Trip January 8-18, 2007

Ok. I'm going to try to post my first trip report with pictures if possible.
We got in on the 8th & it was pretty warm. Magical Express was great & we made it to the Beach Club. We had planned on having a quick counter service at Hurricane Hanna's but they were closed that day due to a fire, so we just hopped a bus to magic kingdom to start the afternoon there. We had a quick meal at Cosmic Ray's & then rode a few rides. We had dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern. It was really good. The kids were pretty excited. Oh, I should tell you who is on the trip. Myself & husband- kids 12,6,4,2 and my husband's mom and husband. Ok, then after dinner we went out to wait for Spectromagic. It is my daughter's favorite parade & a great way to get us ready for the magic of our trip. Here are some random photos from the first day.

 

[mouselvrmom]

On to day two! We had early reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table so we were able to get into the park to take some castle pictures before it got crowded.

The breakfast was great. My daughter was so excited to tell Snow White that she was her favorite princess.



After breakfast, we headed to fantasyland to get those rides out of the way early. The kids saw Mary Poppins & her penguins riding the carousel.






We were happy to see the monsters inc show while they were testing it. We thought it was funny. Another funny thing about today, we had never been on the tomorrowland transitway authority before & the kids thought it was the neatest thing. We also met a great castmember named Linda by btmrr. She gave our little one a certificate for splash mountain when she gets big enough & gave us a few baby swaps for btmrr. We love you Linda! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from today.








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[mouselvrmom]

Here are a few more of my favorite pictures from day two!

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Nice pics

 

[mouselvrmom]

Our third day was at animal kingdom. We did the safari right away & spent some time looking around. We had lunch at the tusker house which was fabulous! My oldest didn't want to do Everest today so we saved it for our next day there & headed out to see the Nemo musical. It was great! However, my family chose to sit in the very front row. I tried to warn them, but they wouldn't listen. It was mildly annoying having to crane your neck. They admitted that next time we should sit further back.
Oh, they still had some Christmas decorations up.

We had to leave to get to Epcot for our Restaurant Marrakesh reservations. We had never eaten there & really loved it. My husband loved the belly dancer. She was very nice & pulled my daughter up on stage to dance with her. Now she has had 7 years of competitive dance, but just stood there embarrassed. Made me wonder why I spend all of that money.



After dinner, we got on Nemo, Turtle Talk, and Soarin' with no wait. Yay! Then we were pretty tired & headed home to rest.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Here are some shots I took the next morning around the Beach Club.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Day four was at the Studios& we made it our character bonanza morning. We tried to see as many characters as possible.

We rode the Great Movie Ride, had some lunch, rode Tower of Terror a couple of times.


We saw Beauty & the Beast which everyone loved. Dinner was at my favorite, the 50's Prime Time Cafe.

We rode Star Tours. It was my first time. The kids usually ride with Daddy. I was afraid I might get motion sickness, but it wasn't that bad. We stayed for Fantasmic which was great as usual. Then, we called it a night.
These are a few pictures of the room that I took that night while it was still relatively clean.

 

[s2jrston]

Very nicely done! Maybe this format, with small thumbnails, could be adopted as a standard trip report format for future posts?

 

[mouselvrmom]

Thanks, it's just that I'm slightly computer illiterate, and I really don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how people get their pictures bigger, when I tried I just got a link to my picture. But I'm simply proud that I got pictures on at all.:lol:

 

[maggiegrace1]

Great report..You have a beautiful family..

 

[mouselvrmom]

Great report..You have a beautiful family..

Thank you! That's nice of you to say.

 

[mouselvrmom]

On day five, we got to the MK early enough to see the good morning show. This is my two year olds favorite. She always wants to watch it on the DVD.







We knew today would be a short day at the parks because the kids really wanted to try out Stormalong Bay. So we rode a few rides, saw a few characters & then did lunch at the Crystal Palace. Always a favorite. Unfortunately, my two year old slept through most of it.
Then we headed back to the Beach Club. Here is a view of our room.



The kids couln't wait for the pool. They loved the sand. My two year old found a shovel & pail and just say and scooped. She said she was making a castle. Me & my hubby enjoyed some refreshments. We had pina coladas & mango margaritas. MMMM


After the pool, we headed to Mexico for some dinner. Yum.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Day six was a full day at epcot. Right away we saw some characters. Then we had to go on Spaceship Earth. My hubby doesn't like it, but it's a classic & I insisted.


Then we did the seas with nemo and the land pavilion. We had lunch at the land. After lunch, we wqanted to do the visa character meet before we went through the world showcase. It was well worth it. Minnie and Goofy really played with the kids. I even got proposed to by Goofy. He thought i should get rid of the Bozo I was with.




We walked around World Showcase enjoying ourselves. There were a ton of characters by the America pavilion. There must have been at least a dozen all in a row. The couintry bears, sheriff nottingham, smee, perla, pluto, donald, goofy, minnie, mickey and no lines.



We had dinner at Canada. Very delicious! I had the filet mignon & cream cheese mashed potatoes. I'm salivating just thinking about it!




It was a great day. Epcot did seem really crowded to me, but that could have been because it was martin luther king weekend.

 

[maggiegrace1]

Loving it all..

 

[mouselvrmom]

Day seven started ouit drizzly. We were wet anyway, so we swam at the quiet pool a little. The front desk told had told us Stormalong Bay was open early, but when we walked all the way down there we found it to be closed. So quiet pool it was.


It cleared up just in time for us to head to the magic kingdom. Look who was there to greet us.


This was a good day to get some odds & ends done. We saw Dream Along with Mickey. Great show! We also saw the parade. My kids just love parades. Bella stood the whole time just hopping around.



We got silly in toon town.


I just really like this spot.




Dinner was at Tony's Town Square. It was ok. Nothing really special, but I would try it again.


The best part of the day was that my hubby and I got a little date time. It was evening emh and the park was open until 1am. So after dinner we took the kids back and put them to bed. Grandpa and Grandma were staying with them. Then we went back and had fun all by ourselves. At first it was really still packed, but by midnight, most things were a walk on. It was so nice!


I guess we just let the good time go to our heads & had to be restrained.

 

[PSU_Princess]

Great report! I love looking at all the pics!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Our eighth day was hot! It was in the low 80's and sunny. Which we really didn't expect in January. We went to animal kingdomk and it was PACKED! We came in early and rode EE a few times, then we headed to breakfast with Donald. We got the waitress to trick Grandma with the ketchup and her reaction was priceless.



We were glad we rode EE when we did because when we went by after breakfast the wait was almost 2 hours and fast passes were sold out by the afternoon.
We had a good time looking around, riding Kali River Rapids & seeing It's Tough to be a Bug.


The kids really enjoyed digging around in the boneyard.





I did make the family go out to Rafiki's Planet Watch again to see Jiminy.



Then we decided to head back & spend some time in the quiet pool.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Our ninth day we decided to split between epcot & the studios. Epcot had am emh so we figured we could get a couple rides on TT before we had breakfast at Akershus. I made the kids take a picture, then I caught Lexy, my 12 year old, frantic over her hair. Test Track messed it up and she was horrified.


Breakfast was great. The princesses really took time to talk to the kids. But apparantly I can't bring them out in public.


On our way back around, we rode test track again, which is my sons's new favorite. Then my two year old wanted to stop for a picture in Mexico. I don't know why. It must be all that training she's gotten.


Then I did make them take a picture in the phone booth. "Mom, it's HOT in here!"


We took the boat over to the studios & tried to see everything that we had missed on our last day there. We did see the cars characters again because my son wanted to try to take a picture by himself with lightning. I must say that I don't like how that meet is set up. The cars drive up and everyone just runs to see them. It is crazy. I would rather wait in line for my family to see them alone than try to wait for a break in the action to try to squeeze in. Just my opinion.


The kids really enjoyed the I shrunk the kids play area. I don't think it was there on our last trip.


We also managed to see the parade. It is one of my favorites. I love the cars!


My kids want to be part of the incredible family.


We also saw Voyage of the Little Mermaid & Playhouse Disney. By dinner time the park was dead. Everyone must be lining up for Fantasmic which we had already seen. We had the Commisary to ourselves for dinner, then a nice walk out.

 

[mouselvrmom]

Our tenth day was our last day at the parks. We got up early & headed to the buses. I really loved the flowers that the Beach Club has out in front.



We took the monorail to the Grand Floridian to have a Supercalafragalistic breakfast. Yummy!



We spent our last day at the Magic Kingdom. It was the kind of day we had expected for our entire trip. The weather was cooler and the park was not crowded at all. It was the only day we could really say that. Almost everything was a walk on. It was great! We got multiple rides on all of our favorites. Then, towards the end of our day, it finally happened.
One of my twelve year olds favorite rides is Space Mountain. After dinner, we decided that we would go see what the wait time was on it. My hubby took the other kids and said that he would ride the tea cups. We had been waiting for the queen of hearts to come back out since we had not seen her yet, but it was 5 past the hour so we figured she would not be back out. Lexy & I headed to space mountain.


Of course, as soon as we walked away, she showed up. My hubby tried to call me numerous times on my cell, but it was in my purse & I didn't hear it. So we rode space mountain twice oblivious to what they were doing. He ran out and bought a disposable so the other kids could see the queen & was congratulating himself on his quick thinking. While they waited for us, they rode the tea cups. He got a tap on the shoulder and was pulled aside by a member of the dream squad and told that it was their unbirthday. Everyone sang to them & they got a magical moment certificate with an autographed photo of Alice & the Mad Hatter. The kids were ecstatic. As we started back to them, I had a feeling & pulled out my cell phone to see that I had a bunch of missed calls. When I got there, I said we missed the queen huh? And he said yep & you missed the dream squad! What! I couldn't believe that the one time I left, we got a magical moment. He kept teasing me the rest of the night, saying that I missed it. But I was really happy that the kids got to experience it. They weren't really aware of the dreams celebration because I didn't want them to be disappointed if they didn't get anything, so it was really special for them.
What a great day!

 

[mouselvrmom]

Well, it's time to go home. We are all sad to be leaving. We had breakfast at the Cape May Cafe for one last character interaction before boarding the magical express bus. It was fantastic! Good food, excellent service & the characters were great! They came around numerous times & Goofy had a long conversation with me via the tablecloth. He wrote how sad it was that we were leaving & what a bummer it was to go home to snow.But he said that we should come back and see him again. I think we just might.



One last note about my independent two year old. She is a sweetheart but can drive you crazy at times. My other kids would never dream of carrying their own bags & were kind of lazy on the trip. But Bella both on the way to and from our trip insisted on carrying her own bag & would get mad if we tried to help her on the monorail or anything. I had to take a picture of her wheeling along like a frequent flyer or something.


Well, that's it, thanks for reading my very long report!