2 sisters, 4 kids, in one room!

[december]

The plan was:

Sun 6/6
MK through the morning, then back to CR for swimming and a long nap, then back to MK for the new fireworks, parade and a little bit of EMH.


but instead we were doing SWW at dhs. I threatened to leave without them if they weren't ready today, so this ended up being our only rope drop as a group. We were trading in our GAD vouchers when the opening show started, so we only saw a few storm troopers.

We headed to sign up for Jedi training as soon as the ropes dropped. Ds12 loved doing this in DL in 2008. And this is the last year he would be able to do it (ages 4-12). For SWW, they weren't picking kids the usual way. Hundreds of kids lined up at ropedrop, and they gave tickets saying what time to come back. when they ran out of tickets, the kids were just out of luck. All 3 of our kids got tickets to the 4:15 show.

 

[december]

It took about 30 min, but worth it. To me anyway. My sister was mad because she didn't want to stay that late. She wanted to go swimming. Whatever.

I took everybody to the Animation Studio, and told them I'd meet them at the characters. I love it, but I knew we couldn't fit everything in today. I took Katie to Playhouse Disney. OMG-it was her favorite thing of the week. I wish we had made time to go back. she danced, sang, pointed, and was just in awe at this show! It was so cute! I had 3 missed calls from my sister when I got out. she didn't want to meet the characters (classic characters) so they just stood outside playhouse disney until we came out......

I don't remember the order of things that day. We rode STs with childswap. While I was riding, my sister took Katie to Muppets. My sister didn't like ST or Muppets. She and my nephew did like TSM. I had to stand in line to get FPs, after Playhouse Disney. I got one set with our park tickets, and 3 sets with our GADs. I also got another set later with our park tickets. I gave away 6, and we got 4 rides on it (2 with all of us, 2 after my sister and dn7 left the park). It was so much fun. But the wait when we left that night was 150 min! I can't imagine standing in line that long for anything.

My panic moment was due to my stupidity. In my previous trips, GMR was pretty much a walkon. We had walked on everything that day with our FPs. we had about 40 min to kill before we had to get back for JTA (had to meet at Sounds dangerous at 3:55), so I thought we'd do that real quick. Not so quick! It took forever-our longest wait of the week....for GMR! We got there 4 min early, but the kids were panicking (and so was I).

I have tons of pics of the academy-as soon as I get our photopass pics. They had a photographer there. On the way out of the park, we went to the photo store and told them what time the show was, showed them my 3 jedis on the first screen of pics, and the guy went through and found 40 or 50 pics of them and added them to my card!

We saw the SWW parade. we got no autographs, but enjoyed seeing the characters. ds12 got a high five from Chewie. Overall, I wasn't all that impressed with SWW, and wouldn't go back for it. Too many adults who didn't mind running over a kid to get to a character, and just way too many people there!

We saw LMA with them, and I thought they would love it. They are into cars. But no emotion at all. They just wanted to swim, so left after the JTA. After they left we did Indiana Jones, one of my son's favorites. I used my phone to check in with Southwest during the show, and got A passes. We didn't wait for Fantasmic-just too tired.

Not a great day, but really enjoyed TSM.

 

[december]

Mon 6/7
Epcot (GAD) until about 1, then back to the resort for ME to the airport around 2:30

That was the plan. Dd10 agreed to give this up and do MK today. I actually asked her again on Sun night if she wanted to do Epcot or MK, and she chose MK so we could just walk from the CR. We gathered up all the luggage, got it downstairs to check in for the airport, and separated! My sister and her son went to eat breakfast, and we went to MK. We missed ropedrop, but not by much. We traded in our last voucher and got 3 gad FP cards.

They came over to MK later, rode Jungle Cruise and Buzz, but thank goodness she didn't have to keep Katie! When I mentioned going back (was planning for 2013, but now I really want to go this Christmas......) she told me I better wait until Katie was 40 inches (so she could ride and no one would have to keep her). I just walked away.......

My kids decided that they would eat at the airport, they wanted to ride!
We use the GAD passes and regular FPs, and rode Pooh, Peter Pan, BTM (kids), Splash Mtn (kids-then dd10 played with Katie at the little playground while I rode with ds12 with C/S). I rode Space with dd10 while ds12 kept Katie in the gift shop. I told him he could ride space with dd10, or they could ride buzz together. we were out of time. they decided to ride buzz, then we headed out. We got to CR at 2:15, for the 2:25 ME! We milked everything out of our last day.

One day with just us, and I was thinking about our next trip again.............I want a do over!

 

[kaileighbug]

Sounds like you family had more fun by yourselves. I am looking forward to our next trip. It will just be ME,DH, and DD(5). Our first trip we went for christmas 2009. It was a nice trip, but we missed out on so much waiting on the extended family. Our first day in MK we rode 3 rides. BTM, tom sawyers island, and Small World. That was it. This time we will try to make rope drop as we are all morning people. I wanted a do over and called it a honeymoon.

 

[december]

I'm still obsessing over the week before Christmas. I know I don't need to go, but I want to so bad. It will probably be more like next year at Christmas, though.

 

[gvillemama]

I was at MK this day too...I loved seeing all the cute shirts as well!

Love reading your report...sorry your sister was a PITA...I could see my sister doing the same.

Sat 6/5
Move to CR, breakfast at CRT at 8:10 for just me, dd10, and dd1
*we plan to ride Dumbo and meet the fairies after breakfast, then do some girly stuff!
MK (GAD) meet up with my sister and the boys around 11am
Dinner at CM at 5:05


Those were the plans. But I dropped CM after Katie's response to characters, and I added a late lunch at Planet Hollywood. It seemed to have a more extensive menu than the others, and that elusive ribeye my son loves so much.

My girls and I got up bright and early, and were at MK at 7:45. There was a bus arriving right when we walked out of POR, so our timing was great. This was Gay Day at MK, and there were some couples in red already there for early breakfasts. Not a problem for us, I was actually happy to see that the fuss really was overblown, but my sister was going to be another story later.....

We had a great breakfast at CRT, and Katie LOVED the face characters. Cinderella was great in the lobby. We got a window seat with a glorious view of an empty Fantasyland. Snow White was the 1st to come around, and gave Katie a big red kiss. we also saw Ariel (nice surprise!), Aurora, and Belle. Katie was given a free meal, with mik and french toast sticks. She didn't like them, but ate a ton of my pastries and eggs. We had a really good time here.

We left the stroller parked at the castle, and headed out to rope drop at Fantasyland. This part of the park was empty, and we were among the first on Dumbo that morning. Then we did Snow White, Peter Pan (got FPs for later), and Its a Small World. Katie LOVED this ride. So much to see!

At 9:40, we were at the Toontown rope. The sign says ropedrop is at 10, but it is really at 9:45. We were the 3rd family to see the fairies, and were out on the street by 10am! We looked around Mickey and Minnie's houses, then took the train to Frontierland. We were looking for Tiana, and finally found her behind the Christmas Shoppe. This was a great character interaction. They spent tons of time with each child. Katie was asleep in the Ergo, but Dd10 loved meeting them.

We went back and got the stroller, and headed out to meet the others. We got some ice cream on the way out, and sat on the curb on Main Street and watched the parade (several times a day-not sure about the name). We talked to and got pics with some of the main street characters. Main Street had become a sea of red at this point (around 10:30?), but nothing inappropriate that I saw. There were some cute shirts (like a female couple - one shirt said I'm with Princess Charming, and the other said I'm with my Cinderella), and a few guys holding hands.

Today was hot! I was ready for a break from the heat.

I had left money for my sister to take the boys fishing. She did, and of course complained about this, too. But the boys enjoyed it. She called bell services to get our bags and move them to the CR around 10, then they went to the arcade to meet us.

 

[december]

thank you!

I'm still waiting on pics-hope to have some up soon.

For the group that says don't take them until they are old enough to remember:
Katie may not remember this trip when she is 20, but a month later she remembers it. She goes crazy when she sees pics of any of the characters, and takes her Mickey and Minnie dolls everywhere. She "reads" her Disney books over and over. We switched daycares, and when we walked in and she saw Mickey and Minnie murals on the wall, she was ok! I hope to take her again before she is old enough by some peoples' standards!

Katie's favorites:
Playhouse Disney was the winner by far!
Festival of the Lion King
Nemo ( the show)
Small World (favorite ride)
Pooh (she loves the Pooh characters)
Dumbo
Triceratops Spin

 

[gvillemama]

I totally agree about little ones remembering things when they are little. I took Connor for the first time (and my first time) when he was almost 3 and I wish I had gone sooner. Now this little one that we just found out about will probably go by the time he or she is one!

thank you!

I'm still waiting on pics-hope to have some up soon.

For the group that says don't take them until they are old enough to remember:
Katie may not remember this trip when she is 20, but a month later she remembers it. She goes crazy when she sees pics of any of the characters, and takes her Mickey and Minnie dolls everywhere. She "reads" her Disney books over and over. We switched daycares, and when we walked in and she saw Mickey and Minnie murals on the wall, she was ok! I hope to take her again before she is old enough by some peoples' standards!

Katie's favorites:
Playhouse Disney was the winner by far!
Festival of the Lion King
Nemo ( the show)
Small World (favorite ride)
Pooh (she loves the Pooh characters)
Dumbo
Triceratops Spin