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
Sleeping Girl and Shaved ice

as we meandered thru World Showcase Ziah was saying she was hot and tired so we had her move into Taejan's much more comfortable stroller. Taejan was very unhappy..but such is life.

Working on their Duffy's.. Ziah was crashing in the stroller:
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Out cold..and she stayed this way for a long time.. in fact we all got shaved ice and she never woke up!
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Declan had been itching for Japan since he read about it in his book. Not for anything more than the Pokemon items they had. All he wanted was the next book in the series he is reading.. and he found it!
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By now Ziah was awake and we headed into ride The Maelstrom:
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and to keep with the trend we got one of these:
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Declan was mad at me ...hence the mad face in the picture:
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Next up was Mexico.. we looked around..road the boat ride ( kids hated this one) and left..
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Up next..worst soda in the world!
 

DisneyFan 2000

Well-Known Member
:lol: Got a good chuckle outta the "oh look, another Taejan meltdown" comment. Amazing how kids can be swayed so easily with their emotions, but I'm sure there's no better place to sway them back the other way again! Can't wait to hear more about the trip, and hope the worst of the GF shannanigans are behind us.
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The worst Soda ever

After Mexico we head over to Club Cool.. I needed..very badly.. to get Eric to drink Beverly. The kids loved trying all the sodas and I got Eric..bad...it was great!

Noah and Kate were at Teppan Edo for their late lunch ADR's.. they LOVED the place.

After that we went on Journey into Your Imagination ( I hate this ride):
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Taejan loved it.. Declan and Ziah looked at me like..what the heck was that mom.. it was hysterical. Next we went on The Seas with Nemo and Friends.. another one of those what was that mom looks came.. no one liked this one.. I miss SeaBase Alpha.
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Ziah refused to be in that picture above..
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Right about now we had 35 minutes until our ADR at The Coral Reef.. but we were done..kids were HOT and tired. I find Epcot to be the hottest park and just wanted to be done. We went in and checked in.
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We go our little buzzer and sat down on a couch in the awesome A/C. Taejan struck up a conversation with a very nice CM and told her he was VERY hungry. She told him she would get us in early.. and she did. Our buzzer went off as soon as she went back to the check in area ( not sure if it was coincidence and I don't care..lol).

We got sat in the middle of the middle of the seating. The chef came right out and advised me what i could eat. Again I have no memory of what i ate except that it was yummy. More Gluten free bread came out for me but I really didn't eat it. I wasn't a bread person before I discovered my allergy so I don't really miss it.
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After this Kate and Noah met us and we went on SSE again ( shoot me..please!). Next we left.. we got right on a bus which was awesome. We went back to Pop and took the kids to the pool for a few hours then we all went to bed nice and early ( well 10pm..lol).. it was great!
 

WDW_Princess24

Active Member
The kids got to meet so many great characters that are rarely out, I am so jealous they got to meet Max! I'm hoping they are still out when I'm there at the end of the month.

It's so cute they keep stopping for pin trading, they are making me want to get into it!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The kids got to meet so many great characters that are rarely out, I am so jealous they got to meet Max! I'm hoping they are still out when I'm there at the end of the month.

It's so cute they keep stopping for pin trading, they are making me want to get into it!

They didn't even know who max was..LOL.. but now they do..

I am not even showing 1/10th of the pin trading they did.. Declan would trade 15-30 times a day!
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
I'm gluten-intolerant as well, so it's nice to hear that a lot of places have the bread option!! I was a little worried about especially the CS places since you can't call ahead!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Yep.. I got a few burgers from Pop with gluten free rolls ( which i took off because I don't like rolls much).. I didn't get one gluten attack.. I was so happy
 

flipadeeflop

Active Member
Yep.. I got a few burgers from Pop with gluten free rolls ( which i took off because I don't like rolls much).. I didn't get one gluten attack.. I was so happy

THat's great to hear! I'm not sure what your symptoms are, but for me- my stomach looks HUGE and pregnant and my pants no longer fit by the end of the day if I eat gluten. I just recently realized it was from gluten so this will be my first comfortable time in Disney! Looking back at old pictures from our previous disney vacations you can see the progression of the day just by how big my belly was!!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
THat's great to hear! I'm not sure what your symptoms are, but for me- my stomach looks HUGE and pregnant and my pants no longer fit by the end of the day if I eat gluten. I just recently realized it was from gluten so this will be my first comfortable time in Disney! Looking back at old pictures from our previous disney vacations you can see the progression of the day just by how big my belly was!!


I get that plus bad digestion issues. i went gluten free last July on the advice of my friend... I had digestive issues my whole life and going gluten free solved them. If I get "glutened" I feel like a slug too.. all my energy is sapped from me!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
HollyWood Studios.. again...sigh

So we decided since we were going to HollyWood studios AGAIN we would sleep in. I had zero interest in another day at this park but I did want to eat at Sci-Fi so it was what it was.

We woke up around 9am..and it felt sooo good! Eric went and grabbed some breakfast and brought it back to the room.
Kate and Noah...
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We ate slow, got the kids in their swimsuits and took them to the Bowling Pin pool and I did laundry while they swam with Eric. About 12:15 we decided it was time to head to the park. I knew I wanted to do Beauty and the Beast and Lights Motors Action..that was all I cared about besides our dinner.

Kids at the bus stop:

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We got to HS around 1:
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We headed right for frozen lemonades near The Beauty and The beast theater and Noah and Kate headed to RnRC:
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Then it was time to go in to watch the show.
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Before the show started I needed to take a certain 5 year old potty. Well I took him to the ones between ToT and the theater.. and as I was washing my hands I hear someone say "Alison? Hey you're the bartender from Chameleons". Crazy and very unexpected..lol. What are the odds of not only being at Disney at the same time but in the same park and IN the same bathroom??

Up next..Tales of Itching Feet
 

Raven66

Well-Known Member
We only toured with the other 13 once , but meal times were a bit much at times..lol..

They've been together 15 months. I think being together 24/7 for 10 days was harder than either expected it to be.


Being together 24/7 for 10 days with my husband of 22 yrs would be a bit much. :D
 

HouCuseChickie

Well-Known Member
So jealous!!!! You guys met Max and Bolt!!!

I also can't believe they use Sharpies for the Duffy stuff. We did autographs back in December and even washable markers made life frustrating.

Can't wait to read more! :wave:
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Tales of itchy feet..

Before I get into the rest of the day I wanted to get to one thing..itchy feet. We all had em! Why? Because so far we have gotten our feet wet every day from rain.. either at the parks or at the resort. I wore under-armour flip flops.. they dry faster than sneakers but unlike normal flops, they soak up a lot of water. So I had very itchy feet, often. The worst was still to come too!

So we get back to the theater and I have Taejan with me ( i'm still rather gun shy of letting him with anyone else since he got lost) and the nice family behind us offered him a lolipop.. totally made his day ( and his siblings were not happy but they knew we don't ask for things so they were fine in the long run):

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As I suspected the kids loved this show.. I was really glad we came early enough to watch it.
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These were outside the theater as if to tempt my kids.. fail.. they didn't even notice!
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The kids wanted to ride Star Tours again..but the wait time was more than I was willing at this point so we grabbed some fast passes.

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Declan wanted to go see Muppets 3D again..he apparently really liked this show!
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After that we headed to "meet" Lightening and Mater:
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Taejan was so happy to meet them! Now our next plan was Lights Motors Action so we headed over!

Up next.. Taejan is speechless!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What left Taejan Speechless?

We headed over to wait for Lights Motors Action... but not before got some cold drinks.. of course no ice cold drink stays cold for long in 95+ heat..but hey it's the effort right??

We parked the stroller and headed in to wait..
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right about then Noah texted me and they had watched Indiana Jones and wanted to know where we were. I told him and they headed towards us and met us after we had been in the stands about 10 minutes..

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They had gotten their faces painted..but Noah's literally ran off his face once they left the booth..
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Taejan literally didn't say a word for the whole show.. he was just stunned and in awe... to say he loved this would have been an understatement!
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Declan and Ziah loved it too!
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Lightening was cool but def didn't flow well with the rest of the show.

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There was a slight technical difficultly and we had a small delay ..I believe they said a car was stalled.. at this point some people left.. rude much?
We waited and it was worth it!
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Next we went off to ride Star Tours..Noah and kate went off again.. which was good.. they were fighting and it was not pleasant.. at least this way if they killed each other I wouldn't have to be a witness!

So just the 6 of us road.. My mother hadn't ridden it yet and Eric hadnt since he got sick from the first time.
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we came out to ...wait for it... rain! Yep.. rain rain..luckily we had covered the stroller. After this we just kinda wandered.. we had awhile til our ADR at Sci Fi and no real plans.

Up next..pictures pictures and more pictures..oh and my feet are itchy too!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
pictures pictures and more pictures..oh and my feet are itchy too!

So we wandered.. pretty aimlessly..the rain let up..but I had itchy feet.. it sucked.. a lot.

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The kids played at the HISTK playground some more.

Oh as I post this picture I have to say.. Disney water is NOT bad.. for the record..I HATE water.. I rarely drink it. In fact I brought about 200 flavoring packets with us because I hate water that much. Well I used zero..not one.. the water, even in the fountains, is just NOT bad.. not at all.Maybe it was the fact it was 3000 degrees with 756% humidity and we were all very thirsty..maybe. No one in the group complained..so it must not be so bad!

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Oh and 9 year olds who are very tired aren't too big for a stroller any more than my almost 6 year old was.. Not that we pushed the 9 year old around.. but he did sit a few times..and oh we got some looks. I could just tell they were other message board members ..you know they type. Don't judge people.. you don't know why the kid is in a stroller..or in our case how long. Could have been just a minute to tease their brother or 5 minutes because they were hot!

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We kept wandering:
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We watched a little of this:
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My kids weren't interested so We wandered more..
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We tried to go to the drawing class where half the Sweener clan was but there was no room.. so we wandered more...
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sci Fi time

So we basically spent a chunk of time just watching the finals of The American Idol Experience on the jumbo TV and doing nothing.
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Noah and Kate found their way back to us.. and Noah had his face paint back. Being like his mother, he went back after the show and asked if they would redo it since the weather made it melt. They did and they touched up Kate's too:
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We ran into the rest of our krew:
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Mavrik says Jadziah is HIS girlfriend. He reminds her all the time and will grab her and tell others she is HIS.. oh boy
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12 of the 14 "kids" ( ages 17 down to almost 4) waiting at Sci Fi n Dine In

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We had separate ADR's here.. one for 8 ( us) and one for 13( them) both for the same time.. we got seated 20 minutes before our ADR's.. they got sat while we were eating our dessert.. point.. get separate ADr's when you travel in a large group.. things go much smoother!

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Noah and Kate we just not in good moods.. I got texts from her all through our meal complaining about how he doesn't love her anymore..gag.. Good Lord the amount of self control I had that night still astonished me..cus I wanted to toss her out a window!
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The waiter we had was a little frazzled because Noah n Kate's car and ours were in different sections. I used to waitress..this happens all the time. u adjust..lol.

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The chef came out and he was great.. we talked food and the adjustments he was going to have to make and it was all good. Did I mention the waiter was frazzled? Well it was to our advantage.. Taejan ordered a choc. milk but we got a milkshake.. the waiter told us to keep it and got the Choc. milk.. yum!

up next ~ Part 2
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sci Fi time pt 2

As we left I stopped to say goodbye to the rest of our krew.. they still didn't have food!

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Now we headed for The Great Movie Ride... my mother hadn't ridden it this trip and I wanted her to. Taejan had a whopper of a meltdown..
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I decided to just snap pictures of it..he quickly went from rotten to laughing...
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We had a less enthusiastic guide.. but it was all good..
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then we headed out of the park:
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And he's grumpy again.. can u say "time for bed"...
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SInce it was so early we got to the bus before the Fantasmic crowds and got right on a bus. Taejan and I went to the Everything Pop store then we grabbed a few Sweener kids and had a little playdate before bedtime!

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Up next..Noah turns 17!
 

DisneyFan 2000

Well-Known Member
Now we headed for The Great Movie Ride... my mother hadn't ridden it this trip and I wanted her to. Taejan had a whopper of a meltdown..
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:lol: He seems like such a sweet kid, meltdowns and everything! I'm getting more and more curious hearing about the tales of the GF. I know first hand they can be overwhelming at times so I feel Noah's pain. Loving this trip report!!
 

Alison1975

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
:lol: He seems like such a sweet kid, meltdowns and everything! I'm getting more and more curious hearing about the tales of the GF. I know first hand they can be overwhelming at times so I feel Noah's pain. Loving this trip report!!

He IS a sweet kid.. he's actually got the BEST personality of all my kids..when he's not in meltdown mode. As the vacation progressed they got worse.. but we know why. My kids don't drink soda, eat dessert and candy every day. it's not like I keep it from them it's just snacks and such are not something we spend money on. Well at every meal they had soda or choc.milk, dessert, ice creams etc. Taejan doesn't, apparently, react well to the combination of the heat+ being gone from home + sugar well.. and it showed..lol.

There's really no more big G/F stories but most of the trip was spent with them ed at each other. Oh wait one night ( man I can't remember which) towards the end of the trip.. oh now I know one of our AK nights they fought and each took off in a different direction..Good times good times~
 

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