What an IRS refund and some pixie dust can get you! Trip Report

[Crazy Mother of Two]

(*just a note - I am a slow writer!*)
Pics will follow...my camera broke the first day (see Part 4 Continued for more details) so I am waiting for my photopass pics on disk and the 2 disposables from CVS.

I can't believe it's actually over. It's been over since we returned last Saturday night - but it's all just catching up with me now.
Okay... here I go

Part 1
A brief pre-trip report


My Disney story begins in January of 2007. My husband and I were going to do our taxes for the first time! (we bought TurboTax!!) He was looking over my shoulder the whole time - making sure that I entered everything correctly. (which of course I did!!)
When we hit the 'calculate' button we stopped breathing for a second. Could that be right? It must be right! Heck, who am I to question the TurboTax programmers anyway!.
WooHoo! What to spend our money on first!!??!! bills? fix the car? Hmmm.... I know....let's go to Disney!!
It took my husband all of 2 seconds to say "YES". "Let's go tell the kids!"
No way - not now!! I told him that we should wait until we receive the refund and pay for it before telling the children.
He agreed.
I had done alot of computer and phone research. I had to have the best prices and I love to find a good deal! Where were we going to stay? When could we go? We finally got it straight. Fast forward to March 14, 2007. My husband and I received our refund and were planning on going to see our travel agent on the 16th. He begged me to tell the kids right now! I wanted to do something cute and memorable for them - so they would always remember it. But my husband was chomping at the bit and convinced me that the kids were going to remember us telling them no matter how we chose to do it.
"Kids" my dh yelled upstairs. "We need to talk with you, please come downstairs".
My husband and I chose our spots to be standing in and had the children sit on the couch. 2 pairs of eyes burning into our brains. We had the 'parental stern look' on. They were shakin' in the seats. "Did we do something" my eldest asked. "Well" said my dh, a long pause....."WERE GOING TO DISNEY!!!"
Instead of jumping up and down both of the kids shifted thier eyes to me! They looked puzzled. Did we hear it right? Are they just messing with us again?
"Yes!! We are all going to Disney World"
The living room was a very noisy place to be for the next few minutes! When things quieted down I was able to let them know that we would be going in September. It got quiet. "September is like a year away" my ds informs me. "Well, 6 1/2 months to be more exact". And although I know they were very excited - the 6 month thing put a damper on it all!!

On March 16, 2007 we all happily got in the car and drove to see our travel agent. I had already spoken with her so I was really only there to give her a deposit. I had the full amount for the trip but I didn't feel right giving it up in one shot so far in advance. What if discounts came or specials? I don't think it is a rational thought but it was mine!

I was booking 6 nights at the Coronado Springs Resort with a 7 day magic your way / park hopper with free dining (although free dining wasn't available YET). Since it was a charter flight - we would be flying direct!!! Yeah!! A 2 1/2 hour flight!! And of course I opted for the insurance. She gave me a bunch of brouchures and told me to get reading!. She emphasized the importance of making restaurant reservations as soon as I hit the 6 month mark. I could always cancel. I left her with an $1100 deposit and went on my way.
A new door had just opened up!

 

[LAS]

I tried that "parental" stance when we were telling our DD about going to WDW and I scared her so bad it took her a couple of hours to get excited. I don't think I'll try that again.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Just a little add.
I forgot to introduce my family.
I'm not so good as assigning characters but.....
I'm the Mom, 41. I'm most like Snow White AND all the 7 dwarves! Depending upon my mood!
My DH41 is most like Jack Sparrow. A captain (leader) at times but misguided, a bit looney and really cute!
My DD9 is absolutely a princess. I don't think it matters which one!
My DS7 is most like Stitch! Easiest one by far!

For the sake of the report I will use the usual DD, DS, DH!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

I tried that "parental" stance when we were telling our DD about going to WDW and I scared her so bad it took her a couple of hours to get excited. I don't think I'll try that again.

Yeah, I won't do that again either!

 

[nitaworm]

We came 4 years ago for the first time and I cried at the Fantasmic show. Needless to say, we use our tax refund for our Disney trip every year! Our favorite time is to stay 10 days. We have a timeshare so we stay at Bonnet Creek which is accross from the Disney Beach Club Resort, but its a lot cheaper to own there than the Disney Villas. We go the Friday before Thanksgiving week and stay till the Tues. after. I have bought 6 day/no exp/passes w/ water park option and stretched them over 3 years. My friends say I am crazy but I am a romantic kid at heart. Here's hoping you make it a yearly family tradition...I have everyone hooked in my family.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Part 2
The Next Few Months

I remember leaving the travel agents office and thinking OMG - there is sooo much to do. If I had just booked a 'normal' vacation I wouldn't have to do a thing but pack!
But I have to start plannin'!
And planning I did. The first thing I had to do was get a book! I needed a starting point to help me out. I chose The Unofficial Guide. Wow, that book is giant. I had to pace myself. The first night I had the book I read the first few chapters. And one of the first things I learned is there are websites that are devoted to Disney vacationers. They listed 'disboards' and 'mousesavers' and 'allears'. That would be tomorrows research!
I had to book my dinner reservations in 2 weeks (just a tad before the 180 days - a tip I got from The Guide.) So I had to figure out which restaurants sounded yummy. Then I had to try to make a logical order out of it. Trying to figure out which park to be in and what you wanted to eat for dinner 6 months in advance sounded too hard for me. I could give up right now and go the Bahamas. Hmmm, I already told the kids so I can't change it now. Anytime the plans got rough or I felt I had gotten in over my head...I was whooshed right back to the fact that the kids really want to go - and I do too!! So I move ahead.
The following day I checked out all the websites I read about in The Guide. And my love for The DISboards began! I tried to only look at things that pertained to dining. Not so easy!
I loved that all the menus were available to view online! That actually helped alot! Once I figured out which restaurants we wanted to hit - I had to figure out what park we wanted to play in. Then I had to match the restuarant to the park day. It took me the entire 2 weeks to get all that straight.
I double checked with my family and then I made the call to wdw dining. I booked so early that I was able to get all my dining requests at the times I wanted!! Yeah Me!! It looked like this:
Cinderella Royal Table 6:20pm
The Brown Derby w/Fantasmic package 4:50pm
The Coral Reef 5:10pm
Chef Mickey's 5:00pm
Rainforest Cafe 4:00pm
Tepanyaki 6:00pm
Crystal Palace 12:50pm

I was very proud of myself for completing the first difficult task!

After that I became a freak for everything WDW. I spent HOURS on end clicking away on the computer. I decided to make a book that I could take to Disney. It would be like a DayPlanner. (I didn't know about PassPorter yet). I began by printing out all the menus from the restaurants we were going to eat at as well as counter service places we wanted to hit (and places to get the best snacks!) I printed, cut and taped them onto pink index cards (the pink ones were for the menus only). My obsession with my book grew. I would come home from work and sit on the bed for hours cutting thing out for my book and reading and reading. My DH was very patient with me!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Part 2 continued

When I wasn't adding to my Disney DayPlanner I was on the computer. Mostly the DISboards!
Let me take a moment to pay homage to all my fellow DIS'ers without whom I wold not have been as prepared as I was! So ... THANK YOU ALL!!
The Budget boards were a great help! I knew when great sales were going on for the items I needed to purchase.(like: luggage, fanny packs, mistymates, crocs, etc...)
The DISboards also taught me about the PhotoPass share, and tips on my hotel, and so much more!!

---I remember getting a call from my travel agent telling me that free dining just became available. However, CSR was not included yet in the free dining. She recommended I switch hotels and if by chance CSR was included I could switch back! Which is what I did. I was briefly booked at the Carribean Beach Resort. Not my first choice but I would manage! About a week or two later she called me back and told me that CSR was just added and she already had switched me back!! ----

I continued to purchase and search the websites for last minute info until the bitter end.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Part 3
The Weeks Prior to Leaving

The suitcase that was being packed with breakfast and snack items started to grow rapidly! I packed 2 boxes of dry cereal, pop tarts, 3 types of granola bars, oatmeal, 2 types of trail mix, sucking candies and gum, plastic utencils, disposible coffee cups, plates, fig newtons, etc. plus 1 1/2 cases of water (split between 2 bags because of weight).
I made sure I had sun block, water misters, lanyards with pins and portable fans for the kids.
The week and 1/2 before leaving was all about laundry!!
I had to pack for me and the kids and I gave my hubby his own suitcase and let him pack his own (heaven help me if I forgot his favorite shirt!).

Okay, next stop DISNEY!!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Part 4
The Trip
The day before and Day 1

Our plane leaves at 6:00am on Sunday. So Saturday was a bit hectic. Our plan was to have an early dinner and be in bed by 7:30pm. We did have an early dinner, but getting everyone to bed was not going well. The kids made it to bed by 8:15pm. Thank goodness! My husband and I turned off the t.v. by 9:00pm. Not too bad. But I had to set my alarm for 10:30 pm because my mother was staying at our house for the week and she got off of work at 10:00pm. My alarm hadn't gone off but the dogs were barking and it woke me up. I ran downstairs to find my mother knocking at the door. I was surprised that she had gotten off early. When I let her in she told me that she had just been let go. I was speechless (doesn't happen very often) I wanted to stay and talk to her for hours but I had to be up by 3:00am so we made it quick and I went back upstairs to bed.
The Day of......
3:00 am came very quickly!! the house was abuzz in a matter of minutes. We made sure that we didn't have to do much in the morning so it went somoothly. I made bagels and fruit to bring on the plane and we had dirnks prior to leaving the house. The kids got chocolate milk (a little caffeine to wake them up!) my DH got a RedBull and I had a coffee! And we were off!
There are alot of cars on the road at 3:30am! Who knew?
My DH dropped us off with the luggage and he went to park the car. We checked in and then headed to our gate. My DH was randomly chosen to have additional screening. So while me and the kids went to the right and began taking off our shoes and stuff - my hubby was to the left getting screened a bit more carefully. It really didn't take any longer than us and we were all headed to the gate to wait.
I got on line to grab another coffee (need my coffee!!) and the kids got waters.
Since everyone was checked in early and it was a charted flight we got an announcement that we were going to board early!! We actually had to wait for 1 family who was running late and even with that delay we left 30 minutes early!
Our flight was thankfully calm. I was seated next to my ds and another lady on the other side of me and my dh was in the row behind me with my dd and a gentleman next to him. My husband was playing PSP, my DS had his ipod on playing his DS and my dd was listening to her ipod trying to rest. The stewardess came around to take drink orders (which got my kids excited) and I whipped out our bagels and fruit. We didn't know but the airlines gave us a snack pack which we ate also!!
We arrived at the Orlando Airport around 8:00am and since we were using the Magical Express bus all we had to do was to get to the other end of the airport. We checked into the Magical Express and got on line for the bus to take us to CSR!!
We got to the hotel around 9:30am and got right in line to check in. Now I had purchased the night prior to our arrival so we were looking forward to having a room right away.
As the DISboards told me - I requestd the Cabanans 9a. When the nice man showed me on a map where our room was I automatically made a little boo-boo face. He spotted it and told me to wait a second. He went and got his manager. She told me that if I waited a while I could get a room in the location I wanted. But I looked at my DH who made his boo-boo face. He really wanted to check into a room, any room now. So I turned to the CM and his manager and told them not to worry - we wanted a room now so where ever the put us would be fine. After a few minutes of whispering she told me that they were going to upgrade us to a water view in the Casitas. Cool!! We got our anniversary pins and the kids got 1st timer pins and off we went to our room!
Oh nice - it was on the 2nd floor overlooking the quiet pool and the gym/salon area. We planned on a day at the pool (to relax from our hectic morning) so we got on our swimsuits and hit the Main pool!
The pool is nicer in person! The mayan theme was great and the huge slide was a hit with the whole family!! We ate poolside and had a wonderful afternoon. By 2:00 we had it! We went back to our room to shower and get ready for dinner with Cindy!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

After coming back from the pool we each took showers and got dressed in a manner befitting a princess! You see, we were having dinner with Cinderella!! Now I was about to make 2 huge mistakes - this is where hindsight would be helpfull in presight!
My first mistake was choosing to leave behind the well-organized backpack. My backpack had every known necessity known to mouse! Like a cloth diaper for wet tables and seats, tide-to-go, a stuffed zippered bag with bandaids and medications, wet wipes, rain ponchos, an umbrella, misty mates, extra hair bands, extra pens, park maps, and yes, so much more! Now, my logic behind leaving this backpack was lucid at the time! We were going to the park at 3pm and had dinner ressies at 6pm - since we were only going to be there a short time I didn't need to carry around such a large backpack! GONG!!! I explain later what I needed from this bag!

My second mistake, again, sounded smart at the time. After our check-in I was a bit overwhelmed. I was told about the Key cards and how only mine and my husbands are able to be used as a credit card, all the keys will get you into the room, any key can charge on the ddp and so on. Well, the so on included that each key was issued to each person as entrance tickets to the parks. So even though they knew 4 people were eating on the ddp and 2 people can charge purchases the computers couldn't figure out that 4 people had 7 day magic your way with ddp and park hoppers.
So, with that in mind, I only took 1 key card as to keep the majority of the cards safe. We headed off to Bus Stop #2.

this is the fam waiting for our 1st bus to come and whisk us away to MK

I was peacefully sitting on the bus - on my way to the Magic Kingdom and POOF. Things just started coming together. I was realizing that I do need all 4 plastic cards to get everyone into the park. I leaned over to my husband and said "Honey, I only brought 1 room key card. I think we needed to bring everbody's for park access." "WHAT? You have got to be kidding?" I explained how my brain figured it all out and somehow he understood! Before we got off the bus I stopped to see if the bus driver would have a solution (other then trekking all the way back to the hotel) - he suggested I go to 'guest relations'. Off I went. I explained my problem and they said they could help me!! We were given temporary cards and sent on our way!
We took a couple of pictures and it started to drizzle on us. No biggie! Everyone was marching along like nothing so we did the same. We headed to Tomorrowland. We got right into Stitch's Great Escape (it seemed like it would be a big something and...not much at all - but fun anyway!) , and then headed to Indy Speedway. As we waited on line the rain continued. Our perfect clothing and hair were shot! We were just about to step into our cars when we were told that the ride was closing due to the rain! AAARGH!
Now cold and wet we took cover at Cosmic Ray's. We got coffee and hot chocolate and tried to wait it out. This is where mistake #1 comes in. We waited as long as we could and then went next door and purchased 4 disney rain poncho's for $28.00!! The ones I had packed in my backpack were from the dollar store!! $2.00 for 4!!

Oops, gotta get the kids lunch. I'll be back.

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

When the rain finally died down enough to venture out - the kids wanted to ride the Teacup ride. Quite a pukey feeling from that one!!
Then we went on Buzz lightyear. Great ride!! We decided to head towards the Castle so we would be close for our dinner ressies. We went to The Haunted Mansion ! Just as great as I remember!!!! It's a small world (fantastic) and Snow Whites Scary adventure (eh). It rained on and off this whole time. So when it was time to have our pictures taken with Cinderella we all looked like wet rats! After the pics we were seated at our table. The restaurant was very nice to look at! Then we ordered. Ummmm, I'm not going to go in depth but the bottom line is that everything (except the desserts) was horrible. All four of us were just hoping that the rest of our dinners would be better. I have heard wonderful things about CRT breakfasts - I couldn't work it into our schedule and we aren't really breakfast eaters. Who knew it could be that bad. Next time we will only go for breakfast!

my dd and ds hanging with Cindy's mouse!

After we left the restaurant we were beat. Tired out from the day and stressed out at the little things. We were heading to the bus and I wanted to take another picture. We stopped, I took the picture, put the camera back in the bag and before I could close the bag the camera slipped out and smashed on the ground. Great - now what? I picked up my camera and walked away with my head hanging low. At this point I wanted the day to end.
We got back to the hotel and decided a night swim might help us relax. We got our suits on and went right downstairs to the quiet pool. We stayed about an hour and then officially called it 'a day'.
The kids went right to sleep and DH and I got our Pina Colada mix out and had a night cocktail - then we went to bed.
Day 1 came to a close.

 

[Dixielady908]

Great so far....sorry your dinner wasnt good. How about your camera? Still working?

Looking forward to reading more

Denise

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Great so far....sorry your dinner wasnt good. How about your camera? Still working?

Looking forward to reading more

Denise

I am quite saddened to announce that my digital camera could not be revived. My first trip back to Disney since the '80's and I have limited amounts of pics. Bummer.

 

[eyeheartgoofy]

Sorry your dinner was not good (but it was "free", right?).! What a bummer for your first big meal of the trip!


Looking forward to more!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Sorry your dinner was not good (but it was "free", right?).! What a bummer for your first big meal of the trip!


Looking forward to more!

That's just what my dh and I were thinking!!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Day 2 MGM

Considering our day yesterday I was surprised that everyone was awake by 7:30 am! I quickly threw myself together and grabbed my 2 hotel mugs and headed off to La Tienda for breakfast stuff. We got milk, o.j., coffee, and fresh fruit. The kids also had cereal in the room. We decided to make it a relaxing morning and take a swim at the pool. I love the pool at the Coronado Springs Resort! Way cool! After our swim we took showers and headed out to MGM.

My dh was like a deer caught in headlights when he spotted all the shops as we entered MGM. So much so that we spent the 1st 45minutes going in and out of all the shops!
Okay time to do a ride! Tower of Terror it is!! AWESOME! A bit jerky at times but ..cool! My dd was not too fond of it at all! She actually started something that she continued to do the entire trip......'I don't want to go on that' or 'let's ask them if it's scary'. However, when she got off most of the rides she determined that she loved them!! If not for me pushing her most of times she would have only gone on 3 rides in all of Disney! Next we went tame - The Great Movie Ride - great! Muppet Vision 3-D!! Don't miss this one!! Fun for all!!! Star Tours was great too!
All too quickly our dinner reservations came up. Off to The Brown Derby! We liked the look of the place but we were all a little nervous about the food! I had the Crab Cake appy and my dh had the Mushroom Tortellini ....YUM to both!! Okay - off to a good start! We both had the Filet Mignon that was cooked perfectly! And to finish white chocolate cheesecake and white chocolate toffee tower - excellent but we couldn't finish it so the kids kindly helped us out! They had the grilled cheese on whole wheat with brown sugar apples. It was very good but I had hoped for something a little fancier. After dinner we had some time to kill before we went to see Fantasmic! We strolled around a bit more - and then headed to our seats at Fantasmic. What a great show!!! After the show we headed straight for the bus. Took our night swim and called it a night. (of course after my dh and I had our Pina Colada!)
*pics to come....

 

[JoAnnPan]

Really enjoying your report...my condolences go out to you over the loss of your camera... .

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Day 3 - Epcot

Again surprised that we were all awake by 7:30am !! I was starting to get dressed to grab our coffees and fruit when my husband says 'I want a good breakfast today!' boo-boo face included at no extra charge!
Okay, so I will just have to pay for our lunch out of pocket since we will use the counter service credits at the Pepper Market for breakfast. Egg rolls and free water for everyone!!
We all got dressed and off to the Pepper Market we went. This was our first encounter with this restaurant and I have heard that some people were confused by the layout and the billing process. Luckily, we didn't have any trouble. They seated us a table and gave us 4 stampable cards. My dh and myself each took a kid a got their breakfasts first. My son seems to have issues with choices. He can NEVER make up his mind and he often regrets his choice! So this place wasn't the best place for him but..... He chose the Mickey head waffle with a slice of orange. My dd got scrambled eggs with a muffin. Well, my son already didn't like his mickey head but it got even worse when his sister came back with her plate. Before anything ugly occured - I asked if he wanted the eggs instead - he said he did (of course!). They didn't give me any trouble when I told them that he didn't like it and they gave me the egg plate and had us keep the waffle plate too. My dh and myself had the breakfast platter. Very yum and too much on the plate. We all left alot of food on our plates and still managed to leave stuffed! We paid and headed to the bus stop to Epcot.
When we entered Epcot my family was moaning in pain. Apparently we are not much of breakfast eaters. Well, that's not really true - because we love having big Sunday breakfasts. I think maybe it was the heat and the fullness we felt knowing we had to walk around feeling this way. Well, no matter what the reasoning we decided that we would stick to our light breakfasts in the room for the rest of the trip!
We headed straight to Test Track. My dd started in on the 'I don't want to go' bit. I assured her all would be fine - she complained the entire time we were on line! And of course when we got off she wanted to do it again!!
We then hit The Seas with Nemo and had a blast with Turtle Talk with Crush!Soarin' was our longest line on the entire trip! It took about 20 minutes! We walked all the way up to the 3 screens that they play games on. We were always in between the screens so we couldn't play.
It was worth the 20 minute wait! I know....20 minutes is nothing in WDW but we were spoiled! Very slow week!
We had heard alot about Sunshine Seasons (or whatever the name is now) and decided to give it a shot. Now all could think of 'go cheap, go cheap' because we were using real money to pay for this meal! My husband had spotted pre-packaged sushi and grabbed it! I think it was $9.00. Not exactly cheap but he never seems to check prices. And we are poor so checking prices is necessary!! My dd and ds both went 'oohh - us too!' and they each grabbed sushi. I had a feeling my ds was not going to like the pre-packaged sushi - so I got a kids sandwich and we would split it.This kids meal was reall nice - for $4.00 you get a drink, applesauce and a small sub sandwich with the meat on the side. We all got waters except for my dh who needed a Monster energy drink at $4.50!! About $40 bucks for lunch isn't too bad in Disney!
After lunch we trekked it over to the World Showcase. I could spend an entire week in WS! We loved visiting all the countries and my kids loved KidCot! My dh was waiting to find his souvineer in WS. He spotted an Adidas soccer jersey and had to have it! $70 bucks later! For a soccer jersey? Whatever.
We were having so much fun that we nearly missed our dinner reservations at The Coral Reef. We thought it would be neat to hop on the ferry on the other side. We only had to wait about 10 minutes and the kids enjoyed it! The captain and his wife were really sweet! Even got a little friendly hubby/wife bickering!
We made it to the Coral Reef 10 minutes late. The place was PACKED!! When we checked in they told us that it would be about a 30 minute wait. I guess not too bad for Disney but again we were spoiled and hadn't really waited anywhere yet. We copped a squat on the floor and patiently waited. 10 minutes later our name was called!! Happy happy joy joy!! We jumped up (alot of glaring eyes at us....) and were escorted to our table. We were in a booth up on the top level all the way to the back. Not bad. We could still see and yet were able to have a peaceful meal. It seems as though the people that had great seats near the aquarium were constantly being josseled by people walking by and stopping to look at the tanks. We even saw 2 little kids, who were seated up on our level, that spent all but 10 minutes ( the 10 minutes it took to throw their food down their mouths) squeezing in between cutomer tables to see the different fish swimming by. I think that the parents of these children should have respected the privacy of other guests who would have loved to enjoy the gorgeous view alone!
Our waitress was soo sweet! Her name was Mulan (quite easy to remember in Disney!) And the first thing she did was give my dh and dk's their personalized menus!!!!!
(THANK YOU DEBBI SACLEUX!!!!)
These menus had the kids pics on it and mine and my husbands had a few of our pics ( we were celebrating 12 years married). My dh started to tear up! I told them of everything I had planned for Disney except for these menus. It was a nice touch! My hubby and I both had the filet mignon!! Excellant again! (I have been living in PA for the last 5 years and haven't had a good piece of steak since leaving NY!!) Mulan brought us a glass of champagne on the house - like I said very nice girl!!
After dinner we left the park to go night swimming!!
1 pina colada then bed!

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

We interrupt this broadcast to tell you about the influx of ickky bugs.

Our first day or so ... nothing.

By day 3 they were in full swing! Swarms of them!!

It seems as though Florida was having a bad time with all the mosquitos. Bright idea Let's bring in another type of bug to get rid of the bugs we don't like.

Not many mosquitos - but these love bug are everywhere. They are male and female insects that are attached. If you try to seperate them they die - and after they mate they die.

The bus stop was covered in mostly dead love bug! They were very annoying but only because of how many there were. They are harmless - but gross nonetheless.

We now resume your regularly scheduled program....

 

[Crazy Mother of Two]

Day 4 Magic Kingdom

Our day started the same as in the past. Throw myself together and walk over to La Tienda convenience store and grab coffee, milk, oj and fresh fruit.
After taking showers and making it to the bus stop - it was already almost 11:00 am. We were so excited to be back in the Magic Kingdom because our first day here was a trying day for us.
We hit Big Thunder Mountain (nice kiddie coaster), the Enchanted Tiki Room (cute), The Jungle Cruise (we had a great driver), Pirates of the Caribbean (awesome), Space Mountain (again), Splash Mountain, Swiss Family Robinson treehouse (nice) & indy Speedway(we finally made it on)!
It rained on us throughout the day. Thank goodness for the ponchos!
We ate lunch at Cosmic Ray's. Decent food.
Since tonights dinner was at Chef Mickey's we thought we would leave the park a bit early and try to get a seat in the front of the monorail. Nope, not on this one but we still had 3 more chances. When we arrived at the central ticketing area we hopped on another monorail to the Contemporary. Didn't make it in the front on this one either.
Chef Mickey's opens for dinner at 5pm (which is what our reservations were for). We got there early and checked the place out. This is the hotel I used to stay in when I was younger - boy it looked different! We looked in their gift shop for a bit - then crashed on the couches in the lounge. Before we knew it - it was 5pm. We had our pics taken and then waited only 5 minutes to be seated. Since I was wearing my Anniversary pin we got special placemats to keep!! They're cool! Our waiter was super sweet and attentive. Our glass of ice tea was 1/2 full and he was bringing us a fresh glass!
This was the best place to meet characters in a nice, quiet enviornment. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy. They signed the kids autograph books and took pictures first - but ended up swinging by everyones table at least 4 times during dinner!
The week is catching up to us. We are finding ourselves extremely tired and cranky most of time!
We got on the monorail back to the ticketing center (still no front seat), and as luck would have it - we got the front seat!!! The kids were happy so we were happy! They loved getting the monorail co-pilots license! We got back to our hotel and took another night swim!
Nighty-night!