(Pictures will be put up somewhere sometime in the not too distant future)
Ok, so we spent 5 days at WDW this time around. In addition to me and my crew we added my SIL and her crew and my MIL and FIL. So in total there were 10 of us.
Surprisingly everything went smoothly and pretty much according to my plan. There were very few surprises of the nasty variety. No kids were misplaced for more than a few moments at a time and fun was had by all.
So here's a quick day by day run down.
Monday: We get to the Polynesian resort around 9:30 or so in the AM. Lisa, Roy, and my nieces Erica (8) and Olivia (3) arrive about an hour later. We get the initial check-in done with no snags. Mom and Dad (Tony and Lisa's parents) arrive about 2 hours after that. During the wait Tony took the kids on the mono-rail w/ Roy. Lisa and I window shopped and kept a lookout, then I went and bought the park tickets. When I returned everyone was there and the luggage had been taken to the room. We ate a late and light lunch at the Kona Cafe, I highly recommend the Open Face Grilled Salmon sandwich, very yummy!
We then went swimming in the "volcano" pool and hung out until the early evening. We went to Downtown Disney and ate dinner at the Earl of Sandwhich (a must-eat establishment for sandwhich lovers). Then we window shopped for a bit. Went back to the hotel and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the "beach." End of day one
Tuesday: The fun really begins! We got to the Magic Kingdom around 9:00-ish, just in time for the opening ceremony. Got strollers, got our GAC for Vinny. Met another Mom w/ a HF ASD kid on line and we chatted about how different the kids were even with the "same" diagnosis. I mean her poor DS was sitting barefoot in a corner with her arms over her head while my VInny was circling me like a shark chanting "Mick Mouse" over and over.
Then we went off to explore! First stop, TomorrowLand! We got to meet Buzz Lightyear! We got FastPasses for Space Mountain. Olivia and Vinny were still too small for it, and Sammy just didn't want to try it, so the rest of us split kid-watch duty and ride time and it worked out well. While we waited for our FastPass time to come up we all went on the TomorrowLand Indy Raceway and drove cars! I got to ride w/ Vinny who had a blast.
We then got to ride Space Mountain! What fun!!!! I think the ride gets more fun each time I go on it!
After SM we went to FantasyLand and rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, much to the little ones delight. Then we got Dumbo and the carousel! We ate lunch at the Columbia Harbor House, which if you ever get to I suggest the Clam Chowder...surprisingly yummy.
We skipped the Haunted Mansion, none of the kidlets wanted to ride it.
The group split. It was in the mid-90's and very humid. MIL and FIL went to the hotel. ROy and Lisa took Olivia back to FantasyLand to ride Dumbo again. Tony and I took charge of Erica, Sammy and Vinny and went to complete the Mountain Trifecta. It was Vinny and Erica's first time on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Sammy for a wonder was EAGER to ride these rides with his cousin! They got to sit together by themselves and had a blast! I got to sit w/ Vinny for his first "Big" coaster ride. He loved it! He also lived Splash Mountain... at least we think he did because he tried to drag us all back on the ride once we got off!
(Note: the aforementioned GAC is the only reason we were able to complete the Mountain Trifecta... It helped us by allowing us to use the FastPass lane. So we all thanked Vinny.)
It was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the Luau! The name of the show is "The Spirit of Aloha." It's kinda cheesy, but a lot of fun! The food was very good, although there weren't the traditional luau foods like poi, poke, or lau-lau. Still, the pineapple-coconut bread was VERY good!
The rain started pouring down during the fire-knife dancers number but he kept on dancing! And at the end he did a belly slide on the wet stage! I got drug up on stage for a b-day hula (all August b-days got to do it.) And the kids did a special hula (Little Grass Shack)! Sammy and Vinny gyrated quite nicely!
That's day two in a nutshell.
Day Three, Wednesday: We kit the Animal Kingdom. First we got on the safari ride. Even as early as it was it was still pretty hot so the animals weren't quite as perky as usual. Still, we saw a lot, but the lions were in hiding. Everyone had fun!
We then went to Camp Minnie-Mickey and watched "The Festival of the Lion King." It was a fabulous show! Song, dance, acrobatics and firedancing! WOW!
Then back to Africa to eat at the Tusker House. I had the grilled salmon and it was truly good!
After lunch we wandered through the Pangani Forest and then through the Maharajah Jungle Treck in Asia. I got some new shots of "Expedition Everest" which opens next year (I've been taking pics of the new ride throughout construction).
Then we returned to the hotel to get ready for La Nouba!
For me this was probably the biggest highlight of the trip. I saw Cirque Du Soliel's La Nouba back in June, and couldn't wait to take Sammy and Vinny to see it live. They were, as was everyone else, completely entranced! I had to put Vinny on my lap near the end of the show because he was getting a mite fidgety, he wanted to go onstage and join the fun!
If ever you get to WDW I strongly recommend you spend the extra cash and go see this show... it's a unique experience!
Day 4: Thursday! We started the day at Ohana for a character breakfast. We went to Disney/MGM studios. T'was the hottest day of the week and as luck had it were at the park with the least amount of shade! Still much fun was had. We saw several shows. Lights, Motors, Action - a car stunt spectacular. Sammy and VInny especially loved this one, Erica thought it was cool but kinda a guy thing...surprisingly Olivia SLEPT through the whole thing! Explosions and all!
The littles and Sammy too watched PlayHouse Disney Live w/ Tony and ROy and the rest of us rode The Tower of Terror! WEEE!!! Best ride at WDW IMHO.
We went on the backlot studio tour and the great movie ride.
We ended the day at the Prime Time Cafe! This place is a lot of fun and I suggest you all go! The meatloaf is yummy according to Tony and I recommend the...you guessed it, grilled Salmon!
Friday, Day 5 and the last: We went to Epcot (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow...or Every Person Comes Out Tired). The girls and I all went to a StoryBook Princess breakfast. I bought my nieces Princess outfits and they were ADORABLE! Olivia was Sleeping Beauty and Erica was Belle! *sigh* It was fun!
After the breakfast we strolled around a little and shopped and then met the guys by Test Track. We wandered over to The Land pavilion and rode Soarin'. Well, Everyone did except me and Olivia (she was too small). I volunteered to stay w/ Livvy since I'd ridden the ride the most times. I did get my turn later in the evening!
Anyways, after that we a light repast and Uncle Mike joined us. He brought extra scooter for me to use because I'd overdone things and my poor foot/ankle/lower calf was rather swollen and red and painful. Guess I'm not allthe way recovered yet.
So we hung about and got rained on, and the kids played in the water. WHile Tony and I watched the littles the rest of the group went with Uncle Mike and travelled around the World Showcase. They brought Tony back a pretzel from Germany!
That night we went to the Epcot International Buffet/Dessert w/ Illuminations event. This is a special event that requires a party of 8 or more (a Grand Gathering). The food was OUTSTANDING, by far the best we've had at WDW (well, the best not counting Victoria & Albert's but that's another thing entirely). The desserts were YUMMY!
We had entertainment from TJ the DJ andf Aunt Roz! AUnt Roz, it turns out has a 9 yr. old autistic son, when she found out about Vinny she went above and beyond her role of Auntie and kept a special eye on Vinny, she made sure Vinny had a blast! During the meal Minnie Mouse and Goofy made a surprise visit! They led us all on a conga line, which all the kids liked. There was a special storytime performance led by Aunt Roz which included the kids (Vinny got to be the "YAY Disney!" guy!) Then Minnie and Goofy led us all in a father/daughter and mother/son dance. Vinny got to dance w/ Minnie! He actually DANCED WITH MINNIE! HE held her hands and followed her lead and all! The little guy was beside himself with joy! Unfortunatley I didn't have the camera on me, Tony ahd it and he was off changing batteries and such and we missed the moment. Even so, Vinny's smile at that moment I think is burned into my heart. I haven't seen him so happy in a long while.
Illuminations:Reflections of Earth was fantastic! By that time the rain had stopped. There was a cloud cover that made the lasers more interesting I think. The only downside was that there wasn't enough a breeze to clear the smoke from the fireworks.
After all that we went back to the hotel.
Saturday was a sleep-in kind of day and we checked out around 10AM and went home after one last mono-rail ride!
We met and got signatures from bunches of character, including DOnald Duck (he's very elusive). We even got to meet a bunch of Power Rangers, much to Sammy's extreme pleasure.
Well, that about covers it...
Props: Susan for giving us girls a lift to Norway
Kim for the great seats on the Great Movie Ride
Aunt Roz for making Vinny's Epcot experience so special
Uncle Dale at the Prime Time Cafe for getting Sammy to eat all of his dinner
Sara
I'm allergic to fat, it makes my rear break out in a nasty case of "big."
Ok, so we spent 5 days at WDW this time around. In addition to me and my crew we added my SIL and her crew and my MIL and FIL. So in total there were 10 of us.
Surprisingly everything went smoothly and pretty much according to my plan. There were very few surprises of the nasty variety. No kids were misplaced for more than a few moments at a time and fun was had by all.
So here's a quick day by day run down.
Monday: We get to the Polynesian resort around 9:30 or so in the AM. Lisa, Roy, and my nieces Erica (8) and Olivia (3) arrive about an hour later. We get the initial check-in done with no snags. Mom and Dad (Tony and Lisa's parents) arrive about 2 hours after that. During the wait Tony took the kids on the mono-rail w/ Roy. Lisa and I window shopped and kept a lookout, then I went and bought the park tickets. When I returned everyone was there and the luggage had been taken to the room. We ate a late and light lunch at the Kona Cafe, I highly recommend the Open Face Grilled Salmon sandwich, very yummy!
We then went swimming in the "volcano" pool and hung out until the early evening. We went to Downtown Disney and ate dinner at the Earl of Sandwhich (a must-eat establishment for sandwhich lovers). Then we window shopped for a bit. Went back to the hotel and watched the Magic Kingdom fireworks from the "beach." End of day one
Tuesday: The fun really begins! We got to the Magic Kingdom around 9:00-ish, just in time for the opening ceremony. Got strollers, got our GAC for Vinny. Met another Mom w/ a HF ASD kid on line and we chatted about how different the kids were even with the "same" diagnosis. I mean her poor DS was sitting barefoot in a corner with her arms over her head while my VInny was circling me like a shark chanting "Mick Mouse" over and over.
Then we went off to explore! First stop, TomorrowLand! We got to meet Buzz Lightyear! We got FastPasses for Space Mountain. Olivia and Vinny were still too small for it, and Sammy just didn't want to try it, so the rest of us split kid-watch duty and ride time and it worked out well. While we waited for our FastPass time to come up we all went on the TomorrowLand Indy Raceway and drove cars! I got to ride w/ Vinny who had a blast.
We then got to ride Space Mountain! What fun!!!! I think the ride gets more fun each time I go on it!
After SM we went to FantasyLand and rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, much to the little ones delight. Then we got Dumbo and the carousel! We ate lunch at the Columbia Harbor House, which if you ever get to I suggest the Clam Chowder...surprisingly yummy.
We skipped the Haunted Mansion, none of the kidlets wanted to ride it.
The group split. It was in the mid-90's and very humid. MIL and FIL went to the hotel. ROy and Lisa took Olivia back to FantasyLand to ride Dumbo again. Tony and I took charge of Erica, Sammy and Vinny and went to complete the Mountain Trifecta. It was Vinny and Erica's first time on Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. Sammy for a wonder was EAGER to ride these rides with his cousin! They got to sit together by themselves and had a blast! I got to sit w/ Vinny for his first "Big" coaster ride. He loved it! He also lived Splash Mountain... at least we think he did because he tried to drag us all back on the ride once we got off!
(Note: the aforementioned GAC is the only reason we were able to complete the Mountain Trifecta... It helped us by allowing us to use the FastPass lane. So we all thanked Vinny.)
It was time to head back to the hotel and get ready for the Luau! The name of the show is "The Spirit of Aloha." It's kinda cheesy, but a lot of fun! The food was very good, although there weren't the traditional luau foods like poi, poke, or lau-lau. Still, the pineapple-coconut bread was VERY good!
The rain started pouring down during the fire-knife dancers number but he kept on dancing! And at the end he did a belly slide on the wet stage! I got drug up on stage for a b-day hula (all August b-days got to do it.) And the kids did a special hula (Little Grass Shack)! Sammy and Vinny gyrated quite nicely!
That's day two in a nutshell.
Day Three, Wednesday: We kit the Animal Kingdom. First we got on the safari ride. Even as early as it was it was still pretty hot so the animals weren't quite as perky as usual. Still, we saw a lot, but the lions were in hiding. Everyone had fun!
We then went to Camp Minnie-Mickey and watched "The Festival of the Lion King." It was a fabulous show! Song, dance, acrobatics and firedancing! WOW!
Then back to Africa to eat at the Tusker House. I had the grilled salmon and it was truly good!
After lunch we wandered through the Pangani Forest and then through the Maharajah Jungle Treck in Asia. I got some new shots of "Expedition Everest" which opens next year (I've been taking pics of the new ride throughout construction).
Then we returned to the hotel to get ready for La Nouba!
For me this was probably the biggest highlight of the trip. I saw Cirque Du Soliel's La Nouba back in June, and couldn't wait to take Sammy and Vinny to see it live. They were, as was everyone else, completely entranced! I had to put Vinny on my lap near the end of the show because he was getting a mite fidgety, he wanted to go onstage and join the fun!
If ever you get to WDW I strongly recommend you spend the extra cash and go see this show... it's a unique experience!
Day 4: Thursday! We started the day at Ohana for a character breakfast. We went to Disney/MGM studios. T'was the hottest day of the week and as luck had it were at the park with the least amount of shade! Still much fun was had. We saw several shows. Lights, Motors, Action - a car stunt spectacular. Sammy and VInny especially loved this one, Erica thought it was cool but kinda a guy thing...surprisingly Olivia SLEPT through the whole thing! Explosions and all!
The littles and Sammy too watched PlayHouse Disney Live w/ Tony and ROy and the rest of us rode The Tower of Terror! WEEE!!! Best ride at WDW IMHO.
We went on the backlot studio tour and the great movie ride.
We ended the day at the Prime Time Cafe! This place is a lot of fun and I suggest you all go! The meatloaf is yummy according to Tony and I recommend the...you guessed it, grilled Salmon!
Friday, Day 5 and the last: We went to Epcot (Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow...or Every Person Comes Out Tired). The girls and I all went to a StoryBook Princess breakfast. I bought my nieces Princess outfits and they were ADORABLE! Olivia was Sleeping Beauty and Erica was Belle! *sigh* It was fun!
After the breakfast we strolled around a little and shopped and then met the guys by Test Track. We wandered over to The Land pavilion and rode Soarin'. Well, Everyone did except me and Olivia (she was too small). I volunteered to stay w/ Livvy since I'd ridden the ride the most times. I did get my turn later in the evening!
Anyways, after that we a light repast and Uncle Mike joined us. He brought extra scooter for me to use because I'd overdone things and my poor foot/ankle/lower calf was rather swollen and red and painful. Guess I'm not allthe way recovered yet.
So we hung about and got rained on, and the kids played in the water. WHile Tony and I watched the littles the rest of the group went with Uncle Mike and travelled around the World Showcase. They brought Tony back a pretzel from Germany!
That night we went to the Epcot International Buffet/Dessert w/ Illuminations event. This is a special event that requires a party of 8 or more (a Grand Gathering). The food was OUTSTANDING, by far the best we've had at WDW (well, the best not counting Victoria & Albert's but that's another thing entirely). The desserts were YUMMY!
We had entertainment from TJ the DJ andf Aunt Roz! AUnt Roz, it turns out has a 9 yr. old autistic son, when she found out about Vinny she went above and beyond her role of Auntie and kept a special eye on Vinny, she made sure Vinny had a blast! During the meal Minnie Mouse and Goofy made a surprise visit! They led us all on a conga line, which all the kids liked. There was a special storytime performance led by Aunt Roz which included the kids (Vinny got to be the "YAY Disney!" guy!) Then Minnie and Goofy led us all in a father/daughter and mother/son dance. Vinny got to dance w/ Minnie! He actually DANCED WITH MINNIE! HE held her hands and followed her lead and all! The little guy was beside himself with joy! Unfortunatley I didn't have the camera on me, Tony ahd it and he was off changing batteries and such and we missed the moment. Even so, Vinny's smile at that moment I think is burned into my heart. I haven't seen him so happy in a long while.
Illuminations:Reflections of Earth was fantastic! By that time the rain had stopped. There was a cloud cover that made the lasers more interesting I think. The only downside was that there wasn't enough a breeze to clear the smoke from the fireworks.
After all that we went back to the hotel.
Saturday was a sleep-in kind of day and we checked out around 10AM and went home after one last mono-rail ride!
We met and got signatures from bunches of character, including DOnald Duck (he's very elusive). We even got to meet a bunch of Power Rangers, much to Sammy's extreme pleasure.
Well, that about covers it...
Props: Susan for giving us girls a lift to Norway
Kim for the great seats on the Great Movie Ride
Aunt Roz for making Vinny's Epcot experience so special
Uncle Dale at the Prime Time Cafe for getting Sammy to eat all of his dinner
Sara
I'm allergic to fat, it makes my rear break out in a nasty case of "big."
