The next morning, I woke up before everyone else and I peeked outside to see whether the sun was up. When I looked over at the lobby, I was so excited to see that Santa’s elves had been busy decorating the Lodge while we slept!!!
This morning, we had breakfast reservations before park opening at the Crystal Palace (8AM reservations, 9AM park opening). Part of the incentive of having breakfast so early was to see the park mostly empty. 🙂
Time to go!!!
Before leaving for the bus stop, I took a picture of the boys next to the giant Christmas tree that they were putting together in the lobby:
Next, we made our way to the Magic Kingdom.
When we arrived, the Walt Disney Railroad train was in the station. Matthew was HEARTBROKEN when the train pulled away and was frantic to ride on it. No amount of consoling could make him understand that it would be back, we had to wait until we got inside, and that we would have our chance to ride it.
Matthew’s disappointment about the train situation caused for a slightly tense and fit-filled wait to get in the park. The situation was improved when we wouldn’t let him get anything from the gift shop just inside the gates. Can you sense the sarcasm?!? Oy, it was a rough 10-15 minute wait. LOL
Soon we were inside and making our way down Main Street the first time!
I have to say, our first day in the parks was very overwhelming. There was so much going on and so much to see. There were definitely times where we just walked from point A to point B and had no idea where we were going or what we were doing. LOL Thankfully, we caught on quickly.
Another family graciously offered to take our picture if I would take their picture afterward. I think they did a great job!
We took some pictures on Main Street before heading to the restaurant to check-in. Matthew refused to pose with his brother for pictures due to his train-induced-crankies.
I did manage to get a picture of Mike holding him.
Waiting to be seated for breakfast:
We got seated quickly and Mike and Ian headed to the buffet to get us food.
Matthew and I hammed it up in the mirror while we waited:
Soon, the characters started appearing!!!
In between the photo ops and autograph book signing, we tried to eat some food. The character meals were great for seeing your favorite characters but they felt a little frantic. LOL
At one point, they brought over a cupcake, a card, and sang “Happy Birthday” in honor of my birthday that week. Matthew jumped on the chance to eat a cupcake for breakfast.
While we waited to see Tigger and Piglet, the boys studied the map of the park:
Eventually we paid the bill but Tigger and Piglet were still across the room. The server told me that she knew we were ready to go and waiting to see them. To help us out, she had arranged for Tigger to see us but we had to stand in the corner so that we could meet him between tables. We really appreciated her help.
We decided to leave after that and NOT stick around to see Piglet. We had some rides to go on and the park was officially open!
The first ride of the day was Dumbo!
The line wasn’t too bad but the first day was a little rough on the boys. They were tired, weren’t used to the Florida heat, and didn’t really know what to expect about standing in line for rides. (Thankfully, they caught on quickly.)
Mike wasn’t a big fan of the ride:
Fantasyland expansion – they’re building “Beast’s castle”:
The crane you see in that picture planted the first tree that day (http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2011/11/the-first-tree-is-planted-in-new-fantasyland-at-magic-kingdom-park/) – we watched them lift the tree and move it into place!
After Dumbo, we got Fast Passes for Winnie the Pooh and then did Mickey’s Philharmagic. The boys LOVED Mickey’s Philharmagic!
After that, we headed over to Peter Pan:
There was a bit of whining while waiting for Peter Pan so afterward we took a break for drinks and some snacks. While I sat with the boys in the shade, Mike ran for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fast passes.
The Main Street Philharmonic walked by while we were taking a break:
Three rides in and we already needed a break:
After our break, we headed over to ride Winnie the Pooh.
A better view of Beast’s castle while standing in line:
Mr. Crabby-cakes:
If I remember correctly, he was upset because our fast passes let us bypass the part of the line where they had interactive things for the kids to play with. He didn’t seem too interested in the fact that we got to bypass the long line. LOL
At least Mike and I were looking at the camera, right?
After Winnie the Pooh, it was time to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad so we headed over in that direction.
While Mike took the boys to the restrooms, I stealthily took a picture of Donald Duck while he was in between greeting other guests:
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was Matthew’s first experience riding a roller coaster and he did AWESOME. He rode with a very startled look on his face but said he loved it. Mike, on the other hand, was a bit green around the gills after he got off. We decided to take another break to let him recover.
After that, Ian decided he wanted to ride Haunted Mansion. I had expected to skip it because the boys tend to be chickens about scary stuff. I was a little concerned about going on but Mike thought it would be fine so we all got in line. Needless to say, Matthew FREAKED.OUT. during the preshow and Mike and Matthew ended up leaving out a chicken exit. Ian and I rode and he did awesome!!!
After that, we decided to head back to the front of the park to go back to the hotel for naps.
On the way, we caught the Dream Along with Mickey show in front of the castle. This was one of many thing I thought we’d never see but that we kind of ran into accidentally.
The boys were super into the show and didn’t want to leave until it was over. LOL
After the show was over, we headed to the Mickey and Minnie meet-and-greet inside the Town Square Theater since it only had a 5 minute wait and it was on our way out.
When we were taken into the back room, Matthew ran past the other families and totally tackle/hugged Mickey Mouse from behind. He was SO.EXCITED.
Mickey and Minnie meeting with another family while we wait:
Sign on the wall:
Once you leave the meet-and-greet, you walk into a giant gift shop (shocking, right?). While we were there, we picked up our mouse ears. 🙂 There was a bit of confusion over the name to be embroidered on each hat (aka a short tempered cast member that was irritated by me trying to be specific), so Mike ended up with a child-size hat and Ian ended up with an adult hat. Oh well. Mike will probably never wear his hat again and Ian will eventually grow into his. LOL
Leaving the park to go to the hotel for naps, there were many tears and a wee bit of fit-throwing. It took a while to convince the boys that we would be back later that day. (After the first day, we never had issues about that again. They must have believed us. LOL)
Please note, Matthew is crying LOL
We walked over to the ferry dock and waited for the next boat to come.
We were all very glad to sit on the boat and within minutes, the long hot day took its toll on Matthew…..
Taken at 2:20PM:
Taken at 2:26PM:
LOL
When we got to our room, the hotel delivered a birthday card for me. 🙂
After a nice long nap for 75% of us (where does Mike get his energy?!?!), we went back to the park.
Our first stop was to get Matthew some “Cars bracelets” that he had been begging for All.Day.Long. He saw them in the gift shop while we were waiting to be let into the park that morning and had been whining for them all day.
I think he was a little disappointed in them because he didn’t wear them for long and never put them back on again. Money well spent. 😉
Next up, dinner at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland. On our way there, we got fast passes for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. While we were at dinner, Matthew had a faux “I need to go potty!!!!!” experience where he mostly wanted to go in the restaurant to play with the hula-hoops they had out for kids to play with. Little stinker.
After dinner and a real potty break, it was time to use our fast passes for Buzz so we went to ride.
After we rode Buzz, I wanted to hurry and stake spots for the parade and fireworks (actually, I wanted to stake spots well before this but I was out-voted by the guys). When we started walking in that direction, it was pretty clear we weren’t seeing the parade. The crowd was insane and there was no way we’d get close enough to see anything. We were able to see a little bit of the parade from a distance but I vowed that we’d see it on Thursday (our next Magic Kingdom day and the only other time the parade would happen while we were there).
We decided to hang out on the bridge to Tomorrowland so that we could have a good spot for fireworks. The fireworks ended up being off to the side but our spot on the bridge allowed for an unobstructed (and fairly uncrowded) view. While we waited (it was probably an hour long wait), Ian looked at a map of the park while sitting on the pavement. Matthew, generally, acted like a tired, impatient, cranky little 3 year old boy (whining, wiggling, needing up, needing down, needing to go potty, dropping ice cream on the pavement, knocking over drinks, etc). Amusing now but at the time I may or may not have sent a text to my mother indicating that I was ready to feed him to some crocodiles. 😉
Castle all lit up. It was gorgeous!
There is a show called “The Magic, The Memories and You” that they play on the castle before the fireworks start and it is so cool. They play music, video and show pictures taken in the park that day.
Unfortunately, we never got video of it so you’ll have to watch this video. The video doesn’t adequately express how cool it is.
Did you watch the video? Did you SEE the way they make the lights on the castle to look like fireworks and then the fireworks come shooting out? OMG! And that turret taking off like a rocket is UN.REAL. in person. People literally gasped out loud multiple times during the show!
After this show it was time for the fireworks!!!!
Tinker Bell flies near the start of the show and she went almost directly over our heads.
I got really awesome pictures of it:
NOT.
The fireworks show is called Wishes and it was absolutely spectacular. I realize I’m a complete Disney nerd but it brought tears to my eyes. LOVED it.
Gorgeous!!!
(Not really sure what’s up with the extreme smile, neck thing Ian was doing. LOL)
After the fireworks, we headed over to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was an Extra Magic Hours night and since roughly 900,000 people were headed to the exit (and the buses/ferries), we decided to take our time before leaving. After the show was finished, it was definitely time to leave. We were all really tired and tired of standing! LOL
Heading towards the exit:
We got in line for the ferry and the Electrical Water Pageant was going by the dock. Yet another thing I wasn’t expecting to see on our trip. LOL
When we got back to the hotel (and it was a while because the boat seemed to go everywhere except our hotel LOL), I took some pictures of the finished decorations. Unfortunately, I only took pictures with my cellphone.
Here is a blog post link with more pictures of the hotel: http://www.easywdw.com/uncategorized/wilderness-lodge-2011-christmas-decorations-and-a-look-around/
After that, it was definitely time to go to bed. We had another long day on the next day!
Please note: There are a lot of videos in this post. If you aren’t going to watch them all, be sure to watch the last (and unfortunately the longest) video. You won’t want to miss it! :)
After nap time, we went out to explore the hotel a little bit and find our way to the dock. We had dinner reservations at Pioneer Hall at the Fort Wilderness Campgrounds. We were going to see the Hoop Dee Doo Musical Revue! They have a ferry that would take us to and from the campgrounds which was really handy.
Mr. Cool on the boat:
He was wearing Mike’s sunglasses because he woke up from his nap with a headache. He gets migraines that make him vomit so we were a bit worried. Thankfully he was fine.
Pulling away from the dock:
Sun setting behind our hotel:
The Contemporary Resort and a wee little Cinderella’s Castle in the distance:
After a nice short boat ride, we arrived at the Fort Wilderness Resort!
We had our picture taken before the show started but the picture was kind of crappy. They charge for it so we didn’t buy it. You’ll have to take my word for it. 🙂
We had seats in the balcony which ended up being perfect. We all could see easily. The actors came upstairs frequently so we always felt like we were part of the action.
Before we knew it, the show was starting!
After a while, the woman in the yellow dress (I think Dora?) came up and asked Mike if he would mind helping her out in the show. He said yes. 🙂
Side note: Mike has a friend at work that used to work at Disney World and that still has friends that work there. He called in a few favors for us and one of those favors was to have a cast member ask IAN to be on stage. We thought that was what was happening when she asked Mike to go up on stage.
Needless to say, we were SUPER surprised when the restaurant manager and Miss Dolly came up to find Ian and ask him to come up on stage with her. I couldn’t believe they BOTH were going to be in the show!!!
By the way, both boys really enjoyed this show. It had the right amount of corny antics to keep a 3 and 5 year old entertained right alongside their mom and dad. 🙂
Side Note: I would like to point out that sometime after Ian and Michael were selected to be in the show, Matthew had a “I NEED TO GO PEE PEES RIGHT NOW OMG OMG” crisis. And in true, authentic pioneer-style, the bathrooms were OUTSIDE!!! OMG, I was just shy of sprinting down the stairs, out the door, over to the bathroom and back up to our seats. Thankfully, we got back in time for Mike and Ian’s big stage debut. (The bathroom thing becomes a big theme in our trip, if you didn’t guess.)
Mike and Ian were told to head downstairs when the strawberry shortcake song ended. This was their cue!!!!
BEHOLD!!!! MIKE AND IAN’S BIG STAGE DEBUT!!!!!
(I was video taping and taking pictures with both my big camera and cell phone all at the same time so please excuse the bad videography. I can multitask but managing 3 cameras at once was more than I could handle. LOL)
And pictures:
They gave us pictures after:
Here’s a copy of the award:
Afterward, we caught the ferry back to our resort. We waited in line with a family that had just come from the show and they gushed over Ian. They LOVED his performance. 🙂
Contemporary all lit up at night:
Waterfall at our hotel:
We hurried back to our room to go to bed. The next day we were going to the MAGIC KINGDOM!!!!!
We left for Disney very early on a Sunday morning. Our flight left Buffalo at 8:15AM and since I’m a neurotic traveler that likes to arrive the full two hours early, mom and dad came to the house before 6:00AM to drive us to the airport.
Right before leaving for the airport:
We got checked in, checked our bags and through security with little issue. When we got to our gate, our plane was already waiting for us. The boys enjoyed looking at the plane:
The boys were a little hyper while we waited to board the plane. I think the “hurry up and wait” thing was a little confusing at the start of the trip but they were definitely experts at it by the end!
I was a little worried about how the boys would do on the plane since they’d never flown before. Thankfully, both acted like absolute pros! We were very fortunate to sit beside other passengers that were very understanding. Since Ian started the trip recovering from a cold (with a lingering cough), the man next to Ian got coughed on for the entire flight. He was very gracious about it every time we apologized. The woman next to Matthew was super good about asking questions about his trip. He really liked talking to her.
Up in the air, Mike and Ian played Uno for most of the flight. And Ian couldn’t tear his eyes away from the TV screen in front of him. LOL
Matthew was a little harder to occupy. Not too interested in watching tv, didn’t want to color for long, etc. The in-flight food and beverage was pretty much the only thing that kept him busy.
Matthew was too short to see out the window from his seat but the woman beside him was kind enough to let him lean all over her to look out as we began our descent.
Before we knew it, we had arrived in Orlando!
On the tram to go to the main terminal:
The Orlando airport was really busy and with a 3 and 5 year old in tow, we accidentally went to the wrong terminal. So, we had to go back on the tram and get to the correct place.
When we got there, the line for Magical Express was the full length of the terminal. I have literally never seen a line so long in my life. There were people as far as you could see in either direction.
In front of us:
Behind us:
As we were getting sorted into the line for our resort (Wilderness Lodge), they were loading a bunch of people onto a bus. We figured it would be a while before the next bus would come so we settled in for a long wait. Almost immediately, we notice Matthew grabbing himself and doing a bit of a potty dance. I told Mike that we needed to get him to a bathroom ASAP so that we didn’t miss the next bus. Mike and Matthew pull out of line and about 1 minute later the line starts moving again – another bus had arrived and was loading.
I frantically call Mike on his cell phone and they haven’t even FOUND a bathroom yet. I still have all 4 bus vouchers so we can’t go anywhere until they get back. The person in charge tells me to go outside to the line to get on the bus anyway and I’m completely freaking out (and trying to carry all 3 sets of carry-ons, keeping track of Ian, calling Mike on the phone and pushing a stroller by myself). Mike and Matthew find a bathroom, Matthew goes potty and they literally sprint back to join us at the bus. We were the last 4 people on board before it left for Walt Disney World. I think the stress of getting on Magical Express took 2 years off my life. (The “funny” part was, there was a BATHROOM ON THE BUS! And, the bus was only 75% full when we left – despite all the people still waiting in line to get to their resorts. GAAH!!!)
All-in-all, it took about an hour to get on a bus but once we got on, it was smooth sailing!
We saw EPCOT from our bus:
I almost screamed with excitement when I saw this out the window:
We stopped at the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian before going to our resort.
Boy, the Grand Floridian really needs to try harder, doesn’t it? What an ugly resort! 😉
Our turn to get off!!!!
We unloaded off the bus and collected our stroller.
Funny story: We borrowed a stroller from our friends, Jill and Greg, and a couple of nights before our trip, I bedazzled the bajesus out of that stroller so that it would be easy to identify while in the parks. When the bus driver unloaded our stroller from the underbelly of the bus, the other family that got off almost tried to take our stroller. It’s like, hello?!?! Did you put 90 ribbons on your stroller? NO? Then why do you think this is yours? LOL (Thankfully, we never had any other issues the rest of the trip.)
Bedazzled stroller, by the way:
The bedazzlement came in very handy. It made it very easy to find our stroller in the sea of strollers at Disney World.
Anyway……we got off the bus and headed towards the entrance. I was greeted by a very friendly woman that said “Welcome Home!” Bless her little heart. LOL Too bad it was only our home for a week. 🙂
She asked me our names, if we’d ever been there before, where we were from, yadda yadda while escorting us to the check-in desk. When I walked up to the next available cast member, I was told their computers were down at the moment so I couldn’t be checked-in. They took my name and cell phone number and told me they would call me when the computers were up and we could check in. Since we were on the dining plan (and it was lunch time), they told me to pay for lunch and they could reimburse us via the dining plan once things were up and running. AND, since we were sooooooo inconvenienced by the computers being down, the lovely gentleman at the desk gave me 4 complimentary park tickets to use for that day. And they were hopper passes too!!!! WHAT THE WHAT?!?!?!? LOL
Waiting for me while at the check-in desk:
Since we had dinner plans that night, I knew we couldn’t use the passes but I was pretty excited to get free tickets. (After we got back to Buffalo, I called Disney and asked when the tickets expire. After waiting on hold for a while and getting traded to multiple cast members, I found out that we needed to hurry up and use them because they expire in 2031. LOL Yes, we have approximately 20 years to use these bad boys! I’m sure they’ll get used before they expire!)
We walked over to one of the restaurants in the hotel and ordered some lunch. We ate our meals outside underneath an umbrella-covered table and while we were eating, I received a call saying we could check-in and that our room was ready. SCORE!!! All-in-all, we only had to wait 45 minutes and we had already planned to grab lunch anyway.
We quickly checked-in and got our tickets for our dinner reservations. We headed to our room and were absolutely thrilled with it!
The bunk beds were perfect for our family:
And Mousekeeping (housekeeping at Disney LOL) had left us a Mickey head made out of towels/wash clothes:
Do you see the “hidden” Mickey head worked into the design of the bedspread? The center of the flower in the bottom left corner? They also had Mickey heads in the design of the carpet out in the hallway.
View from our hotel “balcony” (we were on the first floor so it was more like a patio):
The lobby was directly to the left. The railing at ground level directly straight ahead was a observation deck to look out over the stream that flows from the hotel lobby and down a waterfall. It was really gorgeous lit up at night.
Ian chilling in one of the lounge chairs:
Once we got in our room, we hurried and checked into bathing suits. We played in the pools for maybe 30-45 minutes and then went back to the room for naps. We had already had a long day and we had dinner reservations that we wanted to be well-rested for.
……to be continued……
Ian and Matthew dressed as Captain Hook and Peter Pan this year.
We did a dress rehearsal on Sunday, October 30th so that Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jackie could see the boys all dressed up:
On Monday, Ian’s class was having a big Halloween costume party. Since they were expected to change from their costumes to regular clothes (they had gym) and Ian’s costume was a bit involved, I got him a cheap $20 costume from Target to wear to school.
Behold, Dr. Ian!!!
After school, we did a super quick dinner and then got the boys changed into their costumes. Before you know it, we were out trick-or-treating:
(Notice the fact that it started to rain as we left the house?!?!)
Checking out their haul at my mom and dad’s house:
Our school district sent home a flier about their “Youth Soccer Academy” back at the start of the school year. Since we don’t have enough going on these days, we thought it would be a superb idea to commit ourselves to 8 weeks of soccer. LOL
Ian got a t-shirt and a soccer ball with our registration.
The lessons are run by the coach and players from Sweet Home High School’s Varsity team. The players are so good with the kids.
After this 1st class, they split the group up in 2 session (one at 9am, one at 10am). We probably only have 10 kids in our class now.
The first part of the session is spent warming up and practicing their soccer skills. The coach does a really great job of making all of the practice seem like a game.
Here the coaches are demonstrating how to play one game/drill. They’re pretending to be bears (complete with growling) and working their way in between all of the balls on the ground. In addition to being bears, the kids also get to run backwards, hop like bunnies, and fly like planes.
While they’re weaving in and out of the balls, the coach will blow his whistle and yell out a body part to put on the nearest ball.
Apparently, Coach yelled “left knee”. LOL
The kids playing…..
(Ian is in the dead center, near the lighter colored blue pad on the wall. Blue basketball shorts with a foot on the yellow ball.)
Listening to instructions for the next game……
Getting ready to play…….
Ian got tagged by the “swamp monster” (one of the high school kids running around making silly noises) and is waiting to be tagged again/released from being frozen….
Dribbling the ball to avoid getting tagged by the swamp monster again……
Waiting for someone to dribble their ball between his legs to unfreeze him……
Dribbling his ball between a teammate’s legs to unfreeze her (with a little hand action LOL)…..
Listening to instructions……
Water break……
The second half of the session is spent playing a scrimmage game against the other kids…..
Huddle and high-fives after a good first practice…….
He had so much fun!
Videos……
Warming up and doing drills:
Playing a scrimmage game (where Ian picks up the ball with his hands LOL):
Ian really enjoys playing soccer. Enough that we’re considering NOT doing t-ball/baseball next summer and just continuing with the soccer. And, if you can believe it, it was my baseball-loving husband that suggested that! LOL
For my readers that are Sweet Home High School alumni, the turf field is in the room that previously was the swimming pool. It blows my mind that the pool is now a turf field. LOL