BrerGnat
01-03-2012, 10:09 AM
Cast:
Me
DH
DS7 Max
DS5 Lucas
Dates 12/15-12/22
Resort: Beach Club, Club Level
Day 2, Friday 12/16/11
We were up around 7:00 this morning and our room was FREEZING. We like to sleep with the AC on, but man, it was cold! We realized that all the tossing and turning was the boys trying to get warm under the thin blankets. Oops! :blush: I resolved to call Housekeeping later and ask for an extra blanket for the daybed, and I realized I never pulled up the comforter for Lucas. Regardless, the boys were at least in a good mood. I was tired, but happy to be at WDW. We got up, dressed, and ate breakfast in the lounge.
We headed out to the bus stop right after 9am. We had a bit of a wait for an MK bus, but it was a nice day, so we enjoyed it. I forgot to mention (this will be a trend in these reports, as my memory is a bit fuzzy after all the craziness of the holidays), we had stopped at the International Gateway yesterday to get our Armed Forces tickets activated and to obtain a GAC for Max. Since we had taken care of all that, we were ready to head straight to the Teacups, per the boys request. We stopped in front of the Christmas tree to take a couple photos. The boys loved the toy train in the back! Max’s anxiety was coming out to play again, but I had come across a little gem at Target the day before we left. A stress ball. It was in the novelty gifts section, and to be honest, it was the best $5 I spent at Target that day. That little ball came in SO handy this whole vacation. Max stims with his hands, and this was just the thing to keep his hands occupied AND release tension at the same time.
We happened to notice that there was only a 5 min wait for Mickey at Town Square. I never see that, so I told DH we should head in there. Lucas LOVES Mickey and when I asked him if he wanted to give Mickey a hug, he eagerly said “yeah!” Indeed, the wait was only about 5 minutes. Mickey AND Minnie were in there, and we got a great video and photos of Lucas giving them both HUGE, long hugs. He was so happy! Max, as usual, stood in our picture with us, but looked like he was in front of a firing range. He doesn’t really “get” the character thing.
After meeting Mickey, we headed straight for the Teacups, and it had a LONG line, so we used the GAC and waited by the exit where we were directed. After a few rounds, we were let on. The boys had a great time. It has been SO long since we’ve visited a Disney park, which has been rough on Lucas, in particular, who used to go to Disneyland every week with me! As soon as that cup started spinning, the smiles and laughing started and the anxiety melted away. After the teacups, Max was raring to go on the Speedway (which has NEVER been a favorite of his, although Lucas has always loved it). However, I think Max , being 7, is now at the age where he finds it VERY cool to be able to “drive” a real car. He rode with me and his face was priceless. The smile on his face could have lit up all of WDW. And, he actually drove really well. He stayed pretty much right on track, not like Lucas who was ahead of us, and whose car was trying to make a record of how many times it could bump into the center rail. ;) Poor DH…
After the cars, Max asked for Dumbo, so we headed over there. Again, we used the GAC because the line was 45 min long. For us, the GAC was great. Our kids are capable of waiting in lines, particularly Lucas, but Max gets very panicky when there are too many people around him and he sort of freaks out, so having a place to wait away from the queues was very helpful, especially the long back and forth cattle queues in MK. We enjoyed our ride on Dumbo, and then headed for It’s a Small World. We were all kind of “ho hum” about this ride. Disneyland’s is so much better. And, this one seemed really bare bones in comparison. The carousel was up next, and that had no line, so we just walked on. After that, we tried to get Max to agree on riding Winnie the Pooh, but he was not having that (“we can skip that one!”). He’s never been on it, but since it’s an “unknown”, it’s off the table for him. He had made it known, via a writing exercise he’d done at school that he “did NOT want to ride any roller coasters at Disney World.” So, we knew better than to try to coerce him this time. We were all starting to get a bit hungry, and after consulting with the boys, we realized there was nothing else we’d be doing at this park. So, we decided to head out. I thought Contempo Café would be a good place for us to get lunch, since we wanted to continue on to Epcot next, and it was nearing lunch rush at MK, which we wanted to avoid. Contempo turned out to be a great choice! Max had a pepperoni pizza, Lucas had chicken tenders and fries, I had the grilled chicken sandwich, and DH had the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich. We both ordered the “sesame green bean salad” as a side. DH took the boys to find a table (easy, since it was very empty), and I grabbed some crayons and coloring sheets as I joined them after paying. The boys had fun coloring and watching the monorail come through. Our food was ready quickly and we dug in. Everything was very good, hot, and fresh. The green bean “salad” was nothing more than plain, cold green beans. I got up to get some Italian dressing to drizzle over them, and that made them 100% better. Really, they need to do something about that side dish. Call it what it is. Plain cold green beans do not = salad. However, I appreciated the vegetables. Since having my gall bladder removed in March, I can’t eat a lot of fried foods without serious consequences later.
We took our time eating, and then just meandered around the 4th floor. The Gingerbread Christmas tree here was impressive, and the boys enjoyed browsing in the shops and then playing around in the arcade. My kids are easy that way, they don’t need to actually PLAY the games, they are happy to “pretend”. These arcades drive me crazy, but they feed the boys sensory seeking appetite, so I was happy to let them run wild for a bit in here.
Around 1:30, we headed back up to the monorail and took it over to TTC, where we transferred to the Epcot line. We arrived at Epcot (our favorite park) and the boys wanted to ride SSE, so we did. The line was actually not long at all, so I told DH we’d just wait in the regular line. He didn’t believe me that it wasn’t long, because it LOOKED long, but it was a single file, and I knew we’d be on the ride in under 5 min, which we were. We enjoyed our ride and the boys had great fun spotting the Mousetrap game. Max loved the tunnel with all the math symbols. His favorite number is Pi. :rolleyes: After we exited, the boys played the Power shuffleboard game. They had fun with this, although it was a bit tricky. After SSE, I am fuzzy on what we did. I think we just headed back to the resort without doing anything else here. The boys wanted to swim, and DH wanted to work out. So, that’s what we did. I took the boys down to the pool for awhile while DH hit the gym. Lucas was SO pumped to ride the “pirate ship slide” since last year, he had still been in the swim vest, so he couldn’t. This was our first stop, and Lucas LOVED every second of it. We rode the slide 3 more times, but on the third time, Max was shivering when he hit the water. It was actually quite cold. Apparently, the heater had broken, and they had JUST fixed it that morning, but the water was only about 75 degrees. The lifeguard told me that the little pool on the back of the pirate ship was heated, and very warm, so we went over there. Ahhhh…so nice! The boys were happy to hang in this pool and use the little slide for awhile. Soon, though, Max asked to use the hot tub (he is REALLY skinny, and gets very cold while swimming). So, we took the big slide back down and then swam over to where the sandbar is, so me and Max could sit in the hot tub while Lucas played in the sand. The boys had a lot of fun here.
Me
DH
DS7 Max
DS5 Lucas
Dates 12/15-12/22
Resort: Beach Club, Club Level
Day 2, Friday 12/16/11
We were up around 7:00 this morning and our room was FREEZING. We like to sleep with the AC on, but man, it was cold! We realized that all the tossing and turning was the boys trying to get warm under the thin blankets. Oops! :blush: I resolved to call Housekeeping later and ask for an extra blanket for the daybed, and I realized I never pulled up the comforter for Lucas. Regardless, the boys were at least in a good mood. I was tired, but happy to be at WDW. We got up, dressed, and ate breakfast in the lounge.
We headed out to the bus stop right after 9am. We had a bit of a wait for an MK bus, but it was a nice day, so we enjoyed it. I forgot to mention (this will be a trend in these reports, as my memory is a bit fuzzy after all the craziness of the holidays), we had stopped at the International Gateway yesterday to get our Armed Forces tickets activated and to obtain a GAC for Max. Since we had taken care of all that, we were ready to head straight to the Teacups, per the boys request. We stopped in front of the Christmas tree to take a couple photos. The boys loved the toy train in the back! Max’s anxiety was coming out to play again, but I had come across a little gem at Target the day before we left. A stress ball. It was in the novelty gifts section, and to be honest, it was the best $5 I spent at Target that day. That little ball came in SO handy this whole vacation. Max stims with his hands, and this was just the thing to keep his hands occupied AND release tension at the same time.
We happened to notice that there was only a 5 min wait for Mickey at Town Square. I never see that, so I told DH we should head in there. Lucas LOVES Mickey and when I asked him if he wanted to give Mickey a hug, he eagerly said “yeah!” Indeed, the wait was only about 5 minutes. Mickey AND Minnie were in there, and we got a great video and photos of Lucas giving them both HUGE, long hugs. He was so happy! Max, as usual, stood in our picture with us, but looked like he was in front of a firing range. He doesn’t really “get” the character thing.
After meeting Mickey, we headed straight for the Teacups, and it had a LONG line, so we used the GAC and waited by the exit where we were directed. After a few rounds, we were let on. The boys had a great time. It has been SO long since we’ve visited a Disney park, which has been rough on Lucas, in particular, who used to go to Disneyland every week with me! As soon as that cup started spinning, the smiles and laughing started and the anxiety melted away. After the teacups, Max was raring to go on the Speedway (which has NEVER been a favorite of his, although Lucas has always loved it). However, I think Max , being 7, is now at the age where he finds it VERY cool to be able to “drive” a real car. He rode with me and his face was priceless. The smile on his face could have lit up all of WDW. And, he actually drove really well. He stayed pretty much right on track, not like Lucas who was ahead of us, and whose car was trying to make a record of how many times it could bump into the center rail. ;) Poor DH…
After the cars, Max asked for Dumbo, so we headed over there. Again, we used the GAC because the line was 45 min long. For us, the GAC was great. Our kids are capable of waiting in lines, particularly Lucas, but Max gets very panicky when there are too many people around him and he sort of freaks out, so having a place to wait away from the queues was very helpful, especially the long back and forth cattle queues in MK. We enjoyed our ride on Dumbo, and then headed for It’s a Small World. We were all kind of “ho hum” about this ride. Disneyland’s is so much better. And, this one seemed really bare bones in comparison. The carousel was up next, and that had no line, so we just walked on. After that, we tried to get Max to agree on riding Winnie the Pooh, but he was not having that (“we can skip that one!”). He’s never been on it, but since it’s an “unknown”, it’s off the table for him. He had made it known, via a writing exercise he’d done at school that he “did NOT want to ride any roller coasters at Disney World.” So, we knew better than to try to coerce him this time. We were all starting to get a bit hungry, and after consulting with the boys, we realized there was nothing else we’d be doing at this park. So, we decided to head out. I thought Contempo Café would be a good place for us to get lunch, since we wanted to continue on to Epcot next, and it was nearing lunch rush at MK, which we wanted to avoid. Contempo turned out to be a great choice! Max had a pepperoni pizza, Lucas had chicken tenders and fries, I had the grilled chicken sandwich, and DH had the grilled Mahi Mahi sandwich. We both ordered the “sesame green bean salad” as a side. DH took the boys to find a table (easy, since it was very empty), and I grabbed some crayons and coloring sheets as I joined them after paying. The boys had fun coloring and watching the monorail come through. Our food was ready quickly and we dug in. Everything was very good, hot, and fresh. The green bean “salad” was nothing more than plain, cold green beans. I got up to get some Italian dressing to drizzle over them, and that made them 100% better. Really, they need to do something about that side dish. Call it what it is. Plain cold green beans do not = salad. However, I appreciated the vegetables. Since having my gall bladder removed in March, I can’t eat a lot of fried foods without serious consequences later.
We took our time eating, and then just meandered around the 4th floor. The Gingerbread Christmas tree here was impressive, and the boys enjoyed browsing in the shops and then playing around in the arcade. My kids are easy that way, they don’t need to actually PLAY the games, they are happy to “pretend”. These arcades drive me crazy, but they feed the boys sensory seeking appetite, so I was happy to let them run wild for a bit in here.
Around 1:30, we headed back up to the monorail and took it over to TTC, where we transferred to the Epcot line. We arrived at Epcot (our favorite park) and the boys wanted to ride SSE, so we did. The line was actually not long at all, so I told DH we’d just wait in the regular line. He didn’t believe me that it wasn’t long, because it LOOKED long, but it was a single file, and I knew we’d be on the ride in under 5 min, which we were. We enjoyed our ride and the boys had great fun spotting the Mousetrap game. Max loved the tunnel with all the math symbols. His favorite number is Pi. :rolleyes: After we exited, the boys played the Power shuffleboard game. They had fun with this, although it was a bit tricky. After SSE, I am fuzzy on what we did. I think we just headed back to the resort without doing anything else here. The boys wanted to swim, and DH wanted to work out. So, that’s what we did. I took the boys down to the pool for awhile while DH hit the gym. Lucas was SO pumped to ride the “pirate ship slide” since last year, he had still been in the swim vest, so he couldn’t. This was our first stop, and Lucas LOVED every second of it. We rode the slide 3 more times, but on the third time, Max was shivering when he hit the water. It was actually quite cold. Apparently, the heater had broken, and they had JUST fixed it that morning, but the water was only about 75 degrees. The lifeguard told me that the little pool on the back of the pirate ship was heated, and very warm, so we went over there. Ahhhh…so nice! The boys were happy to hang in this pool and use the little slide for awhile. Soon, though, Max asked to use the hot tub (he is REALLY skinny, and gets very cold while swimming). So, we took the big slide back down and then swam over to where the sandbar is, so me and Max could sit in the hot tub while Lucas played in the sand. The boys had a lot of fun here.