Crosspoint grand gathering......or was it? updated 3/06 with pics

[dwheatl]

Woo hoo. Those lucky duckies. What a fun way to tell them, too.

 

[katlas&kids]

Good going Joey and DGF. I know they were all excited.

But I do have one Quesiton. What does SDD12t mean? I noticed that you had another with another letter after it.

And PTL!! I am glad you found a good support group and have continued to hang together. It is hard to find others who can agree and talk without carrying all the baggage and bitterness! Keep up the good work!

 

[crossfamily]

THat was all that noise I heard yesterday! I am so glad you held out. Sounds like it was worth it. What a great way to tell everyone!! Just wait till you all get there...

 

[uhtimex]

Good going Joey and DGF. I know they were all excited.

But I do have one Quesiton. What does SDD12t mean? I noticed that you had another with another letter after it.

And PTL!! I am glad you found a good support group and have continued to hang together. It is hard to find others who can agree and talk without carrying all the baggage and bitterness! Keep up the good work!

Thanks for the PTL

My DGF's Name is Sandi so her kidds are SDD she has twins that are 11. So SDDT is the Daughter who's name starts with T.

 

[katlas&kids]

Thanks for the PTL

My DGF's Name is Sandi so her kidds are SDD she has twins that are 11. So SDDT is the Daughter who's name starts with T.

Ok that helps! I figured out that JDD was Jim's I think the name was, but was having problems with the other. Will PM you a question I have. Keep us updated on the pre packing and so sorry for the poor young man on his own. Is he stuck rooming with the girls?

 

[OhMari]

You may want to change your title. Just take the pre-trip out. Hope to see you post soon. Hope to see some pictures too.

 

[uhtimex]

Well it has been about 18 hours since the kids found out about the trip. (its 2am Dec 26)we have had very little sleep and Jim and Stacey have just arrived at DGF(Sandi) house. We load them up and they also take SDD12 and head off to the airport for a 7 am flight. Jim does not want to have any problems so they get ther very early. He is rewarded with the check in counter not being open. So when it does open they get checked in and settled. The flight leaves and they are on their way. Sure I "wanted to see them all off but, Sandi needed to go with DD12 so I took one for the team and stayed home and watched the rest of the kids (ok I stayed home and slept)

Their flight was good and they got in about 10:30. They took the ME shuttle and were loving life. After checking in they headed over to AK walked around and saw "It's a Bugs Life", then they went back to the Coronado and swam, then ate at the Maya grill (not great, not bad, just ho hum) and they went off to bed.
I just asked Sdd12 if she wanted to write some notes about days 2-4 but she can't remember anything right now. So I will sum it up for you.... 27th they went to MK and it was crowded but they liked it. The 28th they went to MGM, it was crowded and they thought it was ok. The 29th they went to Epcot and it was crowded and they liked it.

Meanwhile back at home I get a call from DGF this is on Tuesday. She is wanting to know if her DS15 (who lives with his dad) can come along. That sounds great but there is no way we can drive back with 8 people in the MPV(Mazda mini van)

Let me say YES, YES I drive a mini van. I am a single man with 2 kids and I drive a mini van. I had a van a few cars ago -
the space so when I started getting serious with Sandi and needed a car
that seated a bunch of people I bought a mini van so there

Any way she sounds dissapointed so I looked up flights back for SDS15 from Orlando $132.00 plus a $50 unacompianed minor fee. what the heck is that for. Well being the smart alec that I am I ask just that.

Me "What on earth is a $50.00 fee for? the kid is 15 he will sit down turn on his ipod and go to sleep. I mean the only thing you will have to do is wake him up when the plane lands"

Lady on the phone(lop) "well sir that is a fee for every one under 18 it covers walking them to the gate and then to the curb"

Me "your kidding right...the kid is 15 I think he can make it to the curb by himself"

LOP "well sir if you agree that we don't need to walk him to and from the plane we can wave the $50.00 fee"

Me "DONE"


So I call back DGF tell her what I found out and now we have one more person to have fun with. We get the ADRs changed and once again we are waiting to go.

Friday Dec 30th DGF drops me off at work at 7:00 and so starts the worst day of the week. I think had I not been going on vacation it would have been ok but I was ready to go. At Apple Glass we do inventory on the last day of the month so today we work until 6:30 and I am STARVING so we go to a buffet and eat a quick dinner and leave for Disney at 7:42. It is raining about an hour outside of Houston. I ask if we have JDD9 medication oh boy, so we hop on the phone to call CVS The pharmacist tells me to call the 800 # for a location in Beaumont. Great! I call - please type in the zip code DOES ANYONE KNOW A ZIP CODE IN BEAUMONT, TX??? Me either! I call back - try another prompt - now they need the area code. Good it's 409... here we go. NOT!!! "please enter the prefix (first 3 digits) " Regis I would like to phone a friend please. Back to the 411 lady tells me there are 6 stores in Beaumont but can't tell me which are 24 hour so I take the first one. THEY ARE CLOSED! Great call 411 again $$ they get me a different store and we are all set. 30 mins later back on the road. It rains all the way to Baton Rouge (hi MR OAKIE) and it then it starts to let up when we hit Mobile around 3am. It is late and we are tired of driving but Disney is at the end of this ride so we push on. Breakfast in FL and we switch drivers again in Lake City. We are almost there. We get to Orlando around 1:00 pm. So we leave at 7:42 and get there around 1:00. Without the time change we're in the car 16 hours and 15 min. We averaged a speed of 65 MPH including all stops. We were making good time. We grab a lunch at TGIF Fridays hit the store and then we see this

and just down the road we were at our home for the next week

Rooms 2344 and 2345

More later I am off to bed to recoupe from the looooooonnnnng drive home

 

[Backstage_Gal]

subbing, sounds like a great start

 

[uhtimex]

OK, So we are here. We get set up in the room and try to call the rest of the group, no answer, this becomes a recurring theme for the next few days For the life of me, I can't remember if we meet at Captain Jack's at 5 or 7. It is now around 3:45 and we can not reach Jim. Do we wait or do we head over to MGM........all together now, We go to MGM. So we pile in the car and head over to MGM. We go right thru the parking gate. We look like VIP's with our Pop parking pass. Then we are shown to the very last parking section. We hop on the tram and I can feel the excitement building as we get closer and closer to the front gate. Then, the phone rings, ADR is at 5:00 pm so as the tram pulls to the drop off point we stay aboard for the ride back to the car. I did however get a picture of this

Did anyone ever see Tinytoons Summer Vacation? Hammie (Porky Pig's
Nephew) takes Plucky(Daffey Ducks Nephew) to Happy World Land.
They drive for days and when they finally get there they take the tram
to the front and go home "we don't want to over do it on our first trip"

As we are riding back I remember this and chuckle. Back to the car we speed over to Downtown Disney. We park with about 10 min's to get there and, we of course have no idea were this place is. So we check the map, Oh great it is as far away as possible. So we walk as fast as possible to CJ's with a "hey look there is the Lego store" and "look over there it's the Pin Hut" we turn down the last walkway and it dead ends with no CJ's do we go left to Rainforest Cafe of to the right? I think hhmmmmmm if Rainforest is to the left CJ's must be to the right. WRONG So we backtrack to CJ's and get there at the stroke of 5. Jim and Stacie are just getting off the bus and we check in with a party of 13. No problem it will be about 20 mins. The guy behind me party of 2 " I think we will have a table available around 10:00pm"
Yea for ADR's. Jim and Stacie show up and begin to tell us wonderful stories of how great everything is and Sandi gets to see SDD12 for the first time in 5 days and they were all hugs Now we know that we are going to need a few extra meal credits so the girls split 2 Fettucini Alfredo's with lobster tails and Sandi and I split one as well. Now the girls don't want there Lobster tails so I get 3 when all is said and done we are fat and happy and the bill is some rediculous amount like $214.00. It is now time to start raveing about the meal plan it is AWESOME. With out it we would have been over at McDonalds spending $40.00 for a lame dinner - with it we ate what we wanted and did not worry about the price. So with dinner over we headed back to MGM. Once again we whiz thru the parking booth and this time we get to park up close. Tonight we have one thing on our agenda ride Rock'n Roller Coaster. we get in and head over and are met with this sign

Wow, thats a loooonnnng wait, but for us it's now or never, because RR goes down on Jan 2 for the rest of the month. So we go to the right, and back to the left, right one more time, last time left and now we go up, meanwhile the rest of the people in the state of Florida have gone thru the fast pass line(our time is coming) and as we get half way down the next row.......que the phsyco music......it breaks down now for the people behind us it is no problem they leave in flocks. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE in front of us got out of line so we wait 5 and then 10 minutes and I say "lets go hit TOT" and they moan "just a little bit longer" so we wait a few minutes more...........and finally it starts up again. The fast pass line goes on f-o-r-e-v-e-r, and this "lady" behind me says "I know they are not going to let all of these MF's go ahead of us" So I turn around and say "you know, I have little kids up here" she was not very happy with that. She spent the rest of the line talking about she could not belive that I said something to her and that it is so loud out hear that they could not hear her. I held my piece but the constant talk about it to her friends let me know that I had made my point.

I can handle many of the PG cuss words and won't say a thing. I will
give a dirty look but I don't usually say anything but when the F bombs
come out it is time to say something.

As we swing around the post and head up to the cast member who stops us and says just a minute. aaarrrgggghhhhh OK we get to go to the que area.
we are so close and you guessed it The darn thing breaks down again. No wonder it is going down for a month!!!!! We finaly get our turn. But wait with 7 people riding someone has to ride alone. This would be me. Now the gates open and I can ride RR my DD8 starts to cry I want to ride with you, then SDD11T says I can't ride alone. "OK all three of us will skip it" I am pretty mad but, it is our first night and I don't want to start the trip out on a worse foot than this so I tell them it is OK and we can ride it the next time we come. Sandi was a little more upset that I waited and rearranged our days so she gave me a 3:45 fast pass that someone had given her and insisted that I go ride. I go through the fast pass line they look at my 3:45 time and say ......."go ahead" I get to ride the best ride of all the parks. I come out and it is 10:00 pm and the park is closing we take this picture

JDD8, SDD11T, SDD12, SDS15, ME, SDD11K, JDD13

We head back to the van and when we get there the passenger sliding door is open I guess when the last person got out on that side there was somebody behind them and they thought they would shut the door. That person got out on the driver side and shut that door. Nothing was taken but I had to search the van before anyone could get in.

I am the kind of guy that, if I see a car with it's lights on
I will check to see if the doors are unlocked and turn off the lights.
So far I have not set off any car alarms and have not been arrested.


We headed back to the POP and got to bed around 11:30. So I will end it here and see you guys later as we get to epcot at 7:00 am

 

[dwheatl]

Love the pictures and hurray for the fast pass pass-off for RR. Glad you're working on your trippie in a timely manner.

 

[crossfamily]

Great TR so far!! Ok who's who in the pics??? You can pm me the info if you don't want to name them on the thread... Can't wait to read more..

 

[uhtimex]

Great TR so far!! Ok who's who in the pics??? You can pm me the info if you don't want to name them on the thread... Can't wait to read more..

updated that post with titles.

Thanks to all for reading, I will update in a few days

 

[bigsis1970]

GREAT TR... Love the pics !!!

 

[katlas&kids]

Good Job, my friend. And yes, I did get both PM's and glad you had such a good support group. Going it pretty much alone was a hassel, but thank goodness for the singles group taking us in when we needed it most. And they needed us, so good working out for all!

The picture is dark for me, but I am also sitting in front of a big window, so I will check it out at home on my PC. Can't wait for more!

 

[Va-bear]

Lovin' it Joey!!!! That Disney bucket for the kids is SUPER!!!! Might be stealing that idea from you!!!!! Nice pi too !


Dying here waiting for the BIG ending!!!!!!

 

[uhtimex]

I went to update last night and I could not find my notes So I will look today. I have uploaded a bunch of pictures into photobucket so there will be plenty of pic's. I will have something done tonight. Thanks for being a part of my trip

 

[uhtimex]

It's 6:20 am and I am greeted by Stich, I must say that was pretty cool So I get out of bed shower and go into DGF's room and wake her up and get the kids going 1 shower at a time. We eat breakfast in the room (pop tarts, toaster strudel and cereal. We brought a cooler and a toaster oven) Epcot had EMH from 7-8 but we got all 8 of us there around 7:40. Before we left Houston, I had to read a lot out of the Unofficial guide to Walt Disney World I even clipped out the touring plans and laminated them with our ADR times and #'s. Let me say that I am VERY unorganized so this was out of character for me. The plan was more of a guidline than a hard and fast plan. Anyway we hit Test Track first and it was great. Although it did have a couple of "technical difficulties" while we were in line. Over all it was about 15-20 min wait. This is DD8 and SDD11T strapped in for thier test run.

We went to Mission Space next. Green or Orange???
All together now.....ORANGE!!!!! This ride rocks, did I mention I woke up with a sinus headache? It was just about gone until MS, but the ride is well worth the pain. When we got off we were about 1/2 way down the exit hall when SDD12 realized she left her lanyard with 8 pins $$$$x8= a bunch and her tiarra $35. So we tell the CM and he Nextell's the front. " Beep beep, buzzzzzzzzz.....again beep beep buzzzzzzzzzz." If you have Nextell you are if not you are just finally the phone gets through and they check the ride (which has had Technical difficulties that is 3 rides and 3 t/d) we send SDS and my DD13 to get Soarin FP, have to stay on schedule, about 10 min's later they come out with the tiarra but no lanyard

Ok I just hit enter, for those of you like me who don't know, hitting enter post's your post so go to the next post and I will continue

 

[aaronander]

 

[uhtimex]

Ok, here we go again, now I have SDD12 who is and me who wants to yell something not helpfull like" how can you forget $40.00 worth of pins!" but something like this comes out " sorry kiddo, at least we got your tiarra back" we gather up the troops and The two F/P runners are back with the 12-1 Soarin F/P. It's now close to 9 so the list says go to living with the land. There is about a 5 min wait and we get on (DGF has yet to ride a ride she is just not into that sort of thing so I am excited that she gets to ride this with me ) we go through and it was neat. Seeing a 9 pound lemon and other giant vegetables was pretty cool. The kids were not impressed. As we come out the line is about 40 min's long DGF and I agree that was not worth a 40 min wait. We head out of the Land and go over to Honey I shrunk the Audience, this was great. Next was Figment. I had read about Figment on the boards but had never seen him. Again short wait and a neat ride. Here is a picture of Figment.

As we came out the kids messed around in the post que area. Here is SDD11T conducting the lights

I have noticed a slight change in DGF she is really looking at the CM's pins and then she buys a set of pins and starts to trade. If I knew then what I knew now I would have asked for an intervention Any way we head off to the Electric Umbrella to have lunch. Again amazed at the amount of food, and my DD13 shows off her elephant shaped chicken strip

Wow just what you wanted pictures of, chicken strips. Let me say that at this point we are suprised at how uncrowded the park was. I mean it was crowded but not what we expected. After lunch we head over to soarin the clock says 190 mins in the stand by line We walk by like Wayne and Garth "we've got backstage passes" holding them up so everyone could see. Now, I had mentioned that my DGF didn't like rides, it is more she doesn't like heights. I don't mean she dosen't care for heights, I mean SHE IS VERY AFRAID OF HEIGHTS
After ALOT of coaxing I get her to believe that the reward of riding Soarin is worth the risk of being too high. I was very proud of her, but I did make one mistake. I let one of the kids sit next to her. She is amazed at the ride but she is still scared to death. I am holding her arm and trying to distract her from SDD11T who was having a blast leaning to the left and leaning to the right and then back but when she went forward mom had enough and told her to "sit back and be still" but in that frantic way mother's get when they think their child is about to fall 30 feet. SDD11T went from to in the time it took to go over the cliffs and out into the ocean. When we got off DGF explained to DD that she was scared and that's why she snapped at her and they and we were all happy. DGF and I agreed that if we rode that again she would not sit by any kids. She really did like the ride even with the drama.


Hey, I thought this was a grand gathering? So did we!


When we leave Soarin we call Jim and Stacie only to find out that JDD9 has a tummy ache and Stacie is just now ready to come to the park. So we head over to Inoventions and we realize that 1/2 of the State of Florida is now at Epcot. Where on earth did all of these people come from? At Inoventions the girls (DD8, SDD12 and SDD11T) run around and play

That was DD8 jumping on the pad to open doors meanwhile this is DD13, SDS15 and SDD11K enjoying Inoventions

We're tired????
We get a call from Stacie and she is going to meet us at 1:30 so we play a game on the floor. I don't know why this was here but it was fun. This is SDD12 clicking on billboards

Notice no lanyard. DGF has gone to meet Stacie who was late because the other 1/2 half of Florida was out in the Epcot parking lot with her. While she was waiting at the Mickey Gear store a CM told her that she should have gotten a Coupon to replace what was stolen on the ride SO she and SDD12 head back over to MS and sure enough she gets a coupon to replace the pins and lanyard At this point pin fever has set in. I will point out that I did get the cool Limegreen and black Mickey head pin, So I am not complaining and it also gave DGF something to do while we were on rides. So Stacie shows up and Jim calls to say JDD9 is feeling better and they are almost here. We finally all meet up at Epcot and at last we are a Grand Gathering A few minutes later JDD8 is sick again and they are going to leave and Stacie thinks it is just too crowded and will come back to meet us for dinner around 5:30. We are now looking for a snack place and we stumble into the Coke world and we start to try the coke flavors.

I am a coke snob! Don't try and give me Big K or Safeway brand of soda I want Coca-Cola (sorry Disunc and Utah Momma) So I am in Soda Heaven. Until........B E V E R L Y this was the most foul thing I have ever put into my mouth I mean I can not tell you how bad this is. I can tell you that it was from Italy and that if I were a POW and they said talk or we will make you drink a big cold glass of Beverly I would spill my guts and live a life of shame. This was so bad I saw 1 lady spit it out on the floor and some college guys were trying to see who could drink the most until one of them spit it out into the trash can. IT WAS BAD. We took this picture and headed over to the world showcase

You have seen us all before except the beautiful woman next to me is DGF.

It is late so I will finish this Later, thanks for stopping by

 

[bigsis1970]

Great Pics!!!!