Ever since Nora and I got "serious" she has told me that when we had a kid or kids, she wanted to bring them to Disney when they were at least a year old. It's been a dream of hers forever, and who am I to deny her of that since we are parents now. I won't lie to you, when she brought it up I wasn't on-board 100%. For god sake we can't go to a restaurant without them being absolute nightmares so why would I jump right into agreeing to spending thousands of dollars over a 4 day span, not to mention be on a plane and other forms of transportation the girls never have been on before in their life. I did soften up and come around to the idea, so after agreeing that it was only happening if we went with help, both sets of grandparents, the girls, Nora and I were off to the most magical place on earth. Disney!!! It's easier for me to break this down by day so buckle up because this is going to be a long post.
Day 1: Planes, Trains, Buses, Epcot, & Me Infuriated at a Maid
Our flight left Reagan National at 6:59 am, so that meant it was a 3 am wake up for Nora and I. My parents were here to help us load the car and after waking the girls up 2 hours before they usually get up, we loaded them in their car seats and were off. Everything was pretty simple on the drive in so I won't bore you with those details. Wren and Londyn have never been on a plane before and I wasn't too excited about this new adventure we were about to take for 2 1/2 hours. Lets be honest, having a baby, let alone two of them, 30,000 feet up in the air with nowhere to go doesn't sound like something people are asking for on a daily basis. Nora and I came prepared though, as we packed toys, books, stickers, snacks, waters, and downloaded episodes of Bubble Guppies and Umi Zoomie with us in our bags. On the flight to Orlando, I was with Wren, and it went really really well. She didn't cry or be fussy with me the entire flight. She missed an entire nap and was up for 7 hours straight by the time we landed, but other then that she did awesome. There was tv's in the headrests of the seats in front of us and she had a blast for about 45 minutes just turning it on and off. Go at it girl. As long as you aren't screaming I'm good. Nora had Londyn in the seat behind me, and she was also great. We land and the fun just is about to start.
We checked one bag and didn't even have to go down to baggage claim once we landed as they sendnit right to your hotel, which is great. They then force you down to the ground floor where the fun really begins. We took the Magical shuttle bus (this could be called something else but I don't care) right to our hotel lobby and tried to check-in to our rooms. Strike 1 Disney. Room wasn't ready, so we left our bags with bell services after I picked up our double stroller rental and we were off to Epcot on another bus. Lets talk about this stroller for a second because it will be popping up on the blog a lot from here until the end. It was a great stroller. Some City Select GT double side by side stroller that was great for the girls. There was one problem though with it and that was how heavy this fucking thing was. It did fold up so I could carry it, however that doesn't change the fact that it was heavy as shit. This stroller would be my companion at the start and end of every day. Neat. We got to the bus stop and still had about 15 minutes until the bus came to take us to Epcot so we let the girls walk around with my parents until Londyn realized that Nora was eating strawberry yogurt. Nora's snack quickly turned into Londyn's and mommy still hadn't ate anything since about 7 am. To some this may seem like a small problem, however if you thought this you don't know Nora. She needs to eat. If she doesn't two things happen and neither of them are good. She either gets a really bad migraine which isn't good anywhere let alone on the first day of Disney, or she gets really grumpy. I'm not talking a little grumpy. I'm talking "I'll rip your face off if you don't feed me soon" hungry. Londyn was happy, our bus pulled up, and Nora was still hungry.
We pull up to Epcot, I drag the stroller off the bus and set it up, throw the girls in there and we are off to our first park! Let's touch on Disney without kids, and Disney as a parent before diving into the park visit. I had been to Disney 3 times prior to this glorious trip, but hadn't been in 8 years when I went with Nora and her family. This obviously was the first time being a parent at the most wonderful place on earth (for most, mine is still Vegas), and there was a lot of things that I noticed being a Dad now, that I didn't notice on my previous 3 visits to Orlando. First of all getting into the park isn't just a walk off the bus, go through security checkpoint and enter the park. You are lugging a ton of shit. Nora and I each had a book bag so lets just go through what was just in mine every single day. In the bag was:
-4-6 diapers
-Water wipes, face wipes, toy wipes, paci wipes
-Toys
-Water Bottle
-Sippie Cups
-Empty Bottle
-Extra Clothes
-A blanket (I have no idea why this was put in there since it wasn't lower then 80 degrees during the day and 65 at night)
-Hand Sanitizer
-2 paci's
I'm sure there was other stuff in there, all you need to really know is it was a lot and it weighed about 10 pounds, which I got to lug around the park for 7+ hours every day. When you're sans kid(s) you don't have to worry about any of this because you just have the theory of "if I need it, I'll just buy it in the park". At least that was always my thought process. As long as I had my cell phone and wallet we were good to go. Getting through security is also a circus act. You need to unzip and open every bag you are bringing in, which isn't a lot when you are by yourself, however with kid(s) and a bag you need to unzip and open every bag and the bags compartments. My diaper dude bag has 5 zippers and then we haven't even touched on the cooler bag that was carrying their milk for the day and water bottles. Water bottles and milk Rocky? You can just buy those things once you're inside the park. Sounds logical right? Wrong. Water isn't a problem but at $3 a pop I wasn't playing that game for 4 straight days. We went through about 8 bottles of water a day between the 4 of us so we would bring in 3-4 with us and save the $12 bucks. Go ahead and jone. Wait until you're there and you can figure out how to pinch every last penny you can. Milk on the other hand is like trying to find Bigfoot in the woods. Sounds like an easy thing to get, but it isn't at all. It basically turned into a scavenger hunt for me every day once we got into the parks. I would see a food stand and would go up and ask if they had milk because sometimes they would have it but it wasn't on the beverage menu. I would put it in my memory vault so I could remember where to go when the girls needed it. Milk is also $3. Basically anything that doesn't have alcohol in it is $3 in Disney. I'd love to know where they got this number from. The hardest park to get Milk in you ask? That is really easy and the answer is Magic Kingdom. Shocked? Don't be because this goes into my next rant as a parent now with Disney and that is food choices. Outside of hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, and some form of chicken (sandwich or nuggets), there are no other options for quick service foods. Oh wait, I forgot to mention their "healthy choice option" at each park. Wait till you get a load of this one. The healthy choice option at each park is schmuckers PB & J. You read that right. It has little mickey ears by it on every menu, so it has to be healthy right Walt? Food at our hotel also wasn't an option since they were renovating the food court at Caribbean Beach, but we will save that rant. Nora and I feed the girls healthy food, not to say we are insane when it comes to what they eat, however they aren't eating hot dogs for 5 days straight. Nora looked up before we went and she read multiple blogs about people saying there were options for kids at each park. I don't know what the hell they are feeding their kids, but if you are planning a trip and were thinking you were just going to eat at the parks, hope you like the options that I just mentioned every single day. I know what some of you may be thinking and that is well there are plenty of sit down options that you can go to. There sure are, but what was this paragraph about again? Oh yea the difference between going as a parent and non parent. Sitting at a restaurant with the girls is literally impossible right now. They are almost 15 months and act differently, all of which is not appropriate in any shape or form. Londyn has figured out what a restaurant is for. She knows that we go there to eat and she loves to do just this. She has figured out the reason for being at the restaurant, but hasn't quite figured out that you don't just walk in and eat. You have to order and then there is time between your order and when they actually put your food in front of you. Patients isn't one of her strong points and this is when you see it the most. She is good for about 5 minutes in the high chair before she loses it. I'm not talking just a little, but a lot. Head and body are thrown back and it is accompanied by a loud scream that lasts for anywhere between 10-30 seconds. Stop, press rewind, and repeat. This is Londyn until the food finally arrives. Wren takes a different approach to things at restaurants. Just last week she touched our waitresses ass while she was taking the tables order next to us at Cheesecake Factory. I had to apologize, and when I did she started to cry. Not the waitress, well I guess she could have in the back, but Wren. She also likes to take anything that is on the table that is on a form of paper and has words on it and shoves it in her mouth. Restaurants are really clean and I'm sure they clean the small dessert and beverage menu's between each group that sits at each table. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Next she likes to play a game called "I'll pick this up and then throw it on the floor". This is funny for the first few times, but then about the time she sneaks in one of the utensils on the table to the game I'm done with it. I literally take everything in arms reach from her so she can't do this and she then loses it. By this time the foods there and they can start to eat. By start to eat, what I really mean is they get about 30 % of what they pick up in their mouths and the other 70% goes on the floor. It's amazing because they don't do this at home, only at restaurants. I guess I should be thankful, because at the restaurants I do not have to clean it up, but what I have to do is leave at least 22% tip because I feel bad. You know what is missing from this little journey through restaurants? Nora and I eating. This literally happens in shifts. Either I speed eat so I can take care of them or Nora eats about 10 % of her meal and gets the rest boxed up so I can finish and she can take care of both of them. All of this sounds like a great fucking time right, especially in Disney World. If your answer was yes then you can stop reading this blog because I don't want you hear anymore because you my friend are not right in the head. Next rant about the difference between being a parent and going solo is the tilt factor. My patients ran from about a 0-3 on a 10 scale everyday with 10 being the most patient you can be. People don't care about you or your kids. They run you or them over, they want your stroller out of the way so they can go wait in the 3 hour line for Space Mountain, and they don't understand why such a small human who is walking holding hands with an adult can't walk faster. Let me put it this way. I almost throat punched a man in front of Small World because he literally pushed me out of the way while I was holding Londyn. If I had any hands free, he would have got a karate chop right to the larynx, or if I thought i could throw Londyn high enough so I could jab him right in his stupid voice box before I had to catch her again I would have. People if you take anything from this blog, I mean anything, please take this. Disney World is not your driveway, it is not your back yard, it isn't a place you rented out for a few hours so your kid and all their friends can play around. It is a god damn place that people go on vacation with their families or by themselves to have a good time. You are going to see other people, some are going to be decent human beings so treat them that way. You can't get upset because the man (me) is trying to push his stroller through thousands of people while his babies are sleeping. It's called life so deal with it, or get throat punched. It really is a simple concept. Rant over.
Epcot itself was ok. Walking into the park at security while I was getting my bag checked I looked over a few lines down and one of the security guards had two airplane bottles of Tito's in his hand that he confiscated from a couple in their late 50's. Finding it and throwing them out was too easy for the security guard so he went with the tactic of holding them over his head, turning around to his co-workers and chuckled "get a load of these two". Hahahahhahahaa genius. I don't know if he was talking about the couple trying to bring in Tito's or the actual airplane bottles themselves. Either way it was fantastic and if it was a bit, hats off to them.
I've never been a fan of the Epcot even when I was little. The girls did great considering they didn't nap at all and were up since 3:45 am, loved Nemo and Friends, but were so so on Frozen Ever After. Please DM me on facebook or text me if you have my number so I can tell you the Boyz II Men story. I don't want to put it in the blog hahahahahhaha. We exited the park around 6 pm and were back to our hotel by 7, at which time I lose my mind. Let's keep in mind I've been up since about 3 am, traveled on a plane with twins, and spent an entire day at Epcot in 85 degree weather. The front desk called us around 2 pm and told us that the room was ready and my dad reminded them we needed 2 cribs or pack n plays for the girls. Nora also called twice leading up to the trip to make sure that we were going to receive them so the girls had somewhere to sleep. Every time they guaranteed us we were going to have them in our room. You can see where this is going right? We get back to the room and not only do we have 1 pack n play which won't help us, but our bags aren't there that we left at bell services. Nora calls down to the front desk to rheem, and I start to set up the pack n play. About 20 seconds in I can tell this thing is fucking broken. I've set ours up a thousand times and it's just not happening with this one. When I pushed the bottom down in the center to lock it, the sides would literally flap around like one of those big kite things that stand in front of buildings that look crazy when the wind blows. Funny to most, not to this guy with the day he's had so far. I scream to Nora that the pack n play is broken and she yells again to the person on the other end of the phone. Next enters a nice house keeping lady that has been thrown to the wolves. The wolves being me basically. She has no idea what has been promised to us, or what has been unfolding in our room the last 25 minutes, however you work for this shitty establishment mam so someone is going to hear it and that someone is you. I tell her what is going on with the broken pack n play, and she proceeds to try to set it up anyway. Let's take a step back from the trip and talk about one of my biggest pet peeves in life. I hate it when I tell someone something that I know is 1000000% accurate and they proceed to try or do it themselves exactly the way I just told them it doesn't work. When people do this it is telling me two things, with neither being good. It tells me you were ignoring what I was just telling you, or you are telling me without saying the exact words that I am a liar. Both reactions are going to get the same reaction from me and that isn't good. This poor women is standing in the room trying to do exactly what I just told her doesn't work and why it wasn't working. After about 60-80 seconds of her trying she turns to me and says, "It's broken." No shit lady, you don't say. She leaves to go get us another one, but not before Nora reminds her we need 2 of them. The women leaves and now Nora starts yelling at me and how I was rude to the women that had nothing to do with the hotels fuck up. I scream, she screams, Wren and Londyn are screaming because they're now hungry to go along with being delirious. Thanks Mickey, your Caribbean Beach resort sucks. After all of this our bags show up so we finally change the girls, give them their bottles and put them in their pack n plays which aren't broken. Good. Night.
At this point I forget what even happened. I think we ate some shitty room service, showered and passed out ourselves until....
Day 2: Wake up call 4:25 a.m.
Since the first night was a giant cluster fuck, we didn't get a chance to feed the girls dinner because when we tried they just couldn't keep it together. Screaming, more screaming, throwing their bodies all over the place finally made us just punt the idea of dinner and get them dressed, bottles, and bed. Nora and I went to bed around 11 pm after getting showered and situated in our room. We had a solid 5 hours of sleep until Wren woke up screaming at the top of her lungs. She was starving. Wonder why since I tried to feed you chicken, fruit, and cheese the night before and you tried to fight me. We're really doing this now. Up at 4:25 am on vacation to turn on the Disney channel while in Disney World. The irony in this goes beyond trying to explain. It didn't take long for the other one to realize that she also was hungry so she was up and at em with Wren by a little after 5 am. Bottles were given, and breakfast was served super early. They were happy. They were fed. Grandma and Pop Pop in the adjoining room where having the time of their lives with the girls. I'm tired as shit with a day at Magic Kingdom in front of me. Here we gooooooooo. We do the entire bus thing again and arrive at Magic Kingdom. We road a few rides and then were off to the character breakfast at Crystal Palace where Pooh and Friends were there. Food is buffet style and it was decent. Wren and Londyn crushed mac and cheese, corn, sausage, and some fruit. They looooooooved the characters from a distance. From a distance is defined as at least 40+ feet away. Up close was a different story. They saw Piglet first and clapped and laughed while shoving mac and cheese in their mouths. Piglet made his way around to the tables and the closer that he got, the more worried Wren and Londyn got. He arrived at our table and Wren saw him and immediately. Lost. Her. Shit. Piglet tried to touch her and she went from a 10 on a 1-10 scale to a 49. Nora had to pick her up from her high chair, while Londyn was reaching for me because the fear now had flowed through her body as well. This would happen as every character made its way closer to our table until they actually made it to us. Pooh came after Piglet and Wren tried to fight him. No, she really did. Nora was holding her as she was screaming at the top of her lungs and Pooh put his arm around Nora. Wren went into attack mode. She took his hand and flung it off Nora's shoulder. It was hilarious. I'm pretty sure my mom has it on video. Way to go baby girl. You've assaulted the main character at his own breakfast hahhaha. Tigger never made it to the table, however he did do a circle dance around the entire place with the kids every now and then. I jumped in the line with Londyn because she liked it while Wren watched with Nora from a distance. We had the table for 90 minutes so we let the girls walk around the restaurant tormenting the other guests who paid $60 a plate for their food. You're welcome America. We exited the restaurant, and those of you that saw the picture on facebook of my mom with Nora, Wren and Londyn and the ducks understand what happens next. If you didn't you can go see the picture and it is self explanatory. They loved the rides at Magic Kingdom (minus the Dumbo ride for Londyn), but their favorite part of the day was the splash park that is set up right by the Dumbo ride. We let them run through it for about 30 minutes. Londyn got soaked because she would find the areas that were squirting out the most water, while Wren somehow surveyed the area for about 3-4 minutes and figured out how to maximize her movements while minimizing how wet she got. It was phenomenal. It was like the scene in Ocean's 12 in the great hall with the laser fields that the Night Fox goes through. We got food before leaving the park so we had it with us to take back to the hotel room and we actually had somewhat of a routined bedtime. It was great. Day 2 was a lot smoother then day 1 and I'll take it.
Day 3: Animal Kingdom (My favorite park)
The girls slept in late on Day 3, which we didn't complain about because we got to sleep longer, and we were off to my favorite park; Animal Kingdom. I was super excited to get to the park because they had built Pandora from Avatar and it wasn't there the last time I was at Disney. I'm not going to ruin anything for people that haven't been yet, but it's fucking awesome. The boat ride is meh, but the girls could go on it, however the main ride Avatar Flight of Passage is by far the greatest ride I've even been on in my life. You'll need a fast pass or you'll be waiting in line for 4+ hours. This isn't a joke. We got there about 10 minutes after the park opened and the line was already 4 hours long. The ride was the best thing that I've ever been on, but there is no way in hell I'd be waiting in line that long for any ride. We got off the ride and there was a lunch place that had quick service so we sat down and ate there. Food was pretty good, as the place was like Cava. The girls got grapes and cheese quesadillas, and I had a money rice and chicken bowl. Nora got the steak and rice bowl which also looked good so if you are looking for a place to eat in Animal Kingdom this is it as there are outside tables along with the inside seating. Right besides the restaurant was a Margarita and imported beer stand. Sold. I sucked down the strawberry & blood orange margarita and it was off to Everest. This was the worst idea I've had in a very long time. I hadn't been on Everest in 8 years but remembered it went forward all the way up to the track that ends and then it shoots you backwards the rest of the ride. First off all, why the fuck were there hundreds of hair ties up at the top on the rocks besides the track? I mean is this a thing? Was I suppose to bring one of Londyn's hair ties and feed it to the Everest Gods at the top? I don't know. If someone has an answer, I'd love to hear it. Anyway, this ride shoots you backwards and it's not fun. At all. It's rough and flings you around in your seat from start to finish. Add in there that I just had sucked down a delicious margarita, and I felt like I was going to throw up as soon as I stepped off the ride. Oh and I forgot one little bit of detail about the ride. The lap bar that you push down to secure yourself in, was literally as tight as it could be on my thighs. Granted, this was my fault because I was talking to Nora next to me when I was pushing it down and I just went too far, however it has to be mentioned because before the ride started I was uncomfortable. Everest is out. I road it for the last time. Hopefully it's gone by the time that the girls can ride it, because I'm dutch on it. We got to walk through the Gorilla sanctuary and also the tiger one, but the mamma tiger just had 3 cubs and wasn't out in the enclosure. Dad was, but he was sleeping up against the wall and was kind of boring. We road a few more rides before deciding it was time to go, or at least that's what I was under the impression of. All of a sudden Nora was talking with her dad about trying to see if we could get into the Rain Forest Cafe for dinner. For those of you that are not familiar with this place, it is a sit down restaurant. If you were paying attention to what I wrote previously in this blog, you realize this wasn't a good idea. Apparently, I was the only one that remembered the monsters the girls turn into but there was a very little chance we actually were going to get in with a party of 11 at 5 pm on a Friday without a reservation right? Wrong. We got in. Oh did we ever get in. I don't have to type how the girls where since they were exactly like I explained before, but worse. Nora's dad started next to Londyn, but that was a short lived experience as she was screaming and losing her mind so I moved down next to her. Where is Wren? She's already on Nora's lap because the high chair wasn't an option for her in the state of mind she was in. There food gets there and they eat for maybe 2 minutes before losing it even more. Londyn doesn't want to be in the high chair anymore so I pick her up to hold her, but it's the same response. I need to get her away from the table, because it is a restaurant and people are there with their families for vacation and a nice meal. People are not there to listen to my 2 children scream and throw utensils on the floor. I carry her over to the side of the restaurant that has a store on it and let her reek havoc around. She stops crying and proceeds to walk around while taking things from the display they are suppose to be on and walking around with them before putting them down in a random spot and taking another item. Repeat this for about 30 minutes and this is what my time at Rain Forest Cafe consisted of. What about Wren? I have no idea because I never made it back to the table until the real shit show started which I'll get to in a second. Did anyone realize what was missing so far in this story? If you guessed me physically eating something at a restaurant since that is what you are suppose to do at an establishment such as this one you are correct. I ate my flank steak in no joke 3-4 minutes, didn't touch my green beans, and sucked down my mash potatoes in 3 fork fulls. To be honest someone had Londyn at this point, I'm not really sure who and Wren was still glued to Nora's lap. She was trying to grab Nora's quesadilla every time she would bring it up to her mouth to feed herself at which time Nora would say no and Wren would lose it. Repeat until the food is gone or in most cases until we just say fuck it and stop eating. Parenting. Awesome. My parents, Nora's parents, and her Aunt and Uncle are waiting on the bills to get there so I take Londyn outside with me to get the stroller and leave while Nora brought Wren to get changed I believe. Seems simple enough right? Getting a check takes about 5 minutes normally so I'm outside dancing to music with my daughter when I see Anthony, Nora and Wren walking towards me. Nora says two things. The first is our waitress fucked up the checks and was fixing it and next up was she thought she lost her cell phone. I told her that Londyn had grabbed it before he 9th temper tantrum, and it was either on the table or my mom grabbed it. Both were false statements, the checks took well over 45 minutes to fix since she apparently kept fucking it up, and I had to storm back into the restaurant to find the god damn cell phone. At this point everyone else is out of the restaurant but my father and I, the girls are in the stroller losing their minds because they are beyond tired, and I'm about to either tear the restaurant apart like they do the big brother house when they hide the veto's or I'm getting arrested. I walk over to the table and basically throw everything that was on it around, half spilling onto the floor the other half just moving onto the tables next to where we were sitting. Nothing. I check the floor, and there is nothing there besides the shit I just put there in my fit of rage. The only thing going through my mind is the fact if I can't find this phone we have to call the bank and credit card companies to cancel everything because that information is on her phone, forcing us to be in Disney with no form of cash or credit, not to mention the fact that I'm going to have to shell out 7 hunge for a new phone for Nora. Fuck. If you know me well, just picture the mindset that I'm in right now and the scene that is unfolding. I see that the seats where Nora was sitting is one giant bench seat and I can lift the bottom portion to fold up because there is storage underneath the seat. The only problem with this is, there is a safety lock that I don't have to key for. I am jamming it up, trying to break it because 1) It's not my seat 2) I'm angry 3) I'm tired 4) I'm still hungry and 5) I'm angry. I give myself a good 10-20 seconds before I would have succeeded but the manager came over and he was going with the same tactic I was. I figured it be better if he broke it since it was his and let him continue to jam the bench seat up. By this time my mom and Nora had re-entered the restaurant and the manager got the bench seat up enough that my mom could reach her arm down into the storage area. Low and behold she came up with Nora's cell phone. Thank god! Everyone went outside to relive the story and the convo went like this:
Mom: I reached my hand in, felt around, and pulled out the obstruction (Shows Nora's cell phone).
Nora's Dad: What is that, her cell phone?
(Mom Nods)
Nora's Brother: Oh the crowd must have gone wild!
Mom: Oh yes they did Anthony they were all over me. It was like Rocky 1.
Those of you that get that last part I applaud you. Those that didn't just go on it's a scene from Seinfeld. Anyway we have the cell phone, I don't have to pay for anything I don't need, and we still have all forms of payment to spew around the park on the last day we are there. My patients is getting thinner and thinner with every moment still in Florida if you haven't noticed people.
Day 4: Back to Magic Kingdom
My cousin Scott lives in Florida about 2 hours away from Disney and we had planned prior to the trip meeting up since he had only met the girls for a few hours 2 months prior and his 3 kids had never met their cousins before. It was great, as we got to ride the same rides together, ate lunch, and got to spend quality time with each other. We basically hit up the rides we wanted to go on the first time we were at Magic Kingdom just didn't have time to. The girls got to meet Mickey since it was our first fast pass. They watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse almost every day, so they know what he looks like. Once we walked into the room they instantly got excited. It was a completely different reaction compared to the characters at the breakfast from a few days prior. When it was our turn we held the girls and Mickey came over to talk to us. He took a few pictures with us and the girls were a tiny bit fussy at the beginning, but then warmed up. Mickey asked Wren for a high five which she gave him a low five and Londyn touched Mickey's nose. I'm not going to lie when the girls did both of these things I got a creeper in my eye and had to hold back more from coming out. To see both Wren and Londyn smile and get excited while interacting with Mickey was worth every penny we spent. Walking around the park was a bit hard since this was the most crowded any park had been since we arrived. It wasn't surprising with it being a Saturday, so we made it work. We ordered food to go before getting on the Buzz Lightyear ride and I went with Anthony to go pick it up. Disney has no tops to put on your food if you are taking it to go. They give you a to-go box that can be shut which is maybe 6 inches around. You can't fit shit in this box. I swear if one restaurant at Magic Kingdom just got those money plastic tops for to-go orders, they'd increase sales by millions. I'd def be a repeat customer. We had our food and it was off to the bus. We get to the bus and it's that time of night where I have to fold the stroller up and carry it onto the bus. Things are going smoothly until we make it back to our bus stop at our hotel and the back door to the bus opens up. Sounds like this shouldn't be an issue but it was. Prior to this stop the driver asked the people standing in the middle of the bus to move so more people could get on, along with giving the others standing more room but a women literally turned to him and said I'm not moving. Well lady thanks a lot because since I had a very small space to work with, when the driver opened up the door it jammed the bottom of the stroller around a portion of the door. I try to just lift it to get it out, however I realize this thing is jammed in there good. I scream to the front of the bus to open or close the doors again to see if the stroller will come lose, however it doesn't at all. I try for a good 2-3 minutes to no avail. Those laughing right now because you are picturing me angry as hell are wrong. I'm not angry. How isn't Rocky livid at this point of the trip with this going on? That is a simple answer. I paid $25 for insurance on the stroller, so if I couldn't get it out nicely I was going to fucking rip it out of the door breaking one of the seats. I literally had this going through my head as I was standing there trying to get it out. At least with this tactic, I would have paid the $25 for a reason. I did finally get it out of the door and it was time to go. I was done with Disney. It was a great time, but get me out of here.
Conclusion:
Overall it was a great trip. The girls loved it and besides a few hiccups, they were better then we could have asked for. Next time Nora and I go back we will do a few things differently which are listed below:
- I'm done with the moderate hotels. You get what you pay for. I just have no time for incompetence. I know the Deluxe resorts are butt expensive, but I'll pay the extra $200/ night so around 800-1000 for the entire trip so I can be at one of those hotels.
- Next time we will order groceries online and have them delivered to whatever hotel we are staying at. This way we don't have to worry about getting food before we leave the park and also can pack their lunches.
- We won't push it the first day we are there. We will leave and then only stay at the hotel pool the first day we fly in. We will just extend it 1 extra day so we can fit the parks in
- We will split Epcot and MGM into 1 day. We didn't make it over to MGM this trip, but there isn't enough for the girls at either of the parks, so you can combine them which will have plenty to do.
- I will not be in a park during the weekend. The clientele changes drastically and the crowds increase by a lot. We will fly out Sunday morning, stay at the hotel pool all day Sunday, be in the parks on Mon-Thurs, and fly out Friday morning.
- Scheduling will be more on point. We won't be pushing the girls to their limits. We will be leaving the park at 5 pm every day no matter what we are doing or waiting on.
So that was the trip. There was a lot more then happened, however I didn't want to make this already long post even longer. Don't worry, you won't have to wait as long as you did for another post to be up as Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. Hope you enjoyed reading!