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

[Stacie96]

Thank you so much, I am working on another update this afternoon, probably have it done by morning. I see you have a trip planned in the very near future, where are you staying?

We are staying at POP for the first time. Going around Easter was not our first choice due to the crowds and everything seems more expensive (would love to be able to go around free dining) but have to adjust around the kids school now!!! At least the weather should be better... I hope .

Cannot wait to keep reading!!

 

[i12go2wdw]

We were up early this morning to get to DHS for rope drop again; it really was the only way to do the rides at DHS. There are so many that are so popular and the lines get so long so quickly. When I say we were up early I should explain that only 5 of us made it up, Jordan was done in and decided to take the morning off. Honestly, I didn’t expect him to make it this long with us. There is nothing wrong with his stamina or energy, other than the teenage sleep in thing, but he can only take so much family time. We do not have a quiet, take it all in kind of family. The other 3 kids are loud and non-stop. Drives me nuts too but I am the Mum, I have to stick it out.
We were fed and on the bus by 8:00. When we got to Hollywood Studios Dan decided to tryout for the American Idol Show. They were really promoting it during the line up for rope drop and you could go off to the side and sing a little ditty to see if they would accept you. We had some time to kill and Becky is such a fan of the show she kinda encouraged Dad to do it. Now Dan does sing a lot, he sings at our church and has even been hired to sing at many funerals, we jokingly call him the Funeral Singer. So off they go while the rest of us wait in line. Dan did get accepted so we all had to get out of the line and go with Dan off to the side. Dan was allowed to take one FAN with him backstage so Becky went and the rest of us were left at the rope drop with instructions to be at the VIP entrance of the American Idol show at 10:30.
So Mitchell, Nicole and I did the same as the other day, followed the crowd to Toy Story Mania and walked right on, got FPs for Rockin Rollercoaster and rode Tower of Terror, this time Nicole did not cry just held my arm very tight and hid her head. We rode Rockin Rollercoaster then made our way to American Idol. We waited quite a while for them to open the doors, all the while I was trying to get a hold of Jordan to come and see his dad. We were seated right near the front on the left hand side again. The warm up guy was very funny and worth going for just to see him. The show started and it was a lot like the TV show, here are way too many pictures sorry.

Here are the three contestants waiting and listening to the announcer, they all looked pretty nervous at this point.

Then it was Dan’s turn to go up on stage, back stage they did make up and hair (but Dan didn’t need any help with that) and they even got to see a voice coach that went over some points with them. They did a little interview and that is the info the MC used to introduce each singer. She made some crack about Dan having 4 kids.

Then Dan’s name and the name of the song he was going to sing shows up on the monitor.

Dan belted out his song, the female judge really liked him the other two were mixed. They really did not like the female singer but they all really liked the last guy. We thought Dan was great but I guess there could only be one winner. Just as well, we had plans for tonight and if you win you have to come back for the Grand Finale.

We met up with Dan at the side entrance and heard all the stories about behind the scenes. He wore his American Idol pin for the rest of the week and got tons of attention from it. It was a really cool experience and we are so glad that he did it.

 

[Sweet Pea UK]

What an experience - I so wish I could sing!

 

[albertamommyof4]

Hello fellow Canadian,
I am happy to tell you that I got those back-packs at our very own Canadian Tire!! It was a while ago so not sure if they still have them but they did work out very well, the bottle just slips intl it's own insulated (?) sleeve on the bottom of the pack. The boys had black ones too. They were cheap to boot. Under $15 if I remember. Good luck and I will take a look in my CT next time I am there.
Do you have a trip planned?

Thank you so much they sound awsome
I will definatly have to take a look in our canadian tire.
I am actually going on a solo trip in august it is for a tupperware conference and i thought i would take a trip to the parks lol( can't go to disneyworld and not go to the parks lol) This will be my first ever trip there, have only been to disneyland 1 time also with my kids and hubby in april.

 

[i12go2wdw]

After the American Idol finished Dan retold us all about his 15 minutes of fame (which took much longer than 15 minutes to retell) he then decided he wanted to go see the Indy Show. Nicole and I had no interest in seeing it so we decided to go back to the resort and swim. We are not fans of any counter service place in DHS so we were going to have lunch at the resort, we both really love the quesadillas and one is more than enough for the two of us to share. So we head out and we are soon are at the food court. We used the house phone to call Jordan and he came down and had lunch with us, we are his favorites after all.

Nicole wanted to swim after lunch and Jordan graciously offered to take her. I had an hour and a half off. It was just like a mini vacation during a vacation. They came back to the room and Nicole instantly fell asleep on Jordan’s tummy, very cute. Soon the rest came home and they fell asleep too. We are really enjoying these siestas, but the noise from the pool party is so loud!!

When we woke up we went to Magic Kingdom for the extra magic hours. It was still very hot. The crowds were unpredictable and some rides were walk-ons and others had huge lines.
We rode a couple of rides then decided we needed to get out of the heat and eat dinner. Mitchell really loves Cosmic Rays with Sonny Eclipse, he is beyond corny but it makes him happy.

There is a good variety of food, except this night, only one section was open so we had to have burgers. Mitchell and I shared a double burger, we were doing really well with the counter service credits, and the meals are so big we very seldom got more than 4 for the family to share. Sometimes Mitchell and I would share a snack credit muffin for breakfast. This night Mitchell decided that he wanted a lot of beef, so we decided that we would get the double patty burger. I just took 1/4 of the beef so we loaded his ½ up.

After we ate we did more rides, they are so much more fun in the dark, the whole park is just magical in the dark.
We had our only icky experience this night, it was really kind of gross. We were in the longest line up of the whole trip, for Big Thunder Mountain. They had all the switch back lanes open and it was packed. We had a family of 4 in front of us, Mom, Dad, teenaged brother and teenaged sister-brother was older and taller. The whole time we were weaving through the line up we had to look at this family. The brother had a very bad burn on his back and shoulders, most of which was visible because of the wife beater tank top he was wearing. His back and shoulders were red and bubbly. During the amazingly long and hot wait as we were all packed in together the sister peeled sheets of her brother’s skin off his back. Then she held them over his shoulder so he could see then she flung them behind her. YUCK!! Needless to say we stayed way back. All the people around them were making faces and looked grossed out but the family was oblivious.

After that ride we needed to get out of the heat for awhile. We decided to go on one of our favorite rides.

I know it is kinda hokey but it just makes us happy and there is so much to look at.

We were cooled off and rested so we continued on with a few more rides. The Tea Cups are one of the only rides I will not ride on but the kids love it, especially if Jordan goes on and really spins it, I can hardly watch.

It was still so hot, I think today was even hotter than it has been. We made it till about 10:45 and decided to head back to the resort. We were home and in bed just after 11. Tomorrow we get to sleep in, YEAH!!!

 

[i12go2wdw]

Thank you so much they sound awsome
I will definatly have to take a look in our canadian tire.
I am actually going on a solo trip in august it is for a tupperware conference and i thought i would take a trip to the parks lol( can't go to disneyworld and not go to the parks lol) This will be my first ever trip there, have only been to disneyland 1 time also with my kids and hubby in april.

I think a solo trip sounds amazing, and really you will just be scouting out the World for when you take the family right How nice of Tupperware to hold their conference in such a wonderful place. How much time will you have to play? And how old are your kids? Thanks for reading!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Very cool pictures of Caroussel of Progress. I haven't been to it in years. I think I'll add that to our list of "must see" for our upcoming trip.

 

[i12go2wdw]

Aug.31

We were sleeping in today and going to EPCOT for when the World Showcase opened. We took it easy this morning; I got some quiet time by the pool before everyone else woke up. The two younger kids swam and the teens watched TV. It was so hot and it wasn’t even 9:00 yet. I think today ended up being the hottest day of the trip and we didn’t handle it very well!! We all dressed in our matching Canada Shirts-about 6 weeks before we left home there was an advertising campaign on a Cheerio-s box where they were offering free Canadian Olympics T-shirts for every box of General Mills cereal purchased. We decided, much to Jordan’s displeasure, that we would all get one of the shirts and wear them when we had dinner at Le Cellier.So off I went and bought 5 more boxes of cereal. Dan and Jordan loaded the codes into the computer then we waited till the shirts trickled in. About a month after ordering them the shirts started to come one by one. We got shirts right up to the day we left but we didn’t get Mitchell’s until we came home and found it on the kitchen table with the rest of the mail. If you remember our border crossing story that is where we got Mitchell his un-matching shirt. He doesn’t mind, he likes to stand out.

So we go to the food court and have breakfast all together then head out to the bus. When we get to EPCOT we make a stop to get FP for Soarin’ then get to the World Showcase just as it is opening. We find a Kim Possible outpost and sign up for a mission but are told they don’t have any Missions until 12:00 so we wandered around a bit, we were already starting to wilt in the heat so we decided to get some lunch. Rebecca and Mitchell wanted Crepes so they headed over to France, Jordan and Dan wanted fish and chips so they waited at UK and Nicole and I wanted Mexican so we walked over to the Cantina.
We all met up at UK eventually and ate and DRANK, it was so stinkin hot!!! Things began to get nasty, not embarrassing nasty where other people could hear but ugly just the same.

This would have been a good day to scrap the plan and just hang out at the pool or go to a movie or something, but no we forged on, we had a 5:00 ADR at Le Cellier so we kinda had to stick around. We enjoyed our lunch, Mexican was amazing!! We got our Kimunicator

and then the arguing began, “I can’t see it”, “I couldn’t hear it”, “I want to hold it” UGHHHHH!!!

They usually never act like this and it was making Dan and I nuts. It was so hot and most of the Kim Possible stuff was outside, and it was just fun and interesting enough that nobody wanted to quit, so the arguing went on.

One bright spot was that while we were in China we got to meet Mulan, she is a bit hard to meet in the other parks so we were happy to spend some time with her.

We finished the Mission, made the bad decision to do another then it happened. We all hated eachother. We all split up before bloodshed and in groups of 2 (paired up with whoever you hated least) we parted. I got Mitchell, Dan got Becky and Jordan took Nicole. I am not even sure if we planned to meet up or if this was meant to be good-bye forever. I took Mitchell on Ellen’s Dinosaur ride, 45 minutes of cool darkness, it was just the ticket. We then went to Mission Space and as fate would have it we all met up there. Everyone was in a much better mood and we reunited as a family.

 

[mickeystoontown]

First off, love the shirts. It's just too bad the last one didn't come in until you guys were gone.

I've got to agree with you on the Kimmunicators. They can cause a riot if you don't watch out. I didn't enjoy it at all. We finally let the two kids (22 and 12) go off on their own and finish it up while my husband and I found a nice cool spot to wait for them. It was doggone hot in August!

 

[Sweet Pea UK]

How funny! Nothing like a good family argument on a hot day!!!

 

[i12go2wdw]

After an ugly afternoon we were anxiously waiting for our Le Cellier reservation. We were all together again and Dan said he wanted to go get fast passes for Soarin’ and that we should meet at Oh Canada. I guess we should have been more precise. The kids and I waited down in the cool waiting room for the show and I guess Dan was waiting in the sun up at the top. When the last show was going to start before we had to check in for our reservation the kids and I went in. OOPS!! When we got out and walked up to the top we found an angry father. Not a good day for family harmony.

We signed in for our ADR and waited to be seated. It wasn’t long as we were one of the first dinner seatings. We took our time looking at the menu and deciding who should get what. We ordered a soup to share, it is so good but very rich. Jordan had a spicy sausage appetizer and thought it was good but he really likes spice. Then the main course came, oh the fillet was so good, just melt in your mouth and so tasty. We had fun with our server and when he knew we were from North Van he brought over a server from another area that was also from North Van and had gone to Jordan’s high school. Small world.

When we were just about to order our dessert our friends from home were seated beside us. We had fun talking about our HOT day and we made suggestions for their dinner.
We were all pretty full but we did our best on the desserts, this is the only picture I have of the dinner

The chocolate mousse.

After dinner we went over to use our Soarin’ FP. It was raining buckets, it seems whenever we are at EPCOT at night it is raining. The paths were flooded but we just didn’t care, at least our feet were cool. It always amazes me that all that rain does nothing to cool off the temperatures; it almost makes it worse and stuffy.
It seems there were a lot of people who had a bad day, there was quite a commotion going on in the stand-by line up. From what we could gather people on one side had been waiting a really long time to get in because that side had broken down. Then they were taken out of that line and put in the end of the line on the other side. We were in the FP line so we witnessed it all and believe me they were mad.

After the ride we spent some time in Innovations, we checked out the nooks and crannies that we had never been to before and found some fun stuff to do. We decided to go back to the room and swim, but the pool was closed due to the storm. About ½ hour later they opened the pool and the younger kids had a swim with our friends the Pratts.

We ticked a couple of things off our “must do” list but it sure wasn’t a great day!!

 

[jelloarms]

I really enjoy your TR b/c you talk about both the good times and the not so good times. There are a lot of TRs out there but I find that I enjoy the ones that aren't always about happy times. I find that the not so good times make TRs really interesting and although those times may have been hard in the moment, they are fun to look back on...especially when you realize what you thought was a big commotion then wasn't so bad. Plus, it makes the good moments really shine!

Looking forward to more.

 

[i12go2wdw]

Tuesday Sept.2

Today was the long awaited breakfast at Cinderella’s Castle. The boys, of course, did not want to come with us and I wasn’t even sure about 13 year old Rebecca but she said she wanted to come so Nicole would have company. We also asked the women in our friend the P's family if they would like to come too; a resounding yes was the answer. We let the boys sleep and we girls got ready and met the P. women at the bus. Everyone all decked out in Castle wear and excited.
Our reservation was for 8:30 but we wanted to get there as early as possible so we could get some empty park time. As it turned out we were taking our pictures at about 8:15 so not as early as you would think for having been at the bus stop at 7:10. But we did get some nice empty park pictures.

We were checked in and hardly had any wait till it was our turn with the Lady of the Castle. Looking back everything about the breakfast is so rushed and there is so much to see, it just whizzes by. I would have spent ½ an hour just looking at the architecture of the inside of the castle and all the details, I am sure there is a story to be told just in the main room. But we were posed with Cinderella then taken upstairs to our table.

In this picture it looks like Mrs. P is eating food off of the people’s table next to us. I am sure she wasn’t but if she is, they look pretty ok with it .

The food was very good, especially the deep fried donut with jam thing, maybe that is what Mrs. P is snitching.

The princesses started coming and again you had to be on your toes to have any time with them at all. There was a man standing in the upper walkway inside the restaurant with a note pad taking frantic notes as the Princesses went through, he was looking at each table and seemed to be taking a running record of what each group was doing each minute. I found it quite amusing, but that may be why everything was so hurried, maybe they were having a performance review. So the princesses came and went.

Is it just me or do all those princesses have weird looks on their faces? Our first picture with Cinderella was taken at 8:24 and the last one with Belle was taken at 8:53. We didn’t leave just then, we did stay and eat a bit more but I am sure we were out of there by 9:15.

Anyways, after breakfast the park was open but Toontown was going to have its own rope drop at 9:45 and Tinkerbell is Becky’s favorite so was made out way over there. We got very close to the front of the line and when the rope dropped we high tailed it to the meet and greet. We did get really close to the front of the line but in doing so we lost our friends. We looked around for them and I sent Bec back to see if they were just further back in the line but they were just gone. Oh well, we had a great meet with the fairies, not rushed at all, they spent their time and talked with the girls. It was really special.

Tink is telling Becky not to let her braids grow too long or the squirrels will run up them.

We found the our friends the P's women not too long after our fairy time, they had decided they didn’t want to meet them so they went off and saw something else. All was fine.

It was only 10:30 and we had done so much!! What a great morning!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I was thinking the same thing about the princesses in your pictures. They seemed a little off that day. I think your princesses looked better than the Disney princesses!

 

[i12go2wdw]

I was thinking the same thing about the princesses in your pictures. They seemed a little off that day. I think your princesses looked better than the Disney princesses!

That was a sweet thing to say. It was a bit embarassing during the meal the girls, acting exactly like girls, were commenting on how "odd" the princesess looked. I kept trying to justify that they were probably at a ball till really late but you can guess how well that went over.

 

[disaddictedmum]

I am enjoying your trip report, how lucky to have 16 days at Disney!! Love your daughters dresses, she looks like a princess!

 

[i12go2wdw]

I really enjoy your TR b/c you talk about both the good times and the not so good times. There are a lot of TRs out there but I find that I enjoy the ones that aren't always about happy times. I find that the not so good times make TRs really interesting and although those times may have been hard in the moment, they are fun to look back on...especially when you realize what you thought was a big commotion then wasn't so bad. Plus, it makes the good moments really shine!

Looking forward to more.

Sometimes we all don't get along, it would be a really dull TR if I were to mention each and every bad time, but there are those bad times that really do stand out, this was one of them. I can still feel than awful heat that day and if I never see another one of Kimunicators again that will be ok by me!!

 

[i12go2wdw]

I am enjoying your trip report, how lucky to have 16 days at Disney!! Love your daughters dresses, she looks like a princess!

Thanks for reading, 16 days was great and we never left the world, but even after being there that long we still wanted to stay longer.

 

[i12go2wdw]

We just returned from a week in Huatulco Mexico, it was a trip my husband won on the radio. It was a beautiful resort, Las Brisas, and it was just my husband and I. The whole trip we were comparing it to Disney, and we are still convinced that the kids would still enjoy Disney more than another beach vacationI will get back to the end of the TR soon.