Spinal Dalmatians, Eliminations, and The Merry Go Round of Life...June 2011 New 2/19

[teachermommy78]

Where we left off, we were going to meet up with another group in our family! We decided to go to Fantasyland and Mickey's Philharmagic. Oh boy...that was a mistake! It was threatening rain, and Fantasy land was PACKED. You could barely move. But, oh well! We decided to go to Philharmagic anyway. On the way, we saw this guy.

Once inside, we met up with the group!

Cousin Jaclyn

This was one of the times when the holding areas didn't work out very well. We were right by one of the doors to the theater waiting to get in. When they opened the door, there was a mad rush. Well, even though we were LITERALLY right in front of the door, due to our bigger group (there were 10 of us at this point), 3 small children, and Jaclyn (who has down syndrome, and just doesn't move as fast), we got shuffled and pushed past. We ended up getting completely separated into a few smaller groups and stupidly tried to get BACK together to find seats. Well, the rain had begun, and people were packing in. By the time we got ourselves together (and I kid you not, this was all within 2-3 minutes) we had to take the front seats. THE FRONT ROW. Ugh. Philharmagic is not magic in the front. Honestly, I was a bit sick, and didn't think it looked as real as it does toward the back. But, it was still fun, and we were all together. That's what matters. After the show, there were eleventy-million people in the gift shop, but it was POURING.

Our family had ponchos, but Scott's aunt's family didnt. They had stuff back Beach Club, so they didn't want to buy any new one. After a few minutes, we decided we would just GO.

We were headed to Pirates! It was inside at least. And I hadn't gotten on it on the last trip because Sophie was scared. I was EXCITED!

When we got out, the rain was letting up. Jaclyn was super excited for the carpet ride, so she took the kids (minus Sophie) on that.

After this, we had to split up...we had a dinner ADR!!! Where are we going? Any guesses?

 

[ZFamily5]

Great update! Love the picture of Ethan, Finn, Sophie and Jaclyn (hopefully I spelled that right!)! My guess for your dinner.....Ohana?

 

[teachermommy78]

Great update! Love the picture of Ethan, Finn, Sophie and Jaclyn (hopefully I spelled that right!)! My guess for your dinner.....Ohana?

Thanks!!! And...you are right about dinner!

 

[teachermommy78]

We were headed to Ohana! I was very excited for this one! I had originally cancelled due to reading bad reviews, but ended up putting it back on our list. We had ADRs for 5pm, which was the first seating! Or maybe it was 5:30? I can't remember. We took the monorail over and got there a bit early and spent some time in the gift shop.

Soon it was time to check in! We only had to wait about 10 minutes until we were called.

Our waiter, who was wonderful, by the way said,
"Are you ready for some magic? Just wait until you see your table."
We got a CORNER table with a castle view! It was so nice!

Then the bread came! The adults, Finn and Ethan liked it a lot. Sophie had mixed feelings. We tried the thumbs up and down thing again.

Then the food started coming!!! BTW, just an FYI, you CAN order separate stuff for the kids!!! Our waiter didn't hesitate with us. There was a boy at the table next to us, around 8, however, that he did try to encourage trying the food. He said that he wanted him to give it a fair shot and he would come back in 5 minutes. If the kid wanted different food, he would get it. I thought that was very fair!

The kids' mac and cheese

Continued in next post

 

[teachermommy78]

Soon the entertainment was starting! Sophie ran right up, and Finn was close behind. Eventually Ethan went up as well.

We had a great time! We ate really fast, I guess and missed the broom races. Oh well. Maybe next time. We had to go back twice for little umbrellas because the kids kept breaking them! The guy at the bar just pointed to the cup where they were located the second time.

Up next...heading BACK to the Magic Kingdom for some evening fun!

 

[ZFamily5]

Sounds like O'hana was lots of fun! We went and thought it was okay, but not a must do for us. I can't believe you got a castle view!! That's so cool! We were put in the back corner, which probably contributed to us not having a great time. But anyway, I'm glad you guys had fun!

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

Sophie looks so cute in all her leis. Glad you had a good meal at O'hana's. It was just okay for us this trip. The service wasn't that great.

We had rain one afternoon at MK like that. Makes me wonder if we could have been there at the same time.

 

[PirateKate]

I love the Castle view tables at Ohana! I haven't been there in years, but we're going in October. Did you think the bread pudding is as good as everyone says it is?

 

[teachermommy78]

Sounds like O'hana was lots of fun! We went and thought it was okay, but not a must do for us. I can't believe you got a castle view!! That's so cool! We were put in the back corner, which probably contributed to us not having a great time. But anyway, I'm glad you guys had fun!

We did have a lot of fun. I think I'd do it exactly the same again...try to get the first ADR.

Sophie looks so cute in all her leis. Glad you had a good meal at O'hana's. It was just okay for us this trip. The service wasn't that great.



We had rain one afternoon at MK like that. Makes me wonder if we could have been there at the same time.

I think we lucked out! And thanks about Sophie. They were not stingy on those leis! We had many days in the rain. Our worst is coming up at EPCOT.

I love the Castle view tables at Ohana! I haven't been there in years, but we're going in October. Did you think the bread pudding is as good as everyone says it is?

the bread pudding is PHENOMENAL. I think I may try to make it for thanksgiving this year.

 

[teachermommy78]

Before heading back to the TR, I forgot to post some PP pictures from earlier in the day!

Before anyone starts thinking that I hate my boys since they are never in the PP pictures, they rarely were willing to get in them!

 

[teachermommy78]

Where we left off, so many days ago...

We were done with a lovely dinner to Ohana, and instead of doing what any normal family with three children 7 and under would do and go back to the room for the evening, we decided to head BACK to Magic Kingdom!

We took the monorail from the Polynesian to MK.

As we were bag checking, the CM said, "Hmmmm...I just can't figure out where YOU went to dinner!"

The real reason we came back:

Last trip we were unaware that the return time on FPs was flexible. This trip we took advantage of the flexibility. While this looks utterly ridiculous, we didn't anticipate the amount of rain that fell in the middle of the day, nor did we know we'd be hanging with the family for as long as we did.

Taking time to enjoy the small moments:

Scott went off to do something. I seriously can't imagine he went to get more FPs, but he may have! While he was gone, we stumbled upon a sweet little dance party in Tomorrowland.

After dancing, we headed to Space Mountain. Sophie and Ethan were pumped for this ride! They both really liked it. Ethan, especially. After that, we went to Buzz. Finn needed a ride to go on! He was SUPER pumped! I rode with Sophie.

After Buzz, we met up with the family again! We rode the peoplemover. My family LOVEs the peoplemover!

At this point, it was getting later, and Jaclyn had some must dos that we had already done. They split off from us, and we ended up at...

None of us had ever ridden this before. When we got in and heard that it was a A LONG show, we almost left. I'm SO glad we didn't! It ended up being a highlight. We were singing the song for the rest of the week. Scott even has a clip as his ipad wallpaper! This is also where part of my TR title came from! Ethan asked to go on "THE MERRY GO ROUND OF LIFE" everyday for the rest of the trip.

We then headed off to The Jungle Cruise. We were trying to get on it earlier, but the rain shut the ride down. I got to hold the time card this time!

Our guide was OK. Last time we had a REALLY funny guide who deviated from the script. This guy stuck right on. Oh well.

Then we HAD to go get something I had been waiting a long time for!!! A Dole Whip! I had the plain, and Scott had a float with orange.

It was good, but I knew I would have to try a float before the end of the trip!

We then hemmed and hawed about where to go for the fireworks. We had the time all wrong and totally missed the pictures show (can't remember the name!!!). UGH. We were on the tomorrowland bridge and had a great view of Tink, but a tree was blocking the fireworks. We gave up about halfway through and started heading back to the TTC. It had been a long night!!!!

Up next....Can we get a ROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR? Animal Kingdom!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

That's a lot of fastpasses!

 

[PirateKate]

There's not much I like better than a big handful of Fastpasses. The dance party looks like fun and I'm glad you all liked the Merry Go Round of Life. I've been too nervous to take Carter and Landon on that one. Maybe if they learn the song first.

 

[lbuzz52]

sounds like a great day with family. I'm glad the rain didn't last too long. i like to collect fastpasses too! we tend to use ours mid day when the lines start getting longer. your kids have the most beautiful eyes! i have avoided teh "merry go round" thinking my kids would be bored. I'll have to try it next time.

 

[teachermommy78]

That's a lot of fastpasses!

It was a lot! But you have to remember that there were 7 of us Scott was getting for. Leftovers we would give to strangers entering standby.

There's not much I like better than a big handful of Fastpasses. The dance party looks like fun and I'm glad you all liked the Merry Go Round of Life. I've been too nervous to take Carter and Landon on that one. Maybe if they learn the song first.

Yes, the song helped! The kids were familiar with it from the Four Parks CDs beforehand. The dance party was SO fun! It wasn't very crowded at all!

sounds like a great day with family. I'm glad the rain didn't last too long. i like to collect fastpasses too! we tend to use ours mid day when the lines start getting longer. your kids have the most beautiful eyes! i have avoided teh "merry go round" thinking my kids would be bored. I'll have to try it next time.

Thanks for the compliments on their eyes! Sophie and Finn have hazel. Ethan takes after me and has boring blue. But they are still beautiful! We had a great day.

 

[teachermommy78]

I have GOT to get moving on this TR! The memories are starting to fade! I don't have 15 minutes to pop on here on a regular basis like I did this summer. It makes me sad.

Where we left off, we were finishing a magical day at Magic Kingdom. The next day we headed for Animal Kingdom. I'm sorry to all you AK fans. I just don't feel this place. We have awesome zoos in Chicago, and that's probably why it just isn't as magical for me. Also it always seems so crowded and hot! We tried, once again, to hit rope drop. It didn't happen. Did you think any different?

We were meeting one branch of the family here. Turns out they had already ridden Dinosaur twice! Scott ran to get Everest FPs.

My kids had never ridden, so they decided to go once again with us. I was very nervous about this ride. I had never ridden it myself so I felt uneasy as I knew it was scary. Finn stayed with my MIL, of course. Scott's cousins told us when the T-Rex was coming, so I was able to warn Ethan. Sophie was in the back though, and she was a trooper! In the end, they weren't terrified, but it probably wasn't their favorite ride.

After this, I'm confused. My pictures show Everest. But there's no way our FPs would be up yet. I wonder if the cousins had a few extras?

The kids had a BLAST. Ethan and Sophie are total rollercoaster buffs. I had only ridden Everest once before on our last trip. At that time, I had NO CLUE it went backwards. I was so surprised that I didn't pay attention! This time was so much fun because I was able to really take it all in.

After Everest, we went back to Dinoland. The other mom and I took all the kids to the boneyard. I don't know what the rest did!

I took this picture for PirateKate!

Miserable Finn. He still wasn't himself.

These fans were AWESOME.

Our kids were the only ones in the boneyard!

Finn not wanting to leave.

We decided to head to see Nemo. Our family had not seen it. Poor Finn just wanted to be held the entire time. I had him on my lap throughout the entire show. No fever or anything...he was just off!

We thought it was cute that the cousins were holding hands!

The poor dad cousin had HORRID blisters. So bad, he switched shoes with his wife! I had to get a picture.

At this point it was time for lunch. Again, we had an early dinner ADR, so we decided to snack once more. Scott and I had jalepeno pretzels, Ethan and FInn had regular pretzels and Soph had popcorn. Of course, we were swarmed by the birds. The boys kept "dropping" food. I gave them the lecture on feeding the animals. Then poor Ethan was DEVASTATED that he could have possibly hurt one of the birds!

As we were heading to meet back with the cousins who stopped for a more substantial lunch, we saw this guy!

Next, we head for a safari!!!

I'm going to try to get at least one more update done this weekend. Hopefully a couple more. If you are still reading, thanks for sticking with me! I promise not to give up in the middle!

 

[teachermommy78]

Before I forget, I wanted to post the photopass pics!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Yum, cheese pretzels for lunch!

Cute photopass pictures of Sophie!

 

[teachermommy78]

Yum, cheese pretzels for lunch!

Cute photopass pictures of Sophie!

The pretzels were REALLY good. And thank you! She had a lot of fun with the photopasses!

 

[teachermommy78]

We were off to safari with the family! We all had fastpasses and were ready to go. Finn was still so clingy. He just wasn't having fun this day!

We all had fun on the ride. And those poachers were no match for the fearful guides on the trek! WOOHOO!

We all decided to head to Kali River Rapids to cool off. On our way there, we saw DeVine! It was really crowded and we were trying to catch up to the group so sadly we didn't stay to watch. But I caught a picture!

We had a blast on the ride. Finn got absolutely soaked. He seemed to have fun, and he felt special to be sitting in the "king's seat" as the CM called it. For those of you without small children, they put little ones into a special seat with shoulder strap seat belts.

It was then time to head to our ADR for the evening! We said goodbye to the cousins and headed out!

We were going to Animal Kingdom Lodge to eat at Boma! I was very impressed when we arrived. It reminded me a lot of Wilderness Lodge...my favorite resort.

I went up to the desk and checked in. UGH. I had the ADR time wrong. We were an hour early! We were there before they even opened! Luckily they were able to get us in right at opening. We still had some time to wander.

The dinner was OK. We were all cold, especially Finn. He was still wet from the ride and was shivering. Because of this, we ate pretty fast and probably didn't enjoy as much variety as we should have. I do know that I TOTALLY ate more dessert than meal! I went up, ahem, a few times. In my defense, one of those times was with Sophie and she didn't really like what she chose. So I had to eat her leftovers. I didn't care much for the zebra domes. They were good, but they weren't what I expected. I think I expected more of a solid item. They were kind of mushy. BUT...I LOVED the bread pudding and vanilla sauce. I have googled the recipe and will be making it for thanksgiving!!! It was so good. Had I not stuffed myself with dessert I was just OK with, I would have had more!

We decided to head back to our room to do some swimming. The kids were so excited about that and this was a great night to check out our pool! When we returned to our room, we saw this!

Isn't that cute? Our Mousekeepers were really creative.

Continued in the next post.