I gave Todd some chewable melatonin about 15 minutes before boarding. This worked out perfectly. He dozed off just as the plane was taking off and woke up right before we landed in Orlando.
Sean did great on the plane. He read books, ate the pretzels provided by the flight attendant, as well as the Goldfish crackers, string cheese and granola bars I put in his backpack.
When we arrived in Orlando, I made the decision to take Todd on the Magic Express, which was a complimentary service through our hotel, Disney Contemporary Resort. Todd has a very hard time waiting, so I anticipated going to baggage claim, then taking a shuttle to the rental car place, then waiting for the rental car, would be too much for him. Ugh. There was nothing magical about the Magic Express. We had to wait in line for a check-in that took FOREVER then wait FOREVER for the bus to finally show up. I assume my use of italics and capital letters communicates what a bad experience that was. Todd was hungry, thirsty, crying, yelling, miserable. Even though they were speaking in Spanish, I could tell the people in front of us in line were talking about us. They shut up when I gave them a stare of death. At this point, I was in tears, too. The bus finally showed up. I think I made a comment, “I hate Disney already” or something. Once we were on the bus, Todd was fine. He loves riding in any vehicle. The ride took about 45 minutes, but I think I needed that time to calm myself down.
We arrived at Disney Contemporary. I was bracing myself for another long check-in wait. This time, I was pleasantly surprised. My brother called ahead to see if Todd and I could check-in ahead of the rest of our party. The woman who checked us in was so nice and accommodating – she noticed Todd was having a hard time, so she said she wouldn’t give me the usual lengthy check-in spiel and just gave us the key cards and a map to our room.
Since the Magic Express experience took so long, my brother, dad and older son arrived right behind us.
Our room was lovely. It was located on the sixth floor of the Contemporary Tower. We had a lovely view of Bay Lake and right outside our door, you could look down and see the monorail coming and going.
I was initially concerned about the room because there was a lot of marble and sharp edges. However, no injuries occurred. It was decorated in an appropriately contemporary style, very Asian-esque. Surprisingly, we were unable to get Disney Jr. on the TV. The doors were child-safety-friendly – a top lock high up on the front door as well as on the balcony door. There were two sinks in the bathroom – very wide and flat, but not very deep. Todd spent many an hour turning the water on and off and splashing in the sink. Because of the shape of the sinks, hardly any water splashed to the floor, so there was no slipping hazard there. There was a sliding door to the bathroom and then another sliding door to the toilet, which was in a separate little room, like a European WC. On one hand it was good, because the kids couldn’t lock themselves in the bathroom, but on the other hand, Todd kept sliding it back and forth to the point we were worried he would crack one of the doors, but he didn’t. The two closets in the entryway opened and closed with long vertical handles. Todd loved opening and closing these doors. He also loved pressing the buttons of the safe that was in one of the closets. We got a noise complaint over that. (Yay, just like home!) We figured out a way to twist and tie towels around the door handles so he couldn’t open the doors. Childproofing, just like home!
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