Monday, January 3, 2011

Walt Disney World (The departure of Bloomington and the arrival in WDW)



I'm going to have to do this WDW blog in phases because it's going to take me forever to get it all out, and format the freaking pictures from our trip.

For Christmas break this year, on a $2000 whim, we decided to go to Disney World. From the first part of November until the day before we left, we talked Lex up on going to "Mickey Mouse's house". We ordered the DVD to watch so that he would have an idea what to expect, and I think he and I watched it about 10 times. I was more interested than he was, as he was too busy playing with trucks or whatever the hell it is that he does 90% of the time.

So, on December 18th we embarked on our 16 hour drive. Lex had a new DVD player in the back seat that I could control from the front seat (epic WIN!). Unlike last June when we drove to North Carolina, he was phenomenal in the car. Nary a complaint, nary a peep. Thank YOU, Mater Tall Tales and various other movies.

Around 6p we rolled into Perry, Georgia, our 'layover' for the night. I had specifically chosen this hotel on the exit for one reason alone. In.Door.Pool. It was the only one. When we pulled into the parking lot, I was a little concerned. The lights weren't on in the pool area. Hmmm...so, Dennis went inside to check in while Lex and I chilled in the car (literally. Hey, GA, last time I checked you were the south. WTF is up with 20 degrees? I could have had that crap in IN). When Dennis came out, he looked a little timid.

Me: What's up with the pool?
D:Umm...I don't think we'll be swimming.
Me: WTF? Why not?
D: Well, it's ummm *scratches head* not heated. And...Ummm...the windows are open.
Me: Are you fucking kidding me? They marketed the hotel as having an indoor pool. That's not an indoor pool. That's an outdoor pool with sides!
Lex: What's wrong, Mommy?
Me: Nothing, Lex. The hotel is a liar.
Lex: Oh.

So, no swimming. I guess while Dennis was inside, he asked about restaurants in the area. The receptionist suggested Applebee's. When Dennis asked for something with a little more local flavor, she suggested Longhorn. :-/ Um, lady, that's a chain too, but whatever. Anyway, she finally suggested a local Mexican (score!!) joint, and we went over there. After that, we hit Wal-mart to buy Lex another cheap pair of pants so that we had a back-up in case of accidents (we needed them later on).

After Wal-Mart we went back to the hotel to relax and sleep. The next morning, we packed up and headed to Orlando. We were only about 6 hours from our destination, and considering how wonderful he was in the car on the way down, we knew we were going to be fine.

Six hours later (approximately 12:30p) we rolled into the WDW resort area. Now, I will tell you one thing. The map they give you of the resort is VERY deceiving. This place is EXPANSIVE. Dennis and I had 'talked' about walking to places. Im-fucking-possible. I don't think I would've even dreamed of walking down to the next couple of hotels. It was HUGE. We pulled into the check in lot, and I asked Dennis if we should wait in the car. He said no, and I'm glad he did. The line to check in, I'm NOT shitting you, was easily an hour and a half long. I spent an hour and a half trying to entertain an almost 3 year old by letting him walk around the hotel's Disney Store. It had its OWN fucking Disney Store. You name it, they had it. And then some. They also had an arcade (which became a place I grew to HATE after 1 damn day). In the 'gift shop', they had a package of the three types of buses you could see there (the resort bus, the airport bus, and the cruise bus). I conned Lex into pooping in the toilet by telling him we would buy these $14 buses. Yes, three pack of buses for $14. Welcome to the most expensive place on earth!


After checking us in, we went back out to the car to move it to our wing of the hotel. We get in the room, and there is ONE king sized bed and a shower stall. Apparently, when Dennis told the woman at the desk that we had a 2 year old that equated to "You all only need one bed, and your kid can stink for a week". Now, some kids might enjoy showers, but mine loses his shit. He accidentally turned the shower on in HIS bath once. It took me almost 2 weeks to get him to NOT scream taking a bath. So, yeah, the shower wasn't going to work. So...back to the main building to the desk to move us. And move us they did. To a completely different building on site. So, we had to trek all of our stuff from Fantasia 2000 to 101 Dalmatians. Yay, a room with 2 double beds and a bath. Score!



At this point, the rest of the day is kind of a blur. Lex started melting down because he was so excited but couldn't calm down enough to take a nap. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming and crying while Daddy spent time on the phone trying to sort everything out with the resort. He was displeased because he felt like we were too far from the main building where the food court is, etc. It resulted in some awesome Fast Passes.

When Lex finally woke up, it was time for our dinner reservations at Fort Wilderness. So, this would be his first of MANY bus rides. Now, if you know my son, you'll know he LIVES for buses. I wasn't sure how he'd take to riding an actual bus, and not just riding a bus, but at night. He took to it fine. In fact, he loved it. When we got to Magic Kingdom, we had to hop a boat to ride to the other resort. He LOVED this too! He wanted to look out the window and watch the water, he loved seeing the lights at the ends of the docks. When we got to Fort Wilderness, he was able to play on a playground for about 30 minutes while we waited on our reservations. Lots of fun.

When dinner was over, we were full, and had a light up Buzz Lightyear that came with Lex's drink ($5...again, the most expensive place on earth!)We hopped the ferry back to MK, and hopped a bus back to the 'Star Hotel'. We passed out on our respective beds to wake up for our 8:35a call time at Hollywood Studios. Breakfast with Handy Manny, June and Leo from Little Einsteins, and Agent Oso.

3 comments:

  1. Okay, if I ever went there, I would spend the whole time just going from one theme restaurant to another. How fun! I had thought that the girls would never "get" Disney World because they've never seen the movies, but they have seen those Disney Channel cartoons at their grandparents' house--I bet they'd like that.

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  2. I know that Lex had NO clue who any of the Pooh characters were, and he still loved it. He loved that they would come and sit with him and sign his autograph book.

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  3. We're planning a trip to Disneyland. I honestly don't know if I will survive it! Sounds like it IS worth it though!!

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