Day 16: Last day
Say it ain't so!!! We went back and forth on what we should do on our last day in Orlando. Our flight didn't leave until 3:30pm so we had the morning. We finally decided to return to MK one last time. G wanted to check out a few of the rides again and I wanted to try lunch at the Be Our Guest (BOG)restaurant.

We did our usual rundown of the Fantasyland rides, quickly. Then popped into line for lunch. Its a different experience from dinner. You order from a little kiosk and you're given a plastic rose. You find a table and then, somehow, they can tell from the rose where you're sitting and they bring you the food. Its all very efficient. Georgie was hoping to sit at a talbe in the West Wing but it was full. We made due sitting in the rose room.

After lunch it was definitely time to go. We still had to drop the car off and be shuttled to the airport (grrrrr that the stupid car rental place wasn't in the airport where it was supposed to have been). We boarded the empty return monorail and headed back.

Our return flights were uneventful and we made it home by early evening. We were exhausted and still sick. I usually don't like coming home but, this time, I was actually relieved.

Over the next few weeks, I was asked by many people how our vacation went, etc. Each time I had to admit that it was a tough couple weeks. With all the problems we had it would seem that it was miserable. It wasn't. We had a great time but it wasn't the same nice, easy trip we had in September. Each day was challenging and tiring. Hopefully our next trip will be illness free :-)

Day 15: Perfect Princess day

Good news! Georgie woke up feeling great! What a relief. We started out early at the MK Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. G had been planning for awhile to be a "pinkalicious" princess... pink from head to toe.

By now Georgie is an absolute pro at being BBB'd!

After that we were off to the Grand Floridian for the My Disney Girl's Perfectly Princess Tea Party. We were running a bit late which is always a bit stressful. Then, when we arrived, we were told that we didn't have a reservation... what!!! I made that stinking reservation six months earlier. Fortunately we were able to straighten it all out pretty quickly and Georgie and I were escorted in to begin our mommy/daughter afternoon.

As we were seated G saw her Disney princess doll! She loved it!!

 When she popped open her napkink, she found another surprise... a sweet little silver bracelet :-)

G was chosen to help lead a dance and sing a song. Georgie loves being the center of attention so this was super fun for her. I think her being chosen may have been partially to make up for the mix up at check in... whatever, worked for me/1

Georgie was actually singing her doll a little song. So sweet!

 After tea and snacks we had a visit by the original pink princess... Sleeping Beauty!

Afterward, we returned to MK so we could visit with the princesses. What is this? Yet another Sleeping Beauty!!

On our way out we ran into Mary Poppins in her winter coat! So fun! We've seen Mary many, many times but never in her winter coat... silly, I know.

During the trip, G discovered a smoothie stand near the teacups. She was hooked!

We were back to the Polynesian for dinner. We loved the Ohana dinner last time and were pleased to see that the food was just as good on this visit. The only bummer was that they didn't have the coconut races and games for the kids like they did last time. We were told that those would be done a few hours later. It was too long for us to wait. Wish I would have known, may have booked at another time or for another day.

Tomorrow: last day :-(

Day 13: Magic Kingdom
We were supposed to have started our day with a pre park opening reservation at Cinderella's Royal Table. Unfortunately, because Georgie was feeling so crappy the night before, we canceled. This turned out to be a good decision. Georgie slept a little late and, again, we took it very slowly. We got to MK late morning and wandered a bit. Mostly we visited with the characters, rode Dumbo, etc. Easy and low key stuff.

The characters at Silly Pete's Sideshow Circus are really cute!

I cannot put into words how excited Georgie was to meet Ariel in her mermaid tail! Seriously my kid is mermaid cuckoo crazy.

I think we've now experienced the Enchanted Tales with Belle attraction more times than anyone else on the planet. G really likes it... I do too. G likes to be the horse.

 The line for the Haunted Mansion is almost as good as the ride itself.

Gaston is my favorite bad guy.

As the day progressed G started feeling a little better although she wanted us to carry her pretty much everywhere. I was really hoping she'd pep up in time for dinner at the new Be Our Guest (BOG) restaurant. Over six months earlier I'd spent over two hours on the phone to get a reservation. I really hoped we wouldn't have to miss it.

The restaurant decor is amazing! We walked over the bridge and I really got the impression of entering the Beast's castle.

 Even the napkins are folded into a rose.

Bobby had the pork which he said was only ok but I had the steak... amazing!!! There's a reason for that of course. See that is a big blob of garlic butter on top of the steak? Mmmmmm. The pommes frites were also fantastic. So good.

 G only had eyes for the dessert cart :-)

Anyone who goes to BOG has to venture into the West Wing. Its dark and ominous... so fun! G was fascinated by the rose. Hard to photograph but very cool.

The ballroom is the main dining room

The strawberry cupcake was unbelievable!

After dinner we walked by ETWB again. There was hardly any wait and G wanted to do it again so off we went! Just like always, they chose a cute little boy to be the Beast. But, just before it was time for him to go up and play his part, he chickened out. With only seconds to spare the CM grabbed the Beast cape off the little boy and wrapped it over the shoulders of the nearest responsible dad who happened to be Bobby! He played the part of Beast with a little more enthusiasm than I think Belle normally sees.... I wish there was video to record the "ROAR" that came out of Bobby's mouth. LOL!!

Georgie wanted Mama to play a part too. The Wardrobe seemed like a good choice... I'm am good at buying clothes :-)

 The dance... ahhhh

Another good but exhausting day.

Day 9: A day of Ughs
I just have to say it was the smoothest disembarkation I've ever experienced. Disney has you attend breakfast in the restaurant you ate in the night before. When its your turn you just walk off the ship. Luggage? Very organized... took all of 30 secs to locate all of our bags that were grouped together. Wow is all I have to say. Just wow!

We'd arranged for the same car pick up to return us to the airport so we could get our rental car. Weren't we surprised to find that the rental company was no longer located in the airport? Ugh.

Ok, after a bit of effort and an hour or so we finally got that figured out. This is when I first started calling the condo rental company to see if we could do early check in. No luck but no worries. We decided to head to MK for the day.

We got there no problem, got out of the car and were waiting for the tram when Georgie puked. Ugh. Thing is, she didn't really seem sick. I think it was all the jostling around we'd done in the last couple hours. I kept calling the condo rental place about early check in but couldn't get ahold of anyone. We were kind of stranded so we figured we'd just go into MK. I actually had a pretty big day planned for us: Chef Mickey's for dinner and then the Pirate and Pals Fireworks cruise. My fingers could not have been crossed any harder that it would work out.

As it turned out, my little trooper rallied and we ended up having a really nice day! We spent a few hours at MK then headed over to the Contemporary. Chef Mickey's was pretty much what we remembered. The only funny part was that we got kind of dissed by Donald Duck. He came over and G hugged on him like she always does and then he took off. We kind of called him back so we could snap a pick and he threw up his little plush arms in protest. It was at the same time annoying and amusing... grumpy little duck :-)

After that we were off to the Pirate Pals cruise experience. We started out in a party room with pirates hosts, pirate music, pirate decorations and snacks galore! Of course, we weren't at all hungry... we'd just finished dinner. Georgie did manage to choke down a few desserts LOL! After that we went out onto the boat for the cruise. It was silly and fun! Our pirate host did Disney trivia and then we watched the fireworks. It was nice watching them over the water with the music piped in. We returned to find Peter Pan waiting for us.

By that time we were all pretty exhausted so we made our way to the condo. We arrived, punched the code into the lock box and, guess what??? the door didn't open!! Super UGH!!! We tried it over and over again. We made sure we had the right condo repeatedly. I got out the paperwork to call the emergency number and got a voice mail. I then spent the next 30 mins or so trying every imaginable number I could while G laid on top of what looked like a bench but turned out to be the lid to a fancy trash can wrapped in her blanket. To say it was grim would be putting it mildly. At that point I'd had enough and went to the car with G to call the 24 hour emergency number a few more times and to figure out what hotel we'd be staying in. All of a sudden Bobby waved to me to bring G in. Miraculously while punching in random numbers he happened upon the right 4 numbers and the door opened! Thank goodness. I don't think I've ever been so relieved.

Finally an anti-ugh... yay for us!!!  ;-)

Vacation Day 13: MNSSHP!!!
MNSSHP stands for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. After we booked our trip I realized that the first of the halloween parties would be going on during our visit. I've never been to the ones at DL. I've been wanting to go but G's not normally a night person and they don't start until 7pm. Usually G is pretty much toast by 8pm so it never seemed worth it. But, she's getting older and I really wanted to go so we thought we'd give it a try. We slept in that day, got a bit of breakfast at the hotel food court, then packed... what??? Packed??? Yes... packed. Waaaaaaaa!! Somewhere along the way they days had managed to slip by and we were facing our last evening of vacation. Bummer. Anyway, we packed up everything we possibly could and then all took a nap. My goal was to keep my 8pm kid up until midnight... I had high hopes but tried to keep my expectations low :-)

Several months before our trip I made reservations for G and I to do Pirates League makeovers just before the halloween party. I wanted Bobby to do it too but he didn't express much interest. A few weeks before we left he said he was ok with it. I was excited because I thought it would be fun for the three of us to do together. Problem was, getting a pirate makeover for the parties is pretty popular. I called almost every day but was unable to get an appointment for him. We were lucky that when we arrived they were able to squeeze him in! Yay! Pirates League is really cute. Its similar to the Bibbity Bobbity Boutique except, you know, piratey.

The parties officially start at 7pm and end at midnight. That's right, only 5 hours to do as many of the special things offered and manage to squeeze in about 10 potty breaks for G :-) We caught the fireworks which were amazing and saw the Villains show which was also pretty great. We hit some speed bumps on our character hunt but did manage to see several villains: Gaston, Lotso, Frollo, Dr Facilier and my personal fav Maleficent!! (I'm not sure why I like her so much. Maybe because she's the creepiest fairy I've ever seen?) In addition to the baddies we caught: Tarzen/Jane/Terk, Alladin and Abu, Rapunzel/Flynn, Snow White/Prince, Cinderella/Prince Charming, Jack Sparrow (the longest and most frutrating line of the evening but I guess a requirement since we were dressed as pirates), Pirate Goofy, Mickey & Minnie in their halloween wear, and the Seven Dwarfs. Anyway, Bobby helped G and I hunt characters until she just became too exhausted and finally crashed in the stroller. Poor little thing. She made it to about 11pm and then she stuck her lower lip out and I knew she was done. Sweet baby.

Bobby and I spent our last hour in the park getting a final Dole Whip, cashing in our 11 unused snack credits for chocolate covered Mickey shaped rice crispy treats to bring home, and partaking in a bit of whining about our vacation coming to an end :-) After joining the throngs of people on the monorail to get out of the park we made it back to our hotel, finished up final packing and fell into bed about 2am.

Here we are, ready and psyched about our impending pirate-hood.

Sassy!

I thought they did a really good job on G's make up. The girl really took her time which was nice. G loved the experience possibly even more than BBB but I'm not sure.

Taking her pirate oath

Proof of our acceptance into the dishonorable society of pirates :-)

I've heard that people wait in line up to 2 hours to visit with the Dwarfs. Crazy. We hopped in line pre party to beat the rush and were about 8th in line. Luckily the meet up is right next to a playground so G ran off a little steam while we waited.

Next stop Jack Sparrow himself!

Bobby, who wasn't going to dress up for the party initially, really seemed to tap in to his inner pirate

The neat thing about the parties is that the princesses appear with their princes. First with Snowy and Prince. I confirmed, he has no other name.

Flynn and Rapunzel are nothing too special for us. They appear somewhat regularly at DL. Having said that he was a very funny Flynn even if he didn't have a tiara in his satchel like he does at DL.

Cindy and Charming who was, honestly, unbelievably charming and polite.

I scoped out a front of line spot for Maleficent which Bobby manned while I grabbed G and we hunted down a few baddies. Gaston was one that was near the top of our list.

I love this picture of us with Lotso (from Toy Story). The castle in the background looks awesome!

After the Villains show, we finally met Maleficent... she's kind of my holy grail for characters so it was pretty fun. BTW, little G walked right up to Maleficent, all by herself completely in the dark... no fear at all. Love it!

Quick stop with Frollo

Finally with the Shadow Man from Princess and the Frog. There were tons of people waiting to see him and G ended up being called up as the last person. This never happens to us. We always seem to be the people who end up getting cut but I guess sometimes you get lucky :-)

With Jane, Terk and Tarzan. Tarzan was really into his character. I mean really. into. his. character. Calm down a bit Tarzan ;-)

Last stop, Abu and Aladdin. I'm always impressed that G's able to keep it together as well as she does. She was super tired.

Really fun night. We didn't get to do everything I wanted to but overall it was success. Bobby and I agreed that if we had it to do over again, we would have gone to two of the Halloween parties so we could have done all we wanted. Maybe next time!