NateNLogansDad + party of 25 + AKL + MNSSHP = a few thousand pictures (Bonus Video!!)

[cyndiloveswalt]

Hey Rob! Sorry I haven't been around much but some of it can be explained by the fact that we took our boys for a surprise 4 night trip to Wilderness Lodge 2 weekends ago! They had no idea until we were walking through security in Philly. It was awesome! We LOVED WL, it was beautiful and the location was great. Wanted to let you know they are still doing the castle projection show. (I'm glad I really liked it)
So I'm kind of glad you're a little slow so I didn't have too much to catch up on. We promise we'll be patient, just keep the popcorn coming...and by the way I love raisinets!

 

[hjd0411]

Hey Rob!
Glad to hear you are still in your job, but it is a double edged sword with the overtime etc. I'm a shift worker (have been for 23 years! ) and I really don't know if I would like to go back to 9-5!! Of course, if that is the only way to work, then of course it has to be! You will work out how to divide your time between work, family, dogs and of course - the Dis..!!!

Yes, we are doing all that in one trip - I have to be able to justify the 12 hour flight from Brisbane to LA!! This trip started out completely different - not even going anywhere near Orlando, but I love Orlando (for that read WDW, I guess!) and had to fit it in somehow..!!!
Will look forward to your updates when you are able.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hey there, guess what? WE ARE BACK ONLINE WITH DAY #4!!! Can you believe it’s day number 4 already??? I mean we just did day 3 like……well it was a few days a……. Crap, I’m sorry. It’s been a while. When I was starting this whole TR, my job was slllloooowwww at work and I could dedicate hrs and hrs to an update. Lately, I’m lucky to get 15 minutes to myself. And this past week, I was pretty much dead to the world with Strep Throat and a 104 fever. Yea, lots of fun. Well, enough of the chitter chatter, that’s not why you’re still here right?

Everybody got some popcorn?

Good!

Monday, October 24th. D-day +1

I’m going to introduce a new member of our trip in a few minutes but keep in mind that we already have 25!!! This guy will only appear today in any pictures and I’ll give you a quick run down on who he is. His name is Jeff. Great guy, very funny. Jeff is a long time friend of my brother in law Chuck. They went to school together, graduated together, worked at the same warehouse together, both decided to head off to the Academy at the same time, attended the same class, assigned to the same district, same precinct, and yes were made partners who share the same car on patrol. See where I’m going with this? Yea, my brother in law could not come down early with us because he was going to Jeff’s wedding that night. Any idea where Jeff was going for his honeymoon? What about hotel? Yes and yes.

That morning, much like most mornings, John had his group up, dressed, and on a bus before 8am. Yea…so around 9:30 my group caught our bus from out front of our Kidani Village. After grabbing us, it swung around to the Jambo House.

Any guess who might be standing out there waiting with his wife?

Here comes Jeff!

The bus was really packed so there was no pictures taken but we couldn’t help laugh. Seriously, what are the odds?

About quarter after 10 we found ourselves right about here….

First thing everybody want to do was go try out Test Track. I offered to go grab fastpasses for Soarin for everybody and meet them at Test Track. Jeff is just a big kid when he walks into WDW and offered to come with me. We were cracking up the walk over to…

Fastpasses achieved, we raced back over towards Test Track. Everybody else had just gotten into line and it was backing up…..

We made in through the door in just a few minutes and got to see hear and smell the familiar things that make up what once was the Test Track……

Big Chuck is just realizing how long the line actually is….

Now, for those of you who scratched your head about my comment “things that make up what once was the Test Track……” they are doing a crazy new rehab as we speak on Test Track. I heard unconfirmed rumors that it might even get a name change. The queue should be completely different and all. I’m excited to see what they came up with but hope that the Imagineers still keep a good amount of the existing attraction there. We shall see!

Back to us waiting in line. We started talking about different things with Jeff and he brought up my camera. Big Chuck (and little Chuck) DO NOT like their pictures taken so they warned him about me taking pictures when you’re not expecting it….bla bla bla. I think Jeff said something about not wanting to smile in any pictures, so I showed him this one of himself I had already taken…..

Little Chuck said something about “see that is what I’m talking about!” So I showed him this one of himself…

I don’t think they looked at me the rest of the day.

John had tried calling me a couple times but the signal isn’t great down there for either of us. He had already done Soarin by standing in the Standby line. Great. I informed him that we were still waiting for Test Track. In fact the ride went down 3 times while we were there! THREE! I hung up and told him I’d call later.

Bored, I played with the camera…..

I checked to see if Big Chuck liked his picture taken yet….

He offered to beat me senseless with my camera.

He’s shy.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

FINALLY, after 1 hour and 10 minutes we made it here.

I made a comment about one more line till we get in the cars and I think Big Chuck wanted an Exit. I felt the same way but knew the last part of the queue only takes a few short minutes. I assured him that we were basically there and he took a deep breath and before you knew it we were there!

Chuck and Jeff, they share a car at home and on vacation…..they need to get out more.

Enough talking….let’s take a ride shall we?

Great ride. I really hope the new version keeps part of the classic version alive. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Moving right along.

After Test Track, Jeff met back up with his wife who didn’t want to get on, and they went off to go do their own thing. Big Chuck and Chuck Jr wanted to do another “thrill ride” to keep the adrenaline going a bit I guess.
I really don’t remember who’s idea it was, but I’m not taking responsibility for it. Somehow or another everybody thought it would be fun for the guys to all go back here…..

I’m always game for Mission Space, but I know once certain people hit a certain age……well…
We went in….

The last picture I have of Big Chuck smiling that day…..

These 2 hams already know what they are getting into….

I guess I really should have warned Chuck and Chuck about Mission Space especially since we went on the ORANGE side. Woops. Hindsight is 20/20. It’s funny to this day to watch their expressions run cold as soon as you start talking about it. Those imagineers really timed it right, another 30 seconds and I’m sure big Chuck was going to find away out of there one way or another! As for Brian, Sean and Myself…..we can’t wait to plan another trip and rid it a few more times!

We had a little bit of time to kill before our Soarin fastpasses matured and after Mission Space, Chuck and Chuck felt like they needed to get something in their stomachs. Sean wanted to make a quick pit stop for some sunglasses because he left his back in the room so we went here first…

The rest of us wanted to have a seat so we went here first…..

As we waited for Sean to get out, I tried telling Chuck, Chuck, and Fran about all the different foods in EPCOT, and about all the places we could try that were part of the food and wine fest.

We made our way towards the World Showcase.

My mouth was watering from the different smells being stirred up all around us. We could do lamb chops in Australia, Sausages in Germany, Wines from France, anywhere we wanted to go would be taste bud bliss!!!! Where did we end up????

 

[NateNLogansDad]

America? Again? Still shaking my darn head.

*sigh*

So, after another burger with pulled pork *yawn* we headed BACK through the Showcase…never stopping, only moving forward….

This is where I started getting a little grumpy. I guess when I was blurting out “fun facts” about the things to do or see in each one of the countries, everybody thought I just liked to talk Disney stuff. Everybody was like “oh, that’s nice” or “get out, that sounds cool” but no one wanted to slow down to take any of it in. Than when we got back towards Future World, Tina wanted to know why I was acting a little Grumpy. I tried to rationally explain how so much time, thought, and energy went into creating the World Showcase and we just ran through the whole thing in 15 minutes flat. I was informed that next time I should say something.

By this time I was actually going through a minor nicotine withdraw, so my version of “rationally” may had been different from a rational person. Hindsight 20/20. Yadda yadda...

We continued on towards Soarin. As we got towards the entrance, I pulled out my fastpasses and counted them up. Than I re-counted. Somehow that morning when I was getting passes for everybody, I messed up and fell 1 short.

My fuse just got shorter.

Just about everybody offered to sit this one out but then it dawned on me, this is probably exactly what I needed. I told them to all go and enjoy themselves and I would be a new person when they came back out!

I think they all felt bad for going in, but for me I have about 45 minutes completely to myself in EPCOT! First things first, I took care of my nicotine fix. Sitting there away from everybody enjoying a smoke, I watched this guy FLIP out on his wife. I mean it got bad. They weren’t yelling in English but you could tell it wasn’t a good day. I stuck around just to make sure nothing got physical but I really wanted to tell the guy to go walk around for a few by yourself and enjoy they day. Dude, your in Disney World! I don’t think he was feeling the magic.

Speaking of magic, after watching the guy flip out for a few, I found myself walking around the Showcase picking up things that looked like this….

That is a little piece of Magic from Brazil called a Leblon Frozen Caipirinha Cocktail. Don’t believe me?

Told ya.

Next up was Hawaii. All I saw was Mai Tai and I was hooked. When they put “Seven Tiki” in front of it, I needed 2 please.

I was amazed that 30 minutes had already flown by. I was also amazed by how much of a kick those little tiny drinks had! Almost worth the 7 bucks a piece! I was tired and just wanted to relax for a few minutes without being bothered so I headed to the one place I always wanted to hang out alone for a bit….

Yep, right next to the fountains. I’m sure it sounds stupid or crazy or whatever but it was heavenly. That last picture was taken from the wall off to the side where no one ever over goes that way for some reason. I had my camera bag set up as a pillow and I laid across the wall and closed my eyes. As I type this I can remember absolutely everything from those few minutes I had and right now, I’m so wishing I could do it again just for a few minutes.


I’m afraid that if I wait to finish up the day, there won’t be an update till next week, so I’ll leave you off here for now. There’s still a lot left to do for Day 4!!!!! We still have another park, and some more thrill rides and…….well just stick around!!!!


Please?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hey Rob! Sorry I haven't been around much but some of it can be explained by the fact that we took our boys for a surprise 4 night trip to Wilderness Lodge 2 weekends ago! They had no idea until we were walking through security in Philly. It was awesome! We LOVED WL, it was beautiful and the location was great. Wanted to let you know they are still doing the castle projection show. (I'm glad I really liked it)
So I'm kind of glad you're a little slow so I didn't have too much to catch up on. We promise we'll be patient, just keep the popcorn coming...and by the way I love raisinets!

Cindi! That's so awesome for you guys!!!!! I'm sure the boys were just totally blown away! Isn't it just so hard to keep that a secret??? We did it for one trip and just about lost our minds so I can imagine how that was!!! Good job! You guys are awesome!!!! Let me know when some of those pics get posted
Thanks for the heads up on the light show. I really want to get back there and set up to watch the whole thing.....someday.
I just made a call to Frank. He's my raisinets guy. His son plays soccer with Nate. Shouldn't be a problem. As of Monday morning there should be barrels of raisinets at the end of each isle for everybody to enjoy.

Hey Rob!
Glad to hear you are still in your job, but it is a double edged sword with the overtime etc. I'm a shift worker (have been for 23 years! ) and I really don't know if I would like to go back to 9-5!! Of course, if that is the only way to work, then of course it has to be! You will work out how to divide your time between work, family, dogs and of course - the Dis..!!!

Yes, we are doing all that in one trip - I have to be able to justify the 12 hour flight from Brisbane to LA!! This trip started out completely different - not even going anywhere near Orlando, but I love Orlando (for that read WDW, I guess!) and had to fit it in somehow..!!!
Will look forward to your updates when you are able.

The job's the job. I'll leave it at that. Nobody's real happy there. I guess that's why it's called work right?

You guys are nuts!!! It's like a cross country tour of all things Disney! I totally agree with the thought behind it all, it's much cheaper and less time on flights than doing separate trips. Very smart! I have a feeling I'd be with all that time on an airplane....not because I don't like to fly (I actually really enjoy it) but more because I need to get up and walk around. Last week, I would have said go have a smoke, but this week I'm trying to quit Good luck and I hope it's the most amazing vacation anyone has ever had

 

[wdwnomad]

Welcome back! I've been waiting for the next update. At this rate, your trip report just might hold me over until my trip in August....

Let me tell you I can related to your needing a break from everyone. There are many times I do the same but only my group is four. I can't even imagine with a group your size.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Thanks again for sticking around to those of you that have. It's been a rough month. This past week I was laid up in bed with strep and a fever that went back and forth between 103.5 and 104.5 for 2 1/2 days. I couldn't eat and barely left my bed for the first 3 days sleeping 80% of the time. I don't want to mention how much weight I lost...ladies would be trying to sign up! But everything's better now and an update is posted I also figured I'd try dropping the horrible habit I enjoy so much....I figured the nicotine is already out of my system, why not

Hopefully the next update will be VERY soon and the dramatics that I call normal life will start to settle down soon.

Anyways, just want to say thanks.
​

 

[Susan121302]

YAY! another update from Rob!! And more actual LOLing while reading. Big Chuck beating the daylights out of you with your camera was today's LOL for me. OMG, good stuff. I like this crowd... are you sure some are not from Boston?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Welcome back! I've been waiting for the next update. At this rate, your trip report just might hold me over until my trip in August....

Let me tell you I can related to your needing a break from everyone. There are many times I do the same but only my group is four. I can't even imagine with a group your size.

I'm going to try my best not to stretch it out that far! Once August comes around I'm hoping to be out crabbing as much as I can with the boys!
But yea, with taking a break I'm implementing a mandatory break in all future trips no matter how many people we have there. I make sure the kids get one when we go to Animal Kingdom now. They go into the boneyard and get away from everybody (I just stay back out of sight the whole time) so why shouldn't the adults?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

YAY! another update from Rob!! And more actual LOLing while reading. Big Chuck beating the daylights out of you with your camera was today's LOL for me. OMG, good stuff. I like this crowd... are you sure some are not from Boston?

I can see how that would be funny.....problem is he's insanely strong I think I'm safe as long as the rest of the family is around but I'm pretty sure that's one of his dark fantasy's. I can see me running for my life, him swing my camera over his head in circles, while chasing me on a horse. Not sure where he got the horse but he's got one.


Maybe I should trade my camera in for a much smaller one.



By the way, your ticker is KILLING me. I want to go back to the Beach Club SOOOO Bad

 

[NLD]

Hi Rob!

Great updates.

We just got back last night from our seven-day Wilderness Lodge trip. The pictures are loading to the computer as I type.

Now your TR is helping with my post-vacation blues.

 

[ajf1007]

Hi Neighbor! Fellow PA'er here and I am loving your TR! I don't know how I missed the others so I'm gonna head back and read those, now that I'm up to date with this one!

We have a trip for 10 coming up in September and we'll be in a 2 bedroom in AKV and a studio. AKV is our home resort and where we go most of the time, but in true DIS form, I'm already planning our next trip for the Beach Club in '2013. Just my husband and I so that will be much more relaxing than this trip.

Since there are 10 of us and 8 of them have not been there before, I'm thinking your mandatory "break" will be a wonderful thing to implement for myself!

Can't wait for more updates, but I am going to check out your others in the meantime! I have to tell you though, your family is beautiful and your pictures are incredible! Add in your humor and dialog and I'm completely entertained!

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hi Rob!

Great updates.

We just got back last night from our seven-day Wilderness Lodge trip. The pictures are loading to the computer as I type.

Now your TR is helping with my post-vacation blues.

I can't wait to see your Trip Report! The shots that you are able to produce are simply stunning.

Are you starting a whole new report or are you keeping it at the same address as the PTR?

 

[NateNLogansDad]

Hi Neighbor! Fellow PA'er here and I am loving your TR! I don't know how I missed the others so I'm gonna head back and read those, now that I'm up to date with this one!

We have a trip for 10 coming up in September and we'll be in a 2 bedroom in AKV and a studio. AKV is our home resort and where we go most of the time, but in true DIS form, I'm already planning our next trip for the Beach Club in '2013. Just my husband and I so that will be much more relaxing than this trip.

Since there are 10 of us and 8 of them have not been there before, I'm thinking your mandatory "break" will be a wonderful thing to implement for myself!

Can't wait for more updates, but I am going to check out your others in the meantime! I have to tell you though, your family is beautiful and your pictures are incredible! Add in your humor and dialog and I'm completely entertained!

Thank you, you're way too kind! The mandatory break is sooo nice. I want to book another vacation just to implement it
I'm going to warn you about the Beach Club next year....you won't want to go anywhere else after that! It's just so peaceful and the location is perfect! I feel like a complete addict needing a fix, I want to go back so bad! Oh well, someday *sigh*

When you guys go to AKL to stay, on a scale of 1-10 how do you like the bus system? Do you usually do Jambo or Kidani?

 

[NLD]

Will probably start a new thread for the actual TR. Will post a link in the pre-TR though.

Photos were NOT a priority this trip. Looks like I've got about 2500 all told... didn't break out the tripod at all... so no good fireworks shots or night shots.

That said, hopefully there are still a few good ones somewhere! There's at least one pretty special photo in there... maybe not from a photography standpoint, but from a "rare Disney magical moment" standpoint.

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I always love your updates. That Mai Tai would be nice right now as I sitting at the computer dreaming of my next trip.

 

[NateNLogansDad]

I always love your updates. That Mai Tai would be nice right now as I sitting at the computer dreaming of my next trip.

Same here. I'm thinking a Captain & Coke will have to suffice

 

[dara00]

I love that you were able to get pictures on test track! great reading about epcot!