Pipers MAW POST TRIP 4/9-4/15

BeckySob

Mouseketeer
Joined
Mar 30, 2009
Ok, so I have tried to just post pictures. But since I can't figure that out as of yet, I will tell you about our experience::surfweb:

We left Elkhorn Nebraska at 5:45am. Our limo driver couldn't figure out which house was ours, we had watched him drive by our house a couple of times, it was pretty comical. I finally had to step outside and wave him down!:rotfl2:

As we were waiting to board the plane, the airline employees took pictures of Piper and us with the pilot, which was pretty embarrasing since everyone was watching.:eek: They allowed Piper to go into the cockpit and the pilot put his hat on her. It was so cute. My son, who will be 14 in a couple of weeks was "too cool" for that. He didn't even take a peek as far as I know.

We got into GKTW around 5ish, and spent the rest of our day there. It being a Thursday, we got to celebrate Christmas there and see Santa. The kids were so excited to pick out a gift! How nice is that? Of course we got ice cream!

Ok, so we had Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to do whatever. We decided to save MagicKingdom for the last day, and that was a mistake which I'll tell you later, why.

Friday

We went to Epcot and Disney MGM. Really wished that we had only done Epcot, as we didn't even experience the World Showcase. :( Of course we filled up for breakfast at the GingerBread House. For those of you going, make sure you visit the wish lounges at Epcot. The Siemens one is awesome. The kids really enjoyed that one. The one at Test Track was pretty neat too. One thing I hated about Epcot, was that their First Aid was really far away and we had to walk clear over there first to drop of medicine that has to be kept cold, and then when we left, we had to walk clear back there again. Kind of a pain, after all the walking we've done already. I'm a whiner, I know. Keep in mind.....we haven't really spent any money. We were still full from breakfast, and were too consumed with everything around us and what we wanted to accomplish there. We did buy bottled water tho!

From Epcot, we took a bus to Disney MGM. Huge mistake. Hint: Park your car where you will end up for the day, not where you begin. (When we left MGM for Epcot to our car, being Epcot was closed, there was no tram running, and the bus just dropped us off in what seems like "no mans land" and we had to walk about a mile to our car in the dark. YIKES!!:scared1: Talk about exhausting. (had to carry the lil one the whole way, as we had no stroller at this point)

(Epcot didn't give Piper or us any special treatment, as we were clueless as to how this GAC was important) By saying no special treatment, I mean we were not expedited into any attractions. We were just directed to go to the fast pass entry. So yes, we did have to wait, even in the fast pass lane. :(
I take that back, actually we did get immediate attention at the character spot. Thank goodness, because that would have taken FOREVER.

Highlight of MGM......The rockin roller coaster. As we were exiting off the coaster, the employees there asked Piper if she wanted to work with them. They placed a vest on her and asked her to wave at the coasters coming in and tell them to exit to the right. She was very embarrased and barely waved and didn't make a sound. :laughing: Her "paycheck" was getting back into the coaster and going on again. This was so funny because getting on the ride at the exit, really confused the teenagers waiting to get on at the entrance side. I'm not sure if I'm making any sense? You could hear the kids waiting to get on the ride saying, "how did that happen?". They were dumbfounded and had to wait for the next coaster. Hilarious. I felt sorta bad, but then again, couldn't help but smile. Finally got something to eat and we all got a turkey leg. MESSY!!! Keep a mental note....we hardly spent any money yet.......

I'll continue this later......Sophia woke up from her nap.
 
I am glad you were able to start your trip report. I hope your photo issue gets solved soon. That is so exciting for Piper to get to direct the Rock 'N Roller Coaster and then ride again from the exit. I can't wait to read more. Great start!
 
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Wow! Your pictures came out great! Your kids look like they were having a great time! Thank you for sharing them! :wizard:
 
Looks like y'all ad a great time!
Love the turkey leg picture!
I can't wait to read about day 2!!
 


That one of the baby in the elephant or what ever it was just choked me right up!

Becky - getting to go down the fast pass lane, without a fast pass IS a huge benefit, especially on soaring. The other queue is hugely long.
 
First of all...and I really hate to be negative here...but I am completely disappointed in Disney's lack of care toward you guys by dropping you off in the middle of a dark parking lot at the end of your day. :sad2: Very un-Disney-like! I would think security would at least escort you to your car? Or at least drop you off in the handicapped parking area?!?!? I just hope they did not even realize you were a Make a Wish family. :sad2:

A great hint, though, to park your car where you will end up and not where you start. Although, we just took our car everywhere? But we had Lauren's wheelchair, too. So that makes a difference.

Now that I have THAT off my chest...


GREAT START!!! :) I love your TR so far!

Your pictures are wonderful! I love the one of Barney on the carousel!! :laughing:

I love all of the GKTW pictures. What a magical place!!

The black and white pic of your girls carrying their balloons... :cloud9: How awesome!

And the black and white pic of your son at the wall at Epcot! Cool!

I am glad you guys got to see the Wish Lounges...I don't suppose you have any pictures...:rolleyes1 Some of us were not able to see those lounges! :)
 
Loved the pictures! All your kids look like they are having fun, even if they are cool kids :cool2: ! I love the picture of your youngest at the top of the slide and in the little yellow car. I also love the Santa picture where Piper looks like she is absolutely thrilled! It is so fun to see their joy. The one picture that made me chuckle is the one of Piper in the mouse ears. It appears there is a young man in the back ground with amore' in his eyes:love:. He is seemlingly preparing to plant a kiss on the young girl sitting next to him. This is the time of year for Festival Disney when high school and middle school choirs and bands all go to Orlando to compete. I am sure these two were on a school trip. Horrifingly enough :eek:, my middle school daughter leaves next week for her trip. If I see any smooch pictures on the Dis, she is in for it ;)
 
First of all...and I really hate to be negative here...but I am completely disappointed in Disney's lack of care toward you guys by dropping you off in the middle of a dark parking lot at the end of your day. :sad2: Very un-Disney-like! I would think security would at least escort you to your car? Or at least drop you off in the handicapped parking area?!?!? I just hope they did not even realize you were a Make a Wish family. :sad2:

A great hint, though, to park your car where you will end up and not where you start. Although, we just took our car everywhere? But we had Lauren's wheelchair, too. So that makes a difference.

Now that I have THAT off my chest...


GREAT START!!! :) I love your TR so far!

Your pictures are wonderful! I love the one of Barney on the carousel!! :laughing:

I love all of the GKTW pictures. What a magical place!!

The black and white pic of your girls carrying their balloons... :cloud9: How awesome!

And the black and white pic of your son at the wall at Epcot! Cool!

I am glad you guys got to see the Wish Lounges...I don't suppose you have any pictures...:rolleyes1 Some of us were not able to see those lounges! :)


Oh gosh, ya know, I didn't take pictures of the wish lounges in Epcot, except that one picture of Piper looking into the screen thingy that looks like she has a coat on with a mop type wig.? It's above. Didn't even think of taking pictures, we were so busy looking around. oops.

Thanks for the comments! Now I will continue with more report......and pictures!
 
Loved the pictures! All your kids look like they are having fun, even if they are cool kids :cool2: ! I love the picture of your youngest at the top of the slide and in the little yellow car. I also love the Santa picture where Piper looks like she is absolutely thrilled! It is so fun to see their joy. The one picture that made me chuckle is the one of Piper in the mouse ears. It appears there is a young man in the back ground with amore' in his eyes:love:. He is seemlingly preparing to plant a kiss on the young girl sitting next to him. This is the time of year for Festival Disney when high school and middle school choirs and bands all go to Orlando to compete. I am sure these two were on a school trip. Horrifingly enough :eek:, my middle school daughter leaves next week for her trip. If I see any smooch pictures on the Dis, she is in for it ;)

:lmao:I saw that too of the guy about to plant a wet one on his girl! I was like, "woah, oopsy". My son is also in show choir at his middle school (he is in 8th grade) but they don't get to compete at Disney! You're lucky!:lovestruc

Thanks for the comments, and i shall carry on with more.....
 
Oh gosh, ya know, I didn't take pictures of the wish lounges in Epcot, except that one picture of Piper looking into the screen thingy that looks like she has a coat on with a mop type wig.? It's above. Didn't even think of taking pictures, we were so busy looking around. oops.

Thanks for the comments! Now I will continue with more report......and pictures!

He he!! :laughing: It is totally ok! I just wanted you to post them if you had em! :)

I know how crazy busy a trip is...It is a wonder we got ANY pictures of anything! :rotfl:
 
:lmao:I saw that too of the guy about to plant a wet one on his girl! I was like, "woah, oopsy". My son is also in show choir at his middle school (he is in 8th grade) but they don't get to compete at Disney! You're lucky!:lovestruc

Thanks for the comments, and i shall carry on with more.....

Not that lucky! I am stuck in Alabama :headache: while she is on her way to Orlando :banana:....although I don't know if being on one of two buses with 100+ middle schoolers is all that lucky either. I am sure they will have fun and she is doing a little shopping for me :) soooooo I guess it is not so bad.
 
Saturday
SeaWorld

We took our time this day. Dan, my hubby took the 2 older ones fishing. I hate fishing. I hate the fact that people enjoy fishing. I was a lil upset, because I wanted to go!!! So while they fished, me and Sophia took the train ride....checked out the Amberville Station again. Stopped by the ice cream parlor and tested out the ice cream again. Have to make sure it's good!!! Took a lil time out to go swimming. Sadly the "water park" wasn't open due to rennovation, so we just had the pool.
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Ok, so we decided to go to Sea World. Didn't originally plan that, but thought we would check it out anyways. Didn't watch any shows, which now upsets me. We were too busy trying to get the kids to the rides that they just couldn't wait to do. Luckily we stumbled upon the feeding dolphins and had an amazing time doing that! See pictures below.
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Still haven't eaten since breakfast I don't think. I can't remember. All I remember is that we haven't spent much money. I never realized just how "cheap" of parents we are!!:lmao: In fact, i think we ate lunch at Katies Kitchen this day so we were stuffed and too tired to eat dinner? My memory is lacking, I know. Here are more pics of Sea World and our villa and the lil one OUT.
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I hope I didn't accidentally repeat any pics.....


Once again, I'm tired of finding the First Aid. Why can't they put them near the entrances???

 
Sunday
Universal/IOA


Ok. So Universal/IOA is by far the best parks in our book. We had the most fun there. Sophia got to see Barney AGAIN!! We totally loved the Bart Simpson ride and Superman! It's amazing how a ride, really isn't a "ride". It's just a huge screen. Talk about special effects! We have never experienced anything like it. We finally spent some money today! Yay. I had to tell the kids......"Don't be afraid to ask for something!!!!" We love the Hard Rock Cafe store! They give GKTW visitors 50% off pretty much EVERYTHING except for celebrity mdse. We bought everyone a shirt from there, and Piper got to pick out a Hard Rock pin from the display box. It's a very cool looking pin. I wish I had taken a picture of it for you to see. It's a butterfly like guitar with the year on it. Really pretty! Be sure to stop there. I wish I had gotten the guys name, because he was so nice. We also had dinner there! We ate at Margaritaville. Food was pretty good, and so were the drinks. :)

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Went back to the villa, and called it a night. Tomorrow, or I mean the next day, Monday we went to Melbourne Beach because it was the easiest to get to! May not have been as pretty as the beaches on the west side, but hey, an ocean is an ocean. I pretty much had to drag everybody there. Noone wanted to go except for me. But I tell you.....once we got there, nooone wanted to leave. Ha! That just goes to show, that mothers are always RIGHT!:thumbsup2:thumbsup2

Hope you're still enjoying my story..... :)
 
Just checking in....

Your pictures are great! It looks like everyone was having a great time. That picture you took of all the 'stars' is amazing. There are so many of them. I'll be looking forward to more!!!:goodvibes

Tim
 
I'm enjoying your report. Wonderful pictures! I can't wait to hear more about your trip.
 
Great job!!

Thank you so much for telling us all about it! :)

What is the red thing they are on? The three of them? Looks like some sort of roller coaster? :confused3

I have heard several MAW families say that Universal treated them quite nicely! Glad to know you guys had a good time!! :)

Can't wait to hear about Monday. :eek:
 

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