5 kids, 7 grandchildren, 50 years of marriage & One Amazing Cruise on the Dream!

erstwo · Jun 23, 2011

We've been to WDW twice since December, so we at least got to enjoy some mild temps before we head back into the HEAT next week! I'm so thankful for those unexpected spring trips, because after the FREEZING COLD of December, I'm sure I would resent the overwhelming heat - It would feel like we couldn't catch a break weather wise!

So, here's the plan more or less:

Driving down Tuesday, June 28 arriving around dinner time.
Check into Pop
Possibly have dinner with BIL & SIL and nieces (from the Philippines) at DTD
Possibly head to MK for fireworks or watch fireworks from the beach at the Poly with the in laws (they aren't planning to visit the parks this day)

Wednesday, June 29
Hit the parks bright and early!
We'll be going to whatever park my brother in law and his family would like - we're just going so the cousins can hang out and since we get to go to WDW all the time, we'll let them pick the park, rides, etc. I know, so nice of us right?

Such a hardship. It's a tough life, but someone has to live it! :lol:
At some point that afternoon, I'll pick up the hubby from the airport and we'll head back to the parks. We have some friends from Georgia who will also be at WDW next week, so we may have dinner with them/ meet up this night.
Hoping to end the night with Illuminations and then head back to Pop to pack for Cruise departure!!!

Thursday, June 30
Head to the Cape to meet up with the rest of the Fam and have dinner with some relatives visiting S. Florida from Germany. Hoping to make this dinner extra special for my Mother in Law and Father in Law to celebrate their anniversary.
Staying at the Radisson (thanks for the info Tammy!!!) and hoping to drift off to sleep with a view of the Port in the distance!

Friday, July 1 - July 5
Cruise!!!!

July 5

Disembark, claim our luggage and head back to WDW for the day. Head to bed early after a few hours in the parks and then pack up to head home the next day.

July 6 -
Driving home. Equal parts :cry:

and :sohappy: I know I'll be sad to leave, but so thankful for the opportunity to make so many awesome memories!!!

Can't wait!!!!

Sarabell · Jun 24, 2011

wow! sounds like you´re in for a treat! how lovely of your inlaws to take the whole family on their 50th anniversary celebration. I´m sure your kids will love the trip with their cousins. We traveled with a bunch of cousins (we were like 20 people, probably half of us were kids between 3 and 12 years old) for 4 years in a row and we all agree that those were the best trips of our lives!

I hope you have a blast! and can´t wait for the whole detailed report on how things went :wave:

foreverbelle · Jun 24, 2011

Well I hope that you have packed by this point, I am sure you have. I mean I should be starting work, but here I am reading your pre-trip report. LOL.

I hope you have a fabulous vacation!!! I can't wait to read it.
Congrats to MIL and FIL that is no easy accomplishment at all. I would love to think one of these day my husband and I will be just as lucky!

Can't wait to hear all about it!

HouCuseChickie · Jun 24, 2011

First off - 50 Years of Marriage for your inlaws :sohappy: That's awesome!!!!! It's so nice to hear about things like this. And what an amazing trip you've got planned for celebrating it.

Second- sewing???? What wonderful creations are you sewing? I thought I recalled your mom doing some great stuff for your kids, but is it anything along these lines?

Good luck with all the packing and other stuff...I swear it's all the "other stuff" that ends up being the most time consuming and maddening.

Hope it's not too hot. I saw they had heat warnings up today, but at least you live in a southern state so it's not a major adjustment for you guys. Still, after the way the early Dec temps were- not sure which is better.

Have a great trip and can't wait to read your TR when you get back!!! :wave:

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

Sarabell said:
wow! sounds like you´re in for a treat! how lovely of your inlaws to take the whole family on their 50th anniversary celebration. I´m sure your kids will love the trip with their cousins. We traveled with a bunch of cousins (we were like 20 people, probably half of us were kids between 3 and 12 years old) for 4 years in a row and we all agree that those were the best trips of our lives!

I hope you have a blast! and can´t wait for the whole detailed report on how things went :wave:

I really was an amazing gift! I can't wait to start writing this TR! Thanks!

foreverbelle said:
Well I hope that you have packed by this point, I am sure you have. I mean I should be starting work, but here I am reading your pre-trip report. LOL.

I hope you have a fabulous vacation!!! I can't wait to read it.
Congrats to MIL and FIL that is no easy accomplishment at all. I would love to think one of these day my husband and I will be just as lucky!

Can't wait to hear all about it!

I'm not sure I was ever really totally packed! Thank goodness my husband ended up coming home from the lake to work before flying down to join us, because I forgot to pack about 1,000 things and he was able to bring them to us. Whew!

We did have a fabulous vacation!!! I hope you get to enjoy a 50th Anniversary cruise one day too! I'm certainly already looking forward to mine - it was a BLAST!

HouCuseChickie said:
First off - 50 Years of Marriage for your inlaws :sohappy: That's awesome!!!!! It's so nice to hear about things like this. And what an amazing trip you've got planned for celebrating it.

Second- sewing???? What wonderful creations are you sewing? I thought I recalled your mom doing some great stuff for your kids, but is it anything along these lines?

Good luck with all the packing and other stuff...I swear it's all the "other stuff" that ends up being the most time consuming and maddening.

Hope it's not too hot. I saw they had heat warnings up today, but at least you live in a southern state so it's not a major adjustment for you guys. Still, after the way the early Dec temps were- not sure which is better.

Have a great trip and can't wait to read your TR when you get back!!! :wave:

Thank you for the well wishes and congratulations!

I only sewed some pillow cases for my kids - my mom is the true seamstress, I usually only sew in straight lines :lol: - you know curtains, pillowcases, etc. I actually think I forgot to take pictures of the pillow cases, so I will have to do that for this TR! You can turn in a pillow case to Guest Services on the Dream and they will have all the characters sign the pillow case and your room steward will put it on your child's pillow the last night of the cruise. My kids loved it! I jazzed up their pillowcases with some fabric and ribbon trim. Nothing fancy.

It was HOT in the parks, but great on the cruise. More to come on that!

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

Monday, June 27th

We spent the weekend at the lake with some of our best friends who had invited us to their lake house in south Alabama. A great time was had by all and the kids had an absolute blast with their friends.

Now, originally the plan was for us to be at the lake Friday to Sunday, I would come home Sunday afternoon/ night, pack for our Disney trip and cruise Sunday night and Monday. Then either Monday afternoon or early Tuesday morning I would head off toward Orlando. Well, late Thursday night my husband turned to me and said, (something along the lines of

"You know, it occurs to me that it makes much more sense for you to drive 3 hours south to the lake house and then just leave from the lake toward Orlando. Rather than - drive south to the lake, then drive north toward home, then drive south toward Orlando again." Which, of course, really did make more sense! But why oh why couldn't he have mentioned this earlier??? :hammer: So I proceeded to run around like a chicken with my head cut off from that point forward - trying to fit in all of the packing and preparing I had planned to do on that Sunday afternoon and Monday into one short Friday morning. Whew! It was tough, but I almost managed to do it!

As I mentioned before, I was lucky in that my husband decided to come home from the lake and then fly down on Wednesday to join us just before the cruise. So he was able to bring down all of the things I forgot in my rushing around. :lol:

So, Monday morning, we got up bright and early and said goodbye to our friends and the lake and headed south on a trip that would be 3 hours shorter than usual!!!! :sohappy::sohappy:

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

We gave some serious consideration to stopping by the Loveliest Village on the Plains to see the trees at Toomer's, we haven't seen them since before they were poisoned and won't be back in Auburn until Labor Day weekend. But I wasn't sure how accurate the 10 hour drive on my GPS was (having never driven from this location before) so we decided to head south and one lunch and only 9 hours of driving later.......

We were there!

When my husband suggested we drive from the lake house, I had called ahead and secured an additional night at Pop Century for the surprisingly low AP rate. As we pulled into WDW property it began to sprinkle just a little. Normally nothing to even give a second thought about, but when you are 'single parenting' it, I began to worry about how I would keep all 3 of us dry and happy while attempting the quarter mile walk from the Pop check in parking lot to the actual lobby (This is my shout out to all you single parents out there! I don't know how you do it - you have my unwavering admiration!) My kids were tired from a weekend of lake fun in the sun and weren't in the best of moods. I didn't even want to think about wragling them into ponchos and on to the lobby in a downpour. Luckily, when we pulled into Pop it was just cloudy with no rain! :sohappy:

I know I am SO blessed to be able to go so often, but I must say: I love this view and this moment of every Disney trip! I wanna go baaaack. :cry:

:lol:

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

Check in was easy and efficient. We were given a first floor room with a pool view in the 50's section. Perfect!

We walked over to luggage services and secured an attendant to help us with our luggage (there was a TON because of all of the cruise packing.) I pulled the car under the awning, and our attendant met us at our room. Once we were in our room, I discovered I was going to have another Disney first.

I - no joke - had to ask for a room change. This is HUGE for me, as I usually just go with the flow and try not to complain too much. A hair on the bed sheets? No sweat - hair happens. A little mold in the bathroom - no big deal. With all those people forgetting to use the vent, it's going to be there.

But a mattress that is literally below my knees on the edges and looks like it has been squished by the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk??? That's not something I can deal with.

I hope you can tell from these pictures, how squished the mattress was:

So, they quickly moved us to the second floor with a lake view and the room was perfect! Yay! :sohappy:

Now, I think I had mentioned that my kids were pretty worn out. The original plan was to head to the parks that evening. But I knew they wouldn't last even an hour in the parks without a meltdown, so we opted for the food court and the pool instead:

We went to bed pretty early to get ready for the #1 thing on our list the next day: Hollywood Studios and the new Star Tours!

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

Tuesday, June 28

The cousins arrive today!!! :sohappy:

Up bright and early, we had breakfast at Pop and hopped on a bus to DHS. We arrived at around 9:30 to HEAT, overcast skies, and huge crowds. Yep. Summer at Disney!

Bag check line at 9:30:

Obligatory photo:

Please note - I'm finally wearing my WDW magic button!!!!

We headed straight toward our #1 goal - Star Tours!

This was my first time riding Star Tours. I know. I'm not the biggest Star Wars fan. I know. And usually my husband rides this ride with my son. But I have to say it was great! And I was so thankful we got the sequence with Princess Lea (sp?) because that made the ride for my daughter.

We exited through the gift shop and spent about 45 minutes there! Sheesh - merchandising at it's best! Also, we ran into one of our neighbors in the gift shop - hysterical because our children go to different schools, so we have only seen each other a few times since last summer. We joked that we had to come all the way to Disney to see each other! Ha!

My son bought some sort of gun thing and a pen. My daughter got the Wookie, and we headed toward Pixar Place. On the way we found Piglet! My daughter's favorite.

Toy Story was over an hour wait and Fastpasses were for 6:30 to 7:30 at 10:30 am.

So we got in line for Disney Junior:

I really like the new Jake and the Neverland Pirates portion:

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

After Playhouse Disney it was....... how do you say...... HOT, so we headed into the air conditioning in the Magic of Disney Animation. We skipped the movie and headed straight for the Pooh meet and greet:

And then we played some of the computer games and checked out the Cars 2 exhibit. We were planning to see Cars 2 on the Disney Dream!

Sometime in here, the first uncle called to let us know they would be arriving in the late afternoon! :sohappy:

We decided to head to Pizza Planet for lunch. A Disney first!
Along the way:

Pizza Planet!

Great lunch! After exiting we checked out the line for Phineus and Pherb (sp?) Both my kids decided the line was too long, so we watched the streetmosphere going on near the line:

And then headed into Muppets.

I have two favorite backstage props in the Muppets. One is this:

And the other is the 2 giant rainbow canvases. Because who doesn't tear up every time they hear "Rainbow Connection?"

The penguins were up when we entered. Aren't they supposed to be hidden??

We were getting hot and tired at that point. The kids wanted to head to MK, but on the way out of the park I offered to let them swim as an alternative. "Swimming!" they yelled, so we headed back to Pop via bus to cool off.

Along the way, we stopped to watch this character wish a girl from Alaska a Happy Birthday:

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

We spent about 45 minutes in the pool, with both of the uncles calling in the meantime to let us know they were almost at WDW and to meet them for dinner at 7 at TRex in Downtown Disney.

Turned out we really didn't need to cool off in the pool. Mother Nature cooled things off for us! Ponchos - out!

We headed to MK to see if we could squeeze in a ride on Peter Pan or It's a Small World before dinner. When we arrived it was pouring rain and the amazing parade characters were still performing like it was perfect weather:

The kids were really hungry and wouldn't make it to dinner, so we grabbed some popcorn and munched on a bench under the cover of City Hall. Then some photos:

Peter Pan's wait was too long (of course!) and the uncles called to say they were already at DTD, so we headed out of the park to the Contemporary to catch a bus to DTD.

Dinner at TRex was just "meh" again. I had the burger and chips and the kids had chicken fingers and it cost $40. Really no value in that!

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

After dinner we decided we wanted to use our Toy Story Midway Mania Fastpasses more than we wanted to see the fireworks at MK. So we took the first bus stop at DTD to the Yacht Club and rode the boat over to DHS.

And walked right on to TSMM!

********* And now Ladies and Gentlemen******** WELCOME to the FIRST "Totally Weird and Completely Crazy" Event of this WDW Trip!******

I hope you will enjoy the show.

So. We walk up the stairs to TSMM. We round the curve. We walk down the stairs to TSMM. We tell the attendant (a very nice young man) that we are a party of 3 and we would all like to ride in one car (seeing as I am a mom alone with 2 kids).

We are assigned to rows 3 and 4 of the Toy Story Midway Mania que. There is also a group of 3 in front of us.

My son is alone in row 3. My daughter and I are in row 4. My daughter is standing in front of me.

The gates open for the 3 young girls in front of us. The 3 young girls load into their ride vehicle. The gates close in front of us.

My daughter walks up to the gate. From behind me I hear the "nice young man" attendant/ CM say, "Sir, you will have to wait here."

I feel something brush past me - I see this man - fairly well dressed, about 40 years old - literally SLAM my daughter into the gate with his body in an attempt to push the gate in front of us open.

The Cast Members are yelling now, "Sir! You CANNOT go through that gate!" "Sir! You will have to wait!" "Sir!"

I'm trying to process this all, as it is happening in about 30 seconds. The man moves my daughter from out in front of him and stoops down to say something like, "Stay over here, so you won't get hurt, okay?" At which point I FREAK OUT, because I have no idea - "won't get hurt????" Does he have a knife???? WHAT IS GOING ON???? I grab my daughter and back away. The CM rushes in as the guy JUMPS THE GATE AND THE RIDE WHILE THE RIDE IS MOVING and runs away on the other side.

Totally insane.

The CM's were very nice, checking on us. People ran after him and we got on the ride like nothing happened, and went on our merry way. But it was just about the weirdest thing I have ever witnessed at Disney. What was wrong with that guy I have no idea, but my daughter still talks about "that man that squished her into the gate." And this was just the first crazy thing we saw on this trip.

An open letter to all Crazy People:

Dear Crazy People,

We plan to return to WDW in October. We saw just about all the craziness we can take on our past trip to WDW. Would you please plan to NOT visit WDW this coming October? It would be very much appreciated.

All our best,
Us

*******************The End of the first Totally Weird and Completely Crazy Event***********

With that we walked back to the front of the park, boarded a bus to Pop and went right to sleep - ready for our next adventure - the Magic Kingdom!!!

WDWmazprty · Jul 6, 2011

erstwo said:
After dinner we decided we wanted to use our Toy Story Midway Mania Fastpasses more than we wanted to see the fireworks at MK. So we took the first bus stop at DTD to the Yacht Club and rode the boat over to DHS.

And walked right on to TSMM!

********* And now Ladies and Gentlemen******** WELCOME to the FIRST "Totally Weird and Completely Crazy" Event of this WDW Trip!******

I hope you will enjoy the show.

So. We walk up the stairs to TSMM. We round the curve. We walk down the stairs to TSMM. We tell the attendant (a very nice young man) that we are a party of 3 and we would all like to ride in one car (seeing as I am a mom alone with 2 kids).

We are assigned to rows 3 and 4 of the Toy Story Midway Mania que. There is also a group of 3 in front of us.

My son is alone in row 3. My daughter and I are in row 4. My daughter is standing in front of me.

The gates open for the 3 young girls in front of us. The 3 young girls load into their ride vehicle. The gates close in front of us.

My daughter walks up to the gate. From behind me I hear the "nice young man" attendant/ CM say, "Sir, you will have to wait here."

I feel something brush past me - I see this man - fairly well dressed, about 40 years old - literally SLAM my daughter into the gate with his body in an attempt to push the gate in front of us open.

The Cast Members are yelling now, "Sir! You CANNOT go through that gate!" "Sir! You will have to wait!" "Sir!"

I'm trying to process this all, as it is happening in about 30 seconds. The man moves my daughter from out in front of him and stoops down to say something like, "Stay over here, so you won't get hurt, okay?" At which point I FREAK OUT, because I have no idea - "won't get hurt????" Does he have a knife???? WHAT IS GOING ON???? I grab my daughter and back away. The CM rushes in as the guy JUMPS THE GATE AND THE RIDE WHILE THE RIDE IS MOVING and runs away on the other side.

Totally insane.

The CM's were very nice, checking on us. People ran after him and we got on the ride like nothing happened, and went on our merry way. But it was just about the weirdest thing I have ever witnessed at Disney. What was wrong with that guy I have no idea, but my daughter still talks about "that man that squished her into the gate." And this was just the first crazy thing we saw on this trip.

An open letter to all Crazy People:

Dear Crazy People,

We plan to return to WDW in October. We saw just about all the craziness we can take on our past trip to WDW. Would you please plan to NOT visit WDW this coming October? It would be very much appreciated.

All our best,
Us

*******************The End of the first Totally Weird and Completely Crazy Event***********

With that we walked back to the front of the park, boarded a bus to Pop and went right to sleep - ready for our next adventure - the Magic Kingdom!!!

Wow! What a jerk! Do you know if anybody went after him? Hopefully security got a hold of him.

patricia27 · Jul 6, 2011

Holiday

Lovely pictures and stories--been back in the UK for a month now--can`t wait for the next trip!!

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

WDWmazprty said:
Wow! What a jerk! Do you know if anybody went after him? Hopefully security got a hold of him.

It really did happen (from my perspective) in less than a minute. Now, I'm sure the Cast Member behind me had been dealing with him for a few moments before that (otherwise, I wondered how the CM would know he was going to try to push through the gates :shrug

Either way, everyone on the opposite side of the TSMM track was in just as much shock as I was. There was all of the usual TSMM queue noise - TSMM music, ride vehicles starting and stopping, CM's giving ride instructions, etc. So no one on the opposite side of the track really even looked up until the CM's behind me started shouting.

When the guy jumped the track, a manager looking type CM came around from my far left and looked at the CM who had been behind me - and the CM, told him to go after the guy. I have no idea if they caught him. That same manager looking guy was back near the ride controls by the time we finished our ride. I thought about asking, but thought that since it might be a sensitive matter, they might not be able to give me any information. I didn't want to put the CM in a bad position, and we had no real injuries or claim to the event, so I just let it go.

I hope they got him! I can't think of a single good reason to behave like that. My only assumption was that he didn't like the row he was assigned to by the Cast Member behind me??? :shrug::shrug: Like maybe he wanted to ride with the rest of his party, but they wouldn't let him??? :shrug: But I didn't see any other person that looked like they were with him in line. My husband (who wasn't there) theorizes that the guy got into an argument with his family farther back in line OR just got tired of waiting in the long line and decided to just leave. But if that was the case, why not just exit out of the back of the queue? Why leave that way? :shrug: I don't get it.

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

patricia27 said:
Lovely pictures and stories--been back in the UK for a month now--can`t wait for the next trip!!

Thank you very much!

I totally know how you feel! I can't ever wait either.

erstwo · Jul 6, 2011

Wednesday, June 29

Magic Kingdom with the cousins today! AND Big Daddy (that's my husband) arrives today too! What could be better???

Maybe a ride on the monorail?

The monorail ride is proof positive that even the most experienced WDW traveler can make a rookie mistake. I knew we would have to leave the MK after lunch to pick up my husband from the airport. Thinking the best solution would be to just drive to the MK, we headed off in our car, only to arrive and remember that MK has no parking. Instead of a tram ride and a short walk, we would have a tram ride, a monorail ride, and a short walk. Face palm!

Should have just taken the bus from Pop and back. It would have been slightly faster and a little easier.

The sun was back and so was the heat as we arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 9:30.

People were pouring into the park and Main Street seemed a bit crowded.

My oldest niece from the Philippines had only one ride request. One that would make most of the readers on this board cringe: Tomorrowland Speedway. I'm a firm believer in doing what your child really must do right off the bat - so you don't get stuck waiting in a 2 hour line later in the day. So off to Tomorrowland we went, roasting in the sun and asphalt:

My son was finally tall enough to drive a car all by himself! (Thank goodness, because otherwise we are all going to have to ride in one car, which was NOT a popular choice among my kiddos :lol

When we got back to the loading area, there above us on the platform was my oldest niece from Maryland! Now all the cousins were together! :sohappy:

We headed toward Fantasyland to Fastpass Peter Pan:

Cousins:

Peter Pan spit out a Fastpass for between 12:30 and 1:30 and a bonus Fastpass for Philharmagic for immediate use. The skies were looking a little ominous. I can't say I was surprised. It was a typical tropical weather pattern while we were there. Overwhelming heat and humidity leading up to afternoon downpours.

We parked our strollers in covered parking and decided to head to It's a Small World and then Philharmagic.

When we got out of Philharmagic, it started to rain. The kids and I ducked into the Carousel line while everyone dashed off to buy ponchos. We all suited up and rode the Carousel before using our Fastpasses on Peter Pan.

Peter Pan was our last ride before heading back to the TTC to pick up our car AND my husband! I gave my inlaws some touring tips, such as they were, and headed out of the park.

We really lucked out, because it didn't start pouring down rain until we were already safe in the car. Totally magical - it's the little things.

PolynesianPrincess · Jul 6, 2011

Loving this TR so far!! What a GREAT way to spend a 50th anniversary, with all the family involved!!! Big family trips can be really fun sometimes!! (Other times.... ugh, so stressful!! lol)

disneygirl1 · Jul 6, 2011

Awesome start can't wait to hear more about your trip! We sail on the Dream in April, so I am anxiously awaiting that part!

I can seriously NOT believe what happened when you were in line for TSMM!!! What the heck? That is just crazy!

5 kids, 7 grandchildren, 50 years of marriage & One Amazing Cruise on the Dream!

erstwo

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