UPDATE: 4/11 -A Practically Perfect Face Dive in Mac&Cheese - A Jan/Feb 2017 TR

[MamaBelle4]

Hi there. Thanks for stumbling, presumably accidentally, into my trip report.
It will be filled with tears, screams and gnashing of teeth, JUST LIKE OUR TRIP.



Okay, no not really THAT bad. But there were 9 of us. In fact, as I start us on our journey down this merry trip report, I'm riding shotgun beside my DH navigating us on our 14 hour journey home. Yay.

Fresh in my memories as I didn't take any notes, I've decided to try my hand at a TR! So, without further ado, allow me to introduce the crew:



First is Aunt A. A Godsend. An angel. The loveliest creature on God's green earth. My sister.

Her faves:
Theme Park: Epcot
Ride: Space Mountain
Character: Baloo
Movie: Robin Hood

Next in the photo is me. Our, sometimes irritable and cranky, fearless leader.

Theme Park: Epcot & MK (YOU CAN'T MAKE ME CHOOSE)
Ride: Expedition Everest
Character: The practically perfect Mary Poppins
Movie: Mary Poppins

Next is my sweet Roo. We'll call her E. She's the one sucking her thumb an awful lot.
Theme Park: MK
Ride: SDMT/Teacups
Character: Minnie
Movie: Tangled

Now we are up to my DH. This I think is the only picture of him smiling. Man does not smile. I guess I'll keep him anyway.
Theme Park: Animal Kingdom
Ride: LOL, yeah. He tolerates rides. I just asked him and he said "the bench. "
Character: Archimedes
Movie: Sword in the Stone

The poor passed out baby is my Em. She loved the trip but took quite a few stroller naps as we hit it hard.
Theme Park: DH'S
Ride: Prince Charming's Carousel
Character: Pubo. (That's "Pluto" for those not fluent in baby speak)
Movie: She doesn't stay still long enough for movies

There's my A. She was a joy to watch every second. She absorbed so much magic this trip she should be granting wishes.
Theme Park : MK
Ride: IASW
Character: Snow White
Movie: Mary Poppins

Next up is my FIL. Seriously one of my favorite people on the planet. He doesn't say much if he doesn't know you very well, and usually is very quiet, but when he says something, it is always worth listening to.
FIL's answers:
Theme Park: they were fine
Ride: they were fine
Character: they were fine
Movie: they were fine

And here we have my MIL. Contrary to usual family dynamics, my MIL and I get along really well. Could have something to do with the fact that we are shockingly similar in odd ways and since we are both pretty awesome, what's not to love?
MIL's answers:
Theme Park: DHS & Epcot
Ride: Buzz & TSMM
Movie: a nightmare before Christmas
Character: the mad hatter

Then there's my K, my oldest, my angel. She got to do something special this trip which just made her whole day.
Theme Park : Epcot
Ride: Dumbo/Splash mountain
Character: Mary Poppins
Movie: Mary Poppins

So there's that done. I wish I knew if FIL really enjoyed himself, he seemed to. So buckle up and batton down the hatches. Let's get this party started!

 

[MamaBelle4]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Travel Day: A Practically Perfect Face Dive in Mac&Cheese - A Jan/Feb 2017 TR
Day 1: Arrival
Day 2: DHS

 

[MamaBelle4]

Oh, you're still here? Okay, well then, let's just dive on in, eh?

TRAVEL DAY (s):

Have you ever spent 14 hours in a car surrounded by people you love dearly, along with 4 children? Well, I have.

First thing Friday morning, my DH left with MIL & FIL to pick up the van for us to use. Aunt A took her and my dogs to our parents' home so they could be nurtured, overfed and adequately spoiled. I loaded the kids in the car and headed to Target. Girl has got to have her last minute discount Disney gift cards to cover tips.

Target went smoothly besides my A asking if we were going to Disney Target and wailing when I said no, not quite. That child had to get to Disney, stat.

I got home first, had the kiddos play a bit while I played the game of "is that off? Is that locked? Will this smell by the time we get home?" Etc. (Not home yet, so I'm really hoping I won).

DH pulls in with the van and Aunt A and I start bringing luggage out and he stacks it like a perfectly executed game of tetris.

Oh, crap. The back is entirely full. There is just not enough room and we haven't even picked up the 'laws yet. Oh well, it had to work. Next, an argument makes a not uncommon appearance during this trip. I had told my DH that E & Em had to sit together as they were sharing dvd players and K & A had to. I then instructed DH to put Em in the 3rd seat.

So he put Em's car seat there, just Em's. I assumed he would do both since I had just told him they were a package deal. Oh well, c'est la vie. (Francophones, pardon my accent )

So we hit the pavement right around 10:30 and drove down to pick up MIL & FIL.

After we had the kids all make one last potty stop while the adults crammed the luggage in each nook & cranny and then some, we were finally on our way to Savannah, Georgia.




Uh oh. She's out already.

We stopped in N. Carolina for Linner. You know, too late for lunch too early for dinner? We stopped at that gateway of the roadside, that glorious, irreplaceable.... McDonald's. I was all for trying something new (Zaxby's), but I was outvoted, or, er, overvoted by my MIL who prefers the known.

After a quick bite and a potty break, we hit the pavement again. A couple more potty stops and we were there! And JUST like on the TripAdvisor reviews, so was a cop car (which is apparently at our choice hotel nightly). Whatever. It was cheap and clean(ish). It was your standard double queen hotel room. Nothing fancy, nothing spectacular, and nothing horrendous either. Heaven after 10 long hours in a car.

I will say this. It didn't feel clean though. I don't know how to explain it, it wasn't outwardly dirty o even overly dingy, but it just wasn't clean, you know?

My eldest was the only one who wanted to go with MIL and FIL. My younger three were unsure of their surroundings and wanted Mommy and Daddy. That's fine. 2 snuggled their Aunt A in her bed and Em snuggled us. We slept and showered and then hit the road again. It wasn't long at all until we saw this beautiful, tear invoking sight:



We were HOME!!!

 

[Belle stitch]

Good start! Sounds like pretty smooth sailing for a 14 hour drive with 9 people in one car!

 

[MamaBelle4]

Good start! Sounds like pretty smooth sailing for a 14 hour drive with 9 people in one car!

It was a lot better than it could have been. But looong enough that since we are in the process of buying DVC, my DH said he needs o get over his fear of flying!

 

[Minniemoo15]

I am one of four girls, too. My parents used to drive us down every March to WDW from Canada (33 hour drive). It's only now that I have kids of my own do I realize how insane they were. They claim we are always angels but I tell them time has made them forget

I have the best memories with my family , and especially my sisters, at WDW. I'll be following along!

 

[MamaBelle4]

I am one of four girls, too. My parents used to drive us down every March to WDW from Canada (33 hour drive). It's only now that I have kids of my own do I realize how insane they were. They claim we are always angels but I tell them time has made them forget

I have the best memories with my family , and especially my sisters, at WDW. I'll be following along!

Thanks for following along!

I'm the youngest of 5. When my parents drove us to Disney, it was the year of the Jacksonville fires. Took us 30 hours to get back. We were decidedly NOT angels, lol. Time will not let us forget.

 

[MamaBelle4]

Let's get right back to it, shall we? I'm sorry, but you'll probably find my lack of photos disturbing. The park days posts will be relatively pic heavy so I hope that makes up for the word vomit following...

Arrival Day:

Once we pulled into the entrance of Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, I was immediately struck by the beauty and peacefulness of the resort. And, also quite overwhelmed by the prospect of staying onsite. I am usually, in everyday, non Disney, boring life, an exceedingly frugal person and if there is a cheaper option, well doggone it that is the option for me. So it was simultaneously hard and easy for me to decide for us to stay on property. Easy because we wanted to give the dining plan a try. Hard because staying off property is SO MUCH CHEAPER. So much, you guys. When we went down in October 2014, we paid 900 for a three bedroom suite just minutes outside of the property. I don't need to tell you how much the points for a much, much smaller 2 bedroom cost.

But, when my FIL parked the van and DH and I went inside to check in, I almost lost it. A smiling CM walked past me and said, "Welcome Home."

Well, I'm done. Never staying offsite again. I loved staying onsite so much, it just cannot compare.

So, tangent over and back to the TR. We walked into the beautiful Carriage House right around 2pm. I was ready to hold steady for a room in our preferred area if guest services just tried to put us in whatever was available. Our room was already ready! I had asked to be on an upper level in the Paddock Area (hoping to be close to the walkway to Disney Springs).

Our room was 6812, which, admittedly meant nothing to me at the time (except the "8", I knew that meant we were on the top floor). We went back to the van and got the troops to go into the Artist's Palette to pick out everyone's reuseable mugs. While we were talking to the CM and getting our mugs, we said, "We're going to have to pay for one because the baby is too young to be on the dining plan." She smiled and said, "Nah, don't worry about it." And gave us Em's cup for free. Score.

We refilled our mugs and marched back to the car, laughing and chatting the whole way. We were all so happy to be there. MIL kept pointing out things that my one niece in particular would love (she's a horse enthusiast, so SSR would have been the place for her). Hey, I tried to get them to come too.

We drove to our building chunk. I could not believe it. It was in our absolute desired area. We were right across the little road from Congress Park and our balcony overlooked the walkway to Disney Springs. Could not have asked for a better room (well the view could've been a touch better, but it was cool to watch the hot air balloon rise and fall). I dashed up to the room with the kids. Some of the other adults grabbed luggage to save a trip. Not me. I had to be the first one in the room. Because I wanted to. Because I'm a child. Whatever, I own it.

I loved it. It was small though. Smaller than I expected at least. But we don't really spend a lot of time in the room anyway. Never have. We unloaded the van quickly and decided we needed to stretch our legs, so we trucked on back down and stopped by the van to grab the stroller. Em was asleep before we even made it to Congress Park. Girl was exhausted.

We enjoyed quite a leisurely walk to DS. We stopped and appreciated the landscaping and the many, many, many birds we saw. Once we got over to DS, we strolled around, making notes of where we planned on shopping later on in the week and tried to find ears to personalize for the kids. We were unsuccessful. They had some at the World of Disney, but a shockingly small selection.

We spent an embarassing amount of time looking for WPE.

Especially since we walked right past it when we entered Disney Springs. It was my fault. I'm directionally challenged.

But WPE. That pizza. YUM. I made the mistake of not ordering it. My food was good, but not terrific. The pizza was.

Bellies full and shopping done, we meandered back to the resort. Oh, that's right. We didn't. I wanted to. But as we were crossing the bridge and passing the ferry, my E reminded me that I promised her we could pop into TRex and check it out. I was so tired and wanted to go to bed, but a promise is a promise. So DH headed back to the resort with Em (his parents had splintered off earlier), and Aunt A and I took the other three on the ferry because we didn't want to walk back, even though it would have been decidedly quicker.

After we popped into TRex and the kids played in the excavation site for a few minutes, we trucked it on back to our room. It didn't take as long as I thought it would for the kids to fall asleep, which was good because I was exhausted and planning on a rope drop day the next day. But I had to make sure the fairies made an appearance before the kiddos woke up!

 

[dlavender]

Once we pulled into the entrance of Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, I was immediately struck by the beauty and peacefulness of the resort. And, also quite overwhelmed by the prospect of staying onsite. I am usually, in everyday, non Disney, boring life, an exceedingly frugal person and if there is a cheaper option, well doggone it that is the option for me. So it was simultaneously hard and easy for me to decide for us to stay on property. Easy because we wanted to give the dining plan a try. Hard because staying off property is SO MUCH CHEAPER. So much, you guys. When we went down in October 2014, we paid 900 for a three bedroom suite just minutes outside of the property. I don't need to tell you how much the points for a much, much smaller 2 bedroom cost.

But, when my FIL parked the van and DH and I went inside to check in, I almost lost it. A smiling CM walked past me and said, "Welcome Home."

Well, I'm done. Never staying offsite again. I loved staying onsite so much, it just cannot compare.

I'm right there with you. I still scoff at the prices. But once you are there, you realize there really are no comparisons.

 

[TEAMJACOB]

I'm in. Can't wait to hear all about it.

 

[Mightybee987]

I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. We love to stay on site too.

 

[smilerjones]

Joining in! Looking forward to reading all about it! Sounds like a good start to the trip!

 

[MamaBelle4]

I'm right there with you. I still scoff at the prices. But once you are there, you realize there really are no comparisons.

Exactly! I had a hard time justifying it and thought "Well, we ought to stay onsite at least once." That was a mistake. Once is never enough. Just like pringles, once you pop, you just can't stop.

I'm in. Can't wait to hear all about it.

Thanks! Hopefully it's fun to read... it was fun to do at least

I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip. We love to stay on site too.

It's addicting, isn't it????

Joining in! Looking forward to reading all about it! Sounds like a good start to the trip!

Thanks! It really was a great start. Wish we could go back right now!!

 

[MamaBelle4]

Day 2: Hollywood Studios

I woke up bright and early with bells on and snuck out of bed (there were 9 of us in a 2 bedroom, we had visitors with us every night, always Em and A). I got myself ready to go, hair and makeup and all that jazz. Then I woke up DH and started getting the kids ready.

K & E jumped up and started scouring the room for their fairy gifts. You see, the fairies like to bring them gifts when they come to Disney.

The fairies did not disappoint. The girls each got a small pocketwatch on a chain with Ariel on the outside. That way they could always remember the good "time" they had.

Needless to say they loved it.

We took the advice of several parents on here and when we packed their suitcases, I had them sit with me and pick out their outfits for each park and individually pack them in ziploc baggies. Worked like a charm. With everyone all ready to head out, we grabbed our granola bars and fruit and ran out the door, visibily buzzing with excitement.

It was raining a bit. That was fine with me. I knew what that would do to the crowds. Besides, DHS is mostly an indoor park for us anyway. So once we parked, we started the trek into the park. First stop - potty. Then we did a mad dash for TSM and waited about 15 minutes.

*Spoiler Alert* I won. By, like, a lot. We rode it 3 times. Each time I completely obliterated everyone else. And I made sure they knew it too. Especially DH and FIL who are both hunters.

My MIL LOVED that ride. Like, loved it. I was so glad that we started out our trip on such a positive note. Then Aunt A volunteered to stay at TSM and ride it again with K as we went to the Great Movie Ride. I wanted to ride it one last time before it received its update and I knew it was something my MIL would appreciate. In the waiting queue, she kept pointing out details and seemed genuinely excited.

We didn't take K because the ride straight up terrifies her. She hates the gun fight and was nearly in tears last time. I could not convince her to go if I had tried.

I had to convince my MIL that neither John Wayne nor the horse upon which he was sitting were real.

We then decided to grab a couple of shows. We saw the Little Mermaid and Frozen Sing-A-Long, of course, and then decided to grab a bite to eat. We went on over to Backlot express. It was okay. Nothing terrific but nothing bad either.

Afterwards, we went ahead and met some characters. We met Olaf:

and Sofia:

And Doc:

And Jake:

And my Em's favorite, Pubo (she took off running after him, it was the only time we had to chase her the entire trip):

Then we rode TSM for the third time. I mean, it was shameful how much I beat everyone. You'd think I'd let my kids win, but that just is not how I roll.

HEY! MR. STORMTROOPER

Oh crap! He heard me...

We meandered over to Hollywood and Vine to check in, and on the way we did some casual shopping. We had to wait about 15 minutes past our reservation time to be seated. Which stunk because I made our reservation with the intent on heading to Fantasmic! right afterwards.

I do not intend to turn this into a dining review. But first, pictures!

Everytime we saw Goofy, I let him know he has always been DH's favorite:

Minnie:

Mickey:

Donald:

Daisy:

I'm not a complainer, really. But, I mean, who says they are? But H&V was horrible. Not the food, it was meh. The lobster mac&cheese was good.

The character interaction, or lack thereof. Goofy, great. Minnie, great. Mickey, great! Donald and Daisy were on the other side of the restaurant the entire time we were there. We were the first table on our side, so we kept waiting and watching. Eventually, it got to the point where if we didn't leave, we wouldn't get a chance to see Fantasmic!, so I said to the kids, we'll have to catch Donald and Daisy next time. Apparently, our server heard me and presented us with paper FP+ for Fantasmic!. Less than a minute after he did, Daisy sauntered over to our side of the restaurant. And blew right past us.

As she did, K, E & A called "Daisy!". Let me clarify, they didn't yell, they didn't screech, they didn't scream. They called out. Daisy, who had just blown right past our table, turned around and shushed them. After she finished with that table, she came back to us, posed for one picture then left. Donald came by right afterwards, was obviously rushed, similarly posed for a picture then left. He was much warmer than Daisy though. I was not a happy camper, but we needed to book it if we were going to make it to Fantasmic! in time. It was my 4th trip since 1998, but I've never seen it.

It was too dark for Em, so Aunt A took her and walked along the back of the ampitheater with her to keep her calm. It turned out to be DH's favorite show. He loved it, the fire blew him away. I loved it too, in fact, everyone did.

I had scheduled a last minute FP+ for me and Angie at RockNRollercoaster since I had also never ridden it. Okay, before I post the ride photo, keep in mind that it was my first time on a coaster in over a decade.

The laws and DH had already taken the kiddos to the car, so Angie and I stopped for a Sister/Sister pic by the GMR.

Once we made it back to the van, we trucked on back to SSR and all flopped into bed. It was a pretty good day!

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

I am following along! Your kids are all so adorable! And 4! I have two and they are exhausting.

Have you ever spent 14 hours in a car surrounded by people you love dearly, along with 4 children? Well, I have.

No! We can barely make the drive from Jersey to Myrtle Beach! DH always wants to kill us ladies!

We stopped in N. Carolina for Linner. You know, too late for lunch too early for dinner? We stopped at that gateway of the roadside, that glorious, irreplaceable.... McDonald's. I was all for trying something new (Zaxby's), but I was outvoted, or, er, overvoted by my MIL who prefers the known.

We love Linner! And my girls think McDonald's is only for road trips! Oops!

But, when my FIL parked the van and DH and I went inside to check in, I almost lost it. A smiling CM walked past me and said, "Welcome Home."

Well, I'm done. Never staying offsite again. I loved staying onsite so much, it just cannot compare.

There is def something about staying on property. It's really hard to explain. It usually comes in those kinds of way. The service, the (hopefully) friendliness of everyone... It is just something magical.

We're going to have to pay for one because the baby is too young to be on the dining plan." She smiled and said, "Nah, don't worry about it." And gave us Em's cup for free. Score.

It's those little things that can make your day. So, little but so nice!

But I had to make sure the fairies made an appearance before the kiddos woke up!

We do Tinkbell Gifts as well! My girls have come to look forward to them!

The fairies did not disappoint. The girls each got a small pocketwatch on a chain with Ariel on the outside. That way they could always remember the good "time" they had.

I love the pocket watch idea! Where did you get them! I might need to steal that idea for our next trip!!!

We took the advice of several parents on here and when we packed their suitcases, I had them sit with me and pick out their outfits for each park and individually pack them in ziploc baggies.

I need to do that next time, well the ziplock baggie idea... Our next trip is going to be a "surprise" so running outfit by them won't work.

It was too dark for Em, so Aunt A took her and walked along the back of the ampitheater with her to keep her calm. It turned out to be DH's favorite show. He loved it, the fire blew him away. I loved it too, in fact, everyone did.

We have yet to see Fantastic. I am hoping to do Mama Melrose with the Fantasmic Dining package on our next trip. I have heard NOTHING but bad reviews of Hollywood and Vine, so I think we will skip that one. But my girls are past the Disney Junior characters mostly, too. Which is sad... ;(

Can't wait to hear more about your trip!

 

[dlavender]

He was much warmer than Daisy though. I was not a happy camper, but we needed to book it if we were going to make it to Fantasmic! in time. It was my 4th trip since 1998, but I've never seen it.

We've only ever had breakfast there, and I was unimpressed with the interaction and the food. Seems that's the norm for that place. I would not have been happy with your experience either.

I've been going to WDW since I was born, and I have never seen Fantasmic!. We just never make it. This year.....

Great picture by GMR. It's always hard to get a crowd free picture.

 

[MamaBelle4]

I am following along! Your kids are all so adorable! And 4! I have two and they are exhausting.

Thank you! That's why I make sure I bring so many adults, lol. They're pretty exhausting too!

There is def something about staying on property. It's really hard to explain. It usually comes in those kinds of way. The service, the (hopefully) friendliness of everyone... It is just something magical.

Completely agree! I am so spoiled now!

I love the pocket watch idea! Where did you get them! I might need to steal that idea for our next trip!!!

Ebay. They were crazy cheap (like $3 apiece) and came from China, so it took a while for them to arrive, but the quality is way better than I was expecting!

I need to do that next time, well the ziplock baggie idea... Our next trip is going to be a "surprise" so running outfit by them won't work.

I wish I could take credit for the idea. It made everything run smoothly, especially for my (now) DD6, E. She usually has an opinion about everything and I can only imagine the struggle it would have been to get her to pick out her outfits in the morning. I know it is a major one to get her butt out the door for school.

We have yet to see Fantastic. I am hoping to do Mama Melrose with the Fantasmic Dining package on our next trip. I have heard NOTHING but bad reviews of Hollywood and Vine, so I think we will skip that one. But my girls are past the Disney Junior characters mostly, too. Which is sad... ;(

I always thought I wasn't missing much when missing Fantasmic, but I was SO wrong. It was spectacular. My DH's and inlaw's favorite show of the entire trip. MIL actually called me after we got back because a coworker of FIL was headed to Disney and he was giving him the run down of things not to miss and they couldn't remember the name.

We skipped the Disney JR stage show, which I was initially happy with because we had done so many shows. Now I look at DD8 and think, just because I didn't want to do it, and now she probably will have zero interest in it next go round. I feel guilty, but I'm really not a fan of that show, I'm too old to be sitting on the carpet and feel like I'm blocking a gajillion kids' views.

We've only ever had breakfast there, and I was unimpressed with the interaction and the food. Seems that's the norm for that place. I would not have been happy with your experience either.

I've been going to WDW since I was born, and I have never seen Fantasmic!. We just never make it. This year.....

Great picture by GMR. It's always hard to get a crowd free picture.

Seriously, don't miss it! Like I said above, it was almost all of the adults in our party's favorites. I can't say it was my absolute favorite, but it may have been. I don't think anything will beat IllumiNations for me. Just standing by the water. It is just my favorite, but Fantasmic! is probaby second.

 

[MamaBelle4]

(My pics aren't uploading right, so I'll correct this later)

Day 2: Animal Kingdom

Rinse and repeat the previous morning. I was up first getting ready before I got everyone else up. It doesn't take me that much time, but I like having the time to myself, you know? Those sneaky fairies dropped off hand sanitizer for the girls.

Once everyone was up and ready to go, we raced down to the van. Literally. Some of us were of the opinion that one stair case was quicker, some felt the other was. E & I ran down our stair case, Aunt A took the little ones down the elevator, DH & K ran down the other staircase.

E & I were waiting at the bottom for them. It's exhausting being right all the time.

We got to AK shortly before they opened and our first priority was a potty stop, of course! Then we made our way through the madness back to the Safari. Sure we had a FP for it just a bit later, but I wanted to make sure we went good and early, just in case the jungle cats retired.

It was a good thing we did, we saw both the male and female lions and the cheetahs. They were not visible an hour later. If you go, try to go first thing, that's when you have the most luck seeing them moving around. We did not get to see the black rhino that time though.

I didn't take any pictures on either safari. I have the problem where if I'm taking pictures, I'm not in the moment, enjoying it. And DH tends to take butt pictures of the animals, so I didn't ask him. I mean, how many elephant rear ends do you need to see in one trip??

After the safari, we went ahead and did both of the forest trails and hiked through to see the gorillas, birds, hippos, tigers, bats (nevermind, too cold and they weren't out) and some such creatures. I did grab some pictures there. (In whatever order they are on my computer):

We swung to Flametree BBQ for lunch. Here's where things get a mite bit sticky. My sweet K & I had a fight. Why fight with a child, you might ask. Well. Meet her. She is sweet and kind and stubborn. A trait she gets from me. So we tend to square off. She was adamant she wasn't going to eat anything there (she likes BBQ chicken. And crustables. Both of which were on the menu).

MIL "Well if she isn't going to eat and its going to make her miserable, just get her something else."

No. That isn't the point. She likes both of those options, we had discussed where we were going as a family long prior to the trip. But she got it in her head (and stomach) that she wanted pizza or chicken nuggets for lunch and nothing else was going to do. As MIL jumped in to her defense, I folded. Aunt A took her to grab something else while DH & I took the kiddos to the play area in Dino Land.

K: 1 Mommy: 0

After returning some lost kids to their parents, we met back up with Aunt A and K and stood in line to see Pocahontas. I don't mean to gripe (Look, I said I wasn't a complainer on my last update and here I am complaining again), but I liked the Pocahontas we saw in 2014 beter. She looked almost exactly like the animated version. I mean, at the risk of sounding creepy, that girl was gorgeous (not saying that this one wasn't, she obvioulsy was, but the last one was just eerily similar). Plus the 2014 Pocahontas called me the Queen of Pennsylvania. I dug that.

After we finished our M&G, we headed over to Tricaratops Spin. The kids loved it (of course). I always scream and holler when they make the cars go up and down and they laugh manicially. Then K and I took a turn on Primevel Whirl while FIL and MIL took the other three to play some arcade games.

I. Hate. That. Ride. I think I still have a bolt shaped bruise on my hip. Listen, you've seen pictures of me. I'm no tiny thing, but I shouldn't be slammed into the side of the ride hard enough that there's a suction sound when I pry myself out of the darned thing. Get your act together Disney, someone is going to go on that ride with brittle bones and end up being a pile.

We then walked (well they walked, I limped) over to Festival of the Lion King for our FP.

Photo op!:



Em had fallen asleep in her stroller so MIL and FIL and DH sat on the wall while Aunt A and I took K and E into a couple of shops and stopped for a photo opportunities:




Everyone loved FTLK, of course. My MIL recorded much of it for my nieces back home as she, rightly so, said they would've loved it.

As soon as the show was over, we popped on over to TuskerHouse for our reservations.

Let me just say the food was yummy. I tried everything (I like trying new things). And the character interactions were top notch. Probably some of my favorite character interactions of the trip. I like the little dance/parade they do around the dining room. You can tell the kids love it and who doesn't love it when the kids are happy?

Mickey:



Donald:



Daisy:




And my favorite (hands down the best interaction of the night) Goofy:


Someone, and I'm not saying who, snagged a FP for Aunt A and myself during dinner for Expedition Everest. I had never ridden it. It is my new favorite ride at Disney. LOVE IT!




Everyone was still in the park when we were finished, so we joined up with them to watch a couple of the projection shows on the Tree of Life.

Still so bummed that we missed ROL by, like, 4 days.

It was a terrific day. I love AK. I know a lot of people don't but I like that it's a relaxed park where you can just stop for a few minutes and watch the monkeys play or walk along a path and see how many different types of birds you can count. Okay, there I'm more worried about making sure there are no birds directly above me, but still! I'm a little worried that Pandora is going to kill that vibe, but I know I'll love the park just the same.