Because I had showered the night before so that I could sleep as long as possible (always the optimist(?)), I quickly and quietly got ready while everyone else slept. I went downstairs and unloaded the dishwasher, looked for other tasks to occupy my time. Of course I always make it a priority to clean before vacation (just a weird thing I have, because I HATE to come home to a dirty house when I already don't want to be home), so there was very little to do!
Eventually, 5am rolled around, Zach was downstairs ready to go, and the Baldwins' arrived to follow us to the airport. We got the girls up at the last possible minute (of course this was the one day they hadn't so much as stirred during the 4-6am time frame), and finally we were off!
(In case you were wondering, yes we listened to the CD I had previously created with great intentionality, just for such drives).
Check-in at the airport was phenomenal - super friendly employee, smooth and fast trip through security (other than getting the girls through - I hadn't thought about easy slip-on shoes for them, in addition to the stroller, etc). I got my Mountain Dew before heading to the Land of Coke Only (another thing I just have to do!), and we waited!
When we arrived at the airport, we found out that our plane was only about 2/3 full. I had noticed (excitedly) prior to our arrival that we had an extra seat next to us to help give us some space for the girls (and have nobody else in our row), but sometime during our wait they moved passengers from a delayed flight that was supposed to go from DAY>ATL>MCO onto our direct flight - lucky them! Not quite as lucky for us, but not really a huge deal. We did get to enjoy the empty seats while remaining zones boarded, at least! :)
Emmersyn and Hartley were surprisingly well-behaved on the plane, despite being very tired. They cried out one time each for fewer than 5 minutes at a time, and even snuck in a 15 minute catnap. It helped that I had an entire bag o' diversions (including some, um, creative ones like ribbons (you'd be surprised what 16-month-olds can do with simple things like that!)). It also helped that we turned the barf bags into " puff bags", and that Emmersyn ate 6 of the Biscott cookies in record time, as if they were made mostly of crack. They had short attention spans (true-to-form) but we made it through the flight with very little drama. :)
popcorn
popcorn
At the airport, we changed the girls into their Day 1 outfits - adorable blue Nemo shorts & tank tops, perfect for our Epcot plans that afternoon. They really loved the "fishy" on their shirts, even attempting (non-stop, for a while) to give it hugs and kisses! :-P
We skipped baggage claim and waited about 10-15 minutes for our Magical Express bus. Old Key West was the first stop once we arrived through my favorite gates anywhere, and we were checked into our rooms around 11am! Our rooms were not ready yet (of course), so we grabbed some lunch at Goods to Go, the onsite counter-service restaurant. The experience there would be an accurate portrayal of our experience at the resort as a whole - very mediocre at best. Kind of rude, argumentative cast members that did not really exemplify the Disney spirit, little selection, tolerable but not great food. We were hungry though, so it was good enough for us at the time! After lunch (which the girls thoroughly enjoyed), we debated waiting for the room in hopes to let the youngest members of our travel party nap, or heading to Epcot knowing that it could be hours before we had anywhere to even hang out. We meandered around the Hospitality House at Old Key West, checked out the fitness center, community center, pool and playground area, Hanks Rent n Return (where guests can rent sporting equipment, boats, bikes, etc) and finally settled in at the bus stop. I'm not sure if it was just God being extra gracious knowing that I was terrified of how the trip would unfold without my own rental car, but immediately we saw our ride, there to take us to my favorite park!
When we had finally arrived, we walked in and immediately onto Spaceship Earth. My mom and sister had not ridden since it was completely refurbished (to include this really cute tech-loaded ending, where you star in your own "future"), and they really enjoyed it. The girls were enthralled as well, as they always are on any dark rides.
From there we rode Journey Into Imagination with Figment (one of my favorites! (characters, that is - not really this incarnation of the ride)), and - despite my being very anxious about a big "blast" toward the end - Hartley and Emmersyn loved every minute of it. I went ahead of the group to get Fastpasses for Soarin' (the best ride anywhere) and we met up at The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Apparently, while I was away from the group, my daughters were the cutest kids ever. I mean, I know they always are, but listen to this one :)
Upon seeing Spaceship Earth (you know, the "big golf ball" at Epcot? which apparently they hadn't noticed until we had been there an hour), they got very excited about the "ball", and encouraged everyone to "throw it!". Repeatedly. They're funny, if I do say so myself.
We walked right on to the Seas with Nemo and Friends (which surprised me, because it looked fairly crowded!) and once again, the girls loved it. It was definitely one of their favorites throughout the trip, since "fishies" always top their list anyway! After the ride, we spent some time in the rest of the pavilion looking at aquariums, etc. Despite loving them at the zoo (in a similar environment), Emmersyn was terrified of the manatee. Apparently they're more scary in their native state, who knew? Hartley loved them still, hugging and kissing the tank when they'd swim by.
We saw Turtle Talk with Crush, which Emmersyn loved (and Hartley couldn't have cared less about), then it was time for the girls to (hopefully) nap. It was obvious that we weren't going to have a room to help us with the task, but no worries. It was time to put my fabulous Stroller (which I think I need to name, because I seriously love it enough to do so) to the test. One of the features we had loved about it when doing our research was the full shades and the way it reclined -- creating sort of a "cave" in which each girl could sleep without being distracted by the outside world. We thought it would be just perfect for WDW, and really hoped we were right in this, the (first) moment of truth!
While the girls napped - and they did, falling asleep in under 10 minutes - we spent some time making goofy postcard pictures in the Imageworks! section of the Imagination Pavilion. We hung out in Innoventions, and rode the Segways... though I must admit it was awfully boring after our Curb-Jumping, Speed-Limit-Pushing Eden Park experience. I was thrilled to finally get my mom and sister (who is now 16, going on 17, and allowed riding) on one!
After the Segways, Addy and I stood in line for the Chase Visa meet & greet. Since the girls were sleeping (and the window of opportunity would be over once they woke up), we decided to make it a sister picture. It was fun, even if Mickey did try to knock my head off with his big ears. I still like him :)
When it was nearing time for our dinner reservation at Coral Reef, we made our way back to the Seas Pavilion to try and get there early enough to score an aquarium table. We did, and the girls enjoyed the fishies, though not as much as they would have if they had gotten more than 70 minutes of sleep since 5am. There were a few meltdowns at the beginning of dinner, but we made it through and really enjoyed the meal as usual - especially the butterscotch creme brulee! (Don't worry, I would only get creme brulee maybe 1 more time this trip -- pretty good, considering in May 2007 we were there for 11 dinners and I had some variety of it 7 times! :-P)
We did run into some minor annoyances that evening. There were no cribs in our room - thankfully we called ahead to "make sure". We were told we were being charged an automatic 18% gratuity on our "party of 6" ... now don't get me wrong. We are usually very generous tippers, giving more than 18% if service is at all decent, but to consider the babies in the "party of 6" rule was downright criminal - especially when it meant poor service and/or service at buffets would be an additional 18% just because they were there. In most cases we didn't mind tipping that much or more, but the principle was still ridiculous. As was the turtle's pace of our server that night, on a night we were already reaching our limits. But I digress...
Eventually, we made our way out of the restaurant and over to Soarin' to ride with our fastpasses. Amy and Addy were in line for over 30 minutes (so much for fastpasses?), so Zach and I skipped it that evening in favor of keeping our sanity, as the girls were getting pretty cranky. We stopped at the Photo Center to pick up our free 5x7 from the Visa Meet & Greet, and were on our way "home".
The bus ride to OKW was uneventful, and around 7:15pm we were finally in our rooms. My first impression was that they were all they were touted to be -- nice and open. I'm not sure it's the few extra square feet in comparison to other Disney Vacation Club rooms as much as it was just the unique layout. We put two pack & plays (not even the small cribs we had initially requested to save on space) in the room without making so much as a dent in the open space.
We didn't have time to really unpack and settle in that night (which you know drove me nuts!) but we did have time to do our usual bedtime routine (a story, our song we sing each night, etc). We were thrilled we had decided to bring their crib toys from home (Fisher Price aquarium & rainforest toys) because they ended up making a HUGE difference throughout the whole trip. Hartley and Emmersyn still screamed like banshees when we put them down that first night, but thankfully my sweet husband was willing to sit with them while I went with my mom and Addy to grab a few necessities from the store. (It turns out they stopped crying in under 5 minutes, but we really didn't think they would - so I still give him credit for being willing! ;))
We found out that night that the walk to the hospitality house, main pool, etc was ridiculously long and not at all scenic, but whatever. Our feelings on the resort are for another time and place, for the most part. While we were up there, we got drinks in our refillable mugs, fixed our room keys (hadn't been set to allow charging) and bought milk at $3 per half gallon (ahem, annoying! I called specifically to ask this and was told it was $3/gallon which - while steep - made it worthwhile to buy at the resort rather than have it delivered with a grocery service).
Once back at home, Zach and I watched the Steelers game and called it a night. A few thoughts after this, our (long) first day -- We were actually 2 for 2 on hitting the buses quickly, but I wasn't becoming a believer just yet. There were still a lot more rides to consider! I still adore my stroller, and am so glad to have factored these trips into the research and purchase. Seriously, I could write an entire entry on its benefits, but I'll spare you the details. Unless you're looking for a stroller (single or double), then let me know. I promise, it's worth the investment. The crowds looked pretty substantial throughout the park this afternoon, but the lines for rides were very reasonable. For example (and very few of you reading will garner any meaning from this), Soarin' was only 40 minutes by mid-day and evening. Take my word that it's often upwards of 120 minutes by the end of the day. Really, considering we did an average of 1-2 things per day in the beginning of our March trip, this was an insanely productive day!
Regardless of any of these things we had thought all day - both good and bad - the biggest truth was this one: Emmersyn & Hartley are So. Much. Fun! While we throughly enjoyed their first trip and know they enjoyed taking in all of the sights as well, this trip was already so different and equally fun. When people are surprised we're taking the girls at this age or that, I tell them this -- if we went for a once (or twice) in a lifetime trip, this would not be the time we would choose. Absolutely true. But since that's not how our family does WDW, we are really getting SO MUCH out of each trip with them, and know they are learning and experiencing so many great things, too!
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