"I kept my eyes open the whole time!" - TRIP VIDEO LINK IN FIRST POST

[princess_momma]

Hello!! Welcome to my 5th trip report!

We laughed. We cried. We danced. We ate. It was so wonderful!

***WATCH THE TRIP VIDEO HERE!!***

Meet the fam:

This is me, Kimmy. I am a princess who works as an emergency dispatcher. My favorites are Sulley, Ralph, and everyone in Up! I love good food and good wine and the Denver Broncos. I'm super obsessed with the Tower of Terror. I like sparkly things. That's pretty much all you need to know about me!

This is my better half, Garret. He is about to start golf school. He loves sports and roots for all our home teams. His favorite character is Wreck It Ralph, though he said it was hard to choose. He loves to go on the thrill rides but does have some motion sickness so we tried Seabands this trip.

This is our sweet boy, Landon. He started kindergarten this year and turned 6 at the beginning of our trip. My proudest moment as a Mom was when he made his first Disney reference. AND HE DOES ALL THE TIME NOW. #parentingwin He loves basically everything Disney owns...from the Toy Story to Star Wars to Avengers to the Sword in the Stone. Heck, he even loves Swiss Family Robinson (thanks, Netflix!) He really enjoys quoting funny lines in movies and I'm pretty sure he thinks Phineas & Ferb Star Wars was the best thing ever created.

So, that's us! We are blessed with jobs that give great vacation time and so were able to take a 15 day trip! We spent the first 6 days with Garret's dad, Opa, who lives just north of West Palm (you'll remember him if you read the last tr!) and then spent about a week at the Boardwalk Villas (first time as DVC owners!) before going back for 2 days to Opa's.

This was also our first time not being on the dining plan AND I remembered to take pictures of ALL our food AND the receipts so I will be doing a Dining Report along with this, and I will be sure to post links as we go along! Dining TR found here!

We hope you enjoy hearing about our trip as much we enjoyed going on it!

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: And Away We Go!
Chapter 2: We Love Florida
Chapter 3: Little Man Turns 6 on the 6th!
Chapter 4: Beaches Be Crazy
Chapter 5: A Room With a View
Chapter 6: Hooray for Hollywood (Studios!)
Chapter 7: Putting the Magic in Magic Kingdom
Chapter 8: The Keister Coaster and a Late Night in the MK
Chapter 9: Getting Silly with a Robot
Chapter 10: Landon Impresses Darth Vadar
Chapter 11: A Few First for Our Family (But Probably No One Else)
Chapter 12: Run In's With All Sorts of Animals
Chapter 13: Cold and Fancy

 

[PrincessCamille529]

I can't wait to read your trip report!! Your son is adorable!

 

[princess_momma]

So basically this trip ended up being at the WORST possible time in conjunction with "real life". Our lease in our apartment was up 2 days after we got back. We had been in a 3 bedroom and had a roommate living with us. The plan had been to just stay in the same place so our Disney trip at this time should've been no big deal. And then life happened and it turned out our roommate wouldn't be staying with us.

Leading up to the trip, we had to find a new 2 bedroom place and attempt to pack since obviously we would have no way to do that, as we would be in Florida.

To say I was stressed would be an understatement. I work graves, so I was working until 6 am on Monday morning. I took a bit of a nap and then tried to get things done. I was so stressed and had so much going on that I had the mother fail of the year...I FORGOT TO PICK UP LANDON FROM KINDERGARTEN!! I was less then 10 minutes late but it was still embarrassing and horrifying and I still feel awful about it. It was a mess.

I had wanted to go to bed early, like around 7, because our flight was super early. But when do things ever go according to plan? Eventually we went to bed around 9:30 with pretty much everything we needed done. I managed to actually fall asleep before a vacation because I was so exhausted!

And good thing I feel asleep fast because my alarm went off at 1:45! I got ready, got the boys up and fed and we were on the road by 3:56! It was cold on the drive!

Needless to say, I was ready to get to Florida!!! I may be a Colorado native but I HATE the cold. Also, CO is dry so in the winter, I have to slather on about a bottle of lotion a day so I don't dry up. GET ME TO FLORIDA NOW.

We were at the airport by 4:26. Check-in, security, etc. were all uneventful. Sorry not much details...I was either too tired or it was just that boring.

But I did take a picture of Landon waiting to board. Traditions, people! Gotta have 'em.

We eventually boarded. We were flying Southwest and I believe our boarding number was A31 or something. I do know we were on the plane for a while just sitting around because we had to get de-iced. I was ready to get the show on the road! GET ME TO FLORIDA NOW.

Our plane ride entertainment was country music for Garret, the "1989" Taylor Swift album for me (so good!) and Transformers Angry Birds for Landon!

We had a slight layover in Baltimore and when we got off the plane, we saw a pilot with...CHIPOTLE!! So finding that burrito paradise became our lunch goal. We were successful and found it pretty comical that none of the other restaurants even had a line, while Chipotle's curved around and back.

Sorry...no food pic of the Chipotle. Just know it was heaven. Garret and I both get white rice, steak, hot salsa, cheese and sour cream! YUM! (Landon does like Chipotle, but he opted for chicken nuggets from McDonalds.)

Just about as soon as we finished up, it was time to board the next flight. This one FLEW BY (hahaha...that wasn't even an intended pun) but really, it did because we all slept through this one. It was great! We were flying into West Palm Beach and it was AMAZING because we could look out and just see beautiful ocean beneath us! I was hoping I could see some whales or sharks or something awesome, but, of course, I could not be so lucky. Oh whale. (HA!)

We spent our time waiting for luggage chatting with this lovely man all decked out in Mizzou gear who was there for a business conference and hoping to get some golfing in.

Finally, we got everything and went to find Opa!! AHHHHH! THE FUN WAS REALLY STARTING NOW!!

We had about a 40 minute drive to his house (much better then last year when we still flew into MCO and had a multi-hour drive to his house. Oops!) We stopped to pick up some pizza from a lovely little Italian joint. We got meat lovers and eggplant and I ACTUALLY ENJOYED THE EGGPLANT! It was still a little weird, but it was a huge deal as I don't eat my veggies. It really doesn't look like a veggie, which meant that Landon had no idea and ate it and loved it no problem! Eggplant, who knew, right?

We spent the rest of the night just hanging out in Opa's sunroom before going to bed! Don't worry...there are WAY more pictures from here on out!

 

[princess_momma]

I can't wait to read your trip report!! Your son is adorable!

Thank you and welcome!!! Glad you are here!

 

[princess_momma]

Well rested and finally in FLORIDA, we were up and at 'em the next day!

We went to this wonderful diner and I had AMAZING biscuits and gravy.

Seriously, though, they were the best I've ever had. But I REALLY like biscuits and gravy. I definitely could not eat the whole thing. Garret had a big breakfast of eggs, home fries (which you can see I had as well), sausage and pancakes. Landon enjoyed some Mickey Mouse shaped pancakes - and we weren't even in Disney yet!

After, we went in walked around this gorgeous park/pier/tiny beach thing.

Turtle sighting!!

Above is the tiny beach. You can basically see the whole thing in the picture. I didn't even go down to it because I didn't want to get sandy at the time. It was nice for the dog to cool off though.

Here you can see the palm trees along the paths. Beautiful. I just LOVE palm trees. They are the best.

The paths lead straight here.

Really, the only people we saw while we were there were fishing. It was so nice to be away from everyone in such a gorgeous place!

More wildlife along the way. A blue heron, this time.

We went home real quick to drop off Harriet (the dog) before exploring the local area more. Landon wanted to snap a pic of me with the dogs - Harriet is the boxer, Kilo is the dark mix.

After our pit stop, we went about a city north and looked at some golfing areas. Garret will probably be starting golf school here in the next year...which is WONDERFUL because that potentially means us all moving to Florida. (It's been a headache. Wish we could ALL just go down IMMEDIATELY but when does life ever go as smoothly as we wish?)

After the golf tours, we did drive around and looked at some apartments. I'm just dying to move to Florida. I love so much more about it then Disney and the beach. I love how the houses all look different and have such character. I love the whimsical street names, I love the sea creature mail boxes. (Pretty sure I want a killer whale one myself one day!) I love all sea/nautical decor. Give me the coral, the starfishes, the turtles, the sting rays, ALL OF IT. I just love Florida!

After that, we went home for another relaxing night in the sun room. Another thing we LOVE about Florida. So nice to be OUTSIDE but still INSIDE and protected from those bugs! (I do suppose we could do that here, but we don't have a sun room here! Lol)

 

[princess_momma]

Today was a BIG day...November 6th, when our little man would be turning 6!!

Flashback photo that I posted on Facebook.

He was so tiny! Can't believe he was already 6...and about to embark on his 5th trip to Disney World. It's been such an amazing blessing, getting to watch him grow up in Disney World. I've loved watching his favorite things grow and change with him, see him experience new things as he gets older. I definitely do not get sick of it!

So today we explored more sights around the area. It was kind of like checking out multiple beaches without actually going to the beach. Loved it!

The first one we hit up was Jupiter Beach.

To the right of us in the above picture, they had turned it into a wading area so you could enjoy the water without the roughness. Very good idea as the ocean can get pretty crazy. (Sorry I didn't get a good pic of it!)

PALM TREES!! My favorite tree!! Probably the only kind I'd ever hug, if we're being honest and awkward here. LOVE palm trees.

Behind Landon, where that rocky area ends is where the Jupiter Inlet meets the ocean. The waters get VERY rough out there. We saw some paddle-boarding way out there! I was impressed.

So. Much. Blue. LOVE.

Behind us in this one, you can see the Jupiter Lighthouse. I just love Jupiter. Nice area.

Our next beach was some off-the-grid beach the was under/by a bridge in the Juno Beach area. Kinda strange but still cool. We had to be careful here because there were jellyfish along the shoreline. We were pretty sure all the ones we were seeing were dead but still didn't want to risk getting stung! (Opa and Landon saw a live one, but Garret and I didn't!)

(There's that bridge I mentioned!)

My normally land-locked boy sure loves the ocean a lot. He could be in the water for hours and hours.

We went home for dinner...we got had some amazing chicken parmesan from a local Italian joint. It was so delicious! Then it was time for cake!

A Broncos cake, of course!

Star Wars, Mickey, and Broncos - that sums up our family fairly well!!

The rest of the night was spent building the Legos and playing with everything!

Landon also recently discovered that not only did he turn 6 on the 6th, but his name has 6 letters! And look at that...I'm writing about it all in the 6th post!

 

[princess_momma]

And finally...it was our BEACH DAY!! YAY!!!

Building sandcastles.

Occasionally, we would stroll along the shore. However, Landon's most favorite thing was just standing in the waves and letting them knock him over, jumping over them, etc.

That night was another spent relaxing in the sunroom. I went to plug in the computer and jumped as I saw this guy right by the outlet.

I'm not normally scared of them (still don't want to touch them!) and this one caught me off guard! He snuck in through a hole in the screen.

We had 2 more days before Disney and I have no pictures of those days.

On Saturday, we spent the day cooking and eating...we were having an early Thanksgiving since we wouldn't be with Opa for the real one! It was amazing!! I highly recommend multiple Thanksgiving. This was the day I also downloaded a Big Hero 6 game on the iPad that Landon and I got super in to!

Sunday, our plan was supposed to be to go to the Pineapple Festival. I was VERY excited for this (I even had a pineapple shirt to wear!) but we got rained out. So stayed inside and watched football and did laundry and get all our stuff packed up for our trip.

OH and FUN FACT: On Saturday, apparently this surfer got bit by a shark at Fort Pierce Beach. This was a beach or two north of the beach we were at Friday. You can read about it here. Just a bit scary.

Stay tuned...the DISNEY FUN is next!!

 

[princess_momma]

Finally, FINALLY, the morning was here...we were finally GOING TO DISNEY!!! I really couldn't even contain my excitement!!

I went and woke up Landon and wished him a Happy Disney Day! To which he replied, "You need to World because if you just say Disney people might think you mean Disneyland!" HA...you know you are raising your children right when they are 6 years old and know the difference between WDW and DL.

We were on the road by 11:49 and started the long drive. We arrive just after 2 pm, so just a couple hours. Nothing excited happened on our ride except we saw a TON of alligators and it was amazing and I was kinda sorta freaking out a bit. I tend to be somewhat excitable. They were more on the edges of the swaps instead of in the water like usual because of the cooler weather. It was magical and pumped me up. (As if I needed to be pumped up.)

Who DOESN'T get pumped up when they see this amazing sign?

Our faces looked like this.

We were SO excited...our first stay at the BOARDWALK. I could not even contain myself. It was such a dream come true to stay here and to own DVC and...just everything. I can't believe I am just so blessed to have been able to take my son on his 5th trip and know we just have so many more to come.

Lucy the elephant!!

And...we can't forget the...HIPPOCAMPUS.

I am somewhat obsessed with hippocampus. You can thank Percy Jackson for that. No where close to Harry Potter, but still probably the best young adult series after Harry. AMAZING. Can't wait to read them with my son and I bet when the hippocampus are mentioned, he will remember them at the Boardwalk!!

Check-in was the breeziest it's ever been. A lady with an iPad got our name and brought us right to someone at the desk. He literally explained nothing and said we were good to go. Maybe some directions to our room? It was actually a little TOO breezy, he barely spoke at all and I was like "Uhhh...is everything all good and our tickets on our MagicBand and all that?" He assured me it was (it wasn't) and we headed off to find our room!

I will say last year at Pop we brought our luggage to check in with us and should have left it in the car and gotten it after we checked in. This year we left our luggage in the car and should've brought it. My tip for anyone driving would be...if your room is in the same building, bring your luggage to check in. If it's not, leave it in the car.

I had made 2 requests prior to our stay. 1. High Floor. 2. Close to DHS as possible. And...BOTH THOSE REQUESTS WERE GRANTED!! Why, you ask, would I make such requests that are so different then nearly everyone at the Boardwalk? (Everyone seems to want to be close to the elevator, which is NOT close to DHS.) I wanted a very specific view. AND WE GOT IT!! But you'll just have to wait for that.

First...room tour!!

As you walk in...

The kitchenette...

The sink and closet, which was across from the kitchenette...

The bathroom, which was across from the closet...

The main room area...

To the left of the main area...

To the right of the main area...

The pullout couch (Landon's bed)...

The dresser...

The dresser details (I want one!)....

And now, finally...THE VIEW!!!!

I know it's kinda far and all...but I could see my all-time favorite ride from my room and that is just another DREAM COME TRUE!! Yay for a Tower of Terror view? Does life get better?! (Spoiler alert: YES.)

 

[princess_momma]

Hello and HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!! I wish you all tons of happiness and pixie dust for the new year! I personally have a PAP burning a hole in my pocket, so I know I will definitely be back to WDW at least once, but here's hoping for two trips!

Anywho...on with the show!!

So we got our perfect room at the Boardwalk and were ready to hit some parks!!

We WALKED to DHS and it was perfect. It was such a peaceful, relaxing walk. Seriously, we LOVED this walk.

Our only glitch was that we had thought we would be good to go into the park right away (I would've thought the front desk would've told us that we needed to go to guest relations first if they couldn't do it.) So we went to the entrance and then got sent to guest relations to activate our AP's. Lack of planning or whatever. But luckily it was the middle of the day so the waits weren't long at all!

We did snag a quick Photopass pic outside the park...this photographer was so bland and blah that Garret noticed and commented on how un-Disney he seemed. There was literally no line for this photo and he acted like we were completely inconveniencing him! Get it together, you get to work in Disney!!

Our first stop was Tower of Terror because it is THE BEST RIDE EVER and what could be better than kicking off a Disney trip on a broken elevator?! Heaven.

We scored front row on our first row...I love it! Look at Landon's face! Lol

After entering the Twilight Zone, we walked over to Rock n Roller Coaster for Landon's FIRST ride on it ever!!!!!!

It's so amazing...it only took 5 trips but Landon was finally tall enough for RnRC! Amazing!!

What a special moment...and he absolutely loved it! He's much braver than I am. I didn't go on an upside down roller coaster until I was probably 14 or so! HA. But he loved it...probably more than ToT!

He did love it...but confessed after to having closed his eyes the whole time. What a goof. I would hold out on spoilers, but the title of this TR is "I Kept My Eyes Open the Whole Time" so you can just know that eventually he got there!

We walked over to Tattooine for some Star Tours next. You know the drill. The pilot isn't on the ship and C3PO who is supposed to be fixing it ends up driving it and we are just about to take off when we are stopped by DARTH VADER himself so you know that it is a BIG DEAL. He wants a Rebel Spy...AKA ME!!!! I was the Rebel Spy and it pretty much made my day!!

I felt so special...I LOVED being the Rebel Spy! It had never happened for me before! After Darth tried to capture ME, we went pod racing then Leia told C3PO to get me to wherever safely and then there was a bounty hunter and we ended up near the Death Star and FINALLY I was safe at a rebel base. PHEW. That was close!

By then we were all starving and caring some of our delicious favorite from last year...grub from ESPN Club. See my dining TR for details on the food.

While we were walking over to ESPN Club, Landon kept insisting that the Swan was our hotel and would absolutely NOT believe us that the Boardwalk was our hotel. It was amusing and definitely showed his stubbornness...he would not budge because he was so sure that we were staying at the Swan.

After a delicious meal, we went back to our room to switch into jeans and then walked back to DHS. So worth it!!

We stopped by ToT first again...the wait had been posted at 40 minutes, but ended up being more like 13. LOVE when that happens.

We wandered over to RnRC with a posted wait of 40 minutes and hoped for the same thing! We lucked out again...the wait was closer to 15 minutes! (Got in line at 8:17 and on the ride at 8:33).

After, we were ready to head over to the Osborne Spectacle of Lights...and a spectacle it was! Our minds were blown! It was completely breath-taking!

Then we walked onto Muppets, which is always good for a laugh, before another spin on Star Tours (they didn't recognize me as the Rebel Spy again, boo)...the wait there was posted as 20 but was closer to 10.

Then it was very close to park closing time (closed at 10) and so at 9:55 we jumped into the TSMM line, which was posted as a 40 minute wait and figured now would be a good time to wait for it! The wait ended up being more like 20 minutes, which was perfect!

My score is always around the same, Landon's improves so much with every game. This was definitely his all-time high score. But Garret beat us both at over 186k!! Maybe one day I can beat him!!

And then we headed back to our amazing room to rest our heads for the night. It had been such a perfect first day and we were ready to recharge for another one!

 

[wdwcarla]

The Boardwalk is beautiful!! And your son is too cute!

 

[princess_momma]

The Boardwalk is beautiful!! And your son is too cute!

Thank you so much! I definitely miss basking in the beauty of the Boardwalk every day!

 

[princess_momma]

On our first FULL day in the parks, we managed to arrive in the MK around 9:30. Not too shabby. I do have notated "bag check from hell" and can remember how dreadful the lines for that was. I hate bag check lines in the morning so much. What a bottle neck to get inside. UGH.

Once we got inside, it wasn't so bad. Being that it was the first day, I was DYING to take pics but Landon was already bored of that.

We were headed to Splash, which only had a 10 minute wait! Score! They assured us we could all fit into one row and Garret wouldn't let me object. And then guess which 6'6 persons legs had fallen asleep by the end of the ride?

(Poor Landon's face was covered!)

We figured we could squeeze in a ride on Big Thunder before we had our lunch FP for Be Our Guest. It ended up being 35 minutes instead of the posted 30, but oh well. We love the wildest ride in the wilderness!

Then we moseyed on over to the Beast's castle!! To wait in the longest "fast pass" line ever. LOL. You can read about that meal HERE!

Landon was getting SO EXCITED to ride the Mine Train...captured the coaster just as it was going by in this pic!

And of course, the must-do pic as we were leaving...turned out to be one of my favorites from the whole trip!

We finished up our meal and walked all the way over to Tomorrowland to use some FP's...just barely made it in time, only to find out it was DOWN. Dang, dang, dang. Luckily, our Mine Train FP was just starting so we headed back over there.

Can I just say I LOVE how fast the 7DMT FP line is. Some of them just get you further into the standby line where you meet up with everyone else to watch videos or what have you (RnRC, ToT, etc.) and this FP gets you RIGHT THERE in like 5 seconds. I wish they were all like that SOMETIMES. Or at least had the option. ANYWHO...Mine Train pics!!

Yes, it was super fast and super short, but we loved it none the less. The only bad thing was that it was short, but it was so smooth and fun. I also LOVED the video portion for both that and ToT...both made a few appearances in my trip video! I hope they keep the trend of on-ride videos going. I will ALWAYS purchase Memory Maker if they do.

Quick back story to the planning: This was our first trip NOT on the dining plan and we had a lot of stuff going on (deposit for an apartment, etc) so money was a little tight for food this trip. I had booked 'Ohana breakfast because Landon's favorite character is Stitch and I was going to surprise him with it. Then I crunched and crunched and crunched those numbers and a breakfast was going to be our most expensive meal. So, I made the decision to cut it and knew we just HAD to find Stitch in the parks. Story over. (This back story is just completely random, no foreshadowing here. )

So after our first fun ride on the 7DMT, we headed back to see if we could use our Space FP's...but alas (earwax), it was still down. But then, WHO DO WE SEE?!?!

It's Stitch with a very short line that we hop right in to! YAY!!! Success, and on the very first day! We weren't in line very long but still chatted with the character attendant. Garret had gone and sat down while we got in line, so it was just Landon and I. The handler mentioned to me how nice it was to take my little brother out in the parks. When I told him I was his mom, he was like "Oh. I feel...sheepish". Now I get that I don't look THAT young (I didn't even get carded AT ALL my last trip) and I honestly couldn't tell if he genuinely made the mistake or was just trying to be nice because he was very awkward. Nice, but awkward. Oh well. Let's go with it was genuine and make it a compliment??

Anywho...my baby boo got to have some dreams come true!

Love it.

Space was still down and we checked wait times, which were a bit high. We were hot and tired, it was crowded and there was nothing we wanted to wait that long for, so we decided to head back to our hotel. There was a different kind of coaster we wanted to ride! Any guesses as to what?!

 

[leshunlenese]

Hi Kimmy
I am joining in your TR. My DS turned 5 on our trip this year and we had an amazing time. It was just us two though. Your DS got on all the big rides. I can not get my kid on TOT at all the last two trips but maybe this year!

 

[princess_momma]

Hi Kimmy
I am joining in your TR. My DS turned 5 on our trip this year and we had an amazing time. It was just us two though. Your DS got on all the big rides. I can not get my kid on TOT at all the last two trips but maybe this year!

How fun!! Isn't it amazing taking the kids to the WDW! Landon is always pretty hesitant on the big rides but he'll go. ToT is still probably his least favorite and he'll always suggest RnRC or Star Tours, but he'll still go on it! It's funny watching him try to get out of it. He always wants us to hold on to his legs too.

 

[princess_momma]

We were just leaving the super crowded MK when we last let off and heading to a different "coaster".

We wanted to go back to our hotel and head to the pool! We were dying to ride the "Keister Coaster"!! (More commonly known as the "Scary Clown Slide Pool".) I personally don't find the clown creepy or anything. In fact, I love him because his slide is so dang fun!! Landon and I went on over and over and over. At first, there were maybe only 4 people total going down the slide. Eventually, it got more crowded and backed up on to the stairs.

Garret hadn't been in the mood for swimming, so I assigned him to picture detail. So you are welcome!

The little man and I "arguing" over who gets to go first next time! (We always tease him about stuff like his because he takes it seriously and doesn't realize that we will always let him yet! LOL)

Attempting to shield myself from that paparazzi. (Oh wait...I tipped them off that we would be here.)

Holding his breath.

Eventually we meandered around the rest of the pool. I wanted pictures with the elephants but Garret just zoomed in on us. Oh well. At least he got the picture of me pushing Landon into the spray.

After we were done swimming, we hopped on a MK bus and then took the monorail to the Poly.

At least they put Landon's favorite character on the walls.

We were having dinner at Kona. You can read it about it on my dining TR here!

When we were happy and full, we headed over for a night of fun at the MK!!

We headed to Tomorrowland to finally use those Space FP's we couldn't use earlier in the day. On our way there, we stumbled across an Incredible Dance Party! It was wonderful. I love dance parties, but that's because I love putting dancing characters in my trip videos! I don't have any pictures of that, so you'll have to look out for me and Mr. Incredible in my trip video!

And then it was time for Space!! We ran into a PP photog, which was super exciting. I've never seen them here and I love to commemorate our favorite rides!

We got on in no time with our FP+! Woohoo!

I just love the excitement in Landon's face...so adorable!

When we came out, we were surprised with Wishes!! (I never know what time anything is unless I'm planning on going to it! Oops!) We had to watch and Landon and Garret looked so adorable watching together that I went into full photographer mode. I was nearly laying down on the ground trying to attempt getting the perfect picture!

Sigh. Disney magic.

After Wishes, it was time to take on more of Tomorrowland!! Buzz was a walk-on so we headed there!

After that, we all squeezed into one car at Tomorrowland Speedway. It definitely didn't feel too tight...definitely not as tight as 3 to a seat on Splash! I was in charge of driving and I don't think anyone realized how hard those things are to drive! It was hard. I was bumping off the track the whole time and they were making fun of me! Oh well, what can ya do?

We headed to Splash next. We love it when it's even the slightest bit chilly because then no one wants to go on Splash and it's a walk on AND they'll let you stay on.

We stayed on just once...and I was freezing already but the 2nd time. STILL WORTH IT.

We headed over to BTMRR and Pirates since we were in the area. Then of course, we had to go see how many times we could ride Space before park close.

We only made it 2 because Garret and I weren't feeling so hot...Space definitely isn't the smoothest coaster, even if we still love it. We could've squeezed on one more but decided to head out at 11:56.

 

[yeheyprincex2]

you guys have some of the best ride photos I have seen, everyone looks in the moment and the woman behind you in the first TOT pic is hilarious.
BW looks nice my husband wants to stay there on our next trip.
I also have a son who is a Darth Vader, lego, get run over with waves fan.

 

[princess_momma]

Today was a huge mess. A tired mess. We are not rope drop people, we are late night people. And yet, we had to get to rope drop today because my baby needed to fight Darth Vadar!

So we walked from the Boardwalk over to DHS. (We always loved being able to walk there! It was the best.)

Of course, we were horrified. There was not even a line to get in, but there was crazy, insane lines for security. And of course, we brought the backpack. Well, now we definitely wouldn't make it in time! We quickly decided that Garret would wait in the security line and Landon and I would go sign up.

Landon and I made it at 9:08 and were so far back. The line was very winding and it winds a lot inside and then out and around where it's covered and then back to where it's un-covered. We were in the uncovered part. We waited and waited and waited. Apparently, Garret waited a lot too but he gave up and walked all the way back to the Boardwalk to drop off the backpack and all the way back. Thankfully it was walking distance because otherwise he never would've been able to do that!

It felt like we took forever in that line. At least we got a time! We were definitely one of the later times, like 6:50 something. People very close behind us didn't get spots. So just know that people are serious that you HAVE to get there at rope drop. We were there 9:08 and waited until 9:59 and barely got a spot.

I don't have it in my notes but I think we must have ridden ToT because I have a picture there. This is when I started dancing on ToT. Because they have VIDEO now and clearly, I needed that footage for my trip video. It was amazing. I'll probably start some viral trend, so be prepared for lots of ToT dancing in the future.

And then of course, we had nothing to do. Our FP+ were all a little bit away and our Jedi Training Academy time was way far away and we were hungry! So we decided to just leave and go get food at ESPN Club again.

Bad planning on our part for Garret's sake. He could've just stayed in the hotel room and instead this would be his 5th trip along the BW/DHS walk away already. And he didn't even do anything in the park but sit on a bench and wait for us to get out of line! Sorry babe!

Of course, because this day wasn't planned too well apparently, ESPN Club wasn't even open yet. All that was open was Boardwalk Bakery and we weren't feeling that so we opted to wait. You know, just in case we hadn't already waited enough yet today.

This of course turned into a Boardwalk photo shoot! Garret didn't join and just relaxed in the shade. The pictures of me were taken by Landon!

These pictures are really making me miss the Boardwalk! It was just so perfect and warm and sunny and beautiful. I miss it. What I wouldn't give to be soaking up the sun on the Boardwalk right now!

Eventually ESPN Club opened and we ate and my life changed forever and you could read all about that here!

We decided to go relax in the hot tub and eventually the room. What I love about vacations is the chill time. Even when you aren't doing ANYTHING you still make the best memories. It was just perfect hanging out and laughing and talking all together. Why is it so much harder to do that at home? Even if we are all together, there's always so many distractions like TV or whatever. The main memory from this time was that we discovered Landon would CRACK UP if we simply went "Blah blah blah". Look out for that in the trip video as well.

And then finally, a little after 3, we headed back to DHS. I had a specific robot that I was DYING to meet. So I went and got in another line. Then of course Landon needed a bathroom break as soon as we got in line. So he and Garret did that. And then Baymax took a 15 minute break. Would the waiting ever end today? Lol. I was waiting in line by myself. When it was finally my turn, the character attendant just lifted the chain and let Garret and Landon in.

AHHH it was so perfect! We are BIG Big Hero 6 fans in this household. (Even though at this point, we hadn't seen the film yet. But we knew we would love it.) Hiro says to me "your man is a big as my robot!" Hilarious!! It was such a magical character meet. Like seriously. We laughed, we fist bumped, we danced. Somehow Landon and I got distracted by all the shenanigans that we didn't even hug Baymax! Blasphemy. Luckily Garret did though!

At this point, it did get a little awkward. I asked them to dance and Baymax starts dancing right when Hiro is all "my robot isn't programmed to dance". But then he danced? And I don't know if Hiro just didn't notice the ginormous, white robot dancing because he even said that he would be sure to get him programmed for next time. Okay??

It ended up being amazing, despite the awkwardness. I miss Hiro and Baymax!

 

[princess_momma]

Then it was time for some hat pictures, obviously. This is going to be so weird when it's gone! I've never been without it there!

Apparently Hiro told Honey Lemon how fun we are and she wanted a picture with us.

We had some time to kill, so we decided we would tour the galaxy and headed over to Star Tours. We got the scanner droid thing, the ewoks, and General Ackbar. Always a good time.

While we were heading over to check in for Jedi Training Academy, I mentioned to Garret how the Tune In Lounge (at 50's Prime Time Cafe) was a good bar, so he got the Patron Platinum Margarita and really enjoyed it. Landon chatted with this lovely woman at the bar, who of course had Stitch on her magic band. She was so sweet. She gave him her glow cube that he was mesmerized with. I love Disney people!

And then it was time...(insert Darth Vadar theme song.) Landon was wearing a Darth Vadar shirt and got called out on it, to which Darth replied "Impressive". Now whenever anyone says that, I hear it in his voice.

And then Landon got crazy lucky and he was the one who got to use the force on the Stormtroopers. IT WAS AMAZING!!

OMG. This was so worth the wait. It was so amazing and we loved getting to see Landon up there being a part of his favorite movie. It brings tears to my eyes. I love it so much. If you would like to watch the part where Landon was battling, you can watch it here.

Then it was finally time for our ToT and RnRC FP's!! Yay!!

Our last ride of the night was, of course, ToT. Landon was famous by now and some kid came up to him and was all "Remember that time we fought Darth Vadar and you had a Darth Vadar shirt?!" Good times.

It started out slow, but the day was perfect and amazing because it's Disney and some of my all-time favorite memories happened on this day!

 

[princess_momma]

you guys have some of the best ride photos I have seen, everyone looks in the moment and the woman behind you in the first TOT pic is hilarious.
BW looks nice my husband wants to stay there on our next trip.
I also have a son who is a Darth Vader, lego, get run over with waves fan.

Thank you!! Landon really got into the ride photos this trip so it was extra fun!
The best part of ToT pics is looking at everyone's faces! So hilarious!
We loved the BW...we want to try a lot of other resorts, but think it'll be really hard to NOT stay there. We loved the location and the food options so close!
Sounds like our sons would have a lot of fun together!

 

[princess_momma]

My family has never been big on Epcot. We just never spend enough time there and since we can only get a FP+ for one of the two rides we want to watch, it always seems wasteful. Because of this, we STILL hadn't been on the re-imagined Test Track and really wanted to. So we figured we would make the FP's and just figure it out. Our FP's were for The Seas with Nemo, Turtle Talk with Crush and Test Track. I really only made them the night before and hadn't planned on this, so it was nice to be able to do that.

We decided to walk through the hotel to avoid the heat for part of our walk. (We were basically the closest you could be to the DHS path.) In the lobby, a cast member named Joe noticed Landon's birthday button!! Then he continued to ask if Landon had ever heard of pin trading (he hadn't...I've been waiting to get started on that crazy train!) and then because Landon hadn't, let him pick 6 (his age) pins off his lanyard! It was so sweet and Landon was so excited!!

We strolled right into an empty (closed) World Showcase. It was magical. I love walking through any empty park! Of course, we had to stop for a picture or two.

Our first stop was the Seas with Nemo. For the first time, this wasn't a complete walk on. Thanks FP+. Silly. Turtle Talk with Crush was next, which I found hysterical as usual. I did feel more crowded and squished in that usual. Oh well, what can ya do? Landon was disappointed that Crush didn't call on him. He had prepared a question and all. Maybe next time.

We still had some time to kill before our Test Track FP, so we decided to get some lunch. Garret had mentioned he wanted Mexican food, so I figured we could grab a bite at La Cantina (the quick service) but apparently Garret had been expecting a sit-down place. Luckily, San Angel Inn was accepting walk ups. You can read about that meal here!

Did you know I had never been inside the pyramid before?? Here I thought the pyramid was JUST the ride. (And then I always wondered where people got their sombrero hat pictures and where La Cava was hidden! HA! Amateur. I blame the fact that my family barely spends any time or even plans any time in EPCOT.)

Anywho, I finally got that dang hat picture.

(Still haven't gotten that dang margarita though!)

Then it was finally time to read TEST TRACK, BABY!!! WOOO!!! Landon had never even been on it, and I still hadn't seen the re-imagined version! So we were all very much looking forward to this!

Here is our car:

And our ride:

We all had a great time with this! Landon absolutely loved it! It was so fun! I'm glad we finally made it over here!

After being thoroughly exhilarated, we decided to grab a quick picture and then head over to Animal Kingdom!