Better Late Than Never ~ 13 Oct Surprise, Birthday, Free Dining, Pop TR UPDATE 2/16

[vleeth]

10/26 Saturday
On Saturday we were all up before the alarm. Dave had a half day signs now meeting and had to leave before us, so I went to the food court to get breakfast while he got ready.

I snapped this picture on my way at 7:07am



And then I turned back to take this one



I didn't realize there were 3 different bounty platter lines. I ended up in the pancake one and made a mental note to get the French toast one the next day. Anyways, we got two bounty platters, Strawberry Milk (because they were out of chocolate) and orange juice. At 7:20AM I was scanning my MagicBand. The total was $25.74 (say it with me) or $0 if you’re on the dining plan.
I also filled up our mugs with coffee, hot chocolate and powerade. During the middle of the night before we got up at 4:00am to drive here I remembered this



I’m so glad I remembered, because I’m not sure how I would have carried everything without this. I made it for our Disney Cruise and we didn’t use it at all, but we sure used it this trip.

We had a nice breakfast in our room and there was food left over. I made another breakfast mental note to see if they will exchange the sausage for extra bacon. None of us liked the sausage and we all love bacon.



The sausage wasn’t that bad.

But he only ate one and for Dave, that’s saying something.

The plan for today was to take Hope play her first EVER game of putt-putt and then head to Disney Quest. There were vouchers for 2 tickets to each with our vacation package. It worked out well to use it today when there would only be two of us anyways. Actually Dave met us at Disney Quest. We have old unexpired plus options and Dave had one more than us, so he finally gets to use one. When Hope turned 5 we were in Orlando for a sign convention. Hope & I went to DQ while Dave was at the conference, so this would be his first time at DQ.

We took our time getting ready. By 8:35 were on our way to check out AOA



Hope played around and I took pics at the Nemo, Lion King and Mermaid sections (we'll do Cars another day.)










Then we walked over to the bus stop and were in line at 9:26. We met a family from England. I've always wondered if people from England imitate American accents as much as Americans imitate English accents. They do, and they were funny!

We got to Winter Summerland 10 mins before it opened and were the first people there.

I guess it was bright out!



Hope got a pressed penny. We took some pictures while we waited.







We turned in our vouchers at 9:59. I think it was $14 for an adult and $12 for kids, so that would have cost $26. We chose the winter side and had a great time. We were there less than 45 mins and when we left the wait was 45 mins to play. So if you're going, make sure you are there when they open.

I liked the ‘elf taught’ bumpersticker (probably because we homeschool.)



Santa Baby was playing and it made me wonder if there is Christmas Music on the sand side. Anyone know?



Hope LOVES miniature golf…but she’s not very good at it.







I loved it so much, I couldn’t wait to go again.

Had we kept track of scores, I think hers would look like bowling scores. But we had a great time.

The hole with the snowman was my all time favorite! Somehow the big wet spot on the ground wasn’t enough of a hint for Hope to realize that it was going to spray water. Her reaction was priceless and we laughed for quite a while.

When we were done, we got on a bus to Pop and then at 10:54 on bus from Pop to Pleasure Island ~ At that point the plan was to stop at Planet Hollywood to have a snack before going to Disney Quest. With the bus stopping at Typhoon Lagoon and then Downtown Disney (at 11:15) before Pleasure Island (at 11:21), it took us longer than I expected to get from point A to point B. Before we got off the bus I decided to skip PH and have a snack at DQ after hitting a few rides. We got off the bus at 11:21 and then there was the walk to Quest. By the time we got there it was already opened.

We went to the ticket window to turn in our vouchers. I was then told I couldn't turn them in without my KTTW card, which was in the room. I tried telling her that my name was on the voucher and on the inside of my band but she said it didn't have my last name. So what, I found another Valerie that I could get vouchers from?

Hope started crying.

Now what!

(continued in next post)

 

[vleeth]

The woman then decided she could look up our info and since I knew the hotel, room number and address she gave me tickets. At 11:39 we were Finally getting in.

Our first stop was at Pirates of the Carribean



I thought that was pretty cool. I tried to drive the boat but I couldn’t do it

Then we did CyberSpace Mountain.
At 11:57 Hope was creating her coaster



And at 12:02 we were on board CyberSpace Mountain (coaster 4 Astro Rocket). It was fun.

It was fun, but I should have added more turns upside down.

We then rode Buzz twice…switching drivers







We were pretty pitiful at it. I’m not sure if there is a learning curve or if we missed something in the instructions, but we had issues.

Our stomachs could wait no longer so at 12:30 we ordered Chicken Nuggets w Fries, fruit cup and powerade for a total of $16.80 or in our case $0!



We then did Alien Encounter and Aladdin.

You got stuck!
Oh yeah, I remember that. I couldn’t go anywhere. Abu kept talking to me but I was stuck in a corner.

Next we did the Jungle Cruise, and the Create area

We then got the call from Dave saying that he was in the parking lot, so we went outside to meet him.

A cm was blowing bubbles



Once we got back in Hope designed another trip on Cyberspace Mountain at 1:52. This time her dad rode with her.

Me and Dad were fighting over which buttons to press because he doesn’t like the upside downs. I got a few in and it was still a fun ride.

No, I don’t like to go upside down and we went upside down several times and I didn’t like it.

She says a few, he says several.

I guess we’re still fighting about it.

They got to ride at 2:17PM (coaster 4 Cosmic Streak)
Then they rode on Buzz while I played Burgertime and Donkey Kong. Then I sat and waited, it was taking a while so I decided to play Dig Dug. I figured they went on a second time when I heard an announcement about Buzz being closed.
It’s now 2:56 and I go to meet them…they weren’t on the ride or in line.

I go off in search of my family to finally find them on the other end of that floor playing video games.

At 3:02 they hopped on motorcycles



And I sat on the floor and waited. I was so done with this place, but they were having a ball.

Next they shot some dinosaurs (I think)



I thought it was funny that Disney had a Jurrasic Park game in DQ. I liked this picture so much that I made it my screen saver on my new Samsung Galaxy.

At 4:17PM we shared a popcorn snack. Cost $3.51 or $0, as it were. It was good, but way too salty for my taste.

It was a little salty, but it wasn’t bad.

Hope loves popcorn, so she had no problem finished it off.



For our last ride/game of the day we did Pirates again. This was my favorite attraction at DQ.



We stayed way longer than I expected, about 5.5 hours all together. That’s probably 4 hours longer than I would have liked. I have to admit, Disney Quest is not for me. I was ready to leave way before my family. I may even consider doing something else next time, and I don’t think I’ve ever gone off to do something on my own while at Disney.

Dave drove from his meeting to DTD, so we headed to the parking lot to go to 6:00 Mass.

We were hungry when we got back to Pop. At 7:40 we got fish and chips and an angus bacon cheeseburger, PowerAde to take to the park tomorrow and chocolate milk for breakfast (in case they are out again.) Since we were going back for our dessert we were charged for ice cream sunday and I'm not sure what the price difference is between that and what we got, which was apple blossom a la mode and a chocolate chip cookie vanilla ice cream sandwich, except we had them separate the ice cream and the cookie. It seemed as though they thought that a strange request but Hope didn’t want her ice cream to have cookie on it. Plus we knew we wouldn’t eat it all and could save the cookie for the next day. Then they asked her if she wanted a topping on the ice cream and she went for caramel.

Why would they think that was weird?

The grand total was $36.25 or, if you happen to be on the dining plan…$0!

We all thought the food and dessert was pretty good.



At 8:45 I took this picture…I guess I liked the toilet paper tied into a bow…it’s the little things.



I remember trying to tie the toilet paper back into a bow, but I couldn’t figure it out.

Maybe we can find a youtube video that shows you how.

And some not so hidden mickey’s on the bathroom wall.



We went to bed not long after this since tomorrow was our first park day and Dave’s birthday!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Poor Hope! Yeah the same thing happened when we tried to go. Luckily we still had our cards with us.

 

[vleeth]

Poor Hope! Yeah the same thing happened when we tried to go. Luckily we still had our cards with us.

I would think at some point they will just put those right on your MagicBand!

 

[vleeth]

Just dropped by to say that this is my 2000th post!

That is all.

 

[vleeth]

Since today is Dave's birthday, I thought it fitting to post about his birthday last year.

Last night I asked Dave what his favorite memories were from his birthday last year…this is what I got.

We were at Magic Kingdom, we had free dining, had a good breakfast…and he’s back to the Saint’s game. Lol. Oh wait, it's a commercial so he added...everybody kept saying "Happy Birthday Dave", "have a Magical Birthday Dave."

10/27
Dave & I were up a few mins before our 6:45 alarm and had to wake Hope. We were dressed and down for breakfast a little quicker than we expected.
By 7:40AM we had paid $25.74 for our breakfast, which consist of French Toast Bounty Platters, OJ & Chocolate milk. Okay, okay, can’t fool you! We paid $0!

I asked for extra bacon instead of sausage and got one piece of bacon in place of my 2 sausages but at least we got one extra piece of bacon because nobody was eating the sausage.







Hope only drank a couple of sips of milk so we put that in the bag for MK. We filled Hope’s mug with Powerade for later in the day and put hot chocolate in mine to share because it was still a bit chilly out for us. We are from the deep south after all.

We walked through the lobby at 8:00 and they started the twist. Just one of the cute little extras I love about Pop. Dave left his pills in the room so he went back to get them before we headed for the bus. (Remember this for later.) At this point he already had two people tell him Happy Birthday (besides us)
At 8:11AM we were getting on the bus and boy were we going to be early!

I took this picture at 8:45.


And they must have let us in a bit early because we took these pictures at 8:53.







Now let me add that according to the TouringPlans website that I paid money for, today was a 1.1 crowd level at Magic Kingdom. Because of this we planned to walk around the park once and hit things as we got to them. I mean, between a 1.1 crowd level, FP+ and the ability to get paper FP, I figured we wouldn’t wait in line very much.

The only meet and greet that Hope wanted to do on this trip to MK was Merdia. I also planned to surprise her with meeting ‘talking’ Mickey.

We then got in line for Merdia who didn’t start meeting until 9:15. This is pre-frozen and Merdia was still very popular.

This is the gate to get into the area.



I took some pics of Hope while we waited.





Then, as I prefer to not ride Tea Cups, Dave took Hope while I stayed in line and chatted with the families around me.

Once the gates were open, the line moved into the Merdia area.





It was 9:30 when we got to meet her.

Merdia noticed Hope’s Merdia shirt and had some questions.







Hope was slightly annoyed that the woman insisted on showing her how to use the bow since she does archery.



We then headed to Adventureland





We walked through The Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Hope & I read this book together as part of school and she loved it.
It was her first time in the treehouse.

We then took a Magic Carpet ride. Hope decided to ride with her Dad since it was his birthday.



Apparently, I should have been taking less pictures and pressing this button.



It was a wonderful ride. I’m not sure why I enjoy this so much, but I think I enjoy it more than Dumbo.

Next up was Jungle Cruise. Hope hadn’t been on this since she was really little and had no memory of it.



I’m not sure why, but Hope covers her ears instead of her eyes when she’s not sure she wants to see what’s going on.





We took a pic in front of pirates. (Notice my cute case for my phone.)




Everything had been walk on up to this point (as I expected) and the pirates wait was posted at 10 mins. My touring plan said 5 mins, but close enough.
At 10:09 we were walking into pirates and at 10:17 we were on the boat.
My pics all look like this…



So I’ll spare you from having to look at the rest.
I enjoy having Johnny Depp on this ride.

After pirates Dave & Hope looked at the gift shop, while I used the ladies room.

The next step in the plan was to get a FP at Splash Mountain and ride Big Thunder Mountain with a 5 min wait.
Well, SM was down and the wait for BTMR was 30 mins!

Ugh, now what?????

(continued in the next couple of posts)

 

[vleeth]

I went from loving touring plans to being annoyed with it awefully quick.

On to plan B.

We used our KTTW card to get paper FP for BTMR. Those were for an hour later.

Now we were so far off plan that I have to refigure things and make some quick decisions. I decided we should head for Haunted Mansion. This would be Hope’s first time on HM and my first time since the refurb. When Hope was 4, Dave rode with some of our group and I took Hope ride IASW (again) with my mom. Wait time said 15 mins at 10:45. We played with the interactive queue stuff, but not much because the line was moving pretty steadily. We really rushed through it. We were in the stretch room at 10:50.

When the car leans back Dad said, "This is the part where they chop your head off." And then I said, "They don't chop your head off!"

At 11:03 we finished HM and headed for IASW which had a 5 min wait posted but we were getting on the boat as fast as we could walk there.

Love that Hippo.



We all still enjoy IASW, but once a trip is more than enough!

After our boat ride Hope decided she needed to use Rapunzel’s bathroom.

When I saw them, I did not think they were bathrooms.

It was a bit bright out.



It was now time to head back to BTMR for our FP At 11:32 we get to the FP entrance for BTMR and there is a line of 20 or so people. That took a few minutes, but once we got through the check point the wait wasn’t very long.

It was time for Hope’s first ride on BTMR (which is my favorite ride.) For her first time she decided to ride with me.
She wasn’t sure what to think.

Fingers on the ears again.





It was a success.



On the recommendation of a good Disney friend we tried Columbia Harbor House for the very first time. Dave & Hope played checkers while I ordered.

We never did finish that game.



I order Shrimp, fries, cobbler, slush lemonade, chocolate milk for a total of $36.58…nope $0! I ordered at 11:52 and we walked out of Columbia Harbor House at 12:20.



I like the holiday theme that Disney added to the cups and its artsy because it’s tilted.




Since Touring Plans was off with the Pooh wait being 35 min instead of 10, I decided to move that to the end of our day. Also since the Little Mermaid was off and more than I wanted to wait we got a FP for that as well. When we got to the Little Mermaid area we find out that the FP machine for LM is over by Mickey’s Philharmagic, which we passed to get to the LM area. So much for not having to criss-cross the park today.

At 12:30 I got the LM FP while Dave and Hope went over to Dumbo. When I get there at 12:36, I notice a 15 min posted wait. After my trek for LM FP I’m ready to sit for a while and watch Hope play. When I get in I find out you can ride right away or play as long as you like and ride when you’re ready. Hope had seen commercials of this play area and was very excited to go there. I don’t think it lived up to her expectations.

It's more for little kids.



Less than 10 mins after I got there she was ready to ride.









Our first time using FP+ was for Enchanted Tales with Belle at 12:55, and we had to wait 6 mins for the next show. The standby wait was 1 hour. We sat and waited.



It was a bit uncomfortable being we walk up to the door and were first in line, and were right next to the people first at the other door that waited in line for an hour. But we didn’t have to wait very long and we were going in.

The mirror door thing was pretty cool.

Hope wasn’t about to try to get a part, but didn’t complain when she was chosen for one anyway.





Hope got a bookmark with a picture of Belle on it and by 1:23 we’re done with Belle and on our way to Ariel.

Little Mermaid now has a 40 min standby wait. At this point I realize how spoiled my daughter is for not waiting in lines. We had to wait 5 or so mins to get in because the people in front of us were have MB issues. Then had to wait a second time when the bands are scanned again (less than 5 mins.) She says to me, “I thought this was the FassPass line, shouldn’t we be going fast?” When I told her that we were and we would wait 5 mins instead of 40 mins, she decided that was a good deal.

It seemed like a good time to use a snack credit and Hope really wanted more Disney popcorn. So at 1:43PM we got some for $3.50/$0 just outside of Dumbo’s Circus.

We then headed to get a FP for Buzz. We finished off our popcorn and went to see Monsters Inc. The posted time was 10 mins.
We were out at 2:25PM. Hope loved Monsters Inc. She said it was hilarious. We all enjoyed it. It’s a funny show.

For the first time EVER,

in my entire life,

I stood in line,

LINE,

for the People Mover.

I was in shock,

Dave was in shock.

Touring Plans had this day at a 1.1. Getting even more annoyed with tp. But we all like the TTA and it’s a tradition.



I used the slow moving ride to change my phone battery and camera battery.

We headed to Buzz to use our FP. It was a 60 min standby wait.





Our second FP+ was the Indy Cars.





We walked down to the end of Main Street to get FP for talking Mickey and pick up Hope’s Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards. I’m not sure why, but the CM gave us one set of cards. I should have stood up for myself and asked for them.

Hope wanted to start with her cards right away, but I talked her into doing a few rides first. She decided to skip Mickey’s Philharmagic and just do Pooh and maybe the Carousell. Since Pooh was still a 30 min wait, we headed to Frontierland for her first round of Sorcerers.





There wasn’t a line at her first or second quest, but for some reason the 3rd quest had 3 or 4 people in front of her. While she played, Dave and I took turns resting and using the restroom.



Will we get to ride Splash Mountain or Pooh, would we get to see talking Mickey? Find out….in the next post.

(continued in next post)

 

[vleeth]

I know it’s been a really long time since my last post, but I’ve been soooo busy…oh wait, my last post is the last post…nevermind.


On Hope's second round of SotMK I went to check Splash and it was back up so I got a FP. It was 4:00 and our return time for Splash was 4:40. Our return time for Mickey was 4:30.

Hope then makes the rather painful decision to skip Pooh and do another round of SotMK in Adventureland. Tears were shed over having to make this decision.

While she does this final Quest, I go in search of a counter service with a small line to get Dave a cup of water. Aloha Isle had such a line that I decided to try elsewhere and I ended up at Peco’s Bill. By this point I’m tired and my feet hurt.

Hurt feet or not we power walked to see talking Mickey because I really wanted to see talking Mickey. The standby line was 35 mins but with FP it didn’t take very long for us to get in and when we did….



Mickey wasn’t talking.



Epic Fail! All the planning and power walking and my goal was not met! I was bummed.



But we did have a good time with the not talking Mickey.









We then stop for a pic with the goofy statue.



We made it back to Splash at 5:13 and being able to bypass the standby line did cheer me up. My frustrations with Touring Plans was still there. I’m pretty sure that wasn’t a 1.1 day. The customized touring plans that I made were supposed to allow us to make one trip around the park. My feet are telling me that is not the case. Thankfully we had FP & FP+. We wouldn’t have gotten near as much done without being able to use both systems. That was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Our next trip we may have to wait in line!









Splash Mountain was a huge hit. We all really enjoyed it and it was Hope’s first time riding. She wanted to ride again. I checked for FP for it and BTMR and they were both out. I really wish I had checked before we rode, but oh well. We decided that after supper we will get in the standby line and wait the 30 mins.

We ordered food at Peco’s Bill at 5:47. It’s one of our favorites because we (Hope & I) love the cheese sauce. Hope talks about the Disney cheese sause when we are home. We ordered a BBQ sandwich, fries, grapes, chocolate milk, bottle water, carrot cake for a total $38.98 or if you do the Disney math $0! The grapes, carrot cake and bottle of water went untouched and into the bag.





At 6:19 we head to BTMR to use our last FP+. I scheduled this because I really wanted to ride in the dark but it’s still not even close to being dark. Oh well, the park closes at 7:00 so looks like I’ll have to ride in the dark another time. When we went it the standby wait said 40 mins.












Hope screamed during most of the ride. She did stop briefly, mid-scream, to say, “I saw an armadillo.” And then went promptly back to screaming. That really had me laughing. She can be so random sometimes.


We were off of BTMR at 6:32 and Hope wanted to ride it again as well. With 28 parks mins left we had to make a choice. We decided to let Dave pick since it was his birthday and he picked BTMR. We head that way and see that standby is down to 20 mins…so maybe, just maybe we can do both! I didn’t tell that to Hope just in case we weren’t able to pull it off. This time Dave and Hope rode together.

I’m not sure why I took this picture.






The train stops at 6:50. I tell Hope we have 10 mins until the park closes and if we hurry we can get in line for Splash and ride one last ride. She screams, pulls Dave off the train (as soon as we were told we could get up,) leads him out of the ride and then stops dead in her tracks and say, “Wait, I don’t know where I’m going.”


We made it to the line for Splash and it was a walk-on. We had a great time and it was a wonderful way to end our evening.

Walking out of the park and seeing all the party goers walking in was a tiny bit depressing. If we go back this time of year we will do the MNSSHP.

Hope was now upset all over again that she missed Pooh. In hindsight, I shouldn’t have let her do that last Sorcerers quest.

We took some blurry pics before leaving.





I really liked these pumpkins.



Dave and I took pictures outside. Hope wanted no part of it. She was still upset about missing Pooh.





It was 7:41 when were out of the park and walking to the bus.
We stopped and picked up food to take with us the next day. At 8:18 we got a ham & cheese, pineapple cup, blue powerade & dessert (probably rice krispie). I'm not sure how much it cost…lol…it cost $0.

Then it was off to bed. We were driving to that other park…shh don’t tell the mouse!

 

[Joyciemc]

You're right... it is better late than never!

Glad you're writing this, I'm really enjoying it! Though I still can't believe anyone can be chilly when the temps in the 80s! LOL

 

[vleeth]

I still can't believe anyone can be chilly when the temps in the 80s! LOL

The high may have been 80, but when we left our room for MK, it was 60.

At my house right now (8:30PM) it is 70.

Dave is from Ohio and when we visit his family we're cold and when they visit us they are miserable with the heat.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Seems like a nice productive day in the parks! Though I can't imagine having to wait in a line for Peoplemover! That's why I tend to just stick with using EasyWDW and create my own touring plans. Its free and if its wrong than at least I tried. Not to mention that from what I have seen EasyWDW tends to be the more accurate source.

 

[Sisa]

Awe, those pics of Merida and Hope are so adorable! I had to laugh when the CM insisted to show Hope how to hold the bow and she was annoyed. So funny.

I'm sorry to hear that it was busier than you expected, that would be a bummer. I am worried about that too when we go, I really hope it's not too bad. DL in September was AMAZING, I hope we have a similar experience in WDW.

Seems like you all got a bunch done even though it was busier.

I really love your photos! You get some really pretty shots.

I am with you as far as the teacups, that's what my DH is for. I can't do that kind of spinning.

It sounds like a perfect kind of birthday to me!

 

[mdsouth]

I just finished reading all of your TR. I like how you added in the information about what each meal would have cost if you had to have bought it.

I, too, am just now getting around to writing a TR from my trip in Feb. of 2014. The link is in my signature, so check it out if you want.

When I went if Feb. the Fast Pass Plus system was just starting. It would have been nice to be able to plan some rides in advance with the Magic Bands and then still have the old fast pass machines in the parks like you had.

Your daughter looks tall for her age, just like my daughter. It looks like she gets her height from her father, just like my DD. My DD is eleven years old is already my height, 5' 4" tall. She is just about to outgrow me.

I am looking forward to reading more of your adventures.

 

[HHMcG]

Reading along.

After seeing a picture of your family all together, I can see where Hope gets her height.

Hope screamed during most of the ride. She did stop briefly, mid-scream, to say, “I saw an armadillo.” And then went promptly back to screaming. That really had me laughing. She can be so random sometimes.

Love this. It made me lol.

 

[ElenaJane]

You must take amazing notes on your trips! This was a year ago and you know exactly what, where and when for everything!

We were there in Oct 2013 also. I knew being able to use FP- and FP+ at the same time was a rare gift. But that is how it should be!

 

[vleeth]

Seems like a nice productive day in the parks! Though I can't imagine having to wait in a line for Peoplemover! That's why I tend to just stick with using EasyWDW and create my own touring plans. Its free and if its wrong than at least I tried. Not to mention that from what I have seen EasyWDW tends to be the more accurate source.

I will stick to EasyWDW from now on, you can bet on that!

Awe, those pics of Merida and Hope are so adorable! I had to laugh when the CM insisted to show Hope how to hold the bow and she was annoyed. So funny.

I'm sorry to hear that it was busier than you expected, that would be a bummer. I am worried about that too when we go, I really hope it's not too bad. DL in September was AMAZING, I hope we have a similar experience in WDW.

Seems like you all got a bunch done even though it was busier.

I really love your photos! You get some really pretty shots.

I am with you as far as the teacups, that's what my DH is for. I can't do that kind of spinning.

It sounds like a perfect kind of birthday to me!

Over all we had a great time and we did get a bunch done. The park wasn't really overly crowded. I think the problem is that I went in thinking we can do xyz and not have lines for anything and that's not the way it was. I probably would have been better off to make my own touring plans like I did every other trip.

I got a camera specifically for this trip and I love it.

Maybe one day I'll get to go to Magic Kingdom for my birthday!

I just finished reading all of your TR. I like how you added in the information about what each meal would have cost if you had to have bought it.

I, too, am just now getting around to writing a TR from my trip in Feb. of 2014. The link is in my signature, so check it out if you want.

When I went if Feb. the Fast Pass Plus system was just starting. It would have been nice to be able to plan some rides in advance with the Magic Bands and then still have the old fast pass machines in the parks like you had.

Your daughter looks tall for her age, just like my daughter. It looks like she gets her height from her father, just like my DD. My DD is eleven years old is already my height, 5' 4" tall. She is just about to outgrow me.

I am looking forward to reading more of your adventures.

She is 4' 11" now (and so am I) and she's 9. She gets it honest!

Reading along.

After seeing a picture of your family all together, I can see where Hope gets her height.


Love this. It made me lol.

Yep, no denying she takes after her dad!

You must take amazing notes on your trips! This was a year ago and you know exactly what, where and when for everything!

We were there in Oct 2013 also. I knew being able to use FP- and FP+ at the same time was a rare gift. But that is how it should be!

I had a bag with all of the reciepts from this trip and I took pictures of the total on the register (because the receipt usually prints out $0.) I watched the videos and the camera time stamps the pictures. The other thing I did was to record things on the voice recorder on my phone when it was something I wanted to remember. At least in the beginning of the trip.

 

[vleeth]

Happy All Hallows Eve!!!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

That's too bad that Touring Plans was so off on their estimate! I use both Touring Plans and EasyWDW, but I suppose both have some room for error.

I'm thrilled that Hope loved all the rides! I adore BTMRR!

Yikes, it is not a slow day at MK when you stand in line for the People Mover.

Despite the crowds, it looks like you got a lot done that day!

 

[vleeth]

That's too bad that Touring Plans was so off on their estimate! I use both Touring Plans and EasyWDW, but I suppose both have some room for error.

I'm thrilled that Hope loved all the rides! I adore BTMRR!

Yikes, it is not a slow day at MK when you stand in line for the People Mover.

Despite the crowds, it looks like you got a lot done that day!

I'm using easywdw now. Even if it's wrong, at least it's free!

Maybe on our next trip she can ride btmrr in the dark!

 

[vleeth]

10/28 Universal Studios

We decided since we were going to IOA to see Harry Potter World, we might as well go to the other park too! Dave & I had both been to IOA, but neither of us had been to US.

We were up bright and early and made our way to our Pop breakfast around 7:15. We had ham omelet, oj, french toast bounty platter & chocolate milk. Dave remembered his pills this morning but then realized we would have to drive to US and he left the keys to the rental car in the room.

Traffic was light and the parking lot looked like a ghost town. We parked in Spiderman 150 and were on the moving sidewalk for 8:19AM.





We went to will call to get our tickets.



and took these pics while Dave went to the restroom around 8:30.



We’ve got tickets!



I love tickets! (Charlie’s Angels movie reference)

Hope looks so serious in this photo.



When we walked up to the line there was a really long line at one turnstyle and no one at the other. We went to the empty one and for a while no one followed.





Eventually our side got full as well and we were one of the first people(s) to enter the park by 8:49AM.

We headed straight for the Minion ride, which had a posted wait of 10 mins. Really! The park just opened! It was a walk on.



This ride was awesome, the best ride of the park!

I really enjoyed this ride and in hindsight, I wish we had ridden a second time.

Then we headed for Transformers and saw this guy on the way. I really liked him and thought he was really cool, but had no interest in a picture with him.

So here is some other random people.



I was really looking forward to riding Transformers because I had heard it compared to Spiderman, which is tied for first place with BTMR as my favorite ride.

Yeah, I wasn’t impressed.

The original plan was to ride it a second time but none of us really wanted to. It was too much action for my taste.

Then we saw this guy, again with random people.



We thought about riding Minion again but the wait time said 30 mins so we headed for Mummy and got on around 9:32.

I did not enjoy this at all.

Mummy turned out to be a bad idea. Hope rode a steel coaster when she was 5. She thought she would be able to ride any and all coasters and planned to do just that on this trip. Well she didn’t like Mummy, at all. And it isn’t because of the normal scary reasons. It’s because she is super skinny and super light. She felt like she was going to fly out of the ride. She was terrified.

Yep, that's pretty much what happened.

I didn't feel like I was falling out.

After the disaster that was Mummy (see what I did there?) we walked over to Disaster. It wasn't open yet. It was 9:45 and it opened at 10:00. We used that 15 mins to find a restroom and eat a snack.

After Disaster we took this picture…



We headed for MIB and there was no line.





This is where my TR will stop being so full of details. I recorded what was happening throughout the day on my cell phone and well, when they say to stow your belongings...they mean it.

During one of the turns my phone slid out of the front pocket of my sweatshirt. I felt a little sick after that. I asked the ride attendant and they told me that they couldn’t try to get it until around 1:00 am. Dave and Hope went on again and again it was a walk on. I wasn’t feeling real well this day and losing my phone didn’t help, so I sat out this ride.

I think it was probably one of the better rides at this park...but it's pretty hard to judge because of my phone.

It was kinda nice.

After that we rode Simpsons & Twirl & Hurl



It has been years since Dave and I watched the Simpsons and Hope hasn’t watched it since she was a baby, so the area was kinda lost on us.

Then we rode ET,which we all enjoyed. Hope missed that they said her name. I didn’t tell her about it ahead of time and that was a mistake because she totally missed it. Also we were sitting in the back and couldn’t see much.

Then we had lunch that we brought with us. While we were eating they came out with the dog from MIB, so Hope went to pet him and take a picture. She loves animals.



After lunch we rode ET again, but made sure we got to sit in the front and this time she heard her name. It’s a much better ride if you can sit in the front and see everything.

After that we let Hope play in the kid area.

Around noon we got in line for Shrek. It was okay, but we're not really Shrek fans.

Hope wasn’t happy about doing Twister. It wasn’t as bad as she expected but she still wasn’t real happy about doing it.

We decided we were ready to head back to Pop, but first Hope wanted to make a purchase.

3:01 Hedwig Puppet $29.95 plus tax.

When we got back to Pop, Dave and Hope went for a swim. They are somewhere in this picture, but I can’t tell you where.



We had supper pool side. I had some kind of Chinese food, I think Dave did too and Hope had a hot dog and there was some tie dye cheesecake involved. Planning this trip I was really excited about trying the cheesecake. Not long before our trip they switched from the slices to the cup. But it was tie dye and it was cheesecake and it was Pop, so it was good enough for me.









Have I mentioned lately that we love Pop!