Trip Report The mistakes that I learned from..Trip back in time..

Friends, I've been thinking,

I need a major distraction, and also, I received too many compliments for my laid back style..
I'm going to continue on the trip report binge and do a comparison of our 2015 trip here. It won't be as long.. I promise. If you want to follow along with my madness, you are welcome. I've had a rough past few days and need something to keep me busy.

So here it goes.. first I should change the title though..
ETA- actually its easier to do in a separate thread.

So here I am....

 

[21stamps]

Oh. This is the Mercantile. Trail's End is not over there. You would have needed to make a right turn out of there and just driven straight ahead and pulled through onto the golf cart road. The regular road for cars ends at a T stop there where you can only make a left or right if you are in a car. With a cart ir bike or if you walk, you can go straight through to The Settlement area.

Ok, good to know. Thanks!!

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

I was not a fan of OKW. Stayed there once years ago. I just felt like I was too far from everything.. and we drove!!.. I also just felt it was too similar to something non Disney. I remember enjoying the bar there though.

It was definitely far which is why we won't go back. The villas were huge though! DVC HHI has the same room layouts. We have tons of room to spread out. Works great there since we can run back and forth only to a pool or to activitiies. At WDW OKW is just inconvenient.

 

[DryerLintFan]

Yes. We always drive down so what is great is we park our car right next to the cabin. We also rent a golf cart so we use that to drive around the resort and use it to go to the watercraft. Since my oldest is old enough to babysit my dh and I will take mini jaunts to pick up pizza at the take out area of Trail's End to bring back or go to the Mercantile to pick up souvenirs.

We did the campfire once but found it too chaotic the night we went so only did it once.

Lol I read this and thought, "wow, how old do you need to be to babysit a dh?!"

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

It was definitely far which is why we won't go back. The villas were huge though! DVC HHI has the same room layouts. We have tons of room to spread out. Works great there since we can run back and forth only to a pool or to activitiies. At WDW OKW is just inconvenient.

Lol I read this and thought, "wow, how old do you need to be to babysit a dh?!"

Guess I need a comma there! Fixed it!

 

[21stamps]

I'm going to try and speed this up.. there are too many other Trip Reports and Pre Trip reports that I want to read!!

So, for this day I'm only going to bombard you with photos from one meal.. I've posted enough of MK...and apparently they're all deleted anyway.
Here's our first time ever at Ohana breakfast. It was our favorite dining experience of the trip!!!
As you know, Stitch is T's favorite character!

Waiting to be seated..

We didn't have Stitch Waffles that time.

Waiting impatiently to meet the characters

Mickey!!!

Pluto!!

LILO!!!!

STITCH!!!

And a Congo line..

 

[21stamps]

During this time my absolute favorite and most heartwarming moment happened-

LILO hugged T's stuffed Stitch, then handed the doll back to him.

This was his reaction to that--
(Thanks photopass for catching it!!!)

He was SO EXCITED. He said in a quiet voice- "Mommy, LILO liked my Stitch, and she hugged him. That is pretty awesome, right? I love Disney World."

I will never forget that moment.

Side note- 1.5 years later and I have still never placed photos in his autograph book. Maybe I should do that sometime soon.


We took some lobby photos, and then headed to the park. Just rinse and repeat my day 1 at MK, running from one side of the park to the other and back again, kiosk after kiosk.

I have probably thanked my friend C about 500 times for giving that Stitch to T. My annoyance of dolls and rule against getting one, would have made so many moments not even possible.
Thankfully my friend was smarter than me. Lucky for my son, and myself.
It taught me a lesson.

 

[DryerLintFan]

During this time my absolute favorite and most heartwarming moment happened-

LILO hugged T's stuffed Stitch, then handed the doll back to him.

This was his reaction to that--
(Thanks photopass for catching it!!!)
View attachment 195384

He was SO EXCITED. He said in a quiet voice- "Mommy, LILO liked my Stitch, and she hugged him. That is pretty awesome, right? I love Disney World."

I will never forget that moment.

Side note- 1.5 years later and I have still never placed photos in his autograph book. Maybe I should do that sometime soon.

That's it, stop going through pictures... that's the best one!! Nothing can top it!

 

[21stamps]

That's it, stop going through pictures... that's the best one!! Nothing can top it!

I know right?!!! I LOVE it. He thinks I'm so corny, but if any photo of Disney World in '15 or '16 that is my absolute fave. I don't think it will ever be topped.

 

[21stamps]

Animal Kingdom.

This was another EXTREMELY HOT day.
However, the park was not crowded at all!!

We did all of the rides, didn't make it to any shows, didn't make it to Rafiki's Planet Watch. But- we didn't Exepedition Everest 4 times- thanks to the my insistence on running to FP kiosks constantly.. and as a result, we also did Kali River Rapids twice.

T was mesmerized by the Tree Lady. We searched for her in '16 but were unable to find her again

He looks a little nervous in this photo..

We got SOAKED!!

 

[21stamps]

We did have the stroller in AK, and again left it far away from where we were. And again T complained about it.

But, overall he enjoyed it, we both did.
We just ran, A Lot.

At some points, when I finally allowed him to use the stroller, he refused to get out. A great Photo Pass guy helped coax him out of it to take a photo on the bridge-
He was by far the most personable photog of the day.

In comparison, we waited in line for about 20 minutes to get a photo in front of the Tree of Life. Walked up and was told "Here hold this" in brisk voice.

We took this one-

...and then the Photog said she couldn't take another. Was overheating and needed a break. Understandable, but no photo in front with Tree in the background for me .

Here's a few other random photos..

 

[21stamps]

We did the Safari ride.. walked around.. T was starting to complain about the heat again.. the stroller was over by Dinosaur, so, I called to move our dinner reservation up. Yay! We were able to!

Unfortunately, my limited stroller use rule backfired again, and we didn't make it til park closing.

 

[21stamps]

Tusker House-

The food was great, but the place was a zoo. I don't know if I'll do this one again. I had planned it for '16, but ended up canceling it during the trip.

We were both tired and clothes wet with sweat, so on T's request we called it a day and went back to the hotel.

 

[amjt660]

We did have the stroller in AK, and again left it far away from where we were. And again T complained about it.


View attachment 195403 View attachment 195404
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Yo, the Dino is on your left!!!!!

Max

 

[21stamps]

Yo, the Dino is on your left!!!!!

Max

Ha ha ha!! I know!! I totally missed it!!

 

[21stamps]

Because I added an unplanned resort day, it pushed off our HS day. Luckily I was able to redo our FPs for another day..

But, I needed lodging.
"Sorry, we're sold out."

"Wait, what? I only need 1 more night, there's no rooms available?"

"We have one Bungalow available for tomorrow night. Would you like the price?"

"Ummm.. no thanks."

Spent an hour on the phone with reservations.. finally decided to switch to POFQ, I wanted to do Disney Springs anyway, so this was perfect.

Leaving Poly in the morning..

T wanted Stitch to have a Goodbye photo.

Someone's not a happy camper.

 

[21stamps]

Hollywood Studios!!

T was completely excited to do Jedi Training Academy!!
His friends and cousins have talked about it, and now it was his chance!!!

BUT- of course we didn't make it to the park in time.

Major Fail on my part. The line had just been closed off when we arrived.
T looked at me in horror and shock and disbelief. Tears welled up in his eyes, and I could see so much disappointment in his face.

My heart hurt. I felt horrible, just horrible.

I reminded him that this was going to be an "Awesome Day! and he was getting a light saber! Let's go have fun! We can do Jedi Training the next time we're here!"

"Fine."

And off we went.

If you're wondering why most of my body is outside of the frame.. it's because my son didn't want me in the photo at all. Then he agreed, as long as I gave Stitch enough room.lol

 

[21stamps]

We went to get the stroller..
HS is a small park.. the kid is 5, I shouldn't even have rented it.
"T, you don't need it. Let's leave it parked here. If you need it tonight then we'll get it."

"Fine. But can we not hurry as much today?"

"Sure." (Yeah right)

I was trying to be sly about checking the app constantly... I needed it more than any other park. I hadn't been to HS I'd probably 10 years or more. My dazed and confused look was back in a few of these photos.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

At some points, when I finally allowed him to use the stroller, he refused to get out

He was probably afraid you would never let him sit in it again.

 

[21stamps]

He was probably afraid you would never let him sit in it again.

Ha ha. Probably

 

[21stamps]

We did the Hollywood and Vine F! Package.

I didn't realize that I could use a dining credit on this.. so, I paid out of pocket.
I found out within a week after we returned that I made a mistake.
Annoying mistake. Another live and learn scenario added to the trip.

T was literally just getting out of the Disney Jr phase. He enjoyed it, but if it had been 1 year earlier it would have been even better.
Jake was T's favorite character for about 2 years.

Remember how excited I was in 2016 when he danced with the AK dancers?

It's because of situations like the one below..

I KNOW that he wanted to join in the fun!! But he refused!! It makes me so sad.
He just watched.

Finally agreed to join a Congo Line. IF I came with him.

Then we had dessert..

He watched while the characters sang "Hot Dog" Refusing to go down and join them once again, even though he clearly wanted to, and I did hear him sing the song quietly to himself.

His shyness has me so perplexed at times.