Poncho's, Poncho's everywhere..and let's not forget the itchy feet too! An August TR

Ponchos, Ponchos everywhere Updated 11/16

Welcome Welcome to my August 2011 trip Report... be warned.. U will get wet..you may even get soaked.. so grab your poncho and join us! ( read the Pre-Trip report here)



Trip dates: August 18-29 2011. Room only on August 18th, Free dining from 8/19-8/29

Resort~ Pop Century..my first time at a Value.. 2 rooms

Who? Well lets see we have:

ME: Alison..I turned 36 while in Disney. I have been a Disney fan my whole life. I could live in Disney. I made 2 Disney trips in 19 months in 1999 and 2000 then I shelved my Disney World dreams when I met my now husband and we had 3 kids in 3 years.Fast forward 10+ years and we were finally ready and able to take the plunge and take the 4 kids! I homeschool 3 of the 4 kids ( the oldest is graduated) plus I work a day job doing office type work for the family business and I bartend 2-4 nights a week at my best friends nightclub.

Eric: 39.. a now reformed Disney Skeptic. He was not thrilled with this trip in the planning and paying stage.. and even up til the we arrived stage. He only had 6 Flags to picture in his head what Disney might be like. Well let's just say if I had a nickel for each time he said "this place is awesome"( which was almost the trip report title BTW)..well I could buy us all AP's and go back again this year!

Noah: Turned 17 on this trip. Has been to WDW twice before..once at 4.5 and once at almost 6.5 ( for Christmas no less).. he was above all the most excited for this trip aside from myself.. he knew what to expect and he was giddy like a 6 year old school girl any time you mentioned the trip. Noah is currently a "sandwich artist" at Subway while he decide's what's next in his life! warning prone to extreme teenage mood swings!

Kate: 16.. Noah's girlfriend. nice girl.. but let's just say no girlfriends/boyfriends will ever be invited again!

Declan: 9.5 going on 90.. we always say he's an Old man trapped in a kids body. He was the kiddo I was most worried about at Disney as he has a tendency to suck the fun out of things. Declan tends to overthink, over worry and over control things. He's a fab kid, smarter than any 9.5 year old should be and is a great athlete. He was super excited to go to Disney but due to his issues with the unknown he had a giant knot in his tummy too!

Jadziah: 7 almost 8.. she is by far my most even tempered kiddo. She was giddy and unworried about the trip. She required a disney shirt for each day we were there and yes..she got them..lol hey it pays to be the only girl outta 4 kids right? ( oh JahD Zee Uh like in Star Trek Deep Space nine.. yes I named my daughter after a character in a TV show..I'm a star trek nut and proud of it)

Taejan: 5 almost 6 ( as in he turns 6 a mere 3 days after we left Disney). There are few words to accurately describe Taejan ( Tay-Gin we made this one up). He has the best personality, is beyond outgoing.. vocal and full of love and life.. he's also a putz.. a VERY small but BIg putz.. no is just a word he laughs at.. he made the trip very stressful at times..but oh well..such is life. he also was the catalyst for many of the great "awwwww moments" on this trip as well!

Elaine AKA Gigi: My mother.. she has also been to WDW 2 other times ( with Noah and I). She was a great help with the 3 younger kiddo's and she fully enjoyed her time at Disney with us. She did NOT like the heat ( but then again which one of us did???)

So there's the cast of this mighty adventure.. coming up.. the "pre disney" part of the trip!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Look at you guys all matching in the tye-dye shirts!! I LOVE it!! Trying to convince my sister that her, my mother and I are going to wear matching shirts in November and she said she will NOT participate in that.. haha... Little does she know, she will :lol:......:lookaroun

 

[Alison1975]

Look at you guys all matching in the tye-dye shirts!! I LOVE it!! Trying to convince my sister that her, my mother and I are going to wear matching shirts in November and she said she will NOT participate in that.. haha... Little does she know, she will :lol:......:lookaroun

Love it!

 

[Alison1975]

To Infinity..


We listened to these guys for a few:

Saw this guy walking by:

After Winnie the Pooh we all separated. Brians family all went back to the resort except him. The Sweener krew went to eat. Brian joined us and we headed to Tomorrowland. At this point my mom had called..she was back in the park. I had her go grab a Buzz FP. Her time was later than ours ( of course) so we had some time to do other things.

We decided to ride The People Mover.. we just love this!

We met Buzz ( well Ziah was not in the mood for the long line):

Then we used our fastpasses for Buzz ( ours were long "expired" but as always..that didn't matter!). I think Eric rode alone this time.. the rest of us paired up... after this we decided to head over to AdventureLand..

 

[Alison1975]

Bring on the Rain..

So after we rode Buzz we decided to head over to Adventureland.. at this point Declan was NOT feeling well. We didn't know why at that time..but come to find out he had drank all the creamers at the restaurant that morning and it was NOT agreeing with him ( um lactose intolerant) and only getting worse.

As we made our way across we came upon the 3pm parade.. we stopped and watched..mostly because we were stuck..lol

We ended up hooking back up with the Sweener krew.. and the rain started. So we walked..fast to the Tiki Room.. we had to wait outside the show building for awhile..we stuffed kids up under the roof..luckily soon we were allowed into the pre-show.

The show was..well ok.. better than UNM but not something my kids will beg to do again. It was a great place to get out of the rain though!

Next stop was food.. we separated from the Sweeners again. We all needed to eat so we opted for the Tortuga Tavern. At this point Declan was a mess.. he needed to go rest. We flipped a coin and Eric lost..so he took Declan back to the room. Noah and Kate went to ( they meet up with Eric at the gate). The plan was for them to come back in time for the parade.

Well we are now down to myself, my mom, Ziah, Taejan and Brian. I really wanted to take Taejan on the Railroad so we walked calmly off in that direction. I was REALLY bummed that Dec was gone. Now a month later he is bummed because he missed a lot of things that afternoon.

View from the train:

I, again, offered them to meet Jessie and Woody.. nope..they didn't want to wait in the line. So instead they played and burned off some energy:

I needed to ride the Haunted Mansion again..I adore this ride. After that we decided to get a longer break from the rotten heat and went into The Hall of Presidents. I really wish Declan had seen this.. we are doing a year long in depth study of the Presidents and this would have been perfect.

Up next...not sure..lol

 

[Alison1975]

Even though

I don't think anyone is still reading this.. I got my photopass today.. so hopefully by tomorrow night I can add some! I work tonight til 2:30 tomorrow morning so not tonight..LOL

 

[Alison1975]

PhotoPass Pictures.. 8/19-8/23

Even though I am now convinced no one is still reading..

We finally got the photopass pictures. I must say we , all in all, didn't do many shots and if I was going alone I'm not certain it would be worth the $100 pre-purchase. We split this between the 3 families so it was worth the $33.33 though.

August 19th. 1st park day.. just a couple shots..

Just noticed how wet the lower part of Declan's shorts are in this picture.. we were all so wet from that rotten rain..lol

August 20th

August 21st

part 2

 

[Alison1975]

Part 2

August 22nd

August 23rd

 

[Alison1975]

August 24th Photopass

Alright now here's the last of the Photopass pictures for what I already wrote about..i know you all ( ha ha um all 3 of ya right??) were on pins and needles waiting to see these!

Here is the one and only time all 21 of us got together for a picture!

Noah and Kate:

Splash Mountain:

More here..I forgot em!

Ok..now if all goes well once my little monsters..I mean children.. are in bed tonight I will watch How I Met Your Mother ( geez will he meet her already) and post the rest of the Tie Dye Day!

 

[DisneyBergh]

I'm still on board and having fun following the antics! It's making the 20 days until our trip bearable!!

 

[TheMouseFan]

I'm still reading too! It helps my 18 days go by faster until we can be there ourselves and get our own pics!

 

[plaz10]

I'm still reading! Between mountains and mountains of paperwork at the office is my time for catching up on wdwmagic!! Keep it up!

 

[Alison1975]

Glad I still have peeps reading!

 

[miriamsolana]

Greetings from México!

Hey Alison, I'm still reading too!! C'mon! keep on writing!!!
I'll be in WDW this thursday!!! WL Sep 29th-Oct 8th. Yaaaay!!! :sohappy:

 

[Raven66]

I'm still reading. I check every night for an update.:lookaroun

 

[Alison1975]

Hey Alison, I'm still reading too!! C'mon! keep on writing!!!
I'll be in WDW this thursday!!! WL Sep 29th-Oct 8th. Yaaaay!!! :sohappy:

I am jealous..it kills me knowing it will be years again before we can go back..but it will NOT be 10.5 like last time!

 

[silver1113]

Like all of the Photo pass but, really like the last few where everyone is smiling. I hear ya on the 10.5 years. It will be 10.5 years next year. The last time we went to Disney not just Florida was in June 2002, we are going Oct. 2012.

 

[minnie2000]

Still reading! :wave:

 

[Alison1975]

Oops..more pictures

Forgot these from our Buzz time:

 

[Alison1975]

The Perfect parade spot!( or so we thought)

After the Hall of Presidents we decided to hop on Peter Pans Flight.. the wait was significantly longer than posted..but oh well. We ended up meeting back up with the rest of the gang and we rode the Carousel. Of course as we are getting ready to get on Monty takes Taejan and they rush off and I can't find them.. I was NOT happy. So I left Ziah and Declan to fend for themselves so I could locate my 6 year old and ream out Monty!


Safe ( and unaware that I wanted to throttle a certain 12 year old):

Ziah and more Sweeners were back there somewhere!

At this point we decided to head up towards the front of the castle and secure parade seats.

Well as they say.. the best laid plans right? We got "great" curb seats right by the snack cart and sat and sat. Missy and Don picked the seats , and have been here 1500 times so I blame them. We sat and sat and ate and sat more and then we were told..parade doesn't go PAST where we were sitting. SMACK!

So we moved .. but the good spots were gone.. grrr. We ended up in the taped zone in the road at the front of that part of the circle.. good times! The Warners were on the other side in the same basic "zone" :

Once it got dark I broke out more glow sticks and made the kids all bracelets. My kids had spinners. Oh right before it got dark is when Eric, Declan, Kate and Noah returned! We had 2 nice families near us and we gave their kids some bracelets and we made sure as soon as the parade started us adults moved backwards so the kids could move up and see.

Oh and right before the parade ( or was it after..I don't remember) we watched a marriage proposal. It was great!

Parade time! Lots of last minute people crowding us.. good thing was we were in the "escape route" and anyone not in the tape had to move..well at first..they got way more lax as the parade went on because people just do NOT listen! I refuse to let that bother me and we let some kids and a really adorable couple get in our zone.

Up next..Wishes and more

 

[Alison1975]

Wishes and More

First off.a missed picture. this one Brian took:

After the parade we filled in and watched the castle show and Wishes... loved em both.

After Wishes we all hightailed it out of the park. I pretty much told my family to grab a short creature ( as I call my youngest 3) and just make it back to POP..don't worry about waiting for anyone as we all know our way back.

As we are fighting the crowds I realize Piff, Dee and Monty are behind us..and not with their parents. I already know this is going to be a BIG issue. I love my best friend but she doesn't allow her older kids any freedom. They all been like 1-2 times a year their entire life.. and Piff is almost 17. So I got a call from Don asking if I had them. I said they were with me..but I didn't "take" them. Piff said they just looked and their parents were gone. Sigh. If it was me it would have been a simple.. call me when you're on a bus back. Instead the kids got in so much trouble. We ended up meeting back up with the family at the bus stop. Poor Piff was in tears.. I felt so bad for her. sigh..not my kids, not my life, still hurt for her though.

Declan was still not feeling well despite having slept for 2 hours :

We got out of the park before Noah and Kate and got in line for the bus.. ( piff and krew made their way to their parents who were rather far ahead of us in line). The crowds were crazy but they kept stacking busses so it didn't take long.

Noah and Kate made it to us and we ended up not getting on the next but because it was PACKED..so we moved to the side and let other people go and got on the next bus. Getting seats is so much more important to me at 11pm than anything else.

We got back to POP and headed to the room.. not remembering what Taejan was upset about but them's real tears so it musta been something big!

We got the kids all cleaned up and tucked in. Noah and Kate apparently had a fight because when I went to say goodnight my mother said they had taken off in separate directions.. good times people..good times. You know I was just so anxious to have to call her mother and tell her that she ran away in Disney..grrr. I wasn't worried about Noah.. he will come back once he cools off. Luckily they both did within about 20 minutes. Of course neither would answer their cell phones..fools!

So we ended day 7 ..6th day in the parks.. the vacation is coming way too close to over for me!