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

[shhbam]

After reading so many trip reports and using great advice found here at DIS for our last trip to Disneyworld, I thought I’d give a trip report a try. I hope those of you who are planning a trip can find something in here that will help you.

Staying at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter
July 16th – July 26th, 2008

Me: Rob – I teach Engineers and Designers how to build parts in computers utilizing 3D software. I’ve been to Disneyworld one other time for family vacation, but have been a few times for conventions (definitely not as fun!)

Maria – Recent Masters in Teaching graduate. Looking for a 3rd grade class to educate. Making her 2nd trip to WDW.

Emily – 11, still loves the Disney Princesses, still afraid of Tower of Terror! Making her 2nd trip to WDW.

Alex – 8, fearless, up to a point. Pokemon and video games rule, but can’t let go of Buzz and Woody. Making his 2nd trip to WDW.


I’d better let you know up front that I am a ferocious planner. This trip has been in the works for almost 3 years.

In Spring of 2007 I thought it would be fun to include our immediate families in this grand vacation. I told everyone about it and asked that those that were interested and could swing it just let me know if they were in. A larger group of people could arrange a Grand Gathering with Disney and the thought of having access to the evening safari at Animal Kingdom was really cool!

When I met up with the family in July of 2007, I had prepared a slide show with what they could expect to fork over in $$ and all of the activities that we’d be able to do together. After this presentation, Maria’s family declined, but we had my entire side of the family (8 adults and 6 children not counting us) all on board. This was going to be huge!!

Fast forward to February and I find a great deal for some Disney shirts and I buy 18 shirts for all of us to wear, Mickey for the boys and Tinkerbell for the girls. Reservations at POFQ had already been made for us, my 2 sisters and their families and my mom and stepdad. My brother said he’d be making his ressies soon. We stayed at Wilderness Lodge 3 years ago and absolutely loved it and we were torn with staying there again or checking out a new place.

I had been watching airfare beginning in January and I was absolutely sure that we wouldn’t have to pay more than $250 round trip from Portland, Oregon to Orlando. That is what I had seen in past years. Well, the increase in fuel prices really struck down those plans!! I had budgeted $420 each for airfare and we were able to stay under that, but not by much. It is also a challenge to find a decent flight from out west to the east coast that gets you in at a decent time. We’ll be leaving from PDX at 7:00 AM and with a stop in Cincinnati, arriving in Orlando at 5:30 PM.

April comes around and there is a change in plans. My brother and one of my sisters opts out. I’ll miss them coming along, but with these tough times right now (my brother and brother-in-law are both in the housing industry) I was proud of them for making the right decision.

So why this trip? There are a couple of reasons. Maria just completed her Masters in Teaching degree and we are celebrating getting Mommy back! She’s been in school for 2½ years, mostly on Saturdays. She’s given up 2 years of soccer, baseball and softball for a chance to make a better life for our kids and all the children she will have the pleasure to teach.

The other reason is sort of personal. I see the kids growing up so fast and I want to make sure that we get to have a big blowout vacation before their attention shifts to teenage concerns. We’re a very close family and Dad really wants to enjoy these remaining “kid” years you know?

We’re actually spending 2 weeks in Florida but this trip report will focus on the Disney side. If you want to know about the 2nd week (rental house, Universal, the Atlantic Ocean and KSC) let me know.

I’ll discuss the plan in the next post…

 

[shhbam]

As I mentioned in the 1st installment, I am a big planner. Maria kids me all the time about all of the charts and presentations I put together.

I’ve developed a very simple Excel chart that tracks our Disney Dining Plan credits. It lists our day’s plans, including ADRs, times and confirmation numbers. If you would like a copy I’d be happy to send it to you.

Our Disney Dining choice is the Basic plan. We’ll get 1 Counter Service, 1 Table Service and 1 snack per person per day. We used this during our last visit and it was a remarkable value. We found some really great restaurants and will be returning to them on this trip. We’re also going to try out some new ones.

This is the tentative plan:

Day 1: Travel day and checking out POFQ, Boardwalk and Downtown Disney. Dinner at either Bongo’s Cuban Café or Earl of Sandwich.

Day 2: Kids choice for parks, Dinner at Whispering Canyon. We had such a great time at the Wilderness Lodge last time, but we didn’t eat at Whispering Canyon!! We’re making up for that this time.

Day 3: Magic Kingdom. Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern.

Day 4: Typhoon Lagoon then Epcot. Dinner at Biergarten.

Day 5: Animal Kingdom. Dinner at Boma.

Day 6: Blizzard Beach then Hollywood Studios. Dinner at 50’s Prime Time Café.

Day 7: Magic Kingdom / Animal Kingdom. Grand Gathering Safari

Day 8: Epcot. Dinner at Le Cellier.

Day 9: Hollywood Studios / Move out day. Dinner at Ohana.


Planning for just 4 of us is tough. Planning for more than that is crazy! I’ve had Disney Dining on speed dial for the last 3 months, adding and deleting people to our existing reservations. I have even kept an extra reservation just in case the Grand Gathering falls through. Emily has a severe peanut allergy that we have made Disney aware of. They have been exceptional handling her situation the last time we were in WDW and we know they’ll be just as good this time around.

We’ve kept a countdown calendar and the kids were so excited with each significant date. I’m tying up all the loose ends at work and making sure we all have enough sunscreen, clothes and comfortable shoes. The kids got some new Crocs and Maria and I have Teva sandals.

The heat and humidity is something that we are just not used to here in SW Washington / Portland area. It has been 90 degrees or so here but low humidity. I’ve been warning everyone about it too but they’ll understand when we get there. I’m also concerned about the crowds during the summer season. These factors did play a part in selecting the date but ultimately this is the best time for us to go so we’ll manage the heat and the crowds as best we can. The longer park hours will help.

In the next report I’ll tell you how Day 1 – Travel day goes. Stay tuned!!

 

[myladyisatramp]

You have got my attention. Can't wait

 

[shhbam]

Up at 4 AM, oh come on..I was up already, you know..”too excited to sleep”. Our very cool neighbors took us to the airport at 5 (they both work very early and the airport is on the way.)

We had a small delay getting out of Portland, but in no time we were winging our way to Cincinnati or is it Western Kentucky? Even with our delay we still made it to Orlando on time, love those tailwinds!

We waited a bit for Magical Express, but not too long. We had folks on our bus going to Old Key West, Saratoga Springs as well as Port Orleans Riverside, but how awesome for us the first stop would be Port Orleans French Quarter.

When we arrived, we had to see the pool. The pictures we had seen of “Scales” had the kids so excited to ride the slide at Doubloon Lagoon. Only feet I said! We have to have some dinner. We ate at Sassagoula Float Works and Food Factory. I had the Quesadilla, Maria had the Pot Roast and Emily and Alex had the Burger combos. We weren’t yet on the dining plan so we paid for this one out of pocket. While we were eating the kids got to design their own cookie.

What to do for tonight? We were just going to take it easy, just go for a swim and bed early to get ready for attacking the parks on Saturday. Unfortunately, someone got sick in the pool and the lifeguards closed it while a cleaning took place. Well, what can we do instead? It just happened to be Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom. I went to the concierge at the hotel to see if I could add a day to our Magic Your Way pass and would the cost justify the trip. When I was told it would be a whopping $7.46 to spend the evening and early morning at MK, well let me think about it…..done!

The first ride for us was to go over to Space Mountain. Alex and I rode it the last time we were here and he was only 6 years old. I think he thought the ride was Astro Orbiter, but there was no changing his mind. So this was to be a sentimental trip. Emily is not much for any ride other than Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, but I was able to get her to go with us. Maria also made the trip even though she also is not a roller coaster fan.

We got to see Wishes from Toontown. This was a very cool location to see as the castle fireworks were on our left side and the big effect rockets were on our right side.

We all rode It’s a Small World and then the kids rode it again. Once per trip is good enough for me on that one!

Next we moved on to Haunted Mansion. In what is a very common event for us, we had to convince Emily to ride. The daring side of her definitely comes from Maria!

Since it was getting later, we made our way back to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. The crowds were really thinning out so we rode Buzz two more times with hardly a wait.

We shut it down just before closing, heading to the bus for the ride back to POFQ. Lights out at 2:30. Yikes, that is late!

A quick side note: Everyone has said that Crocs are the way to go here, so we got Maria and the kids each a pair. Well, they all had blisters by the end of the night. I’m sure the humidity had something to do with that. My Teva sandals also were wearing on me and I’ve had them for years with no problem. We do not have humidity in Vancouver!! A quick trip to the First Aid station to get some Band-Aids remedied the blisters.

Coming up next: Kid’s Choice Day and Dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe

 

[earthfaries]

Hi! I'm subbing ~ now I'm going back to read

 

[shhbam]

Hi myladyisatramp, thanks for reading!

Hello earthfaries! I hope you're caught up now because the next post is coming in just minutes...!

 

[shhbam]

Well, after such a long night we decided to sleep in. We got up at 10:30 and decided to head over to Blizzard Beach for some fun in the water. I read the sign as the bus pulled in to BB. It read “Closed due to capacity”! I thought, oh boy, this isn’t going to be much fun.

I found out that they don’t have towels for you to just use, you need to rent them?! For a buck you can rent a very nice towel. I also rented a small locker to store the rented towels as well as some of our other stuff and found that I should have rented the large locker. Two bucks more and we’ve got a locker that fits!

We wanted to join all of the lazy people in the lazy river. (Those of you familiar with the Top 7 Attractions at WDW might recognize some of the phrases I’ll be using along the way. Stacy had a big influence on Emily!)

After the lazy river we made our way over to the Ski Patrol area. The kids scooted across the icebergs. Alex made it all the way and Emily, not so much. She made it to the second one before she fell in.

Alex wanted to ride the zipline and I had a feeling we might run into some difficulties here. Alex is good in the water, but does panic sometimes when he can’t touch the bottom. So, sure enough after he hit the water, he panicked! I was all ready to jump in, but the lifeguard, who has probably seen this a hundred times, recognized the situation immediately. With a blow of the whistle and a quick leap from her tower she was on him in a nanosecond. I have to commend Disney for training their lifeguards so well. They didn’t chastise either him or me, they suggested that he try the slide right next to the zipline first just to get used to the depth and then give it another try. He did the slide many times, but was really embarrassed about having to be saved and did not ride the zipline again.

As a family we all rode Teamboat Springs. We had such a blast doing this that we ran all they way back up Mt. Crushmore to do it again.

We had lunch at Lottawatta Lodge and decided that we’d leave early as we could see a storm moving in. It was getting dark in a hurry. Our bus driver relayed to us almost as soon as we left the park that Disney was closing the water parks due to the lightening and that all free buses should report to BB and Typhoon Lagoon.

Instead of going back to the hotel, we decided to go to the Wilderness Lodge a bit early. We stayed here last time and even though we are from the Northwest, we just love this place. POFQ is nice, but I have to confess, it’s no Wilderness Lodge.

We had an ADR at Whispering Canyon, but we were an hour early. I inquired if they might be able to squeeze us in, it was only 5:30 and it didn’t look like the dinner crowd had arrived yet. As Disney seems to do every time, they took care of us and got us in. We were seated at the very back of the restaurant, close to Artist Point, so we were away from where all the fun happens. We weren’t left out of the fun completely however. Emily loves ketchup on everything and she wanted to ask the server for some but I knew what would happen if she asked. I quietly mentioned to her to not ask so loud for ketchup. What I didn’t know was that our server was right behind me when I kind of shushed Emily. Our server didn’t say a word but motioned for the kids to follow her into the main dining room. Maria looked at me like “what’s going on?” Next thing we hear both Emily and Alex yelling “WE NEED KETCHUP!!” The kids come back to our table followed by a number of other kids toting ketchup bottles. They fill every available inch of our table with the stuff. Thankfully someone who probably wasn’t paying attention asked for ketchup shortly afterword.

Maria, Emily and I ordered the skillet. Yikes! What a load of food, but wow, it was really good.

After dinner we took a bus to Downtown Disney to do some shopping. The parks were crowded, but DTD was crazy crowded! It was almost elbow to elbow from the bus drop-off through the McDonalds area.

Once we bought some pins and let Alex drool in the Lego store, we took the boat back to POFQ and hit the sack at 11:00.

Tip: I just read a great tip in a magazine. If you use Photopass as much as we did, take a picture of the code on the back of your card. If you lose the card, you can use the photo to get the number and then give it to one of the Photopass locations and they can place all of your photos on another card.

Next up: Disney’s Hollywood Studios and then Magic Kingdom for dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern.

 

[reyasmommy]

Great TR, can't wait to read more!

 

[OhMari]

I'm a little confused-did anyone else go to WDW with you. I know you said your sister and brother cancelled.

Also, how did you get in the water park if it was at capacity? Do they still let in people that are staying at resorts?

 

[shhbam]

Great TR, can't wait to read more!

Thanks. I'll get the next bit up here this afternoon.

I'm a little confused-did anyone else go to WDW with you. I know you said your sister and brother cancelled.

Also, how did you get in the water park if it was at capacity? Do they still let in people that are staying at resorts?

Hi OhMari. I guess they let folks staying at the resort in, but maybe people coming in cars or other buses are turned away.

My Mom and Step Dad and one of my sisters and her family joined us after 5 days on our own.

 

[shhbam]

We were up earlier today and the first thing we had to do was to go for a swim. The kids were also dying to go down the slide on Scales.

After the swim we headed over to the Studios. I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you how hot it was, but it really was! We arrived just in time to see the High School Musical parade. Emily was given a job by one of the cast members. She was to hold the rope that kept everyone back while the parade made its way into the area where the main show was to be performed. It was a great show and I’m still really impressed by the effort given by the performers in the heat.

We had lunch over at Toy Story Pizza Planet and it was quite good. After lunch we stopped by to see Muppets 3D. We all love this show.

I was so excited to see Lights, Motors, Action this time around. It was an awesome show, make sure you fit this in.

That’s hot!

Next we’re off to Star Tours. I’ve always liked this ride and now my son is a Star Wars geek. After Star Wars we take a look at the wait for Toy Story Midway Mania. Yikes, it’s 75 minutes and the Fastpass return time is during our dinner time. Oh well, we’ll have to come back another day to try this one.

I have heard tales of Brazillian tour groups, but have never experienced them before. Well, that all changed today. Wow, during our trip we saw lots of tour groups with around 100 kids in each. It got to the point that I wondered if there was any kids left in Brazil!

It was getting close to the time we needed to get over to Magic Kingdom for our dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. We still wanted to ride Tower of Terror but do we have time? Will we convince Emily? The answer to both is YES! She made it and actually really liked it.

We are now running late for dinner so we take the 1st bus available to us to switch over to the Magic Kingdom. It happened to be the Contemporary. We run upstairs to catch the monorail, but it’s running backward towards the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian! We ride it to the Ticketing and Transportation Center and grab the Express Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. Yes, walking would have been faster! We were able to ride with the Monorail pilot and the kids got co-drivers licenses.

We made it to the Liberty Tree Tavern just in time and found the place crowded. I really didn’t know what to expect with this place. Actually, while I was contemplating our reservations I almost cancelled this one as it just didn’t seem like a good fit for us. Boy, was I wrong! This place was so good. I really have to give thanks to timandlesley from this Trip Report board for convincing me to keep this ressie.

After a very filling dinner Emily and I rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority while Alex and Maria did some window shopping.

We all did the Swiss Family Treehouse and it was nice looking out into the park at twilight. We also made sure to take a Jungle Cruise in the dark. Those Hippos really come out of nowhere when it’s dark!

I wanted to get a good spot for Wishes so we made our way to the bridge between the Crystal Palace and Adventureland. This was a good place to watch from. This show is just phenomenal. I love taking photos of all the fireworks and castle effects even though most of them don’t turn out, but every once and while I’ll get a keeper.

I really wanted to video the finale and get everyone’s reaction on video, but of course my memory card filled up just ahead of the finale. I just love the way everyone all oohs and ahhs in sync and then applauds and yells after the last blast.

We’ve been teasing Alex about his crush on Selena Gomez and Emily suggested that when they get married that Alex and Selena would get the Bride and Groom ears!

We thought it was time to go, but it just happened to be EMH at the Magic Kingdom again! In all of my planning how could I have missed this?!.

We made the rounds..Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland Speedway, Buzz and also the Magic Carpets. We were tiring out quickly though. Emily was falling asleep in the queue for Tiki Room.

Speaking of the Tiki Room, I really miss the old managers! The new management just took over and, I don’t know how they got away with it, really cut back one of my favorite Disney songs …”In the Tiki-Tiki-Tiki-Tiki-Tiki Room.”

Since it was so late we took the bus back to POFQ and went to bed.

Coming up next: Epcot and Biergarten

 

[Disneyvirg]

Really enjoying your trip report. Keep it coming, please!

 

[Honeymooner04]

Really enjoying your trip report!

 

[punkin1763]

Sounds like fun! I'm enjoying your trip report.

 

[shhbam]

Really enjoying your trip report. Keep it coming, please!

Really enjoying your trip report!

Sounds like fun! I'm enjoying your trip report.

Thanks to you all. I'm happy to share our trip with you.

The next bit will be up shortly.

~Rob

 

[shhbam]

Today we’re off to Epcot. We waited for almost 30 minutes for an Epcot bus at the POFQ bus station. We watched 3 Animal Kingdom / Blizzard Beach busses come through.

Just like the last time we were here it was so hot at Epcot, it must be all of the pavement?!

We didn’t know what to go for but we did know we needed to get some food first. We did check the status board and ran over to get a FastPass for Mission Space.

While we waited for our time at MS we dined at the Electric Umbrella. After lunch Alex and I did the Green side. I thought it would be better for Alex to start with Green. He loved it!

After MS we walked over to Club Cool for a couple of quick refreshments. I also planned to have Maria and the kids try Beverly. Of course I suggested that it will really cool you off if you drink the entire cup without stopping!! As expected, their faces indicated how much they liked the Beverly. Not so much. We liked the Vitablend from Japan and the Apple from Mexico. Emily came up with a great plan to introduce the family to Beverly when they arrive.

We really wanted to ride Soarin’ so we took a walk over there. At 2:00 the FPs were gone for Soarin. . Bummer.

We decided to go to the Seas with Nemo and then Turtle Talk with Crush. Alex asked Crush how he likes swimming in the EAC.

We also took a walk through the aquarium. Emily found a Hidden Mickey in the dolphin tank.

We went back to Soarin’ to find out how long the standby line was. We said no thanks when we saw it was at 90 minutes.

We went to go on Living with the Land because we had seen the pictures of pumpkins being turned into Mickey Ear pumpkins. As we were leaving the start of the ride, a lady in front of us on the boat got a phone call and was on her cell phone the whole ride. Didn’t even have a consideration for the rest of the boat. We couldn’t even hear the narration over her dialogue.

As we were leaving LWTL we heard thunder outside. We started off towards the World Showcase. Across the lagoon we could see that a storm was rapidly approaching. You could barely see France! We thought we’d be able to over to Mexico before we got wet, but the storm was moving too fast. We got to one of the gift stores and hid while the storm blew through. The store got packed with others seeking shelter. The storm really brewed itself into a mini hurricane. The plants outside the store were all blown over and people were scattering everywhere. I’ve included a small video to show you the intensity. It’s funny how the sun is shining bright throughout!

During a lull in the storm, we got out in time to get to Mexico pavilion and ride with the 3 Cabelleros. We also were able to say hi to Donald Duck over there.

We continued our trip around the lake: Over to China to see the acrobats, a quick stop in Germany and Italy too. We stopped in at the American Adventure to see all of the American relics from the Henry Ford collection. We even stopped off to hear a Billy Joel tribute band, their name was 52nd St. I’m a huge Billy Joel fan.

Dinner at Biergarten was up next. I really didn’t expect much from a buffet, but as I’ve come to find out many times eating at Disney, the food was terrific. They seat you with other groups at the same table, just the way it’s done in Germany at the real biergartens (I'm very familiar with biergartens. I was lucky enough to get to spend 5 weeks in Stuttgart, Germany for work)

We met some real nice folks from Ontario, Canada. After our dinner the band struck up and the kids were invited down to the dance floor.

We finished dinner just as Illuminations was going to start. We wanted to make a run to Soarin’ while Illuminations was going. Well, I messed up here too. The World Showcase and Future World have different closing times and I had them backward. So, no Soarin’ tonight, but we did get to the bus station before the masses.

We did have a crowded bus back but it was a quick ride.

I called to check in with family back home to see how excited everyone was. My 4 year old niece was so excited. She has a planned breakfast with the princesses in the castle when they arrive. Emily and Alex were very happy to have other kids with them to share the magic.

Next up: Animal Kingdom and probably our favorite restaurant..Boma.

Please feel free to ask me any questions that you might have. Plus it's nice from you all.

 

[letstalkboutdisney]

Great trip report. We leave in 4 days. We are going to boma, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to day about it.

 

[LuvindisCruiser]

Subscribing !
I love to read trip reports that have kids around the same
age as mine (they are 8 yrs. old) Just to get some good ideas
for our next trip !!!
Thanks for the info. about the crocs. We have worn them
@ disneyland, and thought they were great.
But, I will keep in mind the humidity at WDW while wearing crocs.
Can't wait for the next update !

 

[shhbam]

Great trip report. We leave in 4 days. We are going to boma, so I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to day about it.

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.

Subscribing !
I love to read trip reports that have kids around the same
age as mine (they are 8 yrs. old) Just to get some good ideas
for our next trip !!!
Thanks for the info. about the crocs. We have worn them
@ disneyland, and thought they were great.
But, I will keep in mind the humidity at WDW while wearing crocs.
Can't wait for the next update !

Hi LuvindisCruiser, glad you stopped by.
I hope you find some good ideas in the report.
Once the kids had the Band-Aids, they really had no more problems with the Crocs. Maria just wore a pair of good wicking socks with hers and she was good too.

 

[shhbam]

We were up early today and we wanted to get an earlier start. We knew we’d have a better chance of riding Expedition Everest with a little wait.

I thought AK was opening at 8 this morning but MK had the EMH. We got there at a little after 9 and they had just opened. We took off to Asia and EE. Maria and Emily decided not to ride this morning. Right, they decided! So it was only Alex and me. The standby line was at 10 minutes but I think we made it on in less time than that. We were in the last row for our first ride. Wow, we totally loved this ride. It is so well done and really fun.

We then rode again with a 25 minute wait and grabbed FPs for later. This time we asked for the front. It is even better from the front! Great view from the spot with the broken track.

Throughout the morning I had noticed a smell. With all the heat and humidity in Florida there were a number of people who really didn’t smell the best, you know?! Except now the smell seemed to be wherever I was. It turns out that the shirt I was wearing somehow made its way out of the dirty pile of laundry into what I was packing for our trip. It is one of my workout shirts and the bright sun really brought out its aroma. I was totally embarrassed. After our 2nd ride on EE I had to get rid of it. I didn’t care what kind of shirts were available in the store, I was buying one to replace the smelly shirt I was wearing. I got a nice shirt and the humiliation was over!

Alex got himself a “I conquered Everest” shirt. He was so proud to have tackled EE.

One of the best quotes of the trip came when I asked Alex what he wanted for lunch and he said “I eat adventure for lunch”

We had lunch at the Flame Tree BBQ and as we ate we watched a cool thunderstorm blow through AK. With lightening in the area we could see that they stopped people from riding EE. We saw an unmanned train climbing the peak. The color of the sky contrasted well with the Mt. Everest.

We caught Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade and then took off to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. We are really conscious about how we can reduce waste and conserve so this was a very cool place for us. We even got to see and hear the talking trash can while at Conservation Station. The kids and parents were having a great time interacting with the trash can.

We took a walk on the Pangini Trail. Apparently there was a warning given to all of us, but I totally missed it. While on the trail someone said “those gorillas are so cool I really want to just wave to him.” Well not knowing why they wouldn’t, I did. I waved to a Gorilla. Maria quickly got on me and told me to stop. I missed the part that we are not supposed to wave as it is a sign of challenge! Everyone couldn’t believe I waved! Again, I was embarrassed.

Because it was so hot today we had some ice cream trouble. As soon as Alex opened his Mickey bar bag and pulled out the bar, whoops! The ice cream separated from the stick and fell to the ground. Alex was so disheartened but the cast member who sold us the ice cream quickly replaced it. We may not have run into the Dream Squad and got a Dream Fastpass or Dream Ears, but we did have some Magic on this trip. Disney’s cast members are simply the best.

Maria, Alex and I rode Dinosaur and enjoyed it. Alex and I waited in a very long line to ride Primeval Whirl. This one is not one of my favorites. It’s very jerky and really throws you around. While we rode PW Emily and Maria were on Triceratops Spin. Emily even had time to go to the area where you can uncover dinosaur bones in the sand.

We were able to walk in to Finding Nemo the musical just as it was about to start. We had seen a huge line for it earlier in the day and we really wanted to see this, but didn’t want to stand in line. I’m glad we saw the show. It was really well done and the performers are such great singers.

We went to have our pictures taken with Pooh and the gang. Eeyore is Maria’s most favorite character of all. It was so cool that we were the last family for the session. After taking pictures with each, the characters had to go for a break. Eeyore spent extra time with Maria, even getting on his knees, proposing like!

Maria even got to escort Tigger back up the walk! She was so happy!

The foot blisters were really bugging us all today so a quick trip to first aid for a few Band-Aids took care of that.

We watched It’s Tough to be a Bug. We all really like this one..except Emily, too creepy she says. After this we decided to go catch a bus for our dinner at Boma.

The food at Boma is absolutely phenomenal. The soups cannot be missed. Take little bits of each because if you miss one of them, you’ll be sorry. I can’t believe the tastes. The African spices and creative dishes are so impressive. This is by far our favorite place to eat at WDW.

The chef came out to take Emily and me through the buffet line to tell us what she can and can’t eat. He said that she’ll have to stay away from all of the desserts because of cross-contamination concerns. He told her he would make her a special dessert. He brought out a cookie that states that it is peanut-free. We couldn’t believe it! He surrounded the cookie with vanilla ice cream that they had to call room service for! She was in heaven! As we were leaving, our waiter brought Emily a to-go bag with some more cookies in it!!! If you are interested, the name of the company that makes the cookies is Divvies.

Alex put together a narration of the entire buffet. I’ll include links to his videos below. They were broken up into smaller pieces.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

We did eat too much and Maria was feeling sick on the way home. It was because we stuffed ourselves!

On they way back our little boy fell asleep on the bus. He was out cold by the time we reached POFQ.

The family is coming tomorrow. Our plan is to meet them at POFQ and then all have dinner at 50’s Prime Time Café at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

I’ll have that update posted tomorrow. Stay tuned!!