Two Party Trip Report, 3-7 June **Updated 6/10** COMPLETE About This Page:

[bsblady01]

more please.

[PrincessSharon]

Have a magical trip, Lisa!

[tkd lisa]

The Two Party Trip, June 3-7th, 2007

We’re back! And ready to tell you all about our latest Disney trip. Just to refresh your memory, here’s the background.

First, the trip title. This is the trip where we met up with some old friends from Indiana. They have 4 boys, and all but the youngest have been to Disney 3 or 4 times before, but the latest visit was at least 5 years ago. My family visits all the time (love the perks of Florida residency and annual passes). We took a one-day trip to EPCOT Mother’s Day weekend, and we spent a week in March at Boardwalk Villas.

The travelers:

Party One (my family): Me, Lisa, 42 year old single mom. Trip planner, fast pass runner.
DM, Helen, late 60s. Has made most of our Disney trips with us since we moved to FL.
DD, Kaylie, 15. Loves thrill rides, Stitch, and Japan
DS, Casey, 13 ½. Likes his independence, the animation studio, and technology rides

Party Two (friends):
DF, Lori, about my age. I think she’s taken 4 Disney trips.
DFH, Shawn, also about my age, and the same number of trips as his wife.
DFS1, Danny, nearly 15, I think he’s made 3 trips to Disney
DFS2, Matthew, 13, also 3 trips
DFS3, Scott, nearly 10, two trips
DFS4, Josh, 7, first trip to Disney

Resorts:

Party 1, 1 night at SSR in a studio, then 3 nights at OKW in a one bedroom.
Part 2, 6 nights in a Ft. Wilderness cabin

Now, the actual report!

Day one, Sunday June 3.

Party One started the day at church, then headed east. We left about 10:40, and after a stop at Arbys in Polk City for lunch, we pulled into SSR about 12:10. Unfortunately, we met the longest check in line I’ve ever seen! It wound through the lobby all the way back to the bathrooms. Two Magic Express buses from the airport had just unloaded, and according to a CM the resort was completely booked for the night. All sections are now open. I think the CM said they had 1400 people checking in that day? Anyway, it took about 40 minutes to make it to the check in desk, where we were assigned room 5147 and it was ready. It was in the Paddock section, ground floor. It was an end unit, which meant it was pretty quiet.

DS had called our friends, who had just arrived at Ft. Wilderness. We headed over to our studio to put away our refrigerated items. Party two decided to make a grocery run before meeting up with us. Since I knew it would be a few hours, DM and I decided to head over to EPCOT to catch the last few seminars of the F&G festival. The kids wanted to stay in the room and watch TV. Mom and I drove over so it would be easy to leave when our friends finished their grocery run.

Our first stop was the Visa picture spot and got this photo taken. I mentioned to Minnie that I expected them to be in their Year of a Million Dreams outfits. In fact, all week long we never saw the characters in their blue outfits.



We caught the 2:00 seminar on Lawn Care. It was given by the head groundskeeper for one of the Disney golf courses. He had a good sense of humor (including several clips of Bill Murray from Caddyshack), so it was entertaining. We got a goody bag which included fertilizer, goggles, ear protectors etc.

We spent the next 45 minutes wandering through the last few displays that we hadn’t seen when we were there Mother’s Day. The rose garden and water plants were particularly pretty. We decided to head back to the car about 3:30, with a stop by the camera store for our picture. Unfortunately, it hadn’t been uploaded yet. The CM said that this was becoming more of an issue since the number of photopass photographers was growing. They did say we could come in the next day and they’d honor our vouchers. Here are a couple of F&G festival pictures we took. Notice Tink at the top of the pirate ship.





Once we were back in the room, our friends arrived. All the guys headed over to the main pool to swim, while DF and I headed to DTD Guest Relations to take care of their ticket refund. And boy was that fun (not!). When DF reserved their cabin, they had added hopper passes with water park and more option. They originally were considering the dining plan, but decided not to add it. I had asked at guest relations when we got my mom’s passes and found out that as long as the passes hadn’t been used, they could be returned. I’m a DoD employee and am eligible for tickets from Shades of Green. When I compared prices, I realized they could get Stars and Stripes passes (like the old Length of stay tickets, good for all the parks including Disney Quest and the Water Parks, unlimited entry for your entire stay) and save at least $30 per ticket. So off we went to take care of the return and go buy the S&S tickets at Shades of Green.

We drove over to DTD, where the CM said “I can’t do this. Since the passes are on the room keys, if I refund the passes, it will mess up the room key. You have to go to Ft. Wilderness and have them do it.” I explained that guest relations had told me that ONLY a guest relations agent could refund tickets, NOT concierge. The CM made a couple of phone calls (including one to Ft. Wilderness), and told us that we had to go to Shades of Green, and have SOG verify that we were eligible for passes, then Ft. Wilderness would be able to remove the passes. This should have been my clue that something was wrong, but since she was a Guest Relations CM, and she said that they could be refunded, we headed to SOG to do what she said.

We made our way to SOG (driving right by Ft. Wilderness on the way), and made our way to the ticket window. Luckily, there was no one waiting, since there was only one guy working. I explained what the CM at DTD said. He also said that sounded strange, but he called over to Ft. Wilderness. First answer he got was “Tickets are non-refundable.” He asked to talk to a manager there, and explained again. After about 20 minutes, he said “They wanted to just refund the difference, but when I explained these tickets aren’t hoppers, they said they could just return the hoppers. Be sure you check that they give you the complete refund once you get there.” So we bought the S&S tickets (now at this time, they’ve got two sets of park tickets for 6 people). And off to Ft. Wilderness we went.

Up to the concierge window, where the CM said “Tickets are non-refundable.” I explained, we spoke to a CM at DTD, and they called your manager and we did exactly what they told us to do. He (rather snottily) said, “I see the notes in your file that you were told tickets are NOT refundable.” I asked “When was that note made?” The answer? When they made the package reservation, back in March. I said “You tell everyone that! We did exactly what the guest relations CM said.” After a few more back and forths, he finally got his manager, Anita out of the back. To finally end this long ticket saga, they finally were able to do this, but there was about 20 minutes there where I was really sweating bullets. Anita had to have central reservations issue a new booking in order to make it happen. They gave DF a few blank key cards to get into their cabin, and promised to bring new room keys over in about 45 minutes. This whole thing ended up taking about 3 hours. They did save almost $200, so it was probably worth it. But it could have definitely been easier.

By this time, the swimmers were done. DFH didn’t have enough seats in his van to bring everyone over, so I headed back to pick up DM and DD. We cooked burgers and hot dogs at their cabin. The cabins are really roomy. They have a nice sized kitchen/dining/living area, plus a full bedroom with a double bed and a set of bunk beds. DF did say there wasn’t much storage for 6 peoples clothing though. We headed back to our room about 9:30, after watching a few of the high fireworks from Illuminations on their deck while we were finishing our dessert. As we were heading to our van, Anita came up with our friends room keys. It had taken her another 2 hours to get the keys re-issued.

The weather today was: cloudy in the morning (remnants of TS Barry), then hot and clear in the afternoon.

The worst thing today was: The ticket fiasco.

The funniest thing today was: The wild armadillo. While we were cooking the burgers, DF’s youngest son said “Hey, there’s an animal out here!” We had seen lots of rabbits, so we figured that’s what it was. But no. It was an armadillo! Those boys had never seen one before, so they weren’t sure what it was. That armadillo rooted under the deck the whole time we were eating.

Up next, EPCOT at opening, and late EMH at AK.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry about the ticket fiasco Glad it was finally resolved!

More please

[tammyd_rn]

That was a fiasco with the tickets. Glad it all worked out in the end. Look forward to more of your trip report.

[tkd lisa]

Day Two, June 4th

Plans: Party one checks out of SSR and into OKW, then we all meet at EPCOT for opening at 9:00. Cover most of future world, get lunch at World Showcase then take a break. Party 2 visit water park, while Party 1 moves into OKW room. Meet back at AK by 4:00 and stay for late EMH.

What happened? Well, this was the first indication that our vacation styles were quite different. I was up at 5:30 (no alarm needed) and had my coffee and devotions out on the patio. It was really nice having a ground floor unit. I had set DD’s bed up in front of the door, but I knew I could use the slider. DS (on the pull out) sleeps like the dead! I took a brisk walk around the lake while I finished my coffee, then I headed over to OKW to check in. I got there about 6:45, and gee, big surprise, NO LINE! This was our first time to OKW, and right away I knew we would love it! We’ve taken a couple of cruises which stopped in Key West, and Disney got the atmosphere just right. They didn’t have anything in my requested buildings (14, 62 or 63), but she said that we were in the general area. I didn’t really expect to get my request, but I was happy to be in the front part of the resort.

I made it back to our room about 7:30 and started to rouse the troops. I had made a couple types of Mickey Mouse shirts for both our groups, and we were going to wear one set today. Since they don't show up to well in the pictures of us, here's one of just the shirts.


DS gave me a little grief about it, but when he heard Danny was wearing it, he agreed. DD also gave me a lot of trouble because I had brought capris for her to wear today. She insisted on wearing her jeans from the day before. I had told her before if she didn’t pack, she had to take what I packed. We had some breakfast, and packed up the cooler items to drop at OKW bell services. We left the van in the front lot at OKW, and caught a bus to EPCOT from the Hospitality House stop. Here are a couple of pictures we took while we were waiting on the bus.


This one just cracks me up! You all know that DS doesn’t like his picture taken. So I was teasing him about it, and Mom caught me sticking out my tongue at him! You can see our shirts pretty well here too. Our family had lime green, which didn’t do the best job of showing the Mickey. Party 2 has gray shirts and they showed up much better. You'll see one of them later.



Here’s Mom at the flagpole. She really liked the arrangement of plants there. I actually took this picture a different day, but just pretend she's wearing her green shirt!

The bus came quickly, and we were at EPCOT by 8:40. DS split off to go to Mission Space (he left me his pass for FPs). The ladies stopped by to pick up our Visa photo, then DD headed to Test Track while Mom and I rode Soarin standby. I think we waited about 20 minutes. We picked up 4 FPs as we exited that were good for 11:15. DS had moved over to Innoventions when it opened. He did the Plastic exhibit and made a robot for DF’s youngest son. DD met up with mom and I and we went on Figment. We played around in Image Works for a while, and got this fairly cute picture of DD and Mom.



My friend called about 10:45 and said had just arrived and were in line for Spaceship Earth.


We headed out to wait for them, and pick up a snack. I got an ice cream sandwich for us all to nibble on. DS came over to join us, and we polished that off pretty quickly. Here’s a shot of us waiting for Party 2.



Somehow, they actually walked right by us, and called us from inside the Land pavilion about 11:15. We handed over the FPs for DFH, and the 3 oldest boys to use. DS played tour guide and showed them how to get FPs. They got a full set for all of us to use later. It turned out that they got ones with Party 2’s tickets before they rode, then picked up 4 more when they exited the ride. Party 2’s FPs were good for 2:15 to 3:15, and Party 1’s FPs were good for 3:30-4:30.

Me, DD, DM, DF, and the youngest boy all headed over to the Living Seas to explore. We rode the clammobiles, and caught Turtle Talk. DFS4 really liked Crush. DD took him up to the front and sat with him during the show. DS called as the show was finishing and said they had finished Soarin. We met up with DS and DFS1 (the almost 15 year old) at the exit. DFH and the other two boys had headed over to TT, planning to get more FPs. Hmm. Sounds like DS failed at his tour guide role, since they wouldn’t be able to get another FP for at least another hour. Here’s a picture of the boys goofing around when we met up. You can see that the gray shirts turned out a little better than the green.



We headed over to TT. DF tried her husbands cell, but he wasn’t answering. We decided he must be in the standby for TT (it was posted as 30 minutes). The boys checked out all the cars, as well as the gift shop area, and after about 20 minutes the whole gang came out. We decided it was about lunchtime. We decided to split up for lunch, and then meet up at Soarin to use our FPs. This is where the time difference comes into play. I pulled out my passes and said “Okay, we’ll meet at 3:30 then”, and we headed off.

DF’s family wanted standard park food, so I sent them over to Electric Umbrella. DS wanted to stay with his friend, so after double checking that this was okay I gave him $9. Turned out the boys went over to Japan and ate at Yakitori House. DS had teriyaki chicken and green tea. Meanwhile, the ladies in my family headed over to Morrocco. I had been wanting to try the food at the Tangerine Café for quite a while, and this seemed like a good time for it. We got the combo chicken and lamb platter, two drinks, a water and a baklava for $22.46. This was plenty of food for the 3 of us, and a fairly good bargain by Disney standards.

After lunch we caught a 2:00 showing of VOL, who were great as always. There were a number of new performers that I hadn’t seen before. The lady sitting next to me was picked for “Oh Susannah”. The singer handed me her camera when he took her hand, so I snapped a picture for her future embarrassment! After the singers, DD watched the AA movie (she really loves this!) while Mom and I wandered around World Showcase. I saw that Sergio was going to be in Italy at 2:30, so we caught his show. Here’s a few photos I took there.





From there, Mom decided she had a little empty spot so we picked up a cookie, then headed over to the shops in Germany. I have never gone into the side with the sweet shop, so we wandered through there. Mom spent some time talking to the Hummel artist. It was pretty comical. She was chatting about the process they use to make the figurines. The lady either didn’t speak much English or really didn’t want to talk with us, so the conversation was kind of stilted. Then we started to go, and Mom turned to the artist and said “Gracias for your time”. I was cracking up as we headed out! Mom said “What’s so funny?” I said “I can’t believe you just spoke Spanish to that German lady!”

By this time, DD was done with the American Adventure, and we decided to meander around toward the Land Pavilion. DD walked around the side by Canada, while Mom and I headed past Mexico. DD got into the pavilion, and called to say “Mom, I’m here with Mr. xxx, and the rest of them are already on the ride.” I said “But the passes aren’t good until 3:30? (it was about 3:15 then). Confused we headed down the escalator to find out that their passes were earlier than ours (and DS finally admitted that he hadn’t remembered to get our passes until they exited the ride). DF’s family was afraid they might not let them use the FP after they expired, so they went ahead and rode. DFH let my son use his pass, since DFH had already ridden that morning. DD grabbed one of our passes and headed through the line, and I gave away the rest of the passes to someone who needed them. We all decided to head out for a break. I told DF to call and let me know if they wanted to head to AK for late EMH, and that we’d probably get there around 6. We left the park about 3:50 and took the bus back to OKW.

While we were riding back to the resort, I called and got our villa number. We were in 1614, which was ground floor right in the middle of Building 16. This was a really nice location, and it was nice to not have to climb steps (most of the OKW buildings don’t have elevators). We stayed on the bus through the entire resort and got off at Hospitality House (last stop). I moved the van over and unloaded everything, then called Bell services for our cooler. The bellhop told me that they were swamped, and only had one guy working, so he suggested I come pick up the cooler if I wanted it anytime soon, so I did.

I have to say, I have a new favorite resort. The Boardwalk is really convenient, but I think the extra room at OKW is worth a few bus rides! I really liked the kitchen set up, as well as having a full laundry room. This villa was the old style, which doesn’t have a door from the laundry room into the bathroom, so I just laid down the couch cushions on the floor for DD’s bed, and she had a dark, quiet place to sleep. The missing bathroom door did make for some craziness when we had someone in the bathtub when another person needed to use the toilet, but we worked it out! Here are a few pictures of the villa.


Do you think they were a little tired?





Once we were unpacked, DM and I headed over to the main pool. Mom said it wasn’t as crowded as SSR’s pool had been the day before. I did notice that this pool is smaller than the large one at SSR, and it only has one hot tub. But it has a dry sauna in the lighthouse. I swam a little, then joined Mom in the hot tub for a few minutes. When we got back to the villa, DS said that DF had called and said they weren’t going to join us at AK. They decided to stay at the cabin, and enjoy the pool for the evening. DD wanted to eat at RainForest Café, so I called Disney dining to see if they had any ADRs for the evening. I never got off hold, so we went over to concierge and checked while we waited for the bus. They said there was scattered availability for 1 or 2 after 7:30, so I told DD we’d see how busy it was when we got to the park.

We caught a bus fairly quickly, and arrived at AK right at 7:00 (main park closing). The line to checkin at RFC was so long I couldn’t even see the podium, so I told DD she could pick somewhere inside the park to eat. The line for wrist bands up at the entrance was really long, so we ended up over at Dino Land to get our bands. We decided to head over to Camp Minnie/Mickey to see the 8:00 Lion King show, and maybe get some dinner on the way. Flame Tree BBQ and Pizzafari were the only places open. The crowds were a little crazy, so we took the long way around to avoid the herd of people trying to exit. DD didn’t want pizza, so we decided to eat after the show. This show was excellent as always! It seemed like most of the singers were new, but they were really good. This was the first time I’ve seen a different person leading the alto section. I’ve seen the same lady for about 3 years now. But this one was REALLY good!

Once done with the show, we made our way to Flame Tree BBQ for dinner. The tree of life was beautifully lit up. We had decided to travel light, so we left our cameras behind. Mom was kicking herself because she wanted a picture of that tree! I told her we’ll just have to go to late EMH in September. We had 2 pork sandwiches and a coke for $14.21 (with DDE discount). Once we polished it all off, DD and I headed over to EE. Mom decided to wait for us by the main store. DD and I walked through the dark path by the Nemo show. It really was a little spooky, especially because NO one was there was the first half! We planned to ride single rider, but they didn’t have that line open. The standby was about 30 minutes, and DD decided that it wasn’t worth the wait. So we ended up heading back to pick up Mom, and we were back on the bus by 9:30, and everyone was asleep by 11:00.

The weather today was: sunny, humid, and about 92 degrees.

The funniest thing today was: seeing the picture Mom took of me with my tongue stuck out!

Today we tried: Tangerine Café, and it was really good! We’ll definitely do this again, especially during free dining.

Up next:

A full day at MK

[ariel14]

Great update!!!!!
More pls!!!!

[ArielsMomto2]

Great update. Love the shirts.

[MickeyMAC]

Great report. Sounds like you had a great time. Love your pictures of OKW.

[tammyd_rn]

Great update.

[Grammy Grumpy]

Thanks for sharing!

[DyanKJ130]

Great updates!! Hurry back with more!

[bsblady01]

more please.

[Colexis Mom]

Great update and pictures Lisa

[tkd lisa]

Thanks to everyone who commented. I really do like keeping a record of our trips. Here's the next day!

Day 3, June 5th.

Before I start today, I remembered something I left out from last night. While the ladies were at AK, DS called and said he wanted to go to Downtown Disney to shop. I was a little nervous about this, since I don’t usually let the kids go there alone, and it was getting close to dark. But since our resort was so close, I let him go, but told him to call me from the bus going there and when he got there. He could only stay 30 minutes, and couldn’t leave the marketplace, then he had to call me from the bus home and when he got into the room. He ended up at Once Upon a Toy where he made the “Build your own Lightsaber.” He had been eyeing this for about a month, but I told him he had to save his own money if he wanted it. He’s just at that weird age where he is kind of too old for toys, and too young for other souveniers. But he loves building things. He had $25 to spend, and it was $21.25 with tax.

Plans for the day: EMH at MK by 8:00. Lunch at 12:50 at Crystal Palace. Break for a trip to the water park, then back to MK by 6 to catch Spectro and Wishes.

What really happened? I had set a wake up call for 6, and took a nice bath while everyone else was still snoozing. I failed to mention that both kids took advantage of the huge tub at OKW the day before while Mom and I used the pool. The tub was so big it had a little seat set into the side of it! I woke the family up at 6:45, and I fixed omlettes and sausage while everyone got ready. They were moving a little slowly, but we were out the door by 7:35. I figured we’d make it MK about 10 minutes after the early opening. But boy was I wrong. There was one family waiting at the Hospitality House bus stop when we got there. They had an ADR at the Poly for breakfast. We waited, and waited, and waited some more. By this time, at least two buses for every other destination had come and gone. The entire waiting area was packed with folks wanting to go to MK. We saw an MK bus go by, but it didn’t turn in for us. At 8:15 I went to the bell stand and asked them to call the bus coordinator for us. An MK bus finally pulled up at 8:30. It was standing room only. Thankfully, the family that was there before us made it on too. We were through the gate by 8:50, just ahead of the non-resort guests. This was when we decided that if we were taking the morning EMH bus, we would load at the first bus stop instead of the last one!

Once inside, DS headed over to VMK, and DD went off to ride Space Mountain. Mom had wanted to ride some of the Main Street Vehicles on our Spring Break trip, so we decided to wait for them this morning. She particularly wanted to ride the double decker bus, so we headed over in front of Tony’s Restaurant to wait under the “Omnibus” sign. We met up with Gideon from Pinnochio.



We saw the fire truck go by.



And the horse drawn carriage.



The carriage unloaded in front of us, and I asked the driver if we could hop in. “Sure!” he said, so up we went. I felt like a princess, waving at everyone as we made our slow way down Main Street. Mom’s camera battery died just then, but I got a few good shots.






We unloaded in front of the castle and thanked our driver. The double decker bus was just unloading, so we asked if we could ride back to the hub with him. He told us it was a one-way trip only from the hub to the castle. Mom really wanted to ride it, so we walked back to the castle to wait for him. We started talking to a dream team CM named Amy. I asked if she’d given away the castle to anyone, and she said that she’d been able to do this a couple of times, and it was the best thing she’d ever done. She did tell us that two families had turned down the dream. One said they didn’t want to move their luggage, and the other one just wasn’t interested. They were apparently already in a very high end resort. Somehow, I can’t imagine turning this down!

About that time, a lady came up to Amy and said “I’m already lost!” Apparently she had gotten separated from her daughter and granddaughter. It sounded like they had a bit of a spat, and her daughter just left her. The daughter didn’t have her cell phone with her. That lady ended up wandering around us for another 20 minutes. All day long, my mom was looking for a lady pushing a green stroller just to see if the lady ever found her family. We had been waiting about 20 minutes, and the bus was nowhere in sight. We finally gave up waiting and started walking back toward the castle. We found the bus. The opening show was in progress, and they use the bus to bring the entertainers down the street! We watched some of the barbershop quartet for a while, then headed over to Frontierland.



DD called and said she was in line for Haunted Mansion. This was the last day it was open before the refurbishment. I pin traded a little bit, then Mom & I headed toward the Liberty Belle for it’s first ride of the day (10:00). Just before we boarded, my friend called and said they were in the park, and wanted to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. I called the kids and had them head over to meet up with our friends, while Mom and I were on the boat. I got several nice pictures from the boat, and we really enjoyed our ride.





I particularly like the Haunted Mansion shots, and the BTMRR pictures that show the train!





Does anyone remember this house being set on fire? I seem to recall more of a story line, where the Indians are attacking the settlers? Or did I just imagine it? I know DS and I rode this back in 97, and I’m pretty sure we took DD on it back in 94 when she was just a little thing. But I haven’t ridden it since then.



By the time we were off the boat, the kids and our friends were in line for Haunted Mansion. Mom and I went into Fantasy Land and pulled FPs for Peter Pan before riding It’s a Small World. We went to the HM exit, and met up with everyone just as they got off the ride.

The older boys decided they wanted to ride Stitch (why I don’t know!), and everyone else was interested in Buzz. I asked what they wanted FPs for, and they said Space Mountain. So I headed off with their passes while they took their time heading to Buzz. Our family’s passes weren’t ready for another FP yet.

The large group rode Buzz. DD rode with DF’s youngest son, and they had a really good time! I rode with Mom, and she actually broke 10,000 which is pretty good for her! The big boys were done with Stitch by then, and were on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (People Mover). Once they finished up, we all headed over to the Speedway. They had all four lines going, so we only waited 20 minutes. My friend sat this one out, since it was getting pretty hot by this time. Mom & I rode together, and I got a car whose steering was completely shot. We were following DD, and I think she’s actually going to be ready to handle a car by next year!


Once we finished there, the big boys decided they wanted to go on Buzz. DFH headed back with them, while the ladies took the younger two boys over to Philharmagic. We all agreed to meet up at the CP for our lunch ADRs after that.

As always, we enjoyed Philharmagic. We were all the way at the very exit end of the theater, and the effects weren’t quite as good over there, but it was still a good show. I had found a new path earlier that morning that led behind the shops in the Liberty Square area. There’s a smoking area back there, but it’s a nice cut through to the Crystal Palace. DF tried her husband, and I tried calling DS, but we were getting no answer. The crowds waiting for check in at Crystal Palace were pretty large, so we had to wait in the full sun. The castle show was underway, so DD watched that from a distance. While we were waiting to check in, I had a nice chat with a couple of young children who were waiting. The little boy had a lanyard with a couple of pins, and I asked him if he wanted to trade. We spent quite a bit of time chatting about how you pin trade, and we finished up just as their family was called in. By this time, the boys had re-joined us, and we checked in at the podium (about 1:10). We were seated in about 10 minutes, all the way around the backside of the room (it overlooked the duck pond). Up to this time, we hadn’t had any character interaction, because DF wasn’t sure how the youngest would react. They adopted him from one of the former Soviet republics about 2 years ago, and even though he’s 7, he’s about the level of a kindergartener. We went up to the buffet, since the characters were in the other side of the restaurant. While Josh (the youngest) was eating, he said “Mom, I think Pooh needs a hug. When is he coming here so I can hug him?” We explained that he had to wait his turn, and he was okay with that. But every few minutes he’d say “I know Pooh needs a hug from me.” The food here was very good. There was a pretty good variety of salads, breads, and veggie mixtures. My DD and DM really liked the salmon. DS liked the chicken and roast beef. I had the beef myself, and it was very tender and juicy. But the desserts were really good! I like bread pudding, and theirs was great! And the pecan bars were just right! After about 35 minutes the characters finally started to enter our room. We got Pooh and Piglet before they did another parade. Josh was all smiles as he hugged them! Here are a couple of pictures I took.





But after the parade, they all disappeared again! Josh kept saying “I know Tigger needs a hug from me. Where is he?” When he came out, he started toward the other side. Since we had been there for 45 minutes now, and were all done eating (and the big boys were getting restless), DFH took Josh over to get his hugs from Tigger and Eeyore before we headed out. With our DDE discount, it came to $20 per person, which was pretty reasonable for the quality of food.


You can tell the older boys are about done with this!

After lunch, DF took her two youngest to use the PP fast passes (the 10 year old doesn’t do dark rides or ones where he gets wet), while the rest of us went over to use our Space Mountain FPs. My mom waited on Main Street for us. We headed right into our rocket ships, and had a great ride into space. As we exited, the CM said “Is this anyone’s phone?” And it was DS’s. We had to wait while they sent our rocket ship on, and he got it as the next ship was unloading. I pulled a set of Buzz Fast Passes, and then we headed to the exit. The afternoon parade had just started, so I called Mom to have her meet us at the train station. We caught the bus back and were in our room by 4.

Mom and I decided to try out the quiet pool, while the kids relaxed (and used the big tub again). We headed out of our villa, then started down the golf path. The next thing I knew, we were up at the main resort entrance! So we decided to just go to the main pool again. I was pretty hot, so we swam a little while first. The family that had been at the bus stop when we got there was paddling around, so we had a nice chat with the mom. She had a little 7 month old boy who was such a cutie! He was just laughing at the water! Eventually, Mom and I moved into the hot tub, then the sauna for a few minutes before heading back to the room.

DS said DF had called and said they’d be back in MK by 7:30, so we caught a bus back over there. DD decided to stay in the villa and watch TV. I had fixed a light dinner before we left, so we were set for the night. Once in the park, DS headed back to VMK while Mom and I took a nice train ride. DF called from Pinnochios and said they were finishing dinner and would meet us at Buzz. Turned out the older boys and dad stayed at camp to fish, so it was just DF and the younger two boys. They went on Buzz with DS while Mom & I rode the TTA. We finished up at the same time, and our friends decided to head back before it got dark. They were stopping back to AdventureLand so that the youngest could buy his sword and gun with his money.

DS wanted to go into the arcade, and he used his last $3 there. Mom and I headed toward Jungle Cruise, because we wanted to try it in the dark. When we got there, it was posted as a 40 minute wait. Mom wanted to try it anyway. I have never seen the line area of this ride before! We wound all the way back and forth. Did you know there’s a display of masks and spears down to the right of the entrance? I had never seen it before! We were on our boat in about 30 minutes, just as it was getting fully dark. It is neat riding in the dark. She turned the lights out as we went through the tunnel, which was just a little spooky!

In the middle of the ride, my phone buzzed, and DS said “I’m heading back to the room.” I had a stern argument where I told him if he left the park, he wasn’t leaving my side for the remainder of the trip. That worked, and we met him over at Pecos Bills to watch SpectroMagic. He went into the candy store and bought one of the tubes of powdered candy and a rice krispy treat “for grandma”, while I went over and got a Dole Whip.

We watched Spectro, which was excellent as always. Mom had a nice chat with a lady from Scotland while we waited for the parade to start. DS took the camera, but none of the pictures turned out very good. After the parade, we decided to head out before the fireworks. We were back in our room by 10:15. DD was watching “America’s got talent”, which is an interesting show. Once it was over, it was lights out and we were all asleep by 11.

Next up, Animal Kingdom