First Christmas Trip to Disney for the Buckeye Fort Family

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

I must confess-we did GET IT DONE!!! this trip.

We had friends with us, who stayed at Bonnet Creek, and the 4 of them had never been to Disney.

Crazy I know but there are people out there who don't know what they are missing!!!

So we needed to show them the Disney we know. We kicked butt and showed them the best darn time we could despite it being Crazy Christmas Week!!!!

Bonus FP's are always a plus and nice "forgive us" gift!

Even when we don't get an awesome ADR for HDDR, we end up doing it because it rains and we want some fun.

Unfortunately we all still leave singing the OLD song the whole way back to the camper!! But I am sure you know what I mean, old habits are hard to break!

Santa-

We have a 9yr old who is a details person (imagine that!).

So when Santa left a note in our cabin, she had to do some investigating when we were at our friend's place in Bonnet Creek later in the week.

Funny, she found the same type of note. Same handwriting, same paper, same pen.

Santa leaves no room for questions when you visit the Fort over Christmas!!!

Good thinking on Santa's part. Good thing you didn't run into any of those RV Santa people either....

[Fort4ever 0]

This trip report ROCKS!!! More please...

[DaveInTN 3,247]

WOW! Totally impressed on the grand slam at BOG. We dined there and all i had was a Coke Zero.

We also were seated in the West Wing. We all really like it except Anna. She wasn't a fan of the lightening and thunder. But I thought it was very cool!

Also impressed with getting HDDR reservations on Christmas. You went full bore!

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Grande Slam!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are icons now!

We are also a RD family, even when we went Spring Break, and MK was that crazy 7am EMH. We get soooooooooooooooooooo much done before the crowd shows up. The family doesn't complain after the first ride, and DS is too excited to complain at all. We're doing it again next trip. But, I always do a break day after that, so you are really packing it in.

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Love this report... and first grand slam .... So when do you rate the beers ? and mom.. you just rock !!! Oh and I was like your nine year old... Some day when we meet at the fort..... remind me to tell you her career path.... :rofl2:

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

This trip report ROCKS!!! More please...

Thanks!

Hoping to sit down tonight and get the next couple days on

WOW! Totally impressed on the grand slam at BOG. We dined there and all i had was a Coke Zero.

We also were seated in the West Wing. We all really like it except Anna. She wasn't a fan of the lightening and thunder. But I thought it was very cool!

Also impressed with getting HDDR reservations on Christmas. You went full bore!

Go Big or Go Home! right?

I must say the West Wing was quietier than the ballroom (except for the thunder) just because there is so few people, Just walking through the ballroom felt a little like 1900 Park Fair

Grande Slam!!!!!!!!!!! You guys are icons now!

We are also a RD family, even when we went Spring Break, and MK was that crazy 7am EMH. We get soooooooooooooooooooo much done before the crowd shows up. The family doesn't complain after the first ride, and DS is too excited to complain at all. We're doing it again next trip. But, I always do a break day after that, so you are really packing it in.

Our only down day is usually the one after we pull into the fort just past midnight.

Love this report... and first grand slam .... So when do you rate the beers ? and mom.. you just rock !!! Oh and I was like your nine year old... Some day when we meet at the fort..... remind me to tell you her career path.... :rofl2:

I am totally intrigued now. I just have to know what the Big Kahuna does for a living!!!

As far as the beer goes

I would think one would have to take the time to enjoy drinking them to rate them!

Hard to do when you're goal is to get 4 totally drunk (so you have trip report pictures of empty glasses) while also eating dinner and actually talking to the friends we were having dinner with.

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

Time to get back on track.

The kids are off tomorrow, so I should be able to bang out some more reporting tonight and tomorrow.

We had the friends who came with us over for a "de-briefing" dinner tonight and she brought a cd of all the pictures she took. So I just have to share a bunch of them because they are so good and she got pictures I didn't (like HDDR). So I'll start with those. Just to catch us up.

So going back to our Magic Kingdom Christmas Eve. My friend did an awesome job catching every stop that very busy morning (it turns out we did more than I originally reported-what would we do without our digital memories???).

So deep breath, and I'll get through these fast.

Barnstormer-first stop of the day

Dumbo

Buzz

Winnie the Pooh

The Carousel

Small World

Jungle Cruise

Magic Carpets

Pirates

Waiting for our LM FP's to come due

Had a CM tell us to not climb on the rocks

Rode the ride

And here's where I messed up and forgot that we saw Dream Along with Mickey before we changed the girls into their princess costumes

My friend caught the girls on the big screen talking to Marty on the Laugh Floor.

My parents own Clydesdales and have since before I was born, so I was happy to see she snagged a picture of the one in the parade.

Here's Chip and Dale

Waiting for Philharmagic

A cast member stopped the girls and asked them for their princess autographs. As the girls were each signing on their respective pages another cast member came out and said she was needed in the gift shop that she obviously worked at and she politely told her that getting her signatures was more important and she would be in as soon as she could. That made the girls happy.

We were milling around waiting for Gaston to come out since we had our Belle with us. So we took a few pics of the fountain, Here's one.

Belle was refusing to meet "GasStink" (as she was calling him). So there was a pinky swear to seal the deal made with Mama. So it cost me $20.00 in souvenir money, but I would have given her that anyway at the end of the trip.

A cute picture of the kids passing the time waiting to be sat at Be Our Guest

Dancing with Beast after dinner

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

awesome!

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

More of the extra pictures

Christmas Day at the AK

Here's a pre-dawn shot as we walked in.

I especially love that there is no heads in this picture. ROPE DROP is AWESOME!!! But don't tell anyone, I want it to stay that way

Our only Primevil Whirl photo

A great picture of the Monkeys and the Gorillas

HDDR Extras

Waiting outside-This is how the girls passed the time when we waited for anything.

Or we would ask them to pose for a picture, such hams they are.

Always fun when any of the cast talk to the table

But we had great seats for a table for 10 so, the cast walked by us a few times

Here's Claire begging our 5 yr old to go be part of the Spectacle-he wasn't buying what she was selling.

More celebrating

Still flying high after all that fun, posing in front of the Fort tree

The kids loved this display when we went looping afterwards

We are caught up and it is off to EPCOT tomorrow morning-bright and early. Rope Drop, you know!

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

A great picture of the Monkeys and the Gorillas

Everyone please note the lack of monkey butt in this picture.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Everyone please note the lack of monkey butt in this picture.

Noted.

The title of that photo is hilarious, though!

Nicely done, BFM!

I love all the bonus photos.

Y'all did a great job at the parks.

TCD

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

December 26, 2012

Rope Drop at EPCOT

We pulled into the parking lot at 7:10. It was barely raining, but stopped shortly after getting out of the car. Normally we pull in next to the monorail to park just to the right of the monorail and the ball. Not today. Here we are walking in from the parking lot, clearly on the other side of the track.

Which honestly worked out ok, since that is the bag check we prefer to go through anyway.

Also notice the difference an hour makes at Christmas time. This was an 8am opening and not 7am so we have daylight.

So this made for a not too bad place in line.

See that lone woman ahead of us? She is a cast member who is a holding a space for a family. So what looked like #2 in line was actually #7, but it worked out ok.

Why not use this time we are stuck behind the turnstiles to take some Disney Christmas decoration pictures (I much rather prefer the softer opening and rope drop at the fountain but oh well).

The EPCOT decorations in future world feel sparce, but I suppose that it gives that modern feel. Here's what I can see from here.

Garland and Christmas Balls hangind at the gates.

Here's the attention to detail...That pretty blue Christmas ball is the earth.

The traditional EPCOT topiaries get in on the act too.

Goofy is ice skating and Donald is at the edge of the pond with his old fashion skates hanging over his shoulder

So they finally let us in and we grab this shot while we wait for everyone else to make it through the turnstiles.

Ok, that's enough playing around, we gotta move it to Soarin'

BuckeyeFortFan took the 2yr old and grabbed Test Track FP's while the rest of the group rode Soarin'. We met back up together and rode Living with the Land (which terrifies my 7yr old and the 2 yr old-insane I know). We ate at the Sunshine Season's. Number one rule on vacation is keep those kids fed and watered at all times. If you do they don't melt down!

This is about the time we start getting texts from home that there is a winter storm warning in our part of Ohio. this typically means 1-3 inches over a couple days but they were calling for 6-8 to come down all in one day starting mid-morning. This is crazy snow for us and here it was Christmas break and we were missing the first snow fall of the season when we would have been at home from school to sled and build snowmen. This was the topic of discussion most of the day and probably slowed us down a bunch since both moms kept checking facebook and texting with the rest of the moms in our group about the snow fun everyone was having back home. Yes we got a little homesick that day (first time this has ever happened for us at Disney), but we are over that by the next day.

By now it's Test Track FP time, well and Baby Swap so Mama could ride. I just had to see the new ride for myself.

Of course with the Baby Swap it takes twice as long, but we are on vacation. When the main group came back out I took my Baby Swap and the allotted two kids and one of the kids took my FP and I headed back in with the 5 yr olds and 1 of the 7 yr olds. The 3 of them took the front row so here is my view of their ride.

While I was on the ride, BuckeyeFortFan tried to send our friends to ride Mission Space (right next door) while we took the kids through Innoventions.

Well, what seemed like an hour later we get a txt that they are on the wrong ride. When they left test track they were instructed to head towards the Jamminators and make a hard right. They somehow turned left and then right and then left and ended up on SpaceShip Earth. The kicker was they were near the printing press before they figured out it wasn't the thrill ride we sent them too. We laughed so hard. It really was our fault for thinking after just a few days under our tutelage that they were ready to navigate on their own.

They finally caught up to us after we had done Sum of All Thrills, played with the kiosks outside of the green house and countless times set off the alarm and jumped on the slam lab pads. So we headed across to play the "fire house" game that my kids LOVE.

By now it was lunch time, Electric Umbrella of course. We threw lots of trash in the talking trash can and then just had to play the Piggy Bank game because we skipped it before lunch (another Kid favorite in our family).

Then we walked over to the Seas. The Nemo line was a 90 minute wait and it had started to rain, so we covered the stroller and headed in to Turtle Talk. The kids sat right down front and asked Crush a question. Then we played in the aquarium while it rained.

When the rain stopped whe rode Nemo-5 minute wait.

Time to exercise the imagination with Figment before heading over to the World Showcase. BuckeyeFortFan calls this a time suck, but the kids enjoy it.

O'Canada....

We did the movie for the first time ever with kids (I think) and checked out the sights.

Then the UK...

It's early afternoon by now and the crowds weren't that bad.

We met Father Christmas.

We heard the Beetles band while we waited to meet Mary Poppins. I just love to meet her, especially with a large group of kids. Her nanny skills pop right out and it usually so much fun. It happened again.

She talked to each of them, but the Mom's couldn't hear what she was saying.

Our friend was CONVINCED this was Snow White from Christmas Eve, so he was checking his phone to compare pictures.

But she just kept talking to the girls and the girls would giggle or say something back

We knew she was saying something great to them and we couldn't wait to hear.

She really spent a large amount of time with them before the official "meet the character pose for the camera."

I couldn't wait to quiz them on what she was saying.

"I don't know, Mama. We couldn't hear her over the band."

Really? ?

So, over to France.

It was Slushie time for the adults of course. The BuckeyeForters love the Grand Marnier one, but since we were showing off all of what Disney offers we had to get a Grey Goose for comparision. Grand Marnier is hands down better in my opinion.

Ever wonder what happens when you drink a slushie drink in front of kids who think they should get their own cool looking slushie drink?

This--

We had ADR's for Restaraunt Marrakesh for dinner, so we had time to kill. We had just missed the French waiter show because we were meeting Mary Poppins, so we hoofed it over to Japan to catch the drummers. All that methodical drumming put 3 of my 4 kids to sleep.

Here is Mama holding a sleeping 2 yr old, an almost out 5 yr old and nearly dozing 7 yr old. By the time the show was over they were all asleep.

Now it's dinner time.

Restaurant Marrakesh was ok. I swear we have the same waiter and sit in the same seat every time we go there (always in the back left corner when you face the performance area). I didn't really mind that today because the 2 yr old slept on the booth almost the whole dinner.

We made the kids order off the real menu. They loved the bakalava, but what they took away from this dinner were new dance moves.

Here they are testing them out afterwards just outside the restaurant.

We sat for a second here at the fountain trying to figure out what to do now that it was getting dark.

The kids wanted to play with the games that Santa had brought so we decided to go check out Bonnet Creek and let the kids play.

Who thinks a great vacation is a large hotel? They were in one of towers and just the trip into the lobby and up the elevator and down the long hall exhausted me.

Give me a golf cart parked next to me awning any day! Now that's living!

DHS tomorrow.

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

Everyone please note the lack of monkey butt in this picture.

I almost didn't post this picture for fear of a thread hi-jacking

Noted.

The title of that photo is hilarious, though!

Nicely done, BFM!

I love all the bonus photos.

Y'all did a great job at the parks.

TCD

Thank you TCD,

I almost didn't post the bonus pics just to not get out of order, but I am glad I did.

I hate to break any Fiend rules (being a newbie you know).

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

Time to exercise the imagination with Figment before heading over to the World Showcase. BuckeyeFortFan calls this a time suck, but the kids enjoy it.

Total "Time Suck". Also, it just sucks.

We had just missed the French waiter show because we were meeting Mary Poppins, so we hoofed it over to Japan to catch the drummers.

Actually, this was Wednesday and if my memory serves me right (as it always does) that lazy French acrobat doesn't work on Wednesday. Lazy French.

Give me a golf cart parked next to me awning any day! Now that's living!

DHS tomorrow.

Why are you talking like a pirate?

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Glad you posted the extra pics! Your kids are so cute.

And the Figment ride does suck. I loved it as a kid, but it's different now.

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

Glad you posted the extra pics! Your kids are so cute.

And the Figment ride does suck. I loved it as a kid, but it's different now.

Th original was awesome, Figment 2.0 REALLY sucked, Figment 2.1 is a "little" better.

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

Glad you posted the extra pics! Your kids are so cute.

And the Figment ride does suck. I loved it as a kid, but it's different now.

I really enjoy watching my kids on the ride. They get a kick out of it, which is why I love it. I'm a mama all the way. Can't miss the piggy bank game or the fight over the kids wanting a bedroom and hubby want a retirement.

Th original was awesome, Figment 2.0 REALLY sucked, Figment 2.1 is a "little" better.

What's the difference between 2.0 and 2.1? When I rode it this time I was thinking that the train was different last time, but maybe that was just bad not enough sleep mama memory

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

What's the difference between 2.0 and 2.1? When I rode it this time I was thinking that the train was different last time, but maybe that was just bad not enough sleep mama memory

There was no Figment at all, and it was some weird thing about scanning everyone for imagination, finding none, then going through the bizarre scenes, then scanning you again, and finding your head filled with imagination. The scene at the end was also added in 2.1. Truly, truly awful.

Here is a video of Version 2.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUaTu13Yv6U

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Bonus photos.. awesome! I don't think I would ever miss snow.. Well maybe on Christmas... But it could be gone the day after.

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

There was no Figment at all, and it was some weird thing about scanning everyone for imagination, finding none, then going through the bizarre scenes, then scanning you again, and finding your head filled with imagination. The scene at the end was also added in 2.1. Truly, truly awful.

Here is a video of Version 2.0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUaTu13Yv6U

I sat down to write the next installment and found your video.

That's awesome!

Awesome that you posted me a video as an answer, NOT the ride in the video.

I never minded the ride like my husband does but now love that little purple dragon!

Thanks for the perspective.

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

December 27, 2012

Our first and only DHS Day

This was not a predawn opening, but we were in the parking lot bright and early and we walk in through the side entrance along the bathrooms. I love that walk.

Here we are waiting at the turnstiles. We are freezing today. Notice everyone with hats and gloves. You will see them most of the day today.

Remember that winter storm warning from yesterday? This is what home was looking like, so hats and gloves were just fine with us.

This is how to do Disney. Here are the kids walking in from the front gates to the hat. Lots of room, no one pushing.

Where do you head first at DHS when you have little ones? TOY STORY MIDWAY MANIA OF COURSE!!!!

The Dads walked ahead for TSMM FPs and us Moms brought the kids, parked the stroller and got in line. We did this despite the Castmembers INSISTING there were technical issues with the ride and it was not opening and that everyone should get FPs and come back later when it might be operating. They told us "You could wait in the standby line but there was no guarantee the ride was going to open soon." TOTAL BS!!!! I have heard this story many times before!!!

So we got in line and waited all of 5 minutes for 8am to roll around and surprise, surprise, the ride opened and had no technical problems....

as you can tell by the grins on these faces.

How about this one? Looks like that pop gun is working to me.

Here is one of my favorite parts of the ride.

I just love that plug. In fact this whole area is just awesome. The attention to detail is so DISNEY. It makes you feel like a toy in Andy's room.

One of these days I will get to ride this without putting my hand behind a baby's head every time the ride shifts from one screen to the next to keep them from banging their head against the back of the cart. Oh well, such is the life of Mama.

As always, we headed for the first Voyage of the Little Mermaid show It was cancelled due to technical difficulty. We still had some time before our TSMM FPs were due, so the other adults took off for the big rides.

They walked on Tower of Terror and were about to walk on Rockin' Roller Coaster, but the wait jumped from 5 to 30 minutes as they were walking up. They grabbed FPs and booked it back to Pixar Place.

While they were gone we met Handy Manny and the boys favorite right now, Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Since it was just me and 6 kids, the only pictures of these meetings are on the photopass CD which is in the mail.

We also spent some time drooling in the gift shops while we waited for the rest of the grownups so we could ride TSMM again.

This time we entered via the FP line.

Next we saw the Little Mermaid show, with about a 5 minute wait.

Then it was breakfast time. We usually grab this at a cart but since there was an earlier than normal Beauty and the Beast show we headed over to Catalina Edie's. Everyone got coffee or hot chocolate (age dependent) and something to eat. Their breakfast sandwhich was great! Wish a I took a picture but I must have been too hungry to stop.

The 3 adults used their RRC FPs and the kids and Mama headed into the theatre to save seats. The benches were so cold, but this smart Mama pulled out the tablecloth.

See how miserable all those other people are with their cold butts? Our butts had some great insulation. Man that was a smart idea!

Here's how close we were.

The timing was perfect. The other adults didn't miss anything but the wait. This is a great show and brings a tear to my eye every time I see it!

The park is busy today and it's always a tough park to see everything because of the way the shows are staggered.

We booked it over to the Muppets, then we flew to the south of France.

I have 2 little boys that enjoyed this show before but LOVE it now that Lightning McQueen is in it. Lights, Motors, Action!

Seeing this show got us behind on lunch. Normally we eat lunch at 11am but we ended up at the ABC commissary after noon. It was a mad house with a line out the door. We had to circle the dining room 16 times just to find a table.

By the time we finished eating and did a full out bathroom stop it was parade spot time. It was still chilly so we did the opposite of what we usually do and we found a spot in the SUN.

Out comes the tablecloth and we found a spot with a grown up seat too.

That is my seat on the wall but I am not sitting there since I am taking the trip report documentation picture. Notice the foot hanging out of the stroller. Nap time.

The kids are playing Spot It, an awesome game they got for Christmas. It is the perfect game for the diaper bag.

After we got our parade spot most of the group went to see the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, but it was filled to capacity at least 30 minutes before show time, so they went to ride the Great Movie ride, which had a 45 minute wait, but they soon joined us.

This seems to be the limit for this update. Join us next time for the parade and the rest of our DHS day!

[BuckeyeFortMama 43]

Notice the official parade line. Notice where our tablecloth is.

We know our stuff. We start small and as the parade gets closer we really get set up.

We get bigger as the crowd gets bigger, but don't worry if you are ever stuck behind us, those kids stay seated and you can see right over us.

And looks whose up...

A speaker and light in the flower bed next to us became a seat and a drum. Hours of entertainment.

I have no parade pictures because of the sun that we used to warm us for a little while. It was shining bright in every picture, so I gave up and sang "5,4,3,2, FUN!!!" with my kids and just enjoyed the parade.

After the parade we fought (this place was crazy busy) our way over to the Animation Courtyard. We watched the Mushu movie. Normally you enter the theater from the back left, but today they were directing people into the courtyard and then you could decide if you wanted to see the movie or go see the characters or go to the animation class. This resulted in us entering the theater through the normal exit on the right side of the theater. While we waited for the movie we saw this Wreck it Ralph video game. BuckeyeFortFan has been know to say "I'm gonna wreck it!" frequently since we saw this movie.

This was one of those times we desperately wished we carried more than just a few plastic cards with us into the parks- we had no quarters so we could not see if this machine worked.

So bummed. We learned all about Mushu and then walked into the character greet to see who they had from Wreck It Ralph. The characters were on break and the wait was 45 minutes at least. Pass.

By now it's dinner time. Hooray!! One of my favorite spots to eat. I love the atmosphere.

50's Prime Time!!!!

We had a young waitress who said she was Cousin Tiffany and she was babysitting us. CLASSIC!!! It's been awhile since we have gone in there and had a mouthy waittress but she was on us tonight. Love it.

We're a big group and she kept getting after the moms for the elbows on the table. She never missed us doing it. You really don't realize just how much we lean on tables in today's society. We giggled all through dinner.

The FORT FAN was a happy camper with his Electric Blue Lemonade.

He won't be that happy after he sees I posted a picture of him, but the drink was coool.

Our blond was sorta throwing a fit and Cousin Tiffany threatened her with a time out. Here she is asking if she really could put her in time out. Of course, if Mama has to listen to Cousin Tiffany than she does too. She straightened right up. Darn! That would have been fun to see.

By the time we got out of dinner we were getting tired and cold. We discussed another show but decided we would just do the Osborne lights and get out of Dodge. This was only the 2nd time the whole trip we really felt how busy it was and just how few of those in the crowd spoke English. We are spoiled brats. It sucked. So we grabbed kids' hands, stuck out our elbows, and got in the line for the lights.

For those of you that have not seen the OFLS, and maybe this is only during the Christmas Holiday, they basically make the back side of the park "one way only". The only way to get to Streets of America is to walk past the Star Wars ride. They then direct you past the muppets and then past the Phineas and Ferb and Cars meet and greet and then down to the end of the street nearest Lights, Motors, Action. There you can enter the main light display and take as much time as you like walking up the street to the exit, which then takes you out past the Sci-Fi theater and the ABC commissary.

We saw this in the line on the way down. It was beautiful.

About here we started hearing the Christmas music.

We had a nice discussion as while this line moved slowly along that we really missed the feeling of Christmas over this vacation and by the time we reached this we were back in the Christmas spirit.

In all it's redneck glory, this felt like Christmas! Why didn't we come here earlier in the week?!?!?!

We finally made our way down the street after finding ALL of the hidden Mickey's but not the cat (thankfully we have trip reports to answer those burning questions for us). We waited for the photopass group shot. There was only one family in front of us, but the lights were dancing so we had to wait. Typical kids! There is this amazing light show happening and here is how they passed the time waiting for our picture to be taken.

Well, we headed out of there after our very long day in the park and got those kids to bed. We have a busy day tomorrow.

[disney4dan 68]

We love 50's Prime Time Cafe too - great memories over the years. Our kids were as little as yours back then, and we don't get to go as often as we would like now. Thanfully, we get to share through trip reports like this!

[Southern Blessings 4]

Wow! Y'all made Christmas in the parks look nice, not overly crowded like everyone said. Very smart planning getting there so early with so many little ones. Really enjoying your pics!

[DaveInTN 3,247]

We also dined at 50's on 12/27....and judging by your pics I think we may have had the same table as you! Our ADR was at 12:35.