just back, a little party, a little ship, a little kingdom, a little tired, a whole lotta happy

[afyoung]

October 1, 2015
The day had finally arrived. This was the day we would depart for the vacation we had been anticipating since we first began planning it in late November 2014. We would be experiencing many firsts and almost firsts, a whirlwind of excitement and entertainment, 11 days away from home, all without our own personal vehicle, all with this control freak mom having to give up control and go with the punches. During this trip we experience flight delays, disappointments, magic, sea sickness, real sickness, and more fun than the kids (or adults) could have ever imagined. Spoiler Alert! I will chalk it all up to a big win, despite any pitfalls we encountered.
We left our home in Smyrna via Grandma and Grandpa Shuttle to the airport in Nashville. My mom has a huge fear of not seeing land, so it took some convincing to get her to drive us to the airport where her grandbabies (and favorite child) would eventually travel to spend a week at sea (during hurricane season!). So my dad drove and she came along for the ride. We arrived respectably the two hours prior to flight time as advised by the airlines. This would be the first time my children DD, age 10 and DS, age 9 would ever fly. They were super excited and not worried at all. My husband had only earlier this year flown, one way, for the first time in his life. We flew frequently during the first 8 years of my life back when I was still in only child status, but I have only flown about a dozen times in the past 20 years. After quick goodbyes and hugs to my parents, we checked our luggage with the guy right outside the terminal, he gave us the appropriately marked luggage receipts and we went inside to feed the kids some dinner. I had already explained a few times about what they could expect to see and experience at the airport, so they were more asking questions about when something was going to happen, as opposed to asking what was happening. Annoying questions, yes, but good to know they do actually hear what I tell them sometimes.
We cleared the TSA body scan/DNA sample/first born donation check point and grabbed a delicious dinner at Burger King and the Pizza place. Then we stopped at a bathroom and headed over to the gate. The kids were very excited to just sit and watch airplanes for a bit. As the flight before ours boarded and cleared up some seating areas we noticed kids were getting “first time flyer” certificates and went over to nab some for our first timers. It was at this time that we learned the flight we were getting on was delayed by a minimum of 20 minutes…womp.womp.womp. Although it was already a 7:30pm flight, and we had already been such good humans attending work and school, we were stuck a little longer trying to be patient. We were leaving out of Nashville where the whole Middle Tennessee area was about to begin Fall Break, so we were in an airport full of people traveling, most of them going to see the World of Walt. To say that kids and grown-ups were a little restless would be an understatement.
We board, finally. Take off, finally. And land, finally. Because we were staying on Disney property we would be using the Magical Express. Because we were arriving (originally) after 10pm, we would be claiming our own luggage. Because I hadn’t been in the Orlando airport since 1998, I had no idea how much work it would really be to get to the main terminal, go down to the proper side for baggage claim- wait over half an hour for the baggage to even begin looping the belt thingy, claim all 5 bags, go back up to the 3rd level, cross over to the other side of the terminal and then get all the way to the end of that terminal with all of our stuff and now cranky tired kids who are still ready to see Mickey, we didn’t get one of those cool luggage carts and so we were exhausted by the time we got to where we needed to be. We were still greeted by happy Disney peeps and managed to get to a lovely ME bus and our luggage was loaded on as well, and then we sat. As we continued to sit for the better part of an hour, it became painfully obvious how tired and cranky everyone was, not just the kids. Finally we began the drive to AoA, and were excitedly the first stop for the bus. I had checked in online and received our room number via text before we ever left Nashville, so we knew we just needed to go to our room. What I didn’t realize (yes, I had a map), was exactly how far from the main building the Little Mermaid rooms are located. It wouldn’t have been quite so bad except that it was now well after 1am, and we were all worn out. We trudged with ALL of our luggage (in hindsight we would have left it to be brought via porter if we had been using fully functioning minds) to our room that was not located with a lake view (as I had requested). It also was not exactly what I would have considered close to transportation (another request), but then, none of the LM rooms really are close to transportation unless you count the view we had of the parking lot, so it is what it is. I gave my children very explicit instructions that no grownups can be awoken before 8am, and we tumble into beds and fall right asleep.
At 8:01am, my DS wakes me with the proclamation of hunger and we get up and begin getting dressed. We wake up DD and ask her to join us, we nudge DH, tell him we are going to eat and we will bring him something back. He is in complete agreement with this plan. We hike to Animation Hall and grab breakfast while trying to navigate the specifics of using our dining plan. We finish eating and I go to the desk to pick up a package that was left for me the day before by a CM who makes super cute Disney inspired paper crafts for door decorations. I am informed they are on their way to my room, but will most likely be returned because we have so kindly left the do not disturb sign on the door for DH to continue his nap. We shop a little in the gift shop. I find a nice Christmas ornament that I want to buy. This is something we started a few years ago, and now I like to pick up at least one ornament on every trip. The thing is, my kids at this point believe we are only spending two nights at AoA before we leave on a 7N cruise. We are. But I have a secret- we will be back for one more night after the cruise. This is why I choose not to buy my ornament at this time. They get some small stuffies and a hat, and then we grab breakfast for dad and head back to the room.
We encounter the Mousekeeper for our room and advise we just need extra towels for the pool, and there is no need to service our room this day, after all, we have only slept in it so far. The kids and I get ready for the pool and head out. After a few hours, DH is ready to go get lunch and we discuss walking back up to Animation Hall before we get ready to head out for MNSSHP. Lunch is great, a wonderful CM lets us know that even though my DS is on the child’s dining plan that he can ask for food from either menu. She even brings him some more food for that meal, as he was still hungry from his one chicken leg feast. I had not realized this was an option and up until that point we were just negotiating how we were going to share from our plates to make sure everyone was full. There was plenty of food to be had, no one would starve, but it was good to know that my growing boy was not as limited as we had originally thought. After lunch we went back to the room for an hour of downtime, then got dressed and headed out for the party. This foray into the party would only be my second time ever in the MK and a first for the rest of my family. I was so excited- Parade, Fireworks, Haunted Mansion, fun rides, characters. This night was going to be magical.

 

[afyoung]

October 2, 2015
We were dressed in Halloween shirts, but not costumes. The kids didn’t really want to wear costumes, and even though we had brought them, they said the shirts were fine and didn’t even have second thoughts after seeing others dressed up at the party. We used Disney transportation to get to the MK about 4pm. We got inside and after forcing my kids to have their picture made in front of Main Street, we headed toward the castle. A show was happening in front of the castle, we stopped and watched a bit of it, but they really wanted to get to the rides. We turned into Tomorrowland and went over to Stitch’s Great Escape. There was only a 15 minute wait and it was still very warm outside. I got a little déjà vu as I remembered this line queue from the last time I was at MK, except that Stitch didn’t even exist back them. But guess what did….Men in Black. That’s right, same scenario, same problem (aliens), same stuff. Disney just recycled the deal for Stitch. It was still very much a non-ride as before, but a cool break and a unique way to introduce the kids to their first real theme park experience. After this, we went over to help Buzz Lightyear shoot some targets. DS and I mostly spent the time spinning our little cart around in circles, because that was super fun. DH “won” with the most points, but I still think our spinning was the better win. Then we went over to the People Mover. The kids had been looking at it and really wanted to try it. Who am I to deny them of this glory? So we people moved around and checked out the cool stuff we could go do. We exited that ride and went over to the race cars. This is where it gets tricky. My kids have never been to any sort of real amusement park, just local fairs and carnivals. They don’t know what it is to spend time waiting in line to ride a cool ride. So when they saw a 30 minute wait, they didn’t want to do it. I tried to explain that these were wait times that we were going to have to deal with. They decided they wanted to eat instead. We went to Cosmic Ray’s. We ordered too much food; we threw away too much food. We exited toward the tea cups. Alice and the Mad Hatter were there, as was the Queen of Hearts. I really want to stop and hang with them, because I LOVE Alice and the crazy hatter. They didn’t want to do the character line thing, so I let them choose and we all rode the teacups. We passed the Mine Train. It was a short line (60 minutes), but that was too much time to wait (yes, I know it really was a short line) so we kept on moving. We managed to ride The Little Mermaid, hit up a few trick or treat spots, decide not to wait in line to see Jack & Sally because we will be able to see them on the cruise, and then ride It’s a Small World. Then the rain came down. We came out of Small World and there was crazy hard rain falling from the sky. But, like a good planner I had packed ponchos. Yep, packed them, in a suitcase, but not into my park bag and so we got wet. It’s just water, and we did plan to ride Splash Mountain later anyway. What’s a little water? We made another bathroom stop and then headed to the Haunted Mansion. The queue for this is covered, and the wait is 30 minutes. I told the kids to suck it up; we had to wait in a line if we were going to ride anything. We got on the ride, DD with me, DH and DS together. DD declares this to be too scary. I tell her to close her eyes and just relax til the end. She does. She opens her eyes for less than 30 seconds of the entire ride, but I finally accomplished at least one of my “must dos’ at the party. DS was also scared, and never wants to ride that ride again. Here is where I will give the disclaimer that they have watched the Haunted Mansion movie, but they have not watched any other “scary” movies…ever. We rounded the corner out of the ride and headed into Liberty Square. The streets were being prepared for the parade that may or may not be happening due to the rain. We wander over to the ferry boat area to try to wait out of the rain. The kids need to go to the bathroom again. I take them there while DH enjoys some popcorn. We pass a trick or treat area with a huge line. DS tells me he is ready to go back to the hotel. DD tells me she has a headache. I ask a CM about the parade. She tells me it is still only delayed and not yet cancelled, but it is already time for fireworks. It is still raining. We agree to head back out towards Main Street and see what happens. People are leaving the park in droves, and my kids want to go too. Parenting dilemma- Do I make them stay because I really want to be at this party (I love Halloween) or do I give in because we are still tired and just try to get some good rest before the cruise in the morning? We decide to continue toward the exit, traveling down Main Street, bobbing and weaving through the dance party that Phineas and Ferb are having and take a moment to regroup before exiting. We leave the party. No parade has happened, no fireworks have happened and the ride back to the resort only makes me a little sad until my son states it has been the best day ever. See, he didn’t realize what he was missing, and I could only see what we were missing. Perspective is important here people. This is why we do this, we plan and prepare and know it is a big deal to take this sort of trip, but this would be their only first ever trip to the MK, they had nothing to compare it to. As long as what they remembered was the best day ever, it doesn’t matter what we didn’t get to do. What matters is all of that stuff that made it the best day. We get back to our room and shower, put on pjs, and sort out everything for the cruise- swimsuits, sunscreens, and that sort of thing what exactly is going into our day bags. Then we all crash into bed exhausted. Nothing new until the phone rings at 7:30 am with a call from DCL.

 

[afyoung]

October 3, 2015
We have a car service scheduled to take us to the Port. I know DCL offers a transport to resort guests. The cost of our car service was $40 less than the cost of that shuttle, and we could stop at the store along the way if needed. They are going to pick us up at 9am, so I have my alarm set for 7:45. Enough time to get dressed get to breakfast and then head out front to be picked up. At 7:30 DCL calls me with a recorded message. The Fantasy’s return to Port Canaveral was delayed from their Eastern Caribbean, due to interaction with Hurricane Joaquin. So we need to delay our arrival by 2 hours in order to accommodate this delayed disembarkation process. I quickly call the car service. They tell me they will see what they can do to help us, but are not sure they can put off our pick up by 2 hours. About 5 minutes later he calls and says he has extended our pick up to 10:30. An hour and a half, not too bad, and he even apologizes to me for not being able to give us any more time. Tiffany Town Car…top notch customer service. They are not affiliated with Disney and from what the drivers told me, they do mostly business travelers. But they were great with my family and knew the inner workings of arriving on Disney Property just as you would want them to.
We got our stuff situated, sent the suitcases with the baggage guy and went to eat breakfast. The kids burned through a bit of money at the arcade and hopped around excitedly waiting for our car. When it was time to go, we got to the car, our driver loaded up our luggage and I enjoyed the relaxing ride to the port. When we got to the port it was not very relaxed. People were trying to get off the ship, so those of us who would normally be going up to parking level 3 to wait in line to get into the terminal were now being sent to parking level 5 which was being used as a holding area until everyone else was off of the ship. We were able to drop off our luggage just like normal, and sent over to the garage just like normal, it was just a different level. One of the CMs explained that this was keeping us safe from most traffic departing that garage from the returning cruise, and it was how they were going to make sure it was still a first come/first to board situation going across into the terminal. Then we hear all about how the Disney buses were beginning to arrive and those people were going to be let into the terminal first. Yes, I quickly thought about kicking myself for my “super awesome” car service idea. We continued to wait in line on parking level 5, and the CMs came around with brief updates. They were still going to continue funneling people up from the ground floor to level 5, but were going to use the other 2 elevators to funnel us down in groups of 10-20 so we could get in line to enter the terminal. During our time in this line, it did appear that is exactly what happened, and so there were not any angry people who had been waiting for 2 hours getting cut in front of by new arrivals….except those damn resort buses. But, oh well, it is what it is, and we did still enjoy that quiet ride to the port.
Once inside the terminal it was happiness and magic, everyone was happy to see us, and very helpful. We managed to get quickly checked in, got our lanyards for Castaway Club members (the kids were super hyped about these), and were told we could go ahead and board the ship. We skipped the embarkation photo and got right onboard. I got the goose bumps just like last time when they announced our family to the ship, and I may have got a little teary eyed. DD and I went up to deck 5, didn’t even have to wait in line to grab meet and greet tickets and character breakfast tickets, and then met up with the boys down on Deck 2 to eat lunch at Enchanted Garden. After this, it was after 2:30 and our rooms were supposed to be ready. We hopped on the elevator and went right up to deck 8. The hallways were open and we found our room quickly. We had the Castaway Club bag on the bed as a gift. It was actually a really nice bag, and I used it during the week instead of my backpack for trips to the pool. There were also some awesome gifts from my travel agent, such as a water bottle, a messenger bag, and some paying cards…all DCL merch, all super cute. My DH took over the messenger bag rather quickly as his own and used it when we were in port. We got situated and unpacked before we had to go down for our Muster Drill. That’s right, the ship was 2 hours late coming in, we boarded 2 hours later than scheduled. The rooms were still ready within an hour of the normal time, and we had all of our luggage in our room before 3pm. We skipped the sail away party. We didn’t care much for it last year, and so we just decided it would be ok to miss this year. We decided that we didn’t want to wait for the MDR that night. We were worn out from the heat and the commotion from the two previous nights, so after freshening up we went up to the kids club to get the kids their magic bands. At this time we opted not to let them self-check out. We went to Flo’s for dinner and had some ice cream. The kids put on their swim suits and rode the Aquaduck three times in a row in less than 30 minutes. We knew we had an early breakfast in the morning and busy plans for the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, Goofy Sports Deck, and princesses to meet and greet. We all kind of settled in watching a little tv and being gently rocked to sleep by the boat. Embarkation day was a success despite the early setbacks. I will say that not once did any CM we encountered from the port or the ship act as if there was any hiccups in their day, while I know they were probably tired and missing breaks they would have normally been able to have. I didn’t even hear any real complaints from other guests once we were no longer waiting to get through the terminal. Everyone was very pleased with as far as I could tell with the way the morning was handled.

 

[afyoung]

October 4, 2015
This morning we have an 8:30 breakfast with the stars of Disney Jr. While my kids are too old for Disney Jr, their little cousin Kaylee is 2, and she loves these characters. And while we wish Kaylee was on this cruise with us, she isn’t so we are finding things for her to enjoy also, such as pictures of her TV friends with her favorite cousins. This breakfast was served in Animator’s Palette and it has a menu with plenty of options- waffles, omelets, meats, cereals, etc. Someone came around with a tray of various pastries and encouraged us to try one of each. When I ordered my ham and cheese omelet the server suggested I add a little bacon on the side. They made sure we had plenty of food and kept our beverages full the entire time. This was our first ever character dining experiences and I must say that it was really well orchestrated when they rotated the characters around the room allowing plenty of time for these non-speaking characters to interact and pose for photographs taken with the ship’s camera people as well as the ones from our camera. We saw Jake, Princess Sofia, Doc McStuffins, and Mickey Mouse. Groups of new families were scheduled to be seated about every 15 minutes from what I could tell.
After breakfast we went back to our room to get ready for the day. The boys didn’t care about meeting Anna and Elsa or any of the other princesses, but Alexis was ready to be all princessfied and had an appointment at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to be transformed by her fairy godmother into a mermaid. We realized that although we had been told the day before that none of our scheduling would overlap, it appeared that she would be becoming a mermaid right about the time we were set to visit the Frozen ladies. I went down to deck 5 where I had originally gotten the tickets, but was sent down to deck 3 guest services to see what could be done to correct the issue. I felt that it should be quickly resolved by them since they had assured me the schedules would not overlap. We also really wanted the makeover before the meet and greets. Guest services said there were no other times available after our Boutique appointment, but called the BBB for us, told them they were with a guest who needed to change their appointment and handed me the phone. They worked it out right then and there, bumped her appointment up an hour and all was right with the world. If I recall there had not been any earlier appoints in the boutique that day when I made this one online, so they must keep quite a few ready to go once we are all onboard. Here is what I think about the BBB. They do their best to make each little princess feel special. And I might add, that being referred to as a queen felt pretty cool to this mom as well. Because of course every princess has a kingdom and they are here on the ship with their kings and queens. Some of them even have a prince or two in the family. I think Alexis really liked the experience, and because Ariel is her favorite princess, the mermaid package was the one that made sense. But, I don’t think the mermaids get as much detail as some of the other packages do. I watched a Fairy Godmother work on one girl’s hair for 30 minutes. Alexis’ hair took 10. But oh my, the staying power of the hair, well, let’s just say if you need a good investment it is the company that makes the gel they use in the BBB. They apply it thickly to each strand of hair. These are updos that are going to uphold time at sea. You can also go back during the week to have more pixie dust added if you manage to lose all of yours. Alexis didn’t complain about anything, but I almost felt like she felt too big for this experience. None of the other girls were over the age of 6 that were there at the same time. They didn’t have princess shoes in her size. They stopped two sizes before her actual shoe size. She did however wear that mermaid outfit most of the day that day and again to the Halloween party later in the week and the hair clip daily since she got it. So maybe some of my insecurities are playing out in my perception of how she felt. Of course every CM tells the princesses how beautiful they look after these makeovers so it is pretty cool.
We were off to meet Anna and Elsa in Animator’s Palette. Yes, we had already been there earlier in the day for Disney Jr breakfast, but it had magically been transformed into Arendelle for this encounter. Both the queen and the princess loved interacting with the mermaid. They also loved that she had a “magical” pen that glows when you write with it. They wondered if she had any other magical items. After this visit we were back to the Atrium to meet some other princesses. All in a row, ready to go we saw Tiana, Belle, Cinderella, and Ariel. Ariel also was enamored with the fancy pen and really wondered if she might have one back at her grotto. She was going to send Flounder out to check. She discussed that the pen has an “A” on top just like her name, and enjoyed that she and Alexis were both mermaids with “A” names. Last year we discussed that Ariel really had the best interactions with us out of all the princesses. I felt the same about this time too. I also really like the structure of these ticketed meet & greets. We didn’t feel rushed through the line at all, the photographers and character handlers were really very nice and helped keep a steady flow going while still allowing for the interactions with each princess.
We had agreed to meet the boys back in our room before lunch as they were up on Goofy’s Sports Deck in the sport simulator while we were rubbing elbows with all the princesses. I still haven’t been to that thing, so all I can give is the man version of a review on it. “It was cool”. “We had fun”. “I would go there again if you would let me”.
We ate lunch at Flo’s, and then Nathan went to the kid’s club. Alexis wanted to begin one of the detective stories so we went and grabbed one of those and worked our way through all of the forward clues. We also discovered the laundry room where I would be spending a portion of my evening after dinner.
Dinner was at Animator’s Palette tonight and Alexis and I laughed about all the ways we had seen it in just this one day. For dinner we were under the sea with Crush. He came to our table and interacted with us. It was amazing. And I may have gotten teary eyed again with the fun my kids had when Crush talked to them. On the Dream last year we were near the big screen and he didn’t interact with us, so this year when we were near the big screen I lost all hopes of the interaction for this year. But, the family in front of the big screen didn’t want to talk to him, so he swam over to our table and talked to us about our gnarly shells and awesome table. After dinner I went down to the laundry room and washed our clothes from the past 4 days and Nathan went to play with his friends in the kid’s club. Alexis and Scottie went to bed. I picked Nathan up about midnight and we all crashed after our busy day. We had to get rested up for our trip to Cozumel.