[tigger03]

Not this time…

Cast members
DH
Me-trip planner
DD9-Laura
DD5-Emily
DD3-Nikki
Met up with our Friends (DF’s) and their DS5 and DD5 (first trip the little ones)

Day 1
We headed out on the road about 9:00am and headed into torrential rains as we head south out of Michigan. Luckily the rain didn’t last long and in fact not another drop until we headed home thru Georgia. All of us had made this road trip before and the kids were prepared for the long hall ahead. Armed with goodies and surprises from Grandma and us we easily cruised thru to Kentucky with minimal stops.
Now the precursor to this is DD3 was being carried into the house the day before we left by my mom and both of them wiped out on the sidewalk outside our door. So I was a little worried about DD3 as I wasn’t sure how bad she hit her head. She had been acting fine though, until Kentucky. I was driving and all I heard was DD3 yell out the most bloodcurdling screech. As soon as I heard it I knew what happened, as it is her signature screech. DH jumps awake and panic in the car ensues, as DD3 has gotten sick, DD5 is screaming stop the car Nikki is sick. So as all good mothers would do, I fly across 3 lanes of traffic to the closest exit (and we were close to missing it). My apologies to those of you that may have been on the road with me and witnessed that. We successfully exited and pulled into the closet parking lot, which ended up being Wendy’s. Again my apologies to any of you that may have been in the drive thru line as I am cleaning my daughter, her blanket and pillow in the parking lot.
Crisis averted and we head back out on the road. Needless to say I was still stressed thinking it had to do with the fall, but she returned to her crazy little self, just fine and we arrived very exhausted to Pop Century by 6:30(we made amazing time both ways) that morning. DF’s and their kids arrived the previous night and had already checked in so we showed up at their doorstep for refuge as our room was not ready and wouldn’t be for quite sometime. After some chitchat, freshening up, & breakfast at the PC café we headed for AK. I will refrain from my true feelings on the PC café and leave it at –it is in desperate need of better management as far as cleaning, properly working pop/ice machines (frozen coke machine was broke every day I went to get one), and staff. I will say though that everything I ate their was wonderful. We have decided that we like ASMo better though and are going to save up to stay at a moderate or deluxe next time. I got a great deal on the room so I can’t complain too much.

Moving on

Day 2--- AK
We all hopped on the bus and headed over to AK very excited to start our vacation. We all found the finger scanner irritating and it wasted a lot of time until you got the hang of it. But we were off. Waiting for us near the entrance was Pocahontas and Meko, very cool as we didn’t get to meet Pocahontas before. Next stop stroller rental for length of stay, but wait here comes Donald and Daisy waddling out to meet us. I shout follow those ducks and we are in line to meet Donald and Daisy both, how cool. Then to see some animals and Tough to be a Bug. Why we will never learn that the youngest ones do not enjoy it and in fact scares our middle daughter so much that she refused to see any more 3-D shows ever, just as it did last time. Bad parents of the year award goes to us.
Then DD9 went with DH and our DF’s and their kids on Kali River Rapids. I hung out with DD5 and DD3 by the exit and decided to let them play in the fountains since it was like 90 degrees out (maybe I am exaggerating I am from Michigan) they very much enjoyed that and all the kids joined in after exiting KRR. We picked up some fast passes for the safari and had a snack while we waited, met Baloo and King Louie in there somewhere. Hit the Safari and then headed back to the hotel for a rest before dinner and fireworks cruise.
Dinner was a quick bite at the PC Café. I can’t remember what my 2 oldest got to eat, but I ordered the vegetables lasagna and DH went to get a flatbread sandwich and DD3 wanted a hot dog. Well by the time DH returned to the table with DD3’s hot dog she had taken over my lasagna, no biggie I’ll eat the hot dog, Well DH’s flatbread sandwich wasn’t the ham and cheese he order but a vegetable with yummy things like grilled zucchini, feta cheese, olives and eggplant (nothing he’d eat), so I swapped with him and it was YUMMY. So after playing musical dinner we all head for our magical gathering fireworks cruise.
We arrived early at the Contemporary and checked in. It was very nice. We all got magical gathering fireworks cruise pins (this is when we realized DD9 forgot her lanyard at home, no trading this trip). The desert table was loaded with all kinds of yummy treats and fruit, along with water, cocoa, and pop. After stuffing our faces Hook and Smee joined us for pictures and autographs. Then it was off to the boat. Our pirate cruise narrator was so much fun. We sang and he asked Disney trivia questions. DD9 won a spyglass for answering a Nemo question. Imagine that. She has the whole movie memorized. DF’s son won a spyglass too for answering a Little Mermaid question. Wishes was wonderful. In fact DH wants to do the cruise again every trip, and he is not easy to impress. After the fireworks none other than Peter Pan himself met us at the dock. It was a great first day and we were exhausted. So off to bed.

[tigger03]

Day 3—MGM

The kids were dying to go swimming and we didn’t have time the night before so off to the pool. Well the Hippy Dippy was closed for some reason so they played in the kiddy pool for a few and then off to the computer pool. DD5 was very happy to have the life jacket, gave her the extra confidence to swim and allowed me to relax, DD3 wasn’t so found of it but she got use to it. After our swim we got cleaned up, grabbed breakfast at the café met up with our friends and headed to MGM.
After that we had ice cream before dinner (it was vacation after all). Pin shopped, and ate our counter service dinner while we waited for Fantasmic to start. This was one of my must-sees as I missed it last time. As you may have figured out DD5 is easily frightened so I was unsure of this but she fell asleep by the time the show started thankfully and woke up just in time at the end to see Mickey and the fireworks. I was so glad we saw it. DD3 kept doing this thing were she would bury her head and the look up every few minutes, like she was scared but just had to see what was happening. It was extra magic hours so we wandered some more. DD9 wanted to do Star Tours, one of her favorites so her and DH went on that. DF’s/kids went their separate way and then back to the hotel as we all had early mornings planned.

Day 3—Magic Kingdom/CRT too be continued


P.S. I know I am forgetting a lot, there was just so much packed into 8 days and I will try not to be so long winded with the next few days as I tend to ramble.

[cinderbella]

Love it so far...I can't wait to read more!!!!!!

[PrincessJill]

I LOVE your TR!!! You're so funny! "bad parents of the year award" lol! Please keep up the long-windedness. I like it. :)

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by tigger03

P.S. I know I am forgetting a lot, there was just so much packed into 8 days and I will try not to be so long winded with the next few days as I tend to ramble.

Please be long winded, I love all the details in trip reports. I am loving your trip report, I can't wait to read more.

[Dana]

Keep it coming!

[Disneyfever]

Great TR! It sounds like you and your family had a wonderful time!

[missy H]

Great report........we need more more more.
Sounds like you had a great time!

[Cinderellafifi]

I also love the details! It makes me feel as if I am there (almost) . 8 days - how lucky! And, can there ever be a bad omen when leaving for Disney? No way!

[EmpressJenny]

I am really enjoying this TR, keep it coming!

[tigger03]

I am working on the next few days. It was only 6 days at Disney and 2 days of travel. Last time we only had 4 days in the parks, so we were very happy to have 2 extra days and yet we still didn't get to do everything. Now back to writing the rest of the report. Working on laundry and catching up on sleep has delayed my writing.

[tigger03]

Day 4—Magic Kingdom/CRT

Early wake up call from Mickey and Stitch. Loved the addition of stitch to the call, very funny. We had a 9:30 PS for CRT. DD9 decided not to where her Snow White dress but DD3 wore hers and DD5 wore her Cinderella one. DF’s and there two little ones were off to the grand Floridian for the kids Pirate Cruise, so we all squished in our van and drove to the magic kingdom parking lot where we hoped on separate monorails and went on our ways.

We arrived at the Mk entrance just in time for the end of the opening ceremonies, grabbed a stroller and headed for the Castle. We were seated instantly. Not overly busy. I loved the stuffed French toast, kids and DH loved their food too. So many rolls and fruit, yummy. Our waiter kept refilling DD5 orange juice and she kept jugging it. After the 4th refill DH and I advised her to slow down on the juice. Her reply-But that guy keeps refilling it so I have to drink it. The princess made their rounds rather quickly. Sleeping Beauty seemed to be on a mission to get thru her visits rather quickly and seemed distracted. (Trouble with the prince?) I thought Snow White was wonderful. She took her time and chatted with all three girls, made them feel like little princesses and was so sweet. Cinderella gave DD5 a special big hug since she was her twin. I especially like the fairy Godmother. We visited her on our way out and she was so wonderful with the girls.

After breakfast we headed to Mickey’s Philharmagica. Decided to get fast passes for 4 of us since DD5 was still having 3-D issues. But one of our passes wasn’t working. Dh had mentioned that there was some trouble with the pass that morning when he was trying to swipe DD’s card, but didn’t think much of it. So I tracked down a CM and after a phone call I was told that I needed to go to City Hall and have them fix the card since it was demagnetized. So I head to City hall with the passes while DH took the girls to IASW. When I got to City Hall I explained what was happening, the Cm swiped the card and told me that there was nothing wrong with it. OK. I was not feeling very confident about this response, but what was I going to do. So back to fantasyland to meet up with the family.

DD9 and I fast passed the Mickey’s Philharmagica and we loved it. I especially liked the scenes with Ariel where it feels like you are going up and down in the water. Definite must see. DH and the two little ones rode the Carousel while they waited and then DH went with DD3 to watch the show while myself, DD9, and DD5 rode IASW again. DD5 loves that ride and would have rode it a hundred times if she could. DH and DD3 enjoyed the show too. Then we were off to Peter Pan (longest wait 40 min). We were meeting up with our friends and wouldn’t make the fast pass time so we waited it out. Off to meet up with our friends at Buzz Lightyear, but we thought we would grab some fast passes for Pooh later and we could see if the park hopper was fixed. Well, the pass still wasn’t fixed , but we had to meet up with DF’s. We all rode Buzz (one of my favorites). DF’s son is a natural at this ride he had something like 400,000 points. I can’t for the life of me figure out how to get that many.

Dh decided to head back to City Hall to find out what the deal was with the park hopper. Come to find out that because there were probs with the pass that morning, the CM had manually overridden the system to let DD in the park. So that card never registered with the fast pass machines. Problem fixed and we were ready for a snack and more rides. I can’t remember the exact order of things but we ended up riding the tea cups, Pooh, Barnstormer (thought the kids were going to have heart failure-first coaster for all DD’s), Mickey and Minnie’s house, met Mickey and Pluto, Ariel’s grotto and Dumbo, early dinner at Pinocchio’s House, I had the chicken salad, very good, everyone else had hotdogs. Can you tell I am the only adventurous eater in the family? Somewhere in there we split from our friends again. It is just too hard to coordinate 9 people and the kids had different things they wanted to do. So we met back up again that evening at Splash Mountain. On the way to Splash Mountain we met Timon.

Now despite DD5 and DD9 fears of big rides everyone wanted to ride Splash Mountain. So we got our fast passes. DH ended up on the phone to work again. So DF and I looked at each other looked at the 5 min stand by time sign at BTMR, acknowledged that now one else wanted to ride it, and since DH was on the phone we bee-lined it for the ride. In fact we could have just got back on right away as their was no line, but everyone was waiting for us and DH gave me that look like where do you think you’re going, when we left. So we went back. Dh and girls were missing. DF’s husband informed me that as soon as we left all the girls needed the restroom. HAHA. DH got to know what I felt like the whole trip of bathroom breaks with 3 girls every 5 mins. We took turns fast passing Splash Mountain, since DF’s kids didn’t want to ride. My family enjoyed the ride and DD3 the ride junkie wanted to ride again, but it was getting late. So off to haunted mansion and back to the hotel.

[tinkerbell]

all the emotions I feel reading this trip report ...its just great ..more pictures please?

[pumouse]

your kids are so cute!

[libade]

excellent trip report! Keep it coming!