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Trip Report The "Here At Last" Trip Report!
- Thread starter BigTxEars
- Start date
Try try again and all.... 
A quick report on our most recent trip to Mickey's house! Go easy on me it's my first trip report!!
This trip included myself, my wife of 22 years, my 16 year old daughter, 11 year old son all of us are returning Disney guest. We also had a little tag along, a 16 year old friend of my daughter who would be going to WDW for the first time
Left Houston Hobby airport at 8:50am Saturday May 31st on AirTrans bound for Atlanta and a short layover. Took off at 1:40pm on Southwest for a 3:00pm landing at MCO. Everything went smooth as could be. We landed at MCO on time and headed down to the DME, Magic Bands on and ready to board!
This is our first trip not renting a car, we would be using Disney transportation exclusively. The DME would be our first leg in that journey. We arrived at the DME area and were on a bus headed to Disney with 10 mins. Love the cool little movie they show on board the bus. We drove under the awesome Walt Disney World Sign within 30 mins of leaving the airport, man is that a cool feeling or what?
The DME stopped at the CBR first, which was kinda odd as that was the original resort we booked. We latter rebooked the Boardwalk when Disney released discounted rooms, and that was the next stop for the DME!
We had already completed the online checkin so the process at the desk was very quick. I thought we were all done but the very nice CM behind the desk told me “hold on one second I have one more thing I need to get for you” as she walked off. She was gone for about 5 mins which was fine as the kids were in the gift shop and I was checking out the incredible lobby of the BW. She returned with a couple of other cast members and a handful of balloons. She informed us that we were the BW “family of the day” which was a pretty cool way to start a trip IMO. After getting our picture taken and a certificate as well as a coupon for a free bike rental on the Boardwalk we headed off for our room, number 1343.
Of course we had no luggage as Disney still had that from the DME. The room was very nice, with a nice view of one of the quiet pools.
After a little freshening up it was off to Epcot for our ADRs at Biergarten!
The Magic Bands had worked perfectly to open the door to our room, but using them to enter Epcot would be their first real test. They worked fine of course and we took the first steps into a Disney park of the trip which is always very cool!
We had some time to kill so we headed to Mexico to look at the shops. But we ran into a bird before we could get into the shops.
Very cool!
And a certain somebody else...
We looked around and then went over to Germany for some grub!
Our first time eating there and it was good food but none of us really loved the theme. I also ran into my one and only rude CM the entire week there. The guy manning the meat cutting board was not a happy camper for some reason. Oh well no way he is getting my trip off to a bad start!
After dinner rode the rides in Norway and in Mexico. We had of course all ridden them before except for Abby. But I enjoy both, and Abby loved Mexico because as she put it “her people are there”
We went back to the BW to swim after that. Both girls are not fond of clowns so I was of course determined to make them slide out of that freaky clowns mouth at the pool! They did and loved it. The BW has a great pool, and the hot tub was sweet too!
That ended our first day, travel days are tough and we were bushed at that point so off to bed for us!
More to come!
A quick report on our most recent trip to Mickey's house! Go easy on me it's my first trip report!!
This trip included myself, my wife of 22 years, my 16 year old daughter, 11 year old son all of us are returning Disney guest. We also had a little tag along, a 16 year old friend of my daughter who would be going to WDW for the first time
Left Houston Hobby airport at 8:50am Saturday May 31st on AirTrans bound for Atlanta and a short layover. Took off at 1:40pm on Southwest for a 3:00pm landing at MCO. Everything went smooth as could be. We landed at MCO on time and headed down to the DME, Magic Bands on and ready to board!
This is our first trip not renting a car, we would be using Disney transportation exclusively. The DME would be our first leg in that journey. We arrived at the DME area and were on a bus headed to Disney with 10 mins. Love the cool little movie they show on board the bus. We drove under the awesome Walt Disney World Sign within 30 mins of leaving the airport, man is that a cool feeling or what?
The DME stopped at the CBR first, which was kinda odd as that was the original resort we booked. We latter rebooked the Boardwalk when Disney released discounted rooms, and that was the next stop for the DME!
We had already completed the online checkin so the process at the desk was very quick. I thought we were all done but the very nice CM behind the desk told me “hold on one second I have one more thing I need to get for you” as she walked off. She was gone for about 5 mins which was fine as the kids were in the gift shop and I was checking out the incredible lobby of the BW. She returned with a couple of other cast members and a handful of balloons. She informed us that we were the BW “family of the day” which was a pretty cool way to start a trip IMO. After getting our picture taken and a certificate as well as a coupon for a free bike rental on the Boardwalk we headed off for our room, number 1343.
Of course we had no luggage as Disney still had that from the DME. The room was very nice, with a nice view of one of the quiet pools.
After a little freshening up it was off to Epcot for our ADRs at Biergarten!
The Magic Bands had worked perfectly to open the door to our room, but using them to enter Epcot would be their first real test. They worked fine of course and we took the first steps into a Disney park of the trip which is always very cool!
We had some time to kill so we headed to Mexico to look at the shops. But we ran into a bird before we could get into the shops.
Very cool!
And a certain somebody else...
We looked around and then went over to Germany for some grub!
Our first time eating there and it was good food but none of us really loved the theme. I also ran into my one and only rude CM the entire week there. The guy manning the meat cutting board was not a happy camper for some reason. Oh well no way he is getting my trip off to a bad start!
After dinner rode the rides in Norway and in Mexico. We had of course all ridden them before except for Abby. But I enjoy both, and Abby loved Mexico because as she put it “her people are there”
We went back to the BW to swim after that. Both girls are not fond of clowns so I was of course determined to make them slide out of that freaky clowns mouth at the pool! They did and loved it. The BW has a great pool, and the hot tub was sweet too!
That ended our first day, travel days are tough and we were bushed at that point so off to bed for us!
More to come!
Last edited:
Day 02 (Sunday June 1st)
We woke up,
Some better than others
showered and headed out to grab some food for breakfast. Plans were for Epcot that day and then to the MK for the 3am EMH that night
We arrived at the BW Bakery and ordered breakfast bowls (yum!) and drinks, we also picked up our free mugs from the DDP. Everything went fine with the orders and we went to pay using our Magic Bands using our meal credits. Just to let you know we used the Magic Bands all week as park tickets, FP+, purchasing un-needed swag from countless gift shops, paying for booze at our ADRs, for Memory Maker pictures, opening the room door etc and we ran into exactly one problem all week and it was at the BW Bakery the first day. I forgot the PIN number I had chosen 4 weeks earlier when I linked a credit card to the Magic Band. I am a idiot! After a quick trip back to the BW desk it was all fixed in a matter of 10 mins and all the Cast Members were awesome to deal with. Other than that the Magic Bands were simply awesome!!!
I have no ideal why we were able to use the Magic Bands in Germany the night before for our meal with no PIN but from that day on we needed a PIN to claim a TS meal credit using them.
The BW is beautiful in the morning
Off to Epcot and FP+s at Crush, Mission Space and Test Track.
First stop was Spaceship Earth baby!!! Love it love it love it!!
The we rode Nemo and checked out the aquarium. They are so awesome IMO.
Did I mention I bought us nerdy matching shirts for the day, something I swore I would never do!
We used our FP+ for Crush it was great as always. Love the turtle!
Then I manned up and rode the orange side of Mission Space, It messes with my stomach but my son said my “Man Card” was on the line so I had to. Great ride as well!
We had some time before Test Track so we went to get some pics taken:
I love Minnie Mouse BTW
We then went over to Test Track and as soon as we walked in the building thru the FP line the skies opened up and it poured. They shut down of course, we sat down and tried to wait it out. After about 45 mins we decided that Mother Nature was winning so we decided to head back to the BW for a nap before hitting the MK until 3am. We had ADRs at the Wave Of American Flavor at 6:25pm, was not fitting into our new plans so I used my wife phone (mine stayed in Texas!) to cancel that reservation and make one at San Angel for 8pm. That way we could sneak in a nap or swim before heading over to MK for the late night. Of course as soon as I did I remembered the $10 per head cancellation fee...LOL that kinda sucked. I called WDW and was able to not pay the fee by changing my Wave reservation to Friday. I had to cancel my Friday 50s Primetime ressie but no big deal.
Made it back to the BW and swam in the quite pool and snuck in a wee bit of a nap as well.
Made our 8pm ADRs at San Angel, I love the theme but the food is not up to the local Tex Mex IMO but it's good enough!
As we ordered desert I had a thought, it was coming up on 9pm and if we wanted to catch the monorail to the MK we had to move quick to get from Mexico to the front of Epcot before the after Illumination rush headed that way!
We ate like mad men
And then the great rush to the monorail began right during Illumination. The kids were like, hey look at that, look over there, cool.......and I was like move it move move it!!!!
I do not mind lines but I hate crowds. Lines have order and structure, crowds just have chaos IMO.
We reached the monorail ahead of the rush and off to the MK we went.
We arrived at the MK, rented a locker (for our backpack which had enough supplies in it for 2 weeks in the jungle I think!) and as we walked in under the train Wishes was starting. The crowds were all the way back to the start of Main Street so we picked out a spot and started to watch the show. Awesome as you all know. It started to rain about 75% into the show but stopped pretty quickly. That was the last day rain effected us at all so great week in weather
We let the crowds leave the park and then headed down Main Street to ride some rides. No Fps just plans to wing it!
Quick stop for a MM picture
Then we rode the Astro Orbitor, Great Esacpe, and Buzz.
The off to ride Splash Mountain and BTR. After that Haunted Mansion and then to the Pirates but that was down for some reason so we skipped it and headed to NFL to check the line for 7DMT. It was 6o mins so we passed on it as we had FP+s for it on Friday.
We were planning to stay until 3am but we were worn out again so we rode Small World and headed for the gate. We took this picture at 2:10am, check out the cool Mickey hat I picked up at Epcot earlier that day
And then hopped on a bus back to the BW and some sleep! So far all the Disney transportation we had used had been great, with very little wait times. The only thing that bothered me on this bus was that men were sitting and women were standing, that is not how it works fellas! After I gave my seat up to a lady the guy across from me tried to do the same but the lady he offered it to refused, he insisted and she took it finally. None of my business what other people do but I won't let chivarly die completely, my son will be raised to respect it and show it. OK rant over....
More to come!
We woke up,
Some better than others
showered and headed out to grab some food for breakfast. Plans were for Epcot that day and then to the MK for the 3am EMH that night
We arrived at the BW Bakery and ordered breakfast bowls (yum!) and drinks, we also picked up our free mugs from the DDP. Everything went fine with the orders and we went to pay using our Magic Bands using our meal credits. Just to let you know we used the Magic Bands all week as park tickets, FP+, purchasing un-needed swag from countless gift shops, paying for booze at our ADRs, for Memory Maker pictures, opening the room door etc and we ran into exactly one problem all week and it was at the BW Bakery the first day. I forgot the PIN number I had chosen 4 weeks earlier when I linked a credit card to the Magic Band. I am a idiot! After a quick trip back to the BW desk it was all fixed in a matter of 10 mins and all the Cast Members were awesome to deal with. Other than that the Magic Bands were simply awesome!!!
I have no ideal why we were able to use the Magic Bands in Germany the night before for our meal with no PIN but from that day on we needed a PIN to claim a TS meal credit using them.
The BW is beautiful in the morning
Off to Epcot and FP+s at Crush, Mission Space and Test Track.
First stop was Spaceship Earth baby!!! Love it love it love it!!
The we rode Nemo and checked out the aquarium. They are so awesome IMO.
Did I mention I bought us nerdy matching shirts for the day, something I swore I would never do!
We used our FP+ for Crush it was great as always. Love the turtle!
Then I manned up and rode the orange side of Mission Space, It messes with my stomach but my son said my “Man Card” was on the line so I had to. Great ride as well!
We had some time before Test Track so we went to get some pics taken:
I love Minnie Mouse BTW
We then went over to Test Track and as soon as we walked in the building thru the FP line the skies opened up and it poured. They shut down of course, we sat down and tried to wait it out. After about 45 mins we decided that Mother Nature was winning so we decided to head back to the BW for a nap before hitting the MK until 3am. We had ADRs at the Wave Of American Flavor at 6:25pm, was not fitting into our new plans so I used my wife phone (mine stayed in Texas!) to cancel that reservation and make one at San Angel for 8pm. That way we could sneak in a nap or swim before heading over to MK for the late night. Of course as soon as I did I remembered the $10 per head cancellation fee...LOL that kinda sucked. I called WDW and was able to not pay the fee by changing my Wave reservation to Friday. I had to cancel my Friday 50s Primetime ressie but no big deal.
Made it back to the BW and swam in the quite pool and snuck in a wee bit of a nap as well.
Made our 8pm ADRs at San Angel, I love the theme but the food is not up to the local Tex Mex IMO but it's good enough!
As we ordered desert I had a thought, it was coming up on 9pm and if we wanted to catch the monorail to the MK we had to move quick to get from Mexico to the front of Epcot before the after Illumination rush headed that way!
We ate like mad men
And then the great rush to the monorail began right during Illumination. The kids were like, hey look at that, look over there, cool.......and I was like move it move move it!!!!
I do not mind lines but I hate crowds. Lines have order and structure, crowds just have chaos IMO.
We reached the monorail ahead of the rush and off to the MK we went.
We arrived at the MK, rented a locker (for our backpack which had enough supplies in it for 2 weeks in the jungle I think!) and as we walked in under the train Wishes was starting. The crowds were all the way back to the start of Main Street so we picked out a spot and started to watch the show. Awesome as you all know. It started to rain about 75% into the show but stopped pretty quickly. That was the last day rain effected us at all so great week in weather
We let the crowds leave the park and then headed down Main Street to ride some rides. No Fps just plans to wing it!
Quick stop for a MM picture
Then we rode the Astro Orbitor, Great Esacpe, and Buzz.
The off to ride Splash Mountain and BTR. After that Haunted Mansion and then to the Pirates but that was down for some reason so we skipped it and headed to NFL to check the line for 7DMT. It was 6o mins so we passed on it as we had FP+s for it on Friday.
We were planning to stay until 3am but we were worn out again so we rode Small World and headed for the gate. We took this picture at 2:10am, check out the cool Mickey hat I picked up at Epcot earlier that day
And then hopped on a bus back to the BW and some sleep! So far all the Disney transportation we had used had been great, with very little wait times. The only thing that bothered me on this bus was that men were sitting and women were standing, that is not how it works fellas! After I gave my seat up to a lady the guy across from me tried to do the same but the lady he offered it to refused, he insisted and she took it finally. None of my business what other people do but I won't let chivarly die completely, my son will be raised to respect it and show it. OK rant over....
More to come!
dancingtodisney
Well-Known Member
Love your TR so far, looking forward to the next instalment!
Day 3 Monday
We slept in of course since we were up till after 3am the night before. We had DHS on the agenda in the morning and early after noon and then back to Epcot for the princess dinner in Norway at 6pm. We had FP+ for Tower of Terror, Star Tours and Toy Story at DHS. We started at Starring Rolls for a quick bite, a cinnamon roll is always a good thing!
After the 718lb backpack carried around all day the previous day we decided to go to the other extreme and carry nothing at all, including the camera which would cost me dearly latter !
We hit all of our FP+ rides and also did the behind the scene tour and Rocking Rollercoaster as well. We had a QS lunch at Pizza Planet and did some shopping, we did a lot of shopping all week
We did some memory maker pictures along the way as well.
We caught the boat back to the BW for a afternoon swim and hot tub
We spent way more time this trip in the pool and hot tub than we ever have at WDW and it was great! We were in the pool each day except 1 for the 7 we were there. It is a great break between parks. There is no way we will ever go back to not hitting the pool as often as we can at WDW
We changed clothes and walked over to Epcot for our ADR in Norway. First time eating here so I was not sure what to expect. The girl were very excited, nothing like two 16 year olds giggling over some fairy tail beauties
And that would be the only picture we have from the dinner. Like I said earlier the lack of camera from my “let's not carry anything today” ideal came back to bite us. I thought they would have the MM photographers walking with the characters table to table....they don't. So the girls were not too happy with me, but they understood.
That being said the interaction with them was just great. We had 4 come to our table as we ate, and they could not have been cooler
That must be a great job to have, making people happy!
The food was very very good as well. One of the best meals we had at WDW that week in fact. The service was excellent as well. A definitive return in our future
Since we ran like fools the night before from Mexico to the monorail so we missed Illuminations. We had plans to watch it tonight. We went to Japan, we love the store there. We then kicked around to check out a few other things, among them were the acrobats at China, pretty cool stuff
We picked a place along the fence line to watch, it was between Germany and Italy. Grabbed a couple of coffees and some ice creams from Italy and waited. I love people watching at WDW and sitting along the fence line at Epcot WS for a hour before Illuminations is a awesome place to do it
The show was awesome of course, thing can really move your emotionally if you let it! It was not crowded at all, I would guess along the entire fence line between Germany And Italy there were maybe 75 to 100 people.
We then headed back to the BW for a hot tube and pool session, by this time were were addicted to the pools and hot tub!
Not a lot of pics this day with my camera goof but I would not make that mistake again!
More to come!
We slept in of course since we were up till after 3am the night before. We had DHS on the agenda in the morning and early after noon and then back to Epcot for the princess dinner in Norway at 6pm. We had FP+ for Tower of Terror, Star Tours and Toy Story at DHS. We started at Starring Rolls for a quick bite, a cinnamon roll is always a good thing!
After the 718lb backpack carried around all day the previous day we decided to go to the other extreme and carry nothing at all, including the camera which would cost me dearly latter !
We hit all of our FP+ rides and also did the behind the scene tour and Rocking Rollercoaster as well. We had a QS lunch at Pizza Planet and did some shopping, we did a lot of shopping all week
We did some memory maker pictures along the way as well.
We caught the boat back to the BW for a afternoon swim and hot tub
We spent way more time this trip in the pool and hot tub than we ever have at WDW and it was great! We were in the pool each day except 1 for the 7 we were there. It is a great break between parks. There is no way we will ever go back to not hitting the pool as often as we can at WDW
We changed clothes and walked over to Epcot for our ADR in Norway. First time eating here so I was not sure what to expect. The girl were very excited, nothing like two 16 year olds giggling over some fairy tail beauties
And that would be the only picture we have from the dinner. Like I said earlier the lack of camera from my “let's not carry anything today” ideal came back to bite us. I thought they would have the MM photographers walking with the characters table to table....they don't. So the girls were not too happy with me, but they understood.
That being said the interaction with them was just great. We had 4 come to our table as we ate, and they could not have been cooler
That must be a great job to have, making people happy!The food was very very good as well. One of the best meals we had at WDW that week in fact. The service was excellent as well. A definitive return in our future
Since we ran like fools the night before from Mexico to the monorail so we missed Illuminations. We had plans to watch it tonight. We went to Japan, we love the store there. We then kicked around to check out a few other things, among them were the acrobats at China, pretty cool stuff
We picked a place along the fence line to watch, it was between Germany and Italy. Grabbed a couple of coffees and some ice creams from Italy and waited. I love people watching at WDW and sitting along the fence line at Epcot WS for a hour before Illuminations is a awesome place to do it
The show was awesome of course, thing can really move your emotionally if you let it! It was not crowded at all, I would guess along the entire fence line between Germany And Italy there were maybe 75 to 100 people.
We then headed back to the BW for a hot tube and pool session, by this time were were addicted to the pools and hot tub!
Not a lot of pics this day with my camera goof but I would not make that mistake again!
More to come!
prfctlyximprct
Well-Known Member
Loving your report! My first trip to Disney was when I was 15 and went with a friend and her mom, so this is making me all teary eyed! Glad you had a wonderful time Following along
Following along
Day 4 Tuesday
Everytime we have gone to Disney we have hit the MK on Tuesday,no ideal why but it is a tradition now so of course we hit the MK this day
FP+s were for Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and the fabled Frozen M&G
The Frozen M&G was booked right at 11pm Texas time 60 days out, the girls were super excited and I was too! The 11 year boy not so much, well I think he was but no way was he going to admit it!
Splash Mt was first, I really like the ride but have to admit I am a huge fan of Ripsaw Falls at Uni, so Splash always makes me think of Ripsaw. The thing we are trying to do with our hands is a high school football thing they do around here where we live, I am not very good at it!
Then we rode Pirates and one of my favs, the PhilharMagic! We checked on the 7DMT but the wait was 75 mins so we passes again, still waiting for our FP+ of Friday for it.
We then headed over to the Frozen M&G. The stand by line was just under 3 hours, we entered the FP line and our wait time was right at 7-8 mins to see the girls! The CM inside told us she was with them in Epcot and the wait would build to 7-8 hours there. She said there were days she would come to work, complete her shift and go home and people who were inline when she got there were still in line, crazy!
The girls with us were goofy happy to see the sisters, Abby was too cute in line with her excitement.
It was almost our turn but first the two little girls in front of us, too cute! Their moms made them awesome Frozen dresses!
Then it was us. The Frozen girls were awesome, very interactive.
Including letting the girls take some “Snowfies” which is what Olaf calls Selfies!
A great experience and well worth a FP+, but I would not wait hours upon hours to do it.
After that the crowds were really building at the MK so three of us headed back to the BW and the two girls went off to have some fun and to use our Space Mountain FP at 4pm. We headed back to the pool and hot tub baby!
This was also the day my oldest son who is almost 20 was coming over from Tampa where he is stationed at McDill Air Force Base. We rented him a room off property for Tuesday and Wednesday night.
He arrived right after our swim. Of course it was great to see him, even if he is taller than me!
We walked down to the Boardwalk area to walk around, we also used our free bike rental. Fun stuff but I am still pretty sure I was the only one peddling!
Man the sun over the BC/YC was beautiful that day!
We visited the DVC center on the BW as we were interested in getting some info about adding points to our contract. They set up a van to pick us up at the BW at 9:40a the next morning to take us to SSR where the big DVC center is. Since Wednesday was a no park day for us and we planned to spend the day at DTD with the big kid it worked with our plans.
The girls caught up to us and we walked around the area waiting for our ADR at Kouzinna.
And stopped by for a adult beverage along the way!
My daughters name is Hanna so we had to stop
Here she is in 2011 in the same place
Why do they have to grow up so fast
We ate dinner, a great meal and the best service of the week. Too bad it's closing in Sept, we would love to go back to eat there again.
Oh yeah, almost forgot the fireworks from Epcot while we walked the area waiting for dinner!
Slipped back to the BW for a little hot tub action and off to bed. The big kid went to his hotel and would be back at our room at 9am Wednesday morning and we would board the DVC van to SSR
More to come!
Everytime we have gone to Disney we have hit the MK on Tuesday,no ideal why but it is a tradition now so of course we hit the MK this day
FP+s were for Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and the fabled Frozen M&G
The Frozen M&G was booked right at 11pm Texas time 60 days out, the girls were super excited and I was too! The 11 year boy not so much, well I think he was but no way was he going to admit it!
Splash Mt was first, I really like the ride but have to admit I am a huge fan of Ripsaw Falls at Uni, so Splash always makes me think of Ripsaw. The thing we are trying to do with our hands is a high school football thing they do around here where we live, I am not very good at it!
Then we rode Pirates and one of my favs, the PhilharMagic! We checked on the 7DMT but the wait was 75 mins so we passes again, still waiting for our FP+ of Friday for it.
We then headed over to the Frozen M&G. The stand by line was just under 3 hours, we entered the FP line and our wait time was right at 7-8 mins to see the girls! The CM inside told us she was with them in Epcot and the wait would build to 7-8 hours there. She said there were days she would come to work, complete her shift and go home and people who were inline when she got there were still in line, crazy!
The girls with us were goofy happy to see the sisters, Abby was too cute in line with her excitement.
It was almost our turn but first the two little girls in front of us, too cute! Their moms made them awesome Frozen dresses!
Then it was us. The Frozen girls were awesome, very interactive.
Including letting the girls take some “Snowfies” which is what Olaf calls Selfies!
A great experience and well worth a FP+, but I would not wait hours upon hours to do it.
After that the crowds were really building at the MK so three of us headed back to the BW and the two girls went off to have some fun and to use our Space Mountain FP at 4pm. We headed back to the pool and hot tub baby!
This was also the day my oldest son who is almost 20 was coming over from Tampa where he is stationed at McDill Air Force Base. We rented him a room off property for Tuesday and Wednesday night.
He arrived right after our swim. Of course it was great to see him, even if he is taller than me!
We walked down to the Boardwalk area to walk around, we also used our free bike rental. Fun stuff but I am still pretty sure I was the only one peddling!
Man the sun over the BC/YC was beautiful that day!
We visited the DVC center on the BW as we were interested in getting some info about adding points to our contract. They set up a van to pick us up at the BW at 9:40a the next morning to take us to SSR where the big DVC center is. Since Wednesday was a no park day for us and we planned to spend the day at DTD with the big kid it worked with our plans.
The girls caught up to us and we walked around the area waiting for our ADR at Kouzinna.
And stopped by for a adult beverage along the way!
My daughters name is Hanna so we had to stop
Here she is in 2011 in the same place
Why do they have to grow up so fast
We ate dinner, a great meal and the best service of the week. Too bad it's closing in Sept, we would love to go back to eat there again.
Oh yeah, almost forgot the fireworks from Epcot while we walked the area waiting for dinner!
Slipped back to the BW for a little hot tub action and off to bed. The big kid went to his hotel and would be back at our room at 9am Wednesday morning and we would board the DVC van to SSR
More to come!
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Thanks,
I just don't "get it" when a able bodied man does not give his seat to a lady, open a door for a lady or help when heavy lifting is involved. My momma would slap me silly if I did that mess. My 11 year old gave up his seat on a bus to a a little girl who was maybe 8 or 9 years old.
I just don't "get it" when a able bodied man does not give his seat to a lady, open a door for a lady or help when heavy lifting is involved. My momma would slap me silly if I did that mess. My 11 year old gave up his seat on a bus to a a little girl who was maybe 8 or 9 years old.
Day 5 Wednesday
A day off from the parks, well almost as we had FP+ at Fantasmic at 10:30pm that night. Other than that we had no park plans. We wanted a day of rest Since we had big kid with us we thought DTD would be a fun day. Plans were to take the DVC van to SSR,the kids boat over to DTD and the adults stay at SSR speak to them and then boat over to DTD for the day and bus back afterwards.
Well plan changed quickly, the girls wanted to stay at the BW and then go to DHS and Epcot by themselves. We wanted them with us but they deserve some girl time so we said that was fine. That would also allows us to focus on the boys some.
We grabbed some breakfast at BW bakery and took it with us on the DVC van. The driver was a older gentleman who very engaging with us. One of the cool things about the cast members at WDW is they come from such various backgrounds. He had some great stories to tell.
We arrived at the DVC office at SSR and went in, sat down and ate our breakfast. The 11yr old went into the “kids area” they have where there are games and other kids to play with. The wife and I along with the big kid (his name is Bonham, not after the Led Zepplin drummer as most people think but after James Butler Bonham of the Alamo) sat down and spoke to a DVC rep about our options. One thing about the whole experience that stood out was that there was zero pressure, none at all. I have always heard about time share sale pitches and pressure, we did not experiences any of that which was very nice.
After that a different cast member offered to show us the models they have at SSR of the different DVC rooms, including ones form different resorts. We saw all size rooms from Grand Floridian, Animal Kingdom and the one in Hawaii. We currently only have 100 points which is enough for a studio, the smallest DVC option. But man oh man the 1 and 2 bedrooms were very nice and the Grand Villas? Bigger than my house I think! Just awesome...what a way to stay at WDW Deluxe is a understatement I think. I will most likely never stay in one but a guy can dream!
We decided to try and buy more points on the secondary market instead of thru Disney as the price is just so much cheaper. We placed a bid the next day via the internet for 110 points, hope it goes thru Still not enough for a 2 bedroom but we can get a one bedroom with 210 points!
Next we walked around SSR, we had never been there before. Very nice, very quiet and seems like a great place to stay.
We boated over to DTD and decided to try out Splitsville for some bowling. Never been there before, it was a great time. I have not bowled in years and it showed but a great time none the less. No doubt we will return here as well in the future.
Big kid had a few “issues”
Gutter Ball!
They have a pretty cool system in place where the system automatically has the bumpers come up when it was the 11yr olds turn to bowl. I am not sure if this is common or not in bowling alleys but I thought it was cool.
After that we went and saw Malificent at the theaters at DTD. We enjoyed the movie, and seeing a Disney movie at Disney is pretty neat IMO
After that we heard from the girls they had ended up coming to DTD to shop instead of the parks so we met them at the Lego store. Turns out my daughter who works 3 days a week at Dairy Queen had drained her bank account down to .09 cents shopping, goofy kid. We asked them to join us for dinner but they said they were not hungry and wanted to keep looking around.
We had ADRs at Ragland Road a favorite of ours at 4:25pm but we stopped by and they were able to bring us in at 3pm so that was nice. We had our standard appetizer
The Dakley Duo!
Basically fried sausage but they come on forks!
It was a great meal as always. Towards the end the girls showed up to join us for desert, go figure
We bussed back to the BW and you guessed it hit the pool and hot tub! I do think it worth mentioning since I left it out earlier that on Monday night were were in the hot tub at the quiet pool at the BW. We met a nice lady who was down from Tampa and we mentioned our son was in Tampa, she asked if he was in the service and we said yes. She had a number of family members in the service. We continued to talk and about 20 mins latter she told us if he ever wanted a home cooked meal he was welcomed to come to her house for one. That kind of stuff is so cool is general, but just one more bit of Disney magic is the other guest you meet!
After that we dressed and went to the Boardwalk to say our good byes to big kid, he would go back to his hotel and leave for Tampa in the morning. I am posting this pic because it still makes my wife cry when she see it, her baby boy and all!
and two brothers
And I like this one, looks like Mickey is over looking the water, I love that hat!
We hit DHS and rode Tower Of Terror and then headed over to the Fantasmic show. The FP was a great deal for us, we showed up after they let people in but still had excellent seats in the center section. The show was great, it really is a great show to watch.
Just one pic of the girls waiting for the show to start, I love this pic as well.
We walked back form DHS to the BW, ran into some trouble along the way.
Yep a spider, you can see it if you squint but the girls were not crazy about it. Texas girls should be tougher than that! I have work to do with them.
We hit the hay when we got back, we were pretty tired after our “no park” day!
Next up was Animal Kingdom and dinner at Epcot. Also the wife and I had a date at the Wind Down event at Epcot on Thursday that we had been looking forward to for a long time!
More to come!
A day off from the parks, well almost as we had FP+ at Fantasmic at 10:30pm that night. Other than that we had no park plans. We wanted a day of rest
Since we had big kid with us we thought DTD would be a fun day. Plans were to take the DVC van to SSR,the kids boat over to DTD and the adults stay at SSR speak to them and then boat over to DTD for the day and bus back afterwards.Well plan changed quickly, the girls wanted to stay at the BW and then go to DHS and Epcot by themselves. We wanted them with us but they deserve some girl time so we said that was fine. That would also allows us to focus on the boys some.
We grabbed some breakfast at BW bakery and took it with us on the DVC van. The driver was a older gentleman who very engaging with us. One of the cool things about the cast members at WDW is they come from such various backgrounds. He had some great stories to tell.
We arrived at the DVC office at SSR and went in, sat down and ate our breakfast. The 11yr old went into the “kids area” they have where there are games and other kids to play with. The wife and I along with the big kid (his name is Bonham, not after the Led Zepplin drummer as most people think but after James Butler Bonham of the Alamo) sat down and spoke to a DVC rep about our options. One thing about the whole experience that stood out was that there was zero pressure, none at all. I have always heard about time share sale pitches and pressure, we did not experiences any of that which was very nice.
After that a different cast member offered to show us the models they have at SSR of the different DVC rooms, including ones form different resorts. We saw all size rooms from Grand Floridian, Animal Kingdom and the one in Hawaii. We currently only have 100 points which is enough for a studio, the smallest DVC option. But man oh man the 1 and 2 bedrooms were very nice and the Grand Villas? Bigger than my house I think! Just awesome...what a way to stay at WDW
Deluxe is a understatement I think. I will most likely never stay in one but a guy can dream!We decided to try and buy more points on the secondary market instead of thru Disney as the price is just so much cheaper. We placed a bid the next day via the internet for 110 points, hope it goes thru
Still not enough for a 2 bedroom but we can get a one bedroom with 210 points!Next we walked around SSR, we had never been there before. Very nice, very quiet and seems like a great place to stay.
We boated over to DTD and decided to try out Splitsville for some bowling. Never been there before, it was a great time. I have not bowled in years and it showed but a great time none the less. No doubt we will return here as well in the future.
Big kid had a few “issues”
Gutter Ball!
They have a pretty cool system in place where the system automatically has the bumpers come up when it was the 11yr olds turn to bowl. I am not sure if this is common or not in bowling alleys but I thought it was cool.
After that we went and saw Malificent at the theaters at DTD. We enjoyed the movie, and seeing a Disney movie at Disney is pretty neat IMO
After that we heard from the girls they had ended up coming to DTD to shop instead of the parks so we met them at the Lego store. Turns out my daughter who works 3 days a week at Dairy Queen had drained her bank account down to .09 cents shopping, goofy kid. We asked them to join us for dinner but they said they were not hungry and wanted to keep looking around.
We had ADRs at Ragland Road a favorite of ours at 4:25pm but we stopped by and they were able to bring us in at 3pm so that was nice. We had our standard appetizer
The Dakley Duo!
Basically fried sausage but they come on forks!
It was a great meal as always. Towards the end the girls showed up to join us for desert, go figure
We bussed back to the BW and you guessed it hit the pool and hot tub! I do think it worth mentioning since I left it out earlier that on Monday night were were in the hot tub at the quiet pool at the BW. We met a nice lady who was down from Tampa and we mentioned our son was in Tampa, she asked if he was in the service and we said yes. She had a number of family members in the service. We continued to talk and about 20 mins latter she told us if he ever wanted a home cooked meal he was welcomed to come to her house for one. That kind of stuff is so cool is general, but just one more bit of Disney magic is the other guest you meet!
After that we dressed and went to the Boardwalk to say our good byes to big kid, he would go back to his hotel and leave for Tampa in the morning. I am posting this pic because it still makes my wife cry when she see it, her baby boy and all!
and two brothers
And I like this one, looks like Mickey is over looking the water, I love that hat!
We hit DHS and rode Tower Of Terror and then headed over to the Fantasmic show. The FP was a great deal for us, we showed up after they let people in but still had excellent seats in the center section. The show was great, it really is a great show to watch.
Just one pic of the girls waiting for the show to start, I love this pic as well.
We walked back form DHS to the BW, ran into some trouble along the way.
Yep a spider, you can see it if you squint but the girls were not crazy about it. Texas girls should be tougher than that! I have work to do with them.
We hit the hay when we got back, we were pretty tired after our “no park” day!
Next up was Animal Kingdom and dinner at Epcot. Also the wife and I had a date at the Wind Down event at Epcot on Thursday that we had been looking forward to for a long time!
More to come!
Last edited:
olinecoach61
Well-Known Member
Great trip report! Thanks for sharing.
Day 6 Thursday
Wow day 6 already? Time flys at the Kingdom
So Animal Kingdom up today, FP at Safari, Dinosaur and Everest.
The theming at AK is the best at WDW I think. Just a beautiful park.
We did Tough To Be A Bug
Then we rode Safari in standby line and by time we got off our FP was active so we rode it again. It's pretty neat as you all know. I did let the 11 year old use the camera on both rides, if anybody is interested I have like 400 pictures of stuff on the safari, no really it's like 400 pictures he took!
Next up was lunch, we ate at the QS part of Yak & Yeti, here is above the counter where we ordered, it's this kind of theming that is so great at AK.
Simple but it is just everywhere at AK
The food was excellent by far the best QS we had all week! I loved it.
Now Abby our “tag along” kid told me on Sunday here favorite princess was Pocahontas. She did not know she was at AK, we surprised her with a M&G. She was pretty excited to say the least. You can see in the picture she is out of breath with excitement.
It was really cool to be able to give her that experience. We paid a chunk of change to bring her, this made it all worth it. Disney magic should be shared, I don't share the thoughts of some on this forum that it is in danger of dying, I find it to be alive and well indeed!
We wanted to make sure she felt a part of us so she was in all of our group pictures that week except this one which she took.
Next up was Everest, again we rode it on stand by and then with our FP, so we waited a total of 45 mins to ride twice not bad in June!
Here we are trying to all look goofy on the second ride, I have no ideal WTH we were thinking!
And then Dinosaur, man I love that ride! Hanna's face is just great in this picture
After that we went to Planet Watch and the girls broke off to learn some animal facts, Hanna is a huge animal lover and she really got into the educational aspects of the place.
We meet the old monkey himself
And found some Koala bears there as well. So those of you with kids know the craziest things become “things” with your kids, running gags more or less. Well Jack (the 11 year old) is a clingy kids, he likes to hold hands and hug......ALOT! So I started calling him Koala on Sunday as a joke, because those bears are always riding on their parents backs it seems. Well he took to it and we formed a Koala club, we have a secret handshake and even a vocal call we do to each other. Sorry girls, boy only allowed in! Again could it have happened somewhere other than Disney? It could, but it happen at Disney and although it might sound silly to some it was special to him and to me honestly. A wee bit more of the magic
We also found a Wildlife refuge close to home!
Headed out to the BW after that, but of course had to stop for
We did not have time to hit the pool this day Only day we missed hitting it.
Off to France for dinner! First time eating there and we loved it. The onion soup was excellent and the crème burlee was divine!!! The girls loved the cute french waiter as well!
Even Jack liked the Mac & Cheese!
That is excited looking for Jack
After then it was date night time!
The kids went back to the BW to swim and the better half and I headed to Morroco for our 9:20 ADR at Spice Roads. We caught Illuminations again and enjoyed it again.
We checked into Spice Roads and had our date. We had a flight of wine samples and some food samples followed but two more glasses of wine and desert. We enjoyed the wine and the food was good but we were stuffed from dinner so we did not eat it all. There was a bunch of debate on a thread on this forum about the value of the Wind Down and if it was a ripoff or not for $35 per person. I can't speak for anyone else about what something is worth but I can give you my opinion.
I work full time, about 55 hours a week. My wife work a full 40 hours a week. We have two kids still in the house. My daughter is in a number of school activities and wife serves as a volunteer on a number of them. In short like many of you we have a busy active family life. We have been married 22 years next week and we do not get a lot of time to just be the two of us on a night out. To be able to take my wife out to show her I love her at such a unique place as the WS at WDW was cool. Like most guys I know how much she means to me, I do not do a good enough job letting her know that though daily. This was a small way for me to do that, she is without a doubt the best person I know. It was $110 out the door with tip, and worth every penny of that to me, I would do it again 1000 times over
As we walked from Morocco to the International Gateway (around 11pm) we saw 2 cast members and 1 other guest the entire way. All the lights were still on in France, as well as the other countries. It was beautiful and peaceful and just plain awesome to be there alone like that. Man I would love to live there!
Not sure if this is the right place to say this or not but what the heck.....
All day I had been telling Hanna that since she was going swimming with Abby and Jack during our “Date Night” that if her mom and I made it back to the room from our date before they did from the pool and we wanted some “private time” we would hang a towel on the door so she would know to not barge in to something “going on” she was pretty grossed out by that so of course I kept telling her it all day! Ahh kids...... what fun are they if you can not messed with their heads....
Well all 3 kids were back in the room before we made it back......Hmmm.....
Only 1 full day left, the MK tomorrow, more to come!
Wow day 6 already? Time flys at the Kingdom
So Animal Kingdom up today, FP at Safari, Dinosaur and Everest.
The theming at AK is the best at WDW I think. Just a beautiful park.
We did Tough To Be A Bug
Then we rode Safari in standby line and by time we got off our FP was active so we rode it again. It's pretty neat as you all know. I did let the 11 year old use the camera on both rides, if anybody is interested I have like 400 pictures of stuff on the safari, no really it's like 400 pictures he took!
Next up was lunch, we ate at the QS part of Yak & Yeti, here is above the counter where we ordered, it's this kind of theming that is so great at AK.
Simple but it is just everywhere at AK
The food was excellent by far the best QS we had all week! I loved it.
Now Abby our “tag along” kid told me on Sunday here favorite princess was Pocahontas. She did not know she was at AK, we surprised her with a M&G. She was pretty excited to say the least. You can see in the picture she is out of breath with excitement.
It was really cool to be able to give her that experience. We paid a chunk of change to bring her, this made it all worth it. Disney magic should be shared, I don't share the thoughts of some on this forum that it is in danger of dying, I find it to be alive and well indeed!
We wanted to make sure she felt a part of us so she was in all of our group pictures that week except this one which she took.
Next up was Everest, again we rode it on stand by and then with our FP, so we waited a total of 45 mins to ride twice not bad in June!
Here we are trying to all look goofy on the second ride, I have no ideal WTH we were thinking!
And then Dinosaur, man I love that ride! Hanna's face is just great in this picture
After that we went to Planet Watch and the girls broke off to learn some animal facts, Hanna is a huge animal lover and she really got into the educational aspects of the place.
We meet the old monkey himself
And found some Koala bears there as well. So those of you with kids know the craziest things become “things” with your kids, running gags more or less. Well Jack (the 11 year old) is a clingy kids, he likes to hold hands and hug......ALOT! So I started calling him Koala on Sunday as a joke, because those bears are always riding on their parents backs it seems. Well he took to it and we formed a Koala club, we have a secret handshake and even a vocal call we do to each other. Sorry girls, boy only allowed in! Again could it have happened somewhere other than Disney? It could, but it happen at Disney and although it might sound silly to some it was special to him and to me honestly. A wee bit more of the magic
We also found a Wildlife refuge close to home!
Headed out to the BW after that, but of course had to stop for
We did not have time to hit the pool this day
Only day we missed hitting it.Off to France for dinner! First time eating there and we loved it. The onion soup was excellent and the crème burlee was divine!!! The girls loved the cute french waiter as well!
Even Jack liked the Mac & Cheese!
That is excited looking for Jack
After then it was date night time!
The kids went back to the BW to swim and the better half and I headed to Morroco for our 9:20 ADR at Spice Roads. We caught Illuminations again and enjoyed it again.
We checked into Spice Roads and had our date. We had a flight of wine samples and some food samples followed but two more glasses of wine and desert. We enjoyed the wine and the food was good but we were stuffed from dinner so we did not eat it all. There was a bunch of debate on a thread on this forum about the value of the Wind Down and if it was a ripoff or not for $35 per person. I can't speak for anyone else about what something is worth but I can give you my opinion.
I work full time, about 55 hours a week. My wife work a full 40 hours a week. We have two kids still in the house. My daughter is in a number of school activities and wife serves as a volunteer on a number of them. In short like many of you we have a busy active family life. We have been married 22 years next week and we do not get a lot of time to just be the two of us on a night out. To be able to take my wife out to show her I love her at such a unique place as the WS at WDW was cool. Like most guys I know how much she means to me, I do not do a good enough job letting her know that though daily. This was a small way for me to do that, she is without a doubt the best person I know. It was $110 out the door with tip, and worth every penny of that to me, I would do it again 1000 times over
As we walked from Morocco to the International Gateway (around 11pm) we saw 2 cast members and 1 other guest the entire way. All the lights were still on in France, as well as the other countries. It was beautiful and peaceful and just plain awesome to be there alone like that. Man I would love to live there!
Not sure if this is the right place to say this or not but what the heck.....
All day I had been telling Hanna that since she was going swimming with Abby and Jack during our “Date Night” that if her mom and I made it back to the room from our date before they did from the pool and we wanted some “private time” we would hang a towel on the door so she would know to not barge in to something “going on” she was pretty grossed out by that so of course I kept telling her it all day!
Ahh kids...... what fun are they if you can not messed with their heads....Well all 3 kids were back in the room before we made it back......Hmmm.....
Only 1 full day left, the MK tomorrow, more to come!
mrdrift
Well-Known Member
Great report and good to hear about "date night" turning out so wonderful. Those are important things for the adults to have in there lives also. Once we have children we sometimes forget about ourselves, glad to hear that yous kids gave you there support for the night. Will be following.
Day 7 Friday
Last day at the parks for us, we were flying out the next morning
But still a day at Disney ahead so we were ready!
MK day with a Epcot night We had FP for 7DMT, Rapunzel M&G and Belle Enchanted. I was really excited about the 7DMT and the M&G as I am a big Tangled fan. The Belle Enchanted I was not really sure what it was about.
We tried to ride the Mine Train with our FP but the ride was down. We were told that our FP would be good the rest of the day. This was the same thing that happened when we were rained out at Test Track, they extended the FP all day automatically. I think that is a cool feature of FP+
Since we were in NFL we looked around while waiting for the train to start running again. We loved it, had one of the frozen apple drinks and saw Gaston, he was awesome. He dragged a female guest over to a trash can and had a arm wrestling match with her when she questioned rather his muscles were real or not. It was great!
We walked back to 7DMT to see if it was working and our timing turned out to be perfect, we arrived right as they opened the ride again. We walked from the FP entry way right to a train. I think we missed all of the queue area but it was still pretty cool to get on that quick. I had made an effort to not see anything related to the Mine Train as I wanted it to be all surprise to me when I rode it. So I buckled in and took the plunge......it was awesome..it's no thrill ride but I did not think it would be.....but the theme is just perfect IMO, heck as we exited the cavern I yelled out Hi Ho in reply to the audio in the cavern, that was something that surprised me but it must have really came from my inner Disney! I think it has classic Disney ride potential, time will tell but like some of the other rides in the park (Dumbo, Peter Pan, Small World etc...) I think it will be a guest favorite far into the future.
After that hit the Big Top shop for more buying of stuff we did not need
It was then time for our FP to Belle so we headed in with no ideal what it really was even. What a shocking surprise, it is something not to be missed IMO. It was very cool to be in such a small group for a show and the kids picked to be in the show were very cute in their roles. We were all very impressed with it. I recommend it to anyone who has not done it yet.
Then it was time for the Rapunzel M&G, and this one was all about me! I told the group all week that if I had one single picture with just me in it it would be with Rapunzel. We waited maybe 3 minuets inline and then met Aurora and took some pics with her.
Then it was Rapunzel, she was far the most interactive of all the characters we met all week. She was just great and very very funny. When I told her I had waited all week to meet her she shoved everybody else out of the way and focused on me Yeah your going to get extra Rapunzel pics just cause!
Next we did the stand by for Space Mountain and more goofy posing!
After that we called and moved our 6:25p ADRs at The Wave to 5:05p as we wanted to get to Epcot to ride Test Track and then finish the night at the pool at the BW. We had some time to kill so we took the Monorail to the Poly and walked around, lots of constructions of course but I think it will worth it in th end. The DVC bungalows look like they will be awesome
We then rode to the GF, wow what a beautiful resort. We had a soda at the QS location there and relaxed. After that we rode to the Contemporary for our ADRs. The Wave was a selection I made just based on it's location, but a second great surprise that day as the meal was just excellent. If you have not eaten there and have the chance I would recommend it. The girls love the large bottles of water
After that we rode over to Epcot and rode Test Track on standby as all the FP for it were taken for the day. We had not been on it since 2011, before the update. It is much cooler now, a great improvement all around. We had a great time building the car and then riding the ride, much improved
We grabbed some fish and chips as we walked back to the BW for a swim. Nobody “wanted any” as I ordered it but before I knew it all the chips were gone as was one piece of fish....Hmmmmm....at least I got that one piece of fish
We hit the pool and hot tub for our last night at WDW. We had the quiet pool to ourselves which was pretty nice.
And here was where the best moment of the trip occurred for me, of all the places we had been from all the parks, resorts we visited, the restaurants we ate at, DTD and everywhere else it occurred in the pool of all places
Hanna is 16, soon to be 17 years old and she is my baby girl and always will be. But she is a young lady now and there are things in her life that take her away from me more and more each day. I am very proud of her and want her to develop her own life but I would be lying if I said I would not keep her “little” forever if I could.
My wife and I found ourselves in the pool with Hanna alone, Abby and Jack were on the opposite end of the pool playing. So the wife and I were trying to hold Hanna up kinda like a cheerleader using our hands under her feet. Well that was not working and she fell. But she laughed and giggled and smiled, and in that 45 seconds she was 10 years old again. If was incredible and moving and made the thousands of dollars the trip cost worth it alone. It moved me then and still brings tears to my eyes as I type this. Again it was something that could have happened anywhere I guess but it happened at Disney. More of the magic that will not be forgotten.
After that we hit the hay, last nights at Disney are sad in many ways but the blessing of being able to go for a week each year is something that is not lost on us and we slept well that night.
The next morning was a quick breakfast at the bakery and then the DME to the airport.
Here is the group waiting for the “sad bus” to arrive....
The trip home was uneventful.
So next up is a 7 day trip in the last week of Jan 2015 to WDW. Currently we are booked using our DVC points at a studio room at SSR. If we end up winning our bid on the 110 points we bid on then the will use those combined points to rent a 1 bed room at the AKL or the WL for the week instead. We have never been in Jan so we are pretty excited to be there with cooler weather and lower crowds.
So that is it, a week at WDW that provided some great days and some incredible special moments. I have no ideal why those magical moments happen to occur while we are at WDW, but I love the fact that they do. And I will keep going back in hopes we find more of them
Thanks for reading!
Last day at the parks for us, we were flying out the next morning
But still a day at Disney ahead so we were ready!
MK day with a Epcot night
We had FP for 7DMT, Rapunzel M&G and Belle Enchanted. I was really excited about the 7DMT and the M&G as I am a big Tangled fan. The Belle Enchanted I was not really sure what it was about.We tried to ride the Mine Train with our FP but the ride was down. We were told that our FP would be good the rest of the day. This was the same thing that happened when we were rained out at Test Track, they extended the FP all day automatically. I think that is a cool feature of FP+
Since we were in NFL we looked around while waiting for the train to start running again. We loved it, had one of the frozen apple drinks and saw Gaston, he was awesome. He dragged a female guest over to a trash can and had a arm wrestling match with her when she questioned rather his muscles were real or not. It was great!
We walked back to 7DMT to see if it was working and our timing turned out to be perfect, we arrived right as they opened the ride again. We walked from the FP entry way right to a train. I think we missed all of the queue area but it was still pretty cool to get on that quick. I had made an effort to not see anything related to the Mine Train as I wanted it to be all surprise to me when I rode it. So I buckled in and took the plunge......it was awesome..it's no thrill ride but I did not think it would be.....but the theme is just perfect IMO, heck as we exited the cavern I yelled out Hi Ho in reply to the audio in the cavern, that was something that surprised me but it must have really came from my inner Disney! I think it has classic Disney ride potential, time will tell but like some of the other rides in the park (Dumbo, Peter Pan, Small World etc...) I think it will be a guest favorite far into the future.
After that hit the Big Top shop for more buying of stuff we did not need
It was then time for our FP to Belle so we headed in with no ideal what it really was even. What a shocking surprise, it is something not to be missed IMO. It was very cool to be in such a small group for a show and the kids picked to be in the show were very cute in their roles. We were all very impressed with it. I recommend it to anyone who has not done it yet.
Then it was time for the Rapunzel M&G, and this one was all about me! I told the group all week that if I had one single picture with just me in it it would be with Rapunzel. We waited maybe 3 minuets inline and then met Aurora and took some pics with her.
Then it was Rapunzel, she was far the most interactive of all the characters we met all week. She was just great and very very funny. When I told her I had waited all week to meet her she shoved everybody else out of the way and focused on me
Yeah your going to get extra Rapunzel pics just cause!
Next we did the stand by for Space Mountain and more goofy posing!
After that we called and moved our 6:25p ADRs at The Wave to 5:05p as we wanted to get to Epcot to ride Test Track and then finish the night at the pool at the BW. We had some time to kill so we took the Monorail to the Poly and walked around, lots of constructions of course but I think it will worth it in th end. The DVC bungalows look like they will be awesome
We then rode to the GF, wow what a beautiful resort. We had a soda at the QS location there and relaxed. After that we rode to the Contemporary for our ADRs. The Wave was a selection I made just based on it's location, but a second great surprise that day as the meal was just excellent. If you have not eaten there and have the chance I would recommend it. The girls love the large bottles of water
After that we rode over to Epcot and rode Test Track on standby as all the FP for it were taken for the day. We had not been on it since 2011, before the update. It is much cooler now, a great improvement all around. We had a great time building the car and then riding the ride, much improved
We grabbed some fish and chips as we walked back to the BW for a swim. Nobody “wanted any” as I ordered it but before I knew it all the chips were gone as was one piece of fish....Hmmmmm....at least I got that one piece of fish
We hit the pool and hot tub for our last night at WDW. We had the quiet pool to ourselves which was pretty nice.
And here was where the best moment of the trip occurred for me, of all the places we had been from all the parks, resorts we visited, the restaurants we ate at, DTD and everywhere else it occurred in the pool of all places
Hanna is 16, soon to be 17 years old and she is my baby girl and always will be. But she is a young lady now and there are things in her life that take her away from me more and more each day. I am very proud of her and want her to develop her own life but I would be lying if I said I would not keep her “little” forever if I could.
My wife and I found ourselves in the pool with Hanna alone, Abby and Jack were on the opposite end of the pool playing. So the wife and I were trying to hold Hanna up kinda like a cheerleader using our hands under her feet. Well that was not working and she fell. But she laughed and giggled and smiled, and in that 45 seconds she was 10 years old again. If was incredible and moving and made the thousands of dollars the trip cost worth it alone. It moved me then and still brings tears to my eyes as I type this. Again it was something that could have happened anywhere I guess but it happened at Disney. More of the magic that will not be forgotten.
After that we hit the hay, last nights at Disney are sad in many ways but the blessing of being able to go for a week each year is something that is not lost on us and we slept well that night.
The next morning was a quick breakfast at the bakery and then the DME to the airport.
Here is the group waiting for the “sad bus” to arrive....
The trip home was uneventful.
So next up is a 7 day trip in the last week of Jan 2015 to WDW. Currently we are booked using our DVC points at a studio room at SSR. If we end up winning our bid on the 110 points we bid on then the will use those combined points to rent a 1 bed room at the AKL or the WL for the week instead. We have never been in Jan so we are pretty excited to be there with cooler weather and lower crowds.
So that is it, a week at WDW that provided some great days and some incredible special moments. I have no ideal why those magical moments happen to occur while we are at WDW, but I love the fact that they do. And I will keep going back in hopes we find more of them
Thanks for reading!
PolynesianPrincess
Well-Known Member
Excellent report! Magical moments at Disney are the best!