DISNEYWORLD

Back in 2017 during Thanksgiving with Oma and Opa we mentioned that as a family we wanted to go to Disneyworld sometime while we lived within driving distance from it.  A couple of months later Oma said that they could switch their timeshare to a resort in Florida near Disneyworld and she asked if we would be interested in going later in that year with them.  We said yes of course and planned a trip during fall break.  We were able to get discounted tickets through the military, so we planned and finally, October came and we met up with them. 

We got to our condo in Orlando around 3:00pm, Bonnie was texting me the whole time saying how excited she was.  They were in the parking lot as we drove up waving and hollering. She had the condo decorated with Mickey and Minnie things for the kids, water bottles, glow sticks, coloring books, Mickey paper plates, and decorations.  We chatted and took a walk around, there was a mini golf, playground, multiple pools, basketball, billiards, ping-pong, giant chess, and a pond with kayaks we could rent. I took the kids swimming and we had some orange chicken and vegetables for dinner. Bonnie and Rudi went to Costco the day before and bought so much food!

First day- Magic Kingdom:

The week before I had made a general plan of which attractions we were interested in, and the order in which we would try and do them based on this book that my friend let me borrow. They had a website that you could put in the date you were going and based on past data and crowds levels, and your fast passes, it helped you generate a plan.  We were able to get up fairly early and get there about 30 minutes before they opened but we had to exchange our tickets we bought on post to a credit card type pass that you could sync with the Disney app. We got our cards and headed to the ferry to go to the main gate and everyone else’s ticket worked but mine, it said it wasn’t activated when we had just done that a couple minutes earlier. So I had to go to customer service and wait in a line to get it reactivated, meanwhile thousands of people were going in and our schedule was off. But it was ok, we went to the new Seven Dwarves Mine Train ride first because it is new and very popular, and it was an hour wait, but we just did it, to get it over with.  I’m glad we did because the wait time got longer and longer. We knocked out a lot of rides, and we packed a lunch so we didn't have to stop to eat.
Tomorrowland Speedway, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Dumbo, It’s a Small World, Teacups, Under the Sea, Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Barnstormer, Astro Orbiter, Buzz Ranger Spin, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, I took Ian to Prince Charming's Carousel while Scott and Opa took the kids to Haunted Mansion.  Bonnie was in a wheelchair, and that got us ahead of the line a couple times but not every time. We ate dinner at Pinocchio Village Haus. I am so glad that we didn't make reservations to eat at some of the fancier restaurants because the cheaper dining options were expensive enough! My kids said they didn’t really care about meeting characters just doing rides anyway.  We watched the fireworks at 9:00 on the bridge between Tomorrowland and the castle. It was different from when we watched it 7 years ago. They project images on the castle now, with music and scenes from different Disney movies. Tinkerbell also flew right over us on a zip line. Then it was mass chaos to get out of the park. They sure know how to pack people into the park but getting them out is a nightmare! It took us an hour and 45 minutes to get to our car. We had to walk like a herd of cattle to the exit, wait for a ferry to take us across the moat, then walk a mile to our car or wait in line for a tram to take us to our car. Of course, while waiting for the ferry and on the ferry, there is no where to sit so everyone is just teetering on their sore legs, babies are screaming and kids are crying. Our kids were total troopers and didn't mind sitting on the ground.  All of our legs were so sore and we had walked about 7 miles that first day. We got back to the condo at about 11:00pm.

Ian was really excited about doing real roller coasters. He liked the 7 Dwarves one and Thunder Mountain, so we told him that Space Mountain was the same kind of feeling but just in the dark he said he wanted to do it. The coaster car was not two by two it was single, so Ian sat in front of me and I said that I would put my arm over the edge of his seat if he needed to hold my hand.  He didn't reach for it at all, and at the end he said, “I don't think I want to do that one again” and that he was hunched over the whole time and hiding his eyes. After a couple minutes he said maybe he would do it again. Bonnie only liked doing the calm rides with us, so we would approach a ride and find a place to park her. She also didn’t reserve any fast passes on her ticket, but we purchased Rudi’s ticket through the army base (our limit was 6 tickets) so I had reserved all of our fast passes together. I felt bad leaving her and there were a couple times when Rudi or Scott would give up their fast pass to her so she could go with us, so it all worked out. Ian sometimes held her hand as Rudi pushed her in the wheel chair, and I thought that was the cutest thing.

                                          
Day 2: Hollywood Studios- We were so tired from the night before but we wanted to get there a little early so we could get the kids signed up for the Jedi training. We knew that the parking for Hollywood wasn’t as far away as Magic Kingdom so we left the condo at about 8:15. Rylan wasn’t ready when we wanted to leave so he came later with Oma and Opa, we got there and went straight for the Jedi Training sign ups and we were able to get them into a show in the afternoon. While waiting two storm troopers came walking by and chatted with the crowd in line. Madelyn and Ian loved talking to them and pledged their loyalty to the first order.  Madelyn said, “arrest him” and pointed to Scott, and they said they would be watching him.

Then we headed over to Toy Story Land which is brand new and so cute! Everything is giant so you feel like a toy, the fences are made of tinker toys and the roofs are playing cards and boxes of toys. We did the Slinky Dog Rollercoaster, it was the longest wait of the day, but the rest of the rides weren’t as crowded. Star Tours was a favorite and the line never got longer than 20 minutes so I think Rylan went on it 5 times.

Other rides we did, Alien Swirling Saucers, Rock n Roller Coaster, took pictures with Chewy, Kylo REN, and BB-8 at Star Wars Launch Bay, Toy Story Mania Arcade ride, Tower of Terror. This day wasn’t as fast-paced and we took more breaks, and there weren’t as many rides. Ian wasn’t tall enough for the Rockin Roller Coaster so he sat with Oma, and that coaster was a favorite of all of us. The story is that you are invited to watch Aerosmith record a song in their studio when their agent come in and says that they are late for a performance, so they invite all of us to a concert and we go through a back alley into a stretch limo and are racing through the streets almost hitting everything to get to the concert in time. It was like space mountain mostly in the dark but with street lights and black lighting but it went upside down and twisted and turned all over. It was such a thrilling ride and I screamed most of the time. I did not do Tower of Terror, I stayed with Ian and Oma and got some dinner.

The Jedi Training was so cute, I took them to the meeting spot and while they waited for all the kids signed up for that time, a worker was asking them Star Wars trivia, and Ian actually knew quite a bit of them. Then they lined them up smallest to tallest and gave them cloaks to wear. They talked briefly about what they were going to be doing (we watched a show earlier in the day so the kids wouldn’t be nervous and know what to expect), then we walked over to the stage and they were taught a fighting sequence from their Jedi master and then Darth Vader and Kylo Ren came to fight each Jedi in training and tried to get them to join the dark side. It was cute, there was a little girl next to Madelyn that was crying the whole time, and Madelyn was trying to help her feel better.  When it was Ian’s turn he was smiling the whole time, he looked up at Darth Vader and gave him a look like, “this is so cool!” Madelyn walked right up to him and was all tough and probably fought the hardest out of everyone. We stayed for the night show which was Star Wars themed and they synced the music with the fireworks and it was very cool. We got home around 9:30 this night.

                                          

 

Day 3: Epcot
Madelyn was starting to form blisters on her feet I had brought band-aids and we wrapped her blisters because she did not want to stop.  We slept in a little bit this day because we knew that Epcot wouldn’t be as busy and there were only about 5 main rides and we knew we could get them done during the whole day, and we didn't care if we had to wait. I had talked up Soarin to everyone and I think everyone liked it we did it again before we left the park. Oma does not like heights so it was not fun for her. Another favorite was Test Track, you can design a car before the ride and then you “test it out” and based on how you designed it, it gets tested during the ride and then there are screens that show whose car did better. Maddy and I designed a car and Scott and the boys designed one. We were concerned more on looks than performance. You go through some tests underground, then it races outside on the race track.  It starts excelling inside and you think you are going to hit a wall but it opens right before, and you are outside going about 60 mph racing on the track, it was really exciting. Another ride we liked was the Frozen Ever After Ride in the Norway section. It was a long wait, but the ride was really cute. The cute little guy that sells things was on a screen behind a door so it looks like you were walking through his shop and he was in the back saying "hellooooo."

We loved the different parts of the world that was represented at Epcot, and how the architecture was different. We stopped in Mexico and ate at a Catina and had the best fish tacos! It was soooo hot and there wasn’t much shade so we tried to stop a little here and there and go inside to get cooled off. I don't think the kids were super excited to walk all around the lake to the different worlds but we told them we wanted to do it, we also got them ice cream and chocolate croissants in France.  Opa enjoyed going to Germany and he met someone who grew up about 20 miles from where he grew up and they spoke German to each other and the kids thought that was neat to hear him speak his language. He also bought everyone a German pretzel.

We had time to eat dinner at home this night, Bonnie put a pork roast in her crockpot before we left.  I took the kids to the pool for about 30 minutes. We got the kids ready for bed then Scott, Rylan and I went to Disney Springs which has a bunch of shops and restaurants. Rylan decided on a Star Wars shirt and we got some things for Madelyn and Ian.

Day 4- Animal Kingdom

Pandora, a new Avatar world just opened up this summer,  I couldn't get fast passes for the ride Flight of Passage, Shannon said we had to do this ride and if you can't get fast passes to just do it first thing in the morning.  We found the ride as soon as we could and it was already weaving out into the walkway. It ended up being about 1 1\2 hours but it was everyone’s favorite ride out of all 4 parks!  Maddy and Ian had never seen Avatar, we explained it to them in line. When we got closer to the ride, you get assimilated and your DNA gets connected to an avatar, they blow air on you and decontaminate you. Then you go into a room and they have these motorcycle type seats you straddle, and they put a bar across your back and on the back of your legs and give you 3D glasses. You are riding a banshee or one of their dragon\dinosaur looking creatures. But first you are just sitting there and waiting but there is a screen in front of you that is connecting your brain to the avatar's brain (but really you are just waiting for everyone to fill in their seats) then a wall comes down and you are in front of a giant curved screen, and your banshee is flying through the air and the seat you are sitting in is swaying back and forth like in flying motion and you can even feel the banshee breathing between your knees and wind blowing as you are flying through the air. It was the coolest ride and didn't last long enough. It looked and felt so real! We flew through a wave curl, the trees, and barely escaped a monster trying to eat us.

We were sad that Opa wasn’t with us yet to experience this ride, but he and Oma joined us later (they like to take their time in the morning and we liked to rush and get out of there). We met up with them at the Dinosaur section and did a couple rides together.  Then we went on a safari in Africa, it was a 45-minute ride and we were in a large jeep driving through acres of land and saw Hippos, Giraffes, Elephants, Rhinoceros, Antelope, and a lot of different kinds of birds. It was so cool and the animals were so close. Animal Kingdom is both an amusement park and kind of like a zoo, we next walked over to the Gorillas, found some birds, then on to Asia to the Expedition Everest ride. It was a rollercoaster that took us up Mount Everest and a yeti was hunting us the whole time. We loved it so much and the wait wasn’t long so we did it twice in a row. We opted out of the river rapid ride because we didn't want to get soaked and walk around wet. We did the 3D show “It’s Tough to be a Bug” we did this in Disneyland with my sisters so I thought my kids would get a kick out of it.  We had a fast pass for the Avatar Navi River Journey which was like a small world but Avatar themed.

We came back to the condo and rested and ate some pork roast leftovers.

10-5-18
We kept this day open to see how we felt, whether we wanted to go to Universal Studios or just rest. We decided to just rest and hang out at the condo, we all slept in until about 9, some of us slept until 10! Then we just played around, billiards, ping pong,  giant chess, shuffleboard, then the pool all afternoon. We ate leftovers, some pulled pork on buns. At night the kids wanted to have a lightsaber battle in the dark outside, and they found a lot of frogs hopping around. It felt good to not do anything or have an agenda.

We said our goodbyes and were on the road by 8:15,  it took us 6 hours to get to Scott’s cousin's house in McRae, Georgia. They just bought a farm in the middle of nowhere in June.  They decided to leave Idaho and be closer to Caitlin's dad and they found a 54 acre farm to settle on and raise their cute boys. They are starting to plant and are hoping to sell their produce at farmers markets as well as do goat yoga, pumpkin patches, and have some contracts with some restaurants in the area. They have some great dreams and ideas and with Caitlin’s marketing and business degree and background, I think they can really do it. They have a sweet old half blind dog, two barn cats, pigs, and goats. They also have two boys together ages 3 and 1 1/2.  The 1 1/2 year old was dragging around the quilt I made for the 3 year old. His mom said that he claimed it to be his and it is always near him and he calls it his baby. They gave us a tour of their farm and the kids played outside, they have a large pig that they cannot keep in a pen, he escapes all of the time, so they sent Maddy to go look for him and she found him and lured him over with food and we thought he was secure in a pen, but he escaped within 10 minutes. We thought they should name him Houdini.  They made us ribs, steak, and chicken in their smoker for dinner, and it was sooo good. Then they took us fishing in their pond, but Ian had just fallen and hurt his head so he didn't want to go so I stayed back with him, Caitlin put her boys to bed and I said I would listen for them. They stayed up fishing until about 11:30 in the dark but they had headlights shining and they caught a couple catfish, and had a great time. The stars were so amazing, Maddy said she had never seen stars like that before and they even saw a couple meteors. I went to bed around 10, but heard about their stargazing the next morning. Madelyn and Ian and I helped feed the pigs after breakfast then we were on our way home-8 hours.