10 days in Disney w/ pics

[timandlesley]

OH ,How I waited to see if it was going to pour at MGM..... The 10 times we have been to MGM it has POURED big time.. it took us 9 trips to see Fantasmic!!! Last year we waited in the drizzle and and prayed and hoped..

IT was Wonderful...
Can't wait to read the rest of your report.




heading to the Fort.. Oct 7,14 POFQ Dec 26 Jan 1

That is so funny. My DH said the same thing after our trip "Does it ever NOT rain at MGM (you'll see why in a future post)
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

They are beautiful kids, and SO cute together. I love that pic of the two of them in EPCOT. :0)

Thanks, that is my favorite pic of them from the whole trip!
Lesley

 

[KathyRN137]

Poor Luke!

No matter how hard you try to prevent it, kids are just virus-magnets!!
Hope the rest of your family stayed well.

For two or three weeks before our family leaves for WDW, I spray Lysol everywhere and wipe everything and everyone with antibacterial wipes, but even then we, too, have had one or more of us sick at Disney.

Germs should not be allowed on WDW property!

Looking forward to more....

Kathy

 

[timandlesley]

Germs should not be allowed on WDW property!

Looking forward to more....

Kathy

Kathy,
I couldn't agree more!!!!
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Day 3:



O.K. . . .are you ready for this?

I’m sound asleep in my WONDERFUL room at the WL and about 4:00 a.m. (what IS it with that time of night and my children) I hear Lauren violently coughing in her sleep. At first it startles me and I think “no, God no, not Lauren too”. Then I go back to sleep while assuring myself in my head that she is fine, it’s just a fluke and I’m imagining things. NO, I wasn’t, two seconds later she sits up in bed and vomits EVERYWHERE. OH NO! I spring into action, scoop her out of bed and run her to the bathroom meanwhile screaming at Tim to “HELP, bring towels, Lauren is throwing up!” He is a very heavy sleeper so it took him a minute. She is a mess. I had to hose her down with a ton of water and clean her up. Her beautiful Cinderella nightgown was covered in vomit. I cleaned it up as best I could and put it in a plastic Mickey bag (luckily we had a ton of them since we spent so much money the other night at Downtown Disney : ) I stripped her bed down and laid her back in bed and put the garbage can next to her bed. We all settled back in, but of course I couldn’t sleep. Visions of the entire trip being ruined danced through my head, I couldn’t believe this was happening. She woke up one more time around 5:30 to throw up again but then back to sleep. The wake up call came at 7:00 and she actually woke up bright eyed and said she wanted to go to Disney World. CAN THIS BE? Hey, if the girl says let’s go. . . LET’S GO!!!

And we did. NOW, there aren’t many pic’s of this morning because the tropical storm Alberto had descended upon us and it was raining HARD all morning long. We put on our poncho uniforms and headed to the most magical place on earth. The castle looked gorgeous even in the rain. We were there at opening and headed to Buzz Light Year, practically walked on. Then got FP’s for Space Mountain. We rode Small World, and saw Philarmagic – again walked right on. One good thing about rain in Disney – it clears out the crowds. We had an early lunch at Pinnochio’s Village Haus’ (good meal on the dining plan). And then we headed to space Mountain. I stayed with Lauren in the arcade while Tim and Luke rode then we swapped and I rode with Luke. Great ride. I hadn’t ridden it since I was a teenager, so much fun!! Luke loved it too, I couldn’t believe it. After that it was POURING even harder (if that was possible) so we headed back to the hotel.

We napped. OF COURSE that night was our Fantasmic dinner package reservation night at Mama Melrose so I called to cancel it (they let me cancel it without any charge since I said my daughter was sick – YIPEE).

We didn’t have a reservation until 7:10 for dinner so we hung out in the hotel lobby while it rained outside. Here are some pic’s of the kids in the lobby.

Of course you have to rub Humphrey bears nose:

Kids by the fountain:

Another one on the bridge:

We ended up eating at Whispering Canyon Café for dinner and just staying in the hotel. Kids had a blast at dinner. Here are some pics from it:



Lauren and I at dinner (Lauren still feeling fine – go figure);

Luke and Tim at dinner:

Pony race time:

Getting prizes for the pony races:

Waitress helps the kids count down 1, 2, 3, “we need KETCHUP!!!”

Of course, here comes the KETCHUP!

After dinner it had stopped raining – go figure we actually could have kept the Mama Melrose Fantasmic dinner package because they probably had it that night after all – who knew. We asked our waitress what she would suggest we do after dinner. (it was around 9:00 at this point). She suggested the electrical water pageant. We had never done this before so we headed down to the boat dock. It started at 9:35, the kids loved it, I did too, very cute. I had to laugh. There was another mom with her two kids down there two and she looked at her husband and at us and said “I just LOVE Disney, this is SO much fun” (with SUCH enthusiasm in her voice) and I just smiled back at her and said “I LOVE it too”

A magical moment. I love it when I’m surrounded by Disney lovers!



Back inside for snacks and we watched the fireworks on the balcony before calling it a night. 7:00 wake up call to hit MGM again tomorrow morning (can you tell it’s my favorite park)



To come in Day 4: Back to MGM again (WILL IT RAIN?) and an evening with Cinderella at 1900 Park fair and SpectroMagic. Lots of pic’s to come in Day 4’s report. Hope you enjoyed day 3!



Lesley

 

[tinkgurl]

Lovin' this trip report especially with the pics! So sorry to hear about the kids gettin' sick! I know how it feels! But, as I always say, I'd rather be sick and at WDW than be sick at home!

 

[NJOYURLIFE]

Wonderfull pictures and I love reading your reports. Your children look so good in the pictures especially considering how sick they were in the middle of the night. It probably felt like the twilight zone. I'm wondering if they made it past the 4:00 twilight hour for day 4.....hope they did.

Maybe just a lot of excitement?

 

[PaulDavid's mom]

Wonderful report so far! I'm enjoying it. Especially with the pictures. You have a beautiful family. Sorry the kids got sick.

 

[BlueBayou]

Great trip report. Sorry you had to put up with the crud. Can't wait to hear more.

Sher

 

[umbluegray]

Absolutely wonderful TR!!!

Subscribing so I can enjoy it the as soon as you post the next installment.

 

[Disney owl]

Great report & brill photos thanks for sharing

 

[golden1]

This report is great! I will be going with kids close to the same age so this trip report gives me hope that the kids will really love it!

 

[timandlesley]

This report is great! I will be going with kids close to the same age so this trip report gives me hope that the kids will really love it!

Glad you're enjoying the report.We've been going yearly for the past three years since my daughter was 6 months and our son was 3, they love it each and every year. This year was the best though because they could do so much more (but more on that later : )
Lesley

 

[Alicnwondrln]

another great nstallment
you dd is a cutie!
I dont have any girls so
her little crown what a cutie

 

[MickeyNicki]

Great report! Cannot wait to hear more!

 

[WDWfan36]

Just started reading this and wow! Sounds like a touch start with Luke being sick but you didn't let that stand in your way too much

Did you do Disney Quest with your kids?

I'm going soon and was wondering what you thought about it. (I have kids about the same age)

Thnaks

p.s; I love your trip report and your writing style. Can't wait to see more!

 

[timandlesley]

Day 4:

The wake up call came at 7:00 a.m. and that was actually the first thing to get me out of bed that day. . YES!!! Finally a nice nights sleep and boy did we need it.

I jumped in the shower and got ready letting the kids sleep until 8:00. Tim had run down to Roaring Forks for breakfast and we just ate in the room and caught the 8:30 bus to MGM studios. I had the ponchos in hand this time and actually it was starting to sprinkle as we walked in so we all had them on. We headed immediately to Tower of Terror (we were convinced Luke would love this ride, but he needed some convincing). Tim goes on the rides like this first with Luke because with me Luke always “chickens” out. We got a parent swap pass and did the walk on line since we were there at park opening. It was very crowded at rope drop getting back to the TOT and Rockin’ roller coaster area but instead of wasting a FP on it and having to come back later we decided they would just do the walk on line. Lauren and I went to the exit by the video screen monitors to watch for their picture. A Nice CM gave Lauren pictures to color and crayons to keep her busy while we waited. Luke and Tim came on and Luke LOVED the ride. There were several people who must have seen him crying in the line and said to him “see Luke it was great wasn’t it! And Luke just gave them a thumbs up and said “Mommy are you ready for this baby?” (Luke talks just like my DH Tim : ) I said “you know it Luke” and off we went.

What a great ride, I love it more and more every time I ride it.

After that it was around 10:00, we headed back towards the Power Rangers again since Luke wanted more pic’s of them. We grabbed Star Tours FP’s on the way over there so we could ride with Luke (one of Luke’s favorite rides).

We saw Kim Possible

Mater’ and Lightnin’ McQueen from CARS as we waited back in that area by the Lights Action Motor Cars show:

Luke and Tim waited in the Red Ranger line and Lauren and I were in the Pink ranger line. It was two minutes until they were to come out and it started raining BUCKETS. They came out and announced the Rangers would not be out for the 10:45 time due to the rain. The kids were a bit crushed but luckily we had already seen them. I felt sorry for the kids all dressed up in Power Ranger gear heart-broken they wouldn’t meet their hero’s. We put our poncho uniforms back on again and headed toward Star Tours. Luke and Tim rode Star Tours and Lauren and I headed towards the Playhouse Disney show. (yes, AGAIN- hey, it’s her FAVORITE)

On our way there we saw people lined up for Monster’s Inc. to come out at 11:00. We’ll it was like 10:58 so we decided to wait. Lauren gave Sully a huge hug when he came out and we had the CM take this picture of us:

We got into the 11:15 Playhouse Disney show and Tim and Luke met us outside of the show when it let out at 11:40. Our original plan was to head back over to the Power Rangers at 11:45 but the sky decided to open up and rain more rain than we had seen in our lives all at once. It was one of those MGM rains where you can’t see in front of you and the streets are filling up so fast that you are wading in water to your ankles. Seriously. Well, Tim wanted to get the heck out of dodge. I begged to stay a little longer convinced it would let up. There were way too many people huddled at the Playhouse Disney gift shop at the shows exit and it was getting a bit crowded in there so we decided “hey, we have poncho’s on, let’s just head for lunch”. Well the closest lunch place was up the street at the backlot café. This was hilarious and my words won’t do it justice. But we were about the only stupid family braving the rain at this point and as we waded in the water we switched off pushing the stroller because we honestly couldn’t see where we were going. We had people cheering us on from every shelter we passed, it was quite hilarious!!! Luke loved it and was dancing in the rain for most of it.

We finally made it to the lunch shelter (if you call it that, it was so windy that all the tables were soaked.). I got us lunch and we ate. Luke kept getting up to dance in the rain – at least he was having fun. It was a great lunch actually and wouldn’t you know it the sun came out as we finished. Here is a self portrait Tim took while I was getting the food because he was soaked to the bone (his raincoat leaked and let’s just say he didn’t have a square inch of dryness in his clothing):

He told me he wanted to leave before that happened again and this time I agreed. On the way out we saw the Little Einsteins and Jojo by their trailers so we stopped for these pics:

The kids were in heaven after meeting these characters and we headed to the bus stop.

We went back for dry clothes and naps. When we came into the room the Mousekeepers had done this with Laurens Mickey which the kids thought was VERY cool (we had the BEST Mousekeepers – but I DO tip them):

We had dinner reservations at 6:20 for 1900 Park Fair, Lauren was SO excited about meeting Cinderella. I had packed a Cinderella gown she had gotten for Christmas for her to wear to meet Cindy. I tried it on her and it was just way to big on her shoulders, so we put her in her Cinderella jumper with her tiara and magic wand. Luke was VERY jealous of his sister getting to dress up. We tried to make a big deal of his ears telling him he was the most handsome but it didn’t work. At one point I heard him say to Lauren “I wish you didn’t look like that tonight” she said “Luke, I’m pretty!!!”(funny) We took the 5:30 boat from WL to the Contemporary resort. The rain had gone away and it was a beautiful night Here is a pic of Lauren in the boat going to dinner:

Everyone Lauren ran into Lauren had to announce to them she was meeting Cinderella but she didn’t have her gloves (for some reason she was mad at me for not packing her Cindy gloves : )

We got on the monorail at the Contemporary and in an attempt to make Luke happier about the evening I remembered hearing on the Dis that you could ride up front of the monorail. At the station I asked about this and they said they would see when the monorail pulled in. Well there were two spots open so Luke and I hopped up front. He was in HEAVEN and had suddenly forgotten all about “pretty Lauren”. Here are pics of him up front:

I’m telling you, if you haven’t done this yet, you MUST!!! If you have to wait for a few monorails, WAIT, it is really cool riding up front! This particular driver wasn’t friendly at all and didn’t even speak to Luke or I and he didn’t give Luke the monorail driver card I had heard so much about, but oh well, we got a great ride out of it.

We walked into the Grand Floridian and I was taken away, I had never been inside before and neither had Tim. Tim looked at me and said “this is where we are staying on our 10 year anniversary (in 2 years). “ I couldn’t agree more. Here is a pic I took of Tim and the kids upon arrival in the Grand Floridian lobby:

There was a band playing and everything, what a gorgeous hotel!!!



We made our way down to 1900 park fair.

Again, what a beautiful restaurant. We were handed a pager to wait and saw Prince Charming in the lobby. Lauren has declared he is her “boyfriend”. Here is the pic of Lauren and her “boyfriend”:

We went inside and were told that the Godmother would be at our table soon but we had time to get food. Now, I will state up front that we are not “buffet lovers” and I was in for Cindy for this meal and not the food, but BOY DID I CHANGE MY MIND!! This food was incredible (see my dining review in another forum for details). We had a GREAT meal!!! As we ate we saw the following:

Godmother:

Suzy:

Perla:

Here comes Cinderella!!!!:

Cindy herself:

After dinner it was such a nice night we hopped on the monorail to go to the MK. This time we were all able to ride up front going to the MK and it was a great ride with a much better driver. We were all given monorail driver cards this time which Luke thought was SUPER COOL!



We were there by 7:30 and couldn’t believe people were already lining Main Street for Spectro, I’ve never seen them line up THIS early! Tim went to get Luke’s golden ears engraved with his name on Main Street and the kids and I headed to Toontown to ride Barnstormer. This was the first time for the kids to ride it and Lauren (and Luke) LOVED IT! It was fun, with practically no wait. Tim had seen the lines for the parade and was worrying a bit about a spot so we headed to Frontierland where I had heard had a better view, YES IT DOES with a LOT less crowds. So we went back there in front of the Hall of Presidents and sat on the wall and put the stroller in front of us for our spot. We still had an hour until Spectro so I walked the kids to Country Bear Jamboree and we saw the show, kids loved it (of course I enjoyed seeing it too). It was now 8:30 so the kids went and got in the stroller with their light up toys and I got popcorn and drinks for everyone. This year it was AWESOME because the CM’s come out and have organized games for the kids in the middle of the street to play before the parade starts. The kids lOVED this and it kept them busy so of course Tim and I loved it too. Here are the kids having fun playing:

Parade made it back to us around 9:20 and it was AWESOME.

We actually saw it this time without being crowded out of our spots, I will never watch from Main Street again.



What a perfect evening. What a great day of Disney magic. AND NO THROWING UP TODAY- INCREDIBLE!!!!



Coming up in Day 5:



Our “scheduled” day off. Chef Mickey’s Breakfast. And a HUGE, I MEAN HUGE 30th B-Day surprise for me. I was surprised- that’s for SURE!!! Stay tuned. . . and thanks for reading!



Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Just started reading this and wow! Sounds like a touch start with Luke being sick but you didn't let that stand in your way too much

Did you do Disney Quest with your kids?

I'm going soon and was wondering what you thought about it. (I have kids about the same age)

Thnaks

p.s; I love your trip report and your writing style. Can't wait to see more!

Glad you're enjoying the trip report, it is fun to write- VERY time consuming but fun. We didn't do Disney Quest this trip. We did on our honeymoon without kids and loved it. I'm sure my kids would love it, but I prefer the parks myself. However on a rainy day it would be fun!!
Lesley

 

[MAGICinMYHEART]

Lesley
“I wish you didn’t look like that tonight” she said “Luke, I’m pretty!!!”
OMG, this was so funny, what a couple of cuties you have. And I agree she is pretty.

Beckie

 

[timandlesley]

Lesley
“I wish you didn’t look like that tonight” she said “Luke, I’m pretty!!!”
OMG, this was so funny, what a couple of cuties you have. And I agree she is pretty.

Beckie

Beckie, I agree it was halarious. I started laughing under my breath but at the same time was feeling sorry for Luke. Glad you got a laugh out of it too.
Lesley