The Trip we thought would never end! 9/4/17 - 9/12/17

[disneydarling07]

All I can say is WOW!

We had so many things planned for this trip and we accomplished so much. And there were quite a few surprises thrown in! Including a hurricane!

We had planned the trip for 9/4 thru 9/10 and it kept growing and growing. I felt like we had been away for about 3 months. Our days blended together so many times, we had no clue what day it actually was.

We started out with a bucket list that seemed a little crazy, a little busy, a little hectic...but in the end it worked out perfectly. Everyone was happy!

Even though we went in with intentions of completing everything on the bucket list, there is always that one thing that will keep us coming back....

For this trip, our goal was to experience the following:

All 4 theme parks
Both water parks
Both mini golf courses
Disney Springs
Mickey's Halloween Party

All of this was to be squeezed into 7 days. Never mind the list we had for each park! So not only did we have a lot to visit, we had a lot to do in each park. And then a few surprises came our way, which just added to the amazement of what we actually did this trip.

So here we go....

 

[disneydarling07]

We set the time for 3:00am to leave the house. Given that we all went to bed around 10pm, and were too excited to sleep, it was almost a miracle that we woke up when the alarm went off at 2am.

The kids and I were all packed and ready to go....we just had to wait for DH. He is the ultimate procrastinator! He knew we were anxious and we actually left the house at 3:10am. Not too bad! I had prepared myself mentally in case we left later...lol.



DS was so happy to see this number on our countdown calendar!!

We stuffed the car with 5 suitcases ( 1 had all of our non-perishables for our room ) and 4 carry on bags, 1 laptop and 1 video camera bag. So my magic number was 11. I am so worried about losing something, that I count almost every 10 steps! In the car =11, out of the car =11, onto the shuttle = 11, off the shuttle = 11....

Got to the parking garage around 3:40am, and the shuttle was waiting for us. Off to the airport!!

 

[disneydarling07]

Got to the airport around 4:00am...it was a ghost town. Best time to travel anywhere! Curbside service to check our bags. Now off to security check point. Everyone made it through security...except me. They took my backpack and searched every nook and cranny. That's when they pulled out my M&M tubes filled with pennies and quarters. After a quick little dance with coin maracas, they let me pass through.

We only had to wait about a half hour before they started boarding the plane. Jason would all of the sudden start bouncing in his chair. It was still so surreal to him that we were actually going to Disney!



Daddy and Jessica did a little bit of reading before we got on the plane.



It was finally time to board the plane! Of course the kids took the window seats. But at least they are forewarned that I will be leaning on them to take pictures...lol.
We watched a gorgeous sunrise while we were high in the sky.



Of course, we couldn't fall asleep on the plane ride, so we enjoyed our in-flight snacks and drinks and even had a quick toast to us in hopes of a great trip!

Once we landed, we took the shuttle across the airport to find the Magical Express bus

 

[disneydarling07]

This is one of my most favorite rides in Disney...the Magical Express bus that takes us to the real Magic.



Cruising in style....




One our first sights that we enjoyed along the way were the palm trees welcoming us to Sunny Florida.




And these AWESOME signs welcoming us to Walt Disney World! The bus drivers are great at making sure they drive reallllly slow so everyone can get a great picture of this great sight!



Next was the sign welcoming us to the Magic Kingdom!!



And finally...we made it to the Polynesian Resort!!



A quick check in at the desk, we received our leis, and wonderful greeting and had a traditional family photo taken.

 

[disneydarling07]

Since our room wasn't ready yet, the plan was to take our first trip ever to a Disney Water Park - Blizzard Beach. The skies were bright blue and it was going to be a great start to our vacation.


Hopped on the bus and raced right over there. We did see this bus on the way over, but it's not the one we rode. (Still on the bucket list! )
The crowds were very small, but it was a holiday.





So excited that after all these years, we can finally see the inside of this place!



After some time in the wave pool, I decided to float on the lazy river for a while and see the sights along the way.


I found Jason floating past me!

 

[disneydarling07]

At this point, we were starting to get hungry. We grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to the water.



Time to see what else there was around the park.

 

[disneydarling07]

We then went next door to the Winter Summerland Mini Golf Course. We chose to do the Summer side.



It was a lot of fun...but it was REALLY hot out there!!




We didn't even care who won, we were just having fun! Despite the miserable heat!




We were about halfway through the game when all of the sudden, the skies opened up and it started raining. At first, it was a welcome rain. Then it came down too heavily to stay and finish. So we hopped on the bus and headed to the resort where our room was finally ready.






As you can see, the lack of sleep was finally starting to catch up to us....

But onward we go!!

 

[Rozz]

Enjoying your trip report!
We hope to play one of the mini-golf courses next time we go.
Great photos! Love the sunrise/set? Out the plane window!

 

[disneydarling07]

We were finally able to check into our room at the Poly. We had a theme park / lake view. - Room # 1031 in the Moorea Building.

Next for Day 1 was Hollywood Studios!!

Our first Fast Pass was for Tower Of Terror. This is one of the favorites for my whole family....I personally do not like it! I do not like the feeling of being "dropped" at ridiculously high heights at ridiculously fast speeds! I do not like this one at all! I had the seat all the way on the right and I actually hurt my hand because I was gripping onto the cage around the ride so hard! Yes, it made for some hilarious Photopass photos....sigh...


Next Fast Pass was for Star Tours.

On he way over to the ride, I saw a stand that was selling Mickey pretzels! Time for a quick snack break....and to check our first Mickey shaped treat off the bucket list.





We even caught part of the Jedi training show with Darth Vader..

 

[disneydarling07]

We stopped by Grauman's Chinese Theater to see what the advertisements were for the new ride.



We checked out the hand/footprints by some of the famous people that had stopped by...



This is where The Great Movie Ride is going to be replaced by Mickey's Runaway Train.





Finding our second wind, we were still ready to move on.
Our last Fast Pass for the day was for Rockin' Rollercoaster.



After we did RNR (twice), we headed to Sci Fi diner for our ADR. I had scheduled this one at 8:40pm. Park closes at 9pm. This is great only because we get to walk out of an EMPTY park! We can take all the night time photos we want with no one else around.
The restaurant was set up to look like a drive in theater. We sat in these really cool cars that were our tables. And we watched cheesy, old sci-fi movies that were just hilarious. Although, my favorite part was the vintage commercials.





Completely and utterly exhausted, we headed back to our room. I don't think we even changed our clothes before we hit the sheets. My internal alarm was already set and I was ready to recharge and start another day.

 

[erinch]

Great report!

 

[mamamelody2]

Great start! Can't wait to read more!

 

[disneydarling07]

Day 2 - woke up to a beautiful sunrise!




It was going to be a great day!


DD woke up early with me and used the running trails around the resort. She is on the Cross Country team at school and wanted to keep up with her workouts...and she can brag to her coach that she was running on the beach...lol.



Along the way, we saw these hidden Mickeys drawn in the sand.




It seemed like everyone was up early. We saw this beautiful bird that was happy to pose for us.




And these little geckos / lizards were EVERYWHERE! It was funny watching all of the kids trying to catch these little guys. They are quick!!



We also saw bunnies, but they were gone before I could get my camera ready. It's almost like Snow White, where all the little creatures wake up and are so happy to start a new day. It kept a smile on my face for most of the day.

Time to head back to the room and wake up the men! We have things to do today!

 

[disneydarling07]

On our way back to our room, we stopped in at the Great Ceremonial House to get some juice to go with our breakfast.
I love this guy who greets us in the main lobby.



We heard a lot of commotion upstairs by O'Hana and when we glanced up, we saw Stitch!



We finally got back to the room and woke up the boys. DS was ready to start his day. While we waited for DH to get ready, DS walked outside to play in the sand for a bit. It was so nice to have this about 20 feet from our door. The sand was so soft and he almost didn't want to leave.

But leave we did....off to Epcot!

 

[disneydarling07]

We love staying at the Poly because of the convenience of the monorail. Here is our first ride on the monorail for this trip. We had to take it to the Ticket and Transportation Center, and then transfer to another monorail to take us to Epcot.






We finally arrive at Epcot. At this point, this smiling face from my DD had quickly disappeared. She started out with a small headache and by the time we got thru security, she had a full blown migraine. She was so miserable. We sat for awhile and gave her lots of water, but nothing helped. So off to First Aid we go.
They gave her some sinus meds and let her lay down on one of the cots in the back. DS and I walked around a bit to give her some quiet time. We didn't do anything because we wanted to be fair and not explore without DH and DD. After a while she was okay to get up. We took her back to the resort and let her rest for about an hour. After that, she was as good as new. So off we went - again - back to Epcot. At this point, it was already after noon. But we were going to make the best of the day!



We went thru security again, and right after we passed Spaceship Earth, we saw Daisy! The character lines were crazy long. We found out that if you wait on the side, sometimes they will turn around between guests and wave to you. So we ended up with lots of pictures OF characters, just not WITH them. And we were completely fine with that!



We walked over to the World Showcase to start out our exploration of all of the countries. The kids had thier passports ready, I had my pennies and quarters ready, and we had our Remi Hide and Squeak Scavenger Hunt ready.

 

[disneydarling07]

We started out in Mexico and DS found Remi right away.





We stopped by the Kidcot spot to get the kids' passports signed. They asked each CM to sign their passport in their native language. They wrote "hello" and "goodbye" and some wrote their names too.





We spent a lot of time in each country exploring and looking for Remi. Some of them were really hard to find!






And those are the only Remi's I will be showing you.

 

[disneydarling07]

Before we headed out for Future World, we needed food. Looking for something quick and something we were familiar with, we went to the American Adventure for lunch.

I know, the Food and Wine Festival was in full gear, but we aren't into different things and experimenting with foods. We would rather stick with what we know.



They offered steak and shrimp, mac and cheese and burgers. The thing that shocked me was that the steak and shrimp dish was ONLY $15!!!



After lunch, it was time for Fast Passes.

First up was Mission: Space. We did the orange side. It was pretty intense but it was AWESOME!!! I wish we could have gotten more FP's for that one! Totally awesome!!

Our 2nd FP was for Test Track. DS designed this really cool car. He was so proud of himself! We came in 2nd in most of the tests.



Then to slow things down a bit, our 3rd FP was for Turtle Talk with Crush. Ds insisted on this one. In the waiting area, we checked out all the fun fish. This stingray came right up to the glass and gave us a big smile!



We then rode Nemo and Friends and took pics with the friends.



At this time, it was pretty late. We weren't able to finish the World Showcase, but I had built in some extra time later in the week for this, just in case.



Time to head out and get some sleep!

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

I'm here! And loving your TR so far!!! Thanks for sharing it with us!!!

 

[disneydarling07]

So here we are at Wednesday. We totally lost track of what day it was. I only know because I keep tracking our fast passes. Doing more than one park in a day really throws us off. We normally lock in one park a day and try to do everything there is to do. We were able to enjoy so much in each park, that it felt like a full day.
Here is what I woke up to today.





DD and I walked around again to explore the whole resort. They are some really beautiful flowers all over the area.

 

[disneydarling07]

DD and I walked over to where they host the Spirit of Aloha show. I checked out the reviews on this show and it was split 50/50. We opted out of it this time. But we did hear that the area was really pretty and worth a walk over.

Good to know that this little boat exists! And it's small too so no big crowds to deal with. It felt like a well kept secret, so don't tell everyone!


The decor around the whole area was so cool! These Tiki statues were awesome!



Me and DD enjoying some selfies...


She LOVED this bench and was trying to figure out how to smuggle it out...



Here is where they host the stage show...



DD jumped up on stage and did a little hula dance.


Exploring time is over!

Time to wake up the boys! Today we are heading to Typhoon Lagoon and the Animal Kingdom!!