Our road trip, resort hopping, HOT, HOT, HOT trip report: August 9-21, 2010

I just got back a few days ago, and while laundry waits for me, I was excited to get started on this.

We are a family of six. There is me, Jenn, my hubby, Sam, 15 year old daughter, drama queen, Lexy (or as she has taken to calling herself by her middle name this trip Ariana :lol, 9 year old daughter and mini drama queen, Lainey, 8 year old son, Roderick, and finally 6 year old daughter, Bella.

This was our first trip ever driving. My parents drove down when I was a kid, but we have never driven as adults. I was super excited for this new adventure. Sam was really not excited at all! He kept checking every day for flight prices to see if they had dropped.

I think because of this new experience there was more drama and crankiness before the trip. Sam and I were at each other a bit. Maybe that had something to do with the fact that I had this horrible mosquito bite. I had been itching it for days and on Saturday, the day we planned on leaving, it was very red and puffy looking. Really half of the back of my calf was involved. I asked Sam if he had ever seen a bug bite look like that and he said no. So we headed to the urgent care because I was worried that if it was getting infected that it would only get worse during our trip. So we spent two hours sitting around in a tiny boxlike room waiting to see a doctor for a prescription. It was crazy and not like we didn't have a million things to do. So we were snapping at each other a little, and I think at this point I didn't even want to go on the trip any more. I was ready to just scrap it. But we went home and starting throwing stuff in suitcases. Sam would have loved to been packed already but since I'm the procrastinator it wasn't done. Needless to say we were running late from our self-imposed leave time. Sam said if we were flying we would have missed the plane.

But at 10:30 at night we were finally ready to go. Here is the three little ones excited to get started. Lexy was cranky and too cool for this picture.

I have a picture of Sam before we left, but he insisted on loading the garage with the door closed so not everyone would know we were leaving on vacation so he was hot and sweaty. :lol:

We have a 26 hour drive ahead of us without stops, be we left Saturday night because at this point we don't know if we'll want to stop and rest somewhere. We are due in on Monday the 9th and I wanted to be there right away in the morning. So here we go!

 

[eagles]

yippee an update. :ROFLOL: i was getting worried.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Like everyone else I love the report! Cannot wait to read the rest...:sohappy:

Thanks!

I always enjoy your trip reports. Your family is adorable! Looking forward to the rest!

And I love the pic of the chandeliers at night. Gorgeous!!

Thank you!

OKW is so beautiful.. it's definitely on my list of places I want to stay.

It doesn't hurt that it's right on LBV

Sam said that someday he'd like to bring his clubs and golf. That would be awesome, because I could have a spa day while he golfed. :lol:

Yay... more trip report! I can't wait to see your Bay Lake Tower pictures, especially the ones you took while leaving your poor family loaded down with the luggage outside. :lol:

You're going to feel so sorry for them when you hear about our fiasco with the room. They were very impatient to get in there! :lol:

yippee an update. :ROFLOL: i was getting worried.

Me too! :lookaroun

 

[enoe01]

This is an excellent Trip Report. The DW and I just love reading it. We cant wait for our trip in October. You can never have enough pictures either. :sohappy:

Erik

 

[mouselvrmom]

Can you believe we're on to Day 5, August 13, 2010? Well, we are!

We packed up our Suburban and headed to the Contemporary to check in. We had asked a CM at OKW for directions, and she seemed slightly confused, but did print us out directions. Sam thought that was the way he was thinking. Driving around was really easier than I had thought it would be. I can get lost at home, but at least with all the signs, it's really not too bad.

We get to the Contemporary and manage to make it past the gate. Yay! We were told where we could park while we checked in. I think they weren't happy that we weren't going to be checking our luggage. They kept telling us that there are no services over at BLT, so they could take our luggage now. We kept telling them that we'd be fine. I mean, we have a caravan of rolling suitcases and plenty of kids to pull them. And we packed fairly light this trip knowing that we would be moving around a lot.

We left the kids in the car and went to the lobby to check in. It was nice that we were doing this at 7 am, because no one was there. While I checked in, Sam was busy just randomly snapping pictures.

We got checked in pretty easily. We had to do it now because we had breakfast at Tusker House and we were out of dining credits, so we needed our BLT key for more. We moved our car over to the BLT parking lot and got ready to wait for a bus to AK. We decided since we would be leaving our bags in our car, that we should take the bus today.

I hate the morning humidity in FL!!! I always want to take a picture first thing in the morning and this is always what I get! Or sometimes even worse!

A bus came right away, so we were on our way! Who's excited for a character breakfast?

Lexy wanted to hold her mommy's hand.

I've decided that I don't like getting to parks at opening and fighting a crush of people. I like getting there like this much more! Bag check is so much easier, the turnstyles are so much easier, I just feel more relaxed!

 

[tiaragirl]

Sam said that someday he'd like to bring his clubs and golf. That would be awesome, because I could have a spa day while he golfed. :lol:

Tell him to do it! LBV is beautiful, though I preferred Osprey Ridge. The other two are gorgeous as well (Magnolia = Mickey sand traps!). They usually have decent deals, soooo worth it.


And loving Lexi's outfit on day #5.

 

[mouselvrmom]

This is an excellent Trip Report. The DW and I just love reading it. We cant wait for our trip in October. You can never have enough pictures either. :sohappy:

Erik

Why thank you! I'm glad you don't mind my picture overload! :lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

Tell him to do it! LBV is beautiful, though I preferred Osprey Ridge. The other two are gorgeous as well (Magnolia = Mickey sand traps!). They usually have decent deals, soooo worth it.

I would have to go just to take pictures of the mickey sandtraps,although I wouldn't be golfing! :lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

So Sam has had the camera for the walk in to the park. We don't like when he has the camera, because he'll just snap billions of pictures without any sort of care for how they'll turn out. I keep telling him that this may be blurry, but he doesn't listen. He also loves these action shots!

Tammy would tell him that he should fill the frame! HAHA!

I told him this one would be blurry!

I think it was after this one that I finally took him to the ground and wrestled the camera out of his hands...

We made it to Tusker House. Oh, that's so much better!

The kids wanted me to take a picture of this "mickey cactus".

I don't know why, but I love taking pictures of windows. Some people around here may think that I'm trying to take pictures of people while they're eating, but I'm not, I just like windows!

Sam is so funny! He hates when they have a character outside and then they come with your picture and try to make you buy it. When we were at Chef Mickey's we bypassed taking the picture with the plate because he didn't want to feel pressured to buy. He wanted to bypass Donald here, but I told him that there were too few people and it would seem strange if we didn't just take the darn picture. He was not happy with me! :lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

I hate when I get to a character meal and I can't go eat because I have to wait for a character that is right there. Or I suppose I should feel happy that I can get them over with and then go eat.

Oh, well, Mickey was there right away. I love Mickey!

Who loves POG juice? It is POG juice, right?

Sam can't drink it, so I get two!

Sam just loves when I make him get in the pictures!

So I do it every chance I get! He would rather be eating...

Some of the yummy food!

I have always loved Tusker House. They seem to have a little different fare, and I love meeting the characters in their safari outfits. But this time I was definitely unimpressed with the overall feeling here. It just felt very rushed. More so than it has in the past. And I really don't think the camera person was happy when we declined our picture with Donald.

We saw the characters, we ate, I was ready to leave. Sam was still loading a plate. I was getting nervous because park was opening and I wanted to get FPs for Everest. So I had the kids go to the bathroom and I tried to look as unpatient as possible while I watched Sam eat. He eventually got the hint, and wasn't super happy, but 5 beats 1, so we left. I swear he could have stayed there all day! Sam loves breakfast buffets. They're not my favorite, but I try to do a few of them each trip to keep Sam happy.

Next up, Everest!

 

[enoe01]

I have to agree with Sam, I hate having to feel presurred to buy the photos at some of the character dinings. It is hard to say no even to a bad picture when you have 3 kids saying that they want it.:brick:I can find a much better way to waste my money. But to each their own.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I have to agree with Sam, I hate having to feel presurred to buy the photos at some of the character dinings. It is hard to say no even to a bad picture when you have 3 kids saying that they want it.:brick:I can find a much better way to waste my money. But to each their own.

Really, I think for the price we pay, that it should be included like at CRT. That seems much more fair to me than charging $30! I don't need the four different pics, just give me one and I'll be happy! That wouldn't cost them that much!

 

[enoe01]

Really, I think for the price we pay, that it should be included like at CRT. That seems much more fair to me than charging $30! I don't need the four different pics, just give me one and I'll be happy! That wouldn't cost them that much!

I do ageree if the photos were included it would not be such a big deal. I think Sam and I would get along quite well as i love the breakfast buffets as well, and I believe I have seen the look you were giving Sam from my wife as well, funny and strange.:lookaroun

 

[mouselvrmom]

I do ageree if the photos were included it would not be such a big deal. I think Sam and I would get along quite well as i love the breakfast buffets as well, and I believe I have seen the look you were giving Sam from my wife as well, funny and strange.:lookaroun

It must be universal!

 

[mouselvrmom]

So after our delicious breakfast, we head over to Everest. We got fastpasses and decided to do standby because basically it was a walk on.

This was Bella's first time on the ride and I wasn't sure how she'd do. It is kind of scary and that backwards part really get to me, if no one else. But she was giggling and yelling the whole time.

See she made it out alive, and even found a friend afterward.

Now, I like Everest, I really do. But it really messes with my head. Sam loves to hear about my inner ear problem that I swear I developed after I had the kids. Either way, I can't do it too many times in a row. There was still now wait and another 40 minutes or so to our FP time and the kids wanted to ride again. Again? I say. But we'll ride it for our FP time! Guess who won that one? I said I'd sit out while Sam and the kids went on it over and over again. I think I counted five times while I sat in the blistering sun. No, it wasn't really that bad. I sat in the shade and took lots of pictures while I waited.

 

[mouselvrmom]

I'm still waiting....

Too bad someone had to leave their darn stroller in that picture! I considered moving it, but didn't.

Oh, look! My family checked in with me in between bouts of running to get back on the ride! They're showing me their best yeti face.

And Sam even stopped long enough to take one of me sitting on this rock that I've been warming while listening to the CMs ask people to take a suvey.

I'm now hot and tired of waiting outside. So I head in to the gift shop to continue my wait. There's plenty to look at in here.

I can't believe I showed such restraint and didn't buy any of these on our trip.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Tammy would tell him that he should fill the frame! HAHA!

I would never criticize Sam's picture taking!:lol:

I can't believe you resisted the Vinylmations!!

I am with you on Everest. I love it but I do not feel well afterwards. Just over the last few years I haven't handled roller coasters that well. I don't want to be wimp, so I still do them all at least once.

 

[HollyBelle]

Oh, look! My family checked in with me in between bouts of running to get back on the ride! They're showing me their best yeti face.

Tell me this shot is going in a frame! I absolutely love it. :sohappy: And let me just say, I hope Brett and I have a family as fun as yours!!

 

[mouselvrmom]

I would never criticize Sam's picture taking!:lol:

I can't believe you resisted the Vinylmations!!

I am with you on Everest. I love it but I do not feel well afterwards. Just over the last few years I haven't handled roller coasters that well. I don't want to be wimp, so I still do them all at least once.

I just remember you saying that you have fully trained Stephen as to how to take a proper picture. But there is absolutely no training Sam! :lol:

I know, isn't my restraint amazing?

I will ride a few times, but am very careful not to overdo it. I have spent the day feeling very sick when I've done that!

Tell me this shot is going in a frame! I absolutely love it. :sohappy: And let me just say, I hope Brett and I have a family as fun as yours!!

I guess I hadn't really considered that one for a frame. I love the action, but it's a little blurry and there is that guy walking behind them. :lol: Maybe if I was better at PSE I could get him outta there!

And, awww, you are too sweet! I'm sure your family is going to be just as fun as you and Brett! And is there something you want to tell us? :lookaroun:lol:

 

[mouselvrmom]

So after waiting for our FP time to be up, I decided that I was okay to ride again. But I warned everyone that this would be our last ride for the day.

They were ready for it.

I guess I was somewhat ready for it again. I was just thrilled that we were near the front. I have this idea that you don't feel the backwards part as much if you're in the front.

This is not my favorite part, because I know what's coming next.

My kids sometimes close their eyes even for this yeti.

Sam doing his firepower pose.

 

[HollyBelle]

And, awww, you are too sweet! I'm sure your family is going to be just as fun as you and Brett! And is there something you want to tell us? :lookaroun:lol:

Well I had to find some way to get him to propose, didn't I?! :ROFLOL: (I'm so totally kidding, promise)!