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)

 

[Longers]

On our journey to the villa we saw many icons in the distance - TOT etc which we pointed out as we went.

We arrived at the villa in Tuscan Hills and left all the suitcases in the car to go and look around - myself and my brother had already had a discussion to let me sister pick whichever bedroom she wanted - we wanted her to have a fab holiday too given she had been years without one.

She went running around like a child in a sweetshop looking at everything - all of a sudden everyone had found another bit of energy. It was at this point a comment was made by my sisters partner as he entered the villa hearing my brother and I say to her pick what room you like - which didn't matter at the time but would later add to the frustration and friction that was caused on this trip.

The villa had 3 double bedrooms and 2 twin rooms - so the nephews would be in one room together and my mum in the other twin by herself.

I heard a shout from upstairs saying "oh no" - on going upstairs one of the rooms was completely decked out in princess wallpaper - thankfully there was another twin with toy story in so the boys took that and my mum took princesses.

3 of the double rooms all had en suites and my sister finally decided on the downstairs bedroom - not for her but for her partner who suffers with a bad back occasionally so she thought that would be better.

My brother and I sorted the other rooms but we all agreed that with 4 bathrooms but only 3 showers everyone would be sharing anyway.

we decided to leave the unpacking and to go to get some provisions for breakfast etc and some food. We found a MCdonalds, stcaked up on breakfast cereal and milk etc and headed back to bed - i think I got into bed at something like 10.30pm which is like 3.30am at home.

next up our first day in the park and Magic Kingdom

 

[Disstevefan1]

Great start! Looking forward to following along!

 

[Longers]

Tuesday 20th August - our first day in the parks

As I thought everyone was up early today - jet lag normally means an early start for us and for the rest it was no different - we'd told everyone to be ready at 6.30am - for the most part everyone was but my younger nephew can't seem to stick to any times and just as you leave he has to go to the toilet, put sun tan cream on etc so it was 6.45am before the cars moved from the drive.

Now for any of you who have stayed in Tuscan Hills which is by Davenport they will know the road with approx. 13 traffic lights on you have to navigate to get to the Disney turn off - this wasn't too much of an issue this morning and we were parking the car at approx. 7.30am in the TTC. We had tickets for all 7 of them to collect so we picked them up and headed towards the monorail (our choice normally for a first visit would be the ferry but for teenage boys we thought they'd prefer the monorail) - the monorail was down so we had to take the ferry anyway.

it was warm out, the sun was shining and I had a whole day of Disney ahead of me - I was with my family and I was ready to get my Disney fix and hopefully show them some of the magic.

As we walked off the ferry my sisters partner was making comments to me to try to wind me up - I ignored him and actually turned round and said to him "no matter what you do you won't spoil this for me so jog on you're wasting your time" - I'm not sure why he decided to try to make comments but as far as I was concerned nothing could spoil this

I'd waited years to be with my nephews in Disney - my mum and brother and SIL had been with us before but I'd always wondered what my nephews would think and I just wanted to have a laugh and some fun like I always do.

We entered to the Halloween decorations which I really wish I'd had more time to appreciate - I took a few photos and we made our way to the castle - now you know I normally cry at this sight - but there were no tears! - I don't know if it was because I was so busy concentrating to make sure everyone else was ok but they didn't come.

We made our way into Tomorrowland and were originally heading to Buzz but decided as we had FP for that later we would head to the teacups - I know the teacups!? but after my sisters divorce back in 2006 I paid for the boys and her to go to Disneyland Paris and they remember this ride from there and both wanted to do it and who am I to say different - I wanted them to have the best time at whatever cost.

We headed to the barnstormer next as we were trying to get my sister on a mini roller coaster - she never joined us - she sat out with her partner and my mum

Next we headed to Dumbo - I was surprised my nephews were happy to partake - I did think I would get told they were baby rides but all was good.

My oldest nephew was then hungry so we went into storybook treats to see what he could find.

Crispy treat for him as we walked to our next ride

 

[Longers]

It was then time for our first Fp - 10.15m Buzz - I booked this as I knew everyone would be able to ride. My sister is very competitive and my younger nephew had ben reading up on how to get the best score - the challenge was on

I think it was my SIL who won as she came out with 99999 but she still thinks something was broken which enabled her to get this score!

At home all of my older nephews friends say he looks like Buzz so I hoped that he would be in his normal meet and greet location - as we came out there he was - I pointed for my nephew and without a second glance he was off - I joined him in the queue as he had appointed me his Instagram photographer for this holiday - wasn't I lucky.

He had a really good meet and greet - he told Buzz how he had the same hair as him and they posed for photos like old friends - I cannot tell a lie it was so nice to see but how I wish he could have come when he was a few years younger.
it turned out this was the only meet and greet of the whole holiday!!

We left buzz and walked to HM - I told mum to pose for a photo as this would be my first ever one on HM as last time we visited they weren't a thing. She obliged.

We had a 1.55FP for BTMRR and it was now around 1pm and Splash had a 30 min wait time displayed - There were 5 of us that wanted to do Splash and BTMRR but the others were happy to miss out so we agreed to meet after BTMRR and off we went.
The 5 of us joined the Splash queue but nothing seemed to be moving - we had waited ages and had pretty much gone no where - at all - at this point my sisters partner bailed out and then we realised that the boys FP tickets for BTMRR were with my sister so Chris ducked out of the queue to go and get them. Once Chris came back he told us that everyone was ready to leave and he thought we should just bail out of Splash and go to BTMRR and then we would call it a day - both the boys really wanted to stay and it wasn't quite 1.55 yet anyway. We waited in the queue and finally made it on.

As the ride started my younger nephew started to tap his hands and do a little jig in the boat - I very nearly had a tear in my eye - he is normally so grown up and serious - this was a hint of what Disney can do to you. I actually turned round to him and said - "see I told you they sprinkle you with pixie dust" to which he rolled his eyes and just said "yer right"

In that moment myself and Chris were just grinning - these 2 boys were finally on a holiday - they were both together laughing - it was just a very special moment

 

[Longers]

We got off of Splash at around 2.15pm - everyone was waiting but there was a BTMRR FP going - I looked at Chris and said "are we really going to miss this?"

He agreed that whilst everyone seemed to be tired, hot and wanted to leave we would be mad not to go and ride. My sisters partner was waiting to join us so on we went.

Obviously we asked for the back row!
I let my nephews take it so they could have the "wildest ride in the wilderness" and off we went.

I'm pleased to report they loved it like I do - so I still have 2 nephews - lucky them

We stopped to get a photo - just so my older nephew could pull the same face near BTMRR as he did in 2006

We met up with the others and made our way out of the park - I think it was something like 4.30pm by the time we got back to the villa - I had missed the parade but we'd had a good day.

We had hoped everyone would want to go back out but the feeling in the villa was that no one was going so they spent time in the pool.

We however did not!

We had a SWGE pass-holder event and we were not going to waste the opportunity........

 

[Longers]

Great start! Looking forward to following along!

Thank you & welcome

 

[myhappyplace]

Reading along and enjoying!

Been there on large group trip--while it was fun, I much prefer our normal trips for sure! I felt like I had to try to please everyone!

Excellent first day!

 

[LisaBelle]

Late to the party, but all caught up! So happy your nephews enjoyed MK! Love the photos with Buzz and so happy they loved Splash & BTMR!

 

[Longers]

Reading along and enjoying!

Been there on large group trip--while it was fun, I much prefer our normal trips for sure! I felt like I had to try to please everyone!

Excellent first day!

Very true - I tried to let everyone go at their own pace to take everything in but I feel like we missed so much.

Late to the party, but all caught up! So happy your nephews enjoyed MK! Love the photos with Buzz and so happy they loved Splash & BTMR!

Better late than never

 

[Longers]

So our first day in MK had come to a close and everyone seemed content on staying in.
Now if there would have been a desire to go out we would have forfeited our SWGE preview - I have watched some of the films but I’m not a fan and Chris felt the same. My brother however really wanted to go.

We knew we couldn’t get him in and decided that we would leave the villa quietly to see what it was all about and we wouldn’t make a big thing of it when we got back.

Our preview was 3pm to 7pm and it was already 5.25pm so we agreed with everyone else we would just go for an hour and would meet them at target at 7.30pm to get some food and the necessaries for the villa.

We headed out and arrived in HS at 6pm

Wow it looked different with the new security points.

We headed straight into the park and straight to SWGE to register.
It was kind of fun to be “that person” who was getting let in while everyone else just stood there and wished!

We apologised for being late but said we would only stay an hour but we were told to take our time no one would be coming to remove us!

We made our way in......

Trash cans

It was really quiet with very few people about.

The rock work colours here were just stunning - this is the actual picture I took with my camera - no filters etc.
It just looks unreal.

 

[Longers]

We continued exploring - Disney know how to do detail and immerse you in an experience!

 

[Longers]

Round the next corner was where I went - wow!
This place was bigger than I expected to just have 2 rides in it!

Chris went into the single rider line for the millennium falcon and I think was back within 20 mins - I took photos to show my brother on the way home just in case we didn’t get back after it officially opened.

 

[Longers]

We continued exploring together.

 

[Longers]

Chewy was doing some checks!

Storm troopers with an additional smaller version.
Those will be some great memories for that child right there.

We carried on

 

[Back!Elbow!Shoulders!]

Chewy was doing some checks!

View attachment 410808

View attachment 410809


Storm troopers with an additional smaller version.
Those will be some great memories for that child right there.

View attachment 410810

We carried on

View attachment 410811

View attachment 410812

View attachment 410813

View attachment 410814

View attachment 410815

View attachment 410816

View attachment 410817

That tiny stormtrooper-

 

[Doc Disney]

I'm here!
Traveling with a big group is definitely very hard - we have our big family trip in December but thankfully most of us have gone in the last few months so I don't feel the same pressure to make everyone happy

 

[MeeskaMooska0714]

Following along! I'm hoping for a big family trip sometime within the next few years, but I feel like it will be hard being the "expert" and keeping everyone happy. Can't wait to read more!

 

[Spash007]

I'm a tad late, but following along! While not nearly as large, we went with my in laws last time, and I completely know where you're coming from about that magic feeling on the entrance not being there. I was so consumed with thoughts of getting things put together and organized that it didn't hit right away like I was expecting. Lots of great memories to look back on, but it is definitely a different experience!
But, all of those memories you helped to create for your nephews in just that first day are awesome!

 

[WDisneyW]

Following!

 

[Tiggertoo56]

Glad to see that your nephews were having a good time. You never know how the will react at their ages. We took our son when he was 10 and he collected loads of autographs. Next time we went he was 14 and wasn't sure but took his book back with him and collected more. Our friends son is older and 'wasn't going g to do the childish things' bug as soon as we walked into MK and saw the lines to meet Goofy he rushed off to buy an autograph book.
We reminded him of that recently as we're looking to plan avist in 2021- and that will be a large group of 12-15 but we won't be planning to all do the same things all of the time so may be easier than your trip this time.
I'm sure your next trip will remind you of all the special magic for just the 2 of you.