Trip Report Pop & Hop, Snack & Shop, Graduation Celebration - Sept 2016

We arrived home late last night and as usual, we are all in Disney depression mode. Seriously, the return to reality is so hard!

It was an AWESOME trip. However not without a few hiccups. Let’s just say that the name of my Trip Report could easily have been, “I Almost Killed My Husband In The Happiest Place On Earth” or… “”Did The Ride Just Stop?” or… “Bathrooms Around The World”

Needless to say that Disney Magic outshines small issues – even my husband’s behavior that almost landed him in Cinderella’s moat more than once.

Warning: I have some commitments over the next few weeks, so I’m not sure how much updating I will be able to do. But I wanted to start writing before my memory and notes start to fade away. Besides, I’m so sad – it helps to re-live it! Lol

For those of you who don’t know us – our cast of characters:


Me – Mary

Ross – My hubby who drove me INSANE throughout our trip.

Julia (14)

Hope (7 with Autism & Sensory issues)

What I didn’t mention in my Pre-Trip Report is that we were celebrating the fact that Julia is starting 9th grade this year. As homeschoolers, we have never acknowledged graduations or moving up ceremonies. So since my sweet girl is starting high school, I figured she deserved a Disney Celebration, so I had that put on our reservation.

Since Ross agreed to family shirts, I had my friend make them for us. Julia was surprised and really happy!

So if you are ready to join in the fun & craziness… welcome aboard!!

 

[Figment Forever]

YAY!!! I can't wait to read this report! Hope it was a wonderful trip!

It was awesome! Thanks so much for following along.

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm definitely in! And I promise to be patient for your updates....even if it takes another year.

Thanks Tuvalu - it may take me a year. lol

 

[Figment Forever]

Can't wait to see how your trip was! I totally understand the wanting to launch your husband into the moat feeling!

Thanks for following along - and for the empathy! Going to try to start posting tonight.

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm a bit of a lurker, but I've been following along for all of your past trip reports! Needless to say, I am in for this new adventure!

I also want to kick myself. We were in the World about a week ago and stayed at the Poly. I'm fairly sure I ran across you the one morning at Captain Cooks. You were hanging around the entrance with the stroller while we were eating breakfast, but by the time I looked back, you were gone. If only I was a little faster...oh well!

Thanks for following along. We did have breakfast at Captain Cooks one morning and we did have a stroller - so it may have been us! Bummer - wish we could have said hi!

 

[Figment Forever]

I admire you're determination and patience to home school. So just do the the best you can to finish your TR little by little when you have the time.

Thanks so much! We love homeschooling, it just works best for us - but I can't believe I'm reporting high school already! Just got caught up with your report too and going to try to start posting tonight. Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

Following along! I say its not a Disney vacation unless you think about inflicting bodily harm on a family member at least once during a trip! LOL

haha I like your way of thinking! Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

HEY GANG!!

I gotta say, it was SO funny to run into you guys at Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor at Magic Kingdom. I told my friends "oh my gosh, see that family over there? I was reading all about their last trip to WDW on this forum I follow... how crazy is it that in the middle of the bazillions of people here I actually see them?!" They thought it was pretty cool as well! So I apologize if I seemed like some creepy stalker... but I knew all about you guys (from the Trip Report) and just wanted to say hi!

I then also spotted you at the FROZEN Sing-a-long and eating something in Mexico! It really IS a small world.

Hope you had a blast (we did!). it was HOT. I may think about January for my next visit...

It was SO AWESOME to meet you! Thanks for coming over and saying hi. I am kicking myself that I didn't ask you to take a picture with us! I hope you had a great time - and yes it was HOT! I don't think it's ever been this hot in September! Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

Here for the party!

Welcome aboard!!

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm in!!!!

Thanks for following!

 

[Figment Forever]

Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

Going to try to get some stuff posted tonight. Thanks for reading!

 

[Figment Forever]

May I crash the party, too (once again)? Looking forward to another one of your TRs!!

It wouldn't be a party without you! Thanks for reading!

 

[Figment Forever]

Looking forward to reading your trip report!

Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

Count me in. Looking forward to it!

Welcome aboard. Thanks for reading!!

 

[Figment Forever]

Following!

Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

Im in! Cant wait to here all about your trip

Hoping to get something posted tonight. Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

Congratulations to Julia. Grade 9 is a big step.
Sounds like you have a few issues on your trip. Interested to see what they were.
And if our paths crossed at times.

Thanks so much! I was hoping our paths would cross at some point. Hope you guys had a great time too! Thanks for reading!

 

[Figment Forever]

I'm following too!

Thanks for following along!

 

[Figment Forever]

September 12th 12:00 AM - Our Journey Begins!

I managed to sleep from about 7:00PM until around midnight. I woke up, showered and got Julia up at around 1:00 to do the same. The car was packed and ready to go. We only had one last thing to do and that was to change our count down to zero!

Ross was frantic that we were going to miss our flight, but thankfully we had no problems and arrived at our park & fly shuttle at around 4:00AM. The shuttle took us over to Westchester Airport. The guy was really nice – he handled all of our luggage from getting it out of the car all the way to bringing it into the Jet Blue counter area.

It was strange arriving at an airport that was so quiet. I am use to Newark that is non-stop commotion. But here at Westchester, the Jet Blue counter wasn’t even opened yet! We waited around a half hour to check in and then off through security.

It was very quiet and we wizzed through. For some reason, they gave Julia a pre-board which meant she could go on a special line – I think. So the guy let us all go on it. Hope is really good with Julia and vice-versa so I had no problem with her waiting while collecting our stuff and heading to the gate. Which is only about 20 feet from the security check point. lol

Our flight was scheduled for 7:30 so we had a little bit of time until we had to board. Julia & Hope caught up on some reading.

I purchased some juice for the plane ride. OMG almost $4.00 for an apple juice?!? But what can you do? As we waited, I noticed a lady going through security with a jar of pickles! It was the funniest thing – the security people had to do their testing thing on a jar of pickles! I was amazed that they let them go through! I wondered what story that had with it.

Then soon enough, we were in the air. Blue Chips anyone?

I forgot to mention Pikachu came along with us this year.

Julia and I both used “EarPlanes” for our ears. The flight was good – but unfortunately, I don’t think Julia had the EarPlanes in correctly because she was in tears on the way down. I felt so bad for her.

I texted Ross as soon as we were on the ground. We waited to be the last to get off the plane. I knew it would take a bit for our stroller to come off the plane so I wasn’t in a hurry. It was waiting for us as we exited and we all made a quick stop at the restroom. I called my folks to tell them we landed while I waited for Julia.

We made our way to Magical Express. Hope wanted to stop to look at the plane and then had us take a detour through The Magic Of Disney Store.

We were going to change in the bathroom, but I had gotten a text when we landed that our room was ready, so we just decided to wait until we got to our hotel.

 

[Figgy1]

Yes please I love those blue chips with salsa

 

[Figment Forever]

To Magical Express we go!

On line we went to POP Century! But how strange that Ross was not there with us.

There was quite a line – more than what I am used to. While we waited, there was a mom and her daughter, probably around 7 or 8 in front of us. The mom had to go to the bathroom and told her daughter she would be right back. Now, I don’t think I would do that – I would get off the line and take my daughter with me. But I could tell she had to go and she also informed the Disney cast member at the podium what she was doing. Well don’t you know as soon as she left, the line start to move. The little girl looked scared and didn’t know what to do. She had a small suitcase she was wheeling, but their other suitcase was tremendous! I told Julia to take over Hope’s stroller and I pulled the suitcase for the little girl. When we got to the front, I informed the cast member that her mom was in the bathroom – she remembered and took the little girl to sit on the bench until her mom returned, which was only a couple of minutes. But I felt like I needed to hang around until I saw the mom coming. Unfortunately, that meant we were the last ones to board the bus and couldn’t find 3 seats together. Luckily Julia and Hope were together. I was about to ask if we could wait for another bus – but really wanted to be on our way. Plus the thought of having to tell Hope we had to get off Mickey’s Bus?!?! The bus driver said there was a seat for me 8 rows in front of Julia and Hope but I decided to just let Hope sit on my lap. I don’t think I have ever been on a Magical Express that was completely filled!

However, no worries because we were on our way!!

Our first stop was AoA and then… POP Century!