Friday, December 10, 2010

WDW Trip Report - Day 1 - I Want To Go To Disney World!

LaRae and I spent a large amount of time before this trip planning it out. For me that meant PhotoShopping a TON of images for our family to use to make t-shirts, sweatshirts, pillowcases, and window clings. For LaRae that meant pouring over Tour Guide Mike and Touring Plans to make the absolute BEST plan for the Parks that she could that would allow us to ride everything we wanted to ride, see everything we wanted to see, and wait in the shortest lines possible.

According to The Plan, we should go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Day 1. Magic Kingdom was going to be crowded, and we were sure that the kids would understanding waiting to go there. Tour Guide Mike and Touring Plans did not take into account the 3 year old (Joshua) that would spend the day wailing that he wanted “to go to Disney World!!!” It took a minute the meaning of his screams to sink in: to him no Cinderella Castle meant he was not at Disney World. Since we did not want to spend the extra money for Park Hopper tickets, we were stuck at Hollywood Studios, so we made the best of it.

That morning we discovered that Joshua was no longer a fan of meeting the characters. I’m not sure there was any character he was ever happy to go near on this trip, but we’ll revisit this discovery a little later in the day.

Since it was only the Saturday before Thanksgiving the crowds were not bad at all. We were right at the front of the group waiting to go into the Park. We joined in the madness that was the “Toy Story Dash” to get Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania, but we’ll never do that again. It was insanity! Honestly people – the ride isn’t closing for good. I mean, it’s a fun ride, but there’s just no reason for the craziness and the running to the ride.

Early on LaRae and I also split off from Randy and the kids, so we could ride Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Rollercoaster. (They went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Play Area.) ToT had a 5 minute wait. We basically walked on. We sat right in the front of the “lift” and laughed while we screamed the entire ride! Nothing is better than laughing with my sister! For some reason the time from the beginning of the ride to the first drop freaked me out, but after that I was having a blast. RnRC had an 11 minute wait when we got off of ToT, so we headed over there and got to ride in the very front of the car. If you haven’t ridden in that seat, I really recommend taking the time to do it. We’re talking cheeks flapping in the wind!

On the way back to join the family, LaRae squirted hand sanitizer down my entire arm. We ended up almost literally rolling on the ground with laughter. We also stopped by Starring Rolls and got one of their HUGE cupcakes. I think I’m a cake snob because I just wasn’t very impressed. While eating, we strolled over to the Playhouse Disney Show. Sitting on the floor isn’t really my cup of tea, but the show was cute. I kept thinking how the hostess does that show a million times a day and how amazingly perky she was.

At some point we convinced the kids to go on The Great Movie Ride. Even I hide my eyes for the Alien part of the ride, so the kids watched me to know when to hide. Katelyn enjoyed the ride but didn’t want to ride it again. Joshua was still wanting to “go to Disney World!”

Randy was bummed that Star Tours was closed, but the Jedi Academy was going on as we walked by. We heard the trainer ask if anyone knew who Yoda was: “he’s small, green, kind of a big deal” and laughed like crazy. Randy actually kind of gravitated towards the JA as if The Force was pulling him there but decided not to participate. :)

The last time we were at WDW, we wanted to eat at Pizza Planet but never ended up there, so this time we ate there for lunch. I don’t know why I order pizza at WDW. It’s always disappointing. We sat upstairs in Pizza Planet and right at the end of our meal, we had a huge surprise! Katelyn was finishing up her pizza crust when a bird swooped out of the rafters, grabbed her crust from her hand, dropped it (because Katelyn’s scream scared it), and flew off! LaRae, Katelyn, and I all screamed and that kind of did it for lunch for us.

We stopped and shopped a little on the way out of the Park as we headed back to the resort for naptime. I did find my Dooney and Bourke purse (the medium Cindy) that I’ve been wanting for months, so that was fun for me. It’s my first (and most likely only) designer bag. Honestly it’s not really about it being designer or not, it’s about how incredibly adorable the bag is. :D

During naptime, LaRae and I took a bus over to Downtown Disney. I needed new Mickey Crocs, and my sneakers were already killing me. Apparently Crocs are on their way out of WDW, so I did not find any there, but we did try the Ghirardelli Ice Cream Shop. The Cable Car Sundae was a scoop each of dark chocolate, chocolate chip, and rocky road ice creams topped with real whipped cream, a Ghirardelli square, and chopped almonds. It was the best $9 I’ve spent on food! So rich, so creamy, so amazing, and we couldn’t finish it! I wish I had another one right now…

From there we navigated the busses to go back to DHS. LaRae, Randy, and the kids were wearing their Incredibles shirts, so we decided to go over to the Animation Courtyard to get their photos made with The Incredibles. Again, Joshua was NOT into taking photos with characters.

First things first, we headed over to Frozone and Mr. Incredible. I stayed out of the shot to take the photo, but Mr. Incredible had different ideas. He slowly walked toward me, chin slightly down, and beckoned to me with his finger. I laughed and told him I was going to take the photo. He walked closer (very creepily might I add – I mean does Mrs. Incredible know what he does when she’s away?) to silently insist I get in the picture. I told him I was more “behind the scenes like Edna” when he took my hand and pulled me into the photo. Alrighty then… I jumped out after the shot and took one with just my Incredible family and the Mister.

After that LaRae and I ran over to have our photos made with Chip and Dale. Both of us got kisses from the flirty duo and had a great experience. I also stood in line to get the Queen of Hearts’ autograph for Katelyn (and a picture), and Katelyn and Randy got in the long line to see Sorcerer Mickey. In the meantime, Joshua was happily playing with a couple of toy cars he had purchased with his Disney Dollars earlier in the day. LaRae and I stood on a ramp that zig-zagged up half a floor to be able to watch Katelyn and Mickey. Joshua roamed a bit up the ramp and around a pillar from us.

While Katelyn and Randy were in line, all of the characters in the room besides Mickey traded out. LaRae and I enjoyed seeing the new characters enter the room. Pocahontas and Meeko had been near us, so we didn’t think twice when Captain Hook and Smee came out. We figured they would go elsewhere in the room. I was quite excited to see Stitch as he’s one of my favorites. Our attention refocused on Katelyn, and LaRae said, “I think this is the most content Josh has been all day” quickly followed by “OH CRAP!” I turned to see the tails of Captain Hook and Smee’s coats as they strolled past us up the ramp towards Joshua who was playing quietly behind the pillar they were about to round! LaRae ran as fast as she could but the pirate duo had a head start and arrived at the unsuspecting child first.

“WHAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Joshua’s scream echoed through the room! I looked over to see him screaming, clutching his cars to his chest (safe from the pirates), and trying to climb under the railing and across the barrier to me! LaRae scooped him up while Smee covered his mouth with his hands and worriedly turned in circles. Captain Hook was actually starting to flee the scene! That’s right, my 3 year old nephew is one of the only people to have a villain flee FROM him! Through laughter, we comforted Josh, and went to have my picture taken with Stitch.

Stitch gave me a big hug and “surfed” with me for our photo. He was obviously excited to hear he was my favorite and to see the “Super Stitch” shirt that I made and was wearing. Adorable character meet and greet! As I walked away from Stitch, Joshua SCREAMED “I want to go home!” and melted down! He was still so scared he was shaking! (We thought his silence was a sign that he was calming down. Wow were we wrong.) Stitch made it clear that he wanted to know what was wrong, and when we told him, he went over and made faces at and turned around and waved his rear at Captain Hook and Smee! It was hilarious and a great memory (for us since Joshua wanted nothing to do with any of it). The main handler on the floor wasn’t too happy with Stitch for leaving his area, but when we explained, she seemed ok with it.

Shortly after that Randy took Joshua back to the resort while LaRae and I stayed with Katelyn to see The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Does anyone else feel like that show is on fast forward? After that we went back to the resort since we were very tired from our first day in the Parks

Once at the resort it was clear to me that my sneakers were not going to make my feet happy, so I stopped in the resort gift shop to look for Mickey Crocs (which were in every shop in abundance in May of 2009), but there were very few there. :( Chagrinned I went back to the room and mentioned walking to the other All-Star Resorts to look in their shops. Randy, being the awesome brother-in-law that he is, offered to go with me, and we had a lovely (but long) walk to both resorts. It ended with us finding Crocs for me and LaRae. It was kind of nice to see the other resorts and realize we had the coolest pool. I think I was asleep by 9 pm that night. Fun is exhausting!

2 comments:

  1. I think it's worth mentioning that even when Hollywood Studios has Morning Extra Magic Hours, many of the shows don't start until after Regular Opening. That was disappointing.

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  2. I forgot about that being an issue, but I completely agree. We had a *huge* part of the morning where we had nothing to do (thus why Randy took the kids to the play area) because we went during Extra Magic Hours, and the shows don't run during that time. You can only get in one ride of TSM during that time & neither child was going to ride RnRC or ToT.

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