A Magical Birthday 4/10 - 4/17

[omniscientmommy]

We're currently at Disney and I realized my last trip report wasn't fully complete because I wrote it about a week after and I had a hard time recalling all of it. So I'm going to try and write it as we go.

First off we only booked this trip 28 days before going. It was a last-minute decision. We also decided to make it a surprise for the kids.

4/10 11:30 pm - had ds5 and ds8 opened a big box with 2 new marvel backpacks loaded for the plane with 'Disney boarding passes' (I made myself) and a piece of paper saying "We're going to Disney world" with a picture of Mickey's gang. Ds5's reaction was - cool, there's candy in my bag! Ds8's reaction was disbelief and then it sunk in and he was excited for 2 min then wanted food. We headed to the airport at 12:45 to catch a 2:47pm flight to Tampa (flew Frontier and saved $400 on our tickets over flying into MCO). Our flight was late taking off by 40 min but the pilot made up tome and we landed only 10 minutes after we were supposed to 6:58pm. Got bags and our rental car. I am a Dollar Express member so we just went to the cars and found the stall ours was in. We got a Chevy Equinox. It's ok. My husband is a very large person. He is slightly squished in the passenger seat but not bad. Drove 1 hour to vacation rental company to pick up our packet from the lock box. I found this to be ridiculous in this day and age of email and since we didn't have a physical key but a key code. Staying off site at Windsor Hills at a 2 bed/2 bath condo. We knew we'd need to bring our own garbage bags, toilet paper, etc but they didn't even include cleaning supplies like Windex. Place is also slightly worn, stains on carpet and peeling cabinets. I won't wait until last minute to book again. Beds are okay. The husband went to Walmart and got some food and stuff.

4/11 my Birthday - I got up early even though I went to bed late. An hour later I went and picked up the stroller from Orlando stroller rental. The changed out the summit gx for a bob. Went back to the condo and got everyone ready and headed to MK. Didn't park and get to TTC until like 10:10 and our fast pass window for buzz was closing so I cancelled it. We had Pooh passes at 10:30 and got there at 10:50. Made it through and out at 11 just in time to head over to BOG for lunch reservation at 11:15. We ordered ahead and picked a seat in the ballroom. Slightly confused about how it works but waited it out. Kids were super hungry and complaining. It was an ok quick service meal but really only needed to do once. Had a pee break and went to Mickey's philharmagic, 10 min wait. Then went to buzz for our fast pass at 12:15 which had a 5 min wait. Kids wanted to do people mover after it was a 20 min wait and broke down once. Then headed over to the teacups for fast pass at 1:15pm. We were burnt out so we left.
My husband was complaining about the stroller and not having a latch when it's closed so I dropped them off at the condo and took the stroller back to exchange for the summit. This one doesn't have a latch either but it stays closed unlike the BOB. Then I dropped off the rental form to the vacation company on the way back. Got inside and we just hung out until 3:30 and then dh went back to Walmart for more food items and cleaning supplies since the condo has a glass table and the kids already made it gross. I took them down to the pool around 4 and we stayed for an hour. We then had to shower and get ready for dinner at Whispering Cayon Cafe. We had a 6:30 reservation. We arrived 10 minutes early and were seated right away. It wasn't too busy. The kids got the basic kids meals of chicken/burger/fries. I ordered the traditional skillet and dh ordered the pig skillet. I ordered a moonshine strawberry lemonade - strong(I'm a lightweight drinker) The amount of food was way too much for me. I'm a pretty petite person so I eat just slightly more then my kids. We ended up bringing back leftovers from my plate back with us. My husband ate almost his whole skillet, he's a very large dude. Kids ate basically all of their dinner. The service was okay, not like the best ever. The server came out with a cupcake at the end of dinner and made a big deal and had the whole dining room sing. It was fun! Afterwards we went and peaked at the hotel pool. Pretty nice, I would love to stay a night or two there. We talked about going to MK after dinner for fireworks but at 7:45pm we were exhausted. We drove back to the condo and just bummed around watching tv. Kids were still a little wound up and so were we. The kids finally passed out at 10 and we went to bed at 11:30pm.

 

[DLo]

Following along looking forward to reading more

 

[omniscientmommy]

4/12 HOT HOT HOT! - So I got up at around 6am, no idea why. I decided to just start my coffee and chill out before I had to wake the kids up. I woke dh up at 7am and then the kids around 7:20am, ds5 was already moving around a little so he was good to get up right away. We had a 8:40 reservation at Hollywood and Vine. I decided I was going to try going w/o a purse today. So we grabbed 4 bottles of water, sunscreen and hats and were off. DH had my ID in his wallet and he's been carrying the GoPro in his cargo shorts so we don't have to have a bag for that. Left the condo around 8 and got to HS around 8:15. Walked through security and scanned the bands then decided since we had some time to take a photo. We then walked over and checked in at 8:25, waited about 5 min while ds8 had a meltdown about having to wait and he was starving.... *eyeroll* We sat down and Goofy was already 2 tables away from us. The server came and took drink orders, dh had coffee and water, kids had oj & chocolate milk, I ordered a bottle of water. I think the water down here tastes terrible! Goofy was awesome with the boys! Great character interaction! We then got up and got food. DS5 and I barely ate anything. I really don't eat until like 10 at home and it's an hour earlier here! DH and ds8 cleared multiple plates so hopefully that makes up for the cost. The other characters were Doc McStuffins, Vamparina, and Princess Sofia - they didn't make really any effort with the kids at all. Maybe they assumed because they're boys that they wouldn't be interested in meeting them. Both boys like Doc and Vamparina so that was disappointing. Bill was like $175 after 10% AP discount and tip. DH requested that we don't eat at any more sit down places. It was 9:10 when we left. I noticed that the wait time for TSM was only 25 min for standby so we headed that way. Got on in that 25 min time frame then hit the restrooms. At this point aliens wait time was now 55 min so we decided to go over to the Muppets, I had a fastpass for it but it was really a waste since the standby time was 10 min. Ds8 loves the muppets but ds5 had never seen it before and he was torn. He was really cranky at this point and I wanted to just skip our fast pass for Indiana Jones and go back to the condo but all dh & ds5 really wanted to stay and see it. So we waited around for 20 min until they opened the fast pass line for it. We got 3rd row, center - kinda to the right side of the stage. At this point we now had 40 min for the show to start at which point ds8 started to complain that he was hot, hungry and wanted to leave. He had been doing this since TSM. The show started and all thoughts of hot and hungry went out the window. Both boys LOVE this show! After the show we decided to hit the restroom and then go. DS5 fell asleep in the car and when we got inside we noticed that he was really red and hot. DS5 is insisting that he's COLD - ugh! Not a good sign. We talked about going to Typhoon Lagoon but I vetoed that. He definitely has some heat exhaustion. He downed 2 bottles of water and ate lunch and is now saying he feels hot - this being a good sign. So we're staying inside until he's no longer red and hot. Ds5 was back to himself in an hour and wanted to go swimming. We reluctantly agreed to go for 30 min. They swam everyone was happy and they were getting hungry. Dh wanted to go to Epcot but I was on the fence. Then ds8 said he wanted to go to the German restaurant with the buffet. Just walking there ds5 started to get hot so we grabbed a reservation on the MDE app and got inside. Since there were only 4 of us we were seated with 2 couples on the top tier. Dh and ds8 ate good. I wasn't super hungry and ds5 ate apple sauce and a roll. While I was in the bathroom I could hear a mom and her daughter and the kid was in there puking her guts out. Poor kid. However since I was currently worried about the possibility of my kids getting sick I left the bathroom and told dh to pack it up. While waiting for the check the kids wanted to dance so we went out for a song and a half then split. Bill for dinner was $170 w/ AP discount and tip. Ds5 seemed ok and wanted to see the mini trains. After we got ice cream from a cart. Then dh wanted to go to the store over in Japan and look at stuff. We were there right until the fireworks started. We sat down on a bench outside the store and watched half the fireworks from there before ds5 started saying he wanted to leave. I kept trying to get him to drink water the whole evening. We got to France when the finale started and stopped there to watch. After we exited the park. Took us 20 min to get back to condo. Lots of traffic. Ds5 really is still very hot and dh is going to get a thermometer from Walmart. We saw 2 people being carted away by EMTs at Epcot and I'm worried we over did it. Hopefully it's me being paranoid.
And maybe it was the earlier dose of advil or the cold/damp cloth on his head but when dh did finally come back with the thermometer it didn't register a fever. After all that we didn't go to bed until 1am-ish.

 

[omniscientmommy]

4/13 We decided that since it was going to be a late night that we'd sleep in. Apparently the kids didn't get that memo. They were up by 7am. I pulled myself out of bed by 7:30. Ds5 most definitely has a cold. No fever but congested and tired. It's not fun. Since he's not feeling well dh and him stayed at the condo while I took ds8 to Typhoon Lagoon for a couple hours in the afternoon. It was busy but not the worst. Questionable swimsuits aside it was a better experience than last September. I couldn't get my band to work for the payment and I logged into MDE on my phone and it showed I have no credit card on file. So I just paid cash instead. We got there at 11:30 and by 2 I was wiped. Ds8 only wanted to hang out in the wave pool. I had to tell him I needed a break and we went to the lazy river for 3/4 of a turn ad then back to the wave pool. When we got back to the condo we ate a late lunch and I put ds5 down for a nap from 4-5, dh napped too. We had a fast pass for lion king at AK for 5:45 but I knew we weren't going to make it bc at 5:10 dh was in the shower. We left the condo at 5:50 with some argument with ds8. Had to park in butterfly 20 and take the tram. We walked in with no bags and were by the tree of life at 6:10. Since we had time I had us take a pic together. Then we headed back towards the safari where we had a fat pass for 6:45. We grabbed 2 Mickey preztels and cheese and powerades from a cart. Ate and had a bathroom break before. Got on the Safari around 6:55. There was a 5 min wait with the fast pass. Lots of animals out, not the big cats really but the others. Dh was filming with the gopro and trying to keep ds5 from asking 200 Q's is impossible. We finished the ride and ds5 wanted to ride the train but we found it was closed. It was 7:15 and dh was hungry but the kids really wanted to play at dino land. So we waited to eat and got there at 7:30, played until 7:55 and then walked over to pandora. We ate at satu'li canteen. Dh had beef and chicken bowl with noodles, kids had hot dogs, I wanted to try the hamburger pos off the kids menu, & we got the chocolate cake and blueberry cream cheese mousse for all of us to share. The boot are 3/4 of their son dinner. We all tried the desserts. Ds8 didn't like either, he does not like chocolate cake. Ds5 loves chocolate cake but thought the cream cheese mousse was weird. Dh and I thought both were very good. Meal cost us $50. We finished eating by 8:50 and I had a fast pass for river of lights at 9:15 but dh said he was tired and so were the kids. We hit the restroom and by the canteen. Now they have this awesome granite countertops and I made dh go in the men's bathroom and look bc when we redo our kitchen I want that granite! After the detour we walked to the exit and caught the tram back to the car. Ds5 is obsessed with trains and anything similar to a train. I guess a tram is close enough to a train bc he insisted we ride in the front row behind the " engine". Lol then he pretended he was driving it. That was his favorite part of the evening. Got back to the condo at 9:45. People can't drive for anything down here! Use turn signals!!

 

[heaven2dc]

Enjoying reading all about your trip! So sorry your DS5 wasn't feeling well but hope he starts to feeling better which sounds like it in your last post). I had to smile at the part where his favorite part of the evening was pretending he was driving the "train". How cute!

 

[omniscientmommy]

4/14 a HOT night - so the night before I noticed that the tire pressure light went on in our car and dh got up at 5am, who knows why, and went and filled the tire. After we had a lazy morning. And right now I'm drawing a blank what we did in the morning which is why I was trying to write these as the day happens. I do know that we went to a park ... Ah I'll ask dh later.
In the evening we did go to the pool at the clubhouse for 2 hours. When we got back I got everyone showered right away and when I got out I noticed it was hot. I checked the thermostat and it was 78 inside the unit. I called the management company's after hours number and told them the A/C had stopped working. By now it was 80 in the unit and it was 8pm. The guy said they wouldn't be able to get anyone out until the morning. After another 1/2 hr we decided to just go to a hotel room for the night. The condo only had 2 windows and a slider and there was no breeze. We packed just a couple things and got a room at the Marriott Courtyard in the disney springs area. While heading there again the front passenger tire had last 15 lbs of air and we would have to deal with that tomorrow. Checked in around 10pm and the room was close to one of the entrances so it was noisy until 11pm.

 

[omniscientmommy]

4/15 A Day from 'the bad place'. - I got up early like 7 and showered knowing I needed to deal with the car tire situation. I called Dollar and the lady said they'd exchange it and let me do it at Orlando airport instead of Tampa where we picked it up. So I drove back to the condo and it was around 8am. At that time the place was at 87 degrees so I opened the 2 windows and slider and turned on the fans. I made myself coffee and left around 9 am. I had to stop at a gas station for air before getting on the highway. About 8 miles from the airport I stopped and filled up the tank with gas. Also there's a bunch of tolls on the way. At least 4 and 2 of didn't have any attendants. The exchange went ok. I had a standard SUV but someone parked a mid-size SUV in that area and they allowed me to take the Nissan Pathfinder that was parked there. I'm sure Dollar rentals are cheap bc they don't check over the cars that well. This new one definitely wasn't washed on the outside, has marks/dents and needs an alignment. After getting the car I went and picked up the family from the hotel. We went back to the condo. Still the A/C person hadn't shown up and at this point it was now 10:45. I called the property manager and was told that someone should be out in a few hours. At this point I decided to open a case with Airbnb. After that the manager decided he could have someone there within 30 min. The guy came at 12:15pm and started working. By 1 pm he said it was done and the unit should be cool in a few hours. He said it was something outside. We said okay and went to Typhoon Lagoon. It wasn't too busy and we had a good time. At 3:45 we left and were back at the unit. It was still 77 and I messaged the manager through Airbnb. They sent the same guy out but by 5pm with no sign of it getting cooler and it actually rising to 79 we packed up and left. I took pictures and messaged the manager and Airbnb.
About 15 min later then manager said it was fixed and working but we left windows open which was why it was reading wrong. I messaged him back with my pictures of the rooms showing the windows being firmly closed when we left. I then messaged Airbnb and told them that the manager was trying to blame us for the A/C not working properly after they fixed it. I told Airbnb there would be no way we would return to a unit in which a manager blames the guests for their poor maintenance. We checked into the Courtyard Marriott we stayed in the previous night.
After being settled dh thought we left one of the boys GPS watches at the condo. So we drove back and it turned out that we didn't and dh didn't update the app when he opened it so it showed an old location. Grrr!
Seeing as we were already out we drove to MK, everyone was wearing flip flops. Mistake 1. We walked in the gates at 8pm. I made everyone take a picture then we headed to the shooting range. We were surprised to find it was now free! Yeah! After 5 minutes of that both kids wanted a snack. Ds5 wanted popcorn, of course we didn't have the bucket and had to get a new one. Ds8 wanted real food, which was Mac n cheese from peco bills. Dh got nachos, and 2 sodas for both of them and I got water. I just snacked on what everyone else had. I wanted to see the fireworks so we walked out exactly as they were starting. We tried to find a good spot near the left side of the castle but it was packed. Eventually we sat across from the hall of presidents and called it good. After we decided we needed to try a dole whip. Now I like pineapple but this wasn't my cup of tea. Sorry to those fans. Kids wanted to do rides but it was almost 10. We started walking out when the announcement for once upon a time was going to start. So we waited in front of the castle. It was pretty neat and the boys liked it. After we left. Holy exodus. The monorail and ferry lines were packed. Hopped on the resort line before that got packed. The kids fell asleep on the way back. We all were so tired.

 

[omniscientmommy]

4/16 In for a Penny in for a pound - At this point we decided to just sleep in. That meant 8am for mom. The kids took there time and got up 9-9:30 then had a very lazy morning. I took both kids downstairs for the breakfast buffet. Nothing really special. Pretty standard. Kids of course ate cereal and 1/2 a waffle. $16. After I talked with dh and told him the kids wanted to do MK again. So after messing around we finally got there at noon. Of course ds8 is hungry. We went and got the sourcer card thing and headed off to frontier land. We parked the stroller by liberty boat and made our way around. After completing the first round we went and got a snack, one chocolate banana, one mickey bar, and one strawberry lemonade cup $17. We and ate on the bridge and watched the liberty boat and Tom sawyer rafts. The kids wanted to continue our sourcer game so we played the next round on main Street. After dh wanted to leave but we had a reservation at liberty tavern at 2:30 and it was 2. We headed there and checked in at 2:05. We didn't get seated until 2:35 pm. Outside was crazy while we waited bc they had a preshow marching band. The food was good. Kids got Mac n cheese... What a surprise! Dh got the bill of fare. Holy cow! I got the turkey pot pie. Everything was good. Total bill was $100 with tip and AP discount. After that we left. The monorail was crowded so we waited for the ferry. Ds5 fell asleep in the stroller. After getting back to the car I realized we had to drop off the stroller. It was already like 4pm and I didn't want to but we had to in the opposite direction of the hotel. Dropped off that and got coffee from Starbucks in Target. Service could use improvement. Finally got on the road and got back to the hotel at 5. Dh was grumpy and the kids needed to run around. I took them down to the playground and they played for an hour or so. Then they wanted pizza so we got it from Connections which is like a deli type place in Marriott Village. Pizza was decent. We ate it in the room. By now it was 6:45 and the kids still wanted to go to the pool. I told them to eat and get ready. 7:30 finally they are ready. By 7:45 we get to the pool. I let them swim/play until 8:35 and went back. On a side note: some woman was changing herself and her 6 yr old on the pool deck with no care as to who saw. And not into dry clothes but to different swimsuits. Just weird. Upstairs I got the kids showered and finally sleeping by 9:30-10. Everything is packed with just the essentials out.

 

[DisDreaming4116]

I enjoy reading trip reports of such different vacation and touring styles than my own. Hope you had a great trip!

 

[omniscientmommy]

4/17 Leaving day - I didn't fall asleep until 1:30am and got up at 6:30am. I always have trouble sleeping the night before I fly. I have motion sickness and have to be on Dramamine to fly. I went down to the lobby and got coffee. Everything except a few small things were packed and ready to go. Dh got up at 7 and started getting ready. The boys got up at 7:20 and were complaining immediately about having to go. I went to get the car and low and behold the front driver side tire low pressure sensor went off. Lol figures. I drove around to the front and picked up the husband unit and bags. We left and started to head to Tampa airport. We did hit a few spots of traffic and it took 1 1/2 hrs. Stopped 7 miles out and filled up the tank. Noticed ds8 had fallen asleep. Got to the airport and unloaded. Took about 15-20 min to go through the bag check line and then on to TSA pre check. Tampa airport is smaller and a lot easier to navigate than MCO IMO. We got to the gate around 10:45 and started the wait. Boarding the plane went very smoothly, a lot better than normal for frontier. Still hate bag check process but we did save $450 over Southwest. Cabin door closed by 11:43am. Now in general I'm pretty understanding with kids on planes because I have kids. However the parents with the, possibly 4 year old, and older sibiling of 7(or 8) did not plan well. They literally brought nothing for their kids to do on the plane. No crayons, markers, tablets, ANYTHING! So the older kid was sitting in the aisle seat, 4 yr old in the middle, Dad by the window and the Mom across the same row on the aisle seat. Literally the 4 yr old was like making a crap ton of noise, banging around in the seat, and in general being as rude as a kid can be at that age. I have a 5 yr old who can be like the biggest jerk in the world and will annoy the crap out of his brother just for fun. So yes I know how hard it is. The Mom sat on her phone the entire trip, Dad kept complaining to the Mom about 4 yr old who was poking and being difficult to his brother and Dad, while telling the 4 yr old to stop. Seriously if I wasn't on Dramamine for plane rides this would have driven me insane! We landed in Milwaukee at like 1:30pm(CST) and got bags, picked up the dog on the way and were home by 2:40pm. And now I'm missing warm weather and palm trees!

 

[HeyMickeyUSoFine]

I'm glad to see you were able to still make the best of your trip. I'm the total opposite, the AC fiasco would have ruined my mood for the trip. I wanted to know did you get a refund since you did not remain at the property.

 

[HeyMickeyUSoFine]

I see you went back to Windsor Hills for Thanksgiving. How was that home?

 

[omniscientmommy]

I see you went back to Windsor Hills for Thanksgiving. How was that home?

Sorry I didn't see your replies to this. Somehow notifications got turned off. We didn't get a refund. Airbnb is a joke. It's so much back and forth. We had problems at the Windsor Hills home in Nov. and the host/property mgmt was terrible. They even tried to claim we damaged the unit, luckily I documented everything before we left with Airbnb so we didn't get charged. Basically not renting through Airbnb anymore.

We love Windsor Hills bc it's close to Disney and we have to have a kitchen bc of food allergies. We rented through Dave at Vacation Central Florida. It's a small mom and pop type run property management. Although the units are very dated, they are cheap and when we stayed through them before we didn't have any maintenance issues. We are going to try them one more time in August 2020.