Trip Report The "So Surreal" trip report

That's probably the best word I've got for this, our first ever Disney trip, and our first major family vacation. That and the pictures that I've seen on the internet just don't do everything justice.
We took a ton of photos, but I'll only post the cool ones and some neat highlights.
We started on Tuesday 7/8 and finished today 7/12. Sometimes we had some incredible luck, other times not so much. Some stuff just blew us away, other stuff was kind of a let down (I'm looking at you, Pirates).
Over all we had a blast, even though I spent a lot of my time repeating myself. We managed to hit all the parks, the two water parks, and Downtown Disney (Disney Quest). We were able to do quite a few highlights and everyone got to do "that one thing" they really wanted to do.
The only thing we didn't hit was 7DMT, because we sacrificed that in order to hit up Epcot yesterday.
We stayed at Art of Animation in the Finding Nemo suites, which was pretty cool. The kids dug that Murphy bed.

There's are four goober kids. In order: H, S, J, and V. V is mine, the other three are my boyfriends. The kids are actually fairly closeish because we've been dating/living together for a few years now.


From there we went to Hollywood Studios, where we hit up ToT, Toy Story Mania, and Star Tours.
Big thing on boyfriends list was a picture with mouseear hats. So we do that right away.

He made us wear the hats backwards because he remembers the name on the front. I don't remember the name being on the front.
Problem is, we apparently forgot that maps existed. Yeah. So after that we find someplace to eat so that we don't kill each other. We find a map (one of the big ones that's near Starring Rolls Cafe), and settle on Rosie's all American Cafe/ Catalina Eddies (on the Quick Service Dining Plan, which I actually found to be a good value to us, mainly for the convenience factor). Everyone liked their food, and it was very filling. The desserts were pretty awesome. I think the only poor meal that I, personally, had was at the Starlight Cafe in Tomorrowland (the grilled chicken sandwich was a little dry for me). So we ate, found a paper map and all was well.
We cruised by the hat, where there was a little skit with Olaf and snow. The girls liked it.
Then.. Tower of Terror. Now I thought I was prepared for this one, because you know, it just drops. But neither BF nor I were prepared for our sizable butts to physically lift off the seat. It was pretty nuts. He didn't care for it at all.


Toy Story was pretty neat, I don't think it would have been worth a 70+ minute wait though. The kids really liked it.
Muppets 4d was better than I expected. I actually kinda liked it.
Star Tours was cool, but the story we got this time was kinda lame, we did pod racing and something with Gungans. (I went back to Hollywood studios later with just the girls and we got a much cooler one). BF really liked that area. He totally geeked out over it. Two of the kids did the build your own light saber, which was pretty cool.
Some pics-

Then we bailed for ADRs at Beaches & Cream, which I was left pretty underwhelmed with. We got there pretty early and got seated well after our reservation start time. Like, we waited so long we would have been totally justified in bailing. Any other place we probably would have, but I was afraid of getting charged $60. You know?
sooowe got the kitchen sink..

And we (the kids) ate most of it. BF is lactose, so he passed except on some cherries. H made himself ill so he ended up making his way back to AoA after this.
If we do this again, we'll probably pass on this. I just don't think it lives up to the hype. It's part of what made the whole day surreal. Just so bizarre.
After that we went to MK, saw Celebrate the Magic and Wishes, both of which are just amazing in person. It was a little drizzly, but not too bad. There were people wandering around with large umbrellas open trapping the heat in. That was kinda annoying. There was a bunch of people that just flat out didn't listen to the CMs directing foot traffic. They would just stop their stroller in the middle of the walkway.
After that we dodged through the crowd and walked on Haunted Mansion, Splash Mtn, BTM, Jungle Cruise, and Pirates. Pirates was a big let down compared the DL version. I knew it was shorter, I just didn't realize -that- much was left out. It was pretty lame. Then all the boats jammed up at the end. That sucked. The boats hung up on Splash Mtn too.
Next time we're out in CA we'll have to make a special trip to Disney out there to scope out the differences.
So that was Day 1, which was pretty hardcore. The kids were exhausted, but they all had a pretty good time.
Now I'm off to my bed, and I'll finish this tomorrow.
ETA: here's my thread about my lost luggage (should get here by mid morning) and cell phone- http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/anyone-at-wilderness-lodge-right-now.886731/

 

[Violiav]

I just want to add the my daughter really liked the giant hat, because "it's Merlin's hat from Fantasia and Merlin is the best wizard ever." I have no idea if it's Merlin's hat.
So on with our trip.
7/9
We started out the day at with breakfast at AoA, then headed to Blizzard Beach. Made it on the bus, which was standing room only, with most people going to Animal Kingdom.

But hey, we were first off the bus. Got to BB just before rope drop.

Everyone looked at the map for a bit before pretty much scattering.
We all headed up to the tippy top.

V, J and H headed straight for Summit Plummit.

BF, S, and I went down Slush Gusher.
It was terrifying. I'm pretty sure the whole park heard my cussing. Air time on rides just freaks me out.
We met up at the bottom just in time to see V go down the Summit. She really loved it.

We hiked up to Teamboat Springs, which was pretty wild.

The raft fit all six of us, so that's why we made a point to do this one.
After that BF and I retired to the lazy river for a bit while the kids explored the water park.

Lazy river, yay! No stairs! And yes, the camera is water proof. We also picked up some cheap waterproof watches from Wally World to the kids could keep time with out their cell phones. For just 5 bucks a pop they were a pretty good deal, considering the functioned though two water parks.
After a little bit we braved a couple more sets of stairs for Toboggan Racers and Runoff Rapids.
I sought out a bathroom while BF went to the wave pool.

I think that's one of the ones from the wave pool. That's a weird face he's making though.
More wave pool.

The waterproof camera is pretty neat.
The we all got a super good funnel cake and fried ice cream and headed back to the resort.
BF friend originally wanted to go directly to Animal Kingdom, but I convinced him that was a stupid idea.

The kids snoozed and BF snoozed on the bus.
So BF felt that we always waited too long for the buses, but I don't think we did at all. I don't think we waited more than 10-20 min at all the whole trip. But he's far more impatient than I am.
I'm more willing to keep my wits about me in a line than he is.
S lost his Magic Band, we checked with lost and found on the way out, but no dice. We just got it replaced at the resort when we got back (had no issues with it by the way, actually the only issues with ever had with them was user error, and that was only me and H. I had trouble getting it to work opening the room door the first time (one of the kids hadn't closed the door all the way) and H's somehow glitched up at MK entrance. They said probably because he used the wrong finger. All resolved in less than 30 sec.) Oh, yeah. While I was at lost and found I overheard some angry lady next to me complaining that something had ruined her grandkids vacations. I couldn't tell what though. Maybe they were too short for a slide. Maybe she didn't realize the water park wasn't free.
The weather was beautiful the first half of the day, but it took a turn for the worse when we ventured out to Animal Kingdom. Which we hit harder and faster than we probably should have, as you'll see in part two of day 2.

 

[Violiav]

Ok, Animal Kingdom. By the time we got there it wasn't really raining, but there was a lightening storm nearby so we couldn't really do much. We were all not prepared for how big the park was. Our first FP was for Dinosaur, which we all enjoyed. I'm really into Dinosaurs, so I liked it.

I have no idea why I'm not actually looking at the dinosaur. :/ It kinda reminded me of that old KNotts Berry Farm ride, only more thrilling.
Our goober kids and this Corythosaurus.

S bought the dino hat because he said he was gonna skate in it when we got home. H. is a surly teenager so didn't care to have his photo taken with statues.
After that we poked around Chester and Hesters while things opened up from the storm. I liked it. But then I like cheesy stuff. Whatevs.
Kids went on this ride-

They enjoyed it. While they waited in line BF and I bought them a few pins. The girls got into pin trading right away as a means to kill time at the resort.
After this we headed to Kali River, because that had just opened back up. Apparently everyone else headed there too. The FP return line was pretty long. BF was worried that because it was almost to the cut off time there would be issues, but I told him to just calm down and get in line. He doesn't like lines.
My group didn't have any issues and the line only bottle necked a bit because the mom in the group in front of us had a fit about something. She was waving around paper fastpasses demanding to see a mgr. Like she was blocking me from going, and the CMs were telling her she was holding up the line. So I said, "if your not going to move, then I'm going" and I elbowed past her, scanned my thing no issues. My guess is she came back at the wrong return time. Not sure. Once we got past that lady it moved pretty fast, and didn't really slow till just before the ride.
From what I could till the standby line wasn't really that long, there was just a bunch of people making their FP return time at the same time (because it was shut down for a bit).
The ride itself was fun, BF was a little annoyed about the whole "ride with a message" concept.
We all got wet.

After that we hiked to EE, which was a blast. The kids really enjoyed it. After that we decided to call it a day at AK because boyfriend was soaked and was going to chafe if he walked around much longer in wet shorts.
So we bailed and went back to AoA to dry off. I can really AK being the most detailed of the parks, we just really didn't have the time (or weather) to devote to it. Too bad.
I think it was somewhere in Animal Kingdom that my daughter lost her gift card. More on that later.
Part 3 will be MK and adventures in lost cell phones.

 

[Violiav]

One more post for today. Part 3 of day 2. The Magic Kingdom.
We went back to AoA, cleaned upand made for the Magic Kingdom. We arrived roughly when people were gathering in in Main Street and the hub for the nighttime shows and fireworks.

So we headed for Tomorrow land, which was packed with people. Wow.
We came across the Tea Cups and did those first. All I gotta say is that age has really affected my perception of those. I had to take a moment afterwards and get my bearings back.
There's not very many pics of this evening because the battery was almost dead on the camera.
We ate at Cosmic Rays after my BF almost getting run over at a FP kiosk by a guy with a stroller. There wasn't really anything exciting at the FP kiosk (read that the kids wanted to do) so we decided to just to do standby lines.
We did the Speedway, and I caught a glimpse of Tinkerbell flying down from the castle. I don't care for that ride. But it was neat seeing the fireworks while I was driving on it.
We did standby for Space Mtn, didn't wait too long. We all loved it.

The 6 of us took up a whole ride train.
Then we debated about the next ride for a few minutes. I told them that some folks on the internet don't like it because it's gross. That decided it, my family gets a kick out of gross stuff. It actually didn't seem as bad as you guys make it out to be. It was pretty funny, the only thing is one of the shoulder restraints malfunctioned and a CM had to tweak it.
Then we went on the Buzz ranger ride. That was pretty fun. It was alright. Not really my cup of tea for a ride.

After that we headed to do BTM. It's just so different at night.
On our way we got the obligatory castle pic.

After we got off BTM the kids darted to SM and rode that on their own. BF and I waited for them to come round the falls.

It's kinda dark but you can just make out our weirdo kids.
We caught up them and headed out.
We get to almost the end of main street when J screams that she forgot her phone on Splash.

So we go to guest relations, which is packed. BF takes J to stand in line with her, the boys and V get parked.
V asks if she can got get something to drink, I send her off to a nearby snack cart.
BF comes out and asks me to find out when the buses stop running. He goes back to J.
I wonder what's taking V so long and find her at the cart digging through her purse starting to freak out. She's lost her gift card.
??
So I buy her drink, I don't remember if I room charged it or used a snack credit. I really didn't care at that point. V goes to sit back down. I ask a CM at the exit when the buses stop. "After everyone is out of the park".
So I go back to tell BF this and that V had lost her gift card. We agree for me to go back with the boys and V, while he stays here with J to see if any CMs bring her phone up.
Somewhere in all of this the "Kiss Goodnight" happens.
At this point V thinks she may have left it at the hotel when she rearranged her bag.
We get back, look for it and nothing. I tell everyone to go to clean up and go to bed. I've had it. About 15 min later BF and J show up bedraggled and empty handed. No luck with the phone.
It's after 2am at this point.
Tomorrow (7/10) is Typhoon Lagoon, MK, and HS for me and the girls. So, to be continued.

 

[Disney Shib]

Awesome report. Following along.

 

[Violiav]

So here's a bit of of the great cell phone hunt http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/anyone-at-wilderness-lodge-right-now.886731/
I posted that sometime in the afternoon, but our day started at about 8am.
V remember that her gift card had about $50 left on it, so I dug up the purchase receipt, and headed to the lobby to try and fix things. We went back and forth to the Ink & Paint shop, but eventually discovered that the gift card dept wasn't open till 9am, as was the big lost&found at the TTC.
So off we headed to Typhoon Lagoon.
Overall we weren't too thrilled about TL, the rides were neat, but the lazy river was packed with far too many tubes.
I wasn't feeling too well, so I mostly chilled. The wave pool was cool, but it was almost too much. BF didn't like the lazy river, because the too many tubes just made him angry.
So we headed back to the hotel to change and resolve missing phones and gift cards.

Waiting for the bus. BF does not like waiting. I don't think we waited more that 10-15 the whole trip though. I've seen people wait longer for buses in town.

I got on the phone with gift card services, after much deduction they figured out which card was V's, deactivated it and transferred the balance to one of the other kids cards.
While I was doing the S had the revelation about the Find My iPhone app. J logged into his device (thank goodness hers wasn't dead) and it pin pointed her device in a resort. BF thought it was ours. Then he said "I dunno, are we on Bay Lake?" Me: "No, we're on Hourglass Lake."
They show the map and I draw a blank. The Grand Floridian, maybe? So BF and J head to the front desk, while I take S's gift card to the Ink&Paint shop on a mission to split it back up.
I was successful in my quest, with much help from CM Sonja.
BF discovers that the resort pinpointed on the map in the Wilderness Lodge, who said they didn't have the phone. So our front desk CM told BF to take S's phone to the WL and raise some hell over it. Make them show their lost and found, that type of thing. Please note that the skies looked clear to me at this point. BF heads to WL with J and I take V and the boys to the MK, where we run smack into the start of Festival of Fantasy parade.
The boys press on to HM while V and I grab a spot on the train station balcony.

I thought it was a pretty good vantage point, despite being soaked with sweat.

V enjoyed it, and we got a decent shot of the dragon.

S and H had actually seen the dragon on the way to HM, and S said that it was a bad@ss spiked dragon.
Afterward we dropped into see Aurora, who had no wait.

V's Disneybounding as the Cheshire Cat. We were hoping to get to the MK in time to see Alice, but it didn't work out. First V said "We're all mad here" and Aurora said that sound like something her friend Alice would say. Then V asked Aurora how she was able to get back to her castle in California so fast, and Aurora said well Samson is a very fast horse.
After that we swung by Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom, got some cards, but we didn't get a chance to play any of the games because it dumped buckets later :/.
After this we took a leisurely stroll to HM. When BF has a destination he goes fast and I struggle to keep up. He has a long stride.
The FP return line was long, but it moved quickly. I noticed that most people either show up at the beginning of the hour or the very end.

Meanwhile I'd spied Columbia Harbor House, and decided to eat there for dinner so I texted everyone to meet there at 5ish. I'd gotten a text from BF said they found J's phone. they were actually not too far behind me, because as V and I got into the HM car I got a text saying they'd just gotten into the FP line.
HM stalled out for me in the grave yard scene towards the end, while behind me BF was in the seance. Some asshats started taking flash photography and apparently nearly everyone in the room shouted "No flash photography!" Including J. I was actually a little worried about her taking photos on rides, but she was really respectful of the situation and atmosphere.
I'm at the max uploads for this post so I'll continue the rest of the day tomorrow. After work. Ugg.
BTW, those 5 dollar watches (one of which V is wearing) from Wallyword have held up very well. I just washed one and it still works.

 

[epcotisbest]

Enjoying your trip report. Great pics. Love the personal pics of reactions and facial expressions. It adds to making the story more your own. We too have watched the parade from the train station and it is a good location. Oh, that dragon pic is great. Looking forward to more.

 

[Violiav]

Anyone know where I can get Disney Main Street popcorn? BF didn't put it up properly last night and the dog ate it.
The dogs fine, he'll probably barf later, but BF is inconsolable.

 

[Violiav]

Freaking work has kept me from this, so lets see how far I can get tonight.
I got this pretty good shot of Peter Pan float.

I left off on Thursday, 7/10. V and I had just exited HM. I looked around for BF and J, but they were no where to be seen, and I wasn't able to get an answer on the texts.
The boys were heading to Space Mtn for the FP return time, so V and I headed there. Meanwhile I sent a text out for all of us to meet at Columbia house for dinner.

Yay! Space Mountain!

Space Mountain is just so cool. I did notice that the games were off, even though they'd been on only the night before.
V and I darted out to the gift shop to find the boys and it pouring. Like, buckets. The kids decided they wanted to buy ponchos. I decided to brave the rain. Wet clothes don't bother me, and ponchos wouldn't help with ankle deep water.

Surly teen is surly. He doesn't care for water.
But he likes water parks. Go fig.

We hot footed it over to Columbia Harbor House and had some tasty, tasty food. BF and J were waiting there for us. The bottom floor looked packed, but I remembered tips from the internet and told the boy to head upstairs for seats.
There were a couple food mixups, but there usually are whenever all six of us eat at a place. Any place. Over all the food was really, really food. S's apple cobbler war a little over done, but the others were fine.
Aside from the very first meal at the parks I don't think anyone had any issues cleaning their plates.
After this we split the party, because I'd snagged FPs for the girls at PFH for Ana and Elsa.
The boys headed back to the resort to dry off and check out the arcade.
Sorry in advance about the blurryness. We moved so fast through the place I didn't have much time to focus.

The lighting is also really weird.

This display was pretty neat.

I realized after the fact that there was water on my lens. :/ I may pony up the money to buy the Ana and Elsa Photopass pics for the girls.
So here they are debating with Ana about whether or not they're really sisters. J and V are very clear that they're not even stepsisters. Granted they act very much like sisters. They've known one another since they were 4. So almost 8 years now. Ana handled it pretty well though.
The girls were actually glad that Ana and Elsa weren't in the same spot. Eh, go fig.

See my camera just didn't adjust quick enough. Blurg.
This was the one meet that J had her heart set on (unfortunately we just weren't able to get to Ariel).
After this we hung out in the girl shop for a bit, J convinced me to buy an over priced phone case because she'd forgotten her gift card back in the room. BF later said no-way to that and returned it. J knows I'm a sucker for buying stuff, and BF is more likely to say no.
We wandered around a bit on our way out, found a cool looking gift shop with Aurora's dress.

Found this well.

 

[TeamRodriguez]

Love your report!! We will be at WDW tomorrow!!!

 

[Violiav]

Even though the girls can be royally annoying I prefer wandering around places with them because they're more willing to not go at a fast pace.

Blurry photos. Yay.
Eventually we meandered out to Hollywood Studios where we waited in line for RockNRoller coaster.

The line moved at a decent pace, but it seemed like forever.

While we were waiting ToT opened back up so we headed there right after.

The girls juked their way to the front when they shoved us all into an area so they went through first.
I tried to get a pic as their car took off, but I was too slow.

Ride photos!
There was still time before the fireworks, so we went straight onto Tower of Terror (the app said it was a 70min wait, but it wasn't).
After that we went to Star Wars where we hoped to get a cooler story than the last time

Waiting for Star Tours. It was much cooler, and seemed longer. We went through an asteroid field and the 2nd Death Star.
After that, we headed to the Hat for a little stage show and fireworks.
V was worn out so she didn't want to dart through the crowd with J so she stood off to the side with me.
J LOVED it when Kristoff came out. She shrieked his name like he was some sort of rock star.

After that my camera died, and my phone was dead so no more pics.
V didn't care for Elsa's voice, but J didn't have any complaints.
The fireworks show was pretty awesome. They really liked it. After that we trudged back to AoA and got some food before heading up. Saw BF swimming and he told us he could see the fireworks from there.
After that.. well I had a panic attack because I was trying to over extend myself the next day.
BF and I sat down and cut a couple things (sorry Jedi Training Academy)that would let us visit Epcot.
Unfortunately Friday was BOG lunch day, but it was a much easier trip using the monorail

 

[Violiav]

I've got to some photo moving around, because some of my photos are on my phone.