Yep, I took a picture of that (9100 total) COMPLETED 9/1

[MagicShell]

Your resort pictures at dusk are great. My favorite picture so far is the family pictures with Donald Duck. He is one of my favorites. Those crowds you had to get through were huge. Glad you fought through and got to ride some great rides on your first night. I love the MK, it is my favorite. I could spend a whole week in that park. I love looking at all your pictures.

[lhart]

subbing! loving your report so far. you take great pictures and your family is beautiful! leaving for my next trip in about 2 months and seeing all of your awesome photos helps me pass the time until its my turn!

[Blesseddaddy]

Hey Rob. I was surfing around and ran across your trip report. I have to admit when I read your title I was a little in shock and then a little in awe as well. I guess you can say, you shocked and awed me right in!! Then as I read what "brought" you to Disney, man did that hit a cord with me. Both of my parents died in '07. My Mom 4 1/2 months before my Dad. Our first "family" trip to Disney was this past March......and even though my parents didn't have the foresight that yours seemed to have, I still give them credit for "leading" me to Disney, even though they never went themselves. That's a whole different story.......anyway, ever since my two daughters were born, we spent all of our "off" time traveling back and forth to spend our time with my folks.........for which I am truly THANKFUL....along with NO REGRETS!! However, after their deaths, I knew it was time for our little family to spread our wings to create our own family memories....then came the 4/3 deal. We had for years been talking about going to Disney, we live in Alabama and many from here make a yearly trek down, since it's not that far. However, we always found an excuse......wait until the girls are older, need to do this first, the "usual" stuff as you said it!! I am hooked now and so thankful that I found the Dis before our first visit. You are right about learning so much from just reading these boards and going down to Disney with the knowledge to turn JUST a trip into a Magical Time for our families!! I don't know when we will return.......but I know we will.

Looking forward to the rest of your trip and ALL the pictures!!

I really do think it's neat that your family has a Magical Place to spend time together, to refocus or just to escape, cherish and enjoy every minute of it and of EACH OTHER!!!!!!

[nickandregan]

chiming in again. That's a great picture of your mom w/ pooh. The forgot the camera because of the mojito's works for me. I'll be sure to borrow that excuse in Sept.

[NateNLogansDad]

Thanks for all of the replies everybody, I'm thrilled so many people are hopping on Every time I hear a compliment about so many pictures, I lean over and tell my wife, to which she rolls her eyes at me

Now I don't want this to come off the wrong way, so I don't want to say it's nice to know I'm not alone. It tears me up to hear of people losing their loved ones, but thanks for connecting (how's that?) Sometimes it does feel like no one could know what you may be going through mentally, but there are others out there that have been through it, and I'm sure I can too. I'm pretty sure there's always going to be up days and down days, but I always fall back on Tina and the boys and everything seems to even out. Thank you.

[NateNLogansDad]

My jaw just dropped when I saw that this post had over 1500 views!!! Who else is out there?!?!? I like to hear from people subbing! I think there's going to be another update on Tuesday so staty tuned.

Mods, don't move this over to "Coping and Compassion" just yet, I promise to bring some more happiness pictures real soon!

[NWOhioAngela]

I'm in! Really enjoying your trip!

[AmyBWV99]

Great report!

You captured the 'Mass of Humanity' as we refer to the crowds at night perfectly!

[liz9132]

great TR. your family is so cute. and im loving the pictures. cant wait to be there myself with my family in September!!

[NateNLogansDad]

Ok, second morning waking up at the Beach House, er ummm, Beach Club and everybody is still sleeping. Myself, not so much. It’s 8am and I want to get moving. Last year we didn’t get a chance to try Soarin’ out since the wait time was always over an hr and with the little guys, it wasn’t going to happen. So, I get the brilliant idea (I’m such a nice guy) to take everybody’s room key cards over to EPCOT and get Fast Passes for the family so we can get on after everyone wakes up. Nice of me isn’t it? Well, Nate woke up as I was getting dressed so I put some clothes on him and off we go. We get to future world right at rope drop and off we go. Following the crowds we head right to Soarin’. I was so proud of Nate for walking the whole way after being up for only 10 minutes so we grabbed some snacks along the way. Here’s the wait line for Fast Pass.


And here’s the prize for being so nice.



Nate wants to hit up a ride or two with just the both of us so I let him pick…..NEMO IT IS!




Granted, I didn’t take any pics of that ride either, but they will show up later in the report, I promise! After Nemo was over (and became our new our new Must Do at Disney) we went over to talk with Crush. I must say, Crush has got to be the coolest turtle I’ve ever met!






Well, I was sure everybody would be waking up soon so we started heading back home. Along the way we snapped a few pics, he is such a ham when I’m holding a camera!




Poor guy has been doing so good with all this walking so we grabbed some overly priced slushies from a cart and hopped onto the ferry at the International Gateway.






For all the nice people out there thinking that this is a great idea, hold tight for a sec. to the people who have already tried this, yes, I too can laugh about it now. I hope that this may save someone some aggravation somehow somewhere. You see, Disney has already expected this to happen. They know if you came into the parks or not. When we got back to the room I told everybody we have Fastpasses for Soarin’. I pulled them out to show Tina and noticed 3 of them look different than the top two. They said “this is not a valid Fast Pass. The ticket used to receive this pass was not used to enter the parks today” I was floored. With so many people getting them this morning, I was in a rush and didn’t read them when they came out. Oh well, off to Epcot we go with spirits slightly dampened.

We walk around the World Showcase, my now favorite park, and grab a Fastpass for Kim Possible for later. We were told to report to Norway for our communicator. As we head over that way, I was really trying to take it all in. I couldn’t believe we just flew through here last year not really paying attention to what all they were offering. We get to Norway and found this


Granted, the Showcase may not have the top thrill rides, but you can’t beat the wait times! Since the boys are big fans of Small World, I figured they would enjoy it. It was ok but definitely not a must do. Here’s a little teaser…..




And the gift shop…..



Just outside, we found the Kim Possible stand and got the communicator. Off to Mexico again! I didn’t take any pics of any of our mission but I can say it was interesting. The kids really enjoyed it and it’s pretty cool how it interacts with the things in the country you are in. After we saved the world and returned our communicator to a secret drop point, we started getting a little hungry. Where to eat………hmmmm…..

[PrincessKsMom]

NALD:

"I hope that this may save someone some aggravation somehow somewhere. You see, Disney has already expected this to happen. They know if you came into the parks or not. When we got back to the room I told everybody we have Fastpasses for Soarin’. I pulled them out to show Tina and noticed 3 of them look different than the top two. They said “this is not a valid Fast Pass. The ticket used to receive this pass was not used to enter the parks today” I was floored. With so many people getting them this morning, I was in a rush and didn’t read them when they came out."

I had no idea! I was actually going to do this on our last trip, but my mom and DD woke up, so I scratched that idea. Holy moley did you just save me some aggrevation on our upcoming trip. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[NateNLogansDad]

I have more.....stay tuned!

[*DisMom*]

I am enjoying your TR so much. The pictures are great!! Y'all seem to be having an awesome time already, and I can't wait to read more!!!

[SunnieRN]

Hello, I've been reading your trip report at work, but can't post there. I was oohing and awwing, like the grandma I am, looking at your adorable sons! I love your sons eyes on Small World!! So cute!! Looking forward to more!!
Remember for next time that you can always combine fast passes and stroller swap on rides and that will increase the number of riders for each attraction. It could have gotten 4 or 5 of you on Soarin.

[disneydusted]

Hey, I am one of the ones out there reading, so I am now subbing! This TR title grabbed my attention... I too am the official photographer in our family. My DH rolls his eyes at the amount of photos I take but what great memories!!
I am enjoying your photos of the Boardwalk/Beach Club/Yacht Club area. We stay in the Boardwalk Villas so the area is quite familiar.
While in WS, did your boys do the masks? Or the passports?
Can't wait to see more pictures!