[BDavis932]

Day 1, Thursday, May 26, 2005:
Checked in to Pop Century about 6:30pm. Got ALL THE WAY to our room and it was a nice room with a KING SIZE BED….but there are four of us! Oh, no! I called and they said they had another room available with two beds, just around the corner…but, we had to go back and get a new key. Hubby decided he’d borrow a cart to move our luggage from bell services, too. He seemed to be gone forever! After about an hour he met me at our new room to find that I already unloaded the entire van. He helped be bring it all in to the room and we were off to take the van to my parents who were staying at Old Key West. We gave them the keys and then caught a bus to EPCoT. It was an extra magic hour night there so it would be open until midnight. We headed straight to Guest Relations so that we could activate our AP’s. We arrived there at 9:05!!! There were Cast Members in there, but they wouldn’t open the window to help us. Hubby went in to the gift shop outside the gate there at EPCoT and talked to a manager there and he walked us up to the Guest Relations desk inside of EPCoT. Yay! We’re in!! Now after waiting in line for 45 mins to get our vouchers activated we are ready to hit Mission Space (or so we thought!) We get up there and a CM asks “were is your wrist band?” Wristband? What wristband? Okay, now we have to go back to Innoventions Plaza for wristbands. Now the line for Mission Space is too long, so we wanted to try Soarin’ so we head over there. 60 min wait for Soarin to se skipped that too. We hadn’t eaten dinner yet, but we wanted to ride a couple rides. We rode Figment and Spaceship Earth and then we ate at the Electric Umbrella Tree. Food wasn’t that great, but what can you expect at 11:30pm????

We headed back to our resort, the kids swam for 20 minutes and then everyone crashed as I laid out clothes for the next day and packed our fanny packs.

Day 2, Friday, May 27, 2005:
We ate breakfast in our room (we had a fridge) and then headed over to Disney Studios for Star Wars Weekends. There were 12 of us together today. It was pretty busy in the Star Wars areas, but tolerable crowds. We saw the Star Wars Parade and DD got to meet Chewbachca! We hadn’t planned on spending the day at Disney Studios, but that is where we stayed for the day. We ate lunch at Backlot Express (which was wonderful!! Try the turkey/red pepper sandwich!) and we ate dinner at 50’s Prime Time which was very good and fun, too.

I loved being back in the studios. And the new Stunt Show was awesome!

Day 3, Saturday, May 28, 2005:
Today we spent the day with our parents. So it was my family, my sisters family and our parents. This was my parents first day in the parks this trip and we were all concerned how Dad would feel. They arrived about 11:00am and they ended the day about 9:30. He did GREAT! He slept well that night and he really enjoyed the day there.

We all enjoyed lunch at Le Cellier. For dinner we got lucky and got a great table at the Rose and Crown patio. We stayed for Illuminations. It was our first time at the Rose and Crown. Both meals were wonderful.

The Flower and Garden Festival is more beautiful than ever. I think they have more topiaries this year. They are all so pretty, but my favorites are Bambi and the Lion King topiaries.

Tonight was extra magic hour at Magic Kingdom. So after EPCoT closed we headed over to the MK. Yay! Finally…we get to see the beautiful castle! We rode a few rides and left at 1:00am.

Day 4, Sunday, May 29, 2005:
My Aunt and Uncle flew in from Illinois this morning and my parents picked them up at Stanford. We ate brunch at Pop Century and then they arrived so we helped them check in and then we showed them to their room. Then we met up with my sisters family and some friends and we spent the rest of the day at Disney Studios. Today was another Star Wars Weekend day. We did the Fantasmic Dinner package at Hollywood and Vine. It was good, but I miss their red velvet cake for dessert. Fantasmic was wonderful too.

We went back to our room and we packed everything up because we were moving to Saratoga Springs tomorrow!

Day 5, Monday, May 30, 2005:
We checked out of Pop Century and headed to Animal Kingdom. (Bell Services moved our bags) At Animal Kingdom we missed the shows, but saw everything else. Had a WONDERFUL lunch at Flame Tree BBQ (thanks for the recommendation Mickaholic4077) Flame Tree is our new favorite fast food place at WDW!

We were supposed to have dinner at 1900 Park Fare, but the kids decided they wanted to swim, so we checked in to our hotel at Saratoga Springs. We went to our room and changed in to our swimsuits and then went down to Artists Palatte for dinner. As we were eating a wonderful dinner there, it started POURING and lighting really bad. We RAN back to our room and watched TV and got ready for a new day.

FYI, today was memorial day and crowds were very manageable today. With our fast passes we had fairly short wait times all day!

Day 6, Tuesday, May 31, 2005:
Our original plan for today was to spend it at the Magic Kingdom. But my parents and Aunt and Uncle wanted to spend it at Disney Studios. It was still pouring at 7:30 am, so we slept in and met with them at 11:00am. The rain only lasted a little while longer. We spent the day with them until our 5:20 ressie at O’hana, where we went to meet up with the rest of our group. After our wonderful dinner at O’hana, we went back and met up with Mom, Dad, and my Aunt and Uncle at Disney Studios.


Day 7, Wednesday, June 1, 2005:
Today hubby and our son went to Typhoon Lagoon with some of the group. DD and I went to the Magic Kingdom, just the two of us. We arrived around 10:00am and it wasn’t crowded much past Main Street. We ate breakfast at the bakery (where else but WDW can you eat Chocolate Chip cookies for breakfast???)

She and I did a few rides and Philharmagic. We also bumped into a few “friends” at the Diamond Horseshoe! After that things got really busy! It was also raining, which didn’t bother either of us. The lines for lunch became so long! They ran out of turkey legs, ran out of baked potatoes, and the line for the Columbia Harbour house was out to courtyard near the hall of presidents. So we opted for a popcicle for lunch (real nutricious meals today, huh!) DD fell asleep for a couple hours and I walked her around the Magic Kingdom in her stroller for an hour or so and then sat on a bench and people watched until she woke up. Then we rode a couple more things and headed off to Fort Wilderness.

DH and DS had a great time at TL. They loved shark reef. We bought an underwater camera, and I can’t wait to see the pictures.

At 4:30 all 24 us met up at Trails End Buffet for dinner. We got there early because DD wanted a pony ride and to do the petting farm. Unfortunatly the petting zoo was home now to the ponies which no longer give rides and a few goats and pigs, none of which were interested in being fed or petted. We had a wonderful meal at Trails End and the kids had fun at the arcade and on the playground.

After that we caught a boat to the MK and because it was an extra magic hour until 2:00am! We stayed until the park shut down. I knew it would be hard to get up the next morning for our reservation at CRT (which was at 8:45)

We returned to our resort and I packed everything up for Thursday and set the alarm for 7:30. Dropped in to bed by 3:30….

Thursday, June 2, 2005:
Four hours later I tried waking up DD so we could make it to CRT…but that just wasn’t going to happen. She was SO tired. I called Disney Dining and they said all I would lose was my $15 deposit if we didn’t show up. At that point I said $15 for 2 more hours of sleep would be money well spent!!!! We met my parents, aunt & uncle, and my sister and her family at the Magic Kingdom around 11:00. We rode several rides together and then did some separately, too. We aet lunch and dinner at Cosmic Rays. The BBQ pork sandwich there is awesome! I got it for both meals.

We did a couple more rides and then we headed over to EPCoT for late night. We did Mission Space (DD’s first time…she loved it!) and figment. Then we headed back to the resort for swimming and I had to pack because we were moving Friday morning for Port Orleans Riverside.



Friday, June 3rd, 2005:
We woke up and called Bell Services and they arrived at our room around 9:30. We started this day at EPCoT. We ate lunch at the ESPN Zone and then hubby went to pick up a few limited edition SWW pins at MGM. About 3:30 it started POURING as we were leaving. We went to meet up with hubby at D’town Disney so the kids could buy their souvineers. About 7:00 we headed over to the Magic Kingdom and stayed until the park closed at 11:00. It was so sad the last couple hours there. One special moment outside Pirates of the Caribbean, our DD wanted to trade for a Bambi pin, but she didn’t have any trading pins left. As we were walking off the ride, DH stopped to get the stroller and DS ran up to the front of the PoC ride. We assumed he was looking at the Cast Members lanyard. He came back and gave the Bambi pin to his sister. It was so sweet I cried! I didn’t want our trip to end.

We headed to PoR and the kids wanted to go swimming. I took them to the pool while hubby rested. There was a bunch of music that was making our room “thump” so we called the front desk and they said they had several complaints and security was checking in to it. We got back from the pool and called the front desk again, they said it was a private party at Typhoon Lagoon and that it would end at 2:00am. I wondered how much it would cost to have a private party at a place like TL??? The beds at PoR were very comfy and I went to sleep right away.

Departure Day, June 4th, 2005:
We checked out and went to breakfast at the PoR food court. Then browsed the gift shop and headed home.

We are hoping to go back at Christmas, not sure if hubby will be able to get off from the fire department, but we’ll for sure go back over Spring Break 2006. We missed Turtle Talk with Crush and Cinderellabration.

What a wonderful trip we had. I can’t wait until we return!

Some of my favorite pictures will follow

[Erin]

Great report!!! I can't wait to see your pictures!

[BDavis932]

When I resized my photos, they became distorted, so here is a link to some of my photos:


Just click on the photo of Mickey to begin the slide show:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLan...8_653874334205

Please let me know if y'all have any problems accessing it.
Thanks!

[DisneyTeacher]

What a wonderful trip! I can't believe you missed CRT, but on four hours sleep I totally understand. Your DD is so cute!

[BDavis932]

Thanks! We wouldn't have missed 1900 Park Fare if we knew we weren't going to do CRT...I feel bad that we missed both.

I hope her Cinderella dress still fits her on our next trip!!

[BuzzLightyear]

Welcome Back!
Great report.
I know how you felt about letting your DD sleep in. This past trip we did the same thing more than a few times.

[Willbegone]

Awesome report! Love the pics, your kids are adorable. I'm glad I'm not the only one who let's their kid have "nutrious" meals at WDW!

[SplashMtnMan]

Great TR and photos, thanks for sharing...it's always great to see those smiling faces along with a TR!!!

[Cosmicwaves]

Great trip report. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. The pics are great too!

[BDavis932]

Thanks, everyone!!

[DisneyTeacher]

Thanks for the heads up on Guest Relations! I was planning on heading to the MK to activate my AP after we checked in at WL. Our flight doesn't get in until after 8 pm so my guess is we couldn't get to the MK before 10 pm when the park closes. It's EMH that night so I thought Guest Services would still be open. I think we will try going to Downtown Disney since GS is open until 11 pm there.

[BDavis932]

We got SO lucky! The people inside the window wouldn't even open the blind, they just yelled out to us that they were closed and we'd have to go to DTD. I'm so glad that hubby found our helpful CM Jerry that night at EPCoT. Jerry just couldn't turn down our DD's sad little voice when she said "we don't get to ride any rides, Daddy?"...after that Jerry helped us in to the park!!

It would make more sense and save everyone a lot of leg work if they would activate passes at the resorts.

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by BDavis932

We got SO lucky!

It would make more sense and save everyone a lot of leg work if they would activate passes at the resorts.

You did get lucky! I wish they would activate passes at the resorts, too. What is it about the activation of an AP that has to be done at a park?

[BDavis932]

Originally Posted by DisneyTeacher

You did get lucky! I wish they would activate passes at the resorts, too. What is it about the activation of an AP that has to be done at a park?

I don't know....Good Question.

They don't even do a finger scan when they activate your passes, which made me curious all week if those finger scans really work, or if they are just there to make people really think they work! I never put my fingers in there the same way twice and they always let me through. With our old AP's the finger scans had to be exact each time.

[DisneyTeacher]

Originally Posted by BDavis932

I don't know....Good Question.

They don't even do a finger scan when they activate your passes, which made me curious all week if those finger scans really work, or if they are just there to make people really think they work! I never put my fingers in there the same way twice and they always let me through. With our old AP's the finger scans had to be exact each time.

I have always thought there was some big reason that APs couldn't be activated at the resorts. Like the first finger scan or something.