First Family Trip - Let's Go Premium - Completed! 7/10-7/18 About This Page:

[Becky2005]

July 13

Ahhh….it’s a sleep in day, no reason to get up early. We are up and getting ready to go get breakfast before the wake-up call comes. Yippee!! So far off to a great start. We go to the Food & Fun center and get breakfast.

I end up doing laundry today – which I end up doing lots of the rest of the trip! First off I can’t find the laundry room to save my life. I finally had to ask about 3 different housekeeping CM’s – it’s on the 2nd floor of the wings! So, if you are staying there, it’s on the SECOND floor (I had thought it would be on the 1st floor!)

We manage to get to the marina on time for fishing – a miracle in & of itself! J I realize I hadn’t put suntan lotion on the kids and they are going to fry if I don’t do something! How convenient, Sammy Duvall area sells suntan lotion, so go ahead and buy the $$$ bottle of it (didn’t have enough time to run back to the room), slather it on the kids. The boat pulls up with the guide and off DH & the 3 older kids go. The baby & I go back, do laundry, shopping, hang out..

I go meet up with them after their trip! They caught several fish and had a good time. Kyle caught the most and he was the least one interested in going! LOL!

I go to see if we can have lunch at the Concourse Steakhouse, no luck due to the close at 2:00 between lunch & dinenr, looks like food court again, no big deal, the food there was fine.

We actually make it on time again for our parasailing. DS-8 chickens out, so he just rides along in the boat! DD & I go up. Umm….let’s just say it wouldn’t be something I would chose to do again on my own! I almost lost my glasses because as we were going up, I bumped them with my arm! I did get them and they were fine the rest of the time. We did buy the picture package, I haven’t gotten them developed yet. It was freaky when the boat would turn because DD was in front & I couldn’t see the boat, I would just dip down. I could then see the boat turning. I held on the entire time and although I did relax some, it was still a bit unnerving for me. I was ready to come down anytime and was happy when it was over with. It did go by quickly though. I would probably do it tandem again if one of the kids want to do it but I have no desire to do it again just to do it.

Took the older kids for a “quick” swim – that is where we got delayed for getting to Downtown Disney I think. Now, on our package it says if you don’t get to the box office by 5:00 PM they will give your seats away! I was totally freaked out by this because we were late and I was totally freaking out and went into psycho mode, which in the end I should have just chilled out and our seats were there, there were TONS of people showing up later than I did and got seats for the performance. Since the Downtown Disney scene needs a longer write-up I will do that in the next installment.

DH looking like a "grandpa" - It's Kyle's fish but Kyle wouldn't hold it.


Aaron with his fish!


Carolyn & Kyle & the guide

[kimdisneynut]

Great update

Kim

[DrDolphin]

Great update!!!!

[lauren-roxy]

Great update!! Looks like your son caught a pretty big fish!! Can't wait for more!!

[Cinderbrella]

Wow! They caught quite a few fish! It sounds like you enjoyed your meal at LTT. I your pictures! Looking forward to your next update!

[Becky2005]

THE Downtown Disney/La Nouba Saga – July 13

Here it is, the most memorable situation of our trip! LOL! At least for me!

We finish our swim and get ready for seeing La Nouba tonight, now remember in ALL the information, it said if you are not at the box office by 5:00 PM your seats will be given away! I was flipping out because we were running late again! We were trying to make the 6:00 pm show.

We went to the bus stop at 4:45 (see how close we are cutting it! I figure we might be just a few minutes late and maybe if Pixie Dust holds out, they won’t have given our seats away!). How come when you are in a hurry every bus that shows up is NOT yours? There were 2 MGM busses that came by, an Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach one that came by all before our Downtown Disney one shows up! Yeah….FINALLY – as I’m over here stressing because we already were calling it close (I had wanted to be at the bus stop at 4:00 – 4:30 at the latest! ROFL!! Why, I attempt to get anywhere on time this trip is beyond me!).

We are on the bus, it is 5:10-5:15ish after it made more stops with me going “hurry up, make it a quick stop” silently to myself of course.

We finally get to Downtown Disney and I can’t hear what the bus driver says, something about a 2nd stop but we are already late (I’m convinced they have given our seats away already because it’s after 5:00!), so we get off at the Marketplace because I know we are at Downtown Disney now and have no clue what this guy mumbled about but I know it’s going somewhere else and the last thing I need is to end up somewhere completely away from Downtown Disney as it’s AFTER 5:00, I’m sure they’ve given my seats away but maybe, just maybe we will luck out.

Now, we didn’t take the stroller with us because we are just going to see a show, we won’t be able to take the stroller in anyway, so we don’t need one right?

We get off the bus, I look at the map and see we need to be on the complete opposite side of where we are. I tell DH to take the kids and show him where we are going and they can just meet me there. I’m going to go to the box office because I can go a LOT faster by myself, that way I can secure the tickets. I have the diaper bag with me – LOL! No baby, just the diaper bag.

I take off at a fast pace getting to where I think I need to go! I have no clue where I am going and am just heading toward the West Side, knowing I need the big circus tent and you can’t miss it. I get turned around a couple times and end up in some bizarre directions to get there but hey I MAKE IT!!!!!

The line at the box office is LONG – I do notice other people getting tickets for tonight (It is now slightly after 5:30! – Remember, everything says my seats are GONE! I’m flipping out! Oh, and do you think I thought to bring my confirmation number with me?! Nope but I do have photo id!). Get to be my turn hand in my vouchers, with a “I don’t know if my seats are still here” type of thing, sad look. Not a problem, they print out my seats and tell me I can go up anytime. Woo Hoo! It is 5:45 at this point! I turn around to watch for my family which, they should be coming up the road any minute now right?

Oh wait, the sky opens up and it starts POURING, with some really nasty lightening…everyone is taking cover! It is now a few minutes after 6:00 – however, I thought I read somewhere they won’t seat you if you are late but that’s not true because there was still a HUGE line for the elevator to go up because it was POURING and very few people were going to attempt the stairs with that rain/lightening. Where I was standing under the roof near the box office, it is raining so hard that no matter where you are standing you are now in puddles! My feet are wet, eewww!!!

WHERE IS MY FAMILY, Surely they should be showing up momentarily….we are still OK, people are still going in the elevator! It’s something like 6:20 now! I see a family in yellow – a guy carrying what looked like a 1 year old with other kids – maybe that’s them and they stopped to buy ponchos???? Oops! Nope, not them, they go off into another store and I can see it’s not them.

The rain stops….wow, look at how Disney goes around with the guys with the earpieces picking up all the dropped planters and making it look like nothing happened in the storm. I see security checking out empty shoeboxes left by the front of stores and in the garbage cans! Wow, they waste no time and are efficient removing those “suspicious boxes”.

WHERE THE HECK IS MY FAMILY? I can’t decide if I should be mad at them or worried. OK, maybe they hid out until the rain stopped because it really was very heavy and I know he had Luke which would have slowed him way down, along with Kyle & Aaron who were probably freaking out on him because they don’t like getting wet.

I sit and think, also decide to wring out my very wet socks! ROFL!!! It was AFTER this episode that I got blisters and my feet hurt the rest of the vacation! They were completely fine until after this, so I blame the getting wet!

It’s around 7:00 at this point – I know the show is a wash, OK….I need to stay put because surely they will come here even though they know the show isn’t going to happen so I know what is going on. (Besides I see the guys at the elevator basically go up because they finally got all the latecomers up – it took quite a while with the rain and the huge line and all).

So, I sit out on a bench and go through my brain of “what are my kids wearing?” – I honestly couldn’t tell you complete outfits except for DD, because they had changed from this morning! I could tell you shirts for a couple of them & what type of shorts for the others! ROFL!!! Plus, going through my head is all the information I ever read on lost people. Also, try to figure out if I should go back and start heading toward Marketplace but there are WAY too many way’s they could go. I go down the main road to see if I could see them but I don’t want to go TOO far, since they knew that was where we were going to meet. I’m thinking, it’s Downtown Disney, I don’t think they can do anything about separated parties here, I’m kind of stuck!

OK….deep breaths, calm down, try to think logically! It is now almost 7:30 – there is NO WAY it would take that long to walk here from the Marketplace even waiting until the rain stopped. Remember, I made it by 5:45 from about 5:15-5:20.

At this point I decide to start walking toward Marketplace and just go ask security if there is anything we can do, send out an APB, search party, something (it didn’t help the matter that after the rain storm, there were ambulance sirens I could hear!). I figure DH should be easy to find, it’s the guy with 4 kids who are probably freaking out (my DD hates lightening & was probably upset; the 2 older boys hate getting wet and were probably freaking out…the baby LOVES water so was probably fine but would have drowned if he had to walk, so I’m sure DH was carrying him! - I had all sorts of scenarios going through my mind!).

Also, throughout this entire vacation, DH has been having me get us from place to place so I honestly didn’t think he would know HOW to get back to the hotel.

I find 2 security guards talking and go up to them, Joey is the security guard that I end up dealing with and I need to write a complimentary letter about him! He went above & beyond duty (and I think beyond his shift!).

I try very calmly asking about how to find a separated family (although let me tell you I was totally panic inside and upset, since I had no phone, no nothing – I think if DH didn’t have the 4 kids, I wouldn’t have been so freaked but I do most of the kid work plus I had the diaper bag! LOL!), he then walks me to guest services talking with me the whole way, asking the obvious questions (when was the last time I saw him, I waited at the meeting place for a while – um…yeah over an hour! LOL!), telling me what we will do and then asked about the show and telling me we would see what we could do about the tickets. I told him I didn’t care about the tickets at this point, which he understood that I just wanted to find my family.

We get to Guest Services, we call the hotel and lo & behold who answers? DH! I nearly wanted to strangle him over the phone but felt about 1,000x better. PLUS, I was totally impressed not only did he get the kids back to the hotel, he got them all changed into dry clothing and A DIAPER CHANGE for the baby! He never changes diapers because he literally gets sick doing so! So, I was completely impressed with him and kudos to him! I guess they went back while it was raining, he said the kids were soaked, he couldn’t have them sit in an A/C theatre for 2 hours all wet, they would get sick and even DD who was the one who wanted to see the show the most besides me, agreed to go back.

They ducked into a chocolate shop while it was raining and got free chocolate though. LOL! So, I guess that was a bonus for them.

After we knew the family was safe & sound and I could now breathe better, the security guard then took me back down to the Cirque box office and spent about 30 minutes or so working on a way to get me tickets for another show, explaining to them what happened, etc… I didn’t think it was necessary for him to go out of his way to get the tickets replaced, etc… and during the madhouse between showings (the 6:00 pm show was letting out when we got down there and the box office was crazy but he stuck with it.)

We ended up with tickets for the 9:00 PM show for next evening, the box office person just said they gave me what they had (it wasn’t as good as the seats we had originally) but it wasn’t like I was going to argue! It was nice enough that they were even replacing them, I was completely surprised by that! AND I had the actual tickets, so I didn’t have to show up an hour early the next night (good thing, story for another day, we were late again to that show but nothing like this drama!). After seeing the seating – our original seats would have been awesome but we got the last row seats for the 9 PM show and it worked out better because by this time DS-8 remember was freaked out thanks to Stitch’s experience and I had to DRAG him in to see this show (even though he saw the show on Bravo and knew what it was, he was afraid something would spray out at him, etc…).

After I get my tickets, the security guard also has me check them to make sure the time/dates are correct and that everything is fine by then. I also find out about the other bus stop at Pleasure Island (I had figured that out before looking for the family, I took the time to really LOOK at the “you are here” map!).

I thank him and go off on the bus back to the hotel. To a DH who was unhappy about the rain, etc… he did tell me the only one who remotely liked it was the baby!

Tomorrow AK, Donald’s and I set the wake-up call so we aren’t late (yeah, right! LOL!)

[clio]

I just found your trip report. I'm enjoying reading it. It sounds like your family is as organized as mine and there's only 3 of us. We manage to be late for everything.
Liz

[Becky2005]

A calm day overall -

Animal Kingdom – July 14
Lots of food & change of plans with La Nouba

I had the wake-up call set for 6:00 AM – I had clothes laid out the night before (as best I could, considering we had tons of soaking wet clothes to deal with now! Gee, I saw a lot of the laundry room for it to be a vacation! LOL!).

You would have thought we could have made it to an 8:00 AM PS right? WRONG! The phone rang and I managed to get myself ready without waking everyone. (yes, they need to get up but if I’m ready, the rest will go faster. Kyle was being a pain to get up this morning (and he was a grump most of the time). I eventually opened the curtains to get everyone going and guess what? We STILL don’t make it to the bus stop on time. I completely forgot what time we get out there but there ARE early morning busses (I know transportation getting to Donald’s has been a topic at times!), we do get on one but with the other stops it makes, we don’t actually get to AK until about 8:20? 8:30? I forget – definitely after 8:00 but still before opening. Here they DO check our name off a list and have CM’s stationed along the way to get us where we are going.

We check in, get the pictures. Get seated. I liked where we were seated except it was far from the food, so DH didn’t get to eat much because characters came fast. With having 4 younger kids it was kind of a pain but it was more secluded so that was nice. It was in their “camper” next to the jukebox as a booth. I just liked that my kids could be messy & it wasn’t so out in the open. It was rushed though. I don’t know if we had showed up at 8 if it would have been so rushed through or if that was because we got seated later.

See the baby grabbing Goofy's tooth! I didn't even know he was doing it until I looked.


Mickey


Not a TON of rushing around today but we didn’t do a whole lot either. DS-8 completely backed out of doing Dinosaur – which was fine by me! We got Triceratops Spin, Primeval Whirl, the Safari and The Lion King show in. I think that’s about all we did. LOL! We saw Devine and Lucky (briefly) – unfortunately DH couldn’t get a picture (he tried but just didn’t work well). We went on the safari before lunch, which it was longer than I realized, so we were late for our PS at the Rainforest Café! LOL! At least this time it was due to a ride, not necessarily anything I did.

The kids LOVED the Rainforest Café! I really thought they might be scared because of it being dark and I heard about the thunderstorms, etc… I wasn’t sure how well it would go over. They absolutely loved it, we have one sort of close to us, so I may have to do a birthday special there or something (as they get older looking for things to do with just a buddy or 2). We got the Volcano dessert (counted as 2 desserts but that was fine), that was fun. I liked it here and didn’t think it took overly long, since we were on the Premium plan, we each got the souvenir mugs, etc…

After the Lion King show, we decided to head back to the hotel. We had Chef Mickey’s planned tonight and since we now have La Nouba planned for 9:00 PM tonight which wasn’t on the agenda, it kind of got things twisted around.

Chef Mickey’s was great (and I think we might have been on time even, just there was a line to get in, so I know we didn’t get seated until AFTER our PS time with the pictures and all). I thought this was one of the better character interaction meals.

We finish eating and decide that DH is going to stay back in the hotel with the baby because it’s late, DH doesn’t care about La Nouba, the baby certainly doesn’t care, etc… so I take the 3 older kids and head out.

This is DALE - see it says so on his Apron (important for tomorrow's tour!)


We manage to be about 5-10 minutes late to the show (bathroom break makes us late! LOL! You know, us and those bathroom breaks!). The show is just starting when we get there, so they have to wait to seat us because it’s when the actors come out around the middle section right before it starts. Now, before we get there DS-8 is freaking out on me that he doesn’t want to go, etc… I keep telling him it will be fine it’s NOT a ride, nothing will spray water at him, he saw the show on TV so he knows what is going to happen, etc… I get him in and he’s actually thankful we have the very last row at the top (this actually is an advantage when we left!). We did have a slight problem though when we arrive, the usher looks at our tickets and takes us to what should be our seats. Except there are people sitting there. He leaves us to the top of the stairs and is trying to figure out what is going on (I’m thinking – oh great, they gave away the seats, after the previous nights fiasco, who knows! I honestly felt like just saying “we will just stand back here, it’s fine don’t worry about it” – I felt like we were being disruptive. Turns out the people in our seats were supposed to be in the row in front of us, so they climb over the seats after the usher looks at their tickets to try and figure out what is going on. DS-5 ends up falling asleep; DS-8 liked the clown scenes but was still kind of freaked out about a lot of it, DD likes it and I thought it was “OK” (I know gasp a lot of people think it’s a don’t miss but of course, it could be because of the extenuating circumstances of us getting there). We leave and magically, I get to the woman’s restroom before the major crowd gets there due to how we exited because of being in the top row! We get ourselves on the packed bus and have to stand – did you know that a 5 year old CAN sleep standing up while holding onto a pole? LOL! He was so tired!


Next up – Mickey’s Magical Milestone Tour and Horseback riding!

[FanOfMickey]

Another great update Becky!!

[maggiemay]

Wow! Just catching up on your TR. I am exhausted just reading it. I can barely manage trips with just one child, and here you are with four! What a trooper!

[Luv4My4]

I just caught up with your trip report and I have to tell you I feel you pain with all the bathroom breaks, one of my DDs actually remembers restaurants by which bathroom they have for example, "Katie, we are going to Steak & Ale for dinner (a steak place near our house)", Katie answers: "Is that the place that had the hole in the window of the bathroom?"

Great report can't wait to read more!!

[pluto_n_goofy]

[ QUOTE ]
Oh do I remember those potty days!!

[/ QUOTE ]
Sadly, I remember them well. I had those situations (no wet pants though LoL) on the way to Canada. My friend and I HAD to play cards in order to make it to the next rest stop. Or there was another time when I was crying because I had to go so bad and we couldn't use the bathrooms except for emergencies. Of course, when they said "it will be a half hour before you can leave the bus" I ran as fast as I could to the bus bathroom.

I am loving your Trip Report! Hopefully your potty sagas will get better with time. If only you could coordinate kids to go at the same time. Working at a daycare with bathrooms far away...yea that stinks. (Luckily our kids are 5 and up though!)

[kimdisneynut]

Great update....

thanks

Kim

[lauren-roxy]

Great updates Becky!! Glad you were able to get to see La Nouba!! Can't wait for more!!!

[DrDolphin]

Great update!!!