Hello all! We're home. I spent most of the day trying to catch up here. I read about 60 pages but am still about 90 pages behind. I loaded the 1400 photos I took onto my Mac and have been adding photo frames to the 369 photo pass photos so I can get my prepaid CD. About 100 photos are Elizabeths and another 38 are my friends but we had over 200. We kept seeing the same photographer at Epcot. He got some great shots-especially as Emma got to "know" him and would actually look at him.
We saw a few new characters for us-Abu, Launchpad McQuack, Jiminy Cricket, Remy and Marie. Emma wouldn't go near Sleeping Beauty or Minnie because they were too girly. She did see Safari Minnie though.
I think her favorite was Abu.
It was really hard to get my family to keep up with my touring style. I tried to take a slower pace (stayed in bed past 8am so my family could sleep) but I just ended up getting annoyed with them so I started getting up early and tried to get them to the parks at close to opening. I'm looking forward to my November trip with just 1 child. We had a great trip and I don't think anyone thought 10 nights was too long. I could have stayed for another week.
POR was nice and the mousekeeping was great. She arranged our "friends" every day. The first night Emma complained to me that the AC was too loud and was scaring her. The next day when we returned from the parks they had replaced the AC (we had not said anything). We had a few good meals at the food court-the pasta station was very good. Gene liked the relaxed atmosphere there. The busses were fine. BUT...I think I like Pop Century better. I didn't like that I couldn't get a couple things at the food court that Emma would have eaten like a hot dog or PBJ. You could only buy an 8oz carton of milk at the food court and the larger milks were at the gift shop but it didn't open very early in the morning. The lines for waffles were CRAZY. The crowds were never as busy when I've been to Pop so maybe its just as crazy there in August but the food court at Pop seemed to handle the crowds better. The resort is huge and very spread out. It was a hike to the food court and the buildings are all zig zaggy. I like the straight lines of the buildings and much more direct pathways at Pop.
It was great to meet up with Elizabeth and Anne Marie. The kids were instant friends. Elizabeth recognized me in the parks. She rode TOT with Lizzy, Joe (his first time) and I while her DS stayed with DH & Emma. Then she, her DS, Lizzy (her first time) & I rode RnRC. Dinner was great! We had a photopass photographer take a group photo but we lost Emma for a minute or so. She had pulled out of DH's hand. She was with 2 CM's crying when I found her. She had our phone numbers on her wrist band but wouldn't talk so the CM's didn't notice. She was much better about pulling away from us for the rest of the trip and didn't whine too much when DH took her back to the resort while Lizzy, Joe & I went to Fantasmic with the others. The kids had a great time. It was Joe's first time.
Joe also tried Everest and Space Mountain and loved both. Emma tried Big Thunder Mountain and loved it.