Stay tuned for pictures, since we took a thousand(not kidding), it will take time to go through.
Here we are we left on friday night
Disney trip: 8/7
Left our house: 6:45pm from Delaware
Enter VA @ 9pm or so?
10 min. Bathroom stop @ 9:20pm (Wendys- DH had frosty
)
Traffic @ Fredericksburg, VA
Richmond, VA @ 11pm
North Carolina @ 12:05am
Gas stop, Wilson, NC @ 1am
South of the Border/South Carolina @ 2:50am
Georgia @ 5:40am
Gas/bathroom, 10 min., @ 6:40am, kids awake...
Breakfast, Denny's, Brunswick, GA @ 6:55am..., until 7:45am
Florida @ 8:19am
Stopped at FLA Welcome Center, until
8:35am.
McD in Disney World(no longer Disney decorated) @ 11:30am.
Check-in to Pop Century, @ 12:30pm(8/8)
DW and DH drove pretty equally. We were wide awake for arrival.
1st impressions when arriving is based from 2 years at All star Sports and movies.
When we entered Pop, I was like wow, this place is huge! I waited 1 minute(no joke) and they checked us in on the spot. We were on the 3rd floor in the 70s. This was different then the 1st floor we have enjoyed the last 2 years but we were ok with this. Being in the farthest corner of the hotel but closest to the parking lot near Mr and Mrs Potato Head was really nice.
We took the bus and we went golfing first and we did the did the Wintertime coarse near Blizzard beach. We had fun. The first thing we learned is that Blizzard Beach and Animal Kingdom shared the same bus(not good, not fun)
When got back to the hotel, DH took a nap in the hotel and DW and kids toured the hotel and pools.
After that, we got some pizza. Then we relaxed and got to bed for an exciting day 2.
8/9 - We drove to Epcot in time for the 8am early opening. An awesome start of the day at Soarin, kids loved Test Track and Mission Space. We even went to the world showcase, had lunch in America. That night we had a 7:10 reservation at Garden Grill, Service was slightly slow but overall the food and the characters which came around more then once was excellent. The only downside I could see in the place right now was that the Land ride was closed and that took away some of the feel of the turning restaurant but even with that I would give this place 5 stars. After we ate, we walked out got as close as week could for the fireworks/laser show, wow, that is so much better then what I remember. Then we drove home, no traffic back to our room which really made it nice.
8/10 - We drove to Animal Kingdom, after finding out that we would have to share a bus with another park. Park opened at 9am, we got there for the opening. We headed straight to safari, it was an excellent time. Our 6 year old enjoyed riding Primeval world since he is now 48+ inches. We had Pizzafari for lunch and Restaurantosaurus for dinner. We got home a little after 8:30. BTW the magical late hours are nice but it seemed more crowded then the other line.
8/11 - We took a bus to Magic Kingdom right in time for the 8am opening- It was different but we headed straight to Splash Mountain. We had an excellent Lunch at Crystal Palace but after eating at the Garden Grill I am not as impressed with Crystal Palace anymore. Eeyore even tried to snub my wife as she got up to take a picture with him as she was WEARING HIS SHIRT!!!! It was very rude how fast he wanted to go off and never had that kind of experience with any other character. Later in the day for dinner we ate at The Pinocchio Village Haus for Pizza. Kids really love waving to people on small world and then pretending to shoot them. That night at 10pm we watched the Wishes firework show. Wow, was that mobbed and it was impossible to hit vendors for ice cream at that time. It looked like NYC at new years eve. We personally believe they should outlaw the motor cars they rent for people that can't walk. DH got hit so many times there were marks in my ankles because they didn't know how to drive them. Should people truly be able to rent these weapons with my kids around, we vote no.
8/12 - We drove back to Epcot for the 9am opening. We got there right on time. The opening at Epcot is a lot better then the 8am opening, which I don't get if the early magic hours is for guests why not have a special opening then? We had slight issues with Epcot on this day because they seem to have issues with fast pass on Test Track where there seemed to be a bigger line for fast pass then the normal line. It wasn't too bad but personally I think they should push out all fast passers until the line is out or they need to distrubute less fast passes per hour. We ate lunch at the Electric Umbrella, had dinner at the hotel, then the kids wanted to play DS for a little bit then go to the pool. Problem was after they played and we ate, there was a big storm and the pool was closed till around 8-8:30 and we had to give the kids a snack and send them to bed, which they didn't sleep right away anyways.
8/13 - We drove to Hollywood Studios, wow, what a place and what crowds but nothing overly huge. First thing we found was pulling into the park they had tram cars to take you to the front gate. We got there and were pretty far back for getting there early, so we took the tram car to the front, not to bad. Again, our 6 year old was pumped to go on Aerosmith knowing for sure he has hit the 48 plus inch mark, he was so happy we rode Aerosmith 3 times that day and we even took home a fast pass to go on again but he was too tired after Fantasmic show, we were sad by our older DS getting selected for Jedi Training when we told him that we were doing this for his younger DS and when he was pointed to go up he went and didn't give up his spot for his brother and he got an earfull from us afterwards but knowing if I were an 8 year old in his shoes, I'd do the same thing. We had a sort of big rainstorm hit us at the park that day but we worked around it by hitting a lot of indoor rides and watching people stand an wait for the rain to stop as we went in our ponchos and didn't fret the rain. We had a late lunch at Pizza Planet and we ate Hot Dogs and pretzels from a vendor at Fantasmic. After the show, we took the tram but we were the last spot, I'd recommend that if you can walk you can get there faster then the tram can take you there but as the kids were dead tired from the show, we didn't mind waiting too much.
8/14 - We took the bus for the 9am opening at Magic Kingdom, again ten times better opening that starts at 8:45. We had another perfect day, the rides were awesome and the only sad part was no Space Mountain and no Blue Line Monorail but we knew about those things being closed. The only sad note of the day were these idiot parents who took advantage of rules and broke them blatenly in front of workers at thunder mountain who were not doing the jobs they should for safety on the ride, they stopped and told the worker they had fast passes but he measured the daughter and he told them she was too short to go on. So he told them they could go on and gave him passes so the other parent could go back on with all of them, well, these people took the girl with them and they never checked her height again and they went on the ride WITH HER!!!!!!!!! This was so disappointing, and the girl was crying her head off after the ride when she didn't look like she wanted to go on to begin with. Dumb parents and I know they got fastpasses to go on again which they are abusing the policies. Anyways the rest of the day went great, we went to Cosmic Ray's Starlight cafe for lunch and back to Pinocchio Village Haus for Pizza. That night we watched Spectromagic from Main Street and then went home, the buses were slow but we only had to wait for the 2nd one each night.
8/15 - We had to pack and get things ready to go home. After everything was packed, I went to the front desk at 7:15 and was stunned by the lack of people in line. I remember waiting in lines for 20-30 minutes at checkout. This was a nice change. We loved Mousekeeping as they every night decorated our kids stuffed animals to make it really special on each night coming home.
Chef Mickey's @ 8am - top notch best breakfast by far from anywhere that I have EVER gone!!!!
We arrived at
Hollywood Studios @ 9:45am
Aerosmith was down that morning but we were told it would be back up so we got a fast pass at that point for 1:30-2:30. We then headed to Tower of Terror and went back to Aerosmith which was open and only a 20 minute wait!!!!! So happy! Then we hit other rides hit the Lights Camera Action stunt show which was amazing, hit lunch at Pizza Planet and then hit a few last rides that the kids really wanted to before going on Aerosmith one last time to end the day.
Left Hollywood studios at 4:32pm.
Left Hess gas station at 4:44pm.
Hit Daytona Beach/I-95 @ 5:52pm.
Stopped Kingsland, GA @ 7:33pm at McDonalds for dinner, playland, then
got gas. Left McD/gas at 8:50pm...
Stopped for gas 10 minutes at Dillon, SC @ 1:20am
South of the border at 1:30am.
Hit Virginia @ 4:10am.
Hit Maryland at 6:47am.
Stopped for bathroom/gas @ 6:52am, back on road at 7:10am...
Exit I-95 Newark/Elkton @ 8:43am, entering DE @ 8:45am.
Dunkin Donuts @ 9:05-9:15am,
Home at 9:17am
Here we are we left on friday night
Disney trip: 8/7
Left our house: 6:45pm from Delaware
Enter VA @ 9pm or so?
10 min. Bathroom stop @ 9:20pm (Wendys- DH had frosty
)Traffic @ Fredericksburg, VA
Richmond, VA @ 11pm
North Carolina @ 12:05am
Gas stop, Wilson, NC @ 1am
South of the Border/South Carolina @ 2:50am
Georgia @ 5:40am
Gas/bathroom, 10 min., @ 6:40am, kids awake...
Breakfast, Denny's, Brunswick, GA @ 6:55am..., until 7:45am
Florida @ 8:19am
Stopped at FLA Welcome Center, until
8:35am.
McD in Disney World(no longer Disney decorated) @ 11:30am.
Check-in to Pop Century, @ 12:30pm(8/8)
DW and DH drove pretty equally. We were wide awake for arrival.
1st impressions when arriving is based from 2 years at All star Sports and movies.
When we entered Pop, I was like wow, this place is huge! I waited 1 minute(no joke) and they checked us in on the spot. We were on the 3rd floor in the 70s. This was different then the 1st floor we have enjoyed the last 2 years but we were ok with this. Being in the farthest corner of the hotel but closest to the parking lot near Mr and Mrs Potato Head was really nice.
We took the bus and we went golfing first and we did the did the Wintertime coarse near Blizzard beach. We had fun. The first thing we learned is that Blizzard Beach and Animal Kingdom shared the same bus(not good, not fun)
When got back to the hotel, DH took a nap in the hotel and DW and kids toured the hotel and pools.
After that, we got some pizza. Then we relaxed and got to bed for an exciting day 2.
8/9 - We drove to Epcot in time for the 8am early opening. An awesome start of the day at Soarin, kids loved Test Track and Mission Space. We even went to the world showcase, had lunch in America. That night we had a 7:10 reservation at Garden Grill, Service was slightly slow but overall the food and the characters which came around more then once was excellent. The only downside I could see in the place right now was that the Land ride was closed and that took away some of the feel of the turning restaurant but even with that I would give this place 5 stars. After we ate, we walked out got as close as week could for the fireworks/laser show, wow, that is so much better then what I remember. Then we drove home, no traffic back to our room which really made it nice.
8/10 - We drove to Animal Kingdom, after finding out that we would have to share a bus with another park. Park opened at 9am, we got there for the opening. We headed straight to safari, it was an excellent time. Our 6 year old enjoyed riding Primeval world since he is now 48+ inches. We had Pizzafari for lunch and Restaurantosaurus for dinner. We got home a little after 8:30. BTW the magical late hours are nice but it seemed more crowded then the other line.
8/11 - We took a bus to Magic Kingdom right in time for the 8am opening- It was different but we headed straight to Splash Mountain. We had an excellent Lunch at Crystal Palace but after eating at the Garden Grill I am not as impressed with Crystal Palace anymore. Eeyore even tried to snub my wife as she got up to take a picture with him as she was WEARING HIS SHIRT!!!! It was very rude how fast he wanted to go off and never had that kind of experience with any other character. Later in the day for dinner we ate at The Pinocchio Village Haus for Pizza. Kids really love waving to people on small world and then pretending to shoot them. That night at 10pm we watched the Wishes firework show. Wow, was that mobbed and it was impossible to hit vendors for ice cream at that time. It looked like NYC at new years eve. We personally believe they should outlaw the motor cars they rent for people that can't walk. DH got hit so many times there were marks in my ankles because they didn't know how to drive them. Should people truly be able to rent these weapons with my kids around, we vote no.
8/12 - We drove back to Epcot for the 9am opening. We got there right on time. The opening at Epcot is a lot better then the 8am opening, which I don't get if the early magic hours is for guests why not have a special opening then? We had slight issues with Epcot on this day because they seem to have issues with fast pass on Test Track where there seemed to be a bigger line for fast pass then the normal line. It wasn't too bad but personally I think they should push out all fast passers until the line is out or they need to distrubute less fast passes per hour. We ate lunch at the Electric Umbrella, had dinner at the hotel, then the kids wanted to play DS for a little bit then go to the pool. Problem was after they played and we ate, there was a big storm and the pool was closed till around 8-8:30 and we had to give the kids a snack and send them to bed, which they didn't sleep right away anyways.
8/13 - We drove to Hollywood Studios, wow, what a place and what crowds but nothing overly huge. First thing we found was pulling into the park they had tram cars to take you to the front gate. We got there and were pretty far back for getting there early, so we took the tram car to the front, not to bad. Again, our 6 year old was pumped to go on Aerosmith knowing for sure he has hit the 48 plus inch mark, he was so happy we rode Aerosmith 3 times that day and we even took home a fast pass to go on again but he was too tired after Fantasmic show, we were sad by our older DS getting selected for Jedi Training when we told him that we were doing this for his younger DS and when he was pointed to go up he went and didn't give up his spot for his brother and he got an earfull from us afterwards but knowing if I were an 8 year old in his shoes, I'd do the same thing. We had a sort of big rainstorm hit us at the park that day but we worked around it by hitting a lot of indoor rides and watching people stand an wait for the rain to stop as we went in our ponchos and didn't fret the rain. We had a late lunch at Pizza Planet and we ate Hot Dogs and pretzels from a vendor at Fantasmic. After the show, we took the tram but we were the last spot, I'd recommend that if you can walk you can get there faster then the tram can take you there but as the kids were dead tired from the show, we didn't mind waiting too much.
8/14 - We took the bus for the 9am opening at Magic Kingdom, again ten times better opening that starts at 8:45. We had another perfect day, the rides were awesome and the only sad part was no Space Mountain and no Blue Line Monorail but we knew about those things being closed. The only sad note of the day were these idiot parents who took advantage of rules and broke them blatenly in front of workers at thunder mountain who were not doing the jobs they should for safety on the ride, they stopped and told the worker they had fast passes but he measured the daughter and he told them she was too short to go on. So he told them they could go on and gave him passes so the other parent could go back on with all of them, well, these people took the girl with them and they never checked her height again and they went on the ride WITH HER!!!!!!!!! This was so disappointing, and the girl was crying her head off after the ride when she didn't look like she wanted to go on to begin with. Dumb parents and I know they got fastpasses to go on again which they are abusing the policies. Anyways the rest of the day went great, we went to Cosmic Ray's Starlight cafe for lunch and back to Pinocchio Village Haus for Pizza. That night we watched Spectromagic from Main Street and then went home, the buses were slow but we only had to wait for the 2nd one each night.
8/15 - We had to pack and get things ready to go home. After everything was packed, I went to the front desk at 7:15 and was stunned by the lack of people in line. I remember waiting in lines for 20-30 minutes at checkout. This was a nice change. We loved Mousekeeping as they every night decorated our kids stuffed animals to make it really special on each night coming home.
Chef Mickey's @ 8am - top notch best breakfast by far from anywhere that I have EVER gone!!!!
We arrived at
Hollywood Studios @ 9:45am
Aerosmith was down that morning but we were told it would be back up so we got a fast pass at that point for 1:30-2:30. We then headed to Tower of Terror and went back to Aerosmith which was open and only a 20 minute wait!!!!! So happy! Then we hit other rides hit the Lights Camera Action stunt show which was amazing, hit lunch at Pizza Planet and then hit a few last rides that the kids really wanted to before going on Aerosmith one last time to end the day.
Left Hollywood studios at 4:32pm.
Left Hess gas station at 4:44pm.
Hit Daytona Beach/I-95 @ 5:52pm.
Stopped Kingsland, GA @ 7:33pm at McDonalds for dinner, playland, then
got gas. Left McD/gas at 8:50pm...
Stopped for gas 10 minutes at Dillon, SC @ 1:20am
South of the border at 1:30am.
Hit Virginia @ 4:10am.
Hit Maryland at 6:47am.
Stopped for bathroom/gas @ 6:52am, back on road at 7:10am...
Exit I-95 Newark/Elkton @ 8:43am, entering DE @ 8:45am.
Dunkin Donuts @ 9:05-9:15am,
Home at 9:17am
Was it just me or were their pools overly heated? I wanted a refreshing dip and got a warm bath. 
