IloveJack
06-11-2014, 02:43 AM
*We've taken each of our kids to the World for their first birthday. This trip was for our DS' first, but we celebrated 4 birthdays during the week; June 1-8.*
Cast of Characters
Me, Susan, 33, 9th trip
DH, David, turning 29, 7th trip
ODD, Sammie, 5, 5th trip
YDD, Lily, turning 3, 3rd trip
DS, Joey, turning 1, 2nd trip
My Mom, Connie, turning 63, 3rd trip
My Dad, Sam, 66, 3rd trip
Day 2: MK and DTD
After a crazy arrival day, and a late night, I was still raring to go when the alarm went off at 6am. I got up and headed to the comfort station for a shower. I'd made the comment yesterday that "having grown up using Boy Scout bath houses (I come from a Scouting family, and met my husband that way), I felt like I was at the Ritz Carlton." The comfort stations are so nice! Between them and the non-crowded transportation we'd already experienced, I was already sold on staying there again.
I wanted to be on our way by 6:30, as we had ADRs at 'Ohana at 7:30, but it was actually 7am before I could convince everyone else to get up and get dressed. In fact, I thought I was going to have to dress my YDD asleep. The only one ready to face the day was DS, but he's always an early riser.
Last night, there'd been an MK wheelchair left at the bus stop at the Settlement, with no one around. As my mom is disabled, we'd used it to push her to the marina and back. We left it there, and it was waiting for us this morning. We used it again to push her back. She can walk, but not long distances, and she can't stand for long at all, so it really helped.
We caught a boat rather quickly, and took it to the Contemporary (our only option that early in the morning), and then had to walk inside and catch the monorail. Due to Mom not being able to walk fast, and our late start, we arrived 20 minutes late for our ADR. They didn't seem to bat an eye, though, and our buzzer was going off for our table before we could even get finished with our picture.
We always do a character breakfast on each kid's first birthday. We'd done 1900 Park Fair for ODD, the castle for YDD, and I was torn between here and Crystal Palace for DS's day. DH requested 'Ohana, specifically for the "Stitch juice," of which he drank at least 6 glasses. Of course, we all drank more than one glass ourselves. The food was great, and the adults all went back for seconds, while the DDs gobbled up all the fruit they could get.
I'd made the DDs autograph books from photo albums that I got at the Dollar Tree. They had holographic Minnie Mouses on them, and allowed for 19 autographs and the corresponding pictures. They loved getting the characters' signatures, something we've never done before. ODD had begged to be able to do it, after noticing the older kids doing it on our December trip. YDD was just doing whatever her sister did, as usual.
I'd also bought a Mickey Mouse "turning 1" birthday card for DS (another tradition of ours), and got all the characters to sign it as well. By the end of our 2 days in the parks, it was covered! I like it, though, because it alerted the characters to the fact that it's his birthday, even if he wasn't wearing the button.
We had great character interaction, which I was happy about. I'd just about sworn off character meals, as they're expensive, and the characters seem to be in a hurry often. But this meal was tradition, and I'm glad we did it. The kids got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Stitch, and Lilo. Pluto "ate" DS' head, which made for a great picture!
We took the kids into the bathroom at the Poly to change their outfits. I'd known since we saw Frozen that the girls would want their dresses, and they're a perfect fit. ODD has white-blonde hair and YDD has light brown/dark blonde hair, so they make a perfect Elsa and Anna. Of course, DS is a good Olaf, too. Well, of course, there are no dresses to be found, and I wasn't about to pay what they're going for on eBay, so since my mother is a great seamstress, and I'm pretty good at drawing, we made our own pattern, and made their dresses. For $50, they have ball gown-quality dresses that won't tear up quickly (that doesn't mean they're going to get to play in them until after ODD's birthday and Halloween, though!). DS got a white onesie with black crocheted buttons, and a crocheted beanie-type hat that looked like Olaf.
We took the monorail to the MK, already getting tons of compliments about how good the girls looked. On the way, we made plans to take Dad's backpack and go through the bag check, so that they would get to the scooter rental line quicker. Well, since I've done this enough times, we skipped the 20-people long lines at the bottom of the hill and walked right up to a waiting empty line at the top, scooting right on through. My parents were quite surprised to see us walk right in behind them.
It had taken a lot of manipulation to find 5 FPs for the Frozen girls, and none of them had the same time, so we had a small window where we could all enter at the same time. As soon as that scooter arrived, we were off to the races (not running, literally!) to make our time. We walked right in, waited at the rope for less than 5 minutes, and were ushered in to see Anna and Elsa. They loved our girls! I'm sure they see TONS of dressed up little girls every day, but they made over ours like they WERE little Anna and Elsa. And they loved seeing DS as Olaf. Elsa taught ODD to "make ice," and Anna played with the white streak in YDD's hair (a Build-a-Bear My Little Pony extension). Anna held DS, even though I know she isn't supposed to.
ODD loved seeing Aurora, also. And just had to tell her how much she liked her tiara. She asked her if the fairies would make her a tiara, as well.
After all the rushing around, we needed a potty break, but I wanted a PP pic before the kids got changed, so we found the Fairy Godmother PP CM and asked him to take a pic of us in front of the fountain. Then my dad, who, remember wouldn't leave my side last night, took off to find a restroom without having a clue where he was going. We had to chase him down and then steer him into NFL.
I got the kids' clothes changed, not wanting to ruin their dresses, and put them in matching Minnie dresses and a Mickey outfit. I love when they match for the pictures!
We found a cellphone lying on the bench, and I asked around if anyone recognized it. No one did, and no one was doing anything with it, so I picked it up, planning to give it to a CM. Then I thought, I ought to just try calling someone on it. "Mom" was the best contact I could come up with, so I called her, explaining that I just wanted someone to know I'd found the phone. Turns out, it was a kid's phone, and "Mom" was just around the corner in FL, so she came back to get her phone. Whoopsie!
We made plans to split up after that, as DH, ODD, and I had FPs for BTMRR, and I didn't want the rest of them sitting around bored. I knew my parents liked the train, and that it was something they could ride with the two younger kids. So we all headed to FL. It made me feel like a first time visitor, but I had to ask a CM where the FL train station is, because we so rarely ride it, and even then, only get on at the Main St station. It took a bit of finagling, but we got them on the train, then we headed for our ride.
We tried to use my parents' FPs here, so that we could ride twice, but they said that we'd already been on the ride (even though their magic bands hadn't been), so we just used a rider switch to ride again. I know it's technically working the system, but since they weren't using the FPs, I didn't feel bad about it. The CMs couldn't explain it either.
YDD was begging to ride Splash, as it's her second favorite, but I'd given those FPs up for 7DMT, and I didn't want to wait in that line. Lo and behold, the ride was shut down anyhow, and they were unloading guests from the boats in the water.
I wanted to ride something all together, so we headed to Haunted Mansion. In December, we never experienced long lines, and all the hoopla about FP+ causing longer lines was lost on me, but we experienced some unusually long lines on this trip, with smaller crowds than in December, so maybe there is something to it. This line was listed as 30 minutes, which was fine, as we had 40 to make it to our BoG FP lunch. Well, 30 minutes quickly turned into an hour, and with 3 stops on the the ride, we were 10 minutes late arriving to lunch, and that was with me running ahead to check us in.
(continued below)
Cast of Characters
Me, Susan, 33, 9th trip
DH, David, turning 29, 7th trip
ODD, Sammie, 5, 5th trip
YDD, Lily, turning 3, 3rd trip
DS, Joey, turning 1, 2nd trip
My Mom, Connie, turning 63, 3rd trip
My Dad, Sam, 66, 3rd trip
Day 2: MK and DTD
After a crazy arrival day, and a late night, I was still raring to go when the alarm went off at 6am. I got up and headed to the comfort station for a shower. I'd made the comment yesterday that "having grown up using Boy Scout bath houses (I come from a Scouting family, and met my husband that way), I felt like I was at the Ritz Carlton." The comfort stations are so nice! Between them and the non-crowded transportation we'd already experienced, I was already sold on staying there again.
I wanted to be on our way by 6:30, as we had ADRs at 'Ohana at 7:30, but it was actually 7am before I could convince everyone else to get up and get dressed. In fact, I thought I was going to have to dress my YDD asleep. The only one ready to face the day was DS, but he's always an early riser.
Last night, there'd been an MK wheelchair left at the bus stop at the Settlement, with no one around. As my mom is disabled, we'd used it to push her to the marina and back. We left it there, and it was waiting for us this morning. We used it again to push her back. She can walk, but not long distances, and she can't stand for long at all, so it really helped.
We caught a boat rather quickly, and took it to the Contemporary (our only option that early in the morning), and then had to walk inside and catch the monorail. Due to Mom not being able to walk fast, and our late start, we arrived 20 minutes late for our ADR. They didn't seem to bat an eye, though, and our buzzer was going off for our table before we could even get finished with our picture.
We always do a character breakfast on each kid's first birthday. We'd done 1900 Park Fair for ODD, the castle for YDD, and I was torn between here and Crystal Palace for DS's day. DH requested 'Ohana, specifically for the "Stitch juice," of which he drank at least 6 glasses. Of course, we all drank more than one glass ourselves. The food was great, and the adults all went back for seconds, while the DDs gobbled up all the fruit they could get.
I'd made the DDs autograph books from photo albums that I got at the Dollar Tree. They had holographic Minnie Mouses on them, and allowed for 19 autographs and the corresponding pictures. They loved getting the characters' signatures, something we've never done before. ODD had begged to be able to do it, after noticing the older kids doing it on our December trip. YDD was just doing whatever her sister did, as usual.
I'd also bought a Mickey Mouse "turning 1" birthday card for DS (another tradition of ours), and got all the characters to sign it as well. By the end of our 2 days in the parks, it was covered! I like it, though, because it alerted the characters to the fact that it's his birthday, even if he wasn't wearing the button.
We had great character interaction, which I was happy about. I'd just about sworn off character meals, as they're expensive, and the characters seem to be in a hurry often. But this meal was tradition, and I'm glad we did it. The kids got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Stitch, and Lilo. Pluto "ate" DS' head, which made for a great picture!
We took the kids into the bathroom at the Poly to change their outfits. I'd known since we saw Frozen that the girls would want their dresses, and they're a perfect fit. ODD has white-blonde hair and YDD has light brown/dark blonde hair, so they make a perfect Elsa and Anna. Of course, DS is a good Olaf, too. Well, of course, there are no dresses to be found, and I wasn't about to pay what they're going for on eBay, so since my mother is a great seamstress, and I'm pretty good at drawing, we made our own pattern, and made their dresses. For $50, they have ball gown-quality dresses that won't tear up quickly (that doesn't mean they're going to get to play in them until after ODD's birthday and Halloween, though!). DS got a white onesie with black crocheted buttons, and a crocheted beanie-type hat that looked like Olaf.
We took the monorail to the MK, already getting tons of compliments about how good the girls looked. On the way, we made plans to take Dad's backpack and go through the bag check, so that they would get to the scooter rental line quicker. Well, since I've done this enough times, we skipped the 20-people long lines at the bottom of the hill and walked right up to a waiting empty line at the top, scooting right on through. My parents were quite surprised to see us walk right in behind them.
It had taken a lot of manipulation to find 5 FPs for the Frozen girls, and none of them had the same time, so we had a small window where we could all enter at the same time. As soon as that scooter arrived, we were off to the races (not running, literally!) to make our time. We walked right in, waited at the rope for less than 5 minutes, and were ushered in to see Anna and Elsa. They loved our girls! I'm sure they see TONS of dressed up little girls every day, but they made over ours like they WERE little Anna and Elsa. And they loved seeing DS as Olaf. Elsa taught ODD to "make ice," and Anna played with the white streak in YDD's hair (a Build-a-Bear My Little Pony extension). Anna held DS, even though I know she isn't supposed to.
ODD loved seeing Aurora, also. And just had to tell her how much she liked her tiara. She asked her if the fairies would make her a tiara, as well.
After all the rushing around, we needed a potty break, but I wanted a PP pic before the kids got changed, so we found the Fairy Godmother PP CM and asked him to take a pic of us in front of the fountain. Then my dad, who, remember wouldn't leave my side last night, took off to find a restroom without having a clue where he was going. We had to chase him down and then steer him into NFL.
I got the kids' clothes changed, not wanting to ruin their dresses, and put them in matching Minnie dresses and a Mickey outfit. I love when they match for the pictures!
We found a cellphone lying on the bench, and I asked around if anyone recognized it. No one did, and no one was doing anything with it, so I picked it up, planning to give it to a CM. Then I thought, I ought to just try calling someone on it. "Mom" was the best contact I could come up with, so I called her, explaining that I just wanted someone to know I'd found the phone. Turns out, it was a kid's phone, and "Mom" was just around the corner in FL, so she came back to get her phone. Whoopsie!
We made plans to split up after that, as DH, ODD, and I had FPs for BTMRR, and I didn't want the rest of them sitting around bored. I knew my parents liked the train, and that it was something they could ride with the two younger kids. So we all headed to FL. It made me feel like a first time visitor, but I had to ask a CM where the FL train station is, because we so rarely ride it, and even then, only get on at the Main St station. It took a bit of finagling, but we got them on the train, then we headed for our ride.
We tried to use my parents' FPs here, so that we could ride twice, but they said that we'd already been on the ride (even though their magic bands hadn't been), so we just used a rider switch to ride again. I know it's technically working the system, but since they weren't using the FPs, I didn't feel bad about it. The CMs couldn't explain it either.
YDD was begging to ride Splash, as it's her second favorite, but I'd given those FPs up for 7DMT, and I didn't want to wait in that line. Lo and behold, the ride was shut down anyhow, and they were unloading guests from the boats in the water.
I wanted to ride something all together, so we headed to Haunted Mansion. In December, we never experienced long lines, and all the hoopla about FP+ causing longer lines was lost on me, but we experienced some unusually long lines on this trip, with smaller crowds than in December, so maybe there is something to it. This line was listed as 30 minutes, which was fine, as we had 40 to make it to our BoG FP lunch. Well, 30 minutes quickly turned into an hour, and with 3 stops on the the ride, we were 10 minutes late arriving to lunch, and that was with me running ahead to check us in.
(continued below)