Disney Vacation Day 2. Saturday, In the park (Not Really)

Saturday was day 2 of our Disney World vacation. The plans were as follows:

1. Wake up early, eat breakfast, go to Disney Hollywood Studios
2. Go to the pool w/ Rene & family
3. Showers, downtown Disney, dinner
   

Line items 2 & 3 were pretty much fine, but line item 1, never had a chance. We slept in. We slept until 10:15. It was incredible. I used to sleep into the afternoon all the time. It was great. I slept my day away, but I stayed up all night. I don't bust your chops for missing the whole night, so don't bust my chops for missing the whole day! (sorry early 20s aggression still working it's way out.) 10:15 was the latest I've slept in years. I could go for that once a month.

We missed our window for Hollywood Studios, so we put on our swim gear, and headed to Picabu for breakfast. It's an overpriced cafeteria style 24 hour restaurant at the Dolphin hotel. The food is really good, just over priced. I had an excellent blueberry cheesecake 2 nights in a row.

After breakfast we headed over to the Beach Club. We got ID'ed and were granted pool access. It was better than awesome. I don't even know what word to use. There was sand like you were on a beach, but you were in a pool. There was sand on the bottom of the pool! What Disney Magic is this?? It was awesome. And if that wasn't enough, they had a pirate ship water slide! This thing really moved too. I bottomed out a few times, I had that much speed.

It was hot, so I decided Ben and I were going to get into the pool while Allison went to get us some drinks. We were splashing around, having fun, playing with sand, then at about the 15 minute mark, Ben started getting really upset. I tried all my tricks to make him smile and nothing worked. I needed reserves...MOM!!!

When Allison got him she immediately started laughing. She knew what the problem was. We never switched Ben from his regular diaper to his swimmy diaper. The diaper was so full that it looked like it was about to burst. No wonder he was so upset, he was getting squeezed like a push-pop. Sorry buddy!

I thought he was good to go. I didn't even think to check if he was wearing a swimmy or not. Well now I know for next time.



He wasn't hurt and it was hilarious. I swear the diaper weighed close to 10 pounds. After that we all splashed around in the pool and on the slide. I walked Ben around on the BoardWalk to get him to sleep, then as it got cloudy, we eventually to just head back to our rooms to get changed for dinner.

As I was about to jump in the shower we got a call from Rene. She needed to get a new supply of sun screen for the girls. I guess the one they had wasn't protecting them properly. So we planned to head out to WalMart. I hate Walmart, but they sell everything and it was off property so prices would be close to normal.

I picked them up and we were on our way. I don't know what it is about the people in Walmart, but clothes never work harder or scream louder anywhere else on Earth as they do in Walmart. There was some scary sights. We also saw a baby as red a tomato. That guy needed to buy sun screen for his kids too. I hope he did.

I dropped Rene off and called Allison I figured why take the bus when we can drive. I already have it out of the parking lot. She thought it would be nice to take the bus. Oh joy of joys! I was a little pissed, I hate waiting around for the bus, but it's no big deal, we're on vacation right?

I parked at the Beach Club and decided to walk back to the Dolphin. It was a hot day and a decent walk, so for safety reasons, and safety reasons alone, I purchased a Mickey Ice Cream Bar. You have to stay cool on those hot hot days! It was awesome. I really shouldn't have had it since I'm not supposed to have chocolate, but it really hit the spot.


We caught the bus and were on our way to meet up with Rene and her family again, this time at Downtown Disney. We got lucky and we were able to get a table for 8 at the Rain Forrest Cafe with no wait. Actually if we would have taken another 2 minutes to get to the restaurant they would have given our table away and the wait would have been 2 hours.

Ben and Rene's older daughter really loved the fish tanks. Ben was watching all the fish and was smiling, jumping and trying to touch the glass. Rene's daughter was in love with this one big silver fish. She named it Sara. I know I took pictures of this, but I can't find them. We'll have to go back and recreate them I guess.

We hit a few stores after dinner and then all hell broke lose. Ben got cranky, Rene's daughter fell asleep standing, it was going downhill quickly. We all headed our separate ways to get the kids to bed. As we were approaching the bus stop, we saw a bus pulling away. I'll give you one guess which hotel it was going to. That's right! The Dolphin. I said some choice words and tried to remain calm. My dinner didn't fill me, so I was hungry and cranky to begin with. This didn't help. I had my mad face on, but another bus came no more than 5 minutes later. Thank God for that. It could have gotten really ugly.

As soon as we got on the bus Ben perked right up and was happy again. We put him to bed and he went right to sleep.

Disney Vacation - The weekend in review (day 1)

Two weekends ago our good friend Rene (who we recently found out from her daughter is family) came down with her family to Disney World. Allison, Ben and I decided that meeting up with them was a great idea, so we booked a Disney World vacation too.

Rene and her family stayed at the Beach Club Villas. We aren't high rollers, so we had to search online for deals at other hotels. ; ) We found a great deal at the Dolphin, which ended up being perfect because the two hotels are walking distance from each other. But I'm getting ahead of myself here. Let's do this in order.

Friday started at Ben's survival swimming class. I talked a lot of trash leading up to the class. I was planning to jump into the pool and drop-kick the teacher like Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka if I didn't like what she was doing to Ben. That wasn't an issue. Ben was a champ. He cried a little bit, but every time she put him into the water, he kicked and spun until he was floating on his back. Good job little man! I was very proud of him. The teacher was really nice and I felt bad for ever wanting to drop kick her in the face.

Now we're off to Disney. Ben slept in the car during the 35 minute drive there. Our room was ready when we arrived, so we brought everything upstairs, unpacked and headed out to the Magic Kingdom, but not before they hit us for 2 tips. First the guys help you unload the car, then they hand you off to someone who brings the cart up to the room. I can already tell this is going to be an expensive weekend.

We took the bus to the Magic Kingdom then upgraded our "Give a day, get a day" passes to seasonal w/weekend passes. If you are looking for us, this fall & winter, check Disney World. If you really need us and we don't answer at the house or our cells, just call the main Disney World number and have us paged. Oh, also, if we don't answer at the house...don't steal our stuff. Thank you.

We called Rene and decided to meet in front of Cinderella's castle for a show. There was a cool dance party going on when we reached the end of Main Street. Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy and maybe even Chip and Dale were dancing in the streets, doing a conga line and just going crazy. At one point the MC started singing "the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire.." He stopped before the next verse, but I was really tempted to be "that guy" that sings the inappropriate lyrics.


We found Rene and her family. It was good to see them. Her little girls got so big and cuter too. Rene got me a "Happy Birthday" pin. It was pretty awesome until I sweat so much that my name wiped off the pin. Here is the pin and it's replacement. Yes, I do realize I'm a big baby. Thanks Rene for getting me those pins.

The show started. It was pretty cool. Ben was confused. He just looked around at everyone. It was cool watching him trying to figure out what was going on. Eventually he started smiling and wiggling, trying to reach out to touch other people and the characters on stage.

After the show the seven of us walked around the park for a bit. When it was time for lunch Rene and her family went back to the room to make sandwiches. We spent over 20 bucks in the park. In hindsight, after getting our credit card bill, sandwiches may have been the better way to go.

Once we finished lunch, Allison took Ben on his first ride, Dumbo. I must have looked like a big dumbo running around with the camera and video camera trying to capture it. He didn't have too much of a reaction, but I think he was just too hot and tired to care.

After cooling off and a nap(for Ben), we hit the carousel. Ben LOVED the carousel. He was all smiles and screeches. After the ride ended, Allison said "I'm not getting off" I made an inappropriate but hilarious "that's what she said" joke and started testing out other horses so I could capture some good action shots on the next go around. I took video and 36 pictures. I say that's just being a dad. I was told that was definitely not regular dad activity. Either way, sorry Charlie. You're stuck with me and my overactive trigger finger.

We hit It's a Small World and Winnie the Pooh next. We were lucky. It poured both times we were on those rides. We stayed dry, but the cold rain really would have helped cool us off. We played around in the Pooh store and ate ice cream until the storm was over. Ben enjoyed both rides.

We met up with Rene and her family again and we used fast pass to go on Splash Mountain. The girls didn't want to get splashed, so I got to go on with Rene's husband and oldest daughter (4 3/4 years old.) She was excited. I can't remember everything she said, but she's a really funny girl. She comes up with some hilarious lines.

I always forget how long Splash Mountain is once you get inside the mountain. It was awesome watching her as we went down. I was partly watching her to see her reaction, but mostly watching her to make sure she was OK. I think of her as my niece. She was born exactly one week before my real niece. I worked and lunched with Rene all through her pregnancy. So I feel really close to them. (There's also a story about Rene trying to convince me to make a move on Allison that I'll tell you another time.) She loved the ride and asked to do it again. Look for us. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

We couldn't ride it again because we had to get a good spot for SpectroMagic and Wishes. We found a spot by about 8:25 for a 9:00 parade. Next time I think we should start looking for a spot by 8:00, it was a mad house. I thought we were going to get into a fight with the 2 crotchety old hags standing in front of us. Nothing went down, but there were lots of dirty looks between her party and our party.

The parade was cool but again, Ben didn't quite get what was going on. He did enjoy it towards the end, but mostly he was just looking around like "what the hecks going on? this isn't my bed. It's nighty-night time guys"

It was fun watching Rene's oldest daughter. She loved it. She said afterward "I waved to Minnie, but she didn't wave back. She signed my book earlier" I said "I'm sure she remembered you, but she had to wave to other kids who's books she didn't get to sign." She replied "yeah, that's right. she had to wave to the other kids. that's probably why." It was really cute. I think her youngest daughter fell asleep.

Another 30 minute wait and it's time for Wishes. We love Wishes. It's our favorite thing at Disney World. If you don't know what Wishes is, it's a fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom and it's worth the price of admission. I was worried that it would be too loud for Ben and he would cry, but he was fine. He actually watched a lot of the fireworks. We killed some time after Wishes ended, then decided to catch the bus back to the hotel. We all had tired kids and we were very disgusting from our day at the sauna, I mean park.

Stay tuned for the breakdown of Saturday and Sunday of our Disney World vacation. I don't think the posts will be a mega post like this, but I really didn't intend for this to be a mega post, so who knows what you'll get.