Vacation-ville!

About a year and a half ago my husband's side of the family started talking about a vacation, all the family together. That would be AB's dad and stepmom and their total of 8 kids combined with their respective families! In the end three kids from each side (6 kids) with their families attended a 7-Day Eastern Caribbean Disney cruise! We counted down, we planned, we bought loads of stuff that all the blogs and Pinterest tell us we have to have on a Disney cruise. Then magically, the day arrived.

So if you are planning a cruise and decide to go over a holiday - like Thanksgiving - good to check prices of the airline tickets! We started checking about 8 months in advance and I suddenly felt sick. I fly a lot and had plenty of miles for at least a couple tickets. But not at the crazy prices I was seeing to get us down the day before the cruise and back the day after. We started broadening our search and went from tickets for $1800 a piece to $399 each (or 30K miles). Sold - two purchased tickets and three mileage tickets. Yay. We would put the money that would be spent on those crazy expensive tickets towards the expenses on a now 2 week vacation. 

Our plans: 

Fly on the Wednesday before the Saturday cruise departure.

Spend two days at Universal Orlando (YES! We love this place.)

Drive from Orlando on Friday to Port Canaveral, Florida that Friday.

Spend the night and depart on cruise Saturday.

7 Days Easter Caribbean

-2 days at sea

-St. Maarten

-St. Thomas

-Thanksgiving day at sea

-Castaway Cay (the Disney island)

-Back to Orlando

Saturday depart from ship and drive to Orlando - Port Orleans Riverside

Hollywood Studios

Magic Kingdom

Epcot

Boom Done. Fly Home

So my plans, instead of doing one humongous blog, split it into three. Universal, the Cruise and then Disney after. Or maybe it will be Universal and Disney after and then the Cruise separate. Well whatever  that ends up making sense. 

Orlando Vacation Day Four

Wow. Amazing to think this vacation as just about a month ago...

Animal Kingdom! Just over halfway done with our vacation at this point and I think we were all showing signs of wear. But we arrived at a new park ready to tackle it. At this point we had finally figured out the whole fast pass thing and knew to zoom our way to the Safari to retrieve fast passes first.

It is a difficult concept to understand if you haven’t been there. Why would I get a fast pass when the sign says it is only a 20 minute wait? I am here, right now! Well because the wait time isn’t always correct and there are a lot of things to do that have no wait. Get your fast passes and then walk over and do those things instead of stand in line. Then when your time slot comes up, walk on the ride. Yes, it took me a few days to figure this out – apparently I am a bit slow. Friends told me to use the fast pass system, but I didn’t really get why until I was there.

We hung out in Africa, the kids loved the giant toads, the hippos and the gorillas. There was a new baby gorilla that weighed in at a whopping 9 lbs who was the most adorable little thing on the face of the earth as she clung to her mama’s belly. Kind of made my uterus ache a bit…

Anyways, moving on.

Giant Toad: (The bowl is like a big dog bowl... not some little kitty cat bowl.)

The Safari was fun and a nice way to see a bunch of animals in a matter of minutes as we pretended to be chasing poachers. We caught up with our friends briefly at this point before dividing up to conquer different things and the intent to meet up later. Which actually never panned out, but that was ok.

We headed over to the raft ride where I read the warnings that you WILL get wet and you MAY get soaked. This is where AB assured me once again, that I wasn’t going to get that wet. And I certainly didn’t need to spend $7 on a rain poncho. Well, I could if I wanted…

And at that point I was so tired of being nickeled and dimed that I decided I was NOT forking over money for a rain poncho after reminding myself I was not wearing white.

The woman in front of us didn’t check this. She was wearing white. She was also a bit weird in that she talked endlessly about how she always eats the entire apple, seeds included, the seeds have a nice almondy flavor and she wished that stores would sell apple seeds to top your salad with. I debated.

Do I admit to eavesdropping on her conversation to tell her that that nice almondy flavor comes from cyanide? Stores will never sell apple seeds because they are poisonous?

Anyways, finally we were on the ride. Even Skadi got to ride this one.

Let’s just say that Skadi was the only one who escaped getting absolutely soaked.

$7 didn’t seem quite so expensive when you are drenched from head to foot.

We had Fast Passes for this one and AB and Leif rode it again. Skadi and I did NOT.

AB headed over to secure fast passes for the Dinosaur ride while I took the kids and headed to the Tusker House for our lunch reservations.

Tusker House = the best food we ate on our family vacation hands down. I did have some great Italian and Cuban food with RAB before the actual vacation portion started. Anyways, it was an African buffet that was amazing. The only bad part was listening to Skadi scream about not having picked THE plate. THAT plate was blue, not pink and she wanted the PINK one and I had already put food on the BLUE plate. And if you know Skadi you know that nothing will fix this. Switching to the pink plate and dumping all the food and starting new won’t fix it. My bad. Temper tantrum-ville. Regardless AB and I enjoyed our food immensely and toyed with the notion of just hanging out there… all afternoon, grazing.

Except that we were given reserved seats for the Finding Nemo show. I believe this is a ploy to ensure people don’t just hang out all afternoon. So we finished up and raced to Finding Nemo. Amazing. Truly amazing and one of the highlights of the trip.

AB and Leif hit the Dinosaur ride with two of the fast passes while Skadi and I waited outside. Skadi found these "pretty berries". She wasn't kidding. They are pretty. She wanted me to taste them and see if they were good. I declined though.


AB and Leif got off the ride and we decided that I would go on it with Leif again. “It wasn’t too bad,” AB told me, “just a bit loud. Nothing that will make you sick.”

This was also the wrong thing to do and I should have noticed Leif’s slight hesitation. As we were getting on the ride he started freaking out and admitted he just wanted to hang out with me, not actually ride this ride again. It was scary and loud. And loud doesn’t begin to describe it. I am positive our ES&H person would never sign off on that ride.

And so Leif spent the ride buried in my armpit.

At this point we realized the time. And as was par for the course we realized we had intended to head back to the hotel for a swim about 2 hours before this point and finally hopped on the shuttle bus.

On the way back my phone was ringing… a call with the same prefix as my work. Of course I wasn’t going to answer it. (Though I would check the message after it came through.) AB pulled out his phone and asked me, “what number did you say that was?” He had a call from the same number.

That is when things start get concerning since it was definitely an area phone number. And we don’t work for the same companies, so for both of us to get calls from the same number… a bit disconcerting.

AB was the first to get to his voicemail and his jaw dropped.

I started freaking out nudging him for details. What’s going on? I can only imagine the worst. A terrorist attack?

He keeps telling me, “just a second” and the dang voicemail hasn’t come through on my phone yet. (AT&T service in Orlando was spotty at best.) I am going nuts.

Finally he hangs up and says, “I just got a job offer”. (Mystery of the phone call to my phone? My sister in law had given them my phone number after they had called the house.)

We got back and I took the kids for a quick swim so AB could return the call and get the details before we went and got ready for our dinner out at Boma with friends.

Boma was nice. The food was good, definitely the second best we had at Disney, but it wasn’t as stunning as I had hoped for. It was African buffet as well. Skadi was carrying a plate at the buffet when it slipped right out of her hands and broke. The woman cleaned it up and then brought her a light up Tinkerbell to make her feel better since she "looked so sad".

Sigh.

I didn’t tell Leif why she ended up with another Tinkerbell. I was afraid there would be a dishes flying.

The place where all the Magic happens

On the Sunday of our vacation we headed for the Magic Kingdom. We looked over the park map beforehand and decided our plan of attack. Fantasyland (princesses, Peter Pan, Small World, all the fairy tale characters), Tomorrowland (Space Mountain, Astro Orbiter, etc) and then over to Adventureland (Pirates and the Swiss Family treehouse).

The Magic Kingdom is very much like Disneyland in California. I went there when I was 13 and given my foggy memory after 25 years, I could have walked into the same place.

We headed over to Fantasyland and got in line for the Peter Pan ride. This is where we learned that the time displayed on the “wait time” sign isn’t always so accurate. It stated 15 minutes, but it was a good 45 minutes. The kids were somewhat impressed with the ride and so we headed over to “It’s a Small World” next. The wait there stated 15 minutes and was actually more like 10 minutes. Skadi loved the Small World ride. Leif was a bit less than impressed with that one. The kids rode the carousel and when we realized that half the day was already gone (and our in hotel breakfast snacks weren’t sticking with us) we grabbed some lunch at Pinocchios. Very yummy meatball sandwiches.

We wandered around a bit and Skadi started spotting characters – Winnie the Pooh and a few others. Thankfully when I saw the mile long lines and subsequently gave her the choice of riding more rides or standing in line for hugs, she picked the rides. AB took Leif over to the Tomorrowland Speedway while I braved the Tea Cups with Skadi.

I don’t do well with spinny rides, so I was a bit nervous about this. Last thing I wanted to do was puke up that meatball sandwich. Still I was coveting the neat pictures my friend RAB and her husband had taken on the Tea Cups the week prior and wanted some of Skadi in a similar fashion. Happy to say I survived!

We met up with AB and Leif (who was a bit disappointed with the Speedway, “you couldn’t even go fast mom,” he lamented).

Space Mountain had a wait, so I grabbed fast passes and we ran over to Adventureland and made a beeline for Pirates of the Caribbean. The wait cited was about 50 minutes, but I would put it more like 20 minutes. They kept us walking the entire time. Both the kids dug Pirates and of course we ended in a gift shop. Leif isn’t a huge shopper… he whines a bit (kind of like AB) at the notion of having to shop. Skadi eyes it all, but is never overly insistent on buying stuff, she is picky. I am lucky that way, we got out of most everything to this point without stopping in a gift shop.

Then there was Pirate gear, and Jack (the pumpkin king) gear! And well, we spent a little time and money in the Pirates gift shop.

On to the next adventure… the Swiss Family Robinson tree house, which AB and I enjoyed and the kids thought we should just move in.

At this point we agreed that even though the kids weren’t seeming terribly tired that it WAS time for a break before our long evening at the Pirate’s Cruise. We headed towards the entrance to catch our bus and just so happened to make it to main street in time for the Parade!

Finally we hit the entrance, got on the shuttle and went back to the hotel for a quick break.

We had fast passes for Space Mountain and I (yes, Mrs. Motion Sickness) had wanted to ride it. AB was in no way interested. I had remembered Space Mountain from my 1985 trip and remembered thinking I may actually like roller coasters after that one. It was fun! And smooth! (And for the record, I didn’t suddenly like roller coasters, the two I tried after Space Mountain scared the daylights out of me.)

Disney Tip! Skadi couldn’t ride these rides, many of them either AB or I weren’t interested, but one of us would do it with Leif. When you get Fast Passes get as many as tickets you have even if not everyone plans to go on. On occasion we would ride twice – usually Leif would get to go twice and AB and I would trade off. Other times we would ride once and then walk up and hand the remaining fast passes to someone standing outside and more than once felt like we were gifting someone a hunk of gold with the gratitude they returned.

We headed back to the park and managed to hit to the entrance (like earlier, this was unplanned and pure luck) to see the castle frost over and all the colors. We jumped in with a photographer and got the best family picture from Disney that is gracing our Christmas cards this year. We tried to get pictures of the castle ourselves, but it just didn’t work. You really need good photography equipment to do this at night.

Leif and AB wanted to do the Astro-Orbiter. I wasn’t so thrilled, but that was fine. We all stood in line and listened to the music and watched the characters dance. Finally up at the top – you take an elevator up – Leif was my driver.

I guess one of my observations at Magic Kingdon was that everything seemed a bit old. When I think of how everything looked the same as when I was in Disneyland 25 years ago… and it seemed a bit dated then, it made me start to wonder when most of those rides were built?

This is not a good thought to have while getting ready to go up in the Astro-Orbiter. Because what if a few bolts broke and it sent Leif and me – or AB and Skadi hurtling through the air???

Leif insisted on flying us all the way to the top and not going up or down at all.

I told him he was scaring me and the little turkey only laughed.

Cruel child. He learned this from his father.

Soon enough the ride was over and we were forced down.

Thankfully.

As though I hadn’t had enough I ran over with Leif in tow to make the Space Mountain fast passes. AB and Skadi went in search of dinner as Leif and I flew past the throngs of people lined up. Here is where the fast passes kind of suck though. As we are walking through Leif is seeing video games that you play while waiting! And lots of information about space!

We aren’t ride junkies. We like the information just as much. Ok, *I* like the information… Leif just likes the video games.

We hop on the ride and can I just say that this was NOT the same Space Mountain as the one in Disneyland. It was bumpy and creaky and wow I was glad when that was over. It is official, I do not like roller coasters at all. Leif went running up to dad and started raving… about the video games he saw.

Can’t we go back in and do the video games?

We hurried ourselves over to an obscure little room at the Contemporary – we weren’t the only ones running late trying to find it – for our Pirates and Pals fireworks cruise. We signed in, got our bandanas and stood in line. (I know, surprise, huh?)

When we were finally released into the waiting room I felt like I was my grandmother. They had free snacks! And free bottles of water! Disney had turned me into my grandmother who covets free items. I think AB and I were so used to opening our wallets for every.single.thing that when presented with “free” things, we went a bit nuts with ordering the kids back to the table to get more packaged brownies and gee mommy would really like another bag of SmartFood, and oh, while you are at it, how about another bottle of water, hmmm?

Yes, I know. Free is in the mind. We had paid big time for the cruise. So it wasn’t really free… just prepaid… but it helps me to think that I was getting something for free.

We hung out and met Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. Skadi walked right up and told Captain Hook to “WALK THE PLANK SCURVY DOG!” This was met with lots of chuckling from the staff.

We headed out to the boats where we watched the electric boat parade, then the Disney fireworks. AB likes to be right up there under the fireworks. This worked best for me. I despise crowds and it was getting crowded in Magic Kingdom as people were saving their spots 1.5 hours before the fireworks. Our emcee for the event was a great pirate, but I did wonder how loaded he had to get to do this every evening?

Leif won a Pirate pistol. Skadi won a pirate ducky. (More “free” stuff.) The fact that Leif won the Pirate pistol made it all the more special and AB and I spent the entire remainder of the trip saying, “no you cannot take the pistol to X”.

When we got back Peter Pan met the boat and then hugged each kid and posed for a picture. One of the staff saw Skadi coming and yelled to Peter, “watch out for that one, she told Captain Hook to walk the plank!”

We finally landed back at the hotel, fully exhausted, with two sleeping kids. Ever try getting two sleeping kids and a stroller and backpack off a shuttle bus? Somehow I got stuck carrying Leif… I can barely lift him anymore, let alone carry him off a bus. AB did have Skadi, the backpack and the stroller though. Yeah, it was brutal. But we got them back to the hotel room with neither waking.

Then we crashed.

Princesses Galore!

The most magical evening we were at Disneyworld was that Saturday night with the princesses. We managed reservations at Akershus for the princess dinner courtesy of friends who held the reservations previously, but were giving them up after lucking into a Cinderella Castle dinner. A little finagling and wrangling with the online reservation site and we were in!


Akershus is a Norwegian restaurant and for that reason, we were thrilled to have dinner there.

Skadi dressed up like a princess, Leif in nice clothes (after whining about "princesses, ick") and we all hauled it back to Epcot. (Yeah, don't pay attention to the shoes... I was willing to haul the princess dress... I wasn't hauling a pair of dress shoes that she might - or might not - wear.)




For having reservations, we were surprised at the line. We were checked in, informed that they were running behind and told to wait in front of the restaurant.


We wandered over to the Norwegian shop. All while keeping our ears peeled for our announcement.


Soon after they started announcing families.


And we waited some more.


Finally we were lead into the restaurant.


Belle was ready to meet the kids at the front and much to our surprise we were presented with a photo of the kids with Belle with wallet sized photos too! Explanation of the high price was now starting to become apparent.



The kids ordered from their menu - Leif opted for the roast chicken. Skadi for the pasta and sauce. I ordered something I couldn't pronounce - meat wrapped in pastry. Never can go wrong with that and AB ordered the beef tips. There was a buffet to partake in while we waited, which was super nice. Both kids filled up on salmon, cheese and crackers.


Then we saw our daughter's eyes grow wide!


She wanted to get up and run over and wrap her arms around Aurora. But we convinced her to wait patiently at the table and she would be there soon.




For all the princesses ick we heard from Leif, he didn't miss out on the photo ops.



Midway through there was a princess processional where the princesses brought the little girls (including the one dressed like Buzz Lightyear) out onto the floor and they paraded around the restaurant waving at the onlookers. Snow White picked Skadi to walk right behind her and Skadi beamed the entire processional!


The highlight of the evening came at the end for Skadi.

Ariel.



And she realized quickly that she was Skadi's favorite. She helped her twirl and then gave her a big smooch on the cheek that left red lipstick marks that Skadi wore like a trophy the next day. We were not allowed to wash her face.



The food was "eh". My meat wrapped pastry was missing the pastry and the gravy a bit sweet for my tastes. AB's beef tips lackluster. The kids loved their food, the dessert plate (we got the whole plate of desserts, no picking) was great and after Leif asked for a second chocolate mousse (and we protested that we did NOT need another chocolate mousse), they brought him one. Oh well. Three chocolate mousses in one day (one from the French pastry shop earlier)... Disneyworld doesn't happen everyday.


I expected grumblings from my frugal husband about the bill.


"Seeing the look on Skadi's face that entire dinner was worth the price," he declared.

And Skadi declares this as her favorite part of Disneyworld.

The happiest (and busiest) place on earth

I went to a conference in Orlando last week. Back when I was contemplating the conference we decided that we would transform it into a family vacation! Orlando for the family! Yay! So when the day arrived, I kissed my family goodbye and got on the plane, anxious to see them 5 nights later.

Disneyworld. What an institution. We had a good time. The kids enjoyed it. But no, we don't have intentions of going back, maybe ever! Part of this is probably that as I stated before and now I can confirm that it just isn't our type of vacation. I thought I might be proved wrong and that we would all fall in love. But even the kids aren't chomping at the bit to go back. We are very happy we have gone, and very happy we did it when we did (Skadi being 3.5 and Leif being 6). But nobody was crying about leaving.

Should you decide to go... here are my suggestions. Subsequent posts will serve as my travelogue and you will be subjected to vacation photos and details!

1. Plan. In the world of Disney vacations, you can't plan enough. Flying by the seat of your pants isn't really going to work here. I planned a bit - as much time as I could afford as I have been so busy the past few months - but I could have planned substantially more. And I AM a planner. Things to plan outside of your arrival and departure? Where you are going each day, what restaurants you will eat at (you need reservations well in advance for many), what additional activities you might want to do (we did a Pirate fireworks cruise). Once you decide the days you are going to be there start getting your reservations. You can always cancel reservations - or at least many of them you can - but reservations can be hard to come by the closer you get.

2. Prepare. Learn as much as humanly possible about what to expect. Spend time just reading those Disney vacation websites and discussion boards. I didn't do this, that whole lack of time thing. I checked it out if I had an occasional question in advance, but I could have never anticipated the number of questions that I would have once there.

3. When I was on the plane the woman next to me called this our "learning trip" and suggested I not expect a lot because of the learning curve, no matter how you prepare. She wasn't kidding. Those first two days we were on our learning curve and could have been so much more effective had I prepared mentally for it.

4. Know your vacation style. AB and I aren't the type of people to hang out at a hotel room or at a pool. We get out and get things done. While it would have been absolutely fantastic to be at the Contemporary directly next to the Magic Kingdom, it is a fair bit of money and we were nearly never at the hotel to do much other than rest or squeeze in a swim (if we could) for an hour in the afternoon or to sleep. Decide where you want to spend your money in advance. A nice hotel? Or in the parks? Dining maybe?

5. Money. Have lots. This place is freaky expensive. $2.50 for a bottle of water.

6. Consider shopping in advance. I was lucky and had a car for the week prior and took one lunchtime to run to Whole Foods and stock up since the hotels have fridges in the rooms. I bought yogurt sticks, water (I didn't buy enough), granola bars, juice boxes, cheese sticks (which my kids devoured in two days), bananas and a few other snacks. I had heard that the resorts have "grocery stores" and so I didn't buy a ton. Mistake. I should have bought more. Keep in mind that what the "grocery stores" stock are the popular things that the general public like and IMO, not terribly healthy options. If you are particular about this type of thing, like I am - yes, I know we are on vacation - then shop in advance as best as you can. We plowed through everything we had and the "grocery stores" stock individual things that are freaky expensive. If you don't have the luxury of a car rental to go buy food, consider a cab on day one to a local grocery store to stock up. I should also caveat this with the fact that we ate breakfast in our rooms all but one day. Just one place we were willing to cut corners to save a bit of money.

7. Consider your level of foodie and adjust your vacation accordingly. AB and I are foodies. I had read a number of places about the fabulous food at Disney, everywhere. Yeah, we weren't impressed for the most part. AB and I covet our yummy home breakfasts and knew that nothing could live up, so we planned low key breakfasts in our rooms. Lunches (save for one) were on the fly. (Pinnochio's Grill in Fantasyland had a great meatball sandwich.) And dinners were all reservations. Now that said, the best meal we had was at The Tusker House in Animal Kingdom - for lunch. The only lunch reservation I grabbed. The other meals were decent - Boma was good and our second favorite. But by our foodie standards, the meals were lacking. Plan according to your love (or not) of food.

8. Prepare mentally for lines! There are lines for everything. Obviously for the rides - get Fast Passes EVEN if you arrive and the ride is "only 30 minutes of wait". Get your Fast Pass and go do something/anything with less wait. That is the only way to maximize your time. There are also lines even when you have reservations. Also know that it takes awhile for the "wait times" to update. There were a few rides that boasted 15 minute wait times and we were in line for 45 mins (Peter Pan) and others that stated a 50 minute wait and we waited for 20 minutes. It takes A LOT of time to update those wait times. How they do it? I was picked to hold a tag when we got in line for the Astro Orbiter and when I handed it to the agent on the other end, they timed how long it took me to get there. So their new wait time took a good 45 minutes to update.

9. Figure out in advance how to get places. We were late for only one reservation - Boatwright's at Port Orleans. We were told to shuttle to Downtown Disney, get on the boat and go to Port Orleans. Wrong. Shuttle to Downtown Disney - find the one of three boats that will take you to Port Orleans, ride the boat (which was gorgeous), get off at Port Orleans RIVERSIDE, not the French Quarter. We were 20 minutes late at a half full restaurant and were treated as though we had completely screwed their entire night. It should have been one of our best meals, but it wasn't simply because of our service (they brought all our food - appetizers and main dish at once, and then packaged up our dessert to go - since they were trying to keep their schedule... in their half filled restaurant.)

10. Build in flex time. Don't schedule tightly. You will spend more time everywhere than you anticipate.

I read through this and realize it sounds as though I didn't have a great time. We did have a great time - the rides were good - and neither AB nor I are ride people at all and we learned that Leif has a tolerance at about our same level. Seeing Skadi encounter the characters was great. And seeing Leif in Hogsmeade (which we ventured in a cab off property for at Universal Studios) was truly spectacular. More about all that later!

Happy Thanksgiving all. We are recovering today, hosting my mother in law this weekend (she flies in this afternoon) and we will have our Thanksgiving meal tomorrow once we recover.

Adding to the list...

Remember when you were 13 years old and you found out that Michael Jackson was coming to town? Ok, so it was to the city 6 hours away, but your dad agreed to take you if you stood in line and got tickets? And there was only a small block of tickets sent to the sporting goods store at the mall in your tiny town, because it was, well, a tiny town comparatively. And so you stood in line, shaking with anticipation! Would you get the tickets?? Would you? Would you be holding Michael Jackson tickets? Or would it all just have been for naught?

Ok, so flash forward 25 years. Technology may be different. But I sat on the computer after the kids were in bed trying to pick up dinner reservations.

Not for the French Laundry. Or Chez Pannise.

Nope. I sat there trying to get reservations for dinner with princesses.

At Disneyworld.

Because I know my daughter would flip.

Yes, I had lunch reservations, but good friends we will be traveling with had coveted dinner reservations they were looking to unload in favor of other options they lucked into. Making the princess dinner my coveted goal. We timed it all. We sat on the phone. And I hit "Search for a Table" over and over and over and over.

Then it happened.

And we cheered.

Thanks for sharing that experience with me. (And yes, when I was 13 I did see Michael Jackson in concert. All five of the Jacksons appeared to be less than an inch tall from our nosebleed seats reserved for the Casper, Wyoming block at the top of Mile High Stadium in Denver. I don't normally readily admit to this. It's your special day.)

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I have this huge list of things that before I had kids I swore I would never do... and it seems I just keep adding to that list. I mentioned a few months ago the main one of recent... Disneyworld.

We are well onto our countdown to liftoff. There was a little trauma last week when I realized I had miscounted the days way back when we were on something like 47 sleeps until DisneyWorld. Then last week the numbers got smaller and I realized I was off by a day.

Me: "Sorry Leif, we are really 15 days to DisneyWorld, not 14."

Leif: "WHAT! NO! You are wrong! We counted all this time!"

It was a rough day, with a bit of arguing. Yes, mommy makes mistakes on occasion.

I suppose it could be said that I have embraced this vacation completely.

In typical NM ding dong fashion, I realized last week when I was mapping my hotel that "oh, look, it looks like it is pretty close to SeaWorld." Then I found my hotel online to see if they happened to have shuttle buses and found out that I am actually staying at the Fairfield Inn AT SEAWORLD.

Ok, so that Friday that I have to work a bit, AB and the kids will have an easy source of entertainment at their toes. Love how that works.

I have the hotel booked, park tickets bought. You might think that sounds about normal... but then the list continues... and this is where those lists of things I would never do comes back to haunt me. Covet the reservations. What reservations can I score?

Dinner with the Princesses on Saturday
Pirates and Pals Firework cruise booked
Animal Kingdom Tusker House lunch booked
Finding Nemo musical reserved seating booked
Dinner with friends at Boma booked
Harry Potter Land all scouted out
Dinner at Boatwrights (the old boat making shop) is the special treat for AB.

Leif in typical OCD fashion has become all obsessed with Harry Potter Land and the website. He plans to go to Olivanders first to get his wand (with his own money) and has asked that we bring the special pencil (an eyeliner pencil) to draw his lightning bolt scar on his forehead (or two-head if you are Skadi).

It will be quite an adventure for the family!

Just another one of those things I may have said I would never do

Let this be a lesson for those of you without children (yet). Just stop now. Don't list off those things you won't ever do when you have kids. Don't even think about it. Because it will bite you in the butt.

I am quite positive that years ago before I had children I espoused something about what my husband and I intended to do for vacations with our kids. It went something like this... camping, National Parks, camping, culture of the big cities, National Parks. And there may have been statements that put the words "never" and "Disney" in the same sentence.

Positive.

My grandmother took my sister and me to Disneyland when I was an awkward 13 year old and my sister was almost 10. Not exactly the ages to haul kids to Disneyland... but it was a memorable trip. We walked around Disneyland for a day or two riding rides. I have never been a rides person - even at 13. I did enjoy Space Mountain, but "It's a Small World" was probably more my speed.

I had saved my money for months so that I could buy an actual Swatch since the real ones weren't available in Casper, Wyoming. But then I couldn't stomach the notion of spending that much money on something to put on my wrist and I instead spent my money on random little trinkets.

I remember fighting with my grandmother a lot. Her telling us how ungrateful we were. And we probably were. But wow, it wasn't the ideal trip to Disney.

I didn't have a trip to Disneyland until I was a preteen. AB didn't go until he was an older teenager. Our kids certainly don't need Disney to lead a well rounded life.

When a coworker of mine (before I had kids) made a trip to Disney, squeezing it in before her son started kindergarten with the express purpose of "I don't want him to go to kindergarten without having been to Disneyland" I nearly puked.

So all that said...

Guess where we are going in November?

You will never guess.

I will give you three guesses and the first two don't count.

Disneyworld.

And you know what? I am actually really excited to haul my 6 and 3.5 year old to the Magic Kingdom!

I happened to get an invitation to submit an abstract to one of the leading conferences in my field... in Orlando. I wanted to go last year but had commited to going to DC to meet with two clients instead. So I couldn't go. This year, no such commitment and when I read the word "Orlando", I knew I had to submit.

Then a week or so ago my acceptance came and I decided to get serious about planning.

And wow things can erupt quickly!

Initially I just planned to keep whatever hotel I ended up with through work and the rental car and we would go hang out wherever our whims took us.

Well things have kind of evolved over the last week and suddenly we are talking Disney hotel package and all.

Sigh.

Yes, I admit I balked at these fabricated destination vacations in favor of camping and national parks. But we have tent camped exactly three times since Leif was born. I am 38 years old and have slept on the ground in a sleeping bag way way way too much. A tent with my husband, two children and two dogs holds very nearly no appeal.

I am not dissing the natural vacations actually. I still love them and since we do hope to get back to these types of trips once we get a travel trailer later this fall or so.

But here is where I am kicking my pre-kids self... easy vacations with the goal of strictly entertainment for the kids?

Sign me up.