Trip Report I still have a family (just) but what a totally different experience we had. ** completed

Hi my Disney friends

I’m back and to be honest it all feels like a total blur.

As the title suggests I do still have a family but there were some bumps in the road. I’ll share some details and thoughts as we go. Be warned though this won’t be like any of my other TR’s the magic whilst there was not as strong as previous trips and the whole pace was much slower. You might ask yourself where has Tracey gone? I asked myself the same thing - don’t get me wrong it was still fun and my nephews had the best time which was the main aim but some things that happened just took the gloss off.

I always used to look at big groups and imagine what fun it would be, but in truth it restricts a lot of things you do, everything happens much slower and not everything gets done - although I think I was probably the only one who noticed that.

Anyhow let’s start this......

So the background

This holiday as I mentioned in the PTR was the first for my sister in 14 years (a messy divorce left her to bring up my 2 nephews) my younger nephew had never been on a plane and my older nephew had only flown once when he was 2 (he doesn’t remember that)
We had booked it a year and a half beforehand for the whole family. Myself, Chris, sister her partner, 2 nephews, my brother and sister in law and my mum - 9 of us we’re going to Disney (they said Florida) but I knew different.

We were going from 19th Aug to 1st September 13 nights in a villa (you know I love POR) - we were trying to keep the cost down for my sister!

The WhatsApp group was in full use before we went - how much luggage can I take? Can I pack x in my hand luggage? Whose getting on TOT - we involve everyone in the pre holiday excitement.

Next up getting there - and some photos! (Sorry for the text heavy start)

 

[fizzieee]

I'm a bit behind but so excited for another @Longers TR! I've been reading your TRs for a while now and i just love reading about all of your adventures. Thanks for sharing with us!!!

 

[Longers]

We got to Uni 2 days after this! We love the Harry Potter areas as well. I prefer Gringott’s over Forbidden Journey although I love walking through the castle.

Isn’t Gringotts an amazing ride?!
Hope you had a great time

I'm a bit behind but so excited for another @Longers TR! I've been reading your TRs for a while now and i just love reading about all of your adventures. Thanks for sharing with us!!!

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Thanks for reading not only this report but others - I’m glad you enjoy them - I’m sure your noticing a difference - not many BRMRR rides and not much ice cream for starters......

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

sn’t Gringotts an amazing ride?!
Hope you had a great time

Gringott’s is amazing, but the Hagrid coaster beats it by miles! Hope you managed some ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s. So delicious.
Yes, we had a great time. Just dh and my kids, so no others to worry about making happy.
We got the surfboard picture done that trip as well.

 

[Longers]

Gringott’s is amazing, but the Hagrid coaster beats it by miles! Hope you managed some ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s. So delicious.
Yes, we had a great time. Just dh and my kids, so no others to worry about making happy.
We got the surfboard picture done that trip as well.

We didn’t get to ride that - the queues were too long for anyone to be prepared to wait but from what we saw it looked like a lot of fun

 

[coachwnh]

Im all caught up. Looking forward to more.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

We didn’t get to ride that - the queues were too long for anyone to be prepared to wait but from what we saw it looked like a lot of fun

We got to the park entrance an hour and a half before opening. We walked through the queue and were on the ride within 15 minutes of getting to the ride. There were so many people running. We walked of course, quickly, but nonetheless walked. There was a menacing guard that yelled at people to walk or they would be sent back to the front. Made me laugh.

 

[MickeyCB]

All caught up and while I'm sorry for you about the stress you experienced, I am enjoying reading along.

 

[Longers]

We got to the park entrance an hour and a half before opening. We walked through the queue and were on the ride within 15 minutes of getting to the ride. There were so many people running. We walked of course, quickly, but nonetheless walked. There was a menacing guard that yelled at people to walk or they would be sent back to the front. Made me laugh.

Wow you did really well - we did considered heading straight there on our 2nd Universal day but we were late so it never happened!

 

[Longers]

Im all caught up. Looking forward to more.

Hi there. Hope all is good with you - good to have you here.

All caught up and while I'm sorry for you about the stress you experienced, I am enjoying reading along.

Thank you - glad its not too much drama for you to stop reading. It’s like therapy writing it all down!

 

[Longers]

Saturday 24th Aug - day 5

Today I woke with a much more positive attitude. Hoorah..... enough was enough I was going to ignore everything and try to carry on as best I could.

Last night while my sister, her partner and the boys were round/in the pool myself and my brother had looked for hotel rooms - (my mum wanted to come too) we’d had enough of the atmosphere, the tension, well basically everything. If we left they could have a family holiday together and we could at least salvage some of the time we had left.

Chris had been in the shower and when he joined us and we explained our thoughts he reminded us of why we had all come on this holiday - for my sister and the boys and that if we left it would highlight to the boys that there were issues and it could spoil it for my sister as she would be stuck in the middle.

The boys had gone through enough with their dad saying things that weren’t true and him manipulating them in trying to feel sorry for him without them knowing how he turned things.

My older nephew as I’ve said before has lived with his dad for 2 years now and my sister had this opportunity to spend time with him as did we. She was now an hour and a half drive from him so time was precious. Why should it all be spoilt by 1 person?

As I left my room I opened the door and across the way in my brothers bedroom he did not look happy.

I went in and closed the door and talked to him. He was not having a good morning - I told him how I’d had enough and I knew he had too. I would be polite but I wasn’t going out of my way to talk to my sister’s partner and we needed to change our mindset as this would spoilt it. If things were going to continue how they had been then I was ignoring it.

By the time we’d finished we were both laughing and we bounce downstairs for breakfast.

As we were all sorting out our bits, fans, cooling towels, drinks etc my sister came out of her room saying her partner had lost $300 it was in the room yesterday but had gone missing. It had been locked away and the keys were in the right place the money was not.

I remember in that moment thinking to myself “oh well serves you right maybe this is payback”. Thankfully those words didn’t leave my mouth as I didn’t really mean it - that’s a lot of money to lose but no one could have got in the villa so it must be somewhere. We all helped try to ask where it had been left etc.

My sisters partner finally came out of the room saying don’t worry let’s just leave he would look later.

We left the villa at 8.35am and headed to Epcot.

There was no queue for spaceship earth so we hopped right on.

My nephews were shocked at how everything fitted in. Something I’ve been wondering for years!


Straight from here to Soarin. Myself and Chris are not bothered about the ride anymore but everyone else loved it.

Off to see the purple guy we went - it broke down!

There were a few rides that broke down this trip - more than I had ever experienced so we blamed my sister for them all and as this one stopped - everyone just shouted out her name!

 

[Longers]

They had a photopass photo booth on the way out so my sister and I stopped for some photos.

I don’t think anyone was impressed with Figment so to make up for it I pointed them to the quietest and unknown rest rooms in Epcot next to figment - I think that impressed them (not really). But thy were empty!

We then headed to world showcase for a walk in the heat.

From memory I don’t think we went into every country as the heat was quite intense and we had FP at MK starting at 2pm.

We did Stop in Italy for the boys to get a picture with their mum - everyone else tried to find shade from the intense heat.

 

[Longers]

We left the park after a full lap and hopped onto the monorail to the MK

I had hoped to catch the parade - you know I love the parade and we hadn’t been fortunate to see it yet - but everyone else wanted air conditioning. I tried to stall them in the confectionery as I knew the parade was coming. It worked in part. I left them in the shop and headed outside to watch, knowing they wanted to move on but knowing this might be my only chance. I sang and just tried to get into the moment for a few minutes but knew everyone wanted to move on. I saw the beast so I guess I’ve got to be happy with that. I watched almost to the end (my sister and mum had joined me to watch). We started walking against the traffic into the park as others were trying to exit.
As we arrived at the hub I tried to work out who was going on Splash mountain as the others could meet us somewhere as our FP window was fast approaching running out. 6 of us headed over including my sisters partner. We got to tap in at the FP point and realised the boys didn’t have their park tickets - urghhhh.

We told them we would ride and they would have to wait - I know - we were just trying to make them think for themselves. We didn’t have time to retrieve the tickets so I just asked at the tap in point. He looked at our account and could see we had 9 FP and there were only 6 of us and we couldn’t possibly have gone round again due to the time and thankfully he let us in.
We had a good ride but clearly my sisters partner was still not over things and said everyone thought he was grumpy so he did his grumpy face!

As we left we agreed to wind my sister up and say the boys couldn’t ride as she had their tickets so they had waited for us outside.

We joined them just outside PP for the next FP and the wind up started. It went on for a few minutes and then we had to tell her. It made a bit of fun for the day even though it was at her expense. She did see the funny side.

The FP line for PP was at least 35 mins and it was hot and busy so we decided to leave and head back. (Missing our pan and jungle cruise FP which I cancelled hoping they might help someone else)

We made our way out of the park to the monorail

We jumped on a monorail and when we got the the TTC the Epcot monorail wasn’t running so we had to get on a bus. At least everyone got on a Disney bus but having to hold the wheelchair wasn’t easy as we folded it rather than taking up additional space and making everyone wait.

We arrived back at Epcot and had to go through security again just to get to the car!

Everyone was hungry so we stopped at Cicci pizza on the way back for a buffet. (I had a take away McDonald’s as I don’t do pizza) The boys made full use of unlimited cheese pizza.

He still talks about his pizza buffet!

We filled the car with petrol and headed back to the villa. We were back by 7.30pm and again everyone stayed in!

The weather had taken its toll today and everyone was tired and we had a full day tomorrow.

The good news was it was a better day. There was still tension as you could feel it but with a different attitude it was much better.

 

[Swissmiss]

I’m glad that this day went better

 

[riverside]

Glad to hear things started getting better!!

You & your sister could be twins--you look so much alike!!

 

[lindawdw]

Just signing on. I'm so sorry that your sister's partner couldn't contain his selfish attitude and created such tension for everyone else. I've been on family trips where that has happened and it's the worst because you are stuck in that tension filled situation until either the person causing it breaks the awkwardness and apologizes or the trip is finally over with and you feel like you wasted a trip that you so looked forwarded to going on. It does sound like your nephews either chose to ignore his behavior and wouldn't let it ruin their good time or they just didn't catch onto what was happening. As you said from the beginning, this trip was for your nephews to create magical memories with your sister and hopefully they did. I've been to WDW a few times over the summer months and the temperatures are so high that it can really make you feel lethargic and sick at times. I hope from this day forward, the rest of your time was filled with happy moments together.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

We left the park after a full lap and hopped onto the monorail to the MK

I had hoped to catch the parade - you know I love the parade and we hadn’t been fortunate to see it yet - but everyone else wanted air conditioning. I tried to stall them in the confectionery as I knew the parade was coming. It worked in part. I left them in the shop and headed outside to watch, knowing they wanted to move on but knowing this might be my only chance. I sang and just tried to get into the moment for a few minutes but knew everyone wanted to move on. I saw the beast so I guess I’ve got to be happy with that. I watched almost to the end (my sister and mum had joined me to watch). We started walking against the traffic into the park as others were trying to exit.
As we arrived at the hub I tried to work out who was going on Splash mountain as the others could meet us somewhere as our FP window was fast approaching running out. 6 of us headed over including my sisters partner. We got to tap in at the FP point and realised the boys didn’t have their park tickets - urghhhh.

We told them we would ride and they would have to wait - I know - we were just trying to make them think for themselves. We didn’t have time to retrieve the tickets so I just asked at the tap in point. He looked at our account and could see we had 9 FP and there were only 6 of us and we couldn’t possibly have gone round again due to the time and thankfully he let us in.
We had a good ride but clearly my sisters partner was still not over things and said everyone thought he was grumpy so he did his grumpy face!

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As we left we agreed to wind my sister up and say the boys couldn’t ride as she had their tickets so they had waited for us outside.

We joined them just outside PP for the next FP and the wind up started. It went on for a few minutes and then we had to tell her. It made a bit of fun for the day even though it was at her expense. She did see the funny side.

The FP line for PP was at least 35 mins and it was hot and busy so we decided to leave and head back. (Missing our pan and jungle cruise FP which I cancelled hoping they might help someone else)

We made our way out of the park to the monorail

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We jumped on a monorail and when we got the the TTC the Epcot monorail wasn’t running so we had to get on a bus. At least everyone got on a Disney bus but having to hold the wheelchair wasn’t easy as we folded it rather than taking up additional space and making everyone wait.

We arrived back at Epcot and had to go through security again just to get to the car!

Everyone was hungry so we stopped at Cicci pizza on the way back for a buffet. (I had a take away McDonald’s as I don’t do pizza) The boys made full use of unlimited cheese pizza.

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He still talks about his pizza buffet!

We filled the car with petrol and headed back to the villa. We were back by 7.30pm and again everyone stayed in!

The weather had taken its toll today and everyone was tired and we had a full day tomorrow.

The good news was it was a better day. There was still tension as you could feel it but with a different attitude it was much better.

Glad this was a better day overall. Hope that your sister's partner found the missing money.

 

[Darstarr]

Loving the report but sad about the immature behavior. We all have bad days......but really?!?
Sorry our paths didnt cross this trip.

One more thing...
GO DODGERS!!!!

 

[DryerLintFan]

We carried on making our way out - we’d received a WhatsApp asking how we were doing and were we still on schedule for a 7.30 meet at Target. we agreed but we didn’t rush out - we figured by the time we would be there maybe all the shopping would be done.

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We spotted these cool water stations - there was no water left in this one though!

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This cast member obliged in a farewell photo

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And in just over an hour we were out and in the car on the way to meet the rest of the family.

Now if you read my PRT you will know my mum had been poorly and at one stage we weren’t sure if she would come - well all the walking of the day had worn her out so she didn’t come to target.

Myself and Chris arrived at 7.45 and I was immediately updated with a hire place just outside that hired wheelchairs - they closed at 8pm and did have one we could take so my brother and I went to get it. Now I knew my mum wouldn’t be happy but she was shattered and we all wanted her there.

Our thought process was get it and even if we just wheel it about so be it - the option would then be there.

We finished at target - wheelchair and shopping in the boot and back to the villa we went.

I still remember telling my mum that night that we had hired a wheelchair she cried - I could see in her eyes her disappointment at being ill and on this holiday and it broke my heart. She is so active and wanted to walk but we kept saying if you use just when you are tired at least we have the option.
We told her we would leave in the boot of the car if she didn’t want it.
My nephews were great they said they would push her and give her some wheelies too.
She finally agreed she knew it was the right thing and we all agreed just to let her use it when she wanted.

Now also in my PRT were details of some post it notes I took to get my nephews to write down their memories of each day. Both of them on this day put down something similar

“Getting pranked on splash mountain by the little drop thinking it was the big one”

Mine was “getting to spend a day in Disney with my family and finally getting my nephews on the rides I love”

Day 1 was over and so far so good - but that was all about to change!

I love the post-it idea! I might have to start that tradition with A!! Right now I ask her what her favorite part of the day was but we don't write it down.

 

[Longers]

I’m glad that this day went better

Thank you

Glad to hear things started getting better!!

You & your sister could be twins--you look so much alike!!

Maybe on that day but we don’t normally! And I am a happy (younger) looking version hopefully - even though I am the oldest.

Just signing on. I'm so sorry that your sister's partner couldn't contain his selfish attitude and created such tension for everyone else. I've been on family trips where that has happened and it's the worst because you are stuck in that tension filled situation until either the person causing it breaks the awkwardness and apologizes or the trip is finally over with and you feel like you wasted a trip that you so looked forwarded to going on. It does sound like your nephews either chose to ignore his behavior and wouldn't let it ruin their good time or they just didn't catch onto what was happening. As you said from the beginning, this trip was for your nephews to create magical memories with your sister and hopefully they did. I've been to WDW a few times over the summer months and the temperatures are so high that it can really make you feel lethargic and sick at times. I hope from this day forward, the rest of your time was filled with happy moments together.

Like you say I think he should have apologised and sorted this while he was there - unfortunately that never happened hence the tension on every day after that and it’s still going on and we’ve been back quite a few weeks now.

Like you say I’m glad the boys didn’t catch on - I think as it was their first holiday they were just living in the moment. Thank goodness.

Glad this was a better day overall. Hope that your sister's partner found the missing money.

He did - the following day - probably if he hadn’t had the hump he might not have lost it in the first place.

Loving the report but sad about the immature behavior. We all have bad days......but really?!?
Sorry our paths didnt cross this trip.

One more thing...
GO DODGERS!!!!

I’m sorry too - I did wonder if you had arrived as there was very little rain

I love the post-it idea! I might have to start that tradition with A!! Right now I ask her what her favorite part of the day was but we don't write it down.

Unfortunately after the tension we only had them written down for 2 days! I was hoping to get them all put in a book as memories with the photos but that idea has now gone out of the window! I would suggest it if you can keep it up though as I made them write them too which if they were younger would have helped with spelling and handwriting.
A is such a character maybe you should just make a book of all her comments - people would buy it - she’s so funny!

 

[Longers]

Sunday 25th Aug - day 6 - Kennedy space centre aka Derek day.

So why Derek day? He was my mums uncle and passed away last year. I had only known him a few years due to a family rift but he was so like my Nan who I loved dearly. He was so funny just like her - it was a pleasure to be around him. My mum and I think of him often and still tear up when we talk about him. It’s funny how some people can touch your heart and life in that way.

He left my mum some money in his will and she paid for us all to go to Kennedy so we could have Derek day. Only happy thoughts would be around today and god help anyone who tried to spoil it.

Everyone was up and ready by 7.15 - both teenagers however were asleep - it’s amazing how they should have all the energy but we had more than them. They finally emerged and were ready to go.

We left the villa at 8am and headed to Kennedy.

I still can’t get over how straight the roads are they just go on for miles.

We arrived around 9.10 at Kennedy and went straight to the Atlantis experience - as I’ve mentioned in a previous TR we have had the pleasure of watching this shuttle take off. The boys were in awe of it all.

I think he was trying to be an astronaut

I think he was glad his phone still worked in space!

I found the toilet........ it’s always fascinating around how they go to the toilet in space.