Our Family's First Trip - 7/10-7/18 - Completed!

[Becky2005]

July 11

Off to a late start, no set time to get up….we get to the Disney Information Center and make a stop there. Try to see if I can get a PS for the Concourse Steakhouse for dinner. We secure one for a little after 9 PM. We get directions on how to get to the Contemporary (which was a nice map, easy to follow – except when trying to come home ).

Got our first pressed penny here!

YEAH, we make it to the Contemporary after some tense moments of trying to figure out where we go exactly (yes, we were being tourists and did some OOPS we need to be in the other lane NOW). It’s late, we are tired, the bellman takes several of our bags (but we still have several stashed away that we retrieve later). The guard at the MK gate didn’t check our name off or anything, just told him we were checking in. The one at the Contemporary didn’t really check against anything either, just ask DH for picture ID.

Go to check in and find out we are on the 9th floor MK view! YEAH! We had room 4529 it was an awesome view – HOWEVER, I don’t think I would pay extra for it (appears starting in 2006 you can pay extra and guarantee yourself the MK view). I could hear the busses idling at something like 4 AM – I know it was the Magical Express busses, etc… but UGH! I’m betting the Bay Lake side was quieter. I also didn’t realize until, oh, about ½ into the vacation that it wasn’t a non-smoking room. It didn’t smell like smoke and I didn’t see any ashtrays, etc… but I happened to notice one day the no-smoking symbol on some other doors and ours didn’t have one. Also, the bed faced the MK, so you could lie in bed and see the fireworks, etc… I thought the room was a nice size. The bathtub seemed small to me but DH said it was standard size and I’m just used to our bigger tub at home (although I thought the one at the Holiday Inn was normal sized – so I don’t know). It was nice having everything right there.

After we get settled in, off to the Concourse Steakhouse for dinner and not on the plan so this is out of pocket. OUCH! – Although I didn’t think it was too bad price wise. We had an excellent server. Aaron wanted root beer; they don’t serve root beer there. I was just going to have Aaron pick out something else (no big deal really), after he was just about to pick something else, the server told him that next door they have Root Beer floats she can go next door and get him root beer! Made him one happy boy! I ordered a steak (forgot which one) and forgot to ask for it with no sauce. I didn’t like it due to the sauce, I was able to tolerate it as best I could and eat some of it but made sure I always asked for no sauce from then on. Kyle got on a kick that he literally ordered Mac & Cheese at almost every restaurant for both lunch & dinner.

Off to bed, tomorrow we tackle MGM – I set the alarm clock so that we can get up bright and early to be there at opening….or so I thought anyway…….

 

[Becky2005]

July 11

MGM here we come….I awake to realize it’s way after 7:00 – Ummm….wasn’t that alarm supposed to go off? I go over to it and here it doing a small buzz. Ask DD if it had been doing that all night (sounded like it was on but the volume was all the way down type of thing). She said yes, I figure out how to turn it off completely and will deal with it later. So much for breakfast…we NEED to get to MGM before opening at least so we can get in the lines and don’t end up being squished together with 50,000 other people arriving at opening too. LOL! I was hoping to get on the bus by 8:00! By the time we got everyone up and going, etc… We didn’t arrive to MGM until after opening. Bummer.

OK…first thing on our agenda, DD wants to ride Tower of Terror! I ask her several times. Aaron decided to back out before we even got started. We get through the queue, fairly quickly…we are waiting in line and they ask for a “party of 2” – I raise my hand and zoom, off we go IN THE FRONT ROW no less! We take off our glasses because I wasn’t sure how intense the ride would be and I wasn’t going to take the chance of losing my glasses on vacation. I saw diddly squat on the ride because I can’t see 1 foot in front of my face without my glasses. DD’s eyes aren’t as bad as mine so she could see. We get started and DD screams her head off literally. I scream the first drop and then after that I got tickled because the people behind us were also laughing, so it was a mix of laughing/screaming. DD was NOT laughing, she was screaming with all her might.

We get off the ride and she absolutely hated it and it scared her half to death. She was shaking so bad. She went and sat down on the wall for a while with DH & the boys while I ran and got fast passes for Rock N Roll Rollercoaster (I did ask her if she wanted to attempt that or skip it after TOT). She said she still wanted to ride. I did buy our picture. J

After I got the fastpasses, DH was hungry because we had skipped breakfast so we made our way over to the ABC Commissary. I was trying to get there before 10:30 which is when they quit serving breakfast. We do make it but I think it’s about 10ish? We have a PS for Sci-Fi at 11:25, so I didn’t get anything to eat there. DH & the boys do.

Things get blurry here, I don’t remember exactly how we did things. LOL! I know everyone went on Star Tours while I wanted with Luke. They loved it and wanted to do it again. Unfortunately, we never got back to it.

We also went and saw Muppets 3-D, where Luke promptly broke the 3-D glasses – OOPS! There was no cast member to tell so I just threw them in the return at the end. After that, I never got him glasses to wear during the 3-D stuff.

We ate lunch at Sci-Fi. The food was fine. Nothing particular stands out in my mind. I know Luke was cranky and throwing food, etc… but that was typical for ALL the meals. I was constantly trying to keep him from throwing food, menus, napkins, you name it.

DD & I went back and did the Roller Coaster. She liked that better than TOT but she also screamed full scream. Bought the pictures.

It was hot, kids were getting cranky….I don’t think we did anything else there. Back to the hotel room. Time to get ready for dinner. I believe our dinner was scheduled for 6:00…. Asked at the front desk how to get to Yachtsman Steakhouse, answer – walk to MK and take a bus from there! That’s a good idea! (I was thinking I had to go to Downtown Disney and back around that way). I know it was WAY later by the time we got there due to transportation situation, detour into MK for new shorts and kids bladder went into “gotta go, gotta go, gotta go mode” I did schedule a wake-up call from about 4:00 PM so we would know to start getting ready…Ha! It takes 10x as long to get ready as I thought. The dinner saga up next.

 

[Becky2005]

July 11

Originally, we had a 6:00 PM PS because I wanted dinner early enough to avoid those that are using this as a date night. The last thing they need is our wild family to show up.

Wake up call, came at 4:00 PM. I wanted to get going by 5:00 PM – WRONG again! 5:30 we finally get ready to leave the Contemporary! We ALL did potty breaks, yes we did. Find out about walking over to MK to catch the bus. OK…all is well, we should be pretty close right? – WRONG!

Half-way down the walk to MK and Kyle is telling us he has to go potty! What? We all just went, you can hold it can’t you? I seem to recall there being bathrooms somewhere near MK before needing a ticket. I am thinking we can get there and deal with it. It’s about 5:45 now and we aren’t even at MK yet, much less on a bus to get to Yachtsman. Oops….we didn’t quite make it all the to the MK when Kyle just can’t hold it any longer and oopsie we have a wet pants situation on our hands. OK….mental notes, I remember reading about others having these things and other types of “oopsies” that new clothes are needed, I’m pretty sure I can find some shorts in MK. So, off Kyle & I go into MK in search of some shorts in his size. My first full view of the castle is me trying to get through to a store – I did try to do a quick, take it in while I can sneek some “ahhh” there it is moment in. That was the only time we used the Park Hopping capacity on our cards and I laughed going, I guess having the Park Hopping choice was necessary just for that one emergency shopping stop. We get into the Emporium, I find some Khaki shorts for him, of course, no underwear but hey you do what you have to do. They were nice in that you could make them tight on the legs too (I’m not sure if they were supposed to be swimsuits too because they had mesh insides but not like I’ve seen in other swimsuits). So, $25 later, ask to cut the tags off and we go to the restroom to change and ask him if he has to go potty again, just to be on the safe side! He does (geez, the accident wasn’t more than 10 minutes ago and he goes again?!?!?!), We make the legs “tight” to be a little more covered since he is going bare underneath. Luckily, I have the handy dandy Ziplock bags with me in the diaper bag, so just throw his wet stuff in one of those.

We finally get on the bus to the Yacht Club for dinner, it is now about a quarter AFTER 6:00…finally get to the restaurant about 6:30-6:45! I think. We get our order placed and someone asks to go to the restroom – I forget who at this point. Find out the bathroom is out the restaurant and down the hall. Throughout dinner, we visited the bathroom at LEAST 10 times between Kyle having to go and Aaron & Carolyn needed a visit too (at least she only had to go once) but each time of course since it was out the restaurant and down the hall one of us adults had to go with them. I think we weren’t there between EACH course of the meal. The only good thing about it was that each time we left and came back in we saw the dessert table. J There was Tinkerbell’s Puzzle which we ended up getting all around, since you got to paint the white chocolate, etc… Now, remember we were seated about 7:00 and so we were done around 8:30 – how many times do you have to use the restroom in 1 ½ hours? 10 is a bit excessive, or however many times it was.

My original plan was to go back to MGM after dinner (that was based on getting to dinner on time – strike 1)…however, before dessert I could tell Carolyn was doing her “I’m getting a headache” look, actions. At first she was fine but then said she was getting a headache, so strike 2 for going back to MGM. We just decide to go back to the room and go to bed after the fiasco of wet pants, the every 5 minutes bathroom visits during dinner. Took most of Carolyn’s dessert back with us. We get to MK and take the Monorail back to the hotel instead of walking back.

 

[Becky2005]

July 12

It’s here, it’s here…the real day of vacation. The day that everyone plans – going into MK for the first time! You know, you’re supposed to go gazing up to the castle and get to stand in Awe of it – right? Isn’t that the commercials you always see, the vision you imagine….and then reality comes crashing down for our family!

Again, silly me, I think OK, I have more time to really look at the alarm clock since we were tired arrival day and I just thought I turned it on. This time I’m really going to have it set correctly. We have an 8:00 PS for Crystal Palace, we don’t want to be late for that, we want plenty of time to see the castle, take it all in, etc…

WHAT? What do you mean this stupid thing didn’t go off again and we wake up again at almost 7:30! WHAT? We are supposed to BE there in 30 minutes! The good news is that I did have everyone’s outfit’s labeled in Ziplock bags, so that helps speed things up but there is no way the family of 6 can be up & ready to go and over to MK in 30 minutes, just is NOT going to happen. Luckily, the meal is breakfast so at least I know we will be getting food.

We get ready to go and DH refuses to walk over to MK, he insists that we take the Monorail – forget the fact that I TELL him that MK will be the last stop and it will take longer, etc… I just don’t feel like arguing with him, I’m already stressed since we are late as it is. We hop on the Monorail to get to breakfast.

We get through the gates around 8:30 and I’m walking fast to make a beeline to Crystal Palace. Ahh…there’s the castle, isn’t it pretty, yeah, there are not many people, no we can’t take pictures, we are 30 minutes late to breakfast – what if they won’t seat us? (I didn’t know what would happen if we were too late to a PS – do they just cancel it on you at that point and give it to a walk-up or what?) – We can’t miss Pooh bear, that’s DD’s favorite and one thing she has been looking forward to the entire time we have planned vacation!

Yeah, DD remembers to grab a time’s guide today so we don’t have the same issue as MGM (we forgot to get one and had no clue what was going on when!).

We get seated and are one of the first tables the characters come to! Get our drink orders and we can go get food anytime….except that the characters are coming out RIGHT NOW. Tigger, Pooh & Eyeore were rotating, Piglet was standing in the middle so we could go see him whenever. We didn’t go get our food for about 30 minutes because everytime we thought we would get a chance a character was right there.

Now, I wasn’t sure how DS-1 was going to react to characters, it could have gone either way. He absolutely LOVED them. He wasn’t too fond of Tigger but he loved Pooh bear and Eyeore (I think he liked long ears because he got more excited with the characters with long ears – besides Mickey – he loved Mickey!).

The food was average but we rushed through the meal because A. we had been late to start with B. The characters came by so fast that by the time we got food we had already been there for a while. Just felt a bit rushed in general (probably because in my head, I kept thinking about all these other things we needed to get to that we are off schedule for now!).

We finish breakfast and head out into the park! We see the ending of Cinderellabration – another for whatever reason we never get to the beginning of this. Now, at least at this point, I am not a psycho mom and rush everyone around. We had a great viewing of it from where the stroller and stuff was, so we stopped and watched it until it was over.

Next up – the rest of the morning in MK and we get to meet PUSH!

 

[Becky2005]

July 12

We finished watching Cinderellabration and DD asks if we can see the beginning – I tell her we will try, I look on the time’s guide, it’s there a lot, we can somehow manage to do that – or so I thought. Unfortunately, we never DO manage to get to the beginning of the show, we almost did another day but it was after a rain and they cancelled that showing.

Our goal is to get to Buzz Lightyear since that is DS-5’s “must do” of the trip. As we are heading that way at the Teacups, the kids spot White Rabbit, Tweedle-Dee & Tweedle-Dum. They want the autographs. I tell DH to take the kids to get the autographs and I will go get FP for Buzz.

I take Luke and we head off to Buzz….after I grab the FP, we start heading back to where DH is and who should I come upon but a talking trash can talking to some other kids. Now, I was so excited because I knew it was PUSH and so I stopped and watched for a while and pointed him out to DS-1. I figured after a few minutes, DH would get mad at me for taking too long (that tended to be a thing for him to grumble about), and Luke doesn’t seem all that interested anyway. As I go to leave, Push says “Bye Luke” – I was so tickled pink by that!

I meet back up with DH and we go on Peter Pan’s ride, I think, I know we got it in there somewhere – you know that may have been before we went to Buzz – it’s all kind of a blur at this point. Of course, Peter Pan’s ride stops right as we are almost at the end. LOL! I don’t know if they were loading someone who was handicapped or it just got stuck. I think it might have been that it just got stuck because I saw one of the CM get on the phone (we were close to the exit, DH & the 2 older ones were stuck next to Captain Hook! That tended to be one of DS-8’s favorite parts! When asked he recalls getting stuck next to Captain Hook on the Alligator!).

We did Winnie the Pooh and went and did Buzz! Everyone LOVED Buzz so I grabbed a couple more FP after we got off the ride but then something bizarre happened with the FP – when they came out they didn’t have any “your next time” to get another FP, so I did a “Hmmm…I wonder if….”, DS-8 really, really, really, really wanted to go on Stitch. I warned and warned and warned him about it. DD wasn’t so sure but I told her I was going to get FP so she needed to make a decision so I knew how many to get. She decided to go on it, so right after I got the Buzz FP, I went straight to Stitch to see if it would work, sure enough it let me get FP for Stitch too! Bonus!

I noticed Carousel of Progress was opened! I wanted to go on that since I knew that wasn’t something that is always open now. It was cute, DS-1 liked the dog! Except he was getting cranky and he didn’t like sitting, hope it didn’t damper too many people’s enjoyment of it. As soon as the music would come on to go to the next scene, he loved it and would quiet right down but really there was nowhere for me to go with him (he wasn’t screaming or anything, just slightly fussy and kind of loud). DS-8 thought the oven scene was funny!

At some point we were back in Tomorrowland and DS-8 had a run-in with PUSH! He was so excited to tell me about it! I came back from wherever I was (probably restroom break, we had LOTS of those the entire vacation!) and was telling me how PUSH was asking Aaron to open a door! He was telling me how PUSH went “Hey Aaron can you open this door for me?” and he had a whole conversation about it. It just made Aaron’s day! He thought that was awesome! DD hadn’t seen him yet and was bummed since she didn’t know what we were talking about and I just told Aaron he just had a “Magical Moment”

And THEN it happened…We rode Stitch, it was the demise or at least DS-8’s demise. I asked him several times are you positively, absolutely sure you want to do this? Told him what was going to happen, he still insisted on going, told him that the reviews are it’s not that good (basically I could have not gone and not been any worse for the wear). He STILL wanted to go, so off we go. He hated it and was freaking out on me, at least he wasn’t screaming but I was talking him through most of it. He got off and basically the rest of the vacation wouldn’t go near anything that was remotely dark, possibility of water spraying on you (it was mostly the water issue), etc…

We also went to meet Buzz and Stitch happened to be in the same place! Kyle refused to have his picture taken with Stitch or have Stitch sign his book and so Stitch buzzed at him! ROFL!!!!!

Back to the room for break! Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern up next.

 

[PixieDust32]

Oh no! The oopsie bathroom break poor baby!

Thanks for your report I enjoyed reading it!

 

[Becky2005]

July 12

Magic Moment alert – When we went to leave for our afternoon break there was no one at the monorail station when we got there. I asked the cast member if we could sit up front. She said if it was OK with the driver and to ask when it came in. So, we went toward the front and just patiently waited at a gate for boarding. Here is what comes into play the funny part! A guy jumped the line before the gates even opened to get on the Monorail and was making a beeline for the front! The cast member told him to get back behind the gate and he said something about sitting in the front of the cab, he was told someone had already asked – she was going up to ask if it was open. We got to ride in the front, me and the 3 older kids rode. True it was a short stint from MK to the Contemporary but I had figured I would give it a shot and see what would happen. I told the kids that it was a very special deal to be able to ride up there and that it may not happen again the entire vacation. We got our co-pilot licenses when we got off at the Contemporary. They thought it was cool!

Time for us to get ready to go back to Liberty Tree Tavern – we were late to our PS AGAIN and this time I have no idea why we were late! LOL! I’m trying to think but there was nothing that stands out in my mind as to what made us late this time. I think that just became our theme, no matter how hard we tried, we just didn’t get to the meals on time.

The meal here was good, the character interaction was good…we had Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pluto & Goofy. I thought the food here was good. I had a little of everything, except the salad, none of us are salad eaters. The characters came around several times. Minnie scared me half to death at one point because she was behind me, I think saying “hi” to Luke. Carolyn says “Hi Minnie”, I don’t think much of it, I turn to go give Luke some more food on his plate and Minnie is literally right there next to me. I did an “AAAH” and jumped type thing because it surprised me. DD thought it was hilarious and told me “I said Hi Minnie”. The bathroom was small here.

At some point DH & DD went on the Haunted Mansion, while I waited with the boys. I can’t remember if they did that before dinner (hence why we were late) or if it was after dinner! We then went to see Hall of Presidents for their last showing. After that we watched Spectromagic – DS-8 & I got slightly separated from the rest of our family because he had to use the restroom right before the parade was going to start, so of course, we couldn’t get back to our spot since the parade had started by the time we got back. Luckily, he was able to stand on the cement ledge by a tree and got to see it. I could see through the shoulders of the adults. I was able to spot DH & the other kids but no way to get up to them so after the parade, I weaved my way up to them, so we didn’t really get “lost”.

We then went on It’s a Small World, when we got out, the fireworks were going on, we got trapped in the area while they made sure it was cleared of firework debris. Then we did the mob scene of leaving with everyone else after the fireworks, DH was grumpy and just wanted to leave and I mean NOW – we walked back to the Contemporary.

Time for bed when we got back – we were tired! And forget that alarm clock, from now on it’s wake-up calls! Tomorrow is our “rest day” anyway so I set the call for 9:00 AM, just to be on the safe side so they aren’t late for fishing!

And the Downtown Disney fiasco of I lost my family but Disney Security is good!

 

[Becky2005]

July 13

Ahhh….it’s a sleep in day, no reason to get up early. We are up and getting ready to go get breakfast before the wake-up call comes. Yippee!! So far off to a great start. We go to the Food & Fun center and get breakfast.

I end up doing laundry today – which I end up doing lots of the rest of the trip! First off I can’t find the laundry room to save my life. I finally had to ask about 3 different housekeeping CM’s – it’s on the 2nd floor of the wings! So, if you are staying there, it’s on the SECOND floor (I had thought it would be on the 1st floor!)

We manage to get to the marina on time for fishing – a miracle in & of itself! J I realize I hadn’t put suntan lotion on the kids and they are going to fry if I don’t do something! How convenient, Sammy Duvall area sells suntan lotion, so go ahead and buy the $$$ bottle of it (didn’t have enough time to run back to the room), slather it on the kids. The boat pulls up with the guide and off DH & the 3 older kids go. The baby & I go back, do laundry, shopping, hang out..

I go meet up with them after their trip! They caught several fish and had a good time. Kyle caught the most and he was the least one interested in going! LOL!

I go to see if we can have lunch at the Concourse Steakhouse, no luck due to the close at 2:00 between lunch & dinenr, looks like food court again, no big deal, the food there was fine.

We actually make it on time again for our parasailing. DS-8 chickens out, so he just rides along in the boat! DD & I go up. Umm….let’s just say it wouldn’t be something I would chose to do again on my own! I almost lost my glasses because as we were going up, I bumped them with my arm! I did get them and they were fine the rest of the time. We did buy the picture package, I haven’t gotten them developed yet. It was freaky when the boat would turn because DD was in front & I couldn’t see the boat, I would just dip down. I could then see the boat turning. I held on the entire time and although I did relax some, it was still a bit unnerving for me. I was ready to come down anytime and was happy when it was over with. It did go by quickly though. I would probably do it tandem again if one of the kids want to do it but I have no desire to do it again just to do it.

Took the older kids for a “quick” swim – that is where we got delayed for getting to Downtown Disney I think. Now, on our package it says if you don’t get to the box office by 5:00 PM they will give your seats away! I was totally freaked out by this because we were late and I was totally freaking out and went into psycho mode, which in the end I should have just chilled out and our seats were there, there were TONS of people showing up later than I did and got seats for the performance. Since the Downtown Disney scene needs a longer write-up I will do that in the next installment.

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your reports ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[Becky2005]

THE Downtown Disney/La Nouba Saga – July 13

Here it is, the most memorable situation of our trip! LOL! At least for me!

We finish our swim and get ready for seeing La Nouba tonight, now remember in ALL the information, it said if you are not at the box office by 5:00 PM your seats will be given away! I was flipping out because we were running late again! We were trying to make the 6:00 pm show.

We went to the bus stop at 4:45 (see how close we are cutting it! I figure we might be just a few minutes late and maybe if Pixie Dust holds out, they won’t have given our seats away!). How come when you are in a hurry every bus that shows up is NOT yours? There were 2 MGM busses that came by, an Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach one that came by all before our Downtown Disney one shows up! Yeah….FINALLY – as I’m over here stressing because we already were calling it close (I had wanted to be at the bus stop at 4:00 – 4:30 at the latest! ROFL!! Why, I attempt to get anywhere on time this trip is beyond me!).

We are on the bus, it is 5:10-5:15ish after it made more stops with me going “hurry up, make it a quick stop” silently to myself of course.

We finally get to Downtown Disney and I can’t hear what the bus driver says, something about a 2nd stop but we are already late (I’m convinced they have given our seats away already because it’s after 5:00!), so we get off at the Marketplace because I know we are at Downtown Disney now and have no clue what this guy mumbled about but I know it’s going somewhere else and the last thing I need is to end up somewhere completely away from Downtown Disney as it’s AFTER 5:00, I’m sure they’ve given my seats away but maybe, just maybe we will luck out.

Now, we didn’t take the stroller with us because we are just going to see a show, we won’t be able to take the stroller in anyway, so we don’t need one right?

We get off the bus, I look at the map and see we need to be on the complete opposite side of where we are. I tell DH to take the kids and show him where we are going and they can just meet me there. I’m going to go to the box office because I can go a LOT faster by myself, that way I can secure the tickets. I have the diaper bag with me – LOL! No baby, just the diaper bag.

I take off at a fast pace getting to where I think I need to go! I have no clue where I am going and am just heading toward the West Side, knowing I need the big circus tent and you can’t miss it. I get turned around a couple times and end up in some bizarre directions to get there but hey I MAKE IT!!!!!

The line at the box office is LONG – I do notice other people getting tickets for tonight (It is now slightly after 5:30! – Remember, everything says my seats are GONE! I’m flipping out! Oh, and do you think I thought to bring my confirmation number with me?! Nope but I do have photo id!). Get to be my turn hand in my vouchers, with a “I don’t know if my seats are still here” type of thing, sad look. Not a problem, they print out my seats and tell me I can go up anytime. Woo Hoo! It is 5:45 at this point! I turn around to watch for my family which, they should be coming up the road any minute now right?

Oh wait, the sky opens up and it starts POURING, with some really nasty lightening…everyone is taking cover! It is now a few minutes after 6:00 – however, I thought I read somewhere they won’t seat you if you are late but that’s not true because there was still a HUGE line for the elevator to go up because it was POURING and very few people were going to attempt the stairs with that rain/lightening. Where I was standing under the roof near the box office, it is raining so hard that no matter where you are standing you are now in puddles! My feet are wet, eewww!!!

WHERE IS MY FAMILY, Surely they should be showing up momentarily….we are still OK, people are still going in the elevator! It’s something like 6:20 now! I see a family in yellow – a guy carrying what looked like a 1 year old with other kids – maybe that’s them and they stopped to buy ponchos???? Oops! Nope, not them, they go off into another store and I can see it’s not them.

The rain stops….wow, look at how Disney goes around with the guys with the earpieces picking up all the dropped planters and making it look like nothing happened in the storm. I see security checking out empty shoeboxes left by the front of stores and in the garbage cans! Wow, they waste no time and are efficient removing those “suspicious boxes”.

WHERE THE HECK IS MY FAMILY? I can’t decide if I should be mad at them or worried. OK, maybe they hid out until the rain stopped because it really was very heavy and I know he had Luke which would have slowed him way down, along with Kyle & Aaron who were probably freaking out on him because they don’t like getting wet.

I sit and think, also decide to wring out my very wet socks! ROFL!!! It was AFTER this episode that I got blisters and my feet hurt the rest of the vacation! They were completely fine until after this, so I blame the getting wet!

It’s around 7:00 at this point – I know the show is a wash, OK….I need to stay put because surely they will come here even though they know the show isn’t going to happen so I know what is going on. (Besides I see the guys at the elevator basically go up because they finally got all the latecomers up – it took quite a while with the rain and the huge line and all).

So, I sit out on a bench and go through my brain of “what are my kids wearing?” – I honestly couldn’t tell you complete outfits except for DD, because they had changed from this morning! I could tell you shirts for a couple of them & what type of shorts for the others! ROFL!!! Plus, going through my head is all the information I ever read on lost people. Also, try to figure out if I should go back and start heading toward Marketplace but there are WAY too many way’s they could go. I go down the main road to see if I could see them but I don’t want to go TOO far, since they knew that was where we were going to meet. I’m thinking, it’s Downtown Disney, I don’t think they can do anything about separated parties here, I’m kind of stuck!

OK….deep breaths, calm down, try to think logically! It is now almost 7:30 – there is NO WAY it would take that long to walk here from the Marketplace even waiting until the rain stopped. Remember, I made it by 5:45 from about 5:15-5:20.

At this point I decide to start walking toward Marketplace and just go ask security if there is anything we can do, send out an APB, search party, something (it didn’t help the matter that after the rain storm, there were ambulance sirens I could hear!). I figure DH should be easy to find, it’s the guy with 4 kids who are probably freaking out (my DD hates lightening & was probably upset; the 2 older boys hate getting wet and were probably freaking out…the baby LOVES water so was probably fine but would have drowned if he had to walk, so I’m sure DH was carrying him! - I had all sorts of scenarios going through my mind!).

Also, throughout this entire vacation, DH has been having me get us from place to place so I honestly didn’t think he would know HOW to get back to the hotel.

I find 2 security guards talking and go up to them, Joey is the security guard that I end up dealing with and I need to write a complimentary letter about him! He went above & beyond duty (and I think beyond his shift!).

I try very calmly asking about how to find a separated family (although let me tell you I was totally panic inside and upset, since I had no phone, no nothing – I think if DH didn’t have the 4 kids, I wouldn’t have been so freaked but I do most of the kid work plus I had the diaper bag! LOL!), he then walks me to guest services talking with me the whole way, asking the obvious questions (when was the last time I saw him, I waited at the meeting place for a while – um…yeah over an hour! LOL!), telling me what we will do and then asked about the show and telling me we would see what we could do about the tickets. I told him I didn’t care about the tickets at this point, which he understood that I just wanted to find my family.

We get to Guest Services, we call the hotel and lo & behold who answers? DH! I nearly wanted to strangle him over the phone but felt about 1,000x better. PLUS, I was totally impressed not only did he get the kids back to the hotel, he got them all changed into dry clothing and A DIAPER CHANGE for the baby! He never changes diapers because he literally gets sick doing so! So, I was completely impressed with him and kudos to him! I guess they went back while it was raining, he said the kids were soaked, he couldn’t have them sit in an A/C theatre for 2 hours all wet, they would get sick and even DD who was the one who wanted to see the show the most besides me, agreed to go back.

They ducked into a chocolate shop while it was raining and got free chocolate though. LOL! So, I guess that was a bonus for them.

After we knew the family was safe & sound and I could now breathe better, the security guard then took me back down to the Cirque box office and spent about 30 minutes or so working on a way to get me tickets for another show, explaining to them what happened, etc… I didn’t think it was necessary for him to go out of his way to get the tickets replaced, etc… and during the madhouse between showings (the 6:00 pm show was letting out when we got down there and the box office was crazy but he stuck with it.)

We ended up with tickets for the 9:00 PM show for next evening, the box office person just said they gave me what they had (it wasn’t as good as the seats we had originally) but it wasn’t like I was going to argue! It was nice enough that they were even replacing them, I was completely surprised by that! AND I had the actual tickets, so I didn’t have to show up an hour early the next night (good thing, story for another day, we were late again to that show but nothing like this drama!). After seeing the seating – our original seats would have been awesome but we got the last row seats for the 9 PM show and it worked out better because by this time DS-8 remember was freaked out thanks to Stitch’s experience and I had to DRAG him in to see this show (even though he saw the show on Bravo and knew what it was, he was afraid something would spray out at him, etc…).

After I get my tickets, the security guard also has me check them to make sure the time/dates are correct and that everything is fine by then. I also find out about the other bus stop at Pleasure Island (I had figured that out before looking for the family, I took the time to really LOOK at the “you are here” map!).

I thank him and go off on the bus back to the hotel. To a DH who was unhappy about the rain, etc… he did tell me the only one who remotely liked it was the baby!

Tomorrow AK, Donald’s and I set the wake-up call so we aren’t late (yeah, right! LOL!)

 

[roberrl187]

Oh my, what a way to end the day. I'm ready for the next day. Thanks for posting.

 

[Becky2005]

Animal Kingdom – July 14
Lots of food & change of plans with La Nouba

I had the wake-up call set for 6:00 AM – I had clothes laid out the night before (as best I could, considering we had tons of soaking wet clothes to deal with now! Gee, I saw a lot of the laundry room for it to be a vacation! LOL!).

You would have thought we could have made it to an 8:00 AM PS right? WRONG! The phone rang and I managed to get myself ready without waking everyone. (yes, they need to get up but if I’m ready, the rest will go faster. Kyle was being a pain to get up this morning (and he was a grump most of the time)). I eventually opened the curtains to get everyone going and guess what? We STILL don’t make it to the bus stop on time. I completely forgot what time we get out there but there ARE early morning busses (I know transportation getting to Donald’s has been a topic at times!), we do get on one but with the other stops it makes, we don’t actually get to AK until about 8:20? 8:30? I forget – definitely after 8:00 but still before opening. (I saw a bus pull away as we got to the bus stop, so that was probably the one we *wanted* to be on - I don't know if it was goign to AK or not though). Here they DO check our name off a list and have CM’s stationed along the way to get us where we are going.

We check in, get the pictures. Get seated. I liked where we were seated except it was far from the food, so DH didn’t get to eat much because characters came fast. With having 4 younger kids it was kind of a pain but it was more secluded so that was nice. It was in their “camper” next to the jukebox as a booth. I just liked that my kids could be messy & it wasn’t so out in the open. It was rushed though. I don’t know if we had showed up at 8 if it would have been so rushed through or if that was because we got seated later.

Not a TON of rushing around today but we didn’t do a whole lot either. DS-8 completely backed out of doing Dinosaur – which was fine by me! We got Triceratops Spin, Primeval Whirl, the Safari and The Lion King show in. I think that’s about all we did. LOL! We saw Devine and Lucky (briefly) – unfortunately DH couldn’t get a picture (he tried but just didn’t work well). We went on the safari before lunch, which it was longer than I realized, so we were late for our PS at the Rainforest Café! LOL! At least this time it was due to a ride, not necessarily anything I did.

The kids LOVED the Rainforest Café! I really thought they might be scared because of it being dark and I heard about the thunderstorms, etc… I wasn’t sure how well it would go over. They absolutely loved it, we have one sort of close to us, so I may have to do a birthday special there or something (as they get older looking for things to do with just a buddy or 2). We got the Volcano dessert (counted as 2 desserts but that was fine), that was fun. I liked it here and didn’t think it took overly long, since we were on the Premium plan, we each got the souvenir mugs, etc…

After the Lion King show, we decided to head back to the hotel. We had Chef Mickey’s planned tonight and since we now have La Nouba planned for 9:00 PM tonight which wasn’t on the agenda, it kind of got things twisted around.

Chef Mickey’s was great (and I think we might have been on time even, just there was a line to get in, so I know we didn’t get seated until AFTER our PS time with the pictures and all). I thought this was one of the better character interaction meals.

We finish eating and decide that DH is going to stay back in the hotel with the baby because it’s late, DH doesn’t care about La Nouba, the baby certainly doesn’t care, etc… so I take the 3 older kids and head out.

We manage to be about 5-10 minutes late to the show (bathroom break makes us late! LOL! You know, us and those bathroom breaks!). The show is just starting when we get there, so they have to wait to seat us because it’s when the actors come out around the middle section right before it starts. Now, before we get there DS-8 is freaking out on me that he doesn’t want to go, etc… I keep telling him it will be fine it’s NOT a ride, nothing will spray water at him, he saw the show on TV so he knows what is going to happen, etc… I get him in and he’s actually thankful we have the very last row at the top (this actually is an advantage when we left!). We did have a slight problem though when we arrive, the usher looks at our tickets and takes us to what should be our seats. Except there are people sitting there. He leaves us to the top of the stairs and is trying to figure out what is going on (I’m thinking – oh great, they gave away the seats, after the previous nights fiasco, who knows! I honestly felt like just saying “we will just stand back here, it’s fine don’t worry about it” – I felt like we were being disruptive. Turns out the people in our seats were supposed to be in the row in front of us, so they climb over the seats after the usher looks at their tickets to try and figure out what is going on. DS-5 ends up falling asleep; DS-8 liked the clown scenes but was still kind of freaked out about a lot of it, DD likes it and I thought it was “OK” (I know gasp a lot of people think it’s a don’t miss but of course, it could be because of the extenuating circumstances of us getting there). We leave and magically, I get to the woman’s restroom before the major crowd gets there due to how we exited because of being in the top row! We get ourselves on the packed bus and have to stand – did you know that a 5 year old CAN sleep standing up while holding onto a pole? LOL! He was so tired!

Next up – Mickey’s Magical Milestone Tour and Horseback riding!

 

[PixieDust32]

Oh my!! what a fiasco!!

I enjoyed reading, thank you!

 

[Becky2005]

Mickey’s Magical Milestone Tour & Horseback Riding - July 15

We don’t need to be up quite so early today. We are supposed to be at the Tour Garden at 8:45 for our Mickey’s Magical Milestone Tour – Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

We get up and have breakfast at the food center, things are going smoothly, surely we should make it on time for our tour – it’s just me and the older 2 kids. One of the things we get with breakfast is these HUGE Chocolate Chip Muffins (remember this detail! ).

Somehow we DON’T manage to get to MK on time – we are at the turn styles at 9:05 or so, I’m trying to figure out how in the world to get through quickly! I somehow manage to do it and don’t see anything that says “Tour Garden” but HEY, I DO see what I know is a tour guide (because they have the stick thingy’s and I knew what the outfits looked like), I go quickly up to him and say “What tour are you?” – It was Keys to the Kingdom – so for any of you on that tour, this psycho lady bursting into your tour asking about it, it was me! I explain quickly I’m late for a tour and he tells me where to go (don’t worry, I didn’t stop the tour, he was continuing walking at the time!)

I go back to City Hall and Hey, would you look at that there is this HUGE sign that says “TOUR CHECK-IN” right there…go in, tell them I know I’m late, blah, blah, blah. They don’t even take my room key or anything, say that’s fine, I’m only about 5 minutes behind in the tour, give us our nametags and they go catch us up.

We catch them at Exposition Hall and it is a small group. That was nice (if I had been on time, being late I think blending into a bigger group would have been better! ). I think only 4 other people were on it besides us. Talk about making a grand entrance! LOL! I was hoping to just kind of blend into the tour and have them continue on without making a big deal of it! NOPE!! Not going to happen. The tour guide stops where she is at, makes us do introductions again (OK, fine, we are late, I’m Becky from Chicago – please continue with the tour, don’t want to disrupt – can’t I just blend into the woodwork now please?) But NOOOO, that’s not quite good enough, she doesn’t let me speed through that. I then have to tell her my favorite Disney memory (remember, I’m late, I’m spaced, I didn’t intend to halt whatever they were talking about! I don’t have a clue, my mind is a total blank!), asks me if I remember the Wonderful World of Disney (umm…actually NO, I don’t really remember watching it blush, I punt!).

And that my friends is all I’m going to say about the tour…I will do a separate post with spoilers because I don’t want to ruin it here for anyone. I enjoyed it.

Went back to our hotel after the tour and had plans for lunch at the Trail’s End Buffet at 12:20! I come back to the hotel and we have the “CUPCAKE EXPLOSION” – we walk in to hear DH yell, “Be careful where you walk” – and what to my wondering eyes appear but cupcake all over the floor!!!!!!! It’s everywhere (well mostly by the table in front of the beds)! Apparently, the baby got into the cupcakes that we had gotten at breakfast time and destroyed them. The story I got was they were eating them nicely and then the next thing DH knows it’s all over the place! DH thought it was only 1 they got but when I looked on the tray both cupcakes were now hollow in the middle and totally shot. Into the garbage those go. We get ready to go over to Trail’s End for lunch – I make a call to housekeeping to let them know that we need extra vacuuming. We are late to our Trail’s End lunch.

DH didn’t really care for the lunch menu at Trail’s End. I thought it was OK, nothing great but our server was funny and he was good. DH & DD had to leave to get to their horseback riding on time (and we had no clue where it was, so we asked but I didn’t quite get the gist of it, so I told him to ask again!). Apparently, they got to THAT on time. Hee Hee. I don’t know because we were still finishing eating.

After lunch, we took a small walk around but the kids got slightly cranky and DS-1 was being rascally, so we took the boat back to the Contemporary – we had a bird join us for the ride. DS-8 was thrilled with that. The kids got stickers from the captain – we were the only family on the boat!

We get back and we do laundry – also the boys have been BEGGING to go to the Fun Center since we have been there, so I break down and we play video games while the laundry is being done, etc…

DH & DD get back from Horseback riding and yes, it was slow & kind of boring for both of them. I had warned them it was just a slow ride (I thought DD would enjoy it but I guess with going to horse camp a couple weeks beforehand where they got to trot, made this seem a bit dull). I’m not sure they would repeat it or not.

We have a PS for Fulton’s tonight! Do we want to attempt Downtown Disney after our last escapade? Although, this time we know to stop at Pleasure Island stop!

We were late to our PS – again! I don’t even know why this time! I really liked Fulton’s, the food here was excellent and the service was great. It was tiring with the kids but they actually take care of the kids nicely here.

DD had a HUGE Magical Moment here though (OK, so maybe not huge but it was to her!). Each child got a fish water game, so that was cool! DS-8 didn’t like the chicken strips here though! LOL! The funniest thing is that we aren’t seafood eaters, so here we go to the Crab House and order steaks! LOL! Anyway, the little guy is fussy and done eating, so is DH – so he takes him out. The older 2 kids are playing with their fish and this waiter?? Keeps coming buy eyeing them (they were playing with the fish attempting to put them in their water glass! ROFL! The fish are too big for the glasses of water and the kids aren't really doing it obnoxiously or anything!) but I was convinced this guy was going to come and tell them to cut it out because he went past our table about 3 or 4 times and would just eyeball the kids! I was paranoid since it is a nicer place, I thought for sure we were going to get in trouble. I kept telling the kids to cool it, etc…

Finally, he just stops at the table to the side/behind DD – I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure what was going to happen so just kind of sitting there watching to see what was going to unfold. She was playing with her fish, trying to get him to “get a drink”, etc… for a couple minutes with this guy just standing right there over her shoulder, she looks and sees him watching her and jumps! He has a paper cocktail napkin in his hand, he starts talking to her and he ends up making her a rose out of the napkin! Asks her to smell it and then says “smells like a paper napkin doesn’t it?” LOL! THEN he pops it and out of the flower comes a Hershey’s kiss! DD was in complete awe! The funniest thing is then DS-8 asks, “How come I don’t get one?” and his answer is “You’re not my type” but gave him a chocolate kiss & one for the 5 year old also. They didn’t get the special napkin rose though! You should have seen the light up look on DD’s face! After we left, I told her she just got a special Magical Moment. (And I was Whew he wasn’t looking at us to scold us for acting like kids. LOL!). The guy was funny too.

Back to our room, tomorrow - EPCOT

 

[Becky2005]

EPCOT – July 16

We have the Princess Storybook breakfast scheduled for 8:30 – yes, we do….who is taking bets that we DON’T get there by 8:30? All of you betting that we are late – Ding, ding, ding, you win!

We are late * again * we still do get there before opening but certainly NOT by the 8:30 PS time. It was fun though to see all the girls in their princess outfits. DD had bought some Minnie Ears with colorful veil part & DS-8 wanted Stitch ears (yes, he hated the ride but he still really likes Stitch – so most of his souvenirs were of Stitch). I allowed them to wear their ears.

The food was OK, it was quick character interaction although Mary Poppins did make the kids show her their hands to see if they were clean. Hee Hee. We had Mary Poppins, Snow White, Mulan & Aurora.

Here was a have to deal with information that I had kept from the children, sort of. Friday there was a Pin Trading stuff at the Contemporary, by the time we got down there, they were basically closed up but Aaron got interested in it thanks to the clerk at the store at the hotel. So, I tell him he can use his money for a pin. Now, I was trying very hard NOT to get the kids involved in pin trading. I hadn’t mentioned it, didn’t say anything, frankly it’s just not something I wanted to deal with.

At breakfast, the manager? had a lanyard on and had Aaron’s complete attention and was informing him about asking CM’s if they had a Lanyard pin, letting him know those were special, etc… This went on quite a while throughout breakfast at different times. He was very nice & funny EXCEPT that I didn’t particularly want Aaron to know anything about it. The entire rest of the trip, I had to inform Aaron that NO, you aren’t buying pins and trading them, maybe next time (we were toward the end of the trip, he wouldn’t know what he was doing exactly and pins are $7/ea. At least the basic ones I saw anyway!). But it was constant with him whining about the pins and me having to be the mean ol’ Mom with standing my ground on that one.

We left breakfast and headed toward Soarin’ – got FP for that and went to see CRUSH, the kids liked the area, we saw CRUSH, that was cute! Then we were spending some time in the pavilion and a diver did a demonstration, the older kids went and watched that but Kyle wanted to keep playing in the Bruce section. We took the kids picture in Bruce’s mouth – although DH didn’t notice that Luke had a big ol’ tooth in front of his face for that picture. OOPS!

After that we went back to Soarin’ – DD, DS-5 & I went on it first as the baby couldn’t go and DS-8 freaked out on us again and didn’t want to do it. We all loved it, even the 5 year old wanted to go on again, unfortunately, we only had 2 more fast passes left. So the 2 kids had to pick a number to see who would go on with DH (I didn’t know DH was actually going to go as he doesn’t like heights). DS-8 then decided he wanted to do it but it was not meant to be. I had gotten more FP after we got off but we didn’t end up using them. Oops!

DH was getting tired, cranky, etc… There wasn’t a whole lot I wanted to see at EPCOT anyway, I mostly wanted to do Spaceship Earth and Figment, so we did that. I had to DRAG DS-8 onto Spaceship Earth, he did not want to go, was freaking out, had him go ask the CM’s if anything was going to jump out at him, spray him with water or anything of that nature. Finally, got him on. He liked it (and mentioned wanted to go again). I liked it but I didn’t care for going backwards part too much, kind of freaky for me. Luke slept through it.

DD, DS-5 & I went on Figment but DS-8 would NOT go on it, he was in line and freaked totally out when he realized we were heading toward a ride, DH & him exited. It worked out better since they do the skunk smell in there, he probably would have been more hysterical on me.

We went ahead and had our pictures superimposed in front of the Nighttime castle (good thing since our real pictures taken in front of the castle, went “poof” they couldn’t find them on Photopass – so they are gone forever!).

After that, we went back to the hotel – BONUS – no one was at the station – asked if we could ride up front – DH & the 3 older kids got to ride up-front! He didn’t get a co-pilot license though.

DH didn’t really want to go back to EPCOT for dinner. We had Le Cellier planned because I thought DH would like it. Neither of us really cared if we went back. So, down to ask if the Concourse Steakhouse has any openings…they sure do, 5:45 even. So, cancel Le Cellier and just eat at the Concourse Steakhouse. The steak was much better this time with no sauce.
I think we even got to dinner on time here. ROFL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We ended up just hanging out, I think we went swimming afterward.

Next up – Cinderella’s Breakfast and Family Magic Tour.

 

[PixieDust32]

Thanks for sharing, I enjoyed reading!

 

[Cinerama]

Thanks..I'm enjoying your posts and I'll be looking for the tour report!

 

[disneyphanatic1911]

Great reports, loved them!

 

[Becky2005]

Cinderella’s & Family Magic Tour Part 1 – July 17

We get up early because we can’t be late to Cinderella’s – or can we? LOL! We have an 8:10 seating for the castle – we arrive about 8:20 – 8:25??? And here is the SHOCKER of all SHOCKERS! As I’m waiting to check-in, I hear the CM asking the guy with the earpiece (so I’m assuming the seating guy?) – they want to know if we have availability for a walk-in for 4 now? He says YES!!!!!! I nearly fall over! I don’t know if the people getting the walk-in were at guest services (I didn’t see them standing at the podium). Some very lucky family of 4 got to eat breakfast in the castle! The fact that I know how difficult it is to get breakfast there, I was shocked.

Anyway, we get seated right away even though we are late. We have Cinderella, Mary Poppins, Snow White, & Aurora. I was kind of bummed with the line-up only because it was the exact same Princesses we had seen the day before (except Cinderella of course). I was hoping to maybe have Jasmine at either of the breakfasts or at least a couple different ones but that’s how it goes. Cinderella was good, she gave DS-8 a hard time because he had Stitch ears on and she said she didn’t like him because he TP’d her castle. After our quick breakfast, we went down to the great room and the Fairy Godmother was there! I loved the Fairy Godmother, she was the best. She came up to you in line and walked you to the throne. She was soft-spoken but talked to you the entire time she was signing autographs posing for pictures as if you were a close friend and that you were the only family there. She did that for every family!

After we saw the Fairy Godmother, we made our way to check-in for the tour (we were supposed to check in at 9:45 – think we made it? ROFL!!! – NOPE!), DH took the little one back to the room and EEK! We forgot the digital camera in the stroller! Thankfully, we had Pixie Dust on our side and DS-8 happened to bring his camera with today and I just happened to have it on me! WHEW!! One MUST have the camera for this tour.

I get checked in to the tour and hey guess what – although it’s after 9:45 – it’s STILL before 10:00 AM and we weren’t the last family to get there! Woo Hoo!!!!!! So, I’m counting it as on time. Since the tour hadn’t started and we were all just hanging out in the garden section (plus I knew where to check-in this time although the big “Tour Check-in” sign was gone!). The funniest thing is that our Tour Guide ended up being the same guy who took us to catch up to our other tour. The kids really liked this tour! One thing I should have brought was a backpack though. They gave us water to start with and everyone wanted a bottle, however, I somehow also ended up carrying 4 bottles of water. Also bring your autograph book! I thought of that last minute “gee, maybe I should bring those with me” – actually I brought them because I thought maybe after we got done we might see some characters the kids would like to see, since we really hadn’t been letting them get too many all week and they really enjoyed that part the best. We had no real plans for this afternoon, as this was our last day. I will write up something separate with spoilers but won’t post them here!

After our tour, we get back to the hotel around 1:30 – we walk in & no DH or baby! Not a problem, I figured they might be at the playground! Sure enough I find them there, the kids have a great time playing while DH & I discuss what the plans are for the rest of the day. DH got internet for today so we decide to go back to the room and figure out what to do for dinner. I can check the menu’s on-line. We definitely DON’T want to do character meal again (besides I think we did most of them!). We end up deciding on Tony’s. I hadn’t heard raving reviews on it, so never really gave it a thought plus thought of it mostly being Italian. We are able to obtain a PS for dinner. The funny thing was I called from the room & was on hold, etc… and decided to forget that and went straight down to the desk at the front of the lobby – I figured it would be faster than being on hold as they have the computers right there. I think it worked out better.

Part 2 coming up next.

 

[Becky2005]

The rest of the day July 17 – Part 2

We go to the Fun Center for DD because she hadn’t had a chance to play the games and besides I need to finish up the game card, as this is our last day. One game doesn’t give out the tickets it’s supposed to, we tell the clerk and she gets it loaded, says DD will get “a few extra tickets” – OK, we think 3 or 4 as it gets loaded properly – the thing just keeps spewing tickets. Over 100 tickets later it finally stops! LOL! DD won about 49 tickets herself, we kept the extra separate as we were going to figure out how to divide them. Turns out DS-5 just wants one of those Styrofoam airplanes – so he gets that and is happy, doesn’t care about the rest. DS-8 wants a bunch of the little things, so gets a bag full of stuff and is happy! DD is just sitting there at the counter trying to decide what she wants, there was this Care Bear for 325? (close) which is the only thing she really wanted. I had decided to go ahead and give her the big chunk of tickets we have because the boys are happy with the smaller things. As she is sitting there, she must have just had a super sad look on her face or something but a teenage girl came up to DD and gave her a piece of paper that had 149 ticket credits on it! That was so sweet, thank you for the random act of kindness – it made DD’s day! I didn’t even see it happen as I was dealing with the boys. I saw the girls as they were ahead of us getting their prizes. So, we add the 3 tickets together and we have 321 – I’m telling DD she doesn’t have enough, after I say that the CM asks what it is she wants, when we tell her it’s the Care Bears, she “magically” makes our total be 325! (I did find 4 more tickets up in our room later! LOL! So, I guess technically we had enough!). DD was so excited, the CM asked her what color and DD didn’t even care! She just wanted one of the Care Bears (DD loves Care Bears they are one of her favorite things, so she absolutely treasures that bear now – it got special treatment the entire way home!)

We go back to MK, we get a few rides in before dinner. We manage to make it to Tony’s somewhat on time. I thought the food here was good and would return – other than if you were there, my DS-5 decided to take a fall from the booster seat at the end of our meal, I think he scared the guy next to him half to death and then I was the mean mommy! Before it happened, they had been getting a little TOO hyped up and I had been telling them to settle down, sure enough the reason he fell was that he was leaning too far over in the booster seat (1/2 the time we got him booster seats & ½ the time we didn’t!) trying to bug his sister. So, after I make sure he’s OK, I scold him for “I TOLD you not to do that and this is why” stuff. I’m sure the couple next to us thought I was being horrible that I didn’t feel too sorry for him. He was a little scrapped up but no worse for wear, maybe next time he will listen to me (ya think? I doubt it! LOL!). DH said the manager did come over to make sure everything was OK but I didn’t see it, I was too busy dealing with said child. Ahhh….no such thing as a quiet meal with our family. Always some drama involved. Also, this is where if you are on the Premium plan, there is a glitch. The waitress came back and said they were having trouble with the bill and the manager was working on it. After a bit, she came back and said, it was fine it was all taken care of but they had to call the hotel and it had to do with us getting another card, etc… (we had checked-out from the plan – which is what it had to do with!). So, even though we had to midnight to use our credits, at some point the computer apparently does a processing and wipes out whatever credits you have left on the card. They will need to call the hotel and get it straightened out. It’s more of a pain than anything else. At the sit-down it wasn’t too bad because you are sitting there eating anyway but I caused a problem at the Food Center.

Went on a couple more rides and DS-5 goes on the Haunted Mansion with DD & DH. He hated the ride but he was silent through the whole thing. DD did say it got stuck though and that is probably what freaked him out. Unfortunately, that was the last ride of the night so poor DS-5’s adventure ends with falling off a chair and going on a ride that spooked him out. DS-8 wouldn’t go near the Haunted Mansion, so I wanted with him and the 1 year old.

We go back to the hotel, we manage to make it out of the park before the fireworks – we did get stuck in an area with the Spectromagic parade. I get all turned around because it’s dark and I’m all messed up. So we did some wild goose chasing. ROFL!!! Get DS-1 a Mickey Mouse because DH said he has been wanting one, he loves it (he has a huge one at home in his crib but he wanted a smaller, easy to hold one apparently).

We decide we still have 3 credits left on our plan and I’m not about to give them up. I figure we can get some snack type things if nothing else. The grill is closed by the time I get there but that’s OK, we will just get some cereal/milk combo’s as our meal, juices & non-melting desserts. We can eat them in the morning or take them with, etc… HOWEVER, remember the card issue I had before. I TOLD the CM it was going to be a problem, they needed to call the hotel (I’m IN the hotel, I figure this shouldn’t be much of a problem). The food center is PACKED. There is 1 register open and apparently only 1 CM in the entire place. Sure enough, she swipes the card and says, “It says there are no coupons on this card” – Umm…yes, I told you that was going to happen. She calls, they tell her to do something that she has no clue what they are talking about. She goes to find a manager, none to be found. A backed up line behind me (sorry if you were stuck behind me!) but I was holding my ground on this as I didn’t bring any other means to pay and frankly, we already PAID for those credits, the rule is we have until midnight to use them and I’m playing by your rules, I can’t help it your computer isn’t set up for it. Finally, they just tell her to let me have it and they would deal with it later. Whew! Finally get my last food.

Tomorrow is check-out and head on home! I don’t have a set time to leave (obviously by 11 for check-out) but no early morning wake-up calls, etc…

Next up – Check-out & summary.