But Did You Die? A December 2019 TR *COMPLETE 12/13*

[ashw100]

Oh my goodness, the mean mugging gets funnier the longer it goes on. Poor kid has no clue that moms are patient and those pictures WILL be your revenge come graduation.

I will wait patiently, but yes one day I shall have my revenge

Omg N's faces in those photos! I understand your frustration when you were hoping for nice family photos!

I love the festive Christmas decorations at DS!

It was super annoying then, now it's pretty funny. I will get him back one day

OMG- those pictures are priceless- I can't believe the photog didn't say Anything!

Hope the weather worked out for you!

I know, did they assume I wanted that in my pictures. It's not like there was a crazy line and they needed to get the pictures taken quickly either.

I know you were mad, but oh my gosh his face is so funny. I'm glad you got at least one good one!

I was mad, but now I just think it's funny.

Haha! Those photos are amazing! You will be able to enjoy them for years to come! Show them at his wedding

Oh I can't wait to use these on him when he least expects it

 

[ashw100]

Santa!!

If I recall correctly, once they texted you, you had 15 minutes to check in at the Santa place, which was all the way at the end of the tree trail. So we had to quickly make our way through the trail. Thankfully it wasn't too busy so we could snap quick pictures along the way.

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I won’t bore you with every tree, but here are our two favorites.

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We got in line and still had about a 30 minute wait to see Santa from that point. I was texting with my mom and they were having very bad luck with the buses. They had been waiting 30 minutes and no bus from the Contemporary to Disney Springs. They decided to just get a Minnie Van over to us.

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While we waited the boys showed off their new toys.

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When it was finally our turn to meet Santa, the boys ran right over.

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Joe knew I was disappointed with the pictures from earlier, so he asked if we could hop in for one here. There was no way N was going to pout in front of Santa.

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As we were finishing up with Santa, the rest of my family was arriving at Homecomin' for our lunch ADR. We hustled over there and got to the restaurant right on time for our reservation. It was good timing too because the skies opened up and it started to pour right as we were getting to the restaurant.

We were seated at a nice big round table in the back. This was my view. The rain had stopped for a little while when we were eating.

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To drink, I got the white peach sangria.



It was very sweet, but very delicious. It even come with a moonshine soaked peach.

The straws they give you are actually agave straws, which I thought was pretty cool. Much better than paper straws, and environmentally friendly. I also thought Joe’s beer glass was cool.

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This was the first time we were all together, it was nice.

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The food was as good as ever here, but the service was horrible on this day. It took 2 hours for us to have lunch, which even with a large party seems excessive. Our server was a little curt, and she reminded us about 20 times that Mickey doesn’t pay her on the dining plan, so don’t forget to tip. By the end of the meal I was itching to get the heck out of there. We were way behind schedule. As soon as I paid my check I told my mom that we were going back to the resort to change. The rest were not in as much of a rush and wanted to dawdle. So my family went to the bus stop. Thankfully for us the bus just got there and we hopped right on. Sadly for the rest of my family, they were too slow and had a long wait back to the resort.

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We had about an hour to get ready to head back out for MVMCP. I had reminded everyone of the plan, but other people had other ideas in mind. Well my family got ready and was ready to head out for the evening. We were told to go ahead without everyone else.

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The rain had really started to come down, and I really wanted to get to MK fast. We tried to order a Minnie Van, but sadly there wasn’t one available, so jumped on the bus when it came.

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The bus was super crowded. But there was a couple, the woman in a short lace white dress, and a man in slacks, button-down shirt, and black tie. I thought it was interesting that this wedding couple was headed to the park dressed like that when it is freezing cold and raining, but to each their own I guess.

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We got to MK, ready to enjoy the Christmas party, the rain had slowed to a light drizzle.

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As we stood in line to get our picture at the tree, the rain picked up again. We were told that if it got any worse the PP would have to go inside. The rain held out just long enough for us to get a picture.

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By the time we got to the Main Street bypass, the PP were all heading inside, so no more MVMCP pictures for us at the moment. We did grab our first cookie of the night though.

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We had already missed our FP and we didn’t want to wander too far since the rain was really coming down that that point. Some of the PP were out on the walkway by the purple wall. Joe stopped real quick to get a picture.

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Every trip, he tries to sneakily get a picture and surprise me with it when I go on our account. I actually really like this one. He said the PP was thoroughly confused as to why he wanted this picture.

We stopped real quick to get a picture with the ornament.

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[cindianne320]

I so hear you on trying to coordinate big parties... we travel with my mom, sister and niece, and I swear we are never on the same page... It also rained on our MVCP night. You look much more relaxed than I was!

 

[missangelalexis]

Nice pics with Santa! I'm glad you could get a re-do for your family photo!

That stinks about the rain Glad you were able to get a few PP pics in though!

 

[ashw100]

I so hear you on trying to coordinate big parties... we travel with my mom, sister and niece, and I swear we are never on the same page... It also rained on our MVCP night. You look much more relaxed than I was!

I hide my feeling well when it is time for pictures

Nice pics with Santa! I'm glad you could get a re-do for your family photo!

That stinks about the rain Glad you were able to get a few PP pics in though!

We made due, but the rain really put a damper on the evening.

 

[ashw100]

Can’t Resist a Holiday Dance

We were able to stay mostly under cover and get to Buzz, which didn’t have a long wait.

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Our first FP was for Peter Pan, so we made the trek across the park. When we got there I noticed the line wasn’t moving at all. Soon we heard the announcement that the ride was down. Since the FP queue was out in the rain, we decided to head across the way to iasw.

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As we were getting off the ride, my dad was calling to tell me they just got to the park. Supposedly, they left shortly after us, also couldn’t get a Minnie Van , and then got stuck behind ECVs and such. It took them an hour to get to the park that night. They weren’t going to be able to make it back to where we were for our FP, so we continued on without them. I told them to head straight to the castle for the lighting and we would meet them there.

Our final FP of the evening was for SDMT.

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After our thrilling ride on SDMT, we headed toward the castle for the lighting. It was so strange because almost the entire front section next to the castle was open. We of course grabbed our prime viewing spot and tried to find the rest of our party.

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They were some how still trying to make their way toward us. Now I know that some things were beyond their control, but their extraordinarily slow process had meant that most of our time we were apart. My mom and dad were actually ready when we left the hotel, but they wanted to wait for my brother and his family. Because they took forever, my kids missed out on grandma and grandpa time and I wasn’t that pleased about it. Things were passively aggressively tense waiting for the castle show, but I tried my best to let it go. The rain had been coming down at a steady drizzle most of the evening. Not enough to shut everything down, but just enough to make you cold and miserable. The time for the castle show came and went, and they announced it would be delayed due to weather. We were unsure if we should stay or not. I thought surely they could at least light the castle without the show part.

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About five minutes later we got a pre-recorded speech about Elsa, and castle began to light up.

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Any little tiff we were having went away in an instant, once that castle was all lit up. How can anyone be mad staring at that beauty. Spirits significantly raised, despite the rain and the B mode castle lighting, we decided to head back to Tomorrowland for a spin on the Poeplemover.

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Got a very crappy picture of the holiday overlay at the Speedway.

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After our spin around Tomorrowland, the party officially started and we grabbed our first treats of the night. A molasses cookie and apple cider.

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I saw Nick and Judy Hopps out meeting, with very little line due to the rain. So we hopped in line. Everyone else stayed under cover.

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The Monsters Inc Laugh Floor had a holiday overlay as well during the party, and it was warm and dry so we got in line.

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Joe got singled out as the guy who likes to get up and dance which was fun. He was a good sport about it.

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The show was the same format, just with holiday jokes instead. We really like this show on a normal day, so it was nice to see the holiday version. C even had his joke read. What does an Elf learn in school? The Elphabet

After the show my memory is a little bit hazy. I believe my brother’s family went in search of food. We must have gotten more cookies, but I don’t have any photographic evidence. I know we made our way back to the hub at some point for the parade.

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The rain had slowed down some more, which allowed them to do the full show for the 8:00 castle lighting. We had a semi-decent view of the parade, second row in the hub. Sadly, the rain really started coming down and once again we got an announcement that it would be delayed. The radar that had failed me several time at this point, showed the rain stopping soon, so we stuck it out. After minutes, still no parade and another delayed announcement, we gave up. I think all of us were a little dejected at this point. We were all freezing cold, wet, and tired. J and N were begging to go back to the hotel, and my mom volunteered to take them. I hated to have to split up my family, but there was no way we would salvage the night with those two. My dad and brother’s family went off to see Judy and Nick.

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Meanwhile Joe, C, and I thought about what to do next while the Tomorrowland Christmas show was happening.

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C said he would be willing to try Space again. We had ridden through it on the Peoplemover and with the holiday overlay, you could totally see in there and that made him less weary of ridding again. The wait was about 30 minutes, and thankfully the rain had subsided again, making it only cold and windy for the outdoor portion of the wait.

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Despite this picture, C loved the holiday overlay. Being able to see where he was going made it more enjoyable for him. Joe felt similarly. I however, think the excitement of not knowing where you’re going is half the fun on Space, but it was still fun as a temporary overlay.

Meanwhile, I guess my brother and SIL went on Haunted Mansion.

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[missangelalexis]

I'm sorry the rain was putting a damper on things!

 

[cindianne320]

Ugh- Rainy Parties are so no fun, but it looks like you made the best of it!

 

[ofcabbagesandkings]

It was so cold and so rainy at WDW this Christmas! We didn't go to MVMCP, but on our Happily Ever After MK night it rained so much that I was grateful we had canceled our dessert party reservation after looking at the forecast the week before. And on our next night in MK, we didn't bother staying for the Minnie Holiday fireworks because we were just so sick of being cold and wet. At least Christmas Day was dry!

 

[ashw100]

I'm sorry the rain was putting a damper on things!

We pushed through, but it was a bummer.

Ugh- Rainy Parties are so no fun, but it looks like you made the best of it!

No they are not, we tried our best though.

It was so cold and so rainy at WDW this Christmas! We didn't go to MVMCP, but on our Happily Ever After MK night it rained so much that I was grateful we had canceled our dessert party reservation after looking at the forecast the week before. And on our next night in MK, we didn't bother staying for the Minnie Holiday fireworks because we were just so sick of being cold and wet. At least Christmas Day was dry!

I'm sorry, I wonder if December is always rainy there? Our week was quite wet towards the end.

 

[ashw100]

Oh God Don’t Step on the Chunks

As we were walking out of Space Mountain, someone had lost their dinner on the pathway. I always utter strange phrases at Disney, and this time I had to warn Connor, "Oh God don't step on the chunks." We saw CMs coming to clean it up, but not a pleasant thing to come across. When we got back into the open air, the rain had finally stopped

Despite our nasty encounter, we were starting to feel quite hungry at this point, but we didn’t want to stray too far from Main Street, so Casey’s it was. It’s funny I don’t really like Casey’s and I hate the seating situation there, but I always eat here on party nights it seems. We were extremely lucky and found three bar stool seats near the emporium, where we could relax and eat.

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I got the mac and cheese dog, it was pretty good actually. I would go back for it. Joe and C got the chili dogs and enjoyed them as well. We met back up with the my remaining family members on their way out. They had reached their limit and wanted to go back to the hotel.

We were able to find a little sliver of curb outside Casey’s and the Emporium. It wasn’t the best spot for the fireworks, but I knew we could just stay right there and have a good view of the parade right after.

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I have to say I really loved these fireworks. I had watched them several times leading up to the trip, and it was something I was really looking forward to. Of course I had envisioned our entire family together to watch them, but in that moment I was just happy I got to see them at all.

Afterward, we plopped right down to wait for the parade. I never wanted to get up from that spot, I lived there now.

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When the entertainers came out right before the parade, C went over to join them in the fun.

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When the parade started we just settled in to watch. C did get some fun interaction with the characters.

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Forky!!

This little present float had to be towed to the end of Main Street and then it went all the way down Main Street on its own.



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I really liked our spot for the parade. It was right where the performers would break off and come towards the audience, which is why C had such great interactions.

We thought about leaving, but we had made it this far, might as well keep trucking. We were also on the hunt for some egg nog. Our maps got soaked, so we decided to just stop wherever we cold to see if we could find it. We grabbed some treats, right outside Pecos Bill’s, they literally gave me an armful of snickerdoodle cookies, since it was the end of the night. We had BTMRR in our sights.

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As we were getting off BTMRR we heard Jolene playing, and I thought it was so weird, to hear that at MK, but especially during the Christmas party. We slowly made our way to the front and the music changed to Hallelujah, another interesting song to hear at MK, but I love it. Well as we neared the source, we realized it was the banjo brothers, or whatever their holiday name is for the party. They had been singing the music. The rendition of Hallelujah was beautiful, so I stopped to listen. Nearby, a CM had a tray of egg nog he was handing out. Success, mission accomplished! It was such a nice end to the evening that had started off not the best.

As we neared the hub, the final show was going on for the night.

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We stopped and watched. Not quite ready to leave, we stopped for some pictures.

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As we were standing in the deserted grassy hub area, they started to play Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays. As a pre-teen in the 90’s and and HUGE Nysnc fan, I was so happy. I grabbed C and started to dance. If you’ve never just let all your inhibitions out and allowed the joy of Disney to take over and just danced, DO IT! It gives me so much joy to think back on this memory with oldest baby. What a great way to end the night.

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We stopped for some PP pictures as well.

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As we were walking out, we saw the wedding couple from the bus, this time the bride had a veil on too.

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I cannot believe they walked around like that all night.

We very slowly made our way out of the park.

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I’m glad I took a lot of pictures, because little did I know, but that would be our only evening in MK that trip.

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Our exciting night didn’t end there however. We took the bus back to the room and it was around 1:00 when we got in. My other two were fast asleep with my mom and dad, so we just left them there. I was getting ready for bed and went to the bathroom. When I turned around to flush the toilet I see a gross green blob on the front side of the toilet bowl. At first I though the boys had forgotten to flush, which is gross but typical. Only it was in such a weird place to it to be, so I lean in a little close and I realize that this blob has toes and eyes!! The green blob was actually a VERY large frog, stuck to the toilet bowl. Worst of all, I had peed on it.

I do the only sensible thing I can think of and slam the toilet shut and run squealing from the bathroom. I can barely get it out, I am laughing so hard, then Joe and C go to check on the big guy. I was afraid to go back in there in fear of it jumping on me in retaliation for peeing on him. So we call the front desk, and I say can you send someone up there is a frog in our toilet. The lady on the other end asks if I already called about this.

“No ma’am, just got in from the Christmas Party, this is my first call.”

“Oh well, someone else had this same problem”

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What?! You’re tell me this is happening to someone else too. It was so surreal, and too ridiculous not to laugh at. She told me it would take at least 45 minutes for someone to come up. I about cried. I was exhausted at this point and just wanted sleep. I tried my best to stay awake, but we all nodded off waiting for the pest management CM. Almost 45 minutes later the CM comes and proceeds to flush the toilet to get the frog down. He had to flush many times, but I assume eventually it went down. He left with a comment on how big the frog was.

I mean we could have done that. I thought he would take a more humane approach, but there you have it. We quickly went to sleep. Only to woken an hour later by a second CM, who was there to get the frog. We sent her away, and finally went to sleep for the night.

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[Isabelle12345]

Seems like you had a good ending to the night... until the frog
That frog story is hilarious... how is it possible that it happened twice that same night?!?

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm glad the party turned around for you and you guys had fun! I remember hearing Merry Christmas Happy Holidays during MVMCP and being SO excited too!

OMG A FROG?? I would have died lol I can't believe their solution was to flush it down the toilet. And also that someone else had the same problem!!

 

[cindianne320]

What a strange night- between the chunks and the pee frog... LOL

 

[beachmama3]

I have loved reading your TR!! I’m a mama of 3 boys (although mine are old now) and we are headed back to WDW in five weeks! The Santa pics of your son had me cracking up because inevitably one of my boys would not smile for pics.

 

[ashw100]

Seems like you had a good ending to the night... until the frog
That frog story is hilarious... how is it possible that it happened twice that same night?!?

That's the best part, there must be a frog problem at the Yacht Club, what a strange night.

I'm glad the party turned around for you and you guys had fun! I remember hearing Merry Christmas Happy Holidays during MVMCP and being SO excited too!

It's the best Christmas song

OMG A FROG?? I would have died lol I can't believe their solution was to flush it down the toilet. And also that someone else had the same problem!!

It was so strange and funny at the same time.

What a strange night- between the chunks and the pee frog... LOL

I guess I should have warned you what you'd be getting into when reading this TR.

I have loved reading your TR!! I’m a mama of 3 boys (although mine are old now) and we are headed back to WDW in five weeks! The Santa pics of your son had me cracking up because inevitably one of my boys would not smile for pics.

Yay, how exciting, I hope you have a great trip. I always have at least one of my kid ruining pics, can't a mama just have one good one.

 

[ashw100]

Frog Stuck in the Toilet

We had another sleep in day. Although I was woken early by my mom dropping off the boys. They were headed to a pre-RD breakfast at Akershus with my brother’s family.

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Joe spent his morning trying to dry our shoes, from the previous night. Also, our toilet was broken this morning, so I had to make another call down to the front desk to have maintenance come up. I am assuming the poor frog from the night before was now lodged in there. Thankfully I was able to log in to my mom’s MDE and use that to enter her room so we could use the bathroom that morning, perks of being your mom's travel agent .

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Meanwhile, my sweet niece was meeting her first princesses.

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They actually had a very productive morning getting on Frozen and meeting the sisters, along with a few other rides as well.

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We had a breakfast reservation as well, though ours was much later. We walked over the Beach Club, and it looked like another rainy day. I popped over to the stand selling gingerbread goodies, while the boys checked in.

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I didn’t have the shingle until I got home, but I did not care for it at all. It was not very sweet, and had a weird texture, it tasted like no gingerbread I’ve had before. 0/10 do not recommend.

When I got back to the boys they were very rowdy playing a game called sticks that C taught everyone.

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I have no idea how to play or what it even is, but they were having fun. When it was time to be seated we were hungry. And good thing too, this buffet was huge. I feel like it had so much more choice than other breakfast buffets, almost too much. I never even made it to the omelet station. I did think it was cute they had Minnie waffles here.

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We met Goofy

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Daisy, and apparently this is the best picture I have

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Donald

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Then it was time for the surfing, which was so weird. None of the other characters participated just Goofy, he was at least entertaining though.

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Finally we met Minnie.

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And then Daisy a second time.

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As we were wrapping up, the rest of my family was coming back from Epcot. I told them to stop in the Beach Club, so they could see the gingerbread carousel. They spotted us on their walk back to the Yacht Club and apparently they got soaked in a downpour on the way back from Epcot. We agreed to meet up in a hour and parted ways again.

This was a really good breakfast buffet, I am glad we did it. On the way out we got our picture with the sign.

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Thankfully, when it was time to head out to the parks, the rain had subsided again. We were headed to Animal Kingdom for a bit. My mom was not feeling up to going back out, so she stayed behind with my niece, while the rest of us headed out.

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Our first FP was for Flight of Passage, but not for David or Aleaha. Originally when I planned everything, they said they didn’t want to do any ride without their daughter, so I set them up with a Navi River Journey FP. First the boys wanted to rub the plant, to see if they could get it to spit water.

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We also stopped for another Wilderness Explorer stop.

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So either that morning, while we were getting dressed for the day, N had insisted on wearing flip flops. He, much like this mother, hates wearing traditional shoes with ties. This boy lives in flip flops or cowboys boots. Up until this point I had insisted he wear his tennis shoes, but not feeling up for a fight that morning, I figured there was no harm in him wearing his sandals. So we split up, David and Aleaha went to NRJ, and the rest were off is to FoP. N gets pulled aside to get measured and he’s TOO SHORT! The stupid flip flops were just enough to make him too short to ride. My heart sunk, I knew how much he loved this ride and I knew we would be dealing with a meltdown. My dad said he would take him to do something fun and N was completely fine. Special time with his papa was way better than any ride I guess. So we called David and Aleaha, switched bands with my dad and N and then we went on the ride.

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Meanwhile the babies of the family were having fun with their respective grandparents.

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We all met back up and were on our way to our next FP.

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[missangelalexis]

I love Cape May Cafe breakfast- glad you all enjoyed it!

I'm sorry N couldnt get on FOP But at least he wasnt too upset to spend some quality time with grandpa!

 

[cindianne320]

Cape May breakfast looks yummy- I've only ever done dinner, which I loved!

Oh wow- poor N. Glad he handled it well- and that it worked well for the others to ride!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Cape May was always one of our favorite character breakfasts- the buffet did have a ton of choices! I hope it'll come back to us someday somehow.

Oh no poor N ! I'm glad he took it well though!