Disneyworld!

Well we made it! Survived our first major trip with 3 kiddos in tow and our first ever trip to the magic of Disneyworld. This post will probably be a long one. I want to document all the little details I currently remember about this trip. So if you're not interested in all the nitty gritty feel free to browse through all the pictures I'm posting to capture the highlights.

First off, the kids were great on both flights. Especially Curren whom I was most stressed out about. What is more annoying to people than a crying child you can't escape from? Yeah that's right. I was really worried with the long flight he'd get restless or frustrated and start crying uncontrollably. Not only did he take good naps on both flights he was pretty content just sitting in his seat eating or playing with toys. Thank heavens is all I have to say!

Since we arrived at WDW in the early evening we never ventured to any park, but instead ate dinner then wandered around our resort - The Wilderness Lodge. If you're looking for a great place to stay, close to The Magic Kingdom with wonderful scenery and a fun pool for the kids, this is it. Really I'm sure any WDW resort is great. They definitely aim to please. Although we couldn't see the castle from our resort I still think the landscaping and ambience was wonderful.

The Wilderness Lodge

The mousekeeping we returned to every afternoon

Our first full day at WDW started off great. We headed over to The Grand Floridian Resort (very plantation-like) to enjoy our first character meal! Yipee! The kids were really excited. We met Alice (as in Alice in Wonderland), Mary Poppins, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Tigger. The Mad Hater never made it to our table in time. I hear he's a show stopper. I'm sure because of that he has to linger at tables a lot longer.

After breakfast we took the monorail to The Magic Kingdom. And although it was very lightly sprinkling when we left our resort we never thought to bring our rain coats. BIG MISTAKE!!! We arrived at The Kingdom and quickly realized we needed to throw down $30 for 4 measly plastic rain ponchos. At least they kept us dry....for a little while. It continued to rain, pour, drizzle and while Rick and Aidan headed over to Space Mountain I thought I'd take Kellen and Curren over to Mickey's Toon Town Fair. We arrived at Mickey's house and Kellen didn't want to get out of the stroller. So, being as it was around Curren's naptime and raining I decided we'd head back to the room for a break. Kellen did not like that one bit and threw himself a little tantrum. One good thing about him is his tantrums in public are usually pretty quiet. Annoyingly quiet that is. Because I can hear him whine and cry, but most others can't. However, I was not going to give in because I knew he still wouldn't get out of the stroller or maybe would one time and then decide he was too cold or wet to get out again. So we took the boat over to The Wilderness Lodge and Kellen watched Phineas and Ferb while Curren napped. Rick and Aidan returned and told us they had fun on Space Mountain and also decided to ride the cars. Fun, but the seats were totally wet so they got soaked.

Yep, this about sums it up. Miserable!

Notice the sea of Disney ponchos?

After Curren's nap we decided to try our luck outside again and this time a little more prepared for the rain. The boys had waterproof rain coats, but I only had a water-resistant rain jacket and Rick, well he still just had that cheaply made (but costly) rain poncho. I was told there are quite a few indoor options at Epcot so I thought we should head over there and wander around. I actually enjoyed Epcot a lot more than I thought I would. Not a whole lot for the kiddos to do, especially this night, but we did go on some futuristic ride (I can't remember the name) and found a dry place to eat in the early America section. By the end of the night though my hands were as pruny as I've ever seen them. I had them covered in my jacket, but holding the stroller just made my jacket worthless over my hands and arms. Pretty miserable I must say, but memorable.

The boys in England at Epcot

That evening I contacted the company who rented us the double stroller to ask if they have a rain cover, which they did and said they would deliver it the following morning. (Of course, as luck would have it we never really needed it again, but we ended up receiving it for free and I still feel justified getting it.) Oh yeah, and we ended up heading down to Downtown Disney that same evening so we could find a rain jacket for Rick. We found one, but in typical Disney style it wasn't cheap:).

Notice the stroller cover? Too bad we didn't have it when it actually rained.

Saturday morning, looked like it was going to be another rainy day so we packed up all our rain gear and headed out to The Magic Kingdom again. It actually turned out to be a great although by Florida standards cold day. (That is in the upper 50's.) We also enjoyed another character meal. We met Eeyore, Winnie-the Pooh and Tigger (again) and Piglet. Piglet was so cute and it was really adorable watching Piglet interact with Curren. Curren was trying to share his food and Piglet was being a great sport by playing along.

After lunch we went on the Aladdin Magic Carpet Ride and the Jungle Cruise. We also walked around The Swiss Family Robinson Tree house. Curren feel asleep on the Jungle Cruise so we headed over to Mickey's Toon Town Fair and Rick took the older boys to ride The Barnstormer while I wandered around with Curren. After the ride and when Curren woke up we headed over to Mickey's house and stood in line to meet Mickey and Minnie. I think this was one of Aidan's highlights. He was really excited to meet them. Which I found very endearing since he's now 8.

Later that afternoon we rode Pirates of the Caribbean. Now that ride has changed quite a bit from what I remember as a kid. It definitely highlights the movies. Still a fun ride and the kids enjoyed it.

We came back to the resort and let the kids swim in the pool. They loved the slide! They went down the slide over and over and over again. Definitely another highlight on the trip for the kids.

After dinner at the Lodge Rick and Aidan headed back over to The Magic Kingdom and road Thunder Mountain (the boys absolute favorite) and the Tomorrowland Tranist Authority. Rick said there were so many people there they could hardly move around. As they took the boat back to the resort they watched some of the firework show. Pretty amazing.

Sunday we decided to go to Animal Kingdom. Rick was really looking forward to riding Expedition Everest. However, no one else was:). The Tree of Life is amazing and a focal point of the park. Unfortunately we never went on the safari, but the kids played in The Boneyard (a dinosaur inspired playground), watched It's Tough to Be a Bug. Which was hilarious! It was in 3D and they really are creative in entertaining everyone. (I won't spoil it by telling you what happens.)

Expedition Everest in the background

For dinner we took the boat over to the Ft. Wilderness and ate at The Trail's End Restaurant. Once we sat down a waitress made an announcement. A couple sitting across from us were celebrating their 59th, yes, 59th wedding anniversary. How sweet is that? You don't see that too often. Nor would I think you'd see a couple that age celebrating at WDW.

This little guy definitely enjoyed his dinners at WDW. Especially the mashed potatoes and mac 'n cheese

Monday, it was time to return to Magic Kingdom. We were hoping since it was no longer the weekend the crowds would be lower...nope! I guess the "low season" really isn't all that low. Although we did luck out with line wait time. Either the wait wasn't too long or any ride which was long had a fastpass option. Another cool thing about fastpass, not only do you get a pass to return at a later time with little or no wait they also allow for a baby swap. You go up to a cast member and tell them you'd like to do a baby swap. They issue you a special pass so one of us would go with the older boys while the other waits with Curren. Then we swap. It really worked out well for the boys. They got to ride twice! Aidan ended up riding Thunder Mountain 4 times, Kellen 3.

Oh and another cool story. Me and the boys were waiting to get on the train for Thunder Mountain and the man behind us said, "Hey, go Broncos!" (Aidan was wearing his Broncos jersey as well as his Rockies cap.) He asked us if we were from Colorado, I told him yes and he said they were from Texas and lived about 5 hours from Colorado Springs. He then asks where in Colorado we lived so I told him in a town called Castle Rock which is about 30 minutes south of Denver. He said, "they have great shopping there." (We have an outlet mall here.) Then he asked if we lived in The Meadows. I said yes and he told me he loved that area and would love to live there. Great views, homes etc. Pretty amazing considering most "westerners" go to Disneyland instead of Disneyworld since it's closer.

That afternoon we headed back to the resort for a break. Since Curren decided to forgo a nap all the boys enjoyed some swimming. Once again, the boys spent most of their time going down the slide. Rick took Curren over to the baby pool where he had a blast. That evening we had dinner reservations in Downtown Disney so we headed over there.

WDW is amazingly huge. 47 square miles to be exact. It's about a 1/2 hour bus ride from our resort to Downtown Disney and the kids all fell asleep. It was really quite cute watching their heads bob around. Poor little guys. Too much activity. The boys also got to pick out one item of their choice (relatively speaking) as a commerative gift to remember their Disney trip. Plus, I did buy them small Mickey Mouse stuffed toys too.

Tuesday we headed back over to Epcot. We all really wanted to ride Soarin'. It's one of those flight simulator rides and it was AMAZING! You truly felt like you were flying and I didn't notice this (maybe my nose was stuffed up), but when we flew over the orange groves you'd smell oranges and the evergreens an evergreen smell. Plus when we flew over the ocean we all got sprayed. Pretty cool. The only downfall is there was a long wait even with the fastpass so we stayed at Epcot all day and Curren wasn't too keen on this idea. Although he did finally fall asleep and took a good 2 hour nap (his first in a stroller EVER).


While waiting to ride Soarin' we walked around all the countries and the boys and Rick rode Test Track which I heard was AWESOME! It took a long time for them to ride it (even with the fastpass) so by the time they were done I wasn't interested in having Rick and Curren wait that long. Unfortunately the boys weren't interested in seeing any of the shows so we didn't catch those. Although I heard The Nemo show and the talk with Crush (from Nemo) is pretty cool Oh well!

Since I rode Soarin' with the boys first I decided to head back to the resort with Curren. We had reservations to eat at a restaurant in The Animal Kingdom, but we were so tired and just wanted to unwind by the pool that I was lucky enough to land a reservation at our resort restaurant called The Whispering Canyon Cafe. Let me just tell you, there is nothing whispering about it. For me this was the most memorable restaurant we ate at. Not necessarily because the food tasted the best, but what occurred.

The table next to us were pretty lively (what I picture as typical New Yorkers, but in a good way. They seemed very nice, but loud and boisterous.) Anyway, after they had received their food one woman at the table asked for something from the waitress then I heard her yell out, "We need ketchup! Please give us some ketchup!" I thought, okay whatever. This is a loud restaurant the waiters and waitresses are all sarcastic and funny. (Our waitress threw napkins and straws on our table.) Anyway, a few minutes later 3 or 4 waitresses walk out carrying several bottles of ketchup and deliver them to the table next to us. Hilarious! And once again, I thought they were just goofing around with them.

A few minutes later another table yells out their need for ketchup so our neighboring table gets up and delivers all their bottles of ketchup to that table. So, I'm finally catching on. This is what happens at this restaurant.

A few minutes later our food arrives. Kellen had ordered a hamburger and fries. So....what do you think he needs? Yep, you got it, ketchup! So we all yell out our need for ketchup and 15 or so bottles are delivered to our table. So funny!

Need ketchup, anyone?

After dinner the kids were WOUND up from all the cookies they've been eating on the trip so we went to the pool and let them swim for almost 2 hours. Rick and I took turns walking around with Curren who had a blast practicing his walking skills.

Wednesday, our final day at WDW we once again had reservations at The Whispering Canyon Cafe. This was also the day we were "celebrating" Kellen's birthday. Although he refused to wear his birthday pin and didn't want us to annouce it to the restaurant staff. I'm sure they would've embarrassed him to no end.

I ordered pancakes gave one to Curren, but I still couldn't finish my meal. So in typical Whispering Canyon Cafe style the waitress made a big hoopla about it. She announced to everyone (by the way she's from Massachussets - picture the New England accent), "Hey everyone, princess here can't finish her food so everyone say choo, choo, choo, choo, choo, choo to help her eat." So she took a forkful of pancake and, well, fed me. I think my cheeks turned two shades of red. And when we were leaving the table next to us needed some honey. So guess what happens next. That's right, they made an announcement and they received several packets of honey. Hilarious! I really got a kick out of that restaurant.

So after breakfast Rick took the two older boys back to Magic Kingdom so they could ride the two rides Kellen wanted to go on again and I headed back to the room with Curren to pack and put him down for a nap.

Our flight out ended up leaving about an hour late and it took 1 hour and 15 minutes longer than our flight to Orlando because we had no tailwinds. I was freaking out thinking Curren is for sure going to lose it. But as I stated earlier, he was a champ and slept for half the flight.

Still reading this? Well I'm done, but can't say enough how much fun we had. I'm glad we went, but I'm not planning to do a big trip like that again for a while. I think we'll take some local trips and continue to explore this beautiful state.