Jay visits Mickey's House - Updated Day 2 5May2010 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Jay visits Mickey's House - Updated Day 2 5May2010
Travelers: ME - Cheeser (36 yo Female) DH -Dew (37 yo Male) DD - Shlee(17 yo Female) DS- Jay (4 yo Male)
Planned Dates Arrive Pop Century Resort April 2nd – Leave April 11, 2010 driving directly home 14 hours to Cincinnati, Ohio.
An 8 park day extravaganza to celebrate our Shlee graduating from High School a year early.
I guess you could say that our trip started out simple enough. I stayed home with Jay from work and school on April 1st. We spent the day running some errands and a few hours at the park with McDonalds to hopefully wear the 4 year old down so that he would be more amenable to a 14 hour car ride.
We picked DD – Shlee up from from school early at 1:00 and took her home and bathed Jay after he played in the sandbox at the park and she helped me to pack up the car.
DH – Dew arrived home from work about 3pm and we were in the car and ready to go by 3:30pm.
We kept good mileage stopping in Georgetown KY for McDonalds and a fillup. We then stopped in Knoxville T at a Flying J for gasoline and a Welcome Gas station in Georgia, than last stop for gas was a Penn Oil station in Jasper Florida. Normally we stop at the Florida Welcome Center and take a potty break…but I was determined to get to the resort and we pulled in to the Pop Century parking lot at 6:30am. Now I wasn’t holding out much hope that they would have a room ready for us at such an early arrival since check-in normally isn’t until 3:00pm…but we were fortunate and heading off to room 6205, supposedly a preferred, remodeled room. Now I have to say…this room we paid the Preferred rate for…didn’t seem that convenient to anything. We had quite a walk to either the Hippy Dippy Pool or the Computer Pool or the lobby. We did have rather a shortcut to the 90’s Parking lot…but we didn’t know that at first and took a long circuitous route while tugging luggage behind us. There were bunnies and ducks everywhere which fascinated the 4 year old and we had to constantly tell them to leave them alone…just look at them.
It was officially April 2nd and we had arrived at Walt Disney World. We had a room and we all took showers and changed into Disney clothes and were ready by 10am to hit Downtown Disney.
We went shopping at all the usual places, World of Disney, the Toy Shop, but didn't buy anything. We kept saying we might see something we want more later in the week.
I’d been trying to book ADRs for T-Rex for a few months and hadn’t been able to get anything so we thought we’d try walk up. We were in luck. Only about a 10 minute wait and we had lunch at 11:15am.
We then decided to give Jay a boat ride experience so we took a boat ride from DTD to Port Orleans. At Port Orleans we walked around and looked at stuff with Jay hollering he wanted to swim the whole time. We then walked to the resort entrance and caught a bus back to DTD. We then waited about 15 minutes for a bus back to Pop Century.
It was definitely nap time for me at that time…all night awake and driving we all needed a nap so we took a
Nap from 2 to 4
We then awoke, refreshed and decided on
Heading back to DTD
First Stop: Ghirardelli (See pic attached below)
Dew and Jay -Banana split
Cheeser- Strike it rich sundae with a bottled water
Shlee - Ghirardelli chocolate scoop in chocolate waffle cone
Jay had a brain freeze and spill ice cream in his lap moment so please see attached pic below with his cold reaction.
Then went back shopping at World of Disney.
Bought Jay a Cars hat and my friend Denise from work an Italian bracelet piece that says Walt Disney World and has Mickey on it.
Bus back to resort for Jay to swim since he’d been begging for hours since we’d been at Port Orleans. We decided it would be good for all of us to swim to try and relax a little after the long car ride.
It was about 9pm so we decided to grab a snack in the Everything Pop cafeteria.
Shlee- Asian chicken salad & Resort mug
Dew- Flatbread Reuben & resort Mug
Jay- Cookie, chips and apple juice
Cheeser - Choc croissant & Resort mug
Then back to the room for an early bedtime by 9:30, coming up tomorrow…Disney Hollywood studios, our first day of 8 days in the parks!!!
__________________
Cheeser. Maleficent of the Vacation Villians!!!
Partying with the Parrs December 5, 2015:
That sounds like a nice first day and I am super impressed with your ability to stay awake driving all night and then spend most of the next day at Disney. Looking forward to hearing more about DHS!
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Melanie
June 1985-off site/March 2004- Pop & OKW
Aug. 2004- Hurricane Charlie POR & FWCG/July 2005- Grand Villa OKW
Feb. 2006-Pop/Feb. 2007- AS Music, WL, AS Movies
Sept. 2011- Disney Med Cruise
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Well we got up early as it was our first official park day of the trip. Jay was up and awake before 6:30…so I had the whole crew up early. We’d retired early since we’d driven or slept in the car the night before.
We headed off to the Everything Pop cafeteria for breakfast. I had a ham and cheese omelet, Shlee had yogurt with granola. The fellas had scrambled eggs and bacon.
We kind of scarfed down the food and ran to the bus to DHS. I went up to the window and activated the annual pass.
Now I need a moment to rant here:
I love the fact that you can pre-purchase your annual pass and use it to get discounts on your rooms and stuff…but why oh why does Disney have their annual passes as simple business card stock media? Why can’t it be, like an id card or credit card form like the KTTW cards? It is very aggravating to have an annual pass and have it just the simple card stock…okay ranting over.
As soon as we started discussing taking the kids to Disney. Ash for her 6th trip and Jay for his 2nd. We knew that we would have to make an effort to see Toy Story Midway Mania. Jaydon had as a 4yo had sat through the Toy Story 1 and Toy Story 2 3D event…completely fascinated. He’s seen the previews for Toy Story 3 and he always says “I am going to see that!”. So we knew we would have to start with TSMM first. First of all…it was the Saturday of Easter Weekend…which means the parks are packed…and it was the first few months of this ride…it will be a wait. But a must!
So as soon as we get in the park…we rush to TSMM with all the other early morning guests.
Jay was fascinated and the ride was definitely worth the effort. It seemed to be over before we knew it. But Jaydon was hooked…he loved getting to play a game while on a ride.
So then we headed off to Backlot Tours since it was such a close ride to the TSMM exit and there were very few people in line.
Now…my crew loves this ride. A few years ago the “Evil Queen” and I participated in this and we had a blast. It was one of the comical highlight for our crew. We just assumed the 4yo would love it. He was interested…he loves anything with a tram…until we got back to the catastrophe canyon. As soon as the explosion and water went everywhere…water ran down my husbands back and he jumped and it upset Jay. He informed us that he didn’t like it and for the rest of the trip when we got close to this ride…he said he didn’t want to ride. We were rather surprised…but oh well…maybe in a few more years it will be one of his favorites. (You’ll see that he had some surprising DO NOT LIKE and LIKE responses later in the trip report)
Well that was plenty of together time…Ash and Dew needed some big ride time. So they headed off to Tower of Terror.
Jay and myself headed for Playhouse Disney. Now, if you have a little one like toddler or anyone pretty much under 7yo, this can be one of their favorites. My Jay danced and participated. One of his favorite souvenirs was the confetti that from the ceiling and he loved popping bubbles. This was a must repeat!!!
The crew got back together after this and hit the Muppets in 3D. Jay loved this and clapped at the end. It’s such a cute ride and I was glad that my kids got to see the Muppets which was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid!!!
As we’d entered the park in the morning…they were passing out the maps for the parks. Inside were coupons for a few of the counter service places for Buy One Entrée Get One Entrée if you went before 11:30 or after 2:00 pm. This was a great deal and I started keeping an eye out for these type of deals.
So we gotStudio catering company terrace grill by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Adventure Playset)
Turkey club (Dew)
Chicken caeser wrap (Cheeser)
Buffalo chicken sandwich (Shlee)
Bottled water (Jay)
Diet coke (Cheeser)
Sprite (Shlee)
Yianglang beer (Dew)
Apple slices and carrots (Jay)
This meant we paid for the drinks and the Turkey Club and the Chicken caeser wrap and so Shlee and Jay ate free! Good deal…and the food was pretty good for counter service.
Jay of course spotted, Honey I shrunk the kids adventure set, so we headed in there for a little bit (may 30 minutes) and let him run around and have some fun!!! It was kind of full and lots of parents were sitting or lying around resting.
Now we’d also gotten Complimentary Fastpass from 11:15-11:35 to the Lights Motor Action Show at 11:50, so we headed off to catch what we though would be Jay’s favorite thing of the trip. I’ve got to say he was absolutely focused and intent through the whole show. But they blew it. The big finally explosion and fireworks at the end freaked him out. He climbed write up his fathers chest and told us, “DON’T LIKE THIS!” and this became the other thing for the rest of the trip he refused to do again.
We headed back off to the other side of the park, for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Now surprisingly, the 4yo boy loved this show. He chattered about it for hours and mentioned the bubbles and glow fish many times.
The great movie ride was next, and we got assigned front row. Jay was okay with this, but he glared at the CM when our ride got hijacked, then looked at his father and said, “HE BAD GUY”. We all cracked up.
So we felt like we’d gotten a lot accomplished at DHS, even though we hadn’t seen any photopass people yet and we’d been hunting.
So we caught a boat to the back door of Epcot. Jay loves boats. What 4yo boy doesn’t?
We’d been trying to book LeCellier for months and no luck, so my DH, Dew headed off and checked Le Cellier again, but it was booked. Of Course! Easter week people!!!
Waited 30 minutes for rose & crown dining room and while we waited we met pooh and tigger and bought my sister some Twining’s chamomile tea. We were fortunate to get to watch king Arthur and the holy Grail show, which is absolutely hilarious. The guy they got to volunteer for the team was awesome…but the evil witch lady was even better.
Rose & crown lunch:
Fruit and cheese plate (all)
Fish and chips (Cheeser)
Cottage pie (Shlee)
Sunday roast (Dew)
Cheese pizza (Jay)
Dinner seemed to be demolished quickly and pretty soon we were heading off to check on Soarin' wait times
70 minute wait with no wait for the Land. So we decided to hit
Seas with Nemo & friends, then Turtle talk. Jay was absolutely fascinated by Turtle Talk and he tried to talk like a Turtle “Dude” the rest of the day.
Since, we’d already rode, a bus, and a tram, and a boat…we decided to hit the Monorail to Magic Kingdom.
When we arrived, the Celebrate parade was starting, so we paused for a few minutes to catch a peek.
All of this running…and it was nice and warm in the 80s we decided dessert was in order. Aloha isle for some Dole Whips and Dole Whip floats was in order. Now the mixed pineapple and vanilla whips were not like they usually are, the color of the vanilla was gray and the flavor was off…but the pineapple dolewhip float without any vanilla was fabulous as usual.
Now…after you finish a Dole Whip, you have to ride Pirates and of course, Jay loved Pirates. He was fascinated and we even got pictures of him playing on the Pirate’s League sign.
The finale of the night…since it was getting dark and we were exhausted from all the running and transfers between parks. The Enchanted Tiki Room. Well…what a thing to end on, this resulted in Jay asking us all to sing the “Tiki” song whenever he got bored waiting in line for the rest of the trip. So a family of 4 idiots stood in line with a ton of other Ohio families and what seemed like half of the United Kingdom singing “Tiki Room” throughout the trip. Oh well…hopefully we never see those people again. Imagine the British people going home to the UK and talking about the crazy Americans they saw at WDW singing “in the Tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki Room” all the time. Which is way better than his usual…itsy bitsy spider request. What can I say…we love our kids…and the more you distract the 4yo in line…the better off the rest of the people were…and sometimes that meant we sang “Tiki Room” or “Carousel of Progress”…it’s a great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day…
I’ll end Day 2 with that…and see what you all find yourself singing as you read this, I know I am not the only Disney nut on this board!
__________________
Cheeser. Maleficent of the Vacation Villians!!!
Partying with the Parrs December 5, 2015:
Wow, you guys really did a lot on your first day. About your singing the Tiki bird song, who cares what the other people thought you'll probably never see them again anyway.
Liz
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Great, now I have the Tiki Room song stuck in my head!! Good thing I love it! You weren't kidding when you said day 2 was a doozie either! 3 parks in 1 day during Easter week is pretty impressive, and with a 4 year old at that. Great update!
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Studio catering company terrace grill by the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Adventure Playset)
I'm surprised they had coupons - especially that close to Easter!
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