Our Magical Birthday Tradition - Pt 2

[IloveJack]

*We've taken each of our kids to the World for their first birthday. This trip was for our DS' first, but we celebrated 4 birthdays during the week; June 1-8.*

Cast of Characters
Me, Susan, 33, 9th trip
DH, David, turning 29, 7th trip
ODD, Sammie, 5, 5th trip
YDD, Lily, turning 3, 3rd trip
DS, Joey, turning 1, 2nd trip
My Mom, Connie, turning 63, 3rd trip
My Dad, Sam, 66, 3rd trip

Day 2: MK and DTD

After a crazy arrival day, and a late night, I was still raring to go when the alarm went off at 6am. I got up and headed to the comfort station for a shower. I'd made the comment yesterday that "having grown up using Boy Scout bath houses (I come from a Scouting family, and met my husband that way), I felt like I was at the Ritz Carlton." The comfort stations are so nice! Between them and the non-crowded transportation we'd already experienced, I was already sold on staying there again.
I wanted to be on our way by 6:30, as we had ADRs at 'Ohana at 7:30, but it was actually 7am before I could convince everyone else to get up and get dressed. In fact, I thought I was going to have to dress my YDD asleep. The only one ready to face the day was DS, but he's always an early riser.
Last night, there'd been an MK wheelchair left at the bus stop at the Settlement, with no one around. As my mom is disabled, we'd used it to push her to the marina and back. We left it there, and it was waiting for us this morning. We used it again to push her back. She can walk, but not long distances, and she can't stand for long at all, so it really helped.
We caught a boat rather quickly, and took it to the Contemporary (our only option that early in the morning), and then had to walk inside and catch the monorail. Due to Mom not being able to walk fast, and our late start, we arrived 20 minutes late for our ADR. They didn't seem to bat an eye, though, and our buzzer was going off for our table before we could even get finished with our picture.
We always do a character breakfast on each kid's first birthday. We'd done 1900 Park Fair for ODD, the castle for YDD, and I was torn between here and Crystal Palace for DS's day. DH requested 'Ohana, specifically for the "Stitch juice," of which he drank at least 6 glasses. Of course, we all drank more than one glass ourselves. The food was great, and the adults all went back for seconds, while the DDs gobbled up all the fruit they could get.
I'd made the DDs autograph books from photo albums that I got at the Dollar Tree. They had holographic Minnie Mouses on them, and allowed for 19 autographs and the corresponding pictures. They loved getting the characters' signatures, something we've never done before. ODD had begged to be able to do it, after noticing the older kids doing it on our December trip. YDD was just doing whatever her sister did, as usual.
I'd also bought a Mickey Mouse "turning 1" birthday card for DS (another tradition of ours), and got all the characters to sign it as well. By the end of our 2 days in the parks, it was covered! I like it, though, because it alerted the characters to the fact that it's his birthday, even if he wasn't wearing the button.
We had great character interaction, which I was happy about. I'd just about sworn off character meals, as they're expensive, and the characters seem to be in a hurry often. But this meal was tradition, and I'm glad we did it. The kids got to meet Mickey, Pluto, Stitch, and Lilo. Pluto "ate" DS' head, which made for a great picture!
We took the kids into the bathroom at the Poly to change their outfits. I'd known since we saw Frozen that the girls would want their dresses, and they're a perfect fit. ODD has white-blonde hair and YDD has light brown/dark blonde hair, so they make a perfect Elsa and Anna. Of course, DS is a good Olaf, too. Well, of course, there are no dresses to be found, and I wasn't about to pay what they're going for on eBay, so since my mother is a great seamstress, and I'm pretty good at drawing, we made our own pattern, and made their dresses. For $50, they have ball gown-quality dresses that won't tear up quickly (that doesn't mean they're going to get to play in them until after ODD's birthday and Halloween, though!). DS got a white onesie with black crocheted buttons, and a crocheted beanie-type hat that looked like Olaf.
We took the monorail to the MK, already getting tons of compliments about how good the girls looked. On the way, we made plans to take Dad's backpack and go through the bag check, so that they would get to the scooter rental line quicker. Well, since I've done this enough times, we skipped the 20-people long lines at the bottom of the hill and walked right up to a waiting empty line at the top, scooting right on through. My parents were quite surprised to see us walk right in behind them.
It had taken a lot of manipulation to find 5 FPs for the Frozen girls, and none of them had the same time, so we had a small window where we could all enter at the same time. As soon as that scooter arrived, we were off to the races (not running, literally!) to make our time. We walked right in, waited at the rope for less than 5 minutes, and were ushered in to see Anna and Elsa. They loved our girls! I'm sure they see TONS of dressed up little girls every day, but they made over ours like they WERE little Anna and Elsa. And they loved seeing DS as Olaf. Elsa taught ODD to "make ice," and Anna played with the white streak in YDD's hair (a Build-a-Bear My Little Pony extension). Anna held DS, even though I know she isn't supposed to.
ODD loved seeing Aurora, also. And just had to tell her how much she liked her tiara. She asked her if the fairies would make her a tiara, as well.
After all the rushing around, we needed a potty break, but I wanted a PP pic before the kids got changed, so we found the Fairy Godmother PP CM and asked him to take a pic of us in front of the fountain. Then my dad, who, remember wouldn't leave my side last night, took off to find a restroom without having a clue where he was going. We had to chase him down and then steer him into NFL.
I got the kids' clothes changed, not wanting to ruin their dresses, and put them in matching Minnie dresses and a Mickey outfit. I love when they match for the pictures!
We found a cellphone lying on the bench, and I asked around if anyone recognized it. No one did, and no one was doing anything with it, so I picked it up, planning to give it to a CM. Then I thought, I ought to just try calling someone on it. "Mom" was the best contact I could come up with, so I called her, explaining that I just wanted someone to know I'd found the phone. Turns out, it was a kid's phone, and "Mom" was just around the corner in FL, so she came back to get her phone. Whoopsie!
We made plans to split up after that, as DH, ODD, and I had FPs for BTMRR, and I didn't want the rest of them sitting around bored. I knew my parents liked the train, and that it was something they could ride with the two younger kids. So we all headed to FL. It made me feel like a first time visitor, but I had to ask a CM where the FL train station is, because we so rarely ride it, and even then, only get on at the Main St station. It took a bit of finagling, but we got them on the train, then we headed for our ride.
We tried to use my parents' FPs here, so that we could ride twice, but they said that we'd already been on the ride (even though their magic bands hadn't been), so we just used a rider switch to ride again. I know it's technically working the system, but since they weren't using the FPs, I didn't feel bad about it. The CMs couldn't explain it either.
YDD was begging to ride Splash, as it's her second favorite, but I'd given those FPs up for 7DMT, and I didn't want to wait in that line. Lo and behold, the ride was shut down anyhow, and they were unloading guests from the boats in the water.
I wanted to ride something all together, so we headed to Haunted Mansion. In December, we never experienced long lines, and all the hoopla about FP+ causing longer lines was lost on me, but we experienced some unusually long lines on this trip, with smaller crowds than in December, so maybe there is something to it. This line was listed as 30 minutes, which was fine, as we had 40 to make it to our BoG FP lunch. Well, 30 minutes quickly turned into an hour, and with 3 stops on the the ride, we were 10 minutes late arriving to lunch, and that was with me running ahead to check us in.
(continued below)

[IloveJack]

Everyone enjoyed lunch here (again, to whomever originally posted the "cheat" for getting lunch FPs here, I applaud you, it's worked for us twice, and I've never gotten the email invite). ODD even allowed us to sit in the West Wing, although she's afraid of thunder and begged not to in December. DH had the roast beef sandwich, I had the carved turkey, and the DDs split the kid's turkey. DS had their peach applesauce and many of my fries. My parents each had the roast beef sandwich, as well. And we took full advantage of the free refills.
We barely made it to 7DMT in our FP time, since we'd been late to lunch. ODD loved this! DH and I commented on how smooth it is. It's short, very short, but such a nice ride.
It was 2:35 and we'd done very little compared to our normal trips, plus this would be our only day at the MK, yet the other 3 adults were already telling me it was time to return for a nap. I knew, logically, that the only way we'd make it to midnight closing was to get the kids a real nap, but I hated the thought of leaving the park, having only done 3 rides and a character experience. I let them talk me into it, on one condition, that we didn't leave till after the parade. I'd watched the YouTube videos, and I wasn't missing it.
Since Mom was in a scooter, we parked her by the Olde Christmas Shoppe in the handicap parking, left the stroller and a sleeping DS with my parents, and took the DDs to see Tiana. We'd missed her in December, and they weren't happy about it, so since we had 20 minutes to blow, we took advantage of it. We were told we might not get to see her, as there was a line, and she had to get ready for the parade, but we made it. We were actually next-to-last in line. The character "handler" flirted with DH a lot (hehe!), and he scored some stickers for the DDs' autograph books for them to find later.
The parade was AWESOME! I got a great picture of Maleficent breathing fire right above us, using my phone, and videoed the rest on my camera. I'm so glad we stuck around! By the time we'd gotten back to my parents, there was a large crowd around our spot, so I sat in the stroller with the DDs on my lap, Mom held DS, and Dad and DH stood behind us. It worked out well, and we didn't jump in front of any of the people who'd shown up while we were gone.
On the way out of the park, DH stopped in the jewelry store to look for the watch. Mom had given him his birthday card money early (her annual gift to us adults), so that he could pay for half of it, and I told him he could get the rest as a gift from me. The CM in the shop told him that he was "lucky to have seen the one in DTD, as it was being clearanced out, and it was probably the last one on property." Well, that didn't sit well with DH, as he'd been dreaming about this watch since December, so we made plans to get the kids down for a nap, leave them with my parents, and head to DTD.
As luck would have it, DS was still asleep, and stayed that way until we got back to FW, so our afternoon "date" turned into a threesome.
We always give our kids a gift on their actual birthday, so I'd brought a gift bag and I wrapped up the Mike ball to give DS. We let him open it when we returned to the tents, as I knew he'd be asleep when we got back from the MK that night (and technically, it wouldn't be his birthday anymore). He loved it! He grinned from ear to ear when he saw the ball, and he played toss with DH until I could get the DDs to fall asleep.
Dad set up his hammock beside our site (we didn't have neighbors), and was soon asleep. We put the DDs in the floor of my parents' tent to nap, so that my mom could also get a nap and they wouldn't be alone. It still took about 30 minutes before we were able to leave.
We caught a bus and headed to DTD, enjoying it just being us and a baby, for the first time in 5 years (at WDW, at least). We headed straight to WoD, and DH asked for the watch, while I looked at charms. Our DDs were given charm bracelets a year ago, and we've been adding charms on each trip, so I knew I wanted to get them something. I settled on initials, and two "disk" charms: a Minnie Mouse for YDD (her favorite), and a Sleeping Beauty tiara for ODD to commemorate this trip.
DH got the watch and had a link removed. The CM told him he'd gotten the next-to-last one, so he was quite happy to own it. I still wanted to get something for myself that I could use daily (my favorite kind of souvenir), so I got the backpack that was the special offer (buy $50, get this for $20). I can use it for a diaper bag, as I don't carry a purse anymore, just stick it all in a big bag, and carry one bag.
Then we wandered over to the pin shop, as I wanted a FW pin to add to our "resorts we've stayed at" collection. There wasn't much option, but I like the one we chose. We also went to Days of Christmas, as we always buy an ornament to commemorate our trips, but I found absolutely nothing that would make me remember this trip specifically, and I didn't want to buy an ornament just because, so we headed on back.
We walked up to the bus stop as our bus was leaving, which was a bad mistake. I wish we'd ran. It took 20 minutes for another bus to arrive, and we got a mean driver. He even stopped the bus to tell me to hold DS, because he couldn't see my arm behind him, and thought I was just letting him stand in the seat by himself. He fussed at people and was very, not Disney. Even though we were late already, I was glad when he took the time to stop and switch drivers on the way back.
I'd told my parents to be ready to go at 7:30, but it was 8pm when we returned. By this point, I was really getting agitated. We'd done 4 things at the MK all day, and by the time we got back, it'd be almost closing! To add to my urgency, the boat took forever to arrive at the dock, and it was 9pm before we entered the park.
The MSEP was going on, and my parents didn't watch us go to the left of Main St, and when they started trying to go to the right, they were ushered all the way into Tomorrowland. We were in Adventureland, wanting to ride Pirates (we couldn't leave without it!), so I had to call and direct them back, even though they knew none of the landmarks that I attempted to use. By then, it was 9:30. The park closed a midnight.
After getting off Pirates (man! are those boats thin!), we decided the best plan of attack would be to split up. ODD was nearly in tears at the thought of not riding Splash, and my parents were chomping at the bit to eat dinner. So DH took ODD to Splash, and I took everyone else to Pecos Bills. We were still eating when they got off the ride (DH said that the water was still off when they walked by, but they asked a CM, and were told they were turning the ride back on right then!). I got the angus burger and corn for myself, the BBQ sandwich with fries for DH, and made a salad from the bar for the DDs. They messed our order up somehow, so it took twice as long to arrive. Due to that, we got a free order of onion rings, so I gave my corn to the DDs and ate the onion rings. My parents both got taco salads. None of us finished our meal.
We'd eaten during the fireworks, and it was like a mass exodus afterward. The park emptied out, much to our favor. In the next 1.5 hours, we did more than we'd done all day, finishing the day out in our normal commando-style.
We split up, and DH, ODD, and I rode 7DMT twice in a row, barely waiting between, while Mom and YDD rode the carousel. Dad wasn't feeling well, so he sat with a sleeping DS on the side. Then we raced to the Tea Party, and DH and the DDS rode in a cup, spinning along, while Mom and I rode in another cup, never spinning (the only way she can ride).
After that, we noticed that we had about 20 minutes left, and I really wanted to do Buzz. But I knew that there was no line for anything, so I sent DH and ODD to Barnstormer, which she really likes, and I took YDD to Dumbo, which she really likes. We met back up and walked straight to Buzz... only to find out it was broken down. The CM said it "might" be fixed in about 10 minutes, but I wanted some family PP pics, and we were told that the last boat back to FW left at 12:30, so we chose not to wait.
DH and I got our traditional PP pic in the rose garden, by ourselves, then the entire family got a pic in front of the castle and then turned around and got one in front of Main St.
Mom and Dad went to turn in the scooter, and DH went to the Emporium to look for a sunglasses holder, leaving the kids and me standing, literally, in the middle of the street. So being the "pictures are my favorite souvenir" person that I am, I found a PP CM, and got a few different pics of the kids.
We took the boat back to Fort Wilderness, and got into bed at 1:30am. The alarm was set for 7am.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

Wow! What a long day! I'm so glad that you found the watch.

[yjgirl32]

Wow got a lot done at end of the evening. Sounds like fun. Thanks for sharing

[faline]

Wow! What a long day! Sounds like the evening hours helped make up for the rides you didn't get in earlier in the day!!

[princessgirls]

You had an all out kind of day!!!

I love it!!! Thanks for sharing!
Julie

[2MuchWDFun]

What a fantastic day! Thanks for sharing...living vicariously through your trip report!

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

That's a long day

[hauntedmansiongirl]

You are a brave family! I admire your spunk!!

[emerzmom]

What a day! I always get a little anxious the first day trying to get in as much as possible. It sounds like you did your best!
I have many of the same traditions as you as far as buying certain things on trips. I always try to buy something I can use regularly and the Christmas ornament are a must! Sorry you did not find one. They have become rather pricey!
Looking forward to reading more...

Julie

[KylesMom]

Wow - what a day!!!! From the start (character meal) to bedtime at 1:30 am, you sure packed a lot in!

I am so happy to read that at the end of the day you were able to do many of the things at MK that it looked like would be a miss.It's funny how we tell ourselves that we aren't going to be upset if we miss this or that, and yet the disappointment would be there if we couldn't do the things we so love to do while there with our children! It sounds like all of the kids had a wonderful day. I bet you weren't prone long before sleep came! And I wish you good luck now in getting everyone up at 7:30

BTW, on behalf of all other moms, thanks for calling that cell phone and getting it back to that family. That was very kind of you, Susan!

[BriarRose0708]

Really enjoying all the details about your day, and you did a lot! Those dresses for your girls sound beautiful.

I also want to make autograph books for the kids, it's much cheaper and I think they look better than the ones you get at Disney. You mentioned you used photo albums from the dollar store. Did you make the pages from cardstock to put in the film photo holders? I'm trying to visualize how to do it.

[IloveJack]

I also want to make autograph books for the kids, it's much cheaper and I think they look better than the ones you get at Disney. You mentioned you used photo albums from the dollar store. Did you make the pages from cardstock to put in the film photo holders? I'm trying to visualize how to do it.

I bought the little "cheap" albums that hold 40 4x6 pictures. Then I bought a pack of unlined 4x6 index cards and a pack of Sharpies. I put an index card in every other slot, leaving the other side open for a picture (after the trip). We just pulled out the next card at each character and then slid it back in after they signed it.