Where's the Can? I Want to Pee in China. Sept 2015 Trip Report

[DopeyDonald]

Hellooooooo Humans! (I just love that show )

I am currently in the middle of a trip report from September 2014, but gosh darn it I am itching to start writing about this one since I didn't take notes and I want it to be fresh. We also leave 8 weeks from tomorrow for another trip and I really don't want to be that far behind! And I'm going to be honest - I am busting at the seams to tell the story that named this trip report!

This trip was our annual September Family Vacation. This marks our 6th September in a row for us to travel to the World. We love September for the crowds and it's Cassidy's Birthday. This was only our 2nd trip without anyone else joining us. Usually at least my mom will come with or at least join us halfway through. She decided not to this year however, since we will all be traveling down in January for a grand gathering. I have to say it was very nice to have just us. We seem to split up a lot more when my mom or parents are with. We had a lot of great family time and just took it slow. That is the other nice thing about being blessed with so many trips. We are not in such a hurry any more – we’ve either seen it or know that we will get to it someday!

Originally when we planned this trip we knew we would be going again in January and staying at the Wilderness Lodge, so we decided to be a bit more budget minded this time and take advantage of Free Dining at POR. We kept this reservation until about a month before our trip - *sigh. The siren song of the Wilderness Lodge was just too great. What finally tipped the scale was the news of the demolishment of the Hidden Springs Villas Pool. That place is sacred to our family. We just KNEW we had to go and say goodbye.

So I called and changed our Free Dining POR reservation to a Room Only Discount Reservation at VWL. Our travel dates were September 13th thru the 23rd. My parents were planning on paying for our tickets in January so we asked my dad if he would be willing to just pay the difference between 10 day tickets and an annual pass for this September trip. Win-win for both of us – it saved him about $800 and it means that our trip next September will have the tickets covered. Plus we would be able to take advantage of annual pass discounts and room pricing for next year. Yay!

So, by now I'm sure you are interested in who did go on the trip, so I will introduce us:

Me: Emily – I am a stay at home mom, though I do work very part time as an office manager at an adoption agency. I also home school our 3 kiddos, though Wyatt is thinking about heading to public school part time after winter break. Things you should know about me: I LOVE Donald Duck. And Dopey. I will buy basically anything I can get my hands on with these 2. It’s a good thing that merchandise with them on it can be hard to find.

My favorite place at the World (and in the world) is Tomorrowland. *happy sigh. My favorite ride is probably the people mover, followed closely by Gran Fiesta Tour. Hopefully I won’t lose any readers with that statement…..

DH – DH is a territory manager for a company that services and supplies convenience stores. He is on the road - a LOT. He loves Disney as much as the rest of us do and we love the Daddy time we get when we are there. His favorites are Goofy and Grumpy. He also loves all the thrill rides that I cannot ride, so it works out perfectly. His favorite place at Disney is probably Main Street, followed closely by Expedition Everest.

This pic just sums up my DH's love for Disney

DS - My first born, Wyatt. He is now a teenager at 13 and is very into playing the part *sigh. He still loves Disney, but it’s changed from the wide eyed wonder of earlier trips to something more subtle. The Wilderness Lodge is his favorite place and he is one of the biggest reasons that we changed our trip from POR to VWL. He loves Mickey and Stitch.

It’s been fun to watch his loves in Disney change. He used to be a MK guy, but now his favorite place is the World Showcase at Epcot. Our whole family seems to end up in World Showcase a lot more than we used to.

My sweet boy - he does NOT like this dinner or this attention, but does it for his Mama

DD – My middle girl, Annie. She is my drama, girly girl. Her favorite character changes with her mood, though Mulan usually ends up on top. She is stuck in the middle and lets everyone know. We really try hard to schedule one on one Annie time with each of us during our trips. This trip was an exception, however, as Cassidy came to tea with us and her and DH never did get to go to dinner. We will have to make up for that in January.

Her favorite place at Disney is the France pavilion. She desperately wants to go to Paris someday and for now settles for the Disney version. Her and Wyatt LOVE the ham and cheese baguettes at the bakery and enjoy eating them near the fountain with the Eiffel tower as the backdrop.

My Annie - always smiling

DD 2 – My baby, Cassidy. Cassidy is my baby. Everyone knows it – lol. She turned 7 on this trip. She loves all things Disney and it’s great to still have a kid young enough to believe in ALL the magic. She is a half-way thrill junkie. She LOVES BTMRR – he and DH rode it 5 times in a row for a total of 9 times this trip. She also loves Test Track and Kali River Rapids. She loves the Haunted Mansion and the Tomorrowland Speeday. Do you get the picture? She just loves everything She is however not crazy about the drop on Splash, but she will do it.

She has a slight stamina problem due to a medical condition she has, she’s getting better but is still in a stroller most of the time. Not to worry, however, she her condition is stable and in fact she just had a recheck in July and got the all clear again – no more visits for 2 years this time! She is still considerably underweight and working on putting some weight back on!

My Cassie - pretending to be a puffer fish - lol

Well that is our crew. So now you have the who, what, when, where and the why is pretty self-explanatory!

 

[DopeyDonald]

Chapter Links

Saturday September 13th, 2015
Travel Day! During Which I Win Mother of the Year

Sunday September14th, 2015 - Cassidy's Birthday!!!!
It's Tough to...Take So Many Bug Eye Pictures
Six Thumbs Up and Four Thumbs Down
Well We Should Have Skipped THAT Trip to Downtown Disney

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Here!

 

[DopeyDonald]

Here!

Yay! I am so excited for this one. Like we all said - Best Trip Yet! (we say this every time lol) I am going to try and keep up with both trips. I would also like to sprinkle at least some pics into my other sub thread about Annie's surprise birthday trip - whew! I guess that means we went to Disney too many times this year....Or NOT.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

Cool, I'd been looking forward all year to reading about your February trip, so I'm glad you'll still have something on that also.

 

[DopeyDonald]

Ahhhh Travel Day. For some strange reason I love reading about other people's travel days, I wish I liked writing about them also - I think I'm just so excited to write the report, I just want to hurry through this day!

We live about 3.5 hrs from the airport we were flying out of. Our flight was at 11 am on Saturday September 13th. This meant we should be there around 9-9:30 as it's a smaller terminal and security is pretty minimal. We got going from our house around 5:15 or so. Now if you've read any of my other reports you know that Wyatt, Cassidy and I are NOT morning people. At. All. Ugh. I never sleep well the night before a trip either so it makes for a pretty miserable morning. I do however sleep like a baby in the car on the way down, so it all works out in the wash!

We had taken care of all the normal junk the day before - dropping dogs off, unplugging unused appliances, talking to the post office. The Tahoe was loaded up and all we needed to do was hop in.

My kiddos have a tradition of sleeping in their clothes the night before a Disney Trip - makes for an easier morning. This year he took it up a notch and wore his magic band to bed. Here is my son when I went in to wake him up....

Looks thrilled doesn't he. Oh and don't mind the 1950's flooring that we keep meaning to replace, it seems like a trip to Disney always overrides things like that.

My girls were up in no time and ready to go - I think Cassidy is starting to take after her sister. In no time we were posing for some pics and ready to head out. (I lost more of these as I lost my phone but that's a story for another day.)

Wyatt showing off his shirt - looking a little more chipper.

Annie and Daddy excited and ready to head out. Again, don't mind the walls in the background - another project postponed due to a trip

Here is my view from the way back - always a tradition for mom to ride in the way back. Wyatt's legs just don't fit back there. You can see it's pretty bright outside - we took this as we were approaching the air port.

Ahhhhh - one of my favorite parts of the trip - arriving at the airport - the vacation has finally begun, and all the anticipation is building -EEEEeeeeeeee - I'm getting excited all over again.

We always try and get a pic under the Humphrey Terminal sign since we are big Humphrey Bear fans due to our love for Wilderness Lodge.

The airport was dead since it was a Saturday morning and we breezed through check in and security. My DH is TSA Pre-Check so we always let him go thru by himself since he always has to go have one last smoke. We made it thru in no time and pretty soon were at our gate.

We were all hungry and we had some time so we headed to Subway for some sandwiches. $852 later we were full Well not really that much, but almost. We had a layover in St. Louis but it was only for a few minutes so we knew we'd better eat now.

Must have said something smart..lol

Pretty soon it was time to board and in no time we were on the jet. I am a horrible mother and make my girls take the aisle and middle seats. I give them 5 bucks each and call it good. I HAVE to sit by the window on a plane and they just have to deal with it.

She's happy cause I just told her about the 5 bucks...

Our flights were smooth and uneventful. I really do love Southwest. We have never had any issues with them and in fact I think every flight we have ever taken has gotten in on time or even early. After our quick layover we were up in the air and then back down - We were in Florida!!!!!

In no time we were on the monorail headed to the main terminal.

Do you think she's excited?? And being weird....

We've gotten smarter over the years and have decided to eat in the airport when we arrive. We are usually so hungry but try and make it to the resort and end up fighting the whole way. This way we take care the hunger before we leave the airport and things go smoother.

However, I was unable to contain my hangry and we had an incident at the airport that I am so not proud of. Some backstory - we told the kids that since we were not getting the free dining and had upgraded to the VWL we were going to try and watch our food spending. Not starve, but try and make smarter choices. So keeping this in mind: We all of course wanted different things from the food court. So I sent Wyatt over to McDonalds for himself, while I stood at Sbarro for Annie. Annie went over with him to help him carry things. I got her pizza and found a table. Annie came over and told me it was taking a long time because Wyatt ordered at 20 piece nuggets for himself. I was NOT happy. I knew there was NO way he would be able to eat it all, plus we had just discussed getting a snack so we would be hungry to eat at Roaring Fork for Dinner in a few short hours. I tried to keep it together, I really did but just like in the Snickers commercial, I was not myself. I went over there and asked him if they could still cancel the order and if they couldn't he'd better be prepared to stay at the airport until he could finish the nuggets. I may have even said something to the effect of "I don't care if you throw up, you are eating every last one of those nuggets." If there is a moment of my life I could take back, I think it would be that one. *sigh. He was crushed, embarrassed and a little mad at me. McDonalds lady overheard me and cancelled the nuggets right away, but the damage was done to my boy's heart. (I'm getting a little teary right now thinking of it)

I apologized about a million times to him and he gave me a hug, but was still a little miffed. We decided that he would go with DH and Cassie on the Magical Express and Annie and I would go get the van and head to Target. I think he just wanted a bit of time to cool off.

We did have to stop for a pic in front of the Disney Store first though.

So after our meals we went our separate ways - the boys and Cassie to ME and Annie and I to Alamo. I had checked in online so we just had to head to the vans and pick one out. We found a Town and Country that looked suitable - we went with black this time, since we usually get a lighter color one and wanted to change it up - STUPID MOVE! Those darn black leather seats were so hot every time we got into the van after a park, we cursed them.

Annie and I headed to the Target closest to Animal Kingdom - we've been going to this one for years - I had ordered a cake for Cassidy's birthday the next day from there also. And just like every year, I get lost on the way . I'm really not sure how I do it but I do. So. Lost. Oh well, we finally found it and got all of our shopping done. We picked up Cassidy's Doc cake and headed back to the Lodge.

The boys and Cass had gotten checked in, secured a spot as Flag Family, and gotten settled. I called them to let them know we were there so they could come and help carry Target bags and water.

There is NOTHING like walking thru the doors of Wilderness Lodge knowing that you have a whole 10 days stretched out in front of you. Best feeling ever!

I did make a quick stop by the front desk to ask if there was any way we could get a small table for our room. We were staying in a Studio and those have the table, but it folds down into a bed. DH likes to work in the morning on his computer and it would be nice to have one of those little round tables in our room. I wasn't sure if this was possible, but they told me it was They told me it should be up shortly.

We headed up to our room to wait for our bags and get settled in.

Our bags came up shortly and we were missing one. They assured us it was probably on the next truck and not to worry. I was though because it was our toiletries bag - had meds, Wy's contact stuff etc. No need to worry though about half hour later it showed up!

We decided to go for a swim since we needed to swim all that we could since it would be our last trip with the Hidden Springs Pool. We left DH in the room relaxing and waiting for the table.

My goofy kids at the pool. I promise that Cassidy was on this trip- she just does NOT like to have her pic taken so she isn't in as many as these 2.

After a lovely swim we headed back to the room to find DH sleeping and no table. But our message light was blinking. I called and it was housekeeping telling us that they didn't have a table for us today but would tomorrow. You guys I am not going to keep you in suspense. We waited 10 days for that table and it never came. It became quite humorous as the trip went on. I would call, they would promise it and we would wait. Either there never was going to be a table or else there is some poor studio in VWL that has like 10 tables stacked inside We never got upset, but it really would have been nice to have that table, or at least be told NO that isn't possible.

No big deal though - we were in DISNEY!!

 

[soulfly12]

Here!

 

[DaisyDuck001]

How frustrating that the promised table never arrived. It would have been better if they had said in the beginning, "Sorry, but we are not able to provide a table." Then you would have tabled the idea of getting a table, because you would have known it was off the table. LOL about the ten tables stacked in some other guest room!

 

[DopeyDonald]

How frustrating that the promised table never arrived. It would have been better if they had said in the beginning, "Sorry, but we are not able to provide a table." Then you would have tabled the idea of getting a table, because you would have known it was off the table. LOL about the ten tables stacked in some other guest room!

Love IT - that is so funny. And it's true! We definitely would have tabled the idea instead of holding out false hope!

 

[DopeyDonald]

Ahhhh, nothing like waking up in Disney on the first morning of your vacation. And it was my baby's birthday to boot! Awesome day! The way our trips usually run is that Cassidy's birthday is either the first or last day of our trip - we'd like it in the middle, but with getting the most use out of an annual pass, it's the way it has to be. Now next September her birthday will be on the last day - maybe we will get lucky and there will be a MNSSHP the next day or something so we don't have to pack up on her birthday - that would be sad!

So, where did we head first? It was Cassidy's birthday after all, so she got to choose. Off to Animal Kingdom to ride Kali River Rapids! My girls favorite!! We were a little slow going as usual, but we managed to get going by about 10. *sigh. Someday we will see a park opening -

Here is the first official pic of the trip - all ready to head to Animal Kingdom! And yes, my son's T-shirt is getting small - it's from our very first trip in 2010 when it was HUGE on him and

The boys were taking the bus again and the girls and I were driving. The boys are SO. WEiRD - who likes Disney busses?? They do. So the girls and I took our time and we stopped for a few pics on the way.

Rubbing Humphrey's nose for luck!

And finally we were on our way to AK.

The boys had beaten us there and were already on Everest! lol The girls and I decided to stop and upgrade our tickets right at the front guest services before we even entered the park. We were hoping the boys would make it up front to upgrade with us, but they were having too much fun on Everest. Remember this! lol It took a little while and it was hot and the girls were antsy to hurry up and get into the park, but YAY! We now had annual passes again.

We used our new annual passes hot off the press(not really since we just used the same old bands we'd had on, but you know what I mean ) and entered our first Disney park of the trip! We met the boys at Kali River Rapids for Cassidy's Birthday Ride! We ended up standing in a fairly long fast pass line- I was surprised and a little nervous that maybe our September crowds were low no more.... We did however end up waiting in line with a VERY nice family - the husband had on a Viet Nam Vet hat and he and my DH talked the entire 20 mins or so - My DH is a Viet Nam Vet also. We ended up getting in the same raft as them, so it was a very nice way to start the trip. Before we knew it we were on Kali and taking bets as to who would be the unlucky ones....

Well, thank goodness we weren't the ones who took the worst. The other family was in ponchos and they got the hot seats! My pants did take a pretty good hit as you will see in pics to come but NOTHING like the next time we rode it, but that is a story for another day. After Kali we were all pretty hungry and decided to eat. (I did have a few more pics of this day but they were on my phone and that is also another story. So we all decided to eat at Flame Tree BBQ. I had the chicken, DH had Chicken and Ribs, Wyatt had a turkey sandwich that he forgot to say no mayo and cranberries on to, and the girls had hot dogs. We sat down by the water with a view of Everest and construction. It is one of our favorite views - minus construction

After eating our yummy lunch we decided it was time to visit with some bugs. Off to It's Tough to be a Bug for us! Not only do we love this show, we love the pics in our Bug Eyes!

First up was Wy - *sigh, goofy pic guy was back again this trip - lol

My Cutie standing under "her" poster

Seeing Annie's Wilderness Explorers sticker reminded me that the girls and I stopped at the WE outpost on the bridge and picked up books and pencils to try and complete. We hadn't stopped anywhere yet though.

Cassidy trying to look like Big Brother

My "little" boy and his mama

Dh and I in a rare pic together!

Daddy and his little bugs

Now, Mama and her bugs - check how wet my pants still are from Kali! Nothing like walking around a park all day with soaking pants -

All right, I think that is all the possible combinations of pictures in Bug Eyes we could possibly have taken. Moving on. We really enjoyed the show as always. When we left the theater we decided to head to our next fast pass - the Safari. For some reason when I make our fastpasses I never think at the time how much criss crossing of the park I have us doing! Oh well, I need the exercise. We had a short wait with our fastpasses at the safari and soon enough we were in our ride vehicle checking out the savannah.

I'm going to break here now though because photobucket is giving me fits and I'm going to try and restart my computer....

 

[DopeyDonald]

Let's try this again! So we were at Kilamanjaro Safari's just beginning our journey when I left off. We took the usual pics and it was a typical afternoon safari on a hot day- not much activity.

Here is Wyatt enjoying the view

We did get some pretty good shots of the giraffes.

And the elephants

This pic cracks me up. I'm sure these guys are on the real African Savannah together, but I'm not sure this close? And maybe I'm wrong, but it just struck me as a funny pic

No sign of the lions or hippos at all, so that was a bummer, but all in all a good safari.

After our 2 week trek we were ready to cool off somewhere dark....across the park....lol. Our next fastpasses were for....DINOSAUR. Wyatt has such a love/hate relationship with this ride. Basically he loves to hate it. My big strong, thrill lovin boy is terrified of this ride. But he rides it so we can add to our collection of "Wyatt in the fetal position on Dinosaur" photo collection. We walked right on, thanks to our fastpass. It wasn't long and we were buckled in and ready to go. Wyatt and Cassidy rode with me in one row and Annie and Larry had the next row. How, I get the chickens I will never know. DH, Annie and I love this ride and think it's amazing. Wyatt and Cassidy are 2 peas in a pod. Cassidy feels the same as Wy. HATES the ride but feels compelled to go on it. (We've never made them ride, I swear!)

The 2 yellow bellies survived to tell a tale, but wanted to document for all to see how they feel about this ride. A double thumbs down from each and Cassidy's even sporting her Dino shirt, but it didn't help. And poor Wy, I didn't even get the pic. I was too cheap for photopass this year --

Now how do the rest of us feel about Dinosaur?? LOVE IT!

After Dinosaur it was time for another old stand-by....Triceratop Spin! It was bittersweet though. My big kids didn't want to go on. It was hot and they were running out of gas, but still DH and Cassidy were ready to ride though! (Well actually DH looks less than excited but, I think I caught him mid blink!)

Here is what those 2 big kids were up to - MELTING

Lovely pics, aren't they??

After DH and Cassidy had had their fill of Dinosaur Dumbo, we decided it would be best to head out. We had a very special supper reservation to get to and wanted to rest up and clean up. The girls and I had something else in mind though. Nana had given Cassidy some birthday money and it was burning a hole in her pocket. She had also given me some to pick her up a present to wrap for her. Cassidy had been eyeing the animators dolls online and we assumed that we would find a large selection here at Disney. We figured our best bet would be to head right to DTD (or Disney Springs or whatever) to look. The boys wanted no part of this and headed back on the bus. The girls and I took our time walking out and stopped for a few WE stations.

I forgot to mention that when we stopped to pick up WE books, Cassidy asked if Lula could have one. Remember Lula, her doll, from past trip reports? Lula was a huge part of this trip, mostly involving Cassidy wanting Lula to do everything she got to do. This was hard to explain sometimes, but it worked out most of the time. The CM's were more than happy to give Lula a book and put stickers in it

After a few sticker stops we were headed to the Van to do some shopping!!

 

[DopeyDonald]

Well the girls and I were on a mission. We wanted to find some of the Animators Dolls that Cassidy had her eye on. We thought DTD would be our easiest, quickest way to get this accomplished. We were wrong! We had seen some in the Disney Store in the Mall of America when we had traveled down to Minneapolis for Cassidy's recheck in July. We didn't buy any because a) she got an American Girl instead and b) we figured Disney would have a much larger selection right??? She had been eyeballing Kristoff, Aladdin and Snow White. She already has Jasmin, Belle and Pocahontas. Annie has Merida, and Cinderella. They were so excited to see boys available now.

We used the new ramp into the new parking garage. We loved it! I cannot WAIT until they are done with the one closer to Market Place. Oh how I miss that lot down by that end. So we parked and made our way down the elevators to the walkway then down some more elevators. We came out right by the movie theater and Planet Hollywood. It is still almost all walls down there due to construction, but we can see how awesome it will be when it's all done. It was smoking hot this day and we were rushing because we had a very special dinner planned. We did make time to stop for a quick shave ice at a kiosk near T-Rex.

We kept up our breakneck pace to World of Disney. We entered the doors in the Princess area, so sure we would hit pay dirt. Nope. All they had was Rapunzel. *sigh. I couldn't believe it. But then I remembered that Once Upon a Toy usually had a better selection so off we went. Nope. *sigh. They had Rapunzel and Tinkerbell and Anna, I think. Cassidy was sooooo disappointed. I gave her the option to save our gift cards she had for her birthday and I would order them off of the Disney Store or she could pick something else out. She chose to wait. I did tell her we could check MouseGears also, but I didn't have much hope at this point.

To make ourselves feel better we decided we'd better head over to Goofy's Candy Co. to drown our sorrows. I got a chocolate covered pineapple - YUMMO, Annie and Wyatt got ear hat brownies and Larry and Cassidy got cotton candy. (The boys weren't with us, but we called them to see what they wanted. ;D) We took the new short cut bridge back over to the Lego Store area and headed for the car.

I was needing to make a pit stop and did so at the bathrooms near Paradiso 37. Biggest mistake of the trip. I left the girls right outside and ran in. I was in a hurry since the girls were waiting and I set my phone down on the top of the toilet paper holder. I didn't grab it when I left. *sigh. We made it all the way back to the van before I realized it. I tore apart everything in the stroller hoping it was just hiding. Nope. So we RAN back to the bathroom and it was not there. I was so upset. I'd only had it for about a year and didn't have insurance. So unless I wanted to pay big bucks there would be no replacing it. (except with my husband's ancient droid since he had just upgraded )

I checked in with the stores on either side of the bathroom but they hadn't had any turned in. I debated walking all the way to guest services but we really needed to get going and if a cast member had picked it up it might be awhile before it got to guest services. So we headed BACK to the van. We did stop at the concierge of the Wilderness Lodge when we got back. The CM working there had previously came from Guest Services at DTD so she knew people down there. She called down there, though I got the impression she wasn't supposed to. They hadn't gotten anything in.

At this point all we could do was go get ready for dinner. I was surprisingly not too upset. DH had a phone, Wyatt had his new smartphone that he got for his 13th birthday and Annie had her ancient flip phone with. So I took Annie's for me and we were good to go. I did miss the pictures though. Annie's phone did NOT take good pics. Oh well. It was just fine.

So we headed back to the room to put on our finest because we were headed to dine in a Castle!

Up next birthday dinner for a princess!

 

[DopeyDonald]

Hey, I'm back- I have been working feverishly on my Mom, Can You Quit Hanging on to Me and Just Hang on to Yourself Sept 2014 Trip Report. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on that one and then will be working feverishly on THIS one. I WILL get it done before September! Because we are taking a LONG vacation in September and I want to be fresh and ready for that one!!! So look for an update on this one in the not to distant future!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I love that you are usually in Disney for Cass's birthday. I would love to do that for both of my girls but my youngest is end of July!!!! Waaaay to hot for us.

 

[DopeyDonald]

I love that you are usually in Disney for Cass's birthday. I would love to do that for both of my girls but my youngest is end of July!!!! Waaaay to hot for us.

Yeah it's been pretty special. We've made it there on Annie's but like you probably will never go for Wy. At least not all of us. I can see MAYBE going down for a long weekend just the 2 of us or something but not a full trip. His is right in the middle of July. Crowds and heat = not fun.