Trip Report - June 23-30, extended family

[buffy24]

We visited WDW & IOA between June 23rd and June 30th. We were traveling with extended family: Us (hubby, 10 yr old son, me), mother-in-law, my parents, my sister, her hubby & 9 yr old daughter & 8 yr old son. We opted to follow the park day suggestions of easywdw & it went very well. We spent our first day (Saturday the 23rd) at Blizzard Beach. The day was very cloudy, with the threat of rain looming in the air, but we opted to take the chance and I am glad we did. The crowds were very low, mostly thanks to the forecast of heavy rain that never materialized. It was great! We loved the rides. My 75 year old mother-in-law even rode Summit Plummit! Sunday we spent the day at Universal's Islands of Adventure. It rained all day, and the rain got heavier as the day progressed. But again, crowds were low. I never saw the Forbidden Journey wait time over 20 minutes. The only bummer was that The Hulk closed, so we missed out on riding that. Monday, we went to Epcot. It rained on & off, but still pretty low crowds. We just carried ponchos all the time and we were fine. It was the first trip to Epcot for most of us and we very much enjoyed it. My hubby & I had dinner at Le Cellier, which was fantastic. Tuesday, we went to Animal Kingdom. It rained on & off that day to, but crowds still weren't bad. Expedition Everest was down for most of the day, but we were getting ready to leave around 7 and I noticed it had reopened so we ran over to ride it. Loved it! Wednesday was Magic Kingdom. It was crowded, but I didn't think it was that bad. No worse than a Saturday at Disneyland. Rained in the a.m. then cleared off and didn't rain the rest of the day. Got in all the rides we wanted. Thursday was back to Epcot. Hit some things we hadn't done on Monday. It was sunny & very hot, as summer should be. Friday was Hollywood Studios. Got in all of our rides, including 3 times in a row on Tower of Terror, while everyone else was waiting for Fantasmic to start. Also hot & sunny that day. The only "bad" thing about the whole week was that there weren't nearly enough cast members directing the crowds before/during the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. I believe some of the people were new & inexperienced with the crowd control, as I heard a senior cast member yelling at another member "not to let people throught that way." Our group got separated in the crowd. Fortunately, my 10 year old had enough presence of mind to take his dad's had and his 8 year old cousin's hand so they wouldn't get separated. I've never experienced a fireworks show that crazy before, even the ones at Disneyland, which are ridiculous at times. Other than this, things were great, rain wasn't a problem and we all had a great time!