Kelly Charles - December 2003 - Pop Century

Time of Year: Holiday
Travel Method: Plane, Pesonal car
Resort: PCR
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Toddler, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Frequent, Veteran
Comments: By staying longer than expected, Kelly and her family were able to actually stay cheaper at Walt Disney World, plus they got to be there for two weeks and spent their fourth Christmas at the Magic Kingdom. The upside of the trip is that everyone in her immediate family is convinced to make a move to Florida.

Kelly Charles -- December 2003 -- Walt Disney World (PCR)

The Charles Family Adventure to WDW Dec. 19th thru Jan 2nd!!!!

WHO:

Goofy4Goofy, me-Kelly, age 27. WDW Veteran. 14 trips plus two internships with WDW (98&99)
Alex-2.5 years old, son to Kelly. Been to WDW once in May 2003
Bryan-23 years old, brother to Kelly. WDW Veteran. 12 trips to WDW
Lee-57 years old, dad to Kelly. WDW Veteran. 10 trips to WDW
Holly-45 years old, mom to Kelly. WDW Veteran. 11 trips to WDW
WHERE:

Pop Century: Classic Years
Pretrip:

Our last trip to the World was in May of this past year (2003) and we all had such an excellent time on our big family vacation. We stayed at AKL for 9 nights and had a blast. It was Alex’s first trip to WDW and we couldn’t wait to take him back. By the end of the trip, Dad convinced us all that we needed to come back to the World for Christmas. This would be our fourth Disney Christmas and Alex’s first. We all agreed that it would be an economy visit, as we had spent a fortune on this trip.

Starting shortly after our return home to the real world, we started looking into getting a timeshare through my Aunt in the Orlando area or just getting a hotel through Priceline. We discovered that if we checked in on Dec. 19th and not any later, our room at a value resort would be considered “value season” rather than “holiday season”. This was a difference in hundreds of dollars. So, we decided on Dec. 19th thru Jan 2nd (‘cause we wanted to be there for New Year’s). This was going to be a loooong trip and not as economical as we thought. Two weeks in WDW is expensive, but we really wanted this vacation. After a few months, AP rates came out and Pop Century was included in this discount. Only $49 per night!!!! Total for our stay was less than $800 for two weeks over Christmas!!

After checking Southeast Airlines out of Allentown into Sanford (not far from MCO), we settled on tickets for the four of us. Bryan would be driving if he could manage to travel with us. He wasn’t sure if he would be getting a real world job beforehand or not (he had just graduated college in May). We scheduled a 7:30am flight to Sanford costing $59 per person. To fly home, we scheduled a 10:40 am flight costing $81.50 per person. Not bad!! Unfortunately, my brother never did find decent airfare and had to drive down and Dad didn’t want him to go alone and decided to ride along with him. Mom had to work all day Friday the 19th and was scheduled to fly in later than us in the evening. Therefore, it looked like Alex and I would be flying alone to Sanford and traveling with Mom on the way back. I was pretty nervous and didn’t like the idea. Alex is a handful at 2 and a half. I wasn’t so nervous about the flight, but rather keeping an eye on him in the airport while lugging my luggage and car seat. It wouldn’t have been pretty. Mom eventually took that Friday off as well and was able to switch Dad’s ticket into her name and flew down with us.

In August, Bryan and I went on a short trip in August, staying at AKL with my friends Stacy and Justin. We had a great trip and fell in love even more with AKL. However, we could not wait to try out Pop Century! After reading all kinds of neat info on the resort, we were super excited about our stay here.

So, we were all set. We had airfare, hotel confirmations and our AP passes didn’t expire until the following May. I joined Hotwire Savings Club and received quick and casual vouchers, a lunch voucher and 4 breakfast vouchers to be used during the trip. These worked out wonderfully for us, as I’ll explain later in the report.

Now it was just time to wait. We could hardly contain ourselves by December. We celebrated early for Christmas with relatives and the day finally came!!! On Dec. 18th, Mom, Alex and I drove to Allentown and stayed at a Days Inn since we had such an early trip in the morning. The Days Inn and Conference Center of Route 22 is a rather large hotel, clean and comfortable. Our room included a fridge and microwave and we had free shuttle service to the airport, as well as free parking for our duration in Florida. The cost for the room was only $50. Not bad!

Here we go!!!!!!!!!

Dec. 19th-Day One

When we headed to the lobby of the Days Inn at about 5:30am, our shuttle driver was already waiting to take us to the Lehigh Valley Airport. I can’t believe it’s still dark out and I’m up! Not only that, but I’m in a good mood too! LOL After a quick and uneventful journey, the driver dropped us off at the Southeast Airlines gate and we headed into the airport. There appeared to be a little confusion at the counter, but it turned out o be people who needed their checked bags run through security. Luckily, we didn’t have any bags to be checked. Checkin was quick and painless. I’m glad we didn’t have any bags to be checked because the confusion was still going on (the boys were taking all our stuff down with them) but the staff were still super friendly and courteous. Mom, Alex and I grabbed a light breakfast of milk, soda and muffins before heading through security. After only about fifteen minutes we were through, although we did have to take all our shoes off and send them through xray. Not a problem since we were prepared for such and we headed to our gate. It seemed like it was a very short wait and we boarded quickly.

Unfortunately, you get what you pay for. Our tickets were so cheap, and now I can see why. The seats were so jammed packed in there you hardly had room for your legs. I’ve been on many flights, and this bar far was the most uncomfortable. Poor Alex and the kid who sat in front of him!! With the car seat in the chair, Alex’s feet were pressed right up against the seat in front of him. Throughout the entire 2 hour flight, Alex kicked the heck out of the seat in front of him. I tried to get him to stop, but there wasn’t much I could do. There just wasn’t any room for his feet. Thankfully, the family in front of us was very sweet and told us not to worry about it. They were constantly telling us to not let it spoil our flight and that their son, Michael who is 6, would sleep most of the way anyway. He did, but I still tried to offer them some Disney money to buy Michael a toy when he got to Disney. They would not accept and we thanked them profusely. They would be staying at the Poly Resort and were taking the flight home with us as well, so we would see them later in the trip! After landing at around 10am, we found Dad and Bryan in front of the exit. It’s a very small airport I tell you! They had to park in long-term parking and it’s a little bit of a walk. The sun was shining though and we were in Florida!!!!!

In the meantime, the guys had left for Orlando on Wednesday, Dec. 17th. They drove straight through and stayed in a Candlewood Suites in Sanford on the 18th. They said their drive was pretty boring and their hotel was very nice. They bid on Priceline for their hotel and got it for around $30. They said they would definitely stay there again. I guess the afternoon they arrived in Florida (the 18th), they decided to take a short nap and then drive over to Walt Disney World. I made them promise NOT to go to the parks or Pop Century so we could experience it as a family. I guess they listened because they went to Downtown Disney (to get me a Christmas present, yay!) and minigolf at Fantasia Fairways.

Ok, so we’re in Florida!!!! Off to Walt Disney World!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We took the Central Florida Expressway to the Osceola Expressway and we were through the gates in about 45 minutes. We were all so excited about seeing Pop Century for the first time. We practically raced into the lobby to check it all out. Mom and Dad checked in at the huge check in counter while Bryan, Alex and I explored the lobby. I can not tell you how cool this resort is!!! There was some pretty neat picture boxes to look at representing all the decades. The tv waiting area for the kids is so much fun too!!!! It looks like you are sitting in someone’s living room. Very cute! The huge Christmas tree was up in the lobby and we stood and admired that for awhile. There was also a cast member handing out samples of some of the desserts from the food court. Hello…free desserts…how could I resist?? Check in was smooth and since I had not faxed in a room request, I was a little worried we wouldn’t get what we had requested during our initial call to reservation. I had requested the 70’s, first floor, as close to the lobby as possible. All our wishes were granted!!! We received room 6110. It’s in the 70’s section, first floor, about three rooms down and only steps away from the lobby! Perfect!! From our room you could see a giant Twister game you can actually play on, the disco floor that lights up at night, the foosball “table” and the Goofy Jetpool. Very fun!!!! We were so excited about seeing our room!!!! As soon as you walk in, you are met with a bed..but the room still seemed large enough for us. We are only sleeping here, right? The dresser is larger and fits more than at All Star’s and even AKL (I can’t remember what the dressers looked like at the moderates I’ve stayed at). The rooms are muted colors and have a poster representing your decade. The wall border was people doing a disco dance, along with Mickey doing the same. It’s very cute!!

We were all starving at this point, so we headed over to the Everything Pop, the expansive food court and gift shop area. The food court has a number of different sections of food to choose from. My favorite was the home cooked meal area (not sure of the exact name) that serves tv dinners, soup, sandwiches and things like that. There is also a burger/chicken finger/cheesesteak area, an Italian foods area, sandwiches and ice cream area, and a big area for prepackaged food (like the twinkle tiramasu, humus, kids meals, ice cream, etc). There were so many choices that I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted. I finally decided on a Very Sloppy Joe with a pickle. OH MY GOSH. It was sooo good and yes, very sloppy! Bryan and I also split a Big Bowl of Noodle Soup. It has Asian noodles combined with Chicken broth. Very good and you get soooo much! Bryan also had a Beehive Chicken Salad, which he says was delicious. Dad had a calzone (good), Mom a pepperoni pizza and Alex ate some of everyone’s as well as yogurt and half a banana. We also purchased our four refillable mugs. The mugs are very bright and have “Grand Opening December 2003” written on them. Very fun!!! Our meal came to about $70.00 but that also included four mugs. There are four drink stations (along with microwaves, etc) so even when it was busy, we never had to wait more than one person to get a drink. With so many guests staying at the resort, you’d think it would be much more busy in the food courts than that. My favorite part of the refill station: FROZEN COKES!!! I had at least one frozen coke everyday and I felt like I was getting it free! LOL The mugs cost $11.99…and over the course of two weeks, I’d have to say I refilled my mug at least 2 times a day with either coke or frozen coke. In Mickey terms, that’s about $56 worth of drinks per person!!! Anyway, the seating area for the food court is very large and even has a lot of seating outside so you can sit in the Florida sunshine!

After our wonderful first lunch at Pop Century, we were dying to check out the resort!! We browsed in the big gift shop for a few minutes before going out and making a right turn. We decided to walk through the 50’s and then down around to 90’s using the lakeside walkway! The resort is quite fun and the icons are really neat! Our first stop was at the Bowling Pin shaped pool in the 50’s decade. The pool was empty and the lifeguard seemed really bored. The sun was shining bright, even though it was a bit chilly. The giant jukebox is a ton of fun..I just wish you could actually pick songs from it and play them!

Walking along the lakeside walkway was so much fun. They have little signs along the way to tell you little facts about that decade. The water was beautiful and you could see the construction on the legendary side of the Hourglass Lake. We came up to the Generation Gap Bridge and we were hoping we could walk across it. Luckily, it was open and so we did!! There was absolutely no one on the bridge and we had a fun time out there looking at the resort and talking about our coming days. After that, we walked up through 60’s to check out the kiddie pool and Hippy Dippy Pool. Again, hardly anyone was in the pools, but they did look really nice! The icons here are a giant PlayDoh can and a Baloo and Mowgli from Jungle Book. Very cute! We strolled on out to the 80’s and 90’s..stopping to look at Mr. And Mrs. Potato Head and the giant Roger Rabbit icon. The pool here is shaped like a computer and the computer icon was really neat! The keypad is that soft, rubber flooring they use in the fountains and playgrounds. I liked the cell phone staircases as well!! Each pool area has a laundry facility, which was worth noting since we’d have to use it later in our trip.

Back to our room and we decided a trip to Downtown Disney was in order. It has been tradition for us to visit DtD first thing on a Disney vacation. Dad and Alex took the bus while Mom, Bryan and I ran to Walgreens first (to pick up a battery charger and curling iron). I just love Walgreens! It brings back some funny memories of my time on the College Program. We drove over to DtD and met the guys at the stage area in front of World of Disney. Alex was fast asleep. Dad said he had fallen asleep after about two seconds on the bus on the way over. Deciding to take advantage of the time we had while Alex slept, we ran into the Once Upon A Toy Store to see what all they had for Dad’s monorail. I personally love the WDW Candyland, but decided to wait to purchase it until Alex wants to play board games. Our next stop was the Christmas Store and I managed to buy myself a few more ornaments. I wish I could buy more, but the average cost of one ornament is around $10 and I just don’t have enough money to buy as many as I want! LOL Our last stop at DtD today was the Art Of Disney Store and the scrapbooking store. I wish I could buy everything!!! Nobody could decide where to eat for dinner until finally someone mentioned Sonny’s BBQ. We drove to the one on 192 and ordered the family feast. Another huge meal!!! There was enough for at least 8 people! It consisted of corn on the cob, French fries, BBQ beans, rolls, BBQ chicken, BBQ ribs, BBQ pork and BBQ beef. It was a great meal though and we chatted with the waitress about moving to Florida. She had recently done so and was happy she made that decision.

Feeling like we were rolling out of the restaurant, we drove back to the resort to put up our Christmas tree and lights in the window. For anyone wishing to do so in the future: remember to take something to hang the lights in the window! All we had was tape and that didn’t work that well. Our Christmas decorations looked really nice!! When I walked outside to talk to a friend on my cell phone, I heard a few people complimenting our window as they walked by. Around 9pm, we headed over to the bridge to see if we could view the fireworks from Epcot from here. We sure could! Granted, only the tops of the fireworks were visible, but it was neat nonetheless! You could also hear the music pretty well. Alex kept pointing at the fireworks and yelling, “OH, WOW!” So cute!! Bryan and I, yet again, drove to Walgreens to exchange the batteries I bought (wrong kind for the charger). The rest of the gang hung out in the hotel and watched the new Disney channel on the tv featuring Kryssa and her top 7 things to do at Disney. I tell you what, my son loved that channel! He could watch it all day! The rest of us got pretty tired of it by the time we left! For anyone who has recently stayed at WDW, does this sound familiar: “I see London, I see France..you know the rest!” ugh..that girl annoyed me!

Returning about 10:30, I called a friend of mine who was also staying at Pop Century. I haven’t seen her for five years, since our College Program, but we both keep in touch just about every single day. Unfortunately, her daughter was already asleep and we wouldn’t meet that night. Bummer. Lights out at about 11pm..we were all exhausted!!! I went to bed thinking I had two more weeks at the most magical place on Earth and I couldn’t have been happier!

Day 2, Dec. 20th:

Well, write this one down folks. Kelly was the first one out of bed BEFORE THE ALARM WENT OFF! Can you believe it? I woke up about 8am and by 8:30, I couldn’t wait any longer. I quietly crept into the shower and got all neat and pretty for my favorite Mouse. At 9am, I started literally getting in everyone’s face shouting “Up and at em. We got big doins today!!” I don’t think anyone really thought that was funny but me.

Finally, we headed out the door with one goal…to shop till we dropped! Actually, we really only wanted to shop at the Disney outlets at Belz outlets today. Driving down I4 we saw a strange occurrence. There was no traffic. Not one car! ODD!!! We drive about maybe 1/10 of a mile when two police motorcycles race by us and then slow down. They brought us to a complete stop. About ten seconds later, off another exit, more police escorts and three buses come flying onto the interstate. They escort these buses all the way up I4 until we couldn’t see them anymore. We were pretty baffled by it all and couldn’t figure out what was going on…more to come later!

We finally made it to Belz. Now I’m in heaven! Disney goods at extreme markdowns! Woohoo! I love these outlets! Normally when we are here, Alex begs to go on the carousel. Not today. Something must be wrong. Mom takes him on, but Alex really doesn’t seem to care. In fact, he really just wants off. I feel his forehead and he seems to have a low temp. Rather than push it the rest of the day, we decide to hit Walgreens again for some Children’s Motrin (which I forgot at home) and head back to the resort. Before leaving though, we stopped at the Belz Outlet food court for lunch. Dad bought two orders of fries for him and Alex and a soda for himself ($4.59). Alex barely touched his fries and wanted nothing to do with the juice I brought for him. This coming from a kid who would live off french fries if he could! Mom and Bryan had Chinese platters (two entrees with rice), I had a Chinese platter (one entrée with egg roll, rice, and wontons) and we all had a soda. ($24.60). We also stopped at Sonic for a strawberry limeade for me and a few sodas for the rest of the adults. We don’t have Sonics at home and I was craving a drink from there.

We hung out at Pop Century for awhile until boredom really set in. Alex was taking a nap and my parents were watching tv. Dad suggested Bryan and I go to the Character Corner on 535 to do some shopping while they rested up. That sounded good to us so we headed for the Lake Buena Vista Outlets. Then it happened again! We witnessed another police escort racing down the highway! This is when we finally figured out what was going on! Apparently, the college football teams were at Disney before their bowl games and they were being escorted off property. It was a very strange sight I must say.

While filling up on gas before getting to the Outlets, Dad called and asked us to pick up an egg crate at the store. He wanted to try sleeping on the floor since Bryan kept snoring in Dad’s ear all night long. LOL The Character Corner Outlet was great and I got some great things on sale. For instance, lots of Mickey candles, WDW tshirts, scrapbooking items and even some of those trading cards they sell in the parks. They were having a pre Christmas Sale so most items were an additional 20% off!!!! After loading up on goods, we checked out some of the other stores before heading to Walmart on 192. We did manage to find an egg crate and some socks for Dad and then we headed back to the resort. Alex was feeling a little better and looked rested. I did cancel tonight’s PS’s for Ohanas because we wanted to go when Alex was feeling up to it. Luckily, they did have a table later in the week that I was able to book.

As the night wore on, Alex kept getting worse however. He was sleeping on and off and his temperature seemed to climb. We all had dinner from the food court in shifts so Alex could keep sleeping: Kelly-Philly Steak wrap with fries, Bryan-Very Sloppy Joe and a Chef Salad.. The Philly Steak Wrap was good, but a little small for the price (around $7.00). The Chef Salad was huge though, as well as the Very Sloppy Joe. Mom also had the Philly steak wrap with fries while Dad had a salad.

While Mom and Dad were eating during their shift for dinner, I noticed Alex was getting really sick. He was moaning and listless, and this is definitely not like him. I grew more and more worried as my parents took their time eating and exploring the arcade and gift shop. Finally they returned and I discussed it with my all-knowing Mom. If she thought Alex was sick enough to go to the ER, then he was. I tend to get paranoid about things and think he needs to go to the doctor for everything. She agreed that he looked really sick and I should take him to the hospital. His temperature was about 104 degrees! My poor baby! I ran up to guest services in the lobby to ask which hospital they recommended (CentraCare was closed). When I asked the cast member, I kid you not, at least 8 managers surrounded me in about ten seconds. They told me they recommended Celebration Hospital. Duh..why didn’t I think of that one? So, around 8pm, Mom and I took Alex to the Celebration Hospital ER. It’s very close to Pop Century and only took us about ten minutes. On the way there, I started to cry. I just felt so bad for Alex. This poor little boy who hardly ever gets sick at home is now sick at Walt Disney World! I looked back at Alex and even though he was very sick and obviously really sleepy, he gave me a little grin like he was telling me it would be ok. He’s such a little trooper.

Celebration Hospital is a very pretty hospital since it’s so new. I checked in and they said it might be a long wait, being that it’s flu season and all. After they gave him some Tylenol in triage (they recommended a dose of Motrin and then four hours later a dose of Tylenol), his fever did seem to come down a bit. While we were still waiting in the waiting room area, Alex discovered the children’s waiting room. It has a giant aquarium window that he just loved! The fish in there were huge and he had a pretty nice time looking at all the fish. After seeing the doctor for about five minutes, they said he had a bacterial infection of the throat and gave him a prescription for Amoxicillan. Now, it’s already nearing midnight and they told me that they called all the pharmacies and they were closed for the night. Great. I wasn’t really satisfied with the visit. Granted, it was very busy and very late at night, but the doctor barely even touched Alex, almost like he was afraid.

We drove back to the resort, ready to conk out. I set the alarm to go off early in the morning so that I could be at Walgreen’s pharmacy as soon as they opened (8am). Little did I know, things were about to get worse for Alex!

Day 3, Dec. 21st:

I answered the wakeup call but didn’t manage to get ready until near 8am and I had wanted to be at the pharmacy by then! So, I hurried up and headed out the door bound for Walgreens on 535. My insurance card wasn’t good for prescriptions out of state so I ended up paying $56 for his meds. Hey, I would have spent $1000 if it meant he would feel better! When I got back to the resort, I noticed his medicine said it needed to be refrigerated. I called front desk and they offered to send over a fridge as soon as possible. I put the amoxicillan in the very small beverage cooler we brought along and we headed out for the Magic Kingdom to do some smaller rides and just walk around for a couple of hours. Alex was acting like his old self after the Motrin started kicking in so we decided to really take it easy and only do one or two rides.

We took a very crowded bus over to the very crowded Magic Kingdom. We did notice the cute Mickey InspEARations along the way and vowed to come back sometime and take pictures of them. After a very hassle free security check (the security guard called me princess, yay! LOL), we headed through the gates!!! Unfortunately, it was so crowded!!! We walked up Main St. and through the Castle to It’s A Small World. We only waited about fifteen minutes and we were off! Alex loves this ride and he enjoyed looking at all the dolls in the ride. Then we strolled through Fantasyland, through Toontown and found our “secret” path to Tomorrowland. No matter how crowded the park gets, hardly anyone walks this path. I love it! There was no wait for the TTA so we climbed aboard! I just love this ride!!!

There really was no point in being at the Magic Kingdom today due to the crowds and Alex really not feeling up to speed, so we took a boat over to the Wilderness Lodge. Alex slept the whole way and all the way through lunch. We had PS at Whispering Canyon Café for 2pm, but we checked in early, about 1. Our waiter really wasn’t that fun, but there was a lot of merriment and joking going on around us. We did get humongous straws though, which made us all laugh. At one point, they made all the men in the restaurant get up and perform “I’m A Little Teapot” in front of everyone. Too funny! All four of us had the skillet, which we proclaimed very yummy. The skillets were all $13.99 and all you can eat. We had a good time and finished with some very good desserts! I had the banana dustbowl, which is to die for!!!

After our yummy lunch, we hung out in the beautiful Wilderness Lodge lobby for awhile. I went over to guest services to get a Hidden Mickey search list when I saw a former cast member I worked with at Animal Kingdom. Her name is Gina and she was working front desk. I said hello and she told me she loved working here so much more than DAK. I can’t say I blame her. After doing some searching for Mickey’s and some photo taking, we listened to the choir in the lobby sing Christmas carols. Alex seemed really hot to me once he woke up so I was forced to do something I really hated doing. I had to call and cancel our sleigh ride for the night. We were all really looking forward to it, but why do it if Alex is miserable and sick? So, I called and the very nice CM managed to cancel the ressie for us without charging us the $30. (it was less than 24 hours) but unfortunately, there were no more sleigh rides available for later in the week. However, she did suggest a carriage ride on Christmas night at Ft. Wilderness. We would be there anyway, so I took the ressie. We drove back to the room and Alex temp went down after I gave him some Tylenol. He was resting comfortably. Mom offered to stay in the room so Bryan and I could go over to Epcot for some fun. Have I mentioned how much I love my parents? I told Mom to call my cell phone immediately if Alex got any worse. I was worried, but she assured me that everything was fine and I should take advantage of a little alone time. So, I kissed my baby’s forehead and headed over to the Beach Club.

Bryan and I took the short walk over to Epcot and did a little shopping in France, Morocco and Germany. I had a bratwurst with sauerkraut and a roll and Bryan had a very large pretzel. Both were very yummy and the bratwurst is definitely one of my favorite snacks at Disney. We walked around World Showcase a bit (I don’t remember much since I was really worried about Alex). Bryan suggested that since it was almost closing, maybe we should see how crowded Mission: Space was..so over we went! We walked right on the ride at 9:10 with absolutely no wait. So, I learn that I am the pilot and I take my flight to Mars. This was my third ride on this attraction and I’ve now decided it’s my favorite ride at Disney. We hurried over to Test Track right at 9:30 and only waited about ten minutes. I love this ride, but I wish you could just skip everything inside and do more of that high-speed stuff!

It’s now closing time and we need to get back to the International Gateway. It’s kinda like salmon swimming upstream! Finally, we managed to leave Epcot via the International Gateway and head back to Pop Century. I walk in the door and I know immediately that Alex is not doing better. Mom said she noticed in the last few minutes that he wasn’t breathing normal. He was breathing a little harder and quicker than normal. He feels really hot and so we decide to take him back to the ER. I race to get the car that is parked in the far reaches of the Earth (ok, exaggeration, but that’s what it felt like) and Mom puts the poor kid in his car seat. This time when I turned around to look at his cute little face, there was no grin. Just an exhausted child with pain in his eyes. We arrived at Celebration Hospital ER yet again but this time, we walk into a room full of sick children. Alex was doing worse tonight and he didn’t even want to play near the children’s waiting room. In fact, he wouldn’t even lift his head off my Mom’s shoulder. So, we’re sitting there for about an hour with a few other families with really sick children. All of the children are like zombies. How sad to see children like this while on vacation to Walt Disney World (every child in the waiting area was on vacation and not a local). It was a really heartbreaking scene. A man walks in with his family and says he is passing a kidney stone. The checkin guy tells him it will be a few hours. The man refuses to sit down and stands at the front desk, just staring at the people at the front desk. At one point he says really loudly, “I think people with kidney stones should be let in before kids with the flu.” Ok, so this was NOT a nice statement to make. I understand he’s in pain, but so is my child. I could not believe the arrogance of this man. Next thing I know, they take him in! Another father races to the front desk and complains. I follow and ask when we will be seen. The triage nurse tells me I am next. I don’t do any complaining, as I just want Alex to be seen soon. They take us in after about five minutes and we didn’t even have to go through triage. They immediately took us back to a room and two nurses come to see Alex. I explain that I was there the previous night and the doctor barely looked at Alex. I told them I was really worried, as Alex is NEVER like this, even when he had been sick before. A temp reading says it’s at 105 so the nurses get a doctor. He thoroughly checks Alex this time and claims Alex does have a bacterial infection of the throat, but he also has a severe case of croup. His throat was swelling shut and that is why he was breathing abnormally. Alex has had croup before, but never like this. They order a steroid shot (which they give immediately and Alex barely cries) and respiratory therapy. This does wonders and he’s sounding much better. They also take some chest x-rays. Due to the steroid shot having some negative effects on some kids, we have to wait an hour in the room to be sure he’s ok. Within that hour, all three of us fall asleep in their VERY comfortable chairs in the hospital room. When we wake up, they say his chest x-rays were fine and we are free to go home. They did prescribe a decongestant for Alex, which we were going to pick up in the morning. Alex’s temp dropped to 98 and we are back at the hotel and sleeping by 2:30am. What a scary night!!!!

Day 4, Dec. 22nd:

Well, we slept in a tad late today..ok, more than a tad late. It was approaching 11:30am before anyone really crawled out of bed. It was a hectic night and no one really slept well. Poor Alex moaned and tossed and turned all night. I felt so bad for him. However, when we woke up, Alex was doing MUCH better. He didn’t have a fever at all and he was finally asking for food and drinks again. He also really wasn’t coughing much but I really wanted that decongestant the doctor prescribed. While we got up and around, Bryan and Mom took a ride to Walgreens to pick up the meds for Alex (another $32.00) and then to Publix for some items since we now had a refrigerator. They picked up some milk and juice for Alex, as well as bagels, fruits and snacks. I was glad they went this morning. Frankly, I was getting pretty sick of Walgreens by this time! LOL

Dad and Alex decided to take a walk around the resort and to check out the playground while Mom, Bryan and I went to Orlando Premium Outlets. I didn’t want to drag Alex to the parks today and make him feel worse and Dad doesn’t really enjoy shopping, so it all worked out well. It did seem though like all we were doing was eating and shopping. I guess that’s not necessarily a bad thing though, huh?

Well, I certainly found more good stuff at the Disney outlet and Mom and Bryan found some fun stuff too at a number of different outlets. I love this shopping complex because it’s outdoors and feels very airy, a lot like the Bayside shopping area in Miami. We made another run to Publix to see if they had any Christmas supplies we could use (to keep the Christmas lights in the windows). We really didn’t find anything, so back to the resort we go!

It was getting kinda late and we were once again starving. It seemed like a good opportunity to eat at Coronado Spring Resort at the Pepper Market using our Quick and Casual Voucher from Hotwire. I heard you could get a great value out of the vouchers here so we checked my Palm for the menu (eguides to go). It was a short drive over to the resort and we headed right for the restaurant. We were seated quickly and the waiter took our drink orders (four sodas and milk for Alex). We each used our vouchers and had a WONDERFUL meal. Kelly, Mom and Dad-Prime Rib dinner with potatoes and veggies, two tiramasus and one crème brulee (17.99x3, 3.95x3). Bryan-Grilled Tuna with potato and veggies, Key Lime Pie for dessert (15.95 + 3.95), and Alex with a kids meal (4.95-did not use voucher). After tax and tip, our meal would have come to about $120.00. The cast member, whom I think was flirting with my brother, did not charge us for the kid’s meal (even though we pointed it out to her). So, our total only came to about $45.00 with the vouchers!!!!!!!!!!!! What a great value! The meal was really really really good too! We probably would not have ordered such expensive meals at a quick service counter had we not had the vouchers, but we certainly would have paid at least $45.00 just for the five of us to eat small meals for dinner, plus we got an excellent meal!

Feeling very full, we rolled out of the restaurant and Alex pleaded to go outside to look at the water. We walked around the dock for a little bit and then decided to walk across the bridge to the pool area. We checked out the massive pool with only one person swimming in it, the playground area and the arcade. I whooped the guys butt in basketball (I am the shortest one of the bunch remember..not to mention the most unathletic) and we all played a few video games. It was a beautiful night and we were having a great time. Alex was feeling much better and we were finally able to enjoy our time at Walt Disney World. Suspecting that Alex was getting sleepy, we walked back to the lobby to stop in the gift shop for a few minutes. Grandpa and Grammy bought Alex a new pair of Mickey sunglasses (which he loved), Alex threw a penny or two into the fountain and then we headed over to Downtown Disney.

Alex was still wide awake and in really good spirits, so we decided to take a quick trip over to Downtown Disney’s West Side. We got a fairly decent parking spot behind Disney Quest without having to wait for ages. We then slowly walked up and down the West Side, stopping in the stores and looking around. I just love the West Side, especially at Christmas. We saw a magician on the street, as well as stilt walkers, choirs and bands. We got our family picture taken at a neat little photo spot and then we strolled along the water for a bit. It was a little chilly out, but not so much that you were shivering. Deciding to maybe take Alex home before he conked out, we headed back to the car and back to the resort.

We got back to the resort and noticed cars were parked around the curb again and you could just tell Pop Century was really getting full. It didn’t seem noisy or crowded, you just noticed a lot more people and cars. After a few minutes of watching tv (darn Kryssa!), Bryan and I took a walk up to the arcade to play a few rounds of games and then over to the food court for chicken fingers with fries to split (6.92). We finally laid our heads down at 11pm, setting a wake up call from Mickey at 8am.

Up next: Finally, a park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 5, Dec. 23rd:

Up and at ‘em shortly after 9am. It was another late morning wake up, but Alex literally refused to get up in the morning. Seeing that he still wasn’t up to full speed, we decided to sleep a little later some of the mornings so he could feel rested. We took a very crowded bus over to Epcot and headed straight for..well..the coke machine. Alex was dying of thirst (or so he acted) so I ran over and got him a coke at the vending machine. I know, bad mamma for giving a two-year-old soda, but it was vacation and he was super thirsty. There was no milk to be found, so that’s what he got!

Anyway, we headed into Epcot and headed straight for the World Showcase. Our first country was Mexico and after shopping for a few minutes, saw there was no wait for El Rio Del Tiempo. It’s one of Alex’s favorite rides and so we climbed aboard. We got the front seat of our own boat and it finally felt like we were at WDW. Alex was feeling better and we were finally enjoying an attraction together as a family! After the attraction, Alex found some maracas to play with and really tried to convince me to take one with us. But after about fifteen minutes, he was ready to go and so we headed for Norway. There was only a twenty-minute wait for the Maelstrom, so we stood in line. I noticed an older gentleman in line who had a gigantic Goofy tattoo on his left arm. I was so jealous! I could never pull off a big tattoo like that, but I’m so envious of those who can pull off gigantic Disney tattoos! So cool! This got me thinking that I really MUST get a small Disney tattoo someday! The line moved quickly and we took a sail on the Viking ship. Alex was not liking the drop during the ride, but he didn’t yell or scream. He just kinda made a bad face. He did enjoy the polar bears though during the ride and going backwards! Of course we skipped the movie, we had a two year old remember? This boy was not going to sit through that!!!

Next was Morocco. While heading into the country, we noticed Mo Roccin’ was about to start, so we got front row “seats” for the show. The belly dancer was really into it and the band was phenomenal. Alex was enjoying himself (as were the other men, tsk tsk) but I thought maybe it was a little too loud for his little ears. The speakers were extremely loud so we moved back to the bench near the front of the pavilion. It was a little early to check in for lunch (our PS was for 2:30 and it was only about 2) but they definitely had a lot of tables ready. Bryan and I said goodbye to Mom, Dad and Alex. We had always wanted to eat here so we took this as opportunity to experience some food that my parents weren’t really up to trying. They were heading over to Future World to check out some pavilions. We would later meet up with them and take Alex so they could have some alone time.

Lunch at Restaurant Marrakesh was phenomenal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! First we ordered the Seafood Bastilla as an appetizer to split. ($5.95). It’s like baklava, only with seafood instead. It’s baked layers of pastry stuffed with minced grouper, shrimp, mushrooms, vermicelli, onions and egg. It doesn’t sound that great, but boy was it tasty! It was soo yummy and I proclaimed it the yummiest appetizer I’ve ever had. Around this time, the musician came out to play and sing some songs. I really did feel like I was in Morocco! The inside of the building is beautifully decorated with tiles and the tables are on different platforms. We were only one table behind the stage and so when the belly dancer came out to perform, Bryan was in good spirits! LOL Our entrée arrived. We decided to split the Sultan Sampler (17.95), which consisted of a beef brewat, grilled brochette of chicken, chicken bastilla and vegetable couscous. OH MY GOSH. This meal was getting better and better. We had told our waiter the meal would be split, and he kindly brought us two plates to help split the entrée. The food was so good and we got so much it really made it worth it to split the meal. We ended our feast with a Crepes Atlas-apple crepes with cinnamon topped with ice cream and almonds. ($5.95). Again, delicious!!! Our waiter took a very funny picture of us (and Bryan wearing a Fez) and then we asked for the check. Before we had even left on our trip, Bryan and I had looked over the menu and decided a Kingdom Lunch Voucher at $30.00 would definitely save us some money on this meal. The vouchers include an appetizer, entrée with side, drink and dessert. It also included tax and tip. Before the voucher, our meal would have been around $40.00. So, we saved about $10.00 and it was definitely hassle free. We would definitely try Restaurant Marrakesh again! This time, I think I’ll try the lemon chicken!

After exiting the restaurant, we tried to get a hold of Mom and Dad, but they weren’t answering their cell phone. Must have shut it off during an attraction, so Bryan and I walked around Morocco, taking pictures of the buildings and our surroundings. We did see Jasmine and Genie, but didn’t take pictures. Bryan and I both checked our email at the kiosk near the phones (love these machines) and then we walked out of the pavilion. We tried Mom and Dad again, and they were at the International Gateway waiting for us. When we got there, Alex was asleep but Mom and Dad had said he had went on Spaceship Earth but he refused to eat anything. While we were talking, out walked Dopey and Princess Aurora. I pointed out Dopey and I kid you not, Mom took off like a shot!! She would have knocked over little kids to get to her man, had there been any! LOL Mom got her picture with Dopey and since I have hardly even seen Aurora, I got my picture with her. Why does she only take pictures in her blue dress and not her pink?

Dad and Mom left for a little alone time..well, date time. Dad had promised to take Mom to see a movie and then go out for dinner at Downtown Disney. It’s something they don’t do at home (have date night) so Mom was really excited! In fact, the last movie they had seen together at the movie theater was Jaws. Yep, Jaws. They went to see Mona Lisa Smile (Mom’s pick) and they said they really enjoyed it. They had PS’s at Portobello Yacht Club at 9pm and from what I hear, they had a fantastic meal. Dad had Spaghettini alla Portobello which consisted of scallops, shrimp, clams and Alaskan king crab with tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, wine and herbs lightly tossed with Spaghettini pasta (24.95). Mom had Penne all’ Amatriciana which consisted of pasta quills with pancetta, onions, tomatoes and basil (15.95).

In the meantime, Alex finally woke up so we took him over to the Living Seas. Alex absolutely loves fish so I knew he would enjoy himself. He still wasn’t feeling totally himself, but he was doing much better! We found a quiet spot to sit near the glass; and Alex enjoyed watching the fish swim by, as well as a scuba diver and a huge sea turtle! We left when we were finally ready to go and headed outside. Near the Nemo sculpture, Nemo himself and a few coral reef characters were standing around taking pictures with guests. It was a MADHOUSE. There were people everywhere, crowding the characters in. Little kids were climbing on the sculpture and CM’s were yelling about every ten seconds to back up or get off the rocks. It was crazy! I decided to forego seeing Nemo because I didn’t want to put Alex in danger. It was that bad! The coral reef “people” were really neat though!

Next up was Spaceship Earth, one of my favorites! I love the smell of Rome burning! I knew Alex must surely be hungry by now, so we headed over to the Electric Umbrella. Alex ate the kids macaroni and cheese and milk, while Bryan and I had a soda and some watermelon. I’m just so happy he’s eating! We took a short stroll over to Mousegears but didn’t see anything we wanted to purchase that second so we headed out to the buses. It seemed like a century before the bus finally came!! Finally, a bus bound for AKL changes his sign and he stops for Pop Century. We got back to the room and Alex immediately turns on the tv. He wants to watch Kryssa! This is about the thousandth time I’ve seen Kryssa, and I’m beginning to want to punch her! LOL Bryan and I take turns going outside, taking pictures of Pop Century while Alex watches tv and plays with his toys. I struggle to give him more medication (he hates it) for a good fifteen minutes. Why can’t they make good tasting liquid medication? The poor kid had to take three! (Amoxiccillan, Motrin or Tylenol, and decongestant). I start to get really hungry, so I run over to Everything Pop for dinner to bring back to the room. I pick up a tv dinner tonight! So good!! It was in a tv dinner plate and very fun! It had turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans and a roll for $8.99! Alex also ate some of mine and a banana. Bryan had shrimp lo mein which he proclaimed to be very good as well ($6.79) and more than enough for two people to split if you wanted to. I also picked up a Mickey rice krispie treat for Alex for dessert.

Mom and Dad were back in the room by 11:00 or so and Alex was still up! He was so excited when they walked into the room! He just loves his grandparents!!!! Lights out and we finally get a good night’s rest!

Day 6, Dec. 24th:

I heard Mickey say “Up and at ‘em” this morning at 7:15am. Too early..must sleep!!! I rolled over and drifted off into slumberland while my parents got up for their Christmas present from Bryan and I. We paid for them to attend the Yuletide Fantasy Tour this morning. They left the room shortly before 8am while the rest of us slept until nearly 10am.

Mom and Dad thoroughly enjoyed their tour today! They met their group at Epcot’s guest relations and took a bus backstage to some of the countries. Their tour guide pointed out all the different decorations and how the different countries in World Showcase celebrate the holidays. From there, they visited a few resorts (Wilderness Lodge, Grand Floridian and Beach Club) to see the different gingerbread houses and the carrousel at Beach Club. Magic Kingdom was also on the list, where they traveled up Main St. to learn about the holiday decorations here. They also went to the Christmas warehouse backstage, which Mom found really impressive. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone planning on attending it next Christmas, so I won’t give a lot of details. I will say that they each received a Disney ornament and a Yuletide Fantasy Tour pin. Dad gave me both of his..what a great Dad I have!!!

They returned from their tour around 2pm. Their tour lasted four hours, instead of the three hours that it was supposed to be. One amusing thing that happened on the tour was Mom had purchased three gingerbread cookies from the gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian. They didn’t have a price tag, but she bought them anyway. Three cookies (that were nicely decorated) for $35! LOL Those were some expensive cookies! Bryan, Alex and I received them as Christmas presents.

Our least favorite park is MGM, so we thought if we went over there this afternoon, we could get a few shows done so we wouldn’t have to worry about them later..so off to MGM we went. We decided to drive today, as the bus stop line looked pretty long. Once inside the gates, we realized everyone was really hungry. We didn’t have breakfast or lunch today, so everyone was ready to eat. The closest counter service restaurant that appealed to us was ABC Commissary, so we headed in that direction. We decided to keep it simple since our PS for Le Cellier at Epcot was later that evening. Bryan and I split the Tabbouleh wrap (flour tortillas filled with Mediterranean mix of tabbouleh and hummus) with marinated tomatoes (6.59), Alex had an order of fries (1.79) and my parents split a cheeseburger and fries (5.99). We also ordered two large sodas (2.29 each) This restaurant was madhouse and it was almost impossible to even get ketchup or napkins from the service bar. The food was yummy, but I really wasn’t that impressed with the cleanliness of the place. I’m just hoping it was just that it was a busy period there.

We took a right out of the restaurant and headed for Muppet Vision. I showed Mom the key under the mat, and she thought it was pretty funny. The preshow was hysterical as always. How can you not love Rizzo as Mickey Mouse?? I thought for sure Alex wouldn’t keep his 3D glasses on for the movie, but he did and absolutely loved the show! I think I flinched more than he did! My whole family thinks Beeker is hysterical, and we crack up every time we see the show!

After Muppet Vision, we saw Buzz and Woody at Al’s Toy Barn but decided to skip it, as the line was extremely long to see both characters. We’ll just have to catch them next time. We walked down the NY street set and took some pictures near the brownstones that came out pretty neat. While we were getting our pictures taken by Mom, she totally forgot about Alex and only focused on the three of us. When she realized she had cut Alex out of the picture by mistake, she busted up laughing. The rest of us had no clue why she was laughing and thought for sure she was going insane.

Honey I Shrunk the Playground was just around the corner, so we all headed in. Alex climbed around the different areas and went down a few slides. He was getting a little nervous due to the large amount of people inside, so we went back out the exit after about 20 minutes or so. I felt bad ‘cause I know he really likes playing in here (at least he did in May) but the Christmas crowds were really starting to arrive.

Bryan had obtained fastpasses for Voyage of the Little Mermaid just after entering the park, so we slowly walked over there and got in the fastpass line. We were inside the theater after about ten minutes and got some seats to the left of the theater. We did notice that no matter where you sit, you’ll probably have a good view. Alex sat on Mom’s lap and enjoyed watching the puppets and Ariel. Last time I was here, Ariel was a terrible singer; but this one was pretty good. After the show, we decided to go over to Epcot and have some fun at World Showcase.

We drove to the Beach Club and checked out the carrousel made out of gingerbread and the huge Christmas tree in the lobby. We tried to find some of the hidden Mickey’s in the carrousel, but we didn’t even find one! After entering through the International Gateway, we took the long way around World Showcase. It was kinda chilly that night, so we stopped at one of the big gift shops and bought Christmas sweatshirts for Mom and I and a WDW hoodie for Dad. My theory was that if I didn’t take a jacket into the park and I got chilly, then I’d just have to buy a sweatshirt! My plan worked!!!

Our last stop that evening was Canada. We had PS’s for Le Cellier for 7:10 and it was about 6:30. Bryan checked in early and received a coaster buzzer and was told it would be awhile. We expected that and had a seat down by the gardens. It was getting pretty darn cold, but Alex was having a good time walking around and looking at the water. At 7:20, we were buzzed and were seated inside the restaurant. Mom, Bryan and I started off with cheese soup (3.99 each) and breadsticks. WOW. These are definate must-haves!!! The Canadian Cheese Soup is so good and the pretzel breadsticks were unbelievable! Dad started with the Asian Shrimp Cocktail (8.99). He said it was a tad on the hot side, but I reminded him that it did say it was served with wasabi slaw and horseradish chili sauce. Mom had the Grilled Double Bone Pork Chop with potatoes and veggies (19.99) which she loved. I had the 7 oz Filet Minon topped with shallot butter and served with cream cheese mashed potatoes (24.99). Bryan had the Maple Ginger Grilled Glazed Salmon with Asian Noodle Soup, baby carrots, shitake mushrooms and fresh spinach (18.99). He said his was phenomenal! Dad had the Herb Crusted Prime Rib with roasted Yukon potatoes, watercress and herb vinaigrette, finished with red wine sauce (19.99) which he said was “pretty good.” The food was really yummy, but I didn’t like how they put the steak right on top of the potatoes. I don’t really like them mixed together; and because it was served in a bowl-like dish, I couldn’t not mix them when I cut up the meat. For dessert, I had the Campfire ‘Smores (3.99) off the kids menu. They sure were yummy and Alex loved eating the sprinkles off of it. Our Christmas Eve dinner was really great, but Alex was acting pretty nasty through the whole meal. He didn’t want to have anything to do with eating but I tried to remember he still wasn’t feeling well. It made for a frustrating meal at times. Luckily, he wasn’t disturbing any of the other guests, just my family.

We left Epcot shortly before Illuminations, which none of us really care for. Back to the resort we go and Mom did some laundry near the 60’s pool. There were definitely not enough washers and dryers for the amount of people staying at this resort. There are two other laundry facilities, but all the other guests in this one said the others were full as well. It took us nearly three hours to do laundry tonight! I stayed with the laundry while Mom ran to the gift shop for some last minute Christmas gifts. When we got back to the room, it was lights out. I hope Santa doesn’t forget us………….

Day 7, Dec 25th:

Mickey woke us up at 7am, but no one really moved. I got up and told everyone that it was Christmas morning! No one even cracked an eyelid. I climbed back into bed figuring that everyone just wanted to sleep. We had made plans to go over to Animal Kingdom this morning, but I guess everyone was just too tired. Dad finally said, “I want presents.” I threw a pillow at him and we fell back asleep.

Alex woke us up about 9am and everyone was finally ready to see if Santa had arrived! Bryan checked outside and sure enough, there was a gift bag on our door from the staff of Pop Century filled with all kinds of candy. Last time we were on property for Christmas, we received a stocking full of candy on our door. We all opened our presents from each other that we hadn’t exchanged at home and Santa, and can you believe Santa bought us all things from Walt Disney World? Santa sure is great! Our favorites: Kelly-WDW 2003 Scrapbook, Dad-Monorail pieces, Mom-Snow White’s Scary Adventure’s Attraction Poster, Bryan-Team Mickey limited edition figurine and Alex-remote controlled Mickey fire engine!! Then we had to decide what the plan was for the day. We decided to skip DAK since it was already late and just head over to Ft. Wilderness. We hopped in the car and headed for the campground. We were about two miles away from the Magic Kingdom when traffic came to a complete stop. The signs for the MK said it was full to capacity, so I guess people were waiting to get into a full parking lot. I felt bad for everyone expecting to go there this morning. I heard on CNN today (January 18, 2004) that WDW had a record breaking crowd the week from Christmas until New Year’s. I can definitely believe it! Bryan asked if I knew a short cut out of this traffic mess,and I told him just to pull into the Epcot gates and make a uturn. We did so pretty easily, along with many other cars, and headed the long way to Ft. Wilderness (down and around DtD). Luckily, there was no traffic this way, and we arrived after about 15 minutes or so. We parked in the guest parking lot and took a bus to the petting zoo. Our first mission was to get Alex on a pony. This was one of his favorite things to do at WDW in May, and I couldn’t wait for him to do it again! He was a little nervous at first, but he did love his pony ride!!! I was leading the pony around the petting zoo and trying to get him (the pony) to stop so Mom could take pictures. I guess the pony didn’t want to stop, because he would nip at my arm with his lips (I stress that this did not hurt). It was really quite funny because he would scare me every time. Finally, Bryan took the reins and Alex finished his pony ride! After that, Dad got some food for the animals and Alex fed the goats and sheep. He’s so cute because he feeds them one little piece of food at a time, and uses his fingers, not his palm. I’m always expecting the goat or sheep to bite his little fingers, but they never do..they also use their lips to feed off of people.

Mom decided she wanted to call my Gram to check in on her (she’s in a nursing home), so she went off to find a quiet pavilion to sit in and make that phone call. The rest of us went to see the horses in the barn. The barn is really neat because there is a section in there with a history of WDW horses. They have a ton of pictures and awards! I was really impressed!

After Mom was done gabbing, we walked over to Trail’s End Buffet for lunch. We were seated immediately at a huge table, which I loved because usually they try to cram poor Alex into a corner of the table. Not this time. Our waitress was very attentive, taking away dirty dishes and refreshing our soda glasses. This was the first meal Alex really ate a lot, which proved to me he was finally feeling normal again. He ate just about anything we put on his plate! The rest of us chowed down on fried chicken, turkey, ham, salads, soups, veggies..you name it, it was on the buffet. Four adult Christmas buffets came to $72.39 plus tip.

After dinner, we decided to take a walk over to Wilderness Lodge via the carriage path. It’s a really beautiful path and takes about 30 minutes to end up at WL. Mom ran ahead of the rest of us to take a picture of us and she heard something in the bushes. I’ve never seen my Mom run like that! It scared the living daylights out of her. I don’t know what she thought it was, an alligator or something? It turned out to be a squirrel. Lord knows she’s never seen one of those in PA!?! After nearly falling over in fits of giggles, we continued on to WL. Our first stop was Wilderness Lodge Villas. I wanted to see their Christmas tree and take a few pictures. We also checked out Walt’s train in the sitting area. If I were going to purchase DVC, I would definitely want Wilderness Lodge Villas. It’s so peaceful and beautiful here!

We roamed around Wilderness Lodge for awhile, taking pictures of everything. We tried to look for the hidden Mickey in the babbling brook, but found nothing. I will find it someday I tell you! Inside the lobby, we took some more pictures and shopped in the gift shop. Mom bought Alex the coolest little light toy that even I liked playing with. It was cheaper than the spinner toys and much more fun. It’s called a WDW Resort Light Toy and only cost $12.50. Alex played with this the rest of the trip and still plays with it here at home!

Nobody wanted to go back the way we came, we wanted some variety! So, Dad suggested taking the nature trail over to Ft. Wilderness. You enter down near the bike rental shack at the beach and it continues along the lake all the way to Ft. Wilderness. It’s mostly sand but very easy to walk. There are some spectacular views of the Contemporary Resort from the path as well! We came to the end of the nature path which connects with the end of the carriage path, when we came up on a rarity. On the sign it said, “Employees Only.” I’ve never seen this before at WDW! Isn’t it supposed to say “Cast Members Only.” Bryan took a picture of it he was so amazed. I know, it doesn’t take much to amaze us. We were all having such a wonderful time together and Mom remarked that it was truly a wonderful Christmas. I had to agree that it definately was one of the best!

We wandered around Ft. Wilderness for awhile, going in the gift shop and checking out the lawnmower tree. Mom, Bryan, Alex and I walked down to the boat dock and grabbed a table and chairs. Alex fell asleep in his stroller and the rest of us watched the water sprites, boats and all the people coming back from the parks. It was beautiful out, even though it was a little windy on the dock. Bryan ran up to the store and got us some drinks and doughnuts, and we sat out there for a good hour or so. It was really enjoyable. It’s the little things at Disney that I enjoy so much. In the meantime, Dad took a walk around the campground to check out the cabins and different tenting areas. We also tried to call everyone at home to wish them Merry Christmas.

Around 6pm, we walked back to Crockett’s Tavern to wait for our carriage ride that was scheduled to 6:30. As you recall, we were forced to cancel our sleigh ride earlier in the vacation and since there were none of those left, we reserved a carriage ride here instead. I’m so glad we did!!!! Our driver pulled up with the carriage promptly at 6:30 and we loaded into the carriage. She gave us a couple of blankets to cover up with, as it was getting pretty cold now that it was dark out. The horse had jingle bells attached to him and when we pulled away from Crockett’s Tavern, I really felt like Christmas couldn’t get any better. Everyone we passed said “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” Our carriage ride went all over Ft. Wilderness, and we were able to check out a lot of the Christmas displays that guests had put up in their sites. Some of the displays must have taken a week to put up they were so intricate!!! When we returned a half hour later to Crockett’s, our driver took a group shot of us in the carriage and standing near the horse. If anyone is interested, the carriage rides cost $30.00, including tax. It was definitely well worth the money, and we had a fantastic time!

It was a little after 7, so we walked towards the campfire to see if anything was still going on. When we got there, they were still doing the singalong so we pulled up to the bleachers and had a seat. Alex enjoyed singing some Christmas carols while I went up to get some marshmallows and sticks for roasting in the campfires. The rest of my family thought I was crazy, but I walked right up to the campfire and started roasting. I must have looked like a complete idiot because I was the only adult roasting marshmallows! There were about 10 kids but I didn’t care! I was having fun!!!! After about ten minutes, I think my family was getting jealous, because they slowly started to join me at the fire, asking for marshmallows! Alex saddled up next to me and we had a good time! After the singalong, they started the movie, which was “The Santa Claus 2” tonight. Dad really wanted to see the movie, but we were all getting tired, so we walked the long path all the way to the parking lot. It’s a pretty long way, but none of us were in the mood for a bus ride.

On our way to Pop Century, we drove around the Magic Kingdom parking lot. Can you believe there were hundreds of cars parked in the grass around the parking lots??? I’m glad we decided to skip the parks today because we wouldn’t have had much fun anyway standing in long lines. We’ve done the parks for Christmas day in the past so it’s not like we didn’t know what we were missing. When we got back to Pop Century, we were all starting to get hungry and so we decided to eat at Everything Pop. Mom and Alex split a Deluxe Pizza (6.19) and jello (1.19). Dad used a quick and casual voucher (actual cost: 11.25) and got Fish of the Day with veggies and fries (8.99), lunar cheese cake (3.59) and a chocolate milk (1.99). His meal would have cost $15.52, so the voucher definately saved him money as he would have gotten the same exact meal had he not had the voucher. Bryan and I used a quck and casual voucher as well, but we split our meal. We got Shrimp Lo Mein (6.99), Chili Cheese Fries (3.09) because our entrée did not come with a side, Lunar Cheese Cake (3.59) and apple juice for Alex (2.29). Our meal would have come to $17.00 without the voucher. We had a ton of food, which could have easily been split amongst three people, not just two.

After dinner, we went back to our room, took showers and set the wakeup call. It was definitely a very magical Christmas for the Charles Family!

Day 8, Dec. 26th:

Mickey woke us up sooo early today! It was around 5:50am..too early for me! We all did manage to get up though because today was early entry for Animal Kingdom! Woohoo! My favorite park! We were down at the bus stop about 6:45am, but we had to take a second bus because the line was so unbelievably long.

After a fairly quick bus ride (thank goodness because I had to stand while holding the stroller, and it wasn’t pretty), we were strolling through the gates around 7:15am. The Oasis is one of my favorite spots at AK, because it’s so peaceful and beautiful. We did, however, walk quickly through it and as soon as we got to the bridge, Alex started pointing and screaming about the tree. He just loves trees, plants, flower, etc. Maybe he’ll be a botanist one day? Anyway, we continued walking until we were in Africa, and grabbed some fastpasses for the safari. The wait for the attraction was minimal, so we also got in line to ride it right away. We saw so many animals this morning, including the cheetah running around his habitat and the lions that were also running and growling. I’ve never actually heard the lions roaring, so that was pretty neat!

After our enjoyable safari, Bryan decided to stay behind and take pictures of Africa while the rest of us walked through Pangani Forest Trail. It was just as well because Bryan was really getting grumpy at this point. Heading down into Pangani, Mom tells me for the third time that this is where the bats are. NO MOM..THAT’S IN ASIA. I only had to tell her a dozen times. I think she was really paranoid, because the bats really freaked her out last time. Alex had a great time looking at the fish along the way, along with the birds and hippos. I noticed while standing in the meerkat area that hardly anyone was down in the gorilla exhibition area, so I hurried our crowd along. When we got down there, there was no one there; and the silverback gorilla was up against the glass! I stopped to take some pictures and he walked down to where I was and sat directly in front of me; and he reached his hand out and leaned against the glass. It was almost like he was telling me hello. It was really beautiful. Alex was apparently not scared because he tried to run under the rope to go up to the glass. Across the bridge, there were a lot of gorillas just hanging out and eating. I still remember back in my College Program days when the gorillas would fling poop at other guests…still makes me laugh.

We caught up with Bryan outside Mombasa Marketplace and we did a little shopping. I found a really nice fleece AK blanket for a friend’s Christmas present and a few other odds and ends. Our fastpass time was up, so Mom and Alex decided to wait it out in Tuskers while the rest of us enjoyed the attraction again. This time we saw even more animals, including the warthogs which I’ve only seen once or twice. The baby elephant was also taking a dip in the watering hole as well!

It was still fairly uncrowded at Animal Kingdom, so we decided to hike it over to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur before the crowds really started coming in. Mom, Dad and Bryan rode the attraction first, and because it was only a five minute wait, I rode with them immediately afterwords with Mom and Bryan. This is Mom’s favorite attraction, which is pretty funny considering she’s not a thrill ride kinda gal. I still scream at the end because I think that dino is gonna eat me!

We all walked over to the carnival area of Dinoland and took some neat pictures throughout the area. I noticed one of the games for $2.00 had no one playing, so I paid for Dad, Bryan and I to all each play a game (Mom and Alex didn’t want to play). It was one of those games where you race your character by rolling a ball for points. Guess who won?? Yep, ME! I won my very own dinosaur, and I didn’t even share him with Alex! LOL

It’s Tough To Be A Bug was next but the wait time was over an hour, so we just grabbed some fastpasses for later. Everyone was really hungry at this point and FlameTree BBQ was right behind us, so this is where we stayed. Alex fell asleep, so we had a very enjoyable and QUIET meal down by the water. We were the only ones in this pavilion, and it was so beautiful looking out on the water on this sunny Florida day! For our meal, we all purchased meal vouchers (not Q&C vouchers). We purchased three adult vouchers (11.99) and one kid’s voucher for Mom (5.99). They included your meal with a drink, a bottle of water or soda for later, and an ice cream or box of popcorn for later. Bryan and I each had the pulled pork sandwich and Dad had the BBQ ribs meal. Mom had a hot dog with her voucher. We all saved the other portions of our vouchers for another day. (I asked a cast member if that’s ok, and she said as long as we used it in AK, it didn’t matter if we used them that day or not). The meal was sooo yummy!!! I loved the beans you got with the meals too!

After our great lunch, we walked over to Asia to take some pictures and walk Maharajah Jungle Trek. This is where the bats are Mom! We got some wonderful pictures of the tigers and prayer flags on our walk.

Alex was still sleeping so Mom, Bryan and I saw It’s Tough To Be A Bug while Dad and Alex sat this one out. Dad doesn’t really care for the show and I knew Alex would be scared anyway, so it worked out well. I had a great time in the show and really enjoy watching people at the end (you know what I’m talking about!). It was really starting to get crowded when we were done with the show, so we decided to head back to the resort for a little break.

A quick and empty bus ride back to Pop Century, and we headed back to the room. Dad decided to head up to the arcade with Bryan to win some more tickets for prizes (they were obsessed at this point) and I grabbed my camera to take some pictures of the resort. Mom and Alex went to the playground right around the corner so Alex could run around for a bit. We all met up at the playground and watched Alex play for a little bit. It was here that I noticed it was actually really warm out, in fact, I was sweating! Love that Florida sunshine! Anyway, Alex had a ball at this playground; so much so that I think it was his favorite attraction at Disney! LOL

After a quick break in the room, we tried to think of what we would all like to do that night. It was really beautiful outside so we decided to brave the crowds at the Magic Kingdom so we could view Wishes and Spectromagic tonight. We took a pretty crowded bus over to the Magic Kingdom (had to stand again with the stroller!) and got through security fairly quickly. The park was pretty crowded, but not like it would be later in the week. Our first destination was Adventureland. There was absolutely no one at the Sunshine Tree Terrace so Bryan and I practically ran over for our favorite treat at Walt Disney World…CITRUS SWIRLS!!! We ordered a round for everyone except Alex, who had a frozen yogurt. While sitting in the little area near Aladdin’s Magic Carpets, we could see some of the Christmas Parade pass by Frontierland. Alex kept pointing at all the characters, so Dad took him over to see more of the parade. When Alex got his fill of characters, we checked out to the line for Pirates of The Caribbean. It had a 30 minute posted wait, so we braved it and just stood in line. Luckily it was only around 15 minutes when we boarded our boat. The ride was fantastic as usual, especially since the movie came out. We walked over to Splash Mountain it was only a five minute wait!!! Mom took Alex over to the kid’s play area (she hates Splash Mountain) while the rest of us rode one of the best attractions at Disney. This is Dad’s favorite ride and one of mine as well. When we exited, Mom had a very disgusted look on her face. Apparently, Alex had spilled an entire bottle of chocolate milk all over himself, and she was not happy. That’s why you always bring an extra outfit with you to the parks when you have a toddler!

The easiest way over to Tomorrowland from Frontierland seemed to be the train (it was nearing the first Spectromagic), so we climbed aboard the train to Toontown. When I went to get on the train, I fell down a step and almost twisted my ankle. Thank gosh I didn’t! When we got to Toontown, Dad was carrying Alex off the ride and fell down one of the steps as well! This time, Dad landed on his behind. How he managed to not hurt Alex or himself is amazing.

We took the path over to Tomorrowland and grabbed fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear for after Spectromagic. We did ride the Carrousel of Progress (needs updating in the last section) and the TTA (a family favorite). It was around 8:45 when we finished up with those attraction so we decided to take a walk over to Main Street to find a spot for Wishes. There was hardly anyone around the Mickey and Walt statue, and with no trees there during the holidays, it was a perfect spot! Wow!!! What a show!!! I cried many tears of joy watching my little boy enjoying the fireworks!!! It was absolutely beautiful!!! Here is one of the quotes from the show, narrated by Jiminy Cricket: “I bet a lot of you folks don’t believe that-about a wish coming true do ya? Well, I didn’t either. Of course, I’m just a cricket, but let me tell ya what changed my mind. Ya see, the most fantastic, magical things can happen-and it all starts with a wish!”

After Wishes, we took a few steps behind us and sat on the curb to wait for Spectromagic. There were sooo many people leaving the Magic Kingdom, I thought for sure we would be trampled. After a few minutes, the crowds died down and Bryan bought us some popcorn and sodas to wait for the parade. It was really getting chilly and I’m glad I brought the Mickey fleece with me for Alex. Spectromagic was purely magical, once again. There is just something about this music and all the beautiful lights that brings tears to my eyes every time.

Our fastpass time for Buzz was up after the parade, so we walked back over to Tomorrowland. Unfortunately, everyone whipped my behind this time and I barely got any points. It was the laser gun I tell you!!! We took one last ride on the TTA and then headed out of the park. A bus was waiting for us at the bus depot and we took a 15 minute ride back to the resort. We all fell asleep rather quickly after setting the wakeup call again for tomorrow morning.

Day 9, Dec. 27th:

The wakeup call was set for 5:50am again, and I really didn’t think I could get up. Bryan jumped in the shower rather quickly and Dad convinced me that I really should go to MGM with Bry today so we could ride the bigger rides. I would have rather slept, but I knew if we didn’t get over there this morning, there was a slim chance of us riding ToT and RnRC this vacation. So, I begrudgingly got up and around. We were down at the extremely long bus line again today at 6:45am and we were heading into the gates at MGM around 7:15am. Security was pretty quick and we noticed the long line of people waiting to get into MGM that were not resort guests. Thankfully, there was no wait for resort guests and we were past the turnstiles in no time. We made a beeline for Tower of Terror and walked right on the ride. I absolutely love the random drop sequence!!

Rockin Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith was next, but when we got over there at 7:40am, there was already a thirty minute wait!!!! We grabbed some fastpasses for only about thirty minutes later (why wait in line?) and did some shopping along Sunset Boulevard. The villain store is one of my favorites, even though I hardly ever buy anything here. We came along to Starring Rolls Bakery and the smell of all those delicious bakery items really got to us. We just had to eat something! I did not save the receipt; but Bryan and I each had a chocolate milk and I had a strawberry jellyroll (yum) and Bryan had a chocolate chip muffin. Both were quite huge and really good! Our time was up for fastpass, so we took a ride on RnRC. “Love In An Elevator” was our song. I just love the part at the end when the song changes to “Love In A Roller Coaster!” So much fun!

There really wasn’t anything left on our to-do list that we didn’t want to see without the rest of the family, so we took a walk back to the New York street set to take some pictures. We first got our pictures with Flik near the Honey I Shrunk The Playground set and then stepped out into “New York.” Um….where are all the people? We were the only ones over here! It was really creepy and it freaked me out a bit. We took a lot of pictures and kept walking until we came to the Muppet store. I don’t think I’ve ever been in here! Bryan found some really cute Beeker items that he decided to purchase later in the trip.

It was around 9:30am, and walked back around to where the Making of the Haunted Mansion was showing. They let us in early and we headed in for our tour. This is definitely not worth a long wait, but it was still pretty neat! The fireplace is humongous and so beautiful! I also loved looking at some of the props but they hurried us out of there before we really got our fill. I wish you didn’t have to watch the movie since that will more than likely be on the DVD when it’s released anyway. I would have rather spent more time looking at everything.

After our tour, we walked over to the pin shop under the giant hat so I could get my annual pass pins. We were getting really thirsty, so we each bought a frozen lemonade at Min and Bill’s Dockside Diner (7.01 for both). It was a really lovely view of the lagoon so we sat and talked about our vacation for awhile. We also called Mom and Dad. Now, it was about 11am, and they had just gotten up!!! Lazy bums. Since MGM was getting really crowded (1.5 hour waits for a few of the rides) and there was a steady stream of people entering the parks; we told them to stay put and we would head back to the resort. The bus ride was literally only about five minutes long and we were back in the room in no time. The first thing I did when we got back was cancel the PS’s for Mama Melroses’s. No one wanted to go back to MGM today.

Everyone was pretty hungry at this point, so I suggested driving over to AKL for lunch at the Mara. We drove over and as I was walking into the lobby, it felt like I was home again! I love this place! I’ve spent a total of over two weeks here and I still don’t think I’ve seen everything! Our first stop was the Mara since everyone was starving. We each used a Q and C voucher for our meals. Bryan and I each had the Chicken pepper pot soup (2.49), Chicken Pizza (6.59), a large drink (1.79) and the dessert sampler (3.59 and included two zebra domes!). The total for each meal would have been $15.40..so we saved a few dollars each. Dad had the fried shrimp meal (9.49), a large coke (1.79) and the dessert sampler (3.59) which would have come to $15.84. Mom had a side salad (2.59), Pepperoni Pizza (5.79), slice of cake (3.59) and a large Coke (1.79). So, we all saved quite a bit of money. We all ended up taking our desserts back to the room for a late night snack that night. Alex had the kid’s mac and cheese (4.57) which he demolished. He must have been hungry!

Our meal was quite good and with our bellies full, we took a walk around the resort. We stopped to look at the different artifacts we had missed on our last vacations and all the different animal viewing areas. Our favorite was the savannah with the tummies running around. Absolutely beautiful! The chocolate village outside of Boma was incredible! We also stopped in Zwandi Marketplace to do a little shopping before we headed out to the car. We must have spent about three or four hours at AKL today! I just love this resort!

No one knew what to do now because the crowds were just too much at the parks mid afternoon, so Bryan suggested driving over to Old Key West since none of us had ever been thee before. Can I just tell you how much I love this place??? The only problem I find is that it almost feels like an apartment complex and not as Disneyish as the resorts on property. However, I love the area around Olivia’s and the main pool. Alex played in the sand for awhile and then Mom mentioned it was getting chilly. Bryan, Mom and Alex drove over to Pop Century to get our jackets while Dad and I took a little cruise via a pontoon boat over to Downtown Disney. It was a really relaxing ride, although it was a tad on the cold side. We met back up with the gang outside Oliviia’s around 6:30 and decided we were all getting hungry again. Olivia’s sounded really good for dinner, so we asked for a table. The restaurant was practically dead and the seated us immediately. The food was outstanding and we all enjoyed our relaxing meal. For starters, Dad, Bryan and I all had the conch chowder (4.49 each) which was soooo good! Mom had a Caesar salad (5.99) which she said had the perfect amount of dressing. For our entrees, Bryan and I each split a coconut shrimp meal which came with veggies and a potato (18.99). Dad had a Mozzarella Salad (8.29); and Mom and Alex split a child’s spaghetti which they couldn’t finish between them (5.59). Dad and I also had smoothies (7.98 for two, one mango and one strawberry). The meal came to $76.35 with tax and tip. It was definitely one of our more yummy meals!

It was getting pretty cold out, so Mom offered to take Alex back to the room for a bath while the rest of us went minigolfing at Fantasia Gardens. We dropped Mom and Alex off at Pop Century and then played a round of golf at Fantasia Fairways. I was a little worried about playing this course, as I’m definitely not a golfer. But, the more I played, the better I got. Bryan won, followed by me then Dad. It was a really enjoyable game and at half off, not a bad deal! (Annual Pass discount). We headed back to the resort, watched a little tv and then headed off to bed. Another enjoyable day at Walt Disney World!!!!

Day 10, Dec. 28th:

We didn’t have to get up quite as early today as we were heading over to MGM today to see some of the shows, and since it wasn’t early entry day, we could go a little later. Everyone got up and around and we headed for MGM shortly before 10am. Dad and Alex took the bus while the rest of us drove the car over. Our cast member on the tram to the front gates was hysterical and certainly made the bumpy ride more enjoyable. We cruised through security with little to no wait and we met up with Dad and Alex at the front of the Great Movie Ride right at 10am. Bryan ran over to get fastpasses for Playhouse Disney and we all headed into GMR. Something about this ride absolutely bores me. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen it too much, but I feel like it needs some newer scenes from movies. Alex enjoyed it though and didn’t even get scared during the cowboy shoot-out scene.

After the ride, it was time for our fastpasses for Playhouse Disney so we headed over there. Dad decided to sit this one out since he can’t sit on the floor for that long without his back hurting. The show was fantastic yet again and Alex had a magical time. He just loves Bear In The Big Blue House and Pooh, so this was a real treat for him. If any of you have little children, this a definite must-do! Just get a fastpass early or get in line extremely early in standby because the seating area fills up quickly. Oh, and if you are a parent sitting near the front, please don’t stand up to take pictures, videotape or dance! The little kids behind you can’t see and this show was meant for them! Ok, off my soapbox! It brought tears to my eyes watching my little guy sing and clap along with everyone from Playhouse Disney.

Everyone was pretty hungry and the crowds were just getting overwhelming again. Since we had already eaten at ABC Commissary this trip, we chose Backlot Express for today’s lunch. Unfortunately, there were absolutely no tables to be found. Luckily, I spotted one after a few minutes and secured us a table. It was a madhouse in there!! I don’t really want to go into detail, but there was a table of people smoking in the restaurant and not one cast member said anything. Maybe it was because they were super busy, but I found this rather disgusting and we didn’t stay long to eat our meal. (The table was right next to us..I would have moved but it took me forever just to find this one table). Since Alex just had major upper respirtory problems in Florida, I didn’t think it was a good idea for him to sit directly next to the cloud of smoke. For lunch, Dad had a chicken salad (6.79) and split chicken fingers with fries with Alex (4.99). Mom and I had cheeseburgers with fries (5.59) and Bryan had the grilled turkey with fries (6.49). The meal was satisfying, but not overwhelmingly delicious.

After lunch, we walked over to the Muppet Store so Bryan could get his Beeker items and we could all take pictures of Alex throwing coins into the fountain. He has taken quite a liking to throwing coins in fountains these days. We walked around that area for awhile and then headed over near the exit to the Backlot Tour to get our pictures taken professionally by a cast member. He took three different photos of us and placed us in a holiday beach scene with Mickey and the gang. The picture came out really cute and only cost $12.00 per picture. (I can’t scan it in, as my computer is down..but will post it as soon as I can). While we were over there, Alex played with some of the boxes that if you lift the lid, they make scary monster noises. He thought they were pretty funny and must have lifted those lids a thousand times!

We continued walking until we were near the giant hat in front of the Great Movie Ride. Mom and Dad did some shopping while Alex, Bryan and I found a bench and people watched for awhile. There was a DJ on the stage dancing to some oldies and really getting the crowd going. It was a lot of fun watching everyone! Finally Dad and Mom came back and the DJ started talking about the characters coming out to say hello. Dad took Alex over to the area to watch the characters. What he didn’t know was that the characters were coming out to sign autographs and take pictures, not put a show on at the stage. So, while he and Alex were leaning up against a rail, Pooh and Piglet walked right over to them and started playing with Alex. Within seconds, there was a humongous line to see the characters, but Alex got a few minutes with the two without having to stand in line. It was so cute when Alex gave each of them a hug and kiss. Dad was thrilled he took Alex over there at just the right time at just the right place.

MGM was really getting packed and we had done everything we wanted to do here, so we left the park. We had PS’s at Ohanas at 7:30, but decided to drive over there to check out the resort a little bit before dinner. We parked the car and took a short walk to the lobby, where I got a ton of beautiful pictures of the Christmas trees and decorations. Alex loved looking at the waterfall and birds. We walked over to Captain Cook’s to get Alex a milk that he started screaming for, and a little bag of Oreo’s. That made him content for awhile, so Dad and Bryan took a walk around the Poly. Mom and I stayed and gabbed with Alex until around 6:30. Bryan and I checked in an hour early, explaining that we knew we were early and would just wait in the lounge. Everyone walked around the lobby, did a little shopping and talked while we waited. Around 7:30, we were shown to our table. What a view!!! We got a fabulous view of Cinderella’s Castle right up against the glass. If we stayed long enough, we might catch Wishes from our table!!!

First our appetizers arrived and everyone dug in. This is definitely one of my favorite meals ever. Bryan and I had dinner here in August and had to take the rest of the family this time. The wontons were delicious! Next they brought out the meats. My favorite by far is the shrimp. In fact, I didn’t even have any other kind of meat tonight. I also ordered Alex some French fries since I knew he would definitely like those. Dad disappeared for quite awhile, claming he had to use the restroom. He didn’t come back, and he didn’t come back. Finally, he reappears with Paul. Paul is one of the waiters at Ohanas that I knew from my College Program days. He was actually a friend of a friend, so it was kinda neat seeing him tonight. He was our waiter in August and did such a fantastic job! It was nice seeing him again, but I was worried he’d make me do the hula hoop contest or something. Fortunately, he didn’t; as he was really busy tonight. Right about the time that Paul left our table, the lights dimmed. We were in for a magical treat!

Within a minute or two, the narration and music for Wishes was heard; and we were able to see the spectacular fireworks display right from our table! It was perhaps even better than being in the park, because we didn’t hear the loud booms and the music and narration was clearer. It was amazing! Alex yelled out, “Oh, wow!” It was just so magical!!! At the end, everyone in the restaurant started clapping.

After our delicious meal ($123 with tax, tip and a side of French fries), we were heading out of the restaurant when Dad starts to chat with a cast member behind the grill. Turns out to be an ex co worker of Dad’s and the father to one of my friends! Dad talked to him for a good fifteen minutes about moving to Orlando and how they should definitely meet up again in March.

We wanted to catch the Electrical Water Pageant tonight, but we missed it at the Poly. Having nothing to do really, we decided to take a walk over to the Grand Floridian using the beach path. It was so beautiful out tonight. In fact, I didn’t even need a jacket! Mom was holding Alex’s hand; and when we got over near the resort, Mom tripped on the sidewalk and landed face first in the grass. Unfortunately, because she was holding Alex’s hand, Alex went right along with her and landed face first on the sidewalk. Mom immediately cries out to get Alex because she thought he hit his head. Turns out, both were fine and only suffered some bruises on the knees. It was such a hard fall and I’m so thankful neither one of them were hurt seriously. Because they hit the ground so hard, some cast members heard that were about 50 feet away and came running over. We thanked them for being so attentive and kept walking into the hotel. We checked Mom and Alex’s knees out (neither one were bleeding but very bruised). We sat in the lobby for awhile, checking out the decorations and tree. The Christmas decorations were certainly beautiful, but I don’t think I’ll ever want to stay here. Too foo foo for my tastes. After about an hour, we walked back to the Poly.

We took a stroll around the resort, checking out the pools and arcades. I wanted to check out the Neverland Club and asked the attending CM if I could take a peek. She was more than happy to allow me to do so, so I did! The place is unbelievably cool! I’d want to hang out here if I were a kid! Maybe one day when Alex is older (I think you have to be 4 years old), I’ll let him hang out here for an hour or two while I do some shopping or something! One of the things I loved the most was that you have to crawl through a window to get in (like Peter Pan does at the Darling house).

It was getting kinda late, and Alex was getting really tired. We walked out to the car and drove back to Pop Century. After a few minutes, everyone was fast asleep!

Day 11, Dec. 29th:

We got up pretty late today, around 8:30am. We all took our showers and got dressed because today we were eating breakfast with Mickey!!! We had PS’s for Chef Mickey’s at 10:30, so we drove over to the resort by 10. We took the long walk up to the concourse and checked in. Because Alex was crying about getting his picture taken, we didn’t have to do the group photo that my Dad hates. LOL We were seated in about five minutes. Our server was quick bringing drinks and we all headed to the buffet. Everyone agreed the food was really good, especially the Mickey waffles! Definitely try the Peanut Butter and Jelly Pizza on the kid’s buffet! YUMMY! First we saw Pluto and got a few pictures with him. Then out came Chip. This was such a wonderful experience! Chip kept trying to feed Alex his eggs and Alex ate every bite (even though I couldn’t get him to eat!). It was so cute! When Dale came out, Alex insisted that Dale feed him as well. Finally, Minnie and Mickey made their grand entrance and Alex was in heaven. Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck are by far his favorites, so he was having a grand time with Minnie. On our way out, we stopped for pictures with Goofy, who got right down on the floor and started tickling Alex. We all agreed our meal here was good, but the character interaction is what makes this place so great! Our meal was paid for with four Vacation Kingdom Breakfast Vouchers (17.00 each..saving us a few dollars per person) and Alex ate for free since he’s under three.

After our very fun breakfast, we roamed around the Contemporary, shopping in the stores and taking pictures. Since the monorail was right there, we decided to hop aboard and take a ride over to the Magic Kingdom. It was so crowded however, that we had to wait for a second monorail before there was room to board. UH oh. I think MK is gonna be crowded!

When we walked into the Mk, it didn’t seem that bad. Then we got up around near Casey’s and sent Bryan ahead for fastpasses to Mickey’s Philharmagic. While he was gone, I checked out the wait board. 90 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean, 50 minutes for It’s A Small World!?!? It is sooo crowded!!! It took Bryan nearly 30 minutes to walk from the end of Main St. to the fastpass at MP and back!!!! While we were waiting for Bryan, we also saw the Purdue band perform down Main St. What a huge band!! They were in town for the bowl game.

Since it was so crowded in Fantasyland, we walked first through Adventureland and Frontierland. The crowds were getting heavier and heavier the more we walked. When we got to Fantasyland, you couldn’t even walk it was so crowded! I was literally only walking a few inches at a time and then had to stop every couple of seconds. It was actually kinda scary. I took some pictures while holding my camera way up in the air. You can see how crowded it was! Since it was just too much, we gave up our fatpasses for MP and left the MK. We’d come back another day. On our way out, we stopped to take pictures of our favorite Mickey statues from the 75 InspEARations. Some of them were really cool!

We walked back to the Contemporary and found our car. We all needed to pick up a few things from Belz Outlet, so off we went! We did more shopping in the Disney outlets and then headed over to Sonic on IDrive for some strawberry limeaids. Alex and I were the only ones though that enjoyed them.

It was nearing dinner time, and Mom suggested eating at Uno’s at the Crossroads near Downtown Disney. This sounded good to everyone, so we took a drive back over there. The place was not crowded at all and we were seated immediately. Our food was brought out rather quickly and everyone agreed it was a delicious meal. Mom and Alex split a pepperoni pizza, Dad had a penne pasta entrée, and Bryan and I each had a Chef’s choice pizza with various toppings. With drinks, tax and tip it only came to $43.00. Great value for a great meal!

After dinner Bryan and Mom wanted to run into the Gooding’s Grocery Store and so they took Alex since they could take him in a cart. Dad and I went into Bath and Body Works next door so he could get a few Christmas presents for coworkers. They were having a fabulous after Christmas sale so I really took advantage of the low prices. Mom even stopped in and grabbed a few things. After our little shopping spree, we were ready for more! Mom and Dad wanted to take Alex on the carousel at Downtown Disney and then over to the Poly to watch the Electrical Water Pageant, so they offered to watch him while Bryan and I took in a movie. First, Bryan and I did some shopping at World of Disney and then drove over to the West Side (easier when we came out after the movie rather than walking back over to the Marketplace at midnight). We purchased our movie tickets for Peter Pan and then shopped in the House of Blues. We grabbed a caramel apple and soda at the Candy Cauldron and sat down by the lake We people watched for about 30 minutes and then it was time for our movie at 9:50. Gosh, there must have been a thousand previews for this movie!!! It took about 35 minutes for the previews to end there were so many! The movie was outstanding though! We were back at Pop Century around midnight and we hit the sack.

In the meantime, Dad Mom and Alex went on the carousel at Downtown Disney and did a little shopping in the stores. Then they took a bus to the Polyenesian Resort and walked down to the grassy area next to the beach. They enjoyed Wishes once again and then took in the Electrical Water Pageant. Alex had a great time and decided we would all come back as a family to watch it again before we left. They were back in the hotel room by 10 and fast asleep when Bryan and I got back to the room.

Day 12, Dec. 30th:

We all got up a little late today, around 10ish. We didn’t have Mickey wake us up this morning since we didn’t really have any plans. No one wanted to even venture into the parks today since they were just too crowded to really enjoy yourself, so we took it easy today. Bryan wanted to drive to Tampa to look at some apartment complexes he may move into in March, so Dad asked me to go with Bryan so he wouldn’t have to go alone. I was a bit hesitant about leaving Alex, but Mom said they really enjoyed their alone time with him…so I agreed to go to Tampa. The last time I had been there was 1998 with some friends on a daytrip, so I was kinda looking forward to seeing the city again. I kissed my baby boy (he could really care less that I was leaving him for half the day) and we were off!

Traffic was a nightmare on I4 this morning so it took us a good 90 minutes to get to Tampa. We stopped at 4th St. Shrimp Store for lunch when we finally got to the city. This restaurant is really cool! It has covered outdoor seating and two large rooms for dining. The place kinda reminds me of Margaritaville. We each had a cup of soup (clam chowder) and the shrimp trio, which consisted of 40 pieces of shrimp (fried, peel and eat, and scampi), fries and cole slaw. With drinks, before tip, our meal came to $37.00. It was absolutely fantastic though; we highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the area! The staff is extremely friendly, the food is wonderful and the ambiance is really cool!

After our relaxing meal (not having to deal with a toddler is sometimes REALLY nice at mealtime), we headed over to St. Petersburg to check out some of the condos available for rent. This took quite a long time and we were just finishing up when it was nearing sunset. Bryan drove me over to St. Pete’s Beach (different city than St. Petersburg) so I could see the Gulf of Mexico and watch the sunset. It was so beautiful, and I wished Mom and Dad could have seen it too! I picked up some large shells (which were in abundance here), and we headed back to the car. Our drive back to Orlando took about 90 minutes since we were a little further west of Tampa and we were back to the room about 8ish.

In the meantime Dad, Mom and Alex had taken a bus to Downtown Disney to do some more shopping and so Alex could ride the train. It was really warm today so Alex was able to play in the fountains! He always enjoys this and could spend hours here! Mid afternoon, they took the bus back to the Pop Century and had a late lunch in the food court. Alex played in the Goofy Jetpool for awhile and they had some fun walking around the resort and exploring.

When Bryan and I got back to Pop, Mom was really hungry at this point. Dad wanted to nap, so the rest of us went to Coronado Springs Resort again to use more vouchers. Our last meal here was fantastic, and we wanted to try something different. This time, though, there was a huge line just to get in. We waited about 20 minutes and were finally seated at the Pepper Market. For dinner, Alex had pizza and a cookie which the CM yet again didn’t charge us for (on purpose since we had vouchers and she didn’t want to ring it up separate). Bryan had a Chinese Sampler (14.95), lemonade (1.99) and strawberry shortcake (3.65) so he saved a great deal with his voucher. I had the Mexican Sampler (11.95), Coke (1.99) and strawberry shortcake (3.65). Mine was fantastic!!! Mom had the penne pasta with marinara (11.99), coke (1.99) and Oreo Cake (3.65). The food was once again delicious, and we practically rolled out of the restaurant.

When we got back to the resort, it was still pretty warm so Bryan, Alex and I decided to go for a swim in the Hippy Dippy Pool in the 60’s decade. The water is heated, so it was very warm and so much fun! The air was about 65 degrees that night, but the water was around 75 degrees..perfect. Alex got out after about ten minutes (didn’t want to make him sick since the air was kinda chilly) so Mom wrapped him in his Pooh towel and they headed back to the room. Bryan and I got out after about an hour and ran back to the room. The air sure is cold when you get out of a heated pool!!! We set the wake up call for tomorrow and fell asleep shortly thereafter.

Day 13, Dec. 31st: New Year’s Eve:

There was no way Alex was getting up mega early today to get into Epcot for Early Magic Hour, so Bryan and Dad went ahead via bus to get on Mission: Space and Test Track before the crowds got enormous. They were at the Epcot turnstiles by 7:am this morning; but unfortunately due to lines, were not let into the park until at least 7:20. Dad said they were funneling all the resort guests into one line, whether they had to go through security or not (they didn’t have to, but were forced to this morning). So, non resorts guests were getting into the park before most resort guests who were entitled to early magic hour (they opened the gates early..which wasn’t fair). So, by the time they got to Mission: Space at 7:30am, the fatpasses were taken all the way up to 10:15am!!! So, they grabbed two for Mom and I and they boarded Mission: Space. This was Bryan’s fourth or fifth ride so he of course, loved it. Dad said it was ok and not as bad as he expected. They then went on Test Track and then started walking around because it was already getting jammed packed. They ate breakfast at the Electric Umbrella and rode Spaceship Earth as well.

In the meantime, Mom, Alex and I took the car over to the Beach Club to park our car. We were not allowed in though today (due to crowds) so we headed back to Epcot. We got in line to go through the entrance to the parking lot, and that took nearly half an hour!!! We were finally through the gate and there was still no where to go! Traffic was backed up just to park! We waited about ten minutes without even moving, when all of a sudden a cast member golf cart rode up. They took the cones out of one of the entrances to a different parking lot, and we were next in line to go through here!! Yahoo!!! We cruised on up to almost the front of the parking lot (just behind handicapped) and parked. We were thanking our lucky stars we got a break on that one! By 10:15, we are heading into the park. We met up with the guys just inside the gate and started walking towards Spaceship Earth.

Behind one of the Leave of Legacy’s was Daisy Duck and she was standing all alone!! So, we quickly got Alex’s picture with Daisy. Unfortunately, there were a few grownups who didn’t understand the concept of a line (which quickly formed behind us) and the cast members had to get a little tough with them. I’m just glad I didn’t have to wait!

Mom and I grabbed the fastpasses and walked towards Mission: Space. We were to meet the guys as soon as the ride was over in Innoventions (the entrance closest to M:S). When we got to the attraction, there were so many people you couldn’t tell which line to get into! So, we got in the far left line but a cast member came up and told us that if we had a fastpass, we had to practically scale the wall next to us and get to the front and we would be let right in. Ok, this was not an easy task. We seriously almost had to scale the wall just to get to the front. People were giving us dirty looks and making comments, but we were doing what the CM told us to do! We finally got up there and sure enough, we were let right in. Within ten minutes we were boarding our capsule! Mom was so nervous at this point. She isn’t a thrill ride person so it was really making her nervous. She did pretty well on the attraction, but she did say she gagged a few times. She doesn’t know whether it was nerves or the spinning. She did enjoy it though and even managed to do her job as a pilot!

When we exited the ride, we quickly found Bryan, Alex and Dad waiting inside Innoventions. Bryan said he had gone to Test Track to see if he could get us some fastpases and the wait was already up to four and half hours for standby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe that?? He took a picture of the sign that read “Standby: 270 minutes” and grabbed four fastpasses. At 10:15am, the fatpsses were good for midnight to 1am!! He walked over to Mission: Space and there was a 30 minute wait just to GET a fastpass!!!!!! Both attractions were “sold out” of fatpasses by 10:30am!!!!!

We started to discuss the crowds while sitting in Innoventions. We could stay and live with the crowds. We would be miserable, especially with the stroller and trying to maneuver around everyone. We wouldn’t get on any attractions (I refuse to wait more than an hour for any attraction) and World Showcase would be jammed packed. I heard later in the day from a couple that it took them nearly 90 minutes to walk halfway around the lagoon without stopping in the countries! All we would do the entire day is walk around and not really see much. Poor Alex would be staring at the backs of people’s legs the entire day since he was in the stroller (the safest place for him at this point). OR we could leave Epcot and do something outside the theme parks. It was decided in about 2.5 seconds. We were leaving. We headed to the front of the park and to the exit.

When we got there, there was no exit to exit through! They were using the exits as entrances. This kinda miffed me a bit because what if there was an emergency and everyone flooded to the front? It would have been a disaster!!! So, we told the CM we wanted out. He ignored us. I said it louder. He ignored us and continued talking to people entering the park. Finally, I’m screaming. Let me out of the park please!!! He finally clears a way for us and the other two families standing near us to get out. Dad is behind me with the stroller and the stroller can not obviously fit through the turnstile. The CM continues to ignore my Dad’s plea for help. People start forming a humongous line behind my Dad. I start to worry that they will begin pushing; and Alex will be pressed up against the turnstile and get hurt pretty badly. The CM manning the turnstile keeps talking to some guy outside the gates. My Dad said, “Sir, please do your job and open the wheelchair gate for us.” He says to my Dad, ‘I am doing my job, sir.” In the meantime, my Dad is still inside the park!!! I couldn’t take it anymore! I scream, “Let him out now!!” The CM FINALLY opens the gate for the stroller to get through. Man, was I angry!!! Other people behind my Dad were extremely angry as well because they couldn’t get out of the darn park!!! What a fiasco!

So, we were finally out of the park and our car was only a short distance away. We drove back to Pop Century to grab our beach gear and we were headed for Clearwater Beach within 30 minutes! Mom has always wanted to see this beach; and since Bryan and I were just in the vicinity yesterday, I couldn’t wait for her to see how beautiful it is! It took only about an hour this time and as soon as we got to the beach, we decided to stop and eat something. There was a really neat looking restaurant called Britt’s Laguna Grille right along the strip, so we chose this for lunch. It had a Rainforest Café feel, with animals on the wall and a jungle theme. We were seated next to the waterfall in the outdoor seating area. Dad, Bryan and I each had the sea chowder to start which was so good! Bryan had the blackened mahi sandwich with fries. I had the turkey baguette with fries and Mom had the steak bagette with fries. Dad had a Mediterranean Salad and Alex had French fries and whatever else he ate off of everyone else’s plates. Our meal without tax and tip came to $40.00. The service is slow here, but the food is outstanding!

It was about 80 degrees outside, and it was New Year’s Eve!!! How cool is that! So, we went into the store next to the restaurant and bought some beach items (sand bucket for Alex, tshirts for the rest of us) and headed down to the beach. It was still pretty crowded. The water was a little chilly, so not many people were swimming; but a whole ton of people were enjoying the sun. It was really a perfect way to spend New Year’s Eve I looked around at our beautiful view, my son with his beautiful smile and my family grinning from ear to ear; and thought about how lucky we were to be spending such a beautiful day with each other. We played on the beach for awhile, and then drove up to Tampa to see the apartment complex Bryan has decided to apply to live in. Once again, we headed back to Pop Century.

After awhile, everyone started to get hungry again, so we stopped in the food court at Everything Pop. Alex ate a Kid’s Cuisine I brought with us and a rice crispie treat shaped like Mickey. Boy, does he love those things! I had a Very Sloppy Joe again and a watermelon bowl. I still love those Sloppy Joe’s!!! Bryan also had a Very Sloppy Joe, Dad had the cheesesteak wrap with fries and Mom had a pepperoni pizza. It seems like Mom was eating nothing but pizza this trip!!! We played in the arcade for awhile and then went back to our room to get changed into our bathing suits. It was a little too chilly for Alex, so he stayed back with Grammy to get a bath while Bryan and I took a quick dip in the pool. The water was even warmer tonight (or at least it felt like it). We went back to the room about 11pm, and everyone climbed into bed. About midnight, I heard these loud booms. Everyone was asleep except Mom and I, so I snuck out the door to see if I could see any fireworks. I ran over to the other side of the courtyard and I couldn’t believe my eyes!!!! The fireworks from MGM looked like they were right over top Pop Century! What an incredible view!!!! I saw Mom peeking out of the room and beckoned for her to come over. We stood there in awe. The fireworks were unbelievable!!!! When we got back to the room, everyone else was still fast asleep. Mom and I giggled about the site of us running across the courtyard in our PJ’s..it must have been quite a site for other guests! LOL

Day 14, Jan 1st:

Today was our last full day at WDW! Sniff Sniff!!!

We set the Mickey wake up call early today and we had to get up!!!! There was a ton of stuff we needed to do so we were at the bus stop by 6:45am. We, unfortunately, had to take the second bus but we were in the MK by 7:15am. Security was quick and painless and we headed up Main St. in no time. There was a lot of fog this morning and you couldn’t even see the Castle until you were up by the hub! There wasn’t a lot of people in the parks this morning, due to staying up late for New Year’s, so I figured we could get a lot done this morning. First, I ran into the Emporium for the New Year’s Day 2004 pin that Mom and I both wanted. Yesterday, the New Year’s Eve pins sold out by 10am! So, I paid for the pins and hiked it up alone to Fantasyland to meet the rest of the family at the Pooh ride. Man, was I beat by the time I got there. MUST LOSE WEIGHT. I’m huffing and puffing when I get there and Bryan tells me he grabbed fastpasses for Mickey PhilHarmagic for all of us already. We had a five minute wait for the Many Adventures of Pooh and we climbed into our honey pot. I just love this ride and Alex loved it too!!! The absolute best part is bouncing with Tigger!!

Our next stop was Peter Pan. There was about a ten minute wait and then we climbed aboard our pirate ship. Alex was a little nervous, but he did fine and seemed to enjoy it towards the end. He kept covering his ears because he was afraid it would be loud and scary. He did point at the mermaids though with a great big smile plastered on his face ..hmm…that’s a boy for ya! With that ride under our belts, Mom and Dad took Alex on Snow White’s Scary Adventures while Bryan and I took pictures in Fantasyland. In May, Alex had no problems on this ride and this time he was a little frightened. Looks like we won’t be back on here until he’s a little older! You don’t realize how scary (and/or loud) some of these rides are until you have children. While we were waiting, Bryan tried to pull the sword out of the stone with no luck! LOL When they exited, Mom , Alex and I got in line for Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel. Carrousels are one of Alex’s favorite things in the world, so we took a little spin on the horses. He had a super time, giggling the whole ride; so we were glad we took the time to ride this one!

Next goal: Haunted Mansion. This is one of my favorites and since seeing the movie, it was even more fun! Alex did well and didn’t even get scared on this one. Toddlers are hard to figure out sometimes! The crowds were starting to swell so we slowly strolled over to Tomorrowland with hopes of riding Space Mountain. The sign was posted at 30 minutes, so Bryan and I decided to go ahead and ride. Dad, Mom and Alex would meet us at the exit after they rode the TTA. I’m glad we decided to go because the wait was only about ten minutes, if that. The attraction is definitely better from the back..it seems much faster for some reason. We exited the ride and couldn’t find the family, so we started walking towards the TTA. We finally met up with them and walked back towards Fantasyland.

Bryan and I ran into Cosmic Ray’s for some breakfast sandwiches and hashbrowns to go, which we shared with Alex. The sandwiches were each $5.49 and well worth the money! So Yummy!!!!

Our fastpass time was up for Mickey’s PhilHarmagic so we got in line. We were in the waiting room in about five minutes, and I was getting really excited!!! Shortly, the doors opened and we enjoyed the show! It was, by far, the best 3D show I’ve ever seen!!! Alex giggled the whole time and really loved Donald Duck! I thought the part with Ariel was breathtaking and enjoyed every minute of it! This is a definite do not miss!!!

Ok, so we had done everything in the MK we wanted to do, so what next? Animal Kingdom!! We took the monorail (pretty crowded) over to the TTC and walked over to the bus depot. There was a bus waiting for us, yet again, and this time we got to sit!! It was about a 15 minute bus trip over to Animal Kingdom. Security was a breeze again today, and we were in the gates within minutes. You could tell immediately that the park was not crowded at all. Alex fell asleep on the way in, so when we got to Camp Minnie Mickey we made the decision not to see Festival of the Lion King yet. Dad misunderstood what we said and though we WERE going to see the show so there was a bit of an argument here. There was no one in Camp Minnie Mickey so Mom and I grabbed our cameras and got our pictures taken with all the characters with no lines! We got pictures with Daisy Duck, Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, Brother Bear and Kota. We had a ball and laughed like little kids. We got in line for the next showing of Festival of the Lion King after Alex woke up from his short nap. We waited about twenty minutes and we were let into the theater. The music is so much louder now that they put the walls around the theater, but the show was still incredible!! I cry every time! Alex ha a great time as well, clapping along with the music and singing away!

After the show, we walked towards Pizzafari and I told everyone how neat the rooms are in the restaurant; so we decided to eat here. Bryan had a deli sandwich for $6.19. Dad and Mom had a pepperoni pizza (11.58 for two) and Alex and I split the Kid’s pizza, which included a soda and cookie for 5.99. We got the kid’s voucher deal, so we got an extra soda and snack for later. Bryan went over to a cart outside the restaurant to get us bottles of soda (from the last vouchers we bought) to go with our meal. When we brought the food to the table, Alex immediately reached up to Dad’s plate and tried to grab some pizza. It was hot and he burned his poor little baby arm! He was fine though because thanfully the pizza wasn’t so hot it would burn his skin. Our meal was good and we enjoyed our surroundings in the “season room.” The only problem with this counter service restaurant is the lack of high chairs. We only saw a couple in the whole place! Alex is still not tall enough to eat comfortably in a regular chair and uses the highchair (there is no way he would sit still in a regular chair anyway)..but it was hard to find one! Even a cast member we asked had some trouble finding one. The restaurant was not crowded at all, so it kinda amazed me.

We took a left out of the restaurant and started walking towards Africa. I decided to take Alex into the baby care center to get cleaned up but on the way in he started screaming because he thought it was a doctor’s office. I showed him the playroom and boy did he cheer up after that! He immediately started playing with all the toys and didn’t want to leave. The cast member in here was really sweet and told us some awful stories about some of the lost children that come in here. She said that the day before a thirteen year old got separated from his parents and knew to go to the lost child center to wait for them. No one bothered to find him until the end of the day, after the park closed. So the poor kid was bored out of his mind for eight hours while his family played in the park, while he was stuck there wondering why his family wasn’t bothered by the fact that he was missing.

We finally coaxed Alex out of the center and walked over to the Tree of Life trails. We saw a ton of animals and we all enjoyed walking around this area! There is a ton of things to see back there and it’s so beautiful! When we were finished with our walk, Mom suggested taking Alex back over to see the characters at Camp Minnie Mickey since he had been sleeping before. I’m so glad we did!!!

Donald Duck and Pluto were standing in the middle of the land, so we got in line to see Donald first. Alex got his picture with him and then Donald ran at me like he was gonna tackle me!!! He pointed to his eye, then his nose and then me. I didn’t understand, because I didn’t catch the whole charade. I was still a little frightened by the near tackling! He grabbed me and had a picture taken with me and then I realized it was a friend of mine playing Donald! I knew exactly who she was and we started hugging. The cast member taking pictures asked my brother what the heck was going on, and they all had a good laugh about it. I told Donald that Alex adores him (he’s his favorite character) and so Donald got down on the ground and started playing with Alex. He gave him big hugs and kisses too. I got a ton of picture and thanked my friend for such a magical moment. Mom was even crying at this point!!!

We also got pictures with Pluto, Minnie, Mickey, Santa Goofy and the characters from Brother Bear. Alex had a great time so I was so happy we came back here for pictures!!! Before we left, Donald told me to watch the parade that day because she would be playing Terk! We couldn’t wait!!!

Bryan didn’t walk Pangani Forest Trail here the other day, so we all did this attraction next. The gorillas were harder to see today, but it was still fun. They seem fascinated by the plastic covers of pails, which resembled Frisbees. At least half the gorillas were munching on them. After Pangani, we did some more shopping in Mombasa and then got ice cream desserts with our vouchers from the other day. We sat on the Asian dock overlooking the Tree of Life and had a very relaxing, peaceful time along the water. Alex didn’t want his Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar!!! Alex doesn’t want ice cream?? Turns out, he just wanted run around with the other kids at the pavilion. The tables were full so I didn’t let him run around and he started getting really antsy.

We took a short stroll over near the Flights of Wonder stage and found a seat for the parade. It was a perfect spot and we loved the Jungle Jammin Parade!!! The music is so much fun and definitely stays with you for days. We even saw Terk and she came running over to us with more hugs and kisses. She even stopped for some pictures with Alex! It’s so much fun when you “know” the characters!! Another magical moment, and Mom and I were crying again.

After the parade, we talked about what we wanted to do next. We had done everything we had wanted to do at WDW on this trip, except for one thing: Eating around the world at Epcot! So, we took the bus back to Pop Century and took our car over to the Beach Club. It’s so much easier to park here if you want to leave at the end of the night, rather than fight for a bus back to your resort. We entered the park and went right over to Imagination because we didn’t ride it yet and we knew Alex would like it. I remembered to cover his ears at the end and he definitely loved Figment! So, now it’s nearing 6pm. We’ve got three hours to try and eat around the world..do you think we can do it???

Our first country was Mexico. The line was so unbelievably long at the counter service place, but we had to do it! I got in line behind a group of cheerleaders while Bryan ran ahead to Norway to get us our snack. It took me nearly half an hour to get a child’s platter (burrito, chips and a drink for 3.72)!!! Bryan met us at a table overlooking the lagoon, and we ate our Mexican platter and a sweet pretzel from Norway. The pretzel was fabulous! You just have to try one! While we were eating, we noticed a woman and her husband pull up to the area on ECV’s. They jumped right out of the ECV and got in line while their children waited for them. There were no tables, so the children had to just stand there. Shortly after, maybe five minutes, a CM manager came over with the parents. The woman was explaining that her son had gotten food and put it down on a table. When they got over there, someone had taken the food. The table behind us told the manager that it was impossible, that they were never sitting there and that they were lying.