Me And My Boy Take 2 - Day 7 Laundry, Pool Time & Hollywood Studios

[meandmyboy]

Monday 17th November 2014 - Day 7 Laundry, Pool Time & Hollywood Studios

(Apologies - this day is very light on photos!)

I had a really good night’s sleep last night, waking up just before 7am and Jacob slept on until 7.30am. Once we were both awake we got up and got ready and Jacob had a bath. We had no park plans this morning so were in no particular rush - which is just as well as we didn’t make it out of the room until about 9am!

I took our two bags of worn clothes to the laundry nearest our room and loaded them into the washer. I had a spare packet of detergent left over from last year’s trip so I used that too. The machines at ASMu take coins, whereas the ones I’d used at POFQ last year took payment by card, and I hadn’t made sure I had enough coins for the machine - which I didn’t. Unfortunately the coin change machine was broken and an engineer was there trying to fix it, but luckily for me a man was emptying the laundry machines of coins so I was able to change some $1 notes into coins for the washer. Stupidly though I forgot to get more change for the dryer machine, I think was assuming that the coin change machine would have been fixed and working again by then.

The wash cycle was only 30 minutes so we walked the rest of the way across the resort to the main hotel building and picked up some breakfast. I had a cinnamon bun and a coffee in my refillable mug. Jacob had a plain croissant and an apple juice that I’d brought with me from our room (bought in Walmart). By the time we’d finished eating it was time to head back to the laundry room and move it into a dryer. I should explain at this point, just how slow going it was trying to get Jacob to walk from one end of the resort to the other, he was walking slower than the slowest slow thing in the world and it was really testing my patience, as I just wanted to get on with what we needed to do.

When we got back to the laundry room I saw that the coin change machine was still out of order and after checking my purse I realised I only had three 25c coins when I needed eight. After some faffing around I managed to get change from a couple of people who were around the pool area outside the laundry room and set our dryer to go. I had a bit of an internal debate with myself over what heat setting to use and decided to opt for the medium one as I was worried about shrinking some of our clothes on the high heat. This turned out to be a bad decision. Whilst we waited for the half hour cycle to run I took Jacob to the little playground at the resort and he had fun on the climbing frames and slides. Although soon he started saying he was lonely as there were no other children there to play with and I wouldn’t go on the slides with him (I was worried about my big bum getting stuck!).

When half an hour had passed we headed back to the laundry to find that the cycle was complete... but that the clothes were all still damp due to my decision to go for the medium cycle. Aaaaaarrrrggggghhhhh! Of course I now had no other 25c coins to put another cycle on, but couldn’t go back to the room with damp clothes because we had nothing to air them on. After some internal (and maybe a little bit of external) shouting at myself, I decided to head back to the room because I’d promised Jacob I would take him swimming after we’d done the laundry. So we got changed into our swim gear and then it was another snail’s paced crawl across the full length of the resort to the main pool and other laundry building. I was in a seriously bad mood by this point as it the two bags of damp laundry were quite heavy and biting into my hands, and Jacob was determined to walk as slow as humanly possible once again. My patience level was pretty much on empty by now.

Finally we reached the other laundry room and I was able to use the change machine there to get another eight quarters to put the dryer on again. I grabbed myself a lemonade in my refillable mug from the small food court and we headed back to the main pool area. I was pretty quiet at the pool and there were loads of loungers available, so I chose one and dumped our bits and pieces on it, then got a float vest for Jacob and we headed into the pool. It felt really cold going in but it wasn’t actually too bad as long as you kept on moving in the water.

Jacob was quite scared and grabbed onto me for dear life (round the neck which was a bit painful!). Eventually he gained a little confidence and was able to float holding my hands, but he hated being on his back. After about half an hour or so I’d had enough so I made Jacob get out, but he was complaining so much in the end I let him paddle in the splash pool while I attempted to dry out on the sun lounger. As it was now past 12pm I eventually had to drag Jacob away from the splash pool so we could retrieve our laundry from the dryer, and then once again it was the long, slow walk back across the length of the resort to our room - where we found the housekeeping cart right outside our room! Terrible timing. Fortunately after a quick check I realised she wasn’t yet in our room so we were able to nip in for a quick dry off and change and then we headed straight back out again. No nap for Jacob today then.

It was time to head over to Hollywood Studios to get some lunch and do some rides. We arrived and parked up in Film 28, right on the end of the row and we boarded a tram pretty quickly. After entering the park we headed straight into the shop where I’d seen the Christmas decoration I wanted to buy. Fortunately they still had it - it was Mickey, Minnie, Goofy & Donald in a sleigh and a separate ornament of Pluto with antlers next to a Christmas tree, with ribbon reins so it looked like he was pulling the sleigh. Together they would be $75 plus tax. But as I was making up my mind I noticed another ornament of everyone, minus Pluto, on a train and Jacob declared that this one was far better. At $50 plus tax it was cheaper too, so I decided to change my mind and get this one instead! I paid and asked for it to be sent back to the resort so I didn’t have to carry it around all afternoon.

Next we headed to Starring Rolls to get some lunch. There were thunderstorms forecast for this afternoon and it had just started to rain so we ran across the street and into Starring Rolls. Jacob was a total pain in here whilst I was trying to order food, including picking up a croissant and demanding it for his lunch. In the end I got him the kids lunch meal with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, carrot sticks, cookie and apple juice, and I had the California roll sushi box, some crisps and a chocolate milk. Oh, and I also had a Butterfinger cupcake too - something on my “must try” snack list. It was yummy but much too sweet to eat more than a small portion of.

We managed to nab a free table and sat and ate our lunch as the rain carried on (fortunately we were under an umbrella). It wasn’t too heavy at this stage but after we’d finished lunch and were walking to our first fastpass at Star Tours it started to get heavier and heavier. I stopped with Jacob at a table with an umbrella to shelter under and dug the emergency ponchos out of my bag. We put them on and made our way to the ride. Fastpass scanned (again there were loads of people trying to go down the fastpass line without actually having a fastpass - why?! ) we headed into the dry and removed our ponchos. There wasn’t too much of a wait before we were loaded onto the ride. I wasn’t sure what Jacob was going to make of this but wanted to give it a try as he was now tall enough to ride. Suffice to say he hated it! Within seconds he was whimpering and shouting “I don’t like it - make it stop! ”. In between reassuring him and trying to watch the screen I was also trying not to laugh (I’m such a bad mummy!). Jacob was very relieved when it was over and I was feeling a little queasy from having to keep bending across to Jacob to reassure and cuddle him. Jacob declared it too fast and scary and said he would never ride it again!

As we still had a fair while until our next fastpass at Toy Story Mania I thought we could watch the Muppet 3D show as it was on the way and only a 5 minute wait time - another bonus being that it was inside and dry! But oh no, Jacob was having none of it. Despite me trying all sorts of reassurance and promises that it was not loud or scary and that he’d enjoyed it last year, he would not be convinced and started screaming the holding room down. So I had no option but to leave. Yes, I’m slightly ashamed to say that my son bailed on the Muppets show because it was too scary!

With nothing else to do - again he refused to meet Mater or Lightening McQueen, the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground was closed, and the Mike & Sulley meet wasn’t open - we wandered around in the rain. I decided to check out the Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post and the Snow Playground, but I could not believe the length of the queue to play in fake snow...it was ridiculous! Jacob liked the talking/singing Olaf toy in the shop though.

As we left the shop the rain really started to pour down and there was lightening and thunder. We ended up sheltering under cover near the Mike & Sulley meet place where I was lucky enough to find a free seat. Eventually our fastpass for TSM came round so we headed over there in our ponchos. Jacob was reluctant to ride, even though he’d loved it last time, and half way round he just stopped playing and cuddled into my side. I tried not to let this put me off my game though!

After TSM we had over an hour to wait until our fastpass for the Singalong with Frozen show and Jacob would still not entertain the Muppets show. I figured there was a very high likelihood of Jacob refusing to go into the Frozen show too and I didn’t want to wait around in the rain for an hour to find this out so I decided to cut our losses and leave the park.

We started to make our way towards the exit but as we passed the big Mickey hat the rain got so heavy that we had to hide under cover in the hope it might let up. But with grey skies all around this wasn’t looking likely so in the end we decided to just go for it and made our way out of the park. We narrowly missed out on getting on a tram and had to wait for the next one - fortunately by chance I’d managed to pick a lane right next to a tree so that gave us a little bit of cover from the downpour. I was able to shelter Jacob quite well too. Finally we got on a tram, but we still had quite a wait before we left as more people kept getting on even though the driver had announced he wasn’t accepting any more passengers. Eventually we were back and the car and Jacob fell asleep immediately after we set off towards the hotel. When we parked up at ASMu I debated leaving him to sleep a while but it was really too late in the day for a nap (about 4pm by now) and I couldn’t get free wifi on my phone in the car park so had nothing to occupy me whilst he slept! So I got him out and carried him up to our room - fortunately it wasn’t raining too much at this point so I didn’t bother to put our ponchos back on. Once we were back in our room we dried off and changed in to comfy clothing - nice and warm still from the dryer - and chilled out with our iPads. Then Jacob watched a bit of Disney Jnr.

I couldn’t face heading out again for dinner decided to order a pizza for delivery, although unfortunately I couldn’t use my dining plan credits so I just charged it to the room instead. It was worth the cost to avoid going out in the rain again and the pizza was very nice and filling. I got Jacob into bed just after 8pm and read him a bedtime story before settling him down for sleep. I ordered some Jake & the Neverland Pirate toys from Amazon.com for delivery to the hotel - Christmas presents for Jacob as he was enjoying the show so much - and then I settled down for sleep myself.

[iwani]

Ahh bless Jacob, not his most cooperative day then? Drew has days like that! I was just writing up my next day which funnily enough includes laundry mishaps too. So enjoying your report!

[JackyH]

Really enjoying reading your report. Do you mind if I ask why you didn't have a stroller for Jacob? I know he's probably a good walker but those parks are big.

[WileyCoyote]

Oh shame about the rain but you coped really well. I could really feel for you lugging that laundry about and the frustration with the coins and it not being dried enough. Poor you.
Bit of a mixed afternoon at the Studios but yay, you got your decoration and a bargain price too. Is there a pic of it ?

[meandmyboy]

Originally Posted by iwani

Ahh bless Jacob, not his most cooperative day then? Drew has days like that! I was just writing up my next day which funnily enough includes laundry mishaps too. So enjoying your report!

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Err no! But then I think most days he was like this to be honest!

Originally Posted by Rollercolster

Sounds like things didn't go quite to plan but at least you got your decoration (or atl least a variation of it !)

Looking forward to reading more

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Yes, they rarely do go to plan do they? I was constantly having to adapt our plans on the fly!

Originally Posted by JackyH

Really enjoying reading your report. Do you mind if I ask why you didn't have a stroller for Jacob? I know he's probably a good walker but those parks are big.

See more...

Thanks for reading along! I decided to leave his stroller at home this time because I wanted to avoid the second bag drop at the airport, I could really only manage with the suitcase and car seat in a bag. I couldn't have got the pushchair up there by myself too. And it's a total nightmare crossing the whole airport to retrieve your bags a second time, and then crossing back again to the buses. I had planned to buy a pushchair out there if we needed it but to be honest Jacob never asked for one so we just did without! It was also easier in the park not having to park it up/retrieve it all the time.

Originally Posted by WileyCoyote

Oh shame about the rain but you coped really well. I could really feel for you lugging that laundry about and the frustration with the coins and it not being dried enough. Poor you.
Bit of a mixed afternoon at the Studios but yay, you got your decoration and a bargain price too. Is there a pic of it ?

See more...

Yes it was a bit of a nightmare situation. Its the sort of thing that would be a bit annoying normally, but when you're trying to chivvy a 3 year old along with you too it becomes quite an ordeal! Sorry I didn't take a picture of the ornament and now it's packed back up in the loft as I took all our Christmas stuff down earlier this week (it's been up since 30th November so I'd had enough!).

[kansaskitty]

Shame about the rain, lovely pics of Jacob at the play park.