You Can Learn a Lot of Things From the Flowers - May 2016 TR *NEW* 12/30 x3 *COMPLETE!*

[khertz]

You Can Learn a Lot of Things From the Flowers

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers
For especially in the month of June
There's a wealth of happiness and romance
All in the golden afternoon​

Hey there, hi there, ho there! Welcome to another one of my TRs! Whether it’s your first time following along with one of my trips, or you are an old DIS friend, I am happy to welcome you along as I recap our quick May 2016 trip!

For those who may not know us as well, let me introduce you to the family.

May 02-135 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

First up, there’s me, your veteran TR writer. My most important titles are wife & mom, and to fund our Disney vacations, I added the title of RN. This was my 16th trip to WDW, and I have also been lucky enough to have 3 trips to DL and one to DL Paris. My list of Disney favorites would include Rapunzel, Mickey bars, Splash Mountain, the PeopleMover, and Wishes.

May 02-141 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

The other source of income for our trips is DH. Aside from being an awesome husband & father, he is an engineer in the oil field. He loves photography, and is responsible for 95% of the photos you will see in this TR. He also loves Donald Duck, Big Thunder Mountain, Dole Whips, and the Tiki Room. This was his 15th trip to WDW, and he has also had 4 trips to DL and one to DL Paris.

May 02-040 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DS is 5 years old, and at the time of this trip, was a recent Pre-K graduate! He loves to draw, play outside, watch movies, sing & dance, and make us laugh. His Disney favorites include Lightning McQueen, Test Track, Soarin’, Dinosaur, and every Disney playground he has ever laid eyes on. So this trip was perfect for him, as there were plenty of playgrounds to choose from in Epcot! This was his 8th trip to WDW, and he has also been to DL twice.

May 01-019 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

DD is the caboose of our family, and at the time of this trip was 10 months old. She loves playing peek-a-boo, shredding napkins, and getting or giving kisses. While her list of interests may be small, she has a huge personality! Despite being less than a year old, this was her 4th trip to WDW!

So why did we take this trip? The short answer is: Annual Passes. These things were seriously burning holes in our pockets! We got them in October 2015 planning on 3 weeklong trips total in October 2015, February 2016, and October 2016. They have since prompted us to take 3 additional short trips! We went in November 2015 to say farewell to the Osborne Lights, and then decided we should add on this trip to see Epcot’s Flower & Garden Festival for the first time. Then DH and I added on a short trip over the summer for the DIS Unplugged 10th Anniversary Mega Meet.

To save money, we decided to drive instead of flying. We used our Wyndham points to stay at Cypress Palms resort in Kissimmee. We usually stay at the Wyndham Bonnet Creek resort, but with how close to our departure date we booked, we didn’t have enough points for that. We were there from Thursday May 26th-Monday May 30th. The primary focus of the trip was seeing the Flower & Garden festival, so most of our time was spent at Epcot, but we did venture out to all of the other parks despite being short on time.

So hopefully I didn’t bore you with the details, and you’re ready to tag along with me as I recap our Flower & Garden Fun!

EPCOT_CHRCON4_20160527_389293957164 by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

 

[khertz]

LINKS

Wednesday May 25th
Day 0: Out On the Open Road

Thursday May 26th
Day 1 Part 1: We Have Arrived!
Day 1 Part 2: A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Day 1 Part 3: Midway Games

Friday May 27th
Day 2 Part 1: This is Going to be the Greatest Ride of My Life!
Day 2 Part 2: Fun in the Flowers
Day 2 Part 3: Epcot Character Spot
Day 2 Part 4: Like a Grand and Miraculous Spaceship...
Day 2 Part 5: Wandering World Showcase
Day 2 Part 6: Animal Kingdom

Saturday May 28th
Day 3 Part 1: Good Morning, Good Morning!
Day 3 Part 2: Wet & Wild
Day 3 Part 3: You Can Fly!
Day 3 Part 4: People Mover & Pineapples

Sunday May 29th
Day 4 Part 1: Joy & Sadness
Day 4 Part 2: Land & Sea
Day 4 Part 3: Be That Topiary!
Day 4 Part 4: Farewell Flower & Garden

May 2016 Wrap Up​

 

[khertz]

Day 0: Wednesday May 25th

The day of our initial departure was pretty hectic! DS had his end of the year program for Pre-K, and I hadn’t realized when we started planning this trip that he would be dismissed for the day right after it was over, which was around 8:15 am. He was dressed as peas because they were singing a song called Oats, Peas, Beans & Barley Grow. My mom had spent the night so that she could come to the program too.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We all drove to school together and watched his performance, then I had to go to work. I had failed to take this day off, thinking DS would still have a full day at school, but DH had taken off to finish packing up the car. Since my mom was in town, she took DS to do something fun after his program was over so that DH could get some organizing done at home. And I ended up being able to leave work a little early because the afternoon at work was slow.

I left work at 2:30, and got home to change and finish packing up last minute items. It was about 3:40 pm when we left home and hit the road. As became tradition whenever we started a long stretch of driving on this trip, DH found On the Open Road from the Goofy Movie to blare as we took off. This ended up being the theme song of this trip!

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
Out on the open road!​

I spent this part of the drive feeling pretty nasty. I think I was getting a little car sick or something, so I spent most of the time feeling nauseous in the back seat while trying to keep DD happy and occupied.

We only made one stop just outside of New Orleans to get some dinner, then drove the rest of the way through to the hotel we had booked for the night in Florida. It was about 10:30 pm when we arrived, so we got in and right to bed as quickly as we could.

Continued in next post...

 

[khertz]

Day 1: Thursday May 26th

Despite the late night of driving the night before, we were up at 5:30 am to get a start on our day. We decided to set our clocks forward an hour right off the bat since we would be passing into the Eastern time zone soon after we hit the road anyway, so it was really like 6:30 already when we started getting ready. We had showers and breakfast at the hotel.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
DS wanted to take a selfie​

We were about ready to get in the truck when DS took a spill outside and scraped up his knees and elbows, so back inside him and I went to clean him up in the bathroom while DH got DD settled in her car seat.

By 8:15 am, we were listening to On the Open Road again as we made the last long stretch to our destination! We stopped around 11 for lunch when we saw a Chick Fil A in Lake City, FL and thought that would be a good place to stop. DS went nuts playing in the play area while I nursed DD and DH got the food. Then we let DD stretch her legs a bit in the booth.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We also had recently discovered that a straw will keep her plenty busy while DH and I eat our food.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr​

We decided to let DS continued to play while DH and I had our lunch and let him burn off some of that pent up energy. He had about 25 minutes or so to play, and then we took his food with us so he could eat in the car.

Our last stretch of driving took us only a couple of hours and we made it to our resort, Wyndham Cypress Palms in Kissimmee! We have tried out this resort before a couple of times. DH and I stayed here when we came for a last minute trip while I was pregnant with DS, and we had added on a night to one of our long trips when we had changed flights to arrive earlier and another night wasn’t available at Bonnet Creek. It’s definitely not as nice as Bonnet Creek is, but it is perfectly adequate for these kinds of last minute trips when Bonnet Creek isn’t available and we need to save money by using our points instead of paying for a hotel room.

It was about 2 pm when we arrived, and while DH and DD got us checked in, I walked around the lobby with DS and had a mini photoshoot.

Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr


Untitled by disneymom1024, on Flickr
​

Luckily, our room was ready! So we drove over to building 10 and brought our stuff up to our unit, 455. After rearranging some stuff into bags and gathering all the things we would need for the parks and slathering on a layer of sunscreen, we were ready to leave again at 3:30 to head to DHS.

UP NEXT: DHS fun!

 

[Nicholmom3]

Adorable family!

 

[ajsary]

Joining in! I have been reading all of your TR's and love them. You and your husband are a terrific trip report team! Fantastic writing and stellar pictures! It's so fun to see your beautiful DD growing through her first year in your TR's.

 

[Dugette]

I'm here and excited to read along!

Glad you had a fairly smooth drive down and can't wait to hear about your time in the parks!

 

[rdkeim]

Yay - another Khertz TR! This really has been the year of Disney for you! My sister and I were there in March - she's a garden/flower-type person so we both loved seeing Epcot in all it's glory. Can't wait to read about your trip!

 

[missangelalexis]

Yay glad you've started! Of course I am in!

I'm sorry you weren't feeling well at the start of the drive But otherwise it sounds like you made it to Disney without much trouble!

 

[Imagineer5]

Joining in! Can't wait to read about it (once again we were a couple weeks off in our trips, boo!)

We also had recently discovered that a straw will keep her plenty busy while DH and I eat our food.

LOL Maya loves them too, until she pokes herself. She has enjoyed trying to get water up it though!

We decided to let DS continued to play while DH and I had our lunch and let him burn off some of that pent up energy. He had about 25 minutes or so to play, and then we took his food with us so he could eat in the car.

Good call!

Sounds like an uneventful drive! What sort of things does Delilah do in the car seat to keep her occupied? Aria is happy to watch a movie or play on the ipad, but Maya is facing backwards of course and can't see the screen (nor does she care about TV). We just had 8 hour drives to/from Baltimore last weekend and man, if she wasn't napping she wasn't very happy!

 

[Dugette]

What sort of things does Delilah do in the car seat to keep her occupied? Aria is happy to watch a movie or play on the ipad, but Maya is facing backwards of course and can't see the screen (nor does she care about TV). We just had 8 hour drives to/from Baltimore last weekend and man, if she wasn't napping she wasn't very happy!

Obviously, I can't speak for Delilah, but one thing that saved our lives many times w/Izzy was a "buckle toy". Not sure if Maya would be into that or not, but Izzy could spend fairly good chunks of time trying to do the buckles (of course, we had to keep undoing them for her, but it was worth it).

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

We usually go to Disney in May and absolutely love the Flower & Garden Festival. The colors are so vibrant and it's just amazing what they can do with them. It's sort of like the Osbourne Lights. Pictures are nice but seeing it in person is priceless. I'm looking forward to reading along with you.

 

[khertz]

Adorable family!

Thank you so much!

Joining in! I have been reading all of your TR's and love them. You and your husband are a terrific trip report team! Fantastic writing and stellar pictures! It's so fun to see your beautiful DD growing through her first year in your TR's.

Thanks so much!! Yep, I couldn't do it without his gorgeous photos.

It's amazing as I type it all up to see how she has grown and matured through her first year in Disney. I still can't believe she has been so many times at just a year old!!

I'm here and excited to read along!

Glad you had a fairly smooth drive down and can't wait to hear about your time in the parks!

Welcome!! Always happy to see you!!

Yay - another Khertz TR! This really has been the year of Disney for you! My sister and I were there in March - she's a garden/flower-type person so we both loved seeing Epcot in all it's glory. Can't wait to read about your trip!

Oh man, I bet March was SO much better for weather!! lol I'm not a gardening type person, but I can appreciate looking at the beauty of the flowers and topiaries. It was neat too seeing Disney World at a different part of the year we hadn't been able to experience before.

Yay glad you've started! Of course I am in!

I'm sorry you weren't feeling well at the start of the drive But otherwise it sounds like you made it to Disney without much trouble!

So happy to have you, Alexis!!

Yeah, it wasn't the best start, but luckily it was only a few hours. The rest of the drive wasn't too bad.

Joining in! Can't wait to read about it (once again we were a couple weeks off in our trips, boo!)

I know, how do we keep doing that?!

LOL Maya loves them too, until she pokes herself. She has enjoyed trying to get water up it though!

lol! We had the hardest time at one point getting Delilah to take a bottle, and we ended up trying a cup with a straw and now that's all she drinks from!

Good call!

Sounds like an uneventful drive! What sort of things does Delilah do in the car seat to keep her occupied? Aria is happy to watch a movie or play on the ipad, but Maya is facing backwards of course and can't see the screen (nor does she care about TV). We just had 8 hour drives to/from Baltimore last weekend and man, if she wasn't napping she wasn't very happy!

Yeah, that sounds a lot like us. Delilah is not interested in watching anything. I brought lots of toys, lots of snacks, and let her shred a LOT of napkins!! lol But I sure did pray for her to nap as much as possible!!

Obviously, I can't speak for Delilah, but one thing that saved our lives many times w/Izzy was a "buckle toy". Not sure if Maya would be into that or not, but Izzy could spend fairly good chunks of time trying to do the buckles (of course, we had to keep undoing them for her, but it was worth it).

Ooh, that's a good idea for Delilah now that she is a little older! It would even work well for the drives to my parents' house which is a couple hours.

We usually go to Disney in May and absolutely love the Flower & Garden Festival. The colors are so vibrant and it's just amazing what they can do with them. It's sort of like the Osbourne Lights. Pictures are nice but seeing it in person is priceless. I'm looking forward to reading along with you.

It's nice in pictures, but yes, SO amazing to see in person!!

Thanks for joining in!

 

[Graciegirl5]

I've read a couple of your other reports and really enjoyed them. Looking forward to this one! And your children are absolutely adorable!

 

[khertz]

I've read a couple of your other reports and really enjoyed them. Looking forward to this one! And your children are absolutely adorable!

Welcome! So glad to have you here. And thank you so much.

 

[jdeblas]

Wonderful report! Your kids are the cutest!

 

[Terra Nova guy]

Joining in early this time! I'm interested to see how your resort was. I've never stayed at an off-site hotel, but it's a good idea if saving money is required. I'm always looking for ideas off-site, just in case.

 

[khertz]

Wonderful report! Your kids are the cutest!

Aw, thank you so much!

Joining in early this time! I'm interested to see how your resort was. I've never stayed at an off-site hotel, but it's a good idea if saving money is required. I'm always looking for ideas off-site, just in case.

Welcome!!

I'll have to go back and dig up pictures from an old TR because I don't think we ever took pics of our unit. Being Wyndham owners it makes it so easy to stay offsite because you just can't beat free! It's a great alternative for us because we love having the space, the washer/dryer, etc. It's like staying DVC without the themeing and buses. lol This resort is quite a bit older than Bonnet Creek, and it shows in the design and decor. But for a last minute trip on a budget, it was perfectly acceptable.

 

[vamassey1]

Great start. We love Epcot during Flower & Garden. I'm interested to see what was different this year from when we went last year.

 

[khertz]

Great start. We love Epcot during Flower & Garden. I'm interested to see what was different this year from when we went last year.

Glad you're here!! After our first visit, I can say we loved F&G too. It's SO beautiful!