Me, my son, and a little hurricane named Matthew. (Updated 4/6 -- F&W time!)

[elcmum]

Welcome to my trip report! We just returned from an amaaaaazing seven days in Florida and part of it, yes, included a little storm named Matthew. That didn't diminish our fun, though!

I started planning this trip just over a month ago, and if you'd like to look our PTR, please visit How to plan a WDW trip in less than 30 days.

Join along as I share a smattering of our 1000+ photos, way too much commentary on amazing theme design in ride queues, a whole lot of talk about counter-service food and snacks, and a newbie's thoughts on MNSSHP!

Cast of characters
Day 1, Part 1 - Let's start at the very beginning
Day 1, Part 2 - Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
Day 1, Part 3 - I feel the need... the need for speed.

Day 2, Part 1 - Rain, feel it on my fingertips, feel it on the windowpane...
Day 2, Part 2 - In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight
Day 2, Part 3 - The update with no photos/the evening before Hurricane Matthew

Day 3, Part 1 - The day of the hurricane/the sky is awake so I'm awake
Day 3, Part 2 - Evening after the hurricane/So, you want to eat at Raglan Road?

Day 4, Part 1 - This land is your land
Day 4, Part 2 - Mary Poppins and a lot of food
Day 4, Part 3 - Food, glorious food!
Day 5, Part 4 - Is Australia all that at F&W?
Day 5, Part 5 - A night of Food & Wine (but just food)


​

 

[elcmum]

Cast of Characters

If you've made it this far... I'm Liz.

• I'm an Aussie living/working in the USA.
• I have three kids (the youngest joined me; my oldest is in college and my middle child is out of state for fall break).
• I have been in love with Disney-everything since I read The BabySitter Club books in the late 80s and Dawn visited Disneyland and it was cemented even more when there was a Super Special book and the gang all went on a cruise and then to WDW.
• My favourite movie is Beauty and the Beast. And then Cars.

Joining me was CJ:

• He's eleven
• He's a competitive swimmer, which basically means we live and die by swim practice.
• He is a picky, picky, picky eater. But loves hummus. Dining with him was a challenge because he'll pick at a meal, but looooooooves snacks!
• He kind of likes Disney movies but isn't cray-cray about them. He has slept with a Dumbo we picked up at DL every single night since March, though. There is hope for him.
• He's very mellow and easy going, but was not a fan of meet and greets with characters. I forced him to do one, though!

And also joining us was.... Hurricane Matthew!

 

[dlavender]

Im in! Excited to follow along!

 

[Belle stitch]

Joining in. Interested to read about your experience at WDW during the hurricane. I've seen some conflicting reports of how people felt Disney did to serve guests who couldn't leave.

 

[Shrfleen]

Can't wait to see how your trip went!

 

[elcmum]

Let's start at the very beginning...

...a very good place to start....

(Sorry, I had to channel my inner-Julie Andrews.)

We were due to leave on Thursday, October 6, with a 5:30 am flight. The plan was to fly IND-CLT-MCO and use DME to head to All Star Movies, drop our stuff, and bolt for Animal Kingdom.

Hahahaha!

While following the news and message boards early in the week, there was evidence that Hurricane Matthew was going to skim and skirt the coast of Florida, and while most people were deciding to cancel their plans, it only made me more bound and determined to get there. I figured that Disney was on its own electrical grid and it was probably the safest place in Florida.

Plus, I really really really wanted to get away.

On Tuesday, October 4, I was keeping an eye on American Airlines' website to see if there was any sort of travel advisory to allow us to adjust our tickets. By early afternoon the advisory was posted, and we were allowed to change our flights (with no fee) to the very following day... departing IND around 3:30pm in the afternoon.

At that point, this countdown became useless.

We were leaving the very next day.

I had thankfully packed over the previous weekend, so I felt like most of our belongings were in order. We woke around 6am on Wednesday morning and hurriedly dressed. I had a work conference all day, and begged and begged to be allowed to leave at 1pm so we could make the flight. Permission had been granted, so I dragged CJ with me to the hotel where the conference was at and while I manned our booth (and checked in on him every now and then in the lobby), it was slowly creeping toward 1pm.

At 12:55pm I received a complaint call.

At 1:05pm I was still huddled in a corner trying to resolve an issue.

At 1:15pm I was finally changing out of work clothes and into something more comfortable.

We drove to the airport, parked in long-term parking, and made it to the airport before 2:30pm. Luggage was checked in, and from that point we spent fooooreeeeverr trying to make it through security and then headed to the gate, where I quickly tried to wrap up work for the day so I could focus on the fun at hand.

Our adventure was about to begin!
Day 1, Part 2

 

[Clio]

Great start. I can't wait to read how your trip went.

 

[momabbate]

Excited to read about your trip!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Very interested to hear how the hurricane effected the trip.

 

[dmea10]

Following along! You have a handsome young man there.

 

[heaven2dc]

Joining in as well! So glad you were able to change your flights and you made it to the airport in time. Anxious to read more!

 

[BellaBaby]

Just found this...following along!!

 

[Kiersten]

Looking forward to more updates soon!

 

[pucknasty]

Hey! We're from the same neck of the woods! Nice to see other people from this area!

Can't wait to see how your TR unfolds

 

[elcmum]

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?​

It’s taken five long months to get to the point where I could write this report. I don’t know if I’m the only person who felt this way but I was kind of Disney-fatigued when we made it home… and then CJ started the busy schedule of competitive swimming (and I have the very important job of Chief Swim Taxi Chauffer)... and here we are five months later and we’re planning another trip, but I can’t really plan another trip without finishing this report.

Many apologies... so I'll just get straight to what we were doing when I left you all hanging.


So, we hit the plane. Literally, we hit the plane.

We have a weird tradition of touching the exterior of the plane for good luck and settled in for the flight from IND-CLT. The flight was fairly uneventful… and we had about an hour in Charlotte and most of that was waiting in line for CJ to order pizza for dinner.

Not just any pizza, but he wanted two slices of stuffed crust pizza. I said, I think that’s too much food, but… as boys do, he decided that his belly was bigger than his eyes but we all know how that ended. (He ended up getting one piece... and you can see for yourself how much was left before deciding I was right.)

While we were sitting there, I was being sent funny memes about the weather in Florida...

... that made us laugh. Ok. It made me laugh, but I had to explain it to my kid.

The weather and impending doom of Hurricane Matthew was definitely was a topic of conversation amongst passengers, and I was probably one of the weird ones who was happily flying to Florida.

As mentioned in the previous post, in my heart I knew that if there was any place you would want to be during a storm it was going to be Disney World.

Trust me -- I am the biggest chicken when it comes to weather and don’t like to even drive unless it’s fair and sunny and not dark or raining or snowing or congested. Basically...

...I have a lot of phobias… but Disney and Matthew were not one of them.


We were able to board the flight from Charlotte to Orlando with no problem or delays, and I figured it may help first time visitors gauge how long it really does take to get from the plane to the hotel.

So.....

8:20/8:30ish - we landed in Orlando
8:38pm - we wait in line for the fake-o-rail
8:43pm - we check in for MDE (no line) and are sent in the direction of line #8
8:45pm - we survey the incredibly crowded airport

8:55pm - we are the first to be seated on the bus, and promptly take the second row! HOORAY!

And then we sat. And waited. And waited. And waited some more.

9:20pm - we left MCO for the parks. I am telling you know, I felt like we waited forever. It had only been an hour since we landed, but took an eternity.

9:40pm - we saw the most amazing sign ever!

The bus did a drop at ASSpo, ASMu... and then we were eventually released at ASMo, and proceeded into the lobby for THE WORLD’S LONGEST LINE.

I lie. The line wasn’t that long, but, it took forever to check in thanks to a group of Australians checking in (their accent and attire was a dead give-away) and the three or four cast members behind the desk.

I had sent a room request through with Touring Plans and also did a special room request online and basically asked for the ground floor in Toy Story and as close to transportation as possible. We hadn’t received a text saying our room was ready, but I thought that was a glitch in the system since this night was such a last-minute request. (Foreshadowing here, but just remember this moment.)

10:33 - we finally stepped into our room and took a photo so I could remember what room we would be in later.

So, two hours total… from the point that we landed to the point where we were able to dump our backpacks in the room.

Here’s the other crazy thing: the room smelled. It smelled extremely musty and I momentarily questioned what the hell I had spent money on, the room was in a really far away and dim corner of the property, and so I did what every good parent would do…

10:37 - we were on the bus. Seriously, the bus was waiting (we were the only ones on it)...

10:59 - we were checking in with our MBs at Magic Kingdom, and…

11:00 - we stepped into Magic Kingdom for two hours of food, fun and frivolity!

Coming next -- I feel the need... the need for speed!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I love that you went to the parks for 2 hours of fun! I hope you guys had the energy for it!

 

[elcmum]

I love that you went to the parks for 2 hours of fun! I hope you guys had the energy for it!

Yes! With that darn impending storm of doom, I wanted to maximize park time as much as possible. And I figured we could knock out as much stuff as possible, just in the event we weren't able to return.

 

[elcmum]

I feel the need... the need for speed!

We did it. We survived a change in flights, we survived the never-ending line of guests at the resort, we even survived the (very empty) freezing bus ride from the resort to Magic Kingdom!

We made it to the gate and swiped in, and honestly, it was just one of those weirdly surreal moments when you realise you were supposed to be 1,000 miles away in another state and still at home, but life threw some sort of weirdly wonderful change of plans and you just have to embrace the crazy and live in the moment.

So here… this is the first photo of my son in Magic Kingdom!

And it was late and we needed some happy juice so our first stop was Starbucks! I felt like I was back home, right away.

I mentioned this in my earlier post that I grew up loving everything Disney thanks to my love of The Babysitter Club books. I always wanted to visit the US as a child, and I am pretty fortunate to be in a position to live and work over here, even though our entire family is back home. But I was here, in Magic Kingdom, looking at a map of the world and my home! Bittersweet.

I should probably also share one other thing: I am a bit of a control freak. I love my son dearly, and he is the most easy-going of my three kids. But, he and I have different ideas of fun, and being the fantastic mother that I am (and wanting to ensure that we made the most of our time) I used Touring Plans to keep us on track. (Touring Plans worked well when we were in DL/DCA in March for a brief two-day trip and we were basically able to see and do everything we wanted even though it was spring break and there were jam-packed parks.)

This night wasn’t on the plan, though, and so everything we did was his choice.

The most interesting thing was his love of Tomorrowland Speedway. According to TP, this ride ranks really low on the fun scale for tweens/adults, and because it was rated so low, I didn’t even bother to add it to our TP for the rest of the trip.

My boy had other ideas.

His love of this ride now knows no limits.

Does anyone else remember a ride as a child and you just thought, oh my gosh, I am so cool? That ride for me was a vehicle-type ride at Australia’s Wonderland, a theme park in western Sydney was the epitome of fun when I was a kid. There was a ride sort of like the speedway where kids get to drive around a track but instead it was more of an early-century car. The ride also had the most ridiculously long line and I would happily wait an hour for my three minute spin around my track. I thought I was the coolest for being a driver and I was able to think back to my childhood self and look at the other kids on this ride and realise that the ability to drive is one of those far-off dreams.

We were in a very short line, and finally, he was able to take his first spin around the track.

I swore after that ride that I would NEVER EVER EVER again sit in a vehicle with him as a driver. His only method of correction was over-correction and I think I walked away with bruises on my shoulders from being slammed left and right.

He loved it though.

From there, we went somewhere else where they can’t hear you scream.

Space Mountain!

We enjoyed the overlay at DL earlier in the year, and it had been a long time since I had been back at WDW and on Space. The line said it was a 25 minute wait, but it was really closer to ten minutes. It was a little more herky-jerky than the ride at DL, but still fantastic.

Ten minutes later we were off Space and headed over to see Buzz, where I obliterated my son (in my mind) but he, actually, beat me.

By this point it was 12:07am, and nothing says midnight like… POPCORN! I read on the Disney Food Blog that there was now a refillable popcorn bucket and, well, there’s nothing I like more than buckets and popcorn.

Let me tell you though, honestly, the refillable bucket was the biggest pain. I think it’s okay to get one if you have a stroller or person who likes to carry stuff around, but I like to have nothing on me other than a small cross body bag and two phones. Because I wanted to make the bucket pay for itself, I insisted on dragging it around most of our stay.

We took some happy snaps by the castle (and nearly knocked over the popcorn)...

...and then headed over to the carousel. Around 12:15am CJ was trying to determine if he could pull the magic sword from the stone…

… complete with weird facial expressions and envy from another child.

Let’s talk about something else… my son’s style.

Please take note that he’s wearing shoes, socks, athletic compression pants, shorts, and a tank top. I believe I told him to dress in layers because we didn’t know how humid it would be in Florida, but I really don’t recall him to dress in his attire for the week in one day. He was like Joey in Friends…

At 12:25 we headed over to the wonder of 7 Dwarves Mine Train. I don’t recall what the wait time was by this point, but I figured it was worth any wait to avoid the two-hour craziness that I had been reading about before our trip. Besides the cooling fans in the queue, I absolutely was BLOWN AWAY by the theming.

From these lights...

to the interactive queue...

It took about 30 minutes before we were on the ride and it was aaaammmmaaazzzinnng. We walked off the rides full of smiles, and hot and thirsty.

If you’re counting, that then meant it was 1am and the park was officially closed. I took a few quick pictures on our way out...

...only saddened by the fact we weren’t able to buy a drink and that the doors to the shops promptly close on time.

At 1:17am we were in line for the bus to return to the room at the resort, and we somehow made it back to the room.

Ahh yes, the room.

The room still had a horrid smell, and at some point between 1:30 and 2am I noticed the shower didn’t work, there was no fridge, and the smell of the room was starting to give me a migraine. I called the front desk (that turns out to not really be the front desk but just a call centre) and we were told to go another room which -- HOORAY -- was closer to transportation and the food court.

Poor CJ was already asleep at that point, and I had to wake him and drag him about ten doors down to our new room where, hooray, there was a fridge! And no smell! And a shower that didn’t work!

(Okay, the shower issue was my problem. If you are a foreigner to the United States you may understand my dilemma; I have never been to a country as the US that has such confusing plumbing because, back home, we have knobs for the shower and knobs for the bath and I have been the ding-dong at hotels many times who has had to ask how to transfer the water from the bath nozzle to the shower head. This was one of those same situations… as it turns out I wasn’t yanking hard enough on the bath knob and the shower was perfectly fine in the previous room. Oh well, this room didn't stink.)


We were finally settled in the new room, and I was almost off to sleep when I received this…

The text alert for our first room!


At some point I finally fell asleep, and then woke up a few hours later ready for the day and with this alert on my phone.

It was Thursday, October 6… and every station on the local news was covering the impending doom of Hurricane Matthew.

Coming next -- Rain, feel it on my fingertips... feel it on the windowpane...

 

[cocofifi]

Your trip report is so entertaining! I'm from the Gulf Coast, so the Cat scale made me LOL. I hate to hear your room was stinky and you had to move after a long journey. Following along, thanks for sharing. Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Beccybooboo]

Following along enjoying your adventures of Mother and Son hehe.

As for Disney Fatigue I know what you mean we arrived back home to Australia on 27th of Jan after our nearly 7 week trip and I have been unwell since returning and coming down with glandular fever to top it off. Reading trip reports is good for the Disney blues always puts a smile on your face. Got to do something to kill time before we can be planning our next vacation!!

Laughed at the Aussies holding up the check in line. So many times I was given the look of huh? when speaking to hotel staff. Our way of talking can be hard to understand. And I was called Back, Bev and a few other funny names even when swiping the magicband lol. I though Bec was an easy name. Realised after being there so long that Becca or Rebecca was better to respond to the question what is you name? haha.

Looking forward to the next installment.