Low-lights:
• After day 1 in the parks, we were attempting to get on the monorail to go back to our car after a long morning in Epcot, and afternoon at the hotel pool, and late afternoon/evening in the Magic Kingdom. Not sure what happened, but my mom tripped and landed on her knee. she was pretty banged up, and couldn't stand on it, so I rode in the ambulance with her to the ER, where they did an x-ray & determined she had broken her kneecap, and it would require surgery. She decided the best thing to do would be head home, so we bought her a plane ticket on my phone, and she left the next morning & had to miss the rest of the trip. She had surgery scheduled this past Thursday. Talk about a big fat bummer.
• Two of our favorite rides were closed – Test Track and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Liam would have been tall enough for both rides on this trip. Maybe next time.
• Rain in Nassau. I would have rather had perfect sunny weather for our dolphin experience, but instead it started off gray & gloomy, & by the end it was pouring on us. We were in the water, so we were already wet, but it just wasn’t what we had hoped for in terms of the weather.
• On the last night of our cruise Liam decided he wanted to ride the AquaDuck – the water slide going around the top deck of the ship. He was all ready to go, only to find out that he was less than ¼” too short to ride. It was so sad, because we had gotten him all pumped up about it too.
• The lady on etsy who took my order for 5 custom-made Mickey t-shirts (over $110 worth), and then shut her shop down before sending them. The money is gone, because by the time I realized what had happened, it was past paypal’s time limit to file claims, and etsy can’t help because the shop is already closed. The silver lining to this is our friend Lindsey who offered to make the boys new shirts at no charge at the last minute (we just had to buy the shirts). It didn’t get our money back, but at least the boys all had cute shirts to wear – such a nice thing for her to do for us.
Highlights:
• On the day we arrived, we had a dinner reservation at T-Rex in Downtown Disney. What a cool place! I loved this restaurant.
• The crowds weren’t nearly as bad as I thought they would be. I mean, we hoped they wouldn’t be bad, since we were there before Memorial Day, but I think they were even a little better than I had thought they would be.
• Getting to see lots of different animals on the Kilimanjaro Safari in Animal Kingdom. On our last trip, we rode that first, and it seemed like most of the animals were still sleeping – we didn’t see much of anything. But we decided to ride Expedition Everest first this time, and then go back to the safari, and we saw just about everything they have there. It was so fun!
• Liam riding the Tower of Terror (or, Tower of Excitement, as we called it, so as not to freak him out before getting on the ride). I’ll be the first to admit that’s a pretty scary ride. It’s not my favorite, but I go on it every time we’re there. Liam rode it like a champ, and didn’t even cry!
• Discovering that Zachary was tall enough for the Rockin’ Roller Coaster – he was apprehensive about riding it at first, but later said that it was his favorite ride.
• Watching Zachary participate in the Jedi Training Academy again. He did it on our last trip when he was 4.5, and I had hoped that Liam & Jacob would do it with him this time, but nobody else wanted to do it. It is really cute – if you ever go & have a little Star Wars fan, I highly recommend this.
• Breakfast at Chef Mickey’s on the day we left for the cruise. Chef Mickey’s is just awesome anyway, but when we checked in, they asked if we were celebrating anything. Jacob had just had his birthday, and Zachary’s was a week away, so we told them 2 birthdays. Towards the end of our meal, they came out with 2 birthday cupcakes. I loved that they served cupcakes at breakfast (they also had frosted brownies on the buffet too, so cupcakes shouldn’t have surprised me).
• As we boarded the cruise ship, a crew member asked me what our family’s name is. I said “Cahill”, and then through the microphone they said, “The Disney Dream would like to announce the arrival of the Cahill family!” It was so cute! We haven’t been announced since our wedding reception!
• The Disney Dream ship was amazing. Everything was perfect – from the cabins to the crew to the entertainment (movies on a big screen by the pool all the time!), to the fireworks, to the way everyone called the boys “captain” when they would walk around wearing the captains hats they picked out from the gift shop, to the birthday celebration they had for Jacob, Josh, and Zachary…it was all fabulous.
• The dolphin experience at Atlantis – despite the rain, it was still an amazing experience! We got to kiss a dolphin!! Well, some of us did. Zachary refused to kiss it because he didn’t want fishy breath (I mean, it was a peck on the nose, not a full-on make-out session!). And Liam really didn’t want anything to do with the whole thing. The water was cold, which he didn’t like, and I think he was scared of the dolphin. I had to go up with him, and he wouldn’t touch it – not even on its back. But it was still way cool to be that close to one, and have it splash water in your face, and just have a fun time with it.
• The weather – other than our rainy day in Nassau, we had beautiful sunny weather the whole time. Don’t get me wrong – it was hot, and I was sweating in places that I had never sweated before, but I’ll take sunny & sweaty over rainy any day.
We also did a few things differently this time from our last trip that worked out really well.
• Instead of taking our own stroller (which occupied lots of space in the car), we rented a City Elite double baby jogger from Orlando Stroller Rentals. Even though Zachary was almost 7, we knew there would be a lot of walking on this trip, and having a stroller would be a smart idea. Boy was it. The stroller was less expensive than renting in the parks (plus we got to bring it back with us each day, instead of leaving it at the park entrance). The stroller was also WAY more comfortable than what they rent there. And it was delivered to our hotel on the day we arrived, and picked back up at the hotel on the day we left – couldn’t have been any easier!
• On our last trip, we still tried to go back to the room for mid-day naps (the boys were 4.5 & almost 2). Naps were a major failure, so I assumed we would just skip them this time. We did skip forced naps, but since we were there in warm weather this time, we decided to take a mid-day pool break instead. It was a nice way to cool off, and a nice way to let the kids burn some energy off.
• Quick Service Meal Plan. We had never done a meal plan before, because we’re not the kind of people who want to waste a lot of time eating lots of sit down meals at Disney. Those things take time, and for us, that’s time away from rides. But we discovered the Quick Service Plan, which was perfect for us. I could have done without the dessert twice a day, but it was nice having the majority of our meals pre-paid.
• Phone # bracelets. I found some non-girly phone # bracelets on etsy a while back, and decided to get one for each of the boys. I was less concerned about Zachary needing it – he’s not one to just dart off like Liam is. But I got one for both of them just so Liam wouldn’t have a weird reaction to it. We trained them that if they got separated from us, they were to find a Disney worker with a name tag, and ask them to call the number on the bracelet (my cell phone). If they couldn’t find a Disney worker or a police officer, then we told them to find a mommy with kids. On our last morning before the cruise, we were in Hollywood Studios. We were waiting in line for the Disney Junior show (trying to beat the heat for a bit). Josh had gone to get Fast Passes for the Rockin’ Roller Coaster, when I realized Zachary wasn’t with us. I called Josh to see if Zachary had gone with him – he hadn’t. I started to panic. Josh’s brother Ryan hopped out of line, and shortly returned with a teary-eyed Zachary. Apparently as the line started to move, Zachary just wasn’t paying attention – we moved through the line, and he didn’t realize it, and we didn’t realize he wasn’t with us. When Ryan found him, he was with a Disney cast member, showing her his bracelet. I’m so proud that he remembered what to do! They weren’t that expensive, but I’m glad I got them & made them wear them every day.
All-in-all it was a great trip! I love Disneyworld, and can’t wait for our next trip, whenever that will be!
(I sincerely apologize for the amount of pictures in this post - I really did try to limit it to what I thought were the very best pictures, and somehow it still came out to be a lot!)
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