Healing at our Happy Place: making GOOD 2017 memories: Mar, May, Aug, Oct, Dec TRs (3/24 UPDATE)

[kittylady1972]

OCTOBER UPDATE

I'm not sure I've shared much about our October trip recently, and of course we are only 23 days away from it! Over the weekend we had friends over Sunday morning to watch the RAVENS football game (though I'm not sure it was a game...more like a comedy of errors) and many of these people will be on our upcoming trip. So they started reviewing my handy spreadsheet of our plans, and asking questions...really they are just more "let us know where we need to be and when" and trusting me completely.

MWAH-HA-HA!

Anyway we talked a bit about some of the plans...but here is my recent breakdown of it:


Wed Oct 18th
Everybody arrives at different times, latest flight due to arrive at 7:33pm, ETA at Shades of Green is 9pm. Magic Kingdom is open until 11PM for Regular Guests, 1AM for Resort Guests. Our plan is to check-in at Shades and hit Magic Kingdom for as long as possible.

Thurs Oct 19th
8am Early Entry Day at EPCOT. First Fastpass is at 11:05am so LATEST people should plan to arrive is 10:30am (if catching a bus, plan to be waiting before 10am). Ideal arrival would be between 8am and 9am and head directly to Soarin’ and then The Land with minimal waits. 11:05am: Ride Test Track, 12:25pm ride Mission: Space, 1:35pm Ride Spaceship Earth. Visit Food and Wine booths as much as possible for the afternoon/evening. No evening or dinner plans, but Mickey’s Not-So-Scary-Halloween Party is an option. If not doing the party, any other park other than Magic Kingdom is an evening option.

Fri Oct 20th
Arrive between 9am-10am at Hollywood Studios arrival. Ride Toy Story Mania first. First Fastpass is 10:30am-11:10am for Rock N Roller Coaster, then 11:35am Tower of Terror, then 12:40pm Star Tours. Other options are Muppets 3D, Voyage of the Little Mermaid (show), Frozen Ever After singalong (show) and Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (show). Instead of shows, you can take a boat from Hollywood Studios to EPCOT to do more Food and Wine Festival booths. Dinner either at Boma (5:20pm at Animal Kingdom Lodge) or Tusker House (6:50pm at Animal Kingdom Park). After dinner, head to Animal Kingdom Park for final hours (9pm closing) and wait in line for Avatar Flight of Passage (approx hour wait); EVENING SHOW OPTIONS: HS: 7:30pm: Fantasmic!; 8pm: StarWars Fireworks; AK: 7:45pm: Rivers of Light EP: 10pm: Illuminations

Sat Oct 21st
Magic Kingdom Park, arrival close to 9am if possible. Depart at 11am and walk to Contemporary Resort for Chef Mickey’s for Brunch. Walk or monorail back to MK for afternoon/evening rides. Fastpasses: 1:20pm Space Mountain, 3:25pm Big Thunder Mountain Railroad; 7:25pm Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Depart by van around 4:45pm for Charley’s Steakhouse for 5:30pm dinner. EVENING SHOW OPTIONS: HS: 7:30pm: Fantasmic!; 8pm: SW Fireworks; AK: 7:45pm: ROL; MK: 9pm Happily Ever After Fireworks; EP: 10pm: Illuminations

Sun Oct 22nd
10am: Brunch at California Grill (optional); Afternoon at Animal Kingdom for the following Fastpass rides: 1:25pm Expedition Everest, 3:25pm Avatar Flight of Passage, 4:45pm Safari. Evening options include EPCOT for more Food and Wine Booths or Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.


Mon Oct 23rd
Option for some early morning park time before departing around 12pm for the airport for 2pm flight.

So one in our group hasn't been to WDW since about 2007 I think (when her kids were much smaller), the other person last went with ME during Spring Break of 1998 and her husband has never been, her dad went years ago when she was a kid (she's in her 40s like me), and her sister the same...and her 17yo nephew has NEVER been. So trying to cater to a diverse crowd has some challenges. I think some of the adults are mostly interested in EPCOT Food and Wine...and maybe a few thrill rides.

I'd like to have people catch some of the evening shows if they are up for it...but we'll see what happens. HEA of course only is viewable for us on Wednesday night and Saturday night. Wednesday night might be tough with our late flight, so Saturday might be best for that.

Now that I noticed MK has extended the Wednesday night hours until 1am (EMH), after a full day of travel and sitting we may all WANT to spend as long as possible there that first night. I'm sure we can get a lot done, and our group for sure are NOT morning people. The problem is that the next morning is EPCOT EMH and I'd like to try to at least hit Soarin' first thing that morning. We don't have FP+ reservations until 11:05am though, so the question is what would the Soarin' wait be if we arrived beyond the 8am-9am EMH window? Would love to do FEA as well, but that might not happen with no FP for it.

The other request was that one of our adults wants to eat offsite at Charley's Steakhouse, because it's a favorite of his. I've made a reservation for it on the only day it would work best, and the kids have said they have no interest in dinner so they may be on their own that evening while some of us travel off-site for dinner. We just have to make it back later that night for the 7DMT FP+ reservation.

Honestly I think overall the plan is pretty good and we'll be able to get quite a bit done hopefully. Weather is of course a big unknown, but I've warned everybody to pack some kind of raingear because rain will NOT stop us from hitting the parks!

Definitely looking forward to a fun trip!

 

[Jenny Sanders]

My daughter is a HUGE Ravens fan, and we too were up bright and early Sunday to watch the saddest game I've seen in a loooong while.

 

[kittylady1972]

My daughter is a HUGE Ravens fan, and we too were up bright and early Sunday to watch the saddest game I've seen in a loooong while.

Agreed...I had to stop watching.

 

[kittylady1972]

DECEMBER UPDATE

Only me. I know I am famous for losing things...but a reservation?

So sometime yesterday I was checking out MDE and looking into making FP+ reservations for October for our arrival day and I noticed...I still had a room booked for October. Problem is we are staying at Shades of Green...so that October Disney room isn't needed. So I cancelled it.

Then I looked again...and couldn't find my December reservation at Caribbean Beach that I just booked by phone two weeks ago.

WHAT?

Surely this had to be a glitch, as MDE has been acting wonky for me since Sunday...but nope got home yesterday and still no reservation.

I checked the website...couldn't even rebook that reservation if I wanted to do so...now what?

I did more poking around, and by checking one night at a time for our four nights, I found POR was available. Yet I needed to confirm my other reservation was truly gone, so I called. And it was gone and I explained how I hadn't noticed at all a refund on the October reservation which I was sure I had cancelled a while ago, but didn't have the reservation number for that one on hand. I had a great Disney phone person who was super helpful and was doing all he could to help me. So he also found nothing available at CBR but did see my POR rooms...one night at a time though...for 3 different rates (AP rate, regular rate) so they couldn't be booked by me as one reservation, but at least they were the same type of room...Garden View.

He grabbed those 3 rooms and then was going to look into my other reservations...and then was going to have Disney Guest Services LINK all 3 of the one-nighters together but that would take time...a 45 minute hold time actually. I was willing to wait...put the phone on speaker...and continued to look into my October missing reservation.

You may have already realized what it took me a while to figure out. Sometime LAST week when I though I was cancelling the October reservation...I cancelled December. So I already had the credit posted to my card as of Friday for that 1st night's deposit. My guess is that yesterday was truly when I cancelled October...and I'll see that credit soon enough. When he came back on the phone after probably 30-40 minutes (I was too busy looking for my old reservation and checking out the deposits/refunds on my credit cards) he was able to COMBINE all 3 nights for me into one reservation AND even got my discount for the 2nd night. YAY! We booked it!

HOWEVER this all turned out well in the end, but I was kinda questioning the stay at CBR when reading about the large groups of kids most likely staying there for Pop Warner week. While I'd love to try it out...I also like sleep...and not dealing with tons of people at the food court.

Port Orleans has a nostalgia for us. The VERY first trip we ever took to Walt Disney World with my husband's parents was back in the fall of 1999 and we stayed at the then-named Dixie Landings. We stayed in the Magnolia Bend plantation homes. My husband's parents lived in California for several years, in fact my husband and sister were born there, and my in-laws honeymooned at the Disneyland hotel. However since arriving in Maryland in the 70s, they had NEVER been to Walt Disney World. They had no idea and they really loved it. We had a FANTASTIC trip. I was also pregnant with my first child for that trip.

Anyway...technically the kids have never stayed there (unless you count my oldest who was in utero) and in fact my kids have never stayed at any moderate resort. They have only stayed at Pop Century...and then the Deluxe and DVC resorts. So this will be all new to them.

Later that evening, I decided to continue to poke around and I was able to also find availability for an additional night. Originally we had SOG booked for our first night, and CBR for the last 3 since CBR wasn't available for the first night. Now POR had a Garden View room available for our first night as well, but the Disney website was giving me trouble all night. Rather than risk losing it, at around 8:30pm I called AGAIN and had somebody book the first night for me. I explained my situation about the other reservation, and she also mentioned she could contact guest services and link the room to my other reservation, saving me another deposit...but the hold time was currently ONE HOUR. Rather than wait, I just had her book my additional night, paid another deposit, and she made a note in the reservation that I had a second one the departure night and didn't want to switch rooms, and as we get closer to our trip I'll call and confirm that with the resort.

Of course, I am still waitlisted for a DVC room, so maybe we'll get lucky and we'll get one of those waitlisted rooms. We still have over 60 days so anything can happen there.

For now though, I'm kinda excited about the prospect of staying at Port Orleans Riverside once again. I've cancelled my SOG reservation and between that deposit and the two other deposits I've just cancelled, I'm pretty much even on that for now, so I'm not really putting out any extra money this month to have this reservation.

I still can't believe I cancelled that but I'm so glad it all worked out.

 

[KathyM2]

Yesterday I had surgery to remove my medical port, which was put into my chest back in June. That went very quickly and smoothly and I'm still sore and recovering, but I'm told I can resume playing tennis and lifting things in two weeks.

Wow. I can't believe what you have gone through (and still are) and you are really inspiring. So awesome.

I'm sure we can get a lot done, and our group for sure are NOT morning people. The problem is that the next morning is EPCOT EMH and I'd like to try to at least hit Soarin' first thing that morning.

Wow again, you guys are hard core!! I don't think I could get up for EMH the next day, but maybe that's just me!!! I know at WDW it's certainly easier to do with less sleep but..I'm a lightweight lol. All the plans look great though. I think your friends who haven't been to Disney for a long time will be really shocked at the changes - not really to the parks, but to the amount of planning that now has to go into a trip! They are lucky to have you in charge!

 

[kittylady1972]

Wow. I can't believe what you have gone through (and still are) and you are really inspiring. So awesome.

Wow again, you guys are hard core!! I don't think I could get up for EMH the next day, but maybe that's just me!!! I know at WDW it's certainly easier to do with less sleep but..I'm a lightweight lol. All the plans look great though. I think your friends who haven't been to Disney for a long time will be really shocked at the changes - not really to the parks, but to the amount of planning that now has to go into a trip! They are lucky to have you in charge!

Thank you for your kind words. Yes our 2017 has certainly been challenging and heartbreaking but I have to do my best to continue to think positively. There are some days that it easier said than done, but for the most part I do remain positive.

Yeah I think EMH might be okay that FIRST day...as we'll still be on the Disney adrenaline rush...but after that, as the excitement wears off a bit and feet get worn down...it will probably be a different story! They know all about the planning and are happy to leave all of that up to me. I've still told them plenty that even though I have a plan, they always have the option to do their own thing. This big group thing is going to be challenging for sure.

 

[kittylady1972]

I just have to say I'm so glad I thought to check on that December reservation and was able to book something elsewhere, because I checked last night for other options...and NOTHING. Well not NOTHING, if I'm okay with spending about $500+ a night I can find something, but that's not happening. I'd really like to TRY to convince my father-in-law to join us for this trip, but it's highly unlikely that he will do so. He constantly suffers from survivors guilt because of the loss of his wife, and it has only been not quite 3 months yet. I wish he would think about how she would feel about him NOT making the most of the time he has left and spending it with his family though. We do see him about once a week or so, but he used to love to travel (well they both did) and now he doesn't want to go anywhere.

Ok well not quite...my SIL is getting married for the THIRD time this February...in California. Let me tell you that she is about the most self-absorbed person and the guy she is marrying (his second marriage) is not much better. We honestly cannot stand to be around either of them, which is really kinda sad as that's the only sibling of my husband. We have said from the beginning that we had NO intentions of attending wedding number 3 for her, especially now that (as expected) is in California which would require quite a bit of time and expense for us to travel there. Not to mention travel during winter...well that can be tricky, especially from Maryland. My FIL has asked my husband to go, and has offered to pay for his plane ticket, so he wouldn't have to travel alone and I TOTALLY get that and even though my husband would rather not go and be surrounded by the wedding nonsense, he will go for his dad's sake. Last night I guess my FIL brought up the fact that he would like for ALL of us to go and he would pay, to which my husband's response remains the same as it has...not happening. I'm sorry, but that's crazy to ask for us to travel across the US for just a weekend. Kids really cannot afford to miss school and the time change alone would be challenging for all of us. Airfare, because it does happen to be a holiday weekend, is already pretty crazy too. So I feel bad that he really wants us to all spend some time out there together but I'm sorry that we just can't do that for such a short trip and we have other priorities here.

Plus we received some potentially difficult news about HIS health yesterday as well. It hasn't been confirmed yet, but there's a good chance he may be dealing with the same nasty "c" word that has hit us all so hard this year. If that ends up being the case, then my husband is already thinking about the fact that he'll need to step up once again and help him depending on the treatment options, but for right now we are trying NOT to think about that.

If that wasn't enough, our 8-year-old dog has also been having health issues for quite some time, and this week she's had some incontinence issues. She went to the vet yesterday as well, and there's a pretty good chance she is also dealing with a disease that can only be managed for a short time with some expensive medications. She is a member of our family, and despite the cost I have already told him we will do what we can to treat her and keep her comfortable for as long as possible. We are still waiting final word on her bloodwork though and she may also need a few more tests.

Sorry that I continue to sound like a broken record here. Just like everything else, I know we'll get through all of this and we have to remain positive.

And on that note...21 days to go!!!

 

[piglet1979]

I am so sorry for all of the bad news. This has not been your year. I hope it turns around soon and that 2018 will be much better.

 

[kittylady1972]

20 days to go!

No new news to report on some of our other family member health issues, both people and dog.

I've tweaked our trip just a little bit, canceling a few other ADRs and weaning down to just FOUR now: Boma (D), Tusker House (D), Chef Mickey's (brunch) and Charley's (D). I can't recall what I had originally. And two of those are on the same day, I just can't decide which one to choose. It's between Boma and Tusker House for dinner. Leaning towards Tusker for a few reasons. It is a later reservation that day, and it's in the park as our plans are to go to dinner, then head directly from dinner to line for FOP to ride standby, as I've read that later in the day is better for that ride. We'd all be full, and not "hangry", so that might work out well. Plus characters would be fun. Food is pretty similar, though I've only done Tusker for "brunch" but remembered enjoying some of the lunch foods they brought out during transition, but I was pretty full from the breakfast foods.

One of those ADRs is actually for an off-site steakhouse requested by one of our party, that will probably be an adults only meal. Kids will be free to roam the parks while we are there.

This is really going to be such a park-centric commando-style trip to squeeze in as much as possible, so I hate to take up time with long meals. Buffets aren't terrible because we can do the timing there ourselves somewhat.

And now in preparation for our trip, we have decided to do a quick one-day trip this weekend to a local amusement park! We've pitched this as a plan to help one adult member of our party prepare himself mentally for rides, as he's not really a ride person. Now Disney isn't really about the thrill rides, so for the most part I think he'll be just fine, but this park will be thrill rides for our kids mostly. We just told them the kids this morning as we were waiting to check on weather before making a decision. It's supposed to be mid-60s and no rain...so we should be good.

Oh and I did rebook our rental car for December earlier this week, saving me about $10 I think. I continue to check on those rates because they can go up and down quite a bit. Hoping I can drop it a little more.

Yesterday at our house, the special Disney mail arrived announcing our upcoming trip and stay at Caribbean Beach. Ooops! Yeah if you read the story above, you know what happened there. My daughter took a look through the book and thought the pool looked amazing. Sorry not this time! I'm sure we'll get one for Port Orleans Riverside soon enough...probably two since we are currently hold two different reservations there. And while I'm kinda excited about our return trip there for the first time since 1999, I'm also still hoping a waitlist for one of the two DVC rooms I've asked for comes through instead, because a free place to stay would be so much better!


One of these days I'll find the time to get the rest of our trip photos uploaded and hosted somewhere so I can continue our trip report hopefully!

 

[kittylady1972]

AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER - DAY 3

I think I figured out the photo thing...so let's see how this goes!

Our cool pictures in front of BTMRR:


After BTMRR, still no Fastpasses, but we wandered over towards Mickey's Philharmagic, something we had skipped on previous trips but a nice place to cool down. On the way we saw some of the Country Bears wandering...and I wanted a photo...but the CM guiding him really didn't stop or help with that. Others were doing the same, and I think the bear had trouble even seeing people (go figure) but I persisted and got this one:


So cool...I love the bears, but my family refuses to go to the shows with me anymore.

Next up was Mickey's Philharmagic as planned, though I feel like we may have actually stopped first at HM but I didn't take photos there.


We got there right as a show had already started, so we were at the front and originally it was empty but of course it didn't take long to fill up.

Last ride before we left was the teacups, and though I am not a fan of spinning, I told my daughter she could spin it as fast as she wanted. I tolerated it just fine.


We walked out via Tomorrowland (did we ride the TTA also...I'm not sure?) and we found another Photopass photographer. My oldest "anti-photo" son refused to get into the photos, but we had these taken:




We also took some of our own photos around the castle area before heading out of the park.


Pretty sure I had my popcorn bucket filled, then we hopped the monorail back to the GF. Once there, we headed to our car and we were off to check into Animal Kingdom Lodge!

 

[kittylady1972]

AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER - DAY 3

We were very excited to return to Animal Kingdom Lodge and this would be the kids' first stay at Jambo House and all of our first experiences at Club Level.

We walked into the lobby and headed directly to the club level...you just feel special being able to scan your MB in the elevator and push that button!


We walked into our 1BR room...ah the space! Not the GFR studio was horrible, but it was nice to spread out a bit. Our view:


Couldn't wait to try out that pool...but first to check out the club level snacks!




Kids were excited about the juice from there...they love that juice! I think mostly they had some snacks of some kind, and I know I got some hummus and other dips with pita chips, but was sad there were no veggie options. I grabbed myself an apple though. We watched some of the movie that was playing for a bit, and soon headed back to the room to change and hit the pool.



These were taken with my tablet, so not the best. I did some reading, the kids enjoyed the pool for a while, and I wandered over to Mara at one point as I was in need of some veggies, and got a small thing of veggies and dip from there.

We started a load of laundry in the room and I decided I REALLY wanted to catch a showing of the Lion King at AK. The boys had zero interest, but I was happy to let them chill in the room for a bit. We told them our plan was to be back in time for the dinner offerings at Club Level and headed out!

It was raining a bit, and looked like it would get heavier, and we arrived and quickly made our way to the show, getting there with about maybe 5 minutes to spare before the show started. I really love this show.


Once it was over, we headed back to our car and I texted the boys to ask about the food offerings at club level. I decided if they weren't that good, we would grab some food in the park. As it turns out, the options did sound pretty good so we chose to eat there.

Now the food portions were small for the "hot" items. They were tiny little bowls with tiny little spoons of tomato soup that was excellent, and small portions of butter chicken prepared as you went up there.



I also got some veggies, olives and cheese.


I did not take a photo of our table once we were done, as we indulged in SEVERAL cups of the soup and a few plates of the butter chicken. It was all very good and enough to fill us up though.

We were going to make the best of this Club Level experience for sure.

Bellies full, we headed back to the room to finish up the load of laundry and get ready to head out to the next park that evening which was Hollywood Studios. We finally had some Fastpasses to use!

 

[kittylady1972]

AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER - DAY 3 - I KNOW my LINES!

We were now ready to get our ride on at Hollywood Studios for that last few hours of the evening. But first the tram...since we drove over (and I do recall some crazy parking situation there...the construction going on there has you really winding around these days).

TRAM!

Our first FP was for Tower of Terror, so we headed directly there. We LOVE this one and DH had skipped it on our May trip due to his back issues.




Yes we are the crazy ones in the back!


We had some time before our next FP, and walked by Star Tours. I think the posted wait time was about 40 minutes, but the line wasn't even out to the outside queue so I KNEW it wasn't 40 minutes. Why doesn't my family trust me? They were so concerned it would take too long and we'd miss our next FP, but I told them if we weren't at least up the final ramp in 20 minutes we would leave.



It was really not bad and moved quickly. I'd say we were on in about 20 minutes. Great ride, even though it's one in the past that can easily make me queasy. I did just fine.

Out and off, we headed directly to our next ride:




We do LOVE this one!

Now it was time to head back, so we could check our our dessert options at Club Level. First though, my daughter had asked earlier for a photo with the Tower in the background. I said we'd do it as we left, but it was hard to find a photographer on the street. We did eventually locate one almost at the end, and we figured we'd have a photo with the Tower in the distance. Instead though, he ushered us off to the side to take a photo in front of this amazing site:



yep...a wall. How exciting!

Oh well, the photo of all of us taken, we left the park and headed back to our resort in time for the dessert options! Yay!



They were all very good, and I like having several small options to select. Plus there were cookies and other stuff I didn't get, but overall a good ending to our evening...and no cost to us so even better!

We then headed back to our room to relax and unwind and get some sleep for our last Disney park day the next day!

 

[KathyM2]

Your TR is so making me want to try club level...just for all the free food. It really seems like if you take advantage of that for a few meals it would make the cost seem a lot more worthwhile! I love the Lion King show too. I think it is seriously one of the best things at AK.

 

[kittylady1972]

Your TR is so making me want to try club level...just for all the free food. It really seems like if you take advantage of that for a few meals it would make the cost seem a lot more worthwhile! I love the Lion King show too. I think it is seriously one of the best things at AK.

I'm sure that if you aren't somebody who needs a heavy meal, club level would work. Since we used DVC points, we weren't really "paying" which is why I felt it was worth a shot. It's hard to find those reservations via DVC, as I think AKL is the only club level one we can book on points. I'm definitely glad we tried it.

Yes wish my family enjoyed the overall entertainment at WDW as much as I do, but sadly for the most part they are all about the rides.

 

[kittylady1972]

In just 10 more days we'll be SINGLE DIGIT DANCING

In the meantime, there isn't much left to do for the October trip. I'm done with ADRs, as I mentioned earlier, because I really want to focus on park time.

There are 3 Disney Restaurant ADRs, two are on the same day and I'm still considering cancelling one or both of those. I am thinking that Shades of Green will have some kind of seafood feast/dinner on Friday as they usually do, and it will be FAR cheaper than Boma or Tusker House, so we may just do that. Of course, with our plan to ride FOP that night, perhaps we should consider keeping one of them. I'm just not sure yet but we can decided while down there.

I have some busy weekends coming up between now and our trip, so that will probably make the time go by quickly too. I'm looking forward to our amusement park trip tomorrow for sure, and hoping with my current surgery healing, I can handle most of the bigger rides. We'll see how that goes.

I continue to stalk the DVC website for December availability and nothing...but I'm hoping as we get close to the 30 day cancellation that may change. I should resign myself to just stop looking for now, but I guess I enjoy the torture. The same goes for return flights in December, I stalk to see if the potential flights I'm looking at have dropped, but they haven't and I don't expect they will change too much. I will check again as we approach the 8 week mark from those dates to see what happens. Honestly I do kinda like the idea of staying at Port Orleans Riverside as I mentioned before, so if we don't get a DVC room that will be okay.

*************
I still wish we could convince my FIL to join us, but I truly don't see that happening. Apparently his health scare isn't too concerning to his doctors because they've said they will recheck some of his values in about a month and if they have continued to rise then they will know he most likely has cancer. The dog is being checking into the vet for an all day monitor process on Monday, but we're already convinced they will come back with the diagnosis my husband has mentioned for months, which is cushings. The treatment options for this are expensive...and quite frankly they seem a bit scary when I read how much they can cause other damage, so yesterday I ordered some products from a pet health store online that I read about from several other dog owners with cushings dogs who said it worked for them, so I'm hoping to try that route first.

*************

Next week and weekend, DH and I plan to head to North Carolina to stay with my dad for a few nights and attend a large family gathering taking place. One of my cousins has a Memorial Golf Tournament there in honor of his dad, my uncle, who passed away 30 years ago. A bunch of my cousins (I have over 20 cousins) attend and some other family members and they have a good time. I've never attended in the past as the timing is always bad (my wedding anniversary is next week also and falls around the same time as this event every year) but my dad is looking forward to us being there and I'm actually going to attempt to golf for the first time in probably 20+ years or more. I told dad to make sure my mom's golf clubs are ready for me to use, so let's hope mom can guide me to some great shots.

The following weekend we are having some friends over for a Pulp Fiction viewing party. It's a favorite movie of mine, and the anniversary of the release of the movie, so for fun we are going to have an adults-only viewing in our basement. We will probably also do some last-minute Disney planning that weekend.

All this should keep me pretty occupied as we approach our trip.

Plus my current decision is on if we should go ahead and renew our current APs for next year. DVC has a great deal going for that, but we'd need to do it before October 1st, which of course is this weekend. I really don't have the money to spend on that right now, but I know we should do it as we already plan for at least one trip next year with my family and the cost of a regular hopper pass isn't much less than this renewal.

That of course will give me more excuses for MORE Disney trips in 2018 as well!

 

[kittylady1972]

AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER - DAY 4

So we are down to our final park day. Unlike most trips, we weren't exhausted at this point, which was good. We had done quite a bit of our favorites and were looking forward to Vero Beach next.

First up was packing and hitting club level for breakfast. I think there were lots of carb-centric items, like danishes and bagels and maybe oatmeal? I think they also had hardboiled eggs. There was a HUGE bowl of blueberries, which has been my current breakfast for months, but when I looked at them...they just didn't look good at ALL so I skipped them and opted for strawberries instead, which were a little bit better...plus a danish and muffin:



They were all good...though I can't recall what they were filled with unfortunately.

Breakfast complete, we headed out to our vehicle with our luggage and drove over to Animal Kingdom.

Despite arriving close to the 8am Early Entry Time, I knew it was going to be too late.

DH forged ahead with the backpack full of raincoats just in case:


Then there was more waiting in line with a few hundred of our friends just to get through the turnstiles, which were open:


As soon as we were through, we headed left towards Avatar, as we planned to ride Flight of Passage on standby. I figured we'd have about an hour or so wait at this point...which turned out to be about 90 minutes less than we actually waited...with lots more friends:





I could not believe this line...and never thought I'd wait in one like this...but we knew this ride was worth the wait and we had nothing else to do and so we waited. Since it was overcast, at least we weren't roasting. There was of course tons of complaints from kids, to which we told them they were welcome to leave and meet up with us later. They didn't...and so we occupied our time taking photos of them without their permission, which made them even more angry.

Parenting win.


STOP TAKING MY PHOTO MOM!


TRIED to catch the oldest teen!

Nevermind...nice view:


We'll just do adult selfies:

Where is he looking??


Another evil look!

I think we got through in about 2 hours...maybe a little bit more? I'm not even sure. We love this ride though. I know we were crazy to wait. We will do better on our next trip because we have others coming on our October trip without FOP Fastpasses. We're going to change our strategy for that one.

Anyway it was now probably close to 10:30am or so, and we had two more Fastpasses to do before we would leave the park!

 

[kittylady1972]

AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER - DAY 4

I think we finished our long wait at FOP just in time to catch our next Fastpass, which was Dinosaur. After a long wait in line, we all needed snacks...and so we grabbed a few of those, I think ice cream and drinks...and I got what I think was Mickey Bar #2 for this trip?





There was more annoying kids and trying to take their photos:



Not that they noticed.

Then off to catch a Dinosaur.






I have no idea what the kids were doing in the front there.

This sums up me:


Once off this ride, it was over to Dinoland and the kids wanted to tackle this ride which had no wait. I'm not a fan...and so the four of them went on instead:



Still no photos allowed of the oldest teen...but I'm good and persistent!






I waited nearby...and filled up my popcorn bucket...twice I think!

(continued....)

 

[kittylady1972]

AUGUST FAREWELL TO SUMMER - DAY 4

Our final ride of the trip was Expedition Everest...a favorite!





I have no idea what that face is of mine!

Park completed, we wandered toward the exit somewhat slowly, and I refilled my popcorn bucket and grabbed some water. It looked like it would rain at any minute (hello Florida) but we made it to the car without getting drenched.

Now we would be making our drive out to Vero Beach.

We were all getting hungry at this point, so we promised we would stop somewhere along the way and get some lunch. I think we ended up coming to a Burger King that we noticed on one of the exit signs, and that's where we had lunch. Much cheaper than most of our Disney meals of course!

I think it was about a 2.5 hour drive out to Vero Beach, which made me even more glad we had the Toyota Avalon because I totally enjoyed driving that car and the kids weren't cramped at all for the long trip.

At some point the GPS took us on a road that was very back-road like, with no lines, and nothing around...so I was just hoping we were heading in the right direction.

I had read a LOT about the annoying no-see-ums at the beach, and decided before we hit the resort we would stop nearby, as I'd read from other VB visitors, and get some good bug spray for the resort. So once we found our resort, we passed by it and headed out to a local CVS to search for some bug spray. I think I also got a little bit of food, like frozen pizzas we could have for lunch or dinner one night, and uncrustables and some cereal and milk. It would be enough to save us from spending too much money on resort food or eating out. It worked out pretty well actually.

When we did get to our resort, it was raining quite a bit. So much for that sunny beach afternoon!

Up next...all about VERO BEACH!

 

[kittylady1972]

Ooops almost forgot we did stop on the way out of Animal Kingdom and took a few more family photos...I liked these!

 

[KathyM2]

Once again I am so in awe of your energy and stamina lol. There is no way my kids would wait two hours in line for anything lol We had a hard time with anything over about 30 minutes lol.

I'm so in it for the snacks too!! With you there. Have never gotten the refillable popcorn bucket though...must try that next time! Looking forward to hearing about Vero Beach.