ALL ABOARD our June 2011 T/R! Autotrain, heat & lines oh MY! (12/05/11 Update)

[kittylady1972]

Ok, I know I'm behind on finishing this TR up but I'm hoping to get back to it soon. I've been quite busy planning our next TWO trips for 2012 as you can see in my signature...and I've updated that a few times!

We've also been busy doing birthday celebrations and the Halloween things and my DH and I have yet to celebrate our anniversary...which was Oct. 3rd! Life has just been crazy!

I have not forgotten though and I hope to get back here very, very, very soon and finish this up!

 

[kittylady1972]

Day 9 CONT'D: The EPCOT Terrorists

Ok so when we last left off, the kids were sleeping peacefully in our room. I wish I could tell you what happened next by memory, but instead I'll try to recall what happened based on my phone photos and status updates. Let's see how I do.
This was another day to explore EPCOT, since we hadn't spent much time there yet. I just don't recall what we did on arrival, but I think we probably rode something...after all the kids were there! I think this was the day we wandered over to Test Track only to encounter a 70+ minute wait. DN6 immediately went into panic mode and we could not even imagine waiting in a line for that long, much less with a kid in panic mode. We left the group and said we'd meet them for dinner which was at Rose & Crown at 6:30pm. I think this was when we decided to try out Misson: Space GREEN side since there was almost no wait there. Actually I kinda liked the Green side myself, not being a big fan of spinning. The rest of the family was not as thrilled.

At some point we wandered over for our dinner reservation, coming across this along the way:

My DS6 is a HUGE Car's fan, so I got some photos of him. He did NOT want his sister in the photos with him, even though she was being pushy about it. I managed to get two different photos finally!

We wandered over to Rose & Crown and checked in to wait on our reservation, while the guys had some drinks.

We were finally seated on the patio, and while it was a bit warm out, it wasn't horrible...but I think it would have been nicer inside. Our reservation was at 6:30pm and I had hopes we might be able to watch Illuminations from the table, but dinner just wasn't going to last THAT long. Here we are seated:

As we are getting situated, my SIL suddenly looks at her husband and asks about their backpack. See this entire trip he has been hauling around a backpack for them full of stuff for them and their DS6 (water, snacks, changes of clothes, etc.) and that's when they realize...he does not have it! Panic ensues, as it also contains the camera and video camera. They run outside of the restaurant and find it sitting on the bench where they left it...but it is currently surrounded by several Disney security people! Ooops! I guess it had been there long enough to get some attention and of course Disney was being cautious about it. SIL and BIL claim it as their own, Disney I guess determines they are not terrorists, and lets them return to the restaurant. As you can imagine, SIL was none-too-thrilled with her husband the rest of that meal!

As somebody who has lost so many things in Disney (wallet and for this trip the park passes...TWICE already) I can sympathize!

We have a lovely meal at Rose & Crown Pub. I LOVED the food and feel we must return again soon. Dinner is over and we leave but where to next?

I had a plan already that DH knew about. I had purchased a pearl cage and necklace for DD8 ahead of time. I wanted to take her to Japan to do the Pick-A-Pearl there as a special surprise. She had NO IDEA about this but we all headed there. There was a bit of a line but we waited and she picked on out. Wish I had photos but I gave DH the camera and he mostly took video. Maybe I'll post it sometime. I know SIL took photos but I don't have those. So she got a single pearl and we placed it in the cage and in her necklace. It was fun.

We emerged and decided to head to Mexico as FIL LOVES the Three Caballeros so we figured we'd catch a quick ride on that. It was fast approaching 9pm and I wanted to make sure we caught Illuminations! We hop on a boat with no line and go through the ride, which DS6, who is at first pettrified, ends up loving it. When it's done, DS6 wants to go again. As it's now about 8:45pm I decided we don't want to go as I want to catch Illuminations. Well the rest of the group goes around again...and we wait in the Mexico Pavillion area for them to be done. As it happens, they finish just after 9pm and so we scramble outside to try to find a spot along the wall to view Illuminations!

We do find a small area and watch the show, which the kids enjoy. When it's over, I decide a Margarita in that little place in Mexico would be great...but of course it's closed! ARGH!

Instead we make our way to the monorail to leave the park. Not too long later I am reminded by my DD8 about that promise to stay up LATE and visit the parks, the bribe for them all napping that day. Do these look like kids who are ready to keep going?

So DH insists he is tired and not up for a late night. The MK is open late and I LOVE the parades and haven't seen the Main Street Electrical Parade in years. Do I do the right thing and take the tired kids back to the room? Or do I do what I want to do and drag them out with me to the MK?

 

[kittylady1972]

Day 9 CONT'D: Kids Burning the Midnight Oil
Ok, so I won't keep you in suspense...for too much longer. We hopped on the EPCOT monorail and then the Resort Monorail. At some point it was decided that I'd take the two younger kids over to MK for a little while. I warned them that it was pretty late and we probably would only have time for one or two rides IF THAT but they were game...and so it was decided!

As we arrived at MK, I departed with the two little ones and say goodbye to my oldest DS and my DH and we were off. I admit I was pretty excited as I just LOVE being in the parks at night. So we approached security, and I reached into my bag to pull out our passes...and what did I discover?

Can you guess?

How about now?

If you guessed NO PASSES...you win the prize! If you are keeping track now, since our trip began I lost (well left behind once and found later the second time) my oldest DSs pass TWICE. Both times it was located. However I didn't have him with me this time...I had the younger two. Only problem was I did NOT have their passes and the reason was that at some point we entered a park and instead of my DH handing all of the kids' passes to me...he kept them! I didn't complain...but now we had a problem!

I phoned him right away and he was just getting off the monorail at our resort (the Contemporary). I told him we'd hop back on the monorail and ride around and he was even going to wait on the upper loading platform for us. So when we arrived (as CR is the next stop from MK on the monorail) I would get off, grab the passes, and get right back on the monorail. Brilliant, no?

So we get on the monorail at MK and we wait...and wait...and wait some more. The monorail is closed but we are NOT moving...at all. The message to us from the monorail pilot is that we are waiting for clearance. The problem was there was NO monorail between us and the Contemporary, and as I'm texting my DH he's telling me the same thing. In fact he says the people at the monorail station at the CR are also baffled as to why we aren't there yet. People are getting concerned of course. After probably 15 or 20 minutes another passenger notices they see some Disney security on the platform and it looks like they are dealing with an argument between monorail passengers who are being removed. Swell! Finally we are on our way.

However we've now lost more precious time and I am really wanting to throw in the towel on the MK visit now. It's after 10pm now and closer to 10:30pm. The cries from my DD8 about the possibility of not going to a park...OMG! So I tell the kids we will still go but probably not for long at all. MAYBE one ride. So we do as planned, grab the passes from DH at the CR platform, and we are back in MK eventually closer to 10:30pm.

We get inside the park and people are lining up...for the 11pm Main Street Electrical Parade. Now I have not seen this one since I was little but we'd seen Spectromagic plenty and have it recorded a few times. This would be fun. We found a spot right along the hub at Main Street near the front and sat down and watched the parade. A few not-so-great cell phone shots:

Parade ends and it's really late, so we decided to head back. Honestly I think the little ones might have hung in a little longer...but DH was already texting me wondering where we were...so we made the walk back to our resort. How I just LOVE staying at the Contemporary Resort area as that walk is just GREAT!

Some photos along our walk back at night:

Believe it or not, the reason for this photo was that the kids pointed out the LINES of buses waiting to turn into the MK for the evening. It was pretty impressive, though not so much from this cell phone shot!

Ah, Bay Lake Tower, there you are at last!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Being an impatient person I would have been so annoyed and anxious about that monorail delay with no explanation.

 

[kittylady1972]

Being an impatient person I would have been so annoyed and anxious about that monorail delay with no explanation.

Believe me, being an impatient person WITH impatient kids that were itching to get to a park was NOT easy! Plus it really made it more difficult for us to enjoy any park time at night, which is why we just watched the parade. I still love the extra time just walking around with the kids by myself at night for some odd reason. I mean, I like having the rest of the family with us but it's cool when it's just me and the kids solo too!

I have YET to see the new show on the castle at night which is KILLING me! I wish I had made time for that during our trip. So that and the new Star Tours are FIRST priority for us in March...as well as hopefully seeing a few new things opened up in the new section of Fantasyland like Dumbo and Goofy's coaster!

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 10: The Fantasmic! Dining Experience...that wasn't

The original plan for this day was some morning time at Magic Kingdom, then heading over the Hollywood Studios and having a late lunch/early dinner at Mama Melrose and sticking around for Fantasmic! that evening. Plans are always subject to change of course...and change they did on this day.

I don't think I have too many photos for this day...so I will add a few from previous days. Here is a nice leaving EPCOT at night shot:

And this is just one of many, many, many photos taken from our balcony at night. I just loved sitting out there after the kids (and the DH) were all in bed and just watching the castle:

We could not have asked for a better "Lake View" room at Bay Lake Tower!

So it appears from my Tweets that we headed to EPCOT in the morning. I am sure there were still things we hadn't done there. This may have been the day we did Mission: Space and Spaceship: Earth. I know at some point we did ride the Nemo ride and saw Turtletalk with Crush. We also spent some time in Innoventions: East and Innoventions: West. I know that DH and DS11 went off to try Sum of all Fears again as they had done it on a previous trip and still had their cards with them. I took the two little kids over and we played the Firehouse game. I've done it before and I knew they would enjoy it. They really want to play the Recycling game again...but it was closed! We killed some time in the area until DH and DS11 were finally done. I'm sure at some point we did some shopping.

I honestly don't recall if the rest of the group was with us or not this day but at some point we made our way over to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. I'm trying to recall if we were all the park together initially or if we just met up at Mama Melrose. I don't even recall if we did any rides before our 3:30pm lunch/dinner reservation. I do recall the events afterward though!

We all had lunch together...and it was very good as remembered. I know at some point we caught the Muppet show over there...maybe after dinner. We got our vouchers for Fantasmic! for that night and were told to be there no later than 1 hour before the show. I remember my MIL was not up for the show that night, so at some point I think my FIL went back with her to their room.

I remember we watched some of the Phineas and Ferb stuff that was happening in front of the character meet and great...and all the kids jumped in and got involved in that! I know I have photos of that...let's see:

I remember at this point my DH had gone back with his mom and dad (MIL and FIL) and it was just me with the kids and my BIL, SIL and DN6. SIL mentioned a few things she wanted her son to try such as the Lights, Motors, Action show and the Disney Junior Show. The problem was that it was well after 5pm and I knew those shows were probably no longer playing...and again we only had until 7:30pm or so until our Fantasmic! show lineup.

We walked around and I grabbed a schedule for the park...and sure enough, no time. I know she was disappointed and a bit frustrated. Then we looked up and the skies looked like they would open up at any minute. I snapped some photos of the kids here:

Then we headed over to Animation, getting in line before the downpour! We watched the show and then immediately headed over to Animator's Studio because I had really wanted to try that and thought the kids, especially my DS11 who loves to draw, would enjoy it.

We got in line outside of the small waiting area because I knew that even though we had just missed a show, they would let a few more guests inside for the front lapboards...and we got lucky enough for that!

We got inside and learned we'd be drawing...Rapunzel! Ok, so I wasn't thrilled with that, but that's okay. My SIL loves Rapunzel so she was excited.

We followed along and my two younger kids were doing okay...for kids. My DS11 was getting frustrated because of course he's a PERFECTIONIST so when he messed up...he'd just let out a loud sigh (and since we were up front I know the guy leading the class was sensing it) and eventually I did have him flip his paper over and try again. He was still not thrilled with his final drawing...and I wasn't really either with mine. I think mine looked more like Rapunzel if she was an alien lifeform...but it was still fun and I'm glad we tried it.

We emerged and the rain was over...and DH was back with FIL and they had brought along the ponchos as I had requested via text to my DH! Awesome!

We still had a litte bit of time. I remember us being in front of the Great Movie Ride...a ride my kids had already told us before they did not want to do. Since they do Tower of Terror and almost everything else, we weren't going to push it. My DD8 went into another fit about something too, just as we approached the line for Great Movie Ride. I refused to let her ride and told the group we'd wait outside for them. I can recall it showed a 20 minute wait, but the line was HUGE...and even DH and I knew that the line would be more than 20 minutes. He told this to his sister, who was NOT happy about having to vacate the line, but it was already 7:30pm and we needed to make our way over to Fantasmic! by 8pm. We even walked over to Star Tours thinking we'd try that...nope a 40+ minute wait there!

Man we were feeling like total Disney amateurs not being able to do anything! So we headed over to the Fantasmic! area.

We walked right in and got our seats...pretty good ones at that. We could not wait to see this show. My kids had seen the boards for the show in the park and really wanted to see it. They barely remember seeing it back in 2007 and this would be our last chance to see it.

So we are sitting on the metal benches watching the clouds roll in once again. We were all wrapped up in our ponchos. It was getting darker. DH had his cellphone tuned into the local weather radar and despite the rest of us being optimistic that it would pass...it was not looking good. We waited and kept hearing the announcements that the show would start soon but also they kept announcement that due to inclement weather the show COULD be postponed or cancelled. We held onto the hope that we'd be okay.

It was not about 8:45pm. Another announcement comes on and this time it is different: Due to inclement weather, Fantasmic! has been cancelled for this evening! They did, however, invite us to stay for a small little taste of Fantasmic! instead. So there was a 5-10 minute little lights and fountains show that they put on to appease us...but still, so disappointing!

Afterwards we walked out and the kids were not happy. I really thought maybe we could go try Star Tours...but DH insisted on going home so we did. Oh well...there's always next trip I guess!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That would be so disappointing! Mom and I were almost in that situation in 09. We sat there for an hour and a half and they kept delaying the show because of the weather but finally it started! We thought for sure it would be canceled.

 

[kittylady1972]

That would be so disappointing! Mom and I were almost in that situation in 09. We sat there for an hour and a half and they kept delaying the show because of the weather but finally it started! We thought for sure it would be canceled.

We were definitely disappointed but I learned another lesson too...next time schedule a showing early in the week so at least if it's missed you have a CHANCE of seeing it later in the week. I'm not too worried about my own kids as we'll just make sure they see it on an upcoming trip if they are still interested. My DN6 won't get back to Disney until 2016 if he's lucky though...so chances of him seeing it or even remembering to want to it might be pretty slim. I guess we can try again to record it when we do see it in the future.

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 11: The always-sad last full WDW Day

The plan for this day was to basically squeeze in anything we had not been able to do so far of course, since it was our last day. We had breakfast planned for all of us at Crystal Palace for 8:10am and honestly we were thinking about skipping it and letting the rest of the group go since it was just a lot of money...for breakfast ($100 for our family of five for BREAKFAST...we can eat at Bob Evans at home at least THREE times for that cost!) but we decided to go ahead and attend.

So we headed to MK arriving around 7:45am or so at the front gates. Park was originally scheduled to open at 9am but I think it ended up opening at 8am this day...so there was quite a crowd. We found the special entrance for us since we had dining reservations and were allowed entrance a little bit early.

Here is DS6 enjoying his meal:

And the 8-year old girl enjoying her Mickey waffles:

Honestly I don't recall eating a lot here...it really was quite a waste for us as were most of the buffet meals. Still there were those character moments:

Plus my FAVORITE...I always have to try to get a photo with him:

Soon we were off to explore the park...but would we do it together? Once again, my SIL had certain rides she just wanted to hit and we had our own plans, so I don't even recall us riding anything together.

Oh I did take some great scenic photos though:

Love this one:

I think we stopped for a while and watched these little guys too:

I'm sure we probably headed over to ride Space Mountain and/or BTMRR as those are crowd favorites with our group...and not with my DN6. I seem to recall my in-laws later recalling how they waited in line for SEVENTY minutes for Peter Pan...and we had already been on that ride earlier in the week...but that is what DN6 wanted to ride and since he didn't ride much at all they obliged. Nope, not me!

Judging by the clothing, here is how we spent our morning/afternoon:

We had to have ONE LAST RIDE on Snow White...because we knew it would be gone the next time we returned to the park:

I remember taking a lot of photos of the construction around the park behind Fantasyland...I won't bore you with those!

(cont'd in next post)

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 11: The always-sad last full WDW day CONTINUED

I actually had too many photos in that last post...never have done that before. So we shall continue here...


More fun:

Obviously we took another ride on Haunted Mansion (another favorite):

Buzz Lightyear of course:

Another ride on Splash!

We had some lunch plans for Chef de France at EPCOT...but I knew we would not be up for that after our large meal at breakfast. I tweeted this sometime in the afternoon:

Ok Jungle Cruise and Dole Whips...NOW vacation is complete!

So yes, we had our Dole Whips before exiting the park!

We headed to EPCOT soon afterwards. Again, don't recall what we did at EPCOT...man I need to start keeping up better with my trip reports while I'm there and have a functioning brain! However I have another tweet:
Grey Goose Lemon slushie+ heat equals me wanting to nap

So I guess that was lunch? I have no idea!

I recall that it did look like it might rain so we made our way back to the monorail station, where I tweeted this:

Just reached the EPCOT monorail station as the skies opened up

I remember the kids got some stickers from the man in the EPCOT station I think...or was it MK? So sad that they no longer allow rides in the front of the monorail, but glad we had the chance to do them in the past!

(I think he was too cool to wear the sticker on his shirt)

They were not though:

So clearly we did a few things in EPCOT...perhaps some shopping? That's a good last-day ritual and I seem to recall that. That totally reminds me of a shopping story I did not share with you so I'll add that here.

At some point earlier in the trip, we did some shopping and DS6 picked out a very cool Cars 2 Airplane. Since we were in the park at the time, we had the stuff all shipped back to our room and we all know that takes an extra day or so. This pretty much was ALL DS6 talked about for the next day. He knew EXACTLY what time that package was supposed to be back in our hotel gift shop and I can recall hearing it almost all day long the next day...him reminding us about it and when it would be at the gift shop. Needless to say, there was no chance we would be forgetting to pick up our items with his CONSTANT reminders!

Anyway, we arrived back to our room, escaping the Florida Torrential Rain...which was not one of those quick passing showers unfortunately. It last quite a while...and would go on to ruin one last planned event that I had hoped to attend that evening. Anyone want to guess??

 

[dismagiclover]

Just catching up! Looks like you had a great last day. My guess is you head to DTD to finish up the trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

Just catching up! Looks like you had a great last day. My guess is you head to DTD to finish up the trip!

Glad to see I still have a reader or two here!

Gonna try to wrap up the report now...we shall see if you are correct!

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY 11: The always-sad last full WDW day CONTINUED

Ok when we last left, we were headed back to our resort after a somewhat productive morning and afternoon at MK and EPCOT for our last day at Disney!

We arrived back at our resort and I believe mostly did our packing for the next morning, picking out that last outfit and getting everything together...my least favorite part of the trip!

As dinnertime approached, we had nothing reserved. With it being our last day, I figured we'd stay in the parks until the last possible minute, but the rain put an end to that. We contacted the in-laws to see if they were interested in doing dinner...they were...so we thought we'd try the Wave since it was right at our resort. They contacted my SIL, BIL and DN6 who were still in a park and they wanted to join us...but it was fast approaching 5pm and we were a party of 10 with NO RESERVATION! We decided we'd head over to the Wave and just see what our chances were of getting our party of ten in there...did I mention NO RESERVATION and FRIDAY NIGHT?

We arrived and DH walked up the counter. I think he said, and I can't recall his exact words, but something like can we get a table for a party of 10...we don't have a reservation. The woman looked at him as if to ask "ARE YOU SERIOUS?" and he was of course. She checked and they had two tables of five where they could seat us, which was great...kids at one table, adults at another!

It only took a few minutes and we were seated and the rest of the party were on their way back from the park so it worked out well. The arrived pretty quickly and so it happened...we got to eat without a reservation!

I wasn't terribly hungry so didn't order too much but appetizers, but the food was good and I believe everybody enjoyed their meal. Now my PLAN was to try to attend the campfire at our resort that evening, so as mealtime was winding down and the group was thinking about dessert, I gave the kids a choice...stay for dessert or come with me to the campfire. Two kids chose the campfire and left the restaurant with me while the rest of the party stayed for coffee and dessert.

We headed to the gift shop to get some chocolate bars, the only thing I did not have in the room. Yes I had hauled down marshmallows and graham crackers and even retractable sticks for the fire...I was prepared! Yet when we crossed the walkway back to our resort to get the other stuff, we could see the wind and the light rain and also... NO CAMPFIRE which could be seen from the walkway. I told the kids we were out of luck...they were disappointed of course, as was I.

We returned back to the restaurant and joined the group instead. We helped them with some of the desserts and hung out until dinner was over. Then we decided as a consolation prize to take the kids over to the arcade and let them spend some time there instead.

While there DH and his parents decided to hit the Top of the World Lounge one last time and he left me with the kids at the arcade. After we were done, I can't recall but I think we may have gone up and joined them for a little bit, but only after I came back to the room and tried to do some last minute cleanup stuff. In fact, I seem to recall there was some tension because I was rushing to finish up getting stuff done and packed and cleaned up and he was ready to rush off to the lounge. I think I stayed behind with the kids and he went...but I can't recall. I do recall being mad at one point for sure...but what do you expect as it was my last Disney day and of course I was already in a bad mood!

All packed for the evening, we settled into our last night at Bay Lake Tower knowing the next morning we planned to hopefully hit the road by 7am for our long drive back to Maryland!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

How lucky to get seated with such a large group for dinner.

How disappointing that the weather meant no campfire, especially since you had brought all those supplies!

 

[kittylady1972]

How lucky to get seated with such a large group for dinner.

How disappointing that the weather meant no campfire, especially since you had brought all those supplies!

We definitely lucked out on the dinner thing. I would have never imagined we would have been seated without a reservation with ten people!

Yes the campfire was a disappointment, but it just means next time I need to plan a bit better. If I learned one thing during THIS particular trip, it was to schedule events that I really wanted to do early in the trip, so if we miss them we can do them another time. This goes for the campfire as well as Fantasmic! The kids were just talking about Fantasmic! for some reason the other day, so we will definitely make it a priority for our next trip!

 

[kittylady1972]

Ok, since I love reading these types of posts, I thought I'd put my own thoughts here. This was our VERY first trip in June...ok well sorta...we had a short 2-day trip back in June 2008 but with was the first trip with the whole family, all of the parks, in June. We know that this may very well be the norm in our future as the kids get older and taking them out of school is not as easy any longer. So what did we learn?

AUTOTRAIN: This was our first trip on the Autotrain and it was DEFINITELY a great way to travel. Cost-wise it works out pretty close to the same as it would for all five of us to fly AND to rent a car AND to pay airport parking fees. We definitely like having our own transportation down in Disney because it gives us much more flexibility. We loved the fact that we were able to pack a cooler full of food and ice to bring with us...and 24-hours later in the June heat there was still ice in it! Roomettes are VERY VERY small and that's coming from somebody who is only 5'2" tall! It was nearly impossible to move around in that room when the beds were down. It was easier to get dressed down the hall in the bathroom...and that bathroom was also very small, think airplane-sized! Still it was cheaper for our family of five to get a superliner bedroom and roomette than spring for two bedrooms. I still wish we had had a chance to at least walk through the coach area to see that seating. If you want to take advantage of the free snack mix and drinks, get there early. The train did not appear packed but stuff went quickly! The movie is played in the same area...though we did not try to see it there as nobody was really interested in the Justin Bieber movie. We found it nice to relax in the Superliner Bedroom with a DVD player and just hang out. Dinner is good, but it's not the highest quality and if you think you want snacks or drinks later, you may want to bring a small cooler with you onboard the train...if you can find a place to put it! Storage is VERY limited in any of the rooms, so pack as light as possible. We did like having our own pillows even though they did supply some. The blankets supplied were fine for summer, but I could see needing more (at least for myself who gets cold easily) in colder months.

BAY LAKE TOWER RESORT:Wow, this was definitely at the top of the list of resorts for us to try and it met and exceeded expectations! We did get a lakeview room but it had a bonus view of the MK as well. If we find ourselves here again in the future (and I hope so) we will request rooms in the same area of the tower. What did I NOT like about this resort? Well on really windy and nasty days, that walk over to the Contemporary can be a bit scary! I was still not thrilled with the counter service offering there anyway, so I think we're better off eating in our room. We really don't take advantage of that kitchen as often as we should, and with Disney food only getting more expensive and me being less impressed with it, I'm thinking our future trips will have far fewer sit-down restaurant experiences. We were perfectly happy reheating leftovers in the room for lunch or fixing sandwiches.

The convenience of the monorail resort is just something to not overlook. Our car really did sit parked more often this time than any other time. We really only drove to AK and HS. However we also found the monorail to be running slower than usual, maybe it's because we were on it more often?

The drive from the MK to get off property is SO much farther than I imagined. We did order food from a pizza place one evening and it seemed like it took FOREVER to get to Crossroads to pick it up and bring it back. I almost think we'd have been better off buying some frozen pizzas to heat up in our room or making our own...something to think about for the future.

JUNE CROWDS:While the parks did not seem overly crowded to us most of the time, the wait times told a different story. I think we are so used to being able to return to rides later and have a realistic wait time, and that did not happen. There were definitely several rides we just did not get to this time around due to lack of planning on our part. If we want to ride the good rides, we should plan on them as soon as possible.

JUNE WEATHER:Yep, it was hot and sticky. We had a few nice days but we definitely enjoyed hitting the parks early in the morning and then taking that break by the pool for those hotter afternoon hours. The kids certainly seem to enjoy this as well. The only problem was that we still found we weren't up for touring later in the evening as we had hoped. I was thinking we'd really be able to take advantage of those later park hours but we never had that chance, unless you count the one night I headed to MK with two of the kids by myself...and even then we only caught the parade and came back. Beware of those evening thunderstorms that can ruin major plans as well. I'd still like to go back one time just to enjoy the evening movie and campfire at the resort and the kids would really like to see Fantasmic! again since the ONE night I planned for it this trip was the night it got rained out! Next time we have to plan to see it earlier in the trip so if it's cancelled we have at least one more chance to see it!


FOOD:See my notes above, but I really think we're going to see ourselves trending more towards quick service and eating in our room for future trips. Those huge food bills are just getting out of control and that time eating, while nice, really takes a huge chunk out of time we would rather spend seeing the sites and riding the rides. Besides the kids can get nuggets and pizza and pasta in almost every park at at least some counter service!

I think that's just about it. I've enjoyed getting the trip report out here and hopefully somebody has enjoyed reading it! Tune in in March when I complete my next trip report from our upcoming March 2012 Birthday extravaganza without the kids!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I'll be keeping my eye out for your next report.

 

[kittylady1972]

Thanks for sharing your trip with us. I'll be keeping my eye out for your next report.

Thanks for reading! I'm still making changes to both of my 2012 PTRs but with any luck I'll be posting a new trip report in another 3 months!

 

[disneymarie]

Thanks for reading! I'm still making changes to both of my 2012 PTRs but with any luck I'll be posting a new trip report in another 3 months!

Hi and thanks for the TR, I really enjoyed reading. What caught my eye was the Auto train mention and then I was hooked. Oct 2011 was drove down and took the autotrain home with 2 superliner connecting bedrooms with my dh, dd, me in one and ds and dgs in the other. It was super experiance, but with a bad back I did not sleep at all.

Then I saw that you are planning a trip in a few weeks. We are also. March 6th we have a later evening flight for a condensed trip. We had so much bad weather on the Oct trip, I go AP so we could make up for it.

I had the dining plan last time, but too much time eating and not enough time on the park adventures. It was nice for a one time though. We had character dining, Luau, Princess dining in Norway, San Angel, but left with food credits. I was in the snak area getting sandwhich take outs and Mickey krispies with our dining sit down credits,. A waste.

Looking forward to your next report if you have one up.
di

 

[kittylady1972]

Hi and thanks for the TR, I really enjoyed reading. What caught my eye was the Auto train mention and then I was hooked. Oct 2011 was drove down and took the autotrain home with 2 superliner connecting bedrooms with my dh, dd, me in one and ds and dgs in the other. It was super experiance, but with a bad back I did not sleep at all.

Then I saw that you are planning a trip in a few weeks. We are also. March 6th we have a later evening flight for a condensed trip. We had so much bad weather on the Oct trip, I go AP so we could make up for it.

I had the dining plan last time, but too much time eating and not enough time on the park adventures. It was nice for a one time though. We had character dining, Luau, Princess dining in Norway, San Angel, but left with food credits. I was in the snak area getting sandwhich take outs and Mickey krispies with our dining sit down credits,. A waste.

Looking forward to your next report if you have one up.
di

Hi there...thanks for reading! Glad you enjoyed it!

Yes I slept okay on the train...not the best but not terrible. We are looking forward to trying it out again next November.

Sounds like you will be arriving for your trip a few days before we will be leaving. Yes right now the plan is to fly down for this trip and back, since it's just the two of us. Although there is now talk of driving too...but we'll see. It's a tricky week right now. I'll have to post an update in my PTR but I will definitely post a trip report when I return. I might even do some live reporting while there.

We are still debating on dining plan as well. I know last time we did it back in November of 2007 we also had lots of leftover food. I'm just not sure if it's worth it for us or not but I haven't completely ruled it out...yet.

Have a great trip!