Done Did Disney on a Dime (well...many dimes) LAH LAH's TR *Updated 3/17*

[LAH LAH]

I had never heard of the YES program prior to reading your PTR. What an amazing experience for kids. Sounds like something to keep in mind if we ever have children. Thanks!

I wish they offered adult classes!!!

We have looked into the YES program a bit. I homeschool, so we are really considering it for our next trip. Glad to hear you guys had a great time! The pictures turned out great!

I didn't post his pictures of the people walking in front of him. I wish I could have joined him on his class too. We keep asking him what he learned, or what they said during the class and all we get back is a shrug of the shoulders.

Be careful though, after your child takes this class they will be sure they are the photog king.

I'm a little late to the party, but I hope you don't mind if I join in!

I read quite a few entries of your blog, and your family is unbelievably adorable! So much love, and such a great story!

Thanks so much for sharing about the YES program! I'm hoping to take my two 15-year old sisters to DW in June, and I think they'd love taking one of those classes. The discount on tickets doesn't hurt either, ha!

Can't wait to read more!

Happy to have you join us!! It's been quite a journey with the boys. Never thought I would have the heart to adopt. God decided I was wrong.

The discount was super nice!

Tell Michael he took some really nice pictures!

I will!

 

[LAH LAH]

A Shortened EPCOT Day​

The YES classes were done and we decided to meet back up at Spaceship Earth, and once we were all back together we rode on it before heading over to the Electric Umbrella Restaurant to get some lunch! We didn't get free dining for this trip so we set up some guidelines to keep the costs as low as we could, but still enjoy our dining. We would be eating breakfast in our room, each of us could order one soda a day and drink water for the rest, and everyone could purchase one snack a day. I'm happy to report that Michael and Elsa never complained about our little money saving policy. I am so thankful they understood my reasons, and it really helped ease the anxiety of paying out of pocket for all the food! The money was budgeted, but hard to part with, none the less.

We ordered the Southwest Black Bean Flatbread sandwiches and weren't overly impressed. Just wasn't our thing, I guess.

After we ate our fill we decided to head on over to Innoventions West, a building we often skip right by, but not today! We grabbed this pic on our way:

Once we got to Innoventions we headed straight to Where's the Fire?. The kids remembered doing this on their first trip back in 2007, and were really excited to play it again. We had fun, and our team won! Then we took a picture with Michael and Elsa next to the big fire truck to send back to Chase at home.

Michael and Elsa chose to do Smarter Planet next. It was a cool interactive video game where you are the star! You create your avatar with a picture of yourself, and when you jump it jumps! I never saw the screen, but I watched Michael and Elsa jump around and dodge things, laughing the whole time. Pretty much Michael's dream come true to be IN a video game! They moved over to play the vintage video games while I called the boys. They were doing great, but I missed them something fierce. I was in a total funk. It was mostly inward, but I was very unsettled, and was really wishing we had brought them. The reality is it just won't work right now, but my heart was still sad. It's a weird feeling to be in your happiest of happy places, but also wishing you could be home with the rest of your family. This was new for me.

I gathered Michael and Elsa, snapped a picture and we headed on out:

We sampled drinks at Club Cool (side stepping the Beverly) while tracking out the rest of our day. We decided to ride the major rides, skip the countries, and head back to our resort earlier than normal. So off we went to Ellen's Universe of Energy.

The kids have posed for 1000's of pics at Disney (I average 800 a trip, but weed out about half...I'm obsessed, I know!) and have started getting creative/dramatic. I love it We enjoy the pre-show greatly, especially Michael. The ride is fun, but I was super tired and just wanted to curl up on the seat and snooze. I might have even dozed for a moment or two. Next on the list was Mission:Space. We rode the wimpy green side with Michael so he wouldn't be alone. He once rode the orange side with us and felt like his head was going to explode. Usually Meema and Peepa are with us and Peepa rides it with him, but they wouldn't be arriving for a few more days. This is what Elsa thought of that:

Enjoyed it, like always. We take our jobs VERY seriously and just enjoy pushing the buttons. Test Track was closed as was the frozen coke stand we were counting on for our snacks. We bought some jelly beans and shared those as we headed over to Soarin' where Elsa was FINALLY tall enough not to have the baby safety strap on.

It was only 3pm, but we decided to head on back to POP. I was anxious to keep up with the Olympic coverage, Elsa wanted to swim, and Michael thought he would really like to use one of his 5 passes to Disney Quest (every gamers dream). One last picture and we were on our way, leaving EPCOT way earlier than ever before:

We made it back to POP, ordered a pizza, and picked up the keys to our new room located in the 1960's right by the Hippy Dippy Pool!!!!! We picked up our pizza and headed to check out our new digs. It was pretty neat that they moved all of our luggage for us. All we had to do was unpack it! So we ate the pizza while doing just that. Michael and Elsa went out to swim for a while and then they decided to go to Down Town Disney where Disney Quest is located. I have never let them go anywhere like this on their own before, but I guess there's a first time for everything. I was nervous, but they did a great job of taking the bus to DTD, finding Disney Quest, enjoying the heck out of it, making it back to the buses, and returning home by the time we agreed on. They are really growing up.

​

While they were gone I walked around and got a pic of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head to send back to Easton:

Once we all back to our room and settled in, we finished watching the Olympic Prime Time coverage together and called it a night, falling asleep quickly with thoughts of Magic Kingdom in our dreams.

UP NEXT: On Our Way to the MK

 

[alwayspooh]

Great update! I would luv to hear more about the YES classes. I wonder if they have them for younger kids? They sound like a lot of fun. The girls and I are huge dolphin fans and that would be a great class for us to do. Learning and seeing behind the scenes is awesome!

Tell Michael he did a great job on the pics he took.

I am so sorry you felt sad on the inside. You are a strong and wonderful mom to do this for your older children. I really admire your strength.

Can't wait for the next update!!

Carol

 

[Holly324]

Great update! Love Soarin! My two are only 6 and 4, but I am already having a hard time with them growing up so fast! Craziness, I tell ya! Looking forward to hearing about the Magic Kingdom!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

Excellent update! I can't believe how big the kids are getting! It must be nice (and weird too) to send them off on their own like that! When kids are little it almost feels like that day will never come!

 

[majrn75]

It must be nice to have kids who like to have their picture taken!! Mine look at me like I have two heads. Enjoying your report, looking forward to more.


Melissa

 

[LAH LAH]

Great update! I would luv to hear more about the YES classes. I wonder if they have them for younger kids? They sound like a lot of fun. The girls and I are huge dolphin fans and that would be a great class for us to do. Learning and seeing behind the scenes is awesome!

Tell Michael he did a great job on the pics he took.

I am so sorry you felt sad on the inside. You are a strong and wonderful mom to do this for your older children. I really admire your strength.

Can't wait for the next update!!

Carol

They do have younger classes...just not sure how young. Follow the links in my YES class post and you should be able to see a schedule!

Great update! Love Soarin! My two are only 6 and 4, but I am already having a hard time with them growing up so fast! Craziness, I tell ya! Looking forward to hearing about the Magic Kingdom!

6 and 4 are great ages! I love early school years

Excellent update! I can't believe how big the kids are getting! It must be nice (and weird too) to send them off on their own like that! When kids are little it almost feels like that day will never come!

It was a really weird feeling to send them off on their own. My mom freaked out when she found out.

It must be nice to have kids who like to have their picture taken!! Mine look at me like I have two heads. Enjoying your report, looking forward to more.
Melissa

I make them do it. They have learned if they cooperate it's over faster. Hahahaha! Now if I could only get the littles to obey me and the camera!!

 

[Jennifer48]

Great update!

Wow you must have been through a lot this day, between missing the littles back at home and then letting the olders out on their own.

 

[LAH LAH]

On Our Way to the MK​

Getting a good nights sleep had seriously been improving our energy levels! We made it to Magic Kingdom by 9 and were itching to make it to Tom Sawyer's Island to search for the hidden paint brushes. We have only searched once before, but they had all been found by the time we took our raft over to the island. We decided to head straight there and take the first raft over to ensure we had a good chance to find at least one, but not before getting the classic picture:

So off we went and were greeted with this:

STINK! ​

We talked it over and decided I would wait here while Michael and Elsa went to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, as I can't ride it due to my previous back surgeries. So I popped a squat and watched this bird for a while:

Michael and Elsa came back after the ride, and joined me in the waiting. A cast member came by to start getting the rafts prepped for the ride over and happened to mention that Tom Sawyer has been naughty and is hiding the paint brushes from them, so there would be no searching today.

POOP! ​

So I spent the first 45 minutes of my day waiting in line for nothin'! Double poop! Thankfully we were at the Magic Kingdom and there's no need to be that sad about "wasting" 45 minutes, and because it was so close we decided to ride Splash Mountain. One of our favorites!

​

We got right on and didn't even get that wet! Double bonus!! While walking off the ride we magically got first in line to see Woody! Triple bonus!!! Woody is hands down Easton's most favorite character, Disney or other. I knew before I left I wanted to send him a pic of Woody, and here we didn't even have to wait!

We sent him the pics and headed on over to The Haunted Mansion and then to it's a small world. We have never done MK in this fashion before. We always start at Carrousel of Progress, work our way through Tomorrow Land, then swing around and hit all of Fantasy Land. It's good to shake things up once in a while!

Waiting for iasw:

We ended up stuck on Peter Pan's Flight for a few minutes, so took advantage of the moment. Here is Elsa imitating a

I never notice it while at Disney, but I love how my Mickey Ears make their rounds during the day. I never know who is going to be wearing them. Ha! While waiting for Philharmagic we got a little bored and challenged each other to a competition with our 3D glasses. Everyone tried grasping one ear piece in the palm of thier hand, and without letting go try to catch the other one between the thumb and forefinger of the same hand. It wasn't as easy as it sounds! Elsa worked on it up until the show started:

Snow White was officially closed so we decided to enjoy Winnie the Pooh instead:

Boy oh boy was it hot out! 11:45am and we were wilting in the 92* weather! Michael decided he needed some sunglasses and chose to buy them out of the money his Aunt had given him for the trip. He tried on numerous pairs and settled on his perfect pair. We paid for them and took off all the tags. He put them on and we walked 5 feet from the sun glass stand and decided he made a mistake. They graciously swapped them out for the more perfecter pair. Disney is great at being gracious!

Tomorrow Land was our next destination. We took the long way through the castle and reminisced about last year's trip and our wonderful dinner in the castle. It was fun to see all the families waiting for their lunch reservations today.

UP NEXT: MK all the Way

 

[Holly324]

Great update! I agree, you never really "waste" time in the MK...just soak in the magic as much as possible...well worth it! Love Philharmagic...totally my favorite!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

That stinks that there were no paintbrushes to find!

But I agree. I am happy to 'waste' any time in the Magic Kindgom!

 

[LAH LAH]

Great update!

Wow you must have been through a lot this day, between missing the littles back at home and then letting the olders out on their own.

I find it's never easy to watch them grow up!

Great update! I agree, you never really "waste" time in the MK...just soak in the magic as much as possible...well worth it! Love Philharmagic...totally my favorite!

One of our favorites too!

I am happy to 'waste' any time in the Magic Kindgom!

 

[Luv0fDisney]

I'm here!
Can't wait to read the rest of your Trip Report.
(I have a PTR going as well)

 

[LAH LAH]

MK All the Way​

Heading over to Cosmic Rays for lunch and we were lucky enough to run into PUSH! Oh he made us laugh! A little hard to understand this trip, but we were laughing just the same. He convinced Elsa to let him wear her sunglasses, and then wanted to trade for them to keep them permanently. He offered us many things including a dirty diaper and some partially eaten food.

We finally got her glasses back, bid adieu to PUSH, and ordered up some yummy goodness in the form of DISNEY Bacon Cheeseburgers:

This is what mine looked like after raiding the condiments bar:

YUMMMY!!​

We ate our fill, cleaned up our spots, and doodled on the window on our way out. We eat here every year and we have never seen this as an opportunity before. I love how WDW mixes things up!

Somehow Michael talked us into riding Stitches Great Escape with him. He is lucky we love him so much, as neither Elsa nor I enjoy this one all that much. She is highly disappointed that she never got to ride this when it was the Alien Encounter. I only rode that once and it scared the bajoobies out of me!

After the nasty chili dog burp, Michael and Elsa enjoyed two rounds on Space Mountain. I happily took a relaxing ride on the People Mover. It was a nice relief to be in the shade, and the in and out of the air-conditioned buildings as you ride along really helped with the oppressive heat! It's amazing how much better we were all tolerating the heat than we did during the kids first trip! August 2007 was their first and we about melted away. After that I worked hard to keep us out of Florida during the hottest part of the year, but for this year this was our only option and I worried the heat would do us in. Thankfully we know the parks well now and learned about the Guest Assistance Card for Michael. What a vacation and lifesaver that has been!

After meeting back up with the kids, Elsa got a pic with one of her favorites:

We enjoyed Carrousel of Progress, Buzz Lightyear, and then the Laugh Floor. We were starting to slow down and decided to wrap up our MK day with a train ride. Well, I decided to. Michael and Elsa were less than pleased with this decision. I bribed them with the promise of some ice cream on our way, and thankfully they decided it might be worth their while. We walked back to the train station where all of the Fantasyland expansion is taking place and happened upon the new Casey Jr. Soak 'N' Splash Station. Michael jumped right in to cool off while Elsa and I ate our ice cream.

pic borrowed from the Dis Blog​

They are doing some great stuff over there, and we can't wait until it's complete. That will be our excuse for a trip next year. Like we really need an excuse. We finally boarded the train and enjoyed a leisurely ride all the way around.

The time was 4:45pm and we were ready to throw in the towel. Elsa was excited to swim and Michael really wanted to hang out in POP's arcade. It's all about that games with that one!

Apparently we didn't leave a moment too soon, because when the bus doors closed, the heavens opened and all of WDW was drenched!

Another bonus of leaving MK early was making it in time for the Hustle! Such fun at POP!

We did the Hustle and then ordered our 3rd pizza in three nights. Splitting a pizza is by far our cheapest dinner option, it's just a good thing we like it as much as we do! Biggest change for us from last year to this one? We no longer have any leftovers. 15 year old boys eat A LOT!!!

Our trio scattered after dinner! I headed back to the room to write postcards and settle in for the Olympics Prime Time coverage, Elsa suited up after the rain and swam around the Hippy Dippy Pool, and Michael used the rest of his money from his Aunt at the Arcade. When we were getting ready for bed, Elsa asked if maybe we could look into getting her a cot to sleep on. Neither of us were sleeping soundly and she was looking for a solution. I called the desk and they offered us one for $10 a night. That wasn't gonna happen. I politely declined, but then they offered me all the pillows, blankets, and comforters we wanted. Elsa was pretty excited about that. She decided on 2 pillows, one blanket and one comforter. Housekeeping delivered them quickly, and Elsa set out to make her own bed. She had my thick comforter too as I wasn't using it, and the result is what we referred to as the "rat's nest". She loved it, and we both slept like babies. Must be nice to be young enough again to not only enjoy sleeping in a pile of blankets and pillows, but to sleep well enough on the ground to wake up refreshed! This ended up being her "bed" for the remainder of the trip:

UP NEXT: Typhoon Lagoon and the Arrival of Meems and Peeps

 

[LAH LAH]

I'm here!
Can't wait to read the rest of your Trip Report.
(I have a PTR going as well)

YAY! I'll check out your PTR!!

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

I love Elsa's "Rat's nest"! I could never sleep like that!

 

[LAH LAH]

I love Elsa's "Rat's nest"! I could never sleep like that!

She really loved it, and I agree...no way could I sleep like that!

 

[Holly324]

I rode Alien Encounter one time, on my honeymoon. My DH now has a permanent scar on his pinky finger....I was TERRIFIED!! I grabbed onto his hand and wouldn't let go the whole time, so he walked out with a nice cut from my pretty "wedding nails." Ah....memories.... We have not yet tried the Stitch ride. I couldn't bring myself to do it after that!

The "rat's nest" is awesome! We may or may not have to do something like that for our next trip. The boys will be 8 and 6, and I am not so sure how they will handle being in the same bed! Glad to know they will give you as much bedding as you need for that!

Great update! Looking forward to the next!

 

[LAH LAH]

I rode Alien Encounter one time, on my honeymoon. My DH now has a permanent scar on his pinky finger....I was TERRIFIED!! I grabbed onto his hand and wouldn't let go the whole time, so he walked out with a nice cut from my pretty "wedding nails." Ah....memories.... We have not yet tried the Stitch ride. I couldn't bring myself to do it after that!

The "rat's nest" is awesome! We may or may not have to do something like that for our next trip. The boys will be 8 and 6, and I am not so sure how they will handle being in the same bed! Glad to know they will give you as much bedding as you need for that!

Great update! Looking forward to the next!

I was totally freaked out! Hahahahaha Happy to know I wasn't the only one

I actually wish they would bring it back. Both my biggers would love to ride it, and I think Stitch is rather lame.

It was nice to know that they were willing to send up any and all bedding we wanted. Next trip we'll just go straight to that and skip sharing a bed!

 

[LAH LAH]

Typhoon Lagoon and the Arrival of Meema and Peepa​

We all slept well and decided a laid back approach to the day was in order. We lazily prepared for the day and didn't arrive at Typhoon Lagoon until 10:30! We are usually always up and raring to go, but it felt nice to take it nice and slow. I was still missing the boys something fierce, and felt a bit out of sorts, but it's hard to stay too sad when you are at WDW!

I knew for this trip that I was going to be wearing dresses every day and would have to find a solution for carrying my phone. I purchased a waterproof pouch at amazon that I had attached to my pin lanyard, and it had been serving me well. Today would be the day to see if it would really hold up to the waterproof name. After the first couple of photos I knew it was worth the $10 I spent on it.

Elsa is our big water girl, and she was super excited to be trying out this new (to us) water park. Michael enjoys it, to a point, but Elsa is the fish of the family.

We did the wave pool for a while and then headed on over to the lazy river:

Elsa and Michael left the lazy river to ride some tube rides and I stayed and watched a movie on my iPhone. That waterproof pouch was kinda neat! I forgot to put any movies *I* wanted to see on it, so I spent 1.5 hours floating around watching Karate Kid. I just LOVE the lazy river. It was super hot, and I would occasionally have to dunk my phone into the water to cool it off, but it was nice to have it with me as I floated along.

I couldn't for one moment tell you what Michael and Elsa did while I lounged around the lazy river. I suppose I could get up right now and ask them, but the littles are taking a nap and I am too relaxed to be bothered. So, let's just pretend they road every ride they wanted to, and that they adored each and everyone of them! Soon enough they found me floating by one of the many exits and we decided it was time for a late lunch.

It was nearing 2pm once we finished lunch and Michael just wanted to be in the wave pool.

We enjoyed the waves knocking us over for a bit, and decided to choose one last ride to do together. So, we all got in line for Gang Plank Falls. It was a long line. It was a hot day. I don't like to stand in lines when I could be on the lazy river. Michael just doesn't like the heat or lines. Elsa would stand and wait for anything, she's such a trooper! I knew I had to push through with a super smile on my face for Elsa. She rides a lot of rides by herself because of my back issues, and the fact that Michael can only handle certain things doesn't help the situation. We tried to keep Michael up beat and excited, but he only lasted about 10 minutes in that line. He decided to pack up, find a bus, and return to our room. We bid him farewell, and watched him saunter off into the blazing sun. At least we had a bit of shade in our line! We finally made it to our raft:

Just look at that smile. That is the reason I will stand in the heat to ride a water ride I don't give one rip about, and you know what? We had a blast! We contemplated riding it again, but decided we were tired and it was too hot. So we too packed up our things and headed on home. As soon as we caught back up with Michael, he and Elsa hatched a plan to go back to Disney Quest. Elsa wanted to spend some time there and take a bus back by herself so she could spend some time with Meema and Peepa (my parents)...and they were arriving today!!!!

​

I love it that they love WDW as much as we do! So the big ones skedaddled down to Disney Quest, and Michael was given strict instructions to be back by 10. Without a watch or a cellphone I was a bit skeptical that he would be aware of the time enough to follow through with my request, but I was hoping he could pull it off!

With the biggers gone I called the littles and talked to them for a little bit. Oh, how I missed them, but they were having such a wonderful time with Miss Maegan (who they call Miss Muggins ) She told me how excited Easton got every time we send a text or a picture. He truly knew we were having fun...without him. *guilt* I can tell you it's super hard to split up the kids like this. The dichotomy of thrill rides and the guilt is a weird feeling. I missed them more than I thought I would. I drowned my sorrows in some Chinese food and tie dye cheesecake!

The time was 6:40pm and off I went to wait in the lobby and before I knew it Meema and Peepa were getting off Magical Express and coming to greet me! Peepa started the check-in process and I jabbered on and on about what we had done already, how much I missed the boys, and the oddity of sending Michael and Elsa off on their own. They took it in stride. They are used to hearing me jabber! They were a little disappointed in their room location. Thankfully, it was going to work out for them to join us in the 1960's tomorrow! Elsa showed up and talked Peepa into swimming with her while Meema and I hung out in our room watching the Olympics. I was so happy I was getting to see most of the coverage.

Michael showed up before 10pm, and it was a true shock to us all! Elsa drug him into the pool with her and Peepa. It's such a good feeling when they join us. Sometimes I hate being the only adult around, and the biggers just LOVE hanging out with the Meems and the Peeps...so it's a win-win situation!

Quickly the day was ending, so we parted ways and decided to meet up tomorrow at 9 to make it on over to Animal Kingdom. Between their travels and our water logged day, we were all more than ready to hit the hay!


UP NEXT: Ok, so where are your shoes?