What could be better? A Nov 2013 TR

[HHMcG]

I love writing these trip reports. It is a great way to make the trip last and also as a record for the memories. If I have anyone read along, all the better. In the past, I bang these things out pretty quick, let’s see if I can this time.

Our trip just ended last week so I am getting a quick start on it.

Let me start by introducing us:
Me - Heather - 40!!! Disney lover, organizing guru & a bit of a control freak - previous visits ‘81, ‘86, Feb ‘97, May ‘99, Jan ‘04, Jan '10 & Jan '12
DH - Bill - 45 - PSU loving, laid back & happily lets me do all the planning - previous visits ‘79, Feb ‘97, May ‘99, Jan ‘04, Jan '10 & Jan '12
DD - Lucy - 7 - Thoughtful, loving but anxious - previous visits Jan '10 & Jan '12
DS1 - Jack - 6 - Rough, cuddly but does not listen to a word I say - previous visits Jan '10 & Jan '12
DS2 - Quinn - 2 - Smiley, sweet heart or terror, can change in the flip of a switch - previous visit Jan '12

FIL - Pop - Laid back, humorous but doesn't know when he takes things too far - previous visits ‘79, '03

SIL - Beth - Loving, generous but misguided at times - previous visits ‘79, '00, June '10 & Jan '12
DNi - MK - 6 - Adventurous, laid back, clueless - previous visits June '10 & Jan '12

Here are the kids in our homemade shirts – the initials should help identify them.

 

[HHMcG]

Background:
The week before we left I had us pretty organized and packed. We had a busy weekend before we left so I knew this was essential. On Friday I decided to take Q to the pediatrician since he seemed a bit stuffy. Normally his symptom wouldn’t warrant a visit but we had a flight and 8 days in WDW to consider. Turns out he had strep throat and a double ear infection. I quickly scheduled myself and J for appointments since we had similar symptoms. I got the all clear, just a cold. J’s throat and ears were clear but the pediatrician heard some wheezing so he got a steroid and an inhaler. I kept a close eye on L but she seemed fine. Great, I got the sickies taken care of, or so I thought.

The weekend continued with L and J’s final soccer games of the season, two birthday parties, a special mass for L’s CCD class and I ran the 10k I had been training for.

Sunday night we were packed, carry-ons were organized and I was in bed by 10:30pm for a 4:00am wake up, or so I thought.

At 11:30 L walked into our room not feeling well, her stomach hurt. I had her go potty, drink some water and even tried a light snack but she didn’t want to eat. By 12:30am she was puking. By 1:30am J was up puking, too. DH and the kids would doze off and on but I never feel back asleep. I didn’t know how we would get on our 7:30am flight this way. I kept waiting for Q to wake up sick (thank goodness that never happened). I packed another carry on with extra clothes and plastic bags and we carried on. What else could I do.

 

[HHMcG]

11-4-13
At 4:45am we loaded up the car and hit the road. No one slept on the hour drive to ACY, too excited or too sick. We almost made the drive puke-free. But about 2 miles from the airport J got sick. We were able to stop at Wawa and clean things up quickly. Then as we pulled into the unloading area, L got sick.

FIL was getting dropped off from the car in front of us, convenient.

We went into the airport got in line. DH joined us a few minutes later after parking the car. We checked our bags, progressed thru security, headed to the gate and eventually boarded. L&J were being real troopers. I had gotten motion sickness bands since J had been queasy on our last flight. So I put those on L&J. W didn’t have a single incident on the flight. (Thank God!) We walked off the plane and L asked for the closest bathroom and proceeded to throw up. Poor thing.
L&J not looking great:

Q ready to go:

We made our way to Magic Express and a bus was already there waiting to take us to Art of Animation. The kids asked for the motion sickness bands again on the bus. Smart thinking kids.

I was thinking this was food sickness since L&J had the same dinner and no one else ate any. But once we arrived at AoA, DH’s stomach started acting up. At check-in I mentioned I had some sick family members and they were able to give us a suite that was ready. I sent DH and the kids to the room and helped FIL check-in. His room was down the hall from us instead of next door since we got one that was ready – OK with me. We got SIL and DNi added as room only guests and then some problems came up. I was under the impression that SIL and DNi would be able to get Magic Bands once I added them as room only guest. I gathered that from The Dis and from talking to reservations Cast Members. I was very disappointed to learn this was incorrect. We spoke to many managers and spent way too much time but nothing could be done. FIL did get a $50 credit to his room for the misunderstanding but no magic bands would be available for SIL and DNi. I thought they would be crushed but in the end this worked out not to be a problem.

Anyway, I rushed to our room, to find a sick DD and DH. J seemed to be recovering and Q was completely unphased. I took the boys and got FIL and we grabbed some lunch. Managing the three of them was harder then it should have been. At check in FIL never set up a pin for his Magic Band so I had to walk him back to check-in and get that fixed. The boys wanted to head to the playground and check out the AoA theming but FIL was so slow moving they were getting rammy. Oh fun. Eventually I unloaded FIL and the boys got to play. J went down the slide twice and ripped his back up, seriously blood everywhere. Back to the front desk for band-aides since I didn’t have any. Oh, now Q needed a nap. I felt like I was running in circles and going nowhere.
AoA and the boys:

Back at the room L now had a fever and had been sleeping since we arrived. DH was doing the same on and off. I got Q down for a nap. And it was decided J and I should head to Magic Kingdom as was originally planned. (I probably should have asked FIL to join us but I was selfish and didn’t stop by his room before we left.) We saw the castle, rode Tomorrowland Speedway (his fav), Dumbo, Small World and Space Ranger Spin. I was changing fastpass+ on the fly. But none of it felt right without the whole family. I got a text from DH and realized it was later then I thought and we headed back to AoA to relieve DH of caring for L and get everyone else fed. After that it was bed for everyone. Lucy had slept all day and I was worried she would be awake all night but no, she slept about 20 hours straight. I ate some of the leftovers DH brought back and hoped tomorrow would be better.



Mom & J time - but we really were missing everyone else, really:

 

[HHMcG]

11/5/13

Everyone woke up feeling better. Still lethargic but stomach issues were gone! And ready to get this vacation underway.

Magic Kingdom was on the schedule again today especially since almost everyone missed it yesterday. We grabbed breakfast at Landscapes of Flavor (as we would every morning) and got out to the buses early (as we would every morning). We made it to MK just as the rope drop show was starting.

Splash Mt was our first stop. The kids had never done it. On the way we had to stop for some castle pics and Christmas decorations!

(this photo might have been a sign of how the day was going to go)


Quinn wasn’t tall enough for Splash Mt so he and I planned to pull some fastpass- and then watch everyone else get soaked. Thunder Mt was closed for the day so I had to improvise with other fp- plans and got Winner the Pooh instead.
Jack did NOT like Splash Mt, Lucy loved it and Pop got soaked. With Big Thunder Mt closed we really didn’t have a plan. We wandered Fronteirland and Adventureland. I guess Splash Mt had really set Jack off because he didn’t want to do any rides. I was frustrated with him. I’m kicking myself for not cutting the kids more slack; he had thrown up a half dozen times yesterday. :badmom: While we did Pirates of the Caribbean, DH and Jack discovered Pirates Adventure. Everyone seemed to like that and Pop got a nice, long rest on a bench. Eventually I pushed us to move along to fantasyland to use our Winnie the Pooh fastpasses. I guess I wanted Quinn to be able to participate in something. Then we hit Dumbo and fp-‘ed Barnstormer.

Somewhere in here was lunch at Pinocchio Village Haus with a window view of Small World. Something we have never done before and all really liked that. Great view and great use of snack credits for lunch.

Soon it was time to monorail over to EPCOT. We had scheduled fastpass+ for Test Track and Soarin’ and dinner at Garden Grill. We used rider swap to get two rides on Test Track but only one on Soarin’ since we ran out of time. I spent time in The Seas with Quinn since he couldn’t ride either.

I feel I can’t give Garden Grill and honest review, the kids’ behavior was awful. Again, probably my fault; they had been sick the day before and I pushed them too much today. I found the restaurant to be older and more worn then I expected. The food tasted good but I didn’t like how it was served on one platter. I would have tried more mashed potatoes but the blood from the rare beef had run into them :yuck: The character interaction was good. The kids were just not much in the mood. Dale signed our autograph book using Jack’s head for a table which got a big laugh from everyone.

We had plans (and another fp+) for World Showcase after dinner. But we knew that was not a good idea. We headed to the bus and called it a night.

 

[HHMcG]

Wednesday 11/6/13

My favorite park today – Hollywood Studios!

Our biggest goal this trip was to get Lucy and Jack to do Jedi Training. They both thought it looked fun to watch but didn’t really want to do it. We truly thought they would love it if they just gave it a try. They had agreed to sign up, knowing they could back out. So at park opening, I went with them to sign up while DH got Toy Story Midway Mania fastpasses-. L&J got into the11:50 show.

We watched the first Jedi Training show, rode TSMM and (for some reason) did the Backlot Tour. The kids thought the little ‘show’ before Backlot Tour was great – who knew? Then it was time for them to report for Jedi Training. By now we had bribed them to do the training. If they gave it a good try they would get an additional souvenir. So they both did it and both LOVED it! J volunteered as the first to battle Darth Vader, L wasn’t far behind him. For her souvenir L picked a purple light saber, so I know they really enjoyed it. Only downside was my video of each of them battling Darth Vader got corrupted. I have other video of the training which is fine just the battling Vader is gone. Still I was so proud of them for trying it and so happy that they liked it! Then we did Star Tours(fp+) and they loved that too.

They asked for lunch at Pizza Planet. J won something at one of the crane games last trip so they were convinced they could win more – oh no. Just a waste of quarters this trip.
We did TSMM again (fp+) and visited with Sully and Mike Wazowski. We all had on our Monsters U shirts and got some great reactions. Then we headed back to the resort. I had a late night planned and wanted them to rest/unwind.

Back at AoA, Quinn and Bill (and Pop) napped and I took L&J to the pool. They ended up playing some of the activities. It really was a struggle to get them to head back to the room to clean up for dinner. I felt like this was a theme for the week, just as they were getting into something fun I had to drag them away to something else we had planned. And no matter how fun the next thing may be first we had to shower, dress and catch a bus and that was just no fun for them. It was frustrating for them and me.

We made our way to O’hana, DH and my fav meal. The kids were only slightly better behaved tonight. They barely ate and just could not stop pestering each other. They are usually decent eaters so it was frustrating that I had to fight them to just try a piece of chicken or beef or lo main. Eventually they did and L even admitted it was good. I should have cut them slack they had been sick and were probably just getting their appetites back and it is vacation but AAAAAA.

After dinner Bill took Quinn and Pop back to AoA. L, J and I hit the Poly beach for Wishes and the Electric Water Pageant (something we had never seen before). They played in the sand while we waited and then actually sat still and cuddled with me during the ‘show’ –heaven!

I had planned to take a cab back from Poly but realized I didn’t have cash on me – damn Magic Band. So we monorail-ed back to MK and the post Wishes crowd. When we arrived the line was through the ropes and halfway down the walk way. They brought the buses in by threes, scooters and wheelchairs in the first while everyone else loaded the outer two buses. It was a masterpiece of organization. We made it onto the fifth bus and were in line less then 15mins. ‘Home’ and in bed by 10pm for L&J.

 

[HHMcG]

Thursday 11/7/13

SIL and DNi would be arriving today. We ate breakfast and then I planned to head to check-in to find out how they could get their key (did Pop need to be there?) when Pop told me he already had their key. OK. In the end Pop decided to stay at the resort and wait for them while we headed to EPCOT. (Yippee! I really like time alone with my family.)

We had already done the EPCOT headliners and had repeats of them scheduled on fp+ for the afternoon with SIL(B) and DNi(MK) so we took our time getting to EPCOT. Walked through the gate around 9:15 and headed to Innoventions. J had been clamoring for ‘the Piggy Bank’ game two days ago so we got it out of the way first so we wouldn’t have to hear his complaining. We tried to make it a leisurely morning and wanted to get to World Showcase when it opened. I know we tried to do Turtle Talk with Crush and the kids were just whining/complaining/fighting too much. So we walked out, I think that may have been the changing point of the vacation. We never did get back to Turtle Talk but I think the kids realized the complaining was too much.

We headed to World Showcase and were excited to do Agent P. But one mission was enough. Q wanted the ‘fone’ the whole time. It was hot and we felt we couldn’t get any shade. We scraped Agent P and just did the Kidcot stations and everyone was happier. It was Food and Wine festival but I think we are just not adventurous enough eaters for it. DH and I tried a little and the kids got QS lunch in America. Right after lunch Pop, B and MK caught up to us, so they toured half of World Showcase with us. We stuck with Kidcot and a couple adult drinks and all was well. Maybe it was the arrival of ‘fresh blood’ (their cousin) but the kids seemed to mellow.

We had fp+ for Test Track and Soarin’ that afternoon. Even though B and MK did not have magic bands we utilized Rider swap to make it work. They all rode Test Track and I walk around until Q napped in his stroller. I really enjoyed a quiet bench and people watching while he napped.

Then it was over to Soarin’. I did it this time (since I missed it before) and DH stayed with Q, I think J did too. I have rode Soarin’ twice and I really have to say I don’t like it. I feel like I could fall out of my seat at any moment. I am a nervous wreck for my kids the whole time. I’m sure I’ll do it again, especially for the kids, but I don’t really NEED to.


Then it was time to head to Chef Mickey’s for dinner. As we were switching monorails at TTC J informed me he needed to poop NOW. (Sorry for the TMI)This is a constant issue with him, one minute he doesn’t need to go the next he needs to go now. There was no getting him to wait until Chef Mickey’s (we’ve made that mistake before). So everyone else caught the monorail and left us behind in the bathroom. J couldn’t believe they left us. It was good they did because the resort monorail was slow and we would have been late if they waited. As it was we got to Chef Mickey’s just as they were being seated. The kids ate well at Chef Mickey’s. They mostly stuck to the children’s offerings but with salads and veggies added in. (It is one of my proudest mommy badges to be raising three broccoli lovers – when at the buffet Q yelled “Yeah broccoli”.) They enjoyed the characters and got some great interaction. We got some extra autographs in a Mickey Golden Book for our neighbors. (The little girl is the biggest Minnie fan I’ve ever see.) L, J & Q loved doing that.
The only hard part at dinner is Q is a bit of a maniac. He is getting too big to fit in the high chairs (are Disney high chairs smaller then normal?) but he hasn’t learned to sit still (is too wild) and those Chef Mickey chairs are awfully wobbly. Quinn was just all over the place.

After dinner it was back to Magic Kingdom for everyone’s favorite Main Street Electric Parade!!!!!!!!!!!! This was making for a long day but the weather was nice and I wasn’t taking a chance at missing it this trip. It is my absolute favorite. My kids love it. And SIL had never seen it before. We grabbed the first open curb space we found . It was just enough for three tiny behinds to fit. One kid sat behind in the stroller along with SIL and I in the second row on the ground. Bill leaned against the railing at the back of the sidewalk for best photo opportunities. (Pop had headed back to AoA.) The kids managed to wait for a half hour pretty well behaved. I dug up some glow bracelets and we bought our Glow with the Show ears (for later) which kept everyone occupied.

A note about the Glow with the Show ears: They are almost impossible to wear. They are too small to fit a normal adult sized head and the elastic is too loose to keep them on a child sized head. I had read they were uncomfortable ahead of time and only bought one set for our family of five. SIL also bough ones for DNi. L was most infatuated with them and by sheer determination managed to keep them on her head, so they are pretty much her’s now.

Main Street Electric Parade started and everyone was in aww. I have goose bumps just thinking about it. It is moments like this that make it all worth it to me.

We decided not to stay for Wishes to get home earlier. The line for the bus was awful again but I had faith it would run like the night before. No such luck. Buses came slowly one at a time. We managed to see the start of Wishes as we loaded onto the bus.

Once we got ‘home’ DH noticed his wallet was missing. He could not remember when he had it last or if he even took it with him that morning. With the Magic Bands you never need your wallet so it went unnoticed. We searched the room and he let lost and found know. We checked all our bank and credit card accounts and everything looked fine, so we waited to cancel anything. I’m an optimist so I had total faith it would show up.

 

[JulieODC]

Bummer about the stomach bug - but glad to see it cleared up quickly!

 

[HHMcG]

Bummer about the stomach bug - but glad to see it cleared up quickly!

Yeah, I'm glad this was a longer trip for us. A day or two being sick isn't bad when you have 6 more days of vacaion!

 

[HHMcG]

Friday 11/8/13

Another Magic Kingdom day. After all this was SIL and DNi’s first full day, you have to do MK. Since we all didn’t have Magic Bands we mainly used fp- this day. We also all wore our matching shirts that DH and I made. Some didn’t turn out as expected but I was happy with them (until SIL got soaked on Splash Mt.)

We started with Enchanted Tales with Belle. It was so stinking cute!! DNi was Maurice and L&J were enchanted objects. Q wasn’t having it, so he stuck by my side. Unfortunately all the pictures we got, including photopass, are dark.

I’m not sure what else we did this day. We ran around like maniacs getting fp- and trying to fit in as many rides as possible. I remember I did Space Mt with L&J, another first for them. I hate roller coasters (or anything with a drop) but Space Mt does not bother me at all. SIL, DNi & L did Splash Mt, front seat, they got soaked. That is when we learned that the color in some of our homemade t-shirts would run when wet. Yikes.

We stopped for a snack on Main Street – ice cream and funnel cake – and realized the afternoon parade was due in 20mins. So I made us stay and watch it. But really everyone was beat. We decided to return to AoA for a short rest and change of clothes (for those who got soaked). DH decided now would be a good time to call lost and found and low and behold they had his wallet. It was found in the flowers right by where we watched MSEP the night before. So he went to lost & found at the TTC while we headed to AoA with plans for him to meet us at Downtown Disney for dinner.

We barely had time to sit down and clean ourselves up before we had to turn around and head to DTD and Ragland Road. We are all of Irish decent so I thought the Irish Pub would be a good dinner choice.
We got a table right in front of the big stage. It was loud and energetic with almost constant entertainment which was a hit with the kids which made it a hit with the adults. I really enjoyed the food. Between the pros they occasionally pull kids onto stage to step dance. L&J weren’t having it. DNi has taken a few step classes and totally looks the part with her long, curly, red hair, so she got her own little show.

After dinner we did some shopping. Checked out the Lego store and hit World of Disney to do the bulk of our souvenir shopping since I get a 10% discount with my Disney Visa. What meant to be an early night (I thought we would shop before dinner) turned late.
It was at this point we remembered L had a BBB appointment in Magic Kingdom for 8am the next morning. L has always been indifferent to Princesses and dress-up. But DNi would be doing it too (though at a different time and location) and we didn’t want L to feel left out. Plus she is getting older and next trip she may just be too old for this stuff. We felt like this was our last good chance to get her to do it. But after going back and forth it was finally decided that she didn’t want to do it. Around 10pm we called and were able to cancel it without a penalty charge. They were very sweet and understanding about the whole thing. I just hope L doesn’t regret it.

 

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[HHMcG]

Pardon the long break.
Had a very nice Thanksgiving and kicked off the Christmas season. I'm a Christmas freak, so now my free time will be split between Disney and all things Christmas - shopping, baking, decorating, wrapping, ect.

 

[HHMcG]

Saturday 11/9/13

Finally heading to Animal Kingdom today.

Pop is an animal lover so I thought he would really enjoy this. But really the man shows such little emotion it’s hard to tell. Again we would be mostly using fp- today. I asked DH to run for the first set of FP, I was just too worn out. So he ran to get fp- for Kali River Rapids while we headed for the Safari. We all enjoyed the Safari. I find it relaxing. L loved the baby giraffe. Q would scream out whatever animal he saw next. Of course we followed the safari with a walk on the trail to see my favorite animal – the gorillas. They were out and did not disappoint!

Next over to Kali River Rapids. The kids had never done it. Bill and I did it years ago and it is a legendary story in our family. A frog jumped on my arm in the loading area and I freaked out like a crazy lady, CM yelling at me to get back in my seat, strangers thinking I was having some sort of fit. Good memories. So everyone was on the look out for frogs for me.
I was the only one who elected to put a poncho on – suckers. SIL and DNi got the worst of it, completely soaked, everyone else was moderately wet, except me I only had one little wet spot on my leg.
At this moment DH & I had a realization – we were glad L decided to cancel her BBB appointment for this morning or all of the Fairy Godmother’s hard work would have just been washed off.

Next we headed to Dinoland for Triceratop Spin and some down time in the Boneyard. I believe some more fp- were pulled for Expedition Everest and Primeval Whirl, not many takers for either so we were able to split our fp’es. We lunched at Flame Tree Grill. I LOVED the fruit plate, the fruit was so fresh and the kids devoured it. Back to ride Primeval Whirl. Thank goodness SIL is a thrill right lover, she took the three big kids on it so neither DH or I had too. After that it was Expedition Everest, only SIL and DNi wanted to do it. Then they were heading to BBB at DTD. The rest of us headed to Festival of the Lion King – love that show. After that we did some exploring around the Tree of Life and headed out.

So we had headed back to AoA and L and I were going to do our own little Bippity Boppity Boutique. I did her nails and added some color streaks to her hair and put it in a half up do. That was more then enough for her and she was itching to run around. She did not want to wear a princess dress but was happy with this little tutu skirt with tights and an Arial t-shirt.

We were headed back to Magic Kingdom for dinner and Be Our Guest. When it came time to make our ADRs I wasn’t thrilled with BOG but it was the new, hard to get ressie so I had to try and low and behold I got a 6:30 for 8 people on my first try I had to take it. I am SO glad I did.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom and man was it more crowded then earlier in the week. There was still no word from SIL and DNi who were coming over from BBB @ DTD. We stood around Main Street for the castle lighting – ooooooohhh! And then headed back to the Beast’s castle – aaaaaaahhh! We checked in a few mins late for our ressie and SIL texted that they had just made it to the park. Luckily they made it just as we were getting paged to our table.

Once again we had a front row center table – right in front of the ‘snowing windows’ complete with festive Christmas tree. I just about melted when they seated us, it was picture perfect. Everyone seemed to just be in a happy mood for this meal. I know I enjoyed my meal and DH’s. Dessert was fantastic. As the song says, I tried the “grey stuff it’s “delicious!” and it was! I think we got one of every dessert. I liked them all except the fruity ones, but I don’t like fruity.
After eating we toured the castle. (What is with the mostly empty room during dinner?) And then went for pictures with the Beast. He didn’t wow me, very little interaction. Then we headed out into Magic Kingdom all content.
These were taken from my seat.

Touring the castle

It was somewhere during this meal that my FIL had an awakening. My SIL was thanking me for getting this reservation. FIL didn’t know what she meant. So she explained that this was one of the hardest-to-get ressies in WDW. I explained how I woke up at 5:30am on our 180-day mark to make all our reservations. Not sure where FIL got the idea but he seemed to think our reservations where just assigned to us or everyone got them or something.

Main Street Electric Parade was in full swing and the place was backed. It was impossible to get anywhere near the Hub. We got as far as Tomorrowland before we were stuck. A nice CM directed us down a little alley; I was leery that we were exiting at first, but it took us backstage of Main Street and let us by the Train Station. Cool! The Light Parade was cleared out here and we quickly grabbed some space for Wishes! For the first time ever I saw Tink fly, not close up at all, just a lighted blur across the sky, but Tink. L who doesn’t believe in anything (not characters or Santa or the Tooth Fairy) asked if it was the real Tink. I didn’t know what to say and just stared at her until she gave up. I stood there holding Q or cuddling up L&J and was completely happy. This is what Disney means to me. Oh the music from Wishes just makes me warm and tingly. (Think I may have to add that to my Christmas list.)
L had her Glow with the Show ears but I really didn’t notice them.

We bolted a few minutes before the end and watched the finale on our walk out. Well the kids watched and we carried them. They are getting too big for that. Piled on the bus and headed ‘home’ for a content night’s sleep.

 

[HHMcG]

Some time in here the MDE app stopped working on my phone (iphone4s if it makes a difference). When I went to My Reservations to check my fastpasses+ it would say “We’re Sorry A blip in the network kept us from retrieving your information. Please try again.” Maybe there was another way to check my fastpasses+ but I didn’t find it. I reloaded the app and it work again ONCE, and then I started getting the error message again. I could use DH’s phone (android) sometimes but it seemed to run very slow. So I did use some of the fp+ kiosks in the park. There was never a line, they worked quickly and they were conveniently located (except in EPCOT). The only complaint was that sometimes cast members would be watch everything I did and even try to do it for me. I assume it was just part of the testing process but it was annoying.

I should also add that WiFi in the parks and resort was great. I was able to facetime from the parks! My parents had to skip this trip due to some health issues so it was great to include them in the trip by facetime-ing with them actually from an attraction. I know I ‘called’ them from Tomorrrowland Speedway, EPCOT World Showcase and AK’s Boneyard.

 

[JulieODC]

Funny about your FIL's epiphany!

We have a Sofia fan in our house too - cute!!

 

[HHMcG]

Sunday 11/10/13
Back to Hollywood Studios!

Park opened at 8:50. Thankfully we didn’t get in line until 8:30 or we would have had some really rammy people. But we were far back in line. I was fp runner again and headed straight for TSMM, got there by 9am and got an 11:30 return time, oh my. Met everyone else and jumped right in the standby line. That is a fun line, good thing because it is always long. It was early and we were all in a good mood so we were playing I Spy in line. This very nice couple in front of us complemented me on how we interacted with our kids. I thanked them but warned them that we all have our tired, cranky, bad moments too. Still is was nice to hear.
After TSMM we headed over to meet the Disney Jr gang. I heard the Sophia line got long and wanted to be there earlier. It wasn’t too bad. J refused to meet Sophia. Everyone else enjoyed her and Q wouldn’t even move aside for MK to get a picture by herself.

It was one of our goals to do the Animation class this trip, we never had. So it seemed a logical time to do it. I didn’t think Q would be patient enough for all of us to go, so I took him to meet Jake and then watch the Disney Jr show. He was mesmerized the whole time.

Eventually we all regrouped; time to use our fp+. I don’t do drops so I stayed with Q and J while everyone else did TOT. Later everyone did RnR, this time I stayed behind with Q and Pop. Can you tell I ‘m not thrilled by thrill rides? I think I watched the Beauty & the Beast and The Muppet Show, had snacks, shopped and just people watched. Later DH and J did the animation class again, L, Q & I shopped. And Pop took SIL and MK on Backlot Tour, again. I guess he really liked it.

At 3:30 we had and ADR at Mama Melrose as part of the Fantasmic! Dining Package. We checked in a bit early and I made sure all the kids looked at the menu and told DH what they wanted. I had a scheme brewing. We were seated at 3:25 and a few minutes later I grabbed the 4 kids and walked out, headed to Streets of America and hung out. They all were complaining – I’m hungry, I’m thirsty, I want to color my placemat (the same one that has been at every other meal, grrr). Then out walked character after character – Character Palooza!!!!!!!! We got high fives and hugs from most characters as they mingled around. L, Q and MK were pretty excited but J just wanted to go back to the restaurant and color his placemat. Sigh. He sat to the side as we got pictures with Mulan, Evil Queen from Snow White, Pocahontas and Meeko and a green army man (who worked so hard to have Q not be afraid of him). We were back in our seats just as our drinks arrived. Totally awesome experience and I would have had no idea without The Dis and Kenny the Pirate!

(Lucy took this one. My neice didn't seem to understand i wantewd my OWN picture. hehe)

(Jack took this. At least he enjoyed being behind the camera.)

Back to Mama Melrose – turns out the Fantasmic! Dining Package comes with an appetizer so DH had to ad-lib those for us. He got me the Caesar salad which L gobbled up. The kids got raw veggies which J turned his nose at and Q happily chomped away on. Everyone was happy with their entrée. Dessert is a little sample tray. A lot of the stuff didn’t suit my taste (too sweet) but we all found something to enjoy. The kids got ice cream with Mickey sprinkles. Sometimes I wish I was a kid.

After dinner we wandered around a bit – so full. And eventually headed over for the 6:30 fantasmic! The Dining Package came with great seats. They have some CMs doing silly trivia and sing-alongs while you wait for the show which made the wait fun. In our party only DH and I have seen Fantasmic! And that was many, many years ago. We were all very excited for it. L was ready with her Glow with the Show ears. Once the show started the kids cuddled up to us and were mesmerized. I know some people bash this show but all of us loved it. This whole package was totally worth it!

But we still aren’t done, time to head to a first for all of us – The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. I am a Christmas lights nut so I was so excited for this. We kind of entered the area from the bottom of the street – man was that a lot of lights and a lot of people. We all just took in the lights for awhile. Then tried to get pictures (thinking of the Christmas cards here). We had to wait inline for the Photopass guys who had to stop taking pictures every time the lights ‘danced’. After we finally got our pictures of the whole family they told us J & MK, standing in the front, were too short to be seen. The cameras are on tripods with the perfect background set, so no adjusting to get everyone in the shot. We insisted on a few more pictures with us holding the kids but everyone was spent at this point. We got a lot of pictures between us and photopass so we did manage to get something useable. I could have spent longer wandering around looking at the light but I think some people (DH and Pop) had enough. So we drug the kids (and me) away and headed out of the park. What a totally magical night!

(How things fall apart with my three)

(finally got my photopass images downloaded - here's one)

 

[HHMcG]

Back from that real life distraction - Christmas! I really had a wonderful time with DH and the kids. Really tried to just embrace each moment. We had lots of out of town family visiting and it was wonderful to see them. It is also wonderful now that they all went home and we can being to transition back to normal.
The house is in choas with presents to be put away and toys to be cleaned up. Plus we are re-arranging the kids room, so there is furniture everywhere. And here I sit at work wishing I was home to tackle that mess. Ah, I guess there is always time for that tomorrow.

So as we approach 2014, let me finish up my 2013 trip report....

 

[HHMcG]

Monday 11/11/13

Eeeek, our last full day.

Might as well start it off good with breakfast in the castle before park opening!

I love getting picture on an empty Main Street before park opening. I got some ok ones but I was very disappointed with the photopass ones. The light was just awful, we are all washed out.

None of us had eaten at Cinderella’s Royal Table before. My kids just aren’t huge princess lovers so it never seemed worth the cost. But we figured L isn’t getting any younger and this may be our last chance for her to enjoy it as a “child”.
While the inside of the castle is amazing I have to guess that we will not do this meal again. The food was average and we felt rushed to be done in time for park opening. Not rushed by any CM but by our own expectations. I don’t remember feeling this way at other breakfast spots in Magic Kingdom, maybe things just took longer here and added to our ‘hurry up’ feel.
We met Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Arial, Jasmine and, of course, Cinderella. Interaction was fine. We were at two tables next to each other which caused some confusion. I would love to go back and just explore the castle though.
L actually wore a costume here. But before the meal was even over she was asking to get out. She is my princess in her own natural way.

Once we were let loose in the Magic Kingdom, we hopped around and did some rides we had missed and repeated some favorites.

(J getting behind the camera)
Tonight was a MVMCP that we were not attending so we knew it couldn’t be a late night for us at Magic Kingdom. But I think we were all worn out because by the afternoon we were winding down. Our last ride was It’s a Small World.

We did some more shopping on Main Street. Then one last photo of the castle and a few tears from me as we threw kisses back as we walked under the train station.

Back at AoA we did some evening swimming. And one last frustration between me and DH & ILs to make me glad we were going home.

 

[HHMcG]

Tuesday 11/12/13

We had a 7:45am Magic Express pick up, so no time for anything more than breakfast. Thankfully the trip home was uneventful, no one was sick! Flight left MCO on time and we returned to a chilly NJ. We were home by 2-ish and tried to just relax because tomorrow was back to school and work.

 

[HHMcG]

Overall this was our roughest trip to Disney. The kids just didn’t seem to love it as much; they almost took it for granted. We feel we will be waiting longer until the next trip. Maybe I need a solo trip or a Mommy-Daddy get away.
I’ve already changed my mind a few times but right now I am thinking our next trip will be Spring 2017. That is a 3 ½ year wait between trips. L would be a Disney ‘adult’ but we just wouldn’t do the dining plan and the ticket increase isn’t huge. That will be about 6 months before J turns 10. And it would be close to Q’s 6th Birthday - we ‘celebrated’ L & J’s 6th birthdays at Disney, so that would be fitting.
I would consider a spontaneous trip if some great deal pops up. I just can’t do a year worth of planning and have no one appreciate it.