10 days in Disney w/ pics

[timandlesley]

Thank you so much for this wonderful trip report. I know this took a LONG time to put together -- thank you!!!

Thanks. The longest part actually has been the downloading pictures onto the Photobucket site, it seems like it takes forever for each photo. I have spent about 1 1/2 hours each day since we returned home on it, and I've loved every minute of it. I will be so sad when it's over tonight. I hope the thread lives on for at least a little while for others to read and enjoy (hey, a girl can hope can't she?)
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Your daughter has great taste. I am wearing the same pink Mickey hair thingy right now. I love it. In fact, on our last trip I made sure to get one in every color.

Thanks for the great trip report. It is fun to read and I get to live vicariously through someone else. And makes me so excited for our upcoming trip.

Thanks Kycha,
I am glad you are enjoying it. You know, I never thought to put the "hair thingy's" in my hair, I may just give that a try on my next pony tail day. They are CUTE!!!
Have a GREAT trip.
Lesley

 

[jj1403]

Lesley, I don't think you'll have a problem with your TR living on for a while. EVeryone loves it and can't wait for more!! This is probably the best trip report I've ever read! I'm the one who's going to be went it's over.

 

[GoofyTraci]

I saw your postings and pictures and was very excited and amazed at all of the detail and info I learned just from looking at your posting, I wondered If you could tell me where you got the mickey ears with your son's name on them. which park? and how much did they cost? Did you wait while they put his name on them? are they already done. Sorry so many questions. Just a single mom taking her boy to Disney in Sep 2006..


Thanks

 

[timandlesley]

Day 9:



Our last official Disney day in the parks (so sad).

It was FATHER’S DAY and we were Flag Family on this day. I had the routinely 7:00 wake up call scheduled. When it went off I ran down to Roaring Forks for a snack breakfast for everyone since we had reservations at WCC for breakfast at 9:00. I just grabbed some doughnuts, the all important coffee for Tim (I’m not a coffee drinker) and an orange juice for the kids to split.

I woke everyone up when I got back and we gave Tim his Father’s Day presents. Luke got him a Myrtle Beach t-shirt (remember, we were in Myrtle Beach before heading to Disney), a Mickey coffee mug from the DownTown Disney store from Lauren, and a Mickey watch I bought for Tim that he had loved earlier in the week at the Mercantile store at the Wilderness Lodge. Tim was very surprised and loved his gifts.

We then all got dressed after eating the quick breakfast snack and headed to the Wilderness Lodge Concierge desk with our Flag family letter. When you are Flag family they put a letter under your door the night before confirming the time you should be at the desk and summarizing your duties, etc. We were so excited.

When we got to the front desk we were introduced to Bruce who would be our guide on this morning and carried the flags for us.

We took the elevator up to the “forbidden” 7th floor (unless you are staying concierge, the only way to have access is with a room key). I loved the look of the concierge level, their own breakfast spread and t.v. area with tables for the kids, wish we could afford that for a future trip.

We then went up the tallest staircase you can see from the lobby on the 7th floor leading to the room where we went up another staircase outside that took us up to the roof.

WHAT A GORGEOUS VIEW. You could see all 4 parks from up there, and Bruce spent the first few minutes allowing us to find them and take pictures. Magic Kingdom was the closest and easiest to find. I then found Animal Kingdom with Expedition Everest towering above. Epcot was an easy find. It was the hardest to spot MGM studios and the item drawing my attention to it was you could actually see the Mickey ears on top of the water tower.

Here is a picture of the MK from the roof:

Bruce spoke to Luke about the importance of the American Flag and why it was raised higher than the rest. Luke wanted to raise the flag:

Then Lauren got a turn at raising the State of Florida flag:

Then he got out the Walt Disney World Flag and talked about fascinating trivia regarding how Walt Disney got started, how Universal “screwed him over” and how many employees they have here in Disney World. We discussed Disney Land vs. Disney World. We talked about his family and how they all work for Disney and how much he loves it. It was just a wonderful long talk about Disney that made you never want to leave and return each and every moment that you can. I JUST LOVE DISNEY (can’t you tell). Bruce had a knowledge that was amazing and it was great just listening to him and his knowledge of Disney himself and the history behind it.



Here is Luke raising the Disney World Flag:

It was then time to raise the two Wilderness Lodge Flags.



Lauren went first:

Then it was my turn:

Here is the view of the pool from the roof:

Here is Lauren soaking it all in:

Finally, our family photo on the roof:

Here are all of the flags in place compliments of the Sawhook Family!!! :

We then walked down to the lobby and were given our official printed Flag Family certificate with our family name on it. I want to have this framed with our photo from the roof so we can proudly display it on the wall.



It was then 9:00 PERFECT timing for our breakfast at Whispering Canyon Café. We enjoyed a great breakfast (we all shared the skillet). It was then after 10:00 and I asked Tim “so what are we doing today”. You have to understand that I gave up total control of this day (our last day of the parks no less) to Tim and let him make the decisions on Fathers Day. Well, he thought about it for awhile and really couldn’t decide. I knew he wanted to go to Downtown Disney and he had talked about going to a movie (one of Tim’s favorite things to do) but then he said he knew the kids would be bored. So I just suggested he could go to Downtown Disney by himself and see a movie and the kids and I could hit MGM one last time (Luke had a Power Ranger toy he wanted there that we were making him wait until the last day to purchase). He didn’t hesitate and thought it was a GREAT idea but he was concerned I would be mad with him going off on his own and taking the kids to the park by myself. I assured him I wouldn’t be. I ran up to the room to grab the bag and a few diapers and we went to the bus stop.

We arrove at MGM by around 10:45. My camera was out of batteries. I figured I would pick some up at the park. The only batteries they sell at MGM are Energizer Max and they were charging 16.00 a pack. I’m sorry but I just couldn’t justify that so there aren’t any pic’s of MGM this afternoon.

We went into the Animation tour, it was GREAT. The Incredibles are in there for a meet and greet after the tour too so the kids got to see them. There were also great computer programs were you can do voiceovers for popular Disney cartoons and the kids loved the painting computer programs as well. It was a lot of fun.



We then exited just in time for the 11:15 Playhouse Disney Show. The kids loved that as usual. I looked at the times guide and there was going to be a 12:15 Beauty and the Beast Show. I had never seen this and wanted to so badly so was so excited we’d be able to see it this trip before we left. We stopped at a popcorn stand and got popcorn and water for the wait and got the the theatre about 11:50 and had GREAT seats. The kids chowed down on popcorn while they waited for it to begin. WHAT A GREAT SHOW. Wish I had my camera for pics of this but oh well. It was wonderful. If you haven’t seen it, it is another must see. The kids absolutely loved it too. Luke almost started to cry and hugged me real tight when the Beast died – very cute.

We then headed to the Power Ranger section so Luke could buy his video game plug in toy he wanted so badly. We found it, he bought it and everyone was happy. I let Lauren pick something out too, she chose the JoJo clown car (only 9 bucks I couldn’t believe it!) We then headed for the exit (it was 1:00) and the park was SO CROWDED you couldn’t move so I just wanted to go back and eat lunch at Roaring Forks.

The kids and I took the bus back to the WL and ate got lunch at Roaring Forks. OF COURSE as soon as we sat down to eat Luke decided he had to “go number 2”. So we just ended up carrying the trays up to the room so he could go up there. It was kind of nice actually, we just ate lunch out on the balcony.

We then settled down for naps. Tim arrived back from his movie around 4:00. We had dinner reservations for his Fathers Day dinner at Concourse Steak House (his pick). I had him look at all of the menus on allearsnet.com and he chose Concourse. I was excited to try it after reading some good reviews here on the Dis.

We took the boat over to the Contemporary around 5:30 for our 6:20 reservation. We checked in at the podium around 5:45 and they gave us a pager. We shopped around in all of the shops they have there in the Contemporary until our pager went off right around 6:25. We were seated and had a GREAT meal. Here are Tim and Luke in the restaurant:

Here are Lauren and I:

Our waitress was great! We told her we were on the dining plan and she said not only could we get the appetizers and steaks we wanted but we could also get the 9.99 shrimp add on to our steaks with the plan at no extra charge.

This meal was by far the best of our trip. Tim is a HUGE steak eater and he couldn’t finish his steak. He LOVED his meal, so that was great that he was able to have a wonderful F-day, I owed him after my great birthday.

The BEST part of this meal was the desert. At all of our other meals this trip (as the pictures proved from Mama Melrose’s yesterday) the kids had lost it by desert and we were rushing through just to get out of the restaurant. Not at Concourse and here is why:

PAINTERS PALLETTES:

Oh yes parents of young ones, YOU MUST GO HERE AND GET THESE. They were GREAT. I actually got to enjoy my key lime pie in peace:

and I’m happy to report we had to wait for the KIDS to be done at this meal for us to get to Epcot for our final night in the parks. UNBELIEVABLE and WONDERFUL!!! They come highly recommended!!!



Here is Luke finally eating his creation after taking forever painting it and adding the Mickey confetti it came with :

After we got the kids to wrap up desert we headed to the Monorail to go to Epcot to view Illuminations on our final night. Luke wanted to ride up front in the Monorail one last time so we asked but it was full. When we stopped at the first stop the family got out so I jumped out and asked the driver if we could get in. He told me it was against the rules to go from the back to the front. He came back before they took off though and told me no other family wanted to ride up front so we could, just not to tell anyone he broke the rules, US TELL. . .NO WAY!!!!

We LOVED riding up front one last time, what a great way to go out at Disney.

We arrived at Epcot around 8:10 p.m. We headed to find a spot for Illuminations but passed Mission Space which we hadn’t gotten to ride yet this year. We rode the “rough” version last year and it made us a little queezy and I told Tim I wouldn’t do it again. We wanted to try the newest “non spinning” way to ride so Tim and Luke went to ride it since there wasn’t a wait. Lauren and I stopped by the fountain for her to play before finding a spot for the show:

We headed towards Mexico were I had told Tim I would meet them, it was solid with crowds. I kept going around until I finally found an open spot in front of China. I radio’d Tim to tell him where we ended up.

Side note: This was a horrible location because there is a little island with trees in the way and we couldn’t see the globe at all. Our viewing place in front of Italy the first night right by the handicapped only viewing area (in front of the trains and right by the restroom) was the PERFECT spot. Just a tip from me to you.

We still were able to enjoy the show from our spots and we had a great last night at Epcot. Luke was disappointed because he thought that he and I would get to go ride Mission Space together but the park was closed after Illuminations.

We headed back to the bus. I was SO sad and put my arm around Tim on the way out to tell him so, I DIDN’T WANT TO LEAVE!!! I asked him if he thought WDW rented rooms by the month. Hey, if we sold our house and lived here and the only bills we had were eating and the house payment bill went towards WL rent wouldn’t that work?? I’m sure I could get a job as Minnie or something. . .oh well a girl can dream can’t she.

The kids were SLAPHAPPY (must have been the sugar from desert) and they entertained everyone in the very long line for a bus that night by sitting on the ground laughing and singing made up songs together. I snapped this photo of them on the ground singing through laughter:

We finally got on the bus and headed back to the WL. I told Tim I didn’t want to pack tonight, we’d do that tomorrow and just enjoy our final night here. We made it back to the room in time to see the MK fireworks from the balcony. Great ending to a wonderful day.



I’ll just go ahead and post day 10 now too because there isn’t much to it. We slept in and didn’t do a wake up call on this day. We arose around 8:00 and packed up the room and ate breakfast in the room. It took us until about 9:00 to be completely packed up. We then called Bell services. They were in our room by 9:15 and we were loading up the van by 9:30. After cleaning out the van, packing the cooler, and getting ready to go we rolled out of the Wilderness Lodge (My HOME!!!) at 10:00. We didn’t have a plan in mind as the ride home is 15 hours. Part of me just wanted to go all the way but the kids were losing it around 7:00. Lauren kept saying “I need my Wilderness Lodge Hotel”. When I explained to her we were going home she said “ I need a hotel mommy, I need out of my seat” I felt badly for them so we ended up stopping and staying the night at Chattanooga Tennessee. We awoke the next day (day 11) and only had a 6 hour drive home to Cincinnati.

We have been home for two weeks now and I am longing to return to DisneyWorld. As a teacher I can not go until next summer so I will start planning that trip as soon as they release the package rates for next summer. We are planning a mid-July return next summer and to stay at our home Wilderness Lodge.

I have enjoyed writing this report and all of your posts and encouragement along the way more than you can know. . .it was therapy for me !!!

Now that it is over I will grieve again. Hopefully you have learned something and if nothing else laughed along with my family and enjoyed some pic’s of our trip. Thanks for coming on this journey with us!!!! Have a MAGICAL day and enjoy your upcoming trips. If you are independently wealthy and want to take me with you, feel free to PM me : )

Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Lesley, I don't think you'll have a problem with your TR living on for a while. EVeryone loves it and can't wait for more!! This is probably the best trip report I've ever read! I'm the one who's going to be went it's over.

GEEZ, thanks you hve made my night !!!
Lesley

 

[daisy_77]

Your daughter is going to have the BEST time. I hope you got some tips on traveling with little ones and what my daughters favorites are through this report. if you have more specific questions feel free to PM me. Glad you are enjoying th eTR. I hope you have a great trip (TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!)
Lesley

Thanks, Lesley! I did get lots of tips from your reports! I still have a while and I am in the planning stages...but don't be surprised if you see a PM from me in the near future!
We are going to be at the Wilderness Lodge, too!
Have a great night!

 

[timandlesley]

I saw your postings and pictures and was very excited and amazed at all of the detail and info I learned just from looking at your posting, I wondered If you could tell me where you got the mickey ears with your son's name on them. which park? and how much did they cost? Did you wait while they put his name on them? are they already done. Sorry so many questions. Just a single mom taking her boy to Disney in Sep 2006..


Thanks

First of all WELCOME TO THE DIS. Glad you found my trip report helpful and it's making you excited for your trip. The Mickey Ears can be found in any gift shop at any resort, or park. They are EVERYWHERE. They have a place to engrave them on Main Street at Magic Kingdom, in the Judges Tent at Magic Kingdom, and I believe also in the Snow Whites Mine shop at Magic Kingdom. You buy them for 10.50 and they engrave them for 2.00 so the total is 12.50. You can stand right there and watch them sew the name on, it really is amazing. Have a GREAT trip with your son in September!
Lesley

 

[Naisy68]

Noo! It can't be over!! You have to go again and write another. I insist upon it!!
I am so glad that you had such a truly magical vacation! It started out a bit scary for you but everything turned out wonderfully. I have enjoyed getting to know your wonderful family. Your kids are truly adorable and your DH is pretty wonderful too from the sounds of it. I feel for you in your grief. I always have a major case of theat when I get home. We are going in August for 7 nights with just our almost 5 year old daughter, Kylee. Our son, Owen is 17 and thinks he is too cool to go with us this year. (I think he must have been switched at the hospital, Ha!! just kidding. He is way too much like me that it is scary except for my love of Disney of course.) We are staying at POR and I am sure that I too will have trouble giving over control for even just a short while. But I will to save the family sanity level.
Thanks for your very detailed and helpful report. I know I learned a lot and this will be my 4th trip there.
Take Care and Send out a DIS WIDE bulletin when you go again so we can look forward to your next trip report.
Have A Disney Day, Renee

 

[timandlesley]

Noo! It can't be over!! You have to go again and write another. I insist upon it!!
I am so glad that you had such a truly magical vacation! It started out a bit scary for you but everything turned out wonderfully. I have enjoyed getting to know your wonderful family. Your kids are truly adorable and your DH is pretty wonderful too from the sounds of it. I feel for you in your grief. I always have a major case of theat when I get home. We are going in August for 7 nights with just our almost 5 year old daughter, Kylee. Our son, Owen is 17 and thinks he is too cool to go with us this year. (I think he must have been switched at the hospital, Ha!! just kidding. He is way too much like me that it is scary except for my love of Disney of course.) We are staying at POR and I am sure that I too will have trouble giving over control for even just a short while. But I will to save the family sanity level.
Thanks for your very detailed and helpful report. I know I learned a lot and this will be my 4th trip there.
Take Care and Send out a DIS WIDE bulletin when you go again so we can look forward to your next trip report.
Have A Disney Day, Renee

Thank you so very much for your support along the way Renee and this final post from you. I am glad you enjoyed the report and learned something along the way. Yeah . . .my family is pretty great (I'll keep them ) We had a magical time and now it's just time to start planning next years trip Being the Disney addict I am I constantly need something Disney to obsess over. Good thing they started taking dining requests 180 days out, that will be here before I know it (just kidding).
Have a GREAT trip, I have heard great things about POR, a friend of mine stayed there last year and loved it. Thanks again!!!!
Lesley

 

[Maybelle]

I really enjoyed your trip report and all the pictures! Really makes me want to go back, like right this minute! I am a teacher too, and we went on our first trip to WDW last summer. I wish I was able to go in the fall so maybe there would be fewer people, but I guess that will have to wait until I retire. Still a long way off till then.
Anyway, before we went last summer I thought the people on this board a little loony for their obsession with a theme park, but as we were flying home, we were already talking about when we could return! Now I am the one obsessed!
It was nice to get to know you through your report. You seem like a really nice, down to earth family. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

Leslie (with an "ie")

 

[missmun52]

I think this is the first time that I was ever sad at the ending of a report. I love reading reports but this time I felt like I was leaving disney too

 

[timandlesley]

I really enjoyed your trip report and all the pictures! Really makes me want to go back, like right this minute! I am a teacher too, and we went on our first trip to WDW last summer. I wish I was able to go in the fall so maybe there would be fewer people, but I guess that will have to wait until I retire. Still a long way off till then.
Anyway, before we went last summer I thought the people on this board a little loony for their obsession with a theme park, but as we were flying home, we were already talking about when we could return! Now I am the one obsessed!
It was nice to get to know you through your report. You seem like a really nice, down to earth family. Glad you enjoyed your trip!

Leslie (with an "ie")

Thanks Leslie,
I really appreciate you taking the time to respond and am happy you enjoyed the report. Yeah, it's funny. The more return the more obsessed I become. Family laughs at me for it and they think it's just me, but now it is the whole family. I can't imagine not going every year. I hope when I retire from teaching (yeah, it's far off for me too, I only have 9 years in) to go in off season, enjoy the food and wine fesitval, etc. Hey, it gives me even more to look forward to. Thanks again! Here's hoping you get back to Disney very soon.
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

I think this is the first time that I was ever sad at the ending of a report. I love reading reports but this time I felt like I was leaving disney too

Thanks! It is a sad feeling leaving, and it was sad for me to end this report to (yet another farewell). Glad you enjoyed it and the emmotions came accross (that was my goal).
Lesley

 

[**eeyore**]

I'm so said your TR has come to an end! I have really enjoyed reading it and seeing all the great pictures you have posted. I'm amazed at how wonderfully your children get along! I have 16 month old twin DD's - I hope someday they will sit at the bus stop playing as nicely as your children did after park close!

If I might ask, exactly how old is your DD? We are already planning our May 2007 trip, so our DD's will be 27 months then. I'm assuming your daughter is a little older than that; still, I hope my girls get as much out of our trip as your daughter did. As a side note, your daughter is what I call a cute little "peanut"! She is just adorable - she reminds me of one of my DD's - just a tiny little thing, but packed full of personality! Your son is adorable also - and looks like he is a great big brother!

I applaude you for your trip report and more importantly applaude you and your family for having a great, well-planned, yet go-with-the-flow, memorable family vacation - something we all dream about!

Thanks again for the time you dedicated to this!

 

[kkmauch]

What a fantastic trip report! This is the first trip report I have ever read from day one to the last day (yes, I even subscribed). You did a wonderful job and I really enjoyed reading this. It's so different from my trips to WDW because we are all grown ups now. We very rarely have any kids along for the trip, so this was a nice reminder of what it's really all about. Nice job!

 

[daisy_77]

Aww..I loved the last installment of your trip. I was sad to see it end.

He he...at least you can look forward to another trip next year!
Thank you for sharing your trip!!

 

[mom2ja2]

Awww...what an awesome trip.
The parents surprising you.
Flag family.
But the description of spending time with your son at MGM, wow. UNCLE. I was wiping away tears.

Our next trip can't come soon enough. Thanks for giving me this great Disney fix!!!!

 

[Scot-n-Michelle]

So sad to see it come to an end - thanks for a wonderful TR. I hope next year when we go I can come home and write a report that is as good as yours. Being from Ohio I am glad to see that we are not the only ones crazy enough to drive there. Thank goodness for DVD players in the car.
Michelle

 

[ColleenS]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip and so many photos. You have a lovely family and it was so much fun reading about your vacation. It makes me want to go back so badly. Thanks!