Did we miss any Princesses or Characters?

[BigTuna07]

I got back from my 2nd ever trip to WDW a week ago and finally have had time to start my trip report!!

1st I will introduce the cast of characters if you haven’t read my PTR here is the link Click Here

I will start with me. I am 37 and the 1st Asst. Pro. at a golf course in NC, but live in SC. We have lived in Myrtle Beach, SC for the last 9 years!! I don’t have many pictures of me because I take about 95% of the pictures for our family.

Next is DW who is younger than me but I won’t reveal her age in case she ever reads this! LOL She is the Head Physical Therapist at a local hospital and is a Doctor of Physical Therapy! She achieved the DPT after having 2 kids, being pregnant with another, working full time and being a great wife and mother (she got her MPT in the 1st 3 years we were married before kids)

Then comes DD who turned 5 on our trip!! We are going to call her Kiki (Kiki is what she called herself way back when LOL), but you will probably see her real name in some of the pictures from her Birthday Button. She is a wonderful child and a very good big sister! Her favorite princess is Cinderella. Magic Kingdom is her favorite park and she says Cinderella is her favorite movie also. This picture is from last year when we went to WDW.

Next is line is DD (3) and her nick name is Chippy because she stuffs her mouth like a chipmunk!! She is a ball of fire and likes to give a little attitude (her favorite fairy is Vidia and it makes sense.) Her favorite movie is Tangled, but her favorite princess is Belle. This picture is from last year also.

Lastly we had a DS last August!! His nickname is TBone. 1 of my brothers gave him that over Christmas. Other than his name starts with T I have no idea why TBone, but it has stuck much to the dismay of DW. He is a great baby, but had been acting up the week prior to leaving so we were not sure how he would be for this trip.

Now that you know a little about us, I will get to the report. We left for WDW on Feb. 29th and stayed at the ASMu Resort. We checked out on Mar. 8th and drove to Jacksonville, FL that night. We finished up the next day and were home by 5pm.

Last year, we stayed off site, but wanted to give on site a chance this time. We chose ASMu because I just couldn’t justify the price difference for the Mods and didn’t even consider the Deluxe. Also, we didn’t get the dining plan. Again, I couldn’t see us spending over $1100 in food. We had 4 ADR’s which you will find out about during the report.

All right on to Day 1 - Travel Day

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom (Part 1)
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom (Part 2)
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom (Part 3)
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom (Part 1)
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom (Part 2)
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom (Part 3)
I realized I missed posting the Day 4 - Magic Kingdom (Part 1). I don't know how to add it now.
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom (Part 2)
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom (Part 3)

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

Oh, do I get to be the first to follow along?


You have a beautiful family. Can't wait to read all about your trip.

 

[cheyandrew7]

Can't wait to hear all about the trip Your kids are cuties. I can't wait to really start planning our disney trip

 

[kimberwee]

Totally following this!!!

We have a daughter, who we call KIKI, that will be turning 5 on OUR trip!

 

[BigTuna07]

Oh, do I get to be the first to follow along?


You have a beautiful family. Can't wait to read all about your trip.

Thanks for following and the comment about our family! DW and I have said that we may not be a lot of things but we have beautiful kids together! LOL

Can't wait to hear all about the trip Your kids are cuties. I can't wait to really start planning our disney trip

Thanks for following! We think we have the cutest kids, but don't all parents think this!

Totally following this!!!

We have a daughter, who we call KIKI, that will be turning 5 on OUR trip!

Thanks for following! What are the odds of the same nickname and both turning 5 on a WDW trip!! Awesome!

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 1 – Travel to WDW

The plan was to leave right after DW was finished with work at about 5pm and drive the 7.5 hrs to WDW. I arrived to pick up the kids from day care at 5:15pm since DW had told me at noon it was going to be at least 5:30pm. The kids wanted to show me their playground (I rarely pick them up as it is an hour from home.) At 6pm I was loading them up, when I realized I didn’t have the car seat for DS! DW had taken the 3 kids in my car because the check engine light had come on in the van the night before (all was OK with the van. It needs a new catalytic converter but it could wait until after the trip.) I had picked up Chippy’s car seat and we have an extra base for DS as well as an extra seat for Kiki. I called DW and she said she would be finished shortly and come to day care and leave my car their instead of the hospital.

She finally arrived at 7pm! DW drove the 1st 2 hrs and then we had a quick bite to eat before heading down the road again. At 10pm I decided to drink my 5 HR Energy because the GPS said 4:50 until arrival!

I have taken the 5 hr energy a couple of times before and love them. I don’t feel all jacked up but still feel wide awake. The kids finally fell asleep at 10pm (right after watching Tangled!) No issues until about 2am I noticed we were not going to make it without filling up with gas. 1st exit didn’t have anything open. I am now getting nervous. 2nd exit nothing open! I’m thinking are you serious! We are almost in Orlando on I 4 and nothing is open! I am starting to freak out a little. We have AAA but everybody knows that will take at least an hour and more than likely 2 before they come to our rescue! 3rd exit we finally find a Kangaroo station open!!!!! I put 18.2 gallons in the tank! It is supposed to be an 18 gallon tank! We definitely were very fortunate to make it!!

½ hour left and we arrive at WDW! (Quick side note. If you can do it, the roads were empty through Jacksonville and I 4 was empty at that time of night. All things being the same I would do it again in a heartbeat.) No issues at the security gate. I didn’t even need to show my ID. Check in took less than 5 min and away to find our room in building #6. I took a quick look at the map they gave me and drove around the building. We saw a 6 so we parked and got out. None of the numbers were even close to our room number. DW noticed that we were in ASMo instead! Back to the van, 5 min later we walked into our room at ASMu. It is 3am and both DD’s are wired because we told them we were at WDW!!! They wanted to see the castle! DW tried to explain to them that was at a MK but they didn’t understand. Finally at 4am they fell asleep!

On to Day 2 (or is it really a continuation of Day 1 because of the time. LOL)

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 2 – Animal Kingdom (Part 1)

At 6:30am DS woke up, he was wide awake as he slept his normal hours the night before. The good news about that is he was great on the ride down to WDW!! DW needs more sleep than me (and it was my idea to drive the whole way the night before) so I got up with him. We played a little and then went outside about 7am.

Finally at 7:30am, DS had to feed so I woke up DW and she nursed him. I decided that since we weren’t on the dining plan and didn’t bring any food with us I would run out to McDonalds for breakfast. By the time I got back both DD’s were awake. We took our time and ate breakfast in PJ’s while watching what else but the Disney Channel!! DW may kill me for posting this picture, but I think it is fun! LOL

After showers for the girls and making some PB and J (I guess we did take some food and snacks with us) we were ready to go. I love this picture so I had to post it.

We were going to go to MK, but I suggested that AK closed at 5pm so we could come back to swim for awhile. The other reason was the DD’s could get a good night’s sleep in their bed. So at 12pm off to AK we went!!
I was a little nervous about using the buses because of the awful stories I have read on here, but about 5 min later a bus pulled up. It was very easy to use the bus vs. our van! After about a 8 min ride, we arrive at AK!

Our DD’s love to get autograph’s of the characters and princesses. So Pluto was up 1st right before walking into AK! While in line, DW realized that the autograph books were at home! I offered to buy some right away, but she said we could wait until we got into AK since we knew we would meet Pluto again. It was only a 5 min wait for Pluto!

As you can see, both DD’s were a little nervous about meeting Pluto (we had this last year also. They didn’t have any issues with people characters, but had some apprehension with the non human characters.) After a little coaxing and DW joining in, they finally went up to have their picture taken with Pluto!

I bought the autograph books while DW lathered the kids with sunscreen and then we came up with our game plan. DS had to feed again so I took DD’s and went to get FP for the Safari and Rapids. While walking over the bridge to Africa, I got a look at Everest.

We proceeded to get our FP for the Safari, but the Rapids were all out of FP. No matter we would stop by later to see if the line was worth the wait. On the way back to meet DW, we noticed another character signing so in line we went for Meeko. It was aonly a 5 min wait and a 1st for us so the girls needed me to go up with them. Honestly, I had to read the autograph to even know who we just me.

On we went to meet DW, but the girls needed to stop and play the drums 1st.

DW wasn’t quite ready so we walked down the path next to the baby station. We saw all the animals including the porcupines being fed. (I won’t bore you with all the pictures.) We came to the waterfall down the path, and I had to take a picture of the girls.

We then met up with DW. Time for a little break.
I will work on Part 2 next.

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 2 – Animal Kingdom (Part 2)

We picked up DW and our FP for the Safari wasn’t ready yet so we headed over to Camp Mickey and Minnie! 1st a picture of 1 of our strollers! I can’t imagine what we will do when our kids aren’t in strollers!

On the way we ran into the Discovery area (I can’t remember what they are called but Discovery area sounded good. LOL) Chippy wanted to just look in and identify what was there.

Onto meet Mickey!! The line was really short!!! Only a 5 min wait! I won’t show each DD and the character, but just 1 of them.

Next up is Minnie! Another 5 min wait!!

Minnie even played peek-a-boo with TBone!! I won’t post all of the pictures, but EVERY character we brought TBone up to played with him. TBone never cried once and was laughing with almost every character! I really could post a good picture from every character. They seemed to really like babies!!

Goofy was a long wait. 10 min! LOL

Thumper and Miss Bunny had no line so they were next!!

.

Brer Bear was dancing around so DW joined in!

DD’s did NOT want to meet him as they were pretty scared, but he played with them while they were in the stroller. He even suggested taking a picture!

Next up is Daisy Duck!! Another 5 min wait! If you couldn’t tell, DD’s were both having no more issues meeting the characters they knew! Yeah, no more pictures for me!! LOL Later we learned that Daisy only appears for about 20 to 40 min so we were very fortunate to meet her

After Daisy, Chip and Dale were down to a 10 min wait! They were having a good time! Chip signed Dale’s name and Dale was acting like he was going to fight with Chip! It was great. Chippy went right up to Chip and told him her name was Chippy! She got a huge hug from him!

Donald appeared next with a huge line of about 5 min!! Do you see a theme here? Donald was great! He played with each girl. He played keep away with the pen with Chippy and then hid Kiki’s pen on his bill! The girls ate it up!

Donald even got a kiss from TBone!!

Time for another break! If you are still with me, yes I take a lot of pictures!! LOL

Part 3 Coming up Shortly

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 2 – Animal Kingdom (Part 3)

We had seen all of the characters in Camp Mickey and Minnie so we decided to take in the Festival of the Lion King! My pictures didn’t turn out very well, but I will post a few of the good ones.

As we left the Lion King, Pocahontas had a 5 min line! So of course we stopped!!

Next we walked to see if the Rapids had a long line, and of course today they didn’t!!!! We were all going to go as a family, but ...

DS was sleeping. We didn’t want to wake him up so DW took Chippy and went to wait in line. It said 25 min but it only took 10!!!

My picture isn’t very good because since we had never ridden this ride I didn’t know about the spot to take pictures. After they were finished, I took Kiki. Now I do NOT like rides with lots of falls so when I see we were heading up right away I won’t lie. I was nervous! I did fine though! Kiki loved it!!!

After we were finished, there wasn’t a line so we went right back on!!!!
After that, we noticed the time was about 4:45pm and the park closed at 5pm so we hustled over to Africa to get on the last Safari! We made it just in time and boy are we glad we did! Last year, we were at AK for 2 days and MK for 2 days. Our DD’s LOVE the safari and this was the best one we have ever been on!!! The driver was a dud compared to others that really got into the saving of the baby elephant, but it was his last run of the day so I couldn’t blame him. I will share a few shots!

The Black Rhino

Hippo

Giraffe

Elephant family. Not a great picture but the little guy in front is only 6 months old!

Cheetah

Next we turned a corner and the bus literally stops! We look up and 2 white rhinos are in the path and not moving!! I think we stayed put for 5 min while the driver finally got the rhinos to move. It was great!!!!

Next we saw the male Lion (a 1st for us as it had never been out before!)

And his mate!

Of course, we saw lots of other animals, but these were the highlights for us!!!

After the safari it was time to go as the park was close, so headed back to the bus stop. Can you imagine that it was only a 10 min wait to get on our bus!!!

We decided to eat out of the food court while the girls went swimming and we would join them afterward. DW and I both had a bacon cheese burger (no pictures) and the girls had hot dogs. The girls loved swimming in the pool while a movie was going on.

On the short walk back to the hotel room, both TBone and Chippy fell asleep in the double stroller! We then turned the kids in for the night.

That is it for Day 2! I hope to get to Day 3 tomorrow or Sunday!
Thanks for reading if you are still with me!!!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

It sounds like you had a great day at Animal Kingdom with low crowds and short wait times for the characters. I hope the rest of the week goes as well as today did.

 

[mom2rtk]

Looks like an awesome first day! Can't wait to see more!

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 3 – Magic Kingdom (Part 1)

For me the day started at 5:45am when my alarm went off. I am the social media director (OK I take care of the Facebook page for the golf courses I work at) for my work and it just so happens that our owners also manage the WDW golf courses so off to the golf course I went to take pictures of it!

After I was finished, I picked up some milk and doughnuts to take back to the family. After a quick bite, we gave our DD’s a Disney present!

DS also got a present!

Now off to MK!!! We arrived at just after 10am. I was telling DW that we needed to head right over to get in line for Rapunzel before the line was too long, but we ran into …

Mary Poppins instead! I had read that the characters really like to interact with kids so we gave each DD a question to ask Mary. She talked with them for at least 5 min! They fell in love with her!!! Now on to Rapunzel, but first we needed to get FP for the princesses. The wait time was only 10 min so DW and I decided that we would quick go see them!

Kiki loves Cinderella so here she is!

Belle is Chippy’s favorite so here she is!!!

Aurora is next!

Again we had given the girls a question to ask each princess and after watching the people before and after us, I would definitely say it makes a difference!! The princesses interacted more with our DD’s than the other kids!! I think I got the tip from www.*********************.com so THANK YOU!!!!

All right finally on to Rapunzel!! Guess what, another detour when we walk out and Pinocchio was right there with a line of only 2 families so we got in line!! Pinocchio was fun and loved DS!!!

OK. Now we really are on our way to meet Rapunzel!!! On the way I stopped to take a quick picture of one of my favorite spots.

Mickey and Minnie just seem so happy to me and that I guess is what WDW means to me. I just love the way WDW makes my girls so happy and DW also!

We finally made it to the line for Rapunzel!! Now for the big question, how long is the wait? It is at 1hr so we get in line. The CM’s with Rapunzel made it very clear that all we need to do is keep 1 of us in line while the others can go do whatever. DW took DS and went to feed him and get lunch for the rest of us. DD’s of course found other children to play with since a stranger to them means introduce themselves and then they are friends! After a quick bite (chicken fingers), we were allowed through the ropes to meet Rapunzel!!! I think the actual wait time was around 45 min, but when we got out it was much longer as the line was WAY past where we had started. DD’s were both so excited to meet her!

Our girls had been so good waiting in line that even though we were the 2nd family in line we let them color for awhile while the others in our group met Rapunzel!

Next will be Part 2!!!

 

[dara00]

great photos, your family is adorable! we love meeting characters too! I'd love to hear about what the girls asked the characters and what the answers were!

 

[BigTuna07]

great photos, your family is adorable! we love meeting characters too! I'd love to hear about what the girls asked the characters and what the answers were!

Thank you about my family!

Some of the questions were: How does your umbrella fly? To Mary Poppins

Cinderella, do you wear your glass slippers very often?

Belle, do you like that Prince Adam is no longer the Beast?

Rapunzel, how is Eugene doing?

Just simple stuff like that. I didn't hear many of the answers (I don't hear very well out of one ear and with all the interactions being pretty loud in the background it is almost impossible for me to hear), but DW said they all took time and answered each one. We usually sent DD's up separately and had a different question for each.

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!

 

[BigTuna07]

Count me in!!

Great!! I hope to have another update up today!!

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 3 Magic Kingdom (Part 2)

We got all the important characters for the day out of the way so we wandered over to Fantasyland. TBone was sleeping in the double stroller so Chippy rides in the butterfly stroller (Kiki is way to big to fit in it), but Kiki wanted to help push!

We wanted to go to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, but the wait was 30 min so we got FP for it!

Mickey’s PhilharMagic was calling us and the wait was less than 5 min!!! During the announcements, Minnie says no flash photography so I keep our camera out to try and take some pictures (none turned out because of the 3D). After the show, one of the CM’s tells me that the next time I take pictures during the show he will have to confiscate my camera. I told him that it says no flash photography and I never used my flash. He proceeded to tell me it says no photography. At this point, DW steps in and gets me to drop it. I was pretty upset and almost suggested we go back in so I can take more pictures, but DW said no! I love her so much!!! No need to let a rouge CM ruin my day!! (I was planning on saying something to WDW about it, but actually forgot until looking through the pictures again!)

We walk out and went straight to Snow White’s Scary Adventure. Guess what the wait time was? You got it 10 min, but it really only took about 5!!!! I found out on this trip that taking photos with DD’s on the ride with me is nearly impossible!

I had never noticed before that the “cars” were named after the dwarfs!

Next we walk out and DD’s both see the carousel is right there! They decided they wanted to ride it and not just once but twice!

After Snow White’s Scary Adventure, we walked a bit to see that the wait time for Its A Small World was 10 min!!! So we hopped on!! We nearly had a catastrophe when getting on the boat. I was carrying the camera case and somehow one of the clasps got caught in Kiki’s hair. I didn’t know it right away until I heard her scream!! After some help from DW, we all got on the boat!! Kiki was fine but minus a few of her curls!

We love this ride! DD’s love it also. I just think it is so cool to look at all the different countries. I always find something new to look at.

This is one of my favorites since my grandparents are from Holland!

Next we used our FP for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh!

Chippy was having a great day!

We decided that it was time for an ice cream break!!! I will be honest. I think it is always time for an ice cream break! LOL

Since we had pretty much covered all of Fantasyland, we decided to head over to Frontierland. On the way we caught the tail end of the parade.

I had put Kiki on my shoulders so I really couldn’t see anything, but DW swears that Prince Naveen saw Kiki with her Princess Tiana dress on and looked right at her and waved!

After the parade was over, we decided that we were almost right by Tiana’s place so we might just as well get in line to see her!! It ended up being less than a 15 min wait!!!

Time for a break! Part 3 coming up hopefully in a little bit!

 

[BigTuna07]

Day 3 – Magic Kingdom (Part 3)

After visiting with Tiana we headed over to Frontierland. While going to it, DW had to feed DS so DD’s and I rode on Liberty Square Riverboat. This was a 1st for us and I think it will be a last also! DD’s didn’t look around much and just saw it as a big playground. I didn’t think it was that great other than to give my feet a little rest.

We finally made it all the way over to Frontierland to ride Splash Mountain, but it was a ½ wait so we got FP. Onto Tom Sawyer’s Island which is also a 1st for us.

We were told by DW’s sister that they didn’t enjoy it at all. Our DD’s loved it and DW and I pretty much will do anything that they want to do while at MK!!! The 1st spot we stopped at was the cave. The girls thought it was great. I was surprised since it is pitch black in places, but they just kept talking to each other the whole time. The next place we went was the bucket bridge? I don’t know if that is the right name for it. The girls LOVED it!!!

In the last picture, did you notice Kiki’s pose? She now takes pictures with some kind of princess pose all the time!!! I think it is awesome so I have started to tell her she is Daddy’s princess!!

DW got a few shots of us playing with the guns!

We did this at every stop in the fort! DD’s loved it! They thought it was so cool to take the escape route too! We played follow the leader after that. Each DD took a turn leading us around the island. I think we ended up on the bucket bridge at least 3 more times! Needless to say we will be making this a stop every time at least once during our time at MK.

After going back to the “main land”, it was time for the SM FP to be used. DS was sleeping and Chippy was too small to go on the ride so DW and Kiki went on it. I will give a little insight into our Kiki. She is a very cautious non risk taking girl. She usually waits for Chippy to go 1st even though she is 18 months older. Chippy wasn’t happy she couldn’t go it, but was calmed down by me telling her that next year she can ride it also!!!! (I guess we are going back to WDW next year!!! YEAH!!!) Sorry for the pictures coming and that they aren’t very good. I was messing with the settings and forgot to switch back to my “normal” settings.

The rest must have been so bad that I deleted them. LOL Kiki LOVED it!!!! I was so surprised but so happy also!! She didn’t want to go on it right away but said she would again since Daddy needed to get a good picture of her on it! She is truly a Daddy’s girl!!!

Next we were right next to the Frontierland Railroad so we thought we would check it out as we had not done this before either. Chippy and Kiki both fell asleep on the train and that was the best part for us. Again, neither DW or I were impressed with this. If we didn’t have strollers we thought it would be an easy way to get to the front of the park or if it was hot out it would be a nice way to cool off. Oh well, the girls got a ½ hour nap.

We then started to make our way to Main Street for the fireworks and something to eat. Chippy wanted a picture with Daddy here that is.

I think the castle all lit up is so beautiful. If you don’t then just skip these next pictures!

We ate at Casey’s since it wasn’t very busy! DW and I had a Chicago Hot Dog while DD’s hot chicken tenders. I forgot my remote switch so I didn’t get any great fireworks shot (this will be a theme for the rest of the trip.
All of these shots are hand held so please take that into consideration!

After the fireworks, we headed to the exit since we had an early breakfast as CRT!!!!

Again we were blessed with a 5 min wait for the bus and DD’s were in bed sleeping by 9:15pm! YEAH!!

Day 4 is next and hopefully in the next couple of days!!!

 

[Corrine 1973]

It looks as if you left on the day that I arrived.

Just loving the pics of your beautiful DD's with the characters. You have already seen alot of great characters in the two days that you have been there. Thanks for the great tip about having a question for the face characters. I will definatly use that when I take my DD next year.

 

[tosha27]

I love the pics. The kids are so darn cute!!