Trip Report Our (mostly) Dream-y June 2014 Vacation

Hi all! We returned from our trip 5 days ago, and I'm ready to relive it through this report!

First, let me introduce myself and my family in case you aren't familiar (here is my PTR if you are interested: http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/my-dream-vacation-a-june-2014-ptr.865397/)
Here we are on the last day of this trip:

Me (Amy), my 6 year old, Owen, my 11 year old, Logan, and my 9 year old, Lily. Also on this trip were my parents (Nanny and Papaw to the kids), my brother, Scott, my SIL, Beth, and my twin 4 year old nieces, Macy and Allison.

Unfortunately, my husband wasn't able to take this trip with us. I am greatly disappointed by this, as he ended up not starting the fire academy like he was supposed to! Long story short, the city of Columbus sucks! They told him that one of the 40 spots was being held for him as long as he passed all of the testing. Well, he did pass all the tests, but they said his labwork took too long getting back and they already gave all the spots to other guys. They guaranteed him a spot in the December class, but he also had to be available the first three weeks of the June academy, "just in case" someone didn't show up or dropped out. Of course, that didn't happen, so he missed the whole vacation and still won't start until December! The only good thing to come of this, is that my mom had me schedule a cruise in October for just me and Brian!

Ok, back to the actual trip! Let me just say that I will not be going on any more family vacations with my SIL and nieces. I will say that their time management (or lack thereof) is much different than mine, and not say anything else about it! We had a great time despite our differences!

We had a 6am flight on Wed. morning, so we drove from Dayton to Columbus Tues. night and stayed in a hotel. Here are the kids getting ready to leave our house:

We made sure to leave early enough so we could visit a few stores for the kids once we got to Columbus.


We grabbed dinner at Max and Erma's. It was about this time that my stomach started bothering me. I just assumed it was nerves (I was really nervous about making sure 9 other people had a good time on this vacation!) and being upset that Brian wasn't going with us. Well, it was more than that, and I was up sick all night!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I ordered the Black Truffle Pasta Purseittes. They were to die for!! I loved the champagne sauce they were in! I'm just bummed that they don't appear to be on the Animator's Palette menu on the Wonder.

I seriously could have made an entire meal out of these!


Then I had the Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Soup, which was also good.



My entree was the Ginger-Teriyaki dusted Angus Beef Tenderloin. It was delicious as well!


Then Crush came on the screen.

He called me out for taking this pic of him:

He made me pull it up on my screen and show it to him to be sure it was flattering!! The kids loved that he was picking on me! He asked where we were from, and if we had any good surfing, etc. Then he moved on. Later, we saw him across the room with a table from Philly. He decided that since neither one of us had good waves at home, that he would teach us! He had the whole room doing the wave from their table over to "the Dayton dudes"! The kids absolutely loved it!!
For dessert, I had the Sweet Temptations again. This time it was white chocolate fudge cheesecake, lemon-raspberry tart, and mango mousse. All were delicious!

The kids, once again, had Mickey ice cream bars.


They had some interactive dancing going on.


And here are the kids are with Nuno and Amania.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I loved the flooring in the entry/exit of the restaurant.

We decided to skip the show that night in order to finish packing and get to bed early, as we had a busy day ahead of us!
This was in my room:

And this was in my parents' room:

One last pic of the pretty sunset from the verandah.

After getting the kids settled, I went down to deck 4 to take care of one last thing...booking a cruise for me and Brian since he hadn't heard anything from Columbus at that point! There was no one else there, which I thought was kind of funny since I had heard it can get busy the last night! Well, it didn't quite go as planned, as the agent booked me for next October out of San Diego even though I explicitly said I wanted the CC double dip cruise this October! They don't give you a print out or anything, so I didn't realize what had happened until the next morning. Luckily, was able to get it all straightened out!

 

[Cesar R M]

Friday was our Nassau day. We had previously decided that we were going to stay on the ship and swim and explore that day. We slept in a little. I spent some time on the verandah waiting for the kids to wake up.

First sighting of Nassau:

Once everyone was up and moving, we headed to Cabanas for breakfast. I seem to have no pictures for some reason!
Then my parents took the boys back to the room while Lily and I went to the atrium to meet the princesses.

Belle signed Lily's autograph book while she was waiting for the first person in line to get to her.

We waited for quite some time, so I had to take some pics of our surroundings!



Princess Minnie was upstairs, but Lily didn't want to wait to see her after we waited for the rest of the princesses. I would rather have seen Minnie, but whatever!

Tiana was first.


Then Snow White.


Ariel was up next.


Then Rapunzel.


Then Cinderella.


And last, but not least was Belle.



I was very impressed with the interaction. They all spent a good amount of time talking to Lily!

ohh man, I love the little details! specially the golden chip and dale in swimgear!

I never imagined that you could get a photo of all the princess as well.

At this point, my brother and SIL went into Nassau for a little while. My parents and I took the kids back to the rooms to relax/nap for a little while. My kids hopped in the shower, and then they wanted to hit the kids clubs.

its my imagination or the Carnival Sensation followed the Dream all the way ? (it was next to the Dream on the port, and then on Nassau according to your photos lol)

 

[TheMouseFan]

ohh man, I love the little details! specially the golden chip and dale in swimgear!

I never imagined that you could get a photo of all the princess as well.




its my imagination or the Carnival Sensation followed the Dream all the way ? (it was next to the Dream on the port, and then on Nassau according to your photos lol)

Yes, the Carnival Sensation was right with us the whole time. They pulled out of port ahead of us, then we watched them pull into Nassau after us, then pull back into Port Canaveral after us on the last day.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love that you all had the big table in the middle at Royal Palace!!

The banana soft serve ice cream was there last September and in February so I think you'll be good to go!

We did the CC5k in Sept and on my word... it was HOT!! I was walking with my sister and @PartOfYourWorld and I said "I really wish it would rain right now or something!" and no sooner did I say that, it did start sprinkling to cool us off a bit! It was fun but one and done for me. I did it, I got the medal and the shirt... I'm good! lol

The baked potato and cheddar soup in Animator's is my favorite soup on the ship! So yummy! And you actually CAN ask for an entree size of any of the appetizers! So if you want the black truffle pasta for your entree, go for it!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Love that you all had the big table in the middle at Royal Palace!!

The banana soft serve ice cream was there last September and in February so I think you'll be good to go!

We did the CC5k in Sept and on my word... it was HOT!! I was walking with my sister and @PartOfYourWorld and I said "I really wish it would rain right now or something!" and no sooner did I say that, it did start sprinkling to cool us off a bit! It was fun but one and done for me. I did it, I got the medal and the shirt... I'm good! lol

The baked potato and cheddar soup in Animator's is my favorite soup on the ship! So yummy! And you actually CAN ask for an entree size of any of the appetizers! So if you want the black truffle pasta for your entree, go for it!

I am so looking forward to that banana ice cream!!! I definitely don't plan on doing the 5k again either! Now, having said that, if Brian wants to do it in October, I will do it with him. But, he would probably want to run/jog it and I will only walk, so I don't think he'll do it! I had heard that you could order larger portions of appetizers, but they don't appear to be on the menu on the Wonder! Maybe I will get lucky and they actually will be! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Love this report. You look like you are having so, so much fun!!

Thanks! We definitely were having a great time!

 

[prfctlyximprct]

I love your report!! Thanks for letting me live vicariously through your family.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We were up bright and early on Sunday morning. I had arranged to be picked up at 8am and I had no clue how long it would take us to get off the ship. We enjoyed the sunrise while we were getting ready.


We ate some dry cereal and mini muffins that my mom had brought with her and had everything packed up and ready to go by the time they gave the all clear to leave the ship at 7:15am. We quickly made our way down and exited the ship with no wait. A porter found us immediately and helped us locate our luggage. We walked right through customs with no wait and were out on the sidewalk by 7:30. I called our van and she was able to get there a little early, so we had our luggage in the van and were on the road a few minutes before 8:00. I passed the time by changing our FP+ around for the day. Lily had met Cinderella and Rapunzel onboard, so no need to waste a FP+ that day for it. I changed our 4 and my parents to Big Thunder Mountain. My brother and his family wanted to keep their Cinderella and Rapunzel one.
In no time at all, we were traveling back under this:

While we were in transit, we had received texts that our rooms were ready and given the building and room number. No need to stop at the front desk. This worked out well, as the van just dropped us off right in front of our building, so no need for us to schlep our luggage all over Pop Century! There was a slight problem, they had given my brother a connecting room with my parents instead of me! We had to go to the front desk anyway to set up pins for my brother and my parents, and they swapped out our rooms with minimal fuss and I received an immediate text that my new room was ready. A few pics on the way:



We were done with all this by 9:15. I was so excited to get going to MK! Then my brother announced that they needed something to eat. So we had to go to the foodcourt and get some food for them. I got things for my kids that would be easy to carry and eat while waiting in line for the bus, but that is not what they decided to do, so we had to sit and wait for them. I think they realized how upset I was getting, and cut their eating time a little short. I really didn't feel bad, we had a FP+ appointment to get to!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I love your report!! Thanks for letting me live vicariously through your family.

You're welcome! I'm glad you are enjoying it!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Finally, we were on the bus to MK. We got one of the new articulated ones. It was pretty cool. The kids had to sit in the very back, even though there were very few other people!



Finally, the Magic Kingdom!!! We entered the park at about 10:30. (Which was way later than I would have liked, but my goal was to be there by 11:00, so we made it!)

First view of the castle:









We made our way around to Fantasyland for our first FP+ of the trip!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Our first FP+:






Logan and I rode in the front seat! Everyone loved it! I was kicking myself for giving up our FP+ for it on our second MK day! But everyone kept telling me all the things they wanted to be sure to do, so I had to make some tough choices!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we headed over to Journey Under the Sea.






I was hoping this one would be Sebastian, but we got Tinkerbell!

It was a walk on, even though it said 20 minutes!




Then the kids took a quick potty break before heading to lunch. I, of course, took that time to get some pics.

 

[TheMouseFan]

We had a FP+ for lunch.



We had placed our orders ahead of time, but we needed to change ours, and the rest weren't in the system!

We sat in the rose gallery.


Kids pasta:

Turkey sandwich:

Strawberry cupcake:

Masters cupcake:

Everyone enjoyed the food!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Then we parted ways and my brother, SIL and nieces headed over to meet Cindy and Rapunzel, and the rest of us headed over to Frontierland.








As we were leaving, they announced that they were shutting it down because of inclement weather in the area. Our next FP+ was for Splash, which was of course closed as well. After meeting back up with my brother, we headed back to Fantasyland to see if the weather would pass.


We settled on It's A Small World. It was a 5-10 minute wait, but it jumped very quickly behind us because of the coming rain.


The heavy rain all passed over while we were riding. It was still sprinkling when we exited, but nothing major. Needless to say, our Splash FP+ was turned into a floating one! We then headed back to the room for a rest, and to unpack a little and get settled in.

 

[TheMouseFan]

I loved the artwork in our room.

I also loved that they were advertising the opening of Animal Kingdom on the laptop computer outside our room. Brian and I were there in August and September of that year for our honeymoon!

The kids had a good time on the bus.


We were back!!

We made a quick stop at Town Hall to get First Visit buttons for the girls and to get my Mine Train certificate authenticated.

It was nothing special, and I didn't really care, but I was curious and there was a thread on here about it, so I figured I would check it out and share!
We then made our way to dinner.

Love this view from the porch!

And the same view from our table! I wish I could have that view every time I sat down to eat!

The characters came around very quickly!





The food was good, not great, but we were all full when we left!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I forgot to share the pics of our autograph pillowcases and my bag. They turned out really cute!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I also forgot to put in the PhotoPass pics of the girls meeting Cinderella and Rapunzel! Oops!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

Ok, now back to the actual report!
After dinner, we hit:


Everyone enjoyed it and no one got wet!
We then went to cash in our last FP+ at:

We all enjoyed this too! But we did get wet this time! I like this ride, but I really hate getting wet on rides and having to walk around in wet clothes! And my entire right side was soaking wet, as were the seat of my shorts! It was so uncomfortable! I did, however, manage to keep my backpack completely dry!
I can't figure out what happened to the ride pic of my brother, but here is ours:

Owen looks scared to death, but he begged to go on it again!
We then rode Haunted Mansion.

My brother was worried about my nieces, but they ended up loving it!

 

[TheMouseFan]

The girls were just about done for the day, so we headed over to our last stop. We made a quick stop at the Rapunzel restrooms first.


Apparently, I didn't get a pic of the sign for our next destination, Enchanted Tales with Belle. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed this, but now that we have done it once, I don't feel the need to repeat it!












Then we made a quick stop here:

We got a LeFou's Brew to share. I ended up drinking most of it though because the kids weren't really impressed!
I wanted to stay longer, as there were EMH that night, but everyone else was done. It was just easier to go back with them, so I did! I should have stayed so I could get more night time pics, but I figured I would get them on Thursday when we were staying late for the fireworks.