Poncho's, Poncho's everywhere..and let's not forget the itchy feet too! An August TR

Ponchos, Ponchos everywhere Updated 11/16

Welcome Welcome to my August 2011 trip Report... be warned.. U will get wet..you may even get soaked.. so grab your poncho and join us! ( read the Pre-Trip report here)



Trip dates: August 18-29 2011. Room only on August 18th, Free dining from 8/19-8/29

Resort~ Pop Century..my first time at a Value.. 2 rooms

Who? Well lets see we have:

ME: Alison..I turned 36 while in Disney. I have been a Disney fan my whole life. I could live in Disney. I made 2 Disney trips in 19 months in 1999 and 2000 then I shelved my Disney World dreams when I met my now husband and we had 3 kids in 3 years.Fast forward 10+ years and we were finally ready and able to take the plunge and take the 4 kids! I homeschool 3 of the 4 kids ( the oldest is graduated) plus I work a day job doing office type work for the family business and I bartend 2-4 nights a week at my best friends nightclub.

Eric: 39.. a now reformed Disney Skeptic. He was not thrilled with this trip in the planning and paying stage.. and even up til the we arrived stage. He only had 6 Flags to picture in his head what Disney might be like. Well let's just say if I had a nickel for each time he said "this place is awesome"( which was almost the trip report title BTW)..well I could buy us all AP's and go back again this year!

Noah: Turned 17 on this trip. Has been to WDW twice before..once at 4.5 and once at almost 6.5 ( for Christmas no less).. he was above all the most excited for this trip aside from myself.. he knew what to expect and he was giddy like a 6 year old school girl any time you mentioned the trip. Noah is currently a "sandwich artist" at Subway while he decide's what's next in his life! warning prone to extreme teenage mood swings!

Kate: 16.. Noah's girlfriend. nice girl.. but let's just say no girlfriends/boyfriends will ever be invited again!

Declan: 9.5 going on 90.. we always say he's an Old man trapped in a kids body. He was the kiddo I was most worried about at Disney as he has a tendency to suck the fun out of things. Declan tends to overthink, over worry and over control things. He's a fab kid, smarter than any 9.5 year old should be and is a great athlete. He was super excited to go to Disney but due to his issues with the unknown he had a giant knot in his tummy too!

Jadziah: 7 almost 8.. she is by far my most even tempered kiddo. She was giddy and unworried about the trip. She required a disney shirt for each day we were there and yes..she got them..lol hey it pays to be the only girl outta 4 kids right? ( oh JahD Zee Uh like in Star Trek Deep Space nine.. yes I named my daughter after a character in a TV show..I'm a star trek nut and proud of it)

Taejan: 5 almost 6 ( as in he turns 6 a mere 3 days after we left Disney). There are few words to accurately describe Taejan ( Tay-Gin we made this one up). He has the best personality, is beyond outgoing.. vocal and full of love and life.. he's also a putz.. a VERY small but BIg putz.. no is just a word he laughs at.. he made the trip very stressful at times..but oh well..such is life. he also was the catalyst for many of the great "awwwww moments" on this trip as well!

Elaine AKA Gigi: My mother.. she has also been to WDW 2 other times ( with Noah and I). She was a great help with the 3 younger kiddo's and she fully enjoyed her time at Disney with us. She did NOT like the heat ( but then again which one of us did???)

So there's the cast of this mighty adventure.. coming up.. the "pre disney" part of the trip!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ready or not Disney..here we come! Check in

We woke up at 4:30 on August 18th, said our sad tear filled goodbyes to our Georgia "family" and headed on the road. It's roughly 4.5/5 hours from Chandra's house to Disney.. and we wanted to have a full first day of "nothing".

We had smooth sailing til part way on I4..then it was roughly 1 miles every 5 minutes or more.. OMG it was killing me. I have a LOT of road anxiety ( hence why i don't drive on the highways and I am a TERRIBLE passenger) so this stop n go was setting me on the edge and I wanted to just be there. I was texting Missy every mile counting down how many more til we were there.

We finally saw this:
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and then this:
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and this:
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The screeching of joy from the arch to the resort was intense..and the kids were loud too..lol. I just couldn't believe it was finally real... I was actually here and taking my kids to meet the Mouse!!

We had learned the day before that the resort originally didn't have any of us in our Grand Gathering even in the same building and they had my 2 rooms in totally different buildings! Don took the time to straighten that all out the day before we got there. ( Missy and Don and krew had arrived the 17th).

I went to check in thinking all was well. There was a few people in both check in lines.. I hopped into Online and it didn't take long to get to the front. Here's Taejan waiting with me til he got bored and went to watch TV..lol
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Upon checking in we learned they did not have connecting rooms for us. Since I know requests are not guarantee's it was no big deal. Disappointing but since the other 3 wouldn't be arriving til the next day no big deal. Just meant we wouldn't bother unpacking. The guy checking us in did say they would move us the next day ( the 18th was room only, our package started the next day) to connecting rooms. Ok sounds good ( well at the time it did.. that would change). We got all our info, map etc.. rooms were not ready..no surprise. They would text when they were. So we left check in and went to meet up with Missy and Don for late breakfast in the food court!

Look we found them!
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and we ate!
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Up next~ Swim Time and We have a room!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Swim time and we have a room!

After we ate we grabbed the kids swim suits and headed to the Hippy Dippy to swim while we waited for the infamous text's to arrive saying our rooms were ready.

I had NO intention of being in a giant FULLY public pool in a swimsuit..nope..no way.. I'm rather self conscience.. well the 16 year old who shall currently remain nameless <cough Epiphani> <cough brat> bullied me into going in.. sigh.. I sure hope no one saw my belly roll, stretch marks and tan lines danggammit!

The kids had a blast.. I found the pool a touch..oh let's say..WARM.. holy heck..lol.. are pools down south actually ever cool??

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Oh have I mentioned I love the look and themeing of Pop? Well I do.. much more than I expected. I won't lie.. I never would have stayed at a Value resort by choice.. we were moderate only when we went before. This trip though being 8 of us we needed 2 rooms.. and let's face it..2 rooms at $85 and $95 a night is much easier to swallow than any other option on site..lol.. plus our friends were all booked here when we decided to join in on the fun. So I love Pop.. actually I adored Pop..shocking!

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It was now about 12 and I was itching to get our room.. checked my phone alot..again hoping no one saw my stretch marks and belly fat.. oh and really hoping my top stayed where it belongs..and we had no towels! So in a moment of panic I sent Montana and Declan off to "borrow" some towels from a housekeeping cart I spotted near the 2nd floor of one of the pool vicinity rooms..phew..all the people were safe now from memories of my tan lines being burned into their brains! Now that that was all set I made my poor husband trek off to see if our rooms were ready.. he came back pretty fast..i was hopeful. Nope.. he forgot to bring ID so he had to go get it and go back in. He came back and ONE room was ready!

We got the kids out of their swim suits and headed to find our room. We were in the 70's building 6 room 6442. About 5 rooms away from our best friends! We had a lake view room..awesome!
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A clear view of some of the construction across the lake:
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and a view of this:.. the best stairs EVER!
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thus far no text about our 2nd room..GREAT...

To be continued..
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Downtown Disney Bound

We finally got the text that our 2nd room was ready. It was right next door..cool. This would be my mom, Noah and Kate's room so I didn't really do anything with it.

Missy and I decided we wanted to take everyone to Downtown Disney before the place got really packed so we headed to the bus stop.

Of course I made the kids all stand for a picture.. I'm such a horrible person!
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This fun CM came by on a Segway and Montana was being..well Montana and was about begging the guy to let him ride the Segway..the CM was very nice and had some fun with the kids which helped the time waiting for the bus go by faster.

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Once we arrived I let my krew go nuts in the water.. which of course meant Missy's kids followed suit..oppps..not sure she wanted them to get wet. Oh well it was about 2000 degree's out so they dried fast after anyway!

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Here's the 10 kids together.. I was really wishing Noah and Kate were here at this point ( that would change about 8 hours after they arrived the next day..TEENS!).
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And 5 of my immediate family..
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Missy's 3 youngest girls were so excited to take Ziah to BBB to get Dusted..but the thing is..Ziah is not exactly a princess fan and she is painfully shy and was not at all happy about this! We finally got her to do it though..dang "dust" was in her hair for days!
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After this we separated do to logistics.. 9 of them plus 5 of us..doesn't work well all the time..plus I move a LOT faster than the average tourist and wanted to go DO and SEE not wander slowly!
Off to the Lego store.. where Declan probably would have stayed for the next 1 nights had I allowed it. In fact he's not in many pictures cus he was too busy filling up a pail of parts to buy!

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We went and looked around and let the kids dig at T-Rex before we left..
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Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Our room

While we were in Downtown we pondered the fact we wouldn't be able to unpack until late Friday night because of being switched in the morning. We had plans to head to Magic Kingdom for rope drop and I just didn't want to deal with moving rooms. So we decided to go to check in and tell them we wanted to stay put. Since we had planned to have the 3 wee ones in one room with us, and My mom, Noah and Kate in another we didn't HAVE to have connecting rooms.

So that decision made and the front desk let "out back" know we got a luggage dolly and unloaded the van!

Warning..I'm something of an OCD freak so I had to get the room we were using just the way I wanted it! Luckily my little minion's..I mean children.. are used to this and snapped right in action!

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Eric and I lived outta our bags but we gave the drawers to the kids..
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And yes.. i brought my own toothbrush hold and hand soap.. and they have siblings in our 2nd room.. I'm a little crazy like that!
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We tucked the rather hot and tired kids into bed and I set my alarm for 6:30am. I was going to check out and check back in then head to Magic Kingdom!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
What a wonderful TR so far!!! :)

I agree with you on "southern pools".. Whenever we go swimming, it's like bathwater!!!

So great that you got to spend some time with your Georgia "family" I have friends that I met online many years ago that I'm still friends with now... It's really amazing the different ways we meet people and how some of them come and go but others stick around for a long time!!

Can't wait to read more!!! :wave:
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What a wonderful TR so far!!! :)

I agree with you on "southern pools".. Whenever we go swimming, it's like bathwater!!!

So great that you got to spend some time with your Georgia "family" I have friends that I met online many years ago that I'm still friends with now... It's really amazing the different ways we meet people and how some of them come and go but others stick around for a long time!!

Can't wait to read more!!! :wave:

thank you!

And yes.. I love my Georgia family..they are very important and special to us!!!

More soon.. I was hoping to have our photopass CD before I post park stuff as alll the pictures of us all together are on that CD..not a single one on my pictures!!!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Where did you find the Mickey Mouse head soap pump? I can't find them anywhere and want them for our trip in October and for our Mickey themed bathroom at home!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Where did you find the Mickey Mouse head soap pump? I can't find them anywhere and want them for our trip in October and for our Mickey themed bathroom at home!

Target or walmart I can't remember which.. we had a mickey in one room and minnie in the other.. I have them in my house too..lol.. they are "method" brand..
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Thanks! I haven't found them at our Target or Walmart. I did see them on Amazon.com and can order them, I was just hoping to save on shipping. One last question, was the lemonade scent too obnoxious?
 

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
Too funny- we also had a "shoe zone" :lol: I'm so impressed with all of the organization, but after reading some of your pre-trip posts...I shouldn't be surprised. Very awesome!!! :D
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks! I haven't found them at our Target or Walmart. I did see them on Amazon.com and can order them, I was just hoping to save on shipping. One last question, was the lemonade scent too obnoxious?

My kids say it was def Target.. and the scents are perfect.not overpowering at all!
 

HollyBelle

Well-Known Member
Loving your trip report... the OCD shots of your room at Pop are awesome! And I can see why you didn't want to switch after settling in - the view is pretty sweet!

Looking forward to more!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Loving your trip report... the OCD shots of your room at Pop are awesome! And I can see why you didn't want to switch after settling in - the view is pretty sweet!

Looking forward to more!

The view ROCKED..and being on the 4th floor was sweet. It was beyond quiet ( well except for my noisy at times crew).
 

MAF

Well-Known Member
Where did you find the Mickey Mouse head soap pump? I can't find them anywhere and want them for our trip in October and for our Mickey themed bathroom at home!

They sell them at Lowes, but they are like $4 and I didn't want to pay that. :lol:
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Magic Kingdom FINALLY!! Part 1

My day started bright and early with a text from Noah that there were at the Park and fly around 4am then another saying they were boarding their plane a little before 6 am. I dozed off until the alarm went off at 6:30.. yawn.

I started waking the NOT happy to be woken up kiddos then showered and got dressed as they painfully slowly got moving.. I wanted to scream "MOOOOVEEE we are going to Magic Kingdom" but alas I kept myself in check..more or less.

Our original plan was to stay at the resort until my mom, Noah and Kate got there..but I was crazy itching to get into MK NOW..so we decide since ME can take up to 2 hours to get ya to the resort we'd chance it. Their flight was scheduled to land at 9:55 so we figured we could at the very least get an hour in the park ( open was 9am) and head back to wait for them ( oh how wrong we would be!).

The kids and Eric ate breakfast from the stash of food we had brought and then we headed down to the check in desk. I did NOT do online check in for the package and man do I wish I had. Both line were long but they kept taking people from the online check in line over at the regular check in making the regular back up. The people in front and behind me were not happy.

I was merely anxious to get our new key's etc and head our bums to MK.

My kids were excited.. well except for Jadziah.. she wanted to go back to bed!
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We finally got called up to a CM and did the quick check out/check in and made our way to a bus. We got on a bus fairly quick and I was pretty dang sure my heart and head would explode with excitement and joy as we got closer and closer to The Magic Kingdom!

We arrived and my Disney senses so long dormant kicked in and I just headed right to the gate..the kids were like "Mommm do you know were you are going".." oh yes kiddo's.. mama is HOMEEEEE".

We got a really funny security guy at bag check.. a great start to the day already ( especially after all the "horror" stories about bag check I'd read). Then headed to the turnstiles.. now I won't lie.. the bio metric scanners had me worried.. but that was a breeze and we were thru and waiting for the opening show!!

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We got spots right up front and the kids loved it!( I literally was tearing up..yeah I'm a big mush when it comes to Disney!!)
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Mickey's mouth was moving when he talked..very cool!
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After that we entered the park and yeah..my bliss was spotted:
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Up next..our first ride..anyone wanna guess what it was??


Up next ~ Part 2
 

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