~ A 21 month old, a celebrity sighting, & a whole lotta food~2 week trip~ 2/28 update

[Sunset Cliffs]

I really enjoyed Boma in September and tried to figure out how to get it into the January trip too, but there were just not enough meal times available since we wanted to try out so many places. We did go to Tusker House, though, which is sort-of like Boma. It was pretty good, but I still really want to go back to Boma.

Yea, glad someone else read our PTR Yeah, we had some "magical moments" and some "miserable moments" this trip. But how can you not have a great time at WDW, right? I'd do it all over again if I could. Except for Thursday. I'd definitely skip Thursday...

Now I've probably really got you curious!

I have heard that about Tusker House. How much is it really like Boma, I'm curious? We have not eaten there since the change to buffet, and we were wondering if this would be a good substitute if we choose to not do Boma the next time around.

I will try to start on your TR this weekend. Yes, you now have me curious!!

I am tempted to do a TR after getting so addicted to reading them here on the dis. I am not the best writer, though. I do catalog some of my favorite events/memories on a blog that my parents use to keep updated on Lily. I plan on putting that blog into book format soon. If I get some good pics, I'll try to post them for you!

Lily is not a fan of sharing her toys, but there were so may things in your TR that reminded me of Lily's fave activities at Disney that I'm sure they would have gotten along. For example, she loved running on those light up squares after the journey into Imagination ride with figment.

YAY for your next DL trip! That's even sooner than our next WDW trip. How exciting! I'm jealous that you live close enough to do trips to DL, and with friends! That would be nice to get in a Disney fix every once in a while. Are you going to do a mini TR for either your last DL trip or the upcoming one? If so, I'm in!

Sharing is a big issue we work on w/ Dylan too. He has a best friend that he plays with (he has know him since birth) and they love each other. But even they have their moments where we have to just put all the toys away. They get along better w/ out toys. They just run up and down the hall and chase each other.

We are really excited about our upcoming trip. DL is not really close...it's about a 9 hour drive. But Todd's parent live about 7 hours away, so we stop at their house and then drive the final 2 the next morning. 2 birds w/ one stone! Once we bought the AP's this year, we made a commitment to go to DL as much as we can afford (time & money-wise). I do plan on doing another PTR, I need to get it started. Just not enough hours in the day.

Just got caught up with your TR. I have really enjoyed it! I have made some notes about things you did that I want to do (like try a Napoleon....yum).

Thanks so much for reading. If there is one thing that I never get tired of, it is that Napoleon. I keep waiting for it to get old, and it never does. The biggest problem is getting Todd to share with me.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Now that we had turned in our car to the car rental place, we had no transportation for the rest of the night. We needed to eat dinner & then start packing to go home. We put Dylan in his stroller and walked to Bennigan’s, which is right out on the SR-535, near the entrance to the Sheraton Vistana. It only took us about 5 minutes to walk there from our condo. There is a Walgreens & a Wendy’s right next door. This is another reason why we like this condo location so much. You are so close to everything!

We walked in at 5:45 and were seated immediately. There was barely anyone in the restaurant, so it was nice & quiet. Dylan was probably the loudest one in the whole building! We had a very nice server and they have a pretty big menu.

Todd got the ribs & steak combination. It was a pretty large portion and he said that the ribs were really good. The steak was good too, but he said it needed some A-1 sauce.

We got Dylan his own meal this evening. He had a kid’s meal Chicken Basket. It came w/ fries and a drink for $3.99. This thing was huge. It would have been a big enough meal for me. I ordered the Monte Cristo sandwich. Wow! It was so good. It was deep fried and it was huge! I could only eat ½ of it, & I took the other ½ back to the room with me.

If you like Monte Cristo sandwiches, you will not be disappointed with this one. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down the prices of everything, but the total for our bill was not that high, considering how much food that we had.

Since I didn’t have to share anything with Dylan, I skipped the fries with my meal and got a side salad. He wanted the tomatoes off my salad, and wanted to dip everything in my little cup of ranch dressing. I recall this is the night that Dylan really discovered his love of Ranch dressing. His passion for it has not stopped since then. LOL It started with dipping the tomatoes…

moved on to dipping the chicken & fries….

and by the end he was trying to drink the ranch out of the little cup.

You can kind of see the ring of ranch that goes up over his nose from pressing the cup to his face.

I started calling him our “Little Dipper” after this meal. He definitely added some comic relief to our dinner, since we both were getting pretty depressed that we were leaving. We are kinda bummed that we didn’t try this place earlier in the trip. We probably would have eaten here twice since the menu was so big.

We walked back to the condo and decided to take Dylan swimming one more time, since he had enjoyed the pool so much. We got to the pool at 6:50. There were clouds overhead & it looked like it might rain, but we figured we would stay as long as we could. It sprinkled on & off the whole time we were there, but never any serious rain. As a result, the pool was pretty empty. I’m so glad we stayed because Dylan had a great time. I must say that after this trip he really likes to swim now. He is very confident (as long as he had his floatie) and he was learning to kick his legs to get him where he wanted to go.

We stayed until 8:00 and as we were leaving, we gave Dylan’s ball that we bought at Walmart to a family with 5 kids. There was no way to take it home with us and he didn’t need it anyway. They seemed really surprised but happy that we offered it to them, since their kids didn’t have any pool toys. We chatted with them for a few minutes and they had British accents, but I didn’t ask where they were from. It was the first evening of their trip, and I was jealous that they were just starting their vacation.

We got back to the room and started packing. I was still running loads of laundry and I tried to balance out the weight in all 3 of our suitcases. I was a little worried because those placemats that we bought in Japan were so heavy, & I thought for sure it was going to send us over the weight limit. I even ended up drying almost all of our clothes in the dryer for 15 minutes at a time, just to get out any extra moisture that might be in them due to the Florida humidity. I know it sounds crazy but I swear that it helped!

I took a shower & dried my hair so I wouldn’t have to do it in the morning, and Todd fed Dylan a lot of food, since the majority of what he had eaten at dinner was Ranch dressing. We also had a lot of food left over from our Walmart run at the beginning of the trip. It’s amazing that when we bought it we didn’t feel like it would be enough to get us through 2 weeks. We still ended up leaving some items that hadn’t been opened with a note to the Housekeeping to help themselves to anything that they wanted. But Todd tried to get as much as he could into Dylan & himself. LOL. I kept eating bites of my Monte Cristo sandwich left over from dinner because I didn’t want to throw it away. In the end we all were stuffed by the time that we went to bed.

I finally got done packing everything by 10 pm. We had to get up at 4:00 am the next morning because our car service was picking us up at 5:00 am since our flight was so early in the morning. We put Dylan to bed at 10:00 and we were in bed by 10:30. We were exhausted, since it was such a busy day.

Up next, our “interesting” flight home.

 

[Dugette]

I have heard that about Tusker House. How much is it really like Boma, I'm curious? We have not eaten there since the change to buffet, and we were wondering if this would be a good substitute if we choose to not do Boma the next time around.

I will try to start on your TR this weekend. Yes, you now have me curious!!

I think it depends on what you like about Boma. The ambiance is quite different at Tusker House. But not bad. Although they have the same types of food, the specific foods are different, so no Zebra Domes. But it was good. There was a variety of food. Even corn dog nuggets. We enjoyed it and left full. If I had to pick, I'd still choose Boma...it was just a better experience for me, overall. But Tusker House was good. It does have the advantage of being right in the AK park, so you don't have to leave. Don't know if that helps you at all...

We'll have some pics of it in our TR. It's not until Day 5, though, so you'll have to wait a bit.

If there is one thing that I never get tired of, it is that Napoleon. I keep waiting for it to get old, and it never does. The biggest problem is getting Todd to share with me.

I was looking forward to getting one of these, based on your recommendations. Unfortunately, due to circumstances later in our trip, we never did. Next time!

Glad you enjoyed your last night there. That's cute with Dylan and the Ranch dressing all over his face!

Up next, our “interesting” flight home.

Ooooh, you're using that "interesting" word too! Looking forward to hearing about it!

 

[ladybugmom]

Awww! I hate that your TR is coming to an end. Dylan is cracking me up with the Ranch dressing! Claire is the same way! She LOVES to dip things into Ranch dressing, ketchup, etc. I'm interested in hearing about your flight home!!

 

[LilAnn]

Oh no, you're coming up on the flight home. That's always a sad day. Although when you say it was "interesting," you definitely have me intrigued! oh my gosh - that ranch dressing sequence was so funny!

 

[eandesmom]

Little kids and ranch dressing. I think it's universal!

It sounds like you had a nice last night, relaxing even though you were getting ready to leave.

 

[tinkgurl]

Love his Ranch mess all over that adorable face!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I love the pictures of Dylan and the ranch dressing face. How sweet!

It's always sad when a Disney vacation comes to an end. You know the only way to cure the blues is planning another one which you have already started to do.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

I think it depends on what you like about Boma. The ambiance is quite different at Tusker House. But not bad. Although they have the same types of food, the specific foods are different, so no Zebra Domes. But it was good. There was a variety of food. Even corn dog nuggets. We enjoyed it and left full. If I had to pick, I'd still choose Boma...it was just a better experience for me, overall. But Tusker House was good. It does have the advantage of being right in the AK park, so you don't have to leave. Don't know if that helps you at all...

We'll have some pics of it in our TR. It's not until Day 5, though, so you'll have to wait a bit.

I was looking forward to getting one of these, based on your recommendations. Unfortunately, due to circumstances later in our trip, we never did. Next time!

Glad you enjoyed your last night there. That's cute with Dylan and the Ranch dressing all over his face!

Ooooh, you're using that "interesting" word too! Looking forward to hearing about it!

Thank you for your input on Tusker House. I think we are going to try it next time. And next time for your...you definitely need to get a Napoleon. You will not be disappointed!

Yeah, the flight was mostly boring. Mostly. Hope to have an update this weekend.

Awww! I hate that your TR is coming to an end. Dylan is cracking me up with the Ranch dressing! Claire is the same way! She LOVES to dip things into Ranch dressing, ketchup, etc. I'm interested in hearing about your flight home!!

Dylan calls everything "dip dip" now. I think it's because I would show him how to dip it, & I would say, "You have to dip, dip it." So the name has stuck. He is the same as Claire. It's doesn't matter what it is as long as it is a dip-able liquid.

Oh no, you're coming up on the flight home. That's always a sad day. Although when you say it was "interesting," you definitely have me intrigued! oh my gosh - that ranch dressing sequence was so funny!

Yeah, in this case, "interesting" was not a good interesting.

I think that Ranch incident was the messiest one we have ever had. I'm so glad we took pictures!

Little kids and ranch dressing. I think it's universal!

It sounds like you had a nice last night, relaxing even though you were getting ready to leave.

Yeah, I don't think Dylan could escape genetics. Todd & I both love ranch. It's in his blood.

Love his Ranch mess all over that adorable face!

That just documented the beginning of his obsession with dipping anything in ranch (or some other liquid). The other day I caught him dipping a Dorrito chip in a glass of water. We created a monster!

I love the pictures of Dylan and the ranch dressing face. How sweet!

It's always sad when a Disney vacation comes to an end. You know the only way to cure the blues is planning another one which you have already started to do.

Isn't it weird how sad it becomes to finish a TR? It feels like the real ending all over again. I agree with you about having another trip to plan. I'm so glad for the distraction!

 

[*dreamit*doit*]

Hi Alison!

End of the trip
Planning another trip

Love the pictures of Dylan w/ the dressing, you can tell he was really enjoying it!

Uh-oh, your flight home was bad interesting? Hopefully not too bad??

Well, I finally started my TR, thanks to some encouragement from you!

 

[Raecheal]

I"m so upset that your coming to the end of the trip....

Great update!! I meant to ask you which outlet's you visited?

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Hi Alison!

End of the trip
Planning another trip

Love the pictures of Dylan w/ the dressing, you can tell he was really enjoying it!

Uh-oh, your flight home was bad interesting? Hopefully not too bad??

Well, I finally started my TR, thanks to some encouragement from you!

I am glad that you started a TR!! I will jump over & get on board. I can't wait to hear about the planning madness that must have happened to keep all of those people in line. I have been avoiding writing the last update because it is sad. But yes, having a new trip to plan definitely eases the pain.

I"m so upset that your coming to the end of the trip....

Great update!! I meant to ask you which outlet's you visited?

I know, I'm sad too. We visted the Premium Outlets. They are not too far from WDW. I can get you better directions if you would like them, but the easiest way for me to tell you to get there is from DTD. Go through the hotel area at DTD towards the Crossroads. At the SR-535 take a right and drive until you go under the I-4. You will see some restaurants (like Bahama Breeze) on the left, and at that intersection (it is a stop light), go left. You will follow that road around for less than a mile, and the outlet will be on your left. Love those outlets. I hope that you get there because you will like the Banana Republic outlet.

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

We were all packed & ready to get up early for our early trip to the airport. We went to bed early to try to get as much sleep as possible before the long day ahead of us. Dylan had other plans….

We had put him to bed at 10:00. At 1:45 in the morning, he woke up crying hard. I got up with him and rocked him for a while. He kept whimpering but falling back asleep. I’d put him down & just fall back asleep myself & he would wake up again. We repeated this little situation a few times & I realized that he had an upset stomach. (Remember how Todd didn’t want to waste food so he fed Dylan as much as he would eat before he went to bed? Yeah, it turns out that wasn’t a good idea…). I gave him some gas drops & he finally settled down at 3:00 AM. Our alarm clock went off at 4:00 AM. So much for a decent night’s sleep.

We let Dylan sleep as long as we could while we were getting everything ready to go. The car service was supposed to pick us up at 5:00 AM since our flight was leaving at 7:00. We ate some breakfast & got ready to go, then woke him up & got him dressed. I had packed plenty of snacks in his bag, but I didn’t want to feed him anything right then since I was worried his tummy was still upset. I made him a PB&J sandwich for the flight.

The car showed up 5 minutes early & we packed up the car & Todd rode over to the main lobby to check out while I walked through the condo one more time to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. I was so sad because I was remembering how excited we were when we walked in the front door for the first time & saw where we would be living for 2 weeks. Dylan sat out on the patio for a few minutes until Todd came back. I think that was his favorite spot in the condo.

We got on the freeway with very little traffic & had a quick drive to the airport. The driver was extremely nice & we talked with him about the economy & how he had taken on this job for extra money because his home was threatening to get foreclosed on. It is such a sad situation that so many people are going through, & you have to admire someone who is doing everything they can to make it through.

We pulled up to the curb & there was barely a line for curbside check in, so we decided to just do it there instead of waiting in line inside. We unloaded all of our stuff & tried to make sense of what we were checking and what we were carrying on. Remember how I was so worried about the weight of all of our suitcases? The guy picked up each one & said, “They all feel like they are less that 50.” !!!! They didn’t have an actual scale outside, so this guy just went by his guess. I was so relieved I almost started laughing. The only bad thing is that we had to pay for Dylan’s bag this time (the lady gave it to us for free at the beginning of our trip.).

We got through security with no problems and didn’t have to wait very long until our plane was boarding. This is the only picture I took this whole day. I was too sad to take pictures on the way home. He is smiling but you can see how tired he is. Poor little guy.

I changed his diaper one last time before we got on board. I was really hoping that he would do more than pee before we got on the flight, but it didn’t happen. You see where this is going, right?

We take off & Dylan handled it well. We had him drink his juice & his ears did not seem to bother him. Considering he had very little sleep, he was wide awake for most of this flight. He was a good boy though & watched his videos on the PSP & we played with some of his other toys. I kept giving him gas drops because he would get a little cranky & I could tell it was his tummy.

Well, finally…it happened. We had been in the air for about 2 ½ hours & we had another 2 ½ to go and all of a sudden we both caught the smell of his diaper. When I changed his diaper on the flight there, there was no changing table & I had to change him standing up. That was not going to work this time. We debated what to do, & we finally decided to tag team it. We both took him to the back of the plane & the stewardess was just getting ready to roll the drink cart down the aisle. We told her we needed to change his diaper & she said she wasn’t quite ready so we were not in her way. We ended up getting the lavatory that is right next to the back row of seats (the other ones were being used) so we were totally blocking the aisle.

Let me just say that I am surprised that Dylan is not still traumatized by this diaper change to this day. I know that Todd & I both are. We put the toilet seat down and put his changing pad on top of it. There is not a lot of room in the toilet area, so we left the door open & Todd was ½ in & ½ out of the stall. I was standing behind him in the aisle with the bag & all of the items needed. The plan was for Todd to do the changing while & handed him everything over his shoulder as he would need it.

So Todd lays Dylan down across the top of the toilet seat, which is totally uncomfortable for Dylan & he immediately starts crying & trying to get up. Todd gets his diaper off of him…& I am not exaggerating when I say that this was the largest dirty diaper that has ever been made by a baby. I was cursing Todd in my mind, remembering all of the food that he had Dylan eat the night before. So Dylan is squirming, the diaper is huge & it …is…going…everywhere. I will spare you all of the gross details but it took us about 5 minutes (& 30 baby wipes) to get it changed & to clean up the bathroom after Dylan was clothed again. I just kept handing wipes to Todd over his shoulder & I had put a plastic bag between his feet to throw everything in. Both of us were almost throwing up at the sight that we were seeing (like that would have helped the clean up process afterwards!). After we were done, I triple-bagged the diaper, & I felt horrible but I had to throw it away in the trash can in the bathroom. What else was I supposed to do with it? By now the stewardess is ticked that she let us block the aisle & she is just standing there watching this all go down.

It was the most miserable 5 minutes that I had experienced in a long time & it felt like it took an hour. As we were walking back to our seats, I could feel the judgmental eyes of everyone burning into the back of my head. When we sat down, Todd & I just looked at each other like, “Did that just really happen?” & a little while later I started laughing about it. Of course, Dylan wants to eat his sandwich. Wow…that sucked bad.

After that incident, I was relieved that the rest of the flight was pretty non-eventful. We landed in San Francisco & had a short layover until our flight back to Redding. Dylan had another dirty diaper right before we landed so I waited & changed him in the bathroom inside the airport. The poor kid handled it well, but by that point I just wanted to get home.

We landed on time in Redding & our friend Michelle was waiting to pick us up. It was 110 degrees outside & she was very pregnant & I felt so bad for her. The funny thing is that it had been so hot & humid in Florida that both Todd & I commented that it didn’t even feel that hot to us. That just tells you how much our bodies had acclimated to deal with the heat over the 2 weeks we were there.

She took us home & we were able to give her the little Minnie Mouse onesie that we had bought for the baby. I love giving out souvenirs to everyone when you get home. After we showed her some pictures, she left & we settled in to being home. Our plane had landed at noon, which felt weird since we left at 7:00 AM & had been travelling for about 8 hours. It’s the time change coming back that makes the day so long. Dylan was so wound up that he wouldn’t go down for a nap. He just wanted to play with the dogs.

So that is the end of our wonderful, 2 week trip to see the Mouse. I will be doing at least one more update to review all of our favorites from the trip. Thank you for sticking with me as long as you have!!!

 

[sharonW]

Thanks so much for sharing your magical experience.
I totally enjoyed it and am so sad to see it end. I
hope there will be another trip planned very very soon.

 

[jordanyosh]

now THAT's an airplane story!

What can you do? It happens....

 

[Sunset Cliffs]

Thanks so much for sharing your magical experience.
I totally enjoyed it and am so sad to see it end. I
hope there will be another trip planned very very soon.

Aww, thanks for sticking with me. It is a little sad because it feels like it is ending all over again. Yes, we have a trip to DL planned in a few weeks & I still need to start my TR from the last DL trip. I will post links here when I get those going.

now THAT's an airplane story!

What can you do? It happens....

Ha, ha. All the talk of airplane stories on your TR, & I never even thought about this one. I'm used to your stories of everyone else being the "gross" part of the story. In this case, we were the ones grossing everyone else out. Maybe no one noticed.

BTW - I was just reading your Arizona drunk story (I'm working my way through your old TR's) & was laughing about how you were the "drunk" in the drunk story for once. That's how this story feels about the bad plane experience.

 

[tinkgurl]

Wow, that is definately some airplane story!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Goodness gracious! I started to say poor Dylan but I feel the need to add you and Todd to the poor mix too!

 

[momtoBrandon&Jacob]

Awww I'm so sad your report is over. I've really enjoyed it!

 

[LilAnn]

Isn't it just "funny" how the big blowouts happen at the most inappropriate times? I can't even count how many times Lily has had a blowout when we were not at home and we've had to improvise ways to clean her up. The joys of parenthood!

Anyways, so sad to see your TR come to an end. I do look forward to hearing you plan future trips. I have to reread your TR as we are nearing our upcoming trip so I have activities written down to do.