The Twice-in-a-Lifetime Trip - 9/09 - UPDATED 10/14 - COMPLETE! About This Page:

[truenancy]

We’re just back from a wonderful week at the world. What a great trip! I’m still on such a high, so I’m gonna do a TR before I lose the energy.

A summary of the PTR:

Me: Nancy, 5th trip, 1 in college, honeymoon, pre-kids trip, and last year. Organized but spontaneous.


(we went on our anniversary last year, too!)

DH: Rob, 4th trip, super-dad, loves Disney but leaves the planning to me

Alison: 8 ¾, 3rd grade, curious about everything – history, geography, science, loves to read – will really enjoy the “educational” parts



Colin: 6 ½, 1st grade, typical boy – constantly moving, constantly making noise, too smart for his own good, thinks he’s cute as a button



We went last year when the kids were (duh) 5 & 7, had a fantastic time. It was supposed to be our once-in-a-lifetime trip, but we all know how those work! The kids understood that this was a big deal, and they were on their best behavior while being really excited. There’s almost nothing I’d change from last year’s trip, but second trips are allowed to be different. This year, we set a basic itinerary, but left lots of wiggle room. The kids knew how big the parks were, could set realistic goals, and we all had our lists…

New things we really wanted to do:

All: Laugh Floor (how did we miss this last year?), Jungle Cruise, Star Tours, Great Movie Ride, SpectroMagic, Nemo show
Rob: Lights, Motors, Action, real breakfasts (not eating in the room every morning)
Alison: RNRC, and 4 rides at night: Astro Orbiter, BTMR, TestTrack and KRR
Colin: RNRC, Primieval Whirl, he talks the talk about ToT but let’s see what happens
Me: Beauty & the Beast, Impressions de France, Boma, KimPossible, MK train (I had done it about 20 years ago, the others had never done it)

Other must-do’s that we’ve done before:
All: BTMR, Soarin’, and TestTrack as many times as possible
Colin: Splash Mountain as many times as possible, PotC, Dumbo, Barnstormer
Alison: have a Mickey bar for breakfast
Rob: The Seas with Nemo & Turtle Talk, ToT
Nancy: Dole Whip, ice cream sandwich at Main Street Bakery, Peter Pan (no, it’s not all about the snacks)

Regarding pressed pennies & autographs – we did a lot last year, and I had a list of the ones we got. This year was easy – just a few autograph lines, and pressed pennies only in places we’d never been (like AKL and Contemporary). We still ended up with about 15 new autographs each, and about 25 pressed pennies each, but it wasn’t a big focus.

I’ll also preface this by saying that we’re all early to bed, early to rise (8:00 pm, 6:00 am) which works perfectly for off-season park hours. So when I say that we were up at 6:20 or something, don’t cringe – it works great for us. You’ll see a couple mornings when we slept in ‘til 7:15 – unheard of any other time of the year.

[truenancy]

Wednesday, September 23

It’s Here! Our JetBlue flight was at 9:30 out of Boston, and the car service was scheduled to pick us up at 7:00. Rob balked at the last minute and changed it to 6:30 in case we hit traffic (we’re about 40 minutes from the airport). No worries – we’d be up at 6:00 anyway, so the kids just wouldn’t watch TV in the morning. The timing was perfect – I set the alarm for 5:45, was showered & dressed by 6:00, the car was there by 6:15, we cut the last link on the countdown paper chain, and we were on our way at 6:30. The one part that Rob could control had gone smoothly.



We got through the airport fine. Last year, we took a big suitcase & 3 small suitcases – the kids really wanted to be in charge of their own. That lasted about 15 minutes, so this year I was just going to do 3 suitcases. As I packed yesterday, I realized it was all fitting into a big suitcase and a rolling duffle. I weighed them on my inconsistent bathroom scale several times, and they were coming out to about 40 pounds each. Is my scale broken? And the bigger question – what am I forgetting? I spent some time comparing last year’s packing list to this year’s, and couldn’t find a huge difference. Last year we brought a lot of snacks that we didn’t eat, but that couldn’t account for an entire suitcase and a half. Who knows what extra stuff I brought last year, because these two suitcases weighed in at 42 pounds each at the airport, and I wasn’t lacking for anything in Florida. We checked the luggage through DME even though we were renting a car. It was so nice not to have to think about it – it’ll just show up in our room!

We grabbed some dirty-double-d for breakfast and chatted with another family heading to WDW. The 9-year-old girl had never been, but she was very precocious and told us all the things we needed to do while we were there. She had clearly done her prep work.

I’d like to say the flight was uneventful, but Alison gets nervous about “new” things (even though she flew last year, so this doesn’t count as new). She was getting over a cold, and Colin & I were coming down with one, so I had given them both an antihistamine and nasal spray before the flight, and I had earplanes for all three of us. All three of us were uncomfortable – more for the landing than the take-off. So Alison got weepy and clingy, while I was getting grumpy and Colin was just upset because the earplanes were conflicting with his headphones so he couldn’t hear the Pokemon show clearly. Meanwhile Rob was in the seat across from us, happily drinking his coffee and watching ESPN. I know there’s nothing he could have done anyway, but still.


I'm in a photo!

We got in about ½ hour early, and went to Alamo. The kids were excited to pick the car, and Rob said, “OK.” Let’s think about that one first next time. They picked a bright blue HHR. Rob got to drive that the whole week. Quite the family car. The kids were thrilled.



We got to WL, and checked into room 6117. It was great! We had asked for a bunkbed room, with a courtyard view, on a high floor, in a quiet area. At first I was disappointed that we weren’t conveniently located on the Roaring Forks/laundry side, but I realized it was a small price to pay for peace and quiet. The view was spectacular, the kids were so excited about the bunkbeds, and we loved the balcony. We do a mid-day break each day, so I knew we were going to appreciate the room.

We stopped down at Roaring Forks for a quick lunch and to buy the mugs, then found the boat dock and were on our way to MK. We were walking down Main Street at 2:45. Dreamy. It was hot, so we skipped the parade and went straight to BTMR. We were greeted by a 10-minute wait sign. What a beautiful sight. We sat right in back where it was nice and bumpy, and we all felt like the trip had truly begun. We hopped on Splash Mountain (also a 10-minute wait), then headed over to the Haunted Mansion. We saw some parade as we went by, walking in the shade as the crowd baked in the sun. No thanks. After HM, we headed to Fantasyland to see IASW (now the trip has reeeeally begun!), and Philharmagic. Usually we only shop once at World of Disney because Rob hates to shop, but the kids knew they wanted baby Simba & baby Dumbo. Since they were in the Philharmagic store and it was only going to take 2 minutes, we let them shop. Colin was thrilled to take Dumbo on Dumbo – too cute!



It was really hot (especially compared to the 40 degrees this morning in Massachusetts), and it had been a long day so we headed to the Main Street Bakery for “dinner.” Rob & the kids finished their brownies & RK treats before me (those giant ice cream sandwiches need to be savored), so they went outside to see the Move It, Shake It parade. We watched the glassblower (so cool!) for a while, then hopped a boat for WL. We got back to the room around 6:30, and our luggage was waiting. I unpacked while the kids got settled, and they were asleep by 8:00. Rob & I followed them soon after, but it was a restless night with snuffly noses and unfamiliar beds.

[truenancy]

Our room, courtyard view, 6th floor:






(from our balcony)

And views of the WL (so our room is in the upper left end):

[KMB733]

Looks like you vacation is off to a great start!!!!

[B.M.]

Great start!

[mcc0313]

Great start, sounded like a wondeful first day.

[chezp]

Great start!

[Nicole626Stitch]

Sounds great so far! LOVE the WL! We stayed there on our first trip to WDW, and fell in love with it. Can't wait to hear more!

[NanaTink]

Great start! WL is on my wish list for a stay!

[truenancy]

Thursday, September 24

All of us were awake at about 6:20, showered & dressed by 7:20. We went to Roaring Forks for breakfast (hurray - they have oatmeal!). Alison loves croissants, and Colin would eat a bagel every day of his life. Rob was just excited to have a real breakfast on a plate. By the time we packed our park bags, got sunscreened, and got to Epcot, it was 8:45. Waited by Innoventions for the countdown (Alison & Colin were already sweaty from playing basketball with the janitors), and headed straight to Soarin’ We rode once, and grabbed FPs for 10:30. We noticed the stand-by line was only 5 minutes, so why not do it again?



We then walked across the park to TestTrack, where we rode that twice in 20 minutes. What a great feeling! I need to own a convertible at some point in my life…

Now to the first thing on Alison’s list – a Mickey bar for breakfast. Well, let’s just say it was already pretty hot. And they’re pretty messy when they’re melting. And it was pretty early in the morning. Yes, we had chocolate all over our shirts for the rest of the morning. I could tell Alison was re-thinking her goal of a Mickey bar every day. It’s just not worth it if you’re not in air-conditioning and/or eating over a plate.

We stopped at the KimPossible station to get a FP for later. Colin had been having “a hard time listening” about climbing on everything in sight. Not surprisingly, he twisted his ankle climbing on a rock that he wasn’t supposed to be climbing. Rather than light into him, I piggybacked him to Figment where he could rest for a minute and he was fine. I’m finally getting the hang of this parenting thing, and he’s finally old enough to live and learn. He stopped climbing so much after that, and I didn’t have to have a screaming fit. We like the Figment show, but the kids were getting hungry so we didn’t stay too long in the Imagination Station. We got a fabulous lunch at Sunshine Seasons – including Rob’s RK treat the size and shape of a Borg ship.



It was 11:30 and starting to get packed, so we skedaddled and used our Soarin’ FPs. We were determined to get a good mid-day break and not burn out too early, so we drove back to WL, swam until about 2:00, got soaked by the geyser, and we all slept from 2:30 – 3:30. Everything was going great – and we were all caught up on sleep!

We were on our way back to Epcot by 4:00. We had planned to do Epcot tomorrow morning and HS tonight, but it was so hot we wanted to see some Epcot as it was cooling off. Plus F&WF was opening tomorrow, and we were trying to avoid it if we could. There was a 0-minute wait at Spaceship Earth - gotta take advantage of that! That’s a great ride, and it was so nice to get our e-mailed postcard when we got home!

We walked over to Mexico to do some shopping and take a trip with the 3 caballeros. Ole! We had started passports last year but didn’t get very far. We had them ready tonight, but after checking, saw that Mexico is the one country we checked off last year. I put them back in my bag (never to bring them out again – again!). We went over the Maelstrom, but they had just closed it for technical difficulties. Though we intended to return, it’s a voyage that we just didn’t make this year. We watched the acrobats in China, visited the 10,000 soldiers, and watched the Reflections of China. I guess it’s good that there are no seats in that theater, as Colin could just roll around on the floor until he got comfortable. As you can imagine, it was rather quiet in there.


3 strong women (too bad the
Minnie ears show I'm just a softy)

We headed to Tangierine Café in Morocco for dinner (delicious all around, though Rob was still hungry after his meatball platter – so he ate all the baklava). Then back to the Japan store for an hour to do some shopping. Alison & Colin are both fascinated with Japan – my brother has lived there for 15 years and sends the coolest presents. Alison loves to learn about the geography and culture, so while Colin was shopping for Bakugan and Pokemon, she was trying on kimonos and studying artwork.



I had her watch the pearl ladies for awhile – she was fascinated, and just filled with rapture when I suggested that she and I choose oysters. Believe it or not, she and I pointed to the same oyster (but I let her have it) – it was clearly calling to us. I picked a different one, and the lady opened mine first. I handed the camera to Rob to videotape it, but he felt bad because he hadn’t been watching so didn’t quite know what to film. Well, our lady had a voice like Fran Drescher, so it didn’t matter what he was filming – he could have been in France and he would still have heard her. I got a lovely pearl, which she set aside so she could open Alison’s oyster. Alison was breathless – I couldn’t have hoped for a better reaction. The woman searched and searched – I thought she was going to say that it was actually a dud, but I’d never heard of that happening. So she says in her Japanese-English, “what do you think you have in here?” Alison suggested a different color pearl – maybe light blue? Pink? “No.” The lady had a gleam in her eye. I said, “two?” Alison’s eyes opened so wide, and the lady said, “yesssss.” She got twins – perfectly matched for her newly-pierced ears. The three pearls were the same exact size, and we had two set in earring studs and one in a dolphin necklace. It’s now a set, and Alison & I decided we can take turns wearing it. I thought she was going to faint she was so happy. And I turn around to see Colin’s bought a Bakugan and a Pokemon stuffy, so he’s oblivious and happy. Even when he saw the jewelry, he didn’t think it was a big deal. Phew! I had been trying to think of something special to do with him to keep it even, but he couldn’t have cared less.

We watched the drummers while we waited for our pearl settings to be finished, then took some pictures of presents to make a wish list for Uncle Peter. We strolled back through the WS (Alison floating blissfully with her “real” jewelry), stopping to see Off Kilter & Mo Rockin’. We ended at Test Track – love that at night! It seems faster, but I know it can’t be.

We weren’t impressed with Illuminations last year, so we skipped out. Drove “home” (Colin kept saying all week, “we’re going all the way back to Mansfield?”), and the kids were asleep at 9:00. Rob got a couple beers and we sat out on the balcony enjoying the coolness. Saw the EWP for the first time. I can understand why it’s a cult classic, but I don’t need to see that again (foreshadowing). And boy, is it loud! We were asleep at 10:00 – from then on, we all got great nights of sleep!

[chezp]

What a great day at Epcot.

[KMB733]

Great day in Epcot. Congrats to Alison on her twin pearls!!!

[mike56]

Great trip report-thank You

[Colexis Mom]

Great updates and pictures!! More please!

[Cam22]

Just catching up on your TR! You all had a neat first day at MK, especially having Main Street Bakery for dinner. Your Epcot day was great, too, and such a good idea to relax and recoup in the heat.