Trip Report The Many Adventures of the Figaro Family in Florida

We are back! It's going to take me a little bit of time to organize the photos and my thoughts but I thought I'd at least get this trip report started. For anyone who wants to get to know us, you can read my pre-trip report "Everybody's Got a Laughing Place (and I can't wait to get to mine!)"
Quick re-rundown of the family: Me (Jo), my husband James, daughter Maddie (13), son Xander (10).
This was the longest vacation our family of four has ever taken together. Ten nights total in three different hotel rooms. It was a lot of togetherness but I think we all handled it pretty well, aside from various late night awakenings from loud snoring(James and Xander) and my daughter Maddie's sleep talking. I'm sure she does this at home too, but we don't hear her in her room. Every night on every vacation we've been on she'll sit up suddenly and start angrily lecturing about something while wildly gesturing. She never remembers it the next day and I'm left curious what she was dreaming about. No one complained about anything I did, so I assume I slept like an angel that does not snore or talk in her sleep.
I'll begin with the very end of the trip while it is still fresh in my mind then go back to the beginning when I get the photos organized.
The trip ended last night with a bit of good news then bad news. Good news was our flight got us home to Portland a full hour early!!!! It was a combo of being able to take off 15 minutes ahead of schedule and winds of some kind that shaved of the other 45 minutes. We were supposed to get home at 7:30pm pacific time but got in closer to 6:30. We were really excited because that meant we had a chance at picking up our three pets from boarding before the place closed at 9pm. We had thought we'd have to wait until this morning.
The first inkling of bad news came when we got our car from the long term lot and tried to pay the parking fee. James swiped his credit card but it got rejected. He tried again, rejected again. We try mine (same account), it gets rejected. "That's not good..." we say to each other. He pays with the bank card and we race home so we can drop of the luggage and James and Maddie can go to pick up the pets. I say "don't you think we should call the credit card company?" he says "I don't wan't to waste time with that, let's just get the pets home". They get to the boarding place and James tries to pay, the credit card gets rejected again. So there he is in the pet hotel calling the credit card company to find out what's going on. Apparently multiple fraudulent charges started showing up on our account while we were in the air and our cards got shut down. We use Disney Chase Visa and I do have to applaud them for catching this so quickly. James was able to get them to let our charge for the pet boarding go through before they fully shut down the account and we were able to identify all the charges that we did not make and don't have to worry about them. It didn't make for a nice relaxing homecoming at all! I have a bad feeling that it happened at the airport just before we boarded the plane. I went to one of those airport stands that sell snacks and picked up a few things for us to eat on the plane. I swiped the card instead of using the chip without thinking and even had a moment of unease about it at the time. I think it was an ideal place for someone to install one of those card skimmers.
This was truly the most drama filled moment of the entire trip. thought there were a few smaller ones that felt big at the time! I'll start at the beginning on my next post.
...stay tuned for part one: An extremely early morning drive to the airport.

 

[Figaro Family]

I liked your Grammy story and can relate. My mom was always complaining about not getting pictures or news when she didn't have a smart phone. Of course she didn't want or need a smart phone when I offered to get her one but finally my siblings an I got fed up about the complaining and got her the phone anyway. Now my mom loves WhatsApp and uses it every day.

Years ago when Grammy couldn't find anyplace to get film developed anymore she declared that she would never be able to take any pictures ever again. She would have to depend on us to give her pictures of the grand kids from then on (she can be very dramatic). We tried to talk her into buying a digital camera for years but she insisted that there was no way she could possibly figure out how to use one. Then suddenly this year she decides to skip over a digital camera and get a smart phone which she totally figured out how to use on her own. We have to listen to her bragging about how "tech savvy" she is and how amazing it is that she can take pictures on her phone and look at them whenever she wants even though that's what we'd been saying all along about a digital camera and she'd been stubbornly refusing.

 

[Figaro Family]

Finally it was time for our ADR at Beaches and Cream! I'd really been looking forward to this since we'd never been there before and it was right there at Beach Club. We didn't have to travel anywhere for dinner!

It was a lot smaller inside than I expected but I guess that explains why it can be hard to get an ADR.

Real working Jukebox at last! We spent a lot of time at the jukebox picking out songs.

My pick was going to be "Johnny be Good" as a reference to "Back to the Future" but for some reason the code was wrong and the next one down played which was a low key Dean Martin song. I was disappointed so James tried it again in case I'd read the number wrong but nope, it was Dean Martin crooning again. Everyone there must have been like "What's with that family? They really like the smooth stylings of the Rat Pack."
I couldn't decide what fancy drink I wanted so the waiter suggested a secret "off menu" concoction that was like an orange creamsicle with alcohol. I was like sure why not? and this is what I got.

It was a little weird but grew on me!
This was absolutely our most fun dinner of the vacation. We were all feeling laid back and low stress.

Xander got into an extremely silly mood and kept us all entertained throughout the meal. He has a really good sense of humor and enjoys making us laugh. If he finds something that really does the job he'll file it away and then use it to crack us up when he's in the mood. One of his go to "jokes" is to say "Cheesecake Factory Quesadilla!" This came from him saying out loud random thoughts that go through his head which one time was "cheese quesadilla" we started laughing and repeating it back to him which cracked him up. He would then say it at random times and wait for us to laugh with a silly grin on his face. This evolved into Cheescake Factory Quesadilla. Xander thinks mash ups of words are really fun.
At this dinner he came up with a new silly word which he cracked himself up with and we couldn't stop laughing about. He would say something that sounded like "Cow Mine!" or "Camine!" and start laughing hysterically then he added in the Cheescake Factory Quesadilla line along with some other silly things. Maddie was cracking up too and merriment reigned at our table!

After that, James and I started texting each other random pictures with the caption "Cow Mine?" or "Camine?" for the rest of the trip.

 

[Figaro Family]

It was soon time for dessert. Xander's was included with his kids meal.

(still laughing about camine, or Cow Mine?)

Maddie really wanted a Kitchen Sink which I felt a little bad talking her out of. I'm sure it would have been cool but it was expensive and I thought there was no way the three of us could make more than a dent in it.
I talked her into sharing a No Way Jose with James and I instead.

Mmmmm. It was delicious!

I was right not to order the Kitchen Sink. As good as the No Way Jose was, the three of us could barely finish it. We waddled our way out of Beaches and Cream very happy with our experience.

As I've been working on this post, Xander sidled up to me and started reading over my shoulder. He got to the part about "Camine" and started yelling it and giggling in my ear. Now he's launched into his whole comedy routine and is trying out some new material.

 

[12in12]

What a wonderful dinner at Beaches and Cream. It made me smile just reading about it.

 

[Figaro Family]

What a wonderful dinner at Beaches and Cream. It made me smile just reading about it.

If I had to rank all of our dinners for the trip in order of most to least pure fun, this one would be the winner for sure!

 

[Figaro Family]

It was a good thing we'd been able to change our Beaches & Cream ADR to 5:30 from our original 6:45 time. By the time we got to the International Gateway it was already 7:15. This was the night we were most annoyed with the early park closing time of 9pm. It's kind of ridiculous in the summertime. The weather was so perfect on this evening, we could easily have stayed past 10 if we were able to. With only an hour and 45 minutes we decided to go on a speed tour of the countries starting with Canada and work our way around until we reached China since we'd already gotten a decent look at China, Mexico, and Norway.
This was our one chance to take advantage of the short walk to Epcot from the Beach Club.

We've decided that the next time we go to WDW we need to plan for at least two days that we can go this way. It was really cool!
We speed walked to the left and soon reached Canada.

The two places in Canada that I have visited are Prince Edward Island (1996&2008, I'm a huge Anne of Green Gables fan) and Victoria, BC (1993&2016). Canada is so huge but I just stick to the little islands on either end. Victoria is only a six hour drive and a ferry ride north of us and we took Maddie on a spring break trip there in 2016 while Grammy watched Xander for us. It's really cool that the Canada pavilion at Epcot is modeled after Victoria.

 

[Figaro Family]

Just for a little contrast,
Here are some pics from the real Victoria and Butchart Gardens!

 

[Figaro Family]

One last look at Epcot Canada, then we headed next door to England. We'd been to the Rose&Crown but hadn't had a chance to explore anything else!
We lured the kids into a phone booth.

James and I went on a trip to England in 2014 to celebrate being together for 20 years! Here is a photo of a bunch of old phone booths in the middle of London.

They were all over the place like no one knows what to do with them now that they're not being used anymore. In some of the smaller towns, we'd see them stacked up in places.
Here is my favorite photo of us in England.

Can't wait to get back there with Maddie next summer!

Here we are back in pretend London.
We checked out a few shops. We went into one that said it was a toy store but sadly it only had a few stuffed animals. Xander chilled in this chair for a little bit.

In one store we were excited to find some Doctor Who stuff.

We are such big Doctor Who nerds that we went on a train all the way to Cardiff Wales on our 2014 trip just to go to the Doctor Who museum.

 

[Figaro Family]

Since we were running short on time and Maddie was fixated on exploring Japan, we skimmed by France and Morocco. Though I remember that we stopped for a couple of minutes in Morocco to listen to some live music. Maddie did a report on Japan in school a couple years ago and it is on her wish list to visit for real someday.

I took these pictures of Maddie in Japan then we entered the Mitsukoshi Department Store. We didn't buy anything there but this ended up being the biggest hit of the trip as far as stores go, for both of the kids! Xander hates shopping and normally the only way we can get him to do more than a quick walk through of a store is to have him in the stroller. We walked him into the Japanese department store and he was like a totally different kid! I think we spent thirty minutes in there while the kids were enchanted by the Pokemon displays.

Xander loved this Pikachu that talks and has light up cheeks. We found one on Amazon and Maddie is going to give it to Xander for his Birthday! Maddie found a Pokemon book set that is now on her Christmas list.

Xander got excited when he found a small display of Super Mario things and studied this hat with all the characters for awhile.
Finally we dragged the kids out as the sun was setting.

One last picture of Maddie in Japan.

 

[*Flynnderella*]

The two places in Canada that I have visited are Prince Edward Island (1996&2008, I'm a huge Anne of Green Gables fan) and Victoria, BC (1993&2016).

I thought me and my sister were the only two people in the world who liked Anne Of Green Gables!!! We won the full box set YEARS ago in a competition in our local newspaper!! Good to know there are other fans. Gilbert Blythe is husband goals I hope to get to visit Canada one day!
Loving your report so far!!

edit: I apologise... I haven’t a clue what I’ve done with the quoting thing on here it doesn’t look correct but I can’t work out how to do it

 

[Figaro Family]

We stopped by the American pavilion next, I was hoping to catch the American Adventure show because if I'd seen it before it was probably back in 1989. Unfortunately though there was one last show starting in 10 minutes, if we'd stayed to watch we couldn't have done anything else in Epcot before park closing. I decided that continuing on our relaxing world tour was worth missing out on the show.
Next up was Italy!

I liked seeing it in the almost dark. During the day the buildings look too bright and new. Italy is where James and I met in 1994 on a school sponsored theater club trip when our two schools were put together. He claims that he first tried to flirt with me the day we were touring Venice but I didn't notice him. He tried again over the next few days and the rest is history.
So of course I needed to get pictures of us together in Venice!

I forgot to take an "Italians only" picture of James and the kids here to go with the Norwegians only picture from earlier in the trip.
Our final stop in the showcase was Germany.

Got to love the model train village.

I did get a picture of my part German children in the courtyard of Germany. I remembered while we were here that my family had eaten at the Biergarten way back in 1989. Our last name was a weird German one that no one can ever pronounce right when they read it. I was always embarrassed on the first day of school when the teacher would mispronounce my name and everyone would giggle. My dad wrote down our last name on the waitlist at Biergarten (that's how they did it in the olden days) and we were delighted when the German waitress called out our name correctly!
When we were done exploring Germany there were only a few minutes left until Illuminations was going to start. Even though we'd had to be fast, we were pretty satisfied with our evening in the World Showcase. Xander had been a very good sport, everyone was in a great mood, and the weather had been perfect! We decided to start walking back to the International Gateway.

Goodbye Epcot!

 

[Figaro Family]

I thought me and my sister were the only two people in the world who liked Anne Of Green Gables!!! We won the full box set YEARS ago in a competition in our local newspaper!! Good to know there are other fans. Gilbert Blythe is husband goals I hope to get to visit Canada one day!
Loving your report so far!!

edit: I apologise... I haven’t a clue what I’ve done with the quoting thing on here it doesn’t look correct but I can’t work out how to do it

Specifically Gilbert from the 80's mini series right? I have read every L.M. Montgomery book there is and I collect first editions! Obviously the red hair is what drew me in the first place but the stories are what made me a super fan.

 

[Figaro Family]

On our way out the International Gateway we stopped through the gift shop there and I finally found a shirt that I wanted for myself! Unfortunately they didn't have my size. A cast member there was able to look up what shops at AK and MK had the shirt but not if they had the right size in stock. I took this photo to remind myself what it looked like and vowed to track it down the next day.

The boardwalk looks so pretty lit up at night. I took this picture that doesn't do it justice.

And one of the Beach Club.
I discovered the only downside of the evening when we got back to our room and I was able to examine my ankles in the light.
Earlier while we'd been walking around the World Showcase, I kept having these prickling sensations on my ankles like I was getting bit by something and they would start itching occasionally. I was sure our luck not getting bit by anything during the trip so far was over. I'd brought along a lot of bug spray but we hadn't used it since the first day and hadn't had a problem. "Darn it, I think I'm getting bit all over my ankles! Are you guys getting bites too?" I'd asked James and Maddie earlier. They both said no and Xander wasn't acting bothered by anything. I kept bringing it up throughout the evening as my ankles continued to itch. "Nope, just you" said James.
I could hardly stand it anymore by the time we got to our room. I discovered that rather than bug bites I had a 2-3 inch rash surrounding my right ankle like a cuff and a patchy rash on my left ankle too. It was really gross, I took pictures so I could compare the next day if it was better or worse but I will not subject anyone to that here. Luckily I'd brought benadryl cream along so I could cover my ankles with that. James ran out to the gift shop and found some benadryl I could take to get to sleep. It was really itchy and uncomfortable by then.
I still have no idea where the rash came from. It got better over the next few days then flared up again briefly after we got home.
With that bit of excitement we ended day 8 of the vacation!

 

[Figaro Family]

Monday August 28
Animal Kingdom Day!

We got up and going early again this morning with the goal of getting into AK by the 8am early entry time. We came really close, the time stamp on my entering AK photos says it was 8:08am.
James requested the Minnie Van on his app as we were heading out of the room toward the lobby.

We took this screenshot while we were watching the Minnie Van's progress.

A couple pictures while waiting, and then the Minnie Van arrived!

Xander was slow to warm up to the Minnie Van. He kept asking for "vacation car" and fussing. We had to keep repeating that the vacation car was "all done". James had to hold onto Xander's hands during the Minnie Van rides because we kept forgetting to bring along our buckle guard. Xander kept trying to unbuckle and open the door, especially on this first ride. By the return drive and especially the next day he "reset" and decided the Minnie Van was totally cool. So cool in fact that he threw a little fit about getting on the Magical Express to the airport and kept begging for "Minnie Van!"
It was a little difficult to load up the giant stroller since the back of the Minnie Vans are full with two car seats that they keep in case of small kids. James and the first driver came up with a method that worked and James was able to pass that on to the next three drivers we had. We loved the Minnie Van experience! The drivers were all very professional and nice to talk to. They were very enthusiastic about the program and talked about all the training they'd had leading up to the launch and how fun it was on the first day the Minnie Vans were on the road with people pointing to them in excitement. I'd highly recommend the Minnie Vans to anyone to try at least once. The driver had a special place to park at AK near the bus area and let us through a normally restricted gate to get to the area where people were unloading from the buses. We were told to meet our driver for the return home at the same spot.

A view of the back of Maddie's new shirt.
The first thing we need to do of course was a family photo in front of the Tree.

This was the best shot on our phone and the Photo Pass pictures of just us and the tree weren't great. But then the photographer handed us the Zebra Stripe frame and we struck gold!

I cracked up so much when I looked up our pictures after the trip and saw Xander peeking over the tree. I do need to crop those two guys out in the back though.
James is debuting his awesome new Sam Eagle T. He got a lot of compliments on it that day and ran into at least one other guy wearing one. They pointed at each other and called out "Like your shirt!"

 

[PacNWTigger]

That pic at AK is precious!!

 

[krisri18]

On our way out the International Gateway we stopped through the gift shop there and I finally found a shirt that I wanted for myself! Unfortunately they didn't have my size. A cast member there was able to look up what shops at AK and MK had the shirt but not if they had the right size in stock. I took this photo to remind myself what it looked like and vowed to track it down the next day.
View attachment 238676 View attachment 238677 The boardwalk looks so pretty lit up at night. I took this picture that doesn't do it justice.
View attachment 238678 And one of the Beach Club.
I discovered the only downside of the evening when we got back to our room and I was able to examine my ankles in the light.
Earlier while we'd been walking around the World Showcase, I kept having these prickling sensations on my ankles like I was getting bit by something and they would start itching occasionally. I was sure our luck not getting bit by anything during the trip so far was over. I'd brought along a lot of bug spray but we hadn't used it since the first day and hadn't had a problem. "Darn it, I think I'm getting bit all over my ankles! Are you guys getting bites too?" I'd asked James and Maddie earlier. They both said no and Xander wasn't acting bothered by anything. I kept bringing it up throughout the evening as my ankles continued to itch. "Nope, just you" said James.
I could hardly stand it anymore by the time we got to our room. I discovered that rather than bug bites I had a 2-3 inch rash surrounding my right ankle like a cuff and a patchy rash on my left ankle too. It was really gross, I took pictures so I could compare the next day if it was better or worse but I will not subject anyone to that here. Luckily I'd brought benadryl cream along so I could cover my ankles with that. James ran out to the gift shop and found some benadryl I could take to get to sleep. It was really itchy and uncomfortable by then.
I still have no idea where the rash came from. It got better over the next few days then flared up again briefly after we got home.
With that bit of excitement we ended day 8 of the vacation!

That's the Disney rash! Hot temps + humidity + extensive walking + sensitive skin= Disney rash. Itches like crazy, doesnt go away until you've been home for a week. I got it in August (and I was the only one) in the middle of our 16 day trip. I feel your pain!

 

[krisri18]

The first thing we need to do of course was a family photo in front of the Tree.
View attachment 238706

Love your dress, I've got the same one!

 

[rshell68]

I finally found a shirt that I wanted for myself!

My daughter always finds shirts she wants but they never have her size either...she asked me to just make her one instead LOL

 

[Figaro Family]

That pic at AK is precious!!

It's definitely a contender for this years Christmas card!

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

That is nice to know that the Minnie Vans have car seats. I think the vans would actually end up being cheaper than Uber if you need car seats because the Ubers with car seats are somewhat spendy.