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!):
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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.

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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:rolleyes:

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

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:facepalm: 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!!!

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Where are we going???
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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.
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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:mad: 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...:oops:

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!!
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6 going on 16!!

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My little pirate:)

Next:Getting into our room...maybe!
 
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Zipadeelady

Well-Known Member
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:cautious:

I'm right there with you. We would also go to Cedar Point almost every year but I just can't handle most of the riders there any more. Not so much because of pain but because I swear I'm going to die on the first hill. I used to love all the roller coaster, the bigger the better, now when one of the kids wants me to ride I'm praying and going over my will during the trek up the first hill. Getting old sucks.:D[/QUOTE]
 

blreinsel

Well-Known Member
Finally all caught up! Enjoying every bit of your report. :) I probably wouldn't have had as much restraint with the kid either.. or the line cutter that you ran over with the stroller. :hilarious: People are SO RUDE. And entitled.. I think that's the main issue.

But thankfully you still seem to be having a fun filled trip and aren't letting the "villains" get you down (too much). ;)
 

susan lees

Well-Known Member
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.
There are some exceptions though. My daughter has type 1 diabetes and has had to leave a long queue to go to restroom or get more water etc. We have always told her to get us back in line and in doing this we have let people go in front of us. Now my daughter is very polite and will explain to people why she is going by but she has arrived back to us in tears from things people have said to her.
I don't like people cutting in front whether they are adult or children but I am more tolerant now because of our own situation. Rudeness I won't tolerate. Rant over!!!
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Last day (cont.)

While the bigs were on SM, Keegan and I headed to Fantasyland. Keegan wanted to go on the Goofy ride.

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Forced smile?!

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The all important red card. I thought these were to update wait times but it was total walk on at this point...hmmm?

This is where I want to cry.

The $45 Rapunzel Mickey ears I just had to have....GONE:bawling: First dip on the Barnstormer and off they went. I totally forgot I even had them on:banghead::banghead::banghead:

I looked for them as we exited and couldn't see them. We went to ask a CM what they could do and she informed me at park close I could check at GS.

There was no wait so we went on again and I was hoping to spot them. Maybe I'd get lucky and they landed on the exit path and I just missed them the first time!!?

This time the CM reminded everyone to take off their hats and sunglasses...doh :mad:

As we exited I did spotted them...

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...in the gated area under the ride. See the pink and purple flowers...yeah those aren't real flowers:facepalm:

No point in dwelling... DH I'm sure will think differently. He was so mad when he found out how much I spent on those ears:oops:

Onward we went.

I tried to talk Keegan into meeting Ariel with me but no dice. So we went under the sea instead.

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Bad pic but you get the point. Keegan surprisingly loved this ride!

We then met the rest of our crew back at dumbo.

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My pilot!

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DH didn't notice the missing ears at first. So, I took the opportunity to just get it over with.

He laughed at me:eek:

What?!?

He said, no need to ruin our last day at Disney over some silly ears and basically told me to suck it up buttercup!

Sometimes (most of the time) he's the best:inlove:

Next up: A first for all of us...we had to see what all the hubbub is about.
 

sheriffwoody

Well-Known Member
Awww I'm so sorry about your ears!!! It is so easy to forget you have them on when they're that comfy and lightweight. I have gotten into the habit of taking them off on ANY ride or show, so now it's just automatic. I have almost forgotten a couple of times though :eek:
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Awww I'm so sorry about your ears!!! It is so easy to forget you have them on when they're that comfy and lightweight. I have gotten into the habit of taking them off on ANY ride or show, so now it's just automatic. I have almost forgotten a couple of times though :eek:

You are smart!

Totally my fault. First ride and now I know...lol:hilarious:
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Sorry to leave ya hanging... summer got in the way!! I feel like I have so much to catch up on:eek:

Anyway, EMH hour was ending so the plan was to start headin west. We stopped along the way to take some photo opps.

First Gaston's
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It was dreary for most of the day.

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This next one was premeditated... as if you couldn't tell already Tangled is my favorite Disney movie.

DH took about a million of these pics because I kept telling him he wasn't getting enough of the background so I ended up with one with zero people in the background:jawdrop: Wish I had my ears though:oops:

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We kept going and it was dead! It was about 9:10am at this point and I felt like we had Frontier and Adventureland all to ourselves!

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Pirates had zero wait so we went ahead even though that's not where we were headed. When Matthew was Keegan's age he was very scared when we went on it so we didn't know how Keegan would react...

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Every child is different and he absolutely loved it!!

Now, we were really headed to Jungle Cruise a first for all of us. It consistently has one of the highest wait times but, I had read not so great reviews before previous trips so we always skipped it.

I decided not to do a FP and rope drop it but with PoC added in there we had a 40min wait already:banghead:

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Matthew got the red card! What's the deal with these @Tuvalu ???

This was our longest wait of the week and I must say wasn't worth waiting 40min ...our skipper (Karin) was very punny though!

This must be a nostalgic ride for most?

Next: more Mountains
 

Tuvalu

Premium Member
Wow, your family got the empty-park Shirley treatment! Even the best themed bathroom! :hilarious:

The red card supposedly tracks a "real time" wait and the signs are adjusted accordingly. But more often than not, when I clock my real time wait (when I have been given a red card) it is always less than what time ends up on the sign later.
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It was time to burn som FPs! First up Big Thunder!
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I went first with the boys. DH did rider switch which is such a nice thing that they do.

Ty and Matthew are going to be disappointed once Keegan is tall enough and they don't get to go on these top rides back to back anymore!

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DH said they were really waving to us in this pic!

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Keegan and I headed to the Hundred Acre Woods while they rode BTMR again and used another FP for SM.

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DH got this awesome shot from the top. 2nd one was an accident but I though it looked pretty neat!

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Meanwhile, Keegan was in heaven...

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He threw a mini fit when we couldn't go right back on. It's hard for a 3 year old to comprehend that we will not waiting 50min to ride it again...he would never make it that long!

Next: We have a Shaq sighting.
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow, your family got the empty-park Shirley treatment! Even the best themed bathroom! :hilarious:

The red card supposedly tracks a "real time" wait and the signs are adjusted accordingly. But more often than not, when I clock my real time wait (when I have been given a red card) it is always less than what time ends up on the sign later.

I forgot about the Shirley treatment:hilarious::hilarious::hilarious: I must say it was nice:D

Ok, thats what I thought the red cards were for. But, like you said the time didn't match up.
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Forgot this pic in the last post. Oops.
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We decided to meet at the carousel before heading out of the park for lunch.

We caught the sword in the stone show which is cute. I don't know if it's predetermined who gets picked. But, this guy seemed very put off that he was chosen...

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Why wear Minnie ears with a Shaquille O'Neal jersey if you don't want the attention?!? It was hilarious:joyfull:

While there we went ahead and took a spin, another first!

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Next: No Bon Voyage for us :bawling:
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Originally, we added 2 more days onto our trip...long story but I had it justified and then we talked ourselves out of it.

There might be another TR later this fall because of that decision:p

When we made the change we kept our Bon Boyage ADR for 10am the morning that we were leaving (Saturday). However, the night before we decided to forgo in order to start the drive earlier Sat. Morning and drive straight thru:(

I was bummed to miss out on that but we were able to replace it with a Chef Mickey's ADR!!

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Always keep checking for those hard to get ADRs because 24hrs before I was able to get a resy for the 5 of us.

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We had a great location close to the buffet and first for meet and greet in our section.

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DH absolutely loves the food here! We've only had breakfast and brunch so I don't know how dinner stacks up.

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Don't mind their full cheeks!

Out of all the buffets I feel like this has more healthy options that my picky eater(Ty) likes.

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Keegan can't contain his excitement for Goofy!

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I love that he's now 7 and he still has a love for Pluto!

We love Chef Mickey's and I'm glad it ended up working out.

The atmosphere is great and the fact that the monorail goes right through is so cool to our boys. It may be a little loud for some but for our crew it works. The Character interaction is great and the food is good. We will be putting it back on our must do list:)

We then headed back for a rest.

Next: Rain, rain go away...
 

PrincessL

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Alright, going to get this TR finished today!

We took a rest and then it was back to MK for our last FP and dinner.

This was our ferry ride over...

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Thought we might have a sliver of hope to make our 7DMT FP but alas the skyes opened up just as we exited the ferry.

Thank goodness for our $store ponchoes. It made me cringe to see large families with the Disney ponchoes on...that must have cost as much as our dinner:greedy:

It was kinda fun stomping our way through the puddles on Main Street.

I checked MDE and a FP popped up for everything except PPF:rolleyes: On the first day we tried to rope drop it and its opening was delayed 30min so we hadn't rode it yet this trip.

It was looking like Keegan was going to get to ride his favorite for the 3rd time!

Because of the pouring rain, we were super early for our ADR at the Master's Castle!

We were seated promptly at our reservation time in the main ballroom. Just as I had hoped.

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I have yet to take a good picture in the castle with that lighting!

I was most excited to try dinner here. I really felt like it was much quieter than breakfast and lunch with not as many people shuffling in and out. In general not as busy feeling.

The Beast walked by our table a few times but he was too fast and all my pics turned out blurry.

We had a wonderful server and our meal was timed perfectly.

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We ordered two of these for the boys to share and it was not enough food.

Finally a meal that they enjoyed everything on the plate and no wasted food:hungry: I will add that it was on the cold side but boys did not care at all.

DH got the steak and frites. He enjoyed it. Not his favorite of the week but good.

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I had a bowl of salty onion straws:depressed:

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Under all those was the braised beef. It had such potential!

I'm the suffer in scilence type...I don't think I have ever sent anything back. I guess I feel like I would hurt the server and chefs feelings?!? Idk...I prob should have sent it back!

I picked them off and it was a little better. The sauce could have been amazing!

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All the boys had the grey stuff...it was delicious as they didn't even pause for me to take a pic:hilarious:

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All the details are what make BoG my favorite!


Next: Our last Character experience
 

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