Cast of Characters: Me--lover of all things Disney and last minute planner of surprise trip for dd's birthday
Dh--Marc--financer for lover of all things Disney! Without all his hard work and effort we would have never made it either time!
Caity--11 yr. old dd--wants to be an imagineer and live in Celebration when she grows up
Meggie--10 yr. old b'day girl--plans on being Belle at WDW someday
Chance--5 yr. old only boy 10th degree Jr. Star Commander
Kass--2 yr. old minnie mouse fan, and Jr. Star Commander in training
It all started out with free airline tickets that I just had to use! We were bounced off our flight last yrear and had been planning on going in May but dh got laid off for a couple months and we weren't able to go. We were just going to forget it but in the end I just couldn't do it so dh worked doing as many side jobs as he could after work and we took whatever we could get together to go to WDW for a couple of days! not going to go into the actual planning of the trip because that would take too long to type as anyone who was following my previous posts on this would know.Iit was a lot of ups and downs with the end results being that we were going to get to go to WDW for two days. ( Actually we went for three but only to the parks for two) It was all planned as a surprise to the kids who all thought we were going camping. My kids love to camp but they love WDW more than anything else in the world! They are all Disney Crazy!! By the time we left for the airport the afternoon of our "camping" trip we were running quite late. Dh had gotten held up at a job and I was positive we were going to miss our flight. I was having a nervous breakdown by the time my dh got home from work at 7:00 when we had an 8:15 flight to catch and we live AT LEAST 45 minutes from the airport. We drove as fast as we legally could to the airport--my 11 yr. old Caity realized something was going on but none of the rest of them even realized where we were! By the time we got there it was 7:45 and dh still had to park the van and we had to check the luggage. Since I didn't have time for the big presentation I had planned I very casually tossed my 10 yr. old Meggie's Mouse Ears from our last vacation into her lap as we pulled up to unload our luggage and said "here Meg, you might need these where we are going" her face was a complete blank for a good 5 seconds and then the light dawned! You never heard so much screaming!! It was great! I don't think my girls will ever forget that moment. My son Chance was sleeping and woke up to all the screaming! He went from being sound asleep one minute to jumping up and down laughing the next!! The only one confused was the two yr. old Kass, but even she got excited because everyone else was so happy. We were able to race inside in time to catch our flight with a whole ten minutes to spare! By the time we arrived in Florida it was 10:45 at night ( I had to take a late flight so dh could work that day) and by the time we got our car from EZ rental ( who were quite nice, and I would recommend ) and actually found our hotel ( The Magic Castle--also quite nice for the price of 35.00 a nite, although not much parking )it was 2:00 in the morning and time for bed. Luckily we planned the first day to just get some snacks for the room, maybe swim etc... We ended up getting up at around 10:00 and going to Denny's for breakfast--it was pretty much right in front of our hotel--for anyone watching their budget it is more expensive at that Denny's than other ones due to it being closer to WDW) Now, money on our trip was very tight and the car for reasons a little to long to go into was was more expensive than we thought it was going to be so our budget wasn't looking to great) When we met a guy at the Denny's that offered us a timeshare with a free dinner that we would get paid 70.00 to attend that night, we decided to go. That afternoon we went swimming for awhile-- and then headed to the timeshare. The "big buffet" we were promised was non-existant and the food was quite awful! The kids went to play in the playroom while dh and I sat through the big tour. They actually had us interested at one point with a deal that seemed to good to be true. You know what they say about those! When dh caught our salesman in a flat out lie they decided that this "obviously wasn't for us" and shooed us out of there with quite an attitude. By the time we waited in line an hour for our money it was 10:30 at night and by the time we got back to our hotel it was a little after eleven. So much for getting the kids to bed early for the next day. The money definitely came in handy but it isn't an experience I would choose to repeat!
I didn't get much sleep that night, Kass never sleeps the first night in a new place and by the time she was done tossing and turning I was wide awake and my brain wouldn't shut up long enough to let me get to sleep! I kept thinking "I'm here, I'm here!!" I finally got to sleep around 4:00 and slept till seven which I normally couldn't handle but since we were in Disney I handled just fine!
And then it was time for MGM,which was great...the weather was perfect...it was just on the verge of raining for most of the day so there was a nice breeze blowing and it wasn't too hot. We were able to get to the parks by 9:00 (early for us!) and get fastpasses that allowed us just enough time for an attraction between each one. Even though we were only there for one day, I got to see everything that I wanted to see with the exception of WWTBAM which I will save for next time! We stayed all day, until the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic, which was awesome!! We even got a chance to go into some of the stores and just kind of hang out that night soaking up the Disney atmosphere.. That wasn't until that night but that was one of my favorite parts of MGM...just how cheerul everything seemed with all the people and bright lights, sitting on a bench eating cookies and looking around!. Chance finally got to ride old TOT for the first time and loved it! The ghosts scared him a little bit but he thought "the dropping was really fast and fun mom! " I rode it last yr. on our first trip to WDW and was so excited about doing EVERYTHING at Disney that even though I am a big baby about things like that it wasn't too bad. Well, this yr. I wasn't all psyched up since I had already done it (I didn't feel like I had to do it again) but my 10 yr. old dd begged me to go on with her (baby swap, so she could ride twice) so I did it. For whatever reason this time I was alot more scared and my poor heart was pounding so fast going through the ride that I thought I was gonna pass out! I am just not fond of all that dropping So, I did TOT again, and it is cool but I am too chicken to enjoy it too much! After that I decided to pass on RNR! I LOVED the Hunchback of Notre Dame!! Definitely a MUST SEE! and our two little guys of course loved Bear. The same five yr. old that liked TOT was Very scared at the Alien part of The Great Movie Ride! Even on a tight budget the kids just had to go to Prime Time 50's Cafe so we went for dessert. (after our "dinner" of pb and j sandwiches and apples lol) We requested our server from last year, Tropher, who was very and actually got him so that was fun! He kept trying to find a boyfriend in the restaurant for Meg which she pretended to hate but of course loved! Next was Star Tours which gave Meg ) a stomachache but Chance loved it! I know I have motions sickness so I passed on that one. We did get to see some characters and I have a great picture of Kassidy in complete joy hugging Mr. Smee. Poor Meg somehow lost her autograph book from last yr., but when we tried to find it by reporting it to one of the little booths and having the girl there call lost and found they didn't have it, but the girl at the cart gave her a new one,which was very nice. She even suggested writing to Disney and having them try to get her some of the old signatures she had which we plan on doing. All in all MGM was a pretty perfect day!As a small footnote to it, while the kids and dad were riding RNR Chance decided to buy something with his money that he saved from his b'day. He picked one of those little spinning toys with the lights at the end. That toy was the best thirteen dollars ever spent. He loved it! He spent the entire rest of the day spinning constantly completely amused by this toy! Highly recommend it!
Day two at Magic Kingdom wasnt nearly as nice to start out...to begin with we got there way too late--you just can't burn the candle at both ends with little kids with you--so we didn't even get there till noon. Despite all the warnings about the crowds and the heat, it was our only day to do the Magic Kingdom and I figured how bad could it be?? VERY BAD!! I would have never thought that I could have such an awful time at WDW. The last time we went it was during medium-busy season and it rained both days we were at Magic Kingdom which cleared the park out a little. On top of that we went early in the day, took a break and went back later, so I never caught the bad crowds. I wouldn't have believed how crowded it actually gets, wall to wall people, at points you could hardly walk! We ended up going into Diamond Horshoe Saloon Twice, once for drinks, a couple hours later for ice cream. The first thing we did was get a FP for Splash Mnt. with a return time of 3 1/2 hrs. later. From 12:00 in the afternoon till 4:00 we went on one ride and that was the people mover. We also say The Lion King Show just to get out of the heat since it was one of the few attractions you could get into (and that was only during the parade, which we missed trying to get out of the heat) There was a problem with the water (there was none) so we couldn't cool off in Donalds Boat or in Ariels Grotto) by 3:30 I was thoroughly disgusted and ready to just leave--Caity reminded me that we had our fp for Splash which by that time were good in 15 minutes, so we decided to go there first. By the time we walked over it was time to ride, and the fp line was pretty small.While they were riding with dad and I was staying with the baby, I decided to see if I could do anything to salvage our day. I knew that they were having a E-nite that night but we were not resort guests. They sell the tickets for that at the Photo Shop at Splash Mountain. I went and talked to the girl there (Tatiana) and explained to her how hard it had been for us to come for even two days and what a big Disney fan I am and how it was my dd's b'day celebration and we were leaving the next day. I told her how we had only been on one ride so far, and basically that we were having a really awful time just kindof wandering around in the heat and the crowds. I asked her if she could possibly bend the rules and sell us the bracelets for e-nite even though we were not resort guests. Well, she did me one better! She told me to come back with my ID (my dh had it in his wallet) and when he got off the ride with the kids we went back and she gave us all complimentary bracelets to e-nite!! PIXIE DUST! Then they took my dd to the phone to get a happy b'day message from Goofy! More Pixie Dust! I then rode Splash again with the kids (baby swap) The picture of me clutching Chance's arm with my eyes shut while he is laughing and having a great old time on the drop is a great one! After that we decided to go get FP for Winnie the Pooh. Unfortunately they were all out and it was still way to ccrowded in Fantasyland to ride anything. We decided to go on the Riverboat ride which hadn't looked to crowded when we walked past it. On our way out of Fantasyland a gentleman stopped us and said he had six FP tickets for Pooh with a return time of nine o'clock. Would we be interested?? HURRAY! More Pixie Dust! As we passed Small World we noticed it only had a 20 minute wait so we were able to ride that too ! Finally something Kassidy could love! She loved the peple for maybe half the ride and then spent the rest of it trying to figure out how to climb out of the little boat...two year olds!We rode the river ride which was nice--unfortunately after that we did have a bad experience. My dh went to get the stroller which we had parked of course and left the kids with me. I definitely had all four of them one minute and somehow the next minute only had three. Chance had somehow wandered away, at first I wasn't too worried because I thought that he had tried to follow dh and would be right back--I met Marc half way and we looked for him but he was nowhere to be found. We left Cait and Meg with the baby and went in opposite directions. I was starting to get scared at this point but he had only been gone about three or four minutes and I figured he was right around. I kept expecting to hear dh calling that he had him and the minutes kept ticking. I ended up finding him myself about 10 minutes later wandering around quite a ways from where we had been standing. At that point I was pretty much in panic mode, I didn't know what had happened to him. I was SO relieved to see him!! He was crying and looking all around for us poor little guy. He thought we were all in front of him and hadn't paying much attention to where he was walking and by the time he figured out he was following the wrong people he was lost. I got him right back to dh and we held real tight to him after that. We had warned him many times that if he got lost to just STOP and stay where he was but he was so upset when he realized we weren't around that he kept wandering farther away looking for us. It was a very scary experience for all of us! Caity and Meg were both in tears by the time I walked back with him. I finally got everyone--especially Chance-- cheered back up and calmed down by promising to take him on the Pirates and by that point it was time for the parade so we were able to get right on that without much of a wait at all and that made him feel much better!We all love the Pirates, that is SUCH a great ride, you actually feel like you are outside in some remote place sailing by them. By the time that was over we decided to head back to go on our FP Pooh ride and on the way back we hit the jungle cruise and everyone on the boat sang dd Happy B'day to Meg. After we raced back to Pooh in time to use our fastpasses and still have time for one more ride before Fantasyland closed.I'm so glad we had those FP, even by 9:45 Pooh was still to crowded to ride without it and it is one of Caity's very favorite rides, she just loves those heffalumps and woozles! The kids picked Peter Pan for our last ride,and we were able to watch the fireworks display as we stood in line. So even on a very crowded day we managed to do three of our favorite attractions in Fantasyland. Of course we had to miss the parade to do everything but there is always next time! By this point in the day I was pretty tired so we stopped on a bench to have a snack and then head to Tommorowland for the start of e-nite. The first thing we went on was Buzz which was great. My kids all play Star Command all the time (it has turned into an elaborate game full of degrees of training, mission etc...that everyone plays with my son--even the baby loves it and actually answers to the name Space Ranger Nova, so being on a mission at Star Command Central was a VERY big deal in my family!! I have great pictures of them doing the Star Command Salute in front of the ride! Chance scored a whole 1700 points LOL, dh scored 250,00. . .show off! After that the girls rode Space Mountain with their dad ,Chance was pretty brave about still being too small but he did tear up a little, poor guy. Marc actually camcorded the entire ride in nite vision which is pretty cool to watch! Even the parts where it was going to fast for the camcorder to catch you can hear the girls screaming and laughing in the background, it's such a cool tape! When we were done they did Astro Orbiter which Chance LOVED!! That left enough time to head over to BTMR which I LOVED (my kindof roller coaster,nice and tame!) but my little thrill seeking son thought it should have had more drops and that it was just O.K. On the way to BTMR we passed by the characters in front of the castle (poor Kass was asleep and missed it) Chance saw Dale coming down the ramp and ran up to meet him. Dale ended up taking all the kids on a walk all the way around the statue of Walt and back up to the castle all by themselves! My son was especially thrilled and Dale was absolutely adorable and very chipmunky! Dh ran backwards in front of them the whole time camcording so I have it all on film! What an awesome moment! Yet more PD! Anyway, back to the coming off of BTMR-- By this time I was worn out and ready to go. It took us awhile to find my dh when we got off BTMR ( he had fallen asleep on a rather secluded bench with the baby LOL) and we headed back. On the way out we hit the last call for Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately, Chance who didn't mind this ride at all when he was four (apparently most of it went over his head) was scared to death this time and informed me when he got off that he had hated that ride! OOPS! Even Kass (2) had woken up and was very earnestly telling the people who worked at the ride on the way out that a ghost was in there and it was "wery scawy" very scary for those of you who don't speak 2 yr. old. By the time we got back to the room and in bed it was 3:00 am. We got up around 10:00 the next morning (at least I did!) packed up and headed for the airport.All in all we spent 10 hrs. at MGM the one day and 13 hrs. at the Magic Kingdom the next. We were quite tired by the end, but it didn't even feel like we only spent two days in the parks, we saw so much that is seemed like our vacation was much longer. And dh liked Florida so much that we are actually tossing around the idea of moving there--not real seriously yet--but it doesn't hurt to look into it! Anyway, so that was my mini vacation to WDW! Time to start planning the next trip. . .
Dh--Marc--financer for lover of all things Disney! Without all his hard work and effort we would have never made it either time!
Caity--11 yr. old dd--wants to be an imagineer and live in Celebration when she grows up
Meggie--10 yr. old b'day girl--plans on being Belle at WDW someday
Chance--5 yr. old only boy 10th degree Jr. Star Commander
Kass--2 yr. old minnie mouse fan, and Jr. Star Commander in training
It all started out with free airline tickets that I just had to use! We were bounced off our flight last yrear and had been planning on going in May but dh got laid off for a couple months and we weren't able to go. We were just going to forget it but in the end I just couldn't do it so dh worked doing as many side jobs as he could after work and we took whatever we could get together to go to WDW for a couple of days! not going to go into the actual planning of the trip because that would take too long to type as anyone who was following my previous posts on this would know.Iit was a lot of ups and downs with the end results being that we were going to get to go to WDW for two days. ( Actually we went for three but only to the parks for two) It was all planned as a surprise to the kids who all thought we were going camping. My kids love to camp but they love WDW more than anything else in the world! They are all Disney Crazy!! By the time we left for the airport the afternoon of our "camping" trip we were running quite late. Dh had gotten held up at a job and I was positive we were going to miss our flight. I was having a nervous breakdown by the time my dh got home from work at 7:00 when we had an 8:15 flight to catch and we live AT LEAST 45 minutes from the airport. We drove as fast as we legally could to the airport--my 11 yr. old Caity realized something was going on but none of the rest of them even realized where we were! By the time we got there it was 7:45 and dh still had to park the van and we had to check the luggage. Since I didn't have time for the big presentation I had planned I very casually tossed my 10 yr. old Meggie's Mouse Ears from our last vacation into her lap as we pulled up to unload our luggage and said "here Meg, you might need these where we are going" her face was a complete blank for a good 5 seconds and then the light dawned! You never heard so much screaming!! It was great! I don't think my girls will ever forget that moment. My son Chance was sleeping and woke up to all the screaming! He went from being sound asleep one minute to jumping up and down laughing the next!! The only one confused was the two yr. old Kass, but even she got excited because everyone else was so happy. We were able to race inside in time to catch our flight with a whole ten minutes to spare! By the time we arrived in Florida it was 10:45 at night ( I had to take a late flight so dh could work that day) and by the time we got our car from EZ rental ( who were quite nice, and I would recommend ) and actually found our hotel ( The Magic Castle--also quite nice for the price of 35.00 a nite, although not much parking )it was 2:00 in the morning and time for bed. Luckily we planned the first day to just get some snacks for the room, maybe swim etc... We ended up getting up at around 10:00 and going to Denny's for breakfast--it was pretty much right in front of our hotel--for anyone watching their budget it is more expensive at that Denny's than other ones due to it being closer to WDW) Now, money on our trip was very tight and the car for reasons a little to long to go into was was more expensive than we thought it was going to be so our budget wasn't looking to great) When we met a guy at the Denny's that offered us a timeshare with a free dinner that we would get paid 70.00 to attend that night, we decided to go. That afternoon we went swimming for awhile-- and then headed to the timeshare. The "big buffet" we were promised was non-existant and the food was quite awful! The kids went to play in the playroom while dh and I sat through the big tour. They actually had us interested at one point with a deal that seemed to good to be true. You know what they say about those! When dh caught our salesman in a flat out lie they decided that this "obviously wasn't for us" and shooed us out of there with quite an attitude. By the time we waited in line an hour for our money it was 10:30 at night and by the time we got back to our hotel it was a little after eleven. So much for getting the kids to bed early for the next day. The money definitely came in handy but it isn't an experience I would choose to repeat!
I didn't get much sleep that night, Kass never sleeps the first night in a new place and by the time she was done tossing and turning I was wide awake and my brain wouldn't shut up long enough to let me get to sleep! I kept thinking "I'm here, I'm here!!" I finally got to sleep around 4:00 and slept till seven which I normally couldn't handle but since we were in Disney I handled just fine!
And then it was time for MGM,which was great...the weather was perfect...it was just on the verge of raining for most of the day so there was a nice breeze blowing and it wasn't too hot. We were able to get to the parks by 9:00 (early for us!) and get fastpasses that allowed us just enough time for an attraction between each one. Even though we were only there for one day, I got to see everything that I wanted to see with the exception of WWTBAM which I will save for next time! We stayed all day, until the 10:30 showing of Fantasmic, which was awesome!! We even got a chance to go into some of the stores and just kind of hang out that night soaking up the Disney atmosphere.. That wasn't until that night but that was one of my favorite parts of MGM...just how cheerul everything seemed with all the people and bright lights, sitting on a bench eating cookies and looking around!. Chance finally got to ride old TOT for the first time and loved it! The ghosts scared him a little bit but he thought "the dropping was really fast and fun mom! " I rode it last yr. on our first trip to WDW and was so excited about doing EVERYTHING at Disney that even though I am a big baby about things like that it wasn't too bad. Well, this yr. I wasn't all psyched up since I had already done it (I didn't feel like I had to do it again) but my 10 yr. old dd begged me to go on with her (baby swap, so she could ride twice) so I did it. For whatever reason this time I was alot more scared and my poor heart was pounding so fast going through the ride that I thought I was gonna pass out! I am just not fond of all that dropping So, I did TOT again, and it is cool but I am too chicken to enjoy it too much! After that I decided to pass on RNR! I LOVED the Hunchback of Notre Dame!! Definitely a MUST SEE! and our two little guys of course loved Bear. The same five yr. old that liked TOT was Very scared at the Alien part of The Great Movie Ride! Even on a tight budget the kids just had to go to Prime Time 50's Cafe so we went for dessert. (after our "dinner" of pb and j sandwiches and apples lol) We requested our server from last year, Tropher, who was very and actually got him so that was fun! He kept trying to find a boyfriend in the restaurant for Meg which she pretended to hate but of course loved! Next was Star Tours which gave Meg ) a stomachache but Chance loved it! I know I have motions sickness so I passed on that one. We did get to see some characters and I have a great picture of Kassidy in complete joy hugging Mr. Smee. Poor Meg somehow lost her autograph book from last yr., but when we tried to find it by reporting it to one of the little booths and having the girl there call lost and found they didn't have it, but the girl at the cart gave her a new one,which was very nice. She even suggested writing to Disney and having them try to get her some of the old signatures she had which we plan on doing. All in all MGM was a pretty perfect day!As a small footnote to it, while the kids and dad were riding RNR Chance decided to buy something with his money that he saved from his b'day. He picked one of those little spinning toys with the lights at the end. That toy was the best thirteen dollars ever spent. He loved it! He spent the entire rest of the day spinning constantly completely amused by this toy! Highly recommend it! Day two at Magic Kingdom wasnt nearly as nice to start out...to begin with we got there way too late--you just can't burn the candle at both ends with little kids with you--so we didn't even get there till noon. Despite all the warnings about the crowds and the heat, it was our only day to do the Magic Kingdom and I figured how bad could it be?? VERY BAD!! I would have never thought that I could have such an awful time at WDW. The last time we went it was during medium-busy season and it rained both days we were at Magic Kingdom which cleared the park out a little. On top of that we went early in the day, took a break and went back later, so I never caught the bad crowds. I wouldn't have believed how crowded it actually gets, wall to wall people, at points you could hardly walk! We ended up going into Diamond Horshoe Saloon Twice, once for drinks, a couple hours later for ice cream. The first thing we did was get a FP for Splash Mnt. with a return time of 3 1/2 hrs. later. From 12:00 in the afternoon till 4:00 we went on one ride and that was the people mover. We also say The Lion King Show just to get out of the heat since it was one of the few attractions you could get into (and that was only during the parade, which we missed trying to get out of the heat) There was a problem with the water (there was none) so we couldn't cool off in Donalds Boat or in Ariels Grotto) by 3:30 I was thoroughly disgusted and ready to just leave--Caity reminded me that we had our fp for Splash which by that time were good in 15 minutes, so we decided to go there first. By the time we walked over it was time to ride, and the fp line was pretty small.While they were riding with dad and I was staying with the baby, I decided to see if I could do anything to salvage our day. I knew that they were having a E-nite that night but we were not resort guests. They sell the tickets for that at the Photo Shop at Splash Mountain. I went and talked to the girl there (Tatiana) and explained to her how hard it had been for us to come for even two days and what a big Disney fan I am and how it was my dd's b'day celebration and we were leaving the next day. I told her how we had only been on one ride so far, and basically that we were having a really awful time just kindof wandering around in the heat and the crowds. I asked her if she could possibly bend the rules and sell us the bracelets for e-nite even though we were not resort guests. Well, she did me one better! She told me to come back with my ID (my dh had it in his wallet) and when he got off the ride with the kids we went back and she gave us all complimentary bracelets to e-nite!! PIXIE DUST! Then they took my dd to the phone to get a happy b'day message from Goofy! More Pixie Dust! I then rode Splash again with the kids (baby swap) The picture of me clutching Chance's arm with my eyes shut while he is laughing and having a great old time on the drop is a great one! After that we decided to go get FP for Winnie the Pooh. Unfortunately they were all out and it was still way to ccrowded in Fantasyland to ride anything. We decided to go on the Riverboat ride which hadn't looked to crowded when we walked past it. On our way out of Fantasyland a gentleman stopped us and said he had six FP tickets for Pooh with a return time of nine o'clock. Would we be interested?? HURRAY! More Pixie Dust! As we passed Small World we noticed it only had a 20 minute wait so we were able to ride that too ! Finally something Kassidy could love! She loved the peple for maybe half the ride and then spent the rest of it trying to figure out how to climb out of the little boat...two year olds!We rode the river ride which was nice--unfortunately after that we did have a bad experience. My dh went to get the stroller which we had parked of course and left the kids with me. I definitely had all four of them one minute and somehow the next minute only had three. Chance had somehow wandered away, at first I wasn't too worried because I thought that he had tried to follow dh and would be right back--I met Marc half way and we looked for him but he was nowhere to be found. We left Cait and Meg with the baby and went in opposite directions. I was starting to get scared at this point but he had only been gone about three or four minutes and I figured he was right around. I kept expecting to hear dh calling that he had him and the minutes kept ticking. I ended up finding him myself about 10 minutes later wandering around quite a ways from where we had been standing. At that point I was pretty much in panic mode, I didn't know what had happened to him. I was SO relieved to see him!! He was crying and looking all around for us poor little guy. He thought we were all in front of him and hadn't paying much attention to where he was walking and by the time he figured out he was following the wrong people he was lost. I got him right back to dh and we held real tight to him after that. We had warned him many times that if he got lost to just STOP and stay where he was but he was so upset when he realized we weren't around that he kept wandering farther away looking for us. It was a very scary experience for all of us! Caity and Meg were both in tears by the time I walked back with him. I finally got everyone--especially Chance-- cheered back up and calmed down by promising to take him on the Pirates and by that point it was time for the parade so we were able to get right on that without much of a wait at all and that made him feel much better!We all love the Pirates, that is SUCH a great ride, you actually feel like you are outside in some remote place sailing by them. By the time that was over we decided to head back to go on our FP Pooh ride and on the way back we hit the jungle cruise and everyone on the boat sang dd Happy B'day to Meg. After we raced back to Pooh in time to use our fastpasses and still have time for one more ride before Fantasyland closed.I'm so glad we had those FP, even by 9:45 Pooh was still to crowded to ride without it and it is one of Caity's very favorite rides, she just loves those heffalumps and woozles! The kids picked Peter Pan for our last ride,and we were able to watch the fireworks display as we stood in line. So even on a very crowded day we managed to do three of our favorite attractions in Fantasyland. Of course we had to miss the parade to do everything but there is always next time! By this point in the day I was pretty tired so we stopped on a bench to have a snack and then head to Tommorowland for the start of e-nite. The first thing we went on was Buzz which was great. My kids all play Star Command all the time (it has turned into an elaborate game full of degrees of training, mission etc...that everyone plays with my son--even the baby loves it and actually answers to the name Space Ranger Nova, so being on a mission at Star Command Central was a VERY big deal in my family!! I have great pictures of them doing the Star Command Salute in front of the ride! Chance scored a whole 1700 points LOL, dh scored 250,00. . .show off! After that the girls rode Space Mountain with their dad ,Chance was pretty brave about still being too small but he did tear up a little, poor guy. Marc actually camcorded the entire ride in nite vision which is pretty cool to watch! Even the parts where it was going to fast for the camcorder to catch you can hear the girls screaming and laughing in the background, it's such a cool tape! When we were done they did Astro Orbiter which Chance LOVED!! That left enough time to head over to BTMR which I LOVED (my kindof roller coaster,nice and tame!) but my little thrill seeking son thought it should have had more drops and that it was just O.K. On the way to BTMR we passed by the characters in front of the castle (poor Kass was asleep and missed it) Chance saw Dale coming down the ramp and ran up to meet him. Dale ended up taking all the kids on a walk all the way around the statue of Walt and back up to the castle all by themselves! My son was especially thrilled and Dale was absolutely adorable and very chipmunky! Dh ran backwards in front of them the whole time camcording so I have it all on film! What an awesome moment! Yet more PD! Anyway, back to the coming off of BTMR-- By this time I was worn out and ready to go. It took us awhile to find my dh when we got off BTMR ( he had fallen asleep on a rather secluded bench with the baby LOL) and we headed back. On the way out we hit the last call for Haunted Mansion. Unfortunately, Chance who didn't mind this ride at all when he was four (apparently most of it went over his head) was scared to death this time and informed me when he got off that he had hated that ride! OOPS! Even Kass (2) had woken up and was very earnestly telling the people who worked at the ride on the way out that a ghost was in there and it was "wery scawy" very scary for those of you who don't speak 2 yr. old. By the time we got back to the room and in bed it was 3:00 am. We got up around 10:00 the next morning (at least I did!) packed up and headed for the airport.All in all we spent 10 hrs. at MGM the one day and 13 hrs. at the Magic Kingdom the next. We were quite tired by the end, but it didn't even feel like we only spent two days in the parks, we saw so much that is seemed like our vacation was much longer. And dh liked Florida so much that we are actually tossing around the idea of moving there--not real seriously yet--but it doesn't hurt to look into it! Anyway, so that was my mini vacation to WDW! Time to start planning the next trip. . .
Quick trips are not so bad. Thats what we usually take. I'm glad you guys had a great time!
