We Are Going to Disney in August............SURPRISE - We leave today!!! (4/25 - 5/2)

[mickeystoontown]

Great updates! Your kids are soooo cute.

 

[noogagirl]

Flat Grandma cracks me up. I almost spit out my lunch at my desk when I saw her in the beer! Love your "adult beverage stops" in Epcot too. We have certain drinks and snacks we always get there, and I'm looking forward to going back in June with just DH to partake.

 

[TaraLee4]

Hi! I just found you, but i'm hooked! great trippie so far...The pictures are great

 

[figment41]

Your trip report is so cute. So, is your family.

I love flat grandma and may steal the idea for our upcoming trip. Our Grandma comes and puppy sits for us then we take her later in the year as a thank you with just the girls. What size do you think your print out of her was?? What is better than a drunk Grandma hanging upside down in a boat. Hillarious!!!

Can't wait for more

 

[Melknor]

Great updates! Your kids are soooo cute.

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying it.

Flat Grandma cracks me up. I almost spit out my lunch at my desk when I saw her in the beer! Love your "adult beverage stops" in Epcot too. We have certain drinks and snacks we always get there, and I'm looking forward to going back in June with just DH to partake.

Yeah, F.G. in the beer and with the German C.M. are my favorites. They crack me up too. I'm writing a Flat Grandma trip report just for my mom and including all her pictures (there are a lot I didn't put in here).

I loved all the drinks available around the world. Any by sharing them, it didn't seem like we drank too much, nor were affected by the alcohol.

Hi! I just found you, but i'm hooked! great trippie so far...The pictures are great

Thank you and welcome !!!!

Your trip report is so cute. So, is your family.

I love flat grandma and may steal the idea for our upcoming trip. Our Grandma comes and puppy sits for us then we take her later in the year as a thank you with just the girls. What size do you think your print out of her was?? What is better than a drunk Grandma hanging upside down in a boat. Hillarious!!!

Can't wait for more

Thank you!!! I had a 4x6 picture that she was in, cropped just her and resized it to a 4x6. Then I cut her out, glued her to a tongue depressor stick, made mickey ears using my Cricut machine and added it. I then laminated her so she didn't get wet, but that came off half way through trip, plus it created a glare in the pictures. She loved the fact that she went along as Flat Grandma.

 

[Melknor]

After our nap I made dinner at the condo and around 6:30 we left to head back to the park. We took the monorail back into the park this time. Evan wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean first, so we headed over to Adventureland. This ride was walk on, no wait at all. The longest part was getting through the queue.

Flat Grandma ready to see the yummy Jack Sparrow. (see how happy she is!!)

Can I just say that I realy hate that the rides dump you out into gift shops. After riding PoTC several times throughout the trip, and bothy boys asking non-stop for the hook, I finally gave in..........

After this ride, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz with our fast passes that I got before we left the park for the break. Alex and Keith rode together while Evan and I battled it out. I thought this ride was good, but was hard to see what you are aiming at with the tiny lazer light. TSM is so much better at DHS. I think we did this one standby (10 Min) and the again withour FP's.

By this time it was getting close to 8 and I wanted to get a spot for Wishes, but Evan really wanted to ride Stitch’s Great Escape. I had heard this was really bad from the reviews on here, but he really wanted to do this, so I took one for the team. The wait sign showed 5 minutes, but we had to wait for 10 minutes before being let in. Then we had to wait through two videos before entering the actual ride/show portion. It really was awful. Evan seemed to like it though and kept referring to the nasty burp (was it Cheeto breath? Whatever, it was nasty and kids got scared in there)

Now we headed out to get a spot for Wishes and decided to sit on the bridge into Tomorrowland. If Tinberbell would have flown, she would have gone right over our heads, but for some reason, she didn't that know. Keith and Evan set out to find some popcorn and finally came back with soda and some cracker jacks. They said the line for popcorn was really super long. We sat down and waited while we had our snacks. I had brought a tube of glow sticks along with light up glasses that we had gotten on New Years Eve. People were asking us where we got our glasses from. For some reason, I really like this picture of the two of us.

After Wishes ended, we hung out waiting for the crowds to thin out and then we cut through the Noodle Station area and sat at a table near the Plaza Restaurant for a while longer. This was definately a good idea to just hang out and enjoy the magic and watch the castel change colors. When the crowds had thinned down, we noticed photopass photographers taking pictures in front of the lit castle so we jumpted in like and had that done.

Then we headed out of the park with the masses. The lines to get to the monorail were horrendous, so we headed to the ferry boat. The line didn’t look too bad, but the wait was pretty long. Finally we made it over to the tram area around 10:15. By this time, the lots were pretty vacant, so it was easy to spot our car. We made it home quickly and fell into bed. Alex had already fallen asleep before the end of the fireworks. Good thing I brought my sweatshirt as it had cooled down, so I covered up Alex while he slept.

 

[Shir Kahn]

Yay for September trip! I always do that, adding days in WDW onto trips, although most of those trips are already in WDW, so that means we just go longer!

 

[Melknor]

Yay for September trip! I always do that, adding days in WDW onto trips, although most of those trips are already in WDW, so that means we just go longer!

I don't know why I always tend to think vacation time needs to only be one week and only doing one type of activity...................so I figured why not add in some extra time?

 

[MEK]

Ok..... I am finally caught up on your TR and I have seen all the pictures! Yeah! You did a really good job of complementing your TR with pics. From now on I will ONLY read at home so I can get the full effect. Your day at MK sounded so fun. Your boys are so cute.

Yeah for a September trip. I hope you are able to work it out!

 

[Melknor]

Today was our scheduled break day. To day we didn’t have any park visits as we only had 5 day tickets. We had to sign off with the time share company saying we didn't want to buy in at 9:30(we were there on an owner's experience we had purchased a couple years prior). This took forever and I was getting upset they were dragging their feet. I’m impatient at times and was ready to just up and leave when they finally gave us the paperwork. We had breakfast reservations at 10:25 and I didn't want to be late!

Once we were finished, we then headed to the Polynesian resort for 'Ohana breakfast with Lilo and Stitch. We didn’t have to pay parking at the MK tollgate. (yeah); we made it to the resort, parked fairly close and located the restaurant. We didn’t have to wait too long, but first had our pictures taken.

Then we were lead to our table and given a basket of bread. Our waitress then appeared with juice, coffee, milk and fruit. Soon the skillet of eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, and biscuits was placed on our table. We also were given Mickey waffles These were so yummy, I could have eaten several of them (but didn't).

Soon they presented us our photo, which we purchased. For $30 we got a 5x7 and 4 4x6 along with a photo of the characters. We were also able to add this to our photo pass since we purchased it. Then the characters started coming around. We saw Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stitch. Stitch was funny. They had brought out a cupcake for my b-day which was sitting on the dge of the table. Stitch kept poking at the umbrella in it. He also licked my sons and when Alex gave him a packet of jelly, he threw it on the floor.

After breakfast, we checked out the resort a little bit and then headed to downtown Disney for some shopping. We got a great spot near T-Rex, which worked out perfect to start there and make our way through the Marketplace. We went in most of the shops and just looked around. The boys each built their own light saber and Keith and I picked out a few items as well.
Inside T-Rex

Whoops, Flat Grandma got a little too close to the Lego Dinosaur. Good thing we were able to rescue her.....

The boys loved playing with the Legos:

Flat Grandma even found a castle just her size:

We misplaced flat grandma, but luckily located her in time so she could try on some hats just her size:

Once we were done shopping, it was after 4pm, so we headed back to the condo. I was tired, so I took a nap. Everyone else ended up napping as well. Then Keith and the boys went swimming while I did some laundy. We ordered Chinese delivery for dinner and then I took the boys swimming after dinner. We were in bed early that night. It was definately nice to have a day out of the parks to just relax with no schedule.

Up next - DHS...............will Flat Grandma make any appearances here? Will be take a break or go all day long? Will we get seats to Fantasmic and get to ride TSM?

 

[MEK]

I'm taking my nephew to Ohana's for breakfast. I think he will really like it. I agree that it is great to have a day off from the parks and get a rest. Looking forward to more of Flat grandma's antics.

 

[Melknor]

I'm taking my nephew to Ohana's for breakfast. I think he will really like it. I agree that it is great to have a day off from the parks and get a rest. Looking forward to more of Flat grandma's antics.

We really really liked it. The food was delicious, the service good and the character interaction was great as well. We thought it was so worth the money. I'm glad we did this on our "off" day though. We still got Disney, but weren't involved in the park hustle and bustle.

I got side tracked with the ending of the school year and the long weekend.

 

[Melknor]

We did it!!! We made it to rope drop today!!!

We were through all checks just after 8:30 and made it up to a really short turnstile (why people choose to get behind long lines I don't understand. All you have to do is look around for a shorter one) Then we were waiting at the internal rope drop. We were in the second row for this, so we had a really good view of the opening.

The game plan was for me and Evan to make the dash to get FP’s for Toy Story Mania and Keith and Alex to drop the stroller and to meet us at the standby entrance. He was holding Alex for the opening and I tried to indicate to him to get him back in the stroller for the dash, but since Evan and I were up ahead, he didn't understand. He ended up carrying Alex while pushing the stroller so they didn't get trampled. He should have listened to the plan better! I was 3rd in line for FP’s, but had problems with them again as one ticket wasn’t working and then I got flustered and kept trying tickets that already had the FP attached to them (sorry to the people behind me in FP line). Finally, we were done and on our way. Because of all the people, I couldn’t find Keith, but did locate the stroller in the parking area, so I knew they were there………..I tried calling a couple of times before I was able to reach him. They were just about ready to hop onto the ride. Guess he misunderstood when I said to wait for us............Oh well, Evan and I were in line by this time, so I said we would just meet up at the end. This worked out fine. This standby time was as we were in line right after the park opening / fp obtaining

This ride really is as wonderful as people say it is. It is way easier than Buzz at MK. Once we had this ride out of the way and FP’s in my pocket for a later ride, the plan was to get FP’s for Rock N Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror (we would child swap if Keith wanted to ride, but he gets motion sick, so he decided to pass). The area back there was crazy and stand by too long, so we just got our FP’s for each and went on our way. Next up, I took Alex to Playhouse Disney and Keith took Evan to wait for the 10:50 Jedi Training Academy. The line for the Playhouse Disney was really long and winds around the side of the building. I didn’t think we would get in, but the space is bigger than it looks and they pack you in. It was really cute and Alex seemed to really enjoy it.

When this was over, we met up with Keith at the Jedi Training. Evan wasn’t picked, but enjoyed watching it none the less. After the crowd dispersed, I had the photo pass photographer take the Darth Vader pictures that I had heard about. No one else was there asking for this. See all the things you can learn from the Dis! My hours online paid off!

Evan Flat Grandma enjoyed watching the battle.

Next door was the Star Tours ride and of course Evan really wanted to do this one. The wait time was posted 20 minutes. I wasn’t even thinking about waiting as we hadn’t all week. Luckily we basically walked right on again. It was an OK ride. Evan seemed to really like it. It is a motion simulator ride where the capsule moves as you watch a movie screen. Not good if you have any motion sickness, hence I took one for the team.

After Star Tours, it was around 11:30 so we decided to see if we could check in early at Sci-Fi Dine in for our 12:10 reservation. They said we would have to wait until noon to do so. No problem, so we wandered down the streets of America a little ways, looked at the Muppets 3-D fountain and then saw Mater and Lightening McQueen. I love Mater! There is an old truck near our house that looks just like Mater (only blue) and every time we drive by it, Alex points out

Mater.

Once we were finished, we made our way back to the restaurant, got checked in and waited about 10 minutes. We were seated just after our ressie time. The car hop on roller skates seating us was skating backwards and asked if we had any questions. I asked him if he ever runs into anything, and just as I said this, a lady in a wheelchair comes around the corner and he runs into her. I felt really bad about this, but is seemed like he really wanted some kind of question asked……………ooooppss…………. Luckily no one was hurt....................

We were seated in a car with Evan and I up front and Alex and Keith in the middle, with hitchhikers in the back. They showed cheesy movies and it was cool and dark. It was a nice break as it was pretty warm outside. I had the rueben with a chocolate milkshake. The rueben was good and had tons of meat on it, however they were stingy with the sauerkraut and dressing. Keith had the angus burger and said it was really good. Evan had the kids pick with tomato soup (he didn’t like it, it was too creamy for him), the mac & cheese and ice cream sundae for dessert. Alex had the salad (he didn’t eat, Evan had some; the dressing was weird), hot dog with French fries and ice cream sundae. He gobbled up his food here, which is good since he hadn’t eaten much all week.

Once we were done eating, we decided to head back over to see the 3-D Muppet Vision. It again was walk in. The show was really cute and the boys would reach out to grab the stuff coming at them. It was really cute. Again, sitting down, cool and dark. Gotta love that on a hot day!! We made a quick stop in the gift shop and let the boys pick out a souvenier where they chose the Muppets Star Wars set (muppet characters as Star Wars characters). They loved it and play with it all the time.

By this time, we had decided not to take a break and just keep going as we were seeing a lot of sit down shows and not back tracking a lot. Plus the sit down lunch in the cool and dark really helped as well. Next up was the Indiana Jones Stunt show. This was pretty neat and the boys all seemed to enjoy it as well. When this was out, as we were walking, we saw people sitting along the sides behind white lines. I finally figured out they were getting ready for the 3:00 parade and decided to stop at one of the empty spots to the left of the sorccer hat. Keith went in search of some Gatorade for us to drink and some popcorn for the boys. I’m really glad we decided to see the parade. It was really cute. The first stop with the Toy Story characters was on the other side of the circle, so we could only see parts of it, however when that portion finished and they moved, we ended up being between Monsters Inc and Bugs Life characters. Alex got up and danced with the performers a little bit. It was a lot of fun. This was the only parade we ended up seeing the entire week.

After the parade, we decided to go to the Lights, Motor, Action show at 4:30. Again, this was a good show and the boys enjoyed it. Once this was over, we were going to head to Disney Animation to do the drawing class. On our way, we stopped to meet Buzz and Woody. Of course while we were in line Alex decided he had to use the restroom..............so I had to back my way out of line. Luckily he was quick and the line didn't move too fast so I was able to make my way back up to Keith and Evan in line without no problem.

I think this is also when we used our Fast passes to ride TSM again, but I'm not sure as I don't have it in my notes.................. We made it to the animation studio next and had a short, air conditioned wait. In this same building, you could also meet several different characters as well, but we decided to skip this part. After the drawing class, the plan was to use our FP’s for RnRC and ToT while Keith and Alex waited for and got something to eat before we lined up for the 8:30 Fantasmic show.

Evan and I walked right on both rides with our FP’s. RnRC was awesome! Evan wasn’t so sure of it, but afterwards decided he really liked it. Still talks about it being his favorite ride of the trip.

Now ToT freaked him out!! He wanted to take the chicken exit, but I made him continue on. When they placed us in our spots for the ride, we were suppose to be in the front row. There were two younger boys (ok younger than me, not little) next to us that would be in the middle row, so I changed spots with them. Evan was scared to death. The pre-show film freaked him out pretty good.

Once we were off, the area was crazy with everyone going to Fantasmic. I called Keith to see where they were and he couldn't believe we were already done. He and Alex were waiting in line to get a turkey leg. We made our way down there and decided to get some fruit and a pretzel as well, which was next door. Evan and I got apple slices, but they were out of pretzels Of course, they brought more out as we walked away....

After this, we got in line for Fantasmic. They had already opened the line, so we were able to walk in, park the stroller and make our way to some seats. We lucked out and were sitting in the middle section, half way up. We ate our food while waiting for the show to begin.

It really was neat, but I could see how some of the younger kids could get scared as it is a dark show. When it was over, we just sat there for awhile waiting for the crowds to thin down. Since we were done for the night, we weren’t in any hurry to fight the crowds. Finally we got up, headed left through the bleachers and then up to the stroller parking area. Getting back down the paths was a venture as that was still crowded. We made our way out and I wanted to get a photo pass picture taken in front of the had as we hadn’t done that yet.

Once done with that, we got on the parking lot tram, made our way easily to our car and were home by 10pm. Alex fell asleep as soon as he hit the car and was still asleep when I changed him into his pajamas. Keith and I enjoyed a glass of wine before bed. As I was cleaning out my pockets, I discovered I had somehow lost Keith’s park ticket. Good thing I had the Disney number in my plan book, so I could call them in the morning. I was really upset that I had done this and was hoping they would be able to reissue his since I had all the others.

 

[Melknor]

I left off where I had discovered that I lost Keith's park ticket. When I woke up the next morning after sleeping in,(ok the boys were up early even after a late night so I didn't get to sleep in too much), I got on the phone to Disney. They confirmed what I thought I knew, that since we had the others, they could cancel the lost ticket and re-issue it for us. Wheeww - disaster diverted. Without that ticket we wouldn't have gone to the park that day! I did some cleaning while the kids ate and then I took them swimming for awhile since Keith was still sleeping. We ended up leaving around 11 for the day and made our way to the MK again. I know, good Dissers and TGMers get there for rope drop, but this day was planned to be a late arrival and more laid back. We had no problem getting the ticket reissued once we got there. We took the monorail back into the park and were on our way to explore.

First stop was a tink photopass picture in front of the castle. Then we hit the restroom on our way to Adventureland. I wanted to get FP’s for the Jungle Cruise since we hadn’t done that ride the first day. With that in hand, Alex wanted to ride Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. It showed a 20 minute wait, but was half of that as it moved pretty quickly. Keith went on this one with us and it did not bother him. We saw the line for Jasmine and Aladdin, but never got a chance to meet them.

After this ride, we went on Pirates of the Caribbean again. The ride was basically walk on again, but showed a 20 minute wait. By now our FP time was ready for Jungle Cruise, so we went on that. Evan wanted pirate cruise again, so I gave in and we did it again. They then wanted a pirate hook souvenir that they had to stop and play with every time we got off the ride. I gave in and they both got one. I didn't let them get the swords as they have enough of those at home!! Evan then wanted to do the Tiki Room show. It was ok, however it was semi-dark and cool, so that was nice. On our way to the Tiki Room, we saw Captain Hook and Smee, so we hopped in line to meet them. I was hoping for some good interaction trying to get Alex to tell hook "tick tock tick tock", but he was too shy so DH did it instead. Hook shook his art at DH, but that was all. Oh well......... Now we were getting hungry so we ate at El Pirate, the Mexican CS right there. The tacos were really good here.

Once we finished Adventureland, we headed over to Fantasyland. The 3pm parade was getting close as people were lined up and areas roped off. We made it through the crowds and decided to go to It’s A Small World, since we had skipped this one on the first day as well. It showed a 20 min wait, but was basically walk on as well. After this, we went over to Mickey’s Philharmagice show. This was really cute. I loved watching Alex reach out to touch the stuff in front of him.

Since we had done everything else in Fantasyland the first day, we headed over to Toontown to ride Goofy’s Barnstormer again, since Alex loved this ride. The wait showed 10 minutes, but it didn’t take too long. After this, we decided to check out Toontown Fair. Inside was the fairy’s (60min wait) and the princess (15 min wait) which had Aurora, Cinderella and Belle. I decided to meet the princesses, since this may be the only time to do it. I think once Alex gets a little order, he won't want to see them. Evan didn't want anything to do with them and didn't even get in the pictures. The wait didn’t take too long for the princesses. Alex got a kiss from Belle, which he loved showing off.

Belle doing the knuckle bump with Alex

After this we checked out Minnie’s house and Mickey’s house. We got in line to see the Judge’s tent, but left as we had already met Mickey previously. We then let the boys play on Donald’s Boat and the near by playground for a little while.

Now we were ready to check out Tomorrowland, so we took the “secret” red path. No one really travels on this path…………..it was a nice shade covered walk. Once in tomorrow land, we got some ice cream. I love Mickey ice cream bars!!! While eating this, I got FP’s for Buzz Lightyear. Once done eating, we went to Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. It was cute. Keith texted a joke, but it wasn’t used in the show. After this, Buzz had a 10 min wait, so we got on standby. After we were finished, it showed 20 min wait, so we used our FP’s. Evan really wanted to go on Tomorrowland Speedway, so we hopped in line (20 min wait). If this wasn't the end of the trip, I would have skipped this ride again. It took forever waiting for the cars. Both Evan and Alex drove, Alex with help from Keith.

This picture cracks me up! He is driving and the train goes by and blows the whistle and he looks over to see what it is..............good thing those cars are on tracks!

We decided not to stay for Wishes as we were tired and hadn't had a break, so we left after a couple of pictures on the side of the castle. We made our way out of the park. Evan was so sad to leave, that he started crying on the monorail, which made me want to start crying as well. The fact that he loved Disney so much he cried because he had to leave made the trip worth everything right there!

Since we were hungry and no trip to Orlando is complete until we eat at Bahama Breeze, we decided to find a nearby one courtesy of the GPS. We made it there and it was a 40 min wait for a table and it took the full 40 minutes. If the seafood paella wasn’t so darn good, we wouldn’t have stayed. The food was delicious, but the boys were so tired by the time we finished. Alex fell asleep in the car. Since it was late, we didn’t go swimming that night. I threw in the last load of laundry and we all went to bed.

We had to check out by 10 the next morning and then drive to Tampa for our return flight. All this was uneventful and went smooth. We had plenty of time to wait for our flights. It was a wonderful first trip to Disney and I'm definately hooked!

A sad, tired boy:

A few final thoughts:

- I'm glad I found the Dis and Tour Guide Mike to help in planning the trip. Without these sites I would have been lost and probably wandered around wasting time. I'm glad I had a plan book of which rides to do when. I didn't follow it on a time basis, but it gave us an idea of where to go so we didn't backtrack all over the place. Plus we were able to hit almost all of the rides in the parks as well.

- The last day when we slept in and then leisurely toured the parks was really nice. There was no set plan, we just did whatever sounded good to us at the time (unless the wait was outrageous).

- I thought we did a good mix of CS and TS meals. Since this was our first trip I didn't want to spend a lot of time sitting down eating. I really liked have a character breakfast on a day when we didn't go to a park. The TS at DHS really proved to be a great break option for us as well.

- Flying into Tampa versus Orlando is not a big deal. The drive is easy and for us, it was much cheaper. For us to drive from Iowa would be a 24 hr drive and that is something I don't think I could do.

- We LOVED staying in a condo. As nice as the Disney hotels look, they are still a hotel room. We loved having the space to spread out. Keith could sleep and the boys and I could be watching tv. I loved having the washer and dryer as well. I honestly can't imagine a trip without one. The kitchen was fine, but I'm on vacation, so I don't want to do a lot of cooking.

I hope I didn't bore anyone too much and that you enjoyed our family trip. Me and DH are going in September for 2 days and I can't wait to take it at our pace and not rush from ride to ride. Now onto planning for the next family trip..................

Melanie

 

[mickeystoontown]

My goodness! I was two days behind but I'm all caught up now. I was going nuts waiting on our August WDW vacation so I started a trip report of my own.

 

[tinkerbells mum]

i have loved your trip report i'm so glad you all enjoyed your first trip, thanks for sharing xx

 

[MEK]

I really enjoyed your TR. You guys had a fantastic time and you really got some great pictures. I think I will go back and peruse your pics again. thanks for sharing your TR with us! Now it's time to start planning your next trip!!!!!