Zip-ah-Dee-Doo-Dah tip for today...the javas are coming back.....

[java]

Well in the midst of laundry I thought I should start a trip report..I so enjoyed them while I was planning. I tried to write one after last years trip but got distracted so now this is it. Boy that's a lot of pressure for a trip report.
The Cast:

Me (41) Mom- diagnosed with DOCD(disney obsessive compulsive disorder)non-stop planner and changer of plans -although not nearly as bad as disneymomx7 Strict keeper of ADR's and EMH plans. We will be there from the 7th of April through the 15th!


DH(43) the wallet. He is a bit of a fancy pants when it comes to resorts. Has to stay deluxe(what's a girl to do guess I'll have to book a deluxe then....GF it is)Not as disney obsessed as I am but tolerates my illness and will agree to yearly meccas to the Mouse.(ok sometimes twice a year meccas)
Let's call him Prince Charming or PC for short

DS(12-soon to be 13) He loves disney almost as much as I do. Mission Space is his ride. Last year when I started the report I said when he walks around he should have the beasty boys "Hey Ladies"... playing as he fancies himself a ladies man. He has long hair and falls into the skater dude kind of boy.
We'll call him Fabio.

DD(9) so not a princess- or so she says. More of a pirate girl.(3 brothers and all) a sleeper and a fashionista in training.
She will be Sleeping Beauty in my report- ha there you ARE a princess even if you pretend you don't want to be one!

DS(4) a disney vet. He is whole hog into going back to Disney and being tall enough for test track(or is he? wait and see.....) Generally an easy going kind of boy and is happy as long as he is shown some attention.
Naming him is harder as he wears many hats...hmmmm ok
He'll be Turkey Butt(see the tag I wear... he has picked up this adorable little phrase from my dh- thought it was funny when it was one time... now that everyone is a turkey butt not so funny... So now HE Is the Turkey Butt!)

DS(2) oh yes 2. out of all 4 of my children he is the first that has thrown himself whole hog into the terrible 2's. A bit of a screamer to get his way. Generally wants anything anyone wants. Hey if they want it it must be good.
He will be known as Me too since whenever anyone wanted to go someplace or do something a loud ME TOO! Would bellow from the stroller.

Now that you know the cast- yes 6 of us! Here's the plan. We will get up at 3AM and be on the road from NJ by 3:30AM. Dogs both dropped at different kennels- don't get me started on that one... Car packed up the night before everyone to bed. Alarms go off at 3 and HELLO I am the only one up!!! GET UP! We have a car to catch! See much more difficult to get the crowd moving when we are driving instead of flying. But DOCD me gets us all in the car and out of the house on time! Yes!

It is 3:30 AM and we are in the car heading to disney! And it is Snowing! what?! Where did that come from? No worries just a flurry right let's go. You know the problem with snow though is that kids love it- fascinated by it no matter how many times they have seen it. So the kids falling right back to sleep in the car not going as smoothly as I planned but eventually around Delaware everyone falls back asleep- except PC and I - hey he's driving so he better be up and I stay up for moral support on the drive. We have plans to get to Georgia today. Fingers crossed we enter THE CAROLINA ZONE!!!! For those that drive down they will understand. You are driving along and about every hour or so you are hitting a new state. Then you hit NC. And every hour as you get the "what state are we in now?" from the back of the minivan You have to say still NC!

Then you start to see those south of the border signs... only 178 miles to go until south carolina! You're always a weiner at South of the Border... Then lunch someplace that I can't remember mustn't have been so good. Finally we are in Georgia and we find our hotel no problem.. The Staybridge suite - nice and BIG rooms! Kids are happy and we do our southern stop at Sonic. flavors in your sodas well that is just so cool to us Yankees.. OH another important fact about us is that we are DIE HARD Yankee fans. We love them. And as a result you know that we hate the RedSox. A deep seeded hate.Now big Papi is a great guy -but as a Red sox sorry hate him.

So we all go to bed full tummies and dreams of Disney.... It is the year of a million dreams after all- we have to get moving on our dreams if we are going to make a million!

Up next...... fireball on I 95 ..check in and a quick jump over to Magic Kingdom......
Oh and I will get to photos too I promise..

 

[java]

Even though it looks like I am all alone on this one I will keep on going...
Back in the car and on our way to disney Saturday morning at around 7- driving down I95 we passed a horrible accident- gas truck slammed into the divider and burst into flames! We caught the tail end of this all- it was a slap of reality into our Disney Bliss. But we kept on going.

Finally we see that beautiful sight of the sign.
"Mickey's House" screams come from me too in the back - (he can't get that it is Mickey Mouse- he thinks he's mickey house... oh well we get it)
drive straight on through the parking gates with a "we're checking in"
Hop out of the car at the Grand Floridian and the valets are all over us. Unpacking our car way faster than it took us to pack it. Now you must understand to PC this is the best part of a trip= someone else dealing with your luggage.
It is why we can't stay at a moderate after the coronado springs disaster of 03. He actually had to carry luggage up a flight of stairs.
Whatever- he puts up with my little "issues" I put up with his - especially when it gets me to the Grand Floridian.
Oh that lobby gets me everytime- those beautiful flowers! The piano playing! The cute old man waving hello. AHHHH! Just perfect. It was 2:30 hoping that our room would be ready.

"Well hello Mr. Charles from Kissimmee."
blah blah blah
"what you can't find us in the system?"
blah blah blah
"Oh you are new"
"There you are.... room not ready yet- call back later "
Buzz kill

All this time I am chatting with a really nice cm from Savanah- I was sulking because we didn't go to Paula Dean's restaurant when we stopped there on our way down and she added to my sulk by telling me she makes the best fried chicken in the world. Well thanks for that. PC flashes me a "zip it" look. and we are off...
but not to our room. So what do we do? We are nomads with no place to lay our weary heads. What to do what to do??? I know! The pool bar!-
We all walk over to the pool bar - all kids run to the sand to play(I remind them of the gators in the water -slight buzz kill for them)but after a pina volcano-YUMMY! we call and find out our room is ready. And we are in BOCA CHICA!!
Let's all dance
Run to the room and push my way over to check out the view!Now it was a Magic Kingdom view- we saw Space mountain- and the train station..but where the heck is the castle.. Oh I get it if we all squish over to the right and lean over we can see it! Ah heaven again!

Now in my push to get to the veranda-- or deck or whatever you call that tiny little slab with a chair- I missed the surprise I had ordered.
Only when I heard a loud
"NOAH!!"
Did I remember there was cake in the room! Oh and it was a beauty.Cars decorated white frosted chocolate filled yummy cake. Only now there was a 2 year old with his face in the cake. No worries(although sleeping beauty declared him GROSS!) I just cut around the face print. Good cake and just what we all needed after a loooong trip down.
So full of sugar we head to the Magic Kingdom.

PARADE!! Walk in just as the year of a million dreams parade is starting. Perfect! Singing Dancing Life is good.

Now I should mention my boys are all rather long haired boys. I was hoping Main Street Barber shop with all their stickers and bubbles and glitter would be just the place for us. Oh and look Mikal is working today!! LOVE Mikal. He cut Me too's hair last year.
Oh look the quartet is here too won't this be great.
"Bum Bum Bum ba Bum Bum Bum" sings the quartet
"WHAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" yells me too!
"Me no want a cutter!"
"me either" Turkey butt adds
"Well if they are not getting haircuts neither am I"- chimes in Fabio- as his locks blow in the wind.
Total BUST we leave the singing barbers and head for some grub at Casey's
full bellies and everyone is feeling better.

Now normally we would have run to space mountain as that is always our first ride. But it was 4:00. And there was a 60 minute wait. So we Buzz Lightyeared it instead.
I am a star commander.
Did I mention I won this round.
By a lot.
After my victory dance we head over to do some fantasyland stuff for the little ones. oh and we saw monster's inc comedy show(yawn to us) I think I was expecting a little more chris rock kind of show and got more of a wiggles humor kind of show.
Then dinner at LTT
Now this will set the tone for the trip. Turkey Butt HATED characters last year. spent each and every meal under the table if there were characters within 100 yards of him. As I have 4 children and all the other ones love the character meals- well ok me too really loves the meals.. I have booked about 6 of them for this trip. So if TB hits the floor here I will have to scramble for some alternative plans.

Sit down - when Goofy sneaks up behind TB and tousles his hair. TB turns around to see 7 foot tall Goofy and laughs!
Laugher! NO TEARS! He likes the characters! We can all eat this trip!
We all decided that was enough excitement for one night and head back to the GF for the night- we watched wishes from our balcony- as I leaned way over. and off to bed.
Tomorrow was Easter and we were heading to EPCOT! EMH too so 6 am wake up call.

ZIP A DEE DOO DAH tip for today.....
Do not fool yourself into thinking you are running the show- the youngest member of your party will pretty much set the pace of your trip. (what was I thinking of haircuts first thing)

 

[50 years Too!]

I'm here! Looking forward to more.

 

[LYNSUE]

You are not in this alone. I am enjoying this TR very much. Please keep it coming. DH and I do our Disney trips with just us two adults. It amazes me to read about adventures with four children (which includes a two year old). Your story is very different from what we are use to, but thats what makes it interesting. I loved the Zip comment about the youngest member of the group really being in control. How true.

Looking forward to more.

 

[OhMari]

I see your green light on, so I hope you remember to come back and finish your TR. See my avatar. Having a family of 6, we did lots of road trips.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

Come back and finish!!! I can't wait to hear how it all ends.

BTW I changed our trip AGAIN!!!! We are now at YC for two weeks instead of the YC/Poly split because of the upsell code!

NOW FINISH THAT TRIP REPORT!

 

[ptjohns]

Hey Java,
Please keep going. This is a great trip report.
Thanks for writing.

 

[ILMICKEY]

Go TIGERS!!!!!

 

[swillis]

I'm here too! Got any pics?