Day Three: What a ride!

After the long night, it was good that we slept in a bit. Hoot stayed curled up until we were almost ready to go. That allowed us to get packed back up and ready to transfer hotels. Soon, we were off and on our way to Pop Century!

We pulled in and parked outside of Classic Hall. The boys went off to find the restroom and explore while Tee & I checked us all in to the resort. We had a wonderful Cast Member and everything went quick and easy. We did get our connecting rooms and we were assigned into one of the 80's buildings. One of the rooms was already available, so we decided to go ahead and dump everything instead of coming back midday.

Tee & I got a kick out of all the pictures on the wall. I totally had that twirler's outfit. (Yes, now you know. I was a twirler). The walls of Classic Hall had so much trivia and memoribilia. It was a shame we didn't have enough time to truly enjoy and explore it all.

At the 80's section, but parked in the 70's because it was closer, we found our elevator behind the giant Sony Walkman Sport. But, our stairs were in the Rubik's Cube. I didn't get photos of them, but if you ever want to see what any Disney resort looks like, Deb Wills and her crew have the photos and answers at AllEars.net!

Before we knew it, we were on our way to Disney's Hollywood Studios. Now, this is probably my least favorite park at Disney World. Sure, there are things about it that I totally love, like Fantasmic and The Great Movie Ride. But, I picked it because it was an easy park for the first day. We had evening extra magic hours (when the park is only open to people staying on property) and we really were looking forward to Toy Story Midway Mania.

We made a beeline for Toy Story and snagged some Fast Passes for later. Then, we saw the wait was forty minutes and decided to go for it. I can't say enough about how enchanting the queu line for this ride is! The premise is that you have shrunk down to toy size and you are in Andy's room. There was so much to see:
I really loved the details such as the Viewmaster reels being from Disneyland. And then there were the great things to find such as the Card Shark behind Tee, Hoot and Nathan.

We had a lot of fun discovering it all and playing around. Tee yelled "Sorry" when she found this game piece.

At the front of the queu, Mr. Potato Head holds court telling jokes, singing songs, and making general mayhem. He's dressed like a midway barker and it is one of the coolest audioanimatronics I have ever seen. Sadly, the picture we took of him wasn't very good.

Before we knew it, we were picking up a pair of 3-D glasses and getting close to the ride. Nathan took Hoot for his first spin, while Tee and I rode behind them. It was so cool. You rode through and stopped at "games" and played them. The first was a pie throw so that you would understand how the game worked. Then we launched eggs, threw darts at balloons (some full of "water", so you got sprayed a little!), pitched baseballs, tossed rings, and shot targets. The entire ride is a full five minutes, but it goes so very quickly!

We couldn't wait to go back for another ride on Toy Story Mania, but alas, it was lunch time and Hoot was hungry. We ate at the Studio Catering Company and had a wonderful lunch. Tee & I tried the grilled chicken with black beans and rice. It was amazingly good. Nathan had the pulled pork sub and Hoot stuck with his kid's meal chicken leg.

Now that we had checked in to the resort, ridden Toy Story Mania, and had lunch, there was no more putting it off. Time to torture the boy with a trip to First Aid.

Coming Next: Day Three: Scream as loud as you want...

Day Two: In the battle of Boy vs Man, Momma wins!

We crossed under the Welcome sign, Tee's birthday CD full of Disney songs blaring, and I got that little Disney tickle in my throat. Oh, it was so very exciting. Even just a trip to the Downtown Disney Marketplace can do it for me. On most trips, this is what we do our first night, so the tradition is alive and well.

Food is the first order of business, so we head off to the Earl of Sandwich. The line moved quickly and we found a big table outside, near the fountain by Once Upon a Toy. DH had the Caribbean Jerk Sandwich, and it should have been called the Royal Jerk Sandwich. I had a fantastic Mediterranean Chicken Salad that is one of my favorite things to eat in the entire World. Hoot refused to eat a warmed PB&J, that when you tasted it, your eyes rolled back into your head. He had other things on his mind.

At first, he gulped down his milk and kept all eyes on Tee. As his attention began to wander, she brought out a Lightning McQueen kaleidoscope, which kept the savageness in check for a little longer. Then, he began to slip further and further away from the table. His eyes were on that fountain and all the kids playing in it. It's a popular play spot, with the jets shooting straight out of the ground, and kids screaming and running about getting soaked. I told him that if he would sit down and eat just a few bites, I would let him play in the fountain after we had shopped. Yeah, no deal.

Again, he attempted to bolt, but DH was right on him. He brought him back to the table and we waited painfully for Tee to finish eating. (This is nothing new, she eats ridiculously slow, she knows it, and nothing will change it.) As we headed towards the toy store, Hoot bolted again. This time he made it all the way to the fountain! Hooray! Um, or not. DH tore after him like a madman. Just as he reached the boy, the crocs DH was wearing betrayed him and he slid into home plate.

Now, in the flash of an eye, all manner of things popped through my brain. DH throwing his back out doing NOTHING at the Atlanta airport BEFORE we departed for our Christmas trip in 1999. The chaos even a twisted ankle would throw into our entire week's schedule and plans. The location of the nearest ER. Images of bloody, twisted limbs. Then, as DH hauled himself up, snagged Hoot and drug him away, ridiculously inappropriate Mom laughter. Lots of it. Oodles, if you will.

As a unit, we retreated to the nearest restroom and regrouped. The boys did their thing, Tee & I did ours, and we soon found ourselves outside the toy store on a bench. And, then, the Jerk sandwich really kicked in. DH did not want to reward "that kind of behavior" with anything. No train ride, no carousel, no toy store. Sadly, we went a few rounds before I realized we were that family, melting down and fighting at Disney. Poor Tee, she was a Southwest Airlines "wanna get away" commercial.

Yes, Hoot was behaving horribly. Yes, he had bolted. No, he wouldn't get to go play in the fountain. But, I still wanted him to have the train and carousel ride. I mean, come on. We spent how much to get here? We get here how often? I had planned this night for how long? And this little not quite four year old had endured a hurricane, a sleepless night in Dallas, a flight, and being shuffled along all day. Give me a break, and cut one for my little guy too!

In the end, I won. But, I didn't push for all of it. We did some shopping at Once Upon a Toy, where Tee bought and stashed away a bag of plastic robots that we would rely on time and time again. I bought the boy an Eve pin and a Wall-E cup. Then, we did a brief visit to the super big World of Disney shop before we called it a night. Looking back, I should have pushed harder. I missed going in Pooh's Corner, the Mickey Mart (everything under $10), and most of all, the Art of Disney store.

After a quick good night, we put Tee safely back into her room and tried to head to bed ourselves. DH was still showing signs of his sandwich, and refused to turn off the TV early. But, I curled up with the boy and tried to get him to relax. After all, we needed to be up super early so we could check in to Pop Century and get to the Hollywood Studios before rope drop.

As I was snuggling with Hoot, I ran a hand over his right foot and felt a bump. I pressed on it to see if it was tender, and he just about jumped out of the bed. We turned the big lights on and took a look. Poor thing had a splinter in the heel of his foot. I rummaged around in my bag, but couldn't find my tweezers. DH was being a freak about having to get it out right away. So, I dialed up Tee and asked to borrow hers.

Hoot struggled and endured while I tried to get it out. We eventually gave up when he began to scream bloody murder. Honestly, a visit from security or even the cops would've really capped off the day! So, I convinced DH to wait and we would stop at First Aid when we got to the Studios the next morning.

Then, seeing how late it was, we made our first change to our touring plans. We decided to sleep until 8 am, check out, go to Pop Century, check in, and get to the park whenever we could. It was a hard decision to make, but a very good one. I knew that Toy Story Mania would be crazy, but really, something had to give.

Up next: What a ride!

Day Two: Tee Time!

After what seemed like hours, but was only about 30 minutes, I received a text from Tee telling me she was at the gate. We rounded up our stuff and headed over to her baggage carousel. We left grumpy DH with our bags, and Hoot & I headed over to the bottom of the escalator. It had been since November since we'd see Tee, but we have pictures and he talks to her on the phone, so I was interested to see if he could pick her out of a line up, or escalator down, if you will.



It took Hoot a little bit to spot her, but he did and he was very excited. Only Tee was talking like a madwoman to no one inparticular. This is when we devised the no Bluetooth rule. It turned out that Bryan had just called her from Africa and they had the best connection that they'd had for his entire trip! Soon, the call was over and Hoot was able to get his hug. Hoot & Tee, together again.



We loaded into the rental car (an Impala with New York plates that proved to help with identification) and we were on our way! Lunch was our first order of business and we'd picked out Steak N Shake because we don't have one at home. We went right to the one on Orange Blossom Trail and it wasn't busy at all. That was a good thing.



Hoot was an absolute nightmare at Steak N Shake. He refused to sit down, refused even a milkshake, and did something he's never done in public before: HE BOLTED! The bubblegum machines near the entrance had really struck his fancy and after the first time he bolted to it, it was all I could do not to strike his fanny! So, we walked outside and sat on a bench and had a long talk about manners and what was expected behavior. He was calm and collected when we got back to the table, but it didn't last five minutes. Not even Tee could entice him into decent behavior. I guess my steakburger was good. I'm not sure. It was a blur. Maybe I chewed.



Back in the rental car, we set off in search of a Target. I had $110 in gift cards so I could purchase the McLaren Volo that we would use on the trip. Of course, I was supposed to search the product on line before we left so I would know which store had them in stock and have directions, but again, that whole panic shut down thing scores another run. Eventually, we realize that we aren't finding a Target on Orange Blossom Trail, so we head over to one across from the Holy Land. Just before we arrive, we notice that Hoot has nodded off in his booster seat! Can I get an AMEN! So, I quietly sneak out of the car to get the stroller while Tee circles the parking lot. Alas, that Target was sold out.

Our next order of business was to stop at the Character Warehouse Outlet for all the marked down Disney merchandise, but you gotta let sleepin' Hoots lie. So, we headed down to the one nighter hotel, the Ramada Orlando Celebration Resort and Convention Center.

I had won this hotel on a Priceline bid of $30 for each room. I wouldn't exactly say this was a great resort, but it was fine for one night. Ramada recently acquired it, and it is an older property. I doubt that Ramada leaves it as is for very long. The land and location has to be worth much more than the revenue this place can generate as is. It was a ghost town, and I didn't even drag out the camera for a single shot.

After dumping our luggage and leaving the boys behind to swim, Tee & I set off again on the great stroller hunt. We found a Super Target, and even though they didn't have the stroller, we went ahead and bought water, breakfast foods, and snacks for the week. It was a quick but enjoyable shopping experience, and I really miss having a Super Target back home.

I snagged the stroller at the next Target down the road, and we headed back to pick up the boys for dinner. When I entered the hotel room, (we were on the ground floor) Hoot was all atwitter. They'd had a good swim, and when they returned to shower, there was a fat frog behind our toilet. I asked to see the frog, but it had already been released into the wild.

After checking Tee's bathroom, at Hoot's insistence, for fat frogs, we all loaded up to cross that magic line onto Disney property! Downtown Disney was our destination, and we couldn't wait! I was super excited. We would eat at the Earl of Sandwich, let Hoot ride the little train and carousel, and do some shopping. Or that was the plan, anyway...

Up next: In the battle of Boy vs Man, Momma wins!

Day Two: Planes, trains, and where did I just park my automobile?

After the ridiculous stress of the previous days, was I really surprised that we didn't get much sleep on Saturday night? No. Was I sad about it? Heck, yeah. I just kept telling myself that no matter what the morning and flight brings, we'll be in Orlando before lunch. It helped... some.

Oddly enough, with all the flights I have taken out of and to DFW, I've never had to park long term. At George Bush Intercontinental Airport, we have a great place down off of Greens Road that we love. The people are fantastic, the service is awesome (gotta love it when they pick you up at your car and they load the luggage) and it is cheap, cheap, cheap. Like $4.50 a day cheap. So, I was traumatized when I realized that the remote parking is $7 a day at DFW, and you have to schlep to the bus station, and you have to haul all your luggage. However, you know me, will schlep for money. Besides, almost all the private off lot places were $9 a day and higher. The plan was to park in the South remote lot and ride the bus to our terminal. However, in the big computer shut down, I did not print the airport map. In fact, I never made it back to look at the airport map.

I spotted The Parking Spot on our way to the hotel Saturday night. I tucked it away in the back of my mind in case I got confused on Sunday morning. A distant voice in the back of my head said that it was perhaps one of the cheaper private lots.

After much snapping and snarling at each other, DH & I were loading Hoot into the car and on our way to the airport semi on schedule Sunday morning. As we were leaving the Super 8 parking lot, I made the snap decision to use the Parking Spot lot so that we would have some help with the luggage. We headed off in the right direction and passed the Parking Spot right up. I got off on the next exit and we whipped it around for another try. I never saw the sign to enter the lot, and the next thing we know, we've passed the darn place again. Really? This was supposed to be taking the easy way out here! DH kept swearing he saw the entrance to the Parking Spot, but I was just swearing. I pulled into the next pay lot and took the first available spot. Hmm, it was a covered lot. Holey moley, what was this going to cost me? Only after our driver deposited us at the terminal and brought out the luggage did I have the guts to ask how much it was per day. $9.50! (Insert more swearing.) But, what is done is done, and I resumed my mantra!

After checking our bags and going through security (really, I thought they would've at least asked about the PlayDoy) we sought out some breakfast. I had a $10 Burger King card from MyPoints and we spotted a Burger King. Alas, they took no gift cards, so it was out of pocket for breakfast. Hoot, of course, ate nothing. He sucked down the elusive chocolate milk (we don't ever let him have this at home) and would be enticed by nothing else. Already a grumpy monkey, but what did we expect since we were so snappy ourselves.

On the plane at last, I settled us in and got a spill proof sippy cup with some juice in it for take off to help with Hoot's ears. (Yes, a sippy cup. I know he hasn't used one for ages, but I didn't really want to wear the juice.) Just as we were about to start taxiing, Hoot pipes up with "I gotta go pee-pee!" chants. (I had no idea just how much foreshadowing this chant would mean.) We explained that he wouldn't be able to go until the Captain had turned off the seat belt sign, but he wasn't buying it. I spent the next twenty minutes telling Hoot about all the flights he had taken before and that this was his eleventh time in the air. We counted to eleven a couple of times so that he could realize just how many times that was, and it seemed to do the trick. So, of course he shifted his worries onto something else: Tee. Where was she? Wasn't she flying with us? I thought we'd see Tee today! As you can tell, it was a restful flight.

In Orlando, we checked on the status of Tee's flight. There was a slight delay, so rather than wait for her at the gate, we decided to head off for our luggage. Hoot loved the ride on the faux monorail! We collected our Mickey head splattered luggage (we stamp a different color Mickey head all over the bags for each trip we have taken) and waited for Tee to arrive.

Up next: Tee Time!

Day One: Oh, my aching Ike!

Saturday was supposed to be a relaxing, stress free day full of laundry and packing. I had done so much prior to that week, it really shouldn't have been bad. Our plan was to pack it all up, load the car, eat an early dinner and head out to our $8.88 room at the Grapevine Super 8 hotel. We'd swim a bit and turn in around 8:30pm so we'd be fresh and ready for our 7:15 am flight to Orlando.

Not.

Hurricane Ike was barrelling towards us and beating a path similar to Rita's back in 2005. This was not making anyone happy and adding a ton of stress on the family. Suddenly, we had to change our focus to stowing away Tonka trucks and lawn donkeys. (Yes, I have lawn donkeys, and the last thing we needed was a flying ass through a window.) We needed to fill the water bottles, check flashlight batteries, and start the generator so it could run for a bit. To make matters a little more stressful, I worked until almost midnight on Friday.

Luckily, we ended up on the better side of the storm. This was much clearer on Friday morning, so we just had to worry about potential flooding, general stormy weather, and some heavy wind gusts. So Friday night, we watched some Ike TV and powered down the computer for safety's sake. Sadly, I did not print my last minute to do list before we shut it all down. I would pay for that later.

I slept poorly as the wind began to pick up and worry overtook me. I slept about 5 hours, getting up at least three times during the night. When the sun came up, I hauled myself out of bed and began to try and wrap things up. By the time the eye wall was about fifty miles to our East, I was in full throws of packing. Then we heard a giant crack and the house literally shook.

This sent Hoot into a tizzy. We ran to the front window and saw the neighbors across the street come running out of their houses. Within a minute, there was a firetruck out front and firemen swarming across the neighbors back yards. They had lost a huge tree that took down a transformer and left live power lines sizzling around the rooftops and yards. Soon, power was cut on that side of the street and the power company was on scene. Really, I was very impressed by the quick reaction time. I felt very blessed that we still had power and no one was hurt.

I kept packing with one eye on the suitcases and one on the TV. The bands of wind and rain continued to sweep across the area, but the eye of the hurricane never crept any closer. It was hard to keep on task, and I wasn't nearly as organized as I usually am. Eventually, I just declared the packing was done and over. I knew I would be forgetting things, but I didn't really care. Now we just needed to get out.

We loaded the car and carefully tracked Ike on the radar. Eventually, we headed almost due West until we hit I-35. This added quite a bit of mileage to the trip, but feeling like we were on our way really helped to improve everyone's mood. We pulled into our hotel at almost 9pm, and were all keyed up. It took forever for poor Hoot to unwind. He really had picked up a lot of stress from us and the situation. I thought he'd never go to sleep. All I wanted to do was sleep!

Coming up next- Day Two: Planes, trains, and where did I just park my automobile?

Back at home, back at work!

We made it home super late Saturday night, or early Sunday morning, if you will. The trip was a huge success and now we are digging out from under laundry and housework. I am always a bit overwhelmed when I get back to work because it seems like we always have a ton of new books come out when I'm gone and I never know where they are!



I've downloaded some photos, but haven't had a bit of time to retouch them. I also haven't uploaded them onto our Photopass CD, but I have a day off on Saturday. I am anxious to start a trip report because it will be the very first one I have ever written. With that, I'm going to start it in a new post. Once I get a few days into the report, I'm also going to post it over on the Disboards.

Epcot today!

Today we are going to Epcot. We will spend the morning in Future World. We're excited because we haven't ridden the new Spaceship Earth and Hoot is big enough for Test Track.

We'll spend the afternoon back at the resort poolside and return to the park in time for our dinner reservations in Morrocco at Restuarant Merrakesh. We can't wait. Hoot loves dancing girls, so I'm sure he'll love the belly dancer.

Tonight is Illuminations and extra magic hours after the show. I don't know how long we'll last and its our last night, so packing up our gear is a consideration.