Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.
That’s my Daughter Claire with me.
We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.
We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.
This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.
After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.
Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.
My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.
The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.
Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.
Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.
Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.
In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.
Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.
This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL
We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.
Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!
By 9 we had it and found a table outside to sit at.
I got the breakfast sandwich and potatoes, as did Mom.
I think Mom got this for Dad.
Now Claire will not eat any of this except for bacon and I don’t have a picture, but I am thinking we got her a muffin to eat.
The view from our table.
I think Dad forgot his hat and had to go back and get it. We weren’t going to wait though. I told my parents how to get to Hollywood Studios and Claire and I headed off.
Of course the friendship boat was leaving just as we walked up.
We waited around a bit.
I am not known for patience and I didn’t see a boat anywhere close to coming so we decided to walk.
Oh look! We could see Tower of Terror peeking over the trees.
Let me just say this walk is NOT short. I knew it was probably kind of long, but it was even longer than I thought. But we did walk fairly fast and I felt better actually moving than waiting for a friendship boat.
Look!!!!! The tree is up there too!
And as we got closer we could see ToT peeking some more.
Of course I took a ton of pictures of the tree.
And then I told Claire to go stand in front of it.
Look how huge it is. The ornaments are as big as her head.
We had entered the park about 9:45. A little later than I had hoped, but still not too bad.
After we entered Hollywood Studios, I texted Gail. She was just finishing up with their breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and was getting ready to pay. I told her I would work my way towards there. We spotted a photopass photographer and stopped for a few pictures.
We then worked our way towards the “hat”.
I am not really sure why I took this picture like this, but I took several of the same thing. Maybe I liked the palms with the hat?
I stopped and took this picture next.
And then I had Claire jump in.
Disney Channel Rocks was just starting so we walked over there to watch and I texted Gail to let her know where I was. I also texted mom and Dad as they had just entered the park as well and let them know where I was and where Gail was.
Everyone caught up with us and we stuck around and the girls enjoyed the singing and dancing, but eventually we pulled them away. We had a mission.
Yep, you guessed it. Fast passes for Toy Story Mania.
Now there was a conflict here. The current return time was for around 3:45 if I remember right. Claire had the Wonderland Tea Party scheduled for 2PM. Our plan was to go to the Magic Kingdom after the party. The park closed early that night for the first Christmas party and I figured we would be close and it shouldn’t be too crowded. Getting back to the Studios in time would also be cutting it close. But plans change ……Claire said she just HAD to ride TSM. Now she has only rode it one other time in her life and I am not even sure she remembers anything about it. But the thing was she couldn’t let Alexis ride it without her. So we sat and discussed this. As we stood there a guy came over and asked if we were looking for a later time, as he had just gotten some and they were too late for him. We said sure and took them as well. I eventually gave in and said we would be back. I told Gail that I would text her to let her know how we were doing on time so she would know whether to wait for us or not. If we didn’t make it back we would use the ones for the later window. I then had a happy girl again. And I really did want her to enjoy her time and she may never get back to the parks with her cousin again in her life, so I did want it to be special.
So then the next thing we decide was what to do next. Gail does not ride anything big or wild of any sort. Rob usually takes Alexis on that sort of stuff, but he was sick. So I said I would take Alexis on Tower of Terror. Claire was iffy, but I reminded her that she has done it before and did fine. So we said good byes and off we went.
We didn’t get far when we saw a photopass photographer out and I made us stop for a shot.
We went in and enjoyed the preshow. I had two girls clinging to me though. We headed off to wait in the next line. And as we came to the spot where the line divides a cast member was standing there and it only took me a second to recognize him. I asked him if he was on one of the travel channel specials and he said in his creepy voice that yes he was. Then I asked if the girls could have a picture with him and he agreed.
I told him that he probably thought I was pretty crazy to recognize him off of the show (which I can’t remember which one it is off hand) because it probably meant I have watched it several times and he said no, his mother has it recorded and watches it all the time.
We thanked him and went on our way. Claire was a little spooked, but Alexis seemed to thrive on it. We survived our fall and Alexis wanted to do it again and Claire agreed so we headed right back out and got in line again. This time the line was longer, closer to 20 minutes or so. I took a few pictures of the girls.
Claire started to have 2nd thoughts, but Alexis still wanted to ride it again. I told Claire when we got up there we would ask them to take her out through the chicken exit. She was mad I called her chicken, but I explained that is just what it is called and adults even use it. She was fine with that. Once we got up there I told the CM’s she needed to exit and wait for us on the other side. They kind of went back and forth with each other because she was at the borderline age of going through herself or with a CM. A CM ended up walking with her. She told us after that she got to go down a “safe” elevator and a little bit back stage. She said she knew I would’ve loved to see it. Alexis and I went on the ride and the weirdest thing happened. I have never had this happen before nor have I heard anyone else mention it. We waited and waited to drop and all of a sudden we went up ….FAST! That was a shock. Alexis and I just laughed and laughed. I never heard of it doing that before. I didn’t even know that was an option. Of course we then fell. It was another fun ride. I did take our redneck picture this time after.
I was waving and Alexis just looks like she is sitting back, relaxing.
We found Claire waiting with a CM and off we went.
It was time for a snack. I told the girls we were making a stop and I kept it a secret, so they were excited to find out what it was. I was too. Our stop was Starring rolls. I have never gone there, but after seeing countless pictures of other people’s cupcakes, we were going to join the club! Boy those cupcakes are HUGE! We went in and I told the girls we were just going to share one and I was picking it out. No need for arguments and of course I already knew what I wanted. We ordered the peanut butter and chocolate cupcake and took it outside to a table.
Doesn’t that look darn good?
I cut it in 3rds and there was plenty for all 3 of us.
I really can’t imagine eating a whole one by myself. It was good, but rich and with me eating a 3rd was just the right amount without getting sick of it. The girls were in love with it as well and ate every last bite they each had too. Of course the chocolate on top was a huge hit too. We texted pictures to everyone and of course I had to show Gail I was filling Alexis up with junk! LOL
We then made our way to find everyone else. The decision was made to ride Star Tours. I can’t remember who all rode this, but I think Abby was too small, so perhaps Gail took her somewhere else? I do know Mary and Geoff and Pete and Vicki were with us. I am not sure if Mom and Dad rode it too or not?
The line wasn’t too long at all, which was a good thing, because we would need to leave soon for the Wonderland Tea Party at the Grand Floridian. We got a lucky spotting of Storm Troopers.
While in line Pete asked me if there was anything he needed to know about this ride and that I wasn’t tricking him like I did with Everest the day before. LOL.
We had a great time on this ride. It was so funny to hear everyone squealing and laughing. I was near Pete and he just kept going Whoa, heehee, wow, whoa! It was so funny. It was a big hit and they all wanted to ride again. Gosh, we would be cutting it close. If the line moved fast (and all the stars aligned right) we could do it. The line appeared to be even shorter and I made the decision to go one more time. Now knowing how things went …I should’ve told Claire no, but I didn’t and it is what it is …….
We had a great time once again. We all laughed and really enjoyed the ride. We had a slightly different scene the 2nd time around too. But now we had to hurry and get out of the park.
We walked EXTREMELY fast to get to the front, but as fate would have it Claire had to go to the bathroom. UGH. Can you hold it? …. NO! Gosh darn it. So we made the stop and I “should’ve” changed her clothes then, but I was trying to hurry. We flew out of the park and towards the bus stop. There was a bus there and we RAN! And just as we got to the bus queue he pulled away. You have GOT to be kidding me! Another family had also been running to the bus and let’s just say they had a few choice words about the situation and I agreed!
I started to have an anxiety attack too. UGH, I was trying to figure out how long before another bus would come ….. IF it came with in at least 20 minutes and all went smoothly we would still make it. I did decide to go see if I could find the MK bus. Maybe that would be faster. We walked back to find the sign to direct us to the MK bus.
I peered down the way for the MK bus and I didn’t see one there. Now if I was thinking straight, I should’ve just gotten a taxi and gone. Yes it would’ve been extra money, but I would’ve felt better. I did not make that choice however.
So we headed back to the GF bus stop and waited and waited and waited. My clock was ticking away. I texted Carey and let her know we were trying to get there, but we missed the bus. Claire and Kadence were doing the party together today. It was now past 20 minutes. Did I tell you I am not a patient person? A guy came and he was going to be taking over the bus route. I mentioned that it was now close to 30 minutes and he said that was about right as the buses go about 30 minutes. Um ….. Where did he get his info? They are supposed to go every 20 minutes. The bus finally pulls up and the new driver goes, “no wonder it’s late, that guys a jerk. I hate him”. Seriously, he just said that? Then he turned and said, “Just kidding, we like to joke with each other”. But when that driver got off, I could tell that neither really cared for each other. I was really hoping a new driver meant faster, but I was so WRONG. He had to do an inspection and he was about it. Finally we took off. I am 99% sure this guy was new. At every stop he made, traffic light, stop sign, whatever ….he would stop, look, stop again, look and sometimes even stop a 3rd time. I was texting away to poor Carey. I kept telling her how we were trying to get there and now had the worst bus driver on Disney property. Of course we had to make a zillion stops before getting to GF as well. I can’t remember which resorts, but I am pretty sure there were at least 2 before we got to GF. Even going over a speed bump was a slow challenge for this driver. As the time ticked, 2 o’clock came. Carey told me that she told them at the check in desk we were on our way, but running late and would have Kadence save Claire a seat. We still needed to get Claire dressed. I did it on the bus. We just pulled her dress over her shirt and then took her skirt off. At least we were ready once we got there. And yes, finally we did, at about 2:10 or so. We flew off that bus and RAN to the lobby and towards 1900 PF. They took Claire immediately in and I took care of paying for her. I just felt so awful that she had to miss part of the party. I am glad this wasn’t her first time doing it. But we will most likely do it again so she can get the full experience once more.
I found Carey and John in the lobby and sat down and sighed a HUGE sigh of relief and then gave them a play by play of our ordeal. Thank goodness for good listening friends!
I finally was able to calm down after the bus incident and Carey, John and I all chatted while the girls had fun at the tea party. It was so nice to just sit and talk to them. They are such nice people. I am so happy we had met on Dis and became friends.
While we sat and chatted, the girls were having a great time as well. The new addition since the last time we went is that they now have a photopass photographer in there. So even though we missed some of the party, we did get a few shots of the fun.
Sadly Claire did miss the entrance of the Mad Hatter and Alice, but they were still there when she arrived.
It was time for us to pick up the girls now. We entered and they were ready. I think they did the same thing as last time and pretended to sleep when we walked in, but I can’t remember for sure anymore. They had flowers to take home again.
They had a really good time together.
I tried to take a quick picture of this, but failed completely there.
We had the girls go out and get a few pictures in the waiting area. I am surprised I only took 2 for some reason.
We had to go up to the next floor to pick our photopass pictures to be added to our cards.
I attempted a couple of shots of Claire on the way up too. It looks like I’ve been drinking or something because they are tilted and just awful.
Carey allowed me to pick mine first since she knew we needed to get back to Hollywood Studios fairly fast. I picked out all the ones I posted. I was disappointed the Claire had been late, as it looked like they took quite a bit more early on of the kids.
We said goodbyes and headed down and out the front …..where we dawdled around instead of heading to the bus stop.
Now you would think we would know better by now, but we just aren’t always as smart as we look. Sure enough we walked to the bus stop and the Hollywood Studios bus was pulling away. SERIOUSLY????? UGH! I had had it with the bad bus mojo for the day. I told Claire we were taking a taxi this time around. I went up and asked one of the CM’s where I could get a taxi and they called one over and we hopped right in and off we went. It didn’t take too long and we were being dropped off at DHS. It wasn’t cheap either. I think with the tip I paid $20. It might have been less, but it sure was worth it. I just couldn’t go through that wait for a bus again. Strangely he dropped us off kind of in the middle of the bus/taxi area. I didn’t see an easy way to get over to the sidewalks. Maybe I was missing it, but we just carefully walked very fast across the roads to get to the nearest sidewalk.
I texted Gail that we were back and would meet them at Toy Story Mania.
We made our way back to Toy Story Mania and quickly found Gail and the girls. I think Mom, Dad, Geoff, and Mary had gone off on their own and Pete and Vicki had headed over to Epcot to spend some time with Katie and family.
We jumped into the fastpass line and if I remember right it wasn’t too long of a wait.
It was such a fun ride but my arm was killing me after I was done. I don’t know how people get such high scores because I think my arm and shoulder would fall off if I pulled any faster to shoot. The kids loved it too. Claire became obsessed with the ride. She wanted to ride it again, but there was no way I was waiting in the standby line.
We came out and located the stroller and got things together. Evidently when you mother isn’t looking is the best time to play in the trash can. Notice Gail’s hand is pushing Alexis out of the way to get to Abby.
And then when you get yelled at for playing in the trash can, be sure to wipe your hands all over your face and mouth so you can keep your newly found germs!
It was now around 4:15 and Claire and I had not had an official lunch yet today. I am one who needs lunch. I was running on low. Breakfast was LONG time ago and the cupcake from starring rolls had been a good treat to hold me over, but I was at the end. Claire had had a cupcake at the Wonderland Tea Party, but I don’t know if she actually ate it. She is usually one who only eats the frosting off. So we headed off in search of food. Gail made a stop somewhere to get snacks for the girls and her and would meet up with us. They had eaten lunch while we had been gone.
We headed down Sunset Blvd. and settled on Rosie’s All American Café. I was hoping for Starring Rolls, but it was already closed for the day. I got a cheeseburger and fries and Claire got chicken nuggets.
We had settled at a table right there and Gail found us right away.
It was good and hit the spot. The girls enjoyed their treats as well.
Abby was mad I was taking pictures of her messy face and she would try to hide under the table and I tried to get a few more, but they were just blurry blobs. We had a good time sitting there and relaxing and laughing about who knows what.
Alexis was trying to steal my dessert as I took a picture of it.
While sitting there we saw Aunt Mary and Geoff. They came over and joined us. Gail called Rob to see how he was doing and he was so sick. He said he has never felt so awful in all of his life. Gail decided to go out and get him some Sprite or something like that and maybe something to eat. While we were discussing options, Abby decided this was the best time to just roll around on the ground. I picked her up and held her like a baby and told her she was going to need to be DIPPED in sanitizer and I would bounce her when I said dipped and she was just laughing so hysterically. She thought that was the funniest thing.
It was then decided that Gail and Abby would leave and I think Aunt Mary was leaving as well. Geoff was going to stay with Claire, Alexis and I for bit longer. We all had dinner reservations at Cape May that night. We actually had 3 different ones as I had made ours first, then Gail decided to go as well since Rob loves crab legs (that didn’t work out to well for him) and then while trying to figure things out for my parents group, I just settled on that one for them as well. The plan was just to meet at Cape May later on.
Alexis wanted a tattoo. I am not a fan of spending money on these types of things. Nothing wrong with it at all, it always just seems like such a waste, but she had her own money and her Mom said she could. Of course Claire then wanted one as well so we all headed towards Rockin’ Roller Coaster to the tattoo station.
We had a little wait. Who knew this was popular? The girls decided on their tattoos and I did have to limit Claire. She was looking at bigger ones and more expensive ones and I told her to stick in a certain price range.
Alexis was started first and Claire wasn’t too far behind.
They started Claire’s and didn’t like it for some reason and then cleaned the whole thing off and another person redid hers. I don’t know what the issue was but I really didn’t care. I was glad they were taking care to make it look right.
While we waited for the girls to get tattooed, Geoff called the JW Marriott where he and Aunt Mary were staying. They had decided since Rob was so sick that they would get a 1 night room only for Gail and the girls. Rob is always paranoid about the girls getting sick, but this was a good choice. We sure didn’t want them to get sick at the happiest place on earth …or even worse, be sick flying home in just a few days.
Alexis’s finished product.
Claire’s finished product.
Of course now we had to decide what to do next. The girls wanted to ride Toy Story once again. We did have the fastpasses given to us by the other people earlier, but they were not ripe yet. We had a deep discussion about going. BOTH girls wanted to go, but we knew we would need to get to Cape May as Geoff’s reservation was earlier than ours. I told Claire if she got up early the next morning, we could head here and do it first thing. Alexis wanted to do that as well and Geoff said he would take her, but there was a problem with that ….she didn’t have a park hopper pass, and I knew Gail would NOT upgrade for just one day and 1 ride. In the end we decided to wait for Toy Story. It would be cutting it kind of close, but if we got on fairly fast, it would work. Since we had a bit of time to waste yet, we took off walking.
I just love the Christmas decorations!!!!
Tonight was the first night for the Osborne Lights. I didn’t have plans to watch it, but I did want to nosey over to the area and check it out. It was already getting crowded and Mulch, Sweat, and Shears were warming up the crowd.
We had another fun ride and of course I killed my arm again trying to get a higher score. Claire was mad that I beat her again, but I think she had better accuracy.
It was now time to head back to the Beach Club for our dinner reservations.
I took several very blurry pictures on the way out.
I don’t think we had to wait too long for a friendship boat.
We got back to the Beach Club with time to spare. Geoff met up with the others. I think he was also going to go and add another day to he and Aunt Mary’s ticket while they waited to get seated. I can’t remember if Gail had arrived yet or not, but somewhere along the line I had extra clothes for Alexis to change into. I don’t know if Gail gave them to me earlier or if she gave them to me in the lobby, but at some point in time Alexis did change her clothes. I took the girls to our room so we could get Claire changed (and most likely Alexis too). We had to stop and see Ariel first.
We did a quick change and Alexis had to check out our room too. We then headed back down to the lobby. Gail had checked us in and asked if we could be seated at the same table since Rob was not going to be with us. They canceled my reservation and seated us together. Ironically, we got seated immediately, while Mom and Dad’s group, who had an earlier reservation, were still waiting to be seated. We snuck past them though, because Gail didn’t want Abby to see Mom. She knew that if she saw them, she would want to sit with them and they wouldn’t have a relaxing meal then.
We got seated and hit the buffet.
When I saw who our waitress was, I had a little sinking of the heart. I was pretty sure we had in a few years back for breakfast when we came with Skip ….and she was just awful. Sadly I was right . It was her.
I just LOVE tomato and mozzarella.
I love crab legs and I was really enjoying the all you can eat. At one point, Alexis asked if she could help me crack my crab legs. Well sure thing. Less work for me is good. Claire asked too and we all went to work. Then they asked if they could try it. Well sure, we could go back up and get more if needed. Well they LOVED it and we soon went back up and got them each a plate full to crack.
After Abby was done eating, she busied herself with a toy. One of those pollypocket type dolls with clothes. She was having a good time. We spotted my parents were seated at a table actually not too far from us, but Abby’s back was to them, so we just gave a quick wave so she wouldn’t see them.
After we had filled ourselves I went up to the buffet to take some pictures while we waited for the bill. So far Susan hadn’t been too bad. At least she was clearing plates and refilling. But last time our biggest issue came at bill time and once again we had a similar issue.
Gail told her we were waiting on the bill. Abby started to get antsy. Gail packed up the doll set and we still waited. Gail then went and searched for her and actually went through the swinging doors prep area to get her attention. In the meantime, Abby spotted my parents and took off running. We gathered her back after a few hugs and she came back to pull her doll back out again. Susan then brought the check and Gail was using the dining plan for herself and paying out of pocket for the kids. Originally this whole meal was going to be out of picket, but since Rob missed breakfast she had an extra credit. Well Susan charged it wrong and charged everything to Gail’s room,, including tip. Gail was so furious. She went and found her again and Susan tried to tell her it had to be done that way and Gail told her no it doesn’t. This is the issue we had with Susan last time too. She told Skip that the tip had to be added to the room and he kept telling her no and she insisted. Skip left her nothing then, but I felt bad and left a few bucks. This was getting ridiculous. She was arguing with Gail and finally Gail got it settled. I think she charged me too and I had it fixed and wrote in bold letters on the tip line CASH. I only left a few bucks again. It was just an awful experience and no waitress should ever argue about things like this. I am pretty sure Gail left her nothing. She was fed up. Also because Abby had pulled out her doll again 3 pieces became missing. We searched the seat cushions and Claire and Alexis were on the floor (yuck) looking and we ended up finding 2 of the 3, but never that last piece. Gail was ticked about that too because it had just been purchased and now we were already missing a shoe.
We finally left and Gail took the girls to the Marriot for the night. I know Alexis wanted to swim and Geoff told he would go with her, but I think by the time they got back they were just too tired and saved it for the morning.
I did get one picture of Alexis before they left. I wanted both girls to sit in the big chairs, but Claire refused to.
