Fairies, Stitch and the Five of Us! 9/12/09-9/20/09 - 9 Day report complete!

[kdzbear]

We walked around a little after this and killed some time before the parade. Then we found the handicapped area to watch the parade. We were accosted upon entering this section. We had to show the stroller tag and his GAC card. A few minutes later about 20 people filed into the same area and not one of the them was in a wheelchair and no one said a thing. They were blocking the two little ones view. I flagged down a supervisor and explained what we had to go through to stand there and asked why these people could stand here. She told me to wait a minute and she would get back to me. She returned and said that since no one else was in a wheelchair and the parade was about to start that they could stay! I was so mad, but as I learned throughout the week some parks are more wheelchair friendly than others. The kids enjoyed the show. A trampoline and its crew parked right in front of us. You had to be further down the route to see more of the show. This parade is more of a street show and you need to stand in front of the float that you want to view the most. At the end the entire show passes in front of you, but all of the interactive parts are at a single stop along the parade route.

Now we were going to ride Toy Story Mania again, but then we would miss the next Jedi Training so we walked back to the Jedi Training area. We stood to the side again. The Jedi Master came out and picked three kids on both sides of DS4. The cast members kept encouraging DS4 to wave his arms and jump up and down and he did. Then he looked right at DS4 and said, “You are too small” and walked off. DS4 started to cry. There was a girl on stage much smaller than him and he would have done what was required of him.

To cheer him up we took him back to Toy Story Mania. DS4 loved that ride! We also took a detour through the Streets of New York.

I liked all of the details in the fake shop windows so I took pictures. There were now strings of Christmas lights on several of the buildings that were not there a few days before.

Then we went to see American Idol. I really enjoyed the show. If anyone attended on the 19th of September, I would love to know if this girl won. She was amazing! They also put DD1 and DS4 on the big screen at different times during the show. DD1 was dancing, clapping and smiling throughout the show!

 

[kdzbear]

Next we walked back to the animation building and entered through the gift shop exit. I guess at about 4:45 it is Characterpalooza time! We went through one set of characters and then they all changed and another set came out.

 

[kdzbear]

During our wait in line a dad said the most thoughtful and caring thing that we heard the whole trip. I was not using our GAC since the lines weren’t long. We had used it to see someone that was leaving, but then we put it back away. He told me to pull out that card and use it. He said that he did not mind waiting in line with his healthy son since he had that option. He said that he would rather wait in line with his healthy son than have a sick son and a front of the line card. He said that he was blessed that his son was healthy. It was so sweet. He was the first person that did not glare at us for going to the front of the line. He was so compassionate and his comments just really made my day.

The Queen of Hearts was feeling left out since no one was in her line so we invited her to come and take pictures with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum and our family. She was so happy!

After meeting so many friends, it was time for dinner. We left Disney Studios and headed for the boat to Epcot. We just missed the boat! It was not a long wait before the new boat arrived. It was a pleasant ride to Epcot. We chatted with another mom that had the same double stroller as we did.

We still had England and Canada to get stamps in the kids’ passports, but we did not have time to stop in England. We never did get that stamp. DH took the kids to the Canada stamping place while I checked in. They were running about 20 minutes behind at Le Cellier, but they required that you stayed in the area. We found a bench and played Canadian trivia while we waited for a table.

We were seated. I ordered a chocolate raspberry shake. It was amazing! Then I ordered what I thought I had tried before, but I did not like it. I really wanted the creamy mashed potatoes and the small tender steak. I did not want to say anything since I was the one that ordered the wrong meal and it was in no way the restaurant’s fault. The server apologized after my husband brought it to his attention despite my protests. He took away the meal and brought me out a plate of the mashed potatoes. They were awesome! Then the chocolate dessert was so good. He brought out our check and it turns out he took off my whole meal. We did not want him to do this! Now we had an extra table service meal and we were leaving the next day.

We skipped Illuminations since we had seen it already this trip and headed for the busses. We took a peaceful bus ride back to Pop.

DD9 and I took one more picture on the way back to the room.

We again called it a night one last time. It was so sad to be leaving the next day. I spent the next hour packing. I had started packing earlier in the week, but there are so many tiny and miscellaneous pieces that just don’t seem to have a home. The kids fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows!

 

[maroo]

Aw!

I love the pictures bigger! I hate that you changed it for me!? I just used my Ctrl + key and made them bigger!

Who is that character with Goofy? I have never seen him before?? I know...I am lacking in some Disney character knowledge!

I hate DS did not get to do Jedi Training Academy! Hopefully you guys get to do it on your wish trip! ?? You didn't right?

How sweet of that man to say that about your GAC. So true. You know...we would trade the GAC with ANYONE at ANY TIME to have a healthy child that doesn't qualify for one! Geez.

 

[kdzbear]

Aw!

I love the pictures bigger! I hate that you changed it for me!? I just used my Ctrl + key and made them bigger! It wasn't hard to make them bigger!

Who is that character with Goofy? I have never seen him before?? I know...I am lacking in some Disney character knowledge! That is Max. He is Goofy's son! Have you not seen the Goofy Movie?

I hate DS did not get to do Jedi Training Academy! Hopefully you guys get to do it on your wish trip! ?? You didn't right? He did not get to do it. I doubt that we will get to do it in November. DS is small for his age and the Jedi Master looked right at him and told him he was too small. He was in tears. All of the cast members around us thought he would get picked. I had even talked to one cast member over by the parade who said he would try to pull some strings for us, but it did not work.

How sweet of that man to say that about your GAC. So true. You know...we would trade the GAC with ANYONE at ANY TIME to have a healthy child that doesn't qualify for one! Geez.

I would also trade DS's GAC card for a healthy child, but I am used to him the way he is and he is oblivious to many of his problems and is just a happy go lucky little guy. He can make you smile any time of the day!

 

[maroo]

I would also trade DS's GAC card for a healthy child, but I am used to him the way he is and he is oblivious to many of his problems and is just a happy go lucky little guy. He can make you smile any time of the day!

I would trade the GAC for a healthy Lauren or Rachel! Let someone else get to the front of the line!

 

[strmtroopr96]

Who is that character with Goofy? I have never seen him before?? I know...I am lacking in some Disney character knowledge!

That is Goofy's son, Max!! I haven't seen him around WDW in years. I remember seeing him years ago at Chef Mickey's one night.

 

[kdzbear]

When we got up the next morning I packed the rest of the liquids after our showers. I had a hand held fish scale that went up to 50 lbs. It is the same as the luggage scales that you can buy, but the cheapest luggage scale is $15 and my fish scale was $5 at Wal-Mart. It registered at about 48 ½ lbs. When my DH took it to the Resort Airline Check-in, it was 49.85 lbs. The checker told my husband that it was the closest he had ever seen anyone get to 50 lbs. I had had my DH take an extra bag just in case we needed to take something out and put it in our carry-on bags. My DH then told him that his wife used a fish scale to weigh it and he confirmed that they are very accurate. It was worth the $5 to not have to pay over weight fees and we were only checking one bag. I wish that one bag per person was still free to check!

DD 1 was still a little groggy after her shower.

We took our carry-on bags to the checked luggage section and dropped them off. It took less than five minutes. We had about 30 minutes until the Magic Kingdom opened so we thought we would try to make it for rope drop instead of having breakfast at the resort. We were about five minutes late!

We stopped by the bakery to get some pastries and drinks. I discovered my new favorite quick service meal. You can get a hot egg, cheese and ham croissant sandwich and it comes with a side, which is any pastry in the case and a drink, which includes the over $4 smoothies! I wish I had taken a picture. We also used several snack credits on other pastries and some Soy Milk. We had plenty of food for everyone!

After we finished our breakfast it was time to ride Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin one more time.

Then when we exited the ride there was none other than Buzz Lightyear himself!

Then on the way to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority I saw a pin I wanted to trade for, but DH and DS4 were halfway up the escalator thing. I told the cast member I would be back after the ride and he said that he would try to hold on to it for me. My DH9 also saw a HSM3 one that she wanted.

DS4 screamed the entire ride!

We are still on the ride. Here are some pictures of the Space Mountain refurbishment.

Then we finished riding the ride and took a few more photos while still on the ride.

We exited the ride and the cast member was gone! I thought maybe he went to the top to load people on the ride, but he had said he was not going to move. We walked around the area and finally my husband insisted that I find him, which was unusual since he normally thinks pin trading takes too long. I asked the cast member at the bottom what happened to the one I was looking for and surprise: He said, “He told me to tell you he is right over there!” We found him. He still had both pins so we could trade. He was just unexpectedly moved!

 

[kdzbear]

Then we rode the cars in the Speedway one more time. This time I rode with DS4. They told us the car to get in and my son screamed and pointed to the blue one that was two cars back. Luckily they let him ride in that one and filled some other riders in the other two in front of it. I pushed the gas and he steered. He did not do too badly!

Then it was time for …. any guesses? …. It’s a Small World again. I think that all three kids loved this ride.

Then about half of the way through the ride DS4 wanted me to take picture of him instead of the ride.

We rode the Haunted Mansion one last time! Then we headed over to Adventureland. We ran into Aladdin and Jasmine.

From this point the morning got interesting. I went to the POTC with the sleeping baby. DH took the other two to ride the magic carpets. First, the cast member told him the wrong line for the GAC and they ended up waiting in the main line. Then when it was there turn they were the 16th carpet, but two girls decided to split up and there was no carpet for them to ride in. Rather than putting the two girls back in the same carpet, the cast member told DH he would have to wait long. Well my DS4 was completely bent out of shape by this point. He walked off fuming mad. He found where I was visiting with a cast member that had a Magic Moments game set up. She let DS4 play the game and he received a special certificate. Another cast member overheard my DH complaining and went and found a supervisor. While DH was explaining the situation to the cast member I saw Captain Hook. I took the kids to meet him. He was not happy with our Autograph books and drew “x”s over Tic Toc’s picture. I was explaining to DS4 what he was doing and he shook his hand at me and told me in hand gestures to zip my lips. You cannot say Tic Toc’s name around Captain Hook. It was too cute!

We walked back over to where DH was. I saw that the cast member he was talking to had a cute Stitch pin on his lanyard. DS4 collects Stitch pins. I asked DS4 if he wanted to trade for it and he said. “Yes”. The manager just gave us the pin and asked if DS4 also had the other Stitch on his lanyard, which we did not. He claimed that he was just trying to clear the Stitch’s off of his lanyard. DD9 was also given a pin by the other cast member that went to get the manager.

The baby was still sleeping so she and I again stayed at POTC while the others went with the manager to ride the Magic Carpets. I guess they rode twice in a row. Then he gave them all bottled water. When they met back with me, the manager took us through a back fence and told the two little older ones not to look at what they were going to see in the backstage area. He took us in a back door that led us right on to the boats at the POTC. It was so neat! He was the one that also told us more of the Johnny Depp stories from his recent visits.

 

[kdzbear]

I forgot one little tidbit from when we met Captain Hook. The character handler was Rosa! She remembered DS4 from the first day when DS4 met Pooh! She called him by name. She had forgotten that she was also helping the night of MNSSHP when we lost DS4 while in line to see the dwarves. Can you imagine remembering a guest’s name nine days after you first met them? She was so amazing and sweet!

 

[kdzbear]

We rode pirates and then it was time to head to the front of the park for one last purchase prior to heading to the resort for one last lunch. I was side tracked by the Dole Pineapple Whips. I had to get one more before we left! While I was standing in line I observed Rafiki with only one family in line. I signed to my husband, “monkey” and get left the bench they were sitting on to meet Rafiki. DH might have complained about taking sign language class at first, but not only does it help us communicate with DS4, but I can also sign across the park without having to yell!

And my favorite good bye photo:

I had one more stop. I love long sleeve t-shirts with Disney characters on them. Most of mine are old and are starting to become threadbare. I looked and looked for a new one, but they did not exist. I finally found one in the fire department store on Main Street. It is grey with a fire fighter Mickey head in the center and the letters MKFD in blue centered across the front. Then the engine company number is down one arm. I love it! That was the only store that carried it!

We went back to Pop for lunch. I had the best lunch. I ordered some sort of Greek chicken pizza with feta cheese, olives and pesto sauce that was so good!

While we were eating lunch we determined that we still had 6 snack credits left! How does this happen? I went and picked up several Mickey Mouse rice crispy treats and a few packages of snack mix including dried pineapple and roasted almonds.

Then I had one last small purchase to make in the gift shop while my DH got our bags out of luggage storage.

It was time to ride the ME to the airport.

It only took 30 minutes to arrive at the airport. We had 2 ½ hours to kill. We walked around through the shops.

DH caught the end of his team’s football game. It took less than 5 minutes to get through security with three kids, eight pieces of carry-ons and one double stroller. We took the train thing to our gate. Then we waited for our flight. On that day Air Tran had every flight leaving from about 4:30 PM until ours left at 6ish delayed, except for ours. We kept waiting to hear of a delay, but we took off on time. There were a lot of people from the three earlier flights that had still not left trying to fly stand-by on our full flight. We had no problems switching planes in Atlanta and arrived back home at about 10:30 PM.

THE END!

I did receive my Photopass. Thank you so much Maroo! I will upload some pictures from it either tomorrow or the next day to this trip report. Thank you for reading along!

 

[maroo]

Woo Hoo!!


I am SOOOOO impressed that the manager actually gave you guys water, let you ride twice AND took you backstage for POTC! I wonder if that is the same place we went for the W/C line?? Probably not?


It sounds like you guys had a GREAT and Magical trip with lots of extras that many of our families experience on wish trips - and I am so glad since your family can't stay at GKTW...it makes me happy that you guys are still going to be able to say you got FOTL privleges and such.


Make sure you take that GAC with you when you go back to the parks. Since it was not stamped from GKTW - they may stamp it that way again? Never know.

And since it will be your "real" wish trip - it certainly makes sense that they may extend the FOTL pass? Who knows. It will be interesting to see.

ROSA...seems like an AWESOME Cast Member. What Disney is all about, really. She really gets it!

I assume you added her name to your letter to Disney about the issues you guys had and the good experiences, too!

Awesome TR!

Now give us some PHOTOPASS! But take your time.

 

[kdzbear]

My trip report takes up 81 pages of a word document with the pictures only showing as image links! Here are the pictures from our Photopass: Enjoy!

Meeting Fairies:

Meeting Mickey and Minnie:

Magic Kingdom:

Mickey and Minnie:

Frontier Donald Duck:

Ariel:

Animal Kingdom:

Safari Fab 5:

Lilo and Stitch:

 

[kdzbear]

Disney’s Hollywood Studios:

Mater and Lightning McQueen:

Monsters Inc.:

Sorcerer Mickey:

Characters from Up:

Handy Manny:

MNSSHP:

 

[kdzbear]

Epcot:

Magic Kingdom:

More Fairies:

Belle:

Minnie Mouse:

More Fairies:

Disney’s Hollywood Studios: JoJo and Goliath:

Buzz Lightyear at Magic Kingdom:

Jasmine and Aladdin:

THE END!

 

[kdzbear]

Woo Hoo!!


I am SOOOOO impressed that the manager actually gave you guys water, let you ride twice AND took you backstage for POTC! I wonder if that is the same place we went for the W/C line?? Probably not? No, we had taken the wheelchair line before. This time we went behind a wooden fence that was for cast members only. Then we went up a couple of stairs and in a back door. We were literally stepping on to a boat when we came through the door. It was really neat! With DS4's stroller tag we entered every ride through the wheelchair ride, which meant he could not run away. However, this did not work the night I lost him while in line to see the Dwarfs! Ooops!


It sounds like you guys had a GREAT and Magical trip with lots of extras that many of our families experience on wish trips - and I am so glad since your family can't stay at GKTW...it makes me happy that you guys are still going to be able to say you got FOTL privleges and such.


Make sure you take that GAC with you when you go back to the parks. Since it was not stamped from GKTW - they may stamp it that way again? Never know. I never even thought of bringing the old card, but I will now! Thanks for the tip. I did leave the stroller as a wheel chair tag on the stroller so we can use it to take the bus to the first park to get the new GAC card!

And since it will be your "real" wish trip - it certainly makes sense that they may extend the FOTL pass? Who knows. It will be interesting to see. The regular GAC without the green stamp will get you to the front of the line if it is also stamped with the wheelchair tag, which it will be!

ROSA...seems like an AWESOME Cast Member. What Disney is all about, really. She really gets it!

I assume you added her name to your letter to Disney about the issues you guys had and the good experiences, too! I sent a separate email to Disney about MJ, George and Rosa!

Awesome TR! Thank you!

Now give us some PHOTOPASS! But take your time.

They are all added now! Enjoy!

Thank you so much for reading along!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Subbing so I can go back to read everything...but YOU got to see Johnny too????? How did I not know about this???????

 

[kdzbear]

Welcome! I hope you get to see Johnny Depp on your trip!

 

[Dreamer & Wisher]

We really enjoyed looking at all of your pictures. I loved your report!

Thank you for taking the time to write.

 

[kdzbear]

We really enjoyed looking at all of your pictures. I loved your report!

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Thank you for reading along on our journey! It looks like your trip is just around the corner!