A Sept 2018 TR...or that trip where nothing went as planned Completed 11/9

This American Girl doll has no hair, as it's meant to be for girls fighting cancer. Ashlyn saw one shortly after Emma, her big sister, went to Heaven

I'm so sorry for your loss :hug::littleangel:

Sounds like a rough start. Sometimes you need those afternoons in the resort by the pool :goodvibes
 
Sometimes all best laid plans get thrown out the window and it makes it all the better.

The only thing that seems to be good from that To-Go Window is like Mozzarella Cheese Sticks
 
I'm in!

Bittersweet story about the doll. I'm so very sorry about the loss of your daughter. Cancer sucks.

Your family is gorgeous! I'm really interested to see how things go because in 15 months our family group will include a 2 1/2 year old so...trying to get as prepared for that as possible. If that's even possible. ha ha

Dismayed to hear RS is a time suck. :headache:

We love BW too. Looks like we had the same view when we were there 2 years ago. :lovestruc We've stayed villas and hotel there. The hotel rooms are adorable.

Walking to EPCOT is so nice--and we found the bus service from BW to be really quite good.

Sorry to hear about the crowds and the rudeness level. I would have been ready to leave and go swimming, too! :crazy: I don't do crowds real well, and crowds/heat/rudeness? Woaaahhhhhnaaaawwwwwww...
 
There are so many sweet things about this. The mickey ears for her doll are amazing!


It is always good when you can laugh in a pretty horrible situation.


My girls are the same way sometimes.



It really does. It is nice that you can do it but it does still take awhile.


Man you really had a rough start! I can't image sitting on the ride for that long waiting to see what is going on. Did you get anytime fast passes or something?


That sounds horrible! I hope that things got better and a lot less crowded!

We did get an anytime FP, good for that day only. Since we left immediately after our Buzz FP, we didn't use it. Boo! :)

Following!

Glad to have you!

Following along . Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

Thanks for joining in!

I feel like that's the key to Disney--make all the plans and then just roll with how it actually happens. Glad it wasn't too bad, even if it wasn't your plan. Excited to hear about Epcot! :)

Yes! Rolling with the punches is vital. Learned that the hard way on past trips :rotfl:.

Hi Katie :wave2: First let me comment on Ashlyn's doll, which of course I live. Then let me say I lol'd at your title because we've had so many trips like that! Yup, your first day sounds.......interesting :rolleyes1 but like you said, in the end really not that bad at all. Can't wait to hear more!

It definitely wasn't all I'd hoped, but like I said it DID get better! Thank goodness! :laughing:
 


Sometimes all best laid plans get thrown out the window and it makes it all the better.

The only thing that seems to be good from that To-Go Window is like Mozzarella Cheese Sticks

I have to admit, we were all pretty disappointed in the QS food options at the BW, but I understand that's an ongoing complaint!

I'm in!

Bittersweet story about the doll. I'm so very sorry about the loss of your daughter. Cancer sucks.

Your family is gorgeous! I'm really interested to see how things go because in 15 months our family group will include a 2 1/2 year old so...trying to get as prepared for that as possible. If that's even possible. ha ha

Dismayed to hear RS is a time suck. :headache:

We love BW too. Looks like we had the same view when we were there 2 years ago. :lovestruc We've stayed villas and hotel there. The hotel rooms are adorable.

Walking to EPCOT is so nice--and we found the bus service from BW to be really quite good.

Sorry to hear about the crowds and the rudeness level. I would have been ready to leave and go swimming, too! :crazy: I don't do crowds real well, and crowds/heat/rudeness? Woaaahhhhhnaaaawwwwwww...

Thank you! The RS is nice to have in general, and Ashlyn enjoyed getting to do many rides twice. But it definitely took more time than I had realized.
 
Thank you! The RS is nice to have in general, and Ashlyn enjoyed getting to do many rides twice. But it definitely took more time than I had realized.

Bummer that it's a time suck, but one of my only memories from my first Disney trip is being the kid who got to ride twice with Rider Swap. It was awesome--I felt so special that I got some one on one time with each parent and didn't have to wait to ride twice! It's a very special memory for memory for me. I bet Ashlyn will have special memories of it too, despite the time suck! :)
 
Yay! Glad y'all had a good trip. Can't wait to see what plans you had to change from your PTR.
 


Sorry arrival day didn't go as well as you had hoped but I think you handled it wonderfully by going with the flow.
 
I'm sorry your trip didn't start well. I always hate that because I worry it will put a damper on our whole trip. Hope that's not how it went for you!

We'll have 3 little ones with us on our trip this fall. Hoping for the best but I'm thinking it could be a difficult trip.
 
Glad to hear the trip gets better, but oh boy it does not sound like you had fun Day 1. I think this is why we never actually go to a park or plan anything for arrival day other than a meal and some shopping. Everyone's too tired from getting up early and prefers to relax!
 
Your first day sounds a bit difficult but not too bad. My kids have ALWAYS wanted to go the pool first but I always "force" everyone to go to MK. I was always met with boos. They were fine once at MK.

RS is a time suck. When DD was too small to ride, 90% of the time we didn't bother doing RS. One of us just wouldn't ride. It just took so much time.
 
Hi Katie (that's my daughter's name :)), I'm joining in. It looks like your trip started a few days after mine ended, so I'm interested to hear how you found the crowds. Hopefully things go better than your first day o_O I definitely had a few moments like that on my trip too.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss :hug: :sad1: You have a very strong family. :grouphug: I love Ashlyn's AG doll! I still have two AG dolls, myself and I'm 35! And the Minnie outfit is just adorable. I'm glad that Ashlyn is able to find comfort in her.

We stayed at the BWV in 2013 and we had the LAST room at the end of a VERY long hallway overlooking a quiet pool and the Swan/Dolphin. We could see ToT from the window in the hallway - I was beginning to wonder if you guys got the same room we had!


What a rough start to your trip! I'm happy to know it get's better!
 
There's A Bright New Beautiful Tomorrow...
I promised everyone that the trip gets better, and it absolutely does! I wasn't letting it get me down at all. In fact, as I went to bed Saturday night I slept like a baby--which is totally odd because usually at Disney I'm so excited I can't sleep at all. We actually all slept like babies!

Ashlyn had a Murphey bed to sleep on. She thought it was so cool, and we liked it because it meant we didn't have to pull out the fold out couch every night. I realized when I started this TR that I didn't take a single picture inside our room. Sorry about that! Miles slept in a pack-n-play which we found in the closet of our studio villa.

Sunday morning, Miles woke up at his usual time--6:15 central time, which was 7:15 in Orlando. We all got up and got ready for church (I'm sure you're all very interested in that :chat:). When that was all said and done, we found ourselves walking to the International Gateway for the first time ever! It was roughly 9:30AM. The walk from our room was a total of 12 minutes.

Everyone was in a much better mood this morning, thank goodness! We got into Epcot and made our way to Future World. We stopped for a Photopass picture. These ones turned out much better than the MK shots the night before. :flower:

EPCOT_BACKSIDE2_20180902_413175368776.jpg EPCOT_BACKSIDE2_20180902_413175368798.jpg

By the time we made it over to the Test Track/Mission Space area we had already missed our Mission Space FP. We didn't actually care though. :rolleyes1

Ashlyn and Micheal went right into Test Track, while I kept Miles out. There's a little play area near the exit of Test Track and Mouse Gears. He was happy as could be. While we were playing, my sister and her family showed up. She and her little boy joined us at the play area, while her husband and daughter rode TT. When Ashlyn and Micheal finished the ride, we used rider swap so Ashlyn and I could ride.

Ashlyn loved that she had ridden this ride now, but I never had. So, she got to tell me what to do. *better not get used to it, kid* :rotfl2:

Now, after our fiasco on Space Mountain the day before, can you guess what happened JUST before we loaded into our car?

That's right. The ride went down. At least this time we weren't stranded out on the track! We waited for around 10 minutes, during which another guest in line loudly proclaimed how much Disney takes advantage of its guests by price gouging. He went on and on, saying how he'd guess that if they could figure out a way to charge for air they'd do it. Finally, another guest says, "So, can we all assume this will be your last trip for a while?" The original guest gets a confused look on his face, shrugs, and answers, "Oh, actually, I'm an annual passholder. We come all the time."

:laughing:

DUDE! Then you don't really have any room to sit and gripe about Disney's prices the way you just did! I KNOW I'm not the only one who was thinking this! :rotfl:

Moving on...the ride came back up, and we loaded into our car. I can say without delay that we ALL loved this ride. In fact, we managed to ride it several more times throughout the trip. Our kids were always too short in the past, so I'm glad Ashlyn was tall enough this year and we were able to do it.

EPCOT_DPIRIDESYSGMTT_20180902_413175815698.jpg EPCOT_DPIRIDESYSGMTT_20180902_413176650514.jpg

After TT, we went across the park and rode the Nemo ride. Miles loved it, which was super cute. We only took a few minutes to look around the aquarium because we were all starving. We had the intent to come back after we ate, but we never did make time. I really hate that because Miles is at the age where giant aquariums are totally cool.

EPCOT_SEASINTR_20180902_413177037821.jpg

As the we went to leave the aquarium, the skies opened up and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down. We decided to wait it out before heading over to Sunshine Seasons. In the meantime, Ashlyn and Micheal hit up the pressed coin machines. Ashlyn's grandpa had given her a bag of quarters and pennies just for this purpose.

Once the rain stopped, we made our way to the Land pavillion and ate. My food was good (I had Mongolian beef). I honestly can't remember what Micheal ate, but Ashlyn got a grilled chicken wrap, from which she would only eat the grilled chicken, and she proclaimed it disgusting. :rotfl:

Next, we had a FP for LwtL. The line was actually a 20 minute wait at this point, so the FP was nice. I love these educational rides. I think they're so cool. After it was finished, we made our way over to the Pixar Short Films place, but the next showtime wasn't for a few more minutes so we ducked into the Figment giftshop area. Ashlyn bought some BFF pins--one for her, and one for her cousin who was with us. Miles enjoyed running around the museum area. Ashlyn also did a photo shoot thing where they put her face in the body of Rey, from Star Wars. It was really cool, and Ashlyn liked it. Unfortunately, the photo had to be purchased separately and we didn't buy it.

Now it was time for the Pixar shorts, but Miles was getting restless. Micheal took him back toward the BW, while Ashlyn and I stayed with my sister and her family for the films. They were super cute, even though I had seen the "Get A Horse" and "Piper" films. We hadn't seen "Feast," which was actually kind of weird, but the kids enjoyed them all.

Once the films were over, everyone was pretty tired. We decided to head back to the hotel for the rest of the afternoon. That night, we had an ADR at San Angel Inn, and we managed to pick up FP's for Frozen Ever After. Stay tuned!
 
Bummer that it's a time suck, but one of my only memories from my first Disney trip is being the kid who got to ride twice with Rider Swap. It was awesome--I felt so special that I got some one on one time with each parent and didn't have to wait to ride twice! It's a very special memory for memory for me. I bet Ashlyn will have special memories of it too, despite the time suck! :)

I'm so glad you shared this. It really changes my perspective on how I look at it! Thinking back now, it does seem like Ashlyn felt special to ride things twice. That's a much happier way of looking at it :).

Sorry arrival day didn't go as well as you had hoped but I think you handled it wonderfully by going with the flow.

Thanks for joining! Thankfully, it did get better :).

I'm sorry your trip didn't start well. I always hate that because I worry it will put a damper on our whole trip. Hope that's not how it went for you!

We'll have 3 little ones with us on our trip this fall. Hoping for the best but I'm thinking it could be a difficult trip.

It's hard to manuever with a stroller, and accounting for the needs of small kids, but we still had a great time. I bet you guys will too!

Glad to hear the trip gets better, but oh boy it does not sound like you had fun Day 1. I think this is why we never actually go to a park or plan anything for arrival day other than a meal and some shopping. Everyone's too tired from getting up early and prefers to relax!

We agreed that next time we'll probably reserve day 1 for relaxation. :beach:

Your first day sounds a bit difficult but not too bad. My kids have ALWAYS wanted to go the pool first but I always "force" everyone to go to MK. I was always met with boos. They were fine once at MK.

RS is a time suck. When DD was too small to ride, 90% of the time we didn't bother doing RS. One of us just wouldn't ride. It just took so much time.

By the end of the trip this was totally what we started doing!

Following along!

Great to have you!

Hi Katie (that's my daughter's name :)), I'm joining in. It looks like your trip started a few days after mine ended, so I'm interested to hear how you found the crowds. Hopefully things go better than your first day o_O I definitely had a few moments like that on my trip too.

The crowds stayed heavy for the first half of the trip! But you'll see they finally thinned out (thank goodness!).

I'm so sorry for your loss :hug: :sad1: You have a very strong family. :grouphug: I love Ashlyn's AG doll! I still have two AG dolls, myself and I'm 35! And the Minnie outfit is just adorable. I'm glad that Ashlyn is able to find comfort in her.

We stayed at the BWV in 2013 and we had the LAST room at the end of a VERY long hallway overlooking a quiet pool and the Swan/Dolphin. We could see ToT from the window in the hallway - I was beginning to wonder if you guys got the same room we had!


What a rough start to your trip! I'm happy to know it get's better!

Thank you so much. Ashlyn takes that doll with her everywhere. Thankfully, our room was near the elevators!
 
Thank you so much. Ashlyn takes that doll with her everywhere. Thankfully, our room was near the elevators!

Ours was not! :rotfl2: I actually recorded it one night on our way back to the room. Not counting the walk into the hotel, or to the 1st floor elevators - JUST from the elevator on the 5th floor to our room was exactly three minutes. It doesn't seem like a lot but when you're exhausted and your feet hurt? :faint:

And Epcot was a MUCH better day, sounds like! I love the Remy magic shot! That is so cute! And that picture of the two of them in Bruce's mouth is one for a frame, for sure!
 
Ours was not! :rotfl2: I actually recorded it one night on our way back to the room. Not counting the walk into the hotel, or to the 1st floor elevators - JUST from the elevator on the 5th floor to our room was exactly three minutes. It doesn't seem like a lot but when you're exhausted and your feet hurt? :faint:

And Epcot was a MUCH better day, sounds like! I love the Remy magic shot! That is so cute! And that picture of the two of them in Bruce's mouth is one for a frame, for sure!


Oh my goodness! Yes, that sounds like torture. Yikes!
 

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