Mini Vacation

The crew arrived today in Orlando to pick me up at the Polynesian. We headed over to the Nickelodean Hotel to check in for the night. Upon arrival, I forgot our reservation number at home and for some reason they could not locate our reservation. We called Diane back at home since she was covering the office for Jimmy. Since I couldn't remember exactly where I had written it down it wasn't easy for her to find it. Jimmy, of course, said that I never made the reservation which I know that I did because I remember writing the confirmation number down and commenting to the person I booked with that it had more letters than numbers. Diane couldn't find it while we were on the phone. Since they were overbooked they did not have a room for us if we did not have the confirmation number. I was getting a little nervous. What were we going to do? The kids were really excited to stay in Orlando. I got on the phone as soon as we loaded back into the car and called Disney to see if they had a room at the Polynesian where I had just checked out of. Luckily, they had a room available. We got it for the conference rate and since Diane offered to work on Monday we booked the room for two nights and headed back to the Polynesian.

I believe that everything happens for a reason. We obviously were not meant to stay at the Nick Hotel. We had a blast at the Polynesian. It was our best trip to Orlando so far. We had two double beds and a couch that converted into a twin. Jimmy and Conner shared a bed. James had his own bed the first night and Shannen and I shared the twin bed. After the horrible night of sleep I had I decided to bunk with James on Sunday night instead of Shannen. Jimmy did bring a pack-n-play for Shannen but she would have nothing to do with it.

Saturday, we played in the pool and hung out at the hotel. James was super brave and went down the slide. It wasn't just a straight slide that dumped you into the pool at the bottom. It was a tunnel slide that twisted and turned and dropped that went through a volcano (in the DARK)! He absolutely loved it and we had a hard time getting him back to the room to change for dinner.

Sunday, we headed over to the Magic Kingdom. I have to let you know that it was a much better experience this time around than our trip in January. We started off at The Barnstormer at Goofy's Wiseacre Farm. Then James wante to drive the cars at the Tomorrowland Speedway so I kept Conner and Shannen at the playground across from Mickey and Minnie's houses. Then we met up with them after their ride and headed to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Next we headed over to the Monster's, Inc. Laugh Floor to cool off. The boys saw the crew from Toy Story as we exited that show and we headed into Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.

We headed back to the hotel for lunch. We attempted to get all 3 kids to take a nap. We quickly realized that James and Conner were not going to be cooperative. So, I took them with me and we went and explored the game room and hung out on the beach in the shade of a palm tree at the Polynesian. While the boys were in the game room 2 of the cast members gave them some free game plays on the basketball game. They kept swiping the card reader and then lifting each one up so they could take shots on the hoop. Those two cast members went above and beyond to show our boys a good time. I am so glad that we ended up at Disney instead of the Nick Hotel!

After Shannen and Jimmy napped we returned to the Magic Kingdom for some more fun. Upon arrival we boarded the Walt Disney World Railroad at the Main Entrance and took it to Frontierland. We got off there and walked to Fantasyland to explore some rides there. Our first stop was "it's a small world". It looked like it was going to rain so we folded up the stroller and parked it in the stroller lot and stood in line. The skies opened up while we waited for the ride. Luckily, the line for "it's a small world" is completely covered so we stayed dry. We wanted to go on Peter Pan's Flight but the line was too long so we got a fast pass and headed over to Prince Charming's Regal Carrousel. The kids each got to ride their own horse. Conner was very unhappy when the ride stopped. It did seem a bit short if you ask me.

For dinner we walked back to Frontierland to eat at Pecos Bill's Tall Tale Inn and Cafe. We had two more rides we wanted to hit before the fireworks. Our first stop was The Many Adeventures of Winnie the Pooh. The last ride we went to was Peter Pan's Flight. As we exited the ride the fireworks lit up the sky. I wasn't sure how the kids would react. It surprised me when it seemed like James was the most disturbed by them. He kept asking when we were going back to the room. I am not sure if it was because he was tired or because they were too loud.

All in all in was a fantastic day!

This morning we had reservations for a character breakfast at the Crystal Palace in the Magic Kingdom. We arrived and were surprised to find out that we needed to pay entrance to the park in order to get into the character breakfast. When I made the reservation I was not told that you had to pay entrance in order to attend the breakfast. So, we went to customer service and complained and asked for a credit to be placed on our account since we were not paying entrance to the park when we had already spent the day there yesterday. Now, we know for next time that we need to schedule the character breakfast at the Crystal Palace on the same day we plan on visiting the Magic Kingdom.

We headed back to the Polynesian to see if we could get into the character breakfast there. The kids didn't know Lilo & Stitch but Mickey and Friends were there too so we figured it was better than nothing. We were able to get in. The chef came over to our table to let us know what Conner could eat. He sent out special egg-free waffles in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head just for Conner. The first character to visit our table was Stitch. The boys were all in to it but as you can see from the video Shannen wanted nothing to do with him even after he went and got a peace offering for her.

We spent the remainder of the day enjoying the pool. We requested a late checkout so we could change before heading back home. We hit the road and grabbed some lunch on the way back.

A great way to end our trip, a rainbow on the drive home.