7 Days of Magic....at the Happiest Place on Earth

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Hello everyone, here is my attempt at my trip report to celebrate our first family trip to WDW. Please keep your hands and feet in the vehicle and I hope you enjoy the ride

Trip Dates: June 27-July 4 Arriving on the 27th and leaving on the 4th.

Cast of Characters


Me: Sharon, 35 years old Mom extrordinair of 3 boys and 1 girl. Happily married for 17 years and a complete Disney Freak. Been all my life and doesnt look like im growing out of it. I have been trying to get back to Disney for 20 years now. Have not been able to for one reason or another. I grew up at Disneyland with my Dad and have loved all things Disney from then on.


DS : Kiefer 16, has a great appriciation for his moms love of all things Disney. He is going to compete in the US Open ISKA tournament durring this trip.

DTwinS9: #1 Tristan and #2 Bryce, Like Mom lovin everything Disney, between the two of them they have more Disney stuffed toys than allowed by law.

DD2: Brinley my only daughter. Out of 3 boys I finally got my Princess princess: , Raising her right, the Disney princess way. I her first word was princess. LOL Not exactly but it was one of her first.

Pre trip bio:

We are traveling to WDW because my DS16 is competing in the US Open Iska Tournament held at the Coronado Springs Resort :thumbsup2 . Spent 4 months raising money just to be able to go. We figured out our budget, looked for deals and kept our eye on the gold. Everytime we earned money, we paid something off. By mid June we had all the money we needed, paid for our airfare, competition fees, had our hotel and meal money, made our ressies and were set for travel.

Day 1 June 27 2006

3:50 am alarm goes off. Time to wake the crew and head to the airport. I am so excited I can hardly stand myself :woohoo: . But playing it off cool because DH can not go with us :sad1: and dont want to make him feel bad. (Inside though, Im am doing the happy dance :dancer: )
We arrive at the airport to find that our plane is delayed for 2 hours. :furious: bummer.... wouldnt know how much of a bummer till later. But anyway....when we finally left we found that the first delay had caused us to miss all our consecutive flights. Our airline confirmed us on a later flight that would put us in Orlando at 10:50pm. Now I dont know if your getting the picture, but this is the picture in my mind at that point, 4am kids up excited about Disney 10:50pm kids still up and screaming wanting to be there already... BUMMER MAJOR. We decided to fly standby on every flight afterward, so this meant we had to run from terminal to terminal to stand by for every available flight until our confirmed flight. So here we go carry- on items in tow along with 4 children. Missing our original flight also caused us to have to cancel our ressies for our Spirit of Aloha....This was so dissapointing since I had called every day for weeks to get this ressie. I called WDW dining and explained our situation and after a few minutes they said they would refund our money (as this was a pre paid show) and had set us up for the Hoop dee doo review the next evening. GOTTA LOVE DISNEY :lovestruc . We finally lucked out after 2 attempts and made it out the airport and were headed to Orlando. We arive at MCO at aprox 8:20 and were so ready to be wisked away by Disneys Magical Express and to start our adventure. Sure enough in true Disney style, as soon as we reached the desk at ME we were in another world where people were happier and more friendly than most. Hmmm..... wonder if that pixie dust :tinker: has anything to do with it. We enjoyed the short ride from the airport to CSR and arrived to a beautiful resort. Pictures do not do this property justice. It is more beautiful than I imagined. Again that disney magic was evident when we checked in.... all our requests were honored and were on our way to our room. I was a little worried about our luggage though. We were told with the change of flight plans we might not get our luggage for some time, but I was pleasantly suprized to find our luggage in our room already when we opened the door. WOW TALK ABOUT MAGIC.
:smickey: THIS IS THE HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH. We walked down to the Pepper Market to get something to eat. The food was really good that night, I dont really know if it was the food or if we were just so hungry. Any way off to bed for an early start in the morning.

[KathyRN137]

We arrive at the airport to find that our plane is delayed for 2 hours..... Missing our original flight also caused us to have to cancel our ressies for our Spirit of Aloha....This was so dissapointing since I had called every day for weeks to get this ressie. I called WDW dining and explained our situation and after a few minutes they said they would refund our money (as this was a pre paid show) and had set us up for the Hoop dee doo review the next evening. GOTTA LOVE DISNEY :lovestruc

Absolutely!!

Well, now that thats out of the way, you'll probably have smooth sailing for the entire trip. pixiedust:

Kathy

[GreatBiscuit]

Sounds like you had a rough start - I'm glad the day ended on happy note!

[pooksma]

All in all a happy beginning! Funny how flight delays are quickly forgotten once you arrive at WDW~hopefully the same happened for you! :thumbsup2

[Pixeldust Fairy]

yea it was a rough start. :) Day 2 will be comming up soon. Thanks for everyones posts.

Sharon :sunny:

[tictoc]

good start Sharon. I am supposed to be working on day 4 of my own report, but got distracted by yours! I can't wait for more. I too had to wait a while to get my princess and I am using your philosophy all the way!

[MomofCKJ]

After a rough travel day I can't wait to hear about your first full day at Disney!

Allyson

[heaven2dc]

What a rough start to a vacation but glad you were sprinkled with pixie dust after all! Hope you enjoy the Hoop-de-doo - anxiously awaiting day 2 :Pinkbounc

[tinawv]

Looking forward to your next report. :)

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Day 2 Wednesday June 28

6am the alarm goes off Im up showered and dressed in record time....have you ever seen how fast the pit crews work at a nascar race... well I put them to shame :jumping1: . Woke the kids fed them some cereal and got them dressed and ready to go pretty quickly we were at the bus stop by 8:00 waiting for the next bus to MK. After 20 years of waiting it was finally happening, I was returning to the Magic of Disney, boy was I excited :banana: . We arrived at MK 30minutes before opening and that gave us time to slather on some sun screen, look at the park map and check out shows and times. All of this adding to the anticipation :goodvibes . Finally they have the morning welcoming ceremony and I know it might sound silly, but as they were singing and dancing, It brought tears to my eyes and I was overcome with emotion :blush: . I guess after wanting for so many years to return and finally realizing my dream I just lost it.
After regaining my composure and the gates opening we headed straight for Adventure land :moped: . I followed a similar park pattern that we used to do when I was a child at Disneyland and it seemed to work out pretty good. Our first stop was the Jungle Cruise which was everything I remembered. The corny jokes our crazy boat operator told us, brought back memories of times past. The awe and joy in my kids eyes made me realize that living the magic through your kids is just as rewarding as experiencing it yourself. Any way we headed to Magic Carpets of Aladdin that was fun and was something that my kids truly enjoyed. Since POC was closed we went on to Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain.... right off the bat we got a FP for BTM and did the stand by which was basically walking right on. We rode that 3 times because my kids just loved it. We did not do Splash mountain because after we rode BTM I felt like we needed to do something that my Pricess could ride. We made our way to Haunted Mansion and walked right on that ride also. The kids were pretty impressed with the ride, they couldnt believe that mom had remembered exactly how the ride was from all those years ago. My Tristan, poor guy, he exited the wrong side of the doom buggy in HM and stopped the ride dead in its tracks. There he was looking at me :confused3 from across the way wondering how he was going to get back. Funny now, but not at that moment. Poor guy! From that time on I kept him on an invisible leash.
Seeing as it was close enough to lunch time and not yet too busy at Pecos Bill Cafe we decided to grab a bite. Yum chicken wrap.... Yum Burgers we enjoyed our meal and were done right around the time everyone else was getting hungry. We made a quick exit and headed to Fantasy land where we caught Mickeys Philharmagic... again NO lines... :woohoo: CAN YOU BELIEVE IT NO LINES IN THE MIDDLE OF SUMMER :woohoo: ..... loved loved loved this show. I can not tell you how much we enjoyed it... definitly a must see.
After Philharmagic we went back to our hotel for a short cat nap :cat: . I didnt want to do a commando park tactic, knowing that my son had to compete in a couple of days so we were going to take it easy. We had a pretty long nap back at the resort and woke up just in time to freshen up, and catch the bus back to MK. We only had about half an hour to kill before we had to be at the Hoop Dee Doo, so we entered the park and hung around City Hall getting character autographs. This was great because everyone else was deeper in the park or leaving and the lines for the characters were really short.
Character autographs in tow, we hopped the boat to FW to have our dinner show. party: OMG Hoop dee doo was GREAT fun :mickeyjum . I heard that if you dont reserve early you might not get a good seat. With only a days notice we had Fabulous seats.... not front row center, but we had clear view of the stage and were so close to the kitchen access that our food was always delivered first. We were close enough that the performers came to our table several times during the show and I just cant tell you how much fun we had. The kids were hoopin and hollerin, dancin and smiling so big It was all worth it.
We left there with a full stomach and just in time to catch the Wishes fireworks show and the Spectro magic parade. After the parade we headed back to the resort. Even the bus ride was fun. We all sang the hoop dee doo song and day dreamed about what tomorrow might bring. What a great end to a Fantabulous day. Stay tuned for day 3 :jumping1:

[MagicMe]

Great report! Can't wait for the next installment!!!

[pooksma]

Happy to hear Day 2 was so much better! :banana:

[kimwim8]

Great report! I can't wait to read more!

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Here is a photo of th MK opening... Fun fun fun
http://images1.snapfish.com/34754%3C%3A%3A7%7Ffp339%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394% 3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B344%3A%3A98nu0mrj
Like I said it brought tears to my eyes. :)

Next. The Gang.. except me of course. Im taking the photohttp://images1.snapfish.com/34754%3C%3A%3A7%7Ffp342%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394% 3EWSNRCG%3D32338%3B3448%3A63nu0mrj

[Pixeldust Fairy]

good start Sharon. I am supposed to be working on day 4 of my own report, but got distracted by yours! I can't wait for more. I too had to wait a while to get my princess and I am using your philosophy all the way!

I waited 14 years for mine and I am having so much fun with her... I bet you are too.

[kimwim8]

I love the pics! Thank you!

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Day 3 Thursday June 29

As usual I was rearing to go bright an early Thursday morning, but had agreed with my son to let him go check out the competition area and work out for a couple of hours. I was waiting on pins and needles to get out to the parks. but it was probably a good idea for him to go check out the area because it gives him a little bit more confidence when competing. I piddled around the room for a while, got the kids ready and headed down to the convention center where he was practicing. When I met up with him it was about 11am and he was just about done with his work out. We gathered our things and and started out to the bus stop thinking that we would go to MGM and stay till it closes when my phone rang....... It was Kiefers Instructor wanting us to go to Typhoon Lagoon with them. I was not at all interested in going to Typhoon Lagoon because (1) we had park hopper tickets (2) I had not budgeted in money for that and (3) I did not want to spend our vacation with his instructor and their family. Any way we declined but they still wanted to meet up that evening for dinner together. OH all right..... GRRR. This totally threw off all my plans for the day. We made a quick decision to meet at Downtown Disneys Rainforest Cafe for dinner and that we would go to Animal Kingdom because I didnt want to go to MGM and have to leave right in the middle of all our fun.
So finally after some aggravation over messed up plans we hopped the buss to AK, and arrived there right during the heat of the day... LITTLE SECRET ABOUT AK...it is the hottest park at WDW. We were later told this by several CMs. We grabbed a fast pass for Safari, then grab something to eat. Knowing that this was the largest of the WDW parks I did not want to stray too much from where we were, I also did not want to get my son too tired before competition. So we looked at scenery, people watched, shopped at the shops. Time passed by fairly quickly and we were able to get on the safari ride with no trouble at all. I have to say that most of the animals were out and about. It is really cool the way disney has re created that experience. Really beautiful park.
Our time was basically up there at AK as we had to meet up with our friends. We left and headed to DTD. We arrived early and had time to shop, take some photoshttp://images1.snapfish.com/34756%3A459%7Ffp343%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3EWS NRCG%3D32339239%3A3%3B27nu0mrj and to get our name in for a table at Rainforest Cafe. I love the World of Disney store, so much to see there. I have to get my Princess the works at Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique next time we are there, that looks like so much fun. As we were walking back to RFC we watched a street performer, he was actually pretty entertaining. The kids really enjoyed seeing all the goofy stunts he did and how he interacted with the crowd. This passed the time quickly and before we knew it we were being seated to eat. It was crowded there... I guess everyone gets hungry at the same time. Our meal was good as usual and everyone had a lot of fun. We picked up some souvenirs at RFC and headed back to CSR, but not before snapping this fun picture of everyonehttp://images1.snapfish.com/34756%3A459%7Ffp33%3A%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3E WSNRCG%3D32339239%3A3%3B43nu0mrj
Well another day down, tomorrow Tournament day.. Lots of fun to come.

Thanks everyone for reading my report I hope you enjoy.

[DeterminedOne]

Great trip - can't wait to read more. :thumbsup2

[Tanya90210]

Great report so far... can't wait to read more

[Backstage_Gal]

Thanks so much for posting, enjoying your report. But what exactly kind of competion is this? :confused3

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Thanks so much for posting, enjoying your report. But what exactly kind of competion is this? :confused3

He was competing in the US Open ISKA Championships its a martial arts competiton. Thanks for reading. :wave:

[UtahMama]

We have a few things in common! 3 sons,finally our princess came!
My kids are : DS17/DS8/DS6/DP(princess)2! Also the TinkerBell picture...We call our baby Stinker Belle because she's Tinker's evil twin. Your boys are so handsome (TWINS!!!! Geez!) and your little girl reminds me of a baby Belle doll we have! Look at her stylish clothes,Cutie Patootie! Did you "ride share" with your DS16? If you did, did your DT's like to ride everything twice like my lil'buggers do? Your Trip Report is a HOOT and your doing a super job! We're going in Sept for my birthday(39! yeesh)

Have fun! Write more!
Love, Utahmama

[Pixeldust Fairy]

We have a few things in common! 3 sons,finally our princess came!
My kids are : DS17/DS8/DS6/DP(princess)2! Also the TinkerBell picture...We call our baby Stinker Belle because she's Tinker's evil twin. Your boys are so handsome (TWINS!!!! Geez!) and your little girl reminds me of a baby Belle doll we have! Look at her stylish clothes,Cutie Patootie! Did you "ride share" with your DS16? If you did, did your DT's like to ride everything twice like my lil'buggers do? Your Trip Report is a HOOT and your doing a super job! We're going in Sept for my birthday(39! yeesh)

Have fun! Write more!
Love, Utahmama

Wow! we do have alot in common, our kids are so close in age. I have had so many people tell me that my DP princess: looks like Belle. I have a picture of her dressed up as Belle to boot. I'll have to find it and show everyone :)

[tictoc]

We have a few things in common! 3 sons,finally our princess came!
My kids are : DS17/DS8/DS6/DP(princess)2! Also the TinkerBell picture...We call our baby Stinker Belle because she's Tinker's evil twin. We're going in Sept for my birthday(39! yeesh)



Hey, UtahMama

We call our daughter stinkerbell as well! We're also going in September for my 38th birthday. Mine is the 4th when is yours?

[FutureCinderella88]

Oh my word, I absolutely love your posts! I keep finding myself laughing out loud while reading. :thumbsup2 I am shocked at how much luck you've had with short lines at all the good rides! I waited for like an hour and a half when i went on philarmagic! I'm going to WDW in about a week and reading your posts makes me even more excited!!! It sounds like your having a blast, keep us posted and I hope your son did/does well at his competition!

[UtahMama]

Wow!!! You're OLD! mine is the 13th,Virgo. I'll be 39 that day! Last Year we went to the Whispering Canyon and I got to ride a stick horse and sing (loudly might I add) Happy Birthday to myself! good times.

We love our Stink! She actually doesnt turn two untill Aug.26th
I wish I could send a picture of her, she LOOKS like TB. She has the POUT nailed! Last year she was just a bitty attitude. This year,not so much. Should be a TREAT let me tell you.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Day 4 June 30 2006 (Competition Day)

Well today is the day, Kiefer has trained for so long to get to this point and its finally here. We head down bright and early to the convention center. There was quite a crowd already most of them are picking up their competitor packet and visiting with people that they know from other tournaments. Us, well were just picking up our packet cuz we dont know anyone yet. Kiefer decides that he wants to practice a bit and heads to one empty room where others have gathered to do the same. Here he is getting into game mode.http://images1.snapfish.com/347588446%7Ffp33%3B%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3EWS NRCG%3D323392%3C83%3A%3A54nu0mrj It is so EXCITING :banana: to be here. Kiefer is a 2nd degree black belt and has dreamed of competing in this tournament for as long as he has been in martial arts. Kiefer will compete in three events (EXTREME WEAPONS) which is a form with weapons, music, basic, advanced and extreme techniques such as flips, kicks and jumps. (EXTREME OPEN HAND FORMS) which include all of the above except he does these with out a weapon and finally (TRADITIONAL FORMS). Our competition starts at 4pm so we are going to grab something to eat and get some quiet time in our room. You know athletes have to get in the zone. Or at least thats what Kiefer calls it.
4:00 rolls around quickly and we head back. I thought there were alot of people there before but now there were twice as many people . I guess earlier it was only competitors, and now it was spectators as well. We find our ring and I start the check list. Music, check. Video Camera, check. Photo Camera, check. Okay all set. Kiefers first event is weapons, he is last on the list. Good because he gets to watch all the competition and see what theyve got. It was some pretty steep competition, there was people from all over the US and from other countries as well. Finally its Kiefers turn, comes out and does his thing. It looks good, but how good will it be enough. As the judges tally up the score we are all just a bundle of nerves waiting for the results. Kiefer is pacing back and forth talking with some of the other competitors. Finally they line up for the results. Naming off from 8th place the judges start awarding. OMG YOUR NOT GOING TO BELIEVE THIS BUT HE TOOK 1ST PLACE :cheer2:
WOW... WOW.. talk about exciting. This pushed him into the next round of competition against the top 4 competitors of the NASKA circuit. He would get to compete again against the elite of the sport. This competition followed and was just as well performed. When the results were given on this round he took 5th place. Next was his Open Hand Form, after all the energy he put out on the first two performances he was pretty tired. A person doesnt realize how much the intensity of the competition drains you, but he pulled out another great performance, BUT.... okay heres the but after he had performed this fabulous routine the judges called him over and told him that music was not allowed in this event and that he would be disqualified from this competition. BUMMER...did I mention this was our first time here. Everything was so new and different from all the other competitions we had been in. We entered into the wrong event. Luckily our judges were nice and just pushed us on into the right event. WHEW. Kiefer was tired and kinda bummed after all that but pressed on. He performed again and received 5th place for this event. He stumbled a little bit on one of his flips which cost him but all in all he did a fantastic job. I tell you his instructor was walking on cloud 9 :cloud9: and so were we. After that we were all ready to get some food and head back to the room for tomorrow we had traditional forms. As we were walking out Kiefer went to collect his awards one 1st place trophy YAY! and two 5th place medals. Not too shabby :thumbsup2 for a 16 year old kid from Texas. Now here is the funny part of the day. Now mind you I am a Polly Prepared, I come prepared for everything. This I was not prepared for... the trophy was nearly as tall as I am. HOW AM I GOING TO FIT THAT IN THE SUITCASE! Geez :rotfl2:

Stay tuned for tomorrow... lots of fun ahead.
:thanks: Thanks for reading everyone. I am glad I could share our story with you.

[3princesses+aprince]

Wow, congratulations to your ds. And I love your report.

[pooksma]

And a huge congrats to your DS :thumbsup2 I for one would like to know~ How did you get the trophy home???? :cheer2:

[Pixeldust Fairy]

And a huge congrats to your DS :thumbsup2 I for one would like to know~ How did you get the trophy home???? :cheer2:

To get the trophy home, I went down to the main disney office and asked if they had any pixie dust I could sprinkle over it and shrink it down, but no luck. Actually I had to purchase another suitcase from the gift shop at CSR and then I got maintenance to dis assemble it for me. :rotfl2: It was too funny.

[Bev J]

Enjoying your trip so far. Congrats to your Son, hope you got that trophy back together when you got home...
I'll be looking for the rest.....

Bev

[SmithFamily2003]

Great trip report! Can't wait for the next installment. Congratulations on your son's awards!

[studentmom]

Enjoying your trip report and congrats to your ds! I'm also enjoying your pics, you have a beautiful family.

[tkd lisa]

Congratulations! That's wonderful that your son took first place.

Sometimes coming in brand new gives you a bit of an edge because your material is completely different.

And yes, those big trophies are amazing aren't they?

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Enjoying your trip report and congrats to your ds! I'm also enjoying your pics, you have a beautiful family.

Thank you for the compliment. I am really proud of the way he has progressed in his martial arts. I will be posting more more of our trip today.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Congratulations! That's wonderful that your son took first place.

Sometimes coming in brand new gives you a bit of an edge because your material is completely different.

And yes, those big trophies are amazing aren't they?

Thanks. I was sure shocked at how big it was. I never expected him to come home with one. I think my eyes were bigger than his. Of course I had thoughts of how to get that home, and he was still in shock I think. :rotfl:
I hope next year he will be able to do better now that he knows exactly what to expect. Thanks for reading.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Day 5 Last day of Competiton Saturday July 1

No rest for the weary today. We are up bright and early :sunny: and down at the competition ring by 8am. Today is his final competition, traditional forms. There is a large group in his division. There are more competitors for this event than were for extreme. Ok here we go. Kiefer is 10th out of about 30 competitors so this event took a long time. Im still in his corner cheering for him though. :cheer2: He did well, he was kinda nervous and that made him perform a little fast but all his stances and techniques looked good. He eneded up receiving a 5th place for this event. I could not have been more proud of him. We never expected to place in this competition at all. We were so happy that he did so well. After his event was over we watched some of the adult competitiors do their extreme forms and decided that we had alot of work ahead of us for next year. Oh yea... next year again. Woo hoo another trip to the world. :cool1: We finished watching that last competiton at about 10am or so and decided that we had time to eat, rest a little while and head out to one of the parks.

After about an hour of down time we headed to Epcot, we arrived and started towards world showcase. Here starts our no line adventure again. We rode the boat ride in Mexico. I just love that restaraunt. We will have to try it next time we are there. Anyone with any reviews on it? Moving on to Norway we rode the Maelstrom and took a picture with the troll at the end. I thought it was really cool how each of the countries were so unique. We strolled along looking at each country we watched the street performer in Japan and finally ending up at the ferry dock in Morocco, we loaded on the ferry across the lagoon and took the short ride to showcase plaza. My only regret is that we didnt walk the short distance to finish WS. But alas,maybe next year. We headed to Honey I shrunk the audience and were told that all the attractions in that area would be closed when we got out of this one. We agreed that that would be okay because we were now getting hungry again and wanted to head to MK for the remainder of the evening. My kids LOVED this show. They all screamed when the mice ran over their feet. I was laughing so hard. :rotfl: It was fun. Leaving Epcot and not seeing everything was a little bit of a downer, especially since I wanted to catch soarin. But hey we were headed to MK for the rest of the evening.
We hopped the monorail to MK and arrived to alot of tired people leaving, a group of people staking their spot for the parade and we completely bypassed them. Never looking back. We thought about riding SM since we missed it the other day and as we headed that way... guess what was open. DOTH MY EYES DECIEVE ME is it POC.. YES we sprinted through the entrance. again NO LINES.. this is getting to be fun. :jumping3: We loved loved loved this ride. Brinley left the ride singing Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirates life for me. pirate: We started to ride it again, but the line had gotten bigger at that time. I can only assume that it had just opened when we happened to walk by. Talk about being lucky. :shamrock: We were really hungry and wanted to eat, so we skipped SM we would be at MK in the morning and it would be easy to get on that ride at that time. Crossing the breeze way between adventure land and Frontier land we headed to Fantasy Land to find someplace to eat. We could see that there were no lines at IASW, and Peter Pan. So we did both. My princess loved both of those rides. She has been such a trooper on this trip. Not a single complaint from her the whole time. Funny how seeing no wait lines makes you forget about your hunger for a little while anyway. I guess the parade ended because it started getting busy again in FL and thought about the Pepper Market, hmm I bet we could get some food and eat in our room, so thats what we decided to do. Tomorrow we have alot planned might as well get an early start by hitting the sack early. Since I didn't take my camera on this day I don't have any photos to post, but I will post a photo to show everyone how much of a princess: our little Brinley is. My husband built her her own princess coach bed. Take a lookhttp://images1.snapfish.com/3475%3A3375%7Ffp345%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3EWS NRCG%3D323392%3C%3A5288%3Anu0mrj

[kimwim8]

OMG...that BED!! That is a work of art!! She must just lOVE it!!

Congrats to your son for doing so GREAT in his competitions! My son is just starting out (on his 4th belt in the junior ninja program) and I hope he sticks with it.

I am loving your reports! Thank you so much for sharing, and adding in photos. Oh, and :woohoo: you got to ride POC!! How awesome!

[AnneMcD]

I have really enjoyed reading about your trip! Congratulations to your son! That's awesome! And, speking of awesome-WOW! That princess bed is SO cool! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip! Your kids are so cute!

[Bev J]

WOW what a craftsman your DH is- that bed is AWESOME!! Does she actually sleep in it?

Looking forward to more of the report....hope you got on SM it is our fav ride at the MK!

Bev

[Pixeldust Fairy]

OMG...that BED!! That is a work of art!! She must just lOVE it!!

Congrats to your son for doing so GREAT in his competitions! My son is just starting out (on his 4th belt in the junior ninja program) and I hope he sticks with it.

I am loving your reports! Thank you so much for sharing, and adding in photos. Oh, and :woohoo: you got to ride POC!! How awesome!

Thanks for the congrats. I hope your son enjoys martial arts as much as we do. It is really a great sport. It implements team, as well as individual ability. We really love it.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

I have really enjoyed reading about your trip!Congratulations to your son! That's awesome! And, speking of awesome-WOW! That princess bed is SO cool! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip! Your kids are so cute!


Thanks for reading I am so glad you have enjoyed it. ;)

[Pixeldust Fairy]

WOW what a craftsman your DH is- that bed is AWESOME!! Does she actually sleep in it?

Looking forward to more of the report....hope you got on SM it is our fav ride at the MK!

Bev

Yes she does sleep in it. It is fully functional. He spent alot of time making sure that it met up with all the safety requirements. She loves her bed. I do have to say that the only thing she protested about while we were at WDW was not being able to go to her "night night". Thanks for staying tuned.

[MI mom of 3]

OMG that bed is amazing!! How long did it take him to build that?

My DS13 does Kung Fu and I am amazed at the amount of energy they use. They are true athletes!!

[Pixeldust Fairy]

OMG that bed is amazing!! How long did it take him to build that?

My DS13 does Kung Fu and I am amazed at the amount of energy they use. They are true athletes!!


Yes they are true athletes. I dont think they get the respect they deserve. As for the bed, Brinley was born in July and he started working on it in October finishing up around April of 05. She has been happily ever after dreaming in it since then. :)

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading ~ Thanx for sharing.

[Tanya90210]

That is the coolest bed I think I have ever seen!!!

Your son did awesome!! you must be so proud :thumbsup2

I can't wait for the rest of your report :Pinkbounc

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Day 6 Sunday July 2nd


Okay, now I dont know about the rest of you but after 5 days of non stop going its a little harder to hop out of bed today. I still manage to get up and have the kids ready before park opening. We are headed to MK because we have PS at Chef Mickeys. We are so excited to have our first character meal. I dressed Brinley up as Minnie Mouse. After little research I had scheduled this breakfast later in the morning at 11:15 so that we would get some serious park roaming in the early part of the morning. We decided to take on Fantasy land. We covered Winnie the pooh, the tea cups, Peter Pan and the Indy speedway. We browsed some of the near by shops and headed to catch the monorail at about 10:30. Here is a picture of Brinley, Kiefer and Bryce as we headed to the monorail.http://images1.snapfish.com/3475%3B%3B%3B85%7Ffp339%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394% 3EWSNRCG%3D3233949862%3A96nu0mrj
When we arrived at CM we were a little early, but they took our picture and asked us to wait to be seated and I was surprised that we barely had time to hug goofy and they were seating us. Yea, I cant believe our luck with this no waiting thing. We were starving by now. I usually had the kids eat a bowl of cereal before we left the room, but I was out of cereal today and we just had a granola. Oh well, we were here now and the buffet looked great. Our server came by and gave us some OJ and explained how the characters would rotate around the room and that we should probably hold off on getting our food because they were starting our room now. My kids were so excited, especially Brinley. First it was Chip and Dale, next Pluto, Minnie and finally Mickey. This took about 20-30 minutes to meet all the characters. Here is one of the many photos we took there.http://images1.snapfish.com/3475%3B%3B%3A4%3A%7Ffp33%3B%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E 394%3EWSNRCG%3D32339239%3C33%3A5nu0mrj We were surprised at how we got so much attention from the characters. I guess it was because the restaurant was not really full at that time. When we got up to get our food WOW.. the buffet was fantastic. My boys were in kid heaven at that moment. I was really impressed with the cheesy bacon hashed browns. I am going to have to attempt to make those at home. We took our time and ate till we were full, never feeling rushed. We even got to see a second round of characters before we left. When we finished, my kids have acquired a radar that finds pressed penny machines and the Contemporary had several.
I knew that we would be returning to MK at the hottest part of the day, but I didnt want to go back to the resort. I think I just wanted to spend as much time possible there knowing our trip was winding down. When we arrived back at MK people were already staking out position for the parade. Wow we were at CM a long time. Since we had missed the afternoon parade on Wednesday we wanted to catch it today. We found a good spot and were happily enjoying some popcorn when the clouds started rearing their heads. Okay now I did not realize what a sauna the hot pavement under a wet poncho makes. We were miserably hot and it was raining. After a few minutes of rain they announce that the parade is canceled. Disappointed, we tried to find some shelter from the rain for a while. Making our way to fantasy land our thoughts were to catch Philharmagic, but that was everyone elses thought also, so we trudged along to frontier land where we found some relief from the rain in the breeze way between frontier and adventure land. I had read that as long as you have your poncho, disney still is in operation, but we noticed alot of rides stopped during that time. Brinley had fallen asleep during this rain fiasco, we were soaked and she was perfectly dry and asleep hmm go figure. Since we were so close to the aladdin ride we let Brinley finish her nap and the twins rode it twice. As we were walking to POC we were distracted by a street show. It was the Pirate tutorial with Captain Jack Sparrow, of course we watched it. I knew that the premier of the ride was on the 7th and who knows it might have even been the REAL Jack Sparrow. Well maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. The show was quite enjoyable. Here is a photo I snapped of that.http://images1.snapfish.com/3475%3B%3B%3A4%3A%7Ffp343%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E39 4%3EWSNRCG%3D3233949855653nu0mrj I was impressed at how well disney casts these parts. When that was over the park was starting to awaken after the rain and we had early reservations at Tonys. We headed that direction and arrived early, but they seated us anyway. Our meal was ok. I think it was just ok because it was so cold in the restaurant our food got cold before we had a chance to eat it. But none the less we were happy to be sitting down and having a meal together. After dinner, we headed back to the resort for some much needed rest. Yesterday when we returned to our room mousekeeping had left us updated park ours and events. I was so excited about tomorrow night, Disney was having a 4th of July celebration early on the 3rd of July. What a way to end our trip with a bang. Thanks for reading everyone. Tomorrow filled with crazy events.

[fizz13]

Just found your report and loving it :cheer2: Had to say...I know exactly how you feel about opening ceremony at MK, I get the same way, congratulations to your son, thats awesome and hope he has much success in the future, Brinley is just adorable in her Minnie outfit, just sad my DD is too big for this now, and Wowser to the new Jack Sparrow, I'll be sure to check him out. Will keep reading and thanks for sharing a great trip,

[pooksma]

Been out of town for a few days and am catching up.
*Congrats again to your son (still waiting to know how you got that trophy home...)
*wow what a bed!!!!!!
*great shot of the twins with Chip and Dale!

[janets]

Really enjoying your trip report. You are one brave mama to take 4 kids alone to WDW. Mega congrats to your son on his awesome tournament results. My ds8 is a green belt studying traditional Okinawa karate and has finished 1st or 2nd place in all his in house tournaments. Now that's he's progressed to green, we'll probably be entering some outside events in the next year. I might have to keep this in mind for the future. And now that ds4 has started as well, it might become a family thing. What style of martial arts do most of the participants study?

Hope you have a picture of that 1st place trophy. Would love to see it.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

That is the coolest bed I think I have ever seen!!!

Thanks so much. My DH couldn't resist building it for her. He started shortly after she was born.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

You are one brave mama to take 4 kids alone to WDW.

Thats what all my friends here at home told me. They were pretty worried about me and if I would have all my hair when I returned. :rotfl2:


At the US OPEN all martial arts styles are practiced. It is not specific to one type of training. Which is a good thing. It allows you lots of different views on the many styles that is the martial arts world. Its alot of fun.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Day 7 Last day at WDW

Well this is it. Our last day at WDW. You can bet we are going to make the most of it. :thumbsup2 After receiving the notice about the special Fantasy in the Sky fireworks celebration and missing the share a dream parade yesterday, it kinda changed all my plans. I originally planned on going to MGM today, but I was so afraid that we would not be allowed into the park due to it reaching capacity I was inclined just to spend the day at MK so we wouldn't miss either. So off we go to MK. I was up and at em as usual, they kids a little sluggish but they are ready to go too. Ok so maybe I should have read all the info a little better, we arrived at the park to be greeted by tons of people. :confused3 Hmmm... I knew it would be busy, but this is ridiculous for just opening. Come to find out they opened early today to the general public... OH SNAP... Oh well make lemonade. We walked at warp speed to POC pirate: we had to ride it again. Now this is a funny story. As we approached the entrance we noticed that there was a line, but everyone was lining up to the left hand side. We knew that there were two cue lines and the one on the right was empty, so we went to the right and practically ran through the twists and turns of the waiting cue right on to a boat. I am almost willing to bet that if we had gone to the other line we would have waited at least 15 minutes. After that we headed through the very crowded pirate shop towards SM, my kids were so wanting to ride this ride. The line was at a 10 minute wait so we opted not to get fast passes for this one and do the stand by. I let the twins go with Kiefer on this ride and I went back to catch photos of them as they came down the drop. I waited patiently and finally they came around. I caught them as they were heading down, but it was not close up enough to see the expressions on their faces. But here is a picture of them as they made the turn on the other side.http://images1.snapfish.com/34763%3B269%7Ffp33%3B%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3E WSNRCG%3D32339599%3A4%3B69nu0mrj After leaving SM we headed to Frontier land, we got side tracked at the pin traders shop. Kiefer decided today our last day he would get into the pin trading action we had all been having fun with. Go figure.
We headed to Country Bear Jamboree and watched that, it brought back lots of memories. I can remember when I was young, my dad would always nap at CBJ. It was 10:30 were all getting pretty hungry by now so we headed over to Pecos Bill Cafe. ( ok, note to self make more PS ressies for next year) Although counter service is good, you can only have so many burgers in one trip before they all start tasting the same. We ate and headed to FantasyLand maybe if we are lucky it wont be too crowded YEA RIGHT. Once we got to Fantasy Land there was a crowd :crowded: of people there, but I noticed that Philharmagic was NOT.. so guess where we went. YEP.. we walked right in. I am glad we did, I really love this show and so does Brinley I think I like it so much because I can watch her reaction to it.

We pretty much decided that any rides after that were going to take fast passes or alot of waiting time. We spend most of the rest of the afternoon walking the park, taking photos and checking out every shop around. Here is a photo of the boys horsing around. http://images1.snapfish.com/34763%3B269%7Ffp345%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3EWS NRCG%3D32339599%3A4%3B64nu0mrj Kiefer, Tristan & Bryce pin traded with everyone they came in contact with. We knew we wanted to catch the SD parade so we grabbed a snack popcorn:: , dole float for me.(YUMMY gotta love those) ice cream for the kids. We staked out our spot for the parade and waited patiently. I didn't want to miss this one because I knew it was giant snow globes and I just love snow globes. I am running out of room for the ones I have at home. The parade was great, lots of good photos. Brinley waved at every character like they were just waving to her alone. Too cute. Oh did I tell you the park was crowded After the parade ended Kiefer suggested that we eat dinner early to beat the crowd. I had not made any ressies for this day so we walked to the Plaza Restaurant thinking that at 3:45ish it wouldn't be crowded. On the 3rd of July think again. so we thought we would try Cosmic Rays. EVERYONE... thought the same thing we did. I was beat, the kids were hot and we were just wanting a sit down meal in a cool environment. I didn't want Pecos Bill again and neither did the kids. As we made our way past cosmic rays we stopped at story time with Belle and were going to watch that. In my mind im trying to figure out what to do, where to eat. I did not want to walk from place to place only to find a line of hungry people waiting like cattle to eat. So I got out my handy dandy cell phone and tried to remember the WDW dine phone number.. Hey that's it 1-407-WDW-Dine, so I called and asked if they had any openings for Crystal Palace for 5, she looked and said yes, but it was at 4:00, I said well take it and we will run fast. As she was finalizing all the details she burst my bubble, she thought I said someplace else and no CP did not have any openings. BUMMER. AWWW what a let down, but she said wait a minute, I have a table for 5 at Liberty Tavern at 4:15. :woohoo: OH WE ARE SO THERE. :woohoo: I didn't care if they were serving croutons and ketchup, it was sit down, out of the heat, and oh so airconditioned. We took it and ran with it. The kids were so confused as to why I was in such a good mood. So a little lesson learned for me. It pays to remember those disney phone numbers. Not only did it save us time, but it saved us the running around to find a place to eat.

We made it to LT just in time for opening, we were seated right away and were so happy to be there. ADDED BONUS... Character meal, :goofy: ::MinnieMo pluto: Thanksgiving type food, and pretty much a quiet start. I guess everyone scheduled for a later time and we had the characters to our selves for a while. We LOVED LOVED LOVED this place. I think we were stuffed by the time it was over. Took lots of photos and guzzled lots of food and drinks. I got major mommy :cheer2: points for this Houdini act. This is my favorite photo from LT.http://images1.snapfish.com/34763%3B269%7Ffp345%3Enu%3D3288%3E76%3B%3E394%3EWS NRCG%3D32339599%3A4%3B5%3Cnu0mrj

Stay tuned for the rest of our last Hurrah at Disney.

[UtahMama]

Three words: Captain Jack Sparrow!!!!! He really did resemble him, didn't he? I would've gone all freaky !!!! ("Security...there's a middle aged woman hugging Jack Sparrow and wont let go...)
Dont you just hate the last day??? The only thing that helps is planning the next trip!

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Three words: Captain Jack Sparrow!!!!! He really did resemble him, didn't he? I would've gone all freaky !!!! ("Security...there's a middle aged woman hugging Jack Sparrow and wont let go...)
Dont you just hate the last day??? The only thing that helps is planning the next trip!
I would have really loved to get a photo with him, but his act was to run away at the end. I think all us women should write to disney and request a meet and greet with Jack Sparrow. I cant believe how close he looked. It was awesome.

[Bev J]

Your such a smart Disney Mom to think of calling the Dining number. I am going to put that number in my phone before we leave!!

thanks so much for taking the time to post all this report!

Bev

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Your such a smart Disney Mom to think of calling the Dining number. I am going to put that number in my phone before we leave!!

thanks so much for taking the time to post all this report!

Bev
Thanks, I hope it comes in handy for you. I took a stab in the dark hoping that it would pay off, and it did. I hope you have fun on your trip, and looking forward to your trip report when you return. :thumbsup2

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't gotten the rest of my last day at wdw on the board. I had to leave town for a wedding, I will try to work on the rest by tomorrow. :)

[Pixeldust Fairy]

After our meal at LT, we were definitely stuffed, cooled off and ready to tackle the park again. :goofy: We shopped at most of the stores trying to decide what souvenirs to take home with us. Brinley princess: decided this was a good time to take a nap. The boys had alot of fun pin trading with all the CMs . I think they even found a quiet spot and played a couple of games of checkers in one of the shops. It was a nice relaxing way to spend the evening before all the fireworks and parades started. Everyone started staking out their spots for the fireworks really early so we decided to follow suit. Kiefer grabbed a popcorn popcorn:: for everyone and a mickey bar :mickeybar for himself. I was determined to take some good pictures of the castle and of the fireworks. I did my best and got a few. I do have to say that the fireworks were spectacular that night. Not only were they above the castle, but they were also all around. It was great.
After watching the fireworks show. I needed to get an EMH wrist band for us but GEEZ the crowd :crowded: of people trying to get out of the park was un real. I knew I wasn't going to make it down Main Street with 4 kids and a stroller very fast. I told Kiefer to hang out with the kids and I weaseled my way through, between, and around any way I could to get to City Hall. I was pretty darn proud of myself. but only to my dismay they informed me that I could NOT get wristbands at City Hall. So off I go back to the kids against the crowd now. I laugh about this now but was so hot an frustrated at the time.

Thinking that things had cleared out now, we forged on into Fantasy Land and thought about riding some of the rides we missed, but it was not cleared out, still really busy. I guess thetas the way it goes for the 3rd of July. I had a discussion with Kiefer and we decided as we walked stood at the castle entrance that we should probably not stay for EMH as we had to be up by 4 am to catch our bus at 5. We just wanted to make that magic last as long as we could. We walked along mainstreet towards the busses and were inclined to stay and watch spectro magic one last time. I have to say walking away was hard to do. But I guess we can start planning for next year. And hey there is always the dis to keep me goin. Thanks every one for reading, I have really enjoyed putting our trip down in words. I plan on printing everything out and putting it in our scrap book. Hope you all have just as magical pixiedust: of a trip as we did.

[DeterminedOne]

I really enjoyed your reports- nice details and very timely. Thanks for sharing.

[Pixeldust Fairy]

I really enjoyed your reports- nice details and very timely. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for reading, I was hoping to get all our report out last week, but we had a wedding to go to and school is about to start here.