3 kids, blazing heat, and more snack than we could eat!

[agmmbolam426]

My name is Jonilee and I am married to the most wonderful man I have ever known. We have four beautiful children: Mckalynn, Landon, Emma, and Addison.( Due to the custody arrangement with Chris' ex Emma wasnt able to go on this trip but she will be going with us in June 2013) Now on to the happier Stuff So, let me introduce you to the gang!!!

This is My Husband and I. Disney will always be a very special place to us because it is where the love of my life asked me to marry him!

This is Mckalynn (we call her kk for short) She loves all things princess but especially loves Rapunzel.

This is Landon he loves Phineas and Ferb and Pirates

This is our little princess Emma. She was not able to join us this time but you will see her a lot more in our pretrip report for June 2013!

This is Addie she loves all things princess and mickey and minnie

Here is a pic of the countdown calendar I made for the kids! I am not a creative person so this is a big step for me

So we left early on September 9th and started the long drive from Ga to Orlando, FL. I handed each of my children their book bags which I filled with toys, books, snacks, etc. to help pass the time. On our way I decided to make reservations for the Pirates league. Which I am so glad we didnt just try and walk in because they were almost booked when I called. So definetly make reservations!!!

We arrived at Pop Century and I quickly ran to our room to put gifts for DD and DS on their beds from their favorite characters. Of course, Disney always being one step ahead of us Mickey left a voicemail for the kids when we arrived. We must have listened to the voicemail fifty times lol! So once we settled in we decided to take a trip to Downtown Disney



Here is a video of the kids playing in the fountains. They got completely soaked!!!

http://img.phot[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/integra2316]
[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v200/integra2316/2011-09-09_15-49-16_621.jpg




Addie went absolutely crazy when she saw all the minnies and mickeys. People would stop and laugh she was so excited it was hilarious!


and then we ate at the pop food court and without any persuasion necessary our little princesses and prince climbed into bed and passed out!

Here are the autograph books I made for DD and DS! I had them printed out through shutterfly and then I took them to Staples to be bound together. The characters really interacted with the kids about their unique autograph books!



Next stop...EPCOT!!!

 

[agmmbolam426]

by the way everyone bear with me I just had 3 wisdom teeth removed and I am really doped up on pain meds and I decided to try and type up a trip report....So if I dont make a whole lot of sense that would be the reason!

 

[Sappermont]

Very cool autograph books! Looking forward to your trip report! Count me in!

 

[agmmbolam426]

Welcome Sappermont

 

[mickeyrus]

Cute books. I would like to do something like that for my DD.

 

[agmmbolam426]

Well we woke up around 7:00 to make it to rope drop at Epcot. We always try to be first to get to the Character spot every time we go but for some reason I always get stuck behind a CM that wont let me pass lol!

The character spot was a really big deal this trip because Addie our youngest is the biggest Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse fan and she had never seen them in person yet. So we couldn't wait to see her reaction.

Here is the video of the first time Addie saw Minnie. It was funny to see her reaction. She started out smiling at Mickey from a distance while we were waiting in line and then she walks up to him looks him up and down...and then runs as fast as she could back to mommy. lol!




and mickey!

Landon and Kk's favorite ride is spaceship earth.

I swear we rode this ride 20 times during our trip! They call it the big ball.

We went straight for soarin (one of mine and DH's favorite rides) and got fast passes. DH and I have always thought it would be cool if they made the soarin movie "traveling the world" but we still love the movie now too One of the funniest things of the day was when we rode the nemo ride and then on to turtle talk with crush.

Our DS was sitting on the floor and raised his hand to ask a question and he said "im 4!" and crush said "the answer to your question is yes you are 4" it was so funny!

We had reservations at Le Cellier at 11:55 so we headed over to the canadian pavilion to try the wonderful filet with mushroom risotto. I had heard a lot of mixed reviews about it but I think it was one of the best steaks I have ever had.

Here was the wonderful pretzel bread

followed by the filet. DS loved this I think he probably ate half of it.

This was the kids dessert. We were celebrating DD's 6th birthday on this trip so her dessert was extra special!

Mommy's dessert! It was so yummy!

Overall we loved Le Cellier!

 

[agmmbolam426]

Thank Mickeysrus! Trust me, if I can do it anyone can!!!

 

[agmmbolam426]

this is Chris (DH) and I came in here to say I can not wait to have another avocado margarita!!!

 

[agmmbolam426]

Last year Disney offered the free dining plan again. Which of course, we jumped right on. Like im sure I have mentioned before, we love eating and I think Disney has wonderful food. One requirement they had to get the free dining plan was you had to purchase the photo book. Which was still a good deal. So of course, I wanted to make sure we got tons of photo pass pictures. I didnt take as many pictures on my own camera which in hindsight I wish I would have taken more. Here are some pictures of the cool photobook we got.

My kids response to this photo was "eww...gross!" lol

In the title I said more snacks than we could eat. I meant every word! The great thing about being on the DDP is you definitely go to bed with a full tummy. Some of the snacks we used with our credit were big enough for all of us to share. So, we learned really quickly to share snacks. The great thing about it is when we were in Epcot we could get a snack from every country without paying out of pocket. I always want to get the most for my money so we always bought a drink and used our snack credits for other goodies. Next up I will give a list of all of my snack reviews

 

[agmmbolam426]

Epcot:

Boulangerie Patisserie: This is always a favorite stop of ours on every trip. Their napoleons are amazing. All of their treats are more than big enough to share.

Karamel Kuche: Caramel popcorn! Last year was the first time we stopped by and tried some of their wonderful popcorn. Just follow the wonderful smell of caramel and you wont be disappointed. You can get a small bag for a snack credit and in my opinion it is well worth it! I have heard a lot of people say that it is not that great cold but to be honest we never give it a chance to be cold! We also got a huge rice crispy treat that we all shared for a snack credit that was awesome.

Jalapeno cheese pretzel: Let me start out by saying im a total wimp when it comes to spicy food but I could have eaten three of these pretzels! They were not too spicy they were just right!

School bread: DH was a huge fan of it but me, not so much....everytime he sees a picture he starts drooling lol.

eggrolls in China: I wasnt that impressed personally. You get two eggrolls for the snack credit which is good but they were just ok in my opinion.

chocolate crepe: This was ok but not my favorite. I love anything slathered in chocolate but there are just so many choices in Disney...

POP food court:

Tie-Dye cheesecake:

I absolutely loved this. I got one for dessert every time we ate at the food court. For those of you that have never tried this...it is a red velvet cake topped with cheesecake...yum!

Downtown Disney:

Goofy's Candy company is always a fun part of our trip. We let our kids (and us too of course!) pick out a fudge cookie, rice krispy treat, pretzel rods, apple, etc and then you get to dip it in milk chocolate, white chocolate, or dark chocolate, roll it in awesome candy like m & ms, oreos, butterfingers, etc and then drizzle it in more chocolate. have no desire to know how many calories are in one of the concoctions we have made!!! They are definetly one of those things that take a while to eat! They also offer all kinds of baked goods, slushies, and of course...candy!!!

I know we ate tons of other snacks through out our trip but I have forgotten a lot of them. Word of advice to everyone writing a trip report...dont wait 10 months to write your report and dont do it after getting your wisdom teeth pulled!!

Im sure Ill randomly remember some of the great snacks and ill update the post for you all!

 

[draybook]

Great TR so far!

 

[agmmbolam426]

Now that I have made my self really hungry talking about snacks, lets get back to the rest of the trip!

Next stop...Animal Kingdom! We woke up early and headed to Animal Kingdom. This always seems to be the hottest park! We arrived for rope drop and watched the parade. I always love seeing the smiles on my kids faces when they see the characters.

As soon as the parade ends everyone makes a mad dash to the Kilimanjaro Safari. All of our legs are burning trying to power walk as fast as we can without running or knocking over any children.
Well we made good time to the safari and did not have to wait long at all. DD1 had just learned the word bird and throughout the ride she kept yelling bird and jumping up and down. It was so cute! DD5 and DS4 absolutely loved the safari. DD5 says she wants to be a veterinarian when she gets older so anything to do with animals she is all about it.

Once we get done with the safari we head over to the trails and go and look at all the awesome animals and then make our way to the boneyard so the kids can go digging for dinosaur bones and go play on the cool playground.

One of the new things we tried this trip was the festival of the lion king.

For those of you that have not seen this show I highly recommend it! All of our kids were standing up dancing and singing and our baby kept tapping the lady next to us on the shoulder making sure she was watching! I tried to get pictures of my kids dancing but of course as soon as I pull out the camera they all of a sudden get stage fright! As soon as the show ends we head out and run into Pocahontas and Meeko. The thing that is always so funny to my Husband and I is that we know all of the characters and have seen all of the movies when we were children but our kids unfortunately have not. They have not made all of the movies into DVDs yet and so my kids have not seen them. So, to fix this problem my Husband and I bought a VCR and bought the classics on VHS so when they meet characters like Pocahontas and Meeko they know who they are.

Well after riding a few more rides the kids started saying they were starving so we headed to Restaurantosaurus. We had originally planned on going to flame tree BBQ but the kids meals didnt have any ribs and we knew that our kiddos wouldnt be happy eating hot dogs while we were eating ribs. In the blazing heat of Animal Kingdom in September Restaurantosaurus is a blessing. It is completely indoors and has a/c and it also lets you refill your own drinks. The shrimp po boy isnt that bad either.

Well DH rode expedition everest until he made himself sick, DH and the kids got soaked on the Kali river rapids, played in the boneyard, met a few more characters, and saw the nemo show and then headed back to the resort to go jump in the pool.

After we got done swimming we headed to downtown disney.

The kids with their souvenirs!

We had reservations at chef mickey's for dinner. I dont have a whole lot of pictures of the kids with the characters at chef mickeys because DD5 had to go potty every time they came by. Chef Mickey's wasnt our favorite the steak was a little to raw for our taste but it was neat the kids getting to interact with all of the characters during dinner. The chef was pretty funny too we were sitting really close to the bar so he was teasing all of us the whole time. Dont worry, we gave it right back to him

 

[agmmbolam426]

This was probably one of the busiest days of our whole trip! There will be a lot of pictures and a lot of stories to go along with them! Well we had breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace at 8:10. Once we arrived I checked in with the front desk and sat and waited with the kids until they opened. Next thing we know they called our name and they weren't open yet...so of course I start worrying that something was wrong with our reservation. Boy was I wrong they wanted us to open up the Crystal Palace!!! DH got to read from a script we got a special table and the kids got a signed picture from Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. It was a great way to start the day!

I love main street! I always feel like a little kid everytime I walk down mainstreet.

DH and I love this statue. It is so extraordinary that this one man has made so many kids (and us adults) dreams come true. That one man has made the most magical place on earth.

I know most of you don't know me, but I absolutely love kids. Im sure you can tell by the baseball team I have! I try to do anything and everything to make sure we make great memories with our kids every day. I personally think that is what life is all about. Family! I will still never forget sitting on my daddy's shoulders when I was a little girl watching the parade with my daisy hat on.... now I get to do the same things with my kids and I hope they do the same with my grandkids one day. I wonder if Walt Disney had any clue that he would help so many families make such great memories together. I personally am very glad he did!

Sorry....I got a little side tracked. Now back to the story!!

Once our bellies were full we headed over to Adventureland to ride the Jungle Cruise. We got another surprise on the Jungle Cruise they needed a little help driving the boat and they chose our son, Landon to drive!!! They also asked our daughter kk but she was being a bit shy so she decided not to.

He really enjoyed driving and talked about it the rest of the day!

We rode the carpets of Aladdin and then headed over to Pirates of Caribbean. The wait wasn't bad at all! Landon had really became a huge pirate fan over the last year and couldn't wait to ride the pirate ride. We probably rode it at least 3 times that day!

We were celebrating Kk's birthday while we were in Disney and she had her beautiful "its my birthday" button and it was so funny we were walking through the park and everyone kept telling her happy birthday. At first, she was being really shy when people said happy birthday. After a few days she was really making sure everyone saw her button! The one character that Kk couldn't wait to see was Rapunzel. We tried to go see her and the line was insanely long and it was not in the shade at all. So, needless to say we never got to see her. I felt horrible!!! We made several attempts to see her over our trip and it never happened. Our next trip though will be a different story, we will see Rapunzel! Any tips anyone has about finding Rapunzel please let me know!

In 2010, my babies weren't tall enough to ride a lot of rides but that was a different story in 2011... we made our way to BTMR and my brave kids loved it. They even had their arms up and everything! Chris and Landon then decided to ride splash mountain and it broke down on them. While they were riding the rest of us went shopping in the air conditioned stores. Needless to say Landon isn't to fond of that ride after sitting on it forever.

We had lunch at Colombia Harbor House. I really like CHH I think its very good quick service. After stuffing our faces we head over to The Haunted Mansion. Well, I figured out a great way to get my kids not to be afraid of the haunted mansion.... I tell my kids to wave at the ghosts. As goofy as that sounds, it works. They actually love the haunted mansion! The new Que is really neat too.

Once we finish up at HM we head over to the barber shop for Addie's first haircut.This was a really neat experience! They put mickey stickers all over her to keep her occupied while they cut her hair. They also have toys to keep them busy. Personally, I think it was well worth it. They gave us mickey ears that said first haircut, along with a certificate, and they saved her hair. It wasn't really much more expensive than taking her to a salon around my house that im sure she would have kicked and screamed the whole time. Definitely make an appointment though!

They also gave big brother and big sister lots of stickers too!

Once Addie's hair was cut we headed over to the Pirate's League. This was one of the coolest things we did. It was very reasonable priced and the kids absolutely enjoyed it! I originally thought that Kk would want to do the BBB but the problem I knew we would face is that she loves dressing up but within 5 minutes she wants to take the dress off because its too itchy. Not to mention the heat... So, when she saw that her brother was going to be a pirate she said nope I want to be a pirate princess. So stay tuned....

 

[maganda]

I'm following along. You have a beautiful family!

And can I just say I agree with you about snacks! Napoleons, caramel corn, cheese filled pretzels... yum! And I had school bread for the first time this most recent trip because everybody gushes about it and it really wasn't all that, imo. Did you try the carrot cake cookie at DHS? Quite possibly my favorite snack of the trip and big enough for your family to share.

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[agmmbolam426]

My husband loves the school bread! We did not get a chance to try the carrot cake cookie, that is on the list for next time. Thanks for reading!

 

[agmmbolam426]

Since we had such a busy day in Magic Kingdom we decided to head to the beach for the day. So, after the long drive to the beach we arrive and put on our swimsuits...run out to the beach.....and there are jellyfish everywhere and really high waves. So, needless to say there was no way the kids could play in the water. We decided to take the kids to a little shop next to the beach so that they could get a souvenir. Kk chose a pretty anklet and Landon chose a shark tooth necklace. As to be expected, Landon was/is at the age that he always has a million questions. He asked his daddy "how did they get the shark's tooth?" Valid question! So, of course my hubby gave him a very logical answer...." well, a dolphin came up and punched a shark in the mouth and then ran off with its tooth and said this is for Landon!" Landon has never forgotten that story! I can always count on my husband to come up with interesting stories for the kids! As you can imagine life in the MacCullen household is anything but boring! We figured if we drove this far we would try and get some good seafood. So, we stopped by a little restaurant called Rusty's seafood and it was not good at all....we couldn't wait to get back to Disney and get some good food!

 

[agmmbolam426]

The kids each decide what kind of pirate they want to be and then they get to go pick out their pirate name. They get to go over to this big trunk with a wheel and turn it. Then they are given their pirate names. The pirate princess gets to pick out her nail polish, lip gloss, eyeshadow, eye patch, bandana, and a cool rhinestone tattoo. After they are done she gets to keep all of it. She still uses the nail polish today! They even put it in a cute little drawstring bag. Then she gets a sword and sheath and then they get her to take her "pirate's oath".

someone was being shy saying her oath!

Then Landon got to choose a bandana, an eye patch, a "facial effect" (he picked a scar) and then he got facial hair, a sword and a sheath and says his oath.

Here is the video of Landon taking his Pirate oath


After they get done turning into pirates they take them into a secret room. (no cameras allowed) and they get to find their treasure. They get these gold medallions that are very heavy and nice. The whole thing cost around
$30.00 per child and it was worth every penny. I am definitely doing this for the kids again next year.

to be continued.....

 

[agmmbolam426]

I know this is out of order...but I had so many pictures from Crystal Palace I decided to post them separately!

 

[agmmbolam426]

That look on Addie's face cracks me up! I think minnie was trying to hold her toy!

 

[agmmbolam426]

I have never noticed these before but these are in the windows of a store on main street. We are always rushing through main street to get to our destination. I just thought these were really neat!

We made our way to Fantasyland to take a ride on the teacups. This is the best picture my husband could get because my children and me like to spin as fast as we can and then see who walks the funniest when we get off.

We also rode snow white, peter pan, winnie the pooh, and the carousel

I tried to talk my hubby into riding IASW and he said no way. I have never rode it but he said the song would drive him crazy all day. So, of course everytime we passed it the kids and I started singing its a small world to see if Chris would develop a twitch.

We headed to tomorrowland to ride buzz lightyear spin, monsters inc, and the people mover. We love the people mover it is so relaxing and there is rarely any wait.

When we were in Adventureland we stopped to have lunch at Peco Bill's. I usually get their burger and fries but this time I got the BBQ sandwich. The BBQ in my opinion tasted like the kind out of the tub. I like the burgers much better. There is a little snack shop right next to Peco Bills that has huge snickerdoodle cookies. They are so good!!! (Random thought )