What to do....UPDATED!! 7-11 w/photos

[Minnie Lor]

I've been checking Twisney too. Thanks for this update.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

So happy to hear things are going great -- how many days do you have left?

 

[WaltD4Me]

Just checked Twisney, dpuck just did the new Spaceship Earth. He said the new updates are cool. Also just a 20 minute wait for Soarin' at 9am this morning!

 

[dpuck1998]

wow, another marathon day! I'm a sucker for punishment. Just got back from Epcot after watching Illuminations. This was my least favorite show, but the more I see it the more I like it. Anyway, a 13 hr day at Epcot with two rides on Soarin and we hit all the major attractions. I think were killing our poor little guest. We were all exhausted, but my kids are used to it LOL

We had a great time, we always spend too much in the shops of Japan and China, but love the stuff. Chef de France was unimpressive, had high hopes for it. I'll fill in the blanks on my trip report. Tomorrow is a ??? day. We had planned to hit the waterpark (Typhoon) but we are considering just hanging at the Wilderness after two long marathon days. We come home on Friday, so two more days of fun and a plane ride home....for 5 in first class and me in the back

Thanks for keeping track of me all!! Be back soon

 

[dpuck1998]

The prodigal son has returned ;-)

Just got home a couple hours ago. Kids are all cleaned up and preparing for todays big event, Camp Rock. To celebrate we are staying up late to watch it!

I'll grab the laptop and camera and get to work on my trip report as asap. I'll post it here in this tread so I don't have to start a trip report thread on the podcast board.

TTYL

 

[Annette_VA]

Welcome home! Can't wait to hear all about the trip

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

Don ~ Happy to hear you all made it home safely and look forward to the report!!!

 

[wilde_oscar]

if it is half as good as your twisney tweets, it will rock.

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 1:

Per Scott aka "Twisney" you can track each day...here is day one...kinda boring.. http://www.twisney.com/dpuck1998/2008/6/15

Okay, here goes day one. Let me start off by telling you that in case you haven't noticed, I type like I talk....lots of these....and whatnot

First thing, to start the "trip" we had a wedding the night before. Usually not a huge deal we can skip out of it, but all 3 of my kids were IN the wedding. Its a Saturday so we had tuxes and a dress to deal with. The reception was slated to start at 6pm and we had to drive to Detroit that night. We always stay at the Westin the night before if we are flying out early. So we made a last minute decision to skip the reception and just pick up our guest and head to Detroit. All went well and we checked in at the Westin, ended up getting another room for a great price so we were all comfy. We love the Westin, going thru the private security is a huge plus also!

Getting into the airport was fine, our guest did great, called grandma and was only a little nervous about flying. He had taken a ride on a small prop plane once, but never been on a commercial flight.

Flight was on time; we boarded quickly but were unable to get our guest a seat near us. Instead we split up and I took the kid duty and my DW sat in the back of the plane. Flight went great thanks to 3 DVD players, Mac book pro and a Nintendo DS. All 4 kids were entertained and quiet the whole trip. My kids are seasoned travelers. Flight landed on time, no luggage to pickup since we only had carry ons and a big box waiting for us at the WL. Grabbed our Minivan and we were off!!

Thanks to the mousesavers GPS cords on my Tom-Tom I have all of Disney property pre-programmed! We were at WL by 1pm! Kids were all excited even though we weren't going to any parks today. Check in went great, our box was waiting at the front desk and we took a few photos in the lobby.

Our guest seemed pretty excited, but he’s a tough read. I think he was impressed, but he’s a quiet kid that doesn't show a lot of emotion. Hard to not be impressed with the WL lobby though.

We settled into our room and put on our swim suits (no camo bikinis though). A quick (kinda) stop at the arcade and off to the pool to meet up with my brother and family and my mom who were all there for a couple of days also. All 10 of us had a blast at the pool. My 7 yo went down the slide after crying about it all the way up and then proceeded to spend the rest of the day going up and down the slide. My 3 yo loved the hot tub and kiddie pool.

We tried to get into Whispering Canyon but couldn't wait until 9pm to eat so we just had dinner at Roaring Forks and used up some CS credits. My brother had made dinner plans for 4 at Artist Point so after some convincing I agreed to let the kids stay with grandma and we had dinner there.

It was the best meal of the trip for sure! We had a fantastic server "David" I think. He was awesome! I had the Buffalo and it was superb and my wife had the Salmon which was equally incredible. A couple of fantastic wines and a very good dessert finished off the meal. Glad we did that and when we got back (around 9) everyone was already settled in and ready for bed. Tomorrow we embark on our first marathon day! MK here we come.

to be continued..........

 

[DVCJones]

Wow!!! Sounds like you all are having a magical time!!!

I love reading your posts....Thanks!

 

[klam_chowder]

Just caught this thread - how wonderful of you to do share the magic, dpuck

Your son's friend's dimples are adorable! That first pic is the best with your little one sneaking a peak.

Looking fwd to the next installments

cheers,

 

[LilGMom]

Can't wait to read and see more!

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 2: 13+ hrs at MK

http://www.twisney.com/dpuck1998/2008/6/16

Well, here we are the first FULL day at Disney.

Of course were up early and ready to go. I ran down to Roarin Forks around 7ish to grab meals for everyone while they get ready. We have BBB booked for my DD 3 and my brothers DD who is 4 on this day. After eating we walk to the docks to catch the boat.....whoops....doesn't leave until 8:30 so we have to catch the bus to get to our BBB 8:30 ressis (park opens at 9).

Easy enough, we catch an empty bus and get to MK quickly. We brough our own stroller for the 3 yo since I'm not willing to pay the "new" stroller rental prices. We head into MK and break out the camcorder to get the "first timer" on film and our kids as they walk thru the train station. The girls are ready to go and our guest is very excited, but is very reserved (as I mentioned). We grab a first timer pin for our guest and birthday pin for brothers DD. We meander up main street, get some photopass photos and the girls in pre-BBB.

We check into BBB and wait until the girls are called. After waiting for a little while we decide we should split up instead of making the boys wait around for sister to get a makeover. So I take all the tickets (10 in all) and head out. We wander over for Tomorrowland rope drop. About 10 mins before rope drop several CMs come out. One asks whos going on Buzz, since we decided to hit buzz first then Space we raise our hands. He presents us with a certificate to be the "First Family on Buzz Lightyear".

They take us around the rope and walk us to Buzz to get on the ride all alone. Our party consists of Myself, 2 DSs, guest and my mother. The CM gives us some tricks of the ride while we are waiting and takes us on the ride with no one else around! We hop on and I get to go alone since I'm the odd man out Well with no distractions I'm able to put all the tricks to use and pull off my first ever 999,999 score! Whoohooo! We get off the ride and the CM at the photos tells us our entire party gets free photos since we were the first family. How cool. While waiting in an empty gift shop for our photos I toss the kids in jail.

Next stop, Space Mountain! Grandma and DS7 wait in the arcade while I take the other two boys on Space Mountain after grabbing Buzz FP for later. SM is a hit as usual and we head out towards Fantasyland. Somehow I get suckered into stopping at the Tomorrowland Speedway. This goes against every Disney touring plan ever made...going on this thing during the magic early hours we should be in fantasyland...but ohh well...we go anyway. Wait wasn't too bad, about 15 mins.

We meet up with the rest of the party who have finished at BBB.

We grab a quick ride on Pooh with no wait and head to Pinochio for a snack since we have a late lunch at the castle. Figaro Fries and some fruit to counterbalance! Yum. While eating I got to run to Big Thunder and Splash to get 5 Fast Passes for each ride. I love having 10 tickets!! Off to Small World with all 10 of us. The 9 yos are too cool to enjoy this ride now, but I think they like it anyway (me thinks they protest too much). Next stop Haunted Mansion with a short wait, always a big hit.

Time for lunch. First "problem" hits us, but we are somewhat prepared. We have ressies at CRT but of course our numbers have swelled. We check in at the counter a half hour early and are told it shouldn't be a problem, but to check in for real in about 15 mins. We wait 15 mins and check in. Whoops...it is a problem. We talk to everyone even the manager and there is NO WAY they can squeeze in 1 more person. What a bunch of BS. Instead we drop our ressie to 6 and I take the 3 boys off to hit the rides while the girls go eat. Lets just say that we will never eat at the castle ever again. But I doubt anyone at Disney cares since they could server cow patties and people would eat there. While the ladies eat we hit some rides. I grab fastpasses for Stitch and we go to the Monsters Inc show. DS 9 gets picked and makes it on the screen. Neat show, kids love it.

Next we hit Stitch with our fastpasses, return time was short yet people were still waiting inline, guess they couldn't get more fastpasses yet.

We grab a light lunch and meet up with the rest of the party.

We are all together again and head out to ride Big Thunder and Splash. The boys love it and we grab more FP for Big Thunder for a later ride. My brothers family heads out for a break but we push through with great success. We take a couple of breaks mixed in with shows like Tiki and some DOLE WHIPS! for bob.

Sorry I look like a dork, that why I take most of the photos ;-)

After the dole whips we head to Buzz again to use those FPs and then to the COP for a nice sit down. We make more use of the great "relaxing" time and hit the TTA. Almost like taking an afternoon break without leaving the park. We meander over to Toontown and ride Goofys Barnstormer with little wait and hop on the train over to ride Big Thunder again. Of course I grabbed FPs for another Space ride later.

We hear news on the train that we just missed Shaq on the train and that he is in the park hitting the rides. Cool.

We take our second ride on Big Thunder with the boys and catch back up with brothers family. We use FPs to hit Peter Pan and then stop at Philharmagic and the TeaCups (by popular demand).

We get caught up on main street heading out and decide to wait a few minutes to catch Spectro. WHY!! Great parade, but I don't like parade crowds and I guess sometimes I need to be reminded of why. I should have been riding Space Mountain instead. Ohh well. Its late, we have some drinks and we watch Spectro and then get the out of there.

A long great day at Magic Kingdom and a nice boat ride back to WL to finish it off. I'm sure I missed one or two things we did on this full day, but I think we did a great job of doing a lot with not pushing too hard even though we were there for 13+ hours. Some highlights were sitting in Pinochios watching the Small World boats and getting lots of comments about the girls hairdoos. I think our guest had a great time and he thought Space Mountain and Big Thunder were highlights. I think taking them on CoP and Small World might have brought some protest, but they really enjoyed them deep down (I hope).

I'll post again asap. Thanks for reading.....

 

[alebisi]

I love this trip and also the photos, your kids and Dguest are so cute and they look so happy at WDW

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

The boys look like they are having so much fun. What an excellent report so far. The teacup pic is hilarious. Then again I am partial to 3 year olds since I have one myself. I cant wait to hear the rest!!

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

More, More, More!!!
(Please)

 

[DVCsince02]

Love DDs big Pop Princess do!

 

[halliesmommy01]

I am so glad that it worked out for you to take him. I hope when my kids are older I can do that for one of their friends as well. What a wonderful thing to do. Love the trip report. You all look like you are having a blast.

Becky

 

[onehotdisneymama]

Great report on trip. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[dpuck1998]

Day 3:

http://www.twisney.com/dpuck1998/2008/6/17

Time for a nice full day at EPCOT....and LOTS of walking!!

We got up at a decent time and I ran down to grab some breakfast from roarin forks again. I figured out the system this time. I can get the big breakfast for one snack credit the same as I can for getting a childs meal. Hmmmm, wonder which I should get!

We toss some grub down the tubes and head out. We head to the bus stop...ummm..what was I thinking. I hate the buses. After waiting 20 mins and watching 2 typhoon lagoon buses go by us and at least one for every other park and downtown disney I snap into reality and leave the bus station and get my car out of the valet. As we pull out the EPCOT bus finally pulls in, oh well I'd still rather have my car and the number of people now waiting for the bus will never fit on that one bus.

We drive to EPCOT and get close enough to the gates that we can walk. We are there shortly after opening and the crowds are gone and there are no lines to get in. Lets go! wait...umm...my tickets not working. There are 6 of us, 4 get in...two tickets say empty...ummm....whoops. I have lots of tickets because we always buy 10 day no exp. hoppers. I didn't bring the extras because I was sure we had enough. After trying every ticket a couple of times the CM seems tired of me and lets us all in and sends us on our way. Needless to say, I thought the tickets worked, but come to find out we actually got in on just 4 tickets. A little YOMD for me!

Well, where should we go first at EPCOT..hmm...let me think....I don't know....maybe...SOARIN! The wait is only 20 mins, so we hop in line and grab fastpasses for later. ALL the kids LOVE this ride. Even the 3yo! She thinks she is flying and hold her hands in the air the entire time. This is actually the first time I've ridden anywhere but the bottom row. We are in the middle and its much nicer.

Next stop is the living seas, the line for Nemo is walk on.

I enjoy this ride a lot and the effects are very cool. Our guest really enjoys Soarin and I think this was a hit too. We luck out when we get off and sneak into Turtle Talk right before they close the doors. The show is pretty full, but the kids sit up front and the boys do a nice job of keeping track of the 3 yo DD. I can hear my 7yo laughing from the back. He is very loud. We wander around the Seas for a while and I get a call from my brother. He is just arriving (He doesn't get up early...fool). We head to the front to ride Spaceship Earth. The line is somewhat long, but the CM says is less than 30 mins. She is right, it took about 20 mins. My brother and family meet us in line and go with us on the ride.

Side note, I don't usually go to Disney in the summer. In fact last time in August 2003 I swore to never go again. My brother is the Army and station in Tampa. He is being transferred to Tacoma, Washington and this was his last week in Tampa and his 4 yos birthday. He is scheduled to ship out to Iraq for a year once in Washington so we made a special trip to see him before he left Florida.

Back on task! I enjoyed the updates on Spaceship Earth. I much prefer the video screen to the fiber optic lights at the end of the ride. Seeing ourselves at the end and on the big map was cool also.

Its closing in on lunch time so we head to World Showcase. Most everyone wants Chinese so we head to China..where else? While they get food I run for Fast pass duty. I had already grabbed Test Track earlier so I grab Mission Space this time. We are now holding FP for all 3 major rides. Usually I like to do something new, but with a first timer we know we have to hit the big ones this trip. Anyway, the meal in China was decent, slightly better than mall Chinese. I got some good photos at least.

Also, we did some shopping in China. China and Japan are IMHO the best stores in the WS.

After lunch I take the boys to use up the FPs and the rest of the party head around the world. We run across to ride Soarin again, 120 min wait, then Test Track then Mission Space. We opt for the Orange side and our guest was a little "green" coming off the ride We head back to meet up with the rest of the family and take a walk thru the countries stopping to shop all the way around. We had a little side meeting with Pooh and friends however.

We make it all the way around to France and the 3 yo falls asleep. I walk her into the small sitting area in the perfume shop and sit with her while the DW and boys do some more shopping.

We shop until its time for dinner. Les Chefs de France for 9. DD 3 is still asleep but they make room for the stroller inside and she manages to sit thru half the meal. That works out great since it saves us a child table service credit! The meal was nice, nothing great but it was nice sitting for a long meal and relaxing. It was cold in there too....which I enjoyed.

I can't do dining reviews like Kevin, but I did find out that I will never order Tuna at Disney. I don't know why I try, but the menu called of a nice seared tuna. To me that means little brown and very rare. It was almost brown thru-out. YUK. I should have sent it back. Everyone else had decent meals. The cheese plate was good. The desserts were very good.

Time to shop in Japan!! We have a plan to get a pearl on every trip and make a necklace for DD3. Both her and her brother 7 got pearls. Sorry if I offend any clam lovers, but we love doing this. DD got a nice 7.5mm almost gold pearl that was very pretty. DS7 was a 7mm average white pearl. I tried to pick really ugly ones.

We spend a lot of time in Japan. The kids love this place. They spend most of the money they have here, DS7 is saving up for Wall-e toys. (More on that on day 5). We pick up some neat stuff, chopsticks for everyone (per Julie) we think is a neat cheap souvenir. DW gets inline to pay and we walk thru the Tin Toys and get masks. DD looks so cute on the bridge I have to take a photo.

It’s about 20 mins until Illuminations. We grab a bench in Japan and wait for it. While waiting I get to run back to China with DS9 and guest. He saw a knife he wanted and calls grandma to see if it’s okay to buy it. She makes sure to give him all the rules and gives the okay. Since its disney it MUST be shipped to our address. He uses his money to pay for it and I cover the shipping. I hate to see a kid have to waste money to have something shipped. So we walk back to our spots, grabs some drinks and wait.

Illuminations isn’t my favorite show, but the more I see it the more I like it. The kids have to stand on the benches to see it, but it goes okay...until some jerks push in and try to stand on the benches. OMG, I HATE PARADES AND FIREWORKS and I'm reminded why every time. They literally shove their kid onto a bench with no room and he falls off, so Mom stands on the other one and squeezes the two 9yo boys to one side. Ugh, I suck it up and wait it out. At one point dad knocks into our stroller with all my camera equipment, so at the end my DW tries to get it out of the way and knocks him over. It was hilarious, no on purpose, but more karma.

So guess what, we've been at EPCOT for over 12 hrs and we have to walk back to the car. Let’s think this thru. If you could get as far away from your car as possible where would you go? YEP, JAPAN! We couldn't get any further away from the parking lot if we tried. We have kids in tow and start the walk to the car. They are whipped by the time we get there. Our guest, if you can see in the photos, isn't a big outdoors/sports type. My feet a killing me so I know the poor kids have to be beat. We make it with no fatalities though! Our guest calls home, says he a little homesick, but is a real trooper. I think tired + mission space orange have made him a little home "sick"

We get back to WL and everyone is asleep within minutes....
Tomorrow we had planned to go to Typhoon Lagoon, after two 12+ hour days we decide to go to plan B. Mini-golf and the pool sound really good to me.