On the 6th Day, I break! August 2019 completed first TR Copper Creek and Coasters!

[donan1212]

I got the pork shank which was SOOOOOO good. Probably my favorite dish from Disney. But again, I was SO not hungry so that kind of spoiled it for me, as I made myself eat more than I should have.

My sister got the prime rib, which she said was very tasty, but the popover was just ok.

M was happy to get a "real meal" for a kid meal, including a veggie and non-fried meat! (prime rib)



J chose the "Princess" pasta with red sauce and she hated it. You can kind of tell even from the picture that it was not too appetizing:


Snow White and Dopey stopped by the table:




but Grumpy was the star of the night for us!





The desserts were brought out. The Hunter's gift was a really neat presentation and tasted good to boot.

 

[donan1212]

We then got to go up to meet the Queen. M really did like it but she was doing a "serious" face




We did a little more swimming after dinner and later grabbed this beauty from Roaring Fork which looked deeelicious but tasted way too sweet. All three of us hated it and pretty much took one bite each. Very fake strawberry flavor.




Then it was off to bed to get ready for Hollywood Studios in the morning.

 

[donan1212]

Hollywood Studios Day!

Once again, we started our day with breakfast at Roaring Fork before making our way over to the park.

We did a FP at noon for Voyage of the Little Mermaid and J was so excited to get picked to do the introduction. M was having a hard time waiting and staying still. I was happy there were no tantrums, but she pretty much spent the wait time like this





The Little Mermaid is my favorite and I remember this show vividly from when I was younger, but I think the girls thought it was "ok". They said they liked it, but I could tell they were not awfully impressed.

We did Muppet Vision, which was a huge hit with the girls. We then hit up the Tower of Terror (look at M! middle row, left side) and loved it, even though J and I were nervous beforehand.



We made our way over to Toy Story Land and the girls wanted to go on another ride while waiting for our Slinky Dog FP. So I made the unfortunate decision to wait in line for alien swirling saucers. Eeek, bad decision. So long and ridiculously hot. But the girls wanted to power on. They did have fun on the ride and I was surprised that they didn't complain about how short it was after waiting for so long in the sun.

We stopped by Woody's Lunch Box and grabbed a couple things to share for lunch. The girls loved the totchos. M still talks about them.





We then did our Slinky FP, which my Dad joined us on. He told us afterwards that he didn't realize it was a real roller coaster and probably would not have gone one it if he had known. Ooops!








I don't actually remember what we did after Slinky Dog... I think we may have browsed in a few shops.

I do know that we had a ADR for Sci Fi Dine In, which was the restaurant I was most excited about.

Like always, it was a little bit of a bummer that I was just not really that hungry. Neither was the rest of my party. It was just so hot and we had eaten so much already. But it was a fun experience. But a little too cold. M was complaining that she didn't have a sweatshirt. I thought the food was really good. Milkshakes were amazing. I got the falafel burger and tried my Mom's regular burger and they were both delicious.





We then did Star Tours and I let my sister talk me into doing Rock n Roller Coaster, which she promised me did NOT go upside down. I ended up loving it! I really became a coaster fan (although I still don't think I would like traditional outdoor coasters). We rode it multiple times right up until the park was closing!


I promise you the kids liked it! They went on it three more times!

I felt really bad, because J wanted to do a picture with her hands in the air, except I was sitting in fron of her and put MY hands in the air and one of my hands COMPLETELY covered her entire face/body. She was not happy with me!

We went back the the resort and that is when everyone broke down. We had been gone from home quite awhile (including 2 travel days) and J said that she thinks next time we take a vacation it should be shorter. She said that she couldn't wait to go back to school and I told her she is probably the first kid to BE IN DW and be wishing she was at school! She responded with, "it's just too long...on the 6th day I break!" M had a huge meltdown and us adults almost did too. Luckily it didn't damper the following day, since it would be our last park day.

 

[donan1212]

We had an 11:15 ADR at Ohana for our last day, so we got to sleep in, which was much needed. We had stayed at the Poly for our first trip ( a long, long, time ago) and were excited to see it again, as we had loved it. We were disappointed that it didn't have the same feeling. We missed the fountain and birds flying around. It seemed more like a mall. Busy with lot's of stores.

Anyway, we were really excited because, as stated before, Stitch is our favorite!

While waiting for our table, we got to meet Pluto:





We got seated and had some delicious sweet bread and fruit and ordered our drinks. The drinks were really good and the bread was even better. And we usually don't like sweet bread. In hindsight, I wish I had scheduled this breakfast earlier in the trip, as the girls were a little exhausted by this point, so I don't think they enjoyed it quite as much as they could have. J did the "parade", but M didn't want to. We had to wait a really long time for Stitch to come to the table and I think the girls were getting stir crazy. This probably would have been nicer on a non-park day. But it was hard planning because I was trying to fit SO much in... we really liked not leaving Wilderness Lodge for a whole day and doing Whispering Canyon breakfast (we're not BBQ fans, so I didn't want to do the dinner) Anyway, here's some pictures from breakfast!






Ham was yummy too! We enjoyed that it was family style and didn't have to get up to get the food (and possibly miss the characters!) Pluto also came around to the tables who missed getting a picture before breakfast, which I thought was nice (a CM came to the table to ask if we had seen him)



We got to hop on the monorail to MK, which was nice since the girls did want to ride it. (we realized that we traveled by car, train, taxi, plane, and monorail to name a few!)

Mom and Dad got a picture in front of the pumpkins and we used a FP for Splash Mountain. We all decided this was our second favorite ride (except Dad who didn't ride it). We loved the queue - so cute!


We the made it over to our Haunted Mansion FP. M was a little scared at first, but then afterwards said it was "boring". I really liked it. J had been really looking forward to this ride, but didn't seem too impressed either. I think maybe she built it up too much in her mind and really didn't know what to expect at all. Also, by this point they had a taste for the fast roller coasters and thrill rides!

 

[donan1212]

J looked a little scared!


The invisible horse was pretty cool too! I had wanted to look around the area more, but nobody else was into it. I would have preferred to do this area in the evening.


Next up was our Mine Train FP! We loved this ride! The mine inside was adorable and the ride was fun, albeit short. Like most other rides, we would not have waited in the long line, but our FP saved the day.




At this point, we all split up again and it was really nice to have some time with just myself and the girls. We did the teacups 3 times! We kept being able to book a FP and go through the line quickly. I had thought this ride would be too "twirly" for me, but I loved it! I thought it was pretty mild!



We did the magic carpet ride (the girls love the spitting camel):



Then we did the laugh factory, which the girls were not too impressed by.

and then grabbed a bite to eat at Cosmic Rays during a downpour! We somehow managed to get a seat right in front, even though the place was packed. The girls loved the chili fries, burgers were ok.



At this point, M started to have a meltdown and was fighting fiercely with J. My sister met back up with us and offered to take the girls so I could walk around a bit by myself and have a break. I could tell that J really needed a break too and we never get "alone time" so my sister took M, who was happy to have her Aunt all to herself.

J and I walked around frontierland and purchased a couple chocolates, using snack credits. We sat downs to eat them and chat. It was nice to slow down and enjoy just being on vacay. J then wanted to do Swiss Family Treehouse, so we did and it was also really relaxing! We stopped to take in the "views" and were surprised by a squirrel in the treehouse, which we thought was fake at first.



We had an early dinner ADR at Crystal Palace, but my parents decided they were gonna head back to the resort and eat at Geyser Point ( like I said, we REALLY liked that restaurant - Wilderness Lodge has some good eats there!)

We all still didn't really have huge appetites, but my sister and I decided to keep our ADR and met back up on Main Street. I had to laugh when I saw M in a new Stitch hoodie, purchased by my sister. She knows her Aunt won't say no. (my sister ended up buying Mickey earrings for J back at the resort).

We were so tired, that yet again, we couldn't fully enjoy the experience. We were just not that hungry. The food was good, but I wasn't impressed by the desserts (although maybe I just wasn't hungry enough). The girls liked that it was a buffet and they really liked these characters.

 

[donan1212]

While the girls were using the restroom, Piglet came over (they did make it back in time to see him). He waved to my sister and gave her a little hug. She said something about how it's been a long day and she could use the hug, so Piglet went back over to her and gave her a really big hug... and kept on hugging. My sister thought it was a little much, but I thought it was adorable! We were both in a goofy mood by that point and were just laughing over everything since we were overtired. My sister made up this whole plot about how she goes to Crystal Palace by herself every week to see her "Friends" and got really pissed that the friendship day celebration was not just for her. So she was going to tackle Pooh into the banner after drinking a little much at the dinner. So silly, but we you can see we were losing our sanity a little at this point. So back to the resort we went and packed up so we didn't have to rush in the morning to get ready to leave DW.



In the morning, we all ate at Roaring Fork one last time and used our remaining snack credits at the gift shop. I was sad to go, but I think everyone else was ready to go home. Unfortunately our flight was delayed for a few hours. Can you tell by M's eyes that she was more than a little tired?



She walked around the airport like this while we waited for our flight to board:



I grabbed this cute magnetic picture frame that was 6.99, which I thought was a lot better than the tiny (expensive) items in the DW gift shops.




When we finally boarded, M was done. She got the window seat on the flight over, so J was supposed to have it on the return flight. M started having a FIT that she couldn't sit by the window. I mean, flailing around her seat, banging into the seat in front of her type of fit. I tried to calm her down, but knew I was NOT going to give in to her. Across the way, my Mom was trying to get my attention, saying she needed to stop. But I knew there was not much I could do. I really thought we were going to get kicked off the plane, as the seatbelt light was on and M was flat out refusing to put it on and calm down.

Miraculously, she just... calmed down. (I did calmly tell her that they would make us get off the plane if she didn't stop, so maybe that helped?)

Afterwards, I told my Mom that I thought we were going to be kicked off the plane. My Mom said she thought the same thing and that she would have said "bye bye!" Lol, I'm glad M and I weren't stranded at the airport by ourselves!

All in all , M did pretty great for a full week of being completely off schedule.

We had previously planned on staying the night at my sister's apartment again and getting the train in the morning, but we just wanted to be home, so we took the train the night to Croton on Harmon and then drove home. So we got home in the middle of the night, but it was worth it. Sadly, our cat was gone when we got home. We had her a couple years, taking her in after my cousin couldn't care for her and was trying to find her a home. a couple months before the trip, we got two new kittens and the older cat was NOT happy. She started spending a lot more time outside and pretty much just came in at night to sleep in my bedroom. My neighbor fed our cats, but I think she thought another black cat who prowls around was my cat. We have not seen our cat since we returned from DW. I'm hoping she just wandered in the woods and went back to being kind of feral.

So that was a sad ending to our trip, but we did have an amazing vacation and I'm so happy I had that time with my family. My Mom and sister want to try to go back in the spring of 2021, before M turns 10, but we'll see. If we go again, I would definitely not do the meal plan and would plan for more thrill rides, since they were a hit (space mountain and dinosaur!) Thanks for reading if you did! I'm happy to have the trip written down so we can look back and remember all the fun we had!