Nine Weeks Later - The DO-OVER Whirlwind Trip - Jan 2013 (2/17 UPDATE)

[kittylady1972]

WELCOME ONE AND ALL to my official DO-OVER Whirlwind Trip Report! This trip was planned back in December not too long after we had just returned from our PARK-CRUISE-PARK NOVEMBER 2012 Trip which I am still in the process of also finishing. Links are in my signature for those interested!

So I'll attempt to get through this trip report as well as finish my November trip report. It won't be easy but I am really hoping to have them both done before too long.

And now...let me introduce you to the cast for this trip:

From Left to Right, going clockwise: My MIL, Myself, my DH, my FIL, my DS8, my DS12 and my DD10. Who knows how I will refer to them for this trip report, but hopefully you can figure out who I am talking about as I go through our trip.

There will be more photos of course. I didn't take a ton this time around but I promised to sprinkle some in here and there to make it worth it for you to read!

And now sit back and relax as I proudly present: our trip report!

 

[kittylady1972]

THE LINKS:

• The Plan
• The Departure, The Drive & The Arrival
• Day One
• Day Two
• Day Three
• Day Four
• The Long Drive Home

 

[kittylady1972]

The Plan
So as I mentioned before, this trip was planned back in December of 2012, not too long after our return from our November trip. I wasn't sure I could persuade my DH to go for it, but I was willing to give it a shot. My kids have a strange school schedule in January in that they always have these four 2-hour early dismissal days and they are followed by two days off from school. This a 4-day weekend built right into January, which happens to be a very low crowd time to visit Disney!

We've used this time off in the past for ski trips but I knew this year a ski trip would not be a great idea as my DH is still recovering from a torn leg muscle back in June. No reason to risk injury for him on the slopes. Therefore as an alternate plan, why not Florida? After all, we all have Annual Passes so park entrance is alread paid for so we are already ahead of the game by at least $1200 for a trip. Originally I was going to save our DVC points and just go ahead and pay cash for the room using our AP discount. At one point I actually booked us in a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside and I admit I was excited about that!

Then I looked at the cost and parting with that money, right after Christmas AND while paying off our November trip wasn't sounding that great. So I changed the plan and looked into availability using our DVC points. I found a 2BR at Old Key West and booked it.

Oh and why the 2BR when a 1BR would suffice for the 5 of us? Well it just so happens that one night at dinner with my DH's parents in December I happened to mention my plan for a possible trip in January. My FIL just lit up about that...and asked when? He was getting ready to retire from his job in December and they almost always travel with us as he's now a huge Disney fan as well, thanks to us!

Therefore they would also be joining us and so the 2BR would be required for the 7 of us.

Between mid-December and mid-January there would be more changes. I had plans to do NO Park Hopping and NO ADRs...but we all know plans change.

I ended up having to book a scooter for my MIL who had a pretty bad knee injury in December and could not walk well at all. That made me rethink our decision to stay at OKW since I knew there was a lack of elevator access to the units there that were not ground floor. So a week or two before the trip I changed us to a 2BR at SSR.

Eventually this was how I envisioned our trip:

THURSDAY: Kids are out of school around 1pm. We'll have the car packed and ready to go so that when they get home we'll just hit the road for the long drive. This should put us through the terrible DC Area/Northern VA area well ahead of traffic. Our hope is to keep trucking along for a good 8-10 hours plus. Goal is to make it at least to Georgia and then find a hotel overnight. According to my DH, he really wants to drive for a MINIMUM of 12 hours so we just might find ourselves stopping in Florida!

FRIDAY:With any luck, we'll be within a 3-4 hour drive of Walt Disney World from our hotel, but it might be more like 2 if my husband has his way. I think he's already planning on a breakfast at Cracker Barrel so I guess we have to make sure we stop near one of those. We will get up and packed and cleaned up and head somewhere for a nice sit-down breakfast. Then it's back in the car for the drive! Hoping to arrive in Walt Disney World close to noon...or earlier. We will head to our resort (now SSR) and see about checkin. If the room is ready, we may unpack but if not...then we have some decisions to make. Originally I was thinking we wouldn't have to do a park this day, but now I am thinking we have those annual passes....so why not? I think we might try to head to Magic Kingdom and head straight for BOG for a lunch there. I keep reading so many good things about their lunch and I'm willing to wait a little bit for a good meal! Then maybe we'll let the kids to the Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom adventure there between rides.


SATURDAY:One of the goals for the kids this trip I know is to ride Toy Story Mania since we missed it in November. I think this time we just might try to get that done. So we will wake up and have breakfast in our room. It is an early entry day for Hollywood Studios so I'm thinking we aim to be there close to the 8am opening and that means leaving our hotel NO LATER THAN 7:30am. We are pretty much right across the street from Hollywood Studios really. We'll ride Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Rock N' Roller Coaster and Star Tours and maybe also do a drawing at Animation as well. This should put us into the afternoon timeframe. I am holding a lunch reservation at 50s Prime Time Cafe. I love their pot roast and fried chicken and I know I said no table service...but I couldn't resist. The afternoon/evening is going to be for EPCOT. Hoping we can get a fastpass for Soarin' for an evening ride there sometime. We will just spend the rest of the day exploring EPCOT. I have yet another ADR here for the evening at Rose & Crown for the sole purpose of dessert for my husband...he loves their sticky toffee pudding!

SUNDAY:This is all about the Magic Kingdom day. Breakfast in our room and then hit Magic Kingdom for a full day. We *MIGHT* take a break in the afternoon for dinner outside of the park...not sure. I am holding an ADR at the Plaza for an early dinner here. I love the food there and it's not too expensive.

MONDAY:This is our full day at EPCOT. Breakfast in our room and then hit the park for a full day there. We might try to have a sitdown meal for dinner at one of the restaurants if we can find one that will seat us with NO ADR! I'd love to try Marrakesh again with the whold family. Maybe we'll finish up the park early and then hit the miniature golf course for the evening after we are packed up for the next day.

TUESDAY:Time to leave! We'll have a nice sit-down breakfast somewhere before hitting the road. Hoping to be on the road no later than 8am and we'll be driving all the way home with very few stops. Arrival back home should be between 10pm and 11pm. Next day the kids have school and we are back at work!
​

So how did that all pan out for us? I guess you'll find out soon enough!

 

[kittylady1972]

The Departure, The Drive & The Arrival
So it was the night before our planned departure day. The kids for the most part had NO IDEA what we were planning. My DD10 had some suspcions because she had heard conversations back in December (when we originally booked our trip) and from others...but I always told people it wasn't happening while she was around. Yet she is female and thus...suspicious! The boys...were clueless.

I had packed up everybody's stuff around Tuesday evening. I played tennis until about 8pm Wednesday evening, arriving home close to 8:45pm. DH and I were on our computers and watching the weather. They had been calling for snow since early in the week but they had called for the same thing the previous Friday...and we got NOTHING! This time it seemed like it just might happen.

Why was this light snow a big deal? Well our plan was to remove our kids from ONE day of school (Friday) and an early dismissal day at that. They would still attend school on Thursday until the early dismissal of 1pm. We'd be well on the road close to 1:30pm and hopefully we would make it to Georgia or upper Florida by late that evening.

A delay in school opening would be likely if they got ANY kind of snow on Thursday. That means they would end up going to school a full day on Thursday, getting home closer to 3pm and putting us on the road around 3:30pm and that also meant driving during the horrible rush hour evening traffic. Not fun.

We actually discussed going ahead and leaving Wednesday night or around 4 to 5am. However the other problem was that I had planed to work on Thursday, and so I had not yet turned in my timesheet. Not getting paid = BAD! So I had to at least make it to the office before we left for the trip.

We called the in-laws and told them to be ready to go early Thursday morning just in case and that probably any snow would mean a change in the plans.

I think by the time I got to sleep Wednesday it was after midnight, and around 4:30am my phone alerted me to the fact that my office was opening late...at 8am. YIKES! My plan to work from 6am until 11am would not be happening. And if the roads were to the point of delaying work, they would surely be delaying school as well.

Time to put PLAN B into effect!

I got up and dressed and was out the door between 5am and 5:30am, navigating the snow-covered roads when they were at their WORST. I knew it would take extra time but I had to get to my office and get my timesheet turned in before we left. I watched some cars spin out in front of me but I'm not a new driver in the snow so I just took my time. I got in and out of my office and was soon on the road back home.

I called DH on my way back and he got the kids up and ready to go, who at this point had NO CLUE what was happening. My DS12 does not handle surprises well as he could not prepare himself for whatever we were doing. He was just miserable and making us all miserable. He was mean and defiant...and just a real JOY to be around. My DD10 already had some idea of what was happening. My youngest DS8 had no clue but he was okay with that!

We packed up the car and loaded up our dog and headed to the in-laws to pick them up and drop off the dog who would stay there with my SIL and nephew for the week.

Here is a glance at what it was like around 6:45am that morning as we waited to loaded up the in-laws and kids for the trip:

With a quick stop at WaWa to get some breakfast, we were then on our way.

Some of the road we were on early:

I think we told everybody where we were going as soon as we pulled out of the driveway, which helped a little bit. The kids were still VERY hopeful we were headed to the airport to FLY to Disney (something they have not done in years) but sadly...we informed them we were driving.

My DS12 was then upset that he could not prepare and had NOTHING to keep him entertained for the long drive. I assured him I had that covered. I had packed games and a portable DVD player and electronics to keep everybody occupied, though I was good about monitoring the electronic time. I didn't want them all plugged in so-to-speak for 14+ hours! I know how that would work out when we had to unplug them!

The trip for the most part was uneventful. I had a book of travel games and while the first time we played one of them my sons complained, eventually they would ASK to play a few more times and enjoy it. They had time to view a movie or two and play their video games on DS and tablets so it all worked out. We stopped at a BK on the way down for lunch. By dinnertime we were into SC and making great time.

I found an interesting spot in my Drive I-95 book for dinner. It was called Jasper's Porch and it got good reviews for nice southern food...and fried dill pickles! YUM! We made plans to stop there for dinner.

It was so nice to get out of the car and NO JACKET REQUIRED. We ate inside but easily could have eaten outside on the porch here, which overlooked this little pond. I snapped a photo of the kids after dinner:

Dinner was just DELICIOUS. I had a chicken and mushroom dish that was awesome and the fried dill pickle chips were also excellent. We all agreed it was a great place for a stop. Next we hit the road to tackle the great state of GA and then FLA. We knew at this point we'd easily make it to the Disney area that evening, but we could not extend our room at SSR. I began to look for overnight hotel options on my smart phone.

I found a few but nothing fantastic and while we just needed a place for the night I wanted to know we would be comfortable. Eventually I decided to just try a value resort at Disney using my AP. I called the number and spoke to a great Disney Resort specialist who found me two rooms at Pop Century for a great rate with my AP discount. We figured one kid would sleep with the grandparents and the other two kids would stay with us. I booked the room but in the process of booking, right after I gave my CC info, the line dropped.

Did I have a room or not? I wasn't sure. I waited until our next stop and called back and just verified it with Disney again. We were all good.

Around 10:30pm or so we spotted this:

I looked back and found this:

I ran inside to get our room information so we could go get some sleep. There was a bit of a wait at checkin which was frustrating. We were all tired and just wanted a bed! The woman behind the desk who would eventually check me in said they had a LOT of late checkins that night! I wonder if we were not the only ones who got in our cars and started driving to escape the weather!

We were assigned rooms in the 50s section. I was a bit disappointed because the ONE time we've stayed in Pop Century before we had the same area. It would have been nice to try a new area. At least we were on the opposite side of the pool as our last stay and the kids were excited to see Pop Century for the first time.

So we parked and grabbed our overnight bags and headed to our rooms. We were looking forward to bed and having the whole next day to do Disney which was not part of the original plan.

 

[indimom]

Your working fast! Already at the resort, and you just started. lol.
I feel your son's pain. I'm totally that type of personality. I need to have my input into things. I do not like changing the plan. It just goes against my grain. But, he'll get better about his reactions, I promise. He's still young.

 

[kittylady1972]

Your working fast! Already at the resort, and you just started. lol.
I feel your son's pain. I'm totally that type of personality. I need to have my input into things. I do not like changing the plan. It just goes against my grain. But, he'll get better about his reactions, I promise. He's still young.

Thanks for joining! It was a quick day. I promise the other days will probably take several posts. I tried to take notes throughout the day (yippee for smart phones) so I could recall everything later. I don't have a ton of photos but will share quite a few of them.

I really CAN understand in a way what my DS12 is going through since I am the type of person who just has to be prepared for everything. When I suprise him...he can't prepare himself. I GET that. It's one reason my DH would probably never attempt a surprise trip for me. It would drive me nuts and he knows I'd probably complain about something! And as a mom, it's just fun to try to do those surprise things for your kids. I guess I just need to learn not to drag it out like I do. Once he knows something is up...I just need to tell him in the future. It would save a LOT of us some grief of having to hear him complain, and get mad and upset which just gets all of us upset too.

Maybe one day I'll learn.

 

[lovin'fl]

Hey there! I can't wait to read your TR. It seems like you guys had fun too. It was a bit of a painful trip for us too...our feet and legs are still sore. We just can't do commando anymore. DH is back to wanting to drive from now on. He was so fixated on how much we spent on airfare...he just can't stomach it. Plus he needed to buy new sneakers while we were there and we had trouble finding any on property...would have been nice to have a car (and we spent oodles of $$ on drinks...2-3 per person per day really adds up. It would have been nice to hit a grocery store).

 

[kittylady1972]

Hey there! I can't wait to read your TR. It seems like you guys had fun too. It was a bit of a painful trip for us too...our feet and legs are still sore. We just can't do commando anymore. DH is back to wanting to drive from now on. He was so fixated on how much we spent on airfare...he just can't stomach it. Plus he needed to buy new sneakers while we were there and we had trouble finding any on property...would have been nice to have a car (and we spent oodles of $$ on drinks...2-3 per person per day really adds up. It would have been nice to hit a grocery store).

Yes I need to work on getting my photos online so I can continue my report. Soon!

I think the trip was just long enough for our feet too! Having the whole day Tuesday in the car seemed to help but I admit my dogs were BARKING as of Monday night and yet I had to squeak in ONE LAST VACATION THING that night. You'll see what that is eventually!

I am with your DH in terms of the money. It's crazy! However I'm also a bit unsure about that sneaker comment. Actually let me rephrase that...I KNOW I saw some sneakers in the stores in the parks but maybe not for MEN! I saw sneakers for girls and/or kids...the regular simple sneakers with some cool black and white Mickey designs on them. I almost bought a pair for myself!

We definitely enjoy having a vehicle with us. Though it might be nice one day to take the Magical Express and NOT rent a car (if we fly there) we just like how fast it is to drive to the parks or to drive off-property for food and supplies which we did more than once this trip.

 

[wiigirl]

In for this! can't wait to see more!

 

[kittylady1972]

In for this! can't wait to see more!

HELLO and WELCOME! I have to get my photos uploaded before I can continue but hopefully there will be a few more updates this weekend!

 

[kittylady1972]

I have not forgotten about my TRs but just been busy. Will try to get some time in tomorrow for sure!

 

[kittylady1972]

So it's hard to get the time to sit here and get an update in but I am hoping it will happen soon. I just got all 300+ photos uploaded to Shutterfly but since I can't link those here...I need to put the ones for my TR on Photobucket. I'll get there. This trip report is probably the one I can finish the easiest and fastest before I get back to my OTHER trip report from November.

So I'm flying solo this week for a while AND I've been trying to plan a few other trips as well. My husband is out of town on a business trip but I've been planning a quick trip for us in April to Las Vegas! We started the planning last week on a total whim but I've been working on the hotel arrangements. The flights and the tickets are already booked! We had enough points in my husband's Southwest airlines account to book TWO round trip tickets to Las Vegas for a long weekend. The other tickets...are for a concert because the whole reason we are going is to see Def Leppard perform in concert. They are just my all-time FAVORITE band and I have not seen them in concert in years. My husband wanted to take me out there for my birthday to see this special tour they are doing there but the price was just insane. Then I saw some special flight deals come up on Southwest, and we realized we could NOT use his airline miles as we had originally planned for our trip out to California this August...so we are going to be a bit crazy and use them for this trip. We will fly out on a Thursday afternoon and then take a redeye flight home Saturday night, with the concert on Friday. We can always sleep on Sunday!

I have not confirmed our trip in August to Calfornia yet either but I am pretty sure I know what I'll be booking there too. I just need to get access to my husbands airline account to book those tickets. Our flights out for the five of us will be free and we'll have to pay for all of our flights home, but that's okay as it's still saving a ton of money. Then of course we have to pay for hotel, Disnelyand tickets, and tickets to the many parks we want to visit there...and our rental car and food. Yeah not a cheap trip but should be fun.

So the hubby is halfway around the world on business until Valentine's Day and here I am at home. I've been busy catching up on chores and cleaning up most of the weekend but I did manage to take the kids out today and we did some bowling. It was fun and I managed to barely break 100 both times. I refused to let the kids play with bumpers...time to learn to bowl like I did! I know, mean mom but I think it was a good thing for them to learn. We may have to do some more bowling in the future!

Ok kids will be in bed soon and I have a crazy busy week coming up!

 

[kittylady1972]

Happy Valentine's Day to ALL!!
Well thanks to a sick little girl (who appears to be on the mend today, but is home just in case) I have the whole day at home on the computer! So I really really do hope to get more photos online so I can get some life back into my two trip reports...this one and November. We'll see how that goes.

My husband gets home sometime around dinner this evening. The girl and I are hooked on A Baby Story now so I guess we'll watch more of those today. I need to get some food in me so that I can get this party started!!

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY ONE
So we woke up after a so-so sleep at Pop Century. We would get a full day at Disney...and where would we go??

First up was breakfast! We got everybody dressed and packed up our overnight stuff and then headed out to the car. I loved the artwork in our room:

I got to snap a photo of our resort during the day:

Our resort view from the parking lot:

We decided a big buffet breakfast was in order so we headed OFF-SITE to Golden Corral...one of our favorites back home only at home they only do breakfast on the weekends! We sat down and enjoyed a yummy breakfast for a very low price!

Then my phone rang and it was the guy from the Scooter company. I had kinda forgotten that we had to pick up the scooter for my MIL but I also thought they would only deliver it AFTER I called them to let them know when but since my original request was 9am...well that's when it would be arriving. It was just after 8:30am and I knew we should be fine for being in the lobby of SSR close to 9am. So we finished our food and then headed back to SSR...and proceeded to get LOST!

Why we weren't using the GPS I don't know but that's what we get for wandering off Disney property!

The guy ended up calling us around 9am and I think I told him we were about 10 minutes away...which was close enough! We arrived at SSR and headed right to the lobby, where we got the scooter for my MIL after a brief demonstation of how to fold it up for storage.

I decided to check on our room at SSR and BONUS: IT WAS READY!!

This was great since we could unpack the car and then not have to worry about having our luggage on our car while at the park or having to hand it off to the valet to hold for us. Since MIL had the scooter, the kids and I decided we'd make the walk with her over to the room while my DH and FIL drove to the room and we met them there. We had a room in the Paddock area, so not close to the lobby/checkin area at all but a nice walk across the resort and the bridge over the water there.

We got there about the same time and quickly unloaded our luggage into the room. Now we were technically still checked into TWO resorts since we still had some stuff left at Pop Century, thinking we would have time to return there after breakfast. DH was getting antsy at the fact that it was close to 10am and we weren't in a park yet!

So I made the decision that we should just all ride over to Pop Century, get our remaining stuff (not much) and then head to the Magic Kingdom.

We were so happy to arrive at the TTC of the MK! There was already a good line formed to get tickets and since my in-laws needed tickets, they got into the line. We decided to go ahead and try to find our brick.

Back in 1999, we headed to Walt Disney World for our 1-year anniversary and I decided to celebrate it by buying us a brick. It has our name and the date of our 1-year anniversary: Oct 3, 1999. DH still thinks we should have just had our actual anniversary on it instead of the 1-year anniversary date but no matter...it's still our brick! So we hunted it down and then snapped some photos with it:

It's hard to see our names, so I helped out with this one using a photo editor:

Soon we had tickets purchased and given the choice between boat and monorail, what do the kids choose?

Of course!

We are happy to be on the way too!

Love this man for putting up with my need for Disney trips!

As we are on the monorail we overhear a family talking behind us in the same car. They are discussing a school delay so I turn around and ask them where they are from and they say Maryland? Where I ask? They respond Anne Arundel County and I say "Hello there! Us too!" It's indeed a VERY small world but we are all happy to be missing out on the snow event back home!

It's not long before we are walking down here:

And where would be our first stop? Well despite having an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast, we are now HUNGRY...and I decide we should make a try for Be Our Guest Restaurant for lunch!

It is about 11:35am and this is where we end up in line:

So we have to round the corner and cross that bridge and I hear the cast member telling people 45 minutes but I know it will go quickly so despite many child protests...we wait in the line!

Now the one person who is excited just happens to be my oldest son, because he has already had the chance, thanks to the tv in our room at Pop Century, to see Stacy talk all about the restaurant...and he cannot wait to eat there! Of course, he is my pickiest eater so I'm not even sure what he'll eat but as we are in line we look over the menu.

We inch closer:

And closer:

And soon the entrance is in our view:

Still in line but getting inside finally!

And where will we end up and what will we eat???

Continued in next post....

 

[kittylady1972]

DAY ONE CONTINUED
Ok so we got into the area to order our food and my oldest son INSISTED we find a seat in the WEST WING! Nice and dark, here is our view:

I will say the ordering process went pretty well. I can see how it can be a bit confusing but there were plenty of cast members there to help. We got a seat and gathered our drinks and waited for our food.

The food arrived pretty quickly and the server was great to get anything else that we needed (extra plates since we were sharing food) and I'll say the food was okay. It wasn't anything to write home about but we did enjoy it. Kids weren't thrilled with their selections but they managed to eat something. Every now and then we were distracted by the thunder and this painting on the wall changed, though I admit I never witnessed it!

After our meal we walked up and took some better photos of this:

(BTW that is what EVERYBODY else was doing during our meal and I was glad we weren't right next to the rose but we were pretty close)

After our meal we did wander around and check out the other rooms. I took a few photos:

I will say that I definitely LOVED the magical atmosphere of this restaurant. Though our room was a bit dark it was still a nice little escape and you didn't even think that you were eating in a PARK anymore. Just lovely and worth the wait to try for lunch. I think total we were definitely seated and eating within about 30 minutes of standing in line and it did go pretty quickly.

Bellies nice and full, it was time for some RIDES finally!

We were pretty close to Haunted Mansion so that was our first stop. Since my MIL had a scooter we were directed to a back entrance once we got through the first two rooms. So what was cool about this is that we boarded the ride in an area that is BEFORE the final room where you filter through the line so we didn't have to go through the big funnel to the line to ride. It was pretty cool to actually ride the completed circuit of the ride!

Next up was BTMRR, a favorite. I think the wait time was 20-25 minutes...unless you have somebody on a scooter. We were taken up the exit ramp and boarded from the opposite side of the train as everybody else. Yes we waited a few rides but it wasn't too bad at all. We were beginning to like this whole Scooter thing! However I did fell bad about it because my MIL truly loves ALL rides and especially the coasters but BTMRR would end up being the ONLY one she could ride. Due to the nature of boarding a coaster and her difficulty with bending her bad leg she didn't attempt any other coasters beyond BTMRR, which we felt bad about.

Next up was Pirates, and we had to unload MIL from the scooter and push her in a wheelchair up to the boarding area. She tried to tell us it wasn't necessary...but trust me it was because that walk was long and it was a pretty long wait. We noticed the whole right side of the queue appeared to be closed at the beginning and there was some new stuff in the left queue. I don't remember what but I remember us all thinking it was definitely different.

Testing my camera ability without flash inside the ride:

Snapping some photos outside of the ride:

Love this zoom lens:

After POTC we made our way around to the Jungle Cruise, even though I seem to recall the kids begging to do Space Mountain. We wanted to work our way over there next. Jungle Cruise went fine and then it was time for a break...and ICE CREAM! I was still stuffed from lunch but the kids got Rootbeer Floats and my in-laws got Dole Whips! YUM!

Now we walked over towards Tomorrowland and I snapped this photo:

Ok now it was FINALLY time for Space Mountain...except that the wait was 45 minutes!!! So we decided to grab Fastpasses and then hit the other Tomorrowland attractions while we waited, especially since MIL would not be partaking in Space Mountain!

We hopped on the TTA/Peoplemover, which is another favorite believe it or not. I snapped a few photos on this one too:

View of the Speedway from TTA:

Now the fun...a shot of the castle from the TTA:

Another shot with zoom:

And a crop of that last shot give you this:

Yep they are removing the lights from the castle, thus the crane, ruining castle photos for everybody all week long!

(cont'd due to too many images)

 

[kittylady1972]

Now I seem to have listed that we rode Buzz Lightyear next, though I was pretty sure I purchase the Ride+ Photopass from Space Mountain first. In any case, these are the Buzz photos:

(Love this shot of DH with his tongue out, DS8 insisted on riding with us and controlling it and I am SURE my gun was NOT working properly...but anyway!)

Ok so here is our first ride on Space Mountain:

Then we had another ride, this time FIL sat out so it was just our family of five:

Having completed quite a bit for our first full day, we knew it was time to head out for dinner. We hated to say goodbye to the Magic Kingdom, there was so much more to do, but we knew we'd be back.

We headed back to our car and drive DIRECTLY to the Turf Club, where we had our very FIRST ADR. Yeah initially I was going to make this a NO ADR trip, but I caved and since we were already staying at SSR and we wanted to give Turf Club ONE MORE TRY I went ahead and make a reservation.

Arrived just before our reservation and sat down and DH ordered drinks for all of the adults. We barely sipped them and we were called to our table. The EXACT same table I think we have had EVERY TIME we eat at Turf Club. No kidding!

Since I probably will not do a separate dining report, I will give my opinion right now on Turf Club. It's very good and pretty reasonable. This was my 3rd time dining it and 3rd time trying the prime rib and it was better than the 2nd time but not as good as the first time. Overall a nice meal though. I think we'll probably return.

After dinner it was back to the room where we took some much needed showers and hit the sack! It had been a GREAT first day in the parks!

 

[kittylady1972]

This crazy thing called "LIFE" keeps getting in the way of my trip reports! I swear I hope to get back to it soon but we just seem to be so busy on the weekends and I just never get back to posting. I REFUSE to do another PTR of our NEXT Disney vacation until I finish my last TWO TRs though!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Just letting any readers I MAY still have here know that I have not forgotten about this TR...I promise! Still busy and now I have TWO more PTRs to start here! However I will not do them if I can't even get this TRs finished first!

 

[kittylady1972]

I am STILL lurking around here, reading threads and trying to stay up to date on some information to plan my next few trips. They include my trip to Disneyland this August, my cruise this fall (right now booked on a 7-night cruise on the Wonder but that's subject to change) and then our 2014 Cruise with the family and Thanksgiving 2014 trip, still not in the planning stages quite yet!

 

[kittylady1972]

Still here. Still have high hopes of finishing this and my other TR.

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