The Darling Family June 2011: A Last Minute Budget Vacation

[okw19]

What a sweet mother-daughter night!

 

[MagicShell]

I love the mother/daughter night especially meeting the princesses. My little girl is 15 and I THINK she would still enjoy meeting them. I know I do. I'm glad Wendy got to go back to a park for the evening. I'll bet the boys had fun as well.

 

[MEK]

I think I may have missed an update, but I just read about your trip to DTD and then MK. What lovely pp pictures. Good for you for leaving the camera at home and going strictly photopass. That's hard to do. What a great mother/daughter trip.

Is your trip really over already???? Oh no!

 

[DrMomof3]

I love that you and Wendy went to meet the princesses! How fun!!!
Sounds like a super busy and fun day.

Amanda

 

[Shannon84]

How sweet, a mother-daughter night sounds great!! I love that you left your camera behind and just enjoyed the night, plus the photopass pictures came out great

That is so sweet seeing Wendy growing up with Belle and great that she still has that magic with seeing the princesses!!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Looks like a great visit to DTD! I agree, the boat rides are so much fun. Your pizza from WPE sure does look good! I have actually never eaten there before . I think I'll have to add that to my list of places to try!

Great princess pictures too.

 

[wisblue]

Looks like a great visit to DTD! I agree, the boat rides are so much fun. Your pizza from WPE sure does look good! I have actually never eaten there before . I think I'll have to add that to my list of places to try!

Great princess pictures too.

Mom and I had spaghetti there in August and it is the kind of place you would like. They have some other good choices too, like roasted chicken.

 

[dismagiclover]

Thank goodness I actually was sitting down when I read this latest update. I've often thought about going into a park without a camera but I can't make myself do it.

It sounds like you and Wendy had a wonderful evening together. Cherish those "little girl and princess" moments because, believe me, I know how quickly a little girl grows up.

It is pretty amazing I didn't take the camera. Not something I will do regularly, but it was a nice change and we had a fun night.

what a sweet way to spend the last evening!

I love hanging out with Wendy. We always seem to have fun!

What a sweet mother-daughter night!

It is a bit of a tradition for me and Wendy to spend an evening in the MK together and I love it.

I love the mother/daughter night especially meeting the princesses. My little girl is 15 and I THINK she would still enjoy meeting them. I know I do. I'm glad Wendy got to go back to a park for the evening. I'll bet the boys had fun as well.

The evening worked out well for everyone. I bet your daughter will enjoy the princesses. The time Wendy liked meeting them the least was when she was around 8 or 9 because she thought they were for babies. Now she realizes it is fun to pretend to be a kid (though I think she still is a kid.)

I think I may have missed an update, but I just read about your trip to DTD and then MK. What lovely pp pictures. Good for you for leaving the camera at home and going strictly photopass. That's hard to do. What a great mother/daughter trip.

Is your trip really over already???? Oh no!

Even though it was just photopass, we still took some nice pictures that evening. The trip isn't quite over yet, but it's getting close.

 

[dismagiclover]

I love that you and Wendy went to meet the princesses! How fun!!!
Sounds like a super busy and fun day.

Amanda

I'm glad we met the Princesses too! It was a busy day, but it didn't seem to hectic probably because most of the activities were relaxed and didn't involve waiting in lines.

How sweet, a mother-daughter night sounds great!! I love that you left your camera behind and just enjoyed the night, plus the photopass pictures came out great

That is so sweet seeing Wendy growing up with Belle and great that she still has that magic with seeing the princesses!!

I love looking back at the pictures of my kids growing up with the characters. Someday I think I'll do a scrapbook showing each of them growing up with their favorite characters through the years. It's fun to have those traditions.

Looks like a great visit to DTD! I agree, the boat rides are so much fun. Your pizza from WPE sure does look good! I have actually never eaten there before . I think I'll have to add that to my list of places to try!

Great princess pictures too.

You need to try WPE. So yummy! I've never had a bad meal there.

 

[dismagiclover]

Our last Disney day had arrived. This is always a bittersweet moment. Of course I am grateful for another great Disney vacation and the memories it brings. On the other hand we were leaving Disney! So sad. I definitely couldn’t complain too loudly though because this trip wasn’t even supposed to happen. We were very slow getting moving this morning. We lounged around our spacious villa, ate breakfast (those delish Make Your Own Treats), packed and loaded up the car. We then headed out to our final park of the trip. For the Darlings that always seem to be Epcot. The boys this day had a very specific mission and I bet you can all guess what it is. Today was the day to finally complete the Duffy Quest. And they were prepared. Here they are heading to the park.

They determined that on this day their Duffys needed to accompany them on their Duffy Quest. I just couldn’t help but giggle as I walked behind them towards the park. And take lots of pictures. Here are a few more.

So we made it through the turnstiles. Then the boys had a stop they insisted on. They needed to use their very own photo pass cards (if you remember they had been acquired the day before) to document the beginning of their quest. Thus we have these goodies.

I can’t even imagine what that photographer must have been thinking. I doubt he takes too many photos of boys on Duffy Quests. So I assumed we would head directly to the World Showcase to complete the quest. I assumed wrong. There was something that the boys deemed more important than Duffy Quest at that moment. What could it possibly be?

That is right. The call of video games will divert even the most singularly focused 9 and 6 year old boys. So instead of strolling the World Showcase (one of my favorite past times), we were stalking the halls of Innoventions. This made Wendy happy because she had missed Innoventions because of the day 3 dehydration issues. She wanted to play the piggy bank game. So we left DH and the boys at the video games and Wendy went to earn some money for her education.

After this brief detour we got back on track. We were back to our Duffy focused mission. DH didn’t find as much amusement in this whole Duffy Quest as myself so we sent him off to collect fast passes or some DH thing. I’m not sure what he did, but he left us for this next little while (and I’m sure he took our tickets so he could collect as many fast passes as possible.) While he was off doing DH stuff the boys were getting their needed Duffy fix to give them the fortitude to complete their Duffy Quest. The boys were so excited to show Big Duffy their personal Duffys.

Duffy was impressed.

Eventually they even let Wendy in a picture.

It looks like they even let her hold the Duffy sticks for them. How kind. Here is a picture of everyone together.

Notice these aren’t photo pass pictures. There was no photo pass photographer with Duffy this time. Which of course bothered the boys a bit because they wanted to use those cards! Anyway the boys said goodbye to their inspiration and we headed on our way.

Coming up: Duffy Quest continues.

 

[DrMomof3]

How totally funny! Love the Duffy Quest pictures!!!

Amanda

 

[Shannon84]

Honestly you can't help but smile seeing how excited they are by Duffy!! I love that they took Duffy pictures at the front of EPCOT Those are the ones you keep to show them years later when they are say 18

 

[okw19]

I love the Duffy Quest! So cute!

 

[Queenofallthings]

I love that you and Wendy spent a mother/daughter evening together at the MK! The past and present pictures with Belle are gorgeous...she too is my favorite princess

Duffy Quest love these pictures...wonder why no PP?

We have also started spending our final day in Disney at Epcot too! It might have a little something to do with the Caramel shop in Germany

 

[kcandbella]

All caught up! I love Wendy with the princesses. I hope my Bella will still enjoy them as she grows older. It looks like a fun mother/daughter evening.

And I had to laugh at the boys entering Epcot. They are on a SERIOUS mission. Very cute!

 

[kittylady1972]

LOVED the Mother-Daughter evening out. Sometimes it's okay to split up on vacations. For us it's always been DH taking one kid back to a room while I hang out with the other two. It's funny how when you have three kids, two always seems like such a special thing. One is even more rare to get that one-on-one time.

LOVED the boys Duffy stories and photos. Too, too cute!

After reading your TR and a few others, I am now even more inspired to plan another Disney trip in 2012...on top of the two I already have planned! We took my oldest DS for a special trip in June 2008 and left his younger sibs behind. Now I think we may have to continue the tradition and take my DD on a similar trip since and then do the same for my DS when he reaches the same age. Seems an odd way to celebrate the end of 3rd grade for my kids, but who says we can't be different? We'll see if I get that worked out though!

 

[Lorelai]

We will be making our first June trip this summer...can you please give me your impressions of the weather.

Our family actually doesn't mind the hot, humid, tropical vibe...my only concern is the duration of the daily June rain. As I understand it, it usually rains daily, but mostly in mid-afternoon. Was this your experience?

Also, what were your actual vacation dates...were you early, mid or late June?

Thank you!

 

[dismagiclover]

How totally funny! Love the Duffy Quest pictures!!!

Amanda

The Duffy Quest was one of the highlights of the trip for those crazy boys

Honestly you can't help but smile seeing how excited they are by Duffy!! I love that they took Duffy pictures at the front of EPCOT Those are the ones you keep to show them years later when they are say 18

I'm sure the day will come that they will be mortified by the fact that they brought stuffed animals into a theme park and chased around a stuffed bear. Maybe it can be used as bribery in a few years

I love the Duffy Quest! So cute!

And more Duffy Questing is coming up!

I love that you and Wendy spent a mother/daughter evening together at the MK! The past and present pictures with Belle are gorgeous...she too is my favorite princess

Duffy Quest love these pictures...wonder why no PP?

We have also started spending our final day in Disney at Epcot too! It might have a little something to do with the Caramel shop in Germany

Those evenings with Wendy really are a special time. I hope they last for a while longer. It was kind of strange there was no PP at Duffy. There has always been one when we've gone before (and as you know we have visited Duffy often) I need to make a visit to the Caramel Shop. It is on my list for January!

All caught up! I love Wendy with the princesses. I hope my Bella will still enjoy them as she grows older. It looks like a fun mother/daughter evening.

And I had to laugh at the boys entering Epcot. They are on a SERIOUS mission. Very cute!

Wendy went through a stage where she wouldn't visit the princesses because they were for babies, but now she is old enough that the baby stuff is cute again. She loves Pooh Bear too. Those boys are very serious about this Duffy Questing! They are determined to finish their Quest

 

[dismagiclover]

LOVED the Mother-Daughter evening out. Sometimes it's okay to split up on vacations. For us it's always been DH taking one kid back to a room while I hang out with the other two. It's funny how when you have three kids, two always seems like such a special thing. One is even more rare to get that one-on-one time.

LOVED the boys Duffy stories and photos. Too, too cute!

After reading your TR and a few others, I am now even more inspired to plan another Disney trip in 2012...on top of the two I already have planned! We took my oldest DS for a special trip in June 2008 and left his younger sibs behind. Now I think we may have to continue the tradition and take my DD on a similar trip since and then do the same for my DS when he reaches the same age. Seems an odd way to celebrate the end of 3rd grade for my kids, but who says we can't be different? We'll see if I get that worked out though!

Some of my favorite times at Disney is when we've split up. My DH gets tired of the parks much quicker than me so he doesn't mind either. I've had great time with just 1 or 2 kids at a time quite often through the years. I think the tradition of a 3rd grade celebration trip is an excellent idea! One of the things we DISers do best in enable each others Disney addiction. Go for it

We will be making our first June trip this summer...can you please give me your impressions of the weather.

Our family actually doesn't mind the hot, humid, tropical vibe...my only concern is the duration of the daily June rain. As I understand it, it usually rains daily, but mostly in mid-afternoon. Was this your experience?

Also, what were your actual vacation dates...were you early, mid or late June?

Thank you!

I love our June trips. You can tell by my siggie that we've been in the fall, the winter, and 3 trips in June. The June trips believe it or not are my favorite weather rides. I love that you know exactly what to pack. No need for long pants or jackets. It does rain often in the afternoon, but usually it doesn't last longer than an hour and we never let it slow us down much. Hitting rope drop is a must because it gets so hot in the afternoon. We take an afternoon break at the resort pool or the community center. Then we head back to the parks for the evening. This past June it didn't rain much at all. I took ponchos, but I don't think we ever used them. I remember more rain on our 2 previous June trips though. Our dates for this trip were from the 10-17 I think. Our 2009 trip was 11-19. Our 2010 trip was 17-24. The later you go in June the more crowded it gets. We're used to summer crowds and know how to avoid the long lines so we don't mind them much. However, this past January we did love how easy it was to make it on rides. We actually went on Soarin without fastpasses which we would never do in June. Anyway, I love June and I'm sad I won't be there this coming June.

 

[Lorelai]

Some of my favorite times at Disney is when we've split up. My DH gets tired of the parks much quicker than me so he doesn't mind either. I've had great time with just 1 or 2 kids at a time quite often through the years. I think the tradition of a 3rd grade celebration trip is an excellent idea! One of the things we DISers do best in enable each others Disney addiction. Go for it


I love our June trips. You can tell by my siggie that we've been in the fall, the winter, and 3 trips in June. The June trips believe it or not are my favorite weather rides. I love that you know exactly what to pack. No need for long pants or jackets. It does rain often in the afternoon, but usually it doesn't last longer than an hour and we never let it slow us down much. Hitting rope drop is a must because it gets so hot in the afternoon. We take an afternoon break at the resort pool or the community center. Then we head back to the parks for the evening. This past June it didn't rain much at all. I took ponchos, but I don't think we ever used them. I remember more rain on our 2 previous June trips though. Our dates for this trip were from the 10-17 I think. Our 2009 trip was 11-19. Our 2010 trip was 17-24. The later you go in June the more crowded it gets. We're used to summer crowds and know how to avoid the long lines so we don't mind them much. However, this past January we did love how easy it was to make it on rides. We actually went on Soarin without fastpasses which we would never do in June. Anyway, I love June and I'm sad I won't be there this coming June.

Thank you...you have just helped all of my rainy fears go away!

By the way, do you use the names Wendy, John & Michael for the trip reports, or are those their true chosen names? Having the last name Darling, and being a Disney fan, must have at least made you think about it, if those are not in fact their actual names.