Disney Trip - The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

In case you missed it, we were in Disney last week.  We left early Friday morning (6th) and didn't get back until last Saturday night (14th).  Troy and I participated in the marathon weekend and then had a fun family vacation afterwards.  Troy ran the "Goofy" which is the 1/2 marathon (13.1 miles) on Saturday and the full marathon (26.2) on Sunday.  I only ran the 1/2 on Saturday.

Just walked into park, taking it all in

Initially my main concern was that Troy and I would be able to enjoy walk the rest of the vacation.  Well, that was the least of my concerns.

Brynnleigh & Daddy on Dumbo

Aunt Liz, Uncle Jamy, & Kyra on Dumbo

Owen & I on Dumbo

Don't get me wrong, 99.9% of our problems were not Disney related - it was just one of those times that nothing seemed to go right.  Here's the break down of our trip - filled w/lots of pics too.

Friday - we arrived on property at 9:30-10 am - our rooms weren't ready yet since it was so early...but it didn't take long for one of our 5 rooms to free up.  But, since we were there during the "marathon" weekend, we were blacked out of all the deals for that weekend (deal at the time was the free sit down meal plan).  Troy & I decided just to opt out all together, so we would not have to check out and check back in on Sunday morning while running a marathon and trying to keep 2 young children happy....well everyone else in our group did two packages, one for Friday-Sunday and another for Sunday - Saturday....well that messed up a lot of things...our rooms (the proximity of where we were to each other) and they were going to have to check out and then check back in on Sunday - no guarantee that they would stay in the same room.  (Dear Disney - here's my 2 cents - if you are offering a "free" promotion w/black out dates...if the person is staying longer than the black out dates (especially 6 days afterwards) maybe you should just allow them the free promotion without all the strings).  Went to head out to Magic Kingdom to ride Dumbo (it was shutting down on Sunday to be moved) - stroller tires were flat - luckily the resort had an air compressor and pumped them up for us.  After waiting over 20 minutes for our bus (this has NEVER happened, normally it's a 5 minute wait tops) we headed to out.

Troy, Owen, & Papa on the People Mover

Brynnleigh & I on the People Mover

MeeMaw & Brynnleigh on the People Mover

Saturday - Troy and I got up at 3am to go run the 1/2 marathon that started at 5:30 am.  Of course 3 miles into the race I had to go to the bathroom - and had to wait in line to use a nice "clean" port-a-potty for 6+ minutes....so much for time!  We were done and back at the hotel by 10 am - showered and went to head to the park and the stroller tire was flat flat - worse than Friday.  Waited for the place at our resort to open at 11 am - went to get tire pumped, and it would not hold air - had a hole.  Great, what are we going to do in a crowded amusement park with a 4 year old and a 15 month old?  So we rented a stroller at a great cost of $15.00 a day hoping we could find someone or some duct tape to fix our tire for the rest of the week.

Sunday - Troy ran the marathon - we tried to get to the finish line to see him finish...and waited FOREVER for the bus to come, and missed him.  If you'd like to know how long FOREVER is - it's the same amount of time it took Troy to run 2-3 miles, go through the finish, medal, food, and picture line, waiting in line for the marathon bus and arrive back at the hotel.  He got back, before the bus even got to us...so yes folks, we missed him run his last marathon.  I felt like such a great wife at that point!  Luckily Troy is awesome, and was still on a runners high and didn't seem bothered by the fact that NONE of us were there.  I sent O w/my parents to Animal Kingdom and helped make sure Troy was okay and wait for the random stroller fixer guy to come check out the stroller.  Guess what was wrong....yep, they over inflated the tires, and it blew.  He replaced it, and checked the others....and was it expensive?  Not at all - $17.00, so much better than having to rent a stroller the rest of the week.

Owen & Papa on the Safari

Brynnleigh on the Safari

Later on Sunday, while eating lunch, O was trying to be a great big brother and catch Brynnleigh's fork as she dropped it, and completely fell out of his chair on his head...luckily he was okay, but I was about done at this point.

Lunch - 10 minutes before he fell

Owen & his cousin Kyra waiting for a parade

Monday - pretty sure this was a normal day, believe it or not.  But sometime between Sunday and Tuesday we lost Owen's Flying Squirrel hat, and yes, I've called every lost and found, it's no where to be found.  He LOVED that hat, but I'm pretty sure it can be replaced, so it could be worse.

Tuesday - Nothing crazy this day either....just a tired cranky Troy...but he had just run 39.3 miles and had 3 - 3am wake ups, so he deserved to  be cranky!

O & I after Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Wednesday - Oh Wednesday...the one day we had reservations - Chef Mickey at 8:40 am...2 seconds before getting on the bus, Brynnleigh throws up on me, her, and her personalized, matching cousin/brother dress.  We get her cleaned up and think it was just bad milk, or unsettled milk.  Go to meet everyone back at the restaurant (we were running - walked in the door at 8:41am) and at this point I'm a nervous wreck.  Brynnleigh does great, grabbing food off my plate and shoving it in.  She's good....then 30 minutes later while on the monorail....she throws up again....everything she just ate.  Luckily we were the only ones in the monorail car at the time.  So what happens next....the monorail stops for maintenance for 17 minutes.  We finally get to the Magic Kingdom (which we could have walked to from breakfast in 5minutes, but O LOVES the monorail, so we let him pick) I send O w/my parents & brother (thank God for them so he didn't miss out) and head back with Brynnleigh who is asleep at this point.  We were also lucky that we were the only ones on the bus headed back to the hotel since she was so nice and clean (oh yeah...and that wonderful stroller, yeah, that needed to be cleaned).  Luckily Brynnleigh didn't get sick anymore after that.

Pretending not being sick

Kyra, Donald, & Owen

Donald & Brynnleigh

O shared his whip cream w/me

My poor sick baby!

Thursday - seemed to be a back to normal day.  Spent the day in Magic Kingdom and stayed for the light parade.  After the light parade they had decided to show some show on the castle (pretty cool by the way) but it made it IMPOSSIBLE to get out.  Then, at the end of Main Street, right below the train station, right in front of the hat cart, O jumps out of the stroller, and pukes EVERYWHERE...yep, that's right folks, right during the fireworks, my child throws up on Main Street USA.  We get him calmed down/cleaned up and head to the bus....and of course we had to wait for the bus, which then meant it was PACKED.  Troy, Owen, my dad and I jumped on and stood up front as far away from people as possible.  My Mom & Troy's parents stayed with Brynnleigh and brought her on another bus...Owen slept the whole way home...and we thought he was done...and we were wrong.  He was up every hour or two until 4 am getting sick.  At 4 am he was asking for a bath and at 6-6:30 am both kids were up for the day. My poor baby asked to go home all night long and I felt so bad for him.

Watching another parade

Me, Brynnleigh, Owen, & Troy in front of the castle

 O & I on the teacups (6 hrs before the fun began)

Race Car Driver Owen w/PawPaw

Brynnleigh playing the pumpkin drums

Friday - we laid low, I didn't want to press our luck with Owen with food or rides. We ate breakfast and took O to the playground at the resort. We then went to Downtown Disney just to walk around and get some fresh air. We also didn't want to go too far since at this point Troy's Mom and brother had the sickness (they were in the hotel room beside us). Troy's brother is disabled and is very frail, so the littlest bug tends to affect him a lot more than others. They weren't sure they were going to be able to make the plan trip on Saturday.

Lego Land Racers

Kyra, Owen, & Papa

Cousins

Saturday - we were ALL ready to go home...but our flight was not until 9pm. So we let O go where he wanted and he picked "Efcot". We got to "Efcot" and O didn't want to do anything...he didn't want to ride rides or really do anything. I think he was still not 100% and was scared. We walked around a bit and then let O ride the monorail one last time before we left. When exiting the monorail, O asked if he could ride the white ride that takes you anywhere you want....yep folks..he wanted to ride the parking shuttle ride...when I explained that it was taking you to your car in the parking lot and we didn't have one of those...he replied "I know Momma...we can just ride around the parking lot and come back" We didn't ride it...but I did consider!

Arggg!!

So we wait for our shuttle bus to pick us up, and the lady immediately throws and attitude at us when she sees that Troy's brother is in a wheelchair, telling us we needed to make a reservation for a wheelchair. This is when our frustrations got the better of us. And Mrs. Bus driver lady, I apologize...but I still stand by our statement "Ma'am he came here 9 days ago in a wheelchair and you transported him, he stayed in a handicapped wheelchair accessible room for 9 days, and is still in that same wheelchair to leave...and everything was set up and no one said anything about needing a reservation. It probably would not have been so bad if she hadn't gotten an attitude first (that and we were all waiting to see who was going to get sick next)!

Brynnleigh on the Pooh ride

PawPaw & O on It's a Small World

Troy, Brynnleigh & I on Its a Small World

So, we are all back home safely...and Troy's Dad got the sickness on Monday, and Troy has it now while I type this....so I'm the only one out of our little group...and I'm starting to think it's just a matter of hours before it's my turn.

Owen & I on the Astro Orbiter

Troy flying high & fast

Those of you thinking about Disney, or planning Disney....Do it. 2 years ago we went and it was a magical place, everything was WONDERFUL. This year, we just had bad luck. But Disney, if you want to make it up to us and offer us a free trip back, we'd gladly take it! ; )

Me, Troy, & Missy on Pirates of the Caribbean

We will go back...we just don't know when (2 years ago, we were already planning to go back the next year...then I realized that we had a Disney Souvenir...and she would be too young to go in January...so we pushed it back a year). This year, no permanent souvenirs! ; )

O always needed a map

 Owen's favorites this year - The Mickey Train (Magic Kingdom), Tomorrowland Speedway (Magic Kingdom), The People Mover (Magic Kingdom), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Magic Kingdom), The Monorail, Test Track (Epcot), Toy Mania (Hollywood Studios) and Indiana Jones (he hated it at first, then asked to go back - Hollywood Studios)

Brynnleigh's favorites this year - The Monorail, all the characters (she would walk up, turn around, and back into the "picture"), Disney JR show (Hollywood Studios), and the Light Parade (Magic Kingdom)

Owen, me, & Jake

Papa & his grandkids

Diva in training

Owen & Kyra killing time at Pizza Planet

Owen & Missy At Indiana Jones

MeeMaw, Uncle Todd, Owen, & Troy

Brynnleigh rocking out the monorail (saying Weeee)