Vance family treks to Disney Sept 11-15th COMPLETED

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Cast of characters:

Melissa - 31 that's me, sahm of 4. Has loved Disney all my life, has made over 75 trips in my life. I went to college at UCF & spent many days in the parks during this time. Have always lived 3 hours away from Disney.

Lane - 33 dh who didn't join in on the Disney obsession until we met. He is a major go with the flow type guy. People try to call me a bully because I always make the plans but it is seriously what he prefers!

Hannah - 9 our oldest who is just starting to get into the thrill rides. She is sassy, all girl and still thinks she is a princess.... she'll always be a princess to me!

Julia - 7 our younger dd, more of a tomboy but still like to dress up. She is still iffy about thrill rides, I always thought she would be the gutsy one.

Ian - 4 our older ds. This is the first time we are going that he is 40 inches tall. That opens a whole new Disney world to him. Soarin, Test Track and Tower of Terror here he comes!

Jackson - 17 months. Jack was born with severe torticollis (wry neck) which caused plagiocephaly (flattened head). He wore a helmet to correct the plagio but after months of pt and other methods, his torticollis was still so severe it was causing major muscle issues & scoliosis so he is in a brace called a Fillhauer. It's a tight, hot and miserable brace. Thus we decided to get a GAC (guest assistance card) for him to help us make the most of our trip.

PRETRIP -

There isn't much to the pre trip because there wasn't alot of planning. We are 3 hours away and have season passes. We usually stay on property but it efforts to save money and after finding a great coupon on Orbitz, we found the Ramada Westgate. We paid about $120 for 4 nights total for a king bed partitioned room that had a bunk bed and single bed in the other room and tvs in both rooms. There was an in door pool that my kids loved too. We were going to do all counter service and eat off property so we made no ADR's.

I will be back with day 1 in a little bit, I just wanted to get this trip report started.

 

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We didn't get started for Disney until after dh came home from work. We get everything into the van, everyone gets in and hmm the car won't start. We are out of gas!!!! I held off filling the tank up until we were on our way and I guess we had less then I thought. Oops. So we all go back in the house, dh goes to get gas and finally at 7pm we are on the road. We ate along the way and got to the hotel about 10ish. Check in was quick and easy and we went to our room.

My younger daughter and I had stayed here 6 months ago on a quickie mother daughter trip and we really enjoyed it. It is a nice but cheap hotel with clean and roomy rooms. So we were thrilled to find out they had semi suites. The kids loved having their own beds and we enjoyed having a king bed to ourselves. The room was nice and cool and clean.

Unfortunately the second we got into the room, we started to hear a thumping noise every 20 seconds or so. It would bang twice or once. Very odd. After 30 minutes or so of hearing this, dh called the front desk and they said they would investigate. I head out and down the hall to fill the ice bucket. And I see 2 policemen coming towards me. I ask them if they are investigating the thumping and they say no. Hmm, never figured out what they were there for.

So I get to the ice machine and at a room next to it there is a guy pounding the door. He is saying "baby just let me in" and "we need to talk". I quickly head back to the room, except I totally have no idea our room number. I head halfway down the hall and i'm loudly whispering at each door LANE, LANEEEEEEEEEE. I didn't have my cell phone on me, in my pjs with no shoes and imagining myself having to go down to the front desk to find out what my room number was. And then I remembered there were 2 do not disturb signs on the doors across from ours so I managed to find the right room. WHEW!

It had been almost 2 hours since we checked in at this point and the kids were in bed and we were still hearing the loud thumping. DH called the front desk again and we were told that there were other rooms who had complained about it too and it was assumed the noise was coming from the 3rd floor (we were on the 4th and other complaints were on the 2nd) but there was no one staying on the 3rd floor (renovations) so they were still trying to figure things out.

About midnight my kids are all asleep and there is a knocking on the door. Dh answers and 2 security guys ask if we are hearing the thumping. Dh tells them we were the ones who complained. They are talking in the hall when suddenly the thumping stops. They come to figure out it was a group of younger guys in the room next to us basically playing racketball in their room for 2 hours. The walls were cement so the noise was really moving around the building.

And this wasn't the last we heard from the guys either... more on that another day.

I know this first day wasn't too interesting but it will get more exciting in the next part. We start out tomorrow first thing in the Magic Kingdom!!!

 

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We set the alarm for 7:15am. I wanted to be at the Magic Kingdom for the opening. Our hotel was only 1 mile from Disney Property and only took a few minutes to get there. My dd's and my older ds wanted to dress up today. So oldest dd was Snow White, younger dd was Belle and my ds was Prince Charming. Plus I put glitter in the girls hair and arms, they loved it.

We got to the park by 8:40am and went to guest services to ask for the GAC and stroller as wheelchair sticket. We got them no problem and got into the gates just in time for the opening show. Every disney vacation must start with this show, I just love it!!!!

On our walk into the park we asked the kids which ride they wanted to go on first and they chose astro orbitor. They got to ride 3 times in a row, I sat out with the baby. Dh was not happy after the 3rd time around

After the orbitor we head into Buzz Lightyear and SURPRISE the dream team is waiting for us. We won dream fastpasses, whoo hoo! Next we saw Stitch by COP with no one around so we went to visit him a bit. And then headed onto the TTA. This is probably my kids favorite ride in all of Disney.

By the time we got off of the TTA it was time (or so we thought) for Toontown to open. But it was already open by the time we got there. I don't know when they changed the opening to earlier then 10am. But it was still pretty empty. While we got a drink and snack, my older dd went on Barnstormer.

We headed into the judges tent to find out they are doing construction and only the princesses are there. But there was NO line so we headed on it. We ended up having the princesses to ourselves for almost 15 minutes. My ds is in love with Cinderella and she loved his prince charming costume. He wanted nothing to do with Belle or Aurora so he chatted with Cinderella the whole time. Jack wasn't sure of the characters yet, he was shy but smiled at them.

After the princess we went through Mickeys house and went to see Mickey only to find not only Mickey there but also Minnie! Jack decided he liked Minnie and kissed her nose.

After leaving Mickeys house, Hannah wanted to ride Barnstormer again and Julia decided she wanted to ride too so we headed on there. We come off the ride and SURPRISE.... the dream team is waiting for us again. Whoo hoo... until we find out they are giving out dream fastpasses again. We tell them and they say that ok, you are double winners you get another set of them.

Done with toon town we head back into Fantasyland and ride the tea cups. Dh takes the 3 oldest and spin like mad, the baby and I ride in another and just take it easy. He loves it!!! After the cups we head to the Pooh ride, get right on thanks to our fastpasses. We ride Dumbo, see Ariel and go to Mickeys Philharmagic. Using our fastpasses we go on Peter Pan and then head over to IASW.

It is about 1:15pm by this time and the kids want to see the Block Party Bash at the Studios so we go to the TTC and grab a bus to the Disney Studios. Get there around 2ish and we see a bench in the shade so we decide to stake it out and have dh go get us lunch. This worked out great, the kids did the HSM photopass photos and we ate and by the time we were done, the Hollywood Performers came out and they were fun to watch.

It was funny because CM's kept telling other CM's about the little boy dressed like prince charming so every once in awhile they would flock over to see him. Of course ds loved every minute of it. The girls had changed by this point but ds wasn't gonna hear anything about changing.

After the parade we headed over to TSM which the kids absolutely loved. And then we went to see the new Narnia exhibit. We opted to see Prince Caspian first and I tell you what, he is the sweetest cutest nicest guy ever. Ian was intruiged by him and Caspian insisted on a picture of the two princes together.

After Narnia it was about 5:30 so we decided to head back to the TTC and get the car and go to dinner and head back to the hotel for some swimming. The kids begged for Ponderosa which we all enjoyed. Headed back to the hotel and swam for a good 2 hours before we headed to bed around 10ish.

Coming up tomorrow - Epcot

 

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Set the alarm for 7:15 again this morning and got out the door by 8am. Got to Epcot for the opening and went right to Test Track. We measured Ian to make sure he was tall enough and sure enough he was . He was so excited to be able to ride. Walked right onto the ride and well Ian was not amused. We baby swapped so dh could ride and Ian wasn't about to ride again so dh headed back on with the girls.

We head over to Soarin and send dh in to get fastpasses. And then head over to the Living Seas. We ride Nemo, there is no line at all and head over to Turtle Talk. The show was not even half full. My daughter got to ask Crush a question which made her day.

After looking around the Living Seas a bit we head back over to Soarin for our fastpass time. DH rides with the girls and Ian. Even with a fastpass it takes over 40 minutes until we see them again so I decide not to baby swap and ride. So we go over to Living with the Land. At some point we saw my favorite characters, Chip & Dale so we stopped for a quick picture.

We leave the Land and go over to ride Figment and head back to Spaceship Earth. The kids were getting hungry at this point so we get lunch at the Electric Umbrella. With bellys full we go explore Innoventions.

It is very hot today, the kids seem really tired and we've pretty much done everything we wanted to at Epcot so we decided since we would have a full day the next day, we left the park to go back to the hotel to swim and go out to dinner. We were back to our hotel by 3:30.

The kids swam for awhile while mommy sat in the hot tub After showers and getting dressed we decided to go do our traditional dinner at KABUKI, a japanese steakhouse about a mile East of Old Town on 192. Their prices are very reasonable and you get SOOO much food. We had a fantastic meal and on the way back to the hotel we stopped and bought some dipping dots, yum!

Our kids were in bed and asleep by 9pm tonight

Coming up tomorrow - a busy long day in the Studios and MK

 

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Once again alarm went off at 7:15 and we were at the gates of the Disney Studios right in time for the opening. We head right to Tower of Terror while dh and the baby go get fastpasses for Rockin Rollercoaster. While Ian says he liked this ride, he did NOT want to go on again so I really don't know if he liked it or not. This is my favorite ride in Disney .

We get off and head to Rocking Rollercoaster to find out we have 30 minutes before the FP times but after watching no one go in the single rider line I tell dh he has a better chance going through there. And I was right, he was on and off very quick.

Then we head over to TSM. I was surprised at 10am they still had fastpasses left after hearing how quick they have been going. We were able to use the alt entry line because of Jack and got on the ride pretty quick. After we got off, we saw that Woody was signing autographs across the way so we hopped in line. My kids loved all the photo ops in the line.

My ds loves LOVES Toy Story and Buzz/Woody/Zurg are his favorite characters.

So when we found out that Buzz was with Woody today, his expression was priceless.

We left Buzz and headed to One Mans Dream to look at all the stuff but we didn't want to watch the movie (I personally could watch it again and again but the kids & dh didn't want to watch it again) so we walked through the theater and out the doors. We saw the Animation Tour which we had never done before so we hoped in line and SURPRISE... the dream team is waiting for us. We win dream fast passes.... again. Sigh, I would really love to win those ears! But we are happy to be winners yet again

The animation tour was very cool, I really enjoyed it. And then we hopped in line for the animation tutorial which my kids really really loved. I was excited to do this until Jack started to fuss so I had to miss out on drawing while I dealt with him. Bummer.

The Incredibles were due out shortly so we waited for them and it turned out it was just Mr Incredible but my kids loved the photo opportunity.

We left the Animation area and the kids were hungry so we headed over to the Backlot resturant by Indiana Jones and ate lunch. We finished just in time to go outside to the Jedi Training. Ian was chosen to be in the show. He absolutely loved every minute of it!!! He was the cutest Jedi ever.

After the training we headed onto Star Tours. We bought the baby in with us and I sat out while they rode and we did a baby swap. As we were entering I saw the Dream Team, they handed out dream ears to the que next to ours. After seeing them award ears to the same que twice I asked the cm if we could baby swap over to that que and he said no. Yes, I teared up.. I was so sad! Oh well. Oh yea, this was another one Ian tried for the first time and wanted nothing to do with again

Once we finished Star Tours we decided to head on over to the Magic Kingdom to try to catch the 3pm parade. We got there at 2:30 and there was plenty of room on the curb and we scored a spot in the shade. While waiting a CM came over to Jack and gave him stickers which he proceeded to try to peel off to put on his shirt. So the CM helped him and then pulled out 2 more and put them on his shirt... and then two more and then put two more on his back. He had stickers all over him by the time she was done.

This was after he had pulled a couple of them off..

We watched the parade and then headed over to Adventureland. We rode the Jungle Cruise and then rode Pirates. When we got off, we found out that the Pirate Tutorial was starting. My younger dd Julia got chosen to be a pirate. She got to fight Jack Sparrow herself!!!

You can't see it very well the but sword is going in lower then his belly. Everyone actually said OUCH when she did it and Jack's assistance make a joke, it was too funny!

After the tutorial we went to Thunder Mountain. Julia chickened out as well as Ian so it was just Hannah and I and then we baby swapped and Hannah went on with her father.

We headed over to the Haunted Mansion where Ian started to fuss so dh had to take him out of line and Hannah followed so it was just Julia, the baby and I.

The kids were hungry again so we ate some dinner at Pinocchio Haus looking at the boats pass by on IASW. After we ate we rode Peter Pan, IASW and the carosel. The kids really wanted to do the Laugh Floor so we headed over there next.

Hannah's favorite joke is "What did Cinderella say when she dropped off her film? Some day my prints will come". So we submitted it to the Laugh Floor. And my kids were thrilled when they used the joke!!!

After we got out of the show, Ian decided he really really wanted to do Stitch. So my dh took him on and I rode the TTA with the rest of the kids. By the time we got off, it was close to fireworks time so we sat by Tomorrowland to watch them. After we took our time to get some popcorn and sat and ate it while watching the castle change colors.

All of a sudden the music changed and the castle started lighting up different and the music was playing Sleeping Beauty songs. I could only figure it was the Goodnight Kiss but the park was still open...so I don't know what it was, but it sure was neat!

We did a bit of shopping and we were back at the hotel in bed by 10:00pm. In bed but not asleep because our neighbors next door were at it again. This time they must have been watching a football game because they were screaming and yelling and using very naughty cuss words. DH made a call to the front desk and withing 10 minutes they were quiet and we were able to fall asleep.

Tomorrow - our last day and we visit AK

 

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We let the kids sleep in this morning and woke up around 8:30am. We packed up the car, checked out and drove over to the Animal Kingdom. There was a change in things today, this place was absolutely packed. The parking lot was jammed, people were pouring into the park, my chin dropped!

I let dh run over to EE while I took the kids over to Camp Mickey Minnie. The idea was to visit some characters but the lines were going down the paths and into the common area. So we all took a potty break and I lotioned everyone up while we waited for dh. We got into line for the Lion King and enjoyed the misting fans. A CM came over to Ian and asked if he would like to teach everyone in the theater the hand jive. So he taught it to him and Ian went to each section to teach the audience and the CM gave him a magical moments certificate.

My youngest ds absolutely loved this show. He clapped and waved the whole time. It actually brought tears to my eyes!

After Lion King we booked it over to EE for our fastpass time. My daughter and I headed into the line and she started to doubt herself, she'd never been on but had said all trip long that she was going to try it. I wasn't going to push her, I just told her to try it once and she never had to go on it again. I'm glad she gave it a try because she absolutely loved it. So she went back on again with dh.

We then headed over to Dinoland to find that PW is under construction so the kids played their traditional game.... the one where you are trying to get the balls into the colored cups. Well my ds got lucky and threw it into a colored one on his first ball. They kept giving the other kids more and more balls but the just couldn't get one in, so we headed away and the CM's at the game said SHHH and said they were all winners, so all the kids got stuffed dinos.

After the game we got fastpasses for Dinosaur and then headed over to eat lunch. The resturant was packed, it took over 20 minutes just to find a table. We ended up staking out a poor family but told them not to rush because dh would be in line for quite awhile. They were very sweet and even helped me find extra chairs. 30 minutes after that dh finally brought us food. I kept saying the whole time, I can't believe how crowded it is today!!!

We headed back to Dinosaur and dh get into line with Hannah and Ian while Julia, Jack and I go inside to the air conditioner to wait. A few minutes later out comes dh with the kids and Ian is crying, he freaked out right before they got on the ride so dh had to take him off but they let him back on where they left off. Dh and Hannah comes off and Hannah and I ride. I used to hate this ride and rode with my eyes closed the whole time but the last time I went on I kept them over and really enjoyed it.... scared the life outta me but it's fun!

With all the stuff we wanted to do done and with how crowded the park is not to mention how HOT it is, we decide to leave and get on the road early for home.

So another Disney trip under our books. I would rather not have a disabled child but if you should find yourself in the position for needing a GAC, please use one. I can't tell you how much it worked for us and how accomodating the CM's were.

 

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Mods you can lock this thread if you want. Thanks.

 

[jkCT]

Thank you for sharing such a fabulous trip with us!!

 

[loonytoony]

nice report