Disney was Exactly what it was supposed to be.. The most magical place on Earth

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

We left Halifax 3 hours late, but the very cool pilot went really fast so we landed only 2 hours later than we were originally supposed to.

There were 10 of us on this flight together and we met the other 5 when we arrived at our rental house. Yes 6 adults 9 kids between the ages of 6 and 12. It was truelly wonderful.


We arrived on April 11th, 2009. we spent the evening talking and swimming. We finally got the kids all in bed by midnight.

I woke up around 4:30 am before any of the kids, yes I was the most excited, I have been planning this trip since 1992 long before I had kids but the really solid plans were for the past 6 months.
So the kids were finally up by 6:30, found there Easter treats(which we never heard another word about Easter for the whole 11 days). Everyone had a quick breakfast showered and we were off to Animal Kingdom. We were there at rope drop but of course we had to exchange our vouchers for tickets but that was OK too because the very nice lady at the counter gave us all "first visit" buttons. This was to be our first bit of Magic.
We headed as fast as we could to find a map... then to Expedition Everest... the kids were so pumped. When we finally arrived at the base of Everest I used my Dis Knowledge and we got Fastpasses then got in line. Our return times were 9:10- 10:10 and the stand by line was only 5 minutes, although the posted time was 20 min. I couldn't believe we walked right on Everest. Well let me go back a few steps, I have three boys, 10, 11 and 12, my middle guy is not really to keen on roller coasters (at this point of the trip) I myself am afraid of heights. Luckily my sister-in-law wasn't riding everest (she has been to Disney before) she stayed with the 3 smallest kids and my guy. Everyone else talked me into going. so as we get closer to the loading area, I am sure I am having a heart attack. no just the jitters. we can see that it is 2 to a seat, so the two oldest boys, my youngest and hubby, my neice and my brother, my neice and my Brother-in-law....so that left me (terrified) and my sister (terrified) we are both so afraid close to chickening out but some were deep inside I had this courage (stupidity). we got on, screamed like little girls and were so proud of ourselves, now we could ride anything for the rest of the trip. This ride was so scary, so fun I highly recommend you try it atleast once!

After that we went to find a ride for the smaller kids, we headed to dinoland. everyone lined up for primevil whirl, unfortunately 6 year old minnie was to small. so she got to ride triceratop spin 3 times whil we waited. Yes I decided to hang back and take pics. this was a dad and kid ride, it also proved to be our longest wait for the whole 11 days.

We decided to ride Dinosaur next, the kids were so afraid and of course the adults all laughed at them. it really wasn't that scary.

By now it was almost 9:00 am so we left with the plan to go to the safari but swing by the fast pass distribution for the river rapids on our way. and what do you know we now had a fast pass for Everest and river rapids and we were in the line for the safari. We were in the jeeps less then 5 minutes from entering the line. So far my planning was paying off. We all were really relaxed and enjoyed the safari, upon return we went right to the rapids and fastpassed our way to the rafts. I wore my poncho, they all laughed at me but I was dry and they were wet. Loveeeed this ride. at the end we got another fast pass. I love these things.

MOre later Apparently I have to help with Homework.....

 

[miabellarose]

I think the whole anticipation of the ride can be scarier that the ride itself. I'm so glad were were able to go on Everest...it's one of my favorite rides.

 

[MEK]

I love the title of your trip report. So perfect for a first trip. Are you from Halifax, Nova Scotia? I have always wanted to go to Nova Scotia, but I haven't made it further north than Maine.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Count me in as a trip report reader. I love reading trip reports and looking at pictures. They are what keep me sane until our next WDW vacation.

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

OK when I left off we were just finishing the river rapids. We were all feeling a little hungry, so we hit the flame tree BBQ for lunch. We loved it. Mickey 3 had the Childrens BBQ chicken legs, the other two had Nuggets or strips I think and Myself and DH had the Chicken Salad. It was so tasty and so much of it. I think we spent $35 for the 5 of us for lunch. After Lunch we went to the Tough to be a Bug show. What a thrill, totally unexpected. Mickey 3 was not really fussy on the 3d shows after this but the rest of us ejoyed it. We went and saw the gorilla's after this and back to ride the rapids again. this time the girls were in one raft and the boys in another. I loved that we had fast passes because by this time the stand by line was 75 minutes. We went and watched the lion king king next. the boys weren't sure they really wanted to do this but I think they really liked it. We stopped for Ice Creams at Camp Soft Serve after the Lion King we were getting hot and tired at this point. After a short break we went back to Everest with our fast passes, not everyone went on (including me) but those that wanted to got to ride twice, everytime we got fast passes we got one for every ticket we had so we could let the more daring riders get extra trips. It was about 3:00 at this point and the kids were hot and tired and decided they did not want to stay and watch the parade. We thought about making them stay but we had been awake since 6ish (earlier for some) and thought maybe heading home for a swim and relax would be a good idea. We were staying off site so we went home and relaxed for a while then hit Bob Evans for Supper. It was really good food for really great prices. we had them all in bed asleep by 10 and ready for our early start the next day.

Monday is Epcot....character breakfast for the girls and rides for the boys... next installment later tonight.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Thanks for the update. Will you be posting pictures?

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

I really want to add pics but I can't seem to figure it out.


On Monday we headed to Epcot. We arrived around 9:15/9:20 ( We tried for Rope Drop each day We were close) The Girls had a Breakfast with the princesses at 9:45 at Akershus, So they Headed there right away We took the boys (and the girls tickets) and went straight for Soarin' We got Fastpasses for everyone and at that point our return time was 11:35, so we went and rode "Living with the Land". Really interesting. My oldest mickey had a very bad headache this morning, but I had given him some tylenol and this ride was soothing and really helped. We left this area and headed for the Pavillions to meet up with the girls. We stopped and picked up Kim Possible Assignments. We arrived just as the girls were coming out. We decided to stick around and ride Maelstorm which was due to open in Approx. 10 minutes. We were about the third family in line. Really neat ride for the kids. We left and headed to Test track. Were we picked up fast passes and then went and got in line for Mission Space, Green team. .....

 

[mickeystoontown]

I really want to add pics but I can't seem to figure it out.


On Monday we headed to Epcot. We arrived around 9:15/9:20 ( We tried for Rope Drop each day We were close) The Girls had a Breakfast with the princesses at 9:45 at Akershus, So they Headed there right away We took the boys (and the girls tickets) and went straight for Soarin' We got Fastpasses for everyone and at that point our return time was 11:35, so we went and rode "Living with the Land". Really interesting. My oldest mickey had a very bad headache this morning, but I had given him some tylenol and this ride was soothing and really helped. We left this area and headed for the Pavillions to meet up with the girls. We stopped and picked up Kim Possible Assignments. We arrived just as the girls were coming out. We decided to stick around and ride Maelstorm which was due to open in Approx. 10 minutes. We were about the third family in line. Really neat ride for the kids. We left and headed to Test track. Were we picked up fast passes and then went and got in line for Mission Space, Green team. .....

Posting pictures is easy. Once your pictures are on your computer, go to www.photobucket.com and register. It's free of charge. After you've registered, click UPLOAD and follow the simple instructions. You can upload up to 20 pictures at a time. Once all are uploaded, click ALBUM on the photobucket site. You'll see three links underneath each picture. You'll need to copy the bottom link. Then, come back to this thread and click on Post Reply. Paste the link and hit Submit Reply. Your picture should be posted on the next page! It really is simple 'cause if I can do it anybody can do it.

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

http://s731.photobucket.com/albums/ww314/WDWfamilyvacation08/

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

ghgkhf

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

.... Green team was really cool. We headed for Soarin after this, again really like the fast passes and I don't know why everyone doesn't use them? As we got in line My Ds-i-l and nephew decided they didn't want to ride so they waited outside for us. This ride was interesting DH loved it so did the boys, not liking heights so much I was a little unsure of this ride, but I was on it anyway.


... I must go back, I just remebered while I went for FP for testtrack with Dsis and Bro the rest of the family stayed and watched the drummers, really cool to see....

Sorry.. Back to Soarin, we were a little back and forth in the park this day cause we left soarin to go ride test track but stopped for a much needed lunch at the electric umbrlla.

After lunch we went and got in line for Spaceship Earth. We waited about 20 minutes for this ride, good thing was the line kept moving so it didn't really seem to long. After we left here we went to to ride test track, again the anticipation of what this was going to be was almost enough for me not to ride, Mickey 2(middle son) was really nervous, he doesn't like the unknown, he and I near in tears waited, Dsis-i-l and two kids chickened out last minute, and I almost went with them. but got on the ride, all in all not actually to bad, in fact Mickey 2 was laughing when the ride was over I think he had finally realized If I just try it it will be OK after all it is Disney.


After TT we decided to go try out this Kim Possible thing. Between all of us we had two missions that started in Norway, so we made two teams Boys VS Girls. The kids loved it, I thought it was awesome. We saw more things in and around the China Pav. Than If we had just went looking on our own.. Really good concept Disney Imagineers. Boys actually won, but I won't tell them.


We decided to split up at this point. We went and got more FP for TT and some of the kids went and did the Seas with Nemo and Turtle talk of course I went with the boys and we did Mission space again and we all met at Honey I shrunk the audience. We played outside with the jumping water while we waited for the other half to get back then we went in and watched the show, again Mickey 3 not really liking the 3D effects. ... After the show we decided to go home for a swim and supper and then head back that night for the Fireworks. Of course we stopped by and got FP for Mission space for later.......

We BBQed for supper... and relaxed until about 7:30ish,....

We headed back to Epcot, We all went on test track even the ones who chickened out earlier in the day. then we went to Mission space, some of us decided how bad could Orange be??? Well let me tell you, 3 of us were sick after this ride. I felt very light headed mickey 1 really thought he was going to be sick. we went to find a spot for Illuminations I guess we should have skipped MS because we really didn't get a good spot and DH and Mickey 1 never saw any of it they had to sit down. we Learned our limits that day....

Home to bed.. the next day we were off to Universal studios... and it rained.... Oh, and if you are going to book your Vaca with a company called Holiday House...well don't there customer service is absolutley awful....

More about that later....

 

[MEK]

Here you go - copy the bottom IMG link and paste! You almost got it! Nice Pic by the way!

Now back to you TR

 

[MEK]

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

Thanks for the help with the pics


I must quickly go back to a week before easter, the company we weere renting from Welcome USA went bankrupt, so our travel agent found us another place, the head company was Holiday house. Well they did find us a 7 bedroom house in Emerald Island, Location was fine, the house was sub-par to say the least, we contacted Holiday house the day before we left, as we had found on the internet the house we were going to stay, it didn't look like what we had paid for (and we paid lots), they told us not to worry it was fine and we could call with details upon arrival. well when we arrived, there was 1) no pool heat 2) a lizard in the house 3) the garage door was not able to close tightly and best of all not enough beds for all of us. So we called, nothing they could do, but would check on the pool heat.

Upon further inspection there was mold and dead bugs in the house.

Still nothing from the company. We were gone most of the day so we dealt with the dirt/mold.

On Tuesday we went to Universal, which was about 30 minutes away, including traffic. When we got to the front gate my sister realized she had left their ticket voucher on the counter. Both my brother and I had a copy of our vouchers with the same # on both so we knew she had the same as we booked all tickets together. Universal couldn't look it up, they needed a copy of the voucher (as payment we were told) but if the company would fax. her a copy of it no problem , so we called the 800 # for Holiday house well what do you know they were rude they said they cold not issue multipe copies of a voucher as we could sell it to someone else, NOW each voucher needed to be redeamed with a photo ID. Both of us actually had two copies of our tickets as we could print them on-line. after 30 minutes of hassle we were finally able to get them to send the fax. Although they did Threaten if the voucher was not shredded immediately after we arrived home they would charge her credit card. Great customer service hey.

This was also the day it rained, and there was a tornado watch less then an hour from us. Interesting day! We did get to ride everything we wanted, little or no wait times. and we left around 3:00.

We went to Outback for supper. THe outback on 192 around Mile Marker 15 I think was really good, service was unbelievable, food was really tasty and the price was reasonable.

The next day was Wednesday and we were heading in different Directions.
Everyone else was doing a water park but we decided to take the boys to MK. We didn't get water park tickets if I had my time back I definetly would have.


So we were up early and off to MK. I love this place, the boys were a little disappointed that we weren't heading to the WP but by the time we were on the monorail all was forgotten.

DH headed straight to Space Mountain for FP's. We met him at the statues of Mickey and Walt. Took a few pics there and then headed to splash. The boys loved this ride. We didn't wait in line The sign said 20 minutes but we walked all throught the line and boarde right away, NO wait honestly we were shocked. We next went to Big Thunder. I have to say this was my favorite ride of all. Again we didn't wait in fact we felt dizzy from going back and forht through the lines so quickly. We stopped back at splash and got FP's for later. We went over to Tom Sawyer Island to look for paint brushes, of course they were all gone by the time we got there, but still a cool little place.

We stopped and had our pics taken with Donald.

[/IMG]

We headed to Haunted Mansion, again no wait, I was wondering if it was all my planning or if we had just hit the right rides at the right times either way a whole trip with very little wait times. We thought this ride was really mild.
we worked our way up through Fantasy land we rode Winnie the Pooh, and then Its a small world.

this was not the boys fav. ride, as you can tell.

We left Fantasy Land and headed for Spca mountain. We stopped by Speedway and had to wait the boys wanted to do this ride and it was a 40 minute wait, and we actually watied that long.

 

[MEK]

You are now officially a picture posting pro - keep 'em coming. Your day at MK sounded like such fun. The boys are so cute/handsome. Sorry your house was such a bomb.

 

[WDWfamilyvacation08]

We went to Space Mountain, we all rode. Awesome, just as I remebered it. We went and got FP's for Buzzlightyear and we got a free FP for C O P. We next went on Carosel of Progress. Funny story, all wek my DH had been teasing my 7year old nephew that he was going to give him a what-for... well as we sat on that COP ride the boys were laughing that the father was going to give his son a what-for...
As we came out of the ride we got pics with Buzz, no line up. Then we rode the Buzz ride. Neat ride. We decided to get FP for this ride for later. (Our Dis Secret) It was getting hot so we decided to go for Lunch at Cosmic Rays...Nothing fancy, burgers and fries. After this we went to the Alladin/ looking for Genie, We never did find him except in the parades, This was a little dissapponting for Mickey 3.
We decided to go back and ride Splash one more time before we left, again neat ride.

It was hot, mid-day and we were thinking about coming back at night, plus we were returning in the morning with the rest of the gang.
On our way out of the park we took the FP's for Buzz and gave them to a family just coming in the park that had 5 people.
It was nothing to us we were leaving but it made somebodies day. This just made us feel good, our disney magic.

We went home to swim....and supper with just us off to Nike outlet and the to Downtown Disney....

 

[MEK]

On our way out of the park we took the FP's for Buzz and gave them to a family just coming in the park that had 5 people.
It was nothing to us we were leaving but it made somebodies day. This just made us feel good, our disney magic.

.

I always give my unused FP's to somebody. It's so nice, especially when they really appreciate them!