15 Years of Magic- see the page 6 for more pics and page 7 for more!

Thanks Goodferry for another great read. It is like an episode of 'Lost' or '24' where you just want the next episode. I will check again later before I go to bed as you are about 5-7 hours (depending on where you are) behind us in the UK.
Looking forward to it :Pinkbounc
 
Enjoying reports. We have been married 15 yrs 2... but only 2 kids girls 10 and 8.
 
Work?!?!?! Who can think of work when there is another "episode" to write?!?!? These are really good reports. Keep it up. I'm anxious to read what happens next. :hourglass
 
Just wanted to add my thanks.. :love: just imagining what an adult trip would be... 24 years later - :goodvibes We're going in Oct, my parents say they'll watch dd, but it wont be the same now as I read your fantastic reports!!

(hope you print them out to include in your scrapbook!!)
 

Sorry this has taken me so long to get back to! I am glad some of you are getting to live vicariously through my report, I hope you get to take a trip of your own someday. It was definitely fun and romantic, but there are things I would have done differently. I will save that for the end of the report.

OK, so we are leaving AK when a photographer at the tree of life catches us and insists on more pictures, at least one hundred, Matt is thrilled. We finally leave and get on the bus from the AK to the BWI and Matt says "why don't we just walk over to the Beach Club and use a couple of those Q&C vouchers we have for dinner.

So I agreed, however, the vouchers are in our room. So, I suggest he go over and get us a table while I run to the rooms to get my cell phone so we can check on everyone and get the vouchers. We got off the bus at the Dolphin, since that makes for a shorter walk to the BC. He starts to walk with me, but changes his mind and goes ahead to get a table at Beaches and Cream.

I grabbed the vouchers and checked my phone, six calls from a 593 number, that's a Latrobe number, that's where the hospital is. Well, either Holly had the baby or she was hurt in the accident. I try feverishly calling every number I had for Tony, calling the garage, calling my mom, I can't get anybody on the phone

Finally, just before I reach the Yacht Club, my mom calls. Tony's wife had the baby at 3:00 am, he was 8 #13 ounces!!! Everyone was doing fine, but Tony wanted to take a couple of days off. I understood, so I told her that was fine and told her to have him call me when he got a chance. I also asked her to talk to my nephew and tell him to cancel all the work for Thursday since we definitely did not want him up there working alone when he might get hurt.

I made it over to Beaches and Cream just before my food did (Matt already knew what I wanted). We both had burgers and fries, and they were wonderful and greasy just like I remember them. He had a fudge sundae and I had the chocolate cake, which is awesome and huge and one of my favorite desserts in all of Disney, although the warm chocolate cake at Mama Melrose was probably as good.

After dinner we waddled on out to the dock and picked up the boat. Did I want to go to Epcot? Matt asks. Well, the plan was to go rest, but there was still some stuff we hadn't done in Epcot, so sure I was up to it if he was. So the boat stops at the Boardwalk first "are you sure" he asks? "I am not tired, but if you are, we can go back" "I am good, he answers" Mistake. We should have forced ourselves to rest, it was so hot out and we had spent much longer at Animal Kingdom than we had at any other park and even though it was our last full day, we should have rested.

We got to Epcot and walked up to Soarin to get a fastpass, that's what we really wanted to do, ride it again. Well the wait time was 90 minutes and the fast passes were all gone, so that's scrapped. We go to Mission Space and ride it. It was just as fun as last time, with no line. Walk on is 60 minutes to Test Track, so we skip that too. We are doing a lot of walking, but not a lot of riding. So we stop at Mouse Gears to do some shopping.

After we leave, Matt decides he has had it. He was too tired for this and he didn't really want to go to Epcot, but I had forced him :earseek: and he really needed to rest. OK, so we walk back to the hotel. I didn't say much, afraid that I would do something to spoil his wonderful mood :rolleyes: .

We went swimming and rested in the hot tub a while. Then he watched TV while I packed for a while and then went for a walk on the Boardwalk. Tony called while we were enjoying our free drinks and watching Illuminations from the lounge balcony. Holly and Jordan Anthony were both fine and sleeping well. I told him to take the rest of the week off and not worry about work until Monday. He came to work on Saturday (he doesn't ususally work on Saturday)

By the time we went to bed, Matt was feeling better, just really tired. Talking to Tony had made us both happy, I remember well the excitement you feel after a new baby enters the world, and talking to him made us experience that again in a way.

I can see now that this should have been at least a partial rest day for us. I like Animal Kingdom but not enough to wear us down like that.

What did we learn today? Devine is really cool; Tour Guide Mike's AK touring plan is awesome; the 1 pm Wildlife Discovery Excursion is not as good at the 9am; Kali River Rapids is wet and Primevil Whirl is fun; the Tusker House was really good and so was Beaches and Cream; I love chocolate cake, pretty much from anywhere; Epcot feels hotter to me than Animal Kingdom; If your body says you need a rest day, listen; exploding husbands are bad; free drinks are still good; and the birth of a new baby can make everything better.
 
Congratulations to Tony and his wife on the safe arrival of their new baby. Makes me feel broody again :cheer2:
Chocolate cake, free drinks - my sort of holiday.
 
Thursday August 18th

Remember at the very begining of the report when I talked about how we never go a good picture of Matt and I on our wedding day? Well it was one of my goals this trip to definitely resolve that, so on our last day I had arranged for one of Disney's Special Event Photographers to meet us in the Magic Kingdom (first thing in the morning of course) for a photo session.

Matt was not looking forward to this particularly, however he had agreed to it from the begining, so we packed up our bags, called Bell Services and they picked up our things for us to store since our town car was not coming until 4:00 to pick us up for our 6:20 flight. He didn't grumble at all about going, which was good!

We just missed the bus to the Magic Kingdom, but we still managed to be at City Hall by 9:02 am, a miracle. Neither one of us knew exactly what to expect from this photo session, but it was fun. He took us to different locations throughout Main Street and the castle area. It was really fun in the barber shop where I got to pretend to cut Matt's hair with giant plastic scissors while the barber threw pixi dust over us. It will be a couple of weeks before we see the pictures, but I will try to post, or at least let you know how they turned out.

Next we headed over to Frontierland to see what the lines were like. We rode Splash Mountain two more times and went to Tom Sawyers Island for the first time, there isn't too much there, but I think the 10 and 6 year olds will like it there.

We rode the Tea Cups and made each other thoroughly sick by spinning the cups as much as possible. We made a stop in Tink's Treasures so I could see Tink in the dresser. Only Disney would do something like that!

There was a little girl there with her parents, I believe they were from the UK, and we showed her how to see Tinkerbell and they were very grateful. They were the first family that didn't act like we were child molesters for talking to their child that whole week. Every other time the parents would take the child by the shoulders and lead them in the other direction while glaring at us. We were just missing our kids.

We decided on lunch at Casey's again, since it is still my favorite hot dog in the world. On our last trip because of a series of mishaps, I ended up not eating for 36 hours and nearly passed out in front of the castle. We went straight to the first restaurant we saw, Casey's, and I swore at the time that it was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life. I have since revised that statement to the best hot dog in the world. :teeth:

We walked around for a while, road Pirates, went shopping. We were both glad to be going to see the kids but sad to leave the Magic Kingdom. We got back to the Boardwalk around 2:00, not sure what we would do with the rest of our time. We didn't really want to swim, so we hung around the lounge with our new friends. One of the CMs took us on a tour of the two bedroom Steeplechase Suite. It was amazing, just beautiful and HUGE. It was like an apartment. Totally out of our price range :earseek: but fun to see.

I don't know if I mentioned this earlier, but we were initially unsure about the Boardwalk. It is soooo elegant, and we are pretty casual people. We ended up loving it, mostly because of the staff. The people that work there are amazing, in particular the concierge staff. We never had a real problem with the concierge staff at the Polynesian, but found the staff at the Boardwalk much more warm and caring and eager to interact.

We are going back to the Polynesian in December with the kids, I would love to do a split stay with the BWI, but we decided it would be too tough with four kids. Right now the monorail is what is making our decision, that and the volcano pool, although I think the kids would like the Boardwalk Pool more than Matt did. We spend so much more of our time in the Magic Kingdom, that the ease of stepping on to the monorail is swaying us.

Anyway, our trip to the airport was uneventful, and we upgraded our tickets again to business class, and boy were we glad we did!! Our plane ended up being delayed over an hour and a half after we boarded because of lightening. Luckily, we were in the first row of seats, had plenty of leg room and you guessed it, free drinks, to keep us busy.

The kids were ecstatic to see us, although the only one up when we got in after midnight was Christopher (almost 14 year old). No one was upset that we had gone to Disney, they had a ball with grandma, and they all loved the gifts we brought them. Zoe (2) got Mr Potato Head and accessories, which was a HUGE hit, bigger than I thought it would be, a Cinderella nightgown, a Tinkerbell shirt and a Sorcerer Mickey. Shelby (6) got the Cinderellabration Cinderella and Prince Charming dolls, a Cinderella nightgown, a bracelet and necklace and a Princess t-shirt. Zack (10) got Star Wars Risk game, a stuffed Ewok, a Jedi Training t-shirt and a necklace. Chris (13 almost 14) got Haunted Mansion Clue, a Mickey t-shirt, and light up spinny thing that I couldn't possible describe, and a necklace.

Well, I guess this is the end of my trip. I will write a wrap up later on, probably tomorrow since the kids expect me to make dinner tonight :earboy2: Thanks for reading and sharing our adventure.
 
Thanks, Goodferry, for a most enjoyable trip report -- one of the best I've read!
 
Thanks for the report-make sure you post some of your pictures.

My husband is also in the Repair Auto/Body Collision. I'm really surprised you could get him to go on a vacation. Plus you are going back in December. My husband would be flippin. We haven't had a vacation in 3 years. I keep telling him life is to short-I need a vacation.
 
What a great trip you had! You are a good writer; it has been a pleasure reading your reports.

Congratulations to Tony and Holly on the new addition!
 
And a good time was had by all. Did you need a separate suitcase for all those fab gifts? I hope that you all have a wonderful time when you visit WDW as a family.
Thanks again for your trip reports.
Clare
 
A wonderful trip report and congratualations to Tony :cheer2: Jordan Anthony is a gorgeous name. I would love to see some more pictures when you get the chance, and of course another trip report later in the year.

Thanks again for taking time out to write a report of such entertaining high quality, i have enjoyed every minute,

Claire xx
 
Thanks for sharing your trip report. I felt like I was along for the ride. DH and I celebrated our 10th anniversary at the Wilderness Lodge over New Year's this year. We missed our kids, too, but it was nice just having to be responsible for myself...and not carry a diaper bag...for a few days. :teeth:
 
Thanks guys, I am glad you enjoyed the report! :goodvibes

I will post more pictures as they come in. I will try to post a few from the AK tour tonight. Mari, getting him to go on vacation was easy after the first one, it was that first one that was like pulling teeth! Once he saw how much more productive he could be after taking a break for a while, he was convinced. Not to mention getting to spend time with the kids and letting his hands take a break. They take such a beating everyday, but even just a week off promotes a lot of healing!

I do bring a virtually empty suitcase along for gifts, last trip we actually shipped a lot of birthday presents and stuff home from the stores. You don't pay sales tax if you ship, I think the break even point for paying for shipping/not paying sales tax is around $90.

Holly and the baby are both doing well. He is HUGE and starting to sleep a little more now. I forget how stressful those first few days with a new baby can be. Every time I talk to her she sounds like she is on the verge of tears.

Anyway, the whole point of this trip was for Matt and I to celebrate the anniversary of our marriage and I think we did that. As a couple we like to spend time alone together, and we definitely did that over the course of our vacation at the same time making up for some things we forgot on our wedding day. :rolleyes:

My family still thinks we are crazy for going, but we are active people who like to keep moving, so this was the perfect kind of vacation for us. We would go nuts sitting on the beach for a week. We both love disney, too, I don't think I would have done it if he didn't love it too.

If I were to do it again, I would schedule us at least one sleep in morning and followed Tour Guide Mike's advice a little more closely. We have decided that we will do the dining plan in December. You can't beat the price and we typically like to sit down for a longer meal at least once a day. We may try to share more meals and incorporate more 2 credit things, like the Hoop dee doo Review.

Now that this trip, and this trip report are behind me, I can really focus on the December trip. It will be fun, a different kind of fun. I can't wait to take Zoe on It's a Small World for the first time and see her face light up when she sees "her castle" as she calls it.

I know that it might be one of the last times Christopher, who will turn 14 in December, will want to go on vacation with his dorky parents.

I can't wait to ride the thrill rides with Zack, who at 10, wasn't into them on the last trip, but is now anxiously waiting to ride Mission Space and Rock N' Roller Coaster with his mom.

We will be celebrating Shelby's 7th birthday while we are there, on December 22nd. She has a seizure disorder that her neurologist hopes she will grow out of around the age of 7, so if you are in the Magic Kingdom on December 22nd you will see us watching Wishes and wishing that whatever it is in her brain that makes her sick, heals.
 
Really enjoyed your trip report. I have been debating whether to try Tourguide Mike for our trip this December. We are not commando folks but I do like to know the when are the best and worts times for things so that we are not just walking around in circles like we quite often do. Congratulations to both you and your husband! I look forward to seeing your pics. :Pinkbounc

Shannon :wizard:
 
Loved your report! I sat here and read the whole thing at one sitting over my morning, errr, well now afternoon too, coffee. Glad you all got a break from the business (sorta) and your DH's hands could heal up. Have fun planning your December trip, hope to read that report too!
 
LOVED your report(s)!!! Thanks for sharing.
 
loved your reports - thanks for sharing
 




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