[nicatene1]

Hello everyone. Sorry that I took so long getting to this trip report, but the week after we returned, my entire house came down with---The Flu It was horrible, but all are well now. So on with the report. I must warn you that this is my first TR. Please be kind!!

Sun. Nov.28th -- Day 1

Woke at 2:30 am to be on the road by 3:00 for my 7:00 flight. After many months of brillant planning I decided to bypass the airport that is 15 minutes away for the much more sensible one that is 45 - 50 mins away! The weather was horrible in NJ on this morning. Very cold, rainy and too windy. I was afraid that the plane may be grounded, so I announced to the car that if this was the case we would be taking a road trip. Having never flown out of Atlantic City, I was nervous about the airport. I have to say that I think I prefer it to Philadelphia. It was a wonderful experience. The security seemed to be thorough than Phila and the staff was definitely more friendly. So, the flight takes off without a problem. DD LOVED the flight. I didn't know how she would be, but she was great. Loved take off and landing and looking out of the windows.
Arrived on-time in Orlando. Got picked up by Quicksilver. Great service. Made a stop at the grocery store and were on our way to OKW.
Check-in was a snap. Our room was ready even though check-in was not until 4:00 and it was only 11:00 or so. The guy that checked us in gave DD a balloon and kept referring to her as princess. She was in love already and we hadn't even left the resort lobby!
Our room at OKW was lovely. Very peaceful and quaint. We were in room 4110. This is a great location. We were right near the bus stop and pool/playground area. We saw a few lizards on the way into the room and DD proceeded to chase them. This was great, because I could sneak into the room and plant the "welcome surprises" that I brought from Mickey. These went over huge!
After settling in, we went over to Epcot. We were all starving since we hadn't eaten anything all day. I decided that we were going to go to the Garden Grille for lunch. This would be DD's first experience with the characters, so it could go either way. We were told that there would be a half hour wait to eat, so we relaxed in the waiting area. Less than 10 minutes later we were seated. The food was wonderful. It was served family style and consisted of Beef, rotisserie pork, catfish, potatoes, cornbread stuffing, red cabbage, a vegetable mix that had carrots and squash. They also served bread and for dessert a sizzling apple crumble with vanilla ice cream. So good. We had bought an autograph book and oversized pen (along with the cutest Pooh sunglasses) for DD when we arrived at Epcot. We got to see Mickey, Pluto, Chip and Dale at the Garden Grille. The booths are horseshoe shaped and the waitress told us to sit DD toward the outside for character interaction. We decided to sit her in the middle since we weren't sure how she would react. This was good. It got her used to the characters without them touching her. She was able to see them interact with the rest of us sitting on the outside and still wave to her. Dale sat with us and pretended to eat which she got the biggest kick out of. I never heard her laugh that loud!! Pluto drew her a picture on a napkin (her pride and joy!) as well as signed her book. This first meal, I got to be in all of the pictures with the characters, but things would change!
After stufffing ourselves full we headed over to the Living Seas. DD was loving looking at Nemo and friends in the tanks. Then we found the interactive Crush. How cute this was. As described in another thread, Crush is on a movie screen? and all of the kids are welcome to sit on the floor in front. Then, Crush starts to interact with the audience. He actually picks out people and talks to them. He remembers names and answers questions. It is amazing. This one little boy had on a Buzz shirt and Crush saw this. He started talking to this boy about his shirt and pulled out a Buzz doll from behind one of his rocks on the screen. I just don't know how they do these things. We left the Living Seas after this. When we got outside there was an animated Nemo robot of sorts. It was Nemo on wheels. Very cute. We had to visit the crashing water again outside the entrance before we could move on.
Journey to Imagination was next. DD fell in love with Figment. They changed this ride since the last time I saw it and I was a bigger fan of the old way, but it was still cute. Saw the real Figment when we left. He was outside by the jumping fountains. They were taking photos of him for something. He was in the corner and no one saw him, so we were the only ones there. I don't think they wanted a crowd, so we tried not to draw attention to him. We just watched from the other side of the fountains. He saw DD and motioned for her to come over. I took her over to him. She shook his hand and started to ramble on about his ride and lunch and the plane. I couldn't believe how she just was so calm with him. The CM's (or whoever was taking pictures) snapped a few photos. It was just too cute.
My mom wanted to stop at Morocco to pick up a present for my niece, so off we went. DD made a mask and saw Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine. Hated them. As you will see, she wasn't a fan of the characters that were people. If they weren't in a huge animal suit she wanted no parts of them.
We were all tired from waking so early. We decided that we would go back to the room and relax. Got DD to sleep and realxed until 10:00 when I fell to sleep.
So sorry, but I have to finish at lunch. I have been out of work for two weeks and really have to get something started. I promise to finish in about 3 hours.

[Dopey]

I love your report Nikki, write more soon. How fun to take a little one when they can't figure out yet what the characters are all about. Are they real or is there a 'man' in that suit?

[mickaholic4077]

Wonderful report so far!!!

[Dana]

I was so happy when I seen this posted. I enjoyed it very much. You did an excellent trip report. The descriptions were awesome! I love that you were able to get the gifts from mickey in the room for your DD. I am going to go find the rest of this report. I want to hear the rest right now..

[royorb1]

Sounds like your daughter had a magical experience!

[cinderbella]

awee gosh!!! i cannot wait to read the rest!

[lisalovesmickey]

Sounds like a magical first day. Thanks for a great TR. Keep it coming!

Lisa