Trip Report So we went to Disney again... - an August/17 trip report

Intro

Hello again everyone, and welcome to the 2017 (part 1) Burnett family trip report. Hopefully you'll enjoy following us through another fun/crazy/childish humor filled trip report

If you want to see the pre-trip report :http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...riginal-title-so-you-get-this-instead.927386/

Or, if you don’t want to go to the PTR, a quick recap:


Who
Same group as all the other trips we've done in the past

There's Tammy and I
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and Steph and Liam
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Actually, this picture may capture them better...
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When

We were down at WDW from August 19th to the 28th


Where

Back when we were planning this trip, we asked Steph and Liam where they wanted to stay. Steph wanted Boardwalk, and Liam wanted Poly (we’re DVC btw). We decided to give them both what they wanted, and did a split stay. We spent the first 5 days at a garden/pool view room at the Boardwalk, and the last 4 days at a lake view room at the Poly.


Well…let’s get started


Countdown – everything up to August 18th

Where to start… We were pretty busy right up until we were on the plane to head to Florida. We did most of the packing for the trip in the few days before the 19th, and were really looking forward to getting away.

We took our cat Zoey over to my parent’s house on the 17th (my Dad loves cats and loves it when the cats get to stay over),
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and our dog Cooper was picked up on the morning of the 18th to go to his daycare/overnight place.
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We’ll miss the animals.


We’re almost ready to go…


However, as I mentioned in the PTR, my Mom was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer back in May and I had been going with my Mom and Dad to all of her appointments (I was there to take notes and ask questions, as my parents are both 80 and tend to get things mixed up). The reason this plays into the trip report is because we found out during the first week of August that she was going to have surgery on August 18th.

So, after weeks and weeks of appointments, the 18th finally arrived. As you can imagine, it was a bit of a different day than what you normally expect on the day before a Disney trip. Yes, we were excited about the upcoming trip, but also anxious about Mom’s surgery (and also very well aware that if there were complications then the trip would be postponed).

Here's my Mom and I at the hospital waiting to get checked in
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The good news is that everything went very well. Mom’s surgery was at 9am, and lasted about 2 hours. After a few hours in recovery we were able to see her. She was kind of groggy, but was doing well.

I brought my Dad back to our home after we saw her, so that he could take a nap (he didn’t sleep well the night before the surgery). He slept for about an hour and then headed back to the hospital.

At around 4ish we finished packing up the car, and then I drove Tammy and the kids down to the hospital to see my Mom. I was surprised at how well Mom was doing. She was wide awake and was already asking the Dr if she could just go home that day (I already though it was crazy that you only stay in less than 24 hours after a mastectomy). She is one tough lady. Everyone was happy to see her doing so well, and she kept telling us we should get going, so we did.

We jumped in the car and headed across the border to Buffalo. We made a few stops (Sam’s Club (picked up some more gift cards and some breakfast stuff), the hotel (the Sleep Inn by the airport), the airport (to weigh our bags so there would be no panicked repacking at the airport the next morning), and the Cracker Barrel (for dinner)). We were back in our room by around 9:30 and settled in for a few hours of sleep before our super early (3:15am) wake-up call.

see you tomorrow
 
Last edited:

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I'm in! Glad to hear that about your mom. Hope everything continues to go well for her and your family. Love your trip reports.. We stayed at the Poly and boardwalk back in July and loved both places..
Thanks. Which resort did you like better?

Looking forward to the report. Hope all goes well with your Mum's recovery.
Thanks. Hope to add another day shortly

Zoey and Cooper are so sweet! I'm sure you'll miss them when you're on vacation. But here's looking forward to fun times for you and the family again at WDW. I'll be following! :)
We did miss them for sure. Cooper was really excited to see us when we got home.

Hope your Mom continues to recover. Following along!
Thanks.

I'm glad your mom's surgery went well and hopefully has a good recovery! Looking forward to seeing your family's adventures.
Thanks.
Following along :)
Awesome

Following along! Glad to hear your mom's surgery went well. Hope her recovery goes well.
I'm like Tammy. I would have had a miserable trip with all that taking off and landing. It was nice of the kids to keep her busy on the flight.
Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!
Tammy really hates flying. She does it so we can get there faster, but she'd be much happier of we stayed on the ground. It's great having older kids for sure.

I'm following along! Your trip reports are always very entertaining and this one is helping me get through the wait until our trip in November. We are taking our twenty-something children. It does get harder to schedule family trips as they get older but it is possible. Our kids still love Disney as I'm sure yours will too. We have so many happy, family memories from our Disney trips in the past.
Best wishes to your mom for a speedy recovery!
I'd love to think our kids will still come with us for a few more years. I can see it getting harder once Steph is in college and/or working. I'm sure they'll love Disney for many years though.
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
I just love your euphemisms.
"Tammy and I organized the room a bit." :cautious:

Appreciate the Tuvalu pose on Everest. :D
1) The Everest post was for you. I figured @lostpro9het covered the Space Mountain version of it, so I'd do the Everest version. You're welcome..

2) So many euphanisms:
"did the laundry", "took a nap", "freshened up", "explored the resort", "waited for the bus", etc. Sadly, sometimes "organized the room" just means "organized the room" :)
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 – An early start and a waterpark

You would think after the early morning and late night of the previous day that we’d want to sleep in a bit. Nope. One of the things Tammy and I were looking forward to at Boardwalk was doing early morning walks. We figured that we’d get the walk in before it got too hot. At 6:30 the alarm went off, and Tammy and I got up, got ready, and headed out the door. We were pleasantly surprised that Steph and Liam got up with us (they wanted to work out to stay in competition shape and decided they’d go for a run while Tammy and I walked). We were all out the door just before 7, and made our way down for our walk/run
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We ended up on the pathway behind the Boardwalk. At this point Steph started telling us we were on the wrong path. I didn’t understand what she was getting at, but I was sure we were where we wanted to be. OK, turns out I was wrong. We had all wanted the path that goes around the Boardwalk, past the International Gateway, in front of the Beach and Yacht club, and back to Boardwalk. Instead we were on the path that leads to Hollywood Studios. Oh well, we’ll get it right tomorrow.

So, as I mentioned, the kids wanted to go for a run, and run they did. See that yellow shirt and that black shirt way off in the distance...that's them
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I’m not sure how they did it, but they ran all the way to HS and back with no stops (they were saying the made it all the way to the security checks at HS and the guard who was there was congratulating them for making it). Tammy and I walked until the kids passed us on their way back.
First came Liam.
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As he approached he kept yelling "stop taking my picture"
Then came Steph
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After they passed us, we decided to turn around and head back to the Boardwalk

The kids went back to the room to get ready, and Tammy and I decided to walk the loop we had originally planned on doing. It is such a nice area to walk.
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We took a quick seat on of the the swing benches in front of the Beach Club.
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Not a bad start to the morning...
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After we finished our walk, we made a stop by the Boardwalk Bakery to get some drinks (I forgot to mention that we picked up refillable mugs yesterday. It was kind of weird though. We got the mugs and went up to the register to pay, and I asked if there was an AP or DVC discount. The CM said, there isn’t supposed to be, but the DVC discount is working at this register, then asked if we’d like to have the discount. Ummmm…. Yes, I think we would. Do you know anyone who would say "No, that's OK, I like paying full price). Tammy and I got coffee, while the kids wanted Coke (Liam) and Root Beer (Steph). I guess the kids are thinking “When in Rome” (I know that pop (or as most American’s call it, “soda”), could be considered a breakfast drink in the US, but it isn’t something that is normal in Canada).
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We got back to the room, grabbed our beach towels and put on our bathing suits and then hopped on the bus. Today the plan was to go to Typhoon Lagoon.

Awww..they are getting along (actually, Steph is probably doing this becuase she knows it bugs Liam, but let's pretend it's because they are getting along)
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To be honest, up until this trip I preferred Blizzard Beach, but I wanted to give Typhoon Lagoon another try, especially since they added the new Miss Adventure Falls slide. One thing that was different from the last time we went to the Waterparks was the transportation arrangements. To get to Typhoon Lagoon we first had to go to Disney Springs and then there was a shuttle bus to Typhoon Lagoon (even stranger was the route to get to Blizzard Beach, where we had to go to Animal Kingdom first and then get a shuttle to Blizzard Beach).

At least they have signage up at Disney Springs to make sure you get on the right bus
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up next - Typhoon Lagoon
 
Last edited:

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued - Typhoon Lagoon

We made it to Typhoon Lagoon before rope drop.
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We decided to get a locker today since I brought my phone and didn’t really want to just leave it unattended. I do like the new electronic lockers more than the old “key on a rope” they used to have.

Not long after we got our locker, they opened up the park. Our first order of business was to get some chairs on the beach. We ended up with four chairs right at the front of the beach.
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After we claimed our spot, we headed over to Miss Adventure Falls. On the way there Liam kept complaining about how long the line would be/how he didn’t want to ride/how boring it would be. It turns out the line was only about 5 minutes, and he actually loved it. I thought it was very well done (I especially liked the fact that the ride starts at the bottom of the slide, so the trip up is actually part of the ride. The parrot animatronic is pretty good too).

After that, we headed over to Crush Gusher.
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The park was still pretty empty, Tammy and I ended up riding 2 of the 3 slides before things got busy.
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Steph and Liam split up from us at some point here (I think they rode all 3 slides), and my understanding from them is that they went on a few of the other body slides and spent a lot of time in the wave pool.

After riding Crush ‘n Gusher, Tammy and I headed over to the lazy river.
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It was so nice. We ended up doing two complete laps before we decided to get out. We wandered around taking pictures and kind of hoping we’d run into the kids so we could organize lunch. Then we headed back to the chairs and there they were, waiting for us. We decided to try out “Leaning Palms” for lunch (mainly because it was another one of the restaurants offering a 20% AP discount).
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For lunch Liam got the Island Burger (without the pineapple), Steph got cheese pizza, Tammy got a chicken wrap, and I got the Island burger (with pineapple). We found a nice covered area to eat, and enjoyed our lunch.

While we were eating, we had this feeling we were being watched. It turns out we were.
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Now I know you aren’t supposed to feed the wildlife, but this squirrel was so cute that the kids couldn’t help themselves. They held a fry up to it and it stretched out, grabbed it, then scurried back to its corner to finish eating.

coming up - some more Typhoon Lagoon
 

gwhb75

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Day 2 continued - Some more Typhoon Lagoon

After lunch the kids wanted to go back on some slides and go in the wave pool again. That was fine, as Tammy and I really wanted to just relax.
They also got some pictures done (which I find funny since whenever I say we have to stop for a picture Liam acts like it's the worst possible thing)
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While the kids did their thing, Tammy and I went back to our chairs, and actually fell asleep (not surprising given the lack of sleep over the last day and a bit). We ended up sleeping for almost an hour. I woke up and took a few more pictures.
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Tammy soon joined me
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Not long after waking up the kids came back and were ready to leave. We packed up our stuff and headed out.

One last picture on the way out
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On the bus ride home we could tell Steph was tired... Slowly fading...
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...and out
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Next up - Hollywood Studios
 

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