Im home :( So now what? A Trip Report it is! ** Updated 8/19**

[sersee05]

Well I am stuck in the back from vacation doldrums. Not to mention I am exhausted and need a week to recover!!

I am starting this off with a disclaimer. I love Disney. My kids love Disney. We had a great trip...however we did notice some things that took away the magic just a little. Basically this will not be an all unicorns and bunnies type of report. Our trip was magical but a little less magical this time around.


Soooooo let's get this started!! I have three kids . I have two daughters (18 and 13 ) and a 9 year old son. We are involved with sports most of the summer. So we always have to vacay in August. This year was a particularly trying year . Two of my kids had a medically rough go of it which was hard on my husband and me. They are doing well now. When it was time to figure out our vacation, we always have an issue. Some of us love the beach. Some of us do not. My son is afraid of so many things. He is a worrywart and won't fly or go on a boat. So bascially it comes down to, what is the easiest thing to do that everyone is happy with ...DISNEY!!


So since we had such a rough year, we all couldn't wait to just go. We needed this vacation. I am the planner in the family. These boards have been awesome . We were debating on whether to be onsite or off. We have been staying off and loving it. It gives us room and everyone has their own tvs.

We are not disney commandos. When we go on vacation, we don't necessarily want to get up at 6:30 to make an adr and hit rope drop. Adr's are tough for people like us because we tend to switch things up if what we are doing isn't working.

I ended up getting a good price for the Poly(my favorite!!). But at that time it didn't include food. I try to budget about a $1000 for food and parking. That sounds like a lot but it really isn't with the 5 of us. It was $65 per day for lunch!

The condo in Windsor hills that I have rented in the past was open and it would have saved us over $1000 to stay there plus we could stay one day longer. So we went with the condo. I was comfortable because we have stayed there before and I knew it was nice. I bought our tickets on Undercover Tourist.

Now I have always wanted a magic band. So I bought them. It was a splurge, but I just had too. I purchased them off the disney store(through ebates) .

We never used fast pass before. I know!! We are nuts! I never knew to much about it and I have been to Disney many times. I just thought it was much more hassle than it was worth. I came to this board and asked questions. I came to the conclusion that I should definitely make the fp ressie and enjoy getting on a ride. ...lol. We never rode toy story before because we never could get on!

In the meantime I was scanning the board for as much info as possible. My magic bands came! I got stuck with the green one...but I came across magic my band! So we all designed our own(except my dh). I have a little side job that I get paid through paypal. So I paid for the magicmyband myself. Woot Woot! I bought the full one(it worked fine in the parks btw). I made it purple with Stitch on it. They looked awesome.

I came across the budget board which taught me the ways of all the gift card websites and buying disney gc (using my target redacted). I saved around $150 doing this. Then I also applied for the Disney visa through another member. I put the condo payment on it and received a $200 gift card. I bought $1000 disney gc but didn't pay that much! Exciting!

I also came across the Landrys select club strategy. Since we always go to Trex..that worked out perfectly. So now I just had to wait for my fp window to come. I checked out recommended parks and was good to go. My window came and I got everything I wanted. We ended up switching things up on the fly..but more on that later. I made some adrs .
I had :

Monday 8/3- AK ( dinosaur, EE, kali) Trex for dinner
Tuesday 8/4-DHS ( Tot, Tsmm, Star tours) Mama Melrose dinner
Wed. 8/5- MK ( space mtn for 3, Buzz for 2, 7dmt, Wishes) Kona Cafe dinner
Thursday 8/6- Epcot (test track, mission space, spaceship earth) Eating around the world with a kona breakfast

Friday 8/7- open day but was going to make mk fps.( big thunder, space mts for 3 , buzz for 2 and I can't remember the third..) Miller ale house near the condo.


So because I am crazy, I laminated everything and put it in a binder. I even laminated a cute picture of stitch to put in the front. I bought a laminator just for this purpose..Ok ok..I really did always want one for different things. This was my excuse.

I got all my gift cards without any problems. We got up on Sunday 8/2 at 3:30am to drive on down to Fla. So exciting!!!...



** So I decided I also want to add some pictures in. **



These were the cute flip flops we got at kohls before the trips. I believe they were on sale for 6 buckeroos. My girls were in Disney heaven!!

 

[sersee05]

Day 1: The Trip Down.

Well it is always exciting when you head down to vacation. I had a ton of movies for the kids and they all had headphones. I had them separated... well because only 2 of us would make it to Disney if they started fighting..lol So my son got the whole back row to himself. They were good on the way down...not to much fighting . Lots of sleeping...

We got coffee and a donut . I downloaded the Waze app. Oh my gosh! That thing kept me sooooo busy! I had so much fun putting alerts up for my fellow travelers. We got through dc with no problems. We had stopped for breakfast at a Mcdonalds. Well it was crappy . I know I know..what should I expect from mcdonalds? But it's an egg people. How hard is it to cook an egg.. Not to mention they screwed up the order and didn't give us straws. It was fine..because we are happy people going to Disney...

But of course mcdonalds made my son gassy. Yes I know this isn't something people normally talk about , but you have all been there. Just admit it. You have that one person or child who farts in an enclosed car. We have these flaps in the back of the third row that open slightly. We open them(they are called the fartsapootie flaps) and then roll down the front ones to get that smell sucked out. So that went on for awhile.

We hit traffic. ..because of course someone gets in an accident on 95 every 4.2 seconds. No , that isn't an actual fact. But it sure feels that way! But I had my waze app I was playing on. I was warning people of traffic jams, cops sitting in the middle and occasionally putting a 95 stinks on the map for people to see. So much fun. My poor husband said I needed to talk to him because he was tired..lol

It was pretty uneventful down except for the traffic. We saw all the Pedro signs and noticed that South of the Border is not a happening place. We stopped fast food for lunch and dinner because we are commandos and drive straight through!!! We rule! We didn't get there until 10pm. Long drive.

We pulled up to Windsor hills. The guards are so nice but there is the one that likes to chat. We are not rude people but we don't want to chat after that long of a drive. I was glad to see someone else there and they were very to the point and let us in. Yay!!

We got to the condo...I always have to do my bed bug sweep because I am nuts. So I check all the beds and noticed they got new mattresses. Woo hoo! Not that they were uncomfortable, I was just excited about the upgrade.

So we all retired to our rooms. My dh and I watched a little Walking dead using my kindle firestick and had a few beers..then off to la la land. The next day was Animal Kingdom! Woohoo!!! So excited to wear my magic band!!

 

[luckylady]

You are not alone in checking for bed bugs. My brother learned at Port Orleans the hard way. Now on too park days.

 

[sersee05]

Its really nice to know Im not alone looking for bed bugs. I know I can't stop it but at least it makes me feel better that I did something!

Day2: Animal Kingdom Day!

This was our first park day. We were so excited only to wake up to pouring rain. It didn't seem like one of the Florida afternoon rain events. This seemed more like a soaking rain that might go on throughout the day. I googled the weather on my phone and watched the news. They all said something different! I have figured out that no one really knows what is going on except that in August in Florida, it will be hot with a chance of rain.

So I jumped on these boards. My concern was do they close rides if it pours. Would the safari be open? I didn't want to get stuck in the mud. Someone pointed out that there was boards or roads under the thin dirt so getting stuck wasn't going to happen. But I was also concerned about seeing any animals. A couple posters let me know they went in the rain before and it was one of their best visits! We were just trying to decide if we needed to switch the day.

But I went with the Dis boards. We made sure we had our ponchos and all phones were placed in ziplock(Thanks to another poster on here who recommended that tip! We do it at the beach but didn't think to do it in Fla!). I always bring ponchos. My family always teased me and would say they aren't wearing ponchos. Ha! They wanted their poncho this time!! My family is a trip. I planned this whole trip. I had asked many times about preferences for parks, fast passes and restaurants. None of them cared. Oh no.... they were all saying "you plan it mom!" or "We don't care, we trust you". I told my crew that they can't say anything then. I don't want to get to a day and they all say "We don't want to eat here" or "we don't want that fp". Little buttheads. So I was grinning from ear to ear when everyone wanted their poncho! Ha. butts. I was right to bring them!

Anyway the ones we bought were colored. My poor dh got the green one so he kept saying he thought he looked like a booger. So of course we went with that and ribbed him about being able to spot the booger from anywhere! We stopped at Dunkin for coffee and a donut. Well that was a longer line than I waited in at the parks! Holy Moly. They were very disorganized.

We finally got to AK. We got on our ponchos and the kids, the booger and I headed out. I believe we took the tram everyday. They made announcements constantly about selfie sticks. They said it on the tram. They had signs at bag check. But people STILL brought selfie sticks in their bag.

It was drizzling but not bad. I had originally had fps for dinosaur, kali, and ee. My son loves Kali. He is my worry wart as I have said. So he won't go on scary rides. He is definitely afraid of heights. I get it because Im not a big fan of high roller coasters either. So I usually stay with him when the others ride. We usually shop..lol. So anyway, I kept kali because it was the one ds9 would do. He rode dinosaur before and was not a big fan. But I did switch our dinosaur fp with the safari. We originally were going to try and be there at rd but with the ride we had the day before, my dh was exhausted and wanted to sleep in a bit.

As we were walking around the parks, the drizzle really was just sprinkles. It ended up being a great day at the park! It was cool and overcast. We went on the safari and saw more animals than I have ever seen! I have never seen the hippos! The female lion was laying on the rocks and our guide said she isn't usually there. So that was exciting. It's my favorite ride in ak. So I was in heaven. It was great.

My kids and dh went on EE. ..which they love. Then they came back off and rode again using my son/my fps. My dh went in the single rider lane which was less than 5 minutes. After they got done, all 3 hopped back onto single rider and went again! I think the standby wait was on 15 minutes, but single rider was immediate. So they got to ride EE three times. That is a first! I love rainy days!!!

Then my dh , dd18 and dd13 went on dinosaur. Afterwards, we wanted lunch. We went into one of the places to eat. My dd 18 had chicken nuggets. She ate some but started to say her stomach was turning a bit. Then she started saying that her nuggets seemed slimy. I checked them out and didn't think they were all the way cooked. She ended up feeling quite sick later and had to go to the bathroom. So that was a little bit of a downer. But she troopered through.

I got to see the flights of wonder show which I have always enjoyed. They had different birds to my surprise. That was a nice change up ! We needed to leave by 5pm to head to dtd for T rex. So I dragged my kids to the Lion King. They aren't big fans of the movie but I told them they were seeing the show. IT was great! I loved it. My kids and dh enjoyed it too. We headed over to dtd.

Going into DTD was a nightmare. The traffic to turn left into the complex!! It was all backed up. We finally got through and parked in the new garage. ...well new since we have been there. It was a beautiful garage. It was clean . I felt completely safe. We didn't expect so much traffic so we needed to move it to make our reservation. We tried to find a directory because at this point, we had no idea where t rex was. The last time we went, we parked to the side of t rex and walked right up. It was a hike an a half getting to t rex and dtd was way more crowded than AK. The amount of people! I couldn't even check out any of the stores because of the crowds.

We made it to Trex and got right in with our ressie. I had the $25 welcome gift and the $25 birthday gift on my Landrys card. I also had used the raise, target method and bought a $50 gc to Trex. We ordered. I wanted a special drink and ordered a tropical one that the waiter said was good. Plus I wanted the glass.lol. My dh had a beer but got a pilsner glass. My dd13 ordered a slushy that came in a dinosaur plastic thing. My ds 9 got a light up glass and my dd18 wishes she got a glass too(she chose not too).

My drink was undrinkable. It had so much sweet and sour in it that it actually burned going down. But I did get a cool glass. So I believe I had a grilled chicken that was ok. The consensus was that it was only "ok". I forgot they had waffle fries which I don't like. We go because it's my kids favorite. The last time we went, it was really good. This time...not so much. We did get the chocolate extinction volcano thing which was yummy. So we left happy but a tad dissatisfied. But now we had to brave the sea of people! My dh was quite impressed that I had the payment all taken care of! I only told him 1.2 million times before we left how I saved us money. Obviously he was tuning out my constant Disney talk.

We got out of DTD and said we didn't want to go back anytime soon. Too crowded. We went back to the condo. DD18 had her own room where she settled and watched her own tv. My dd13 and Ds9 shared the nemo room(so cute) with twin beds. This was a little concerning because those two can go at it. But they each put on their headphones and watched netflix on their iPads. Dh and I had some cocktails and watched a couple more episodes of the Walking Dead.

It was a great day. No one was overly hot or tired. Everyone was in a great mood. We got lots of laughs out of Dh looking like a booger! Next day was DHS!!



**Adding a couple photos**
I loved the Flights of Wonder. Last time I went they had big gigantic owls that were gorgeous. But this time they brought out a big beautiful Bald eagle.


Of course this is from T rex restaurant... We were right in front of this dinosaur for dinner and I swear he was stalking me.

 

[rt3773]

why are selfie sticks not allowed?

 

[sersee05]

I am not even sure...I had heard that it could be a danger . I think someone pulled out one during a ride and it could be dangerous.

 

[sersee05]

Day 3: DHS!!


Originally were were going to go to rd so the kids and dh could ride RNR. I don't know what I was thinking. It was much harder to get up that morning So we didn't make RD. We hit Dunkin again. This time we went through the drive thru.. It was much quicker this way. We noticed as soon as we stepped out of our condo that it was a heatmeiser type of day. Wooooo was it hot .

So we were off to DHS.. This was going to be a full day due to all the Frozen stuff. I know people say it's the worst park and can't fill two hours with it, but we seem to always spend at least a day. Originally we were going to stay for the 10:30 Fantasmic. But we kind of decided that we didn't really want to stay so late since we knew the next day at MK was going to be a late one. I personally couldn't miss the Frozen fireworks! So we were going to hop back another night for the earlier Fantasmic.

We arrived at DHS and got the selfie stick speech in the tram again. When we got our bags checked, 3 people in front of me got their selfie stick confiscated. So we headed over to ToT first. We had our fast passes but my son and I don't ride it. My dd18 is afraid of elevators and would never ride this ride. But for some reason she said she was going to do it. Ds and I waited and was talking to a very nice lady. She was telling me how she doesn't ride the scary rides and just wants to see the shows. I was laughing because when her kids came back with her husband..she told them to ride what they can because they were going to sit in shows all afternoon. They kind of balked but she told them they were going to do what she wanted. I could relate so we laughed about that. I was right next to this woman. I think the only thing between us was a bag. As we were talking a woman came and moved the purse right out of the way. The woman and I just stared at this pushy person. She wedged herself between us and didn't say a word about it. No excuse me. No hey can you make room? She pretty much was sitting partially on me and the other woman. I am telling you..there was not room for this woman to shove herself in...but she did! The woman I was speaking to said "Excuse me ma'am but there really isn't much room here". The woman turned to her and said "Ya, I don't care". I was shocked. At that point my kids and dh came back . My dh gave me a funny look and said "My my why so close?" . He was joking around but I just shook my head. Anyway it was a big moment for dd18 because she conquered one of the biggest fears of her life!! She loved Tot!! So I gave her my band and ds gave my other dd his so they could ride again. Dh, ds and I found another place to sit. I said to the nice woman "Good Luck!". As I left, I had heard the nice woman say how rude she thought the Ms. Shovey pushy pants was.

After my dd's got off Tot , they said they wanted to go wait in the Rnr line. They had time so we told them to go. This gave me a chance to tell my ds9 about the Frozen sing along. I dragged him to a little mermaid show in the past and he hated it. He HATES frozen because we have overdone the frozen thing in my house. Dd's are constantly singing the songs. He looked at me like I was putting him through torture. He told me that I was "slowly stripping away his manhood". What I had planned was for him and Dh to go watch the stunt show. We have seen it and the girls and I didn't need to see it again. But the boys loved it. But instead I harassed my son. I am sure he will need many years of therapy. I told him how I expect him to sing all the songs. He was whining like crazy at this point about how I know he hates frozen. I told him that it would be ok since it's air conditioned. He didn't care. Haha I let him off and told him the plan. He was so happy.

So the girls came back and RnR was broken down. This happened the last time we were at DHS. So off to our toy story fp. I was very excited because I had never been on this ride due to the lines. I really enjoyed it. We all did. What a fun ride it was. I stink at shooting games apparently and my dd18 creamed me . So then I got to hear how bad Mom is at shooting games

We headed over to Star Tours. I waited in the gift shop which was very crowded because it had air. I went back out and watched Darth Maul(sp?) battle a kid. That was cute. Then I headed back into the gift shop. I was watching where they take your picture and put it on a character...like luke skywalker. There was a kid getting it done and it was the first time I saw a CM get a little feisty...although I couldn't blame her. This woman kept making her take it over and over because it wasn't lined up perfectly. She was getting quite rude with the CM. The CM was getting feisty back . She rolled her eyes every time the lady asked for a new picture. You could see the steam coming out of her ears. Oh yay..my family was done..so out we went.


We went to get lunch. We were by the backlot express and saw sorcerer mickey photo op. Well there wasn't a long line yet so the girls and I jumped in. That was fun. Sorcerer Mickey kissed me and I could actually hear a little smooch. Hahah.. Love it!

We decided we wanted to eat in air. I can't remember where we went but I remember I got my olaf cupcake there. I was so excited!! I thought it was going to be chocolate but it was carrot cake which was even better!!



I was a happy woman! After we were done , we walked around and did some of the other things.We went and saw the Muppets which hasn't changed . I still enjoyed it though. I missed the frozen parade but was able to see a bit of it as we were walking by. At this point it was so hot, I felt like my flip flops were melting. It was getting hot underneath my feet but I managed to see Olaf and Elsa:



My dd13 was Elsa for her musical theater in her dance recital. So Frozen means a lot to us. I had a pic of Elsa but it was pretty grainy . We split up at this point . I was hoping to fit in Beauty and the Beast but was unable too. Anyway the girls and I headed to the Frozen sing along and the boys to their stunt show .

As we headed toward the sing along, we came up on the little movie. I didn't know that was there so we went in and watched. It was the cutest little short. All three of us loved it. We then went to the sing along. The line was empty and we went up to ask the CM when they started to let people in for the show. She said to us "Well what time does the show start?" I answered and she responded "Well before that!" I thought that was a snippy answer but blew it off. She then went back to chatting with another cm. I asked when could we get in line. She looked at me and responded "not until near the show start". Well ok. So we kind of waited and started to go find the frozen store to look through . My dd13 said, Mom about 15 people are in the line. So we walked back and got in line. I was annoyed that she couldn't have just said we could get in line. This was the only time we could see this show in our plans so I wanted to make sure I we could get in. My dd18 was saying how she had noticed a lot of the CM's in DHS seemed miserable. I had to agree. It was something my dh and I noticed throughout the day. It didn't seem as "disneyesque" as when we have come before.

We went into the sing along. OOOOH thank goodness for air!! Anyway everyone was told to move all the way down. There was a family who left two seats at the end. Later two people came in to sit there and they told them they were saved. We noticed as the sing along started..they were not saved. They moved down so they could keep an empty seat between them and the people next to them. Sneaky sneaky!

The Frozen sing along wasn't what I had thought it was going to be. There wasn't a whole lot of Elsa and Anna. Anna came out at the beginning and we thought she was fantastic. She sounded just like her! She did a great job in that part.


They had historians basically recap the entire movie. I wasn't expecting that and at first I wasn't sure I was going to like that. I thought to myself..I had already seen the movie. But the historians were great! They were quite funny and entertaining. We enjoyed it immensely. Elsa came out at the end . It ended up being a pretty great show. We were really glad we went to it. My daughter's really sang the Love is an open door song.


We found the boys and off to Mama Melrose for our ressie. When we got there we were told that Mama's was running 20 minutes behind on reservations and gave us a pager. Many people walked in trying to get a walk up ressie but they weren't taking them until much later. We were seated probably around 20 minutes later.

Dinner was ok. . My husband ordered a beer and it had something floating in it We sent it back. We did get some bread and ordered our food. The food was nothing great. I had the chicken parm. But we didn't see our waiter for the rest of the night until it was time for the check. So we couldn't get refills or anything. My husband had the gift cards out on the table when he finally came back . That is when my dh asked for the check and he took the gift cards! WE had no idea what our bill was. He came back with the bill and showed us what was paid and what the balance was. We looked at the receipts and we couldn't believe how high it was. So upon further inspection we realized that we had paid for two tables and none of them were ours. So we had to get our waiter back. It took a very long while. We started trying to find someone who could help. We asked another waiter to get ours. Eventually he came back and said he made a mistake and gave us our real bill and was able to fix the problem. Check those receipts.!! So all in all it was a very mediocre experience.


Dh and the dd's went off to try and get on Rnr. My son and I browsed through stores and he started saying how he really wanted to collect pins. He thought the trading seemed cool. So we checked them out and that got a seat near the starbucks and tv screen. A cM told me that was a great place to see everything. A family next to me asked a CM if we were in a good spot and that CM said it would be hard to see all the fireworks but kind of. We sat there for awhile holding our spot. My dh and kids came back and just as it was almost there turn, RnR broke down So no Rnr. I told my dh about what my son wanted to do and he was fine with it. So they sat in our spot and ds and I bought him a lanyard and a cute stormtrooper pin. We also bought a mystery pack to trade.

When we came back a ton of people had moved in where my family was sitting. There was tape on the street and you had to be behind it. We were at the end of that tape and it was at an angle..so there wasn't much room. But people crammed themselves right on top of my family. It was crazy. I asked another CM about where to view the fireworks. He said he would go to the exit. You can see them great from there and hear the music. You just can't really see the pre show. This was fine for us. So I told my family and we got up to head toward the exit. Another CM asked if we were staying for the fireworks. I said yes and that we were told the exit would be great . She told me that I wouldn't be able to hear them music. It was crazy how every CM had a different answer!

It was so crowded though and when all those people started pushing to be in our spot after my son and I had sat there for an hour..we were done. So the fireworks started and we were able to see them from the exit. We could sort of hear the music but there were a lot of people exiting which made it difficult to hear..but it was good enough. We thought they were over and got in the tram line. But then Let it go started. I could sort of hear the music. So I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to really experience it the right way since I was very excited for them.. But oh well .

It was easy to get on the tram and get out of there!

So we were pooped. Time to go back and have a few beers, watch some walking dead and get some sleep. MK was next!!

 

[xlsm]

Sounds like fun so far despite a few less than magical moments.

The woman who sat in between you and the other lady?? Oh my gosh! Maybe it was the same woman who LITERALLY snatched a hoodie out of my hand in Diagon Alley at Universal Studios last month, LOL!!

People are crazy.

We're fans of pin trading.
This time we took one pin to Epcot and I traded it over and over again, and took pictures of all the different pins I got, then kept the last one. It was fun!

Excited to hear how your MK day went!!

 

[sersee05]

Lol! She grabbed it right out of your hands? Goodness. My son really enjoyed it. I wish we would have thought of it along time ago! He is a collector(I call him a mini hoarder). He is just sentimental and feels bad throwing things away. I remember he was younger(like 4) and he collected pokemon mac and cheese. I put them in a bottle for him so he could look at them. haha. Anyway this is right up his alley. He got the storm trooper that is shooting a gun and says Pew! Pew ! It's cute. That one he won't trade. But the ones in the bags that are mysteries are good ones for him to trade. He got a pink kitty and said it had to go!

 

[sersee05]

Day 4! MK Day! Scratch that ...Epcot/MK Day!

Well I had looked at the crowd calendar for the best parks to go to and it was MK for this particular day. The night before , during our Walking Dead marathon(I love my kindle fire stick!) we started discussing how hot it had been. We had gone at the same time the year before and it wasn't as hot. I remember the end of the trip was a hot day but that was ok. It was the humidity. We wanted rain!! Anyway so my dh suggested that we go to Epcot because they had a lot of indoor stuff and we could get a lot of it done quick.

So my plan had been derailed!! haha. Like I said, we weren't planners in the first place so we were able to detour the plan without too many issues. We had Epcot planned on Thursday. It wasn't to big of a deal because the only ride we absolutely had to get on was Test Track. So I canceled my epcot fps for Thursday. My fps for Wednesday(the day we are rescheduling) were at MK. I had a Wishes and 7 dmt later at night. So really I just had to reschedule space mountain (for dh and dd's) and buzz for my ds and I. That was easy to switch to a night time. I also realized I didn't want a Wishes fp as it seemed like a waste of a fp. So I booked thunder mountain . So all was good on that end. I knew I wanted to see Fantasmic(since I have never seen it before). So we decided to go back to DHS on Thursday. Is this making sense? haha. This was we could go to fantasmic and my dh and dd's still wanted to go on Rnr. So I was able to get a fp for rnr in the evening right after Fantasmic.


We had a Kona cafe ressie for dinner . We decided to hit Epcot and then go back to the condo to rest a bit. Then we would head to Kona and then MK.


Soooo anyhoo, of to Epcot we went. We got up leisurely since we knew we were spending a lot of the night at mk and it was going to be a late one. We headed over . My oldest DD had acl surgery and after the two days of walking , she was hurting a bit. So we got her a wheelchair that day. It was really easy to do for anyone that is wondering. We just had to go on over and pay for one. We had to get through the baggage check line first and watch everyone's selfie sticks be confiscated. PEOPLE!! No selfie sticks! They only say it to you 13 times and have signs everywhere!

We went on spaceship earth( I think that is the golf ball one right?). It was a 35 minute line but it was a comfortable line. There was a nice breeze and shade while we were outside. So we didn't mind waiting at all. Test track line was crazy so we didn't feel like waiting in it that particular day. We went on as many things as could...(good ole figment, nemo, etc). We ate lunch in the Land at sunshine seasons. It was nice because I could get a salad which I was craving. I also had a carrot cake which was quite yummy.

After , we went on the land ride. My husband and son like that one. We did a few more things and then my dh said to go to Captain Eo. Ugh. Lol. None of u s wanted too but it was a cool place to be . My son was kind of complaining his stomach hurt a bit. But then said he was ok. We got in there and my son started to panic a bit telling me he had to go to the bathroom(sorry if this is tmi but its' life..). He will do this if he is scared of something and doesn't want to admit it. I asked if he was scared and he said that the needed to use the bathroom . The panic in his voice made me realize he wasn't kidding. So we got up and got out. As soon as we got outside he threw up a tiny bit. I went and told a cm. I felt bad but luckily it wasn't a whole big thing. But we needed to hightail it to the bathroom. He got to the bathroom and had some issues. He had gotten throw up on his shorts too.

So we decided it was a good time to leave. haha. We got back to the condo and I made him drink water. His stomach ended up being fine. I wasn't sure if he was dehydrated or he ate too fast at sunshine seasons. He showered and felt much better. So we hung out at the condo. It was such a nice break. My son was able to eat with no problems. So all was well. We got ready for dinner at Kona. I was so excited because I hadn't tried Kona and I couldn't wait to go back to the Poly. That is where we have always stayed. It was so beautiful. We parked in the Poly lot with no problems.




It was just so pretty. It made me miss staying onsite. It truly did. I said to my dh..next time we go I wanted to go back to the Poly. Anyway we ate at Kona and got right in at our ressie time. I had the pan asians noodles with shrimp. IT was delicious. The bread with the macadamia butter was awesome too. I can't recall what my kids got but every single person enjoyed it. My dh also got the pan asian noodles. DD18 had scallops and she ate the whole thing. It was my favorite dinner. My ds ate fine and never had another issue the whole trip.

So we left and parked at the TTC. It had started to rain a bit which didn't bother me in the least. We headed into Mk. I love MK. It is the epitome of Disney. Dh an dd's went off to big thunder railroad. So ds and I hung out in Tomorrowland because he was obsessed with pin trading. I got him on the people mover. He is scared of heights and rides(like I mentioned) but he remembered he liked the people mover. We got on and then it jerked and went faster than he remembered. His eyes got really big but he was fine. We went through the space mountain part and it was very dark. He seems a little nervous but was ok. After we were done, he wanted to do it again. So back on we went. Lol the people mover didn't have much of a wait. I think we rode it 4 times and then the other members of my family got back. They absolutely were raving about the railroad roller coaster. They loved it. They laughed at us for riding people mover so many times. But then we all went on it..lol. It was a workout too because the up escalator wasn't working so we to hike up it..lol

My son ended up losing a pin so he was sad about that. We figured out the backs aren't very good. So I told him I would try to get a bunch of backs that are better and save the disney ones for trading. So the it was space mountain and buzz. Ds and I went on buzz. It was ok. It was the first time for us. I couldn't tell if I was hitting any targets. I thought toy story was so much better. But we still enjoyed it.

I believe Wishes was about to start . We ended up going almost out of Tomorrowland on the bridge. There was a cm taking pictures of people with the castle behind. She told us we would see a good view of the fireworks and stand by her. She told us people usually won't push her out the of the way. It was a great spot. We even saw tinker bell for the very first time!!



Wishes fireworks ..imo... are the best out there. They were much better than Frozen and Frozen was really good. Wishes gets me ..lol . I can tear up watching Wishes. Afterwards was the 7dmt . We watched it and it looked like a coaster I could go on. But my ds was very nervous and decided not too. We walked around and ended up back at the people mover. lol. I spent all this money to ride the people mover! Anyway it was a really fun night. I love MK at night. It was so magical.

We headed back and were starving...so we decide midnight snack! Why not? We are on vacation!. We picked up taco bell and went back to the condo. I was looking at our schedule and got everything situated. Thursday was Epcot morning and we had planned to wait in whatever test track line they have. Then we head over to DHS for our fps and fantasmic. We were going to just play it by ear for dinner. Friday (which was our last day) was going to be MK day. So I made fps for Mk. I basically made the same ones..except 7dmt because I couldn't get it. My ds came to me and sat to talk with me. He told me "Mom, this was the best night". I told him I thought it was fun too. Then he said "Mom? You know getting a midnight snack was really fun too". It's not something we normally do. It was cute.

So I originally had kona breakfast for us on Thursday but switched it to Friday because I really wanted to try Tonga Toast. haha. So off to bed we went . Next day Epcot/ DHS!

 

[sersee05]

Day 5 Epcot/DHS

So we headed off to Epcot again and this time we were waiting in Test Track. Hopefully I won't have any barfers! The Test Track line wait time was fluctuating. At first it was a good 90 minutes long so we waited and did some other things. It was a very hot day again. I had to get my picture today also. I had my Disney Visa Card and wanted my free pic with he characters! We didn't get to Epcot overly early because we went back to leisure mode. Haha. Well we had done quite a bit at Epcot and we were only going back to get some rides done that we missed . The same thing with DHS . So there wasn't a hurry. We were going to wait in lines no matter what.

As we were bee bopping around Epcot , we saw test track went down to 60 minutes so we went for it. The queue was air conditioned and I was fine with waiting however long. It felt like it moved quicker than an hour. My son was talking a lot about what to expect on this ride(he had gone on it before) . I could tell he was nervous. So we decided it would be my dh and I with my ds in between us. The DD's went in front of us. We designed our car. At first I was going with the DD's and helped design their car. It was the most powerful purple car we could make . Haha. The boys had a more streamlined car. My ds wanted me with him which is why we switched.


We went on the ride and it was great as always. After my ds was so excited he went on and kept talking about how intense it was. He kept asking if EE in ak was that intense. That is what he wanted his first roller coaster to be! He looked it up on youtube to see how scary the yeti was and he thought he would be fine. My dh told him no way. It was high and not a good roller coaster. So after test track he started thinking and was quiet. Then he said to me..."Mom I really wish on I went on the mine train the other day. " I told him t hat I wished too but that I couldn't get any fps for it. He was bummed through out the day because he kept telling me he wished he wasn't so scared.

It was time to go over and get our picture. The line was actually kind of long. Not long by ride standards but it was the length of the room we were in. But they had video games in there! My ds was so happy and played while we waited in line. I was excited to see who was going to be back there. I knew it was the main characters(mickey, minnie , donald, etc) but didn't know who! We were next and the CM told us No Peeking!! Hahaha.

So it was our turn and we got back there and it was Minnie(who my DD18 was so excited to see) and Pluto! I was so excited it was Pluto! It ended up being a cute picture and my dd18 was holding Minnie's hand. My ds isn't a character person so he was a little nervous. But what fun! They scanned my magic band and I was to pick it up later. Yay!

We started to head off into the World Showcase to find food. But it was so hot that day. We were headed toward England. We noticed the quick serve was outside (at least from what we saw) and we didn't want to sit outside to eat. The further we went in , the more people we ran into who had been drinking. I had no problem with it but a lot of them did. They were having trouble walking. I saw quite a few. My dd13 commented, "wow it's like a different world over here, is everyone drunk?" Haha. I think people must have been drinking and with it being so hot, it must have got to them quick.

We decided to turn around and go to Seasons again. I was really disappointed because I really wanted to tour the world showcase. But now I have an excuse to go back when it isn't so dang hot. We ate at Seasons and I got my yummy carrot cake again. Then we picked up our picture. It was very very easy and decided to head out. We had DHS later and we went back to the condo for a bit.


So back to DHS. We had a Rnr fast pass( well dh and the dd's did) after fantasmic. The other fps we made were for star tours and Tot. There really wasn't much to do with fps since we did everything the previous time. So we had to kind of find ways to waste time. So they did the Tot and then went on it again with my sons and my fps. We bee bopped around . My son was trading pins. I can't tell you how much fun he had with that. If I had only known from the beginning! He was so in his element trading.

So we wasted enough time to get us to Fantasmic. We got on of the back rows to the right side. It was an ok spot. I could see everything in front of me but it seemed when the boats came around they lit up in the middle . When they were in front of us they were still dark. But it was fun waiting for the show with all the music. It was our first time so we were amazed at how many people were in that area!! It was like a party though. Everyone was doing the wave and singing. Fun.

F! started and we absolutely loved it. Just loved it. So glad we came back to do that. At the very end my dh and dd's slipped out to make their rnr fp. My Ds and I got up and went toward where we were to leave. We were int he back row so we didn't bother anyone and started to head out. We were walking over on the right side just talking. I didn't to have my ds on the other side of me. A mob of people came flying down. Quite a few of them were running. Then these people came flying down and ran right over my son knocking him over. They got up , looked at us and kept on going. It really pissed me off. They didn't care. He skinned his knees and was upset. Jerks.

We got out of there alive thank god and headed into the shops for more trading while we waited for the others to do rnr. They called me fairly quickly and let me know it broke down ...again. This was the 3rd or 4th time they tried and it wasn't happening. I believe they got a fp back and went on ToT again. So we headed out as the Frozen fireworks started again.

on the tram, the cm told people with way to get off and not to stand up. Well people don't listen. It was the first time I heard a Cm get a little angry on the tram. He kept telling the people to sit. Think they were trying to see the fireworks. He ended up raising his voice and told them to sit down and we can't move until they sit. I don't blame him but it was the first time I heard frustration. Then after we stopped and tried to start going again , people crossed in front of the tram. I could hear the cm kind of growl in frustration. CM's are human too!


Hahaha. We went back to our condo . We stopped at Wendys to pick up some food since everyone was starving again. We had split some pizza at DHS but were hungry. We all stayed up late this night . We ate and then the kids went and watched netflix. My dh and I had some drinks(yummy!) and watch quite a few episodes of walking dead. Friday was our last day and we were going to have to go to bed early. MK was next. Our plan was to head over to Kona for my very first Tonga Toast. Woot! Woot! Then spend the entire day at MK !! We would grab our souvenirs here at the end of our visit. So excited!

 

[luckylady]

Sounds like a good day. We always get in line early for F cause we want the Mickey section, but I think most seats are good. They always have a good time before the show starts. Can't wait for more.

 

[JustCor]

Has your son tried Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom? It may be something he really enjoys. I find it's a great way to kill some time at MK, and it's a lot of fun!