24 hours in the car just to see fake palm trees?! Our magical Thanksgiving vacation

[jvz82]

Wow - what a long but amazing day! Love the last picture!

Thank you so much! It really was a great day.

I can only imagine the chaos! It sounds like you handed it really well, even with the camera dropping.



This is hilarious!!



I lived in MN for 2 years but my daughters have grown up in TX and said the snow was their favorite part of the show! Too funny that they were probably wondering why people like snow that much.

Yes, they were less than impressed with the fake snow lol.

Thank you for reading!!

 

[jvz82]

Part 6: O'hana means family

Welcome back to my trip report! I've already written so much, it's hard to believe it's only Tuesday morning of our trip!

Tuesday morning was nice because we didn't have anywhere we needed to be. The bad part of Tuesday morning was that it was freakin cold when we woke up! After such a hot day at Hollywood Studios, that rain storm the night before must have brought a cold front to Florida that was unfortunately going to last around 3 days. The high for Tuesday was only 65 degrees.

We had a little dose of reality on Tuesday morning as well, as my husband (who's in a masters program) had to meet with his instructor via phone and get some homework done. Because it was cold and we were tired, everyone seemed pretty content to play with their new toys and watch TV in the morning.

Late morning, we were heading over to Polynesian Resort to go to Ohana's for breakfast!

This was my first time at this resort. It was so pretty!



We were greeted by a lovely woman handing out leis and telling us about the resort. Everyone took a lei, except my 9.5yo who is way too cool for that kind of thing.



While we waited to be seated, we went shopping in the gift shop. My daughter and 6yo really wanted these stuffed Stitches (I guess the girl version of Stitch is called Angel?) and we told them we'd think about it during breakfast and if they still wanted them after we ate we could come back.

Shortly after, we were seated and they brought us the most delicious pineapple bread!



The kids have constantly been talking about Mickey waffles and hoping to also eat Stitch waffles. They weren't disappointed! I swear the server couldn't keep up with our waffle needs lol.







The first character we got to meet was Mickey! Our favorite!!! Yay!!



Then we got to meet Lilo, who I was excited to meet and had even worn a Lilo inspired t-shirt that I had made so I had to have a picture with Lilo.










Pluto was apparently super busy this morning and took quite a while before he made his way to us! But when he finally made it, they had a photopass photographer with so it was fun to get a big family photo with Pluto!





Overall we really enjoyed our late breakfast at O'hanas. The character interactions were great and the food was tasty. When we left, we stopped at the gift shop and picked up some new Stitch stuffies for my two middle kiddos. They are still pretty treasured by the kids even now!

When we got back to Fort Wilderness, the kids were desperate to go swimming! I was like you crazy crazy children, it is 65 degrees out! But the good news was it was SO sunny, and not a breeze in sight. So everyone got on their swimming suits and we headed to the pool!

This was seriously the BEST afternoon!! We got there sometime around 1 pm and the pool was basically empty. The kids LOVED it. They could go up and down the water slide with zero wait. The pool was heated so they said it felt great, and I sat in the sun just loving the rays and feel warm even though it was only 65. We spent 3 straight hours at the pool and still had to drag the kids away!

There were activity coordinators there and were working really hard to bring my kids and this one other family that was there into the games. They played a hot tub Disney world trivia game where they played clips of songs and each team had to guess what ride the song was from. I totally kicked *** at this and helped my team win it.

Afterwards, we got dressed in the bathrooms by the pool and did some crafts with the activities coordinators. That was fun and they told us all of the fun stuff that FW had available.

We had a hard time deciding what to eat for dinner. My husband and I were really in the mood for pizza but my 6yo was absolutely convinced he HAD to have macaroni. There was a pizza place at Disney Springs that looked really tasty but again, with no macaroni on the menu we were having trouble winning over our most stubborn child. So we headed to Disney Springs, stopped at one restaurant to get macaroni for him, and then over to Blaze Pizza for the rest of us.

Blaze pizza was sooooo good, and the portion sizes were huge so we ended up not even needing a credit for each person. We're definitely keeping this on the list for future visits.

On the way out we went to the Lego store and the kids put together some Lego guys and my 6yo decided to use some of his souvenir money to buy guys for him and his sister. He's so sweet to her!

And then it was back home to bed!!!

So definitely a less busy day than the previous day, but a much needed "rest" day. The kids really got in some great pool time, which I was very happy about.

Join me next time for our e.x.t.r.a l.o.n.g Magic Kingdom day!!!

 

[jrmint427]

I've still never been to the Polynesian but have O'hana on my list to try some day!

But when he finally made it, they had a photopass photographer with so it was fun to get a big family photo with Pluto!

This is the first time I've heard about having a photo pass photographer with a character at a meal (aside from those that greet you before or after you're eating, like Cinderella and the Beast). I wish more places would do this! It looks like a fun meal and I didn't realize you could meet Mickey there!

The rest day sounds nice. I'm terrible about planning for enough rest time, but I love the idea of a relaxing afternoon at the pool.

I'm enjoying the report and looking forward to reading more!

 

[cinderaimee]

I love the "badness level" Stitch shirts - I've been looking for one for my four year old because he is a feral monster most of the time

Great TR! Looking forward to your MK day

 

[jvz82]

I've still never been to the Polynesian but have O'hana on my list to try some day!



This is the first time I've heard about having a photo pass photographer with a character at a meal (aside from those that greet you before or after you're eating, like Cinderella and the Beast). I wish more places would do this! It looks like a fun meal and I didn't realize you could meet Mickey there!

The rest day sounds nice. I'm terrible about planning for enough rest time, but I love the idea of a relaxing afternoon at the pool.

I'm enjoying the report and looking forward to reading more!

Yes the photographer was great, normally they don't have them at restaurants although the servers are usually happy to take pictures.

I'm terrible about rest days too, because honestly I'd prefer not to have them. But my kids love the pool and my husband really needs them to be able to enjoy the park days.

I love the "badness level" Stitch shirts - I've been looking for one for my four year old because he is a feral monster most of the time

Great TR! Looking forward to your MK day

My husband insisted on the "badness level" shirt for himself after I made one for feral my 4yo lol. I made the shirts, but actually I saw them for sale at a couple different gift shops at Disney!

 

[QueenJen]

The high for Tuesday was only 65 degrees.

I think this is a great temp (if the sun is shining) when touring the parks - you don't get sweaty.

The pool was heated so they said it felt great, and I sat in the sun just loving the rays and feel warm even though it was only 65.

Glad to hear this worked too. Rest and pool time is a must for us.

my 6yo decided to use some of his souvenir money to buy guys for him and his sister. He's so sweet to her!

This is so sweet - did it melt your heart?

 

[jvz82]

I think this is a great temp (if the sun is shining) when touring the parks - you don't get sweaty.



Glad to hear this worked too. Rest and pool time is a must for us.



This is so sweet - did it melt your heart?

Oh yes, their relationship often melts my heart. They have always had a special bond! <3

 

[KsGiGi]

Enjoying your report. O'hana is on my wish list to do on our next trip.

 

[jvz82]

Enjoying your report. O'hana is on my wish list to do on our next trip.

It was fun!! I love the feel of the resort overall.

 

[jvz82]

Part 7: The cold never bothered me anyway (chapter 1)

It's Magic Kingdom day!!!!!

Magic Kingdom opened at 9 am that day, and there were EMH from 10-12 that evening. I think I forgot to mention that while we were at Hollywood Studios, I got a notification from my reservation tracker that Crystal Palace had an opening for 8 am on Wednesday morning. I decided to jump on it because I liked the idea of getting to MK before the park opened! We had never done it before and I just wanted to try something new. So we had an early start to our Wednesday!

My daughter is NOT a morning person. This is my little princess when I woke her up.


https://flic.kr/p/PFCFbk

Usually, showers are energizing for so I decided we'd try giving her a shower in the morning before heading to the parks. I think I had good intentions, but it was a fail. I think it actually made her grumpier!

We had known it was going to be cold on our MK day, it wasn't predicted to even get above 60 degrees. So at 7 am, it was freeeeezing! High 30s I think. We bundled up in layers and headed for the coldest mode of transportation I can think of - the ferry!




The kids loved the ferry ride! Even though it was really cold, we all just loved it and we had the whole ferry to ourselves.

We finally got close to MK and we could see Space Mountain, and then finally the castle!! <3 <3 <3





Finally!!! We're home.

As we were waiting for the doors to open, we did a little browsing at the gift shop. My daughter was being really grumpy. I was hoping breakfast would help.
https://flic.kr/p/PFCFbk
And finally they let us through the doors! We stopped for a picture first. You can see my daughter was forcing her smile lol. [/URL]

https://flic.kr/p/PFCFbk
And then we headed over to Crystal Palace to be seated for breakfast!


https://flic.kr/p/PFCFbk
A quick picture of the kiddos while we waited for breakfast!



Ok, that's it for tonight! Up next: Winnie the Pooh!

 

[jvz82]

Part 7: The cold never bothered me anyway (chapter 2)

I'm back to continue on our Magic Kingdom day!!!

In my first post, we had barely made it through the gates so obviously it's going to take me a while to get through this whole day!

We had an 8 am reservation for Crystal Palace, which wasn't my first choice for breakfast (first choice for Be Our Guest) but no matter how hard I tried, I just could not get a reservation for that place!! So Crystal Palace was the winner. But in the end, I am really glad we ended up here and it was a blast.

When we first sat down, Eeyore was already making his way towards our table so the server recommended we stay seated until he got there. We had been joking that Eeyore was my 9.5yo's "spirit animal" so he was excited to meet him.

All the kids were so happy! So many Eeyore hugs.





After Eeyore left, we took a moment to go get some food. Mama ordered herself a mimosa!!


Then came Pooh bear!




Meanwhile, my 9.5yo has decided that the fried french toast was the best thing ever, as evidenced by his plate.


Then there's Tigger, who we decided is our 4yo's spirit animal because he's always bouncing off the walls and super excited and crazy all the time lol.




And last but not least, Piglet!


We had great timing, and we were done with breakfast a few minutes before 9, just in time for the park to open! Unfortunately a couple members of our family spent way too long in the bathroom and we missed the official park opening. But we headed out from Crystal Palace a few minutes after 9 and went straight for Adventure Land.



We decided to hit Jungle Cruise right away because my kids love the corny jokes. It was only a 5 minute wait according to the sign. But after standing in line for a solid ten minutes and noticing that nobody had been let on a boat at all since we got there, we decided something must be wrong with the boats. I didn't want to waste the 9 am hour waiting in line, so we left and headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean.

I don't remember ever getting our picture taken on this ride before?!? Probably the lamest ride photo ever lol.


I swear we had fun, lol.

After Pirates, we went to the Magic Carpet ride. Watch out, they spit!


After Magic Carpet, I noticed on my Disney app that Thunder Mountain was only a ten minute wait. We had a FP for the ride later in the morning, but I figured since we were close and the kids love the ride that we would jump on.


This was Reid's first time on the ride, and he LOVED it. Everyone had fun! No motion sickness for hubby even! He was using a combination of Dramomine and ginger gum to hopefully avoid repeating issues we had on Monday.

After Thunder, most everyone wanted to go on Splash Mountain. The line was only 5 minutes long (and it was short all day long because it was chilly out!). My 4yo didn't really want to go on, but we tried to convince him it would be fun. Once we got towards the front, he freaked out and refused to go. We ended up taking an exit and leaving my husband and the older 3 kids. My 4yo and I headed back to the little play area there and he had an absolute blast!




I forgot how long Splash Mountain takes! Even though they climbed on the boat right when we left the line, it still took quite a while for them to come out. Meanwhile, I'm stalking the Disney app and I noticed that Haunted Mansion, which had been the ride I wanted to go on next, already had a 30 minute wait. Like I said earlier, I don't like waiting for more than 15-20 minutes. So I decided to take advantage of the refresh fast pass strategy and kept refreshing until I was able to replace our Thunder Mountain FP with Haunted Mansion. Worked like a charm!

Oh, and the glorious ride photo! Lol. My 9yo (front seat) decided he didn't want to get wet, so this was his solution!


So the rest of the crew exited Splash Mountain and I explained the change in plans. We had a short time before our FP hour started, so we decided to go to It's a Small World because it was a short wait. During our walk, our lovely 4yo started freaking out about Haunted Mansion, telling us it was way too scary and he didn't want to do it. I agreed to find a different ride for him and I to go on. Somehow, something in his brain told him that It's a Small world was ALSO a scary ride, so when we got into line he was just crying and carrying on about how he couldn't go on the ride because it was "tooooo scawwy". We even had random people in the line trying to reassure him that it was fine and not scary at all! He just couldn't get it through his head.

While in line, refresh came through for me and I managed to get a FP for me and my 4yo for Little Mermaid at the same time as everyone else had their Haunted Mansion FP. Then 5 minutes later, my 6yo also decided Haunted Mansion was too scary for him so I had to get a new FP for him too! I refreshed over and over and over and finally got a matching Little Mermaid for him.

It felt like a long wait between the scared 4yo and constant FP refreshing but we finally made it!


And guess what 4yo was absolutely the complete opposite of scared??!


Ohhhh it was the most magical ride ever for this kid! He was so happy. I took video of him watching the ride because it made me want to cry, seeing the ride through his eyes was the best ever.

After Small World, we separated again. Hubby took the two big kids to Haunted Mansion, and we headed towards Little Mermaid. We had a few minutes to kill before our FP time officially started, so we took pictures.


And then we hit the ride!






Phew, marathon post tonight!! All right we are a good ways into our morning, I think our next stop was a large snack/small lunch break so I will start there next time. Thanks for reading!!

Teaser: I use antlers in all of my deeeecoratinggggg!

 

[jrmint427]

It sounds like a fun and productive morning! My 4 year old still hasn’t forgiven me for making her ride Haunted Mansion. She rode it when she was 3 and seemed to handle it fine then so we didn’t realize it would be such an issue this year!

He was so happy. I took video of him watching the ride because it made me want to cry, seeing the ride through his eyes was the best ever.

That is just the best!!

 

[jvz82]

It sounds like a fun and productive morning! My 4 year old still hasn’t forgiven me for making her ride Haunted Mansion. She rode it when she was 3 and seemed to handle it fine then so we didn’t realize it would be such an issue this year!



That is just the best!!

We coaxed my 6yo (who was 4 at the time) on our trip two years ago to go on Haunted Mansion, and he HATED it and he refused most rides the rest of the day so I wasn't about to go through that again. It worked better to just separate and not deal with terrified children!

 

[jvz82]

Part 7: The cold never bothered me anyway (chapter 3)

I will admit, my memory of the order of events during the afternoon is fuzzy. I'm trying to rely on the order my pictures were taken in and hope for the best!

After Little Mermaid, my little boys headed back towards the Carousel, with plans to meet the rest of our crew there soon. It was pretty crowded in that area, but the line for the Carousel was pretty short so we jumped in line to wait for them there. They showed up just a couple minutes later so we could all go on the ride together!





After the Carousel, the kids were asking for lunch. Since we had had such a big breakfast, we decided to just grab some snacks. It got complicated because of course nobody agreed on what to eat! Half of the group wanted pretzels, half wanted giant cinnamon rolls from Gaston's tavern. So we separated and agreed to meet at Gaston's.

It was a huge line at Gaston's! And it took us a while to get a seat, but it was worth it. Check out these delicious rolls with red icing for Christmas!


We also got some pretzels and popcorn, and we ended up just cutting pretzels and rolls in smaller portions so we could all share.




After our snacks, we headed over to Tomorrow Land! My 4yo was too short to ride Space Mountain, and my husband is too tall to fit, so they had fast passes for the Race Track, and the rest of us were going on Space Mountain! Yay!



Untitled by Vicky Soltis, on Flickr
Ok, here it is. Biggest regret of the entire trip: Why didn't the people in the ship sitting behind me tell me they were going to do this??!?! I totally would have done it too and it would have been such an awesome picture!!!!!


Other than that, we had a "blast" on Space Mountain!

We met up with hubby and 4yo, and apparently my 4yo had peed his pants. Or rather he had made it to the potty, but didn't pull his pants down enough and soaked them with pee. We had brought extra pants for him, but one of our water bottles leaked and the extra pants were drenched. So guess who got to spend $30 on a pair of Hakuna Matata sweatpants???

Oh well, at least they're super cute sweatpants!

We had our last FP coming up for Peter Pan so we headed back to Fantasy Land for that!

I checked out the Disney app and noticed the Barnstormer had a super short wait so after Peter Pan we hit Barnstormer. While waiting in line, I used the refresh method again over and over and over again until I was able to get a Dumbo FP in the next 5 minutes. Refresh FTW!!!





Well, my computer is dying so I'm going to call it a night for my trip report! Can't wait to finish up our fun MK day!
https://flic.kr/p/PFyMng

 

[jrmint427]

Check out these delicious rolls with red icing for Christmas!

Those things were amazing! But messy :-D

You are a pro at the FP refresh! I tried on our recent trip and got lucky a few times but didn’t see as much movement as I always read in other people’s TRs.

 

[Shellyred8]

Greetings fellow Minnesotan!! Loving your trip report!

I tried the FP refresh on our trip earlier this month and had pretty good luck with it, but man did it drain my phone's battery!!!

I love the rolls from Gaston's. I even tried making them at home once. They were ok, but not as good as there. Maybe part of that has to do with the fact that there isn't a castle near me when I'm eating them at home?!?!

 

[jvz82]

Those things were amazing! But messy :-D

You are a pro at the FP refresh! I tried on our recent trip and got lucky a few times but didn’t see as much movement as I always read in other people’s TRs.

I had a lot of success with the less popular rides, but I never saw the big ticket rides show up. But overall I felt good about it and I do think we waited in line less because of it.

Greetings fellow Minnesotan!! Loving your trip report!

I tried the FP refresh on our trip earlier this month and had pretty good luck with it, but man did it drain my phone's battery!!!

I love the rolls from Gaston's. I even tried making them at home once. They were ok, but not as good as there. Maybe part of that has to do with the fact that there isn't a castle near me when I'm eating them at home?!?!

Everything is better when you're by a castle!!!

I'm sure refreshing does drain a phone's battery! I had a rechargable battery pack in my purse so it was pretty much just plugged in at all times.

 

[jvz82]

Part 7: The cold never bothered me anyway (chapter 4)

I'm back to continue on our Magic Kingdom day!! I left off with Dumbo and I'll be honest that I have a real lack of photos from our later afternoon at MK, so I'm not totally sure of the order of events. But I'll do my best!

I know for sure the kids were requesting running around at Tom Sawyer Island, so we walked all the way from Dumbo over to Tom Sawyer, which was quite a hike! And upon arriving, we were told by a cast member that it was closed until December!

We were soooo tired and didn't know for sure what to do, so I suggested we head into Country Bear Jamboree since it was close and we could sit down for a while. It's not my favorite show, but it's a place to sit!

Afterwards, our 4yo was getting really tired and he asked if we could get a stroller. We had told him earlier if he got tired we would rent one for him so we hiked back towards the park entrance to rent a stroller. While we were waiting, they had a random dance party parade thing come rolling up main street so we went to check that out!





Then hubby came out with the stroller so 4yo was able to sit. We decided to have an early dinner so we pre-ordered food over at Pecos Bill's and then hiked BACK over to Frontier land again!!

After dinner, we decided to go to the candy shop on main street to get some treats. We knew we would end up with lots of extra snack credits and I wanted to use them there! We stopped on our way to get another picture with the castle while it was lit. I don't know why my 9yo was giving this death glare?!? He wasn't even upset about anything at the time!


Then we got our treats, and found a quiet place in a little alley off of main street to eat our treats!







Then as we were sitting there, we heard the singing lessons! I'm sure many of you have heard the woman who sings, we heard it for the last time on our last trip. This time, I took a picture of the building because I love it so much. I love the small Disney details!


After our treats, we had a FP for Buzz Lightyear spin, so we headed over to Tomorrowland.










After Buzz, we wanted to go on People Mover but the line was super long, which seemed really weird. We asked a CM and apparently the ride had been broken down for quite a while so the line had really gotten long during that time. We decided not to wait, and went over to Carousel of Progress instead.

I know not everyone likes Carousel of Progress, but it really is one of my favorites for nostalgic reasons. I still remember the original song and often break into singing it, although I like the "new" song too.

After COP was over, the ride for People Mover had gone way down so we jumped in.





Omg, the kids LOVED this ride!!! Seriously I think we could spend the entire day just cruising around in this thing! My husband, who has never gotten to go on Space Mountain before and probably never will, really enjoyed getting to see inside the ride.

Up next: Happily ever after, popcorn, and tiiiiired kiddos.

 

[jrmint427]

Then we got our treats, and found a quiet place in a little alley off of main street to eat our treats!

Those look delicious!

Then as we were sitting there, we heard the singing lessons! I'm sure many of you have heard the woman who sings, we heard it for the last time on our last trip. This time, I took a picture of the building because I love it so much. I love the small Disney details!

I haven't heard of this! What is it? Do you see a woman or just hear singing?

 

[molly O'Reilly]

Hi! This is my first post on DIS so I hope I’m doing it right! I love your Chewbacca meet story! My family and I are going on our very first trip this coming January. I’m really looking forward to meeting Chewbacca but when I tried to add it to my plans it wasn’t an option after the first couple of weeks in January. Does anyone know if he is leaving Launch Bay???