Healing at our Happy Place: making GOOD 2017 memories: Mar, May, Aug, Oct, Dec TRs (3/24 UPDATE)

Love all the family pics! You all look like you are having so much fun!

This was our May trip (still doing my TR for that) and yes we had a GREAT time on that trip. It was only a long weekend really, but we soaked up every moment of it. It's so nice when you don't feel like you NEED to be at the parks from sun up to sun down, when you can take time to enjoy the pool or the resort, when you can let the kids do their own thing and you and the husband can go off and do your thing and meet up later. It's one of the few times all the kids just get along for the most part...so it's magical to us! :)
 
This was our May trip (still doing my TR for that) and yes we had a GREAT time on that trip. It was only a long weekend really, but we soaked up every moment of it. It's so nice when you don't feel like you NEED to be at the parks from sun up to sun down, when you can take time to enjoy the pool or the resort, when you can let the kids do their own thing and you and the husband can go off and do your thing and meet up later. It's one of the few times all the kids just get along for the most part...so it's magical to us! :)

I couldn't agree more! I love trips where we aren't constantly running from one park to the next!!! I'd rather lay at the resort pool with a cocktail ANY DAY!!!:-)

Our trip in November is actually only 2 nights in WDW, and I'm totally cool with it...it's better than no time at Disney!8-)
 


MAY TRIP DAY 4: Best. Ride. Ever.

THE PLAN FOR MONDAY: This may now be a day of rest for us, unless the kids and family have other plans. We could relax at the resort, hit the pool for a while, and just chillax. However if my family is not interested in relaxing, then the options would be EMH at AK at 7am or any other park (maybe EPCOT since it's close) for a while. We will return to our resort around 2pm since we have an early dinner at Beaches and Cream. After that, we'll head over to AK by about 4:30pm/5pm and meet Angryduck71 and her son again for some more FP+ rides we have together, including the new Avatar Flight of Passage. I do have a dinner for the 5 of us at Yak and Yeti in case we are hungry but not sure I'll keep it. We also have a FP for the 5 of us to see the 10:30pm Rivers of Light later that evening if everybody can stay awake for it.


So that was our original Monday plan, but we sorta had a morning of rest the previous day with the pool and spa. While we had plans for AK later in the day, we still decided to hit the park in the morning for a few hours. Knowing it usually gets hot in tha park pretty fast, we figured a few hours and then pool time would be in order. I don't think we made the early entry there, but we got there in the morning. First up I made the family take a photo:

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While we are not hot and sweaty yet!

Now this is going to get fuzzy because I'm not sure what we did. I think we may have hit Everest first...perhaps this is near there?

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Plus I have ride photos:

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Wow that first one is huge...sorry!

Then I think we headed over to Dinosaur. I had decided this was one I should skip due to surgery recovery and knowing how rough it was, so I say outside and played on my phone...after pouting:

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Family had a good ride though:

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We may have headed into Dinoland and waited for the kids to ride Primeval Whirl. I think we decided we wanted to do the safari, but the kids had no interest...they were all about more Everest and not waiting (I think the posted wait was 30 minutes). So they went off I think to ride EE a few times in single rider while DH and I headed to the safari alone.

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At one point our vehicle had to stop for quite some time because this giraffe was in the middle of the road:

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Eventually he/she came sauntering back in front of our vehicle and along the side...it was pretty cool actually.

When we got off the ride, the kids were waiting for us. We noticed that they had opened up the path to enter Pandora and there wasn't a long wait. We decided to head over and just take a quick peek there and get a feel for it before we'd be back later that night.

Plus take lots of photos:

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Hello random stranger photobomber:

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We checked out the vehicles for Flight of Passage to make sure we'd be okay with those:

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And we were happy we wouldn't be subject to this wait:

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We did decided to wait in line for the gift shop though, which isn't as bad as it sounds:

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We spent some time wandering through there and the boys both decided they needed those things for their shoulders...so I think we bought them and had them shipped back to our resort.

Then we headed out of Pandora:
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Our plans for later were a late lunch/early dinner at Beaches and Cream, so we headed back to the resort for a bit. The kids wanted some pool time, so we left them there and DH and I decided to walk over to EPCOT and hit up some of the Flower and Garden food booths. YUM!

We started here...this is mine:

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This was the shrimp and grits...delicious! I got the non-alcoholic watermelon drink while DH went with some other alcoholic drink and some kind of food I'm not sure. It was all good.

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We walked around a bit more and at some point I knew I wanted to try the fruishi:

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I don't know what DH got here. The fruishi was okay.

Walking around and enjoying the flowers. This is always a favorite:

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So cool:

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Quick selfie:
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Last stop was for this salad, which I had back in March and loved. I don't know what it was...it had strawberries and bleu cheese and nuts...and was delicious:


More selfies:
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And I needed a photo with my favorite...cropped because man I lost weight but I looked big. Too much food!

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I think we took the boat back:

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Then sought out our kids who were at the pool:

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We gathered the troops and headed back to change, as Beaches and Cream was coming up fast. After all of the F&G food, we certainly didn't need a big meal. However that's fine because I booked this reservation with only ONE thing in mind...can you guess?








Did you guess this?

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Sadly we made the mistake of DH and I splitting a small sandwich first...we should not have done that.

Ice cream is just my weakness...and this was the king of ice cream sundaes! I'm glad they gave us the small bowls as we kept spooning out section after section of this food. It took some time, but we did a pretty good job I think:

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Wow they could have just rolled me out of here...I definitely indulged way too much. Oh man though...so good. And one more thing off the Disney bucket list!

We know had to beat feet back to Animal Kingdom as we were meeting up with @angryduck71 again and her son in Pandora and we had 6pm reservations on Flight of Passage!

(CONTINUED IN NEXT POST)












 
MAY TRIP DAY 4 CONTINUED

I think we arrived around the same time. She wasn't sure David would be up for it as he hadn't been feeling well, but she was hopeful and thankfully he was when they arrived.

The queue to this was lovely:


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However we did have the abbreviated line, which we would later learn just how much stuff you bypass, but that was okay because it didn't take long at all until we were here:

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Part of the pre-show, and it does change slightly each time. We all emerged from this ride and could NOT stop talking about it. Best. Disney. Ride. Ever.

Seriously it was that good...and we are big coaster/thrill ride fans!

Next up I think @angryduck71 and David had FPs for Dinosaur, but we didn't and the wait wasn't too long. We headed over there.


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And this time I decided I WOULD ride:

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(waiting in line)

I'm sure there is a ride photo somewhere...but I don't have it right now.

We did do some other family photos though:


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So nice when everybody cooperates!

I know we also had FPs together with @angryduck71 for Expedition Everest, so we did go ride that one as well. I think she has the photo in her TR...so let me steal it from her:


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We had a blast together, but it was getting late and I had FPs for Rivers of Light, which I hadn't seen. The boys had no interest in this, so they decided to join @angryduck71 and David and headed back to Pandora to wait in line with them for the Navi River Journey. Meanwhile we waited in line for ROL (myself, DH and DD) and it wasn't looking promising. They weren't letting us into the arena, citing technical difficulties. So we waited...and checked in with the boys who were also waiting...and waiting. At some point they finally made the sad announcement that the 2nd showing of ROL was cancelled...and yeah I wasted a FP on that. Not like anything else was open at that point to exchange for it.

The boys also learned NRJ was down as they were reaching the front, and decided not to wait any longer. We ended up somehow finding them in a very dark Animal Kingdom park.

The tree lit up was cool though:


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We headed back to our resort and I checked my steps for the day after wandering AK twice and walking around EPCOT as well:


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Yes I got some walking done that day.

Still a good day overall with one more FULL day to go!
 
Look at me trying to get my MAY trip that was almost 3 months ago completed for you! :) I'm almost there!

We are now just 5 days away from our next trip. I'm happy and sad to report that nothing has changed....well mostly.


I tried my very best to change our flights to earlier. However yesterday morning the SWA website wouldn't let me make the change, it kept throwing back an error. It said to call if it kept happening...but I didn't call. Later in the evening when I logged in the flight prices had gone up, so instead of a $7 change it was more like a $70+ dollar change...and that was a dealbreaker.

I know DH will be happy to not have to rush next Wednesday from his ceremony to the airport. Now we will have time to go home, change, and make our way leisurely to the airport. We may even have time to grab some food there before we fly out, if we are hungry. Our flight is close to 6pm so I'm HOPEFUL that we'll be driving up the Grand Floridian close to 9pm. Not horrible I guess.

That gives us about 3 hours at the MK if we decided to head there.

I also tweaked some dining plans, added a few things that I'm not sure I'll keep yet. Friday we now have 3 back-to-back meals planned and we can't keep all of them. I booked Afternoon Tea at GF, since I thought DD might like that. Perhaps we'll dress up a bit for it just because, but as I'm reading about it I'm not sure I want to spend the money on it. We'll see...it's still there. I don't think the boys will be interested at all, but it is for a party of 4 just in case...but not all of us.

I also have a ROL dining package at Tiffins. Yes I'm still mad that we have yet to see ROL despite my best efforts in May (read my latest installment above) but it isn't a must do for us. I also really would like to try Tiffins, but perhaps we should just do that as a regular meal. The dining package is probably a waste for us.

I also have JIKO that same day, as we've talked about returning there and we get a great discount there this time around. Still I'm not really feeling the push for a big meal with limited time this trip, and that is the night we have AKL club level (read: free food) so perhaps we should just see how we feel after enjoying the club level food and then decide if we want to do a bigger meal.

These were all made yesterday, so we'll see what I decide to keep as they can't all stay.

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OCTOBER NEWS: So I've purchased tickets for 9 members of our group and I'm in the process of updating their MDE with that for them, as both "heads" of that group are on vacation so getting together with them is impossible. Tomorrow morning is the 60 day window to make FPs and I plan to make theirs for them along with ours. We'll see what I get, as priority one is FOP for all of us!
 


Reading this makes me happy and a little sad (not going to be back for a couple of years and who knows when I get to see you again!).
 
Good luck with your FPs tomorrow!! I was able to get FOP for Weds 10/18, the 4th day of the trip, but only afternoon times were available. Earliest was 3:05pm, but lots left after that. I hope you can find FPs for your whole group for it!! Loved reading how much you enjoyed it. I'm making my mom ride it, just telling her to take some dramamine beforehand.

Pandora looks so beautiful, and I cannot WAIT to see it in person!!
 
I booked Afternoon Tea at GF, since I thought DD might like that. Perhaps we'll dress up a bit for it just because, but as I'm reading about it I'm not sure I want to spend the money on it.

I really liked this and so did DD (age 11) but I LOVE finger sandwiches and fancy pastries and especially that strawberries and cream...all in a high tea atmosphere...but on a shorter trip or one that feels like it has too much crammed in...I don't know if I would have made the time for this, as much as I did thoroughly enjoy it. I think if I was alone I'd for sure make the time but with kids who might not be into it...not sure....hard decision.

I also have a ROL dining package at Tiffins.

We really enjoyed this but it was a lot of food. I think I would have liked to ask if I could just get two appetizers instead of an entree with the package. I did really appreciate the not having to rush and take away prime AK ride time waiting and reserving a seat for the show. LOVED ROL though!! And we also had time to squeeze in a night safari while waiting for ROL to start since we had the package.
 
Reading this makes me happy and a little sad (not going to be back for a couple of years and who knows when I get to see you again!).

Awe very sad...but one day again hopefully.

Good luck with your FPs tomorrow!! I was able to get FOP for Weds 10/18, the 4th day of the trip, but only afternoon times were available. Earliest was 3:05pm, but lots left after that. I hope you can find FPs for your whole group for it!! Loved reading how much you enjoyed it. I'm making my mom ride it, just telling her to take some dramamine beforehand.

Pandora looks so beautiful, and I cannot WAIT to see it in person!!

Thanks! So a quick update. It was totally crazy Friday and Saturday morning with MDE. I was unable to fix our issue despite many attempts so clearly Disney continues to have some software bugs with MDE. I could not successfully link everybody in one of our travel groups with me but was able to link them with my daughters account. I even tried unlinking her and I several times and reinstating the request both from her to from me to her (my friend not my daughter). So my daughter can see all family members of my friends party (who she controls) but I can only see the friend. So I barely remembered to wake up at 7am and then I had to wake up my daughter to get all members of the party booked.

The good news is we got several rides together for 3 days at least. The bad news is that for some reason the kids have exceeded their FP max and for one day I couldn't make them part of our group and yet they have the same rides and days booked as we do. Weird. We also did get Flight of Passage for our LAST day but other friends are leaving a day earlier and no more FPS for their last day for FOP. We may just have to EMH rope drop that day with them and try to ride together.

So I really like our current schedule and plan for all of us and I probably won't do much more tweaking of it. It should be a fun trip with this big group. Plus if the kids in the group want to break off my daughter can control FP or them if necessary.

Anyway we are on the road to NC and have been since about 7:30am EST. We should be at my dad's house in another hour. I think for sure we have been dealing with heavier traffic than usual most likely due to people heading into prime eclipse viewing areas. We will be doing that tomorrow and plan to leave early in order to make sure we arrive in a good area in plenty of time.

 
I really liked this and so did DD (age 11) but I LOVE finger sandwiches and fancy pastries and especially that strawberries and cream...all in a high tea atmosphere...but on a shorter trip or one that feels like it has too much crammed in...I don't know if I would have made the time for this, as much as I did thoroughly enjoy it. I think if I was alone I'd for sure make the time but with kids who might not be into it...not sure....hard decision.



We really enjoyed this but it was a lot of food. I think I would have liked to ask if I could just get two appetizers instead of an entree with the package. I did really appreciate the not having to rush and take away prime AK ride time waiting and reserving a seat for the show. LOVED ROL though!! And we also had time to squeeze in a night safari while waiting for ROL to start since we had the package.


Thanks for the reply. I think DD and I may enjoy the tea and since we are not in a rush to do too much despite the short trip we just may keep it.

I ended up cancelling Tiffiins before I read this for those very reasons...I think it will be too much food. Maybe we will try it without the package but not this trip most likely.
 
We may just have to EMH rope drop that day with them and try to ride together.

One suggestion that I think @Elandon had who I saw last week, they took a Minnie Van (or uber or your own car) over to AK to arrive before EMH started and then only waited about 30 minutes for FOP...so that's worth it I think!

Thanks for the reply. I think DD and I may enjoy the tea and since we are not in a rush to do too much despite the short trip we just may keep it.

If you aren't in a rush, then yeah, definitely go for it, I think you will like it!!

I ended up cancelling Tiffiins before I read this for those very reasons...I think it will be too much food. Maybe we will try it without the package but not this trip most likely.

Good plan. The food was really good so I'd try it when you can. Also, you might want to try getting ROL seating as a 4th FP, I noticed on one of our AK days that was available. Then you wouldn't have to hang around too long at least.
 
One suggestion that I think @Elandon had who I saw last week, they took a Minnie Van (or uber or your own car) over to AK to arrive before EMH started and then only waited about 30 minutes for FOP...so that's worth it I think!

If you aren't in a rush, then yeah, definitely go for it, I think you will like it!!

Good plan. The food was really good so I'd try it when you can. Also, you might want to try getting ROL seating as a 4th FP, I noticed on one of our AK days that was available. Then you wouldn't have to hang around too long at least.

Great ideas THANKS. We actually will have a rental car so maybe skipping the bus and van anyway. We like the option of driving to the parks and not worrying about buses and not being subject to the Disney bus schedules to parks or to/from airport. We always rent a car for a pretty good rate and it is worth it for us.

So we decided to skip Jiko and keep Citricos only for this trip. I still have the GF Tea and just told my daughter about it. Still not sure we will keep it. She is mostly excited about the dessert options anyway and not so much tea.
 
So you know it is even closer to official when you check in electronically for your flight at the 24 hour mark! My daughter worked with me by checking in for one reservation (her, me and her dad) while I checked in the boys. We have B20s for our cattle call which should be okay for at least some of us to sit together.

We are 5.5 hours into our drive home with about 2 hours to go. It was a nice visit with my dad but sadly not without some drama...which I won't go into just will say working through this dad-girlfriend thing isn't easy and I hate that sometimes my brother and I feel like we are total jerks about things that we either aren't quite ready to handle or don't feel are appropriate. I will say I did finally 'meet' the girlfriend as did the rest of my family over a dinner out last night. It went fine.

So after more tears being shed by me over the last few days (I swear I have not had one week this year that I haven't cried at least once) I am ready for my happy place!

Perhaps I'll do a live update tomorrow if I have the time and energy.
 
So excited that you are so close to your trip. Sorry about the drama. You will be so relieved to be away from it all soon! The Disney bubble is really magic.
 
I wanted to check in here to say have a wonderful trip, and since I'm so far behind I just kind of skimmed through :blush: I'm sorry about the dad/girlfriend stuff, I can't imagine how it must feel. I'm glad you got to visit with him though.
I'm also glad you're eating at Citricos because that's like, our favorite restaurant :cheer2::banana::cheer2::banana: Ask to sit in Rony's section and enjoy!!
 
So excited that you are so close to your trip. Sorry about the drama. You will be so relieved to be away from it all soon! The Disney bubble is really magic.

Yes I know...soon! As the kids bickered at lunch yesterday about who-knows-what, DH and I looked at each other and just said "Happy Place Soon"...or something like that. It's magic in that MOST of the time while there my kids tend to get along.

I wanted to check in here to say have a wonderful trip, and since I'm so far behind I just kind of skimmed through :blush: I'm sorry about the dad/girlfriend stuff, I can't imagine how it must feel. I'm glad you got to visit with him though.
I'm also glad you're eating at Citricos because that's like, our favorite restaurant :cheer2::banana::cheer2::banana: Ask to sit in Rony's section and enjoy!!

Thanks so much. Yes the dad/gf thing is a challenge for both my brother and I to navigate, to say the least, but I take solace in the fact that at least he and I have each other to lean on when we have a tough situation to deal with there. My brother has one regarding a trip he was planning to see my dad this weekend. It looks like he may not make that trip, which makes me sad but I understand his reasons and I support him no matter what.

So Citricos...I got a bit nervous today because I was thinking I hadn't considered the fact that we maybe should be dressing up for Citricos. The boys will HATE this idea, but it looks like they can get away with shorts and maybe a collared shirt. I'm not sure I have packed anything "nice" so I'll need to do that when I get home today. My DD will pack something as well. I've read they don't really enforce it other than the really exculuded items like bathing suits, tank tops and cutoff shorts maybe? So we'll try to go "amusement park nice" I guess.
 
So we are now mere HOURS away from our trip! It's hard to believe that it is here already! I have a few hours at work today and then I'm out. I have to head home first, get the kids, and bring them back to work for my husband's celebration/graduation lunch at work. The meal sounds pretty good so at least we'll have full bellies for a while. We've talked of having another celebration in the airport before the flight...and teased that it will be Auntie Anne's for everybody! (seriously though those are some evil good pretzels)

The flight that I had originally wanted to book...appears to be sold out this morning. I was still holding onto this dream that we'd arrive at the airport and switch to that early flight. Not happening now. However that just means we will take full advantage of EMH evening at MK tonight as soon as we arrive. I am imagining dropping our bags in our room and hopping the monorail DIRECTLY over to MK and staying until midnight. I think we can get quite a bit done between the hours of 10pm and 12am! We should start vacation off right!

We arrived home last night around 10:45pm and I was up until probably close to midnight just unpacking and repacking the stuff I'd need for today's trip. I'll have time to go home today and rearrange things though. We truly don't need to be out the door to the airport until 3:30pm as our flight isn't until almost 6pm. 3:30pm is still earlier than I'd like to go, but I have a feeling that's DH's comfort level. I guess I'll be starting some new Netflix series in the airport today!

As I said before, I may try to do a live update of sorts when we are well on our way!



 

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