The Vacation of a Lifetime - My 1st Trip Report - 1/2 day at IOA and we've had enough

[2xcited2sleep]

A trip with 3 years of planning behind it?!?! Wow... you must have the patience of a saint! Obviously that planning is paying off as your TR is terrific so far. Coupla random thoughts:

Can't believe it was only ~$7.50 to add a day onto your tickets!

Emily sleeping in the queue for Tiki Room is priceless

That storm does look ferocious!

Alex eats adventure for lunch -- too cute!

You got quite a keeper of a photo of the fireworks. Any tips?

Looking forward to more!!

 

[sherabby]

We were at POFQ with you from the 16th to the 19th (we arrived on the 14th). We wish we were back again!

 

[letstalkboutdisney]

Thank you. You're going to like the next installment. My son Alex takes you through a narrated trip through the Boma buffet!! I've been working on slimming the video down. I'll hopefully have it up this afternoon.



I did love the video. What a great idea to tape the buffet line. Can't wait to hear more!

 

[earthfaries]

You guys are having a great time ~ you had such long busy days filled with fun We Boma ~ it's our favorite place to eat in the World!

Great videos ~ the storm at Epcot was amazing, the water was sloshing around, it did look like a little hurricane!!!

Can't wait for more ~ and I WOULD LOVE to hear about your non-Disney part of vacation. We're doing a lot of non disney next month and need good ideas, and the other stuff is really fun and great

 

[shhbam]

A trip with 3 years of planning behind it?!?! Wow... you must have the patience of a saint! Obviously that planning is paying off as your TR is terrific so far. Coupla random thoughts:

Can't believe it was only ~$7.50 to add a day onto your tickets!

Emily sleeping in the queue for Tiki Room is priceless

That storm does look ferocious!

Alex eats adventure for lunch -- too cute!

You got quite a keeper of a photo of the fireworks. Any tips?

Looking forward to more!!

Thanks! Not a saint, but patient. Until 6 months before and then I was a major clock watcher!

It was only ~7.5 because we had already paid for the 8 day PH. Once you get over a threshold, it only costs that little bit to go more!

The only tip I have for those night shots..Use a steady surface. I used Maria's head! It's also great to have a digital camera because you can experiment and take as many as you need to get the right one. We took probably more than 100 photos per day. I had to bring the laptop to download them all each night. It made for a fun nightly routine. I'd put them into a slideshow we could all watch before going to sleep.

The next part will be up sometime on Tuesday, probably around 8:00 PM Pacific time.

We were at POFQ with you from the 16th to the 19th (we arrived on the 14th). We wish we were back again!

I did see that there was a DIS'r at POFQ, they had bookmarks on their door for kids to take. We never got around to actually going over to pick one up though.

Have you been to POFQ before? Have you stayed anywhere else? I'd like to hear what Pop Century is like. I'd like to know about the Poly too.

Thank you. You're going to like the next installment. My son Alex takes you through a narrated trip through the Boma buffet!! I've been working on slimming the video down. I'll hopefully have it up this afternoon.



I did love the video. What a great idea to tape the buffet line. Can't wait to hear more!

Alex is a big ham and had a blast doing it. I know you are going to love Boma. Make sure you try all of the soups, but the Butternut Squash soup is amazing.

You guys are having a great time ~ you had such long busy days filled with fun We Boma ~ it's our favorite place to eat in the World!

Great videos ~ the storm at Epcot was amazing, the water was sloshing around, it did look like a little hurricane!!!

Can't wait for more ~ and I WOULD LOVE to hear about your non-Disney part of vacation. We're doing a lot of non disney next month and need good ideas, and the other stuff is really fun and great

Yeah, Boma is just awesome. It's really so different than anything you can eat at WDW. Man I miss those soups!

It was really amazing to see that minicane. I have another video that shows the rain coming not down, but sideways!

If it's ok to post stuff about the other parks around Orlando than I'll post the info here. I can always PM you if not. I can give you a hint though..Universal has nothing..absolutely nothing on Disney. KSC is a favorite of mine as my background is in Aerospace Engineering. We had a blast when we took a non-park day at Cocoa Beach.

 

[Me&3]

I'm in

 

[heaven2dc]

Hello Neighbor! (I'm from Portland but now live in Virginia)

Great report so far - and awesome pics! Loved the video of the storm at Epcot - how scary watching the trees bend I treated my family to a grand gathering back in 1997 as a huge thank you - I was living then in West Virginia and I flew out 2 of my oldest son's friends and a sister-in-law to join me, my oldest 3 kids and my other DBIL, DSIL and 2 kids for 10 days. It was wonderful having everyone together but of course, as families are, there were some rough spots lol. (My late DH, myself & 5 kids originally drove across country in 1994 to go to WDW but at the motel in Kissimmee my DH suffered a heart attack & died so his family brought me up to WV to bury him there & we stayed there til 2002 where we now live in VA). Anyway, sorry for the long saga, here I am today having gone back only once this January w/DBFF and again with her in December 2008. My youngest two still haven't gone but want to soon so that will be my plan for March 2009!

Can't wait to read all about when your family arrives! Should be tons of fun!

 

[Me&3]

Hello Neighbor! (I'm from Portland but now live in Virginia)

Great report so far - and awesome pics! Loved the video of the storm at Epcot - how scary watching the trees bend I treated my family to a grand gathering back in 1997 as a huge thank you - I was living then in West Virginia and I flew out 2 of my oldest son's friends and a sister-in-law to join me, my oldest 3 kids and my other DBIL, DSIL and 2 kids for 10 days. It was wonderful having everyone together but of course, as families are, there were some rough spots lol. (My late DH, myself & 5 kids originally drove across country in 1994 to go to WDW but at the motel in Kissimmee my DH suffered a heart attack & died so his family brought me up to WV to bury him there & we stayed there til 2002 where we now live in VA). Anyway, sorry for the long saga, here I am today having gone back only once this January w/DBFF and again with her in December 2008. My youngest two still haven't gone but want to soon so that will be my plan for March 2009!

Can't wait to read all about when your family arrives! Should be tons of fun!

I'm so sorry

 

[LuvindisCruiser]

I am considering a Universal day just for the roller coasters,
my children will be ten when we go, what do you think?
And, we want to do a beach day, also !!
So, how long of a drive to the beach, and what else is in the
area once your are there ? For maybe a dinner after our beach day ?
We have driven to Cape Canaveral, is the beach you went to
close to that area ?

 

[shhbam]

I'm in

Hi Me&3, good to have you here.

Hello Neighbor! (I'm from Portland but now live in Virginia)

Great report so far - and awesome pics! Loved the video of the storm at Epcot - how scary watching the trees bend I treated my family to a grand gathering back in 1997 as a huge thank you - I was living then in West Virginia and I flew out 2 of my oldest son's friends and a sister-in-law to join me, my oldest 3 kids and my other DBIL, DSIL and 2 kids for 10 days. It was wonderful having everyone together but of course, as families are, there were some rough spots lol. (My late DH, myself & 5 kids originally drove across country in 1994 to go to WDW but at the motel in Kissimmee my DH suffered a heart attack & died so his family brought me up to WV to bury him there & we stayed there til 2002 where we now live in VA). Anyway, sorry for the long saga, here I am today having gone back only once this January w/DBFF and again with her in December 2008. My youngest two still haven't gone but want to soon so that will be my plan for March 2009!

Can't wait to read all about when your family arrives! Should be tons of fun!

Hello to you too heaven2dc. I hope you have a great time in December. We're thinking that the next time we go it'll be in late November - Early December.
Good luck in March too!

I am considering a Universal day just for the roller coasters,
my children will be ten when we go, what do you think?
And, we want to do a beach day, also !!
So, how long of a drive to the beach, and what else is in the
area once your are there ? For maybe a dinner after our beach day ?
We have driven to Cape Canaveral, is the beach you went to
close to that area ?

Hello again LuvindisCruiser. The only coasters I know of at US/IOA are Hulk, Dueling Dragons and Dr. Suesses. The ride height for Hulk is 54 inches. My kids wouldn't do Hulk if they met the height! Too scary. If you want coasters, the place to go is Busch Gardens in Tampa. We went to Cocoa Beach and it was only 1 hour away. Busch Gardens is also about 80 miles away and just over an hour. We didn't stay in Cocoa Beach for dinner, but we did buy out a beach supply store!

 

[shhbam]

We started the day at Hollywood Studios to get a FP for Toy Story. As you know this ride is very new and is still a remarkable draw, especially with Brazil tour groups. We got them and were able to ride in a manageable time. We were also able to ride Tower of Terror.

We really didn’t stay too long because we wanted to go to Typhoon Lagoon. We left DHS at 11:30 and rode a bus going to the Caribbean Beach resort and then on to Typhoon Lagoon.

We got over to TL around 12:10 or so and decided to go to Crush n’ Gusher first. This was a very fun ride! We really had a good time. Emily decided to sit it out – it looked too much like a roller coaster! Alex, Maria and I all rode in a 3 person raft.

We took a couple of laps around the lazy river. The water effects were nowhere near as cold as the waterfalls at Blizzard Beach. And that is a good thing! We got out and decided lunch was in order. We had cheeseburgers at Leaning Palms and as part of the Dining Plan we ordered ice cream but asked them to hold it for later. After lunch I went back to pick it up. Emily and I got Itzakadoozies, Maria the Mickey Sandwich and Alex got the Crunch Bar. As soon as Alex opened his up it was a puddle of chocolate and ice cream. Not even close to being frozen! I brought it back to the counter and asked for a replacement. It was very busy and it took awhile to get the new bar. When I did, the kid behind the counter handed me the bar and it was actually bending as he handed it to me! Well, I admit I got a litty ugly. I was ticked off that after waiting again in line that the kid actually had the guts to hand me an obviously melted ice cream bar. I made a comment to other people in line indicating that if they were ordering ice cream to remember to also ask for a straw. I don’t usually complain, but this was just a bit rediculous. My griping caught the attention of one of the cast members running a cash register. He stopped what he was doing and came over to the counter and basically told the kid to go and get another one and make sure that it is not melted. He also told him to make sure to close the freezer door. Well it turns out that all of the Crunch Bars were melted. Alex chose the Mickey Ears instead and we were on our way.

We walked around the park to Keelhaul and Mayday Falls and went up and down on those a couple times. We really wanted to do Gang Plank Falls (the family ride) but it was packed. We could see that a storm was rapidly approaching. It started raining pretty hard but no lightening yet so everything continued as normal and we actually had a blast getting dumped on while waiting in line! As we got to the top of Keehaul Falls, the lightening started. Only 2 bolts and the announcement came over the PA..”Due to the approaching storm, all water attractions are closed until further notice”. The lifegaurds packed it up right away and advised everyone to not just leave, but to seek shelter. We waited around for awhile, but decided to go back to the hotel and swim and then wait for my mom and step-dad to arrive.

We got back to POFQ in time for a quick swim and slide for the kids, but before we could get in, it too was closed due to lightening warnings.

Now what?! We went back to our room. I took the time to write some notes, do some accounting and everyone else took naps.

We ended up waiting longer as Mom and Gregg were delayed 3 hours in Denver!!

My sister was arriving shorty but we had ressies for 6 of us at the 50’s Prime Time Café at 9:00 PM and now we were running late. Mom and Gregg arrived and wanted to change and just relax for a second before rushing out. I told them that they didn’t have time for that!! This was the most challenging part of vacationing with extended family. I love them dearly but they don’t share my enthusiasm for arriving to reservations on time. This would be a trend for the 3 dinners that we had scheduled together.

Alex and I left to go secure our time and Emily, Maria, Mom and Gregg would follow as quickly as they could. We got to the restaurant exactly at 9:00. It was very busy and I told them to not rush for us but we were still seated at about 9:15. I called Maria to find out where they were and they weren’t too far behind, just arriving at the park. Our “Aunt” was needing to move on so she kept our “cousins” at the other tables entertained while we waited for them. I felt bad for her and was embarrased about interrupting her presentation. The good part is she really let them have it when they finally arrived! She told them that they would be lucky to get dessert tonight!

I had to try the pot roast because I’ve read that so many people loved it. It was very good. I think everyone liked their meals too. Our “Aunt” was so awesome. She did such a great job and we all had lots of fun. I was excited to have the kids look for their dessert through the View Finders, but apparently they don’t do it that way anymore. I asked and was told that too many of the View Finders “walk away”.

After dinner we met up with my sister (Jennie), her husband (Jerry) and their 2 kids, (my nieces Kaitie, age 14 and Kassidy, age 4.) We wanted to go over to TOT and maybe Rock N’ Roller Coaster. The lines for both were absurd. It was EMH here tonight and that was probably the reason. I forgot to mention that earlier in the morning just before we left we snagged FPs for Toy Story Mania for tonight.

We did Star Wars as we made our way over to Pixar Place. We almost walked on to that one. We were told by other vacationers that Cast Members at the rides would take the earliest FP and apply it to everyone in your group, as long as they have FPs. Well, of course they were out of FPs at this time, but again the very cool Cast Members came through for us. We had 4 valid FPs and we had 6 of us without, but they let us all in via the FP return line! Finally we were able to experience TSM. It was so cool, a great new addition.

My Mom and Gregg left at 11:00, but we stayed until 1:00. My sister and her family had been going since very early this morning and were wiped out.

I’ll talk to you later when we discuss our Grand Gathering Safari at Animal Kingdom.

 

[LuvindisCruiser]

WOW, your kids lasted till 1:00 !!!!
I think my 8 yr. old son would have passed out in the
nearest stroller by 11:00 !!!!!! (even if it wasn't ours)
How fun.
Keep 'em coming........................

 

[shhbam]

We were up earlier today and Gregg, Jerry and I met and discussed the plans for our day. Mom was pretty tired and wanted to sleep in so they would meet us later in the day.

So the 8 of us rode over to Magic Kingdom. We had breakfast at the Main St Bakery, I had the cinnamon roll (too big), Maria had the turnover and the kids had bagels with cream cheese.

Our first spot this morning was Toontown, where visited the Mouse Houses and then took pictures with them. Then we moved over to the tent for pictures with Princesses. Although the line was long, I very much recommended this for a nice peaceful, one-on-one environment between your kids and the princesses. The interaction you can get is worth the wait.

That's my niece Kassidy. She was just enchanted by Belle.

We went over to watch the Laugh Floor and I’m so glad we did. This show is just so funny. Great improvisation by the cast members playing the monsters in the show. After each show one member from the audience (who has been picked on the whole show) is given a pin. Yup, the kids were in to the pin trading and really wanted to get their hands on that one! We did come back to the Laugh Floor a few more times, but I never got that pin.

Mom and Gregg met us around 2:00 and we went to lunch at Pinocchio’s Village Haus. Lunch there was underwhelming, (it had to happen eventually.)

After lunch we got FPs for Philharmagic. My sister had taken her kids to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and when they got their FPs for that, they were given bonus fastpass for Philharmagic. We were all able to watch Mickey’s Phiharmagic together and we really loved it. Make sure you take the time to look away from the screen at all the kids (and some adults!) and how they are just mesmorized or how they try to grab at everything floating their way.

We got FPs for Space Mtn and the time to return was between 5:00 and 6:00. That was going to be cutting it close as our Grand Gathering event starts at 6:00.

We all rode Haunted Mansion and the kids all loved it. There have been some changes to this ride since the last time we were here and some I liked, but I think too much focus was placed on the lady who was married often, if you know what I mean.

Well, it was now 5:00. We’ve got to be at AK at 6:00, is there time for our FP to SM? I think no, so Mom, Gregg, Maria, Emily and I head to AK via Coronado Springs Resort. Wouldn’t you know it, we hit all stops at CSR! We get there on time and then we wait to see if everyone else will get there on time. They arrive late with some stress for all but we’re there finally.

For the Magical Gathering, all of the guests are broken up into groups. We were with the Antelope group. The lady who led the show surprised all of us with an exclusive pin. She cautioned us not to put it on Ebay as it is a very special pin.

Off went for our very own safari on the plains of Kilamonjaro. The safari was done without the poacher aspect, which I found to be quite nice. We got some great photos. The baby giraffe was out and about and we really had a close encounter with a larger giraffe as well as one of the white rhinos. What was nice is that we were able to take our time a bit more so than during the regular safari. I remember being told that we couldn’t stop to get a better picture, but this time our driver did stop a couple of times.

Isn't he cute?

This guy just popped out and surprised us. Very animatronic like! Kind of what you see on Dinosaur.

This is the 1st time we've seen the cheetahs out.

Can you see me?

After the safari, we made our way over to the Tusker House for a great African dinner and music performed by 3 wonderful musicians. We celebrated birthdays, anniversarys and my family asked them to publicly thank me for pulling us all together for such a special time. It’s always nice to hear good things from your family.

For the most part we were all in matching shirts!

The park was closed when we were done with dinner and they had folks all through the route out to guide us and answer any questions. It was really cool to be walking through AK almost all by yourselves. I noticed a couple of things that you normally just pass over in the daylight. The street lights in one area are actually ladybugs.

We arrived back at POFQ and everyone went for a swim and we also started planning for tomorrow. It’s EMH at the Studios tomorrow and I wanted to get there for rope drop. It was hard to convince everyone to get up way early for that, but I was pretty successful.

Talk to you soon, Jambo everyone.

 

[2xcited2sleep]

Still loving your trip report! Looks like you all are having a fantastic time. And how special to get to spend it with extended family (even if they don't entirely cooperate with the ADR schedule . The grand gathering safari sounds like such fun. I didn't even realize they offered that. You got some great pictures!!

More, please!

 

[Me&3]

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

 

[shhbam]

Still loving your trip report! Looks like you all are having a fantastic time. And how special to get to spend it with extended family (even if they don't entirely cooperate with the ADR schedule . The grand gathering safari sounds like such fun. I didn't even realize they offered that. You got some great pictures!!

More, please!

Thank you! We did have a great time. The Grand Gathering Safari costs 2 table service dinners for each person. It was worth it though.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

Here comes some more:

 

[shhbam]

Ok, so we got up way too early today…6:00 for EMH at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We’re there for the rope drop and it was actually civilized as we made our way to TOT and RNR. I honestly believed that there would be some pushing and shoving to get there first, but it didn’t happen. Some doof did run Alex over though and then look back at him like how dare he walk under him? Jerk!

Here is my niece Kassidy - also known as Minnie

A view from above

Hollywood Blvd at opening

Mickey in the morning

We started off on Tower of Terror. Alex and I went first as Maria didn’t feel up to it and volunteered to watch Kassidy while Jen and Jerry rode. Emily..right. Not this time.

We walked right on and went back up the queue to do it again. This time Jerry and Maria switched and we even got Emily to join us. She loved it.

Emily really didn’t want to go on Rock N’ Rollercoaster, in fact she started sobbing a bit, but her cousin convinced her to try and by the time we were through the donut, she was loving it. Maria isn’t much at all for rollercoasters, but even she liked this one and said she’ll do it again.

Alex is so proud of his achievements on the scary rides this trip that he likes to trash talk now!

We had to get some food so we hit Starring Rolls. A better method is needed here. We heard complaints about the process to get something to eat. There was a bit of a rush and some of the items were not replenished in time for some folks.

While the family was eating, I went to check on Toy Story Midway Mania. At 9:30, The FP return times were already at 5:00 – 6:00 pm!!! I knew we weren’t going to be at HS so I didn’t get them.

We instead went to see the Cars characters and along the way the kids got to meet Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, but Ron was having trouble with his hair so Kim sent him away.

We also stopped in to see Mike and Sulley but Mike had to step away for awhile, so we just took photos with Sulley.

Kassidy was absolutely mesmorized with the characters. This is why I wanted to bring my whole family. Magic and wonder.

We did have to meet up with Mom and Gregg over at Epcot, so our last ride of the day at DHS was Muppets 3D. I’m glad the kids like this ride. The Muppets are some of my favorites.

While at Epcot, Mom and Gregg had pulled a couple of FPs for Soarin’. We ran over and got some too, but for a later time, but now we know the trick.

We went over to Mission Space and we thought we’d ride the Green side for Alex just to see how he liked it. He loved it. In fact, he would ride it again – on the Orange side. While Mom, Gregg, Alex and I waited in line in the Orange queue, Emily and Kaitie rode the Green side 3 times! Emily loved it! Can you believe it?!

Next up was Test Track. Standby was posted at 40 minutes, but turned out to be more like 15.

Our FPs were ready for Soarin’ so off we went. Of course everyone loved it. We had 10 in our group so they sat us in Row 1 which turned out to be the top. This is the best spot to ride, no feet hanging down in front of you! My Mom has a bad neck so she really looks for rides like these, low stress. So this was her favorite ride and she said that she would ride it all day! For the more intense rides she brought a neck brace with her.

Lunch at Sunshine Seasons. This was a great place to eat and just let the kids pick out whatever they wanted. Emily came back with Broccoli and Beef with rice and Alex had a big sandwich.

After lunch we rode Living with the Land. Gregg is a big gardener and was really excited to see the hydroponic displays. It was nice for me, because since I had just seen it a couple of days earlier, I took a little snoozie!

Maria really wanted to get out to the countries, so we did, starting on the Canada side. We were eating at Le Cellier so we skipped over Canada for now. The kids got to meet Alice in England and Mom and Gregg stopped to watch the Beatles tribute band. We moved over to France and the kids met again with Princess Aurora.

Alex didn’t want to stick around with a Princess, he was itching to go to Japan and see what kinds of Pokemon gear they had. When he saw the display, his jaw dropped and he was lost in a world of Pokemon.

The last time we were here, Maria found a mango drink she really loved. I wanted to surprise he with it, but I couldn’t remember where it came from. I thought it was a smoothie and I was sure it was from Morroco. Well, Morocco didn’t have Mango, but they did have other flavors. Maria had caught up to us now and I told her about the surprise, but that they were out of mango. She settled for sharing a watermelon smoothie with Emily. Almost as soon as she finished her share, a lady walked by with the very drink Maria was looking for. It was sold in Japan. Whoopsie. She was too full now and dinner was very close, so she passed.

We got to Japan and I knew of Miyuki and how she makes candy animals for kids, so I told Emily and Kaitie to wait around her station as she would be out in 10 minutes. The area filled up quick and I thought that she wouldn’t be selected, but she was! Miyuki made Emily an awesome blue monkey. I didn’t take a picture of the monkey, but I do have video of it. She was thrilled. Boy is Miyuki talented. She starts with a ball of sugar and a clip here, a clip there and we’ve got a monkey, or an octopuss or an alligator. She really is amazing. I've got some video, but it is very sizable. I'm going to have to find a way to shrink it down. You'll really love to see Miyuki create her art. For now, here is Emily's blue monkey.

We made our way back around to Le Cellier. Their computer was broken and they were running a bit behind, but we didn’t mind. I’ve got to give you some history here. After our dinner at Boma, it was so good I thought about switching this Le Cellier dinner to Boma. I discussed what type of openings that had available. They told me that with some splitting up of our group we could be seated around 9:45. They did question me though. They almost asked “do you really know what you are doing?!” They said that Le Cellier is the model restaurant at WDW that all others are striving to be. That is a pretty big complement. I told them I was well aware of their reputation, but we enjoyed our Boma meal so much that we wanted our families to taste it too. Well after we had such a nice meal at Tusker House, I decided to keep Le Cellier. I did really want to try Le Cellier after so much hubbub.

Dinner was good, but was it knock my socks off? No. I’m glad we ate here though. I had some of the cheese soup and the Filet Mignon and risotto as my entrée. Maria chose the Filet too. If you like mushrooms, this is the dish for you. Desserts were good too.

Tinkerbelle lights for the girls!

Kaitie's smores

My chocolate whiskey cake

Emily's special creation from the chef: Mango sorbet.

After dinner we took the bus back to POFQ as we had to pack. Our last night at the resort before we move into the rental house. Boo!!

Our Day 9 will include some real cool things for us, so I hope you come back.

 

[LuvindisCruiser]

 

[Me&3]

More More

 

[shhbam]

Up around 9 and we finished our packing. We checked out and left our bags with bell services and went for a walk to the Riverside part of Port Orleans.

I called National Car Rental over at Disney’s Car Care Center and arranged for them to come and get me and take me over to pick up the van I had reserved. I had reserved a minivan just in case we were going to partner with anyone as we moved around central Florida. When I got to the center, I was asked if I wouldn’t mind taking a different vehicle. Apparently minivans are in big demand and even though the guy didn’t admit it, I think they gave mine away to someone who paid more. I asked about why it was so much to rent a car for the week we were there. I was expecting to see a compact type car for around $15 per day. Well, that never happened. In fact, the van I reserved cost just as much as a compact car! I said no problem to switching out. I got a Dodge Journey which to me was just like a minivan anyway. To thank me for switching, he gave me a free tank of gas! That was probably $70!!

After we climed into our Journey, we drove back to POFQ, parked and decided to go to Hollywood Studios for Alex to see the Block Party Bash. We really rushed, but we got there just in time.

As Maria and Emily followed us, she was handed some Toy Story Midway Mania FPs by someone who was leaving the park. Apparently it had been broken down for quite some time and people were handing away their fastpasses to people coming through the gate. As far as we know, it was down all day. This is the only ride during our time (10 days) that broke down. As we would see, other venues in the Orlando area couldn’t match that.

One of the biggest highlights of not only the day, but also the entire trip was Alex’s selection to attend Jedi Academy training. We got there early and he and Emily sat along the line and waited patiently for the show, and selection process to begin. What a bummer to see other parents pushing their kids over other kids to get on that line as the show is starting. One lady actually stepped on a small boy and didn’t say a word to him. So sad.

The Jedi Master came out and asked “Who here wants to be a Jedi?” Alex must have jumped up 10 feet in the air. “Me, I do”, he said. The Jedi Master looked at him and was impressed by his enthusiasm and invited him up on stage!! Emily didn’t get selected, but she really cheered for her brother. She is such a good kid, she really loves him. He was in heaven. When he fought Darth Vader, he was the only trainee to remember all of his moves. He was so proud when he was handed his diploma!

We decided to go see the Indiana Jones show next. The casting director came around looking for extras for the show and stood right in front of me when she asked for the loudest people. I caught her attention and was selected to be one of the “screamers”. My wife was so proud of me. I was to be in her favorite movie! Now, she looks at me like I’ve met Harrison Ford, the reason for her liking the movie! I had a blast, but boy was I hot in the costume they put me in.

That's me in the middle.

After Indy it was time for us to leave and meet everyone over at MK. We took a bus to the TTC and figured we would just transer to the MK Express monorail. Turns out it would have been faster to walk from TTC to MK. Alright that is exaggerting a bit, but we did see the ferry make 2 trips! We got a couple of excuses on why we would go 10 feet and stop, 10 feet and stop again.

The kids wanted to get ear hats, so we let them customize their own in the hat shop. You start with the base and attach different kinds of ears to them. You can add patches to them too. Then you can have your name stitched in.

We were going to the Laugh Floor because everyone wanted to see that one again, but the time was again too close for me, so off to ‘Ohana I went. I got over there and was able to enjoy an adult beverage after checking in. The group wasn’t too far behind me and we were all seated in no time.

The food was good, different again from our last time. We did get some raw pork though. I was excited for everyone to see Wishes from the restaurant. I had told them how ‘Ohana dims the lights and the servers all back off and just let the diners enjoy the show. For some reason, that didn’t happen. The lights dimmed, but busboys were attending to tables and getting in the way during the show. It just wasn’t as intimate as it was our last time here.

We monorailed it back to MK to switch to bus and back to POFQ to pick up our car and luggage and it was goodbye to Port Orleans French Quarter and we thought, Disneyworld. The good news is that it wasn’t goodbye quite yet.

Off to the house we went. We were staying in a nice house that was only 4 or 5 miles away from Disneyworld just off Irlo Bronson Hwy. Wow, does that road get busy! Our house was real nice and it had a private pool too.

Tomorrow we’re going to Cocoa Beach to swim and then over to Ron Jon Surf Shop.