The read-it-if-you-dare report that ate Orlando, CBR, OKW, AKL 9-05

[jnrrt]

I'm going to try and keep this is one thread. I have no idea if anyone wants this much detail, but read it if you dare! And if not, oh, who am I kidding, there are no consequences. So, no worries.

Place: CBR (2 nights), OKW (5 nights), AKL (1 night)
Time: September 23- October 1st, 2005
Players: me - mom to many it seems, also wife, daughter, sister, cousin, niece,
grand-daughter, aunt, and trip-planner extraordinaire
dh
dd7 – older daughter (turning 7 this trip)
dd4 – younger daughter
ds – son (just turned 1)
Mom – my mom
Dad – my dad
db1 – my younger brother, still in college
db2 – my older brother
dsil – my SIL
dn8 – niece
dn7 – niece
dneph – nephew (9 months)
dc – my cousin
dcil – my cousin’s wife
Also appearing:
df – my younger brother’s friend in the army, stationed in FL
Grandma – my grandma
du – my mom’s brother, my uncle, grandma’s son

Got all that? Good, there’s a quiz later.

Planning:
This trip came about sort of haphazardly. My dad was diagnosed 2 years ago with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). It’s very rare, and fatal, with no treatment or hope of a cure. We’ve been trying to spend a lot of time together. We all took a trip to Hilton Head Island (there’s another brother, a wife, and 3 more nieces who couldn’t make the Disney trip), and it was great. It’s getting harder for my dad to travel. ALS destroys your muscles, so you are eventually paralyzed, and we thought another trip would be good together before it got much harder. My brother and his family mentioned that they were planning a fall trip to WDW, we’d just bought a resale at BWV which had extra points, and an idea was born. Unfortunately, my middle brother and his family couldn’t come, but everyone else was in. I called and got a GV at OKW only 5 months out, which was amazing, and the planning began.

My cousin and his wife just moved to FL because she’s now stage-managing at Epcot. He is in the final stages of being hired into the pyrotechnics department, and is a theater tech guy. We spent a good deal of time with them, and they also planned a few special things for us while we were there. Also, my grandma and uncle live in Tampa, so they planned to come over and see us for a day.

I am the Disney fan of the family. They all tell me I should open a travel agency for Disney stuff, and I planned this trip. It was fun, but mostly because we all agreed that we would plan some stuff together, and then just all do what worked for each family. Also, our family is really close, and has a great time together. I should also mention that because we’ve all visited grandma every year of our lives, and Disney was used as the bribe to keep us happy in the car for 20+ hours, we all know Disney. No newbies here.

[jnrrt]

Day One, Friday:
I got an amazing deal from SWA. We’ve never flown them before, but we got 5 seats, direct flight, RT with taxes for $540. I was shocked, but we were very happy. My dh7 and nieces didn’t have school on Friday, so they were just missing 5 days the next week.

We got up, and were ready to go at 9 when my aunt came to drop us at the airport. My daughter found her birthday present – a Pal Mickey we’d hidden in her backpack. It’s the original version I found on clearance, and I’ll be interested to see what it uploads in the parks. We had no trouble and were at our gate at 10 for our 11:30 flight, so we just killed a lot of time watching planes and trying to amuse the baby who should have been asleep at that point. My parents had driven down earlier in the week to visit grandma, and my brother and his family were flying in later that afternoon on Delta. My younger brother had flown to Tampa the night before and was driving across with my parents. His friend, who’s in the army, was taking a bus over to meet him for one night on Saturday.

We landed right on time, and had a great flight. Baby slept the whole way, and the girls were great. The steward was very funny (we did not know this was a SW thing). We got a car at National, and that was worth every penny. While there were no fabled mini-vans on the Emerald Aisle, there was a Pontiac Vibe, which we all fit in with no problem, even with 2 car seats and three kids. This whole experience blew the pants off our Thrifty fiasco of two years ago, and off we went.

We called my parents, and were within a few minutes of their arrival at CB. I’ve never stayed here, but my parents really like it. It was great to have the guy from the Bronx at the gate give us the “Welcome, mon!”, or try to, and we had a good reunion at the check-in. This had some problems, though. Two of our three rooms were ready, great! I asked if one of them was the H/A room, and she said, “You didn’t reserve a H/A room”. Um, yes I did. And I confirmed it several times. No, she’s sorry, there are no more H/A rooms in the entire resort. Perhaps they can move us to another resort. No, I’m sorry, I have the confirmation, and yes, I did get H/A, and I want to know what happened. No one ever figures out what happened (and this is really strange, because Disney is usually fabulous about H/A issues), but they can offer us a special shower seat and hand-held showerhead. Will this be sufficient?

We talk to dad, we’re only here for two nights, and my younger brother is in the room with them. He thinks he can do it as long as someone other than my mom can help him (he’s always afraid he’ll fall and hurt her), so we say okay. We leave the keys for my older brother’s family at the desk and go to our rooms. They are very close by, in Barbados, and all three in a row. Ours adjoins my parents’, which is nice. And we saw later that we could even see some of Illuminations from our rooms, which was unexpected.

We put the baby down for a nap with dh, my dad took a nap too, and my mom and brother, and the girls and I went exploring. We looked around the main area and the pool, and did the little treasure hunt at the marina, where we had the fun of encountering the worst CM I’ve ever had contact with. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to complaining about an employee, and I should have, but didn’t. We also went to the store, and talked to one of the best CM’s of the whole trip, who was so sweet to my daughters, and even gave my dd7 a lanyard for her older Pal Mickey like the ones the new Pal Mickeys come with. What a weird juxtaposition of CMs in one hour. I wonder if they know how much they can influence a trip? But I was so thankful for the second one after the first – it really helped change the mood back to the positive for my daughters.

It was super hot, and the girls were dragging, so we went back to figure out dinner. My older brother and his family were just arriving. They’d taken ME and said it was great, very smooth. My parents and brothers decided they would all go to DD for dinner. We had APs, so we were in the parks more than everyone else. This was the only night I could get us in at the Sci-Fi, which my older daughter really wanted to do, so we went over there. None of the H/A stuff had been delivered for my dad, so he called to check on it, and we all went our separate ways.

This got almost funny. We got into our car, it was sunny and very hot. We parked the car 5 minutes later, it was clouding up pretty good. We got the kids out, it was sprinkling. We got to the busses, it was raining, we ran to security, it was pouring! We were like “What a great idea! Let’s go out!” LOL. But when you’re wet, you’re wet. We went to Guest Relations to validate our APs, and had a long wait. I couldn’t believe how many people were paying full price admission for the day when the park closed in 2 hours! The family in front of us paid $240ish for 2 hours. Shocking. Anyway, we validated, and had to hoof it to make our ADR. As we’re running through the park in the rain, my dh says “shoot, we forgot the rain fly for the stroller!” Today of all days. Then we get closer to the restaurant and he says, “you grabbed the baby food, right?” Uh, no. Sorry. Then, “do we have the backpack with the baby’s diapers and everything?” Um, that would be a no. Excellent planning. Oh yes. So now we’re soaking, the stroller is totally running water and we have no food or diapers for the baby. And he’s messy and an hour and a half late for dinner.

Well, there’s something to be said for the third child being easy-going because by the third child the parents have all lost their minds. We waited 40 minutes dripping wet for our ADR. Didn’t phase him. They have nothing for babies at this restaurant, not even applesauce (and he’s a strange child who even at a year had not one tooth! so no options for food really.) That’s okay! He’ll gum a French fry. The waitress says there is mango dipping sauce. Sounds good! He inhaled mango dipping sauce. He loves mango dipping sauce. He had three bowls of mango dipping sauce. He’s the third child.

Sci-Fi was pretty much a bust. We won’t be back. It was interesting for the girls, but scared the younger one. It was expensive and the food was pretty bad. We waited five year to get in, and then five more to get our expensive, bad, cold food. The waitress did take off my younger daughter’s meal when she wouldn’t eat it, and didn’t charge us at all for the vats of mango dipping sauce, so we forgave her for being eternally slow (and I used to wait tables, so I’m a pretty nice customer to have, actually), tipped well, and figured our lesson was learned. We had to run to make Fantasmic.

The stroller literally had little pools in the seats, but who cares, we’re already soaked. We plopped the kids in and ran. Unfortunately, the baby needed a change pretty desperately by now, so we split up. Dh took the kids to get seats, and I took the baby to the baby care center. We found someone to sell us a diaper (in packs of 2, only $4! Gotta love Disney!), and went to meet them. I called my dh, and he was front and center. Got seats right near the front, in about the fourth row. I say, “but honey, we’ll get wet!” and he just looks at me until I piece it all together. Deep down, I’m a smart woman. Sometimes, very deep down. We enjoy the show, and it doesn’t scare our dd4 too much. We head back to the car, go home, get everyone dry and put the kids in bed.

We go over to my parents’ room and hear about their night. The H/A stuff still isn’t there, so they call again. While we’re there, housekeeping comes to deliver shower caps. My mother explains they need a shower seat and head, not caps. They are very confused. My parents call again. Turns out, someone came and woke them up at 12:30 to deliver more shower caps. They got another set at 10 the next morning. My dad didn’t get his shower stuff until the next day at 3.

[jnrrt]

Day Two, Saturday:

Have I mentioned that my children do not sleep well in one room together, ever, and never on the first night? We had a pretty restless night, and the baby woke up singing at 5:30 for good, and we all tried to bum around in our jammies and pretend that we were sleeping. We thought we’d try to go to the Animal Kingdom since it had an extra Magic hour, and we were up so early, but we took so long to get ready that we scrapped that in favor of getting to Epcot for the opening. This trip we did very few EMHs, but found that as long as we avoided that park, the other ones were so much less crowded that it was very easy to get everything in, even without the extra time.

We got a birthday pin for my daughter, who was turning 7 at the end of the week. We had designated this day as the official celebration, and had a family birthday dinner to go to that night. She wore the pins most of the week we were there. We were one of the first in, and went to wait at the rope just before Spaceship Earth. One of the CMs saw my daughter’s pin and got everyone waiting, probably 800 or so people by the time it happened, to sing happy birthday to her, which she thought was great, although she was a bit embarrassed. It was also funny to hear all those people at once sing, “Happy biiiirrthday, dear mmffmmbbbfffrrrrmmm, happy birthday to you!”

The characters all came out on the bus, and said hello, and then we followed them to the fountain. They all got out to sign autographs, but we were on a mission. We were headed to Soarin’. As we headed toward the Land pavilion, Pal Mickey asked us where we were headed, to the Land ride or Figment, so we can assume he doesn’t know about Soarin’. We didn’t see how he would, but had heard differing reports. By the way, I was very concerned that Pal Mickey would be seriously annoying, but he was really very cute, and didn’t talk nearly as much as I thought he would. My daughter loved him, so that was a big win, especially for $15.

We got on Soarin’ and had about a 10 minute wait even though we were some of the first in. I took the girls first and my husband waited with the baby. My older daughter loved it, but my younger one was very nervous, and I spent most of the ride being afraid that she was about to freak out. I was also a bit nervous because I really don’t like heights. Needless to say, it wasn’t the best ride for me because I was so distracted, so I hoped I would get on it again later that week. We got out and switched with my husband who took my older daughter on it again. This is a really long wait for baby swap. You have to wait at the entrance, and it took about a half an hour every time we did it. My husband also really liked it.

After the ride, the baby was already getting really tired, so my husband took him home for a nap while the girls and I finished the morning. We went on Living with the Land, and really enjoyed it. I was especially impressed with the tomato tree, and the girls loved the alligators (“are those real, mom?”), and the Mickey-shaped pumpkins. Then we saw Circle of Life, which was a first for us. The CM there chatted with my older daughter a bit, and then when introducing the show, said something like, “Please remember not to use flash photography, and that this is R---‘s seventh birthday!” Everyone clapped and said Happy Birthday, which was very cute.

After this the girls were on a mission to see Figment. Don’t ask me how, but somehow we’ve never seen this. I never even knew it was there, but friends from church had told my girls that it was one of their favorites, so we had to go. Yikes, I am not a fan. I realize this might make me unpopular, but I thought it was pretty seriously annoying. And my children loved it. I mean, loved it. The younger daughter thinks it’s the best ever. So I know we’ll be seeing a lot of Figment, and I know how my dad felt when I made him take me on IASW for the 20th time. We sent some wacky pictures to the family to see later and headed to Spaceship Earth, which is one of my older daughter’s favorites. After this we had to get back for lunch with my cousin and his wife.

So here’s our little funny at the bus stop. We were waiting and waiting for a bus. You know how you can stand there and see a bus for every resort but your own. The girls were pretty tired of standing around, and we were all alone at the stop when another family came up consisting of two girls and their father. We were chatting because I said, “Hey your wait will be shorter because we know there must be a bus soon” etc. when a cast member walks by and yells, “Way to go, Dad! Four girls! Good luck!” and as we realize he thinks we’re together and have these 4 stair step age girls, the dad looks a little embarrassed and yells back, “Oh, they’re not all mine!” Needless to say, the CM looked like he wasn’t sure how to respond, and decided instead to hurry away, and I about choked myself trying not to laugh. I don’t think the dad ever caught what he’d said, but what does that say about me then, hey?!?!

So the bus finally came and we met everyone at the CB food court. It was fine, and it was nice to catch up with my cousin and his wife. She’s currently stage managing at Epcot, and he’s been through all the interviews and has been told he’s the next person to be hired for any pyrotechnic position, but there’s been a hiring freeze since the hurricanes, and he was waiting all week to see if they’d worked it out yet. Still waiting, but it seems to be going in the right direction. In the meantime, he works at Downtown Disney, so they both have unlimited access to the parks.

After lunch all the kids went to sleep because of our early morning. I wanted to see SSR, and my cousin and his wife and my mom all decided to come with me. We took the tour, but ran out of time at the end, so we didn’t see a lot of the public areas. My first impression is that it isn’t for us, but I think a lot of that was the construction, and I might feel differently when that was all done. The rooms were gorgeous, though, very classy, and lovely. We had to cut the presentation short because we had run out of time to get everyone to my dd7’s birthday dinner at O’Hana.

[jnrrt]

End of Day Two:

We raced out of there, and got back to the hotel to realize that somehow we had forgotten to figure in the fact that my brother’s family, with five people, one in a car seat, had no car, and there was no way they were going to make it to the dinner reservation by taking the bus. The other cars were pretty full too. Somehow, we got everyone into a vehicle, but several people were camped out on the floor of my parents’ van, so don’t tell Florida highway patrol. My cousin’s wife missed a few turns, my brother and his friend underestimated the time it would take to get there from the theme parks, we were all running late, but somehow we got everyone there within 15 minutes of our time. We had fourteen people at this dinner, but it felt like organizing the Normandy invasion.

We’ve never been to O’Hana, and it was really great! They told us we would probably not be able to all sit together, but we did, and thought it was really fun. The food was good, although I preferred the appetizers and the dessert (the bread pudding is fabulous, for all of you who are sad about the pineapple), and they sang to my daughter yet again. We had a great time with the games, and watching our kids and my nieces play was fun. My younger daughter didn’t get the games too much. She lost her coconut in the race, but happily kept following the line with her broom, and the hula-hooping was hilarious. She would fling the hula-hoop around in a circle, it would never touch her body, and as it was falling to the ground she would wiggle back and forth really fast. We were dying. She did it for a full 5 minutes, and whenever someone tried to help her, she’d just tell us she knew what she was doing, but thanks anyway. While this was not as big a winner for our family as Boma (our current favorite), we’ll definitely come again.

After dinner we said goodbye to the extended family and took the monorail to the MK with my cousin’s wife (he had to work). We got to sit up front on the way there, which she’d never done, and my sweet dh stayed back in the monorail with the baby since they’ll only allow four in the front. Our goal was Spectromagic and Wishes.

We got there and it was really very crowed. We headed over the bridge to Frontierland, and found a tiny little spot in front of one of the shops. Normally I would keep going, but we thought we were lucky to find anything at the front that night, so we stayed put. The girls were at the front on the ground, stroller behind them, us behind the stroller. There were some cm’s playing games in the street, and our girls went out. One of the cm’s started playing “Mickey says” and dd7 showed her that she had a Pal Mickey, so she took him and pretended to listen to him first before she said what to do. It was very cute. They also sang “Happy Birthday” (are you seeing a theme?).

When the parade started, the baby decided he wanted to sit with his sisters, so we let him be on the pavement. We couldn’t reach them very well, though, since we were stuck behind the stroller, and there was nowhere to go at that point. I told my dd7 to keep him out of trouble, and the parade started. He was getting pretty squirmy, but as soon as he saw the lights, he was mesmerized. He watched the entire parade without blinking until we saw Ariel. For some reason, he was totally in love. I don’t know if it was her blinding beauty, or the fact that she’s the only princess in her underwear, or just that he was still nursing and saw something he liked, but he started yelling at the top of his lungs at her and pointing, and then he took off, crawling right into the parade. He doesn’t crawl normally either, he does this military thing, so here he is, dragging his little body into the parade, yelling at the girl of his dreams. He got a fair ways in too, before we could get around the stroller without crushing other little people. We thought it was hysterical. As my dh said, “What a boy”.

After the parade, the baby really needed to go to bed. My dh took him home, and we stayed to see Wishes. I really like my cousin’s wife, and we had a good time. The girls had brought their spinners with them, and were playing with them. Three really adorable girls were also waiting for the fireworks, and my girls shared their spinners. They were extremely polite about it, and everything was going swimmingly until the oldest sister told the youngest one it was time to give my dd’s spinner back. “No it isn’t,” she said very sweetly. “Yes it is” said the older sister. “Is not!” yelled the younger one. “Give it back!” yelled the older one, and the younger one tackled her and they started pulling apart the spinner. The mom intervened, it was pretty much the end of the day for them, but I thought it was pretty funny to see them get into this knock-down drag-out, and then five minutes later when the fireworks started, there they were, with their arms around each other, in their perfectly matched outfits. You’d never have known they were rolling on the ground trying to kill each other a few minutes before.

We enjoyed Wishes, although it isn’t my favorite nighttime show, and my girls were tired! We got them home and to bed. We went next door where my dh proceeded to annihilate my mom, brother, and friend at Scrabble. His Scrabble skill is not quite human. For example, he played “seltzer” on “swims” for 111 points. That is approaching my total score. Spooookkkyy. Then we were off to bed too.

[PoohsPal]

“Oh, they’re not all mine!”
:ROTFL: :ROTFL: And I though tyou were so sweet and innocent. ;) Too funny!

[jnrrt]

Day Three, Sunday:

The kids were all up at 6 again. We needed a slower day. We needed to not sleep all in the same room. Yea! We’re moving to OKW today! They all fell back asleep until the late, late hour of 7, but I couldn’t go back to sleep. My dh took the kids to the pool, and I took off to OKW to check in and see if there was any chance we could get in our room so that we could give the baby his morning nap. Unbelievably, not only did they meet all of our requests, but the room was available at 9 in the morning. This is one big advantage to requesting H/A. I’m sure these units are not as popular. We were in unit 6323, a grand villa which was kitty-corner to the HH. It was a very convenient location, and I was so impressed with this resort. The cms were friendly, it was beautiful, the unit was huge, we were all happy.

I went over to check out the unit before I went back since I promised to take pictures of it, and wanted to do that before we all got in there and messed it up. I got the second floor done, but then my battery died, and I hadn’t brought the camera case with me. I headed back to CBR to tell everyone we could move in at any time. My brother and mom and I moved everyone’s stuff while our families were occupied with other things. I did manage to take the rest of the pictures before the GV was overrun with our stuff. Then we went back to pick up everyone else, and had a long discussion about who would stay in what room. I had assumed my parents would stay in the master since my dad has a very hard time with stairs (he does them once a day at home), but he said that we get up so early, he’d rather try and make it upstairs for the quiet. So we were in the master, my brother’s family in the larger room upstairs, my parents in the other, and my kids on the pull-out in the living room with the baby in the closet (of course!).

We checked out of CBR. I told them what a pain it was to get Dad’s H/A stuff, and the cm was extremely nice and apologized several times, but never offered to do anything about it. I finally asked specifically if she would refund them for the first night since they were woken up, had to call several times, and he was never able to use the bath that day. She immediately agreed, which made me wonder if this is the same kind of thing as CRO, where they will only tell you about discounts you ask for specifically. Otherwise, nothing exists. Anyway, I felt satisfied that my parents did not have to pay for that night.

We headed over to OKW, and everyone who hadn’t seen it was enchanted with the unit. We had twelve people in it, with 2 of them being infants, and it was wonderful. Even filled to capacity, we were very comfortable, especially after staying in traditional hotel rooms. Everyone else headed to the parks, but we needed some down time. Toby took a nap, I took the girls grocery shopping, we made lunch and looked around OKW. It was a gorgeous, gorgeous day which helped, but this is simply a beautiful resort. We looked at the pool, but decided to go later, which was never to be since my daughter ended up with swimmer’s ear, but it sure looked nice. Every one of us took a nap around 2:30.

We headed out to Epcot. We saw Ellen’s Energy Adventure, which I haven’t seen in it’s new incarnation. This is a huge improvement, but still doesn’t change the fact that we’re not likely to ride this again soon. We ran to Figment to fulfill promises made (“Honey, I promise that the dinosaurs aren’t too scary! You can close your eyes and sit in my lap! Please? If you can be brave, mommy will put herself through the torture, I mean the pleasure of Figment one more time! You think you can? Good girl!”) and ran to Marrakesh to meet my parents and younger brother for dinner. We like Marrakesh, and it was fun to watch the girls get to dance with the belly dancer. The baby was cracking us up too, because everytime the musicians played, he would start swaying and dancing, with this huge goofy grin on his face. It was really cute.

We left Marrakesh, and my dd7 impressed everyone with her Pal Mickey. My Dad was getting very tired, so he decided to head out. The rest of us went on to the ride at Mexico which my girls love and wanted to ride with their uncle and grandma. After this we went back to Soarin’. My mom and brother had fastpasses, so they took my dd7 while I nursed the baby and my dh looked around with my dd4. When they came out, my mom and brother left to meet my older brother’s family at MGM for the EMH. We ran and caught the last half of Illuminations, and were home by 10.

My dd7’s ear was really hurting by now, and we considered taking her to urgent care. She did not want to go, and it was pretty borderline for me, so we gave her ibuprofen, and decided to see how she did in the night. We checked our email and read. It was a little strange to be in the giant unit with everyone else gone. After they came back and went up, we transferred our kids from our bed to the living room, and went to bed at 12:30.

One funny story from today. My SIL was telling me that my dn7 was eating a Mickey bar that afternoon, and it really started to melt and drip. All of the sudden it fell off the stick completely, so she caught it in both hands and was trying to eat it out of her cupped hands. The ice cream started to run through her fingers, so she leaned way over forward to try and keep it from getting on her clothes. She was losing her balance, so she was staggering forward a bit when my SIL finally really looked at her. She said it was hilarious, because there is her daughter, bent over, staggering around, looking like she’s cupping her mouth, with stuff dripping through her hands, and everyone is staring in horror. She said she’s never been so tempted to scream, “It’s a Mickey bar! It’s a Mickey bar!” When my dn7 finally looked up, she just calmly got a napkin, and had no idea of the impression she’d just made on an entire section of Adventureland.

[PoohsPal]

Holy cow! You aren't kidding with it being kind of long! ;) Looks like great material fo a a scrapbook so far, though. :earboy:

OK 3 down, 5 to go?

[jnrrt]

Yes. Frankly, it's kind of embarrassing. Like starting to tell a story, realizing that no one really cares, but being unable to stop yourself. Oh well. I like to have the details later. Just be kind.

And the other days aren't written yet, but I knew if I didn't post something, I'd totally give up. So, I'll aim to do it in sections! Just like a good couch...

[PoohsPal]

Hey, I don't think i'm nobody! Pretty entertaining so far, but I must admit it's probably good that there's a break, as I should get back to work. :beaniepro

[jnrrt]

Ack! No offense intended! And it's very flattering of you to imply that I'm keeping you from your work. Keep it up.

[mamaprincess]

This is awesome! Wonderful details that you can see in your mind. My first trip report probably won't hold a candle to this but I'll try. :goodvibes

[Colorado Belle]

Loved it:
So far we have girls fighting to the death, baby boy crawling after boobiful mermaids, birthday girl getting sung to by 50 million people, breaking the law with too many persons in a motorized vehicle, getting Disney to donate back a room charge yippee!, 247 shower caps which I am sure you kept to donate to the nearest shelter.....and WOW, a good time being had by all!!!

Great trip report...looking forward to the rest!!

[TW1]

More! More!

Ellen is reincarnated? We saw it for the millionth time ni August and it was still the same. What's new? Did they actullay get the Willard Scott piecce working after, what, 5 years of no video just audio?

Bring it on J!

[withdisneyspirit]

Wow!!! I'll be ready for part two tomorrow...I just love trip reports :beaniepro until I have to write one :hammer:

[jnrrt]

More! More!

Ellen is reincarnated? We saw it for the millionth time ni August and it was still the same. What's new? Did they actullay get the Willard Scott piecce working after, what, 5 years of no video just audio?

Bring it on J!

Sorry to be misleading, but no, I don't think it's any different. We just haven't seen it since before Ellen, if that's any indication. My memory of it was that the dinosaurs were cool, and then they made you sit through a five hour movie about oil rigs. I knew that had changed, and we thought the girls were old enough (and the baby young enough!) to make it through it. And it's much better! And still really, really long.

[PoohsPal]

Hay! I figured I'd have anothe rinstallment when I got back today. What's up? :bored: ;)

[jnrrt]

Sorry! I'm working on it. But I also have to write string parts for 7 songs, a flute duet, and 3 bass lines by tomorrow, and have at least an hour of work for my meeting tonight, and have to plan the music for Sunday's service by tomorrow. Oh, and the baby. And the other children, although they amuse themselves more easily. And I'm recording all day tomorrow. So why am I here, you ask? I was checking to see if I'd heard back from my bassist and I got sucked in! Ack! Have to go.

But I'll try to post more on Saturday.

[PoohsPal]

Yup, it worked. got a rise out of jnrrt. :earboy: I'm sure there must be time to finish your novel in there somewhere. WHere are your priorities? ;) Want to shoot me yet?

[idratherbeinwdw]

Wow what a super report!! How do you remember all those details, do you walk around with a tape recorder?!? :goodvibes

Seriously I'm quite impressed, what a great job. I'm going to start my DLRP report today (finally feeling well enough), and it's going certainly going to pale by comparison. I'm feeling SO inadequate after reading this nice long report--and you're not even done yet! :reporter: :thewave:

[jnrrt]

Awww, shucks. I'm just glad anyone is interested in reading the whole thing.

And I can't wait for your DLP report - I'm planning to live vicariously through you.

[jnrrt]

Day Four, Monday:

My family is really starting to drag. Our normal trip is to stay 5 or 6 days, but only go to the parks for 3. This is the first time we’ve had AP’s, and the whole family is paying the price for their mother’s OCD. We’re tired.

The baby got up at 6:15. We put him in bed with us since the girls were still asleep out in the living room. He chatted with us, but actually fell back to sleep, which is totally unlike him, and slept until 9, which is absolutely unheard of. Think he’s tired? The girls were up at 7:30, which is sleeping in for them. My awesome dh went out to get them breakfast and such, and let me sleep with the baby until 8:30ish. Awww.

My dh and I got ready and then gave the kids a BATH! Bad parenting alert: we realized after they were in bed last night that they have been in theme parks for 3 and a half days now without a bath. Now, we have washed their hands, and faces, and everything lots, but we’ve been back so late every night, we’ve thrown them in bed without a bath. This is fine for one day. Two days is pushing it, but three?!? Eeewww. As Dr. Phil would say, what were we thinking!?!?

So with our newly scrubbed and angelic children all ready to go, the baby now wants to go back to sleep. Sure, he’s been up for at least 56 minutes. Who wouldn’t need a nap? That’s hard work, being awake for 56 minutes! Did I mention he was tired? So my dh decides he’s going to stay with the baby, take a nap, read a book. I’m taking the girls to the MK because they just can’t wait anymore to go there, darn it!

We said goodbye to my youngest brother because he was flying home that afternoon. College can really screw up your vacations. We went out and waited most of our lives for a bus. Need a bus to Epcot? We’ve got 3! How about DD? Yep, we’ve got three of those too. MGM? No problem! How about 4 busses? But MK? No way. We finally arrived at the MK at noon. This was the busiest park day we had, but we still got on a good bit using FPs and our impeccable Disney know how.

When we walked in Cinderellabration was in progress, so we stayed to watch the second half. My dd4 is completely nuts about princesses, so I knew we needed to see this, and I was hoping we would see enough that she wouldn’t make us come back for the whole thing. My dd7 couldn’t care less about princesses, but she’s happy to do just about anything as long as we’re at Disney. An insight into their personalities, last week at church they both brought a book to kill time during my rehearsals. My dd7 brought “Discovering the Red Planet and our solar system”. Dd4 brought “Barbie and the Magic of Pegasus”. Yep. Same parents. Same home. Same parenting. Take that, you nuture over nature people!

We grabbed FP’s for Peter Pan, and went to Mickey’s Philharmagic. My dd7 loves this show, but it makes the four year old nervous. After the show, we went on the carousel with no wait at all, and then checked out Pooh’s Playful Spot to kill a few more minutes before our FP. This is really cute, and I’m sure it’s popular with little kids. My girls enjoyed it. It’s not overly large, and I’m sure it would be very crowded in a higher season, but the theme is really well done.

We went on Peter Pan, which the girls both loved. This is good since my dd4 found this very frightening on the last trip (I know, I know, it’s terrifying!) but it was all good this time. We checked out the wait at IASW, and it was 30 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a 30 minute wait there, so we skipped it, and headed to Adventureland.

On the way to POTC, we saw that the Aladdin ride had no wait at all. We’ve never ridden this (how many different themes can there be for the Dumbo ride?), but with no wait, and wanting to ride everything at least once, we went for it! Dd4 was nervous (yet another theme), but she rode with me, and did live to tell the story. Surprise! There were no surprises, except that pink plastic can get really, really hot in the Florida sunshine.

Next we hit POTC. Now, you may say to yourself, Peter Pan, that was scary. Slowly rotating carpets, that was scary. Now, pillaging, shooting, drunken pirates – good choice, mom? You betcha! Dd4 says boo to those pirates! Give her pirates over scary Ellen any day!

And now, a strange POTC moment. You know those little drops in the dark? And how you hear the happy little splash at the bottom, just enough to hint at water in the dark? And if you’re very lucky, perhaps, just perhaps, you may get lightly sprinkled a bit if you happen to be in the first row? Not me, no way. No, I got hosed by the Random Vertical Typhoon-like Tsunami Wave of Pirates of the Caribbean. The RVTLTWOPOTC for short. Yep. Completely soaked from the waist down. Very glad I had my camera in my hand. How in the world does that happen, I ask you? And how dumb do you feel when you walk off POTC completely soaked? And yet, I can be bone dry after Splash. It’s a conspiracy.

Now it’s time to head home, and we are tired. We have never actually taken the train, so we decide to ride it around the park and check it out. This is very cute – I like that they’ve put some extra little things to look at while you’re going around. Very annoying family moment (not mine of course! We’re fabulous.) at the Toon Town stop. We were all loaded up and ready to go, when one woman runs up and says to the conductor “You will wait. We need to get on.” Okaaayy. I mean, personally, I might have asked, but he takes it well, and waits for her. Her and her 15 relatives. All who come walking as though through molasses now that they understand that he is waiting. The conductor and the 300 other people will wait, so why walk faster, or hurry your steps, or at least make a show of it? Then they all start trying to put their strollers in the handicapped area so they won’t have to fold them up (they had 5 strollers), and the cm’s tell them that’s not allowed. They simply glare at them, wait until the turn around, and climb a fence, and go over a chain to put the strollers there anyway. Then the last woman comes up, and she’s the only one who looks like she’s embarrassed that everyone is waiting for her, but it’s obvious why she’s last. She’s pregnant, and pushing another stroller with a sleeping baby in it, and about 57 bags stuffed underneath. Now the rest of the family is on the train, and they all start yelling at her, “Come on, Susan! Hurry up! What are you doing? We’re waiting, Susan! Let’s move, etc.” Just unbelievable. She starts frantically grabbing bags from underneath the stroller, but there is no way she can carry them all, the family is all still yelling at her, but not one of them has stood up to help. She’s got stuff all over the platform, and two men from another family get up and help her stuff everything into the larger bags, and still her family is yelling. Finally, one of the men asks what she wants to do with the sleeping baby, the grandma in disgust finally gets off and grabs the baby, waking her up, the mom looks like she’s going to cry, and then the grandma gets into my row, and tells me to move, my view is better and the screaming baby will like it. There are four empty rows in front of me, and two behind. What in the world?!?! I just looked at her. Finally, one of the guys climbs the fence and goes over a chain again to put the stroller in the handicapped area (um, why did you watch her empty the whole thing if you weren’t going to fold it up anyway?), and then we’re off, with the screaming baby. I really wanted to give that mom a hug. I hope those weren’t her IL’s. When we got to the main street station, they were just as bad, and almost shoved my dd4 onto the tracks. Hmmm. Disney fun. My dd7 asked me when we got to the bus, why any family was that mean.

We got a bus quickly (making up for this morning I guess), and took the tour of OKW. I had no idea this place was so big. I do think I’d prefer to stay where we are, toward the front. We were home at 3:15 and hadn’t had lunch. It was a testimony to how much fun the girls were having that they hadn’t noticed. My grandma and uncle had come over from Tampa, so we put the kids down for naps and hung out with them until dinner. We all went over to Boma, which we love, and they brought my dd7 another birthday treat.

After dinner, we went to look at the animals for a bit. We ran into a cm from Namibia who was so interesting, and really impressed me. She spoke perfect English as well as Afrikans (lower Dutch) and German. She also was so knowledgeable about the animals, and really engaged the kids. She was clearly passionate about her country as well, and spoke to my uncle about it for quite a while – he’s been there several times.

We went back to OKW and bathed the kids again. My grandma and uncle headed back to Tampa, and we put the kids to bed. We sat around with the rest of the family, playing Scrabble and Su Doku, and went to bed around midnight.

[jnrrt]

Day Five, Tuesday:

Today everyone was planning to head to the MK except for my parents. My brother’s family is always up a lot later than ours, but their dd7 was ready, so we took her with us, and decided to meet up with them whenever they got there. We drove to the TTC, trammed it, monorailed it, and got to the gate at 9:10 for a 9:00 opening. We headed straight for Splash Mountain. My dd4 could not be talked into it, so I took my dd7 and my dn7, and then swapped with my dh who did the same thing. Then he took them on BTMRR, and while they were there, the rest of my dn’s family showed up. My db stayed with his baby, and our baby, and my dd4 while I went on BTMRR with my SIL and dn8. Then I stayed with the babies and my dd4 while everyone else did BTMRR and Splash again.

My dd4 was so patient, but she really needed to ride something at this point. We headed over to POTC, but now dd4 won’t do it, no way. So on to the Jungle Cruise with everyone. We found the hidden mickey in the treasure, but we don’t think we found the one on the column. We were casually looking for these the whole time, and got my brother really into it – he likes that kind of thing.

At this point we split up, since my brother’s kids are into older stuff than my dd4 is willing to do, and we wanted her to have some fun today too. We headed over to Fantasy Land. I went to get FP’s for Pooh and completely lost my family. I found the stroller and waited with that until they got off IASW. I wanted to go too (I still love this, and yet, Figment will make me leap off a bridge. Go figure.) so we all went again, and then went to Pooh. We had an ADR at CRT for the next day which I tried to cancel at the castle because we were so tired, and didn’t want another big meal. They told me I couldn’t cancel it there, but would have to go to guest services. We didn’t want to go all the way there right then, and asked if they were strict about 24 hours, or if it would just have to be this day. He said, just do it by this afternoon, no problem. Turned out to be a problem, but we didn’t know that until later.

We went for our ADR at the Crystal Palace. We’ve never been here, and were interested to see it. The wait was nuts. We waited almost 20 minutes just to check in! But then they called us fairly quickly. The restaurant is really beautiful – very light and airy. We though the food was good, and the characters were fun. It was very nice, but we won’t be back in a hurry – that wait outside just stressed us out.

Next we headed to Buzz where there was no wait. Took a spin on the Carousel of Progress (children sang this song for the rest of the day) and the TTA. When we got to the top of the TTA to board, we were surprised by a cm, who kind of jumped out at me and said, “Hey! How are you?” and I realized it was a college student from our church. I’ve directed him in a couple of plays, and knew he was down here, but thought he was working a different attraction. The girls thought they were so cool to know him (and it doesn’t hurt that he’s waaaay cute, mom, and the one every girl gets a crush on, no matter which show it is), and we got our picture with him. Then we spun away, and I realized that these boards have affected my brain, because when I saw the TTA lady, there were very specific people I thought of. You know who you are.

Next we went to the Indy 500ish thing (what is this called?) because we’d promised the dd4 that she could drive her own car! With a little help of course – she’s too short to reach the pedals. She told me she wasn’t too bad. So as long as we install a track, she can drive at home. Good to know.

At this point the baby has declined to nap at all. In this way, he has made it known to us that it is likely time to leave. He said it in a little polite British accent. Actually, we just knew our minutes were numbered. We headed out, but stopped at guest services on our way out to cancel Cinderella’s Royal Table. My dh bought the girls some huge balloons, and it was a good thing, because it kept them all busy for the 45 minutes it took me to cancel CRT. Amazingly, the baby was fine – the balloons were fascinating. Apparently, the cm at CRT was wrong, and they are very, very strict about the 24 hour thing. So 21 hours wasn’t cutting it. No way. And the person on the phone (they made me call the dining number from guest services) was really very rude about it, telling me I was taking advantage of the system, and pretty stupid for canceling such a hard to get ADR. She eventually told me that she’d be happy to cancel, but they’d keep my deposit. I explained that I had been to CRT well before the 24 hour deadline, and they said no problem, she explained to me that I was stupid to listen to them. I asked for a manager, she told me she didn’t want to give me one. I told her I really thought I should speak to someone else, and she said no one else would help me. I asked her very politely again to please switch me to her manager, and she huffed quite a bit, but did. The manager was lovely, totally nice, did it in about 4 seconds and told me to have a Disney day. Again, there’s the huge difference in cm’s. And the lesson about continuing to insist when you know that it’s possible, and right, as long as you’re polite. And now, of course, with all the changes to CRT, I wish we’d gone, because we’re not likely to go back anytime soon!

We walked onto a waiting monorail, but the tram drove away from us as we were about 8 feet from it. I didn’t hear an announcement, and we were the only ones coming. Now, why did they do that, hmmm? But another was along very quickly, and we got home around 5. No one took naps, and we decided to have a quiet evening, and put the kids to bed early. My cousin and his wife came over to hang out, we made spaghetti, gave the kids baths, and put them to bed. We ended up playing speed scrabble, which I won (that never happens! Yea, me!), doing laundry, and watching Whose Line Is It Anyway?

My brother and his family came back later in the evening, and since I was doing laundry, my SIL asked me to throw in my dn8’s jacket because she got chocolate on it. It’s her favorite jacket, and pretty beat up. When I got it out of the dryer, it still had some faint stains on it, but I didn’t know if they were permanent, so I went to her with the dripping wet jacket, and said, “Is this acceptable for drying?” meaning, was it okay to go in the dryer, or did she want it washed again, and she looked at me like I was crazy, and said, “I’d probably make it a little dryer than that.” She thought I was asking if it was dry enough to give it back to her, and it was dripping on the floor. This is probably not so funny when typed, but we all started rolling on the floor, and after that, every time someone did laundry, or was holding something wet, they’d yell, “Hey, K---! Is this dry enough yet?!” I know, we’re easily amused.

We said goodnight to my cousin and his wife. We were meeting them at AK in the morning. We were all in bed by 11:45, which was pretty much a record.

[TW1]

Great reporting jnrrt!

Thanks for sharing.

Yup, you get the "I-saw the-rudest-park-guest-today" award.

[jnrrt]

Thanks, TW1! You get a medal just for getting this far.

[jnrrt]

Day Six, Wednesday,

We got up pretty early today to meet my dc and dcil at the AK. We got there about 8:50, got a birthday pin for my dd7, and found them just within the cast entrance. Then we all headed to Kilimanjaro Safari. On the way, we found Flick. We had the misfortune of losing our old autograph book. We keep one, and that way, we never have to stop for people we already have. Since we lost it, we’re back to square one, and we’re stopping for most everyone who doesn’t have a bad line. We take a picture every time, but my dd4 was not going anywhere near that huge bug, no matter how nicely he was smiling. She ended up going with my dcil, whom she really loves, and we got a nice picture.

The safari was cool, although I was holding the baby on the end of the seat, and he was not particularly happy. I kept giving him things to play with, or he would grab things, like my keys, my camera, my phone, and I was sure they were going over the side. They didn’t, but I didn’t see many animals, and note to self – no babies near the side of this ride.

Next we went to ITTBAB, and this freaked out all the children. All three of them uniformly hated it. Anyone notice that the stink bug smell is the same as the skunk smell in Figment? I think I have post-traumatic stress from Figment.

After this, my dh managed to put the baby to sleep in the stroller as we were walking toward Tarzan. I don’t love this show, but since it’s leaving, I figured we’d better catch it one last time. My dh really didn’t care about this show at all, and we knew it was way too loud for a sleeping baby, so he wandered around the park with the stroller while we watched it. It was better than I remember, but still really, really loud. The singer was much better than the last one we’d seen. We also had the “good” Tarzan and Jane, according to my dc and dcil. Apparently, there are a few different duos, and some Tarzans are a bit more manly, and some Janes are a bit more, ahem, lithe, shall we say? So it was a good show, and enough better than the last time that I was a little sad it was leaving.

We caught up with my dh at Triceratops spin. Fortunately, my dd4 changed her mind, and didn’t need to do that one too. Wait, I always get these two rides confused. Which is Triceratops Spin, and which is Primeval Whirl? Anyway, the Dumbo-ish one we didn’t have to do, but my dh and I, and my dc and dd7 went on the other one, and we all hated it. Now the adults made it through laughing, but saying never again. My dd7 was truly terrified, and pretty much lost it halfway through. That is not her speed.

We got lunch at the Flame Tree, which we’ve never tried, and it was pretty good. We checked out Dinosaur to see if my dh could go, but the line was pretty long, and he decided to skip it. My dcil had to leave for work, and had arranged a surprise for my parents that afternoon and the next day, so she was giving them comp tickets to get in. My dad really is too exhausted to go into the parks for more than a couple of hours at a time, so he really doesn’t bother for the expense. It was really nice of them to comp my parents, since they really couldn’t take advantage of the tickets. My dh walked out with her to get the tickets, and left to give the baby a real nap, and give the tickets to my parents so they could make the surprise. We headed over to MK to meet them.

My dc was a real trouper. He doesn’t have kids, but he was very nice about helping me to schlep my two remaining kids and all our stuff over to the MK. We stopped to see Mickey, Donald, and Goofy on our way out, and then trammed, drove, trammed, monorailed, and hoofed it to the MK parade. Wish we could have left the car, it probably would have been faster.

And now, the pants story. We were running kind of late with all the transportation stuff. The kids were being great, and keeping right up, but my dd4’s got short little legs, so she was holding my hand, but mostly being dragged along behind me. We got off the monorail, and I am dragging her down the ramp, when suddenly, she’s really dragging. My dc is behind her, and says, “um, J----, uh, stop, wait, look at R----, uh…”. We’re in a huge crowd, so I really wanted to get to the bottom of the ramp before I checked, but I looked back at her, and she’s struggling to keep up with her shorts around her ankles, and her very happily striped panties saying hello to all around us. Have I mentioned that she’s very slim? Hard to find pants that stay up. And harder to hold your own pants up when your mom won’t let go of your hand, and you’re jogging through large crowds.

We instantly stopped and yanked her shorts up (says something when you don’t need to unbutton them to get them over your hips, doesn’t it?) and she was totally unfazed. She thought it was pretty funny, and just grinned at me, but the woman on the other side of the ramp practically had to be carried down by her dh she was laughing so hard.

So anyway, we run into the MK, and everybody’s already got their spot staked out for the parade, which made it pretty hard to get down main street. Our surprise for the day from my dcil is that she got our entire family these special seats for the parade. They are right on the bridge into Liberty Square, and since they rope off the bridge and there are no people on the other side, you get a lot of attention. She was going to grand marshall my parents, but my dad didn’t think he could do it. Really, this was better, since he doesn’t care too much about that kind of thing, but loves watching his grandkids have fun. This way he could watch them, and it wasn’t too taxing.

We’ve never seen this parade since we’ve always been napping in the past. I thought it was a really cute parade, but very short! Are they all that short? Spectromagic seems a lot longer, and the only other one we’ve seen was the Tapestry of Dreams, and that seemed to go on forever.

After the parade, my dad needed a breathing treatment and some air conditioning since the heat is really hard on him. We decided to go to Mickey’s Philharmagic again, and he took his treatment in the back row while he watched the show, which was a great solution. The cm’s even let him stay through a second showing to finish the treatment. It’s silent, but he has to breath in medication for about 20 minutes. My dd7 and dc stayed with my parents for the second show, but my dd4 had had enough. We went on IASW while we waited for them. Then we all headed over to BTMRR, and Papa gave my dd4 a wheelchair ride while the rest of us went.

At this point, my parents left to go to Epcot for dinner and to try and get dad on Soarin’. One of his hobbies was flying, and we knew he’d love to see that ride. My dc also had to leave to get to work, so we all said goodbye, and the girls and I decided to check out Tom Sawyer Island, since we’ve never been there either.

We stopped off at the bathrooms and ran into Brer Bear. Then we got a couple of Mickey bars to endure the wait for the raft, and were duly delivered to the island. We’ve never taken the time for this before, but it was really cute. The girls had a great time exploring, and taking turns for who would be our next “expedition leader”. We made sure we went on every single trail, my bloodthirsty daughters shot everyone waiting for BTMRR, and my dd7 even took a turn as an escapee from the fort, while dd4 and I were the soldiers waiting to catch her.

My personal favorite moment on the island though, was in one of the caves. I’m a singer, and in our house, we are constantly turning things into songs. The girls have picked this up, and the whole family makes up tunes, funny or not. As we’re walking through the cave, my older daughter went first, then me, then the youngest. It was really bright outside, so we were all pretty much blinded when we got in the cave, and my older daughter was making some spooky sounds. My younger daughter is trying to be brave, and starts singing, “I’m in a scary caaaaaaaave. But I know it’s not really scaaaaaaa-rrrrry. It seems like a scary caaaaaaaaave. But I know that things won’t huuuuuuurrtt meeee. My mom took me in heeeeeeeeree. And she really loooooooovess meeeeee. So nothing bad will happen in this scary caaaaaaaaveee. Because she wouldn’t leeeeeeet it.” And on and on. I was dying. It was so sweet and so funny all at the same time. And even in a nice, spooky, minor key as it was bouncing off the cave walls. I told my husband, sometimes it’s not hard to tell what she’s thinking.

When we got back to the mainland, we checked the line to visit Jessie and Woody, but it was way too long, so we headed out. We got to see Friar Tuck, Prince John (no way would my dd4 stand by him! Mom might be able to see her safely through scary caves, but he was another matter all together), and Baloo on our way out. The bus came quickly, and this time we got off at the first stop and walked back rather than taking the OKW tour.

We got back to our villa at 6:45, and we were really tired. We made spaghetti again, and took baths, and had the kids in bed by 8. My brother’s family had spent the entire day at Typhoon Lagoon, and had a great time, but my dn7 was starting to feel pretty yucky. She ended up getting very sick in the night, and taking a whole day off, but it only lasted that one day, which was good. We were very grateful that the unit was so big because we could keep her pretty isolated, and nobody else got sick.

My dh and I were going to try and go back to Epcot for Illuminations by ourselves, but we were so tired, and then we saw lightening starting, and though we’d be pretty ticked if we got there and it was cancelled, so we just stayed in. More Su Doku, and Scrabble with the family, and some Young Frankenstein too, to round out the day. In bed at 11:30.

[withdisneyspirit]

Wow, Dh and I both have been enjoying your report! Loved the song in the cave that your DD4 sang:goodvibes

[jnrrt]

Wow, Dh and I both have been enjoying your report! Loved the song in the cave that your DD4 sang:goodvibes

Yeah, I should insert a sound clip, it was hilarious, and I don't think writing it out does it justice. Thanks!

[PoohsPal]

OK, have to make day 4 comments before I forget:

1. Oops, 3.5 days without a bath. I'm sure the 2 in one day made up for it and got all the layers. :Pokepoke:

2. RVTLTWOPOTC
a - I'd love an after picture. :ROTFL:
b - Do I have to put that in the abbreviations list?

3. Family from you know where. That poor girl was most definitely an IL. Boy do I feel for her!!!

4. You know, if someone lets me cross infron of them, I try to hurry. If I'm walking, I try to walk fast or jog. If I'm jogging, I try to go faster, which is not usually an easy thing for me. How can people not eve look like they're trying to hurry? Arghhhh..

Now on to day 5. :)

[PoohsPal]

Is it dry yet??? Those are the goofy things that you will laugh about forever. Too funny!

Happy striped pants. :ROTFL:

Too cool about the parade viewing spot!!!

Question about TS Island: Could 2 adults go or would we have to steal some kids? I've never been there, but DH loves Robin Hood and Jungle Book, esp. Baloo. I think he needs to go.

The song was awsome. Just spewing her thoughts. Too cute!!!!

Ready for the next installment! ;)

[jnrrt]

Oh, you could absolutely go look around Tom Sawyer without kids. There were a lot of adults on our raft, and I wouldn't have though twice about people without kids - if anyone did, they'd assume your kids were in a cave singing somewhere:) .

It's not high-powered entertainment, but I thought it was a really fun diversion, and we're OCD enough that we need to do everything once, and we had to make sure we'd been on every single trail. Don't miss the escape route from the fort when you go.

[jnrrt]

Day Seven, Thursday:

We were up today to try and make the opening of the studios. We were close, getting there at 9:10. By this morning, my dd7’s ear was really getting bad. We have never had swimmer’s ear, although she’s had a terrible time with ear infections and tubes. We are normally very proactive about her ears, but the symptoms were different with this, and we misread them. I called the pediatrician this morning, and they said it was a classic case of swimmer’s ear, and then called in a prescription for us. We stopped at the first aid desk in the studios, and they told us they could have the prescription delivered to the park for $5. Who knew? That was great, so we went ahead and did that. The only problem was that Turner Drug, which offers the service, doesn’t take insurance. You pay out of pocket, and then they assured me I would be reimbursed. That’ll teach me. $120 for ear drops, and our claim has been denied. We’ll see if we can get it on appeal. We also learned after the fact that there is a white vinegar solution that you can make that works as well as the drops. Hmmm. That might have been cheaper. Just guessing. But we needed to get her ears in shape before she had to fly again on Saturday. They also gave her some Motrin for the pain, and gave me some bandaids for a blister, and we were on our way.

We stopped to say hello to Pluto and Minnie, and then headed to Playhouse Disney for the 10:00 show. This is always cute. I do wish they would make the puppets a bit taller, or the stage a bit shorter, because it’s hard for short ones to see the puppets who are on the floor. My tip is to sit at least halfway back. It’s counter-intuitive, but really, your kids get a better view. Even the baby liked this. There’s a lot to look at, and all the children are dancing. He boogied back and forth on the floor the whole time.

We left immediately for the 10:45 Beauty and the Beast show, and got there early enough to hear Four for a Dollar. I like them a lot, and was glad to catch them since they don’t do every show. It was fun to watch the people who don’t know about them realize what was up. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, get to that show 15 minutes early. My dh did his wandering around with the sleeping baby in the stroller routine during this show as well. My dd4 thought it was the best show ever. I thought that Belle was remarkably boring, but everyone else was pretty good.

After that we headed out to see Lights, Motors, Action! My dd7 got blasted with water on our way past Star Tours, which she thought was hilarious, and then danced around trying to get shot again. We were all excited to see this since it’s new. We were trying to meet my parents for it, but did not manage to find them before it started – they were running late. We got up in the stands, and ate our packed lunch while we waited for the show. We did find my parents, but only after it started, so we waved and decided to meet up after the show. We all thought this show was great. My dc and dcil tell us that it depends a lot on who your “television person” is, but ours was good, and the show was impressive. It was also VERY LOUD! I think they told us that they go through 50 sets of tires a week? The noise totally freaked out my dd4. She was pretty terrified. This came to a head at the end of the show – the “good guy” car starts at the back of the set, races toward the stands, goes up a ramp, and jumps the water separating the stands from the set, while the “dock” area explodes and the car flies through the flames and drives off underneath the stands. This was loud and really sudden and hot. My dd4 screamed, jumped over our seat, and crawled underneath the legs of the man behind us to hide. (“Why, hello! So nice to meet you. Sorry about that. Just let me pry my daughter out from under your legs. Nice day, isn’t it?”) We looked over at the baby, and he’s clapping and yelling one of his four words, “Yay!” We’ve just summed up the difference between girls and boys right there.

After the show, we caught up with my parents. My brother was also there, but just long enough to tell us that my dn7 was still sick, and home with my SIL and their baby, while my brother and dn8 were hitting a few rides. They headed back off, and we went with my parents to meet my dcil and dc for our surprise of the day.

We met them at the front of the park, and they told us that we were going to get a private meet and greet, and photo opportunity with most of the cast of Fantasmic! It ended being every character that you could meet for photos in the park that afternoon. We thought this was awesome, and my dcil told us that those pictures are very special, because normally it is not possible to see that many characters in one place.

We were told to wait by a cast member entrance, and even that was interesting. You would never know it was there, and while we waited we saw about 4 “tourists” who had to be security finish “browsing” in shops and then look around, smile at us, and disappear into the entrance. Very interesting. Makes me wonder how many security people they have being “tourists” at any given time. *random story alert * Once when we were living in New York and I was on the subway, it got stopped for a “police action”. We never knew what these were, or how long the trains would be stopped, or even if it was on our train or on one farther down, but we were sitting there at 85th when they came over the PA and said, “All police personnel, report to car six, please report to car six.” Instantly, everyone that I was a little concerned about, including the homeless man at the end of the car stood up straighter, started smiling, whipped a badge out of their shirt, and left the car. I thought it was hilarious. I told my dh when we got home that New York doesn’t actually have any homeless people or drug dealers or gang members. They’re all undercover policemen.

Originally, we were supposed to have our meet and greet right there in this sort of alley toward the front. I think people saw us waiting with a purpose though, because they stuck around to see why we were sticking around, and when Snow White came out, it was all over. There were people everywhere. Aladdin and Jasmine sort of snuck up behind us while we watched the Snow White frenzy (sort of like a shark attack, really…), so we got a nice little bit of time with them, but every other character who came out was swallowed up. It became pretty obvious it wasn’t going to work, and we were disappointed. The characters dispersed all through the area around the info center and Oscar’s to try and spread out the crowd. We ended up taking the girls to wait in all the lines for autographs and pictures, thinking that was the end of it. We also met Mulan, Suzy and Perla, Pinocchio, the bad guy from Hunchback, Hercules and his friend, Meg, Tweedles Dee and Dum, and I don’t remember who else.

We saw all the characters going backstage again, and were getting ready to head out too, when my dcil comes over and whispers in my ear “head for first aid”, and then goes off in another direction. What was interesting was how many guests had already figured out that she worked there, and were following her. We went back to first aid, and there were my parents chatting with another cm, who told us just to wait a second. Lo and behold, all those same characters came out of another entrance I had not seen, along with my dcil, and we got to have this very nice picture opportunity and greeting right there. It was so nice. They’d all just gone backstage and then walked around the corner so that everyone else would think they were gone. The only bad part was that there was a girl of about 7 who actually needed first aid, so they escorted her mom and her past us, and you could tell she was dying to see everyone. She came out again right after everyone had left, and started to cry. I felt pretty bad about that.

My parents headed out since my dad was really getting tired. My dc and dcil went back to work, and we headed back to the Movie Ride. My dd4 didn’t want to do this, so my dh and dd7 went while we met Chip and Dale. We explained how to tell them apart to the family behind us, and then I said their names backwards twice when talking to them. D’oh!

My dh called me from the line and said they’d be a while. We decided there wasn’t much point to our waiting, since the baby really needed to sleep. I took him and my dd4 home in the car, and my dh and dd7 were just going to take the bus back. They ended up going to Muppets, and trying to catch another Lights, Motors, Action! but it was hurting her ears, so they left halfway through. We headed home for naps.

[jnrrt]

End of Day Seven, Thursday:

After naps we went to Downtown Disney to get souvenirs. Our rule is that you get one thing at the end of the week. This way, they can really decide what they want the most, and we don’t spend 14 million dollars. We have too much stuff anyway, and I’m not so into bringing more home. My dd4 picked (big surprise!) a pink princess Minnie, and my dd7 got a Sorcerer Mickey hat that lights up. The baby was stiffed, because, hey, he doesn’t know better. We got our requisite Ghirardelli sundae, and headed home for baths and bed for the kids.

My brother and SIL were staying in because my dn7 was still not doing great, and they told us they’d keep an ear out for our kids. My dh and I headed out to Epcot, and took my mom with us since she wanted to check out the Food and Wine Festival, and it opened a bit early, so we could see it that night. She took off at Mexico to get food, and walk around looking at everything.

We met my dcil to watch Illuminations, which I love. She had all kinds of neat info about it. The laser control booth is in the top of Mexico, and she’s been in there, and was telling me about it. She also told me that the fire barge wouldn’t be back for a while. She’s in the middle of pyrotechnic training, which is not required for her (she’s a stage manager) but she thought it was interesting, so she took it. She also told me that they have two 3-minute “safe windows” in between fireworks when they can take a barge in and try to fix things if they go wrong. If they run out of time to leave safely, they also have a one-man spot on each firework barge where they can leave people if they have to. They can duck in, and not die. And everyone working on pyrotechnics has to wear 100% cotton clothing, down even to their socks, so they won’t generate any static electricity. Disney is the largest consumer of fireworks in the world, and has pioneered many of the protocols and pieces of equipment that everyone uses. They also have a perfect safety record. All very interesting stuff.

After Illuminations, we got FP’s for Soarin’ and rode Living with the Land. My dcil had not been on it yet, and I wanted to show my dh the tomato tree (I have to have something like that, on a smaller scale of course, next summer!). When we got off, my brother called and told us that both our dd7 and baby were awake. Our daughter was pretty miserable with her ears, and the baby was not too happy to realize we’d gone, so my dh went back to hold down the fort. My dcil and I took a turn on Spaceship Earth, and then rode Soarin’ one more time before she drove me home. We were in bed by 12.

[jnrrt]

Day Eight, Friday:

We were up today around 7. We are very, very tired. The kids have been going pretty much non-stop since we got here. Also, the rest of the family is leaving today, and we’re leaving OKW for one night at AKL for my dd7’s birthday. We got up, and got ready, I left my dh in charge of packing up, and went to AKL to check in and see if we could get our room early so the baby could get a good nap. We figured if it was ready, he’d sleep over there, if not, we’d go to another park and let him sleep in the stroller. We were hoping for the room, as the stroller naps have not been very good ones, although better than nothing. We also checked to see (not very hopefully, since it takes so long to clean a GV) if we could stay in our GV at OKW until 12 so he could have his nap, but no go. So I went off to AKL.

It was fun to go, knowing that we were going to stay this time. I had reserved a standard view at the AP rate, and I fully admit that I was hoping for an upgrade. I thought it was fairly likely since we were only there for one night in the off-season, and it was my daughter’s birthday, as noted in the reservation. However, that was not to be. The CM said that they were completely booked up, and that if we’d been there on a weeknight we would probably have been upgraded, but not that night. We did get bunkbeds, though, which was almost as important to my dd7 as the view. She also told me that somehow I had a $55 credit on my bill, since I’d had to pay $199 to hold it. She asked me if I wanted to use the money toward an upgrade ($80ish). I had to wonder why an upgrade was available at all if the resort was completely sold out as she’d said before. Oh well, I just declined, because it wasn’t worth that amount of money to us, got the keys, and headed up to the room.

Wow, this room is small! I really think it was smaller than our room at Caribbean Beach. It could just be the décor, but I don’t think so. The room was very nicely furnished, and the bathroom area was nice, but it’s very dark. Even the light fixtures seemed very dark. It was totally fine for one night, and I was still happy we were going to stay there, but I was glad it wasn’t for a week. I set up the pack and play for when we came back with Toby, and went back to get the family at OKW.

On my way my dh called to see where I was and told me that he might help Dad take my older brother and SIL to the airport so they didn’t have to go so early with ME. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to do this because then I couldn’t figure out how to do Toby’s nap – we’d have to keep the girls in the room with him, and that would never work.

When I got back to the villa, they were trying to figure this all out. The basic problem was that dad only has five seats in his handicapped van, plus all his gear and wheelchair, which takes up a lot of space. We could not figure out how to get all of mom and dad’s stuff (they were leaving that day too) and my brother and SIL’s stuff, and their family of five, and my dad into that van, and that would also strand my mom as we didn’t have any extra space in my car. We were going to offload some stuff to our room at AKL, or leave stuff with OKW, or shuffle cars, it was all pretty confusing and a big hassle. My brother finally got tired of trying to figure it all out and didn’t think it was worth the hassle to everyone else, looked at his watch and realized they had 10 minutes to make ME. His family said goodbye immediately and practically ran out the door. They did make it, but my db’s computer bag broke on the way, and dropped his computer on the sidewalk, which wasn’t pretty. Poor guy, he’s having a really frustrating day. It did turn on when he got home, so at least he could transfer his info.

After this, we finished packing up, and the rest of us headed to AKL. My dh went and put the baby down immediately. The rest of us went to the store, and my mom picked out a birthday present with my dd7 – a safari Tigger plush. I also bought more Motrin for her ears, an AKL magnet (we collect them), and a couple postcards. My mom also got my dd4 the Princess antennae topper she had so wanted the first day, since she was being so good about my dd7 getting extra presents.

My parents watched the girls by looking around the lobby, and dad giving them rides on his wheelchair (a favorite pastime) while I waited (forever!) for a concierge. I asked them if they could have Mickey and Minnie sign the postcards with something like “We loved seeing you!” or something similar, and send one to my kids and one to my brother’s kids. She said she’d take care of it. Unfortunately, we ended up getting these back in the mail, unsigned, with a note that said, “Mickey does not sign postcards”. What? Anyway, she also checked the info on my dd7’s birthday, and I was pretty sure we were getting a surprise in our room. We ended up getting a signed picture of Snow White with some balloons. And the concierge found a bag that was left for us by someone we met on a Disney board online. While I was waiting, Toby woke up, and Nathan came down with him and found my parents and the girls.

The person who left us the bag had arranged meets with people at MNNSHP, but since we weren’t going, she dropped them at the hotel for us. How nice was this! Each child got a very nice plush and some candy in a Halloween bag. My dd7 got JoJo, my dd4 got baby Mickey, and my baby got baby Eeyore. I was amazed that someone would do that for someone they’d never met, and weren’t likely to ever meet. It was so nice, and the kids were thrilled with the surprise. My mom also gave my dd7 her other birthday present – a new Bible. Now that she can really read, we thought it was time for the real deal. She really loved it, and read it pretty constantly when we were in the room.

My parents did not want to eat at AKL particularly, since we’d already done Boma, they weren’t too interested in Mara, and didn’t want to pay for Jiko. They opted to just head to my grandma’s. Our kids were also starting to act very tired – the week was definitely catching up with them. So we said goodbye, and they headed out for Tampa.

We headed down to Mara, but at this point, my dd4 was just done. She needed a nap, and badly. We actually ended up leaving Mara because she wasn’t behaving well enough to eat out. We went back to our room and finished up almost all the food we had left – it worked out pretty well. We needed to put her to bed, but the baby wasn’t going to sleep now, and we were hoping to sync up naps so we could do something in this day. We went out exploring AKL to kill some time (and because we wanted to!) so they could take their naps together.

We hit every hallway and looked out all of the public views. What was weird is that we only saw animals on the Arusha Savannah – not a single other animal on the other two savannahs at all. It was a little strange. We were also hoping for a good view of the pool, but it’s almost entirely obscured by trees. At one point, we went out on the little overlook by the elevators, and could see a tiny bit of the pool, and a lot of the roofs below, and my dd7 says, “Oh, what a pretty view!” to which dd4 replies, “Pretty!? Pretty?! R-----, that’s a roof!”

My dh took the baby back to sleep while the girls and I checked out the pool and playground for a few minutes. My dd7 wasn’t allowed to swim because of her ears, so I knew we wouldn’t get a chance to try it, but it’s beautiful, and the girls enjoyed the playground. Then we headed back, and all went to sleep as well. Not long enough, but it helped, and the baby woke us all up at 4.

[jnrrt]

End of Day Eight, Friday:

We headed out to Epcot since Magic Kingdom closed at 6 for MNSSHP, AK was already closed, and we’d finished everything we wanted to do at MGM. We immediately went on “the ball” as dd7 loves this. Dd4 had to be carried on, and hid her face the entire time because it’s scary (“But mom! The people move!” Uh, yea. That’s kind of the point.). She survived, and then we went to Guest Services to see if we could get in to eat at Norway or Mexico. No way, but we decided to try at the podiums. First to Norway, but no go. Then to Mexico and still no go. So we rode El Rio del Tiempo which the girls love, and then my dh took the baby to the food court in the Land to feed him and get fastpasses for Soarin’. I took the girls over to Figment, (aaarrrgghhh!) but I’d promised dd4 I’d take her if she lived through “the ball”. Then we met my dh and ds for dinner.

We’ve never been to this food court, but it was nice. We all shared a plate of some kind of Asian stir-fry, broccoli, chicken, and rice for about $10, and I got a California Roll, I think 8 pieces, for about $10. The food was okay, although the sushi was not so good. But then, why did I think sushi at a Disney food court was a good idea? My bad.

Our FP’s for Soarin’ weren’t until 8. We weren’t sure the kids were going to last that long, but I really wanted to see what was available for the Food and Wine Festival. We also hadn’t had enough food, so we thought we’d try a few little things. We walked around the countries counter-clockwise since I knew that if we didn’t find anything, I wanted to have dessert at Kringla in Norway. As we went, I think we realized we are not really the target for this festival. We really don’t drink much, and we have really wonderful ethnic cuisine from everywhere where we live. So every time we came to a booth, I thought, well, we could get that at home, and it would probably be better (considering the stuff we’d tried at Mexico last nice was just passable). By the time we got to England, I was pretty hungry, and wanted to try the fish and chips, so even though they’re always there, that what we got. Dd7 and I went into the tea shop while dh got the fish and chips, and I bought a few loose teas to try. Then we all shared the fish, and it was sort of the same kind of thing – pretty good by Disney standards, but just so-so for the rest of the world.

I did see some things I would have liked to try after that, but of course, we were already pretty full, and then we got caught up in a crazy mob after one of the Eat to the Beat concerts let out (think it was Kansas), so we were just trying to stay together until we could get out of there. We did go to Norway and got our favorite berry tart and chocolate cake. They were both great, and then it was time to head back to Soarin’. We finished our world tour, and I was glad that I got to see the F&W festival, but I won’t worry too much about missing it now.

The baby was really getting sleepy, so we knew we didn’t have time to baby swap. I took my dd7 while my dh stayed with the baby and our dd4. By this time it was 8:45. We left then, even though it really seemed too bad to miss Illuminations – I’ve only gotten to see it once all the way through! But it was the better part of valor, as the kids were exhausted, and we still wanted to do a few things before heading home tomorrow. We got back, took baths, and were all in bed by 10.

[jnrrt]

Day Nine, Saturday:

This morning we got up, got ready, ate the rest of our cereal, packed up, and got downstairs. I checked out, and asked if they could print our boarding passes for SWA. They told me I’d have to wait through the huge concierge line. They really should split this line up – I waited forever yesterday because there are many people there planning their entire trip – tickets, meals, everything. It seems like there should be something separate for the people with something little to do. I wasn’t going to wait, and figured they’d let us pre-board anyway, so we figured we’d take care of it at the airport.

We were supposed to meet my cousin and his wife at the Magic Kingdom this morning at 9. We were a bit late, but we found them fairly quickly under the cinema sign on Main Street. Dc had to go to work at 11, and dcil had to take him, so our time was limited, but it was still fun. We all headed off toward Splash Mountain. My dd4 had spent a great deal of time waiting patiently on this trip, and I didn’t want her to have to do that again on this last day, so my dc, dcil, dd7, and dh went on Splash Mountain and Big Thunder twice each, while I took dd4 and the baby, and the stroller, and the backpack, and the Pal Mickey, and the camera, and phones (nothing could get wet, lol!) to Fantasy Land. We got FP’s for four at Peter Pan, since I knew my dd7 wanted to go on that. Then my dd4, ds and I waited for it, since the line was pretty short. My ds is just all eyes on these rides, and dd4 loved getting to do what she wanted for a whole morning. After that, we checked Dumbo, but it was a long wait. We went on Pooh, because my dd4 would rather wait for Pooh than Dumbo. Then we headed back to Small World. They both loved everything. By now, the others were waiting for us by the exit. We gave my dc and dcil our FP’s and they took the girls on Peter Pan. Then we went over to Mickey’s Philharmagic. My dd4 did not want to do this again, so they took her on the carousel, while the rest of us went to the movie. We found them trying to remove the sword from the stone when we got out. Then they had to leave, so we said our goodbyes.

Next we headed over to Tomorrow Land. We checked out Indy, but it was a 40 minute wait, so we skipped it. My dd4 was disappointed, but said we could do it next time. We got FP’s for Buzz and then went on the Carousel of Progress. By the time we got out of that, my ds was starving, so my dh fed him while the girls and I battled Zurg. This time, I steered while the girls shot. I think they need more training, but they were both Cosmic Cadets (or something like that) – dd7 with about 2200 and dd4 with about 3600. We took a few pictures in the exit, and then we had to go to the airport.

We found the airport, lol! I had planned everything for the trip, but realized the last day that I had not only forgotten to have anyone pick us up at the airport to take us home, but I really didn’t know how to find the airport either. Fortunately, another uncle (dc’s dad) called us on the monorail back to the TTC, and agreed to pick us up when we got back, and finding the airport wasn’t too tough. We got our car returned, and went to the kiosks to check in. Even just an hour and a half before the flight, we were assigned a “B” boarding pass. We went through security, which is such a drag with three kids and all their shoes and stuff, and then found our gate. We took potty breaks and ate Sbarro’s in line, finishing just in time to board.

Our trip home was uneventful except that our flight attendant, who was trying to be witty and amusing, kept singing, and was actually psycho and annoying. Can’t fault her for trying, but I really wanted her to STOP ALREADY! We got in and got our stuff, my aunt and uncle were there, and they’re so sweet, it was really nice to have them pick us up, and the girls had an awesome time telling them everything that had happened – I don’t think they breathed at all for the 20 minute ride home. Got in, took naps, and tried to recover.

So that’s the end of the crazy, crazy trip report. But we only go once a year, so you have to work with what you have, right? If you’ve made it this far, that’s shocking.

Thanks for reading!

[PoohsPal]

OK, couldn't resist. Made it through Day 7, but must get back to work. Image of prying dd4 out from strangers legs is priceless.

Your dc has amazing power! Wow. Can you tell her I'm long lost family for our marathon trip? ;) Make sure yuo let her know that since I've been lost for so long, she's got a lot of making up to do. :Pokepoke: :ROTFL:

Very cool.

[PoohsPal]

But now what will I do? I'm at a loss iwth no more reports that ate Orlando to see...

Thanks for the aweseom reports jnnrt!

[withdisneyspirit]

Loved Day seven...will be back for more tomorrow and that 'stiffed' baby boy will catch up one day soon for all the freebies he's giving now:beaniepro :yo-yo:

[jnrrt]

Aw, Carrie, you'll have to find a way to carry on!

And thanks, guys, I'm glad you enjoyed (or are enjoying) it.

[CRSNDSNY]

I haven't read this report yet, but I love the length!!! I usually copy, paste, shrink and print these so I can read them before bed. It helps me conjur up some Disney dreams, so THANK YOU IN ADVANCE!!! Can't wait to read it later! :hyper:

[RweTHEREyet]

I too love long trip reports. The more details the better. It is great to see how others approach their trips to WDW and how things work out for them.

jnrrt, I am about half way through your reports and am enjoying each and every day.

You were so right to ask for the night at CB for your parents. You were a lot more patient than I am.

Can't wait to finish this.

[jnrrt]

I'm so glad that you are (or will be) enjoying it!

[RweTHEREyet]

I am wondering how you manage to recall all of the details of each day. Do you take notes, do you by chance have a laptop with you on the trip and record stuff, although I don't see how when you had so many people to keep up with. I can't remember all that stuff and I don't worry about anyone but me and hubby and sometimes son. My days all start to run into one another.

[jnrrt]

I usually jot notes to myself at night after the kids are in bed, because I like to remember what we did - it takes about 5 minutes. It's enough to jog my memory when I get home to write the "real thing". We especially like to make sure that we don't forget the funny stories about the kids.

[CRSNDSNY]

I realized halfway through reading your report last night that we were there at the exact same time! We didn't stay as long as you, but we were there -- staying at BWV. :cool:

I remember that storm we got -- the day you were at MGM. We were just walking back from Epcot. We noticed the clouds, so we decided to head back to our villa. By the time we got to the BW, it was POURING! :scary:

Great report, BTW! I'm so appalled that they didn't get your HC room at CBR -- especially when you verified so many times before leaving. And then to not bring the bath accessories that he needed??!! That's just wrong. :rant:

I was glad to read about your experience with a 1yo in the report -- we'll be traveling with our just-turned 1yo this May. It was good to see what Toby enjoyed and how he dealt with the day. I loved the part about the parade and Ariel. That's just too adorable!

Thanks so much for posting this! :cool: :woohoo: :jumpingbe

[jnrrt]

Oh, I'm so sorry we didn't know the trips were overlapping! I would have loved to meet you.

I was also surprised by the H/A thing - Disney is usually just stellar in this area.

I'm glad you're liking the report!

[dgaston]

Wonderful trip report! It helps me hang in as I wait for our October trip to arrive.

[jnrrt]

Thanks, Debbie! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[mushu]

Thanks for reporting.

[glypnirsgirl]

I just love DW! I try these marathon trips with my family regularly --- they always end up crazy, silly fun. You have had me rolling!

[jnrrt]

Thanks, I'm so glad you like it!

It was fun for me to go back and read some of what we did - I can't believe how much I forget. Time flies!

[kathyseb]

Welcome Back jnrrt.

Hope all is well with you.

[withdisneyspirit]

How very nice to see you, Jen!!

[Mr.Monk]

It is a slow day at work today and it is a guilty pleasure reading trip reports on WDW!

Great report! Thanks for taking the time to post it on the board!