Trip Report Our (mostly) Dream-y June 2014 Vacation

Hi all! We returned from our trip 5 days ago, and I'm ready to relive it through this report!

First, let me introduce myself and my family in case you aren't familiar (here is my PTR if you are interested: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/my-dream-vacation-a-june-2014-ptr.865397/)
Here we are on the last day of this trip:

Me (Amy), my 6 year old, Owen, my 11 year old, Logan, and my 9 year old, Lily. Also on this trip were my parents (Nanny and Papaw to the kids), my brother, Scott, my SIL, Beth, and my twin 4 year old nieces, Macy and Allison.

Unfortunately, my husband wasn't able to take this trip with us. I am greatly disappointed by this, as he ended up not starting the fire academy like he was supposed to! Long story short, the city of Columbus sucks! They told him that one of the 40 spots was being held for him as long as he passed all of the testing. Well, he did pass all the tests, but they said his labwork took too long getting back and they already gave all the spots to other guys. They guaranteed him a spot in the December class, but he also had to be available the first three weeks of the June academy, "just in case" someone didn't show up or dropped out. Of course, that didn't happen, so he missed the whole vacation and still won't start until December!:( The only good thing to come of this, is that my mom had me schedule a cruise in October for just me and Brian!

Ok, back to the actual trip! Let me just say that I will not be going on any more family vacations with my SIL and nieces. I will say that their time management (or lack thereof) is much different than mine, and not say anything else about it! We had a great time despite our differences!

We had a 6am flight on Wed. morning, so we drove from Dayton to Columbus Tues. night and stayed in a hotel. Here are the kids getting ready to leave our house:

We made sure to leave early enough so we could visit a few stores for the kids once we got to Columbus.


We grabbed dinner at Max and Erma's. It was about this time that my stomach started bothering me. I just assumed it was nerves (I was really nervous about making sure 9 other people had a good time on this vacation!) and being upset that Brian wasn't going with us. Well, it was more than that, and I was up sick all night!
 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
So, after sleeping very little, I got up and got ready. I was really concerned about our 2 hour plane ride. I made sure to grab a Coke and pretzels once we got through security, and I made it through the ride just fine. Still didn't feel well, but I made it through!! Regardless of how poorly I was feeling, I still managed to annoy everyone by taking pics in the airport and on the plane!:D







Our flight was very uneventful, and we even landed a few minutes early! We made a quick potty break, and then found our way to:




We waited in line probably 5 minutes before they boarded the three groups of us that were there and left immediately.


Logan had a great time this trip photobombing me!!
Always love seeing this:

I wasn't in the front seat this time, so I couldn't get a clear pic! Sorry it's blurry!
 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
We were the first stop! I had done online check-in, so I expected it to go quickly. Unfortunately, that didn't happen! But, they ended up upgrading us from Little Mermaid rooms to Cars suites, so I won't complain too much!;) Our rooms weren't available yet, so we went out to the Nemo pool and changed into our suits and the kids swam for awhile. Unfortunately, I still wasn't feeling well enough to get in the water with them, but I enjoyed sitting in the sun and watching them (and taking some pics, of course!).









 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
Our rooms were ready around 11:30am, so we quickly made our way to our building to get ready to go to DTD. I got a few pics of the room, but I took more later that night.
Master bedroom and bath:





View out the window:



Lamps in the living area:

Then a few pics on the way back to the bus stop:










 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
My kids decided to be silly when we got to Mater:




A bus was waiting at the stop when we got there. This happened a lot on this trip!



The early morning start was starting to get to Owen!

Then we were there!

Don't they all look thrilled to be having their pictures taken!
 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
I forgot to mention that we stopped in the food court for a late breakfast before we went swimming. So we were on the lookout for a snack about this time! We made a quick run through of the Christmas store, then we ended up here:

My dad got to be the official dress holder while waiting on our order and getting the kids situated.

Owen got a vanilla cone.

Lily got Cookies and Cream ice cream.

Logan got a chocolate shake.

I wasn't feeling well enough to order anything myself, but I tried Logan's shake. It was good, but it was soooo rich, I don't know how he managed to drink almost all of it!
My brother and SIL got a banana split to share with the girls.

Poor Macy just couldn't stay awake to enjoy it!
Next, the boys all went to the Lego store while us girls headed over to our appointment at:

At this point, I really didn't feel well, but I wasn't about to miss Lily's transformation, so I sucked it up and dealt with it. I did, however, warn my mom that they might be on their own at Chef Mickey's that night! That stressed her out big time!
Before photo:

Then the transformations began:











 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster

Getting ready for the big reveal!


Molly was her fairy godmother in training. She really did appear to be in training, as she had to keep asking questions, and others kept coming around and fussing with Lily's hair to make it perfect. I'm certainly not complaining about them doing it correctly, but it seemed to take forever! It didn't help that we had 2 little and 2 big boys that were getting very impatient!!


She is definitely not shy around the camera!

Here are some of our PhotoPass pics:



 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
Apparently at this point, Owen had fallen asleep on the sidewalk in front of the Lego store, so everyone waited with him in the shade while I ran to the Marketplace Co-op to look at the Vera Bradley bags. I ended up getting a new backpack.
IMG_0024.JPG

Then we got everyone up and moving. Nobody else felt like doing any shopping, so I just went with the flow and we left to see if we could check in early for dinner. I didn't even get a chance to walk through WOD!:(
One last pic before we left.

The girls apparently got suckers at some point that afternoon, and Beth ended up holding them at the bus stop.

On the bus to the Contemporary. Luckily, I was feeling a little better at this point.



We were really early, so we checked out the observation deck.





Then we rode the monorail around the resort loop once.


 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
After dinner, I had to go get Lily something that I had previously promised her.

Unfortunately, I couldn't even begin to eat it, so it became an after breakfast dessert the next day. It was filled with caramel and delicious!
Then we caught the monorail to the TTC.


From there, we took the ferry boat to MK.






 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
We then got a bus back to AoA. A few pics on the way through the lobby:





Then some pics on the way back to the room:





Unfortunately, we didn't get to explore the other areas of the resort. Oh well, next time! Luckily, Brian and I had already seen them during our stay at Pop back in November!
Then I got some more pics once we were back in the room.







I love, love, loved the suite!! It was so hard staying in the Pop room when we came back from the cruise! It's amazing how spoiled you can get in one night's time!!
 

RMichael21

Well-Known Member
Loving the Trip Report so far! That really is a bummer that Brian couldn't go with you guys. Nonetheless, I'm glad you had a great time with your family. :)
 

prfctlyximprct

Well-Known Member
I cannot believe you are home already!! Feels like just yesterday I was reading your Pretrip report!! Loving the pictures, the girls are all so gorgeous all done up! Hope you had a magical time! Loving this so far :)
 

TheMouseFan

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Original Poster
Loving the Trip Report so far! That really is a bummer that Brian couldn't go with you guys. Nonetheless, I'm glad you had a great time with your family. :)
Thanks! We really did have a great time!
I cannot believe you are home already!! Feels like just yesterday I was reading your Pretrip report!! Loving the pictures, the girls are all so gorgeous all done up! Hope you had a magical time! Loving this so far :)
I can't believe we're home already either!! We had a wonderful time! Thanks!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Whew, caught up.

1) So awesome on getting the upgraded room!!
2) Love, love the outfit you put together for Lily for the boutique. It's feminie, and princessy, but fits her age. She looks adorable!
Thanks for reading! We were very excited to get the suite! That outfit was actually part of the courtyard package that we bought at the boutique. I was pleasantly surprised by it!
 

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