Hello Mickey!

A while ago I posted the first installment of our September trip to Disney World...and then completely dropped the ball on continuing the story on here. However, we just returned from another trip (2 weeks this time!  Woot!) and I'm determined to share the story here! So, let's get started...

February 26, 2011

After a not-so-great night of sleep (yes, I was too excited!) this gal finally faced the day. Joe and Henry were already awake and doing the regular morning routine of breakfast and cartoons.

For all Henry knew, today was a normal day. We hadn't mentioned the M-word (Mickey) in over 24 hours, on purpose. If Henry had known the night before that we were going to Mickey's the next day NO ONE would have slept well!

The bags were packed and hidden away in the closet. Joe and I readied ourselves and then...

Video: Henry, you want to go to Mickey's House TODAY? (2 minutes, 3 seconds)

Needless to say, the kid was excited!

Eventually my phone rang and our car arrived to pick us up.  We generally take public transit to the airport, but this time were flying out of JFK (which is further away), had a lot of luggage and a 3 year old and stroller. We decided to fork over the extra bucks and take a car.

NO REGRETS.

We hadn't told Henry we were riding in a car, so when we walked outside and he saw a car waiting for us the kid almost launched to the moon in excitement.

It's the little things, right?

Our driver was polite and a good (read: safe) driver. Momma was happy.

So was little man

A car and Mickey in one day?!?!

We get to JFK, we go through all the normal procedures and make it to our gate. We are about an hour early, which is cool. It's lunchtime, we get some food and sit at our gate...and then see it's been delayed.

At first I saw a 20 minute delay. No biggee.

Then I saw a 1.5 hour delay.

Ugh.

Thankfully there was free WiFi and we are a family of geeks who love their technology. iPhones and iPads were pulled out to enterain us, walks were taken, we watched the planes, we ate


Which is bigger, Henry's head or the black & white?

Friends were made with the people next to us. They were meeting friends in FL and had 6 pm dinner reservations. They were NOT happy.

But eventually, at 1:52 pm, an hour after we were supposed to take-off, a plane arrived.



We boarded at 2:20



and then sat there.

And sat there.

And sat there a little more.

We finally took off at 3:25! 20 minutes before we were originally scheduled to arrive. I bet the passengers at MCO waiting for that plane weren't too happy...

The flight itself went just fine. We had been upgraded to Row 1, extra leg room seats, for free. That was veryyyyy nice for these tall, long-legged folks. (well, except Henry, who's legs barely get off the seat...)


How is it that the 3 year old gets the Bose headphones and the iPad???

However, there were no blue chips on board! This was our first time flying JetBlue and I had been informed about the blue chips and was looking forward to them. I had to make due with



They were tasty.

We landed at 5:40, about 2 hours behind schedule.

Down to the fake monorail that takes you from the gates to the main terminal at MCO







And onward to the Magical Express bus that will take us to our hotel,

PALM TREE!

which, thankfully, was a complete ghost town!  Sometimes the lines here can be very long!



Into the line for our hotel...we were the only ones in line. My heart sank a tiny bit, we were going to have to wait a while for more guests. Hey, it's okay, this is a long trip, we don't have any agenda for tonight, it's fine. Henry was VERY excited pointing out every picture of Mickey or the Castle that he saw.


"MICKEY'S BUS!"

Oh, but wait! What's this? A Cast Member smiling at me, heading our way...and YES! he's opening our gate. I might have muttered a, "I love you!" as we scurried through and to our


big yellow bus.

No Mickey themed bus for us...instead just a big yellow one.

Bummer!

Henry was a tad confused, but mostly didn't care - as long as this bus was going to Mickey's he was ready to get on!



We had a short wait and then we were off!

It was a fun and smooth ride.



About an hour later we were HOME!


I love you Boardwalk Inn!

Stepping into the lobby at 7:10 pm, we all had smiled plastered on our faces.


 
The Boardwalk often has balloons sitting out that the children can just take. Henry had been eying them while I was busy checking us in and I figured we would grab one on our way up to our room, but two kids came by and took the last two.

His face fell.

Our amazing Cast Member noticed this and pretty soon



That made him happy!


He's a good sharer.



We went up to our villa



This room wasn't quite the excellent location we had last time at the Boardwalk, but it still wasn't bad at all. We hadn't made any room requests and my fear was to be at the end of their looooooong hallways, but this one was only about 2 "segments" down.


Waiting for us on our bed

Our view

I found it ironic that we had a view of that particular building, which is called Community Hall. Last trip I had a Mommy Meltdown while trying to find that darn building...LOL!

The waterway is there too behind Community Hall, it was a relaxing and beautiful view.

Henry was itchin' to do one thing





Video: Jumping at the BWV (53 seconds)

We gave him a couple minutes to do that...but we were HUNGRY! It was past 7:30 by this point and we hadn't eaten since lunch.

Up next: Eats in Epcot!