Our Exciting Vacation in the World

[Wizzard419]

Since there is no language about it and I know the drivers take tips, I am guessing they just don't stay long enough to notice or always treat it as a trap.

[boilerbabe]

Excellent report Brian! Sounds like you have excellent planning skills and most of it worked out well!!! My parent's have a neighbor, that they are close with that has Asperger's, so I am familiar with it. Not to rub it in, but sounds like your wife did the right thing by getting a note from your son's dr. Sounds like your son did a really great job too! Can't wait to read more!!!

[mindflipper]

Since there is no language about it and I know the drivers take tips, I am guessing they just don't stay long enough to notice or always treat it as a trap.

...or could they perhaps thought you had left it for the maids or room service?

[Mousekedude]

Great trip report so far! Very detailed! I always have a hard time remembering the details.
Hope we get to see some of the pics soon!
We have a friend whose son has Asperger's, so we know what you must be going through. It can really be hard sometimes when other folks see a meltdown and don't know about his condition. They get really judgemental. Glad you were able to work through it.

[Brian845]

I feel bad for the people that deliver the Magical Express bags too, I was hoping that they would deliver them when we were in the room, but no such luck for them! I felt even worse a few years ago when we weren't using ME, and had a bell hop deliver our bags to the room with me while my wife was downstairs, only to remember that my wife had my wallet with her, so I couldn't tip him either!

Keeping a journal really helps me remember most of the details (I ask my wife when I forget important details, like what we had for snack on a particular day! She rolls her eyes at me, sure, but usually she tells me).

On to day three, Monday August 22nd! We visited the Animal Kingdom today, since it was Extra Magic Morning Hours. It was difficult to get the troops mustered as usual (putting on sunscreen was always a chore with a half sleeping child!), but we made it up and out, and at the AK shortly after 8AM. We had Tusker House reservations at 9:15, which I figured would give us time for an early morning Safari, when the animals were all out and about. It took about 20 minutes to progress through the line, and we were off on our way! Our youngest was still tired, so he really didn't pay much attention when I tried to point things out to him, but K was suitably impressed. I remember getting a good view of the male lion in particular, along with the usual assortment of rhinos, hippos, elephants, and okapis.

We just made our reservations at the Tusker House, but they were running a little late too. Unfortunately I set K off by putting food on his plate that he didn't want (he was particular about having a red plate this morning), it turned out to be a day of small mistakes. He calmed down once the characters started visiting the table tho. We had seen and taken a picture with Donald outside, which is a little different than the last time we were here. Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy visited us at our table. T still wasn't in to getting his picture taken with the characters, but we managed to get him into a couple with Mickey and Goofy.

After breakfast we took the train over to Rafiki's Planet Watch/Conservation Station. We didn't spend an inordinate amount of time here tho. The indoor part was just fine (my wife is a vet, and always enjoys seeing into the hospital), but it was another hot day, so the petting zoo animals were already hiding behind their "off limits" area, even at 10AM. We picked up a few items at the gift shop, and headed back to civilization.

Onward to Asia, and the Kali River Rapids. Our youngest balked at getting his height measured (a frequent occurrence), so we decided that my wife and K would go on the ride, while T and I amused ourselves in the market area (he loves gift shops after all!). T had some frozen lemonade to help keep him cool. My wife and older son returned, thoroughly soaked, but K decided that still wasn't wet enough, so he played in the fountains while we plotted our next move (and I made another mistake!).

The plan was to head over to Dinoland so we could try the Dinosaur ride. I decided that I would take T in the stroller over (I need to keep in motion!), while they dried off, and meet them in Dinoland. We were meandering along, and then I decided I would double back and meet up with them for the rest of the journey, but I didn't find them on the path. They weren't back at the fountains by the Kali River Rapids exit either. It never occurred to me *which* direction they would travel, so while I had headed off to Dinoland via the Asia walkway past Expedition Everest, they went back to Discovery Island, and then over to Dinoland. It took some time, but eventually we met up again, after wasting about 15 minutes.

T was asleep in the stroller by this time, so I sent my wife and K off to enjoy the Dinosaur ride, while I kept an eye on the young one. Here I made another misstep! I had told my wife that we would meet them at the entrance to the Dinosaur ride, and we settled into one of the little nooks off to the side with a bench. After a while, T woke up, and I had the brilliant idea that we would find the gift shop at the exit (there's always one at the exit), and meet the rest of the family there instead! So we went inside and enjoyed the air conditioning, while I watched the ride photo displays like a hawk, waiting to see my wife and son. Only they didn't appear in any of the photos that I had dutifully watch for 10 minutes. So we left the shop, and it was only then that I noticed the "Exit" sign with an arrow pointing in the opposite direction from the entrance area (I must admit, I had noticed that there were many people going in to the ride from the area we were sitting, but not too many people heading out). Unfortunately, my wife is very good at following these sorts of signs (she would never be able to "accidentally" get lost backstage!), so I realized that we missed each other again! We eventually found them out in Dinoland in front of the Dinosaur entrance (they were unaware of the nice benches they have in the walkup to the ride), but we wasted another good 10 minutes due to my miscommunication.

It was around 2PM by now, and we were getting hungry, despite our relatively late breakfast, so we headed off to Pizzafari. On the way I made yet another mistake (the last one for the day, fortunately), by deciding it was a good idea to see "It's Tough to Be a Bug" on the way to lunch, since there wasn't much of a wait. Our younger son did not enjoy this movie at all, and spent most of the time hiding on my lap (we had warned him about the bee "stings", so he refused to sit in the chair). I'm not sure the older one enjoyed it much either (he is an apiphobe, as of late). I compounded this mistake by parking our stroller in a "no stroller" area, so it took a little bit of time to find where it had been spirited away, but I had sent the rest of the family off to lunch so I could suffer in silence.

There's a bit more to this day, but I'm going to end it here for now, I need to help put the kids to bed!

[Amy]

Day three sounds a bit challenging for your family. It seems it is always hard to find really good meeting spots. Too many variables, especially when you have sleeping/waking children, multiple paths to get to the same place, etc. Waiting to see what the rest of the day holds...will there be any photos?

[Len90]

Meeting up once you become separated is a tough thing to do at the parks. I've found prearranging certain areas over the years and utilizing a very specific item helps best. For example our family broke up in DHS and I set the traffic light at Sunset and Hollywood as the meet up place. Seems like you had a few issues arise on day three, which is usually the time when things start to go wrong. However, it looks like you handled them as they happened and went right through it.

Great read so far. I just wish there were some pictures to go along with it.

[Brian845]

I'm still waiting for our Photopass CD to arrive. I've got the ones we took up which I guess I can share, and add the Photopass ones later. PM me if you want a link to some photos (you have to promise to keep the link private, please!).

[Brian845]

Time to continue on with Monday! I've been rather busy lately, so I haven't kept up with this as much as I would like...We were having an ok day at the Animal Kingdom, but not ideal, mainly due to my mistakes. After lunch at Pizzafari, we decided that our youngest child had had enough, and that my wife would take him back to the resort (this would become a familar routine in the days to come). Our older son was still redy for more, so he and I headed back to Dinoland USA for some fun. I had originally planned to come back and do stuff in Dinoland later in the week, but I was learning to do what the kids wanted to do first and foremost, and worry about my plans later. Really tho, I wanted to do the Boneyard earlier in the day, since it wouldn't be as hot, but oh well!

K had been to the Boneyard twice before, once in 2008 and once in 2006, and the place is as bewildering as always! He first busied himself with the all the slides, and I would catch sight of him intermittently. After a while he stopped appearing, and I started to get a little worried. I asked one of the cast members if she had seen a boy meeting my sons description, and she inquired when I had last seen him. "About 10 minutes ago" I replied, and she suggested that he was probably in the sand pit area. Sure enough I crossed over the bridge into the sand pit area, and he was happily digging for fossils (it was nice and shady here). The crisis was averted, and I would no longer lose my status as "World's Best Dad"! We spent about 15 more minutes here, and then continued on.

Our next stop was the TriceraTop Spin. Primeval Whirl was closed for refurbishment, else I'm sure he would have wanted to go on that too. We had to ride TriceraTop Spin twice, since the person in the back seat is the one that controls the up and down motion, not the person in front (who controls tilt). Fortunately there was no line at this time of the day (I think the Jammin' Jungle parade was underway at this point). It was starting to get cloudy, so I figured we were in for an afternoon storm, so we left the park and headed back to the resort, slightly beaten by the trials and tribulations of the day.

The evening was much more enjoyable, with nary a problem in sight. We took the bus to Downtown Disney, since we had 7:30 reservations at the T-Rex Cafe. It seems like we always do Downtown Disney after Animal Kingdom, because of the relatively early closing time of AK. We spent some time at the Lego Store, where much to my surprise the boys satisfied their Lego desires with the fill your own "Pick a Brick" cups they sell there, rather than a large kit of some sort. Fine by me, since those things are relatively cheap and wouldn't take up too much room for the flight home! T enjoyed sitting on my shoulders so he could reach the bricks that were higher up.

I detailed the rest of the evening in another post, so I won't repeat it here, but we had a fine time at dinner (other than things being a little too loud), and both kids really enjoyed building their own dinosaur at the gift shop afterwards. There were a few other stores we would have liked to visit after dinner, but it was nearing 9:45, and as we had learned it was time to get the kids back to the resort. We'll save these shops for another trip!

Our dining companion:





Tomorrow we headed back to the Magic Kingdom in the morning, since it was Dumbo day...I'll try to post info soon! If you want a link to the photo album that goes along with the story, send me a PM!

[mindflipper]

Dumbo Day?!?

[Amy]

Love the dinosaur dining companion! Yay for Dumbo day ~ that is one attraction I remember fondly from my childhood

[Len90]

I actually made it point to stop at Lego this year to see the completely redone store. It was very nice and I wish the store was that cool when I was younger and into building everything. Did you manage to make it over to DHS to pick up your world's greatest dad mickey statue award?

[Brian845]

I actually made it point to stop at Lego this year to see the completely redone store. It was very nice and I wish the store was that cool when I was younger and into building everything. Did you manage to make it over to DHS to pick up your world's greatest dad mickey statue award?

Wow, they have those at DHS? I don't know how my children missed those, but we'll definitely look for those next time!:)

[Brian845]

Tuesday, August 23rd (aka Dumbo Day)

So you don't know what Dumbo Day is? It's the day where you get to the parks early (rope drop if possible) and make a beeline for Dumbo, ignoring any photographers and plowing over any entertainers that happen to be in the way with your stroller. Here's how our day went:

It was another early morning, according to the plan, since there were Extra Magic Morning Hours at the Magic Kingdom. My original formulation for this day was Epcot for both morning and afternoon, but when I discovered Touringplans.com indicated that Epcot was a "Park to Avoid", I switched to MK for the morning session (we had reservations at the Rose and Crown Pub in Epcot for the evening, so that was set in stone). According to the pictures I took, I was up at around 6AM wandering around taking pictures of the Wilderness Lodge (if you want to see them PM me for the link), but it was again tough to get the wife and kids out of bed.



We didn't make it for rope drop, but we were at the Magic Kingdom at a respectable 8:15AM.

It was really humid, even this early in the morning, and I had been carrying our younger son while our 7 year old was in the stroller (it's faster if he doesn't walk). Carrying a 37 pound child makes you even warmer, but he appreciates the view from higher up, and it's great to spend more time with him. The wait for Dumbo was certainly 15 minutes, but it was better to get it done now than later in the day when it would be even hotter. We were at the front of the line, so we had our choice as far as color goes (these things are important!). I was able to get a few pictures of the Fantasyland expansion while we were airborne, but nothing is really exciting yet (lots of structural steel and foam board still).



With Dumbo under our belt, we headed over to Winnie the Pooh. This was another cause of my son's meltdown the other evening...The fact that we were using a FastPass and didn't get to play in the new Interactive queue. It was still before 9AM, and there was only about a 15 minute wait according to the sign, so we leisurely took our time and played with all the stuff in the play area (I helped to pull the rope as far as it could go, which makes a gopher appear as I recall). We even took the time to make sure our bees made a complete circuit around the honeybee slidey thing...We let people pass us in line, if you could imagine! We also touched each and every interactive honey screen, thereby ensuring that we picked up every germ imaginable on our hands. T and K sat together in the front seat this time (which was my original plan the other day, since I don't get to sit with my wife very often). I have to wonder if we'll ride this ride the next time we come, when the kids will be 8 and 11, respectively.

After Winnie the Pooh, we took a quick ride on Peter Pan (I had originally vowed to use the Guest Assistance Card judiciously, but that thing is addictive...if you use it once, you use it all the time...I'm sure it saved wear and tear on K's nerves at least). It's a pity that so much of this ride is hard to see for shorter kids...There were several rides that T had problems seeing outside of the ride car (like Test Track), but since this one was explicitly a children's ride, it was kind of disappointing that he didn't experience much of it. We also took another trip (our third for T and me) on It's a Small World.

We made our way over to Frontierland next, since today was also Splash Mountain day. We left T and my wife at the playground, since neither one of them wanted to ride it, which is too bad. Splash Mountain is a great ride, not just because it's fun, but because it's so well themed. K first took me on this ride when he was 4, establishing himself as a thrill ride aficianado (and making me a less than willing participant in his escapades). This time we got to sit in the front, and K sat on the right, which made him really happy (according to the kid's guidebook we had, that's the seat that gets the wettest). We purchased a photo at the gift shop, along with a ride pin and one of those really cool blue and green tie dyed shirts (he had outgrown the one we got in 2008).

Country Bear Jamboree was the next stop on our list, since it was time for some air conditioning. We had about a 15 minute wait for the show (I guess we didn't time it all that well), but at least the wife and kids got to sit down for a bit. The kids were moderately entertained by the show (Big Al is still my favorite!). After the show, we decided to split up again...It was around noon, and my wife was done (after exclaiming that we weren't coming back here for at least 5 years, and that it "wasn't her happiest place on earth"...I managed to talk her down from the ledge a little later, but I don't think we'll come in the summer again!). T was also done, and had really been done since Dumbo. They both headed back to the resort, while K and I continued our thrill ride quest.

After a quick snack at the Golden Oak Outpost, we headed to Pirates of the Carribean (we wanted to digest a bit before heading over to Big Thunder Mountain). It took about 30 minutes, since the ride had broken down for about 10 minutes, but it was nice to be in the air conditioning. We avoided purchasing any additional pirate booty at the gift shop.

We wandered back over to Big Thunder Mountain, which is a ride I hadn't been on since I was a teenager (I don't think we did it on our honeymoon). K had a great time, although I would have to remember to put his ear plugs in before the ride next time (I spent a lot of the ride with my hands over his ears...The chain noise on the hill climbs is really loud...artificially so, I would guess). I must admit I thought it was a lot of fun as rollercoasters go, much more enjoyable than Space Mountain, and the theme is really great!

While we were here, we rode Splash Mountain again (you can take it as read that we used the Guest Assistance Card from here on out), and also a 2nd ride on Big Thunder Mountain. We stopped at the Briar Patch gift shop and purchased a Big Thunder Moutain pin for K, thus completing the "Three Mountain" set. We boarded the train at the Frontierland station, and left the park a little before 3PM. We were going to try to see if we had time for a swim before our evening in Epcot, but the bus was kind of late and it had started to rain a bit, so we would have to put of swimming until tomorrow.

Next up will be our Trip (not very far) Around the World at Epcot! I have added today's pics to my photobucket album, send me a message if you want the link.

[Amy]

Sounds like another fun, albeit humid and hot, morning. I'm glad you got over your aversion to using the guest assistance pass. That is why you had it. I can't imagine the meltdowns you might have endured if you had spent all the extra time waiting in lines. That is nice that you and your wife each got to spend some alone time with your kids. I bet they will remember that as they get older. I would have to fight over who got to stay in the park and who had to go back to the room, but it sounds like you were both happy with who did what...
Waiting to see what happens next...