Trip Report Nov '13 - Surprise, 1/2 Marathon, Paraguayan Family, NOT totally a clusterfudge trip of a lifetime

sshindel · Dec 2, 2013

I think Saludos Amigos might have to move:

(The small ones are frames to swap out the kids latest school art projects, which cannot move)

sshindel · Dec 3, 2013

Wow, we're finally closing in on the last few days of the trip here. The funny thing is, this TR has probably taken as long to write as the trip took (and that is only a slight exaggeration).

We're up and raring to go again, slowly, this morning, headed back to the MK. For our family, that park is just as the name implies... Magic. I could probably spend an entire happy trip doing nothing but the MK.

We're again up and out the door at the bright and early time of 10am or so, maybe a little after. The rest of the family is not stirring yet again. We'll see them later. We've got things to do! Oh yeah, tonight is a late night, because we've got tickets to MVMCP! Today was originally going to be a day to sleep/swim/shop before the party, but we've got enough still on the list of things we'd like to do that we're doubling up on our tickets to get that maximum MK time. Also, we've got some old friends of Andrea, and their kid who is friends with Charlotte, who time/distance has separated a bit, that are going to be at the MK today as well that we want to catch up with.

Something I forgot to mention a few posts ago (I know, look at the massive amount of text in there, how could I forget to write anything). My wife and I had purchased a 3-day ticket from Undercover Tourist, which we were using to supplement some existing, non-expiring, tickets that we'd marked down having 2 days left on them. Last time we were at MK, the line for guest relations was pretty much non-existent, so I popped over just to check that those tickets actually HAD 2 days left on them. They did, and they went ahead and converted them to current non-expiring 2-day Magic Your Way tickets, and informed us that we still had 6 water park visits on there as well! The new tickets would just be easier for us to use, as they were not "old" tickets. After our last visit to the MK, the tickets on our MB+ were "empty", so I had gone in and linked the new tickets using the MDE app on my phone, using the QR code reader built into the app to enter the tickets. Worked like a charm from what I could tell, but this trip in would be the test. Would the tickets work?

Yup. No problems. Still, at this point in our trip, aside from my mom not having her band work as a roomkey on the first night, we've not experienced a SINGLE problem with the MB+. Everything has worked without issue.

We're in the gate, snap a couple quick Photopass pictures at both the train station and on MSUSA. I had a Mickey Mouse watch that I'd purchased a few years ago, and when I went to get the battery changed, the jeweler that I had went to said that he didn't have the right tool to snap the back onto the watch again, so I had brought the watch with me and popped into the jewelers on MSUSA to see if they could fix it. Nope. For some reason, they said they are not even allowed to replace batteries, and they do not have the tools to fix their own watches. I should try Sears they said. WHAT? Ugh. That reminds me, I'm stopping by Sears today to see if I can get that thing finally fixed. Anyway. We head outside and the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It parade is going on, so we make a quick stop to watch the girls favorites go by.

Disney just flat out does it's entertainment shows right. The kids (and the parents) love this little parade. We watch until it moves past us and then we're heading to finally get Evie to meet her main man, Woody.
Over to Splash Mountain.
We get in line, and about 10 minutes in the CM comes back to let us know:

Ok folks, Woody and Jessie are going to leave in about 5 minutes to go and check on Bullseye. After that, Woody has a rodeo and wont be back for a while, but Jessie will be back out about 5 minutes later.

Woody was the reason we were there. After explaining this to the CM, she assures us that Woody would be back "probably" in about 30-45 minutes. We're quite far in line by this point, only about 6 people ahead of us when Woody and Jessie both go away. My wife decides that she's staying in line, and is going to just park it on the bench. When Jessie comes back, she'll let people pass her by. She's not getting out of line, and Evie is going to see Woody. When he comes back, she'll just jump back up. She makes sure this is ok with the CM before getting a seat on the bench in line. Charlotte and I take the opportunity to sneak off for another trip up Spash Mountain. The line is only about 10 minutes at this point, so we're not gone long. When we get back, they're still sitting down, but in the back of the line, our friends have showed up. We do some chatting, their kid sneaks up with us (I know, we're a line-cutting bunch!), and the CM tells us "You might want to jump back up in line now", and sure enough Woody is out about 5 minutes later, and just about the time we make it up to the front of the line.

Woody and Jessie were REALLY great with the kids. I know that the same can be said for almost all of the characters, but really, they were extra good when you told them how much your kid loves their character.

After this, Andrea and Charlotte, along with their friends, head over to ride Big Thunder, while the husband and their younger kid join Evie and I at the little playground nextdoor. I never quite asked them how many times they rode Big Thunder, because I have a feeling it was WAY more than once. Andrea did say how much they all loved all of the little interactive parts added to the queue, so maybe the line was longer than I thought, but I'm pretty sure they were gone close to an hour all said and done.

From BTMRR, we head over so Charlotte and her friend can ride Pirates together, twice (once with me, once with Andrea) and by this time (around 1:30pm I think), the friends decide they are going to take off back to their resort to get the kids naps. We decide to push on, and it's lunchtime. We're near Pecos Bills again, but NOT THIS TIME. We decide we might give Be Our Guest a shot, and head over towards Fantasyland. The line for Be Our Guest is longer than we want to stand in, and we're hungry, so we head to Gaston's for some Pork Shank and LaFou's Brew.

Its at this moment, and as much as I wish it were my idea, props have to go to the genius that is my wife, she throws out the statement:

You know, I bet this pork would taste pretty good with a cinnamon roll...

Before she had even finished, I was up in line again. Let me tell you something. This right here. This is MAGIC.

Unroll the cinnamon roll a bit, insert pork pieces, either roll back up, or top with another piece of cinnamon roll. Nothing spells vacation line cinnamon roll / pork shank sandwiches...

Within the span of this trip, Evie has started to have what started out as a small infatuation with Ariel and has grown as the trip as progressed. This all without hitting her ride once, or her M&G. She's been too afraid of Ursula to try the attraction. Terrified of Ursula. If the movie is ever on, she's literally ran out of the room crying when Ursula comes on. We decide it's finally time to hit her ride, since we're right there.
Evie is fairly nervous here about the ride. She's worried. At this point, Andrea has super-genius idea #2 and tells her

Evie, remember how you loved shooting at Zurg with Buzz? Did that scare you? No? Ok, well, if anything in this ride scares you, you just shoot at it!

She shows her the little "finger gun" hand motion, and it seems like this might work. So, Under the Sea we go. I get to ride with Evie, and she is mesmerized at the entire ride. Every single second of that ride I get to watch the pure delight in her eyes. She's singing along to Under the Sea, pointing everything out to me. We hit that "cave" for Ursula, and I look over to see her making the slightest little "finger gun" motion at Ursula, but that's it. Back out, Kiss the Girl, she's singing again. By the end, she's in love.

Now, I'll put something out here that seems to go against a lot of the popular opinion on this attraction. I think it's a fantastic ride. I think it's miles better than almost any of the WDW Fantasyland dark rides, only getting slightly edged by IASW (based on it's history, message, song, Mary Blair, ok, pretty much all of it). I think that the Mermaid ride is a spectacular Fantasyland dark ride. I think it puts Pan to shame, beats Pooh by a mile. When placed against strictly Fantasyland dark rides, it's amazing. Taking all dark rides into account (HM, Pirates, etc), I can see the complaints, but for it's location, and it's intent, I think it's a home-run.

We finally find out the family is in the parks and over in the Tangled area while Franco hits HM again, so we go and meet up with everyone. Checking the photopass timestamps of some pictures I got, they got into the parks around 2pm. If it were me, I'd have killed someone if I paid a full-day's admission to get into the park at 2, when I could wait 2 hours and get in with the MVMCP ticket I already purchased, but hey, that's why we at least got there a bit earlier... Not as early as I'd have liked of course, but early enough...

We meet up with the family and spend a little time with them, but at this point, our fastpass+ for Peter Pan's Flight is about to come up (I think this was the 1st or 2nd day it was open after it's long refurb), so we hit Pan. It looked good. I'll say this, time and other rides have really done a number on Pan. The refurb looks nice, but it's really obvious in needs of an overhaul IMO. It's short, the capacity is low, and I could think of some changes that would really bring it into the next century. This used to be my favorite ride. It's now my least favorite Fantasyland attraction, just because I think the others have surpassed it, not because of anything with the ride itself.

Post-Pan, we take the girls to Philharmagic, and I can't say enough how much I love this attraction. It's just great. Evie sat next to me, and was just in awe. Just enraptured by the entire thing from start to finish.

Once we get out of that movie, the girls want to go right back in, but we decide that we're going to head over and see if Evie is interested in a princess dress.

At home, she's a dress-up fanatic. We have an old Belle dress from Charlotte, we have a Merida dress from last trip, and it's nearly impossible to get her out of her Woody PJs. But up to this point, she's not really shown interest in a new dress. Since Charlotte got her pirate outfit though, we figure it's fair to offer one to Evie.

Anyway, we head into the store, and Evie is immediately in love with the Ariel dress. It's hers. We've run up and she's changed in a heartbeat, adding in nice little character necklaces of Ariel for Evie and Aurora for Charlotte (her all-time favorite). We pop over to the little section where they have a photopass photographer, and ask if they could take photos of Evie in her new dress. They tell me I must sing them a song. So I break into the Tiki Room. Then they tell me I must sing Its A Small World. Done. You know it's Disney if I am breaking into song to random strangers without a second thought.

We head out of the shop and over towards Pooh, which is our next FP+. On the way over, we run into the family eating outside of the Friar's Nook. The family gasps at Evie, and unprompted, Evie walks up to them, and gives a perfect curtsy. I think they all died of cuteness overload at that moment. We hang out for a while, get a soda, let the kids play around a bit more biding our FP+ time.

Once our FP+ hits, its time for a quick jaunt with Pooh and then we're off to get our wristbands for MVMCP. On the way over, we bump into the castle stage show, and stop to watch it, which the girls adore and bump into the family again. Then just as it ends, we make a quick break for the Rose Garden to get our wristbands before the line grows. We've planned on meeting everyone over in tomorrowland once we all have our wristbands, and so that's where we head.

This officially starts our night at the Christmas Party. It's not exactly 7pm yet, so they've not yet kicked out everyone else, but as far as we're concerned, it's party time.

JillC LI · Dec 3, 2013

Great TR. Loved the secret pic of y ou floating away with the Mickey balloons. Did you jump or is that some sort of magic shot?

The Pete's Dragon float is also my favorite.

Unlike you, I could barely hear what Moaning Myrtle was saying in the bathrooms in the WWOHP. Oh well.

sshindel · Dec 3, 2013

JillC LI said:
Great TR. Loved the secret pic of y ou floating away with the Mickey balloons. Did you jump or is that some sort of magic shot?

I jumped. It was the Photopass Photographer's idea too, so I can't take credit for it. I simply said. "Look, I'm here, I have my ears, I have balloons, I feel it is too good to pass up this picture. She took 2 pictures kinda standard:

Then she suggested the jumping picture. I wish she had taken a couple. If I had jumped a bit higher, and if she'd had waited to snap my picture on the "way down", I could have gotten the strings extended a bit more and the balloons would have looked like they were really carrying me away. Oh well. Next time.

JillC LI said:
Unlike you, I could barely hear what Moaning Myrtle was saying in the bathrooms in the WWOHP. Oh well.

See, I couldn't tell what she was saying, but to me it was because it was turned up too loud, and the acoustics are, well, what the acoustics of a bathroom typically are. It just sounded like very loud mumbling to me. I originally thought it was going to be a really cool touch, but was kinda disappointed with the execution.

sshindel · Dec 4, 2013

Conference Call time. I guess that means it's about time to try and get into the MVMCP on 11/14/2013. It's really a continuation of my last detailed TR post.

When last I wrote, we had just got our wristbands for MVMCP and were on our way into tomorrowland. There were a few things in there the family wanted to do, and we figured it would be a good place to bide our time until the parade/Wishes. Now, I'm trying to remember all the details here, as it seems a lot of our time in tomorrowland that evening has become a blur.

I'm fairly sure Evie fell asleep for a LATE nap around this time. I'm 85% sure of that.

I know that Charlotte and I hit Buzz Lightyear again. How do I know this? Because I remember the aftermath. Somewhere, in the queue for Buzz, without me realizing it, my Photopass+ card had fallen off. I know that I had went to grab it at the end of the ride and it was gone. Now, I had taken the picture of the back of the photopass card, so I had my code, but still, I didn't want to have to deal with heading all the way up to the front of the park to get this taken care of. After the ride, I took Charlotte over to a spot outside Stitch where everyone was kind of holding down fort while smaller groups ran off to ride other rides. I then proceeded to go back and talk to the CM outside to ask if they would mind if I popped into the queue and look on the ground for it. I know I had it going into the line, I know I didn't have it when I got to the point in the queue with the AA Buzz. The CM was nice enough to let me back in line to look, and the folks around the queue were nice enough to let me cut through most of the line to look. Of course, I didn't find it, BUT, on my way out, the CM actually chased me down to hand me the card. A fellow guest had turned it into her! A quick double check with the numbers on the photo in my phone (which, I was happy to see the CM actually double check this with me, so she wouldn't be responsible for handing me the wrong card).

After this close call, I start storing the card in my pocket instead of around my neck.

After Buzz, I asked Charlotte if she'd be interested in giving Space Mountain another try. I stressed that it was 100% up to her, and she didn't have to do it in any way, but she said she would love to give it a shot. Our cousin Laura, with whom Charlotte had developed a long-distance BFF relationship with via Skype in the past, came with us for the trip. I was nervous based on the earlier "I wanted to scream get me outta here!" but this time...

Charlotte LOVED it! I think the first trip maybe was a lot of the unknown. This time, she was prepared for the dark, and the speed, and had a GREAT time. So proud of her for giving it another shot. Gives me hope that I might get her on Tower of Terror again in a few years.

Post Space Mountain, we headed back to the group and while Franco decided to go on Stitch, we decided we'd rather not, so I hopped in line to get the girls a snack, so Evie had food when she woke up. A hot dog for Evie (her favorite food on the planet, cooincidentally, mine too), chips for Charlotte, and a pretzel for me. Evie was up by the time we got back, and so we sat and ate for a bit while waiting for Franco on Stitch/MILF.
Next up for us was Astro Orbiter, which Evie was excited to try. She had a blast with how much faster that goes than normal spinners, and had loved watching the castle whip by. By this point, I was still a bit shellshocked from her earlier tummy troubles, but whatever it was, it's not bothering her at this point. Andrea and Charlotte, and Dito and Franco all had great times as well.

After our trip through space, Andrea and I decide that its well past time we need to head over to get space for the parade. The rest of the family wants to try and go squeeze in a trip on Dumbo before the parade, so we head off to the hub to try and catch a spot. On our way, we hit our favorite Photopass location for a family picture, one that is likely to be our Christmas Card this year (if we ever get around to sending one out)

On over to the Hub, we squeeze through the crowd and take up a spot to the lefthand side of the Partners statue. It's not the greatest for the parade, but we were not about to camp out for hours to get one, so it's the best we've got at the moment. It'll be great for Wishes though.

It seems that Franco found Minnie Mouse around this time, as on our Photopass there are a couple great pictures:

Yup, costume and facepaint again for Franco.

So, the parade comes through, and we get the kids up on our shoulders to catch it. We purposly tried to fall back behind the crowd so that we're not the rude people with kids on the shoulders blocking everyone's views. Hopefully we managed that ok. The kids LOVED the Christmas parade. In all of the times we've done MVMCP, we've always missed most of the parade. I'm glad to have caught it. Next time, I might even try to get there early enough to get good seats.

Ok, I had to include this because I just figured this out as I was looking through pictures this moment. Here is a picture of that I'm thinking I'm taking of Evie waving at Santa (which she is).

But what you can also see is that I'm taking a picture of Evie waving at Santa, while Andrea is taking this selfie of the two of them:

The rest of the family joins us before the projection show begins, so we get to hang with the family some more, and we all get to enjoy wishes together. Sorry this one is dark, but it's my girls all enjoying the end of the most amazing fireworks show at Disney

Wishes is now over, so we all head on over for one more trip through the HM and back into Fantasyland.

I want to point out at this moment that up to this point, and it will continue on through the rest of the trip, I'm somehow never the one to take any of the kids into HM. I never realize it at the time, but it isnt until the last day that I realize I never actually went into the HM the entire trip.

After HM, we loop through IASW one more time, and head over for the entire family to hit up Mermaid one more time (and Franco's first time through). Again, everyone loved this ride.

We head out of Mermaid and I peek into the grotto and see that there is absolutely NO line to meet Ariel, so we all pile in. Evie is in heaven to get to see Ariel (in her tail), which she's wearing her new Ariel dress.

Oh yeah, Franco falls madly, deeply in love with Ariel at this moment.

Honestly, he was in love...

After this, we figure our time is winding down, so we head over and do one loop through Dumbo/Barnstormer before it's time for one last stop in Cosmic Ray's for cookies and hot chocolate, and then one last stop on MSUSA for a last picture in the "snowfall".

After that, it's 11:50pm. Our girls have been rockstars, but it's time to roll out. Time to hit the monorail. Thanks MK for another awesome day.

But wait. There were still more things we wanted to hit at MK, or hit one last time! This can't be our last MK day! On the way back, I start to plot a little bit. I'll share my thoughts with them in the morning though...

Tiggerish · Dec 4, 2013

That Franco is a real character.

Glad Charlotte found her space mountain groove.

sshindel · Dec 5, 2013

Let's see if I can make today's post a little shorter. I mean, today is DAK.
<sarcasm>Everyone knows it's a 1/2 day park</sarcasm>.

Actually, what's going to make this a bit shorter of a post is likely that there will be less pictures today. There are a few reasons for that.
Reason 1 - I don't take a ton of pictures of the animals. We've been to the park enough, I have no need to compile years upon years of semi-blurry pictures of giraffes from a bumpy safari jeep.
Reason 2 - After the late night the previous night, we're off to a later start.
Reason 3 - Our day at DAK means one thing. Rain. It's tradition. For as long as I can remember, our day at DAK always includes rain. If Florida is ever in a drought, please, by all means, fly my family down and book us a week at the DAK, and you'll have rain no matter what.

Once again, we're off around 11am, getting to the gates of DAK. No one in the timeshare was stirring AT ALL this morning when we left. Not a peep. We stop at the tree to get one of our favorite photopass shots, the "magic shot" with Stitch in front of the Christmas tree. I don't know why, but I always love this one.

We're through the gates, and Charlotte is on a mission. She's got one more mountain to conquer this trip until she's done the WDW Mountain Range, and that's Everest.

Now, she's a bit nervous here. No matter how much I talk to her about it, she's seen the video on Resort TV of the full-on A-mode Yeti. I try and tell her that he doesnt move like that anymore, she'll barely see him, etc etc. She's still nervous. But she's determined. So, we hit the queue. This is the first time I've been through the queue actually. I pretty much always hit single-rider or fastpass. What a great setup for the ride. I think I start to understand where some of the Disco Yeti people who HATE the b-mode Yeti get their anger. Seeing the Yeti Museum and the buildup really does kind of make the final non-climax a disappointment.

Still, it's an ultra fun ride. No bird on a stick on our ridethrough. Yeti was BARELY visible. I really think they need to pump the strobe light up one or two notches if they're not going to fix the thing. There should not be a question if you at least saw it or not.

Charlotte was pretty scared of the Yeti. She basically closed her eyes once I warned her when it was coming, and didn't open them until I told her it was over. She liked the ride itself, but was scared of Mr. Disco.

After Everest, we decided to go over and hit the Pangani forest trail so that Evelyn could see a few animals, and she was thrilled. She was WAY more into this than Charlotte was. She loved watching the bats (maybe my favorite part of DAK actually is the bat house). One of the tigers was up and active, which was newish to us. The other one was having a typical cat nap.

Post trail expedition, Charlotte and I hit up Kali River. I figure, it's going to rain in a little while, why not get wet now, we might even have a chance to get dry before the rain comes. Charlotte loves Kali, and it makes me a bit sad that we couldn't hit up the raft-ride at IoA with her, as I've heard how much better it is. Still, Kali is fun, and we avoided the BIG splash at the bottom of the big hill. Still, we're pretty wet, and I don't let her talk me into going back through and looping on it over and over.

One of the downsides to getting to the park so late is that lunchtime is not too long after you get there. In the future, I'm making a note of this. We're going to do one of two things on future trips. We're going to go back to my "Lets get up EARLY and hustle to the parks" way of touring, or, if the later start is better for everyone, we're going to adjust. We'll bring a lunch with us, or we'll eat an early lunch on the way, or a snack and have one mid-afternoon late lunch/dinner and not eat again until we get out of the parks. It'll save us money, and maybe a little time.

Back to this trip, my favorite 2 QS locations in all the parks are in DAK, so it's a tough choice between Flametree and Yak & Yeti. We choose Y&Y. Yum. Even our picky eater little girls dig the honey chicken and fried rice.

Now, earlier in the morning, I'd done my tradition, which was pass the time in one of the queues to log into MDE and get some FP+ choices for the day. I'll write up a final MDE/FP+/Magic Band thoughts post after this is all said and done, but let me just say here quickly that I thought the system worked great inside the parks. I liked being in line for EE here and getting my FP for the safari without having to run all the way over to Africa. I'll cover it all later in more detail, but at this point, it's time for the safari.

We get news that at least part of the family has finally made it into the parks, nearly 2pm. Again, I hope they felt they got their money's worth out of hitting a park that closes early, and getting there THAT late in the day. While we're on our way over to the safari, they're just in front of the Tree of Life.

We hit the FP line for the safari, and being 100% honest here, the FP line took longer than the standby line. I watched. That might feed a lot of fires in the pro/anti-FP crowd, but I'm just callin it like I see it. Evie is a touch nervous here, she still has a bit of a faint memory of being afraid of the temple scene in Jungle Cruise from last trip, so she's on edge. We remind her that she loved this one last time, and we get her to calm down enough to get on and enjoy the ride.

Funny enough though, she's loving the ride, watching the elephants, which two young males were having a nice little head/butting play while we passed, which was exciting. The next thing I know, Andrea warns me "Uhh, honey, she's falling asleep..."
Sure enough, the <sarcasm>gentle swaying motion of the safari</sarcasm> put her to sleep in my lap.

Oh well, she saw her favorite animal, the giraffe, before she conked out.

Off the safari, we find out that Franco has once again requested to get his face painted, so the rest of the family is over in Dinorama, so we're off to meet them.

I have a confession. It's going to remove any credibility I may have on this site, I know.

I love Chester and Hester's Dinorama. There, I said it. From the first moment I ever laid eyes in there, I've always loved it. I didn't need someone to explain the backstory to me, I got it. I understood it immediatly. and I LOVE it. I have a deep love for cheesy roadside attractions. This area just hits a sweetspot that it seems I have that most people do not. I love the cheesy "amusement" park in the parking lot. I love the dino institute and the archeologists diner/restaurant. I love it all. There, feel free to report me as a troll...

So, while Franco is getting his face painted again, and Evie is asleep, we ask Charlotte if she'd like to try Dinosaur. She agrees, reluctantly. She's nervous about it being scary. We try and assure her that it's a fun ride, and that it's all fake, and again, let her know that she does not have to ride it at all, we're just offering if she's interested. She decides to give it a shot.

She was terrified. Really scared. Great. That's two attractions today she's been afraid in. (side note, I'd not ridden it in a while, and while I agree that it could use a little more light so you can see things a little better, I still think it's a fun attraction that I'd really love if I didn't know that Indiana Jones existed a scant few thousand miles West).

So, the rain has started, Charlotte is scared, so I take her on the Triceretops Spin upon her request. Only I biff. I sit us in the front seat, so she can't be the one to control our "up and down" motion. She's over tired, she's just been scared out of her wits, and I mess this one up. Tears. Dad's on a roll today.

While I'm spinning, Andrea heads inside to get out of the rain, and in the shop remembers that she wanted to get Disney tags made for our cats collars while we were down here. She glances over at the custom tag machine and looks at the screen, only to see this:

Aww... It's fate.
(or, insert MagicBand conspiracy theory in here to say that the machine read her band and called this up on the fly)

Well, we now have two matching collar tags for our kitties. Carlin here modeling his for your viewing pleasure (Tiki has a matching one, she's just not pictured so you dont get overloaded with cat pictures, it's the internet, I'm sure you see enough cat pictures on your daily basis anyway).

Well, it's raining, its late in the afternoon, and it's about time to get going. Charlotte has wanted to try out Its Tough to be a Bug, so we head over and catch the end of the parade (which is highly underrated) before Charlotte and I head into the Tree of Life to catch the show.

Spiders... Why did it have to be... Spiders...

It's been years since I have been on this attraction, and I remebered the wasps, I remembered the stink bug. I forgot the HUGE black widows. Charlotte may not recover from this. Three times today I've now terrified her on rides I've taken her on. She was over-tired from the long day the day before, and now I've just taken her to see her biggest fear materalized in front of her in HUGE form. Who all has that Father of the Year trophy ready to hand out? I think I just took the prize.

So, that ends our day at DAK. The rest of the family were somehow able to squeeze in the safari, Festival of the Lion King, and Nemo in what I swear was under an hour. I have no idea how they did that, but much respect for the drive there!

Now, it's fairly early. We're also out of park tickets. We head back to the condo, picking up some drive through on the way back. I decide I'll just hop online and purcase some tickets. I've convinced Andrea that I think we can hit up 2 parks tomorrow, our last day. We can get up EARLY and hit Epcot, then hit up MK for a "greatest hits" evening. So, I'm online pricing out 1-day park hopper tickets, and trying to purchase them.

Thankfully, the ghost of Walt was watching over my error. For some reason, I'm getting a "credit card declined" error when I try and purchase them. I contact my credit card company, and they swear that they're not even seeing the transaction come through, it must be an issue with the Disney website. I'm temped to just wait and get tickets at the park in the morning, but finally, I decide I'm just going to head to DTD and hit up guest relations and buy the tickets. Thank you ghost of Walt for putting whatever bug in the system that did that for me.

On the way over to DTD by myself, I remember reading a post here on WDWMagic, where ultra-helpful-awesome member @Monty was talking about upgrading park tickets to Annual Passes, and how if you did it during your trip, it worked out to be advantageous.

So, I give it a shot. I go to Guest Relations and talk to the CM. Sure enough, since I ended up coming in on the LAST day (if I had waited until the morning, I'd not be able to do this), I can just "upgrade" all of our tickets and pay a MUCH smaller fee. I just add 1 day to each of our tickets! The CM was having some computer problems, but 10 minutes or so later, heading into the back room to make sure it's done right, he's back out, tickets all ready to go. The computer error and the trip to DTD saved me over $180. Thank you Ghost of Walt! He assures me that the tickets already on my Magic Bands will be all set, day is added, we've got nothing to worry about.

I celebrate by hitting up World of Disney and picking up that Dole Whip T-shirt that I had been regretting not buying a few nights ago.

Finally, back to the condo, the rest of the family is off shopping again somewhere until late hours of the night, we all decide to get a relatively sane bedtime for all of us. Tomorrow we've got noon reservations for the entire group at Akershus so we can get our Princess fill. Also, we're trying to squeeze as MUCH as possible into that last day at WDW. We've gotta get up early!

Monty · Dec 5, 2013

sshindel said:
Now, it's fairly early. We're also out of park tickets. We head back to the condo, picking up some drive through on the way back. I decide I'll just hop online and purcase some tickets. I've convinced Andrea that I think we can hit up 2 parks tomorrow, our last day. We can get up EARLY and hit Epcot, then hit up MK for a "greatest hits" evening. So, I'm online pricing out 1-day park hopper tickets, and trying to purchase them.

Thankfully, the ghost of Walt was watching over my error. For some reason, I'm getting a "credit card declined" error when I try and purchase them. I contact my credit card company, and they swear that they're not even seeing the transaction come through, it must be an issue with the Disney website. I'm temped to just wait and get tickets at the park in the morning, but finally, I decide I'm just going to head to DTD and hit up guest relations and buy the tickets. Thank you ghost of Walt for putting whatever bug in the system that did that for me.

On the way over to DTD by myself, I remember reading a post here on WDWMagic, where ultra-helpful-awesome member @Monty was talking about upgrading park tickets to Annual Passes, and how if you did it during your trip, it worked out to be advantageous.

So, I give it a shot. I go to Guest Relations and talk to the CM. Sure enough, since I ended up coming in on the LAST day (if I had waited until the morning, I'd not be able to do this), I can just "upgrade" all of our tickets and pay a MUCH smaller fee. I just add 1 day to each of our tickets! The CM was having some computer problems, but 10 minutes or so later, heading into the back room to make sure it's done right, he's back out, tickets all ready to go. The computer error and the trip to DTD saved me over $180. Thank you Ghost of Walt! He assures me that the tickets already on my Magic Bands will be all set, day is added, we've got nothing to worry about.

As I was reading I was getting more and more agitated, thinking OMG he's not seriously buying one-day hoppers!

Glad glitches and websites conspired to get you visiting GR and upgrading instead!

I do try to be helpful, but "ultra-helpful-awesome member @Monty" might be a stretch!

sshindel · Dec 5, 2013

Monty said:
As I was reading I was getting more and more agitated, thinking OMG he's not seriously buying one-day hoppers!

Glad glitches and websites conspired to get you visiting GR and upgrading instead!

I do try to be helpful, but "ultra-helpful-awesome member @Monty" might be a stretch!

Honestly, if I hadn't remembered that conversation, I'd have never known about it. We typically always just buy the package, so it's length of stay MYW tickets, and we've never had to mess around with it. The idea of upgrading would have never even been something I would have known about to even ask about! Once I started to realize what I almost did, I broke out into a cold-sweat. I nearly paid twice as much as I needed to!

I still stand by my ultra-helpful-awesome comment.

Tiggerish · Dec 6, 2013

If I pass by one of those nametag machines and MY name pops up, it will be no coincidence and we'll know they're tracking us by our MBs.

(now I have a project for my upcoming trip)

The deadpan expression on the face of the baby in the stroller at AK just cracked me up.

sshindel · Dec 6, 2013

Tiggerish said:
If I pass by one of those nametag machines and MY name pops up, it will be no coincidence and we'll know they're tracking us by our MBs. (now I have a project for my upcoming trip)

The deadpan expression on the face of the baby in the stroller at AK just cracked me up.

Ohhhh, that IS a good test of the system! I'm betting 99.99% it's coincedence, but part of me wants to post it as fact in News and Rumors and see if I can stir up a MagicBand frenzy... :devilish:

Tiggerish · Dec 6, 2013

sshindel said:
Ohhhh, that IS a good test of the system! I'm betting 99.99% it's coincedence, but part of me wants to post it as fact in News and Rumors and see if I can stir up a MagicBand frenzy...

I agree, but it is a heck of a coincidence! We'll just have to be patient until February.

sshindel · Dec 6, 2013

Well, it's our last day at WDW that I get to write about today. Saturday, 11/16/2013. The next day starts the drive back North, back to real life.

I mentioned before that when we were planning this trip, one of the few things I was able to get out of the group was that they wanted to do a meal with the princesses. Now, they of course told me that WAY after the 180 day mark, so we're not getting into Royal Table, and we're also not getting into the more-popular breakfast at Akershus. BUT, I was able to get 1 reservation time for lunch on this, or last day, for lunch at Akershus. It was not ideal in any way. I didn't want to spend my last day at WDW at Epcot. I'd tried (in vain) to get everyone to let me cancel this ADR. It's nothing against Akershus, I do love that place, it's just I couldn't get the day I wanted, so I'd have rather skipped this meal than have to be anywhere but Magic Kingdom on our last day.

Having it be at Epcit was just kind of salt in the wounds. I won't go into massive detail here in this part of the TR as to my reasons. I'll just simplify it by saying that I LOVED Epcot as a child in the 80's/90's, they changed Future World so much, changing it from my favorite park on Earth, to a park that now is probably at the bottom of my WDW list. I've been known to rant and rant and rant on the subject, so I'll try and leave that aside here. Maybe I'll cover it a bit later.

That aside, I've not been able to get everyone to cancel the reservation, but let's just say at this point, I'm not betting that the family from Paraguay is going to make the noon reservation. I don't think they've made it into any park before noon on the entire trip. And not only do they have to make it TO the park at noon, they have to make it all the way back into the WS by noon. I have my wife kindly tell her cousin that at noon, or whenever they call our name, WE will be going in. If there are 4 of us or 12 of us, we're going to be holding that reservation, and we will not be asking the CM to hold on until everyone gets there.

So, with all of that in mind, plus the fact that we're trying to hit 2 parks on our last day, we're up early. The girls are happy to get up, and since it's their last day, no problem if they want to do it in costume. Even though it's raining pretty hard when we leave, have a blast on your last day kids.

We get over to the Epcot early enough, probably 9:30 or so, (plus with the rain) we're in the 1st section of parking back. I think Charlotte might get to get on Soarin in standby without much issue!

We're in through the gates, and it's raining hard enough that the photopass photographers don't even try and stop people to ask for pictures. We make a break for Soarin, and Andrea and Charlotte head on in, as the wait says about 20 minutes.

Evie and I go and check out the "mine mine" birds over at Nemo, while I borrow the fastpass awning to grab the girls autograph books and put them in a ziplock back in my backpack, so they dont get wet if it keeps raining. The CM at the fastpass line had never seen the Darth Vader ears I'm wearing (I mean, I could wear a hood on my raincoat, or I could wear my ears, which would you choose!), so he's happy to chat and let us hang under the awning while Evie enjoys the seagulls. This does not get old for her!

We head back towards The Land about the time that the girls should be getting out of Soarin, and I grab a quick couple FP+ bookings for the day. Really, all I wanted was Test Track, because Charlotte didnt get to ride it last time, it was broken down when we were there. I convince Evie that when Mommy and Charlotte join us, we're going to go through a boatride and see Mickey Pumpkins (she has a serious love for pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns for some reason), so as soon as they're out of Soarin (Charlotte is thrilled she had front row) we head over to Living with the Land. As soon as we get in line, they kick everyone out because it's broken. Dangit. I'm now depressed. This attraction is my favorite at Epcot, and one of the few remaining pieces of "old" Epcot. And I realize that this means I'm not making it back on here, and I will have likely my first trip since Epcot opened in which I do not ride Living with the Land. This hurts.

We suck it up and head over to The Seas. The girls love Nemo, though Charlotte is for some reason more scared about Bruce than Evie is. A quick trip through what used to be Seabase Alpha, and we head just in time to catch Turtle Talk, which is a first for all of us, and the girls enjoy it.

For some reason that I cannot remember right now, by this point, it's already 11:15 or so. Time flies and we've honestly only done a couple things here. We decide to start making our way towards WS. On the way through, the line for Character Spot is only 15 minutes, so we decide to pop in on our way. This is the first time I've been since the redone Character Spot, and I just want to say. I miss the old one. Honestly, I miss the "temporary" one they had last year, with the awesome old-school Epcot background (the one with the artwork that was on the commemorative tickets the 1st year that Epcot was open that my dad has

). I'm kind of upset that there were only 3 characters here, intead of the former Fab 5. Either way, the girls enjoy getting to see Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy. Last trip we did a TON of character meals, so their autograph books got a workout. This trip, there have been less, so they get a kick out of getting the signatures.

We get out with just about the right amount of time to head over to Norway, and surprise of all surprises, the entire family is already there waiting for us!
While we're waiting to be seated, we happen to pop into the Norway shop and catch Anna and Elsa walking back to their break, so the girls get a quick "hi" from the princesses for which they do not yet know (but currently are obsessed with). After probably 20+ minutes, they finally call us in.

Now, Franco has decided that he is in love with Ariel, as I mentioned. He picked a flower to give to her when he saw her at lunch. I'm not sure where he got it, but I'm guessing the nicely manicured gardens in Epcot is missing something

.

The girls loved seeing Belle (again)

and soon enough we were seated.

Let me say this, I really feel bad for the server who had to try and deal with our table. Just getting all 12+ of us together, with the kids, and the 2nd language, and everything, must not have been easy for her. She did a great job. And the family had a great time at lunch. They loved it. My salmon was ok, but the buffett of appetizers I could have probably eaten for my entire entree and been thrilled. There is some great stuff on there!

Franco gave little flowers to each princess who came up, and they were great to the kids, signing the autographs, interacting with them, getting hugs/pictures. Ariel though, even before she made it to our table, was just SPOT on. I know that these wonderful women must be taught how to "be" their characters, but I am always amazed at how great they are. Ariel was perfect, and it really helped make the vacation of two children who were in love with her.

You'll notice the flower that Franco gave her right there. The smiles on Ariel's face seemed very genuine to see how much joy they can give to kids, I really hope that they realize how much they add magic to a kid's trip!

After lunch, we decide we'll let Charlotte play 1 "mission" of Perry's World Showcase adventure. The girls really want to do the Anna/Elsa M&G, but the line is 30-45 minutes at this point, and we tell Charlotte it's either Perry, or Anna/Elsa. Had our trip been right now, I know who would have won, but at this point, it's Perry.

Side note here, when we got out of lunch, Ana and Dito go to grab their stroller, and find that someone had dumped an entire coke, ice and all, right into their stroller seat, and just left it. Thanks random WDW visitor, that was really nice of you. The local CMs point them to a close-by guest relations who can help get them a towel and stuff to clean it up.

We head over to Mexico to get Charlotte her Perry mission in. I love the Mexico pavillion. I really do. I was psyched to see a Photopass photographer sitting inside the pavillion, because I've always loved this area. Of course, the girls are just ready to get out using their phones, so while it was good in theory, the pictures we got show bored girls, so I'll just save those for ourselves.

While Charlotte is off saving the Tri-state Area, Evie and I head over to listen to Mariachi El Cobre, and out of nowhere, the rest of the family pops up to watch Evie dance (or more like, spin until she falls down) to the mariachi sounds. I've never really caught much of their performance in the past, and let me say, from someone who digs a good Mariachi band, they are phenominal. What a great, great show. The family was all so into their performance.

Charlotte finally finished her mission, and we pop over to the Gran Fiesta Tour, which is also a favorite. We watch Three Caballeros quite often, so the exploits of Jose Carioca and Panchito in our house. Last trip, once again, Evie was terrified of this ride, and this time, she loved it. What a difference a year makes.

After we're done here, it's time for our Test Track FP+, so we head on out of the WS. We figure that Test Track will be our last attraction in Epcot, and it's time to go over and do our greatest hits in MK. It was a short trip to WS this time, but I'm oddly not upset. I'd rather take my girls back to their favorites in MK than drag them around the world at this point.

Evie falls asleep right as we get over to Test Track, which is fine, so Andrea heads into Mousegears while I take Charlie into Test Track. As we're shuffled into our spots right outside of the design center, all of a sudden, right behind us, the rest of the family is put right into our same row!!! I have no idea how they worked that out, but magic or not, we're getting an unexpected family trip through TT.

Charlotte had a BLAST designing her car. She probably could have stayed there for hours. I let her run with it, and ladies and gentleman, let me introduce, the worlds next great car. The Car built by Charlotte:

Ok, maybe this is not going to be the most fuel efficient vehicle, but if the army needs a new Humvee...

We get our group into two separate cars, and Charlotte get to once again ride with her BFF Laura

Again, Test Track might have been one of Charlotte's favorite rides the entire week. She just asked me yesterday if we could go back and ride that sometime soon, saying this is the "first thing" she wants to do next trip.

We get out and find Andrea and Evie, and on our way out pop into the Art of Animation store for me to pick up another piece of Tiki art, and on the way out, we spot Pluto right near the Leave a Legacy, and pop in for Charlotte to get a quick hug with Pluto. Props to Pluto for suggesting this pose, it's one of our favorites

We're over and in the MK by 4:30pm, plenty of time to hit some of our favorites, but first, it's time to force the girls into our traditional "take one picture with all of our new ears":

We head into Adventureland, grab a quick FP for the Jingle Cruise (which we've yet to hit) and it's only 30 minutes or so from now, so it's off to the Tiki Room again!

Two happy Tiki fanatics

Ohhh how we love that silly little room full of singing birds.

We head out and catch the Jingle Cruise. I really liked what they did. I think it was a great little overlay. There were no massive changes, but just the little changes to the queue and the script were great. We had a great skipper, and she REALLY sold the jokes well. A good skipper really makes or breaks the JC, and we had a great one.

Post JC, Charlotte wants to hit Pirates, and I can't convince Evie to give it a shot, so Evie and I get one last loop through the Tiki Room while Andrea and Charlotte head on to hit pirates.

It's around dinner time, so we just decide to get a quick snack on our way over to the HM/Fantasyland. Oddly though, even though she went on it multiple times, Charlotte does NOT want to go on Haunted Mansion tonight. Yesterday's DAK trip scared her too much, she doesn't want to do anything scary that might give her nightmares. I guess it's part of my pennance for scaring the hell out of her the day before, but that means that I'm going to make it through the trip without being on the HM once.

Another quick potty break at the Tangled Toilets. By the way, We spent an unbeivable amount of time in this area over the week. It was a natural meeting/waiting place for us. Because of that, I'm very happy with the upgrade in this area. It's really beautiful, and if I'm going to spend a lot of time in one area, I'm glad it was this one.

A final trip on the happiest cruise that ever sailed the seven seas, we wave goodbye to our favorite little dolls, and sing-a-long loudly to that Sherman Brothers masterpiece. We're really getting close to the end of our trip now. A quick dip Under the Sea, and it's time to figure out what our "last ride" is going to be. We decide we're going to end where we started, at Dumbo. One last spin. It's only 7:30, but it's been a long week, and we have to pack up tonight so we can get on the road first thing in the morning. Also, there are plans to have a "big family dinner" tonight back at the condo.

Who said that the last ride has to be sad.

Ok, I do. I'm sad we're leaving. I dont wanna go. Heck, I'm sad writing about this right now!

A quick tangent.
Last night, I was sitting down with Evie while Charlotte was at her karate class. Evie just came up to me and sweetly said this:

Dad, could you take me to the Ariel ride, and the Pooh ride, and the Peter Pan ride, and the It's a Small World Ride? Could you take me to go see Donald, and Goofy, and Mickey Mouse? Could you take me there? Would you do that for me?

I think she misses it as much as I do!

On our way out, we're coming up the Tomorrowland side, and I see that the MSEP is about to step off, so we sneak through the MSUSA bypass to avoid weaving through parade traffic. They were not really advertising that it was open, but a CM was in front of it, and I asked if it was open, to which he pointed me in. We were the only non CM that were back there. I'm looking forward to seeing what they are doing to improve that area. It's such a great little bypass, but it really does just shove you "behind the curtain".

We're out to the front, we ask the girls if they'd like to stay for the parade, to which they both answer no. I guess that about does it for our 2013 trip to WDW!

Bye front gates. Bye monorail. Bye parking lot.

Back to the condo, and we settle in to wait for everyone for dinner. And wait. and wait. Finally, around midnight, we get a sense that everyone that is going to be there is there, so we order some pizza, scarf it down with everyone while watching some SNL, and shuffle off to bed.

We're packed up and ready to go. We'll be meeting back up with my parents on the road tomorrow morning, and starting the trek back up North.

And really, just because the ride home is the least exciting of all, I dont have much more to add here on the great Disney trip 2013 as far as "this is what happened". We drove back to Chattenooga the next night, no issues, drive went smoothly. Chattenooga to Chicago the next day, again, smooth sailing. The girls were great on both drives. No carsickness. They got along. Evie's newfound bravery sailed over into watching and enjoying movies that just a week ago she was too terrified to watch (Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty). We decided we were on a "mommy picks the movie" rotation on the way home, to short circuit any movie fights before they started, and it worked like a champ.

By about 8:30pm on 11/18, we were home. The cat sitter brought our little furballs back to us, and the girls got to sleep in their own beds once again.

That's about it.

I'll probably collect some of my thoughts in further posts on some of the overall things. What I thought of the MagicBands. What I thought of staying offsite. Disney vs. Uni (my family edition). Ohh yeah, and I'm going to pull my "things I want to do on the trip" out of my pre-trip report and look it over and see how I did.

But I'll do that all starting next week.

For those that have read along with me, recounting my trip, thank you. I know I type a lot. I write too much from time to time. Thanks if you've stuck around!

sshindel · Dec 6, 2013

Oh yeah. One last thing before I close it down for the day. I feel I need to show the updated "wall-of-ears" in our house, with the additions from this trip:

We're going to need to start squeezing them in a little tighter after next trip. I think we've run out of room!

Tiggerish · Dec 6, 2013

LOVE LOVE LOVE the family ears photo!!!

(and the wall is pretty cool, too!)

sshindel · Dec 6, 2013

Tiggerish said:
LOVE LOVE LOVE the family ears photo!!!

(and the wall is pretty cool, too!)

Thanks!

We try to do it every year, and it's turning out to be always something we have to do kind of against the kids wishes. Last year we had to bribe Charlotte with a Mickey Ice Cream and try to hold Evie's ears on her head JUST long enough for the picture, which really didnt work:

ShookieJones · Dec 9, 2013

sshindel said:
Oh yeah. One last thing before I close it down for the day. I feel I need to show the updated "wall-of-ears" in our house, with the additions from this trip:
View attachment 40549

We're going to need to start squeezing them in a little tighter after next trip. I think we've run out of room!

LOVE THIS!

Lyear · Dec 10, 2013

The wall of ears is amazing. Loved your trip report.

sshindel · Dec 10, 2013

Thank you to those that have read and even possibly enjoyed this TR. I thought I'd put a few posts at the end here that discussed my views/opinions on a few things in a little more detail.

Today though, I wanted to go back to a list I built into my Pre-Trip report, a list of 15 things I really wanted to do with this trip. It was built before the trip, and I thought I'd like to go back and see how far off I was with this trip. Here they are, with little comments in between them as a little post-trip breakdown:

Scott's list of things he thinks he wants to do on the 2013 WDW half-marathon Paraguayan clusterfudge trip:

1) Meet and get to know my wife's family much better. Get the kids some real quality time with their South American family. Learn as much as I can from them, laugh, not get overwhelmed when they're speaking Spanish a million miles an hour, and just enjoy the time with them.

This one I think that I accomplished. I really wish we could have spent more time with them. Our normal sleep/wake schedules put us a little off from them. We were mostly ready and out the door for the day by the time we saw the first stirring of anyone else in the condo. At night, a lot of times, the family wanted to go shopping, hit the outlets, Target, etc. Our kids would not have put up with that. We were keeping them up typically hours past their bedtimes as-is, we really couldn't extend it anymore.
Once we were in the parks we tried to align our plans with theirs as much as possible. We got to spend a decent amount of time with the whole group, but as always, more could have been better. Hopefully it's not the last time that we're going to get the opportunity to do this. We're also shooting to try and take a nice LONG trip to Paraguay in 2016, which I think this trip really showed how much fun it would be.

2) Have my first real "unplanned" WDW trip, and learn to relax a bit on my ultra-planned vacation methods. Not worry if I wake up not knowing what park we're going to, where we're eating every single meal, the best path through the parks, etc. Enjoy the time in the moment.

I think that this actually really worked out for us. I still tried to nudge the group in a few directions, telling what I thought the best park/day might be if the opportunity presented itself.
One thing I wasn't prepared for honestly was how little I missed the whole dining reservations piece. We really didn't do any sitdown meals, aside from the one Akershus meal. And honestly, that ADR stressed me out more than anything over the week. It handcuffed our plans in a way that I didn't like. Yes, with more early planning, it could have worked out just fine, but still, I spent the entire week trying to get them to let me cancel the one ADR we had.
Did I miss the sit-down dining? Sure! I could have enjoyed a few steins of German beer and sausages! The girls always love a character breakfast! But, here's the thing, I honestly think I enjoyed the freedom of working off our schedules at the exact day and time that we were in the parks more than I would have enjoyed those ADRs. Hungry? We don't have to wait an hour for our ADR to be up, we can grab something now. Or get a snack and eat when we're out of the park!

3) Take my daughters into the Tiki Room. My favorite attraction, and they have not been since the nightmare of Under New Management was burned by the ire of the tiki gods. Last trip I sacrificed the tiki room just because we were with some folks who were not interested in it. This trip, I'm taking them in. I'm sitting with both of them, embarrassing them just like my mom did with me by singing "Lets all sing like the birdies sing" a little too loud (heck, I time this right, I can have her with me to do it).

As you noticed if you read this report, this was a major win. Both girls loved the Tiki Room, and with Evelyn, it's her favorite attraction. She talks to me nearly every single day about how "Daddy, you took me to the Tiki Room! The birds sang! We made it rain!!!" A big, gooey-hearted, spectacular win in my book. Plus, I have new Tiki art for my walls!

4) Give the old college try and use the MagicBand as much as I can. Try scheduling FP+ reservations on the fly. Charge something to the room with it. Form my own opinion of the system.

I'm going to detail my experience with the FP+ / MagicBand / My Disney Experience app in an entire post later. I tried it out for nearly everything I could. I'll have more thoughts later.

5) Spend a little more time focusing on some of the little details that get lost in the hustle and bustle of a typical trip. The detail work, from the physical details, the background music, the strategic placement of things etc. Remember how much work people have put into this park, and try and notice at least 5 things I've never noticed before.

Hmmm... Did I notice 5 things? I think so. In general though, I really did try and look around a bit more, stop and enjoy the entertainment more, notice some details. I remember thinking about how great it was to look up and out when you get to the boarding section of Splash Mountain. The view up, with the buildings and the view of the weather vain, was great.
Also, spending a LOT of time in the Tangled area, I really enjoyed the amount of detail they put in. The Maximus horseshoe prints, the "Find Pascal" pieces. The music and the lights. The "wanted" posters.
I even really enjoyed the dining areas in Pecos Bill, with multiple trips, I got to really look around more.

6) Finish the 1/2 marathon. I don't think this one needs explanation.

Done!!!

7) Enjoy my first trip to Islands of Adventure. Try and judge it on it's own merit, not based on what everyone online says, nor comparing it with Disney too much.

I'll cover IoA in another post as well. The thing I found though, was when I said "nor comparing it with Disney", was impossible. I'm a Disney fanboy, so everything is compared against it. Also, since Disney is the standard bearer here, I think it's a fools-errand to try and think critically about any other park and NOT try and compare it. Disney is the pinnacle, comparing is natural.

8) I've mentioned this to folks before, but somehow in some sick way, I'm hopeful my trip off-site proves to me that it's worth all the extra $ to stay on property. I guess if it's terrible, I can justify staying on-site next trip. If it's really THAT much cheaper, and nearly as good, who knows, maybe I start being an off-site guest.

Well, my sick wish to hope that off-site was so much worse, so I could justify staying on property, was an abject failure. So much so that I'm considering taking over our father-in-law's timeshare. There were so many positives that were available staying off-site, and none of the "magic touches" at the Disney resort (at least at CBR where we were staying) were enough to justify the cost. While I may still someday stay on-site, and Ft. Wilderness will always rule from upon high as my favorite places to stay in the world, I think that most likely, for the forseeable future, we're probably off-site guests.

9) Try not and hate my time in EPCOT Future World. Maybe even try and give Soarin' another chance.

Nope. Gave Soarin' another chance. Still don't like it. Future World still makes me sad.

10) Get my youngest on a few dark rides this trip. She was terrified of all dark rides last trip. We've worked (quietly) nonstop since last year to try and help break this fear down a little, extolling the virtues of these magnificent rides. If she makes it through Its a Small World, I'll be thrilled. If I can get her on Peter Pan, Pooh, Little Mermaid, and (gasp) Pirates (I had my oldest working on her on that one this week, unbeknownst to both of them)...

This was also a big win. The only one on the list above she didn't ride was Pirates, and she's already talking about trying it, and Haunted Mansion next time. "Charlotte is going to ride with me and hold my hand on Haunted Mansion!"
Another huge win in our books with this one. The Disney Magic wins! Heck, she even enjoyed a roller coaster, and still talks about it!

11) Tom Sawyer's Island. I've not been out to it in YEARS, my kids have never been. We've just never made the time. I loved that place as a child. I can't explain why I've not been back really.

Nope. 3 1/2 days in the MK, did not set foot on Tom Sawyer. This time I'm going to point the blame at the later-starts we had to the parks, but honestly, it once again just never fit into the schedule. I'm shocked that with 3 1/2 days we didn't want to take the time, but it's the truth. Oh caves of Tom Sawyers Island, one day we'll explore you again.

12) Take the Magic Kingdom Railroad for a full loop.

Another loss in the column. Didn't even take the train for a leg, let alone the full loop. This one I'll blame the stroller. Once we had the thing set up and packed, I just didn't want to break it down, unload it, and cram it on the train. It's the same reason we never took the parking trams. This trip, Charlotte did not use any sit-down part of the stroller, standing on her piggyBack the entire trip (you can see her on it in the pic talking to Spider-man at IoA in this post). It helped save her legs to some extent for the long days, but also didnt require her to walk the entire park. Next trip, she'll be 6 or 7, depending, and she'll likely not need this attachment by that point, so we'll probably bring just a standard umbrella stroller for Evie, and maybe we can hit the Railroad next time (things I tell myself now that will be totally forgotten for next trip)

13) Utilize our Photopass+ to get a million pictures of this trip, with the huge family all together like this.

I'm very happy again with the Photopass+ service that we got. I have a few complaints, that I plan on writing up in a separate post in here, but we had around 250+ pictures. The only thing I regret is not having more with the whole group. Getting home and realizing that we only had 1 real big group photo series was sad.

14) Make it home in one piece, both children and both parents alive, unharmed, and relatively sane.

Yup, all home, all still in love with each other, all still fans of all things Disney.

15) A new set of mouse ears for us to put on our living room wall. We collect them and hang them up on the wall, and this year we should have a nice new set to add to the collection. I'm running out of room on the wall.

This trip brought 8 new ears home with us :jawdrop:

.
2 from the kids races
2 glow-with-the-show
4 assorted ears (Buzz, Woody, Minnie, Darth)
and as you've seen (here), we're running out of room on the wall!

All told, I think we did ok on the list. We missed Tom Sawyer and the Railroad, we could have taken more group pictures, but overall, the wins outweighed the losses here. We spent time with family, we enjoyed the rides and attractions together, the girls were fantastically behaved and really loved their trip, and I learned a few new things about how to relax a little and not over-plan!

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a phonecall I need to make. Something about potentially planning a trip to a runDisney race in 2014 with another member of these here forums. Not really sure if it's going to work out, but maybe, just maybe, I'm getting a quick long-weekend, no-family trip sometime in the upcoming year.

For anyone who may want to hear my detailed thoughts about some of the larger topics, I'll try and get back to maybe one post on here a day this week.

lbrad · Dec 11, 2013

WOW! I loved your TR!!!
Your girls (all 3

are GORGEOUS! Looks like the ENTIRE Family had a Magical time.
Congratulations on finishing your first 1/2 marathon!!! What a great accomplishment. I did the ToT 10 miler last Sept. with my DH & DS. It was awesome. I sooo want to do the Disney Princess Half with my daughter! One day we will. She is in her junior year of college and it is very difficult for her to miss classes, so we may have to wait till Spring 2016

And then she'll be teaching and probably won't be allowed to take off ... Grrr.
Thank you for such an entertaining TR & Again your family is beautiful

Trip Report Nov '13 - Surprise, 1/2 Marathon, Paraguayan Family, NOT totally a clusterfudge trip of a lifetime

The Epcot Manifesto

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Resident Redhead

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Brilliant...and Canadian

The Epcot Manifesto

Resident Redhead

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Resident Redhead

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We need time for things to happen.

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