Just me and my girl…a very special 13th Birthday trip! (updated 5/16)

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Sounds like you were off to a good start!! I love how you can feel the warmth when you land in Orlando. You know you are finally there!!!

Hope you made your way to ME okay and were whisked away to your resort in no time!

[Lovemy3babes]

Originally Posted by Momof2Disneyboys

Sounds like you were off to a good start!! I love how you can feel the warmth when you land in Orlando. You know you are finally there!!!

Hope you made your way to ME okay and were whisked away to your resort in no time!

Hey Shelly! It's such a neat feeling coming from cold and feeling some warmth when you land. You know you are on vacation for sure!

[MeMom]

Originally Posted by Lovemy3babes

So we dropped those rugrats off and waited for my mom to come over. She took the day off from work to take us to the airport. We were driving there in my van and she would bring it back to my house for my husband to use that week.

Nice mom.

At this point, I was feeling a little nervous and a little more sad about missing my kids. I was stoked to be spending time alone with Morghan but going to Disney without the other three kiddos pulled at my heartstrings a little bit.

You know how I am feeling about missing my girls in March.

My mom started crying a little bit and gave us big hugs goodbye. I told her we could sneak her in my suitcase!

You'll have to do a trip with just her and your girls.

They made the announcement over and over, asking for volunteers to take a later flight because they were over booked. No way was I doing that! The next flight would not have gotten us into Orlando until 11pm. They offered a future voucher, food/drink tickets and your flight money refunded. Very, very tempting but we just couldn’t do it this time. If I was alone? Maybe.

They were asking for volunteers to do this on our return flight in October. A man and his wife discussed it and took them up on the offer. I think he said they were going to go out for a nice dinner and just chill out until the next day's flight. They were with a larger group, and they arranged for one guy to get their car or something. I can't recall it all, but it was interesting and kind of fun to watch the spontaneity of the whole thing.

It’s such an awesome feeling to finally arrive after months and months of planning. We were off to find the fake monorail!

We're here!



Nooooo......
Don't leave us hanging! At least get us onto Disney property!

[Megablocks]

I love the arrival day! I especially love landing and feeling the change in the temperature. And MCO is soooo confusing...I'm extremely directionally challenged, I just follow anyone I'm with!

My airport (Logan Airport in Boston) has those moving walkways, but I don't think they have the line down the middle showing which side to stand on and which to walk on. If you're my dad, yes, you probably stay on the wrong side to be a rebel. Or walk as fast as you can down it while hoping everyone is adhering to the "pass on the left" rule because someone else in your party is on the actual, non-moving walkway trying to beat you to the end. This of course never, ever happens.

[Lovemy3babes]

Originally Posted by MeMom

Nice mom.




You know how I am feeling about missing my girls in March.




You'll have to do a trip with just her and your girls.







They were asking for volunteers to do this on our return flight in October. A man and his wife discussed it and took them up on the offer. I think he said they were going to go out for a nice dinner and just chill out until the next day's flight. They were with a larger group, and they arranged for one guy to get their car or something. I can't recall it all, but it was interesting and kind of fun to watch the spontaneity of the whole thing.




We're here!



Nooooo......
Don't leave us hanging! At least get us onto Disney property!

Your March trip will be different, huh MeMom? Not bad, just different. And wait until you get to bring all four of your girls back with you! That will be so great!

Originally Posted by Megablocks

I love the arrival day! I especially love landing and feeling the change in the temperature. And MCO is soooo confusing...I'm extremely directionally challenged, I just follow anyone I'm with!

My airport (Logan Airport in Boston) has those moving walkways, but I don't think they have the line down the middle showing which side to stand on and which to walk on. If you're my dad, yes, you probably stay on the wrong side to be a rebel. Or walk as fast as you can down it while hoping everyone is adhering to the "pass on the left" rule because someone else in your party is on the actual, non-moving walkway trying to beat you to the end. This of course never, ever happens.

Oh my word!! Your dad sounds hilarious! I'm glad I'm not the only one who gets lost often!

[Grumpy's Wife]

Hi joining in. I think it's great that you and your daughter are taking this trip for her birthday. I'm looking forward to reading along.

[Lovemy3babes]

Originally Posted by Grumpy's Wife

Hi joining in. I think it's great that you and your daughter are taking this trip for her birthday. I'm looking forward to reading along.

Hi there and welcome! I'm so glad you are joining me. I was so excited to take Morghan on such a special trip.

[2Monkeys]

Can't wait to hear more about your mother/daughter trip!

My DD13 & I will be leaving Wednesday for our own mother/daughter trip for her 14th bday! We cannot wait!!!

[SamanthaL]

Hey Cutie Patootie! Love this report! Your girl is so beautiful! Thanks for the shout out and I miss you!

[Lovemy3babes]

Originally Posted by 2Monkeys

Can't wait to hear more about your mother/daughter trip!

My DD13 & I will be leaving Wednesday for our own mother/daughter trip for her 14th bday! We cannot wait!!!

How wonderful for you two! I'm a little jealous I think! lol! Have so much fun and thanks for reading my report!

Originally Posted by SamanthaL

Hey Cutie Patootie! Love this report! Your girl is so beautiful! Thanks for the shout out and I miss you!

Hey my lovely friend. I miss you. Thank you for popping over here!

[Lovemy3babes]

When we last left off, we had just taken the fake monorail ride. That’s always a fun, quick little ride. I pulled my documents out and thankfully got us to Magical Express. Last time I flew into Orlando, I got myself lost in the airport. This time Morghan read and I navigated. We make a great team! I love how the airport has it marked on the big signs as well.



I love these:


The last time I flew Magical Express, I had to check in at the desk. This time though a nice man waved us by with a big Mickey glove. They checked our papers and sent us into the correct line. There was just one family in front of us.



We didn’t wait too long at all! Pretty soon we were directed out to this pretty sight:


I of course grabbed the front row, which Morghan thought was a little dorky of me. Apparently the cool kids sit at the back of the bus. Well, not at Disney!



The ride was nice. We watched the video and just relaxed and watched the beautiful sights pass us by.



Pretty soon, we saw this!!! This has got to be one of my most favorite signs in the world!



And then this one too!


We were so excited to be staying at a new resort! I had read great things about Port Orleans Riverside so couldn’t wait to see what everyone was talking about.









We found our way inside and the check-in lines were a bit of a mess. I had done online check-in before we arrived so knew to look for that line. No one else did apparently though because there was no one in that line.



The girl helping though wasn’t the most friendly, helpful CM ever. I was kind of bummed about that. I double checked our room requests and she wasn’t that thrilled about it all. I never like asking for anything extra or making waves so just did my best to smile and wait. It also took a very long time. I had plenty of time to snap more photos while waiting. Morghan sat in a very comfy chair and waited for me.











Soon we were ready to roll! Morghan was excited.


The view upon exiting was beautiful! It was a nice evening and we tried to take it all in! Look at this pretty guy:











Continued in next post...

[Lovemy3babes]

We had booked a royal room. I requested the Oak Manor building as that was closer to the action it seemed from the map. Our room wasn’t the closest but it wasn’t awful either. Room #9068 would be our home for a few days.



Morghan really loved the room! I wondered if it would be too babyish or anything for her since she’s 13 and her love of Princesses is gone now. But no way! She really, really liked it. We both loved all of the little touches. Beware there are a ton of photos! I wanted to capture it all.

























As I said before, we loved the Royal Room! If I had one little negative, it probably was the room seemed a little dark. That did not impact our positive opinion at all however!

By that time, we were starved. It was supper time and we hadn’t eaten for awhile. We made our way up to find some din din! Morghan and I were on the dining plan, which I was very excited about. It just worked really well for us. I loved having the convenience of our meals being pre-paid. We were a little overwhelmed with all of the offerings in the food court frankly! We were just getting our bearings, needed something to eat and it was a madhouse in there! We also wanted something from two separate lines so that made it a little trickier, along with balancing a tray and our mugs that came with the dining plan. We did it though!







Morghan chose the turkey meal from the carving station and I selected the make your own salad. We both really liked our food!





We filled up our mugs with our choices of drink and then saved our bottle of water to take into the park the next day. That seemed to work great when eating at the resort.

I remember sitting there, amongst the craziness being completely happy with where I was. I was in the Happiest Place on Earth, sitting alongside one of my favorite girls ever. We had a whole trip in front of us that we both had been planning for such a long time. At times, I wondered if the trip would need to be cancelled. I feel guilty doing things for myself sometimes so I had to fight that feeling often. Money is always an issue it seems. But we had made it. We were together and my biggest girl was 13. My daughter was a teenager and there was no rewinding time. She wouldn’t ever be my toddler or my preschooler. She wouldn’t let me choose her clothes or play Barbies with me. Morghan was a young lady and I was having a hard time with the fact that she was growing up. I wanted to capture this trip in a bottle and save the feelings up for a day when I needed cheering up. We were there and I felt very content and extremely blessed. Disney truly is our Happy Place.

Next up: Magic Kingdom!

[ampc3]

Great update Kelli I know how you feel, my oldest DD turned 13 last year.. I wanted to do a special trip with her too... tried to talk her into Disney for a night (just DTD) I hear ya on the money front! but she had her heart set on going to the Mall of AMerica! which we did this past summer for the day b/c I wasn't about to go in the middle of Winter lol (her bday is in Feb)

The Royal rooms look awesome!! I love POR
can't wait to read more what a special trip for you two!!

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great update Kelli! I love the royal rooms at POR. They look so nice! The POR food court can get very crazy. But they do have some great food! Looks like everything was off to a great start, well other than the less than enthused front desk CM. I hate when that happens.

Can't wait to hear more!

[Donald Duck888]

Hi,

I just found your trip report and have enjoyed reading it. I am getting ready to take my first trip to disney with just my daughter and myself in May, (have been on several family trips but this is the first daddy daughter trip).

I got a bit choked up reading about how your daughter is really growing up on you, my daughter is only 6 and I already find myself missing things from two years ago and really see her growing up. They do grow so fast.

We are staying in a Royal room at POR a she still loves the princesses so your pics were a great preview of what the rooms look like.