~Planning Pays Off! Our 2nd trip to the World 9/13-9/19/06

[gavsmom]

OK-this trip report has been swimming around in my head for days. Especially whenever I want to sleep-it seems to be all I can think about. Last night I think I actually laid there AWAKE for about 2 hours. So, I've decided for my own sanity that it needs to be done. Here we go:

Cast of characters for this trip:
Me (32): SAHM & trip planner. I grew up in So. CA and we took a family day to Disneyland once a year until I was 16 and we moved to Denver. boo.
DH (30): His very first Disney experience was on our Honeymoon- I took him to DL for a day. He is not a crowd person and tolerates these trips. He does enjoy watching his son have fun, so it's not totally miserable for him
DS (3): A boys boy (except he loves pink)-Pirates, CARS and the Incredibles are among his favorites.
My sister (26): Her first trip to WDW. Very easy going and DS loves her! (actually when he's upset with me he'll cry for dad and vice versa. But, if he's mad at both of us, he'll cry for her) She turns out to be the ultimate pin trader.

Next up: A little TR on our first trip-since I hadn't yet discovered the DIS, that trip has not been "reported"...

 

[gavsmom]

Last year-Our first visit to the World!
We have some friends who go to WDW every year, sometimes twice a year. I love looking at her pictures and hearing about their trips. I decide to do some looking into it and the wheels start a turnin'. Then, comes the announcement of free dining-that's it, we're going! (what is it about the "free" that gets me every time?! even the word "sale" gets me...sucker I tell ya) For this particular trip, it's just us-me, DH and DS. I feel like I've planed for this trip-I have a couple of ADR's and DH has 2 tee times. And that's about it for planning. Now, before I get too crazy, we had a good time on this trip. Really. It was just a HUGE learning experience.
So, first mistake: our flight times. I was just so excited to have non-stop flights, I didn't think about much else. Actually I thought I was pretty smart-our flight departed Denver at around 4pm. Perfect, I'll skip DS's nap and he'll sleep on the plane. yeah right. He ended up falling asleep for about an hour before we left for the airport and was good to go. By go, I mean ready to play and run around and not sit in a car seat on a plane for 3 1/2 hours. I don't remember it being too horrible, but not the best flight. Anyway, that put us into MCO at 11:45 ish at night. What was I thinking?! We (I) decided to rent a car (I have this thing about feeling stuck somewhere and having to rely on someone else for transportation...issues I know...) so, it's off to find the car. I picked a company inside the terminal and that was great. The guy hands me the keys, mind you he's inside and apparently doesn't feel like walking us outside at midnight, and we're off! (the guy not walking us out comes into play at the end of the trip when they want to charge us for a dent in the car that was there when we got in it-stinkers). Anyway, we end up stopping for bottled water and some dinner at BK and check in to our hotel (POR) at about 2. Needless to say, there was no line at check in! Another lesson learned: research your hotel and request a location that suits your needs, even thought it's not guaranteed, it couldn't hurt. This room was sooo far from anything! The bus stops we weren't using, the parking lot we had to drag ourselves in from each day, the food court, the pool etc....At the time I really didn't think much about it-we got what they gave us and we were fine with that. I had no idea about this little bit of info until I came here (the DIS) and was able to plan better our stay for the next trip.

 

[gavsmom]

1st trip continuted....
I will try and sum up this first trip quickly:
Day 1: MK We had an ADR for Crystal Palace at 11:00 for breakfast. We didn't get to the park until 10:55. Yup, we slept in and took our sweet time getting to the park.

After breakfast (which was pretty good and our favorite character meal) we rode exactly 4, yes count them 4, rides: Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Buzz and the Train. Oh, and we saw Philharmagic. We then took a break and went swimming at the hotel. That evening was EMH at MGM so we thought we'd give that a try-only to go and have DH only ride Star Tours. That's it. Exciting I know.
Day 2: Epcot We didn't get there when it opened-I guess sometime around 10 or so. Now, you'd better sit down for this one-we rode all of 1 ride- Living with the Land. Then we walked around the World Showcase-didn't really even go inside any of the shops or attractions or anything.

DS played in the fountains and loved that.

That evening we went shopping at Downtown Disney and had McDonald's for dinner. Yup- free dining and we're eating McD's. Pathetic.

 

[gavsmom]

Day 3: We had an ADR at Cape May, then DH went golfing.

I think DS and I went to Downtown Disney (again), and then hung out at the hotel. That evening we went to MK. We were a little (and I mean little) more successful this time: Buzz twice, IASM, Snow White and Pooh. We also met several characters as this turned out to be DS's favorite thing to do. I enjoyed being there in the evening. Although we didn't stay for the fireworks. bummer.
Day 4: AK We made it there at opening! We didn't notice any ceremony or rope drop because we didn't know about them. 1st up was the safari, then ITBAB. We didn't have an ADR, but were able to get into breakfast at Donald's. Then Tricera Top Spin and the Lion King show. Met lots more characters then called it a day.
Day 5: DH had another tee time-DS and I didn't do much (nothing in my notes anyway). After he was done we went back to MGM.

I rode the backlot tour and we saw the PLayhouse Disney show, met some peeps and again-called it a night. (Actually I did ditch the 2 of them and went to Epcot alone and rode Soarin')
By this time in the trip, we were wiped out, DS was coming down with something and it was stinkin' HOT out!
Day 6: Our last full day and we were spent. Done. Finished. Stick a fork in us. We had tickets left but we didn't care...Instead of going to a park, we went swimming, I did laundry, went to DD (again) and packed. We had had enough- and we just wanted to go home. On top of that, I didn't care if we :gasp: ever came back. There I said it-I didn't want to come back-at least not any time in the forseeable future.
Day 7: Mistake #2 with the flying-our departure out of MCO was at 9 am! What was I thinking?! That was entirely too early for this crowd. Lesson learned.

At the end of this trip we left with I think 5 unused TS's, 3 CS's and we had almost all of our snacks that we used the last day to buy stuff to eat on the plane since Frontier thinks it's funny to see how hungry people can get at 10,000 ft.

Up next-pre trip story (betcha can't wait)

 

[Bibbidybobbidy]

I love this TR! It is teaching me a lot about planning. thank you, thank you, thank you. Your son is too cute with the characters. Can't wait to read about your second trip!

 

[gavsmom]

Pre-trip backgound:
After I had my son, I quickly forgot the pain and misery of being pregnant and wanted to do it again. I've heard this is normal, but didn't belive it myself until after I had given birth. Apparently the same goes for vacations. After a couple of months as I looked back at the pictures, all I could remember is the fun we had and I wanted to go back to WDW.
Fast forward to January 2006: I had been trying to get pregnant for several months and as had been the case with my DS, it was taking longer than I had hoped. When, in January we finally got that elusive positive result on the stick! We were thrilled! I also have a history of miscarriage, so I was in to see my Dr. ASAP. She ran the usual tests and at 6 weeks we had our first ultrasound and everything was fine- my little peanut had a strong heartbeat. Also of some comfort (but not really) was the fact that I felt terrible. All the time. Worse than my first pregnancy. Things were going good. Then at 9 1/2 weeks on a Friday afternoon, I felt that things weren't OK. My Dr. had me come to her office and she tried to listen for a heartbeat and couldn't find one. She reassured me that it could still be too early to hear one and sent me to the hospital to have another ultrasound just to be sure. Normally I have the US's done in her office, but it was late in the afternoon and there was no one there to do one for me. So off we go. I didn't watch this US-the monitor was facing away from me. Which I guess was a good thing, because the results weren't. Good that is. We were told that the baby had grown to 9 weeks and no longer had a heartbeat.
They sent me home and told me that my body would take care of things and I would probably start to miscarry over the weekend. Well, a week and a half later, I am still sick as a dog and no signs of losing the baby. I called my Dr and asked if there was any chance a mistake had been made. Without a second thought, she had me in her office to have another US done. I watched this one-I could see my baby-head, arms, spine etc...and I could also see that his heart wasn't beating. As hard as that was, it gave me the peace of mind to make the next decision which was to have the D&C. So, on March 31, 2006 we lost our sweet little baby. My heart still breaks, especially as my due date approaches, I can't help but wonder how things could have been. (shortly after this, I found this website and one of the first TR's I read was Zzub's-he and his family were going through something very similar and I can't tell you how connected I felt to someone I didn't even know)

Now, during the time I was waiting to see what would become of this baby I decided that if it wasn't good, we were going on vacation. I didn't care where, but we were going. I had been sick for 3 months and DS & I had been cooped up that entire time and I wanted to get away. A couple months later came the announcement of Free Dining! OK then-we are going to try this Disney thing again....let the planning begin!

 

[pumba]

thanks for letting us experience your vacation and your misfortune and another vacation too......our son and his wife lost their precious son at 30 weeks and it was very very hard ....for all of us....my heart breaks for you too....
your son with tigger reminded me of our oldest grandson and how precious tigger was with him.....