The Darling Family June 2011: A Last Minute Budget Vacation

[Queenofallthings]

I love LTT for lunch! Their pot roast is my favorite and that dessert is to die for isn't it!

I love the picture of Wendy when she was little....they grow so quickly don't they How lucky are we that we can look back and picture them on those rides not so long ago!

We try and make sure everyone gets to do the one thing they really want to do at each park. When there is 7 of us everyone usually gets their fill! Philharmagic is one of my favs too

 

[MEK]

So cool that John is turning into a thrill ride fan! And Wendy complaining about being cramped.....that is too funny! Yeah - maybe add 100lbs and then she can complain.

I love LTT for lunch. I think its a fav and I am really looking forwards to it on my next trip. But I am bummed because I heard that you can no longer segment the DDP for DVC stays. Arrrgh! I wanted to get two days of the deluxe DP. Now its back to the drawing board.

Fun MK morning and pictures!

 

[Shannon84]

That is too funny Wendy complained about being cramped, because she is tiny!! I sometimes feel like I am going to hit my head on that ride though and I am only 5'2

I love the castle pic!! That is a great spot for those, because you don't have all the random people walking around in the background

 

[dismagiclover]

Great updates!!

My boys can't wait to meet Phineas and Ferb! It looks like a fun meet and greet!

Aww...your Garden Grill pictures turned out so cute!

Love all the pictures of OKW! It looks like a beautiful resort! Yay for the opening show at MK! Sounds like you had such a fun morning! I can't believe we still haven't done the People Mover. It looks so relaxing!! Definitely next trip.

Can't wait to hear more about your MK day!!

Your boys will love Phineas and Ferb! That is such a fun show! A huge improvement over Hannah Montana (Disney Channel's last big hit.) You definitely need to do the People Mover next time! It is very relaxing and it has some great views.

Glad to hear that your husband is grooming a thrill ride partner. It is so much fun to see your child having fun on thrill rides. I hope my 9 yr. old son will be much more brave next time we go. My husband daughter and I all love the thrill rides but it will be so much fun to all go together!

Philharmagic is one of my favorites as well. I could watch it many time a day.

I would guess your son will be ready for the thrill rides. I think 9 is about the age where most kids start liking them. Wendy will tolerate them, but she is too much of a control freak to really let lose and enjoy them. It really is fun when the whole family can go on all the rides together!

I love LTT for lunch! Their pot roast is my favorite and that dessert is to die for isn't it!

I love the picture of Wendy when she was little....they grow so quickly don't they How lucky are we that we can look back and picture them on those rides not so long ago!

We try and make sure everyone gets to do the one thing they really want to do at each park. When there is 7 of us everyone usually gets their fill! Philharmagic is one of my favs too

My mouth is watering now just thinking about LTT lunch. So good! You are right about how quickly they grow up, but it is a fun process to watch happen. Your Jasmine has grown up to be such a lovely young woman. I think my Wendy is on the same path and that really does make the whole experience of watching them grow joyful.

So cool that John is turning into a thrill ride fan! And Wendy complaining about being cramped.....that is too funny! Yeah - maybe add 100lbs and then she can complain.

I love LTT for lunch. I think its a fav and I am really looking forwards to it on my next trip. But I am bummed because I heard that you can no longer segment the DDP for DVC stays. Arrrgh! I wanted to get two days of the deluxe DP. Now its back to the drawing board.

Fun MK morning and pictures!

Even if you add a 100 lbs to Wendy she would still fit just fine. I think she weighs around 65 pounds. She was just looking for an excuse that didn't make her look too wimpy for not liking it. I read that they no longer allow segmenting the DDP. I'm not too suprised. Some people were making it very complicated. I'm glad we took advantage of it when we could. For us it worked out great because we got the 3 table service meals that we spread out over 2 days. Bummer you won't be able to do it.

That is too funny Wendy complained about being cramped, because she is tiny!! I sometimes feel like I am going to hit my head on that ride though and I am only 5'2

I love the castle pic!! That is a great spot for those, because you don't have all the random people walking around in the background

Read what I said about Wendy above. Silly girl! I love that Photopass shot too. It is a pretty angle of the castle as well as no people in the background.

 

[dismagiclover]

We’d done almost everything on our Magic Kingdom wish list. There were just a few things left. Buzz Lightyear was one of them. (We’d picked up fast passes at some point.) So we headed over and hopped on. Something amazing happened during this ride. I actually got to shoot a laser. Normally I ride with the boys and just steer, but I decided I actually wanted to play. So Wendy and DH hopped in a car, John and Michael went together and I rode by myself. The boys were bummed I wasn’t going with them because now they would actually have to steer the car themselves. Here are the red necked shots.

After Buzz Lightyear I was itching to use some of those 10 snack credits we had from our 1 day on the Deluxe plan. I had something specific in mind and so did DH. They were two different things. So I sent DH and the boys off to get their snack. What did they get?

What could I possibly want that would prevent me from a Dole Whip? It was something I’d learned about from the DIS. Wendy and I headed here.

Believe it or not I had never been in the Main Street Bakery. Hard to believe, but true. However, I had spent enough time on the DIS to know what I wanted from the bakery. I wanted one of those delicious ice cream cookie sandwiches.

This thing did not disappoint. It was huge. The boys showed up before we were done and we had some to share. Great use of a snack credit. We also picked up some pastries to eat for breakfast the next day. This was my first time in Main Street Bakery, but I don’t think it will be my last. Anyway we still had one final thing I wanted to do in the Magic Kingdom. I wanted to visit Mickey and Minnie at their new place in the Town Square Theater. So we headed down. They do have fast passes available for this meet and greet, but we didn’t need one. The line was pretty short. We headed in and waited a few minutes. While we were waiting I enjoyed reading the posters on the wall.

Wendy made faces at the camera while John tried to give her bunny ears.

Pretty soon we were escorted into a room. Next came a moment that can still make Wendy roar with laughter. I’m pretty sure this is a “you had to be there” kind of moment, but I’ll tell you about it anyway. The CM working this waiting area seemed a bit high strung. I’m thinking this may not have been the best fit for her. We were ushered into the holding room. She kept saying, “Scoot in. Scoot in.” She had us crowded into the front half of the room like sardines. Then she closed the door. And the back half of the room was empty. There were about 4 groups of people in the room. We all just kind of looked at each other and shrugged. The end group began to back up to fill up the space. Then what did the CM do? She said, “Scoot in. Scoot all the way forward.” Maybe some folks were there with invisibility cloaks. Who knows? Anyway then the CM opens one of the doors, leaves the room and shuts the door. We all stayed squished up because we did not want to get in trouble. About 60 seconds later we heard the CM scream at the top of her lungs, “Mickey!!!!!!” Remember the door was shut, but we all heard the scream. Wendy was pretty sure Mickey was having a heart attack. We all just looked at each other unsure what to do. I mean if Mickey was truly in trouble shouldn’t we try to help? We all just kind of stood around (squashed in a half empty room) for about 3 minutes. Then the CM who we’d just heard give this heart piercing scream walked back through the door and kindly escorted us down the hallway to Mickey’s dressing room without a word of explanation.

Mickey and Minnie seemed unaware of the drama we’d just experienced. They were happy to see us.

And of course we must split up by gender

My boys got Epic Mickey for Christmas and ever since have shown concern for Oswald (the rabbit.) Before we left I’d read that Oswald was in Mickey’s dressing room. So the boys asked Mickey where he was. Mickey showed us. Here is Oswald.

See him? He’s in Mickey’s hat. We said goodbye to Mickey and Minnie and headed out of the Magic Kingdom. It had been a great day, but we were looking forward to a relaxing evening just hanging out at Old Key West.

 

[ellajeansmom]

Great updates

So glad Wendy bounced back so quickly and was able to enjoy the rest of the trip. OKW looks like a wonderful place to relax after a busy day in the parks

for Wendy and John trying new rides, especially thrill rides, that's a huge step!

Glad to see Wendy and Minnie are still best buds

 

[Missyrose]

Great update! And what a weird CM with Mickey and Minnie.

 

[dismagiclover]

Great updates

So glad Wendy bounced back so quickly and was able to enjoy the rest of the trip. OKW looks like a wonderful place to relax after a busy day in the parks

for Wendy and John trying new rides, especially thrill rides, that's a huge step!

Glad to see Wendy and Minnie are still best buds

It's fun to see the kids grow up and do new things (like Space Mountain.) But I also love how some things don't change (like Wendy and Minnie as BFFs). OKW is a great place to relax! Completely removed from the hustle bustle of the parks!

Great update! And what a weird CM with Mickey and Minnie.

I don't know what was up with that CM. Hopefully just a bad day for her.

 

[dismagiclover]

This evening I must have decided to just relax and not worry about picture taking. Clearly I was not thinking about my trip report. So there aren’t tons of pictures. Anyway we left Magic Kingdom and headed back to our spacious Old Key West villa. The boys especially were looking forward to this evening because they knew the plan was just to hang out at the resort. Where did they want to go? The community center, or course. So off we headed to see what was going on. The boys happily began playing some game or other. Wendy wanted to see what craft project they were doing. They were making backpacks. She decided it looked like fun and so did I. So Wendy and I proceeded to outline and color Disney characters on the backpacks. Here are the final results.

Mine is Snow White. Wendy drew Minnie. I thought they turned out kind of cute. That actually took a while. By the time we were done with this the boys were ready to do something else too. So we borrowed some tennis racquets and headed over for a game of tennis.

Watching my kids play tennis is always a bit amusing. Wendy did go to a tennis camp one summer, but you wouldn’t really know it. All three of the kids were on one side of the court and DH was on the other. Even with this match up DH had very few returns to hit. The kids spent most of their time chasing balls. I even had to retrieve a few balls even though I was sitting outside of the court reading a book. Surprisingly this activity lasted up until dinner time. Dinner tonight was right there at the resort. We headed to Olivia’s.

The kids and I ate here last year, but this was DH’s first time. We all enjoyed it. It is nothing fancy, but has a great relaxed vibe. (Just like the resort.) Our server this evening was excellent and the meal only increased my love for Old Key West. The best part for me was the Key Lime dessert. Yum.

Here are some more random shots of the resort (that I took from the OKW thread). I love this place!

After dinner we headed back to the room and spent an enjoyable evening just relaxing at the villa. The next day was our last full Disney day.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Isn't it funny how you can just tell with certain people that "this is definitely not the job for you". Makes me laugh everytime! Imagine the stress they must be under getting up and going to work everyday I could just picture that whol scenerio in my mind

Great pictures though!! We didn't even think to go in there to see them

 

[Shannon84]

That is too funny that you guys stayed all squished together in the room, I wonder what happened to poor Mickey

I have never been to the Main Street Bakery, I need to make a trip there next time!!

OKW is just beautiful!!

 

[okw19]

Nothing better than a night in at OKW.

 

[dismagiclover]

Isn't it funny how you can just tell with certain people that "this is definitely not the job for you". Makes me laugh everytime! Imagine the stress they must be under getting up and going to work everyday I could just picture that whol scenerio in my mind

Great pictures though!! We didn't even think to go in there to see them

I hope for that poor CMs sake that it was just a bad day. It gave us something to laugh about though. The new set up for Mickey and Minnie was really cute. We also went and saw the princesses later in the trip. They didn't have any special backrounds. Just those plain old curtains.

That is too funny that you guys stayed all squished together in the room, I wonder what happened to poor Mickey

I have never been to the Main Street Bakery, I need to make a trip there next time!!

OKW is just beautiful!!

I don't think we will ever learn what really happened to Mickey The Main Street Bakery is definitely worth a stop. Though it's still not quite a must do like a Dole Whip.

Nothing better than a night in at OKW.

My thoughts exactly!

 

[dismagiclover]

I don’t quite know what happened this day, but we didn’t even come close to making rope drop. That is very unusual for the Darling Family. We must have slept in a bit, ate breakfast in the room and just succumbed to the relaxing vibe of Old Key West. We pulled into the Animal Kingdom parking lot after 10:00. We definitely weren’t alone. Here is a shot while we were waiting to go through the turnstiles.

Notice John’s Hidden Mickey book. We started searching for Hidden Mickey’s in our January trip and the kids really loved it. So John was studying up. First stop once we made it in the park.

Family photos. What else? First ride this morning was Kali River Rapids. We hadn’t gone on this ride in January (for obvious reasons) so we were excited. While we waited in line we searched for Hidden Mickeys. We found some too, but the camera was already stowed away in a baggie so we don’t have any pictures. Just trust me. There are Hidden Mickey’s in the Kali River ride. This was a great ride, and we all ended up wet. Some more than others, of course. From the looks of the pictures John ended up pretty wet. So after the ride guess what DH did. Picked up some fast passes. We then sent him off to Expedition Everest. We stopped at one of the Discovery Stations.

These are always interesting. I often think it would be fun to try and get to all of the stations. Maybe one of these trips. Not in the summer though. This park is always too hot in the summer. Anyway we began walking toward our next destination when I spotted a Photopass guy. My boys were beginning to revolt a bit about all the picture stops. I had to think of a way to get them back on board with the Photopass thing. All of a sudden a brilliant idea popped into my head. The boys could get their own Photopass cards. Then they will feel ownership and want to use them. So I suggested it. Did they go for it?

Absolutely. They loved the idea. They loved it so much that they spent the rest of the trip forcing the Photopass photographers to take 2 sets of pictures. One with each card. The photographers would always look at me questioningly. I would just tell them to go with it. So here are some of the pictures we got at this session. (I say some because believe me we will have plenty of pictures for the rest of the trip.)

Mission Accomplished. I had now created 2 more Photopass addicts.

 

[Shannon84]

I LOVE photopass and I am so glad to hear that you got the kids on board with it too

 

[lbuzz52]

great idea with the photopass cards

 

[okw19]

That's a genius idea with the Photopass cards!!

 

[MEK]

I agree - quite the stroke of genius with the two cards! Great idea!

 

[Missyrose]

Notice John’s Hidden Mickey book. We started searching for Hidden Mickey’s in our January trip and the kids really loved it. So John was studying up. First stop once we made it in the park.

I just bought the Hidden Mickey book to try out on our upcoming trip, glad to hear you guys liked using it! I knew there were Hidden Mickeys and Donalds, but Goofys and Tinkerbells? Who knew?

Mission Accomplished. I had now created 2 more Photopass addicts.

Love the Photopass pictures! I just preordered my Photopass CD, it'll be my first trip using Photopass, can't wait!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Very very smart of you to give the kids their own Photopass cards to use. Are you sure you were an art major and not a psychology major?