Reunited & it Feels so Good! (a/k/a Alyssa's Welcome Home from Honduras Trip!) UPDATED 10/5

[Born 2B a Princess]

Well, we'll see how this trip report goes -- I have high hopes and I kept pretty detailed notes, so hopefully I can knock it out fairly quickly! I never did finish my PTR....but it would be a shame not to do something with all of my lovely notes and details from the trip!

This was our third or fourth with all four of us (husband, both daughters, and myself), third trip with my parents, and ninth trip total for my and our daughters and I used to take them to Disney for quick weekend trips for MNSSHP and MVMCP when we lived in Georgia. We were only about five and a half hours from Disney and so it was easy for me to take them down there on a Friday, do the party that night, do a water park or DTD or something else Saturday, and then drive home Saturday night. We moved farther up north three years ago and and so we can't do that anymore. Sad!

Explanation of the this TR title.... Our oldest daughter, Alyssa, returned home in April after an 18 month mission for our church. She went to Honduras. Before her mission she got to pick a special trip and she picked Disney -- so she and I and my parents went for five days. She also got to pick our family vacation this year since she was back home with us and...no surprise...she picked Disney. YEA! I raised her right! LOL So I actually began planning this trip around the time she left because (1) it kept my mind off of how much I missed her, and (2) I just can't get enough Disney trip planning fun.

Who are we? My husband is a high school teacher and coach. I work for the Department of Defense. Alyssa is now back in college, and Brie, our younger daughter, is in high school. My parents are retired military (hence one of the reasons we like to have them come with us -- military discounts!) and they are currently serving a church mission in Washington, DC.

This is the four of us.....


And separate pictures of my parents with the girls....I have pictures of all of us together but can't find them.....



So that's the "who". Now for some more background details....

Why: A combined celebration of Alyssa's homecoming and her birthday which was two weeks after our trip. So it was a mini family reunion (I say mini because it was just us and my parents).

When: We knew we had to go in summer because my husband is a teacher and can't take time off in conjuction with a school break (i.e., Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break). We were originally going to go at the end of June but realized that, if my parents went with us, we could get the military salute tickets and military discount on the resorts, and that would save us about $1500. Fortunately, my parents enjoy going to Disney with us and were willing to do it! (My daughter and I loved being there in September 2013 with them for her pre-mission trip.) Because my parents' are currently serving a church mission, they only had a limited timeframe in August that they could go with us, and so it became pretty easy to make the decision to go in early August. We combined the trip with a weekend in Georgia to attend my niece's baptism and see family.

Where: Since my parents were going with us, we definitely wanted their input on the resort. We knew we wanted to stay in a moderate -- would love to stay in a deluxe some time but it just isn't in the budget...I looked into renting DVC points but the military discount was still cheaper, and truly, we're perfectly happy in the moderates (and in the values for shorter trips). We have stayed in CB three times, and CS once. We really liked both. My parents had stayed in POFQ on two of their trips and really loved it and said that's where they'd like to stay, if there was availability. I called my friend Mindy, a travel agent (who was so incredibly patient with me!) and she was able to get us booked into POFQ with the military discount, standard view.

The original plan was for my parents to come down for just two park days and then on our non-park day to go home after we did something together in the morning, but a couple of weeks before the trip they decided they wanted to do four park days so I asked Mindy to look into adding a night to their reservation. It turned out that we had to upgrade to do that, so we ended up in pool view rooms. Having now stayed at POFQ, I can't figure out why the pool view rooms are more expensive than the river view rooms -- the pool is fine and we didn't notice any increased noise from the location, but the bright lights did seep into the room a bit at night. But the river view -- oh goodness, so pretty! So next time I'm requesting river view.

And with that, we're just about ready to get started!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

I tend to be an OCD trip planner, and so I spent a lot of time planning this trip, debating over ADRs, FP+, extra activities, touring plans, wardrobe, decorating Magic Bands, etc. This was our first trip with FP+ and, honestly, there are things I like and things I don't like about it. I'll do a summary "good, bad, ugly" and final thoughts post at the end of this TR.

Brie decorated all of the Magic Bands except Alyssa's (the pink chevron -- was from DVC Central, I believe). Mine is pink and black and Mom's is white and green. The design on them is a vinyl decal that my sister cut for me. Brie's is red with white polka dots (hand painted) and a monogram that we ordered from Etsy. My husband's band has the little green alien men from Toy Story (temporary tattoos), glow in the dark nail polish, and some star accents (nail design accents). My Dad's band has the BYU "Y" logo (vinyl that a friend cut). All of the bands held up incredibly well -- mine had a small piece of one of the curlicues that lifted up and I ended up just snipping it off with a nail clipper. It wasn't even visible. We were very happy with how they all held up and they worked well -- we never had any Magic Band issues.



She takes band decorating very seriously!


Once the bands were decorated it was time for me to assemble my park notebook. I do a master schedule that shows park hours, EMH, parades, fireworks, and major shows for each park for the front of the book, and then each day gets its own section with small park map for that day's park, printout of our touring plan, cheat sheet showing the best times for each ride and estimated hourly wait times for each ride, and then a spreadsheet showing ADRs, FP+ times, "must dos", desired photopass locations, and good locations to watch fireworks and parades. I also add a couple of note pages so I can track posted and actual wait times and a page for dining thoughts.

Once I had my park notebook completely assembled....and once we got our things packed and dropped our dogs off with our friends who were keeping them for us, it was time to leave!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Just a snapshot of a couple of my park notebook planning pages...



And of course, the packing...pardon the mess....
Our travel day to Georgia was fairly uneventful....for the most part. We left very early in the morning (6:00 am). Our traveling companion for the trip down to Georgia was my sister's dog, Cami, who had spent most of the summer with us. We would be returning her to my sister. Here she is on Alyssa's lap....



A quick stop in the Chick-Fil-A drive through and we were off!



Gotta keep those windshields clean....



Just chillin' with Cami during a gas stop...



We didn't hit any traffic at all and had an absolutely great trip with wonderful weather...and just one hiccup. Cami apparently loves beef jerky but it doesn't love her. Unfortunately, she snatched a huge piece out of Alyssa's had in the morning. By the time we stopped for lunch, Cami wasn't feeling so well and soiled Alyssa's shirt and the seatbelt. Yuck! So we cleaned that up and dealt with that situation, and the girls and I went into Zaxby's to eat (our favorite place!) and Mark stayed outside with Cami to give her some water and let her walk around and relieve herself as needed. Up until that point Cami had ridden on Alyssa's lap but for the rest of the trip we had to keep her in the back seat in her bed so as not to risk soiling us or the car.

It took about 12 hours but we arrived, safe and sound, at my parents' house in Georgia. Cami was beyond excited to be reunited with her family, and we were excited to be out of the car and to get to spend a couple of days with my parents and two of my sisters and their families.

One of the things Brie did while we were in Georgia was Alyssa's nails (she had done her own acrylics before we left home), plus some henna art for the trip. She is so talented with things like this! These are her nails....


And the henna she did on Alyssa...



And Alyssa's nails.....



And her own henna...



Unfortunately, it turned out that the henna was old and the designs never set properly. That was a bummer, especially after all of the time and hard work she put into the designs. Oh well!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

DAY 1 -- Travel to WDW and dinner at 'Ohana

After spending a couple of days in Georgia, it was finally time to head down to Disney World! We were so excited!!!

A picture of Grandma and her girls....


My husband, who is not as much of a Disney fan as Alyssa and I are, doesn't do character shirts. He does have one baseball cap that says "I'm Grumpy because you're Dopey" and he brought that along on the trip. I decided he needed a Disney t-shirt for the trip and bought him one. He said he would wear it for the drive down but that was it.....



I have no idea where that shirt is now...wouldn't surprise me if it didn't make the trip home in his suitcase....

We loaded the cars and hit the road just before 9 am, a few minutes ahead of schedule. Amazingly, the construction on I-75 South was actually complete and we didn't hit any slow downs at all. It was amazing -- I've never driven south through Georgia and not hit construction on I-75 before!

We stopped at Zaxby's for lunch because...hello, Zaxby's! We love Zaxby's and really miss it. The closest one to us is like four or five hours away and that's just too far, so we make sure to get at least once every time we go home to visit.



My plan was to have us at POFQ at 3 pm, since that's when check-in is. I hadn't done online check-in. For some reason, Waze took us in the back way instead of I-4...that was strange...it's done that to us on our last two trips and so instead of driving under the beautiful arch and getting the ever-sought-after perfect arch picture, we went in through the back and drove past the trailer-like offices and buildings on the back of the property -- definitely the off stage stuff! Oh well -- I figured I could get my arch picture later during the trip.

We arrived at POFQ at 2:50 pm. We were so excited to be there and started to fall in love with the resort at first sight!



The CM who checked us in was very nice and she got my Dad checked in first without any difficulty at all. Unfortunately, our rooms weren't ready yet. This was a bit of a concern because Alyssa was scheduled for a job interview by phone at 4:30 and we needed her to have a quiet, private place for the interview. They informed Mousekeeping that we would need at least one of the rooms as soon as possible and said they would text us when the rooms were ready. Then they got us checked in. The entire process -- checking us both in -- took about 15 minutes, start to finish. While Dad and I did check in, Mark had a seat in the comfy seating, everyone enjoyed some ice water, and Mom and the girls checked out the gift shop.



While they were checking me in, my Dad got a text that his room was ready! Ours wasn't yet, but that was ok -- we could put all of our stuff in their room, change and go down to the pool, and let Alyssa do her interview from their room. So that's where we headed. Mousekeeping was still in our room cleaning and getting it ready for us.

We were on the second floor in adjoining pool view rooms. We had a fabulous view of the pool. We all got changed and headed down to the pool while Mom stayed behind to rest in the room. While we were at the pool we got a text that our room was ready, and so Alyssa was able to do her interview from our room in privacy. (She ended up getting the job and it was the job she wanted!)

We enjoyed the pool -- the weather was great. I don't really get the theming of the pool -- I think the dancing/band instrument playing alligators/crocodiles and the slide are kind of creepy looking, but whatever. It's a nice pool. Our only complaint about the pool facilities is that the hot tub was way, way, way too hot every single night we were there. I could barely even dip my feet in for a minute. That was disappointing because soaking me feet in the hot tub after being on them all day is lovely and soothing. Oh well.

We stayed in the pool for about 30 minutes and then went up to our rooms to clean up and change. While Alyssa did her interview, we decided to explore the resort a bit. We didn't have long because the interview only took about 7-10 minutes! Mom's Magic Band wasn't working so Dad went to the front desk to take care of that, and it was resolved very quickly.

After we had finished swimming and Alyssa's interview was over it was time to cleaned up and head to the meal we were most looking forward to for the whole trip -- a family tradition that we do on every single trip -- 'Ohana! We were sitting in the lounge area talking about whether we wanted to drive to MK the next morning (our first park day) or take the bus. All of my research indicated that the bus was the way to go for MK and then drive your own car to the other parks. The CM said we should drive to MK...and then went on to give some erroneous information about the buses. I can't remember what it was, but it was definitely incorrect information. I kindly thanked her and then we decided we would take the bus to MK. For dinner that night we were also going to take the bus to MK then monorail to the Poly for dinner at 'Ohana and take care of activating our park tickets as well -- that would be one less thing to do in the morning.

 

[pookersmom]

Well I'm in for this. You have a lovely family. And I adore those manicures!

 

[msluvsdisney]

Great trip report so far! I love the customized magic bands. Very inspiring!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Thank you both so much for following along!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Well I'm in for this. You have a lovely family. And I adore those manicures!

Thank you! My daughter loves to do nails -- it's crazy how many bottles of nail polish she has...she even recently bought her own set of tools for doing acrylic nails. She's very creative!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Great trip report so far! I love the customized magic bands. Very inspiring!

Thank you! We can't claim credit for them, really -- we saw so many great ideas here on the DIS!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

DAY 1 -- Travel to WDW and dinner at 'Ohana, continued

I forgot to include the obligatory room pictures!! We really liked the room. Our only complaint was that we didn't discover until the next morning that the fridge wasn't turned on, so our water wasn't chilled when we were ready to leave for the parks. The fridge in my parents' room wasn't on either, but they discovered it sooner because my Mom is diabetic and her insulin has to be kept cold. They thought their fridge was broken and someone from Mousekeeping came and turned it on for them. They didn't say anything to us because they figured ours was working, so when I told them in the morning that our fridge wasn't working they told me it probably wasn't turned on and Mom turned it on for me.

We found the beds to be very comfortable. The only thing we didn't like was that the overhead bathroom light took *forever* to fully turn on and those bathrooms are rather dark. So I ended up leaving the bathroom light on every night and just pulling the door shut and pulling the divider curtain so that whoever was up first in the morning (or the middle of the night) had light.



It says my pictures of our pool view are too big to upload. That's odd..... Anyway, we had a lovely view of the pool.

I have to say, we had pretty good luck with the buses at POFQ for the most part. Tonight, we had a 6:25 ADR at 'Ohana and decided we would head over a bit earlier than necessary so we could activate our park tickets.

A little lizard that we saw on the way to the bus -- we saw lots and lots of these during the week....


We got to the bus stop at about 5:20 and waited 15-20 minutes for a bus. This one one of the longest waits we had for a bus all week -- really, we had pretty good luck with the buses.

We were all excited to get our trip really underway! We took the bus to MK and here is where I made a silly mistake -- I forgot that we needed all of the Magic Bands to activate the military salute tickets. It was starting to sprinkle, so Dad and I headed to guest services and told everyone else to head to the monorail and we would meet them on the monorail platform. Dad and I got in line and after just a few minutes it was our turn...and, of course, we only had our Magic Bands and not everyone else's! By this time it was raining a bit harder so he and I sprinted (as much as I ever sprint, LOL!) over to the monorail platform to meet up with everyone else and head to 'Ohana, and then we would activate the park tickets after dinner.

We arrived at the Poly and got checked in 6:10. I have to say that, while the renovations to the lobby are nice, I really do miss the water feature and it just didn't seem like the Poly to me anymore. It really is lovely, but it just didn't feel like the Poly to me. But it is beautiful.

We checked in at 6:10 and were seated at 6:40. We were seated right next to the window so we had a lovely view of the pool and across the lagoon, along with Space Mountain and the Castle. LOVED the view! And since all of my pictures are saying they're too big to upload now, I'll have to mess around with them and put them in the next update. Sorry! Had our ADR been for an hour later we could have managed to stretch it out to watch Wishes but that would have been too late for us to eat. But I imagine it's magical to watch Wishes from there while you eat the amazing bread pudding..... *dreams*

Anyway, our "cousin" for the evening was Cathy from Orlando and she was so sweet and so much fun. She immediately noticed Alyssa's birthday button and our family reunion buttons and commented on that. I had previously called in and annotated my Mom's shellfish allergy on our reservation but for some reason they wouldn't let me annotate her mushroom allergy. So when I checked us in, I told them I needed to add an allergy. Almost as soon as we were seated, the chef came out to talk with my Mom about her allergies. He ended up making her a separate salad (the salad has mushrooms -- who knew?) and separate vegetables. He was very nice about it and took great care of her. We were excited when the food started coming out because by now we were hungry!! Dad and Alyssa ordered virgin pina coladas. Yummy....



We were sad that some of our favorites have been changed (I love the salad dressing they used to have, but the dressing they have now is fine)...we always love the bread, and the noodles and wings were a huge hit. My Dad, husband, and daughters all loved the shrimp (Mom and I didn't have shrimp). The steak, sadly, was on the chewy, tough side, but the chicken was really good. Alyssa participated in the birthday singalong and they brought out a cupcake and two brownies for her birthday... in addition to the always amazing bread pudding -- and you better believe we finished every last bite of that bread pudding! I've tried making it at home and it's just not as good. Wow....it was SO good.


The reason I booked this ADR for our arrival night is that we really don't eat a lot of heavy food or big meals when we're in the heat all day, and so I wanted this to be either on our arrival day or our non-park day so that we would be cool, refreshed, and able to eat as much as we wanted to. It worked out great and I'll use this strategy again in the future.

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Day 1, Travel and dinner at 'Ohana, continued



We made Alyssa go up for the birthday song....


The always lovely and fabulous bread pudding.....


A couple of views as we left 'Ohana...



I always look for the hidden Mickeys.....


We decided to take the boat back to MK because it wasn't raining anymore -- it was an absolutely beautiful night!



Once we got to MK, we went straight to guest services and got our park tickets activated. Yea!!! Then we headed to the bus stop and a bus came five minutes later so we hopped on the bus and headed back, with plans made to leave early the next morning to be at MK by 8:25 am. Woohoo!! But first, we were going to do something I've wanted to do ever since our first trip.....

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Day 1, Travel and dinner at 'Ohana continued

Ever since our first trip I've wanted to have caricatures done of our daughters. I really debated having them done as Anna and Elsa from Frozen because it's almost like they modeled those characters after our girls!!! But I knew the girls wouldn't be thrilled about that (just like I wanted to do a FP+ for them to meet Anna and Elsa and pose for sister pictures with them but they didn't want to do that -- they're not big on character meetings). Mark and Mom headed back to our room and Dad and I hung out and watched the caricature process and enjoyed the musicians in the lounge.

The caricature artist was really good, and quite fast. We're really happy with how it turned out.



After the caricatures, we went back to the room and prepped the park bag for the next morning and our first park of the trip -- Magic Kingdom!

Thanks for joining us, and tune in next time for our continuing adventures....

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

DAY 2 -- MAGIC KINGDOM

I'll preface this by saying that we were, for the most part, following the touring plan/park day recommendations from Josh at EasyWDW. I say "for the most part" because I wasn't able to get all of the FP+ in his recommended windows, we swapped out attractions in his plan for ones we liked better, and because we did go against his most recommended park on two days -- this day and the next day. Animal Kingdom was recommended for this day with MK farther down the list but because we only had four park days, we wanted to be sure that we allotted at least a good chunk of one day each to the parks. And Mom and Dad definitely wanted to do MK and Epcot, and when I made our FP+ reservations they were only going to do two park days, so that put us with MK this day and Epcot the next day. But his plans definitely worked and we were very happy with the outcome.

Now, back to our regular programming....

We knew we wanted to be at the park by 8:25 am and we decided to use the Disney transportation for MK because it's much easier than driving, parking the car, and then taking the ferry or the monorail. We woke up bright and early, got ready for the day, ate some breakfast in the room, and headed to the bus stop at 7:45. We didn't wait long at all and a bus arrived and, true to the plan, we were through bag check and where we wanted to be in the area in front of the entrance by 8:25. The sun was already bright and hot so we had Mom go stand in some shade by guest services for a little while while we waited for the opening show and rope drop. We huddled together and I told everyone the plan of attack -- first up, Peter Pan -- and since Mom walks slower than the rest of us (arthritis), everyone knew to meet at Peter Pan if we got separated. We were perfectly positioned to see opening show, and not far back at all from the archways.

I love this sign....


So you can see how close we were to the archways. The area behind us filled up very, very quickly and we were all glad we arrived as early as we did.

Waiting to go in.... (me, Dad, and Mom)


Again, you can see how close were were to the front. Perfect spot!



Once the opening show was over they let us in and it was a madhouse! They always tell people to walk but it was crazy. People were pushing and shoving and I really worried about little children getting separated from their families in the mad rush to get down Main Street. It's sad, but I always feel like we have to rush down Main Street on our MK mornings because of the hoardes of people rushing from behind us. One of these years, when my husband retires from teaching, we'll go on a trip during the least crowded times of the year and experience lower morning crowds on Main Street and try to strol in leisurely....LOL

It was a gorgeous day with clear blue skies and already hot. But who cares? We're at Disney World! And there isn't much that does this Mama's heart more good that seeing my two girls walking side by side down Main Street....



And seeing the castle....



We made our way quickly to Peter Pan, arriving at 8:55 am. The posted wait time was 5 minutes but we walked right on. One of these days I'll have to actually see the new queue...it looked really cute and well done.

After Peter Pan, we made our way over to BTMRR, my Dad's favorite ride. Mom was going to sit this one out so we found her a place to sit in the shade and the rest of us hiked up to the top of the mountain for the wildest ride in the wilderness. We arrived at 9:10 to a posted wait time of 5 minutes. We walked on twice in a row and were off the ride at 9:25. We stopped for a quick photopass picture (still waiting on those -- will add them later in the report) and then headed off to our first FP+ of the day -- SDMT.

Now, you need to know that my Mom hates thrill rides of ANY kind. Absolutely hates them. I once got her to go on Test Track, but I had forgotten how jerky it was and how fast it went. I didn't think she would ever forgive me for that. She does love Soarin', which surprises all of us. Anyway, I told her what I knew about this ride -- it was a family coaster, very smooth, no huge drops, and I had watched ride footage online and I really thought it would be absolutely fine and she would like it. She heard people on the ride screaming (in delight and fun) and wasn't so sure about that. She watched the ride for a few minutes and said she thought she could try it. So we got in line at 9:40 am (posted wait time was 45 minutes) and we were in line for about 5 minutes. During that time she heard people on the ride and she started to get a little worked up. We told her she didn't have to go on the ride but she said she would....and she did...and it terrified her and she absolutely hated every. single. minute. I couldn't really enjoy the ride myself because I could hear her behind me almost crying and hating the ride and wanting to get off and I just kept yelling, "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" And then, of course, right before the end of the right, it stopped....and we sat there for a few minutes and she really didn't like that. But we were stopped on a flat part, at least.

Anyway, when we got off the ride she was pretty shaken up and upset and I knew there was no way on earth she would go on that again...and she would probably never again trust one of my ride recommendations! (I'll post ride video when I get our Memory Maker stuff downloaded). We were off SDMT by about 9:50.

After SDMT, we headed to Enchanted Tales with Belle. Alyssa and I had done this with my parents on our last trip and thought it was really adorable, and we wanted to do something that gave Mom a chance to sit down and relax. We arrived at 9:57 and the posted wait time was 20 minutes but we really walked right on, no wait time at all. The cottage is so cute and whatever technology they use to make the doorway is really neat! I was secretly hoping my husband and my Dad would get chosen to be the suits of armor but both hung way back very quietly and unobtrusively -- they did not want to be picked! The show was as cute as ever and we all ooh'ed and aah'ed over the little ones chosen to participate. It was very sweet, and just what my Mom needed to relax after her "harrowing" experience on SDMT!

After that we headed to Mickey's Philharmagic -- another of my parents' favorites. A cute shot of Mom and Dad...actually, this is out of order -- this was after BTMRR on the way to SDMT. Oh well -- they're still cute.



My husband skipped out of Mickey's Philharmagic for a restroom break (aren't the Tangled restrooms so neat?!). We gave him a bit of a hard time about it...the girls and I love it and so do my parents but it isn't his favorite. After Mickey's Philharmagic, it was time to split up....my husband, Dad, and the girls had FP+ for Space Mountain and Mom and I had FP+ for IASW. I knew there was no way on earth to get Mom on SM, and after our last trip I didn't think I was going to be up for it, either. (I get motion sickness pretty easily, and even with Dramamine -- I take it every day for the parks -- it made me queasy on our last trip). So we split up and headed our separate directions....

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

It's annoying me that the pictures aren't showing up -- any suggestions?

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

DAY 2, MAGIC KINGDOM, PART 2

When we left off, we were splitting up. The men and the girls were heading to SM, and Mom and I were heading to IASW. I had my daughter note the stats for SM -- she said they only waited about 5 minutes with FP+ and they were on the ride. They loved it, although it was a bit hard on my Dad's back. He loves the ride but it's a "one and done" for him. Mom and I headed off to IASW with our FP+ (which we really didn't need, but we needed to use it on something during the same block of time the others were using FP+ on SM). We got there at 10:47 and the standby time was posted at 15 minutes but we were on within about five minutes. Not bad! We all met back up in front of Mickey's Philharmagic and headed to Ariel (what is the name of that ride???). We got there at 11:17 and the posted wait time was 10 minutes...we walked on. Josh's touring plans and cheat sheets were definitely keeping us ahead of the lines and on track to finish everything we wanted to do with time to spare for swimming!

We had a lunch ADR for BOG at 11:30 but I didn't know we were supposed to check in 10 minutes early. Oops -- bad on my part! There were a lot of people trying to get in as walk-ins but there was no availability. They got us checked in and, fortunately, we had preordered because the line to order was really long! We paid for the food (a bit of confusion because we split the cost and that confused the CM a bit), got our rose, and headed in to try to find a seat. That was NOT easy! It took several minutes to find a table and we finally got lucky and found one in the West Wing, right in front of the rose, that another party was getting ready to vacate. We stalked the table and grabbed it as soon as they left. It was hard to find a table for six people! I do wish they would have CMs to help find seating -- it would make things much easier. Alyssa and I had eaten at BOG with my parents on our last trip and we really enjoyed it...but we forgot how big the sandwiches are! Alyssa and Brie got the braised pork to share, with an extra side of potatoes....Mom, Dad, and I each ordered the steak sandwich and Mark ordered the turkey sandwich, and then we ordered the Master's cupcake, lemon meringue cupcake, and lemon raspberry cream puff to share for dessert. Seriously, those sandwiches are HUGE! Alyssa and Brie finished off all of their food and ate a few bites of our sandwiches, but there was still enough food left to make almost two whole sandwiches. We have to remember to share next time! We were most excited to try the Master's cupcake and the gray stuff and it did not disappoint -- that was definitely our favorite of all three desserts. We ordered the sugar free lemon raspberry cream puff for my Mom because she's diabetic, and she was the only one who really liked it. The lemon meringue cupcake was good, too, but the chocolate was really good. Very moist and so delicious!

Our food....


Well, ok, just my sandwich and the cupcakes. My husband thought I was weird trying to take pictures of his food. He isn't a DISer, guys -- he just doesn't get it.

And of course we had to wander around a bit to look in the different rooms. We didn't spend much time doing that because it was just so crowded. But still....

Like I said, our table was directly in front of the rose....



And you can't go to BOG without getting a picture of the pants-less prince.... Seriously, you would think that someone would have noticed that before it went to production....

After lunch it was time for our Jungle Cruise FP+. We arrived at 12:35 and the standby time was 55 minutes...and the FP+ line extended up the steps! It was crazy. They were having to direct people to the FP+ line because it was getting intermingled with the standby line. We waited in line for about 15 minutes -- and it was hot and humid. Our misters and Frogg Toggs came in really handy. I know is a corny ride and there are those who don't appreciate it, but it's one that I really enjoy. We had a great skipper. I'm hoping that the servers in the new Jungle Cruise restaurant have the same type of "schtick" (spelling?) and delivery -- it will make it a really fun dining experience. And another TS restaurant in MK is definitely a good thing.

After Jungle Cruise we were all pretty dang hot and, even though we had eaten lunch just about an hour before, we decided it was time for something cool and refreshing...and since we just happened to be right by Aloha Isle and Sunshine...well, you just can't pass up a Dole Whip. So we didn't!



Wow, I am a really bad photographer! But, in my defense, these were taken with my phone and I was trying to hold a melting Dole Whip in my hand....

It was at this point that I made a big mistake....it was time to book another FP+ and I disregarded everything I had read about which FP+ kiosk to use and which one to avoid...and I got in line at the Frontierland FP+ kiosk. The line was SOOOOOOO long and it was in the sun and it was hot and humid and I was melting right along with my Dole Whip. I left everyone else in the shade eating their Dole Whips and I waited in this darn line for about 25 minutes! It was frustrating because when I got in line I checked the FP+ availability for Buzz Lightyear, which was what we wanted to do next, and there was availability in 30 minutes. That would have been perfect -- finish our Dole Whips, take a bathroom break, and then stroll leisurely over to Buzz Lightyear.... But noooooooo..... By the time I got up to a kiosk, there was nothing available until two hours later. I took the first available time and then tried to change it to something earlier on my phone but there wasn't anything.

We decided then that it was a good time to head back to POFQ and take a break...some swimming, maybe a little nap for some members of our party...and then freshen up and hit the park again later in the day. We headed out to the bus stop and a bus came within two minutes. We hopped on and headed back to POFQ for a little rest and relaxation!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

I finally got our Memory Maker pictures downloaded so I'll try to post some here...

From SDMT...notice my Mom hanging on to my Dad and the ride vehicle for dear life....



Mark and the girls on SM, and my Dad on SM (he had to ride separately, obviously)




We got back to POFQ and Mom decided to read and take a nap in the room while the rest of us changed and went down to the pool for a little while. There was a surprise waiting in our room for us.....Thanks, Mickey!





It was fun to watch the pool activities the children were doing and the water felt great! After swimming, we got cleaned up and headed back to MK to finish out our evening. We got to the POFQ bus stop at 4:10 and waited about 10 minutes for our bus. Not bad!

We got back to MK and headed over to Buzz Lightyear since we had a 4:05-5:05 FP+. We got there at 4:50 and the standby wait was posted at 30 minutes. We waited about 10 minutes in the FP+ line. I got my highest score ever -- 165,000....but even after reading all the tips on how to get a high score I couldn't do better than that. But I did beat my husband, so it's all good.






Next we went over to People Mover (Tomorrowland Transit Authority....) and walked right on. As we were getting on, my Mom announced that she didn't like this ride and it scares her. What??? How on earth can PM/TTA (I never know what to call it) scare anyone? We got a laugh out of that but she was quite serious. Sure enough, it does go quickly around some corners and she hated that....and she doesn't like the dark part while you're inside the SM building. We got her on it once but I knew it wouldn't happen again. I quickly hopped over to the FP+ kiosk by Buzz Lightyear and booked FP+ for BTMRR that night at 9:45 since the girls and my Dad and I wanted to ride it at night, but then stepped away and was able to change the FP+ to three overlapping times starting at 9:05, so we would be able to ride just a bit earlier. After that, we decided to go to Monsters Inc. We arrived at 5:35 to a posted wait time of 20 minutes...we waited 15 minutes. I know some people don't really enjoy this attraction, but we always do. Just once, though, I'd love it if my husband or father was picked as "that guy"!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

After Monsters Inc we were all hungry and decided to head to Columbia Harbor House for dinner since they had a decent variety of options. We were able to easily find a table upstairs and it was so cool and quiet up there! The girls shared a lobster mac and cheese and something else that I can't remember...Mom and I both had salads with grilled chicken and broccoli in them and were only able to eat about half of them. I think my husband and Dad had fish....sorry, I forgot to write down what everyone ate at this meal!






After dinner, we wanted to do something relaxing and the Liberty Belle was just the thing. Obviously we had gone off plan by this point in time, and that will come back to bite us in just a little while! We got to the Liberty Belle right at 6:57 and waited about five minutes and then we were off for a quiet, calm ride. We found Mom a place to sit and the rest of us leaned against the railing on the lower level and enjoyed the ride. It really was lovely -- so quiet and peaceful. We couldn't hear the narration but we've done this enough times that we knew pretty much what was being pointed out. We did see several deer -- real live ones! -- while we were riding and that was neat to see.


After this we hopped on the railroad -- we waited about five minutes for it to arrive. It was really crowded but we were able to find seats. We rode over to the old Toontown Station stop (what is it called now -- Fantasyland stop?) and got off and then walked over to Buzz to ride standby. Not smart on my part....we got there at 7:50 and the posted wait time was 30 minutes. We waited 25 minutes. Oh well -- it had started sprinkling and raining a bit at this point and so it wasn't so bad to be out of the rain!



I got a terrible score this time!

After we got off Buzz, Mark (who doesn't love parades or fireworks) and my Mom decided to call it a night and head back to the resort. Dad and the girls and I stayed to see the fireworks and ride BTMRR at night. We stopped for an ice cream bar on the way over to Frontierland...



And I made a big rookie mistake -- I completely forgot that MSEP starts on Main Street and comes back to Frontierland...I thought it started in Frontierland and worked its way up toward Main Street. Ooops!!! So we found good spots and waited and waited and waited and waited.....the parade started 15 minutes late as it was, but we were seriously at the VERY end of the parade route instead of being at the very beginning of the route. Oh well -- it's not our favorite parade, but I feel like we wasted a good bit of time that we could have used to do something else. We ducked out of the parade a bit early to head to BTMRR for our FP+. We got there at 9:20 and the posted wait time was 35 minutes. We waited five. We LOVE BTMRR at night -- it's a totally different experience and we love it!

After we rode we decided to find a spot for Wishes. We love to watch in front of the castle but we knew there was no way we could get there and get good spots at this point in time, so we decided to watch from the bridge near Splash Mountain. The fireworks were lovely and it was neat to see them reflected in the water. (But we still prefer to be in front of the castle for the fireworks.) Of course I teared up during Wishes....I just can't help it! It was so wonderful to be there with my Dad and my daughters, enjoying Disney World and just being together. Yeah, I was a sappy mess. I get a bit emotional!



And one of these days I'll learn to take good fireworks pictures.....

After Wishes, we headed toward the front of the park to exit. We probably should have found a ride to do a couple of times to let the bulk of the crowds go, but we took our time and walked slowly. We cut over to the back exit behind Main Street and took that way out. We got to the bus stop and a bus pulled up just as we arrived. Perfect timing! We headed our tired bodies back to POFQ and decided to take a quick dip in the hot tub.

Unfortunately, the hot tub was WAAAAYYYYYYYY too hot -- I couldn't even put my feet in for more than a few seconds, so that didn't last long. We said our good nights, made our plans for the next day, and all went to bed. I was amazed at how quickly I fell asleep, and how soundly I slept. I didn't hear my husband's snoring at all...unlike our daughters who heard it through their earplugs! LOL

 

[MrsJamesPSullivan]

I'm loving your report. Your daughter is very talented. What a shame the henna didn't last! I get teary at Wishes and Illuminations every time. I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

I'm loving your report. Your daughter is very talented. What a shame the henna didn't last! I get teary at Wishes and Illuminations every time. I'm looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip!

Thank you so much!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

A few more pictures from our night at Magic Kingdom....

BTMRR....


Waiting for the fireworks...and an example of how bad a photographer I really am....



Cute star fireworks....






All three of them were trying to get pictures of the fireworks...



My beautiful castle.... I know they call it Cinderella's Castle, but really it's mine.



A lot of steps this day!