The Shoes Captain Hook Is Scared Of and Other Stories - June TR! (update 7/16)

[dara00]

Hello again Dis Friends! I am so excited to be back posting my second Disney Trip Report. You may or may not know me from my first TR, It's A Small Town and Slow Pass, written about our trip 1 1/2 years ago in Jan. 2012.

For this trip, we were at Disney World from Monday June 3 - Sunday June 9 with a bonus return on June 11. We were in Florida until June 20 and got back home to Kansas on June 23! While at Disney, we stayed off site in a townhouse in Windsor Palms.

This trip was up in the air for awhile and we didn't know we were actually going until a few weeks prior. I had surgery for a hernia on April 15 (6 weeks before we were going to leave) and 2 weeks after that I had a complication which required my incision to be reopened. I was told I was going to need in home nursing care every day for an undetermined length of time. This was 4 weeks before we were supposed to leave and I was sure the trip was out. Thankfully, after 2 weeks of nursing care, my husband was able to take over for the nurse and I was given the go ahead for the trip. In case you're counting - that was 2 weeks before we were going! So we were thrilled it worked out in the end.

So who is this "we" I speak of?

Hi, I'm Dara! I'm a 34 year old (celebrated my 34th b.day at the Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon!), married mother of 3 who loves all things Disney! I'm the trip planner, the one with the Disney knowledge, the one who always wants to go back. There were some firsts for me on this trip, some disappointments, but lots of fun!

Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom

Favorite Disney resort I've never stayed in: Beach Club

Dream Disney Resorts: I've never stayed in any other than the Dolphin which doesn't really count. I want to stay at the Beach Club, Animal Kingdom Lodge, POP, or just about any other!

Favorite Disney Rides: Big Thunder Mt. Railroad, POTC, Peter Pan, Pooh, Toy Story Mania, Rockin Roller Coaster, Soarin, and more!

Favorite Disney Movies: Aladdin, the Lion King, Little Mermaid, Toy Story 3, Tangled

Favorite Characters: Rafiki, Ariel, Rapunzel, Peter Pan, Buzz, Pooh

This is my husband, Dave. He kind of likes Disney. He goes along with it for me!

Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom

Favorite Disney Resort: He likes the Dolphin. He prefers to stay off site.

Favorite Disney Rides: Space Mountain, Test Track, Rockin Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror

Favorite Disney Movies: ??

Favorite Characters: he interacted the most with Snow White, so I'll say her!

This is Gabbie, my 8 year old princess! She loves dancing and art.

Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom

Favorite Disney Resort: Would love to stay at the Grand Floridian.

Favorite Disney Rides: It's A Small World, the Magic Carpets, the Gran Fiesta Tour in Mexico.

Favorite Disney Movies: Tangled and Brave

Favorite Characters: Rapunzel, Merida, Cinderella, Tinkerbell, Minnie Mouse, Sofia the First.

Zachary turned 6 on this trip! He loved celebrating his birthday at Disney World. Zachary likes trains and cars, legos, and being silly!

Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom

Favorite Disney Resort: Would love to stay at any Monorail Resort.

Favorite Disney Rides: It's A Small World, Dumbo, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Toy Story Mania, the railroad, the Great Goofini, the People Mover, Peter Pan, the Monorail, the parking lot tram.

Favorite Disney Movies: Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3

Favorite Characters: Mickey Mouse, Buzz, Woody, Jake, Peter Pan, Sofia the First.

This is Simon. He is almost 3 and he's a boy with long hair. We're going to cut it for his 3rd birthday. So for now, he's mistaken for a girl quite often. He also really needs to get rid of the pacifier and he's crying in the above picture because I took it from him!

Favorite Disney Park: Magic Kingdom

Favorite Disney Rides: It's A Small World, Dumbo, the carousel, the monorail, I'm not sure what else!

Favorite Disney Movies: "Woody," I'm sure he'd like to watch Cars if anyone would let him!

Favorite Characters: Mickey Mouse, Buzz, Woody, Jake, Donald, Lightning McQueen

This trip report will be posted on my blog, http://www.notinjersey.com , at the same time it is posted here. If you want to know more about me and my family, please visit us there!

 

[dara00]

Day 1, Part 1. Epcot.
Day 1, Part 2. Epcot.

 

[micandminforever]

Joining the fun. I have a nephew who is 2 1/2 and has never had a haircut, but his hair is so much a part of him I dread the day they finally cut it. He is so cute with the hair.

 

[wiigirl]

In for your TR!

 

[dara00]

Joining the fun. I have a nephew who is 2 1/2 and has never had a haircut, but his hair is so much a part of him I dread the day they finally cut it. He is so cute with the hair.

thanks for joining in! is your nephew's hair long? do they plan to cut it or keep it growing?

In for your TR!

welcome!

Today I posted the first part of our trip - prior to getting to Disney - on my blog. It is about our tour of the Weather Channel, where my brother works!

 

[micandminforever]

thanks for joining in! is your nephew's hair long? do they plan to cut it or keep it growing?

It looks about the length of your sons, but blond and curly. His mom said at first she would get it cut when he turned two, but he turned two in Feb.. So I think that she plans on getting it cut sometime she just dreads the day.

 

[dara00]

Day 1, Monday June 3, Epcot

On our first morning in Disney World, we were all up early and excited to get there. Our first day was to be spent in Epcot, following the tour plan I posted here. Did we follow the plan? Well, sort of! I admit I wrote my plans thinking of the kind of crowds Disney World sees in January, which is the last time I was there. June is not January people! It was much more crowded that I’d imagined. But we were still able to do just about all we wanted to!

So we arrived at Epcot early enough to be there for the opening. However, we decided to do our first ride. The Monorail. My kids are kind of obsessed. So we got on the Epcot - Magic Kingdom Monorail and took a ride. By the time we got back, the park was open! The lines to get in were a little bit insane. So we waited. And finally we were off to our real first ride, at least the one on the plan, Soarin’!

The original plan was to wait in the standby line for Soarin’ and possibly get a Fast Pass for another later ride. However, the first thing we did was find out that Simon wasn’t tall enough to ride. I asked the cast member for a Rider Switch Pass – this allows your family to wait in line once and then switch off, using the switch pass like a fast pass that doesn’t have a return time. I took the switch pass from the cast member and turned to hand it off to Dave, but he was nowhere to be found! It turns out he had headed straight to the fast pass machine. Instead of waiting in the stand by line for Soarin’, we thought we’d use the fast passes when it was time for them, and instead we decided to ride Living With the Land.

After that I took the Rider Switch Pass, and even though you are supposed to use that AFTER another family member has waiting in line, we used it first, and Gabbie, Zachary, and I rode Soarin’. (Dave took Simon on Living With the Land again while he waited!) Soarin’ is one of my favorite rides. It’s so much fun! Gabbie and Zachary loved it, but they didn’t want to ride it again with Dave. I’m not sure why! It wasn’t time for Dave to ride Soarin’ with his Fast Pass, so we decided to head over to the Seas Pavilion. I love it there because I love Nemo! However, we got sidetracked by the Character Spot! There was very little wait, so we were off to meet our first characters of the trip, Mickey, Pluto, and Minnie!

There are posed pictures to come, when I get my Photopass pictures!

After that unplanned stop, it was time for the Seas With Nemo and Friends.

We rode the ride, watched Turtle Talk With Crush, and looked around the Pavilion a bit. We then went back to the Land Pavilion so Dave could use his Soarin’ Fast Pass. We ate our lunch at that time, which we had brought with us. When we got back outside, we decided to meet Chip and Dale. They were on a short break, but there were already people waiting for them to come back, so we knew where to wait. They were due back out in a few minutes and we were pretty close to the front of the line!

Next, we stopped at Club Cool, which is like a mini World of Coca Cola. And then it was off to the World Showcase!

 

[KatMark]

Saw your post on our FB page, and I'm saving my spot. Off to put laundry away and make beds, but I'll be back tomorrow to read.

****Great intros...beautiful family. We were there at the same time sort of (I was there the 6th until the 12th). We did stay at the Beach Club Villas...I wasn't a big fan (prefer OKW and AK).

Can't wait to read more.

 

[dara00]

Saw your post on our FB page, and I'm saving my spot. Off to put laundry away and make beds, but I'll be back tomorrow to read.

****Great intros...beautiful family. We were there at the same time sort of (I was there the 6th until the 12th). We did stay at the Beach Club Villas...I wasn't a big fan (prefer OKW and AK).

Can't wait to read more.

I did notice you were there overlapping with me! we were at different parks though, I would have looked for you! too bad you didn't like the beach club very much though!

 

[dara00]

By the time we got to the World Showcase, Simon was asleep in his stroller. We started with Canada. The kids collected their Duffy Bears to color in and use to collect stamps from each country. They also had the passports that Id made for them. I had to have Simons signed for him while he was sleeping!

After Canada was England, where we had plans to meet multiple characters! First up, Pooh and Tigger. And poor Simon was still asleep!

Working hard on their Duffy Bears

Lovely England

We met Alice and explored the back of England while waiting for our next character meeting&

Mary Poppins! She was lovely, of course. We got in line to meet her before she came out, so you can see a picture of her walking towards us. Dave kept saying we were waiting for Snow White, so that became a bit of a joke along the way. Also, while we were with her, Mary became upset that a teenaged boy was balancing on a fence. She actually walked away to ask the cast member with her to tell him to be careful! It was a very Mary Poppins experience.

After leaving England, we headed to France. The plan for France had included meeting Aurora and Belle, but we werent there at the right time. So we tabled those meet ups for later in the week. (The best part about the first day knowing its only the first day!)

Simon got in on the coloring action in France!

Next we headed over to Morocco. MoRockin was just coming out, but we felt too hot to stay and watch them.

We werent in Morocco at the right time to see Jasmine and Aladdin, so we tabled that as well and headed on to Japan.

We obviously liked Morocco and Japan, as told by all the pictures I took there!

Japan was our last planned country of the day. We hopped a boat back to the other side of the World Showcase.

We tried on some hats, and I bought one.

Then we did something that was a first for me on a Disney trip went home for a break!

 

[KatMark]

I did notice you were there overlapping with me! we were at different parks though, I would have looked for you! too bad you didn't like the beach club very much though!

It wasn't so much that I didn't like it, we just had one thing go wrong after another. Luggage sent to wrong resort (went to Caribbean Beach instead of Beach Club), terrible bus service the entire trip, non-helpful CM's, etc.

 

[KatMark]

What a fun afternoon at Epcot. I so wish they'd had that coloring and stamp stuff when my kids were little. Sorry that Simon missed out on so many characters, but he obviously needed the nap.

I love my break time in the afternoon...refreshes you for the long evening ahead.