Our Magical Gathering at WDW

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

O.K., I think this will be easier for me to remember if I do it all in one post, so bear with me you guys! Here goes....

Cast: Me (31), DH (33), DD (4), My Dad (68), My Mom (66), My Sister (30), Another Sister (40), Another Sister (43), BIL (45), DNeice (13), DNeice (11), BIL's Cousin (30), Cousin's fiance (30),
BIL (dh's brother) (45) DNephew (12), Cousin (23).

Day 1- July 31,2004. Drive down from Savannah. O.K. , this is where I should have known better! On the drive down, my Mom and Dad and older sister were supposed to pick up my cousin on an exit on I-95. Well, they forgot which exit. My mom had it all written down, including my cousin's cell phone number, but left it all at home on the kitchen counter! So, they drive up and down 95 four times before they finally find her! We kept going and stopped at the Florida Welcome Center for a potty break (lots of those with a four year old!) and my DH comes over to me and tells me that his brother's car won't start! We had just put a new alternator on it the night before, but now the battery is dead! Geesh! So, we get it jumped off by the very nice orange juice man and get back on the road. We stop at the Disney outlet in St. Augustine (where by the way I got a great Mickey Mouse letterman jacket for $135!!! Retail $285!!!) While my dd, myself and my younger sister went to the outlet, they went to a garage down the street for a new battery. They met up with us at the outlet, as did my parent's and their carload, and we all left from there.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

We arrived at Pop around 3:30, just missing Tyler by 30 minutes on his last day there. Got checked in, unloaded the car, and headed for the Contemporary for our dinner at Chef Mickey's. Dinner was great, lots of character interaction. After dinner we walked down to the other end of the concourse for our dessert reception before our "Magical Gatherings Fireworks Voyage". Capt. Hook and Mr. Smee were there, dancing and mingling with the guests. They gave us all a special pin that said "Magical Gatherings Fireworks Voyage" and that was how you got on the boat. I would have to say that this was my favorite thing we did all week as a group. Our "pirate" was great! He sang, told jokes, etc. on the way out to our spot where we would view Wishes. There was a family on board with us celebrating their parent's 50th Anniversary, so we all sang "Kiss the Girl" and they had to kiss at every chorus. It was a lot of fun.
This has got to be the best view of Wishes ever. We watched it later in the week from Main St., and it just doesn't compare. The music is piped into the boat so you hear and see everything. Also, you don't have to leave with so many other people after you see the show. When we arrived back at the dock it was raining, but Peter Pan and Tinkerbell were still there at the dock waiting for us! Peter explained to the kids that Tink couldn't come out of the lantern because she'd go out if she got wet. Very creative! After the cruise, we all head back to resort after getting lost on the monorail loop. Everytime I get on there I get lost! But my dad wanted to ride, so of course, we did. Got back to room after midnight, asked for a wakeup call at 7am.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Day 2- Sunday Aug.1,2004. AK

The original plan was to do AK for the first half of the day, then TL in the afternoon. AK is my least favorite park, and it really actually puts me in a bad mood when I go there. Anyway, we got there at opening, went straight to DinoLand USA, and everything was a walk on ride. We ( dh, dd, me, my younger sister, and my cousin ) walked right onto Primevil Whirl, Triceratop Spin, and Dinosaur with no wait at all. That's when everyone else caught up with us. After that, forget it, we had lines everywhere because we were always waiting for someone. After we did DinoLand, we went to Festival of the Lion King, where everyone got separated. We all got into the show, although not together. After the show got out, we spent a lot of time trying to find each other, then went to Tusker House for lunch. At lunch we decided that me, my sister and my cousin would go over to Kali River Rapids, while my dh and his brother and nephew would go ride the safari. We would then meet up at the front of the park to leave. Well, we walked right on to Kali and headed for the front of the park, where we waited for 45 minutes and never saw them. Finally met up with them about an hour and a half later and left the park. BIL and nephew got back to Pop and went to TL, the rest of us took a nap.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Day 3, Monday Aug. 2,2004- MGM

Well, we learned our lesson from yesterday and split up as soon as we got to the park. I had ordered some customized touring plans from the UG and also TGM. These really helped! When we got to the studios, we walked right on to ToT, but had to get a FP for RnRC because it was experiencing "technical difficulties". Got FP's for everyone while they were on ToT, and walked right on to RnRC when it opened. The plans really did help us stay one step ahead of the crowd, I would highly reccommend them if you're going during a busy season.

We had a ps for lunch at the 50's PT Cafe at 12:20. We were seated very quickly and "Auntie Claire" was our waitress. We had a great time! She was awesome! The only problem we had here was it took a while to split up the check. Poor Claire really had a hard time with this, and it took about a half hour to get it all straight.
After lunch, we all split up again until our ps for the Fantasmic dinner package at Hollywood and Vine at 7:20pm. It took forever to be seated, until my BIL asked to speak to a manager. We were then seated right away. Dinner was good, but none of us were really hungry after such a big lunch. We got our voucher for our preferred seating and agreed to meet at the gate by the "garage" at 8:30. Well, by dh's brother and his son went to the wrong entrance, and we were all waiting AGAIN. They were asking for his voucher, which we had. They finally let him in and he found us. Fantasmic was great as always. After the show we split up again to head back to Pop around midnight. Asked for another 7am wake up call. Also, I forgot to add: the best part of our lunch at 50's PT was when "Auntie Claire" made my bil sing "I'm a Little Teapot", complete with arm motions! That was worth the price of the meal all by itself!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Day 4 Tues. August 3,2004 - EPCOT

This was a pretty good day. We didn't wait around for anyone! My mom decided she didn't want to do EPCOT because she and my dad were just there 3 months ago, so she stayed back at the resort. My dad and older sister went without her. My OTHER older sister was not feeling well, so she stayed behind at the resort with her dh and my 2 neices until our 3:00 ps for the Ice Cream Social. We got quite a bit done since we weren't doing the "hurry up and wait" thing.
We all met up for the Social at 3, and I would have to say that this was the only ps that I was disappointed in. Not a lot of characters, and our waitress was actually rude. I won't book this again.
After the social, we went to check out WS. Rode El Rio del Tempo and Maelstrom before eating dinner at the American pavillion. After dinner, dd was asleep in her stroller, so we decide to skip Illuminations and head back. Me, dh, dd, my younger sis and my cousin left to go back, everyone else stayed for the show.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Day 5 Wed. Aug.4,2004- MK


This was the day everyone had been waiting for! Finally, our MK day!
My older sister had made a ps for her family and my mom and dad to take my dd to Cindy's for breakfast at 9am. I had touring plans from the UG and TGM that said we needed to be on hand for opening, so they went at 8am and were seated right away! Whew! That was close!
I've never made it to a MK opening, and I have to admit it, I cried! It was wonderful! I don't feel too bad, dh cried too!
Anyway, after we picked up dd from my sister at the castle, everything in Fantasyland had 0 wait! We walked right on to everything! My dd had a great morning! We had decided to do the E-Ride night that night, so we skipped the attractions that we knew would be open later. After Fantasyland, we headed over to Country Bears, Pirates, Tikki Room, Jungle Cruise, SFR Treehouse and then to lunch at Pecos Bill's. After a quick ride on the Magic Carpets, we headed back to Pop for a nap before our ps at LTT at 7:05. Once again, when we got back to check in for our ps, we were waiting again. My mom decided not to come, and my dad and sister were late. We finally sat down around 7:25. This was our first time at LTT, and it was really good. The food was excellent, lots of characters, and our waitress was really nice. I would book this again.
After dinner we went to catch Spectro. Got a good spot right in front of the castle. After the parade, I told my dad that we needed to move to watch Wishes, but he insisted that right in front of the castle would be great. Well, he soon found out how wrong he was when all of the fireworks were on the OTHER SIDE of the castle and we didn't see a thing! Good thing we had already seen it from our cruise earlier in the the week. Oh well.
After Wishes, it was time for E-Ride night! This was great! We have done this before, but nobody else in our party had. We split up again and had a great time. Everything was 10 minutes or less wait, except Peter Pan, which couldn't handle the crowds very well and had a line just as long as earlier in the day.
We got back to the room around 2am. No wake up call for tomorrow!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Day 6 Thurs. Aug.5,2004- TL

Got up late today and decided to have lunch down at the food court. DH's brother and his son were leaving to go home to Nebraska today, and we wanted to see them before they left. They ate lunch with us, bought a few things at the gift shop and headed off to Epcot to Leave a Legacy. We headed over to TL for the afternoon. We had a good time, ran into my sister and her dh in line for one of the slides. Talked about E-Ride night the night before, they had a good time too. Split up again and it started to rain. We decided to call it a day and headed for our locker and dry clothes (not that it mattered, since it was absolutely pouring!) and ran into my mom and dad and sister, who were just getting there! They stayed until after the rain stopped and closed down the park. We headed back to Pop and went to bed early.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Day 7 Fri. Aug.6,2004- US/IOA

We have AP's here as well, so we decided to go over to Universal since my cousin had never been. We had a good time since we weren't waiting for anyone, as they all stayed behind at WDW. We did US first, and rode Mummy, BTTF, and Jimmy Neutron. We also did Woody Woodpecker's coaster and let dd play in the Curious George water area. We left US, had lunch at HRC, and hopped over to IOA. We did Hulk, DD, Flying Unicorn, Spiderman, Cat in the Hat, CaroSeussel. We left IOA and headed over to Margaritaville, because we have to have a Mango Margarita at least once a trip! Hung out for a while and let the crowds ease up a bit before heading out.

Day 8 Sat. Aug 7,2004- Head home.

This was the longest drive home we've ever had. Traffic on I-95 was STOPPED at the turnpike and we got off and went over to A1A until we could get around it. It took us 8 hrs. to get home when it usually takes 5!

Oh, yeah, another thing I wanted to add: We ate at DTD one night at the new Earl of Sandwich and it is really good!!

All in all, it was an o.k. trip, but I would never try to do it with so many people again! It was just too much waiting around time, and I only planned a few things! If anyone else is planning a large group trip, I would plan one thing at the beginning to start the vacation, and one thing at the end. Other than that, split up! DH and I were talking during the trip and we both agreed that we would never go during the summer again, and never with so many people. We also agreed that we liked ASMo better than Pop. PC just didn't have the Disney feel to us. We'll be going back in Dec. for dd's 5th birthday at the WL, just the 3 of us. I think we'll have a much better time without the crowds and heat, and without waiting on everyone else!

 

[AmyBWV99]

Great report!!

We did a vaction over Spring Break last year that involved 17 people and while we did have a blast it is definitley a commitment of your vacation time doing anything as a group. We tried to hit the same parks splitting up as you had and then touching base at meals and the pools and that seemed to satisfy everyone.

Have a great Dec trip!

 

[Minniespal]

Great reports ~ Thanx for sharing.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

Thanks for the report! You're so lucky to be going back again in December!! We're going to try going at the beginning of December next year. Hope you can post another trip report then!

 

[dutton]

Hey Kirstin's mommy! I am from Glennville,Ga which is about 1 hr 15 min from Savannah. I loved your reports! We are going in Oct w/my family -- 13 people. I am thinking about doing the Fireworks Voyage -- either that or MK to see Spectromagic. Which do you suggest? My family (me,dh, 3 ds and 1 dd) have seen Spectro and loved it but the rest of our group has not seen it. We will be doing the Safari Dinner our last night also. What was the dessert portion of the trip? All in all there will be 7 adults and 6 kids ages 3-11. Thanks for any advice!!

 

[llij]

Great trip report! I agree about it being difficult to move around with so many people. We went with 24 people this last October and what made it great was the fact that we split up so much. We agreed that it was too difficult to move around as a group due to our different touring styles. We tried it at first and quickly abandoned it! We would meet for breakfast and dinner and it was great!

Have fun when you go back in December!!!

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

dutton: Hi neighbor! I would highly recommend the fireworks cruise! In my opinion it was the best thing that we did all week. The view absolutely cannot be beat, and you don't have to fight the crowds in the park to get a good spot. The music is piped onto the boat, so you don't miss a thing. They position the boat so that everyone on board can see perfectly, and the "pirate" is so much fun! We had sing-a-longs, played games for prizes (the little ones got the prizes, of course), and watched the electric water pageant. As for the dessert before the cruise, I didn't really look too closely (sorry!) since we had JUST eaten dinner at Chef Mickey's before the cruise and were so stuffed! But, what I did see: soft drinks, hot chocolate, coffee, Tollhouse cookies (which were given out to take on the cruise with you), brownies, that's really all I noticed! It was just basic finger type dessert food, nothing like cheesecakes or anything you had to eat with a fork. Do you know yet which nights Spectro will be shown? I know Wishes is nightly but the cruise is only on certain nights. Is there a way to see Spectro one night and do the cruise on another? I love them both as well, but while you have the number of people to qualify for the cruise, I would definately take advantage of that and book it. It's well worth it.

 

[Linxzy]

Great trip report!

I think I saw your family in 50's Prime Time, though I got there at 2pm, but there was a family waiting for their bill to split up.
I got Aunt Susan, and she was very funny. Made me eat my veggies.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

That was probably us! Our ps was for 12:20, but we stayed for quite a while because we were having so much fun! We were seated in the back and were split between 2 tables. I'm not sure why "Auntie Claire" had such a hard time with our bill, it wasn't split up that much! She just kept saying, "I know I'm making this harder on myself than it has to be!" She was great. We got her address so we could add to her scrapbook. Which "room" did you guys sit in?

 

[Linxzy]

I was also in the back, near a window. Is Auntie Claire blond with curly (thinks it was) hair? If so, I was at front of that table, on the booths.

 

[KIRSTIN'S MOMMY]

Yes, that was us! She did have curly blonde hair. We had such a good time there, I hope yours was just as good!

 

[Linxzy]

My first almost dis meet. lol

We did had alot of fun. Aunt Susan feed me the green veggies.

 

[lindsey]

I enjoyed your trip report. We were there in June with a total of 13 people at some times during the trip. We kept the cell phones busy just trying to find each other in the same park!