A Sept 2018 TR...or that trip where nothing went as planned Completed 11/9

My family gets Memory Maker every trip, and I agree it's worth every penny. This last trip we got over 450 pictures.

Yes, I loved it!

I would have loved that Tangled breakfast a few years ago, but by the time it came out, my kids were just too old for a princess breakfast. I want to bring my niece in a few years and we'll definitely eat there!

I love the MM, I'm happy it comes with my AP, though I think I'd still buy it if it didn't :-)

I agree about character meals. If we weren't traveling with kids, honestly, I don't think we would do ANY character meals. It's just not us.

Such a great idea! My kids love photobooths, but I don't love shelling out the cash for the tiny, low quality pictures. We're getting memory maker as well, so we'll have to check out this booth.

Yes, and there are actually lots of them around WDW that have the MB scanner!

I completely agree, Memory Maker is completely worth it if you actively look for PP Photographers! Even with just me and my husband I always get it because if it were solely up to him to take pictures of me on our trips you would think I wasn't there :sad2: So I just make sure that we hit up as many photographers as possible and it's totally worth it in the long run. I can actually prove that my husband didn't go to Disney alone! :rotfl2:

I really loved having it!

I love the faces that your kids are making. I had to laugh at Miles getting woke up by rain. That happened to my son when he was about 4. After that he hated falling asleep in the stroller. Once, my husband made the mistake of shaking some water off of his hands and it hit my son in the stroller. He shot up and looked everywhere for the rain. I was laughing so hard my sides hurt. Lets just say Chris was not amused and the looks I got from him. LOL!!

Oh no! Too funny :) !

Loving your report so far! Sounds like you guys had so much fun. We loved the Bon Voyage breakfast too--the characters were all so good. I think Disney is missing an opportunity by not providing a Flynn and Rapunzel joint meet n greet--they're so funny together! :)

Agreed! I'm glad to see you here. Can't wait to hear all about your trip!
 
We made the journey over to Pandora once again. Crowds there were still heavy. It was right at 2:20. We figured sister, hubby, and niece could ride "really quick" while we kept the little ones, and then we would go. Yeah. Not so much. They were in there for right at 45 minutes.
Rider Swap is nice that they have it but man does it eat up time. And FOP is amazing but also crazy how long it takes even with fast passes. I am glad you guys liked it! And that the food was decent at Rainforest Cafe.

I hope you make it out at least a little bit.
 
While we waited we did the Maharajah Jungle Trek. We'd never done this, so it was a nice change
Nice. I've never done this either. Before our August trip I was telling my daughter about it and she was excited about the tigers. But of course tings don't always work out, and we were always too hot or too tired or didn't have time to do it.

We figured sister, hubby, and niece could ride "really quick" while we kept the little ones, and then we would go. Yeah. Not so much. They were in there for right at 45 minutes.
I did a FP on it too. Yeah, it wasn't really that fast. I was surprised how many "stages" you go through to get on the ride. But as you said, the ride is amazing and well worth the wait. I hoped to figure out a way to get on it a second time, but it just didn't happen.

At this point, now, it is 4PM. We haven't eaten all day. The mood is still good, but Micheal still wants to eat at Rainforest Cafe. Inside, I'm cringing because this was our date night. I had planned to be back at the hotel by now, getting ready to go into EPCOT for our date night, and eat at the F&W booths.
I know how disappointing it can be when plans don't work out, I've been there myself. Sounds like you made the best of it though.
 
My inner mom voice said, "Bad idea!" But I ignored the inner voice and instead said, "OK!"
This made me laugh out loud! :)

But Micheal rarely gives any input for our Disney vacations, so if he wants to eat at Rainforest? Well, we're going to eat at Rainforest. But here I made a critical decision that would affect the rest of the day (and our date night that night) :(. I said we'd eat there when we finished our last FP at 2:20.
Uh oh, I sense foreboding music....

But, our service was soooooooo sloooooowwwww. The food was great, but we ended up being in there until almost 6pm. Miles got super grouchy from being confined to a highchair, and I finally had to take him out while Micheal waited for the check.
Oh no!! That's horrible--I'm so sorry :(

Glad you loved flight of passage though! It's such a great ride--feeling the banshee "breathe"...wow.
 




Is It 11PM Yet?
I left y'all hanging, I know. I'm sure you were biting your nails in suspense these last few days, dying to know whether Micheal and I had our date night. Well, we did. And this is why.

We got back to our room and laid down on the bed, exhauseted. Our conversation went something like this.

"I'm too tired to go out. Let's just stay here."

"I'm too tired, too. But we watched Kelly's kids for 8 hours yesterday. We deserve a break."

"You're right. We do deserve a break. What time does Epcot close?"

"11PM."

"What time is it now?"

"7PM."

Big sigh. "OK, let's do it."

:rotfl2:

So, that is how our date night was decided. We freshened up, dropped our kids a few doors down, and made the relaxing walk to Epcot. It wasn't terribly hot at this point in the day, with it being later. We headed toward FW, and Soarin', to use our FP. Crowds were significantly lower than they'd been at Animal Kingdom earliler in the day, and this was very nice. I am happy to report this trend lasted the rest of our trip. :thumbsup2:cheer2:

Soarin' was my favorite ride in all of WDW until earlier that day when I'd ridden FoP. Still, this was my first time to ride it this trip and I still loved it. :love: I asked Micheal what he wanted to do next, and he said he really would like to ride Test Track again. I checked the wait time and it was around an hour or something, so we decided to use one of our anytime FP's from the DVC tour. Worked out perfectly!

Micheal designed a monster truck. Very cool looking, not very efficient. Still fun, though!

EPCOT_DPIRIDESYSGMTT_20180905_413207422690.jpg

The lady in the front seat with us was really sweet. She was there on a girls trip with friends, and they were staying at the Yacht Club (does anyone else have trouble spelling yacht?). She kept up a running conversation throughout the ride. :)

Next up, we made our way to the front of Spaceship Earth to get a PP picture. We had a bit of a wait because the front entrance was packed. I guess people were coming in for EMH? Anyway, we got our picture. :flower:

EPCOT_ECENTR1_20180905_413207016625.jpg

By now it was nearing time for Illuminations. This was my big chance to see it (remember, I'd never seen it before). We headed back toward WS, and as we passed the F&W booth with the poutine, I really wanted to stop but the line was super long. Since I really wasn't remotely hungry yet, I decided it wasn't worth it to me. We continued around WS until we reached the bridge to the France pavillion. We stopped there and waited for the show.

Even though we didn't have a front row view, it was still beautiful. Epcot is my favorite. I can remember when we were preparing for our very first trip a friend of ours said we might as well skip Epcot. That it really wasn't fun unless you "liked that kind of thing." To this day, I have no idea what she meant, except she obviously didn't like Epcot. The whole premise of Epcot and World Showcase appeals to me greatly. A better world. A connected world.

I think Illuminations does a great job of capturing that, and I'm so glad I got to see it before it goes away. :love::love::love:

After the show ended, we headed toward France then around toward the American pavillion. I had two items on the agenda. #1 - Maple Bacon Funnel Cake, #2 - The American Adventure. Both new to us.

There was a line for the funnel cake, so we hopped in line and waited a bit. WS was weird during EMH. We couldn't really discern any rhyme or reason as to what was opened and what was closed. :confused3

Anyway, we got the enormous funnel cake, then I found a table while Micheal grabbed us a couple of cokes. While he was gone I tried to take a picture of my funnel cake for y'all (you know, that way he wouldn't see me and I wouldn't embarrass him :rotfl:). It was way too dark though, and it didn't turn out.

It was a great big funnel cake with powdered sugar, then a...slab (?)...of maple ice cream, and topped with candied bacon pieces. If you like those flavors, well, it was delish. Micheal returned with our cokes, and we dug in. It was so yummy, and we ate almost the entire thing.

Then, we headed into the American Adventure building. We only had to wait a few minutes before it was time to head up to the show. It was a great little show, and my feet thanked me for sitting down. popcorn::

When we left, we talked about catching the Impression de France film (also something we'd never done), but by now it was something like 10:15, and we were just. so. tired. (Does that make us old? Well, we are old. I'm only 35, and I always say I'm proud to tell people because I am so much younger than I feel.)

We decided to call it a night. I hoped to get a PP pic taken in front of the eiffel tower, but no such luck. Photographers were absent. Micheal tried a selfie, which turned out dark, but we tried. As we walked, Micheal asked why we were going into the parks so late each day. Wouldn't it be better to go early, then take a midday break and go back later?

date night 2.jpg

If you read my PTR, you'll probably understand why I wanted to throat punch my wonderful hubby in that moment. I would guestimate that at least 50% of my planning decisions for this trip were make because I was trying to accommodate him. Make him like Disney just a tad more. You know, so he'd want to go back sooner rather than later.

But I didn't throat punch him (do I get points for that? No? OK, fine). I was actually happy about going earlier, because, well, it's what I'd rather do anyway. :rotfl2:

We made it back to the Boardwalk and stopped for a selfie, then we did the photo booth.

date night.jpg WDWRESORTSANDMORE_PBBDWALK2_20180905_8264144917.jpg WDWRESORTSANDMORE_PBBDWALK2_20180905_8264151155.jpg

I think we ended up picking up the kids right at 10:40'ish. We took them down the hall then fell into bed, ready for sleep. I quickly jumped online to change our FP's from midday to first thing in the morning. The next day would be Hollywood Studios (Micheal's fave). I knew crowds would be low when changing the FP's was super simple. :jumping1:

Stay tuned!
 
"I'm too tired to go out. Let's just stay here."

"I'm too tired, too. But we watched Kelly's kids for 8 hours yesterday. We deserve a break."

"You're right. We do deserve a break. What time does Epcot close?"


"11PM."

"What time is it now?"


"7PM."

Big sigh. "OK, let's do it."

:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:

It wasn't terribly hot at this point in the day, with it being later. We headed toward FW, and Soarin', to use our FP. Crowds were significantly lower than they'd been at Animal Kingdom earliler in the day, and this was very nice. I am happy to report this trend lasted the rest of our trip. :thumbsup2:cheer2:
Yay! Glad it cooled off for you and that the crowds weren't bad. One can deal with heat when crowds are low, but heat + crowds? The worst!


Next up, we made our way to the front of Spaceship Earth to get a PP picture.
You guys look so cute!! I meant to get a photo in the front, but honestly, we never made it to the front of Epcot (we only used International Gateway this trip and it was awesome!)--the closest we made it was riding Spaceship Earth.

It was a great big funnel cake with powdered sugar, then a...slab (?)...of maple ice cream, and topped with candied bacon pieces. If you like those flavors, well, it was delish. Micheal returned with our cokes, and we dug in. It was so yummy, and we ate almost the entire thing.

YUM! My husband hates bacon with sweet stuff so we didn't try this. But it sounds yummy! We did get the cookies and cream ice cream funnel cake in HS and I was surprised that we basically ate the whole thing too--funnel cakes + ice cream are just too yummy!

But I didn't throat punch him (do I get points for that? No? OK, fine). I was actually happy about going earlier, because, well, it's what I'd rather do anyway. :rotfl2:

You get *lots* of points for that!! :) and hey, you get what you wanted in the end anyways :)
 
At this point, now, it is 4PM. We haven't eaten all day. The mood is still good, but Micheal still wants to eat at Rainforest Cafe. Inside, I'm cringing because this was our date night. I had planned to be back at the hotel by now, getting ready to go into EPCOT for our date night, and eat at the F&W booths.

Ugh, I hate that feeling when you just know things are about to fall apart. You can see it on the horizon but it's too late to do anything about it :-(

But I didn't throat punch him (do I get points for that? No? OK, fine).

I give you all the points. I get so frustrated when we disagree about how to do something, pick his way, and then in the moment he finally realizes I had the right idea all along.
 
:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:


Yay! Glad it cooled off for you and that the crowds weren't bad. One can deal with heat when crowds are low, but heat + crowds? The worst!



You guys look so cute!! I meant to get a photo in the front, but honestly, we never made it to the front of Epcot (we only used International Gateway this trip and it was awesome!)--the closest we made it was riding Spaceship Earth.



YUM! My husband hates bacon with sweet stuff so we didn't try this. But it sounds yummy! We did get the cookies and cream ice cream funnel cake in HS and I was surprised that we basically ate the whole thing too--funnel cakes + ice cream are just too yummy!



You get *lots* of points for that!! :) and hey, you get what you wanted in the end anyways :)


Yes! Exactly :) I did get what I wanted all along, so I was pretty pleased the next few days ;).



Ugh, I hate that feeling when you just know things are about to fall apart. You can see it on the horizon but it's too late to do anything about it :-(



I give you all the points. I get so frustrated when we disagree about how to do something, pick his way, and then in the moment he finally realizes I had the right idea all along.

Right. You can totally see how ohmygosh that was a mistake. Sigh. It's OK, though, my bad feelings are now mostly overshadowed by bad feelings from the meal itself when I later looked at the bill and realized my frozen lemonade cost $12. :mickeybar:crutches:
 
Rider Swap is nice that they have it but man does it eat up time. And FOP is amazing but also crazy how long it takes even with fast passes. I am glad you guys liked it! And that the food was decent at Rainforest Cafe.

I hope you make it out at least a little bit.

The food at RC was, indeed, pretty good. Got to look at the bright side! :)

Nice. I've never done this either. Before our August trip I was telling my daughter about it and she was excited about the tigers. But of course tings don't always work out, and we were always too hot or too tired or didn't have time to do it.


I did a FP on it too. Yeah, it wasn't really that fast. I was surprised how many "stages" you go through to get on the ride. But as you said, the ride is amazing and well worth the wait. I hoped to figure out a way to get on it a second time, but it just didn't happen.


I know how disappointing it can be when plans don't work out, I've been there myself. Sounds like you made the best of it though.

We all agreed that we just don't "get" the extra stages for the FoP ride. They really don't add anything to the experience. :confused3

Following...don't want to miss out! Does date night happen? *grabs popcorn*

:rotfl2::rotfl2:

Following along.

Thanks for joining in!
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: CLIFFHANGER!!!!!! I NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENED! :rotfl2:

You'll be glad to know we did indeed get out! :blush:
 
When we left, we talked about catching the Impression de France film (also something we'd never done), but by now it was something like 10:15, and we were just. so. tired. (Does that make us old? Well, we are old. I'm only 35, and I always say I'm proud to tell people because I am so much younger than I feel.)

Girrrrrl, I so feel your pain! We're the same age, actually (I'll be 36 in December and my husband just turned 34 in March) and we started doing the whole "mid-day nap" thing back in 2013! It helped that we were staying at BWV and could get back and forth from the parks quickly. There were several times of the last two trips where we made plans to go back to the resort for a nap and a shower and then go back out and we didn't. There was one night at BWV that we were so tired we couldn't even muster the energy to go downstairs and get food. I literally spent $60 on a room service pizza and two glasses of wine lol
 
Even though we didn't have a front row view, it was still beautiful. Epcot is my favorite. I can remember when we were preparing for our very first trip a friend of ours said we might as well skip Epcot. That it really wasn't fun unless you "liked that kind of thing." To this day, I have no idea what she meant, except she obviously didn't like Epcot. The whole premise of Epcot and World Showcase appeals to me greatly. A better world. A connected world.

I think Illuminations does a great job of capturing that, and I'm so glad I got to see it before it goes away. :love::love::love:
Although I have a hard time picking favourites, I do really like Epcot. I have heard people say before they don't like it - sadly my wife included - but I have never understood what's not to like.
Great that you got to see Illimunations before it leaves. I said my goodbye in August, I was sad but I know things have to change, hopefully for the better.
 
You Got A Friend In Me
Day 5 at Toy Story Land
Wednesday morning, day 5! How have we already been at Disney for 5 days?! Slow down, clock! Slow down!

This morning we woke bright and early, as normal. We had originally planned to go into Hollywood Studios at 11 because Micheal wanted to sleep in on vacation. But remember, he'd seen the light and now we were going first thing in the morning. Our first FP was Rockin' Roller Coaster from 9-10. We got up and got ready, but something held us up. I can't quite remember what it was.

Anyway, we ended up leaving around 9:20, I think. The plan was to make the walk to HS. We cut through the hotel and came out past the quiet pool and the community hall, then crossed immediately onto the HS path. It was a very quick and pleasant walk at first. We passed under the overpass, saw Hollywood Studios in the not-so-distant distance.

But then came the construction. Oh my gosh, y'all, the construction turns that pleasant walk into major UG really quickly. Just as we kept thinking we were almost there we would come to another turn, and more walking. It ended up taking at least 20 minutes to walk, if not more (I'm pretty sure it was more, but I can't say it definitively). Two big thumbs down from this family.

Anywho, we got into HS shortly before 10. Donald and Daisy were meeting right inside, and the kids wanted to meet them so we jumped in Donald's line. I ran to wet our cooling towels while Micheal waited in line with the kids. As you can see, though, he made me get back in line when it was our turn. :rotfl2:

STUDIO_ENTRCHAR_20180905_413208957472.jpg STUDIO_ENTRCHAR_20180905_413208957477.jpg

It wasn't a long line, but by the time we got to the front then finished, we had missed our first FP. Seriously, no big deal. We made our way toward our next FP, Tower of Terror. This is Micheal's absolute favorite ride at WDW. I have not liked it in the past, but I agreed to ride for Micheal's sake.

We jumped in line for a family PP picture.

STUDIO_SUNSET3_20180905_413208896820.jpg

Then, on to the ride! My sister stopped with the little ones. She doesn't ride ToT. Ashlyn ended up chickening out, so she stayed with them. Micheal and I continued on with my BIL and neice. We had a short wait in line, then we were loading our elevator. I was super nervous because, again, not my fave ride. But I was pleasantly surprised to find I really liked it this time around! :thumbsup2 (ignore the seemingly contradictory evidence of this ride photo...)

STUDIO_TOWEROFTERRORBRIDE_20180905_8264184425.jpg

We looked a little through the gift shop and I spotted a souvenire I wanted to grab later. We also took note of the pressed penny machines for Ashlyn when we came back later.

Next, we collected the rest of the family. Our next stop was Toy Story Mania, but first water! I went in search of free ice water (it was SO HOT), and when I returned I found my family watching the March of the First Order (is that what it's called? I actually have no clue but we'll go with it). Ashlyn had the BIGGEST SMILE on her face, which makes my mom heart swell with joy.

IMG_4870~photo.jpg

When that passed, we continued. Oh, we also got a refill on our popcorn bucket. I forgot to mention in my AK update that at some point we bought the refillable bucket. My sister said I made her feel like a bad mom because she refused to buy one for her kids. :hyper:

The walk into Toy Story Land is super fun. The bright colors and larger than life props are exciting and happy. We had a bit of time until our 11am FP, so we stopped for a picture in front of the Toy Story Land sign, then did a M&G with Buzz. Miles was slightly weirded out by Buzz, but not really scared.

STUDIO_TOYSTORYLANDICON_20180905_413209807339.jpg STUDIO_TOYSTORYLANDBUZZ_20180905_413212506916.jpg STUDIO_TOYSTORYLANDBUZZ_20180905_413212238694.jpg

My sister's kids wanted to meet Jesse and Woody, but Ashlyn didn't. So, we split up for a bit. They went to the M&G, and we went onto Toy Story Mania. Micheal's second favorite ride. (Honestly, maybe this is his first favorite, or maybe it's a toss up.) The line was quick, and we loaded onto the ride. I rode with Ashlyn and Micheal took Miles. Ashlyn was seriously beating me for most of the ride (I am probably one of the LEAST competitive people ever), but in the end I had the most points. She was really angry about it because she IS competitive. But even holding Miles, Micheal beat us both. :faint:

As we were exiting the ride, my sister and her husband called to us from the line. They were about to load. We parked ourselves just ahead, in the air conditioned exit. :beach: It took a little while, but we didn't mind because again, air conditioning.

Once they finished, we decided it was time to eat. We all wanted to try Woody's Lunch Box, and we also used mobile ordering for the first time. Very convenient!

Finding a table was less convenient. It was like a survival of the fittest, seriously. We did finally end up SHARING a table with another family. My sister and her husband never did find a table and ended up eating at a bench. Disney loses a few points on Toy Story Land for their lack of shade of way too few tables for Woody's Lunch Box.

Still, our food was yummy. I had the Totchos, which are basically chili cheese tator tots. They were really good, or maybe I was just starving? No, they were good! Micheal had the turkey sandwich, and Ashlyn had the grilled cheese. All of this was good, and it was a great "light" lunch. I would definitely eat here again.

Our next FP was ready to begin, and it was at Star Tours. This is another ride my sister doesn't like. It makes her really dizzy. By the time we reached the ride, Miles was fast asleep. My nephew is too short to ride, so my sister took them into the gift shop to wait in the air conditioning for us.

We had a great ride, then met her in the gift shop. Ashlyn saw the light sabers and she almost had a fainting spell. She. Had. To. Have. One. (before our trip, we watched all of the Star Wars movies, which we'd never done before. Ashlyn is a big fan.)

We decided she could have one, if that's what she wanted for her "big" souvenir (we'd had this talk previously about "we're not buying every toy you see and want"). So, after much deliberation she chose a blue one. I think it's Rae's? Anyway, now she's going to be Rae for Halloween, and Miles is going to be Yoda.

20180929_181553_resized.jpg

Ohmygosh isn't he the cutest Yoda ever?!

I think Ashlyn and Micheal also did some pin trading in the gift shop.

At this point, we were all pretty tired so we decided to take a resort break. Only, when we said we were leaving, my nephew freaked out. He's 3, and he wanted to ride Slinky Dog Dash. Like, why did we not ride SDD?!?! He screamed and cried and howled.

I felt really bad because I'd done the FP's and did a FP for the next day for that one. I had my reasons, but now I felt terrible.

We decided to leave, and my sister and her family stayed behind to either calm the poor child or give in and wait in stand by for SDD. We stopped for more PP pictures, then made our way to the boat. Guys, the boat is so much better than that horrible long walk. :rotfl2:

STUDIO_STDENTR2_20180905_413211243194.jpg

For those who are wondering, my sister ended up talking her little boy into chilling out, so they ended up on the same ferry back to the resort as we did. Two points for mom power! :cheer2:

I'll stop there because I haven't resized my pictures for the evening yet. :jumping1: Thanks for reading along so far!


 
BONUS POST!!! Here are a few extra pictures I was going to share in that last post, but we'd reached the picture limit. Two are of us on a previous HS studios visit in 2014. Mostly I wanted to introduce you to Emma, because she was fabulous.

And also, another picture with Buzz.

DSCN0236.jpg DSCN0245 (3).jpg STUDIO_TOYSTORYLANDBUZZ_20180905_413212506920.jpg
 

Attachments

  • IMG_4879~photo.jpg
    IMG_4879~photo.jpg
    136.1 KB · Views: 5
  • IMG_4880~photo.jpg
    IMG_4880~photo.jpg
    300.2 KB · Views: 5
A Magical Evening
Day 5 part 2
Whew! This week has been busy, but tonight is pretty calm so I'm going to try to squeeze in another update. I'm having major Disney withdraws, guys. I want to book another trip so bad, and I almost did it for me and Ashlyn for her birthday in January. But, then we decided to go to Gatlinburg, TN, for Christmas. A January trip is out, but maybe we can do a mother/daughter trip sometime next year. I want to go back so badly! :dumbo:

OK, OK, back to the TR! When we left off we had gone back to the Boardwalk for a break. We weren't sure where we wanted to go for the night. Ashlyn really wanted to ride Flights of Passage again, and I wanted to do AK at night. BUT, we hadn't really had any real time in Magic Kingdom yet thanks to our disastrous first day. As we relaxed in the room, and went swimming a little bit later, I kept checking for FP's for FoP. I couldn't get one.

Then I kept thinking about how every day so far we had ridden almost nothing. Literally, we'd do our FP's and then the day was over. We decided that without a FP for FoP, we would head into Magic Kingdom and do Fantasyland where we could ride lots of rides together as a family.

Y'all, this was one of the best decisions we made this trip! First of all, Magic Kingdom was as "empty" as it ever gets at this point. It was glorious! My little family (when I say that, I guess what I mean is not including my sister and her fam), arrived at MK at 5:30PM. I wanted to eat at Casey's Corner, but Ashlyn really wanted pizza. We ended up at Pinocchio Village Hause. I had the pasta dish, and Micheal and Ashlyn had pizza. We used the mobile ordering again. They ended up not giving us all of our drinks, so Micheal went back up to the counter to retrieve them. Overall, though, a smooth experience.

Miles had fallen asleep in his stroller so we sat at a table outside on the terrace. The food was decent enough. Once we finished eating, we headed over to Castel Couture. We were looking for a souvenir for Emma's grave. We wanted something Tinkerbell or Brave, and we ended up buying pins--one of each. And actually, we later decided we didn't want to put those on her grave so we ended up getting something else another day. Ashlyn is now the keeper of Emma's pins. :hug: We plan to add to the lanyard each time we go.

20181005_202203_resized.jpg

We had gotten a Fastpass for the Winnie the Pooh ride for 6:30. My sister and her family arrived, and we met them over at the FP entrance. It was the beginning of a wonderful night with lots of rides (yay!). We rode together through the Hundred Acre Woods. Miles was enthralled with everything, and Winnie the Pooh is one of my favorite characters so I always love this ride. pooh::tigger::eeyore:

When we finished there we headed to the carousel for a ride. There was no line, so we only had to wait for the current set to finish. I rode next to Ashlyn, and Micheal and Miles found a steed a few rows away.

IMG_4874~photo.jpg

My sister had grabbed us a FP next for Dumbo. Again, one of my favorites! It looked like a walk on, but I can't say for sure because they were running both sides and I don't know what the other side looked like. Micheal had Miles again (he pretty much rode with him on every ride throughout the night). They were a few dumbos ahead of us, and Micheal had Miles wave at us. I asked him if he was excited and he used his whole body to nod. :earboy2:

IMG_4887~photo.jpg

When we finished Dumbo, we grabbed a FP for IASW. But, as we walked that way we stopped for a ride on Journey Under the Sea, another walk on. Ashlyn and our neice, Alice, asked to ride together so we let them. The loading CM said it was fine, but a minute later a different CM ran up and stopped us. They had to stop the whole ride to move us all around. :fish:

Miles danced to the music throughout the ride. It was SO CUTE. Micheal tried to video it, but it came out pretty dark.

Next, we made our way over to IASW. It was another walk on! Yes, yes, yes! :love1:

Do I need to keep saying how Miles loved it? He really, really did.

IMG_4879~photo.jpg IMG_4880~photo.jpg

I feel like during this trip I really came to appreciate things I hadn't in the past (like IASW).

When we were finishing up, we made a FP for Haunted Mansion. The ride was again a walk on, and we took a ride with 999 happy haunts. :hmghost: When we finished up, it was time to make some decisions. My sister and her family hadn't eaten supper, so they split from us to have some food.

I wanted to head to the front of the castle and see HEA. In all my trips I had never watched the nighttime fireworks at Magic Kingdom!

But, as we'd passed the Tangled bathrooms Micheal had seen the floating lantern photopass setup. So, here's the story. Emma was a patient at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. While she was in the hospital (extensively, for 7 months before she passed away), she watched Disney movies almost nonstop. Her two favorites were Tangled and Brave. Since she's been gone, we've released floating lanterns for her on her birthdays and Christmases.

When Micheal saw that photo op, he desparately wanted to do it. I did not. It made me feel sad, and I really wanted to see HEA.

But remember all that stuff about me wanting to do what Micheal asked to do, because he asked for so little? Yeah, that. We ended up in line for the photo op. The fireworks started while we were in line. I could see some of them well enough from the line, but I was still pretty sad to be missing the whole show. This would be our only chance to see HEA.

Our turn came, and the pictures went well. Today, as I write this, I am SO GLAD we stood in line and had these pictures taken. I would still like to see HEA someday, but these pictures are a treasure to us.

MK_RAPUNZELLANTERNSC_20180906_413216545284.jpg MK_RAPUNZELLANTERNSC_20180906_413216545262.jpg

At this point, the regular park guests began pouring out. But, it was EMH night and the park was open until 11PM. I wanted to check out the Christmas shop in Liberty Square. We found our baby neice a minnie mouse "My First Christmas" ornament, but Micheal was afraid it would offend his brother (he and his wife are a little...touchy). So, we decided to hold off and text them to feel them out. In the meantime, we headed to the baby care center to change Miles's diaper. It's located between Casey's Corner and the Crystal Palace. When we came out, we had a nice view of Once Upon A Time, so we stopped for that.

While we watched, Micheal got a text from his brother saying they'd love the ornament. So, I headed back to the Christmas shop. Only, it had already closed. :rolleyes2 OK, so I'd have to get it later.

While I was gone, Micheal had taken some castle pics with Miles. :love:

IMG_4894~photo.jpg

Ashlyn and I walked over to The Plaza Ice Cream Parlor, but the line was super long so we passed. Photopass photographers had set up in front of the castle at this point (I guess they wait until the crowds pass at closing?), so we decided to do some castle pictures.

MK_MSFIRSTA_20180906_413217099588.jpg MK_MSFIRSTA_20180906_413217099592.jpg

When we finished, we were pretty tired. It was around 10PM, so we headed out. The wait for the bus was maybe 10 minutes. Not long at all. We got back to the Boardwalk, and all fell into bed. We were all pretty happy with how the night went. It ended up being one of our best nights of the trip. pixiedust:
 
I know it's not Disney, but Gatlinburg is one of my favorite places. I've been about 35 times. Mom said I took my first steps and said my first words there. Dollywood can be fun, too! Lots of fun stuff to do for families.
 
Girrrrrl, I so feel your pain! We're the same age, actually (I'll be 36 in December and my husband just turned 34 in March) and we started doing the whole "mid-day nap" thing back in 2013! It helped that we were staying at BWV and could get back and forth from the parks quickly. There were several times of the last two trips where we made plans to go back to the resort for a nap and a shower and then go back out and we didn't. There was one night at BWV that we were so tired we couldn't even muster the energy to go downstairs and get food. I literally spent $60 on a room service pizza and two glasses of wine lol

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! Hahaha!

You guys are so freaking cute! Following along!

Aw, thanks!

Although I have a hard time picking favourites, I do really like Epcot. I have heard people say before they don't like it - sadly my wife included - but I have never understood what's not to like.
Great that you got to see Illimunations before it leaves. I said my goodbye in August, I was sad but I know things have to change, hopefully for the better.

I look forward to seeing the new show someday.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts

Top