Wishtrip October 8-15 All in one thread

joanchris

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 24, 2005
Planning our trip/Day 1

Cast:
Me, 30 something in charge of planning everything, last time at WDW was 1992, and the one thing I remember from that trip was that my feet hurt
DH, 30 something who wants to eat well and have fun, remembers every detail about our trip to WDW in 1992.
Wishgirl, DD10 who’s wish was granted to go to WDW (uses a wheelchair, well, we actually use it, she sits there like a princess!)
Toothless, DD6 who lost her top 2 front teeth on our last night at WDW

We’ll be joined our first 4 days by:
Popa, 60 something, my dad
Mimi, 60 something, my mom
Birdlover, 40 something, sister to Mimi

So, we’re going to WDW, for a full week, October 8-15, staying at the Contemporary to make life with a wheelchair a little easier when we can use the monorail. Airline tickets, the room and 7 day park hoppers are all set, as well as $1000 spending money. All through a great wish-granting organization called Dream Come True.

BUT there’s still soooo much planning to do!

I start by searching for good sandals to wear; I am determined to NOT have sore feet this trip. DH insists I need sneakers (so I buy new ones to appease him, I wear them our first day, on the plane, and our last day). I search high and low, trying on sandals everywhere. I read about Crocs, I order some. They're ok, but not for me, not very comfy on my foot. I keep them for garden shoes. I break down and go to the "expensive shoe store" in a small local mall. I look around, lots of ugly shoes, lots of expensive shoes. I dont' even know what to try on. I tell the sales clerk that I was going to WDW, I dont' want sore feet and I'm currently wearing my favorite sandals, but dont' think they're quite comfy enough for all week at WDW. She goes directly to a particular pair of shoes on the wall, and hands them to me. Not horrible looking, so she measures my foot and goes back to find me a pair that fits. That's when I look at the price tag. I almost faint. I figure I'll try them on and just go. So, I do. They feel FABULOUS! But, I can't spend over $110 on a pair of shoes. I look around, try on a few more pairs, but nothing is as comfy as those shoes! I give in and buy them.

Over the 5 months or so that we’re planning I buy a Passporter book, find the Dis, subscribe to TourGuideMike, and buy the Passporter For Your Special Needs. I spend HOURS every day searching, researching and planning, determined to have the perfect trip for DD10 (and the rest of us). I get so much information I have a hard time organizing things!

However, I come up with a fairly detailed itinerary for our trip, schedule at least one table service meal for every day, 3 character meals, including getting our first choice of day and time for Cinderella breakfast!
After chatting with my extended family that will be driving from South Carolina for the 8th thru the 11th I make a few adjustments but am happy with my plan.

Meanwhile, DH is getting a bit concerned about our “schedule”….. I assure him that it is there as a guide, I’ve planned what I think is workable, and the only 2 ADRs I am determined to make are Cindy’s breakfast on Tuesday am, and breakfast at the Polynesian Thursday am so I can try Tonga Toast, it sounds like heaven for me!


DAY 1

The plan: we were initially told that we would be provided transportation to and from the airport in New York (LGA). However, with our choice of the Contemporary Resort, we’ve gone up to the limit of the budget and will now have to provide our own transport, so we plan to drive to the airport, park in long term parking there. We were to get up at 415 am, wake the kids at 5am, leave the house by 515am. Be at the airport by 645 for our 808am flight.

Arrive at our hotel around noon after taking magical express, check in, leave bags as room should not be ready, and head to Epcot for a 2pm ADR in Mexico (just for munchies as dinner is at 530 at Ohana where we should be joined by the rest of the cast), then wander around Epcot til 4, go back to the hotel, see our room, then go to the Poly for dinner.

What happened:
Well, we woke before our alarms, too excited. That was good as we used every minute we had since it’s too early for us to function optimally! Kids wake without protest, we’re going to Disney! They’ve never flown either so that’s a big thing.
We drive in light rain to LGA, decide to park as it’s getting late, rather than have DH drop me and the kids off first. We go to long term parking, it’s full………No time for figuring out what to do, we head to short term parking (it is not actually defined as to what short term is) we just park in the Handicapped spots right near the elevator, and go, almost forgetting to put up the Handicapped placard!

Luckily someone had left a baggage cart right near where we parked, so we load up the suitcases and go. By the time we go in, check in, get the boarding passes and check the bags there’s barely time to use the facilities before heading to the gate. Then, as soon as we get to the gate, someone spots us and the Wishgirl in her chair, and says they can board us right away. Luckily I got off a few pictures of Toothless looking out the window amazed at the size of the plane.

We’re all set to go, the plane pulls away from the gate, and we’re ON TIME…….THEN, the pilot announces that there’s a problem with an indicator light for the hydraulics (yikes) and we have to go back to the gate. Now, 20 min later, all is well with the hydraulics, and the pilot announces we should be on our way………but wait, 10 min later he comes back on and says we’re STUCK to the terminal, they cannot disconnect the plane……..Finally, we take off, an hour late, but we’re off.

The girls love the plane, Toothless is fascinated by the clouds, by the ground when we can finally see it (in Fl) and by everything aeronautical. We’re off to less than perfect, but ok start.
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We arrive and head right to the Magical Express Desk. Well, that’s not exactly it, we head away from the gate (after waiting for the wheelchair to be brought back up to us), and keep going and going……I had no idea how far it would be to get to the desk. We finally make it there, DH goes to the men’s room, and I see the HUGE line. UGH. Then a cast member spots us, and Wishgirl and her chair, asks for our vouchers, and escorts us to the CM at the front, they check us in and mention that we’ll have to wait for a special bus, they escort us to the doors and say we can wait there. I ask how much time I have, they said 15 min at least, so I take Wishgirl to the potty (this is no small or quick endeavor with her, mind you). I use the facilities, promising her I’ll get her on in a minute….when I hear DH talking to a CM outside the ladies room, he sends Toothless in to get me. They’re ready to board us! Well, Wishgirl uses the facilities only when she feels like it, so must wear protection all the time, so I tell her it’s ok, just do her thing if she must and we’ll go as soon as we get to the hotel (I feel down below and it seems as if she’s gone ahead and done her thing already anyhow, so I try not to feel guilty for depriving her!).
The driver loads us up on the bus, then lets everyone else on. Then he comes back and informs us that he’ll do us a favor and make us the last stop so we won’t be rushed unloading. WHAT? A favor making us LAST? I wouldn’t have cared if that’s the way it ended up, but hey, it’s no favor for us to be last! No big deal, a few stops and we’re at our hotel, checking in (me) and taking care of Wishgirl (DH).

The CM at the desk checking us in was fabulous. It was only about 1pm (about one hour off our schedule) and he first mentions that there is a note from the package center that our packages had arrived (we had shipped some of Wishgirl’s supplies ahead of us). Hooray. I mention our request for a Castle view room (which I had mentioned the week before when inquiring about shipping the package, mentioning the fact that it was a wish trip too). He asks if it will make my day if he said our room was ready, I ask first if it’s a castle view (figure if it’s not I’ll wait and see if we can get a castle view later that day!), he says yes and we’re on the 12th floor (room 484x)! Hooray.
So, after assigning charging privileges to mine and DH’s cards, we go up to our room. We are amazed at the great view and the girls get their first view of the Magic Kingdom and the Castle. I get pictures.
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We’re off again to get the monorail (more pictures, please).
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Toothless is fascinated with all modes of travel, and the monorail has been calling her for months! We make our way to the TTC and then to Epcot,
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proceed to Guest Services to get a Guest Assistance Card (GAC) for Wishgirl and head to………..Well, this was supposed to be Soarin for some FP s but since we’re so off our schedule we just head to the World Showcase. It’s too late for our ADR in Mexico, but we do need to eat something. We go towards Mexico (figure we can at least do the boat ride), but need to find food. It is the Food and Wine fest and all…….

We get to Norway, see the Kringla Bakery and decide (well, toothless and I decide) we need food from there. It’s 3 pm and we haven’t eaten anything “real” all day. I see chocolate cake I want, Toothless sees waffles. The person directly in front of me had asked for a waffle and was given one of the ones in the case. I ask for a waffle and they need to make more. Ok. Person behind me asks for two waffles, another asks for two waffles…….They take the two waffles out of the iron and prepare them, and hand them to the person behind me! I tried to say something but the person was already walking off to pay. They prepare 2 more (very long to make waffles!) I remind them as they take some waffles out of the maker that I need a plain one, sugar only, no apple. The CM replies that these waffles are not mine either! I ask Toothless if she really must have waffles, YES she says. OK. DH is outside wondering what’s up…..I start yelling out the door of Kringla that “somehow people who come in behind me keep getting served ahead of me and this is not a very magical start to my vacation!” Someone get this lady a drink, NOW!
I’m almost devouring my chocolate cake despite my lack of utensils……..Finaly we get our waffle, I pay, get utensils, and we’re off! I do devour my cake in about one minute once outside. Toothless at least really enjoys her waffle.

We wanted to go to the boatride in Norway, but it’s closed for the day. We head to Mexico for their boatride. As soon as we’re near the ride a CM sees us and we get shown in the exit, and get on the next boat. Hooray, finally a ride! As we exit Mexico I see the Margarita stand outside. DH and Toothless head off to find DH some food and Wishgirl and I wait in line to get me a much needed margarita!

Did I mention it’s really hot out? Well, I’m still kind of hungry, and really thirsty, and hot. Pushing Wishgirl and her chair is hard work………..I DOWN my margarita pretty quick. Whew, that tastes good. Meanwhile I’m walking to meet up with DH. Now what did he say? Something about meeting where the paths meet up? I keep walking looking for paths meeting up. I get to the fountain just before the big ball……still no DH. So Wishgirl and I just stop and wait there. Wow, that drink was strong. I’m actually wondering if I’m safe to be pushing Wishgirl in her chair! I figure we’ll just stay still for a bit. Still no DH. I use my cell phone (there will be lots of that during this trip) and call DH. Apparantly I was supposed to go down the side path, near the baby care center or something. I tell him to come to me, I’m at the fountain in front of the ball. He calls me back and says he’s at the fountain…..where am I? How much did I drink again. I look next to me, yes, there’s a fountain there. I tell him I’m at a really BIG fountain, where is he? Finally, we meet up.

We decide to go on Spaceship Earth, since we’ve already been in our room there’s no need to go back to the room so we can spend more time at Epcot and go directly to the Poly and our Ohana ADR from there. Again, we’re able to go in the exit, we do have to wait, but at least it’s in the airconditioning and Wishgirl certainly needs that (she doesn’t sweat, gets overheated easily---we though October would be a bit cooler and less humid than it was--we’ll go in December next time!).

We’re waiting and my cell rings, I get a static-y sounding Popa on the other end, I think they’re at their hotel, but I lose him. I’m pleased as I had planned our first night at Ohana’s for all of us together and they had said they may not make it in time for dinner that night and would just see us the next day. Well, they had always lived nearby us but moved to South Carolina in May, and we hadn’t seem them since. We all missed them a lot and wanted every minute with them we could. Wishgirl and Popa are great together, noone can make Wishgirl smile and laugh like her Popa!
We’re all enjoying Spaceship Earth when my cell rings again. It’s Popa again, a bit clearer now. He’s saying something about meeting us at OUR hotel at 530 and I’m trying to tell him NO, meet at the Poly. We lose him again. So, we’re off the ride and I call him back from outside. We finally speak clearly and I explain where we were, I’m surprised we got through to each other at all inside there.

So, we leave Epcot for our ADR. Take the Monorail to the TTC. We were going to transfer to the resort monorail, but I tell DH that we can walk to the Poly from the TTC and maybe it’d be easier than going back up the ramp, and waiting for the next monorail. We had a nice leisurely walk around the Poly. I’d love to stay there sometime, it was beautiful!

We met up with the rest of my family at Ohana for dinner. All the adults ordered Lapu Lapus to drink. Fabulous!
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Dinner was pretty good, DH loved the shrimp, we all loved the potatoes! The meats were ok, but I’m not sure I’d go back there again. Toothless did NOT like the meats (she usually likes turkey and steak), so the server got her some mac n cheese, which she also didn’t like (it looked different than Kraft, what can I say)! I think she was just really tired. We all had some of the fabulous bread pudding and ice cream for dessert, Toothless ate some ice cream.

We said goodbye for the night after some shopping in the Poly stores, planned to meet up at MGM the next morning and left. We got back to the room, got the girls settled, let them look out at the Castle all lit up (they were amazed) and they went to sleep.
DH and I got settled, into bed, it was very early but we were up very early. I knew the MK fireworks would be at 10 pm that night, and it was 945. So, I mentioned it to DH, and he says I should go ahead and watch them. Disappointed that he doesn’t want to see them, I mention that it would be romantic and get up and go out to the balcony. A few minutes later DH comes out. We get to enjoy the fireworks together our first night there, all alone on our balcony. How romantic. I think that was our last peaceful moment of the trip!

Next, Day 2, The Plan: Animal Kingdom AND Blizzard Beach
 
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Sounds like this is going to be a great report. Can't wait to read more. Oh by the way, what shoes did you buy? I'm going in June and I'll be looking for sandals this trip.
 


Am so looking forward to more! How wonderful for your daughter and family that your dream wish came thru.
 


LAS said:
Sounds like this is going to be a great report. Can't wait to read more. Oh by the way, what shoes did you buy? I'm going in June and I'll be looking for sandals this trip.

They're sandals, the brand is SAS, could not find them anywhere online (and I can find it if it's there!) as I tried to get them cheaper so I could return the ones I got. They actually come in half sizes past 10; I wear an 11 usually, but really am a 10 1/2, but most brands don't make 10 1/2!
 
Cast:
Me, 30 something in charge of planning everything, last time at WDW was 1992, and the only thing I really remember was that my feet HURT.
DH, 30 something who wants to eat well and have fun, remembers every detail about our trip to WDW in 1992.
Wishgirl, DD10 who’s wish was granted to go to WDW (uses a wheelchair, well, we actually use it, she sits there like a princess!)
Toothless, DD6 who lost her top 2 front teeth on our last night at WDW

We’ll be joined our first 4 days by:
Popa, 60 something, my dad
Mimi, 60 something, my mom
Birdlover, 40 something, sister to Mimi




Day 2 The plan: 8 am breakfast at Chef Mickeys, Animal Kingdom, 930 am Lunch, head to Blizzard Beach to be there from 2-430, dinner at 615 at Concourse Steakhouse (at our hotel)…..really too much to do in one day, and we knew it, but we wanted Birdlover to be able to go to the waterpark while she was there, since she loves waterparks.

What Happened:

We got our wake up call at 630 am, I picked up the phone and immediately put it to toothless’ ear, so she could hear Mickey and Stitch. The phone call ends and Toothless starts complaining that DH and I were talking too much and she didn’t hear the message. We assure her that tomorrow morning we will be sure to be quiet so she can hear the message.
We proceed to get ready for Chef Mickey’s, our first interaction with Characters!
We’re barely ready, getting everything together took much longer than I anticipated, so DH runs down to the package center to pick up our packages, while I finish up in the room and get downstairs to Chef Mickey’s to check in.

Boy they were crowded! DH was more than a few minutes getting the package as, despite what we were told, the center did not open at 7 am. So, we delayed getting our picture taken to wait for him, but as he arrived our buzzer went off. So, no pictures then.

The Character interaction was great at CM’s, though we never got to see Minnie up close, she did walk by and tap Wishgirl on the head (she was on her way to sing Happy Birthday to a child at another table). Goofy loved playing with the girls hair, as they both happened to be wearing pigtails that day
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Toothless loved the napkin spinning and singing. Oh yeah, the food was pretty good too!

We finish breakfast, full to the brim and head down to the bus stop. This will be our first experience with Disney bus transportation. Overall, the buses worked out better than I had expected, with timing and with how they handled the wheelchair, quickly and efficiently. We arrive at Animal Kingdom about 930, as planned. The girls and I head to Dinoland to ride Triceratop spin first while DH gets fast passes for the safari. The rest of the cast have been informed to arrive, get fast passes and to meet us in Dinoland. So, we get on Triceratop spin when my cellphone rings, funny how it always seems to ring while I’m ON a ride! It’s Popa, he’s in Dinoland and can’t find us….I let him know where to look (up) and he spots us. Waits patiently for us to get a 2nd go around on the ride (they don’t make us get off since the loading/unloading with Wishgirl and her chair is cumbersome). DH is still nowhere to be found, so we go over to Primevil Whirl.

Oops, first mistake here, Toothless is NOT wearing sneakers, she’s wearing sandals. She’s 47 ½ inches with sandals, 48 with her sneakers. She cannot go on Primevil Whirl. The crying begins. I assure her we’re coming back her later in the week, we’ll be sure to wear sneakers that day and she can go on. Still crying. Mimi suggests shopping (she’s not a spinny kind of person so was not going on the ride anyhow, she was staying with Wishgirl who also would not like the ride). The shopping idea seems to help some. So now Popa, Birdlover and I can enjoy the ride.

Finally we get off, well spun, and find DH with Mimi and the girls. DH informs me (along with Popa) that just going to get fast passes at the Safari ride was a LONG walk. Sorry guys, just trying to be efficient! We head over to Asia, walk along, it’s very, very hot today. Get some water. Now it’s time for Kali river rapids! The line was tolerable, and we were escorted over to a side area where they could “trap” a boat for us and load easier with the chair. I had my swimsuit under my clothes, and quick dry shorts, so I just removed my shirt, packed it away and was happy. I did tell everyone that they would get WET, I didn’t say “splashed” I said “WET”. People need to learn to listen to me better. We donned Wishgirl in a poncho (again, my family looks at me like I’m crazy, but she didn’t need to be wet and uncomfortable in her chair all day, as her backside would not dry well). So, we go around after they fill our boat with 5 more lucky souls.

We enjoy the ride, we get REALLY wet! They ask if we want to go around again (gotta appreciate the good things about having a child in a chair, as they are way too many bad things!), we had already mentioned to our boat mates that this was a possibility, and they said they’d like to go again, so we told them we were all together and they let the other’s go again. We were all so wet from the first go around that I don’t think anyone got any MORE wet this time. It did feel good though. Did I mention it was REALLY HOT?

Next we walk some trails to see animals. The bats were really cool, though Mimi and Birdlover (NOT “bat” lover!) were a bit uncomfortable. Toothless was also uncomfortable as she hates being in wet clothing, so I changed her shirt right there, you know, got the new one over her head, arms out of old one, etc trying to be discreet. At least she stopped whining, for a while.

While we’re walking to Africa and the safari, we notice it’s getting kind of late…..we’re discussing going over to Blizzard Beach soon. But we still have the safari, and Birdlover wants to see the bird show. Not to mention lunch somewhere in there. We talk it over and, it seems, that there are many water parks in Myrtle Beach, where Popa, Mimi and Birdlover moved to in May. Birdlover wants to stay at AK, see more animals, the birdshow, and NOT go to BB. Hmmm. I’m thinking we surely can go to BB on a later date, we have all week, while they’re leaving on Wed am. So, we break it to Toothless (Wishgirl could take or leave BB, she likes the pool part, that’s it). Toothless is unhappy again. She’s still only 6, but has been very interested in my planning, and while I tried to stress that things were only a plan and not definite, she’s a bit young to get the nuance of it all. We remind her again, that since we’re not going to BB, we’ll have time to go swimming in our hotel pool, which she hasn’t even set eyes on yet. That cheers her quite a bit. Hooray!

We do the Safari, and it’s pretty interesting. Mimi gets to see Giraffes pretty close up, her favorite animal. We joke that we’re going to get her a real one for the new house they’re building. Popa is not impressed. Says he’d have to move that giraffe too, like the dozen or so others (fake!) from the house in Connecticut! We’re a bit disappointed not to see Elephants, though. Wishgirl is, however, thoroughly impressed. Probably the first time she’s REALLY happy, aside from when she’s sitting with her Popa, this trip. You see, Wishgirl wakes daily at around 530 (!) and is usually pretty happy til about 8. Things go downhill from about 8 to noon, at which time she perks right up and loves life. It must be about noon while we’re on Safari!
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A bit of a side note here, as it will be important later on. Wishgirl cannot talk, or use sign language. When she’s not happy, the one thing she can do is SCREAM. Luckily, though, we’ve found that she LOVES Raffi (children’s singer), but only the Raffi music on his DVD calms her down. Also luckily, I figured out a way to turn the audio from the DVD in to an MP3 and she now wears a tiny MP3 play aound her neck. Add some headphones, and she’s happy. So, we finally take the headphones off her for the day while on the Safari.

We go to get lunch and change our plans again. Instead of staying on a bit more after lunch with the rest of the family, we decide it’s too hot, and since we’re coming back later in the week, we’ll go back to our hotel, swim and rest and meet up at the Concourse Steakhouse at 6 for dinner. Birdlover, Mimi and Popa stay on to see the Flights of Wonder show and Festival of the Lion King. They did enjoy themselves there and were happy to stay on without us.

We, however, were really happy to have left AK. It was brutally hot, and we were very happy to finally try out the hotel pool. Toothless was pretty impressed with the slide there and tried it many times. The fountains were also fun to play around. Toothless and I also walked over to the quiet pool, which she immediately declared “too quiet” so we left. Wishgirl was happy to be out of the sun for a while and wet and cooled off in her bathing suit. Some of the best pictures I have of her with big smiles are right there by the pool.
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After that we were refreshed, and happy to go up to the room to change and get ready for dinner. We were even ready early so we got to browse in the hotel shops for a while before dinner (and after dinner!). Dinner was fine, but uneventful. Wishgirl slept on the bench seat next to me, she was wiped out from the day! Luckily we were seated where we were, they had put together some tables against the wall, with one side having a big bench seat, and the other chairs.

After dinner we all went up to our room to see the fireworks (after shopping more, of course). My girls have never seen live fireworks before. They’re a hassle to get to around here and too late for my kids to stay up for usually. But Toothless is so excited and Wishgirl has had a nap so they’re ready to go. The fireworks, again, are beautiful. I loved seeing my girls faces when they saw the fireworks. Initially, DH and I had thought of taking my parents up on their offer to stay with the girls one night so we could go out ourselves. This would have been the only night it would have worked out. We decided we’d be too tired to stay out late, and I didn’t want to miss my kids seeing fireworks for the first time. Glad we stayed.
Popa downloaded my pics onto his laptop so I could clear my memory card--WOW- I had over 100 pictures already, and I had been deleting bad pics as I went! Then, we all said goodnight.

Note: Glad we made the changes we did to our day, it made for a much more relaxing day.

Tomorrow, Day 3, MGM all day
 
The Plan: MGM all day, rope drop, lunch at Sci Fi Dine In 12:30 ADR, stay for Fantasmic.

What Happened: We woke early again, when the phone rang for the wake up call, I started talking to Toothless to be sure that she was awake and ready to hear the call, we don't want to start the day whining again!
Me, “Are you ready?”
Toothless, “mmmm hmmmmmm”
So, not knowing how many times the phone will ring before it just stops, I pick it up, motion for DH to be quiet, and put the phone to Toothless’ ear. Hooray! She heard it!
After a minute or two she sits up and is just sitting there on the bed as DH and I are running around getting stuff ready for the day. Breakfast will be danishes from the Food N Fun Center, DH runs down to get that and to refill our mugs.
Toothless is still just sitting there.
Me, “come on, get dressed”
Toothless, “I’m waiting for the phone call with Stitch and Mickey”
WHAT?!?!
Me, “Honey, you heard it, just a little while ago, I asked if you were ready, you said mmmhmmm so I let you listen, Daddy and I were really quiet too.”
Toothless, “Whaaaaaaaaa!”
I’m ready to give up here. I remind her that we have all week, and she WILL hear it tomorrow. I have a plan.

Finally we’re ready, and get out to the bus stop. We get on the bus, give Wishgirl her MP3 player and music, as it’s getting to be that time again. We make it to MGM before rope drop! Get our bags checked, and get in the gates with the masses waiting for the rope to drop.
The plan first thing is for Me to go to Rock N Roller Coaster. Toothless wants to ride (she’s wearing sneakers today which make her tall enough--btw they’re not HIGH sneakers, just her regular sneakers, so we’re not breaking any rules here, everyone is measured with regular shoes on, I’m a safety nut so we wouldn’t buy high sneaks to thwart rules!) but I’m not sure it’s appropriate for her so I’ll check it out alone first and if I think it’s ok for her I’ll get fastpasses for later.

DH and the girls will go to the Hat and get some more pictures and autographs with characters. I give him a quick re-briefing on the camera and leave him and the girls with the masses. I go browse in the shops along the side while waiting for rope drop; while I’m at it I get closer and closer to the front of the line through the shops. Finally, I’m at the end, and have to wait there. I meet a great lady and her family. She says to follow her, she lives in FL and comes here all the time for RnRC. The ropes drop, we start power walking towards the ride. It’s great, the CM is right in front of us and we’re trying not to pass her as she walks.

I’m Finally at RnRC! It’s farther than it looks on the map. I walk right in, the pre-show begins. My heart is still racing from that power walk, but it was worth it! I just miss getting on the first car, so I load into the 2nd, about in the middle of the ride. It seems like forever til the ride takes off, and Yes I mean TAKES OFF because that’s what it feels like! WOW that was good! I loved the ride. Unfortunately I wouldn’t be going on it again today, as I now knew that Toothless was definitely NOT ready for this!

I went to the hat to find DH with Toothless and Wishgirl. They’re beginning to fill up their autograph albums. I immediately seize the camera from DH, afraid that memories will be forgotten, or at least chopped in half due to his lack of picture taking ability. However, as I peruse the pics he has taken it looks good! He has gotten some very good shots of the girls with Lilo and Stitch, Goofy and Mickey! Hooray.
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I now brace myself for telling Toothless about RnRC, but she doesn’t flinch when I tell her it was too much for her to handle! I was prepared for her to be whiny as she was yesterday, but maybe she was a bit afraid of it herself anyhow. She had wanted to go on a looping coaster over the summer, but decided against it when it was time to get in line.

It’s time for Playhouse Disney, which was fun enough, the girls wanted to do it, but I think they’re a bit old to fully enjoy it now. Wishgirl is still listening to her music, it’s still too early for her to be happy…..soon though. It’s pretty hot again today, which also doesn’t help, but good thing we can be inside for some attractions.

We now find the rest of our crew as we’re looking in the gift shop outside Ariel’s show……unfortunately we spend a few too many minutes chatting and miss the start of the show. Toothless is a HUGE Ariel fan. Now she begins whining again, when will she see Ariel, etc. We PROMISE to make it to see another Ariel show later today.

We check our times guide and see that Beauty and the Beast is starting soon…..we head over there and get our seats. Unfortunately, with a wheelchair, there are not good seats of bad seats, there are wheelchair seats, usually the back row, and the row in front of and/or next to them for the rest of us. Wouldn’t you know Wishgirl is wiped out and sleeps through all but the last bit of Beauty and the Beast!
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It was a great show, and I’m glad she slept, as she woke up much happier! We got to lose the headphones! She enjoyed the music of the ending of the show, and Belle is her favorite princess.

After that we Lights Motor Action. I had wanted to separate for a while, letting some do that while others could go see Ariel, or go shopping, but I got outvoted. So, I went. It was ok. Wheelchair seating here was up front, off to the side. Not bad. At least Wishgirl got a fairly good view, and we caught a breeze that we wouldn’t have gotten so much if we had been surrounded by people. LMA ends, and we only have 20 minutes til our ADR at Sci Fi for lunch. We head over early as there’s nothing else to do for such a short time. This would be the only ADR we would really wait for, not only did we wait 20 mins until our ADR time, but an additional 15 minutes after that. I wish I had looked at my map and noticed how close the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground was, Wishgirl, Toothless and I could have gone over and cooled off in the water play area (squirting flowers or something like that) while we waited for our seats. We did get to watch as people were turned away left and right without ADRs for lunch. The woman out front said they were booked solid thru Wednesday (this was Monday). One group came up and wanted to seat 13 people as walkups. Yikes!

Lunch was fine, nothing spectacular, but Toothless got a glow cube in her water (would have looked icky in her chocolate milk!) which she thought was great. Food was unremarkable, but it was cool in there, nice and quiet as well. The shakes were great though. Service, I should mention, was fabulous!

Next up was The Great Movie Ride. Wow, what a mistake for Toothless. Though the rest of us enjoyed it, Toothless was TERRIFIED of the part where the Gangster switches places with the driver……..shaking, head on my lap. It didn’t help that we were sitting directly behind the driver. Once the Gangster noticed her he turned around and said, in the nicest voice, “hey honey, it’s ok, I’m not really a bad guy”. Which seemed to help some. She did ok for a bit after he left, but then she got all worked up again at the Wizard of Oz part…..which I totally didn’t expect, since she’s seen the movie a good dozen times and loves it! The rest of us, including Wishgirl, loved this ride.

Finally we go to see Ariel in the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I liked this show a lot, though it helped that it was cool and a bit wet in there. Wishgirl loved it! So did Toothless, of course. DH had gone off somewhere (Popa was sitting this one out, and waited outside somewhere) and was going to come join us, but he didn’t make it in time, so we had to look for him when the show ended.

We all went to go shopping for a bit, Birdlover was dying to spend some money and hadn’t seen much she wanted yet, and Mimi loves to shop all the time. Plus, my girls had lots of money of their own to spend. We shopped a bit in the stores near the front of the park, along the parade route. After a bit, Popa and DH got us good seats for the parade on the curb outside the shop we were in so the girls could pick out some things to spend money on. We all sat for the parade, which was fun. This was the only parade, except for the Halloween parade, that we saw all this trip. It just didn’t work into our schedule.

After the parade we were all hot……I had promised the girls I would take them to the playground to get a bit wet after the parade, so we went back over there. They had a blast, I let Wishgirl get splashed by the plants, she enjoyed that! Plus it was very shady in the playground area. Toothless played all around, she’d have stayed there all day if we let her! She made a friend, and I have a great picture of the two of them together, but not even a first name to give her! Finally, DH meets up with me in there, the others are shopping more. After a while we realize it’s getting late and we need to eat dinner before Fantasmic, which is at 730.

Knowing that there aren’t too many options for counter service here (reason we had a big lunch!) we meet up with the rest of our group near the shops and start walking. We end up near a place with pizza and one that had…..unmemorable, but I got 2 orders of kids chicken nuggets for myself--they came with real fruit--grapes-- and juice boxes, which I put away for later. I ate most of the nuggets, edible at least, and gave the grapes to Toothless. Everyone else got Pizza. I think my nuggets were better than their pizza. And they looked at me like I was crazy ordering a kids meal(s) for myself!

So, with some food in our bellies we set off for Fantasmic. There seemed to be no huge crowd, just a fairly steady stream of people going that way. I’m glad I didn’t get the dinner package. Not only would it have cut into our park time, since Birdlover HAD to go to Sci Fi for lunch, we couldn’t have canceled that, but we didn’t need the reserved seating. Actually, as we walked up the hill towards the theatre, a Cast Member stopped us and asked if we wanted to sit up front, warning us that we’d get a bit wet. We jumped at the chance to sit up front! It was still so hot, and Toothless had had enough of sitting “all the wayyyyyy in the baaaaaack again” all day.

Sitting up front was great! We barely got wet, just a little misty occasionally. The show was truly fabulous, we all enjoyed it. Wishgirl loved seeing things up close for a change, Toothless was awed, couldn’t believe that they were showing pictures on a water screen J .
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We were all exhausted, and tomorrow we have an early morning breakfast with the princesses at the Castle. We left the rest of the crew and made plans for meeting up near Dumbo the next morning after our breakfast.
 
CanadianPaco said:
All I can say is WOW! What a great report write you are!! THANKS! :goodvibes

I thoroughly enjoyed reading many reports before our trip, so figured I'd try to do something myself when we got back. Thanks for the encouragement!
 
Here are some pics of our first few days: (I hope this works!)

This is Wishgirl and Toothless when we first went out on the balcony of our room:
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Goofy at Chef Mickey's playing with Toothless' hair
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fireworks from our balcony
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Downtown Disney, DH took picture so I get to be in one!
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More pics will come after I get more days written!
 
You have two beautiful girls! The one of toothless and goofy is great! And I love the interaction between Lilo and Wishgirl! Also, it was very nice to see that you got to ride some of the rides twice in a row--you deserve it!
 
LightBurnsBlue said:
You have two beautiful girls! The one of toothless and goofy is great! And I love the interaction between Lilo and Wishgirl! Also, it was very nice to see that you got to ride some of the rides twice in a row--you deserve it!


Thanks! Glad I finally figured out how to post pictures!
 

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