"Don't cry over spilled milk" Sept 2009-1st family trip w/ a 4 and 2 year old

[OhMari]

Bump to finish. Please.

 

[tncplace]

I was so glad to find your trip report today. We are taking our soon to be 5 DD to WDW in May and reading your boys reactions to things has given us insight to our visit. We are also flying Air Tran out of Philly (we live in NJ) - did you stay at the Sheraton by the airport? We are trying to figure out our pre-night plan as we have a 7am flight I believe.

I also hadn't been planning on going to Cape May but after reading your report I tink my aunt and HB will love it especially the pails of clams. I loved your shirts as well. I see people talk about the design boards but have not been able to find them myself yet.

Anyway, please finish your report - I am eagarly awaiting...

 

[Charlefours]

Thanks for still reading. I am trying to complete the report dont worry I wont give up. Its funny how before your trip you put everything on the back burner to be on here but now I have to reprioritize.

I bet your excited because on Saturday you can say "we go to disney this year"! I remember last new years eve after the ball dropped I yelled that to the boys. My husband just looked at me like I was nuts. Thats when he realized he was in for a long ride of disney excitement.

Hope your holidays were great as well. Happy New Year!

I completely missed you replied back! I understand about it having to fit in--I am just looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip. I hope you get to post an update soon!!

I was so glad to say that!! LOL it took me a couple days to let it sink it but it will be here before I know it!!

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

I was so glad to find your trip report today. We are taking our soon to be 5 DD to WDW in May and reading your boys reactions to things has given us insight to our visit. We are also flying Air Tran out of Philly (we live in NJ) - did you stay at the Sheraton by the airport? We are trying to figure out our pre-night plan as we have a 7am flight I believe.

I also hadn't been planning on going to Cape May but after reading your report I tink my aunt and HB will love it especially the pails of clams. I loved your shirts as well. I see people talk about the design boards but have not been able to find them myself yet.

Anyway, please finish your report - I am eagarly awaiting...

thanks so much for reading. I am so glad I could help. I know it helped us tremendously to hear other stories from families with same aged children. I had a hard time finding the designs at first too. You just have to really search around. To find them go to the home page, then scroll down and you see the list of all the different boards. There is one called DiSigns. Click there and then you just have to read the headings. Click on the ones that say tshirt designs. If you need any other help let me know.

Unfortunately our home computer has gotten a worm. We are trying to get our pics off of it and then we will just totally wipe it out and restore it. Hopefully soon again I can return to my report. At least I was able to send back some comments from my work.

I completely missed you replied back! I understand about it having to fit in--I am just looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip. I hope you get to post an update soon!!

I was so glad to say that!! LOL it took me a couple days to let it sink it but it will be here before I know it!!

See the above comment. There is always something getting in the way of me finishing my report. I promise in the end I will finish. Hopefully before you go. At least the computer didnt crash during my planning stages. That would have been a disaster.

 

[tncplace]

Hope you are able to save your pictures and are up and running gain soon.

I found the design boards and am completly addicted, lol.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip report.

 

[nateryan]

I just read your TR throughout the day TODAY! I have 2 boys and the last time we were there, they were 5 and 2 so I feel your pain and excitement. Reading about your dinner at Cape May Buffett makes me want to go back there - guess I need to look at my Itinerary again. We love 'Ohana's for breakfast - it is now the only Character Meal we do. I hope you get your computer up and running again as I would like to read how the rest of your trip went.

 

[Charlefours]

Unfortunately our home computer has gotten a worm. We are trying to get our pics off of it and then we will just totally wipe it out and restore it. Hopefully soon again I can return to my report. At least I was able to send back some comments from my work.

See the above comment. There is always something getting in the way of me finishing my report. I promise in the end I will finish. Hopefully before you go. At least the computer didnt crash during my planning stages. That would have been a disaster.

Hello! I am sorry your computer got a worm!! I hope you are able to save your pictures!! That is one of my worst fears, computer crashing and losing everything. We almost did once but luckily DH is a software engineer so he went in through the DOS system to get everything off. We were lucky so I hope you are too!!

I have just over 6 months before my trip, you have time!!

 

[GoofyaboutMickey]

OH NO! I finnaly caught up don't stop now I hope your computer gets fixed soon, I've enjoyed your tr

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

OH NO! I finnaly caught up don't stop now I hope your computer gets fixed soon, I've enjoyed your tr

I am so glad you enjoyed reading. My computer should be fixed this week. I am hoping to get this report finished up soon. I cant wait.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

So finally my computer is fixed. So without further waiting....Here it goes!

Lunch at Whispering Canyon Cafe

So I left off with us waiting for the ferry boat to go over to the Wilderness Lodge. We didnt have to wait long at all and it was a very relaxing ride.
Heres Nick pointing at the castle.

The Wilderness Lodge is so beautiful, definitely somewhere I would love to stay. We looked around a little and then checked in at the WCC around
1215. We waited a little for a table but that was not a problem at all.....the kids loved the area to play with the lincoln logs!

While we waited they announced that if you were celebrating any occasion to sing along to "If your happy and you know it clap your hands". Nick thought this was great....he kept yelling "there playing my song"

Here ryan is yelling "Horray" during the song.

We were seated around 1240pm. We had an awesome waitress named MT. She was quite a rough lady! Full of lots of character! For all of you who have been to eat here you would understand what I mean by that! We had lots of good laughs throughout this meal.

The food was delicious, another one of our favorites! Heres what we ate:

Lindsay's Appetizer: Chicken Chowder- Pretty Tasty!

Mike's Appetizer: BBQ Pork Rolls- Awesome!

They also bring out corn bread and coleslaw before your meals.

Lindsay's Meal: Delicious!
Grilled chicken sandwich and fries-I forgot to take a picture of this. It was too good I ate it before I even realized I had forgotten.

Mike's Meal: Delicious and Filling!
The "all-U-can-eat" Canyon Skillet. It had sausage, chicken, potatoes, baked beans. It was alot of food!

The kid's Shared a cheesburger and fries meal! We were excited about the plate it came on!

We also splurgged at this meal and got them lightning mcqueen cups with the light up car clipped to the straw.

and now for the best part of the meal.....DESSERT!

I had the smores cheescake which was out of this world..

Mike had the apple pie which was awesome too!

The kids got chocolate chip cookies with their meal which they loved!

Shortly after dessert they announced that the kids could join in for the Hobbie Horse Parade. The kids loved this and were not shy at all.

Thank goodness this was at the end of the meal because they had a hard time sitting still after that.

Overall it was a great lunch....Great food, Great laughs, and lots of entertainment. It was a marked favorite by all!
Overall Rating: 1 being worst.....5 being best
Food=5
Service=5
Atmosphere=5

Next up: Back to MK....NO NAP....and I ran out of diapers :eek:

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

so once again we decide to forget the nap. There was just too much we wanted to see and we thought its better to do it all today and then just rest tomorrow. So thats what we did!

Before leaving the WL we did make a pit stop at the potty and I changed nicks diaper. I realized I only had 1 diaper left. We had really planned to head back to the hotel after lunch so I only stuck a few in the bag. Well my Dh did not want to waste time going back to the hotel so we decided to cross our fingers and hope 1 would be enough.

We hopped on the ferry boat and got back to MK around 2pm. By the time we walked through the gates both kids were fast asleep in the stroller. at least we could have some quiet time walking around.

We went in a few shops and then headed over to tomorrowland. I rode COP by myself since this is my favorite thing to do at MK. I had a wonderful 20 minutes of alone time and then right when I came off I saw the 2 crazy kids up and running around again.

We went to adventure land and got fast passes for BTMRR. Ryan was saying he was not going on but we figured we could convince him by the time we got back. It looked like a definite no for splash mountain though.....I could see the fear in his eyes. I know the limits!

So we just took our time and walked around adventureland. We got to see the pirates league. Neither of the kids got picked but it was fun to watch. The kids did not want to do POC or Haunted Mansion. We didnt want to force the issue because to me these would be scarry at their age. We went in the gift shop at POC and filled a skull with items that they can use for their pirate costumes that we were putting together for MNSSHP. They both got swords and hats. Then being in the pirate mood we ran into this scary pirate.........

but dont worry....We have a brave pirate to fight him off and make him surrender.

then finally after the duel we got a nice picture.

this was the best character interaction yet. I was so surprised ryan did not get scared of captain hook! He talked about him for months prior to the trip. He kept saying he was definitely not getting a picture with him. You can see nick was having no part of even being in the picture.

then we got to see some other favorites.

Nicholas was completely love struck by wendy!

Nick would not stop talking to them....we basically had to pull him away. It was so cute to see him finally feel comfortable in a picture with characters. I guess they looked like real people to him so it wasnt so bad.

After the fun with the characters we rode aladdin's carpet ride and my husband got squirted by the camel. He didnt know really what happened but he was saying how he got wet at the end and he was hoping someone didnt throw up or spit out the side of the ride. I just laughed but I had to be honest and tell him it was the camel. He felt better knowing that it wasnt someone elses bodily fluids.

Coming off the ride I noticed nick was walking funny. OMG his diaper was so soakin wet. Now it really only had been about 2 hours since the last diaper change but he had been drinking alot since it was so hot out. We stopped to change him into his last diaper and we just crossed our fingers that he wouldnt poop or totally soak through it. I figured we could find the baby station if needed to see if they had any diapers to buy. We just took our chance and went along our merry way.

We headed to the front of the castle to get a spot to watch the dream along with mickey show. While the boys waited I went to find us a refreshing treat. Well I hit the jackpot! I got us liberty swirls to share. They basically were just red and blue mixed slushi's. They hit the spot on a hot day. The cutest part is they put a smily face on the top of the blue ice using the red ice. What a magical touch!

Here is nick waiting and enjoying the slushie.

The show was very cute and the kids really enjoyed it. They were under their shades from the stroller so they seemed ok but for me and mike sitting on the ground under the hot sun was exhausting. Boy I still cant believe how hot it was in late september. Here are some snapshots from the show.

after the show we headed back to Adventure land to use our FP for BTMRR. On the way we saw this guy.

UP NEXT: WILL RYAN RIDE BTMRR.....WILL NICK BE TALL ENOUGH FOR GOOFY'S BARNSTORMER......AND WILL WE SURVIVE THE CROWDS AT SPECTROMAGIC!

 

[Charlefours]

for your computer being fixed--I hope you did not lose anything.

WL--I just love looking at pictures from there. It definitely is high on my list of places I would like to stay. Yummy! WCC looks like it would be a great place to try--I will have to mark it down on our list of places to try.

MK: I sure hope we have luck with Lilian napping in the stroller--I would love it if we could have some quiet browsing time too. Seeing as she hardly ever takes a nap now though, I am not planning on it. What a cute picture with Captain Hook and Smee!! I love Mike is smiling and happy too. Those slushies look like they were nice and refreshing during the hot september weather.

I am glad you are back to posting. Looking forward to reading more!

 

[jana616]

Yay for the update! I'm so glad you weren't a TR dropout like me; I am loving hearing about the rest of your trip! Sounds like your afternoon is going well, and I am so hoping Ryan went on BTMRR. It was Griffin's very favorite ride. Keep going, you're almost done!

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

for your computer being fixed--I hope you did not lose anything.

WL--I just love looking at pictures from there. It definitely is high on my list of places I would like to stay. Yummy! WCC looks like it would be a great place to try--I will have to mark it down on our list of places to try.

MK: I sure hope we have luck with Lilian napping in the stroller--I would love it if we could have some quiet browsing time too. Seeing as she hardly ever takes a nap now though, I am not planning on it. What a cute picture with Captain Hook and Smee!! I love Mike is smiling and happy too. Those slushies look like they were nice and refreshing during the hot september weather.

I am glad you are back to posting. Looking forward to reading more!

yes the nap was great but it was short lived. I was able to get my pics off the computer so that is all I worried about. I am glad to be back and I am determined to finish. Watch for the next post soon.

Yay for the update! I'm so glad you weren't a TR dropout like me; I am loving hearing about the rest of your trip! Sounds like your afternoon is going well, and I am so hoping Ryan went on BTMRR. It was Griffin's very favorite ride. Keep going, you're almost done!

Hey Jana, thanks for reading. It is quite a job to finish the TR. I guess before the trip you just are not thinking of anything else but after its almost sad to write the report because its all over. I cant wait to go back again. I have already been talking about it even though we probably wont go until summer of 2012. I think my parents are rethinking coming along because they know how I plan out every little detail.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

After seeing rafiki we went over to BTMRR. Ryan gave us a little bit of a hard time but we promised him popcorn for the parade. He went on and seemed to really enjoy it but when I asked if he would ride with me next he said no. At least we got him on once!

Next we went on the Jungle Cruise where we had a really great and funny driver. I dont remember ever going on this ride before. Mike and I thought it was cute but the humor was very real to ryan so he freaked out a little here and there. It made us laugh even harder....I know horrible parents arent we.

We decided to do toontown next.

I had measured nick before leaving and he was just at 36 inches with his shoes on. I thought he would make the cut for the barnstormer but no luck. As we walked up the CM stopped to measure him. The stick they use touched his hair but she was able to move it over his head. She said in order to ride your head has to stop the stick. Ok I am all for safety but come on. 1 more centimeter and he would be fine. Well this got nick into a full blown temper tantrum. One of the only ones on the trip! I quickly deverted to minnies house and it got him happy again.

Here are some pics:

We then watched for ryan and mike. I was able to at least get mike on the picture....he seems to be having a blast.

Here is ryan rubbing it in to his brother that he went on the barnstormer.

We then explored minnie and mickeys houses again so ryan and mike could check them out.

the kids played in donald's playground area. Nick enjoyed this part.

We stopped by Pete's garage....Ryan is a big fan of pete's.

We originally were suppose to do the story book character reading at 530 but decided to skip it. We figured the boys really wouldnt care that they missed hearing a story from a princess.

We made our way back to main street and got a spot outside of casey's corner. It was about 630pm the spectromagic parade started at 8. I went and got us dinner at caseys and we sat and ate hotdogs/fries and the kids had corndog nuggets. Casey's is always a must have when we are in disney. When we finished eating it was getting a little crowded. People were packing in to see the parade. While we waited they handed out hula hoops. Here is ryan being a little silly!

This was the last picture I took this night because by 730pm the place got nuts. Not to mention nicholas spilled an almost full large lemonade all over me while we waited. So due to the stress of the evening I gave up the camera Ok now your probably thinking what kind of stress can I be talking about. Well......Lets start with the part that while the kids were up playing and out of their stroller a couple sat next to us and then decided to move the stroller back and sit in front of it. I said excuse me my children are going to be sitting there to watch the parade....they held there hands up and started speaking spanish and said no hablo ingles. I pointed to the stroller and pointed to the kids and made a motion to move with my hands and they sat there and ignored me. Ok now I am a pretty calm person. I just gave up and thanked god that my husband had walked into the stores minutes before they did this. I am almost sure my husband would have physically moved these people out of the way. So now we decided to let 2 young kids and their mom sit with us where the stroller still was since there was enough room for them. So we folded up the stroller and sat it behind where we were sitting. I am not sure why I didnt just move down and let my kids sit between us but I think I was so annoyed with these people that I wanted to be away from them. So we waited and waited until the parade finally started. Mike and I had the kids on our laps. By the time the parade started my legs and butt were asleep. Mike has a herniated disc in his back so from sitting on the curb so long he was very uncomfortable he had his legs bent and out a little and the CM came by and said he had to move them closer to the curb. Then at one point during the parade he had ryan stand up for not even 30 sec. so he could switch his legs around and the CM ran back over and said you have to sit him down for safety. OMG. I have to be honest and saying Ive seen this parade many times and this was the only time I wished it would be over. We manage to keep our frustration inside so the kids could at least enjoy it..and they did...so in the end that is all that matters.

After the parade we walked over to tomorrowland and watched the fireworks. They are the greatest fireworks display I ever saw. It gets me teary eyed every time. The kids loved them too. After they were over we saw the crowds pour down main street. I was afraid for my life. We decided to hang out for a little. We used the bathroom and then ventured down main street. Our plan worked it was not that crowded anymore!

We walked out of the park and I couldnt believe my eyes. That entire crowd I saw on main street was now at the bus stops. We waited 45 minutes. The kids both fell asleep in the stroller. Luckily there was a couple of guys in front of us and we realized they had tshirts on with our city on the back. We told them we were also from their hometown. It turned out they played in the same softball league as mike. They were nice enough to carry our stroller on the bus for us so we could each carry a sleeping child. That was some magic!

We got back to the hotel by 1030. Nick was still sleeping so I pushed him in the stroller and we got soda refills at the food court. Ryan woke up and got a 2nd wind and wanted to go swimming. So thats what they did. Mike and Ryan had a great time.

We all were in bed and fast asleep by midnight. What a long day!

Favorites:
Me- Whispering Canyon Cafe
Mike- Swimming with Ryan
Nick- Speedway
Ryan- Barnstormer

ps. nick made it with his last diaper! It was pretty wet by the time we got back but it lasted.

UP NEXT: A DAY OF REST AND MNSSHP

 

[lbuzz52]

Great updates! You guys got a lot done. I'm dreading one child being big enough and one not during our next trip. You seemed to divert it well though.

Where did you get those liberty swirls? They look right up dd's alley.

And don't worry- you aren't the only one who's still working on a fall trip

 

[Charlefours]

what a couple lousy experiences at MK. Do you think Nick would like Barnstormer?


Thank you for hanging in there and finishing your TR!! I am learning so much about what I could possibly expect from my DD by reading the TRs.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

Great updates! You guys got a lot done. I'm dreading one child being big enough and one not during our next trip. You seemed to divert it well though.

Where did you get those liberty swirls? They look right up dd's alley.

And don't worry- you aren't the only one who's still working on a fall trip

thanks for reading along and now I dont feel so bad with taking forever to complete my report. Actually I am going to be sad when I finish because I wont have anything left to talk about. We got the swirls at a snack stand in liberty square close to the castle. They were so refreshing. Having the boys at different sizes was only a problem for a few things. Most rides have so much around them that the little one can be easily distracted. I am hoping my younger son will at least be 40 when we go next. He is only in the 36 range now. How did you like staying in a villa was it worth it?

what a couple lousy experiences at MK. Do you think Nick would like Barnstormer?
we did have a few stressful moments but overall the day was great. I tried not to let them bother me too much. The parade experience was the only real painful part. I think next time I will back off of the parade preparation and just try to catch them if we can. We were always finding a spot like an hour before they started. I always tried to get at the front too which I think is the more crowded watching area. I do think nick would have loved barnstormer. He is a thrill seeker.

Thank you for hanging in there and finishing your TR!! I am learning so much about what I could possibly expect from my DD by reading the TRs.

I am so glad to help you and thank you so much for continuing to read along.

 

[lbuzz52]

there were definite perks to having the villa- especially with the baby. we liked the kitchen and that there were babysitters in the room if dh and i wanted to leave the room for a minute. but truthfully, i just prefer my own space and would have rather done multiple connecting rooms if disney would have guarenteed them. when we made the reservations though, we weren't sure if dad was going to get to go, and it just didn't make a lot of sense for mom to sit in a room by herself and my sister to sit in a room by her self.

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

there were definite perks to having the villa- especially with the baby. we liked the kitchen and that there were babysitters in the room if dh and i wanted to leave the room for a minute. but truthfully, i just prefer my own space and would have rather done multiple connecting rooms if disney would have guarenteed them. when we made the reservations though, we weren't sure if dad was going to get to go, and it just didn't make a lot of sense for mom to sit in a room by herself and my sister to sit in a room by her self.

Thanks for the feedback. I was thinking villa since at least we would have our own room but the more I think about it a regular room probably would be nice and a little more private. I can understand in your situation why the villa was a good choice. the kitchen itself had to be a big bonus with the baby. Oh and I applaud you for taking your 9 month old. I would have been too afraid to attempt taking baby. I would have such anxiety about feedings and naps and the heat. It seems like you handled that like a pro. Did you ever think it would be that hot in oct? I never did!