Raidra
03-11-2011, 10:17 AM
We got home (very) late Wednesday night from our 9 days at Disney. It was a truly wonderful vacation, but completely exhausting. I'm hoping to write up a detailed trip report this afternoon when Niall naps, but in the meantime, I wanted to share some of the videos we took while there. Here's the surprise video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1wZMGAbC-A You can also see a video of the kids fighting Vader.
Thanks for all your help planning our trip!
ETA: Here's a "summary" of my trip report. I wrote up a really detailed one for my own benefit, but I don't want to bore you all to tears. :)
We stayed at All Stars Music from 3/1-3/9. We loved the resort, the room was fine.. the only problem was that we were all the way at the back, and it was a LONG walk.
MK: We did two full days at MK, two evenings, and one almost-full day. We caught the afternoon parade twice (Fiona especially loved it), the Electric Parade once (again, Fiona loved it the most, but the boys really liked it, too), and Wishes once (Colwyn loved it, Lachlann hated it, and Fiona thought it was okay.. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Tinkerbell). We rode the teacups, Snow White, the Carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Pooh, It's A Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Magic Carpets, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Indy Speedway, and the People Mover. Colwyn and Lachlann did the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse while I took Fiona to meet the princesses. The longest wait we had on a ride was 20 minutes for Dumbo.. we made strategic use of fast passes and checked wait times with the Lines app. The longest lines for characters were the princesses.. about 40 minutes.. every other line was fairly short. We met Pinocchio, Donald, the Tremaines, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Buzz, Mickey (twice), Pioneer Mickey and Minnie, Pirate Goofy, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Aladdin, Jessie, Woody, Snow White, and the Fairy Godmother. The chance meeting we got with the Tremaines was wonderful. They were coming out to do a meet and greet. We had our Mickey head tie-dye shirts on, and they stopped and commented on our unfortunate laundry mishap. Fiona was really freaking out (cowering behind the stroller) and Lady Tremaine leaned over and asked (in a very imperious tone), "And what chores do you do?" then saw that Fiona was upset, and asked contemptuously, "Are you crying?" One of the stepsisters commented on how fat Niall was, and she used to be fat like that when she was a baby, then patted her belly and said she still was a little. We did Crystal Palace for lunch, and Fiona was in a grumpy mood and didn't want to meet Piglet or Tigger, but suddenly perked up when Pooh came by. She got very excited and gave him a big hug. After he left, I was praising Fiona for being so friendly, and she said, "I pooped!" We all got a big laugh about her happily meeting Pooh after she had poo'ed.
AK: We got FPs for Kilimanjaro Safari right away then did the animal trail. After that, we did the Safari, grabbed FPs for Everest, then watched Nemo. The kids loved the Safari and seeing the animals on the trail, but only Colwyn liked Nemo.. Lachlann truly hated it. We also met Terk, Baloo, King Louie, and Flik. After Nemo we sat down on a bench to eat lunch, and Fiona started freaking out about the little bugs.. she was literally screaming and shaking. We moved and got her calmed down a little, Colwyn and my husband rode Everest, and Fiona, Lachlann, Niall and I met Pooh and Tigger. Then Fiona started freaking out again, so we cut our day there really short. We tried going to Downtown Disney that evening, but after the fourth completely packed bus drove through without being able to squeeze anyone on, we decided to just hang out at the hotel.
My husband's mother and grandmother came up on Friday (they live in Ft Myers) but were too tired to meet us in MK as planned.. so we took the bus to their resort to have dinner with them. We left Coronado Springs at 8:45pm, went to Downtown Disney, and got on a bus for ASMu. We were passing Coronado Springs again at 9:45pm, and weren't in our room until 10pm. That was the one day we hadn't done an afternoon nap, too, which made it a very long day.. so we skipped rope drop at Epcot the next day.
Epcot: We met my MIL and GMIL around 2pm. They had one wheelchair that they shared, so we walked through the park at a snail's pace (quite literally). We rode the Seas with Nemo and Journey into Imagination with Figment, then rode the boat to Morocco and walked over to Germany, where we ate at Biergarten. Dinner was nice (my GMIL is German and especially loved it), but my enjoyment was hampered by the fact that Niall spilled Colwyn's entire glass of Sprite on my lap as soon as he got it. We took the boat from Germany to Mexico and rode the Three Cabelleros ride which was a big hit. We were ready to leave Mexico at 8pm, but due to MIL and GMIL's insanely slow pace and frequent extended breaks, we didn't get to our bus stop until 9pm. Yes, that's right, an hour to walk from Mexico to the buses. The next day, we got to Epcot just after RD and got FPs for Test Track, did the Character Spot and met Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto. Rafiki and Jiminy were meeting in the hallway outside, so we met them too. Then we headed through the UK to France, where we met Marie and Belle. We took the boat back and rode Test Track, then had a nap at the hotel, then came back in the afternoon with MIL and GMIL and a rented scooter, which worked out much better. We met Mary Poppins and Alice and ate fish and chips, then rode the Three Cabelleros again. The kids also really liked Club Cool. We also rode the monorail at 8pm (at MIL and GMIL's insistence), which pretty much sucked.. it was packed.
DHS: We did Hollywood and Vine for breakfast.. the kids got to meet June, Leo, Oso, and Handy Manny. My husband went to get TSM FPs and I took the kids to sign up for Jedi Academy. We met Chip and Dale on the way to see Disney Junior, then met June and Quincy, Sully and Mike, and Lightning McQueen and Mater. Then we did the Jedi Academy show, which was awesome. After that, we did TSM which was so much fun, but not worth the 95 minute standby wait we saw. We went back for a nap, then returned to DHS in time for the 'characterpalooza' at the Animation Studios and met Captain Hook, Frozone, Stitch, Lotso, Mr & Mrs Incredible, Genie, and a Green Army Man.
On Tuesday, we did Universal IOA so we could do WWOHP. All the Harry Potter stuff was packed.. like shoulder-to-shoulder, and it was sweltering. We waited an hour for Ollivanders, had an early lunch in the Three Broomsticks, caught the Durmstrang/Beauxbatons show, browsed in Zonko's, then headed to Suess Landing for a break. We tried going back to see Honeydukes, but there was a long line just to get into the shop, so we got souveniers on the way out in one of the giant gift shops.
We hit MK again on our departure day (our flight wasn't until 7:40pm). We had a great interaction with Snow White. We were wearing our tie-dye shirts and my husband had a shirt that read "I Don't Do Matching Shirts". She asked if my husband was grumpy just about the shirts, or about everything. I said he could be grumpy about a lot of things, and she suggested I make him gooseberry pies, because that works to keep her men happy. I said, "Oh, silly me, I've been making him apple pies.. I'll have to try gooseberry" and she said, "Apple is fine, but I hope they're green ones!" We also had a nasty puking incident while waiting for the big kids to ride Buzz.. I had just rocked Niall to sleep and he puked spectacularly right into the neck of my shirt, filling my bra. Then he puked on my husband when he took him, so we had to buy new t-shirts. I tried to salvage my bra, but ended up just throwing it out (I didn't want to bring a nasty pukey bra onto the plane).. so I went braless for the rest of the day.
It really was a wonderful trip, aside from a few small incidents. We're all excited to go back again, but that probably won't be for a few more years.
Thanks for all your help planning our trip!
ETA: Here's a "summary" of my trip report. I wrote up a really detailed one for my own benefit, but I don't want to bore you all to tears. :)
We stayed at All Stars Music from 3/1-3/9. We loved the resort, the room was fine.. the only problem was that we were all the way at the back, and it was a LONG walk.
MK: We did two full days at MK, two evenings, and one almost-full day. We caught the afternoon parade twice (Fiona especially loved it), the Electric Parade once (again, Fiona loved it the most, but the boys really liked it, too), and Wishes once (Colwyn loved it, Lachlann hated it, and Fiona thought it was okay.. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see Tinkerbell). We rode the teacups, Snow White, the Carousel, Dumbo, Peter Pan, Pooh, It's A Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Magic Carpets, Splash Mountain, Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Indy Speedway, and the People Mover. Colwyn and Lachlann did the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse while I took Fiona to meet the princesses. The longest wait we had on a ride was 20 minutes for Dumbo.. we made strategic use of fast passes and checked wait times with the Lines app. The longest lines for characters were the princesses.. about 40 minutes.. every other line was fairly short. We met Pinocchio, Donald, the Tremaines, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Eeyore, Buzz, Mickey (twice), Pioneer Mickey and Minnie, Pirate Goofy, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine, Aladdin, Jessie, Woody, Snow White, and the Fairy Godmother. The chance meeting we got with the Tremaines was wonderful. They were coming out to do a meet and greet. We had our Mickey head tie-dye shirts on, and they stopped and commented on our unfortunate laundry mishap. Fiona was really freaking out (cowering behind the stroller) and Lady Tremaine leaned over and asked (in a very imperious tone), "And what chores do you do?" then saw that Fiona was upset, and asked contemptuously, "Are you crying?" One of the stepsisters commented on how fat Niall was, and she used to be fat like that when she was a baby, then patted her belly and said she still was a little. We did Crystal Palace for lunch, and Fiona was in a grumpy mood and didn't want to meet Piglet or Tigger, but suddenly perked up when Pooh came by. She got very excited and gave him a big hug. After he left, I was praising Fiona for being so friendly, and she said, "I pooped!" We all got a big laugh about her happily meeting Pooh after she had poo'ed.
AK: We got FPs for Kilimanjaro Safari right away then did the animal trail. After that, we did the Safari, grabbed FPs for Everest, then watched Nemo. The kids loved the Safari and seeing the animals on the trail, but only Colwyn liked Nemo.. Lachlann truly hated it. We also met Terk, Baloo, King Louie, and Flik. After Nemo we sat down on a bench to eat lunch, and Fiona started freaking out about the little bugs.. she was literally screaming and shaking. We moved and got her calmed down a little, Colwyn and my husband rode Everest, and Fiona, Lachlann, Niall and I met Pooh and Tigger. Then Fiona started freaking out again, so we cut our day there really short. We tried going to Downtown Disney that evening, but after the fourth completely packed bus drove through without being able to squeeze anyone on, we decided to just hang out at the hotel.
My husband's mother and grandmother came up on Friday (they live in Ft Myers) but were too tired to meet us in MK as planned.. so we took the bus to their resort to have dinner with them. We left Coronado Springs at 8:45pm, went to Downtown Disney, and got on a bus for ASMu. We were passing Coronado Springs again at 9:45pm, and weren't in our room until 10pm. That was the one day we hadn't done an afternoon nap, too, which made it a very long day.. so we skipped rope drop at Epcot the next day.
Epcot: We met my MIL and GMIL around 2pm. They had one wheelchair that they shared, so we walked through the park at a snail's pace (quite literally). We rode the Seas with Nemo and Journey into Imagination with Figment, then rode the boat to Morocco and walked over to Germany, where we ate at Biergarten. Dinner was nice (my GMIL is German and especially loved it), but my enjoyment was hampered by the fact that Niall spilled Colwyn's entire glass of Sprite on my lap as soon as he got it. We took the boat from Germany to Mexico and rode the Three Cabelleros ride which was a big hit. We were ready to leave Mexico at 8pm, but due to MIL and GMIL's insanely slow pace and frequent extended breaks, we didn't get to our bus stop until 9pm. Yes, that's right, an hour to walk from Mexico to the buses. The next day, we got to Epcot just after RD and got FPs for Test Track, did the Character Spot and met Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto. Rafiki and Jiminy were meeting in the hallway outside, so we met them too. Then we headed through the UK to France, where we met Marie and Belle. We took the boat back and rode Test Track, then had a nap at the hotel, then came back in the afternoon with MIL and GMIL and a rented scooter, which worked out much better. We met Mary Poppins and Alice and ate fish and chips, then rode the Three Cabelleros again. The kids also really liked Club Cool. We also rode the monorail at 8pm (at MIL and GMIL's insistence), which pretty much sucked.. it was packed.
DHS: We did Hollywood and Vine for breakfast.. the kids got to meet June, Leo, Oso, and Handy Manny. My husband went to get TSM FPs and I took the kids to sign up for Jedi Academy. We met Chip and Dale on the way to see Disney Junior, then met June and Quincy, Sully and Mike, and Lightning McQueen and Mater. Then we did the Jedi Academy show, which was awesome. After that, we did TSM which was so much fun, but not worth the 95 minute standby wait we saw. We went back for a nap, then returned to DHS in time for the 'characterpalooza' at the Animation Studios and met Captain Hook, Frozone, Stitch, Lotso, Mr & Mrs Incredible, Genie, and a Green Army Man.
On Tuesday, we did Universal IOA so we could do WWOHP. All the Harry Potter stuff was packed.. like shoulder-to-shoulder, and it was sweltering. We waited an hour for Ollivanders, had an early lunch in the Three Broomsticks, caught the Durmstrang/Beauxbatons show, browsed in Zonko's, then headed to Suess Landing for a break. We tried going back to see Honeydukes, but there was a long line just to get into the shop, so we got souveniers on the way out in one of the giant gift shops.
We hit MK again on our departure day (our flight wasn't until 7:40pm). We had a great interaction with Snow White. We were wearing our tie-dye shirts and my husband had a shirt that read "I Don't Do Matching Shirts". She asked if my husband was grumpy just about the shirts, or about everything. I said he could be grumpy about a lot of things, and she suggested I make him gooseberry pies, because that works to keep her men happy. I said, "Oh, silly me, I've been making him apple pies.. I'll have to try gooseberry" and she said, "Apple is fine, but I hope they're green ones!" We also had a nasty puking incident while waiting for the big kids to ride Buzz.. I had just rocked Niall to sleep and he puked spectacularly right into the neck of my shirt, filling my bra. Then he puked on my husband when he took him, so we had to buy new t-shirts. I tried to salvage my bra, but ended up just throwing it out (I didn't want to bring a nasty pukey bra onto the plane).. so I went braless for the rest of the day.
It really was a wonderful trip, aside from a few small incidents. We're all excited to go back again, but that probably won't be for a few more years.