The "Are you CRAZY?!! April trip with 2 moms, 7 kids and 2 grouchy, grandparents TR

Here is another pic
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We also got FPs for SM and BTMR, so rode those again. It's SOOO nice to have all of my kids be tall enough now for almost everything. The only thing we had to child swap on this trip was EE, (would have needed to for RnR, but littlest came later in the day). It's a great day when everyone can be included!


Why'd you have to kid swap for EE?? It's the same height requirement as Space Mountain. My son can go on it, but is too scared right now to try. But loves going in the first spot on SM!! Go figure!!:lmao:
 
Ooops! Should have been SplM! Our 41" 5 year old rode that a couple of times and loved it, but couldn't ride either SPACE mountain or EE. That's what I get when I try to type up my report too late at night. :eek:

Okay, onto our 3rd day of the parks. I think that was Wednesday...

Last trip to WDW, we went to AK, but only ended up there for a few hours. The park is really big, and IMHO, a lot convoluted and hard to find ones way around in. Like most visitors most of the time, we hadn't taken any time to do any planning, and didn't even know there WAS an "Animal Kingdom" until we were there. We just had 4 day tickets, and sort of winged it. I REALLY wanted this trip to be different, so I camped out here on DIS planning since January.

We showed up at 8:00 alone. No one in my family wanted to go because "It's only zoo" Okay, whatever... We also showed up at 8:00 because I swear the calendar said they had AM EMH that day. There were a few people waiting, and I thought, uh-oh!! Sure enough, the park didn't open until 9:00!! I really think they changed the calendar at the last minute, because the people in front of me said that his wife who "is on the boards all the time, did the planning, and she said 8:00 too". Hmmm.....The kids did okay though, waiting for 2 reasons; 1) They knew EE was just around the corner and 2) The talking palm tree came out and kept them quite entertained for the last 20 minutes.

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We got up to the point of the little show with Goofy and Minnie? (we really couldn't see very well) and waited some more. Finally, at 9:00 we ran as fast as someone can "run" with a stroller, and without being rude and bowling people over, to EE. We quickly got on with a child swap, then grabbed FPs for another ride. I just love the theming in this area. I don't know about you, but that's one of the primary things that keeps me coming back for more.

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After that we headed over to Dinoland where we took in Dinosaur. Then the big kids did Primeval Whirl, while I took DD 5 on Triceratop Spin. She loved it, and I felt like this a MUCH better choice over Dumbo, as there was NO line at all. (That's just me though, I know there are a ton of Dumbo fans out there)

After we got the ride bug out of our system, we had time to take in the Nemo show before our FPs for EE were up. Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot say enough good things about this show. I know a lot of you have older teens, and I can tell you unequivocally, that my 17 year son, who skipped parks altogether twice this trip, LOVED this show. The singing, danding, puppetry, stage, everything is broadway quality! We would go back again in a heartbeat- and I'd have to say, if you've never done this, give it a chance.


Now, we are starved!! Time to head over to Flame Tree for our long-anticipated lunch. Okay, we're pretty easy to please. As I've mentioned before, we really aren't foodies so much. So we ordered 3 BBQ Pork Sandwiches, a fruit plate, 2 orders of onion rings, and waters to put our drink powder in. It was more than enough food for us! In fact, we didn't even touch one order of onion rings, and ended up giving them to some really nice Brits at the next table over. (Trust me, we REALLY didn't touch them!) The food was surprisingly good. The beans that come with the sandwich are a little on the sweet side for us, but the sandwiches were huge, the fruit was very fresh, and the onion rings were great dipped in the BBQ sauce off of the condiment bar.

Satiated, we still have time to hit the Tough to be a Bug show before we end our day with one more EE. It was cute, all the kids liked, but not loved it, and we might or might now go back next time. Honestly, I think they enjoyed seeing the tree of life carvings more.

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By now, it's pretty hot, we're pretty tired, and we're feeling like it's time to jet outta there. One more ride on our favorite... with a child swap. Since you get 3 people on one swap, and we used the 5 year old's ticket for an extra FP, all the kids got to go on at least 3 times, 2 of them 4 times. They loved it.

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These aren't the best photos I've ever taken, but hey, hope you enjoy them anyway.

Since we were leaving quite early, (I think it was around 3:00) we slowly strolled towards the gates. Everyone wanted a snack, so we stopped and got a lemon slushie. Mmmm, so cold and refreshing! We also stumbled upon Pocahontas near the entrance, and I snapped her photo.


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My dad was particulary impressed with the photo. I'm not so sure it was really the photo he was looking at...

Well, that's about it for a short day at AK. Next time at AK, we'll make sure we get onto the Safaris and out to Conservation Station, but too much to do for this time around. :rolleyes:


In my next post I'll say a few words about the rest of the day at the Fort.

Here are a few things that I learned about AK and how to tackle it: (caution, small spoiler for EE ahead)

1) EE is probably the best ride at the parks right now, especially if you like theming. The line is non-stop stuff to see! LOVE it! The track is smooth, the backwards part is fun, and there are some really fun special effects inside.

2) The Nemo show is the BEST!!, but line up at least 45mins.- 1 hour ahead of time. They were crammin' in there like sardines by 30 minutes before the show!

3) Dinoland is pretty cheezy, I would have gone over to Rafiki's instead if I would do it again.

One more picture, that cracked us up. We go all the way to AK to see:

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You have to look carefully for it....

Enjoy, everyone!
 
Wonderful trip report! I am really enjoying your photos and commentaries! I have been back to Disney 2x since I joined these boards and have yet to write my trip report:eek: ...probably won't though!;)

Keep it coming:)
 
I've just now got to read your trip report, you have a wonderful and beautiful family and I've enjoyed every word of your report.


Can I ask what you do in Asia, as far as work , if you don't wish to answer don't, it's just after reading your trip report, I'm really curious what your doing over there...hehe :flower3:
 
I've just now got to read your trip report, you have a wonderful and beautiful family and I've enjoyed every word of your report.


Can I ask what you do in Asia, as far as work , if you don't wish to answer don't, it's just after reading your trip report, I'm really curious what your doing over there...hehe :flower3:

Thanks for asking :) Just PMed you; it's all there. Glad you joined in the fun,
nice to have you aboard!
 
I too have been very curious, actually several pages ago!

I was just afraid to ask!:love:

Me, too.:lmao: Also, I looked closely at that last picture and I don't get it.:rotfl: What am I supposed to see?

Thanks for the trip report!
 
You guys are great! You shouldn't be afraid to ask, all someone can do is just not answer ;) But since you've all asked, my husband is a hydrogeologist and we are working to help villages get better access to clean water. Sometimes it means getting a water truck donated, sometimes we fix the piping systems, or install sinks in schools, or our latest is getting a water system in a leprosy village working again. We also dabble in orphaned youth work, English teaching, and micro-credit loans for farmers. I was telling Terri, that we share Good News of Living Water wherever we can. I was going to post some photos of the yurts and camels and stuff like that that we see everyday on the chat board next week when DH comes back with the laptop.
 
You guys are great! You shouldn't be afraid to ask, all someone can do is just not answer ;) But since you've all asked, my husband is a hydrogeologist and we are working to help villages get better access to clean water. Sometimes it means getting a water truck donated, sometimes we fix the piping systems, or install sinks in schools, or our latest is getting a water system in a leprosy village working again. We also dabble in orphaned youth work, English teaching, and micro-credit loans for farmers. I was telling Terri, that we share Good News of Living Water wherever we can. I was going to post some photos of the yurts and camels and stuff like that that we see everyday on the chat board next week when DH comes back with the laptop.


WOW Liesa, that is awesome! You are very lucky and very blessed to have a job that must be so rewarding! We here in the wonderful land of the free have NO IDEA how good we truly have it!:thumbsup2 All of us on here stressing about vacations and we forget there are people with NO CLEAN WATER!:eek:

God bless you and your family!:flower3:
 
Yup! You got it! I thought that was too funny; spending that much money to see something you could see in your own backyard! and even then we try to keep them off the birdfeeders, right??!!! We actually watched the bird squawk at the squirrel some.

Here's the bird that he was competing with:


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I started my scrapbook today finally! Hooray! I really hope I can get it finished up before we leave again; there's just no room to take that all with me.

So, this brings me to the rest of the day after we left early from AK. Like I said, we were pretty tired out, and just wanted to be back at the Fort. It was only 4:00 or so when we got back, so there was plenty of time to head to the Meadows Pool for a swim. Of course I took my mug, for a cool (and by this time free) refill. :thumbsup2 The kids LOVED swimming and playing, but were bummed they couldn't dive in. They are pretty hard-nosed about that! The changing room/ bathrooms were VERY clean, and maybe we are too trusting, but we just left our clothes in there. Hopefully, by the time we make it back to the Fort (in at least 3 years) there will be a new themed pool for us to enjoy??

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Since we were rained out on Saturday and Sunday we couldn't get to the campfire program or the movie. So tonight would be it! But first, we needed to tackle dinner and "cocktails" with family.

Sis and I broke out the wine, while the spaghetti cooked. How many of you check the doneness of your spaghetti by throwing it on the wall? Did your mothers ever teach you that? My DDs decided that we needed to check it and looked for the nearest "wall". Hmmm, where would that be??!! I was in hysteria laughing at what was fast becoming a small food fight. Too funny!


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Meanwhile, someone else spotted some wildlife nearby (we were in 1513) and took some pretty good shots of a turkey and one of those cute little bunnies that hop around. We also saw deer and armadillo on this trip, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. Of course, DD5 thought that the mommy duck with her baby was the best of all.
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After dinner, the whole crowd headed over across the street (1500 loop is the BEST for being close to the action at the Meadows!) armed with marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate. My sister uses chocolate frosting like Duncan Hines for her S'mores, so I thought we'd give it a try. We are professional S'more makers at our house, and we knew there wouldn't be a nice hot stone to melt our chocolate bars on near the fire, so okay, frosting it would be. It was PERFECT! In fact, I'm not sure we'll ever go back to bars! Try it sometime, I'm sold.

I wish I had pictures to share of our fabulous time with Chip and Dale. But alas, I forgot my camera, and DSis hasn't given me a disk yet of the ones she took on the trip. I 'll see her next week, though, and maybe I can edit this post with some of hers.

I'm pretty sure Herbie, Fully Loaded was playing. I watched about 10 minutes and decided it was so totally lame of a movie, I left with the little ones. I love the old Herbies a ton, but this one well, whatever?? :confused3 The older ones stayed and watched the rest, but they had to promise me they'd be ready to be at the Marina by 7:30 for AM EMH the next day.

I forgot to mention in my first day's report that we were celebrating my DD, now 15, birthday. It was on the 11th (2 days after this day), so when they asked who was celebrating a birthday in April, she went up to get a Happy Birthday song. I love the fact that she is 15, and still very girlish and willing to still have fun in innocent ways.

Hope you are all well tonight. Have a great weekend!

Liesa
 
Still loving your TR! I feel like I am there!

What a great tip on using the chocolate frosting! We always try to get it just right but it never quite works out -- we will definitely try this on our next camping trip.
 
When we make s'mores at home we use hot fudge and marshmellow fluff on graham crackers. Much easier than trying to cook marshmellows in the house :thumbsup2
 
So glad there's a few of you still with me :) I'm having a lot of fun writing this up, and hope that at least someone will have benefit from it in some small way.

I'm over half way through, only 4 days left of World fun.

Day 7- Magic Kingdom

Up early today; MK has AM EMH. Since we'd already done most of what we had already wanted to, we took it easy today. NICE, very nice! DS, 17 decided to stay back and read and hang out at the Fort, and ended up joining in a game of football, swimming, and getting refills with the mug. Do any of your teens look like this when they are dragged onto Small World?? (Shhh! He shoot me dead if he knew I was posting this!!)

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After a picture in front of a nearly empty park in front of the castle, went straight to the left again, and did Splash and BTMR, then on over to SM. After the 3 mountains, we concentrated on the rest of Tom.L. which we hadn't done much of Monday or Tues. but this time, we spent more time getting to each attraction, and slowed down. Are we the only ones who hold up their arms and have fun on TTA?

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When the rest of the fam. arrived (late, as usual) we went on over to the castle area. I had read about seeing Tink inside the dresser in Tink's Treasures. The little girls AND the big girls had fun watching for her to light up. We also found a few more of the pressed pennies we had wanted to get. Unfortunately, DD, 15 wanted to collect all of the villians, but only got 4 or so of them. One of the machines was broken down, and some of the others were at the Yacht resort at Beaches n Cream and we never made it over there. Always good IMHO to leave something undone for next time!!

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Lunchtime!! We planned on trying the burgers at Pecos Bills, and WOW! for amusement park fare, this was really good! Not Fuddruckers or Red Robin, but pretty darned tasty. The condiment bar was rich- tomatoes, lettuce, grilled onions and mushrooms and more. Yum, yum. We did the extra bun trick and for 3 bacon double cheeseburgers with ice waters (free) it was less than $30.

We all wanted to ride PoTC one last time (love the refurb with Jack), so headed over that way. We happened upon Woody's Roundup once again, did Country Bear Jamboree, which we quickly pronounced a complete SNOOOOOOZER!!! (Why was that one so fun when we were 8??!! :sad2: ), then got caught in the 3:00 parade MESS!!! If you come out of CBJ at 3:00 forget going anywhere! If you don't want to see it, steer way clear long before 3:00. I made this mistake twice at MK, I guess I'm slow to learn.

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It was getting on toward dinner time now, and my parents were starting the what's for dinner routine once again. I think by now (ok, about 2 days ago!) they were DONE with the parks and just wanted out. I knew I was pushing my luck, so we needed to flex with a plan B. It was time to head for the gates for a dinner off-site, I could tell. One last thing I really wanted to do though was to have the kids get a little pixie dust at the barber shop on Main street. I figured free; free is a very good price. It was a fun thing to do, and next time we'd do it again, but earlier in the day.
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So, off to dinner it was. We found a PF Changs, and had a great Chinese dinner. I would have been happy to stay on at the parks, but they really didn't want anymore burgers or dogs. After dinner, they went onto their condo, and we went back to see if we could catch Wishes one last time. We still wanted to watch them from the front of the castle. We got back to the park at about 8:00 and went straight to the place we had picked out earlier in the day- in front of Casey's. Sweet! At 8:45 the kids said an ice cream cone from the shop across the street would be good. I headed over, but the line was so long I knew there was no way I was going to get 6 ice creams and be back in time for the show. So, I told them we'd get some afterwards.

Wishes was so beautiful from the FRONT of the castle; WAY better than from behind. I had no idea it actually had a story to go with it, and that they were timed to the music. You just can't see all that from anywhere else. Afterwards, by this time the kids were really hungry again. So we got Mickey cones for the 2 little ones and the rest of us got another round of dogs. Casey's ended up being our favorite place of all in MK, and we will probably make this one of our traditions from now on. I'll post a couple of the fireworks, but none really turned out any good- sorry!

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By now, the park was pretty much emptied out, and we made our way back to the car and back to the tent. If you drive to the lot, and need to take the monorail, tram, and 2 buses, plan on a VERY long time for the commute. Luckily, no one had a meltdown, and we tumbled into bed knowing we had done almost everything we wanted to. The only thing I can think of that we missed was the flag lowering ceremony. Again, good to save something for next time.

Here a couple more shots from Main Street.
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Hope you are still enjoying the TR, everyone. Happy reading!

Liesa
 
Liesa- Thank you for more sharing! I am really loving the way you tell your "stories" of family fun and misadventures!:thumbsup2

Keep it coming!:flower3:
 
I'm still here. It's fun reading. Makes me wish I was there as well. I can't wait for the next installment.
 

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