Vacation Wrap-up

Well, we’re baaaack!!! What a blast! Here are some of the highlights:

-On the way there, we stopped at a rest stop where an Ohio fan stopped Ian to compliment his LSU attire and said if Ohio had to lose to anyone, he was glad it was LSU. What a great fan! We arrived and had dinner with the Hayes’ and Guillorys at a neat Japanese buffet. At one point J mentioned he had a headache from driving and BB told him he should take a Viagra to get rid of it! I almost choked!! Hahaha!

-Our room at the Polynesian was beautiful! They had two pools, a “quiet” pool right outside our door and a “volcano” pool with a waterslide and waterfall. BB loved the slide and Molly loved the “rain” at the pool. The beach was right behind the volcano pool – J and BB watched fireworks one night from the beach. The grounds were gorgeous, they had beautiful plants and bunnies, ducks, and birds wandered around freely. As we were looking over our balcony after a rain, we saw some ducks and threw potato chips at them to eat. One duck kept pecking and chasing another, and as we watched…yep, you guessed it – one was a boy and one was a girl. Need I say more? I think not. Right after that, Molly left a cookie on the balcony and as we were standing in the room we saw a huge bird swoop down and take the cookie – neat!

-The parks were fun – we got there early and did lots of rides before it got crowded. We utilized the “baby swap” – I would wait with Molly while J and the kids rode a ride, then he’d come back and hang with Molly while the kids and I went on the same ride. So the kids got to do most rides twice! Molly’s favorites were Buzz Lightyear at Magic Kingdom and Nemo at Epcot. I think my new favorite ride is Soarin’ at Epcot – way too short though – it was awesome!!! And we did get to do Pirates on the day we checked out of the hotel. The park opened at 9:00 and when we got in line at 9:30 there was already a 40 minute wait! But it was a great ride and I like the new improvements. We went to the Monster’s Inc. Laugh show and one thing you can do is text a joke while you’re waiting in line and they might use it in the show. J sent BB’s joke “What weighs 3000 lbs and wears glass slippers? Cinderellephant” and they used it – and thanked BB for her joke – she was soo pleased! We had a late lunch at the restaurant in the Mexico pavilion at Epcot. J, Ian, and BB were not impressed with their meals, but mine was wonderful – pork tacos with pineapple salsa. Molly was fussy so I took her outside while J paid the bill, then we headed back to the hotel for a rest. Once we got there, I realized I left my purse (including room key, camera, travelers checks, and cash) at the restaurant! Luckily they had it and BB and I went back later that evening to get it. J, Ian, and Molly went to his mother’s house while BB and I walked around Epcot. On the way home we got to ride in the conductor’s car on the monorail! I thought it was cool but BB fell asleep (in her defense, it was midnight). Oh – BB got stuck in a bathroom stall at Epcot! She ended up having to crawl out from under! That was funny!

-J and I were walking though the hotel lobby and there were a bunch of people handing out leis and taking photos, so they took ours. We didn’t realize it was for the luau that night, and we couldn’t get reservations (I tried), but the lady told us to go and put our names on for standby. We got in and had a great dinner. The show was fun and I think J and the kids were impressed by the fire dancers. Molly not so much, so we hung out in the lobby area and listened to the show while she stretched her legs and played.

- We did not do Animal Kingdom, which in hindsight Molly might have liked but I thought the rest of us would be bored. We tried Hollywood Studios but left after an hour, due to meltdowns. Part of the problem was that when we got to the park, I thought I lost BB’s ticket, so we waited in line over 30 minutes, only to find out that her ticket was stuck to mine and we had it all along. Plus, it was hot, crowded, and only had 3 or 4 rides, the rest of the park was shows. Not good for a family with small kids. So, maybe we’ll try it again when the kids are older or we’re alone.

- The day we checked out of the Polynesian and into the hotel by Universal, we went to WDW in the morning (to ride Pirates) and then had lunch and went to the new place. BB got sick at lunch and again after we checked in. Ian, Molly, and I went to dinner with the Hayes’ and J stayed home with BB. That night J and I got sick too, so our first day at Universal ended up with us in bed and Ian watching Molly. Kind of a bummer as we only had 3 days at Universal but at least Ian and Molly did not get sick. I really felt terrible because that was the day Ian was supposed to hang out with his cousins instead of us and he missed it. We did end up having another fun dinner with the Hayes' (and K's dog) and then went home to get some rest before our last day of "parkin' it".

-Universal was fun – we did both parks and got in most of the rides. The Mummy and The Simpsons were awesome! I took Molly to see Barney and, while she wouldn’t leave my arms, she did wave and say hi, and we got a good picture. Ian, BB, and I were in line to ride the Dueling Dragons, and Ian suddenly “had to go”. BB and I stayed and rode the line, but by the time we were done it was raining and Ian didn’t get to go. I told him I was sorry he didn’t get to ride, and he replied, “I’d rather go to the bathroom and feel better than have fun and crap on myself.” Hahahaha! What an awesome kid. He did have a few “bowel” issues, probably due mainly to things like, oh, I don’t know, eating two 3' long gummy snakes at once, or buying and eating a pound of candy while we walked around the parks. Maybe that had something to do with it. But all in all I think he had fun. Oh, and J made grilled cheese in the hotel suite and set off the fire alarm! I called the front desk to find out how to turn it off (except the whole hotel was beeping) and she answered "may I help you? Oh, never mind, I understand". click. Too funny! He was also very good at the "carnival barker"-type boardwalk games and won each of his sisters a large doll (what a sweet boy!).

So, would I recommend doing the Parks with an almost-two year old? Probably not, Molly was a handful. But I did have a lot of fun. Disney still holds the “magic” for me and I loved being there. I told J that as I was walking the paths at the Polynesian I was thinking that I was doing something that I had wanted to do for years – go to Disney and stay at the Poly, go to the luau, eat a meal at the Mexico pavilion, and ride in the front of the monorail. Universal was fun too, I wish we would have had that extra "sick" day, though. What an awesome vacation!