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Trip Report - Kyle's 8th Birthday Trip....aka.....any excuse Mommy can think of to take us to Disney!!!
Cast: DH-Joe, Kyle (7) and myself-Annette
October 29th:
Our flight doesn't leave Chicago until 8:20PM, so naturally the day seems to drag by at work. The time finally comes and our limo arrives
at 5:00PM, we get to the airport, have dinner, board our almost empty plane and we are finally off to Orlando. The flight is great, we land,
get our luggage, Joe gets the rental car from Dollar Car Rental and we are off to the Boardwalk.
We arrive at the Boardwalk and check-in at 1:15AM. The computers are down for the night, so the CM just hands us our room key and paperwork
and we are off to our room. I had booked a standard room, but we were pleasantly surprised to find we had an excellent upgrade to a
courtyard/boardwalk/waterview room on the third floor. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we could hear noise from the Boardwalk area, but all
in all it was an great room as far as location, people watching, etc.
Off to bed............
October 30th:
Ok, first I have a "confession" to make. I broke the #1 rule when going to Disney. I didn't wear my tried and true broken in shoes and boy oh
boy did I pay for it the rest of the week!!! I have a favorite pair of Sketchers brand "tennis shoe" that I just love, but they were looking
kind of tired and worn. Sooo, I went out and bought a new pair figuring that they would be just fine. They weren't! Trust me, I learned my
lesson the hard way...... Ok, back to the trip report.
We had a PS for the Princess Storybook breakfast in Norway. We left the Boardwalk and walked to Norway. There was a CM standing at the bridge
by Mexico who was checking a list for your last name. He found our name and soon we were seated for breakfast. At our table was a plate of
muffins and fruit and then our server brought out a skillet with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and a hashbrown casserole. The food was
good, but not great, but then we aren't big breakfast eaters. We were visited by Snow White, Belle, Mary Poppins, and Princess Aurora. When
we checked in for our PS, I mentioned that we were celebrating Kyle's birthday. During breakfast our server brought Kyle a sugar cookie,
three different colors of chocolate "paint" and a small paintbrush to decorate the cookie. Kyle had fun painting his cookie! Total cost for
two adults and one child for breakfast.....$62.97.
After breakfast Kyle explored the Viking ship and then I hobbled over to the first aid station for band aids, the blisters on my heels were
huge! Did I mention that I learned my lesson?! LOL....
We took the monorail to the MK to get Kyle and Joe's hair cut at the barbershop. On the way into the MK it looked like it was going to
rain. We got a birthday button for Kyle and then headed for the barbershop. There were five people in line before us, but we decided to
wait because I had been telling Kyle he could "dye" his hair. He has a mohawk, so this was very intriguing to him! While we were waiting it
began to rain and then it poured for a short time. Thankfully, we were inside getting haircuts at the time so we missed it! By the time the
haircuts were done, the sun had come back out. Kyle had red coloring put on his mohawk and was sprinkled with lots of pixie dust. While we
were there, the CM (Bobbie) who cut Kyle's hair was presented with an award. She had turned in some money she found (it was left in a bank
bag by accident). Bobbie was given a certificate and had her picture taken. It was really kind of neat to see this kind of thing happen.
After the haircuts we went back to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival. We started out in Mexico and Joe & I decided we were going to try at
least one thing at each booth, even if everything looked yucky....LOL. We made it as far as Italy, then I had to stop because we had a PS at
'OHana that night. We did try alot of different foods. Quesadillas in Mexico, Boxty with corned beef in Ireland, Gravlax in Scandinavia,
Chicken Sha Sha in China, Polish Kielbasa in Poland, Spiced Chicken in South Africa, Seared Scallops in Spain, Ribs in Germany and Rigatoni and
Pizza in Italy. I wish we could have tried more, but we were running out of time.
We went back to the hotel and drove to the Poly for our PS at 'OHana. The food is just as good as Maggie says it is! Our first course was a
tray with salad, veggies, ribs. The second course is meat on long skewers. We had turkey, pork, and shrimp. Dessert was pineapple with
caramel dipping sauce....Yum! During dinner the kids could participate in a hula hoop contest and
coconut races. Total cost for two adults and one child for dinner...$71.45.
After dinner we drove to Fort Wilderness for the Haunted Hayride. We had so much fun! First you buy your ticket ($8.00 each) and then when
your appointed ride time is up, you board a wagon. "Mr. Crane" then gets on the wagon with you and tells you the story of the Headless
Horseman while riding through the dark trees. The Headless Horseman makes a startling appearance....the rest you'll have to find out for
yourself when you take the ride next year...... ;-)
After the hayride, it was back to the Boardwalk and off to bed.
October 31st - Happy 8th Birthday Kyle & Happy Halloween!
Today begins with whining from both Kyle & Joe. I had planned on going to AK because we needed a half-park day. The plan was to do breakfast
at Donald's Breakfastasaurous, AK for a few hours, back to the hotel for the Halloween party there, Kyle's birthday dinner at Flying Fish Cafe
and then MNSSHP. Neither of they guys wanted to go to AK because they both deemed it *boring*.....boy were they about to change their minds!
We got ready, drove to AK and made our way to Donald's for breakfast. When we got to the podium to check in, the CM gave me a slip of paper to
hand to our server and I noticed that Kyle's birthday was written on it. We were seated and then went to the buffet. There were scrambled
eggs, bacon, sausage, breakfast pizza, hash browns, cereal, bagels, etc. While we were eating Mickey, Donald and Pluto came to say hello
and take pictures. Pluto knew it was Kyle's birthday, so he took a napkin and drew Kyle a birthday card with a crayon! A few minutes later
our server came by with a few other CM's who sang Happy Birthday and presented Kyle with a card signed by the characters and a cupcake.
Then.....another CM came to our table and said, "The characters would like me to ask you a question....how would you like to help out by being
Grand Marshall's in Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade today?" WOW.....would we ever....a chance of a lifetime!!! CM - Laura told us
to meet her at 3:30 by the entrance to the Safari. She also told us there would be other families in the parade too. We wouldn't be leaving
the park early now, but that was ok with us!
After finishing breakfast we then went to Dinoland to check out Primeval Whirl. Kyle declared it "Way Cool", so we rode again. When we came
back from the second ride to get off, the CM saw the birthday button and asked if he wanted to ride again without getting off. Sure we did! We
did a few of the midway type games and then went to see Festival of the Lion King. If you haven't seen it, I put it in the "must see" file.
Definitely a great show. We also did ITTBAB, Exploration Trail and The Boneyard.
By now it was almost 3:30PM, so we went to the place where Laura had told us to meet her. The other Grand Marshall's were a family of four,
a newlywed couple and another couple. We were then given our instructions and then taken backstage one group at a time. Once
backstage we were all given vests, hats and earplugs to wear. Why earplugs? Because the music from the floats are really, really loud!
We then boarded our float and off we went down the parade route. CM - Laura was standing at the gate when we came out, she took our picture
with a disposable camera, handed it to us and we were free to do whatever we wanted with it. The parade itself was awesome to say the
least. At first the three of us were at bit "shy" because you come out of the gate and *everybody* is staring at you! Once we got going, we
were waving and *everybody* was waving back at us..... I must say the best part was waving to the small/young children along the route. The
look on their faces was priceless when we would make eye contact and wave to them. Their faces just lit up with excitement because somebody
in the parade was waving at just *them*....those memories will stay with us for a lifetime.....just pure Disney magic....
Part One, Part Two
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