The Family Truckster Heads to Wally World: Lots of updates and pics 7/11!

paintnolish

<font color=darkorchid>You'd think a sniff in the
Joined
May 23, 2006
The cast:

Me, "Ellen" lifelong WDW fan , 30+ trips

Dh, "Sparky" moderate WDW, 4th trip

Ds, 13, "Rusty" big fan, future Imagineer, self proclaimed geek ("I'm ok with that"), 6th trip

Dd, 12, "Audrey" big WDW fan also, girly girl and mini-mom, 6th trip

Ds, 18 months, "G" for baby Griswold, 2nd trip

Hello! Thanks for joining our journey to WDW. Please keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times. Also, please refrain from touching or "not touching" one another, looking at, poking, and or breathing on fellow passengers. Bear in mind that if the baby's asleep, we're not stopping. For any reason. Enjoy the ride. It's a simple 18 hour car trip which stands between us and 9 glorious nights at CSR. Simple...
 
Old man river...the ole miss

The family truckster left central IL at 9 a.m. on the 19th, as planned. Yes, we actually left on time. Our destination was Elizabethtown, KY, an easy 5 hours away. We were breaking up our drive over the course of 3 days-baby G doesn't like long car trips. Dh's part-time job gives us a nice hotel discount and our full-time jobs as teachers give us plenty of travel time, so it was to be leisurely drive with our second stop being on the 20th in Macon, GA. That would leave us with a mere 5 hours to CSR (Please note the use of words like "was" and "would".).
We stopped for a lovely picnic lunch. We played some frisbee and Sparky walked G. You need to walk babies often. See, even though G is 18 months, he wasn't walking, so Sparky would hold G's hand and walk him around the rest area. His favorite thing to do was go up and the curb. Sparky has been coaching G to walk because he's been concerned about G not walking. This little back story will come up again later.

Ok, back in the truckster. Things were going so well. Rusty and Audrey were not fighting (they are notorious brawlers, and I'm certain this tr will yield plenty of stories when it's all said and done. Currently, they are arguing because Audrey "smashed" a ball into Rusty's face.). G was riding nicely and took a long nap.
So we are riding along in our automobile and crack! An InDOT vehicle throws a piece of gravel into the windshield. I tried to get the plates. But they didn't have any back plates, so I called InDOT, and they'll be sending me some papers to submit my receipts. Annoying mini-disaster under control.

Time for a break. I'll use this to research how to add pics from my iPhone. Be back soon with a disaster and some very adorable excitement. Intriguing...
 
How much will this cost?

How much do you have?

I'm back. We stopped for gas and I said, "Hey, the AC doesn't feel very cool..."
And it was not. Not cool at all. I'd had the AC serviced twice in the past few weeks. The mechanic had trouble figuring out what was wrong with the temperamental AC but thought it was solved. I was proactive because last year, as we left WDW, we had to have our brakes replaced to the tune of $600. I didn't care to have a repeat of the unexpected auto expense, but fate had other plans.
We checked onto the Elizabethtown Fairfield as planned. All the repair places had closed, but we planned on taking it to AAMCO first thing in the morning.
Sparky went to AAMCO at opening. "We don't work on AC." The employee I spoke with and the website told a different story, but oh well. Sparky found a place who would look at it in a few hours. A few hours later, they said it was the compressor. They could fix it...for $1200!
Gulp. Tears. Swear words.
 
I did what any little girl would do: I called my dad. He said to tell them no way and that that price was a rip off. Sparky tried to pull some Pawn Stars on them and said $600 was the best we could do, but he couldn't seal the deal. So Sparky tried to solve our problems. His solutions included various modes of transportations in all sorts of combinations(we will fly, then rent a car, then somehow get back to the broken van: all very complicated). I was resigned to sweating our butts off until we got to Fl and just getting repairs done when we got home. Finally, though, he had a super good idea: he'd drive the truckster about 2 hours to his Dad's company's repair shop. They could do it for less than $100. Saved the day!!!
Although his excellent idea saved us a ton of money, we would need to spend another night in KY, putting us off schedule and leaving us with a 13 hour drive the next day.
The kids and I saw all the sights at our exit which were within walking distance of our hotel. We were able to visit such exotic locales as: the BK playland, rocking chairs at Cracker Barrel, and the hotel pool.
A traveler's trifecta, all within walking!

But hey, Sparky saved the day. Smooth sailing now. Or is it? Dah dah dum (dramatic music).
 


Sparky was due to be back to the hotel at 8. WAS. He calls and says, "I have bad news. The AC isn't working." I thought he was joking, but alas, he was not. Ugh. Get me off of this emotional roller coaster! He called my dad who said it was probably electrical, but there was one more thing to try: a fuse. Sparky had to find in auto store stat before they closed for the night.
Sparky, whom I love dearly and who possess many wonderful qualities, is not handy. One time he, my mom, and I had a flat and were attempting to change it. He pulls out some part of the jack and says, "What is this? A book end?" (He's a librarian). Anyway, you can see why I had my doubts about this repair and was already planning on sweating my way to WDW.
BUT he found the part, replaced it, and it worked! He must have literally jumped for joy because he was so excited that he fell over a parking block, scraping his arms and twisting his wrist. He called to tell he that the AC was fixed and he'd return to the hotel as soon as he visited the ER. Thank goodness this time he was kidding.
 


Sparky arrived back to the Fairfield safely. Now here's the cute part of the story...
Baby G took his first steps I the hotel. He was a late walker but had been cruising and using anything and everything as a walker for months and months. There was no need for walking, though, when you had 4 people to carry you around and take you to whatever you pointed at.
We were just lounging on the bed when Audrey started shrieking. Baby G was just walking without hanging onto anything. We took turns walking him up and down the hallway. He was a pro, since he'd been practicing for months.


Next up: on the road again.
 
This update will be a short one. The drive from KY to FL was pretty smooth. Of course, the Atlanta traffic slowed up down a bit even though we went through during the middle of the day.
Atlanta, you're messing with my ETA:

The AC was running well. Thank goodness, too, because I can't imagine having to sit in that traffic without it. Little G was doing good in his car seat, thanks to Audrey. She's a real helper most of time. The kids kept asking me the age old question: how much longer? I'd laugh (not a nice, fun laugh but more of a sarcastic one: ha!) and tell them not to ask until they saw palm trees.
Once G was in full on freak out more, we stopped somewhere in southern GA and ate at a Zaxby's. There weren't a lot of choices on that exit and G definitely needed an extended break, so we decided on dinner there. We hadn't ever been and enjoyed it. The kids got wings, I got a salad, and Sparky got a sandwich. G didn't eat much (never does, but once you see his pic, you won't believe it!), but he did enjoy stretching his legs a bit
Back on the road for the home stretch: 5 hours to go! We hit the Fl welcome center around 8, so no free OJ samples (had closed at 5). Sad face. We finally arrived at CSR around midnight. Check in was fine, but I didn't get my request of Cabanas 8b-it was still way better than Casitas. We were put in Ranchos. We settled into and collapsed into bed.
 
6/22 First day at CSR

We decided this would be one of our non-park days: I'd planned on 2. We normally spend so much time in the parks that we never get to enjoy the resort. We're always cramming in pool time on the last day, and the resort is so beautiful that I wanted to spend some time there.
We slept in, and it was very much needed. I then took the kids to the Dig Site Pool. It wasn't too crowded at all. We did lots of swimming-- Audrey and Rusty love the water. I'd love to have pool at home, but we just don't have the room. That's a desire I will save for our dream of moving to Fl. Anyway, played some poolside games and dominated trivia! Winners of the movie quotes! We filled up our mugs and got an order of nachos. They're pretty good and really loaded up. You know how sometimes you have to conserve toppings so that you don't end up with plain chips at the bottom of your nachos? Not an issue. In fact, we needed more chips, but Audrey ate the nacho soup at the bottom. Insert sickly smily here. It was cheese sauce, beans, salsa, and black olives: at least she wasn't wasting those $10 nachos! G even enjoyed some of the chips and tried to eat a glob of cheese of of the ground. And speaking of G, his favorite thing to do is go up and down steps. He makes a beeline for them. So, you can guess how relaxing my pool visit was: I shadowed him up and down the steps in the pool, over and over again.
We headed back to the room, showered, and headed to DTD. Since we were driving, I wanted to get there early; parking is brutal in the evening, not to mention it just becomes packed as the night wears on and is difficult to navigate with a stroller.
We found a spot without a problem and looked through the World of Disney store. Sparky stealthily made a few purchases; he spoils me rotten and is an excellent gift buyer. The kids bought some stuff (I've lost track of their purchases--so many bags at this point) and some pins. Dinner was WPE: one of my faves. I forgot to take pics, but we had he chinois salad, spaghetti, and bacon wrapped meatloaf (Rusty's fave even though-- tmi alert--he vomited it all over our room last year). I really want to get here for breakfast but haven't yet. Maybe on departure day. We did a little more shopping and them got some treats from Goofy's.

Ok, since this is a somewhat live report, I have to break to chase those kids out of the pool.
 
Egads! I just did some proof reading. I'm typing this on an iPhone, so forgive the typos. I'll clean it up at a later date. Sorry!
 
Brief break for 2 funny little stories:

While the kids and I were at the pool, Sparky very sweetly tried to surprise me by getting us a room in cabanas. When we checked in, they told us to try back in the morning; perhaps after check outs, there'd be an opening. I said I didn't want to move all of our stuff after we had settled in; it was fine. Sparky knew I had wanted cabanas and was going to move all of our stuff over while we were at the pool. When I returned from the pool, he tells me about his intentions. He called the front desk and asked if they had any openings in cabanas. They transferred him to recreation, and they wanted to know how long he wanted one for. Light bulb, at least for an experienced Diser. He thought that was a crazy question: he wanted it for the duration of the trip. The cm said they normally rent them in blocks of time. Poor Sparky. Poor cm. A very "who's on first?" moment! Who'd rent a room for a few hours?!? Bless his heart...

Here's my other story:
Audrey is a notorious bed hog and talks in her sleep. In the middle of the night, we hear, "Zoe, now you're a bobble head!" A few minutes later, she flops around, knocking the phone and Rusty's glasses off of the nightstand. In the morning, we told her about it, and she actually remembered the dream. She was playing with a little girl named Zoe. Zoe put a big helmet on, and well, apparently she looked like a bobble head!

And a funny pic. I posted this on Facebook and said "Before he put his fanny pack on". People took it seriously. No, he did not wear socks and sandals, nor did he wear a fanny pack.
 
First day in the parks: DHS

We are driving this time to the parks. I think I'm over the busses. CSR has pretty good service-- much better than the values I've stayed at-- but I still wanted the convenience and flexibility of our vehicle. It was surprisingly easy and quick to take our own vehicle. We were there for RD, so we weren't parked very far and were able to just walk to the entrance (instead of taking the tram).
Of course, I made a beeline for TSM and got our FPs. We then went on ToT while Sparky waited with G. Dear Sparky can't handle the drops. He then took the big kids on RR while I took G to the baby care center for a snack, diaper change, and a chance to cool off. If you or anyone you know takes a baby or toddler to the parks, use these facilities! They are a nice place to feed, change diapers, get cooled down, or just take a little break.
While there, Sparky sent me a text which read, "Did someone call a dr.?" I thought it would be a pic of Doc McStuffins or something, but no: it was the kids with their pediatrician! They ran into him near RR! Hmm...he always does wear Disney ties!
Next, we rode ST, which Rusty loves. He was pumped to have seen a new sequence. Ok, my little nerd. We then went on TSM, and I actually beat Sparky. I don't know how. It must've been a Christmas miracle. In June.
G soon fell asleep, and I left him sleeping with Sparky while I snuck away to the Writer's Stop for a carrot cake cookie, one of my must-eats of WDW.

When I returned, Sparky and the big kids were going to go on Muppets. I said I'd sit that one out with the still sleeping G. They left me at a table outside Pizza Planet, but I decided it was too hot and that I'd go back to the Writer's Stop for AC and a comfy chair. Right before I left, though, Rusty came running back to retrieve his pins from the stroller. Consequently, he had gotten separated from dh and Audrey, so they went into Muppets without him.
Rus hamming it up:

This struck me as funny with little G at the bottom of a "busy" street:

Coming up: a first (it's not very exciting)
 
Woohoo! We left DHS and went back to the hotel. We swam in the quiet pool and had some sandwiches. Again, G tried to eat something off of the ground. I swear we feed him from the table. Anyway, the car made it really easy to commute. When we got back to DHS, we chatted with a random man on the way in. He and his wife are retired teachers from OH. They moved down here and go to the parks almost every day. He said he gets to meet people from all over the world. They've seen a lot of the AI contestants get their start at the American Idol Experience. Chatting with random people is just another one of the things I love about WDW. He's definitely living the life I hope to some day.
Before our 7:45 Sci-Fi res., we went on a few more rides. We hit ToT again and one of the operators rode with us. He was very serious and creepy looking, but had a big smile on his face during the ride, as evidenced by the ride photo.
We had just enough time to take G to Playhouse Disney Live. He was a little apprehensive at first, but he loved it. After "snow" fell from the ceiling, he kept holding out his hands, waiting for more stuff to fall. I just love watching his sweet little face take it all in.

Almost Sci-Fi time!
 
Reservation time was here. We were seated within 5 minutes of checking in (we once had to wait an hour for a reservation there! Rusty was about 8 and calmly reasoned with the hostess, prompting a nearby man to tell Rusty to become a lawyer or politician when he grows up--even gave him his card!). Thankfully, we were seated in a car. I've never been in one of the car/tables, and I'm glad. I'd be disappointed. We all ordered burgers and shakes: vanilla, seasonal (creamsicle), and cookies and cream. I tried them all and decided creamsicle was the best. We all had burgers and fries. Baby G was getting really antsy. For some reason, he was enjoying trying to push Sparky out of the booth. G then started to try to climb over the side of the car. He was at that point where you swear they have 6 arms: he was into everything, grabbing the salt shakers, forks, etc. A woman from the car behind us offered some of her ds's goldfish crackers. That was nice and it quieted G down long enough for me to eat. Again, gotta love those nice random strangers!

We left the park after that and got home to CSR at a reasonable time. I'm not ashamed to admit that I hurried the kids to the pool so I could get a cancun colada before the bar closed! They make it with piña colada mix, margarita mix, amaretto, and coconut rum.

As I type this, I'm scorching outside of The Hall of Presidents and could sure use one! Anyway, Sparky watched G while I sat and sipped in the hot tub. We didn't spend too much time at the pool, though, because we needed to be at Epcot early the next day for rd.
Ok, HoP just let out. More updates soon! Thanks for following. Lots of pics to be added once home!

Totally forgot: We got to meet Wreck It Ralph and Vanellope. Audrey positively squealed when she saw Vanellope and said, "I love you!" Baby G, on the other hand, freaked out as soon as Ralph moved. G started crying an trying to scramble from my arms. Ralph went over and cried in the corner at G's reaction. Vanellope tried to get G to touch her hand, but he wasn't having it. Wait until you see the Photopass pics!
 
We always tried to leave the hotel by 8 a.m. but were more successful some days than others. Once again, we drove. No problems. Easy walk to the front. Security was quite backed up but looked worse than it was. It moved pretty quickly. The lines to get in were another story. They were a mess. I shouldn't even say lines: there were a few areas where there were just mobs of people. Having the stroller made it difficult to maneuver, too. Audrey asked a cm what was going on, and the cm told us to go all the way to the right (right when facing Spaceship Earth). There were 3 entrance gates (no longer turnstiles), and we got right in. Well, except for Rusty. His finger scan wasn't working, so they ushered him through to another cm with a tablet. She asked what park we had been to the day before, and he gave the correct answer. She said he'd passed the test. This was the only problem we encountered with the newer mode of entry at the gates.

From there, it was time for the fast pass dash to Test Track. I was the runner and left the rest of the family in the shade near Mousegears. While at the machines, I spotted a LGMH and asked if she was a Diser: she was. My one and only Diser spotting! We then ran over to Soarin'. The wait was 20 mins, so we decided to get in line after getting the child swap. We got to mess with the interactive games, trying to move the snowballs or the acorns. We usually fp, so this was new for us. Soarin' is one of my favorites: it's relaxing and exhilarating at the same time. Plus, it smells good! The Land was next. Baby G was getting antsy and trying to squirm off of my lap. We were in the front of the boat, and I think he wanted to get down and splash. From here, we went to Test Track. My review is coming up!
 
We are currently stuck in Atlanta for dh's conference. There's really not much to do in the downtown area, so I've been researching for our next trip and also looking at Windermere real estate. I'm really just 8 hrs away, though, maybe I should just drive back to Disney.

Soarin': We were seated in the first row, so we ended up on top. It was nice not to see feet dangling, but the downside was seeing the top of the screen. As always, I loved the ride. The fresh scents of the ocean and forest are my favorite part. During the year, if I find something that smells like either of those two scenes, I guarantee I will buy it. I bought relaxation scented Balt salt from Basin: smells like the ocean scene!
After the ride, we caught up with dh. The kids went on Mission Space, orange side. I don't get motion sickness from anything (dh does), but I never wanted to risk it. Sparky and I found some shade (I popped open my umbrella: Sparky really wanted to buy me a parasol!), and by this time, G was sleeping. Soon enough, the kids were off of the ride. They loved it and no one felt the least bit sick.
Next, we headed over to WS, by way of Canada. Rusty wanted fish and chips in England. I don't know how that sounded at all appealing, given the heat and humidity but neither put a damper on his appetite. He even shared with Audrey. Sparky and I looked around the shops (more like sought AC), and he bought us some chocolate treats: a Lion Bar and buttons (reminded me of the chocolate disks you melt for candy making). We had to scarf them quickly in that heat! In England we also found a nanny for G. She said she goes where ever she's needed, so I hope her umbrella land her in IL before school starts.

We were kind of skimming over WS because I had wanted to go to the hotel for a break, but the kids were protesting big time. Sparky had to return to the hotel to do some business related to his upcoming conference, and he had to get my birthday gift: we were celebrating at SIA later that evening. Finally, we decided after a snack in France, Sparky would head back and the kids and I would stay in the park.

Next up: Viva la deliciousness in France!
 

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