Part 11: Prying myself from my hotel room and coming home...

As I had packed up most of our stuff on Wednesday before our visit to the Magic Kingdom, it was easy to pack up the rest of our stuff on Thursday morning. Easy, but sad. When it was all said and done and Mike was writing up a quick email before we left, we decided that we were idiotic for leaving on a Thursday before a long weekend. Who does that?? It wasn't for lack of money, as mike's company was paying for lots as he was conferencing. It was sheer stupidity. Mike could have clearly worked from the hotel on the Friday, and we could have enjoyed 2 full days in the hot sun before coming home. We stood still in the room for about 5 minutes questioning what we would have to do to stay there the extra days. Confirm the room, car rental, new flight. Mike figured we'd have to switch rooms anyway as it was really busy. But seriously, it was after checkout time at this point, and we were literally going straight to the airport. There would have been too many details to iron out. And what if we got a new room and flight, and needed to return the car? Or some other combo. There really wasn't time to turn back! So frustrating. Too make matters worse at the airport later, the line for check in was ridiculous, and the television sets on the flight were busted. I took that as a sign. But I think Paige was looking forward to her stuff at home. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure she thought it was Spring at home.

At any rate, next time we will think. 10 days is a lot, but with mike working for 3.5 days, it seemed shorter. 2 weeks was clearly doable! Heck, 3 would have been even better! And if you have seen the weather they are having in Orlando right now, you'd be sad too. I suppose there are worse dilemmas to have then whether to stay a few extra days in Orlando or not.

So we got to the airport with tons of time. The lineup at Air Canada was so attrocious though that it took a huge chunk out of our time. When we finally got through check in, the security lineup was ridiculous. With Mike's Nexus pass in Canada, he is able to go through the crew lineup at Security, which saves him even more time. We didn't have to use it in Toronto as we get to go through the Wheelchair lane with the strollers, which is never very busy. But in Orlando, there was just a sea of people, so Mike decided to walk up to the crew lineup with his pass. He had the following conversation:

Mike: Hello, am I able to use my pass at this lineup?
Man: yes sir (and then says something quietly and inaudable)
Mike: Pardon me?
Man: Are you armed?
Mike: um, no.

Nexus is really only a Canadian thing. You don't use it in the US. Clearly the man thought that it was some kind of Air Marshal pass or something?? We wish we knew. It must look similar to something else. Obviously Mike thought this was the best thing ever, and felt totally awesome.

We ate a Starbucks lunch once we got through and Paige and I went to smell perfumes at the Duty free store. The flight was delayed and they made the announcement about the busted televisions. Great. I would have to forfeit my phone to Paige so she could watch shows on it while I sat holding sleeping Rose staring at the seat in front of me. Mike and I tried to talk a bit, but I was worried about waking up Rose. She needed to sleep.

The flight was fine, and before we knew it, we were back in Toronto. Luckily, the weather was kind to us and it was unseasonably warm for our arrival. Paige had a huge meltdown on the monorail back to the parking lot. She was used to the Disney monorail and had become quite the rule monger about holding the hand rail. She was holding it and spinning around dangerously, so Mike pried her off it and asked her to hold his hand instead to which she freaked out and was screaming and then frantically grabbing the rail as we were trying to quickly get off the train. I get it though, we had been in transit from the hotel for 9 hours at this point.

So, that concludes the blogging of our trip to warm and sunny Orlando! Thank goodness I blogged on the road, or this would never have been done, or with as much detail.

Part 10: Magic Kingdom visit #3!

The 3rd day of Mike's conference was a shorter one, so we decided to finish our vacation off with a literal bang at the Magic Kingdom's fireworks show. After spending the day at the pool and park again, of course, we got ready and headed off to the theme park when Mike got home at 4:00. The day was beautiful and sunny, even though the forecast called for showers. Paige got to wear her Cinderella dress without pants and a shirt underneath for the first time.

We didn't have tons of time at the park, but Paige really wanted me to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean with her. The 4 of us did the Haunted Mansion first, as Pirates wasn't working, and then had some dinner. After dinner Pirates was functioning so Paige and I rode it and then Mike and Paige rode it--Rose had fallen asleep in her stroller by this point. She loves the big drop in the dark at the beginning....so do I. I find the pirates a bit creepy though, and always have, but she doesn't seem to notice, or get creeped out. When we finished this up most people were securing spots for the big show, which is a perfect time to find short lineups for the rides! We rode on the Aladdin flying carpet ride before finding a spot to watch the show. The park was about 10 times as busy as it was the other time we watched the show. It really doesn't matter where you are though, the fireworks are massive and the music is pumping out from every angle. An unbelievable show. I can't begin to describe it, or do it justice. You just have to see it for yourself. It's one of those multi-sensory experiences that makes you a little misty eyed watching it. I'm happy that Mike recorded it the first time--I definitely want to watch it again.

Paige taking it all in:

My attempts to capture something interesting:

More worrying then finding a spot to stand in the huge crowd, was getting out of the park in a timely fashion when the show was finished without losing each other! But in true Disney fashion, everything ran smoothly and we were on the monorail in no time. Rose woke up just before the show started, watched the show, sat silently on the monorail on the way to the parking lot, and then fell asleep the moment we started driving without uttering a peep.

Part 9: The hotel

We're now at home as I catch up on the final few posts about our Orlando trip. I hadn't posted many hotel photos, as I wanted to collect more as the trip went on. We loved our hotel so much that at our "expensive and lengthy breakfast" that I mentioned earlier--a timeshare salespitch, or vacation ownership as they call it--we actually bought a Starwood timeshare. It could be used at this Sheraton, which would be our home resort, as well as 20 other resorts. There were a lot of other perks as well. I say "were", as we cancelled the contract within the allowed cancellation period. We realized after looking online, that we could purchase a Starwood Vacation ownership from someone else for a lot less of a price...kind of like a used car! So we'll look into that instead. It was fun to dream about all the places we could go in the huge briefcase full of photos and resort information that they gave us.

But anyway, here are some photos of the resort, the Sheraton Vistana Villages.

The pool we visited. There was another pool further from our room that had a little pirate ship play area in it, but it was always shady at the time of day we wanted to swim. The weather was warm, but low 20's so you needed sun to feel warm in the pool. It was heated, but still nicer to be in the sun. Paige is in this photo somewhere. It's the zero entry pool that is only 1 foot deep. Paige could even alligator walk around with her head above the water...really nice for me when Mike was at work, I could still take Paige for a swim and supervise from the side.

They had lots of barbecue areas available for people to cook. We talked about having a barbecue picnic one night, but that didn't happen. Next time for sure!

Paige eating her breakfast without a booster. I felt bad since she would spill right on the fabric seat...but they must assume this will happen?

The outside of our unit...nice corner ground level. I wouldn't normally want ground level, but it was nice to stroll right in without worrying about the elevator. And with groceries, luggage, and kids it was easier. There was a nice screened in porch with fan.

Jacuzzi tub. Paige loved bathing in the jets. This was great because we had no bath toys really. We made do with some waterproof toys in the bath, a water bottle, and once this pool toy!

Little hammocks, and waterfalls around the property:
The living room, kitchen and dining room:

Master bedroom with Rose's tiny metal crib:

Paige's room with a bed for Rose when she's older:

Bathroom connected to Paige's room:

They had a few of these swings close to the pool. Paige and I had a snack a couple of times on one. It was hard to get off it. Pre-child I would have sat there with a coffee for hours.

Another pool shot. Ahhh palm trees:

Now just a few photos we took on the 3rd day on the bridge connecting our side to the pool:


It's interesting when you're on vacation and have a kitchen and washer/dryer. You end up doing a lot more work! Although it is obviously infinitely better than going to a Laundromat or eating at a restaurant for every meal with a picky eater and baby. We even decided to forgo housekeeping every second day. We would receive 500 Starwood points every time we skipped it, and to be honest, it was more of a hassle. The cleaning ladies would show up at the worst possible times and we couldn't just leave the room if Rose was sleeping. So we ended up doing a lot more bed making, wiping surfaces and changing garbages then you would on a regular vacation. It reminded us of being at the cottage.

Anyway, we would obviously stay here again, especially if we buy a time share. We were pretty close to Disney, there was a grocery store around the corner, a convenience store on property, it was 20 minutes from the airport, and we loved the room and resort itself.

Part 8: Girls day #2!

Events of the day:

1. park
2. ice cream
3. lunch
4. swimming
5. Rose's nap and craft time
6. Park

We kept quite busy and spent as much time outside as possible again!

Eating cheerios by the pool:



Eating chips by the pool. Not your typical snack, but it sure lured her out of the pool fast. She was having so much fun she wouldn't have gotten out otherwise!
Running to the park before dinner:

Paige shows off her park:

Paige's social skills are really surprising me. I guess I haven't seen her around random kids in a while. I mean she goes to her class 3 times a week, but I drop her off there. So I find it so shocking to see how much confidence she has with any kid under the age of 12. While we're here and she's missing out on the social interaction of her pre-school, she is actively searching out playmates. Over here she's the first one to start the game of tag at the park, recruit kids to spin around with her in the pool, or alligator walk to the spray jets. Today when we arrived at an empty park she was actually yelling out "KIDS!!! IS ANYBODY COMING TO THE PAAAARK!!!". We couldn't actually see any kids, besides the ones that were swimming. One little boy finally came in and she had a game all worked out. "Quick! The circus train is leaving THIS INSTANT! HURRY!!!" She'll even ask 10 year olds to play tag with her. She's not shy at all with other kids. And sometimes she even talks to the parents of the kids..."Excuse me! I don't think he understands me!"--this was when she was trying to get a 2 year old to play tag with her. She runs around like crazy having so much fun, giggling and screaming. I really don't think I was like this as a kid.

Part 7: Girls day

For our first day alone while Mike went to his conference, we started off the morning at the park:




After the park we went back for lunch and Rose's nap. Then at 12:30, we paid $3 to decorate Valentine's cookies at the activity tent. Oddly enough, the other people decorating were adults.

After the cookie decorating, we fed Rose her lunch poolside while Paige enjoyed one of her cookies. Then it was time for more swimming!

Just before dinner we went to the park again and stopped off at the hammock on the way home.


While Mike is out I'm really trying to keep us busy. Also, I am trying to capitalize on every single second of sun and warm weather before we have to go back to the snow and cold!

Part 6: Playground and pool day...

On Sunday, we needed time to relax as a family before Mike started his conference on Monday. The weather was just perfect for a morning at the resort playground before lunch, followed by a post-lunch swim at the pool. The one end of the pool was a zero entry section for kids with a splash pad in the middle. Rose loved splashing around too, but kept trying to crawl in to play with Paige where it was too deep!

Rose was upset after a water jet sprayed her in the splash pad:

Part 5: Breakfast with Princesses and Epcot

Going to our princess breakfast on Saturday also meant we had to go to Epcot for the day, as that is where the restaurant was. I booked it for 10:55 which meant that by the time we got our food it was closer to lunch. Whether you call it breakfast or lunch, that doesn't mean that Paige ate anything. There were no Mickey waffles to eat, and there were princesses to impress! If she saw one coming she would say "quick! wipe my face!" She came up with this all on her own, which made us laugh. She obviously felt very self conscious when the princesses were so perfectly done up.

As soon as we walked in the restaurant, we were ushered over to meet Belle right away. We were given a souvenir photo of the two of them together.

Paige would see a princess at the next table and she'd get her autograph book out and ready:

Sleeping Beauty was the first to come over:

Cinderella. Luckily real people aren't scary like Mickey Mouse!

Snow White:

Ariel.
They all took a minute to ask Paige questions and pose for pictures. With the exception of Belle, they all seemed to have coloured contacts in. All of their eyes were really blue, really brown or really green. It was odd to look at. Paige was very shy, but loved it.

The Princess breakfast was in the Norway pavillion. At Epcot they have a gigantic section of the park called the World Showcase. There are about 10 countries or so that are represented. Each country has themed restaurants, gift shop, entertainment, shows, etc. It took us a major part of the day to wander through it, but it was a nice day outside and fun to just leisurely look at the sights. And not to mention it was great exercise, and gave Rose a chance to have her nap in the stroller.

Apparently in Canada we are either Native or lumberjacks. I get it though, they needed to distinguish Canada from America. The main building was supposed to look like Chateau Laurier, a hotel. Now if they could have covered the exhibit with snow...There was a face painting stand in one of the countries. We helped Paige to pick the rose design for her face painting. Some were super elaborate and expensive.Germany:

A German? Norwegian? miniature train...

Awesome face painting.

The other side of the face painting. What kid doesn't love face painting?

After we walked through the entire World Showcase, we headed over to the very busy section where the rides were.

We went straight to "The Seas with Nemo and Friends". For the ride you sat in a clam shell that moved around "under water" while you watched Nemo and friends swim around (on screens which were in between an underwater set, so it looked quite real). For the final minute or two, the clam shell cars passed by a massive aquarium and they made it look like Nemo and the other fish from the movie were swimming right in the tank. Really neat. We did this one twice as it was fun, no line up, and Rose could go on it.

Peeking out of shark Bruce's mouth. Paige loved this! After the Nemo ride, there was this fun shark exhibit and a bunch of huge aquariums with fish, dolphins, rays of some sort, and sea turtles:

Snacktime:
The infamous Epcot globe. For our final, and one of few, rides we went on the ride inside it.

Yes, over the course of an entire day I went on 3 rides...the space one in the big Epcot ball, and the Nemo one twice. Paige and Mike went on a ride in "Norway" as well. It was incredibly busy as it was a weekend. The major attractions all had huge lineups. I really wanted to go on "Soarin", but it was 2:00 and the fast pass tickets being given out were for 6:00!!

After so much walking that day, and the business of the weekend crowd, we decided it was best to take a break from Disney on the Sunday hoping to get an evening on Wednesday to use up the 5th day of our pass!