WDW - March 11-18 2017 (16 people, one house)

[Matty_Disfan]

Yup.

My wife and I had taken our precocious 3 and 5 year old girls to Disney World in 2011. There are some memories from that trip that will stay with me until my dying days.

We've been holding off going back, in part because of not wanting to disturb such a lovely set of 'times' as often happens when you try to recreate or layer new memories over old, or try to line up experiences. I think we may have been waiting to have our chalkboards cleared, to cleanse our palettes.

To be honest, the girls recall precious little. The older one has a few snippets, but they are more like stars, the voids between which have been crafted into imaginary constellations of memories by her mind. The youngest remembers only things she has seen in our videos. No actual memories.

We now have a very active 4.5 year old boy. The girls are 11 and 9 and are crossing into the Tween world. It can't help but be a different experience. We couldn't recreate the 2011 trip even if we worked at it.

So we told my wife's folks we were heading back. They decided to join us.

I am the family Dis-Nerd. Most of you reading this are your family's nerd. It astonished me how quickly they leapt aboard. I will cheerfully admit that I banged the drum and we invited my wife's whole family. Her sister and husband and their three kids, her brother and wife and their twins. They all said yes....?!

Their reason: we want to see Disney with you, through your eyes. I was mildly tickled. I also knew there would need be some compromising on all sides.

After people examined their accounts and plans and dreams (all of which needed to be sacrificed for this endeavor) they all happily found their places on the trip, and we were 16.

Grampy to the Rescue: We are a budget-conscious family. Very middle class. Very Canadian. Very Scottish in ancestry. I'm a professional but not rich. We needed somewhere to stay that could accommodate our needs which are as follows: Close proximity (going our separate ways at the end of the day seemed icky), area for meal prep (for breakfasts, picnic lunches and home-made dinners - huge money-saver), Pool, separate bathrooms.

Basically we needed a large rental house, or like 1.5 million DVC points. Grampy (my wife's dad) is a spry, lean and seasoned traveller. He lives for the best possible (thing) at the best possible (price). He scored a diamond. Huge house, 10 minutes to Gates, 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms, big pool and hot tub etc.

I had always spent our trips insulated in the bubble. Always onsite. Always with the rocks playing music. Always with the Mickey phone calls. Always with the buses and the itinerant gypsy travelling so achievable with them; at Epcot, want to go to Magic Kingdom, hop monorail, bus will get me home.

So that was a loss: renting a car/van. Paying for parking. One park, vehicle, next park, vehicle. No drinks, no nonsense, highway patrol.

I didn't even dream of booking Hoop Dee Do.

We really didn't book dinners anywhere. We met together, talked about the trip. I tried to distill their dreams from them, they tried to soften to my Disney style (commando, rope drop, sleep, repeat). We reached compromises (2 sleep in days, 2 nights back at the house and I got a Roper Drop at MK for an 8am opening). But we did not book any ADRs, all meals were to be at the house or packed in. Breakfast upon waking, Lunches in the backpacks and Suppers back at the house during the midday break.

I was fine with that, but we wanted one character meal so we asked the kids and they selected 1900 Park Fare for brunch. We told the family: we want this, you don't have to come. They all opted in. Not sure if it was genuine interest, a willingness to defer to my whims and appreciations, or just simply not wanting to deal with their kids missing out.

All other meals are going to be from Publix and our deft hands.

So when we went last time we dealt with paper fastpasses, and it was early May. This trip is the height of Spring Break (crowd levels 8-10 depending who you ask) and we have to plan for 16 souls at the 30 day window. I practiced, worried and examined the internet, pulling crowd charts, fast pass priorities, trying to avoid smug on-siters who worried about their PPOs and EMHs and whether they could get FEA right when their plans dictated it. I just wanted a good stable of E tickets sometime between 10:00 am and 1:00pm. I could fill in the rest.

Very anticlimactic. I got everything I wanted (obvs no FEA or 7D), and within great timing, save for a 1:45 pm TSMM. If this is my only issue then all is well in our kingdom. It was easy, made sense and my spreadsheets only needed minor adjustments. The funny moment came when my day was all messed up as I drove my little fella into preschool (wife usually does it) so I was stuck in traffic at the window opening. It was a Magic Kingdom day I was aiming for, and popped open my phone (sssh - it was literally standstill) and opened the much-maligned App, and bang: Jungle Cruise, Splash, Big Thunder, between 10-12:30.

What a time to be alive!!

So we leave in 1.5 weeks, the kids are pretty excited, my wife is finally getting there and I am bouncing off the walls. I am reserving judgment on the giant house, being offsite in general and bringing our lunches.

I feel like we will break down a few times and eat in the parks, but the family has done so much to placate me and go with my plans that I support their ancillary decisions.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Ok so here we are: just finished packing, all children are showered and clean sneakers lined up in the mud room.

We got dusted with snow and some wind, but everything is on time and we are pre-checked in: there weren't 5 seats together on our direct flight so we went to the airport last night, and guess what?? The ticket agent bumped us all to 1st class so we could sit together. It was one of those 'smile nod and then run outta there like you robbed the place' moments.

Yay us.

1/2 the family is down there already and we will be landing at 4:30, grabbing our 12 passenger van (got a deal and we can pack it full of family and save on daily parking!!) and then heading to the Villa to pick bedrooms.

One of the families are currently waiting out a severe winter storm (mostly wind) but should get to Orlando some time tonight (their flight is at their airport and it's a direct flight so will be delayed not cancelled).

See you in the World!!

 

[TEAMJACOB]

I feel your pain and excitement. Compromise is not always easy especially when it was your trip originally. May something magical happen for you and your family every day of the trip. It started out right with first class. Looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

[elaine amj]

very excited to hear your adventures!!!

 

[SCSteve]

Cant wait to hear all the details of your epic vacation for 16!!!

 

[Matty_Disfan]

DAY ONE:

We had a luxurious morning sleeping in and then finalizing the suitcases (two large IT luggage items) and carry-ons. We popped into the car and drove the 20 minutes to the airport through a frigid -10 C morning. Once there we were through customs and sitting at our gate with enough time to have have a lunch, which turned out to be a regrettable decision as we had free food in 1st class.

At our Airport we have US Border guards in permanent residence up here pre-clearing Canadians so that we can land in domestic gates upon arrival. In the time of uncertainty over border crossings between US and Canada, it's a boon. We were cleared before we had to even approach our plane. In reality we were 'not the droids you're looking for'. The agent from US customs asked maybe 2 questions, smiled and waved us through. I guess white families heading to Florida on March break with return tickets aren't worth much scrutiny. Our major news networks in Canada had been picking up stories from around the country of people being stopped and refused entry at border crossings to the US in the past month so I was worried we would get tripped up, but it was very smooth.

WHEW

So we sat and dined on over-priced diner food watching planes come and go.

Soon we were boarded into our ill-gotten (or lucky) first class seats and we plugged the kids into the screens ahead of them for the 4 hour flight. We're not big on screens while travelling, but even less big on wriggly, whining kids on a plane, so it was on. The flight was absolutely and in all ways uneventful. I won't waste your time. When we got to MCO we were treated to our first ride: The train/tram/monorail to the central area of the airport!!! Kids were practically dancing for this, I was too. The sensation of moving from your trip and into Florida is unavoidable, it's a gateway, a entry and an event all in one.

The rental car wait at the budget desk, not so much. This is when we were first confronted with reality: Orlando was packed this week. Jammed. Stuffed to the gills. It is the first true week of Spring Break and any hopes that Zika, Trump, increased Prices, and the lack of Pandora, Star Wars and Toy Story would keep the crowds away this year fell on the cold floor and shattered like a crystal goblet. Josh at EasyWDW was right. The crowds were at 10s and the 1 hour wait at our Budget desk, and the hand-drawn sign at AVIS stating "No cars left" were testaments to this. This is Orlando, home of the largest fleet of rental cars in the world. It was tapped out.

Luckily I had a plan, meticulous details, specific hours to leave the house, which parks on which days, avoiding EMHs, zigging when others zagged. Do you think it worked? Or do you think I fell hard on my face shouldering a group of 4 families through the heat and crowds? Let me ruin one thing for you: Heat was not going to be an obstacle.

We finally got through the line and grabbed our 12-seater van. It WAS AWESOME. This was to be a truly brilliant brightspot for the trip.

Ahhh this van. We effortlessly threw our gear in the back and pulled away. Thanks to watching youtube driving videos we soared to the Southern Exit, took the 417 to Exit 2, pulled through the top edge of Celebration and leaned onto the 192, then hit Formosa to the Gates of Emerald Island and our Pool house. All told 35 minutes from the time my foot hit the gas pedal to when we parked at the main house to get our security pass for the rest of the week.

The House: 7 bedrooms, 6 bathrooms (two kids rooms shared one... which constantly needed the toilet flushed by adult hands) and a great pool, looking down into a nature preserve area. We had my parents in law there already, as well as my BIL and his family. Huge hugs, rooms were selected, we got a double sink with jacuzzi tub (never used it) and separate toilet from main bath. King sized bed and lots of room. BOO YA

It was now about 6:30pm and no one was making moves towards dinner so I flattened some cheeseburgers and hit the grill, a Weber. This was my man-cave, even though it resembled the outside of a house. Nice BBQ, set to the side of the house, no kids came and asked questions, no adults disturbed me, I made about 5 grilled meals out there for everyone in mild solitude... well I made the grilled meat portions of the meals, which is the most important part at any rate.

BAD NEWS: our last family was delayed (my SIL et al), huge windstorm, airport almost blown away, unable to leave. They were supposed to be there that evening. No luck. Not til noon the next day if they were lucky. We processed this, came up with plans, revamped them, made alternate plans, and then all agreed that we would proceed with our plan to hit the AK the next morning without them, they would get a cab to the house midday and we would return (as planned) and meet up with them whereupon they could join us for the first night at MK if they wanted. This was our plan, not theirs, but we figured they could stomach it.

The kids were put down, we were social in the warm night air around the pool, and all headed to bed before 11:00pm.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Day One At the Parks - Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom

So my plans called for us to be up and out of the house at 8:00am for Animal Kingdom's 9:00am RD. This, of course requires a 7:00am (or so) wake up.

This was going to be the first test to see if the Family was willing to do it my way. I had been working on the plan for a while, knew that it was going to be crowded (but not this crowded) and had prepared them at family gatherings for the early mornings. You never really know what will transpire, however, until it is actually happening. Maybe someone was lying in bed and decided that they had spent too much on a vacation to wake up early, maybe they had been humoring me but had no intention of waking up at 7:00am. The night before I had fielded a set of earnest queries about why we had to leave the house an hour before the park even opened, and how tight my timelines actually were, and whether we needed to do this. But they each prepared the next day's lunches and snacks and seemed like they were down for it.

So my wife woke before me and went down to start coffee (Saint) and prepared herself mentally for the day. She's not a Disney freak. She enjoys it most times, hates it other times. It's not her idea of a vacation. It seems to get worse when I tell her that it's not a vacation but an adventure. Frowns galore.

Soon the kids are all stirring, and some of the adults are downstairs!! I do some quick Yoga to loosen up and prepare by body for the coming assault on the parks, and pretty soon, all of the adults are downstairs with showered hair, and grim smiles. They are packing bags, directing children into their sneakers and finding their hair clips. I keep the breakfasts going and when I see a ready child I direct them into the Super Van.

Remember, please, that we are still missing one whole 5-person family. I had received a text at 4:16 am from the dad letting me know that they were leaving that day and that they were going to be arriving around 2:00pm to the house. That was good news. But we were still soldiering on.

With just 11 of us we could all fit into the Super-Van. This is 3 families, so it saved us $40 on extra parking each day.

Soon all the kids were loaded in with their grandparents, just some errant parents remained inside. I held my tongue. The one way to get someone's back up is to keep ordering them about, so I let them do their thing. They were aware of the approved departure time and it seemed like they were trying to meet it. Soon everyone was in the van, and we pulled away at 8:07am. The van ride was a hoot. There was much excited talking and yelling, my son chief amongst those as he was yelling about every palm tree, every fountain and every patch of green grass! The excitement in that van was palpable. Spontaneous songs burst out, many older girl cousin giggles occurred and even the parents were grinning ear-to-ear!!!

LUCKILY: we are at Emerald Island. It's really close to Animal Kingdom. We get to the 192 in about 3 minutes and another 2 minutes later we are on the much-ballyhooed SHERBERTH ROAD. It takes you to the base of Osceola Parkway and pretty much right into Animal Kingdom. We parked at 8:20 and had a bathroom break and were through the bag check and tapstiles by 8:35. We walked up to Discovery Island and were held in front of the Tree of Life with a large-seeming crowd. At 8:55 the music built, the Macaws flew and we were beating a good pace to the Safaris.

We basically walked all the way through the entire queue without stopping until the loading platform, and were on the next Truck out after arriving. Eyebrows from family members were starting to be raised, in a really good way.

The Safari was great, saw lots of the animals, moving about and the Lions were very visible. One item though made the whole thing very special: We saw Stella!! She is the sweetest. For those not in the know: she is Animal Kingdom's baby elephant and was born just last year. She is very playful and we all fell for her charms.

We rolled out of Safaris, awake and feeling refreshed and then immediately split. Some of the younger kids were hitting FOTLK and my BIL, FIL and my daughters were braving Everest with me. This was our first FP and it worked very very well. We were through and into our seats in under 5 minutes. The ride was absurdly good. I had never ridden it. I had watched video and read a lot about it, but the backwards ride through the dark was so intense that I was still unprepared.

My girls were shaken up so we hit a bathroom and I gave them big hugs. They were right as rain in a few. We had some time to kill so we walked the Maharaja Jungle Trek. A great apres-Everest rest. The girls were already waning on it though, they wanted something more exciting. We caught up with the rest of the group and hit our FPs on Kali. We used the free storage lockers beside the entrance for our bags, and I ran and grabbed some Official Disney Parks Ponchos!!! We still have some from 1988 at one of the cottages so I figured it was a good buy. The worked well, except my son popped his arm through a seam the first time he put it on (they immediately replaced it). Kali was.... Kali. It hadn't gotten cold yet, so it was fun and I retained my record of never being the one to be soaked. This time it was my BIL's daughter and wife.

We grabbed some Joffrey's coffee in Asia (passable, much better than their old brew) and sat down for Flights of Wonder. Man I enjoyed this show!!!! Best not to spoil it, but don't be tempted to avoid it in favour of the rides.

We walked to Dinosaur for our Third FP. This was a mistake. We had young kids and they were tender-hearted. Please observe this testament to parental negligence:

Even my MIL was scared. This required Ice Cream Therapy ASAP. We gobbled our picnic lunch and shelled out for ice cream treats all around!!

We made our way next to the Nemo show and everyone had calmed down and my nieces had stopped crying. Nemo then made me cry, and my eldest daughter mocked me mercilessly. I hugged her in return. It's hard being a dad.

Next it was time to leave. When we got home the kids hit the pool and my wife and I sat down on the loungers and tried to plan ways to get our youngest to nap. It didn't work. He wasn't having it.

Then, Lo and Behold, our last family (my SIL et al) showed up!!! 5 more souls to add to the fun! One had broken her Tibia skiing (their youngest daughter) so we had one in a wheelchair! Lots of laughs and hugs later we had to help them with a decision: we were heading to MK after dinner. They had missed the whole day so did they want to blow a day on their 5 day hoppers to join us? They were staying two extra days longer than us so I suggested they go to Guest Services at Disney Springs and add a day, it would be only about $12 a person and that was a pittance to spend to join us tonight. They Agreed! They were back in time for a quick dinner of Pork Tenderloin (grilled perfectly) and roasted Potatoes and Salad. Soon we were in the Super Van again, headed for MK!!

Arrival was smooth and we were at the gates by 7:00pm. The entry was easy and we got to do one of my favorite first night activities: riding the WDW Railroad! But first Pics!!

We jumped off at Fantasyland station and got in line for Goofy's Barnstormer, waiting maybe 15 minutes and then jumped on Dumbo at around 7:50, almost no wait at all. Then we went to Buzz where I had managed to grab all 16 of us FPs as our fourth (this would NEVER happen again.. all week).

Buzz was a huge hit with everyone and then we crossed over the Tomorrowland Bridge to Mainstreet when Wishes began. The kids were getting very angry as we continued down Mainstreet and didn't stop. BUT there was a method to the madness. We got to the bottom of Mainstreet and then stopped. All we had missed was the beginning. After watching the rest of Wishes we were ahead of the masses and jumped on a ferryboat to vacate the magic!

It was not hard to get the kids into bed. Everyone else was in good moods, and we had a few drinks, but all got to bed pretty early. The next day was beckoning! Hollywood Studios and Epcot. Jedi Training and Soarin.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Day Two in the Parks: Hollywood Studios and Epcot

Wakeup was to be at 6:45, leaving the house for 7:45 am. This was our first morning with all four families aboard the good ship "Fun Times". Our son was getting sick and coughing upon wakeup, but this is the thing about a Disney vacation: you gotta keep swimming. Unless he is down for the count you have to keep him going. So we soldiered on and he stopped coughing after an hour or so of being awake.


Everyone was up, my BIL and my SIL’s husband each joined me for some quick yoga and stretches and then we all worked together to hit our target. I think they knew how important it was to me to get there on time, they were still kind of taking me at my word. It was supposed to be busy, we didn’t want to wait in line, so we had to leave nice and early, it would not be until tomorrow when they would really experience the alternative. But for now it was basically on my word.


We were out at 7:48 and had parked and gotten through bag check and were at the front gates by 8:35am. There we waited. They did not let anyone through yet. There were perhaps a few thousand ahead of us even then. All bunched up at the tapstiles waiting to get through. (today turned out to be jammed, no EMH, but Mondays at HS are turning into no-gos).


The plan was simple: my wife and our daughters and their cousin (who was a girl the same age and usually acted as the cement to form the powerful tween-girl triangle of giggles and happiness with my two girls) would go with all the other adult males and rope drop RnRC. I went with the other two moms and MIL and the younger kids to quickly sign up for Jedi and then hit Star Tours on standby.


The Rockin’ team aced their objective, by all accounts: the tapstiles opened and as they made their way to the right they weaved in between families, overtook strollers and gawking parents, and then fast-walked into the attraction. They didn’t even get to see the Studio scene. They were in their Limos almost immediately.


Us..... well we bobbed and weaved, with a much slower contingent, and then when we got to the sign up I saw a line…. stretching towards Indiana. I confirmed this was the Jedi sign up and then walked into the Indiana entrance, and into a hidden zig-zag queue that was at least a few hundred people deep by this point, and many many more were coming. We quickly secured our spot and slowly inched ahead for the next 45 minutes. The kids were fresh but it was a grind.


It occurred to me that if we didn’t know what we were doing then we would be pooched. As 9:00am hit we were still deep in the line, but the lineup behind us was growing to fierce levels. There was a cast member at the back of line counting, no doubt so that they could dissuade people getting in line if it got too long. I saw many many parents with young kids approaching in disbelief around 9:05am. They had likely been planning on hitting this for months. Maybe someone took too long in the shower that morning. Maybe they took Disney at their word that the Parks opened at 9:00 I dunno, but the harsh reality for these parents was that they had promised their kids a chance to train as a Jedi and were either going to have to wait until nightfall or not even have any opportunity at all. Many were wearing special Star Wars t-shirts, they would have to get them laundered and come back another day in their trip. The moms with me were somber at this reality for the otherwise ‘on-time’ parents, but quietly remarked that they were happy they got up early.


We got to the signup, it went quickly and we were lucky enough to get anytime FPs for our entire party of 16 (even though many of that party was off galavanting around Old Hollywood, flush with their victory over the early crowds).

The rest of our party joined us and we had time to run over to Star Tours after a quick bathroom break. Standby was only 15 minutes. With our little niece in a wheelchair we were ALL escorted to a backstage entrance and were on in about 10 minutes. More on the peculiarities of wheelchair interaction later in this post.


Star Tours was loved by about 85% of the group. One dad and one kid found it a bit much for their tummies. I adored the new 3D layout. We had a FP for it later the same morning but I wanted to experience it again, and we were happy we got to do it twice.


T SHIRTS: It was a joke, get us all ugly t shirts to wear as a gang of 16. My MIL ordered some white and blue Tie-Dye shirts from another relative in the tourist business and then we were just supposed to bring them down to Orlando with us. I got in touch with a friend who does silk screening and $100 later we had 16 matching ugly personalized t shirts. See Below.

This was supposed to be for one day, but by the end of the day it was sooooo easy to keep track of everyone, and the castmembers told us it made their job easier everytime we told them we were a party of 16, that we decided to keep wearing them. Every night my MIL would go around the house and collect them all and jam them in the laundry and then fold them and place them in our rooms. What a SWEETY! The next day, my daughter got separated from us in the demon’s trough known as the Fantasyland/Libertysquare connector and someone approached her and told her that her family was ‘over there’ because of the shirts. Worth Their Weight in GOLD.


We next let the kids do some shopping, half-watched the Imperial March (mostly just loud and Bassy) and then got in standby for the Frozen Singalong. This was an arm-twister for all but the youngest females of our group. My tween girls were having none of it. The parents were keeping their mouth’s shut but I could see from their averted gazes that they thought this was, at best, a token for the little girls, at worst sheer folly.


We got seated together in great seats, despite being standby, and the show began. I laughed and laughed, by the time ‘Let it go’ started my tweens were singing their hearts out, and when the snow hit and Elsa came out we were all into it. One of my favorite memories!!


By this time I was beginning to gain some credibility with my in-laws. They had not waited in any lines over 15 minutes (except for Jedi) and we were having fun. Our timing, though was slipping a little and we were getting down to the minute. We had to hit Star Tours FP, and then eat lunch and then Indiana Jones, and the Tower of Terror and then our Jedi Training and then Toy Story, all between 11:35 and 2:35. No lie. In level 10 crowds.


We high tailed it to Star Tours, got the kids out of the store as quick as we could, ate lunch by the wall beside Tattooine and then got to Indiana at 12:15 but it was at capacity for the 12:30 show. Then I remembered the any time FPs, I asked the same CM and she told us we were good. Group of 16 with wheelchair I told her. She laughed and just waved us through. Where do I scan the fastpasses? I asked. She smiled and told me to keep them and use them later…… WOW. I think it was the wheelchair, but we had been sprinkled with pixie dust.


After Indie we split again. Those parents that did not want to ride Tower stayed with the kids. A group of 4 adults (the only ones who wanted to ride) bee-lined it for Tower, hit our fastpass window and got jostled around. We ran back to the group in time to have a quick ice cream (it was still hot) and then got the younger kids into their Jedi group. We showed up at the 30 min pre-show time, but the other kids were mostly already there, and the back line was all that was available, so our kids fought the 7th Sister. It was great!! My son knew who she was from Rebels so he had a blast.


It ended, we grabbed our kids and I calmly told everyone we now had about 10 minutes to get to Toy Story before our FP window expired, they gamely listened and headed out. We got there with 1 minute to spare and completed our daytime parks activities on a ride that was well-loved by everyone except my right tricep which endured a pummeling workout.


As we were leaving I realized why I am ill-at-ease with this park. It is mostly concrete. I like AK much more because it is mostly fauna. We still call it Hellywood Studios from a hot day we spent their 6 years ago, but this day of crowds, heat and cement did little to dispel that name.


We got home and actually got our son to nap, and woke him up at the last minute for some dinner. His cough was getting worse. We left the house at 6:45 to head to Epcot in the rain that continued through the evening.


Basically the only things we could ride without FPs were Nemo and Imagination, but Imagination was closed by the time we got there. We went to Spaceship Earth and it was jammed with a 35 min standby wait…. We got in line anyway, and the cast member told us that only 8 of us could go with the wheelchair. We were absolutely fine with that and made to split up with some of us in standby and some of us with the wheelchair. He looked nervous. He spoke into his headpiece, a manager came and they conferred. They smiled and directed us all to the wheelchair entrance. We were all on the ride in about 5 minutes.


Sooo clearly the parks have policies for wheelchairs, especially after the new article about the ultra-rich renting disabled people for front-of-the-line access. But also there appears to be leeway, and wheelchair guests, especially cute little ones with large families in tow, are given some special pixie dust. All week we were usually kept together, even in the worst of crowds, and it was always faster. We never asked for it, and when we were split up we were fine with it. I think it makes it easier for CMs to have us altogether, so we just went along with what they wanted.


It was now 8:45pm and the park was closing at 9:00 for Illuminations, but it was a steady rain. Our MDE app told us that Soarin was a 40 minute wait. I told the family that this was likely an exaggeration so they listened and we got in line. 20 mins later we were Soarin over the World. We got to ride it later this week at an Epcot Rope Drop so I will say more at that time. I loved the new Soarin.


We marched through the rain back to our vehicles and drove home, very sleepily. Again, we all crashed at a decent hour, with a sleep-in scheduled for the next day.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Brunch at 1900 Park Fare and Magic Kingdom


After having spent two early mornings I had planned two sleep-in days. Today was to be the first. One of the obstacles in planning ‘our perfect Disney Vacation’ was that we had to account for everyone else. This seems like an obvious conclusion, but it really permeates into your psyche when you find yourselves (my wife and I) talking about doing a Character meal. We did the Princess breakfast at Akershus when we went 6 years ago with the girls, and it was one of our favorite memories, so we wanted to do it again.


We also knew that the rest of the family probably did not want to pay for it, as they had been relatively unwavering in their position on having meals at the house and bringing them into the parks to save money. I understood and respected their position on this, but it’s hard to say no to something that you really want, at the best of times. When it is a magical moment on your vacation: doubly so.


So we just said yes. We went back to them and let them know we were doing it. The kids had their choice of all the character brunches/breakfasts. I did my research and sat down with them and laid out the characters involved and the settings. To my astonishment they chose 1900 Park Fare. I thought Chef Mickeys or Tusker House would be a lock. I think the girls wanted face characters, not the mask ones, and their brother kind of just followed along. The good part for me was that the food was supposed to be a step up from Chef Mickeys and I love the Grand Floridian.


When we went to the family, explained the cost in an email and told them they were welcome to join, they did! Upon reflection, I am betting they were waiting for this from me anyway. In life we all adopt positions that seem unwavering, not because we don’t want to give any ground to the other party, but because we don’t want to give too much ground. They would have known I would happily book ADRs for every dinner, and eat counter service for every lunch, so in fear of this they put on a strong face. Giving me one meal was a cinch, in this paradigm. Either that or they just didn’t want to deal with their kids missing out.


We woke at 8:30 am, and left at 9:30 am for our 10:30 ADR for 16 people (I had to break us into 2 groups of 8, and when we got there they broke us further into three tables all beside each other - no worries).


This is when we really hit the regular crowds. The ‘this is a vacation’ people. The ‘we will get there close to the opening’ people. The traffic started on World Drive, stop and go for 18 minutes before we got to the parking gates. Then it was another 7 minutes of stop and go to get to our parking space. Even I was incredulous at the crowds involved. We high-tailed it to the TTC on foot, even though we were halfway back in Scar. As an aside, it was a rare occurrence that the trams saved us time. Only if they were there and almost ready to leave did we use them….. and on nights when it was freezing cold and we were tired.


The line for the MK monorail was backed up in the thousands. I am not exaggerating. They were a huge mass of people between the ticket sellers and the steps leading up. It was heart-stopping. I looked back at my group and saw panic. I calmly directed them to the left of the crowd and onto the resort monorail, which had a few people waiting at the top of the stairs. We were on the next one and got off at Grand Floridian with a few minutes to spare.


Brunch was fantastic!!! The waffles were fresh, the meats comforting, the eggs Benny decent and the juice was delicious and cut through the fatty gleam on everything. The characters were really 'in character' and we played with them in between heaping plates of naughty breakfast treats. We are from a part of the world that prides itself in good smoked salmon, and found their’s to be passable, which is a compliment. My son’s cough was now getting persistent but he had plenty of appetite, especially for gummy bears.

We wrapped up brunch to a head-shaking surprise, my FIL grabbed the bill for everyone. It was a very generous and kind gesture, and utterly unexpected. It just settled everyone down.


We jumped the monorail and hit the madness. I stay out of the parks in midday, and we were heading in for noon. YIKES . I had a plan, and hoped that it would work. We started in Tomorrowland and realized that we were not going to see Stitch (that was open as a result of the massive crowds)…. it was a 30 minute wait. FOR STITCH. The CM holding the ‘line starts here’ sign explained that because it was not open very often it had attracted a lot of park-goers. We went to the People Mover which had a 20 minute wait. It was quicker than that, maybe 15 min. Who doesn't love the People Mover??


Next we had FP for Space Mountain and my middle daughter had worked herself into such anxiety by the time we were at the loading area that her eyes were glistening with tears. We all but forced her on. Time would judge us. If she came out happy we were wise parents. If she came out crying then we were over-bearing monsters. Even in our own minds. It turns out we were the former, not the latter. She was glowing when she got off. Part Pride, part excitement, all Disney Magic!!!


It is Now her favorite ride!! Some of the littles didn’t want to ride so we had done rider swap with my SIL and her husband, and they grabbed the tween girls and rode it again. My daughter was beaming at the chance to ride it twice!! WHEW.


I took the littles into the heat and we found a table by the speedway and hung out with Grampy. When the rest of the group joined us we went off to our next destination: Peter Pan with FPs. Yay, the most over-hyped ride of all time. I mean I like it and all, but it is over quickly and it's aged and not particularly stunning in any respect, yet it routinely builds lines in excess of 1.5 hours. WHO? WHY? Do they have a “sorry” sign at the exit? Nope. We all liked it and it was worthy of a FP, but never wait in line for it, and never do it twice.


At this point it was 2:30pm and Fantasyland was JAMMED. Sooo many people, you could hardly move. We opted for Philharmagic, and still had to wait 30 minutes. I had never done this attraction before. What a treat!!! The way it takes you from hum-drum 3D movie to an immersive experience is quite clever. We all came out cooled down and beaming!


Next up was our FP at Splash. This is my favorite ride in all the parks. It makes me happy, it always scares me at the drop and even the lineup is interesting. Luckily with FPs, even in the most intense of crowds, we were seated in our logs in about 7 minutes. I got to ride with my son and eldest daughter, but we were in the front. Not the best idea, but whatever, getting wet is part of it. I must say though: the ride seemed a little run down. I tried to put my finger on it, but couldn’t. There are always some AA things that are broken on this ride, a fish, a porcupine etc. This time it was the second bluebird at the end, but it seemed less vibrant. Turns out it was me, or rather it was me in the daytime. It was all just a little white-washed because of the intense light from outside. When I rode it again at night, it was totally different, even inside. Hard to explain. Everything was more acute at night......

After Splash we jumped on the Tom Sawyer Boat and made it to his island. We had about 45 min before they started to close so we headed for the farthest reaches, Fort Langhorn. The kids played, ran around the caves on the way, and then we went to the side facing BTMRR and had our picnic supper/snack. It was cool but sunny and about 3 mins after we sat down a CM came around and politely asked us to move back to the boat launch as they were closing the island. My wife smiled and said "We will when we are done". My wife used to be a waitress and has a hard-earned respect for anyone in the service industry, but she is also a mom. The kids were eating, we were guests, we weren’t moving. The polite CM stood there and watched as more food was handed out to kids and drinking boxes were popped into and realized there was no actual way we were moving, and not anytime soon. She eventually said, and I quote “Ok, I’m just going to be in the fort, I will let the other worker know we are going to wait.” And she said it with a smile. I went back into the fort 15 mins later and there they were, sitting at the entrance, politely waiting for us to finish up. Proper thing.

After the kids were nourished we bee-lined it back to the wharf so as to not make it any harder for the CMs to close it down. We got on the launch and were back in crazy-town. At this point our FPs were exhausted, lines were long BUT I had an enviable lineup of absurdities for us to enjoy.

First up, The Country Bears. This was my 6th trip the world and I had never seen them, just heard oblique references to Big Al and 'Blood on the Saddle'. What a TREAT! Virtually no wait, and it was like a wonderful museum.


Next up: Swiss Family Treehouse. It was jammed but since (as my wife pointed out) it’s an attraction that is actually a line-up, we just meandered in and slowly made our way around their tropical house.

Then we hit the Tiki Room. My son demanded this, it's his favorite song. Again: no lineup. We got seated and were treated to an enchanting cacophony of birds, tikis and flowers. Most of the adults came out there not sure what to think, the consensus being that it was weird. Very weird. I loved it. As a Walt Disney Super-fan, this was his first attraction, I saw it from a historical perspective.

I had been glancing at our times in the MDE app and Pirates had finally begun to fall, which meant that the posted 40 min wait was actually 30 minutes, owing to their methods in measuring people’s waits as they board rather than what the wait is from the back at that time. Also, as the night goes on, the amount of people that actually redeem their FPs craters. They head back home early or get caught in another area of the park etc. We got in line and were in boats in about 30 minutes. I love Pirates, so did the family! So much to see. My little boy spent the whole time making a gun with his hands and shooting the pirates, according to my wife!

It was now getting downright cold. The next few days had very ominous temperatures in the low 60s and the cold air was here in full force. So was my son’s cough. He needed to get to bed, and get warm and the rest of us were spent so we fled. By the next morning he was running a mild fever so he, at least, was going to have to miss the Water Parks Day.

We left just as Wishes started and were on a ferry ahead of the mass exodus. We watched it go down as we slipped anchor and glided over the Lagoon to the TTC. A quick and cold tram ride later we were in the warm super-van with sleeping kids driving down the 192 to home.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Water Parks Cancelled


I swore I wouldn’t be one of those idiots who didn’t know what was going on. I would be on top of things, check Park hours for changes, watch for news each night. Instead I got caught up in the pitch and yawn of the Disney days. I checked the weather, high of 62, but not any parks sites.


If I had checked them then it would have been obvious the day before that the water parks were closed for the next two days because of the cold snap. But I did not, what I DID check was whether the water was heated at the water parks.


It was! So for our little Canadian swimmers it was going to be a breeze. We don’t shy away from cold water. We hit the cottages in Early May to open them up and then the kids are in the ocean, the water is about 50F at this time of year. It’s true, they start slow but if it is sunny, they are underwater. They also sleep like champs when we get them back into the cottage and warmed up. The parks keep their water at 80F so this was going to be fun.


I was even prepping everyone who got up with me early that the crowds would be light, few would want to swim on such a cold day. Ever the optimist, me.


So I was up around 7:30am and walking around, it was about 45F at this time (seriously) and the resort was quiet. No one on their porches, no one doing much of anything.

I went back in and admitted to myself that even I was cold. I flipped on my phone and checked weather sites in the hopes that this preposterous cold snap would be lifting early. I hopped on to a local weather site and there was the headline. Disney Water Parks closed due to cold.


Now here’s the deal. I convinced everyone in our party to pay more for the ‘water parks and more’ option on their passes. It was going to be cheaper than paying for even one day of water parks passes, so it was a no brainer since it was one of the things our family was most looking forward to. I had gotten my kids very excited: the spring before we had gone to a resort in Virginia was a decent sized water park (indoors) and I was always telling them: when we got to disney there are two water parks, twice this size. I had planned a whole day off for it. I had gotten not just my kids, but everyone else’s kids excited for it. My FIL was excited to do it.


All of that gone. You can’t move days around any more with the FP+ system, especially when you only go once every 5-7 years and don’t have the luxury to see a few things and come back in a year. Especially when you have 16 people in a group and trying to get FPs at the last minute on one of the most crowded weeks of the year is like showing up at a World Series game hoping to buy tickets at the box office. “Oh that’s sweet that you thought you could do that.”


So there I was, my stomach sinking into my feet, trying not to feel sorry for myself and my kids, but still pretty blue. I had to let everyone know that our whole plan was messed for the day. I apologized. They all laughed it off, and asked me what else we could do. We decided on having a quiet morning and grabbing lunch at the house then hitting Winter/Summerland for minigolf.


The kids were initially pissed, but then they were happy playing with their cousins. The adults relaxed, read books, tidied up and did laundry. No one gave me any grief. To this day no one has even made the slightest reference to the tickets, and to their credit I don’t think it occurred to any of them that I wasted their money, or was at fault in any way. The most I got was “How you doing, Matty? You ok?”


Our son was now spiking a mild fever, and we watched it and let it run its course, by nightfall his cough was slowing down and he was getting active again. My wife stayed with him that day and nursed him back to the land of the living.


We packed the supervan with the kids who wanted to golf, and off we went. There is something hilarious that Disney has done with Winter/Summerland. They have this big separate entrance off the road that you get to before Blizzard Beach. It has a nice sign into a separate Parking Lot. However, the parking lot is TINY. Maybe 20 spots. On this freezing day, with BB closed, it was still packed, no spaces. We just went around and parked at BB, no biggy.


The golf was fun, the kids got to have some play and a bit of a break from the crowds and Mania. We all unwound and let our brains thaw out from the constant stimulation. I find that Disney dazzles you on such a continual basis that a rest is necessary. It doesn’t activate your brain, so much as it bleaches it or freezes it. Like when you have been in the sun too long, everything is just bleached out, less highs and lows.

My oldest daughter was having a difficult time with the golf, but she cheered up and actually did really well, by the end.

We got home and then I was able to score some last minute ADRs at Rainforest Cafe (don’t judge, the kids love it) and the whole crew decided we would eat out. Wow that was easy, I was beginning to suspect that the whole no eating out whenever possible was just a scam to keep me at bay.


The waiter for the table next to us was the kids’ Jedi Master!!! They didn’t realize it but we did. He came over and spoke to us and even when he was right at the table, our son had no clue. He laughed at the glamour of showbiz and we congratulated him on doing what he loves.


Then we left the restaurant and wandered around Disney Springs, what a different place. But let’s face it, it’s just an outlet mall with many many places to eat food. I wanted out. The old days of the Village and the Marketplace and Pleasure Island were gone. The magic was so completely and utterly scrubbed from the ground that I had a physical reaction. It’s beautiful, it’s trendy, it’s chic, but it’s not Disney for me.


We went to bed and I was happy to put an end to this day.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

8:00am ropedrop at Magic Kingdom (and a word about Magic bands when off-site)


By now we were settling into a decent rhythm. We would work to make our lunches the night before, make sure our shirts were clean and gather all the magic bands before the kids went to bed.


We were not resort guests but wanted to get magic bands anyway. My MIL bought them for everyone as a Christmas present and so with a little trepidation I had set about (on our first night) linking each band to our people on MDE. It was actually very intuitive and easy. It made sense, and the new Magic Bands 2.0 had larger print so they were easier to read. The kids selected bands with art on them and we adults just went for the block colors. I did my own family, and then did the missing family so that when they arrived they would be all set. It was a breeze, and it is easy for you to add a magic band to someone’s account even if you did not create their account, so long as they are sharing their plans with you, you can assign them magic bands.


Being Offsite I had to make the decision for the family if these were going to be worth it. I looked at the perks and the price and decided the kids would like them, and the on-ride video would be worth it.


What I did not really understand was how great these would be over having paper passes. I have been down the paper-pass with children tunnel. You have to keep them with you. Sit with them as each kid goes through, either you scan the passes or you have to give them out and collect them each time you go through the tapstiles and FP entrances. Magic Bands makes this all quicker and easier.


In the morning we just clipped them on their wrists and they were good to go. The only one who lost their magic band was me, and only for a few seconds. On the first day it came off everytime I pulled my backpack on, the strap would catch it and it would pop off. After this happening twice, the first time a kindly guest picked it up and asked if anyone lost it, I got the hang of being careful with my bag. The kids loved scanning them, and we just collected them each time we got back from the park, and then clipped them back on when we were leaving the house. SO WORTH IT!No messing with paper passes, and the kids just breezed through everything. Even my 4.5 year old got the hang of it pretty much immediately.


So this was the big day, our super-early rope drop. Disney had adjusted the opening times for MK this week to 8:00am. By my diligent research we had to be in line in the castle forecourt by 7:45 at the latest, which meant we had to be at bag check by 7:30, which meant we had to be on the ferry by 7:15 which meant we had to be parking by 7:05….. which meant we needed to be leaving the house by 6:45AM.


It was always a hard sell leading up to the trip. I coached everyone that this morning was coming. My BIL in particular was initially skeptical, BUT by this time they had seen the magic of roper drop at AK and HS and had also seen the mid afternoon crowds at MK so they were all onboard with the plan. They also knew that this was the ONLY was we were going to hit 7 Dwarves Minetrain.


We were all up and running around the house by 6:00am. Kids being sat down to get cereal in them, grownups wearing groggy eyes and showered hair and our clean and matching tee shirts. It was very similar to the scene in Home Alone when they are leaving for the airport. Moms were checking magic bands, kids were running around looking for hats. Dad’s were trying to chug coffee and put encourage their children to get their sneakers on.


We pulled away at 6:49am. It was fine. It was a win, No one seemed angry at me. My wife was also dealing with a head cold so she was drawn out and tired, but game for the madness. No traffic, we hit World Drive at around 7:05 and beelined it straight into the guts of Disney World, the great Weiney at the top, Magic Kingdom.


We were parked around 7:17 and were within a 4 minute walk to the ferry. We busted our butts, I carried Malcolm and our wheelchair niece was making good time thanks to her mom’s fast pace. We had unimpeded access to the Ferry (with the issues with the monorails lately, we only used these when we weren’t in a hurry). The ferry left within a few minutes (very chilly trip) and we were at bag check at around 7:35am. Security, as always, was quick and efficient and we were in the large group to the right of the forecourt stage waiting to hustle to the 7 Dwarves. The show started, our kids couldn’t see much, they whined a little, but I lifted the smallest up so he could see the fairy godmother, and then we were off. With such a large group we couldn’t bob and weave anywhere near as fast as some were. Each group of 2 or 3 people who bustled passed us stung. I kept a brave face, we were not losing much ground on the throngs, but we weren’t gaining any either.


By the time we got to 7 D and dropped the stroller we were at the beginning of the woodland entrance. Even with the 8:00am open we were still looking at a 25 minute wait. The Queue was fun and we were out at 8:30am. This was all of our first times riding it. I had read many mixed reviews, mostly because of the time people had to commit to in order to ride it. We ALL loved it. From my son to my PIL. What a fun ride. I will let our faces tell the story.

Next we walked across the trail and hit Pooh, which already had a 20 minute wait. WOW was this place busy. Pooh is fun,I got to ride it with my son which is rare as he was in high demand owing to his habits of joyously calling out to the AA figures. The tween girls loved riding with him, so did his mother, his aunties etc. This was my time with him.


After that we hit Little Mermaid with very little wait, and then jumped on Small World. Everyone enjoyed the ride, almost no wait at all and the kids had fun when their name popped up. We scooted out of Fantasyland by 9:20 and got in line for Haunted Mansion, it was a 20 min posted wait, but we waited maybe 12 minutes. The kids liked the queue and we had to usher them along as people were building up behind us. No tears, no screaming, just fun. I rode it with my middle daughter and while she had some anxiety as it started (in fact I fielded about 20 questions from the various children about what would happen, was it like a roller coaster, did anything touch you, were their real ghosts in there).


I had become the go-to person with questions. What are we doing next and when will be doing ______? Those were the obvious questions, but also I was asked a lot about whether it went upside down (almost every ride by my nephew) whether it was ‘jump scary or atmosphere scary or roller coaster scary” by the tweens, and where is the nearest bathroom by each adult. Those would have made up the majority of questions, but they weren’t the only ones.


Now we could enjoy our Fastpasses. By 10:00am we were whisked on to Jungle Cruise and our lovely tour guide who started slow, but as we kept laughing at her corny jokes, she got better and better and reached a fever pitch which had us in stitches by the time we docked. I have ridden JC many times, and I have had good skippers and duds, the only thing you can do is laugh early and often, if you feed the skipper your energy they will beam it back at your threefold. Otherwise they are just repeating the same lame jokes to the same blank faces. Once they have an appreciative audience they will shine!!!


So we piled off and went to Big Thunder. It was fun, we were escorted into the back entrance for wheelchairs and boarded quickly as we had fastpasses. Again, it wasn’t as fun in the day, but it was still a hoot.


Then we had about an hour to kill before we needed to be at our last fastpass. I was thinking we could ride the Liberty Belle, but it was not to be. They had followed me onto one too many snoozers that trip and the idea of a half hour on the riverboat didn’t play well with any segment of my audience. So instead My SIL’s husband and his son and I went to grab a smoked turkey leg. My wife made me promise to ask the first CM I saw for directions. I promised but chuckled because I knew there was a stall just inside Frontierland, nonetheless I gamely asked a young cast member who was manning an ice cream cart where I could find these delectible treats. “Only over at Tortuga Tavern across from Pirates”… WHAT? Thank you wife. We grabbed our legs, bit into their hammy goodness (really, they are basically ham). and wandered back to Liberty Square to catch up with the families. Matching shirts, easy to find!

The funniest part of walking around with these prehistoric meat clubs was the people who stopped us asking where they could get them. Disney should have paid us. I guess we were not the only ones who thought they were still sold in Frontierland. We ate a bunch of the legs but our kids went at them like starved Jackals. I wish I had pics, but they stripped the legs to the bone. Well germs aint germs in a family.


We had some time to kill and LO and BEHOLD. The Muppets opened windows right above us and put on a HILARIOUS and very genuine performance. I was hoping this would happen, but the timing was impeccable. The fact that they are real puppets makes the whole thing feel like you are watching a live taping of the Muppet Show. The song they sing is particularly funny considering that we Canadians often get our history from movies and TV which is “just the American Parts”.


We drifted out to the castle and took some pictures and then backtracked to our last FP, Splash Mountain. This was our 2nd trip on my favorite ride. Still loved it, It still scared me on the drop, I still smiled throughout it, but it still seemed a little faded.


Whew, we were now done a long and fun morning and made our way out at 1:00pm

We strolled back into the rental house and then realized the pool heater had died. Boo, a call to the house’s management company yielded zero results, so we were now trapped in 60 degree weather with an unheated pool. Kids? They still swam, it’s in their DNA.


After some relaxation time incorporating scooters and quick swims for the kids, long couch-snoozes and some general sitting and chatting we pushed together a quick meal to nourish everyone. Tonight we were heading to Animal Kingdom, to experience it at night!!


After a ‘banner day’ at MK we were going to change tempo immediately. Being so crowded, the only 4th FP we could get for 16 people was ‘Tough to be a Bug’. This, of course, was an exercise in futility as the odds that Tough would be filled at night was next to zero.


We were at the park by 7:00pm. That morning a helpful attendant told us we could just follow the blue lines since we had a wheelchair in our party, and that it would take us to the disability parking, which was much closer. We followed the blue line and got to the disabled area, but everyone else had ‘wheelchair’ tags hanging from their mirror, or on their licence plate. It felt odd. This was the first and last time we did this. We knew we were unlikely to be challenged by anyone as we clearly had a small child in a wheelchair, but since we had gotten along so well without one, we just decided to park the regular way for the rest of the stay.


We rolled in and hit out FP to Tough. We did get great seats at the front, but still not sure if that was because we had FP or because we had a wheelchair, but then lights dimmed, the music came up and the kids were hauntingly freaked out. Only one started crying tho! Most just were scared and hated it!! Victory! Much better than Dinosaur. This attraction is so great, so much detail and immersion and such a cool theatre and seating (wink wink) but it is so scary that kids hate it. Too bad for them, I say!


Now we had to figure out what to do. Safari was still showing a 60 minute wait and I wanted to push it to last. Kali, however, was only showing a 5 minute wait!!!! I know, right?! When it is 60 degrees and nighttime, Kali is vacant.


My SIL’s husband and my daughters and his eldest daughter and son were all in. No one else had any interest in doing it. They went to Dinoland we went to Kali. Like an old horror movie, our group split up in the waning sunset and each headed different ways into the jungle that was coming alive with terrors of the night.


The rest of the fam-jam went to straight to Dinoland, got popcorn, road Triceratops Spin twice in a row, won some plush playing against no one else in the midway and the adults got warm drinks. Hooray for them. We had more spine-tingling plans afoot.


Kali was a walk-on. We got into our boat with our ponchos on, well my SIL’s sons had busted through his pretty badly and wouldn’t wear it properly, so it was almost a for sure that he was going to get soaked on the plunge… almost.


The other group in our boat was this lovely Korean family that spoke very little English. They CMs at the ride gave us looks like “Ok, weirdos, this is a bad idea”.


We chanted, we cheered, we screamed and the Korean family got soaked. I was spared, as was our poorly protected nephew.


So here we are at the exit. So far this trip we had not been able to enjoy the ole ‘back to back’ because of the crowds. It’s always a magical moment when you can stay seated in a ride and then just experience it again. For obvious reasons we were finally given our chance to ‘back to back’ Kali. We did, but our boat-neighbours weren’t so sure. Well, the father wasn’t so sure. He immediately go up to go. We started chanting “One more time! One more time!” and he started laughing and said ‘No, No, No…” but his wife and kids weren’t moving. They stared at him with smiles. He gave an exaggerated frown and then smiled and sat back down. Such a universal experience. The Cm looks incredulous “You don’t have to do this guys” he said. Word for word.

That made it so much more fun!! We screamed, chanted, cheered and came off that ride like we had just climbed Everest. Maybe a high point for the trip. The elder girls were soaked. The rest of us were unscathed. We beat a quick pace to Dinoland and jumped into standby for Primevil Whirl. We joined the rest and then made our way over to Safari.


Rivers of Light had debuted, like 2 weeks before this. It was a huge draw. My research told me that if we wanted into the seating we could:


i) book all FPs at AK to grab one for the night (nope)

Ii) get a dining package thingy for reserved seating (nope, against the code)

Iii) wait in line for a couple of hours (Nope, nope nope)


So we walked over the bridge from Dinoland to the Oasis and heard a soothing voice, saw some colored flowers and then pushed forward into Harambe. After a complete bathroom break (everyone was operating like a fine-tuned machine at this stage) we headed through Harambe. There was a street dance party going on, pfft we were heading on a once in a lifetime night Safari. We dodged it and tangled through the crowds. Once at the entrance to Safari we walked all the way in and caught perhaps the last truck of the day.


At first I was full of apprehension, I had dragged them on this trip and so far all we had seen was the shadow of an Okapi… at the back of the enclosure. Then we saw an empty Hippo pool and an empty crocodile pool….Then I started laughing uncontrollably at how bad this was. The guide was trying her best but there was literally nothing to see. Everyone in our group was giggling as she pointed out shadows and stopped to see if we could discern small bumps by the treeline. Bless her. Once we were in the Savannah there was even a pickup truck with its lights on to show the animals. We got a great view of the fireworks at Epcot over the trees, though. I think it was Epcot, at any rate the best part of that experience was the silliness involved.


We came off laughing and having fun, so that’s really all that matters. It was a night of finding fun in the absurd and was a highly unique Disney experience.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

It was our last park day. We were flying out the next afternoon and this was our first morning at Epcot and our last night at the Magic Kingdom. The sense of impending loss wasn’t really at the surface, there was a lot to do and part of being a ‘tour guide’ for your extended family is monitoring those around you, and maybe not as much inward looking as would normally happen.


Everyone was tired too. We had had some early mornings, the cold weather had exacted a toll and my wife was sick with a head cold with my littlest was recovering from a nasty chest cold. It was a ragged bunch but we got to Epcot in the morning just before rope drop.


There was a mighty throng in front of us and on the way in, we heard a commotion behind us and saw an older lady drop on the walkway. She had a lot of family crowding around her and so we didn’t add to the fervor. I wonder what happened to her. I know that Disney has top-notch health services, but it was a jarring scene, made even more so by the speed with which is disappeared behind us and we re-oriented on the tapstiles. A tragic march onwards, un-slowed by those who fall by the wayside.


They held everyone at the gates until almost 8:58am and then it started to move. It took about 5-6 mins before we were through. I jogged ahead and grabbed a stroller for the little fella and then ran to the right side of Spaceship Earth to meet our gang, it went smoothly and we were soon fast-walking to Soarin for a rope drop ride.


RD thoughts: if it was less crowded we would have hit Frozen first, and then doubled-back and endured a 30 min wait at Soaring with our Tier One fastpass being made for Test Track. But it was jammed. My wife had looked at my plans about two weeks prior and intimated that Soarin would be a better bet first and that we should just skip Frozen. We had some younger ladies in the group and they would have loved it, but we did not find ourselves in World Showcase all week, and what they didn’t know about wasn’t going to kill them.


Thank goodness for my wife. By the time we arrived at Soarin, stopped for a pee break, the posted wait was 40 Min…… That’s the difference between arriving AT Rope Drop and arriving BEFORE rope drop on a crowded day. 15 minutes early would have a cascading effect of probably an hour or more on a day , we would have saved 20 or more minutes right out of the gate if we had arrived earlier.


But the actual wait was more like 30 minutes. YAY we were off! I had heard some negative press about the new Soarin: the transitions and CGI were messed up, the screen was too curved, the music was gone. Mostly I think it is from people who hate change and wanted to smell and orange grove. The new HD is way more immersive and colorful, the scenes are breathtaking and the action is fun. The smells are great too, except maybe not real. I say this because I was seated next to my SIL’s husband and they had spent most of the last year in India. As we passed over the Taj Mahal and the clean jasmine smell wafts at us he starts laughing… “That is NOT what India smells like… where’s the burning garbage smell??”


We then split as some of the younger ladies went to meet some characters and we went on Living with the Land. This was another boring ‘dad-arm-twister’ ride and almost no one except for me was excited for it. They ended up loving it and still talk about the rain in the rain forest and I was drolling over the hydroponic growing systems, being an inveterate gardener.


SO then we had a few minutes so we decided to sidle over and hit Figment. It was every minute of a 30 minute wait in the line……. 30 MINUTES FOR FIGMENT!!! it was only 10:00am.


We had to run to get to Test Track in time for our FP. This was much more fun than Figment. My son designed a monster truck with all the flames and burners he could attach. Funny thing was it won handling and speed! It did not fare so well on efficiency. AMERICA!!


Next we popped into Mission Space for our FPs. I chose Orange, most of the group chose Green. I was with the tween girls who were getting whipped into an anxiety-ridden frenzy by the constant warnings. I had to promise each of them that if they couldn’t do their jobs I would help. I had to be the Pilot because I had driven a car before. I had to talk them down multiple times, mostly my younger daughter. In the end we boarded and, as I expected, I had the hardest time with it. When it takes off I followed all the directions. Still it is very disorienting and takes your guts for a spin. Once I calmed down it was an intense but amazing ride. Top notch!!


As we were leaving we passed by these Spanish guys who were mocking their stricken friend who was seated on a bench looking as though he had just seen the face of god and was judged lacking.


Good times!!!


It had finally returned to heat outside and so we beat a retreat from the parks and went home to decide what, if anything we were going to do that night. We were tired. It was a long trip. There was talk of lounging by the pool……

 

[Matty_Disfan]

reserved Day Eight

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Updated!

 

[elaine amj]

Incredible that you managed to keep that giant group moving!

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Incredible that you managed to keep that giant group moving!

It was spoken about before we even left Canada, the kids were very compliant, and once the plan started to really pay off against the crowds, everyone just started looking to me and asking 'What's next?'

 

[elaine amj]

How did you communicate the plans? Did you show them EVERYTHING? or just the 3 FP+s?

The other times I've gone with others, I've kept the plans in my head and didn't show my scary spreadsheet - I left it at highlights. This trip, i'm going with my brother and SIL. We will be splitting up at various points so I'm wondering if my detailed list will be better so its easier for them to decide what they want to join in for. (my plans are a bit scary and have minute by minute detail)

 

[Matty_Disfan]

I had a spreadsheet and then minute by minute day sheets for each day. I just emailed it to them.

I am out of the closet on the whole Disney madness thing, so it was less weird for me to do that. It was a source of mirth for them, but they had very little to say that was negative once we had a full day in jammed parks with the longest wait being 15 min.

 

[lchicago]

Love the report! I'm super impressed you could coordinate for 16 people.

 

[Matty_Disfan]

Updated