Spice Up Those Post Holiday Blues with a BWV Trip (Now Trip Report)

[CarolynK]

Your Surrey narration is spot-on!! Hysterically funny (but not so much at the time, right?!)There's video I took of us doing this when my kids were still small enough to fit in the front basket (I think DD was 5 and DS was 3)...I can be heard in the background LOUDLY pleading with DH to slow down! It seriously is a scary ride!! At least my kids were happily ringing the bell! And, I do remember that we did this on the way to dinner, and got really sweaty as you know....We actually did this once more, though MANY years later, but it wasn't any easier with the kids helping to pedal!! Twice was enough...I feel SO bad for people on those hills.

We took my parents with us twice to WDW over the years, once was around our anniversary, and my mom acted surprised when DH and I wanted them to babysit All I can say is, I'm taking notes on how to be a better grandma when the time comes.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh, but your "date night" sounds like something that would happen to us! At least you made the best of it!

And that the reason we generally want nothing to do with GF/VGF. Too much snootiness! We couldn't even get a van to take us to see our guide! Now that could be fun....your family and Tigger, DH and I and SSRMonkey, Koala and their parents at GF....we'd all be thrown out for sure! We would give the snooty quite the lesson!

I have mixed feelings about GFV. I do think the place is beautiful, but I feel so out of place there, I guess I'm not really very fancy at heart. Grizzly and I have studio there in May, I think we'll have a good time, but I wonder if we will be itching to go back or not. You are all welcome to come crash on the day bed if you want.

Your Surrey narration is spot-on!! Hysterically funny (but not so much at the time, right?!)There's video I took of us doing this when my kids were still small enough to fit in the front basket (I think DD was 5 and DS was 3)...I can be heard in the background LOUDLY pleading with DH to slow down! It seriously is a scary ride!! At least my kids were happily ringing the bell! And, I do remember that we did this on the way to dinner, and got really sweaty as you know....We actually did this once more, though MANY years later, but it wasn't any easier with the kids helping to pedal!! Twice was enough...I feel SO bad for people on those hills.

We took my parents with us twice to WDW over the years, once was around our anniversary, and my mom acted surprised when DH and I wanted them to babysit All I can say is, I'm taking notes on how to be a better grandma when the time comes.

You took more than one surrey bike ride?! The next time I take one I am walking the course first to check out the hill situation. Such a disappointing creature those surrey bikes. They look so fun! Kind of like getting some green ice cream that you think will be yummy mint but then it turns out to be pistachio.

I too am taking notes on how to be a good grandparent. First on my list is 'don't move to Ghana', followed up very closely by offer to babysit often.

 

[mrsgoose8]

Lol! That sounds so much like us. I think I'll skip the surrey bike!!

I felt the same way about VGF. We will stay there eventually, I'm sure. But for now it's too fancy for little ole flip flop me

 

[CarolynK]

You took more than one surrey bike ride?! The next time I take one I am walking the course first to check out the hill situation. Such a disappointing creature those surrey bikes. They look so fun! Kind of like getting some green ice cream that you think will be yummy mint but then it turns out to be pistachio.

Yeah, we obviously forgot just how difficult it was, and probably thought the kids would somehow be helpful. Never again.

I too am taking notes on how to be a good grandparent. First on my list is 'don't move to Ghana', followed up very closely by offer to babysit often.

 

[catherines_mama]

Missing your updates. Hope all is well n

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Missing your updates. Hope all is well n

I'm here! I'm here! Thanks for sticking with me. It's been a rough couple of weeks, but I'm back.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

I'm back! So sorry for the long hiatus, but I was working on that life stuff again that seems to get in the way of writing trip reports. That and the olympics! I cannot for the life of me pull myself away from the Olympics. I think another reason I have avoided writing is that Monday is the start of the bathroom visits that don't end for the remainder of vacation. It starts out blissfully though:

We head over to Cape May for our ridiculously early, 7:30 am breakfast reservation. We are the second family seated. The place is a ghost town. Just the type of ghost town that you want for a character meal. The characters got to spend lots of time with us, because they had nowhere else to go. There were maybe 4 tables occupied in the whole place when the first character came out. It was Goofy. Tigger thought Goofy was very silly:

We all got in the picture:

Tigger flirting with Minnie and giving her kisses on the nose:

And then this picture. This should have tipped us off that something was up. Despite eating a healthy amount of food for the first time all trip, Tigger spent a bit of time lying down in the booth. Hmmm....

So off we went to Epcot. I remember a post a little while ago about somebody complaining about an annoying guard at the Epcot international gateway. I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU!!!!!! Whoever you were who mentioned him, I can totally commiserate now. He was soooooo obnoxious! Even my mother, who never says anything bad about anyone, mentioned how he was so full of himself and very annoying. The weirdest part was that this guard was just talking and talking like he was on his own personal little stage. No one was asking him questions, he was just off on his own little monologue of annoyingness. Dear guard, if you are reading this, WE DON'T CARE THAT YOU OWN STOCK IN DISNEY!!!! And then we finally got let into the park. I believe we rode Soarin standby, grabbed extra Soarin paper fast passes, and then went over to Test Track for our FP+. Before riding we grabbed an extra set of paper FPs knowing that Tigger would want to ride twice. On our second go around my parents opted to do some shopping so we stood in the FP line with just Tigger. And we stood, and we stood, and we stood, and about 10 minutes of standing later they inform us that the ride is broken. And then begins our bathroom odyssey. Since we don't have a set of earphones we have no choice but to occupy the companion bathrooms. After occupying two such bathrooms for at least a total of 45 minutes we finally send Grizzly back to the room with Tigger until he relents and goes to the bathroom. So having done Test Track and Soarin my parents and I commence to enjoy the rest of our day. We start with a yummy snack in Mexico of guacamole. It was while eating our snack the we really noticed the weather begin to change. It was getting super windy and cold, and my dad and I began to question our choice of frozen margaritas. Here we are enjoying our chips:

Prior to this we did some shopping where my Mom bought me my Christmas present, a Duffy bear dressed in a Sully costume. I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for stuffed animals dressed as other animals, so I really love this particular bear.

We are just about to head off to do something else fun when Grizzly calls and says they are on their way back to the park and that Tigger wants to ride the Figment ride with Nana and Pepere. I suggest they go on without us while we walk over, hoping that we can be spared the attraction, but when we arrive they are waiting for us outside. Tigger did not want Nana to miss this headliner attraction. So we all go on and get sprayed by skunk and not 3 minutes into the play area after the ride Tigger needs to use the bathroom AGAIN. Which is sooooooo annoying because Tigger needing to use the bathroom consists of Tigger screaming on the toilet while not doing any sort of productive bathroom like activities. We take turns getting screamed at, and an hour and 3 sets of undies later give up and leave the park. Sigh. Actually I think just Grizzly, Dad and West left the park. My mom and I went on a chocolate caramel square hunt, rode the Norway ride, checked out the awesome colorful animals in Mexico that she had never seen before, meandered around Morocco where we used to live in the early 1990's, and generally just had a really good time. Minus the lack of Safari Amber. The machine was down so we couldn't get one. Eventually we made it back home where we prepared for our evening which I will get to next installment.

 

[catherines_mama]

Glad to see you back. We all understand life.... And the Olympics.

Sorry the trip gets tough after this point. Poor Tigger! Sounds like y'all are trying to make the best of a tough situation.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

So Monday evening was my parent's date night. After making about 7 different reservations for them and printing out all the menus for their Christmas present, they chose to go to the Flying Fish. So off they went. They reported back that it was one of the best meals they had ever had. Grizzly, myself and Tigger chose to have a 'quiet evening' and by quiet I mean go to the loudest place outside of a park we could think of, the Beach Club Arcade. We all love arcades, so we were all perfectly happy to be at this arcade for our quiet evening. We put $20 on our card and played a bazillion games, and had about as much fun as you can have with a 4 year old in an arcade. (Tigger has this nice habit of sabotaging your ticket winning efforts by "helping" you press the buttons. I get to practice my mantra of "do not kill him, it's only tickets" in my head.) We played our games, and made our way merrily to the prize vending machine. Got one knockoff Hot Wheels car and then looked for a small prize to use the remainder of Tigger's tickets on. A rubber ducky with eyes that pop out when you squeeze him fit the bill. So we chose that, and this is where the fun starts, or didn't start. The prize machine spat out a duck but the prize didn't come down. It landed in the one spot where it could possibly get stuck. By the design of this machine, this was a 1/1000 chance of this happening. So the brilliant machine spat out another duck because it was smart enough to know that a duck hadn't fallen. Next duck also gets stuck. The machine proceeds to go nuts and starts spitting out duck after duck until there are about 20 ducks all stuck in the machine. Tigger is now a little concerned, and it's getting late, and he still hasn't eaten supper. I walked over to Beaches and Cream because that's what the sign above the prize machine said to do. Well the Beaches and Cream seating person was dealing with a family of idiots (I mean a nice sweet indecisive family) who couldn't decide how they wanted to sit. I'm really not sure why it even mattered, but they went back and forth for literally 10 minutes about the seating arrangements. The seating person kept entering things into her computer then she would have to change them, then enter them again. AND OH MY GOD WHY AM I WAITING SO LONG IT'S JUST A STUPID DUCK!!!!!! And finally they figure it all out, and I get to ask to have someone come fix the machine. She says it's going to be about 20 minutes. Of course. Would have only been 10 minutes if you guys could seat people with even a remote ounce of efficiency! Tigger and Grizzly head off to find some dinner, while I valiantly guard the prize machine to lay stake to Tigger's rubber ducky. No one is going to come between Tigger and his rightfully earned rubber ducky. After 20-30 minutes the life guard/arcade fix-it man shows up. I show him the problem. He unplugs the machine and whacks at the duckies until all of them fall into the prize retrieval spot. I'm busy choosing the best looking ducky when he says that I can keep all of them!!! I know it's small and somewhat ridiculous, but I felt so triumphant returning back to our room with 20 eye-popping duckies. Tigger was totally thrilled. What 4 year old wouldn't be thrilled with 20 eye-popping rubber duckies? It was so worth waiting the 30 minutes for the guy to show up. I love that he let me keep all the silly little duckies without me having to ask if I could have more than one.

You get random pixie dust in the most unexpected places sometimes.

Up next, Orlando becomes the Arctic and we most unbrilliantly decide to go to the coldest park we can think of, Animal Kingdom. This day is going to rock! Well, I guess it will only rock if you love tales of people being miserably cold and 8 bazillion extended trips to the bathroom.

 

[CarolynK]

...Tigger thought Goofy was very silly:

Cute picture!!

...Minus the lack of Safari Amber. The machine was down so we couldn't get one.

Annoying when that happens!

...Well the Beaches and Cream seating person was dealing with a family of idiots (I mean a nice sweet indecisive family) who couldn't decide how they wanted to sit. I'm really not sure why it even mattered, but they went back and forth for literally 10 minutes about the seating arrangements. The seating person kept entering things into her computer then she would have to change them, then enter them again. AND OH MY GOD WHY AM I WAITING SO LONG IT'S JUST A STUPID DUCK!!!!!!

Oh, man, I know what you mean! It's soooo frustrating, for something so simple, but at least your patience paid off!

Up next, Orlando becomes the Arctic and we most unbrilliantly decide to go to the coldest park we can think of, Animal Kingdom. This day is going to rock! Well, I guess it will only rock if you love tales of people being miserably cold and 8 bazillion extended trips to the bathroom.

I hate being cold at Disney! I swear, even 60 degrees feels cold to me by the end of the day, after walking around a park all day! And, you can't hold a cold (adult) beverage either! Looking forward to the next installment

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Hi! So I got all this crazy life stuff sorted out and now things just got crazier. Waaaaaaaay back in September I applied for a new job, the interview process lasted months. One particular interview lasted a full 12 hours, but I got the job!!!!! I'm totally excited, it's a complete career change for me. There's one other slight problem, I have to move. So just when I thought the crazy stuff was over now I'm finding myself cleaning/painting/repairing my house to get it ready to sell, interviewing realtors, and hoping that it finally stops snowing so that we can reattach the shutters that blew off this winter and replace the mailbox that got run over by a plow. GO AWAY SNOW!!!!! So if you've been wondering why I've been absolutely terrible at updating this trip report, this has been why. Job interview prep, actual interviews, getting ready to sell house and preparing to move.

Hey speaking of cold and snow, Tuesday of our January trip was ABSOLUTELY freezing. I don't remember the exact temperature, but it was 'see your frozen breath' cold. Hovering around 30 degrees I believe. So what did we choose to do? Go to Animal Kingdom of course. Couldn't have chosen Epcot with all it's warm indoor pavilions, nope nope nope, we chose AK with a toddler with the runs. An awesome day. So the day started off with us putting on every warm layer we could find. For Grizzly this resulted in him realizing he had lost his fleece jacket at the airport. NOT GOOD. For my Dad he only had a light canvas jacket, so I forced Grizzly to loan him a sweater. Grizzly wore a sweater and froze. My mom wore a wool sweater with a light wind breaker over it. Tigger hates jackets but I forced him into one and wrapped him in blankets. I was the only appropriately dressed person with a fleecy coat and big fuzzy hat and I was still freezing. There was a severe lack of mittens and hats on everyone. IT WAS COLD. FREEZING MISERABLY COLD.

Tigger appropriately blanketed:

We are freezing:

The first thing we did was buy Tigger a hat, he chose this Minnie one which my Mom promptly stole:

We started off our frigid day with a trip on the safari. I got to sit with Tigger on my lap, so essentially I had an electric blanket on the ride. Everyone else froze. I don't think the animals were appreciating the cold much. I got a kick out of the number of pictures my mom took. She lives in Africa and has been on real safaris. Silly mom.

Some sort of antelope creature:

We got off the safari just in time for Tigger to make his first trip to the bathroom. This trip lasted a good 30 minutes. The last time I took Tigger to a bathroom in AK he somehow stuck his foot into the toilet, so I made Grizzly do this first trip. My parents and I took selfies and stood outside in the sun trying to stay warm by jiggling in place. It didn't help. It was not warm.

Alright, Tigger emerges from the bathroom and we head to Dinosaur. We have acquired a new pair of headphones for him from Home Depot, so he is willing to ride the ride. The line says 25 minutes, so I reschedule our FP+ for 'right now' and we walk right on. The real line was maybe 5 minutes. We get right to the front of the ride line and Tigger has to go to the bathroom again, so we walk right through the vehicle and straight to the bathroom. Tigger is in the bathroom for a long long long time. Maybe 30 minutes. Right now we are all cursing Miralax. Grrrrr. Darn Miralax. Grrrr. (Only after we got home and Grizzly was out of work for 3 days with the same bug did we realise it wasn't the Miralax at all) After waiting for an eternity I suggest we start riding Triceratops Spin to see how many times we can ride it before he gets out. Can you believe that we were so desperately cold and miserable and sick of waiting that neither of my parents thought this was a bad idea?!! So off we went to Triceratops Spin, we are just about to board a dinosaur when Grizzly and Tigger finally emerge from the bathroom. Really wish we would have started that challenge as soon as he went into the bathroom!

Once Tigger re-emerged we went back to ride Dinosaur. After Dino I'm pretty sure we left. It was just too darn cold to stay outside. We spent the afternoon lounging in the room and then headed to Downtown Disney for dinner at the TRex Cafe. I was hoping Tigger would like this place, but I think he found it more frightening than awesome. During the 'meteor shower' every 30 minutes or so he would kind of cower rather than look around to see what the creatures were doing. He did however eat almost his entire meal, which was a good thing because as usual, he hadn't eaten much this trip. I think the adults all thought the same thing about the food. Adequate. Similar to the quality you would expect at an Applebees or TGI Fridays, nothing to rave about, but edible. After dinner we let Tigger pick out a snack at Goofy's Candy Company for being such a trooper about his tummy issues, and then sent the boys home while my mom and I stayed to shop a bit. We found a tshirt for Grizzly and grabbed some Ghiradelli hot chocolate for the bus ride back. It was a cold cold long wait for the bus!

Trex Cafe:

Looking at some of my Mom's pictures I can see why maybe Tigger wasn't exactly thrilled:

Too cold to swim so we 'swam' in the tub:

Freezing while waiting for the bus:

And flashback from the last update, I found a picture of all those eye bulging rubber ducks. Turns out there were only 9, it just seems like there are 20 when they are all over your house.

Some other miscellaneous news...
When our FP+ for Test Track was cancelled we got this special "Choice of Experience" fast pass that automatically showed up in My Disney Experience.
Problem was it could only be used at the provided time, and you could not reschedule it for Test Track later in the day. So basically it was an extra Soarin fastpass.

A bunch of FP+ Kiosks that were essentially empty. They are ipads. They are absolutely no different than the My Disney Experience Website or Ipad Ap.

Nana being a good Nana on Soarin with Tigger:

And finally proof that we made it onto Space Mountain at the end of our disastrous date night:

Up next our final morning with Nana and Pepere then it's off to Animal Kingdom Lodge for a few days as a family. Still to come...the awesome Run Disney Kids Race and the most idiotic parenting decision EVER!

 

[CarolynK]

Cold day in Disney, been there...it sucks!! It takes me hours to warm up after being out in the cold like that! I love your mom's sweater.

Too bad about your son's potty issues! Bad enough at home, really bad on vacation!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Okay! Got our house on the market, so while I do the agonizing cleaning-showing-cleaning-showing-wait-wait-wait process I have some time to update.

Okay, here we go. Wednesday we woke up and got all packed up. It was my parents last day and they had a 2pm-ish Magical Express time. Once we got all of our luggage packed in the car we dropped my parents' bags off at bell services and headed to Hollywood Studios for a calm morning. Due to my Dad's poor knees we rode the boat over to the studios. My Dad is not a boat riding kind of guy, so I know his knees must have been terribly sore for him to insist on the boat. (He is actually scheduled for 2 total knee replacements in June, so hopefully he will be feeling better after that).

Prior to boarding the boat we made some pennies. Judging by our clothes it is still a bit chilly today:

We took advantage of our FP+ for Tower of Terror but right at the end of the line Tigger once again had to use the bathroom. I was soooooo hoping to get a cool ride photo with all of us in the front row, but in the end it wasn't to be. My mom and I rode, and while the CM gave Grizzly a FP to return after the bathroom trip Tigger wasn't feeling it.

After waiting quite some time for Tigger to emerge from the restroom we headed over to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. I'm pretty sure I had to rescue Tigger from the spider web net as he got 3/4 the way up and freaked out, stood perfectly still and just started bawling. Poor beast. He did better on the slides this time around. In previous trips this playground has terrified him, but he's getting braver as he gets older. He still won't go down the dark tube slides though.

Here's a selfie of us while we wait around while Tigger took yet another extended bathroom break. It wasn't as cold as Tuesday, but it wasn't super warm either.

Not wanting to spend the entire morning in and out of park bathrooms we left with plenty of time to go eat some lunch on the Boardwalk before my parent's Magical Express bus. So naturally instead of exploring park bathrooms we explored the boardwalk bathrooms. In case you ever need one, there is a nice bathroom in the back of the candy store, I believe it is actually shared with the Flying Fish. There are also bathrooms by the main pool too that can be handy. Grizzly and I were so incredibly sick of visiting bathrooms and all the fun that comes with a kid with the runs that is scared to go #2. The second we dropped my parents off we headed straight to AKV and said silent prayers that our room would be ready. IT WAS!!!!! They also gave us a pretty rose on arrival too. We hunkered down in our room for the afternoon because there were 2 bathrooms AND a washer and dryer and that was exactly what we needed. We put Tigger down for a nap and Grizzly went and retrieved some lovely bread service from Sanaa.

So after all this bathroom trouble you'd think we'd just relax in the room for the evening, but that's just not our style. Why give the kid with the stomach flu a break? Never occurred to us. I think we lose a little sanity when we are down in Disney. To our credit at this point we were still thinking that all the bathroom issues were due to his Miralax regimen, not an actual bug. Towards evening off we headed to the Magic Kingdom to watch Wishes. In a strategy to avoid bathroom trips we held Tigger the entire time or strolled him in his stroller. Walking,running or even just standing were not his friend on this day. We found a nice spot for Wishes. The Magic Kingdom had been completely deChristmased at this point, so the castle was back to it's normal self. While Grizzly went on a never ending popcorn hunt Tigger and I watched old Disney cartoons on my phone to pass the time. The crowd level was strikingly different from Saturday with my Mom. Instead of being shoulder to shoulder we could easily spread out and sit in the hub. Everyone was sitting. Lots and lots of glorious space. Grizzly spent the entire show trying to take pictures of the show. I'm not entirely sure why he does this. I don't think he ever looks at them. But we have about 1000 mediocre pictures of Wishes if anybody ever needs one.

After Wishes we had the brilliant idea of heading to Thunder Mountain for one last ride. It was certainly a tough walk to get over there. Not many people headed to the back of Frontier Land after Wishes, but we made it. Convinced Tigger that he wanted to ride this, and when we got off he told us that he is never riding it again until he is 13. The wait was probably about 30 minutes, which isn't too bad, but when you are holding a 37 lb 4 year old it seems about 37 times longer. And yes, I held him the entire time because putting him on his feet meant a trip to the bathroom, and we were both so OVER trips to the bathroom.

Up next, Disney Kid Races!!!! The highlight of our trip. Also Tigger's tummy improves slightly so the next two days are not nearly as dismal. Unfortnately, I think all my patience had been completely used up in the first 5 days of the trip that I had some pretty bad moments myself the last two days. I will write about them, but don't judge me too harshly, they were 55+ aggravating bathroom trips in the making.

 

[catherines_mama]

Oh lawdy you've been a busy girl! I know you live in buffalo, where are you moving to? Hopefully somewhere warmer but where the commute from work to the airport is just as easy.

Hate that Tigger is still having potty/ belly issues and sounds like you are about to. But it sounds like you had a good attitude and took it in strides trying to do as much as possible given the deal-io.

Looking fwd to hearing about AKV and the run.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Oh lawdy you've been a busy girl! I know you live in buffalo, where are you moving to? Hopefully somewhere warmer but where the commute from work to the airport is just as easy.

Hate that Tigger is still having potty/ belly issues and sounds like you are about to. But it sounds like you had a good attitude and took it in strides trying to do as much as possible given the deal-io.

Looking fwd to hearing about AKV and the run.

We are moving 60 miles down the thruway to Rochester. The weather is unfortunately not any warmer, and it's actually a lot cloudier there even though it's only 60 miles away. Grizzly is super excited about the move because he's been driving back and forth to Rochester for 7 years now, so he'll be saving 2.5 hours in the car each day. What on earth is he going to do with all that time and gas money?????

 

[DisneyRegulars]

After a rough start to our vacation we got up Thursday and very nervously headed out to Tigger's race. We were both terribly worried that we would spend the actual race in the bathroom, but we decided to go for it anyway. I'm going to give lots of details on this Kids race because when I signed Tigger up there was really very little information that I could find on the races, so I had no idea what to expect. So in case anybody else is wondering, this should provide a pretty good description of what goes on.

First off, I have to start by saying that the race was the highlight of the trip for everyone in my family including Tigger. It was the first thing he told people about when we got back from vacation. It was our highlight because it was Tigger's highlight. Tigger was just shy of 4 years old, so I signed him up for the 3 and under race. This race was 100 meters long. Tigger is not much of a runner. Before the race I had never actually seen him run more than the length of our driveway (about 20 feet), so even though he would be one of the older kids in the group I felt it was a good length for him. Turns out I accidentally Disney Kid Race red-shirted him, as the race was filled with mostly younger kids. Which for his ultra competitive little 3 year old ego turned out to be completely awesome.

Prior to the race day you have to go pick up your race packet just like every other Disney Race. This was the cute little shirt that Tigger got, as well as a personalized bib. The back of the shirt says "I DID IT!"

We arrived at the race with plenty of time to spare. I'd never been to the Wide World of Sports and had no idea what to expect. It was huge and kind of fancy! The races were on the track at the back of the complex. Me made our way there and had to pull Tigger away from a Nascar car they had sitting out. He was fascinated by the fact that it had no doors, and he thought it was hilarious that the driver had to crawl in and out of the window. If we had stopped right then and there and gone back to the car Tigger would have been satisfied with the trip. I still think it's funny that Tigger has become so obsessed with cars given that just a few trips ago we was totally in love with all the princesses.

Prior to the races they have a kid friendly DJ leading dances. Tigger was just content to stand there. There were quite a few people milling around:

I thought they did a great job with the race photography. They came around before the race and found us. The race pictures are the first pictures I have ever actually bought, including a million photopass photos I have taken every trip:

Right on time they got the races started. Tigger was in the first race, the 100 meters. It was slightly disorganized at this point in that they were running the race in waves, but you weren't assigned a wave and there was no one really directing how many kids should be in a wave. Everyone was just sort of standing in a crowd at the start line. The problem sorted itself out all on its own though. So we were about three rows of kids and parents back at the start line. You can run the race with your kid which is awesome. I told Tigger to hang out, that it was not our turn to run. Well the brilliant announcer guy starts explaining the race and how things will work and he says "When I say READY SET GO, that's when you run". Except he's talking to a bunch of 1-3 year olds and all they hear is "READY SET GO!!!!!!" and off they go. Three quarters of all the racers, no matter what row they were in, zoom down the track with their parents chasing after them. IT WAS HILARIOUS!!!!!! Tigger, being nearly 4, was not fooled by the 'fake' start call and waited patiently for his turn.


Here is the look down the track before our wave started, you can see all the photographers lined up along the left and right sides:

Running, look at that stride!!!

Before the race Mickey comes out in his track uniform and cheers the racers on. I tried my best to get a picture of him while running behind Tigger. This is how close we got to mickey:

Since Tigger was probably one of the oldest kids in his race he destroyed his competition. Now this moment, for a kid who cries in my car after I pick him up from daycare because he can't catch his friends during tag, was a huge amazing accomplishment. He was so proud of himself for finishing the race in what to him seemed like first place.

Check out that medal! His look is a combination of pride and yummy gummy fruit snack eating (let's just ignore that I look completely exhausted):

Mickey at finish line

The end of the race they provide a nice smorgasborg of race snacks. I thought that was really nice so the kids felt that they had run a big race just like Mom and Dad and needed to properly refuel.

When Tigger was done all he wanted to do was run it again. It was super cute. Oh, and we made it through the whole morning without any trips to the bathroom!!!!!!! It was going to be a great day!

I would highly highly highly recommend running a Disney Kid Race. My son loved it! And he can't wait to do another one.

Coming up next we head to Downtown Disney for lunch followed by a blissful Friday morning in Magic Kingdom before I myself have a melt down. Thanks for following along.

I can't believe I head back in only 26 days with just Grizzly. I've got to get this report done by then. Time is flying by.

 

[catherines_mama]

We are moving 60 miles down the thruway to Rochester. The weather is unfortunately not any warmer, and it's actually a lot cloudier there even though it's only 60 miles away. Grizzly is super excited about the move because he's been driving back and forth to Rochester for 7 years now, so he'll be saving 2.5 hours in the car each day. What on earth is he going to do with all that time and gas money?????

My mom grew up in Rochester and I have a lot of family there still. It's so pretty there. Good luck!!

 

[CarolynK]

I have never heard of Kids Races...good description of it - you could write the brochure! Too bad my kids are too old!

Your son looks so happy!

Good luck with the house sale!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

I have never heard of Kids Races...good description of it - you could write the brochure! Too bad my kids are too old!

Your son looks so happy!

Good luck with the house sale!

Thanks for sticking with me!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

So I'm having a bit of a panic. I leave next Wednesday for our adults only trip, that's 8 short days away, and I haven't even finished this trip report yet. This is a first for me. I feel terrible.

We haven't sold our house yet. Have you sold a house before? I think it must be one of the most emotionally draining and frustrating exercises on the planet. First you wait around for showings. Our house isn't in the best school district, actually it's a downright lousy school district, so the wait for showings has been long. Then you get to wildly clean your already clean house to accommodate the showing. Then the worst part is when you get your hopes up that this will for sure be the buyer. Only to have them give feedback that 'they loved the house, but the sump pump was running the entire time we were there'. IT WAS RAINING!!!!!! What did they expect the sump pump to be doing?!!!! Aaarrrgggghh.

So to keep our mind off house buying/selling we started planning our next trip. Since I won't let myself start a new trip report without finishing this one, I'm going to quickly write about it here. Our planning for our next trip has involved completely 'unplanning' it. I have cancelled all our ADRs. I have FP+ scheduled, but I really have no idea when/what they are for because I scheduled them 2 months ago. We cancelled our rental car. (Grizzly can now enjoy adult beverages and not worry about the car) We just need a chance to relax, and unstress, and not think about anything other than what we feel like doing right at that very moment. I can't wait!!!! We are staying at Grand Floridian Villas. Our only goals are to try and ride the 7DMR if it is open, and to try at least 1 new counter service restaurant.

So stay tuned. I only have 2 more days to fill in of this report, and I hope to get to them this week.

Did I mention we also bought a house? A new build. Yeah, it's been crazy around here.