I have more in common with my MIL than I thought. Shocking, I know. Last night while we were having dinner, DF found an old park hopper ticket from their trip that still has one day left on it!!
I had never seen this variety, with the guests picture on it. MIL even had the receipt from the purchase of their 5 day park hopper tickets from the
Disney Store. $176.50 for each ticket. They even went to the Disney Store in New Hampshire so they wouldn't have to pay MA State Sales Tax.
I have never felt so proud!
I couldn't believe it, I think if I recall correctly I danced a jig when they showed it to me. DF convinced his Mom to go look for the rest of the stuff they saved from their trip. Let me tell you, it was like finding the Holy Grail. While they were looking in the basement, my BIL, was teasing me about how excited I was, so I was explaining The DIS and how I want to start going to WDW once a year. He thought I was completely ridiculous, but I didn't care, I was taking pictures of the Park Hopper.
She found the other tickets except for DF's. She thinks she let him keep it and now it is gone forever.
MIL had Birnbaums's Guide for Kids and she thinks the Unofficial Guide or something along those lines but she could not find the other book. Now, I have heard stories about the Legend of the Disney Trip Schedule and I finally got to see it with my own eyes.
I have never felt closer to MIL.
They went in August 1995. Their group was 10 strong. MIL, FIL, DF and BIL. Then DF's Aunt, Uncle, Three Cousins and One of the cousin's friends. 6 kids, 4 adults. DF was 14 at the time and his cousin, S who is also a bridesmaid was 15, they were the oldest. BIL was the youngest at age 9. They planned this trip more than a year out. They drove down with their campers, one for each family and stopped at various campsites along the way. Obviously they stayed at Ft. Wilderness. MIL still has her receipts for the campground!
FIL was not happy with the mapped out schedule, it was vacation after all. MIL wrote at the top, "Everything is subject to change." In fact, in the pen markings, you can see what they changed and tweaked. FIL has an extra day left because he declared mutiny one day since it was so hot and stayed back at the campsite. MIL says when they got back that day, he was sitting in a lawn chair, had hooked up the hose so it was above him, used an elastic on the nozzle to make it mist on him. Sadly, she doesn't have a picture of that.
The first thing any of them mention about this trip is the heat. Poor DF, in every picture they have you can see his shirt just soaked right through. Last night he told me this was before he developed the "doubling up technique." Yep, my DF wears two shirts everyday. Undershirt and a regular shirt to help with the sweatage.
On the schedule you can see they took off a Magic Kingdom Day and went to Blizzard Beach. In fact they went to all three water parks. River Country, Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon. MIL says her favorite was Blizzard Beach, hands down. They also went to Discovery Island. I tried taking pictures of their pictures, but they were too dark and didn't work out. So I have other fun stuff.
Sadly, no map for River Country.
But they did get Discovery Island!
BIL got picked at Discovery Island to help with an extremely large snake at the Reptile Relations show. One of the cousin's apparently got peed on by one of the monkeys.
On to the parks. DF remembers very little of this vacation, although I think some memories were stimulated last night after looking at the trip things.
Do you see the pen marks on the Magic Kingdom and MGM maps? Oh my goodness, MIL even had the attractions numbered in the order they would visit. Seriously, it was like meeting a long lost kindred spirit.
More of DF's 1995 Trip in the next post!
Though, DF really wants us all to stay at one of the Ft. Wilderness Cabins, maybe I can psych myself up for that in say about.....12 years. 
