Johnson Family Summer Vacation - COMPLETE -Days 1-16- PICS FIXED!!

[RVGal]

I would have loved to see the lifeguard when you let the 3 y/o go with a "we'll see if he can swim".

 

[loribell]

Wow. I can't believe it is almost over again. I finally got caught up through today!!!! Maybe one day I will get around to posting my report.

 

[loribell]

I would have loved to see the lifeguard when you let the 3 y/o go with a "we'll see if he can swim".

Me too! I bet he about freaked!

 

[keishashadow]

who knew????

Marci can hang ten kowabunga, dudette think i'm going to start calling you superchick...is there nothing you can't do?

 

[marciemi]

Day 15 – the last real day at the parks – sob! It’s almost over! Today we got here bright and early again, and managed to run into Kristy and her family (she was doing the Segway tour, but the rest of them were waiting at the gate as well) and Keith and his family, who we were hoping we’d see at some point during the trip. We all had a good time talking to the CM’s, including these two guys (Pete from the Dream squad on the left):

For the life of me I can’t remember the name of the other guy, who was keeping us all in stitches with his stories of being a CM. Telling us that when he gets tired of dealing with the public, when people ask him a question, he says “Well, I don’t really know. You see, it’s my first day here!” When Royce pointed out that people might notice he had 2 service awards on his badge, he said he tells them “Oh, this? That’s not my name. It’s not my badge – I didn’t get one yet so someone lent me this one!” (ps: he was just kidding about all of this and the other stories he told us, but it was a lot of fun!) Oh, and I wanted to include a pic from our trip in 2000 (with Grandma) to show you that we’d figured out being first at the turnstiles was important long before the days of TGM:

Well, they finally let us through the turnstiles. I decided to skip Test Track so went to get Soarin' FP's while the rest rode TT. Royce managed to get a bunch of pics of the guys on TT, and I love this one of them walking in. If you look closely, you’ll see a nice Matthew silhouette’d traffic sign:

A couple more shots:

And one to compare to the last trip in 2005:

We met at Mission Space and rode that (without a line). Walked across to the Land where we were already in our window so I ran in and got another set of FP's for Soarin' (9:42 window for the first, then 11:05). Went and did Nemo and then Turtle Talk. Then back to the Land, where we rode Soarin' with our first set of FP's.

While waiting for the rope drop to head to Test Track, Royce had gotten some special FP's (good only at Living with the Land, Mission Space, Maelstrom, or HISTA) for answering a trivia question at Rope Drop. We decided to use it on Living with the Land next. This was a good deal because they weren't running the FP machines or line so it really worked as a "go to the front of the line" pass. The line was about 30 min at that point.

By then we were in our next Soarin' window but the kids were tired of it and hungry and wanted to head over to WS for food, so we gave our FP's to another family (line was 70 minutes at that point!). They were very grateful since they were standing and looking at the time with an “oh, no, now what do we do?” look on their faces. As we were walking out, we looked down at the food court and saw Kristy and her family and waved a quick goodbye:

Stopped at Club Cool (several good flavors of cola - try and you'll find one you like and can refresh there a lot!). We got another pic from here to compare to when it used to be “Ice Station Cool”, back on our visit in 2000:

We then started working our way around the World Showcase for food again. We stopped in England for Fish and Chips and candy bars (my kids like the "Aero" kind), then France for dessert. On to Japan for soup and salads (okay, we weren't eating this meal in the right order but didn't want to backtrack!). The boys were having a good time in the gift shop, and Stephen decided he needed to get himself a pearl this time too.

We took the friendship launches back, then the kids spent a couple hours pin trading and playing in Innoventions. We did the place where you build your own robot – which was a lot of fun, but also a long wait. First you waited in a line, then you went into a little room where you learned about plastics and saw a demo, then you did the computer room where you designed a robot online and played games and competed with the other people, then you finally went in and made a plastic robot. Eric competing in the computer game:

We did a bit more shopping, and looked for any CM’s with pins to do last minute trading with before we headed out. Finally it was time to head back out:

We got back to the house around 4 and spent the remainder of the day either in the pool or packing and trying to get everything clean and back in the suitcases. Somehow, despite all the “consumables” we’d brought (snacks, toiletries, suntan lotion, etc.), everything still didn’t want to fit!

 

[loribell]

I think we should head back and do it again. Maybe this time I would actually be able to meet up with you at some point.

 

[marciemi]

Well this is it – the last and final day (sob!). Day 16 – also known as “returning to reality”. We packed up the car, cleaned out the house, and left bright and early yet again (actually around 8:30, which was late compared to other mornings). We had the idea down, but still managed to get lost on the freeway. Although that enabled us to see the cool Mickey antenna tower as we made our U-turn:

We finally got to the airport and got checked in. Watched our bags go through. I didn’t mention this on our trip out. One thing not to pack, if you don’t want security extremely concerned, is the laundry tablets. We packed an entire box of them (probably 24 tablets or so). This caused them to pull our bag out, dig through it until they found the box (which was in the original packaging), pull the box out, open it, open one of the sealed tablets and test it. Guess it shows up as really suspicious on the screens!

Anyways, we didn’t bring any home with us so no problems here. We were still a bit early, but had fun shopping in the myriad of shops in the Orlando airport. We also had the best (free!) wifi connection we’d had in two weeks, so we quickly caught up on all our emails and other online things. Here’s Matt having fun on the computer, while wearing a non-matching shirt for the first time in 2 weeks:

Meanwhile, his brothers had finally mastered Cat’s Cradle and were having fun playing together and working on things like Jacob’s Ladder, etc. This is a fun and easily packable thing (piece of yarn) to bring while waiting in lines:

Again our Air Tran flight boarded and landed nicely on time. We gathered up all our luggage while Royce went and retrieved our car. Timed it well and got it all out right as he pulled up. We loaded the car, and were on our way home. Stopped at Subway and within two hours were back at home. One last, very old, pic to leave you with. This one is from my first trip to the MK in 1978 when I was 12, along with my two younger brothers. You can see where we got the matching shirt ideas from!

Thanks for reading!

 

[JawsCPA]

Marci,

What a great trip report!!!

You have a very nice family and your boys seem great.

Loved the shirts - did you make the lime green ones with the characters? I couldn't see what each said in your pics.

For some reason, your pics on the first couple of pages don't show up - I only see an X. The before and after pics were great.

You sound like a fun family to hang with

 

[loribell]

 

[marciemi]

Yeah, I know Lori - now it's over for the second time!

Everyone else - I tried to fix all the pics on the first two pages. Please let me know if you can't see them now! Hopefully they're all better!

 

[loribell]

Yes the pics are working again. I know I hadn't said they weren't woring for me, but they weren't. I can see them all again.

 

[keishashadow]

things i learned while enjoying your report:
1) to save $20 take a pic of the ride monitor other than the charactar dinners/MNSSHP we never buy the pics, always thrilled to get the VISA freebie in Ecpot though.

2) the golf carts are mickey mouse carts! suddenly golfing in FLs humidity does't seem like such a bad idea lol

3) you had an awesome trip...planning the next one yet? helps to take the sting off the withdrawal.

 

[hannymom]

you have a great family. your boys are always smiling for pictures, my kids roll their eyes when i try to get family shots. they always tell me i take too many pictures. thanks again for taking the time to write your trip report. i really enjoyed it.

 

[OhMari]

Hi,
I live down state from you. I travel through Green Bay a lot. Go figure, I am a moderator for the TR boards from WI.

I really enjoyed the last 2 hours reading your TR. I have the same crocs as you do. How did you get your boys to wear the lime green ones. We rented a house the first time we went to WDW with our kids. Our kids loved the pool more than anything else.

What does your dh do in Green Bay? Do you work?