We’re Still Awake! An August MNSSHP Trip Report (Complete 4/10/21)
- Thread starter TheOneWithTheTriplets
- Start date
Avery&Todd
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 20, 2010
What a FABULOUS date night!! So jealous!! and hubby did a great job of his side of the story - and so exciting!!
I'm ready for the latest TR!!
I'm ready for the latest TR!!
StarWarsMomofGirls!
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2015
I think this is half of the fun.
Sounds like you had a great adults only trip!
I am not sure how I feel about the DAH at AK. They need more rides.
Grumpy's Wife
Dollar Tree gal here
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2005
I think this goes down as the best date night ever!
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
A Brief Interlude and Proper Introductions
Well, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. It’s been four and a half months since I’ve been active on Dis or updated this thread, so it may well have seemed that way. I could say that I just didn’t have the time, that the fall was too busy, that I just wanted to relax at the end of the day instead of writing, and all of that would be true. The more honest answer, though, is that every time I tried to work on this report, I started planning out possible WDW trips for this year. Hubby and I agreed, for a variety of reasons, that we shouldn’t be heading back just yet. We’ll take a less expensive vacation this year, pay off our student loans, and do it up big again in 2021. All of that is based on sound reasoning and yet I still found myself quoting out various dates and room options with alarming frequency. I ended up finding a really good deal on a Carnival cruise which, while not a cheap trip, will be considerably less than heading back to Orlando. Now that I have a real, non-Disney trip to prepare for, I think I can get back to this report without finding myself looking up convention ticket pricing or DVC availability charts (hopefully, maybe?).
I realized that my report so far hasn’t given much in the way of introductions, so I wanted to offer a Cliff notes for those who weren’t coming over from my PTR or other TR.
Our crew includes myself, Hubby, and our five-year-old triplets. Since ages don’t help distinguish our girls, I’ll refer to them as A, B, and C throughout the report. We took our first big family trip in February of 2019 and all had a blast.
We were joining our friends during the end of their much longer trip. They are also a family of five, with a son age seven, son age five, and daughter age three. For shorthand, I’ll refer to them as FH for friend husband, FW for friend wife, etc. Their trip was planned around a convention that FH was attending. FW had the kids in the parks alone for a few days, they toured as a family for a few days, and we piggy backed onto the end of their trip. Our crews hang together all the time including having season passes to a local amusement park, but this was our first time vacationing together.
Our friends were on free dining and knew they were going to be over on food before we ever insinuated ourselves into their trip. When we made our plans, they actually cancelled their HDDR reservation to free up an evening, leaving them with two extra sets of TS credits. As for the QS and snacks, 2-3 QS credits was plenty to feed the five of them and FH would be eating at the convention the beginning of their trip, so even the most generous estimates left them with too many of those credits as well. When FW started suggested treating us to a trip to Chef Mickey with their extra TS credits, I countered by saying we would just buy a day of the dining plan from them. We would be able to enjoy Chef Mickey without feeling like leeches and we could use the 5 QS and snacks strategically to keep our food budget down as well.
I think that’s all the background you need to jump on in. I have a couple of updates ready to go, so I should be able to get this thing moving at a normal pace once again.
Well, I didn’t fall off the face of the earth. It’s been four and a half months since I’ve been active on Dis or updated this thread, so it may well have seemed that way. I could say that I just didn’t have the time, that the fall was too busy, that I just wanted to relax at the end of the day instead of writing, and all of that would be true. The more honest answer, though, is that every time I tried to work on this report, I started planning out possible WDW trips for this year. Hubby and I agreed, for a variety of reasons, that we shouldn’t be heading back just yet. We’ll take a less expensive vacation this year, pay off our student loans, and do it up big again in 2021. All of that is based on sound reasoning and yet I still found myself quoting out various dates and room options with alarming frequency. I ended up finding a really good deal on a Carnival cruise which, while not a cheap trip, will be considerably less than heading back to Orlando. Now that I have a real, non-Disney trip to prepare for, I think I can get back to this report without finding myself looking up convention ticket pricing or DVC availability charts (hopefully, maybe?).
I realized that my report so far hasn’t given much in the way of introductions, so I wanted to offer a Cliff notes for those who weren’t coming over from my PTR or other TR.
Our crew includes myself, Hubby, and our five-year-old triplets. Since ages don’t help distinguish our girls, I’ll refer to them as A, B, and C throughout the report. We took our first big family trip in February of 2019 and all had a blast.
We were joining our friends during the end of their much longer trip. They are also a family of five, with a son age seven, son age five, and daughter age three. For shorthand, I’ll refer to them as FH for friend husband, FW for friend wife, etc. Their trip was planned around a convention that FH was attending. FW had the kids in the parks alone for a few days, they toured as a family for a few days, and we piggy backed onto the end of their trip. Our crews hang together all the time including having season passes to a local amusement park, but this was our first time vacationing together.
Our friends were on free dining and knew they were going to be over on food before we ever insinuated ourselves into their trip. When we made our plans, they actually cancelled their HDDR reservation to free up an evening, leaving them with two extra sets of TS credits. As for the QS and snacks, 2-3 QS credits was plenty to feed the five of them and FH would be eating at the convention the beginning of their trip, so even the most generous estimates left them with too many of those credits as well. When FW started suggested treating us to a trip to Chef Mickey with their extra TS credits, I countered by saying we would just buy a day of the dining plan from them. We would be able to enjoy Chef Mickey without feeling like leeches and we could use the 5 QS and snacks strategically to keep our food budget down as well.
I think that’s all the background you need to jump on in. I have a couple of updates ready to go, so I should be able to get this thing moving at a normal pace once again.
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2019
Happy to see you again on the Dis! Welcome back!
We are leaving in 3 days with my 5 and 3 year olds, I actually went through your Feb trip report once more to get all the tricks you reported to (hopefully) apply them for my kids!
It looks like crowds will be crazier this week than last year but hopefully we will make the most out of it! We will be staying at the Boardwalk for the second part of our split stay and I must admit your TR was one of the reasons that made me pull the trigger
Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your summer trip!
We are leaving in 3 days with my 5 and 3 year olds, I actually went through your Feb trip report once more to get all the tricks you reported to (hopefully) apply them for my kids!
It looks like crowds will be crazier this week than last year but hopefully we will make the most out of it! We will be staying at the Boardwalk for the second part of our split stay and I must admit your TR was one of the reasons that made me pull the trigger
Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your summer trip!
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
We are incredibly lucky to have such supportive family that I could just beep down to Florida for a night. It was a total blast.
Oops, you start following and I disappear! Sorry for the delay but glad to have you on board.
Yeah, I need to remember that my body doesn't react to repeat coaster rides the way it once did. It was still tons of fun, though!
You had a full night of fun at the After Hours event! So many rides, character meets, pictures... so fun! That's one heck of an awesome date night! (Plus, it includes free popcorn. I LOVE Disney popcorn!)
Although I am still able to handle multiple rides on ToT or EE in a row (at least I could in 2016), rougher coasters are getting tougher for me, too. I'm just fine with riding RNRC once per day now. Aging is not fun.
Aging is absolutely no fun! Even if we needed to slow down a bit to let our heads catch up, we had a ton of fun.
Welcome along! Sorry for the delay but I'm back at it. And, yes, I doubled checked the map and that was the Walmart we visited. Interesting to hear you had a similarly bad time. If we ever need to make a Walmart run in Disney again, I think I'll check out the other location nearby.
I also thought the forward lean would be sufficient!
I don't even know what to say to you. You are a goofball. You watch out- I'm going to start tagging you now!
It was so great!
Even with the minor slip ups, glad you guys had fun doing After Hours at AK! It's funny because I've seen a lot of comments saying there isn't enough to do at AK to justify AH but you guys filled up the whole night very well ☺
Also, I now see that you and your husband are a match made in heaven, you two are hysterical!I really enjoyed his "hijacking" post.
Can't wait to hear how the MNSSHP trip went!
I think AK has just enough to fill an after hours, although you don't get the variety of options like MK.
I'm finally back in this thing, so MNSSHP reporting is forthcoming.
Uh oh, you join early and then I stop posting. Thanks for joining along!
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
It was a busy day but well worth the exhaustion!
It was an incredible date night and one we won't soon forget.
I hope you're still ready for the August report, even if it has been a bit delayed...
I'm not sure how I feel about the DAH at AK as part of a longer trip, or for people who can visit a lot. For us, with such a short window, it was perfect. However, if you're doing a typical week in Disney, I think there are better uses of your "splurge" funds than this.
Haha, you thought you were a slacker! I think I've got you beat.
It was an amazing date night and I'm so lucky to have been able to do it.
The Walmart was insane. I'm just glad we were able to get in and out without it eating into the rest of the date night.
August trip, here I come!
August notes are officially on their way, I promise.
It was really incredible, although our August evening may have it beat. Stay tuned!
Happy to see you again on the Dis! Welcome back!
We are leaving in 3 days with my 5 and 3 year olds, I actually went through your Feb trip report once more to get all the tricks you reported to (hopefully) apply them for my kids!
It looks like crowds will be crazier this week than last year but hopefully we will make the most out of it! We will be staying at the Boardwalk for the second part of our split stay and I must admit your TR was one of the reasons that made me pull the trigger
Can’t wait to hear about the rest of your summer trip!
Oh boy, three days, yay!! You're going to have so much fun!
You're going to love the convenience of Epcot and HS from Boardwalk. Crescent Lake is where it's at!
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
August Day One: Preparation and Travel Day
The lead up to our travel day was easier than I had expected. Getting ready for our August trip was exponentially less stressful than our big visit in February. There were so many unknowns on our first trip: we had to plan for all manner of weather, had no clue how the kids would do with long park days, and leaned on Southwest’s generous baggage policy to err on the side of caution and pack everything I could think of. Even more than that, I put so much pressure on myself to plan a perfect trip the first time around. I spent a year trying to get it right and the stakes couldn’t have been higher. We had never expected to get back so soon, so the whole August experience felt like a cherry on top. We weren’t trying to do it all, we didn’t have a slew of ADRs, and we were just happy to sneak in quick visit to hit the highlights.
A couple days before the trip, I was gifted a double umbrella stroller on a local freecycle group. Even with buying a rain cover and cup holders, the hand-me-down saved us some money and meant that we’d have stroller seats for all three kids in the airport on our return trip. We had another late flight after a full park day, so I felt much better about our final walk through the airport knowing the kids would have seats. @trippedup (aka Hubby) had been helping out a co-worker with some last-minute tips for a trip that was happening just before ours. In another bit of good luck, the co-worker lent us his dining plan mugs which happened to have enough days left for us to get refills for the length of our trip. They necessitated some luggage fiddling but were well worth the hassle.
To keep costs down, we wouldn’t be checking any bags on our trip down to Orlando. We had sent full sized sunscreen and a small paring knife ahead in our friends’ checked luggage; otherwise, we were keeping things tight and abiding by carry-on limitations. I was trying to cut us back, but we ended up with three rollers and two hand bags to carry on in addition to personal items for everyone. It was going to be a lot to get to the airport, but I had no intention of being stuck with it all day. Instead, I tossed the ME tags in my backpack with the intention of checking the rollers through to Orlando as soon as we got to our first gate. Then, we wouldn’t have to see them again until Disney delivered them to our room.
Our last day before travel wasn’t too rough. When we checked into our flight online, we didn’t have pre-check assigned despite Hubby’s global entry. I was in no mood to pull the electronics, fluids, and foods out of all of those bags, but thankfully Hubby was able to get things fixed with a quick phone call. He was skeptical that it would work, but the phone agent was able to reissue the tickets and all five of us got pre-check the second time around. We had an early morning planned, so we put the girls to bed in their travel clothes and packed breakfast we could all eat in the car. No one in our crew likes an early morning, so we do everything we can to sleep as late as we can before we absolutely have to get up and out of the door.
Of course, as is my curse on important mornings, I could barely sleep and woke up well before my alarm. I got all of the last minute things done, woke up the family, and we were on the road on schedule at 6:45am. In another cost cutting measure, we were using third party parking. Hubby dropped the girls and me at departures, which was when I realized that I was a lone adult responsible for three five year olds, three rolling suitcases, four backpacks, a shoulder bag, a bagged double stroller, and a bagged single stroller. Thank goodness my kids aren’t wanderers! The strollers were the first things to go since we could check those for free right at the ticket counter. I parked the kids and bags off to the side but still in view while I headed to the front of the blessedly-nonexistent counter line. Strollers checked, the luggage situation was much more manageable but still required that I trust the not-quite-kindergarteners to keep the suitcase wheels off of their fellow passengers’ toes. We moved carefully to the precheck line which was also empty. The longest delay was the girls telling the TSA agents all about their plans in Disney.
We were through precheck by 7:25am and made our way to the gate. Actually getting there with all of the kids and stuff was a relief. There was some random kids’ show on one of the TVs so I didn’t even have to break out the workbooks to entertain the girls.
Hubby caught up with us about 30 minutes later, which was when the girls started to get antsy. We left him at the gate and decided to take a walk to see the rest of the terminal. We ended up with a great view of several planes pulling out of their gates and lining up for takeoff. Our flight was delayed, so I was glad to have the distraction. We returned to our gate as our plane was landing. It was a small model, so they were requiring all of the larger carry on bags to be gate checked. We were happy to check our three rollers through to our final destination and leave them in Disney’s capable hands. This first leg of our trip only had rows two seats wide, so there was some grumbling about who would get to sit with whom. B ended up next to Hubb, with A and C together ahead of him and me across the aisle.
The flight was pleasantly uneventful and the crew made up for the delay in the air. That left us on schedule in Raleigh with plenty of time to grab lunch before our connection. The girls all pulled out their own cameras in order to document the experience. If there was any part of me that was considering letting them bring the cameras into the parks, it was thoroughly squashed by the snail’s pace that we were moving while they stopped to take pictures of every single part of the airport.
Forever memorialized in photograph, we have:
A moving walkway
A pile of neck pillows that look like foxes
The “cool” roof
This restaurant specials board
And their fish decorations
Overpriced clothes on display
The bathroom entrance
A “really pretty” counter
Despite the girls’ best efforts to the contrary, we did eventually make it to Popeye’s and have deliciously awful, greasy lunch. We still had plenty of time to kill, so the photographic tour of the airport continued. We didn’t get very far before this gentleman stopped us in our tracks.
I’m not sure why a limbless bull decoration was taking up so much space in what appeared to be a cramped restaurant, but the girls thought it was hilarious. So much so that they stopped at the hostess stand to tell the staff how much they liked him. They were promptly invited in to pose with him.
Who knew that Raleigh Durham would have so much to entertain the kids during the layover? They would have happily spent the day riding back and forth on the moving walkways, photographing every detail, but we had a plane to catch. We enjoyed another uneventful, on time flight and were catching the fake-o-rail a couple minutes before our scheduled arrival time.
I didn’t let the girls whip out their cameras this time around because we had places to be. After a quick bathroom break, we entered the short check in line for Magical Express and were headed straight onto a bus. Fifteen minutes later we were moving; unfortunately, Yacht Club would be the last stop after CBR and Beach Club. Even being the last dropped off, we were at Yacht Club at 3:49pm, 72 minutes from our scheduled arrival time at MCO. It was finally time for the vacation to begin!
The lead up to our travel day was easier than I had expected. Getting ready for our August trip was exponentially less stressful than our big visit in February. There were so many unknowns on our first trip: we had to plan for all manner of weather, had no clue how the kids would do with long park days, and leaned on Southwest’s generous baggage policy to err on the side of caution and pack everything I could think of. Even more than that, I put so much pressure on myself to plan a perfect trip the first time around. I spent a year trying to get it right and the stakes couldn’t have been higher. We had never expected to get back so soon, so the whole August experience felt like a cherry on top. We weren’t trying to do it all, we didn’t have a slew of ADRs, and we were just happy to sneak in quick visit to hit the highlights.
A couple days before the trip, I was gifted a double umbrella stroller on a local freecycle group. Even with buying a rain cover and cup holders, the hand-me-down saved us some money and meant that we’d have stroller seats for all three kids in the airport on our return trip. We had another late flight after a full park day, so I felt much better about our final walk through the airport knowing the kids would have seats. @trippedup (aka Hubby) had been helping out a co-worker with some last-minute tips for a trip that was happening just before ours. In another bit of good luck, the co-worker lent us his dining plan mugs which happened to have enough days left for us to get refills for the length of our trip. They necessitated some luggage fiddling but were well worth the hassle.
To keep costs down, we wouldn’t be checking any bags on our trip down to Orlando. We had sent full sized sunscreen and a small paring knife ahead in our friends’ checked luggage; otherwise, we were keeping things tight and abiding by carry-on limitations. I was trying to cut us back, but we ended up with three rollers and two hand bags to carry on in addition to personal items for everyone. It was going to be a lot to get to the airport, but I had no intention of being stuck with it all day. Instead, I tossed the ME tags in my backpack with the intention of checking the rollers through to Orlando as soon as we got to our first gate. Then, we wouldn’t have to see them again until Disney delivered them to our room.
Our last day before travel wasn’t too rough. When we checked into our flight online, we didn’t have pre-check assigned despite Hubby’s global entry. I was in no mood to pull the electronics, fluids, and foods out of all of those bags, but thankfully Hubby was able to get things fixed with a quick phone call. He was skeptical that it would work, but the phone agent was able to reissue the tickets and all five of us got pre-check the second time around. We had an early morning planned, so we put the girls to bed in their travel clothes and packed breakfast we could all eat in the car. No one in our crew likes an early morning, so we do everything we can to sleep as late as we can before we absolutely have to get up and out of the door.
Of course, as is my curse on important mornings, I could barely sleep and woke up well before my alarm. I got all of the last minute things done, woke up the family, and we were on the road on schedule at 6:45am. In another cost cutting measure, we were using third party parking. Hubby dropped the girls and me at departures, which was when I realized that I was a lone adult responsible for three five year olds, three rolling suitcases, four backpacks, a shoulder bag, a bagged double stroller, and a bagged single stroller. Thank goodness my kids aren’t wanderers! The strollers were the first things to go since we could check those for free right at the ticket counter. I parked the kids and bags off to the side but still in view while I headed to the front of the blessedly-nonexistent counter line. Strollers checked, the luggage situation was much more manageable but still required that I trust the not-quite-kindergarteners to keep the suitcase wheels off of their fellow passengers’ toes. We moved carefully to the precheck line which was also empty. The longest delay was the girls telling the TSA agents all about their plans in Disney.
We were through precheck by 7:25am and made our way to the gate. Actually getting there with all of the kids and stuff was a relief. There was some random kids’ show on one of the TVs so I didn’t even have to break out the workbooks to entertain the girls.
Hubby caught up with us about 30 minutes later, which was when the girls started to get antsy. We left him at the gate and decided to take a walk to see the rest of the terminal. We ended up with a great view of several planes pulling out of their gates and lining up for takeoff. Our flight was delayed, so I was glad to have the distraction. We returned to our gate as our plane was landing. It was a small model, so they were requiring all of the larger carry on bags to be gate checked. We were happy to check our three rollers through to our final destination and leave them in Disney’s capable hands. This first leg of our trip only had rows two seats wide, so there was some grumbling about who would get to sit with whom. B ended up next to Hubb, with A and C together ahead of him and me across the aisle.
The flight was pleasantly uneventful and the crew made up for the delay in the air. That left us on schedule in Raleigh with plenty of time to grab lunch before our connection. The girls all pulled out their own cameras in order to document the experience. If there was any part of me that was considering letting them bring the cameras into the parks, it was thoroughly squashed by the snail’s pace that we were moving while they stopped to take pictures of every single part of the airport.
Forever memorialized in photograph, we have:
A moving walkway
A pile of neck pillows that look like foxes
The “cool” roof
This restaurant specials board
And their fish decorations
Overpriced clothes on display
The bathroom entrance
A “really pretty” counter
Despite the girls’ best efforts to the contrary, we did eventually make it to Popeye’s and have deliciously awful, greasy lunch. We still had plenty of time to kill, so the photographic tour of the airport continued. We didn’t get very far before this gentleman stopped us in our tracks.
I’m not sure why a limbless bull decoration was taking up so much space in what appeared to be a cramped restaurant, but the girls thought it was hilarious. So much so that they stopped at the hostess stand to tell the staff how much they liked him. They were promptly invited in to pose with him.
Who knew that Raleigh Durham would have so much to entertain the kids during the layover? They would have happily spent the day riding back and forth on the moving walkways, photographing every detail, but we had a plane to catch. We enjoyed another uneventful, on time flight and were catching the fake-o-rail a couple minutes before our scheduled arrival time.
I didn’t let the girls whip out their cameras this time around because we had places to be. After a quick bathroom break, we entered the short check in line for Magical Express and were headed straight onto a bus. Fifteen minutes later we were moving; unfortunately, Yacht Club would be the last stop after CBR and Beach Club. Even being the last dropped off, we were at Yacht Club at 3:49pm, 72 minutes from our scheduled arrival time at MCO. It was finally time for the vacation to begin!
Avery&Todd
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 20, 2010
YEAH for the Aug TR!! and RDU is my airport so that was super neat to see you there!!
lvcourtneyy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2012
This is something that has made me go on "hiatus" from the boards many times. It's hard to read/write about trips when you're longing to go back with no trip in sight.
Awesome!
Oo that's great!
You are brave!At least you learned this before you got to the parks!
The best feeling!
amazingact21
Upendi
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2010
It's great to see you back here on the DIS! I understand completely about how hard it is to discuss Disney when there's no vacation in sight. I'm glad to hear you have a trip planned and are feeling up to writing about your August trip. 
Oh, those cameras....We got Landon one for his birthday a few years ago and it quickly "disappeared." Kids will stop and take pictures of EVERYTHING.
Hooray for Raleigh airport keeping the girls entertained during the layover!
Oh, those cameras....We got Landon one for his birthday a few years ago and it quickly "disappeared." Kids will stop and take pictures of EVERYTHING.
Hooray for Raleigh airport keeping the girls entertained during the layover!
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
Welcome back! And I totally understand your reasons for not wanting to be on the boards. Not having a trip to plan is hard! But I'm glad you have a cruise lined up!
Glad your travel day went smooth and that the girls found ways to stay occupied!!
Glad your travel day went smooth and that the girls found ways to stay occupied!!
StarWarsMomofGirls!
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2015
Welcome Back!!!
I have to get back to my trip report as well.
I have to get back to my trip report as well.
Isn't that always the case!?!?
Where are you going to and from? I need to find something for us to do this summer. And I have no idea what to do!
I love your girls. Mine barely say there name.
The blurry-ness of this one really makes the photo!The bathroom entrance
Really 72 mintues isn't bad! I know sometimes you can wait awhile, but I love Magical Express! The trip really begins getting on that bus!
NJlauren
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2014
HAHA Story of my life! Honestly there are a few trips i never did reports for, they are trips when i got back with no other trips planned and i just couldn't bring myself to hang out around here it was to depressing! I totally get it! DId you pick a 2021 time frame? We are thinking Jersey week in 2021! (well and 2020, don't tell my husband)
haha!I was still a slacker, i am constantly playing catch up around here, and also wanting to follow more reports!
Story of my life! ALL THE TIME! Always up before the alram if we have some where to go early morning!
No complaints on an uneventful flight! Love the girls with the cameras so cute!
hahah! Love it so easy to entertain young kids sometimes! not always but sometimes!
lets get this party started!
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
Too funny. According to my kids, it's a very photogenic airport.
It's especially dangerous because usually, between myself and my husband, one of us is sane enough to reign in excess spending. But, we both just had too much fun in WDW this year. I was telling him about little things I read on the boards and how much the girls would appreciate them and he would say, "Then book it." One of us needs to be the responsible adult!!
100% the best
It's great to see you back here on the DIS! I understand completely about how hard it is to discuss Disney when there's no vacation in sight. I'm glad to hear you have a trip planned and are feeling up to writing about your August trip.
Oh, those cameras....We got Landon one for his birthday a few years ago and it quickly "disappeared." Kids will stop and take pictures of EVERYTHING.
Hooray for Raleigh airport keeping the girls entertained during the layover!
The cameras have been great in a lot of ways. The kids love making movies, taking pictures with the frame, etc. BUT, I hadn't let them take them on the road before. Now I know that they have to stay in the house unless I wanted to allocate an extra 75% of my time to stopping for pictures.
We were worried about the layover but it ended up being totally fine. I still vastly prefer direct flights, but we'd consider it again if it meant a significant cost savings.
So, I mentioned it briefly on your thread, but we're cruising from NY in August. We got a great rate on 2 and 3 person connecting ocean view rooms, so we'll have two bathrooms and a door that shuts between us! Ports are Bermuda, Grand Turk, and Half Moon Cay, which all have beach access that's walkable/public transitable so we don't have to budget for big excursions.
The blurry-ness of this one really makes the photo!
I think this was taken from a moving walkway, but my girls also aren't great at focusing, so who knows.
I thought about not doing it, but I am really glad that I have such a detailed account of our winter trip to look back on. I just needed to give myself another vacation to look forward to, first.
I don't know. Hubby has a big inspection at his work every year that overlaps Jersey week, and he's usually in charge of a few of the systems, so we theoretically aren't able to travel then. I am torn between going in the summer when we can have a nice long trip without worrying about school schedules or the winter when we won't be melting every day by 8:30am.
TheOneWithTheTriplets
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 27, 2018
August Day One: (cont’d)
What better way to start a vacation than babysitting?!? In all seriousness, though, trading off date nights had been built into things from the very beginning. Since it was such a short trip, there were only so many evenings where we could fit it in. We were taking the first shift while FH and FW headed over to AK for the evening. But first, we had to drop our bags in our room and get changed for Stormalong Bay.
Despite the fact that it was well past our check in time, we still hadn’t gotten a room ready text: so much for skipping the desk and heading straight to our room. The CM checked and our room was delayed, so we got a $100 credit, an apology, and a promise that they’d make sure to get it ready ASAP. We decided to change in our friends’ room so that our bad room luck wouldn’t impact their date night. We started walking through to Beach Club, and kept walking, and… kept walking. It turns out their room as about as far away from YC as they could get, and the kids weren’t in any rush to get moving as they wanted to take it all in.
Of course, we got our room number text just as we found our friends’ room, but there was no way we were going to walk the kids all the way back to YC. We were getting changed there and then some of the adults who understood the term “power walk” would go drop off the bags before heading to the pool. Plus, it turned out we weren’t the only ones dealing with some hotel inconvenience. Unfortunately, FW’s wallet had gotten locked in the room safe and the keypad wasn’t working. Someone had to be in the room with maintenance when they opened it for her, so she was trying to them come up right then. Between her evening out and a RD the next morning, she wasn’t sure when she’d otherwise be in the room to get it.
Everyone got changed but there was no sign of maintenance just yet. They wanted to give it a few more minutes, and we had to drop off the bags anyway, so we split up. The men and the kids stayed to wait for the safe to be unlocked while FW and I walked the bags over to YC and grabbed drinks in their refillable mugs. If we got done with that and the safe was still locked, the gentlemen were just going to bail on the room and meet us in the BC lobby.
Our room was very close to the elevators, so we didn’t have to trek through nearly as much of YC as BC. We were in a standard view room with a huge shared balcony overlooking the bus stop.
We heard from the guys that the safe was unlocked, so we headed back out to meet up with them. Despite us having to come from a different hotel, we still beat them (and the tiny kid legs) to the lobby.
Please forgive the general lack of photos from here on out: we were mostly too busy kid wrangling to remember them.
At this point is was about 5:00pm. FW and FH said their goodbyes and headed for the AK buses while the rest of us headed for the pool. Pool time was… challenging. Our girls were running on full Disney excitement, had spent the day cooped up in airplanes, and were strong swimmers who love a good slide. The friends, on the other hand, were already a week into their trip, coming off of an MK morning that started with a BoG PPO, and were non-swimmers who don’t like getting water in their faces. Plus, Hubby and I were as yet unfamiliar with the layout of Stormalong Bay and the relative difficulty in getting from one side of it to the other. We entered from the Beach Club side of things and I think we had to cross a half dozen bridges to make it to the sandy bottom section. If we’d known what we were doing, we would have just walked out by the lake and entered on the other side, but so it goes.
Everyone had some fun playing in the sand but, soon, we had to divide and conquer: Hubby took the girls sliding while I hung in the sandy bottom area with the friends. Then, when they got done, I had my own turn to try it out.
We had the most luck once the kids decided to check out the baby slide. It afforded our girls enough excitement to keep them entertained while allowing Hubby and me to keep the six kids all in view together. Even this was short lived, though, because the troops were getting hungry. We headed to our towels to dry off and throw on shoes, with the intention of walking over to Boardwalk pizza. However, FD3 realized she had lost a bandaid and absolutely wasn’t moving. She had an oh-so-small scratch on one of her toes and insisted that it hurt too much in her shoe. If it had been one of my girls, we would have employed the “it’s not bleeding, you’re fine, suck it up” method of wound care, but it’s harder being the mean mom when you’re not the mom. Plus, she was already the shortest, slowest member of our group and I didn’t want to deal with her whining on the way to dinner. Hubby had no interest in staying alone with the increasingly restless children, but he also had no idea where in our bags I had shoved the first aid kit. I also realized I needed my ID to receive our groceries later that night, so I ran back to the room to get both. I did my very best to hustle but, when I got back out to the pool, it was clear that Hubby needed some space from the kids. Rather than all of us getting food together, I sent him to get dinner while I took the kids to fill our mugs.
Hubby was using two QS credits to get pizzas for us to share, so I told him to go ahead and get two beers as the drinks: he seemed like he needed it. In the meantime, the kids and I headed for the YC Marketplace and their Coke Freestyle machines. I have mixed feelings about these machines: on the one hand, I love being able to specify that I want a Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero if I’m going caffeinated or a flavored cream soda if I’m going decaf. On the other hand, the wait is nearly always worse, especially when the people ahead can’t decide on a drink or the machines have run out of certain soda/flavor combinations.
There was a short line when we got there, and the seven of us immediately turned it into a long line. Plus, the kids were all trying to tell me at the same time what flavor drinks they wanted, which about doubled the decibel level of the place. When it was our turn at the machine, I was doing my best not to monopolize it for too long, but I had to make sure each lid was properly snapped back onto the drink before handing it down. Otherwise, the law of averages ensured that at least one of those Powerades was going to hit the floor. Once we were all filled up, I had to get everyone back outside for dinner. This mostly involved repeating the phrases, “Don’t try to drink while you’re walking. Look where you’re going. Stay together,” for five minutes straight while making maddeningly slow progress toward the lake. I hate walking with my hands full with small children because then I can’t just gently nudge them back into formation when they start walking in ever widening paths.
Hubby found us and helped corral everyone towards Hurricane Hannah’s. Apparently, 7pm is a hopping dinner time because the only open seats were at two high top tables that we attempted to shove together. Not a single one of the kids was tall enough to successfully get into the chairs, and they spent the entire meal perched precariously, but we made it work. I ordered a burger and fries to share with Hubby while the kids dug into the pizza. Except, the kids absolutely demolished their dinner in record time. Then, they worked their way through our meal as well. On any other day, it would be totally normal to expect the six of them to split two mid-size pizzas. I’ve taken them out with FW to do just that and come home with lots of leftovers. Of course, on this day, they all decided to double up on their normal portions leaving Hubby and me with lots of crust and a couple of bites of burger each.
When the meal was done, I suggested that we go check out the campfire by the lake. Before we were able to enact that plan, though, I got a notification from Amazon that my grocery delivery would be arriving momentarily and to make my way to meet it. Given how challenging the evening had been so far, coupled with the fact that the campfire was my idea, I wanted to have Hubby go grab the groceries. Except, there was alcohol in the order and I was the only one with photo ID, so I had to leave him with the kids heading toward the open flame while I went to the front.
I will leave Hubby (@trippedup ) to chime in regarding the campfire shenanigans if he feels so inclined; there is no photographic evidence to support his story either way. For my part, the couple of minutes waiting for the delivery driver felt like an eternity given that I knew I had left him in such a difficult position. Since Disney had just enacted a fee to have bell services delivery groceries and I had to be there to get the alcohol anyway, I was going to run them up to the room myself. It was a small order, so I could quickly put the cold things in the fridge, and head right back out. When the driver started unloading my bags, though, I started second guessing my plan. I’m not sure if they pack them by department or what, but what could have been 3 well packed grocery bags and one case of Mike’s was at least 8 bags. The bags themselves didn’t have great handles, either. At home, I can easily carry twice as much stuff in my reusable bags by slinging four over each shoulder, but these were very cumbersome. Being stubborn, I wasn’t going to waste more time trying to find a cart, so I piled them as best I could on top of the case and walked carefully but quickly to the elevators. I was so laden down that I genuinely couldn’t figure out how I was going to push the elevator button when another guest came up behind me and beat me to the punch. He was kind enough to ask for my floor and didn’t even make any snide comments about how I was clearly carrying more than I could handle- I’m assuming he didn’t want to provoke the crazy lady. I managed to make it to our room without losing any packages, dropped things off, and booked it out toward the campfire.
I got back out just before 8:00pm, at which point the rest of the crew had moved on from the campfire and were trying to decide what to do next. Since it was past bedtime and we were rope dropping in the morning, I suggested we all go check out our hotel room. That would give me a few minutes to unpack enough for us to be ready for the next day before Hubby put the girls to bed and I brought the friends back to their room to sleep. The kids started checking out the room by looking for hidden Mickeys, then decided to have some fun on the jumbo balcony.
At about 8:30, the kids said their goodbyes, Hubby started showering our crew, and I started the long march back to the friends’ BC room. Between the walk back and the night routine, I didn’t have the kids in bed until 9pm at which point they promptly crashed. I went out to the balcony to fiddle on my phone, where I had this lovely view of the quite pool.
Of course, because that was the night I was going to have, the quiet pool wasn’t so quiet. One of the families whose patio let out to the pool had sent several kids, ranging in age from probably elementary up through older teens, to go swim by themselves. All of them were screaming and splashing and the biggest kids were running from a full sprint several yards away to then dive or flip into the pool. I was shocked that no CMs got called in to settle things down. The mom in me wanted to intervene, but between the fact that it wasn’t my room and I had three sleeping kids to think about, I decided not to insert myself. Their parents eventually called them in for bed, at which point everything did in fact become blissfully quiet.
I was getting text updates from AK and, since FH and FW opted to hop into the FoP line just before closing, I knew I’d have a bit of a wait before I was relieved. They were on a bus back to BC at 10:10pm and, after giving my evening report, I was walking back to our room at 10:56pm. I needed to shower off the pool and sunscreen before my head could hit the pillow. While mid-shower, A started coughing in her sleep and then throwing up in bed. I ended up standing there in my birthday suit, dripping water, holding her hair while she emptied the rest of her stomach into the toilet. If I could wipe one memory from the trip, this would definitely be it. Meanwhile, Hubby was trying to find clean PJs and see if we had any extra linens to remake her bed for her. There were no sheets to be found, so we had to call down to the front desk. Right away, they sent someone up who threw the dirty things into a trash bag and offered to remake the bed. We thought it would be less disruptive to the other two if we just took care of it, so we haphazardly covered the bed, tucked A in, and put ourselves to bed soon thereafter.
In the grand scheme of Disney days, this was not my favorite by a long shot. I knew, between travel, checking in, watching the kids, and getting the groceries, that it was going to be a tough one. I had even brought up to Hubby potentially scrapping the grocery delivery, but we both wanted to have breakfast food and snacks available in the room. The evening was even more stressful than we had planned, but even a bad day in Disney is still worth it. Also, since we got our babysitting night out of the way first, we had nothing but fun, including our own date night, to look forward to the rest of the trip. Those who read along with my first report will notice that this put us at 2 for 2 on starting our trips to the World with gastrological fireworks and (spoiler) it wasn’t going to be the last of them either. It was the last of them for the night, though, and we all slept like logs.
What better way to start a vacation than babysitting?!? In all seriousness, though, trading off date nights had been built into things from the very beginning. Since it was such a short trip, there were only so many evenings where we could fit it in. We were taking the first shift while FH and FW headed over to AK for the evening. But first, we had to drop our bags in our room and get changed for Stormalong Bay.
Despite the fact that it was well past our check in time, we still hadn’t gotten a room ready text: so much for skipping the desk and heading straight to our room. The CM checked and our room was delayed, so we got a $100 credit, an apology, and a promise that they’d make sure to get it ready ASAP. We decided to change in our friends’ room so that our bad room luck wouldn’t impact their date night. We started walking through to Beach Club, and kept walking, and… kept walking. It turns out their room as about as far away from YC as they could get, and the kids weren’t in any rush to get moving as they wanted to take it all in.
Of course, we got our room number text just as we found our friends’ room, but there was no way we were going to walk the kids all the way back to YC. We were getting changed there and then some of the adults who understood the term “power walk” would go drop off the bags before heading to the pool. Plus, it turned out we weren’t the only ones dealing with some hotel inconvenience. Unfortunately, FW’s wallet had gotten locked in the room safe and the keypad wasn’t working. Someone had to be in the room with maintenance when they opened it for her, so she was trying to them come up right then. Between her evening out and a RD the next morning, she wasn’t sure when she’d otherwise be in the room to get it.
Everyone got changed but there was no sign of maintenance just yet. They wanted to give it a few more minutes, and we had to drop off the bags anyway, so we split up. The men and the kids stayed to wait for the safe to be unlocked while FW and I walked the bags over to YC and grabbed drinks in their refillable mugs. If we got done with that and the safe was still locked, the gentlemen were just going to bail on the room and meet us in the BC lobby.
Our room was very close to the elevators, so we didn’t have to trek through nearly as much of YC as BC. We were in a standard view room with a huge shared balcony overlooking the bus stop.
We heard from the guys that the safe was unlocked, so we headed back out to meet up with them. Despite us having to come from a different hotel, we still beat them (and the tiny kid legs) to the lobby.
Please forgive the general lack of photos from here on out: we were mostly too busy kid wrangling to remember them.
At this point is was about 5:00pm. FW and FH said their goodbyes and headed for the AK buses while the rest of us headed for the pool. Pool time was… challenging. Our girls were running on full Disney excitement, had spent the day cooped up in airplanes, and were strong swimmers who love a good slide. The friends, on the other hand, were already a week into their trip, coming off of an MK morning that started with a BoG PPO, and were non-swimmers who don’t like getting water in their faces. Plus, Hubby and I were as yet unfamiliar with the layout of Stormalong Bay and the relative difficulty in getting from one side of it to the other. We entered from the Beach Club side of things and I think we had to cross a half dozen bridges to make it to the sandy bottom section. If we’d known what we were doing, we would have just walked out by the lake and entered on the other side, but so it goes.
Everyone had some fun playing in the sand but, soon, we had to divide and conquer: Hubby took the girls sliding while I hung in the sandy bottom area with the friends. Then, when they got done, I had my own turn to try it out.
We had the most luck once the kids decided to check out the baby slide. It afforded our girls enough excitement to keep them entertained while allowing Hubby and me to keep the six kids all in view together. Even this was short lived, though, because the troops were getting hungry. We headed to our towels to dry off and throw on shoes, with the intention of walking over to Boardwalk pizza. However, FD3 realized she had lost a bandaid and absolutely wasn’t moving. She had an oh-so-small scratch on one of her toes and insisted that it hurt too much in her shoe. If it had been one of my girls, we would have employed the “it’s not bleeding, you’re fine, suck it up” method of wound care, but it’s harder being the mean mom when you’re not the mom. Plus, she was already the shortest, slowest member of our group and I didn’t want to deal with her whining on the way to dinner. Hubby had no interest in staying alone with the increasingly restless children, but he also had no idea where in our bags I had shoved the first aid kit. I also realized I needed my ID to receive our groceries later that night, so I ran back to the room to get both. I did my very best to hustle but, when I got back out to the pool, it was clear that Hubby needed some space from the kids. Rather than all of us getting food together, I sent him to get dinner while I took the kids to fill our mugs.
Hubby was using two QS credits to get pizzas for us to share, so I told him to go ahead and get two beers as the drinks: he seemed like he needed it.
In the meantime, the kids and I headed for the YC Marketplace and their Coke Freestyle machines. I have mixed feelings about these machines: on the one hand, I love being able to specify that I want a Cherry Vanilla Coke Zero if I’m going caffeinated or a flavored cream soda if I’m going decaf. On the other hand, the wait is nearly always worse, especially when the people ahead can’t decide on a drink or the machines have run out of certain soda/flavor combinations.There was a short line when we got there, and the seven of us immediately turned it into a long line. Plus, the kids were all trying to tell me at the same time what flavor drinks they wanted, which about doubled the decibel level of the place. When it was our turn at the machine, I was doing my best not to monopolize it for too long, but I had to make sure each lid was properly snapped back onto the drink before handing it down. Otherwise, the law of averages ensured that at least one of those Powerades was going to hit the floor. Once we were all filled up, I had to get everyone back outside for dinner. This mostly involved repeating the phrases, “Don’t try to drink while you’re walking. Look where you’re going. Stay together,” for five minutes straight while making maddeningly slow progress toward the lake. I hate walking with my hands full with small children because then I can’t just gently nudge them back into formation when they start walking in ever widening paths.
Hubby found us and helped corral everyone towards Hurricane Hannah’s. Apparently, 7pm is a hopping dinner time because the only open seats were at two high top tables that we attempted to shove together. Not a single one of the kids was tall enough to successfully get into the chairs, and they spent the entire meal perched precariously, but we made it work. I ordered a burger and fries to share with Hubby while the kids dug into the pizza. Except, the kids absolutely demolished their dinner in record time. Then, they worked their way through our meal as well. On any other day, it would be totally normal to expect the six of them to split two mid-size pizzas. I’ve taken them out with FW to do just that and come home with lots of leftovers. Of course, on this day, they all decided to double up on their normal portions leaving Hubby and me with lots of crust and a couple of bites of burger each.
When the meal was done, I suggested that we go check out the campfire by the lake. Before we were able to enact that plan, though, I got a notification from Amazon that my grocery delivery would be arriving momentarily and to make my way to meet it. Given how challenging the evening had been so far, coupled with the fact that the campfire was my idea, I wanted to have Hubby go grab the groceries. Except, there was alcohol in the order and I was the only one with photo ID, so I had to leave him with the kids heading toward the open flame while I went to the front.
I will leave Hubby (@trippedup ) to chime in regarding the campfire shenanigans if he feels so inclined; there is no photographic evidence to support his story either way. For my part, the couple of minutes waiting for the delivery driver felt like an eternity given that I knew I had left him in such a difficult position. Since Disney had just enacted a fee to have bell services delivery groceries and I had to be there to get the alcohol anyway, I was going to run them up to the room myself. It was a small order, so I could quickly put the cold things in the fridge, and head right back out. When the driver started unloading my bags, though, I started second guessing my plan. I’m not sure if they pack them by department or what, but what could have been 3 well packed grocery bags and one case of Mike’s was at least 8 bags. The bags themselves didn’t have great handles, either. At home, I can easily carry twice as much stuff in my reusable bags by slinging four over each shoulder, but these were very cumbersome. Being stubborn, I wasn’t going to waste more time trying to find a cart, so I piled them as best I could on top of the case and walked carefully but quickly to the elevators. I was so laden down that I genuinely couldn’t figure out how I was going to push the elevator button when another guest came up behind me and beat me to the punch. He was kind enough to ask for my floor and didn’t even make any snide comments about how I was clearly carrying more than I could handle- I’m assuming he didn’t want to provoke the crazy lady. I managed to make it to our room without losing any packages, dropped things off, and booked it out toward the campfire.
I got back out just before 8:00pm, at which point the rest of the crew had moved on from the campfire and were trying to decide what to do next. Since it was past bedtime and we were rope dropping in the morning, I suggested we all go check out our hotel room. That would give me a few minutes to unpack enough for us to be ready for the next day before Hubby put the girls to bed and I brought the friends back to their room to sleep. The kids started checking out the room by looking for hidden Mickeys, then decided to have some fun on the jumbo balcony.
At about 8:30, the kids said their goodbyes, Hubby started showering our crew, and I started the long march back to the friends’ BC room. Between the walk back and the night routine, I didn’t have the kids in bed until 9pm at which point they promptly crashed. I went out to the balcony to fiddle on my phone, where I had this lovely view of the quite pool.
Of course, because that was the night I was going to have, the quiet pool wasn’t so quiet. One of the families whose patio let out to the pool had sent several kids, ranging in age from probably elementary up through older teens, to go swim by themselves. All of them were screaming and splashing and the biggest kids were running from a full sprint several yards away to then dive or flip into the pool. I was shocked that no CMs got called in to settle things down. The mom in me wanted to intervene, but between the fact that it wasn’t my room and I had three sleeping kids to think about, I decided not to insert myself. Their parents eventually called them in for bed, at which point everything did in fact become blissfully quiet.
I was getting text updates from AK and, since FH and FW opted to hop into the FoP line just before closing, I knew I’d have a bit of a wait before I was relieved. They were on a bus back to BC at 10:10pm and, after giving my evening report, I was walking back to our room at 10:56pm. I needed to shower off the pool and sunscreen before my head could hit the pillow. While mid-shower, A started coughing in her sleep and then throwing up in bed. I ended up standing there in my birthday suit, dripping water, holding her hair while she emptied the rest of her stomach into the toilet. If I could wipe one memory from the trip, this would definitely be it. Meanwhile, Hubby was trying to find clean PJs and see if we had any extra linens to remake her bed for her. There were no sheets to be found, so we had to call down to the front desk. Right away, they sent someone up who threw the dirty things into a trash bag and offered to remake the bed. We thought it would be less disruptive to the other two if we just took care of it, so we haphazardly covered the bed, tucked A in, and put ourselves to bed soon thereafter.
In the grand scheme of Disney days, this was not my favorite by a long shot. I knew, between travel, checking in, watching the kids, and getting the groceries, that it was going to be a tough one. I had even brought up to Hubby potentially scrapping the grocery delivery, but we both wanted to have breakfast food and snacks available in the room. The evening was even more stressful than we had planned, but even a bad day in Disney is still worth it. Also, since we got our babysitting night out of the way first, we had nothing but fun, including our own date night, to look forward to the rest of the trip. Those who read along with my first report will notice that this put us at 2 for 2 on starting our trips to the World with gastrological fireworks and (spoiler) it wasn’t going to be the last of them either. It was the last of them for the night, though, and we all slept like logs.
missangelalexis
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2012
Wow, I truly commend you for wrangling 6 kids the whole evening! It sounds like it was super chaotic from start to finish. And I'm sorry A ended up getting sick!
But like you said, at least you got that out of the way the first night! Now you could just enjoy yourselves!
But like you said, at least you got that out of the way the first night! Now you could just enjoy yourselves!
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