The planning for this trip had been a very different one since - if you have ever seen an infant you know - babies don't like to let you get settled. I am very much a Type A, planner sort, and my girls were about a month early and somewhat small (although not really 
) so we were on a schedule from the start. Again, if you've ever been around an infant you know that a "schedule" means a routine that lasts a week or two, until baby (or babies as the case may be) change things up on you. I'm proud to say that ours doesn't throw us too far off course usually, but that's at home. Familiar rooms, familiar cribs, naptimes and feeding routines, etc. That's not at WDW.For this trip, I had "planned" to come back to the room for one chunk of time each day. It is utterly unrealistic to plan to come back for all of our scheduled "nap times", but I also refuse to be that family in the park that has pushed their boundaries day after day. It just won't work like that for us, and I know it!
Still, planning a trip that includes children I'd never even technically met proved to be a bit hard, and didn't really get much easier until a few weeks before we left. Heck, I couldn't even begin to fathom what size clothing to buy, because every time I'd make a conservative guess I'd get farther and farther off. My 9 month olds, while not all that small to me, fit perfectly in 3-6 month clothing. Who'd have thought?! They are on regular growth charts and everything, but must just carry their weight well. If only the same were true for their mother......
At 3:30am every day, I'm awake. This is one of many times throughout each night that I am, but I obviously don't get up for the day most of the time. When the alarm is set to go off at 4 though, as the case was on our departure day, I obviously was not going back to sleep. I woke Zach up and we started getting ready to head out. We were finally getting back to WDW!
At about 4:40am, we got the girls up. We changed diapers and assumed they would fall back to sleep in the car, but they were wide awake. Is it possible they were "Too excited to sleep!" at 8 months old?! Did I have some Disney junkies on my hands already?!
I'm sure not, but the fact remains that they babbled and laughed and played the entire way to the Dayton airport. This would become an issue later ..
At about exit 43 (which means absolutely nothing to any of you, except that it's on the way to the airport), I looked at Zach as When You Wish Upon a Star was playing (the Jesse McCartney version off of one of the Disneymania CDs) and said "Zach, we are taking OUR CHILDREN to Walt Disney World. Can you believe it?" To which he replied something like, "I know... it's pretty cool. We always used to talk about it, and it's here!". (Seriously, probably the most emotion he's shown ever, to date. Including during our wedding and the birth of our girls. Probably close to the last I'll ever see too, I'm sure
). It really was special though, and something we had dreamt about for quite some time!Speaking of the aforementioned song, I had made a CD for the drive. I was bored out of my mind the day before travel day!
I had tried to time it perfectly with the drive and parking, including - but not limited to - a variety of Disney soundtrack songs, park music and non-Disney stuff that was applicable, a variety of song styles (considering I got reprimanded for blaring upbeat Disney stuff "too early" on the last drive 
), etc. I put a lot of work into it, and then we decided to have Zach drop me, the girls and the Stuff off while parking the car. I made him promise to listen and tell me how close I was with my timing. He loves me for who I am, which is a very good thing, and found it cute instead of obnoxious. For the record, I was about 4 minutes off. Must try harder next time... 
At about 5:45am, the girls continued to be wide awake and flirting with everyone that passed by while waiting at the airport.
Holy crap, I thought to myself, this is ridiculous. I was referring to this --
considering we used to travel so daggone efficiently 
Not even pictured was the (awkwardly-shaped but incredibly useful) carseat bag that was a lifesaver in checking the girls' seats ("free" of charge, I might add for those traveling with infants for the first time, and not as part of baggage allowance on most airlines). Seriously though, we were a crazy mess trying to get ourselves and the girls and all of our Stuff from point A to B to C and all the other places they make you take it that we never noticed until we were in dire need of about 2983 more arms!
As I had mentioned, I had every possible scenario covered with regards to our carry-on luggage and things we had to "declare" to security. I'm a former member of the "diamond" group of travelers (on the TSA sign.. never mind :P) that had everything ready and caused no trouble, so "breaking all the rules" (albeit legally) was something new for me. Hmm... definitely can't find the picture I was going to use to incriminate myself. I'm thinking you don't want it to hold up the report? I'll keep looking, but will move on. I assure you it wasn't exciting, just geeky. Anyway, the TSA was outstanding throughout this whole trip. They have an entire lane for "Families and Liquids" 
and we were treated so well, put through so efficiently (with just a quick "pat down" because of the stuff we were carrying), etc. Everyone was so friendly, loved on the girls a bit (helpful, I'm sure!) and we were through in no additional time!
The girls ate breakfast while waiting for the plane, and sat and played for a while. They would be due for a nap as soon as we were on the plan, which should have been perfect!
Should have, of course, except that they didn't nap. Why would they?! They were fine on the plane in that being on the plane didn't bother them, but lack of sleep was certainly evident as they tried to squirm out of our arms repeatedly, laughed and squealed delieriously, and fussed just a little. Honestly, it could have been much worse. They didn't scream, they didn't really cry... they just didn't sleep! Hartley slept about 20 minutes, Emmersyn probably an hour (in chunks). Bear this in mind as you keep a running total of sleep since 4:30am....
As we always do on this particular flight (yes, we try and fly on the same flight every trip - it just works out well for our schedule!
), we were at the gate in Orlando about 25 minutes ahead of schedule. We waited 7 or 8 minutes for the previous plane to leave, and then it took a while to get off the plane (we're used to sitting in the front, but because of errors with seating assignments (FYI - two infants can't sit in the same row!), we were towards the back. 
Still, we were at MCO, ready to run a few errands (seriously, kids throw things for a loop, don't they?!) and then FINALLY be Home!
I waited for the luggage and fed the girls while Zach went to get the car (a breeze as usual with National's Emerald Aisle
). I stuffed them silly so that they'd be ready for a good, long nap. Now it was just mama who was starving!
Zach returned with a Dodge Avenger, which is hands-down the smallest car we've ever rented, especially considering it's classified as a "mid-size". We BARELY fit our luggage and the carseats in... almost not cool! The girls couldn't see a thing except seat backs and doors, but it got us to our destination and didn't have any weird shifting that Zach couldn't figure out so I didn't really complain.
We sat for ages at toll booths that had only 1 lane open (?!), ran into the most crazy, crowded Walmart I have ever seen
and I was finally REALLY excited. Emmersyn and Hartley were both asleep, and I realized that I hadn't even been all that excited on the plane because I was so consumed with keeping them quiet.
Finally, FINALLY, at about noon, as the girls were fast asleep, we made our first trip through the gates of the Walt Disney World resort as a family.
Not even pictured was the (awkwardly-shaped but incredibly useful) carseat bag that was a lifesaver in checking the girls' seats ("free" of charge, I might add for those traveling with infants for the first time, and not as part of baggage allowance on most airlines). Seriously though, we were a crazy mess trying to get ourselves and the girls and all of our Stuff from point A to B to C and all the other places they make you take it that we never noticed until we were in dire need of about 2983 more arms!As I had mentioned, I had every possible scenario covered with regards to our carry-on luggage and things we had to "declare" to security. I'm a former member of the "diamond" group of travelers (on the TSA sign.. never mind :P) that had everything ready and caused no trouble, so "breaking all the rules" (albeit legally) was something new for me. Hmm... definitely can't find the picture I was going to use to incriminate myself. I'm thinking you don't want it to hold up the report? I'll keep looking, but will move on. I assure you it wasn't exciting, just geeky.
Anyway, the TSA was outstanding throughout this whole trip. They have an entire lane for "Families and Liquids" and we were treated so well, put through so efficiently (with just a quick "pat down" because of the stuff we were carrying), etc. Everyone was so friendly, loved on the girls a bit (helpful, I'm sure!) and we were through in no additional time!The girls ate breakfast while waiting for the plane, and sat and played for a while. They would be due for a nap as soon as we were on the plan, which should have been perfect!
Should have, of course, except that they didn't nap. Why would they?! They were fine on the plane in that being on the plane didn't bother them, but lack of sleep was certainly evident as they tried to squirm out of our arms repeatedly, laughed and squealed delieriously, and fussed just a little. Honestly, it could have been much worse. They didn't scream, they didn't really cry... they just didn't sleep! Hartley slept about 20 minutes, Emmersyn probably an hour (in chunks). Bear this in mind as you keep a running total of sleep since 4:30am....
As we always do on this particular flight (yes, we try and fly on the same flight every trip - it just works out well for our schedule!
), we were at the gate in Orlando about 25 minutes ahead of schedule. We waited 7 or 8 minutes for the previous plane to leave, and then it took a while to get off the plane (we're used to sitting in the front, but because of errors with seating assignments (FYI - two infants can't sit in the same row!), we were towards the back. Still, we were at MCO, ready to run a few errands (seriously, kids throw things for a loop, don't they?!
) and then FINALLY be Home! I waited for the luggage and fed the girls while Zach went to get the car (a breeze as usual with National's Emerald Aisle
). I stuffed them silly so that they'd be ready for a good, long nap. Now it was just mama who was starving!Zach returned with a Dodge Avenger, which is hands-down the smallest car we've ever rented, especially considering it's classified as a "mid-size". We BARELY fit our luggage and the carseats in... almost not cool! The girls couldn't see a thing except seat backs and doors, but it got us to our destination and didn't have any weird shifting that Zach couldn't figure out
so I didn't really complain.We sat for ages at toll booths that had only 1 lane open (?!), ran into the most crazy, crowded Walmart I have ever seen
and I was finally REALLY excited. Emmersyn and Hartley were both asleep, and I realized that I hadn't even been all that excited on the plane because I was so consumed with keeping them quiet.Finally, FINALLY, at about noon, as the girls were fast asleep, we made our first trip through the gates of the Walt Disney World resort as a family.
We got to the Boardwalk Inn/Villas just after noon and attempted to check in. Our room wasn't ready. I know that with every hotel it is never a guarantee to check in early, but NEVER in my life have I really had to wait for a room. Sometimes a room with a particular request isn't ready when we arrive early, but we usually just forgo the request in favor of a place we can actually set foot into. I realize now that there are just a few studios that are on the Boardwalk (or at least I think I read that somewhere), so I'm sure that was the issue. I wasn't angry at them, but at myself because I hadn't even considered the possibility. Our stroller from A Baby's Best Friend was also not there yet, so we had NOTHING. I had given all of our luggage to the bell staff when our car was parked. I stopped at the Bell Staff counter to ask if there was any way to bother them for our luggage so that I could at least have the baby carriers, credit card, etc (seriously - I had NOTHING on me!). A CM named Jim (and all of the staff, really) was wonderfully understanding and let me go back to their storage room to "our" shelf and get whatever I needed. Meanwhile, he went off and found us two strollers (like the ones they sell (not rent) at the parks). They covered the girls in stickers and entertained them with balloons while we were trying to reevaluate our plans. The strollers didn't recline (so we knew there would be little "nap-finishing" taking place unless we could get a room), but they were better than nothing, and an extraordinary gesture that you wouldn't find at any downtown hotel on another vacation!
We headed for the boardwalk to find some lunch (Spoodles Pizza window, which I now know I find utterly disgusting). We were all very tired and hot, and getting harassed by dozens of seagulls because a particular family quasi near us had been feeding them for what appeared to be all afternoon. Every person that walked by on the Boardwalk had to duck and dodge and gasp as a gull swooped past them. No lie.
The afternoon really wasn't going as planned.....
By this point, if you have been keeping track, the girls have had between 50 and 70 minutes of sleep since 4:30am. That doesn't bode well for 8 month olds who are also getting over pneumonia, etc. They were SO crabby. We called at about 2 (after killing an hour and a half or so) and the room was still not ready. Unsure of what else to do, we headed to Epcot (in our long-sleeved, gross travel clothes!) to get our annual passes.
Since the room was STILL not ready, even after the longest voucher redemption on record (I'm sure of it.), we headed into the World Showcase. We strolled through the gardens in the UK, sat there for a little while. The crowds were totally unexpected! I'm not sure what park would have been best considering I hadn't planned to be in one that afternoon, but I was shocked!
The afternoon really wasn't going as planned.....
By this point, if you have been keeping track, the girls have had between 50 and 70 minutes of sleep since 4:30am. That doesn't bode well for 8 month olds who are also getting over pneumonia, etc. They were SO crabby. We called at about 2 (after killing an hour and a half or so) and the room was still not ready. Unsure of what else to do, we headed to Epcot (in our long-sleeved, gross travel clothes!) to get our annual passes.
Since the room was STILL not ready, even after the longest voucher redemption on record (I'm sure of it.), we headed into the World Showcase. We strolled through the gardens in the UK, sat there for a little while. The crowds were totally unexpected! I'm not sure what park would have been best considering I hadn't planned to be in one that afternoon, but I was shocked!
I was fast approaching a breaking point. I was doing VERY well with the total mess in which our plans had been thrown, but I was not doing well with the girls. I couldn't tell if they were still sick, just tired, just hot, a combination of all of the above, but they were monsters. MONSTERS. They screamed bloody murder whenever we stopped. When we laid them down to change diapers and/or put them back the stroller, they screamed louder. Mind you, my girls (partly because of parenting style(?) and partly because there are 2 of them and I've been home alone with them since about day 2) are NOT used to being held all the time. You wouldn't know it though, as they were beyond rotten when they weren't getting their way. Fine, I can handle that since it's been a long day. The only problem is, I couldn't figure out for the life of me what "their way" was 
After a near-breakdown, I told Zach we should head to the baby care center. It would be air-conditioned, quieter, maybe we could calm the girls down. If nothing else, we could cool off and PUT them down, just for a while. This was the key, and we are thrilled that we learned it fairly quickly in the trip.
This might have been the worst possible time in Emmersyn's and Hartley's short life to have taken this trip, although we couldn't possibly have known. A few weeks earlier, they had really picked up speed crawling, pulling to a stand, starting to cruise. They had this new found freedom, and then we took them to a place where they can't exercise it. The time in the baby care center quickly demonstrated that - even when they were BEYOND tired and the quickest fix would have been some good sleep - we could always buy time just simply by letting them get down and explore. Even when my youngest was hit (fairly hard) in the head with a dump truck by a "friend", they were still the happiest they had been the entire day.
By about 3:30 our room was ready, so we headed back to gather our luggage, owner's locker, stroller, etc very quickly before it was time for dinner.
If you're anything like me, you might be thinking I'm a terrible parent for even considering keeping our Chef Mickey's ADR after the girls have had such little sleep. Trust me, I went through all of that. I actually had to convince myself to keep it, but I'm glad I did. By the time we got back to the room, the timing was just all wrong for a "real" nap if I wanted any chance of getting the girls back into as close a "normal" swing of things as I could. We left as quickly as we could (which meant no time to unpack and no showers
), so that we could get the girls to catch a catnap in their carseats by driving to the Contemporary via "the long way" (driving around in circles throughout the World). I doubted myself every step of the way, but it turned out to be the right move for us. The girls were still somewhat crabby but we were all a little bit refreshed after hanging out in the room a few minutes, and we were optimistic that things would start settling down a bit.Besides... the Minnie outfits we had bought months prior looked absolutely adorable, we got some of the first smiles we had from my girls in several hours, and we were about to see Mickey!
(So why didn't I feel good about any of it?)
By this point, probably due to lack of sleep and lack of good food and girls that honestly had been grating on my nerves (through no fault of their own, but all the illness) for several weeks, I felt no magic. We saw the Castle on our way in, and I still felt nothing. I was so sad that my girls had been having the most miserable day of their young lives in what was supposed to be our Happy Place. I questioned whether we should have even come on the trip when they weren't even totally healthy yet. I questioned how they would handle the characters on little sleep and if it would scar them for the entire trip. I pretty much questioned everything I did, which is SO unlike me. To be honest, from the time I was pregnant to the time the girls were born and since, I'm a pretty confident mom. I never had the first-time-mom jitters or psychoses that some have
, I'm just pretty level-headed about it. Not about most things, but about the girls. I think I made up for it that night, I assure you.Time to perk up though, and introduce the girls to my friend Mickey and his pals!
We got our picture taken as is customary before a meal at Chef Mickey's, and it was hilarious. The girls were fascinated by the monorail whizzing by and the commotion otherwise occurring around us, so I don't have to tell you we didn't buy any of the (mostly over-priced) pictures!
I did get a few of the girls playing in the waiting area, though. I think they're pretty cute, and from the looks of these, you wouldn't even know they were little devil children all day
After all the anticipation, all the questions of whether the girls (Hartley especially) would be able to "handle" the characters.... they honestly couldn't have even cared less that they existed!
They were so excited by the plethora of finger foods in front of them, something they had been working on at home, that the characters would literally jump up and down and tap on the girls' heads and shoulders to get their attention, and they barely got any interaction out of them. The corn, macaroni and cheese, noodles, muffins, chicken and more was just INFINITELY more exciting! 
After dinner, since the girls were doing well and we wanted to try to keep them up until bedtime (you know, if it wasn't going to be too traumatic), we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. BIG mistake. The crowds were, again, unblelievable. We could hardly get through anywhere, a fact which was made infinitely worse by the spectacle that twins always are (seriously, you'd think they were uncommon 
) and then compounded by the side-by-side stroller and matching outfits. Don't get me wrong, I think my girls are the cutest on the planet (as any mama should!) ... but I'd still like to go about my merry way and don't appreciate you stopping to stare while I'm trying to get to my castle and my first Dole Whip Pineapple Float in entirely too many months!
) and then compounded by the side-by-side stroller and matching outfits. Don't get me wrong, I think my girls are the cutest on the planet (as any mama should!) ... but I'd still like to go about my merry way and don't appreciate you stopping to stare while I'm trying to get to my castle and my first Dole Whip Pineapple Float in entirely too many months! Oh, and in case you don't believe me.... THIS is what we saw literally 85% of the day --
The Dole Whip was outstanding of course, but otherwise it was a total disaster. We headed back to the room as quickly as we could, let the girls play for a while, then put them to bed. The TOTAL meltdown began at about 8:15pm and lasted several hours. The girls were honestly freaking out to the point that Emmersyn almost required a breathing treatment. You can't have an anxiety attack at 8 months old, but if you could I would be 100% sure they both were. The sleep totals for the day (from 4:30am-10:30pm) totaled right around 2 hours each, so I'm sure that was a major factor plus the fact that they were in a completely unfamiliar surrounding. We consoled them the best we could until they were just completely wiped out.
We obviously didn't watch Illuminations from our balcony. We didn't unpack. We didn't hang out, we didn't talk, we didn't figure out our plans for the next day. Instead, I bawled my eyes out and called around to discuss details that would be necessary in case we cut our trip short. As in 7 days short, and left the following day. Zach - who is the most even-keeled person I know, namely because he has no emotions whatsoever - was just about to freak out. If I could have videotaped the chaos that was in our room that night, you could have used it as a torture device somewhere. The girls fits resounded so loudly in that small room, and we were all so tired, that I was going absolutely bonkers. In the midst of it, I praised God that it wasn't late at night and we shouldn't have too many complaints from the neighbors. Still, my Happy Place had not made me the least bit happy, and this was even after having VERY low expectation for this trip.
) and left me with about 2 hours of sleep and a frustrated mess, and left Zach not much better off. The trip would improve dramatically, but some time in the middle of that first night I just cried and prayed that we could actually "start" our vacation tomorrow, a bit more rested (although not well-rested by any means), and forget that this first day even happened. I think there was even a poor attempt at a joke about a "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow", but I could just be making that up. I was pretty shot that night, for sure.
Other thoughts I made note of --
The Boardwalk Villas are SO not conveniently laid out. We didn't have The Long Walk that so many complain about and still found it awkwardly set up. Nothing is "on the way" to anything else. I can't stop and get a bit to eat on the way to the car, or run here or there on the way to the park. Everything is far from everything else and there is no direct route anywhere. Had the Beach Club Villas not existed, the BWV's location (the Boardwalk in general), proximity to parks, atmosphere, etc would make it one of our favorite resorts, despite what we see as it's flaws. Since BCV DOES exist though, we see no need for it! (Please don't take offense to this BWV owners, to each their own. We think SSR is one of the most beautiful resorts we've seen in the world, and could really say some things that make us seem like total snobs about it, but I won't. I know that there are fans and haters of every resort, and I'm so over that discussion
). For us though, we'd prefer the Beach Club that offers ALL the same benefits in a setting that just makes so much more sense to us!In a similar vain, the mug refill program is a joke here. We always get a mug on our trips and always get our money worth of refills, and then some. That wasn't hard to do here, but it certainly wasn't easy. There are 4-5 locations at which to fill your mug, sort of. That seems nice, but that's before you really get it. Three of them are right in a row. And only 1 of them (Boardwalk Bakery) is open for more than a few hours at a time. And NONE of them actually fill your mug, they just require you to show it and then give you a cup. Seriously, what a waste of my cargo space carrying around an empty mug. Why not a key card or sticker or wrist band or something if you aren't going to put the soda IN the mug?!
The room we had was kind of pretty, but SO small. I'm not sure how the square footage compares so nobody jump all over that, but the layout was very crowded. I will say the storage was fabulous though, in that the kitchenette was larger than most studios we'd been in and the "bathroom" (vanity outside the bathroom) had more cabinets and drawers than we'd seen elsewhere.
And our view was gorgeous! Take a look --
Next : March 6th, 2009 - WDW Day 2
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