A great big beautiful 10 days!! Momma did what in the bathroom?

[tinklvsu]

Ok, I've read quite a few trip reports, and love reading all about their experiences. I thought I'd give it a go. My name is Haley and I'm 26 years old. My Husband is Brandon, and our 4 year old son is Greyson. We live in Hattiesburg, MS. My husband and I both work at a Freight Broker company....

This wasn't our first rodeo, but it was the first big, full Disney trip for my sweet Greyson, who was turning 4 at the time. I'll start from the beginning. Normally we make the 10 hour drive (from MS) but, this time...I wanted my LO to experience FLYING! Plus, who wouldn't want more Disney time? I was so so excited about getting his little butt on the AIRPLANE! I literally woke up big smiles, way to early for him and my DH...but oh well. We stayed overnight in New Orleans, I was ready to get the trip started! So, we grabbed some breakfast and got to the airport WAY to early. Greyson watched planes take off, then got bored (a little too early in my opinion) and decided he'd watch his iPad. Well, we were flying Southwest, so no specific seating, I'd check in pretty early in hopes we'd get A. seats together, and B. a window seat for my LO. All worked out well. Since we boarded first, there was a bit of time before we took off. THEN - we start moving, I'm getting all excited take a look over and.......... Greyson is ASLEEP. I nudged, he whined, I stopped. Then I thought, SURELY taking off will jolt him awake. NOPE. He woke up as soon as we landed at MCO. I was SO disappointed, couldn't believe it. We had the flight home though, right? - HA, planes make him sleepy apparently. We landed in Orlando around 3:30pm, took DME to All Star Movies and relaxed a little before having to head out. Greyson just HAD to stay with Hoody "Woody" and Buzz We were having dinner at Kona Cafe and I was so waiting for the bread and Terriyaki Steak from the last trip, also those pot stickers MMMMMMmmmmm. Dinner here was ok, lots of construction still going on at the Poly at that time.....but it was the food that I was a little let down on. The pot stickers were as good as I remembered, they had gotten rid of that particular steak dish, and had a generic NY strip that was tough and dry. Oh well Service was wonderful. This concluded our very long first day.

 

[tinklvsu]

Day 2 consisted of Animal Kingdom.....



we had a fastpass for the Safari starting at 9:15am, but when we got there, the line wasn't all that bad. We decided to go in the stand-by line, and while waiting those short 10 minutes, I hopped on the MDE app and switched to a fastpass for Dinosaur later in the day (love that app- when it works).... Ok, the safari - I LOVE this attraction. It was a warm day, but with a cool breeze, and it just made me feel....like I was REALLY on a safari.


I know this picture below isn't of anything special, but I LOVE the little outline of his smile, you just know he was in awe.


After the safari we walked around Dino-Land, let him play in the Boneyard - That place is AWESOME! - and rode the little Triceratops Spin, a few times.


We headed on to do Dinosaur. Now, this one CAN be rough for kids. I tried to prepare Greyson best I could. But, judging from the picture below....I'm sure you can guess how he felt about it. This was the ONLY ride he cried on, but...it didn't stop him from everything else! My little trooper (or Rebel spy ) ... Don't ask me about my facial expression....I mean, what am I doing, my eyes look....so....sorry. haha


We grabbed a bite at Flame Tree BBQ - great QS option! and then did Finding Nemo. Rode Kali River Rapids, surprisingly Greyson really liked it, and finished with Festival of the Lion King and meeting Donald.



Our Trip was from September 27th - October 6th, so it was pretty warm. We headed back to the resort to get in a little down time, because tonight we were dining at California Grill!

 

[tinklvsu]

Day 3 was the BIG day. Magic Kingdom day!!!! And what a jam packed, slammed day would it be. We are those people that get up early to go to the park, but somehow always manage to miss the openings .... We had Splash Moutain up first, which was fine since it was so hot...and rainy that day. YIKES did it rain...rain ...rain.....Splash Mountain turned out to be Greyson's absolute most favorite ride. I can understand why, it's a good one ...
The first time we rode:


and then the second (i love how the gentleman's shirt below makes me look like I'm wearing Mickey Ears! ) I Just LOVE LOVE Greyson's smile in the ride pictures. These are the ones I look at and say...."yep, he had a GREAT Disney vacation!"


We had a fastpass for BOG, after hearing all the hype of course we were going to give it a try! Everything was very good. I think its a nice addition to MK, especially with the QS options. At least its not another burger or pizza!

After eating we had to skip on over to 7DMT - we were in kind of a Rush, because we had the Pirate's league in like 20 minutes, I know I know,......that's pushing it. But we gave it a go, and it worked out!!! One thing I will say, I hope that they look into padding the back of those mine carts, LO's who are short really hurt their heads. Greyson wasn't the only one almost in tears. When the roller coaster stops, it kind of gives a jolt, so his head hit the back of the cart. HARD. I really liked it other than that little part though. It looks neat.


Arrrrrrrr Matey!!! It's a Pirate's League for us!!! Leading up to the trip, this was probably one of the things I looked forward to the least. That's right, I said it...the least. Greyson seemed unsure everytime we spoke about it, so I figured he'd back out or something. My DH said NOPE, he'll love it...so.....we tried....and guess WHAT!?!?! It was probably one of the HIGHLIGHTS of the trip! Greyson LOVED LOVED it so so much! From getting his very own pirate name, to getting all made-up, to the pictures.... He soaked it all in!!!

Presenting Mr. William Yellowbellows (I'm partial, but that's a pretty dang handsome pirate)




After the Pirate's League we stopped to watch Festival of Fantasy Parade. I like it. Then, the Haunted Mansion was up next! Greyson got pretty intimidated with the lead up...The "moving room" lightning and voice-over got to him a little bit. The ride itself he did well with. I had to pull that move, you know mom's the..."I'm going to ask them a million questions to take their mind off being scared" ..so I asked.... "how many candles do you think are floating?" or "can you find the ghost playing Piano?"...through the whole ride. It worked though There were things we did randomly catching a short line, got in some Philar Magic, Aladdin, Jungle Cruise, Pirate's.... All the good ones We skipped most of Tomorrowland this day though. Ever since the addition of New Fantasyland, I really feel like you need two days to do this park right. Or to see most of the things it has to offer. And we had a few more stops here!

We caught WISHES - A little history about me+this. My DH and I married at the Grand Floridian Pavilion on November 3, 2008. He secretly rented the Grand I Yacht, and took the entire wedding party out on the Seven Seas Lagoon to watch Wishes to end our wedding day. To this day, I still boo hoo like a baby and it has a very special place in my heart. End of day 3!!! What a great day!

 

[tinklvsu]

Our next day was a FREE day! Got to rest a little, right? We decided to try out Kona Cafe for breakfast. Even though our dinner here a couple of nights earlier wasn't as good as I'd remembered, I heard or read that is...that Kona's breakfast was about as close to amazing as it can get. The process of getting there was the worst part of the whole trip, or well.....that and the RAIN...There we were, standing in the MK bus line. Take it to MK, then monorail over to the Poly, right? WRONG. DH says "look honey, there's a bus going to DTD. We've been waiting for MK bus forever. Let's go to DTD and hop a bus to Poly"......umm, ok........ Took about 20 minutes to get to DTD. Get off the bus, start looking for one to the Poly. They don't start till 11 am mam (said the very helpful cast member.) So, they put us on the first resort bus that came in. OKW. After about 45 minutes of going to about 6 stops at that resort (I MEAN REALLY)....we got off, and had to wait for a ....you guessed it, MK bus. Our 9:25 am breakfast, turned into a 10:30am breakfast. I was so heartbroken, but when we got there, they seemed to be understanding about the whole thing, and sat us pretty fast.

Let me tell you right now, I wish we had gone here at LEAST twice, if not three times for breakfast on this trip. It was THAT good. It was so good in fact, I didn't get a picture. Here's one though that I borrowed from some very strong-willed person that didn't devour it right before it was sat in front of them.

The Tonga Toast is below. My DH ordered it, i ate it...or ...a lot of it anyway. You see that little cup of sauce there? That is STRAWBERRY heaven, it almost resembled a strawberry smoothie of some sort, that we poured alllllllll over the big ole piece of banana stuffed goodness.


I ordered the platter that came with pretty much everything (sausage, eggs, ham, toast, and most importantly PINEAPPLE MACADAMIA NUT PANCAKES) I ate all of mine too. I didn't even need syrup or anything, that butter with toppings was out of this world. Good grief I wish I was sitting right there again.


After getting our bellies full. REAL full. We wobbled to DTD .....again. Did a little shopping and looking around. Lot's of construction happening there at that time too. We had those vouchers that came in our Disney Mail for DisneyQuest, so we took our LO there to play. After that, we grabbed some popcorn and candy, and watched Boxtrolls at the theater. It's a very nice theater! We really enjoyed this little break! The movie.....well, he liked it.

We had dinner planned at Rainforest Cafe for 7:00 pm, but we were done earlier and decided to try to get in, it worked. We all had a great dinner, and found ourselves back at home sweet home "ASM."