Trip Report The I'm Ditching the Spreadsheets....an Unrecognizable Trip!

We arrived home around 10pm last night from our Disney vacation. The planning for this trip started in March, but by September it was not even close to the original. So how did it all turn out? Did I make the correct decisions? Was this trip as hectic as the last one? Should I have cancelled so many dining reservations? Did we miss too much because upon arrival I decided to rip up the spread sheets..the same ones that I so painstakingly obsessed over?! I'm thinking about all of this as I am attempting to organize my 609,504,302 photos.

There were a few hiccups, including my Etsy order not arriving in time, sprinting to the Magical Express just as the doors closed, leaving our Elf on the Shelf in the room after check out, getting stuck on a ride, a missing boat captain, broken ornaments, and a horrible 3 hour lunch. All in all it was an amazing trip. I do not regret the decision to change from the original plans, or the second, or the 3rd, or even the plans I had when we were on the plane heading to Orlando. I decided to throw out most of them and take a (semi) wing it approach.

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Aww I don't blame your son being intimidated by Kylo Ren. I was intimidated by Kylo Ren when I met him on my August trip. The meet and greet with him is a little awkward in general. My family and I weren't exactly sure how to interact with him. It made for some extremely awkward, but entertaining photos though. So anyway tell him not to feel too bad! lol

 

[21stamps]

soooo loving this!!

Thanks! Hopefully I complete it before my next one.

Aww I don't blame your son being intimidated by Kylo Ren. I was intimidated by Kylo Ren when I met him on my August trip. The meet and greet with him is a little awkward in general. My family and I weren't exactly sure how to interact with him. It made for some extremely awkward, but entertaining photos though. So anyway tell him not to feel too bad! lol

Ha ha thanks! I think the photos I ended up with are some of my favorites, and I can't wait to tease him about it when he's older
Please share yours! ( if you want to)
There should be a Kylo Ren photo thread.lol

 

[DimpledDevil18]

Thanks! Hopefully I complete it before my next one.

Ha ha thanks! I think the photos I ended up with are some of my favorites, and I can't wait to tease him about it when he's older
Please share yours! ( if you want to)
There should be a Kylo Ren photo thread.lol

Okay so here are a few of my awkward Kylo Ren photos. So basically I don't know why, but I got a really bad case of the nervous giggles once he started babbling on about how "the force is strong on the dark side" and ordering us to be silent. The more he told us to be quiet the harder it became to keep a straight face.

My brother is looking a me like, "Get a hold of yourself, crazy!"

This is the best picture. I can't even look him in the eye and I'm doing all that I can to keep it together. This Photopass photographer clearly captured a moment here lol.

Maybe I've gotten a hold of myself here. Notice how I'm very warily giving him the side eye. I think he's telling my Mommy on me lol.

So what else to do then, but take an extremely awkward family photo. Don't we all look kind of stiff and uncomfortable?

 

[21stamps]

Okay so here are a few of my awkward Kylo Ren photos. So basically I don't know why, but I got a really bad case of the nervous giggles once he started babbling on about how "the force is strong on the dark side" and ordering us to be silent. The more he told us to be quiet the harder it became to keep a straight face.

My brother is looking a me like, "Get a hold of yourself, crazy!"View attachment 181103

This is the best picture. I can't even look him in the eye and I'm doing all that I can to keep it together. This Photopass photographer clearly captured a moment here lol.
View attachment 181105

Maybe I've gotten a hold of myself here. Notice how I'm very warily giving him the side eye. I think he's telling my Mommy on me lol.
View attachment 181106

So what else to do then, but take an extremely awkward family photo. Don't we all look kind of stiff and uncomfortable?
View attachment 181107

View attachment 181102

Oh my goodness...these are Wonderful!!!! Your Dad looks pretty comfortable in his interaction with him!
Your laughing is great! Sometimes the awkward and silly photos are the best of all I'm sure your family will love looking back on these for years to come!

I actually find all M&Gs to be a little awkward..lol. I always look uncomfortable in them.. from Olaf to Kylo Ren, doesn't matter.

 

[King Panda 77]

I can't wait to meet Princess Kylo

 

[21stamps]

I can't wait to meet Princess Kylo

Ha ha. Use the force on him!! That's what my son had planned on doing...obviously didn't happen.lol.

Side note- I do wish that there was a Darth Vader M&G at HS.

 

[King Panda 77]

Ha ha. Use the force on him!! That's what my son had planned on doing...obviously didn't happen.lol.

Side note- I do wish that there was a Darth Vader M&G at HS.

Be even more amusing if he spots either my bb8 or my DW's r2d2 tattoo ....

These are not the droids he is looking for

 

[21stamps]

Be even more amusing if he spots either my bb8 or my DW's r2d2 tattoo ....

These are not the droids he is looking for

Lol! Makes sure he does!

I want to see pics of the tattoos!

 

[21stamps]

Ok.. I'm leaving the office. Have not wrapped one gift yet.. still need to go buy 30,000 batteries, then church, then family party tonight. And then..wrapping...so much wrapping..

I may just hook an IV of caffeine to my arm.
Whew..here I go. Mad dash to the finish line.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

 

[righttrack]

Great TR!

 

[21stamps]

Great TR!

Thanks!!! I hope to get back to it soon!

 

[21stamps]

Just wanted to pop in and say-

I really am going to finish this trip report at some point!! It's been a hectic 2 weeks...but as my phone is getting even more crowded with photos..I'm realizing that I do need to go thru my Disney ones.. I'm up to almost 70GBs of pictures on my phone lol

 

[21stamps]

Regarding my last post..
Just looked at my upcoming schedule for this month. I'm frightened- also extremely intimated by the fact that I have to figure out how to change a block of wood into a car to race in the Pinewood Derby!!
Here's my FB post.. ( @Mr Ferret 88 - this is an example of when I feel like I'm juggling knives lol) I should have added "organize Disney photos and complete Trip Report" to this list

 

[21stamps]

Let's see if I can finish this trip report!

Hollywood Studios Launch Bay

It's just after 12pm and I'm getting nervous about out time and what we will actually be able to accomplish with our day and our "To Do" list.

Chewbacca's line was posted at 40 minutes, so we decided to leave Launch Bay and come back later...hoping to meet Chewy and explore the rest of the attraction.

But first- Jawas!!!

The Jawas have been a highlight of our excitement for months. T decided to bring the following items to trade, and for backups in case one got rejected-

Gold Coins from his treasure chest.
A Blue (fake) Gemstone Bracelet. (Made by T)
A Hot Wheels "super fast and super awesome" car. (This one was his backup)

We walk over to the Jawa area and it was expectedly a little crowded.

Please bear with me while I rant for a moment-This part annoyed me. I can not stand rude people!!!! I just can't. Where these rude and entitled people come from I have no idea. It does seem like they all go to Disney World at the same time. Maybe a "how to be a jerk while on vacation" conference going on? Every week?
So anyway, there was not a queue for the Jawas. It was literally people pushing their way. We hung back and waited for the crowd to disperse a bit.
Problem with that- more people coming and push right by us. After maybe 10 minutes we seem to be next to meet them. I'm standing with my phone ready- T starts to walk towards a Jawa..
A family walks up and literally pushes their kid in front of him!! What? Seriously?
Ok whatever. They go. Now it's our turn.

T finally walks up with the bracelet. He was so excited!

Then within a few seconds another little kid runs up..parents do not correct him. I'm a little angry now, I ask the mother if she can ask her son to move 2 feet so I can get 1 photo of my son and the Jawa and then they can do their thing.

T and the Jawa move a few feet, so now I have photos in front of the door instead of the cool background.lol. Oh well. The photos also came out blurry but I didn't have time to snap more. It was so hectic. Kiddo was thrilled that the Jawa liked his bracelet..so the interaction ended in a Win.

 

[King Panda 77]

was growing old waiting on this

 

[21stamps]

We walk around to look at some of the awesome Star Wars stuff. This place is really neat! T was amazed at it all.
I cracked up at his super serious mean face (attempt) with Darth Vader.

Then T notices the prices. "Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh Mommy we can buy this Death Vader!! Can we buy it?!"

"No. Move along son."

Then he sees the Stormtrooper.

"Mommy this would be AWESOME in my room! I don't have 9 THOUSAND dollars on my gift card though."

I laughed out loud at that one. At least he didn't ask me for it.lol

 

[21stamps]

We shop around in the store for a bit, and amazingly-- leave without purchasing anything!!
Star Tours AND Launch Bay- nothing purchased.
Giving kiddo a budget on a Disney Gift Card is proving to be wonderful! He's taking it seriously!

We did need to get this right outside though-

T thought it was the coolest thing. It says he's a Jedi!
Who needs a life size Stormtrooper when you can get a cheap little necklace with bb8 and your name on it out of a machine? .

 

[21stamps]

We headed to Backlot Express for Vader Waffles & Chicken, but the line was too long (for our time crunch) so we sadly left.
Went to Starbucks instead.

The Mickey "i's" make me smile. It's the little things like this that I love about WDW.

Now it's time to use our second FP. This is an exciting moment-- Rockin' Roller coaster!!!!
Kiddo was 45" last year, so it's time for another new experience!!

He loved it!!!

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

We gave each of our kids gift cards to use for our last trip and it really does help them think about what they want to use it on. It prevents willy nilly purchases. They are saving the gift cards they got from Christmas for our trip in May.

 

[21stamps]

We gave each of our kids gift cards to use for our last trip and it really does help them think about what they want to use it on. It prevents willy nilly purchases. They are saving the gift cards they got from Christmas for our trip in May.

I did it last year, but didn't make him stick to the budget. We had packages showing up on our doorstep for a week after that trip.lol
This year was amazing how he really did think about what he wanted.
It cuts out so much of the "can I have this?" and like you said, the willy nilly purchases that they want in the moment, but in reality will probably never use again.