Ewles family trip 12/3 - 12/11

12/3
Well, after my father-in-law's funeral we changed into "travel" attire and fired up the motorhome and got on the road about 4:30pm for a long drive from Michigan. It started icing around Dayton, OH and it was about 20mph through Cincy and finally stopped icing around Lexington. That was brutal. My 6y/old son proudly proclaimed he was going to help me stay awake all night around 8:20pm and was sleeping soundly in his sleeping bag by 8:30pm :lol:

12/4
Jellico Mountain in TN was no picnic. The wind was blowing so hard I now know what it feels like to be a kite. A motorhome is nothing short of a large wind-catcher, lol... The rain stopped long enough for us to drive through downtown Atlanta and then started up again until the Florida border. It was almost freaky how suddenly it was 100% blue skies and sunshine after driving through the sleet and rain the whole way down. We finally arrived in Ft Wilderness around 2:30pm after 22 hours of straight-through driving :cry: The boys (5/6) spent some time on one of the play-grounds while I setup the motorhome and then we hopped a boat to the monorail and on over to GF to see the Gingerbread house (yummie!) and buy some tasty treats. Then a short stop at the Contemporary for the boys to swim. My parents (who arrived on 12/3 after an hour drive, lol) made a ham dinner and the kids went to bed around 8:30pm and were almost asleep immediately. My wife and I went down to the Trails End and had some great margarita's before finally hitting the sack around 10:30pm. Somewhere in the middle of the night my brother arrived from Chicago (lucky him he flew down).

12/5
Up early and off to the MK. BTW, the showers in FW are super clean and have great water pressure, lol... MK was it's typical crowded self, but we still were able to ride SpaceM, Buzz, Stitch, HM, SplashM, TSI, and BTMRR before settling in for lunch at Pecos Bill's. After lunch was greedily consumed we went on PoTC, a quick zip through the Treehouse and a stop at the Country Bears. We walked out just in time for Pal Mickey to tell us to stop and watch the parade so we found a spot and waited for it to go by. Then bought some tall suckers to keep the kids entertained while my mother and wife did some park shopping. Considering the crowd sizes I felt we got in a decent days riding. We went back to FW and took the boys swimming at the Meadows pool. After dinner (hot dogs, lol) the boys went straight to sleep (yeah for my parents who tucked them in nightly) and my wife, brother and I went down for another round of drinks at the Trails End. Interesting notes: It was a great day except the wooden sign on TSI (in the kids play area) was so rotted it fell off and had exposed metal screws sticking out, some of the false rocks outside of one of the TSI caves were busted open (like someone smashed them with their foot) and a fan blade from one of the ceiling fans at Trails End broke off and almost hit someone while we were sitting there.

12/6
Another early morning and we split up our group. Grandpa, my brother, and my stepson (16) went over to MGM and rode ToT, RnR and saw LMA. My wife, grandma, my two sons and I went over to Epcot and rode JiY (still miss the original and Figments play area, but it's better than it was), the Mexico boat ride, and the Maelstrom. Then the two groups met at TT and tried to take it for a spin. The ride broke down while we were about to go through the crash barrier and we had to walk the entire length of track back to the beginning which was interesting. Disney did give us two FP's that were good until 12/31/2005 and up to 6 people per pass. Some of the group went on M:S, but my 5y/old was too short so he and I hung out outside. We then went over on Soarin' which was the longest line of the day (40 mins). Dinner in Germany was next (man, the grosse bier is huge) and then the grandparents took the little one's back to FW. Next on the docket was drink sampling in Italy, Japan (where my wife picked out a 7mm pearl and had set in a ring), Morocco (shopping only as they don't have an "official" drink), France (champagne!), and a 1/2 yard of Guinness in the UK. After a refill on the 1/2 yard with a half and half (harp/guinness) we decided it was time to get back to FW and my stepson was sick of eating wasabi peas :lol:

12/7
The only day we left property as grandma had bought tickets for "The Holy Land Experience" which had some interesting displays and a good kids program that the boys enjoyed. Then off to downtown Disney where my stepson gourged himself on chocolate, the two youngest begged me for some legos (yes I gave in), and my wife bought more Christmas gifts.

12/8
Magical Express picked my brother up early and whisked him off to the airport. Thank goodness his plane landed 5 hours before that unfortunate SW flight skidded off the runway. He actually went to work and was sent home early because all the snow in Chicago. Florida wasn't much better as it rained almost all day. We donned our yellow Mickey poncho's then went and filled ourselves on breakfast with Donald Duck, Pluto, Goofy and Mickey at AK. Afterwards we hopped right on Dinosaur and bought a souvenier photo (it was too good to pass up). My wife's poncho had ripped and they exchanged it for a new clear one at no cost (nice!). We walked over and did ITTBaB but then the rain was really coming down and everyone was tired so we skipped back to the motorhome were the boys sat down and did homework and played with new WDW toys.

12/9
Up early again and off to MGM. LMA, Star Tours, lunch at the Commissary (very filling), ToT and then back to the motorhome for a short nap. We arrived at the MK and MVMCP around 6:10pm and quick jumped into the Santa photo line. Then off to Liberty Square where we walked right onto HM, IaSW, PPF, MP, SWSA, Dumbo, Goofy's Barnstormer (4 times), Mickey Photo, MTeaCups, Tomorrowland Speedway, SpaceM, and Buzz. Then into Main Street for the Holiday Wishes (awesome) and over to Adventureland for the free family photo and PoTC. Then snagged some Cookies/Cocoa and settled into Frontierland for the 2nd parade. I gave my front row seat up for a family with small children and of course (as always) some very large women bowled me over at the last second trying to push her way up to the front (ugh). I don't understand that, we were all sitting there for at least 20 mins it's not like it was hard to see over us. I finally had to give her "the look" and she backed up one step, but of course smashed into me again during the parade.

12/10
The grandparents left early in the morning and we hiked back over to Epcot to use our FP on TT and hit M:S. My five year old was still too short (his hair touched the sign) so I took him into the M:S play area where I had to drag him out kicking and screaming when my other two kids finished. Then some more shopping for my wife in the countries and a boat ride over to the Boardwalk for lunch at ESPN. HINT: If you are going to order the Superbowl Sundae do not eat food before-hand. I think the 5 of us only finished half of it at best. Then we continued the boat over to MGM and rode Star Tours, let the kids run around like mad in the HISTK play area and sat down in the middle of New York to wait for the Osborn lights to come on. WOW! You have no idea what to expect until they flick the switch. It is awesome to be sitting there when the lights turn on. We quickly walked the grounds and left before the mass of humanity starting pushing through and went over for a ride on ToT before doing some more shopping and heading back to FW. At about 9:30 pm I told my wife I wasn't sleepy so we bundled the kids into the motorhome and drove to the Georgia border where we slept until 4am.

12/11
The ride home was much less eventful except the white-out between Lexington and Cincinnati. Arrived home at 8:30pm that night (17 hours of driving) and plowed my way up the 10" of snow we have here in Michigan.

Ugh...it's 10degrees here today and I'm already missing WDW!
 

MichRX7

Premium Member
Original Poster
lol, true I think my wife is sick and tired of hearing me say "See, we could be living here right now"

I was even pointing out areas where I had looked online for houses/land as we drove through Clermont on 27 and 192.

But the thing about winter/snow up here is that if it's going to get cold it might as well snow. The more snow the better. Right now I have about 12" on my deck and it's just barely coming down. I'd rather see it as a white-out and the school have to send my kids home so I can take them sledding. :lol:
 

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