5 Newbies Visit the World!! - UPDATED! - Our Last ADR and A Magical Moment

[MinnieKitty]

I want to start by saying I'm so sorry to hear about your accident! I'm sorry to hear about your car, but I'm really glad to hear everyone is okay!

I just sat here and read everything you've posted so far in one sitting! You do such a great job of narrating and your pics are great! A lot of your family's interests and favorites are ours as well, so I have really enjoyed reading this.

Since I read it all at one time, I have a lot of comments to make at one time! I hope you don't mind!!

I absolutely LOVE your family shirts!! You have inspired me to make some for DH, DD and I for our next trip. You all look so adorable in your family photos with those shirts on!!

Also, LOVE your pictures of AoA. We went there one night to have dinner at the food court and to take a quick look around. This was at the end of our Epcot day so we were tired of walking, and I couldn't get DH and DD too far past the LM section. But, from what I saw, we are DEFINITELY staying there next time. Like you, I love to be immersed in all things Disney while on vacation. Even if money wasn't a factor, I think I'd always choose AoA, Pop or AS Movies.

I'm so jealous of all your early morning ADR's! DH and DD are not early risers, so I have steered clear of those so far, but I think I'm going to beg for one next trip so we can get a nice photo with very few people in the background and be closer to the ride we want to ride first!

We have a late breakfast ADR at Tusker House during Thanksgiving weekend and your picture with Donald has me super excited!! He is my favorite!

I also loved the pics of your kids doing the JTA! DH is a huge Star Wars fan, and we loved Star Tours! DH was picked to be the rebel spy, and it totally made his day! We wanted to do it more than once but were running out of time. I'm definitely going to sign DD up for JTA next time!!

We also had lunch at Sci Fi and thought it was super cool. We really liked the dark and quiet atmosphere. It was a nice break from the hot, afternoon sun. DD had the Oreo milkshake, and it was, by far, the best milkshake I've ever tasted. And I'm also thinking of Mama Melrose for next time! Hollywood and Vine is also on my list. I'd really like to go before DD outgrows those characters.

We have done Akershus, and loved it! DD is obsessed with all things Belle. So, getting a nice photo with Belle in her yellow dress was wonderful. We have not done CRT yet because we do not do the dining plan and I have a hard time justifying the cost. Your pictures and review have me second-guessing that decision. It looks so beautiful inside!

Also, I could not agree more with you in regards to 1900 Park Fare. That was our "splurge" dinner on our last trip(like I said, we don't do the DP), and DD and I both left in tears! I had to talk DH into this one, because we've seen Cinderella and the step-sisters before, and none of us eat enough to justify the cost of going to a buffet. For starters, it took them 45 minutes to seat us. We looked around the lobby of GF for like ten minutes and then we were bored. Not to mention, we were starving! We couldn't understand why all these other groups' buzzers were going off and not ours. We finally said something, but it still took another 15 mins or so for them to seat us. Once inside, we find out Fairy Godmother has replaced Lady Tremaine for the evening. We waited in line at MK to see Fairy Godmother because I didn't think we'd be seeing her anywhere else. We also walked right past Lady Tremaine's line at MK thinking we'd be seeing her for dinner. I know they can't guarantee the characters, but it was a little disappointing. Like you said, the food was forgettable! The strawberry soup was out of this world, but I didn't pay $140 for strawberry soup. We all forced ourselves to pick at our food and ended up getting snacks later at our resort. And here is the best part... we were there for an hour and a half and did not get to meet Cinderella!! We saw her nearing our section of the restaurant, but she suddenly left and went backstage before ever making it to our table and the tables near us. When she came back out later, she started back at the opposite end of the restaurant rather than where she left off. We had a hard time tracking our waiter down and when we finally did, he said he'd get her to come by so we could finally leave. Well, 20 minutes later and she was still way on the other side and we didn't see the waiter making any attempt to get her over to us. Like I said, we had met her before (twice actually) so it wasn't a necessity. I would have made more of a fuss if we had never met her, and if it wasn't for the fact that we had spent all day at MK and were just plum wore out. Sorry for being so long-winded, but I had to rant, and let you know that someone shares your feelings... 1900 Park Fare is a big disappointment!

Sorry again for this being so long, but I really loved reading your TR and can't wait for more!!

 

[blessedmom4]

I am so happy you joined in our PTR! I have never gone in January before and can learn a lot from your report. We had a great time at 1900PF; however, I think it had more to do with fresh food having just been put out (we were there at the opening) and my son "proposed" to one of the steps...I had on a shirt a friend had made with the Step-Mother and Step-Sisters and they were NOT thrilled with it at all.and it wasn't part of the act!. It just made me laugh harder! Looking forward to reading more.

 

[mom2cgj]

I am so happy you joined in our PTR! I have never gone in January before and can learn a lot from your report. We had a great time at 1900PF; however, I think it had more to do with fresh food having just been put out (we were there at the opening) and my son "proposed" to one of the steps...I had on a shirt a friend had made with the Step-Mother and Step-Sisters and they were NOT thrilled with it at all.and it wasn't part of the act!. It just made me laugh harder! Looking forward to reading more.

I can't wait to hear about your trip!! I hope you have as good of luck with January as we did. It was a great time to go - low (almost NO) crowds, good temperature (but then, we live in Iowa and had SNOW today! So anything above 50 in January is good to us).

I need to get another post in, but it's been a crazy few weeks. I feel like I've basically moved into the chiropractor's office. Makes it hard to get anything else done!

 

[Ceryssa]

I'm late joining in but here! I'm in the process of planning our family's first trip as well, and reading TRs like this one to tide me over! My husband has the exact same reaction to all my planning, but I keep telling him he'll be thanking me when we get down there

 

[KCrystal]

I just joined in as well but I'm LOVING your TR! I even cancelled one of our other ADRs to get an early morning one at H&V based on this! We are going in mid April and staying at AoA but in LM. I wanted the Cars suite but DH said "not this time" I'm so sorry to hear about your accident and I hope you're back to normal soon! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

 

[mom2cgj]

I'm FINALLY back!

Before I get to work finishing this TR, I have to apologize for being gone so long to any of you that might possibly still be reading along!

So, in October, we were in this horribly bad car accident. Luckily no one was hurt too bad - just some chiropractic adjustments needed. But dealing with the insurance, getting a new car to drive, etc. just took everything out of me. Plus during this whole time I was dealing with some SUPER nasty people who were attempting to make my life miserable. Long-story short - I took over in June as the committee chair for my son's cub scout pack. The former chair stepped down - he was NOT forced out. But he started in when I took over complaining about everything to everyone, calling me names, and making life in general just miserable. (He and his wife were still den leaders, so still pretty involved in everything.) Finally came to a head in December, when I had to call the Council and tell them I was done with this - it is him or me. They decided they didn't want to lose me as a leader, so they refused to continue either of them as leaders anywhere in the Illowa Council. This is a HUGE deal - only the 3rd person the Council CEO has EVER denied leadership! Of course, this was really ugly, but everyone has been so grateful since then to me for finally solving what has been a long going problem (worse than I even knew!), so that's been good. Just the stress was enough for me to spend about the last 3 months living in a hole!

So, after this has all gotten put behind me, we took a week vacation over Christmas to the Wisconsin Dells, and have started talking about our next Disney trip (check out my ticker!), I'm finally back to finish up this TR before I start a PTR for our next trip!

Also, Mike got us tickets to go to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry next weekend to see not only the Disney Archives exhibit that is there but to hear MARTY SKLAR!!! AND I hopefully will get to have my copy of Dream It, Do It autographed! EEEEEK! I am so excited. Reading his book has really made me so excited to get back to Disney planning!

Anyway, thanks for hanging in here, and I'm off to write the next chapter....

 

[mom2cgj]

So, when I left off we had finished up our day at DHS. This morning we were off to...

Yep, MK again! I guess I didn't get a t-shirt photo in the room this morning, so you are stuck with just these photos. But you get the idea. I wasn't too sure about the bright orange when I started, but they turned out great! Plus they ended up helping us out with some missing pictures.

Once again, we had a pre-park opening ADR!Which meant another walk down an empty Main Street. We are seriously spoiled now! One thing I need to mention before we go on...it was CHILLY this morning! Not super cold, but cold enough. When we went to get on the bus, I mentioned to Mike that I wondered if we should go back to the room for jackets, but he didn't want to take the time. We'd be fine, right?

Anyway, we were off to breakfast. This time we were headed to...

Crystal Palace! To Celebrate Friendship Day with some of our best friends!

We were seated really quickly. In fact, we were the absolute first table seated in the whole restaurant! We were also the first table all of the characters would stop at, which was really exciting. Great way to start the day!

First up came Piglet. He was cute and danced around with G-Bear. Mike said "Look everyone, it's Tigger!" Which got him "scolded" by Piglet. Totally adorable.

Tigger came next. He gestured at our shirts, and his guide told us that he really liked our shirts because they were Tigger's favorite color. Yeah for the orange!

Then the Tubby little Cubby all stuffed with Fluff Himself was there!

Finally, Eyeore moped in. Poor guy. Seemed like he was having a rough day.

We all agreed that CP was a great breakfast. First, the characters were fabulous! Great interactions. And the FOOD??? Wow! The puffed french toast - HEAVEN! The breakfast lasagna got rave reviews from everyone except me - I just thought it was a little too sweet for that early in the morning! But I loved the cheesy potatoes, so that made up for it.

We finished our breakfast and headed out of Crystal Palace right at rope drop time. So we joined the group heading off for some pirate adventures...

As we headed into Adventureland, we started discussing how chilly it was. Remember those jackets, Mike had decided we didn't need? Well, now he was regretting that choice. So, what to do? Do we all have to go back to AoA? What to do, what to do?

 

[mom2cgj]

So we had just emerged from a delightful Friendship Day Celebration into the rope drop crowd waiting to enter Adventureland, and it was chilly! Mike started to feel guilty that the kids were cold and he had said we didn't need jackets. BUT he didn't want to miss out on any rides or anything. So what to do?

We finally decided that he would grab a bus back to AoA to get the jackets while the kids and I did some character meet and greets. So off he went with a promise to text when he arrived back at MK. The rest of us decided to see if we could shrink down to the size of pixies!

We were pretty close to the front of the line for the Magical Nook, since the fairies didn't start meeting until 9:15. Probably not the most recommended use of rope drop, but we enjoyed it. G-Bear had a great conversation with the CM working the line, discussing different fairies and asking G-Bear who she hoped to meet with Tink. G-Bear, of course, said "Periwinkle!" since she is her favorite fairy (besides Tinkerbell). Who would we meet that day? g

After we went through the magical doorway that shrunk us down to fairy-size, we met up with Tinkerbell!

When we got home, all of our Tinkerbell pics were missing from our PP+! I was so upset. Especially since Mike had missed that M&G, and I was balancing autograph books so I hadn't taken any pics myself. Luckily, with the kids all being in bright orange shirts, they were easy for the PP people to find, and we have them now! After meeting Tink, we stepped next door, and G-Bear got her wish!

Peri definitely wasn't the best interaction we've had, especially compared to Think who was totally into it that morning, but G-Bear was happy, so we were all good. I texted Mike who had made it back to AoA already, and was just waiting for a bus back to MK. So, I decided we'd go meet someone else I knew he wouldn't be too disappointed in missing. We headed off to a little southern gazebo.

Tiana was great, especially with the boys. She was trying to get Jesse to admit that he was really a frog. So cute! And Caleb was just kind of hanging back - I mean fairies, and now a princess? But she gave him a hard time and eventually won him over.

Texted Mike again, and he was on the bus. He was really making good time, but we were having amazing luck with lines, so we kept going. The kids had changed their minds from our other MK day and decided they wished we had stopped to meet Merida after all. I knew Mike wouldn't care, so we headed over to see if she was up to any mischief that morning.

Again, not a horrible line. The kids did a little coloring.

Then it was time to meet the red-headed princess! Caleb actually enjoyed this one, since he is into archery and they had a nice conversation about that.

When we came out of the Merida meet and greet, Mike had come back and we were ready to head out as a family!

 

[Tigerlulu]

I found your TR this morning and have read the entire thing while neglecting the Saturday morning cleaning I should be doing. Don't worry, I made up for it by assigning my 4 kiddos to various things.

Anyway, we were there last Feb--at AoA in Cars and LOVED it. Definitely was my favorite area of the resort and can't say I have any desire to stay anywhere else!

 

[mom2cgj]

I found your TR this morning and have read the entire thing while neglecting the Saturday morning cleaning I should be doing. Don't worry, I made up for it by assigning my 4 kiddos to various things.

Anyway, we were there last Feb--at AoA in Cars and LOVED it. Definitely was my favorite area of the resort and can't say I have any desire to stay anywhere else!

Always happy to contribute to cleaning neglect!

Isn't it awesome how it just sort of sucks you in and you never want to stay anywhere else? I was so afraid we wouldn't like it after hearing so many people on here complain about the value resorts. But it was perfect for us! Definitely going to do Cars next time, although I loved LK. I don't really have any desire to stay in the Nemo section - not that I don't love the movie. I just don't want to stay that close to the big pool!

 

[mom2cgj]

Now that Mike had finally rejoined us and we had our jackets, we decided to head back over toward Adventureland. When we did MK two days ago, we had skipped Adventureland and Tomorrowland. So our must do's for today were to cover those two lands.

We started off on a boat ride!

Going into this trip Mike, Cubby, and I had seen the first POTC movie. After we got home, we had to see the rest! Cubby and I really liked this ride. No one else loved it, but it's on our must do list for next time. After fighting off the pirates, we were off on a magic carpet ride:

After our carpets landed, we noticed that Aladdin and Jasmine were out, so we hopped over to Agrabah to meet them. Right as we got to the front of the line, the CM working the line closed it off so they could go for a break. Nugget was obviously disappointed, and the CM told him not to worry, because when they came back out they would have a surprise with them. Hmmm...

When they reappeared after about 5 minutes, they had a friend with them!

We had a great time with the three of them! The Genie was hilarious!

Up next it was time for another boat ride. This time aboard the Nile Nellie.

By this time we were hungry, and had finished up in Adventureland. We decided to grab a bite to eat on our way across the park to Tomorrowland. So we hopped into Casey's for some hot dogs.

The kids each had a hot dog meal, Mike had a chicago style hot dog, and I had the chili cheese dog. They were decent. We grabbed a seat outside and caught the Move It! Shake It! parade as it came down Main Street.

I have to admit, the hot dog was good, but it didn't sit real well, so we decided to try a sit-down show next. We were headed to Tomorrowland, so we got in line for Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor.

Cubby texted in a joke, but it didn't get used. "What do you do when you land at the farm airport?" "Chick-in!" (Yeah...it's not great, but he was proud of it!)

G-Bear was "Boo" in the show, which was really cute. At least I wasn't "that guy"!

Up next, we joined Buzz for a Spaceranger Spin. This ride was OK, but we really preferred TSMM! Cubby looks like he's focused:

Mike looks very serious, and Nugget, well, he's there...

G-Bear and I both look like "huh? What are we supposed to be doing?" She really is my little twin, isn't she?

Next would be the two worst rides we had at Disney World. Anyone want to guess what they were?

 

[lovenerds81112]

I love this Trip Report! Your kids are ADORABLE. That little Nugget was cracking me up with his facial expressions in the pictures. So glad you finally go to go to WDW and can't wait to hear more of your adventures!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

I just found your TR tonight and I am loving it! There are so many things I wanted to comment on. I hope I remember them all!

I went to WDW twice as a kid both times we went to Kennedy Space center. My dad was really into space. When he was a kid he always wanted to be an astronaut, but everyone told him he wasn't smart enough. Ironically he became a car mechanic and later a government inspector, on you guessed it the space shuttle program. Not smart enough to fly one, but smart enough to make sure they are safe for the astronauts! Anyway, it is a super fun place and it still stands out as one of my favorite childhood memories (not that it has anything to do with the fact that it was first leg of a WDW trip )

I also hate birds, HATE them! We only eat TS in AK because of those crazy birds! The bird show-no way, not happening!

I know you mentioned not taking in Main Street. I feel the same way. I am going on my 7th trip and I still feel like I have yet to really noticed main street. I always think I am going to take the time to take it all in. Then I see the castle and I just lock in on that. Maybe next time! I don't mind missing things, it gives me a reason to go back.

Love the TR!

 

[mom2cgj]

I love this Trip Report! Your kids are ADORABLE. That little Nugget was cracking me up with his facial expressions in the pictures. So glad you finally go to go to WDW and can't wait to hear more of your adventures!

Welcome, and thanks!!

Isn't he a goofball? He definitely keeps us on our toes. After you said that, I had to scroll back and look JUST at Nugget in each of the pictures I posted. I was cracking up! He is my little monkey.

I just found your TR tonight and I am loving it! There are so many things I wanted to comment on. I hope I remember them all!

I went to WDW twice as a kid both times we went to Kennedy Space center. My dad was really into space. When he was a kid he always wanted to be an astronaut, but everyone told him he wasn't smart enough. Ironically he became a car mechanic and later a government inspector, on you guessed it the space shuttle program. Not smart enough to fly one, but smart enough to make sure they are safe for the astronauts! Anyway, it is a super fun place and it still stands out as one of my favorite childhood memories (not that it has anything to do with the fact that it was first leg of a WDW trip )

I also hate birds, HATE them! We only eat TS in AK because of those crazy birds! The bird show-no way, not happening!

I know you mentioned not taking in Main Street. I feel the same way. I am going on my 7th trip and I still feel like I have yet to really noticed main street. I always think I am going to take the time to take it all in. Then I see the castle and I just lock in on that. Maybe next time! I don't mind missing things, it gives me a reason to go back.

Love the TR!

Welcome!!!

I am determined to spend some time on Main Street next time! Even if I have to send the kids off with DH, I will do it...or I'll try. But that castle is just so amazing!!

Birds are the worst! Seriously, when that egret popped right up on the table next to us and took the lady's hot dog RIGHT. OFF. HER. TRAY. I about lost it. No. Not cool. I'm thinking lunch will be at Yak & Yeti (TS not the CS) next time, just so we can eat indoors. Well, that and I want to try it. But, no birds. Our local zoo has this area where you can feed Lorikeets out of a little paper cup. My kids always beg to go in there, but I just can't bring myself to do it. Spiders, fine. Snakes, no problem. Birds? No way! (Well...except Donald.)

 

[mom2cgj]

So we left off in Tomorrowland, having had a spin with Buzz. Up next, the kids wanted to ride the Astro-Orbiter. To me, it looked just like Triceratops Spin, Magic Carpets, and Dumbo....Boy was I wrong!!

I don't know if it was the height, or the motion or what, but I was NOT feeling good when we got off! But, I didn't want to ruin our last day in MK, so I hung in there and we headed over to Tomorrowland Speedway.

Cubby enjoyed this a lot, but the exhaust smell and the jerkiness of the car were not what my stomach needed!! I needed a break and a drink at this point, so we headed over to Space Mountain. Nugget and G-Bear were too little for this, so Mike and Cubby were going to ride while I sat out with them. I'm not a huge coaster fan, so I wasn't sure if I wanted to ride or not. I was waiting for Cubby's report. We went on ahead and got a Rider Swap pass in case I wanted to ride, and they went in - it was only a 5 minute wait...I love January! In the meantime, I got some ice water and the littles and I sat down to people watch.

When they came back out (which took forever...I guess they had trouble getting the photo on the PP+ card), Cubby said it was great and really wanted to ride again. My stomach was feeling better, so I said I'd go. I knew I would regret it if I skipped!

It wasn't as bad as I was afraid it would be. Not ever going to be my favorite, but still a good ride.

We had about an hour left before our dinner ADR, and we had done all of our must do's. We went for one last spin on the Mad Tea Party, and then headed back to Main Street. There was one princess that G-Bear had not met yet, and she had packed a special dress just to meet her. So, we changed her dress and got in line to meet the princesses at Town Square Theater.

First up...

Rapunzel! She and G-Bear had a great talk about hair and compared dresses. Then it was time for the photo...

This was seriously the best one of the three kids! Not only was Nugget acting up with the lion hands, Cubby was getting squirrelly, too! So, we pulled the boys out and let G-Bear just get an individual picture.

And a hug...

Then it was time to meet Aurora. G-Bear was loving all the princess attention.

Nugget, on the other hand, was having none of it. He was in full-on ham mode. Thankfully, the PP+ photographer was enjoying him and got some great shots.

Once again, not a great group shot.

So G-Bear did an individual.

Cinderella managed to at least get Nugget in the picture...

I love this one, though.

After seeing the princesses, we decided we'd hop over and see the Mouse himself. We'd already met him several times, but he had no line at all, so why not? Nugget obviously liked this a little better than the princesses!

But was still hamming it up...

Mom and Dad decided to get in on the action this time.

We finished up with the mouse and it was time to check in for our ADR! Where do you think we went?

 

[court9008]

Hey, I've been MIA lately. However, I'm glad to have a chance to catch up on your TR. Your trip seemed to have been very memorable and well-timed (I envy your low wait times LOL). I'm glad to hear some feedback on Astro Orbiters. I feel that it's a repetitive ride and I skipped it on my previous visit. I feel that Dumbo and the Magic Carpets are more interesting. On the subject of Aladdin, how lucky are you to have met Genie? He's on the top of my list for characters to meet.

I've met Tiana and Prince Naveen before. It seems that Tiana has a way with warming up to children who may be shy or uninterested in meeting characters. When I met her, there was a family in line ahead of me. There were two daughters. The oldest was excited to meet Tiana while the youngest had NO interest in meeting her. The parents explained to me that she was scared of the characters. When Tiana came out, she noticed the youngest daughter hiding behind her parents. I'm not exactly sure what she said, but she was able to coax the little girl from behind her parents and get a picture with her. I guess Tiana has a way with kids

I look forward to reading the rest of your TR.

 

[mom2cgj]

After meeting Mickey, it was time to head to our last ADR of the trip. This meal was one I was a little nervous about. I had read some really not so great things on the DIS, but had decided to book this one anyway. If you guessed that we were headed to Tony's Town Square, you were right!

I've always loved Lady and the Tramp, so I was thrilled with the decor and the general idea of this restaurant. However, I'd heard the food was bad. But, we wanted to stay in MK for the evening, and nothing else really excited me (we couldn't get BOG, and had already done CRT and CP). So, we went for it. We checked in and the kids watched a little of the movie on the big screen tv. Pretty soon we were called for our ADR. We were seated in the solarium, which was absolutely beautiful.

The service was pretty good. I wouldn't say it was over the top, but our waitress was attentive and nice. The food...well it wasn't memorable. Honestly it's been so long that I can't remember what Mike had. It wasn't bad...just nothing that stands out. I had the zucchini fries, which were OK. And the spaghetti and meatballs. I had to - it's Lady and the Tramp after all! Again, it was OK, but nothing spectacular. The kids all had pizza. And evidently so did Stanley.

What I do remember is that it took quite a while to get our food, and by the time we finished our entrees, I was getting pretty nervous. I had big plans for us to finish up our trip. And as I was looking out the big beautiful windows of the solarium, I could see Main Street was getting pretty busy. So, I decided to skip dessert. Cubby was full, so he decided to come with me, and we left the other three behind to have dessert and pay. Cubby and I headed down Main Street toward the Hub.

We lucked out and got a really good spot on the curb at the end of Main Street. We sat down and did some people watching. I tried to get a good balloon picture, but this was the best I could do.

While we were sitting there, we struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to us. She'd been there for a while already. Her husband was a photographer, and he wanted this particular spot for photos, so he left her there to guard it while he went around taking photos. She was really good natured about it and we had a great conversation. Pretty soon I got this in a text...

After a while, they closed off the street and we were able to move off the curb and into the street right along the tape line. We were still chatting with our new friend and this family came along and parked themselves in front of us. Like right in front of us! REALLY?? Luckily, one of the CMs came up and said "you have to be behind the tape line". Since we were literally right on the tape line, the family tried to squeeze us back, but she said, "Uh, no. They were here first." So, they left. After that, we had smooth sailing. Mike and the kids showed up shortly after that, and (thanks to creative backpack placement by me and our new found friend), we had plenty of space for them and for mr. photographer when he came along.

Soon it was time for the electrical parade! I was really looking forward to this. Unfortunately, I'm not good at nighttime photography, but here is one somewhat decent picture.

Then it was time for Wishes! I had waited all week just for this moment, and it didn't disappoint. I was so in awe, I didn't take any pictures, but it's a memory I'll never forget. The kids were in awe. I was in tears from the moment that first firework went off. All my life I had dreamed about going to WDW and seeing the fireworks over Cinderella's castle. My dreams were finally coming true, and I was sharing it with my favorite people in the world. That is (to me) what Disney is all about. That's the magic. That's what makes it my happy place. The looks on the kids' faces when they saw the castle. G-Bear's excitement at meeting the princesses. Cubby loving the rides. Nugget burying my feet at the Boneyard. And Wishes. Those are the things I will cherish forever.

 

[mom2cgj]

And so we came to the end of our trip. The last day. So bittersweet! We didn't have park tickets for the last day. Our flight was leaving from MCO at 4:30, which meant a ME time of 1:00. So, we got up a little later than normal. What should we do?

We knew we wanted to head back to DTD to do some shopping. We'd bought most of our souvenirs at the Ink & Paint Shop at AoA already, but there was a snow globe I really wanted at World of Disney, and I was still looking for a coffee table book. (It's a collection). We talked about swimming at the resort first, but it was pretty chilly, so we ruled that out. We also talked about having breakfast at Landscapes of Flavor, but no one was really hungry yet, and we only had enough credits left for one QS meal, so we decided to do an early lunch at DTD instead. So we packed up, dropped off our bags at ME, and hopped on a bus to DTD.

We did our shopping at World of Disney. G-Bear wanted to get some last princess pictures, so we did.

After that, we looked around a few other stores, and headed back to the Lego Store for the boys to play for a little bit.

Finally, we all started getting a little hungry, so we decided to go to Earl of Sandwich for lunch. I'd gone back and forth between EoS and Wolfgang Puck Express, but we settled on EoS, and I am glad we did! Mike had the Italian, I had the Original, and the kids each had a Grilled Cheese. All were excellent. I have no pictures - this is something on my list for next time - take more pictures!

After lunch, we still had plenty of time and we'd run out of places to explore at DTD. So, we decided to try a boat ride to check out some of the other resorts.

We went past Saratoga Springs and Old Key West. Neither one really caught our attention, so I don't know that we will ever try to stay there. I was really interested in checking out Port Orleans after reading a lot about them. I think at this point they were up there on my list of places I wanted to stay. So, we decided to get off the boat at POFQ and walk around.

After walking through, I think I've scratched it off my list. Just not for us. I know people will think I'm nuts, but we are value people. I like being totally immersed in the theming. I like the bright colors, the characters on the walls, and the relaxed nature. It's what I think of when I think of Disney. We decided to catch a bus to whatever park came along first to head back to AoA. That happened to be DHS. So we got off at DHS, and headed toward the AoA stop. As we were arriving, a bus to POP was pulling up. Why not? We had time. I know there are no 5 person rooms at POP, but we decided to check it out anyway.

Yep, again, not for us. It just didn't say Disney to me. It said loud, bright, fun, but not Disney. That's OK. I've found what I like. AoA is home. If we go on an adult's only trip sometime, or a girl's only trip, I might try somewhere like AKL or Poly. But for family trips, AoA is perfect for us.

We walked back across the bridge to AoA and stopped at the gift shop for some snacks. Then it was time. Time to catch the bus for the airport. Time to leave our happy place and head back to the cold and snow of Iowa. As we sat waiting for the bus, we all agreed to come back. Even Mike, who was a complete skeptic at the beginning of this adventure, was excited to return. We didn't know when, but we would be back. But for now...

...we sadly said goodbye to Disney.

So that's the end of my story! Or is it? Now that I have FINALLY finished this trip report, it's time to work on planning the next trip! I just started my pre trip report for next January! Come join me!