You spent how much $$ on ponchos? A wet June 2012 trip report.

[traceym]

Hi,
Thanks for reading! This is my first trip report, so please hang in there with me. We arrived in Orlando on June 18 and left June 24. There are no food pictures, sorry. We tried some "new to us" restaurants this trip, I will mention them, attempt to recall what everyone ate, and what we thought of the food. We also stayed offsite this trip. Did we enjoy it? Did we save money? The answer to both of those questions will be answered later.

We visited the dark side as well on this trip. IOA was a hit with my oldest and he is now spoiled in the roller coaster department. My younger two kids enjoyed it, but not as much as my 11 year old. Did we enjoy WWoHP? Read on to find out.

I guess I better get to the introductions:

There's me, Tracey. Disney nut as my entire family calls me. I love everything about it! I also enjoy helping other families plan their vacations as well. I have helped many families plan their trips and have even planned a honeymoon! I would LOVE to get paid to do it. For now, I'm just enjoying helping others. This is the only picture of me from the trip.

My DH, Randy. Computer nerd who puts up with my Disney madness. He loves it too...deep down inside.

Along for the ride is my DS 11, Grumpy. We will call him this because he stayed that way a good bit on this trip. I don't know why, I guess it's the age. He even purchased a hat that has Grumpy on it and says, "Being Grumpy Rocks!" I had to beg to get this picture.

My DD 10, Princess. She never complained at all and went with the flow. Even in all the rain. She's a real trooper.

Finally, my DS 5, Stitch! Yes, that pretty much sums up him and his personality.

 

[traceym]

We arrived around noon on Monday June 18. We stopped in at DTD for lunch and to stretch our legs.
The kids were very tempted to visit the Lego store, but I convinced them to hold out. Money burns a whole in their pockets.

We stopped in at WPE for lunch. It was our first visit there. We all enjoyed it very much. I had the Turkey sandwich, Randy had the Meatloaf sandwich, Grumpy and Princess had the cheese pizza and Stitch had the macaroni and cheese. Everyone cleaned their plates with the exception of Stitch. He wasn't to fond of the breadcrumbs on top of the mac n cheese. Here's a pic of Stitch waiting on lunch.

After lunch we went into Goofy's candy shop and purchased some snacks for later. Then it was off to our new home for the week, Bahama Bay Resort.

The resort is about a 10-15 minute drive from WDW. It is very clean and the folks there are very helpful and friendly. Our condo was great! We had a 3 bedroom condo close to the main building. Here are some pictures of it.

After checking the resort out we ventured back out to Publix for breakfast food and dinner. The kids opted for chicken fingers and Randy and I had sandwiches. We went to bed pretty early because we knew the rest of the week we would be going strong.

 

[mugglebe]

Looking forward to hearing more!

I would love to try Wolfgang! I would just have to drag my mother. Not too interested in Downtown Disney.

Subscribing now!

 

[traceym]

Tuesday morning we got up bright and early. Randy and Grumpy had been waiting since Christmas to visit WWoHP! They both have read the books, watched the movies and were really excited.

We got to IOA and it wasn't too crowded. We took the shortcut around Seussville with Stitch complaining the whole time. I reminded him how crowded WWoHP would be later and that we needed to do that first. Randy and Grumpy had went on ahead of the rest of us to get in line for Forbidden Journey.

I took Princess and Stitch and we walked right on Flight of the Hippogriff. I stopped briefly to take this picture of Hagrid's hut.

We enjoyed our ride. We decided to visit Honeydukes after our ride. It was VERY crowded and stayed that way all day.

Randy and Grumpy called and said they were not impressed with Forbidden Journey. They really can't tell me why, just that they weren't impressed.

Here's some more pictures from the area.

I've got to go get started on dinner. I hope to post more either later tonight or tomorrow.

 

[traceym]

Looking forward to hearing more!

I would love to try Wolfgang! I would just have to drag my mother. Not too interested in Downtown Disney.

Subscribing now!

Thanks for joining in! I think your mother would enjoy it. We were there on a Monday around noon or so and it wasn't very crowded at all. Maybe you could try visiting DTD during the day.

 

[MelMel11]

Count me in!!

 

[reelmom]

Joining in. We just got back from a long weekend trip to Universal. My kids have become roller coaster fans now also. My DS10 is also proud of his Grumpy title. He has always been a sweet child until the day he turned 10. Where in Gerogia are you from?

 

[traceym]

Joining in. We just got back from a long weekend trip to Universal. My kids have become roller coaster fans now also. My DS10 is also proud of his Grumpy title. He has always been a sweet child until the day he turned 10. Where in Gerogia are you from?

Thank you to all of you joining in! It looks like it will be tomorrow for the next update.

We are in the Gainesville area.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Joining in!!!

 

[Vickie46]

 

[traceym]

Last time I left you with us not being impressed with WWoHP. Randy and Grumpy just weren't impressed and neither was I. Grumpy was ready to ride some more roller coasters that the other two couldn't ride. I told Randy to take him and we'd all meet up later for lunch. I took Princess and Stitch and we went in search of Seussville.

We found it easily and walked on all the rides! Our first was The high in the sky Seuss trolley train ride. We then rode One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish. While we were on this ride (getting wet because Stitch wouldn't listen to the song and follow the up and downs), I spotted Cat in the Hat, Thing 1 and Thing 2, The Grinch and Sam I am coming out for meet and greets. Luckily for us our ride was about to come to an end. We made a bee line to their character spots and were at the front of the line. Here's the pictures of Princess and Stitch with the characters.

After our visit with the characters we rode The Cat in the Hat. We topped off our visit in Seussville with a ride on Caro-Seuss-el.

After our adventures in Seussville, Randy called and asked where we were. I told him and we decided to meet for lunch. I told him I had promised Stitch we would eat lunch at Circus McGurkus Cafe Stoo-pendous. He and Grumpy made their way over to us. Princess and Grumpy had cheese pizza, Stitch and I had the chicken sandwich and Randy had a cheeseburger. We all enjoyed our lunch. The chicken sandwich was really good. I was very impressed with it. I do wish they had a kids menu though.

After lunch we decided to check out Jurassic Park. Here is where our not so good luck with rides began. We waited the 20 minutes in line for Jurassic Park River Adventure. We were next in line to board, front row, then it happened. "Ladies and Gentleman we are experiencing technical difficulties." We heard this for the next 10 minutes. Then it happened...we had to leave, the ride couldn't be fixed as quickly as they had thought. They apologized and sent us on our way.
Grumpy really wanted to ride Dragon Challenge again. I told Randy I would take Princess and Stitch to Spiderman since they wanted to ride it and they could go ride Dragon Challenge. We had a 40 minute wait for Spiderman. This would be the longest line I would stand in all week. Stitch wasn't too impressed with Spiderman, it kinda scared him a bit. Princess and myself enjoyed it though. We met back up with Randy and Grumpy who begged to ride The Incredible Hulk...again. This would be his 3rd ride on it today. The wait was only 25 minutes so I told them to go. While we waited, I got Princess and Stitch some popcorn in a souvenir bucket. It was worth the $4 because we could get refills for only $.89!! Here's a couple pictures of Grumpy's favorite roller coaster (even more so than Rock n Roller Coaster).

We met back up after their ride and went to ride Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls. The wait was 120 minutes! There was no way we were going to stand in that line. We decided to head towards Popeye and Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges. The wait there was only 15 minutes. Yes, we can do that! Well, let me tell you, we got DRENCHED! It was a really great ride though and it cooled us off. Afterwards we went and purchased Grumpy a shirt and Stitch a Cat in the Hat with Thing 1 and Thing 2. Princess said she didn't see anything and would save her money for Disney! (A girl after my own heart!)
All of a sudden Stitch spots... Spiderman. He had to have his picture made with him. Well, Grumpy wanted nothing to do with that. (Again, I think it's the age. Too old for characters...so he thinks.) He wanted to go ride Hulk...again! I sent Randy and Grumpy on their way. Stitch had his picture made with Spidey.

We met back up with Randy and Grumpy. It was around 6pm and we had done everything that we felt like we could. We refilled the popcorn bucket and headed out to our dinner reservation at Margaritaville.

 

[traceym]

I last left off with us meeting back up to head to dinner.
I had made 7:15 reservations on Open Table for Margaritaville. It was just a little after six and we were finished with IOA. We decided to head towards dinner to see if they could seat us early. Sure enough, they could!
Randy had the Cuban sandwich, I had the Monterey Chicken Sandwich, Grumpy had chicken fingers, as did Princess and Stitch. We all really enjoyed our dinner here. We always do at Margaritaville! We headed back to the condo to get ready for our first day in WDW @ MK!!

We got up pretty early on Wednesday. We were headed to MK and I wanted to get there for rope drop. We made it with about 20 minutes to spare.

We enjoyed watching the opening show. The kids however, had one thing on their minds...Space Mountain! This is the first year that Stitch has been able to ride it and he was really excited about it! We made our way to Tomorrow land as fast as we could, it was pretty crowded. We got in line for Space Mtn., got all the way up to the turnstiles and here's where it happened again.."Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing technical difficulties", etc.
Grumpy looked at me and frowned. We waited for a little while before they turned everyone away. On our way out however, they gave us Fastpasses! SCORE! These weren't regular fast-passes either, they could be used at any attraction through Saturday!

The next ride the kids wanted to go on was Big Thunder Mtn. We waited about 20 minutes to ride and had a great time. We got fastpasses for Splash and headed to Pirates. We walked on Pirates and were having a great ride until.. Halfway through the boat stops, I get an angry look from Grumpy this time. (He thought all the rides going down was my fault since they didn't have but the one ride problem at IOA, when I was with them). We waited, and waited, and waited. Finally some CM's came and started unloading the boat behind us. We were then unloaded and once everyone was out, we were escorted backstage and around Pirates back to the park. Before entering the park, we were handed fast-passes! These were the same type fastpasses we got from Space Mtn.
By this time we had learned that Space Mtn. was back up, thanks to my Disney Mobile Magic app. So, we headed back over there and decided to use one of the fast-passes. We had a 5 min. wait and a great ride. Here's the boys ride pic.

Stitch LOVED it! (Even though it doesn't look that way here.)

After our ride, the kids were hungry. We decided to head towards one of our favorite places to eat, Columbia Harbor House. Randy had the fried fish, I had the Anchor's Away, Grumpy, Princess and Stitch all had chicken nuggets. It was a great lunch as usual.
After lunch we headed to Haunted Mansion. We pretty much walked on here since everyone else it seemed was at lunch. The hitchhiker ghost on my and Grumpy's doombuggy swapped our heads! It was pretty neat.
After our ride we headed towards Pirates to try it again. We made it through! Then came the rain! We welcomed it for awhile. It was refreshing. The boys decided it would be a great time to use our fast-pass on Splash. We got pretty wet this time around. The rain had stopped so the kids (and Randy) wanted to go ride Space Mtn. again. I on the other hand wasn't feeling it. It made me a little the first time around. I waited on them to ride and we then went on the People Mover.
We decided to head back towards Dumbo. According to my app there was just a 15 min wait. Sure enough, we didn't wait long at all.

After we rode I took some pictures of the area.

It was raining again! It showed no signs of stopping either. We decided to seek shelter at the train station and wait on the train to take us back to the front of the park. Here's Princess after she got soaked in the rain.

We got back to the front after waiting for about 30 min. Randy went and purchased ponchos for everyone. Here's Princess waiting on her poncho.

I couldn't believe how much it cost! I told him he was crazy for spending that much money. He informed me right there that this wouldn't be the only time we would use them this week!

We walked around a little and rode Buzz Lightyear. Randy beat all of us. I don't know what happened to me, I usually beat him. Oh well. It appeared that the rain was not going to let up anytime soon. All the parades had been cancelled because of it. So, we decided we would head back to the condo and order pizza for dinner. We had a big day planned for Thursday.

Would we get our monies worth out of those ponchos? Stay tuned to find out.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

Oh no! It's raining!!! Hope it didn't rain the whole time!

 

[luckylady]

I'm in.

 

[marymac123]

Here too!