AFRICA HOT IN THE MONSOON SEASON- but the food was free

[i12go2wdw]

This was an amazing, tiring, HOT, HUMID, exciting trip FULL of surprises!

Planning was so much fun and I even got into CUSTOM clothes for DD6, which brought on a lot of magic

We had free dining and couldn't believe what we got. It was DS17's favorite part of the trip, always something to look forward to. We actually enjoyed having our meals planned out and not having to decide on the go.
We stayed in a family suite at the All Star Music and it turned out perfect for us, we loved having the extra room and the fridge for water, drinks and all the extra desserts we were unable to eat.
Our room was a bit noisy being on the pool side of the building but it didn't bother us too much.
The weather was extremly hot the whole trip, I am not complaining just stating a fact, it took some getting used to but it didn't slow us down too much.


To get started here is the pre trip report.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2210510
Now on with the sweaty trip.

 

[i12go2wdw]

Incase you didn’t look at the pre trip, and I don’t blame you, it really was a lot of rambling to pass the time, here is the cast of characters:

DH Dan the schedule guy, computer programmer, loves Disney but sees it as a challenge to “get our money’s worth” so he keeps us moving.

DS 17 Jordan kinda serious like his dad but lots of fun, going off to University after Labour Day so this may be our last family vacation with him.

DD 13 Becky turning 14 at the end of this trip, she is a hard working, generous, fun girl who loves her brothers and sister, huge help too.

DS 11 Mitchell Goof ball, full of energy (usually when we are all exhausted) keeps us laughing and drives us nuts at the same time

DD6 Nicole PRINCESS spoiled by big sister and biggest brother, very cute and cuddly, fights with DS11

DM me, Christine likes everyone to be happy, loves all the rides (except the spinney ones) loves quiet mornings by the pool.

We are loosely travelling with family friends, I say loosely because although we are going at the same time and staying at the same resort we are only planning a few meals together and playing the rest by ear. I wonder how that will work??

Our first day of travel was driving to the States, we worked half a day and I had my DM and DAunt come and look after the daycare for the afternoon. They came around noon, had a grilled cheese, I put the kids down for a nap, then it was time to load the car. That was pretty easy 'cause we are cheap so we each packed in a carry on. What a breeze to load the car, then there were the kids, yep in they went no problem, just had to keep DD7 Nicole away from DS11 Mitchell. Now the hard part, getting DH away from his work, we both work from home so it is hard to "leave".

I almost fainted when he came down the stairs at 1:00 ready to go, this was too easy, I sensed danger. We said our good-byes and off we went excited kids and giddy parents. We had one quick stop to make to drop off the non-carry on items with our friends who will pack the small cosmetic bag into their checked luggage for us. With that done we were on our way to the border. Should be pretty straight forward, don’t you think??

 

[i12go2wdw]

We were at the Pattullo Bridge about 20 minutes down the highway, at 1:00 the journey from our house is 20 minutes, at 2:00 the trip is about an hour so I was very happy to be on the road so early, Vancouver is known for bad traffic, especially on a summer Friday afternoon.

Anyway at the bridge I get the usual “What did I forget” panic. So I start going through the list of what I usually forget,
under wear, check,
toothpaste, check,
pj’s, check,
tickets, check,
passports, check,
6 carryons, check,
6 backpacks 1-2-3-4-5 wait a minute, WHAT DO YOU MEAN 5!!!
I asked the back seats
"Where is Nicole’s backpack?"
Princess Nicole answers,
"Oh was I suppose to take that, didn't someone else get it, I think it is on the couch in the livingroom."
On the couch!! OK so now we weigh weather its worth going back to get it or not, it was so we turned around.
We got to the house and had a hard decision to make, pick up Nicole’s backpack or to leave her home. We still had a bit of vacation happiness going on and I had made all those dresses for her to wear so we picked up the backpack. Lucky girl, but you better believe anything else that went wrong that day I made sure Nicole knew it was because she forgot her backpack and we had to turn back, she just smiled at me
Back home and back on the road at 2:00 UGH!!! I knew it was too good to be true, but nothing else will surely go wrong now.
We are on the way again, down the highway, over the bridge, through Surrey and to the line up for the border. It says the wait is 70 minutes, we hum and haw and decide this will be the time we try to go through Duty Free, we have no idea what Duty is and why things are actually more expensive at duty free than if we bought them at the mall, but we thought we would try it because surely it will be quicker to go through that store and get into the special Duty free line up.
WELLLLL it isn’t.
We made a quick trip through the store and bought some chocolate and a Canada t-shirt for Mitchell and back into the car. We drove and picked up our stuff and got into a short line, unfortunately there were 8 short lines and we ended up waiting 90 minutes. 90 minutes in a hot van with 4 excited kids was not a nice way to start the trip. 5:30 we see the border guard, it should have taken 40 minutes to get to this point.
Through the border and we let DS17 drive, I was co-pilot and he did very well, (by that I mean we didn't get a ticket), we drove straight through to Edmonds WA, we had a late dinner and got to our wonderful friends house around 8:30.
They are the greatest people who will put us all up for the night, feed us breakfast and see us off. We visited for an hour, went to bed and had a great sleep. Will tomorrow run smoother? Will Nicole survive to see the castle?

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm in! I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. You can contribute to my sanity.

It looks like your trip is off to a semi-good start....well, with the exception of leaving something at home and sitting in a 90 minute line. But, you're on your way to Disney World!

 

[i12go2wdw]

I'm in! I often say trip reports and pictures are what keep me sane until my next Disney vacation. You can contribute to my sanity.

It looks like your trip is off to a semi-good start....well, with the exception of leaving something at home and sitting in a 90 minute line. But, you're on your way to Disney World!

I am so glad you are along with me, we did havean amazing time with so many special things happening, I hope it will keep you giong. There will be lots of pics too, there are 160 photopass pics (careful or I will make you look at each ane everyone!!) not to mention the 4 gig card I filled twice

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am so glad you are along with me, we did havean amazing time with so many special things happening, I hope it will keep you giong. There will be lots of pics too, there are 160 photopass pics (careful or I will make you look at each ane everyone!!) not to mention the 4 gig card I filled twice

I love pictures! I think I took a picture of everything this past trip and if I am remembering correctly, I had just a little over 100 Photopass pictures. Hit me with 'em!

 

[i12go2wdw]

After a goodnight’s sleep we had forgotten about the detours of the day before and we were ready to get to Disney World. We had a nice breakfast, collected ALL our bags and were off to the airport. We had decided to park the car at airport parking, which in Seattle is mostly at airport Motels who then shuttle you to your airline. This went smoothly and by 9:15 we were at the airport. We grabbed some more food to sustain us on the foodless flight and we were off.

The flight was good but long and the kids were a bit excited and silly, but not loud enough to bother anyone but Dan and I. Mitchell is the one who gets everyone going, so after our stopover is Dallas, and a quick lunch at Taco Bell, we rearranged the seating order for flight #2. We kept the trouble maker pinned up against the window with DH and myself beside him. The flight went by quickly but was so bumpy that the pilot had the crew stay in the jump seats for the whole 2 hour trip, I was glad I brought my own diet coke!!
We landed at 9:30 and went right down to Magical Express, we breezed through the line because we had no checked luggage and we were on a very full bus in minutes.

We had done the pre check in so when we got to the All Star Music we only waited a minute or two for a clerk to help us and by 10:10 we were off to our room.

We were in room 1660, top floor facing the pool, which seemed like a good thing at the time. On the table there was a package waiting for Nicole, it was a petti skirt I had bought off one of our fellow Disers, it was very well received.

Once the can-can show was over we decided to go for a swim, it was 10:30 East coast time but only 7:30 our time.

Jordan was hungry so we sent the dry people to go get some dinner, good thing he was hungry because they were just closing the kitchens. We all shared 2 meals and headed back to the room.

Everyone was asleep by midnight.

 

[i12go2wdw]

We are fortunate enough to be staying in WDW for 16 days this trip, Disney does not encourage this type of behavior. Disney does not allow room reservations for longer than 14 days, and there is no way to lengthen a park hopper pass to more than 10 days (except to buy an annual pass which is quite a price jump).
So for this trip we had to plan non-park days. Coming from a time zone 3 hours away we decided that our first day would be a good non-park day, but we still had our free dining to consider because that had to be used in our first 14 days. I’m not sure how people, who just wing it, without doing a lot of planning, survive. So today we had reservations for O’hana at 6:50 but not much else planned for the day.
I was the first up and quietly snuck out of the room (if you have ever seen a ASMusic family suite you know how hard that is). I brought my book and sunglasses and refillable mug (bought on this trip ) and just enjoyed the sun and water. Then at about 8:30 I looked up and there were our friends, just off the bus. We exchanged hugs and told of our travelling adventures and soon everyone was awake and in the pool.
Everyone got hungry so we had some breakfast, the six of us were full and we only used 1 snack and 2 meal credits.
We had decided to order water and a few groceries from Garden Grocer to have in the room, looking back it was a good idea, we ate almost all the food we ordered, not such a good idea was making a second order ¾ of the way through the trip, we ended up leaving a lot of that order and we had extra snack and CS credits left to boot.
The groceries came; we had combined our order with our friend’s so we sorted it out and delivered it on a luggage rack.

We decided to go on a Resort Hop, on this trip we were trying to see how many resort maps we could collect, first stop was Pop Century, we had heard a lot about it and never been. We caught a bus

To Magic Kingdom then another to Pop. Have I mentioned how hot it is? It was baking hot, now we had a record breaking heat wave in Vancouver this summer that lasted about 10 days so we thought we were prepared, and although we didn’t mind being out in the heat, we really started to wilt and even feel sick after a couple of hours. It took some time to figure out how to handle it. But at Pop we were fine, except for listening to the fighters (Nicole and Mitchell) argue about who saw each and every lizard first. AAAAGHHH!

I am pretty sure Mitchell is not playing Twister because he and Nicole were fighting.
After we had a good look around and saw where the next phase of Pop was to be built but never was. Here is a link to what remains, I find it kinda creepy!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSc1fG0ETeY

Next 5 more resorts before dinner, but how many Mickey bars did it take, and some blood shed.

 

[i12go2wdw]

After our tour of Pop we got back on the MK bus and then on the monorail to the Contemporary. We did some shopping then back on the monorail to the Grand Floridian. I always feel like people know we do not belong here, it makes me uneasy, like crashing a party (not that I have ever done that, I just imagine it feels that way). We spent some time on the beach, it is so beautiful,

And so relaxing, but man was it hot!!!

We then took a boat to Wilderness Lodge and things went down hill a bit. You know when everyone starts to argue and fight and there really is no reason, when someone bumps into someone and it turns into a war, when one person doesn’t get there way and suddenly the world is against them, well that’s when it is time for MICKEY BARS!!!

It is amazing how 20 minutes of delicious Mickey coolness and air conditioning can change the world.
We were up for some more exploring so we hopped on another boat and made our way around Bay Lake to Fort Wilderness. We will be back here for Hoop De Doo later in the trip so we just had a quick visit then back on a boat to the Contemporary and on the Monorail to the Poly. We were a bit early for our dinner reservation so we did a bit of shopping, Becky was picking out a cover up and I looked at Nicole and her nose was pouring with blood. We rushed her to the bathroom and it took forever to get it to stop, she has had these at home too, doesn’t phase her but it is hard being on the receiving end of all that blood. By the time we got her under control it was just about time for our dinner. We were starting to droop again but luckily the wait was just a few minutes and after the obligatory picture we were seated. We had never been here before but it definitely won’t be our last visit. The food was excellent, Dan is allergic to many things and the waiter and chef did an amazing job of catering to him. Here is a little food porn

We loved the music and the three youngest kids were happy to get up and join the parade and do the hula.

It was a great first day of the trip but we were so exhausted, we went back to the ASMusic and everyone was asleep by 10:00

 

[i12go2wdw]

Years ago we used to have to set 3 wake up calls a few minutes apart so each kid could have a turn answering the phone. Each night there would be a discussion as to who would answer the first ring and so on. This trip the phone would just ring and ring and ring until I would answer it. Oh how things have changed.
The call was set for 7 and it took some cajoling to get them going but we were at the bus by 8. We decided to have breakfast at the Main Street bakery so that cut down on some time too.
We were at Magic Kingdom by 8:40 and got a pretty good spot to wait for the rope drop ceremony (do they call it that at MK even if they don’t drop a rope?)

I was looking for other custom outfits from the ladies and Tom on the Disboutique but I couldn’t see any. Nicole was wearing one that I had made and I was thrilled when a nice lady with wonderful taste came up to me and commented on her dress.

We got through the crowds on Main Street and were one of the first in the Bakery. We shared a cinnamon bun two chocolate croissants a plain croissant and some drinks.

Our first ride was Tomorrow land Speedway. We were only in line a few minutes when the mother of the family behind us recognized Nicole from these Dis boards. We had fun talking about the boards and our trips, made the wait go by so quickly.
The ride was fun, I went with Becky and she almost ran over a squirrel but he got away just in time.

We then did Snow White, Small world, Splash (which Nicole has been riding for almost 4 years but always cries in the line up about how afraid she is, we all do this), Haunted Mansion, Pirates and Tiki room. The croissants were wearing off so we went to Pecos Bill’s for lunch. This was the only time we let our hunger decide what we should order. Mitchell and I shared a pulled pork sandwich but everyone else ordered their own meal. We threw about a third of the food away. It broke my heart, I saved all the desserts in my purse but ended up throwing them away later in the week too. Lesson learned.
Everyone was hot tired and arguing so they all had a good talking to and we carried on. The food kicked in and everyone was much more agreeable. We were walking near the castle and we came upon the Fairy Godmother, so we stopped for our first autograph.

We did Country bears, used FP for Peter pan then did Monsters Laugh floor which was a first for all of us and we really enjoyed it. By now it was 2:00 and we decided to get out of the sun and head back to the room.

 

[i12go2wdw]

After our very hot morning at MK we were looking forward to a nice cool, quiet nap time to recharge before our EMH night at Hollywood Studios. What we got was a front row seat to the 3 hour pool party. IT WAS LOUD. Luckily we are all good sleepers and the music was good. Our friends were on the courtyard side of the building and they didn’t even know there were pool parties.
At about 5:00 we set off for DHS. We had an ADR for Sci-Fi at 8:05, that is the best I could get calling 90 days out, right when they opened, and checking every few days till we left.
The first things we did before dinner were Star tours and Muppets, we went over to the Sci-Fi early thinking they may be able to get us in, have I mentioned how hot it is??? Well there was no room to wait inside so we sat outside until 8:40 before we were seated.

When we got in the place was almost empty, all the cars on one side of us were being cleaned for the next day and never did get seated. I was worried the kitchen was going to close and we wouldn’t get to eat. It all turned out ok, the service was kinda slow and the food is nothing to write home about (but some of the food on our trip sure was!!!) but the atmosphere makes up for all of that.

We were so late getting out of there that all we had time for before 10:00 was a quick trip on the Tower of Terror. Again Nicole, who has been riding this for year, cried going on, screamed throughout the ride and then said she’d like to ride it again.
If you did read the pre trip report you may think we had a stroller with us, seeing how we made a special trip to the States to get a McLaren that would hold her. But what you may not know is we left it in the hall closet at home. And as predicted the first time the princess complained, her brother Jordan did this.

Luckily this was the one and only time she complained the whole trip. Look at the cheeky “I’m getting away with something” grin on her face.
We were some of the last people out of the park, and home to bed by about 11.

 

[i12go2wdw]

We are now in the spirit of Disney. Isn’t it so wonderful to become immersed in that world, where it is hot and the music is familiar and cheerful and the food is plentiful and everyone (except some angry parents) are smiling and enjoying themselves?
I must say we did not encounter any overly rude guests or CMs the whole trip. We may have seen some questionable behaviors by guests but they were not interfering with anyone outside their families, there was one family who tried to push in front of us at a parade but gently stepping in front of them solved the problem.
So today was our first Animal Kingdom day of the trip, we were all excited to see the shows. The kids hadn’t seen Finding Nemo yet or had the chance to ride Everest.
We got up and had a bit of breakfast in the room before we got to the bus.
Here they are in all their splendor of almost readiness

Good thing DS17 will probably never see this, he would kill me!!
We got on the bus around 8:15 and went through the Rainforest Café to use the turnstiles there. I had known about this entrance for many visits but I was always afraid to use it, I thought there might be some conflict about going through the restaurant, but of course there wasn’t.

There were only 2 or 3 people in front of us and they were very friendly. These turnstiles seem to open at the same time as the main ones too. We were just a few rows of people back from the front of rope drop, but we were anxious about the crowds.
I need to tell you about Ridemax. We have used them for our last few trips and they have made such a difference in our enjoyment of our days in the parks. We (well the kids and I) are not commando but we like to know what to do next, even if we have missed the great window of short lines, it gives us a plan.
Well today was a good example of how we should have trusted Ridemax, for some reason the posted wait times on the rides, right after rope drop, were very exaggerated.
After rope drop we made our way to Safari and the wait time said 40 minutes even though Ridemax said 6. In error we believed the posted wait time and we floundered, this is what I hate. The questioning, where should we go now, what do you want to do, what if we get there and the line is longer than this, then the inevitable, I’m hungry or hot, or needing a bathroom. This is why I love Ridemax.
So we got fastpasses and went to It Tough to be a Bug. While we were there that day (but not for the rest of our visits) they had central FP machines set up right by ITTBAB they were for Dinosaur, Safari, Everest, (and was there more, can’t remember). You could still only get one at a time but it saved a lot of walking!!!.
We got FP for Everest, walked onto Dinosaur and could have stayed on because there were no people in line at all when we got out. We then used our FP for the Safari and then saw the Lion King Show, I love that show.

We rode Everest 2 times, I think the first time with the FP was actually a longer wait than the second time without, but neither were more than 3 or 4 minutes. We all loved this ride; it makes me giggle-scream. We were starving after all those rides so we shared 4 meals from Burgerasaurus, it was more than enough food!
After a good lunch and a good cool down, man it was hot, we went to see the Nemo Show, it is amazing! It was the kid’s first time seeing it so that made it even more special.

On the way out we saw Pooh going to the meet and greet spot and there were no people in line so we ventured down that way, Nicole got to stroll in along side Pooh.

We were pretty wiped out so around 2:30 we caught a bus back to the relative quiet of our pool- party –side room for a nap.

 

[i12go2wdw]

Tonight was one of the meals we were having at the same time as our friends from home. We were not able to get our reservations linked at this one but we were eating at the same time so we thought they might be able to put us together once we got to the restaurant.

We left the resort, after a much needed nap, around 5:00 and met up with our friends at the bus stop. We had reservations for 6:30 at the Biergarten in Epcot, none of us had been there before but Jordan and Dan really love German food, mostly meat, so we thought we would give it a try.

It was one of those bus trips that just seem to take forever!! We got to Epcot and hightailed it to Germany just in time for 6:30, we were still early in the trip and kinda new to this ADR system so we fretted about being on time. In days to come we wouldn’t worry as much.

We asked at the kiosk if we might have the 11 of us seated together and they started out saying they would try but a few minutes later they came to us and said we wouldn’t be able to. That was OK, we understood. Just as we were told that we were not able to sit together the skies opened up, it poured with thunder and lightning. We were under cover but the waiting spot for the restaurant soon filled up with the general population of EPCOT. It was hot, humid, sticky, and everyone was too close to me UGH!! Luckily we were seated very soon after the first of many monsoons of this trip.

The atmosphere in the Biergarten was very cool, the building is amazing and every seat has a great view of the stage. We were seated ½ a restaurant away from our friends but we still went over for a visit or two. We were seated with a very nice couple from Quebec, no kids, and I am sure after having dinner with us they never will have kids.

The meal started out OK; we were very close to the buffet and so could come and go at leisure. The food got mixed reviews, Mitchell was not impressed, Nicole will eat anything but I could tell it wasn’t a huge hit, I found a few things that were good, but Jordan, Dan and Rebecca LOVED it.
Then Mitchell was goofing around and dumped his plate full of food onto his lap. Now the cynical mother in me thinks he was not enjoying his meal and did it on purpose so he didn’t have to eat any more, but dad thought it was funny so I didn’t get too mad. I did make him go to the bathroom and clean himself up thought. The couple from Quebec was doing their best not to notice.

Not 10 seconds after Mitch dumped his plate; Becky who is still laughing about it, puts her ¾ full cup of chocolate on the edge of the table and dumps that into her lap. The couple from Quebec gets up and goes to the buffet, probably to save themselves from any future flying food and drink. I can’t remember if they came back or not, but I know I wanted to leave too.

The show started and that took my mind off of how awful my kids were. What a fun show, the performers are so talented, this guy with the bells was just amazing, and he hit every note right on beat.

And these guys with these horns were just like in the Ricola commercials.

 

[i12go2wdw]

After dinner we had planned to meet up with our friends to watch Illuminations but it was coming down in buckets so we did our best with the ponchos we had and made our way home. As it turned out Jordan had on white shorts and I had on a white top and anytime we both wore white it would rain. By the end of the trip we figured this out and would do a costume check before we left the room.

We got home and dried off, only Becky was dry, you get what you pay for when you buy a dollar store poncho.
We all cuddled up on the pull out bed in the living room and watched Legally Blond.

Before we hit the beds Rebecca pulled out Nicole’s wiggly front tooth. Nicole’s teeth wiggle for months and months before they are loose enough to pull out, but this one she wanted to keep in until our trip. She was sure that in Disney World that Tinkerbelle did the Tooth Fairy’s job.

The reason she thinks this is that on a trip 5 years ago we had a run in with Tinkerbelle when Mitchell knocked his tooth out at Typhoon Lagoon. I had taken Becky 9 and Mitchell 7 on a pre-cruise trip to WDW while Dan and my mother stayed home with Jordan who didn’t want to miss school and Nicole who was just 2 (they all met us a few days later when we went on the 2 week Panama Canal cruise). On this day of our trip with just the three of us, we were spending the day at Typhoon Lagoon. We had just gotten out of the water for lunch and I left Bec and Mitch at the lounge chair with strict instructions to stay put while I went over the bridge to the counter service restaurant. Just as I was picking up the food a lifeguard came up to me and said “Is your name Christine?” Knowing my kids I was debating weather to admit it or not but decided it might be best to, so I said “Yeah?” She said my son had been hurt and was in the first aid room, so I grabbed my food and followed her. He had been trying to get the mug on the other side of the lounge chair and put both hand on the towel covered lounge. Both hands went through the slats and he hit his mouth on the far cross bar of the chair knocking out his bottom front tooth. Luckily it was a baby tooth. Rebecca, having taken many junior lifeguard classes knew just what to do; she shoved a towel in his mouth, grabbed his arm and hauled him to a lifeguard. Of course I should have known better than to think they were safe sitting on a chair, those two can cause trouble anywhere. After the bleeding stopped and I got over the feeling of being such a horrible parent, we enjoyed the rest of the day. Here he is in 2005

That night I brought them to the food fair and while they were colouring at the table I snuck to the store and got Mitch a Stitch key chain and some Disney dollars for under his pillow. The lady at the cash asked why just 2 Disney Dollars and when I told her she went into the back and brought out a Magical Moment certificate and filled it in for Mitchell and signed it from Tinkerbelle. He was so shocked in the morning and even Becky was impressed. I told you all this so you will understand what happens next.

So back to this most recent trip. After the kids were in bed Dan went down to the store to get some Disney dollars and a little toy to put under the pillow. When he went to the check out he explained that our daughter had lost her tooth and was there anything special Disney had for this situation. He was thinking of the certificate but he couldn’t remember the name of it I guess. The clerk goes behind the counter and comes out with a beginner pin trading set. Dan was shocked and kinda thrilled at the same time as the kids love pin trading but because we only brought carryons we didn’t bring a lot of pins to trade. When he brought it back to the room I didn’t know weather to be angry at him for asking for such a big thing, or to be excited, I chose excited once he told me he hadn’t asked for it.
As luck would have it, we put all the treasures under her pillow but by morning the pins had fallen down the back of the pull out bed. We couldn’t let her know we knew there were more surprises but somehow they got found and she was thrilled.

She had lost the other front tooth a week or two before we left home, it was a cute stage to have her with no front teeth for a while.

 

[i12go2wdw]

Today was an EPCOT day and or first ride was Test Track, and as usual Nicole was stressing about it during the whole line up. I know sometimes people look at parents who are “strongly encouraging” their frightened kids to do rides look like they are being mean but sometimes it isn’t. Nicole has been riding these rides since she was tall enough, for some rides that is 4 years. Just the past couple of trips she is acting like a wimp but when we get off the ride she wants to go again, so sometimes parents are not being mean, just working through wimpyness. Here you can see how not scared she is.

We did Mission Space the orange side, but that will be the last time I do that, I always feel just a little off for an hour or so, we were all feeling it a little, I’m sure the heat didn’t help, have I mentioned it was hot this trip!!!
So we went to Ice Station Cool and drank lots of the ginger coke and let that settle our stomachs, the air conditioning helped too.
When we all felt better Dan went and got fastpasses for Soarin’ and then we met at The Sea and did the Clammobiles and Turtle Talk with Crush.

We were a bit early for our ADR at Coral Reef but we decided to go and wait incase they could seat us early. It was an even longer wait than we had for Sci-Fi Dine in and I think we were all wondering if all these table service meals were a good idea. After close to an hour of waiting with nothing but people watching to keep us entertained (that and dropping the beeper down behind the enclosed bench seat) we were seated. This restaurant is amazing.

We had never been before and we were so happy we tried it. The food was so good, but the aquarium was just amazing. There were tons of fish, a couple of sharks, rays and turtles.

The fun really started when the Diver came out, he was so entertaining, had us all laughing. When the bill came we started one of many discussions on how they afford all this free dining. We are a family of 6, paying about $150 a night for our room and each of our table service meals alone are between $225 and $350. How do they do that???? If anyone can explain it to me I would love to understand this.
We were all pretty tired and it looked like it was going to rain again so we used our FPs for Soarin’ then made our way home. We swam with our friends in the rain, saw frogs in the grass which was a change from the lizards, and just enjoyed a night off. We were not hungry for dinner so we all just shared bit and pieces from the food court. Before bed we watched some T.V. then just crashed. Tomorrow is a non park day and I think we are ready for it.

 

[i12go2wdw]

We all slept in a bit today and boy did it feel good. It is hard to balance the excitement of being at WDW, the need of sleep, the effect the heat has on your and jet lag when planning a schedule. We did take it easy the first day but by yesterday we were just going through the motions, it was too much go-go-go, even with breaks.

I was first up at about 8:30 and I tried again to sneak down to the pool, I had packed a little bag the night before and left my bathing suit and cover up out to cut down on the rustling around while everyone tried to sleep. Sneaking out of a family suite means leaving the bedroom and going through the living room where the 4 kids were sleeping and trying to open the door (with full sun streaming in) which is 5 inches from the fold out couch, and then have the door shut behind you without making a sound. I fully expected to see at least 3 kids down at the pool with me within 5 minutes. I did have a bout 20 minutes of quiet, just a slow stream of park goers passing by. I had been given a book to read by a very good friend, Life in the Time of Cholera, which was a bit of a hard read but it was all that I had so I muddled through. It kept me entertained. Then by 9 Dan and Nicole were down with me, so Nicole and I swam in an almost empty pool for awhile, then Mitchell came down so I could go back to my book and let them play while dad watched them. Bec and Jo never did surface so the 4 of us dried off and got a late breakfast, Jo and Bec must had sensed we were eating without them because they did make it down before we were done. As everyone finished eating we made a plan for the day. Dan, Jordan, Rebecca, and Mitchell were going to go to Disney Quest and Nicole and I were off on a resort hop and DTD. We had reservations at Chef Mickey’s at 5:40 so we decided to just meet there.

I have been to DQ a couple of times and I can honestly say that it is not a place I need to see again. I don’t dislike it, just a bit dark and crowded, plus I am not at all into video games. Nicole and I were in agreement on this.

We all made our way back up to the room and got ready; it was a very slow process. Nicole and I were ready first so we left and got out of the way. The rest of them did meet us at the bus though so we all rode to DTD together. Nicole and I walked around and took some pictures; we went to the Make Your own T-shirt place and designed one but didn’t get it.

Have I mentioned how hot it is here?!?!? Well we were just about melting when we came across the Ghirardelli Shop. We decided a hot fudge sundae would hit the spot. And it did!!

I had a moment of panic when I got to the podium and realized I had to pay money for the sundae. We have been so spoiled by the free dining. Nicole was wearing one of the dresses I made for her, she twirled everywhere she went. The lady who took our order thought she was very cute so she gave her a little bag of goodies, a chocolate, some crayons, a colouring page and some other little thing. Nicole was thrilled.

Once we had finished window shopping and Nicole was sprinkled with Pixie-dust we decided to take the friendship boat to Port Orleans French Quarter. We had stayed there once and really liked the size and themeing of it.

We walked around the French Quarter for a while and checked out their gift store and pool.

When we had seen all we wanted we got on a bus going to MK then we transferred onto the monorail going to the Contemporary. We found the 5 legged goat on the mural on the wall, looked where we were going to be having dinner and we still had close to an hour to kill before we were suppose to meet with the rest of the family.

Nicole decided she wanted to spend her tooth fairy money so we made our way to the gift shop. She is a slow shopper. She did decide on a Minie Mouse flip phone. That thing kept her busy for the rest of the trip, even on the plane ride home. We still had some time till our reservation so we went down to the check in and watched cartoons. Where we were sitting I could see a staff door and whenever anyone came or went I got a glimpse into the “forbidden zone” and I could read some of the sayings and notices on the wall. It kept me very entertained.

While we sat there a young girl, maybe 3, came up to Nicole and was very interested in her new phone. She asked Nicole if she could try it so Nicole gave it to her to try. No sooner did she have it in her hand did she run back to her parents who were in the long line to register. The girl was gone for atleast 10 minutes, and her parents never questioned where she got the phone. I was starting to get anxious and had a plan to go buy another phone before dinner if we didn’t get it back. Then I started to get angry and all the while Nicole was quite calm and would check over her shoulder to make sure the girl hadn’t disappeared. When I had had enough I got up to go talk to the girl but as she saw me coming she ran right to Nicole and gave her back the phone. Sneaky little brat.
Sorry was that inappropriate?

 

[trivial]

I'm enjoying the trip report. We're planning on going around the same time in a couple of years, so I'm curious to see how your large-ish family made out with free dining and the temperature/weather.

 

[zhazhazsu]

Loving the trip report. It is cool to see how a large family with a variety of ages enjoys the park. Keep the updates coming.

 

[i12go2wdw]

I'm enjoying the trip report. We're planning on going around the same time in a couple of years, so I'm curious to see how your large-ish family made out with free dining and the temperature/weather.

Thanks for reading, we had a great time, it was very hot though. I was very happy we brought the mister fan and we learned quickly to get out of the heat at the first sign of anyone getting grumpy, and of course Mickey bars help too. Free dining was amazing, we still are amazed at the wonderful food and the beautiful restraunts we ate at for just the cost of the tip.
The crowds were great, I think a lot of schools in the East and South go back to school in the middle of August so the crowds were very managable. Good thing because I would HATE to be in shoulder to shoulder crowds in that heat
The report will continue soon.
Thanks again for reading

 

[i12go2wdw]

Loving the trip report. It is cool to see how a large family with a variety of ages enjoys the park. Keep the updates coming.

Thank you for reading, sorry I disappeared for awhile.
We decided that to make this trip work we would be sure to give everyone, espcially the older 2 kids, a lot of freedom and most days there were invited to come with us but not forced to. There were a few times that it was mandatory for all of us to be together but it wasn't a problem, they didn't mind.
I must say the two teens never missed a meal and only chose to stay home once or twice. They did fizzle out earlier than the rest of us and went back to the room early though. A couple of hours of happy family time is much better than a full day of together time when someone is miserable.
Do you have a big family? If you have any questions just let me know.