The Kids' Surprise Trip to Florida - Report Finished!

[mvazul]

Did you guys head to Tampa, or Miami?
Good trip report, can't wait to hear more!

Ooops!! See what happens when I don't proofread??? I meant DH's brothers live in the Tampa area and were planning to head to Miami for the Super Bowl. That part is coming up later!!

 

[mvazul]

Monday, January 29, 2007

I forgot to say in the last post that we had left DS in the villa to work on homework while DH, DD and I went to get things sorted out with our room. When we went to the ticket office to buy our tickets, a peacock stopped in front of the building. Thankfully, that kept DD busy while DH and I talked about which tickets we wanted. Remember, the kids still have no idea we are doing Disney. They were told we were just going to FL to get away and we couldn't afford to do any parks.

After we bought our tickets (2-day basic Disney tickets including DTD/Disney Quest and 1-day Universal with a free second day to US or IOA), we headed back to the villa to pick up DS. Since it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, DH and I had decided we would take a ride to I-Drive. The last time we were there, we had a good time just walking around and looking in the shops. Plus, I remembered they had a wonderful Disney store there. I was on a mission to buy a new mug. The one I bought there 5 years ago was broken during our move from NC to Chicago. I was heartbroken. But that's another story. We're here now and I need a new mug.

So, we head to I-Drive and find the parking garage. We look around and everything looks totally different. So, we start walking. We can't find any of the shops we are looking for. Finally, I decided to walk into Walgreens and see if we can get pointed in the right direction. I asked the cashier where the huge Disney store and FAO Schwarz was. He looked confused then asked, "Oh, was that the store with the big bear?" We said it was. He then informed us they had torn all of those stores down. Crud!! Now what do we do???

We hopped back in the van and pulled out our little area books with maps. DH and I have started speaking pretty well in code by this time just to keep the kids in the dark as much as possible. We decide to head to DTD. As we're driving, I can see DS reading the signs and getting excited. However, he doesn't say anything, because he was expressly told to not ask what we were doing or where we were going. Alot of this was because we also wanted it to be a surprise for DD. She can't read and is happy to just be along for the ride!!

We saw the sign for DTD and head in that direction. We kept driving and didn't see another sign. We turned around and came back thinking we must have missed the sign. Still didn't see one. We had no idea where it was located. We then see the sign for Epcot. DH looks at me and I nod. At this point, DS is looking at a map and doesn't see the sign or turn for Epcot. I am ready to just bust!! DH has been to Epcot a few times, but this is the first time for the rest of us. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am. We head into Epcot around 3:30 PM!!

We actually got through the gate without the kids knowing where we are!! We pull into the parking lot and see this:

I asked the kids what it was. DS was looking out the driver's side window and had no clue what I was talking about. I asked, again, and DD said, "I don't know what it is, but I see a Mickey hand!!" DS still has no clue what we are looking at and is getting frustrated, because he is still looking in the wrong direction, so I had to point it out to him. Again, DH and I are wondering how he is a High Honors' student!! Then, he finally saw it and didn't know what to say! He finally said, "Ummmm....that's Epcot. That's Epcot. THAT'S EPCOT!!!! OMGsh! We're at Epcot!!" Yes, dear, we are! We got out, headed to a tram and immediately got on. No wait. Our journey has begun! First stop.....Spaceship Earth. There was absolutely no line and we walked right on!! I love that kind of wait!

I had no idea what to expect. I don't do well on dark rides and I am absolutely terrified of wax museums. Let's just say I was not comfortable at first. But, once I realized nothing would jump out at me, I sat back and had a very nice time. That is a pretty cool ride.

Once we were done with that, it was off to "find Nemo"! We pulled out our maps and were trying to find it when a very nice CM came up to us and asked if we could use some help. We pointed to the map what we were trying to find. He pointed us in the right direction and then asked, "Are you in a big hurry?" We told him no. He said, "Do you see that building over there (pointing)? The one with Character Connection on it?" If you hurry, you can go in and meet some of the characters. But they will only be there for another half hour." We thanked him profusely. He didn't have to do that. Heck, he didn't even have to come over to see if we needed help. I see that as going above and beyond. If he wouldn't have pointed it out, we would have never known and missed some wonderful memories. We walked in and I was not ready for what we saw....Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Goofy!!!!! The kids were beside themselves!! And we had them almost all to ourselves! There was just one other family ahead of us.

We are now in search of Nemo!! I thought that ride was really cute. We didn't know anything about Turtle Talk until we got home. With all I have heard about it, I am really wishing we would have known about this beforehand. DD loves Nemo!! She even wore her Nemo shirt and we had no clue when she put it on that we would be in Epcot that day!!

After Nemo we were walking and saw the sign for Soarin'. I had heard a little about it, but wasn't sure exactly what it was. Wwe decided to give it a try. We walked down to get in line and it was an hour wait. DH didn't want to wait that long. Thankfully, I had read about FastPass on here. So, I went to get our FP's and then we headed off to Living With the Land. That was a pretty neat ride. The kids really enjoyed it. I loved the pumpkins:

Once that ride was done, we had about 20 minutes until we could use our FP. Time for a potty break!! When that was done, we got back to Soarin' with 3 minutes to spare. Not bad! All of us LOVED Soarin'!! It was a great ride. DD kept trying to pick mountain climbers off the mountains!! And I actually tried to dip my toes in the ocean waves as we flew over. And I totally knew it wasn't real. But it just sucks you in!!

Once we were done with Soarin', it was dark out. The temp had dropped from about 62 to 35. Brrrr! We had completely forgotten to grab our coats out of the van. Everyone was getting cold and hungry. DH thought it would be a good idea to get some soft pretzels and hot chocolate. YUM! Unfortunately, the hot chocolate was too hot and I burned my tongue. Thankfully, I had the CM only fill DD's half way so it would cool off faster. As we were standing, DD started coughing, so DH decided it was time to head back to the villa. I was o disappointed, but I knew it had to be done. We didn't get to see nearly as much as we wanted, but we did get to Epcot!! DH was disappointed he didn't get to Germany. DS wanted to get to England. I just wanted to go to another country. It wasn't meant to be for this trip.

Our Epcot trip came to an end. But we did have a good time while we were there. Plus, DH and I knew tomorrow would be a full day at Magic Kingdom!! Or would it?

Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom!! Or Maybe Not!

 

[miztigg]

excellent just subscribing

 

[jas_mom1]

What a great surprise for the kids! I can't wait to hear the rest.

Dianne

 

[mvazul]

Miztigg and jas mom1...thanks for joining in!! I'm hoping to have the next section up tonight.

 

[mvazul]

Okay, we had a great time at Epcot. It was too short, but I was just thankful to have been able to be there and take the kids. It's time to head back to the villa.

Once we arrived, we stopped at the front gate, so I could run into the front desk and get the keys to the room they were moving us to. The lady at the desk asked how she could help me and I told her I needed the keys to the room they were moving us to. She said she had no idea what I was talking about. Apparently no one notified the front desk they were moving us from the disgusting room to a newly remodeled one. Also, not a single person had made any kind of notes about all of the problems we were having with the original room. I explained, again, what was going on, who we had spoken to and how we were promised everything would be ?made right". She got the keys for me and told me someone would be to our room to help us move our luggage. The man who came to help us was the only person the entire stay that actually cared we were having a nice stay.

We got into our room and tried to open the windows a little bit. The room was stuffy. The windows were painted shut, but I was able to get them loosened. One window wouldn't stay open. I went to open the other window and the entire casing was covered in black mold!! That was one of the complaints from the first room. So, I tried to open the window in the bedroom. The screen was missing. Then, I made dinner and noticed dishes missing. It says in their book if anything is missing from the room, we will be charged for it. So, again, I was on the phone with the front desk. I was assured it would be fixed. Uh huh....sure.

While I was making dinner, I decided to start another load of laundry. It seemed to be running fine. I was relieved, because the washer/dryer in the other room was extremely loud and shook the entire kitchen floor. Well, I would have taken that one any day over the new one. I had the kids in bed and all of a sudden we heard a horrible, loud banging coming from the kitchen. I went out to see what was going on and the washer/dryer was banging so hard against the stove then started walking across the floor. It ended up next to the kitchen table!!! I called the front desk while all of the noise was going on so they could hear what we were experiencing. I was told an engineer would be right over.

Earlier, we also realized we had two remotes for the TV in the living room and none that worked the one in the bedroom. So, we ended up with two engineers in our room at the same time. The one dealing with the remote issue told us someone had jumped the fence, broke into their storage area and stole all of the TV remotes to the new TV's. It didn't sound right. Who wanted just TV remotes? Well, they were stealing the TV's, too. So, they didn't have one that night for us to use. But they promised to get us a new one. It never happened. Just like the screen was never fixed and the mold was never cleaned up and the washer/dryer was never fixed, and on and on....

The engineer was in our room until almost midnight trying to fix the washer/dryer. It was so off balance it slammed into the board in between that and the stove. It completely busted the board. It took me four days to get one load of laundry done. I finally took out clothes to their laundry area. I was so angry. The reason we chose this place was so I didn't have to spend any time away from the family. We wanted the convenience of being able to put laudry in either while we were out during the day or just before going to bed at night.

I'm getting angry, again, just thinking about it, so I will get all of it in this post and that will be the last I have to say about the resort. I have a couple more days to report on, but I don't want to keep coming back and dwelling on the resort.

There were so many things wrong with this place - alot more than I have posted about. We kept asking to have the screen, washer/dryer, TV, etc. fixed. We were ignored the rest of our stay. We were supposed to check out on 2/3/07. We ended up leaving on 2/2/07. When we checked out, we noticed we were charged for long distance calls we didn't make. The lady that was checking us out took forever figuring it out. DH was getting really ticked. It was our last day in Orlando and we wanted to enjoy what we had left. DH gave them permission to charge us for them - because it was taking forever - and we would take care of it once we got home. We also let them know we would let anyone and everyone we knew who was going to Orlando/Kissimme to not stay at their resort. I checked over our bill once we got home and we were charged almost $40.00 for long distnace calls made over three days. These three days happened to be the days were we not in the villa the entire day. There we re six calls made on the day we checked out. We checked out at 9:00 AM. We didn't make a single call.

Anyway....I need to stop rambling about this place. DO NOT STAY AT OAK PLANTATION IN KISSIMMEE!!!!!!!! Thankfully, we didn't let this ruin our trip. We still had an awesome time. Heck, we are in Florida and going to Disney World. It's the "Happiest Place on Earth." Right??? Plus, tomorrow we're going to...

MAGIC KINGDOM!!!!! Or will we?

 

[Bee]

Loving your report.\

So sorry the resort was nasty. You were way nicer than I would have been. I would have not paid for such poor service. They really put your family in jeopardy. I spose you could contest the charges to your credit card company.

So sorry for all those other poor soles who are going to check into their in the future!

 

[mvazul]

We're going to the Magic Kingdom!!! This is the only day of our entire trip we had planned. We will get up early, have breakfast and be at the park before the rope drop. Then, we will stay all day and watch the fireworks. It will be perfect!!









Not so fast......

I already explained the night before had been a long night - up until midnight dealing with washer/dryer issues. Then, about 2:30 AM, we woke up to sounds of our DD screaming in pain. I ran out and she was complaining of her ear hurting. No, not today!! Today is MK day!! I'm hoping it's just because she is overtired. I give her some Motrin, rock her for awhile and she calms down and goes back to sleep. I go back to bed.

4:30 AM, she is screaming, again. DH asks if my plan for the morning is still the same. I tell him we'll see, but I already know deep down it's not going to happen. I bring her to bed with us (thank goodness for a king-size bed) and snuggle her close. She ends up getting a slight fever at some point. I didn't sleep much. While I was trying to go to back to sleep, she starts talking in her sleep. She was talking about finding butterflies and seeing the pretty princesses.

I decided to scrap our plan and let everyone sleep as long as possible. Once everyone was up, DD was still complaining her ear hurt. I remembered we hadn't used our second day at KSC, so I came up with a new plan. We would see if we could get DD in to see a doctor and then DH and DS could go to KSC and I would stay at the villa with DD. DH thought that sounded good, but then decided he didn't want me and DD to have to stay behind. I told him I didn't mind, but he really wanted all of us to be together.

So, I called our insurance company and got some names for local doctors. The first one didn't take vacationers. The second one did, but didn't have anything until 2:00 PM. So we spent the morning at the villa watching Disney movies - Cinderella and Mulan, of course!! About an hour and a half before we needed to be at her appointment, we decided to head to the flea market near the doctor's office. We picked up new Disney shirts for each of the kids and found the sunscreen DH has been looking for since 1999.

We made it to the appointment and saw a wonderful doctor. He said, indeed, she does have an ear infection. I hate it when my kids are sick or in pain. He gave us an Rx and we had it filled. We then went to have a late lunch/early dinner at Macaroni Grille. YUM!!! We decided to spend the rest of the night in the villa and just relax. Honestly, it was exactly what we needed.

DH and I decide tomorrow will be the day for MK. The kids had no idea we were supposed to go in the first place (which is part of why we didn't want to tell them - just in case something happened). This time I vow to be much more relaxed about it and just go with the flow.

Tomorrow: MAGIC KINGDOM!! Yes, we make it this time!!

 

[mvazul]

Loving your report.\

So sorry the resort was nasty. You were way nicer than I would have been. I would have not paid for such poor service. They really put your family in jeopardy. I spose you could contest the charges to your credit card company.

So sorry for all those other poor soles who are going to check into their in the future!

Welcome, Bee!! Thank you for joining in and keeping up with my report!! We are taking care of the problem with the resort. DH will be disputing the charges. And we're keeping our promise by letting everyone know what a horrible stay we had and how dirty the place is. I will be happy if this keeps one family out of this place.

 

[mvazul]

Sorry for the delay...life got in the way of my report!

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

I decided to let everyone sleep in. I wanted to be at the Magic Kingdom as soon as it opened, but with DD having an ear infection, I thought it would be better to just go with the flow and not push. Everyone was up, showered, had breakfast and we were out the door!! We arrived at the MK parking lot around 10:00 AM. We hop on the ferry and we're on our way. It was very chilly on the trip. Thankfully, it warmed up that day.

I love this plaque:

We finally made it into the park. What a beautiful sight!! A wonderful CM was taking our picture for our PhotoPass card and offered to use my camera to get a picture of all four of us:

As soon as we were done getting our picture taken, we noticed the show in front of the castle was about to start, so we stopped to watch that. What an awesome show!!

Once we were done watching the show, DH wanted to ride the Speedway, so we headed there. Unfortunately it was closed for repair. So, we decided to head to Toontown. We missed this the first time we went (five years ago) and I wanted to make sure we got there this time. As we were walking, we noticed a sign for "Storytime With Belle". There was only five minutes until the show started. So, we decided to wait. DD wore her Belle dress. The CM's getting the show ready saw DD. She came over to her, bowed and told her how honored she was to be with a princess. They asked DD to be in the show, but she didn't want to. I think it was because we hadn't been there too long and she really didn't know what to think of all of it. The lady playing Belle was absolutely wonderful. She really played the character well. Here is DD meeting Belle:

Once we were done talking to Belle, we finally headed to Mickey's Toontown Fair. We saw Goofy's Barnstormer and DH, DS and I wanted to ride. However, we weren't sure if DD would ride. She had never been on a roller coater before. I'm scared to death of roller coasters, but for some reason, I really wanted to ride. I think it was because I don't want DD growing up with the same fear I have had all my life. So, we talked to DD and told her it was a roller coaster. We told her it would be really fast and would go over hills. DH also told her she was allowed to scream if she felt she needed to. Well, this sealed the deal!! If she could scream, she was on!! We got in line...well, what line there was. It was practically walk on. We had to wait just over 5 minutes. As we were entering, the CM noticed DD's Belle dress (under her princess sweatshirt). He bowed and told her how glad he was that a princess was riding. Then, he waited for her to turn her back to him and he pulled her hood off her head. He immediately blamed it on DS!! She pulled it back up and he did it, again. He did this all the way through the line. Too funny!! It made waiting much more fun.

We had a great time riding and all of us wanted to ride, again. But, DH saw the tent where we could meet the princesses. So, we were off to that. That line was ridiculous. When we went in, it said it was about a 30 minute wait. We almsot didn't do it, but decided we would. We stood in the same spot, without moving, for about 25 minutes. All of a sudden, it moved and we were at the beginning of the line. We got to meet Snow White (whom DD wanted nothing to do with, but finally did meet), Cinderella and Belle. DD loved Cinderella and Belle. They were all very sweet. Belle kept calling DD her twin. DD was listening to her, but was so fascinated by her dress!!

When we were done meeting the princesses, DH noticed the line was even shorter at the Barnstormer than it was the first time we went through. So, we rode, again!! It was just as much fun the second time!! Then we headed to Mickey and Minnie's house. They were soooo cute! The kids really liked them. We didn't spend too much time in them, because they were a bit crowded. Plus, there was so much more to see.

DS and DH riding the Barnstormer, again:

 

[mvazul]

I hit submit beofre I was done!!

Anyway...here are DD and DS sitting on Minnie's couch:

And in Mickey's garden:

After the Toontown Fair, we headed to Fantasyland. We wanted to ride Winnie the Pooh, but that, too, was closed. I was really disappointed. We really enjoyed it on our last trip. So, we decided to go to PhilharMagic. There was absolutely no wait for it at all. I love those kind of lines!! That show was awesome!! I really didn't know what it was about and was very pleasantly surprised. DD wouldn't wear her glasses at all. I wish she would have, but she flatly refused. We didn't push her. She had no clue what she was missing. At the end, when Donald got stuck in the wall, it was really quiet and DD yelled out really loud, "Are you okay, Donald? Someone needs to help Donald!!" Everyone around us thought that was funny.

After PhilharMagic, we decided to ride on Peter Pan's Flight. There was a 45 minute wait, so I got FP's for all of us and we headed to It's a Small World. This isn't one of my favorites, but DH likes it due to the fact it's an original ride. When we got done, we still had about 45 minutes before we could use our FP's. We decided to have some lunch. We didn't want to go too far away and saw Pinocchio Village Haus. The place was busy and most tables were full, but we didn't have to wait very long to place our order. The food was pretty good. I think it was a pretty good amount of food for the money. As we were almost done, a CM came up to us and asked DH and me if she could talk to DD. We said she could. She asked DD her name (G), who her favorite character is (Belle) and where she lived (Chicago). The CM then asked if we were going to be around for another few minutes. We told her we would be. A few minutes later, another CM came out and said she had an announcement. We could barely hear her. She asked if anyone liked the character Belle. DD wasn't paying attention and didn't hear her. I told her to raise her hand. She then asked if anyone was from Chicago. DD raised her hand, again. Then she walked over to the table and said, "Your name wouldn't happen to be 'G", would it?" DD said it is. The CM then asked her to follow her, because the Blue Fairy wanted to grant her a wish. DD got to write her wish in their book. The CM helped her. She wrote down DD's name and her wish - to see Cinderella, Tinkerbell and Wendy. Then, there was the sound of twinkling bells and the CM told her the Blue Fairy got her wish. She then pulled out a apir of Tinkerbell pins. DD wasn't really sure what was going on, but was so excited to get the pins!! After lunch, it was time to use our FP's for PP'sF. It was a cute ride, but I really don't get why there is always such a wait for it. I doubt we would wait for it if Disney didn't offer a FP for it.

Here is DD writing her wish in the Blue Fairy's book:

We then headed to Liberty Square. I thought we were going to go to the Hall of Presidents. I liked that the last time, but we didn't do it this time. DH wanted to get a good spot for the parade. Wwe did get a really good spot. We were right behind the rope in front of the Diamond Horseshoe. While we were waiting, we noticed two characters. I know who they are but can't remember the spelling, so I won't even try!!

Waiting for the parade:

Okay, it's time to pick up DD from pre-school. I will finish this section later today.

Next up: A Parade, Another Show and Fireworks!!

 

[mvazul]

Okay, we got great spots for the parade. Every person in the parade was wonderful. What a great job to have!! The last time we were in MK, we skipped the parade. DD was only 5 months and it was raining. So, we took advantage of the shorter lines on rides. This time, it was gorgeous and the kids were looking forward to it since they heard it announced on the ferry.

The CM's were terriffic. A few of the men riding the bikes rode over to give both of the kids high five's. Then, the brooms came by. One of them stopped right in front of DD and pretended to throw water on her. The gang from Pooh came by and Eeyore stopped to give DD a hug. That moment was priceless to me and DH. The villains came by next and when I took a picture of Cruella, she saw me and went into an evil pose! As the princesses came by, Belle spotted DD and waved to her. DD was ticked that Belle was with the Beast and looked like they were getting married!! I loved watching my kids' expressions during the whole thing. It was worth every penny we spent to get there. Here are a few pictures from the parade:

After the parade, we made our way to Frontierland. On our way, a CM stopped us. He pulled out a book and wanted DD's autograph. I told him she couldn't write her name yet and he asked me to help her. This CM looked to be part of the "Dream Team". DH thought if I would have just let DD write her own name, she may have gotten a "wish". Honestly, I thought he could be part of the DT, too, but it didn't cross my mind. We weren't there to receive "Dreams and Wishes". We already had our dreams and wishes coming true just by being there.

DS really wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, so we headed there next. I never even hesitated to ride. It never even crossed my mind that I'm terrified of roller coasters. I have no idea why. I just pushed it out of my head and wanted to enjoy Disney and the time with my family. Plus, I wanted the kids to have a great time. If they see me scared of something, they tend to not try things. It was not going to happen on this trip!! I think I have conquered most of my fear of roller coasters. I had a blast on this trip!! BTMRR was awesome!! To this day, DS and DD still says it was their favorite. I think we have created a couple of roller coaster nuts! Here are DS and DH waiting to ride BTMRR:

After Frontierland, we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. This is the one ride DS had wanted to ride all day. He saw the new movie over the summer and has become a Pirates' nut. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any good pictures here. I'm really kicking myself. DD didn't want to go on this ride, but we explained that DS had put up with princesses all day, it was his turn to get to see something he wanted. I was hesitant to go on it myself. As I said in an earlier post, I am terrified of wax museums. I know this ride isn't a wax museum, but it's close enough. Those figures really freak me out, especially when I have no clue what is around the next corner. Yes, I am a big chicken!! However, DS wanted to ride, so I rode. It was actually pretty good. DS loved looking for Jack Sparrow. He really had a good time on that ride. He was floating afterward.

We decided the next ride would be the Jungle Cruise. However, there was a half hour wait for it and didn't see any FP's. We didn't want to wait that long. We looked at the Swiss Family Treehouse and all of us decided we didn't want to walk all of those steps. We looked at Aladdin's Magic Carpets, but DD didn't want to do that one, either. Okay, what do we do next??? We headed back over to Tomorrowland.

On the way there, we happened to see they were getting ready for another show in front of the castle. There were spots right in front, so we decided to take a break and watch it. DD was so funny. She has really gotten into Peter Pan lately. She loved being able to see him and Wendy. Then, when Maleficent came out, she was terrified. She wrapped her arms around my neck and literally shook with fear. Then, it was like she didn't know what else to do, so she stuck her tongue out and started spitting at her!! Too funny!! Some pictures from the show:

We made it to Tomorrowland and saw Stitch's Great Escape. DH remembered it being Alien Encounter (I think?) and thought it would be a good idea to ride. What a big mistake. It was horrible. I hated the shoulder harnesses. They hurt. Plus, DD got scared during it and I wasn't able to get to her. I was very close to having a panic attack. They need to seriously overhaul that ride. I was smelling chili dog for a couple of weeks after. It's disgusting. Disney definitely fell short on this one. Whenever anyone asks DD how she liked Disney, she always tells them how much she disliked Stitch!! It needs to go.

After Stitch, we hopped on DH's favorite ride - Tomorrowland Transit Authority. As we got to the top of the escalator, one of the CM's noticed DH's Bears' NFC Champions shirt. He told us he was going to be cheering for the Bears in the Super Bowl, too. We let some people go in front of us and had a nice chat with the CM. That was pretty cool. As we were leaving, DS wasn't paying attention and lost his balance on the down escalator. He flew half way down and almost ran into the people in front of us. Needless to say, he paid attention after that!

After the TTA, we headed to Buzz Lightyear. There was very little wait. All of us had a great time on that. DS and DH were in one car while DD and I were in the car in front of them. DD had the controls and she had us spinning so fast at one point, I thought I was going to throw up!! As soon as we were done, I was joking and asked if everyone wanted to do it, again. The kids said yes, but DH said no. So, we headed in a different direction. All of a sudden, DH stopped, turned around and headed right back to BL!! It was completely walk-on this time. I controlled the vehicle on this time around!

When we were done riding BL, we realized it was getting close to the time for fireworks. We had promised the kids we would buy them something at the end of the day, so we headed back toward Main Street. The only problem is we forgot about the evening parade. We got stuck on the bridge. So, we decided to just wait there so the kids could see the rest of the parade. Afterward, we noticed a spot with some benches, so we headed down there to sit. I now know why it was empty. That was not the best spot to see the fireworks. But, we got to see them. We didn't on our last trip.

A picture fo the castle that DH took:

After the fireworks, we headed toward the main gate with the masses. We veered off and ducked into one of the shops for souveniers. DD had her eye on a Princess Minnie since we had visited Epcot on Monday. We looked everywhere. We found Tinkerbell Minnie, Belle Minnie and cheerleader Minnie, but no Princess Minnie. DD settled on the Tinkerbell. With Minnie in hand, we started looking for DS. We crossed from one part of the store to next and we found an entire shelf of Princess Minnies. Tinkerbell was ditched!! As we were looking at the Minnies, a little girl came up to DH and said, "Hey, I know you!!" He siad, "You do? From where?" She said, "You were the dad on stage at Mad Mission to Mars at Kennedy Space Center when I was there!!" She was right! She and her family had been in front of us in line while waiting for that show. It really is a small world!!!

So, we are now in search of something for DS. He really wanted a stuffed animal. However, he is 12 years old and has a ton of stuffed animals. I suggested he get something he can keep as a reminder of his first visit. He chose a very cool POTC pin. I am wishing we would have bought a lanyard for it, too. I didn't realize how hard they would be to find and how much he would get into the pins once we got home.

I was on the search for a new mug. I had one from our last trip that I just loved. It was broken on our move from NC to Chicago. I didn't see any that I liked as much as that one, but I did find one I liked. The only thing I forgot to get was monogrammed ears for the kids. I'm quite bummed about that one.

Well, our magical day has come to an end. It was a good idea to shop after the fireworks. The park was almost completely empty. The parking lot was, too. It had been a great day and went by way too fast.

Tomorrow: Universal Studios

 

[disneyaddicted]

I am truly enjoying your TR so far, your kids are so cute. I love the pictures. I am sorry to hear that your resort was so horrible. Hopefully one day you can go back and stay on site, I have to watch the pocket book as well, but I found that Pop Century during value season is extremely affordable and with the dining plan you don't even have to worry about pots and pans. Any way I am looking forward to your next installment.

 

[mvazul]

OMGsh!! How in the world could I have forgotten about Space Mountain?!?! While we were in Tomorrowland, we decided to ride Space Mountain. We weren't sure if DD could ride and decided if she couldn't, DH and DS would ride and DD and I would wait. She just made it. The CM at the front put a "Cinderella Pass" around her neck. He told us it was a very special pass and would get her special treatment and she would be put on the best rocket. I think he just said that so she would wear it. It was to keep track of the wait time. There was a 30 minute wait posted. We decided to wait instead of getting FP's. The FP wait was the same amount of time and we had already ridden what we wanted in that area. We ended up waiting 45 minutes - at least. This was the longest wait all day.

I had never ridden this ride and when we got close enough to see what it was, I started getting nervous. I didn't realize DD would have to ride by herself. I wasn't really comfortable with that, but then I saw a couple other little ones about her age and size and they were fine. So, we got on. OMGsh, I was not prepared for that ride!! I kept my hand on DD's shoulder the entire ride and I felt her come up a bit in her seat a few times, but she was okay. I kept envisioning very bad things!! Thankfully, all went well. DD got to scream til her heart's content and all of us said we would love to do it, again, once we got off. Unfortunately, the line was still very long, so we didn't. It turned into a must do ride the next time we visit.

Okay - Universal Studios will be posted soon.

 

[deide71]

It looks like you all had a great time !

 

[mvazul]

I am truly enjoying your TR so far, your kids are so cute. I love the pictures. I am sorry to hear that your resort was so horrible. Hopefully one day you can go back and stay on site, I have to watch the pocket book as well, but I found that Pop Century during value season is extremely affordable and with the dining plan you don't even have to worry about pots and pans. Any way I am looking forward to your next installment.

Thank you for joining in and for the compliments. My kids can be cute when they want!! Yes, the villa was not good. The thing that stinks, it would have been the same amount to have stayed at a value resort at Disney. The only reason we chose that place was because of past experience. But, hopefully because of it, maybe I can talk DH into staying on Disney property next time!! I'm not sure if the Dining Plan would do us any good. I'm not sure we would be able to use as much as they provide on it. I think that would cost us more in the long run.

Anyway...thank you, again, for reading!!

 

[mvazul]

It looks like you all had a great time !

Yes, we had an awesome time! Thank you for joining us!!

 

[sunlver]

Thanks so much for writing such a great trip report. We are going again in June with my 3 kids who are 12, 7, and 2.

3 Yrs ago we stayed at Oaks Plantation. We must of had a newer room as we did not encounter any of the problems you mentioned. Plus, from looking at your pics of the room, our room looked totally different. The villa we had had the washer and dryer in its own separate/room/closet deal. I would of stayed there again, but found it a little far out of the way and it seemed like a lot of traffic from that far back.
Did you encounter a lot of traffic to the parks from there?

Your pictures are great, and I cant wait to show my older kids when they get home from school.

I see your son is 12 too. Did he complain at all about going on the rides for the yonger kids? My son is a good sport, but he quickly bores of those kiddie rides.
Im anxiously waiting for the rest of your trip report. Thanks for making it so enjoyable.

 

[mebrm]

Loving the report, that is sooo awesome to surprise the kids, someday....
waiting for more ..

 

[KimAshton]

Love this trip report. your kids are so adorable.