The Magical Birthday Adventures of Princess Katie ***Completed*** About This Page:

[Ears42]

The Magical Birthday Adventure of Princess Katie
December 7-14, 2002

Cast of Characters:
Princess Katie- 3rd trip to the World
Mommy(aka Janet)-5th Trip to the World
*Daddy(aka Mike) stayed home this trip

Occasion for the Celebration: Princess Katie’s 4th Birthday

Pre-trip report:
The idea for this trip began in December 2001, when I was bullied into a birthday party for Katie. Because her birthday is two weeks before Christmas, I was not going to have a party for her. When the other mom’s at daycare started asking me when her party was scheduled, I simply said I wasn’t going to have one. They all made me feel guilty for not having a party and all promised to come. So I made plans for a party. Now we live in a small house and the thought of 12 three year old little girls in our small house was too much for us, so we rented a room at our pool club, made food for 10 little girls (two little girls mom’s said they couldn’t come, I had put regrets only on the invitations) and parents, and other assorted friends we had invited. Spent two days cooking, packing things up, picking up cake, decorating, and the other endless list of things you do for a party. Two little girls showed up for the party! Katie had a great time, non-the -less but I was furious. How rude some people can be. As we were cleaning up I made the off hand comment to my DH that “For what we spent on this party, Katie and I could have gone to Disney World for three days.” He said, “So go next year.” And that’s all the motivation I needed to start planning.

During the next year we became Disney Vacation Club members, so our trip went from 3 days to 7 days, using DVC points, of course. But alas this trip almost didn’t happen after all the planning. On October 4, just 64 days before our trip, I landed in the hospital with emergency gall bladder surgery. Apparently, the back pains I had been having for over two years were actually gall bladder attacks, not stress from my job after all. Now, if you know me, you know that I never do anything the easy way. Whereas most people have laser surgery for gall bladder and are back to work in three days, I had major surgery, complications, and was out of work for over a month. My doctor finally released me on December 3, just four days before our trip. To say I needed a vacation was an understatement! But, with only a few days to go I couldn’t wait to get to the World.

[ 01-19-2003, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: Ears42 ]

[tikibird]

Wow, I love the fact that you were able to skip the birthday party and go to WDW instead!

Sorry to hear about your surgery, but glad to hear you were able to heal up in time for your trip.

Can't wait to hear about it, and Katie's birthday! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Elliot'sDragon]

Sounds like this is going to be a fun trip report.
Did any of those rude parents give you a reason for their not showing up? What a mean thing to do to a child! I'm glad she had a good time.

[Ears42]

December 4, 2002- Three Days before the trip or “Oh no, NOT SNOW!

It’s two days before our trip. DH is in Pennsylvania on his annual deer-hunting trip with my DB and DBIL and they are predicting snow. Now, having grown up outside of Pittsburgh, a little snow doesn’t scare me, but I now live in Southern Delaware and an inch of snow can entirely shut down the entire state. They just freak out here. The grocery stores run out of bread, milk, and toilet paper, schools are closed before the first snow flake falls and people act like the world is coming to an end. Normally, I would not freak out, but would be laughing at everyone around me as they freak, but I am flying out of Baltimore on Saturday, if I have to borrow huskies and a dogsled. Of course that wouldn’t be necessary because I have a four wheel drive SUV, but DH is supposed to come home on Friday to drive us to the airport on Saturday morning and I can’t get him on his cell phone because he is in the mountains of PA and his cell phone isn’t picking up a signal, so I don’t even know if he is aware of the coming storm. I’m more worried about him becoming snowed in than I am about getting to the airport. I will drive myself if necessary, but if the east coast gets snowed in and I don’t get to Florida on Saturday I am going to be a very unhappy camper.

The snow is supposed to begin around midnight and snow all day Thursday, so I run lots of last minute errands and get home around 6:00 pm to find my wonderful DH is home! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Yeah! The three big bad hunters had all gotten deer and left the mountains. DH decided to come home instead of going to my parents for a few days and made it home before the storm.

[ 01-05-2003, 02:12 PM: Message edited by: Ears42 ]

[Ears42]

December 5, 2002- Two days before the trip or “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”

Well it is snowing, school, day care and dance class are closed (good thing DH came home early as I didn’t have day care today) and I go to work. I laugh myself silly on the way to work at all the cars in the median, and off the side of the road as there is hardly three inches of snow and the roads are pretty clear. I even manage to make a couple of calls on my cell; it’s not bad at all. Flights are delayed this morning in Baltimore, they are getting more snow than we are, but I am confident that I will get off the ground on Saturday. Just two more days, I have a hard time concentrating at work but just keep up my mantra. “I’m going to Disney World.”

Mike gives me a call at work; Katie is going to be in the newspaper. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Now, of course I think my DD is absolutely adorable, but I may be biased; however, our next-door neighbor is a photographer for the local newspaper and took pictures of Katie helping Mike shovel snow this morning. We will be in Disney when this comes out, because it’s a weekly paper, but I’m very excited, my baby is a star! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] What a great way to start our trip.

[4disneyorbust]

great start..can't wait to hear what happens next [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Laura

[Ears42]

December 7, 2002 Day One or “We’re not there yet.”

Katie and I go to bed very early on Friday night as we are leaving DE no later than 5:30 am for our 9:50 am flight. I feel like the little kids in the commercial, “I’m too excited to sleep.” I set the alarm for 4:30 and try to sleep. I wake up around 3:00 am. I go to the bathroom and come back to bed and just lay there. At 3:45 I give up on sleep and take a shower. By 4:30, my original wake up time, I’m up, dressed, hair and make-up done; last minute items packed, and coffee and breakfast are made. I had so much time; we had Mickey Pancakes for breakfast instead of the cereal I had planned on. I hear Mike stumbling around upstairs and I wake Katie. Now, on a normal day she is not the most pleasant child in the mornings (I honestly don’t know where she gets that from [img]images/icons/rolleyes.gif[/img] ) but today, she jumps up, is smiling and we don’t have to fight with her to eat breakfast. By 5:20 we are on the road. Ten minutes ahead of schedule! And that’s the last time we will be ahead of schedule again today!

As we drive the 103 miles across the eastern shore of Maryland to BWI, the farther away from the shore we get, the more snow there is on the ground. During the years I was growing up in Pittsburgh and going to college at Penn State I never thought I would say this but “I really miss snow.” The roads are in good shape so I’m enjoying the scenery. Snow can be very pretty. It’s freezing cold outside. A sign at a bank we drove by said 28 degrees, burr!

We arrive at the airport within two hours, not bad considering the weather, and check in at Southwest, no problems. Mike walks us up to security, we give him our winter coats, hats and gloves and I remind him to bring them back with him next week, and then we are on our own.

We head towards the gate, the same gate we have flown out of the last two times we’ve gone to Disney and I just have to have a Cinnabon. I rationalize that its OK, after all I lost almost 20 pounds while I was sick so my summer clothes are all too big so I can eat one, right? [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

When its time to board the plane, we’re told that we have to go from gate #8 to gate #22 because there is something wrong with the gate. It’s now like a cattle stampede. I’m not worried, because I am pre-boarding with Katie, as she is still under 6, but some people, they were running over each other to get to the gate. I know Southwest is first come first serve on seating but get real, where are your manners!

We get on the plane, no problem; the flight attendants do their count, there is someone on the plane that shouldn’t be on this flight! For ten minutes they call his name, then they have to check everyone’s boarding passes. Forty minutes after our take off time, we finally get off the ground! ARRRRGGGGGG! So much for my schedules. I start worrying about making my connection in Nashville, because by this time we are 10 minutes from my next flight and we just took off. I question the flight attendant, she said not to worry, half the flight is going on that next flight and SW will take care of us. I’m still in panic mode, when I suddenly realize, Nashville is in another time zone and I’ve got plenty of time.

So the rest of the flight is uneventful, we get to Nashville, I use the new kiosks to get my automated boarding passes since we are Rapid Rewards flyers, (this was great by the way if you fly SW you’ve got to try this) and head to our next gate. We make a potty stop (sorry I am the mom of a four year old) and when we get to the gate people from the last flight are still standing in line for boarding passes but we already have ours and get in line to board. LOVE THE KIOSKS!

Finally, we are almost to Disney. I try to get Katie to eat the lunch I had packed for her and only the promise that there are chocolate cookies in the backpack gets her to eat. We’re almost there! Another uneventful flight, and finally, “Welcome to Orlando.” [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Yeah! I am finally on vacation. We make another restroom stop (I am the mom of a four year old so this will be a pattern for days to come-you’ve been warned) and head to baggage claim. We find a TTC driver, but not our driver, but he gets on his cell phone and finds our driver and we are off to the Grand Floridian! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[ 01-05-2003, 03:07 PM: Message edited by: Ears42 ]

[Ears42]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement, this is my first trip report. I'm having fun writing it. I am however writing it in Word and doing the cut and paste thing so it's taking awhile, please be patient. Also am trying to watch the Steeler game at the same time, but I am good at multi-tasking.

Glad you are enjoying it.

Janet

[Ears42]

Day One Continued or “I never want to stay anywhere but The Grand Again!”

Our TTC driver (who never introduced himself but was very nice) got us safely out of MCO and on our way to The Grand Floridian.

When planning this trip I asked Katie if she could stay anywhere at Disney where would it be. Of course, being the perfect princess that she is, her first response was “The castle Mommy, the castle!” After explaining that we couldn’t stay at the castle, she chose the “Mary Poppins Hotel”. We were booked at the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge from December 8-13, but as part of her present she got to pick the first night’s accommodations. So after months of watching mousesavers.com for a good code, I finally booked a lagoon view room at the Grand Floridian. A few days before we left I faxed the hotel with our room request. The letter was written in the prose of a four year old and I had Katie sign her name to it. Katie requested a room in Sago Cay with a view of the castle.

As our town car drove up the drive to the Grand Floridian and I saw the sign for the first time, I got goose bumps. I couldn’t believe that we were really staying here. They checked our name at the gate, and we had arrived. I thanked our TTC driver, our bags were taken and we walked towards the entrance.

Oh my gosh, its incredible! You walk into the beautiful lobby of Grand Floridian and it just takes your breath away. The magnificent Christmas tree, the flowers, the decorations, I just don’t have the words to describe how unbelievable it is. We went to the desk to check in. Kay, our CM immediately upon checking our names wished Katie a Happy Birthday! She asked me, “Does she know what she’ll be able to see from the room?” and I said no, but that’s when I knew our first wish had been granted. Kay gave both Katie and I a key to our room and called for bell services to take us right up. We met our bellman at the entrance by the pool and he took us on a golf cart over to our room.

When we got to the room the sheers were drawn on the sliding glass door so Katie couldn’t see the castle yet. I tipped our bellman, generously because those bags were heavy and he wouldn’t even let me carry Katie’s backpack and went to the window. I made Katie stand on the bed and pulled the curtains. The look on her face was worth every penny of the cost of that room for one night! She started jumping up and down on the bed screaming, “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, I can see the castle, I can see the castle.” Then the monorail went by and the jumping started again. I almost got on the bed and jumped with her.

By this time, I had been up for over 13 hours and was getting a little punch drunk. I convinced Katie to settle in on the bed and watch some Disney channel while unpacked our necessities for one night. We had PS at 1900 Park Fare for dinner so after unpacking just a few things we headed to the lobby.

Again I was taken aback by the sheer beauty of this resort. We say a wedding party taking pictures on the staircase and Katie decided that she must have her wedding there. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] We saw the amazing Gingerbread house, and the Garden View tearoom, where I had a PS later in the week for tea, and had pictures taken in front of the tree. We hit the small gift shop on the first floor of the lobby and broke a cardinal rule of vacation shopping, making a purchase on the first day! But I just had to have the GF picture frame and tree ornament with Mickey and Minnie in Victorian garb, and the teapot with Alice on it for Katie, and the book with tea recipes and games for children. I had them shipped and found out that they were not guaranteeing any deliveries in time for Christmas, which was good to know as I had planned to do some major Christmas shopping in DD, would have rethink my shopping.

With my wallet a little lighter, [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] we wondered over to 1900 Park Fare and were one of the first seated for dinner. We have eaten breakfast here with Alice on prior trips and I love the feel of the restaurant. Pooh, Tigger, and Eeorye wandered from table to table, and Piglet was in the lobby. The food choices were very good, especially the kids buffet. Katie had mac and cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets and cupcakes. On the adult buffet there was a full salad bar with Caesar salad, and assorted other salads as well as traditional salad items. There were pasta selections including lasagna, several kinds of rice, egg rolls, ham and prime rib at the carving station, sliced turkey breast, chicken picata, two kinds of potatoes and several hot vegetables. It was all delicious. For dessert they had an amazing key lime cheesecake, brownies, bread pudding with hot caramel sauce, and apple cobbler. I only sampled the cheesecake, as I would like to keep the pounds off that I lost while I was sick, but it all looked yummy. [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]

I did feel that the characters rushed around the restaurant. I realize that this is a big restaurant but they really moved fast. I was somewhat disappointed with this, but we were really tired by this time so we finished up and headed back to our room.

Katie and I changed into our jammies, and settled down to wait for the fireworks in MK. We had to make a quick phone call to Nana and Pop Pop, as it was Pop Pop’s birthday then time to wait for the fireworks. The information I received upon check in said that MK fireworks would be at 8:00 pm. It was now 7:30. By 7:50 Katie was sound asleep. I probably should have gone to sleep too but I was bound and determined to watch the fireworks from my room in the GF. Well an hour later I finally did get to watch the fireworks, they didn’t go off until 9:00 pm. But it was very amazing, I could hear the music on Main Street, and watch the fireworks, in my jammies, and I didn’t have to fight the crowds. What a perfect end to our first day.

Next installment: Day Two or "How will I explain this purchase to your dad"

[ 01-05-2003, 04:17 PM: Message edited by: Ears42 ]

[MrsM]

Great report so far! My daughter was born December 5 (after we managed to make it to the hospital in the foot of snow we got!), and I'm already planning on celebrating some of her birthdays in Disney!

[tikibird]

Janet,

Loving your report so far, particularly the part where Katie see the castle from your room!

What part of Pittsburgh did you grow up in - I'm still here! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

And BTW - the Steelers won, so you have plenty of time to write until next weekend! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

More please.....

[Ears42]

Tiki,

I grew up in Fayette County, right on the Mon in a small town called Fayette City. I went to Belle Vernon Area School District. My parents, brother and sister and their families are still there.

I signed off for awhile to watch the end of the game. Even my Eagles fan husband was cheering for the Steelers. Can't wait to go to work tomorrow, my co-workers finance is from Cleveland and I can't wait to talk to him when he calls her at lunch time. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

I live in Brentwood, in the South Hills - took advantage of the rest of the family watching the game to finish my trip report, but caught the last, most important minute!

GO STEELERS! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Ears42]

Ah, I always try to get down your way when I am home to go to Kaufmann's at South Hills Village.

I don't get home for several reasons, one we live at the beach and family would rather visit me, two husband is State Police Officer, and we can't run home for a quick weekend, its a major planning trip for us, and three is the four year old, "are we there yet" " I have to potty" " I'm hungry" six hours in the car with her is 5 hours and 45 minutes too much.

[Elliot'sDragon]

ANother fantastic report!
Why didn't you join Katie on that bed and jump up and down. I know I would have.
I never wanted to stay in the GF. After reading that description, I am rethinking it.