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We're back! I'm going to try to do my best to get these reports in to you within a timely manner! We just got in last night. Let me start
by saying a BIG thanks to everyone who shared ideas and insight on this board! How overwhelming it would have been financially and in
other ways if I wasn't prepared!
The cast: Me (35), Doug (34), Bethany (6), Matthew (5)
It's Friday morning (9/20) at 3:30 in the morning and we're off to THE WORLD from North Carolina. Today is Doug's birthday and we're
pulling our pop-up camper for the first time. Our trip is very uneventful, which I guess is good. I've packed lots of coloring
books, game books and toys for the kids. After 12 hours, we've reached Orlando and it's pouring down rain. I'm trying not to panic!
Once we're in the world, it takes us a while to find our way to Fort Wilderness, but when we finally find it the rain has stopped and the
sun is trying to peak out.
It's 6:30 by the time we get the camper set up and our original plan is to celebrate Doug's birthday at RFC, but we're too tired, so we
just take the yellow bus up to Trails End Buffet. The food was pretty good! Not a huge selection, but very good! At one point I
have to take Bethany out to use the bathroom and there is a beautiful rainbow in the sky! Thus the magic has begun. This is her first
real rainbow! Dinner is over and we head back to camp. We take our van over to a nearby Winn Dixie for a few more groceries then get to
bed. Of course, I can't sleep and toss and turn all night. I'm soooo excited!
Day 1: We set the alarm for 6am. We have breakfast in the camper and take the yellow bus to the Outpost Depot where we get the bus for
Animal Kingdom. So far the transportation system is a breeze. In AK we pick up Birthday Buttons for Doug and Matthew and go to the Safari
ride. The wait wasn't longer than 10 minutes. When that was done, we walk through Pangani Forrest and then go to see the Festival of the
Lion King. Bethany and Matthew get invited to help with the finale, but decline (who are these children?), then we enjoy the Pocohantas
show. Very cute! Doug was facinated by the animals coming out at just the right time and the kids got to sit up close.
Now it was lunchtime! We headed over to Restaurantasauras. It's Noon and there is no wait at all to place our order (1 nugget happy meal,
1 hotdog meal and drink, 1 double cheeseburger, fries and drink: about $18). After lunch we did Dinoland. Triceratops Spin was great
fun. Doug took Bethany on Primeval Whirl and she cried through the whole thing! I wanted to take their picture, but didn't realize it
was really 2 rides. I waited on the wrong side, so missed that opportunity! Anyway, this ride put Bethany in a real foul mood.
Next, we saw the Tarzan Rocks show. This was my favorite at AK. Matthew was getting tired and kept begging to see the Bug Movie
through all of Tarzan, so we went to that. Well, guess what happened? My kids were terrified by the experience at It's Tough to
Be a Bug. Doug and I just laughed and laughed, but the kids....boo hooed. Thankfully, they cried quietly and didn't whale. Next we
went to Kali River Rapids. It was ok. Not really a grand adventure for us. By now it was 2:00, and the kids were ready to head back to
camp for a rest.
Thankfully, dinner was done in the crockpot (BBQ Chicken) and the noodles were cooked and frozen at home, so I just reheated them in
the microwave we brought and made a quick salad. Then we took the boat from Fort Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom to see Spectromagic
(Wonderful) had Mickey Cakes at the bakery and stayed for the fireworks. Matthew got scared, so I had to start walking back to the
boat with him. OF course he kept rubber necking it all the way down mainstreet! I'm glad we left early, because it was a mad house when
the fireworks ended and all those people trying to catch the boat. Doug got stuck in it with Bethany! We did get to see the Electric
Water Pageant which got Matthew's mind off the fireworks. Matthew went right to sleep back at the camper and so did Bethany when she
got back. And so did mom and dad!
Day 2: Today is Sunday and it's MGM day. We set the alarm for 6 again and boy is it hard to get
up...but we manage. After showers and breakfast we take the internal yellow bus to the
Settlement Depot to catch the MGM bus. It's a little after 9 when we arrive at MGM and the first
show of Voyage of the Little Mermaid doesn't start until 10, so we take the Great Movie ride. It's
very dark and alot of it bothers Bethany who hides her head on dad's lap. Matthew is scared
through the gangster set and the alien set, but he does OK. Then we head over to Mermaid. As
that finishes, it's time for the Disney Playhouse show. I almost didn't do it, but I'm glad I did.
Matthew was thrilled to see Bear in the Big Blue House. It's a very cute and colorful show. Then
we enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast show. Just great! Now it's lunchtime and we head over to
Toy Story Pizza Planet. We see Kermit and Miss Piggy on he way. Again at the restaurant
there's no wait and I place my order right away (2 pepperoni pizza meals (includes salad and
drinks), 1 extra drink, and 2 bags of chips: $21)
Now it was time for The Indiana Jones show. This was my favorite at MGM. However, all the
loud explosions bothered Matthew. Then on the way over to Rockin Roller coaster, we came
across a group of characters. We met jasmine and Alladin first and then...well...this was where
the magic ended for just a moment....I spotted Captain Shang, Mulan's male counterpart and so
we went over to him. He was standing with hands on hips looking very stern The kids held out
there books and he just stared. Now my kids are VERY bashful in strange settings so I said "You
can ask him to sign your books". They just stood there. I said it again and again they just stood
there. Captain Shang says in a not so nice way "It's not hard to ask." It's hard to describe this
event, but by now, Bethany can't even look at him and she's got her head down and Matthew is on
the verge of tears, lips quivering. I thought by now this character would have gone ahead and
taken their books and signed them....but he continued to glare at them. It was very awkward and
I'm thinking..he's not supposed to be a villain. He was just way to much into character. We just
walked away and he never batted an eye. I felt horrible for the kids, my heart just ached and was
about to cry myself. However, we spotted Meg from Hercules and Mary Poppins and Bert.
Needless to say, the magic was back.
Doug wanted to do RRC now, so he got right on that while the kids and I had a Mickey Bar
(Oooo, what a mess). When Doug finished, I wanted to do the backlot tour. We walked the kids
over to the Honey I Shrunk the kids playground and saw Pinnochio, Gepetto, Chip, Dale, Dopey
and White Rabbit on the way. They played in the playground with dad while I did the ride. It
was OK, and the kids would have been bored to tears. I think Matthew would have been scared
of Catastrophe Canyon anyway. Next was Muppet 3D without the glasses for the kids, a visit
with Buzz and Woody then back to camp for naps and dinner (left overs). After dinner, we went
to EPCOT to see the Tapestry of Dreams parade (Wonderful) and Illuminations. Of course, the
fireworks bothered Matthew a little, but we made it through. Then it was time for bed.
Day 3: Today is our Free Day (so to speak) so we slept in until 9. This felt so good, but I could
have slept alot longer, I think. I headed over to the comfort station to take care of laundry while
Doug took the kids to the petting zoo (free) and pony ride ($3 each). We all finished at the same
time and had some lunch. Then we headed over to the swimming pool for the rest of the
afternoon. It was so refreshing to do this, but I was sooo tired, I could barely swim. Later in the
day, I took a nap with Bethany while Doug and Matthew went to Winn Dixie for water and milk.
After dinner, we had hoped to play miniature golf, but it was raining a little, so we went to DTD
instead. Matthew had gotten some birthday money from my mom and it was burning a hole in his
pocket. he picked out a big bin of legos that has a bunch of projects to do. Then we headed over
to Mouse Gear where Doug bought a T-shirt and fans for the kids to wear around their necks.
Now we were ready for a snack, so we shared sundaes at Ghiradelli's. It started to rain again
pretty hard, so we sat under the canopy for awhile and waited for it to slow down. Then we took
the buses back to FW and went to bed.
Day 4: Today is Matthew's birthday! We got up, got ready and took the boat over to the
Contemporary for breakfast at Chef Mickey's. What an enjoyable experience. Matthew got his
special button and place mat, lots of attention from Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale. Goofy
was out front saying hello. Everyone sang the birthday song and he blew out his candle on his
birthday muffin.
>From here, we took the monorail to MK and arrived about 9:15. Let me say that we never waited
more than 10 minutes for a ride or attraction. We took the train to Toon Town and rode the
barnstormer. We all loved it except for Bethany and we wanted to ride it again. So we went
back up the ramp and guess who came up behind us? Goofy! He wanted to ride up front with
Matthew, but Matthew got scared and started crying, so that was the end of that once in a lifetime
opporunity (again, who is this child?). Next we went to Fantasy land and got right on the
teacups, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Small World and Carousel. Peter Pan was closed at the time.
Next we walked to Frontier Land and saw the Country Bears. Doug did Splash Mountain and
Big Thunder Railroad alone. By now it was 12:30, so we took the train back to toontown and
walked to Tomorrow Land to have lunch at Cosmic Ray's. The kids enjoyed it. I ordered the
Caesar salad to share with Doug and it was really good! Very fresh! After lunch, we raced on
the speedway. Bethany sat behind the wheel but decided at the last minute she wanted me to
drive. Well, I was ont the opposite side and it was very awkward. We just bumped left, right,
left, right on the whole track. I was laughing so hard I about peed my pants and all the men who
passed us were cracking up. I just couldn't get the car under control! Next we went to Astro
Orbiter, Doug did Space Mountain and we we all finished up at Buzz Light year. yeah, we loved
it!.
From there, we started walking over to Adventure land and realized the parade was starting in 20
minutes, so we picked a spot and watched that. Cinderella's maidens invited Bethany and
Matthew to come out and see the princesses, but you can guess what my kids did...they stayed
put. After the parade, we rode Alladin's carpet. When we got in line for the Jungle Cruise, it just
poured down rain, which was a great effect for this ride! We got pretty wet. When it was over,
we made a mad dash to see the TIKI bird show. We just loved it! It's really cute!
By now it was 4pm and we'd done all we wanted to do, so we went back to camp for dinner.
The rain let up a little and we decided to do Fantasmic. On the way there, it began to pour and we
realized we only had 3 ponchos. So, I got soaked as we watched this show in the rain. For what
it's worth, I had a hat on..... but we still enjoyed it. We sat in the back row because of Matthew,
but he did do fine. Then it was back to camp and bed.
Day 5: EPCOT day! We arrived there at 8:30 and all of the park was still closed, except for
Sapceship Earth, so we got right on that and rode. Then the character bus came around and we
got some autographs and pictures, or so we thought.....the batteries fell out of the camera and we
missed a few. We did see Baloo, Daisy and Donald. Rafiki, and Mr. Smee. From there, we went
over to Test Track to do a babyswap. I got right on and loved the ride. It was sooo cool. Then
Doug went on and I thought maybe a bunch of people must have shown up to ride because I
waited almost over an hour for him. It turned out they were having technical difficulties. When
we finished here, we went to Wonders of life. I did Body Wars (unimpressed) while Doug did the
interactive things with the kids. Then he rode (unimpressed also) while the kids and I watched the
Goofy about health movie.
Next, we did the Universe of Energy. We had to wait about 5 minutes for them to let us in and
some families were leaving as they read it was a 45 minutes show. We were having second
thoughts too, because we didn't think the kids would sit that long through something. But it's
more like a ride...and if you have young kids who like dinosaurs.....this is the place to see them. It
was a pretty entertaining 45 minutes.
Now it was lunchtime so we went to the Electric Umbrella and spent around $20. The Living
Seas was next and Doug and I found it to be very boring. We live close to a small aquarium here
in NC and it wasn't much different than that. We then went to The Land to see Food Rocks,
Circle of Life, and to take the educational ride. The kids did well on this and enjoyed the garden
with all the strange vegetation.
Next we went to see Figment in Imagination. Of course the kids loved this ride and playing
around in the Imageworks room. When we finished there, Doug went to do Honey I shrunk the
Audience. The kids were still traumatized from the Bug movie, so they played around in the
fountain while waiting for dad. I had them wear their bathing suits because I knew about the
fountain. Now we had done all, except ice station cool, so we did that on the way out. I liked the
watermelon soda....it was 4pm and time to get back to camp for dinner.
After dinner, we drove ourselves to Fantasia Gardens to play miniature golf. Then, we walked
over to Beaches and Cream for ice cream. What large portions! Wow! When we finally finished,
it was 9:00 and we were beat, so we took the boat to Swann and Dolphin and walked back to the
van, drove to camp and went to bed.
Day 6: Today is Thursday and it's our last full day here. We got up and went to Epcot for our
breakfast with the Princesses in Norway. This was our surprise for Bethany. She just thought we
were having breakfast....boy was she surprised! We dined with Belle, who asked her all kinds of
questions about the books she liked to read, Mary Poppins, Jasmine, Snow White and Aurora.
There was cantelope and strawberries already at our table with muffins and danishes. Then the
waitress brought us a pan filled with eggs, hashbrown, sausages, bacon and french toast sticks.
After breakfast, we had to wait a bit for the World Showcase to open, and when it did we walked
over to America so the kids could see the American Adventure. It wasn't working!! I was so
bumbed out about this! I was then reminded of the mask making, so the kids did that while we
listened to the Fife and Drum music. Next was Japan with a woman making these fantastic candy
sculptures. The character bus came by there and we were able to take a few more pictures that
we missed yesterday when the batteries fell out of the camera. Then, we went to Morrocco and
saw Jasmine again, who recognized the kids from breakfast. She was with the Genie. In France
we saw the colorful character from The Hunchback, but I don't remember his name. He was very
funny though. In Great Britian, we saw Pooh and Piglet.
Now it was time to do some things again, like Imagination and Ice Station Cool. Then we took
the monorail over to MK and got there just as the parade was starting, so we dropped into the
bakery for dirt desserts, crumb cake and a yummy tomato, basil and mozzerella sandwich. Then
the kids were able to choose 1 thing from each land to do again. That included Buzz, the Tea
Cups, Barnstormer and the character tent where we saw Cinderella and Suzy Mouse, Country
Bears, Tiki Birds and Alladin's Carpet. Now it was time to go back to FW for dinner and a swim.
The next day we were breaking camp early and heading home:-(
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