wind blowin',sun shinin',Soarin'on a magical celebration!April/10: Final thoughts!

[longing2Batdisney]

Hello! everyone we just returned from a magical fantastical celebration ... our dates were April 24 -29, 2010! We were celebrating DS17 (Dayne's) high school graduation; his friend, Luke's first visit...and our hopes of having a beautiful magical week of family fun (with no rain---last year we went the month of May that had seen an unusal amount of rain, even by FL's standards)...:

TABLE OF CONTENT:

CAST
HOW THIS TRIP CAME TO BE
the When and Where
DAY 2...ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
our rooms and locations...were our request granted
Day 1 --recap (forgot wanted to share story)
Day 2 Part II
ROPE DROP! MAGIC KINGDOM and the meeting of some special friends
Ashton meeting more friends...
MAGIC KINGDOM--PART II
TOMORROWLAND
TOMORROWLAND PART II
FANTASYLAND PART I
FANTASYLAND PART II
LIBERTY SQUARE
CELEBRATE PARADE: DREAMS COME TRUE
PARADE PART II
PARADE PART III
PARADE PART IV
Dayne's graduation!
ADVENTURELAND! PART 1
ADVENTURELAND --PART II
ADVENTURELAND PART III
Ashton meets Lilo and Stitch & we end our MK day very wet and stormy!
ANIMAL KINGDOM--BREAKFAST W/DONALD & FRIENDS!
Animal Kingdom -- DINOLAND
Animal Kingdom Part III
AK part III cont...
Animal Kingdom IV safari ride
Animal Kingdom cont
finishing the day with a Dance Party
Day 3 : Epcot part I
Epcot Part II
part II continued
parents photos
Under the Sea with Nemo and Friends
Living with the Land
a stroll to World Showcase
searching for a train garden
continuing our stroll through world showcase
meeting up with Jasmine and Aladdin on our stroll
hopping over to DHS! for a fantastic show of Fantasmic!
Mini Trip Report--Ft Walton Beach July 8-12
Ft Walton Beach continued
Four year old celebrations!
Photopass photos
photopass continued
waterpark photopass fun
Day 4--we start our day at Epcot!
our Epcot photos!
Day 4 part II -- return to DHS
Day 4 part III - taking a break at the POP
Day 4 mom and dad's photos
our last night of disney magic!
SPECTRO!!! and a very unmagical exit...
our arrival at the Royal Pacific Resort and Islands of Adventure
photos from our exploration of Suess Landing
we continue our day through IOA/with a sneak peek of the Hogwarts bldg
Ashton meets some friends!
wet fun--continuation of IOA
a Day at Universal STudios
Our final day of FL fun
FINAL THOUGHTS!
Leaving you with a few of my favorites from this year!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

OUR CAST:
of course there is your's truly: Connie (41)

DH(44) Danny:

DD(22) Gwendolyn:

DS(17) Dayne
:

DS(3) Ashton:

DDBF (24) Joe (our proud retired Marine):

DF (18) Luke
:

my parents (Pops & Nana):

 

[longing2Batdisney]

So, shall we start with a small bit of background...

our family normally tries to take a magical trip to WDW about every 5 years. Well, that is what we try to use as a guideline...

I went to WDW for the first time in 1976, than again in 1985, with my parents, sister and in 1985 Danny came along with us. We went again in 1996 with my parents and our older two children (we stayed at POFQ --our first trip on grounds). Our next visit was in Oct 2001 with (my parents, again) and our neighbors (whom we were homeschooling with at the time)...due to many many reasons our next few trips were cancelled (a baby in 2006 and a hip replacement for Danny in 2006)...so, our return was 2009!

Last year was a wonderful trip; we stayed at the ASSp (for the first time) with just our three children and Joe; but, it our trip was during the horrible monsoon of tropical weather that was sitting off the coast of SC and just sat there churning for two/three weeks...FL was getting an unusal amount of rain during these two weeks. Due to the rain and being there with a two year old; we missed a great deal of what we wanted to see (we normally do the parks commando style...in the past we were always able to do everything in the parks.) We missed soooo much!

I wanted to go back...but for Christmas! Danny agreed only to return this year as long as we went to the beach before our return. We missed the beach last year(Danny suffers from psorasis and a stressful postition-and enjoys his week of nothing at the beach)..... well, our plan was to return the week after Thanksgiving 2010 (low season and cool temps--that was Danny's other request)...

THAN! Danny and I started talking about going in May to meet up with fellow disser's ...I was sooooo excited...we were going back so soon and meeting people that I have come to hold dear to my heart as friends and could not wait to meet face to face...than Dayne said that was the week of his Sr beach trip.

So, we were back to NOv. But, we realized that Dayne's spring break fell late this year and with a little research we learned that it too was suppose to be a low season...

Danny agreed! and I was off to planning our trip in three months. To top it off Gwendolyn and Joe decided to join us again so we were able to take advantage of the Military Salute again this year (that was a great relief--I didn't think we would be able to go with all the expense of Dayne's sr year coming up and a Disney trip.) But, things started to fall into place...
Dayne invited his friend, and my parents decided to join us the week before we left...

so, now that you have a basic background of how we ended up on this trip...stay tuned and travel along as we Soar high through the magic of Disney!
(how Soarin' came about--we were unable to ride last year and it was the main attractions Danny and I wanted to see last year...it was one of the main reason I was able to talk Danny into a trip so soon!)

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm here! I'm here! Now I'm going back to read.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sure hope you get your photobucket issues worked out soon so we can see more pics.

 

[MickeyisBeast]

Here! Can't wait to hear all about your trip Connie!
Now, to go back and read what you've got so far...
___
Our lab loves Camp Bow Wow! Infact, he's there right now. How's 'Buddy' like it?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

When: Saturday April 24 - 29, 2010
Place: POP Century Resort--(three rooms) Walt Disney World

When: Thursday April 29- May 1, 2010
Place: Royal Pacific Resort @ Universal Studios (two rooms)

we decided to start our trip on Friday when Dayne and Gwendolyn returned from school! Dayne had to drop off our black lab, "Buddy", off at Camp Bow Bow. Our other two dogs and parrot had been brough to Danny's mom the day before.
we hit the road around 12:30 and we drove through to Tallahassee for our first night (it was 6:30 est)...Danny wanted to continue through to Lake City; but, my dad was ready to stop...so, we stayed at a Best Western and had a yummy dinner at Cracker Barrel. I did not take pix of the food that night...or most of the trip sorry...my parents thought I was crazy and I just didn't want to go there with them (alot of things I would have done w/o them were not done). But, I had a new dish called "Shrimp low boil" it was so good...it had boiled shrimp, potatoes, corn, and andouille sausage in a garlic butter herb sauce...it was sooooo good!

 

[MK2010]

I'm reading along!

 

[BippityBoo]

Here!!!

 

[disney<333]

Joining in, Connie! Great intro and pictures. Can't wait to hear all about your fun. Mitch and I decided to take a last minute couples trip. We were there Tuesday to Sunday (yesterday.) Finally a trip for both of us with out any rain!

 

[Brave teacher]

Found you! Keep it coming girl! BTW, that meal at CB sounds fantastic!

 

[jenseib]

I'm here too!

 

[aprilisis]

I'm subscribed! I can't wait to hear more!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Finally, finished adding the pictures I wanted to add go check it out!

I'm here! I'm here! Now I'm going back to read.

Welcome over! Lisa

Here! Can't wait to hear all about your trip Connie!
Now, to go back and read what you've got so far...
___
Our lab loves Camp Bow Wow! Infact, he's there right now. How's 'Buddy' like it?

hey! Sara--Buddy loves it there...he gets all excited when Dayne takes him to work with him!!

I'm reading along!

to our travel fun!

Here!!!

Hey! Katie!!!! happy to have you here

Joining in, Connie! Great intro and pictures. Can't wait to hear all about your fun. Mitch and I decided to take a last minute couples trip. We were there Tuesday to Sunday (yesterday.) Finally a trip for both of us with out any rain!

Hey Barbara!couple only! that sounds like a lot of fun...I'm going to have to pop over to hear all about it. I would never be able to talk Danny into that...

Found you! Keep it coming girl! BTW, that meal at CB sounds fantastic!

Hello! Megan it was so good I had it on the ride home, too!

I'm here too!

Hey! Jen welcome over...

I'm subscribed! I can't wait to hear more!

Hey April!

So, hold on, keep you hands and legs in the vehicle...
and HERE WE GO!!!!

 

[deedeew80]

I'm in! Can't wait to read all about it!!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Saturday started with a quick continental breakfast at the hotel. We had a very uneventful ride in and made really good time. We were scheduled to arrive around 12:38 pm according to the GPS.

My mom had called around 11:45 to see if we were stopping for lunch; but, since we were going in the back way they did not have any fast food places, we had decided we would just wait to eat at POP when we arrived.

Around 12:15 this was is what we saw from our front window

Ashton actually started clapping he was so excited!

about ten minutes later we found this:

would our rooms be ready and where did we end up?!?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Now, before my parents had decided to join us I had requested our rooms have a lake view. Once they decided to join us we decided we needed to be close to transportation. Now, the weekend before we were to arrive Danny had a "fit" when he found out we were going to have two doubles in our room. So, I placed a call to POP directly (I was transferred to the front desk)...the CM told me our rooms had been assigned and all three were together, close to transportation on the first floor and all three were dbl beds...So, I asked (begged) very very nicely to have two rooms with Kings and one w/2 dbls. She told me that we would probably end up in different buildings...I told her it did not matter as long as we had one close to transportation and a king for my parents and a king for us.

So, what did we end up with and were they ready when we arrived?!?

All three rooms were ready
we were on the fourth floor of the 50's bldg and all three rooms were together...did we get what we requested?!?

YES! My parents had a king, we had a king, w/an adjoining room w/2dbls for the kids
our room (our room appeared to be set up for a cot--we could have easlily accomadated a queen size air mattress on the floor and still have room to walk and open the door[we tried it;we had brought one with us in case Dayne and Luke were uncomfortable in a dlb bed]--I was told I would need to rent a cot for Ashton but they did not bring it up at check in).

Ashton was so excited to be home at Disney (he would always ask to go home, when he was tired...when we asked if he wanted to go back to LA, he would say to my Mickey house)

kids room

up next how we spent our first day in WDW since we did not have a ticket for this day?!?

 

[mickeystoontown]

Seeing the beautiful Walt Disney World entranceway is one of the best sights ever!

I'm so glad that your requests were granted and you got all three rooms just as you wanted. Poor Gwendolyn looks so tired and Ashton looks full of energy bouncing around in the room.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Joining in!

 

[martinolichfamily]

I'm in!
Did ya'll like POP?? We will be staying there for the first time this July.

Yay for your rooms being ready and what you wanted!