Road Trippin', Cruisin' and Photo Bombin'-Our EPIC Family Vacation!NEW11/5-BIRDS..UGH

[lsenquiz]

I can not paint my toes on solid ground I can not imagine doing it on a boat

What did the baby think of TSM?

We are doing One Man's Dream for the first time in September so glad to hear you liked it.

Awesome Mickey pictures. I think babies first Mickey is better than babies first Santa

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Hi there! I've been following along with your TR...sorry I haven't commented much.

YAY for making it to Disney! How fun you got to meet up with your niece and nephew. Looks like you had a great start to your Disney portion of the trip. Those pictures of Christian meeting Mickey are ADORABLE! I also really like the last one from LMA. Awesome!

Hi and welcome! Those pics of Christian and Mickey are some of my favorites from the whole trip. He LOVED meeting the characters!

Oh my gosh... Those are the sweetest pics of the baby with Mickey!! PERFECT! I am so happy you guys made it to Disney!

So excited!

I, for one, am not surprised that Little Miss Planner Missy had the timing down pat and ya'll arrived at Disney ahead of schedule. Oh my word! I love love love all of the pictures of Christian with the characters. Those kind of memories last a lifetime!

LOL! Of course I had a plan...come on! That smile on Christian's face is priceless...and he may not remember it, but I always will!

Oh, those pictures with Mickey are so sweet!! Love it! I had cards just like yours on our last trip, and believe me, I plan to use them again!

Love my touring cards!

Great pics The baby spending time with Sorcerer was def priceless ;-)

I LOVE the pics of the baby with Mickey. We are taking my twins in fall and they will be 11 months (almsot a year) when we go. So I love seeing babies enjoying Disney World. Because every now and then I start to worry that I am crazy for taking my little ones.

I'll say this about taking little ones....the memories aren't for them, they are for us. I will NEVER forget the first time Christian met Mickey!

I read a lot of trip reports but I rarely post. I just wanted to say that I love your trip report. It's great seeing how fun the cruise was and your trip planning cards have given me some great ideas!

Glad I could help! Thanks for saying hi!

Love the picture of Christian grabbing Mickey's nose!

Your Back!! Just in time for me to get one more fix before we leave for our own trip! Woo Hoo!

Oh my gosh, Love, Love, Love the baby pictures! What a cutie and he really liked those character meets! How sweet!

At least I'll have lots of updates to catch up on when I get back (crying) next week. See you soon!

Hope you are enjoying your trip! Can't wait to hear all about it!

Great update! Those pics of the baby with Mickey are priceless!!

Thanks!

I enjoyed the Cruise portion of the trip.
Do you think the crowds eased up, since it was about a week after Easter?

I was surprised with the crowds later in April, but we did go to the MK on a
Saturday.

The only park we found crowded was MK...and it was a Saturday. Really only New Fantasyland was crowded...hard to navigate. Other than that, the crowds seemed great!

Finished catching up on your report and greatly enjoying it

We drove down our last trip from NY as well, though slightly different kids situation - we had a close to 3 year old and my wife was 6 months pregnant - so slightly different trip. It really wasn't bad, especially on the way down, but by the time we finished the trip back we were pretty done with the concept.

Cruise looks fun, but happy to see you at your happy place now

Me too!

I can not paint my toes on solid ground I can not imagine doing it on a boat

What did the baby think of TSM?

We are doing One Man's Dream for the first time in September so glad to hear you liked it.

Awesome Mickey pictures. I think babies first Mickey is better than babies first Santa

LOL! Well it was a challenge, but I needed Mickey toes! Not sure how he liked TSM....I think he enjoyed it, but he just wanted to keep taking the glasses off...I'm sure it was a little blurry for him.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Sad about not being able to meet Phineas and Ferb until later in the day, but not deterred, we decided to go visit a few of my favorite Muppets! Now, I love the Muppets. Their cheesy humor keeps me in stitches! Off to Muppetvision 3D we go! As we entered the building, I made sure to show Nick and Shawna the key under the mat. I love sharing little secrets like that with Disney newbies! We enjoyed the silly show of course and I took this pic of Jonah by the fountain as we headed toward our next adventure.



Before we headed over to Rock n Roller Coaster to use our fastpasses, the boys wanted to ride the new and improved Star Tours. Now, this is a ride I sit out. Motion simulators make me green! So, I took the baby in his stroller and we had a nice walk around the area while the rest of the party took a ride into space. My nephew was especially excited to ride this one! After a short time, they came off the ride and he vowed never to ride again! Although he loved it, he said it made him a bit sick. My family, who had ridden before the refurb, said this version of the ride was SO much better than before….but was pretty intense! See….so glad I got some baby time in rather than risk it!

Time to cross the park and head to Rock n Roller Coaster for a limo ride with Aerosmith! We decided we should double check the wait time for TOT as well in case we wanted to get FP for that instead of waiting standby. It gets a little fuzzy here, but I think we got FP for TOT, then went to ride RNRC.

When we got to the fastpass line, we asked about baby swap since one of us would have to stay with Christian. This is where we discovered the BEST thing about having a baby at Disney! We got 3 rider swap passes so that Shawna and two others could ride the second time. We also had FP for everyone, so the first group of riders used those, then they came out and we used the 3 rider swap passes and the 2 FP we had not used since we sat out. So, 5 of us got to ride twice! This was a cool trick and my boys took full advantage of it throughout the trip. It kind of makes up for the crazy amount of time you waste having drag a stroller through the park….more on that later!
Now to my favorite…the Tower of Terror!




I’m sure at least some delegation of us rode this twice using the rider swap. I think Nick sat out with the baby first while we all rode. Then he and Shawna went back on after….now that I think about it, I think we did standby because I believe only Daniel went back on with them. The rest of us waited with Christian in a shady spot!

Once we had all had our fill of the screaming and thrills, it was time to see Beauty and the Beast. We were right there so we hurried in to catch the 4:00 show. We got nice seats under the roof so we had a break from the heat.
Here we are all in a row waiting for the show to start!



I absolutely love this show! Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie and they do a beautiful job telling the story.






CONTINUED IN NEXT POST.....

 

[mommytothreeboys]

After our short trip to France with Belle, we were all starting to get hungry. We had not eaten a meal since breakfast on the ship that morning, so it was time to find some food! Nick really wanted Pizza Planet, so we headed in that direction. This is the first time we have been to Disney as a family without using DDP, so I was anxious to see how this was going to work. Since this was our one meal of the day, we told the boys to get full meals. I believe that with 5 pizza meals (that include a salad and a drink) the total was $62.00. I had budgeted about $12 per meal so that was about right. The pizza was fresh and delicious and we enjoyed our meals. As we ate, we discussed the plan for the evening. Obviously, we needed to meet Phineas and Ferb, but other than that, the only thing left on the touring card was to see Fantasmic at 8:30. We wanted to be in the theater by 7:30 and it was now about 5:30. Plenty of time!

After our dinner, we made our way to the Phineas and Ferb meet and greet. I was tickled that my big boys were so excited about meeting them! Jeff got in line with the boys while Shawna and I and Christian wandered through a shop or two.

And of course, found a photo op!



I think the boys stood in line about 15 minutes before it was their turn. They called us over so we could man the camera while they met Phineas and Ferb. I took a few shots and there are also a few Photopass shots here. SO fun!









We still had some time before we needed to head across the park to the Fantasmic theater, so we chose to find the Great Movie Ride and give that a whirl. We had not been on it since our first trip in 2007 and Nick and Shawna had never been on, so it was a perfect choice. Also, Christian was getting a bit sleepy and the ride would give him the opportunity to catch a nap! I got very disoriented at this point and we wandered around a bit before we had to ask a castmember to point us in the right direction! LOL! I find DHS to be the most confusing park in terms of layout and I just could not get my bearings for a few minutes! That big ol hat was in my way and I couldnt see the theater! Anyway&once we found it, we boarded our car in no time and we were off on a trip through Hollywoods Golden Age!

Now, Jeff took all of these pictures and he did observe the no flash rule, so bear with me if they are blurry!









We got the gangster version of the ride and our gangster was a girl. She was very entertaining! Believe it or not, Christian managed to sleep the whole time. Even with all the gunshots and explosions! Its nice to be a baby!

The only thing left to do now was to make our way to the Fantasmic theater. I believe we must have taken the scenic route because this is the next picture I have&.



Look at those law breakers crossing the police barricades! What will we do with them??

The last time we had been to Disney, they were only showing Fantasmic on select nights and the shows were CRAZY packed. There were 2 shows scheduled for this night, one at 8:30 and one at 10pm. Even though the show was running more frequently, I wanted to be in the theater early. We had to watch from the Standing Room Only section last time and it was TERRIBLE! That was not going to happen this trip! We got to the theater around 7:30 and found great seats just to the left of center. Once we had our row, Dan and Isaiah went off to explore a bit. Shawna and I had only one thing on our minds&





Yep&.Mickey bars! We left to change Christians diaper which we did, but the true mission of the trip was to get our hands on that ice cream! YUM!

While we waited, the people behind us were very entertained by Christian and even offered to babysit! LOL! A baby is a great conversation starter! The pre show entertainment was new to us, but we enjoyed the emcees and the cute game show they put on while we waited. If you have to be sitting for an hour, at least its a fun hour! We had started to make jokes about selling Dan and Isaiahs seats as they had not returned from their wanderings. Not surprisingly, we found out that they had found a very interesting (and pretty) young CM to chat with. They finally made it back just before showtime and we were excited for the show to begin. In the interest of not experiencing this trip from behind the camera, I only took a couple of pictures.





We LOVED the show&and it was so much better when you could sit where you can see it! LOL!
We had to go in search of the stroller before leaving the theater and we got a bit separated in the mass of people all trying to exit. But, we managed to reconnect and I wanted to do one last thing before heading out for the night. I wanted to ride TOT in the dark!! The standby line was 20 minutes so we jumped in line, got our rider swap passes and headed into the Hollywood Hotel!



Isaiah rode with Shawna for the second ride and we asked them to reenact their ride photo for us! This cracks me up!



By now it was getting late and we were all ready to call it a day. We made our way slowly to the front of the park. We stopped in a few shops and Dan bought himself a small stuffed Lotso and Jonah bought a huge slice of chocolate covered pineapple. We saw these, but didnt buy them. Although I did get Dan to model them!



Dans new friend&.



Funny story, as we were waiting for a Photopass photographer to take a group shot in front of the hat, there was a single man in front of us. He waited his turn and then said to the photographer, will you take a picture of me with my lightsaber? We all cracked up&but the photographer was a total professional and agreed but wanted to know if the man would like to open it first! Hilarious! Everyone is a kid at Disney&its true!

Here are our final pics of the day&.





It had been a MAGICAL first day, but we still had to check into our condo and unpack, etc from the cruise. Time to head out. We said good-bye to Nick, Shawna, and Christian and found our car in the parking lot. We made plans to meet them the next morning at Animal Kingdom!

With map and GPS in hand it didnt take long to find Windsor Hills, our home for the week. We had a small snag at the gate because the owner had not sent us the exact paperwork we needed, but I had confirmation numbers and several email correspondences printed out so it was sorted out quickly. We dragged our tired bodies to the elevator with our suitcases and found our 3BR condo. Id like to say we fell into bed, but only the boys did that! Jeff and I unpacked and sorted out what we did not need for the week as far as clothes. We also had to make a grocery run, so we did that around midnight!

Finally, we got to bed and slept like the dead! It had been a very busy day, but we were happy to be settled in and excited about the days ahead.
Ill post a few pics of the condo in the beginning of my next update. It was our first off site stay and we were very pleased!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[mickeystoontown]

What a wonderful first day at Disney! I want you to know that little Christian is being very very helpful to me right now. How? Well, Lacey and Jesse are trying to talk his sister-in-law into taking their little one to Disney and she thinks that she's going to be too young. I've been forwarding the pics of Christian and how happy he is to Lacey so she can show them to her sis-in-law.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Two great updates! Glad to see I wasn't too far behind... summer can be sooo busy!!

I love the photo-bomb shot!

I love the fact that your big boys can just enjoy themselves, take pictures with characters & buy stuffed animals.

I know what you mean about being present & not hiding behind the camera... I'm guilty of that too. I'm going to make a goal for myself on our next trip (in Feb) to take fewer pictures, let the PP people do that for us, and be present, soaking everything in!

 

[lsenquiz]

It has been awhile since we have taken time to see the Muppets. Maybe we will be able to squeeze it in this trip.

I can not imagine if one of use had trouble with the Star Wars ride! That is Gabriel's favorite and we rode it at least 30 times on our last trip. I will say there are some scenes that do make me a little nauseous but I just close my eyes if we get one of those.

It has also been a while since I rode RnR. I may try to go this upcoming trip. I do love baby swap. We used it for Soarin until this last year and I was always one of the ones that made sure I got to ride twice

The Beauty and the Beast show is one of my favorites. I was glad that the rumors of them closing it were not true.

Pizza planet is a must do for us when we go to DHS. The boys always get pizza but I get a meatball sub which is always delicious.

P&F are a very fun M&G. They had Gabriel doing all kinds of silly poses.

Did the Fantasmic show end up filling up? This is not a must do for us mostly because I think you have to arrive too early to make the show.

Great PP family photo!

We have stayed in a condo once and rented a house twice in Windsor Hills. It is our favorite offsite place to stay. We have also got some amazing deals by waiting until the last minute to book.

 

[indimom]

Yeah! Another update!
My GMR photos look just like yours. I wish I could ride it alone just once, so I could get some clear photos. lol. I love that corny ride.
We also visited last during the Fantasmic every-other-night madness. That was crazy. We considered going again this year, but in the end, we were just too tired. I can't believe you got all of that done on your first day in the park and powered through to Fantasmic! You guys rock!!
Can't wait to hear more!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I have not abandoned this TR, I promise! My life hit a few bumps in the road in the last month or so and I have been kind of a mess.....

But, on the bright side, things are getting better and I really do want to finish this report. If I have any readers left, I will try to get an update written and posted in the next day or two.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I have not abandoned this TR, I promise! My life hit a few bumps in the road in the last month or so and I have been kind of a mess.....

But, on the bright side, things are getting better and I really do want to finish this report. If I have any readers left, I will try to get an update written and posted in the next day or two.

Thanks for hanging in there with me!

I was just thinking about you this morning Missy. I'll be here when you find the time to update.

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Just started reading and caught up!! Sounds so much fun!

 

[Surfinpiratee]

Just started reading and caught up!! Sounds so much fun!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I'm working on an update right now! I am aware that, at this point, I am probably just finishing this for myself! If you are still out there, there is an update on the way....promise.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm working on an update right now! I am aware that, at this point, I am probably just finishing this for myself! If you are still out there, there is an update on the way....promise.

Missy! I'm still hangin' and ain't going nowhere until you finish up.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I promised that I would post a few pictures of our condo, so I want to take some time to do that before moving on. I was very unsure about staying off-site as our previous trips had been on-site and we LOVED it! But, due to financial constraints, an off-site condo was our choice this trip and I have to say the experience as great!

I booked the condo online using VRBO and was in direct email contact with the owner of the unit. The process was smooth and she was very open to answering all of my questions as an off-site newbie! Other than the little glitch at check-in (I did not have the correct paperwork, but it was sorted out quickly) I was very pleased with the process.

We got a 3 BR, 2 bath unit in Windsor Hills which is very close to Disney property. We drove less than 10 minutes to any park and the drive was easy. The signs are fantastic so my advice is to rely on them rather than on the GPS which gets very confused on Disney property!

This is a picture of the main living area of the condo. You entered the door into the dining room area. There was a laundry closet off to the left as you enter the main door.



The kids’ room was down the hall off the dining room and it had a set of bunks as well as a queen sized bed.



There was a large bathroom attached to the kids room and also accessible via the hallway. It had a large 2 sink vanity with a bath and shower. All linens were provided and there were plenty.

This is the master bedroom. It had a large walk-in closet which was great for storing suitcases and stuff we did not need out during our stay.



The master bedroom had its own bathroom.



This is the 3rd bedroom which can also be used as a sitting room. The couch makes out to a bed and there are pocket door so you can close the door for privacy. We did not use this room as a bedroom, but it was nice to have for the extra space.



A view of the living room. The door in the corner heads out to the patio/deck area which was very nice for my early morning coffee!



The patio/deck area. Small, but nice. It was screened in so we had no bug issues.


I do not have a picture of the kitchen, but it was to the right as you entered the main door. It was well stocked with dishes and towels, etc. I did bring extra garbage bags and paper towels. We had a microwave, an oven and stove, refrigerator/freezer and a dishwasher.

Overall, I was very pleased with the accommodations. The unit was clean and well maintained. I wish there had been a dresser of some kind in the kids’ room as I like to unpack. I ended up moving a few things off the toy shelf and using the shelves to store the kids’ clothing. It worked out fine, but a dresser or closet would have been useful. The extra space was definitely nice after coming off the crowded room on the ship! I would not hesitate to stay here again. I do have some thoughts about on-site vs. off-site, but as far as the condo goes, it was a fantastic experience.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The condo looks great and I am sure with three growing boys, it was nice to have the extra space. There was no dresser in the other room? That's kinda odd.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

The condo looks great and I am sure with three growing boys, it was nice to have the extra space. There was no dresser in the other room? That's kinda odd.

Yeah...I found it strange as well. I didn't even notice until I was unpacking the boys' suitcases. Oh well...I made it work!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

It had been a long first day at Disney, but we had a great night’s sleep and woke up in the morning refreshed and ready to hit ANIMAL KINGDOM! The day was bright and sunny and after a quick bite to eat we were headed out the door. We had arranged to meet Nick and Shawna at the entrance so I texted her to let her know we were on the way.
At 8:38 AM, we saw this!



My family loves Animal Kingdom and we were so anxious to share it with Nick and Shawna! We didn’t see them when we entered the gates, but met up with them shortly after by the Guest Services building. The plan was to head directly to Expedition Everest and to ride standby if possible. But first….a few PP pics!





With the photo ops out of the way, we made our way to Asia to visit our favorite Yeti. It was a gorgeous morning!



Since we had figured out the baby swap trick the day before, there was already talk about who would get to ride more than once! There was NO LINE when we arrived so I sat out with Shawna and the baby while the boys rode first. By 9:15, I was in line to ride again with this motley crew!



I just love all the little touches throughout this park. There is so much detail and the theming here is top notch.



I don’t remember how many times we all rode, but it was several. I think I only went on twice, but I’m pretty sure the boys rode 3 times at least. The one time Jeff and I rode together we sat toward the back of the train. The Yeti experience is vastly different depending on where you are seated. Sitting toward the back, I think that thing almost grabbed me! It was terrifying! I have a friend who has a daughter who refuses to ride because of the Yet and I was always giggling at her….NOW I GET IT!

Don’t cry Christian…the YETI is really fake!



Once we all had our fill of Everest, we wanted to head to Kilimanjaro Safari to grab FPs. We walked through Africa and stopped (much to Dan’s dismay) for more PP pics!







Of course we also made a small pit stop to play the drums!



As we were walking through Harambe Village, I pointed out this Hidden Mickey to Shawna. I thought she knew about them, but much to my surprise, she had no idea! Little did I know that I had awakened a Hidden Mickey Monster! More on that later!



I don’t know about all of you, but Harambe Village is always crowded. It seems that no matter the time of day or crowd level, this area is always crawling with people. This day was no different. We made it to the Safari and the wait time was 40 minutes. My general rule of thumb is that if the wait time is more than 30 minutes we get a FP, but after a lengthy discussion, we decided to wait in line and ride stand-by. Christian was tired and this gave him the perfect opportunity to take a little nap! I took a few pics as we made our way through the queue.



This mask made me laugh so I told Isaiah to mimic it for a cute pic!



I believe we only waited about 30 minutes before we boarded our safari vehicle and headed out!



It was a really good safari and we saw a lot of animals. I won’t post a ton of pictures, but here are few of the highlights.













Christian ended up napping through a lot of it, but the rest of us enjoyed our safari! I still didn’t get a picture of the ever elusive lion, but we did catch a glimpse of him.


So where to now? Why, the gorillas, of course!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great Photopass pictures Missy! Goodness gracious, ya'll rode Expedition Everest that many times? It's always been so crowded when we were there that more than two rides per trip is out of the question.

Whoa! Wait a minute! That hippo is out of the water! That's never happened during any of our trips. I guess it's always been too hot for them to come out.