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[estherhead]

So after scaring poor Boo with a Quincy meeting, we went to see Playhouse Disney. Boo was REALLY sleepy and in line I was nervous she was going to fall asleep before we got in there. I tried to keep her entertained but she was starting to get cranky. Just in the knick of time the doors opened and we started moving.

We were seated in the middle, on the aisle about halfway back. We chitchatted with the kids around us and were a little annoyed with the CM’s trying to get us to squish. It’s one thing to say fill all available seats. It’s another thing to be on the floor with a bunch of toddlers and have to stand up and move all your stuff over and over. The mothers around me were all in there by themselves with multiple kids.

Anyhow we soon were squished enough and the show started. It’s sooooo much better than the old one. I was never a fan of Bear in the Blue house and having it be the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse just makes sense. As soon as the show started, Boo was wide awake and super happy. For the toddler/preschool set I give this an A+.

Handy Mandy:

M friends Tigger & Pooh:

Quincy from a safe distance:

After this, the plan was to meet at Toy Story Mania for our FP time which was after 3:10. I think I got done first and discovered that Toy Story was closed! Uh-Oh. I still had some time so I went into Walt Disney, One Man’s Dream. My plan was to watch the film and put Boo to sleep. But she fell asleep on her own and the next movie was 17 minutes away. I had just barely missed it.

Well, it was way too close to our meet time to wait for the movie and then watch the movie. So I just talked to the CM’s who were in there as there was no one in here and they were bored. We talked about Paris Disney where they had been before and other misc. Disney talk. Then they talked about TSM and how it breaks fairly often and that the FP line sometimes is 30 min+ after a breakdown and the standby line can be hours long.

Then I left and sat on a bench and waited for everyone. They all got there right about on time and discovered the TSM break. We had a little talk but we all knew that our top priority was Lights, Motors, Action. There was only one show of this that day, at 4:00 p.m. We couldn’t miss it and we couldn’t wait around here. By this time it was near 3:20 so we made the only choice. We wouldn’t get to ride TSM again this trip.

Here is LMA:

We were camped out to the right of this sign, between it and the bathrooms:

Jack-Jack had also fallen asleep so Suzy & I stayed outside on a bench waiting for them all. At first it was peaceful. But then we were simply freezing cold. And the babies were all bundled up with all the available blankets.

But we were not even slightly as bad off as the ladies across from us who were also waiting for people to come out of LMA and were also cold. There were two rather large women trying to share a toddler’s jacket. Now I am not even joking when I say that this entertained Suzy and I for a very long time. You may think we are terrible but when people say they enjoy people watching, I have to believe that they would all enjoy watching two large women trying to SHARE a toddler’s jacket. It was hilarious.

And then, to our dismay, Jack-Jack woke up. The good times were over people.

Here is a video (I hope) The ladies sharing the coat are in the background but you can't really see them to see what had us in stitches.


And Boo woke up:

The other thing to note about our sitting there is that the Backlot Tour went right past us, over and over again I heard the same thing over and over. Once, the guy told them that they had plenty of time to make LMA and they shouldn’t run. Ha! They so didn’t & I later saw the entire tram load dashing past me and not making it. Too bad.

Finally the family came out and after potty breaks we headed over to the Muppets. It was fun, as always. Love the final scene from the early 1990’s with the giant hairsprayed hair.

Props:

I had my Hidden Mickey book out in the holding tank room with all these props and I looked & looked and still didn't see any hidden mickeys. I need a Hidden Mickey tour guide.

Here's our classic glasses photo:

OK. At this point things are a little frantic. Fantasmic was just over an hour away and we still had ToT and RnR to ride. We had FP’s but even still that would be cutting it too close. Also, people were getting hungry, which means cranky. But we couldn’t skip these rides as it was my girls first time to ride RnR and they were not going to be willing to leave this park without having ridden it.

So we decided that we would stop and get Photopass photos taken and then go to RnR. Then the first half of riders would go find seats while the others rode it again and then rode ToT. I would go in and find out where we were sitting and then get food.

We started walking that way and I had to take some time to hand out our FP’s to TSM. Now, call me crazy, I would think that these would be a hot commodity. But I could not give away 9 FP’s to TSM for the life of me. I finally did give them away but to be honest, I don’t even know if the people knew what the ride was. They were totally clueless and I’m not sure they even knew they were at WDW. But, they were a large party and they accepted the FP’s. I'm pretty sure those FP's went to waste. Oh well. Made the line go faster for others.

Here's our group shot:

And then Milo & Suzy had a lovely photo taken which I totally corrupted with Tinkerbell. Ha, ha!

Good thing they give you the corrupted one and the original. But this is the one going in my scrapbook.

Milo & I took Mulan, Ariel, and Charming onto RnR. I always love this ride and it did not disappoint at all. I will say that if you have the choice between single rider or FP on this, single rider is much quicker. Milo was a little disappointed as he thought it was more classic Aerosmith and not the new stuff. Me, I’m just about the roller coaster aspect, the music is just a perk.

Donald had this photo taken with him and Boo while Suzy took Buzz and McQueen to buy light up toys.

We had bought stuff at the Dollar Tree but also wanted Disney stuff. I didn’t buy my girls any as I had brought a Tinkerbell light up toy & a Buzz Lightyear one with me.

When we met up again, Milo & Suzy & I headed into the theater with the little ones & Buzz while the other crazy kids ran off to ride again, or in Donald’s case for the first time. Once we were settled in the theater, I ran out of the theater on a food quest as the food area in the theater was CRAZY crowded. They gave me a ticket to get back in a secret entrance behind ToT. I found a pizza place right there and got what I thought was enough food. It totally ended up not being enough food. I’m so not good at ordering enough food. 7 kids eat A LOT of food.

So, we were all seated and I was passing out food to those already there and Jack-Jack was on her lap. Suzy had her drink and I passed her food to hand to her family. At this exact moment Jack-Jack threw his head back for some unknown reason and konked his head on the hard bench as her hands were full and she could catch him. Then he thrashed another way and her drink dumped. On the guy in front of us. Who had not been taught to be a good sport by Donald and McQueen.

Enough said.

After about 5 minutes everyone else came back and I handed out the little bit of food not eaten and not destroyed to them. It certainly wasn’t enough but no one was literally starving so the mood wasn’t too dark. And the glow in the dark Dollar Tree stuff we had brought was put on with welcome excitement.

And then the show started! This was only the second time I had seen this and the first time I didn’t enjoy it because of other reasons. This time I LOVED it. Loved it. I might even put it on a not to be missed list. Isn’t it so funny that how we are feeling dictates how much we enjoy something?

So, after the show we started the long, torturous journey back to the vans. Except we ended up having to make a “brief” stop at the photo area to get the Jedi Academy photos put on our card. This took FOREVER as people are choosing photos and borders, etc. I am a person who loves efficiency and the non-computer savvy people in front of us reminded me a lot of being in a grocery store self-check-out line behind someone elderly. I swear, this weekend I was in the grocery store and this man in a scooter was in self check-out in front of me. Are you kidding me? There was no way that was ending well and I finally just grabbed his stuff and did it for him (yes, I asked him first!) To top it all off, he was paying with CASH and they were all wrinkled. Flatten, reject. Flatten, reject. Bend out the corners, reject. Grrr…

That is the exact sentiment I felt on this evening. Only even a bit more as I was tired and afraid that Boo was getting sick. I just wanted OUT of there.

Here we are being impatient:

We told Buzz to look irritated and he somehow translated that into making a fish face. But I think my face says it all.

The rest of the fam was fine as they went and did pressed pennies and checked out the stores. And we did get our Star Wars photos which were awesome and totally worth the wait.

Dear God, we were finally out of there.

Just a little note for you planners out there. One day here was simply not enough. We had a great time but we were running the entire day and as we left, we knew we hadn’t done it properly. For my family, this is a straight up two day park. Which is not good as it breaks down this way:

MK: 2-3 days
Epcot- a solid 3 days
DHS- 2 days
AK- 1 day

That right there is 9 days. And that does not include water parks, DTD, and relaxing. 10 days wasn’t enough. We needed a solid 2 weeks of racing around. And then 2 weeks of laying on the beach recovering. 4 weeks. I think we could do WDW properly if we had 4 weeks.

Enough said.

 

[houseful of boys]

and it was. We had planned this day between other, more slow-paced days because to go and be at RD for the Toy Story Mania madness march and stay for the Fantasmic great exodus was exhausting. But overall, it was extremely successful.

I was disappointed I hadn't ridden ToT because it has been a few years since I had ridden it and I was going to make Buzz go on with me for his first time. But it just means I'll have to go again soon, I guess.

Also, a word about Fantasmic with babies. This is not a baby friendly venue. To get the crowd crammed in there, the benches are narrow and close together. Added to that, in order to get a seat you need to get there almost a full hour ahead of time. Needless to say, the natives were restless. Not only, did I have the uptight fam in front of us, who did not appreciate the Sprite shower and kicks to the back but the nice gentleman behind us who kept picking up the assorted things Boo and Jack Jack would throw back there leaned up and said, "I do not envy you." Yeah, no kidding!

With all that said I love Fantasmic and as with everything else McQueen thought it was "awesome". Just last night, we were riding home in our van and he leans up and says to me, "Mom, how does the Fantasmic song go again?" And then leaned back and started humming the Mickey dream song of the show. Enough said.

 

[estherhead]

In prep for the next few days of writing I watched the video as I needed a recap. My notes at the beginning were great but by the end of the trip... my notes are a bit sketchy.

Anyway, due to watching the video & my Disney code this morning, I asked the girls if they would rather rent a house on the beach and do Williamsburg or go to Disney. Both screamed loudly, DISNEY! So then I said, "What about a cruise or Disney?" Now that stopped them. Mulan said a cruise because she has fond memories of our last one but they are distant memories. And Ariel said, "Can we take a Disney cruise?" lol!

Who thinks this crazy bunch will really make it to 2010? Especially since my S-I-L who I love keeps pestering me to take her and teach her the ropes. We get along super good with their family and Boo is still 2 & we could stay in a normal (read: cheap) 4 person Value for one more year.

Do you hear this rationalization? Lordy, I think I need psychiatric help.

Enough said.

 

[preschoolmom]

This was an amazing update! Wow! You really did a huge, full day!

I'm enjoying reading both of your thoughts on the different aspects! I never considered the Sci-Fi diner (? is that the right name?) - but now I think my kids would love it!

Thanks!

 

[estherhead]

This was an amazing update! Wow! You really did a huge, full day!

I'm enjoying reading both of your thoughts on the different aspects! I never considered the Sci-Fi diner (? is that the right name?) - but now I think my kids would love it!

Thanks!

I think they would really like it too. I also think taking a big break like that in the middle of the day makes it so the kids can last on the big, monster days.

 

[estherhead]

First let me say I have not a single note on this day. So if it is not accurate, I’m sorry. It’s just my memory and photos. Let me ask you, do you remember what you were doing December 2nd? What you ate? What time you went to bed. Didn't think so.

After DHS we went home and people grabbed food. I grabbed food too but I can’t remember what. We were all pretty hungry. It was between 8:30 and 9:00 by the time we got home. Which was perfect timing because it was Monday night football. It was Houston against Jacksonville and I had Jacksonville defense on my fantasy team. They did BADLY. Had I not been at WDW I would have been depressed about it.

I was playing Donald who had Steve Slaton and got 30 points. I had just a terrible week in fantasy football but I was already in the playoffs. So I didn’t stay up for the whole game. It was depressing and I has exhausted. Suzy and Donald were fighting for their lives at the bottom of the heap. Suzy was playing Milo who also had clinched a playoff spot. Milo had a good week, but Suzy was on the way up and she crushed him. Hmmmm…. Maybe that is what gave Milo his tummy ache.

Yes, that’s right, I said tummy ache. Which is an important part of our story.

This day we were supposed to all go to MK but split and do different things. We all needed to do Tomorrowland and Pirates of the Caribbean. But the girls and I needed to meet Tinkerbell. So we had felt it was better if we just had parallel days instead of forcing the boys to wait however long it might take to meet Tinkerbell. I had heard stories of it being a 3 hour wait. We had a plan, of course we had a plan, but plans don’t always work. So we were going to split.

But I awoke around 5:30 a.m. (since I had gone to bed early) and went to get a glass of water as I now had a real sore throat, not the little tiny one from 2 days ago and wanted to take some Tylenol. While I was walking through the dining room I heard puking. Suzy & Milo’s little toilet room was right next to the dining room & had thin walls. I know, not a great set up. But the entire time I was getting my water and Tylenol there was constant vomiting. This cannot possibly be good.

No matter where you are, vomiting is always bad. At WDW it is pretty much the only thing that takes you completely out of the game. All other illnesses, both temporary or permanent, you can deal with at WDW. But not puking. People frown on it.

So I climbed back in bed and listened to Boo cough and played my Nintendo DS under the covers.

Suzy came in at some point and told us about Milo’s bad night. Obviously, he wasn’t going today. And she could not take 4 children to MK by herself. Donald and I discussed if he was OK with having Suzy and the boys tag along with us and he said absolutely no problem. It’d be great. We were going to be relaxed and easygoing this day.

So we put on our Peter Pan/Tinkerbell shirts, packed up our stuff and headed out, leaving Milo to fend for himself. Oh, and I put up the girl’s hair and put crowns on them, hairsprayed their hair purple and pink and covered them in Tinkerbell stickers and glitter. I had more in my backpack just in case anything fell off. It was their day to be decked out and wear crowns. Donald sprayed his hair pink too and I was the loser family member who opted for normal color hair.

We got to MK just after rope drop as the crowds were dissipating. While the girls were all doing bag check, the kids and Donald found a Photopass guy and got some photos taken.

When that was finally done a lady was pushing a pin trading stroller around. So all the kids went up to trade with her.

They also played with the Mickey head on the ground made of glitter. How you play with that, I don’t know, but they managed.

Then, we moseyed inside and Donald found a Photopass guy who took Tink photos. So we waited for that. Easygoing. Easygoing.

Do you see me in the background, hovering & being impatient? And these Tink photos turned out crappy. Easy going, though, memeber?

By the time we got to Space Mountain it was about 9:20 a.m. Which was way too late. As we would now have a bit of a line and would miss the 9:45 a.m. Toontown rope drop which was so critical to our day. There is a reason we aren’t easygoing. Because it means no lines. How long would they have to wait for Space Mt.? How long would the Tink line be once we got there?

But no worries, right? Easygoing.

I stayed outside for this Space Mt. ride and got a cream cheese filled pretzel to feed the babies. I love this treat. It’s just like a Bagelful only way yummier.

Yummy pretzel:

Since we don’t believe in waiting longer than 10 minutes, I assumed they would be out in about 20 (counting the ride and the long walks.) But we had been easygoing and it took longer than that. Which means I ran out of pretzel. So we went into the store on the corner of T.L. on the side closest to Toontown (Merchant of Venus, maybe?) and I let Jack-Jack destroy it. Boo picked up after him.

Then we went back outside and I decided to tape Jack-Jack running away from me which is his favorite thing to do. My error in this is that he moves SUPER fast and I wasn’t holding Boo since I was videotaping. I was just letting her chase us too. Go ahead and tell me. What happens when you play chase with toddlers? Yes, we all know this one. Someone falls and scrapes a knee. It was Boo. So I was in a real quandary. Jack-Jack was nearly out of TL and not even looking back for one second and Boo was laying on the ground far away screaming. What’s a mom to do? I videotaped it all for posterity, of course. And then screamed to catch that baby & went to pick up Boo. Some nice person brought me Jack-Jack. And as we settled back into our little stroller spot, the rest of the gang came off Space Mt.

Let the games begin:

Birds are cool, but Jack-Jack was escaping while I took this:

Here are the girls in line. They love being dressed up as princesses and riding rollercoasters at MK. It makes them feel so improper and delightful. Surely a princess would never ride such a daring ride in her crown!

It is at this point that we broke up into 3 groups. So it will be tricky to write a TR on 3 parallel trips. I’ll do mine first.

Mulan, Ariel, and I went to meet Tink. As we walked in, I asked the lady how long a line and she said about 30 minutes. Hey, that’s not too bad considering how late we were getting there. Maybe what we did was better than rope drop anyway.

Thinking we might have a terribly long line, we had brought Winnie the Pooh cards. The other kids around us were totally jealous. Too bad, guys, shoulda brought your own boredom busters. They were nice enough to take this terrible photo though:

In these lines most people sit on the ground as you wait a long time and then move forward all at once. We’ve done them many times waiting for princesses and the like.

This one was not bad at all. We played 3 games of cards and then it was our turn. We went into the shrinking room where the mushrooms get bigger as you walk through it.

We were in the shrinking room for about 10 minutes because some special family went in before us. I don’t know if it was a Make a Wish kid or something but it was definitely a family in need type of situation as they went in and came out the same door in front of us. As they were coming back out they were just a chattering away about how amazing it was. It was the kind of thing that made me curious and had I been at the front of the line I would have asked them. I'm like that. I'm bold and have no problem starting random conversations with total strangers. But they take about 10 people at once and we were the last group in our group.

So then it was our turn. When we went in their was an adorable gay guy who greeted us and talked about fairies and asked what kind of fairies we were. The girls chitchatted with him for awhile and then I told him I was a Mom Fairy. He thought that was pretty stupid and told me I was a garden fairy. Then our own personal fairy led us to our first meet-n-greet fairy.

This was a delightful time and the girls loved it. The fairies all laugh and play with each other and the kids and take their time even more than the princesses. But I was cluttered as I was taking shots, videotaping, and talking to the Photopass people. Oh, and I was carrying all the stuff which I would then sit down as we moved across the room and then pick up and move it again. In addition to meeting and communicating with fairies. It was quite chaotic for me and I missed all the special moments the girls had that are recorded on film. I’ve got them recorded, by jove, but I kind of missed them in the moment.

Two fairies at once:

While all of that was going on, Donald took Boo around Toontown, through the houses and to the little playground. We were only gone about 45 minutes all told and Donald stuck very close and checked in with us regularly by cell phone. I had service the whole time even inside the building. He said they had an OK time but like the other playgrounds we had gone to, the Toontown one isn’t really for one year olds. They just get run right over by the 4 year olds. And Boo is adventurous when she is by herself, but she doesn’t really like other noisy kids.

I’m going to pause there and let Suzy fill you in on what she was doing before I continue the day. And, I really should clean my house. I’ve TRing and scrapbooking and sorting coupons. Let me tell ya, my house is showing it.

Oh and a dieting update. Yesterday STUNK! For any of you who do WW and count points, I only get 22. Yesterday was a snow day which meant I was at home all day with all my kids. Normally that would be a food palooza. But on 22 points, it was a stinky starving day. By 6:30 p.m. I had no points left and ate not another bite until just now at 8:00 a.m. I’ll get into the swing of it, I know, but yesterday I was just cranky about it. And writing about yummy cream cheese pretzels doesn’t help! Stupid Trail Mix bar just doesn't compare.

 

[houseful of boys]

So my premonition at The Great Movie Ride proved true. At about 3:00am Milo woke up By 6:00am it was obvious I would be leaving him at home that morning. He didn't mind and said it seemed the only choice.

Now let me just say I'm not a natural born tag-a-long. I am a much more "everyone follow me" kind of person. But as a mature adult and to get the most fun for my kids that day, we decided to follow Donald's lead that day.

As we entered the park Donald announced that today was a relaxing, take it easy day. We would search out photopass, penny presses and anything else that caught our fancy. Now I respect this philosophy for other people but I really wanted to ride Space Mountain at rope drop. But I was not in the driver's seat today so we took our time. The kids all had fun and Perla and I held our rising blood pressure under wraps. By the time we got to tommorrow land it was 9:20 as Perla said. So Donald and I take the kids to Space Mountain. This was McQueen's first time and we were all excited.

We went in the stand by line and hit the line at about 15 minutes out. Donald turns and says, "I've never stood in line here before." Truly surprised. Which struck me so funny because Perla and I work so hard at avoiding lines and I don't think Donald really realized the strategy. It really wasn't that bad of a line. We were on within 15 minutes.

McQueen loved it!! By the end of our trip he had ridden this 6 times.

As we were getting off Donald was getting nervous because he knew that Perla would be getting impatient about getting in line to meet the fairies. So when we exited, Perla's family and my family went our seperate ways until after the fairies.

First of all kudos to all you single moms out there

Our first stop was Goofy's Barnstormer. I had 3 boys that could ride and a baby that couldn't and just me. So what to do. Thank Goodness Charming is the mature little "mother" that he is. Charming, Buzz, and McQueen went to ride while I waited with the baby. They were back in seconds with McQueen saying true to form, "THIS is my favorite ride" since it was a walk on I then left Charming with Jack-Jack in the stroller at the exit and went to ride it with the other boys.

After this we decided to visit Mickey's house and Mickey.

I was happy to see Mickey enjoyed a good game of football

When we got into the judges tent McQueen says, "I didn't know there would be a line." So I asked if he wanted to see Mickey and all the boys said,"no" so we turned and left. We let Jack Jack play in the little playground for a while which he enjoyed. It must have been before the big kids came who scared Boo.

And then we decided to head back to Tommorrowland to ride as much as we could until the girls were done with their meet and greet. We waved to Donald and Boo on our way out of Toontown and headed to Buzz Lightyear. We rode Buzz and I almost left my camcorder on the ride but thanks to a nice CM who yelled for me, I retrieved it. It was here though that I decided the hardest part of being by yourself is you have to keep track of everything. Normally you divvy up objects but as responsible as Charming is he is still an 11 yr old boy who would leave his head behind if it wasn't attached so I was holding all cameras and children and money by myself.

Next we walked by Astro Orbitor which of course had a line (McQueen got obssessed with wanting to ride this ride). So we went on the TTA which is one of my favorites.

Notice the cream cheese filled pretzel we had stopped and gotten??

Unfortunately I did lose my sunglasses on this ride. They fell off my head while we went around a corner entering Space Mountain

The highlight of the morning though was our encounter with PUSH the talking trash can. My kids love this guy, they're always on the look out. Well, we got to interact with him for about ten minutes and he learned all of our names and where we were from and on and on. Unfortunately, no pictures. Again I really could have used Milo for this. I had to be part of the "show" because Buzz and McQueen can get a little overbearing and aggressive and I have to supervise poor PUSH. So no one was there to videotape our experience.

At this point, Perla was done with meeting the fairies and I was in the Merchant of Venus buying a hat for Jack Jack (it was COLD this day, a high of 60 degrees) so we were ready to hook back up and continue on.....

 

[estherhead]

Just one comment since I watch video last night. We do have video of McQueen talking to PUSH. Don't know how you got it, but somehow I saw video last night of PUSH and McQueen.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

OK - I am getting nervous for you guys. A house full of people and one is vomitting

 

[houseful of boys]

Just one comment since I watch video last night. We do have video of McQueen talking to PUSH. Don't know how you got it, but somehow I saw video last night of PUSH and McQueen.

We talked to PUSH twice. The video is of the first, shorter time but he was going in for a break. The second time I don't have a tape of and that was the fun interaction.

 

[houseful of boys]

OK - I am getting nervous for you guys. A house full of people and one is vomitting

Amazingly whatever Milo had it evidently wasn't contagious. He was the only vomiter.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

You ladies are so fast. I don't get online for one day and I had so many wonderful things to catch up on.

My husband not being a Disney person (he isn't anti-Disney, just not knowledgeable, it isn't his fault he didn't grow up in it) could not for the life of him understand any of my conversation with him about the school bread and with my explanation of how my idea of getting to MK at rope drop and making a dash for Dumbo (much like your plan) worked for a larger group of people, laughed at me since yesterday. Now I showed him the picture of the school bread, and he is in for trying it. phew. The waking up early for rope drop still might take some convincing.

BTW my oldest son will be four in March and the baby will be one in February.

Can't wait to see how the rest of your day played out.

and on a side note, do you think DHS could be a one day park for a family with two little ones as we won't be riding ToT or RnR?

 

[GBShorts]

Thanks for entertaining me on an otherwise very quiet Friday evening! I'm going to have to read this entire thing!

 

[estherhead]

You ladies are so fast. I don't get online for one day and I had so many wonderful things to catch up on.

My husband not being a Disney person (he isn't anti-Disney, just not knowledgeable, it isn't his fault he didn't grow up in it) could not for the life of him understand any of my conversation with him about the school bread and with my explanation of how my idea of getting to MK at rope drop and making a dash for Dumbo (much like your plan) worked for a larger group of people, laughed at me since yesterday. Now I showed him the picture of the school bread, and he is in for trying it. phew. The waking up early for rope drop still might take some convincing.

BTW my oldest son will be four in March and the baby will be one in February.

Can't wait to see how the rest of your day played out.

and on a side note, do you think DHS could be a one day park for a family with two little ones as we won't be riding ToT or RnR?

How little are your little ones? And how many days will you be at WDW total? I think DHS could be a one day park if you don't need the Star Wars stuff and the Lights, Motors, Action. Also, as you will see later the Animation Studio with Boo was no fun for me at all.

As for DH not wanting to be there at rope drop, let him learn the hard way. Get up, get breakfast & get the kids dressed the first day bright and early. Let him experience a delightful day at WDW by getting there early, having a great plan, and being at the right park on the right day (a sub. to Tour Guide Mike is what I get.) Then when he starts to have a fit about it not being a vacation if he has to get up early, sleep in and get to the park at 11:00 a.m. with everyone else. Go sit in the shade and eat a Dole Whip (Adventureland at MK) while he stands in a 90 minute line for Splash Mt.

Which way did you like better, sweetie?

OK - I am getting nervous for you guys. A house full of people and one is vomitting

It's true, no more vomitting. But stay tuned, we did have another doctor's appointment!

We talked to PUSH twice. The video is of the first, shorter time but he was going in for a break. The second time I don't have a tape of and that was the fun interaction.

Got it. See why I need notes? I'm sure you've told me this before.

Thanks for entertaining me on an otherwise very quiet Friday evening! I'm going to have to read this entire thing!

Glad to entertain you. Our updates may slow down a little as I have to work harder to piece it all together from this point on. Plus, we've started our scrapbooks so we'll be "wasting" our free time on that. AND, we're dieting which unfortunately takes time.

But on the up side, we may get snowed in tomorrow which would definitaly increase your chances of updates!

 

[houseful of boys]

How little are your little ones?

Perla......JPFamilyMom already told us her boys are 4 and 1.

Yes, you can definately do DHS in 1 day. You should definately hit Playhouse Disney, Toy Story, Lights Motor Action with your 4yr old (it does get very loud and I've seen many mommies have to take their babies out, so beware). Lots of little boys love the Power Rangers when they do their little show and character greet. Some characters are only found in this park so you will probably want to plan on that. If your 4yr old is tall enough, Star Tours is fun and Jedi Academy is worth trying for. And then Fantasmic would be the other must do for your age group. Aside from those, Indiana Jones, Backlot Tour, The Great Movie Ride are the other "boy" things. The thing that makes this park tricky is that the rides and shows are on the long side and the shows only start at designated times so it takes some thinking ahead. If you Google "Steve Soares" you can find a park guide where the gentleman posts the times of the shows and events for each park and he updates it every week. Perla and I depended on this for our schedules before we even got to the park.

HTH

 

[estherhead]

Sorry JPFamilyMom. I even scanned the thread for the ages as I was just sure you had already told us. Sometimes I am not very good at message boards.

So, yes, do what Suzy says. Character meetings are a huge highlight at DHS. You could almost spend an entire day just doing that! There are the usual ones and lots of others. Also, there are nooks and crannies to explore, like the playground the boys played at. And Pizza Planet is a sure fire winner of a place to eat with kids your age.

The reason Steve Soares is such a great resource is that for parks like DHS and AK it is all about getting the timing of the shows right. And in slow times they don't have very many of the big shows so you have to make those a priority.

So it's nice to have the show times before you arrive.

Also, the single rider line of Rockin Rollercoaster goes very fast. Even when we had only little ones, Donald and I would take the time to each ride it as we love roller coasters. So if you like that kind of thing, you can squeeze it in.

But I have girls. So I won't tell you what we would go see when my big kids were little. But I will say this, Beauty and the Beast is a waaaaay better show than Indiana Jones. Sugar and Spice and everything nice...

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Thanks ladies, you two are a riot. I would LOVE to see Beauty and the Beast, but probably wouldn't go over too well with my crew, what is a Mom to do with a houseful of boys (well one of you knows )

That playground looked like a blast. I have some added issues with my planning, so we would probably skip the indy show too and just do the cars action one. My older son has some sensory issues. I'll be bringing ear plugs for him, but he LOVES cars and stunts and things so we will probably do that over indy.

can't wait to read more...

 

[estherhead]

Day 5 cont.

OK, so this is where my entire day starts to get sketchy for me. Unbeknownst to me I was getting sincerely sick. Just a tiny bit of background: As a child I was sick a lot with ear, nose, and throat issues. I had my tonsils taken out when I was 9 and am partially deaf in my left ear from something or another. 4 years ago my tonsils bizarrely grew back and I had them taken out again. That’s right, I said I had my tonsils taken out twice. And in addition to being sick for a year and a half, I almost died. Seriously. The reason you need to know this is I have suffered a HUGE part of my life with extreme sore throats. I’m not really sure even how to describe it except to say that it is intense enough that I can put the pain in a bubble and it is all by itself and I am separate from it. Crazy? Perhaps. I’m just telling you this as you’ll need to know about this to understand the rest of my story.

I was not in this kind of pain… yet. I was taking 1 Ibuprofen and 2 Tylenol about every 6-8 hours and had a dull ache. I had no fever, no symptoms, no nothing. Just a sore throat which I had had for a couple days and pain killer totally took away.

So my sore throat was starting to build and I didn’t want to take any medicine because I wanted the info of how bad it was.

So back to the trip: We called Suzy & they were still riding something so we went and rode Buzz Lightyear as it was a walk-on. I like this ride a lot, but I did like Toy Story Mania better if I’m allowed to compare them. The thing is, I always feel like it’s kind of random on Buzz. I have a hard time keeping track of my laser and therefore feel like I’m not really aiming but just shooting crazily. I spun a lot this time as I was looking for the secret max out your score aim behind me. I never found it but I did shoot something that made me have a giant score.

As we came off Suzy & gang were waiting for us and we headed over to Stitch. Which was one of the things that Donald and the big kids really wanted to do this time. I did not want to be burped on so I more than happily stayed off. Suzy and I just sat outside and waited. And got Space Mt. FP’s.

By the time they got off of this it was time for Dream Along With Mickey. This is not something I would normally do but last time Suzy and her boys had been to MK Buzz had been very disappointed they hadn’t seen it so it was on our must do list. We decided to exit Tomorrowland and just hop into Cosmic Ray’s and grab lunch and eat lunch while watching the show and then go back for our Space Mt. FP’s before heading over to Frontierland.

And this is where I had a tiny bit of a meltdown. It pretty much lasted off & on the rest of the day.

All week I had ran and got food and gotten what everyone else wanted and then not had anything to eat as they gobbled it all up. So this time I got PLENTY of food. Chicken & ribs & mashed potatoes and green beans and french fries. It was healthy and it was plentiful and it was tasty and there was a huge variety to make everyone happy. But Donald didn’t want to eat it.

“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Yes, I’m very hungry but I’m not in the mood for that.”

“I’m not in the mood for that” is one of those phrases that I feel only teenagers should say. I know a lot of adults say it too, but my inner feeling is adults who are hungry should eat what is put in front of them and be happy about it. Or go get something else without a word. It is a big time hot button with me.

So I sat down to eat with my girls who were very much enjoying the food. Bizarrely enough, even without Donald eating a bite, we almost finished everything on the tray while we enjoyed watching the very cool Forecourt Castle show.

As soon as Suzy was done eating she ran to grab FP’s to Thunder Canyon. The girls and I were finishing eating and Jack-Jack had fallen asleep. Which left Donald hungry and bored. And he said, “I feel like I’ve just sat around and not done anything today.”

Now this simply ticked me off, especially since I was a bit on edge from the “not in the mood” thing and my pain was building. And pain always puts a person in a bit of a touchy mood.

I wanted to just scream, which would have hurt. “Of course we haven’t accomplished our normal amount as you were wasting our precious first 20-30 minutes pin trading and getting silly Photopass photos taken. So then we had to wait for Space Mt. and miss the Tink rope drop and THEN you had us wait for you to see stupid Stitch which never has a line and can be done at any time. So now we’ve burnt up all the prime, no lines time following your stupid “chilling” plan and we have to go BACK into Tomorrowland when we should have been done with it. We’re trying desperately to make the most of this dumb ole “chilling” plan by thinking ahead and getting FP’s for a now crowded Frontierland when we should all be over eating a leisurely lunch. And then you wouldn't be so darn hungry and cranky.

So you can take your "not in the mood" and "easy-going philosophy" and shove them!

But guess what? I didn’t say one word of this. I simply said, “You’ll be grateful later when we have those FP’s.” And I kept my mouth shut. But, disloyal though it may be, I DID express my frustration to Suzy who gave me a hug and laughed and said maybe Donald would understand precious opening time from now on.

Cause you know what? You can chill in the a.m. and not accomplish anything. Or you can bust your butt and race around in the a.m. and accomplish a lot and then chill later. Either style is just fine. What you can’t do is chill in the a.m. and then complain about not accomplishing a lot. At least not around me. Cause it’ll tick me off.

We then went and saw Laugh Floor. Our timing was perfect and we basically walked right in. But it did mean we didn’t get seats that gave us an option of being picked. This is unfortunate as between Jedi Academy and other choosing audience members shows, McQueen was starting to get a complex that he was not chosen for anything. And the other silly thing is that Jack-Jack had fallen asleep and so Suzy didn’t get to ride and therefore had sat out for Stitch, had sat for the show, and now had to sit out for this show. Hmmm… now who’s bored?

After this I got to ride Space Mt. with the kids and a more than happy to do something Suzy while Donald put Boo to sleep with Jack-Jack. Yea Donald.

Say it with me, "Thank you Suzy & Donald!"

After this we went to ride Big Thunder Canyon. Donald still had nothing to eat so he and I sat out so I could stay with the sleeping babies while he grabbed lunch. He got something he really loved so that was good. By this point the painkiller was totally out of my system and I was sitting on a wall watching the lady in charge of the FP area and pondering my situation. As I knew things were not good. But I haven’t had strep throat since I had my tonsils taken out again and even though I’m a strep carrier I believed quite strongly that I would not get strep again. I couldn’t. No tonsils, no strep.

But obviously something was wrong. What to do, what to do. I did what any one of you would have done. I got out my backpack and took more Ibuprofen and Tylenol. So there. Goshdarnit, people, I was at Disney World. You just suck it up and take it.

Then the babies woke up and ran around and the kids got off and pressed pennies. And then I got to ride. Weeee! Love this ride.

Then we met Peter Pan, who loved our t-shirts. And looked exactly like our cousin. Our girl cousin. The kids loved Peter Pan. But Donald, Suzy, and I were a bit creeped out by him.

Rode Pirates.

Got our photos taken with Cpt. Hook.

Rode Aladdins carpets.

None of these had any lines at all, surprisingly. At this point we decided to get ice cream. Oh, OK, I talked everyone into it because I thought it would feel good on my throat. Aloha Aisle!!! Wanna know what? That pineapple ice cream was my favorite thing the entire day. It put me in a happy mood.

We were supposed to be eating/drinking our ice cream on our way out but we got caught by the parade going on. So we got stopped and just watched while we ate. Then we exited.

When we got to the monorail we asked if we could ride up front. Sure, but only 4 and one needs to be an adult. That’s not so good. We needed Ariel, Mulan, Buzz, and McQueen. So Donald solved the issue by saying he would take whoever wanted to and get on a different monorail to Epcot! He just hadn’t had true fun yet and Future World always cheers him up. So Ariel, McQueen, and Charming went with him. We made arrangements to pick them up at I think 5:00?

Here is the Epcot gang:

So Buzz & Mulan and I rode up front. While Suzy took the babies in the car behind us.

Thanks Suzy! This was totally awesome so I need to tell you. One of the reasons there was enough time to make alternative arrangements to Epcot is because a monorail was broken and was being towed. We got to see it being towed right in front of us. I have video. The driver told us almost no guest has ever seen this and he had only seen it twice his whole career. He told us all about it and was quite informative. I remember none of it. But it was really nice and special.

Then we drove home and got a bite to eat. I chased babies while Mulan and Buzz played DS against each other. And Suzy & Milo went on a date night. They had missed their original date night because of Jack-Jack being ill.

Then I made the babies dinner and read them books. At some point Donald called and told me what they had done and we made arrangements to meet. I got everyone ready and wrote down the Pizza Hut number as I had promised Charming he got to pick dinner and when given a choice, Charming ALWAYS picks Pizza Hut.

I got to Epcot super quick and asked the CM at the parking gate the easiest way to pick someone up. He said to go to the kennel and pointed. I thought I had gone the right way, but I hadn’t. I was lost in the Epcot parking lot. I drove around and started to get stressed as Jack-Jack is not the best rider and he started yelping.

I finally found a close spot and called Donald. They had decided to squeeze one more thing and we were early so they were stuck inside somewhere. Jack-Jack was REALLY cranky and Buzz was yelling, “MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP” over and over again.

I sat there feeling my blood pressure rising. And the only thing running through my head was… “Why are men so clueless?” I love my dh. He is the best of the best as far as men go. But the reality is, men are clueless just in general. It’s irritating, ya know?

I didn’t have a strong enough voice to calm Buzz down so I just made everyone get out and we walked to the front of Epcot to wait for the gang. I was in a terrible mood, as you can tell from this TR, and I was beyond stressed out. Just thinking about it makes me tear up a little bit even still. It was horrible. And I didn’t tell anyone because there wasn’t really anything they could do. Well, everyone but Donald. And I didn’t tell him for other reasons. He’s really weird about the strep throat thing and me too and it’s such a long story I don’t feel like telling it. But I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want him to know. And because I didn’t have a fever….

But the interesting thing is that despite my mood and my pain, walking up to the Epcot gate made me happy. Just the act of walking onto the property of a Disney property made everything OK. I know this is crazy, but it was true. And when I saw the gang and they were so happy I just felt happy and peaceful inside.

We climbed back into the van, ordered our pizza and I made a stop at a drug store to get my own bottle of Ibuprofen. I got 25 Ibuprofen and 50 Tylenol. This comes into the story later.

On the way home Jack-Jack finally fell asleep. I was so grateful you have no idea. We got home & we all had pizza. Well, we didn’t really eat very much of it. I had a half a piece because I was too sick to be hungry, Buzz & Mulan and the babies had already had dinner. And I think Donald may have eaten some leftovers. So I guess I should say Ariel and Charming had pizza.

I was able to transfer Jack-Jack to bed still sleeping soundly. Everyone but me went swimming and then Donald did a treasure hunt for the kids which they thoroughly enjoyed. After this I got Boo to sleep and Donald pretty much all by himself got everyone else into jammies and brushed teeth. Once I was sure it was all calm, I went to bed.

And that was the end of my day.

 

[Kimmy]

Sorry to hear you got sick. I like the picture of you & Suzy in the photopass line! Everyone gets that look at least in WDW! The photopass of both families at HS is very nice.

 

[houseful of boys]

None of us knew how sick Perla was getting. She hid it well. I knew she was getting sick but for her to have a sore throat is not all that uncommon.

My day as a "single mom" went really well. The boys had a great time but we all missed Milo. For him to miss McQueen's first Space Mt. ride and POC was disappointing. But he had recovered well at home and was ready to carry on.

The only eventful thing that happened that Perla didn't mention was this was the only day we almost lost a kid.

As we walked up to The Magic Carpets there was not much of a line so we kind of threw the strollers to the side and all hopped in line before anyone else noticed. So we're walking through the maze happily all of us in green talking amongst ourselves and those around us. We've been in line for a few minutes and we're near the front when Perla says, "Why is McQueen on the outside of the gate?" What?? What do you mean? And sure enough McQueen was not in line with us but standing big-eyed outside the queue area. One of us reached down and pulled him over to where we were and he says, "I thought I was lost forever." Poor kid. We hadn't even realized he was gone. He had gotten seperated from us when we hurridly got in line and he didn't see where the opening for the line was. So he had walked all around the outside of the ride by himself and then said he made his way back to the strollers. Thank goodness, he was big enough to know where our strollers were and thank goodness our strollers were right by the fence. He was a little traumatized and I felt guilty that I wasn't becuase I hadn't even had the little moment of panic that you get when your kid is missing (believe me I've been there before). But within seconds we were on the carpets riding along and moment forgotten.

I'll post about my date night later tonight.......