A kosher trip to Disney World

[MalkaR]

Welcome to my very first trip report! I hope I took enough pictures to make it interesting, as I always enjoy trip reports with lots of pictures the most.

The cast for this trip was me, DH, my mom and my three sons.


I'd been planning this trip for years! I'd decided that when my youngest was 4 years old, we'd finally do it.

My kids had their winter break the week before our trip and we spent a lot of time prepping for our trip.

I did my nails:


Filled up my packing cubes (I got the idea to use them from this site, of course! They were awesome!)


And made sure our magicbands were in my carry-on.


The big day was Sunday and my sister arrived to take us to the airport. The only holdup was unpacking a car seat and two boosters from a car seat bag, and getting them all through security. When we got to the terminal, it was packed full! A previous flight at the gate next to ours was delayed and unhappy people were everywhere. We sure were grateful that our flight left on time!

Here we are on the plane. The kids brought their Kindles and kept themselves quiet and busy with that and plenty of food I'd packed for them.


Sorry for the blurry picture!

Next, we land and I drive all over Orlando getting everything ready!

 

[MalkaR]

The flight went smoothly and we landed on time. We took the fake-o-rail over to baggage claim.


We trooped over to the Budget kiosk in the garage since I'd signed up for Fastbreak. We very quickly were in an almost brand new Grand Caravan minivan. It still had the new car smell and only 200 miles on it! We installed the car seats, stuffed the trunk with our suitcases and we were off!

Our first stop was lunch/dinner. I'd found a place that served pizza, but only during "Yeshiva Week", winter break for many east coast Jewish schools, usually the last full week of January. They had meat food the rest of the year, not pizza, since kosher rules don't allow meat and dairy food to be eaten together. I was glad I ordered two pies because they were smaller than the pizzas we're used to.

Next stop was the Welcome Center for our townhome. I left DH and the boys in the car and ran inside to get our welcome packet. It was about 4pm now, right on schedule. Then it was time to get into our townhome. We were all so excited. The boys were dying to see their Mickey bathroom and play with the Darth Vader Mister Potato Head that was in the pictures. Windsor Hills was beautiful and the townhome was just as we'd expected. Here's a link to pictures in case you'd like to see. I somehow didn't take any of my own pictures of it
https://www.vrbo.com/552651

My youngest, 4 year old Aaron, ran in yelling "My purple bedroom! My purple bedroom!" Purple is obviously his favorite color. We all ran around checking everything out. I did a quick inventory of included supplies in the house and got back in the car for a supermarket run. I left DH to kasher the kitchen, heating the oven and toaster oven to their highest temperatures for an hour and a half, and boiling a glass of water in the microwave, moving it to expose all surfaces to the boiling steam. During my research, I found a Winn Dixie well stocked with kosher food and I made my way over there. I got a cart and filled it to the top with the supplies we'd need for the week, breakfast items, paper goods, lunch food, easy dinner items and snacks and drinks. And lots of water bottles! I had a list, but I couldn't even fit it all into my cart! I knew I'd have to finish my shopping later, and in the meantime, I'd retrieved a text from my mom that she landed and needed to be picked up. I checked out, loaded up the trunk and rushed back to the airport. Then we went to the Super Target down the street from Windsor Hills and got the rest of our supplies. Then back to the townhome. Phew! My crazy day was finally done and I was ready for bed! But the boys were still awake and I noticed that DH had put Aaron on the trundle bed, but it didn't have any sheets on it! He just had a blanket and pillow on a bare mattress. Silly DH! I pulled out a set of sheets from the closet, made the bed, goodnight prayers and kisses, and showered and got myself into our comfy king size bed. Sleep, finally!

Next, our first day is Epcot! Hooray!

 

[MalkaR]

Monday morning was our Epcot day and we couldn't wait! DH fed the boys breakfast, Mom did whatever she does for two hours to get ready, and I made lunches.
I brought a giant stack of these to pack lunches in

I did very simple lunches, a sandwich, a string cheese and cut up fruits and veggies. I put them all in a big insulated bag with an ice pack. We all put our magicbands on, and loaded up the car.

When we arrived, we were in the first row of cars in the parking lot. That was to be my goal for the week! I made sure we left early enough so we'd be close enough that we didn't need a tram for the entire week.


It was a little after 8am and Epcot didn't officially open till 9. DH was dubious about getting there so early, but I told him it would work out just fine. We drank our coffee, talked to the friendly CMs, took some pictures and at 8:30, the Jammitors came out to entertain us.

After the musical entertainment, they opened up the tapstiles and let us in. We went over to guest services to pick up an assistive device for my Mom. She has Stargardts and has pretty low vision. This device is supposed to describe the scenery and what was going on in the rides, but she found it more of a bother than a help and we didn't get it for the rest of the trip. Oh well, but it did save us precious rope drop time.

Our first ride was Soarin'. I had purchased the Touringplans.com Lines app and used it constantly during this trip. I loved it and the only lines we actually waited more than 10 minutes the entire trip were Space Mountain and Winnie the Pooh, both about 30 min. As soon as the seats swept up into the air, Benny, my 5 year old, got scared. He grabbed for me and I had to kind of awkwardly hold him over the armrests for the whole ride. I heard Aaron saying "I don't like it!". Awesome, first ride and two out of three kids are not liking it! The rest of us thought the ride was beautiful. I'd read complaints of really fake looking CGI animals and extreme distortion, but I thought it was all beautiful. I noticed a bit of distortion, but we were in the first row and close to the middle of the theater and the distortion was minimal. I reassured Aaron and Benny that we weren't going to go on Soarin' again and we made out way over to Living with the Land.



Everyone enjoyed this, but I noticed something that would become an ongoing issue with Benny. He was scared of the dark. This was totally unexpected and almost every ride has at least one dark scene. He insisted on riding with me so he could hide his face on me during any dark parts of any ride. Next was Journey into Imagination with Figment. We had watched videos of almost every ride so the kids mostly knew what to expect. The kids laughed hysterically the entire ride. The adults weren't as thrilled, but I thought it was cute and the fact that the kids loved it made it worth it.

Next stop was Club Cool to hydrate everyone. We drank as much soda as we could and my mom liked the Beverly! Alex, my 7 year old, was floored. It turned out to be one of the boys' most memorable stops on the trip. My kids don't drink soda often and they had a ball!

Right next door was the Character Spot and we met Mickey and his friends after a short wait. I didn't know what to expect from the boys as they'd never met characters before. They had a really fun time goofing around and taking pictures. I'm waiting on a Memory Maker share to get my pictures so I'm sorry that I don't have them yet. I'll add them in when I get them.

After that, we rushed off to use our Fastpasses for Test Track. After hearing the cars flying by on the ramp above, and the screams of the riders, Aaron and Benny absolutely refused to get on. Alex got really anxious but I promised him he'd like it. We all went through the car design area and then my mom stayed with Aaron and Benny off to the side of the loading area while DH and I and Alex got on the ride. Our car didn't have sound so I asked if we could have another go 'round. The CM looked annoyed that I asked that, but agreed. We got off, went over a little bridge over the track and got back on, but in a different car. This time the sound worked. By the time we got back, Mom and the little boys were gone. Turns out that while they were waiting, the soda was making its way though them and they had to rush off to the bathroom. Alex looooved Test Track and I was so glad I'd been able to convince him to go on it. It turns out he loved the fast rides! My mom said she didn't want to go on Test Track even though I tried my best to convince her it was a lot of fun. My mom also commented that she was surprised when a generic car vehicle pulled up on the ride instead of the car we designed. I thought that was hilarious!



Next stop was lunch. We sat on a bench across from the Mexico pyramid, people watched and ate our lunches. It was relaxing, but after Benny dropped half of his lunch on the floor, we realized that from now on we needed an actual table, not just a bench, to eat our lunches.

The inside of the pyramid was gorgeous. The restaurant in there reminded me of the Blue Bayou in Disneyland. We rode Gran Fiesta Tour. Cute, and Aaron thought it was great because Donald was in it. After that, we made out way over to the Seas with Nemo & Friends. We all liked this ride and thought it was excellently done. We walked around the aquarium after this, but the kids were getting really antsy and the adults were already tired. It was time for ice cream. We found a nice place to sit and enjoy our treats but the flowery, empty area we chose filled with smokers after a little while. We hadn't even noticed the signs saying it was a smoking area. Oops! But we were done by then and moved on.



I insisted we do Spaceship Earth before we left and I'm glad I did. Everyone thought it was very cool.

It was only about 3:00pm, but we were pooped. We walked back to the car and drove back to our townhome. Alex and DH went swimming in our little pool in the back even though it was pretty chilly outside. They had a lot of fun. Dinner was tacos. I sauteed the meat, chopped up some veggies and salsa, put out tortillas and everyone filled up. It was a pretty satisfying day and we all went to bed happy.

 

[quandrea]

Enjoying your report. While we are not Jewish and thus don't keep kosher, we do deal with food allergies. I can totally relate to researching food options before the trip and doing a big grocery run. We always have a kitchen. All breakfasts, most snacks and at least one meal a day are homemade. Did you try any of the kosher meals in any of the parks?

 

[wilkeliza]

Following along for the trip report.

 

[MalkaR]

Enjoying your report. While we are not Jewish and thus don't keep kosher, we do deal with food allergies. I can totally relate to researching food options before the trip and doing a big grocery run. We always have a kitchen. All breakfasts, most snacks and at least one meal a day are homemade. Did you try any of the kosher meals in any of the parks?

We did try an in-park kosher meal once, when DH and I did a date night. I'll write up the details when I get up to it.

 

[MalkaR]

Tuesday was our earliest day. It was time for the star of the show, Magic Kingdom! We were in the car at 7:15 and we arrived bright and early, first row again! We leisurely made out way through security, bag check, through the tapstiles and onto Main Street.
Alex really liked this statue at Casey's Corner and asked for a picture with it.

We stopped at the bathrooms and took a bunch of Photopass pictures, again not here because I don't have them yet. Crowds were low and the music and sights were making us giddy. Or me, at least!


As we got closer to the castle, I had to stop and take a picture of it. It's a lot bigger than the castle in Disneyland that I'm used to!



We had a little while till the Welcome Show and I wanted to make sure the kids could see. I moved us up to the rope on the right entrance way through the castle, and asked the CM there if he thought it would be better to stand here or at the rope leading directly into Fantasyland. I'd read on easywdw, I believe, that even though the rope through the castle took a couple extra minutes to be lifted, it was a more direct route and was faster. The CM said that it would put about half an hours worth of people on the lines ahead of us. I thought about it, but told him we'd take our chances here and get a better view of the show since we had fastpasses for the big rides and were going on the Teacups first after rope drop. We talked a bit about Disneyland, since he grew up in CA like me, going to Disneyland and eventually working there. He said he'd moved his family to Florida when his neighborhood became dangerous with crime. Then finally, the show started! The kids liked seeing all of the characters, but I thought it was just okay. And when the ropes dropped, and we finally made our way through Fantasyland, I saw that the CM was correct and the line for Mine Train was gigantic! Luckily, we had a fastpass to it later and Teacups was a walk on. DH took the boys, Mom and I aren't fans of spinning rides. Then was Dumbo, the ride Aaron was most excited about. He had cried on Monday morning when I told him we weren't doing Dumbo that day, that he'd have to wait till tomorrow. Well, tomorrow was here and he was finally getting on Dumbo!


He loved it!



After that was Barnstormer, which I found uncomfortably bumpy. Alex and Benny loved it, but Aaron was scared.

Then it was time for the Little Mermaid. We thought it was really cute and I really like the theming in the queue. Alex said he liked seeing her belly button. Silly!

Philharmagic was next. It was a fun show, but Benny was scared of the darkness and Aaron was scared of the 3D stuff. (I'm reading this to my kids as I edit it and Benny insists he wasn't scared, just ducking from the the things flying out.) Ugh. My mom said she only saw the 3D part and not the screen because of her low vision. Small World was next and luckily, that was more of a hit. Aaron said he wanted to go again but we needed a bathroom visit. Time for the Tangled bathrooms! The theming was really pretty and relaxing and when we saw the picnic tables there, we decided it was a perfect time for lunch. I ran for an open table when one showed up! No one dropped their lunch on the floor and we got to charge our phones. DH and I had leftover taco salad and the boys and my mom wanted the regular sandwich, fruit, veggie lunch, so that's what they had.


After a nice restful break, we went over to Peter Pan to use our Fastpasses. We were a few minutes early, but it wouldn't accept them and we were told to come back later. No problem, the boys were begging to go on the carrousel so off we went! After that, it was officially our fastpass time so we had our ride through Neverland. That's always a fun ride, trying to find all of the little details, pointing out the main parts to the kids. It's just a unique ride and we all like it.

Winnie the Pooh was next. I was considering skipping it since the posted wait was 40 minutes, but my app said it was only 20 so we got in line. It ended up taking us closer to 30 than 20, but the kids were able to enjoy the play area while we waited so it was fine. While we were in line, a man started to wedge himself between me and DH. I gave him a look and walked around him to stand next to DH. He spent the entire 30 minutes trying to edge closer/past us in line. So annoying. I tried a "I'm with them, excuse me" in case he didn't realize we were all in one party, but it turns out he didn't speak English. He had his backpack on backwards and kept bumping our backs with it. Really really annoying. Halfway through the line, he waved his wife and kids over from outside the queue. His kids did the same thing, getting into the middle of our group and edging around us. The boys had a good time in the play area and playing with the honey walls.


We were finally on the ride and done dealing with him. It was cute but Benny was scared of the dark areas (of course) and he was glad when it was over. I sure hope he outgrows this!

I announced it was time for Pirates of the Caribbean and we made our way across the park, picking up a bucket of popcorn on our way over. So good! The oil mix they use to pop the popcorn had a kosher certification on it so we had another treat to enjoy! And it was pareve, non-dairy, perfect for me and DH since we'd had meat for lunch. Oh, I forgot that on our way, I had planned to go on the Riverboat since Alex has been asking to go on it since our Disneyland trip a few years ago. It closes at 1pm! He was disappointed but I told him we'd do our best to get on it on Thursday, our 2nd day at MK before 1pm. We sat and ate our popcorn and watched the muppet show instead.

When the popcorn was gone, we turned the corner and scanned our magicbands for Pirates. It was completely unneeded since the ride was a walk on anyway. Pirates is one of my favorite rides and seeing the Disney World version for the first time was fun. I missed the Blue Bayou scene but I still loved it. The edges of the seats had a few drops of water on them so we scooted to the middle a bit. We got a couple drops of water, but no one got wet. It was 2:15 at this point so I decided to try to watch The Country Bears before the parade. Turns out it was closed but no one was too worked up about it. Especially when my mom came out of the candy store next door with giant jawbreaker lollipops for the boys.



She said it was one of the only lollipops in the store with a kosher symbol. I remember the giant lolipops in Disneyland having kosher symbols, but that was years ago. These things change and we always have to recheck products in case of changes. My mom asked Benny if he'd go on a ride with her now (remember I said he'd only go on rides with me since he was so scared?) and he agreed! So we sat down in front of Country Bears and watched the Festival of Fantasy Parade. It was a very nice parade and we loved the music and seeing all of the characters. After the parade passed we got up to make our way out of the park. The parade was still going about 15 minutes later when we finally got to the front of the park! We had to wait for it to go through the doors next to the fire station before we could pass.

Our day still wasn't finished! Next: a busy wilderness night!

 

[TXMNie]

Enjoying your trip report! I didn't realize that the popcorn didn't have dairy! That's a good thing to know for the future. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your trip!

 

[buteraa]

Hi Following along. I can't imagine how much food you must go through with 3 boys (4 with DH). Looks like everyone was having a great time!

 

[MalkaR]

Back at the townhome, I made dinner. Pasta and edamame. I put out shredded cheese and sauce and we chowed down. I made our lunches for the next day. Then I started packing for our big adventure. Four sleeping bags, a space heater, 25-foot extension cord, 2 led lantern/flashlights, box of graham crackers, pack of hershey bars, bag of giant marshmallows, pjs. Guess where we're headed? Oh, I almost forgot to tell you what happened about 30 minutes before we left. Benny went outside (we were all sitting there watching him, he was supervised and this still happened) and was walking around the covered pool, throwing the beach ball around, when all of a sudden he kind of stepped over the edge of the pool and fell halfway in. He changed his pants, but his shoe was wet. I was kind of freaking because how could he go out tonight in the cold air with a wet foot? I finally decided to throw his shoe in the dryer and hope for the best. It worked and the shoe was dry when we left.

Mom and DH were totally uninterested in this adventure so I took the boys myself. In about ten minutes we were there. I scanned my magic band and received my check-in documents. The CM handed me a can of Cutter, shrugged and said "You probably won't need this since it's so cold."

Fort Wilderness! Luckily, the sun wasn't completely gone when we arrived and I was able to set up our sleeping bags, run the extension cord and plug in the heater and my phone charger. The boys played in the grassy area next to our site. I'd requested a site on the 1500 loop, close to the Singalong area, I think it's called the Meadows? I got one just a few sites in so were just about as close as we could be.

I filled my backpack with the s'mores ingredients, put everyone's coats on and we walked over a bridge and past the pool area. The splash play area looks really fun!

When we got there, we went over to the little store and bought s'mores sticks. They also sold ziploc baggies of s'mores supplies, but we'd brought our own kosher stuff. I hadn't realized that supervising three little kids with very long sticks around a big fire was going to be a challenge. Duh! And I had my stick, too, since I wasn't going to miss out on the s'mores deliciousness! Armed with our gooey treats, we found a bench and sat down.



Here's a link to a short video if you're interested https://goo.gl/photos/r7RsTvg3fkxVLY4D6



We enjoyed a few songs, including one my kids' teacher sings to them, Country Roads, so they pepped up for that one. They were already pretty tired, so staying for the movie was not going to be able to happen. Alex and Benny were willing to take a few pictures with Chip and Dale, but Aaron refused.



It was time to sleep in a tent! I camped a bunch of times when I was a kid, but my boys have never been camping. We changed into pjs, visited the comfort center bathroom and got into our sleeping bags.



I gave them each a few glowsticks and turned off the lantern.



The tent was pretty warm with the heater going and the boys fell asleep at about 8:20. I was grateful for the wifi so I could use my chromebook while they slept and chat with DH. When I felt tired I put my chromebook away and tried to go to sleep, to absolutely no avail. I was up almost the entire night! I just could not fall asleep! It got a little windy during the night and each gust blew the hot air out of the tent and it took a while to warm up again, so it was a chilly night. The boys each woke up briefly during the night, but quickly went back to sleep. I probably slept for an hour in the early morning, but the boys were up at about 6:30, so that was the end of that. With a lot of shushing since the entire loop was still dark and silent and sleeping, we went over to the comfort station. It was cold and still dark and I had a headache so instead of eating breakfast at the picnic table as I'd planned, I got them in the car and gave them their breakfast to eat as we drove back to the townhome. It had a been a fun night, but now I was starting out the day exhausted. Luckily, I function pretty well on adrenaline and we still had a fun day coming up!

 

[MalkaR]

Today was our Animal Kingdom day. I told everyone that we could leave a little later, we didn't need to rush, but we still made it out of the house and to Animal Kingdom pretty early. They let us into the front of the park so people could shop and take pictures, but not past that. We stopped at the bathroom, of course, and took pictures of the birds and the Tree of Life.


Aaron refused to get out of the stroller.



Then it was finally time go!



Aaron isn't in the picture because he was in the stroller, sulking for some unknown reason.

As everyone else was rushing over to rides, we decided to take it easy and headed for the trails around the Tree of Life. It was beautiful and we really enjoyed just strolling around seeing all of the carvings and the few animals and fish they have there. My mom really liked this little "cave".



After we saw as much of the trails around the tree as we could, since some of it was blocked off, we made our way to our first FastPass, the Safari.



It was interesting and bumpy and a lot of fun. We got to see the newest baby elephant, Stella, and she's absolutely adorable! I took a bunch of pictures so I'll have to start a new post soon to fit them all in.



These are taken on my terrible cell phone camera, so excuse the quality.

More Safari pics on the next post.

 

[MalkaR]

The guide pointed these big termite mounds out to us and we were trying to decide if they were real or not. My bet was "not real".


This blurry picture is an ostrich.





Then we saw the Tam Tam Drummers and they pulled me and my mom into the dancing thing they do. DH tried to take a picture but he took a one second video instead and deleted it. So no pic

Then we did the Festival of the Lion King and we all thought it was amazing! The acrobats and stilt dancers and singers were awesome. A quick trip back to Gorilla Falls was next.




Then it was time for lunch. We sat in the area behind Tamu Tamu Refreshments, I believe and it was a very nice and relaxing place to eat. The kids were kinda cranky and tired and complaining about everything, so I knew I'd have to cut the day off a little shorter than I'd planned. So all we had left to do was Dinoland.

TriceraTop Spin was our first stop there and Aaron announced he liked it as much as Dumbo. I then dropped off Mom and the boys at the dinosaur playground, the Boneyard, while DH and I went to our second Fastpass, Dinosaur. When we got there, a CM told us it was down, and would be back up at some point, but she had no idea how long it would be. So we waited about 15 minutes and then went back to the Boneyard. I checked my Lines app and it said it would probably be back up in about 40 minutes, so we decided to fit in Flights of Wonder.



DH had said his co-worker raved about the show and I'd heard it was supposed to be amazing so we were so excited. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I found it be more of a local zoo-type bird show than anything amazing on a Disney scale. Mom took the boys again, headed off the check out the giant dinosaur, and DH and I went back to Dinosaur, which had reopened and rode. I thought it was really fun. It really was just about the same as Indiana Jones in Disneyland, but dino themed. There was no real need for the Fastpass, we just joined the few people in the Standby line in the preshow room anyway. We came back and DH took the boys and Mom and I headed back to Dinosaur for her turn to ride. The line was even shorter now! I couldn't believe it because the Indiana Jones line at Disneyland is always SOOO long. By this time, I was getting nervous and extremely grateful for the nonexistent line because I had an ADR at Tony's Town Square for 5:20 for our date night and it was about 3:30 pm by the time we came out of the ride. I calculated we'd need half an hour to get out of the park, Mom and Alex were walking really slowly by this point, luckily we had the double stroller for Aaron and Benny. I estimated half an hour to get packed back in the car and back to the townhome and an hour to drop off Mom and the boys and make it to MK, take the tram, the ferry and through security and get to Tony's. I went online and tried to switch the ADR to a later time, but all they had, and very briefly before it was gone, was a 7:40 that would be much too late. So, hoping for no traffic, I half jokingly told my Mom I'd slow down a bit when we passed the townhome and they'd have to jump out, get ready to tuck and roll.

Do we make it?!

 

[MalkaR]

For the first and only time on our trip, we took the tram from the parking lot.



Well, I completely overestimated how long it would take us, and DH and I walked into Magic Kingdom (my favorite! I love the music and the scenery, ahhh, I miss it!) before 5pm. Phew! Time to enjoy ourselves!

We walked over to the Fire Station, pulled out the kids' Magic Bands and signed us all up for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom. I knew we wouldn't have time to play it, but I knew the boys would love the cards. After a quick demonstration of how to play the game, we went across the street and checked into Tony's. It was a pretty restaurant and I thought it fit in perfectly with that section of Magic Kingdom. I was so happy to be there! Keeping kosher, this was the only ADR I'd made, as it would be a waste to pay for kosher meals I knew the kids' wouldn't eat. But now it was time to relax and enjoy our kid-free time.

I stopped in the restroom and when I got out, they were ready for us. They led us over a table right by the window, next to the little deck. It was a perfect location and we even got to watch the Shake it! Move it! show/parade from our table. The chef came out to confirm our kosher meals and ask us if we'd like our drinks in disposable cups or if we could use their glasses. Since it was all cold, drinking from their clean glasses was fine. He also asked if we wanted all of our courses at once or one at a time. We opted for one at a time. He was so nice! The waitress brought us our drinks and a few minutes later brought us our soup with rolls. Everything was double wrapped in plastic and we had to struggle a bit to open them. Disney orders their meals from a company called Weberman. They arrive frozen and are heated up when you order them. I'd called about a week before we left to order them. I apologize for not taking any pictures of them, I was just relaxing and pulling out my phone was not on my mind. DH had the matza ball soup and I had the vegetable soup. They also brought us four little double wrapped rolls, two white, two wheat bread. I thought my vegetable soup was pretty good, but DH said the matza ball in his soup wasn't very good and that's the whole point of matza ball soup! The rolls were good and tasted pretty fresh for having been frozen and reheated. Next course was the main. I ordered ginger salmon and DH had brisket. They were pretty small and came with a side of what looked like supermarket frozen veggies. Mine was little cubes of carrots and DH's was mixed veggies. My salmon was on top of some rice with a little bit of gingery sauce and it was super dry and pretty bad. DH's brisket was a few slices of meat on top of potatoes and he said it was acceptable. After that, they brought out our desserts. DH had ordered chocolate cake and I'd ordered non-dairy cheesecake. Each was in a cup and was a pretty nice serving size. Both were tasty and I was happy that there was a scoop of cherry filling on top of my cheesecake. I was glad I'd ordered soup and dessert with the mains or the meal would not have been filling enough, especially as I couldn't finish my fish. The bill was $84. We'd enjoyed the experience even though the food wasn't that great, and I'd really loved the view of Main Street.

We strolled up Main Street toward our first stop, Haunted Mansion. The line was short but moved quickly, and we had just enough time to check out some of the interactive parts of the queue and the clever headstones before we went in. We were second in line behind two teenage girls and we waited a few minutes for the outside doors to open. The CM kind of threw open the doors when it was time to go in and one of the girls shrieked and yelled "You scared me!". The whole line got a kick out of that. Haunted Mansion is one of my favorite rides and I liked seeing the differences between it and the Disneyland version. I think I like them equally. After our tour with the happy haunts, we moved on to Pirates, my other favorite. I got splashed quite a few times and I wasn't too happy about that. I had a few big wet spots on my pants, but the night wasn't too too cold and I was fine. It was starting to get dark and it was time for the projection show before Wishes.



I thought the projection show was really neat and the way they did it, incorporating the spires and shapes of the castle, was very clever. After it was over, we hung out until Wishes started. It was amazing and it had been sooo long since I'd seen a fireworks show. Last time we'd been to Disneyland we left early because the kids were so little and had to go to bed, so we missed the fireworks. I'd been planning to go on Space Mountain after Wishes, but my previous sleepless night was catching up with me and I reluctantly decided it was time to go home. We'd probably catch Space Mountain tomorrow anyway. As we exited, the crowds were enormous and we had to wait for a few monorails to get back to the TTC. But soon enough we were back in the townhome and after a quick shower, I fell into bed, right before my target bedtime of 10pm. It had been an amazing day and I was so grateful to my mom for watching the boys and putting them to bed so we could have our date night.

 

[MalkaR]

Thursday was our Magic Kingdom Adventure Day, as I'd named it on our touring plan. Aaron was asking if we were going to do Dumbo again today. I told him we were going to do the magic carpet "dumbo" ride. Later on, I asked him which one he'd liked the best, the regular dumbo, the dinosaur "dumbo" or the magic carpet "dumbo" and he said he liked them all the same. He still asks now when we can go back and go on Dumbo again.

Once again, we parked close enough to walk and as we crossed the TTC, a CM yelled out "Hey! Where's my coffee?!" My mom and I looked at our coffees and I asked her "Oh no! Did we forget his coffee?" It was a good laugh early in the morning and it somehow was just a good start to a nice calm morning. The ferry was just leaving so we got on the monorail. The boys always loved being on the monorail so they were pretty happy and my mom admitted that she was much happier on the monorail than on the cold ferry.

Soon enough, we were arriving at the Magic Kingdom and after making our way through security, we headed off to our first adventure of the day, the Jungle Cruise. I thought that Benny would love this since he absolutely loves a good joke and has the best giggle. I guess he was too busy looking at everything because I don't think he heard a word our guide said. It's a great classic and I liked the indoor part that Disneyland doesn't have.

Next up was the Magic Carpets. My mom went off to find a bench to sit on and I stood by the side and tried to get a picture, mostly unsuccessfully:



The Tiki Room was next and we were all excited for this because we'd been listening to the song at home for a long time. I loved the outside area, the fountain was so pretty and the boys were transfixed when the pre-show started.



Whoops posted this too soon, the rest of the post follows.

 

[MalkaR]

Big Thunder Mountain was next. Benny and Aaron were scared and I was trying to distract Benny from being scared by pointing things out like the dinosaur bones. He was having none of it and buried his face in my arm the whole time.

Then it was finally time for the ride Alex had been asking about for years! Liberty Square Riverboat! We arrived at about 10:45 and the first boat was supposed to leave at 11. The Riverboat was nowhere to be seen! So I worriedly asked the CM there when the first boat left and he assured us it was at 11. At 11, we heard the bell and the Riverboat pulled up from around the curve of Tom Sawyer Island. Hooray! Alex was so excited and he stood at the railing to watch everything go by.



A few minutes in, the kids started complaining they were hungry and I realized I should have brought their lunches. I told them we'd eat next and handed out some peanut butter crackers to hopefully hold them over.

As we were riding around the Island, I noticed a little deck area with tables that looked perfect for lunch. So as soon as we were done with the Riverboat, we lined up for the ferry to Tom Sawyer Island. The weather was definitely getting warmer as the week went on and we really felt the heat on the ferry. Alex is very light skinned, with that red hair and freckles, and his cheeks were starting to look pink. I hadn't brought any sunscreen and I decided I'd stop off at Target after I put the boys to bed and get some sunscreen.

Once on the Island I led everyone to the table area. There was a closed restaurant there, Aunty's something or other, and it was a perfect place to enjoy our food without feeling like we were taking tables from paying customers. We sat and ate and relaxed, watched the Riverboat go by and I had to really push everyone to get up so we could go explore the Island when we were done eating. I think we could have sat there all day, it was so nice and relaxing.

We let the boys lead us around. I don't remember the order of what we did, but we went through some spooky dark caves with sound effects piped in. Played in some play areas, and found a barrel bridge.



Then we crossed another bridge and found the fort. The adults sat around and the boys ran around and had fun. Then Alex came over and told us he found some more tunnels, but they led out of the Fort so we all had to go. So off we went. After that, my mom said "No more caves!" As I mentioned at the beginning of the trip report, her eyesight is pretty bad, especially in low light situations and those dark caves were a real challenge for her. We found our way back to the ferry and back to the mainland.

It was time for Tomorrowland! Actually, I remember doing the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse, but I don't have a picture of it and I don't remember at what point during the day we did it. Our first Fastpass was for Tomorrowland Speedway. Actually, the first was supposed to be for Haunted Mansion, but I think I remember doing it last. I did a lot of Fastpass switching around this day. The app worked well and lots of stuff was available.

The kids were super excited to drive a car. I went with Aaron and I had the bumpiest ride of my life. Ouch!



He "steered" and I pushed the pedal. His "steering" was just so ridiculous that I couldn't stop laughing. I don't look forward to teaching that kid to drive. I eventually took the wheel but didn't do a whole lot better reaching over from my side.

After that, Charles, Alex and my mom decided to go on Space Mountain. It wasn't in my touring plan, I'd assumed Alex wouldn't want to do it, but we'd discovered he loved the fast rides the best and I didn't want him to miss it. I got a refill on our popcorn bucket and took the little guys on the Peoplemover, a ride I missed from my childhood. As we were standing in line for it, the whole ride stopped and we had to wait a few minutes for it to restart. When we got on, the boys were a little worried, but I assured them it was a slow ride. We all enjoyed it and when we got off, I went into the Space Mountain dump shop and texted DH that we were waiting. He texted back that they were still in line and wouldn't get on for another 20 minutes. So I took Benny and Aaron over the Carrousel of Progress and as we were about to get in the building, Aaron started doing a pee-pee dance. Oh well, so much for that. By the time we finished our bathroom break, it was too late to try for the Carrousel of Progress again and we met the rest of the group in gift shop. They were all raving about how awesome it was. I briefly thought about going on, but the standby line was about 40 minutes.

So the next ride was the Peoplemover for all of us. We were happy to rest our feet and just relax.



While we were on it, I snagged Fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin in the app, so we did that next. The standby line was long and I was happy I'd remembered to look for fastpasses. The boys remembered this ride from Disneyland and were thrilled to get to ride it again.

Our last ride that day was the Haunted Mansion. Originally, after watching videos of it, all three boys had told me they were scared and would not go on it, so I'd set up our fastpasses so the adults could take turns going on it while the other took the boys on Small World again. But on the way there, I convinced them to try it just this once. Everyone liked it but Benny. He told me he didn't know whether he liked it or not because he had his eyes closed the entire time. Oh well.

That was it for that day. We made our way through the castle, taking some pictures by the pretty fountain there. Aaron was being silly.



Alex found a pole with a horse head and my mom and I stopped to take a picture with him.




Our adventure day at Magic Kingdom was over. I dawdled a bit because this was our day to go out for dinner and it was still a little early and I wanted everyone hungry for dinner.

Oh, and I forgot to tell about our morning. We got there early, before rope drop and we spent almost an entire hour in the long gift shop, them Emporium, I think it's called. We let each boys choose a toy. I was looking to see if there was something I really wanted. I needed a new purse, but didn't want to spend more than $30 on it, so yeah, that wasn't happening. Alex chose a remote control monorail, Benny chose a Zorg ball popper thingie, and Aaron chose a light up twirling Mickey. DH found a t-shirt and a magnet. My mom found some travel mugs for herself and a friend. I found nothing, but I was so excited for the day that I didn't care. I stopped in at Momento Mori since I love haunted mansion but I didn't find anything there either. I found a bag I liked but it was $65, so I passed it by. I'm getting ahead of myself, but the next day, in the townhome after our last day in the parks, I realized I was really upset I hadn't found anything for myself. I remedied that Saturday night!

Okay, so back to Thursday. I steered us over to the Fire Station so we could pick up another pack of cards. No go, we hadn't opened any portals so we couldn't get them. We didn't have time to go open portals so we got back on the monorail to the TTC and got in our minivan. It was time for dinner!

Alex ordered french fries and a small Israeli salad which turned out to be a huge bowl. Benny got a burger and fries, of which he really only ate the fries. Aaron got a hot dog and french fries. My mom and I got shwarma in a pita and DH got a burger with fries. Alex and Aaron must have been starving because they ate almost their entire meals. The shwarma was delicious and DH said his burger was really good too. I'd thought it would be an early ending day since I didn't have to make dinner. But it was bedtime for the boys by the time we got back so I did the whole bedtime routine and then went downstairs to collect my mom for a Target run. I announced that we didn't need to set alarms for tomorrow morning since it was our "late" start day. Well, late for us!

Tomorrow was our very last day in the parks and I was already a little sad. Hollywood Studios is next!

 

[disneydreamer1980]

Sounds like fun! I remember trips to Disney World with my Bubbe and Zayde...your boys will always remember this. What restaurant did you eat at with the shwarma? I'm going in November, staying at a Fort Wilderness cabin so we can cook our own meals., but I want to eat out too.

 

[MalkaR]

Oh, wow, I just realized I never continued this trip report.

Sounds like fun! I remember trips to Disney World with my Bubbe and Zayde...your boys will always remember this. What restaurant did you eat at with the shwarma? I'm going in November, staying at a Fort Wilderness cabin so we can cook our own meals., but I want to eat out too.

We had shwarma at Kosher Grill Orlando. Have a great trip!