13 Nights! A Pokemon Go Extravaganza (Now Complete)

[DisneyRegulars]

I do so enjoy your trip reports!

Thank you!!

 

[CarolynK]

I can't believe a server actually brought you that beer flight...maybe it got sampled on the way from the bar?!
Thanks for the pizza review, if it was that bad twice, it must be that bad.
So funny that Tigger didn't want to leave the kid's club! I wouldn't have caved, either. How was your dinner?
Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[Fastpassminus]

It looks like someone spilled that beer flight and didn't refill it!!

I don't like Via Napoli pizza either. I was starting to think I was losing it since everyone goes on and on about it.

I'm so glad you are back. Now don't leave forever again!! I want to hear about the child from HELL!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

How was your dinner?

Dinner was AMAZING! We were actually looking forward to finally eating at Sanaa because we've only ever gotten as far as the bar and bread service before. Unfortunately, we are still going to need to go back because they were only offering a special holiday menu, and not the regular menu. However, we both got the prime rib and it was fantastic.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 5: New Years Day

Today we transitioned from Animal Kingdom to SSR, which meant we were going to be homeless for most of the day. The morning was ROUGH. The late night had turned my beast into a gremlin, and not five minutes into being awake I already wanted to sell him. We got into some sort of sunblock war, and I was already looking up Kids Night Out services and we hadn't even been up an hour yet! Turns out it was an empty threat because Kids Night Out didn't offer same day services, and it sounded more like they needed two weeks notice! How am I supposed to know two weeks ahead of time that my son will be a monster? This service is clearly missing a large market of people who need immediate space from their children. Maybe that's just a market of one (me).

So we managed to all get sunblock on and leave the room by 10:55am. On our way out to our car we had to pass through the portecochere which was ridiculously busy. Turns out we were not the only ones leaving today! We made our way to Magic Kingdom and spent a loooooong day there. We rode the Jingle Cruise for the first time which I enjoyed. The Jungle Cruise track has a very large number of pokestops, so Tigger was quite in heaven on that ride as well.

As for Pokemon tips, the cast members will recommend riding the train around the park. They will say it moves slow enough for you to get mileage for hatching eggs. We tried the train, but it was too fast for us to get mileage, and there were not many pokestops. Our preferred method of Pokestop collecting / mileage gathering was actually the TTA. We rode the TTA over and over again gathering pokestops and pokemon all while sitting comfortably and resting our feet. Although even the TTA had a line on these busy days, usually about 7-10 minutes!

Prior to heading to our car we made our way over to the Grand Floridian to see the fabled ginger bread house. I was sure disappointed. For one thing, they turned the darn thing into a gift shop! Why Disney? Why? But my major gripe with the ginger bread house was that it's not all made out of ginger bread! It's actually a wooden house with ginger bread shingles. I doubt anyone would go see it if they advertised it that way. "Come see our gingerbread sided wooden gift shop!" just doesn't have a nice holiday ring to it. To me, anyone can glue gingerbread to a wooden structure. I was not impressed. I would have been impressed, however, if the whole thing was actually made solely out of edible products. That would have been cool. That's what I was expecting. Wait, maybe it was all made out of edible products, but was targeted specifically at the local termite population.

We got our room ready text at 4:43, and made our way home to SSR. Our room was the farthest room possible in the Paddock section from Disney Springs, which was a little disappointing, but in the end we didn't find the walk too bad to the pool or the Carraige House, so we were happy where we were.

We let Tigger enjoy the huge tub before getting an early night's sleep. I learned (I guess the hard way) that you should not put bubbles in the tub with the jets on. Soooooo many bubbles! They just kept multiplying! Tigger thought it was hilarious. Grizzly thought I should have known better. I'm not sure how I would have known this seeing as there is no sign anywhere warning you that bubbles and jets don't mix. The bubbles probably got at least two feet high. Pretty much any kid's dream.

Up next Tigger and I take on Magic Kingdom, a real viewing of the drone show, and the monster finally arrives (but I don't actually see her the first day)!

 

[CarolynK]

At least you left the room before 11...we struggle to get out by 11 on check out day!
Too bad you couldn't get same-day babysitting...you could have gone back a second time to Sanaa for free babysitting!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 6: Welcome Guests

This morning started off lazy. Tigger watched the Mickey cartoons while I watched House Hunters. The funny thing about the Mickey cartoons is that Tigger just can't enjoy them on his own. He wants you to watch them with him. Apparently, they are significantly more enjoyable in the presence of an adult. So this was a strange lucky morning where I managed to escape watching the Mickey cartoons, and snuck in a show of my own.

I have no idea what Grizzly did today or why he didn't go with us, but I took Tigger on a date to the Magic Kingdom, just me and my beast. I love our alone time. This was especially important this trip because the trip started out with me yelling at Grizzly to stop yelling at Tigger. From day one Grizzly was on Tigger's case about seemingly EVERYTHING, and by 30 minutes into our trip I had had it. By this point in the trip we had developed this great system where I guided Tigger around by the shoulder while Tigger monitored for nearby Pokemon. No arms were swinging (Grizzly's biggest complaint) and no strangers were being run into. So Tigger and I set out by our own peaceful selves for a day of hunting.

We spent some time Pokemon hunting and fighting gyms. We rode the tea cups and got a lemonade slushy. On the way out of the park we stopped by the Main Street candy shop. Tigger picked out a bag of sour balls. I chose a peanut butter chocolate chip cookie, which just might be my new favorite snack. It was AMAZING! We stopped to eat our snacks at a table outside the store. Tigger found the checkers table, so we leisurely ate our snacks while I beat the pants off him in a game of checkers. I never in a million years would have ever thought I would take the time to play checkers in the Magic Kingdom. It was fun! DVC has changed my vacationing life.

Evidence that checkers was played. Also evidence that Tigger stole large amounts of MY cookie. What a spoiled rat!:

A typical view for us this trip. Where there was a Pokemon gym there was a Tigger frantically fighting it:

We enjoyed our afternoon at the pool and towards evening we wandered over to Disney Springs because I needed to upgrade our tickets to annual passes. This was one of the last days to take advantage of the 13 month offer, so needless to say, we weren't the only people trying to upgrade tickets this evening. Probably many, like us, were also trying to avoid the black-out period, so this left very little window to upgrade passes.

When we got to guest services in Disney Springs they said it would be a 2 hour wait!!! I offered to wait while Grizzly took Tigger to find food and home to sleep. I found myself a big comfy chair in the lobby area, and started writing this trip report on my phone. I sat down at 4:35, and exactly 2 hours later my name was called. Disney's line estimating skills are spot on! I ended up paying $57 apiece to upgrade my tickets to Gold Passes, and they had a start date of January 2nd, not December 26 which is the first day I used my park hoppers. By this point I was starving, having only eaten half a cookie and some ramen today. I was about to go find food when I heard the announcement for the drone show.

I decided to check it out, and I was sure glad I did. It was short, but it was cool. I think we will definitely be seeing more of this technology in the future. I stopped at Morimoto Street Food again and had the kalbi bab bao tacos (so AMAZING!!) and the short ribs. Also amazing! Little did I know this would be one of my last peaceful meals for the next 5 days. I began my walk back to see my guests which had arrived earlier.

I didn't actually get to see monster this evening, but I did get some texts from Grizzly with a play by play of the bedtime disaster. I brushed it off as being tired from traveling and being in a new place. Surely, she'll be fine tomorrow. Surely. Right? Oh gosh. I was being so optimistic.

 

[corinne025]

I love your trip report!!! Can't wait to hear more, especially the imminent arrival of Monster Child! )

 

[CarolynK]

Cliffhanger!!

 

[quandrea]

So glad I checked in! Excellent updates. I too have to upgrade tickets on our trip in October. Planning to do it at a theme park and hoping to avoid a two hour wait. Yikes!

I love how real your reports are. It's not all unicorns and rainbows in the parenting department. Which is exactly how we all struggle sometimes. I don't know how many times we've told one of our three kids, "We are leaving you home next time." Never actually made good on that threat.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 7: The Monster Child Has Arrived

Before starting this day, I forgot to tell you that I got to see the drone show twice! Once from Disney Springs, and the next time from SSR while walking back to my room. The SSR view was so beautiful. If they could figure out how to pipe in the music it would be fantastic. Here's a pic which doesn't even begin to do it justice, but the lights reflected in lake were so amazing:

So full disclosure, I only wrote two notes about this day and they are both about Monster child crying. I think I must have stopped taking notes just because the day needed to be permanently erased from my memory. So to give a relative magnitude of the amount of whining and crying this child did, she managed to burst into tears not once, but twice between leaving the villa and entering the Magic Kingdom. Needless to say, she did not make a good first impression on me. The first time we were all just happily sitting on the bus when she suddenly realized that she was not sitting near the window. Cue tears and screams of anguish. Second time we were waiting in line for the tapstiles and she needed a snack. Mind you we JUST had breakfast, not two minutes before we left, but with her fit you'd think we had forgotten to feed her for several days.

Ugh! We 'enjoyed' our way through a few attractions, constantly tiptoeing around Monster's random needs for snacks, hats, being in the stroller, being out of the stroller. Whatever the need was, it had to be taken care of immediately or there would be tears. Actually, tears came immediately despite reaction speed. I've really never seen anything like it. It was, well, kind of unfun. And then we ate lunch at Crystal Palace and I kind of got sad. You see, every time a character came, Tigger has been so well trained that he gets up and poses for a picture. Well, every time a character came, Uncle B (is that what I called him?) would say, "Now let me take one with just Monster." And Tigger would look so hurt. You know that heart wrenching expression of a confused young boy that says "why don't they want me in the picture?" It's pretty much the saddest expression ever. I would never say "get out of my picture" to a young boy or girl. I would take the darn picture with both kids in it. And I did! So with EVERY character for the whole entire trip Uncle B would say "Now let me take one with just Monster," and every time I would hear "Your horrible child is ruining my picture of my precious princess," and Tigger would look just a little sadder. It made me so sad. I get wanting a picture of your child alone with a character, but I also feel like its rude to force your host out of EVERY SINGLE PICTURE. If given the opportunity I would have told Tigger it was Monster's turn, but I was never given that opportunity. Not once! Besides, it's easy enough to crop a photo at home, you don't need to hurt a little boy's feelings over and over and over again. Grrrrr. As an example, here are a couple pictures where I expertly cropped out Monster, and nobody's feelings got hurt in the process:

Sigh. I know wanting a picture with just your kid is a reasonable want, but I think it could be done without hurting people's feelings. Or maybe I'm just overly sensitive. Either way, I felt hurt. Justified or not.

We left pretty much right after lunch despite having remaining fast passes, and headed home to swim. I swam for as long as I could, but eventually retired to the hot tub and then back to the room long before everyone else was done playing. How do they not get cold?!

Tomorrow we head to Animal Kingdom where after two full days with Monster I completely lose it. How on earth will I manage to survive the last 4 days with these two?

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 8: Bring your own Monster to Animal Kingdom Day

We headed out early this morning for breakfast at Tusker House with the characters. We had been here before with Tigger, but he didn't remember coming. How sad! We sat down and the server lady started pouring juice into our juice glasses. Unfortunately, she did not discuss pouring juice into Monster's juice glass prior to pouring the juice, and we got our first epic meltdown of the day. I'm talking tears shed over juice being poured in her cup. It wasn't even spilt, it was just in the cup. Dad repeatedly telling her she didn't need to drink the juice, and little monster continuing the flip the heck out. To my wondrous delight the server actually said "Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed." Oh server, you have no idea! The server managed to pour juice in all the other glasses at the table and we all somehow managed not to cry about it.

We had a busy day in Animal Kingdom including the safari, the African animal trek, Flights of Wonder and Festival of the Lion King. I was largely disappointed with Festival of the Lion King. This was the first time I'd gone to see it in probably 15 years, and there was a bunch of acrobatic equipment hung from the ceiling, like trapezes and things like that, but they were never used. Maybe the acrobats had the day off? It was strange. Very mellow show with very little wow factor, but I did like the songs and Timon and Pumba.

Time for lunch and one of my favorite melt downs of the trip. We'll call it the carrot incident. We went to Pizzafari, which can be roughly translated to "we don't make pizza for picky eaters". Tigger got a pepperoni flatbread which he didn't like, and I got a pizza which arrived with an entire garden on top. I've never seen so many leaves on a pizza, it must have been five inches off the plate. The salad pizza was just okay. What was better than okay was Monster's display of brattiness. She had gotten a meal that involved milk and carrot sticks, and she was playing with the carrot sticks. Kind of dipping them in the milk, and pretending to drop them in the milk. Uncle B told her to quit it, and specifically said "Don't put that carrot in the milk or I will take the milk away", and Monster proceeds to put the carrot in the milk. Dad proceeds to take the milk away, and she proceeds to scream bloody murder about the injustice of the situation. I'm talking even people outside the restaurant could have heard her. If it were Tigger I would have thrown the milk in the trash and walked him straight out of the park. Monster on the other hand got her milk back, which after 5 minutes of intense wailing eventually calmed her down. Meals were agony with this child. Agony.

By the time we left Animal Kingdom my nerves were on edge, but I managed to gather up the strength to go to the pool during which the aforementioned hat incident occurred which was my last straw. I escaped fairly early and vented (see prevoius post) about the awfulness that is Monster child, and sat in my room "doing work". Grizzly and company went out to find dinner while I stayed in the room to "get some stuff done" and by stuff I meant writing stinging trip reports about my guests and buying escape tickets, I mean a movie ticket to see La La Land. Which was great until they ruined the movie with the ending. I trapsed back to the room late at night and took a long shower with Grizzly where we both whined and whined about Monster until we felt content.

With our whining and commiserating we came up with the perfect solution to make lemonade out of our lemony guest. It was going to be great! Stay tuned for our survival strategy that made the remaining 3 monster days far more bearable.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 9: Why is Monster Crying Bingo!

And this is the post where it is confirmed that I am a heartless demon. So before we left for Epcot today, to survive the day, Grizzly and I each made a list of ten things we thought Monster would cry about during the day. The rules were, whoever had the most things checked off their list by the end of the day, or whoever got their whole list first was the winner. We were playing very aggressively because Grizzly and I are very competitive. The rules also including no provoking the monster in order to get something on your list. That would have been too easy. So as an example, here is my list for day one of Monster Bingo:

1. Breakfast waffle not cut right
2. Asked to sit down while eating
3. Didn't get right snack / snack not given fast enough
4. People not sitting in her desired spots for them at the table
5. Hungry
6. Not wearing correct article of clothing
7. Wants to sit somewhere she is not currently sitting
8. Uncle B takes something away
9. Spills food
10. Gets bumped by someone that couldn't possibly hurt but acts like her injured body part has been chopped off

This challenge proved to be surprisingly difficult. In fact, I only got two of the above list. (5. Hungry and 3.Didn't get right snack fast enough). It seems Monster was full of endless possibilities of what might upset her. Luckilly for you, I wrote them all down. Here is today's list of things that made Monster cry:

1. I sat next to her on the bus, but she wanted to sit next to Daaaaaaaaaaaddy
2. Our Test Track ride vehicle wasn't red.
3. Didn't get to ask a question in Turtle Talk With Crush
4. Wanted a bubble maker because she wanted to make bubbles nooooooooooow
5. Wanted to go with her Daddy to find the strollerrrrrrrrrr
6. Didn't like the guacamole touching her chips at lunch.

Despite both of our failures to actually predict the meltdowns (for the record I think Grizzly won) we found the day much more enjoyable as we secretly checked things off our lists, and discussed with each other whether or not a meltdown counted or not.

Also during this day Tigger acquired the world's most gigantic donut, and then to my surprise managed to eat the whole darn thing!

It's bigger than his head!

Also today we enjoyed a few minutes in the member lounge while waiting for a fast pass time to come up. This place was great. We especially liked the snack selection. We feasted on gummy bears, one bag easily feeding our whole family. After lunch we split up for a bit. Uncle B walked around World Showcase hoping Monster would fall asleep (she did) while Tigger, Grizzly and I hunted Pokemon and drank adult beverages. It was a nice relaxing afternoon.

Up next, we get a day off because Monster doesn't feel well. Monster must have been gallivanting with Lissa from the Boardwalk Pizza place because she obviously wasn't feeling good either, but you'll have to wait for that story.

 

[quandrea]

Wow! I don't know how I could have handled that kid. I'm a teacher although I've been a homeschooling mom and tutor for thirteen years. The teacher never leaves you. I would probably have started disciplining that kid despite trying to check myself. At a certain point I wouldn't be able to reign the impulse in.

It's moments like those where I'm so proud of my own kids. They sometimes give me a run for my money and they can occasionally be ghastly, but overall, they are pretty great.

Taking a time out seems like it was a good idea. The shower with Grizzly sounds like it was fun for you two!

 

[quandrea]

Day 9: Why is Monster Crying Bingo!

And this is the post where it is confirmed that I am a heartless demon. So before we left for Epcot today, to survive the day, Grizzly and I each made a list of ten things we thought Monster would cry about during the day. The rules were, whoever had the most things checked off their list by the end of the day, or whoever got their whole list first was the winner. We were playing very aggressively because Grizzly and I are very competitive. The rules also including no provoking the monster in order to get something on your list. That would have been too easy. So as an example, here is my list for day one of Monster Bingo:

1. Breakfast waffle not cut right
2. Asked to sit down while eating
3. Didn't get right snack / snack not given fast enough
4. People not sitting in her desired spots for them at the table
5. Hungry
6. Not wearing correct article of clothing
7. Wants to sit somewhere she is not currently sitting
8. Uncle B takes something away
9. Spills food
10. Gets bumped by someone that couldn't possibly hurt but acts like her injured body part has been chopped off

This challenge proved to be surprisingly difficult. In fact, I only got two of the above list. (5. Hungry and 3.Didn't get right snack fast enough). It seems Monster was full of endless possibilities of what might upset her. Luckilly for you, I wrote them all down. Here is today's list of things that made Monster cry:

1. I sat next to her on the bus, but she wanted to sit next to Daaaaaaaaaaaddy
2. Our Test Track ride vehicle wasn't red.
3. Didn't get to ask a question in Turtle Talk With Crush
4. Wanted a bubble maker because she wanted to make bubbles nooooooooooow
5. Wanted to go with her Daddy to find the strollerrrrrrrrrr
6. Didn't like the guacamole touching her chips at lunch.

Despite both of our failures to actually predict the meltdowns (for the record I think Grizzly won) we found the day much more enjoyable as we secretly checked things off our lists, and discussed with each other whether or not a meltdown counted or not.

Also during this day Tigger acquired the world's most gigantic donut, and then to my surprise managed to eat the whole darn thing!

It's bigger than his head!

Also today we enjoyed a few minutes in the member lounge while waiting for a fast pass time to come up. This place was great. We especially liked the snack selection. We feasted on gummy bears, one bag easily feeding our whole family. After lunch we split up for a bit. Uncle B walked around World Showcase hoping Monster would fall asleep (she did) while Tigger, Grizzly and I hunted Pokemon and drank adult beverages. It was a nice relaxing afternoon.

Up next, we get a day off because Monster doesn't feel well. Monster must have been gallivanting with Lissa from the Boardwalk Pizza place because she obviously wasn't feeling good either, but you'll have to wait for that story.

That's the spirit. Join together in the agony. In all seriousness though, this child must be so unhappy. Isn't it easier to just be happy? I always think that. It must be so taxing for her to always have to kick up such a fuss. This must have been hard on Tigger too. He seems like a good kid. All that angst and nonsense must have put him off balance.

Those doughnuts are my daughter's favourite. They are peanut free. She has a peanut allergy and can't have doughnuts at home. They are a WDW treat and she takes great pleasure in them.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

This must have been hard on Tigger too. He seems like a good kid. All that angst and nonsense must have put him off balance.

I was hoping that having another kid along would give him somebody to play with, but nope. He kept looking at me like "why is she crying again?" and like me chose to interact as little as possible.

 

[quandrea]

I was hoping that having another kid along would give him somebody to play with, but nope. He kept looking at me like "why is she crying again?" and like me chose to interact as little as possible.

Not surprised by that reaction at all. What a drag for him.

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 10: The Monster Rests

Unfortunately for Monster child she woke up with a slight fever this morning, so Uncle B decided to let her get some rest this morning. We didn't push the issue and escaped as fast as we could in case there were any miraculous recoveries to be had before we hit the road. This day was our late night to watch Wishes, so we spent the morning miniature golfing at Fantasia Gardens and generally taking it easy. Fantasia Gardens was great even though some of the holes were next to impossible. I think we each lost at least one ball to various bushes. After golfing we asked if we could leave our car there while we walked over to get ice cream from Ample Hills Creamery. The cast member basically told us that we couldn't, but that she also wasn't going to call anyone. We took this as a "yes" and walked over towards Boardwalk while catching Pokemon. For Pokemon hunters, the path around the lake from Boardwalk to Beach Club is a fantastic place to Pokemon hunt. Lots of high power and rare creatures to be found here.

Upon arrival to Ample Hills we found it closed! It was past noon, we could not believe it wasn't open yet, and it wasn't scheduled to open any time soon. Crushed, we decided to go with option 2, Pizza. This may have been a mistake because the cashier there was so incredibly awful that it put me in a grumpy huffy mood for at least 30 minutes. Can you believe it? 30 minutes of my monster free day spent exasperated at the awfulness of Lissa. So here's how our interaction went down. I read the menu. For those of you who have not been to the Boardwalk Pizza window, they have a whopping three kinds of pizza on their menu: Cheese, Pepperoni, and Signature Pizza. Now signature pizza sounded yummy, here is the description: Italian Sausage, Onion, Peppers, and Balsamic Glaze. Here is the sign:

Now, maybe it's just me, but from the description, it wasn't 100% clear to me if this Signature pizza had a red sauce on it, or if the balsamic glaze somehow was used in place of a red sauce. Seeing as I was only interested in this pizza if it did indeed have a red sauce, I very nicely asked the cashier lady, Lissa the Grouch, "Is there tomato sauce on the Signature Pizza?" Apparently this question really put Lissa out. How dare ignorant me ask such a foolish question, and she responded with, I kid you not, "You can read what's on the pizza right here," pointing to a mini version of the sign in the above picture. Now I'm normally very calm and civil with strangers, but Lissa the Grouch immediately made me livid. LIVID! I had read the freakin sign already! I responded in my most I'm trying but failing not to be snarky tone, "Well I've read the sign, and it's not clear to me if there is tomato sauce on the pizza." Now let me remind you, this place makes 3 freakin pizzas. 3. She should know if there is tomato sauce on this pizza. So Lissa the Grouch, looking completely put out, begrudgingly turns around (oh heaven forbid I make you turn around) and asks the pizza maker right behind her (Douglas) if there is tomato sauce on the pizza. Thank goodness Douglas could keep track of 3 pizzas and was able to tell me there was tomato sauce on the pizza. You'd think with the energy it took her to turn around that I had asked her to climb Mount Everest. So I ordered the Signature pizza for Grizzly and I, and pepperoni for Tigger, and 3 cups of water. Fairly certain Lissa had to read the manual or something on how to put water in a cup because the waters took at least 20 minutes to arrive. At any rate, I don't think I've ever had to deal with a worse customer service agent ever than Lissa the Grouch. It's unfortunate she is working at Disney. She needs some serious retraining.

After our pizza I gobbled up a warm cinnamon roll from the Boardwalk Bakery, and we made our way around the lake so Grizzly and Tigger could get ice cream at Beaches and Cream.

When we returned to the room to rest in the afternoon we found Monster feeling better and ready to join us for our Magic Kingdom evening. We had fast passes for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Enchanted Tales with Belle and Splash Mountain before we would settle in for fireworks. All attractions were enjoyed by Monster. I especially liked the part in Enchanted Tales with Belle, I believe Monster was a plate, when all the enchanted objects do a parade around the room. As Monster was walking around, Uncle B was following her with his camera. When she was finally at a good angle for a picture, Tigger thought he was taking a picture of him, so he jumped up and made a goofy pose. It was hilarious because Uncle B was furious at Tigger for "RUINING THE PICTURE". I totally wanted to give Tigger a high five! Served them right. A little bit of karma for all we had to put up with.

This evening we finally managed to remember to bring our refillable popcorn bucket. Refillable popcorn buckets are pretty much the most amazing purchase ever, minus the fact that you have to remember to take the darn thing with you which is kind of a pain when you no longer have a stroller. But I digress.... So while waiting for Wishes I refilled our bucket way over by the River Boat entrance because the line was non-existent. On my second refill I went to pay and the guy just waved me off. I was pixie dusted free popcorn! I love edible pixie dust!

Tigger past his time watching shows on his phone while I past my time trying to take pictures of the castle while waiting for Wishes. Here's the best I could do:

While I didn't write down any particular Monster complaints for this evening I know she was being her normal horrible self because by the end of Wishes I had once again had it, and wanted nothing to do with sitting anywhere near her on a bus. So I offered to take Tigger over to Big Thunder Mountain one last time after Wishes. So while Uncle B, Grizzly and Monster fought their way downstream towards the buses, Tigger and I went off and rode another ride. We also stopped at the Main Street bakery on the way out for a snack. After taking our sweet time exiting the park you can imagine our surprise when we arrive to get in line for the bus and find Grizzly, Uncle B and Monster still waiting in line. Yikes!!! We all ended up on the same crowded bus back to SSR.

The next day we are FREEEEEEEE!!!! No more Monster! Grizzly, Tigger and I signed up for Disney's Family Magic Tour, a Family Scavenger Hunt in the Magic Kingdom, so we were all pretty excited about that. Stay tuned to see how our last day goes. Which is weird because it will be number 11, but I know we stayed for 13. Hmm... Guess I missed some days in there somewhere.

 

[CarolynK]

I love that you and your husband turned a bad situation into a competition! That is so great.
I would have had a hard time keeping quiet about Monster's behavior.
Funny how having guests along on vacation makes you appreciate your own family!
I didn't like the ending of LaLa Land either....

 

[DisneyRegulars]

Day 11: Disney's Family Magic Tour and Cold Cold Cold

So today we tried one of our first add on experiences, and we went with Disney's Family Magic Tour because it was described as follows: Follow your Guide as you make your way through Magic Kingdom park, picking up clue after clue while unlocking a grand and memorable quest you won't soon forget. Be sure to bring your camera to capture all the memorable surprises as you and your group wind your way through many of the magical lands throughout the park.

Sounds fun right? It was and wasn't... I'm not going to tell you much about this tour because I don't want to give anything away if you happen to find yourself on it, but I will tell you a few things to help you make a better decision for your family.

1. Firstly, and probably most importantly, Tigger had a great time! Here are a few shots, where clearly he is enjoying himself. If you look closely you can see he got to put on Captain Hook's hook which he thought was amazing. Tigger was a few days shy of 7 for this tour.

2. I think this scavenger hunt is best for kids who can read because you get to participate more if you are able to read the clues. Tigger was still too shy of a reader to try to read any of the clues in front of the group. The two bigger kids in the group got to do most of the 'thinking'.

3. You do EVERYTHING as a group. I thought there would be times where we would go off to find something and then reconvene, but nope. They were very serious in the description when they said "FOLLOW YOUR GUIDE." There were 3 families with us, so we maybe had a group of 10-12. If you like to solve puzzles on your own, or do any thinking, this scavenger hunt is not for you, because you mostly just spend your time following the other 11 members of the group around.

4. I think this tour is great for kids, maybe age 8-10, but was pretty lame and torturous for the parents. Total waste of money to bring both parents along. If I were to do this again, I would have only sent one parent with Tigger.

5. The story line for the scavenger hunt was super pathetic and didn't flow well at all with the various parts of the hunt. I think they could have done a way better job with that. The tour also ended abruptly, like "okay, we're done, bye" which didn't go with the story line at all. The story involved planning a party or something, and we had to gather all the party supplies that were hidden in the park, so you'd think the end of the tour would be a party with all the supplies we gathered. But no, it just ended. Also the 'party supplies' had absolutely nothing to do with a party. For example, at one point we found a scuba mask!!! So yeah, Disney earns an F on story line for this tour.

Overall Disney's Family Magic Tour rating -- skip it!

After the tour it steadily began to get colder and colder. And rainy! We made our way back to our hotel so we could bundle up. We thought we had bundled appropriately and Tigger and I headed off to Epcot for some Pokemon hunting while Grizzly went to return the car. Well it turns out we didn't bundle up nearly well enough and we grew steadily colder and colder. How cold do you ask? Cold enough to run inside and watch Impressions de France and Tigger didn't complain once. This was the very first time I have EVER seen this movie. I'm almost 99% certain the film hasn't changed since it was first installed. The late 80's clothing was magnificent. Tigger got a kick out of all the castles in France. Pretty much the entire movie was castles and French countryside markets, but they could have shown us paint drying and we would have been happy because it was warm.

I made us a last minute reservation at the fancy Mexican Restaurant which Grizzly was able to join us for. I think we all universally hated our meals here. Oh well. Finally, we were to end our evening with a ride on Test Track. We built our car and went through the next doors to the last little waiting part, and the ride had the audacity to break down. Oh no! Our last hurrah for the trip was ruined. They gave us a fastpass good for any other ride in the park, but we were too tired to use it. We glumly walked out of the park on our last night.

Going into this vacation I was a little bit worried that it would be too long, but it wasn't. I loved the 13 day length. Wished it was longer at the end to recover more from Monster. There was absolutely no feeling of urgency throughout the trip. I especially liked the days with just my family. I now know who not to invite on any of our next trips, ANYWHERE. Thanks for reading along on my report, and I hope you have better luck with your young guests.

So if you are interested, my next trip report will be about our Asian adventure to Shanghai Disney, Hong Kong Disney and Tokyo Disney. I'll post a link to that report here, or you can find it over in the Other Lands section once I start it, which will hopefully be shortly because we leave tomorrow!!