Trip Report We're Not Stopping... Just Keep Hopping! A September 2015 Trip Report

And so... we are back. How is it that the wait for Disney is so long and exciting and then in a blink of an eye, it’s over?

I am so glad we were able to take this trip. It was a difficult year and we really needed some magic and fantasy to “reboot” our lives. We were in Disney from September 11th - 21st and stayed at French Quarters.

For those of you who do not know us...

Me - Mary / Mom (The Disney Fanatic)

Ross / Dad / Grumpy (Although he had an identity crisis this trip and thought he was Cinderella.)

Julia / Sissy - My now teenage Mouseketeer

Hope / “The Hopester” My 6 year old princess - diagnosed with Severe Autism and Sensory Integration Disorder.

If you want to check out our past adventures:

September 2013 Trip
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/completed-this-is-autism-when-you-add-a-little-pixie-dust.873100/

September 2014 Trip
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/honey-i-blew-up-the-magic-band-completed.892800/

Even though we are all in Post Disney Depression, at least I can re-live the memories!

Ready or not... Here we go!

 

[Figgy1]

THNX for sharing, I'm hearing nothing but good things about the parade so I'm going to put it on my must do list THNX

 

[Figment Forever]

After the parade we joined the masses and began our way down Main Street.

I told my family we needed to ride Jungle Cruise, something that we have never done as a family. (I remember riding when I was 7 years old.) We walked into Adventureland, an area that sadly, we rarely visit.

Jungle Crusie had a 50 minute wait, so we got a return time and headed for our next “must do”.

It was weird seeing the new location - and I was a little sad to see no vanilla ice cream. I really liked the pineapple/vanilla combo. However, no big deal! Our floats were YUMMY! Julia couldn't finish hers so I helped her out!

Hope wanted to ride Dumbo so we walked over that way. When we got there, we took a pager and waited. Hope wanted to play in the Big Top which Ross wasn’t thrilled about. He gets so nervous when she has the opportunity to run around like that. It’s a combination of other kids running into her because she may not pay attention, along with the fear that she will just bolt away. So he would only allow her to play there when I was with her. I am not so paranoid. I don’t worry much about the other kids because - let’s face it, kids are going to collide every now and then - she will not break.

I am also more relaxed with the escape route issue. I have learned how to scan the area where Hope plays and keep an eye on her at all times when the possibilities are there for an escape. My big rule was that the princess had to turn back into a human child when she was playing because I didn’t think it was safe to run around in a big puffy gown.

After a short time, our pager went off and we were on our way to ride our favorite elephant!

As much as I love New Fantasyland, I wish they would have done a Pixie Hollow area. I don’t know if was rumored at one time - but I think there is so much that could have been done with Tink and her friends. But.. oh well...

 

[Figment Forever]

We left the circus and headed for Haunted Mansion.

Then we spilt up for a bit. Julia had wanted to ride Splash all day and now seemed to be the last opportunity of the day. I wasn’t too thrilled. We were going to be heading for dinner soon and I didn’t want to be wet, cold and cranky! But like the good mom I am, off we went to the Briar Patch.

Luckily, we didn’t get too wet! As soon as we wre off, we walked over to Tomorowland to meet Ross & Hope and ride Buzz.

We saw a group of CM's who were in training.

We rode Stitch on our first trip when Julia was 6 - and never again! She stills talks about the burp and hot dog smell. Poor Stitch! I think our memories have made it worse than it was! lol

On to Buzz...

 

[Figment Forever]

I was determined to max out! Would this be the day?

No.

Finally it was time for Jungle Cruise! Just like the FoF parade, I was the only member of our party of four that wanted to venture into the jungle.

Hope was NOT happy!

I could tell she thought it was going to be like a Splash Mountain. I tried to reassure her, but she was not having it. I promised her that it was a boat ride like in Small World. I think she knew she was not going to win this one and just decided to proceed with caution.

This cute guy looked really tired! He ended up riding in the same boat as us.

Soon we were aboard and of course, my family of skeptics LOVED it! Yes - even my Hope! Told you so!

 

[Figment Forever]

THNX for sharing, I'm hearing nothing but good things about the parade so I'm going to put it on my must do list THNX

Yes - it is definitely a must do!

 

[Mom@disney]

I'm so glad that your family loved the Jungle Cruise! It's one of my favourites.

 

[Figgy1]

We left the circus and headed for Haunted Mansion.

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Then we spilt up for a bit. Julia had wanted to ride Splash all day and now seemed to be the last opportunity of the day. I wasn’t too thrilled. We were going to be heading for dinner soon and I didn’t want to be wet, cold and cranky! But like the good mom I am, off we went to the Briar Patch.

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Luckily, we didn’t get too wet! As soon as we wre off, we walked over to Tomorowland to meet Ross & Hope and ride Buzz.

We saw a group of CM's who were in training.

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We rode Stitch on our first trip when Julia was 6 - and never again! She stills talks about the burp and hot dog smell. Poor Stitch! I think our memories have made it worse than it was! lol

On to Buzz...

Lucky you!!!!!! My ds loves everything Stitch so we do it 3 times each trip. I can see once but...........HELP LOL Next trip he'll be old enough to go by himself

 

[ScarletBegonias]

We didn't make it on Jungle Cruise this trip! Really hoping to hit it early on our next trip!

 

[Figgy1]

We didn't make it on Jungle Cruise this trip! Really hoping to hit it early on our next trip!

Sympathy like. We try and go on it both before and after dark each trip as it has a different vibe at night.

 

[fractal]

I'm glad Hope liked Jungle Cruise!

 

[Tuvalu]

Sympathy like. We try and go on it both before and after dark each trip as it has a different vibe at night.

Totally agree!

 

[Courtney6682]

Hope everything is ok with you guys @Figment Forever ! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[Figment Forever]

Hi Everyone! I'm back! It's been a LONG and stressful Robotics competition season. I have had no time for my trip report or blog or just about anything else! My team didn't qualify to move on... but they did win the Team Spirt Award! So proud of them!

So if anyone still wants to hear about the rest of our Disney adventures... I promise to continue very soon!

Miss everyone here on the board! I have so may trip reports to catch up with & read!!!!!!

 

[Tuvalu]

So if anyone still wants to hear about the rest of our Disney adventures... I promise to continue very soon!

I'm in!

 

[Figment Forever]

Day 3 Continued...

It was time to leave MK and head to Ohanna for our dinner ADRs. After a quick monorail ride, we were there. Ohana is one of our favorite places to eat. I had made our ADRs to coincide with Wishes and I was super excited that we were seated right next to a window with a PERFECT view of the castle! YEAH!!!!

Dinner started to arrive - well, Ross, Julia and Hope’s dinner.

I was waiting for the chef to come out. I have no problem waiting and it is perfectly understandable that the chef may need a few minutes, but was so hungry, it seemed like forever! Finally he came and said I could have any of the meats and would send out other stuff for me. The food continued to parade out but no GF headed my way. Ross likes to make fun of my new eating habits so he was doing a great job of telling me how delicious everything was. I couldn’t take it anymore - I grabbed a very non-GF dumpling and stuffed it in my mouth. Of course, that’s when the waitress started to put plates of food in front of me! Ross and Julia laughed at me.

Hope who usually loves Asian food - asked for chicken and French Fries. Usually, I am very firm - you eat what is in front of you or you can chose not to eat. That rule is especially important for Hope. But I could see she was so tired and she actually “asked” for chicken which in my book, trumped eating what’s in front of you. So we asked the waiter if we could get a few chicken tenders and FF. She said no problem and this arrived…

Holy Chicken & French Fries!

Julia was in her glory - she is the shrimp queen!

Hope was so tired - she ate a little and then decided to rest. I was worried that she wouldn’t last til Wishes - so I didn’t mind that she took a power nap at the table.

The rest of us continued to gore ourselves. The chef sent out an awesome dessert for me...

but the thought of this…

was completely making me lose self control. Not to mention the fact that Ross, again, was rubbing in the fact I couldn’t have any. I lost it - I had to have a few bites. I decided it would be worth the stomach ache later - I couldn't help myself!

 

[Figment Forever]

Day 3 Continued...

Hope popped up in time to see Wishes and then curled back up in her chair and found the a most creative use of a table napkin.

Our exhaustion had won - after dinner we headed back to FQ.

Mousekeeping was a little weird this year. I missed the memo about no more towel animals. Not that it was a big deal, we were just wondering why there were none left. But for some reason, they liked to leave Hope’s crocs on the bed!

Hope was still sound asleep so we just plopped her right in bed. We all passed out quickly.

Up Next: Pocahontas makes her Disney Debut

 

[Figment Forever]

Day 4 - September 14th 2015: Animal Kingdom & Pocahontas Makes Her Disney Debut

We all woke up energized and ready to go! We took our time getting ready and decided to eat at the food court instead of eating at the park. While I’m still not a huge fan of Fast Pass+ , this is one of the good points, not having to race to the park to get a FP.

It was a beautiful morning and it was nice that we could take our time and were not in a rush for ADRs. Some shots of FQ - I love this resort! I don’t think I would ever want to stay anywhere else!

The food court was pretty empty so we found a seat and went up to get our food. The chef came out for me and asked what I wanted. I asked him if he had GF Mickey Waffles - and I was thrilled when he said YES! While I was waiting, a lady came over to put her GF order in. She said the food at FQ was some of the BEST she had during her stay. When the chef came over, she ordered GF Beignets. I looked at her in disbelief - I didn’t think they would have them. I got so excited and I couldn’t wait to try them!

My breakfast was AWESOME!

Our tummies full, we headed to get a bus to AK.

 

[Figgy1]

She's soooo cute!

 

[Figment Forever]

She's soooo cute!

Thanks so much!

 

[Figment Forever]

AK is so beautiful, but it’s just not my favorite.

The Nemo show was seating, so we walked right in. Funny, when Hope was younger, she HATED this show - I can’t figure our why. But I remember having to walk out of it at least 2 times mid way through. This year she LOVED it! She was so excited and so into it all! Especially the bubbles. My pictures didn’t come out so well.

The show was great - I always cry at the end. lol

After, we started to walk to It’s Tough To Be A Bug. The show was closed last year so we were excited to see it. Hope is so funny - she laughs all the way through this! Julia and I are just frantic waiting for the “exiting bugs”. We tried to jump out of their way, but we still managed to get “stung”. Halfway through, a poor little boy was so scared and screaming so loud that his mother had to take him out!

Up next we went to Dinoland. Ross & Julia rode Dinosaur while Hope and I & went on Triceratops Spin. Primeval Whirl was down for construction. Then we switched and I rod Dino with Julia and Ross went with Hope.