No Children Were Harmed In The Making of This Trip Report 7/14-7/21 2011

Ahh the lovely Disney Friendship's between resorts, so calming, so tranquil...well for everyone but my girls. Buzz and I were exhausted after being up since 4:30am that morning and it was now going on around 10pm when we boarded our friendship. In our tired yet happy condition, we drug our behinds to our room on the 4th floor. We walked in and for a minute I swore we were in the wrong room (even though you could tell which was ours by the Mickey Heads that were around the doorway stuck there with magnets). There were 3 buckets filled with snacks, a room service tray that held plates, glasses, a bottle of water, some granola and a bunch of fruit as well as a white chocolate Donald duck who had chocolate shavings and Mickey head sprinkles added in for good measure. In my tired stupor I kept insisting we had the WRONG room! Buzz then reminded me if we had the wrong room our KTTW wouldn't have worked :rotfl2:. Along with all of this pixie dust was a card addressed to our Family. The card simply said "Welcome Home! From your family at the Wilderness Lodge."
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After this the pictures I took had a shadow of my arm in the way:rotfl2:
The girls for some reason got super excited by the treasure's left for us by our second family and we decided to brave the pool once again...we intended to be down there for one hour and ended up not going to bed until midnight :eek:

Morning comes early and it's no different at Disney then anywhere else in the world and typically for me when I wake up early at Disney I am happy and content. I'm in the bubble and all is right with the world. Apparently the rest of my flock had not gotten that memo!
It's like the saying says: "Sometimes we wake up Grumpy, other's we let them sleep."
This applied to everyone in our group but me. I got up to get dressed and was followed into the bathroom by a VERY grumpy Barbie...she had forgotten where she was and I didn't remember to tell Buzz to take her on the balcony to wake up and look at her first dose of magic for the morning...ducks in the pool. So there she was screaming and crying while I was taking a shower as fast as I could so Buzz could get in. I then woke up the other 2 members of our brood who had some how slept through the screaming and crying of Barbie....they were less then enthused to be up at 6:30am after only 5.5 hours of sleep but they got dressed in the clothes I had pulled out for them. Buzz got out of the shower and we had finally gotten Barbie calmed down enough to get her dressed and in her stroller...then she went from grumpy to flat out ticked off...it took a while for it to sink in that it was morning and time to get on the go...if you stayed on the 4th floor of the Wilderness Lodge with an unobstructed view of the pool and you heard our lovely youngest...I apologize!

Down to the bus stop we went to catch a bus to the MK and then get on the monorail to the Poly...that was the plan. In my still not had my coffee, still not fully awake stupor...we boarded the bus for Ft. Wilderness. We got off there and walked to their boat dock to catch a boat to the Contemporary. Hey no problem there, the monorail runs right through and then not long after that we will be at the Poly. Again I was wrong. The monorail was not running as yet so we had to get on another bus to the TTC. At this point I decided we would just walk to the Poly because it really wasn't that far away. We got there and got checked in and didn't wait long to be seated.
Our morning was not going very well as you can tell but this is where it get's down right worse. Buzz realized he had forgotten to put on his belt, I remembered that I had forgotten to put sunblock on myself and everyone else and when we ransacked the back pack for autograph books and the camera, we realized we forgot the latter in the room:rolleyes1 No matter, we pressed on! Breakfast was ok but not as good as it was last year. After we paid the tip and used up our 3rd TS credits, we took the monorail to the MK and then boarded the friendship back to the Wilderness Lodge. We got the things we had forgotten and then hopped on another bus to....

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The Animal Kingdom! My goal was to spend some time doing Kali River rapids, Expedition Everest and letting the girls play in the dinosaur area...the heat made us change our minds. While Lotso and I waited in line to get her picture taken with
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Buzz and Rex went into a near by store to get some AC. Now I must give you a heads up...both of these 2 people in my life hate shopping and going into stores in general. If they went in there then I knew they were REALLY hot. After the pictures we then got in line for the ONLY thing we actually did in the park that day...It's Tough To Be A Bug!
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The girls and I totally missed this show last year and now I'm shocked that we didn't do it sooner! It was very fun and informative! The best part, depending on where you sat you got the surprise of your life:rotfl: It alswo helped that it had AC:thumbsup2
We had lunch ADR's for Yak and Yeti but they weren't for a few more hours but it couldn't hurt to try right? We went up right as they were opening and they let us eat early. Buzz got wonton soup and then after trying one of my chicken wings wished he had ordered that as well. He had ordering remorse a few times on this trip.
After lunch it was still to hot for us, Barbie's cheeks were pink and her brow was covered in sweat so we took the bus back to the resort to swim again. Suit's doned, we swam for a good 3 hours until the storm clouds rolled in.

We had 8:30 dinner reservations at 1900 Park Fare so we still had some time to wait so while the girls watched Disney XD, I started to iron the girls dresses and get ready myself.

At 7:20, we were on a bus bound for the Grand Floridian ready to dine with Cinderella and her Prince...we still arrived way earlier then we thought though and killed time in the General Store in the Floridian.

Closer to our dinner time, we made our way downstairs and checked in. I asked about the cake I had ordered 2 months' prior for tonight and they had NO information about any cake :eek: We were given our tickets and waited for them to come claim us after opting out of the picture. Sometime during dinner, while Buzz and Rex were getting their plates someone from the kitchen management staff came up to talk to me. I had given Chef Pat the WRONG date for our cake order...so there was no cake that night. We did arrange to have it re-done for the 20th though when we came for breakfast which I was more then happy with.
Our hosts for the evening were more then gracious to have us join them and Lotso was over the moon to see
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These next two are her reaction when he came by to ask little girls to dance
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She was quite in love with Prince Charming (although she still denies it to this day all the while turning bright red)
and Barbie made a BFF in Cindrella
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She was however leary of
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she just wanted nothing to do with her and looked the other way...
Rex and Lotso had loads of fun talking to these ladies though
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Dinner was delicious and I would most deffinately go back again if not for the food then to see Lotso blush like crazy :rotfl:
After dinner, the heat and the large meal had taken it's effects on everyone but myself and Lotso. We knew there were EMH at the MK that night and after discussing it with Buzz, he said he would take Rex and Barbie to go to bed while Lotso and I went to play for a bit...and play we did!
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We hit up Stitch's Great Escape first (what she had wanted to ride the day before) then went on Space Mountian. After that we headed over to The speedway for another jaunt around the track and then over to Adventureland to ride the Jungle Cruise and ended the night with the Magic Carpet's of Aladdin. On the way out we hit up the Confectionary on Main Street for some water and took our boat back to the lodge, tired and quite content. Buzz, Barbie and Rex were fast asleep when we came in so we got into our jammies and decided to join them.
 

Oh I am loving this trip report!!! I am IN!!!!

I totally teared up when I saw your surprises from WL!!! :thumbsup2

I am so grateful for our military, and their wonderful families! I am looking forward to reading all about your much deserved magical vacation! :surfweb:
 
Oh I am loving this trip report!!! I am IN!!!!

I totally teared up when I saw your surprises from WL!!! :thumbsup2

I am so grateful for our military, and their wonderful families! I am looking forward to reading all about your much deserved magical vacation! :surfweb:
When we first walked in, I was to worried that we were going to be walking in on someone sleeping to cry :rotfl2:
A great trip report. I am looking forward to reading more. :)

You do a great job taking pictures!!

Thank you all for joining in! I took over 500 pictures on my own but only got 97 Photo Pass pictures taken (DH said that should have been enough :laughing::laughing:) but I wanted more. The days I forgot my camera really bit me in the rear and I don't know how I missed it, it's HUGE! Photo Pass photographers were also difficult to find and I'm not sure why, maybe it was the heat?
 
Morning came early once again for us, in fact all of our ADR's for Breakfast were at 8:30am. I have to admit this now, I would not have booked breakfast this early because I am NOT a morning person...I'm more of a let's do brunch kind of gal when I'm not at Disney that is.
Even though Buzz,Rex and Barbie had gotten to sleep before us the only ACTUAL one who did go to sleep was Rex. Apparently Barbie kept getting up and looking for me. She had gotten so used to it just being us girls for over 9 months and it was not normal to have me not there and Daddy there. She had crawled into bed with Buzz to go to sleep and when she would pass out he couldn't move her to the pack n play or to one of the other beds. So when I went to bed I had a surprise in the form of a short person taking up my entire half of the bed on our Anniversary night.
Never the less, we had to be at the Contemporary this morning! It was my first time dining at Chef Mickey's! I was guarded to say the least after reading different reviews on here, some were good others just left me in serious doubt over choosing this place.
We arrived at the Contemporary slightly late after waiting for the boat to come but were seated almost immediately (and yes we opted out of the picture in front of the plastic Mickey dressed as a chef, after all we were going to see the real thing)
Coffee was a much needed staple for us that day and while our server was getting our drinks, we all went to the buffet. Over all I was overwhelmed by the options! Some things I would gladly do again (the corned beef hash with actual cornbread blew me away!) while other's I wish I had a map to get to to try before I was stuffed (Cherry blintzes you know who you are!)!
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Before the characters came around they had their dance party where the kids twirled their napkins. Rex never left her seat but also couldn't figure out why she was twirling her napkin instead of eating her morning waffles.
Then the folks we came to eat with started to make their rounds
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After telling Donald that he above all other's was Barbies FAVORITE character, he signed her autograph book #1 Donald
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Finally after much waiting, Goofy came to our table. By now we were STUFFED and I had syrup on my arms thanks to Barbie not understanding that the syrup in front of her was for HER
We had places to get to though! So we paid our tip and got on the monorail to the TTC so we could go to
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This is the one park I knew we would take our time on, firstly because when I talked to Buzz about his first visit here, he said that it took his family 2 days just to do World Showcase but they were drug around by his mom and rushed. They hardly rode or saw anything!
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Things this morning were NOT going the way Lotso wanted. I don't know if it was the heat or her just not feeling the magic that was around her but she was out and determined to whine today about everything. At this point it was because she wasn't allowed to sit on the rails for the safety guards while we waited for our ride. Oh well, safety first:thumbsup2
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As you can see, even after we arrived at her destination her mood had yet to improve. I however had an idea to turn her frown upside down and it involved...
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That's right we went to The Seas with Nemo and friends!
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I just love these little seagulls! MINE MINE MINE MINE :rotfl:
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The girls LOVED this attraction! We were in awe of the story line being told on the way in. How you went from being on the beach to under the sea!
After we found Nemo and learned about our friends under the ocean some, we went to hang out with some sharks!
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This was as close as Rex would get to even a fake shark!
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Barbie and I fully believed that sharks should talk with their mouth's full so we could escape!
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It was in the shark room that we split up somewhat. I had taken Loto to see other things in the building and told her to tell Buzz to turn on his walkie talkie before we went out. Well she forgot that due to loud noises on the tarmak, Buzz's hearing isn't always the greatest so you have to make sure you have his attention when you talk. So off we walked to go see the
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Manatee's! It was feeding time and they were giving an informative talk about the dangers that face these beautiful creatures in the wild when Buzz came up from behind me with Barbie and Rex. He did not look happy thinking I had just walked off which was NOT the case. It was then that we made sure we told each other what was going on. He took the 2 girls he was with to see the Manatee's while Lotso and I sat and looked into a beautiful aquarium with Dolphins in it. They were swimming around and having a grand time! We re-grouped and decided to walk around this wonderful place and found another aquarium filled with all different kinds of fish and a few hidden
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Mickey heads!

 
After The Seas, we opted to go do a Ridder Swap for Test Trac!
Rex and Lotso both love this ride (although Rex admits that she SWEARS she will never ride it every year and then goes on it only to want to ride it over and over again lol)
While Buzz and Lotso went to go wait in line, I took Rex and Barbie to play in the sprinkler area.
Now mind you I told them "Do not get MORE then your feet wet!"
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Barbie did not listen to that little bit of instruction and got SOAKED! On the upside we had brought along an extra change of clothes for her just in case!
While we were waiting, we decided to go check out the gift shop/car show at the exit to Test Trak and saw Buzz's Dream car...well truck.

Buzz and Lotso came off not long afterand it was time for Rex and I to go
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By this time it was noon and we were hungry. I had heard GREAT things about Sunshine Seasons so we went there. Rex ordered chicken but we didn't know how the sides worked (you apparently only get one side not 2) so instead of the mashed potatoes she wanted she got rice that she did not care for...so I shared some of my sandwich with her (I don't remember what was on it, I just remember it was AWESOME ) Besides it was to big for me! We had to wake up a very tired and grouchy Barbie to eat but all she could manage was some grapes and chocolate milk. We saw that the line for The Land was non-existant so we went there next..

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That's one HUGE Lemon!
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After all this, we went to go see the Lion King show they have there about how we all impact our environment. Sorry, no photographs in the theater!
I then decided it was time to go to Club Cool! We worked our way through the soda samples...starting at the right and working our way to the left...this put's the Beverly near the end of the line.
The next few pictures are a sequence of both Buzz and I trying the dreaded BEVERLY!
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We came out of Club Cool deciding that we did NOT like the Beverly at all. Buzz asked what we were going to do next when I looked up and saw..
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That can only mean one thing...a Tinkerbell was nearby!
We waited in line to see her for what seemed like only 20 minutes (but in reality was an hour)
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But after saying goodbye to Tink, we were at a loss as to what to do with ourselves...we opted to go back to The Land to see if we could squeeze in early for our dinner reservation at Garden Grill.
We were so happy to hear that they could!
So were these guys...
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The food here was beyond delicious! It was out of this world! I will admit though that we also sampled lots off the children's choices...Sweet Potato fries are the BOMB!
After we were fully stuffed, we walked down the hill to get our stroller and made our way to the front of the park. We saw that the line for Spaceship Earth was very short though and opted to go on that. Rex and Lotso both had a blast re-figuring the future and laughing at the pictures taken on the ride.
Buzz told me on the way out that Spaceship Earth had been the last ride he had gone on when he was a kid too before they left Epcot.

By now Buzz and I had decided it was hot tub time for us and pool time for the kiddo's so we got on the bus and went back to the Wilderness Lodge to suit up and relax our tired muscles in the water.

Even though Lotso did whine a lot (I'm hot! I'm tired! Can we go swimming now!?!?) it was a great day and we all ended up having fun.
 
What a fabulous day you had!!! I am excited that you enjoyed Garden Grill so much! We are eating there for the first time on our upcoming trip!!! I think "Farmer" Mickey is way too cute!
 
What a fabulous day you had!!! I am excited that you enjoyed Garden Grill so much! We are eating there for the first time on our upcoming trip!!! I think "Farmer" Mickey is way too cute!

Garden Grill was awesome! I had pictures of Chip and Dale as well, but my arm kept casting a shadow so the pictures didn't come out to well. Once I fix them I will post those up as well. I can honestly say this is going to be a MUST do for our next trip (that I'm currently planning :rolleyes1)!
 
Thankfully, we got to sleep in just a little bit this morning because our breakfast reservation was just downstairs in the lobby!

We all decided to get the skillet that morning because it was just the most easy thing in the world and were delighted that we got Rusty Raphael as our server! This guy is HILLARIOUS and when Lotso decided to show her bum to him and everyone around us he decided it was time for some "tough love". First she was made to walk with him to get this HUGE fork...It was honestly as tall as she was! If that wasn't enough she was then made to wear a crown made of napkins and straws:rotfl:
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Even AFTER all this torture (and much laughter from our table) she kept on getting more riled up...Raphael had no choice but to put her in "jail"
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As you can tell from the look on her face, this she found to be OUTSTANDING! She was laughing the whole time and looking forward to the morning ahead. That is until we actually got into the park and she soon realized today was the day we had scheduled Pirates League for Buzz and Rex. So our Castle picture ended up looking like
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The frown is because again things are not going her way. She thought that she was going to be doing the BBB today while her dad and older sister did the Pirates League. I informed her I hadn't made reservations for her at the BBB and appologized for it. We decided to head out towords Fantasy Land though and trudged on, all the while Lotso was pouting...she even continued to pout when we saw the line to meet Rapunzel was short!
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This is the look on her face while Buzz and I stood in line for them and they were coloring...so sad. So I called Disney up and asked if we could squeeze her in on the Pirates League reservation (that she hadn't earned BEFORE we left). They told me just to go directly to the League and ask there. So I told her about trying to get her in to be made into an empress before she met Rapunzel....again our pictures turned out like
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So over we marched to Adventure Land instead. We were dead set on finding the Pirates League (only because we had missed where the door was before) and were told that they could in fact squeeze her in with her dad and sister! We were hot by then and saw that the line to Pirates was almost NON existant so I went and parked our stroller while they waited in the shade.
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We took a diffrent route to get to the ride and saw a whole slew of new things before we boarded our boat. While we were waiting for it to push off, I took some pictures of our friendly Cast Members!
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Not to be upsurped by her co-worker, I took another picture of a second cast member
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Then we were off, and so was my camera...turned off that is.
 


After Pirates it was time for the Jungle Cruise!
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This is my dream house..it's only missing AC

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Remember, they have their trunks on!

Finally it was time for some Piratitude transformation!
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After this they asked that my camera be turned off because there are no pictures taken by you in the secret room! This doesn't stop them from taking their own pictures though!
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We left the League with 3 new names, two very pretty empresses and a beatten up pirate for lunch at Peco's Bills. Let me just say that this was my first time going to this CS local and I will most deffinately be going back! The burgers were DELICOUS and the cheese sauce for my fries was over the top!
Our bellies full, we walked out into the sun and decided to go to Tom Sawyer's Island... but not before picking up Fast Passes for Splash and Big Thunder!

We found a playground there and decided to let the girls get out some pent up energy....by the time we left, they hadn't let out much of it
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Yes, that is Rex and Lotso having a sword fight outside the restrooms on the island while we waited for our barge to take us back to the main land. During this time Rex decided he had enough of the face paint, it was making him itch. He tried his best but couldn't get it all off.
After this, we went and took turns cashing in our FP's for Big Thunder! Buzz and Lotso went on first while Rex, Barbie and I waited in the shade and had an ice pop. Then it was time for Rex and I to ride the wildest train in the west!
We then took the girls to the park near Splash Mountian. Buzz stayed with the girls and I went through the FP lane and quickly found myself enjoying one of my favorite rides from the front seat all the while wishing that Rex was no longer "Scared and Proud!" Yes this is the arguement I got when we were picking up Fast Passes. I kept poking and proding, insisting she would have a good time but finally I relented when she said those words to me. None the less she had fun at the playground with her sisters.
I came off and Buzz left me there, but he was not gone for long. He came back saying that he to felt that the ride was missing something without a buddy (insert parental guilt here).:sad1:
Since we were close, we walked over to my favorite ride
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The Haunted Mansion! We asked to skip the stretching room because it really freaks out Rex. I admit that although I love this ride, I get kind of scared when they turn out the lights before opening the doors. We got into our doom buggies (Rex with Barbie and I, Lotso with Buzz) and waited. Rex promptly put her head down because she didn't want to see the "ghosts". Surprisingly Buzz said that Lotso kept her eyes open the ENTIRE time and loved it! The only downside was our ride kept stopping for periods of time...once in the lightning room, once in the attic and once in the grave yard. It was very odd!
From there we went to see Country Bear Jamboree. Although it's not a favorite of Barbie (she loves the Tiki room but it was down) it is up there for Lotso. She loves the talking mounted heads on the walls. Buzz commented on the way out that he rememberd it being funnier when he was a kid

We came out and a parade was almost about to start so we hot footed it to Adventure Land again and decided to get some frozen beverages to cool off with. We were debating riding the Magic Carpets, but we had our drinks and the kids were more intrested in playing then drinking them so we passed it up. I found someone's camera where we were sitting and turned it in to a cast member near the place where we got our drinks from and we sat down to plot our next move. We had about an hour until our dinner ADR (being up early and having lunch early for us was making us hungrier earlier) so we went to the Christmas store! I bought a Country Mickey ornament and then we walked back to Liberty Tree to find out if we could be seated. A short time later, we were seated at a round table not far from the check in area enjoying our drinks. Dinner was very good and has made it to our "must do list" for dining on a future trip.

We then decided to leave the park to go swimming. So off to the friendships we went, tired and hot but mostly ready to cool off.
Before we left the room we decided to do our laundry so we gathered up our dirty clothes into our basket, grabbed our mugs and the camera along with our tripod (that I had YET to have used lol) and went down to the lobby.

Machines loaded, cups refilled and some snacks bought I set up my tripod and took these shots...
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I tried to take a picture of Rex comming down the waterslide but missed the shot entirely every time...
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I did manage to get some good pictures of the girls having fun with their Dad though
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Wait...that's not the kids...that's the lime aide type drink I got at the Trout Pass bar. Still it was very good!
By now our laundry had been washed and dried and was ready to be hauled up to the room to be folded and put away. Besides we had 5 people to shower before bed!
 
Oh your breakfast looks like it was a hoot!

Yours are the first pictures I've seen of the Pirate League! It looks super fun!!!!

Mmmm Pecos Bill's cheese sauce....popcorn::

I didn't know you can ask to skip the stretching room...that is what freaks my oldest daughter out! :scared1:
 
Loving all the pictures. We did alot of your firsts too.:lmao:

We ate at GG for the first time. I really like how the room slowly turns. The only problem I had was our table seemed too small for all 5 of us but otherwise I really liked the food.

Another first was the pirates league. My two DSs and DD did this and next time DH wants to try it too. It was a great experience and I really loved the secret room and we ate at Peco's Bill right after that too! :)
 
I am so enjoying your trip report! We loved garden grill too......I think we were there the same day but our ADR was 7pmish......much later than yours. I love the Pirates League pictures...looks like so much fun. Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride too.
 












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