A Jolly Holiday with Masseys: THE TRIP REPORT - WDW Dec2019

What a great experience this is for her. She's going to have the time of her life.

I hope she does but still wants to come home to finish school. I think today was the first day she said she missed us and really meant it.

How exciting for Danielle! Glad you’re back and happy 😃

Thank you! So far so good.

So excited for her though! Getting to actually experience this thing she has dreamed about for years!

She is living her dream.

Also I really hope they unblock CMs from DHS soon - it's really unfair that none of them get to experience the new stuff. Someone suggested maybe just only allowing CM entrance after noon. That way they don't compete with guests for Boarding Groups, but still get to visit the park!

It really does stink. We're planning to visit her over Easter and DHS won't be in the plans. I'm glad we had some time there before Christmas.

We leave next Friday!

Wow that went by really fast!

Maybe I will be the first crazy person to say hello to her! Ha!

She has been warned. Hopefully she's in position by next weekend. She is still training for now.
 
Getting there is half the fun....(?)

Every Disney trip has to start with the boring and sometime ill-fated "Travel Day". We have to get through this so we can start having some real fun.

Friday we finally hit this


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I always have intentions of being better organized and trying not to save everything till the last minute so the night before is not such a mess, but it never seems to work out. I'm going to blame Christmas coming on getting me behind this time. It was really hard to run errands for our trip and try to get as much Christmas stuff done as possible.

The Friday before we left was the typical mess that has become our habit for Disney Trips. Danielle had her last final on Thursday so Friday was her laundry and packing day. I had to twist her arm to get her to agree to go get a vacation mani/pedi with me. I skipped lunch and got off @ 3:30 thinking this would help put us ahead. Normally the nail place we go to is not busy on a Friday afternoon, but this Friday afternoon they were extremely busy. I guess everyone was getting thier Christmas party mani/pedis. It took us a lot longer than I would have liked. Michelle was already at the house with John Paul when we got home. She had no trouble getting JP packed up and even had his bags at our house on Thursday night. Dinner was take out pizza. While we all rushed around trying to finish up our packing Michelle was in the craft room finishing up some shirts for JP. JP and Dennis were the only ones packed and ready to go. When we originally purchased out flight tickets I picked the earliest flight so we would have the most park time and it was a direct flight. Arriving in Orlando at 8:30 am sounded great but on Friday night having to get up in time to leave for 3:30 am didn't sound so good. Michelle ended up having to lay down with JP to get him to sleep while we finished packing and getting the house & cats ready for our departure. I think I finally made it to bed between 10:30 and 11:00, but needed to be back up for 2 am. I can honestly say I did fall asleep without too much trouble, but was up @ 1:50 when JP sat up and started crying for his Mom. We ended up all waking up due to this. He just wanted to cuddle up and go back to sleep but I had to start getting ready and Grumpy was his cuddle choice. We finished getting ready and loaded up to leave. The early start helped us get on the road a little earlier. We pulled out @ 3:21 am and JP was really excited. We took Dennis' truck to fit all the luggage was had. The drive was uneventful and we went straight to the long term parking I had set up ahead of time. Because we were in a truck we had to park in the back but the shuttle came right to us as we unloaded our bags. JP had nap just a tiny bit right before we got there so he was up and excited.


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This was going to be our first time flying out of the new terminal at the New Orleans airport. We didn't know how long it was going to take us to get checked in and through security. We checked out bags at curbside and headed inside for our first bathroom break. Luckily it wasn't too busy this early in the morning.

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The new terminal was very pretty.

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We made it though security and I was the only one that had to be patted down. Something in my pocket was making the metal detector go off. We headed to our gate to wait to board and have a snack.
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When I checked in for our flights we got the last 3 A boarding slots and JP had B1 so no need to use the family boarding. I did remember to check the stroller so we would have it when we got off in Orlando. We were soon boarding.

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We grabbed 3 seats together with Danielle sitting across from us. John Paul was pretty tired by then.



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For some reason we were delayed in leaving so Grumpy read him a story to help keep him occupied.

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JP was asleep before we even took off and slept the entire flight. We had been worried about how to keep a 2 year old occupied for the flight and it ended up being a breeze. He was soooo good. I'm sorry he missed seeing the sun come up and the clouds.


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Although JP was a breeze, we did have a few passengers that were apprehensive with flying. I would say most of the passengers were headed to Disney some were first time flyers. Danielle was sitting with some newbies but they did ok and asked her lots of questions. We had one lady that left her group in the back to sit across from us due to what she considered a very bad behaved child. She had no patience for the spoiled brat. It was a bumpy flight so we never had drink service and I don't think the fasten seat belt sign ever came off either. It was also a very cold flight. John Paul was the only one of us with a blanket. I was lucky and got to share his blanket but poor Danielle froze in her shorts. It was a short flight so no one suffered for long.

We landed a little late but all in one piece. It had been raining in Orlando but cleared up before we exited the airport.

Up next the Magical Express!
 
Way to go JP! What a wee superstar! He looks so cute in his fire chief pjs :)
Love the photo of Danielle and JP on the shuttle. You can sense their excitement!
Gorgeous sunrise.
I love that moment when the plane lands on the tarmac in Orlando-always feels like we've finally made it and the holiday can begin, until we hit the queues at immigration that is!:rotfl:
 
My son just spotted JP's snack and has started fantasizing about froot loops :rotfl:
Anytime we visit WDW we always buy a large box of them because they are his favourite snack and they aren't available here. So funny to listen to a recently turned 13 year old rave about the deliciousness of those little multi-coloured cereals:worship::rotfl2:
 


Wow! What a short night! You guys really seemed to handle everything very well. You can't ask for anything better than JP sleeping through the whole flight! Sorry that the flight wasn't perfect in other regards.
 
JP was asleep before we even took off and slept the entire flight. We had been worried about how to keep a 2 year old occupied for the flight and it ended up being a breeze. He was soooo good. I'm sorry he missed seeing the sun come up and the clouds.
What a great little traveler! And he is as cute as a button in his PJs!
 


Way to go JP! What a wee superstar! He looks so cute in his fire chief pjs :)

He really did well. He was super cute. I picked these up at Old Navy.

Love the photo of Danielle and JP on the shuttle. You can sense their excitement!

I love this photo too. Danielle really enjoyed having JP with us.

Gorgeous sunrise.

Yes it was! After traveling so much in the dark it was the perfect sight and seeing it from the plane is so much better than driving there and having it blind you.

I love that moment when the plane lands on the tarmac in Orlando-always feels like we've finally made it and the holiday can begin, until we hit the queues at immigration that is!:rotfl:

:rotfl2: Lucky for us no immigration lines.

My son just spotted JP's snack and has started fantasizing about froot loops :rotfl:
Anytime we visit WDW we always buy a large box of them because they are his favourite snack and they aren't available here. So funny to listen to a recently turned 13 year old rave about the deliciousness of those little multi-coloured cereals:worship::rotfl2:

I love that he still remembers this cereal. Michelle did a really good job with the variety of snacks for JP.

Wow! What a short night! You guys really seemed to handle everything very well. You can't ask for anything better than JP sleeping through the whole flight! Sorry that the flight wasn't perfect in other regards.

It went a whole lot better than I could have imagined. I was worried about keeping him in the seat, his ears popping and him disturbing eveyone else, but none of that happened.

You guys were very brave for picking suck an early flight with JP! Glad he slept for the flight.

It was the best outcome we could have hoped for.

What a great little traveler! And he is as cute as a button in his PJs!

Thank you! I think he's pretty adorable in his pjs but I'm biased.
 
It sounds like you folks had a much easier time in the New Orleans airport than I did the first time! Of course my first time was landing in New Orleans! Good grief! It is soooo much bigger than it used to be. But it is beautiful! And now that I have been through it a couple of times I am okay with it...but the first night was kind of amusing...
 
BEST. BOOK. EVER!!!!!!!

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It was also a very cold flight. John Paul was the only one of us with a blanket. I was lucky and got to share his blanket but poor Danielle froze in her shorts. It was a short flight so no one suffered for long.
Cold flights are the worst! And it always seems to happen when you wear shorts!

Glad everything else went ok!
 
Yep, I book an early morning flight almost every single time we go. I love the idea of having that full first day in Disney, but the 3:00am (or earlier!) wake up call is not the best. Coupled with the fact that I always have "I'm too excited to sleep"-itis the night before a trip, it's generally an early night on Day 1 :faint:

What was actually worse was that this past trip we had an early flight home. It was on Christmas Eve, and we wanted to make sure we were back for all the celebrations, but it was horrible waking up at 4:00am to go home :sad: I don't think we said more than three words during the Uber drive to the airport, our driver probably thought we were all mad at each other :)
 
It sounds like you folks had a much easier time in the New Orleans airport than I did the first time! Of course my first time was landing in New Orleans! Good grief! It is soooo much bigger than it used to be. But it is beautiful! And now that I have been through it a couple of times I am okay with it...but the first night was kind of amusing...

I'm sorry you hit some problems when you flew into New Orleans. What happened?

BEST. BOOK. EVER!!!!!!!

Totally agree! JP loves it and can "read it " to you.

Cold flights are the worst! And it always seems to happen when you wear shorts!

Yes it does. I've flown twice since then and it was much warmer.

Glad everything else went ok!

It really did.

Yep, I book an early morning flight almost every single time we go. I love the idea of having that full first day in Disney, but the 3:00am (or earlier!) wake up call is not the best. Coupled with the fact that I always have "I'm too excited to sleep"-itis the night before a trip, it's generally an early night on Day 1 :faint:

I want as much time in Disney as possible. I can honestly say I was able to sleep the night before even though it wasn't much sleep.

What was actually worse was that this past trip we had an early flight home. It was on Christmas Eve, and we wanted to make sure we were back for all the celebrations, but it was horrible waking up at 4:00am to go home :sad: I don't think we said more than three words during the Uber drive to the airport, our driver probably thought we were all mad at each other :)

Oh noooo! I understand wanting to be home for Christmas, but early morning flights leaving Disney are not fun.

I'm so glad to hear the flight with JP was uneventful! I remember you were wary about keeping him entertained. Sounds like it was harder dealing with the other passengers than the kid. :laughing:

It went much better than I could have hoped for with JP. At least the other passengers made it interesting.
 
You're off! Travel day can be so exhausting with everything leading up to it! Glad it was all uneventful and everyone was happy!
 
We had a good trip and Danielle is now settled in.
Good! And... good!
They are blocked out of DHS until after April.
This doesn't surprise me one bit.
I had to twist her arm to get her to agree to go get a vacation mani/pedi with me.
Really! Thought she'd jump at the chance.
Arriving in Orlando at 8:30 am sounded great but on Friday night having to get up in time to leave for 3:30 am didn't sound so good.
Ah yes... I'm familiar with that dance.
Cute photo. :)
The new terminal was very pretty.
Looks like! When did it open? Just this past year?
We made it though security and I was the only one that had to be patted down. Something in my pocket was making the metal detector go off.
Did you find out what it was?
Awww... :)
JP was asleep before we even took off and slept the entire flight.
Perfect! I wish I could do that.
We had one lady that left her group in the back to sit across from us due to what she considered a very bad behaved child.
Really! I'm surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be?
but poor Danielle froze in her shorts.
Rookie mistake. Planes are cold.
 
Don't mean to hijack the thread here, but I just had to share our really good news - my niece was just accepted for the Fall 2020 DCP! :cool1: I'm so excited for her, I actually started crying when I got her text.
She's going to be a lifeguard, but that's all we know right now. Not sure if that means a resort, a water park, or some combination. Whatever it works out to be, she's over the moon!

How is Danielle enjoying things so far? I imagine after a couple of weeks, reality sets in, and that could be good but could also be hard...
 
You're off! Travel day can be so exhausting with everything leading up to it! Glad it was all uneventful and everyone was happy!

So True! It turned out better than I expected.

Thanks Vanessa. Family are doing well - incredibly busy but that's par for the course! Scotland is fine - a bit of snow today but not lying too much at the moment.

Snow!!! We never get snow.


This doesn't surprise me one bit.

She did get an email yesterday for CM previews for Mickey's Runaway Railway so she will to do that.

Really! Thought she'd jump at the chance.

Only when I offered to pay for half.

Ah yes... I'm familiar with that dance.

I know you are.

Cute photo. :)

Thank you!

Looks like! When did it open? Just this past year?

About a month or so before we flew.

Did you find out what it was?

A gum wrapper.


I think Danielle took that one. I had no idea until we combined out photos.

Perfect! I wish I could do that.

I've done it on a trip back home after the Disney exhaustion hit me.

Really! I'm surprised, but I guess I shouldn't be?

She was really funny. She had the New Orleans accent and was "telling it like it was".

Rookie mistake. Planes are cold.

This one sure was.

Don't mean to hijack the thread here, but I just had to share our really good news - my niece was just accepted for the Fall 2020 DCP! :cool1: I'm so excited for her, I actually started crying when I got her text.
She's going to be a lifeguard, but that's all we know right now. Not sure if that means a resort, a water park, or some combination. Whatever it works out to be, she's over the moon!

:cheer2::cheer2::cheer2:Congrats to her! That is really good news.


How is Danielle enjoying things so far? I imagine after a couple of weeks, reality sets in, and that could be good but could also be hard...


She is loving it but she is sick today. She had to take herself to the Urgent Care and get her own meds. Good thing I have had her to do that a few times in the last year. I think they all get sick when they first get there. There are so many new germs and so many people they come in contact with those germs.
 
She is loving it but she is sick today. She had to take herself to the Urgent Care and get her own meds. Good thing I have had her to do that a few times in the last year. I think they all get sick when they first get there. There are so many new germs and so many people they come in contact with those germs.

Aw, so sorry to hear she's sick. I agree, whenever they go anywhere with new germs - starting in preschool :rotfl2: My oldest did a semester abroad in England, got the flu while there, and couldn't figure out what meds to buy/take - everything had different names. He was looking for Tylenol and Halls cough drops :). Hope she's feeling better very soon!
 

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