Test Track, Big Thunder, and Everest, Oh My! A First Time Trip with Lots of Thrills!

[LoveMyTwoPrincesses]

Joining in! It looks like you are having a great time! I can't wait to hear more.

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Loved your boys' expressions on the rides What cuties they are (is it okay to call boys cuties? I have four boys and could get away with it when they were little ) What a great morning you already are having - isn't it so much fun to jump right back on a ride?!!

Thanks! I call them cute all the time and they don't cringe too much yet - so I think it's okay!! It was great riding things over again - so nice to just turn around and walk right back on! I couldn't believe how short the lines and waits were, it was amazing!

Joining in! It looks like you are having a great time! I can't wait to hear more.

Welcome and thanks for joining! It was a great day!

 

[martinolichfamily]

Great update Karen! Ya'll did get a ton of rides done in just 2 hrs!!

awww......the boys' faces are so sweet in the pics! It gave me chills reading about all the excitement the boys had!

We also enjoyed Pinocchios for lunch....we found the seats that overlooked Its A Small World....the kids enjoyed watching the ride start.

Cant wait to read more!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Great update Karen! Ya'll did get a ton of rides done in just 2 hrs!!

awww......the boys' faces are so sweet in the pics! It gave me chills reading about all the excitement the boys had!

We also enjoyed Pinocchios for lunch....we found the seats that overlooked Its A Small World....the kids enjoyed watching the ride start.

Cant wait to read more!

Thanks Heather! It was a super fun morning that day! I think it helped that Pinocchios was really not crowded at all and since it was our first day we were not sick of the same old meal choices yet! I was happy with it even though I had read some people didn't like it - glad you liked it too!

The kids had so much fun on those rides - it was so much fun watching them and seeing their reactions to things - so sweet!

Karen

 

[wdwgirl03]

Aww, I had a feeling you'd say your first ride was Dumbo! That seems like it's the typical first visit, first ride-ride. hehe I can't really remember my first trip but I have a feeling we rode Dumbo first.

So cute about Peter Pan! That is such a classic ride.

You guys did great for just 2 hours! You are already seasoned Disney veterans.

 

[natebenma]

FANTASTIC photos, Karen! I especially love the ones at Dumbo, the Sword and the Stone and the carousel. A couple of great pics of you and the boys, too. It is clear they know what to do when a camera is around!

Nice first visit shirts. Did you get many comments from CMs with your shirts and buttons?

You definitely did your homework before the trip! Sounds like things are going perfectly so far!

 

[Angies1274]

Catching up!

I'm loving all your pictures at POP!! It brings back so many great memories. We stayed in the 90's section on our first trip also. I remember thinking how far away it seemed but it really wasn't so bad if you cut across the parking lot. Glad you were able to get a refurbished room!

Aww...so glad you made it to MK, even if it was for a couple hours. Those ice cream sandwiches look so yummy!!

It sounds like you had a wonderful morning at MK! Your boys look so happy to be there!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Aww, I had a feeling you'd say your first ride was Dumbo! That seems like it's the typical first visit, first ride-ride. hehe I can't really remember my first trip but I have a feeling we rode Dumbo first.

So cute about Peter Pan! That is such a classic ride.

You guys did great for just 2 hours! You are already seasoned Disney veterans.

Hi Sarah! Dumbo was an obvious first choice for us - classic ride and so cute! We all loved it! Peter Pan ended up also being one of my favorites that day.

You know it was so nice feeling like I knew what to do down there - even though it was our first trip I never felt like I was wandering around clueless! It was nice to know what had FPs, what didn't, and I'm glad my year of research and reading on the DIS helped out so much! And it felt great to be able to do so much and hardly wait at all!

FANTASTIC photos, Karen! I especially love the ones at Dumbo, the Sword and the Stone and the carousel. A couple of great pics of you and the boys, too. It is clear they know what to do when a camera is around!

Nice first visit shirts. Did you get many comments from CMs with your shirts and buttons?

You definitely did your homework before the trip! Sounds like things are going perfectly so far!

Thanks Dee! I just love watching their expressions on the rides. We didn't get a lot of comments from CMs about the shirt, but we could tell people noticed, a few people commented. On our Ecpot day we got A LOT of looks and comments, that day from CMs too. It was fun though,I'm glad we were them, we enjoyed them!

Catching up!

I'm loving all your pictures at POP!! It brings back so many great memories. We stayed in the 90's section on our first trip also. I remember thinking how far away it seemed but it really wasn't so bad if you cut across the parking lot. Glad you were able to get a refurbished room!

Aww...so glad you made it to MK, even if it was for a couple hours. Those ice cream sandwiches look so yummy!!

It sounds like you had a wonderful morning at MK! Your boys look so happy to be there!

Hi Angie! Yup, we cut across the parking lot too! It really ended up not being that far - not really any further than being on a back end of any of the other buildings. Glad you like the pictures!

We all loved MK, definitely ended up being our favorite park. I'm glad we got to spend 2 full days there plus another couple hours that first night....and even an unplanned evening a few days later!!

I hope to get my next update posted tonight - pretty busy day here today but I'll have some time to update tonight!

Karen

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Day 2: Magic Kingdom (PM): Tomorrowland

So after finishing lunch at Pinocchio’s in FL we made our way to Tomorrowland. The boys had been begging for the racecars (TL Speedway) since seeing them yesterday, so it was time to go there. But before going there I wanted to go get FPs for Buzz, so we were making our way over there when it started to rain. We had seen the dark clouds looming, but were hoping it would pass. We pulled out the ponchos and umbrella and Dan and McQueen put on the ponchos and Mater and I used the umbrella. We got over to Buzz and got the FPs, had only about a 30 minute wait. By now the rain was really coming down so we decided to go over to Stitchs Escape since it was indoors and would use up some of our wait time. We only waited a few minutes to get in, and since the rain was really coming down we were in no huge hurry. None of us particularly loved the attraction, but it kept us dry during the downpour (and somewhat entertained, the kids got a bit scared in the dark and we had to explain what was happening), and once we got out of that it was time for Buzz! So we ducked back across the way and got into the FP line and soon we were up there and ready to ride. I took a quick picture of the boys by Buzz but they didn’t turn out too great since we were trying to hurry.

It was a FUN ride and we all loved it, McQueen loved spinning our ship around and Dan loved shooting the targets. I wasn’t too good at it but it was definitely a fun ride.

It was still raining pretty hard when we got done, so we got out our umbrella and ponchos and walked over to Carousel of Progress, which we were able to walk right in with no wait and it started right away. Dan and I were somewhat entertained, the kids were a bit bored, but again it was something to avoid the rain (and cool off) and I’m glad we saw it since it is “a classic”. Once done here, we discovered the rain had stopped!!! Whooo-Hoo!

So from here we decided to go over to Space Mountain and see if Mater was tall enough. I had not really read much about this ride, kind of assumed we would not do it, so all I knew was that it was an indoor coaster. That was all I knew. We measured Mater and he as tall enough (and he was SO excited that he was tall enough), so we got a couple FPs for about an hour later.

From here we went back to the TL Speedway, since the boys REALLY wanted to do this ride. We waited about 20 minutes in line but they were so occupied watching the race cars that the time went really fast. Once we got up there, McQueen and Dan rode together, and Mater and I did. McQueen got to steer his car while Dan worked the gas, and Mater helped me steer.

They LOVED driving their racecars and had a complete blast. It was beginning to rain again and we had some time before our FP time for Space Mountain, so we decided to go jump on the PeopleMover. Waited about 10 minutes to get on, and had a nice, relaxing ride. Dan and I even got to sit together on this one! And the boys sat together so nicely I was able to get a great picture!

It was a decent ride and we were glad to be on it since the rain was coming down again. Once done we had about 10 minutes before Space Mountain, so we let the boys play in the water with this big marble ball that spins (I don’t know what it’s called or if it has a name), but they were wet already anyway and it was good entertainment, they had fun, and it was just sprinkling now.

We then headed over to Space Mountain with our Fastpasses, and got right to the front of the line! Here Dan proclaimed “I love Fastpasses! It had a long line so it was really nice to able to breeze right past it. I was a little nervous about this one – the kids first big coaster. And I didn’t know that each person sat alone – that we sat in a row, and not side by side. I’ll say now that it would have been good for me to know this. So we loaded into our rockets - McQueen was first, then me, than Mater, and then Dan was in the car right behind us. McQueen was a little scared going into this one but I told him it would be good, he would like it, etc. So it started and it was pretty good. About half way through McQueen started yelling that he didn’t like this one and I was able to reach my hand over and feel his head – tried to comfort him a bit. It did get quite jerky and a lot of steep drops and I started worrying about Mater behind me, if he was okay…I had this image of him flying out of his seat or snapping his neck! (I later found out that Dan was worrying about him too). It is a completely dark ride so as soon as we got to some light I quickly turned to see if Mater was okay and we was just sitting there with a surprised look on his face. “That scared me!” was all he said, and then he started grinning. I was so relieved he was not upset. We got off and McQueen was a little shaken, a little teary. I hugged him and told him we were proud of him for being brave, and this probably wasn’t the best coaster to do first since it was all dark and scarier than the others. After a minute he was okay, and we walked out front and he gave me a big “thumbs up” for a picture in front of Space Mountain – he had done his first coaster, although he didn’t like it too much…better ones were yet to come. I felt bad for not knowing that each person sat alone, I think if he would have had someone next to him he would have been fine. Mater, however, loved it and declared Space Mountain his favorite ride! (This was the second glimpse of our thrill-seeking boy.)

We left SM we decided it was a good time for some ice cream (that would cheer everyone right back up)! Dan and I got smoothies from Auntie Annies and the boys got their first Mickey Bars! We got a nice table and all relaxed and enjoyed our treat! The boys bars were completely messy and they were both a mess of drippy, melty ice cream and chocolate within seconds!

But they loved them and they had to have a Mickey Bar in Disney World! Mater’s bar fell apart toward the end and a big chunk of ice cream fell down his neck and almost down his shirt. He of course screamed and it was hilarious, we all laughed and I snapped a cute picture before helping him grab it.

After Ice Cream everyone was happy again!

After stopping in the bathroom to wash up, we made our way up front to the Castle to watch the Dream Along with Mickey stage show that was coming up – we had about 15 minutes to wait so we sat and got a spot up front by the castle. Dan waited with the boys while I went into the hub to take some pictures of the character statues there, they are so cute.

Once the show started we all had to stand, and Mater couldn’t see very well so Dan and I took turns holding him – it was hot and he was heavy and getting a bit tired and cranky, it was almost 4:30pm by now. We watched the show, it was cute, and it was really the first time we saw any characters. (We saw Buzz earlier in the day in Tomorrowland but didn’t wait in line to see him since it was raining so hard). We all enjoyed the show though, very cute.

After the show we started making our way up Main St and the boys heard the train whistle and asked if we could do the train before we left, so we went up to the train station and there was practically no line, so we waited like 2-3 minutes and the train was there! We hopped on and rode a loop around the whole park. Back at the station, we took a few pictures and decided it was time to go, it was almost 5:30pm by now and it had been a long, but very fun and successful day.

In the afternoon we saw/rode:
*Stitches Great Escape
*Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
*Carousel of Progress
*Tomorrowland Speedway
*PeopleMover
*Space Mountain
*Dream Along with Mickey
*WDW Railroad

Dark clouds were again moving in and once on the bus, it began raining again, and by the time we got back to the hotel it was raining quite heavily. We stopped for dinner at the food court before heading back to our room. I got a really good turkey flatbread sandwich and chips, Dan got a cheesesteak wrap, and the boys got hot dogs. We walked through the arcade to take a look in there, and did a little shopping in the store Dan and I got coffee mugs and the boys each picked out a toy – Mater got the set of 3 busses and McQueen got the Disney semi. They were thrilled that they got new toys and they played with them all night. Once settled back in our room it was after 7:00pm, we cleaned up and got the kids ready for bed, and they were asleep by about 9pm.

Even though it rained quite a bit this afternoon/evening, we still had a great day. So many things went right for us today:

*Transportation was wonderful – no waits for anything, busses were right there and super fast.
*Even though we missed Rope Drop we got to see everything in Fantasyland in 2 hours in the morning – some things we were even able to ride twice. We also rode everything in Tomorrowland that we wanted to. We didn’t get on Astro Orbiter which would have been fun, but that is the only thing we missed that I had kind of wanted to go on.
*Even though it was very hot and very humid, everyone did really well and we drank lots of water and never really tired out or didn’t feel well. There was a great balance of outside rides and inside rides where you could cool off and get a nice break from the heat.
*Mater walked the entire way! He never once asked for someone to carry him OR complained that his legs were tired. Not once did we hear “Walkings Tough!” (This luck would only last a few more days though.)
*Only had 1 emergency bathroom break and that was right at the end of the day. All of the rest were planned bathroom breaks and we didn’t have to cut out of any lines to run to the restroom!
*We had hardly any wait for the rides or shows! We were in within a couple of minutes on almost everything.
*Fastpasses worked awesome! Completely love that system!
*McQueen and Dan were good sports and wore their ponchos so Mater and I could use the umbrella – they did stay nice and dry under them!
*We all had a lot of fun!!! With the exception of Space Mountain, everyone really liked all of the rides (well, except for maybe Stitch!)

Up Next: Day 3: Magic Kingdom - Adventureland, Frontierland, and Liberty Square. Would we make Rope Drop on our last MK morning? And our Suprise Character Meet!

 

[IATink]

Just found your trip report today. Love all your pics! You really captured the boys' emotions. Can't wait to read more.

 

[emmysmommy]

I'm enjoying your TR with all of your fantastic photos! You really have some great photos of your trip and your boys are adorable.

We toughed out some thunderstorms as well during our recent trip but being from CA we were excited to see the weather that we rarely see where we live!

I'm looking forward to more of your review!

 

[natebenma]

Another great update. Sounds like you made the best with the rain, zigging and zagging with different rides so you could avoid getting wet.

We love the PeopleMover too- what a nice, simple peaceful ride, great overview and picture opportunities of Tomorrowland.

I'm curious about whether you ever got back to do Astro-orbitors. I tried that ride for the first time last year and got really nauseas when it was over. Needed to rush for a Cappuccino Smoothie to make me feel better. But you were able to do the tea cups, so maybe that would not be a bad ride for you.

The ice cream spill photo is definitely a keeper!!!

 

[martinolichfamily]

Great update Karen!

Sounds like yall had a full day!! So fun!!

Cant wait to hear about and see pics of the character meets!!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Just found your trip report today. Love all your pics! You really captured the boys' emotions. Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for joining! Glad you found me! Thanks for the compliments on the pictures, I love taking pictures and I'm sure my family was sick of me constantly having the camera in their faces! But now that it's over and we're home we all love having so many pictures to look at!

I'm enjoying your TR with all of your fantastic photos! You really have some great photos of your trip and your boys are adorable.

We toughed out some thunderstorms as well during our recent trip but being from CA we were excited to see the weather that we rarely see where we live!

I'm looking forward to more of your review!

Hi Brenda! Thanks for joining! Thanks too for the compliments on the boys -they do have 2 sweet little faces!

We did end up having quite a bit of rain some days, then a few days with very little. One evening we had a thunderstorm but it wasn't too bad - looked horrible rolling (we watched teh radar to see how bad it was going to be) but wasn't that bad at all.

Another great update. Sounds like you made the best with the rain, zigging and zagging with different rides so you could avoid getting wet.

We love the PeopleMover too- what a nice, simple peaceful ride, great overview and picture opportunities of Tomorrowland.

I'm curious about whether you ever got back to do Astro-orbitors. I tried that ride for the first time last year and got really nauseas when it was over. Needed to rush for a Cappuccino Smoothie to make me feel better. But you were able to do the tea cups, so maybe that would not be a bad ride for you.

The ice cream spill photo is definitely a keeper!!!

Thanks Dee! We did our best to stay dry, I think we were all a little wet but no one complained since it was so hot you really didn't mind getting a little wet!

Peoplemover was nice - it was relaxing and I too got some nice photos of TL and the castle while we were on that.

The ice cream photo was funny, I'm glad I had my camera right there to take the picture - he's so dramatic I had to capture it!

I loved that cappuccino smoothie! Wanted another one but we never made it back to TL. And we never did ride Astro Oribter either.

 

[Charlefours]

I'm glad McQueen is doing better and able to get to school.

Sweet pictures from Dumbo! The look on Mater's face is priceless. Your sure did get a lot done in 2 hours in FL and the afternoon!!

for a great first full day at Disney!!

 

[jillianml]

We went on our 1st trip in June and we were sooo hot as well.We couldnt drink the water out of the fountains it tasted like sulfer!

 

[karebear23]

Hi! I'm joining in! Looks like a great start to a 1st trip ! Your pictures are great!
Sorry space mountain was a bit scary! So glad he wasn't upset after the ride.
I can't wait to see what happens next!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Great update Karen!

Sounds like yall had a full day!! So fun!!

Cant wait to hear about and see pics of the character meets!!

Thanks Heather! It was such a a fun day - honestly it was probably our best day - all the days were great but this one will always be the special day of firsts!

I'm glad McQueen is doing better and able to get to school.

Sweet pictures from Dumbo! The look on Mater's face is priceless. Your sure did get a lot done in 2 hours in FL and the afternoon!!

for a great first full day at Disney!!

Thanks Stephanie! McQueen is doing well, almost back to 100% - had a small breakout of hives over the weekend from the meds, but he's doing great - he's such a trooper, he never complains about any of it.

I just loved watching their faces on the rides, glad I was able to capture a couple picutes of it!

We went on our 1st trip in June and we were sooo hot as well.We couldnt drink the water out of the fountains it tasted like sulfer!

Yeah some of the water was bad, others was okay. We ended up using a lot of snack credits to buy bottles of water, which was fine because we had a lot. One of the parks, I think it was AK, we thought had pretty decent water, but the trick was finding the fountain that was cold - sometimes only 1 of the 2 right next to each other would have cold water - we quickly learned to always check both and see which was colder!

Hi! I'm joining in! Looks like a great start to a 1st trip ! Your pictures are great!
Sorry space mountain was a bit scary! So glad he wasn't upset after the ride.
I can't wait to see what happens next!

Thanks for joining in! It was a great start - an incredible first day! I feel like I've written so much already and I've only coverd the first 2 days! Much much more to come!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Day 3: Magic Kingdom - the other half! Adventureland, Frontierland and Liberty Square

We woke about 6:30am and got up and started getting ready, we wanted to be out to the buses by 8:15 or so…I was determined to make it to rope drop this time!! We ate a quick snack in our room, and then headed over to the bus stop, and within a few minutes we were on a bus over to MK. I was so happy we were going to make it!!!! Once there, we had about 20 minutes before the park opened, so we were able to do a few PhotoPass pictures and take some pictures before the opening show began.

We found a spot for the boys to sit on the wall out front -we weren't sure if this was "allowed" but we saw a lot of other people doing it so we did too. We watched the show from there – it was really cute and the kids loved seeing the characters arrive on the train. It was a fun and very “magical” way to start the day. I have to admit I really loved it, I even teared up a little bit...I'm such a dork I know!

Once MK opened, we went right over to Main Street Bakery and got some breakfast, the boys all had a chocolate croissant, while I had a cheese danish. We really wanted a giant cinnamon roll but decided to behave ourselves and get something a little less....enormous.

After we were done, we did a few more pictures on Main St and then headed over to Adventureland! We were excited to be heading to a new part of the park - something we had not yet seen!

First up was the Magic Carpets of Aladdin!

We basically walked right on, and as we were walking in, Aladdin and Jasmine were right there and Aladdin asked if he could ride with us. So he got into the car with Dan and Mater, and McQueen and I rode right behind! It was very cute and Mater seemed to have a really good time! (I don’t know why I didn’t think of it at the time, but I wish I would have had the 2 kids ride along with him and Dan and I in the carpet behind! I just wasn't thinking clearly at the time!)

After the ride, Aladdin asked if we wanted a picture and we also asked if we could do autographs, so they walked us over to their spot and signed the books and did pictures with the boys. Mater didn’t want to go stand up there, so he didn’t. The were both a little shy - this was really their first character interaction and they didn't really know who Aladdin and Jasmine were - they had not seen the movie. But it went well overall and it was pretty special that they choose us to ride with and be first for pictures and autographs that day.

After that we walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean and rode that – again no wait, we walked right on. At first they boys thought it might be a little scary (and I was worried about getting wet) but after a minute they realized it was not scary and they seemed to enjoy it.

After POTC we walked over and got Fastpasses for Jungle Cruise, we had about 40 minutes to spare so we walked through the Swiss Family Treehouse and the kids really liked that. I knew the boys would like to just climb around and explore, and we were basically the only people in there so we took our time....a few other people came through and we just moved over so they could pass us, we knew we were going slow and taking it at the kids pace. It was fun and I'm glad we did it.

Once through that we still had some time before JC so we went to see the Tiki Room, which was cute and silly – luckily both of my kids really like birds! And Mater loves the Lion King so he liked seeing Zazu. At least it was cool in there and we filled the time for before heading over to JC!

We went over to the Jungle Cruise and walked in with our fastpasses and got right on a boat! We had a hilarious tour guide which made all of the really lame jokes really quite funny….Dan and I laughed a lot on that ride. We were at the back of the boat which was really nice, we had the whole back to ourselves! The whole time the boys kept asking if all of the animals were real, and we kept telling them no, that they were pretend. Then the next animal they saw they would ask again! This repeated itself about 10 times!!! It was a fun ride and I’m glad we did it...the jokes were so bad but our guide had that dry, sarcastic personality and tone in his voice that made it just hilarious.

We had now finished up everything we wanted to see in Adventureland, and decided it was time to go get Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain – McQueen had been waiting for this ride!!

We walked over to Frontierland and watched the boats come down Splash Mountain and decided we didn’t really want to do that and be wet all day, so we went to Big Thunder Mountain and I got Fastpasses right away for that – we had about an hour wait. After looking around a bit deciding to go over to Tom Sawyer Island, I noticed that the wait time to BTM was reading 10 minutes (I didn't look at it earlier since I just assumed it would be a long wait so I jsut got the FPs), so we quickly backtracked and went onto that right away! I couldn’t believe it was only 10 minutes, but we literally walked right on! Toward the end there was some line, but they were allowing people to use the FP line and so they let us into that aisle and walked right on. McQueen was nervous going into it but he knew it would be fun, and as soon as we went down our first drop and curve he was loving it! He had a huge smile on his face the entire time and kept screaming "This is awesome!!" I was so happy that he liked it! Mater loved it as well and wanted to go right back on, but we decided to go to lunch first them come back and use our fastpasses to ride again.

This time McQueen went back out from of the ride and gave me a great big double-thumbs up!

We ate lunch at Pecos Bills and it was pretty good, although it was very busy and loud in there which really surprised me since it was only about 11:20am and I didn’t expect it to be so busy. But we ate and it was decent, Dan got a BBQ pork and I got a chicken wrap, the boys got burgers. After finishing up we headed right back to BTMRR and walked right back on with our Fastpasses! Did another ride and love it just as much!

Once finished with BTMRR, we stopped in to do Country Bear Jamboree, which I was really surprised how boring it was. I expected it to be a little slow but was really surprised, I thought they at least did Zippity-do-dah or some upbeat song, but all of the songs were very slow and almost depressing. Mater started falling asleep, and McQueen tolerated it, he at least was occupied watching the bears. Dan looked at me like "how much longer must I endure this???" I have to say I was really disappointed, I didn’t expect it to be super thrilling or anything, but I just thought all of the songs were so slow and sleepy.

From here we headed to Liberty Square, we looked around a little bit then went over to the Haunted Mansion to see how long with wait was. The sign said 10 minutes so we quickly jumped in line and headed to the queue.

Once there we got right into the first couple of staging rooms, then there was about a 10 minute delay, something not working with the ride. There wasn't any announcement or anything, so we didn't really know if it was normal or not to be waiting. So we waited it out (we thought about leaving and come people were cutting out the exits) and within a couple more minutes they got it running again and we got on a seat. Initially both boys were scared, they did not like the staging rooms but once inside they liked the ride itself.

We headed back onto Main St USA, did a little shopping, did a few more pictures and then decided to head out.

It was about 2:30pm and we all were hot, tired, and ready to go jump in the pool. I really wanted to stay for the 3:00pm Dreams parade, but everyone else was ready to go, we were all feeling kinda wiped out at this point, and we had planned to be back later that night for Electrical parade and Wishes. On our bus ride back it started to rain, but then stopped by the time we got back, so we were still able to do to the pool. We all got changed and we went over to the main pool at Pop, the hippy-dippy pool. We took the kids in the kiddle/sprinkler pool first, which they loved, and then we all went in the main pool.

It was fun and we swam around for a little while, and then decided to head back to the room since it was looking pretty dark and like storms were coming. We made it back just in time – the rain started again! After getting cleaned up, we went back to the food court for some dinner – had to use our ponchos and umbrellas to get over there in the rain, but it was fine and we all stayed dry. We all had a good dinner – all got sandwiches from the flatbread oven place, the kids and I got turkey and Dan got tuna – they were all very good.

Once dinner was over, the rain had stopped and we were really debating about trying to see Wishes and Main St Electrical parade that night. We had been planning to see them, but Mater seemed like he was coming down with a cold throughout the day and I wanted to try to get him to sleep a bit before we left. Once we got back to the room we got him to sleep and we all rested a bit, but when it came time to wake him up he didn’t seem like he wasn't doing too well, very tired, groggy, and now coughing quite a bit. So we decided to stay back and put him back to bed and let him rest. McQueen went to sleep shortly after.

I was really sad and disappointed that we didn’t get to see Wishes and MSEP that night, but we planned to go over to it another night. I never thought that the kids would get sick on this trip, and we didn’t bring any cold meds or anything along, so we were hoping some rest and lots of fluids helps Mater. He was up coughing quite a bit throughout the night, and I was really unsure if we were going to be able to do the character breakfast we had a reservation for the next morning. I cannot tell you the sense of dread I had over me at this point thinking okay, are we going to have to spend the next 7 days sitting in this room with sick kids? And my biggest fear was if McQueen caught it and started getting sick, with his asthma things can escalate quickly into an ER visit. (Luckily he didn’t catch it down there, he started coughing the day we got home and was sick last week from it, but we were so lucky he didn’t get sick on the trip).

We again had such a good day and had so many things go well today:
*Wait times – we had SUCH little wait even for the big rides, especially Big Thunder Mountain. I couldn’t believe we got on twice with virtually no wait. Also Haunted Mansion and Pirates.
*Character meeting – it was so cool that we got to see Aladdin, even though my kids didn’t really know who he was, they have not seen the movie! But they seemed to enjoy it and I’m glad they go to meet some characters today and get their first autographs.
*Transportation was again spectacular
*Pool time – it was fun with the kids in the pool today. McQueen was a little scared (he's never really liked swimming) but seemed to get his courage up and go a little further and do more the longer we stayed out. It was just fun and nice to swim and relax.
*McQueens first coaster ride he liked! After Space Mtn yesterday didn’t go so well, I was so happy he liked this one and wanted to do it again. He had a blast and I’m glad it was a good experience for him.
*Breakfast at Main St Bakery was really fun and really good! Glad we did it.

Today we rode/saw:
*Magic Carpets of Aladdin
*Pirates of the Caribbean
*Swiss Family Tree House
*Jungle Cruise
*Tiki Room
*Haunted Mansion
*Country Bear Jamboree
*Big Thunder Mountain x 2

Next Update: Our first non-park day! Will we do our Character Breakfast or will Mater be too sick?

 

[karebear23]

So neat Aladdin rode with you!
Sorry your little guy got sick...thats the worst being sick on vacation!
Esp at Disney!! I hope you got to see the parade & fireworks later on!!

Glad they like BTMRR! My DD just rode it for the 1st time and loved it too!

Your right Country Bears does have a lot of slow songs...never really thought of that...but at least you know now!

Looks like overall a good day!