Do I Dare? A Non-Fort Report by a Lurker!

[lklasing 16]

Sun, May 29 – Epcot day!

As always, I was first up on Sunday. Happily, we weren’t doing morning EMH this day, so everyone else got to sleep in a little extra. I again caught a few pics of our wonderful view:

It’s hard to see in these pics, but someone was actually out there at the main CR pool swimming laps! Pretty small diameter to get much mileage in, but it looked like fun.

Finally, it was time for me to wake everyone up. These two looked amazingly comfortable on the pull out couch:

After breakfast in the room, we were on the move. We had planned to meet the Smiths at the monorail station to all head to Epcot together, but we got word before we left room that only Dave and Michele were going to make it and the others would come along afterward. As it turns out, when Katherine and Dave Jr. saw that their dad was actually serious about leaving them behind if they stayed in the bed, they decided they would go ahead and hoist themselves out of those beds and make it by the planned 8:30 meeting at the monorail station after all. We were so glad everyone was able to make it there all together, rather than try to catch up with each other later.

Even Dave Jr. was a good sport about wearing the shirts (sorry about the white-outs!):

Cute picture, almost ruined by a rhino:

One funny thing that wound up happening on this trip: every time any number of us rode the monorail together, we couldn’t all ride together in the same car. The kids just had to split up from each other, I think mainly to make me lose my mind. Somehow I was very comfortable letting them go to the MK by themselves, but got very nervous when we all split up on the same monorail train. Ridiculous.

The four youngest:

The two oldest:

And, of course, the matching feet of the two oldest:

Once we made it to Epcot, we had to stop for the obligatory picture on our way in:

and then I made the Soarin’ FP run. Unfortunately, we missed rope drop by about 20 minutes, so there were already a bunch of people in the park. I told everyone to go ahead to Test Track while I was at the Land and that I would catch up with them by going through the single rider line. But, where were they when I finished getting the FPs? Definitely not in TT. The were in Club Cool, tasting cokes! I couldn’t believe it. The park was filling with people every second that ticked by, and these yahoos thought it was a good idea to go into the one area that never fills up. By the time we got there, TT was at a 60 minute wait. Even though there were 9 of us, we decided to go single rider, which obviously saved a ton of time. And, all but one of us got to be in a car with a friend, as most groups are either two or four, leaving two spaces per car to be filed in by singles.

Of the 8 of us that we wound up with pictures of from this ride, only one brave soul was cool enough to raise her hands on this terrifying part:

Everyone (especially the ones who will be driving soon) had to check out the cars:

Not sure what this one is about, but I thought it was fun:

Coming up next - Beer at Biergarten and hooking up with even more friends at the MK

[BouncingTiggers 98]

More great pics. You certainly put together a wonderful TR. I'm looking toward to more.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

It's amazing how kids can get motivated when they want to. :rofl2: More great pictures. :parrot:

[DaveInTN 3,247]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that would refer to my family as yahoos if they messed up our park strategy.

[lklasing 16]

By the time we got off TT, Epcot was packed. Slightly off-topic note here: I was really surprised at how crowded it was our whole trip. Last time we were there was spring break 2010 and everything was packed to the gills, but we were able to ride whatever we wanted because we had 9 Give-A-Day vouchers that we used to get tons of instant fastpasses. Of course, we didn’t have that this time and I was worried about whether the trip would be as fun. But, of course it was – it was just a different trip this time. Not killing ourselves to ride everything but instead just going with the flow and leaving to go swim, rest or whatever when we got too tired or hot was the way to go.

Anyway, when we left TT, we headed to M:S (orange side, of course) and everyone loved it.

By the time we got done with M:S and a brief cool-off, we were a half hour away from our return time for Soarin', and it took us every minute to get that far with a group of 9 on foot. It was the Smiths' first time ever on my favorite ride (and maybe Lynn’s too – I can’t remember), so it was extra fun. On the way out, they grabbed FPs to use later that night when they returned for their dinner reservations at Chefs de France.

Finally, it was time to head to Germany for lunch! I found out on the way what happens when you make 6 kids/teenagers take too many pictures – they start intentionally photobombing them.

This was our second time to have lunch at Biergarten, and Ray, Dave and I really enjoyed it. Some of the kids complained about the food, but everyone was able to find enough to fill them up as I didn't ever hear about anyone being hungry afterward. Nevertheless, I think that will be the last time we take the kids there. Ray and I love it, but the girls would rather find a burger or something else most anywhere else, so there's no reason to force that issue. And, now that they’re old enough to handle themselves without us, I think we’ll just split next time.

After lunch, I headed back to the CR with all the kids while Ray and Dave executed their plan to drink around the world. And that's just what they did, in their matching shirts. O0 I would have loved to see how cute that was.

Meanwhile, kids and i slooooooly meandered back to the front, and then caught the monorail back to the resort.

Another Photopass opportunity presented itself, and happily they behaved better this time:

Everyone was beat for a while.

After a brief stop back in the Smiths' room, we again boarded the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. It sure doesn't seem like it would have taken us over 2 hours to accomplish traveling from the Germany pavillion to the MK, but it did.

Anyway, the main reason for our afternoon trip to the MK was to see some friends of ours who were in town for a sporting event that weekend. We caught up with them at Columbia Harbour House and then hit Tomorrowland together. My best friend from college Claire had also made it into town by then and joined us as well. We got FPs for Buzz and and walked then into Monsters, Inc. Several in this group had never done this attraction and really enjoyed it, but it was especially fun when the dad of our friends got tagged for sleeping during the show. :sleep:

After confirming that Space was offline, we split off from our friends, who wanted to keep touring the MK, which we were just too tired and hot to continue to do.

But of course, I’m never too tired to make kids do Photopass shots. (The blowing kisses one wasn’t my idea, but I thought it was cute!)

Again, we got some bonus shots:

So, the kids, Claire and I headed back to the CR/BLT, where the kids swam again before dinner. Somehow even swimming is more fun at WDW. :D Claire's husband made it to the resort in enough time to join Ray, Claire and me at the Top of the World Lounge. Yes, we went there the night before, but we sure did like that place. This time we had a light dinner there along with drinks. Very nice. Ray and I had the flatbread and mini-chicken burgers, and it all was very yummy. We didn't even stay for fireworks this time, but we sure were comfortable there.

Meanwhile, I had an ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe for Danielle, Jodi and Lynn. They had a great time. Apparently, the servers tried to set up (in a fictional Disney-type way, of course) Jodi and some 12 year old boy. They all had a great time, probably especially Jodi, but maybe not whoever this boy is.

Jodi made the mistake of asking for more root beer:

In the meantime, all the Smiths went to dinner at Chefs de France, and had a great time.

What I didn’t realize around this time is that Danielle and Katherine were planning a late night at the MK, but this is where I turned into the mean mom. We had too many days left on this trip to get too exhausted at this point, and sleeping in is not an option, at least for my family. In this heat and crowds, you have to get up and go every day. But happily, while I was throwing water on Danielle’s plans, Dave was doing the same with Katherine’s. Great minds think alike.

That’s about it for this day. It was a great day and we really had a ball. The only other noteworthy (or not…) item from today was Jodi and Lynn pushing Danielle’s buttons one too many times while at dinner at Whispering Canyon. This came about because Jodi’s favorite phrase, which must be said with an extra country accent (she’s very skilled at that) is “Oh my gravy”. (Anyone else out there watch The Amazing Race?) Anyway, she got Lynn hooked on saying that too and apparently they both said it all throughout dinner, even after a warning from Danielle of being locked out of the room when they returned. Since they couldn’t control themselves, this is what we found when Ray and I got home:

Anywhere else and I would have had a significant problem with her actually locking them out and making them sit in the hall, but in Disney, it seemed very appropriate.

Coming up: Hollywood Studios – will we have an American Idol??

[lklasing 16]

I'm glad I'm not the only one that would refer to my family as yahoos if they messed up our park strategy.

"Yahoos" is as family-appropriate word I could come up with given that they spent the first 30 minutes in the park that day drinking coke! :-X

[liv luvs disney 2]

Oh Leslie, I'm so happy to see you over here and I'm even happier that you're posting this TR! :banana:

[kampfirekim 260]

Still lovin' it! Only one word comes to mind.... FUN!!! :banana: :banana: :banana:

[stefa70 205]

Loving this report! You seemed to be so organized despite having that many people together. I know as Mom, you get tired of the rhino faces in your pictures, but I have giggled at every one! The kids will look back at those pics one day and remember how much fun they had "wrecking" your photos. They're so darn cute, even the rhino face doesn't affect that. ^-^

[stacktester 78]

It's taking me a while to get caught up but this is a kickbutt trip report. One thing I have to ask though, what is the white out blocking? I know it can't be the names so please tell lol.

[campingpixi 11]

I was wondering the same thing.. LOL

[lklasing 16]

Hey Guys - sorry I didn't get an update posted yesterday. Father's Day activities kept me occupied until too late to try to get an update done.

Liv, glad you found us! Kim and Stefa, thanks for your sweet comments as always!

About the white out shirts, yes, those are names that are whited out. I give everyone alter-egos for these reports, so I whited out the real names on the shirt. I feel like I really need to do this when we have other families traveling with us. I hate it, as the shirts are so much cuter without the dots, but it's just something I feel like I need to do.

More to come tonight!

Leslie

[mgsmom 9]

Wow - how have I missed seeing this report??? Am enjoying it so much! Your whole group is hilarious! You guys look like you're having a great time. That's so great that the kids were responsible enough to do their parent-less night and do it well! Here's to some grown-up conversation! :doublebeer:

I saw you were riding Kali River Rapids at AK - do you think a 3yo could handle that? She's not big on roller coasters or "fast" rides - although we tricked her into riding Goofy's Barnstormer last year when she was 2. She did fine, but when we asked her if she wanted to go again she said "No thanks" and kept walking...

Can't wait to read the rest of your report! We are going to be at the Fort again this year, but won't be at the cabins again. We are renting a camper - so we can pretend we are real campers! :dance:

I like smileys too...

[stacktester 78]

Can't wait to read the rest of your report! We are going to be at the Fort again this year, but won't be at the cabins again. We are renting a camper - so we can pretend we are real campers!

Gatordad would be very proud of you Beth.

[Lil Lisa 53]

Sorry I'm late!! I love your trip reports Leslie!

[lklasing 16]

New readers - Yay!

About Kali, Beth, yes I think she would be fine as long as she's tall enough (don't know what the height requirement is but it should be easy enough to find out). It's not like a roller coaster at all and really not fast, but it does have one big drop toward the end. But, I think she'll have so much fun leading up to that point, that she won't mind at all.

Thanks for everyone's comments!!

[lklasing 16]

Monday, May 30 (Memorial Day)

This morning, I woke up early (of course) and decided that I’d go grab a hot breakfast for everyone instead of having more of the same in the room. The Contempo Café came through again. My only mistake was getting one breakfast for each of us – 5 meals was about 2 too many. It was all good, though!

The plan was to meet the Smiths at the bus stop around 8:15. We were a couple of minutes late, but all them were already there. No one wanted to sleep in today! :D We took the opportunity to get lathered up and sprayed with sunscreen, and then hopped the bus heading to HS. (We had waited until today to go to this park, as there was no way I was going to brave Star Wars Weekends!)

Bus fun:

We weren’t at the front of the crowd since we got there at 8:55, but I grabbed everyone’s tickets and made my way as close to the front as I could, obviously heading straight to TSMM while everyone else hit RNRC. I went through the store on the left side of the street, but amazingly I wasn't the only one with that good idea. Nevertheless, I (along with 50 of my new best friends) poured from the store as soon as they dropped the rope and went straight to the TSMM FP line. Once I got there, the line just for FPs was already back to One Man's Dream. But, I got the FPs, and they would be good at 11:30, which I thought wasn’t too bad. The thing that killed me once I was done and heading toward RNRC was that the FP line for TSMM was by then all the way back to the big hat. I couldn’t believe it!

Meanwhile, everyone was loving RNRC.

Lynn especially loved it, as she had never done it before. She declared that she had run out of screams (but only in a good way of course). After hooking up with everyone, we all headed to the TOT which only posted a 10 minute wait, though I’m pretty sure was a little longer than that. But while we were in line, Danielle and Katherine started getting itchy to go try out for American Idol. I was hoping they would wait till I could go with them, but I wasn’t going to miss TOT and I figured this was my only chance. So, they bailed and the rest of us had a ball on TOT. It was just too bad that none of us knew that if you are under 18, you have to have someone over 18 with you as your "agent", so the girls had to wait on me after all as I finished the ride and then made my way over.

Anyway, after TOT I made my over to American Idol, where Danielle and Katherine were patiently (??) waiting for me to get there. After about a 15 minute wait, they made it inside and eventually each tried out. I was so proud of both of them! I even got to be in there for each of their auditions, as the “agent” has to be present. They didn’t make it through, but they each did GREAT! I was so impressed and proud! And, I think they were both proud of themselves too, which makes the whole thing more than worthwhile.

The singers!

The singers with their groupies:

After the AI Experience, it was about time for lunch, so we headed straight to Sci Fi. The food was fine but not great, but we sure do love going there anyway. Somehow, it just sucks all the kids (not just ours but everyone else’s too!) into watching those movies and everyone just chills for a while in the nice, cool, quiet drive-in.

Waiting…:

We’re in!

When we were done, I really could have happily stayed there and watched another loop or two of those bad movie clips, but it was time to head to TSMM. The Smiths had never done this ride, so it was fun getting to go with them. I usually lose terribly on this game, especially to Danielle who always beats me by a huge margin, but this time I really kicked butt. It may have had something to do with the fact that I rode with Dave, who wasn’t really very effective at this, but I’m choosing to believe that it was just the fact of me increasing my skill so tremendously since our last trip.

More soon!

[lklasing 16]

After TSMM, Dave broke off from the group to go to One Man’s Dream while the rest of us were ready to check out the new Star Tours with FPs that I had grabbed during lunch when our TSMM FPs came due. (I have to admit that I thought I was pretty smart on that one. O0 ) On the way to Star Tours, though, we stopped for ice cream and then got sucked into helping with a "commercial" for HS right by the hat. The kids were all in the video they purported to make, and Ray was the microphone guy. Everyone had a great time and Ray even got a souvenir out of it. (He's now officially a "Movie Buff". ;D

After filming, we really enjoyed the new Star Tours. I'm sure you've heard about the renovations and how they can change the video/movement from ride to ride, and of course since I just rode it once, I can't say how that works, but I can say that it was really a lot of fun. All the kids seemed to love it too.

After a pow-wow under the big hat about what was going to happen next (I was heading to DTD, some of the kids wanted to go back to TOT, and the dads were heading back to the resort to take naps), we split up by gender. All the guys headed back to CR/BLT where they all apparently took big power naps (Ray, of course, was not napping with Dave and Dave Jr.!), while I took all the girls to DTD.

On our way out:

Since we’d have to take two busses to get there, we opted instead to grab the tram to take us to the cab area and just get there the quick way this time.

Our first stop was the World of Disney, where I got a Christmas ornament I love, plus a picture frame for my office and two tea towels for home. No one else bought anything, but Danielle, Katherine and Michele loved shopping around. Not Jodi, though – she is a self-proclaimed non-shopper. She HATES shopping, but will put up with it when she has to, especially if somewhere like WOD is followed by somewhere like Goofy's Candy Company. :) Everyone picked out a treat for themselves, and Michele and Katherine even got something for Dave Jr. They’re very sweet siblings to each other.

The lighting is terrible in this, but here is Lynn with her Mickey rice krispie treat:

Finally, we headed to the bus stop where I put all girls on a bus back to the CR and then grabbed the next bus to SSR to go visit Claire and her husband by the pool. It seemed like a very nice resort but I wouldn't like having to take a bus each and every time we went somewhere. As it turns out, Claire always drives everywhere they go when they stay there, but that's easy for them since they have a car.

We had another heavy rain that afternoon, which Claire and I rode out by the pool under the big umbrella, so I didn't have time to make it back to our resort before our dinner ADRs. But Ray, after a nice nap, didn’t mind just meeting me at Epcot. I had an ADR for all 9 of us at Via Napoli, but the Smith kids managed to talk Dave into taking them to the MK for the night and Danielle, Jodi and Lynn jumped on that bandwagon too, so it was just the two of us. Not a bad way to spend an evening - date night in Epcot!. We had never gotten to go to a restaurant in the WS for dinner with just the two of us before and we had a really good time. The food at Via Napoli was great and our server was fabulous. This is a spot that we will definitely try to go to again, hopefully most of the times we come.

Meanwhile, earlier that afternoon, Dave Jr. was still napping and Danielle, Katherine and Lynn were on the beach, so Dave authorized Jodi and Michele to head to the MK all by themselves. It turned out great. They managed to catch the monorail over, get dinner at CHH and have fun all by themselves, though they eventually ran into the others by chance on a different trip to CHH. I think they had a big time getting to ditch their older sisters and parents and just get to be the BFFs together that they always are at home.

Eventually, Dave Jr. woke up and Dave took him and the other girls over to the MK. I really have no idea what rides everyone was able to ride, but I know everyone had a great time.

When Ray and I returned from Epcot, we headed straight up to our new favorite spot which I still miss to this day - the TOTWL. Someone had taken our usual table, but our sweet bartender that we had had the last two nights was there again, and we really enjoyed relaxing in that place. It really is very nice. We left in time to catch the EWP from our balcony and then were joined by Dave for a nightcap.

Finally, everyone sacked out. I went to bed hoping that Dave would be able to get the Smith kids out of bed again tomorrow to head to AK for rope drop. They've been before, but never really got to know the park.

One last full day tomorrow! :-[

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Well, this is a great report!!! (Except for that red shirt on the right) :popo:

[stacktester 78]

That rhino face is hilarious. Anytime I feel like I was along for the trip I consider it a good report. I however was in Stone Mountain but feel as though I was with your clan as well.

[H in SC 85]

Leslie The Lurker, So Glad You Dared!!!! Man! Did I Enjoy Your Trip Report.

Thank You So Much For Producing Such A Great Gem.

[DaveInTN 3,247]

Great updates Leslie! Sounds like a magical trip. And I agree...Via Napoli is awesome!

[liv luvs disney 2]

This has been a great TR! :popcorn:

[mgsmom 9]

Great update! We did not spend much time at DHS, so it is really fun reading about it. I think this trip, I might have to get DH to do something with DD so I can ride RNRC!

[lklasing 16]

Thanks, y'all! And Carol, sorry about the shirt but you can't keep a Roll Tide girl down! :dance:

Getting dangerously close to the end of this report. More shortly...