DAY 4-
We had gone to bed pretty late Christmas night, and by the time the 7am alarm sounded it felt as though we had only just gone to sleep. I was so tired I kept convincing hubby to sleep a few more minutes, but my darling husband is the early bird, worm and all, and finally got me up with the promise of coffee and sunshine. Our rhythm of getting up early, and enjoying the day before waking the kids was proving to be one of the best parts of our trip for us. This morning we ordered the coffee cart to come around, because I was hoping they had flavored creamer, which they did not. I am a little bit addicted to Coffee Mate, and hadnt had any since we started the trip. I realized on day 4 I actually only marginally enjoy coffee, its the creamer that I LOVE. The excitement of today was enough to get me motivated, and enough to get the kids out of their warm beds, even though they were just as exhausted as I was.
A tangle of children. Even though everyone had their own bed, four ended up in one.
Today was Universal Studios day! We were hopeful that we could do both US and IOA all in one day. Our plan was US today, then Animal Kingdom day 5, and Epcot Day 6. If we had time to come back to IOA after we had done Epcot, we would. The day started as all the other days had, breakfast at the Gingerbread House, a little moseying around the village, then off to the park. We parked at the US parking lot, in the handicap parking and started walking. We had been getting a free stroller at each park, and at all the Disney parks and Sea World the handicap parking had us less than 5 minutes from the main gate, with very little walking. Not US! Mackenzie is 5, and yes, probably spoiled, but overall completely capable of a good walk. In my opinion this was a little father than just a good walk. It took us about 15 minutes of hard walking to get to the gate, and another 5-10 before we had a stroller. They only reason this was a chore is because we didnt have a stroller of our own. This is merely a heads up to anyone who is using the stroller rental option; know that the walk to US and IOA is a pretty good trek, even from the handicap parking.
Walking in US
we did more walking than riding
Macylea Walking
Macylea and Elijah in the kiddy zone
We finally got under way and started going on rides. The first ride we wanted to do was Jimmy Neutron. This was our first taste of waiting in line. Apparently at US/IOA a family can pay about $100 per person and have a private escort who travels the park with them and gets them to the front of every line. These groups get top priority. Ok, no big deal, we waited
.then we finally got into the building and waited a little more. While waiting for the doors to open so we could board an announcement came over the speakers and informed us that the ride had broke, and everyone would have to come back later. Minor set back. We took off for the rest of the park. Overall the rides at US were pretty boring compared to Disney. This was unanimous from all of us. Jaws was ok, Twister was a waste of time, none of them were so good that you walked out and thought, wow, lets do that again! The best ride we found at US was the Simpson ride, but it is a simulator ride, and by now weve figured out that our family doesnt do simulator rides well. We rode it and all got so sick we had to break for lunch. We ate at the diner right out of the Simpson ride. Mike and I went in and ordered the meals and when we paid the cashier noticed our pins and asked if we were a wish family. We told her yes and she gave us 20% off of our meal! She said its not policy, but that she does it for wish families.
Mike and Mackenzie eating at US
The rest of the gang getting fed, we hardly ever found one table big enough for us all
After we ate we went to the kiddy area, and played a few minutes, but it was a little too wet and too young for our family. We tried Jimmy Neutron again, but it was still closed. At this point everyone wanted to go to IOA, since thats where the best rides seem to be.
At IOA we enjoyed the rides more. Everyone that is, except Mackenzie who was so affronted at the Popeye ride, she cried the entire time and screamed when she was hit with water. After that I learned she doesnt do any water rides
so I missed out on a few rides to wait with her. There were two rides my family really wanted to go. The Jurassic Park ride, and the Dueling Dragons. We went to the JP ride, got up to the front and guess what? The ride was broken and had to be closed, for the day! My kids were pretty disappointed, but they still had DD, and so we went there. We walked past the new Harry Potter area, which looked amazing and we all thought it would be great to come back when its finished. Mackenzie and I waited at the exit, while everyone else went to the front of the line for DD. After about 15 minutes, people started to come out the exit, LOTS of people, then people started saying that the ride was broke
.and that there were people stuck on it! I started getting pretty scared for James, since it would have been very bad for him to be stuck, when finally my family emerged. It had just taken so long for the line of people to exit. DD was closed down, you guessed, for the day. At this point we had two options, go to Seusville, or just go back to GKTW and go swimming. It was a glorious day, and the decision was easy, we all wanted to head back to the village. We planned on trying to come back our last day to ride the broken down rides, and go to Seusville. The walk back to the car was even worse for Mackenzie; she was tired, getting hungry and just pissy. Dakota carried her all the way back to the van.
We were all so happy to be spending some time at GKTW. It would be early when we got back, before 6pm, so we were also going to finally do James star, and play at Amberville, and do the Pirate and Princess Party the kids had all wanted to do.
We got back to the villa, and there was a note on the table. The Gingerbread house was closed due to an illness in the village. Not only was the Gingerbread House closed, but so was everything else
the castle of Miracles, the swimming pool, Amberville. And that nights activity, the Pirate and Princess Party was canceled! Our kids were all pretty sad little guys. They couldnt even get ice cream . Of Corse we couldnt help but wonder did we bring in this bug? With Mike being sick on the airplane down, we not only were sad about the village being closed, we were mortified that we may have caused this! After we ordered dinner from Katies Kitchen, we got the kids all cozy and glued to ICarly. Mike and I went to Wal-Mart and bought tons of fresh fruit, including a whole pineapple. We do not get fresh produce often in Alaska, and never of this caliber. We also bought two kinds of ice cream treats and some popcorn. Even though we were sad about the night being a bust, we ended up having a nice family night watching ICarly (we love that show!) and eating fruit and ice cream. Had we known what would happen next though, we would have done some things different!
Day 5- Can it get any worse?
you'll find out why soon 
Hopefully you can laugh about it now -- which is what we had to do with many of our "MISTAKES" on our trip!!! 
