“They gave us an extra trash basket!” A Surprise Trip 6 day POR. Nov and Dec 2014. Updated 2/8

Good Night Epcot!

We left off just finishing the princess Dinner at Akershus which I was (this is getting to be a trend) way better than I expected! We walked out of Norway and rather than go back to places we skipped by we decided to continue our counter clockwise trip around World Showcase. It was dark by now so all of the Christmas lights were in full effect. Very quickly we were in Mexico!

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Very pretty pavilion at night. I knew the Three Caballeros ride was in the pyramid so we walked in. The kids were really wanting to ride some more rides. I don't know about the food in the restaurant but the setting is VERY cool with the boat ride in the background.
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I really tried to get some photos but my settings were too slow and the lighting to dark. i only got a few snaps that were not blurry.
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The ride was ok. I mean it seemed to me a PSA to travel to Mexico but the kids enjoyed and any excuse to sit down was welcomed! We finished the ride and left Mexico. The boys were BEGGING to do Test Track. So we hatched a plan to go to test track one more time. We headed off in that direction via the walkways around the Odyssey Center.
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Mattie jumped out ahead of us and took off running! She rounded the corner and boom tripped and fell face first on to the pavement! By the time I got to her she already had a goose egg bump right in the middle of her forehead. Much screaming and crying ensued :(. She finally got better and we continued on. I snagged a photo of the Epcot Tree. Next time I need to get closer!
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Jennifer and Mattie separated and headed back to the shops in Future World while Michael Nathan and I headed to Test Track. The stand by line was 5 minutes! it was getting kind of late and people were headed to Illuminations as we headed to the ride. Since I already covered this ride in pictures I didn't take a lot this time. I wanted to enjoy the ride.
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After the ride was over we stayed and explored the exit area and store a bit.
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We played the game where you take your creation to the race track.
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After Test Track we were to meet Jen and Mattie at Spaceship Earth for a late night ride. We made our way past the fountains. Beautiful at night!
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Actually everything at Epcot is colored beautifully at night with the aide of the wonder of the LED light. I took 30 photos walking to Spaceship Earth just from the fountains. World of Color!
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Finally I was gonna ride Spaceship Earth! This icon has sucked me in since I really started to get in to Disney! I took photos of it every opportunity I got.
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Now the last aspect was to ride the ride.
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So awesome ride. When it came tot he part about the Phoencians inventing the Alphabet Michael turned to me and let me know he had just learned that from homeschool. Jennifer chuckled! It was difficult to get good photos so here is us in the photocrops
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We stayed about 15 minutes in the exit area. When we left we saw Illuminations was going on. it was about 9:30. We were all very tired. We decided to head back to Port Orleans to get some sleep. As we were leaving I grabbed this last photo.
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We headed out and got in the car. This is when Nathan asked if we had to head back home tomorrow? I told him that no we had one more full day back at MK. He was happy about that... however I got real sad. My 8 year in the making dream trip only had one more full day... Even though I was blessed to have it I started to get depressed that it was already over. :(

Next post will be our last full day back at MK.

See you next time!
 
Day 5 - December 3rd. Our Last Full Day at Disney World - Magic Kingdom Edition!

We woke up from our previous full day at Epcot a little later in the morning. We got up around 8am and took our time getting ready. We didn't leave POR until almost 9am. I was excited for our full day at Magic Kingdom but the reality that tomorrow we would be packing up was really starting to depress me. My dream trip was almost over! I am the kind of person who gets let down after a vacation and this was the mother of all vacations for me! I was dreading the long drive back home to Texas.

For those of you who are still following from the beginning of my TR I had mentioned we had our home up for sale. Never in a million years did we anticipate it still being on the market when we came to WDW. On our way down we had a fairly serious offer that we accepted. The offer had progressed to home inspection so before we got in to the MK we had to deal with that in the parking lot :)

However after a little wait we got on the Monorail (I learned my lesson last time not to disappoint Michael again with the Ferry :)
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As you can see we opted for matching shirts! All 5 of us! You can also see Mattie's bruised forehead from her fall at Epcot the previous evening.
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The (then unfinished) poly bungalows.
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Pulling up to the Monorail station. The crowds appeared lighter today. They were for the most part.
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It was a warmish day but very nice overall.
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I think I was trying to be artistic here!

Jennifer wanted to try and recreate some of the memories I had with being a kid in 1983 at Disneyland with my Mom and Dad and walking down mainstreet with a big sucker. So she took us in to the Confectionery and got the kids to try and play along. Mostly the boys just wanted to go ride a ride.
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Note the bruise :)


Jennifer got the idea for this photo from Leslie and thanks to her buying the kids their Mickey ears she made it come true. I love this photo. Even if the Hub construction was in full force this day. (I will load some better photos next update) It was hard to get the kids to all generally look at castle with arms at side.
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We had no fast passes. It was already 10:30am at this point. We had 11:00am lunch ressies at Be Our Guest. We had been selected along with Chad and Leslie to BETA test the counter service order in advanced system for Be Our Guest. So we decided to head up the right side of Cinderella's castle and get over to New Fantasyland.
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Before long we made our way to Be Our Guest. We had a few minutes to kill before our time. So I grabbed a few shots.
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Being that we were BETA testing the order in advanced system we got to bypass that line. #POWPOW
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Man, can you say immersive? What an awesome looking place. Up next we will actually have lunch! Then it is ride time!
 


Magic Kingdom Dec 3 Part 2

Sorry for lack of updates. Trip Reports are a LOT of work!

We had a late start morning and got to MK later than I would have liked. We spent time checking out the Main Street shops and getting a Starbucks along with pictures at the Castle. By that time it was almost lunch time. We were selected to test the order ahead system for Be Our Guest. We had an 11:00 appointment. We all had ordered ahead of time several days before the trip started so we all knew what we were getting. Even though we ordered ahead we still had to wait in the line/queue area just inside Beast's castle. We took a few photos first.

Michael and Nathan.
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Mattie and me.
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Mattie Inside the Castle
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Up next was a 20 minute wait and it was sort of warm.
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The kids had fun with the suits of armor. It was so loud from the people talking though that you could not hear the whispers very well.
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We eventually got seated and not too long after the Humphreys showed up. Soon all of our food arrived and we all dug in.
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I had the Croque Monsieur and it was very good. I am not sure I remember what everyone else had but there were no complaints.
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This was very good!
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After lunch i explored a little...
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A short video showing the snow fall.

All in all a very enjoyable meal with incredible scenery! We left Be Our Guest with the two families plan to stay together until the evening. We had not been through New Fantasyland completely so we walked along and ended up at the Tea Cups. We stopped along the way for some photos.

Me and my Disney Wife.
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The kids hanging out
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I will leave you with this photo.... This is me telling the boys a not so appropriate tale of our prior evening at Akershus where a father had to take his little princess in to the bathroom in full Elsa dress. What made the story funny to the boys was the impressive and surprising amount of flatulence this little Queen Elsa had in the stall. Boys...
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Up next? You couldn't PAY me to get on that ride...
 
Magic Kingdom Dec 3 Part 3

As we left off.... 2 week ago! (sorry for lack of updates) we had finished lunch at Be our Guest and we really had no plans but to wander until dinner at Chef Mickey's later on. We headed towards Tomorrowland with the Humphrey's. i really wanted to ride the Seven Dwarfs. I am not sure why but we bypassed the ride.
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Leslie and the boys
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Soon came to the Tea Cups... I knew from all of my theme park experience that would be an exercise in vomiting so I was brave enough to volunteer to take the strollers, purses, bags and hang out and take pictures... I mean someone has to right? Everyone got in the queue and I snapped a few pics.
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Loading up... all 4 boys in one cup...what could go wrong?
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Ready to Go
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The kids had a blast! The boys spun themselves so fast... Michael had a green look on his face I could tell. His eyes were closed but he was smiling! After the ride no one threw up so that was a good thing! Next we made it to the Tomorrowland Speedway. This time Jennifer and Chad decided to sit this one out. So Leslie and I took the big kids and Mattie on the racers. Two big boys to a car. Leslie took Zane and I took Mattie.
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I have a video of Mattie driving.... Pinball machine!

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That was fun although the car was crazy hard to control! Not like the Antique cars here at Six Flags Texas. Next up we took the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. That is a nice change of pace ride! All the big boys rode by themselves and us couples rode with our little children.
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Astro Orbiter had just come off a long refurb and had opened
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peek a boo shot of boys
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After we got off the TTA we decided to split up. Chad had not made it to splash mountain or big thunder. So he took my boys and CJ. Jennifer, Leslie, and I took JD, Mattie and Zane to the Space Ranger Spin. All of my photos were blurry from the ride. I did get a couple from the queue.
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That was fun... however as an ominous sign of things to come later in the day even Space Ranger spin made me a little dizzy. I had to take away spin control from Mattie on the ride! I am such a motion sickness weenie! I will leave off here. Next up.. "I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDDDDD BBBUZZZZ!"
 


We are leaving on Friday for our Christmas time trip Nov 28-Dec 5. Your report is making me so excited!

Poor Mattie's head- what a trooper!
 
Thanks for the update!!

No problem! Thanksgiving is over so should be able to get the next one up!

love this TR we plan on doing that same time frame next year at POR as well!

That is awesome! We are still on track to comeback in Dec 2017 still toss up between Poly (depending on finances) or now that CBR has 5 person rooms... might try that for a bit cheaper, also looked heavily in to renting DVC points

We are leaving on Friday for our Christmas time trip Nov 28-Dec 5. Your report is making me so excited!

Poor Mattie's head- what a trooper!

Well sorry I missed your post. You are probably having a wonderful time right now. Christmas was amazing while we were there! Have a great trip!
 
Sorry for lack of updates. Christmas season is very busy at work and home this year! I will post soon as I can.
 
Day 5 Part 4

I NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDDDD BBBUUUUUUUUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!

(and the worse ride decision of the trip for me!)

Well these last two weeks have been hard. As of today we are at 375 days since Disney 2014. I am shocked an entire year has gone by already since we were at the World. We are now 719 days :crazy2: from Disney 2017 from today.

Anyways... as I last left we were finishing up Space Ranger Spin with myself, Jennifer, Leslie, JD, Mattie, and Zane. (Chad had taken my 2 boys with CJ and went to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Splash mountain again) We were exiting the ride and as soon as we started to look for our strollers we saw Buzz coming out for a meet n greet! Zane is a HUGE Buzz guy. We jumped in line and were 3rd group. Zane was mightily trying to free his arm from Leslie's death grip... Every once in a while you would hear Zane say "BUT I NEEEEED BUZZZZ!!" to Leslie. Here is Zane waiting.
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The whole time Jen had the death grip on Mattie. The funny part is Mattie had pinched a little of Zane's shirt and tried to hold him back by that little bit! You will see that in the Video below.
You will notice as soon as Jen released Mattie she dropped Zane's shirt and took off trying to get to Buzz herself!

Group photos
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After Buzz we still had more time before Chad and the boys got back. We decided to check out the ....
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It was a welcome respite for tired feet. The little kids I think enjoyed sitting for a bit. Still holds up today if you as me.
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After this we headed to "The Cool Ship" and got snacks. I am guessing by this time it was 3:30 to 4:00pm. We got some drinks and snacks at the Cool Ship our last FP+ of the day was Space Mountain. We then had a 6PM Chef Mickey's reservation. We took a 30 minute break and let the kids unwind before the FP.
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Jen got a Mickey pretzel!
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WHY SPACE MOUNTAIN NEEDS TO BE RAZED TO THE GROUND...
ok not really but O.M.Goodness! #NEVERAGAIN

Whenever we discuss Space Mountain since this trip.... all I hear is Yoda saying....
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Remember your failure at the cave Space Mountain!

Where to begin.... I am aware that Space Mountain is a roller coaster. That is REALLY all I know about it. You see... Youtube replays always look so dark or ... you know...like THE WHOLE RIDE IS DARK! Where did I miss this information....

I have mentioned before I get motion sickness at the drop of a feather! Well.... lets mix in TOTAL BLACK DARK to the ride! I have a few photos as I happily-go-luckily bounced up to the FP entrance! I bragged to kids this would be soooo awesome they would love it! (sorry for low light blurry photos)
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Ok so the ride is fine at beginning.. as we go up the incline... I am laughing... telling the kids to hold on tight, etc... Then we went down the first drop. I knew by about 10 seconds this thing was headed south in a BIG way. I was disoriented, nauseated, and to be honest just closing my eyes and trying to keep head still the rest of the way...

We got back to the loading area and it started...

Cold sweat... then as I scrambled up from the car I did my first dry heave...

The boys were all Dad! Dad! Dad! did you see this? Did you see that?!, etc...

(get pretty gross here!)

Chad saw me and asked if i was alright. I just shook my head. Mercifully there was a bench not too far from the disembark area. I made a bee line to it. I sat down and out my head in my hands. By this time my shirt was literally soaked from sweat. I had sweat beading up and running down my forearms (not my pits! my FOREARMS!) I was wrecked. I had NEVER been so nauseated and sick to my stomach.

The boys elation quickly turned to concerned, I remember Nathan (who was 7) "Mr Chad do we need to call an ambulance?"

After about 5-7 minutes the urge to vomit subsided. I hauled myself up on woozy unsteady legs and then what do I have to navigate... Some medieval horizontal escalator that went down and up.. Yeah... didn't need that. As I rode on that I prayed it would not mess with my equilibrium.. Eventually we made it out and walked back to Jennifer and Leslie and Jen's first comment was. "you look horrible" I was very pale and soaked through with wet hair.

After that horrible experience I would be fine if a giant hole opened up under that ride and swallowed it whole!

Next up... Dinner at Chef Mickey's and that last bittersweet night. :(
 
Just joining in your TR... and I just read the thing from start to now! The part that resonated the most with me was your first day at MK and wanting to rush. I was at WDW with my best friend, and I woke up and she was SO SLOW to get ready for our day together at EP. She was like "we'll be there for 9 hours, do we really need that much time?" I got mad at her, and then remembered this was her trip too. We ended up having a great day, I just needed to get over what I wanted to do and enjoy it with her. Whatever would be, would be. Its so easy to get wrapped up in months of planning and I loved that you went out of your way to ride the monorail and start your day wonderfully with your family.

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! Hope you make it to Poly in 2017!
 
Great trip report. Even though your 2017 trip is 700+ days away, in a few weeks it will be only 1 calendar year away.
 
Just starting to read and saw y'all are from DFW....us too, so howdy neighbor

Also our next trip is Thanksgiving 2016 at POR

And our daughter's name is Maddy

And I was born in Redlands....

lots of similarities here....ok going to stop blabbing and read the rest!
 
Just joining in your TR... and I just read the thing from start to now! The part that resonated the most with me was your first day at MK and wanting to rush. I was at WDW with my best friend, and I woke up and she was SO SLOW to get ready for our day together at EP. She was like "we'll be there for 9 hours, do we really need that much time?" I got mad at her, and then remembered this was her trip too. We ended up having a great day, I just needed to get over what I wanted to do and enjoy it with her. Whatever would be, would be. Its so easy to get wrapped up in months of planning and I loved that you went out of your way to ride the monorail and start your day wonderfully with your family.

Thank you for sharing your trip with us! Hope you make it to Poly in 2017!

Thank you for reading the whole thing! As I get older I am more prone to stress and anger. I need to work on that! I am sure I wont make a final decision until 2016 about where we are staying. Poly is dream but finances might dictate CBR 5 person room. I have always thought staying at CBR might be nice. The beach is our 2nd favorite vacation destination!

Great trip report. Even though your 2017 trip is 700+ days away, in a few weeks it will be only 1 calendar year away.

That IS a great way of looking at it! Chad and Leslie and we will start planning in earnest in Dec 2016!

Just starting to read and saw y'all are from DFW....us too, so howdy neighbor

Also our next trip is Thanksgiving 2016 at POR

And our daughter's name is Maddy

And I was born in Redlands....

lots of similarities here....ok going to stop blabbing and read the rest!

Whoa... Its a small world after all!
 
You mentioned you are thinking about the Poly or CBR for 2017. Have you given any thought to Fort Wilderness? The Fort is a great place - especially with younger kids. There are companies who will rent you an RV and park it on your campsite for you. Anyway, I look forward to reading the rest of your report.
 
You mentioned you are thinking about the Poly or CBR for 2017. Have you given any thought to Fort Wilderness? The Fort is a great place - especially with younger kids. There are companies who will rent you an RV and park it on your campsite for you. Anyway, I look forward to reading the rest of your report.

I did look in to that briefly (the RV company angle) and I am not sure it made an impression. Do you have any recommendations where I could look at it again?
 
I did look in to that briefly (the RV company angle) and I am not sure it made an impression. Do you have any recommendations where I could look at it again?

We own our RV so I can't recommend a specific company. However, if you want to get a really good feel for what Fort Wilderness has to offer, Lou Mongello on his WDW Radio podcast has a great episode (episode # 362) where he talks to another blogger named Rod Wheaton about the Fort. It is a really good and enjoyable podcast episode.
 
We own our RV so I can't recommend a specific company. However, if you want to get a really good feel for what Fort Wilderness has to offer, Lou Mongello on his WDW Radio podcast has a great episode (episode # 362) where he talks to another blogger named Rod Wheaton about the Fort. It is a really good and enjoyable podcast episode.

Thank you Rob! Sorry for delay in response.

Must... finish... trip... report!
 

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