We're late, we're late, for a very important date.... - A Nov. 2014 TR

[BridgetR3]

Hey guys!! Finally over our Post Disney Depression and ready to talk about all the fun and not so fun moments of our latest trip to Disney.

Up first - the cast



Cast includes....

Me - teacher by day, Disney planner by night - always planning our next trip and another trip for anyone else who asks! I planned every part of this trip and obsessed quite a bit about making Mom's first trip in 30+ years a success.

DH who loves Disney as much as I do. He's always wanting to try a different season or special event. His favorite hotel is Beach Club which is not where we stayed this trip. You'll have to wait and see if he liked our resort.

Mom - It was her first trip in 30+ years but she would not let me tell anyone that it was her first trip because after all she had been to Disney before. This trip was a celebration of sorts for our family. Mom has a few unseen health problems and is a cancer survivor. We were very excited that she was able to join us as our first trip planned with her had to be cancelled for her to receive treatments.

And the reason we fell in love with Disney in the first place, our boys.....



DS12 who is still in love with all things kiddy and totally becomes a child while at Disney. He still walks around the house singing various songs from different movies, he loves watching Disney channel and simply can not get enough of Disney World.



DS8 who is a bundle of energy and talks all the time. He loves Disney, especially Stitch and Donald Duck. This happens to be my favorite picture of him. He seems to be drunk on pixie dust in this one but it was one of those late night snack times with beignets and Diet Coke right before 11 p.m. at Disney. Everything is funny at that time!


On this trip, we had a few recurring themes, any of which would have made a great trip report title. I could have chosen "WAY too much to eat, way too little time" or "Watch out, MOM!" or "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" but I think the fact that we always seemed to be running late was the most recurring theme of the week.

I hope you will stick around to see just what we loved, what we didn't, and what we learned by the end of the week! Thanks for reading!

 

[BridgetR3]

Chapter Links

We're here!! ...and We're Late already....

A late first night......with some scooter limbo Part 1

A late first night......with some scooter limbo Part 2

 

[princessbelle2015]

Joining in

 

[dvc at last !]

I am in ...

 

[BridgetR3]

Sixty days out when I booked our fastpasses for this trip, I figured that we would be at Disney around 3-4 p.m. That would leave plenty of time for a few rides at MK starting with a Seven Dwarves fastpass at 4 p.m. Since we had until 5:15 technically to make that fastpass, I figured we would surely make it right??

Well the actual trip to Disney seemed like a ride through a time sucking machine. The minutes ticked by but the miles did not. As we stopped for lunch at the turn south onto I-75, I realized that there was a VERY good chance we would not make the Mine Train fastpass. I also realized that being mom's first trip and all, I probably shouldn't stress her about it so I just settled that we would ride it on our other MK day.

After what felt like a week instead of a day, we arrived at Disney at 4:45 p.m. We would indeed miss our fastpass on Seven Dwarves but that's o.k. because we were home!!

We check into our room at the Wilderness Lodge only to find out that we had a ground floor room. Saddened by that because I LOVE a balcony, I asked if there were any upper floor rooms available. The guy at the desk called and asked but there were not any so we settled for our room and headed over to the concierge desk to get mom's scooter. I almost titled my report "To walk a mile in someone else's shoes" because honestly we often thought of how "good" those people in scooters had it. This trip totally changed that thinking but I'm getting ahead of myself.....back to checking in.

We headed over to the Villas and inspected our room.



Love the Mickey towel!



The murphy bed was really cute but we did have an issue with it. I have a sleepwalking child and the way the top hangs out about 4-5 inches, I was really worried about him hitting his head on it if he sat up in the middle of the night.

Room inspected, bags delivered, it was time to leave for MK.

A bus showed up right away and we were off. Mom was shocked at how big everything was. Once we arrived at MK, I went to Guest Relations to make sure that our bands would use our Annual Passes before our tickets and then we headed in.



The Mickey Head was gorgeous but the boys were ready to ride. We will be back here tomorrow so we will take our picture then.



I stopped to take a picture of the balloon guy and I must apologize because we suddenly became that family that stops in the middle of the street SUDDENLY!! You see, Mom had not seen any part of Disney in so long that it was all new to her. She was in awe but it's hard to see while in her scooter so she would stop the scooter promptly causing all of us to crash into her and then she would slowly get up and take a picture or two or twelve. Once we finished, we would start walking again.



Oh the castle!! Oh the crowds!! Wow, I didn't think it would be this crowded. This was the week before Thanksgiving and was a slower week previously for us but there were a lot of people around.



We enjoyed the Christmas decorations but I missed the garland across Main Street.

The boys had decided that PeopleMover would be our first ride and I was all for that except that it was down at the moment. Looking around at ride times, Buzz was 40 minutes and Space was 70 minutes so we decided to wait for a minute to see if PeopleMover would start up. While we waited the boys went to the Tomorrowland Dance party. I sat with mom taking in the sites. Within about 5 mintues PeopleMover started working and we were off to wait in line.

I had TOTALLY forgot about moving platforms until this point in our journey. Mom freaked when she saw that she was going to have to ride a conveyor belt up to the ride. I grabbed one arm and DH grabbed her other. Soon we were at the top, crisis avoided.



Don't let this blurry picture fool you. She HATED PeopleMover! Her back was to the direction we were headed and so it jerked her all over the place. At this point, I was pretty panicked about the rest of our trip. If she didn't like PeopleMover, would she ride anything else?

As an added bit of excitement, Mom forgot about the conveyor belt on the way down and began to do a split as the belt kept moving with only one of her legs. Poor dear, I caught her but I pinched the fire out of her arm. Yep, it may be a long trip at this rate.

Up next, dinner and a parade with fireworks maybe?

 

[BridgetR3]

Joining in

Thanks for stopping by!!

I am in ...

I hope you enjoy reading!

 

[BridgetR3]

When I last left off, we had just finished....and survived......our first ride at Disney. We decided to eat at Cosmic Ray's since it was closest and is one of our favorites. Sorry, no food porn from this evening. I had an awful headache and was just grateful to be eating so that I could take some Tylenol.

After dinner, we decided to stake out a spot for the Main Street Electric Parade. We've seen it numerous times but we had set this night aside to make sure that we watched both the parade and Wishes for Mom in case something happened so she would be able to see it. We had FP reservations for Wishes viewing later in our week so we were not worried about getting too close.

DH and DS2 took off to ride Space Mountain using fastpasses while the rest of us went to set up "camp" to wait for a parade. We decided to stop here across from the Emporium just down from Starbucks.



Do you know how hard it is to get a scooter with a canopy UNDER the ropes at the edge of the sidewalk?? GEEZ, I never thought of that until we were trying to get mom on the correct side of the rope. Either we were in the spot where you are supposed to keep walking or you are in the street with a 4 inch curb to jump in your scooter. The CMs tried to help us lift the rope but it was pulled so tightly that we really were out of luck. So.....

we kept walking and fighting crowds trying to get somewhere that wasn't packed so that we could ride along the edge of the sidewalk with the scooter. Finally we stopped near the barber shop where no one was standing. We had a spot in the road near the curve across from the fire house. Thankfully we didn't have to play scooter limbo to get here.

While we waited, I took pictures.







By this time the boys had found us and they ventured off to look at the windows at the Emporium.



Notice their multiple layers. It was COLD! We had hats, scarves, mittens, hand warmers, foot warmers, body warmers, and still we were cold!! It was windy just enough to make it feel colder and misting enough to make it nasty. We were pretty miserable at this point. Poor mom is never cold and thinking there was no way she would get really cold, she did not dress well for this first night. We talked all night about if we should just go back to the room so that she wouldn't get sick but she really wanted to stick it out and see the fireworks.

A few of the window displays....



Soon the parade was starting....CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST......

 

[BridgetR3]

Our spot gave us a "backstage" view of the parade route.



You can see behind Tinkerbell through the gates.





Her float is probably one of my favorites because of the bright beautiful flowers.



It was great having the front row view. Usually we don't stake out a spot for the parade and quite often we watch it while enjoying a funnel cake in Liberty Square so we see it from afar.



Excuse the blurry pic, I was trying to hurry. Do you see the open door? His door was flapping around as he spun. We could see inside the float.



I love the interaction between Peter Pan and Capt. Hook.





Elliot was very quiet that night. I'm not sure if his sound was on or if he just wasn't interacting with the crowd yet but we couldn't hear him at all.

After the parade finished, we decided to go shopping for a little while in the Emporium to avoid the crush of crowds moving about and to warm up.



While shopping we heard an announcement that the Magic, Memories and you show would be starting soon so we exited out into the street and stopped to view it. We didn't push forward closer to the castle because we had Fastpasses for Wishes later in the week. We decided that we would just watch it from where we were and watch it from up closer later on.



Time for the show!



Who can resist the castle covered in icicle lights?

After Wishes, we were going to try to ride the boat back to our hotel but the lines were long. We started to head to the bus stop and saw that the lines were long there too. We did not want to wait in the cold with mom so we walked over to the Contemporary to grab a snack. I knew that boats ran from the Contemporary to our lodge but what I did not know was that Mom would not fit on those. BUT for now, we were at the Contemporary nice and beginning to get warm.

We picked up our mugs from the Dining plan and grabbed some snacks. We downed quite a bit of hot chocolate trying to warm up while Olaf kept Mom's chair warm.



After a while, we were warmed up and ready to head out. We decided to go down to the dock and grab a boat over to our resort.



No one wanted to go to take a picture for me!





Once there we waited, and waited, and waited. Mom was freezing. I was trying to block the wind for her. I just knew we had made the wrong decision but right before we gave up and headed back in, a boat came our way. He docked and called "WILDERNESS LODGE!!". Yes, that's us. Our little party all headed over excitedly to board his boat when we heard the dreadful words, "I'm sorry folks but I can't carry scooters. I will call for a boat from the MK just for you. He should be here soon." Soon?? SOON?? We are freezing to death out here!

Poor Mom looked so pitiful. I felt so bad. About 10 minutes later, our boat showed up and we climbed in.

Soon we were home, warm, dry and ready for bed.

The next day was our full day at Magic Kingdom. Would our late night cause problems for us? Would the cold make Mom sick? Who needs meds in the morning just to get out of bed?

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Checking in! Can't wait to read more!

 

[BridgetR3]

Checking in! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks for reading!

 

[BridgetR3]

Hey again all! I'm not too sure that I like the new forums. They will definitely take some getting used to! Here's hoping that this update really does go through!

Our first full day in the parks was spent.......sleeping in! Yes you heard that right. We slept in, well not all of us actually........DH and I were up super early and excited about another day in the parks but DS2 and Dmom were exhausted and needed a bit of extra rest. We ended up getting to the bus stop around 9:30 and entered the park at about 10:00. That's not too late right?? Well the park had opened at 8 so we were a bit later than I would have liked.

We walk in and begin to head to the front. At this point in our trip Mom is still new to the scooter and VERY concerned about hitting people so we are trying to head down Main Street in the middle of the road so as to avoid the crowds. We get near the hub and encounter this.....



Any other day we would have danced and played along. My boys love that dance party BUT.....we were trying to get more than one ride done and we were failing already!



I snapped some quick shots as we headed around by Cosmic Ray's in order to get to New Fantasyland.

Once we rounded the corner by the Tea Cups we were free to ride! No one in my family rides Tea Cups so we walked quickly passed that as we showed Mom the Seven Dwarves Mine Train. She said that it looked too fast for her and I agreed after our experience on PeopleMover.

Winnie the Pooh had a LONG line so we decided to wait for another time. Right now we were headed to Peter Pan for our FP+ time.



Have you ever seen this guy on the roof of Peter Pan?? I had not noticed him until this trip and I don't know if he is new or just that I've never seen him. Once we got to Peter Pan, I realized that it also had a moving platform *missing my smiley for faint*. Oh boy, what a trip this ride was. So I get to the front and tell the attendant's that I have to load mom because she has trouble. They agreed to let me but for some reason gave me the first ship and her the second ship. I grabbed her arm and practically dragged her into her ship and then jumped in mine just as the bar was going down. The CM who "pixiedusts" your ship to move the bar opened her mouth to object, then watched me slip in under the bar with eyes as big as saucers. I swear they really should slow down that platform for people with mobility issues. (They told us repeatedly when we asked that they could but NO ONE ever slowed it down for us.)

And we were off.......traveling through Neverland.....I was alone in my ship and honestly dreading having to get mom off the boat so I didn't take any pictures! Sorry!

Next we had an uneventful trip around around It's a Small World and Mom LOVED it. No moving platform, just a lazy boat ride. THAT, she could handle!

At this point it was already time for lunch. Well I guess that two rides are better than no rides. *insert shrugging smiley here - I miss my smileys*

Lunch for today was at.......



We had participated in the free dining promotion so we were able to try out new restaurants and this was our first new one.



My oldest is not mad in this pic. Actually I have three pictures and he is smiling in the other two but one is blurry and in the other one, DS2's eyes are closed so this will have to do.

We were seated in the Betsy Ross room. Once we were seated, I asked the boys if they could figure out what was so special about Betsy Ross by looking around the room. DS2 immediately spotted the flag in a hoop behind me. DS1 was able to tell him about how she made the flag. I think it's neat that the rooms are dedicated to someone important.



Drinks are here! I LOVED the glasses and I should have purchased one as a keepsake for home but I didn't.

We ordered our food and I took the obligatory food pics of my family's food but I didn't take a picture of Mom's because she was a little freaked out by my taking food pics. She did warm up to it later in the week and even began taking her own food pics.



DH and I both ordered New England Pot Roast. This was great. It was very similar to the pot roast at BOG quick service for lunch and since we did not have reservations at BOG for lunch this trip, it really did fill in for it. I would definitely order it again.



DS1 order the Turkey dinner ("since he wouldn't be getting turkey for Thanksgiving"). His turkey and potatoes were rather dry and seem to have sat around for a while. He chose not to eat much of it. Instead, he ate DS2's mac and cheese and stuff from my bowl.



DH's pot roast

DS2 ordered mac and cheese. He liked it but ate a lot off of my plate.

DMom ordered the BLT and she was a bit disappointed in it. I think she was expecting an ordinary BLT and was surprised at the different things on it.

And then, we ordered dessert. Up to this point Liberty Tree Tavern was not on the "must do" list for us. In fact, it was just meh - okay but dessert......dessert changed all of that!



This little piece of heaven is why we are returning to LTT during our summer trip. I have to get some more Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake! AND....now I know to share a plate for the meal so that I'm not so full that I can't finish it.

So with dessert being considered, LTT went from a "could do" to a "must do" on our list. I definitely could have used another Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake later in the week! lol.....Have you ever been to LTT? Have you ever had their Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake?

Thanks for stopping by!

 

[teekathepony]

hi Bridget! Sorry I missed the start of this one, just spotted the link in your sig! I'm here now and subscribed for the rest!

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Glad you and your family had a nice lunch at LTT! If I can't get BOG for lunch, this is where I plan on making a reservation! The cake looks heavenly! Can't wait to read more!

 

[Lidian]

I'm here! (Okay, so I was really here when you posted the link on FB, but never bothered to log in.)

 

[BridgetR3]

hi Bridget! Sorry I missed the start of this one, just spotted the link in your sig! I'm here now and subscribed for the rest!

Thanks for coming along!! I have to get back to updating! Life has been a little crazy!

Glad you and your family had a nice lunch at LTT! If I can't get BOG for lunch, this is where I plan on making a reservation! The cake looks heavenly! Can't wait to read more!

Oh the cake was amazing!! I can't wait to eat it again! THANKS for following along!

I'm here! (Okay, so I was really here when you posted the link on FB, but never bothered to log in.)

Rofl....well I'm glad you decided to log in and say hi!!

Now to get out an update!! See ya'll in a few!

 

[BridgetR3]

After eating that delicious toffee cake, my mom decided we need a quiet place to relax while DH and DS2 rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Seriously though how can you ride RIGHT after you eat!?!?!? Anyways, they took off because our fastpass time was quickly passing us by and Mom, DS1 and I ducked into the Country Bear Jamboree. Now I can see how this doesn't have a wide audience appeal because it's an "old favorite" but I think it's hilarious!!

Upon entering the theater they placed us in the front row because of the handicap spots. Also remember that mom's scooter had a canopy since she couldn't be in the sun for long periods of time. Front row with a canopy means that her view was almost entirely blocked during the show (not to mention the poor people behind us). We asked to transfer but were told that we were "fine" although I know that we weren't.

With that the show started......



I LOVE this show!! It's so corny and SOOOOO un-politically correct.



If you listen closely, you will find the lyrics HILARIOUS or at least those of us who are corny enough to enjoy it, do. With titles like "My woman ain't pretty" and "All the guys that turn me on turn my down" you are sure to hear something to make you laugh.



My favorite song is "Mama, don't whip little Buford". The song suggests that Mama just shoot him instead.



Is it sad that this is a must do on our list? We love the older traditional rides as much as the new stuff!



If nothing else, Country Bear Jamboree will keep you cool on a hot day! lol........

After the show we met up with the boys at Splash.



They had had a great time on BTMRR and we had enjoyed our show so what's next??

We decided to leave Pirates, Jungle Cruise and all the others back here for another day and headed back to Fantasyland since it seemed that Enchanted Tales with Belle had a fairly low wait time. DS2 REALLY REALLY wants to be Beast one day so he can dance with Belle. Off we head.....



DS1 walking next to Mom. They LOVED showing her their loves at Disney World.

Soon we were at Enchanted tales and in line waiting for our turn. The sign said a 20 minute wait but we walked through fairly quickly and were in the workshop in no time. Mom was amazed by the mirror in the workshop. I think that's one of my favorite parts of this attraction but I won't spoil it for anyone else.

When it came to picking parts, both of my boys were picked!! DS1 was picked as a



knight in shining armor. This mom right here refuses to believe that he is old enough to be a knight. Let's just stop getting older right now!



For now though he was marching in place....

DS2 was picked as.....
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BEAST!!! His dream!! And don't let that shy little face fool you. He LOVED IT!



Scaring Belle




Telling her quite timidly that he will NOT let Maurice go.....



His favorite part!! Dancing with Belle!



I may never know what they talked about that day but Belle is now his favorite princess!!



In his words - "That was so much better than just meeting the princess because I got to dance with her."

After ETWB, it was time for us to go as we had dinner plans and it was already mid-afternoon. I really felt that everything took so much time on this trip. We didn't finish NEARLY the things that we normally finish but we made some amazing memories with my mom.

On the way out, DS2 decided that he needed a Mickey ice cream!



His day was made - first, dancing with Belle and second, eating his favorite ice cream! None of us were hungry yet so we decided to save our credits for another day!

I'll leave you with a few castle pics as we left the park.





Headed out.....




On the agenda for this evening - head back to the hotel to freshen up and then head to DTD for dinner. Any guesses as to where we would be eating?

 

[dvc at last !]

Wow - dancing with Belle - he will forever remember that day !
Handsome guy !
Both of your children are handsome !

 

[BridgetR3]

Wow - dancing with Belle - he will forever remember that day !
Handsome guy !
Both of your children are handsome !

Thanks!! Dancing with Belle is one of his favorite memories! He was so excited to be chosen as the Beast!

 

[Lidian]

Rofl....well I'm glad you decided to log in and say hi!!

Now to get out an update!! See ya'll in a few!

I was beginning to think you forgot about us.

DS1 and I ducked into the Country Bear Jamboree. Now I can see how this doesn't have a wide audience appeal because it's an "old favorite" but I think it's hilarious!!

Is it really? We've never watched it because everyone always claims it's just a place to get out of the heat and the show is horrible. If it's funny, then I want to laugh.

My favorite song is "Mama, don't whip little Buford". The song suggests that Mama just shoot him instead.

Is it sad that this is a must do on our list? We love the older traditional rides as much as the new stuff!

Must do? Are you joking or being serious?

Soon we were at Enchanted tales and in line waiting for our turn. The sign said a 20 minute wait but we walked through fairly quickly and were in the workshop in no time. Mom was amazed by the mirror in the workshop. I think that's one of my favorite parts of this attraction but I won't spoil it for anyone else.

Is this part of the walk-through only or can FP people see this mirror thing? I know nothing about ETWB other than the audience helps with the story and it has long waits. That's all I know. I had a FP for it last October but 100% of my crew voted to skip it.

I may never know what they talked about that day but Belle is now his favorite princess!!

Okay, I may have cried just a little bit.

In his words - "That was so much better than just meeting the princess because I got to dance with her."

And there went the box of tissues. Too sweet!!!!!!!

 

[jandlinz]

How wonderful he got to dance with Belle! Love your report so far. I agree scooters are tough to navigate. We've gone with my mom twice and she needed a scooter and it took some getting use to. Can't wait to read more!