Day 1 of our trip! (update:day 4 posted!)

[tiff211]

After a long day of traveling the day before (traffic was horrendous!), we checked in our condo around 11, I put the little ones to bed and unpacked. I didn't go to bed until 12:30. But, I was up and ready to go at 6:00. I took a shower and dressed by 6:30. I woke up DH and he grumbled something about not doing this $&^*& all week. WHATEVER!! I go to the girls bedroom and scream, "Who's going to Disney?!!" DD6 raises her hand. I had to scream it two more times to get DD15 and DD4 to respond. First day we had planned to go to MGM which was the place to be that day according to TGM!! We left the condo about 7:30 because of my forgetfulness, I hadn't preordered the tix so we had to go to Mapleleaf tickets which opened at 8am. We stopped and grabbed breakfast and I got the tickets. I still had to go to guest relations because I had lost my AP. Can we say unorganized? Anyway, DH and the girls go through the line and I head to guest relations. The computer was acting up so it was taking a long time and finally the CM says to me "how many in your party today?" "six". She says "I apologize for this taking so long so here are some (6) FPs to help you out!!" SWEET!!! The magic has begun!! I catch up to DH and the girls! Oh wait. I hadn't introduced you to the posse!!!

Me, 36, a self proclaimed Disney Freak
DH, 34, goes with the flow (knows he has no choice)
DD, 15, has decided she does like Disney after all
DD, 6, is on the border between the "baby rides" and the thrill rides!!! We call her the "chosen one" because she always gets chosen to go up on stage, help out, answer a question, "whatever"
DD, 4, a bully but is also soooo scared of everything
DD, 1, latest and final installment to our family, a peanut but quite the "spitfire" and absolutely the friendliest baby I have ever encountered!!

Okay back to the story: Dh had somehow managed to convince me that it would be neat to wear The Incredibles t-shirts so we all had them on including the baby. Wow!! We got sooo much attention! When we first got into the park, DH and DD15 made the mad dash over to TOT to ride standby and grab FP's for RNR while I headed w/ dd6, 4 and 1 to Playhouse Disney. Yay, me!!!! On the way, a CM stops us and says hey, it's the incredibles. R U planning to do Lights, Motor, Action today. Of course we are I say! She hands us FPs for it!! Whoohoo! The magic continues!!! By the time we get to Playhouse Disney, we missed the first show but there is no wait for The little mermaid show. DD4 has always been afraid of Ursula, the sea witch so she does not want to go. I convince her that she can close her eyes when Ursula comes out so she agrees to go in. No tears!! Progress!!! She freaked out last year! DH calls as we are heading towards tht exit so we meet at Playhouse Disney. DD15 is "estatic" as she thought she had missed this one!! DD1 was too excited to sit still so I stayed in the back with her. I certainly got my exercise as she kept running towards the front. DD6 was picked for something in the show. I kind of missed it as DD1 was running towards the stairs.....AGAIN!

After PHD, we headed towards RNR, one of my fav attractions. By this time, I can see the park is starting to get really crowded. We have FPs (SWEET!) and head right to the front. We also get a rider pass so DH can ride after so it's me, DD15 and DD6 who is a little nervous for her first ride. SHe almost backed out when she saw the car take off! WHen it was our turn, she freaked as soon as the light turned green!! She cried hysterically the whole time! Remember, I said she was on the border. DD15 loved it of course! WHen we get off, DD6 says it was scary but she kinda liked it. Next DD15 and DH take a turn. DD15 made out like a bandit with the rider swap as she was able to ride everything twice.

Next we went to LMA, which dd6 and dd4 really didn't enjoy they seemed bored. DD4 has recently added fire to her list of fears so between the fire and loud noises, she kept asking to leave. I had packed the girls disney stix which came in handy as they listened to their music and didn't really pay attention to the show.

Finally, my favorite time of day......LUNCH!!! I was having a greasy, fattening TURKEY LEG! YUM!!!! DH and DD15 had one as well. DD6 had pizza from pizza planet and dd4 had PBJ (that's all she has). DD1 had some of everyone's food.

After lunch we saw Walt's One man's dream which we hadn't done before and the girls loved it! One of those quiet attractions that you don't think much about, we just stumbled on it. Afterwards we took pics with The incredibles which was quite appropriate given our attire!

We then sat and waited for the High School muscial show and had mickey bars while we waited. We decided to call it a day and went back to the condo where DH took the DD6 and DD4 for a swim while I went to Walmart for groceries with DD15 and DD1.

BTW, we stayed at Westgate Vacation Villas. I won't rave about the place but it served its purpose. I probably woulsn't stay there again. We saw a few bugs and it wasn't exceptionally clean but when we called for more linen or towels, the response was quick. The location was great though, it took about 10 minutes to get to the parking lots of the parks, going the back way! It's right off of 192.

I did love staying offsite, being able to have our own space, more than 1 bathroom, a full size kitchen, washer and dryer, without paying a fortune made the difference.

We looked in the coupon book for a place to go eat and chose Western Sizzlin Grill......hated it! for an all you can eat, there was not much choice, funny thing was it so packed, they kept running out of plates! I would not recommed this place!

When we got home, I put the kids to bed and then put out everyones clothes and packed the cooler, EPCOT was on day 2 of our agenda. Another 9am opening, thank goodness!!! A little bit more sleep!


Some notes: we did not get a stroller for DD4 and 6 and did not feel we needed one. DD1 napped just fine in hers. I had this cute little black backpack from walmart that I kept wipes, sanitizer, tide to go pen, diapers, DDs autograph books, pens, my id, camera, phone, flashlights for the dark rides for DD's, ear plugs for the loud attractions, sunscreen, washcloth that I put in a baggie with a couple of ice cubes, dd's disney stix, an extra memory card and that's pretty much it. It was comfortable, Dh didn't mind carrying it while I rode on something and it was my favorite word....CHEAP!!

 

[thptrek]

Looking forward towards more.

 

[princessjv]

Sounds like a great start! Your girls are gorgeous! 4 girls..wow!

 

[Andrea34]

Can't wait to hear more!!

 

[tiff211]

I left off a couple of details from day 1. Even though DD15's sweet 16th birthday is not until next month, we celebrated a little early and I got her a pin from guest relations. She loved the attention and wore it every day. It was so cute as we walked by CM's to hear them say happy birthday to her. DD6 had a hard time with this though. She kept telling everyone it wasn't really her birthday. I had to nip that in the bud!!

Also I was a little nervous how DD1 would react to the characters. Day 1, we came across Chicken Little and Abby. DD6 and 4 ran over for pics and autographs. DD1 started to cry and squirm to get out of her stroller, I thought she was scared so I took her out to hold her but no.....she went running over to them. She stopped and cocked her head to the side and said "Hey, Baby!" Everyone is baby to her! It was so cute! DD6 picked her up and they all took their first character pic of the trip!

Anyway, on to day two! We got up and dressed, had breakfast and made it to the park for the rope drop. Dh insisted that I stopped squealing and clapping as we stood waiting! He is such a Disney Scrooge!!! Then we made the dash towards soaring and rode it standby with a 20 minute wait. Since we did the baby swap, Dh ran over to test track for FP's. Our little system was working just fabulous. He made it back over and just him and DD15 rode Soaring. I lost my sunglasses on Soaring, anyone find them! Damn! I had just bought them and they were so cute. Thank goodness I had a spare at the condo. I took the little ones and we did living with the land since it had a 10 minute wait. I was pleasantly surprised, it was another good attraction that we had bypassed in previous trips. The girls liked it as well. Afterwards, we met up with DH and DD15 and we headed towards talk the new nemo attraction, it had a 20 minute wait. The line was long but moved continously. I thought it was cute but I wouldn't defintitely not wait any longer than 20 minutes for it. That was pushing it! Unless you have a nemo FINATIC, I mean FINATIC in your group, don't feel too bad if the line is too long for you to wait. But afterwards, we walked over to talk turtle with Crush and that IS worth every second of the wait. We waited about 15 minutes to go into the next show. The queue set up is a 1000 times better than it was last year. No more zigzag lines! The show has also changed for the better, introducing more characters from the movie (I won't give anything away). DD6 and 4 sat in the front and DD6 got called on to ask a question! Remember "the chosen one"! After that we walked around the living seas. Next we went to ride TT, did the baby swap. DH went to get FP's for Mission space, I won't have anything to do with that madness, so it was just him and DD15 for that one. I rode TT w/ dd15, 6, and 4. I know the whole park had to hear us all screaming. All except for DD4, she takes things in internally.

Afterwards, we went over to the coca-cola club cool spot and I told DD15, she just had to try the beverly, it was the BEST! She filled up a cup and chugged away. Her reaction was a little delayed, I was a little concerned! She said that she didn't believe it could taste so bad so she had to keep drinking to be sure!

It was getting to be lunch time but DH and DD15 needed to do MS BEFORE we ate, so we hung around waiting for them. Then we walked over to the World Showcase and had fish and chips. Alice and the White rabbit were there so the girls took pics with them. Then we took the ferry back to future world since we were coming back to Epcot. The girls played in the fountain while DH and DD15 went on MS again and then we headed out of the park. Our goal was in early/out early before the droves of people. So far another successful day!

Notice there are a few attraction we don't do, DD6 and 4 don't like spaceship earth "I don't want to go in that big ball thing!". No "Honey I shrunk the audience" either. The rest we waited until our 2nd day at EPCOT.

 

[princessjv]

I
Afterwards, we went over to the coca-cola club cool spot and I told DD15, she just had to try the beverly, it was the BEST! She filled up a cup and chugged away. Her reaction was a little delayed, I was a little concerned! She said that she didn't believe it could taste so bad so she had to keep drinking to be sure!

That was great! I have heard it doen to many oh DH's, but never to a teenaged daughter! She took it with stride too...most would yell at their moms.

 

[Lan]

Hi tiff211!!

I can't wait to see more picture of your cute young ladies.

 

[jcc0621]

Great start. Can't wait to hear more. Your family is so cute

 

[Glendamax]

Hey Tiff! Lan led me to your report! I love how you tell like it is. Especially how your husband said he wasnt doing this $@*T everyday - waking up early!

Can't wait for the rest! I hope you post your pic! Would be nice to see what you look like!

Waiting for more . . .

 

[Lan]

We are waiting on you Tiff

 

[tiff211]

I was very excited now with 2 successful days behind us AND we were going to Animal Kingdom which is my favorite park! I love the atomosphere there, no matter how many people are there it still feels.......mmmmm....peaceful!!! I bought a collapsible cooler and had packed snacks and frozen bottles and uncrustable pbj sandwiches. That saved a ton, I am convinced!!!

The challenge was this morning we had a 8AM OPENING!! You think DH grumbled and swore the previous morning. Ooooh, it was so bad, it was like he was speaking a second language!! I woke him at 5:59! I was already showered and dressed. Which reminds me, I forgot to tell you about the flying cockroach incident, this has convinced me I will NEVER move to FL. The second morning, I am up and decide to take a shower in the bathroom not attached to the bedroom so DH could sleep without being disturbed. So, I go into the bathroom, which just has a shower stall and turn on the water. I turn and look the other way and HOLY HUGE BUGS, BATMAN!!! I came face to face with the biggest bug I have ever seen. I promise you it was the mother of all bugs, I think it should have been called a rodent it was so big. If it had moved, I would have fainted dead away. I am TERRIFIED of bugs, I don't know how I am surviving the move down south! I once called my girlfriend across the street to come and save me from a spider that was OUTSIDE my sliding doors. I was convinced he was trying to come in. But I wouldn't let her open the doors so she had to go around the house and in the backyard to rescue me. Just so you know how deep my fear goes. Anyway, back to the story at hand. I go running and screaming to DH, at the point not getting a rat's tail that he is sawing logs. I jump on the bed and tell him about the killer roach on steroids! He mumbles something and goes back to sleep. I yank the covers off and he decides that it is in his best interest to check out the situation. Let me show you how big the bug was___________________________________________!!!! That line is the length of it!! I kid you not. So, I close the door while DH goes to see about this bug. All of a sudden, I hear noises that sound like 2 grown men fighting, I scream and put a towel under the door. After a few minutes, he comes in huffing and puffing. He says when he went to kill it, it jumped at him, then started running away very quickly. But DH saved his family in the end!!! He says he thinks it crawled in through the bottom of the door so the rest of the trip we put 2 towels in front of the gap.

Okay, back to Ak, so we make it to the park at 7:59 and the park is already open, they opened it at 7:45. Just great, that throws my schedule off by 15 minutes. So, DH and DD15 go ride EE standby, yeah, I had enough of that ride when I went in June, so I took the little ones over to Dinoland and we got to ride triceptops spin 3X in a row. It doesn't get any better than that, folks. Then I met the most interesting person in line. She and her DD were wearing incredible tees, so DD6 mentioned that we had them as well. She proceeds to tell me that she wore them so she could easily identify her daughter and also if she got lost, everyone would know she belonged to her because she was adopted and didn't look anything like her. I am thinking maybe it's too early or maybe I am dizzy from riding this ride 3X but I just can see park security handing over her dd to her saying, she must be yours, you have on the same shirt! So, DD15 and DH meet us and I ride primeval whirl with DD6. Note: when riding this ride, do not pull the harness down so far to protect your little one that you find you can't breathe. That's what I did! Everytime, the ride would move, the harness would cut into my stomach....."oooof" was all I could say the whole ride, but at least my baby wasn't going to fall out!!!!

Oh yeah, somewhere in between the rides, DH ran to get fp's for the safari. So, DH and DD15 go to Dinosaur while I go to the boneyard with the little ones. I am starting to see a pattern here as DH is enjoying DD15 company more and more and I am "enjoying" the fighting, bickering and whining of the little ones. Just kidding, I had a ball trying to stop DD1 from going up the slide over 100 times in 30 minutes!!

Dh comes into the boneyard with a huge boyish grin and just for an instant I glared at him, I mean gazed at him! I wasn't blaming anyone, I was the one who kept telling them to go especially since I am not the thrill seeker. So, we round up the troops and head over to the safari. Yay! I love the safari! We rode in the very back! I have never seen a warning about the very back posted on the DIS board, trust me I have looked!! IT WAS SOOOOO BUMPY. I was wishing I had a more supportive bra and I am not that big! I was afraid to talk, I thought I would bite off my tongue! Heed this warning!!!

After the safari, DH ran to get FPs for Kali River Rapids, another family favorite. We made our way over as he called to let us know he was in line for Lion King. As we are making the dash to meet him. DD4 jumps out of the stroller, she has spotted Lilo and stitch (her fav). The line is not too long so we HAVE to stop. We get in line and it takes a lot longer than expected. DH calls frantically to tell me that everyone is going in and he can't save seats. There is no way DD4 is moving from her spot so I tell him, we'll just catch the next one. As we are waiting next in line, the bodyguard (as dd6 calls the CMs with the characters) announces we are the last family and then they are taking a break...WHEW!!! The woman behinds me asks the CM if she can just sneak their family in as they have been waiting a long time. Rookie!!!

So afterwards we had lunch! We ate in pizzafari for a/c but DH and I had flametree bbq (his fav). We both had ribs, I must say they were very good. I thought it was a good deal for $8.99. A large portion of ribs, baked beans and corn. DD15 had chix cesear salad, it muct have been good, she had it a few times during the trip. DD6 had the kid quesdilla which she liked. I think the kids meals are a good deal, and entree, 2 sides and a drink for $3.99. The sides options are grapes, applesauce or carrots. I saved a container and made DD4 her own meal with applesauce, grapes and an uncrustable that I packed. Looked just like DIsney's meal!

After lunch we did the Lion King Show. Am I the only one who cries each time they see it? Dh just shakes his head, he is used to it but DD15 looked horrified! WHATEVA!

So, next DD15 and DH decide to ride EE again since we had gotten the baby swap pass. Did I mention DD15 made out like a bandit? I took the little ones to see Pochantas and her forest friends. I have noticed something about DD6, she will go right down front, excusing herself and making sure she is not blocking anyone. I don't think this is wrong, do you? It shows me she is assertive. She doesn't push anyone or get in front of anyone, if she does or if I think she will be blocking someone, I don't let her do it. DD4 would rather hang back with me. Anyway, it was our first time doing that show and I thought it was very cute. Another do not miss if you have young ones.

We all met up again and decided to head over to KRR. As I am pulling everyones ponchos out, I realize that I forgot mine.....GREAT! Everyone but DH and DD1 ride this time. Of course, I get drenched! Nice striped panties for all to see!!! Next DH, DD15, and DD6 ride it again, DD1 is napping so DD4 and I stood on the bridge while she squirted people!

Sidebar: I found the best thing to occupy DD4 while we waited.....my digital camera!!!! She took about 100 pictures but I just deleted them. Just a little tip for you. I would make her wrap the wrist strap around her wrist a few times making it harder to drop and let her click away!!!

Yay, it was time for the parade, that meant some moments to rest my weary feet! We lucked up on great seats, though we ticked off some coming out of ITTBAB but the CM told us we could sit there as the people coming out of ITTBAB were supposed to walk inside the ropes which created an aisle and we were sitting outside the ropes. I heard "some people are so ignorant, they just sit anywhere" Did they not even wonder what the ropes were for?

Next we went to conservation station. Nice way to wind down, I think! We first had some ice cream and then went inside and looked around. DDs found jiminy cricket and did pics with him. I chased dd1 around as she was totally facinated with a CM holding a bird in the eagle family. "Hey, birdie!" She is a true southerner! We headed outside for the petting zoo, which the girls love! Even DD15 looked like a big "ol kid in there!

Last we did the pagani trail. I loved the meerkats, I think they are new or else I just missed them each time. I also like the gorillas but DDs weren't as interested as we have them at the Atlanta zoo.

After the trail we headed out and had chinese food for dinner!

Here's a few pics from our day! Next stop! MAGIC KINGDOM! A marathon day!!!!

And here's the most "incredible" picture:

 

[Lan]

I am laughing my head off about the roach incident.

 

[tiff211]

I am laughing my head off about the roach incident.

I can laugh about it now but I was terrified!

 

[Magic2000]

Great trip report - can't wait to read more!!! Your girls are adorable!!!

 

[Glendamax]

Awww Man! You really do NOT disappoint! This was a load of fun! Love the bug story. I'm not scared of bugs unless they are big, and/or I'm naked! I would still be in therapy if I were you!

LOVE LOVE LOVE the matching Incredibles shirts! You all looked so cute in them. What shirts will you have the next time? And so glad that you included a pic of all of you (I like to have a mental picture of who's telling the story).

I am looking forward to your next installment! This is definetly one of my favorites!

 

[tiff211]

Awww Man! You really do NOT disappoint! This was a load of fun! Love the bug story. I'm not scared of bugs unless they are big, and/or I'm naked! I would still be in therapy if I were you!

LOVE LOVE LOVE the matching Incredibles shirts! You all looked so cute in them. What shirts will you have the next time? And so glad that you included a pic of all of you (I like to have a mental picture of who's telling the story).

I am looking forward to your next installment! This is definetly one of my favorites!

Funny, when DH suggested the incredibles matching shirt idea, I thought it was corny. But then I thought I needed to support anything Disney-ish DH was excited about. I will await DH to suggest our next ensemble!

 

[Lan]

Where are you??? Come back!!!!

 

[Halloweenqueen]

Your daughters are gorgeous! What a fun trip so far! I love the pictures! Did you get those Incredibles t-shirts online? My kids have Incredible pjs, but I haven't found uniform like t-shirts.

 

[tiff211]

Your daughters are gorgeous! What a fun trip so far! I love the pictures! Did you get those Incredibles t-shirts online? My kids have Incredible pjs, but I haven't found uniform like t-shirts.

Thank you!

No, I got them at the Disney store. I had a hard time finding on for the baby, hers was way too big! LOL!

 

[tinkermamaof2]

Tiff211
That picture of your family with the Incredibles is adorable! Please tell me that it is your next Christmas card. I tried to get one with our family on an island holiday this year but my husband was sick. You should really consider it, and send me one!