Can We Take The Skyliner To The Boat? An Aug/Sep 2022 TR (Complete)

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

We also fly out of PHL (South Jersey/Cherry Hill area here!) and have almost done BWI but each time something has come up for PHL that was worked with our price range. But that was years ago. SW flights out of PHL seem to suck lately. No direct flights except for Saturday last time I checked. This trip we got something decent with American but I do miss the two checked bags with SW.

The lack of flights is really tough! I wish they brought back the Philly direct flights!

The girls look so excited with the kitchen sink!!!!

They were so, so excited. It was a perfect Disney moment.

EEEKK!!! Another TR!! Your girls are the cutest and you do a great job planning and reporting on your Disney trips!

Can't wait to read more!!

Thanks for joining in! I can't wait to share all the details.

We were there at the same time as you. I think my son was blowing bubbles in your girl’s faces on the way to Epcot one morning.

Hahaha, I think I remember that. My kids love chasing a good bubble wand!

The look on their faces is PRICELESS! I love it! I can feel their excitement through the photos!

Yay for no one getting sick! You were smart to be prepared this go around! Looking forward to more!

They were absolutely psyched. And, so many Yays to no one getting sick. If all of that prep had still resulted in sick kids, I don't know what we would have done. We tried EVERYTHING.

Hey if you ever fly from BWI again, have your hubby drop you and the girls off at the terminal with the luggage, that is what my hubby and I do. Makes it easier for your husband to just park the car and catch a shuttle without lugging the suitcases in and out of the shuttle.

Thanks for the idea! We always debate it, but then that leaves one of us with a bunch of kids and luggage in the airport. We did this in August 2019 and, after he pulled away, I realized I had 3 five year olds, two bagged strollers, 4 rolling bags, and 4 carry on bags to be responsible for. After that silliness, it just feels easier to stay together.

Wow how the girls have grown into beautiful little ladies! You accomplished a lot on that first day, I'm impressed!

The kitchen sink is so fun! We did it once for supper. The kids knew about it in advance and thought it was the cooling this that supper would be ice cream. Even with 4 of us being hungry, we weren't even able to finish it. It is really big, but so cool. The girl's excitement is coming through on the pics, such great memories!

Thanks, they really are growing up fast. There was no way we were finishing that thing, it was huge! But their joy was totally worth it.

Publix can be ridiculously expensive. We were lucky and they were having a Buy 1 Get 1 deal on bagels when we were in Florida. The kids complained once, because that was breakfast every morning, but when you can get it for cheap.

I had no idea it was such an expensive grocery store. I know regional chains can vary a bit, but they seemed bonkers compared to what I'm used to in NJ.

These pictures are wonderful. The girls looked so excited. It's those kind of shots that you can look back on and remember how fun and special family vacations are.

Yup, that's definitely a memory we'll hold on to from this trip.

Can you imagine if a stranger did try and sit between them and they barfed... Oh the calamity it would have been.

Dude, if you want to sit between my kids after I warn you that they may puke, that's all on you!

YEAH!!!! Watching screens really messes with you. Even just reading a book! Morgan get car sick, not air sick. But in the car she only listens to things. And a full stomach helps! Glad they survived! I will warn you they might get worse around the preteen / teen years for awhile. The dreaded change really messes with your equalibrium. At least it did for Morgan.

Screens definitely make them worse. It's hard because they want to use the van's video system for longer drives, but they just can't tolerate it anymore. I cannot imagine it getting any worse than this, though. I already have enough to worry about with puberty x 3- you didn't have to add this to the list!

Is it sad that I always want to be near an ice machine? We always seem to run out of time in the morning and getting ice seems like a burden.

It was super convenient to fill up water bottles every day before we headed to the parks.

I don't know if we can do Baltimore. The stress of the drive and getting to the airport on time

I was worried about traffic, etc but the whole experience wasn't bad at all! I find the whole process of connecting (having to board and disembark twice, navigating an unknown airport, fear of delays) to be much more stressful than a couple hours on 95.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Day 2: We’re Really Here

In my younger days, I used to be able to sleep in; adulthood has turned me into an early riser, despite my very best efforts. For our first park day, my body decided 3:30am (!!) was the right time to get up, which is utterly absurd even by my normal standards. I tried my very best to drift back off, but I was tossing and turning for at least an hour before I had the craziest half-asleep dream about missing the bus and racing for rope drop. Waking up from that nightmare with a gasp, I gave up at 5:15, turned on the coffee pot, and grabbed a seat on the patio to check the weather and review my day plans.

When I snuck back into the room at 5:45 to pour said coffee, the whole rest of the family was awake. Apparently, the coffee pots in the studio villas are extremely loud: lesson learned. Despite being awake, there was no way any of my crew could function that early, so I put Dis Jr on low, told Hubby to roll over, and started our morning preparations. I got myself ready, toasted bagels, and prepped park bags. The Easter Bunny had brought the girls little faux leather Disney bags, so this trip, the kids were going to be responsible for a few things. They didn’t fit much more than bucket hats, ponchos, and cooling towels, but those cleared up space in the big bag for all the other stuff one needs on a touring day.

The girls finally dragged themselves out of bed to find their Tinkerbell gift for the day. They were excited to immediately put their Winnie, Tigger, and Piglet keychains onto their backpacks. Most of us weren’t really hungry for breakfast, it was just too early, so partially eaten bagels were tossed into the park bag along with the snacks and we made our way towards the bus at 6:30am.

We just missed a 6:37am bus, but luckily there was one at 6:50am. I had my first opportunity to marvel at the ease of the new security screening procedure, at least for those of us without strollers, and we were in line to tap in at 7:05am. I’m not sure if things were running behind for some reason, but they didn’t start tapping until 7:12am for the 7:30am EE, which felt pretty tight to me.

As we had hoped based on earlier reports, the crowds were very low for this early morning party day. In the leadup to this trip, I thought perhaps I might end up crying on Main Street. Instead, getting into the park felt more like a deep sigh of relief and a giant weight lifted off my shoulders. “We did it! We’re here!!” I wanted nice castle pictures before we were sunscreened and sweaty, so that was the next stop.

There were maybe fifty people at the Tomorrowland bridge when we arrived at 7:17, although it filled in behind us. Photos acquired, it was time to break out the sunscreen and get to work. A few moments into sunscreening, the crowd started to move and I panicked. I knew MK wasn’t letting people go to the attraction of their choice until park opening so we should have plenty of time to goop up! It turns out, we were all just shoving in a bit because breathing room is for wimps. The second time sunscreen got interrupted by a crowd shift, I confirmed with the CM that we definitely weren’t walking until 7:30 and kept at it despite folks continuing to creep. I get it, I was excited too, but we can all be excited and have some darn personal space!

At 7:30am, while we walked to Space Mountain, I tried to pull a DAS for Seven Dwarfs, but it didn’t open with the park. (Side note for those who didn’t read my PTR: Hubby has anxiety in loud, enclosed, crowded spaces that has been significantly heightened post-pandemic. After a particularly bad go of it waiting for concessions at a baseball game, he decided to request and was given a DAS for our trip.) I kept refreshing while we walked the line, but it wasn’t running yet when we boarded at 7:42am

Seven Dwarfs still wasn’t open when we exited, so I pulled a Peter Pan DAS and we decided to bang out the rest of Tomorrowland in the early morning hours. We hopped from one spaceship to another and it was a ten minute wait for us to be moving on Astro Orbiter. We went straight to an elevator assignment when we got in line, so ten minutes is essentially the bare minimum to catch the elevator to the second level and wait through one full ride cycle on the platform.

From Astro, we had a galaxy to save and walked onto Buzz at 8:05am.

This trip, the girls were old enough to ride without us, so we didn’t have to worry about rider math or which adult didn’t get to have their own blaster! Well, we didn’t have to worry about rider math anywhere except our next destination. Tomorrowland Speedway with three kids too short to ride alone and two adults is less than ideal. None of the girls wanted to be the one to give up steering, but we came prepared. When the girls were smaller, we were regularly in the habit of making line friends at our local amusement parks. Rather than me having to take multiple turns riding with each of them, I got in the habit of scanning the line on two-person rides for two-adult-one-kid families who hopefully wouldn’t mind taking one of my extras as a hitchhiker. We lucked out into a party of three being directly ahead who was kind enough to help us out, so Aurora made a line friend and everyone got to steer.

We had bad luck on the wait here, as the line was starting to build faster than they got additional cars on the track. We were in line at 8:16 and driving at 8:36, which isn’t terrible until you consider that the rest of the area was all a walk-on. The girls were hungry, so they used the time finish their breakfasts and making their way through most of the snacks I had packed for the day.

I don’t know who designed the photobooths for the Speedway Driver’s Licenses, but I have a bone to pick with them. I can’t imagine a kid older than twelve finding this to be a particularly compelling souvenir but the camera didn’t point down any lower than maybe someone who was 4’10”. There was no stepstool to be had, so there I was trying to lift my kid up high enough for the photo while squatting and leaning to keep myself out of frame. Hubby took the easier (saner?) option of accepting that his torso would be B’s photo background. At only $6, the license is a steal by Disney standards: just give me a stool!

Seven Dwarfs still wasn’t posting a wait. Rather than heading straight to Peter Pan, we decided to work our way around Storybook Circus and up to Ariel while all of those waits were low. At 8:52am, Barnstormer crowds were so light that each of us got a row to ourselves.

Despite the low crowds, the Dumbo play area was open so that was our next destination.

The girls had the run of the place but both of the slides were roped off. With only part of the playplace available to them, they opted to move on and we selected elephants at 9:09am.

The face of a mom who gets odd man out! This would not be the last time that I was by my lonesome, either. From Dumbo we headed for Ariel. We stopped for a photopass photographer with no wait because my girls are all about the magic shots.

We walked on to Under the Sea at 9:15. This time, the cool kids abandoned the boring adults, so Hubby and I got to share a shell. We continued our way around the still-closed coaster and grabbed another set of photos, again with no line.

(Photo limit reached. Continued in next post.)

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

At 9:30am, Fantasyland still had lots of breathing room as we made our way to Peter Pan to use our first DAS. We decided to let our prebooked 9-10am Haunted Manion DAS expire because lines were short enough that we could just continue our leisurely trip around the park. After tapping in at Pan, Seven Dwarfs still wasn’t up, so we grabbed a Winne the Pooh DAS. From Neverland, we enjoyed everyone’s favorite earworm.

At 9:40am, Small World was still a walk on as well. Next on the agenda, I was hoping to catch the Dapper Dans. A video from earlier that week showed them doing their set on the trolley with passengers, which I knew the girls would get a kick out of. We made it to the hub and down Main Street to see that they were singing on the 2nd floor of the train station instead. Hubby stayed with the girls to watch while I hopped over to the Emporium. Tinkerbell was bringing a few pins later in the week and this was the perfect time to get them without being caught.

By the time we met back up, it was 10:15am and the kids were getting hungry. Since we had the Winnie the Pooh DAS, I suggested a cinnamon roll from Gaston’s and then the ride. We made a special friend on the way to our snack.

Peter was roaming by the castle wall and stopped to chat with the girls. He asked if they were triplets; since he had twins in his lost boys but no triplets, he asked them to be honorary lost girls. He started a game of shadow tag and tried to encourage the other passersby, but only one other little girl took him up on it. I don’t know if kids were too shy or just too hot (note that we’d broken out the bucket hats!) but the girls had a nice, long visit playing with Peter. I didn’t think roaming characters would pose, but he said, “Ok, I guess we should take a picture for the grownups,” which I really appreciated. I’m assuming he wouldn’t have done that if there was a larger crew, but it only took a moment for my trio and the other girl to grab photos before he skipped along.

While we waited for our cinnamon roll with extra icing, the girls noticed a family wearing lanyards and wanted to trade pins. They are NOT shy, so they pulled out there lanyard, walked up to the family, and confidently asked, “Do you want to trade?” While they were looking through the options, the Dad comment to me how sweet the girls were and how his daughter was a lot older, now. The pin boards are fun and all, but the kids thought it was really cool to do a true guest-to-guest trade in the line.

I’m not sure what the more satisfying snack was, ice water or the cinnamon roll! We debated between ordering one or two but the girls decided that one was plenty because they didn’t want to have too big of a treat. (Seriously, don’t know where they come from, sometimes!). They were right, though, as we each got a solid chunk of snack without overdoing it an hour before lunch.

From Gaston’s, we headed to use our WtP DAS at 11:00am. Seven Dwarfs was finally posting a wait, so we grabbed that next. Unsurprisingly, the wait was long and our DAS wouldn’t be ready to use until after lunch. Since we were right there and it was air conditioned, Philharmagic was next on the agenda, followed by a bathroom break at the prettiest bathrooms in Magic Kingdom.

It was 11:40am, which left 25 minutes before our lunch reservation at the Plaza Inn. I wasn’t sure what to do, as it wasn’t quite long enough to ride Haunted Mansion, but it was still too early for us to check in. On the walk back towards the center of the park, I remembered the Swiss Family Treehouse, which the girls had never walked through.

This was the perfect little distraction before our lunch reservation. The kids asked a ton of questions, many of which I was only vaguely sure of the answer as I’m not particularly well versed in the book or the movie.

We checked into our reservation on the walk towards Main Street and a table was ready almost as soon as we got there. Cindy wasn’t feeling anything on the kids menu and Hubby wasn’t sure what to get, either, because he wanted salad but wasn’t feeling the steak salad on the menu. When the server came over, she listed a few off-menu kids meal options, which made C happy, and confirmed that Hubby could sub grilled chicken for the steak, too. We ordered loaded fries for the table, Hubby got the salad with chicken, I got the crab cake appetizer as my meal, and the kids did a grilled cheese and two burgers. The server warned me that the portion on the appetizer was small, but I knew I’d be fine between the fries and the kids’ leftovers. Only one of my girls wanted her included beverage, so we also ordered two of the kids Coke Zeros, which were promptly taken by the adults in need of the caffeine boost. This ended up being a regular occurrence over the course of the trip. The girls had a bad experience overdoing it with fruit punch at a Girl Scout end of year party (darn those fickle stomachs!) so they tended much more toward water, allowing the adults to snag the fountain beverages included with kid’s meals.

As soon as we put the food order in, the girls asked to go see the parade that had started making its way by. I had no interest in subjecting myself to the direct sunlight but I trusted that they’d be able to go watch for a bit and still find their way back to the restaurant. They didn’t get too far, as the CMs at the host stand outside showed them a good place to stand that was farther back so they’d have a better view of the floats. Lunch was a bit of a mixed bag; all of the girls liked their mains but were disappointed that the mashed potatoes had skins and the apples were green. My crab cakes were delicious and just the right size to go with my portion of the fries. Likewise, Hubby’s salad hit the spot. I offered to order milkshakes for dessert, but the girls thought it probably wasn’t a good idea just then; we could do a treat a bit later. (Again, where did these responsible eaters come from? Certainly not from my ice-cream-after-dark self!) With full stomachs and ice water in our bottles, it was time to join some dwarfs for a trip through their mine.

 

[erinch]

Your report is just awesome. Sadly my Meredith is 26. When she was little, she would get a hot tummy driving, which meant pull over immediately or clean the car.

I am here at Cedar Point with her and her hubby for Halloweekends. It is crazy crowded, so I splurged for the $200 apiece all day fast pass. She rode one twisty coaster, and was done for the day. We had one glorious trip to Universal in 2020 where she got the motion sickness patch. She could ride everything. And then it dilated her eyes and she couldn’t see much for over a week. Aaargh.

 

[amazingact21]

You all got a lot accomplished in MK that morning. (Especially since you were working off a 3:30 a.m. wake up. Ouch!) Your girls sound so independent; I'm very jealous. Landon's about a year older than your three, and I don't think he'd dream of riding by himself yet.
I love that they initiated a pin trade.
How great that Peter Pan was roaming around. He's such a fun character and has great interactions.

Stealing a kid's drink....I wouldn't know that trick at all. Definitely think I pulled this stunt a few times during our meals at Disney, too.

Your kids have will power. Resisting milkshakes and extra cinnamon rolls. I guess you can tell how much they wanted to keep enjoying the attractions. Didn't want anything stopping or delaying the fun.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Your report is just awesome. Sadly my Meredith is 26. When she was little, she would get a hot tummy driving, which meant pull over immediately or clean the car.

I am here at Cedar Point with her and her hubby for Halloweekends. It is crazy crowded, so I splurged for the $200 apiece all day fast pass. She rode one twisty coaster, and was done for the day. We had one glorious trip to Universal in 2020 where she got the motion sickness patch. She could ride everything. And then it dilated her eyes and she couldn’t see much for over a week. Aaargh.

Oh dear, that sounds so hard!! Interestingly, my girls are much worse on cars/buses/planes than they are on individual rides. I think it's something about it being a longer time, even though the rides are obviously much more intense for their short duration. I hope they don't get worse with age, but looking at their Dad and Grandmother, genetics just isn't on their side.

Your girls sound so independent; I'm very jealous. Landon's about a year older than your three, and I don't think he'd dream of riding by himself yet.

Ok, but they have each other. Rolling as a crew definitely makes that independence easier to assert.

He's such a fun character and has great interactions.

He was a blast, definitely a highlight of the trip!

Definitely think I pulled this stunt a few times during our meals at Disney, too.

Those kids don't need fountain beverages, but we adults need the caffeine!!

I guess you can tell how much they wanted to keep enjoying the attractions. Didn't want anything stopping or delaying the fun.

Unfortunately, it's also a testament to prior stomach fails. They have had one-too-many times where overindulging lead to getting sick and they were hyper vigilant about that possibility throughout this visit. Knowing when to stop is a good skill to have, but it stinks that they've been forced to learn it the hard way so young. Selfishly, I'm glad they understand how to learn and implement limits on consumption long before teenage experimentation has started!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Day 2: We’re Really Here (cont’d)

The time had come, we were ready to ride the most popular coaster in Magic Kingdom, so we headed straight…

… to a game of Tic Tac Toe with paper plates and painter’s tape. Our family loves the little extras like this that make Disney special, but I thought it was too darn hot to stop. I was outvoted and each of the girls took her turn and got a sticker as a prize. The CM was being progressively more strategic with each game, so the girls won the first two and only tied the third time. LOL!

On the way back to Fantasyland, the kids saw the end of Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire going and wanted to stop. I promised that we’d find time to see the show all the way through and we kept moving. During lunch, I had also promised that we’d get good seats to see the full parade at some point during our trip, so I knew I had a few very hot entertainment offerings in my future. Despite the LL entrance being backed up around the side of the ride, we were in line for Seven Dwarfs at 1:10pm and riding at 1:22pm.

This is such a cute coaster, and I love the dark scene in the middle, but my goodness is the standby wait bad. Especially with so much morning downtime, I can’t imagine how many LL guests they were letting through for each standby party. Hopefully, once Tron opens, this will be a bit easier to ride without jumping through so many hoops.

Our next prebooked DAS was Splash Mountain from 1-2pm. The plan was to make that the last ride of the day before leaving the park, but we had some convincing to do with the girls. They hadn’t loved the ride in 2019, for both the drop and getting wet, and weren’t sure if they wanted to go. After reminding them that they loved the log flumes at our local park and that being wet at 2pm in August was going to feel lovely, they agreed to give it another try.

Look at those gritted teeth! Aurora was the most hesitant about this attraction, can you tell?? She had only conceded on the condition that we ask for the back rows so we wouldn’t get too wet, which did work. We were off of Splash at 1:50pm with a decision to make. The next stage show was at 2:05pm so, if we walked with purpose, we’d be able to go see it but it was going to be HOT. Or, we could head for resort and fit the show into another of our many MK days. They wanted to brave the sun and away we went. I picked up a DAS for Haunted Mansion on our way as I thought the air conditioning would be welcome afterwards.

Goodness, it was so darn hot watching that show. Bucket hats and cooling towels were no match for the unrelenting direct sun, but the girls were happy. It was decision time once again: the day plan had us leaving the park a solid hour earlier than this so that we didn’t get ourselves too hot in the midday heat, but that ship had clearly sailed. Hubby was firmly on team pool, but I figured since we’d made it this long, we might as well go all in and watch the 3:00pm parade. We were already hot, sweaty, and in MK at the right time of day. Why not just stick it out and then we wouldn’t have to fit it in later? With the Haunted Mansion DAS ready to use, we could ride there, watch the parade in Frontierland, and then make our way out of the park. The girls were practically melting during the Friendship Faire, so I thought I was going to get outvoted, but they were all about seeing the parade. The preview while we waited for our lunch order had them itching for the full presentation, so off to Liberty Square we went.

Our bottles were empty, so I speed walked ahead to get fresh ice water from Columbia Harbor House. Being the classy folk that we are, we stood over a trash can chugging water and pouring the rest into bottles before tapping into Haunted Mansion.

The girls were a little spooked once they remembered that they had to go through the Stretching Room, but I reminded them that this ride was only silly-scary and they’d been fine in 2019. We all enjoyed our visit with the happy haunts and made our way into Frontierland at 2:51pm. There was still a ton of space up on the rope throughout the Liberty Square area, so we were able to be picky and grab a spot that also offered some shade in front of Liberty Tree Tavern. Meanwhile, I pulled a DAS to meet the main man himself on the way out of the park. The kids ate all of my remaining park snacks and drank all the water during our brief wait for the parade.

Our girls were the only little kids in that section of rope, so they got a ton of attention during the parade. Lots of waving and eye contact, plus Snow White complemented C on her dress. Since Tink isn’t meeting in the park right now, this was the girls’ only chance to thank her for their gifts. You can see B trying to hold up her bag to thank Tink for the new keychain from that morning.

As soon as the parade was past us, we cut quickly through to the Adventureland hub spoke so that we could get down and across Main Street before the parade caught us a second time. We were all too hot to be moving that quickly and could have taken it a bit easier and still made it, since the parade goes up and around into the hub. It wasn’t until we were in front of Town Square that I realized our water bottles were empty and there were no remaining QS on the way out of the park. I asked the host at Tony’s if they had water and cups, as I know many TS do. She said that they did not but offered to go back and get me ice water from the restaurant, which I happily took her up on. Another round of water chugged with the balance poured into bottles, we tapped in on our DAS. Despite the wait being posted at 40 minutes, we got to the front of the line at the same time as a gentleman who had walked into standby just ahead of us! When people talk about inflated wait times, they mean it.

We met Mickey and Minnie at 3:20pm. This meet has the photobox instead of a photographer, which I just don’t like. A real person does a better job of getting the interaction, not just the posed photo. After a lovely visit with the mice, it was time to finally get out of the park. We got to the bus stop at 3:30 and promptly plonked down on the ground because we were too warn out to stand and wait. A bus came for us at 3:48pm and we were on our way.

Chip and Dale were meeting in the lobby! After visiting with our favorite chipmunks, we went to the room. It started raining heavily, so we nixed the pool idea and decided to throw on the TV for our rest time. The weather was so bad that the satellite TV kept freezing and crashing, meaning no Dis Jr for the girls. The local channels and the resort channels worked, but that was it. After watching one of the resort channels on a full loop, the weather cleared enough that the TV stations were coming back in.

While the storm worked itself out, we were taking turns getting showers and watching the Epcot wait times. It was clear that the weather was messing with park operations, because all of the rides on the right side of the park and Spaceship Earth were temporarily closed. I was worried that, if Mission Space didn’t have power, our Space 220 reservation would be in jeopardy. I checked with the front desk while making a gift card payment on our account: they hadn’t heard anything about restaurants closing and were pretty sure that the backup power systems would be sufficient for restaurant operations even if they couldn’t run the rides.

At 5:45pm, the rain had mostly petered out and it was time for us to get some dinner. We stopped for photobooth photos on the way into Epcot. Once we tapped in, I made a DAS for Test Track and we headed for Space 220. While we wanted to experience the restaurant, we did not want to pay Disney prices for a prixe fixe, three-course meal. Instead, we had lounge reservations for parties of 2 and 3 at 6:30 and 6:35pm. The lounge doesn’t go above a 4-top, so we had to split up to get in.

We arrived for check in at 6:30 but the CM out front said we had to wait until our exact ADR time to check in. We were told to stand to the side with a view of the clock above the Mission Space entrance and could go to the host stand only when it hit 6:35. There was another couple waiting there and we heard the same speech given to a few others during our wait. This only applied to the lounge folks; dinner reservations were allowed to check in a few minutes early per normal Disney procedure. I’m honestly surprised that Disney has continued to keep the longue separate with the drinks and apps menu available. It’s the BoG breakfast situation all over again: people want the experience without the cost. They can get in and just order a drink when the restaurant folks are paying $80 a pop for dinner.

At 6:35, I checked in with the host stand and let her know that we had two reservations we’d like seated near each other. I also offered to have all five of us sit at a 4-top because the girls are small, but she said that was against fire code. We switched from outdoor waiting to an indoor waiting area. Ten minutes later we had our tickets to board the space elevator.

The theming for the elevator and the restaurant is really cool and definitely worth popping in for a drink or app. If I had paid dinner prices, I doubt I would feel like it was worth the cost. Yes, it’s fun, but it’s not pay-all-the-money levels of fun. I ordered the Strawberry Stratosphere Lemonade and Hubby got a Big Tang. We were both very happy with our selections: mine was dangerously tasty and his had more of a kick. For dinner, the five of use split two orders of short rib sliders, two orders of chicken and waffles, and an order of deviled eggs. Everything was delicious, but the sliders were a clear standout. Five apps were more than enough food for our crew, including kids who tend to eat light. While we ate, we saw a ton of activity in space. Highlights included an astronaut walking their dog and a lightsaber duel.

From dinner, we cut across to the Creations Shop. The kids initially wanted to shop for ears, but they had some sticker shock when it came to spending their own money. After much browsing, they landed on a pin that was, “… only $13, mom, and the doors open and close!”

We arrived at Test Track to use our DAS at 8:09 and the line was very backed up, unsurprising given the extended downtime during the storm. We weren’t designing vehicles until 8:27pm with our ride photo at 8:39pm.

After riding, it was time to find spots for Harmonious, but it was much later than I had intended. We all started walking with purpose (aka adults speed marching kids) through World Showcase toward the back of the lagoon, where we’d have a straight-ish view of the various projections. I started angling towards the water in Italy to look for a spot that the kids could see. A family with older kids offered to let my girls step ahead of them, right up against the fence, which was very kind. My girls could see, their teens could see over my kids, and I could see over their teens. Win-win-win!

Even with the good angle, viewing conditions were really bad this night. The cloud cover and lack of wind wasn’t allowing any of the smoke from the fireworks to dissipate. It just stayed low over the center of the lagoon. By the end, even the big bursts were obscured by the smoke, such that I’d see a half circle of green even though I knew that had to be a full, round firework.

At the end of the show, we left through International Gateway and walked back to our room. We were all settled in PJs and ready for bed by 10:00pm. All in all, we had an excellent first day in the parks. I had no idea that my girls would tolerate the heat for so long, but we got a ton accomplished in MK. The afternoon weather was unfortunate, as we weren’t able to swim or get into Epcot for any rides before dinner. Of course, it was only our first day and we had plenty of touring ahead of us, so no one was too disappointed with how the evening played out.

Food Budget:
Gaston’s: $7.23
Plaza Restaurant: $97.00
Space 220 Lounge: $148.95
Day 2 Total: $253.18
Rolling Total: 435.36

Souvenir Budget:
Speedway Licenses: $18.00
MK Emporium Pins: $26.60
Gate Pin: $13.83
Souvenir Total: $58.43

 

[cajunfan]

I love all the pictures! The girls are absolutely ADORABLE!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[VanillaThunder]

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm enjoying your trip!

 

[amazingact21]

Don't you just have to roll your eyes when your kids choose the most random, mundane activities to spend time doing while on vacation? You just want to remind them, "We could be flying through Neverland right now! I'll grab a napkin and a pen and let you play tic tac toe on the way."


Whew, a 2 o'clock stage show and a 3 o'clock parade in the middle of summer...your girls are troopers!!! Good on them for battling the heat and hanging on for as much MK fun as they could get.

I'm so out of the loop. Did you make the Space 220 lounge reservations on the same site as the regular ADR list? Was it as difficult to get as the regular one?

 

[Joy1127]

Sounds like an awesome start to your trip! Shhh don't let them take away the lounge at space 220 lol thats the best kept hidden gem! LOL

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

. They didn’t fit much more than bucket hats, ponchos, and cooling towels, but those cleared up space in the big bag for all the other stuff one needs on a touring day.

It is amazing how just a few things, makes all the difference! It's so nice not carrying everything!

As we had hoped based on earlier reports, the crowds were very low for this early morning party day. In the leadup to this trip, I thought perhaps I might end up crying on Main Street. Instead, getting into the park felt more like a deep sigh of relief and a giant weight lifted off my shoulders. “We did it! We’re here!!” I wanted nice castle pictures before we were sunscreened and sweaty, so that was the next stop.

I think I was the same. Just so happy to be on vacation again. It just felt sooo good.

I don’t know who designed the photobooths for the Speedway Driver’s Licenses, but I have a bone to pick with them. I can’t imagine a kid older than twelve finding this to be a particularly compelling souvenir but the camera didn’t point down any lower than maybe someone who was 4’10”. There was no stepstool to be had, so there I was trying to lift my kid up high enough for the photo while squatting and leaning to keep myself out of frame. Hubby took the easier (saner?) option of accepting that his torso would be B’s photo background. At only $6, the license is a steal by Disney standards: just give me a stool!

Typical Disney to not think it all the way through. I think we trie donce and the whole thing just wasn't working.

Amazing!!

he girls had a bad experience overdoing it with fruit punch at a Girl Scout end of year party (darn those fickle stomachs!)

Morgan has been banned from Fruit Punch. I think she is allergic to one of the red dyes.... She always barfs from it.

Chip and Dale were meeting in the lobby! After visiting with our favorite chipmunks, we went to the room. It started raining heavily, so we nixed the pool idea and decided to throw on the TV for our rest time. The weather was so bad that the satellite TV kept freezing and crashing, meaning no Dis Jr for the girls. The local channels and the resort channels worked, but that was it. After watching one of the resort channels on a full loop, the weather cleared enough that the TV stations were coming back in.

Sounds like you timed the day just right!

We arrived for check in at 6:30 but the CM out front said we had to wait until our exact ADR time to check in.

UGH!!!!! I HATE how Disney does this?!?! It's border line rude.

I had paid dinner prices, I doubt I would feel like it was worth the cost. Yes, it’s fun, but it’s not pay-all-the-money levels of fun

Very true!! We ate there and the food was good but it was still not worth it. At least not to do again. We will only go back if they change it to not pre-fix.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

I love all the pictures! The girls are absolutely ADORABLE!
Can't wait to read more!

Aww, thanks! They are little hams when a camera comes out. LOL

I'm a little late to the party, but I'm enjoying your trip!

Thanks for joining along!

Don't you just have to roll your eyes when your kids choose the most random, mundane activities to spend time doing while on vacation? You just want to remind them, "We could be flying through Neverland right now! I'll grab a napkin and a pen and let you play tic tac toe on the way."


Whew, a 2 o'clock stage show and a 3 o'clock parade in the middle of summer...your girls are troopers!!! Good on them for battling the heat and hanging on for as much MK fun as they could get.

I'm so out of the loop. Did you make the Space 220 lounge reservations on the same site as the regular ADR list? Was it as difficult to get as the regular one?

They want to stop for the silliest things.. but I guess that's ok if it makes them happy? (Trying really hard to convince myself over here!)

Yeah, the heat was brutal, but apparently I'm raising true theme park enthusiasts.

Space 220 Lounge has a separate ADR link from the restaurant, but it's booked in the same site as everything else with the 60 plus length of stay booking window. They are EXTREMELY hard to get right now because they're the only way to get the Space 220 experience without the crazy lunch/dinner price tag. I had to use every trick in the book to get my hands on those.

Sounds like an awesome start to your trip! Shhh don't let them take away the lounge at space 220 lol thats the best kept hidden gem! LOL

I don't know how hidden it is, considering how competitive the ADRs are. I agree, it's a much better way to experience the space than a restaurant ADR.

It is amazing how just a few things, makes all the difference! It's so nice not carrying everything!

Yeah, with a family of five, even bucket hats and ponchos really add up.

Morgan has been banned from Fruit Punch. I think she is allergic to one of the red dyes.... She always barfs from it.

Poor thing! My girls have had it in the past without issue, but this particular party they had several cups in quick succession followed by pizza also eaten too fast. That they can't handle!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Day 3: Every Magic Shot

In what will be the common refrain of the trip, I woke up too early once again and had to hide out from the family. This time, though, I knew not to turn on the world’s loudest coffee pot and instead hung on the patio until it was time to let the coffee wake everyone else up. Our second early morning was noticeably harder on the kids, who struggled to get out of bed and grumped their way through the morning routine. They roused themselves to find that Tinkerbell had brought them a 2022 pin, got dressed, and barely touched breakfast. Bagels were once again loaded into the park bag and we were on our way to the bus at 6:40am.

We had great bus luck and were pulling away at 6:47am, which is when the whining began in earnest. The kids were NOT happy to be going to Animal Kingdom because they didn’t want to try Expedition Everest, the oh-so-scary coaster with a backwards section. I wasn’t forcing anyone onto rides, but I wasn’t letting them off the hook easy, either. Well rested and fed, they had watched the ride video at home and agreed they were willing to give it a try. As they complained, I maintained my usual script when tackling difficulties: all good things in life are scary at first; being brave doesn’t mean you aren’t scared, it means you work through the fear and do it anyway; you’ll never find out if you love something if you don’t try; you are always more proud of yourself when you face it than when you give up. By the time we were at the front of the park, B & C had mostly talked themselves into trying it while A…

… not so much. She dragged her feet as we traversed the park, insisting that she was just going to wait at the gift shop. At the last moment, she decided to give it a try, mostly because all of the girls have intense FOMO when it comes to skipping something that her sisters did. We were the only family at the loading platform at 7:35am, so Hubby and I were taking B and C and then I would ride again with A, who was waiting for us at the platform.

B & C came off absolutely wailing that the coaster was way more intense than they expected and how could we ever think they might like it? Needless to say, after hearing those reviews, A opted not to take her turn. I’m not sure what to do with these girls, sometimes. They get so in their heads about some things, build them up so much, that they end up crying when they’re through, even if it wasn’t that bad. It’s like the emotional release when they know the thing is over is too overwhelming and they start to cry, even if they were fine in the moment. In retrospect, we shouldn’t have done the coaster first thing, even if it is a good use of early entry time on paper. If I’d eased them in, and they were fully awake and fed by the time we got to Asia, I do think this would have gone better. B & C calmed down while we walked to Pandora; by the time we got to there, they decided they’d try the coaster again when they were older, but not this trip.

While negotiating with the girls on the way to Everest, I had also pulled a DAS for FoP, which was ready to be used. Rather than going straight there, we stopped at Navi River Journey, which was still a walk on at 7:52am. Apparently the girls had lost all trust in me because they were skeptical that this might be a scary ride, too. We managed to survive our perfectly pleasant alien boat ride and turned towards Flights of Passage, only to find that it was down. Unlike LL, day of DAS selections do not convert to anytime if the ride is down when you are called. Instead, you have to cancel and book something else or hold it and wait it out.

We knew Dinosaur would be a walk on for a while, so we opted to keep the FoP on ice. We’d ride Dinosaur, hopefully cut back to ride FoP next, and then pick up a Safari DAS while we saw the 10am Lion King show. If passage still wasn’t up after Dinosaur, we’d cancel it to grab the safari.

We had a mini photo shoot on our way out of Pandora, then decided to stop for Tree of Life photos as well. The line was a couple families deep but there were two photographers, so I figured it would move fast. Plus, we weren’t going to get away with being sunscreen free for much longer. We needed to grab pictures before covering ourselves in that zincy goodness. When it was our turn, Aurora started to lay on the grump, hard! Our photographer was absolutely incredible, though. She leaned in and told the girls that, if they gave her nice smiles for the family picture, she would do every single magic shot available to her, even the ones no one else was getting. Well, that perked them right up!

This little photo shoot really turned our morning around and I made sure to leave a cast compliment as we were walking into Dinoland. I’m sure it’s tricky for the CM in these situations: all of that special attention we got meant that the photopass line was backing up for other families. At least it was two photographers working the line, so it was still moving while we got our dose of morning pixie dust. Pigs are also A’s favorite animal, so the Pua shot remains one of her favorites. That was the one that the CM wasn’t doing for anyone else, since it required turning and sitting on the rocks.

Properly cheered up, we got to Dinosaur at 8:24am. The wait was posted at 5 minutes but the CMs out front said it was going to be longer. The rides at AK are so spread out that we figured it was better to have a longer wait here than try to cut across the park again and double back later. The line wasn’t long, but it also wasn’t moving at all. Clearly, there was a technical issue but they hadn’t dumped the line just yet. Normally, I wouldn’t sunscreen in line, but figured it was safe since this one wasn’t moving. We needed to goop up either way, might as well stay in the line and hope that the ride was running soon. It was about five minutes with no one loading before the CM got a call and sent a group through to the preshow. We ended up not having enough time to get everyone done, so I had to make a mental note of who still needed legs or faces screened before we were in the preshow at 8:39am.

The girls were much less scared on this ride than I was expecting. They said they just closed their eyes when it got to be too much and they were fine. Meanwhile, above is the last photographic evidence of my green magic band. I realized when I got into the gift shop that it was gone. C must have wrenched it off my arm while she was gripping my hand. Ever prepared, I had a set of hard tickets in the park bag so I was still good for scannable media for the rest of the morning’s touring. We pulled over in Dinoland to use the bathrooms, finish up sunscreen, and note that FoP was posting a wait. The kids wanted a ride on Triceratops Spin, but it was down, so to Pandora we went.

Despite the morning downtime, the FoP line wasn’t bad at all. We tapped in at 9:12am and were in the first preshow at 9:22am. Meanwhile, I grabbed a DAS for the safari and we were making perfect time for the 10am Lion King show. Flights of Passage was another ride the girls were hesitant about. In 2019, a frustrating series of events left C too short to ride, so A and B went with Hubby. The three of them didn’t fully know what to expect, the girls’ glass kept sliding down, and they weren’t totally comfortable in the seats as they were just tall enough to be there. It ended up being an unpleasant experience for everyone, with A and B remembering is as scary and C remembering her sisters coming out upset. Thankfully, they didn’t get themselves too worked up for this one and were able to enjoy the ride. The consensus was that a few moments were scary but it was worth it because it was exciting to feel like you were flying.

Next up was the Festival of the Lion King. We arrived at 9:51 for the 10am show and the space was about half full all the way around. Watching the show was another “this is really happening” moment for me. I’m pretty sure that one could play The Lion King music during a tax audit and I’d get chills; coupling it with the energy of live performance fills me with joy. Thank goodness the full show is back!

Our DAS for the safari was ready to use, but everyone was hot and hungry. Dole Whip felt like the right call, so we split a Simba Sunet (pineapple Dole whip with strawberry sauce) from Tamu Tamu.

The seating area nearby was shady with fans, which was pleasant. As we were finishing up, we heard the Harambe Village Acrobats and went to watch their show.

They were excellent, but I couldn’t stop thinking about how hot they had to be! Look at those costumes, and there was absolutely no shade there. It’s a great little show with tons of energy and the kids had a blast joining in for a final dance. But, my goodness, I hope they drank a LOT of water when they returned backstage!

After the acrobats, we headed for the Safari, tapped in at 11:01 and were on our vehicle at 11:07. I’ll spare you the off-center pictures with animals and the backs of my kids’ heads: wildlife photographer I am not! Originally, I had a Yak and Yeti lunch reservation for today, but we opted to cancel it while we were having lunch at the Plaza the day prior. While the guaranteed air conditioning was nice, we wanted more flexibility than having to be in a certain part of the park at an exact time. After the safari, the kids really wanted to go play in the Boneyard but Hubby and I wanted Satu’li for lunch, so we split up. They headed off to play while I went to pick up our mobile order. There was a CM at the door waiting for people to show mobile orders ready for pick up and mine took a while to mark complete. I understand why they manage that space, but I wasn’t even going to take a table; I just wanted the air conditioning! Pro tip: while Satu’li has real bowls and silverware for dining in, you can also get plasticware and to go boxes if you’re cutting across the park to eat while your kids excavate.

An aside: once upon a time, I was so incredibly jealous of the moms at the playground that could stand and chat while their kids played. Meanwhile, I was chasing three toddlers around trying to keep them from running in front of moving swings or throwing themselves off of a platform. It felt like the day would never come when I could trust my kids to keep themselves alive! Fast forward several years and Hubby had let the kids go off into that enormous playground by themselves while he grabbed a picnic table nearby. Sometimes, dreams do come true!

We shared three adult bowls between the five of us and it was exactly what we needed: real food that hadn’t been breaded or fried! It was 12:23pm, so we had just enough time to catch the 12:30pm Finding Nemo show. Despite getting there just before curtain, we had a great view.

Unpopular opinion: Finding Nemo is the best stage show running in Disney World right now. Fight me!! Or, hear me out. I love Festival of the Lion King; it’s beautiful, the costumers are amazing, the athleticism of the performers is incredible. But, it’s a circus show set to awesome music. It’s an exceptionally well executed circus show set to awesome music, but it can only be so good. Finding Nemo has Broadway caliber music, puppets, live vocal performances, actual plot and emotional beats: it’s sensational. Unlike everything else in the park, it doesn’t rely on the fact that you’ve already heard the songs a million times and have an existing emotional connection to them. It’s that good in its own right. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

We had one more stop planned before our afternoon break: Kali River Rapids. We figured it was best to do that last, just in case any shoes got it bad. We got our free lockers at 1:09pm and tapped in to a somewhat backed up LL. Shockingly, we weren’t the only ones who thought a water ride might feel pleasant during peak August heat! The line moved quickly and we were loaded with a couple of timid adult riders, so the girls were in good company. Overall, I’d say the ride was milder than I had expected, though we all got a good soak. We picked our things back up at 1:36pm and caught a bus back to the Boardwalk.

 

[Joy1127]

Sounds like a great DAK day! Tip for Yak & Yeti in the future (you may know this already) but if you sign up for the Landrys card for $25 you can get a walk up table any time with their priority seating benefit and they give you a $25 welcome gift to be used on your first visit so the card nets free. It can be used at TREX too for the same benefit. Which is nice to have if you dont want to be beholden to the reservation but want the a/c! although your impromptu satuli lunch sounded great too!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Sounds like a great DAK day! Tip for Yak & Yeti in the future (you may know this already) but if you sign up for the Landrys card for $25 you can get a walk up table any time with their priority seating benefit and they give you a $25 welcome gift to be used on your first visit so the card nets free. It can be used at TREX too for the same benefit. Which is nice to have if you dont want to be beholden to the reservation but want the a/c! although your impromptu satuli lunch sounded great too!

Yeah, we did debate getting the Landry's card for just this purpose. The problem is, AK is so big, we also didn't necessarily want to have to get to Asia for lunch. The kids would have spent the whole day in the boneyard no matter the temps, so location beat out air conditioning on this day.

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Day 3: Every Magic Shot (cont’d)

We got back to the hotel just as they were closing the pool for lightning in the area. I asked one of the life guards what the official rule was for reopening and she said it had to be 30 minutes from the most recent strike within the mileage radius. She also said that, since the storm was moving towards us, she expected more strikes in the area would be forthcoming, so it was almost definitely going to be more than a 30 minute wait.

We weren’t keen on the idea of hanging in the room for an indefinite amount of time waiting for the pool to reopen. After discussion with the kids, we opted to walk over to the Studios early and hopefully fit in some night swimming in the evening once the storm had passed. We stopped at the room for a quick refresh and were on the road to Hollywood Studios at 3:25pm with a 3:43pm arrival at the tapstiles. Slinky Dog was closed for the same lightning, so we picked up a DAS for TSMM and walked on Star Tours. The girls had been ok with this ride in 2019, they didn’t love it but would do it again. In 2022, they were so worried that the screens would set off their motion sickness that they were upset before we even got on. C insisted that it gave her a headache (I think the complaining and worrying beforehand was a more realistic source there,) and didn’t want to do it again the whole trip.

It was time for our Midway Mania return, so into Toy Story Land we went to find a lightning lane that was backed up but moving. No one wanted to ride with me because, “You hit all the good ones!” so I got a ride to myself. After a quick bathroom trip, it was time to check out Galaxy’s Edge. The kids’ aversion to violence in media means they are far from Star Wars fans, but Hubby and I were thrilled by the immersive theming. We asked the kids to get a picture of us in front of the Falcon and they did their best.

That one has the least finger-in-corner out of a half dozen shots. So close! When we tapped into Smuggler’s Run, SDD was still down so we grabbed Runaway Railway as our next DAS. The theming in the queue was too effective for the girls: they didn’t want to get on a ride in what appeared to be a rundown building with expose electrical. We had to do a lot of convincing to assure them that this ride was new and totally safe but that they had made the hallways look grungy and beat up on purpose.

We were assigned Pilots, Gunners, and Engineers with no single rider joining us. We offered to let the girls pilot, but they didn’t want that much responsibility. Instead, it was up to Hubby and I to keep us on track.

Not wanting to make the same mistake twice, I sent Hubby to get his chess board photo alone, sans fingers, and we were quickly called to ride. We were… not great pilots. As in, we got the effect where the lights were flickering and there was an electric hiss sound as we exited. The girls decided that they like the ride and would try again, but only if Mommy and Daddy promised to do better at their jobs. Ooof!

Since we were in the area, we opted for Docking Bay 7 for dinner. Hubby and I each got a Ronto Wrap while the girls collectively shared a veggie dippers and a chicken kid’s meal. The plantain chips that came with were the surprise hit of the meal, especially dipped in the hummus from the kid’s meal. We were done eating at 6:30pm with a DAS that was ready to use but also a 7pm Oga’s reservation. I had avoided MMRR spoilers, so I asked Hubby if he knew if 30 minutes would be enough to go over, ride, and get back to Galaxy’s Edge. He thought it was fine; he was wrong.

I think folks are pretty well versed on the ride at this point but, just in case, here’s my completely spoiler-free description of the timing: After the LL merge, there’s still a wait to be assigned a preshow, the time to watch the preshow, and a wait after the preshow to get assigned to a ride vehicle. It’s much like Test Track in that, with the various preshow locations on the way to the final ride, it’s probably a 20+ minute minimum experience time even with G+ or DAS. Having walked over from GE at 6:30 and gotten in line, we weren’t loading a vehicle until 7:02pm. Now, I know Disney isn’t going to penalize me for being 15 minutes late to an ADR, but I was still twitchy about being late.

After the preshow, while we were snaking our way through the loading platform wait, the kids started psyching themselves out again. Apparently, after Everest and Star Tours, they had no faith when I said that they’d absolutely love this one. Hubby ended up having to lean in and whisper a few spoilers to make them more comfortable. Unsurprisingly, we all adored this ride and it’s arguably a top five attraction for the whole family. We loved riding for the first time and being surprised by all the little details. We loved rerides throughout the trip where we tried to find little bits that we had missed so far. Two thumbs up from our whole crew!

We headed back into SWGE to check in for our Oga’s reservation. I went up to the check in stand and the CM at first told me to check in on my phone. When I told her we wanted to wait for a booth because we had little people in our party, she soured a bit and told me it would be at least 30 minutes. I don’t’ think she was having a great day. I knew from research that we’d have to wait but we were fine with it, so she checked us in for a booth and we got into a long but shaded photopass line across the way. If we had to wait anyway, might as well get some pictures, too.

Except, I got the text two minutes later that our table was ready. I assumed it was a mistake and went to the hostess stand to explain that we were waiting for a booth, but she said we were being seated at a booth. Huzzah! I pulled the crew out of line and away we went.

The atmosphere in here is excellent and definitely worth a visit. We shared our booth with two other parties who were also there just to generally check things out so it was fun seeing what drinks everyone ordered. We opted for a Jedi Mind Trick, a Fuzzy Taun Taun, and a Jabba Juice for the girls. We hung around for about a half hour, listening to the DJ’s set and kind of taking it all in. We didn’t stay too long, though, because it was getting late and we had some squirmy girls who wanted to get back to rides.

Our return time for SDD had come, but the girls wanted other rides, too. I reminded them that we had planned some night swimming, but they nixed that in favor of more time in HS. Saucers was a walk on at 7:59 and the girls rode together, leaving the adults all alone.

We tapped into Slinky at 8:10 and were riding just five minutes later.

I put in a request with Disney, but Hubby’s ride photo for this night never came through. Oh well. We grabbed Railway after tapping into SDD and it was posting a short enough wait that we were able to walk right over and tap in. As the preshow ended, there was a 3ish year old boy who exclaimed, “Oh, wow!” Agreed, kid, agreed.

We were on our train at 8:39pm, after which it was time to head out. The girls saw folks getting seats for Movie Magic and asked to stay for the show, but we convinced them that it was just a little projection show and we’d much rather be ahead of those folks in line for the skyliner. We had perfect timing and watched Enchantment and Harmonious on the skyliner ride from CBR to IG, which was very cool. After showers and general settling, everyone was in bed by 10pm and ready to do it all over again the next day. As to the storm that had closed the pools and prompted our change in plans, it threatened pretty much all evening but never actually rained on our little parade.

After some early hiccups in Animal Kingdom, this ended up being another lovely Disney day. We didn’t get the downtime at the pool that I had been hoping for, but the afternoon and evening in HS was better than I had hoped, given all the trouble that park has with wait times and capacity.

We also had a very low budget day by Disney standards, with only QS meals and a couple of snacks.

Food Budget:
Tamu Tamu: $6.38
Satu’li: $47.89
Dino Bites: $4.25
Resort Mug: $21.29
Docking Bay 7: $49.48
Oga’s: $49.48
Day 3 Total: $180.29
Rolling Total: $615.65

 

[disneyAndi14]

I’m glad you enjoyed MMRR. I really like it and It makes me a little less mad about GMR!
It sounds like a great evening in DHS and I agree about Oga’s Cantina. The atmosphere and CMs really makes the experience.
I love how your daughters are 2nd guessing everything new in the queue, I can laugh about it but I’m sure it is hard on you and your husband at times, having to change their minds, lol

 

[Joy1127]

Glad you all loved MMRR! That ended up being my Dads favorite trip on our family vacation last year which fully surprised me haha I think its just fun no matter what age you are!

 

[TheOneWithTheTriplets]

Life Update: I don't remember if I've specifically referenced it here, but I've been trying to identify the cause of some vague health issues since May 2022. It turns out I have Hodgkins lymphoma. This particular cancer has an extremely high cure rate, but that cure is 6 months of chemo. While I'm glad to have an excellent prognosis, chemo is clearly going to suck. I'm one treatment in and doing ok, but we've got a ways to go.

In the meantime, I haven't been feeling particularly DisBoard-y of late, so I'm not sure if/when I'll be back on this TR. Just wanted to let everyone know that I didn't fall off the face of the earth, I'm going to be fine, but it's going to be tough for a while. Who knows? Maybe I'll decide chemo infusion time is a great time for updating, but I think it's more likely I'll just binge my way through every streaming service I've been too cheap to subscribe in thus far!