[Lemap760]

It’s time to add another trip report to the abundance of great reports already in the works.

Let’s go back in time to May of 2007 when we came back from a wonderful, although much too short, trip to Disney World. After we came back home Andrew was immediately asking when we could go again. A boy after my own heart. I’ve trained him well. Of course I gave him the answer that he hates the most “I don’t know”.

Andrew is still under the impression that we can drop everything, hop on a plane and go to Disney whenever he gets the urge. I wish. I don’t see this happening until we win the Powerball jackpot. I told Andrew to start saving his coins (which in reality are MY coins that I put in his bank) so that we could go back. We had many discussions on how Disney was an expensive trip and we needed to save for it. He nicknamed his bank the “his Disney money” and thus started his savings for the next trip.


Secretly I was keeping the idea to myself to go back in ’08 if Uncle Sam was good to me and gave me a tax refund. After years of having to pay self employment tax, this would be the first year I didn’t have to fork over any extra money to the government. As it turned out I got a nice refund and the decision was made to go back this year. I just needed to decide when.
I debated between the end of summer for value season, Halloween time since I wouldn’t have Andrew this Halloween and he would be at his Dad’s, and Christmas time for all the holiday festivities. The decision was made fairly easily. Andrew has never gone back to his routine quickly from having days off from school. Getting him out of bed in the morning is more of a chore after a few days off than it usually is on a normal day. I think it was the Monday after a long weekend when I couldn’t get him moving that the decision was made to go in August while he wasn’t in school. This way he’ll have a good two weeks to rest after countless late nights and early mornings and touring the parks nonstop.

Andrew’s bank was growing nicely and no, I’m not actually going to make the kid pay for his own park ticket or anything. The money is tucked away in his savings account.


My countdown says it’s supposed to be a surprise trip to Disney. Andrew would talk out of the blue about Disney trips and one day told me he wanted me to surprise him next time we went. Ok then. Well, I stink at keeping surprises. I have tendencies to just blurt things out because I need to share the excitement with someone. I had managed to keep this trip a secret for about 4 months. The breaking point came when Andrew had been bugging me for weeks asking when we were going to Disney again. I had picked him up from day care one day to find out that he had a bad day with crashing into other kids with tricycles and throwing sand in the air. My nerves were frayed and when he asked me for the billionth time in the car when we were going to Disney again I lost my temper and basically yelled at him to stop asking me we’re going back in August before you start school. I blew the surprise and not in a good way. My short fuse temper can be compared a lot to that of Donald Duck.


I toyed with the idea of different titles for the trip report like “We’ll see if Tour Guide Mike really knows what he’s talking about”, or “I’m totally stealing the good ideas of my Passporter friends” (FAB anyone?) Remembering what Andrew was like last May, the commando idea seemed more appropriate.
Andrew is constantly on the go and doesn’t like to stop and take a break. He’s like this everywhere, not just Disney. The kid makes the Energizer Bunny look lazy. Last May I had the hardest time getting him to leave the parks in the afternoon to go back to the hotel for some pool time. It was hot out and I thought he would jump at the chance to go swimming. It wasn’t until I mentioned the water slide that he was ready to go back for a break. The water slide reeled him in for a much needed cool down break. I totally plan on using this tactic again on this trip. Andrew is the type of kid who will put himself into overdrive if he feels like he’s about to fall asleep. Last year the only nap he took was on the bus back to the hotel in the late afternoon. He was forced to sit down and relax, then BAM he fell asleep.

I guess I should mention who’s going on this trip. First off there’s -
Andrew, age 5.



Third trip to Disney. His first was when he was 22 months old. Lucky for me Andrew has never shown a fear of the characters and has always walked right up to them. At the moment Andrew is very into Peter Pan and the Power Rangers. However, I never really consider the PR Disney characters but I digress. CARS is always a favorite and probably will continue to be for a very long time. I felt bad last year when I refused to get in the ridiculously long line to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater. Here are pictures of Andrew’s first trip meeting Dopey, his favorite at the time, and being tickled by Minnie.





I have a lot of pictures of the back of Andrew’s head from his first trip because he was so fascinated with the characters he just wouldn’t turn around.
Andrew is now tall enough to go on rides such as Splash Mtn, BTMRR, and Soarin’. He can’t wait to ride some of the big kid rides and I can’t wait to take him on.

Next -
Pam, that’s me.



Age 37 and 6th trip to Disney. The first time I went to Disney was as a high school graduation present and went with a couple of friends. Let’s just say we had no clue what we were doing. We went in the middle of July when it was stinkin’ hot, crowded, we didn’t have a plan and fast passes weren’t invented yet. We spent a lot of time standing in line and yelling at our one friend not to throw the ice from her drink away. It was another 9 years before I went back. Each trip keeps getting better and now I have a wealth of knowledge I’ve acquired through these boards. Thanks to all for the information and tips. I think this trip will be one of the best because Andrew is able to share more with me in terms of going on rides. He’s also gaining some independence which makes it easier. If I can keep him in my line of sight I’m comfortable with letting him get the napkins or straws and letting him run in the playgrounds without following his every move. The first year I took him I came out of the Honey I Shrunk The Kids Playground with black legs from crawling around in what I think was a big bee hive. The only issue I’ll have a problem with is when he wants to use the men’s room instead of coming with me into the ladies room. I let him do this once last year with a warning that if he wasn’t out in two minutes I was coming in after him. There was another mom outside with me who did the same thing with her son, so I would have some company in my embarrassment of running into the men’s room to grab my wayward child.

More thoughts and planning to come.