The very late, very very long, VWL trip report with pics!

[ErinC]

Here’s the trip report that I have been promising. The cast of characters, Me, DH, DD9, DD6, DD3. :msmouse: :earboy: :Princess: :Princess: :Princess:

This report is very long, not sure how it ended up that way. If you want the short version, here it is…. We had a great trip! We love our VWL home and can’t wait to get back. I’m not sure how long my trip would have to be for me to be ready to come home. 10 days wasn’t long enough. I’m not sure a month would be long enough for me! If you want more info, read on. Reading this report will cure insomnia for sure! I’ve tried to highlight names of restaurants we ate at, so if your skimming the report, that may help! Good luck getting through it!


We left home about 10:00am and started our 8-hour drive. We stopped in Tallahassee, FL and had lunch, refueled and hit the road again towards WDW. We had reservations at Port Orleans Riverside for Friday night. I won’t check in to a DVC accommodation past 5:00, and I wanted to save one night of weekend points. I had requested a non-smoking room in the Bayou section, and both requests were met when we checked in about 7:30. We went to the room and unloaded our stuff and then went back offsite to grab some stuff at the CVS pharmacy on US192. As much as I tried to keep all the kids well for the trip, wouldn’t you know DD3 started running fever about midafternoon on Friday. Ugh!!! Just par for the course with her, she seems to always get viruses, and run fevers periodically. Since she was already on antibiotic for ear infection (about 7days into it), I figured it had to be viral. She had no complaints and seemed happy, so I just kept up with the Tylenol doses and she seemed fine. We grabbed some stuff at CVS and then wandered around 192 looking for something to eat. We ended up at A&W Rootbeer, outside of the new SuperTarget. It was fine, we were just tired and ready to head back and settle in to our rooms. Got back to our room and got the girls in the shower and into their pajamas. Being the germaphob that I have become, I pulled back the comforter on the bed that the girls were going to sleep in. When I pulled back the blanket and sheets, I noticed crumbs in the bed. It took me a few seconds to realize that they looked like chocolate donut crumbs (at least that is what I am so hoping they were). Ugh! I pulled back the covers on the other bed and it appeared to be okay, but by now I was getting paranoid. I called Mousekeeping and asked them to come and change the sheets right away, as they had obviously not been changed in between guests. I waited about 25 minutes and no one showed. I was exhausted by this point and the kids were really tired. So about 10:20pm. I picked up the phone and called mousekeeping again. I told them that I had very sleepy children and would appreciate if they could send someone ASAP. About 5 minutes later, 2 ladies showed up and changed the sheets on both beds. Our bed had looked okay, but I wasn’t taking any chances and made them change both. They worked quickly, but didn’t offer any apology’s just changed the sheets, asked us if we needed anything else, and then left. Finally, we crawled into bed and got to sleep.

Sat. March 18th.- Slept in until about 8:30 (7:30 at home) and then slowly got up and got dressed. We put the few belongings we had drug into the room back in the car, and drove back to the front of the resort. We had been assigned room #3625, which was at the very back of the resort. Not sure how long it would have taken us to walk to the food court, we were lazy and drove. Headed in to the food court and got some breakfast plates, initiated our DDE card for the first time, and sat and enjoyed the breakfast next to a large window overlooking the bayou area of POR. After breakfast we quickly headed back out to the car, and drove over to Wilderness Lodge. I left the family in the car and headed in to check in alone. I figured that there wasn’t much possibility in getting a room that early, and we would just unload later. I was checked in by Sarita (I think that was it), who was pleasant when I asked if I could check on a particular room. She said that our room had already been preassigned. I really want to stay on the 5th floor of the villas at some point, but there are very few studios up there. The one that I would have really wanted was occupied already, so I said fine, no big deal. This stay was scheduled for a studio because we have been borrowed to the max for a while, and I really wanted to get back on track with our points. I know that technically DD3 (just turned 3) put us over, but she still loves sleeping in the pack n play, so the sleeping arrangements in our family still work for the studio. I know that some people just think that they can’t handle a studio for a family, but it works fine for us. We’ve done the 2 bedroom when we took my parents, it was great, but we are fine with the studio. That being said, we will probably stay in a 1 bedroom next time because DD3 won’t fit in the pack n play forever. I did ask for a card for DD3 at check in so she would have one in case we needed it for EMH and the CM gladly printed her one. While we were taking care of all the check in business, I asked Sarita about the possibility of being flag family. She checked the book and told me that Friday the 24th was available. I was so surprised! Every other time I have asked at check in it was always booked. By the time we took care of all the check in business, Sarita said “let me check and see if your room is ready now”. I was so surprised when she said it was now ready! I went back out to the car and we grabbed a valet and started to unload the “Clampit mobile”! As much as I try not to pack so much, it just looks like soooo much when you see it on a rolling cart! We headed off to room #2509, non- smoking , quiet pool view. It is located on the short hall, to the right as you exit the elevator. It was great to unpack and take in the view for a few minutes before heading off to the park. I of course checked the sheets first; thank goodness, no donut crumbs. We were greeted with our first ever towel animal in a DVC room.
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We headed out to the marina about 12:00 and took the boat the MK. I told the girls it would probably be busy, but we would try to grab a fast pass or two and ride what we could. We activated our new Annual Passes (with DVC discount) and headed into the park. We headed straight for Space Mountain and grabbed FP’s and then waited 45 minutes to ride Buzz. Not too bad considering the park looked crowded in that area. After we rode Buzz, we snacked on some icee’s and cream cheese pretzels at the tomorrow land snack area. Both were wonderful and gave us something to hold us over until dinnertime. We rode SM and then headed back to get FP’s for Pooh. We waited in line in toontown to do the Barnstormer. DD3 was finally old enough to ride, which was something she had been very excited about. We headed back to Fantasyland and rode IASW and Snow White. After our spin on Pooh, and then a ride on the Haunted Mansion (which DD3 was not really happy about this trip) we met up with friends from home. We all visited the spitting camels on Aladdin’s Carpet before dinner. Here’s a photo of our DD6 (with the hot pink shirt) with her best friend from home and her parents.
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The pics really make me smile when I look at them for a very special reason. DD6 best friend is recovering from Leukemia. She looks great now, but just a couple of years ago, she was a really sick little girl. She just finished Chemo treatments in December and is doing great. Our family’s met when our girls were in 3-year-old preschool together. Shortly before they turned 4, Frances Grace was diagnosed with Leukemia. She has undergone treatment for the last 2 years and now the girls are in Kindergarten together. They are inseparable most of the time.
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We had 7:35 reservations for Liberty Tree Tavern with our friends from home. We have eaten here once before and enjoyed the offerings. The flank steak was great, the ham was a little dry. I really enjoyed the meal and the company of our friends. This was a character meal with Goofy, Minnie, Pluto, Chip, and Dale. The girls had a great time. Here are a couple of pics of the kids.
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After the meal, we walked directly out in front of LTT, and sat on the stone wall out front. It was right at 9:00, so it was the perfect spot to sit and watch the parade. I love this parade! When I think about Disney in my mind, this parade always pops in my head. I have the music on CD, and listen to it in my car sometimes. After the parade, we parted ways with our friends, and headed back to Fantasyland to use our fast passes for Peter Pan. After a quick ride we rushed to go and see the fireworks. We had to walk around the castle because they already had it blocked off for the fireworks. We ended up standing on the walkway to the right side of the castle to watch the fireworks. Tinkerbell flew right over our heads, which thrilled my girls, and we stood and watched the rest of the show. I’m such a sap, because wishes makes me want to cry. After the show, we headed back to catch the boat and back to the Lodge for the night. It ended up being a great day at the MK. We accomplished far more than I thought we would for a half-day effort.

[ErinC]

Day 3- Sunday March 19th-

Slept in until about 8:00, and then got up and got ready for church. The kids ate what was left of the snacks I brought from home for breakfast (very nutritious), and DH and I just didn’t eat. We walked into the church we always attend while on vacation, the first people we spot are more friends from home! Sat with them during church and then headed back up US192 in search of lunch. Our family has a couple of restaurants in the Disney area that we love, but don’t have at home. We decided on Bahama Breeze (since we really weren’t in the mood for Joe’s Crab Shack). The meal was okay, but took forever. After lunch we headed on to the new Super Wal-Mart on 535. Got some breakfast items, and snacks and water for the room. I was even nice and let the kids buy two boxes of pop tarts for their vacation breakfast! I have banned them at home, because they only like the complete junk flavors of pop tarts (smores, and cookie dough). We finally arrived back at the room about 3:00 with all our groceries in tow. Thank goodness I remembered to take the stroller back out to the car that morning, or we would have had to enlist the help of bell services for the groceries. A stroller makes a decent shopping cart in a pinch! We rested for a while and then headed to Epcot around 4:30. We arrived a few minutes before 5:00 and hopped on SSE. DD6 loves this ride, I’m not really sure why, but it is always a must do for her. We then headed on back to Canada for our 5:35 seating at LeCellier. I was really looking forward to this meal. DH and I ate a lunch here several years ago, and decided it was time to go back. We were seated fairly quickly and the hostess informed us that we were dining in the restaurant that had been voted best on property. I thought this was kind of a strange thing to announce to people. It just struck me weird I guess. DH and I ordered the cheese soup for appetizer, and enjoyed the different bread sticks that were brought to the table. The pretzel bread was my favorite, the cheese soup was just okay, it didn’t blow me away. I’m not a picky eater and it doesn’t take a lot to make me happy, but frankly the whole meal just didn’t impress me. It was fine, but not “best on Disney property” as had been touted to us by the hostess. DH had the 7oz filet, and I had the Herb crusted prime rib. Both were fine, but we’ve had better at the local Outback. The kids had a cheeseburger and one ordered the little steak. No complaints from them. We looked over the dessert menu, and nothing appealed, so we skipped it and got the check. It was by no means a “bad” meal, it just wasn’t stellar. At least we had the DDE card to soften the blow. We love this card, and by this point of the trip, we are getting pretty close to breaking even with the purchase price. Here’s a pic of me and the girls outside of LeCellier.
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After our dinner we headed over to the Imagination ride. DD3 fell in love with figment this trip. I know this ride is not an “E” ticket attraction, but it really is cute for the kids. We played in the interactive area for a few minutes after the ride, and sent some emails to relatives with some of the crazy photos we took at the machines. DD9 was really begging to ride Soarin, so we went to check it out. The line was really long (which I figured it would be) so I told her it would have to wait until later. We then headed back towards the countries again and hit the Mexico pavilion for the boat ride. Then onto Norway for the boat ride there. The girls love the Norway boat ride. Since we had skipped dessert at LeCellier, we hit the bakery at Norway(DH’s plan all along). I chose the school bread, the girls got Double Chocolate cake, and DH had the Kringla pretzel with almonds. We sat outside and shared tastes of all our choices with each other. I love the school bread (and it is always what I get) but the chocolate cake was really good. Not too sweet. After our bakery snack we walked right out in front of Norway and plopped down to await the start of illuminations. We enjoyed a great show with great weather and then headed back to the bus for the Lodge. As a side note, bus service our whole week was really good. Never had any long waits for a bus or a boat.

Day 4- Monday March 20th- Set the alarm bright and early so we could make it to early morning entry at AK. I was so excited about riding Everest. We left the room about 7:20 to catch the AK bus. As we walked out of the Villas we met up with our friends from home that we had spent the day with at MK on Sat. It was all totally unplanned, but there was no separating DD6 and friend once they had laid eyes on each other. We all arrived just as they dropped the rope for entry into AK. Our friends are not roller coaster riders but we are, so I told them to take the kids and head back to the safari and I would run and get FP’s for EE. They had to wait several minutes on me, but I finally made it back to the Safari Line. We had no wait to get on the truck this early, so we were off. I’ve always heard that the best time to ride the Safari is early, because of the number of animals that are out in the mornings. Well this is good advice. We saw a ton of animals, and the kids were really excited. I’m sure it was the most animals we have ever seen on the ride. We even managed to spot the Lion King…
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After the Safari ride then we headed over to Dinoland to ride Primeval Whirl, and Dinosaur. I talked my friend into riding it with the girls and me. I told her it was not that bad. Both our DH’s kept DD3 while we rode. We laughed our heads off at the ride and our ride photo. Both DD’s had their heads in her lap the whole time. I don’t think she will ever ride again, or forgive me for dragging her on it! It was finally FP time for Everest. We headed across the bridge to Asia. Here’s our family photo on the bridge.
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My friend and her daughter had intended to ride Everest with us and DH and I were going to baby swap. After she got in line with my DH and the kids the ride suddenly quit working. They waited for a few minutes and then got out of line. Next to the gift shop some paramedics were treating some younger guy (20 ish) on the ground. We of course never found out what was going on. My friend chickened out and told me she would take DD3 and for me to ride the ride with Dh and the kids. They started the ride again shortly after the delay and then DH and I rode with our girls. We were in the very front of the train. When we got to the broken track part at the very top, the girls were squealing at the tops of their lungs. DH and I loved Everest. It is a very smooth coaster, and we decided we would be back to ride it again before the week was over. We all decided it was lunchtime and headed back to Tusker House for something to eat. Everyone was happy with his or her selections. I think Tusker House is one of the best Counter service locations on property. We scarfed our food down so that we could make the next showing of the Lion King. We barely made it on time, but we got decent seats and enjoyed the show. After the show we decided to head back to the room for a break, and some swimming pool time. Our friends followed. After a swim we headed back out to MGM. It was scheduled as the late EMH park on Mon. The park seemed somewhat crowded. First stop was RNRC. I think it was listed as a 30 min. wait. DH and the girls headed on in to wait thru the line and I got a baby swap pass. MGM is a pretty good park, but not really too much to do for the under ’40 segment of the population. This time of the evening most shows are over, so DD3 and I got a snack and sat and waited for the other half of the family to return. I was anxious to see DD6 facial expression when she got off the ride since it was her first time riding the ’48 inch required rides. All of my kids are daredevils, and all seem to like coasters. She was smiling a big smile at the exit when they got off. DH and I swapped the little one, and the big girls and I headed back thru the FP line to ride again. It was getting pretty late by this point. We had an ADR for 8:35 for Sci-Fi. Since we were short on time and DD9 was howling about another ride, I sent DH and the big girls off to ride Star Tours. Some band was playing outside of the ride area and I sat and listened while DD3 played on the Star Wars movie set items outside. By the time the girls returned there was no time for a baby swap, so we went over and checked in at Sci-Fi. We waited probably 20 for a table, and finally we were seated. I normally never make reservations for this late in the evening, but it was all that was available weeks in advance, and I really wanted to eat here. The girls thought the place was cute, and loved sitting in the cars. However, the dark atmosphere and quiet of the restaurant quickly lent itself to some really sleepy children. By the time DD6 finished her food, she was about to fall asleep in her plate! I had the shrimp penne pasta, and DH had the BBQ chicken sandwich. We both thought our food was good, but frankly we were getting weary too. We already had our wristbands for EMH, but by the time we left the restaurant at 10:00 we just were too tired to head for more rides. Even the girls were ready to head back to the room. So we did.

[ErinC]

Tuesday March 21st- Headed out to EMH at Epcot. Headed to Soarin first. DH and I had to baby swap, so while he rode first I headed over to Test Track to get Fast Passes. They were already giving out FP’s for 11:ooish! Headed back and took my turn on Soarin with the girls and then we did the Living with the Land Boat ride. It had been a long time since we had done the boat ride. For the most part the girls didn’t remember it. They enjoyed seeing the Mickey head pumpkins. We did another spin on the Imagination ride and then headed over to the Living Seas to see crush.

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Since part of the Living Seas is closed you actually enter through the old exit. The line for crush, wrapped all over the inside of the LS building. We decided that we didn’t have time to wait for crush, and just checked out some of the sea life before heading over to catch our TT FP time. After riding TT, we headed back to Germany for our first ever meal at Biergarten. We had to wait for a little while even with our ADR. DD9 is a very picky eater. She doesn’t like much of anything in the veggie dept. Every time she asked me what we were going to eat, I kept telling her sauerkraut. I even told her that they served chocolate sauerkraut for dessert. Although I had read that the seating at Biergarten is family style, I guess it just didn’t sink in. There was a man outside that was getting really agitated about the wait… guess who we were seated with. Actually, they seated us with two couples(they were not together) and then there was our family with the 3 kids. Each couple took one end of the table and we sat in the middle. I immediately get nervous about my kids behavior in these kind of situations, they are really good kids, but you never know. We had a nice conversation with one couple, which were also from Alabama. DD9 ended up sitting next to Mr. Grumpy. She wasn’t really happy about the buffet choices (because I had teased too much) and she was really not happy about sitting next to “Mr. Grumpy”. There was plenty on the buffet that she could have made due with, but she was already in her pre adolescent “mood”. I even offered to let her skip the “real” food and get some dessert (hey I was paying $13 for her, so I wanted her to eat something). She even turned down dessert. I really thought she must be ill. She claimed to have a headache, so I broke out the Motrin and drugged her! Shortly thereafter, Mr. Grumpy asked me if these were “all” my kids. I replied “Yes sir, they are”. He complimented me on their behavior. He then started asking DD9 all sorts of questions. How old are you, why aren’t you eating anything, have you ever seen the show? By the time Mr. Grumpy got through with her she was cracking up laughing. It turned out that Mr. Grumpy (from Long Island) was retired and he and Mrs. Grumpy live locally now. They come over and catch the show at Biergarten every month. He kept on and on with the kids about how they were going to love the show. They did love the show, and even had some fun with Mr. Grumpy too. Before we left DD9 had a plate full of dessert (I guess the headache had passed). DH and I couldn’t help but think how much both of our parents would enjoy Biergarten. We’ll add it to our list of places to return.

After lunch, we decided it was time to hit the swimming pool, so we headed back to the Lodge. We rested for a while, and I did laundry. After a swim, I told DH that I really wanted to go to the Disney outlet at the Prime Outlets. He said fine, but we also needed to go to Best Buy. He really “needed” a new battery for the camcorder. I think he was just going through Best Buy withdrawals!! We headed out and found Best Buy, and then headed back to Prime Outlets to the Character Premiere Store. Got lots of good bargains, and was happy that we had made the effort to go.

Wednesday March 22nd- Bass Fishing Day- We slept in since our fishing time wasn’t until 10:00. We always try to do something different every trip we take. We had never done the guided fishing trip before. We were picked up at the WL marina shortly before 10:00. He told us we would fish for 2 hours and then he would take us over to Fort Wilderness to pay for the excursion. We headed directly over to the GF and started fishing close to the wedding pavilion. I joked with girls about how much it was going to cost their Daddy someday, when they get married there! DH gave me “the” look. Mike, our guide got a good laugh out of it. DD9 ended up being the prize fisherman , or would that be fisher” woman” of the day. She caught 5 fish, DH caught 2, and I caught 2. The only sad part of the trip, was that DD6 didn’t catch any fish. She had several on her line, but we just couldn’t get them in the boat. I wish it had happened to anyone but her. Since she is the middle child, she suffers from that “middle child syndrome” anyway. Nobody likes me, the fish don’t even like me! Ugh! It was a great day with beautiful weather and we really enjoyed it, all except for DD6. She did have fun playing with the live shiners. Here are a few pics of us on the boat, and the fish we caught.

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After fishing we had lunch at Roaring Forks, and then headed back over to the MK to catch a few rides. We decided we loved having the annual passes this trip. It was so nice to walk in the park and ride a couple of rides and then walk out, without feeling like you have blown a day on your park hopper. We rode BTMRR and saw Philharmagic. We also took a spin on the carousel. We started to do Splash, but for some reason it had stopped running. That was all we had time for before our 7:00 ADR at Ohana. We took the monorail over to the Poly. We always like to ride the monorail at least once. Got there with lots of extra time to spare. Checked in for our ADR and mentioned we would really like to have a window seat, if possible. We were seated with a beautiful view of the castle. Ohana has become a must do for us on every trip. I was a little nervous about the new menu changes, and a few negative reviews I had read. Well nothing to be worried about here. We loved the new menu!!! We had great service and the girls had a great time with the coconut races and limbo. They even had special guest hula dancers from a local hula dancing school that night. One of the dancers placed her real flower lei on DD3 when they were done dancing. The girls got a kick of Lipoa, the lady that does the live entertainment in the restaurant. They decided that they wanted her to sign their autograph books. She drew them a lovely picture of a Hawaiian flower and signed each of their books with a special note. We lingered over our meal so that we could catch the Wishes fireworks. They were awesome as always, and frankly we were so full from the meal that we needed to just sit for a little while. We monorailed back to the Contemporary and walked out to the marina to catch the boat back to WL (big mistake). It was really chilly by the water that night, and since it was so warm when we left for the parks that afternoon, I had not taken our jackets. We just missed the boat, and we stood there freezing to death until the next boat came. If I would have been thinking, we should have stayed on the monorail back to the TTC and caught the bus back to WL. Next time, I’ll remember.

[RweTHEREyet]

I just printed this our for lunchtime reading. I love reading trip reports, so thank you so very much for doing this one. Can't wait to hear all the details.

[ErinC]

Thursday March 23rd- DH’s Day!
We slept in and hung around the room during the morning hours. DH was trying to dial in and do payroll for his employees. It wasn’t working too well. After an hour or so he called his sister and she agreed to do it for him, so we headed out for the day. Today was our spring training game with the Braves and the Indians. We went to Downtown Disney first to grab a bite of lunch at Earl of Sandwich. We all had good sandwiches and I enjoyed some decent ice tea (my drink of choice). Being the Southern girl that I am, I need my tea everyday, and the tea at WDW is just barely drinkable IMHO. Since we had spent so much time in the room, by the time we ate lunch, there really wasn’t much time for shopping, so we headed on to the Wide World of Sports complex. There were a lot of cars, and a lot of people, but Disney is very organized and we were parked and walking to the main entrance in no time. DH and I shopped quickly for T-shirts and made it to our seats just as the National Anthem was playing. We had really good seats. I bought them from ticketmaster the morning they went on sale. I was really glad that it was really overcast, or we would have been sitting in a very warm spot with no shade at 1:00. I was hoping that we didn’t get drenched as the clouds lingered above us. Having all girls, I can’t say that any of us were what I would call….. excited to be there. I think baseball is okay, but prefer a good football game or NASCAR race to baseball. DD3 promptly crawled in my lap and went to sleep. I was so happy that I had spent that $23 for her seat that she NEVER sat in. DD6 was looking her usual bored self, and DD9 starts looking at me and saying, “ I really don’t understand this game”. I promptly told her to move down by her Dad and he would be happy to help her out! Poor DH, he really needs a boy. I think he was ready to adopt the 2-year-old little boy behind us. This precious kid was sitting with his grandparents and every time Chipper Jones would come up to bat, the kid would yell “hit da ball Chippa”, “swing da bat Chippa”, “Run, Chippa, Run!” Everyone seated around him was turning to look at the cute little kid. Poor DH, he needs a kid like that. We were all very good though, and I made sure that the girls knew this was Dad’s day, and there would be no complaining. They did pretty good…. For girls anyway.

After the game we went back to the hotel to change. It had sprinkled a few times and we were a little damp. When we arrived back at the room we found a letter under our door with information about being flag family. It told us what time to meet them at the front desk. It was just luck that my Sister and BIL and three nieces were also in the Orlando area this week. My BIL is a minister and he was going to be preaching over the weekend nearby. We agreed to meet at Steak and Ale on I drive for dinner. The girls always get ecstatic to see their cousins and we had fun having a big family meal together. After dinner, we went to Festival Bay to shop at Bass Pro and Ron Jon.

[ErinC]

Friday March 24th- Finally Flag Family Day

We had to be at the front desk around 8:30 to meet Ranger Stan. This was our first time meeting him, although I’ve heard several things about him from other “flag family” reports. He was so friendly and kind. He took the time to speak to the kids and then assigned us to the 5 flags we would be putting up. He chose DD9 to carry the American Flag. He made a really big deal out of it to her, telling her what a “big” job it was. DD6 was given the Disney flag, DD3 got the state of Florida flag, and DH and I got the Wilderness Lodge flags. We proceeded up the elevator with Ranger Stan, and came out on the concierge floor (something DH and I have never seen before!). We then headed up several flights of stairs; I paused at the very top of the lobby and took a few shots of the lobby beneath us. This photo is of DH and the kids right at ceiling level in the lobby..
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From there it was on to the steel stairs that lead outdoors to the roof. Two more flights of stairs and then we were finally to the top. WOW what a view! I was so excited! Ranger Stan took DD9 to the center flagpole. They carefully raised the American Flag together.

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After we raised the American Flag we all stood and recited the Pledge of Allegiance. Such an awesome experience for the kids. Then it was on to the Disney flag. Dd 6 got the honor of hoisting Mickey into the air.

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After Mickey’s flag, DD3 got her turn with the State of Florida flag..
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And last but not least DH and I got to raise the WL flags…
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When we were finished raising all the flags, Ranger Stan told us to take our time, and take all the pictures we wanted. We stayed for a couple of minutes and took a few pictures. Ranger Stan took a family photo with the castle in the background..
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/Princessmom3/Copy2ofDSCF1485.jpg
I took a photo of the view out of the back of the Lodge..
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/Princessmom3/Copy2ofDSCF1492.jpg
After a couple of minutes, DH and I did not want to “wear out our welcome” from Ranger Stan, so we headed back down to the lobby. Ranger Stan gave our family a nice certificate for being flag family that I am going to get framed. After we received the certificate we posed for a picture with Ranger Stan…

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/Princessmom3/Copy2ofDSCF1503.jpg

[ErinC]

After completing our flag family “duties” we headed off to the parks. We decided to take a quick spin through MGM before our lunch at Akershus in Norway. DH and the girls headed off to ride Tower of Terror. Instead of waiting outside like I usually do I decided to take DD3 to see some characters. JoJo is her favorite and I didn’t want to miss seeing her. The
lines were very short for the characters on the street by Little Mermaid. We managed to see JoJo, Donald Duck, and Sorcerer Mickey within a matter of minutes.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/Princessmom3/CopyofDSCF1517.jpg
Since we had seen the characters so quickly, we headed for the playhouse Disney show. We finished up about the same time as DH and the big girls. We decided to catch the Great Movie Ride before we left. This was a big mistake, since it ended up making us 15 minutes late to lunch. We left MGM headed for Epcot and ended up practically running half way around World Showcase when we arrived at the International Gateway. Norway is pretty much on the exact opposite side from the IG. I apologized to the host for being late, he was kind and still seated us fairly quickly. We headed in and had our pictures made with Ariel. She is the only princess that doesn’t walk around the restaurant.
http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b168/Princessmom3/CopyofDSCF1530.jpg
We helped ourselves to the cold buffet, which in my opinion was the highlight of the meal. I enjoyed the different salads on the buffet. You also receive an entrée. DH and I both ordered the trout. Frankly, it was probably the least favorite of my meals all week. The girls enjoyed visits from Sleeping Beauty, Mulan, Snow White, and Alice. They had fun with the “Princesses, so I guess the meal was worth it. The dessert plate was pretty good, and in the end we didn’t leave hungry. The service left a little to be desired IMHO. During our meal our server was bringing drink refills for DH and I. He leaned over DD9 with his tray and proceeded to spill a beer (for the guy at the table next to us) down the back of DD9. He also spilled in on the front of his pants. He said “oops, sorry” and ran off to the back. He came back out a few minutes later with dry pants. He never even offered a rag to wipe up the mess on DD9. I thought it was pretty tacky of him. She was not very happy about smelling like beer for the rest of the afternoon either. We also never got to look at the picture of the girls with Ariel. It was fine as we had no intention of purchasing it, but I got the impression that things were really disorganized that day.
After we finished our meal we headed over to Animal Kingdom. We really wanted one more ride on Expedition Everest. I could tell as we had scrambled through the parks that crowds had really picked up that day. When we arrived at AK the line for Everest was 110 minutes long. Since our friends had chickened out of riding Everest on Monday, we still had FP’s and I had a baby swap pass that I had not used. We were allowed to use them since they had shut the ride down for that brief time on Monday. I was glad that we had them as I would have never had waited 2 hours to ride it. Even using child swap it only took 30 minutes for both of to ride. We took in the bug show and then a few more spins on Primeval whirl ( I like to refer to it as primeval HURL), and then we headed out of the park.

We rested in the room for a little while, DH started making noises about not feeling so well. Apparently he missed my, “no one gets sick on vacation” decree. He told me to go on to Downtown Disney by myself. DD9 wanted to go with me, so we headed out by ourselves to do a little shopping. We roamed around for a couple of hours and then headed back to the room. DD was crawling with people, I wasn’t sad to be leaving

[ErinC]

Day 9- I had decided that we had to make it to rope drop at MK, because we still, after et up with us later. I told him it was fine, that I thought that I could handle the kids on my own at MK without too much problem. We made it to MK a couple of minutes after 9am. We headed straight for Dumbo. Still had about a 20 min. wait! We rode several more rides in fantasyland, and then headed back to ride the Barnstormer a couple of times. We decided to head to go in the toontown tent and see a couple of characters. Just as we finished up, DH called and said he was in the park. We met up at Pooh, to take advantage of FP’s we had gotten earlier that morning. DH didn’t look like he felt much better. It was about noon, so we headed up to Tony’s for our 12:05 ADR. I was really contemplating skipping it, since Italian wasn’t really what DH needed right now, but he said he’d give it a try. I had the parmesan (?) chicken sandwich; he had spaghetti without sauce, ugh! I really liked the atmosphere at Tony’s. We had never eaten here before. Hopefully next time we go, DH will feel better. Now that I had DH with me, the girls and I could take advantage of our Space Mountain FP’s. We headed back to tomorrowland, only to find out that SM wasn’t running for some reason. So we headed over to Frontierland. We still had not ridden Splash Mountain, and I had promised the girls we would ride it. Well guess what, it wasn’t working either. Remember that Pirates is currently closed for refurb. All of the sudden it seemed like the park was swarming with people with nothing to ride. We decided to head back to the room. I “promised” the big girls that I would try to bring them back later in the day. We headed back to the room and DD9, and DD6 were begging for a swim. I think it was right at 70 degrees, which is way too cool for my Southern toes, but if they really wanted to go, I’d sit down by the quiet pool while they swam. Thankfully DD3 had fallen fast asleep in her stroller and didn’t know about the other girls going for a swim. DH stayed in the room and continued to feel yucky. A little later he agreed to a trip to Downtown Disney. We walked around for a little while. Ended up with Dinner at McDonalds. I could tell DH was really feeling miserable and I felt guilty for dragging him around, so we headed back to the room again. I asked him if he thought he could handle DD3 for a couple of hours, while I took the big girls back to the MK. He said he could. We opted to use the bus, since the temps had really dropped and I didn’t want to freeze to death on the boat. We arrived at the MK about 8:35. The line to get back in the park was really long, and they only had 2 turnstiles open (ridiculous). As we entered onto Main Street, Spectro was just coming around Town Square. I grabbed the girl’s hands and we moved as fast as we could around the square. We ducked into the candy store, and walked through the entire store until we got to the end of Main Street. Space Mountain was back open, and we got on pretty quickly. Trying to get back across the park to Frontierland with the parade going on was not an easy feat. We finally made it. Splash was back open. We donned our raincoats and walked on to the ride. Our walk back to the front of the park through Adventureland was almost eerie. We were like the only people in the area. We passed through the crowds just as Wishes was ending. On the final blast of fireworks we hurried into the bakery. I decided we needed a little snack after our marathon run around the “world”. We sat and enjoyed some sweets and drinks while everyone else was fleeing the park. When we exited the MK, I could see the WL bus at the bus stop. We hurried as fast as we could so we wouldn’t miss it. It was pretty cold at that point, and I didn’t want to be waiting for the next bus. We arrived back at the room at 11pm. When I opened the door this wave of heat hit me in the face. I could tell DH had the heat on in the room and I was about to choke to death. He and Dd3 were fast asleep in the bed. I moved DD3 to the pack and play, and promptly turned the air back on. I reached over and felt DH’s head and he had a pretty high fever on the “mom meter”. I asked him if he had taken anything. Of course he hadn’t! DH is kind of like the kids when he gets sick, he won’t take anything unless you get the medicine and hand it to him. I gave him some Tylenol and put the girls to bed. I knew we had to check out in the morning and the room looked like a disaster area. I stayed up for a few minutes and gathered the dirty laundry. DH’s fever must have started to break, the covers started flying off the bed shortly thereafter. As I crawled into bed about midnight, DH mumbled something to me that would prove to be very important info for the next day, “Don’t forget to get that stuff out of the safe in the closet.” I said “Okay” and then went fast asleep.

Day 10- OOPS! I did it again!

We all drug ourselves out of bed about 8:30. I started packing our stuff as quickly as I could. Didn’t really care what suitcase it came in, just shoved it wherever it could go. That’s one plus of driving, you can drag your dirty clothes home in a trash bag if you want to. DH was feeling really rough. I packed while he sat on the couch hovering over the recycle container. I had to make some sort of sarcastic comment along the lines of ….”I don’t think that’s the kind of thing Disney had in mind to recycle!” He kinda laughed at least. I told him I had to have a little breakfast before getting on the road. We headed down to Roaring Forks for one last bite before calling bell services to load the “Clampit mobile”. We shoved it all in the car, tipped the valet, and headed out of WDW by way of SR 535. I had driven for about 20 minutes when all of the sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks and I gasped….. I had done it AGAIN! I had left our old tickets locked in the safe in the room. DH was really mad at me, but he held his tongue pretty well. Of course this kind of mistake can happen to anyone right. Well, it’s happened to me twice now. I did the same thing last Memorial Day. I left my purse locked in a Pop Century safe. We had checked out and ended up at Festival Bay shopping. I didn’t realize that I had left my purse in the resort safe until I went to purchase something at Hilo Hattie’s in the mall. (What do you mean you don’t take Disney resort charge!)? DH was really understanding, and laughed it off, as we traveled back to the resort to retrieve it. By the time I remembered it Memorial Day weekend, other guests already occupied the room. I had to track down the manager of Pop and identify the contents of my purse, and sign for its return, since it had already been removed from the safe by security. This time it was only about 11:20. I offered to just go on home and send the key back to Disney, but DH said, No, “ You might as well just go back since we are this close”. Thankfully, housekeeping had not yet taken over the room. I ran in, got the tickets out of the safe, and we left WDW for a second time (As if the first exit wasn’t painful enough)! Next time, I’m leaving all my valuables strewn about the room. Much easier than me trying to remember to empty the safe. I ended up driving the whole way home myself since DH was not feeling too well. We arrived home around 7:00. By 8:30 I crashed, and our Spring Break trip was officially over! If you’re actually still reading this report, kudos to you! It was a great trip!being there a week, hadn’t ridden Dumbo. Dumbo is DD3’s favorite, and we weren’t going to miss it. DH said he really wasn’t feeling too well, and asked if he could come and me

[KNWVIKING]

Can you find a way to put this report in an MP3 format. I drive to florida from jersey in 10 tens days and it will give me something to listen to for at least the first seven hours of the trip. Thanx in advance.

[ErinC]

Can you find a way to put this report in an MP3 format. I drive to florida from jersey in 10 tens days and it will give me something to listen to for at least the first seven hours of the trip. Thanx in advance.

Yeah right, then you would probably blame me for falling asleep at the wheel!:laughing:


Not sure why some of the pics are huge and some are little, I'll keep working on them!

[Rozzie]

thanks Erin for the report! I can't believe how much you got done for such a busy week! Gives me courage to try "spring break" weeks!!!!

Don't feel bad about leaving the tickets, I left a whole drawer full of clothes on our Feb trip. Took a month to get it back, LOL!

thanks for the pics too and all the details. I feel like I went on a minivacation this morning (and I needed the relaxation!!):cheerlead

[DarthGoofy]

Thanks Erin. It sounds like you guys had a great time.

[Stimpy]

Thanks Erin! I love the pics and the details are part of what make a great trip report! It sounds like you all had a fun vacation. Thanks for sharing it with us!

[TW1]

Great job Erin, worth the wait.

[bavaria]

All right, I'll admit that I am going to 'savour' this over a few days. Erin, I am at the VWL check in point so far - didn't get far yet but it's been a busy morning!!!!

Viking's comment did make me laugh out loud, though!!! I look foward to reading the rest of your report.......

[ErinC]

thanks Erin for the report! I can't believe how much you got done for such a busy week! Gives me courage to try "spring break" weeks!!!!

Don't feel bad about leaving the tickets, I left a whole drawer full of clothes on our Feb trip. Took a month to get it back, LOL!

thanks for the pics too and all the details. I feel like I went on a minivacation this morning (and I needed the relaxation!!):cheerlead

Rozzie, I was really surprised at how much we were able to get done too. I could really tell as the week wound down that the crowd was getting heavier. As we left WDW the line of RV'ers waiting to get in to Fort Wilderness was massive. I don't think that I will be brave enough to try a Spring Break that coincides with Easter.

The tickets were just old hoppers that had a few plusses left on them (just in case we decided to go to a water park). But I guess if you value a plus around $30bucks than 4 tickets with 2 plusses left were worth going back for. No more safe usage for me!:o

[ErinC]

All right, I'll admit that I am going to 'savour' this over a few days. Erin, I am at the VWL check in point so far - didn't get far yet but it's been a busy morning!!!!

Viking's comment did make me laugh out loud, though!!! I look foward to reading the rest of your report.......


Thanks Bavaria and everyone that has taken the time to read it. This is the first trip report I've ever written. I probably won't make a habit out of it. I really didn't intend for it to turn out so long, I guess I ramble too much (kinda like I'm doing now)!:)

[lllovell]

What a great report Erin!

I am glad that you all had such a good time! You seemed to get a lot done even with so many sit down meals. I never plan that many because I feel like we don't get much done, but maybe staying at FW helps too! I can't wait to try that one day.

Thanks for sharing!

Laura

[jiggerj]

WOW!!! Great report and what wonderful photos too! I am absolutely green with jealousy that you were able to be a Flag Family :) Thank you for taking the time to type it all up ....It wasnt long...you just made alot of great memories that you wanted to share!

[idratherbeinwdw]

Wow Erin, great report, lots of details! Super photos too, thanks for posting. :bowdown: :clappingh

[nono]

Who cares if it was late...it was thorough! :slyasafox

[mushu]

Great report. Thanks

[withdisneyspirit]

I absolutely loved reading your trip report, Erin!!! You almost made me late for work today :slyasafox Thanks for taking the time!

[ErinC]

I absolutely loved reading your trip report, Erin!!! You almost made me late for work today :slyasafox Thanks for taking the time!

Glad I could help you out with work!:)

[Ginger]

Great report. Thanks for sharing! You have a lovely family.

[CRSNDSNY]

I just printed this our for lunchtime reading. I love reading trip reports, so thank you so very much for doing this one. Can't wait to hear all the details.
That's what I did, too!



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GREAT report! Thanks so much for posting it!

A couple of things...when we were at Akershus last September, Ariel was walking around to the tables and not available for the photo like you were able to get. :( So I don't know if they just change this up a bit? Who knows!

And I am goign to try to surprise DH this September when we stay at VWL -- he always talks about being a Flag Family. I'm going to try to set this up. It looks like it was a really special memory for you and yoru family.

Again, awesome report! I hope your DH is feeling better!