Here's a blog of our Disney trip events. I didn't get online at all during the stay because we kept so busy and were tuckered out each evening...
Friday:
We left Dayton Friday morning at 9AM, ate breakfast at an IHOP in Cincinnati and drove straight through to Macon, GA (w/ about 10 potty breaks). We checked into our hotel by about 9:30PM. The Fairfield Inn Macon West was a nice place and even better since it was a free stay with my Marriott Reward points I've accumulated from work travel.
Saturday:
We were back on the road by 9am after a quick bite of continental breakfast. The drive into Florida was smooth and we were at our Disney Resort by 3:30PM. Wendy did a great job moving us into our room by unpacking everything for the kids and setting it up to feel like home.
We explored the resorts main complex for a little bit and ate dinner at the table service restaurant Boatwrights. It was a good dinner, but our meals only got better from there. We swam for a few minutes after dinner - which was a pretty bad idea - because the air temp was in the 60's that evening. Kenden was shivering, but still didn't want to get out of the pool. The pool had a water slide and some other nice touches. Ol' Man Island it was called.
The walk from the pool to our room was probably 6-8 minutes and was very cold. Hot showers and bed were in order. We had a big day planned for Sunday.
Sunday:
Breakfast at the resorts counter service cafeteria started out our day at 8AM. We arrived at the Magic Kingdom by bus. Wendy picked up a few essentials (a leash and sunglasses for KJ) at the store just inside the MK gate. KJ got to see Mickey and Minnie mouse almost immediately. He'd been saying "me going Disney, me going Florida, me see Mickey Mouse" all week leading up to the trip. The line was too long to wait to get pictures at that time but he did see them. We stepped onto Main Street USA and Wendy noticed she didn't have her cell phone! A though search of our stroller and bags didn't produce it. We called it and there was no answer. A second call and someone answered - it was literally 5 minutes after she lost it and they had it at City Hall near the entrance. How amazing! She must have left it at the checkout where she bought the leash and glasses.
While she went to get the phone the kids met Goofy and got pictures and autographs. We then had a Disney photographer shoot us in front of Cinderella Castle. We spent the rest of the day visiting and riding attractions and had lunch at a seafood counter in the American plaza. Out first attraction of the trip was Mickey's Philharmagic - a great 4D movie show. Other things we enjoyed were Space Mountain (Billy and I), Stitches Great Escape, Buzz Lightyear's space ranger spin, Peter Pan's Flight, Dumbo's Flying elephants, Goofy's Barnstorm roller coaster. While Billy and I rode space mountain the girls and KJ watched Cinderellabration, a show with all the princesses in front of the Castle. We also had watched Belle perform an interactive play of Beauty and the Beast in her garden.
By 4 pm we returned to our hotel - drove to the Coronado Springs resort to eat at the Maya Grill then back to Port Orleans change into Halloween costumes. We were back at MK by 8PM to enter Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween party. It was an autograph and trick or treating experience for the kids - they loved it - Wendy, Alexa and KJ got their faces painted, there were some booming spectacular fireworks and Alexa got to meet a lot of Princesses, Minnie and some princes in the Hall of fame tent. we also met and got our picture taken personally with Mickey Mouse at his cottage. We didn't leave the park until nearly midnight.
Monday:
We slept in a bit and arrived at MK by 11AM for our extremely tough ticket lunch in Cinderella's Castle. We ate quickly, not by choice, but because they rush people through it with limited menu items - all was very good though. Then out came Belle, Cinderella, Mary Poppins and Sleeping Beauty. They each met us personally at our table for auto's and pictures. Sleeping Beauty planted a big kiss on KJ's forehead that remained there all day in red lipstick. We then rode the Grand Prix cars, Pirates of the Caribbean, The very entertaining comedically hosted Jungle boat tour and saw Splash Mountian and Big Thunder Railroad - though no one would ride the later two with me. We then shopped, watched the parade and got more auto's for the kids and did some shopping. We left the park when it closed at 6PM and ate pizza in our room for dinner.
Tuesday:
We spent the entire day at MGM Studios. KJ and Wendy saw Disney's Playhouse show in the front row and saw Bear in the Big Blue House, Stanley and the characters from Winnie the Pooh. Billy, Alexa and I saw the animation show and took a tour about the life of Walt Disney. We then met the Power Rangers in Streets of America and met with Jessie, Woody and Buzz from Toy Story at Al's Toy Barn. We then ate lunch at Pizza Planet and played a few games in the arcade. I bought Star Wars Episode III on DVD at lunch. We then saw Lights, Motors Action! Stunt show which was awesome.
I then rode Aerosmith's Rockin' Rollercoaster - which was one of the best I've ever ridden. Billy wouldn't go on it with me, but did go through the line with me and took the "chicken exit". But amazingly enough he did ride Tower of Terror with me. It was wicked and scary. But we both loved it. My stomach was in my throat after those two rides.
The girls and KJ watched the Little Mermaid show while we were riding the coasters. It then started raining and didn't stop until the next morning.
We took the boat from our resort over to Downtown Disney and ate at Wolfgang Pucks restaurant - each dinner getting better each day thus far! The Disney dining plan was just amazing - each bill for dinner was $100-$150 and we didn't have to pay anything, not even the gratuity. We paid upfront - but certainly not that much! The rain made things difficult as KJ feel asleep on the boat over and we had no stroller due to the rain. We did some light shopping - including the Virgin Megastore where we met real Star Wars Stormtroopers who were appearing for the DVD premier.
Wednesday: A somewhat relaxing day off. We were so tired even after going to bed as early as possible the previous nights (save Halloween) that we decided to not go to a theme park today. We instead took the boat back over to Downtown Disney and ate at McDonald's and shopped some more. The kids enjoyed the Mega Disney store and the Lego store. We then returned to Port Orleans and swam and played on the water slide. KJ saw how much fun Alexa and Billy were having and said he wanted to try it. It was a bad idea. I walked him up to the slide (an S shaped pretty fast slide) and as I gave him a slight push to go down he turned around to reach back for me and went down feet first on his belly. Wendy and Alexa were there to catch him but he surely got a lot of water in his mouth and up his nose. Later on the walk back to our room I had him on my shoulders and he said that the slide was "really, really, really, really scary". Poor little guy, I felt bad.
We then drove to a buffet Dinner at Chef Mickey's in the contemporary resort. It was another tough to book character meal where the kids met Donald Duck, Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale and Goofy. The food was darn good for a buffet. Mickey would come out and his song was playing - every table would whip out their cloth napkins and wave them around like terrible towel's at football games. It was quite a sight. We had a nice group photo taken there as well.
We then visited the gift shop in the monorail lobby at the contemporary resort. Wendy was paying the bill and I had the kids. As soon as we got in Lexie and Billy were off browsing, KJ saw these M&M dispenser with slot machine type arms to deploy the candy. Before I could catch him he dumped out about 25 pink M&M's on the floor. I dropped the diaper bag and camera bag to clean up the mess then picked them back up and held Kenden as I walked around the rest of the shop. He would not stop saying something through his pacifier that I didn't quite catch "I finally told him to be quiet 'cause he wouldn't stop." I then took out his pacifier and made him tell me what he was trying to say a little slower. He was saying "Mommy's Keys!". I looked down and they weren't in the diaper bag. I ran back to the M&M's and there they were on the floor!!!!! He saved the day. Because we had driven to the resort for dinner. How amazing is that?
Thursday (out last day in the parks):
I had planned to just go to Epcot today, but Alexa said she was sad to not get to see the Animal Kingdom. We checked the schedule and tonight resort guests could stay at Epcot until midnight. So I booked us a dinner at Epcot and we went to Animal Kingdom in the morning and at 4PM took the bus to Epcot. Our dinner reservations were at 5PM.
Things went great at AK. We took the Kilimanjaro Safari tour through the African wildlife. We saw Hippos, Crocodiles, Zebras, Giraffes, Elephants, Lions and Lionesses. We saw Gorillas before that on the walking tour. This Safari was aboard a big truck - with an entertaining host. We also saw the "It's tough to be a bug" 4D show under the massive Tree of Life. It was a bit too scary for Alexa, but the rest of us enjoyed it. We were running out of time so we ate a late lunch at a great McDonalds in Dinoland USA. We rode the best two rollercoasters of the trip later on - they spin while your on the track, adding a dizzying affect to the coasters. Alexa, Billy and I rode them 3 times. As much like all week there were never any lines anywhere to speak of. The kids then played in the boneyard playground and we purchased our group photos in front of the tree of life.
Off to Epcot:
What a great park. It has something for everyone. We arrived barely in time for a amazing dinner at the Teppanyaki restaurant in Japan world. We were treated to a good show with our Chef Ken cooking the meals right in front of us on the 500 degree grill. The kids got chopsticks and learned how to use them! KJ was an old pro, feeding himself his rice, chicken and veggies with them. Lexie got some beautiful art taffy created for her after dinner at a booth outside Japan, while Wendy and Billy walked to France to get some wine and deserts. I took some pictures and listened to some Moroccan musicians (in Morocco) and Chubby Checker (in America) live in concert. It was about 8:30PM and 30 minutes before illuminations would light up Epcot (fireworks, lasers, etc.) so we caught the American History theatre show and got out just in time to see Illuminations. It was a great show and very touching. KJ was asleep through all the lights and booming fireworks. But I enjoyed watching Wendy hold the kids tight, who inturn were holding there ears tight! Wendy cried near the end of the show. She said it was because the show really moved her with it's we are all one world theme, but I think it was because she got to take her family to Disney. I was so happy all my planning went off like clockwork - we didn't really miss a thing.
After Illuminations we walked around the world, ate some Churro's in Mexico and then shopped for some sweat jackets and a blanket for KJ. It was a chilly evening and we were still in our shorts and T's from the day at AK. Wendy and I picked up some T-shirts and a DVD as well. I bought her a Mickey Mouse hat from Fantasia that lights up. It was not nearly 10 pm and we hadn't hit a single ride in Epcot. We really wanted to ride Soarin', the GM Test Track and Mission Space. I also wanted to see inside Spaceship Earth (the big round golf ball thing as Billy called it). I rode the GM test track, cool - but not amazing. I was a little scared during the crash test part - and enjoyed the 67 MPH ride around the track. No one rode with me.
While I rode the test track, Wendy and the kids searched for the hardest Hidden Mickey at Epcot. They found it - hint look in the main store by the watches! Hidden Mickeys were fun to find all week. If you don't know about Hidden Mickey's they are subtle images of Mickey Mouse (three circles that form his face and ears) that are added to many things around all the Disney properties. They can be anything and on anything. There's a guide book to help you find them all - we just winged it. We then rode Soarin' which was a breathtaking hangliding IMAX ride. Billy and Wendy rode first, while Alexa and I hung out with a sleeping 2 year old. Then after they returned I was able to hop right on it with a reluctant Alexa using the baby swap option. No wait for a ride that was a 95 minute wait when we arrived at 5PM. Billy and Wendy probably waited 20 minutes. Alexa really enjoyed it - I was glad to finally get her out of her shell for something so amazing. She was very scared of many rides all week. But she toughed this one out, and beat her fear - she was proud of herself, so was I!
Friday:
We check out and drove to Daytona Beach. Took a picture with the pace car at Daytona USA, then drove right out and parked on the beach. It was 1PM. And I knew we had to leave by about 3PM to make sure we had enough time to drive safely back to get Raider and Juno picked up at Doggie Day care by noon. We didn't leave the beach until 5PM. It was too much fun, the kids first beach experience was and amazing one. We played in the sand and surf, rented a boogie board and got to see a real live Sea turtle come on shore to lay her eggs. That was quite cool! We ate at Bob Evans and got on the rode at 6PM. I planned our route home through Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina in I-95 and I-26. Then to I-40 over to Knoxville and up I-75 to home. It was a tough drive that got very scary as on the rode between Columbia, SC and Greenville/Spartanburg we must have seen 20 deer right along side the highway. We took it at about 55MPH max. Then I-40 was tough driving at 2AM in the morning with curving road, falling rocks and runaway semi's who don't want to use their brakes. I made frequent stops to refresh myself. Our precious cargo needed me to be awake and alert!
We made it home at 11am. 17 straight hours of driving later. Safe and sound. We are already talking about going back again. Everyone at Disney is so nice (employees), everything is so clean and beautiful. And Late Oct. Nov. is definitely the time to go! What a great trip. My thanks to Wendy and the kids for taking such great care of me and each other. I love you all!
