New House, New Disney Trip TR - COMPLETE 5/13!! About This Page:

[Cam22]

Great start! Love the story about the Celtics t-shirt! How awesome that you all had only a 10 minutes wait for Forbidden Journey.

[JKnott17]

Just joining in, sounds like you're off to a great start to your trip!

[Luv2laff]

Day two-part two
We headed over to Seuss Landing and encountered a bunch of characters first thing. We got our pictures taken with Thing One and Thing Two, the Grinch, and the guy from Green Eggs and Ham



We rode the High in the Sky Trolley, One Fish, Two Fish, the Caro-Seuss-el, and The Cat in the Hat all within about an hour. There really was no wait anywhere. I was worried the crowds would be bad because it was a weekend, but it was super slow. I got soaked on One Fish, Two Fish. Somehow I was the only one of the four of us that did!



We headed back to the Three Broomsticks for lunch:



Richard and I had the Fish and Chips, Natalie had her first of many plates of mac and cheese and Ethan had a giant turkey leg that he barely put a dent in. It was all pretty good, and I like how they do things here. You order your food, get your food, and then someone finds a table for you. It’s a pretty good system.

Right after lunch Natalie decided that she had to ride Dragon Challenge again. I was up for it, Richard didn’t think he could right after eating. So off we went to do the blue side, which was great too. We both decided that we liked the red side better.
We decided after that that we wanted to head to US, as there was a bunch of stuff there that we wanted to do. So we headed out of the (now crowded) WWOHP and made our way over to US.

We stopped right after getting in the gate and had our picture taken. We stopped at the bakery on the corner and got some drinks. Richard and I also got a couple slices of cheesecake. Holy moly, were they delicious! We spotted Lucy and Marilyn. The kids said “Who?” Richard got his picture taken with them:


Next we spotted the minions, which the kids were super excited about.



We did some rides and shows- Shrek 4D was super cute, and we headed over to see Shrek, Princess Fiona and Donkey after:



We walked around some more and Richard and I did The Mummy Ride one at a time in the single rider line. This ride was amazing! One of the best of the whole vacation.



We also did The Simpsons ride, MIB:Alien Attack, and ET Adventure. After that the early morning was catching up with us, and the kids were itching for more pool time, so we walked back to the DoubleTree. We headed down to the pool for a bit, where we discovered that Ethan’s brand new waterproof video camera wasn’t so waterproof. He and Natalie got the exact same ones for Christmas, and hers worked great, taking some really cute underwater video. The minute he put his in the water, water got inside and we couldn’t get it to work the rest of the trip, even after it dried out it wouldn’t turn on. I just today sent it out for repair as it was still under warranty, thank goodness.
We dried off and got dressed and headed over to TGIFridays for dinner, which was right across from our hotel. We had some good food there and then headed back and fell into bed. We were all exhausted but very happy. Tomorrow we were headed to Our Beloved Disney!
Up next: We Enter the Bubble

[Chancho]

More...more. Sounds like a great day in US & IoA........funny how the kids didn't even know Lucy. You need to show them.

[Luv2laff]

More...more. Sounds like a great day in US & IoA........funny how the kids didn't even know Lucy. You need to show them.

I should, I'm sure that they would find her hysterical. They watch Abbott and Costello with my dad.

[chezp]

Sounds like a great day - and I love all the character meets you did!

[Colexis Mom]

Great rest of the day at IoA! Love the pics!

[Cam22]

Great time at IoA and US!

[Luv2laff]

Day 4 3/4/12: Yay Disney!
We woke to rain and lots of wind. We couldn’t believe how much the palm trees bend and don’t break! Quicksilver was scheduled to pick us up at 10, so we slowly got up and ready and headed to the lobby. They were already there at 9:45, so we loaded up and headed out. The driver this time was also nice but not nearly as chatty.
We got to Port Orleans Riverside around 10:15 and headed in to check in. We checked in quickly, but our room wasn’t ready so we stored our bags with bell services and walked around the resort.
We were very impressed with this resort! It was absolutely beautiful. We walked over into the Alligator Bayou section, which I had requested, checked out the pool and the bridge, and took a bunch of pictures of the waterwheel.



By then the sun was starting to come out and we were all getting hungry, so we headed in to get our refillable mugs and the first of our counter service meals with our free dining plan. I couldn’t believe how much food we got! We have been on the dining plan before, but I thought that the food court here was the best we have seen. Richard got the make your own pasta bar, and it was unbelievable how much pasta he had on his plate. We were all totally stuffed by the time we were done, so we very slowly made our way out to the bus stop to head over to the Magic Kingdom.



We didn’t wait too long, and we were on our way. When we got there, we headed straight over to the Sorcerer’s of the Magic Kingdom game center. We got our cards and instructions fairly quickly and headed over to Main Street USA to play. The first place we stopped worked fine, but at the second portal, something wasn’t working right. There was already a CM there as others had been having difficulties too, so he brought us back to the fire station and got us set up to play in Adventureland instead. He also gave us 2 extra packs of cards for our trouble.



We headed over to Adventureland, did a couple portals, and then headed in to ride Pirates. This is one of our favorites!



We did a few more portals and picked up fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise along the way. We also saw the Tiki Room, as I had never seen it before. I think once in a lifetime will be enough, lol. We finished up playing the Sorcerer game. The kids thought it was OK, if not a tad bit confusing. It seems as if it’s just another line to stand in, frankly, as it was pretty busy and there were a lot of people playing. There were some hard-core card collectors sitting near some of the portals with binders full of cards looking to trade. None of them were kids either which I thought was pretty funny.

We were hungry by then for a snack (or maybe just hot and wanting ice cream, lol), so I got a Dole Float, Natalie got some chocolate ice cream, Richard got a frozen fruit bar, and Ethan got popcorn. He’s not much of a sweets kid.
We headed to The Swiss Family Treehouse and did that, which is always cute. Our FPs for the Jungle Cruise had ripened by then, so we headed over to do that. We had a nice lady skipper with the same lame jokes, but they always make us laugh anyway.



We decided that we had done enough in Adventureland, so we headed over to Liberty Square and did the Haunted Mansion, where we walked through the new queue. It was very cool.



At the end, the ghosts made Natalie and I switch heads, which she thought was absolutely hilarious! We headed over to the Hall of Presidents, which I told the kids was their education for the week, as we took them out of school to go, lol.
We had enough time to look through a few shops, I bought a new Christmas ornament with 2012 on it and then went over for our obligatory ride on It’s a Small World. The kids humored me, even though they roll their eyes over this one.



We headed over to Liberty Tree Tavern for dinner. The food here was so good as always. I love the rolls and butter especially! Next we went to stake out a spot for the Magic, Memories, and You show. This was so amazing! I wonder what they’ll think of next?



We had a decent spot, so we figured that we would stay put for Wishes, when all of a sudden someone (Natalie) had to go to the bathroom, and couldn’t wait! That child drives me crazy sometimes as she always waits until the last minute before she tells me she has to go. So we headed through the tons of people to the bathroom over by Tommorowland Terrace. By this time the fireworks were half over, and we couldn’t see well anyway, so we figured it would be a good time to do a few more rides.
Natalie decided to try Space Mountain with me, which I was pretty excited about as she had never done it before. Richard and Ethan did the Tomorrowland Speedway, as there was no talking him in to Space. She liked Space she said, even though she gripped my hands so tight the whole time I thought she might break a few fingers, lol! We made Carousel of Progress our last ride of the night, so that we could have that wonderful tune in our heads throughout the entire vacation, Ha! We all really enjoy this one.

I had gotten a text in the afternoon that our room was ready, so we got onto a bus bound for Riverside and headed for room 3640 in Alligator Bayou. It was an absolutely adorable newly refurbed room. Natalie decided to sleep on the Murphy Bed all week as she was really the only one that fit anyway. Ethan was a bit too tall for it. She loved that bed, and thought it was so cool to sleep next to Louis every night!



We headed to bed after setting a wake up call for 7:00. We were headed to Epcot tomorrow!
Up Next: Epcot!!

[chezp]

What a great day!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great day at MK! Love the pictures! And love your room!

[OCEANGRLLG]

Just gettin in here! What a great time yall are havin so far, great pics too!

[lauriep]

Great first Disney day! That murphy bed looks adorable.

[MayraLR]

What a great day at MK! I love the room!

[Cam22]

Great first day in the bubble!