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Trip Planning > Walt Disney World > Trip Reports > Owensby - October 2005

Owensby - October 2005

The Owensbys Trip Report 10/27-31

Me: 26, planner, obsessed with WDW, speaks and thinks in initials thanks to this group!
DH: 30, loves WDW, puts up with my constant talk and planning
DD: 3, first trip, loves princesses and big characters from afar
MIL: 54, (she'll kill me if she finds out I said her age!), first trip since my DH was 4
FIL: 55, birthday boy, in need of a dentist, king of toothpicks

We were up and at `em by 5am this morning. After packing up the van and making sure we had everything, we hopped in the van and headed for my inlaws house around 6am. We called on our way to make sure they were up. They were still in the bed, so I'm glad we called!! We stopped off at Mcdonalds for some breakfast and went to pick them up. Finally we were off. A little late, but we were moving. We arrived at the Airport a little after 7am. We parked our van in long term parking and headed for the terminal. I had checked us in online the day before so we dropped our luggage with the skycap and headed in. I figured my FIL would tip the man, but no he didn't. I was terrified our bags would head straight for LA. We got through security fairly quickly except for my MIL who had a small pair of scissors in her cosmetic case. She finally joined up with us again sans scissors. We headed for our gate and were able to preboard since our DD is 3. This was her first flight and she was pretty excited. She picked a window seat and allowed DH and I sit with her. :o) The flight was uneventful, Which I was grateful for. :o) Arrived in Orlando right on time. We waited for our luggage and it never arrived or so we thought. My DH kept telling my FIL what $5 would have done if he had tipped the man in Nashville! I went down to the ME counter and got everything straightened out with our luggage and got us checked in. We were able to walk right on a bus with no wait. Our DD was disappointed that the DVD wasn't working on the bus, so we rode without a movie. Thankfully she fell asleep and took a much needed quick nap. We were the first stop so that made it even better! Once we arrived at POP, I headed with my FIL to the checkin desk. Everything was in my name and we had 2 rooms, but I didn't want my credit card used for their room charges, so we had to straighten all of that out. The CM behind the counter was not too happy to do this and really wasn't friendly at all. But we got all checked in none the less. Our original plan was to head to Earl of Sandwich for lunch just after checkin, but checkin took too long, so we settled for a snack at Pop's food court since it was now 1:15pm and we had dinner at `Ohana at 5:30pm. We had snacks and then headed for the rooms. I had requested 50's section, connecting rooms, nonsmoking and all of my requests were met. We were in rooms 2228 and 29. It was quiet and not a bad walk at all. Once we got cleaned up a bit we headed for MK. We had purchased AP's about a month before so we had to head to guest relations to exchange the vouchers for valid passes. It was an easy process and took just a couple of minutes. We headed for the turnstiles and made our way into the MK. All I wanted was for my DD to see the Castle and to get a picture of her face. She was in awe and it was such a special moment. It certainly made my day, seeing her face. We headed down Main Street towards Fantasyland and she rode the carousel with DH and DGP's . I headed to a cart to purchase sunglasses for DD since hers were in the luggage and hadn't made it to our room before we left. She wanted to ride Dumbo so badly, so I hopped in line with her. The line was crazy and the kids in line all around us were worse, so I convinced her we'd come back to ride it later in the week. We wandered through Fantasyland and then decided to head out. We caught part of Cinderellabration, which totally made DD's day. It was a little after 4pm when we headed for the monorail to the Poly. The wait was short at `Ohana's and we were seated rather quickly. The food was of course excellent. I don't mind the menu changes one bit at `Ohana. I did however mind the crazy lady with the ukelele , cowboy hat and the Garth Brooks Microphone. Her microphone had about had it, so she kept breaking up while she was singing and talking. The entire meal she just kept going in and out. The parade around the restaurant was cute until the little boy who was about 7 was going around banging on the back of everyone's chairs with the maracas or whatever it was she gave them. I'm sure his mom was proud. After supper, we went back to the monorail station and went to Epcot since they were open until midnight. I was so tired by then, I honestly can't remember what we did there. I don't think we rode anything. We finally called it a night and headed for the buses. Our bus to Pop arrived pretty quickly and we were on our way home. Once in the giftshop, we let DD pick out a toy for doing so good today. She picked out a princess Minnie doll. We went back to the room and crashed. I was so glad to see our luggage. DD watched the bedtime stories on Channel 14 while DH and I unpacked some. She quickly fell asleep and we weren't far behind her.

Today was Breakfast at Chef Mickey's. I made sure to let my inlaws know that we had to be out the door by 8am for our 9am ADR. We didn't quite get out at 8, but close enough. The bus for the MK was full, so we took the Epcot bus and then took the monorail. We arrived just a couple of minutes past our seating time and waited maybe 10 minutes. We were seated in the back near the start of the buffet. The character interaction was just right for us. Minnie was tickled over Hannah's Princess Minnie Doll and made a big fuss over it. Chip and Dale came around next. Dale was quite the friendly chipmunk with me. After He hugged me for a while, he finally let go and headed off to another table! Mickey came around and then Pluto. DD liked giving them high fives and blowing them kisses, but didn't really want to have her picture made with them. Once breakfast was over, we headed back to Epcot. Went straight for Soarin' to get FP's. We rode this during our March Trip while it was still in the soft opening stages. We absolutely loved it ,and this was our only must do for the day. Our return time was for early afternoon, so we headed towards Figment for my DD. I was a huge Figment fan as a child and loved the ride then, but I'm so disappointed in this ride now. She was a little scared at some of the loud noises, but did great. My inlaws wanted to see HISTA so we split up for a bit . We headed for World Showcase to ride El Rio de Tiempo, not our favorite ride, but something we knew our dd would enjoy. She did like it, especially the fireworks at the end. We just walked around and came up to Germany and saw Snow White all by herself. My most favorite pictures of the trip were taken here. Snow White spent a few minutes with DD and I was searching for the Kleenex. I thought seeing DD see the Castle for the first time would make me cry, but this did it to me. Snow White was so sweet and soft spoken. I hope I never forget that moment. We headed out of Germany and got a phone call from the inlaws; they were lost. They were next to "that test track thing" and didn't know how to find us. DH couldn't tell them, so I got on the phone and gave them directions. We didn't hear from them but we kept on moving. DD and DH were in the mood for some ice cream so we found a table outside the American Adventure and Dh had a Mickey Bar and DD had a Itsakadoozie Popsicle. We eventually saw the parents walk by and DH went after them. They were so upset at the Epcot map because it didn't list Africa or Australia on the map. I had to explain that some of the booths they were seeing were there just for the Food and Wine Festival. I sent them into the American Adventure Show as I knew they would really like it. We headed off for more characters. We came upon Aladdin and Jasmine, but they were heading off for a break. We traveled to France and saw Sleeping Beauty, who was super sweet. We went towards the UK and happened upon Pooh and Rabbit in the toy store. Rabbit was funny and DD gave him a high five before we left. We took the boat back towards Morocco hoping to see Aladdin and Jasmine again. We were in luck. While in line DD said she needed to go potty, but DH was determined to get up there to see Jasmine :o), so DD stuck it out! We quickly found a potty afterwards and eventually met back up with the parents. We headed towards the Land and took turns riding Soarin' with our FastPasses. After that, we headed back to Pop via bus and rested for a few minutes and got ready to head to DTD. It was of course crowded but we were able to hit Earl of Sandwich and get a table. It was delicious of course. We walked through the toy store and then down to Team Mickey's and World of Disney. It was just too crowded to do any shopping so we headed back outside to discuss our options. My inlaws are pretty much go with the flow people, but can be pretty indecisive as well. I just want to know what we are doing as I'm such the planner. We sat at the little stage area for a while. I tried to convince them to go see a movie, but they were worried they would get down to PI and not find anything they wanted to see. So after sitting there a while, we got back on a bus and head for Pop for Dessert. I ended up taking DD back to the room before everyone else because she was so wiped out. Bedtime stories played and she was out.

I made sure we were at the MK bus stop by 8am since MK was opening at 9am this morning. We got in line with everyone else and waited for the opening ceremonies. What a fabulous job to be the Mayor of Main Street! Everyone is always happy to see you and applauds you! We hurried in through the train station and went straight for Fantasyland via the Tomorrowland Bridge. It was awesome! We were the only ones through there. We walked right on to all of the rides. First we did Winnie the Pooh and then on to Peter Pan. We then headed to Dumbo and had a blast. It's a Small World was DD's favorite ride. She's still singing the song! We went to Philharmagic next, this didn't go over too well with DD and she went bonkers because it was so loud. So we took off our "opry glasses" and watched a distorted movie. She loved seeing Donald Duck at the end though. We had gotten Fastpasses when we arrived for Space Mountain so we rode this next. I had forgotten how much fun this ride is! I had woken up this morning with no voice so I'm sure the preteen sitting in front of me was thankful for that since I screamed the entire time! We traded off with the parents and took DD over to get FP's for Buzz. After the parents came off Space Mountain they looked a little shook up….we joked with FIL that he would have to take his toothpick out on this ride as he would end up swallowing it. He always has a toothpick in his mouth since he used to be a smoker he needs something in there! He did say he kept the toothpick in, but ending up snapping it in half during the ride! We took the train from Toon Town to Frontierland and stopped for an early lunch at Pecos Bill's. Then headed to BTMRR for FP's for later in the day. DH, MIL and FIL went to the Haunted Mansion while DD and I shopped a bit. We sent the parents to the Hall of Presidents and we went to shop down Main Street. I needed to get DD a pair of Gold Mickey Ears and an infant pair of regular ears for the baby I keep during the week. The parents finally joined back up with us and the Girls were scheduled for Afternoon Tea at the GF and the boys were headed to ESPN Club for early supper. We arrived with plenty of time and I went to check in and the CM said that I didn't have a reservation. I told her I did and asked if she wanted my Confirmation number. She told me no, it's just not in the system. So I asked about how long it would be for a walkup spot and she told me over an hour. I was so upset that we didn't get to do this. She was not very nice or helpful so that didn't make it any easier. We were pretty bummed so we decided to head back to Pop for an early supper. When we arrived I went to the concierge desk and asked for a printout of my seatings. I saw the list and just about cried. Everything was right on there except for the date. The seating was for Thursday, our arrival day. Something must have gone crazy with CRO's system as I know we were scheduled for Saturday. Oh well, maybe next time. We had supper at Pop and then went to find a bus to MK. The lines for the MK bus were super long. So we decided to get in the Epcot line and take the monorail. Just as we hopped in line, another MK Bus pulled up and we jumped on. We were the only ones on the bus! We got in the MK and did some wandering around and headed for Adventureland. We went to the Tiki Room and then on to BTMRR with FP's. I sat BTMRR out and stayed with DD and called my mom at home. We then headed to the Train for Toon Town. We walked through Mickey and Minnie's houses and then convinced DD to ride the Barnstormer. She had seen lots of pictures of this ride and really wanted to ride it. I was afraid she'd chicken out, but she went right on with DH. She did really good. We made our way through Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and DH and DD wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. I decided that it was getting too close to time for Wishes so I left them all to ride Buzz and headed for the Tomorrowland Bridge. I got us a great spot on the railing. The family finally showed up and took their places on the railing. I was scared dd would go bonkers since we were so close to the fireworks, but she did great! She stayed in the stroller the whole time and loved every minute of it. We decided to stick around the Mk for a bit hoping the crowds would thin out. We stuck around for almost an hour after wishes, but the bus stop was unbelievable! I can't imagine the lines in the summertime! The Pop Century bus line was wrapped all around the queue and then formed a straight line all the way to the start of the bus stops. They eventually sent 2 buses at a time to help with pick up and the wait was not too bad. I think we waited somewhere in the range of 30-45 minutes. Once back at the hotel, we went straight for the room and DH headed to the food court for some refills and snacks for us. We had a good day and were totally exhausted.

Today was my FIL's 55th birthday. He didn't want a big fuss, which I was grateful for since I was wiped out. I had told the front desk about his birthday the day before and had asked for something to be sent to the room. We headed to DTD for the morning to do some shopping since we knew it wouldn't be too crowded. We all went for WOD, I had already picked out a purse and shirt for myself in Pop's giftshop so I waited to purchase them at WOD for the 10% discount with my AP. We secretly purchased the Cinderella Castle Playset for DD and had it shipped home for Christmas. Although, I think I wanted it more than she did! She picked out a Mickey Mouse doll and a shirt too. DH didn't really see anything he wanted here but had previously seen his items in Pop's gift shop so he got those items there. We got the print that was offered for $5 and had it rolled up for traveling home. We went back to Earl of Sandwich for lunch and then back to Pop to put up our goodies. We then got on the bus for MGM. We went straight for RNRC which only had a 10 minute standby time, so we got our FP's for later and got in the line to ride. We left DD outside with the parents. The ride was great as usual. We came out and the standby time had been changed to 45 minutes so the parents would have to ride later. We headed towards the Animation Tour to see if Chicken Little was around. He wasn't, but Abby Mallard, aka the ugly duckling was. Unfortunately DD didn't want to have her picture made with her so we headed out to the Playhouse Disney Show. We waited in line for just a few minutes and then headed in. I tried to sit more towards the middle, but we kept getting pushed up front by the cm's . So DD stood the whole time and had a ball. It was a cute show and I took tons of pictures. We then headed off towards the Muppets. DH went back to TOT to get FP's for later and I sent the parents into the Great Movie Ride. DD and I found a seat outside the ABC Commissary to see if we could catch DH when he went by. We caught him and went towards the Muppets again. This time we browsed around the store and eventually found a seat just outside the Muppet theatre to rest for a bit. DH and I weren't really paying attention to DD, she was just playing quietly when I noticed she was posing like the Miss Piggy fountain and spinning around slowly. We were cracking up and videoed her doing this. We ended up with some cute video of her telling us all about WDW as well. Finally the parents arrived and we entered the Muppet 3D show. I should have known DD wouldn't like the loud noises so she ended up in my lap watching the show with no glasses and her hands on her ears. I eventually took my glasses off too. I imagine it's pretty confusing to a 3 year old as to why the movie is so blurry. Once we finished up there, we slowly made our way across the park as we had a 5:50 ADR for the Brown Derby. We arrived a few minutes early and waited outside for a bit. We had a booth, which was fun and a really nice waiter. Dh and FIL both had the Filet, which they said was great, DD had a hotdog, how much classier can you get at the Brown Derby!, MIL had a veal chop and I had the grouper. I think everyone enjoyed their meals. I was excited about dessert and had the Grapefruit cake on my mind, DD had the gummi worms and icecream, DH and FIL had the cheesecake with macadamias and MIL had the 50th celebration orange chocolate dessert. I had notified the Brown Derby that we were celebrating a birthday and they brought out a small pudding/flan/cheesecake looking dessert with sprinkles all over it with our desserts for FIL. I should point out that my FIL is notorious for finishing everyones plates so he had no trouble finishing this dessert as well. We had been taking turns with the checks at all of the restaurants and using our DDE card too. Tonight was my FIL's turn with the check and I am still worried that He didn't give that poor waiter enough tip. He's very meticulous with tips and such. I wish I had had some cash on me, I would have left extra! I forgot to mention that somehow my inlaws got it in their heads that this was the original brown derby restaurant. I don't know why they thought this, but it was pretty amusing to me and DH. I told them that they had moved the restaurant here so that they could build a park around it. They believed me for a minute and then realized how absurd that sounded. I still giggle thinking about it. :o) After supper, we headed out to figure out our plans for the remainder of the evening. We split from the parents and took dd walking for a bit. It was so quiet and peaceful to be just the three of us again. We got our EMH wrist bands and Dh headed off to find a restroom while I made some phonecalls home. By this time DD was super tired so I convinced DH to let me take her back by myself. She was wanting to be held and carried and I had to fold the stroller as well. Which was a fun task! We finally made the bus and got home to Pop with no problems. I peeked in the parents room and noticed that Pop had sent balloons and a card. I got DD in the bed and started packing. I had some Space Bags at home that I had never used and for some reason decided to pack them for this trip. They were great for packing dirty clothes in! They fit perfect in the suitcase and I was able to pack all three sets of dirty clothes with no problems. We finally got in the bed around 11pm and crashed.

This morning we made sure to have everything packed up and ready to roll. For some reason we weren't express checked out so I had to go down to the desk. We had a really nice CM who more than made up for the unfriendly one at check in. We got everything squared away and headed into Everything Pop for a little breakfast. Once that was taken care of we headed for the Magic Kingdom one more time. Everyone headed to Pirates and DD and I stayed behind. We saw Peter Pan, Captain Hook and Mr. Smee just outside of POC. DD waved to them and we went towards the exit of POC to meet up with DH and the parents. We then meandered through Frontierland and eventually wound up in Liberty Square at the Christmas Shop. I ran in to pick out a Red Mickey head ornament and to have it personalized. We still had a bit of time to kill before our ADR at CRT lunch so we just wandered through Liberty Square and then onto Fantasyland. Finally it was time to checkin at the CRT desk and we were seated rather quickly. We were seated at the table right next to the steps where the princesses come out. It was a great spot. Our waiter was fantastic. He was totally in character. He got on to my FIL for knocking something over and called him Prince Grace the entire meal. My FIL didn't enjoy it, but we thought it was hilarious. My MIL ordered the Focaccia Sandwich and the waiter commented on how she had come so far just to have a ham sandwich. She was a little put off by this, but once again we thought it was hilarious. Our Food came quickly and it was delicious. Dh and I both had the Major Domo's Pie , FIL had the Salmon, MIL the Focaccia Sandwich and DD the Chicken Fingers. DD was almost too excited to eat but did manage to eat a little bit. Our waiter announced the Princesses, Belle was first, then Sleeping Beauty, then Mary Poppins and then Cinderella. Belle was the first to come to our table and we took a picture of her with DD. She didn't spend much time as DD was a little shy. Mary Poppins came over next. She sat with DD and talked to her about the booboo on my dd's thumb. She told me that I needed to give DD a spoonful of sugar to make it feel better. DD then asked her where Bert was and she told her that he was of course out sweeping chimneys. A quick hug and photo and she was off. Cinderella came over next and DD quickly hopped in her lap for a picture. They talked for a minute and then DD went back to her Dessert! She has been on a major Cinderella kick for the past few months, but apparently this was enough for her. Sleeping Beauty came over and hugged DD and took a picture. DD asked her about Prince Phillip and she said he was off in the castle somewhere. And that was pretty much it. Oh I guess I should mention that while FIL was eating his Salmon, he had a tooth fall out…no he doesn't have any false teeth, just a molar came out! I thought my DH was going to get sick. I know FIL was glad that our waiter was no where near when this happened because he would have given him a hard time. No matter what, it was gross and FIL just kept right on with his lunch like it happens all the time or it was no big deal. To me it signified that we probably weren't classy enough to be eating in Cinderella Castle and I hoped no one found out! :o) After lunch, we headed out to watch Cinderellabration one more time and to have our picture taken to the left of the castle. MIL and FIL were on a mission to find SIL a certain sweatshirt so we let them shop while we took in Main Street one last time. As we were standing around we came across Friar Tuck all alone. No handler, no crowds, nothing. So we said hello and asked about Robin Hood. He replied with the international sign for shooting a bow and arrow. I got tickled thinking of all the ways the characters have to do sign language in a sense. Little John came walking out from behind a gate and wandered over to Friar Tuck. Apparently Little John needed him so he could sign autographs. Friar Tuck would hold the book up and Little John would try to sign it. I'm not sure if LJ was new , but his handwriting was worse than my 3 year olds! Jafar came out and was funny with some little boys and their books. He kept holding the books way above their heads so they couldn't reach them. King Louie came out about the same time as the Queen of Hearts. They were pretty funny together putting on a show for the autograph seekers. We enjoyed just observing the characters and not really worrying about getting in the lines for pictures or autographs. We waved goodbye to Friar Tuck and headed towards the exit, but not before we stopped for what will now be our every trip photo of our DD. She climbed up a few steps to the train station and stood next to the railing. The pictures turned out so cute and it will also be a great way to see how much she's grown each trip since she's holding onto the rail. We decided to take the bus to Saratoga Springs so we would be closest to DTD for my inlaws to finish up their shopping. The bus for the Boardwalk showed up first so we took that one since MIL had not seen the Boardwalk yet. During the daytime, it is so quiet here that honestly I'm pretty bored. We managed to get a bench right by the water and watch the ducks for a bit. When the parents were done shopping we headed back to the bus stop and managed to catch the bus for DTD as soon as we walked up. We really had great luck with buses this trip. They wanted to see PI and the west side, so we got off the bus there and stopped for a slushie at Wetzels Pretzels. MIL went in to the Planet Hollywood store and purchased a Sweatshirt…had she been there? No, but now she can pretend she has. :o) We walked back up to the Marketplace and let them shop some more. Let me add that this was about an hour and a half until we had to be back at Pop for our ME bus to the airport. To say I was stressing was an understatement. They had not made any purchases the entire trip and were just now deciding to shop. DH, DD and I waited on a bench outside of WOD for them. Finally they appeared with a couple of bags and we power walked to the bus. Well I power walked, they just strolled. We caught the bus and arrived back at Pop with about 10 mins to spare. I ran DD to the restroom to change her clothes and potty. It turns out that our ME bus was running late so he didn't show up until 5:30 when we were scheduled to leave around 5pm. But not a problem for us as our flight didn't leave until 8pm. The bus was a Disney Cruise Line Bus which made DH and I a little nostalgic since we did the DCL on our honeymoon 6 years ago. Arrived at the airport with no problems. Security is always an issue with my MIL as she carried a huge cosmetic case with everything you can think of in it. She got stopped and had to open her bag and show the screener that it was just her tweezers causing the problem. I on the other hand, could not seem to make it through without beeping. I finally figured out it was my belt, which had not caused any problems in Nashville. Once I put my shoes, watch, charm bracelet and belt back on, we were in business. We took the tram to our gate and stopped off for some McDonalds for supper. We were able to preboard with DD and she quickly fell asleep on the plane. We both ended up having some ear problems due to us both being sick so the last 10 minutes or so of our flight were rough, but other than that, it was great. We landed in Nashville right on time and had the fun task of trying to remember where we parked in long term parking. We weren't too smart and didn't write down or take a picture of the nearest bus stop so we kind of had to guess our stop. Once we finally found the van we were thrilled as I think we were all ready to get home.

All in all, It was a good trip. We had great weather and no real problems with crowds. I am however looking forward to our January trip that will be just the three of us. My MIL made the comment about how I should get to planning on our spring trip, but I didn't answer her. I'm not sure if I could take an entire week with them, a long weekend was plenty. :o) We had a good time and did things we had not done before at WDW. It was great having DD along with us for her first real trip…we went when I was pregnant with her and sitting in Tomorrowland was the first time I ever felt her move. Can't wait to go back in the next few months!

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