May 2011 with the in-laws

[lledman]

Background: This trip was long awaited for by the kids and myself. We had plans to go Thanksgiving 2010 with some friends. The friends ended up backing out and b/c of finances we decided that it would be better for use to push the trip back a little. DSIL decided she wanted to take her family back to Disney in the spring so we decided to go together. We thought about staying onsite but since we would have DMIL and each have more than 2 kids we’d need more than 1 room per family. My aunt and uncle have several timeshares and were gracious enough to give us an awesome rate on a transfer. Next came deciding on a date, neither of us cared if our kids had to miss school but would prefer that they didn’t. We thought about spring break but were both scared off by the crowds. So we decided on mid-May. After searching available timeshares we decided on May 15 – 22 at a 3-bedroom unit at Cypress Point Grande Villas. This gave us 3 bathrooms, 3 bedrooms and 2 sofa beds along with a full kitchen and a kitchenette.

Cast of Characters
Me – Lisa – the Disney planning freak of the trip
Chris – DH - not a Disney fan but tolerates it for the rest of us
Tyler – 12 – oldest DS – at that strange pre-teen stage of life but still a great kid and fun to be around
Devin – 5 – probably the perfect age for Disney – he had a blast this trip
Tyra – 3 – tomboy princess
Joan – DMIL – Nanny – loves spending time with her grandkids
Carla – DSIL
Derrick – DBIL
Janessa – 12 – niece
Kalycia – 8 – niece (her nickname is Tink)
Zanayiah – 4 – niece
Allonayah – 3 – niece
Cheyenne – 1 – niece

I warn you now that I have lost my trip report notes so everything you get is from memory (don’t be expecting much) and photos.

 

[lledman]

(apology – I know most of the early photos are a repeat from my pre-trip report but they tell the story so you get to look at them again)

I had been packed for over a week – probably more like a month. Thursday evening, Carla dropped off her van, since my MIL was going with us we couldn’t all fit in my car and although the truck does seat 6 I can’t imagine 14 hours with 6 people in the truck so Carla let us drive their van. I loaded up what I could – basically everything but the overnight bathroom bag – you know last minute stuff like glasses, medicines, and all.



(love the stow go feature


Chris did an oil change and we were ready to go – too bad we still had another day to wait.

Friday the 13th finally arrived. Tyler and Devin got on their busses and went to school. Tiny Girl and I got some cleaning done. Devin is in morning Pre-K so he gets home from school around lunch time. After eating lunch I laid down with the 2 of them and took a nap. Tyler gets home from school around 2:30 and so he packed up his car-ride stuff (iPod, DS, junk like that). Chris actually got home early and was showered and ready to go by 3, he wasn’t feeling the best though and had broke out in some sort of rash, just great. He took some allergy relief medicine and we hoped for the best.

Joan arrived at our house shortly after 4 and by 4:30 we were on the road. Chris drove about an hour and we stopped at an Arbys in VA just before getting on 95. He still wasn’t really feeling well so I told him I’d drive – he always drives when we go on trips so for him to turn over the wheel to me I knew something wasn’t right. After eating we got back on the road. Now I’d like to point out that I have (had) a spotless driving record – that is until we reached mile marker 16 – yes I was speeding but it didn’t feel like I was going very excessive – but alas, I digress, 83 in a 70 – did you know that is considered reckless driving in Virginia?? Officer Looney kindly pointed that out to me, I thanked him and we were on our way, with my $211 fine – glad I was able to save money on other aspects of our trip. I guess Chris still wasn’t feeling 100% b/c even after that I still continued to be the driver. There are no photos of our trip down b/c I was driving.

The 2 little ones were good, we never once used the DVD player – they loved singing along to the radio and ate snacks which I had bought along. We stopped a few times when needed but my kids are great travelers and know that we don’t mess around – if we stop at a rest stop this is your chance – don’t ask again for at least an hour.

Joan stayed up most of the night and chatted with me, everyone else was asleep by 9:30 – we hit some rain in NC but nothing major. I stopped at South of the Border and woke up everyone for a potty break. Back on the road and they were dead to the world not even 5 minutes later. Around 1-ish I started getting tired so we stopped at a rest stop in Georgia. I don’t sleep well at rest stops and neither does Tyra so about an hour later we were on the road again. I stopped again further south in GA at another rest stop and this time we got maybe 2 hours of sleep. Oh well, on the road again – lol!!! The kids woke up around 6:30 which is their normal waking time and we stopped at a Burger King for Breakfast. Chris was feeling better but since I had made it this far I drove the rest of the way to Jacksonville Beach – we arrived around 10:30.

 

[lledman]

I knew that I would want to leave on Friday and not Saturday so over the winter, I decided my family would spend a night in Jacksonville Beach to give us a day to rest from being on the road. I got an awesome rate of under $90 for Saturday night right on the beach at the Comfort Inn Jacksonville Beach.

Carla didn’t want to make any arrangements so by the time they decided to join us the rates were around $200, they also left on Friday evening but just drove on to Orlando and stayed at a hotel somewhere near International Drive and visited the Super McDonald’s and outlets around there. They had left around 8 ish on Friday and arrived around the same time as us at their hotel.

Our room wasn’t ready but we could use the pool and beach. There was a changing room so luckily I had packed our swim stuff separately. We headed to the beach. The kids loved playing in the water & sand and also looking for shells.















Tyler fond a crab on the shoreline –


Chris of course had to chase the kids with the crab




Nanny & the kids

 

[lledman]

After about an hour on the beach we went back up to the hotel to see if our room was ready – it wasn’t so we went to the pool (which was freezing cold).








We only stayed at the pool for about a half and hour and we were hungry for lunch. I went in to check on the room again and it was ready. We grabbed our bags from the van and went to check out the room. We didn’t have a balcony but it was a suite so there was more room than in most. Sorry for the spots on the photos – I used my water camera and forgot to wipe off the lens when we finished at the pool.













We changed pretty quickly and went out to find something to eat. We settled on a Third Street Diner. The food was good and the portions were huge. Sorry I have no photos of our meals – we were starved so we all dived in once the food arrived. I can give you these 2 silly ones of my monkeys though just to show I did bring the camera along.





After our bellies were full we headed back to the hotel. The sky was looking super dark and scary; we just did beat the rain. Since it was raining what better way to pass the time than to take a nap. I forgot to mention some poor couple was getting married on the beach today, they had about 50 chairs and other decorations set up that they never got to use and ended up having the ceremony inside – poor things. Since we slept for 2 hours we of course missed it.

 

[lledman]

When we woke up the storm was over and the sun was shining again.


since the rain had passed we headed back to the pool & beach








Our 2nd floor room overlooking the pool – well looking directly into a palm tree – lol


The pool was just as cold as it was before so we decided to go back to the beach. The waves were a little rougher than they were in the morning. We saw a lot of guys on surf boards which the kids loved to watch. The tide has also came in while we slept so they spent more time in the water than playing in the sand.






I love Dev’s toothless smile




Nanny & Tyler had soo much fun wave hopping


I can’t remember why but the boys tried to dig a trench


Devin started a shell collection on this trip

 

[lledman]

It was now sometime after 6 so we all went back to the room to shower and change. Joan was tired so she stayed back to relax and the rest of us went out to find something for dinner. I wanted pizza so we walked about 15 blocks south on the beach, we didn’t find much of anything so we decided to walk a block or 2 inland to the main road we had come in on. We walked back towards the hotel and not even 3 blocks from where we stared we found the Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers. The kids loved the psychedelic theme The pizza and garlic bread was delish – of course I didn’t take any food pictures though b/c we devoured it as soon as it arrived at our table.




I promise that Tyra did eat more than lemons our entire trip





There was a button on the wall that Devin must have pushed 10 times that would make a bicycle (hanging near the roof) wheel turn


Don’t they all look soo cheerful and happy\


After dinner we walked back to the hotel to find Nanny in bed, we changed the kids into their PJs and everyone hit the sac pretty early that night.

 

[lledman]

Sunday morning we woke up around 7 and everyone got ready for the day. The plan was to meet up with Carla’s family and go to a water park today. So the kids all got their swimwear & cover-ups on and we headed down to the free continental breakfast. The food was good but just basic flair – couple of choices of cereal, bagels, doughnuts, pastries, toast, boiled eggs, fresh waffles & fruit. We finished our spread and then went back to the room to finish packing up. We loaded up the van and were on the road by 8:30.

As we got closer to Orlando we called Carla to see what they were planning to do. Our day at the beach has been soo relaxing I sort of didn’t want it to end. She hinted that she would sort of rather get settled into our condo as well so we decided to nix the water park and just lounge around at the timeshare. Since we were still a little bit out, they were going to go shopping and then meet up with us later.

We arrived at Cypress Point Grand Villas around 11:30 and our room was ready. We were assigned a ground floor 3 bedroom unit – which is what we had requested. I won’t bore you with tons of photos but the rooms were all nice – we had no complaints.
Our bed


½ of our bathroom – there was a walk in shower, garden tub, double sinks and separate toilet room


pull out couch in our unit


the kitchenette in our unit


Dining room


Living Room


the kitchen in the main unit




Joan’s bedroom


Hall/Joan/kids bathroom


Master bedroom


Master Jacuzzi tub – this opened to the master suite, there was a separate room with walk in shower and toilet

 

[lledman]

We unpacked our stuff. For the amount of people we had I will say I was impressed with the space – I didn’t ever feel like we were on top of each other. Chris & I took the 1 bedroom lock out unit., Joan had the 2nd bedroom in the main unit and Carla & Derrick had the master suite (Cheyenne slept with them). Our kids, well the 2 little ones, slept on our pull out couch. Tyler, Janessa, & Kalycia slept on the pull out sofa in the main living room. Zanayiah & Allonayah shared the other bed in Nanny’s room. I had bought some Ramen noodles from home – quick easy, simple lunch is served. Carla’s family was still shopping so we headed to the pool.













Carla’s arrived so we went back to the room and changed, then helped them unpack. Well the kids occupied each other and stayed out of the adult’s way.





Notice all the swimsuits on the table? The girls were ready to hit the pool. Instead I convinced them that we should check out the playground that was just outside our building – in between the 2 pools.

Devin loved all the lizards






here’s where my notes would have come in handy. I think Joan and the guys took the kids swimming – or maybe there were naps involved. Anyway Carla and I went grocery shopping for the week at the Super Wal-mart on 192 – which was probably less than 5 mile from the hotel.

When we got back we put away all the groceries – thank goodness we had 2 fridges – but hey we had 13 people to feed for a week. I don’t remember what we had for dinner but I think it was spaghetti, yeah, that’s what it was.

 

[lledman]

After dinner the kids wanted to play mini-golf so off we went – all 13 of us – ahhhh! When we got to the rec center – which was right behind the playground – we saw the sign that tonight’s activity was family mini-golf – hey free for the 13 of us – awesome!!!! We didn’t keep score but Kalycia and I both got a hole in one I do remember that.


The little 5 weren’t really interested in playing the game of mini-golf (too much waiting especially when there were soo many in our group) so they were always one hole ahead of us taking their practice shots.






There really wasn’t much of a theme to this min-golf course so I’m not sure if these are supposed to be giant golf balls, or maybe eggs of some sort or what they are, Chris had his own idea though




The kids had fun playing on the playground when we finished mini-golf




We went back to the room for showers/baths and were in bed early. Tyler was supposed to sleep on our pull out couch but Derrick’s sister had sent them with a copy of the movie Rio that she some how obtained – don’t ask, don’t tell is sometimes the best policy I say – so Ty ended up sleeping with the girls the first night and then decided it was good enough the rest of the trip.

 

[lledman]

Monday morning – who ever looks forward to Mondays – we do if they are the first day of our Disney vacation. We had an early – 8 am – reservation for the entire family at Norway’s Akershus restaurant with the princesses. It was a feat but by 7:00 everyone was ready to leave. That’s when Derrick discovered that the car cooler he left plugged in over night had drained the battery in his Expedition. He called for roadside assistance but it would have taken them over an hour to get there. The girls were upset they were going to miss their princess breakfast.

Now for the record we are normally law abiding citizens who would never think of doing anything like this but Disney was involved so rational thinking like calling a cab never crossed anyone’s mind. We loaded up all 13 of us into the van and off to EPCOT we went – the guys would deal with the dead battery later – we had princesses waiting on us. Disaster number 1 adverted.

We arrived at the gate at 7:45 and had to wait just a little while to enter the park.










When we went to enter my ticket would not scan. I guess since I had it in my wallet for 2 years it decided that I didn’t use it enough – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The CM at the gate issued me a new ticket and everything was fine – disaster number 2 adverted. Wow what a way to start a Monday!!!!!

While I was getting my ticket taken care of Tyler had the girls pose for a few photos – I think he was trying to capture Nessa holding the ball????


The topiaries from the Flower and Garden Festival were still up so we took our time making our way to the back of the park for breakfast.









another one of Tyler’s attempts at a trick shot




We made it

 

[lledman]

I checked us in and it didn’t even take 5 minutes for them to call our name to have our photo with Belle


Belle is Tyra’s favorite princess so she wanted to wear her Belle dress to breakfast this morning








We were seated at a table that was big enough to fit us all. Our waiter took our drink order and told us we could help ourselves to the buffet. The food was good and plentiful. Soon after our drinks arrived we were served 3 large plates full of delicious food (refills were bought without having to ask)

Tyra and Lanna doing the princess parade


Snow White was the first princess to visit our table




next was Sleeping Beauty, I’m not sure what happened to my photo of the girls with Sleeping Beauty. As she was getting ready to leave our table, Devin decided he wanted a photo with her


Jasmine






And Mary Poppins – she insisted all the children join her for a photo – even Tyler and Nessa






Doesn’t Tyler look thrilled to be at the princess breakfast with his family

 

[lledman]

From looking at my photos I assume after breakfast we went on Test Track - the park had just opened so we didn’t have to wait in much of a line – in fact we never even stopped in the pre-show holding area – there wasn’t even a 5 minute wait.




Devin giggled the entire time and Tyra put her hands up for the fast part.




I think we grabbed fast passes to do TT again later in the day since the kids loved it. BTW, Tyra was exactly 40 inches – NyeNye and Lanna were just about an inch or 2 shy of making the height requirement so they sat off with Nanny(who doesn’t do thrill rides) & Cheyenne.

I don’t think anyone wanted to do Mission Space so we walk across to Soarin. Nanny and the 3 little ones sat off while we rode in the standby line – think we waited 25 minutes – Devin got to hold the card that determines the wait time but I can’t remember what it was.




This was mine, Devin, Tyra’s first times riding – we got to sit in section B row 1 – most awesome seats




We all loved this ride. When we got off we could get another fast pass since we had gotten the TT ones almost at park opening. We decided to ride Living with the Land so Carla and Derrick went outside to get the Nanny & the girls and Chris went out to smoke. While we waited for them to come back the kids pin traded


Joan decided to stay out with Chris so the rest of us rode without them. Devin was soo proud of himself to find this “hidden” mickey

 

[lledman]

Up next was Nemo –


I don’t think I’ve ever had to wait in a line here – it move continuously but there was a line.








Afterwards we did Turtle Talking with Crush – this is always a favorite with my kids


After the show Devin was upset b/c he couldn’t find his pin lanyard – he thought he left it on Nemo – I took him back there and sure enough a CM had found it. Disaster Number 3 adverted and it wasn’t even lunch time yet.

I think from here we began touring World Showcase – I know we walked past the character spot but I didn’t want to stop b/c I knew we had a Chef Mickey’s reservation later in the trip – I think Carla had wanted to stop but she didn’t want to separate so we kept on to WS.

I think Tyra was having a mini melt down so she wasn’t in this photo. After a quick trip through Mexico with our 3 feathered friends we looked around the shops a little.

Carla’s going to kill me if she ever finds out I shared this photo – glad she doesn’t DIS.

I remember Joan and Carla got margaritas, Joan didn’t like hers so she trashed it – beer foul!!!! (Chris and I don’t really drink so I guess she fits in with us). I wanted to take the kids on Maelstrom but no one else really wanted to ride. Their loss – it was Tyler, Devin, Tink, Tyra and me.


I thought I had some photos of the kids with the troll topiary – I remember that morning we were joking around that it was Nanny’s boyfriend so they were excited when we came back to Norway again.

We saw a photo pass photographer so we decided to stop for a group shot


On to China





The kids really enjoyed having their passports signed at the kid kot stations. Somewhere along the way Devin started a bear





Lizard on Pumba’s tusk


And here is where my camera crapped out on me. You know the camera that I bought for this trip to Disney that on Easter morning had a lens malfunction that required me to send it back to the company for them to repair it and they assured me it wouldn’t happen again – yes, that camera. Of course I didn’t bring the water camera with me but luckily Joan had hers and let me borrow it. I think Carla & family decided that they wanted to go back to the condo for lunch. I had budgeted to do lunch at the park today and knew that I didn’t plan to return to EPCOT again this trip so I wanted to stay. Joan wanted to finish the park too so she stayed back with us. Carla, Derrick, and the girls left with the van – I think they ended up going to Wal-mart and got jumper cables to start the truck. Ahhhh, we were stranded at Disney of all places – oh noooo! NOT!!!!

 

[lledman]

OK, back to the topiaries, I mean our tour of World Showcase








OK, there’s Zanayiah in this picture so maybe it was here that Carla & family decided to leave.



We had lunch at the American Pavilion – Tyler and Chris are creatures of habit – I think we eat here ever trip to EPCOT, all the choices and we eat here. Food was good. Tyra fell asleep in the stroller as soon as I ordered the food, we saved her some French fries for later.








On to France, Chris and Joan went off to take photos of the topiaries and I took the kids to find the kidkot station.




I had remember seeing photos from another trip report about a juggler in France and saw the act getting set up. I secured us an amazing spot and called Chris & his mom to join us, they had the camera – umm I mean I thought they would enjoy the show.

 

[lledman]

We visited with Winnie the Pooh & Tigger too - I have no idea what’s up with Tyra’s facial expressions here






I remembered here that I had programmed a bunch of numbers in my cell phone to the pay phones in EPCOT. Chris was crabby and didn’t want to waste time talking on a payphone but the kids & I thought it was cool




Moving on to Canada – we were starting to get hot and tired – the temperature wasn’t that bad – like low/mid 80’s but we were starting to feel hotter than that. Chris took the kids down to the kidkot station while Joan and I waited further up




I think we decided we were almost ready to call it a day but we wanted to use our fast passes from that morning first. So off to Soarin we went




Joan sat off Soarin again – I wish she would have rode – I think she would like it – if I can ride it and like it with my fear of heights I know she would like it. We also did TT one more time.


I think earlier when I went to get fastpasses for both Test Track and Soarin that Tyler and Chris’ tickets wouldn’t work. We walked to the gate for the CM there to tell that guest services was back by Spaceship Earth – I thought that Guest Relations was at the gate but he works there so he should know best. I took the tickets back and had new ones reissued. As we were walking out right there off to the side of the front gate guess what we saw – yep, another Guest Relations.

 

[lledman]

So I guess I need to back track a little as I mentioned earlier Carla & Derrick took the van when they left. My plan was to just grab the first bus that pulled up, go to a resort and then take a bus from there to DTD where we’d meet up with everyone and both the truck & van. This plan was good but took us an hour I swear. The bus we hopped on took FOREVER to leave EPCOT, not loading handicap passengers, we were standing so not waiting to fill the bus, just sitting there waiting – for 10 minutes. We ended up at Port Orleans Riverside where we sat for 20 minutes and waited for a DTD bus. While at POR I called Derrick and they were at Goofy’s Candy Co – ok cool – we’ll take a bus to Market Place – no problem. Well in the time it took us to get to DTD they had walked on down to the shops near AMC theater. So we had to walk over ½ of DTD – after walking all of EPCOT – my feet were not happy. Some photos along the way to take my mind off the walk




Dear Disney & Lego Store – it would have been cool to put Bami & friends at the base of this display – just my 2 cents






We finally all met up again and the kids wanted to do some pin trading


I think we went back to the timeshare and had pizza for dinner. We may have also went to the pool – but I don’t think I took my camera this time.

 

[lledman]

Tuesday
I had planned to go to Animal Kingdom and then Studios today. I wanted to make park opening but we didn’t, sometimes group traveling is not good if you have to wait – I guess I’m just not a patient person.

We arrive at AK, and take a tram – this was our first time on a tram and the kids loved it – thought of it as a ride outside the park – lol

I’m not sure what happened but the tickets that I was given at EPCOT for Chris and Tyler didn’t work, they were able to reissue new ones but it took about 15 minutes – I don’t think I was very nice to the CM who fixed the problem for us as we had already missed rope drop and now another delay. Oh well – take a deep breath – ok now let it out. Since we have already had 2 delays in my mind might as well go ahead and stop for a family photo since we had pre-ordered the photopass cd..


I took all the tickets and walked through Dinoland over to get fast passes for Everest. Everyone else went the other direction and got in line for the Safari. I was only about 20 people behind them so we were able to still ride together. I think we waited maybe 20-25 minutes to ride the safari. Again I love that toothless smile


the kids thought this pot was neat


We saw lots of wild animals – these were really close








I promise if you squint really hard you can see a lion in the center of this photo


not sure what caught her eye in this one


I spotted green mickey ears in the stroller parking area so I left a little note on an AK map – sorry didn’t have any paper to write on


I think Tyler had a good time on this trip but I looking back at photos he sure doesn’t look too happy in many of them


Another group shot from behind the Tree of Life

 

[lledman]

I’m almost sure we rode Everest using our fast passes, Joan sat off with the 4 little girls (Tyra wasn’t tall enough for this one). Devin liked it ok enough but didn’t want to ride again – he did giggle the whole time though so who knows.

Moving on to Dino Land and something everyone can ride




not sure how Chris & Allonyah ended up 4 dinos in front of us


I think we waited in line for Dinosaur, Tyra was measured at the beginning and allowed to stand in line but we were told she would be measured 2 more times. Sure enough standing in line she was measured again and still allowed to go on in line. Get to the loading area and the CM measures her and says she isn’t tall enough – what the heck, how could she be tall enough to ride the 40 inch rides yesterday and make it back the other 2 CMs who measured her in this line – oh well I got out of line with her and we went and sat with Joan and the little girls in the shade. As a side note it’s funny to not consider Tyra a little girl having to sit off rides.

After the rest of the group survived their dino encounter we went to see the bug movie








Honorary Bugs Devin & Tink


By now it was probably 12:30/1 ish. Joan was hungry and decided she was going to treat us all to lunch even though Carla and I told her we had planned to both go back to the condo for lunch. Thank you for lunch Nanny!!!!!!!!


Tyler “shoveling” in his food


After a quick bathroom break


it was time for the ride outside the park - and possibly a nap for some people

 

[BsAngel]

I am here cant wait to read more I am planning on a visit this July with Mom And Sis

 

[lledman]

I am here cant wait to read more I am planning on a visit this July with Mom And Sis

thanks for reading along - I hope you have a great trip next month