AFRICA HOT IN THE MONSOON SEASON- but the food was free [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

i12go2wdw

10-23-2009, 05:04 PM

Incase you didn’t look at the pre trip, and I don’t blame you, it really was a lot of rambling to pass the time, here is the cast of characters:

DH Dan the schedule guy, computer programmer, loves Disney but sees it as a challenge to “get our money’s worth” so he keeps us moving.

DS 17 Jordan kinda serious like his dad but lots of fun, going off to University after Labour Day so this may be our last family vacation with him.

DD 13 Becky turning 14 at the end of this trip, she is a hard working, generous, fun girl who loves her brothers and sister, huge help too.

DS 11 Mitchell Goof ball, full of energy (usually when we are all exhausted) keeps us laughing and drives us nuts at the same time

DD6 Nicole PRINCESS spoiled by big sister and biggest brother, very cute and cuddly, fights with DS11

DM me, Christine likes everyone to be happy, loves all the rides (except the spinney ones) loves quiet mornings by the pool.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/Image0139.jpg

We are loosely travelling with family friends, I say loosely because although we are going at the same time and staying at the same resort we are only planning a few meals together and playing the rest by ear. I wonder how that will work??

Our first day of travel was driving to the States, we worked half a day and I had my DM and DAunt come and look after the daycare for the afternoon. They came around noon, had a grilled cheese, I put the kids down for a nap, then it was time to load the car. That was pretty easy 'cause we are cheap so we each packed in a carry on. What a breeze to load the car, then there were the kids, yep in they went no problem, just had to keep DD7 Nicole away from DS11 Mitchell. Now the hard part, getting DH away from his work, we both work from home so it is hard to "leave".

I almost fainted when he came down the stairs at 1:00 ready to go, this was too easy, I sensed danger. We said our good-byes and off we went excited kids and giddy parents. We had one quick stop to make to drop off the non-carry on items with our friends who will pack the small cosmetic bag into their checked luggage for us. With that done we were on our way to the border. Should be pretty straight forward, don’t you think??

i12go2wdw

10-26-2009, 10:21 AM

We were at the Pattullo Bridge about 20 minutes down the highway, at 1:00 the journey from our house is 20 minutes, at 2:00 the trip is about an hour so I was very happy to be on the road so early, Vancouver is known for bad traffic, especially on a summer Friday afternoon.

Anyway at the bridge I get the usual “What did I forget” panic. So I start going through the list of what I usually forget,
under wear, check,
toothpaste, check,
pj’s, check,
tickets, check,
passports, check,
6 carryons, check,
6 backpacks 1-2-3-4-5 wait a minute, WHAT DO YOU MEAN 5!!!
I asked the back seats
"Where is Nicole’s backpack?"
Princess Nicole answers,
"Oh was I suppose to take that, didn't someone else get it, I think it is on the couch in the livingroom."
On the couch!! OK so now we weigh weather its worth going back to get it or not, it was so we turned around.
We got to the house and had a hard decision to make, pick up Nicole’s backpack or to leave her home. We still had a bit of vacation happiness going on and I had made all those dresses for her to wear so we picked up the backpack. Lucky girl, but you better believe anything else that went wrong that day I made sure Nicole knew it was because she forgot her backpack and we had to turn back, she just smiled at me:headache:
Back home and back on the road at 2:00 UGH!!! I knew it was too good to be true, but nothing else will surely go wrong now.
We are on the way again, down the highway, over the bridge, through Surrey and to the line up for the border. It says the wait is 70 minutes, we hum and haw and decide this will be the time we try to go through Duty Free, we have no idea what Duty is and why things are actually more expensive at duty free than if we bought them at the mall, but we thought we would try it because surely it will be quicker to go through that store and get into the special Duty free line up.
WELLLLL it isn’t.
We made a quick trip through the store and bought some chocolate and a Canada t-shirt for Mitchell and back into the car. We drove and picked up our stuff and got into a short line, unfortunately there were 8 short lines and we ended up waiting 90 minutes. 90 minutes in a hot van with 4 excited kids was not a nice way to start the trip. 5:30 we see the border guard, it should have taken 40 minutes to get to this point:rolleyes1.
Through the border and we let DS17 drive, I was co-pilot and he did very well, (by that I mean we didn't get a ticket:scared1:), we drove straight through to Edmonds WA, we had a late dinner and got to our wonderful friends house around 8:30.
They are the greatest people who will put us all up for the night, feed us breakfast and see us off. We visited for an hour, went to bed and had a great sleep. Will tomorrow run smoother? Will Nicole survive to see the castle?

mickeystoontown

10-26-2009, 11:30 AM

i12go2wdw

10-26-2009, 01:38 PM

I'm in! I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. You can contribute to my sanity.:thumbsup2

It looks like your trip is off to a semi-good start....well, with the exception of leaving something at home and sitting in a 90 minute line. But, you're on your way to Disney World!

I am so glad you are along with me, we did havean amazing time with so many special things happening, I hope it will keep you giong. There will be lots of pics too, there are 160 photopass pics (careful or I will make you look at each ane everyone!!) not to mention the 4 gig card I filled twice :rolleyes1

mickeystoontown

10-26-2009, 01:42 PM

I am so glad you are along with me, we did havean amazing time with so many special things happening, I hope it will keep you giong. There will be lots of pics too, there are 160 photopass pics (careful or I will make you look at each ane everyone!!) not to mention the 4 gig card I filled twice :rolleyes1

I love pictures! I think I took a picture of everything this past trip and if I am remembering correctly, I had just a little over 100 Photopass pictures. Hit me with 'em!

i12go2wdw

10-26-2009, 03:36 PM

After a goodnight’s sleep we had forgotten about the detours of the day before and we were ready to get to Disney World. We had a nice breakfast, collected ALL our bags and were off to the airport. We had decided to park the car at airport parking, which in Seattle is mostly at airport Motels who then shuttle you to your airline. This went smoothly and by 9:15 we were at the airport. We grabbed some more food to sustain us on the foodless flight and we were off.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090822_0392.jpg
The flight was good but long and the kids were a bit excited and silly, but not loud enough to bother anyone but Dan and I. Mitchell is the one who gets everyone going, so after our stopover is Dallas, and a quick lunch at Taco Bell, we rearranged the seating order for flight #2. We kept the trouble maker pinned up against the window with DH and myself beside him. The flight went by quickly but was so bumpy that the pilot had the crew stay in the jump seats for the whole 2 hour trip, I was glad I brought my own diet coke!!
We landed at 9:30 and went right down to Magical Express, we breezed through the line because we had no checked luggage and we were on a very full bus in minutes.
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We had done the pre check in so when we got to the All Star Music we only waited a minute or two for a clerk to help us and by 10:10 we were off to our room.
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We were in room 1660, top floor facing the pool, which seemed like a good thing at the time. On the table there was a package waiting for Nicole, it was a petti skirt I had bought off one of our fellow Disers, it was very well received.
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Once the can-can show was over we decided to go for a swim, it was 10:30 East coast time but only 7:30 our time.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090822_0408.jpg

Jordan was hungry so we sent the dry people to go get some dinner, good thing he was hungry because they were just closing the kitchens. We all shared 2 meals and headed back to the room.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090822_0410.jpg
Everyone was asleep by midnight.

i12go2wdw

10-27-2009, 11:27 AM

We are fortunate enough to be staying in WDW for 16 days this trip, Disney does not encourage this type of behavior. Disney does not allow room reservations for longer than 14 days, and there is no way to lengthen a park hopper pass to more than 10 days (except to buy an annual pass which is quite a price jump).
So for this trip we had to plan non-park days. Coming from a time zone 3 hours away we decided that our first day would be a good non-park day, but we still had our free dining to consider because that had to be used in our first 14 days. I’m not sure how people, who just wing it, without doing a lot of planning, survive. So today we had reservations for O’hana at 6:50 but not much else planned for the day.
I was the first up and quietly snuck out of the room (if you have ever seen a ASMusic family suite you know how hard that is). I brought my book and sunglasses and refillable mug (bought on this trip :littleangel:) and just enjoyed the sun and water. Then at about 8:30 I looked up and there were our friends, just off the bus. We exchanged hugs and told of our travelling adventures and soon everyone was awake and in the pool.
Everyone got hungry so we had some breakfast, the six of us were full and we only used 1 snack and 2 meal credits.
We had decided to order water and a few groceries from Garden Grocer to have in the room, looking back it was a good idea, we ate almost all the food we ordered, not such a good idea was making a second order ¾ of the way through the trip, we ended up leaving a lot of that order and we had extra snack and CS credits left to boot.
The groceries came; we had combined our order with our friend’s so we sorted it out and delivered it on a luggage rack.
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We decided to go on a Resort Hop, on this trip we were trying to see how many resort maps we could collect, first stop was Pop Century, we had heard a lot about it and never been. We caught a bus
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To Magic Kingdom then another to Pop. Have I mentioned how hot it is? It was baking hot, now we had a record breaking heat wave in Vancouver this summer that lasted about 10 days so we thought we were prepared, and although we didn’t mind being out in the heat, we really started to wilt and even feel sick after a couple of hours. It took some time to figure out how to handle it. But at Pop we were fine, except for listening to the fighters (Nicole and Mitchell) argue about who saw each and every lizard first.:mad: AAAAGHHH!
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090823_0419.jpg
I am pretty sure Mitchell is not playing Twister because he and Nicole were fighting.:sad2:
After we had a good look around and saw where the next phase of Pop was to be built but never was. Here is a link to what remains, I find it kinda creepy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSc1fG0ETeY

Next 5 more resorts before dinner, but how many Mickey bars did it take, and some blood shed.

i12go2wdw

10-28-2009, 10:51 AM

After our tour of Pop we got back on the MK bus and then on the monorail to the Contemporary. We did some shopping then back on the monorail to the Grand Floridian. I always feel like people know we do not belong here, it makes me uneasy, like crashing a party (not that I have ever done that, I just imagine it feels that way). We spent some time on the beach, it is so beautiful,
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090823_0438-1.jpg
And so relaxing, but man was it hot!!!
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090823_0433.jpg
We then took a boat to Wilderness Lodge and things went down hill a bit. You know when everyone starts to argue and fight and there really is no reason, when someone bumps into someone and it turns into a war, when one person doesn’t get there way and suddenly the world is against them, well that’s when it is time for MICKEY BARS!!!
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It is amazing how 20 minutes of delicious Mickey coolness and air conditioning can change the world.
We were up for some more exploring so we hopped on another boat and made our way around Bay Lake to Fort Wilderness. We will be back here for Hoop De Doo later in the trip so we just had a quick visit then back on a boat to the Contemporary and on the Monorail to the Poly. We were a bit early for our dinner reservation so we did a bit of shopping, Becky was picking out a cover up and I looked at Nicole and her nose was pouring with blood. We rushed her to the bathroom and it took forever to get it to stop, she has had these at home too, doesn’t phase her but it is hard being on the receiving end of all that blood. By the time we got her under control it was just about time for our dinner. We were starting to droop again but luckily the wait was just a few minutes and after the obligatory picture we were seated. We had never been here before but it definitely won’t be our last visit. The food was excellent, Dan is allergic to many things and the waiter and chef did an amazing job of catering to him. Here is a little food porn
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090823_0446.jpg
We loved the music and the three youngest kids were happy to get up and join the parade and do the hula.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090823_0444.jpg
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It was a great first day of the trip but we were so exhausted, we went back to the ASMusic and everyone was asleep by 10:00

i12go2wdw

10-29-2009, 02:43 PM

Years ago we used to have to set 3 wake up calls a few minutes apart so each kid could have a turn answering the phone. Each night there would be a discussion as to who would answer the first ring and so on. This trip the phone would just ring and ring and ring until I would answer it. Oh how things have changed.:sad2:
The call was set for 7 and it took some cajoling to get them going but we were at the bus by 8. We decided to have breakfast at the Main Street bakery so that cut down on some time too.
We were at Magic Kingdom by 8:40 and got a pretty good spot to wait for the rope drop ceremony (do they call it that at MK even if they don’t drop a rope?)
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I was looking for other custom outfits from the ladies and Tom on the Disboutique but I couldn’t see any. Nicole was wearing one that I had made and I was thrilled when a nice lady with wonderful taste ;)came up to me and commented on her dress.
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We got through the crowds on Main Street and were one of the first in the Bakery. We shared a cinnamon bun two chocolate croissants a plain croissant and some drinks.
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Our first ride was Tomorrow land Speedway. We were only in line a few minutes when the mother of the family behind us recognized Nicole from these Dis boards:disrocks:. We had fun talking about the boards and our trips, made the wait go by so quickly.
The ride was fun, I went with Becky and she almost ran over a squirrel but he got away just in time.:scared1:
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We then did Snow White, Small world, Splash (which Nicole has been riding for almost 4 years but always cries in the line up about how afraid she is, we all do this:confused3), Haunted Mansion, Pirates and Tiki room. The croissants were wearing off so we went to Pecos Bill’s for lunch. This was the only time we let our hunger decide what we should order. Mitchell and I shared a pulled pork sandwich but everyone else ordered their own meal. We threw about a third of the food away. It broke my heart, I saved all the desserts in my purse but ended up throwing them away later in the week too. Lesson learned.
Everyone was hot tired and arguing so they all had a good talking to and we carried on. The food kicked in and everyone was much more agreeable. We were walking near the castle and we came upon the Fairy Godmother, so we stopped for our first autograph.
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We did Country bears, used FP for Peter pan then did Monsters Laugh floor which was a first for all of us and we really enjoyed it. By now it was 2:00 and we decided to get out of the sun and head back to the room.

i12go2wdw

10-29-2009, 06:42 PM

After our very hot morning at MK we were looking forward to a nice cool, quiet nap time to recharge before our EMH night at Hollywood Studios. What we got was a front row seat to the 3 hour pool party. IT WAS LOUD. Luckily we are all good sleepers and the music was good. Our friends were on the courtyard side of the building and they didn’t even know there were pool parties.
At about 5:00 we set off for DHS. We had an ADR for Sci-Fi at 8:05, that is the best I could get calling 90 days out, right when they opened, and checking every few days till we left.
The first things we did before dinner were Star tours and Muppets, we went over to the Sci-Fi early thinking they may be able to get us in, have I mentioned how hot it is??? Well there was no room to wait inside so we sat outside until 8:40 before we were seated.
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When we got in the place was almost empty, all the cars on one side of us were being cleaned for the next day and never did get seated. I was worried the kitchen was going to close and we wouldn’t get to eat. It all turned out ok, the service was kinda slow and the food is nothing to write home about (but some of the food on our trip sure was!!!) but the atmosphere makes up for all of that.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090824_0474.jpg
We were so late getting out of there that all we had time for before 10:00 was a quick trip on the Tower of Terror. Again Nicole, who has been riding this for year, cried going on, screamed throughout the ride and then said she’d like to ride it again.
If you did read the pre trip report you may think we had a stroller with us, seeing how we made a special trip to the States to get a McLaren that would hold her. But what you may not know is we left it in the hall closet at home. And as predicted the first time the princess complained, her brother Jordan did this.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090824_0475.jpg
Luckily this was the one and only time she complained the whole trip. Look at the cheeky “I’m getting away with something” grin on her face.
We were some of the last people out of the park, and home to bed by about 11.

i12go2wdw

11-02-2009, 06:31 PM

We are now in the spirit of Disney. Isn’t it so wonderful to become immersed in that world, where it is hot and the music is familiar and cheerful and the food is plentiful and everyone (except some angry parents) are smiling and enjoying themselves?
I must say we did not encounter any overly rude guests or CMs the whole trip. We may have seen some questionable behaviors by guests but they were not interfering with anyone outside their families, there was one family who tried to push in front of us at a parade but gently stepping in front of them solved the problem.
So today was our first Animal Kingdom day of the trip, we were all excited to see the shows. The kids hadn’t seen Finding Nemo yet or had the chance to ride Everest.
We got up and had a bit of breakfast in the room before we got to the bus.
Here they are in all their splendor of almost readiness
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Good thing DS17 will probably never see this, he would kill me!!
We got on the bus around 8:15 and went through the Rainforest Café to use the turnstiles there. I had known about this entrance for many visits but I was always afraid to use it, I thought there might be some conflict about going through the restaurant, but of course there wasn’t.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090825_0479.jpg
There were only 2 or 3 people in front of us and they were very friendly. These turnstiles seem to open at the same time as the main ones too. We were just a few rows of people back from the front of rope drop, but we were anxious about the crowds.
I need to tell you about Ridemax. We have used them for our last few trips and they have made such a difference in our enjoyment of our days in the parks. We (well the kids and I) are not commando but we like to know what to do next, even if we have missed the great window of short lines, it gives us a plan.
Well today was a good example of how we should have trusted Ridemax, for some reason the posted wait times on the rides, right after rope drop, were very exaggerated.
After rope drop we made our way to Safari and the wait time said 40 minutes even though Ridemax said 6. In error we believed the posted wait time and we floundered, this is what I hate. The questioning, where should we go now, what do you want to do, what if we get there and the line is longer than this, then the inevitable, I’m hungry or hot, or needing a bathroom. This is why I love Ridemax.
So we got fastpasses and went to It Tough to be a Bug. While we were there that day (but not for the rest of our visits) they had central FP machines set up right by ITTBAB they were for Dinosaur, Safari, Everest, (and was there more, can’t remember). You could still only get one at a time but it saved a lot of walking!!!.
We got FP for Everest, walked onto Dinosaur and could have stayed on because there were no people in line at all when we got out. We then used our FP for the Safari and then saw the Lion King Show, I love that show.
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We rode Everest 2 times, I think the first time with the FP was actually a longer wait than the second time without, but neither were more than 3 or 4 minutes. We all loved this ride; it makes me giggle-scream. We were starving after all those rides so we shared 4 meals from Burgerasaurus, it was more than enough food!
After a good lunch and a good cool down, man it was hot, we went to see the Nemo Show, it is amazing! It was the kid’s first time seeing it so that made it even more special.
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On the way out we saw Pooh going to the meet and greet spot and there were no people in line so we ventured down that way, Nicole got to stroll in along side Pooh.
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We were pretty wiped out so around 2:30 we caught a bus back to the relative quiet of our pool- party –side room for a nap.

i12go2wdw

11-03-2009, 10:47 AM

Tonight was one of the meals we were having at the same time as our friends from home. We were not able to get our reservations linked at this one but we were eating at the same time so we thought they might be able to put us together once we got to the restaurant.

We left the resort, after a much needed nap, around 5:00 and met up with our friends at the bus stop. We had reservations for 6:30 at the Biergarten in Epcot, none of us had been there before but Jordan and Dan really love German food, mostly meat, so we thought we would give it a try.

It was one of those bus trips that just seem to take forever!! We got to Epcot and hightailed it to Germany just in time for 6:30, we were still early in the trip and kinda new to this ADR system so we fretted about being on time. In days to come we wouldn’t worry as much.

We asked at the kiosk if we might have the 11 of us seated together and they started out saying they would try but a few minutes later they came to us and said we wouldn’t be able to. That was OK, we understood. Just as we were told that we were not able to sit together the skies opened up, it poured with thunder and lightning. We were under cover but the waiting spot for the restaurant soon filled up with the general population of EPCOT. It was hot, humid, sticky, and everyone was too close to me UGH!! Luckily we were seated very soon after the first of many monsoons of this trip.

The atmosphere in the Biergarten was very cool, the building is amazing and every seat has a great view of the stage. We were seated ½ a restaurant away from our friends but we still went over for a visit or two. We were seated with a very nice couple from Quebec, no kids, and I am sure after having dinner with us they never will have kids.

The meal started out OK; we were very close to the buffet and so could come and go at leisure. The food got mixed reviews, Mitchell was not impressed, Nicole will eat anything but I could tell it wasn’t a huge hit, I found a few things that were good, but Jordan, Dan and Rebecca LOVED it.
Then Mitchell was goofing around and dumped his plate full of food onto his lap. Now the cynical mother in me thinks he was not enjoying his meal and did it on purpose so he didn’t have to eat any more, but dad thought it was funny so I didn’t get too mad. I did make him go to the bathroom and clean himself up thought. The couple from Quebec was doing their best not to notice.

Not 10 seconds after Mitch dumped his plate; Becky who is still laughing about it, puts her ¾ full cup of chocolate on the edge of the table and dumps that into her lap. The couple from Quebec gets up and goes to the buffet, probably to save themselves from any future flying food and drink. I can’t remember if they came back or not, but I know I wanted to leave too.

The show started and that took my mind off of how awful my kids were. What a fun show, the performers are so talented, this guy with the bells was just amazing, and he hit every note right on beat.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090825_0540.jpg
And these guys with these horns were just like in the Ricola commercials.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090825_0541.jpg

i12go2wdw

11-03-2009, 02:53 PM

After dinner we had planned to meet up with our friends to watch Illuminations but it was coming down in buckets so we did our best with the ponchos we had and made our way home. As it turned out Jordan had on white shorts and I had on a white top and anytime we both wore white it would rain. By the end of the trip we figured this out and would do a costume check before we left the room.

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We got home and dried off, only Becky was dry, you get what you pay for when you buy a dollar store poncho.
We all cuddled up on the pull out bed in the living room and watched Legally Blond.

Before we hit the beds Rebecca pulled out Nicole’s wiggly front tooth. Nicole’s teeth wiggle for months and months before they are loose enough to pull out, but this one she wanted to keep in until our trip. She was sure that in Disney World that Tinkerbelle did the Tooth Fairy’s job.

The reason she thinks this is that on a trip 5 years ago we had a run in with Tinkerbelle when Mitchell knocked his tooth out at Typhoon Lagoon. I had taken Becky 9 and Mitchell 7 on a pre-cruise trip to WDW while Dan and my mother stayed home with Jordan who didn’t want to miss school and Nicole who was just 2 (they all met us a few days later when we went on the 2 week Panama Canal cruise). On this day of our trip with just the three of us, we were spending the day at Typhoon Lagoon. We had just gotten out of the water for lunch and I left Bec and Mitch at the lounge chair with strict instructions to stay put while I went over the bridge to the counter service restaurant. Just as I was picking up the food a lifeguard came up to me and said “Is your name Christine?” Knowing my kids I was debating weather to admit it or not but decided it might be best to, so I said “Yeah?” She said my son had been hurt and was in the first aid room, so I grabbed my food and followed her. He had been trying to get the mug on the other side of the lounge chair and put both hand on the towel covered lounge. Both hands went through the slats and he hit his mouth on the far cross bar of the chair knocking out his bottom front tooth. Luckily it was a baby tooth. Rebecca, having taken many junior lifeguard classes knew just what to do; she shoved a towel in his mouth, grabbed his arm and hauled him to a lifeguard. Of course I should have known better than to think they were safe sitting on a chair, those two can cause trouble anywhere. After the bleeding stopped and I got over the feeling of being such a horrible parent, we enjoyed the rest of the day. Here he is in 2005
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20050510_0130.jpg

That night I brought them to the food fair and while they were colouring at the table I snuck to the store and got Mitch a Stitch key chain and some Disney dollars for under his pillow. The lady at the cash asked why just 2 Disney Dollars and when I told her she went into the back and brought out a Magical Moment certificate and filled it in for Mitchell and signed it from Tinkerbelle. He was so shocked in the morning and even Becky was impressed. I told you all this so you will understand what happens next.

So back to this most recent trip. After the kids were in bed Dan went down to the store to get some Disney dollars and a little toy to put under the pillow. When he went to the check out he explained that our daughter had lost her tooth and was there anything special Disney had for this situation. He was thinking of the certificate but he couldn’t remember the name of it I guess. The clerk goes behind the counter and comes out with a beginner pin trading set. Dan was shocked and kinda thrilled at the same time as the kids love pin trading but because we only brought carryons we didn’t bring a lot of pins to trade. When he brought it back to the room I didn’t know weather to be angry at him for asking for such a big thing, or to be excited, I chose excited once he told me he hadn’t asked for it.
As luck would have it, we put all the treasures under her pillow but by morning the pins had fallen down the back of the pull out bed. We couldn’t let her know we knew there were more surprises but somehow they got found and she was thrilled.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090826_0542.jpg
She had lost the other front tooth a week or two before we left home, it was a cute stage to have her with no front teeth for a while.

i12go2wdw

11-03-2009, 05:42 PM

Today was an EPCOT day and or first ride was Test Track, and as usual Nicole was stressing about it during the whole line up. I know sometimes people look at parents who are “strongly encouraging” their frightened kids to do rides look like they are being mean but sometimes it isn’t. Nicole has been riding these rides since she was tall enough, for some rides that is 4 years. Just the past couple of trips she is acting like a wimp but when we get off the ride she wants to go again, so sometimes parents are not being mean, just working through wimpyness. Here you can see how not scared she is.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090826_0544.jpg
We did Mission Space the orange side, but that will be the last time I do that, I always feel just a little off for an hour or so, we were all feeling it a little, I’m sure the heat didn’t help, have I mentioned it was hot this trip!!!
So we went to Ice Station Cool and drank lots of the ginger coke and let that settle our stomachs, the air conditioning helped too.
When we all felt better Dan went and got fastpasses for Soarin’ and then we met at The Sea and did the Clammobiles and Turtle Talk with Crush.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090826_0552.jpg
We were a bit early for our ADR at Coral Reef but we decided to go and wait incase they could seat us early. It was an even longer wait than we had for Sci-Fi Dine in and I think we were all wondering if all these table service meals were a good idea. After close to an hour of waiting with nothing but people watching to keep us entertained (that and dropping the beeper down behind the enclosed bench seat) we were seated. This restaurant is amazing.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090826_0554.jpg
We had never been before and we were so happy we tried it. The food was so good, but the aquarium was just amazing. There were tons of fish, a couple of sharks, rays and turtles.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090826_0562.jpg
The fun really started when the Diver came out, he was so entertaining, had us all laughing. When the bill came we started one of many discussions on how they afford all this free dining. We are a family of 6, paying about $150 a night for our room and each of our table service meals alone are between $225 and $350. How do they do that???? If anyone can explain it to me I would love to understand this.
We were all pretty tired and it looked like it was going to rain again so we used our FPs for Soarin’ then made our way home. We swam with our friends in the rain, saw frogs in the grass which was a change from the lizards, and just enjoyed a night off. We were not hungry for dinner so we all just shared bit and pieces from the food court. Before bed we watched some T.V. then just crashed. Tomorrow is a non park day and I think we are ready for it.

i12go2wdw

11-13-2009, 10:58 AM

We all slept in a bit today and boy did it feel good. It is hard to balance the excitement of being at WDW, the need of sleep, the effect the heat has on your and jet lag when planning a schedule. We did take it easy the first day but by yesterday we were just going through the motions, it was too much go-go-go, even with breaks.

I was first up at about 8:30 and I tried again to sneak down to the pool, I had packed a little bag the night before and left my bathing suit and cover up out to cut down on the rustling around while everyone tried to sleep. Sneaking out of a family suite means leaving the bedroom and going through the living room where the 4 kids were sleeping and trying to open the door (with full sun streaming in) which is 5 inches from the fold out couch, and then have the door shut behind you without making a sound. I fully expected to see at least 3 kids down at the pool with me within 5 minutes. I did have a bout 20 minutes of quiet, just a slow stream of park goers passing by. I had been given a book to read by a very good friend, Life in the Time of Cholera, which was a bit of a hard read but it was all that I had so I muddled through. It kept me entertained. Then by 9 Dan and Nicole were down with me, so Nicole and I swam in an almost empty pool for awhile, then Mitchell came down so I could go back to my book and let them play while dad watched them. Bec and Jo never did surface so the 4 of us dried off and got a late breakfast, Jo and Bec must had sensed we were eating without them because they did make it down before we were done. As everyone finished eating we made a plan for the day. Dan, Jordan, Rebecca, and Mitchell were going to go to Disney Quest and Nicole and I were off on a resort hop and DTD. We had reservations at Chef Mickey’s at 5:40 so we decided to just meet there.

I have been to DQ a couple of times and I can honestly say that it is not a place I need to see again. I don’t dislike it, just a bit dark and crowded, plus I am not at all into video games. Nicole and I were in agreement on this.

We all made our way back up to the room and got ready; it was a very slow process. Nicole and I were ready first so we left and got out of the way. The rest of them did meet us at the bus though so we all rode to DTD together. Nicole and I walked around and took some pictures; we went to the Make Your own T-shirt place and designed one but didn’t get it.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090827_0566.jpg

Have I mentioned how hot it is here?!?!? Well we were just about melting when we came across the Ghirardelli Shop. We decided a hot fudge sundae would hit the spot. And it did!!

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I had a moment of panic when I got to the podium and realized I had to pay money for the sundae. We have been so spoiled by the free dining. Nicole was wearing one of the dresses I made for her, she twirled everywhere she went. The lady who took our order thought she was very cute so she gave her a little bag of goodies, a chocolate, some crayons, a colouring page and some other little thing. Nicole was thrilled.

Once we had finished window shopping and Nicole was sprinkled with Pixie-dust we decided to take the friendship boat to Port Orleans French Quarter. We had stayed there once and really liked the size and themeing of it.

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We walked around the French Quarter for a while and checked out their gift store and pool.

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When we had seen all we wanted we got on a bus going to MK then we transferred onto the monorail going to the Contemporary. We found the 5 legged goat on the mural on the wall, looked where we were going to be having dinner and we still had close to an hour to kill before we were suppose to meet with the rest of the family.

Nicole decided she wanted to spend her tooth fairy money so we made our way to the gift shop. She is a slow shopper. She did decide on a Minie Mouse flip phone. That thing kept her busy for the rest of the trip, even on the plane ride home. We still had some time till our reservation so we went down to the check in and watched cartoons. Where we were sitting I could see a staff door and whenever anyone came or went I got a glimpse into the “forbidden zone” and I could read some of the sayings and notices on the wall. It kept me very entertained.

While we sat there a young girl, maybe 3, came up to Nicole and was very interested in her new phone. She asked Nicole if she could try it so Nicole gave it to her to try. No sooner did she have it in her hand did she run back to her parents who were in the long line to register. The girl was gone for atleast 10 minutes, and her parents never questioned where she got the phone. I was starting to get anxious and had a plan to go buy another phone before dinner if we didn’t get it back. Then I started to get angry and all the while Nicole was quite calm and would check over her shoulder to make sure the girl hadn’t disappeared. When I had had enough I got up to go talk to the girl but as she saw me coming she ran right to Nicole and gave her back the phone. Sneaky little brat.
Sorry was that inappropriate?

trivial

11-20-2009, 03:20 PM

zhazhazsu

11-20-2009, 04:21 PM

Loving the trip report. It is cool to see how a large family with a variety of ages enjoys the park. Keep the updates coming.

i12go2wdw

11-26-2009, 10:06 AM

I'm enjoying the trip report. :) We're planning on going around the same time in a couple of years, so I'm curious to see how your large-ish family made out with free dining and the temperature/weather.

Thanks for reading, we had a great time, it was very hot though. I was very happy we brought the mister fan and we learned quickly to get out of the heat at the first sign of anyone getting grumpy, and of course Mickey bars help too.;) Free dining was amazing, we still are amazed at the wonderful food and the beautiful restraunts we ate at for just the cost of the tip.
The crowds were great, I think a lot of schools in the East and South go back to school in the middle of August so the crowds were very managable. Good thing because I would HATE to be in shoulder to shoulder crowds in that heat:scared:
The report will continue soon.
Thanks again for reading

i12go2wdw

11-26-2009, 10:50 AM

Loving the trip report. It is cool to see how a large family with a variety of ages enjoys the park. Keep the updates coming.

Thank you for reading, sorry I disappeared for awhile.
We decided that to make this trip work we would be sure to give everyone, espcially the older 2 kids, a lot of freedom and most days there were invited to come with us but not forced to. There were a few times that it was mandatory for all of us to be together but it wasn't a problem, they didn't mind.
I must say the two teens never missed a meal:thumbsup2 and only chose to stay home once or twice. They did fizzle out earlier than the rest of us and went back to the room early though. A couple of hours of happy family time is much better than a full day of together time when someone is miserable.
Do you have a big family? If you have any questions just let me know.

i12go2wdw

11-27-2009, 11:20 AM

Tonight is our first time at Chef Mickey’s. Nicole and I met up with the rest of the family and we were taken right in to be seated, well, after our picture was taken. The characters all made their way to our table and Pluto even came twice, this is my favorite picture of the whole trip

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090827_0574.jpg
That is Jordan’s embarrassed look.

The food was very good, the only thing is that Jordan is allergic to dairy and every side dish had cheese in it except the soup and salad. Good thing he likes meat (the pork was amazing). Overall it was an excellent dinner and we did not feel rushed at all, the place didn’t even start to fill up until we were leaving at about 6:45.

I haven’t really commented on the crowds this trip yet. We planned this trip for the end of the summer and to be away for Rebecca’s birthday so it was Aug.21-Sept.7 and I guess a lot of schools go back in session mid August because there were hardly any crowds at all. Some rides had long lines but it was very easy to make a plan to do those rides first or fast pass them. We were even able to ride Toy Story about 5 times during the trip with no more than a couple of minutes wait. Most of the rides were walk on, it was great.

So after our dinner at Chef Mickey’s we tossed around a few ideas of what we might like to do with the rest of the night but everyone was happy to just go back to the resort and hang out and swim. We took the monorail to MK then we had just missed the monorail to the ticket and transportation centre so we took the boat, it is so peaceful and quiet and the sun was just going down, and we saw lightning in the distance, very cool. The kids were well fed and very happy.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090827_0584.jpg

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090827_0590.jpg

Dan and Mitchell and I were not interested in just hanging out and the pool was closed due to a storm (this happened quite often on our trip) so the three of us walked over to the All Star Movies (we were surprised how close it was). Mitchell really liked all the big icons from the movies.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090827_0593.jpg

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090827_0597.jpg
Once we finished our tour we made it home just before the skies opened up.
Today was a nice relaxing day off from the parks, I think we all needed that.

i12go2wdw

12-08-2009, 11:25 AM

Friday Aug. 28

Today was our long awaited and much stressed over morning at Hollywood Studios. We had gone over our plan for this day in more ways than I can count. We researched all kinds of scenarios and read all we could on what other people had experienced all this just to ride Toy Story Mania. After all that contemplation and work we decided to get there early and ride Toy Story Mania first then try to get fast passes for later. We decided we would ride Rockin Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror while we waited for the FP to be good. That was the plan.

We woke up and got organized and fed and we were at the bus stop just after 8, DHS opened at 9. We were at the park by 8:30, that was one long half hour, wondering if we had the right plan, studying the other people in front of us in line to try to guess what their plan was, going through all the routes in my head as to how to get to TSM. Funny thing was nobody else seemed to care!?!?
We got through the turnstiles and were held at the rope, we were really close to the front on the left hand side. Have I mentioned how hot it was on this trip? Anyways, we were just near the door to a shop and before the rope dropped they opened that door and invited us in. I thought I had just come across a hidden secret entrance to TSM. We quietly slid into the nice cool shop and went right to the door that was beyond the rope thinking it would magically open as the rope dropped and we would be 10 steps ahead of the crowd. But I thought I should ask just incase. And the answer was,” we don’t open that door until the crowd has passed.” OH NO!! Now we only had a minute or two until rope drop, we had to fight our way out of the store and get in the back of the rope drop line UGH!! Fortunately just as we left the door of the store the rope had dropped and we just joined in the rush of people, right around the spot we would have been in had we not gone in the store.
We followed the crowd to the ride 99% of the people at the rope drop were on their way to TSM, it was hard to keep DD7 up to speed but we did it. After all that stressing we walked right onto the ride, didn’t even slow down, right onto the ride, no wait. It was a lot of fun and almost worth all the stress. When we got out the plan was to get FP’S but the line was huge so we just carried on. We got FP’s for RR and rode TT with a 15 minute, very hot wait. Then we were able to use the FP for RR. Nicole didn’t really love TT but she did love RR so we got more FP for that.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0599.jpg

mickeystoontown

12-09-2009, 11:43 AM

Hey! I'm still here! For some reason, I wasn't getting email telling me when you posted an installment. :confused3 Anyway, I am all caught up now and looking forward to more.

i12go2wdw

12-09-2009, 11:02 PM

Hey! I'm still here! For some reason, I wasn't getting email telling me when you posted an installment. :confused3 Anyway, I am all caught up now and looking forward to more.

Hey thanks for reading, I was getting lonely, I will try and update tomorrow.

i12go2wdw

01-04-2010, 11:35 AM

After our very stressful morning of trying to do all our favorite rides without a wait, I don' know why we didn't want to wait it is stinkin’ hot and some of the line ups are inside where it is air conditioned, we started to take it easy. We felt a certain sense of accomplishment at getting on those 3 rides before 11 though. We went on the movie ride
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0611.jpg
then watched Beauty and the Beast which is my favorite show,
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0633.jpg
it just barely wins out over the Aladdin show in Disneyland.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0622.jpg
Dan got us all some icecream and cool drinks as it was smokin’ hot.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0638.jpg
After the show we made our way to the Animation Building, we had never been there before but the animation building in Disneyland is Rebecca’s favorite so she decided we had to try it out. The pre show is cute and we all enjoyed the cool, and Mitch and Becky really liked the drawing classes.
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http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0643.jpg
Nicole wasn’t interested in the drawing so she stayed out with Dan Jordan and I and we got to meet the Incredibles, they were a lot of fun!!
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0639.jpg
We had made an autograph book with pages for each of the characters we were sure we would see and the Incredibles had a page and they were thrilled and they made a big fuss over Nicole.
http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0640.jpg
Next we braved the blazing sun again and went to the Lights, Motors, Action, show. It was so hot and crowded it nearly did us all in but the show was good. Rebecca and Jordan had enough and the heat was making their teen moods even worse so they went back to the room. Dan and I took the youngins to Pizza Planet for lunch, it was our first time there and in was a nice cool diversion and the pizza wasn’t bad. After lunch we went to use our Rockin Roller coaster FP’s but the ride was down. We waited for a while but decided to give our FP’s away and go back to the room for a rest.

i12go2wdw

01-05-2010, 06:17 PM

After a nice nap and cool down we were raring to go again, but just Dan, Mitchell, Nicole and me, the teens were done. That is ok, we are all on holidays and if they want some quiet TV time we are all good with that. So the 4 of us hearty soles braved the heat at about 5:00 to go to Epcot to make some World Showcase masks. The first stop was at the take-out window in UK for some yummy fish and chips, why don’t they have forks and knives at this place??? That fish is hot and when you douse it with vinegar it is really hard to eat. Oh well, we did our best.
After dinner we wondered over to the other side of the street and watched the British Invasion. The music was great but the people watching was amazing. This group really has a following and they are very enthusiastic.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090828_0645.jpg

The purpose of this very hot night was to do the masks and make our way all the way around the world. The kids were so into it but we had to make a time limit at each country’s mask table so we could get it all done. Once they had the charm and the stamp from the Cast Member they were given 3 minutes to colour. We started in UK and made our way around, the kids only fought a little, they are so competitive with each other it is maddening.

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At about 8:55 we found a second rate spot to watch Illuminations, we were on a mask mission so we didn’t much mind that our view stunk. We ooohed and ahhhed and really enjoyed the show.

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We cooled off with a kaki gori, Jordan took a trip to Japan for 3 weeks when he was in 10th grade as a recipient of a Lions Exchange trip. The following summer we hosted a Japanese student for 3 weeks and he brought us a kaki gori machine and all the fixings so they are now a family favorite. We really enjoyed the treat. By the time we finished the World Showcase loop Canada was closed so we missed our goal by one country, and our own country to boot. We caught our bus and were home by 10:45. Jordan and Becky had spent the whole evening in the room, just left long enough to bring dinner up to eat, to each his own!!

Sweet Pea UK

01-28-2010, 04:44 AM

mickeystoontown

01-28-2010, 10:04 AM

Yes, carry on please!

i12go2wdw

01-29-2010, 11:08 AM

Loving your trip report - I hope it continues?? I am going practically the same dates this year August 22nd to September 11th (3 weeks) so am really interested in the weather!! I have a DD who will be 9 during the trip and I am considering making her some dresses. I have always dressed her in T-shirts and shorts before (we usually go NOvember) but wondered if cotton dresses would be cooler and dry quicker if we get caught in the rain or a water ride. I would be very interested in your thoughts.

Can't wait to read more - please carry on

Sara xx

Thank you so much for reading. My daughter much prefers to wear dresses and I really think they are so much cooler. Have you visited the Disboutique thread on the Family page? They make some amazing things and they are really not that hard to make. The ladies over there are so helpful too. It was so stinkin hot, I bet a lot of people would go naked if they were allowed.:laughing: It didn't ruin our fun (except for a few short moments). We just got used to it and stayed in the airconditioning as much as possible.
You could even just sew a simple gathered skirt onto a t-shirt, quick and easy and a lot cooler than a pants or shorts (lets the almost non existint breeze blow up;))
I will carry on with the next installment soon. It is nice to know someone is reading and it that it may be helpful. It will be very quiet while you are there!! It was only crowded on the Sat. of Labourday and even then it was not bad at all. Good choice of dates!!! You will probably get free dining too.
We just loved that. We are going back Aug 18-Sept 6 again this year but spending the first few days at Universal.

Sweet Pea UK

01-29-2010, 01:33 PM

Thanks for all the advice. I have been over to the Disboutique thread but it was a while ago and it seemed to early to think about what to pack but now I think I really should get started!

How strange - our date are very similar. We are staying 22nd August to 11th September. We are staying at the Portofino Bay for the first 4 nights - want to make use of the front of line passes!!

Did you have much rain last year? I keep worrying that we will be rained out of everywhere!! I am taking lots of precaution from the heat - we are from the UK - it never gets over 75!!! I've been preparing my DD for how hot its going to be and she knows she has to drink loads so hopefully that side of things will be OK. Just don't want to be stuck in the room *** of thunderstorms!!!

Thanks for replying and I look forward to reading about the rest of your trip and what you have planned for this year - we may bump into each other somewhere!!!

i12go2wdw

02-01-2010, 10:19 AM

Saturday Aug.29
We decided before we left home that we should avoid the 4 main parks on Saturdays as much as possible to avoid the crowds. We only had 10 day hoppers (why don't they sell longer than 10days?? The jump in price from 10 days to annual pass is huge) so we were forced to have a few non park days. Today was a water park day so we slept in because they don’t open until 10. We had breakfast at the food court then made our way out to the bus. We couldn’t decide which water park to go to so we decided to go to whichever one had the first bus show up. Turned out to be Typhoon Lagoon, we concluded that it was our favorite anyways.

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We got there at about 10:20 but it wasn’t crowded at all, we found great chairs right over the bridge and down the stairs from the main food place. It was on a little island on the edge of the wave pool but there were trees buffering the sound from the wave pool so it was quite relaxing and a good place to people watch and read. We played in the waves first, they are so much fun, and as long as someone had a good grip on Nicole she was fine, even in the deeper water.

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We spent a lot of time in the lazy river, the kids never seemed to want to be on a tube but nobody ever said anything so I guess it is ok. It was hard to get a tube sometimes as it was so hot nobody was ever getting out.

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We did do a couple of water slides, I am very aerodynamic feet first and have a history of over taking slow sliding strangers on waterslides so I have a personal ban on them. The family slides are ok, the rest of the family keeps me at a good speed. I won’t even tell you about the time I was going so fast I fell out of the slide ½ way down and had to get stitches!!

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We had a good lunch at the counter service place, so much food and it was so hot, I think we wasted some. Dan took the kids for a few fast slides and I had a few minutes of peace and quiet to read and look at all the people go by.
All too soon it was time to go. We had the Hoop De Doo tonight at 7 and I knew we were all going to need a nap if we were going to make it. It took a while for out bus to come but back at the room there was no arguing about naps after we all had a cool shower, we were exhausted!!

Sweet Pea UK

02-01-2010, 11:11 AM

Yeah and update!!:banana: We also love Typhoon Lagoon. You guys look like you had so much fun!! Can't wait to read about the Hoop de Hoo xx

i12go2wdw

02-01-2010, 02:23 PM

Yeah and update!!:banana: We also love Typhoon Lagoon. You guys look like you had so much fun!! Can't wait to read about the Hoop de Hoo xx

Here you go, two updates in one day, can you tell it is a slow Monday at my house;) Thanks for reading!!

i12go2wdw

02-01-2010, 02:28 PM

We all slept for 2 hours and even then it was hard to get everyone up, the sun and the water sure make for exhaustion, but it is so much fun. Once we got going again we were excited to get to Fort Wilderness. This is where we stayed the first time we ever took the family (minus Nicole) to WDW. That trip was just 3 weeks after Sept. 11 and we had a hard decision to make as to whether to fly or not. We had planned and saved for that trip for over 2 years and obviously we did decide to go. The place was empty, not only were there no lines there were no people, I remember taking Becky to the bathroom near Honey I Shrunk the Audience and as we walked there we did not SEE one person, it was a bit creepy. When we got back to HISTA there were only 6 other people in the audience.:scared1:
But it was such a magical trip!!! So Fort Wilderness holds a special place in our hearts (except Nicole, but after tonight it will for her too).
I had made Nicole an up-cycled dress from an old pair of overalls, cut the legs off and sewed on a skirt made from fabric with a similar pattern as the napkins at the Hoop De Doo. I have a confession to make and I hope I don’t get flamed. When we went to the Hoop De doo the first time I really wanted to take one of the napkins, my kitchen is red and white and I just wanted a souvenir. I decided that since we are not big eaters and neither Dan nor I drank any beer or wine (which is included in the price) that it was still a savings on their part if I took just one. I know it is still stealing but whatever. I tell you all this so you know how I know what the pattern on the napkin is, that napkin is in regular use at our house. I also did her hair in two braids so she really looked like a Hill Billy. It paid off.;)
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We got to the bus at about 6:15; we were a bit worried about getting there on time because Fort Wilderness is a bit hard to get to. We were supposed to be there by 7:15 to check in for the 7:30 show. To get there we were taking a bus to Magic Kingdom then the boat to Fort Wilderness. We had to wait a few minutes for the bus but not too long and then we only waited a few minutes for the boat too, so we were ok. Once we were on the boat Nicole was invited up to ring the bell because the driver thought she looked so cute. The dress had already paid off. We got to Pioneer Hall and checked in and met up with our friends the P's, we were going to the same show but had separate reservations. On the Dining plan we were to have tier two seats which meant not the best but not the worst either. Here is a little background on our past meals at the Hoop De Doo. The first time we went I made the reservation on the first day I could and we ended up with a table front and centre, right up at the stage, it was great!! The next time Nicole was 7 months and again I called on the first booking day and this time we were front but in the corner on the left hand side if you are facing the stage. There was a big barrel on the stage just where our table was and it was so hard to see what was going on. I actually complained and got ½ our money back. I figured this time we would be somewhere in the back or even upstairs because of the dining plan.
Now back to this trip, we waited with the Pratts and the kids were just having a ball together,

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When we were seated, can you believe it, we were at the very same front left corner table where we sat 6 years ago. As soon as we sat down we all pushed that table out from the corner and away from the wall until we could all see. There was plenty of room so we were not infringing on anyone else’s space. The barrel had also been taken off the edge of the stage so these seats turned out to be great. We are not sure how we scored these seats on the dining plan; our friends the P's were at the back of the hall. The show started and we all got in on the fun, the kids find this whole corny show so hilarious, it is silly. :rotfl2:

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Here you can see how the napkins match the skirt.

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The food is ok; we really loved the corn bread and had our fill of the rest, nothing great but tasty and filling. Then about ½ way through the show I see the two ladies on stage look at Nicole and nod at each other. The next thing you know

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Nicole was picked to be the Texas Ranger in the grand finale. She wasn’t shy at all and didn’t even look to me for reassurance that it was ok, she just said ok and was off. Good Girl!!
She was adorable and did exactly what she was suppose to, even kissed the hero (but she says she just kissed “near” his cheek)

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When the show was over Nicole was brought back up on stage to get a certificate, it was such a special night.

The show ends with every table getting a washboard and everyone plays and sings, it is a lot of fun!!

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We were trying to plan what to do with the rest of the night but I think we were just too tired to do anything else. We rode the boat and bus with our friends, the kids sat together, boys on one side

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Girls on the other

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They giggled and were silly with the last bit of their energy. It was nice for the adults to have a break too. By the time we got on the bus we were done, but the girls had just enough energy to eat a chocolate sundae, with 10 minutes to spare before the 11:00 closure. Those sundaes at the All Star Music are huge!!

Sweet Pea UK

02-01-2010, 02:44 PM

I have been spoiled! It's great reading as I to am having a very quiet Monday night :rotfl:

Stacie96

02-01-2010, 04:02 PM

I just found your trip report today and I have loved reading about your family and your many adventures!!!

I cannot wait for another update popcorn::

Stacie

albertamommyof4

02-01-2010, 04:43 PM

love your report it is awsome.
Got a quick question
wheredid you get the girls pick back packs, they are so cute and love that there is a place for the water bottle
Thanks

i12go2wdw

02-01-2010, 05:32 PM

I just found your trip report today and I have loved reading about your family and your many adventures!!!

I cannot wait for another update popcorn::

Stacie

Thank you so much, I am working on another update this afternoon, probably have it done by morning. I see you have a trip planned in the very near future, where are you staying?

i12go2wdw

02-01-2010, 05:34 PM

love your report it is awsome.
Got a quick question
wheredid you get the girls pick back packs, they are so cute and love that there is a place for the water bottle
Thanks

Hello fellow Canadian,
I am happy to tell you that I got those back-packs at our very own Canadian Tire!! It was a while ago so not sure if they still have them but they did work out very well, the bottle just slips intl it's own insulated (?) sleeve on the bottom of the pack. The boys had black ones too. They were cheap to boot. Under $15 if I remember. Good luck and I will take a look in my CT next time I am there.
Do you have a trip planned?

i12go2wdw

02-01-2010, 07:04 PM

I really enjoyed this trip report . Nicole is so cute and you make me feel like im there enjoying disney right along with you. Good job

Welcome, thanks for chiming in and I am glad you are enjoying it, stay tuned more to come.

Stacie96

02-01-2010, 07:48 PM

Thank you so much, I am working on another update this afternoon, probably have it done by morning. I see you have a trip planned in the very near future, where are you staying?

We are staying at POP for the first time. Going around Easter was not our first choice due to the crowds and everything seems more expensive (would love to be able to go around free dining) but have to adjust around the kids school now!!! At least the weather should be better... I hope :confused3.

Cannot wait to keep reading!!

i12go2wdw

02-02-2010, 09:51 AM

We were up early this morning to get to DHS for rope drop again; it really was the only way to do the rides at DHS. There are so many that are so popular and the lines get so long so quickly. When I say we were up early I should explain that only 5 of us made it up, Jordan was done in and decided to take the morning off. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to make it this long with us. There is nothing wrong with his stamina or energy, other than the teenage sleep in thing, but he can only take so much family time. We do not have a quiet, take it all in kind of family. The other 3 kids are loud and non-stop. Drives me nuts too but I am the Mum, I have to stick it out.
We were fed and on the bus by 8:00. When we got to Hollywood Studios Dan decided to tryout for the American Idol Show. They were really promoting it during the line up for rope drop and you could go off to the side and sing a little ditty to see if they would accept you. We had some time to kill and Becky is such a fan of the show she kinda encouraged Dad to do it. Now Dan does sing a lot, he sings at our church and has even been hired to sing at many funerals, we jokingly call him the Funeral Singer. So off they go while the rest of us wait in line. Dan did get accepted so we all had to get out of the line and go with Dan off to the side. Dan was allowed to take one FAN with him backstage so Becky went and the rest of us were left at the rope drop with instructions to be at the VIP entrance of the American Idol show at 10:30.
So Mitchell, Nicole and I did the same as the other day, followed the crowd to Toy Story Mania and walked right on, got FPs for Rockin Rollercoaster and rode Tower of Terror, this time Nicole did not cry just held my arm very tight and hid her head. We rode Rockin Rollercoaster then made our way to American Idol. We waited quite a while for them to open the doors, all the while I was trying to get a hold of Jordan to come and see his dad. We were seated right near the front on the left hand side again. The warm up guy was very funny and worth going for just to see him. The show started and it was a lot like the TV show, here are way too many pictures sorry.

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Here are the three contestants waiting and listening to the announcer, they all looked pretty nervous at this point.

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Then it was Dan’s turn to go up on stage, back stage they did make up and hair (but Dan didn’t need any help with that) and they even got to see a voice coach that went over some points with them. They did a little interview and that is the info the MC used to introduce each singer. She made some crack about Dan having 4 kids.

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Then Dan’s name and the name of the song he was going to sing shows up on the monitor.

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Dan belted out his song, the female judge really liked him the other two were mixed. They really did not like the female singer but they all really liked the last guy. We thought Dan was great but I guess there could only be one winner. Just as well, we had plans for tonight and if you win you have to come back for the Grand Finale.

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We met up with Dan at the side entrance and heard all the stories about behind the scenes. He wore his American Idol pin for the rest of the week and got tons of attention from it. It was a really cool experience and we are so glad that he did it.

Sweet Pea UK

02-02-2010, 01:43 PM

What an experience - I so wish I could sing!

albertamommyof4

02-02-2010, 03:20 PM

Hello fellow Canadian,
I am happy to tell you that I got those back-packs at our very own Canadian Tire!! It was a while ago so not sure if they still have them but they did work out very well, the bottle just slips intl it's own insulated (?) sleeve on the bottom of the pack. The boys had black ones too. They were cheap to boot. Under $15 if I remember. Good luck and I will take a look in my CT next time I am there.
Do you have a trip planned?

Thank you so much they sound awsome
I will definatly have to take a look in our canadian tire.
I am actually going on a solo trip in august it is for a tupperware conference and i thought i would take a trip to the parks lol( can't go to disneyworld and not go to the parks lol) This will be my first ever trip there, have only been to disneyland 1 time also with my kids and hubby in april.

i12go2wdw

02-02-2010, 05:49 PM

After the American Idol finished Dan retold us all about his 15 minutes of fame (which took much longer than 15 minutes to retell) he then decided he wanted to go see the Indy Show. Nicole and I had no interest in seeing it so we decided to go back to the resort and swim. We are not fans of any counter service place in DHS so we were going to have lunch at the resort, we both really love the quesadillas and one is more than enough for the two of us to share. So we head out and we are soon are at the food court. We used the house phone to call Jordan and he came down and had lunch with us, we are his favorites after all.

Nicole wanted to swim after lunch and Jordan graciously offered to take her. I had an hour and a half off. It was just like a mini vacation during a vacation. They came back to the room and Nicole instantly fell asleep on Jordan’s tummy, very cute. Soon the rest came home and they fell asleep too. We are really enjoying these siestas, but the noise from the pool party is so loud!!

When we woke up we went to Magic Kingdom for the extra magic hours. It was still very hot. The crowds were unpredictable and some rides were walk-ons and others had huge lines.
We rode a couple of rides then decided we needed to get out of the heat and eat dinner. Mitchell really loves Cosmic Rays with Sonny Eclipse, he is beyond corny but it makes him happy.

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There is a good variety of food, except this night, only one section was open so we had to have burgers. Mitchell and I shared a double burger, we were doing really well with the counter service credits, and the meals are so big we very seldom got more than 4 for the family to share. Sometimes Mitchell and I would share a snack credit muffin for breakfast. This night Mitchell decided that he wanted a lot of beef, so we decided that we would get the double patty burger. I just took 1/4 of the beef so we loaded his ½ up.

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After we ate we did more rides, they are so much more fun in the dark, the whole park is just magical in the dark.
We had our only icky experience this night, it was really kind of gross. We were in the longest line up of the whole trip, for Big Thunder Mountain. They had all the switch back lanes open and it was packed. We had a family of 4 in front of us, Mom, Dad, teenaged brother and teenaged sister-brother was older and taller. The whole time we were weaving through the line up we had to look at this family. The brother had a very bad burn on his back and shoulders, most of which was visible because of the wife beater tank top he was wearing. His back and shoulders were red and bubbly. During the amazingly long and hot wait as we were all packed in together the sister peeled sheets of her brother’s skin off his back. Then she held them over his shoulder so he could see then she flung them behind her. YUCK!! Needless to say we stayed way back. All the people around them were making faces and looked grossed out but the family was oblivious.

After that ride we needed to get out of the heat for awhile. We decided to go on one of our favorite rides.

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I know it is kinda hokey but it just makes us happy and there is so much to look at.

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We were cooled off and rested so we continued on with a few more rides. The Tea Cups are one of the only rides I will not ride on but the kids love it, especially if Jordan goes on and really spins it, I can hardly watch.

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It was still so hot, I think today was even hotter than it has been. We made it till about 10:45 and decided to head back to the resort. We were home and in bed just after 11. Tomorrow we get to sleep in, YEAH!!!

i12go2wdw

02-02-2010, 07:13 PM

Thank you so much they sound awsome
I will definatly have to take a look in our canadian tire.
I am actually going on a solo trip in august it is for a tupperware conference and i thought i would take a trip to the parks lol( can't go to disneyworld and not go to the parks lol) This will be my first ever trip there, have only been to disneyland 1 time also with my kids and hubby in april.

I think a solo trip sounds amazing, and really you will just be scouting out the World for when you take the family right;) How nice of Tupperware to hold their conference in such a wonderful place. How much time will you have to play? And how old are your kids? Thanks for reading!

mickeystoontown

02-03-2010, 09:50 AM

Very cool pictures of Caroussel of Progress. I haven't been to it in years. I think I'll add that to our list of "must see" for our upcoming trip.

i12go2wdw

02-05-2010, 10:27 AM

Aug.31

We were sleeping in today and going to EPCOT for when the World Showcase opened. We took it easy this morning; I got some quiet time by the pool before everyone else woke up. The two younger kids swam and the teens watched TV. It was so hot and it wasn’t even 9:00 yet. I think today ended up being the hottest day of the trip and we didn’t handle it very well!! We all dressed in our matching Canada Shirts-about 6 weeks before we left home there was an advertising campaign on a Cheerio-s box where they were offering free Canadian Olympics T-shirts for every box of General Mills cereal purchased. We decided, much to Jordan’s displeasure, that we would all get one of the shirts and wear them when we had dinner at Le Cellier.So off I went and bought 5 more boxes of cereal. Dan and Jordan loaded the codes into the computer then we waited till the shirts trickled in. About a month after ordering them the shirts started to come one by one. We got shirts right up to the day we left but we didn’t get Mitchell’s until we came home and found it on the kitchen table with the rest of the mail. If you remember our border crossing story that is where we got Mitchell his un-matching shirt. He doesn’t mind, he likes to stand out.

So we go to the food court and have breakfast all together then head out to the bus. When we get to EPCOT we make a stop to get FP for Soarin’ then get to the World Showcase just as it is opening. We find a Kim Possible outpost and sign up for a mission but are told they don’t have any Missions until 12:00 so we wandered around a bit, we were already starting to wilt in the heat so we decided to get some lunch. Rebecca and Mitchell wanted Crepes so they headed over to France, Jordan and Dan wanted fish and chips so they waited at UK and Nicole and I wanted Mexican so we walked over to the Cantina.
We all met up at UK eventually and ate and DRANK, it was so stinkin hot!!! Things began to get nasty, not embarrassing nasty where other people could hear but ugly just the same.

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This would have been a good day to scrap the plan and just hang out at the pool or go to a movie or something, but no we forged on, we had a 5:00 ADR at Le Cellier so we kinda had to stick around. We enjoyed our lunch, Mexican was amazing!! We got our Kimunicator
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and then the arguing began, “I can’t see it”, “I couldn’t hear it”, “I want to hold it” UGHHHHH!!!

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They usually never act like this and it was making Dan and I nuts. It was so hot and most of the Kim Possible stuff was outside, and it was just fun and interesting enough that nobody wanted to quit, so the arguing went on.

One bright spot was that while we were in China we got to meet Mulan, she is a bit hard to meet in the other parks so we were happy to spend some time with her.

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We finished the Mission, made the bad decision to do another then it happened. We all hated eachother. We all split up before bloodshed and in groups of 2 (paired up with whoever you hated least) we parted. I got Mitchell, Dan got Becky and Jordan took Nicole. I am not even sure if we planned to meet up or if this was meant to be good-bye forever. I took Mitchell on Ellen’s Dinosaur ride, 45 minutes of cool darkness, it was just the ticket. We then went to Mission Space and as fate would have it we all met up there. Everyone was in a much better mood and we reunited as a family.

mickeystoontown

02-05-2010, 10:38 AM

First off, love the shirts. It's just too bad the last one didn't come in until you guys were gone.

I've got to agree with you on the Kimmunicators. They can cause a riot if you don't watch out. I didn't enjoy it at all. We finally let the two kids (22 and 12) go off on their own and finish it up while my husband and I found a nice cool spot to wait for them. It was doggone hot in August!

Sweet Pea UK

02-05-2010, 03:48 PM

How funny! Nothing like a good family argument on a hot day!!!

i12go2wdw

02-05-2010, 06:30 PM

After an ugly afternoon we were anxiously waiting for our Le Cellier reservation. We were all together again and Dan said he wanted to go get fast passes for Soarin’ and that we should meet at Oh Canada. I guess we should have been more precise. The kids and I waited down in the cool waiting room for the show and I guess Dan was waiting in the sun up at the top. When the last show was going to start before we had to check in for our reservation the kids and I went in. OOPS!! When we got out and walked up to the top we found an angry father. Not a good day for family harmony.

We signed in for our ADR and waited to be seated. It wasn’t long as we were one of the first dinner seatings. We took our time looking at the menu and deciding who should get what. We ordered a soup to share, it is so good but very rich. Jordan had a spicy sausage appetizer and thought it was good but he really likes spice. Then the main course came, oh the fillet was so good, just melt in your mouth and so tasty. We had fun with our server and when he knew we were from North Van he brought over a server from another area that was also from North Van and had gone to Jordan’s high school. Small world.

When we were just about to order our dessert our friends from home were seated beside us. We had fun talking about our HOT day and we made suggestions for their dinner.
We were all pretty full but we did our best on the desserts, this is the only picture I have of the dinner

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The chocolate mousse.

After dinner we went over to use our Soarin’ FP. It was raining buckets, it seems whenever we are at EPCOT at night it is raining. The paths were flooded but we just didn’t care, at least our feet were cool. It always amazes me that all that rain does nothing to cool off the temperatures; it almost makes it worse and stuffy.
It seems there were a lot of people who had a bad day, there was quite a commotion going on in the stand-by line up. From what we could gather people on one side had been waiting a really long time to get in because that side had broken down. Then they were taken out of that line and put in the end of the line on the other side. We were in the FP line so we witnessed it all and believe me they were mad.

After the ride we spent some time in Innovations, we checked out the nooks and crannies that we had never been to before and found some fun stuff to do. We decided to go back to the room and swim, but the pool was closed due to the storm. About ½ hour later they opened the pool and the younger kids had a swim with our friends the Pratts.

We ticked a couple of things off our “must do” list but it sure wasn’t a great day!!

jelloarms

02-10-2010, 04:10 AM

I really enjoy your TR b/c you talk about both the good times and the not so good times. There are a lot of TRs out there but I find that I enjoy the ones that aren't always about happy times. I find that the not so good times make TRs really interesting and although those times may have been hard in the moment, they are fun to look back on...especially when you realize what you thought was a big commotion then wasn't so bad. Plus, it makes the good moments really shine!

Looking forward to more.

i12go2wdw

02-10-2010, 11:47 AM

Tuesday Sept.2

Today was the long awaited breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle. The boys, of course, did not want to come with us and I wasn’t even sure about 13 year old Rebecca but she said she wanted to come so Nicole would have company. We also asked the women in our friend the P's family if they would like to come too; a resounding yes was the answer. We let the boys sleep and we girls got ready and met the P. women at the bus. Everyone all decked out in Castle wear and excited.
Our reservation was for 8:30 but we wanted to get there as early as possible so we could get some empty park time. As it turned out we were taking our pictures at about 8:15 so not as early as you would think for having been at the bus stop at 7:10. But we did get some nice empty park pictures.

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We were checked in and hardly had any wait till it was our turn with the Lady of the Castle. Looking back everything about the breakfast is so rushed and there is so much to see, it just whizzes by. I would have spent ½ an hour just looking at the architecture of the inside of the castle and all the details, I am sure there is a story to be told just in the main room. But we were posed with Cinderella then taken upstairs to our table.

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In this picture it looks like Mrs. P is eating food off of the people’s table next to us. I am sure she wasn’t but if she is, they look pretty ok with it .

The food was very good, especially the deep fried donut with jam thing, maybe that is what Mrs. P is snitching.

The princesses started coming and again you had to be on your toes to have any time with them at all. There was a man standing in the upper walkway inside the restaurant with a note pad taking frantic notes as the Princesses went through, he was looking at each table and seemed to be taking a running record of what each group was doing each minute. I found it quite amusing, but that may be why everything was so hurried, maybe they were having a performance review. So the princesses came and went.

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Is it just me or do all those princesses have weird looks on their faces? Our first picture with Cinderella was taken at 8:24 and the last one with Belle was taken at 8:53. We didn’t leave just then, we did stay and eat a bit more but I am sure we were out of there by 9:15.

Anyways, after breakfast the park was open but Toontown was going to have its own rope drop at 9:45 and Tinkerbell is Becky’s favorite so was made out way over there. We got very close to the front of the line and when the rope dropped we high tailed it to the meet and greet. We did get really close to the front of the line but in doing so we lost our friends. We looked around for them and I sent Bec back to see if they were just further back in the line but they were just gone. Oh well, we had a great meet with the fairies, not rushed at all, they spent their time and talked with the girls. It was really special.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090901_0793.jpg

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090901_0796.jpg
Tink is telling Becky not to let her braids grow too long or the squirrels will run up them.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090901_0797.jpg

We found the our friends the P's women not too long after our fairy time, they had decided they didn’t want to meet them so they went off and saw something else. All was fine.

http://i1010.photobucket.com/albums/af222/i12go2wdw/20090901_0799.jpg

It was only 10:30 and we had done so much!! What a great morning!!