Planning
We planned this trip as a one-year birthday party for our only child, Miles. People said, “Why don’t you wait until he’s old enough to remember?” My answer to that is, if nothing you do with your children counts until they can “remember”, then why not save all the bother of playing with them at all - you could just sit them in a corner until they’re 4.
For all you parents out there wondering if it would be fun to do Disney with a baby, the answer is YES!
I did some exhaustive research on the internet, to see if I could find the “deal of the century” in accommodations, and I did. Through searching Yahoo! I found a bulletin board of time share owners, where you could place a free “wanted” ad. I put out an ad for the dates we wanted, for a one-bedroom condo near Disney World. This was about 9 months before the actual trip.
Over the next few weeks I got email from a slew of professional rental companies, all offering condos and homes in the $100 - $150 a night range. I figured for that kind of money, I’d rather stay on-property at Dixie Landings (where my husband and I honeymooned) or something of that sort.
Anyways, finally I got an email from a real, private timeshare owner. For some undisclosed reason she wasn’t going to be using their week that year, and would I like to rent her unit for $450? Would I! The bargain hunter in me was slobbering over this deal! I shot her off a check, and she said she’d get her timeshare company, RCI, to send out a “Guest Certificate” to me. Now technically, time share owners aren’t supposed to “rent,” but she wasn’t making any kind of profit on this deal. The fee she was asking us for was only what she has to pay every year for “maintenance”, plus a $50 guest surcharge RCI levies.
A couple weeks later, she emailed me and said that she talked to the management at her development, Cypress Palms (which is an RCI “Gold Crown” resort, by the way), and she had been able to secure a TWO bedroom condo for us, with a full kitchen, for the same price! My mind started turning and I was soon on the phone to my parents - how would you like to come use our FREE second bedroom for your only grandchild’s first birthday? Now, my folks are not big on Disney, but how could they refuse that offer? RCI sent out my certificate with no hassles at all.
I have a Magic Kingdom Club gold card, because I’m a stockholder, so I was able to take advantage of a discount on passes, which I ordered through the Disney 1-800 number. I had tried to do this online, but there wasn’t anywhere to put my discount information, so I decided to just make the call. The passes, by the way are so tiny, and are not replaceable if lost... I think next time I will just wait until I get there to purchase them. Ordering through the mail, way in advance, was a bit of overkill in the planning department on my part. I stressed about losing them for months.
Now, flash forward to the trip itself!
Sunday, October 3
Fly to Orlando, Alamo Rent a Car, Magic Kingdom, Check into condo
We got up at an ungodly hour to catch a 7:25 a.m. flight to Orlando from New Orleans. It’s not very fast, traveling with a baby. We brought Miles’ car seat with us, which we were going to need anyway for the rental car, and he got his own airplane seat, buckled in. I can’t imagine trying to hold a squirmy toddler on your lap all the way. Miles wouldn’t have been able to handle it. But when he’s in his car seat, he knows it’s a place to stay seated with your belt on.
Our airfare was a total of $83 apiece, round trip. Sign up for email alerts from Southwest Airlines if they fly from your local airport -- they emailed me with an “internet special”, good for just 48 hours. The normal “sale” fare is around $120, so we got a major DEAL.
I’m afraid of flying, but with a baby to think about, it eased some of the tension. We lived through the flight (I’m always surprised), and enjoyed the futuristic look of the tram in the Orlando airport. We reminisced about our honeymoon trip and talked about our plans for the week. We were so excited to be going back to the World!
I discovered that there is no such thing as an “airport” branch of Alamo Rent-a-Car, no matter what they call it. It’s actually a 15 minute shuttle ride away, and we spent at least 20 minutes waiting for the shuttle, not to mention the usual 30 minutes of navigating the airport and picking up bags. We got into Alamo to find a rather long-ish line, so I sent my husband back out to sit with Miles while I waited. It was about another 30 minutes until we had our car. Add another 45 minutes to ride to the Magic Kingdom and park the car and ride the tram then the monorail... that’s about 2 hours and 10 minutes to get from the runway to Main Street.
On our honeymoon in 1996 we stayed on WDW property at Dixie Landings, and took the Mears shuttle. If I remember correctly, it took just about as long to get to the resort as the rental car method, because the “shuttle” was actually a huge bus that stopped and stopped and stopped for what seemed like forever. Next time we go I’m going to take a cab or a private limo, and forget the expense.
The whole staying off-property/rental car experience was just not good. I think we would have been happier staying on-property, and not having to do all the driving we did. (AND we would have saved ourselves $450+ in rental car damage, but I’ll tell you about that on October 9 below.) Read on and draw your own conclusions.
We hit the Magic Kingdom’s Main Street about 2:30 p.m. First stop, the potties! Then we enjoyed a rapturous stroll up Main Street, and A.G. shot the first video footage of the week. I was sorry to see that they had taken out the little theater showing “Steamboat Willie.” We have always felt there was a bit of magic to that. Miles had been sleeping since we left Alamo with the car, and now he finally awoke, roused by the singing of a barbershop quartet singing Adeline (of course!). The first thing he saw was a bunch of Mickey Mouse/Minnie Mouse mylar balloons floating by in various children’s hands. Oh boy! Miles loves Mickey Mouse and he loves balloons.
A.G. and I had been to Disneyland on Christmas, 1997, about two weeks before we got pregnant with Miles. We were in the middle of “trying” at the time, and we’d had an epiphany in the Tiki Room, watching a little girl, maybe a year and a half old, just go nuts with joy through the whole show, much to the delight of her parents. So we headed straight there. Boy, were we disappointed! I don’t know why everyone seems to love the new show - we absolutely hated it. In the beginning, that great sweet Tiki Room theme starts, then Gilbert Godfried starts screeching at you, “Stop the music, nobody wants to hear that boring old stuff!” Wrong! It seemed to us like they took all the innocence out of this attraction in favor of loud, smart-ass wisecracks and scary, threatening tension. Miles didn’t particularly enjoy it, just sort of sat it out. I didn’t see anyone else around us smiling or enjoying themselves much, either. It was so loud and disjointed. Oh well.
We then hit El Pirata y el Pirico for some nachos and drinks. Miles, who is a notoriously picky eater, enjoyed the chips and some lemonade. From there we walked over to Jungle Cruise and only had about a ten minute wait. That’s just long enough to actually enjoy reading the little things in the queue area. The ride went faster than I remember it going in the past, but our guide was funny and we enjoyed pointing out things to Miles. At just under a year old, it was all a little too far away for him to really focus on, except for the tunnel, where things are spotlighted.
When we got out, we had planned to run around on Tom Sawyer Island but it was about to rain - the first of many, many rainstorms this trip. We decided to duck into Country Bear Jamboree. Miles was in total awe of this one, though I must admit once I saw it once, I think I saw it enough for the rest of my life. He was amazed by the talking moose and bear heads on the wall. While we were waiting for the show to start, I noticed there were people with Scottish accents behind us, and people with English accents next to us. I remarked to A.G. that maybe there was some sort of British holiday afoot. (Later in the trip we worked up the courage to asked a Brit if there was, and she said no. Disney must be doing some serious marketing in Great Britain.)
From there, we hit the Haunted Mansion. Miles was showing signs of wanting to nurse, but we were able to distract him through the 20 minute wait, to keep him from melting down. We waited behind the crowd, and slipped into the very last buggy, where we discreetly got down to business. A.G. teased me incessantly about all the cameras employees watch you on throughout the attractions, but I figured, hey, if they just HAVE to look then anything they see is their own fault.
With a full tummy for Miles, we ducked in and out of the rain to Small World. This was to be Miles’ absolutely favorite attraction, and Daddy’s got lots of videotape to prove it!
When we got out, it was dinner time, so we decided to grab a bite at Columbia Harbor House before we headed to check in at our condo. I ordered a combo fish and chicken basket for us all to share (Miles loves fried chicken) and we discovered that he also loves fried fish! This turned into one of the nicest moments of our vacation. Miles was getting restless, so I let him toddle around a bit until he found a set of stairs, which I let him climb. I discovered at the top a number of seating areas with absolutely no one in them at all. I quickly ran down and fetched A.G. and we finished our meal in a little quiet cove that juts out over the walkway into Fantasyland. Miles got to prowl around without bothering anyone, and we just sat and relaxed, watching visitors dash around in the rain below.
Then we drove to the condo, which I found without much of a problem, it being off of a major street in Kissimmee, just about 3 miles from the park. Nice unit, very clean and spacious. There was even a jacuzzi tub for two in our master bedroom, though I never got to use it. I was too tired at night and/or too occupied with Miles to ever get around to it. My husband on the other hand, took numerous soaks. Hmmm, something’s wrong with that picture...
We ordered some delivery Italian that was expensive and not very good, and waited for my Dad to show up. He was supposed to have flown in around 5:00 p.m. so when he still hadn’t appeared by 10:00 p.m. I was really worrying. Finally about 10:45 he showed up, after a delayed flight, another long wait at a rental car company (I forget which one they used), and then a stop for dinner. After a very brief hi and goodnight we all hit the sack.
Monday, October 4
Grocery shopping, EPCOT
I woke up about 5:30 a.m., still dark outside, and just was so uncomfortable on our VERY hard mattress that I got up. Miles and A.G. were still sacked out, as was my Dad, so I decided to get a jump on the day and go find a grocery store.
I drove until I found the only thing open, a Super Wal-Mart. Bought everything I thought we’d need for the week. We planned to eat a lot of meals at the condo to save money, which I think we really did.
When I got back the sun was up and so was the gang. We all fixed a little cereal here, a Jimmy Dean sausage biscuit there, some coffee, and started getting Miles ready for a whole day at EPCOT. If you have never been out and about with a wee one, or it’s been awhile, let me remind you just how much STUFF you need to stave off headaches, teething pain, sunburn, thirst, hunger, weather, boredom, etc. After about 40 minutes Miles was dressed and we were ready to head off. Had another pretty painless drive down the road to EPCOT. Even though it was only half an hour past opening, it seemed like we were parked really far away from the entrance. I can’t imagine how far out in the lot you’d be if you were there at peak season!
Dad had to buy his passes for the week for both himself and my stepmother, who was flying in the next day (she was at a conference for work). This turned out to be a MAJOR wait, almost half an hour! There were lots of windows open to buy tickets but everyone in the world seemed to be doing the same thing at the same time, and every person in front of Dad seemed to have some elaborate special circumstance that precluded them just paying their money and getting their tickets. Anyways, Miles had fun charming everyone in line and my Dad made a lot of new friends, gregarious as he is. Finally we were in, at around 10:00 a.m. which was a full hour off my “schedule.” (I was soon to discover that my carefully pre-planned schedule for this trip quickly turned into a figment of my imagination.)
Dad was really hot to see Spaceship Earth, but the line was very long so we went to Living Seas, which A.G. and I had missed on our honeymoon. Miles loved this attraction. I think we could have just stayed there all day looking at fish and he would have been as happy as a, well, a clam! After the “Moo” and I took a quick visit to the bathroom to nurse, A.G. and Dad were ready to head out.
A.G. and Dad were more interested in spending time with Miles than baby-swapping to go on adult attractions, so we walked over to World Showcase. I’d forgotten how much walking there is to do at EPCOT - it really is huge. Our first stop was Mexico, which A.G. and I hadn’t gotten around to last time. Miles adored the boat ride. I’m sorry we didn’t go through again for him. Then we got to see our first character in the courtyard - Donald Duck dressed up like a caballero! Granda “Patch” held his grandson and after a line of only two or three other kids they paid their respects. Donald was great about not overwhelming Miles. In fact, it was my experience throughout this trip that the people playing the characters are some of the most loving, warm people I’ve ever seen interact with children. They do such an amazing job.
When we walked outside there were some Mayan Indian drummers and dancers performing, so we stopped to watch that for a while. It was about the time Miles should be getting hungry, so we checked out the Cantina de San Angel counter service place. I thought the food was all right, nothing to write home about, and as often happens Miles wouldn’t eat a bite and was not happy about sitting still. We did enjoy the watermelon juice here! I highly recommend it as not to be missed. It was getting drizzly and looked like it was going to be another mostly rainy day, so we headed over to China to get indoors.
We stumbled upon a really wonderful duet, playing traditional Chinese instruments. I haven’t heard anything so beautiful in a long time. I was sorry we came upon only the last four minutes of the performance. We went into the movie, which Miles attended to with fixed interest. My Dad had been threatening to shout “Free Tibet!” and get us kicked out, but he managed to restrain himself, sort of. He still had to inform everyone standing around us that he was thinking about doing it. I don’t think anybody got it.
Next were Germany and Norway. They were doing a big authentic recreation of the Oktoberfest ceremony, explaining the meaning of it, and there was a great en masse chicken dance (fun!). At Norway, A.G. and Dad just couldn’t resist the ride so I wandered around with Miles in the gift shop for a while, looking at gorgeous things I can’t afford. I wandered into the “travel to Norway” room, staffed by a girl from Norway. I stopped and talked to her about this and that. She was great. I told her about my Norwegian royal ancestors (true) and apologized because I’m sure these poor people hear that kind of stuff from visitors all day long. But she was gracious and had a sense of humor.
Next we stopped and let Miles fool around with some African drums that were out. There was an adult who arrived the same time we did, who was soon really playing a set of them like a professional musician. After he kept it up for three minutes, the cast member overseeing the area started asking the children waiting around if they might like a chance to play, too? Ha ha that was pretty humorous.
Miles was getting a bit finicky, and when we saw that an American Experience show was just starting, and that another one would begin in an hour, we figured that was a fine amount of time for another attempt at a Miles lunch break. I guessed the American food service place would have chicken nuggets - I was right! While we were eating (Miles ate a ton), it started pouring, I mean really, really pouring outside like it only can in the subtropics (I’m from New Orleans, so I know that kind of rain!) Boy did we get lucky with our timing... soon every person at EPCOT was trying to find a place to sit down in there, I think. We let people take our unused chairs. I felt sorry for the wet families coming in with kids and nowhere to sit. But not sorry enough to get up and go out in the rain myself! I took a trip to the bathroom, and there was a very large group of junior-high school aged kids on some sort of massive field trip, lined up out of the rain, being led in some kind of chanting song by their chaperones. I guessed they were from Brazil, from the language and the way they looked, but I’m not sure. We saw them a few more times, always in perfect formation, marching like a little army with a bunch of little red flags and singing.
We went into American Experience, and Miles was restless so we sat on the aisle at the far end of the theater, and I let him get up and toddle up and down on the carpet (it’s actually pretty steep and provided an interesting challenge to his new walking skills). I figured when the show started we’d go sit down and he wouldn’t be so restless with something to see. Oops! “Welcome to the American Experience,” said a very loud and firm voice, “we’ll start the show just as soon as all of our guests have had a seat, thank you.” About 200 people turned and looked at me in dead silence. I sheepishly slinked into my seat with Miles, who of course started cutting up just so everyone staring could be sure I really was a terrible mother, ha ha. Miles it turns out was fussy because he wanted to nurse for dessert after all those nuggets and fries, and I was very glad we’d sat on the far aisle, away from other people. He was just too full and it was just too dark and soothing and soon the little guy was fast asleep. I found this show boring the second time around, and I don’t think my Dad was too impressed, either. One of the many times he would be “underwhelmed” by Disney this week.
Miles slept for about half an hour, enough time for us to go through an interesting Japanese puppetry exhibit. I wanted to eat some Japanese food, but nobody else did so I was outvoted. Next trip we take, I have warned everyone I’m going to “eat around the world,” completing a gastronomical passport, as it were.
It was time to call it quits -- we were all tired. I didn’t think Miles would have much fun after he woke up, having been confined to the stroller for a long time already, so we decided to call it a day. It was threatening to pour again and we walked pretty quickly the rest of the way around, not stopping for anything else. (We never did make it back to see the other half, but we’d lingered on that side on our honeymoon, so that was fine.) We got caught in the rain, anyway and were thoroughly wet by the time we got back to the car. Went back to the condo, and Dad rustled up some grub.
Tuesday, October 5
Downtown Disney, Wilderness Lodge, Hung around condo
Dad hung out with us in the morning, and we all watched some of Miles’ favorite morning t.v. shows (Disney channel, of course!). Dad took off to pick up my step-mother, Frances, from the airport around 11:00 a.m. and A.G. and I went to eat lunch at Wilderness Lodge.
We walked right into Whispering Canyon Cafe around 11:30 a.m. and had their bottomless barbecue platter. The waitress was funny and personable. The resort is quite nice, though we ate right at the railing to the lobby, and the sweeping majestic Copeland western anthems playing there aren’t so inspiring after an hour of it, non-stop. (I think that music may be Disney’s way of gently prodding loungers onwards to make room for the next guy.) Miles was restless so we finished up lunch taking turns around the lobby with him while the other one ate. Miles loved the little stream and the bridge across it. At my insistence we walked around the grounds a little. This resort is much smaller than I thought it would be. I really was itching to take the boat over to the Magic Kingdom, but A.G. wasn’t going for it (we would have had to buy another day’s ticket and he was getting money conscious, probably after seeing the bill at Whispering Canyon).
My original plan before the trip had been to walk from here to check out Fort Wilderness and its petting farm. Honestly, Disney is a tremendously large place and all the walking in the muggy heat gets to you after a while. We were just too tired to tackle it. Well, I was - A.G. never wants to walk anywhere if he can drive. On our way out I convinced A.G. to let me go look at the Polynesian, to see what it’s like. I wasn’t very impressed. It looked kind of outdated and cramped to me. It would sure be nice to be on the monorail, though.
From there we drove to Downtown Disney to do a little souvenir shopping. I was planning on buying a Halloween costume for Miles, but not a single store anywhere in WDW was selling toddler or baby size costumes, which I thought was strange. It started pouring while we were there, so we bought three of the ubiquitous yellow rain ponchos with Mickey on the back. As soon as I put mine on it ripped and it never did fit right again, but A.G. and Miles were rolling with theirs. We bought a couple of small toys for Miles to play with, and went back to the condo to await Frances’ arrival.
To my consternation, when my folks rolled in around
I went across the road to a mom and pop video store that offered discounts to anyone staying in our time share complex. Rented a video for Miles (Disney again, of course) and a movie for me and maybe A.G. (he usually doesn’t like anything I rent). We would have gone swimming but it was raining steadily pretty much all day. Later on we took Miles down the road to one of the many cheap family restaurant chains for dinner. He enjoyed the country fried steak and mashed potatoes.
When we got back to the condo, my folks had already returned. They never went into the park because when they got there they found out it closed at 7:00 p.m. “Dumb” was my Dad’s take on that. They whipped up a little dinner and visited with us, then hit the sack real early.
Wednesday, October 6
MGM Studios
We were finally all together, and after another long morning equipping for an all-dayer with the “Moo,” we pulled in about 10 minutes past park opening and had a huge mass of people to wait behind to get through the turnstiles.
I figured it would be wise to do Tower of Terror early, so we hit that first. Dad and Frances baby swapped Miles with A.G. and I. I loved this ride on my honeymoon, with the two drops. Now I hate it. I don’t think I’ll ride it again. It’s just too much for me, too physically overwhelming with all the random repeated drops and rises. I had wanted to buy a TofT t-shirt that I had regretted passing on years before, but now I took a pass on it. None of us even considered checking out the new roller coaster - not our bag at all.
A.G. and I really enjoyed the movie ride before, and Dad is a huge movie fan (has taught film history) so I figured The Great Movie Ride would be a good stop for everyone. Frances seemed to like it enough, but Dad said he thought it was hokey and boring.
We walked around to the Indiana Jones show, which they had heard of from someone they know, and wanted to see. On the way, Dad wanted to check out the architecture in a bar/restaurant that he said looked so right-out-of-the-fifties he had to take a peek inside. He said no one was in there yet, just a quiet bar to have a drink and a few tables. Miles had refused to eat any breakfast, so I thought it would be a good idea to offer him something while my folks checked out the show. (I didn’t think Miles would sit still through a long stage show but I may have been wrong.) We went to the Backlot Express and I waited in a surprisingly long line for an expensive “snack” which Miles ate none of, again. The place was packed. I wished we’d gone to the Indiana show, which we could hear booming now and then next door.
When “Patch” and “Pita” came out they said they’d enjoyed it (the most enthusiastic vote I heard them give anything the whole trip, though I think Splash Mountain was a hit with them, too). We agreed to swap Miles, who was now blessedly asleep, for Star Tours. A.G. and I walked onto this with very little wait. A.G. got it into his head he wanted to video tape the whole ride, and he almost lost the camera, so he stowed it finally. He could have really beaned someone on the head badly :-( .
Dad and Frances did their turn, and Miles was now awake again. We went to Muppetvision, which everyone liked, even Miles, though he of course couldn’t wear the glasses. He liked all the audio-animatronic stuff. He was very content and attentive.
My aunt and uncle had raved about the Hunchback show, and my folks like musical theater, so we headed over there. We had an unfortunately long wait and got seated pretty much behind a big pole, but I was able to keep Miles happy with songs and finger play games until the show started. There was a juggler/comic but it was hard to see him from where we were, though the sound was quite loud, way too loud, actually (it got even worse during the show -- so loud it was pretty much distorting at times).
Now my pop’s been an English teacher for over 30 years, and is something of a literary nut. He sat politely enough, but by the time they got to Esmerelda crying out “Oh why are you afraid of people who are different?” Dad just couldn’t help himself and he broke into guffaws. I admit I didn’t like it much, either, but that had more to do with being behind a pole and being blasted with a wall of sound.
We wandered over to the Backstage Tour, which I thought Miles wouldn’t sit through well (no seat belts on the trams, if I remember right) so we let them go on ahead without us. Miles was really, really due for a meal by now, so I took him to the rest room to nurse. For some reason, the park was extremely crowded today, and I felt bad about taking up a stall in a pretty small rest room with so many people waiting, but the alternative wasn’t any better. Outside, I had left A.G. in line to get us all some ice cream from a counter service place by the bathrooms. When I came out, he was still in line, and this was about ten minutes later! It took him an additional five minutes more to finally get the ice cream. He told me the cast members had been really apologetic, but they’d run out of ice cream and were waiting for a delivery. They had other stuff, but when Miles gets picky like today, ice cream is usually a sure bet. He did end up eating some, but mostly threw napkins all over.
My folks were still touring, so A.G. and I decided to walk up the street a bit. We didn’t know there were characters! Miles got to finally see a Mouse, well, Minnie Mouse, but he was thrilled (it was all the same to him then - ears, red clothes, the M sound). We stood in line and got some great video tape. Miles spontaneously gave Minnie a “mooch” on her nose! I’d never seen him make that gesture before, so it was really great. I was sorry the grandparents weren’t around to see it. The rest of the characters had lines that were just too long, and after we saw people who were waiting told that Pluto was going away but hold on for ten minutes and a different character would come out, well I was glad we weren’t playing that game. When Miles is older I guess we’ll have no choice, but it’s an ugly thing to watch how stressed people get over this or that character greeting.
We hooked up with Dad and Frances and I really, really wanted to see Little Mermaid which I’d missed on my honeymoon. But it was too long a wait until the next show - Miles would never have just stood around like that for up to half an hour, he was getting too fussy this afternoon. Not enough food, not enough napping, too much stimulation I suppose. So we walked a few feet further and I discovered the Bear in the Big Blue House show! It was still a few minutes before it started, so we all went next door to look at original art work for sale and a very interesting exhibition on Fantasia and the upcoming new Fantasia (first time I’d heard about that one). There was a guy painting cells to purchase. A.G. asked him about his affiliation with the studio, and A.G. said how he had met a few of the “Nine Old Men” years ago. The artist said one of them had been by just the other day. A.G. told me when we left the guy he’d mentioned had been dead for 15 years, so who the heck knows.
Bear in the Big Blue House was great, but try not to sit off to the side or close to the stage, like we did, because the view is not the greatest. Miles didn’t care, and enjoyed himself tremendously, and I think Patch and Pita really warmed up watching their grandson.
Though I hated to admit it, it was time to call it a day. I was worried about Miles not eating, and thought an early evening would be wise. On the way out, A.G. went to see about purchasing the photo the park had snapped of Miles with Minnie... but after a long, long time in there behind some woman who was arguing with the clerk about something, he came out and said the photo had Miles turned almost totally away from the camera. He was disappointed. We killed some more time in a gift shop buying a 10-inch Donald and Pluto, to go with the Minnie and Mickey we bought Monday on our way out of EPCOT. One last stop that A.G. couldn’t resist with Dad into a memorabilia store by the front gate, and then we left. Miles seemed like he would zonk out in the car at first, but soon began to cry with hunger, so we made a quick beeline to the WDW McDonalds, which may be the biggest Mickey D’s in the world or whatever, but I swear it’s also the slowest. Finally we had nuggets and milk in tow, and Miles munched contentedly all the way home.
Back at the condo, we went for a swim with Miles and then, after he fell asleep, watched one of the videos I’d rented. Dad and Frances couldn’t make it up through the movie and went to bed early. I probably should have, too.
Thursday, October 7
Magic Kingdom
Dad and Frances were looking forward to a little golf. They had made reservations at Osprey Ridge several weeks earlier. I don’t think that was the course they wanted, but there was some sort of golf convention going on and every tee time had been reserved months in advance on all the other courses, they were told. It was rainy-looking, and the weather forecast was ominous, so they decided they’d rather not pay that much money (over $100) to chance getting rained out halfway through. They canceled their reservation and then walked up to the condo office, where they found out about a couple of nearby public courses and got a reservation. Then they headed off.
A.G. and I decided to skip Animal Kingdom, which I had originally planned for this day, because the descriptions I read of it sounded like there wouldn’t be much for Miles to do. So we went back to the Magic Kingdom instead. This ended up being absolutely the best day of the vacation for me, and I think for A.G. and Miles, too.
For one thing, it was amazingly uncrowded that day. Maybe the rain and the forecast was just too much for people and they were all shopping at Downtown Disney. (I was told the next day by a DD store clerk that whenever it rains they get totally jammed there.)
We arrived rather late in the morning, and it was just about time for Miles to want to nurse so I obliged him in the Tomorrowland bathrooms while A.G. got us a table indoors and out of the rain at the Plaza Restaurant. It was good timing. The sky opened up, and by the time we finished splitting a hot fudge sundae and some iced teas, while Miles snoozed in his stroller, the place was packed and there were a lot of people waiting around in the rain for a chance to get indoors and sit down.
Miles was still sleeping away, and I seized the opportunity to go do Alien Encounter by myself, while Daddy sat with Miles under the big overhang at the Tomorrowland counter service restaurant, watching crowds. I enjoyed it a lot this time. When we went on our honeymoon, I had made the mistake of scrunching down in my seat and was pretty much pinned that way by the locking shoulder harness thing that comes down over your head. When the alien escapes and tromps around, the thing bounces down to simulate his footsteps crashing overhead, and every time it did the darn thing dug further into my shoulders. Ouch. This time I was wise to the situation, and put my hands up to stop the harness well above my shoulders before it locked into place. I had fun, but there was a little girl about nine or ten that was just terrified out of her mind a couple of rows ahead of me. I think what is so frightening for children is that when they get scared, they’re restrained by the harness, and they can’t lean over to snuggle up to an adult.
Miles was stirring by now, so we headed into Fantasyland and did Snow White, which he was pretty indifferent to. Then we rode Small World again, and he loved it just as much, maybe even more because now it was familiar. From there we thought Miles might be getting hungry for lunch, and we were too, so we stepped into the Diamond Horseshoe and bellied up to the bar. The place was pretty empty, and we sat down at the middle table in the very first row of chairs. What a piece of luck that turned out to be. We didn’t realize there was a show coming up, but as we got down to the end of our meal they announced the show was starting in five minutes, so we decided to stay and see if Miles might enjoy it. Did he ever!
My husband got the whole thing on video tape. I couldn’t believe it, but Miles sat entranced and grinning and bouncing for the entire show. The first act, a guy with a guitar, interacted with Miles quite a bit. Being up so close to everything was perfect for a little guy Miles’ size, and he loves live music. You know, you can plan ahead all you want, but the unplanned surprises always end up being the best times for me.
From there we went and baby-swapped at Splash Mountain. I wanted to let Miles play in the little play area they have set up there for toddlers, but he was such a novice walker at the time I didn’t think he’d be able to navigate it, and certainly not be safe with the way-too-old children that some parents were letting run all over it. (That’s a pet peeve with me - happens at McDonald’s playland a lot. I don’t know what these parents are thinking. There’s so much for older children to do, why do they want to hang out in a place designed for little babies?) We ended up just sitting in the courtyard until A.G. came out and it was my turn. Afterwards, we stopped in a souvenir shop that on our honeymoon had a Splash Mountain t-shirt I really regretted not buying, but there was nothing like it anymore.
We decided to do Pirates, which Miles was pretty indifferent to, though I think he tensed up a bit when the cannons and gun fire are going on over your head. From there we walked back to Splash Mountain and caught the choo choo train at the stop that runs overhead, and rode around for a look at the whole park. Miles was ready at this point for another nap, and he nodded off. We rode the train around twice, and let him sleep.
Miles woke up and we got off the train and walked over into Tomorrowland. Miles needed a diaper change, which I took care of, and then we went in Starlight Ray’s for some dinner. For some reason, there was nobody in the place, and Miles had a good time running around on the carpet in front of Ray’s little show. He ate his corn dog nugget things pretty well, and snacked out on potato chips. I know, I know, we’re not winning a healthy eating award anytime soon.
After dinner, it was getting dark, and the park would be closing in an hour and half - we decided we just had to go see the Mouse! We walked over into Toontown Fair, and I would have liked Miles to play in Donald Duck’s Boat, but it was getting towards sunset and a little chilly, and I didn’t really want to deal with him getting wet. Mickey’s House was way cute. We got some great video in there. Miles was extremely attentive to everything. We didn’t know what to expect with going to see Mickey, and when we found the queue, it was over a half hour wait. Thanks, but no thanks. So we wandered into the next thing down the road, a big tent with tons of toys to buy, and discovered a whole other character greeting area. We talked to a cast member who assured us it wasn’t too late to go get in line, because even though the park closed in twenty minutes, once you were in line they don’t stop until they get you through. That was a good bet on our part.
I said it before, and I’ll say it again, the folks who play these characters go way above and beyond anyone’s expectations. We saw every single character back there, at our leisure, probably because it was closing time. We went to see Donald Duck and Goofy (you have to pick a character to go see by what line you walk down when you enter), and I was happy to have done it with almost no wait. Then A.G. saw some of the other characters standing around in the doors of their rooms, beckoning to everyone, so we went to check it out. Minnie Mouse and Chip and Dale were hanging in the lobby, and Minnie actually took Miles out of my arms and jogged with him back to her visiting area! You would have thought these people would want to go home, but they were really into what they were doing. After a good visit with Minnie, Chip and Dale chased Miles all over the carpet (he was back in crawling mode that evening, probably because he was tired) for awhile. It was just wonderful, and the video tape A.G. shot will be something we treasure forever.
From there it was time to boogie home, the park was closed. We trudged back and did the whole hated boat, tram thing. When we got back to the condo, my folks were a bit hurt I think that we had disappeared for the entire day and evening without warning. They had gotten back around 1:00 p.m. from their golf date, and were wondering where we were. Really, A.G. and I didn’t mean to stay so long, but it was just the most magical day I’ve ever had at any Disney park, I couldn’t help myself.
Friday, October 8
Downtown Disney, Typhoon Lagoon
Our plan today was to go to Typhoon Lagoon. We’d been to Blizzard Beach the last time, and I was hepped up to check out the snorkling attraction at Typhoon. We both would have preferred to go to River Country, but I read the water there isn’t heated like at the other two parks, and it had been raining so much that week I figured it would be prohibitively cold.
My parents had another golf reservation for the morning, and said they’d come meet us at the water park around 1:30 p.m.
We packed up the Moo and his “stuff” and drove over. By the time we were within eyeball distance of Typhoon’s driveway, the sky opened up and it was pouring again. Downtown Disney is right across the street, so we decided to go there and kill some time, to see if the rain might quit.
We ended up spending about an hour and a half, taking turns with Miles while the other one shopped. A.G. enjoyed the book store, and we both had a nice time picking out a Christmas ornament (we bought a lovely Radko rendition of Cinderella’s castle).
By lunchtime the rain was getting lighter and there was even some sun peeking out, so we decided to try the water park. We got in with a nice discount on my Magic Kingdom Club Gold Card, got changed and got lunch. While we were eating, sitting on rain-soaked seats, it started coming down again, and we were frankly getting cold. We picked up the soggy lunch and vied with everyone else for the few patches of covering around us. After ten minutes or so it slacked off, so we headed to find a beach chair and stow the stroller and our stuff. Then we took Miles to the kiddie area.
I think the kiddie area was actually a bit too old for him. There were some difficult climbs and places that he could easily have fallen and gotten hurt. And it was a bit cold. He had a good time splashing, I just wish they would have had an area that was safe to let him loose in. It was time now for me to go meet my parents at the gate. After waiting a few minutes, they showed up and told me they weren’t coming in, to save money I think was their reason. I’m not sure what they did the rest of the day, went to Downtown Disney, maybe. To be honest, I was getting aggravated at how little time they were spending with their grandson on this trip.
I went back into the park and A.G. took a turn with Miles in a wading area by the big central wave pool while I did some slides. Then we all did the creek together, which Miles absolutely loved. Then Miles took a nap while A.G. disappeared to do slides and the creek again. Towards the end of the day I got up the nerve to snorkel, and it was an amazing experience. There was almost nobody there - I had zero wait, just walked right into it. The water was very cold, but it was like flying weightless over another world. I loved it. I am all worked up to do some real snorkeling someday. On the way out, I got a hair wrap and then we drove by McDonalds to pick up Miles a nugget meal, as he was suddenly very hungry. Back at the condo, we made dinner with my parents and hung out for a couple of hours.
Even though the water is heated at the water parks, it’s really not much fun if it’s not sunny or warm out. We kept Miles wrapped up well and out of the water most of the day, but we were borderline chilly for hours. Took a lot of the joy out of the experience. I guess it’s a tradeoff , though, with crowds, because there were none at all this day.
Saturday, October 9
Magic Kingdom
Miles turned one year old today, and I wish I could say it was a great day, but it was absolutely the worst time I’ve ever had in a Disney park. It was pretty miserable from start to finish. Here’s our mistake - we live in the New Orleans area, which is famous for Mardi Gras, right? Well, in order for kids to get the federally mandated number of days in school and still have Mardi Gras off, our culture has sacrificed another holiday, namely Columbus Day. Nobody in New Orleans ever has Columbus Day off and it would never occur to us that anyone else does. So when I planned this trip, I took to heart all the charts and Disney advice books that said this was “off season,” and figured we’d have a relatively uncrowded experience. Man, was I wrong.
I think every last person in the United States (outside of New Orleans) said, “Hey we’ve got a three-day weekend for Columbus Day, and it’s off-season at WDW, let’s go!” On this day, A.G. found out from a cast member that they were very close to the capacity point and were considering closing the gates. To compound the horrific crowds, most of the attractions in Liberty Square and Frontierland broke down before park opening and weren’t back on until lunchtime, if at all. Of course that’s what my folks wanted to do most, so I’m afraid we spent most of our morning walking to things that were closed, or when finally opened, had ridiculous waits.
When we got in the gate we hit Winnie the Pooh first, which already had a half an hour wait, plus it broke down while we were in line. It was a cute ride, and I think Miles enjoyed it. Then we went on Small World, and Patch got to hold Miles all the way through, which put him in seventh heaven. After that, we spent an hour and half trying to find something open, like I told you above. They all finally decided to go on Pirates, which I am totally bored with now, so I stayed above and bought a Christmas present for A.G. in the Pirates gift shop.
Then it was time for Miles’ character birthday lunch. (I had called five weeks in advance and couldn’t get a breakfast reservation, which really should have been a clue.) The scene at the Crystal Palace was a complete mob. We stood in line to check in, and then I took Miles next door to the baby station to nurse him. I’m sorry I hadn’t checked out this facility much earlier in the trip. They have a private nursing room with rocking chairs, a kitchen to heat baby food and formula, and a dining room with cartoons to keep little ones happy while they eat, plus a very comfortable changing area. There are loving and helpful cast members staffing the area, who practically wait on you hand and foot. Plus, the air conditioning is CRANKED and the lights are dimmed, which is exactly what you need after a few hours of concrete and glare. What a nice place to take a break!
Back on the Crystal Palace porch, we waited another five minutes and then were called in to eat. I told everyone up front that it was Miles’ birthday, except I forgot to tell our waiter, which turned out to be a big mistake. Miles wouldn’t eat much but we enjoyed the food. The dessert bar is pretty decent. I thought some of the dishes were ambitious for what their kitchen is able to produce - the “gourmet” items were just sort of strange, and the carved meat wasn’t really the cut they advertised it as, I don’t think. Of course the best part were the characters coming around. Miles got off on it, big time. I was kind of disappointed, though, that they only came by once. I don’t know what I expected, because the place was packed and they certainly had a lot of ground to cover. Miles didn’t know the difference. At the end of the meal, nothing at all had happened around it being his birthday, so my Dad reminded our waiter, who promptly rounded up some other waiters and did a song and a little cake for him, which Miles also loved.
When we got out of there, we had all planned to take a break at the condo for awhile, but A.G. and I (mistakenly) decided to stay, while Dad and Frances went off to some golf superstore Frances wanted to see. We set a place and time to meet up again and went our separate ways.
There was a loud, loud, LOUD stage show going on in front of the castle, and A.G. took Miles up to watch while I hung out in a mercifully deserted pavilion at the bottom of the rose garden, sticking out over the water. They sauntered back and we spent some time just feeding little fish with some crackers I had in my backpack, letting Miles teeter around.
We went to see if Buzz Lightyear might be a good bet, but the wait was over an hour and a half!
Miles was getting a spell of pre-nap fussiness. I think it was just way too crowded and loud, with a sea of people constantly milling around his stroller, and he couldn’t let go and go to sleep like he had been doing easily the rest of the week. We needed to find someplace quiet, so we queued up for Carousel of Progress. Unfortunately, we did not make it into the next show - got stopped at the turnstile to be the first people in on the next one, which meant we were pinned in where we were by a crowd, and Miles was starting to melt down from the wait. At one point the people behind us were pressing in and jammed me up good against the turnstile until we glared at them enough to make them cut it out. Finally when we got in, Miles went right to sleep in the dark, and I love this show. Call me sentimental, but in the scene representing the 50’s, the kitchen depicted looks EXACTLY like my grandmother’s, and I get a little teary every time.
From there, Miles was still zonked out, so we took a ride on the miraculously empty People Mover. When we came back to the loading dock, the cast member running it saw that Miles was still asleep, and told us we were welcome to stay on another go-round, which we did. Very nice of him.
Miles stirred as we exited, so we walked over to Fantasyland. By the way, I looked at the Speedway as we passed - how about a two-hour wait to drive those little cars? Yee haw! In Fantasyland we found the only thing without a wild wait was Small World, which Miles was perfectly happy to do again. Next, I thought maybe Haunted Mansion would be back online (it wasn’t), so we went to see about going over to Tom Sawyer Island. You should have seen the mob waiting to get onto the ferry. We decided to bag that one, too.
I stepped into a store to buy some souvenir candy for our nieces back home, and A.G. got his mandatory
We headed back to Fantasyland to see if any of the waits had eased up, and took the opportunity to jump on a fairly short line for Cinderella’s Carousel. Miles was frightened to sit astraddle a horse by himself, even with a belt on and me holding him, so I quickly switched to sitting down in the little carriage they have. We enjoyed going around and around looking at all the faces watching us. It was, though, a remarkably short ride, maybe two minutes tops. When we exited, I noticed the line for it was now back to being about a half-hour wait.
Decided to do some more souvenir shopping, as the stores were fairly empty for some reason (I guess because it was mid-afternoon). Bought Miles his first night light (Winnie the Pooh), and matching Magic Kingdom t-shirts for he and I, with all the Fantasyland characters all over the front and back, lots of glitter - a really great graphic. I wish I had seen a poster or print for his room with it, too.
It was time now to meet Dad and Frances, so we did. We had a spot of hope when we noticed a large river of people moving down
Dad and Frances badly wanted to do the Haunted Mansion, which was working now, but had a LONG, like an hour and a half long, line. We didn’t think Miles would stay in a line like that (I know he wouldn’t!) so we let them go and decided to get Miles some of the fried fish he had liked at Columbia Harbor House. I remembered the lovely, deserted upstairs from Thursday, and thought we might get a break from the crowd.
Well, it seems like the Disney folks were as surprised as I was at the crowds they were having today, because the Harbor House was badly understaffed - the place looked like a tornado had been through it. Trash everywhere, the floors filthy with spills, huge waits at the counter, and nowhere to sit because the upstairs was CLOSED. The only reason I can imagine it was closed would be they didn’t have enough staff to cover the area. Miles was cranky, my husband and I were exhausted, and there was a moment here when I really felt like I was in Hell, with trash and people pressing in on every side, my son crying, my husband sniping.
The only reason we didn’t leave was that we’d waited all afternoon for my parents to come back. Really, we should have just left. After my folks did Haunted Mansion and met back up with us, we did Small World to try and help Miles chill out (boy does he LOVE that ride). Then we walked Dad and Frances over to Space Mountain, where they picked up a Fast Pass. While we waited for their Fast Pass time to come up, Frances and AG went into Alien, and Dad and I did Timekeeper. My father thought that was just the superest thing he’d seen all day, HG Wells and Jules Verne together on an adventure. Miles cracked us up, too, because there’s a dinosaur that rushes at you to “eat” you at one point, and it must have seemed real to Miles because man, did he jump! Then he joined in our laughter with a big grin. I think it would have scared some kids, but that’s not really his temperament. He’s a scrapper. Frances really enjoyed Alien, too, said it gave her the “heebie jeebies.”
We decided to head over to Splash Mountain. I figured my parents would like it, which they did. (Frances commented that the attraction has a sweetness to it that’s lovely, and I couldn’t agree more.) On the way over, our crowd troubles really started. People were lining up for the Electrical Parade, and there were so many, the Main Street area and in front of the castle were almost totally impassable. We didn’t realize it until we were well-trapped in the middle of it all. After about ten minutes of waiting and shoving etc. we were able to get across. There are supposed to be walkways open, but the Disney folks had just totally lost control, I think.
Unfortunately, my big plan while they were riding was for Miles to try and finally play in the little toddler play area at the exit, underneath the railroad bridge. It turned out to be chock full, again, of screaming, running kids who were way over the supposed age limit. There were so many, Miles would have gotten hurt within two minutes in there, so the poor baby got more of what his whole evening was turning into - just sitting around in the stroller or on our laps. He likes to cuddle, but I could tell he was getting really bored. Heck, I was bored out of my mind at this point.
Dad and Frances wanted to stay and see the fireworks, and I finally had the sense to say “see ya.” There was no way I was going to try and dive back into that Main Street crowd, for any reason. So AG and I packed up the Miles, told my folks we’d see them later at the condo, and headed up to the train station stop overhead. Well, guess what - the train was closed, due to the parade, and we’d just missed the last run. So we went back towards Main Street, and tried to get out. Ha ha ha. We should at that point have just went to the back of the park and rode Small World the rest of the night, or something like that. It was totally impossible to move. Some mean man behind me kept telling people to “move it, would you?” and there were other tempers flaring on all sides. We managed after about ten minutes to get past the first bit of crowd and make it into the Main Street gift shops. The gift shops are all connected, though they look like separate buildings. Everyone was outside watching fireworks, so we were able to escape to the front of Main Street without much trouble.
There, a sea of humanity streamed out of the park, and straight into long, long, long lines again. I will never, ever stay off-site at WDW again, after that night. I looked at the folks hopping resort busses and monorails, and then at the conditions we’d have to suffer through to try and get back to the parking lot: I tell you, I felt exactly the way the steerage passengers must have felt on the Titanic as it was sinking. There were, by the way, some Disney cast member executive-types in suits with walkie talkies, telling people they could not take the monorail for resort guests only under any circumstances (had to ask), and looking generally tense and grim. I have the feeling Columbus Day caught the mouse way off-guard.
About forty-five minutes and a boat ride from hell later we were at our rental car, which we found had been hit-and-run damaged by whoever had been parked next to us. It was late, Miles needed to sleep, and there was NO WAY I was waiting for police in a parking lot all night, so we just bagged it and left without reporting it. The drive home, which the rest of the week had been a short and easy hop, was another total nightmare waiting for us. It took over 30 minutes to crawl up three miles of International Drive (I think that was the street) to our condo. Traffic was bumper to bumper, at a dead stop for long stretches of time.
Sunday, October 10
Everyone departs
Dad and Frances got up and left at 6:00 a.m. to catch an early flight home, so they never got to see Miles today. Gave them a kiss and vowed to myself to not waste my time talking them into doing anything like this again.
We checked out about 7:00 a.m. and returned the rental car. Total for the damage came to $476.84, which we had to pay for out of our own pocket, as our car insurance deductible is $500.00. Oh well. Flight home was uneventful, and we all zonked out for a nap most of the way home. I think I was too tired to even be scared.
Some Last Thoughts
All in all, I think we would have had a perfect vacation if we had stayed on-site, with magic passes. If we’d had a magic pass, believe me, we would NEVER have stayed in the Magic Kingdom on Saturday. We would have taken a hint when everything was broken first thing in the morning, and ducked out for a different park. I think there is a mental freedom with the length-of-stay passes, that makes you act less like a commando and more like you’re on vacation. You’re not thinking all day, “Am I getting my money’s worth for the price of my entry ticket today?”
And no amount of money I saved on accommodations made up for the $450+ rental car damage bill. We did save some money on food, but not a huge amount.
It’s Disney’s way, all the way, for us from now on.
And for those of you traveling with infants, here’s my advice:
If you are bringing other family members with you, talk in advance with them about touring plans that are appropriate for a baby or toddler. It’s a drag for a little guy or gal to do nothing but sit in a stroller while grownups go on Space Mountain, Alien, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, etc.
Don’t forget to use the baby care facility in the Magic Kingdom. It’s great.
And for you nursing moms, here’s my list of top nursing spots in the parks:
Magic Kingdom -- Hall of Presidents, People Mover, Haunted Mansion, Carousel of Progress
EPCOT - Mexico boat ride, American Experience