Bunch of Brooks Bounce Back.... Third time's the charm! An August Trip Report for a Family of 13!

[disneymouse16]

Yay! In the parks!

 

[PAsFab5]

Following along! Can’t wait to read more!! You family is wonderful!!

 

[piglet1979]

Following along. I can't wait to hear more.

 

[nat1234]

Just joining in. We’re also heading down from Canada in 34 days. It’s going to be myself, DH, our 4 kids, their spouses & 3 grandkids. I can’t wait to see how you do it with a large group. It sounds like it’s off to a great start.

 

[MikeWsGirl]

I have. So. Many. Questions. You live in Ontario, because you mentioned Onroutes, how in the world can you afford a house for 13 people? (She asks having moved to the middle of nowhere Sk to afford a nice house.) Do you have a photo of your packed sprinter van? How do you pack for 11 children? Do they pack for themselves? I think you need a reality show.

 

[bless7ings]

Following...

We are a family with 10 children...but 5 are married...we have 10 grandchildren and one on the way. Just 4 left at home. Been to Disney 13 times...but as our family staying on property just four times. We are thinking to go as a family to go again, but this time only paying for the 4 kids who live in our house and hopefully going with my parents again!

 

[canuckgirl]

Yay! In the parks!

I know! Finally! Part 2 and Day 3 coming up!

 

[canuckgirl]

Following along! Can’t wait to read more!! You family is wonderful!!

Aww! Thank you so much!

 

[canuckgirl]

Following along. I can't wait to hear more.

Thanks!! Posting the rest of day 2 and day 3 now!

 

[canuckgirl]

Just joining in. We’re also heading down from Canada in 34 days. It’s going to be myself, DH, our 4 kids, their spouses & 3 grandkids. I can’t wait to see how you do it with a large group. It sounds like it’s off to a great start.

I'm so late replying! Sorry! I hope you had a wonderful trip! When you are used to always traveling with a large group, it doesn't seem so overwhelming!

 

[canuckgirl]

I have. So. Many. Questions. You live in Ontario, because you mentioned Onroutes, how in the world can you afford a house for 13 people? (She asks having moved to the middle of nowhere Sk to afford a nice house.) Do you have a photo of your packed sprinter van? How do you pack for 11 children? Do they pack for themselves? I think you need a reality show.

Haha! We always get a ton of questions! We posted a video of us packing the van before the trip, and while it was VERY full, we did manage to squeeze it all in! We were lucky enough to have bought our house over a decade ago, when things were MUCH more affordable. We also live in what most people would consider a "modest" sized house...... all the better to save for Disney! I do pack for everyone, to make sure we have what we need!

 

[canuckgirl]

Following...

We are a family with 10 children...but 5 are married...we have 10 grandchildren and one on the way. Just 4 left at home. Been to Disney 13 times...but as our family staying on property just four times. We are thinking to go as a family to go again, but this time only paying for the 4 kids who live in our house and hopefully going with my parents again!

That sounds wonderful! Disney is magic with a large family!

 

[canuckgirl]

Hi everyone!! We are *finally* back to add some more to our trip report!

DAY TWO PART TWO: MAGIC KINGDOM

So we've never been a family who took afternoon breaks before. We've always been rope drop to close! But this trip we had two more kids and a lot more babies/toddlers who needed some time in the AC and to nap/relax. The older kids, especially wanted to have more pool time than our previous trips. SO the afternoon break became standard for us on our MK days. We we *THRILLED* with how easy the boat rides were for getting between MK and the resort! We rarely waited more than 5 minutes for a boat.


We grabbed lunch from Geyser Point (sorry, no picture... We promise we get better!)

We tried the bison burger - DELICIOUS 10/10
We tried the teriyaki chicken wings - Yummy, 6/10 because they were SO SALTY, like REALLY salty!!

Alicia had also grabbed Gideon's when she was in Disney Springs the day before. She got a slice of the peanut butter cake, two of the classic chocolate chip cookies, the cookie and cream, double chocolate, a peanut butter, and toffee pistachio. The flavour of the month was orange and we HATE chocolate and orange, so we didn't bother!

The cake was *INCREDIBLE*, super moist, chocolaty, and peanut buttery! You have to *love* icing, as the cake to icing ration is 1:1, lol.
We had put the cookies in the mini fridge overnight, and sadly realized that was a bad choice They got really hard and dry, which was SO disappointing because we had been waiting YEARS to try them. It was also an extremely expensive mistake... a 75$ USD mistake... Whoops! I guess we just need to go back for a redo!



We headed back to MK at about 6pm. A giant storm rolled in, and we waited under the cover at security for a bit until it died down enough to brave the run into Main Street.

Once we got into MK, a few of the adults grabbed some ice coffee from Main Street Bakery (Thanks to Alicia being a teacher, she saved up all her gift cards from Christmas and the end of the year, that we got free Starbucks the whole trip! )



We rode the people mover, which is *SUCH* a classic!! It was also super fun to get to see the TRON construction, and we can't wait until our next trip to ride it!!


We walked around the hub and then made our way to Liberty Square to ride HM!!! We LOVE this ride so much, it was so exciting to be back! We were all still pretty tired, so we left at 10pm, and went right to bed!

 

[canuckgirl]

DAY THREE, PART ONE: EPCOT

We woke up bright and early for our first day at EPCOT! We decided we wanted to take the monorail, as we hadn't ridden it yet this trip, so we took the boat to MK, we got on the monorail to the TTC, then switched to the EPCOT monorail, then finally arrived at EPCOT at about 8:40am.

As someone who gets motion sickness very easily, I have to ride the monorail facing forward, which is why you can hear me telling the kids to move over so I could sit down . This was a very roundabout and long way to get to EPCOT, and if we hadn't just wanted to go on the monorail, we wouldn't recommend using this way again. We took the bus for the most part after this!


We headed straight back to France, to get in line for Remy's. Even with EMH, the lineup was still about a half hour wait. We really understand now why people say the queue for Remy's is so boring... you're stuck in a dark cramped hallway for most of it! But the wallpaper details were cute.



As I said before, I get motion sick and wasn't sure how I would do on this ride. And it ended up being HORRIFIC I had to keep my eyes closed for almost the whole ride. We also we NOT expecting the water splash when they were mopping, and Teddy LOST it, he was screaming and sobbing, poor thing! We also hated it, because while we obviously know the water is clean, because we SAW the mop, it FELT dirty. It was just super gross, lol. All in all, it was not a win for us.

After Remy's we went to go and find some breakfast... First we tried Les Halles, because everyone raves about it, and it was close! But it was PACKED and the line was long, and not a single chair was free. It was irritating too, because this day the friendship boats were not running, so it meant that our only choice for food in the morning was to walk all the way back to the front of the park to get food at connections cafe, and all the kids were getting super hangry. This was something that we hadn't experienced at EPCOT before, with difficulty with finding breakfast at the park, so going forward from today, we decided that no one was allowed to leave the hotel without having their own full big breakfast! Luckily, once we had reached connections cafe, they had opened early at about 10:30am. We got some leige waffles, some French fries, and some chocolate milk. We also need to say that the waffles were just okay, we didn't love the big pearl sugars that were in it, it was just odd. and the fries.... such a small amount, literally like 12 fries, and it was 4.50!!!!!!



Here's my rant about chocolate milk for a second: because it was so hot, we were super worried about the little ones would get super dehydrated. The problem too is that the kids HATE juice, so their drink of choice is always either water or milk. But for some ridiculous reason, chocolate milk is near impossible to find?!?!?! It became a real issue on our EPCOT days, because it was the only liquid Teddy would drink. It made me dream of a Winter trip next time, so we don't have to worry about this again!

After "breakfast", we went to ride TT, which is an all-time FAV for us!! It's just super fun, and we love it!

So now... the biggest bucket-list thing we have always wanted to do, was to visit during F&W. With the festival being super long this year, we finally were able to join in on the excitement! We found our first booth in Mexico!

We got the barbacoa tostadas, and these. were. AMAZING. 20/10!!!!!!!!! Could easily just eat these the entire trip and be so happy.



We then went to go and meet Anna and Elsa, because the wait time was only 20 minutes! When we say that this was the highlight of the trip for Teddy, that doesn't even BEGIN to describe how happy he was! He's usually a pretty grumpy kid, and when we tell you he has NEVER had a smile this big before, we're not lying He was fully starstruck by Elsa, and sorry Anna, but he couldn't care less about her.

 

[Maple Moose]

Following along!

 

[Counting Stars]

Also following! I admire your energy and your nerves of steel- I thought five was a handful when planning trips!

 

[canuckgirl]

Following along!

Welcome!!

 

[canuckgirl]

Also following! I admire your energy and your nerves of steel- I thought five was a handful when planning trips!

Thank-you! Planning any Disney trip is always a huge undertaking, no matter your family size!

 

[canuckgirl]

DAY THREE, PART TWO: EPCOT

So after our *amazing* experience with Elsa and Anna, we headed over to the African Outpost to get some ice cold treats, cause it was HOT!

Most of the family got Cokes (the 6-year old *insisted* on a large, but one she had it, took two sips, then decided she was done with it ), but Alicia got a frozen lemonade and Ethan got a watermelon dole whip! The frozen lemonade was delicious, and the watermelon dole whip was so yummy and refreshing! It was Ethan's goal to try as many Dole Whip flavours as he could, so this was flavour #2.


This was our first day without being close enough to the hotel for a mid-day break. Our original plan had been to eat quick service and takes breaks indoors when we needed them, but it had become *very* apparent that that wouldn't work for the kids... especially the littles ones. A lot of them were tired and grumpy and need a long break indoors, sitting down with some air conditioning! It wasn't our plan and yes, ended up being a lot more expensive, but it was one of the best decisions we made! I grabbed a last-minute reservation for Via Napoli (it was for 2:30, so even for our large group was easy to snag!) From that day forward we booked several more sit-down reservations for parks that we wouldn't be able to get back to the hotel easily from! Its something that we really appreciated and it made a big difference in everyones attitudes for the rest of the day! we also found that compared to our previous 2 trips, that the air conditioning in the stores was almost non-existent! We used to joke that Disney would pump air conditioning outside, but this trip you could barely feel a difference between outside and inside! It was compounded, I think, because of the busyness.

So before our reservation time, we walked over and explored Germany a bit, looking in the Christmas shop!



We were definitely keeping an eye out of what kind of pickle ornament we were going to get for the Christmas tree!

Finally, we walked over and into Via Napoli! One thing that we love about this restaurant is that they have giant tables, so we got to sit all together at one of their big round ones!



Now, we were all super hungry, so our photos of our appetizers are last-second "wait don't touch that yet!" pictures of the last piece of things, lol!



So our pictures are of:
- One lone chicken strip (the babies had this, they were super crispy and nice pieces of real chicken!)
- The second last piece of focaccia, which was soooo yummy!
- A third of the last ball of arancini with the marinara sauce on it.

(Sorry, we get a bit better than this hahaha)

And now for the pizza.... OH MY GOSH!!!!!!



We got the Quattro Formaggi and a Margherita!! The 4-cheese had a white sauce, and was so creamy and cheesy and perfect!! The Margherita was to die for as well, the tomato sauce was perfect (not too acidic, not too sweet), and the basil on top was so fresh!

This restaurant is incredible, you seriously gotta put it at a high priority next time you're going to Epcot.
The waiter was so friendly, the food came out quickly, and the AC was PERFECT and COLD!

 

[Woth2982]

We love Via Napoli! It is so reasonably priced for a sit down meal too! I try and go every trip when we are in Epcot! Although when it is just DH and I we like Le Cellier.

I agree with your assessment of the stores AC. It is non-existent. It could be the crowds, or it could be their way of saving a buck. I found even the busses were warmer than normal. I run cold so when I am comfortable on Disney transit I think I have a fever!