Look at all those Minnie hats!! A 3 generation Nov/Dec 2011 TR - updated March 23

ellajeansmom

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jun 2, 2009
Welcome!! This TR is way overdue as our trip took place Nov. 26 - Dec. 4, 2011 - we had so much fun that I still want to share it, even though it took place 4 months ago!


This is one of my favourit pics of us all, and gives insight to the title of this report:

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We are, from front to back:
Jean (DD7, was 6 at the time of the trip) - loves thrill rides (TOT is her favourite) and is a very practical girl
Ella (DD10) - she is the one that likes to live in a fantasy world and still loves her princesses even though her room no longer has princess decorations
Grammy (my MIL) - retired school principal, she loves to spoil her granddaughters (my two are her only grandkids) and was ready to have some fun on this trip
E (DH) - IT software guy and more of a hockey fan than a Disney fan, but he enjoys himself when we are at WDW
me (Lara) - accountant by day, I am the planner in the family, especially when it comes to Disney vacations
Nana (my mom) - retired teacher, she is a kid at heart and loves to play with her grandkids
Gramps (my dad) - retired marketing guy, he enjoys thrill rides (although not the simulator type) and is up for anything that includes his grandkids (as long as it doesn't cost too much!)

We spent 5 nights at Coronado Springs, with 4 days in the parks, then split off into groups...
-E and I spent a day a Kennedy Space Centre then came back to the Swan and Epcot
-Grammy and the girls went on a 3-night cruise on the Disney Dream
-Nana and Gramps spent 3 nights in a condo near Port Canaveral and explored that area

I hope you join along as I relive our fun-filled trip!

Up next, departure day...
 
Departure Day – Fri. Nov. 25

I had booked this day off work, and by the time it got here, I was very glad I had. I had a general idea of what would be packed but going from that to actually getting it all in the suitcases always seems to take a long time!

E headed off to work and the girls hopped on the school bus as normal. I took Nala (our dog) for a walk and then headed out for some last minute errands. There was still a few things I needed for the trip and I wanted to have some groceries (non-perishable obviously) in the house for when we got home. When I got home I had some lunch and put away the laundry that wasn’t going with us. Then it was time to take Nala to the kennel. She generally loves other dogs and was eager to head in to the back where all the barking was coming from – didn’t even give me a second glance as I was patting her good-bye. This was the first time we had left a dog at a kennel so it was hard for me but it made it easier that she was excited about it.

Back home again to try to fit all our clothes into 2 suitcases. At 3:50 the girls came in and Grammy arrived shortly after that. I was still making last minute adjustments in the packing so Grammy put some hot dogs on while the girls were getting their carry-on’s ready. Crazy I know that we were leaving very soon and they hadn’t done that yet, but it was partly because it had been a busy week and partly because I know that the more time they have to pack the more they will take!

We were in pretty good shape by the time E arrived home. We quickly ate our hot dogs and the girls took down the last link in our countdown chain.

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The car was packed quite quickly and we were on the road by 6:00. We crossed the border at Sarnia/Port Huron and after a short wait met one of the friendliest border guards I’ve ever run into. I’m sure we spent more time listening to him tell us what not to miss at Disney than we did waiting in line! Turns out he is from Florida and his mother is a cast member who works at one of the kiosks in AK. She is also a member of the Candlelight Processional choir. With admonishments to say hi to Mickey for him we were on our way!

We reached our hotel that was right across from the Detroit airport at 9:30, which was great time. Nana and Gramps had arrived earlier in the day and had requested that our rooms be close together. We brought in what we needed from the car and found our rooms – to get the airport parking deal I had to book a king room so E & I shared that and Grammy and the girls had a regular double room connected to ours. I called Gramps’ room and they were just across the hall so we went over to say hi and have a quick visit before turning in for the night.

Next time...arrival at WDW!
 
I'm here!!:goodvibes

Thanks for letting me know you started this!! I'm so excited to read about your trip!:thumbsup2

Love the picture!! I can definitely see why it's a favorite!:)

Can't wait for more!!
 


Lara I am so happy you decided to start your TR! Thank you so much for the PM with the link.....enjoyed your first post over my morning coffee...can't think of a better way to start my day!:goodvibes
 
Im here!! Cant wait to hear more!!

:welcome: Glad you joined in...if I remember you were there around the same time as us, I'd love to hear how things went for you.

I'm here!!:goodvibes

Thanks for letting me know you started this!! I'm so excited to read about your trip!:thumbsup2

Love the picture!! I can definitely see why it's a favorite!:)

Can't wait for more!!

Hi Angie! I'm happy that you are here to follow along :goodvibes
That pic was our 4th day in the parks (and unfortunately our last day all together) and we were all feeling very carefree by that point!

I see you started a PTR :woohoo: I'll have to come over and check it out!


I'm here!! Thanks for the PM with the link :)

Hi Megan! As you already know we loved our rooms at Coronado Springs, I thought you'd like to read about the rest of our adventures :)

Lara I am so happy you decided to start your TR! Thank you so much for the PM with the link.....enjoyed your first post over my morning coffee...can't think of a better way to start my day!:goodvibes

Hi Queen, thanks for joining in! I'm working on getting caught up on your TR and you've got a new PTR too, how exciting!!

I've been MIA from the boards for so long I figured no one would find me if I didn't send out PM's :rotfl: When we got home we were right into the busy-ness of Christmas, then it was year-end at work (with some not so minor hiccups this year), then Jean's hockey team started adding exhibition games to our already crazy schedule, and all of a sudden it was the end of March :scared1: Hockey is now done for the season for our girls, well ice hockey is but they have now started ball hockey...luckily it is a much lesser time commitment.

Anyways I got myself organized enough to start and hopefully I can keep posting on a somewhat regular basis.

I will have the next post up next weekend - I may even get 2 in since it will be a long weekend. Have a great week everyone!
 


This post is a little light on pictures as it was another travel day, but there are lots of pictures to come!

We had agreed to meet at 8:00am and go to the Bob Evan’s down the road for breakfast. Unfortunately Grammy hadn’t set an alarm so when we knocked on the connecting door at 7:45 to see how they were doing they were all still asleep! We got the girls up and ready quickly, Grammy had a super quick shower and I think we were actually at the restaurant a little after 8:30.

The greeting at this breakfast set the tone of lots of laughter for the trip! The greeter smiled and said good morning, did a quick head count and said “4 adults and 3 children?”. It took me a minute but then replied “No, 5 adults and 2 children.” She looked at our group more closely and became quite embarrassed when she realized she had counted Grammy as a kid!! With that sorted out we enjoyed a good breakfast with orders ranging from omelets to pancakes and French toast to grits.

Jean took this pic of Gramps and I:



Back at the hotel the girls and Nana & Gramps changed into swimsuits. We had picked this particular hotel as it had a park ‘n fly offer and also had an indoor pool. We all enjoyed the pool area while the kids burned of some excited energy!





Soon it was time to get back to the room to re-pack the bags and load up the car. With the park ‘n fly deal we were able to park in the airport lot and the hotel gave us a voucher for a week’s parking. The parking shuttle bus led us to a couple of empty parking spaces and took us to the terminal where we quickly checked our bags and went through security, which was not a very long line. Kids no longer have to remove their shoes and electronics and liquids no longer have to be pulled out into a separate bin so that made things much easier. One of the guards at security chatted to the girls about Disney and how lucky they were to be going :thumbsup2

Our gate was way at the end of the terminal so we had our first attraction of the trip on the Detroit airport internal train :) We staked out some seats at the gate, then E, the girls and I went to find some lunch. We brought some sandwhiches and fries back to the gate and the grandparents took their turn to get lunch. We did start to worry as it was approaching boarding time and they hadn’t returned but they made it in lots of time having eaten at one of the tables.

Overall the flight was smooth with some minor turbulence. Jean took a pic of Nana during the flight:



The crew kept everyone entertained - they kept announcing football scores (remember it was the Saturday of American Thanksgiving) and then announced that they had some final scores but they had requests to not announce them as some folks were DVR’ing the game at home so if you wanted to know just call for an attendant! As we touched down in Orlando, the pilot came on again over the speaker system with “Whoa there!” while braking on the runway :rotfl2:

We all made a bathroom break once off the plane and headed for the baggage claim – our second attraction of the trip being the airport monorail. E headed off to pick up the rental car while we waited for our luggage. It was at this point that Nana realized she had left my jacket on the plane. What had happened was that once we were in the Detroit airport, to reduce the number of things I was carrying, I put my jacket in Jean’s carry-on. Jean was sitting between Nana and Gramps on the plane and at some point decided that she didn’t want my jacket in her bag (the prerogative of a 6 year old :confused3). So Nana took it out and tucked it under the seat, intending to put it back after landing...but she forgot. She went over to the Delta lost and found while we were waiting for the luggage. By the time the luggage had arrived she had talked to customer service – they had not found my jacket but she was given permission to go back to the terminal and look herself. I decided to not bother, I knew there was nothing in the pockets and I’ve had that jacket for at least 12 years – it gave me a good excuse to get a new one!

E then returned from the rental car counter. I had booked a mini-van (using points) but the lady at the desk convinced him that 7 people plus luggage for 7 people would not fit in a Grand Caravan so he upgraded to something bigger. I was not thrilled with having to pay more when I still think the mini-van would have worked but there wasn’t anything we could do about it at that point and we had already spent longer at the airport than I wanted to. Turns out the “something bigger” was a Ford Expedition…now I drive a Civic and E drives a Mazda 5 (essentially a mini mini-van), we drive smaller cars. In comparison this thing was huge! However it was comfortable, there was plenty of room for seating and all the luggage fit with plenty of room to spare. After some grief from our GPS we were on our way – the GPS worked fine once we were out of the cement parking garage :rolleyes1

Soon we were driving under the wonderful gates – of which I do not have a picture because it was dark and the lights weren’t on. The girls and I started pointing out landmarks to Nana and Grammy such as the road to POR where we stayed in 2009, the Swan and Dolphin, Jean glimpsed her favourite, ToT and then we were pulling in to Coronado Springs!

E, Nana and Grammy took the girls into Panchito’s to pick out their autograph books while Gramps and I checked in. I had intended to have E or one of the girls take pictures of the lobby but it had been a long day and I forgot, but the lobby was lovely and of course decorated for Christmas.

I had opted to not do on-line check-in but there wasn’t anybody at the online check-in counter and all the other CM’s were busy with guests so they waved us down. Check in went well, I hadn’t made any official requests other than connecting rooms but an unofficial request had been made through a friend of a Dis-friend…that came through for us :woohoo: We were in Casitos 5, which I had wanted (half way between the main building and the main pool and the Casitos look pretty to me). There was a bit of an upgrade thrown in too as we had a water view and we were on the 1st floor.

The CM gave me a couple of anniversary buttons as I had noted that E and I were celebrating our 15th anniversary (even though it had been a couple of months before) and asked if we had any other celebrations. Gramps said well, yes, it was my wife’s birthday a couple of weeks ago and Grammy’s birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, so we got birthday buttons for them. We gathered up the paperwork and met the rest of the group…E was already stressing that it was going to be harder to get Grammy out of the gift shops than the girls!

We wandered down the hall to Pepper Market, which was not busy at all, although it was getting late for dinner as it was after 7:00. When we got to the table we had a laugh because we had ended up with 3 sets of kids colouring pages and crayons…Grammy had once again been mistaken for a kid!



Everyone enjoyed their meals – Nana and I both had quesadilla’s, Ella had pasta, Jean had pizza, and Gramps, E and Grammy all had roast chicken. The grandparents were impressed with the size and quality of their meal and were pleasantly surprised when I reminded them they also got dessert. I think most of the desserts went back to the room with us since we were stuffed.

I left E to help the grandparents with their first time paying using the dining plan (we did not get charged gratuity but this was before the change in the set up of PM) and I went off to track down our grocery order and the stroller I had rented for Jean. Both were in luggage services. It took the CMs some time to find the stroller – it was up on a higher shelf since it had been delivered well before noon, and then I had to go back when I realized I didn’t have the bag with the milk and yoghurt since that was kindly being stored in a fridge!

Finally I met up with everyone at the truck and we drove over to Casitas 5. Following the signs to our rooms of course took us the long way around the building but we were entertained by fireworks (from F!) along the way. We were very pleased with the rooms and the location! After getting things a little organized, Gramps, Jean and I went for a walk to explore a bit…we followed the path to the Dig Site, Jean wanted to go swimming when she saw the pool but I convinced her it was too late for that evening. She did admit to starting to be tired so we wandered back to the room, catching some of Illuminations on the way and got the girls in bed. The rest of us finished unpacking and with reminders that we were planning for rope drop in the morning we settled in for the night.

Next time...DHS - do we make rope drop?
 
You had a great travel day! Everyone looks so happy and relaxed!

I cannot imagine driving a Ford Expedition but I bet it was sure comfy! Can't wait to hear more!
 
You had a great travel day! Everyone looks so happy and relaxed!

I cannot imagine driving a Ford Expedition but I bet it was sure comfy! Can't wait to hear more!
 
Glad to hear you had a smooth flight and you were able to get everything sorted out with the rental!:thumbsup2

Sounds like a good travel day overall!! Can't wait to hear if you made it to rope drop at DHS!popcorn::
 
I'm so glad my friend came through for you!!!! :) She is such an amazing girl and will do anything for anyone!!!! Can't wait to see some room and resort pics :)
 
Literally i'm so excited to rad your trip's story and so informative I've enjoyed while read it. Any how thank you so much sharing this story here. There is so many thing I can learn in this.
 
You had a great travel day! Everyone looks so happy and relaxed!

I cannot imagine driving a Ford Expedition but I bet it was sure comfy! Can't wait to hear more!

We were pretty relaxed, we were all so excited to get the trip underway :) For us the Expedition felt ginormous, but E has driven trucks before and it had one of those rear camera thingies so he was OK with driving it, and once we got to the parks it did not look out of place in the parking lots!

Glad to hear you had a smooth flight and you were able to get everything sorted out with the rental!:thumbsup2

Sounds like a good travel day overall!! Can't wait to hear if you made it to rope drop at DHS!popcorn::

I was thankful it was a smooth flight, DH is a nervous flyer but we try to not let the girls realize that because there is no sense in making them think there might be something to be nervous about.

I'm so glad my friend came through for you!!!! :) She is such an amazing girl and will do anything for anyone!!!! Can't wait to see some room and resort pics :)

Thanks again Megan :hug: It had been such a crazy week before we left, it made my day when I got your messages about her helping us out! I didn't take many pictures of the rooms unfortunately but I do have some of the resort and pool coming up in a couple of posts.

Literally i'm so excited to rad your trip's story and so informative I've enjoyed while read it. Any how thank you so much sharing this story here. There is so many thing I can learn in this.

:welcome:
 
Day 1 - Sunday November 27

Today was our DHS day, and it was a bright, sunny, warm day (in fact I just checked accuweather and the high this day ended up being 81F). I had warned everyone that this would likely be the busiest day in terms of crowds as it was still Thanksgiving weekend and there was evening magic hours at DHS, so it was important to be at the park early. We had 2 immediate missions: obtain TSM fastpasses and get the girls signed up for the Jedi Training Academy.

So, how did we fare?
Everyone got up and moving fairly well – personally I had been awake since about 5:30, I was too excited to go back to sleep! Having the cereal and milk and oj from the grocery order right there in the room worked really well for us. We were a little later than I had hoped going out the door but only by about 10 minutes, and we easily found a much shorter route to the parking lot than we had done the night before.

The first thing Jean did after getting out of the car was to take this pic:

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She does love her TOT!

We arrived at the gates shortly after 9:00, which was actually good timing as we missed the stampede to TSM! E collected everyone’s KTTW cards and headed off towards TSM

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The rest of us headed in the direction of Star Tours. We saw some celebrities along the way

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The girls were very good about understanding that if we stopped they may not get a spot at the JTA.

I wasn’t 100% sure where the sign up would be so I figured we’d walk to the show area and keep our eyes open for a sign. We missed the sign, so asked a CM when we got to the Star Tours area and he directed us back to the Sounds Dangerous building. Nana, Gramps and Grammy found a nearby bench in the shade while the girls and I got in line. I’m not sure how long we waited in line, maybe 15-20 minutes. A couple of times they announced which show they were now signing up for – it was getting into the mid-afternoon shows so I was mentally adjusting our plans for the day but when we finally got up to the podium it turned out to be the 1:30 show – apparently they had had some cancellations so we lucked out, that timing was perfect for our plans. They asked the girls a couple of questions to make sure they knew what they were signing up for and we were set. When we came out E had just arrived with our FP’s for 12:30.

With those tasks complete we were ready for some fun and thought our first attraction should be one that I knew the grandparents would enjoy

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…off we went to the Muppet theatre! I had been a bit worried that the attractions wouldn’t live up to my memories but the Muppets did not disappoint, we all had some good laughs!

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When we came out we saw the meeting areas for both Phineas & Ferb and Cars. My nephew is a huge Cars fan so Nana wanted a picture with Lightening McQueen and Mater. I think there were only 2 or 3 groups ahead of us and then it was our turn. Nana, Gramps and the girls went first

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and then the rest of us joined in

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We then moved on to the P&F line. They have a great set up here…the story is that P&F are on location filming a movie and they are meeting fans during a break. In the meantime the “director” is using fans to be extras in the movie, so he picks some kids and they play a P&F song and pretend to film the kids doing various actions to the music. When we got close enough the girls volunteered to take part in the Aglet song, which was funny because we had just watched that episode while eating breakfast! They also have a photopass photographer there for this part as well as the meet and they got better shots than we did:

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Even though E is a huge P&F fan he didn’t join us in line but stood off to the side:

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At some point the director turned around and saw him off to the side and instructed him to do the hula!

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E does not like being the centre of attention so tried to wave him off but the director insisted…E was a good sport and hula-ed, thank goodness the PP got some pictures because Nana, Grammy and I were laughing too hard to take any:

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They gave us slips of paper to take to Covers later in the day to get those pics put on our PP card. Here is a bit of the detail from the line:

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It was soon our turn, the girls got their autographs and a pic

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then Nana, Grammy and I joined in

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We said good bye to the boys and saw that E had decided it was much safer to sit on the bench with Gramps than be up close to the action!

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Next time…we board an intergalactic tour!
 
Last time we had finished meeting Phineas & Ferb, collected E and Gramps, and since we were on that side of the park it made sense to check out Star Tours. I was a little concerned about the grandparents on this one…Grammy has a fear of heights, Gramps has gotten nauseous on virtual rides in the past and Nana has trouble handling sudden drops. We described the attraction as best we could, with the disclaimer that it had been refurbished so we didn’t know if it would be more or less intense than we remembered. All three decided they would give it a try. I think the posted wait time was 10 or 15 minutes and we moved through the line fairly quickly.

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The group of us ended up in the back row of our transport, everything was quiet as we waited for the journey to begin when Gramps shouted out “Are we there yet?” That caused quite a bit of laughter! C3PO got a cheer when he appeared and then we were informed that there was a spy on our ship and the monitor claimed that the spy was Jean!! Darth Vader tried to stop our departure but we escaped and went on a wild ride that included Hoth and the Imperial City before landing safely. It was great fun and the grandparents had no troubles handling it. We browsed the gift shop and stopped for a quick pic outside:

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And then grabbed some more pics on the speeders

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We took a moment to decide what to do next before lunch. E really wanted to go to the Animation class and I wanted to see Beauty & the Beast, so we broke into 2 groups…Grammy and Jean went with E while Ella, Nana and Gramps came with me.

Beauty & the Beast was lovely of course

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Both Nana and I were a bit teary at the end. On the way out Ella wanted a picture by the fountain like we had done last time

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Meanwhile, E and Jean were enjoying their animation class where they drew Jack Skellington from the Nightmare before Christmas. Based on our experience last time with Ella (she got behind and ended up in tears), they had decided that Grammy would just assist Jean and not do her own drawing. This worked very well and they all enjoyed the class – I just realized I don’t have pictures of their drawings, I’ll have to post them later.
We knew it would be time for lunch when we were all done so had agreed to meet at the eating area on Sunset Blvd. Jean got some photopass pics with her favourite attraction while they waited for us:

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Even though we had been under the shelter at B&B, Ella was starting to feel the heat. Typical of me, I forgot to bring our hats so as everyone else was starting to get their lunch she & I headed towards Hollywood Blvd to find her a hat – somehow Jean and Grammy ended up with us but Jean was really hungry so Ella and Grammy went on to find a hat and Jean and I scouted the lunch options. This involved some indecision on Jean’s part but eventually we were set and found E, Gramps and Nana. E had jumped on this first opportunity to get himself a turkey leg – he had been craving one for weeks! Gramps decided to try one too to see if it lived up to the expectations E had set (it did :)).

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I had pulled pork, Jean had mac & cheese and Nana had a salad. Soon Ella (with a hot dog) and Grammy (with a salad) joined us.

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As you can see Ella was sporting a cute new hat. Jean of course immediately wanted one too. I agreed that she could have one, but by the time we finished eating we had to get moving for the girls to check in on time for their JTA.

Next time, Ella and Jean confront Darth Vader!
 
Great updates!!:thumbsup2

I was an update behind.:guilty: I haven't been receiving notifications from my subscribed threads lately.:confused3

Anyway...I loved your pictures with Phineas and Ferb!!! Noah can't wait to do that meet and greet!! It looks like your girls had so much fun!!!

So glad to hear that everyone liked the new Star Tours! How cool that Jean was the rebel spy!:thumbsup2

You got some great pictures at Beauty and Beast! Aww..I love that show!!:lovestruc

Nick was just asking me about the turkey legs last night because he wants to try one when we go. He wanted to know how big they were. I guess it's been so long...he can't remember.:rolleyes1 They look huge!! I'll have to show him your picture.;)
 
Great updates!!:thumbsup2

I was an update behind.:guilty: I haven't been receiving notifications from my subscribed threads lately.:confused3

Anyway...I loved your pictures with Phineas and Ferb!!! Noah can't wait to do that meet and greet!! It looks like your girls had so much fun!!!

So glad to hear that everyone liked the new Star Tours! How cool that Jean was the rebel spy!:thumbsup2

You got some great pictures at Beauty and Beast! Aww..I love that show!!:lovestruc

Nick was just asking me about the turkey legs last night because he wants to try one when we go. He wanted to know how big they were. I guess it's been so long...he can't remember.:rolleyes1 They look huge!! I'll have to show him your picture.;)

Hi Angie,
No worries, I've heard of people having trouble with their subscription notifications lately.

The P&F meet was so much fun, the "director" had us laughing the whole time in line - it really made the wait go by quickly. P&F themselves were fun too, very friendly. Noah will have a great time with it.

It was funny on Star Tours, Jean didn't quite get what was going on because she hadn't been listening and we were all laughing. We explained after and she thought it was pretty cool.

I adore Beauty & the Beast :love: couldn't miss. My parents were in awe that they put on a show of that caliber several times a day.

Those turkey legs are huge :eek: ...DH loves them, they are his favourite counter service meal!
 

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