"But Mom, I want to come back to WDW!"

[blue_river]

Our - Official - First Family Visit to WDW

Pre-Trip - Part 1 Short Introduction
Pre-Trip - Part 2 "Mom, what EXACTLY does hurricane season mean??"
Pre-Trip - Part 3 "You need to pack summer clothes, NOT sweatshirts and jeans!"

Day 1 - Part 1 The Alarm Goes Off At The Airport
Day 1 - Part 2 Turbulence and Towel Animals
Day 1 - Part 3 Fanny Packs
Day 1 - Part 4 Up & Running - End of Day 1

Day 2 - Part 1 Disney Mornings
Day 2 - Part 2 Main Street USA & Character Signatures
Day 2 - Part 3 Adventures In Adventureland
Part 3 Continued
Day 2 - Part 4 Disney Magic Adds To Our Christmas Memories
Day 2 - Part 5 Lunch At Cinderella's Royal Table
Day 2 - Part 6 Three Surprises
Day 2 - Part 7 An Evening In The Kingdom
Part 7 Continued

Day 3 - Part 1 MGM Memories
Day 3 - Part 2 The Door To Our Room Was Left Open
Day 3 - Part 3 Hollywood & Vine (the long wait) & Fantasmic

Day 4 - Part 1 Typhoon Lagoon & The DooDoo
Day 4 - Part 2 Chef Mickey's - First Timers
Short Interruption Years Gone By
Day 4 - Part 3 Another Evening In The Kingdom

Day 5 - Part 1 Ernestor & Epcot Without The Girls
Day 5 - Part 2 Spending Time At The Resort
Day 5 - Part 3 Fort Wilderness & The Ducks
Day 5 - Part 4 Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue

Day 6 - Part 1 Animal Kingdom & The Spider
Day 6 - Part 2 The Rest of Animal Kingdom
Day 6 - Part 2 Continued

Day 7 - Part 1 Ideas & Laughs From Fellow DISsers
Short Video Chef Mickey's
Day 7 - Part 2 Written By JoJo


A Short Introduction:

This is my first trip report so please be kind and understanding if I don’t follow the proper protocol or procedures and direct me accordingly. I’ve read a few others and quite enjoyed them as I hope you enjoy mine. Our trip planning process began in February of 2006.

Going to Disneyworld with my family has been a long time dream of mine. Sure, I know, everyone (well almost everyone) wants to go to WDW but for me it is a trip I’ve talked about for years - but you know how it is. Priorities. It seems we always had other expenses and just couldn’t afford it. So instead we took small trips every summer and spent the remaining of our savings on other projects and toys.

Our way of thinking changed during the month of February 2006. After 6 months of blood work, tests, ultrasounds and finally an MRI, I was diagnosed with an uncommon autoimmune liver disease. Fortunately it is not a terminal illness, however, it does have some serious side effects and there is no cure. Not only that, sometime in the future (10-20 years) I was told that I may need a transplant. Going through something like this made us realize how lucky we are and how fortunate that it wasn’t a serious illness such as cancer. However, it also makes you prioritize your life and forces you to do some serious thinking and make certain decisions. One of those decisions was a long awaited vacation to Disneyworld with our daughters. I will never again put off something that I really want to do.

To add to our winter troubles, my mother was also very ill and we were told she didn’t have very long to live. I worried that she might pass away while we were away on vacation and kidded her many times during my planning process that she better take her medications and stay out of the hospitals until I returned. Sadly she passed away in May and I wasn’t sure taking a vacation during my grieving process was such a great idea. I thought about canceling a few times but realized it wouldn’t change anything and maybe having something happy to focus my time on would be a good thing. I was right and it helped me a lot. I wish she were here now to read my trip report.

Okay…enough sad stories and on to the happiest celebration on earth! First I have to mention that I went to WDW when I was 12 with my mom, dad and brother. We were staying in Daytona and my dad only took us to MK for half a day! Can you believe that??? Who travels all the way to the U.S. from Canada, stays in Florida and only spends half of a day in the World? Being a kid, I had no choice and accepted my wonderful, short-lived experience and dreamed about returning for years. Then I had the opportunity about 15 years ago with my husband while visiting my brother in Sarasota. At the time, my first daughter was only 9 months old and we only had enough money to stay for one night at the World and did so on our way back home. I cherished that day for many years to come and vowed my next trip would be a week long or more.

Some background on the group:

We are from the cold country of Canada so visiting in August during the hot weather was not a deciding factor at all. Our original plan was to go in February of 2007 but when I found out about the free dining it was an easy task to talk DH into going in August with all that free food.

The Cast:

Me(38): Stay at home mom for the last 3 years.
Nickname: Blue - originally was Suzy but my DIS friends have labeled me Blue & I like it!

DH(40): Also a WDW fan but not obsessed like me. A tradesman who works hard for his money and boy is he cheap! I call him the big spender (cheesy smile). I also call him the "Tin Man" but won't get into that now.
Nickname: Grumpy - later changed to Prince Grumpy (you'll have to read more to find out why)

DD(15): 15 but going on 20, had little desire to go on this trip and complained constantly before we left that she wanted to go back to Prince Edward Island (where we went last year).
Nickname: JoJo – refused to use a character name on our radios in the parks.

DD(12): Innocent and naive as can be. Sweetly excited as mommy about going, marking and counting the days on her calendar. Loves all the Disney characters and talked often about buying an autograph book for signatures and collecting the pennies when we arrive.
Nickname: Goofy - because she really is a little bit goofy at times (heh heh)

 

[6IrishDisneyKids]

I'm loving your TR so far! Though, I too, would love to go to PEI one day....

 

[stitchgal]

Can't wait to hear about the trip...your title brought me in, though, since a dream vacation of mine is Prince Edward Island!

 

[CindyLover]

I'm along for the ride!!

 

[cshaffer21]

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip with the 15 year old who would rather be anywhere else. We went to WDW in Jan 2006 with DS15. He spent most of the day in the hotel talking and texting on his phone. He would come out with us for a few hours in the morning, complain, eat lunch, complain, take the bus back to the room, meet us for dinner, complain, and sometimes go back to the room after dinner.

We just went on a quick overnight trip to Hershey Park in Aug. He spent about 3 hours in the car because it was so boring to be with us and his sisters. We have won a 3 day trip to San Diego, Ca in November. Our son was not invited to go with us. It's kind of sad that he won't be there with us but there won't be anywere for him to escape to. We will be going to visit relatives in ME next summer and he will be able to bring a friend and hopefully they will not be too bored together.

It's so hard to please everyone anymore. Our children are DD19, DS16, and DD11. Looks like hubby and I will just have to go off on vacations alone from now on. LOL

 

[blue_river]

I'm loving your TR so far! Though, I too, would love to go to PEI one day....

Thank you 6IrishDisneyKids! We went to PEI last summer and stayed at the Twin Shores Campground and had a marvellous time but you really can't compare it to Disney World at all

I'd love to tell you all about it but that would be another trip report and it seems this one is going to take some time. I didn't realize how much writing was involved in a trip report until I started this one yesterday. I'm wondering what I got myself into now!

 

[blue_river]

Can't wait to hear about the trip...your title brought me in, though, since a dream vacation of mine is Prince Edward Island!

Hi Stitchgal! If you have any questions about PEI please do not hesitate to ask or private message me. I'd be happy to tell you about it.

 

[blue_river]

I'm along for the ride!!

CindyLover - I hope the ride isn't too long or bumpy for you!

 

[blue_river]

Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip with the 15 year old who would rather be anywhere else. We went to WDW in Jan 2006 with DS15. He spent most of the day in the hotel talking and texting on his phone. He would come out with us for a few hours in the morning, complain, eat lunch, complain, take the bus back to the room, meet us for dinner, complain, and sometimes go back to the room after dinner.

We just went on a quick overnight trip to Hershey Park in Aug. He spent about 3 hours in the car because it was so boring to be with us and his sisters. We have won a 3 day trip to San Diego, Ca in November. Our son was not invited to go with us. It's kind of sad that he won't be there with us but there won't be anywere for him to escape to. We will be going to visit relatives in ME next summer and he will be able to bring a friend and hopefully they will not be too bored together.

It's so hard to please everyone anymore. Our children are DD19, DS16, and DD11. Looks like hubby and I will just have to go off on vacations alone from now on. LOL

OH I hear you! I'm glad there are other parents out there in the same situation and it isn't just MY daughter.

You should have seen her in PEI. Until she met some friends there, I thought I was going to scream! I had to persuade my youngest to go out and find some friends to get her into a better mood and to enjoy the vacation. So you can imagine how worried I was that she was going to ruin my "Happiest Celebration On Earth" holiday.

Going off on vacations alone with hubby sounds wonderful to me but I think my girls would be insulted if we chose to do so even if DD15 does complain!

 

[blue_river]

Pre-Trip Report – Part 2

Before I begin part 2 I'd like to mention here that DH was a tiny bit defensive with his "Grumpy" nickname. The only reason I chose it was because DD's saw a Grumpy T-shirt at the resort and wanted me to buy it for him so I thought it would be a suitable choice for their sake. He is my prince though and treats my like a princess - so from now on I will refer to him as Prince Grumpy.

It was around the end of February and I had a few quotes for packages from the WDW site before I called a travel agent. After speaking with the travel agent and receiving the information regarding the cost of the package and the price of the flight, Prince Grumpy and I decided that we would go next February. In the meantime, I continued to search the Internet and found the wonderful Disboards. I was addicted immediately! It was from the disboards that I found out about the free dining plan being offered if you booked your trip before June something. During dinner that evening I brought up the subject about free dining and how much of a savings it would be. This is how the conversation went:

Me: You know, if we book our trip now and go in August of this year we could save over $1000.00 on our trip to WDW.
Prince Grumpy: Why is that?
Me: Oh, WDW has a special deal on right now; they often have special deals you know…
Prince Grumpy: Do you think we can afford to go this year?
Me: Well, it would mean pinching pennies over the summer that’s for sure.
JoJo: Pinching pennies how?
Me: Well, it would mean no trip to Wonderland or extra spending money for all of us from now until then.
Goofy: Let’s go Mom!
Prince Grumpy: It sounds good – if you think we can do it.
Me: We can do it…
Prince Grumpy: Why are they offering this free dining?
Me: Hmm-well….it is during hurricane season.
(Blue looks around the table to see everyone’s fear)
JoJo: What EXACTLY does hurricane season mean?
Me: It’s really nothing to worry about…it may not happen while we are there and apparently Disney World is a very safe place to be during the hurricanes.

All family members look at me now with worry in their eyes wondering what kind of trip Mom is planning.

Prince Grumpy: I’m not sure I want to do that.
Me: It will be fine. Really. The worst that would happen is they keep you in your rooms for a day, MAYBE two.
Prince Grumpy: Okay. Book it. (See - he really is a prince )
JoJo: I don’t want to go…I want to go to Prince Edward Island! Why do we have to go there…you just want to go.
Goofy: I want to go to WDW Mommy.

Whew. I realized that I only had to wait 6 months instead of a whole year! The next day I called the travel agent and booked the trip. We had to purchase our flight tickets soon or the price might go up. Within two weeks we had $2000.00 and Prince Grumpy paid for the airfare and put a $200.00 deposit on our ASMo package. Now it was official. No turning back. I’d like to mention here that a few friends of mine thought I was crazy for going during hurricane season but hey I was saving us over $1000.00 and we were going this year, not next year.

Back to the disboards and more searches on the WWW. I learned so much from the disboards and I can’t tell you enough how much it helped me with my planning process. I downloaded the complete guide, the dining plan, park hours, parade/firework times and the pocket guidebooks for the girls. Then I planned out our itinerary for each day but left room to be spontaneous about it. Once I had decided which park we would be in for a particular day I then had to choose where we would eat. Back to the disboards. I read reviews, more reviews, looked at menus and then made my ADRs. That is the only thing we wouldn’t change and I told everyone that those had to stay as planned. DH was surprised I had to make my dinner reservations so far in advance and I can’t tell you how many times during our trip that he smiled and thanked me for it. In our 7-day plan, I left one day open near the end of the trip so we could decide as a group what we would like to do.

One thing I couldn’t understand was why no one was sharing the same enthusiasm and excitement as me. We're going to Disney World..what is wrong with you people?? I decided to make a short DVD with pictures of the park maps, our resort and main attractions for the girls so they could see what it was all about. JoJo thought I was crazy and just shook her head and Goofy seemed only a tiny bit interested. DH humored me of course and thought it was a lovely idea. It just didn’t go as planned so then after reading about Disney rewards on the boards I started a WDW trivia game where the girls could earn 1 Disney dollar for every correct answer. At the beginning JoJo never played, however Goofy loved it and was keen on keeping score on the list posted on our fridge. JoJo only began getting serious about it a week before we were to leave and in the end, Goofy earned 14 Disney dollars and JoJo earned 11. Goofy still insists that JoJo cheated and kept adding points on the sheet when no one was looking. Many times Goofy would erase her bigger sisters total and change it back. It was all in fun and we had a hoot playing this game.

Coming up…Pre-trip Report - Part 3 “You need to pack summer clothes, NOT sweatshirts and jeans!” Hoo boy.

 

[dohgusgus]

Your trip report sounds great, waiting for more!

 

[solgent]

Hi blue river! You posted on my trip report that you were writing one so I had to check it out. I'm interested to read all about your trip.

I'm sorry about your mother and about your illness. You are so right to do things now, not put them off. Nobody knows how much more time they have. We only have a few years to create memories with our families like the ones you have treasured for so long.

We lived in Miami for 4 years. Hurricane season is something to take seriously (and WDW of course is prepared with emergency generators etc.). But you can't put your life on hold for it! In several months there might be zero, 1 or 2 hurricanes in a particular area, and unless they're very strong, it's just a big storm. Rain and wind but not dangerous. We travelled just before you and we knew we were taking a chance, but we visit my brother in SF, where an earthquake could hit without warning!

I worry about my daughters eventually not wanting to spend time with us. I thought WDW would always lure them in! I'm eager to hear how JoJo liked the trip & how you all "handled" her.

Finally, I'm another one who wants to visit PEI someday! We camped in Maine for 2 weeks in 2003 & thought about including Nova Scotia & PEI, but decided that was too ambitious. We went to Campobello Island but otherwise stayed in Maine. Someday!

 

[blue_river]

Thanks Solgent. I'm already waiting for the next installment of your tr. It is such an interesting read.

I don't think I'd want to live in Miami or SF. I guess you get used to it but it would worry me too much.

How was your trip to Maine? What is the thing that stands out the most from that trip?

Hi blue river! You posted on my trip report that you were writing one so I had to check it out. I'm interested to read all about your trip.

I'm sorry about your mother and about your illness. You are so right to do things now, not put them off. Nobody knows how much more time they have. We only have a few years to create memories with our families like the ones you have treasured for so long.

We lived in Miami for 4 years. Hurricane season is something to take seriously (and WDW of course is prepared with emergency generators etc.). But you can't put your life on hold for it! In several months there might be zero, 1 or 2 hurricanes in a particular area, and unless they're very strong, it's just a big storm. Rain and wind but not dangerous. We travelled just before you and we knew we were taking a chance, but we visit my brother in SF, where an earthquake could hit without warning!

I worry about my daughters eventually not wanting to spend time with us. I thought WDW would always lure them in! I'm eager to hear how JoJo liked the trip & how you all "handled" her.

Finally, I'm another one who wants to visit PEI someday! We camped in Maine for 2 weeks in 2003 & thought about including Nova Scotia & PEI, but decided that was too ambitious. We went to Campobello Island but otherwise stayed in Maine. Someday!

 

[solgent]

I don't think I'd want to live in Miami or SF. I guess you get used to it but it would worry me too much.

How was your trip to Maine? What is the thing that stands out the most from that trip?

I always preferred the risk of hurricanes to earthquakes because at least you can see them coming!

We really enjoyed Maine and we went back to Acadia National Park this summer. DH especially just feels totally in tune with the coastal landscape. Unfortunately we did get a lot of wet weather on both trips. The kids think that Maine is always gloomy and rainy! We parents think that we have to keep going back until we get it right!

 

[blue_river]

Pre-trip Report - Part 3

I started my packing about three days before the trip – maybe that’s soon for some of you but for me it’s a necessity. I would hate to arrive at our planned destination only to be surprised that one of us had forgotten something. This actually happened to me recently and it was an embarrassing situation. Hubby and I had a wedding to attend for my brother’s son, my godchild, the week before our vacation. As always, I was in charge of the suitcase and had all the items on my list crossed off except for DH’s suit. He pulled it out of his closet, added his favourite shirt and tie and told me he’d take it out to the car. I placed the suitcase by the door for DH to carry out and grabbed our camera. Following a long eight-hour drive, ten minutes before reaching the hotel I looked in the backseat of our SUV, looked at DH and asked, “Where is your suit?” A sinking feeling came over me as I noticed the “UH OH” expression on his face. That was when he realized he had left it hanging in the front closet. He was the only one at the wedding wearing jeans and a t-shirt with his camera slung around his neck. No one seemed to mind and my brother introduced him to the bride’s family as the photographer.

It was a good lesson learned before my very important upcoming trip! I made sure to double check every item on my list – I should say lists because I had several of them; one for suitcases, one for carry on, outside jobs and one for things that needed to be done around the house. My suitcase was full of things I had purchased from advice received on the disboards, like ponchos, baby wipes, glow sticks etc. Then came inspection time. I had both of my DDs open up their suitcases (they insisted that they pack their own) and show me the entire contents. Goofy was as organized as myself, she had used the zip lock bags for certain items like socks and undies, toiletries and t-shirts. JoJo’s suitcase on the other hand was a jumbled pile of sweatshirts and jeans! I shook my head and explained to her for the 100th time that it is HOT in Florida. She told me she doesn’t wear t-shirts. What? It’s funny how teens can say something with such a straight face – I mean I really think she believes what she tells me sometimes. She has more t-shirts than I can count and hadn’t bothered to pack any. We agreed that she could take just one sweatshirt and one pair of jeans. I asked her to pack her shorts and then I got the same answer “I don’t wear shorts”. Ugh. At that point I was about to pull my hair out. “Well what are you planning on wearing then?” I almost cried. Her answer was skirts. Great! Problem solved.

I was very strict about their carry on bags because of the new changes at the airport. I told them a little white lie and said that they couldn’t use their backpacks and had to use a small bag, something big enough to hold a bathing suit and their journals. I got caught in that lie of course and they made a big point of letting me know as soon as they saw the large carry on bags everyone else had on the airplane. I just didn’t want any problems at the airport because usually JoJo packs the entire contents of her bedroom in her backpack. It’s true - she carries that thing around 24-7, to school, to her friends, to town. DH has made spot checks before she leaves to make sure she isn’t carrying something she shouldn’t be. What is it with the girls these days? I remember going out with my friends and carrying nothing but a small purse or wallet. You wouldn’t believe some of the things she has stored away in her bag. It’s like she’s prepared for every imaginable disaster.

I spent my entire week cleaning the house. I’m not just talking about your regular housework. I mean real cleaning, like the top of the fridge, wiping cupboards down, ceiling fans, that sort of thing. By Thursday, I was completely exhausted from all my Suzy duties and was looking forward to my restful vacation. Did I say restful? Ha Ha. First of all, I didn’t want to come home to a messy house and second, DHs parents would be coming in every two days to feed the cat and bunny.

DH secured our outdoor furniture, put the canoe and kayaks in the garage but decided to leave the pontoon boat at the dock. We once had our rowboat and motor stolen while sleeping but a pontoon boat would be a little harder to take and who would want to steal that anyway? The outdoor work was finished with a final watering and weeding of my gardens.

Coming Up…Trip Report – Day 1 -Part 1 – The alarm goes off at the airport!

 

[corinnak]

Ok, you've drawn me in! Looking forward to the rest!

 

[ntsammy5]

Great trip reports so far. So sorry to hear about the liver disease. My SIL has something similar, but I can't pronounce it let alone spell it. PEI is beautiful. Could it be that DD AKA JoJo may have met a boy there on your trip? Just a thought. Looking forward to the rest of the trip. BTW the suit story is hilarious! Same thing happened to a friend at DD wedding a week ago.

​

 

[blue_river]

Trip Report - Day 1 - Part 1

Corrinak, ntsammy5 - thank you for your interest! It's nice to know people are really reading this.

ntsammy5 - sorry to hear about your SIL also. I hope she has a support group she can go to if need be. If not please feel free to pass along the pbcers link in my signature. It is a wonderful group of people for information, support and links for those with autoimmune liver diseases. About JoJo - no she did not meet a boy on our trip to PEI.

Solgent - I'd love to visit Maine sometime in the future. Too bad about the wet weather though. I wouldn't want that.

Barb - I hope you're still smiling girl!
***********************************
Okay - on with my next intsallment.

I actually got 6 hours of sleep the night before our trip. You see, usually when I’m excited about something I can never fall asleep, like at Christmas for example. I normally end up staying up all night, partly because I haven’t finished all that needs being done and because Goofy and JoJo wake up around 1:00 to look at their sock stuff from Santa. The three of us anxiously wait for Prince Grumpy to get up so that we can open our gifts. Anyway, I’m getting off track again.

We woke up around 5:00 am, squished the dog in the back with the girls and left for our MIL & FIL’s place where they had muffins, tea & coffee waiting for us. The in laws drove us to the airport for 7:00, took our picture and we said our good-byes. This was only the second time flying for DH and myself and DDs first flight and as you can imagine they were a bit apprehensive, especially JoJo. She was full of questions and wanted to know what would happen if she fainted. This happens to her sometimes. I can remember when she was only 12 and I took both girls to get their ears pierced. JoJo was first and when she was finished they sat in her in one the chairs in the waiting area while Goofy had hers done. I looked over at JoJo after holding Goofy’s hand while hers were pierced and poor JoJo was lying on the floor. Needless to say, the earrings had to eventually come out because every time we applied the rubbing alcohol she’d feel faint. Another time she fainted was in the hospital while visiting her great grandmother – I guess it was the look of all the machines and tubes hooked up to her. I assured her the flight attendants would be very helpful. JoJo also wanted to know what she should do if she had to get sick – ugh. I told her there were “barf” bags at every seat. I didn’t really know if this was true or not but I was trying to comfort her as best I could.

Now apparently you’re supposed to be at the airport 3 hours before departure time if traveling to the U.S. I don’t think they are real strict about that rule though because people were trickling in long after we arrived in our gate area. I guess it’s better to be safe in case there are any problems. At the first check point, they asked us for our ID and since we didn’t have passports I showed them our drivers license and birth certificates. I had JoJo’s school photo ID but no picture ID for Goofy. They asked me for a second piece of identification for her and I began to panic. I told them since she wasn’t in high school she didn’t have a photo. OMG – I was thinking we were going to be turned away and then they asked if I had her health card. Whew. What a relief. Yes I had it!

We proceeded to the security area and each walked through the alarm thing. (I don't remember what it is called) I have a rod fused to my spine and I had called customs the week before to find out if I needed anything special in case the alarm sounds off. I was told to mention it to the security agent who may pull me aside and perform a pat down on me. Oh dear. Before I went through I told her and she said that it was okay and to come ahead through. Nothing, no sound, no alarms. Another sigh of relief. DH and Goofy had no problems either. JoJo walked through and the alarm bells went off. Ack. After all my warnings and talks I couldn’t imagine what she would have in her pockets to make that happen. As it turns out, it was just her belt – it is one of those belts with all the studs all over it but since they are coloured red, I didn’t even think about them being steel. She didn’t make that same mistake coming home!

Since we arrived so early, we had a two-hour wait in the gate area. It didn’t really bother any of us. It gave us time to make some phone calls and take some pictures of the planes landing and departing. JoJo brought along her own digital camera for the trip and I was pleased about that because she takes some of the neatest shots – pics of stuff DH and I wouldn’t think of – a teens perspective I guess. We watched them load our suitcases on the plane through the widow and realized we better not pack anything breakable in the suitcases on the way back. They just throw them around without any concerns whatsoever.

Coming up…Trip Report – Part 5 – Turbulence & Towel Animals

 

[blue_river]

Great trip reports so far. So sorry to hear about the liver disease. My SIL has something similar, but I can't pronounce it let alone spell it. PEI is beautiful. Could it be that DD AKA JoJo may have met a boy there on your trip? Just a thought. Looking forward to the rest of the trip. BTW the suit story is hilarious! Same thing happened to a friend at DD wedding a week ago.

​

How was the Wedding? Large or small one? Is your DD going to WDW for her honeymoon?????

 

[blue_river]

Trip Report - Day 1 -Part 2

I can finally post some pictures! Woohooooooo.

Me and DD JoJo waiting at the airport:

Our plane had two rows of seats, three on each side. I volunteered to take the seat on the other side and sit with strangers so that Goofy & JoJo could be with Prince Grumpy. When we found our place this woman was trying to squeeze in beside Goofy. I politely told her she was in the wrong seat but she insisted it was hers. I double checked my tickets and then showed them to her (meanwhile I was holding up the rest of the passengers in the aisle). She seemed quite ticked off and practically shoved her ticket up my nose, which was marked with the same number! She got up and went to see the stewardess and I followed her. They kept this woman up front with them and told her that they would like to keep families together and they’d find her another seat. There were plenty of empty seats on that flight so I’m not sure how they made such a mistake. The two other seats in my section were empty which was great because we were able to switch around a few times during the flight, taking turns looking out the window.

You will see from the pics I posted that everyone looked pretty happy. JoJo didn’t faint and seemed to be enjoying herself. We ordered some lunch (well DH and I ate lunch but DDs ordered junk food – it was allowed – this is vacation time after all) and the girls played a few games of UNO. As we were coming into Orlando those smiles quickly faded when we hit some turbulence. Even my own. Holy crap it was scary. The four of us were holding on for dear life. I was trying to remember what the stewardess said about emergency situations; of course I wasn’t paying attention and could barely hear her at the time. I played out some worst-case scenarios in my head and by the time I imagined us crashing it was over. JoJo was particularly upset and told us she was taking a taxi back home. LOL. Okay it wasn’t funny at the time but I can laugh about it now.


Once we landed we didn’t have too much trouble finding our way to the CMs wearing the “Big White Mickey Hands”. Actually we just followed other passengers with the yellow tags on their suitcases. Prince Grumpy asked me three times on route (I’m not exaggerating here) if I was sure that we didn’t have to go get our luggage. He even asked one of the CMs to confirm when we were in our lineup for the ME bus. Gee whiz – trust me honey, it’s part of the magic, no worries. DH told me he’d be surprised to see our baggage in our room – he’d believe it when he saw it. His own doubting had me a little worried but I tried not to show it – I was the one with all the information – the one who spent hours and hours researching on the disboards.

Our family was first in line for ASMo and we took the front seats on the bus. It was all so exciting even if we were the last ones dropped off. It gave us the opportunity to see what the other all-star resorts looked like.

Our friendly bus driver kept talking to me as I was trying to watch the short Disney Movie – couldn’t he see I was busy! I didn’t want to miss out on anything. DH and JoJo were taking pictures out the window of everything they saw. We came home with over 900 pictures – hooray for digital cameras.

When we got off the bus I quickly noticed that wearing jeans was not such a great idea. Boy, were we hot. I couldn’t wait to get to my room and change into my shorts. The CM was wonderful, we requested the Fantasia building by the pool and were given room 8944 on the third floor with a view of the courtyard. She printed out a copy of my ADR’s and off we went in search of our room.

My kids were in awe of this magical place – and they haven’t even been to a park yet!

As we passed the windows on our floor the girls asked me about the towel animals that were displayed. “Oh – mouse keeping makes those for the guests”, I told them and then added, “we may not get any, they don’t HAVE to make them – that’s just another example of pixie dust”. JoJo took a few pictures of the towel animals and informed me she was going to leave a note for mouse keeping asking for some. No no, we can’t do that I said. Let’s just wait and see if we get any tomorrow. I knew not to get my hopes up but I secretly wished it would happen.

Anyone out there recognize these animals as your own???

A few pics of our room:

I love the way WDW has decorated the bathrooms in ASMo.

Last pic for today - Goofy waiting patiently to get going to Pleasure Island.

Coming up…Trip Report – Day 1 - Part 3 – Shopping with Teens in Pleasure Island