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

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We had time before our SE FP+ expired to allow Logan, Lily, my dad, Scott, and Beth to ride Mission Space. They opted for the green side. I got nominated to go find wherever it was that Scott parked the stroller! It ended up being over near the Electric Umbrella entrance! Not sure why he parked it there, but whatever! Then I joined the others and suggested we check out the play area inside Mission Space.




Everyone had a good time doing their respective things! Then it was time to head to Spaceship Earth for our first FP+ of the day.



After taking the previous pic, the CM made sure I knew that I was not allowed to use flash photography on the ride. I quickly explained that I was putting my camera away and got a thumbs up from the CM.
Then I had to get a few pics before heading over to use our next FP+.



Then I had time to take some pics while the stroller was being parked.





We all enjoyed Soarin'. The smells were working fine, but the screen needs cleaned so badly! I can't wait for the update to the movie! I could have happily skipped this attraction, but the kids really wanted to do it and we had newbies that had never seen it.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We decided to ride Living with the Land while we were there.








Next was The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Luckily, we had FP+. The standby line was 45 minutes!:eek:







We didn't spend any time in the aquarium section.:( Someone was complaining they were hungry and needed a nap! (And it wasn't my kids:rolleyes:)
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So, we headed back to The Land to have lunch at Sunshine Seasons.

I ordered a turkey sandwich with potato salad and the strawberry shortcake. It was all delicious!




My brother and his family headed back to the resort at this point, and the rest of us went to ride Figment. Definitely not my favorite ride, but the kids enjoy it!



After, we checked out the jumping fountains for a few minutes.



 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made our way to Mouse Gears for some shopping, then decided to head back to the resort to start packing a little and rest before dinner.








 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We then returned to Epcot with enough time for a few PhotoPass pics and the Disney Visa photo shoot.




Then we headed over to dinner.

We had to wait about 15 minutes to be seated, but we were early and ended up being seated about our actual ADR time.
I don't know why, but I love getting pics of these:
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We were seated on the upper level, but we still had a decent view of the Living with the Land scenes as we rotated past! We had great character interaction here!!






We saw Chip a second time.


Somehow, I forgot to take pics of the bread, salad, and entrees:oops:, but I remembered the desserts!
The kids had cone shaped cupcakes.

And the adults had berry cobbler. YUM!!

Then Dale was mocking Mickey by putting serving trays up to his head and pretending to be Mickey!!

Then Mickey stopped by again.


Overall, a great meal! I definitely plan to eat here again.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
At this point, my mom decided that the girls would really like to ride Figment and all of us should go with them! Lucky me!!


Lots of rocks to be seen instead of water!


The kids had fun after the ride.


Then we finally headed toward World Showcase.



We stopped in Mexico to ride the Three Caballeros.

We tried to ride Maelstrom, but the wait was at about an hour! My brother decided they were done for the night. My parents also left with Owen. Logan and Lily wanted to stay for Illuminations, so we headed to the front of the park with everyone else so we could pick up our Disney Visa photo, then we headed back to WS for the hour we had before Illuminations.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Lily wanted to see Japan, so we headed to the right.

We stopped a couple of places before they decided they wanted to find a spot for Illuminations. We stopped in America to buy lemonade slushies, then continued to Germany to get my caramel popcorn. Then we found our spot by the railing and camped out for about 40 minutes.





The kids couldn't stop talking about how much they liked it! I hadn't been able to see it the last few trips, so I was glad someone finally wanted to stay and watch it with me!!
Then we wandered to the front to catch a bus.



I was very disappointed in the lack of things we accomplished that day! We really didn't get to see any of WS. Oh well, good reason to go back again soon!
 

TrolleyFollower91

Well-Known Member
Great TR! I totally understand the stress of doing Disney with extended family. Always the hardest when you are the planner! I'm also really impressed with your park commando family! I'm no good without an afternoon (nap) break.
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I got two fun Disney surprises today!! I found this when I went to the mailbox:
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Then my brother and the girls stopped by work this evening and brought me a thank you gift.
IMG_0164.JPG

IMG_0165.JPG

Apparently, he took pics of the backpack I bought the first day, and went back to DTD later to get this for me! I love it!
 

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
Your pictures are so awesome! You took pictures of everything! I loved it!

So glad you were feeling better!

Hula hooping with Chip and Dale! How cool!

And whaaa? They have grilled chicken on deck? Who knew, lol!

You got the big table! Yay!

Seriously. I have got to parasail just for the pictures.

Those pillow cases are adorable!

Lily did look scared on Tower of Terror! Lol!

The Darth Vader photos are amazing!

Those two gifts at the end are excellent. :)
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Your pictures are so awesome! You took pictures of everything! I loved it!

So glad you were feeling better!

Hula hooping with Chip and Dale! How cool!

And whaaa? They have grilled chicken on deck? Who knew, lol!

You got the big table! Yay!

Seriously. I have got to parasail just for the pictures.

Those pillow cases are adorable!

Lily did look scared on Tower of Terror! Lol!

The Darth Vader photos are amazing!

Those two gifts at the end are excellent. :)
Thanks! I really felt like I missed a lot in the picture department! I was so busy keeping track of the kids and trying to make sure everyone had a good time, I really didn't take nearly as many pictures as I normally would have! That will be remedied when I am on the Wonder!!

I continue to see food things in other cruise reports that I never saw while onboard that I really wish I had! Oh well, next time!

The big table was really cool! We felt pretty special!:D

Parasailing was very cool! I definitely recommend it!
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Logan, Lily, Owen, my parents, and I were up early for EMH at MK. The others decided to sleep in a little and meet us for our brunch ADR. We were at MK by about 7:30am.

We were able to take these pics with no one else in them because everyone was too busy lining up at the rope so they could be one of the first ones in!



Then we moved over to the side a little to get a good spot to watch the Welcome Show.

Owen had to call home and tell Daddy about the tooth he lost that morning! We told him how lucky he was that Tinkerbell got to visit him instead of the regular tooth fairy! He was excited!








 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We did want to try to ride SDMT that morning, but we opted for a leisurely stroll down Main Street instead of rushing there with everyone else.

It didn't matter anyhow, because it was operating on a delayed opening and they "hoped" to have it up and running in about 30 minutes. That seems to be the norm! We decided instead to ride:


And:






Those would not have been my personal choices, but that was what the kids wanted to do! That was what was most important at that point!
We then headed over to the rope to wait for Frontierland to open.

We stopped in the Tangled bathrooms first.



We were some of the first people to ride Big Thunder Mountain. This was definitely one of the favorite rides of the trip!

Then we made our way back over towards the castle to do a little shopping and meet up with my brother for brunch.
We passed this guy "painting" Goofy. The kids were enthralled!

Can't pass up this photo op!


Owen got mad because he wasn't tall enough! He refused to allow anyone to help him or to use the one you sit down in. It was more fun to pout about it!!
We had to try to get the sword out!


 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Then we spent some time in Castle Couture and Sir Mickey's.




Then we checked out the fountain before finding the girls.




Then it was time to check in.


We had quite a bit of time before we met Cinderella.









 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
It seemed to take forever for us to get called to go up to the dining room. Long enough that the CM could tell I was getting upset and came over to ask our name and go check for me. Surprise, surprise, ours was the next name called!



The pastry plate was good, but these won hands down with the kids. We even had to ask for more!!

I ordered the caramel apple stuffed french toast. It was delicious, but so sweet! I had to eat some of Logan's scrambled eggs to counteract the sweetness!


Unfortunately, they weren't all looking at me, but at least it is clear! Unlike the one where they are all looking at me!










We had much better interaction with these princesses than we did with the ones at Akershus. The kids thoroughly enjoyed it and talked about it long afterwards. Well worth the money spent in my opinion!
 

joan237

New Member
Amy.
I am loving your report, been reading it for days, you have a beautiful family and are making great memories.
Can I ask about the photos with disney logos on them.
Is this the memory maker or photo pass or is their a difference,
Going for the first time and as you can see I am confused about lots of things.
Do you find the photos worth the price and do you have to go out of your way or wait long for them to come take your photos.
Thanks
 

TheMouseFan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We made our way out.


We had a little time before our FP+, so everyone decided to ride the teacups. Well, almost everyone! My dad and I decided to sit this one out!



There was actually a line, so I had plenty of time to walk all the way around the SDMT and take pics!














 

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