Welcome to my Trip Report from my May/June 2011 trip! I originally was planning to take notes while I was at the World to remember everything and take pics of all our travel to WDW, each ride we got on, etc. That didnt work out as planned mostly because some stuff happened so fast there was no time to take a picture (aka, I didnt have my camera on me or out every minute). Its ok! Im pretty sure Ive got all the important, and some not so important, details still in my brain! As for the name of my TR .my sister thought I was too much of a fanatic on our vacay and I heard a lot of Are you serious?!! or Seriously?? from her on our trip and I love the line from the move Airplane: Leslie Nielsens reply to the line Surely you cant be serious? I am serious, and dont call me Shirley
Let me do some introductions and tell you all the players in this TR!
First, theres me
And my 2 kids! DS13 Zadrin (pronounced Zay-drin) and DS8 Zethan (its just Ethan with a Z)
Then theres my sister Melonie and her husband Mickey
and their 3 kids. Twins Mikiah and Mikenna who are 8 and in the middle is Mikade, hes 6!
Our trip was May 29th to June 5th....actually, my sister and her kids left June 3rd. We stayed at Pop Century!!
Me and my sister fell in love with the magic of Disney World in 1986 and our parents took us nearly every year after that until we had our own kids! I convinced my sister to go this year with me and my boys because she and her husband had 2 work related (kind of) trips to WDW in the past 6 years but had not taken their kids since the twins were 2 years old!
I wanted to have pictures of every moment, ride, etc during the trip....like I said before, that didn't happen! But I did end up with 640 pictures from my point and shoot and about 170 from Photopass (but I haven't gotten my CD yet) so there's plenty of pictures I can post!!
Our vacation unofficially began on June 28th when we drove from just outside Lubbock, TX to Dallas. Our flight was out of Dallas and since my parents were going to drive to Louisiana, they drove us to Dallas where we spent the night, then they took us to the airport Sunday morning. The road trip and that day was quite uneventful except for the lady at the hotel swimming pool who sat on the edge of the pool.... by the entry stairs...... with her feet in the water (you know, where any little kids who cant swim yet enter and stand near) and proceeded to get mad and loud because she didnt want to get wet! I had such an urge to take a picture of the scene and blur her out so that I could show where she was!
The morning of our flight, we had to get up at 4am to have my mom drop us off at Dallas Love Field airport. Id never been to this airport so I wanted to make sure we were there atleast by 4:30am for our 6am flight. Turns out, the Continental terminal is pretty small and there was less than 50 people there at that time- including the airport security and airline check-in people! We checked our one bag, got through security and found our gate in about 10 mins. Then we tried killing time by walking around, but that was a short walk and since the eating places and newsstand were not open at that time, we just sat and waited for boarding call. The man at the Continental gate gave both of my boys a pair of wings to place on their shirts. Of course, they were plastic with a small sticky on back so they didnt last long. My DS13 just snapped them in half when he tried putting his in his backpack (it was a little too juvenile for him anyway) and my DS8 lost his somewhere from the gate to our seat. His fell off, but luckily, he wasnt too concerned. We had one plane change in Houston, but then we were on our way to MCO!!
I had wanted the boys to sleep on the plane from Houston to Orlando, but we all ended up watching a movie on the way. Once we landed in Orlando, I was focused on making sure we didnt go the wrong way while heading to the Magical Express bus stop.
For some reason, every time we've used ME I have gone the entirely wrong way and I was determined to not do that again this year! I was really happy that I checked our bag and used the ME luggage tag this time! Two years ago we never got our ME luggage tags so we had to go get our bag from the baggage claim carousel, I didn't enjoy getting that bag to the ME bus but I was glad to not have to wait for our bag once we checked in that year. I debated a bit this year about whether to use the ME yellow tag or not, but once I actually packed that very heavy bag....well, it was obvious I didn't want to mess with it myself after we landed!
We landed on time, in fact, a few minutes before our scheduled 11am arrival time. It was about 15 mins from the plane, to ME lines, and on to a waiting bus! We only had one family in front of us in the Pop Century line and we only stood a couple of minutes before they led us to our bus. We got an actual ME bus- though I personally dont care what the bus looks like as long as we get there! The bus was almost full so we had to sit at the very back. I was hoping to get a picture of the Disney World gate as we arrived, but no such luck this time.
My boys were so excited now! They didnt even bother watching the video on the monitors. Theyve seen it before and I guess it doesnt get them pumped up anymore. I was TRYING to watch it when my sister started texting me and asking me where we were and letting me know they were still about 2 hours away. They drove from TX. Then I remembered to call my mom to let her and my dad know we landed safely. After that, I watched the rest of the video and I had tears in my eyes because a little girl next to me who was about 4 or 5 was getting a big kick out of the video and she kept telling her mom and dad Its Mickey! Its Minnie! and she was waving her hands around and clapping. It was so sweet!
Our bus driver was nice, but his attempts at comedy were not so great and he kept saying something along the lines of Disney is Magic so you should have a magical day! And he gave a few facts as we drove and ended most sentences with something like dont forget to have a magical day since Disney is magic and we want you to feel magical It did annoy me a bit because it was like he was pushing the words Magic and Magical too much when I knew wed have a Magical time anyway! It was good that he was nice and acted like he cared though, sometimes you get drivers who seem to be going through the motions and they only say whatever required script and barely even smile.
The bus made one stop before Pop. We let most of the guests off at CBR. I keep saying well try a moderate resort one year, and this one looks so nice! Guess Ill see. We dont spend too much time in our room and Id rather spend less on a value and do more shopping or dining or something.
Anyway, next stop .POP CENTURY!! Ive never stayed here before so when we saw the resort signs, I was getting more and more excited! My DS13, who was sitting in the seat in front of me, looked at me between the seats with the biggest grin! He never wants to smile for pictures so I made sure to snap that quick!!
My DS8 was sitting next to me and was giggling uncontrollably by now so I snapped his big smile too!
Once we got off of the ME bus and entered the Pop lobby, it was about 12:15. I was smiling from ear to ear and I remembered that Corrine1973 made it on an earlier flight! I got her text after I turned my phone on when we landed. There were kind of long lines at check-in and even at Online Check-in line, so I was thinking we might be waiting for a bit. Weve always had a short or no line to check in at the All Stars, but I was so excited to finally be at WDW that I didnt care!! As it turns out, we only waited in line about 3 mins. And our room was ready!! The CM was nice enough to check and tell me that my sister's room was a connecting room next to ours. My boys went to the little play/sitting room near the front desk but they were only there a few minutes because I got checked in pretty quick. The man showed me where our room was on the map .my heart sank immediately. Now, I hadnt paid for a preferred room or made any room requests other than a connecting room with my sister, but from looking at the map, I thought we had a long walk to our room. I mulled that over for a few minutes while I looked for the Concierge Desk- I had to add 2 more park days to mine and my kids tickets. With my nephew leaving 2 days before we did, I had made our tickets 5 day park hoppers. That part actually took longer than checking in. I didnt wait in that line long, but the CM took longer than I thought to add the days and even longer for some reason to charge it to my debit card! He had me worried that something was wrong with my card or my account!!
With the days added, we finally started what I thought was going to be the long haul to our room. I was pleasantly surprised that the room wasnt as far as it seemed on the map! It was maybe a 5 minute walk! We walked in, the boys did their celebratory dives on the beds, and I unpacked our carry ons. Even though I told the boys we were going to go eat lunch at the Everything Pop food court before we did anything else, they kept asking about swimming as they checked out the channels on the TV. A minute later, I discovered an annoying problem with our room and I have to admit I worried that this might be a sign of things to come.....
What was wrong in our room? I'll tell you all about it in my next update!
WooHoo, you started a TR and I am the first one here to enjoy it. I love the name you chose, so creative. I can't wait to read more, it is such a great start. You got me really wondering what is wrong with your room, hopefully it wasn't something to bad.
WooHoo, you started a TR and I am the first one here to enjoy it. I love the name you chose, so creative. I can't wait to read more, it is such a great start. You got me really wondering what is wrong with your room, hopefully it wasn't something to bad.
Hi! Welcome!! We really loved Pop too! My kids already said that's where we should stay next year, but I am wondering if I'll try the new Art of Animation resort next year.
Hi!! We didn't like the heat either, but we always deal with it since the end of May/beginning of June seems to be when we are usually able to go. I miss when we were able to go in October! Love that time of year at WDW!!
Ok, so while I was unpacking our carry on bags, the boys were watching the TV and channel surfing. A minute after the TV was turned on, it went off. I looked around for the remote thinking I accidentally put a bag on the power button. My oldest son was holding the remote and he said he must have hit the button. He turned the TV back on. Another minute later, the TV turned off again! Ummm, I bet Zadrin is just messing with us as a joke! I take the remote, turn on the TV and set the remote on the dresser. Then we all stare at the TV to see what happens. About 90 seconds later, POOF! It goes off again! Ok, whats going on?? All 3 of us are now looking from the TV to one another and I say that maybe theres a sleep timer and its messing up or something. I grab the remote and turn the TV on one more time, play with the Menu, dont see a timer, so Im looking for any clue as to what could be wrong. The good news is that about 3 minutes pass and it hasnt turned off anymore! Cool! Dont know what I did but the TV isnt turning off and thats all that matters! I finish unpacking, I put the bags up above the clothes rack near the bathroom and CLICK the TV turns off again!
Alrighty then! Time to let the front desk deal with it! Its not THAT big of a deal because were not in WDW to watch TV but when we ARE in the room later we will want to lay down and watch TV. I call the front desk and tell them about the TV and the woman who answered said someone from Maintenance will be there later to look at it. Works for me since were about to go have lunch at the Everything Pop food court! So off we go!
This is the first time weve ever done the dining plan. We had the QSDP- we did the free dining promo to try it out! Even though I read up as much as I could on The DIS to be prepared for what we can and cant get, I still managed to forget something. We grabbed our meals and our refillable mugs, and I was thinking that the mugs were our included drink . The CM at the register was really nice and told me I omitted our drinks that come with our meal credit, and luckily it was not very busy right then so Zadrin ran to get the 3 missing drinks! I mention that the CM was nice about the situation because I had a smarty pants, grouchy britches CM later in the trip that wasnt so nice about me making a food related mistake. (Miguel- I still havent forgotten about you buddy!!!) I didnt bother taking pictures of our food cuz were pretty boring as far as food goes. Its pretty much all Burgers, Pizza, and Chicken Nuggets for us all week!
After we ate, we went back to our room to drop off our mugs and I called my sister to see how close to arriving she was. She said they were about 30 minutes away. I had already told my boys that I would let them swim when we first got to Pop, but I told them we should wait until their cousins arrived and all go at the same time. Of course, they disagreed! Sadly for them, I made them go exploring the resort with me to wait for my sister and her family. Heres some of the pictures we took:
One of the Twister game areas was pretty close to our room! We were in the 70's section room 6169
Here's across Hourglass Lake- The progress of the new Art of Animation Resort!
Goofy's pop jets were not working while we were there
Our room was actually the door you see behind Zethan's head in this picture
Sorry if the pictures in this post are too small. I had computer issues and it was taking too long to go back and make them just a bit bigger in photobucket. I actually didnt get all of the pictures I wanted to take because both boys were getting anxious to swim and were not into checking out the resort like I was! They were getting grouchy so we headed back to the room to change and figure out which of the 3 pools we would swim in......
Great update. I couldn't help but think that at this time me and Liam were probably at the airport heading to the ME area. Great to see so many pictures of Pop. We never explored anything other than our little pocket of heaven. Oh well maybe next time, though I am with you and thinking of trying out the new resort the next time we go.
Well, I was going to post this last night but it was too late for me by the time I got home! Better late than never! So where were we?? Oh yes.....
Once we got back to our room, we started to get changed for the pool and I realized there was some noise in the connecting room so I knocked on the door that connects the rooms and yep, my sister and her family were just getting settled into their room!! After a hug filled greeting all around, I filled my sister in on our pool plan and she let me know they all needed to go eat first. The funny thing was that her kids couldn’t get the TV in their room to turn on! We figured out quickly that it was just the batteries in the remote. The front desk had to ask someone from housekeeping to bring new batteries. The guy coming from Maintenance apparently wasn’t “allowed” to go get the batteries….that’s funny! The maintenance guy actually showed up about this time and after checking out what the TV in my room was doing, he said he’d bring a new TV to switch out. He was really nice! He heard me tell Zadrin that we would need to ask for extra towels for the pool from Mousekeeping and he actually brought some extra towels when he came back with the new TV. (Yet, he wasn’t allowed to bring the batteries for my sister’s room ). Anyway, my boys decided they wanted to go to the Computer Pool because it was less crowded- this ended up basically messing up my plans to meet Corrine1973 and her son at the Hippy Dippy pool later, but I decided they should pick whatever pool they wanted to go to. My sister and her family didn’t finally meet us at the pool til about an hour later. I wanted her to watch my boys while I ran to meet Corrine1973 and Liam but by that time, Corrine had left to get ready for their ADR.
So, our original plan was to all go nap so that we could have the energy to do late EMH at MK that night. But everyone was too excited to nap so once we all had showered and changed out of our swimsuits, we all just hung out in the rooms visiting, watching TV (which had been switched out for a new one by the time we got back from the pool) and waiting til it was time to head to the buses.
When we headed to the bus stop to go to MK, the line was outrageously long. Lots of people were headed to do EMH too! The Epcot bus line, however, was pretty short so I asked if everyone just wanted to take the bus to Epcot and then take the Monorail to MK. This way my nieces and nephew could for sure ride the Monorail. I wanted them to experience whatever they could since they were only there for 5 days and one of those days they would be driving into Orlando to shop. So off we went to Epcot! Once we got to Epcot we headed to the Monorail but I had to take my obligatory 1st pictures of Spaceship Earth!
Once we got to the TTC, I realized this was as good a time as any to ride the Ferryboat! So instead of the 2nd monorail over to MK, we got on the Ferryboat! The kids all LOVED it! I only had my point and shoot camera for this trip so I didn’t get the best pictures of Cinderella’s Castle.
I decided to try to collect Transportation cards on this trip and so after we got off of the ferryboat I asked 3 different CMs if they had cards before I finally got lucky and scored 2 boat cards! My sister and everyone else stopped and waited for me before we got to the bag check and she asked me what was wrong. I told her "Nothing. I was getting a Transportation card, see?" I showed her the cards and told her I was gonna collect as many as I could this trip and she gave me her first of many "Seriously??" comments and looked at me like I was looney......she's way too grown up for me! LOL
My impromptu alternate plan to get us to MK made us take way longer than originally expected, so the MSEP was already starting when we finally got inside. We opted to take the backstage route that was open to go ahead and go to Torrowland and start riding some rides instead of fight the parade crowd. First thing we rode was Buzz Lightyear!
The wait was 20 minutes at most, but most of the kids started in on the “how long is it gonna be” whininess but they all loved the ride. I rode with my oldest son because I told him I knew all the high scoring spots to shoot so that I could beat him……NOTE TO SELF: Knowing the high scoring targets does me no good when I can’t aim well enough to actually hit them! I lost to him......miserably!
The lines were pretty long for Space Mountain and Tomorrowland Speedway so we decided to go ahead and eat our late dinner at Cosmic Ray’s. We didn’t know what to expect at EMH but since we were coming back to MK later in the week, we just thought we’d watch Wishes and ride any rides with shorter lines. Which actually wasn’t many. After we ate, we got on TTA (I still call it the Wedway People mover!) and then stood in a looooong line for the Speedway. We missed Wishes, we only stood for a minute and looked at the fireworks that we could see from Tomorrowland and went ahead to Fantasyland to see what we could get on. The Tea Cups had a really quick line so we rode those then we headed towards Liberty Square. My youngest son was getting really tired by now so I tried to carry him on my back for a few minutes to give him a rest. Big mistake! My bad ankle started hurting and so I made him get down. We were all going to ride Haunted Mansion but Zethan was just too tired and he also decided he was scared of HM after last year’s trip! So me and him sat outside near Liberty Square Market while everyone else rose HM. It was about 45 minutes before they got done. Zethan fell asleep almost immediately after we sat down so I let him nap since I certainly wasn’t going to carry an 8yr old back to the bus and to our room! I got some pictures as we left. I hadn’t been to MK at night for a few years!
We got back to Pop at around 1:45am and everyone was wiped out! I set my alarm before I went to bed and wished for some Pixie Dust to help get us up on time to make rope drop at Epcot the next morning…hey, a girl can dream can’t she!!
Side note: I just realized in a previous update I forgot to mention that when we got to our room after we had lunch, there was a message from Mickey Mouse on our room phone wishing us a great time during our trip! It was so fun to hear!
On Monday, our Epcot day ..my alarm went off just as planned! I got up, turned it off, and then laid back down and fell back to sleep .. My inner mouse said Hey! Get up lady! I woke myself suddenly, about 45 minutes after my alarm had gone off and I jumped up in one of those panics that you have when you wake up late for work or school. I knocked on the connecting door to my sisters room and woke them up, then I got my boys and my nephew up so we could start getting dressed as quickly as possible. Me and all the boys were ready in record time. My sister, her husband and my nieces ..not so much . I had wanted to be at Epcot by no later than 8:30am for the 9am rope drop, but by the time everyone was ready, it was already almost 9:00. Oh well!
When we finally got to the Epcot bus line, we just missed the bus that was there and were the first in line for the next bus. Luckily, it was less than 5 minutes before it got there. My sister said, Uhhh .maybe I dont want to take this bus! and she laughed. I looked and this is what the marquee on the bus said:
Needless to say, we didnt really care that our driver was new or new-ish or whatever, we got on the bus and we were soon at Epcot! We entered the turnstiles about 9:30 or so and I grabbed everyones KTTW cards and me, Zethan and Mikiah hustled off to get FPs for Soarin while everyone else started towards TT. We got back to the group and we all got into the now 40 minute standby line at Test Track. About 30 minutes into the line, we realized we couldnt hear the cars driving around the outdoor track anymore. It wasnt long before an announcement was made that the ride was momentarily stopped and that the line would be moving slower than expected . Of course, the announcement was made only AFTER my sister had a loud argument with some line cutters behind us! The short version goes like this: a couple behind us tried to push past us at a corner turn in the line, my sister and BIL both told them, sorry, they were behind us, the lady said, well then GO! WALK! among other things, and her and my sister yelled at each other for a few minutes. I was in front of our group and I actually started thinking Crap! Are they gonna end up kicking my sister out of line? And will she be mad if I stay?
I am totally against line cutters but my sister likes to be rude sometimes and has to have the last word so I had to do my own Seriously?? to her for this one! The really funny thing is that the couple is in 2 of our pictures I took when we first got in line, AND they are in my sisters TT picture!!! (still BEHIND her )
Ok, so heres where taking too long to do my TR and not taking notes catches up with me! I dont remember the order now but we ended up riding Ellens Energy Adventure, Soarin, The Seas with Nemo, Living With the Land and then signed up for the Kim Possible Adventures before we had lunch at Electric Umbrella.
Let me just say I had NEVER gone on Soarin before because I was nervous that it would make me sick. Im so glad I rode it this time because I LOVED IT! We all did! After that, me and my sister really wanted to eat at Sunshine Seasons because we used to always eat at The Land Pavillion when we went with our parents over the years, but we looked at the menu and knew our kids (especially my picky boys!) would not eat most of the items served there. So we walked over to the Electric Umbrella, where I had the pleasure of being helped by Miguel
I try not to let things get to me when Im in my Happy Place .but Miguel made me want to poke him in the eyes ..but only for a moment! I ordered our food and I managed not to order one of our drinks (we were on the QSDP) and Miguel sighed, and said in a grouchy I-hate-my-job-and-youre-making-my-day-worse tone, You STILL have ONE MORE DRINK TO ORDER!
I said, Oh, I do? Im sorry.
He said Yes! You got three meals, didnt you?? So you need three drinks! And he rolled his eyes .
I did the long blink thing, faked a smile, then said, Imagine that .. then told him what my last drink should be.
I looked at his name tag because I was kind of irritated and planned to tell someone that maybe Miguel needed a break so that he could lose his grouchy attitude, but I let it go. I really didnt want to spend any of my park time trying to find the supervisor or manager when they were already busy in there to begin with.
After we ate, I think we rode Spaceship Earth before we headed for World Showcase! I know we rode it for sure that day but I dont remember the exact order of events anymore but we let the kids look around at Innoventions before WS so Im pretty sure we did Spaceship Earth right before that.
To make up for my lack of remembering details here ..Ill show you some pictures from that day!
Here's my sister, her husband, and all 5 kids in line at TT. Zadrin looks like we were forcing him to be there.....I promise he had fun! He's at that age where he doesn't want to smile in pictures
Welcome!!! I miss the days when I could go at any time of the year! I went once in mid-May when my oldest was little, I remember it being less crowded. How was it when you went?
About this time is when my sister and BIL wanted to take a smoke break. I dont smoke, so I suggested we head towards Mexico and me and my boys would wait for them there. They had already scoped out a DSA on the park map somewhere near Mexico so we all started heading that way together. Zethan really wanted an ice cream cone (his favorite snack!) so me and my boys lagged behind to get him a cone from that ice cream place near the big fountain by Spaceship Earth. The line was really long and I know Zethan prefers soft server anyway and that ice cream is hand dipped, so I talked him into waiting to find some soft serve in WS. He wasnt thrilled about that but he waited. We started towards WS and found that my sister and BIL stopped to let their kids play in the pop jets that are along the way toward WS. All three of her kids were close to getting themselves completely soaking wet from head to toe when I asked them if they were gonna complain about being wet and cold on the next 2 air conditioned rides. My sister said Oh yeah, didnt think about that ..eh, theyll be fine! My boys dont like walking around in wet clothes so they just put their hands in the water jets for a few seconds and asked if we could go ahead and start towards Mexico. YEP!! So we did! Heres some pictures I took before that and then on our way to Mexico:
I wanted my boys together for this one but they were being brats to each other so I just settled for separate pics
After we were all back together, we rode the ride the Gran Fiesta Tour ride then we took a break in the A/C while the kids colored the Duffys and got the passports signed at the Kidcot Station.
Next, it was time to get our Kimmunicators from Norway for the Kim Possible mission. We rode Maelstrom before heading to China where our KP mission was going to take place! I really love that my nieces and nephew were so excited about riding everything we went on and that my boys got to share the WDW magic with their cousins!
It was about this time that my ankle started hurting again. I took some ibuprofen, but that pretty much didnt do anything for the pain. I didnt let it slow me down (yet). I walked around and helped the kids do the KP mission while my sis and BIL .sat down.......or went and smoked ..I dont really remember what they did! Our KP mission took a little longer than it should have because Zadrin pushed too many buttons in the beginning and we missed where to go for one of the clues. After we got done, all of the kids decided theyd rather not do another mission, so while Zadrin went back to Norway to turn our Kimmunicator in, I took some pictures:
My sister and BIL were ready for a snack .or a drink rather .and since there was both soft serve ice cream and Grey Goose slushiness in France, we decided to head to France for a break! We didnt explore any of the pavilions along the way ( ) but I did take tons of pictures! (Which I'll include in another post since I have so many already in this one!)
It rained for all of 2 minutes .just long enough for us to bother taking out our ponchos, then we took them right back off before we got to France. We all had ice cream while my sister and her husband had a Grey Goose slush. Ok, so now I remember that we hadnt done Nemo or Spaceship Earth yet! After France (where I managed not to take any of my own pictures) we headed towards the United Kingdom, but after some PP pictures,
...we stopped (AGAIN!! ) for my sister & BILs smoke break. That turned into a 20 minute break somehow. It took us forever to get the 2 of them to get going again! Apparently I was the only one who wanted to check stuff out because everyone took off walking and didnt want to stop to see anything but the drink kiosk in the UK. I saw a red phone booth while we got drinks and I told my sister how I had specifically saved the numbers to the phone booths so that I could call them while we were there. She laughed for a second then said, Wait? Are you serious? Why would you want to call them? I told her that it would be fun to call the phone while the kids are checking out the phone booth but she just said that I was weird! Shes NO fun!
Everyone took off without me when I stopped to take some pictures, so I missed a cute Magical Moment that Zethan had!
Up next .Zethans 1st cool Magical Moment (that I MISSED!!)
Soooooooo, as I was TRYING to take some pictures while we were in the UK Pavillion of Epcot, everyone (including both of my kids! ) walked ahead of me on the way to use our FPs to ride Soarin (I think .). My kids have long ago become used to/bored with me wanting to take pictures when were on vacation and especially when were at WDW. So I only did a few since it defeated my purpose since none of the kids were in the pictures!!
After I caught up to everyone, Zadrin was telling Zethan to tell me what just happened. I was immediately worried that he had fallen and scraped his knee or would be reporting that he bumped into someone and made them drop their food or drink .yes, I know, I automatically assume the worst! But instead Zethan says Oh .oh yeah, that guy gave me a sticker. And he just kind of motioned behind us. I said, Oh! That was nice! What kind of sticker? as I glanced behind us to see if I could somehow see the Mysterious Sticker Man. He said This Police sticker, and he turned to show me. It was a sticker of Mickey Mouse in a Security guard shirt and it said Junior Security on the bottom.
Zadrin had to give me details since Zethan thought it was way too inconvenient to tell me about it after I asked him to stop for a second so I could take his picture with the sticker on his shirt. Basically, a group of 2 or 3 men wearing Disney Security uniforms had stopped Zethan and asked if he would help Mickey by being a Junior Security officer. Zethan said yes and they gave him the sticker which he put on his shirt. I was way more excited about it than Zethan was. He said they must of known Poppa (his Grandfather-my Dad) was a Policeman. Anyway, I thought it was cool and I wish I had witnessed what transpired. Oh well! Still fun!
Anyway, looking at the order of my pictures from my camera, I think this is when we rode Living with the Land then did The Seas with Nemo and Friends, we tried to go do Journey into Imagination but they had closed it for the day. This is actually when we rode Spaceship Earth (I have pictures I took during the ride-without the flash-but my point and shoot digital camera sucks .with big lips )
By now, it seemed like a waste of time to go back to the room to rest since we planned to see Illuminations that night and wed only be in the room maybe an hour before wed have to turn around and head back to Epcot. We just casually walked around and towards World Showcase Lagoon so we could find a place to sit and wait for Illuminations. We found a pretty decent place to sit (on the ground) at World Showcase Plaza between the gift shops. My ankle was hurting again so I was more than happy to sit and rest until the show.
I LOVE Illuminations and I was so happy that all the kids and even my non-Disney loving BIL enjoyed it! No matter how many times I see it, Illuminations makes me tear up! It was great!!!
As soon as the show was over, we all started heading to the bus stop. We had already discussed beforehand with the kids how crowded it would be on the way out of the park and we all decided to pair up and just get to the bus stop in our pairs instead of trying to stay all together. All 8 of us met up at almost the same time at the Pop Century line at the bus stop so we were all in line together anyway! I actually saw DIS member Corrine1973 behind us a bit in the bus line but she was a little too far away for me to call her name (without being annoying to everyone between us) so I tried texting her but I dont think she had her phone on or couldnt hear it. Once we got back to Pop, we headed to the food court to get a late dinner. I saw Corrine and Liam at the drink station so I went to say hello! She had us follow her to her room because she is a sweetheart and had some goodies for my boys and a bag she was nice enough to get for me from her local Disney Outlet (I LOVE that bag! Thanks again Corrine!!) We talked for a few minutes then I left to let them relax and so we could go get our dinner. Liam is soooooo cute! And he has this awesome contagious smile! I bet hes never met a stranger! Hes so sweet! I wish we had been able to hang out with Corrine and Liam more!
Once we had dinner, we headed back to our room and each room had one of these:
The kids all thought they were cool!
We all just relaxed and got ready for bed so that we could try getting up on time for Rope Drop at Animal Kingdom the next morning I guess I should have known better ..
Ummmm, apparently in my last post, "now" meant a month later....oopsie! Anyway, here's an update!
Ahhhh, Tuesday! This was our Animal Kingdom day and I planned to go to DHS that night to watch Fantasmic since we hadnt seen it since before my DS9 was even born! I got up when my alarm went off and I got me and my boys awake and ready to go on time! Woo hoo! One of my nieces had slept in our room the night before (instead of my nephew) so I woke her up too and she went to the other room via the connecting door to start getting ready. I was happy that all three of my sisters kids were also able to get ready on time. My sister and BIL well .they were a different story. When it was about 10 minutes until I wanted to be at the bus stop to get on the AK bus I figured out that my BIL was STILL asleep and my sister was still wearing her pajamas!!!
Now, when Im photographing families, kids, brides, or performing my job in general, people always comment on how patient I am Well, Im actually a very impatient person. I just try to stay positive and use a lot of tact when dealing with customers/strangers etc. But with my family members or close friends ..I have no problem showing my impatience. Zadrin asked why couldnt we just leave them and they could meet up with us once they got to the park. I already knew my nieces and nephew did not want me to take this plan of action.
And actually, my sister and BIL were going to be leaving before lunch from AK for a scheduled tee time at Disneys Magnolia Golf Course. I have no problem keeping all of the kids with me at the park while they golf, but I wanted to make sure my sis and her hubby went to the park for a while as planned so that eventually this vacation didnt turn in to them having alone time all week while I hit the parks with their kids. (Looking back, I wish I had done this so that my nieces and nephew would have seen a lot more than they did!) Especially since they had 2, yes TWO, trips in the past few years to WDW that they did not take their kids! Granted, one was a trip my sister won from work and the other was a conference for the same job, but they didnt even try to make arrangements to take the kids on the trip that was won! Ok, ok .Im ending my rant or else Ill keep myself off track too long!
Alright, Ill cut to the chase .we left about 30 mins later than I had wanted to. We got to AK shortly after the park opened. We took a few PhotoPass pictures
The PP photographer told us to look scared at a monster that was gonna be coming out of the box.....Zadrin did the wrong kind of scared face I think....
Then we headed off to see what the line for Expedition Everest was looking like. We got there and the line said it was only a 25 minute wait, but it was growing fast as we approached! We decided to get FPs instead and ride it later. While I was getting our FPs, my sister commented on how fast the Standby line was moving and she suggested that everyone else get in line and I could join them once I got done!! Ironic that she wanted me to cut line to catch up to them after the incident at Test Track the day before, dont you think? I told her no, I was almost done and we needed to stay all together but she essentially said it would be ok since people do it all the time. So off they all went, as I got our FPs. Im of the camp that thinks the entire party needs to enter the line at the same time and I refused to cut line to join them. The line was moving really fast, but at every turn when the rest of the family could see me, they were yelling for me to jump over railings or push past people to join them but I shook my head and wouldnt go. There was about 50-60 people between me and the rest of my group. My sister finally let all of the people between us pass them until they were back in line with me. She tried telling me how dumb I was for not cutting to catch up to them but after I reminded her about the TT line experience she let it go.
So, anyway, we all rode EE and everyone loved it! My DS9 (Zethan) declared this ride his very favorite in the past but this time he was bothered for some reason by the dark part and told me he liked it but didnt want to ride again later. Oh well!! We all made our way over to Dinosaur after that. Zethan is a big fan of dinosaurs and he loves this ride too! Since Dinosaur seats 4 people per row, it was my sister, her husband, one of their twins and my oldest son in one row .then the other twin, Zethan, me and my nephew (6yrs) behind them. During the ride, my nephew was wildly kicking his feet. I thought he was scared so I kept assuring him it was ok, the ride would be over soon, tried to hold his hand, etc. When the ride was over, I kept asking if he was ok and he looked at me all confused and said he was fine and that it was a cool ride. I told him I thought hed been scared because he was kicking his feet and he said No! I have lights in my shoes and I was trying to make them light up! LOL He said he couldnt see some of the dinosaurs very well so I guess he thought the lights in his shoes would help!
After we were finished riding Dinosaur, we stopped to contemplate our next move because it was getting close to 11am and my sister and her husband would need to leave soon in order to have time to get back to Pop and wait for the car that was scheduled to pick them up and take them to Magnolia Golf Course for their tee time. Somehow, our contemplation time turned into a smoke break for them. So I took pictures of the kids with this dinosaur while waited:
After we finally got moving again, we walked right up to a character meet and greet with Pluto and Goofy. The line was pretty short so we jumped in line!
It was cute because Pluto kept rubbing his eyes and acting confused at seeing my twin nieces. He grabbed my nephew and put him between the girls and motioned to us as if to say Thats better! Now I get it!
I meant to have a group shot of all 5 kids but we had already taken up a lot of time and there were younger kids behind us and I didn't want them to wait any longer. So after all of the kids had their pictures with Pluto and Goofy, my sister looked at the time and decided it would be better if she and her husband head back to Pop to change for their tee time. If they had lunch with us first it would be cutting it close for making it back on time. So they left and me and the kids headed off to look around and find our lunch spot. Pizzafari!
We are staying at pop for our 3rd straight year. We love it there. 
I actually didnt get all of the pictures I wanted to take because both boys were getting anxious to swim and were not into checking out the resort like I was! They were getting grouchy so we headed back to the room to change and figure out which of the 3 pools we would swim in......
Great to see so many pictures of Pop. We never explored anything other than our little pocket of heaven.
Oh well maybe next time, though I am with you and thinking of trying out the new resort the next time we go.
We figured out quickly that it was just the batteries in the remote. The front desk had to ask someone from housekeeping to bring new batteries. The guy coming from Maintenance apparently wasn’t “allowed” to go get the batteries….that’s funny! The maintenance guy actually showed up about this time and after checking out what the TV in my room was doing, he said he’d bring a new TV to switch out. He was really nice! He heard me tell Zadrin that we would need to ask for extra towels for the pool from Mousekeeping and he actually brought some extra towels when he came back with the new TV. (Yet, he wasn’t allowed to bring the batteries for my sister’s room 
). Anyway, my boys decided they wanted to go to the Computer Pool because it was less crowded- this ended up basically messing up my plans to meet Corrine1973 and her son at the Hippy Dippy pool later, but I decided they should pick whatever pool they wanted to go to. My sister and her family didn’t finally meet us at the pool til about an hour later. I wanted her to watch my boys while I ran to meet Corrine1973 and Liam but by that time, Corrine had left to get ready for their ADR. 
) for my sister & BILs smoke break. That turned into a 20 minute break somehow. It took us forever to get the 2 of them to get going again! Apparently I was the only one who wanted to check stuff out because everyone took off walking and didnt want to stop to see anything but the drink kiosk in the UK. I saw a red phone booth while we got drinks and I told my sister how I had specifically saved the numbers to the phone booths so that I could call them while we were there. She laughed for a second then said, Wait? Are you serious? Why would you want to call them? I told her that it would be fun to call the phone while the kids are checking out the phone booth but she just said that I was weird! Shes NO fun! 
Granted, one was a trip my sister won from work and the other was a conference for the same job, but they didnt even try to make arrangements to take the kids on the trip that was won! Ok, ok
.Im ending my rant or else Ill keep myself off track too long!
