What do you mean you are from the Dream Squad. 9/13-9/19

[Justin the Hook]

I first want to say this should have been done a long time ago, but I just haven't had the time to do so.

Our Trip

9/13 TRAVELThe morning started very early for us we woke up around 4 am to get in the car and drive to the airport. My wife, mother-in-law, father-in-law and my youngest all fell asleep in the car on the way down to the airport and the 2 older girls were way to excited to miss anything. Getting through security was a breeze at BWI and by the time we sat down to wait to board we were already boarding the plane. The Flight was smooth and before we knew it 2 hours had passed and we were in Orlando. My 2 year old started asking immediately if she could see Mickey Mouse. The excitement on the kids faces was priceless. The Ride on the Magical Express was wonderful, we were at Port Orleans Riverside in 35 minutes. Walked off the bus and WOW that is a long line for check in. I mean really long at this point it was only 9:45am and the line was all the way out in the lobby area. 45 minutes passed and we were finally through the line, checked in and one of the 2 rooms was ready for us. This was a great thing because we were able to get into the room relax a bit and head out to the Magic Kingdom for a day of excitement.

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The First Day at the Magic Kingdom

We get to the MK and realize that I do not have my room key, great no room key I can't get into the park. Luckily I remember that guest services will get you a new card if you lost or forgot yours walk over to the guest services and get a new ticket we are now ready to go. Wait a minute it is the 2nd week of September what is with all the Halloween decorations? Now it is time to pick up the stroller, Yes we are renting a stroller for the week. First excitement for the trip, my is paying for a single stroller rental for the week the CM takes her money charges her for the single stroller rental then gives her double stroller tickets for the week. She lets him know that he did that and he responds you have 3 kids, they will all be tired at some point you'll need the bigger stroller, she tries to pay him for them and he responds I am sorry I cannot take your money it was my mistake wink wink nod nod. So we now have a double stroller rental for the week and only paid for the single stroller. This vacation is saving me even more money. We head off to Adventure Land and ride Alladin, the Jugle Cruise, Pirates, and see the Enchanted Tiki room all before our lunch at the Crystal Palace. We have our first problem our 2 year old decided that she was going to pull her pull up to the side and then she peed all over her clothes right before lunch. So i run and find were I can buy her some extra clothes $40 later we are back in business. Lunch at the Crystal Palace is wonderful and the kids are loving eating lunch with Pooh and friends. Lunch is done and we are off to finish Adventureland. I don't do roller coasters so it works out good that I can watch the little one while everyone else does Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Oh, I forgot to say this is all WITHOUT Fastpasses!!! They get done riding and everyone is spent too much time out and waking up at the hour we did took it out of most of us. Time to eat some dinner and head off to the pool to relax.

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9/14The First Day at Animal Kingdom

8 am breakfast with Mickey and the gang, what a wonderful breakfast! This was very enjoyable and I can't think of a better breakfast to have other than this one. (well not yet at least) After breakfast off to the safari, then to rafiki's then off to it's tough to be a bug then lion king. We all need a break, it is time for some well deserved pool time back at the hotel.

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An Evening at Epcot

We head over to Epcot for Dinner at Norway with the Princess's. We do the Malstrom and it is now time for Illuminations. This show used to be my favorite, but it seems they cut down on the fireworks. Now they just use the globe with all the video. I got to talk to a very nice guy from England about his trip and how little money he had to spend to get to Disney. I mean little his trip was less than ours and he had to fly from England and also spent 14 days. Fireworks over and we walk the world. I love doing it this way because I am really not into the countries at all. The kids didn't seem to interested in it and it gave them something to say. Back to the hotel for a good relaxing swim before bed. When we went to sleep little did we know what was coming the next morning. The first Really GREAT thing about our trip.

 

[OhMari]

Hmm, I'm looking at your dates and I can't remember if it was another hurricane that missed Florida.

I'll be staying at POR, did you stay in the Mansions or the Bayou. You didn't share a room with your in-laws did you?

 

[Justin the Hook]

Hmm, I'm looking at your dates and I can't remember if it was another hurricane that missed Florida.

I'll be staying at POR, did you stay in the Mansions or the Bayou. You didn't share a room with your in-laws did you?

No Hurricanes at all, actual we didn't even have raint the week I was there.

We stayed in the Mansions and I paid for a room for my in-laws. I couldn't imagine staying in the same room with them, heck it took all my might just to spend the week with them, well really just my father-in-law he was miserable the whole trip.

 

[loopymommy]

Was he miserable because he's not a Disney fan, or is he just that kind of guy?

 

[Justin the Hook]

Was he miserable because he's not a Disney fan, or is he just that kind of guy?

He is just that kind of guy. I took care of everything from plane tickets, to park tickets, to the deluxe dinning plan, to even purchasing the photopass since it was their anniversary so they would have all the pictures from the week and finally picked up the tips on every meal. So he didn't have to worry about anything, but still found time to complain about meals, transportation, being to hot, actually this list could go on forever. But the group didn't let it get them down and we still had a fun time. My computer wasn't letting me copy pictures yesterday, so I will add pictures to the list when it allows me.

Here is a picture of him

 

[john398]

Good report so far, I am subscribing

 

[loopymommy]

Hoo boy. His pic scares me more than your Vader pic. Doesn't look like he's having a "magical" time. Maybe next time he should stay home with a case of Pabst and watch some cage fights.

 

[the4princesses]

He is just that kind of guy. I took care of everything from plane tickets, to park tickets, to the deluxe dinning plan, to even purchasing the photopass since it was their anniversary so they would have all the pictures from the week and finally picked up the tips on every meal. So he didn't have to worry about anything, but still found time to complain about meals, transportation, being to hot, actually this list could go on forever. But the group didn't let it get them down and we still had a fun time. My computer wasn't letting me copy pictures yesterday, so I will add pictures to the list when it allows me.

Here is a picture of him

That picture is soooooo funny!! look's like he sucked on a lemon!!

 

[averill94]

Your family is beautiful!

Thank you for sharing.

 

[Justin the Hook]

Thank you. I am all alone with 3 girls. I will be adding more as I have more time. I hate working, but I have to make money.

 

[bakerhouse]

Hi neighbor. Anxiously awaiting more details!

 

[Justin the Hook]

9/15 First Day at Hollywood Studios

So I woke the family up early again for the Play and Dine at the Hollywood and Vine and my six year old looks at me and says "Why are you getting me up so early? Aren't we on vacation?" Kids I have to hand it to them they are a hoot. So we get to Hollywood Studios and not a soul in the park, non even waiting to get in to make our 8 am reservation. We were the first family in the resteraunt and I have to admit it is the perfect time to go. All the characters came right over to us and we didn't have to wait at all to see them. My youngest is a huge Little Einstines fan so much that she screamed when she saw Leo and June.

We finished breakfast and headed out to the park for the day. Now I did not hurry up and Fast Pass Toy Story. This was a big no no on the boards and I really thought this was going to hurt us, but we were so close to Star Tours and I am a huge Star Wars nerd. So we head over and the wait was 0 minutes. It seemed to take us forever to walk through the turnstiles to get the front of the line. We used child swap because everyone wanted to ride and the little one was too small to ride. So I took the first run, I sat down and my 6 year old couldn't get her seatbelt on. So I unbuckled myself helped her and sat back down. When I looked up there were 2 guys standing there with their white shirts and blue vests. "Do you know who ew are? We are from the Dream Squad and today's dream is time. You get Dream Fast Passes for all the rides here at Hollywood Studios!" I can't believe it I never have won anything. Nothing at all. Well my next question is what about my wife and youngest? They were supposed to be on the ride, but since we were using child swap she wasn't there. The Dream Squad guy came up to me and said that since my wife was to be on the ride, every one on the next ride gets one too. WOW!!!! What a great suprise. Our plan was to ride Star Tours, Toy Story, Rock and Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror and then Playhouse Disney that should be a whole day. Well that is out the door, lets just do whatever and when we get to those things just hop on. So from 9 am to 3 pm we rode Backlot Tour, Toy Story, Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney, The Great Movie Ride, Tower of Terror, Rock N Roller Coaster, had lunch and watched the Block Party Parade. We never even broke a sweat. The girls even had time to shop a little.

We head out after the Parade, back to the hotel for a little swimming before we need to head over to the Magic Kingdom to Tony's for an 8 pm dinner. We get to MK about 6:30 and really are just there for dinner. Since we have 1 1/2 hours until dinner we decide to Monsters Inc laugh floor. I wasn't expecting much from this show, but it was excellent. I actually was Mike in the recreation of the Monsters Inc. movie. My girls got a real kick out of it and we rode the Grand Prix because again no wait. I love September at this point, we really haven't waited in any line at all. The most was waiting for the Jungle Cruise on the first day and that was 20 minutes. After dinner back to the hotel for some much needed rest. This was an exhausting 3 days good thing we have a relaxing day planned for tomorrow.

9/16 Typhoon Lagoon

Now this is my kind of park. I love water parks, I really love the water and the wife and kids do too. We get to TL right at 10 am and it is off to the wave pool. Everyone really loves this wave pool, I rank it as number 1 of all pools, I have ever been to.

We then head over to Ketchakiddie Creek for the little one. She is really excited to get onto some slides and run around and get wet. Since my mother-in-law doesn't do waterslides it becomes a very easy baby sitter for us.

After she has ridden that slide like 20 times we decide to not just leave them and get into the lazy river. My wife loves the lazy river and the kids have never been on one. So we hop on the lazy river to take us to the other parts of the park.

My Mother-in keeps the youngest and off we go to the slides. Humunga Cowabunga is the first, which I don't do too high for me, then off to the storm slides, over to Crushn Gusher that was fun. First hill kind of sucked for me but the rest of the ride was pretty tame, then over to the family slide and then to the other 2 tube slides. This was the only time during the trip I wished my middle child was about 2 years older. I had to carry her tube to the top of the mountain and also had to carry mine. After we rode all the slides it was only 12:30. 2 1/2 hours and we were done. Man that was a little too easy. We attempted the shark reef, I have done it on many occasions before. I love to snorkel, but my wfe has never gotten the breathing down and the kids were willing to go, but they both ended up backing out and since I wasn't going to make the group wait for me I just hopped back out of line. We ended up going back to the hotel for the first time before 2 O'clock and that worked out for our resting day since all 3 kids took naps.

We then headed off to Downtown Disney for the evening. We had reservations at Wolfgang Pucks for dinner. I have to say worst meal and service that we had the whole trip. I don't know if I was just expecting more or it was really that bad. We ended up getting a snack less than an hour after the meal. After dinner we headed over to Disney Quest. Now being a huge video game nerd I thought that I would enjoy this much more than I did. Again, expectations were not met. None of the good video games were available and all of the SkiBall machines for the girls were broken. Couldn't find anyone to help at all. We lasted about an hour in there and then off to shop. We were there until the last boat run back to POR. That is a wonderful boat trip, but very scary in the dark. They should make that a haunted cruise. Laid down after a nice relaxing day and the next day have a story for the ages!

 

[OhMari]

Laid down after a nice relaxing day and the next day have a story for the ages!