Trip Report "You stop it, you bad boy Captain Hook!" **COMPLETED **

Aloha! Welcome to my first trip report!

We just returned from a 6-night stay in The World from May27-June 3rd. This was not our first trip but we tried a lot of new things! Including visiting during a holiday weekend in summer and staying at our first deluxe resort by renting DVC points.

Let's start by introducing the crew (be warned, there will be a lot of pirate talk if you couldn't tell by the title!):

Poohbear-Keegan(3) we were celebrating his birthday this trip, Pluto-Ty(almost 7), Chip-Matthew(5), Minnie-Me(gan), and Mickey-DH. Thanks to Etsy for our matching shirts that DH just loves to wear

We ended up driving as we've done it in the past and our boys do pretty well in the car. Last trip the last 3 hours were the worst with traffic and construction. So, we decided to break it up this trip and arrived in Gainesville about 7:30pm. This way we didn't waste a night at a Disney resort by arriving after bed time. We decided to visit the Swamp while we were in town.

Boys needed time to run around after 15 hours in the car and being huge college FB fans we wanted to check out their stadium. I was not overly impressed with their facilities. I will add that growing up in Nebraska in the 90's made me hate any program that came from the state of Florida so that may have had something to do with my reaction

Next morning we decided to drive 30 min to the next stop in Ocala for breakfast at one of our favorites, First Watch

On this last stretch we notice that Ty's nagging cough that he had for a week was getting a lot worse and then Matthew started complaining that his ear was hurting I will say we debated taking Ty to the Dr before we left but anyone with kids knows unless they have had it for 10+ days and a fever they are not going to prescribe anything. Don't want them getting immune to antibiotics and all...but we had been down this road before. Last year during Spring Break at Disney Matthew developed an ear infection on night 2 of our vacation at 2am. Screaming 4 year old in the middle of the night can put a damper on things! DH had to take him to Florida centra care the next morning.

I bet you know where I'm going with this...we decided to make a detour to Centra Care and good thing we did as they were closed the next day for Memorial Day along with the pharmacy. Note:the centra care website makes it so easy to book an appt online and we were in and out in about an hour.

Bronchitis, ear infection and two antibiotics later and we were finally ready to head to our resort!!!

Where are we going???

We arrived around 1pm our goal was 11am but we will find out that our delay was for the best. The valet guys were awesome...even refrigerated the antibiotics for us.

Check-in was smooth except for this guy on his EVC decided he didn't need to wait in the line like the rest of us and almost ran me over cutting in line When I told him I was in line he just kept moving. This will be a big pet peeve of mine this trip, the total disregard for other people and the mindset that their time is more valuable. I will even get into it with a 10 year old later on...

Anyway, nicest gal at check-in. I request a building closest to the main house but also checked the box for first available room. We had an early ADR and wanted time to settle the room and get ready. She said they were cleaning it now and should receive our text anytime! In the meantime we had promised some pool time and a dole whip or 2. Dole whip floats are a great use of a snack credit!!

6 going on 16!!

My little pirate

Next:Getting into our room...maybe!

 

[PrincessL]

The hubby and I are going mid September without kids for 4 nights and we are only going to one park. We'll be lounging around the pool a lot and spending time around DS and some resort restaurants and bars. I do have a pre trip report floating around here but haven't posted in quite awhile... I got excited and posted very early. Maybe I should update it.

Ooo...I'm going to have to catch up on it and see what you have planned!!! Sounds like the perfect trip!!!

We are considering going to W&F for 4 nights sans kids in Sept. as well. Resort and ADRs are booked but DH is still pushing for last min Mexico trip. We will see who wins

 

[PrincessL]

I have only done the Orange side ( back when they only had 1 version when it first came out.)
Did not have an issue with motion sickness at the time - honestly did not ride again because I do not see the need - not a big fan of it

Max

I agree it's nothing special. Has potential though.

I wonder if they will be making any big changes with the scheduled refurb?

 

[PrincessL]

Ok, left off at lunch... we were headed to eat at my favorite spot France and Les Halle's Boulangerie.

First we stopped for a photopass opportunity to recreate pictures from

Feb. 2015:

April 2016:

June 2017:

It was way too hot to continue being Mrs. Incredible. I tried for as long as I could

Now that I put these pictures together it is bittersweet to see how much they've grown. Also, knowing that Keegan is now wearing the same shirt Matthew had on in the first picture


Next years apparently needs to be taken at HS so The Incredibles can complete their tour of all the parks...lol! That was not intentional.

It was then onward to the WS. I absolutely love this part!

Do I have the pictures to show??

Well, no. I was just enjoying our stroll. We intended to spend more time later that night...

We made it to France and Keegan would have stood at this fountain all day!!

He was so mad that I didn't have any coins to throw in.

Sorry bud, all we have are these fast cash things called magic bands

He didn't find that very funny. Neither did DH.

I was so looking forward to Les Halles!! My plan was to get there a little after 11am just so we were not exhausted, famished and having to fight the crowds. I was hoping to just enjoy this wonderful spot.

As you can tell by his face that was not the case. We didn't get there until noon so it was HOT, we were exhausted, hangry and it was packed!! It was very cut throat to get a table. Seems that QS, especially at this time we always encounter the rude of the rude!

Anyway that's my excuse as to why there are no pics and we had obscene amount of food and dessert. The only thing I remember it the fruit tarte and eclair were out of this world.

Next TR I will be more diligent about taking pictures of what matters...the food!

Call it a rookie mistake

On a positive, Keegan was all smiles when we got back to our resort for naps

Next: Would we get to ride Ty's all time favorite TT??? We would get to meet a very special duo though!

 

[amjt660]

The family year by year shots are awesome!
Please continue with DHS next year
DL in 2019 and then DCA in 2020

Feel free to pick between DLP, TDL HKDL or Shanghai in 2021

Fast Cash Band ??

For the win!!!

Max

 

[PrincessL]

The family year by year shots are awesome!
Please continue with DHS next year
DL in 2019 and then DCA in 2020

Feel free to pick between DLP, TDL HKDL or Shanghai in 2021

Fast Cash Band ??

For the win!!!

Max

Yes, yes, yes and I pick DLP! I'll send you pics

I think Fast Cash Band is very appropriate!

 

[PrincessL]

The clouds were looking very ominous on our way back to Epcot.

We still had not received another FP on MDE so, we hustled over that way. DH, Ty and Matthew told CM it was down earlier and we were told to come back later they just let them through and gave us our RS pass!

Keegan and I then went to the TT lab (is that what it's called?) to look at the Chevys and he found the mini cars that you drive around on the virtual track. I think it was as cool as going on the actual ride for him.

I then realize you could design a car like you do in the queue for TT...is this something Single Riders can do before they ride??? If so that makes sense why there were two older gentleman using the two kiosks and were taking FOREVER!

Keegan was losing patients but we had already waited this long surely they couldn't be much longer and we were next in line.

Here starts my rant:

Then this boy about 9 or 10 leans up against the kiosk and is avoiding looking at us and as they other guy leaves slips right in the gap

I inform him that there is a line and we were next.

He tells me in what I would consider a rude matter of fact tone, "no, you were in line for the other one."

There is clearly one line and 5 deep with people at this point. So yeah, all of us are in line for the other one This little kid knew exactly what he was doing.

At this point I'm looking around for his parents to no avail.

I don't recall exactly how the rest of the conversation went but I don't know that I can do it justice. I'm getting agitated just thinking about this!

I could sit here and say my boys would never act like this but the fact is I can only hope they would never be that direspectful to an adult!

So, I proceeded to use this as a teaching point for my almost 3 year old and in a loud enough voice, "if you or your brothers ever acted like this we would be so disappointed..." and I went on and on for the next 10 minutes.

End rant.

This was the vehicle (monster truck) we finally got to make.

Meanwhile the boys were stuck on the loading platform and it was close to our reservation at Garden Grill. A first for us!

I went outside to see if it was raining. It wasn't but I had to text DH that I could see a mechanic walking on the track outside

DH made the call to wait it out because they were literally the next to get on. So, Keegan and I headed to the land pavilion.

Boys made it just as we were getting our salads said they got on just before the rain started!

Chip and Dale are favorites in our house. Matthew even purchased those Chip and Dale socks that morning at Mousegears!

He's so cute in his overalls!

Ty's loves Pluto!

GG Positives: neat overall experience with the rotating restaurant, food was good (beef was the overall fav), dessert pound cake and berries was to die for, and each of the boys met their top character.

GG Negatives: lot of carbs and starches (macncheese, bread, French fries and mashed potatoes), pictures were awkward, lighting was very dim and hard to get in and out of booth. Out of all Character meals we've been to this is the hardest one to get the kids to eat because of all the in and out and feeling rushed.

I don't think I've mentioned this but this was the first time we did not add park hopper to our tickets.

Mainly because we were skipping AK (gasp). It was opening week of Pandora and CMs were reporting 2hr waits to get into AK and 6 hr waits just to get into Pandora all week...no thanks We will see it another time!

I mention this now because the hard part with not adding PH was choosing only 1 dinner at Epcot.

We are big fans of Beirgarten and we skipped that in favor of trying GG. In hindsight I really wish we had kept Beirgarten and been in the WS for the evening.

This Character meal was also in lue of Chef Mickey's... Chip and Dale are bigger hits than Minnie and Donald for us. However, we would also pick CM over GG based on atmospher alone.

We then had a decision to make. Use RS passes for TT and MS from earlier or head to WS. Keegan and I had one more FP for FEA since we did not go on TT.

The radar was not looking in our favor and in the end we decided we didn't want to get stuck in the WS if it started to pour

This was the night I was most looking forward and nothing went as planned.

In the end we prob made the right decision. Ty and Matthew got to ride 2 more rides before the rain started...for the rest of our trip.

On the way back we we got stuck on the monorail for 30min Our one and only glitch in transportaion for the week though!

Next: Last day and then Bon Voyage?

 

[LeighM]

My nightmare is getting stuck on the monorail since I have claustrophobia along with a bad case of vertigo. We stopped for 10 minutes one trip between the TTC and Epcot and we were sharing a car with the most obnoxious family ever. Anything longer than that and I would've embarrassed myself LOL.

 

[bee]

I then realize you could design a car like you do in the queue for TT...is this something Single Riders can do before they ride??? If so that makes sense why there were two older gentleman using the two kiosks and were taking FOREVER!

Yes, we have done this as single riders so we get to customize the car instead of just picking from a few premade options!

Then this boy about 9 or 10 leans up against the kiosk and is avoiding looking at us and as they other guy leaves slips right in the gap

I inform him that there is a line and we were next.

He tells me in what I would consider a rude matter of fact tone, "no, you were in line for the other one."

There is clearly one line and 5 deep with people at this point. So yeah, all of us are in line for the other one This little kid knew exactly what he was doing.

OMG this made me so mad to read! Glad you could use it as a teaching moment but what awful behavior!!

 

[Tuvalu]

WHERE ARE THE PARENTS???!!!!
Sadly, this is becoming my new Disney rant. You showed great restraint with the 9 year old line cutter. Woody would have shown the same restraint. I would not have.

Your "not what I'd planned" evening probably worked out for the best in light of the delay at Test Track and weather....you didn't have to walk all the way to Germany for dinner and then become trapped there due to rain. You got to cross Garden Grill off your list. And in the pictures everyone looks like they're having fun!!

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

I had a run-in with a little boy who was trying to cut in front of me and my daughter at a water park. He tried shoving through and I blocked him and said we are in line. He then kept muttering the entire time that he was going to be in trouble because he wasn't with the people he was supposed to be with. All I thought was, it's your fault you're not where you're supposed to be and you should get in trouble. Some kids these days are so disrespectful.

 

[PrincessL]

My nightmare is getting stuck on the monorail since I have claustrophobia along with a bad case of vertigo. We stopped for 10 minutes one trip between the TTC and Epcot and we were sharing a car with the most obnoxious family ever. Anything longer than that and I would've embarrassed myself LOL.

I feel like we were the obnoxious family...lol. Not really but the boys were getting restless. 30 min is a long time enclosed in there...you would not have done so well with claustrophobia!!!!

We were about 40 yards from the platform at TTC. Apparently someone tried to open the door not sure if they succeeded but from the length of stop I'd say they did

 

[PrincessL]

Yes, we have done this as single riders so we get to customize the car instead of just picking from a few premade options!


OMG this made me so mad to read! Glad you could use it as a teaching moment but what awful behavior!!

I didn't not know that about single rider that's pretty cool!

Right?!? It was ridiculous. What made me the most mad was the sense that he did nothing wrong. He stood there for 10 plus min while I went on and on and he just ignored it.

 

[PrincessL]

WHERE ARE THE PARENTS???!!!!
Sadly, this is becoming my new Disney rant. You showed great restraint with the 9 year old line cutter. Woody would have shown the same restraint. I would not have.

Your "not what I'd planned" evening probably worked out for the best in light of the delay at Test Track and weather....you didn't have to walk all the way to Germany for dinner and then become trapped there due to rain. You got to cross Garden Grill off your list. And in the pictures everyone looks like they're having fun!!

It is sad! This kid was about the age of my nephew and at that age at Disney I still wouldn't let them out of my site. I could have been a complete psycho and the parents were no where to be found!!! They were probably in standby cutting into the FP line

We def enjoyed Garden Grill and it was a neat expirience just not one that will be on our must do list.

 

[PrincessL]

I had a run-in with a little boy who was trying to cut in front of me and my daughter at a water park. He tried shoving through and I blocked him and said we are in line. He then kept muttering the entire time that he was going to be in trouble because he wasn't with the people he was supposed to be with. All I thought was, it's your fault you're not where you're supposed to be and you should get in trouble. Some kids these days are so disrespectful.

Good for you! It takes a village and I guess someone needs to teach them!!!

I was shocked. I just pray that I'm not raising little turds (it was the nicest word I could come up with and I have potty training on the mind).

 

[amjt660]

Good job on the line cutter (Sadly I assume your loud voice had little to no impact on him though)

About this picture below....

"Stop in the name of love, before you break my heart....."

Max

 

[PrincessL]

About this picture below....

"Stop in the name of love, before you break my heart....."

Max

 

[PrincessL]

Day 6: Last Day

8 am EMH at MK on this dreary morning. No touring plans so to speak for this hour as I really did not think we would be able to continue our trend of being at the parks so early!

Nice smile Keegan...lol!

I love that they are holding hands

Recognize the ears @sheriffwoody?!?

They were so light and way more comfortable than the Minnie ones I bought at the park!

The boys were super motivated to go on Space Mountain so we headed to Tomorrowland.

They were scanning Magic bands and had an efficient flow going.

SM is another one and done for me. Last year was enough for me. It is so rocky and hurt my lower back.

I'm not sure what happened to me I loved amusement parks as a kid and young adult. We would visit Cedar Pointe once a year. Age is catching up to me I guess

DH went with The older boys. Matthew was eager to go for his first time. Hope the Dramamine works!

Happy to report Matthew loves it!!

Keegan and I hit up a few rides in Fantasyland in the meantime.

Next: It still makes me want to cry

 

[LeighM]

I feel like we were the obnoxious family...lol. Not really but the boys were getting restless. 30 min is a long time enclosed in there...you would not have done so well with claustrophobia!!!!

We were about 40 yards from the platform at TTC. Apparently someone tried to open the door not sure if they succeeded but from the length of stop I'd say they did

I seriously doubt your family even comes close to the obnoxious level of the family I was stuck with on the monorail LOL. It was two parents with their adult son. The mom was on a scooter but she didn't know how to operate it and kept moving and ramming into things. She also had one of those negative attitudes. The husband kept trying to give her advice on how to drive it. When we stopped, they all started complaining loudly, which doesn't help anyone else at all and was adding to my anxiety. They were some of the longest 10 minutes of my life Plus, I don't think any of them were wearing deodorant. When we finally started moving and got to Epcot, instead of letting us out first since we were by the door, the Mom on the scooter almost ran us over trying to get out first. But she couldn't drive it and kept ramming into the doors and the monorail attendants were trying to help her. Didn't do any good. Finally the adult son had had enough and told her to get up and he would do it himself. He was able to reverse it and get off the monorail in seconds. The plan was to ride the monorail back to the TTC but after that experience I ran for the busses LOL.

 

[amjt660]

The boys were super motivated to go on Space Mountain so we headed to Tomorrowland.

They were scanning Magic bands and had an efficient flow going.

SM is another one and done for me. Last year was enough for me. It is so rocky and hurt my lower back.

I'm not sure what happened to me I loved amusement parks as a kid and young adult. We would visit Cedar Pointe once a year. Age is catching up to me I guess

DH went with The older boys. Matthew was eager to go for his first time. Hope the Dramamine works!

View attachment 212688

Just wait till you go to DLR in Anaheim in 2019 and ride the Space mountain there.
2 side by side, much smoother and amazing soundtrack.

Max

 

[sheriffwoody]

Recognize the ears @sheriffwoody?!?

They are so cute!!! I love your whole Rapunzel ensemble I got some Belle-inspired ones to wear with a Belle t-shirt on our next trip. They really are so comfy.