Ponchos, Ponchos everywhere.. Updated 12/14

[justakrazymom]

Welcome Welcome to my August 2011 trip Report... be warned.. U will get wet..you may even get soaked.. so grab your poncho and join us!
( read about my pre-trip adventures too.. PTR )


Trip dates: August 18-29 2011. Room only on August 18th, Free dining from 8/19-8/29

Resort~ Pop Century..my first time at a Value.. 2 rooms

Who? Well lets see we have:

ME: Alison..I turned 36 while in Disney. I have been a Disney fan my whole life. I could live in Disney. I made 2 Disney trips in 19 months in 1999 and 2000 then I shelved my Disney World dreams when I met my now husband and we had 3 kids in 3 years.Fast forward 10+ years and we were finally ready and able to take the plunge and take the 4 kids! I homeschool 3 of the 4 kids ( the oldest is graduated) plus I work a day job doing office type work for the family business and I bartend 2-4 nights a week at my best friends nightclub.

Eric: 39.. a now reformed Disney Skeptic. He was not thrilled with this trip in the planning and paying stage.. and even up til the we arrived stage. He only had 6 Flags to picture in his head what Disney might be like. Well let's just say if I had a nickel for each time he said "this place is awesome"( which was almost the trip report title BTW)..well I could buy us all AP's and go back again this year!

Noah: Turned 17 on this trip. Has been to WDW twice before..once at 4.5 and once at almost 6.5 ( for Christmas no less).. he was above all the most excited for this trip aside from myself.. he knew what to expect and he was giddy like a 6 year old school girl any time you mentioned the trip. Noah is currently a "sandwich artist" at Subway while he decide's what's next in his life! warning prone to extreme teenage mood swings!

Kate: 16.. Noah's girlfriend. nice girl.. but let's just say no girlfriends/boyfriends will ever be invited again!

Declan: 9.5 going on 90.. we always say he's an Old man trapped in a kids body. He was the kiddo I was most worried about at Disney as he has a tendency to suck the fun out of things. Declan tends to overthink, over worry and over control things. He's a fab kid, smarter than any 9.5 year old should be and is a great athlete. He was super excited to go to Disney but due to his issues with the unknown he had a giant knot in his tummy too!

Jadziah: 7 almost 8.. she is by far my most even tempered kiddo. She was giddy and unworried about the trip. She required a disney shirt for each day we were there and yes..she got them..lol hey it pays to be the only girl outta 4 kids right? ( oh JahD Zee Uh like in Star Trek Deep Space nine.. yes I named my daughter after a character in a TV show..I'm a star trek nut and proud of it)

Taejan: 5 almost 6 ( as in he turns 6 a mere 3 days after we left Disney). There are few words to accurately describe Taejan ( Tay-Gin we made this one up). He has the best personality, is beyond outgoing.. vocal and full of love and life.. he's also a putz.. a VERY small but BIg putz.. no is just a word he laughs at.. he made the trip very stressful at times..but oh well..such is life. he also was the catalyst for many of the great "awwwww moments" on this trip as well!

Elaine AKA Gigi: My mother.. she has also been to WDW 2 other times ( with Noah and I). She was a great help with the 3 younger kiddo's and she fully enjoyed her time at Disney with us. She did NOT like the heat ( but then again which one of us did???)

So there's the cast of this mighty adventure.. coming up.. the "pre disney" part of the trip!

 

[justakrazymom]

Saved for chapter links

Getting to Georgia
Georgia

August 18th 2011

Ready or not Disney.. here we come!
Swim time and we have a room
Downtown Disney Bound
Our Room

August 19th 2011

Magic Kingdom Finally part 1
Magic Kingdom Finally part 2
Magic Kingdom Finally part 3
Who broke the Biometric scanner?
This place is haunted... don't make me go in there!
The Adventures of the Ponchos begin!

August 20th 2011

I'm leaving with or without you!
Where is Taejan? ( or my husband lost my son)
Out come the Ponchos
Mommmm....Declan made a movie...
Star Tours again and again and again

August 21st 2011

Epcot Bound
World Showcase Time
Sleeping Girl and Shaved Ice
Worst Soda in the World

August 22nd 2011

Hollywood Studio again..sigh..
Tales of Itchy feet
What left Taejan Speechless?
Pictures Pictures
Sci Fi time
Sci Fi Time part 2

August 23rd 2011

Noah's Birthday part 1
Noah's Birthday part 2
Fish and Chips please!
Kim Possible Time
The American Adventure
Let it rain let it rain
On our way to HDDR
HDDR Part 2


August 24th 2011

Attack of the Tie Dye Krew
Grand Gathering Breakfast
Grand Gathering Breakfast Part 2
A ghost and a few mountains
A ghost and a few mountains part 2
To Infinity
Bring on the Rain
Photopass Pictures finally
More Photopass pictures
The perfect parade spot..or so we thought
Wishes and more

August 25th 2011

Day 8.. Animal Kingdom bound
Best chef ever
Safari Time
Safari part 2
Just Exploring
DinoLand USA
The Tree of Life and more...rain
Nemo, a little of the parade and pool time

August 26th 2011

Hurricane Irene
Animal Kingdom day 2
Guitar Dan sings The Taejan Song
Runaway Scooter
Kali Bound

August 27th 2011

Disney Day 10~ Epcot Again
Test Track..Maybe

 

[GreatBiscuit]

Jadziah: 7 almost 8.. she is by far my most even tempered kiddo. She was giddy and unworried about the trip. She required a disney shirt for each day we were there and yes..she got them..lol hey it pays to be the only girl outta 4 kids right? ( oh JahD Zee Uh like in Star Trek Deep Space nine.. yes I named my daughter after a character in a TV show..I'm a star trek nut and proud of it)

So when I first saw the name, I thought "Hey, I wonder if she got that from DS9." And then I read on. And now I'm subscribbed. Looking forward to more!

 

[justakrazymom]

So when I first saw the name, I thought "Hey, I wonder if she got that from DS9." And then I read on. And now I'm subscribbed. Looking forward to more!

yeah I'm a sci fi geek ( shhh u wouldn't know it to just meet me..but I am a giant geek at heart).. my 2nd oldest is named after a character on a short running show with Adrian Pasdar..another sci-fi, fantasy type show..

and Welcome to the report!

 

[justakrazymom]

For anyone that read my PTR they know we were vacationing with friends... i'll call them the supporting cast as we didn't tour together much, mostly just ate main meals together!

So here's who our supporting cast is oh no pictures yet.. but soon you'll be seeing more than enough of us I promise)

Melissa.. my best friend of 30..yes since 1st grade people..years. She also happens to be my "boss" for my night job.

Don her husband of 18 years

and her SEVEN kiddos.. Epiphani(16), Demitryia(15), Montana (12), Jadyn (10),Myrana ( 7), Delanee( 6) and Mavrik ( turned 4 in Disney).


Then we have:

Brian.. friend and co-worker at the night club

His wife Deb

Their one kiddo Kyle (17) and his friend Glen (17)..

so there we go.. my supporting cast of 13..add that to my 8 and that's 21 of us people.. 21! We went by "DisneyPalooza" and yes..we even had tshirts!

 

[Dizneydaz]

Wow, that's a lot of people! Can't wait to read about it (esp. the 16 y/o girlfriend part)

 

[justakrazymom]

let's start with some background.. Chandra and I "met" almost 11 years ago on AOL. We were both trying to get pregnant..her with her 3rd me with my 2nd. Well we clicked, stayed friends and either IM'd every day or once we both got cell phones Txt'd nearly everyday since. Back in 2009 we decided to finally meet..and off we trekked the 997 miles from my house to her's. Yep.. we crashed at her house for over a week.. 13 of us total ( she also has 4 kids and her FIL lives there).. it was a blast..
Chandra is the blonde tall one.. I'm the brunetter short one..this is on Tybee Beach outside Savannah:

so much so we did it the next April too:

and now we come to 2011. I had made the plans for Disney and that meant no Georgia trip.. sad sad. Then as the trip comes closer my husband and I are feeling worse and worse about literally driving right by my friend and not stopping. Then we decide we are staying for one night on the drive down, I'd rather a little time with them then none!

Well fast forward to April.. and Eric earns 4 extra vacation days..ok so now we add a day at Pop before the package starts and another day with Chandra. Before we know it we are spending 3 nights and 3 days with Chandra and krew..score!

So the plan is now to leave as soon as I get out of work overnight sat/sun. I leave work at 1:25 am on Sunday the 14th and by 1:55 we are out the door and leaving the driveway!

the van is packed full.. 3 small kids, 2 adults and all the luggage for 8 people! Plus separate bags for the Georgia leg of the trip so i don't have to unpack everything!

The drive is very smooth.. no traffic to speak of..no issues.
The kids were happy..in fact they were angels on the drive!

we made 3 stops for gas and potty breaks.at about 3pm I told my friend we were about 3.5 hours away and were going to stop and get a motel. The plan had been to get a motel and let the kids enjoy the pool and get to my friends the next day ( we normally drive straight thru). She insisted we just keep driving and stay another night.. so we kept going!

We got to her town at 6:30 and our first stop? Well Walmart of course ( only cus they don't have a Target..can u imagine??).. we needed to grab groceries so not be a burden on my friends budget

We were greeted by a Welcome Back rainbow!
(cell phone picture)

After Wally World we headed the rest of the way to Chandra's house.. her whole extended family were there..so we got to see everyone!
The kids immediately played with their friends!

Up next.. the Redneck Riviera

 

[justakrazymom]

My friends neighbor has a great pool..that is usually NOT open when we go in April. It was open this year ( and the water was 94 degree's..really?? Not refreshing but oh well!) so we took the kids for the afternoon:

My friends oldest daughter.. she is an amazing young lady!

These are the 2 kiddo's that started this decade long friendship..

and the few that were born after!

Aside from swimming we also went for Pedicures, chilled, cooked, Chilled, ate, chilled..get the idea?? This was to be the relaxing part of the vacation since we knew the 11nights/12 days in Disney would NOT be relaxing.

Luckily.. it was.. we had a blast and got some good quality time with great friends!

Up next.. Ready or Not Disney World here we come..

 

[justakrazymom]

We woke up at 4:30 on August 18th, said our sad tear filled goodbyes to our Georgia "family" and headed on the road. It's roughly 4.5/5 hours from Chandra's house to Disney.. and we wanted to have a full first day of "nothing".

We had smooth sailing til part way on I4..then it was roughly 1 miles every 5 minutes or more.. OMG it was killing me. I have a LOT of road anxiety ( hence why i don't drive on the highways and I am a TERRIBLE passenger) so this stop n go was setting me on the edge and I wanted to just be there. I was texting Missy every mile counting down how many more til we were there.

We finally saw this:

and then this:

and this:

The screeching of joy from the arch to the resort was intense..and the kids were loud too..lol. I just couldn't believe it was finally real... I was actually here and taking my kids to meet the Mouse!!

We had learned the day before that the resort originally didn't have any of us in our Grand Gathering even in the same building and they had my 2 rooms in totally different buildings! Don took the time to straighten that all out the day before we got there. ( Missy and Don and krew had arrived the 17th).

I went to check in thinking all was well. There was a few people in both check in lines.. I hopped into Online and it didn't take long to get to the front. Here's Taejan waiting with me til he got bored and went to watch TV..lol

Upon checking in we learned they did not have connecting rooms for us. Since I know requests are not guarantee's it was no big deal. Disappointing but since the other 3 wouldn't be arriving til the next day no big deal. Just meant we wouldn't bother unpacking. The guy checking us in did say they would move us the next day ( the 18th was room only, our package started the next day) to connecting rooms. Ok sounds good ( well at the time it did.. that would change). We got all our info, map etc.. rooms were not ready..no surprise. They would text when they were. So we left check in and went to meet up with Missy and Don for late breakfast in the food court!

Look we found them!

and we ate!

 

[justakrazymom]

After we ate we grabbed the kids swim suits and headed to the Hippy Dippy to swim while we waited for the infamous text's to arrive saying our rooms were ready.

I had NO intention of being in a giant FULLY public pool in a swimsuit..nope..no way.. I'm rather self conscience.. well the 16 year old who shall currently remain nameless <cough Epiphani> <cough brat> bullied me into going in.. sigh.. I sure hope no one saw my belly roll, stretch marks and tan lines danggammit!

The kids had a blast.. I found the pool a touch..oh let's say..WARM.. holy heck..lol.. are pools down south actually ever cool??

Oh have I mentioned I love the look and themeing of Pop? Well I do.. much more than I expected. I won't lie.. I never would have stayed at a Value resort by choice.. we were moderate only when we went before. This trip though being 8 of us we needed 2 rooms.. and let's face it..2 rooms at $85 and $95 a night is much easier to swallow than any other option on site..lol.. plus our friends were all booked here when we decided to join in on the fun. So I love Pop.. actually I adored Pop..shocking!

It was now about 12 and I was itching to get our room.. checked my phone alot..again hoping no one saw my stretch marks and belly fat.. oh and really hoping my top stayed where it belongs..and we had no towels! So in a moment of panic I sent Montana and Declan off to "borrow" some towels from a housekeeping cart I spotted near the 2nd floor of one of the pool vicinity rooms..phew..all the people were safe now from memories of my tan lines being burned into their brains! Now that that was all set I made my poor husband trek off to see if our rooms were ready.. he came back pretty fast..i was hopeful. Nope.. he forgot to bring ID so he had to go get it and go back in. He came back and ONE room was ready!

We got the kids out of their swim suits and headed to find our room. We were in the 70's building 6 room 6442. About 5 rooms away from our best friends! We had a lake view room..awesome!

A clear view of some of the construction across the lake:

and a view of this:.. the best stairs EVER!

thus far no text about our 2nd room..GREAT...

To be continued..

 

[justakrazymom]

We finally got the text that our 2nd room was ready. It was right next door..cool. This would be my mom, Noah and Kate's room so I didn't really do anything with it.

Missy and I decided we wanted to take everyone to Downtown Disney before the place got really packed so we headed to the bus stop.

Of course I made the kids all stand for a picture.. I'm such a horrible person!

This fun CM came by on a Segway and Montana was being..well Montana and was about begging the guy to let him ride the Segway..the CM was very nice and had some fun with the kids which helped the time waiting for the bus go by faster.

Once we arrived I let my krew go nuts in the water.. which of course meant Missy's kids followed suit..oppps..not sure she wanted them to get wet. Oh well it was about 2000 degree's out so they dried fast after anyway!

Here's the 10 kids together.. I was really wishing Noah and Kate were here at this point ( that would change about 8 hours after they arrived the next day..TEENS!).

And 5 of my immediate family..

Missy's 3 youngest girls were so excited to take Ziah to BBB to get Dusted..but the thing is..Ziah is not exactly a princess fan and she is painfully shy and was not at all happy about this! We finally got her to do it though..dang "dust" was in her hair for days!

After this we separated do to logistics.. 9 of them plus 5 of us..doesn't work well all the time..plus I move a LOT faster than the average tourist and wanted to go DO and SEE not wander slowly!
Off to the Lego store.. where Declan probably would have stayed for the next 1 nights had I allowed it. In fact he's not in many pictures cus he was too busy filling up a pail of parts to buy!

We went and looked around and let the kids dig at T-Rex before we left..

 

[justakrazymom]

While we were in Downtown we pondered the fact we wouldn't be able to unpack until late Friday night because of being switched in the morning. We had plans to head to Magic Kingdom for rope drop and I just didn't want to deal with moving rooms. So we decided to go to check in and tell them we wanted to stay put. Since we had planned to have the 3 wee ones in one room with us, and My mom, Noah and Kate in another we didn't HAVE to have connecting rooms.

So that decision made and the front desk let "out back" know we got a luggage dolly and unloaded the van!

Warning..I'm something of an OCD freak so I had to get the room we were using just the way I wanted it! Luckily my little minion's..I mean children.. are used to this and snapped right in action!

Eric and I lived outta our bags but we gave the drawers to the kids..

And yes.. i brought my own toothbrush hold and hand soap.. and they have siblings in our 2nd room.. I'm a little crazy like that!

We tucked the rather hot and tired kids into bed and I set my alarm for 6:30am. I was going to check out and check back in then head to Magic Kingdom!

 

[VroomVroomLightning]

I read your entire PTR this week and was so excited to see that you had started your TR! I love your style of writing and your pictures! I thought it was madness for us when we went to Disney World in December with 7 adults and 2 kids. I could not imagine 21 of us at times! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

 

[justakrazymom]

I read your entire PTR this week and was so excited to see that you had started your TR! I love your style of writing and your pictures! I thought it was madness for us when we went to Disney World in December with 7 adults and 2 kids. I could not imagine 21 of us at times! Can't wait to read more about your trip!

Oh thank you!! So glad to know someone is reading this!!! LOL.. yeah the 21 was a bit much at times..mostly just at meals because we didn't really tour together most of the time..

 

[disneysnowflake]

I'm reading!! Can't wait to see the rest!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Wow!!! you guys really know how to organize a value room to maximize the space!!!

 

[justakrazymom]

We never once felt crowded and my husband and I and 3 kids lived in there for 11 nights.. the room itself is smaller than my daughters bedroom..lol

 

[VroomVroomLightning]

We never once felt crowded and my husband and I and 3 kids lived in there for 11 nights.. the room itself is smaller than my daughters bedroom..lol

My brother and sister-in-law managed to fit themselves into one POP room with two kids plus a pack-n-play for a week so I know it is manageable. I will say though that their room was not as organized as yours..Lol.

I will have to show them pictures for next year!

 

[justakrazymom]

hee he.. yeah my OCD tendency's come in handy some times for sure! Between the bathroom all and the bed is where we laid the comforter folded up and made my 9 year old a "bed"..he loved his own little area!

 

[jcc0621]

Hi! Just found your TR. Wow, trying to organize all those people would have me frazzled.

We love POP too. There's just something about it....

Can't wait to read more.