Trip Report Am I sick of WDW? Aug 22-30, 2015 update4/19/17

Hi everyone and welcome to my trip report! I'm Sarah, Mia is our daughter, Paul is my husband and Westin is our son. (possibly getting a little old for a stroller but there is no way I could have done this trip without the stroller, as half the trip was just me and the kids)

This was our first trip together as just a family of 4. We went in Jan. 2012 when Westin was 8 months old with my friend and her family. In Sept. 2013, Paul and I went without the kids, meanie parents! Last year we went again with my friend and her family, Paul couldn't come due to his work schedule. I did a trip-music video for our Sept. 2014 trip, this was the first time I tried a video.
I think it turned out great but it is long, if I do it again I think I will break it down into individual songs rather than one long video.

Back to the most recent trip, we stayed at Allstar Sports, August 22nd through August 30th. I was a little scared because some of the reviews I had read online really hated on Allstar Sports, having only awful things to say about the resort. I am happy to say we had an uneventful stay, nothing horrible happened and for the rate I got through Orbitz I was pleased.

You may be asking yourself "why is she sick of her family?" Maybe I am too in love with Disney and reading forums about Disney and planning fake trips to Disney and maybe my family just doesn't get it the way I do. Some (my husband) may call me crazy? Their non-enjoyment of Disney (a lot of which I like to think was weather related because it was so hot!) caused a few moments of me questioning myself and why we even went on vacation, but I realized we all like different things and no big deal if they aren't as into Disney as I am. Skip all of this if you don't like boring writing without pictures.
My first trip was back in 1999, we visited the Magic Kingdom for 1 day. I remember waiting in line for Space Mountain with my cousin and being scared to ride whatever was in that pointy, white building. I was 11 and he was 15, so I didn't want to tell him I was scared because that is not cool. I thought I was going to fly out of the seat, I hated it! I also remember my mother making us leave before the fireworks started, I believe we were there 4th of July week so we were probably trying to beat traffic or it was horribly crowded and she couldn't take it anymore. I'm not sure but that was my first visit, so magical
I didn't think about a trip to Disney again until 2009 when Mia was 5 years old and I was really bored at work one day. I really don't remember why but I started reading trip reports on a discussion board about people's trips to Disney and the more I read the more I thought we need to go to Disney. I must book a trip now! So we did and I planned and planned and planned, I love planning for trips. We had an awesome trip to Disney in January, 2009 and it was so much fun I talked them into a trip in January, 2010 this time my mom and grandma came along. Then free dining came out and Paul agreed to one more trip in August, 2010, which is where it starts to go downhill. It was hot, I was obsessed with Disney, you have no idea how many lets say "quarrels" my husband and I had and still do have about Disney. He loves hunting, I like going to Disney, that's the same right?
In 2011 we had a baby so no trip for us. Then as I said above we did January, 2012 and then Mia and I went in November, 2012 for a dance trip. That was a totally awesome experience, they got to do a parade down Main Street and be included in the Christmas Day parade filming. Although we couldn't spot any of our dancers on the tv broadcast it was still cool to know we were there and a part of the parade. Mia and I will be doing another dance trip this November and I am super excited about this one because it is in Disneyland!! I am actually going to be in the parade too, we needed 10 dancers to audition and 2 dropped out so I was a backup. I'm not mad about this at all!! But don't let me get ahead of myself.

I had a trip all planned out for the first week of Sept. but Paul was not in agreement so I cancelled it. Then in July he came home from work and was like "let's go to Disney, I want to get away from here". His main reason for the trip was because Westin is now 40 inches tall and we could do almost all of the rides together. Westin also loves Lights, Motor, Action and Paul wanted to watch LMA with him before its rumored demise. Those are very valid reasons for a trip (Disney logic at work) so I started pricing a trip, he wanted to do Wed - Sat but with the price of park tickets I told him that was ridiculous and probably best we don't go but when I used Disney logic instead of real world logic, I found that the kids and I could go first and he could meet up with us halfway through and it was still the same price! Rejoice!! Our trip was on!! Join us as we sweat our way through vacation.

 

[fractal]

Better late than never!

 

[sarahcor]

Better late than never!

And a good way to pass the time between 9 and 5
I see you have a trip coming up, I'm excited for the report! I've lurked along on the past reports.

 

[sarahcor]

We spent some time at the pool. Westin didn't win the kids game, he is a little hot head. Since he didn't win he didn't want to play any other games so we swam for a little while and floated around.

A view of All Star Sports and the walk back to our room. We were on the backside of the basketball building.

We headed back to Hollywood Studios for the evening. Here Mia is showing off one of our favorite water fountains in all of Disney. Some of the fountains have gross, warm, yucky water. This fountain was very cold and had a much better taste than others, we like to visit this stop for bottle fill ups.

We went to Indiana Jones, passing the giant footprint from Gertie on the way there. Westin was very impressed by the prints.

She's trying to be the statue.

Mia and I enjoyed the show, Westin watched some radio controlled car videos on my phone, I thought he would really like Indy but he had no interest until the end when the airplane came out.
If I was a gymnast I think this would be such a fun place to work, or the Lion King show, that would be awesome too. This section is my favorite part when they do all the tumbling.

Fun with snakes.

Not fun with spiders.

 

[sarahcor]

Toy Story Midway Mania time! We spotted a Disney squirrel while parking the stroller, they are such cute little thieves. If I was a squirrel I would most definitely want to live at Disney, probably in Epcot.

Hooray for Fastpasses. So I guess we rode TSMM this morning in stand by because my notes tell me this was our 2nd fastpass of the day.

The robot?

Westin was being a little hot head again, decided he did not want glasses on this ride and snapped them. Grrrrr. He really is a sweet, loving boy most of the time, vacation was bringing out the worst in him.

Next up we did the Frozen singalong. The hosts of the show are so funny, I actually laughed for real at some of their bits. This was the first time we saw this show so it was fun to experience something new. I have seen the same show in Disneyland and once again in November at Disney World but these 2 "royal historians" have been our favorites, they were great.

Like a giant singalong video we used to watch on VHS. But this experience was, this may sound silly, magical. We were up close to the front but the place was packed and at the end when it's time to sing Let It Go, it sounded like the whole auditorium was singing along. Elsa, Anna and Kristoff come out and Let It Go comes on again and it snows! It was really well done for what it is and we enjoyed it a lot.

After I wiped away my tears of magic, because seriously I cry a few times a day at Disney because I just can't help myself, we caught some of the DJ and watched the dance party.

I have some more awesome Star Tours glasses pictures so we must have done that ride again.

 

[sarahcor]

We were going to try Little Mermaid but the next show was 40 minutes away so we started our way back to the bus stop. We tried to get some action/jumping pictures with the Tower of Terror. It was almost too dark for the camera on my phone but we jumped anyways.

Westin was too tired for jumping pictures, he sat in the stroller while we messed around. He actually fell asleep on the ride back to the room. We stopped at the food court and took the food back to eat in the room. I must have liked the sandwich but in my notes I wrote cucumber salad - yucky, should have went with chips. Mia did like her pasta.

Westin at nothing for dinner, he was out.

Earlier that day before we left to swim we stopped at Starring Rolls Cafe and got a cupcake and a brownie. I wanted to take a picture of my disneyfied nails with my brownie with like the Tower of Terror or The Great Movie Ride in the background, but Westin had a meltdown over his cupcake so my nail picture didn't happen. By this point the shiny coating on the m&m candies had faded and didn't look as fun and vibrant as it had when I got it earlier that afternoon but I still took a picture.
I had Daisy, Donald, Rapunzel, Buzz and Woody on this hand.

And this hand had Mike Wazowski, Tiana, Belle, Minnie and Mickey.

We were in bed at 10. I set the television to 60 minutes for the sleep timer and fell asleep watching Girl Meets World which we don't watch at home, I must have been very tired to not even search through for something better . Tomorrow we do EPCOT

 

[sarahcor]

We were up and out the door at 8:01 on our way to Epcot for day #2.

Don't they look so happy?

Well I was ready for a fun day!

And of course we take selfies to pass the time on the bus ride because who doesn't love that. Westin doesn't love that but too bad he was outnumbered.

We arrived to bag check to find that admission to the park had already begun so instead of waiting at the entrance out front we made our way to our first attraction of the day. Doesn't look terribly crowded...

A pretty pose with the fountain on our way to Test Track.

Oh, here is where everyone is. Waiting at the rope drop for Test Track.

The cast members did the slow walk to the attraction trying to stop people from running to the entrance. After parking the stroller (curse stroller parking) we walked our way through the line and waited for our turn to create a car, or truck because trucks are much cooler when you are a 4 year old boy.

And we're off!

This was his ride on Test Track so he wasn't sure what to expect but he loved it.

 

[sarahcor]

We stopped for a picture with a Corvette to send to Paul. He was looking forward to riding Test Track with Westin when he got there later in the week so he wanted to know if it was a successful first ride.

We tried to play one of the driving games but we were really bad at them. We gave up at the game and successfully breezed through the exit/gift shop without buying a single thing!

Onward to the Nemo ride, that's what we call it anyways. My favorite planning dvd is the 2005 Happiest Celebration on Earth with Erin, Dave, Stacey and Luke. Sometimes when I'm Disney sad I put this on for background noise. I think it's funny when Stacey is talking about The Living Seas and she says some big, long line like this is where you find Nemo the little guy from Disney inspired by Pixar Animation Studio film blah blah blah. That amuses me.

So into the dark, underwater world where you have to walk a mile to get to your clam.

And I took some bad, dark pictures too.

We watched a couple divers, not sure what they were doing in there.

Moseying along to The Land Pavilion. Stopping at all the water fountains on our quest to find the best fountains in each park. It was really sunny and Mia did not wear contacts at the time so she is squinty in a lot of pictures.

Posing with my little prince, he is giving my arm a kiss. What a sweetie!

 

[sarahcor]

We hurried into our most favorite attraction of all time!

Actually no, never been in that one, couldn't tell you the first thing about it other than we skip it every time. But I do like the Lion King movie, my sister and I watched it non-stop one summer but we would fast forward through the sad part where mean old scar tricks simba into being an accomplice to his father's murder.

We are ready to Soar! I was afraid Westin might freak out on this ride since you are suspended kind of high up but I don't think he really noticed that we were raised into the ceiling. Old or new Soarin'? I prefer the old version, to be fair I only rode the new version once but I didn't care for it as much.

And now let us do some living with the land. Why isn't it Livin' instead of Living like Soarin' isn't Soaring? Keeping me guessing Disney, good job.

Awesome eyes shut picture, I feel so special when I am charged with the duty of red card holder so this moment had to be documented. We did end up waiting almost 15 minutes to get to the boat so it wasn't a walk on like I am used to seeing.

Westin decided this was our family, he is of course the little guy.

Kids, smile nice for me! or just look over here and make a face, whatever.

At this point in the ride Mia usually says how happy she is to be a human and not a fish that lives on top of other fish in a tiny pool.

Then we talk about the alligator that lives at my work, Flipper Jr. No lie, at my work we have a little waterfall feature with a little rock pond and that is where Flipper Jr. lives, so everyday I risk my life just by walking into my office.
If you were an alligator would you rather live here in Living with the Land or live at mommy's work all alone in the fake pond? Mia elects to live at Disney so she would have other friends.

Here is Mia with Flipper at our annual alligator measuring party at work. Flipper is much bigger than the gators here. Those are alligators right? I really cannot tell the difference between crocodile and alligator.

Westin was not giving kisses that day but he did sit next to Flipper.

 

[sarahcor]

Back to Disney, a ride on living with the land isn't complete without some kind of plant life in the shape of Mickey.

We stopped by another fountain and found some kind of bug on the back edge, near the wall. I can hardly see it but I guess we found it entertaining because we took the time to take a picture of it, we're weirdos!

Now we really were going to a favorite attraction, Mia's favorite ride. See how excited she is.

She truly does love this ride. I have read about the first version of figment with the dreamfinder but having never experienced that ride we only have the current version and we like it. Look, there was even a line for it.

Figment selfie to send to daddy, or Fartment as he is called at home. We love potty humor, again we're weirdos

Speaking of potty humor, Westin was well prepared for the smelly skunk scene.

Uhoh, get ready for it, he's gonna blow! Westin was not picking his nose here, he was prepared to close his nostrils to avoid Figment's stinker.

But instead of squeezing his nose shut he blocked his nostrils with his fingers. I guess that works too? Yuck!

I know he will appreciate that picture in about 10 years!

Let's start our way around the countries. I have never taken a lot of time to explore the nooks and crannies of the different countries. Spoiler, we did not do much exploring on this trip around the lagoon either.

Hello Canada!

I was not a dancer as a child, I took a ballet class in 2nd grade and we performed Peter and the Wolf. I hated, hated, hated it and remember crying backstage because I was shy and I didn't want anyone to look at me.
If I could go back in time I would have definitely continued to take dance classes and gotten over that fear. Then I would audition to be a dancer at Disney, maybe one of the Main Street dancers that do the trolley show, that looks like it would be so much fun.
Since time travel isn't possible I settled for present day dance poses and/or jumps at each country. Needless to say I have gotten over people looking at me because I'm sure as people passed by they wondered what the heck is that lady doing.

 

[sarahcor]

Here is the monorail and some nice, puffy clouds. I am pretty sure this was prior to Canada but Mia and I both had cameras so I may be out of order a bit.

Back to Canada for some sticking your head through a hole pictures.

And we must have visited a bathroom although I'm not sure where it was but it was empty so a picture was taken. I think Epcot bathrooms are my favorite, I feel like I'm walking into the 80s when I visit one and they are usually not crowded and clean.

A little stop in the United Kingdom for some poses. I was able to get Mia to join in on the fun.

Onward to France. The kids love the croissant ham and cheese sandwich from the Les Halles Boulangerie Patisserie, I totally had to google that because we just call it the france quickservice and I took Spanish in school so I have no clue on how to even pronounce that. A quick pause for what was supposed to be a layout but was not successful.

We grabbed a bench off to the side and enjoyed lunch. You can see Westin was determined to get his hands on dessert first.

It was relatively quiet back in this corner so I attempted more dance pictures. Sorry sneaky dude hiding in the corner, I know you are trying to sneak a cigarette back there, you aren't fooling us.

Westin was preoccupied with the drink and I believe he spotted a lizard in the shrubs. By this time the sneaky guy knew his cover was blown so he left us to our crazy jumping.

 

[sarahcor]

A question to anyone out there who may be reading can you see my pictures? I made an account for my daughter so she can follow along but the pictures don't show for her. What am i doing wrong? Please help!!

She can see pictures that were posted recently. Maybe the 2015 pictures are too old?

 

[fractal]

I can see your photos and they are making me smile.


Your daughter likely has an issue with the browser she's using.

 

[RyPat]

The heat makes you think crazy thoughts. There were times I actually wanted to go home last August! These are not rational thoughts as NOBODY wants to leave Disney

When we go again, although I have no idea yet when that will be as it will take a lot of persuading to get a yes from the husband, it will not be in August!

This happened to us last August... MK was packed... it was HOT... it was HUMID... we were waiting in an hour line (outside) for Splash... after that we just went back to the pool and both said "i think i'm done w/ Disney for awhile!"

... that thought last for about 2 weeks and then we were jonesin' to go back already...!

 

[Courtney6682]

A question to anyone out there who may be reading can you see my pictures? I made an account for my daughter so she can follow along but the pictures don't show for her. What am i doing wrong? Please help!!

She can see pictures that were posted recently. Maybe the 2015 pictures are too old?

Same for me...I can't see your older pics, but I can see the new ones. Awesome empty epcot pics btw!

 

[sarahcor]

I can see your photos and they are making me smile.


Your daughter likely has an issue with the browser she's using.

Thanks, I'm so glad you can see them and they made you smile too! I was going to be pretty upset at myself if I did all these posts wrong!!

 

[sarahcor]

Same for me...I can't see your older pics, but I can see the new ones. Awesome empty epcot pics btw!

Good to know that you are having trouble with the older ones too. Maybe I will try to edit those posts and upload them again?

Once we got out of Future World and into the World Showcase crowds were pretty sparse, just the way I like it!

 

[fractal]

Thanks, I'm so glad you can see them and they made you smile too! I was going to be pretty upset at myself if I did all these posts wrong!!

I stand corrected. Your photos on the first page through Oct 15th no longer show up, although the video does.

Did you change your photohosting site perhaps?

 

[blreinsel]

You look like you're having so much fun at Epcot... I love it! Lol.