Precious Moments and Melt Downs

[SandraC]

Hi,

How about sharing ONE WDW precious kid moment ~

~ and ONE WDW melt down kid moment!

PRECIOUS

Although I have thousands of WDW precious moments, I'll give you only one per kid right now!

dd ~ 4.5 years old ~ her first sight of the castle, GIANT smile and sweetly sang, "Look Daddy THE CASTLE!" Thank God for video cameras!

ds ~ 15 months old ~ liked characters from afar at first. Second day, at Chef Mickey's breakfast, he would wave at the characters and blow kisses but not get too close. While he was busy eating a muffin, CHIP came up behind him and started stroking ds's head, ds didn't pay attention for about 3 minutes, then ds turned to see CHIP and gave him a BIG hug and kiss. From then on ds RUNS to characters! Minnie got soooooooo many kisses from ds that breakfast. Thank God for video cameras!

MELT DOWNS

dd ~ 4.5 years old ~ busy day at the parks. We were on our way to Epcot for 6pm PS at Garden Grill character dinner. dd feel alseep in the car. She continued to sleep as we tranfered her to the stroller and walked to Garden Grill. Upon arrival, she woke up. She was afraid of thunder and lightening which was all over Garden Grill. Thank goodness the restaurant was empty. All the characters calmed her down momentarily, but the melt down went from bad to worse and finally to THAT PLACE OF NOOOOOO RETURN. Of course we left without a bite to eat. Waiter was so great, he gave us a big white fluffy cake which melted down as well in the 90ºF heat.

ds ~ not too many BIG melt downs so far at WDW. He thrives on over stimulation. But we are going back in 50 days ~ so I'll bet I have a good one, especially since he'll get his first hair cut at the Barbershop on Main Street.

 

[MinnieGi]

I'll bite:

Precious: So hard to pick just one!

Here goes - DD (then 14 months) and I waited in line to see Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore all together. When it was our turn she smiled and shook everyone's hand and we did our pictures of her and I and the three of them. I was holding her this whole time. It was her first encounter with any of the characters so I wanted to make sure it went well. Our friends were next in line so DD and I stepped away from the characters to let them take their turn. I put DD down so I could take our friends pictures. Well the moment I let DD down, she RAN back to Pooh, Tigger, & EEyore with her arms STRETCHED out for HUGS!!!!!! The whole little crowd went "AWW!" The characters all hugged her again and played with her some more. My friend then just let her little boy down and we got great pics of the two of them interacting with the trio.


She never had a melt down of any kind during the entire trip. She loved being there as much as we did! I'm not sure if every trip will be so trouble free, but this past one was!

 

[waltdisneyworlddreamer]

Precious: I don't have one in particular, but just the look on my DS face, age 3, when he first saw the castle. All he wanted to do was meet Mickey so we waited and waited in the July heat to meet him at his house. The look on his face when he finally hugged Mickey is precious.

Meltdown: Same trip, DS had total meltdown at DD. We had driven down for 2 days, stood in the HOT, HOT sun for 2 days, fought the crowds and in the end I realized DS was just exhausted. We were in WoD and he wanted a sucker, everything was ok until we said we had to go pay for it. For some unknown reason, which i know realize was just utter exhaustion, he went into total fits crying that he didn't want to pay for it. This was real out of character for him because he always is happy and go with the flow. DH took him to the bathroom to spank him, which never phased him, we tried to reason with him, no luck. He was totally like Sandra said to the point of no return. It was a long ride back to PO but when we finally got there he calmed down, stopped crying and we soothed him to sleep.

It's a good thing the precious moments help us to forget about the meltdowns.

 

[funnygarcia]

This was at DL but would still apply....
My then 8 yr old son was happily interested in trading pins with CMs - he traded his travel pin for a 101 dalmation pin then later decided to trade that one for something else--- he was just fine and we went to the animazement show when he started crying and generally out of sorts-- we thought at first he was overly excited about the show but later he admitted he really wanted that 101 dalmation pin back. He had traded it all the way over in adventureland so we encouraged him to try a different trade or look for a new pin to buy when we went to Tommorrowland area.. well he looked at each pin cart along the way and looked at what the pin CMs had to no avail.... then our last stop we are at the pin cart and this HUGE smile lights up his face .................................................................... the CM at this cart had the SAME EXACT PIN that he had traded out earlier-- 101 dalmation- we told the CM the story and she said she had just come on shift, they share the lanyards between all of the pin carts.
So i guess this was a melt down that turned into a precious moment

 

[KJal1]

One precious moment was seeing the picture of DS's (6 at the time) face going down Splash Mountain----I think it will forever be his favorite ride.

AND a MAJOR melt down ---- checking in for an early PS for Donald's Breakfastsaurus DS was chosen to be the guest of honor during the Awakening. He got to wear the vesta nd hold the emperor scorpion (in a box!) He did great until.....he saw the crowd watching him. He broke down into tears and ran to us. Thankfully he stopped crying about five minutes later and got a certificate signed by all the characters and a free picture of all of us with pluto and minnie. Luckily he wasn't too traumatized by it, we though it was great--other than the crying. And AK is his favorite park.

Can't wait to see what happens this time, we leave in 10 days for AKL.

 

[sha_lyn]

Melt down that turned out to be precious....

We went on the animation tour at MGM. After the part where the artist talks to the group and draws a picture DD went nuts and did not want ot leave the room. She kept pulling at me and screaming. We wer about to carry her out when she finally was able ot tell us what was wrong. She wasnted the artist to sign her autograph book. I think it made his day. He not only signed her book but drew a picture of Mickey for her

precious.... the nest day we went to MK. DD was overwhelmed by the rides and really had no reaction. We had a lunch PS for CP. We sat down and she wanted to leave and go ride more rides. Piglet entered the room and as DH said "the look on her face was worth the price of the trip".
When we returned I was telling my mother about all the fun we had. My mother couldn't beleive that with a 10DS and 2 1/2 DD that we were able ot find thigns to do together most of the time. I told her that we only separated once so DS and I could ride the big rides at MK. DD looked straight at her and said " I was too little to ride the big rides and daddy was to little too."

Melt down...
Fast forward one yr. Thsi trip we went to US/IOA. It was about the middle of our first day. We had arrived in Town late the night before and we got up early to transfer hotels before the park opened. DD was having a melt down and finally said " I want to go home and go to bed now!" We headed to the HRH for a break. We were in the room in about 15 minutes.This is one reason I will never stay off site at US or WDW.

OK you asked for 1 ... I gave a few extra but all seemed so good.

 

[jiggerj]

I have soooo many precious moments AT WDW but one of the most precious though would have to be when after we got home ! On our last trip in mid Dec. we had plans for Disney Quest one eve. I was violently ill and had to stay in the hotel room. My 15 and 11 year old dd's still went with friends of ours in our group. They had a great time (Disney Quest is awesome for that age group). Well anyways...Christmas morning my girls had a special Christmas present for me. They popped a tape into the VCR and lo and behold there they are at Disney Quest on the make your own roller coaster attraction from Disney Quest ! It was great ! you can purchase a video of yourself on the coaster so thats what they did to surprise mom since I had to miss it.

Melt down time.... My sons godmother and I were watching the share a dream come true parade and took one look at each other and instantly started crying. And I dont just mean crying I mean bawling ! We just got so overwhelmed with the Disney magic we just well... had a major meltdown ! Our kids just rolled their eyes at us !

 

[MinnieMe2]

I honestly don't recall any meltdowns. Our kids were all so happy to be at WDW, they just wanted to keep going.....

But I do have a precious moment. This is years ago, our first trip to the World. We were staying off site, so at the end of a long day at the parks we decided to take the ferry back to the car. I remember being very grateful that we were lucky enough to get seats. We had been at MK for twelve hours and I was exhausted. I knew the boys had to be tired, too, but they hadn't acted even the least little bit cranky. I sat between my then-seven and five-year-old sons. I think as soon as my little one's butt hit the seat, he was asleep. Just like that, he was out for the count. People were still boarding the boat, and more than one smiled and said, "Awwww....."

I think that was when I realized just how special WDW is. Jamie would have been entitled to be a screaming maniac at that point, but he was so happy to be there and having such a good time, he simply couldn't have realized just how wiped out he really was! And now, somehow, he's 18. Precious moments are fewer, though we're very proud of him. I'm so glad we took our kids to WDW a number of times and created all those precious memories.....

 

[DeeP]

Precious MomentsL
When DS was 3 he fell in love with the pirates at POC. We bought him the pirate hat, pirate sword and captain hook's hook. He wore each of these things everyday we were at WDW and would go around singing "Yo ho, yo ho it's a pie ards life for me!"

When DD at 11 months took her first trip to WDW she loved the characters and would squeal with delight when she got near them. We were at the character breakfast and she took a shine to Mickey and kept squeezing his nose and was trying to look into his mouth. We have the cutest pictures of her squeezing Mickeys nose while her little head was trying to look into his mouth. DH said maybe she thought if she squeezed his nose it would make him talk!

Meltdowns;
On a very hot and long day at MK while we were waiting in a long line for Dumbo both kids had a meltdown at the same time. They had reached their saturation point and both just started crying and screaming, needless to say we got out of line and went back to our resort and everyone took a much needed break.

 

[JenB]

These are so sweet
Precious: We had just gotten off the Alladin ride and were standing around trying to figure out what to do next. I was holding my 2.4 year old daughter while talking to my husband and I realized that she was laughing-you know that from the bottom of your belly laugh-. I turned to see what she was looking at and there was Alladin all by himself and waving to Payton. Nobody else had realized he was there so no one was around him. I let her down and she ran over to him and he picked her up and they flirted for a good couple of minutes until everyone else saw him and started coming around.

My 6 year old had done Star Tours about a gazillion times and was begging me to do it with him. I was wearing the Sea Bands on my wrist but I knew those probably wouldn't even help with motion sickness. After awhile, I finally decided to try because he wanted me to sooo badly. I knew as soon as it made that first drop, I was doomed, but he kept stroking my arm and asking me if I was ok. I don't even think he paid any attention to the ride.

Meltdown: The morning we left we realized he was being unusually quiet and when I asked him what was wrong, he just burst in to tears and said he didn't want to leave. He wanted to know why we couldn't live in those apartments on Main St. (No answer for him there. I would like to know why not myself!). So he is crying, I'm miserable about leaving, and then my 2 year old starts because he is My husband was loving life, LOL.

 

[dznynut]

These are too good! Here's my contribution..

Precious - My son (11 YO at the time) and I had a "mom and me" trip (dad stayed at home) last July to celebrate straight A's all year (let me tell you, that is a tough feat in Catholic schools!). We were at Epcot on our last day and I was looking at some earrings at MouseWorks. He asked me which ones I liked. I showed him and he told me that he wanted to buy them for me (using his own spending money) because he wanted to thank me for such a great trip. It was at that moment that I realized that my DH and I were doing a pretty good job as parents. The earrings were only $12, but when I wear them I feel like they are worth $1,000,000! He and I are headed to AKL and BWV in June for another "mom and me" trip (DH said he had too much WDW when we were there for 12 days in December-how can you ever have too much WDW!!) with a few friends joining us.

Meltdown - We were at MGM this past NYE. We got there ~ 10 am and spent the day having a great time. When the big fireworks display at midnight was going on my DH turned to me and said "This is THE only place to spend NYE." He's not as big of a WDW fan as me, so I realized that was a big compliment from him. I looked at him watching the display and he had a big smile on his face. Ahhh, that Disney magic. Of course, the tears welled up in my eyes (my own private mini-meltdown)

 

[SueM in MN]

A precious moment:
On our first trip to WDW, when my oldest DD was 4, we did a character breakfast at the Polynesian. DD kept talking about how worried she was about Minnie Mouse having to do all that cooking. She was really worried that Minnie wouldn't have enough energy to come to MK later for the parade.

A meltdown (with a precious moment):
We've experienced too many meltdown to count with my younger DD, who has major disabilities. The meltdowns of my older DD have been few and far between. One time when she was about 6, we were at Epcot. It was HOT and all of us were tired. She kept asking if we could take her sister out of the wheelchair so she could ride in it. My younger DD pointed to the WS lake and signed that she wanted to push her sister in. Older DD didn't complain any more that day (and she stayed pretty far away from her sister whenever we were near water, too).

 

[DVC-LEROY]

Precious moment - Every now and then since our last trip our son (now 3) asks to hear a bedtime story about "the time we went to Disney World". And if I miss a part of the story - a ride, a character, parade or fireworks - he fills in the blanks with his own incredible memories.

Melt Down- My son is usually very composed - hasn't been a tantrum type (so far). This was the big exception. From the time we got into the towncar until the time we got to the airport - all 20-30 minutes or so- nothing but screaming "stop this car - I wanna go back - I wanna live at Disney World". Our poor driver. As the automatic doors to the terminal building open - I could be seen dragging my son while he's kicking and screaming. You would have thought we were kidnapping him. Everyone turned around. This was only weeks after 9-11 so you could imagine how nervous everyone was already.

 

[disneyvacationmom]

One of our highlights was when DD and DS were picked to take part in the parade. It was great since it was Snow White and the dwarfs. My daughter is a huge Dopey fan and was wearing a t-shirt with a photo of her and Dopey on it. (from a previous trip) When the characters stopped, Vanessa ran to Dopey. He made such a fuss over her shirt-he kept pointing to the picture on the shirt and then to himself, He took her over to Snow White to show her and it all ended with a huge hug. Yes we did get it on video. The next year we actually got Dopey to sign the shirt. She wore that shirt every trip for about 5 years. I nearly had a meltdown last year when she wouldn't wear the shirt on our trip.(she was 13) Another tradition gone but I still look at that shirt with great memories.
Meltdowns are fairly minor-usually bickering between DS and DD. That in itself can be very annoying but I guess I should be used to it by now.

 

[bigsis1970]

Precious Moment = Dec 2001 my son - 5 yrs old - skipping down the corridor of HIFS saying to me " THIS IS THE BESTEST BACATION EBER" (he has a bit of trouble with the "V" sounds)
read this as me almost crying !!!

Melt down = Him and his sister Fighting in DTD through the entire SHORT shopping trip the next night !!! they were over tired and over worked !! LOL needless to say we went home , had a swim and went to be then slept in the next day - that took care of the melt downs!

Great Thread.. Michelle

 

[carone0318]

Precious moment:

DH, dd and myself were watching the Magical Moments Parade. While we were sitting on the curb watching, the float came to a stop and Cinderella and the Prince came over and picked our dd (she was 4 yrs old) to come dance with them. I don't know who was more thrilled, dh and myself or her. We have plenty of pictures and video. Funny thing was as they were dancing, another father brought his dd to come join the circle and tried to put his dd in between my dd and Cinderella, well my dd wouldn't let go of Cinderella and the prince came over and put the other little girl on the other side of my dd.

Meltdown (same trip):

DD (again 4 yrs old) cried hysterically because she didn't get to ride on the pink dumbo, she was on a green dumbo! Let me add, she rode Dumbo everyday we were there and did get to ride a pink one, thanks to dh and his strategic planning with another father.... The things we do for our kiddos

 

[docswkids]

I wasnt sure how my four year old son would react to the characters, as they are so big and mute. By the end of our second day at WDW we really hadnt run into any characters and my son complained to me "We didnt see any characters". We rounded a corner in the world showcase and right in front of us were Pooh and Piglet. My son, who had only a moment before looked exhausted and done for the day, jumped out of the stroller and yelled "HI WINNIE!" and gave Winnie a big hug. He then hugged Piglet and jumped up and down in his excitement afterward.
A meltdown that was really also a precious moment was when we decided to take him on "Honey I Shrunk the Audience." I was concerned that he would get too frightened, so we warned him ahead of time about the snake and lion and that it was just a movie and not real and how he could take off his 3d glasses etc... At strategic moments I pulled his glasses off and this seemed to work well. I thought we were home free towards the end of the show until after the "blown up" dog sneezed on us when my son began bawling. I asked him what was wrong and he said "I didnt like the snot!" It took me a while to recover from laughing before I could explain to him that we were splashed with water, not dog snot!

 

[ldudley]

Meltdowns: I prefer not to think about them, because they're usually so infrequent.

Precious Moments: Now those are fun to remember! My favorite is from our last trip in September, 2001. It was the last day of our trip and we just happened to be walking through Frontiertown when the Magical Moments parade came through. We found a place at the rope and were having a great time when the parade stopped in front of us! It was the float with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet(I can't remeber who else). Anyway, Tigger came right up to my three children(dd-8, ds-7, and dd-3) and took them out to dance with him. If it had been any other float that stopped my youngest would never have gone out there. The look on my three children's faces was priceless! I think even grandma and grandpa had tears in their eyes!

 

[tkd lisa]

Precious moment:

Our first family trip, DD got a stomach bug, so she stayed with DH at the resort while I took DS (3 at the time) to EE day at MK. - Boy are there an awful lot of abbreviations in that sentence That particular day, there were having trouble with the mountains (no big deal to us, DS was too little anyway), so they opened Toonland ?? (where Mickey and Minnie live) early. Most people didn't figure this out. DS and I were just wandering around, checking out the car in front of Pete's garage, when Mickey came out of his house. There was NO ONE around, so he waved my DS over to him. I've got the BEST picture of him hugging Mickey without anyone in sight. Mickey walked him through the whole house, pointing out his jammies (i.e. Just got up!) DS is 8 1/2 now, and still talks about the time Mickey gave him a personal tour!

 

[RUDisney]

The first time I "dragged" my dh to Disney is my favorite memory. He is as stoic as they come and doesn't like to be the center of attention. I promised him that he'd be singing along with me as we walked through the parks by the end of our trip. On our last day going into Epcot, holding hands, as we walked from the busses, I was singing along with the music, as I'd done all week, and HE started singing, too. I knew that the magic would make him a kid again, and I was right!

The next time, he willingly agreed to our Disney vacation. When we were in MGM, he volunteered us to perform in the backlot tour. We have a great picture that a CM took of us dressed in the yellow slickers!

Can't wait for our next trip in October with kids this time! It will be a whole new experience for us! All the better!