Just Go With It, a May 2014 Trip Report - UPDATED 6/26 FINAL PART

[compshu]

Hi everyone. I wanted to share my latest trip report. We were at Walt Disney World from May 9th through the 17th. This is going to be a long report, with tons of pictures, so I will be posting it in parts probably once or twice a week. I hope you all enjoy!

Links as we go, just look below:

Intro
Part 1: 14 hours of travel, are we there yet?
Part 2: Our Long Awaited Return to the Magic Kingdom
Part 3: The Marines Take Over the Magic Kingdom
Part 4: Da Hoppa!
Part 5: Mommy, meet Minnie.
Part 6: Hi, I'm Joshua, and I like cold beer!
Part 7: A Donald Day in the Magic Kingdom
Part 8: One last stroll through the park(s)
Part 9: See ya real soon!

 

[compshu]

Hiya! We have just returned from another wonderful trip to Walt Disney World. This time it was a seven day, eight night stay at Port Orleans Resort – Riverside. Overall, it was a great trip, although we did have some wet times and just a couple headaches. I took some video and a lot of pictures, plus we pre-ordered Memory Maker, and we had over 300 more photos on that. I wanted to take more video, and essentially make a video trip report in the style of some of those found on YouTube, but I didn’t want to be stuck behind a camera the whole trip. We had some really big events happen during our trip, and I will be sharing tons of pictures through this report.

Let me start by introducing the cast. I’m Joshua. I have been a United States Marine for just over seven years. Over the past couple years, I have been doing a ton of research on discounts and ticket packages that Disney offers to members of the armed forces, and I love just how military friendly Disney is. My wife of almost seven years is Becky, Prettylittlelady on the DISBoards.


We have three children: Liliana, age six


Alexa, age five


and Gabriel, age four.


Even though it has only been about eight months since our last trip, the kids have each changed just a little bit. It was a reminder about just how quickly kids grow up, and how glad I am to be able to spend time with them.
For now, we live in Hawaii, but in a few months we will be moving to North Carolina, which was the first place I was stationed so we are looking forward to returning to familiar territory and also being back on the east coast and within driving distance from both family and Walt Disney World. We have been to Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa and it is a great place that really highlights Hawaii and Hawaiian culture with just a touch of Disney. The characters they have are “on vacation” so they are not the focus of the resort.

I mentioned that we had been to Walt Disney World just last year. Here is the trip report that I wrote about it. For that trip, we used the Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets, which are discounted four day park hopper tickets for military personnel and their dependents. There were restrictions on how many we could purchase, blockout dates, and an activation process that we had to go through at guest services before we could use them to enter the park on the first day. We stayed at Shades of Green Resort, which is a military only resort owned and operated by the Department of Defense. It is located between the Palm and Magnolia golf courses near the Polynesian Resort. It is a very nice resort with spacious rooms and walking distance to the monorail at the Poly, but since it isn’t a Disney owned resort, there only benefit extended by Disney was the use of Extra Magic Hours. The resort had its own shuttle bus service, which drops off and picks up way out in the parking lots, much further away than the Disney busses. And there was no option to add the Disney Dining Plan. It might sound as though we didn’t enjoy our time at Shades, but I assure you that it was great and we will definitely stay there again. The reason I brought all of that up is because for this trip we decided to go with the Magic Your Way package plus dining. We wanted the full, all inclusive Walt Disney World experience.

When we began making plans for this trip, we thought that I would be receiving orders to Tampa, FL for May. We figured that it would be really nice to include a visit to Walt Disney World once we arrived in the area during our check in process. We got with our Dreams travel agent and started looking at deluxe resort availability. We were going to stay at the Beach Club Resort, but for the money and dates, our only option turned out to be the Polynesian Resort. We laughed because we would be leaving Hawaii and staying at the Poly. We made the deposit and started to look into making our dining reservations. A month or so later, we found out that we would not be transferring to Florida. Our orders were changed to North Carolina and the timeline was changed from May to fall 2014. We began to crunch the numbers for airfare to see if we could still have our trip in May now that we would have to cover the cost of a round trip ticket for five from Hawaii. We worked out that if we dropped the resort to a moderate, we could still make it work. So we decided to switch our reservation to Port Orleans Resort – Riverside. Since the flight that we were able to book arrived in Orlando around 4:00 PM, we thought we could save a little money by spending that first night at Shades of Green, then checking into POR the next morning for the rest of our stay.

About two weeks before we left, we reconsidered our first night at Shades. We asked our travel agent to quote us on adding another night at POR and the result was actually cheaper than the night at Shades plus whatever food would’ve cost that night, plus shuttle transportation from the airport and then a taxi to POR. The only catch was that we had to downgrade from our pool view room to a garden view room. That was not a big issue for us, and I don’t even remember looking out the window all that much while we were in the room anyway. When my wife called to cancel our night at Shades, she was reminded that they have a thirty day cancellation policy, and that we would lose our deposit of the first (and only) night’s stay. We decided that it was worth it, but mostly for avoiding the hassle of transferring from Shades to POR when we wanted to get straight to the Magic Kingdom for a certain FastPass+ selection we were VERY fortunate to grab.

As our departure date got closer and closer, we finalized ADRs, made our FastPass+ selections, and designed our MagicBands. It seemed to take forever for our trip to arrive. I got worried at one point when our MagicBands were shipped because they were sent via Parcel Post, which can sometimes take quite a while to make it out here. The reason for that is because the package is loaded onto a boat in California and only scanned when it arrives in Cali and then not scanned again until it arrives in Honolulu. I knew a few other people that were arriving around the same time as us and live on the east coast. They received their MagicBands only a few days after being shipped, while we waited for ours. Finally, they arrived, with a couple weeks to spare. The excitement was mounting.

 

[smadath]

Thank you for your service, Joshua, and Happy Memorial Day to you and your family! Hope you all enjoyed your trip, and I look forward to viewing your photos!

 

[compshu]

Thanks. It was a great trip and we got a ton of stuff accomplished. I don't want to spoil anything, so you'll just have to wait and read for yourself!

 

[SusieBea]

popcorn:

 

[PrincessInOz]

Am I last??


Guess not. I made it on page 1.

Great looking family! Love your kids.

 

[compshu]

More is coming, I promise. Working on selecting the best photos for part 1 (that last post was just the intro ) Stay Tuned!

 

[compshu]

We left late on a Thursday night for an overnight flight to Orlando with a connection at Los Angeles. When we got to the Honolulu airport, we encountered an issue with our flight reservation. United Airlines had made a schedule change a few months earlier, and even though we were aware and had “confirmed” the change online, our confirmation was never recorded. The rep at the check in counter helped us fix the error, but he was hesitant to make any changes to the return flights, because he didn’t want to mess us up any further. After that was fixed, we checked our bags, and headed through security. Since I am active duty military, I get to take myself and the kids through the TSA PreCheck line. Unfortunately, they don’t extend that offer to my wife, unless she signs up for the program and pays the fee in person. So for this trip, I took all of the carry-on bags and the kids through the express line, which really saves the whole family time because we don’t have to take the computers out or shoes off. After we all made it through security, we went to our gate and waited to board the plane.

After a five hour flight to LAX, we had a short layover. We got on the next plane and off we went on our way to Orlando International. Fortunately, on both flights the sixth seat in our row remained unoccupied so we were able to spread out a little and that made the flights go a little more smoothly. Since we had made the change to our arrival at the resort under the thirty day mark, we didn’t receive Disney’s Magical Express tags for our checked luggage, even though we were booked for the transport to POR. So when we arrived in Orlando, we had to go grab our checked luggage and then went down one more floor to the DME welcome center.

The kids had their first opportunity to use their MagicBands at the DME welcome center. They were very excited to scan them and we were escorted to the loading queue for Port Orleans, Saratoga Springs, and Old Key West Resorts. We waited for about fifteen minutes and then were loaded onto our bus.






After a short ride over from the airport, we were finally at Walt Disney World.

When we arrived at POR, we gathered our bags and were greeted right there by a Cast Member holding a whiteboard with our name on it and an iPad to check us in with. We had done the online check in a few weeks earlier, and they were there waiting for us. About five minutes later we were on our way to our room. We were in the back side of Alligator Bayou lodge #34 which is just about the farthest you can get from the lobby, dining, and gift shop but was very conveniently located near the west depot bus stop. After dragging all of our bags back there, I decided then that we would have bell services come and pick up our bags when we depart. We got all of our stuff into the room and Becky went off to Senses at the Grand Floridian Resort for her arrival massage.





Meanwhile, I took the kids to the food court for a little dinner and grabbed our resort mugs.

After dinner, we decided to meet up at Downtown Disney to hang out a bit before going to bed. Coming from all the way out in Hawaii, we like to try to get onto eastern time as quickly as possible, so instead of going right to bed, we wanted to stay out a little later. Becky took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom and then a bus to Saratoga Springs to walk over to DTD, while the kids and I hopped on the boat down the Sassagoula River. We all met up at Once Upon a Toy, where Alexa picked out a toy snake to add to her collection, while Gabe and Lili made Droids. They named their Droids EL-SA and OL-AF.

When we were done there, I saw a few guys walking around with beer. Well, I had to go and find some walking around beer of my own. We came across the outdoor beer stand at Raglan Road, and I got a Kilkenny. Now, beer in hand, we began to trek towards the dock at Pleasure Island to catch our boat back to the resort. Since Becky missed dinner due to her spa appointment, she grabbed a quick bite at the resort, while the kids and I caught some of Yee Haw Bob’s show, which was really great. I wish we could’ve been there for the whole thing. Maybe on our next trip we will have to carve out some time to head over to POR for it. We made it back to the room and got some sleep. The alarm was set pretty early, and we were ready to conquer the Magic Kingdom for our first day in the parks.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Cute droid names.


I always love the start of a trip. So much promise and so much to look forward to.

Your little Gabriel is so cute. Is that a pillow pet he's got with him?
Hope your DW enjoyed the Senses treat.

 

[goalierich]

Hiya! We have just returned from another wonderful trip to Walt Disney World. This time it was a seven day, eight night stay at Port Orleans Resort – Riverside. Overall, it was a great trip, although we did have some wet times and just a couple headaches. I took some video and a lot of pictures, plus we pre-ordered Memory Maker, and we had over 300 more photos on that. I wanted to take more video, and essentially make a video trip report in the style of some of those found on YouTube, but I didn’t want to be stuck behind a camera the whole trip. We had some really big events happen during our trip, and I will be sharing tons of pictures through this report.

Let me start by introducing the cast. I’m Joshua. I have been a United States Marine for just over seven years. Over the past couple years, I have been doing a ton of research on discounts and ticket packages that Disney offers to members of the armed forces, and I love just how military friendly Disney is. My wife of almost seven years is Becky, Prettylittlelady on the DISBoards.


We have three children: Liliana, age six


Alexa, age five


and Gabriel, age four.


Even though it has only been about eight months since our last trip, the kids have each changed just a little bit. It was a reminder about just how quickly kids grow up, and how glad I am to be able to spend time with them.
For now, we live in Hawaii, but in a few months we will be moving to North Carolina, which was the first place I was stationed so we are looking forward to returning to familiar territory and also being back on the east coast and within driving distance from both family and Walt Disney World. We have been to Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa and it is a great place that really highlights Hawaii and Hawaiian culture with just a touch of Disney. The characters they have are “on vacation” so they are not the focus of the resort.

I mentioned that we had been to Walt Disney World just last year. Here is the trip report that I wrote about it. For that trip, we used the Disney Armed Forces Salute tickets, which are discounted four day park hopper tickets for military personnel and their dependents. There were restrictions on how many we could purchase, blockout dates, and an activation process that we had to go through at guest services before we could use them to enter the park on the first day. We stayed at Shades of Green Resort, which is a military only resort owned and operated by the Department of Defense. It is located between the Palm and Magnolia golf courses near the Polynesian Resort. It is a very nice resort with spacious rooms and walking distance to the monorail at the Poly, but since it isn’t a Disney owned resort, there only benefit extended by Disney was the use of Extra Magic Hours. The resort had its own shuttle bus service, which drops off and picks up way out in the parking lots, much further away than the Disney busses. And there was no option to add the Disney Dining Plan. It might sound as though we didn’t enjoy our time at Shades, but I assure you that it was great and we will definitely stay there again. The reason I brought all of that up is because for this trip we decided to go with the Magic Your Way package plus dining. We wanted the full, all inclusive Walt Disney World experience.

When we began making plans for this trip, we thought that I would be receiving orders to Tampa, FL for May. We figured that it would be really nice to include a visit to Walt Disney World once we arrived in the area during our check in process. We got with our Dreams travel agent and started looking at deluxe resort availability. We were going to stay at the Beach Club Resort, but for the money and dates, our only option turned out to be the Polynesian Resort. We laughed because we would be leaving Hawaii and staying at the Poly. We made the deposit and started to look into making our dining reservations. A month or so later, we found out that we would not be transferring to Florida. Our orders were changed to North Carolina and the timeline was changed from May to fall 2014. We began to crunch the numbers for airfare to see if we could still have our trip in May now that we would have to cover the cost of a round trip ticket for five from Hawaii. We worked out that if we dropped the resort to a moderate, we could still make it work. So we decided to switch our reservation to Port Orleans Resort – Riverside. Since the flight that we were able to book arrived in Orlando around 4:00 PM, we thought we could save a little money by spending that first night at Shades of Green, then checking into POR the next morning for the rest of our stay.

About two weeks before we left, we reconsidered our first night at Shades. We asked our travel agent to quote us on adding another night at POR and the result was actually cheaper than the night at Shades plus whatever food would’ve cost that night, plus shuttle transportation from the airport and then a taxi to POR. The only catch was that we had to downgrade from our pool view room to a garden view room. That was not a big issue for us, and I don’t even remember looking out the window all that much while we were in the room anyway. When my wife called to cancel our night at Shades, she was reminded that they have a thirty day cancellation policy, and that we would lose our deposit of the first (and only) night’s stay. We decided that it was worth it, but mostly for avoiding the hassle of transferring from Shades to POR when we wanted to get straight to the Magic Kingdom for a certain FastPass+ selection we were VERY fortunate to grab.

As our departure date got closer and closer, we finalized ADRs, made our FastPass+ selections, and designed our MagicBands. It seemed to take forever for our trip to arrive. I got worried at one point when our MagicBands were shipped because they were sent via Parcel Post, which can sometimes take quite a while to make it out here. The reason for that is because the package is loaded onto a boat in California and only scanned when it arrives in Cali and then not scanned again until it arrives in Honolulu. I knew a few other people that were arriving around the same time as us and live on the east coast. They received their MagicBands only a few days after being shipped, while we waited for ours. Finally, they arrived, with a couple weeks to spare. The excitement was mounting.

Sounds like you had an awesome trip. Nice looking family. Take care and hope you have a easy move back to NC!!

 

[amazingact21]

Saw a fellow May visitor and decided to click on your TR link. Didn't realize I've actually met you before.

I'm Alicia, Alex's (USAFDad's) wife. So, I'm definitely subscribing to your TR, now.




I think opting for an additional night at POR instead of SOG was the way to go. When you're talking about 3 kids and all the stuff that goes along with a family, it just wouldn't be worth the hassle of moving and shuffling around to save a few bucks. Besides, the minute you get on property you want to relax and settle in, and that would have had to be have been postponed with the resort switch.



Whew, a 14 hour flight sounds long and exhausting. Those kids must have been biting at the bit to get to Disney. Good thinking on scheduling in some DTD that evening. Plenty of room for them to walk around and burn off some of that extra energy. Not to mention the lure of toys is always a win.



Looking forward to reading how the rest of your trip went.

 

[compshu]

Cute droid names.


I always love the start of a trip. So much promise and so much to look forward to.

Your little Gabriel is so cute. Is that a pillow pet he's got with him?
Hope your DW enjoyed the Senses treat.

Thanks. Here's a picture of their droids.



All three kids have pillow pets for when we travel. Lili has Marie, Alexa has Simba, and Gabe has Pluto. The Senses thing has become somewhat of a tradition for us, she went on our last trip too. I figured it would help after being on a plane for that long. I'm sure you know how uncomfortable double-digit hours on a plane can be, you're further away than us!

Sounds like you had an awesome trip. Nice looking family. Take care and hope you have a easy move back to NC!!

Thanks, I think the hardest part of the move will be the fact that it takes 30-45 days for our car and 45-60 days for our household goods to get from here to NC.

Saw a fellow May visitor and decided to click on your TR link. Didn't realize I've actually met you before.

I'm Alicia, Alex's (USAFDad's) wife. So, I'm definitely subscribing to your TR, now.




I think opting for an additional night at POR instead of SOG was the way to go. When you're talking about 3 kids and all the stuff that goes along with a family, it just wouldn't be worth the hassle of moving and shuffling around to save a few bucks. Besides, the minute you get on property you want to relax and settle in, and that would have had to be have been postponed with the resort switch.



Whew, a 14 hour flight sounds long and exhausting. Those kids must have been biting at the bit to get to Disney. Good thinking on scheduling in some DTD that evening. Plenty of room for them to walk around and burn off some of that extra energy. Not to mention the lure of toys is always a win.



Looking forward to reading how the rest of your trip went.

Thanks, it was great meeting you guys. I'll be including that when we get to that part of the trip. Hope you guys had a good time too. I'm glad we didn't stay at Shades this time. Though we like the location and size of the rooms there, having to schelp all of our stuff from one resort to another would just have been too much hassle.

 

[shan23877]

Joining in! Your family is beautiful.

Thank you for your service!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the droids! Thanks for sharing the picture.

 

[compshu]

Thanks for joining in!

 

[compshu]

The alarm went off at 5:45 AM. Everyone rolled out of bed and dragged themselves to the bathroom to get ready for the day. We finished our morning routine and got to the bus stop. We didn't have to wait very long before we were riding toward the Magic Kingdom. We got through the bag check and band scanners, and found ourselves a spot front and center for the Welcome Show. We had about half an hour to spare. It felt really good to be back.

After the welcome show, we headed toward Main St USA. We had read about the “stampede” to Anna and Elsa at rope drop, and we witnessed a few people nearly, or even flat-out, sprinting towards Princess Fairytale Hall. We, however, took our time. You see, we were fortunate enough to have snagged FastPass+ for the visitors from Arendelle. When we got through the castle to Fantasyland, we parked the stroller and got in line. I must say, the signage could be a little better, because I followed a sign with an arrow pointing toward FastPass+ entrance, and after standing in that line for a couple minutes, I asked a passing Cast Member if it was, in fact, the FastPass+ line. She said that, no, it was the standby line, and proceeded to direct me to the correct line. We scanned our bands, and were escorted inside. Once inside, we waited about five minutes and then, there they were. The kids were ecstatic.





We had our fun with the sisters, and then went over to meet with Aurora. By the time we got out of PFH, it was about 9:45 AM. We then went over to Tinker Bell’s nook, because Alexa wanted to show off her Zarina costume. The last time we were here, the visiting fairy was Vidia. We were hoping to meet a different fairy this time, and we were half lucky. This time the visiting fairy was Terrance. Poor Terrance. Our kids just weren’t that into him. Maybe because he isn’t part of the “clique”, and he only really has a large part in one of the movies. Even then, Tinker Bell pretty much friendzones him. It probably would’ve been better to have Clank and Bobble there. Anyway, we met with Terrance and Tink, and then changed the girls out of their costumes and into more comfortable clothes. Alexa wanted to keep her wings and pirate jewelry on though.

Next, we had a FP+ for Enchanted Tales with Belle. This was something that we wanted to do on our last trip, but the wait times were always pretty long, so we just never got around to it. We got into the theater, and unfortunately the girls wanted a part in the show, but weren’t selected for the main cast and didn’t speak up when they asked for extras. Thankfully, Alexa was able to join the cast as a plate once we got into the main show room. Lili had decided by that point that she would just enjoy the show. After the performance, both girls were able to get a photo with Belle and the kids all got a bookmark. Overall, we thought the show was okay, but not necessarily worth a long standby wait.




Here is the point in the trip report that I wish I had taken some notes while we were there, or at least written down an outline at the end of each day. I know where we ate, I have a basic idea of which FP+ selections we used, but I cannot remember the amount of attractions we hit and in what order. I will do my best to give an accurate report, but I may mix up the timeline a little or may omit some of the things that we did. For example, I know that we rode the PeopleMover at least ten times throughout the week, we rode the carousel a bunch, met a ton of characters, and saw a few shows. There are some cases of riding something or meeting someone that acts as sort of a checkpoint in what was going on that day, so I will focus on those instances and try to paint the picture around them.




We had lunch at Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Café. It was pretty good, and it was also good to get out of the sun, get some food, and relax a bit. We didn’t have too much of an issue finding a seat. I think the system that they use works pretty well. I realize that some people don’t like that they can’t send the family to the table to save it, but I think the way they do it is necessary so that everyone gets a chance to sit down and eat their food when they have it. We got all of our food, and then were greeted by a Cast Member at the entrance to the dining room. She asked if our entire party was present, and if we had all gotten everything, and then escorted us to an open table. They keep track of the tables the same way a table service restaurant would, and to me, that is the most efficient way to handle the number of guests they serve daily.



After lunch, it was time for our FP+ for Peter Pan’s Flight. This was another attraction that we wanted to check out on our last trip, but it always had really long wait times. It was a very short ride, but it was very cool too. The kids loved it, and Alexa thought the ships were flying because Zarina sprinkled blue pixie dust on them. I can see why the ride has high wait times, though I don’t think that we would ever wait longer than maybe 20 minutes for it. Once our ride was over, we went to the FP+ kiosk to add another FP+. We chose it’s a small world, which was available right away. We rode that and then added Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

We started making our way toward Main St USA for our dinner reservations at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant. On the way, all three kids decided to take a power nap in the stroller. We slipped into the Emporium for a little air conditioning and to pass the time. While we were in there, Becky went outside and grabbed a Frozen balloon. When the girls woke up, they saw the balloon and were very excited. Lili said that she was dreaming of getting a balloon, and that Walt Disney World is the place where dreams come true. Now I know where they came up with that slogan. When we got to Town Square, we parked the stroller and checked in for our reservation. The Cast Member at the check in podium was from West Chester, PA which is about fifteen minutes from where I grew up so we chatted for a little and then we were shown to our table. Dinner was pretty good. Tony’s doesn’t always get the best reviews, but we have eaten here twice now, and we enjoy it. It isn’t the best Italian food that we’ve had, as my wife is from upstate New York, but it is still pretty good and isn’t a very expensive meal at Disney.




After dinner, we spent the rest of the evening checking out attractions and enjoying the park at night, which is our favorite time. We made another FP+, this time it was a split one. Lili and I got Space Mountain, while everyone else went on Under the Sea, Journey of the Little Mermaid. We grabbed a spot in front of the Hub to watch Celebrate the Magic and Wishes. After the fireworks, we went to our FP+ attractions, hit a couple more attractions and then went out to find our bus and get some sleep. The next morning would be just as early, because I had a very important appointment to keep at the Magic Kingdom. One that I had set up only a few days before and that would have a profound impact on our future.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great pics, Compshu.

Looks like you made the best use of the FP+ system and I'm glad to see that you were able to add additional rides after you claimed your previous ones. Definitely looks like a change for the better; assuming, of course, that you didn't have any issues getting online to make them.

 

[compshu]

We definitely took the commando approach to this and part of the reason for that was I was reporting in the commando thread about the use of multiple FP+.

 

[Disney Commando]

We definitely took the commando approach to this and part of the reason for that was I was reporting in the commando thread about the use of multiple FP+.

Great Job on scoring the extra FP+s, lots of useful info, look forward to read more about the rest of your trip

 

[compshu]

The alarm went off about twenty minutes after we went to bed, or so it seemed. This was the big day. We had originally planned to be in Epcot all day, but those plans changed a little about ten days before the trip. I received word that my request for reenlistment had been approved. I thought that it would be a very unique and interesting opportunity to try and hold my reenlistment ceremony at Walt Disney World. I began to look for a commissioned Officer in the central Florida area that would be willing to come up to WDW to perform the ceremony. My current boss helped me by asking some of the Officers he knows that are stationed at MacDill AFB in Tampa. The next day, I had an email from a Colonel with an offer to come up for the reenlistment. We coordinated all of the details, and then tried to find out what Disney’s policy would be and if we would need to change the plans at all. We never found any information, and as far as anyone could tell, this was the first time anyone has held a military ceremony within the park. I’m sure there have been several reenlistments, retirements, and award presentations over at Shades of Green, but nothing at the Magic Kingdom.

We caught one of the first busses over to the Magic Kingdom. It felt a little awkward being there in my uniform. Marine Dress Blues stand out just a little bit in a sea of shorts and t-shirts. We went through bag check, but since we were there before the Colonel, we decided to wait for him at one of the benches just past the bag check. A few people came up to us and thanked us for our sacrifices, which was really nice. Once I spotted another Marine walking through the crowd, we went over to meet up with him. We got a group photo taken in front of the train station, and then we made our way over to the flagpole. When we got there, a pair of women came up to us and told us that their grandfather was a Marine and asked if they could get a photo with us. I felt a little weird because just behind us, guests were lined up to meet with Minnie Mouse and Pluto, and here were people coming up to us for a picture. Well, we obliged them and they snapped a pic with their camera.

When Pluto left for a break, we asked the PhotoPass photographer at his line if he could capture the ceremony on camera. He told us that Pluto would be back very soon, but he went to go find us someone who was available. A few minutes later, two photographers arrived and offered their services. We began the ceremony by having the Colonel honorably discharge me from active duty. Then he read a certificate of appreciation for my wife. After that was done, I took the oath of enlistment once again, and was placed back into active duty service.





After the ceremony was over, we thanked the photographers and then left the Magic Kingdom. Becky took the kids to the ferry boat over to the Transportation and Ticket Center to catch the monorail to Epcot, while the Colonel and I got on the bus back to POR. We changed into street clothes and went over to join everyone else at Epcot. When we got there, the Colonel thanked me for letting him be part of my reenlistment, and I thanked him for making it possible. He left to go enjoy a day at Epcot, and we got back to our vacation.

Now that we were all back together, we went over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends. When we got done with that, it was time for our Turtle Talk with Crush FP+. Crush had one of his funniest shows that I have seen, but the girls were a little upset that they weren't called upon. We decided that it was time for some lunch, and we went over to the World Showcase. On the way, we stopped at Tinker Bell's Butterfly Garden. The kids loved all of the butterflies flying around, but it was very hot in the midmorning sun.



We were going to eat lunch at Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie, but it was very packed that day, so we went over to Liberty Inn where we found plenty of food and indoor seating. It wasn't the best food that I've had at WDW, but it was a good amount, and the kids all ate mostly everything, which doesn't happen very often. We finished eating, then took the kids over to the Kidcot Spot. The girls chose to make a Duffy, while Gabe chose a Perry.



When they were done coloring, we continued on through the WS.
The next stop was Germany. We stopped at their Kidcot stop and the kids got their stamps. After we looked around there a little, we went over to Norway. We grabbed some school bread, and found a seat. When we were done with our snack, we got cleaned up and the kids got their stamps while Becky got a new phone case. We then went back to Future World to check out Club Cool. We just had to try the Beverly. Lili, for some strange reason, said that she liked it and almost drank an entire cup of it. I think to her, it was so bad it was good.





After our rite of passage, we went over to Future World East for our FP+ at Mission: Space. Lili loves this ride, though she only wants to do the green team for now. Hopefully next time I can convince her to try the orange team. If not, I'm sure Alexa will join me. She seemed to discover her own love of thrill rides during this trip, but we'll have more about that later on.

Lili and I finished our ride, and we went back over to Norway for our dinner reservations at Akershus. Last trip, we ate at Cinderella's Royal Table, and while we enjoyed the fact that it was located in Cinderella's Castle, the food wasn't great and the character interactions felt rushed. We had read that Akershus was a great alternative to CRT and we figured we would put that to the test. As I'm standing in front of the check in podium, waiting for the Cast Member to finish helping another guest, some lady steps in front of me, interrupts the CM, and checks in for her reservation. It was like I wasn't even there, and that's when I first noticed the fact that there really are people who are visiting Walt Disney World who are so into their own vacation, that they don't even notice or care that there are thousands of other people on vacation there too. I didn't say anything about it, because my philosophy is why let something like that ruin my good time? Sure, I could've said something and maybe she had a long day with young kids and really didn't notice me. But what if she really is just that rude of a person, and it escalated into a big ordeal? Nobody needs that. So I guess I am just a big pushover, but I'd rather it be the case than constantly arguing with everyone over little things and getting all upset.

Sorry for the mini rant just there. Continuing on, we got our photos taken with Belle, and then were shown to our seats.



We placed our orders for our drinks and entrees, and then I went up to grab some stuff from the buffet. The princesses that came around spent a little more time at our table than at CRT, which was good. We also got to see Mulan, who is one of the princesses that we missed on our last trip. When dessert came, it was game over. Since there were five of us, we were given two plates of the dessert trio. The kids devoured the chocolate mousse, while Becky really loved the apple cake and rice cream. We finished up, then got in line for Maelstrom. We got pretty close to the end of the line, maybe about another five minutes or so, when Alexa announced that she had to go potty. So I fought through the line to get her out to the bathroom on time. I never understood why people try to block you from going past them when you are leaving the line. I understand if we are getting in front of you, which I don't condone at all, but not the other way around. Anyway, we made it on time and when she was done, we found a place to sit and wait for everyone else. Then Becky comes out with the Lili and Gabe in tow. Gabe decided that he also had to go potty. So nobody wound up riding Maelstrom, and we made a new rule: We will take a bathroom break after every meal or before getting in a line with a moderate wait time.

The girls were upset that they missed out on Maelstrom, but by then the standby line had jumped up to over half an hour. I looked on the app and saw that Test Track was only a ten minute wait, so we decided to ride that instead. I took the girls while Becky and Gabe went over to the character spot.





The three of us were placed onto one number as we waited for the design a car room, but when we got in, there was nobody after us, so the girls each got to make a car. Lili made an efficient little pink smart car, while Alexa made a golden jet-powered racer. When they were done, we tested them out. Each of their cars came in first place in something, so they were happy. We found a seat on the benches by the character spot and waited for the others.

Once we were all back together again, it was getting almost time to go to the Illuminations FP+ viewing spot. First though, Becky and I wanted to grab some drinks and the kids wanted snacks. We went to France and Becky got a La Vie en Rose Frozen Slush and Alexa got a Macaron a la Fleur d' Oranger. Then we went to the UK and I got a Harp while Lili got a sugar cookie. Since Gabe fell asleep, we just saved him some of that. We made it to the reserved viewing location with about five minutes to spare. Let me tell you, I have seen this firework show a few times now from just about every angle around the lagoon, but this was the best. Everything was right in front of us, and it was all so big and clear, from the pyrotechnics to the fountains, I even heard parts of the music that I hadn't heard before. They must have speakers right in that area so that you can hear the entire show. That spot is definitely center stage and is where the show is presented to, so if you get a chance, grab the FP+ at least once. Unfortunately, it locks you into only having three selections that day, unless you use your three early enough to grab an available addition later on, but it is worth it in my opinion.







The park was closing after Illuminations, so we popped into MouseGears for a few minutes and then went out to the bus. It was the end of another great and very memorable day, another late night, and another early alarm was on the way. Our plans would change in a major way, and we didn't even know it yet.