Yes, We had ice cream for breakfast ... more then once!!! Joey's Wish Trip Report

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Love the picture of Joey on the horse!!! Sounds like you guys are having a great time so far!!

The fun never stopped on the whole trip ... it was amazing!!!

Loving your trip report! Sounds like you all had a blast, and I love that horse pic too!

The kids LOVED riding, it shows in Joey's smile!

Yeah I am so glad you started your trip report. I hope got lots of autographs.

We got tons, almost filled the book. I forgot to mention that on the previous days. My husband and I never imagined how much the kids would enjoy meeting the characters and getting the autographs! Thanks again for the special books!

joining in the fun

Loving the TR so far. Thanks for sharing your awesome wish trip with us...can't wait for more!

I am excited to share it ... onto The Animal Kingdom!

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Once again our day started when we woke up (without setting alarms ) and we got ready and went to breakfast at the Gingerbread House - more waffles with strawberries and whip cream - YUM!

After breakfast it was time to meet Mickey and Pluto at GKTW.

The kids (particularly Joey) thought it was hilarious that Pluto had to put the stuffy on his nose to sign it! As you can see we managed to aquire a few more stuffies since the last time we saw Mickey (on Monday!).

We then headed back to our villa to get ready for our adventure of the day Animal Kingdom!

We started with the Kilimanjaro Safari ride as we had been advised that you were likely to see more animals if you went before lunch. I don't know how the rest of the day went, but there were plenty of animals to be seen when we rode. After the safari we wondered the trails for a little bit and then rode the train out to Rafiki's Planet Watch. We wandered around in the Conservation Station for a while and then took the train back.

Then we decided we should ride the Kali River Rapids. It was a cool day and none of us really wanted to get wet, but we wanted to ride the ride. So we decided to break out the rain ponchos (thanks BIG GIVE!) and brave it. There was barely anybody on the ride and we enjoyed it so much we ended up riding it 3 times. We all got quite wet even with the ponchos, especially our feet!

The older kids were really wanting to ride Expedition Everest, so we made our way over to the mountain. I went first with Isaac and Samantha and then Kelly took Isaac, Samantha and Shaelyn. We wanted to screen it first for Shaelyn as we had taken her on the Harry Potter ride and she was very scared and screamed for the whole ride and took about 5 minutes to calm down after - we didn't want a repeat of that! Anyway, we decided the ride wasn't too scarey for her, the kids all loved it (Joey was too short), I still can't decide whether I really liked it or not. I didn't really like the sensation in my head when you whip backwards at high speeds. It was like my brain was saying I shouldn't be moving that way at that high speed!

While Kelly had the older 3 on the ride, I let Joey play one of the midway games. He really wanted to try one and so after repeatedly explaining to him that he would most likely not get anything he decided he wanted to try anyway. He played the game and guess what - he didn't win As he was wandering away from the booth feeling dejected a college aged man and his dad approached him with an HUGE dragon snake stuffie thing and asked him if he wanted it as they couldn't take it on the plane! Joey's face lit up and he gladly accepted it with a big thanks and grin (as I was wondering how are WE gonna get it home on the plane! good thing we brought extra bags!).

We rode a few rides in the dinosaur section, caught the end of the Jingle Jungle Parade and then headed over to watch the Festival of the Lion King - what a show! After the show it was time to head back to GKTW for the Christmas party.

This picture was taken at some point in our day as Joey is enjoying waiting for Baloo to sign his autograph book.

We got back to GKTW, ate a yummy turkey dinner, rode in the horse drawn carriage around the park and of course the kids all picked a present as well. We were going to visit with santa, but the line up was at least 45 minutes long, so we decided to head to bed instead. We ordered pizza again (we found it was great to take cold as a snack in the parks) and called it a day - another fantastic one!!!

 

[miprender]

We got tons, almost filled the book. I forgot to mention that on the previous days. My husband and I never imagined how much the kids would enjoy meeting the characters and getting the autographs! Thanks again for the special books!


!

Oh I am so glad. My DH became obsessed with getting all the characters to sign the book and it really is fun getting to meet all your favorite characters.

 

[crzy4my2]

I'm here reading along
LOVE the pic of Joey with Mickey and Minnie! and I love the fact you guys are always matching. From the pictures it looks like you are all enjoying yourselves.

 

[WDWAtLast]

Yay! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

I'm here reading along
LOVE the pic of Joey with Mickey and Minnie! and I love the fact you guys are always matching. From the pictures it looks like you are all enjoying yourselves.

We enjoyed matching too, it was easier to find each other too! Thanks again to the Big Give for all the awesome shirts!

Yay! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

On to another chapter ... thanks for following!

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Today was the day for Magic Kingdom and MVMCP! Continuing on with the same sort of pace we spent the morning taking it easy and then headed to Magic Kingdom to hit the gates at 3pm.

We had breakfast again at the Gingerbread House (yes, more waffles - yum!) and then Kelly and the kids hung out at the village, checked out Joey's star on the wall, visited the spa and made the pillows while I did a quick run to Target. We did not pack for the weather and we were planning to stay out late at the party, so I went to get long johns and mittens for us all. There must have been lots of other people doing the same as the selection was very limited, lots of empty racks, so it was hit and miss with finding sizes for everyone. In the end I was sucessful so it was a worthwhile trip.

I got back to GKTW unloaded the van and then wandered the village looking for Kelly and the kids. They were busy in the train station playing games and driving the remote controlled boats. We then decided that we were hungry enough for lunch, so we went over to Katie's Kitchen got lunch and then got ice cream to go with it.

Then we headed back to our villa for a nap / quiet time for the kids before we went to the park. After everyone was rested and we got our extra clothes and snacks ready it was off to the party!

I think the MVMCP was the most fun thing we did on the entire trip. We met lots of characters and got their autographs, rode almost every ride in the park - many of them twice, rode the train around the park, stopped for hot chocolate, cookies (even gluten free ones ) and apple slices several times, watched the Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade and the Holiday Wishes fireworks (they were amazing!!!) and then at midnight went shopping ... we left the park at 1am!

I think we must have been way too busy having a good time, we actually didn't take any pictures of the whole event , but we did get a bunch of photopass ones.

Lots of the characters loved the fact that they had personalized autograph pages!

Like I said before we had a fabulous time at the party, we were so glad we were given this opportunity to make memories together as a family! Here is the one picture we took that evening (I know, I know, I'm still shaking my head as to how we could make it through the whole party without pulling out the camera!!!!)

By the end of the evening Joey was totally exhausted! He was almost funny as we were trying to shop at the Emporium. As you can imagine the place was really crowded and he was very over-tired, he was just buzzing around the place desperate to find things to buy. Kelly was watching him while I was with the older kids. Joey managed to talk Daddy into buying about $70 worth of stuff including Chip & Dale.

It was about 2am when we finally crawled into bed - what a day!

 

[Loodlow]

Looks like a wonderful day! Love the last picture with chip n dale especially...and I totally relate to having too much fun to take pictures lol! I am often guilty of that one.

 

[Shannon84]

Great update...glad you guys were able to relax during the day and have a great time at the party! The photopass pictures came out great and I love the one of you guys in front of the castle as a family and the one with Joey sleeping is too cute!! I also have never seen Belle in that dress before and that is my favorite movie, so cool to see that

 

[jj0plin]

Sounds like a great party! I love the pictures with the boy characters... I've not seen many with the Prince, the Beast or Terence!

 

[billwendy]

Sounds like it was just a magical time at the party!!!!!!! What other things did Joey sweet talk Daddy into!!! lol...

 

[miprender]

So glad that you were able to get alot done during the MVMCP. It looks like you had such a wonderful time and thank goodness for Photopass.

 

[brookerene]

Wow I almost missedall of this tr! Yay, your story is wonderful... I love that you took it easy and just enjoyed everything. I love the matching shirts...not only do they help you to find each other but they look great in photos! I'm subbing!

 

[blessedmom4]

SUBBING!!!

I LOVE the relaxed pace of your days and park trips, I think that is amazing! Looking forward to reading more and seeing photos of your wonderful family. I also love the matching shirts, that is a GREAT way to keep from losing each other...AWESOME idea!

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Looks like a wonderful day! Love the last picture with chip n dale especially...and I totally relate to having too much fun to take pictures lol! I am often guilty of that one.

Yeah, too busy enjoying ourselves to pull out the camera! Fortunately we got the photopass ones and lots of the whole trip - so the scrapbook won't be totally empty!

Great update...glad you guys were able to relax during the day and have a great time at the party! The photopass pictures came out great and I love the one of you guys in front of the castle as a family and the one with Joey sleeping is too cute!! I also have never seen Belle in that dress before and that is my favorite movie, so cool to see that

We were happy with all the photopass pictures we got, probably more family pictures in that week then in the past 5 years!

Sounds like a great party! I love the pictures with the boy characters... I've not seen many with the Prince, the Beast or Terence!

My boys really liked meeting the princes and the beast & of course the "boy fairy"!

Sounds like it was just a magical time at the party!!!!!!! What other things did Joey sweet talk Daddy into!!! lol...

It was a great time! So glad we were blessed with the opportunity to go! As for what else Joey sweet talked Daddy into ... let's just say he spent the most money of all the kids (by a long shot!) and brought home plenty of souvenirs (most of which have hardly been played with though ...)

So glad that you were able to get alot done during the MVMCP. It looks like you had such a wonderful time and thank goodness for Photopass.

When we left the party we felt like we had really done and totally enjoyed Magic Kingdom, all the other parks we only saw and did small portions of.

Wow I almost missedall of this tr! Yay, your story is wonderful... I love that you took it easy and just enjoyed everything. I love the matching shirts...not only do they help you to find each other but they look great in photos! I'm subbing!

Thanks again to the Big Give, made for many neat photos with matching shirts. Several of the volunteers were watching what we were wearing each day too ... I guess with 6 of us all matching we were a bit of a spectacle!

SUBBING!!!

I LOVE the relaxed pace of your days and park trips, I think that is amazing! Looking forward to reading more and seeing photos of your wonderful family. I also love the matching shirts, that is a GREAT way to keep from losing each other...AWESOME idea!

We are so glad we chose to do the trip with a relaxed attitude, did we see everything ... absolutely not, but we thoroughly enjoyed everything we did do!

 

[icecreamforbreakfast]

Time to finish up the report!

Saturday, our last full day in Florida. We had passes to Sea World and Universal left, but what did we end up doing? We spent the day at GKTW, just hanging out and enjoying all the village has to offer.

We had planned to go back to Universal Islands of Adventure, but after hitting the sack at 2:30am the night before we were all just feeling not very energetic and thought we would enjoy hanging out at the village just as much.

We started our morning with ice cream for breakfast (see I told you we had it more then once!) just because we could. Then we played a round of mini-golf.

After lunch at Katie's Kitchen, we headed back to our villa for a nap/quiet time for some and at the same time others of us were to work on trying to figure out how we are gonna get all the stuff we have accumulated on this trip home! It's really good advice to bring an extra bag - fortunately we brought a couple. We also mailed out a bunch of postcards that afternoon (which of course we were home long before, but it was something we had planned to before we left home, better late then never!) Then we just did some more hanging out in the village.

That evening was Mayor Clayton's Birthday Party, so we joined in the fun!

That night was the first we set alarms and asked for a wake-up call ... at 3:30am!!! Our flight left Florida at 7am so we had to start our day way to early. We were given the special treatment on the first leg of journey home Florida to Toronto. We were escorted to the gate and then invited to be the first on the plane and they even let the kids talk to the pilot and check out the cockpit!

After we landed in Toronto, we had to wait for 8 hours, then continue on to Calgary, wait another hour and finally continue on home. We drove into our driveway at 1:30am Florida time (10:30pm local time) ... it was a loooooong day!

And with that, our trip was over. We had an amazing time and made so many special memories that will be with us forever! When we met with our Wish Granter before leaving, she asked the kids and then me what we wanted to see most on the trip. I replied, "the smiles on the kids faces!" Well, as I have shared with the photos, you can see our kids faces beaming and the eyes sparkling ... I got my wish!

I mentioned early in my report that we only spent $20 on icecream in the parks, that left a fair bit of money from the food budget on the cheque we got from MAW. We decided to buy a fooseball table and a basketball hoop for our kids and so the magic of the gift of a MAW trip continues in our home!

Thanks for letting me share this special trip with you all, being a part of the disboards and of course the Big Give made it extra memorable!

 

[4monkeys]

I enjoyed reading your trip report!! Thanks for sharing! The pictures are great. I loved seeing all the smiles! We too, enjoyed ice cream for breakfast more than once!!

 

[miprender]

I am so glad you had a wonderful time. And thanks for sharing your adventure

 

[Loodlow]

Truly inspiring trip report! Thank you so much for sharing!

 

[tinytreasures]

Glad you got to enjoy GKTW. I don't think wish families do that enough. Sad to see your trip is over but so happy you had ice cream for Breakfast.