Orlando Vacation: Installment #1

Our family of three took its very first vacation this past week (July 22-29). We packed everything up we thought we might need (I only packed the bags one time) and headed down to Orlando, Florida with my mom and dad. We met up with Jared's parents (Rob and Judy), sister (Kate), sister's boyfriend (Dave), brother (Michael), and sister-in-law (Erin). There were ten adults in total and one baby. It was quite an adventure. I don't have time to share all of the details (the baby doesn't take very long naps). I will try to make several installments about our trip over the next few days.


We were scheduled to leave XNA around 6:45pm. We actually left around 9:30pm (thanks a lot Allegiant Air). When we arrived it was very late (around 1:00am Orlando time) - fortunately Judy, Kate, and Dave came and picked us up from the airport anyway. The first stop was the Loew's Royal Pacific Hotel at Universal Studios. It was a really nice room.

Judy had a jam-packed vacation planned for us. Claire was a trooper even though we were dragging her all over the place and it was hot (not Northwest Arkansas hot, but hot just the same). We spent the first two nights and days at Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios. We got to ride the Hulk, The Mummy, Jaws, Dueling Dragons, and we even visited Hogwarts. The following are some highlights from Universal. I will add more about the Disney portion in the coming days.

Moments of note from the two days at Universal Studios:

1. Universal Hotel Room Situation:
    
          We shared a room with my parents - both of whom snore. The first night after arriving in the wee hours of the morning, pumping, getting the baby to sleep, and getting ready for bed I laid down and closed my eyes. Then I realized there was no way I was going to get to sleep with all of the log sawing that was going on across the room. Jared (who is the best husband in the world) even walked to the front desk (at two am) and asked if they had earplugs, but they did not. So, I covered my head with my pillow and tried to suck it up. Suffice it to say day 1 at the parks was long and exhausting. We made a special trip to the gift shop and purchased some ear plugs for the next night. I went to bed as early as I could.

2. Bathroom Incident #1 (sad that there was more than one):

          While visiting the various theme parks there was one thing I noticed at each and every park. There were extremely large groups of Brazilians wandering around the parks together in packs. At Universal one of these packs decided it was a good idea to visit the bathroom at the same time. I was exiting trying to exit the facilities at this time (thank goodness). However, there was also a lady in one of those electric, rascal-like scooters. As she was backing out of her stall she got stuck in her rascal between the stall and the wall that created the exit/entrance for the bathroom. As she (and two other ladies attempting to help) tried to free herself 60 Brazilian teenage girls all tried to enter the bathroom facilities together. Good luck trying to get anywhere with a rascal blocking the way in and 60 Brazilians blocking the way out. Yikes! Also, Claire needed to be changed and there was a man taking an hour to change his kid at the changing station on the men's side and the women's side was out of order due to the debacle mentioned above. I ended up pushing my way through the sea of Brazilian teens to a tiny window seat near the exit of the women's side. It was definitely an interesting experience to say the least.

3. Bathroom Incident #2:

          This incident requires a little bit of back story. Claire started refusing to nurse towards the end of the school year (I am going to try to keep it short and explain further in a future post). As a result I have been pumping exclusively to maintain my milk supply and provide Claire with mostly breastmilk. This always makes answering the question "is she bottle or breastfed" very challenging. I digress...pumping exclusively. I have to pump every 3-4 hours. So I brought my pump along on vacation (yes, it was as awesome as it sounds). Disney has Baby Centers with nursing rooms which is so nice, but Universal does not. Our hotel was just a short walk from the parks, so for the majority of the time I just made a quick trip back to the hotel. However, on day two we had to check out of our hotel by 11:00 am and were going to be relocating to the Disney properties that evening, so I had to bring my pump with me to the park. Towards the end of the day I needed to pump and we were trying to catch a show, so I had to find a place. My best choices were finding a semi-secluded place out in the open and use my cover, or a ladies restroom. (I chose the privacy of the restroom). I found an open stall and did the best I could - luckily the toilet paper holder was wide enough to set my pump on and they had seat covers. It was a pretty mortifying experience to say the least. People waiting to use the bathroom kept knocking on the door to make sure it was still in use. (I thoroughly washed all of my pump equipment that evening before using it again). Sadly, this was not the last time or the worst bathroom pumping experience that I would have on this trip.