Braved the Sept humidity in WDW - We're back! (new pics added 12/2/09)

[oregondaddyof2]

I am sitting in my room at Pop Century right now... The weather has ben great so far, in the late 80's/early 90's most of the time... It has only rained 2 times in the past 4 days, once on the 15th when we got here, and today around 2:00, but both only lasted about 10 minutes as said above... Then the sun came out and we were good to go... The lines are awesome too... Longest wait I have seen is Soarin at Epcot, and that was 30 minutes stand by... Everything else has ben pretty much 5 min or under... I walked onto Kali River Rapids today, 5 min in line for Expedition Everest, and it was a 4 minute wait for the Safari ride....

 

[All7OfUs]

By now, things ought to be all zipped up and ready!! So excited for you!

Enjoy everything, and bring back loads of pix for us to share!

Have fun,

Liesa

 

[Todd_H]

Hello!,
Our family is arriving Sept. 21st. I'll bet the excitement is unbearable for you as well!!! We are a similar family unit (DH37, Me38, DS10, DD7, DD2). Hope you have a GREAT trip and yes , we are concerned about the humidity too!!! Maybe we will see your beautiful family in the parks.

Wow, you're family unit is very similar to us! If you see us in the parks, please stop and say hello!

We've been to WDW in Sept many times, and I would say that it has probably rained almost every day of each time we have gone. But it almost never rains for more than an hour (usually only 15-20 min) and it is usually in the late afternoon or evening, so by that time you are so hot from walking around in the humidity all day that the rain feels good. It's a good time to see an indoor show!

A little rain won't ruin your fun!

We're keeping our fingers crossed, but I think we're going to be fine.

I am sitting in my room at Pop Century right now... The weather has ben great so far, in the late 80's/early 90's most of the time... It has only rained 2 times in the past 4 days, once on the 15th when we got here, and today around 2:00, but both only lasted about 10 minutes as said above... Then the sun came out and we were good to go... The lines are awesome too... Longest wait I have seen is Soarin at Epcot, and that was 30 minutes stand by... Everything else has ben pretty much 5 min or under... I walked onto Kali River Rapids today, 5 min in line for Expedition Everest, and it was a 4 minute wait for the Safari ride....

Sounds great, Terry! Glad to hear you guys are having a good time and we'll see you on Sunday!

By now, things ought to be all zipped up and ready!! So excited for you!

Enjoy everything, and bring back loads of pix for us to share!

Have fun,

Liesa

Thanks, Liesa! Yes, everything is packed and ready to go. We're leaving in a couple of hours... I still have a couple of last minute things to do.

 

[Todd_H]

We're leaving in just a couple of hours so I wanted to hop on and tell everyone thank you for reading!

Wish us luck today as we: 1) try not to run out of gas this time and 2) Try not to keep track of how many times we hear "are we there yet," or "how much further?"

 

[annnewjerz]

We're leaving in just a couple of hours so I wanted to hop on and tell everyone thank you for reading!

Wish us luck today as we: 1) try not to run out of gas this time and 2) Try not to keep track of how many times we hear "are we there yet," or "how much further?"

HAVE SO MUCH FUN!!! I know you aren't flying so I have no idea when you will get there, but regardless it should be sometime today and I'm sure it'll be awesome!!

Now, it's TR time. I need something to keep myself entertained over the course of the next 27ish days until it's my time in The World!

 

[scoot241]

We're leaving in just a couple of hours so I wanted to hop on and tell everyone thank you for reading!

Wish us luck today as we: 1) try not to run out of gas this time and 2) Try not to keep track of how many times we hear "are we there yet," or "how much further?"

Have fun!!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

have a great time! sorry I missed you before you left

 

[jordanyosh]

sorry I missed your departure...hoping to see LOTS of pix when you get back.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Okay, so you're gone already, so its a little late to be chiming in. But I just got through your ptr. Anyway - hope you are having a wonderful time. This is our normal week to go every year, so I'm having major depression over not being there. We moved our trip up to May this year - big mistake. Rain all day, every day. I know that you will only have short afternoon showers, if at all. Also wanted to say your photos are amazing - and I REALLY can't wait to see the ones you take on this trip!!

 

[annnewjerz]

Oh boy, Todd. It's your last night in Disney already---I believe. Hope you are having a good time and enjoy MNSSHP tonight. Can't wait to start your TR when you get back!

 

[Todd_H]

Hi everyone! We made it back home about 8pm last night. We left Orlando at 11am and stopped about 4 times, so we actually made great time. We all had a fantastic time and hated to leave the World to return to reality, but that point unfortunately always comes (and always much sooner than seems fair).

I'll be very slowly working on the TR side of this thread over the next several days and I have a ton of pictures to go through, so I'll try to post some as I get them processed to tie in with the TR (as best I can).

This was last Saturday morning just before we pulled out of the driveway. I wanted to take a quick family picture of us all waving goodbye and then post it on this thread, but things were just too crazy around here and by this time, we were all ready to hit the road, so I settled for a quick snap of the kids.

Stay tuned!

 

[Todd_H]

Okay, so you're gone already, so its a little late to be chiming in. But I just got through your ptr. Anyway - hope you are having a wonderful time. This is our normal week to go every year, so I'm having major depression over not being there. We moved our trip up to May this year - big mistake. Rain all day, every day. I know that you will only have short afternoon showers, if at all. Also wanted to say your photos are amazing - and I REALLY can't wait to see the ones you take on this trip!!

Thank you and welcome!

 

[annnewjerz]

Hi everyone! We made it back home about 8pm last night. We left Orlando at 11am and stopped about 4 times, so we actually made great time. We all had a fantastic time and hated to leave the World to return to reality, but that point unfortunately always comes (and always much sooner than seems fair).

I'll be very slowly working on the TR side of this thread over the next several days and I have a ton of pictures to go through, so I'll try to post some as I get them processed to tie in with the TR (as best I can).

Welcome back! Hope you guys had a great trip. I don't blame you at all for not wanting to take the time to do a whole family portrait and then post it here----it was time to get to WDW already!

You going to do your TR within this PTR, or start a new thread? If you do a new TR, make sure to post the link here so none of us miss it!

 

[Todd_H]

Welcome back! Hope you guys had a great trip. I don't blame you at all for not wanting to take the time to do a whole family portrait and then post it here----it was time to get to WDW already!

You going to do your TR within this PTR, or start a new thread? If you do a new TR, make sure to post the link here so none of us miss it!

Thanks Ann! I'm planning to continue the TR in this thread and just ask the moderator to move it from the PTR to the completed TR section. That way no one will have to search for it.

 

[scoot241]

Hi everyone! We made it back home about 8pm last night. We left Orlando at 11am and stopped about 4 times, so we actually made great time. We all had a fantastic time and hated to leave the World to return to reality, but that point unfortunately always comes (and always much sooner than seems fair).

I'll be very slowly working on the TR side of this thread over the next several days and I have a ton of pictures to go through, so I'll try to post some as I get them processed to tie in with the TR (as best I can).

This was last Saturday morning just before we pulled out of the driveway. I wanted to take a quick family picture of us all waving goodbye and then post it on this thread, but things were just too crazy around here and by this time, we were all ready to hit the road, so I settled for a quick snap of the kids.

Stay tuned!

Welcome back Todd! Glad you had a fantastic time!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Welcome back! Can't wait to read the report

 

[Todd_H]

O.K., it's TR time!!!!!

We had a great trip... we didn't run out of gas this time and after the first hour of the trip, Leighton (that's DS) started asking "how much further" and that went on for about an hour, but then he stopped and we had a pretty uneventful drive to Jacksonville, FL. We pulled into Jacksonville about 4:30pm and got checked into our hotel. In retrospect, we should have driven all the way to Orlando and just spent the night on property, but we just weren't sure how the kids would react to being in the car that long. The Jacksonville stop was playing it safe.

After getting checked in, we drove out to the mall to look for Halloween costumes for the kids since we now planned to do MNSSHP on our last night. Leighton wanted to be Captain Hook and Caroline (DD) wanted to be a cat. We found the costumes pretty easily (although Caroline changed her mind when she saw a leopard outfit), grabbed some dinner and got out of there. We were all in bed by 8:30pm.

Day 1
Leighton woke up about 6am and wouldn't let any of us sleep in (can you blame him ). We got an early start and were back on the road toward Orlando by 8:30am. Again, the drive was pretty uneventful until Ali started dancing and driving while listening to Miley Cyrus's Party in the USA (I think that's what she was dancing to ) ). Oh the humanity. Look, Mom... no hands!

I was snapping pictures of all the WDW exit signs, which now look a little boring... except for this one that we all know and love

We arrived about 11am and Ali got us checked in to the Villas at Wilderness Lodge (our room was all ready) while I unloaded the car and helped the bellhop pack the cart (we had A LOT of stuff). After dropping off our luggage, we headed down to Roaring Forks for a quick bite to eat then drove over to DHS. Here we are on the tram at DHS heading for the front gate (this was shot with a super-wide angle lens which distorts objects at close range... for example, Ali's legs are not that freakishly long)

What's the first FP we picked up? What's the first ride we hit? Did the kids put their game faces on for ToT and RnRC? Stay tuned to find out...

 

[crocko]

Glad you got back safely and had a good trip.

Looking forward to hearing how things went for you during the week (by the way, on Thursday...we were over at WL for a couple hours)

 

[annnewjerz]

Very nice start, Todd---although I've got to say the shot of the Main Gate made me really dizzy, I sort of felt like I was in the car moving. Very odd.

Looking forward to seeing more, even if you didn't get into your photography groove this trip.

 

[Todd_H]

Our plan was to get through the gates and b-line it to TSM to grab fast passes, but when we got there, they were gone! And this was by about 1:30pm!

We decided to go ahead and do the Muppets 4-D which was the first attraction we did during our trip two years ago... tradition? Maybe. It's a great attraction though that still makes me laugh every time I see it. Seriously, who doesn't like the Muppets? Seeing the Muppets 4-D show this year made me want to pick up a couple of seasons of The Muppet Show on DVD.

Shadow self portrait in the Muppets 4-D pre-show

Watching Gonzo on one of the multiple TV's in the pre-show area

And who can forget "Pigs In Space?"

After that, we checked out the wait times for RnRC and ToT with the WDW Wait Times application for the iphone (which worked really well while we were there... it was very accurate). The iphone said RnRC was the longer wait, so we headed over there, picked up our FP's and decided to warm the kids up with Star Tours. DS was a little nervous about the ride, so Ali and Caroline were both pepping him up by giving him fives and holding his hand.

He did great and absolutely loved Star Tours. He liked it so much that he wanted to go ride the ToT next, so we headed over there and literally walked on the ride (no wait whatsoever).

Well, Caroline loooooooooved the ToT, but Leighton didn't like it at all (I suspect that most 4 year olds probably don't like it). I'm proud of him for braving it, but one time was enough for him. Ali and I felt kind of bad because his whole body was shaking during the drops. Of course, after the ride he said he really liked it, but when asked if he wanted to do it again, he said "well..." and we knew that was a "no." At this point we wondered if we had ruined his taste for the rides the rest of the day or even the week!