Saturday, January 3 is our first real day of vacation. I was way too wired and stressing over the following day that I didn't sleep very good. I was too worried about making it in time and having things go smoothly. I needed to be up by 7:30 and instead got in the shower about 6:45am (which felt like 5:45). We all get ready and head out the door right on time at 8:30am. We make a Starbucks run for Joe and guess what we find as we are pulling away? The missing wiper pieces! Joe is able to change the second wiper blade but of course, if my memory is correct, we hit no other rain the rest of the trip.
::this is where my notes end::
We make decent time heading into Florida. Our goal was about 11:30am arrival time which would be just prior to the rest of the group who were to land at 10:50am. We hit a little bit of traffic as we approach Orlando and decide to make a detour. It is only a few minutes after that Barrett needs to pee. He ends up leaking just a tiny bit before we are able to stop off at a (very shady) gas station. The boys take so long inside that I eventually call Joe because I am afraid they were taken hostage. No joke.
Back on the road, our detour ends up again taking way longer than it should but by about 12pm we get off only a few miles from Disney property. A fear of ours, along with potty accidents, was motion sickness for Barrett. He has it every so often especially on an empty stomach and when things are really stop & go. Unfortunately, large cities can come with stop & go traffic so only about 5 miles from our hotel, we have a puking incident. I felt so bad. Barrett was so sad and after 17 hours in the car, he was so done. A huge trooper though, I got him wiped up while we hurried to our hotel, Old Key West. It was not quite the way we had invisioned arriving in Disney but we had made it!
Of course, I had packed our days worth of outfits in a separate bag so we didn't need to get out our luggage in the hotel the night prior. The puke meant we were rummaging through bags in the parking lot and stripping B down next to the car before going to check in. The Saxton's and Bauman's had just finished checking in so we really timed things perfectly. A big positive? Weather was awesome! Hot already!
Our check-in went very smoothly. We did online check-in (which I highly recommend) so we got to bypass the line and a lady with a iPad came up to us immediately to double check a few things and then we were on our way. We got room 6410 which was in a great villa just around the corner from the main Hospitality house. Saxton's were in 6415 and Bauman's in 6417 so we were all really close to each other. We unpacked a bit and cleaned up before heading to Magic Kingdom for the day. Our goal was to leave by about 1:30 so we were right on time!
Unfortunately, we had a pretty unlucky wait for the bus that afternoon at probably 20 minutes. Barrett was in full crazy town mode as it was nap time (we were getting crazy and skipping it today) along with being cooped up in the car for 17 hours. Again, not the best way to start out. But, as I said it was gorgeous and we were excited to get the trip going. Our plans for the rest of the day were to eat and use our 3 fastpasses but mostly make it an early night. I'll preface this by saying, I would usually avoid Saturdays at Magic Kingdom if I can at all help it. Not to mention, the afternoons are crazy busy. I know this. I don't know why we thought we should disregard it but it was our first day and we needed to see the castle so off we went. It was madness. I don't usually care if people are around me but it was hard to move around Main St at 2pm on this Saturday. We got there just as the "Move it, Shake it" parade was happening and it was craziness. It was not a good starting point.
I should mention here that Joe was not overly excited about this trip. He'd never been and had no real need to go but was obviously willing to give it a try. He was afraid all it would be were lines and lines and people. So needless to say, not a good starting off point. Also, Barrett was INSANE. He is a hyperactive kid and it became very noticeable, as he ran away from us, that we were not going to handle him in this crowd so off I went frantically to find something to help us contain him while Joe went to find some food. After being sent on a wild goose chase by a cast member, I found another super helpful one who found me a wrist leash to use in the mean time. Joe had made it down to Casey's in the absolute madhouse and was waiting outside just standing around trying to contain the kid who refused to touch his stroller. It was very stressful and we about put in the towel. Joe was so miserable and I was so stressed. I had never dealt with that kind of crowd and add in a scary situation of a kid who would not stay close to us and it was just an awful experience. The others went elsewhere to find food and eventually Joe got in line to get us some hotdogs. While he was gone, the piano player at Casey's came out and B was so excited. He even let Barrett play a few notes at the end of the song but it wasn't long before he was off and running again.
No sense in recapping the negatives but we managed to eat standing up outside before finding the others and making our way up to the castle for our Fastpasses for the afternoon parade. This was the main reason we were here at this time because we wanted to catch the 3pm parade. Our schedule made it difficult to catch it other days so it was now or never. We knew for sure to schedule our fastpass for this as it allowed you to enter a roped off area just across from the castle that allowed plenty of space for guests. They only let so many enter so it was a great scenario for us. Thank heavens we were able to stand against the rails with more than enough room for us and lots of open space to spread out.
The parade started and I pretty much started bawling. I can blame some of it on pregnancy hormones but a lot of it was stress of the situation and being overwhelmed along with Barrett's absolute perfect reaction to it all. It was exactly as I hoped. He was totally infatuated and couldn't get over seeing all his favorite characters. We had a perfect spot and were so close to the action. I couldn't contain my tears. It was all this pressure I put on the trip coming out at once. I was also feeling really bad that Joe was not enjoying himself even in the slightest. In the end, it was probably worth it because Barrett had such a wonderful introduction to Disney and I will have fond memories of that parade but never again.
Our pleasant parade experience ended and it was pretty clear we needed to make an early exit. I didn't want to continue this bad streak and subject anyone to more bad stuff so we missed our 2 other fastpasses and headed back to the hotel. We had only been there about 2 hours but we just needed to take a break and try to start fresh the next day. His first ride was supposed to be Peter Pan and we were going to meet a few princesses but it just wasn't worth it. Going to Disney, and even traveling, with young kids needs flexibility so we chose to call it quits for the day. Luckily, a bus came very quickly and if I remember correctly, there were very few people on it with us. From here on out our bus luck was excellent. It was maybe 4:30pm by the time we made it back to the room. We picked up some dinner at the hotel and relaxed that evening close to the room. Joe met up with the others out at the pool bar that evening and had some drinks and we all made it an early night as we had an early morning to get to Hollywood Studios.
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