xraydave is back.. ups and downs

[xraydave]

We got home a few hours ago. Everything is over except the laundry!
Here's how it went:

Monday: My brother and neices picked us up at the airport and took us to the grocery store for supplies. Kids were REALLY excited. Arrived at All Star Movie Resort and shared a pizza.

Tuesday: PS at CRT 9:00. Unbelievable!!! My DD 4 had a truly magical time. My DS 7 loved Mary Poppins. She taught him how to say supercalifragilistic...... backwards. The walk in was the best. Almost no one on Main Street. After breakfast, walked right into Philharmagic. No wait. DD and DW rode Cindy's Carosel and Dumbo while DS and I got fast passes to Buzz Lightyear. Rode a few less intense rides while waiting for Buzz then had a BLAST.. get it.. on Buzz.
Then it happened melt down . I guess a combination of heat and exhaustion. We had to take a break back to the hotel. Returned after a swim to have lunch and enjoy the rest of our day topped off with Electric light parade and Wishes fireworks.

To be continued......

 

[xraydave]

Wednesday: Off to a late start because of the late night at MK. We met Shelleybelle for our Pal Mickey swap at Epcot. That was the best part of Epcot for us. We just don't like the park. We tried a few years ago and didn't care for it. But we thought we'd give it a try. We went to The living seas. My DS loves Manitees. We tried a few other things but DD was too small. We walked around the WS and ate lunch then headed for Honey I shrunk the Audience. Then again.... We stayed for Honey... then left. We had resies for Hoop De Doo anyway. We had a swim then off to the show.

This was one of the highlights of our trip. If you get a chance to go, take it. The show was great. Then it we took a hayride, without hay, around the campsites before heading for the Market Place to shop.

The kids thought it would be neat to swim after we got back to the resort so we took a dip at 11 pm.

To be continued.....

 

[xraydave]

Thursday: Animal Kingdom!!

Each day got better with the kids. We learned to expect the crash around noon. We walked in just past opening and went straight to Kali. Rode it twice with no wait. Took a walking tour then headed for Bugs life. Walked right in. Looped around to Dino land, saw Tarzan just in time for the breakdown. It was way too hot over there for any of us. After a long lunch / cool down, we went for Africa, walked right on Safari and saw so many animals. We hit almost everything at the park and ended the day with The Lion King. With the exception of the meltdown at noon, we had a great time.

We decided this would be an early to bed kind of night. We needed it.

Next.....

 

[xraydave]

Friday: Disney MGM studio.

We hit this park pretty hard. Almost no lines for anything. We saw and did almost everything that interested us. Including meeting Mickey in the airconditioning. I even got to star in the backlot tour movie! We were prepared for the noon meltdown and took it in stride. After we did everyting we wanted to do, it was back to the resort to swim and rest for Fantasmic.

We hopped a bus back to MGM then a boat to the boardwalk for a casual stroll and dinner. We decided to walk to MGM to arrive early for the show. As we walked in the theatre at 8:30, it was announced that they were already at standing room only capacity. We took our stand and held firm. Everyone enjoyed the show. It was a perfect ending for a bumpy four day adventure.

Overall we have some great memories (and pictures) Next time we'll be ready for the melt downs and we'll probably skip Epcot and spend two days at MK.

 

[xraydave]

Thanks for all the great tips and ideas on the board. I'll be lurking and replying when I can. I wore my lime green all week but didn't see any other Diser's except Shelleybelle. Maybe someone saw me?

 

[Minniespal]

Thanx for sharing ~ Appreciated that you posted them all together.

 

[jennymouse]

Sounds like a great time! I'm thinking next time we'll wait until afternoon to do the safari. We usually do it early but I'm begining to think there might me more animals later in the afternoon.

 

[Credit Man]

Thanks for your report!

 

[Deb T.]

Thanks for your trip report! Enjoyed reading it all in one thread!

 

[susy]

Bravo for even attempting WDW in the summer! We live in FL and my summer in spent indoors!!! With kids, you really need a break. Our general pattern with our son was: get ot the park way before opening, eat lunch at 11:30 and get out of there, swim, nap and head to Epcot for the evenings. Now, our son is 6 and doesn't nap at all, so we try to stay a little longer in the parks-we made it until almost 3pm in November!!! If we make it to 1 or 2pm , we're happy. We leave for the day and enjoy our resort and go to dinner, but basically we're done. WDW is just too much stimulation for anybody!