The New Family Tradition TR About This Page:

[Tabitha34]

Sounds like you had a pretty good day in Epcot even if Cameron was a little cranky. Love all the pictures! Very cute purse!

[shnewell]

I your new purse! That was so sweet of them to get that for you!

Sorry Cameron was a little cranky today, but glad you got a lot done at Epcot! What did Jim and Jean think of Le Cellier?

How funny that Goofy keeps calling them. We've had a couple of birthday trips to Disney World and Goofy has never called us. For Peter's birthday, the CM at the MK entrance saw Peter's birthday button and told me to go to City Hall and ask about the phone call from Goofy, which I did. The CM at City Hall looked at me kind of funny -- maybe I made a Disney faux pas by asking for it myself?!?

[Colexis Mom]

Love the purse! Great pics from your day at Epcot!

[Cam22]

What a great day from start to finish! the bag -- so sweet of your travel companions!

[Jessie092408]

That was so sweet of everyone to get that bag for you!

[stardust190]

Originally Posted by isabelalvarez

Loving yoru TR and love seeing your little boy, such a cutie....

Thanks! We had a great trip and it's nice to share with others to keep the memories alive.

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Aww, how sweet of Nate and the others for getting you that purse! I imagine how bad you felt for getting angry at Nate but how could've you known. And to make you feel better, it has happened to me too but my husband has caved and told about his plan just to make me stop being angry.

Great day at Epcot! That's my favorite park. I love going into all the countries and taking lots of pictures.

It was really nice of them to get me that purse. I was very surprised that they did. And I felt horrible for fighting with Nate the night before. But it happens and I didn't know he was scheming to get me a surprise. I'm actually surprised that Nate didn't fess up when I got angry, but he kept it a secret.

Originally Posted by KMB733

your new bag!!! Such a great gift from your family. And a great day at Epcot!!!

Thanks! I love my new bag too. I get to bring a piece of Disney with me everyday!

Originally Posted by Tabitha34

Sounds like you had a pretty good day in Epcot even if Cameron was a little cranky. Love all the pictures! Very cute purse!

It was a good day. I think Cameron was just worn out by this point in the trip. I know I was tired and he's just little so it could be expected. We had some lovely moments, but I could tell that the trip was coming to an end for him.

Originally Posted by shnewell

I your new purse! That was so sweet of them to get that for you!

Sorry Cameron was a little cranky today, but glad you got a lot done at Epcot! What did Jim and Jean think of Le Cellier?

How funny that Goofy keeps calling them. We've had a couple of birthday trips to Disney World and Goofy has never called us. For Peter's birthday, the CM at the MK entrance saw Peter's birthday button and told me to go to City Hall and ask about the phone call from Goofy, which I did. The CM at City Hall looked at me kind of funny -- maybe I made a Disney faux pas by asking for it myself?!?

Thanks! Even with the cranky toddler we had a good time. And he really wasn't that bad. Lunch was hard as he wasn't interested in sitting still, but such is life with a child. I think Jim really liked Le Cellier. Jean I'm not so sure. She thought it was good, but I don't think steakhouses are high on her list. She doesn't mind steak, but she's not as interested in it as her husband and son. So I'd say the men really, really enjoyed it and us gals thought it was really good, but probably would have been just as happy with a pasta place.

I'm not sure what happened with the phone calls. Jean just kept being pulled aside for the phone. And then at the American pavilion Jim walked by the CM a few minutes after Jean and he got the call as well. Maybe the CM in America had a special assignment that day to get guests calls from Goofy. It does seem strange that you were told to ask about a call, but when you actually did they looked at you funny. I heard part of Jim's call and it was really cute. Maybe someday Goofy will track you down on the phone!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Love the purse! Great pics from your day at Epcot!

Thank you!

Originally Posted by Cam22

What a great day from start to finish! the bag -- so sweet of your travel companions!

It was a great day! I my new bag too. I still can't believe they got it for me. I'm very lucky to have family like them.

Originally Posted by Jessie092408

That was so sweet of everyone to get that bag for you!

It was very sweet of them and they really didn't have to. They kept saying that I put so much work into the trip that I deserved it. And I guess I put a lot of planning into the trip, but they don't realize that I really like the planning part. It wasn't a job to me it was fun - so I really didn't need a reward for it.

[honeybee723]

So this is how cheesy I am...when you said that Cameron was being bashful around Sleeping Beauty because he was getting sleepy, I thought to myself, well yeah, he's just taking after the princess. Really bad joke right?

Anyway, great start to the day by getting a very nice purse!

[edisneymania86]

Traveling with a toddler/infant is SO different. Our last trip was the first time with DS (16 months) and it was so much more exhausting than it used to be. We left parks early multiple days. Anyway, just got caught up with your TR! Sounds like a wonderful trip and looks like Cam has had an amazing time!

[Tabitha34]

Originally Posted by honeybee723

So this is how cheesy I am...when you said that Cameron was being bashful around Sleeping Beauty because he was getting sleepy, I thought to myself, well yeah, he's just taking after the princess. Really bad joke right?

I thought the exact same thing!

[OhToodles!]

All caught up! Things seem to be going really well, minus the spat with Nate. And how sweet of your family to get you that purse!
I believe you can get a non-alcoholic version of almost all the adult slushies so Cam could have had his own.
Next year we'll be taking a 2 & 5 year old on a cruise so I'll let you know about a cruise vs WDW too!

[stardust190]

Originally Posted by honeybee723

So this is how cheesy I am...when you said that Cameron was being bashful around Sleeping Beauty because he was getting sleepy, I thought to myself, well yeah, he's just taking after the princess. Really bad joke right?

Anyway, great start to the day by getting a very nice purse!

I forgive your cheesiness. Actually when writing my report I thought about putting something like that in there, but I didn't want to display my own cheesiness.

Originally Posted by edisneymania86

Traveling with a toddler/infant is SO different. Our last trip was the first time with DS (16 months) and it was so much more exhausting than it used to be. We left parks early multiple days. Anyway, just got caught up with your TR! Sounds like a wonderful trip and looks like Cam has had an amazing time!

Thanks for reading. It was a wonderful trip and yes having DS along changed a lot, but it was so wonderful seeing the world through his eyes. Made the exhaustion and extra work worth it.

Originally Posted by Tabitha34

I thought the exact same thing!

I too forgive your cheesiness.

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

All caught up! Things seem to be going really well, minus the spat with Nate. And how sweet of your family to get you that purse!
I believe you can get a non-alcoholic version of almost all the adult slushies so Cam could have had his own.
Next year we'll be taking a 2 & 5 year old on a cruise so I'll let you know about a cruise vs WDW too!

As a whole things went really well. The spats are going to happen. I just feel bad that part of the spat had to do with him leaving me to go buy me a present. I felt so stupid. I'll have to remember that about the slushies. Although Cam can't drink a whole one so someone would have had to share.

And thanks in advance for the info about cruising with little ones. We're going to take a cruise we're just trying to decide when.

[stardust190]

February 3rd, 2012

I don’t remember if we decided to get up early on this day or if it just kind of happened, but either way we were out of the door by 8 AM and made it to the Magic Kingdom about 10 minutes before opening. I had never seen the opening show before and I will say I am so glad we caught it. I loved that show. I even teared up a little. I’m not sure why. Maybe it was because this was our last park day. Or maybe it was just because it gave the day a little more magic and I was so happy to be sharing this magic with my son. I just loved everything about this show. And Cameron really enjoyed when his favorite characters showed up on his favorite thing the “choo-choo”.

I had mentioned that I thought we should take Cameron to meet the princesses first thing as I knew the lines would only grow longer as the day went on. Well when we entered the park the wait was at 10 minutes, but we all needed potty breaks and we had to get a locker. By the time we made it over to the meet the wait was listed at 15 minutes. I had been trying to avoid any wait over 10 minutes with Cameron as he just didn’t have the patience. Figuring the wait wouldn’t get any shorter we decided to just take him in line and see what happened.

As I thought the wait didn’t go the best. Cam really didn’t want to be in a line and he was getting cranky. We managed to keep him somewhat entertained, but it was hard work. Finally we entered the room with the princesses and he saw them. I think there might have been some squealing. I know for sure there was some big smiles when he saw Belle. She even pointed to him and said something like “Oh my how adorable”. Cam likes the Beast so he probably knows Belle the best out of the three princesses there (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle). His favorite princess is actually Ariel, but these princesses didn’t know that.


It was finally our turn and you would think with Cameron’s excitement when we entered the room and his reactions to all the other characters that he would be super excited about this meet. Not exactly:




He never cried or became upset or anything, but he was certainly Mr. Bashful. A giant duck or mouse and he was all over those characters. The princesses that look like normal people and he was very timid and shy. So not like my little chatterbox who has no stranger issues. Maybe they were just soooo beautiful to him.




Cinderella was really great with my shy little guy. She told him a story about her dog and how the fairy godmother had him in a ball gown that morning. Cam’s response:




Apparently he wanted to know why as that’s his “I don’t know” gesture. He did end up warming up to “Rella”:




And boy does he talk about her a lot now that we’re back home. Every time we ask him to hold our hands he reminds us “Rella – hand” as Cinderella held his hand and walked him over to her little meet spot. We even have a little video of his “Rella” holding his hand and he likes to watch it again and again and again.

After “Rella” it was time for Belle. I really thought she was going to be the princess Cam liked most at this meet as he has seen her movie the most, but he reverted to his bashful little self:







Actually he was the MOST bashful with Belle:







Belle remembered seeing him in line and commented about how he had been all smiles a minute ago. She also tried to make silly faces at him, but he was still a little hesitant. I told Belle that Cameron really liked the Beast and she said she would tell the Beast that he had stopped by. Cameron wanted to know where the Beast was:




So Belle told him that he was getting a haircut. He did warm up to Belle too:




Then it was time for Princess Aurora and the bashfulness took over once again:


He wasn’t shy enough to forget about his new prized possession though:




Sleeping Beauty didn’t interact with us all that much. It might be because I was starting to feel like maybe Cameron wasn’t having a good time and I didn’t interact much either. But after a little while Cameron did end up standing with Aurora for a picture:



Maybe it was because he had met her at Epcot before, but he definitely warmed up to her a lot quicker than the other ladies. I had felt a little bad for dragging Cam in to meet the princesses, but he never cried and I stayed by him the whole time. He was just a little shy, but I really don’t think he was scared. And I never pushed him I just kept telling him that the princesses were nice. But still after we left I felt like maybe I had forced him to meet them. Although now that we’re home and he won’t shut up about the princesses I kind of think deep down he enjoyed the experience.

After the princesses we headed on over to Fantasyland. We of course stopped for some PhotoPass pictures:




Notice Nate holding Cameron’s hand. It was the only way we could keep the thing out of his mouth towards the end of the trip.

Once we made it to Fantasyland we noticed that Winnie the Pooh had a bit of a wait we grabbed FastPasses for that and went on over to ride it’s a small world. Cameron seemed to enjoy this ride, but afterwards seemed quite cranky. We figured he was probably hungry as he hadn’t eaten much in the hotel room. So we searched around for a place for breakfast. The closest place we could find serving breakfast was Sleepy Hallow. Initially we just got a Ham, Prosciutto and Swiss waffle sandwich for Cameron. He liked it and ate a good portion of the waffle and the eggs. Then we saw what my in-laws had ordered and decided that we too needed a Nutella and Fresh Fruit Waffle Sandwich. This was the most amazing breakfast I have ever had. So good. Just thinking about it makes me hungry and I want another one.

After our tummies were filled we headed back to Pooh to use our FastPasses. We had also gotten “surprise” FastPasses for Mickey’s PhillarMagic when we got the Pooh FastPasses, but we decided we didn’t want to check that show out again as we had already seen it on Monday. We left the “surprise” FastPasses on a bench in hopes that someone would find them and be able to use them. When we got in line for Pooh I realized I had made a mistake in getting FastPasses for this ride. The new interactive queue looked so cool. I knew that this had been added, but I didn’t know how neat it really was. Cameron kept trying to get to the interactive area from the FastPass line and I felt bad. He would have had a blast playing around in there. Next time we’ll be sure to check that out! I think Cameron liked this ride. He knows who Pooh and Tigger are and pointed at them and smiled through the whole ride. I’m not the biggest fan of Pooh and friends though so Cam doesn’t really know that much about the story.

After Pooh we took off to Tomorrowland figuring Cam would like to ride the Speedway. The line ended up being a little too long for that ride so we decided to skip it. We grabbed FastPasses for Buzz and started making our way over to the Haunted Mansion. On the way we stopped for a photo op:




Once at the Haunted Mansion we decided to check out the interactive queue. Cam seemed to enjoy it:




I wasn’t sure if it was going to be a good idea to take Cameron on this ride or not. It’s not super scary, but it is dark and the voice in the Doom Buggie is a little creepy. Cameron didn’t seem bothered at all. He just kept saying “boo” over and over again. So he got that it was ghosts, but not enough to be scared. My guess is when he’s around 3-4 we might have to skip this ride until he’s a bit older.

After Haunted Mansion it was time for Cameron’s nap. Nate and I knew that the PeopleMover was in our future. We headed back to Tomorrowland. I think I should probably call this day the day we zigzagged around the Magic Kingdom. Seems like we had no real plan and we just kept going back and forth. Once in Tomorrowland Jean decided to pass on the PeopleMover. I guess riding it four times in a row last time was too much for her. Jim, Jean and Breanna all decided to check out Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. Nate and I had really liked that show in 2009 and Nate even got to be “Mike Wazowski with one eye”. It was sad we had to miss that show, but Cam needed a nap and didn’t really know that movie at all (since the trip he has discovered it and watches it 3,000 times a day).

The PeopleMover worked like a charm. We rode it around twice and then transferred a sleeping Cameron into his stroller. Nate and I decided to try a Sweet Cream Cheese Pretzel from the Launching Pad. We split one and found it to be quite delish.


After our snack we decided to head over to Main Street to order some Mickey Ears for all of us. I had meant to do this on our first Magic Kingdom day, but ended up forgetting. Nate and I ended up stopping for a castle picture:




We have one almost exactly like this from our honeymoon in 2009. So I’m glad we got an opportunity to have it taken of just the two of us. Then on the way to order ears Nate found a camera battery in the road. So we took that to the lost and found and finally ordered our Mickey Ears! Of course while in the shop Nate had to put something stupid on his head:




Once the ears were ordered we called the rest of our party and decided we would meet them in Tomorrowland. It was kind of noisy in Tomorrowland so we decided we would all go check out Frontierland as we hadn’t really done much over there. We did stop and get Space Mountain FastPasses first. Of course I suggested we get to Frontierland via Adventureland so that we could get another Dole Whip.


While we were eating our Dole Whips Cameron woke up. He once again enjoyed this treat, but he was in some kind of meltdown cranky mood. He wouldn’t let us take him out of the stroller and kind of just whined about everything. We thought we might head over to Tom Sawyer island for a bit, but when we realized they wouldn’t let us bring the stroller we decided to pass. Cam just didn’t want to get out of the stroller at this point. We checked the next showing of Country Bear Jamboree, but it was about 15-20 minutes away. So we decided to skip that too.

This ended up freeing us up to watch the parade so it turned out to be a good thing. Cameron was still crabby, but we managed to remedy his mood:






“No mom this is my Mickey Bar!”

Cameron really seemed to enjoy the parade. Especially Donald and Minnie. I had never stopped to watch the parade before, but it was a pretty fun parade and we had good seats so we were really able to see everything.
After the parade was done we headed back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz. I completely sucked and I didn’t even have a child on my lap! Our ride photos were interesting so we purchased those:







I laugh at these pictures every time I see them. Jean looks terrified and I am completely serious about this ride! I think Jim ended up with the highest score of all of us. Nate found more stupid things to put on his head after Buzz:




Cameron too:




Nate, Breanna and I rode Space Mountain. I’m not sure what the others did, but our ride didn’t take very long. After that we headed back to Main Street to pick up our ears. Cameron didn’t want to wear his at all. He wore his first haircut ears for such a long time, but these ones he did not want on his head. We managed to get a picture, but that was it:




Cameron found the bench with Roy and Minnie and he had to stop and sit with his “Mimmie”:







Since the Choo-choo was Cameron’s favorite we decided to ride it over to Frontierland to grab some dinner. We ate at PECOS BILL’s and were very pleased with our food. I really like places with giant toppings bars. Cameron didn’t seem to care for the meal, but he ate an entire thing of yogurt and wouldn’t share so it was ok.

After dinner we were kind of done with the park. Plus we had to get back to finish up our packing. We were leaving in the morning. We walked through Adventureland one more time on the way out and then hopped on a bus back to Pop. Goodbye Magic Kingdom! You’ve been great!

We got to the resort by 6:30 and stopped for a picture by Tramp:




Cameron loved this dog and pointed to him every morning as we walked past.

Favorites

Nate – To Nate this was just an average day. Nothing stuck out as a favorite part for him.

Missy – The opening show. I really enjoyed that and got quite emotional during it. I think this was my favorite day of our trip. Not sure why.

Cameron – The train and the Mickey Bar!

Worst part about today – Cameron’s meltdowns were quite frequent today. He had hit his limit, but that was ok as it was our last park day.


Most interesting part about today – We spent the day crisscrossing the park. Not something I really like to do and usually we’re much better about knowing what we want to do and sticking in an area instead of bopping around all over the place.

Weather in Orlando: 77 cloudy and windy. This was the worst weather of the trip. I think it even sprinkled a little bit. But it wasn’t bad and we still had a great time.

Steps taken – 19876 (about 9.9 miles)

[Tabitha34]

We were at MK that day too! I did not see us in any of your pictures. I will have to look back at my notes to see if we may have crossed paths at any time. I can not tell you though until I write that part of my TR. Don't want to give it away just yet.

I love the picture of Cam sitting on the bench beside Minnie! He is so cute! I also love the pictures of him with the Princesses. I think he was just shy because they were so pretty. Asher was like that when he was little. He did not even want to go see the Princesses because they were so pretty. Our first trip with him to WDW he was 2 and we were watching the Spector Magic parade. We were sitting on the curb on Main Street and at the end Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs came walking by. Snow saw him sitting on the curb and came over to us. When he saw her coming he just froze. She took his cheeks in her hands and said, "you are so beautiful!" Then she kissed his forehead. Asher didn't move a muscle. Snow walked on with the parade and I know it was a good minute before Asher finally moved and turned to us and he said, "mama, Snow White kissed me right there." He was in total shock and awe. He did not want to wash his forehead the rest of the week. It was so cute. He was just so mesmerized by the princesses that he just couldn't go see them.

I was thinking when Cam saw Belle that he acted more shy with her because he thinks Beast is his buddy and she is Beasts girl so he doesn't want to offend.

[MayraLR]

What a great last day at MK! So great that Cameron got to meet the princesses. You should take advantage of that now. As a mother of 3 boys I never get to meet any princess because my boys don't want to.

I love the Mickey ears!

[MGW]

The pics with the Princesses are just too cute! So adorable!

My son was alwyas one to just sit quietly and take it all in, looking like he wasn't having a good time, and then blab about it incessantly afterward!

I'm sorry to see this trip come to an end!