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

[MommyMcQueen]

Day 9: Epcot Afternoon

When I left off were had finished up lunch and we heading out into the WS for the afternoon! We started out in Canada, found the Kidcot stop and did that first, we only had a few more countries in the kids passports to finish up and needed to get them all done today!

After that we walked around and did a few pictures, and Dan stopped to get a beer. We then walked through the store and then walked over to the UK.

In the UK there were some street performers (comedians) performing, we stopped for just a minute to watch then headed off to find the Kidcot stop and we were looking for a baseball hat for Mater, since he forgot to bring one along today and we wanted to buy one for him anyway.

After we did the kidcot stop, we shopped around and did end up finding him a cute Mickey hat (that we had seen in just about every store), so we got that for him. He was very happy with his "mickey hat", even though it is a little big on him!

Then it was time to go over to France, where after doing the Kidcot stop, we stopped in at the bakery and got a snack since I had read such great things about the bakery and it was a good time for a snack!

Dan and Mater got chocolate éclairs, McQueen got some chocolate mousse, and I got a chocolate chip croissant and an iced cappuccino. It was really good and it was fun to sit and enjoy the atmosphere of another country, like we did with Germany the day before. The kids loved their treats and we were all stuffed by the time we got done – very rich and filling!

From here we went to Morocco, were we didn’t really spend much time, just did the Kidcot stop, looked around the shops, and did a few pictures. Japan was next where we did about the same, the kids enjoyed watching the fish in Japan.

We had then finished up all of the countries and finished up the kids Passport booklets. We decided to continue around the circle which would take us back through the ones we did yesterday. We had to stop in Germany again since the kids wanted to look at the miniature village and train set again, so Dan and I sat and rested while the boys ran around the looked at that. We again had to drag them out of there, they wanted to stay and look but we spent about 15 minutes there so it was time to move on.

As we passed Norway we decided to ride Maelstrom – since it only had a 10 minute wait (it had been like 30 minute wait the day before).

We hopped in line and rode that - it was pretty good, kids were a little scared about going over that waterfall! We finished up and we actually had a nice stroll through the WS today, better than the day before when Mater really didn’t want to walk, do the Kidcot stops, or do anything except go back to the hotel. So it was nice to finish it up on a positive note and have a nice time there.

After WS we walked back over to.......Test Track! The boys had been asking all day if we could ride it again, so we went to get Fastpasses! I was suprised to see the time on the passes was for after 5:00pm, we had almost 3hours until we could ride!

We had 2 choices of that to do at this point. We had been thinking at one point to try to do Illuminations that night, so we could head back to the hotel and rest a while and them come back later. Or we could stay and check out some of the other building we had not seen yet - Innoventions and Imagination. So what did we do?

Up Next: Should we stay or should we go??? Will we see Illuminations on our last night?

 

[heaven2dc]

I hope you get to see Illuminations on your last night It is one of the first things I want to see when we arrrive and usually Wishes on our last night. Loved Mater's baseball cap (he looks so cute in it!)

 

[martinolichfamily]

Thanks Heather! Yeah, not sure how much of a DL is reality yet! I checked out some pricing for next summer and was a bit suprised - seemed like 4 days in DL will cost about the same as our 10 days in WDW! We'll see, maybe I was looking at it wrong. Lots of time to watch and plan!



Karen

It is so much more $$ to go to DL than DW....I think thats why we have yet to make it to DL...you can stay for longer at DW for better prices! Strange I think since DL is a smaller park!

 

[Purpleblanket]

Hi Karen

I hope to find out that you did illuminations! That would be a great way to end your trip!

Debbie

 

[MommyMcQueen]

I hope you get to see Illuminations on your last night It is one of the first things I want to see when we arrrive and usually Wishes on our last night. Loved Mater's baseball cap (he looks so cute in it!)

Hi Karen

I hope to find out that you did illuminations! That would be a great way to end your trip!

Debbie

I had really been wanting to do Illuminations on our last night too! I was really looking forward to it!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Epcot Day 2: Afternoon

So, after picking up our FPs for Test Track, we decided to stay at Epcot and head over to the Innoventions buildings. Dan and I did talk a little bit about trying ot see Illuminations and we didn't rule it out, but we also didn't want to go back to the hotel at this point - we figured we'd just stay and see if we we could make it until evening, or we'd just head back when we wanted to leave. So to Innoventions we went and walked through those building and did the activities we could, that didn’t have too long of a wait.

We first went to the Waste Management activity – it was pretty cool and the kids loved pushing their little garbage truck around! I was glad we took the time to do that one, it was a lot of fun.

We also spent some time in the Test lab, did the little safety movie they do and spent some time doing a couple of the hands-on activities – McQueen liked the TV glass smash and the barrel drop.

We also stopped over by the segway exhibit and Dan took a try on one of those! The kids played video games while they waited for dad!

After Innoventions we decided it was time for a snack, we still had about an hour until our fastpass time, so we went out and found some ice cream! Dan and the kids got sundaes and I got an iced mocha. We found a bench to sit on and enjoyed our ice cream by the lake.

The sundaes instantly melted, and I ran back to get some straws for he boys, they drank most of their sundaes instead of using their spoons – every bite was dripping vanilla ice cream all over them!

Then made our way to Test Track, stopping at a couple of shops along the way to look for a t-shirt for McQueen. We ended up finding one and got it for him, then went to Test Track and rode it for the 3rd time. It was good, the boys really loved it, and we let them pick out one last toy at the gift shop there before leaving – Test Track would be our last ride in Disney World!

After exiting the gift shop, Dan was waiting for us and I could tell he was ready to leave by his expression:

It meant this:

So, even though it was 6:00pm and we only had 3 hours until Illuminations, I knew he didn't want to stay and he was ready to head out. I didn't really fight the decision, I was beat myself and didn't know what we would do to fill the next couple hours if we did stay. It had been a long day but overall a very good day. So we made our way to the front of the park, did a couple last pictures by the golf ball:

We went to the bathrooms one last time, then made our way out to the bus stop. It was beginning to sprinkle and by the time we got to the bus stop it was raining fairly hard. It was a long wait for a bus to get back, about the longest wait we’d had. But we got back about 6:45pm and no one was really hungry, so we went back to our room. It was raining hard yet so on went the ponchos and umbrella, and we trekked back to our room – all of us getting our shoes pretty well soaked in the process.

Once back in out room, the kids wanted to play with their new toys and Dan relaxed on the bed for a while, he was pretty wiped out from the day. I began working on packing and getting organized for going home, packed everything I could and found out what we needed to do for tomorrow to check out bags at the resort. The kids stayed up and played until about 9pm, then we got them ready for bed and they dosed off quickly, it had been a busy and tiring last 2 days. It did end up raining all night so I don't know if they did Illuminations in the rain, but in the end it was okay that we didn't stay due to the weather anyway.

Rides/Attractions done today:
*Soarin’ x 2
*Seas with Nemo, Turtle talk, Aquarium
*Test Track
*Canada
*UK
*France
*Morocco
*Japan
*Maelstrom – Norway
*Innoventions buildings

Today highlights:
*We had great weather today – no rain until right when we were leaving – we almost made another day with no rain. Even though we did get wet it was fine – didn’t interfere with our day and we were leaving the park when it started.
*Mater walked without hardly any complaining! He did one or 2 times say his usual “walkings tough” but he did really well walking today (much better than yesterday) and it was so nice to not have him moaping and whining all day (like yesterday).
*Finished up the kids Passports – I was happy to get them done and looking forward to putting in the rest of their stamps – I think they enjoyed doing them and gave them something to look forward to in each country.
*Soarin’ was a fun ride – very cool and we all really liked it.
*Good lunch again at the Seasons – love the variety and healthier options of that place.
*The day seemed to go very slow today, which was nice because we didn’t feel at all rushed and we could take all the time we wanted for stuff. It was nice to slow down and just do whatever, whenever. It was a good way to spend out last day.

Up Next: Packing up and heading home & last ride on "Mickey's Bus"

 

[wdwgirl03]

Oh no, next is packing already?!

Looks like you had fun at Innoventions and got a lot done again. Woo hoo!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Oh no, next is packing already?!

Looks like you had fun at Innoventions and got a lot done again. Woo hoo!

I know!!! It came way too fast!!!

Innoventions was fun though, I'm glad we took some time to go there and check it out!

 

[mickeystoontown]

It certainly looks like you guys had a good time in the Innoventions building. There are a lot of really cool things to do but we always seem to forget to stop in.

Too bad you were too tired to see Illuminations. Maybe next trip.

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Day 10: Travel Home

We were all awaken this morning about 6:45am with Mater telling McQueen to give him some blankets! He was not particularly quiet about it! Once we all were up, we all showered and got ready, and continued packing and cleaning up our room. The plan for the morning was to just get some breakfast and relax at the hotel, we were headind out about 1:00pm. The kids watched Disney channel cartoons again and played with their new toys. About 8:30am we headed over to the food court to get some breakfast. We all got a nice, big breakfast – Dan got the Bounty Platter again, I got a sausage croissant which came with potatoes, and the kids got Mickey waffles, with sausage and bacon.

After breakfast, Dan took the boys in to the arcade and I shopped for a few minutes in the store – I picked up a picture frame and a scrapbook kit. When I met up them in the arcade, we scanned our arcade voucher and found out that most of the games were free today, since they were having technical difficulties with their systems. So the boys played a bunch of racing and driving games, and Dan and I even played Mario Kart. We spent almost an hour in the arcade, since the games were free and we had some free time before we needed to head back to finish packing up. We all had fun and it was a great way to spend some of our extra time that morning.

After the arcade, we went out to take a walk around the grounds, there were a lot of areas of the resort we had not been to. We did some pictures along the way and went back by the lake and walked along the trail.

We then walked bback to our hotel building and began packing up the rest of our stuff. The packing went pretty quickly, and we were done by about 11:30am.

We didn’t have to leave for the magical express until 1:45pm, so we decided to take the bags over to the ME check-in, then get some lunch and use up our last meal and snack credits. Lugging all of the bags over was quite a task – they were pretty heavy and we were pretty far away, but we got them there and the attendants took them and did the airline check-in for us.

Once we were free of bags, we went into the food court, found a big booth with a good view of the TVs, and loaded in all our carry-ons and had a seat. I ran up with Mater and got the kids meals – a hot dog meal for McQueen and a cheese pizza meal for Mater. Dan ran up to get our food – we both got sandwiches from the sandwich shop – tuna for him and turkey for me. They were both really good and it was a good lunch. For dessert I got the tie-dyed cheese cake which was delicious!

We hung out there for a while, kids watched the TVs and we just waited, since we had some extra time. The boys and I went and used up our 7 remaining snack credits picking out candy and snacks to take home.

After that we cleaned up in the bathrooms and then made our way out to the bus stop, taking more pictures along the way.

We waited about 15 minutes out at the bus stop. It was warm but comfortable waiting for the Magical Express, and the boys liked watching all of the busses come and go – plus I got some cute pictures.

The bus came right on time and we were the first to load up – we grabbed our seats and soon were heading off to the airport. There were no other resort stops along the way, so it was about a 20 minute ride to get the airport. During the drive I could see the main Walt Disney World sign approaching and it was quite bittersweet to pass back under the sign – we were officially leaving Disney World! Although Dan and I were ready to go home, it was still sad to leave. I sat by McQueen on the ride, and both Mater and him were looking out the window, sitting pretty quietly, I think they were both sad to leave.

McQueen said he was going to miss Disney World. We got the airport quickly, and since we didn’t have to check out bags, we stopped at the Disney store there, and then went to go through security. It went well, pretty fast even though there was a long line, and once on the other side we hopped the tram to take us out to the terminal. We had about a 2 hour wait for our flight, which was quite eventful - one event which I'll elaborate on here as the worst moment of the trip and takes rank as one of my worst moments as a parent. Here is what happened:

We were sitting about 10 seats in from the windows. It was VERY busy there, just packed with people everywhere. We had been there about 45 minutes, the kids were getting bored sitting in their seats and wanted to go up by the windows to look at the planes. So I let them go down the aisle and look. Dan decided to run to the bathroom so he was gone a few minutes, then he came back. Boys were occupied watching the planes, so Dan and I talked a minute, he was going to run and get something to drink, so off he went again. McQueen comes back to our seat and I look around for a second and think "where's Mater?" Then I think "did he go with Dan?" I didn't think he went with Dan. So I fly out of my seat and start frantically scanning the huge concourse for him. First I tell McQueen to come with me, but then realize I can't leave all 4 of our bags there unattentded, so I tell him to stay right there, not move. By this time I'm completely panicking and run out into the main hall of the concourse and start scanning again, looking down the hall to see if anyone is walking away with him. You know those scenes in movies where everything spins around a person in a flash - that is what I felt like. I'm pretty close to the airline desk and I'm about to run there to tell them I've lost my child, and then I see him walking toward me crying. I ran to him and scooped him up and he's crying "I lost you". Inside I was completely hysterical but tried to appear calm, I couldn't believe that I lost track on him in an airport of all places! Guess I got the World's Worst Parent Award this year. We went and sat back down in our seats, amind tons of stares and glares and judgemental faces who had seen what happened - I'm sure they were thinking what a bad mom I was, losing my own child. I asked him what happened, where he was and he said he wanted to see the planes over there and went a different window to watch the planes and then he lost us. He must have walked down a different aisle of seats and that got him back to the center walkway where I found him. After Dan got back we moved to different seats closer to our gate, I wanted to move away from everyone staring at me (seriously, people were staring, whispering to each other, looking back at me and shaking their heads) and so we found a spot that was a little less crowded and right by the windows to the kids could watch.

The rest of the wait I sat pretty quietly, I felt really horrible and was really ready to be home. My mind was flooded with the "what-if's" and I was just fighting back tears the entire wait. I didn't let myself break down even though I really wanted to, I didn want the kids to be upset, they happily played with their toys the rest of the wait and had one of their treats from the Pop store.

Finally it was time to board the plane and we were able to all board with their Family Boarding, which was great since we could all sit together. We were in very early B group so we probaly would have gotten seats together anyway, but we used Family Boarding instead. The flight home was good, kids were really good and they enjoyed the flight. We arrived back in Milwaukee about 6:20pm. It took a while to get our bags, and get a tram out to the parking lot where we were, but we made it and it all went pretty smoothly.

We got on the road about 7:30pm and we on our way home! The boys fell asleep about 30 minutes into the ride home! We got home about 10:00pm, and Dan unloaded the truck as I carried in the boys and got them in bed. After getting the boys to bed, I unpacked the suitcases and made piles of laundry to do the next day, and looked at some of our souvenirs. It was hard to believe our trip was over – but it was...we were home.

Up Next: Disney Loot: Our Souvenirs!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I just have to post on Mater getting lost and you thinking you were the worst parent in the world. You definitely ARE NOT! I can tell from your trip report that you always keep an eye on your kids. That was just one of "those" moments.

Now, back to the other stuff. What a bonus that you got to play the games in the arcade for free. I'm sure you were all happy about that!

The pictures you took of the resort are great! It's good that you were able to take a little time and explore Pop.

I hate that your Disney trip has ended. Any idea when you might be heading back?

 

[MommyMcQueen]

I just have to post on Mater getting lost and you thinking you were the worst parent in the world. You definitely ARE NOT! I can tell from your trip report that you always keep an eye on your kids. That was just one of "those" moments.

Now, back to the other stuff. What a bonus that you got to play the games in the arcade for free. I'm sure you were all happy about that!

The pictures you took of the resort are great! It's good that you were able to take a little time and explore Pop.

I hate that your Disney trip has ended. Any idea when you might be heading back?

Thank you so much for your kind words! I know I'm really not the worst parent ever, thats just how you feel at the time when these things happen. Its funny, I haven't thought too much about that event until I wrote about it this morning, and it's like all those emotions come right back and you relive it when you tell people about it. We were so lucky nothing worse happened.

I couldn't believe the arcade was free! We got to play WAY more games that we ever would have if we had to pay for them all! I couldn't believe that we had been there 10 days and not walked around the grounds much - just the trails between our building and the main building and pool. It was nice to see the lake and the trail along there - wish we would have had more time to see the other half of the resort and buildings!

As for heading back, I don't know. I know we all want to go back, we've talked about going back in a few years. We've talked about Disneyland too, so I don't know. I know we will go back, just a matter of when!

 

[Cinderaven]

Hi. All I can say is that you did a good job of planning, with 2 DS's, the weather etc... The pics were great also. Brings back lots of memories, wish We were there now. I'm glad to see you took your time with the kids. Our DS was 8 the 1st time, we did pretty much the same thing, steady and don't over push the kiddies.

We are going from Thanksgiving till the 10th of Dec. Driving from Green Bay. Time can't get here soon enough.

Len

 

[Purpleblanket]

Don't beat yourself up so much for losing track of mater for a few seconds.
It happens to the best of us!

I am so impressed how your family just went with the flow and got so much done. I hope that I can be as "go with the flow" as you when we go in December but I'm worried that my control tendencies will get the best of me - especially in the crowds!! lol

Great trip report!!

Debbie

 

[Cory's Gal]

Your last afternoon in Epcot looked so nice and relaxing Karen. Sorry you couldn't see Illuminations that night, but it's always nice just hanging out in the evenings too. Great pics of POP, I wish I would have taken more back in 2007 when we went, we never explored as much as I wanted to! (we did a ton of exploring this year at FQ though, lesson learned) A nice breakfast and arcade games always makes for good fun! BTW, YOU ARE NOT A BAD MOM, and shame on all those people for just sitting there and staring instead of being understanding and helpful. When I see someone looking for a child I always offer to help. I am glad your flight home went well and you all got to sit together!

So sad to see your TR coming to an end, but I can't wait to see all the souvenirs you bought!!!

 

[MommyMcQueen]

So sorry for the long delay in responding! Been a crazy week dealing with sick kids, Dan gone at a conference, and some medical issues of my own.

I just ordered my first 200 Disney pictures!!! I decided to do my Animal Kingdom pictures first, so they are on the way and I can start scrapbooking soon! I figures I'd start with a smaller park since we only spent 1 day there and I didn't take quite as many pictures there because of all of the rain. Can't wait to start scrapbooking!

Hi. All I can say is that you did a good job of planning, with 2 DS's, the weather etc... The pics were great also. Brings back lots of memories, wish We were there now. I'm glad to see you took your time with the kids. Our DS was 8 the 1st time, we did pretty much the same thing, steady and don't over push the kiddies.

We are going from Thanksgiving till the 10th of Dec. Driving from Green Bay. Time can't get here soon enough.

Len

Hello and Thanks! Hope you have a great Thanksgiving trip!!! We really did ahve a great trip - not everything eas always perfect all of the time and there were some frustrations, but overall it was wonderful and we all loved it. I know some days I tried to push on a little harder and get a few more thigns done, and some days it worked and other days the kids let me know that they were done! It was important to take some of it at their pace and let them enjoy things in their time and in their own way.

Don't beat yourself up so much for losing track of mater for a few seconds.
It happens to the best of us!

I am so impressed how your family just went with the flow and got so much done. I hope that I can be as "go with the flow" as you when we go in December but I'm worried that my control tendencies will get the best of me - especially in the crowds!! lol

Great trip report!!

Debbie

Thanks Debbie!!! Its so funny becuase honestly we're huge planners!!! I don't really feel like I'm a "go with the flow" person but during this trip we just were. It felt good to not be stressed about rushing from one thing to the next, or being upset if we missed something. When something didn't go quite according to my plan, I kept telling myself "it is what it is". No one else really knew that we were "missing" anything since they didn't really know the detailed plans anyway! It was easier for me to let it go instead of stress over it - I wish I could do that more at home!!

Your last afternoon in Epcot looked so nice and relaxing Karen. Sorry you couldn't see Illuminations that night, but it's always nice just hanging out in the evenings too. Great pics of POP, I wish I would have taken more back in 2007 when we went, we never explored as much as I wanted to! (we did a ton of exploring this year at FQ though, lesson learned) A nice breakfast and arcade games always makes for good fun! BTW, YOU ARE NOT A BAD MOM, and shame on all those people for just sitting there and staring instead of being understanding and helpful. When I see someone looking for a child I always offer to help. I am glad your flight home went well and you all got to sit together!

So sad to see your TR coming to an end, but I can't wait to see all the souvenirs you bought!!!

Thanks Beth!!! Epcot was fun, I was a bit disappointed that we missed Illuminations, but it was okay. I would not have wanted to sit in the rain anyway. And we did get to see Wishes, which was our #1 - had we missed them all then I would have been upset!

Pop is such a fun resort - and there was still so much we didn't even see! We never made it over to the 50's-60's sections there. But I was glad we got to walk around and see a little more. Its funny, looking back now I wish we had more pool time too!

Karen

 

[MommyMcQueen]

Souvenirs!!!

So we did buy a bunch of stuff, although I don’t think we went completely overboard! But being our first trip I knew we’d be buying some souvenirs. So here is what we all got:

We really try to keep everything fair and equal among the kids, so they each got to choose something when we shopped.

From Pop they got: Disney semi and Disney Busses:

Each got a Tshirt and a Hat:

Each got a toy at MK: Mater got Bolt and McQueen got a TT remote vehicle:

At Epcot the got TT playset and Disney vehicles set:

Dan and I each got some shirts and hats:
His:

Mine:

Dan and I got coffee stuff:

I got ornaments and the kids got an ornament set that we’ll split up:

McQueens:

Maters:

We got some kitchen stuff – popsicle molds and cookie cutter:

And I got the Chef Mickeys photos, a picture frame, and a scrapbook kit:

Dan got these adorable Mickey bobbleheads:

So that's what we all got!! We love our coffee mugs and use them several times a week! The kids still play with their toys all of the time, especially the Test Track stuff.

Up Next: Final Thoughts and Plans for Future Trips

 

[mickeystoontown]

I don't think you went overboard with the souvenirs at all. I know that we only go to WDW once a year and if I want to buy something then, by golly, I'm going to buy it. (Well if it's a decent price.). I love everything that you got!

 

[heaven2dc]

I agree with everyone - do NOT beat yourself up over the airport incident!! When my DS28 was 2 yrs old, he wandered away from me on Christmas Eve in a department store and he was always clinging to me. It happens! I am so relieved that you found him.

I truly loved every minute of your trip report and your family! Your boys are at such a fun age and they seemed to have had a great time at WDW.

 

[MommyMcQueen]

I don't think you went overboard with the souvenirs at all. I know that we only go to WDW once a year and if I want to buy something then, by golly, I'm going to buy it. (Well if it's a decent price.). I love everything that you got!

I didn't think I went overboard either - although I now remember 2 other things I that we got that didn't put on there! I too had planned for souvenirs, so I was glad we were able to get a few things for the boys and for us!

I agree with everyone - do NOT beat yourself up over the airport incident!! When my DS28 was 2 yrs old, he wandered away from me on Christmas Eve in a department store and he was always clinging to me. It happens! I am so relieved that you found him.

I truly loved every minute of your trip report and your family! Your boys are at such a fun age and they seemed to have had a great time at WDW.

Thanks so much! It has been so much fun writing this TR! I'm glad people enjoyed it!

I know most parents have an experience where they lose track of a child for a few seconds, but gosh it is so scary!!!