The Skeptical First-Timers made it back home, here's the TR! Completed!

[FosterA]

Hello everybody!!!:goodvibes

Though we just got home yesterday and I have a million and one more important things to do none of them are as fun as talking about Disney. :cool1:
I figured now was a good time to start my trip report since my mother-in-law is here driving me bonkers following me around the house rattling in my ear. I told her I had to go into my office and get some "work" done. tee hee

If you are just joining in and want some background you should be able to click on my link to the PRE -trip report in my signature:thumbsup2

I'm actually going to start the report on my next post since I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing and need to make sure all my links works and such. Be back soon!

Table of Contents for the Trip Report

Day 1-part 1--Tues, Nov 15 (arrival and MVMCP) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43322623&postcount=2)
Day 1-part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43323964&postcount=11)
Day 1-part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43325341&postcount=19)
Day 1-part 4 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43327198&postcount=31)
Day 1-part 5 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43328433&postcount=36)

Day 2- part 1--Wed, Nov 16 (MK and Fantasmic!) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43335807&postcount=51)
Day 2- part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43342774&postcount=63)
Day 2- part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43344757&postcount=70)
Day 2- part 4 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43345160&postcount=73)

Day 3-part 1--Thur, Nov 17 (Studios and Luau) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43352461&postcount=84)
Day 3-part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43364521&postcount=108)
Day 3-part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43368119&postcount=114)
Day 3-part 4 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43375167&postcount=133)
Day 3-part 5 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43375337&postcount=135)
Day 3-part 6 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43377558&postcount=140)

Day 4-part 1--Fri, Nov 18 (AK) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43384548&postcount=159)
Day 4-part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43396174&postcount=172)
Day 4-part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43402857&postcount=183)
Day 4-part 4 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43404194&postcount=190)

Day 5-part 1--Sat, Nov 19 (Rest day and Downtown Disney) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43415853&postcount=209)
Day 5-part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43416309&postcount=210)
Day 5-part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43426204&postcount=222)

Day 6-part 1--Sun, Nov 20 (Epcot) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43445480&postcount=240)
Day 6-part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43448055&postcount=248)
Day 6-part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43454572&postcount=261)
Day 6-part 4 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43458413&postcount=272)

Day 7-part 1--Mon, Nov 21 (Rest day and Hoop De Doo!) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43464313&postcount=294)
Day 7-part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43464578&postcount=295)
Day 7-part 3 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43470974&postcount=314)
Day 7-part 4 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43484432&postcount=347)

[FosterA]

WHEW!!! what a trip.
We just got back yesterday but since I miss Disney already and miss all you guys too, I figured I'd start my report as a way to phase back into the real world.

A disclaimer before I get started: We took about 500 pics but you wont see many of me in them. Without giving too much away, let's just say I got SICK on this trip (me, who NEVER gets sick!) :scared1:so I looked horrible most of the time with no makeup on and a bright red chapped nose from blowing it constantly. I still had a blast of course but I walked around the parks a hot mess most of the time so don't be expecting too many pics with my mug in it. I will post lots of Dave and the kids though!


DAY 1- part 1(Tues, Nov 15):

Our flight left Austin around 6 am. Tues morning so we had to be up and at 'em pretty early. I finally got smart and realized I needed to take at least 2 days off work in order to get ready to go out of town and that's what I did for this trip. VERY SMART of me! Because I had plenty of time to get out of work mode and into vacation mode, I was actually able to sleep pretty well on Monday night. I was quite surprised since I get pretty anxious before flying somewhere. Not so much "the flight" but the getting out of the house, getting through security, yada yada. But...no sweat. I popped up around 3:30 and showered and got all ready. For once, the kids popped up too since they were pretty dang excited. Dave was calm and actually in a great mood and ready to see what this Disney place was all about too.

So we managed to get out of the house and load up in our truck which we were just going to leave at the airport. What's another 80 bucks for parking after spending loads at Disney right?
Here's some pics of us getting to the airport:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0182.jpg
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0183.jpg

This is Ian making Mickey ears on Allison. He thought of that all on his own which sort of surprised me.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0187.jpg

So in the car on the way to the airport I explained my Golden Rule on this trip. The rule was that WE ALL EAT AT THE SAME TIME. It drives me absolutely insane that this family is never on the same page with food and we end up wasting time going here and there and dealing with eating events. The biggest culprit in the family is Allison, beings that she is 14, the Earth revolves around her. When we're hungry she's "sooo not hungry". When we're not hungry, she's going to "pass out she's so hungry". Once we got to the airport and got through security and such, I announced that we will all get something for breakfast and be on the same page. We found some breakfast tacos so all was well and I felt that everybody should be situated until we got to the Poly. Of course I was wrong because 1 hour later when we were in Houston on our layover, Ian announces that he'll just die without some chicken nuggets (it's like 7 am, nobody even starts cooking those things yet!). Allison just MUST have a starbucks and since she's a daddy's girl, he races to get her one though we barely had time on our layover.
Here's daddy and his spoiled Starbuck drinking girl: Obviously this photo must be while we were still in Austin and not during the layover in Houston because there was no time for lounging in Houston since our connection was pretty quick.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0189.jpg

The flight was a piece of cake, Austin to Houston is only like 30 minutes and then it wasn't but 2 and 1/2 hours or so to Orlando. Ian spotted this hidden Mickey in the clouds. You see it right on top of the wing there. The wing is almost covering it up. You may have to be on magic mushrooms to really see it, but if I knew how to circle it in this photo I would. I swear it's there.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0190.jpg

Once we got onto the second and final leg of our flight I started to get pretty excited. I get nervous during layovers (running to get the princess her starbucks doesn't help the anxiety of missing the connection). I checked my phone once we were loaded and I had a nice little voicemail from Garden Grocer letting me know that our stuff was just delivered to the Poly. They were fantastic and ordering 2 cases of water was a genius idea.

I wasn't able to talk to Dave much on the trip there because me and the kids take up the 3 seats on one side and he gets to sit alone across the aisle. Ian likes the window and I have to take the middle seat to keep the kids from beating each other. Dave is like me and not a huge fan of flying plus he just recently got back from a 15 hour Korean flight so he wasn't feeling chatty and perky anyway. All in all, it was a pretty perfect flight situation. Everything was on time and I didn't have an anxiety attack getting out of the house. The teenager almost got beat once or twice but that's not really uncommon:lmao: It's usually on the plane going somewhere that I have time to think about what I may have forgotten to pack but we did awesome and didn't forget anything for this trip. yipee!! Well...Dave would have liked to have brought his water spray bottle for his hair and to get wrinkles out of clothes and I forgot q-tips and some notebook paper for journaling but those things could easily be bought at the little store at the Poly.

So...up next will be a chapter about hooking up with Magical Express and our arrival at the Poly!

[NMW]

Subscribing we will never forget our first trip with the kids that is when we felt the magic

[BridgetR3]

popcorn:: Joining in!!!

[amytheobald]

popcorn::
Cant wait to hear more!

[lilpixiebabe101]

Found ya! Jumping on.
Of course daddy's princess had to have a starbucks lol!

[nvsnot]

I'm in :cheer2:. I can't wait to read all about it :surfweb:.

[FosterA]

Subscribing we will never forget our first trip with the kids that is when we felt the magic
welcome:goodvibes

popcorn:: Joining in!!!
Glad to have you!:thumbsup2

popcorn::
Cant wait to hear more!
Thanks for coming along!

Found ya! Jumping on.
Of course daddy's princess had to have a starbucks lol!
yep, when the teenager aint happy, nobody is happy

I'm in :cheer2:. I can't wait to read all about it :surfweb:.
Thanks! happy to have ya:goodvibes

[danimaroo]

I'm here! I actually lurked and read your PTR so I figured I'd come say hi in your TR. I'm hoping you guys had a great trip and hopefully some of your family now gets why Disney World is so wonderful! ;)

[Moodyzblu]

I'm in ! popcorn::

Can't wait to hear more. :)

[FosterA]

DAY 1-part 2

For those of you just joining or for those that don't feel like sludging through my entire Pre trip report here's a quick recap. This trip was our family of four. 11 year old boy Ian, 14 year old girl Allison, and me and my husband David. I'm the only one of us four that has ever been to Disney and that was literally just to skim the parks in 2 days. A super quickie trip. I fell in love with it and just HAD TO bring the family. I knew my kids would love it but I was worried about David. It really took lots of begging and whining on my part to get him to agree to let me book the trip. He just wasn't interested at all but of course he caved in for me and the kids. He didn't want any part in the planning and had no pre-conceived ideas on what to expect at all. He says theme parks aren't his thing but he'd be willing to go and get it out of my system. So.......there you have it. I guess when I say "skeptical", I'm mostly referring to David since I already knew I loved WDW and was 99% sure my kids would. So as this TR unfolds you'll get to see if I was able to get David to "get the magic" or not:laughing:


Ok, so I last left off talking about our flight. It was pretty un-eventful and we landed right on time. yipee:goodvibes I think it was right smack at noon that we touched down in Orlando.
Once we got off the plane I had a little confusion about getting to the Magical Express. David looked at me like "what? I thought you had every detail planned?" I was like "oh please, I didn't plan every single step of the entire trip, so what if we stumble around a little bit getting to Magical Express". Of course we found it pretty quick. Right off the bat I got swept up into the happiness of Disney because the Magical Express people were great and so fun. They had me and the kids laughing right off the bat and we're giving them stickers and offering to take photos of us and waving at us with big Mickey hands on. Disney people are just so friendly right from the starting gate! Here's a photo one of the ME peeps took of us. Oh...it was cute because several of the CMs were giving David a hard time because he was carrying Allison's pillow pal unicorn thing and they kept teasing him about. He was a good sport about it. Me and the kids thought it was hilarious of course. Can you see the little purple unicorn pillow in the background?:rotfl:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0195.jpg

Now...as much as I'd like to keep this TR happy and give everybody out there with grumpy skeptical husbands hope, it was at this point that I knew David was not gonna get the "magic". David never said anything negative nor did he complain about anything but he also NEVER SAID ANYTHING POSITIVE either! That's how I know he's not into something. I thought that at this point, he'd say something about how nice it was that ME took care of the baggage, how they were all friendly, how it was nice to not rent a car....SOMETHING! but no....he just was neutral the whole time. I was just a little surprised that's all. I mean it's just so wonderful to not have to drag bags around and get rental cars and such and I suppose I wanted him to acknowledge that too. Oh well...It wasn't a big deal, I brushed it off to he was just tired from the flight and he'd perk up once we got settled at room.

It took a bit to get onto the bus and actually pull away but me and the kids were pretty pumped up so it was just fine. Ian thought it was cool to get on the huge bus but later told me the only thing he didn't like was the whining babies on board. He has this thing where he hates to hear babies crying:confused: Well....newsflash, that wont be the first whining baby we'll hear on this trip!:rotfl: Oh....and at one point we passed the Epcot "ball" and Allison said "what's that?". I said "That's Epcot" and she's like "the park is in the ball?". yep....the family has no idea about WDW.

So.....we're off!
We arrived at the Poly and naturally it was just as gorgeous as all the pics out there. A CM greeted us and sort of chatted to us as we walked in though I would have preferred to walk alone so we could check out the scenery and check out the little pond and such. I felt a little rushed getting off bus and entering Poly with the herd of people that also were entering plus having the CM asking us questions and such. But the CM was super nice and just trying to be helpful. Once we entered we got our leis which was a nice touch. I headed to the desk and Allison grabbed my camera and her and Ian ran off to look around. Here's a couple pics they took:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0203.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0202.jpg

Dave and I walked up to the desk to check in and of course the CM was over-the-top nice. She got us all set up and I even got the requested room I wanted which was 3rd floor facing volcano pool. David was interested in the CMs nametag and thought it was neat that it said where they were from. yay! something was "neat" to him so far on this trip since he didn't seem too impressed by the ME. It's the little things. lol It was probably only 1:30 ish at this time but our room was all ready to go. We headed over to the room and when Ian saw the pool he started to flip and freak out and wanted to get in it ASAP. Allison was in awe over the landscaping and taking photos of every single flower and blade of grass. David didn't say much unless I asked and he'd be like "yeah, it's nice". Not grumpy-like but not mass enthusiasm either. I thought for sure for sure he'd be blown away by how green and lush the place was since we are living in a crisp and brown dried-up TX right now. Anyhooo....I told the fam that we needed to get up to our room and get settled and then they could swim and we'd eat lunch etc etc.
Like I said, we got the 3rd flooring facing volcano. We were in the very very last room on top, so the tip top corner. There was lots of foliage so I couldn't see a lot of the pool but could see the volcano which was nice because I could stay in the room and just pop out on the balcony every so often to make sure Ian was still climbing up the volcano and using the slide which he must have done thousands of times. He'd get up to that landing and wave at us before sliding down. Sure is nice to have older kids so I can be lazier nowadays and not have to sit and hover at the pool the whole time. Allison didn't hang in pool much but did migrate off to the beach with her ipod and laid out alot. Here's a couple pics of room and such.

This was taken off our balcony.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0327.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0208.jpg

Ok, I just loved these lights over our beds. There were four in all and they were the dimming kind. Oh how I love dimming lights:cool1:! you just twirled the little knob and could have it very dim or very bright which was awesome to read in bed without waking up everybody or whatever.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0209.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0233.jpg

Ian ripping down the slide, first of thousands of times.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0237.jpg

I thought it was so cool that I could see the Grand Floridian in the mirror from my bed!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0798.jpg

Allison created this masterpiece on the beach.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0242.jpg

I gotta end this for now. Next chapter I'll talk a little more about our room and settling in and trying our first meal at Disney (Cook's).


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[BridgetR3]

Well I hope that your DH comes around eventually to at least enjoying Disney. My DH got VERY VERY ill on his first time at Disney with some type of virus (read: 4 days in the room) SO .....he is not a Disney fan. He tolerates it only because I am in love. I do hope to "convert" him one day! :lmao:

[brea]

I'm joining in! I have almost the same situation going on with a trip to the Poly coming in Jan-Feb with my DW being the skeptical one.

I told her about your husbands reaction to ME and she said he was probably thinking "for the amount we paid they better carry our bags"

I just started our PTR today so I'm definitely going to be following this one.

[joy13]

Great first day so far! Can't wait to hear the rest!

[Moodyzblu]

Great pics !! I LOVE the GF in the mirror one .. SO cool. I sure hope hubby comes around eventually ! ;)

[joshua4]

OK - lurker coming out of the closet here to tell you --keep on writing! We will be at the poly in January and I havent stayed there in a long time. Cant wait to read all about your experiences there. Also, we are taking a 14 year old and 11 year old with us who have never been to disney so I am dying to know your kids reactions. Waitng for more . . .

Lauren

[FosterA]

Well I hope that your DH comes around eventually to at least enjoying Disney. My DH got VERY VERY ill on his first time at Disney with some type of virus (read: 4 days in the room) SO .....he is not a Disney fan. He tolerates it only because I am in love. I do hope to "convert" him one day! :lmao:
eeek. 4 days in the room, poor guy! thanx for reading along:goodvibes

I'm joining in! I have almost the same situation going on with a trip to the Poly coming in Jan-Feb with my DW being the skeptical one.

I told her about your husbands reaction to ME and she said he was probably thinking "for the amount we paid they better carry our bags"

I just started our PTR today so I'm definitely going to be following this one.
Welcome! I'll need to go check out your PTR! The funny thing about my husband is that he had no idea how much anything cost and I did that on purpose so he wouldn't be complaining about how such and such wasn't worth it. I mean, he had a ball park figure of how much the entire trip cost but he didn't know how much tix were and room was and food was necessarily. I saved and paid all cash for the trip so he can't even look at CC receipts. HA! Well, he did see the price of one thing and I'll fill you in on that episode in another couple chapters!

Great first day so far! Can't wait to hear the rest!
Glad to have you aboard!!

Great pics !! I LOVE the GF in the mirror one .. SO cool. I sure hope hubby comes around eventually ! ;)
Thanks for reading along!

OK - lurker coming out of the closet here to tell you --keep on writing! We will be at the poly in January and I havent stayed there in a long time. Cant wait to read all about your experiences there. Also, we are taking a 14 year old and 11 year old with us who have never been to disney so I am dying to know your kids reactions. Waitng for more . . .

Lauren
Come on out of that closet! yay:goodvibes Have your kids been to WDW before?

[FiveBoys]

I'm a longtime lurker who finally decided to make an account. I followed your PTR, now I'm subbing in to hear about the trip!

[FosterA]

DAY 1-part 3

So after getting checked in and everybody (except Dave) ooooing and aweing every tiny thing we got all settled in the room. We had some stuff but our luggage from ME had not yet arrived. The kids had carry-on suitcases so that was good so they were able to change into their suits. I gotta say that the weather while we were there was PERFECT every single day. Now, right in the middle of the day, it got a little toasty out in the sun but if you moved into some shade you were just fine. The nights were beautiful. We never needed jackets ever and pretty much did capris and t-shirts or jeans and t-shirts the whole trip. Plenty warm enough for swimming during the day. Here's another couple of photos.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0211.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0204.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0232.jpg

Anyway....by the time we checked in and got a little settled it might have been 2-2:30 ish and we were all pretty starved. We did not do the dining plan (which I'm glad). We did not have any ADRs this first arrival day either. The plan was to relax and get settled and then work our way over to the Christmas party this first night (not getting there at 4:00 but more like 6ish). So we wandered over to Cook's to check out our first Counter Service experience. And.......I LOVED that place! It took us a few minutes to figure out "how" to order and what not. I had no idea (though I did vast amounts of research ahead of time) that you order using a touch-screen thingy. It was so fun! :laughing: Disney just makes it such a blast to spend gobs of money! Anyhoo....once we figured out what to do, we all ordered stuff. Ian and I did the flatbread pizzas and Dave did a burger I think, oh and he got a beer too. Allison ordered some noodle veggie dish. We also got 2 of the infamous refillable mugs. I just drink water so I didn't care about the mugs. David pretty much veered toward alcoholic beverages most of the time so he didn't care about the mugs either. However, Ian thought he died and went to Heaven as far as being able to drink as much coke as he could stand. Here's Ian thinking he died and went to Heaven.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0218.jpg

Now...another photo disclaimer: I did not take any food porn pics. sorry:( I guess I figured there is already ten billion photos of every dish at WDW somewhere or another on the DIS and you could just do a search if you were curious. :laughing: Plus, my husband already thinks I'm a freak and I didn't want to deal with his eye rolling everytime I took a photo of my food!:lmao:

Everybody seemed to really like their food and there was no complaints. Now, that also could have been that we were starving. Oh and David did not know how much anything cost on this trip which was all part of my scheme. I didn't want to deal with him saying "that burger cost how much?!" etc etc etc. I managed to keep him out of the loop the whole trip. Yay me! Now of course he has eyes and could see the menu and prices but I don't think he put alot of time into tallying up any totals and such. I paid the entire trip cash (We've been Dave Ramsey'd) and David (my David) more or less knew the total cost but not really what cost what if you know what I mean. So.....since he already had a bit of an attitude about Disney I figured it was best to not let him sweat how much an order of fries was. We ate our lunch outside of Cook's and it was not the least bit crowded. The ducks walked up to us and it was super nice and peaceful.

After eating we went back to the room and our luggage was already there. So fast! The kids were either on the beach or at the pool so I got domestic and started setting up the room. David plopped on the bed and commented on how nice it was just to be able to relax and not have to immediately rush to anything. He complimented me on the fact that I "scheduled" in plenty of down time before racing off to any parks or anything. So I patted myself on the back. Then...he should have quit while he was ahead because he says "man, that beer was good, I should have had you order a case of it with our groceries". I swear I almost smothered him right then and there. I had been planning and researching this trip for over a year and downright begged him for his opinion or input on several things during the planning process and he always just said "whatever you want dear". I specifically remember when I went to order from Garden Grocer and calling him at work to see if he wanted to order anything special or any alcohol or anything and he's like "no, just get whatever you want". To have him lay on the bed and said he wished I'd ordered beer made me want to beat him over the head.

So after I simmered down and he took a nap (good thing because I was already sick of him) I got everything all neat and tidy. I brought a pop-up hamper which was an EXCELLENT thing to have. I also brought one of those organizers to hang over door with little pockets but didn't actually use it. Felt like the Poly bathroom had plenty of counter space and little drawer things. Ian took the pull out couch as his bed and Allison got her own bed. Me and David had the other bed. It was a nice big room, no complaints. Well...if there were 2 bathrooms that would have been Heaven since Allison is such a hog about the bathroom.

I then ran down to the front desk to see about picking up my Garden Grocer stuff and they said that they'd have somebody bring it up to me. How nice can these folks be:cloud9: Well, not but a few minutes later a man hauls up my water, some fruit, chips, etc. Seamless and wonderful. It was only after this poor man walked off that I realized I forgot to tip him. I felt horrible. I mean he probably had a hernia with the two cases of water.

Anyway....so the room was set up, everybody had lunch, Dave had his nap, Ian was sliding away, Allison was lounging by beach. I left everybody alone for awhile but around 5 pm I said it was time to get the party started and go to our first ever park. I bought tix to the Christmas party. I gotta admit that I bought these tix mainly for the parade and the short ride lines. We are not character people at all. More on that later.

I could barely drag Ian out of the pool and Dave and Allison were a little resistant about leaving the beach. Dave was already working on a mai Tai or something. I had to pretty much beg them to go to MK! Everybody changed and freshened up and we headed for the friendship boat to zip over to MK. It was 5:30 ish and the sun was just dipped down enough to be out of your face and everything was so beautiful and had that glow to it. The weather was fantastic and it felt great to be on that boat with the wind hitting you. Here's a pic of me and Dave at the dock. I swear I don't really have triple chins!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0255.jpg
Next chapter will be all about our first ever park experience. MK for the Christmas Party!!

[204charity]

Subbing!

[BridgetR3]

Whoa wait, you place your order at Captain Cook's on a touchscreen?!?! My kids would LOVE IT!!! I may have to go there next trip just to try it out! :rotfl:

[kate_wdw]

Yay! I’ve been looking forward to your TR!


http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0187.jpg


I’m very impressed with Ian’s homemade Mickey ears and his spotting hidden Mickeys in the clouds. I’m taking this as a good sign, in terms of his ability to appreciate WDW!


http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0189.jpg


What a sweet picture!

I love reading about the beginning of trips – it brings back that wonderful start of vacation feeling. I also love a good Disney “conversion” story, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed about Dave. It’s terrific that you had great weather.


at one point we passed the Epcot "ball" and Allison said "what's that?". I said "That's Epcot" and she's like "the park is in the ball?"


I remember my first trip to Epcot (when I was 7 or 8), I thought the entire park was in Spaceship Earth too.

As I saw your kids’ pictures inside the lobby, I could picture the way the Great Ceremonial House smells – I :lovestruc that smell!


http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0327.jpg

What a beautiful view! I love the GF in the background.


I thought it was so cool that I could see the Grand Floridian in the mirror from my bed!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0798.jpg



I agree!


Allison created this masterpiece on the beach.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0242.jpg


Cute!


So after I simmered down and he took a nap (good thing because I was already sick of him)


:laughing:

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I’m looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

[AprilRenee]

Yay!! Looks like so far so good!
Jumped over from your PTR and subbing now!

[treece2122]

Welcome Back! :yay:

Followed you over from your PTR and I'm so excited to hear all about your trip. Sounds like you're off to a great start!

Glad your kids, at least, seem to be having a wonderful time, hopefully the husband comes around.... can't wait to hear their reaction to the Christmas party and seeing an actual park! :goodvibes

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

[shan23877]

Found the TR and subbing! Can't wait to hear if the skeptics warmed up!

[heaven2dc]

Loved the location of your room at the Poly! If they ever add on DVC so I can rent points to stay there, I'll be one of the first to get a room.

I can sympathize with hoping that everyone has a good time and gets the Disney Magic. It seems your son is totally into it and your daughter is having fun and I hope your hubby comes around to getting that magical feeling.

Can't wait to read more (and was sorry to learn early on that you got sick!)

[Elcheetah]

Subbing, good thing you've just started :)

[204charity]

Oh and PS - that was a great hidden Mickey in the clouds!!!!!

[heathsf]

Subscribed! I'm so excited to read every detail of this TR! First of all, I'm so sorry to hear that you got sick. I hope you still had a great time.

It was great seeing how excited your kids were when the trip finally came! I love that Ian was giving Allison mickey ears at the airport. So cute! And I loved that Allison drew those mickey ears in the sand. They are totally catching on to the magic quickly :goodvibes I really hope DH comes around! I want to hear that there were things other than the nametags that he enjoyed :rotfl:

[FosterA]

Subbing!
:goodvibesglad to have ya!

Whoa wait, you place your order at Captain Cook's on a touchscreen?!?! My kids would LOVE IT!!! I may have to go there next trip just to try it out! :rotfl:
yep, there are about 3 touch screen terminals and that's how you order your main food and I love it because you can take your time picking your sides and whatnot. It then spits you out a ticket to take to the cash register. Before you pay though you can also pick up other little things from bakery or refrigerator and then the cashier totals your ticket and your extra odds and ends and gives you a little buzzer. When the buzzer goes off, you go get your food. It's fun.
Yay! I’ve been looking forward to your TR!



I’m very impressed with Ian’s homemade Mickey ears and his spotting hidden Mickeys in the clouds. I’m taking this as a good sign, in terms of his ability to appreciate WDW!



What a sweet picture!

I love reading about the beginning of trips – it brings back that wonderful start of vacation feeling. I also love a good Disney “conversion” story, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed about Dave. It’s terrific that you had great weather.



I remember my first trip to Epcot (when I was 7 or 8), I thought the entire park was in Spaceship Earth too.

As I saw your kids’ pictures inside the lobby, I could picture the way the Great Ceremonial House smells – I :lovestruc that smell!



What a beautiful view! I love the GF in the background.




I agree!



Cute!



:laughing:

Have a Happy Thanksgiving! I’m looking forward to hearing more about your trip!
Have a great Thanksgiving yourself! Glad to have you along!

Yay!! Looks like so far so good!
Jumped over from your PTR and subbing now!
:goodvibesNice to see ya!

Welcome Back! :yay:

Followed you over from your PTR and I'm so excited to hear all about your trip. Sounds like you're off to a great start!

Glad your kids, at least, seem to be having a wonderful time, hopefully the husband comes around.... can't wait to hear their reaction to the Christmas party and seeing an actual park! :goodvibes

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Thanks for following along:thumbsup2

Found the TR and subbing! Can't wait to hear if the skeptics warmed up!
Nice to have ya!

Loved the location of your room at the Poly! If they ever add on DVC so I can rent points to stay there, I'll be one of the first to get a room.

I can sympathize with hoping that everyone has a good time and gets the Disney Magic. It seems your son is totally into it and your daughter is having fun and I hope your hubby comes around to getting that magical feeling.

Can't wait to read more (and was sorry to learn early on that you got sick!)
Yep,Allison and I definitely get the magic. She noticed all the great little details!
Glad to have you along.

Subbing, good thing you've just started :)
Hi there!:goodvibes

Oh and PS - that was a great hidden Mickey in the clouds!!!!!
Cool, glad somebody else saw it too!
Subscribed! I'm so excited to read every detail of this TR! First of all, I'm so sorry to hear that you got sick. I hope you still had a great time.

It was great seeing how excited your kids were when the trip finally came! I love that Ian was giving Allison mickey ears at the airport. So cute! And I loved that Allison drew those mickey ears in the sand. They are totally catching on to the magic quickly :goodvibes I really hope DH comes around! I want to hear that there were things other than the nametags that he enjoyed :rotfl:
Yay! Glad to see you over here. On the entire trip there was only one time David showed lots of enthusiasm and you wont believe what it was over.:laughing: It wont be til quite late in the report though.

[FosterA]

DAY 1-part 4

So I last left off talking about how everyone was perfectly content laying around the Poly yet I was needing to prod them along a little in order to catch a boat over to the Christmas party.
It was cute because Ian was having so much fun at the pool and he said "thank you mom" dozens of times. He's like "mom, if this is all we do, it's enough!" If we never went to a park the entire time he'd be completely satisfied with the vacation. Allison felt almost the same way. She likes to draw and took her tablet and would lay out in the hammock with her ipod and draw. She would have been content without ever laying eyes on a park either. David of course would love to lay around with a drink in hand also! BUT....if all we were going to do was lay around a beach, I could have saved loads of money and just rented a beach condo 3 hours away from home! So...I cracked the whip and got us all out to the friendship boat landing.
Here's a couple pics from the boat:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0258.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0257.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0256.jpg

I just can't describe how perfect the weather was at this time. Plus, the sun was finally down yet it wasn't dark yet so everything was sort of glowy and "pink". Perfect time to arrive at the MK. Now...David did really enjoy the boat rides and after the trip he mentioned that riding the boats was one of his more favorite things to do. I think that's because he was wishing the boats would zip right off of Disney property and take him to some fishing hole where he could be away from all the crazy tourists.:lmao:

So we arrived at MK and we all got to use our little cards for the first time! Ian was confused about putting his finger on the scanner because one of the CMs said to put his tongue on it:rotfl: I was in front of him so I didn't get to see if he tried to do that!

The CMs were all dressed up in their Christmas outfits and it was so stinking cute!! Very festive and the lights were gorgeous. Allison was blown away (like me) the minute we walked in. She took most of the photos and she would have been considered one of those infamous tourists that stops in the middle of the road to take photos and people run into them. Yes, that would be my kid. I had to tell her to sort of move to the side a few times. Here's a couple pics she took. Allison totally "got" Disney and was mesmerized by all the detail to each and every building and I get that too. Ian, beings that he's an 11 year old boy, really didn't notice that sort of stuff and was more on a mission to get ON A RIDE! any ride!. David was usually meandering behind us acting like it was just another day wandering the mall or something! What is wrong with this guy! He did not complain once nor was he negative, but he just showed NO ENTHUSIASM! I mean, at some point I thought he would comment on the cleanliness or something, but no. siiiiiigh:rolleyes: So, I decided at that point to forget about David and just enjoy the time with the kids since they clearly saw we weren't at some stinky 6-Flags. At one point walking up to the castle David asked what the significance of it was!!! Allison was like "Dad, it's Cinderella's castle!". He's like "oh".

David is a very relaxed sort of dude and is not aggressive in crowds and such so many many times we sort of left him back in the dust. I realized at Disney you have to be somewhat aggressive in a friendly sort of way if you expect to get anywhere. David would let everybody pass him and we always seemed to have people separating us.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0263.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0260.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0262.jpg

Like I said before, I did buy party tix mainly for the parade and to take advantage of short ride lines. I know I know....sort of a waste of money, but I wanted to get some good MK time in before the Thanksgiving crowds arrived so I figured it was worth it. I can't give any info on character greets or party specific things because none of us 4 are really into characters. Well, Allison kind of wanted to meet Belle or Ariel but we didn't bump into them anywhere.

Now that we were actually in the park I got to put some of my touring plans and research into play. I did not have every ride or step of the way planned at all but I read enough to sort of know what was popular and whatnot. We worked our way all the way back to Haunted Mansion because I think that's my favorite ride at MK and I'd only been on it once in my life. I also think it's the most impressive and "Disney-like" at MK and thought it would be good to introduce David and the kids to the Disney type of attraction. The crowds weren't bad at all. Plenty of bodies everywhere but no problems walking at this point. We got up to the Mansion and there was no wait. As a matter of fact, no wait for any rides during the party!! yipee. We loaded right on. Kids rode together and me and Dave rode together. I kid you not, he did not say anything on the whole ride! No gasps of delight, no "how cools", nada, nada. If I said "that's neat how they did that right?' he'd say "yeah, it's pretty cool", but only after prompting. Soooo I had it with him. He's an engineer so maybe engineers can't feel the magic like regular people?:lmao: Maybe he couldn't enjoy it because he was too busy thinking about how they did it? who knows? But....once we got off and met up with the kids they were flipping out and begging to go again and again!! They "got it" and that's what really mattered! I told them we had plenty of time to do it over but there were so many more attractions to see first and we'd come back later.

I think after Mansion, we did Philarmagic, Thunder, and Splash. Every single thing we did was "the best yet and let's do it again!". (from the kids that is, not David:lmao:) They especially loved loved Splash. There was no lines for anything!! I also made good use of my Lines App to be sure of wait times and I highly recommend that because it was very accurate! I also had done enough studying up and memorizing the park layout so it was super nice not to have to be looking at maps and such. We may be getting a divorce right now if we had to deal with maps and being lost. But...thanks to the Dis and my studying up, we never got lost or had to backtrack or anything. You'd think I'd been to MK a million times by how efficient we were!

anyway...more to tell about the party night but I gotta wrap this up for now and help get the turkey in the oven!

[heathsf]

Yay! Glad to see you over here. On the entire trip there was only one time David showed lots of enthusiasm and you wont believe what it was over.:laughing: It wont be til quite late in the report though.

Oh no - only one other time! :lmao: Even if he didn't totally "get" the Disney magic, I'm sure he had a fantastic time on vacation with his family. :goodvibes

[204charity]

Lovin' the report. I gotta say though, our Husband's sound like they could be TWINS! My mother HATES buying gifts for him becuase no matter what she does, what effort she puts in - his reaction is ALWAYS the same - non-existant. I am so relieved that my DD's first experience at DIsney will be with my parents and I and NOT my DH for this very reason. I don't want to spend my whole trip griping at him to cheer up and put a smile on his face - so guess what?! He's not invited!! LOL - I know I sound wicked as can be, but after 6 years of it - I am ready to experience the joy the world has to offer - with or without him!!! :)

[nvsnot]

I'm totally enjoying your TR and am holding out hope that Dave will "get it" before the trip is over.

[FosterA]

Lovin' the report. I gotta say though, our Husband's sound like they could be TWINS! My mother HATES buying gifts for him becuase no matter what she does, what effort she puts in - his reaction is ALWAYS the same - non-existant. I am so relieved that my DD's first experience at DIsney will be with my parents and I and NOT my DH for this very reason. I don't want to spend my whole trip griping at him to cheer up and put a smile on his face - so guess what?! He's not invited!! LOL - I know I sound wicked as can be, but after 6 years of it - I am ready to experience the joy the world has to offer - with or without him!!! :)
You know what, I don't really have a desire to take my husband back to Disney anytime soon either. I don't want anyone to think he was being a jerk or anything but he was just so.....unmagical I guess. Next time, only fun magical people invited! lol

I'm totally enjoying your TR and am holding out hope that Dave will "get it" before the trip is over.
Don't hold out too much hope:laughing: He had some moments where he pepped up but let's just say he didn't beg me to book another trip!

[FosterA]

DAY 1-part 5

Boy, I'm awful long winded here. Hope everybody is not bored to tears yet. I'm still on a break from work and still trying to hide out from my mother-in-law who has infiltrated our house for Thanksgiving. Only place to get away is in my office!:lmao:


So, when I left off we were riding rides at the Christmas party. Nothing had a wait at all and it was bliss. I didn't want to zig zag around so we mainly spent time in the Frontier section. I got a nice compliment from Dave about how well I commanded them around and had an organized plan of how to do things and when to eat and so forth. Usually we run around like chickens with our heads cut off so he was thrilled that he didn't have to think or make any decisions and I just took the bull by the horns.

We did about 4 or 5 attractions in the Frontier section when everybody started to say how hungry they were. I had already decided that we would eat at Pecos Bill's since it was nearby. I did not ask the fam for their opinion on where to eat, they had no say and had to zip it! If I were to ask, I'd get 4 different opinions on where to eat and we'd be back to the chicken with the heads cut off mode. So, basically on this whole trip, they just followed me like little soldiers and I think they actually liked it! They got their own personal tour guide.

So we worked our way into Pecos. I sent my obedient soldiers to go find a table while I ordered food. It was pretty full in there but totally manageable. I wasted a good bit of time standing in a line that apparently was only for dining plan or credit card using people. Once I realized it wasn't for cash-payers I had to mosey over to another line. We all pretty much got burgers and fries and it was perfectly fine. Dave seemed to show a little excitement with the fixin' bar. Naturally me and Allison liked and appreciated the decor of the place. The decor and detail slipped right by Ian and David of course.

After eating I noticed it was about time for the first parade. I had originally planned to watch the second parade but since we were already in a fairly decent viewing area and I still saw sidewalk space, we decided to go ahead and grab a spot. We found a bit of sidewalk curb right up near the rope somewhere across from the Country Bear area. We were right in front of a little snack booth though I can't remember what the name of it was. It was great because we were able to sit and not have anybody in front of us! Once we got situated I thought I'd go round up cookies and cocoa. Nobody really wanted any and it was actually a bit warm and humid out but dang it!, they were "free" so we were going to get them! I hunted them down and it just took a second to get up there in line. They give you as many as you want. We all watched the parade which was stunning!! Allison went nuts and tried to take a photo of each thing but she inherited the non-ability to take photos at night from me so hardly any turned out. Allison loved the parade so much that she begged to watch the second one but it just didn't work out that way. bummer. Ian seemed to think the parade was ok and David mostly yawned during it. Here's a photo of the best part!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0293.jpg

After the parade, I thought we'd head over to catch the fireworks. I was very excited about this because I thought David might really appreciate them. We got fairly close to the front of the castle but IT WAS SO CROWDED!! We managed but I could detect a little anxiety coming from Ian since he's got overstimulation issues that crop up sometimes. The pre-show with the castle projections was super cool and Allison and David were pretty impressed! As expected, David did really like the fireworks. yay:goodvibes Now he wasn't jumping up and down by any means but he did have a smile on his face and looked sort of amazed by how they must have done it. Here's a couple pics:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0305.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0315.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0300.jpg

So this is where it got a little ugly......after the fireworks I THOUGHT we'd go check out Pirates and some other stuff since everything was complete walk-on. Welllllllll......complete gridlock set in. WE could not move an inch from the hub. After fighting like fish swimming upstream for a little bit, we all got a little irritated and thought maybe we'd just call it a night. After all, we saw the parade and fireworks, ate dinner, and did about 4 or 5 good attractions. We had been up since 4 a.m so we figured we'd better quit while we were ahead. I lost a little control over my family at one point because David would not listen to me. He wanted to barrel on through the crowd and head to the exit and go back to the Poly immediately after the fireworks but I thought it would be best just to wait out the mass herding of people and then work our way out. But...he got all frazzled and just started pushing his way out and I didn't want to fight so we all followed. This is sort of the theme for all of our park days....Dave is always trailing behind us going INTO the parks yet plows through in a hurry when LEAVING the parks! What does that tell you?:laughing:

On our way out it was snowing on Main Street and it was gorgeous!!! I have no idea why we don't have photos of that though:sad2: It might have been that it was just so hectic and crowded that it was a matter of survival at this point. We did slip off into a gift shop and the bakery area there for a little bit just to get out of the crowd. Allison took this photo of the rice krispie treats. Her and I just loved how the CMs were dressed in old fashioned baker clothes. So cool!!! Ian was literally sitting on the floor somewhere in the store impatiently waiting to get the heck out of this crowd.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0326.jpg

Once we finally got out, we worked our way back to the boat dock. It did take a load or two before we got to get on one. Once we got back to the Poly it was even more beautiful at night than during the day with the tiki torches all lit up. Amazing!!! Everybody was exhausted so we went straight to our room to call it a night! Lots happening tomorrow so gotta get our sleep!!
To sum up day 1: Allison and I are exactly alike in that we noticed all the wonderful Disney detail and quality. It was fun with her because I knew she "got it". Ian had a blast too of course but he's all about the rides and the pool. My biggest mistake probably was assuming my husband would love WDW and I think it was pretty clear to me after day 1, that he really wasn't that into it. boo hoo:sad2: He didn't act like a big pain or anything but I did see lots of yawns and the speed he walked when exiting the park told me alot:laughing: oh well...I made a decision this first night take my focus off of trying to make David like Disney and just enjoy the time with the kids:goodvibes

This will wrap up Day 1 (finally!). For those of you that followed my pre-trip report you'll remember me talking about how some friends were hijacking our trip...well they come into play on Day 2! stay tuned.

[meggiebeth]

Great TR so far! I know what you mean about your DH being reluctant to book the holiday- it took me a great deal of begging and moaning for my father to book our trip too! ;)

Ahhhh, you stayed at the Poly! You're SO lucky! I have always wanted to stay there! I like the masterpiece Allison created on the beach. :)

[Carlyluvsdisney]

I am enjoying reading your TR. It's a great time of year for a Disney trip,the weather has been beautiful here in FL. And I can totally relate to your husband being less enthusiastic about Disney. Mine is the same way. The Poly looks beautiful and relaxing. I've only been there to have lunch..have a happy Thanksgiving,I look forward to reading the rest of your TR. :)

[Nairnyn]

I am really enjoying reading your report! I can't wait for my own trip, and your report about MVMCP makes me so excited!!

[debrapagliasotti]

popcorn::

Joining in! Poly is such a pretty resort! Loved seeing the pics of the castle. Getting me so excited for our Christmas trip next year!

I totally saw the hidden mickey in the clouds...too cool!

Hope DH gets more into the Disney spirit, but I'm glad your kids are having a blast right off the bat.

Cant wait to read more!

[15isto2]

Ian looks like his is having the time of his life

[fastergoofy]

Hi, FosterA! You look so nice in your pics!

I'm SO GLAD you and your kids had fun. Sounds like the three of you need to go again. Or maybe just a mom/daughter trip!

I have to admit, I know exactly what you mean by your husband's reaction and it's one of my huge pet peeves. I've vacationed with those types before, and not necessarily at Disney. I don't expect people to be as excited as me but I do expect people to care about others' enjoyment and be nice.

Your pics really make me want to stay at the Poly! What fantastic views you had! More pics!

[Moodyzblu]

Ian and my boys would get along great .. they just love the pools and could do that all day long !
I already love that Allison "gets it" ! :)

[204charity]

I love your trip report so far! You do such a good job of ignoring grumpy-husband I could take tips from you! Lol I just can't shut my mouth when I see frowns where there should be smiles!

[FosterA]

Great TR so far! I know what you mean about your DH being reluctant to book the holiday- it took me a great deal of begging and moaning for my father to book our trip too! ;)

Ahhhh, you stayed at the Poly! You're SO lucky! I have always wanted to stay there! I like the masterpiece Allison created on the beach. :)
Thanks for reading along:cool1:

I am enjoying reading your TR. It's a great time of year for a Disney trip,the weather has been beautiful here in FL. And I can totally relate to your husband being less enthusiastic about Disney. Mine is the same way. The Poly looks beautiful and relaxing. I've only been there to have lunch..have a happy Thanksgiving,I look forward to reading the rest of your TR. :)
Thanks! yep, we could not have asked for more perfect weather!:goodvibes

I am really enjoying reading your report! I can't wait for my own trip, and your report about MVMCP makes me so excited!!
Thanks for reading along. The MVMCP really is beautiful, just don't be right in the hub during fireworks or you will be stuck!

popcorn::

Joining in! Poly is such a pretty resort! Loved seeing the pics of the castle. Getting me so excited for our Christmas trip next year!

I totally saw the hidden mickey in the clouds...too cool!

Hope DH gets more into the Disney spirit, but I'm glad your kids are having a blast right off the bat.

Cant wait to read more!
Thanks!!:goodvibes

Ian looks like his is having the time of his life
Yep, a pool and unlimited coke was all he needed:laughing:

Hi, FosterA! You look so nice in your pics!

I'm SO GLAD you and your kids had fun. Sounds like the three of you need to go again. Or maybe just a mom/daughter trip!

I have to admit, I know exactly what you mean by your husband's reaction and it's one of my huge pet peeves. I've vacationed with those types before, and not necessarily at Disney. I don't expect people to be as excited as me but I do expect people to care about others' enjoyment and be nice.

Your pics really make me want to stay at the Poly! What fantastic views you had! More pics!
Thanks for reading along! I think a mother/daughter trip with a friend along for each of us would be awesome. We actually talked a little bit about that already:)

Ian and my boys would get along great .. they just love the pools and could do that all day long !
I already love that Allison "gets it" ! :)
Nice to have you reading along:thumbsup2

I love your trip report so far! You do such a good job of ignoring grumpy-husband I could take tips from you! Lol I just can't shut my mouth when I see frowns where there should be smiles!
oooooooh, trust me, I let David know that he was dragging me down a little. We actually got into a couple tiffs on the trip because I was irritated with him acting bored the whole time. Next trip, no non-magical people allowed:laughing:

[disneylovin24]

Im here from your PTR! :yay:

I can't believe how many updates you have already! You are moving fast, I like that!:thumbsup2

I love how you can see the GF in your mirror:lovestruc And I love what your DD wrote in the sand!

Sorry that your husband is not enjoying it all, some people just do not get the magic:sad2: At least your kids loved it all!

Can't wait for more!

[Pre]

Lurked over here, joining in :goodvibes
I am in love with your room and the view!!

[204charity]

I love, love, love the idea of doing a mother-daughter trip! That will be so much fun for you two. I hope you get to see that dream come true one day soon! I have to say, I am so excited to get to see "the world" with my parents and 9yo DD alone. We are going to have such a great time together, we have no ADR's, just aQS dining plan, 8 days of park-hoppers and water park passes, so we are just going to cruise around take our time and see where the magic takes us! :)

[FiveBoys]

I'm so glad to hear how much your daughter is enjoying Disney. I loved Disney when I was a teenager (Disneyland), but I love, love, LOVE it now that I'm taking my kids and watching how much they enjoy it!

[FosterA]

Im here from your PTR! :yay:

I can't believe how many updates you have already! You are moving fast, I like that!:thumbsup2

I love how you can see the GF in your mirror:lovestruc And I love what your DD wrote in the sand!

Sorry that your husband is not enjoying it all, some people just do not get the magic:sad2: At least your kids loved it all!

Can't wait for more!
Thanks for reading along! I'm heading into my busy time at work so I figured if I wanted to do a TR, I better get crackin' while I have time. As a matter of fact, I did a huge update this morning on Day 2 and something weird happened an it all disappeared. waaaah:scared1: I'll try to re-do it tonight.

Lurked over here, joining in :goodvibes
I am in love with your room and the view!!
I LOVED our room too! It was so spacious and we were able to stay nice and organized in the room with all our stuff which is not usual for us!:goodvibes

I love, love, love the idea of doing a mother-daughter trip! That will be so much fun for you two. I hope you get to see that dream come true one day soon! I have to say, I am so excited to get to see "the world" with my parents and 9yo DD alone. We are going to have such a great time together, we have no ADR's, just aQS dining plan, 8 days of park-hoppers and water park passes, so we are just going to cruise around take our time and see where the magic takes us! :)
You're going to have a great time!! I really liked doing CS food probably more than table service since table service always took forever! I can eat at home! lol

I'm so glad to hear how much your daughter is enjoying Disney. I loved Disney when I was a teenager (Disneyland), but I love, love, LOVE it now that I'm taking my kids and watching how much they enjoy it!
So nice to have you reading along:goodvibes
It brought tears to my eyes to see how much fun the kids had on the trip!:cloud9:

[FosterA]

DAY 2 (Wed, Nov 16)-part 1

Since we were out late the night before for the party and also from traveling all day, I had it planned out that we would get to sleep in. yay:banana:

Well, just like at home, I can barely sleep past 6 am for some reason. The beds at the Poly were great and it was quiet and wonderful there but I popped up right at 6:00. Had my coffee in bed which was bliss. We had our first ever ADR this day at 10:45 at Kona for breakfast. Around 9:30 I started to wake up everybody. Ian is no problem, David isn't a problem, Allison is a HUGE DEMON when you wake her up. It doesn't matter if it's 4 am or noon, she's horrible to wake up and we're scared to death of her. Teenage girls:scared1:

Since I had been up so long and had coffee and was already dressed, Allison got to hog the bathroom all on her own. Once David got dressed, I made him take Ian to the arcade to get that out of his system (he'd been begging to go to the arcade since check-in the day before!) I was all excited to present them with the little voucher for 100 points at the arcade that came with our package. Well.......turns out 100 points gets you a whole ONE game! whoopie doo. I thought 100 points would keep Ian busy for awhile, not so much:laughing: So of course David charges 25 bucks onto our room key for more points and then later during the week he put another 25 bucks on our debit card. I was like :rolleyes: 50 dollars on arcade games and we're at Disney World!

Here's a pic of Ian on our balcony this morning

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0328.jpg

Of course the CMs working at the Poly are super nice even bright and early. They are out cleaning and scrubbing and say "Aloha" every time you pass them. I love this place:cloud9:

Ok, so if you followed my Pre-report you might remember me worrying about how some friends from another state got wind of our trip and invited themselves to meet us at Disney. They were only going to overlap for 3 of our days but they made it very clear that they wanted to spend those days with us doing whatever parks we were doing. Though I love these guys, I was terrified of anybody messing with my plans or more than that, I was worried that I would change them to please other people and I really didn't want to do that. Well...good news, the friends worked out fantastic! They were able to get 3 of the same ADRs of us (turns out they missed one of them so we only had 2 sit-down meals together). Anyway....our first meet-up with them was at Kona at 10:45 on this second day. Once Allison was finally ready, we walked over to Kona and met up with them and David and Ian came up from the arcade. It was really fun to visit with them! They knew I was a little obsessed with the trip planning and had things all figured out and they did ZERO planning so they said they would do whatever we wanted and follow us around and didn't mind at all if I was bossy:laughing: Here we are at breakfast. They have a boy and a girl pretty much the same age as my kids and we all get along fine. As a matter of fact, after seeing that David was a bit of a dud on a day 1, I was actually sort of looking forward to having a friend along to liven up the mood! Plus, David isn't a talker and I am (obviously:laughing:) so just getting some new blood into our group was good. I went from dreading having friends hi-jack our trip to actually really enjoying having them with us and I think they made it even more fun.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0335.jpg

Kona was excellent and we all really liked our food. I had their version of eggs benedict and David had some sort of steak dish. Ian had one pancake and one piece of bacon and he didn't even eat it all! Allison had a smoothie and David's eggs. That's precisely why we didn't do dining plan. They are "adult prices" but eat like little birds and we usually share plates.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0336.jpg

Ok, I'll write another update here soon talking about our first full day at the parks and how we all did as a group. I can say that nobody jacked with my plans and everybody was extremely glad that I even had plans since they had no clue where they were goingl

[204charity]

Allison's smoothie looks delicious! Yum!

[joy13]

Great updates! Sorry the end of the party was a dud, but the parade and fireworks were so awesome! I had problems getting pictures of the parade too - they move so fast, they were all blurry.

[debrapagliasotti]

Kona...yummy! Cant wait to go back there!!

[disneylovin24]

I know how you feel with the always waking up at 6 am. I am like that with 7 am, no matter what I do I cannot sleep in! For me, sleeping in is sleeping till 8 am:lmao: But still, that rarely happens! Everyday seems to be waking up at 7 am! I dont mind it though at WDW, it just means I get more time awak at disney!:)

Im glad that your friends did not ruin your trip!:goodvibes Its fun to have friends along! For as long as I can remember my family has been going to WDW with 2 of my dad's closest friends' families. WDW is a place where more is merrier:thumbsup2

[heathsf]

I'm glad that your planning is being appreciated by your family (and friends)! :goodvibes It seems that the party was worth it just so you could walk on to those rides. What a great first-park experience! Although the gridlock afterwards must have been pretty awful. It can be frustrating after a long day when you're so tired and just want to get back to your hotel and sleep. The line for the boat was your longest wait time of the day! :lmao:

The Poly looks amazing. It blew me away when I went there for dinner in August (nope, haven't got that far in my TR yet :sad2:) It was my first time there and oh my gosh do I want to stay there now. And I know exactly which hammocks Allison was lying in because I was there too and would've been happy to spend the rest of the night relaxing in one of those. And the view from your balcony is just gorgeous!

[FiveBoys]

Wow, Allison's smoothie looks really yummy!

I'm glad you had so much fun with your friends there. We've been tentatively planning a future trip with my husbands family, and I'm a little scared. I love our "little" (ha, ha, I know how silly that sounds with a family of 7 :P) family trips!

[Moodyzblu]

Although I'm not a big planner .. i still don't like people interfering with my day .. especially at Disney. Glad your friends were able to meet up and go along nicely. :)
I don't do the dining plan either. My boys are tiny and don't eat very much at all. They usually share a kids meal (barely) and still have left overs.
Love the pic of Allison and her smoothie .. such a pretty girl !

Waiting patiently for the next update !

[swwake]

I'm here! I've caught up on your trip. I think your room view was beautiful. You did the right thing by not worrying about David's attitude and just making sure the kids have a good time.

Can't wait to read more!

Do you mind sharing what you ordered from GG? I really need 2 cases of water, but they are only $7.99 each and there's a $40 min plus a $12 delivery charge. Not sure it's worth it for us. Plus (shhh...secret) we are staying CL and I'm not sure we'll need lots of extra snacks. What do you think?

[Bethmsu]

Really enjoying your trip report so far! I can't wait to see what happens next with your Hubby! Maybe it will take a few trips for him to feel the magic!

[Pre]

I have never been to Kona but have made it a personal mission to go there now! Can't wait to hear more :)

[FosterA]

Allison's smoothie looks delicious! Yum!
At the time I didn't want to taste it but now I do!! Looking at this photo makes me realize I missed out:laughing:

Great updates! Sorry the end of the party was a dud, but the parade and fireworks were so awesome! I had problems getting pictures of the parade too - they move so fast, they were all blurry.
I know! Photos in the dark and of moving things are way above my skill level!

Kona...yummy! Cant wait to go back there!!
yep, great place and our server was super friendly and funny!

I know how you feel with the always waking up at 6 am. I am like that with 7 am, no matter what I do I cannot sleep in! For me, sleeping in is sleeping till 8 am:lmao: But still, that rarely happens! Everyday seems to be waking up at 7 am! I dont mind it though at WDW, it just means I get more time awak at disney!:)

Im glad that your friends did not ruin your trip!:goodvibes Its fun to have friends along! For as long as I can remember my family has been going to WDW with 2 of my dad's closest friends' families. WDW is a place where more is merrier:thumbsup2
whew! I was so glad that they blended in right with us and weren't bossy on the trip. Only room for one alpha leader on this trip and that was me:laughing:

I'm glad that your planning is being appreciated by your family (and friends)! :goodvibes It seems that the party was worth it just so you could walk on to those rides. What a great first-park experience! Although the gridlock afterwards must have been pretty awful. It can be frustrating after a long day when you're so tired and just want to get back to your hotel and sleep. The line for the boat was your longest wait time of the day! :lmao:

The Poly looks amazing. It blew me away when I went there for dinner in August (nope, haven't got that far in my TR yet :sad2:) It was my first time there and oh my gosh do I want to stay there now. And I know exactly which hammocks Allison was lying in because I was there too and would've been happy to spend the rest of the night relaxing in one of those. And the view from your balcony is just gorgeous!
I miss the Poly sooooo much. I honestly cried when we checked out. waaaaaah:sad2:

Wow, Allison's smoothie looks really yummy!

I'm glad you had so much fun with your friends there. We've been tentatively planning a future trip with my husbands family, and I'm a little scared. I love our "little" (ha, ha, I know how silly that sounds with a family of 7 :P) family trips!
Hope you have a great trip if you are able to pull it off!

Although I'm not a big planner .. i still don't like people interfering with my day .. especially at Disney. Glad your friends were able to meet up and go along nicely. :)
I don't do the dining plan either. My boys are tiny and don't eat very much at all. They usually share a kids meal (barely) and still have left overs.
Love the pic of Allison and her smoothie .. such a pretty girl !

Waiting patiently for the next update !
Thanks!! it's nice sometimes having tiny eaters, they're cheaper!:lmao:

I'm here! I've caught up on your trip. I think your room view was beautiful. You did the right thing by not worrying about David's attitude and just making sure the kids have a good time.

Can't wait to read more!

Do you mind sharing what you ordered from GG? I really need 2 cases of water, but they are only $7.99 each and there's a $40 min plus a $12 delivery charge. Not sure it's worth it for us. Plus (shhh...secret) we are staying CL and I'm not sure we'll need lots of extra snacks. What do you think?
Thanks for sticking with me on my reports!!
btw...I remember you asking where we ordered our Thanksgiving food from and I can't remember if I responded or not. duh. But it was Bill Miller;)
We really did the GC order for water and Ian's Ensure (he's a horrible eater). I needed to 6-packs of those drinks and ea. 6-pack is like 12 dollars:scared1: So really, between the Ensure drinks and water we probably almost reached the minimum. Then I ordered a large bag of Doritos to snack on and a bag of sliced apples, a few bananas, and a lg. bowl of fruit cut up. If you have CL, you really don't need that stuff I bet. LUcky:banana::banana:

Really enjoying your trip report so far! I can't wait to see what happens next with your Hubby! Maybe it will take a few trips for him to feel the magic!
No kidding!! I think we need a re-do trip just to get him in the magic mood. Our very last day at Disney was when he showed the most enthusiasm so maybe he just needed a few more days:lmao:

I have never been to Kona but have made it a personal mission to go there now! Can't wait to hear more :)
Thanks! We had such a nice server at Kona and she was really funny too!

[FosterA]

DAY 2-part 2

So our family got to catch up with our old family friends over breakfast at Kona. Our friends had already been at Disney for 2 or 3 days by the time we arrived and they were leaving a few days before us so we really just had 3 full days together. That worked out good because they had their own family time, we had our own time, and then we had 3 days together. They drove and were not staying on property so that was actually good because at least at night we were able to go our separate ways versus if they were staying at the Poly also.

anyhoo....we finished breakfast which was wonderful. I really wanted to try the Tonga toast but for some reason or another, I just didn't have a sweet tooth for a change:confused: Oh well...better book another trip just to try it.:laughing:

The plan of the day was to go back to Mk and do a bunch of things since the night before all we did was Splash, Haunted Mansion, Thunder Mt, and Philharmagic and of course the Christmas parade and fireworks. I also had plans to hop over to Studios this night for Fantasmic at 8:00. So....after breakfast the two families boarded the monorail which was fun since all we've done so far was the little boats. I thought that since we had to pass the GF on the way, we may as well hop out and see the gingerbread house and such. Here's some photoshttp://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0338.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0340.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0344.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0345.jpg

Walking into the GF was quite impressive though the guy friend of ours commented that it just didn't feel like Disney in there though. We browsed around some but our two boys were acting a little whiny and bored so we didn't spend too much time at the GF.

We got back on the monorail to get to MK finally. My plan was to start in tomorrowland. I felt a little bad though because our friends had already done everything in Tomorrowland when they were there before we arrived so I told them they didn't HAVE to stick with us if they'd prefer to meet up later but they insisted they didn't mind doing everything again. I really felt bossy but I said to them many times that they didn't have to follow my plans and they absolutely said they didn't mind at all. So...I just had to believe them and go on with my day I guess. First stop was Space Mt. and there was no wait at all. There was no wait for anything in Tomorrowland! As a matter of fact, this was our second day at a park and we had yet to wait for anything and I was sort of dying to try Fastpasses out:laughing:.
Here's a photo from the people mover.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4077.jpg

For some reason I thought I took more photos of the area but I guess not:confused: Alot of times Allison had my camera when I wanted to take pictures. The kids ended up doing Space Mt. 3 x in a row. Us adults only did it once and that was enough. It's fun but once was enough for me! David said it wasn't what he expected. I didn't know he expected anything because I didn't think he even had heard of Space Mt. before. I asked him what he expected and he said he thought it was way too dark and he expected more solar system things and more of a being- in- space feeling versus so much darkness:confused:
The kids went nutso doing it 3x and it was pure bliss not to have lines!

After Space, we did the people mover and that got screwed up. Dave and I were with the other couple and when it came time to load in, they wanted us to get in the cart with them but I thought we'd sit in the cart right behind them so we'd have plenty of space yet could still visit. Well....I'm a newbie to this ride so I should have kept my mouth shut since it so happens you really can't visit on this thing unless your in the same cart plus they broke apart right between our 2 carts so we never even saw them after loading up! I felt kind of bad because I know my friend was sort of hoping for some chatting time without the kids (since we shipped them all off in another car altogether).
Oh....this would have been way better at night I'm sure!

We then worked our way over to Buzz and that actually was much cooler than I expected. I thought it would be similar to some of the things like that at other theme parks but it really was much nicer. That was a nice surprise. I rode with David and he kicked my butt of course. He liked this ride because he had an activity to do I guess.

We then did Carousel of Progress and well....that was ok. A little boring but it still was quite impressive the way it was done. I snuck a peek at David and he was sleeping! The kids enjoyed it but didn't want to do a second time of course.

After doing those things in Tomorrowland we started to work our way toward Adventureland since we had yet to do Pirates and Jungle Cruise. On the way we ran into this parade. Not sure what it's called but the music was fun! Actually, now that I see these photos they look like it's more at the entrance to the park so technically I think we ran into this parade right when we entered and before we got over to Tomorrowland. Either way, doesn't matter.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0353.jpg
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0354.jpg

I felt like MK was pretty empty today. Not empty exactly but definitely a good day to tour this park! I used Tour Guide Mike and Easy WDW and they both were spot on! I also used my Lines app alot and that was super great!

On the way to Adventureland we saw Aerial and Allison really wanted to take a photo with her but her line was so long:sad2: The only time I saw lines were for characters! I told Allison we'd try again later but I'm sad to report that we never did get around to it. As a matter of fact, this entire trip we didn't get ONE photo with a character:scared1: I know, I know, what kind of losers are we!

So I soothed Allison with a Dole Whip! yep, the Dis people got me pumped up about these. We all took a break and slurped some down. Allison and I had the float and David had orange/vanilla in a bowl and Ian had plain vanilla. It was a nice break and we had plenty of available benches in the shade.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0361.jpg

More coming soon...

[Forensicmom]

I can't wait to read the rest of the days. We were there too and we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. I tried the Poly but DH wanted the lodge. I really wanted to see inside the Poly and maybe next time, IF, there's a next time.

Show some pictures of the inside.

[heathsf]

Oh my gosh! What time did you arrive at MK that it was so empty? Space Mountain 3x in a row with no lines! Oh my gosh I'm so incredibly jealous. I'm just about ready to plan a trip for next November! :rotfl2:

[FosterA]

I can't wait to read the rest of the days. We were there too and we stayed at the Wilderness Lodge. I tried the Poly but DH wanted the lodge. I really wanted to see inside the Poly and maybe next time, IF, there's a next time.

Show some pictures of the inside.
Yep, we loved :cloud9: the Poly. Funny thing is that just last night I commented to DAvid that I wished I had taken more photos of the Poly! I probably do have a couple more inside ones and I'll try to post them at some point but I really don't think we took too many! dang it, gotta go back now,

Oh my gosh! What time did you arrive at MK that it was so empty? Space Mountain 3x in a row with no lines! Oh my gosh I'm so incredibly jealous. I'm just about ready to plan a trip for next November! :rotfl2:
It was crazy awesome. No lines at all! We didn't even eat breakfast until 10:30 that day so I'm sure it wasn't before noon when we finally arrived. As a matter of fact, the time on one of our space mt. photos was exactly 12:10!

[Moodyzblu]

Love not having any lines !! Although I can't do Space Mountain more than once. Buzz Lightyear is one of my kids favorites as well as the People Mover .. I just love the fact that its a nice slow and relaxing ride. :)

[okw19]

Hi there! I'm joining in.
Sounds like a great trip so far minus your husband not getting it. I think my fiance will be the same way when he goes.
I love the pic of your daughter and David in the airport! so cute. :)

Can't wait to read more!

[FiveBoys]

Space Mountain is one of my favorites! My husband isn't a fan, though, so we usually only do it once. I don't remember anytime there were no lines! That is awesome that the kids got to ride it 3 times.
Buzz Lightyear is a must-do for us. The twins, especially, start asking for Buzz as soon as we get to the park. I don't get to do much shooting, a three year old at the controls pretty much guarantees you are going to spin in circles...
What are these Dole Whips? I've heard them mentioned here a few times since I joined. Have I been living under a rock? I don't remember seeing them on my thousands of trips to Disneyland!

[FosterA]

DAY 2- part 3

So after having our Dole Whip break we decided to hit Jungle Cruise and Pirates. The interesting thing that happened on this trip is that I THOUGHT we we would be faster going from ride to ride but it turns out our whole group was more on the mosey-ing along side. Technically since the park was pretty dang empty and there were no lines, we SHOULD have knocked lots of attractions off our list but we really didn't. We walked, talked, took pics of topiaries, tons of bathroom breaks, snack breaks, looking at little things here and there. I was actually ok with this too which surprised me! Our entire group (with maybe the exception of the two 11-year old boys) was totally ok just meandering. I'd say our touring style was sort of middle of the road...not commando but also not TOO laid back. After all, I didn't know when or if we'd ever come back so I did want to see alot but it only took one day to realize that no matter how organized I was THERE WAS NO WAY WE'D SEE IT ALL SO DON'T EVEN TRY.

We worked our way over to Jungle Cruise and my poor friends had already done that the day before but of course they were game to do it again with us. David, who barely noticed any detail on the trip, did like this flower arrangement thing.http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0368.jpg
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0369.jpg

I liked this ride but I think I was the only one laughing. Our guide was hilarious (to me anyway:laughing:). The kids all really liked it too especially going into that cave place. Ok....I did do this ride when I went with my friend back in Feb, and I don't remember anything about that cave area at all. Is it possible that sometimes they don't do that route?? Did I doze off and just miss it? What the heck!
David didn't have anything in particular to say about this ride but at one point after we got off he did say that he thought it was the Pirates of the Carribean ride and I was like "no, we haven't even done that one yet!".
We did do Pirates and Allison was sooooo looking forward to this one. It did not disappoint. The kids loved it!! As usual, this was their new favorite! :laughing: Every ride was their favorite! Now, I'm not a shopper at all and usually just want to blow through the gift shops but David likes to linger. Sure 'nuf he found an acrylic skull thing that he took a liking too. He wanted to buy it but felt rushed (by me) to get moving so he said he might come back later to get it.
Here's a pic of Dave and Allison!
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0381.jpg

Next stop was the Haunted Mansion (we only did it once the night before). Finally....a ride our friends had not done yet! yay. My kids were very excited to be taking their friends on it since they were such the experts since doing it the night before! I don't know how it happened though but me, Dave, and Allison ended up in one cart. Didn't love that because we were pretty squished (thanks to my big butt!). Either way...I really love this attraction, my favorite at MK for sure. Dave still not impressed! :eek: He's just weird that's all.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0382.jpg

After this ride we ran over to check out Peter Pan and FINALLY something with a wait. As a matter of fact, it was like 40 minutes. ick! So weird because every single other thing was a walk-on. I thought about FPing it but the return time was kind of late and we needed to leave around 5:00 to get to Studios. This ride drives me nuts because I was never able to do it back in Feb when I went. Could not get on it during Christmas party previous night, and now still could not do it. Just not meant to be I guess. I then saw Small World but we didn't do it because I knew the boys would hate it plus I was afraid of scaring David right to the exit of the park. I mean, if I felt he was already feeling the magic I might have risked it but he so wasn't feeling the Disney magic that I didn't want to freak him out:lmao:

Our family then decided that we needed to eat lunch and I had already picked Harbour House for this day. Remember, I did not give anybody choices on this trip! It was slightly awkward because our friends brought a small cooler with sandwiches and I felt kind of bad because I'm sure their kids wanted chicken nuggets and coke and whatnot but it really wasn't a big deal. I don't think their family was even really hungry because I don't remember seeing them eating out of their cooler really. Maybe just some drinks and sometimes they'd snack on goldfish and stuff while walking.
So...I really liked Harbour House. We had no trouble getting a nice table and it a good place to stop and regroup. Allison and I split a fish/shrimp plate and Dave had a sandwich. Ian had chicken nuggets. I don't understand why people complain of burn out from quick service food. I think there's tons of choices at the parks!
I did see a family ordering that was on the meal plan and to me it seems like you can waste alot of food on that plan. I saw lots of desserts and things being tossed all the time.

After lunch we went to Winnie the Pooh which was literally the only thing we did in Fantasy Land our entire trip. weird huh:confused3 Well, that had a bit of a line but probably only 20 minutes. Dave liked messing with this interactive goldish screen thing. I thought it seemed like a big germy breeding ground for sticky little fingers and I'm not even a germ freak! :laughing: We got on this ride and I really wasn't too impressed. Sorry, but so far this was probably the least impressive thing I'd seen on the trip so far. Allison thought it was cute and Ian was riding with his friend and they were completely embarrassed to be on this ride I think because they kept rolling their eyes. Anyhoo...I can see why it's popular if you have little ones but with our group, it just wasn't a hit. I didn't even ask Dave's opinion because I was scared to:lmao:

We then needed to start working our way out of the park to get towards some transportation to the Studios. The kids all wanted to do "one more thing, please please". Somehow they all agreed (miracle) to do Big Thunder. We started that direction and saw this alligator in the water by Tom Sawyer. http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0384.jpg

Us adults stood around and waited while they ran up to do Big Thunder. No waits as usual. David then thought he would take off and go buy that skull at the pirate gift shop. He had it delivered to our resort which was a little different that I thought. I THOUGHT it would be in your room that night but that's not the case I guess. It took until the next day and then he had to pick it up at the Poly gift shop. At least that's how it worked for us. Anyhoo....we waiting for the kids to get off the ride and I heard a funny thing from a couple standing by me. The guy goes "ok, after this ride, we need to get over to Magic Kingdom where we need to meet so and so". I was thinking "um, aren't we in MK?" I hope they got where they needed to go!

Ok, I'll continue soon. Next segment is Studios that night and F! and how one could easily have a complete panic attack getting through that surge of crowding! yikes!

[Moodyzblu]

Ok .. dumb question .. but is that a REAL alligator ?? Or is it just supposed to look real ? (great pics btw !)

I'm never in a big rush while in WDW .. we just sort of mosey about. I just love to take it all in. :)

[mom2clr]

I am planning a first trip for my sister and niece for next summer (and DD#2) so I am enjoying reading the excitement in your report. :goodvibes

I have gone twice with my oldest DD by ourselves as daddy is a grump and has ZERO in going to Disney so I relate to your situation with your DH. :rotfl:

My niece will be 14 (in 3 weeks) during the trip so it's nice seeing how your daughter is enjoying it.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your trip.

[FosterA]

DAY 2-part 4

We finally worked our way out of MK and of course my group was impressed with my great knowledge of how to get to Studios without a hitch. Just monorail to TTC then bus. That's a simple concept to us on the Dis of course but if I wasn't with this group, they would have thought you needed a taxi!

We loaded up and zipped off. Ian started pestering about Pizza Planet because I made the mistake of telling him it was there. He gets a bug in his ear and wont let up! sheesh. He really is a pizza fan and since he really doesn't like to eat much, I figured we better get to Pizza Planet asap or he'd drive us all nuts. The plan was to see F! at the second showing at 8:00. We got to the Studios probably around 6:00 or so so we had plenty of time to grab pizza and check out Osborne lights.

Here's the tree once we got off the bus
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0386.jpg

For some reason on our way in, David happened to glance up at the admission board things at the entrance and his jaw dropped when he saw prices. I about died laughing. He was like "wow! it cost that much a day?". I was thinking to myself...dude, you have no idea how much this trip cost! I teased him because we are on the end of our second day and he barely noticed any super cool details the whole trip but he did manage to see that sign with the prices. He knew I paid cash for the whole trip and it was a done-deal so no use fretting over the price at this point.:lmao:

Once we entered the gates, David actually seemed to like it better than MK already. yipee! He even said something to the effect of this is way better than MK. I think MK is just to "kiddie" and fantasy for his taste maybe:confused: I had plans to do this park the next day so we really didn't want to get distracted by any rides. Our mission this night was 3 things. Pizza planet, Osborne lights and Fantasmic.

It took awhile to figure out where Pizza Planet was since this park had us all confused. Had to ask a CM at one point. We did find it though and David and Ian and our friends all got a snack and Allison and I ran into a cute little shop across the way instead. Oh...here's a cute photo Allison took along the way.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0391.jpg
We looked around in the gift shop for a bit and Allison bought some trinkets for her friends. One thing I noticed about the CMs working in the shops is that they are SLOWER THAN MOLASSES! They are so over-the-top friendly which is great and they want to chat no matter how long the line is behind you. It's sweet but sometimes I just wanted to pull my hair out because it always took forever! I guess I was getting a little testy since it had been a long day and I was sort of getting panicky about getting to F! on time and still seeing the Osborne Lights.

After the gift shop, we went next door to hunt our group down at Pizza Planet. For whatever reason, Ian wanted to eat upstairs. Here's a couple pics though both my boys look really weird in this photo.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0388.jpg
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0389.jpg

I didn't order anything to eat though I did eat the little side salads that must have come automatically with the pizza Ian ordered. So....our group was in complete relax mode nibbling on their pizza and I was getting a little frantic at this time because I had heard all the horror stories about F! and needing to be there early and such. I felt like I was rushing everybody but I swear, this group eats like old ladies having tea and crumpets! Even the friends with us, were totally laid back....like waaaaay laid back.

After Pizza we finally started towards Osborne Lights. And then low and behold we run into the Cars guys and everybody just had to get their photo taken. At this point, I probably just gave up trying to rush everybody, I was outnumbered. There was maybe 10 people in line but it wasn't too bad. I just had to calm myself down. :laughing:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0393.jpg

After the photo op, I directed everybody to the Osborne lights which were even more amazing than I thought! David really really liked these and was very impressed by how the music was synched and whatnot. He kept wanting to stay longer and keep looking at them. Whew! finally something he liked. Now, I get a little freaked out in crowds and have this crazy fear of losing my kids (I suppose most moms do). They are older and all but it still flips me out some. Allison kept getting mesmerized by the beauty of the lights and getting sucked deeper and deeper into the crowd and then we'd have to hunt her down. I don't even think it was that crowded our night compared to photos I've seen of other nights. I hate that I felt a little rushed this night because we really needed to get to F!. Plus, Ian was not that into the lights (I mean, it's not a ride of course:laughing:) so he also sort of rushed us some. But...if you are going to be going to see these, they are worth it! Just plan on taking time to sit on the curb and really watch them versus just sort of zipping through like we did. We did see this guy in a scooter that was ripping mad and yelling though. He kept yelling at his wife saying "let's get out of here, I'm tired of people just walking right in front of me!" He was really really mad because I guess he had to keep making short stops on the dime for people. That's how you feel when you are not in a scooter though too, I always had to stop short for people in front of me. Though I suppose it's more frustrating in a scooter because it's more dangerous of course.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0395.jpghttp://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0402.jpg

After the lights, it was really really time to get over to F! Let me tell you, that is a cluster getting into that place! If I were to do it over again, I would wait until 5 minutes before it starts and then head in and try to just find a little spot at the very edge or something. To me, it looks like you can see fine from almost anywhere. Anyhoo...we got into the line (if that's what you call it) about 7:15-7:30 for the 8 pm showing. I felt totally freaked out and squished. It's not an organized line at all. If my kids were toddlers I would have had a complete nervous meltdown. Thank goodness it was a beautiful night out though because we weren't hot and yucky. Words can not describe how it probably feels in that crowd when it's hot! ick. Hope I never find out. Well...we got up to the show and we were in a great spot. Sort of just a little off center and back quite a ways but I thought it was mostly perfect.

The show was pretty cool but I would not bother to see it again. Not worth the madness to me but again, I am sort of a nervous freak with huge crowding. If that doesn't bother you so much it might be totally worth it. Allison loved it so much and says it is probably her most favorite things of the whole trip! Ian liked it ok but he really is all about the thrill rides. David did not really like it. At one point, he was up buying beer taking his sweet time!:rolleyes1 Didn't bother him at all to be missing some of the show.

Right during the show and I have no idea how I even heard it but my mother-in-law called. Normally I wouldn't bother answering but she was house/dog sitting and I was worried that maybe our old dog died or something. Either way, I managed to talk on my cell during the show which is crazy since it's so loud. Turns out she just wanted to know where we kept the dog brush:confused: She kept wanting to chat and I had to hustle her off the phone. Sheesh.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0408.jpg

I'm sorry I could not take any good photos of F! and I wish I had taken a crowd photo but didn't. Dang it.

anyway....after F! I made the troops sit and wait on our benches because there was no way I wanted to be swept away in the river of people leaving. We waited for awhile and then skipped right on out. The CMs that were coming in to clean up after F! were so sweet and patient because we all stood around chatting about what our plans were for the next day and stuff and I know the CMs wanted us to get out of the way but they never let on. Always friendly those CMs!

We had to depart ways with our friends after the show because they needed to get to TTC and get their car and we were just going to take bus to the Poly. David got a little snippy when he saw the line for the bus and wanted to take a cab but I said no way. It wasn't that bad, it looked worse than it was because we all fit on the very next bus. We had to stand but we got on!

So....another great day had come to an end. Next segment will be all about our full day at Studios doing the attractions, eating at Sci Fi and the Luau!

[BridgetR3]

Wow!!! You move fast!!! I leave for Thanksgiving with the in-laws and I miss 5 updates! WHEW!

I love the pic of Pizza Planet. We never saw it on our last trip but it is definitely a must do after seeing that picture of it!! Also, the Osbourne Lights are amazing. I would love to go down one time during Christmas to see them! I just showed them to my DH and he said, "oh WOW!" so maybe that's a good sign. ;)

[FosterA]

Love not having any lines !! Although I can't do Space Mountain more than once. Buzz Lightyear is one of my kids favorites as well as the People Mover .. I just love the fact that its a nice slow and relaxing ride. :)
I liked people mover too but I bet it would have been nicer at night with all the lights!
Hi there! I'm joining in.
Sounds like a great trip so far minus your husband not getting it. I think my fiance will be the same way when he goes.
I love the pic of your daughter and David in the airport! so cute. :)

Can't wait to read more!
Thanks! David had a couple moments where he showed mild enthusiasm, but Allison and I "got it" the most.

Space Mountain is one of my favorites! My husband isn't a fan, though, so we usually only do it once. I don't remember anytime there were no lines! That is awesome that the kids got to ride it 3 times.
Buzz Lightyear is a must-do for us. The twins, especially, start asking for Buzz as soon as we get to the park. I don't get to do much shooting, a three year old at the controls pretty much guarantees you are going to spin in circles...
What are these Dole Whips? I've heard them mentioned here a few times since I joined. Have I been living under a rock? I don't remember seeing them on my thousands of trips to Disneyland!
The dole whip place is something called "Aloha isle" I believe and it's near Swiss Family tree house. Soft serve ice cream (or whatever that is) that is pineapple flavor or orange or vanilla or swirls. You can make it into a float too. We do pineapple in pineapple juice. yum! They also have it at the Poly at Captain Cooks but not in float form, just cups of soft serve.

Ok .. dumb question .. but is that a REAL alligator ?? Or is it just supposed to look real ? (great pics btw !)

I'm never in a big rush while in WDW .. we just sort of mosey about. I just love to take it all in. :)
Yes! it was real. unless...it was some crazy animatronic thing? Lots of people were watching it and it moved to several areas.

I am planning a first trip for my sister and niece for next summer (and DD#2) so I am enjoying reading the excitement in your report. :goodvibes

I have gone twice with my oldest DD by ourselves as daddy is a grump and has ZERO in going to Disney so I relate to your situation with your DH. :rotfl:

My niece will be 14 (in 3 weeks) during the trip so it's nice seeing how your daughter is enjoying it.

Looking forward to reading the rest of your trip.
The 14-year old will love it!!! Mine had a little attitude before we went but then she went crazy when we got there because she liked it so much!

Wow!!! You move fast!!! I leave for Thanksgiving with the in-laws and I miss 5 updates! WHEW!

I love the pic of Pizza Planet. We never saw it on our last trip but it is definitely a must do after seeing that picture of it!! Also, the Osbourne Lights are amazing. I would love to go down one time during Christmas to see them! I just showed them to my DH and he said, "oh WOW!" so maybe that's a good sign. ;)
yep, I'm moving fast because I'm so depressed that I'm back and I don't know when/if we'll ever go back:sad2::sad2: writing this report is helping me come back to earth and I get to re-live it all. I just don't want my vacation to end!
Yes, the Osborne lights are amazing but you really need to take time to just sit somewhere and watch them versus just walking through. The music timing is so cool

[amytheobald]

Can't wait to hear about the Luau! We are headed down Dec 17th ... and the Luau is on our schedule too!popcorn::

[amytheobald]

yep, I'm moving fast because I'm so depressed that I'm back and I don't know when/if we'll ever go back:sad2::sad2: writing this report is helping me come back to earth and I get to re-live it all. I just don't want my vacation to end!
Yes, the Osborne lights are amazing but you really need to take time to just sit somewhere and watch them versus just walking through. The music timing is so cool

I understand this totally, my first trip report I never finished ... post disney depression!
;)

[disneylovin24]

Peter Pan always has a long line! Even during the quite times, the line is always so long. I really don't get why, I mean people are constantly boarding it so why is there always a long wait?! And honestly, IMO, it's not that great of a ride. Its pretty cool how the boats "fly", but besides that its not much.

I love the Jungle Cruise, all of the captains are hilarious! I dont get how your family didnt find it that funny!

When you send merchandise back to your resort they normally send it to the resort gift shop. Most of the time CMs do tell you that you have to pick it up in the gift shop, Im surprised that yours didnt. Sorry you had so much confusion over it.

I never end knew that Pizza Planet at DHs exsisted! Im hot a DHS fan so I guess thats why, I dont think Ive been there since like 2004 even:eek:

I know what your saying about F! though! My family went once in like 2003 and I would never rush back to do it again. It was not bad, but I was not amazed by it. Ive heard people say its better than Illumiinations and Wishes, I do not see that AT ALL. I guess F! just is not my type of thing.

Loving the TR overall. Cant wait for more:goodvibes

[FosterA]

Can't wait to hear about the Luau! We are headed down Dec 17th ... and the Luau is on our schedule too!popcorn::
Cool! I hope you all have a great time. I'll update tomorrow and talk about the Luau:goodvibes

Peter Pan always has a long line! Even during the quite times, the line is always so long. I really don't get why, I mean people are constantly boarding it so why is there always a long wait?! And honestly, IMO, it's not that great of a ride. Its pretty cool how the boats "fly", but besides that its not much.

I love the Jungle Cruise, all of the captains are hilarious! I dont get how your family didnt find it that funny!

When you send merchandise back to your resort they normally send it to the resort gift shop. Most of the time CMs do tell you that you have to pick it up in the gift shop, Im surprised that yours didnt. Sorry you had so much confusion over it.

I never end knew that Pizza Planet at DHs exsisted! Im hot a DHS fan so I guess thats why, I dont think Ive been there since like 2004 even:eek:

I know what your saying about F! though! My family went once in like 2003 and I would never rush back to do it again. It was not bad, but I was not amazed by it. Ive heard people say its better than Illumiinations and Wishes, I do not see that AT ALL. I guess F! just is not my type of thing.

Loving the TR overall. Cant wait for more:goodvibes

Thanks for reading along!
In defense of the CM working at the place where David bought the skull, I'm not really sure what they told him since I wasn't there. I just "assumed" it was delivered to room for some other reason. They might not have said that at all. David filled out a little form and knew where to pick it up. It was just me that didn't know how it worked. I guess I assumed you'd run around all day and then get back to your room to have all your goodies laid out neatly on your bed that you bought:laughing:

[joy13]

I loved the Osborne lights so much! I too felt rushed though because the night we went the park closed at 7:00 because there was a special event at 8:00. They didn't turn on until 6:00, so it was pretty crowded. I've never done Fantasmic because of the crowd to get in, doesn't seem worth it to me. Sounds like the day at MK was awesome though!

[momabaarjo]

Already on page 6? I am so late to the party! ;)

Oh my...Allison. I so can relate with one teenage dd the same age as yours! I swear I was ready to kill Ab all Thanksgiving week...nothing we did seem to make her happy....just wait until I haul her little hiney out of bed EARLY for the 12 days of our trip and set a timer in the bathroom (one thing I am looking forward too at BW-villas...2 bathroom areas to get ready)! She is going to kill me, or I am going to kill her! I am so happy that she saw the magic right off...I am hoping Ab will too. I nearly choked laughing so hard when I read about the Starbucks side trip...that is soooo something Jeff would do for Ab and leave me tapping my watch in a frenzy! Thank goodness we have a 2 hour layover in Denver!

I am so GLAD you did not take David on It's a Small World...did you make it into Country Bears...or did the kids side step that after the movie night?!

I am glad your friends were so easy going and went along with your plans! I have to admit that I am jealous of all the walk on rides that you did...but 50 minutes for Peter Pan...seriously?!

Osborne Lights...I have been rooting for David all along, and finally he found something to like...other than the floral arrangement at Jungle Cruise! I am so excited to see those lights myself!

[FosterA]

I loved the Osborne lights so much! I too felt rushed though because the night we went the park closed at 7:00 because there was a special event at 8:00. They didn't turn on until 6:00, so it was pretty crowded. I've never done Fantasmic because of the crowd to get in, doesn't seem worth it to me. Sounds like the day at MK was awesome though!
Have you started your report yet?? I can't wait 'til you do!

Already on page 6? I am so late to the party! ;)

Oh my...Allison. I so can relate with one teenage dd the same age as yours! I swear I was ready to kill Ab all Thanksgiving week...nothing we did seem to make her happy....just wait until I haul her little hiney out of bed EARLY for the 12 days of our trip and set a timer in the bathroom (one thing I am looking forward too at BW-villas...2 bathroom areas to get ready)! She is going to kill me, or I am going to kill her! I am so happy that she saw the magic right off...I am hoping Ab will too. I nearly choked laughing so hard when I read about the Starbucks side trip...that is soooo something Jeff would do for Ab and leave me tapping my watch in a frenzy! Thank goodness we have a 2 hour layover in Denver!

I am so GLAD you did not take David on It's a Small World...did you make it into Country Bears...or did the kids side step that after the movie night?!

I am glad your friends were so easy going and went along with your plans! I have to admit that I am jealous of all the walk on rides that you did...but 50 minutes for Peter Pan...seriously?!

Osborne Lights...I have been rooting for David all along, and finally he found something to like...other than the floral arrangement at Jungle Cruise! I am so excited to see those lights myself!

You lucky dog getting 2 bathrooms! I would have loved that.

We did not make it into Country bears. I was bummed out. We certainly could have since there were no lines ever but I guess we just ran out of time! It's crazy cause we went at a slow time with no lines and had 7 full days and still probably only got 1/2 the attractions done. I need a re-do dang it!

Yep, Dave had 2 things he showed mild enthusiasm for..the floral arrangements and the Osborne lights. haha. Well, that's not counting his enthusiasm for whatever drink he was ordering at the bar.

[skier_pete]

Hey there! Finally joining in...just took me a while to find your TR. It really looks like you guys had a great time - even though DH didn't really get into it. I think it's funny you said he was an engineer. I'm an engineer and part of my fascination with WDW is how they do all the things - including the logistics of running the massive machine that is WDW! Too bad he couldn't get into that aspect of it! Glad he was enjoying the drinks though...kinda pricey too!

I'm amazed how much you have written already...I just got our arrival day posted! The Poly looks very nice. One of the few resorts we've never visited. I've wanted to try Ohana but just have never been able to fit it in. Maybe next time. You mention how great the service is, but one thing I find so impressive is that level of service carries across all levels of resort - right down to the values. One of the things my mom was most impressed with in fact.

I totally agree with you on Fantasmic...we've only seen it a couple of times...I find it just OK, and the whole in-and-out crowd mass push just doesn't do it for me. I remember walking by on the 15th the entrance about 4:30 PM and seeing people already lining up for the 6:30 PM show. BLECH!

The crowds were definitely super-low. We only ran into real crowds on the 19th. I wish I had gone with my other instinct and switch MK and AK on the 18th and 19th, but overall we can't complain, as we didn't wait more than 5 minutes for anything until our 9th day.

Oh- also glad you got your friends to follow along with you! BAAAA!

[FosterA]

DAY 3 (Thur, Nov 17)-part 1

This day was the start of me sort of falling apart. Mostly physically, though I did have a mini-mental meltdown at one point:laughing:
I woke up feeling a little groggy and had a bit of a scratchy throat and also a loss of appetite. Very strange for me, trust me. As a matter of fact, our family rarely gets sick! But...the symptoms were still very mild so I wasn't going to worry about it yet. And then...another strange physical thing happened. I had a really itchy rash on my calf on one of my legs. It was very red and warm and somewhat raised up. I googled it and read alot about something called the "Disney rash" and it has something to do with all the walking on the concrete and the heat and such. I'm not sure that's what it was because the strange thing is that I had been wearing jeans the whole time so my calf was never actually exposed to the sun or anything:confused: Allison noticed it first when I was walking around the room in my pajamas and freaked out. I of course was self-conscious of it and didn't want to walk around the parks and have anybody ask me about why my leg was so red and rashy so I pretty much just wore jeans the whole time even though it was pretty warm and capris would have been better. It did go away after a day or two though so really it was just one really bad day and then it faded away:confused: So here I am, only day 3 and I have some red funk on my calf and the beginnings of a head-cold. BUT....today is Hollywood Studios day and the Luau tonight so I better pull it together!!

I'll tell you about my mini-meltdown now too. Remember that first day we arrived and I almost killed David because after Garden Grocer delivered, he said "oh man, I wish you had ordered a case of beer or something". I was mad because he did not want any part in the planning and didn't want anything to do with the Garden Grocer ordering so how dare he even suggest something at this point! Well, on this morning while I waited for everybody to get ready to go, I browsed around the Poly lobby and ended up in the little grocery/gift shop store and saw some bottles of liquor for sale. I thought I'd surprise Dave and get him a bottle of "7" or whatever that Whiskey is called. I figured he could mix it with his 7-up or Sprite or whatever in the kid's refillable mugs:lmao: Or he could use it do doctor up his drinks from the bars at the Poly since those were a little "weak". Well...I paid for the bottle and skipped back to the room to present it to him and he said "oh..why did you get this? I kind of like just ordering from the bar". Right then and there I lost it. I felt so unappreciated since I did all the work and planning and ordering and it seemed like I just could not win with him. I was so ready to just send him on a plane back home! He saw how upset I got and then he felt pretty bad and hugged me and said he was sorry and that he really did appreciate all I did and he didn't mean to say something so stupid. He really is a good guy and I don't want to make him out to be a jerk, but sometimes he doesn't think before he speaks. Especially to a wife who's got a funky rash growing on her leg, a cold, and who has spent hundreds of hours planning the so called "perfect trip".

Ok...enough of my whining....back to the real report:

Of all the days of really needing to get somewhere on time, this was the day since the whole issue with Toy Story Mania and how they run out of fastpasses so quick. I really wanted to get there at rope drop but of course that did not happen. However, we did get to the Studios around 10 or 10:30. This morning we just had a quickie breakfast in the room of waffles and bagels that I bought at Cook's. We then jumped on the bus and headed to the Studios!
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4079.jpg
Nobody knew the urgency of needing to get there early but me, so as usual there was plenty of gift shop stops, bathroom breaks, yada yada

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0421.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0425.jpg
We had told our friends the night before, after Fantasmic, that we would meet them here this day and to just text when they arrived. They were later than us and didn't get to the Studios to almost noon! Apparently their teenage girl is harder to get going than ours!:laughing:

Ok, so once we got in the gates, we beelined to Toy Story with me dragging the family behind. They wanted to meander and look at stuff but I was like "let's just get this FP or ride done and then we'll meander, trust me here". Once we got back to Toy Story, the wait was huge, like an hour. We did get our Fastpasses though and those were already out to 3:00 or 4:00! As of yet, we had zero lines for anything so the family didn't quite get why we couldn't just get in line for this like we had done everything else. Anyway...once we safely had our passes, I calmed down and said we could do whatever they wanted.

They wanted to do ToT in a bad way!
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4082.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4091.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0429.jpg

We headed over that way and of course, no lines. I tell you, this is a great week to go!! Of course I followed TourGuide Mike and Easy WDW for best parks too. Anyway....the kids were sooooo excited. Ian especially! David was following along as usual while we headed toward the tower. He used to like thrill rides but he says he's getting too old now (he's 39, puuuuuleeeze!).
So we climbed up to it and Allison and I were oooohing and awwwing over all the detail. One bad thing about no lines though, is that you sort of race through the que and don't have time to notice all the little details! We liked how the tree branches were all winding through the columns and such. So awesome! I just can't get over the theming and how well it's done for this ride.

We loaded in and it was super fun!! We all screamed like crazy of course. As soon as we were done, this was now the "best ride ever, let's do it again!!". I heard that after every ride but they were especially enthusiastic about this one! I don't remember much about what David thought and I probably didn't even ask (he was still on my naughty list from the liquor incident). I really like this ride, but one time is really enough for me. Turns out the kids got their chance to do it again and I made David take them:laughing: but that was not until later.

For now, we had to race off to Sci-Fi since we had an early lunch reservation at 11:05!! We weren't even that hungry at that time but I guess that's all I was able to get, don't remember. Our friends got a reservation at the same time but they had to cancel it since they were so late getting to the park. That's ok though, since I thought we needed a little family-only downtime since mommy was sort of sensitive and grumpy today:laughing:

Well Sci Fi was FANTASTIC!! I picked the place for the theming, not the food but the food was really really good too. As a matter of fact, David really really had a good time here. He ordered a burger, I got the reuben, the kids got pizza I think. They had some good looking drinks on the menu but since I was feeling a little congested, i didn't want to waste money on something I couldn't taste. David ordered 2 alcoholic drinks that were sort of milk-shake like and he raved about how good they were. yay! another thing he got excited about. Disclaimer here: David is really not an alcoholic, I swear:laughing: He rarely drinks at home but I guess vacation brings it out in him, especially Disney!

Our waiter was great and so funny too!! I was texting my lost friends who still hadn't made it to the park and our waiter said to me, "hey you can't be texting in here you have to watch these cheesy movies since I have to watch these movies all day!". He was really funny. The kids thought it was so cool to be sitting in the cars!
Here's a pic with Dave and his light-up drink

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0435.jpg

awwwww. Look at him trying to crawl himself out of the doghouse: I'm looking pitiful because we got caught in a sprinkle of rain (the only time of the whole trip we got caught in rain) and my hair was plastered down. ugh. However, how funny is that to have the chick in the bra or bikini right there in the background!:laughing:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0441.jpg

More to come: I'll tell you about finally hooking up with the friends and what else we did at the park all day and finally how the luau was this night!

[FosterA]

Hey there! Finally joining in...just took me a while to find your TR. It really looks like you guys had a great time - even though DH didn't really get into it. I think it's funny you said he was an engineer. I'm an engineer and part of my fascination with WDW is how they do all the things - including the logistics of running the massive machine that is WDW! Too bad he couldn't get into that aspect of it! Glad he was enjoying the drinks though...kinda pricey too!

I'm amazed how much you have written already...I just got our arrival day posted! The Poly looks very nice. One of the few resorts we've never visited. I've wanted to try Ohana but just have never been able to fit it in. Maybe next time. You mention how great the service is, but one thing I find so impressive is that level of service carries across all levels of resort - right down to the values. One of the things my mom was most impressed with in fact.

I totally agree with you on Fantasmic...we've only seen it a couple of times...I find it just OK, and the whole in-and-out crowd mass push just doesn't do it for me. I remember walking by on the 15th the entrance about 4:30 PM and seeing people already lining up for the 6:30 PM show. BLECH!

The crowds were definitely super-low. We only ran into real crowds on the 19th. I wish I had gone with my other instinct and switch MK and AK on the 18th and 19th, but overall we can't complain, as we didn't wait more than 5 minutes for anything until our 9th day.

Oh- also glad you got your friends to follow along with you! BAAAA!

yay! Glad to see you are starting on your TR.
I'm depressed and don't want my vacation over which is why I've been pumping out mine so fast. It's either write a TR or seek therapy. Writing it helps me relive it all I guess. Plus, I forgot so easy and I don't know how people can wait so long to write a TR because I'd forget so much! It already feels like our trip was ages ago.

You know, I thought him being an engineer would also make him appreciate it so much, like you do. Not sure what his problem was:confused:

The Poly was so amazing. I hope you are able to pop in and go to Ohana on your next trip. I'd really like to stay at Port Orleans if we ever go again. I'll wait a couple months before I start begging David to go again:laughing:

[Cin]

Welcome back!
How did I already get sooo far behind on reading your TR?

Look at your pic of y'all taken at the ME check in, do you see anyone else in line anywhere??? No, it's sooo empty and I'm loving' it. Your pics of the airport and departure have me getting so excited. We fly right through Houston too and I always make it a point to get my Starbuck's cappuccino or espresso and a potato and egg and green chili breakfast taco. You reminded of of that when your family had tacos and Starbuck's too! I would have to pass on the chicken nuggets at 7 am though. (Whataburger has a southern fried honey chicken sandwich for breakfast, but that isn't my thing for breakfast, I prefer the taco.) Ok, so now I have to get caught up on your TR. Wow, and you're fast in posting only back a day... "work" huh? LOL. Wouldn't it be fun to travel to WDW and do TR's for a living??? Too bad I'm just a talker, that's why my writing rambles. It follows my brain. So now back to the TR.

[skier_pete]

yay! Glad to see you are starting on your TR.
I'm depressed and don't want my vacation over which is why I've been pumping out mine so fast. It's either write a TR or seek therapy. Writing it helps me relive it all I guess. Plus, I forgot so easy and I don't know how people can wait so long to write a TR because I'd forget so much! It already feels like our trip was ages ago.

You know, I thought him being an engineer would also make him appreciate it so much, like you do. Not sure what his problem was:confused:

The Poly was so amazing. I hope you are able to pop in and go to Ohana on your next trip. I'd really like to stay at Port Orleans if we ever go again. I'll wait a couple months before I start begging David to go again:laughing:

Well, my secret to being able to write my TR out is usually this - take lots of pictures! That and I usually write out our MK days in shorthand right when I get home. (Too many rides to remember!)

Can't really say why your husband didn't get into it...it really isn't in everyone's personality, and it does seem guys get into it less often. (Probably partly why the DIS is about 90 % women!) I enjoy both the "Whee this is fun" along with the engineering and design side. Enjoy it all. One thing I always recommend for the more technical types - there's an episode of "Modern Marvels" that covers Disney World that's really amazing.

Also, to help convince him to go back, maybe plan some stuff that he WOULD be more interested in. Somewhere in there you mentioned he wished he was fishing. Well, let him do a fishing charter one of the days. Or the Richard Petty driving experience if he's into cars. Or golfing. Or leave the kids at the hotel and go out for a nice dinner at Yatchsman or Jiko or Narcosses (sp?). Or just plan a down day where he can sit by the pool. He might be more ameniable to doing the things you and the kids consider "fun" if he gets to do some things that he considers "fun".

My DW gets the "Disney rash" sometimes too! She had it one day on this trip. I also wanted to mention that everyone gets those bad mood/mini breakdown days at Disney too. It's a lot of go-go-go, and when you are the one in the driver's seat the whole time, it can get to you after a while. (You'll see me hit that wall on Day 3 of our trip!)

I also totally love the sci-fi, probably my favorite restaurant. Unfortunately DD doesn't care for the "scary movies", else we would go every single trip. I also don't get why it always gets trashed in reviews. I love their Reuben! Did you get the Oreo Milkshake? Yum. That's the thing I missed the most from our trip, though I did get a chocolate milkshake at 50s primetime.

I love reading TRs that occurred at the same time as our trip. Your mention of the "Sprinkle of Rain" brought me back to where we were at that time - a few miles away at Typhoon Lagoon - a day of pure perfection!

[swwake]

I always love how every ride is the "best ride ever"! You can tell the kids are really enjoying their vacation.

I also love the photo of the two of you at the "drive in". Just perfect!

[kittylady1972]

:thumbsup2 Loving the trip report so far! Can't wait to read more!! :)

[Chicago Mo]

I found you!!!
I was thinking about you all week wondering when we would get a trip report and 6 pages later i am caught up!!!
I am loving your report!!! TOT is one of my family's favorites!!!
:thumbsup2

[dmoore718]

I love reading all about your trip to the Poly! Great job!! I'm an obsessive planner as well but my hubby has the park touring down to a science so I do all the ADR's and tell him where we are going on what days, and then he leads the way. He loves Disney too, though, so it's easy. He wants no parts of pre-planning, however!

[disneylovin24]

Mickey waffles:cloud9:

Love what the kid said to you at Sci-Fi:lmao:

[momabaarjo]

Okay...so I am going to pack a little bottle of Crown in my suitcase for my dh...or maybe order some bud lime from GG....I am learning from your "oversight" hee hee...if Jeff would have said that to me my melt down would have been the bottle over his head! :lmao:

OMG :scared1: the RASH...my travel partner on my first trip got that...I didn't but for the life of us we could not figure it out! Her sister went last summer and got it too! I had no idea that it had a name.

:love:Love the picture of the two of you at Sci-Fi...looks like David was trying to defuse the day! I am so glad that the food was good...I know Jeff is going to love the Rueben!

Vacations bring out my wild side too...I probably have 1 drink a year and then nurse that for hours...but for some strange reason I like to enjoy myself on a trip...especially when it is just girls! Dreaming of drinking around the world again...except this time it will not be in 90+ temps in the middle of summer on 1 day! :rotfl:

[FosterA]

Welcome back!
How did I already get sooo far behind on reading your TR?

Look at your pic of y'all taken at the ME check in, do you see anyone else in line anywhere??? No, it's sooo empty and I'm loving' it. Your pics of the airport and departure have me getting so excited. We fly right through Houston too and I always make it a point to get my Starbuck's cappuccino or espresso and a potato and egg and green chili breakfast taco. You reminded of of that when your family had tacos and Starbuck's too! I would have to pass on the chicken nuggets at 7 am though. (Whataburger has a southern fried honey chicken sandwich for breakfast, but that isn't my thing for breakfast, I prefer the taco.) Ok, so now I have to get caught up on your TR. Wow, and you're fast in posting only back a day... "work" huh? LOL. Wouldn't it be fun to travel to WDW and do TR's for a living??? Too bad I'm just a talker, that's why my writing rambles. It follows my brain. So now back to the TR.
Thanks for catching up! yep, like I've told everybody else, I'm depressed and miss my trip so I'm doing the report as my therapy!:eek:
We did have great low-crowds. I think there were only 2 other families waiting to load the ME bus with us when we were there. It was awesome.
Well, my secret to being able to write my TR out is usually this - take lots of pictures! That and I usually write out our MK days in shorthand right when I get home. (Too many rides to remember!)

Can't really say why your husband didn't get into it...it really isn't in everyone's personality, and it does seem guys get into it less often. (Probably partly why the DIS is about 90 % women!) I enjoy both the "Whee this is fun" along with the engineering and design side. Enjoy it all. One thing I always recommend for the more technical types - there's an episode of "Modern Marvels" that covers Disney World that's really amazing.

Also, to help convince him to go back, maybe plan some stuff that he WOULD be more interested in. Somewhere in there you mentioned he wished he was fishing. Well, let him do a fishing charter one of the days. Or the Richard Petty driving experience if he's into cars. Or golfing. Or leave the kids at the hotel and go out for a nice dinner at Yatchsman or Jiko or Narcosses (sp?). Or just plan a down day where he can sit by the pool. He might be more ameniable to doing the things you and the kids consider "fun" if he gets to do some things that he considers "fun".

My DW gets the "Disney rash" sometimes too! She had it one day on this trip. I also wanted to mention that everyone gets those bad mood/mini breakdown days at Disney too. It's a lot of go-go-go, and when you are the one in the driver's seat the whole time, it can get to you after a while. (You'll see me hit that wall on Day 3 of our trip!)

I also totally love the sci-fi, probably my favorite restaurant. Unfortunately DD doesn't care for the "scary movies", else we would go every single trip. I also don't get why it always gets trashed in reviews. I love their Reuben! Did you get the Oreo Milkshake? Yum. That's the thing I missed the most from our trip, though I did get a chocolate milkshake at 50s primetime.

I love reading TRs that occurred at the same time as our trip. Your mention of the "Sprinkle of Rain" brought me back to where we were at that time - a few miles away at Typhoon Lagoon - a day of pure perfection!
Yep, I feel really lucky with the weather while we were there. WE got sprinkled on the day we went to Studios and then it rained again one of our last days but we were just hanging at the resort anyway. I didn't even think it was that hot while we were there, of course we're used to TX weather!

You know, I never got a milkshake once on the trip. bummer! can I have one now? Right around day 3 I started to get really congested and no appetite so I guess I'd just save my money and have water since I couldn't taste anything anyway.

I don't know about David. I mean he says he enjoyed the trip and all and never really said anything bad the whole time. He just didn't seem to be enthusiastic about much which I thought was strange because Disney is just sooooo nice compared to other places we've been. He had odds and ends that he liked (such as sci fi, our resort, fireworks, etc) but he still didn't get overly excite about those things. There was one time that he got very enthusiastic on the trip and you'll just have to wait and see. It's sort of funny and not something I predicted he'd get into at all!

I always love how every ride is the "best ride ever"! You can tell the kids are really enjoying their vacation.

I also love the photo of the two of you at the "drive in". Just perfect!
Hey there. You said you were going to check out the campground when ya'll go, right?? OMG! It's great. WE did it one night and the decor is hilarious!

:thumbsup2 Loving the trip report so far! Can't wait to read more!! :)
Great! Thanks for reading:goodvibes

I found you!!!
I was thinking about you all week wondering when we would get a trip report and 6 pages later i am caught up!!!
I am loving your report!!! TOT is one of my family's favorites!!!
:thumbsup2
Hey there. Glad you made it on over!! Yep, I'm whipping out the updates since I miss it my trip so much. It helps me re-live it. Glad you are doing a TR too!

I love reading all about your trip to the Poly! Great job!! I'm an obsessive planner as well but my hubby has the park touring down to a science so I do all the ADR's and tell him where we are going on what days, and then he leads the way. He loves Disney too, though, so it's easy. He wants no parts of pre-planning, however!
Sounds like you two have some good team-work going:goodvibes I think the planning is most of the fun!

Mickey waffles:cloud9:

Love what the kid said to you at Sci-Fi:lmao:
awwwwww......seeing that waffle pic makes me want to go back right now!

Okay...so I am going to pack a little bottle of Crown in my suitcase for my dh...or maybe order some bud lime from GG....I am learning from your "oversight" hee hee...if Jeff would have said that to me my melt down would have been the bottle over his head! :lmao:

OMG :scared1: the RASH...my travel partner on my first trip got that...I didn't but for the life of us we could not figure it out! Her sister went last summer and got it too! I had no idea that it had a name.

:love:Love the picture of the two of you at Sci-Fi...looks like David was trying to defuse the day! I am so glad that the food was good...I know Jeff is going to love the Rueben!

Vacations bring out my wild side too...I probably have 1 drink a year and then nurse that for hours...but for some strange reason I like to enjoy myself on a trip...especially when it is just girls! Dreaming of drinking around the world again...except this time it will not be in 90+ temps in the middle of summer on 1 day! :rotfl:

Hitting David over the head with a bottle of whiskey really did cross my mind! There was 2 or 3 times on the trip that he said "I wish....we could do this or that or eat here or there" and I shut him down real quick. He wanted zero, zilch, nada to do with the planning so I did the best I could with no input from him so I did not want to hear what he "wished" we could fit in after it was too late. Next time (if there is one) he'll know that he better pipe up while he has a chance!

You guys are going to have soooooo much fun. I cant wait for your TR! Are you going to go by the campground or Hoop while you're there? The campground was decorated so great!

[mousetravel]

Subbing! Can't wait to hear more. You had me cracking up with your "grumpy hubby" comments! :lmao:

I think you should try a mom/daughter Disney trip, and send the boys on a fishing trip or something. My DD & I LOVE taking our mom/daughter trips! We are going again in a few weeks for the first time at Christmas!

[siestakeys04]

I was hoping that you gave an update when you guys came back. It sounds like you had a great time so far.:cool1: Can't wait to read about the rest of the trip.

[kthshh]

Following you over from your pre-trip report! Looking forward to hear about the rest of your vacay!

[WelovMickey!]

Oh....and at one point we passed the Epcot "ball" and Allison said "what's that?". I said "That's Epcot" and she's like "the park is in the ball?". yep....the family has no idea about WDW.



:lmao::rotfl2::rotfl: This is my favorite! I can just see the puzzled face, :laughing:

[swwake]

Hey there. You said you were going to check out the campground when ya'll go, right?? OMG! It's great. WE did it one night and the decor is hilarious!Oh I'm glad to hear that. I am really hoping to squeeze it in. Currently scheduled for our first night, but we'll see.

We were talking the other night about the change in hours and crowd calendars. Most of our days are now 8s, when they were originally 5 or less. So we decided the priority this trip is to see the Christmas decorations all around the World, not so much the rides (though I'm sure that will change too). But at least maybe that means we can prioritize getting over to Ft Wilderness one night.

[WelovMickey!]

Lovin' the report. I gotta say though, our Husband's sound like they could be TWINS! My mother HATES buying gifts for him becuase no matter what she does, what effort she puts in - his reaction is ALWAYS the same - non-existant. I am so relieved that my DD's first experience at DIsney will be with my parents and I and NOT my DH for this very reason. I don't want to spend my whole trip griping at him to cheer up and put a smile on his face - so guess what?! He's not invited!! LOL - I know I sound wicked as can be, but after 6 years of it - I am ready to experience the joy the world has to offer - with or without him!!! :)

Not wicked at all! Actually our past 5 trips have been without my husband. We went together the first 2 trips but each time he was totally grumpy! Hello Disney World! :confused3 I told him I will just go without him and we have my kids, grandma and me! We have a blast! I feel not one piece of guilt. ;) He does not get into Disney like my mom and me. But after 5 trips without him I guess it is starting to wear at him because he says he wants to go with us this summer. He knows this is a test run for him :lmao:. Sounds mean but it's not. He gets me and my love for Disney! :love: We have been married for 15 years! I love him but don't mess with my Disney! :thumbsup2

[WelovMickey!]

I am totally loving your TR! Your my new favorite! We should start a thread on the Dis called "Going to Disney without our husbands and we LOVE it" :lmao:

[Cin]

:lmao:I am totally loving your TR! Your my new favorite! We should start a thread on the Dis called "Going to Disney without our husbands and we LOVE it" :lmao::
I'm in!lmao:

[debrapagliasotti]

I'm curious to see a current review of the Luau. We went in Aug 2008 and enjoyed the food and the dancing, but thought the story was a bit cheesy. DH and my older kids have requested we go back to the Luau again next Dec.

[danimaroo]

Can I just state how much I am loving your constant updates? It always gives me something good to read when I'm surfing through the TRs! Plus, this is the first PTR I kept up with in real time and now TR I am fully keeping up with, so I've really enjoyed it!

I am sad that your husband doesn't seem to get the magic of Disney, but it's also wonderful to see your daughter really gets it! I would've totally lost it on my husband if he said the same thing to me, so I wouldn't feel too bad about that, haha. You have put so much time and effort into this trip, so you deserve to be appreciated for it!

Looking forward to reading more!

[Pre]

I am so sorry about your DH not enjoying Disney so far and his lack of pixie dust. But I'm glad he didn't get a whiskey bottle on his head! I can't wait to hear about the laau (sp? Stupid autocorrect). I did this with my parents when they helped move me away from FL. And they were only excited about taking the monorail to MK to get a bus to pop. Hopefully your DH was excited for it since it was the only other thing he wanted to do.

[NLD]

Hi been reading your TR and love it. You're doing a great job with it.

Had to stop lurking and say hi because of this discussion on non-Disney-loving husbands! I have one too!

We took our first family trip in 2009 and my dh was the same way as yours... little bits and pieces interested him, but on the whole, he didn't "get it." Just really not his thing.

So... count me as another one who's now developing a habit of going without him! In 2010 my sister and I went, just the two of us. This year I was in Orlando for a work conference, and dragged along a friend/colleague for MNSSHP. And in January I'm taking my dd back for her second trip, for her birthday.... along with my MIL.

That's right, I'd rather take my MIL than my dh! :lmao: :scared1:

(Nah really, I'm lucky to have a wonderful and sweet mother in law.)

So all that to say, if you have the Disney bug and your dh doesn't... there are ways to cope! Don't resign yourself to never going back!

Can't wait to read the rest of your TR. You've got a great "trip reporting" style.

[FosterA]

Subbing! Can't wait to hear more. You had me cracking up with your "grumpy hubby" comments! :lmao:

I think you should try a mom/daughter Disney trip, and send the boys on a fishing trip or something. My DD & I LOVE taking our mom/daughter trips! We are going again in a few weeks for the first time at Christmas!
I really am thinking about it! I also have another option, I have 2 girlfriends that want to go around Feb so we might do that. I can't pull Allison out of school again this school year so if we do a mom/daughter we might have to do end of May. Something to think about:goodvibes

I was hoping that you gave an update when you guys came back. It sounds like you had a great time so far.:cool1: Can't wait to read about the rest of the trip.
Glad to have ya!:thumbsup2

Following you over from your pre-trip report! Looking forward to hear about the rest of your vacay!
Thanks for coming by:goodvibes

:lmao::rotfl2::rotfl: This is my favorite! I can just see the puzzled face, :laughing:
I know, it was amazing to see just how clueless everybody was. Made it more fun for me! Not that I'm an expert, since I'd only been once before, but compared to my group I was very much an expert!

Oh I'm glad to hear that. I am really hoping to squeeze it in. Currently scheduled for our first night, but we'll see.

We were talking the other night about the change in hours and crowd calendars. Most of our days are now 8s, when they were originally 5 or less. So we decided the priority this trip is to see the Christmas decorations all around the World, not so much the rides (though I'm sure that will change too). But at least maybe that means we can prioritize getting over to Ft Wilderness one night.
Definately try. WE loved the campground area. I'll get to that more in the TR but this is one place Dave perked up quite a bit. REminded him of home and fishing and whatnot. If we had a camper, I'm sure he'd be fine going to Disney just to stay here.

I am totally loving your TR! Your my new favorite! We should start a thread on the Dis called "Going to Disney without our husbands and we LOVE it" :lmao:
ooooooh, I like that. Maybe "my husband is a Disney -Dud so we're leaving him home!"

:lmao::
I'm in!lmao:
yay! No dud dad's allowed!

I'm curious to see a current review of the Luau. We went in Aug 2008 and enjoyed the food and the dancing, but thought the story was a bit cheesy. DH and my older kids have requested we go back to the Luau again next Dec.
Ok. I plan on updating this afternoon sometime after work so I should be able to get up to the Luau portion:goodvibes

Can I just state how much I am loving your constant updates? It always gives me something good to read when I'm surfing through the TRs! Plus, this is the first PTR I kept up with in real time and now TR I am fully keeping up with, so I've really enjoyed it!

I am sad that your husband doesn't seem to get the magic of Disney, but it's also wonderful to see your daughter really gets it! I would've totally lost it on my husband if he said the same thing to me, so I wouldn't feel too bad about that, haha. You have put so much time and effort into this trip, so you deserve to be appreciated for it!

Looking forward to reading more!
Thanks for sticking with my reporting:thumbsup2
As much as I'd love to go back with David and the kids, I have a feeling that future trips will be just with friends or the kids. He said he had fun but didn't feel "magical":laughing: Allison soooooo "got it". She went crazy at Disney. Ian had a blast too but he has fun anywhere as long as there is a pool!

I am so sorry about your DH not enjoying Disney so far and his lack of pixie dust. But I'm glad he didn't get a whiskey bottle on his head! I can't wait to hear about the laau (sp? Stupid autocorrect). I did this with my parents when they helped move me away from FL. And they were only excited about taking the monorail to MK to get a bus to pop. Hopefully your DH was excited for it since it was the only other thing he wanted to do.
Nope, no pixie dust on David. I'll report all about the Luau tonight I hope! Thanks for following along!


Hi been reading your TR and love it. You're doing a great job with it.

Had to stop lurking and say hi because of this discussion on non-Disney-loving husbands! I have one too!

We took our first family trip in 2009 and my dh was the same way as yours... little bits and pieces interested him, but on the whole, he didn't "get it." Just really not his thing.

So... count me as another one who's now developing a habit of going without him! In 2010 my sister and I went, just the two of us. This year I was in Orlando for a work conference, and dragged along a friend/colleague for MNSSHP. And in January I'm taking my dd back for her second trip, for her birthday.... along with my MIL.

That's right, I'd rather take my MIL than my dh! :lmao: :scared1:

(Nah really, I'm lucky to have a wonderful and sweet mother in law.)

So all that to say, if you have the Disney bug and your dh doesn't... there are ways to cope! Don't resign yourself to never going back!

Can't wait to read the rest of your TR. You've got a great "trip reporting" style.
Thanks so much for reading along!!!
There's a few of us that have non-pixie dusted husbands and we've all decided that we'll just leave them at home if we go again. I don't think I can bring my mother-in-law:scared1: but next trip I can do friends or Allison for sure!:goodvibes

[FosterA]

DAY 3-part 2

So I last left off with us eating lunch at Sci-fi. We all really had a good time here and I thought the food was really good. Now, remember I was starting to get congested this day so don't take my food reviews from here on out too seriously. My taste buds might have been pretty wacked too.

While we were eating, I got a text from my friends who had finally made their way to the park. I told them to go right to Toy Story and get Fastpasses. They did but they were already out! (noon on a slow week!) They then went and did ToT which was good since we already did that and I wanted everybody on the same page. We told them that when they got done with Tower, to call me and we'd meet up and continue touring around together.

Well we ended up being done with lunch before I hear from them so I figured we'd just walk around the Sci Fi area and see what was up. I noticed our Fastpasses from Toy Story said we could now pick up more fastpasses but I didn't know what to get one for. I kept checking my Lines app and Tot and Rock Coaster still didn't have waits or maybe 10 minute waits! Yay. Toy Story appeared to be only thing with a wait at this park. But...I felt like we needed to Fastpass something just because we could. Then I saw the Star Wars ride right there and we went ahead and got passes for that. The CM working there asked why we were getting them since it was only a 10 minute wait. I didn't want to do that one now though because we should be meeting up with our friends any minute. Turns out the Star Wars ride NEVER had much of a wait all day so the FP was never really necessary. I guess I just wanted one to be on the safe side.

Still hadn't heard from friends that were on Tower so we just looked around. Then we heard some music and went to check it out. It was these guys:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0442.jpg

I thought they were really funny and good too! The kids thought it was so cool how the streets looked in this area! The band was hilarious and they grabbed some lady out of the audience and were messing with her. David is a huge musician kind of guy so I thought he would enjoy the little show. He appeared to like it but later told me he didn't think they were that good:confused: They sure made me smile though!

We then got a text from our buds who just did TOT twice (still no lines) and they were ready to meet up. I suggested the Great Movie Ride since it was close to us and figured they'd need some chill time after TOT. We all did this together and I loved it!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0452.jpg

The kids didn't know what was what but they had huge smiles on their faces and really liked the gangster stuff! Allison loves Wizard of Oz and took this pic:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0456.jpg

This ride was cooler than I thought it would be from what little I read about it. After we all got done with this, I figured we should go catch the Stunt Show. That was a bit of a walk to get over there and it was a little toasty at this point. Here's a pic of Allison walking with her friend which is hilarious because her friend is a year younger but like 2 feet taller!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0457.jpg

We got over here just in time and found a decent seat. Allison and I enjoyed it but wouldn't necessarily run to see it again. Ian seemed to be really into it though. David really liked it!! yay. something else he liked. Remember though....all these things he admitted he liked, I'd say he showed mild to moderate enthusiasm. Not too much oooohing and awwwing but mild enthusiasm. Just wait til later in my report when you find out the one thing on our entire trip that he got really really into and really loved! It's kind of weird actually.

So here's a couple pics:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0458.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0460.jpg

After the Stunt show, I checked my app and saw that Rock Coaster didn't have much of a wait (ten minutes maybe) so I told the group that we would start the hike over that way. I think this is my fave ride at the Studios. I think the theming of TOT is the best, but this is the best actual ride. I figured since Dave was so into music and really likes Aerosmith that he might get into this one too. Ian was pumped up because he'd been waiting all day for this attraction.

I gotta run, but I'll finish this up tonight I hope!

[204charity]

Can't wait to hear what the gang thought of RnR!!

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Subbing in!

I'm loving your TR! So sorry to hear your DH seemed to be underwhelmed most of the time. I don't get why some spouses aren't thrilled 100% of the time they're at Disney! :rolleyes:

I was right there with you at Kona! I had heard nothing but wonderful things about the Tonga Toast and fully planned on ordering it. But when it came time to, I didn't want it :confused: Oh well, guess I'll need to go back!

Can't wait to read more!

[TotalDreamer]

Following along :)


I can't wait to find out what thing your DH fianlly loved :p

[joy13]

I'm really enjoying reading about this day - because we were at DHS too! We probably passed each other and didn't know it - lol! We were in line for Phineas and Ferb when it rained :)

And the link to my TR is in my signiture :)

[FosterA]

Can't wait to hear what the gang thought of RnR!!
Thanks for following along!:thumbsup2

Subbing in!

I'm loving your TR! So sorry to hear your DH seemed to be underwhelmed most of the time. I don't get why some spouses aren't thrilled 100% of the time they're at Disney! :rolleyes:

I was right there with you at Kona! I had heard nothing but wonderful things about the Tonga Toast and fully planned on ordering it. But when it came time to, I didn't want it :confused: Oh well, guess I'll need to go back!

Can't wait to read more!
Nice to have you reading along! I know, it's weird, shouldn't everybody LOVE DisneyWorld?:laughing: Everytime I would nag him about not being excited, he'd just get mad and say "sorry, it's not my thing".:rolleyes1 huh??

Following along :)


I can't wait to find out what thing your DH fianlly loved :p
Thanks for reading along:goodvibes

I'm really enjoying reading about this day - because we were at DHS too! We probably passed each other and didn't know it - lol! We were in line for Phineas and Ferb when it rained :)

And the link to my TR is in my signiture :)
Wow, so weird that we could have totally run into each other. I wish we did! What did you think of Studios this day? I felt like there were lots of people everywhere but not real significant lines on anything except Toy Story.

[FosterA]

DAY 3-part 3

I forgot to mention just how happy we were when we were coming and going to the stunt show that it was November and not that hot. I personally felt like it was quite a walk to get to the show and then you have to climb up some bleachers. We went right smack in the middle of the day and it was pretty warm, I can only imagine what this place feels like in the dead of summer:scared1:

As a matter of fact I think we picked a fantastic time to be in Disney this week because, like I said, we were on our 3rd day and didn't need a FP yet until this day and that was just for Toy Story! I felt like at times there were LOTS of people walking around but the attractions usually had very little, if any wait. It was kind of strange actually. Where were all these people going? If we go back one day, I'd pick this same week. Ideally I'd do Sat-Sat before Thanksgiving but on this trip we did Tues-Tues before Thanksgiving. Either way...great weather and great low crowds. The kids had to miss 4 days of school and since they just returned I'm not really sure what the repercussions are going to be for that yet. Surprisingly enough, I have not received a phone call or letter from the school which is nice (usually get a call if someone's just tardy). Also, neither kid appears to have lots of make up work. I think the teachers were laying off the work that week we missed since it was right before Thanksgiving and they didn't want to start anything big until after the break (we get the entire week of Thanksgiving off here).

Ok....so back to our day.....

I was super pumped about getting to RnR because I just love the music:laughing:! Now normally I would not set foot on a ride that goes upside down but this one isn't so bad because it's dark and you can't see. I think it's more of a scared of heights and falling for me and since I can't see on this one, I somehow can manage it. So we all started heading towards it. Jack, the other dad in our group, doesn't do thrill rides really well and since his family had already forced him to do ToT, he said he was sitting this one out. We made him our pack mule and we gave him our bags and he sat outside and waited for the group. The kids wanted to ride with their friends and me and Dave went together. I just love the cue and was excited for Dave to see it. He liked that part ok and perked up quite a bit when he saw the pre-show thing. I love that pre-show! awesome! The kids were hopping all around because they were so excited. Allison was wearing her Queen shirt so thought it was cool to get a pic in front of this poster:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0467.jpg

Once we got into the loading area and the kids saw how that thing jets off, they got even more pumped up. The only thing I thought was weird was that it felt like the other time I did this, there was music blasting in the loading area. Did I dream that up? Either way, there was no music at this time. We all got into the cars and wham! it was over. Dang, this ride is too quick and over too fast:eek: It's soooo fun too. Everybody LOVED it and we all screamed like maniacs on it. David said "that was fun" but once again, he commented on how it was too dark (like Space Mt) and he doesn't like that. I don't think it's that the darkness is scary to him but rather that it's not as "interesting" if you can't see much?? Well, I was losing my voice at this time and I'm not sure if it's from the screaming on the rides or just the cold that was getting worse, or both. check out the kids with their friends:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0469.jpg

Sorry, but this is the point of our trip that I tried to keep myself out of photos. I was rapidly starting to feel worse and think I was even getting a fever at this point so I was feeling really gross.

Now, for some reason I thought that maybe the kids ran around and did this ride again but I can't remember for sure. Either way, I know Dave and I and my friend Erin, sat this one out.

After everybody got their RnR fix, they wanted to do ToT AGAIN since there was little wait. I had no option but to sit this one out since my head felt weird enough. Somehow Jack's kids managed to talk him into doing this again (which he hates but being a good dad.....). David didn't really want to do it again but I was sick of him so I made him take our kids.:laughing: Now was my turn to be a pack mule. I got set up on a little rock planter thing and held all the cameras and such. Turns out I was in the smoking section and had smoke billowing around me most of the time:laughing: But...I was sooo tired and feeling un-ergetic that I stayed put. I had some shade and I didn't feel like lugging everything around to find a better spot. So....I did take this photo of the area coming up from RnR to sort of show the crowd.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0471.jpg

Like I said, there seemed to be plenty of people around but the lines really weren't bad at all.

Once everybody got ToT out of their system we figured it was time for a snack since we hadn't eaten since Sci Fi a few hours ago. We were trying to get towards Little Mermaid and Toy Story since our FP were now ready. Well, our family had passes but our friends did not:sad2: I felt bad for them since Ian was all excited about going and his little buddy couldn't. I don't think they wanted to wait the hour wait or whatever it was at this point. Anyway...we stopped for a pretzel and frozen lemonade along the way. I had heard alot about Starring Rolls and wanted to check out the cupcakes but it just didn't happen. boo hooo!! just not enough time in the day!!

Allison saw Beauty and the Beast entrance and begged to do it but we were really short on time. Still had to get Toy Story in and Little Mermaid in too. We had that Luau to get to and that wasn't until 8 but I was confused about how early we were supposed to get there and wasn't sure how long it would take to get back, so I wanted to leave the park in plenty of time. So we passed up Beauty and the Beast and worked our way to Mermaid. Aeriel is Allison's favorite!! The boys weren't too thrilled to be going but they bucked up.
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0423.jpg

We saw this family walking and David commented on how we needed similar shirts. No kidding! Where do I get one!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0476.jpg

There was no wait for Mermaid exactly but we did get there right when another show was in session so we had a while to hang out before we could enter. Ian was all hyper-d up since he swigged a giant coke on our snack break. He thought it would be cool to stick pressed pennies in his eye.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0474.jpg

Creepy!!

We finally got into the show and it was really cute. Allison just loved loved it. It was fun to see her because she's such a teenager and it's nice to see her watching little girl stuff. awwwww. When the show first started, I was worried it would drag on forever but it seemed to jump pretty fast to an ending so that was nice. They boys were ok, not their favorite of course.

So after the show, we had to split up with our friends. We had passes for Toy Story that we needed to use before heading back to the Poly and we also had passes for Star Wars. They didn't have either and were planning on staying at the park much longer than us so we just sort of split up at this point. I don't think they ever got to do Toy Story but apparently they did Star Wars and a few other things this night. Anyhoo......everybody was curious what the hoopla was about with this ride since the wait was always so long. I did it once before back when I came for my weekend trip with my friend so I knew what it was all about. In all honesty, I don't get it. It's fun and different but I would NEVER stand in line forever for it. I'm also non-competetive so that might be part of it. I really don't care if I beat someone or not on this game!:laughing:

Here we are in line
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0477.jpg

It seemed to still take awhile to get up to the loading area even with the Fastpasses I thought. Allison and I did one cart and Ian and David did the other. I snapped this pic of the guy facing me because he was such a cute little grandpa and he was all fired up and ready to go:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0480.jpg

I aslo had seen a little old grandma just blasting away at one point and she was sooooo cute.

Well, once again, this ride just goes too darn quick. We all had a good time and I did whip Allison. She thought it was an awesome ride. Once we got off I asked the boys and Ian was completely pumped about it. David said it was "cool" and I didn't think he liked it that much because, as usual, he wasn't expressing alot of enthusiasm. But.....later on he told me it was his favorite ride so far!! He liked it because it was so different than anything he's done before. I asked him again yesterday and he still says it was his favorite. There is another ride coming up another day that might be tied for his fave though.

After the Toy Story thing we headed to Star Wars to use our FP. Turns out we didn't need them since there was no wait.

I gotta wrap this up but will continue this afternoon. I'll tell you about Star Wars and finally about getting back to the Poly and the Luau:goodvibes

[LaDonna]

DAY 3-part 3


As a matter of fact I think we picked a fantastic time to be in Disney this week because, like I said, we were on our 3rd day and didn't need a FP yet until this day and that was just for Toy Story! I felt like at times there were LOTS of people walking around but the attractions usually had very little, if any wait. It was kind of strange actually. Where were all these people going? If we go back one day, I'd pick this same week. Ideally I'd do Sat-Sat before Thanksgiving but on this trip we did Tues-Tues before Thanksgiving. Either way...great weather and great low crowds. The kids had to miss 4 days of school and since they just returned I'm not really sure what the repercussions are going to be for that yet. Surprisingly enough, I have not received a phone call or letter from the school which is nice (usually get a call if someone's just tardy). Also, neither kid appears to have lots of make up work. I think the teachers were laying off the work that week we missed since it was right before Thanksgiving and they didn't want to start anything big until after the break (we get the entire week of Thanksgiving off here).





We are planning on doing the exact same dates next year Tuesday thru Teusday, actually I'm torn we may do Wednesday thru Wednesday, I'm nervous about how the school will handle it, mostly worried about my daughter who will then be in 9th grade..........thinking of picking them up from school a lil' early on Tuesday and heading down there.......we also get the whole week off for Thanksgiving, i just do not want to be there for the crowds that weekend and the prices are higher too!

[okw19]

What a great day at HS! I am loving your TR and you have been busy with updates!
I cannot wait to hear about the luau :)

[Chicago Mo]

I totally agree! i think it is overrated.I do really like the theme of the whole toy story..
The new star tours? That was amazing!!
Love the pictures to go with your story!!!

[skier_pete]

Had to chime in with a few things.

I had noticed your DD Queen shirt earlier...don't know if she's a fan or just likes the shirt - but if she is - very good musical taste for a teenager! :thumbsup2

Normally there is no music in the queue area of R'n'RC. You are supposed to be in a back alley of a recording studios waiting for the limo to take you to a concert, so there wouldn't be any music there.

I agree the ride is way to short. This is part of putting a coaster with inversions inside a building...the ride can't be very long. I also agree with your DH - since they put it in the dark, the inversions aren't very impressive. My favorite part of the ride is the launch.

And there's a very simple reason that TSMM is so popular - EVERYONE can ride it. Think about the total # of rides at DHS - ToT, RnRC, TSMM, ST and GMR. Five rides total. Two of them are purely for thrill riders and Star Tours has some limited appeal that way as well. That leaves GMR and TSMM, and regardless of what you think of GMR, it's not one that has a lot of repeatability. Since a lot of people come to Disney for the rides more than anything....TSMM draws huge crowds because of what the competition in that park is. But it's the ride that Grandma, baby Danny, Uncle Sam and teen Darla can all ride and have a ball on. You saw this reaction yourself - that coupled with there's nothing else in DHS to compete. If TSMM was in MK - it wouldn't draw nearly the crowds. (Why the one in California doesn't draw as much.) It's just an example of how badly DHS needs rides.

Also, your shot of the entrance of RnRC where you describe as "plenty of people around", that's a pretty empty shot in my view. But it is pretty typical that the number of people walking around the parks looks much worse than the number of people waiting in lines for rides. I don't know why that is true, but it is!

Enough of my rambling...it's your TR, not mine!

[fastergoofy]

RnR is my favorite coaster! I was so scared to go on it the first time. We ended up going on it three times in a row and now I'm kind of a coaster junkie. :woohoo:

FosterA: I noticed that we have almost exactly the same tastes/pace for touring the parks. :thumbsup2

[Chicago Mo]

OH on Great Movie Ride... did you know there are two variations of the guide? we had the gangster last year and this year we had the western cowboy guide!! both pretty much the same but didn't know there were two! I LOVE the GMR!!! think it is totally under rated!!!

[FiveBoys]

I love the picture of the kids on RnR, it is perfect, LOL.

I also agree with the explanation Skier_Pete gave for why TSM is so busy, as a mom of a lot of littler kids, DHS is not a high priority for us because there is so little for the kids to do.
Sorry you were feeling so yucky, it never fails that someone gets sick on vacation!

[204charity]

Love the review of RnR! I wasn't sure we'd be able to manage it, but I think we may ALL be able to do it! Can't wait till April...... :)

[CdnCarrie]

Enjoying your report!

[WelovMickey!]

I can't wait to ride the new Star Tours. I never got the whole Star Wars thing and never watched it until my son. He is 5. Now we love Star Wars, so much that we planned our trip to Disney around Star Wars Weekend! :goodvibes

[joy13]

I like RnR too, I love that start and the music! I felt DHS is really empty that day, it was great!

[FosterA]

We are planning on doing the exact same dates next year Tuesday thru Teusday, actually I'm torn we may do Wednesday thru Wednesday, I'm nervous about how the school will handle it, mostly worried about my daughter who will then be in 9th grade..........thinking of picking them up from school a lil' early on Tuesday and heading down there.......we also get the whole week off for Thanksgiving, i just do not want to be there for the crowds that weekend and the prices are higher too!
Well, in my case anyway, I wouldn't hesitate to pull them out again. It depends on your kids and your school district of course. There were soooo many times that Dave and I commented to each other that we were so glad it wasn't too hot and we were so glad it wasn't crowded! There were some times waiting in a group for something (Fantasmic) and I probably would have died if it was the middle of summer. Plus...it's so nice to go "off season" when prices are lower too. We got our room where 5 of the nights were heavily discounted and only our last 2 were full price. That's why I'd rather have done Sat-Sat and then I could have had all 7 discounted. But...I wanted kids to go to school on the Monday so they could be there to pick up work and also so it wasn't like they were missing the "full" week. Just 4 days. It just sounded better to me.

What a great day at HS! I am loving your TR and you have been busy with updates!
I cannot wait to hear about the luau :)
Cool:thumbsup2 glad to have you!

I totally agree! i think it is overrated.I do really like the theme of the whole toy story..
The new star tours? That was amazing!!
Love the pictures to go with your story!!!
Thanks! I'm glad you are still reading along.:goodvibes

Had to chime in with a few things.

I had noticed your DD Queen shirt earlier...don't know if she's a fan or just likes the shirt - but if she is - very good musical taste for a teenager! :thumbsup2

Normally there is no music in the queue area of R'n'RC. You are supposed to be in a back alley of a recording studios waiting for the limo to take you to a concert, so there wouldn't be any music there.

I agree the ride is way to short. This is part of putting a coaster with inversions inside a building...the ride can't be very long. I also agree with your DH - since they put it in the dark, the inversions aren't very impressive. My favorite part of the ride is the launch.

And there's a very simple reason that TSMM is so popular - EVERYONE can ride it. Think about the total # of rides at DHS - ToT, RnRC, TSMM, ST and GMR. Five rides total. Two of them are purely for thrill riders and Star Tours has some limited appeal that way as well. That leaves GMR and TSMM, and regardless of what you think of GMR, it's not one that has a lot of repeatability. Since a lot of people come to Disney for the rides more than anything....TSMM draws huge crowds because of what the competition in that park is. But it's the ride that Grandma, baby Danny, Uncle Sam and teen Darla can all ride and have a ball on. You saw this reaction yourself - that coupled with there's nothing else in DHS to compete. If TSMM was in MK - it wouldn't draw nearly the crowds. (Why the one in California doesn't draw as much.) It's just an example of how badly DHS needs rides.

Also, your shot of the entrance of RnRC where you describe as "plenty of people around", that's a pretty empty shot in my view. But it is pretty typical that the number of people walking around the parks looks much worse than the number of people waiting in lines for rides. I don't know why that is true, but it is!

Enough of my rambling...it's your TR, not mine!
I love it when you chime in! Yep, she likes Queen and the Beatles and all sort of old stuff. David has told her the music nowadays is junk and he gets her to listen to all his stuff:laughing:
Funny about the music at RnR. That totally makes sense. I guess I'm just forgetting and mixing up things in my old age:rolleyes1
Yep, I get that about Toy Story. I saw so many super old people and little babies too. Great Family ride!

RnR is my favorite coaster! I was so scared to go on it the first time. We ended up going on it three times in a row and now I'm kind of a coaster junkie. :woohoo:

FosterA: I noticed that we have almost exactly the same tastes/pace for touring the parks. :thumbsup2
Yep, I'd say my touring style is "middle of the road". Not crazy but not too slow either.:goodvibes

OH on Great Movie Ride... did you know there are two variations of the guide? we had the gangster last year and this year we had the western cowboy guide!! both pretty much the same but didn't know there were two! I LOVE the GMR!!! think it is totally under rated!!!
Did not know about the 2 variations. That's pretty cool. I really liked this attraction alot! The kids loved it when the gangster climbed up the Indiana Jones thing and turned into a skeleton!

[FosterA]

I love the picture of the kids on RnR, it is perfect, LOL.

I also agree with the explanation Skier_Pete gave for why TSM is so busy, as a mom of a lot of littler kids, DHS is not a high priority for us because there is so little for the kids to do.
Sorry you were feeling so yucky, it never fails that someone gets sick on vacation!
I never would have dreamed I would have gotten sick on vacation. Luckily it was just a bad cold/sinus issue versus a stomach bug. If I'm not throwing up, I'll keep trucking. I did try not to breathe on anybody though:laughing: As a matter of fact, nobody else in my family got sick which is a miracle beings we all shared a room for 7 days!

Love the review of RnR! I wasn't sure we'd be able to manage it, but I think we may ALL be able to do it! Can't wait till April...... :)
You need to do it! And I'm a huge chicken and loved it. Granted, once is enough for me. Yay!! i see you will be staying at the Poly:cloud9:
Enjoying your report!
I enjoy having you read along!:goodvibes

I can't wait to ride the new Star Tours. I never got the whole Star Wars thing and never watched it until my son. He is 5. Now we love Star Wars, so much that we planned our trip to Disney around Star Wars Weekend! :goodvibes
How fun! You will love the ride then! I didn't so much and I'll talk about that in a minute when I update my report. p.s. it was a sick thing in my case:sick:

I like RnR too, I love that start and the music! I felt DHS is really empty that day, it was great!
Great day to be at DHS. Still wish I would have looked harder for you though!

[skier_pete]

I love it when you chime in! Yep, she likes Queen and the Beatles and all sort of old stuff. David has told her the music nowadays is junk and he gets her to listen to all his stuff:laughing:
Funny about the music at RnR. That totally makes sense. I guess I'm just forgetting and mixing up things in my old age:rolleyes1
Yep, I get that about Toy Story. I saw so many super old people and little babies too. Great Family ride!

Oh good, now I don't have to shut up...hope to get DD to have similar tastes. Been working on that since childhood. I also lead her TV tastes as well, as she is more into Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes, and the Muppets than anything currently on TV. Her friends think she's nuts. It's her Dad's fault.:rotfl2:

I never would have dreamed I would have gotten sick on vacation. Luckily it was just a bad cold/sinus issue versus a stomach bug. If I'm not throwing up, I'll keep trucking. I did try not to breathe on anybody though:laughing: As a matter of fact, nobody else in my family got sick which is a miracle beings we all shared a room for 7 days!

Ya know, the first two times I travelled to Disney as an adult, I got really sick with sinus/cold symptoms. This was back in 1997 and 2000. The first time we thought it was a cold. The second time we became pretty certain it was some sinus response- as the syptoms were identical. Made me feel like total crap - but all head cold. Once was in May and once in October, but still, it was really strange. When we went back in 2007 I was anticipating the same problem and brought a bottle of Claritin, but it never re-occurred. I wonder if it's possible you had a similar allergy. :confused3 Glad you were able to push through it. We waited to get home to get sick...whole family is now sick, started with DD and her policy of "rub my hands all over everything and then stick my fingers in my mouth!"

[onelilspark]

Joining in!

I have a non-Disney husband. It took a few trips, but now he enjoys it...not as much as I do, but I've learned his quirks and try to avoid them (really heavy crowds are bad, he just shuts down.) Really though, he's okay because he's an enabler. I wanted to go by myself in September and he thought that sounded great because he could sit all weekend on the couch in his boxers playing video games :laughing:

[FosterA]

Oh good, now I don't have to shut up...hope to get DD to have similar tastes. Been working on that since childhood. I also lead her TV tastes as well, as she is more into Scooby Doo, Looney Tunes, and the Muppets than anything currently on TV. Her friends think she's nuts. It's her Dad's fault.:rotfl2:



Ya know, the first two times I travelled to Disney as an adult, I got really sick with sinus/cold symptoms. This was back in 1997 and 2000. The first time we thought it was a cold. The second time we became pretty certain it was some sinus response- as the syptoms were identical. Made me feel like total crap - but all head cold. Once was in May and once in October, but still, it was really strange. When we went back in 2007 I was anticipating the same problem and brought a bottle of Claritin, but it never re-occurred. I wonder if it's possible you had a similar allergy. :confused3 Glad you were able to push through it. We waited to get home to get sick...whole family is now sick, started with DD and her policy of "rub my hands all over everything and then stick my fingers in my mouth!"
Very interesting that you got sick two different times at Disney. I remember when I went back in Feb for my weekend trip, I came home and fought a cough for almost a month! Now that I think about it, this is only the second time I've been sick in a couple years and both times were either at Disney or right when I got back. I wonder if it's something about Florida or just so many different people:confused: Neither time was it a stomach bug or anything horrendous, just running nose and cough. Maybe I need to go more often to work up an immunity:laughing:

Joining in!

I have a non-Disney husband. It took a few trips, but now he enjoys it...not as much as I do, but I've learned his quirks and try to avoid them (really heavy crowds are bad, he just shuts down.) Really though, he's okay because he's an enabler. I wanted to go by myself in September and he thought that sounded great because he could sit all weekend on the couch in his boxers playing video games :laughing:
I wish my husband would enable me to go!! You're lucky! He'd probably be ok as long as I took the kids I suppose that way he wouldn't have to get them to school or make lunches or anything!

[FosterA]

OK, what is the deal!!
I just sat here for an hour and did a huge update about the Luau and everything and it disappeared and logged me out. waaaaaaaah:scared1:

What did I do wrong? Was I taking too long?

[swwake]

That happens with the posts. A lot of people type in Word or Notepad first, then copy/paste to the DIS. Sorry it happened to you :(

I loved your DHS day. I haven't done GMR in over a decade and you make me want to try it again.

Disney is the master of crowd control. They have a way of making it feel less crowded than it is most of the time, and in lines where there tend to be crowds, they provide queue entertainment, so you don't feel like you're waiting as long. They also add "weave mazes" so that you always feel like you're moving. An example is overhead TVs that started in the 80s and 90s, and now the interactive queues for attractions like TSMM, Buzz, HM, Pooh, etc.

The exceptions are large shows (Fantasmic!) and parades. They haven't been able to figure out a way around crowds for those.

My DD Katie also is into GOOD music. Posters of Jim Morrison and Pink Floyd in her bedroom, GNR, Sublime, and Beatles T shirts since she was about 7. (She's 19 now and still wears some of the same shirts) I noticed your Allison's Queen shirt earlier in the report and meant to comment on that as well.

A little under the weather - so enough of my ramblings for now...

[FosterA]

DAY 3-part 4

let me try this again since I just wrote a huge update and then it logged me out and it all went away. waaah:headache: I may break updates into smaller segments in case I was getting too long winded or something.

I last left off with us doing Toy Story. It was getting to be around 5 pm and we had to be back at Poly for Luau at 8. No problem since we still had a good amount of time. We had those passes for Star Tours still but I honestly wouldn't have cared if everybody just wanted to bag it and get back to our room. I was feeling worse by the minute. I suggested that we could just go back to the Poly and not do the ride but David (of all people!) said No, he really wanted to try it. He really likes Star Wars. Not a huge fan but he certainly likes the movies. So we headed over that way and got right on with our passes, which we didn't even need since there was no wait.

The bad news is that I really didn't like this attraction:sick: It made me nauseous and motion-sickness feeling. I handled it but I was pretty anxious for it to be over. Now, take my review with a grain of salt since I was feeling sick to begin with. The rest of the family really liked it!! This was not one that they necessarily wanted to do again (like Tot and RnR) but they did enjoy it. I think it's a super cool attraction if you are a Star Wars fan. I'm embarrassed to say that I've seen the movies but couldn't tell you the name of any of the characters hardly. I don't even know what was going on during our particular ride:laughing:

Well, it's now 5:30 or so and we were ready to wrap up our one and only Studios day planned for the trip (I don't count the night before when we came just to see F!). The really strange this is that there were hardly any waits for anything, the weather was great, and we had older kids to tour with that were able to keep up and we still got just a fraction done of what I wanted to do. It's crazy, I would have thought we'd do everything I wanted and have time to spare but not the case. The parks are so much bigger and spread out than I imagined. Plus my group took plenty of time to smell the roses which is fine I guess. We did not get to Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast, muppets, or Backlot tour and those were all things I wanted to check out. Of course since we had some teenage attitude issues, we never once made a rope drop the entire trip (we did usually get to the parks within the first hour or two though). If we were good about rope drop we could have done so much more. Not so much because there is no lines, since we didn't deal with long lines anyway, but simply to have more time. In November, the hours aren't near as long at the parks and you can really do open-close which is what I wish we could have done. I can't blame it all on the teenager though since I was running a little on empty myself.

All in all, we really liked Studios and that may be because the kids are older too. Also, David seemed to be happier at this park than he was at MK so that was good.

We then headed for the bus stops and David saw a TTC bus all ready and waiting and wanted to do that one. I would have preferred the one that went right to the Poly but since there wasn't one there yet, we went with what was available. WE walked to the Poly from TTC which isn't bad. I did watch my feet though since I have a severe snake phobia and was scared something would grab me from the bushes! Oh...the Poly is the most beautiful thing ever at night. I couldn't quit talking about how much I loved the tiki torches the whole trip!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0485.jpg

since I'm scared of being booted off again, I'm going to wrap this up now but continue on soon with all the deets on the Luau!

[BridgetR3]

When I'm typing out my updates, I always type them in my OpenOffice (word-type program) so it doesn't get deleted on me as the PP said. I'm sorry you had to retype it all but I did want you to know that I am enjoying your updates! :thumbsup2popcorn::

[FosterA]

DAY 3-part 5

So after we got back to our room, it was probably only 6 pm and the Luau wasn't until 8 so we had some chill time. I took a bath and tried to feel like a human again. Ian went swimming and down the slide for the 400th time. David probably played on his laptop. Allison took off for a hammock on the beach and I think she even roasted some marshmallows and watched part of a movie on the beach.

At one point there was a child at the pool that shrieked one long continuous shriek that lasted an hour, I swear. I was up in the room and was concerned that maybe it was Ian getting his hyper on. He has been known to scream like a girl. Luckily, it wasn't my child and whatever parent had this child wasn't the least bit concerned that their kid was waking up the dead. The child was having fun and happy, not in trouble or anything. But....if you are looking for quiet, the rooms facing the volcano pool are not for you!

Here's a couple pics from the Poly at night:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0488.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0489.jpg

Around 7:30 I thought we should head to Luau Cove. I called Allison to tell her that we would pick her up at the pool on our way and she better be ready. She assured us she was. Low and behold, we get down to the pool and she doesn't have any shoes or flip flops or anything:headache: I'm thinking that we're about to go eat a 200 dollar dinner so shoes on my kid would be nice! So back up to the room we sent her to get dressed.

We made our way to Luau Cove and it's just so amazing and pretty there at night:cloud9: Why I have no photos of the area is a mystery.
You make a couple stops before you get into the building to eat. First stop is a ticket-taker guy who is out on the walkway. I got up to him and gave him our name BUT.....nobody reminded me and I forgot, but we were supposed to pick up tickets at the front desk when we checked in the other day. oooops. It took some minor confusion but eventually we got cleared to continue on. However, the guy handed Dave a piece of paper and I assumed it was just a seating assignment or something. It turned out to be the ticket basically with the full prices I paid right there in bold print:eek: Now....my poor clueless husband gave me the ok to spend the total amount of our vacation (as long as I promised not to charge anything) but he never really knew the breakdown of anything, like how much party was, how much dinner shows were, etc etc. He just knew the big picture. I wanted to keep him out of the loop since he wasn't feeling so magical on the trip and no need for him to be grumpy that certain meals cost certain amounts, yada yada. Anyway....he saw the price and was like "whoa!". I snatched the ticket back from him and told him to mind his own business and go buy a drink:lmao:

After the ticket taker guy you go to the next stop and they have somebody that takes your family photo and then they will bring it to your table later to see if you want to buy it. We did it but unfortunately all 4 of us were too vain and didn't like how we looked so we didn't buy it.

After the photo guy, you move into a court-yard type place that is so pretty and you look out over the water and we even saw MK fireworks going off.:cloud9: You just sort of mingle around this area while you wait to be seated. They had a bartender set up and you could buy drinks. Of course since I had sent David over there, he was ordering us margaritas. He was disappointed though because they were just pre-mixed and not "real" margaritas. I agree...I'd think with an expensive type show like this, that you should have "real" drinks. We didn't mind paying for them of course, but I'd expect more than just pre-mixed margaritas for 8 dollars or whatever they were.

So then they took us to our seats. The seats are super duper close together and I think it's supposed to make it like a family/party/bonding thing. I didn't mind at all really. We were actually on the end of a row so we only had neighbors on one side. I knew David wouldn't be comfortable chatting with other people (when he eats, he eats and doesn't like to bother with talking:laughing:) I didn't strike up any conversations since I was feeling kind of blah.

Right off the bat they came out and took drink orders and brought us salad and bread and fruit. Allison thought she died and went to heaven since those are her 3 favorite foods! Ian just ate the bread. We liked ALL of that food so far. Since it had been 5 minutes since Dave's last drink, he had to order one right away. He insisted on this Monkey head souvenir cup. Remember, he also bought a skull souvenir back at Pirates of Carribbean ride the other day. What's with this head/skull collecting thing??:confused:
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0490.jpg

Since I'm so paranoid of being logged off again, I'm going to wrap this up. More real soon! Like...was this Luau worth it and would I do it again?

[joy13]

It sounds like the Poly was the perfect place for you guys to stay! Can't wait to hear more about the Luau!

[disneylovin24]

I had to come and catch up, I havent read in a few days.

Im sorry you werent feeling great for Star Tours:guilty: I love that ride, I havent been on it since they re-did it though

Cant wait to hear about the Luau!

[Chicago Mo]

popcorn::
Need to know about the Luau!!! When we do return to WDW we are DEFINITELY going back to the Poly. we haven't done the Luau!!!
So Sorry to hear you didn't like Star Tours! but can understand it is NOT for someone who has motion sickness.

[FosterA]

That happens with the posts. A lot of people type in Word or Notepad first, then copy/paste to the DIS. Sorry it happened to you :(

I loved your DHS day. I haven't done GMR in over a decade and you make me want to try it again.

Disney is the master of crowd control. They have a way of making it feel less crowded than it is most of the time, and in lines where there tend to be crowds, they provide queue entertainment, so you don't feel like you're waiting as long. They also add "weave mazes" so that you always feel like you're moving. An example is overhead TVs that started in the 80s and 90s, and now the interactive queues for attractions like TSMM, Buzz, HM, Pooh, etc.

The exceptions are large shows (Fantasmic!) and parades. They haven't been able to figure out a way around crowds for those.

My DD Katie also is into GOOD music. Posters of Jim Morrison and Pink Floyd in her bedroom, GNR, Sublime, and Beatles T shirts since she was about 7. (She's 19 now and still wears some of the same shirts) I noticed your Allison's Queen shirt earlier in the report and meant to comment on that as well.

A little under the weather - so enough of my ramblings for now...
Ok, I'm going to start typing in Word now. David suggested that when I told him about how I lost everything but I wasn't sure it would work. Now that a Dis person says it can, I believe it. yay.
You are so right about the crowd control and how Disney manages to make lines look small when they aren't! I commented on that to Dave several times on the trip. They are experts for sure!

When I'm typing out my updates, I always type them in my OpenOffice (word-type program) so it doesn't get deleted on me as the PP said. I'm sorry you had to retype it all but I did want you to know that I am enjoying your updates! :thumbsup2popcorn::
Thanks for the advice which I'm going to take for sure! Glad to have you along on the TR:goodvibes

It sounds like the Poly was the perfect place for you guys to stay! Can't wait to hear more about the Luau!
Luau info coming right up:thumbsup2

I had to come and catch up, I havent read in a few days.

Im sorry you werent feeling great for Star Tours:guilty: I love that ride, I havent been on it since they re-did it though

Cant wait to hear about the Luau!
Welcome back:thumbsup2 If you loved Star Tours before, you will really love it now. Though I felt bad on it, I could see that it was actually a super cool ride. If you don't get motion sick easy of course....

popcorn::
Need to know about the Luau!!! When we do return to WDW we are DEFINITELY going back to the Poly. we haven't done the Luau!!!
So Sorry to hear you didn't like Star Tours! but can understand it is NOT for someone who has motion sickness.
Lucky, you at least know you will return one day. I'm not sure we will. I might with friends or Allison but not sure I can talk Dave into another family trip. I might have to bribe him and work my magic.:flower3:

[FosterA]

DAY 3-part 6


Ok so we got all settled at our table and we got the drinks started and all that. The meal comes with free wine and beer which I would have been fine with but David is sort of a beer snob and none of the choices were acceptable to him so he ordered specialty drinks. I already felt like we spent enough on this dinner so I didn’t love that he was spending more on drinks but he is sort of the bread-winner in the family and if he needed fancy alcohol to help him survive WDW, then so be it. I had calculated up a rough idea on how much to budget for each of our days and we were quite under-budget (nice!) since our kids eat even less than we thought they did so we weren’t spending near as much on food as I figured we would. That left more money for Dave’s fancy drinks!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0497.jpg

Our server was a nice lady but she seemed very rushed the whole time so she wasn’t near as talkative and friendly and some of the other servers we had dealt with on the trip. Well, we’d only been to Kona and Sci fi at this point as far as table service places I guess. Anyway….the server was very old I thought, which is fine, but the Luau is sort of a fast-paced serving situation since things are brought out during certain segments of the show and such. She seemed like she was really struggling to keep up.

The tables are super close, like I said. You can see in this photo, to the right of the monkey head, how close our neighbors were to us.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0492.jpg

They do very well at the show with the timing as far as bringing the food out and letting you eat during down-times. I was worried about that because David eats like a crazy person and is completely focused on his food when he eats and would not be watching the show. However, they time it out nice so you don’t miss things.

The main dish ,which was chicken and ribs, was fine. We all liked the chicken and David said the chicken was really good. However, the ribs not so much. They seemed to be just boiled with BBQ sauce poured over them. Dave is particular about his BBQ stuff since he’s a Texan and Texans come out of the womb smoking ribs. The food is unlimited so you can really chow down if you want. We only had one round since the kids don’t eat much and I wasn’t at my full appetite or couldn’t taste much anyway.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0495.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0499.jpg

The table right next to us had two small girls (10 or 11ish) sitting at it and they had ordered the PB&J uncrustables. I have a super picky kid too but I thought it was funny to pay that much and eat PB&J! All Ian had was the bread and chicken and ribs and he wont eat things on the bone really so I had to tear it up for him. Ugh…picky picky. At least I only have one child with eating problems!


OK….as much as I want to say we LOVED this show, I really can’t. I’ve loved everything else so far on this trip but this Luau is the one thing (besides Star Tours) that I don’t really want to do again. I mean, I wouldn’t say we regretted it at all since it was different and the setting is stunning as far as the open-air theatre and it was a beautiful night with the tiki torches all over the place and such. But…I’d say the first half or first ¾ of the show was pretty boring and cheesy. The last part was the best with the authentic Hawaiian dancing and stuff. I had read the reviews and was aware that the show wasn’t super popular and I had heard that the first part was dumb but I still wanted to do it. Mainly because David had requested to do it and he only requested two things the entire trip. Stay at poly, do Luau. He had seen a tiny clip of it on our Disney Planning DVD and thought it would be cool. I had read the negative reviews and almost didn’t book it but I didn’t want to hear David say “you want my advice and to be part of the planning, yet when I do pick something you turn it down!”. So….that’s why we booked it.

Like I said, the last part was pretty cool with the fire dancers and such. At one point they brought 3 or 4 guys up from the guests to dance with the hula dancers. There was one big African American guy that they drug up there and 2 or 3 nerdy white guys. I thought “oh this is going to be good because I bet that guy can get his groove on”. Turns out he couldn’t dance at all and the white guys were shaking it all over the place! Everybody really laughed at this part.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0500.jpg

After the show, I interviewed David on what he thought and he said “it was ok, but not worth the price and the ribs were horrible”. I told him that I had read some negative reviews and he’s like “well, then how come you didn’t tell me to pick something else”. I was like “because then you’d say I always change your plans and I didn’t want to discourage you from giving me planning input in the future”. Out of us 4, Allison loved it the most simply because she’s obsessed with fruit and salad and there was plenty of that. She still talks about the bread!

So, in a nutshell…I don’t “regret” doing the Luau but I would not do it again.

Stay tuned for Day 4. Animal Kingdom Day!

[kittylady1972]

After the show, I interviewed David on what he thought and he said “it was ok, but not worth the price and the ribs were horrible”. I told him that I had read some negative reviews and he’s like “well, then how come you didn’t tell me to pick something else”. I was like “because then you’d say I always change your plans and I didn’t want to discourage you from giving me planning input in the future”. Out of us 4, Allison loved it the most simply because she’s obsessed with fruit and salad and there was plenty of that. She still talks about the bread!

So, in a nutshell…I don’t “regret” doing the Luau but I would not do it again.

Stay tuned for Day 4. Animal Kingdom Day!
[/COLOR]

All caught up again and I must say I am sorry to hear you did not enjoy the Luau. We have not done it since our VERY first adults-only trip in Feb 1997 but I have not missed it. I remember we enjoyed it...but it wasn't over the top. Plus I have an EXTRA picky kid and we would HAVE to get that PB&J like the family next to you...and we'd be paying ADULT prices for him! :scared1:

I'm also totally with you on Star Tours...or really ANY of the simulator rides! I have to admit I can do any coasters or thrill rides EXCEPT anything that spins, but when I discovered those simulator rides and how much they can affect me, I started avoiding them! I did try Star Tours on our 2009 trip and I survived it...and I have not tried the newest version so I'm sure I'll try it again in March. We'll see how I do! ;)

[Chicago Mo]

THAT IS TOO FUNNY!!! about the BBQ and texans! I love that! i feel the same about a lot of the Food at disney. We do NOT go there for the food I live in Chicago! Otherwise it would be a lot easier to diet around here! I'm really bummed about you guys not liking it as much as i thought you would!!!
i want to guess hubby liked Dinosaur.....

[skier_pete]

Hmmm...I never had desire to see the Luau show, and this makes me think I am right. Doesn't surprise me the food is mediocre, most dinner shows are...though actually I thought some of the food at Hoop-Dee-Do-Review was rather good. The only good BBQ at Disney is the ribs at Flame Tree in AK - and that's only good, not great. It is funny how some foods they do very well,others are really mediocre.

[swwake]

I'd go to the Luau just to see that guy in your last photo! :lmao:

[ZehnJahren]

Hello! I read your PTR and prayed along with you that your family would love it!

Today I've read through your TR and am enjoying! Sorry to see your husband is lagging behind in the pixie dust (I laughed when you described him jetting out of MK on the party night!), and really sorry to hear you got sick. I got very ill two days in to my DBF's first trip, and it was such a disappointment. So far, you look like you guys are doing well, though!

Just as an aside - I've always followed this simple rule when posting big stuff to this (or any other) forum. When you get to a point where you've typed a lot that you don't want to lose, hit "control+a" (which will copy everything in the text box), and then hit "control+c" which will copy it all just in case your computer goes down or the posting doesn't "take". That way, if you try to post and your computer times out or something, you can either hit back in your browser and then hit "control+v" to paste the entire text back in the box, or if the internet has gone down you can open a word document (or notepad) and paste the text in there for later (same thing later - copy the text with "control+a" and "control+c" and paste with "control+v"). It's saved me many a post!

[glennbo123]

I'm about halfway caught-up, but really enjoying your trip report....so, gotta sub! Can't wait to read the rest. :)

[danimaroo]

Okay I am REALLY excited to see what everyone thinks of Expedition Everest! It's my favorite ride! I'm sure Ian will LOVE it and will want to ride it a lot. :laughing: Loving this TR though!

We did the Luau when I went in 96 and all I can remember are the dancers and we have a family photo from it, but other than that, I don't remember a whole lot!

If you guys do go again, the BBQ at Whispering Canyon Cafe over at WL is pretty good! I mean it's not the best ever but the ribs are pretty tasty and the skillet as a whole is pretty delicious (though super filling, ugh)... I also just like the fun/rowdy environment and appreciated our free champagne/congrats for being on our honeymoon from um, well the entire room. :rotfl:

Can't wait to read the rest of your TR and about your day at AK!!

[disneylovin24]

Thanks for the review of the luau! We've never been because dinner shows are not our type of thing. I like hearing your prospective of it.

I dont know if you went to Ohana's on the trip but Ohana's is great! Its the same type of food and delicious! Atmosphere is great too, no actual dinner shows but there is dinner "entertainment".

[fastergoofy]

I'd go to the Luau just to see that guy in your last photo! :lmao:

I know, right? Alooooooha.

I think, though, for that price, I could convince my husband to put on a loin cloth and twirl some fire. :laughing:

[204charity]

LOvin' the report still! We are staying at the Poly in April, and we have NO plans to do the Luau! In fact, we have NO ADR made. We are just eating as we go! :)

[momabaarjo]

Aimee...I am so :love: your report!

I need to find some of those forced fun t-shirts...I should buy Jeff one for each day of the trip! :scared1:

I am sorry the luau was not as good as you had hoped. I think David needs to take you to Hawaii so you can see a real one! :goodvibes

So where actually are you going to put David's new collection of WDW glasses in your house...I think you need to have custom plaque made that says..."How I Survived My Wife's Trip to WDW!" :rotfl2:

[FosterA]

All caught up again and I must say I am sorry to hear you did not enjoy the Luau. We have not done it since our VERY first adults-only trip in Feb 1997 but I have not missed it. I remember we enjoyed it...but it wasn't over the top. Plus I have an EXTRA picky kid and we would HAVE to get that PB&J like the family next to you...and we'd be paying ADULT prices for him! :scared1:

I'm also totally with you on Star Tours...or really ANY of the simulator rides! I have to admit I can do any coasters or thrill rides EXCEPT anything that spins, but when I discovered those simulator rides and how much they can affect me, I started avoiding them! I did try Star Tours on our 2009 trip and I survived it...and I have not tried the newest version so I'm sure I'll try it again in March. We'll see how I do! ;)
Yep, picky kids are great (cheap) until it comes to buffets and dinner shows:scared1: WE went to Hoop also and my kids ate a grand total of 1 dollar worth of food.
Good luck on Star Tours in march!

THAT IS TOO FUNNY!!! about the BBQ and texans! I love that! i feel the same about a lot of the Food at disney. We do NOT go there for the food I live in Chicago! Otherwise it would be a lot easier to diet around here! I'm really bummed about you guys not liking it as much as i thought you would!!!
i want to guess hubby liked Dinosaur.....
Um....No to Dinosaur but I'll fill you in on all the AK drama next update.


Hmmm...I never had desire to see the Luau show, and this makes me think I am right. Doesn't surprise me the food is mediocre, most dinner shows are...though actually I thought some of the food at Hoop-Dee-Do-Review was rather good. The only good BBQ at Disney is the ribs at Flame Tree in AK - and that's only good, not great. It is funny how some foods they do very well,others are really mediocre.
I didn't hate the Luau, it was "good" but not a do-over and probably not worth the cost either. I heard those ribs at Flame Tree were good and I wanted some but ran out of time as usual.

I'd go to the Luau just to see that guy in your last photo! :lmao:
I know!! unfortunately the girls were just as hot and they made me depressed with their hard bodies as I shoveled ribs and bread into my mouth.:laughing:

Hello! I read your PTR and prayed along with you that your family would love it!

Today I've read through your TR and am enjoying! Sorry to see your husband is lagging behind in the pixie dust (I laughed when you described him jetting out of MK on the party night!), and really sorry to hear you got sick. I got very ill two days in to my DBF's first trip, and it was such a disappointment. So far, you look like you guys are doing well, though!

Just as an aside - I've always followed this simple rule when posting big stuff to this (or any other) forum. When you get to a point where you've typed a lot that you don't want to lose, hit "control+a" (which will copy everything in the text box), and then hit "control+c" which will copy it all just in case your computer goes down or the posting doesn't "take". That way, if you try to post and your computer times out or something, you can either hit back in your browser and then hit "control+v" to paste the entire text back in the box, or if the internet has gone down you can open a word document (or notepad) and paste the text in there for later (same thing later - copy the text with "control+a" and "control+c" and paste with "control+v"). It's saved me many a post!
awwww, you're so sweet:cloud9:
Thanks for all the computer advice!
oh and you aren't kidding about David jetting out of the parks. It was the fastest he moved the whole time. If I said it was time to leave and find a bus he could sniff out the exit and transportation out like a blood-hound!

I'm about halfway caught-up, but really enjoying your trip report....so, gotta sub! Can't wait to read the rest. :)
WElcome!! I've stalked your massive and entertaining reports before:worship:

[FosterA]

Okay I am REALLY excited to see what everyone thinks of Expedition Everest! It's my favorite ride! I'm sure Ian will LOVE it and will want to ride it a lot. :laughing: Loving this TR though!

We did the Luau when I went in 96 and all I can remember are the dancers and we have a family photo from it, but other than that, I don't remember a whole lot!

If you guys do go again, the BBQ at Whispering Canyon Cafe over at WL is pretty good! I mean it's not the best ever but the ribs are pretty tasty and the skillet as a whole is pretty delicious (though super filling, ugh)... I also just like the fun/rowdy environment and appreciated our free champagne/congrats for being on our honeymoon from um, well the entire room. :rotfl:

Can't wait to read the rest of your TR and about your day at AK!!
EE is the ride that Ian said he wanted to do the very very most when I was interviewing the kids before our trip. Well he got his wish! Could have rode it all day if he wanted since no lines. I'll fill you in next segment:goodvibes
Thanks for reading along:thumbsup2

Thanks for the review of the luau! We've never been because dinner shows are not our type of thing. I like hearing your prospective of it.

I dont know if you went to Ohana's on the trip but Ohana's is great! Its the same type of food and delicious! Atmosphere is great too, no actual dinner shows but there is dinner "entertainment".
I wish we had done Ohana instead. I hear they have shrimp!:love:

I know, right? Alooooooha.

I think, though, for that price, I could convince my husband to put on a loin cloth and twirl some fire. :laughing:
I might make David do a fire dance too but I'm afraid I'll have to airbrush a 6-pack on his abs first.

LOvin' the report still! We are staying at the Poly in April, and we have NO plans to do the Luau! In fact, we have NO ADR made. We are just eating as we go! :)
no need for ADRs! I would have been perfectly content with just CS on this trip. I personally thought there were tons of choices everywhere!

Aimee...I am so :love: your report!

I need to find some of those forced fun t-shirts...I should buy Jeff one for each day of the trip! :scared1:

I am sorry the luau was not as good as you had hoped. I think David needs to take you to Hawaii so you can see a real one! :goodvibes

So where actually are you going to put David's new collection of WDW glasses in your house...I think you need to have custom plaque made that says..."How I Survived My Wife's Trip to WDW!" :rotfl2:
Yep, if I ever drag him back I'll get him custom shirts that say things such as "my wife forced me here and insists I feel magical though all I want to do is drink and collect skulls".

Trust me...your husband sounds alot like mine(happy in a fishing boat and being a country bumpkin). Order him some t-shirts now so they'll be ready for your trip!

[joy13]

I think it's good you tried the Luau once, you were at the Poly, so it was as good a time as any! You've got me on the edge of my seat with AK drama??? Were you there on Saturday? We were there on Saturday the 19th and someone had thrown up by the pictures at EE - I hope that wasn't your drama!

[FosterA]

I think it's good you tried the Luau once, you were at the Poly, so it was as good a time as any! You've got me on the edge of my seat with AK drama??? Were you there on Saturday? We were there on Saturday the 19th and someone had thrown up by the pictures at EE - I hope that wasn't your drama!

Oh Heavens no! We didn't have that much drama. No puking luckily. We actually did AK on Fri 18th.

[debrapagliasotti]

Sorry to hear you didnt enjoy the Luau too much. When we went 3 yrs ago, the food was quite good. I am dreading sitting the the boring parts of the show again next year, but the Luau has been requested again by my older kids. Do they still have that Lava/volcano dessert?

[FosterA]

Sorry to hear you didnt enjoy the Luau too much. When we went 3 yrs ago, the food was quite good. I am dreading sitting the the boring parts of the show again next year, but the Luau has been requested again by my older kids. Do they still have that Lava/volcano dessert?
Yep! They brought out 4 little pyramid things on one tray for us. It was like a chocolate mousse I think. Really good:thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

I just keep telling my family "RIDES FIRST! SIGHTSEE LATER!" And actually on the way into the park - I told my mom (the rest of the family knows this) "We'll see the Oasis on the way out!":thumbsup2

Edit: How did this get posted in front of the article I was commenting on?

[FosterA]

DAY 4- part 1 (Fri, Nov 18)

It was pretty late by the time we got out of the Luau the night before so everybody was pretty tired. The plan ON PAPER was to get to Animal Kingdom today at rope drop since they closed at 5:00 and I just love AK! I wanted plenty of time there. When I had come to WDW for my first time back in Feb, I fell in love with AK. I know it doesn’t get a lot of love all the time but it’s really great. Of all the parks, I think it has the most detailed and immersive theming. I was also excited because when I was doing my planning, I knew that David probably wouldn’t love MK and that his favorite would probably be AK or Epcot. Since all we had done by Day 4 was MK and Studios, I was getting excited to start getting into our AK and Epcot days.

I also knew that Allison would LOVE LOVE AK since she’s such a nature hippie chick. I was a little concerned about Ian because all he cared about AK was getting on Expedition Everest! He had watched the planning videos and was more excited about EE than any other ride at the parks. The problem with Ian though is that he’ll pester the whole time about getting on EE and then probably be bored the rest of the day once he finally did it. I knew I was in for a bit of a battle of keeping a fine balance this day. Plenty of time to view the small things and animals and stroll for Allison yet keep Ian entertained and from bugging us the whole time. She likes to meander and take it all in and take photos of everything and he wants to race from one thrill ride to another.

So…I woke up early like usual and got semi-ready. I HAD to do some laundry this morning because we had packed very light and packed too many colder weather clothes and since it was so warm, nobody really had more than 2 or 3 decent outfits. I had planned a laundry day so I was ok with it. When I left the room everybody was sleeping but I told David that I was heading to laundry room and they needed to be ready to hit the road when I got back. Did that happen? NO!! I slaved away in the laundry room:laundy: to come back to everybody still in bed. When I walked in, I was like “ha, you all are kidding right ? and you are really dressed already and under the covers trying to fake me out”. Not so much. So after a bit of my screaming and yelling, they all got ready. OH…..for those of you staying at the Poly: The laundry room is very nice and there is a tv and chairs in there to hang out. 2 dollars per load to wash and 2 dollars per load to dry. I did 2 huge loads and luckily the dryers got it all dry so I didn’t have to do another cycle. Sometimes that happens but these dryers were fine.

Well our friends (staying offsite) were going to go with us to AK. This was our 3rd and last day to spend time with them and so far there wasn’t one single problem having them along. Yay! And Whew! Well I don’t know since we didn’t drive and I have no idea how parking works but they actually drove to the Poly and parked in our lot and then rode bus with us to AK. They wanted to come back afterwards and watch fireworks from the beach too. Not sure if they were breaking any laws or what but that’s what they did.

While waiting for our friends to park and such we hung out in the lobby. All my screaming and yelling and rushing everybody didn’t really matter since our friends hadn’’t even made it yet anyway so then we had a bit of a wait.. Allison played in the kiddie area and Ian was in the arcade. I remember sitting here in the kiddie area taking this photo when I realized just how sick and yuck I was feeling and was getting progressively worse. Yesterday was not good and today I could tell the congestion and fever-ish feeling was getting worse. I popped a couple of Advil.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0504.jpg

So after grabbing a quick breakfast at Cook’s we headed out to the bus stop. I saw this kid with a cool hairdo and asked his mom if I could take a pic:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0505.jpg

The bus to AK this morning was standing-room only but that happened to us quite a bit on the trip and it wasn’t a big deal. At this point it was probably 10 ish so we’re running about an hour behind. I was checking my Lines app on the way to the park and wasn’t stressing yet because Safari and EE still had no waits.

Once we got parked everybody had to start firing away photos and do a bathroon break (I so should have packed adult diapers for everybody!) Since I’m the only person in this group of 8 that had done any research or planning whatsoever on this trip, I was the only one who had a feeling of urgency to at least get going to one of the 2 bigger attractions. They all were in ignorant bliss and could have taken photos of the tree at the entrance for 30 minutes.

Here’s our photo:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0508.jpg

I'll pick up in the next chapter about how we spent A MILLION HOURS in the Oasis and how I tried to play it cool and not rush everybody to Safari and EE yet deep down I really wanted to crack the whip on everybody. I'm touring with a bunch of grandmas here. (with the exception of Ian and his buddy of course)

[skier_pete]

Hey - I just realized that we were at AK the same day (Friday the 18th?) How did we miss out on that? I'll have to go back through my pictures...

[FosterA]

I just keep telling my family "RIDES FIRST! SIGHTSEE LATER!" And actually on the way into the park - I told my mom (the rest of the family knows this) "We'll see the Oasis on the way out!":thumbsup2

exactly! I mean I love the Oasis and can take forever looking at the details but we just really needed to do or FP EE and Safari first. I kept telling everybody that and they would "obey" but slowly and not without just "one more photo". It was like herding cats at times!

[FosterA]

Hey - I just realized that we were at AK the same day (Friday the 18th?) How did we miss out on that? I'll have to go back through my pictures...

I'm sure we passed each other more than once!
I thought AK was great with little lines or no lines all day yet there were lots of people milling around and the walkways always felt so crowded. What did you think of AK this day?

[Sam33]

I love your TR!
I'm dragging my mom along for her first trip and she's apprehensive. I hope she gets it more than your husband!
Although, me and my dh are also beer snobs and had issues in WDW! He's less of one, but I won't drunk beer I can see through and we quickly figured out that even in Epcot, almost everything was a lager! I had to drink girl drinks all day (I know I"m a girl, but I still prefer beer!) and sugar makes me sick!
DH was so excited to find dogfish head IPA at a sit down we had to take a picture!

Also, the out of the womb smoking ribs thing made me laugh hard! We're not Texans, but my dad's spent 10+ years mastering rib smoking techniques so I don't even try to order ribs elsewhere!

[skier_pete]

I'm sure we passed each other more than once!
I thought AK was great with little lines or no lines all day yet there were lots of people milling around and the walkways always felt so crowded. What did you think of AK this day?

AK Always feels that way. It definitely wasn't very crowded that day...but it sort of always feels crowded walking around the main hub. Since we don't ride much there, we don't see too much evidence of the lines. If you saw any of us, it would've been DD, who had her face painted as a tiger that day. She was hard to miss! You mentioned wanting to rush your family through the Oasis...since it was our 2nd AK day I was doing the opposite...allowing the family time to explore the Oasis, though my "RIDES FIRST" mentality was screaming in my head..."Why aren't we on a ride?" But since I'm the only one that rides EE - I don't even bother with FP - I just do single rider, it's faster.

[Moodyzblu]

Loving your report ! Sorry about the luau .. I've never done it and am glad to get an honest review. Also sorry you were getting sick !

Can't wait to hear how the rest of your day at AK went. :thumbsup2

[swwake]

Glad you finally got everyone going, Aimee. Cracks me up that you said you're traveling with "grandmas"! :rotfl:


I know, right? Alooooooha.

I think, though, for that price, I could convince my husband to put on a loin cloth and twirl some fire. :laughing::lmao:

I am sorry the luau was not as good as you had hoped. I think David needs to take you to Hawaii so you can see a real one! :goodvibes

So where actually are you going to put David's new collection of WDW glasses in your house...I think you need to have custom plaque made that says..."How I Survived My Wife's Trip to WDW!" :rotfl2:I totally agree he needs to take Aimee to Hawaii.

And I wasn't wondering where y'all were going to store/display the mug/cup/skull collection. I was actually wondering where you were going to pack it for the flights home!

[FosterA]

I love your TR!
I'm dragging my mom along for her first trip and she's apprehensive. I hope she gets it more than your husband!
Although, me and my dh are also beer snobs and had issues in WDW! He's less of one, but I won't drunk beer I can see through and we quickly figured out that even in Epcot, almost everything was a lager! I had to drink girl drinks all day (I know I"m a girl, but I still prefer beer!) and sugar makes me sick!
DH was so excited to find dogfish head IPA at a sit down we had to take a picture!

Also, the out of the womb smoking ribs thing made me laugh hard! We're not Texans, but my dad's spent 10+ years mastering rib smoking techniques so I don't even try to order ribs elsewhere!
How fun, I hope your mom "gets the magic"!
All this rib talk is making me hungry!:laughing:

AK Always feels that way. It definitely wasn't very crowded that day...but it sort of always feels crowded walking around the main hub. Since we don't ride much there, we don't see too much evidence of the lines. If you saw any of us, it would've been DD, who had her face painted as a tiger that day. She was hard to miss! You mentioned wanting to rush your family through the Oasis...since it was our 2nd AK day I was doing the opposite...allowing the family time to explore the Oasis, though my "RIDES FIRST" mentality was screaming in my head..."Why aren't we on a ride?" But since I'm the only one that rides EE - I don't even bother with FP - I just do single rider, it's faster.
nope, don't remember a tiger girl. I love AK:cloud9:n I can totally do 2 days there and so many people say it's a half day park.
Loving your report ! Sorry about the luau .. I've never done it and am glad to get an honest review. Also sorry you were getting sick !

Can't wait to hear how the rest of your day at AK went. :thumbsup2
Thanks for reading along:goodvibes I'll probably write more on the AK day tonight or tomorrow when I'm off:thumbsup2

Glad you finally got everyone going, Aimee. Cracks me up that you said you're traveling with "grandmas"! :rotfl:


:lmao:

I totally agree he needs to take Aimee to Hawaii.

And I wasn't wondering where y'all were going to store/display the mug/cup/skull collection. I was actually wondering where you were going to pack it for the flights home!

Yes! he owes me a trip somewhere and he can't act like a dud/grump on it! Hawaii would be nice, never been there!
Well his skulls/mugs actually fit in his suitcase which I'm surprised. We sort of packed light on the way there in anticipation of bringing home some stuff. I wouldn't have predicted skulls though:confused:

[glennbo123]

Okay, I'm caught up. :cool1:

I love reading first-timers' reports and hearing how every ride is "the best one yet" and each new experience and detail is amazing. (From those who get it, anyhow. ;) )

You obviously did your homework, so kudos to you. :thumbsup2

I can understand your apprehension to get to rides that you know will have long wait times, but it's still neat to read how your family is enjoying spending time in areas that don't even get called "an attraction" (like the Oasis) much of the time. In a way, it's kind of neat that you were the only one who planned and knew what to expect.

Now on the other hand, lounging in bed on a Disney day is a huge waste in my opinion, and it's a shame you couldn't have gotten them (and your friends) out the door much earlier. http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/PaulinSaudi/Smilies/whip.gif Oh well. I know you tried.

Thanks for reading my TRs! I should be starting a new PTR in a few weeks, so be on the lookout. :goodvibes

[momabaarjo]

Okay, now I have noted about the Oasis...I had planned time in the Oasis as we leave the park, so maybe if we have issues I can tell them that. They day we are going to AK the EMH start at 7:00 am :scared1:! And yes I am planning on being there at 7:00 am...after a few days at Universal being in line at 6:30 am for Harry Potter early hours I am hoping this will not be an issue. The great thing is that AK has evening EMH until 8:00 pm...but the bad thing is the crowd level is near capacity!

I love the picture in front of the tree! I am hoping you also have a vertical in front of some tree of the family...expect a gift this week in the mail! I can't wait to see all the trees!:goodvibes

Laundry on vacation...yuck, but I love how you used the time before the family got up to do it until late at night or breaking touring to get it done. I am so thankful I rented the Villa so that I can just do a load here and there in the room without worrying about the laundry room!

I am so sorry you did not feel well...I am hoping that in the new few reports you are back to good so you can really enjoy the time! Or maybe being sick calls for a Do-Over with just you and Allison! Let your boys get on a boat with a fishing pole somewhere....:rotfl:

[debrapagliasotti]

Yep! They brought out 4 little pyramid things on one tray for us. It was like a chocolate mousse I think. Really good:thumbsup2

Glad to hear they still have it. My DD will be happy.

[FosterA]

Okay, I'm caught up. :cool1:

I love reading first-timers' reports and hearing how every ride is "the best one yet" and each new experience and detail is amazing. (From those who get it, anyhow. ;) )

You obviously did your homework, so kudos to you. :thumbsup2

I can understand your apprehension to get to rides that you know will have long wait times, but it's still neat to read how your family is enjoying spending time in areas that don't even get called "an attraction" (like the Oasis) much of the time. In a way, it's kind of neat that you were the only one who planned and knew what to expect.

Now on the other hand, lounging in bed on a Disney day is a huge waste in my opinion, and it's a shame you couldn't have gotten them (and your friends) out the door much earlier. http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a275/PaulinSaudi/Smilies/whip.gif Oh well. I know you tried.

Thanks for reading my TRs! I should be starting a new PTR in a few weeks, so be on the lookout. :goodvibes
I agree!! I can sleep at home! Too bad the rest of my family didn't feel that way.
Yay for a new PTR! That means you'll be going back. I'm so jealous;)

Okay, now I have noted about the Oasis...I had planned time in the Oasis as we leave the park, so maybe if we have issues I can tell them that. They day we are going to AK the EMH start at 7:00 am :scared1:! And yes I am planning on being there at 7:00 am...after a few days at Universal being in line at 6:30 am for Harry Potter early hours I am hoping this will not be an issue. The great thing is that AK has evening EMH until 8:00 pm...but the bad thing is the crowd level is near capacity!

I love the picture in front of the tree! I am hoping you also have a vertical in front of some tree of the family...expect a gift this week in the mail! I can't wait to see all the trees!:goodvibes

Laundry on vacation...yuck, but I love how you used the time before the family got up to do it until late at night or breaking touring to get it done. I am so thankful I rented the Villa so that I can just do a load here and there in the room without worrying about the laundry room!

I am so sorry you did not feel well...I am hoping that in the new few reports you are back to good so you can really enjoy the time! Or maybe being sick calls for a Do-Over with just you and Allison! Let your boys get on a boat with a fishing pole somewhere....:rotfl:
I agree, we need a do-over!! I'll let David regroup for a month or two and then I'll start with my pestering. I mean, afterall, there should still be another skull or mug to collect that he missed the first time!

gift in the mail?? seriously? How do you ever have the time!:worship:

Glad to hear they still have it. My DD will be happy.
:thumbsup2

[FosterA]

DAY 4-part 2

So after everybody got their fix of looking at the Christmas tree at the entrance we got started on through the Oasis. Of course it is stunning and there’s tons to look at. I think 2 days at AK would be great. One to do rides and one to just look at stuff! I was trying to act cool and let everybody take their time so I wouldn’t be annoying but of course, deep down, I was flipping out about getting to the Safari or EE!

Allison went nuts in the Oasis and wanted to look at every single thing and take lots of photos. Ian was just so-so during this little walk. He kept walking past me and asking “when are we going to do Expedition Everest?” every 4 seconds or so. I had to keep swatting him away because he was like a pesky fly in my ear most of the day buzzing "Expedition Everest Expedition Everest...". David was his usual self…just sort of meandering behind us, acting like it was just another day in the neighborhood. Not miserable, but not overly enthusiastic (you know, his usual)

Anyway, I think the Oasis is stunning and of course we had perfect weather so it was just so nice to walk through all that. Here’s a couple pics:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0514.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0515.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0521.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0525.jpg

Since I had the app on my phone that told me current wait times, I was able not to spazz too much since I kept checking and Safari was still only a 5-10 minute wait. I decided while we were in the Oasis that we would do Safari first. See, I really didn’t have a “touring plan” ever on this trip. Basically I had the “best park” picked for each day and knew the top 5 or so popular things to get to first, and I sort of memorized the map of each park so we wouldn’t be zig zagging too much. That was the extent of it. I knew that EE or Safari needed to be done first and I just sort of decided as we got there which one to go for. Safari seemed closer so that’s where we headed after Oasis.

Once we got up to the area with the big Tree of Life, we all just ooohed and awwwwed. So cool!! I would have thought that David would say something about how cool it was but did he? NO!! What’s wrong with him?? He did the usual which was me saying “check it out, isn’t that cool how they did that?” followed by him saying “yeah, it’s pretty neat”. I just wanted to beat him over the head because I just don’t understand how somebody could look at that and not be like “wow!” Because he was such a dud, I told him to run and go get Fastpasses for EE. He had no idea where EE was but I said to look for the mountain, you can’t miss it! He took all of our tickets (including our friends’) and I shooed him off in the direction of EE. I told him to meet us at the Safari when he got back. He’s like “where’s that?” I’m like “look at the signs, you’ll figure it out”. I handed him my wadded up map and sent him off. Don’t think I’m mean and hate my husband please. We’ve been married 15 years and he’s my best friend but this was Day 4 and I sort of was getting irritated with his moping along.

Posting the following pic brings back memories. Allison was mortified that her brother was wearing flip flops with jeans this day! Naturally Allison is the fashion consultant of the house. She said David looked dumb this day too since he was wearing a windbreaker and it was too hot for one. Good times:sad2:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4100.jpg

So after we all gawked at the tree and such, I had to herd all the cats on over to Safari. On the way I ran into walls of people and started to freak out that maybe my app was wrong because certainly the wait must be longer than 10 minutes! This is some of the crowd at 10:30 when we finally got out of the Oasis:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0527.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0526.jpg

Well, like it was all day at AK, lots of people clogging up walkways but little to no waits!! Whew!

David made it back from fetching the EE fastpasses and met us at the entrance of the Safari. It took awhile to wind through everything to get up to it and then we just waited for 2 or so jeeps to come by before we loaded. I think this attraction is just the most coolest fabulous attraction at WDW. I just love it because it’s done so well! I’m not even a huge animal person and don’t like zoos and stuff but the way they did this attraction is great! The kids were all pumped up and of course Allison, like me, was able to appreciate all the theming and detail that was put into this. Just the loading area alone is loaded with all sorts of neat detail. Everybody really enjoyed this ride and the kids had a great time! Ian really looked worried at the part where the bridge is shakey and they act like it might fall down. David liked this “ok” (did you expect me to say anything different?) Allison had the camera and took a few pics:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0530.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0533.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0541.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0529.jpg

Well, it was dumb to have only done one attraction before it was time for lunch but that’s exactly what happened! We still had some time but we had a 12:00 reservation at Yak and Yeti so really we just had some time to look around but not enough time to get to EE or start watching a show or anything. We headed in the general direction of Yak and ran into Devine. Super cool! Allison says she wants to work at AK for sure one day and would love to be Devine.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0543.jpg

Ok, I’ll continue really soon with the deets on Yak and Yeti and about the rest of the day!! Will Ian ever get his fill of EE? Will I throw David off Mt. Everest? Will my touring friend, Erin, fall asleep on a stone ledge and be so zonked out that security comes by to make sure she's alive?

[204charity]

Lol can't wait to hear about poor Erin!

[swwake]

Oh my goodness the cliff hangers.

You got some great photos - hard to get the lions. And Devine is actually usually hard to find. In 2008, I looked for her every day we were at AK and never saw her. In 2010, I found her while I was touring solo (Chris was visiting clients), but when he got back to me, we couldn't find him. So he's never seen her. I just love her!

[Moodyzblu]

lol .. great way to end your latest installment ! Love the pics .. AK is my all time favorite park. I could just walk around there all day long.
Looking forward to your next update ! :thumbsup2

ETA .. good job on being able to see Devine ! She is very elusive. ;)

[okw19]

I can't believe you haven't slapped someone yet :rotfl: I'd be getting irritated too if we had only done one thing by lunch time. At least you had enough time to take in all the details instead of rushing through. AK is so beautiful!

[skier_pete]

You should've told DH the tree is actually built from an oil derrick. Maybe that would have gotten his engineer mind spinning. :lmao: You clearly know your husband better than I, but is he maybe just not the "jump up and down...ooh and ahh type". Just cause he's not talking about how wonderful everything is doesn't mean he didn't enjoy himself. (Us men gotta stick together sometimes!)

The most amazing thing to me about the safari is that they literally built EVERYTHING. That was a flat cow pasture when they started construction. All the hills, lakes, cliffs, baobab trees were constructed and all the plants as throughout the park - were planted...just astounding what it took for a single attraction like that. Partly why the park ended up so underbuilt when it opened. (no Everest, and no Primeval Whirl / Triceratos Spin 10 years ago.)

SkierPete

[B&WMickey]

DAY 1-part 5

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0305.jpg



Great TR so far. :thumbsup2

I saw your post over on my TR. We were there the Saturday before you arrived and left after 7 nights. I’ve been following your TR too. It's great following someone else's TR from the same time we were there and hearing a different perspective. We really liked this time of year and would definitely go back.

We were at MVMCP the same night you were. I'd be willing to bet we were within 50 feet of where the above picture was taken.

We were also at DHS the Thursday you were but I don't think our paths crossed that day.

[sandieb]

I kept checking the first page to links for the 4+ days, and was diappointed to see that it wasn't avaiable. You have an entertaining TR. Also, GUYS DON'T SHOW A LOT OF EMOTION! You do get that, right? I've dragged my husband down there for years and he is al blah about most of it. So for next year I said "let's plan a different vacation" and he said, "why, I love it WDW."
THIS IS THE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST KEPT SECRET. It goes to show that guys are emotion challenged! Anyway, glad I found you have kept at it. the TR are a way of enjoying the fun inbetween trip!

[reelmom]

I kept checking the first page to links for the 4+ days, and was diappointed to see that it wasn't avaiable. You have an entertaining TR. Also, GUYS DON'T SHOW A LOT OF EMOTION! You do get that, right? I've dragged my husband down there for years and he is al blah about most of it. So for next year I said "let's plan a different vacation" and he said, "why, I love it WDW."
THIS IS THE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST KEPT SECRET. It goes to show that guys are emotion challenged! Anyway, glad I found you have kept at it. the TR are a way of enjoying the fun inbetween trip!

My DH is the same way. Everytime we go to Disney, it seems like he could care less that we are there. We went to Chattanooga this past October for a long weekend trip per his request. We had fun but on the way home he said,"We should have gone to Disney like we always do." I was shocked. The brainwashing has finally been completed! :rotfl:

I am loving your TR and can't wait to read your next update. I hope that your DH really enjoyed himself and wants to go back again.

[heathsf]

Whew...I fell behind for a little while but now I'm all caught up again. I'm still so jealous of all the rides you get to do with no wait! ;) Allison took some really great pictures on the safari. I'm so happy to hear about how much fun your kids are having on this trip!

[FosterA]

Lol can't wait to hear about poor Erin!
coming right up!:thumbsup2

Oh my goodness the cliff hangers.

You got some great photos - hard to get the lions. And Devine is actually usually hard to find. In 2008, I looked for her every day we were at AK and never saw her. In 2010, I found her while I was touring solo (Chris was visiting clients), but when he got back to me, we couldn't find him. So he's never seen her. I just love her!
I actually have seen her both times I went in the same exact place. I figured she was always there since it was so easy to find her my only two times I went:confused:
lol .. great way to end your latest installment ! Love the pics .. AK is my all time favorite park. I could just walk around there all day long.
Looking forward to your next update ! :thumbsup2

ETA .. good job on being able to see Devine ! She is very elusive. ;)
I had no idea that normally she is hard to find because we just ran right into her and I found her just as easily back when I went to AK alone in Feb.
Thanks for reading along!:goodvibes

I can't believe you haven't slapped someone yet :rotfl: I'd be getting irritated too if we had only done one thing by lunch time. At least you had enough time to take in all the details instead of rushing through. AK is so beautiful!
I know right?? I had to really contain myself with the slapping though it was hard.

You should've told DH the tree is actually built from an oil derrick. Maybe that would have gotten his engineer mind spinning. :lmao: You clearly know your husband better than I, but is he maybe just not the "jump up and down...ooh and ahh type". Just cause he's not talking about how wonderful everything is doesn't mean he didn't enjoy himself. (Us men gotta stick together sometimes!)

The most amazing thing to me about the safari is that they literally built EVERYTHING. That was a flat cow pasture when they started construction. All the hills, lakes, cliffs, baobab trees were constructed and all the plants as throughout the park - were planted...just astounding what it took for a single attraction like that. Partly why the park ended up so underbuilt when it opened. (no Everest, and no Primeval Whirl / Triceratos Spin 10 years ago.)

SkierPete
You always know so many great facts!! how interesting about the oil derrick!!
You are so right about David's lack of emotion. Poor guy, in hindsight I was probably a little mean to him on the trip. I mean, he's always a low key soft spoken guy so I'm not sure why I expected to turn him into a Disney fanatic on his first trip. Maybe I've been hanging on the Dis boards too much and have forgotten that not everybody goes nuts in the parks:laughing:

Great TR so far. :thumbsup2

I saw your post over on my TR. We were there the Saturday before you arrived and left after 7 nights. I’ve been following your TR too. It's great following someone else's TR from the same time we were there and hearing a different perspective. We really liked this time of year and would definitely go back.

We were at MVMCP the same night you were. I'd be willing to bet we were within 50 feet of where the above picture was taken.

We were also at DHS the Thursday you were but I don't think our paths crossed that day.
You stayed at port Orleans right?? I really want a re-do trip and want to stay there! Thanks for following along:thumbsup2

I kept checking the first page to links for the 4+ days, and was diappointed to see that it wasn't avaiable. You have an entertaining TR. Also, GUYS DON'T SHOW A LOT OF EMOTION! You do get that, right? I've dragged my husband down there for years and he is al blah about most of it. So for next year I said "let's plan a different vacation" and he said, "why, I love it WDW."
THIS IS THE ABSOLUTELY THE BEST KEPT SECRET. It goes to show that guys are emotion challenged! Anyway, glad I found you have kept at it. the TR are a way of enjoying the fun inbetween trip!
I know I know. In hindsight I was pretty mean to David. He always is mellow and then for some reason I had expectations of him to all of a sudden be bursting with enthusiasm once we got to WDW. duh on my part!
Thanks for reading along!! oh and I don't always get my table of contents updated right away even if I did post an update so be sure to scroll to the end and check:thumbsup2
p.s. so cool that that your husband wants to keep going back!!:love:

My DH is the same way. Everytime we go to Disney, it seems like he could care less that we are there. We went to Chattanooga this past October for a long weekend trip per his request. We had fun but on the way home he said,"We should have gone to Disney like we always do." I was shocked. The brainwashing has finally been completed! :rotfl:

I am loving your TR and can't wait to read your next update. I hope that your DH really enjoyed himself and wants to go back again.

I love to hear stories like this. I do hope that some brainwashing seeped into David though he wont admit it if it has:laughing:
Remember, there is an event coming up in my TR that he did really really enjoy so there is still hope for another trip!

Whew...I fell behind for a little while but now I'm all caught up again. I'm still so jealous of all the rides you get to do with no wait! ;) Allison took some really great pictures on the safari. I'm so happy to hear about how much fun your kids are having on this trip!
Hello there:goodvibes:goodvibes yes...the kids LOVED it and sooooo want to go back!
you got any updates lately? I love your TR too!

[FosterA]

DAY 4-part 3

Before I get started again I wanted to point out that we were still touring around with our trip hi-jacking friends on this day. They were great and still just happy to be along for the ride and did not resist whenever I barked out my orders. I don’t have hardly any photos or too much info in my TR about them because obviously I have no idea if they’d want me tossing their family pics out there in cyber space. Either way, we spent 3 whole days with them and did not have one problem which was very nice. They knew I had the “plan” a loose one, but more of a plan than they had, so they were content letting me lead the way.

Ok…back to the regularly scheduled TR:
Like I said, we had knocked out one entire attraction (Safari) before it was time for our lunch ADR! Sheesh:rolleyes: I had originally planned on being at the park much earlier so I thought noon was good for lunch. I liked all of our table service meals but part of me thinks it may have been better just to do CS all the way. We didn’t even have one table service a day and I still felt like those reservations got in the way sometimes. I can’t imagine doing the Deluxe Dining. I suppose if it wasn’t our very first trip and we were ok with missing a lot of things it would be ok but there was sooooo much to do that sometimes stopping to eat was a bit of hassle.

Anyhow…after the Safari and watching Devine for a little bit we made our way to Yak and Yeti. As usual, we had really no wait and they took us right in. I mean, we had the reservation but I have heard stories of still having to wait a bit. This was our third meal reservation so far on the trip and we never waited more than 2 minutes to be seated.

I think this was taken near the entrance:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0544.jpg

My whole family likes “Chinese” food so that’s why I booked this. Allison loves any kind of noodle veggie dish and Ian always goes for some sort of honey chicken or sweet sour chicken ala carte. No rice or other “weird” things. Dave and I will eat about anything so Yak sounded like a good spot for us. Our friends that were touring with us this day were able to get a reservation also though they didn’t make it until a week or two before. We all got seated together without a problem.


Allison LOVED the atmosphere in this place and she was walking all around taking photos while we were waiting on our food. I made her sit down after awhile though because this place is TIGHT! They really pack the tables in here and I was worried she’d be bumping into people. Here’s a couple pics:


http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0550.jpg

Is this a cleverly disguised thermostat control thingy?

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I ordered the lettuce wraps/cups, Ian got honey chicken, Allison got low mein, and David got a Kobe Burger. I can’t remember what my friends ordered but I’m pretty sure one thing was a salad and it was huge because Erin got a to-go box to take it for snacking on later. I’d say we all thought our meals were just “OK”. I was hoping for a PF Changs but it wasn’t near that good. All in all, not a bad meal and no regrets but nothing we talked about later and reminisced over. Once we all finished up (again, nobody in a big hurry but I was fretting a little because it was already 1:00, the park closes at 5:00 and all we’ve done was the Safari and eat!!!) Holy cow, we wasted a lot of time this day. Only downfall of “off season” is that the parks aren’t open as late and if you don’t do rope-drop it’s pretty tough to get it all done.

After eating I really wanted to see the bird show but there wasn’t one starting right then. The kids wanted to do Kali River Rapids but I said that would have to wait since I didn’t want any drenched people in our party slowing us down with whining about being wet! We settled (with my guidance) on doing the Maharajah Jungle Trek. I LOVED this walking trail. Way neater than I had envisioned. I was thinking “zoo” but it was so much nicer!! The kids really loved it too. Ian was still rushing us through because we had EE to get to and he wasn’t about to let that go but he did seem to enjoy the trek. Allison thought it was awesome and could have literally spent hours on it. Our friend’s son saw the big dragon lizard thing at the beginning and wanted to take at least 4,000 photos of just that so if you can just imagine how long this trek would take considering we were only at the first “exhibit”. Here’s a couple pics:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0577.jpg

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How sick is this thing! Gag me!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0570.jpg

The tigers were amazing and I loved the old “ruins” that are the backdrop. So creative!! At one point one of the tigers got up and “spray” marked his scent on a rock and the kids died laughing. Those things can really spray A LOT! Everybody wanted to spend a lot of time in the bat area too and that was not really fun to me. I felt pretty packed and bottlenecked up in there. At some point we FINALLY got out of this trail. Not that I didn’t love it, but the clock was really ticking and we had to get to EE before Ian exploded.

So, if you remember, once we entered and got through the Oasis, I had sent David off for Faspasses for our whole group. Well, once we got out of the Maharajah trek and got to EE, there was only a 10 minute wait (probably 2:00 or so in the afternoon). I thought that since for sure the kids will want to do it more than once, that we should just all go standy-by and then they could use our faspasses and go again. All of us except for the other dad touring with us (He doesn’t do coasters and thrill stuff) headed on in. I was excited because the only time I did this before was single-rider and I don’t remember going through the Yeti Museum when you do that. Well, the museum area is just amazing. I mean…you don’t even mind waiting in line a bit! David was semi-interested in the things in there also. Well, for some reason, I specifically remember starting to feel my cold/fever/funk spiking up another notch at this point because I kind of felt like the floor was moving a little and had to hold the railing at one point. I think my equilibrium was off since my ears and everything were all plugged up. The previous day I knew I was getting sick but it was still tolerable, this day was a bit worse, and tomorrow is when I’ll peak into my miserableness. Then the last 2 days of our trip I start improving again. Great time to be getting on roller coasters huh!

I also am sad to say that I really don’t have photos from this time frame which sucks! Ian was so excited too! I don’t know if it’s that Allison had my camera and was too far ahead or if I just was feeling so bad that I didn’t care? I figure when I get ready to do our scrapbook, I’ll just have to google some images and print them. Nobody needs to know right?

Ian wanted to ride with his friend but I made him ride with me because it was going to be our “special mom/son bonding ride”. I really must have been feeling bad at this time because for some reason I felt like we were in the very front but I honestly don’t remember.

Well, EE did not disappoint. It’s such an amazing ride! I’m a big chicken and I really like this ride because it’s so scenic and pretty too. I really wish the Yeti was working though. We all screamed and went nuts and everybody loved it! Once we exited the kids were jumping around to do it again. Since we had 4 faspasses (and once is enough for me and Dave since were old geezers) the kids got to go 2 more times!!! They did 3 rides in a row and Ian thought he died and went to Heaven!

So us 4 parents went and found some flat rock like benches that are right there at the entrance and sort of camped out. I was just in awe of the scenery. The detail and such right in this area is AMAZING!! Well….I was chatting with David when I looked over and saw my friend Erin completely stretched out across one of the rocks (her husband was on his phone completely clueless). She had her camera bag hanging over the edge across her chest and her mouth was wide open. Poor thing looked like someone just hit her over the head with a frying pan. She was very much asleep. It was nice and warm on the rocks and perfect for napping. Well, I then see a plain-clothes security guy (I just know it was because I’m observant that way) come over and stand over her and sort of started fiddling around with something like he was getting ready to call for back-up. Well, it wasn’t but a second when she must have wiggled or something because he then strolled off when he realized she was just asleep. I thought it was hilarious but I didn’t even tell her about it because I didn’t want to embarrass her! Oh how I wish I had taken a photo!!

Ok….next chapter: Did we ever get anything else done this entire day but eat and 2 rides?! Also…What on earth am I going to do if my friends want to be “pool hoppers” and use our pool while they are there checking out the fireworks and visiting with us?!

[swwake]

I love that jungle trail. The bats kinda creep me out because you can see their "parts" (if you know what I mean). Love the tigers though.

Did you spend any time with the gorillas? And what about those yelping monkeys on the way around to Yak & Yeti?

Love EE! So glad you got to have your mother/son moment there.

I am not sure I could EVER take a nap at Disney. Kudos to Erin for making it happen!

[BridgetR3]

DAY 4-part 3

I liked all of our table service meals but part of me thinks it may have been better just to do CS all the way. We didn’t even have one table service a day and I still felt like those reservations got in the way sometimes. I can’t imagine doing the Deluxe Dining. I suppose if it wasn’t our very first trip and we were ok with missing a lot of things it would be ok but there was sooooo much to do that sometimes stopping to eat was a bit of hassle.



My DH and I agree totally that eating at TS wastes way too much of your time if you aren't one of those families that goes to Disney every year. Spending a good 1.5 to 2 hours in a restaurant for TS meals messed up our schedules on more than one day. We always had to leave something undone or get out of line in order to make the TS reservations. And honestly, in our opinion, the meals were not that great. They were good and all...don't get me wrong but we have good restaurants at home that we can visit and not pay Disney prices while wasting our precious touring time!

We actually preferred our CS meals anyways and will be going OOP next trip!

[AprilRenee]

I totally almost fell asleep on those rocks on our AK day on our last trip. I was SO tired and they were the most comfortable rocks I've ever felt! :lmao:

[heathsf]

Hello there:goodvibes:goodvibes yes...the kids LOVED it and sooooo want to go back!
you got any updates lately? I love your TR too!

I planned to get at least one update in this weekend but I've just been so busy. :confused3 Hopefully nothing will distract me when I get home from work today and I'll work on the TR for a little bit before making dinner with BF.

[heathsf]

Great update! :thumbsup2 The maharajah trek is so awesome. The animals really seem to be in this natural habitat and it totally feels like another part of the world. I love it! And :woohoo: for EE 3x in a row for the kids! And that story about your friend taking a nap on the rocks was hilarious. :rotfl2:

[FosterA]

I love that jungle trail. The bats kinda creep me out because you can see their "parts" (if you know what I mean). Love the tigers though.

Did you spend any time with the gorillas? And what about those yelping monkeys on the way around to Yak & Yeti?

Love EE! So glad you got to have your mother/son moment there.

I am not sure I could EVER take a nap at Disney. Kudos to Erin for making it happen!
ewwww, bat parts. gross. Luckily I never witnessed any of that. We did see some monkeys once but I don't remember seeing more than one or two and they were quiet:confused:

My DH and I agree totally that eating at TS wastes way too much of your time if you aren't one of those families that goes to Disney every year. Spending a good 1.5 to 2 hours in a restaurant for TS meals messed up our schedules on more than one day. We always had to leave something undone or get out of line in order to make the TS reservations. And honestly, in our opinion, the meals were not that great. They were good and all...don't get me wrong but we have good restaurants at home that we can visit and not pay Disney prices while wasting our precious touring time!

We actually preferred our CS meals anyways and will be going OOP next trip!
I can totally relate to just wanting to do CS. If you come to Disney alot and have more touring hours the TS is probably good but I can be totally content with CS:thumbsup2 Were even paying OOP and didn't "have" to use up any TS credits so I imagine it's even harder if you have free dining plan and want to be sure to get the value. I'd feel pressured to eat TS almost.

I totally almost fell asleep on those rocks on our AK day on our last trip. I was SO tired and they were the most comfortable rocks I've ever felt! :lmao:
Right! nice and flat rocks and you feel like you are in the mountains. awwww. I think Erin just drew attention from that guy because her mouth was wide open and her camera was slung over her neck area and dangling to the side and at first glance it looked like maybe it was chocking her:laughing:

I planned to get at least one update in this weekend but I've just been so busy. :confused3 Hopefully nothing will distract me when I get home from work today and I'll work on the TR for a little bit before making dinner with BF.
No hurries. It takes time to do updates that's for sure. I have no idea how I'm banging mine out so quick because I have so much else I need to be doing. I think I just really miss our trip and am not sure when/if we'll ever go back:sad2:

[FosterA]

DAY 4-part 4

After the kids did their 3x on EE and we jostled Erin out of her deep sleep, it was time to get moving! I knew we were quickly running out of time with the park closing at 5:00 and I still wanted to do Bug’s life and Festival of the Lion King at the very least. I would have loved to do the other trail too but that did not happen on this trip.

So we took off out of the EE area and got…..oh 30 feet, when someone in the group just HAD to have an ice cream break. There was a cool little bus thing (I’m sure some of you regulars would know the name) that had ice cream so we stopped there. I wanted to get the ice cream and keep trucking towards Bug’s Life but did that happen? No of course not. Everybody wanted to lounge around on benches and take their time. Oh Lordy, I’m about to have a hernia at this point. We’re at maybe my favorite park and we have only done 2 big attractions and one Trek and it’s almost closing time! See what happens when you are the “boss” and the tour guide but nobody is scared of you? I need to learn how to be more intimidating to my family. :cool2:

After the slow-motion ice cream eating we finally got over to Bug’s Life. I just think this thing is sooooo cool and couldn’t wait for the fam to see it. As a matter of fact, I personally think it’s way better than Philarmagic as far as 4-D movies go! As usual, there was no line so we pretty much whipped through the line very fast and there wasn’t a lot of checking out the tree. However we got a couple pics:


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Everybody loved it!! Even David had a big smile on his face. Allison was the most freaked out by it but she was still laughing/smiling the whole time.


After Bug’s we had just a little time before the final showing of the day of Lion King which would be our last attraction of the day. There was some awkwardness for awhile with not really knowing what to do since there wasn’t THAT much time yet we still had SOME time. Ian wanted to do Kali super bad and so did his little friend. Nobody else wanted to risk getting wet. We ended up splitting up and David took the two boys all the way over to Kali (no wait) and they did it, though David just waited for them and didn’t join in for some reason. I think he should have, big baby!! The boys didn't even get wet at all! yay. The rest of our group worked our way over to Dinosaur while we waited for the boys.

I sat this one out because this ride is cool but I feel beat to heck by the time I get off. I was worried I’d end up with a migraine or something beings I had a head full of congestion. The remaining group all did Dinosaur and LOVED it! Once Dave and the boys got back, the remaining group all went a second time so they could ride with Ian and Patrick. David sat this one out too because he thought it was a Simulator type ride. Once the group was already gone, I told him it wasn’t and then he wanted to go do it. I said “go!” you can catch up to them (no lines) but he didn’t because he didn’t think he’d get in their group. I know he would have because I don’t remember seeing hardly any other people go into this ride after our group got inside. Oh well….I think he wishes he had done it.


After Dinosaur we all headed over to Lion King. Well, Ian and his friend wanted to do a quick stop at Boneyard first so I took them there and we met up at Lion King in a bit, sort of. The boys played for a few minutes and then we tried to get back with the group. Unfortunately the show had already started and they shuffled us in the back way and we never got to sit with the rest of the group. It was ok though, the show is SOOOOOO awesome! Even Ian said it was one of his favorite things! By the time the boys and I got in there though we did miss the first few minutes. Boo hoo. I think this show is sooooo amazing. I did sort of miss that I didn’t get to sit by Allison so I really don’t know what her reaction was. I wanted to post some photos since this update is so boring without photos but I really didn’t get too many from EE on through the end of our day. Sorry.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0611.jpg

After Lion king, the park was closing so we got swept up in the river of people heading toward exit. Wow! This was a slow day but it was a giant mass exodus that’s for sure.:scared1:

I don’t remember having any trouble getting on a bus pretty quick though because before you know it we were back at the Poly. Our friends had their car parked there and had planned on hanging with us on the beach just to visit. We don’t live in the same state as our friends so we really did want some catch-up time just to talk. We’ve been running around together of course but that’s sometimes hard for talking. I was worried about what would happen if their son wanted to swim with Ian and be one of “those” pool hoppers. Well….luckily for me I didn’t have to say anything because it was downright windy and chilly so nobody wanted to swim! Whew!

They weren’t even able to set up the movie on the beach because the wind was whipping the screen around. They did attempt to have the marshmallow roast though but it was so windy and chilly that it wasn’t that great. I noticed that our friends did roast a marshmallow or two though. It was ok though because the poor CMs were bored to death because nobody was coming to do it except for our group. Here'a pic and you can sort of make out Allison in the corner. She was being a good daughter and making me a marshmallow when I shot this. awwww.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0614-1.jpg

After we played around with the marshmallows we all just pulled up some seats by the pool and hung out and chatted for a couple hours. It was really nice and relaxing though it was definitely on the chilly side. The only night on our whole trip that was too cold to swim. We all just snacked on pizza and things from Cook’s and had a great time. At one point we got some cupcakes from Cook’s and munched on those too. Gotta love the Mickey sprinkles!

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Well, this was our last day with our buddies since they would be leaving in the morning. It was fun spending time with them and I’m so glad that they didn’t put any kinks in our touring. It worked out good timing wise though because this is the night that my cold/sinus problem got to it’s very worst so Day 5 was not too fun. I’m glad we didn’t still have our friends around because I might have tried to do too much and there was no way I could. Stay tuned on how Day 5 worked out and what we ended up doing. It was my scheduled Epcot day too, yikes! Let’s just say that Day 5, 6, 7 look nothing like my original itinerary and there was lots of shuffling and canceling of ADRs and so forth. Remember the ORIGINAL itinerary was:
Day 1 Arrival day and Christmas party
Day 2 MK and F!
Day 3 Studios all day
Day 4 Ak all day
Day 5 Future World portion of Ep
Day 6 World Showcase portion
Day 7 hang at resort and DTD
Day 8 fly out early

So the first 4 days went exactly as planned but the last 3 were a whole ‘nother story.
The good news though is the there still is that “thing” coming up that David got all excited and VERY ENTHUSIASTIC about. Yay. As a matter of fact, he actually uttered the words “ok, I might be feeling just a little of that magic now” at one point. Not “a lot of magic” mind you but he did get a slight sprinkling of it.

More soon!

[okw19]

Even though you didn't get everything in on your AK day, it still sounds like a good visit! I was hoping Yak & Yeti would be as good as PF Chang's too, so thankfully you saved me from making an ADR. :)
I'm nervous to hear about the rest of the week with you not feeling well. Hope you still got to do most of what you wanted.

[204charity]

Can't wait to read what happened at Epcot! (my favorite park)

[Moodyzblu]

Great update !! Touring AK is something my kids and I really enjoy and we spend hours doing the "treks". Sometimes I just sit and take it all in .. I just LOVE this place. We always do 2 full days here.

I don't do TS meals at WDW unless it's at DTD and we do T-Rex and Planet Hollywood. But when I'm in the parks .. I can't stand to take more than 1/2 hour spending time eating. I also don't like to be tied down with ADR's.
There is lot's of great CS food. I surprised my friend last trip because she figured we would be eating burgers all week but I changed that train of thought when we ate at Seasons and we got pork chops. We ended up going back there a second time for another round. :)

I can't wait to hear what got David excited !!

[kittylady1972]

:thumbsup2 Yippee...loved the whole Animal Kingdom day and just kept laughing :rotfl: at your impatience with everybody else. Too funny but completely understandable. I get that way too, even though I try to make time for us all to relax and enjoy while in the parks. It's hard, you just want to DO STUFF and I have kids that would just do the BIG RIDES over and over again...even though when I get them into the shows (usually after some threatening/yelling/etc....so Disney..NOT) they always enjoy them! :) Of course! :laughing:

I must say we have not done any of the walking trails in a long time, but you've convinced me that next time we should try them. The kids LOVE animals and I think they would enjoy this too. I'll have to add it to my Nov 2012 must-do list! :thumbsup2

[skier_pete]

I still can't believe we were at the same park at the same time all day and didn't get to meet...so bummed.:confused: How did I miss that in the schedule? :confused3 We must've crossed near eachother at Maharajah Jungle Trek...that rack of ribs laying by the Tiger's was there when we went through, though the Tiger wasn't there. I think we went through around 11:30...

I have to tell you with Kali. Typically on each raft 4 people stay completely dry, 4 people get moderately wet, and 2 people get soaked to the bone. A 1 in 5 chance of a drenching. You (and David) were better off skipping it!

Oh...since you like my stupid facts...the Maharajah's palace was original for the Raj of Anandapur, who was a big time hunter - which is why the murals of the palace depict this. Later, the people of Anandapur decided to turn it into a sancuary for the native animals. The grounds of the palace extend through Yak and Yeti all the way over to the Flights of Wonder show. :thumbsup2

SP

[Chicago Mo]

I LOVE your TR!!!! :love:
your pictures are amazing!!!
I cannot wait to hear what he really likes?!? has to be in Epcot.. Soarin?!?! Test track? Finding Nemo? the three caballeros? or just world showcase in itself? ugh it's killing me..
will you be able to get them all on board for a return trip?!?!

[hollyrose]

This is great! Can't wait to find out if your husband sees the magic. I am taking my boyfriend for the first time and I'm praying he sees the magic too! :)

[momabaarjo]

Way to leave us hanging....I so want to know what brought David to feel a little magic...but I am excited right now that you got a smile out of him at the Tree of Life.

Your pictures are getting me so ready to go...especially after today's weather! Sending some downstate I am sure!

[B&WMickey]

You stayed at port Orleans right?? I really want a re-do trip and want to stay there! Thanks for following along:thumbsup2



Correct.

We did stay at Port Orleans Riverside and loved it. We've liked it enough to have stayed there 3 times now. For the price I’d say it’s hard to beat. The grounds are immaculate and well themed. The rooms are smaller than at the Poly (quite a bit smaller) but on the good side when the refurbishment is finished in 2012 all of the rooms will have 2 queen sized beds instead of the current double beds.

I’ll continue to post pictures/comments about POR in my TR.

[heathsf]

Even though you didn't get to to do everything you wanted at AK, it still seems like everyone had a great day and enjoyed themselves. Sometimes lounging around eating ice cream is the right thing to do! I think I have the same kind of head cold now that you had back in November and I can't imagine trekking around Disney World with it. Yuck. I hope you were still able to enjoy yourself on Day 5!

[FosterA]

Even though you didn't get everything in on your AK day, it still sounds like a good visit! I was hoping Yak & Yeti would be as good as PF Chang's too, so thankfully you saved me from making an ADR. :)
I'm nervous to hear about the rest of the week with you not feeling well. Hope you still got to do most of what you wanted.
Thanks:goodvibes Yep, not even close to PF Changs unfortunately. But remember..my senses were sort of messed up so nothing seemed to have flavor and was bland the last couple days. Of course nobody else in the party loved the food and they weren't sick.

Can't wait to read what happened at Epcot! (my favorite park)
Coming up soon! I'm off Sundays and Mondays so most of my updates happen then so keep your eye out. EP is my favorite park too I think. Either that or AK!

Great update !! Touring AK is something my kids and I really enjoy and we spend hours doing the "treks". Sometimes I just sit and take it all in .. I just LOVE this place. We always do 2 full days here.

I don't do TS meals at WDW unless it's at DTD and we do T-Rex and Planet Hollywood. But when I'm in the parks .. I can't stand to take more than 1/2 hour spending time eating. I also don't like to be tied down with ADR's.
There is lot's of great CS food. I surprised my friend last trip because she figured we would be eating burgers all week but I changed that train of thought when we ate at Seasons and we got pork chops. We ended up going back there a second time for another round. :)

I can't wait to hear what got David excited !!
We sound alot alike! Just like sleep, I can eat at home!:laughing: Also glad someone else loves AK since so many people don't:confused:

:thumbsup2 Yippee...loved the whole Animal Kingdom day and just kept laughing :rotfl: at your impatience with everybody else. Too funny but completely understandable. I get that way too, even though I try to make time for us all to relax and enjoy while in the parks. It's hard, you just want to DO STUFF and I have kids that would just do the BIG RIDES over and over again...even though when I get them into the shows (usually after some threatening/yelling/etc....so Disney..NOT) they always enjoy them! :) Of course! :laughing:

I must say we have not done any of the walking trails in a long time, but you've convinced me that next time we should try them. The kids LOVE animals and I think they would enjoy this too. I'll have to add it to my Nov 2012 must-do list! :thumbsup2
We only did one of the trails and I soooooo wish we had done both. Maybe next time, if there is one!
Thanks for following along!

I still can't believe we were at the same park at the same time all day and didn't get to meet...so bummed.:confused: How did I miss that in the schedule? :confused3 We must've crossed near eachother at Maharajah Jungle Trek...that rack of ribs laying by the Tiger's was there when we went through, though the Tiger wasn't there. I think we went through around 11:30...

I have to tell you with Kali. Typically on each raft 4 people stay completely dry, 4 people get moderately wet, and 2 people get soaked to the bone. A 1 in 5 chance of a drenching. You (and David) were better off skipping it!

Oh...since you like my stupid facts...the Maharajah's palace was original for the Raj of Anandapur, who was a big time hunter - which is why the murals of the palace depict this. Later, the people of Anandapur decided to turn it into a sancuary for the native animals. The grounds of the palace extend through Yak and Yeti all the way over to the Flights of Wonder show. :thumbsup2

SP
so weird I know!! How did we BOTH not notice that our AK day intersected?? I mean, originally I had planned on doing AK on Thur, not Friday and switched about a month out so maybe we just didn't re-look at our schedules?

I LOVE your TR!!!! :love:
your pictures are amazing!!!
I cannot wait to hear what he really likes?!? has to be in Epcot.. Soarin?!?! Test track? Finding Nemo? the three caballeros? or just world showcase in itself? ugh it's killing me..
will you be able to get them all on board for a return trip?!?!
Well, I'll tell you what DIDN'T get Dave excited.....Captain EO!. OMG, he almost died he said it was so horrendous. :laughing:

This is great! Can't wait to find out if your husband sees the magic. I am taking my boyfriend for the first time and I'm praying he sees the magic too! :)
I know.....mine was a little stubborn at first and not very excited but I may, just may, be able to get him there again! Good luck with your BF!!:goodvibes

Way to leave us hanging....I so want to know what brought David to feel a little magic...but I am excited right now that you got a smile out of him at the Tree of Life.

Your pictures are getting me so ready to go...especially after today's weather! Sending some downstate I am sure!
I know I know....big mystery about what David LOVED. Like I said earlier...it's NOT Captain Eo!! ugh!:laughing: at least we narrowed it down some!

Correct.

We did stay at Port Orleans Riverside and loved it. We've liked it enough to have stayed there 3 times now. For the price I’d say it’s hard to beat. The grounds are immaculate and well themed. The rooms are smaller than at the Poly (quite a bit smaller) but on the good side when the refurbishment is finished in 2012 all of the rooms will have 2 queen sized beds instead of the current double beds.

I’ll continue to post pictures/comments about POR in my TR.
If we stay at Port Orleans one day I really want to stay in Alligator Bayou. Do you normally get that section if you request it?

Even though you didn't get to to do everything you wanted at AK, it still seems like everyone had a great day and enjoyed themselves. Sometimes lounging around eating ice cream is the right thing to do! I think I have the same kind of head cold now that you had back in November and I can't imagine trekking around Disney World with it. Yuck. I hope you were still able to enjoy yourself on Day 5!
That's exactly right. The goal of the trip is to have fun and enjoy ourselves so if eating ice cream made everybody happy than that was ok:goodvibes
Get better soon!:goodvibes

[BridgetR3]

I have a guess as to what Dave loved...is it Turtle Talk with Crush? I would think maybe the hidden element of being able to interact with people live would get him hooked. Otherwise, no clue.... :lmao:

[glennbo123]

My guess is that it might be Soarin!?

[skier_pete]

so weird I know!! How did we BOTH not notice that our AK day intersected?? I mean, originally I had planned on doing AK on Thur, not Friday and switched about a month out so maybe we just didn't re-look at our schedules?


I guess I just missed it. :sad1: I would've been great to meet you guys. I didn't get to meet ANY DIS'ers this trip. :confused: It's always fun to meet someone you've been talking with on the boards. It's like your both strangers and friends at the same time.

Well, I'll tell you what DIDN'T get Dave excited.....Captain EO!. OMG, he almost died he said it was so horrendous

I gotta agree with this. There are not many things at Disney that I will never ever do again - but Captain EO was one of them. I hadn't seen it back in the eighties - but it was such a big bag of eighties cheese! I could only picture enjoying it again being very drunk and totally making fun of it.

[JAMIESMITH]

I just read your trip report so far from the beginning. I'm so sorry you got sick after working so hard to plan the perfect trip! We're stayin at the Poly next fall. I'm really enjoyin all your photos!

[joy13]

All caught up! Friday was a good AK because it was cool, AK can be so hot. We were at MK that day and did the party - it was perfect for all that too :) AK is hard to get a lot done in because it's so spread out!

[GrammyJudy]

Raelly enjoying your report. The poly looks gorgeous. We want to stay there sometime. If Hubby doesn't like it as much as you...leave him home the next time!!!

[FosterA]

I have a guess as to what Dave loved...is it Turtle Talk with Crush? I would think maybe the hidden element of being able to interact with people live would get him hooked. Otherwise, no clue.... :lmao:
Nope that isn't it. Good try though:goodvibes

My guess is that it might be Soarin!? Nope! not it.

I guess I just missed it. :sad1: I would've been great to meet you guys. I didn't get to meet ANY DIS'ers this trip. :confused: It's always fun to meet someone you've been talking with on the boards. It's like your both strangers and friends at the same time.



I gotta agree with this. There are not many things at Disney that I will never ever do again - but Captain EO was one of them. I hadn't seen it back in the eighties - but it was such a big bag of eighties cheese! I could only picture enjoying it again being very drunk and totally making fun of it.
:laughing:I think watching this when drunk at a party would be awesome! Great idea.

I just read your trip report so far from the beginning. I'm so sorry you got sick after working so hard to plan the perfect trip! We're stayin at the Poly next fall. I'm really enjoyin all your photos!
Thanks for joining in:thumbsup2 I wish I was at the Poly right now instead of boring ol' home!
All caught up! Friday was a good AK because it was cool, AK can be so hot. We were at MK that day and did the party - it was perfect for all that too :) AK is hard to get a lot done in because it's so spread out!
I remember thinking how perfect the weather was that Friday for park touring. Just perfect. Chilly at night when sun went down but even then, just a sweatshirt would be fine.

Raelly enjoying your report. The poly looks gorgeous. We want to stay there sometime. If Hubby doesn't like it as much as you...leave him home the next time!!!
Right...I'll have him hand me a wad of money to spend and he can stay home:thumbsup2

[FosterA]

DAY 5-part 1 (Saturday Nov 19)

so sorry for the lack of photos in this update and my constant rambling. I swear, this should be the most boring update of the whole trip, it'll get better I promise!

So if you’ve been following along you’ll know that I was progressively feeling worse every day with some sort of cold virus.:sick: Well, our previous day at AK things got quite a bit worse around the end of the day. I woke up Saturday morning….well I never really “woke up” since I hardly slept! I could not breathe and was miserable all night. No I didn’t go to a doctor because I figured it was just a virus that needed to run it’s course?? Maybe I should have gone though….oh well too late now and I’m all better now obviously so I didn’t die! So….when I opened my eyes I felt horrid and just knew that I couldn’t survive Epcot this day. I was sooooooo sad. I had one rest/downtown day planned but I wanted to do that on our last day because the Thanksgiving crowds would be arriving then and I wanted all the park/ride lines days done earliest in the trip and save World showcase for our second to last day and DTD and hanging at resort for our last day. Know what I mean? I just had visions of the Thanksgiving crowds flooding in and really wanted our Epcot Future World day under our belt before that happened.

Oh well….I had to accept that my perfectly organized plan was not going to work. I literally could not fathom waking around a huge park like Epcot feeling like this.

Once it got light enough, I woke David up and told him to please, for the love of God, go find me some meds! I knew they had a good supply of stuff up in the Poly store so I sent him there. He was gone forever! Turns out he “didn’t see them”:rolleyes: (very similar to how he can’t “see” things at home either). He got on the monorail and looked at Grand Floridian and found some stuff there. Of course sometime over the next couple days I did see the exact same meds at the Poly store. I told him that and he said they must have just got them in stock because they weren’t there when he looked. Sure:thumbsup2:rolleyes:

After I took some head cold stuff and got my splitting headache under control I broke the news that we would be having a sick day this day. Allison wasn’t thrilled but Ian was great with the idea because he was getting a little burnt out and loved the idea of playing in the pool all day!!

I then slept for a couple more hours but woke up feeling a little better around noon or 1:00. Everybody was starving and wanted to go eat and maybe run to downtown because the kids had souvenir money burning a hole in their pockets. I really just wanted David to take them and leave me wallowing in my misery in the room but then again, I also felt sort of left out staying in the room and I wanted to be there when they picked out their little souvenirs. Ian saved up all his money to make a Ridemakers car and was almost more excited about that than riding EE!! I felt horrid but did not want to miss his moment. Since I felt slightly better (once the headache went away it was a lot better), I decided to come along. First thing I had to do though was cancel some ADRs since this day and the next day for sure would be screwed up. We had originally planned for lunch at San Angel Inn this day and I had to cancel that. Boo hoo. I also canceled the next day’s breakfast ADR at Grand Floridian because if I was feeling better, we had lots of Epcot to make up for and I didn’t want to fiddle with a long breakfast. I didn’t care so much about this one anyway since we already went to the GF once and got to see the gingerbread house and décor. I did want to try the eggs benedict though. Bummer.

I did not do any makeup at all and put my hair in a messy bun and we were off! I told them it would be a quick trip just to eat and grab what they wanted and then we needed to come back. No endless window shopping and such. I was VERY VERY conscious and worried that I could infect somebody else and I’d hate for someone else on vacation to get what I had. Especially a kid! Yikes. I know, maybe I should have stayed quarantined in my room so please don’t hate me because I still got up and out:guilty: I think I did a pretty good job of covering my mouth and trying not to breathe or touch anything. Considering nobody in my family nor in our friend’s family got sick, I like to think I did ok.

So we loaded on the bus and headed to DTD from the Poly. When we arrived it was crazy because it was way busier than any of the parks we had been to. A lot of people down there! I’m really weird for a girl because I really don’t like to shop so DTD doesn’t really interest me a lot. Ian hates nothing more than shopping. Allison can shop all day and David actually really likes to browse around. As a matter of fact, he said he wanted to buy a nice souvenir for the house to remember the trip by!!! I would have never guessed he’s suggest that. I was all over the idea though! I’ll tell you more about what we got in a minute.

I wasn’t the least bit hungry but once we got off the bus, David wanted to eat right away. I’ve learned not to mess with him when he’s hungry. So…we trekked over to T-Rex which Dave saw on the map and just randomly picked that out. I was a little nervous because people were swarming all around the entrance and I didn’t think we’d ever get in without a reservation. But…I went up and told her to put our name down and we got right in. Didn’t wait one minute! Yay.

The place is pretty cool and the kids really loved it of course. They’d been to Rainforest before but it had been a couple years. Allison walked around and took photos of course.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0632.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0626.jpg

Allison and I shared a piece of lasagna and a side salad. Ian got the kids pizza. David ordered the biggest chicken fried steak I’d ever seen and we live in in TX!!

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0639.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4104.jpg
All in all, a good experience there although the prices were pretty high I thought.


After eating it was time to get the shopping ON. Like I said, the kids had saved up money and had already decided what they wanted. Allison wanted a hair wrap and it turned out the Poly is quite a bit more expensive than DTD so she was excited to do that. Ian wanted to build his own car at Ridemakers. He was so cute because he only had a specific amount of money to spend and was worried he’d go over by a dime. We told him not to worry and we’d cover for him if we went over. Since we dumped our ADR for GF, I figured we had some extra already-budgeted -in money to blow so we were feeling pretty generous. Lucky for the kids:thumbsup2

Ok, I need to wrap this up for now. I’ll finish in a bit with the hairwrap and Ridemakers deets and then also tell you what David picked out as our family-trip souvenir!

[FosterA]

DAY 5-part 2

So after we all ate we were on a very focused mission to let each kiddo get their souvenir that they already had decided on. I wanted to streamline the time and split up so everything would get done faster and we could get back to our room. Sort of sad since I would have normally really enjoyed taking our time downtown. I just wanted to get back to bed I think.

Well Ian knew about Ridemakerz since I was dumb enough to mention it before the trip. That means he pestered about when we were going there almost as much as he pestered on AK day to get on EE. I gotta say though that our kids are super duper good about not begging for stuff and I really enjoy buying them more now simply because they don’t ask. They both knew ahead of time what they wanted so the previous days they never asked for one little thing and patiently waited until they could get what they wanted.

Ridemakerz surprised me though because I thought it was it’s own store. It’s not! It’s actually inside a sporting goods store I think. Anyway…we went in and Ian got started picking out his car. I really wanted to stay for the whole event but since I was in such a hurry to get out of DTD, I sort of left the boys there and then took Allison over to get started on her hair wrap which was right close. I sort of bopped between the two places. Here’s a couple pics:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0642.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0643.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0644.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0645.jpg

The Ridemaker guy that worked with Ian was super sweet. They all were very helpful. I don’t have a photo of the finished car unfortunately. Ian went middle-of-the-road and got something nice but not too pimped out.

The hair wrap lady was another story. Rude! I have no idea what her problem was. Allison wanted it in a certain place and she was a bit snippy talking about how she needed to pick another area since that area of the hair would make it just push forward and not look right. Yada yada. I didn’t understand her reasoning so I questioned her and she got defensive with me. It was really weird. Anyway…I don’t do conflict so I just let it go. I told her to put the thing wherever she wanted and we didn’t care, just do what her “experience” says is the best spot.

The finished hair wrap product was fine. I think Allison paid 24 dollars or so for it. I was glad to be done with that woman.

Next stop was Goofy’s Candy Co. just because it looked so darn cute. We went in there for a little bit and bought a couple cookies but I felt super squished and it was really crowded. Ugh. Ian is a huge Mike and Ike lover so he thought it was awesome to have a place to fill your own bag of them! I was really looking forward to buying all sorts of sweet junk here for my sweet tooth but since my taste buds were wacked out and I couldn’t taste anything anyway, I figured I’d save the calories (and money).

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0648.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0650.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0652.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0655.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0657.jpg

Our final stop at DTD was a nice gift shop, maybe Art of Disney? I really can’t remember. David really wanted to buy something to remember our trip by. He saw some nice artwork he liked which really shocked me since he didn’t “appear” to be in love with DisneyWorld and all the art work he liked was very Disney-ish. I would have been ok with something like that but we really didn’t know where we’d hang it in our house so we moved on from that idea. Not to mention, everything was pretty darn expensive!

David then saw a cute figurine thing and really wanted it. He knew Haunted Mansion is maybe my most favorite ride (for sure my favorite at MK) so he bought me this:love:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4134.jpg

He also found this smaller piece of art that we need to frame. I liked it because it’s a mix of Disney and the Poly!:cloud9:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4133.jpg

And since I’m showing souvenirs…..here’s the head/skull collection of David’s that he picked up on the trip. The Furby is a whole ‘nother story.:lmao:

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4191.jpg

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_4190.jpg


Ok, so after T-Rex, the hair wrap station, Ridemakerz, Goofy’s, and art store…I was already whipped. I was bummed because I did really want to look around a little more and maybe check out the Christmas store but I just couldn’t take the crowds with feeling like I was. Any other time, I probably would have been fine. We also didn’t go into that giant gift shop which is sort of a bummer. Ian also really liked tinker toys and things so I thought it would be cool to see the giant icons of tinker toys and game pieces and would you believe, we didn’t even stay long enough to look at those. Waaaaah. I tell ya! I need another trip.:thumbsup2

One funny thing though was at the bus stop on the way back to the Poly we saw a couple covered in Disney tattoos. It was wild! You’ve gotta be a hard-core Disney fan to do that. They were nice looking tattoos though as far as tattoos go. I saw the Castle and Mickey and all sorts of things on their legs!

Ok, I’ll pick up soon with the final segment of Day 5 which is about watching a movie on the beach at the Poly.

[swwake]

I hate that you weren't feeling well that day, but glad you got out to enjoyed DTD. I bet you are glad you got out that day. I love the souvenirs you and David picked out. Not sure how I feel about the skulls and stuff.

I bet I know what the one surprising thing that David loved was!

I can't believe that hair wrap lady was so rude!

[skier_pete]

So bummed to hear how lousy you felt. That really sucks. I was so paranoid about getting sick. We took airborne for a week before our trip, and I still got a little sick just before we left. With continued use of airborne and cold mix it wasn't too bad, and by the third day it was pretty much gone.

That was Saturday you were at DTD, right? I think in general weekends are slightly busier everywhere. MK was a total madhouse...just about the worst I've ever seen...though we don't come for holidays. Made me sure I Never, ever, ever want to come for Thanksgiving week. We know some people that do (my cousin goes every year to FL for Thanksgiving week, though not strictly to Disney) and claim it's "not that bad" but I am not sure if they know how slow times are. You definitely did the right thing trying to take a down day though...the body sometimes needs time to recover.

And David must have been enjoying things more than he let on, since he DID want a souvenir to remember the trip...
SkierPete

[okw19]

You have to make another trip soon just to explore DTD! ;) Tell David I insist. :rotfl:
That stinks that you had to change plans because you didn't feel well. At least you guys had some fun!

[Chicago Mo]

I am SO SORRY to hear you weren't feeling well!!! that is the worst!!!!
I like the skulls and stuff!!! Very indiana jones-ish!!!
next time we go i will have to find it..
My DS Zack also did the car thing!!! liek you it was the ONLY thing he obsessed about the whole trip and didn't ask for anything becuase he wanted that!!!
i will get it that in my TR.. at some point whenever i get some free time!!!!! UGh.. Until then i am all ears ha ha ha get it?
yeah i lost it..

[heathsf]

Great updates, of course! I'm so sorry to hear that you were too sick to really enjoy yourself. Walking around and dealing with crowds is just so difficult when you're not feeling 100%. I'm glad you decided to change your plans around though that way you could enjoy Epcot. I'm looking forward to hearing about the Epcot days.

Also it's very cool that David wanted to buy something to remember the trip. He was probably enjoying it a lot more than he seemed to be.

[FosterA]

I hate that you weren't feeling well that day, but glad you got out to enjoyed DTD. I bet you are glad you got out that day. I love the souvenirs you and David picked out. Not sure how I feel about the skulls and stuff.

I bet I know what the one surprising thing that David loved was!

I can't believe that hair wrap lady was so rude!
You know what? I actually think you may know what David loved. I just have a gut feeling that you figured it out. :thumbsup2

So bummed to hear how lousy you felt. That really sucks. I was so paranoid about getting sick. We took airborne for a week before our trip, and I still got a little sick just before we left. With continued use of airborne and cold mix it wasn't too bad, and by the third day it was pretty much gone.

That was Saturday you were at DTD, right? I think in general weekends are slightly busier everywhere. MK was a total madhouse...just about the worst I've ever seen...though we don't come for holidays. Made me sure I Never, ever, ever want to come for Thanksgiving week. We know some people that do (my cousin goes every year to FL for Thanksgiving week, though not strictly to Disney) and claim it's "not that bad" but I am not sure if they know how slow times are. You definitely did the right thing trying to take a down day though...the body sometimes needs time to recover.

And David must have been enjoying things more than he let on, since he DID want a souvenir to remember the trip...
SkierPete
I had never taken Airborne before and almost bought some before we left and then was like "oh, I never get sick, why bother". Dang it, should have listened to my gut feeling.
yes, it was a Saturday in DTD. Anybody else might not have thought it was crowded at all but after being so spoiled at the parks, we felt really crowded downtown.
You are right.... I think DAvid enjoyed the trip but he probably didn't want to get too into it because he's afraid I'd want to go back and he says he wants to do other vacation places more. waaaah. But....I get my way alot so we might just go back in November again though maybe have to skip and just do every other year.

You have to make another trip soon just to explore DTD! ;) Tell David I insist. :rotfl:
That stinks that you had to change plans because you didn't feel well. At least you guys had some fun!
I know!! we need a re-do. It was still a great trip. I'd give it an 8/10 so that's not bad for a bunch of newbies. :laughing:

I am SO SORRY to hear you weren't feeling well!!! that is the worst!!!!
I like the skulls and stuff!!! Very indiana jones-ish!!!
next time we go i will have to find it..
My DS Zack also did the car thing!!! liek you it was the ONLY thing he obsessed about the whole trip and didn't ask for anything becuase he wanted that!!!
i will get it that in my TR.. at some point whenever i get some free time!!!!! UGh.. Until then i am all ears ha ha ha get it?
yeah i lost it..
Sounds good. I love having you reading along! I imagine it's pretty hard to do a TR with triplets under foot!

Great updates, of course! I'm so sorry to hear that you were too sick to really enjoy yourself. Walking around and dealing with crowds is just so difficult when you're not feeling 100%. I'm glad you decided to change your plans around though that way you could enjoy Epcot. I'm looking forward to hearing about the Epcot days.

Also it's very cool that David wanted to buy something to remember the trip. He was probably enjoying it a lot more than he seemed to be.
I'll be excited to get done with the "day 5" of my report which was my worst, most boring, yucky day on the whole trip. And then I can get on with the Epcot deets!

[Moodyzblu]

What a bummer about getting sick !! Geesh. :sick:

LOVE the Haunted Mansion figure !! Totally something I would pick out.

Ride Makers looks really cool .. bet my guys would enjoy this (although I thought I read it was going away ??)

Looking forward to the next update ! :)

[Cin]

Animal Kingdom is so beautiful. I am loving all the pics you put up. I hope I can do as well with my trip report when I get back. Great job!

[momabaarjo]

YAY...I think David really liked the trip...especially if he wanted Disney artwork in the house! How sweet of him to get you the HM statue!

I am so sorry that you got sick, must have a do over! I think you were wise to take a down day and stray from your plans. I hate to shop too, but DTD is so much fun (when your not sick). It was nice to see pictures of T-Rex, we will be there the 29th and Ridemakerz is on our list for the boys!

[B&WMickey]

Sorry to hear you got sick. What a drag. I’ve been laid up at WDW as well on a previous trip. Unfortunately the illness fairy paid on of us a visit on this trip as well.

[FosterA]

What a bummer about getting sick !! Geesh. :sick:

LOVE the Haunted Mansion figure !! Totally something I would pick out.

Ride Makers looks really cool .. bet my guys would enjoy this (although I thought I read it was going away ??)

Looking forward to the next update ! :)
Really? I hadn't heard about them closing.

Animal Kingdom is so beautiful. I am loving all the pics you put up. I hope I can do as well with my trip report when I get back. Great job!
Of course you'll do a great TR:goodvibes and I'll be reading all about it when you get back. I might see photos of you in a scooter and your mom skipping through the parks:laughing:

YAY...I think David really liked the trip...especially if he wanted Disney artwork in the house! How sweet of him to get you the HM statue!

I am so sorry that you got sick, must have a do over! I think you were wise to take a down day and stray from your plans. I hate to shop too, but DTD is so much fun (when your not sick). It was nice to see pictures of T-Rex, we will be there the 29th and Ridemakerz is on our list for the boys!
So is T-rex in your plans?? It was pretty darn cool. I do remember you saying the boys were doing Ridemakerz. Ian didn't do the remote control version but did say when he got home that he wished he had. See....just so many things to do over, must go back!

Sorry to hear you got sick. What a drag. I’ve been laid up at WDW as well on a previous trip. Unfortunately the illness fairy paid on of us a visit on this trip as well.
really? not good, wonder who got sick. I'll be watching your TR to hear about it.

[FosterA]

DAY 5-part 3

Thanks for continuing to read along everybody. I know it’s annoying and maybe seems over-achiever- ish by pumping out the updates so fast:surfweb: Truth is though that I’m known for not finishing everything I start so I’m afraid if I slow down, I’ll get too immersed back into real-life and never finish the TR. Oh no:eek: So…..hang in there. I gotta get all my details out about my trip before I forget and lose my pixie dusted feeling, Plus I need my full concentration to start my scheming and plotting to get David convinced to go back again and can't be messing around with my TR during this delicate operation. That’s going to be a full time job. :laughing:

This will be the last update on Day 5. I’m anxious to wrap this day up because it was the most boring day of the trip and by far my sickest:sick: day of the trip.

So we probably we’re only at DTD 2 hours at the most. Pretty quick since most of that was just eating lunch. But…the bus ride home took forever I thought! We had to stop somewhere along the way and the drivers switched out and that wasn’t quick. Then we had to go to Typhoon Lagoon, then the Contemporary…..yada yada. Most of the trip, I never was annoyed by the buses but this particular day they seemed to take forever to get anywhere. Maybe it was because I was running out of Kleenex and was stressing that I was going to snot up the whole bus if I didn’t get back to the room pronto.

Once we got back, I went to Cook’s and bought a bunch of orange juice to swig down and crawled right back into bed. I’m not sure what Dave and the kids did? I guess went swimming.

I woke up around dinner time and was sick of laying in bed so I went down to the beach and found everybody and we all watched a movie sitting on the lawn chairs there. It was so nice:cloud9: It was Cars 2 this night. It got a tiny bit chilly and we all wished we had our sweatshirts but everybody was too lazy to go up to the room so we just used some pool towels to lay over us:thumbsup2

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0661.jpg

My ORIGINAL plan was to get to MK tonight to see Elec. Parade and I kept watching the boats going over there while I watched the movie and I kept going back and forth on whether we should go for it or not. You can see from the photo that the movie screen is right by the boat dock so it would have been ez just to pop right on the boat and be at MK in no time flat. Allison wanted to go really bad but the boys seemed pretty content laying around the beach. I ended up just deciding to take it easy and try to catch the parade on one of the next 2 nights instead.

However, we did get to see the little Elec. Water Parade. I just loved it! Just something different I guess. The music was fun too!

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were not able to stay up to watch Wishes from the beach though. Everybody was tuckered out plus I was dead set on tomorrow being a better day so we all hit the sack after the water parade.

Coming up…2 full days left of our vacation and we have some serious Epcot to still get in. Been everywhere but Epcot by this time and I love Epcot so I was ready!

[Moodyzblu]

Watching a movie by the water looked like SO much fun !! I bet my guys would love that. :thumbsup2

Can't wait to hear how Epcot goes !

[swwake]

Oooh epcot! I can't wait!

[Cin]

Mom and I are planning on seeing that little water parade too from the Poly beach after our dinner at "OHana, so I am glad to hear you loved it. It doesn't get much mention. I will have to see what time that comes by the Poly.

[heathsf]

It looks so unbelievably awesome to just relax on the beach watching a movie, view a view of Magic Kingdom right across the water.

[skier_pete]

...and there I was in MK thinking..."where the heck are Amy, David and the kids? They were supposed to meet us here!" :laughing:

[FosterA]

Watching a movie by the water looked like SO much fun !! I bet my guys would love that. :thumbsup2

Can't wait to hear how Epcot goes !
Nice to have you still reading along:goodvibes I gotta say, the little things like watching that movie and seeing water parade were so much fun and they were really un-planned too.

Oooh epcot! I can't wait!
I know....Epcot is just so awesome!

Mom and I are planning on seeing that little water parade too from the Poly beach after our dinner at "OHana, so I am glad to hear you loved it. It doesn't get much mention. I will have to see what time that comes by the Poly.
I looked at the time stamp on my camera and it seems like it wasn't set correctly. It shows around 8 a.m. I'm wondering if I just had am and pm mixed up because I'm pretty sure it came by around 8. It really is so cute!

It looks so unbelievably awesome to just relax on the beach watching a movie, view a view of Magic Kingdom right across the water.
I know!! It was awesome!:love:
...and there I was in MK thinking..."where the heck are Amy, David and the kids? They were supposed to meet us here!" :laughing:
:lmao: And there I was laying in a lawn chair thinking "um, wonder if Pete is looking for us right about now?" I should have contacted you. sorry:guilty: We did make it to the elec parade though but not until Mon. night.

[solana131]

Well, better late than never...right? At least I got in before you finished :)
I just spent the better part of my work day reading your TR and I'm loving it! You sound so much like me it is scary! I'm taking my family for our first trip in Feb and we are staying at the Poly too. DH has absolutely no interest in going, but I am forcing him this time. He might hate it, he might like it, but after this once he doesn't ever have to go back with us again if he doesn't want to. I went a few times when I was young and don't remember a whole lot. Never stayed onsite, so I consider this my first time too. I wrote down quotes I liked and comments I wanted to make along the way, but my absolute favorite was at the Luau when you said "I told him to mind his own business and go buy a drink". Too funny! :rotfl:
I'm sure my DH will be the same way and I'll have to keep him drunk to have fun. I figured staying at the Poly, it is nice enough that if he isn't behaving and being "magical" I can just send him to the room and have fun with the rest of the family.
Looking forward to the rest of your report popcorn::

[skier_pete]

:lmao: And there I was laying in a lawn chair thinking "um, wonder if Pete is looking for us right about now?" I should have contacted you. sorry:guilty: We did make it to the elec parade though but not until Mon. night.

:lmao: Well, honestly I did think of you guys that evening, but I wasn't exactly wandering around the park looking for you either. We weren't seeing the parade anyways - we were actually on Splash Mountain while it was running.

[NOLAdisneymom]

Hey! Our trip overlapped, subscribing then gonig back to read and look for myself in your pics! :thumbsup2

[204charity]

DTD is one of my biggest things I'm looking forward too! DD, my Mom and I are HUGE shoppers, so we would be sooo bummed if we mised out or had to cut it short due to sickness. :(

[momabaarjo]

I love the pictures of the Water Parade! We have that in our plans for our last night after eating at Ohana and watching the fireworks from the POLY beach.

Yep, the only place the kids really picked out to eat was T-Rex so I had to make sure that is in our plans. Can I ask...how much did Ian spend on his car at Ridemakerz? I am trying to figure out how much $$$ we should give the kids for our trip. I know the boys will be into the Lego shop too...

I love that you are plotting for another trip...Hee Hee. Some of our mutal PTR followers are thinking of a girl trip during Food and Wine for a big DIS meet up in 2013...what do you think of joining in?

[FosterA]

Well, better late than never...right? At least I got in before you finished :)
I just spent the better part of my work day reading your TR and I'm loving it! You sound so much like me it is scary! I'm taking my family for our first trip in Feb and we are staying at the Poly too. DH has absolutely no interest in going, but I am forcing him this time. He might hate it, he might like it, but after this once he doesn't ever have to go back with us again if he doesn't want to. I went a few times when I was young and don't remember a whole lot. Never stayed onsite, so I consider this my first time too. I wrote down quotes I liked and comments I wanted to make along the way, but my absolute favorite was at the Luau when you said "I told him to mind his own business and go buy a drink". Too funny! :rotfl:
I'm sure my DH will be the same way and I'll have to keep him drunk to have fun. I figured staying at the Poly, it is nice enough that if he isn't behaving and being "magical" I can just send him to the room and have fun with the rest of the family.
Looking forward to the rest of your report popcorn::
yay for avoiding work and reading trip reports instead!!:laughing: Glad to have you reading along!!
So exciting for you guys, are you going to do a report when you get back?? I hope so!! Your husband should love the Poly for sure. David didn't say much when we were there but when we got home he said one of the best things we did was simply staying at the Poly. I love the Poly at night 100x more than during the day. It's so amazing.
oh and be sure to use my line anytime "mind your own business and go buy a drink!". You'll need to use it alot, I promise you:lmao:

:lmao: Well, honestly I did think of you guys that evening, but I wasn't exactly wandering around the park looking for you either. We weren't seeing the parade anyways - we were actually on Splash Mountain while it was running.
I love splash mountain at night:cloud9: Did you watch the elec. parade on any of your nights though? WE did Monday night and it was PACKED!

Hey! Our trip overlapped, subscribing then gonig back to read and look for myself in your pics! :thumbsup2
cool:thumbsup2 I gotta go check out your report now:goodvibes

DTD is one of my biggest things I'm looking forward too! DD, my Mom and I are HUGE shoppers, so we would be sooo bummed if we mised out or had to cut it short due to sickness. :(
well lucky for me, I don't really like to shop that much so I'm glad I wasted my sick day on the DTD day versus a park day. However....you can definitely shop 'til you drop there! Have a great time:goodvibes

I love the pictures of the Water Parade! We have that in our plans for our last night after eating at Ohana and watching the fireworks from the POLY beach.

Yep, the only place the kids really picked out to eat was T-Rex so I had to make sure that is in our plans. Can I ask...how much did Ian spend on his car at Ridemakerz? I am trying to figure out how much $$$ we should give the kids for our trip. I know the boys will be into the Lego shop too...

I love that you are plotting for another trip...Hee Hee. Some of our mutal PTR followers are thinking of a girl trip during Food and Wine for a big DIS meet up in 2013...what do you think of joining in?

Ohana, water parade, fireworks on the Poly beach. Don't get much better than that:love:
Your kids will freak at T-rex. It is really amazing in there!
Ian spent 62 dollars on his car and that was not for the remote control type:eek:

AWesome about the meet up in 2013 BUT David actually told me the other day that he would "consider" going back the same exact week but in 2013:banana: So I wouldn't be able to swing two trips that year unfortunately. If he wimps out on me, I'll keep that in mind though!

[B&WMickey]

I love the electric light parade on the water. A very nostalgic thing for me, something that I remember from the times I went to WDW as a kid.

[johnGorski]

Great trip report, can't wait to hear what WoW'd David

[skier_pete]

I love splash mountain at night:cloud9: Did you watch the elec. parade on any of your nights though? WE did Monday night and it was PACKED!

We did it Thursday (11/17)- and it was pretty crazy packed, but we like to watch it in the hub, so it's always packed there.

[sandieb]

DH has absolutely no interest in going, but I am forcing him this time. He might hate it, he might like it, but after this once he doesn't ever have to go back with us again if he doesn't want to. ::

I have dragged my husband along about 15 times over the last decade. He never plans anything. What made the difference was buying into DVC - we bought at the Beach Club and Hilton Head after our 2nd trip. He now considers them a vacation home, is a lot more comfortable, loves the Beach Club Villas pool and the big pool at Storm Along Bay, and enjoys the restaurants. It's made going a non-issue. He'll go to the parks for a while - usually 2 hours, and then he goes back to the resort to hang out and relax. The kids and I hoof around until we're either too hot, too exhausted or the parks get too crowded.

[FosterA]

I love the electric light parade on the water. A very nostalgic thing for me, something that I remember from the times I went to WDW as a kid.
that's great:thumbsup2 The music is very 80's sounding but I just loved it!

Great trip report, can't wait to hear what WoW'd David
Thanks! I'll be getting to the part where Dave got all excited soon I hope:goodvibes

I have dragged my husband along about 15 times over the last decade. He never plans anything. What made the difference was buying into DVC - we bought at the Beach Club and Hilton Head after our 2nd trip. He now considers them a vacation home, is a lot more comfortable, loves the Beach Club Villas pool and the big pool at Storm Along Bay, and enjoys the restaurants. It's made going a non-issue. He'll go to the parks for a while - usually 2 hours, and then he goes back to the resort to hang out and relax. The kids and I hoof around until we're either too hot, too exhausted or the parks get too crowded.
That's great that you guys have worked out how to make everybody happy:thumbsup2

[FosterA]

DAY 6-part 1 (Sun, Nov 20)

The good news is that I slept way better this night and woke up feeling slightly more human. Not feeling “good” but good enough to go to Epcot!

We still had this full day left and one more full day and then we were flying out Tues. a.m. The only things we HAD to get in still was plenty of Epcot time, a firework watching dinner reservation at Rose and Crown tonight and a Hoop De Doo reservation on Monday night. My original plan was to do Epcot in 2 days but with the sick day thrown in, things had to be tweaked some. Technically, with the exception of being at Hoop tomorrow night, we still had all day tomorrow to do Epcot too. However, I wanted to do as much of Epcot today JUST IN CASE somebody else got sick, I had a relapse, we all got burnt out, someone has a meltdown, whatever and we don’t get the chance to get back to Epcot.

So…the plan today is to do Epcot like we only have one day to do it!

To most of you, knowing that you only have one full day for Epcot, you would think that would mean get there at rope drop right? Well, not to the Foster Family! The usual routine happened this morning. I get up and get all ready and then start screaming at everybody to get up. Allison goes into the bathroom to primp and hogs it up so much that nobody else can get ready. I can’t stand to stay in the room to watch the dragging on and on so I go down to Cook’s to gather food. WOW!! This a.m. was crazy in Cook’s. Now, this is the Sunday before Thanksgiving so I’m pretty sure all the Thanksgiving crowds were just arriving and it was pretty obvious, at least at Cook’s.

I grabbed some juice and muffins and sausage and took it all back to the room. Of course the fam is still not ready. I was surprisingly calm though because this was Day 6 of the same shenanigans every single morning and I think I’d finally given up

So….we finally got everybody out the door and they were excited that the monorail goes right to Epcot and we didn’t have to do a bus. We did walk over to the TTC to get on the monorail straight to Epcot. I had to yell at everybody once to slow down though because I still couldn’t breathe through my nose so I was huffing and puffing along way behind everybody trying to keep up.

We zipped over to Epcot and I think we were entering the park right around 10. Only an hour behind schedule, not bad since our HS and AK day were more like 1 ½-2 hours after rope drop. I knew that we would have to get to Soarin first and get a FP. I’d been checking my app and the wait was well over an hour at this point I think. Now, right there at the entrance of Epcot is some sort of display of stones with people’s names on them. What are these? Well, David was intrigued and was wanting to piddle around and read some of them. I was like :eek: We don’t have time for this RIGHT now but if you really want to read through these names, we’ll do it on the way out. He rolled his eyes at me because he’d dealt with me rushing him around for 6 days but they just needed to trust me on this. I did not want Soarin passes to run out. They’d thank me later.Here’s a couple pics of us getting started:

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So we got over to the land area finally and since I was still puffing along after climbing the hill up to Soarin, we sent David ahead to go get passes and told him we’d meet him down by the “living with the land” ride. He did good and got our passes which weren’t good until around 2 in the afternoon. Wow! Those things really run out fast.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0671.jpg

I was excited about Living with The Land because it’s such a nice calm little ride and I love the huge veggies in there. At this point, the wait was only 5 minutes too! I also knew that David would really like this , and HE DID! He loves growing little gardens at home so he was pretty fascinated. Now I had originally planned and budgeted for the Behind The Seeds Tour but we did not do it because I just felt a little behind on time at this point. I suppose I could have booked one for tomorrow but just never got around to it. Bummer. The kids thought this was a great attraction too and they liked the fish tank area a lot! WE saw an eel in here too and those are pretty gross. Too snakey for my taste!

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After this family fave ride, we headed over to the Seas. Check out the hidden mickey in this man hole cover:

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There was no wait for the Nemo clamshell ride so we headed for that. Ok, this is sooo boring I think. Sorry. I guess with little bitty kids it’s cool but it’s honestly just a good napping place in my opinion. The boys rode in one shell and Allison and I rode in another. Allison liked it though and she thought the jelly fish area was cool. When we unloaded, the boys weren’t exactly hopping up and down to do it again. I think the most exciting part of this ride is the loading and unloading, those moving floors are fun!

After the thrilling Nemo ride, we headed over to see Crush. Now that was cool! It seemed like we were penned up in the holding area for quite a while waiting on the next show and everybody was getting antsty but it was still worth it. David even laughed a lot and seemed to like this. The kids had big smiles the whole time so I’d say this attraction was a hit.

http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0694.jpg

These jellyfish might not even be in the Turtle Talk area but Allison took it somewhere in that section of the park!
http://i1086.photobucket.com/albums/j446/fostera1/IMG_0686.jpg

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We then thought we’d roam around the Sea pavilion and look at dolphins and such. Well, once again, I’m feeling like we need to hurry it up some but we were looking at dolphins FOREVER. Mainly because of Allison. Ian seemed antsy to get moving but Allison wanted “just one more minute”. Turns out they were about to start a “dolphin show” in a few minutes so we stuck around for that too. It was cool and one of the best “unexpected and unplanned” things we did. You have to stand the whole time and it was a little crowded pushed in to get a good view but the trainers did a neat little show with one of the dolphins. They had her picking shapes and doing a matching game. We were amazed at how smart she was! It was definitely neat though I think we really killed a lot of time in this Sea section. And yeah, I'm such a loser that I didn't get one photo of the dolphin show. duh!

It was now already lunch time. Time sure flies at Disney!! We had secured our Soarin Faspasses, done Living with the Land, Nemo, Crush, way too much time looking at fish, and a cool dolphin show. Next thing on my list is to get some food for lunch and check out the rest of Future World AND get Test Track passes as soon as we could. More coming up soon!!

And no, David did enjoy Living with the Land and Crush and he liked his nap in the Nemo ride, but that’s still not the thing that WOW’D him! That part is still coming up…..

[reelmom]

You can't leave us hanging now!:goodvibes

I so hope this is the moment where your DH gets the Disney magic and he will be dying to take you back.

[okw19]

Yay for making it to Epcot this morning! It's good to read that you were feeling a little better. I can't wait to see what David loves!

[Moodyzblu]

LOVE the Living With The Land ! It's such a nice little break.
Hey .. not only little kids like the Nemo ride ! I happen to enjoy that ride.
:hyper:
When the boys were real little we would spend literally HOURS in the tank area of the Seas. They loved looking at all the fish and finding the various hidden Mickeys.

Great update !!

[204charity]

Lovin' it! It must be Soarin' - maybe Test Track. Can't wait to find out!!!!

[swwake]

I know my family is going to be the late-risers, morning piddlers too. The only day they HAVE to get up early will be our first day. It's the only day we are at USO/IOA. And we have to make the 1-hour early rope drop.

I love Crush and can't wait to see him again.

Had no idea about impromptu dolphin shows.

Sounds like David's having a pretty good day so far. He's liking everything.

[glennbo123]

Hey, the fam is making progress towards rope drop, so you're getting better. :) I actually think you got a decent amount done before lunch. ::yes::

[FosterA]

You can't leave us hanging now!:goodvibes

I so hope this is the moment where your DH gets the Disney magic and he will be dying to take you back.
I swear I don't mean to leave everyone hanging with Dave's big Wow moment. It's just that it really didn't happen to the end of our trip and it's taking me forever to get to it:laughing: I know....luckily he had this one magical moment on the entire trip and that leaves me hope that he'll let me plan another trip!

Yay for making it to Epcot this morning! It's good to read that you were feeling a little better. I can't wait to see what David loves!
Thanks:goodvibes I know I was surprised by what he really liked that's for sure!
LOVE the Living With The Land ! It's such a nice little break.
Hey .. not only little kids like the Nemo ride ! I happen to enjoy that ride.
:hyper:
When the boys were real little we would spend literally HOURS in the tank area of the Seas. They loved looking at all the fish and finding the various hidden Mickeys.

Great update !!
Thanks for continuing to read along! I know, I know...I'm probably weird not loving Nemo ride. Maybe I better go back again and make sure I didn't miss anything:thumbsup2

Lovin' it! It must be Soarin' - maybe Test Track. Can't wait to find out!!!!
I swear his "wow" moment is coming up, it's just taking me forever to get to it!

I know my family is going to be the late-risers, morning piddlers too. The only day they HAVE to get up early will be our first day. It's the only day we are at USO/IOA. And we have to make the 1-hour early rope drop.

I love Crush and can't wait to see him again.

Had no idea about impromptu dolphin shows.

Sounds like David's having a pretty good day so far. He's liking everything.
Well, the dolphin show was not impromptu by Disney I'm sure, I think they have a whole schedule of shows they do in there but I guess I'd never heard of it before. We just stumbled upon a crowd of people watching the trainers and got reeled right in. VEry neat show!
You'll be chatting with Crush before you know it:banana:

Hey, the fam is making progress towards rope drop, so you're getting better. :) I actually think you got a decent amount done before lunch. ::yes::
I know....day 6 and we are within one hour of rope drop. I bet if we stayed for 10 days, we'd finally make a rope drop:laughing: Luckily it was lower-crowd season so we were able to get alot of done without doing rope drop!

[FosterA]

DAY 6-part 2

Before I continue on, I’ve just got to say this again: I would not hesitate to go back to WDW on this very same week again because the weather was PERFECT and I felt like the crowds were low. I can’t tell you how many times David and I agreed that it was a good idea to have the kids miss some school because it was so worth it. Walking around was pleasant and comfortable and I just can’t imagine doing all this walking when it’s hot. Even Epcot this Sunday before Thanksgiving felt like low crowds to me. The only crowded thing I’d seen so far on this day was breakfast at Cook’s! Of course Soarin and TT had waits but nothing else really did. The longest wait I’d seen on my phone app all day besides those 2 was maybe Spaceship Earth hit 25 minutes at one point during the day and then the other times I checked, it was usually 15 minutes or so. So….depending on how magical David feels again, I’m really going to push for a return trip during this very same week again. It really is a great time to go in case anybody out there is reading and can’t decide on a time frame. Of course I don’t want the secret to get out too much!!

Alright back to the report:
So we pretty much did what we wanted to do in the Sea Pavilion and the Land Pavilion. Hadn’t done Soarin yet but we did have fastpasses and since I had learned on the Dis that you can come back later than the time stamp, I wasn’t in a rush to get to that. Figured we’d hit it next time we were in that approximate area.

I instructed the fam that we were going to head over to Mexico and get some counter service food. By this time we were all having withdrawals and the jitters from not having any Mexican (or Tex Mex or fake Mexican food or whatever you want to call it) food. Here in TX, we seem to eat a lot of Mexican food and we actually all like it so I knew we’d have to get some asap. I had made an ADR to eat at the Table Service place yesterday but since we had our sick day and didn’t come to Epcot I had cancelled it. I didn’t try to reschedule it because I honestly didn’t really feel like wasting time with a sit-down place anyway since we already had Rose and Crown set up for tonight. No way would I want 2 TS in one day, we’d never get a thing done. So….off we went to hunt down some chips and guacamole!

On the way over there, we slipped into Club Cool though. I knew all about the Beverly since the Dis talks about it so I set my family up. Hahaha Ian is my Coke drinker and he begs for one every single day of his life. I try to limit him to just having it when we go out to eat though. He got really excited at this place with all the Coke souvenirs. We did buy him a pretty cool shirt here too. He was pretty disappointed that they didn’t have any “real” coke samples though. Here’s the Beverly photo shoot that are Dis trip report requirements. Haha
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I did set Dave up too and he got a grossed out face but I was not able to capture it.

After Club Cool, we swung by TT to grab faspasses. Yay. Got both those and Soarin secured so I didn’t have to stress about time anymore.

We finally got over to Mexico and ordered there. I just love this little place and I still get all excited to see how the cast members REALLY are from the countries. I kept talking about that to the family but they weren’t quite as impressed by that fact as I was. Oh well. We ordered nachos and some beef tacos that were on corn tortillas and we also got some chips and guacamole. Everybody just sort of shared everything. It was all very good! We wasted a lot of food though because our eyes were bigger than our stomachs. Allison was a little whiny at this point because our table was sort of in the sun and the sun was in her eyes and she was carrying on about that. The highs while we were in WDW got up to maybe 82 so it really wasn’t THAT bad compared to what July and Aug must be like. See, my kids are whiny which is why we can’t go in the “real” heat and have to miss school to go. :laughing:

After we ate, I wanted to just do Mexico and Norway because they were right there but wait to see all the other countries that night since we had to come back for Rose and Crown anyway. I knew Allison would get excited in the World Showcase area so it was a little challenging convincing her that we were just checking out two places but that WE WOULD be coming back and not to worry.

We went into Mexico and wow!! I did go in here before when I was in WDW for my girls weekend so I knew what to expect. The kids and David though just loved it because it’s just so cool how it looks like night! Allison and Dave browsed around the little shop things and Ian hunted down a penny press machine. I wanted to work our way to the ride in there because there was a bit of line forming. I had to round up everybody and herd them towards the line. Of course the line was only maybe 5-10 minutes. This ride is so cute! At one point Allison snapped a flash photo and someone said something. I felt horrible because I’ve read about those pesky flash photo people on the Dis and I was horrified that we were now “those” people. I knew that we were already Short-Stoppers in the parks when Allison wanted to take photos and I’m sure many people ran right into the back of us. So I told Allison to be sure to turn the flash off. Oh…I just love that Donald Duck piñata you see on this ride:love:
All in all, everybody liked this ride and the whole pavilion in general.

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Up next is Norway. I knew that the Maelstrom ride was here so I figured we’d do that. Ok….am I just crazy but is this sort of boring? I see there is a FP for it too which makes me think it’s just me because obviously a lot of people must like it. I mean it’s “ok” but not that much to it. The family was “ok” with it, nothing too spectacular to say about it either. After the ride, David wanted to watch the film and so did Allison. I guess I’m more like Ian and want to do more exciting things? Either way, we all sat down and watched the Norway film.:rolleyes1 Interesting as far as a Norway films go I guess. I did really like the buildings and carvings here though. So intricate and amazing!

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After our lunch and seeing 2 countries, we need to get back to Future World and hit more stuff there. Here’s a pic of the “crowd”. Not bad. We all were so impressed with how fabulous the landscaping is all over Disney. Everything was so green and lush and the flowers were bright and amazing! After being in drought-stricken TX all summer, seeing such nice landscaping was wonderful. The Disney landscapers do an amazing job!

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So we meandered our way back to Future World (when I say meander, I mean it…bathroom breaks, icee break, stop and look at the river breaks….)
Here's Ian hanging out while I buy an icee

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I didn’t have a specific plan over here in Future World besides wanting to do spaceship Earth. I knew we weren’t going to do Mission Space at all because we all seem to have motion sickness issues. On the way we saw the Ellen’s Energy attraction and I thought “hey, why not”. We walked right into that (that should tell you something). I’m sorry Ellen, if you are reading along, but BORING!! I thought this might be sort of exciting since you get loaded into this big huge moving cart thing but it just never really did it for any of us. There weren’t many people on this ride at all so we really could have laid down and slept if we had wanted to. I had NO IDEA how long this attraction lasts either. It’s LONG. David said they could have done so much more with this ride. I don’t want to say it was a waste of time because I don’t think anything we did on our trip was a “waste” because I was curious about it all, but I would not schedule it into a second trip at all.

After the Ellen snoozer we went into the Innoventions building and Dave and the kids had a great time playing around in there! Nobody did the roller coaster thing there though. Just played around with the different displays. David really likes this hands-on stuff. Ian loved watching this one thing come down and smash a hard hat and he did that a bunch of times! I think I just found a bench to chill out on since this isn’t really my type of thing. It was nice seeing David play around with the kids though.

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When they had their fill of messing around in here, Allison announced that she will die if she doesn’t have ice cream. We kept seeing people walking around with ice cream so I knew it was around somewhere. We finally found the ice cream place and had a good little break there. We had no problems finding a chair either. David saw somebody eating one of those chocolate covered bananas on a stick at on point and was like “what is that thing?” They do look kind of gross I admit, but I bet they taste good!

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Next in the lineup was Spaceship Earth. I did this ride on my weekend trip with Julie and I just LOVED it. I like everything about it, I like the interactive screens, I like how you wind up and up and up, I like the starry universe type thing towards the end before you come back down. I couldn’t wait to get the fam on this ride. So as usual, it was pretty much a walk-on. Dave and Ian went together and Allison and I rode together. I’m not really sure what the boys were thinking since they were in front of us but Allison thought it was super cool! We just couldn’t get over how REALISTIC all the “people” are. WE all had a good time on this ride. Ian thought the interactive screen was a blast. David was “ok” with it all of course. He said it was just all animatronics. What did he want to see? :confused: I think the animatronics are what makes it so cool!

These photos I took on our walk over to Spaceship Earth:

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Ok…next segment will be finishing up Future World and our adventures on Soarin’, EO, and Test Track. Let’s just say that ONE of these rides is fantastic (and one of our family member’s favorite in all of WDW) ONE is horrid, and ONE is…..ehhh, just “ok”.

[nvsnot]

Ian's "Beverly Face" is priceless :rotfl2:. I can't wait to read if your family loved Soarin' or not. Soarin' was one of my gang's favorite :thumbsup2.

[swwake]

I love the Beverly faces - especially Ian's.

I agree with you on Ellen's Energy Adventure. But you should have seen it BEFORE they added Ellen - even more boring, if you can imagine. The big draw of this ride USED to be the technology (that huge car thing holds a few hundred people and is being moved along on some tiny little wire).

Also, to answer your question about Maelstrom, remember that most of the attractions in Epcot are movies, or stand-up, or boat rides. The 4 big ones are Soarin', Test Track, Mission Space and Maelstrom. Maelstrom is the only ride in WS with the least bit of "thrill" (you got backwards and I think there's a drop or two in there). So, Epcot being so low on ride-type attractions, people want to do Maelstrom, thus the fast pass.

Y'all are getting a TON accomplished! Did you do the little garbage truck exhibit in Innoventions?