty stroller that he had picked up from stroller parking, so he really had to run to catch up with us. I was given explicit permission to quote what he said when he got on the train: "I have to tell you, you were totally right about this stroller. It is amazing. I was able to fold it while running without ever even breaking my stride. I could hear people behind me saying, 'Did you see that? What was it? A city micro? We'll have to look that up!'  You can even write on your blog that I said that." Ahhh, it feels good to be right. We purchased the Baby Jogger City Micro just before our trip, and it was worth every penny!

In Frontierland, we got fastpasses for Splash Mountain, and the girls and J.C. rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. It began to rain, so we dashed into Columbia Harbour House for lunch and to escape the rain. I had heard good reviews of Columbia Harbour House, but it didn't seem like anything special to me. The food was fine, but I wouldn't go out of my way to go there again.

The rain and the arrival of cooler temperatures put a damper on our plans for Splash Mountain, so we headed back to the hotel for naps.

For dinner, we monorailed and boated to the Wilderness Lodge Resort for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. The Wilderness Lodge was beautifully decorated for Christmas. I loved the tree and all the decorations. I think if I were to go to Disney again at Christmas time, I would like to stay at either the Wilderness Lodge or the Grand Floridian. They definitely win top honors for decorations.

 

We loved Whispering Canyon. The servers are hilarious, and the food was delicious. J.C. was completely enamoured with the bottomless milkshakes and the all you can eat meat, meat, meat, and more meat. I recommend Whispering Canyon, and we would certainly go there again. It was a lot of fun. It was a great end to our first full day.

 

Day 2 Favorites

J.C. - a tie between dinner at Whispering Canyon and sitting between Elise and Nina on Big Thunder Railroad, listening to them squeal

Ann - the Christmas decorations at the Wilderness Lodge and dinner at Whispering Canyon

Elise - Big Thunder Railroad

Nina - Big Thunder Railroad

Addie - carrousel

 

 

My Top 10 Tips for a Successful Disney World Trip

We are by no means Disney pros, but we did have a fun, successful trip. I thought I'd share a few tips that we found useful or learned along the way.

1. Use Tour Guide Mike. Seriously, he is worth every penny. We followed all his tips and tricks, and both J.C. and I agreed that we probably fit in at least twice as many rides and shows as we would have without him. Love me that Tour Guide Mike. Use him. You won't regret it.

2. Get yourself a Baby Jogger City Micro or Mini - BEST Disney World stroller EVAH. Just don't get the grey and orange one because then it will blend in with all the rentals. Why do people insist on bringing Graco Duo Gliders to Disney World? Does anyone know? Really. I want to understand why anyone would take one of those monstrosities when they plan to use Disney transportation. Even folded, they take up an entire row on the bus. Please, whatever you do, don't take a Duo Glider. You will annoy every person around you. Treat yourself to a City Micro or Mini. You will be the envy of everyone.

3. Get the Disney Dining Plan - either during a free dining promotion, or by purchasing it yourself. If you don't, you will have a small heart attack when your first dinner bill arrives, and it will ruin the rest of your trip.

4. Teach your children to recognize the white oval nametag that all Disney employees wear. Tell them if they get lost to find someone with a white oval Disney nametag and ask for help. More on this later. Just trust me on this one.

5. You MUST arrive at Hollywood Studios before rope drop if you want to ride Toy Story Mania more than once.

6. Don't stick your tongue out to catch the fake snowflakes coming down. According to Nina an unnamed reliable source, they taste like soap.

7. Don't believe the hype about the Dole Whip.

8. Don't try to buy gum in the Orlando airport. Buy gum before you get there. They do not sell gum at any store in the entire airport. If anyone knows the reason for this, please post a comment. I am at a complete loss trying to explain this to my children. What sort of airport doesn't sell gum?

9. This seems so obvious, but USE fastpasses! Why do people not use them? When you have a choice of "stand in line for an hour to ride a ride" or "get a fastpass, go have lunch, come back an hour later and ride that same ride with no wait", why does anyone choose the former? Clearly people do though because we see them as we race past them laughing and making fun of them all the way through the fastpass lane.

10. Don't go swimming when the lifeguards are wearing parkas, winter hats, and gloves. The pool water is heated, and feels OK while you're in there, but it is insanely cold when you get out and have to walk back to your room.