The "Are we crazy? " **Final Thoughts 7/16** COMPLETE - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Plans for the day were totally thrown out the window, so I'm not even going to look up what they were.
We decided to hit MK today. Now don't laugh, but the main things the K family wanted to do were: Splash mountain, BTMRR, Hall of Presidents, Country Bears Jamboree, and the Liberty Belle. DFr was interested in Peter Pan as well. They weren't too sure about Space Mountain, and they didn't want to ride Buzz again (not re-riders).
MK had morning EMH, but since most of what they wanted wasn't open yet, we didn't push it too hard. We took the boat over. Here are a few pictures of DFr and my son waiting at the stop, plus some I took on the boat ride. They are still working on the Contemporary construction.
We got to the park about 8:45 and took a few pictures. I took a couple of them at the Roy and Minnie statue, then we headed down to the partners statue. DS stopped off at VMK, so he wasn't with us.
The K family
All of us except DS. Now could you really forget seeing my DD?
Anyway, we headed over to the rope drop at Liberty Square. I sent the rest of them onto BTMRR while I pulled FPs for Splash Mountain (good for 10:10). While I was waiting, I saw a group of people wearing the tie-dyed Mickey shirts. I went up and found out that one of them is on a disney board I visit. I figured they were, since I've never seen instructions for those shirts anywhere else! One set of those shirts had the Mickeys done in black, and I think I'll try that the next time.
I called DS to come and meet us, and he was there before everyone finished BTMRR. They were done about 9:25. The Liberty Belle was just leaving the dock, so we headed over to Peter Pan. The line said 20 minutes, but it was more like 10. As we got off the flying ships, I saw a lady wearing street clothes and a Disney name tag at the exit. Could it be???? Oh yes!!! The Dream Team was at the end of the turnstiles, handing out Dream Lanyards!! Oh wow! This was honestly the best dream we could have gotten! DFrS had watched us pin trading all week, and he had gotten a birthday pin in MGM. Now he had something to put it on. Here's a picture of all of us with our lanyards!
DFr and her DH gave their son their pins, and he started trading away! We headed over for the 10:00 Liberty Belle ride. I had never noticed this little room on the main deck before, so I took a picture with DFr.
Once off the boat, they headed over to Hall of Presidents. I hit the restroom and did some pin trading, then met them at the exit. DFr's family is really interested in American history, so they really enjoyed this. In fact, DFrH listed this as his favorite ride at MK. Then we headed over to the Country Bears. We walked right in, but DS sat this one out. I know I've seen this before, but I think it was back on my first trip to MK when DD was not quite 2. I did have to laugh at many parts of it!
DFrS had become quite the trader by this time. He was focused on the Pirates set (the one with the Chinese letters). I had to explain to him that he wouldn't hurt the CMs feelings if he didn't trade with them. He was trading for things he didn't want just because he didnt' want to hurt their feelings. We headed over to Splash Mountain to use our fastpasses. Everyone liked this ride! DS and DFrS both got pretty wet when we were stopped next to the big drop. We stopped to get a Dole Whip. It really hit the spot and refreshed us. DFr wanted to ride COP, so we headed over to TomorrowLand. And we made a final stop at the Laugh Floor, where we waited about 25 minutes. They've added a couple of new twists to this, which made it better in my opinion.
We were on the boat back to Ft. Wilderness by 2. I got a good picture of the boys on the way back.
We all got showers, then the adults cooked a lunch/dinner. We had steak, mashed potatos and veggies, and finished up the watermelon. The K family decided they didn't want to mess with driving over to Typhoon Lagoon and the adults just hit the Meadows pool. The kids stayed at camp and played Wii. That was a switch, adults at the pool instead of the kids.
I called the car care center, and my van was done, so DFrH and I drove over to pick it up while everyone else got ready for the evening. We decided to go back to EPCOT, but only to see World Showcase. I was also wanting my friends to see the Boardwalk, so we valet parked there using my DVC and visited the model for a bit. DFr's family really had enjoyed the AKL, and were talking about a visit there sometime soon. I told them I could get us studios using my points so they wanted to see how it was set up. We also walked through the Wyland gallery. DS really likes that place!
We made it through the IG by about 7:15, and turned right into France. We watched the movie, then went off in search of an evening snack. We stopped in Morroco to look at the baklava, but that was too sweet looking for DFrH. We stopped back into Japan, where DFrS got some candy.
My DD got some gelato in Italy. They were out of chocolate, so she got vanilla instead. We headed over to Germany, where the guys all visited the chocolate shop. DFrH got all of them a chunk of fudge. DD decided to stay there and stake out a spot for Illuminations. We found a section of fence that no one had claimed yet and I left her there while we headed on down. DFr wanted a smoothie, and we found some over at the Outpost. She got a mixed strawberry and lemonade, and I got a lemonade one. They were really good! It was still in the low 90s even though there was a nice breeze. We walked through the garden in China while DS played with the spinning sticks. By this time we decided to head back to watch Illuminations. The K family really enjoyed this! After it finished, we decided to head back to camp. The K family had a 10 hour drive ahead, and still needed to pack up their camper in the morning. We stopped at America for a potty break, and I was chatting with DFrH about the fireworks. He told me that they had really enjoyed this trip, so I was glad! We watched a little bit of the Boardwalk entertainment, then headed back to the van. We were back at camp by 10:15.
Weather today: Still hot and humid, high 90s.
The best thing today was: Winning that dream!
The worst thing today was: Paying the bill for the van
Up next:
K family leaves, and we head to EPCOT to do the things we had missed.
Plans for today,
K family leaves
S family visits MGM for ToT AP event
What happened?
The adults were up at 5:30 so that the K family could get on the road early. We had a quick breakfast finishing up the cereal and oatmeal, then they finished packing up the trailer. I packed up all the stuff inside the tent, and sent the kids down to get their showers.
The K family was on the road just after 7, and we finished packing up. I had to wait for the tent to dry off enough to pack it up, so we just puttered around. We were finally packed up around 9 and headed to EPCOT. DD took this picture of them taking down the EPCOT wand on the way in.
DS wanted to hang on his own. He hadn't had much of that this trip. DFrS didn't want to leave his parents, and my DS was enjoying the time with him too much. So he gave me his AP, then headed over to innoventions. I sent DD over to TT to wait for me while I pulled Soarin FPs for all of us. The FPs were good for 10:30. I was noticing that this park was MUCH less crowded this morning. It had late EMH the night before, and that seemed to really reduce the crowds this morning.
FPs in hand, I headed over to meet DD at Test Track. We rode single rider, and basically walked right on. DD wanted to head to the Imagination pavilion. She was wanting to draw pictures of Figment, and needed to be refreshed. As we headed across the back pathway where it meets the rose garden path, who was there? Another dream team group!!!! We were the proud recipients of dream fast passes!
And here's the proof of two dreams in a row.
On to Figment to find out that the ride was down for technical difficulties. They said Figment should be in his meet and greet spot between 10:30 and 11. It was about 10 by then, so we decided to head to Livin with the Land, then ride Soarin with DS (he could use the regular FP, and we'd use our dream FPs). DS said he'd meet us at Soarin about 10:30.
I was getting pretty hungry by then (that bowl of cereal didn't last), so I got a key lime pie in the Land foodcourt. It was really good, but DD thought it was too sweet, so I had to finish it myself. That was way more food than I would normally eat, but I'll definitely keep this in mind when we're here in September for free dining. Mom and I can definitely share one of these!
We had a 5 minute wait for Livin with the Land. We didn't bother with the FP, since it was so short. We gave our two extra Soarin passes to the honeymooners in front of us, then headed back to ride JIYI and meet Figment. DD had drawn a picture of Figment while I was snacking and we were riding the Land. JIYI had just opened up, so we walked right on. I took this picture in the gift shop for DD to use as a model.
After the ride, DD said that she saw Figment up in his greeting spot, so we headed up there. Figment was at the door and walked us in. It was a pretty cute spot! Figment really liked DD's picture, and had fun playing with her Stitch ears. I told Figment that she had to have something to match his horns!
From here, we went over to Soarin. DS said he didn't want to ride and would meet us at the exit. Once off, I asked if they wanted to ride Mission Space with the FPs. And DS said "hey I got a dream too!" He was in Innoventions and got another dream lanyard! I took the pins (since he had the full lanyard already), and put the lanyard in my backpack while the kids headed to Mission Space.
I took this picture while I was waiting for them.
From there, the kids were getting hungry for lunch. DS wanted to find out about the ToT AP event, so he decided to get lunch in Japan, stop by the Boardwalk for a churro then continue to MGM. He was going to be our advance scout.
DD wanted to ride the boat rides, then see the new scenes in the American Adventure. So I gave DS some money and his AP and told him to call me when he got to MGM. DD and I started around the Mexico side of WS,. DD asked me to take this picture of the dragon.
Then we used our FPs in Norway for Maelstrom. She decided to have Chinese for lunch. They've really changed their menu. No more lo mein, so she had shrimp fried rice instead. I just nibbled on her leftovers since I was still full from the key lime pie!
We walked into AA to see the Voices of Liberty. I took this picture for my mom, since this was the lady who sang Happy birthday to her back in December.
DS called and said that the AP event wasn't going to start until 6, and it was already full. He said that we could wait in a standby line in case they had some no-shows, but it was almost 100 degrees that day, so we all decided to pass. DS hadn't gotten lunch yet (he didn't want to backtrack to Japan), so he grabbed something at MGM and waited on us.
DD and I watched the American movie. They've added some nice footage to the end about 9/1, Michelle Kwan, Mohammed Ali at the Olympics, and the military heroes. DD noticed that they had cut the clip of Marilyn Monroe (she said "you know mom, that blond lady that smirks"). Overall it was really nice, and seemed more up to date.
Once this was done, we caught the boat back up to Future World, then headed out to the van to pick up DS. I got stopped for a survey just past Spaceship Earth. Since it was in the shade, I answered it. It was a pretty long survey (probably took about 15 minutes, when the longest one before was 3 or 4 questions) about our trip, then we were out the gates. I was able to go up by the taxis to pick up DS, and we headed over to DTD.
We wanted to see about trading the limited edition pins we had, and we wanted to get some locking pin backs for the ones we were keeping. We found a very close parking spot, and headed to the pin trading store. I had forgotten to mention that our friends had offered to get my kids a pin when we all got our dream lanyards. DD picked out a nice one with all the male villians, and DS asked for a dangle charm instead of a pin. He had picked out the pirate mickey, but before the end of that night it had broken. I wanted to see if the big pin store would exchange it, even though we didn't have the receipt.
We stopped by the pro traders. No one was interested in the Kwanzaa pin, even though it was a 500 LE. But one guy was willing to do a 2 for 1 for our Buzz 2500LE. DS picked out two VMK pins and was happy. We went into the store, where the lady did make the exchange for the broken charm. DS decided to get a one piece charm instead and picked out the Star Spangled Mickey instead. They were out of locking backs, but I got a set of regular ones. While we were waiting, I noticed a little girl with a few pins, and a plain lanyard. I asked if she wanted our extra dream lanyard, and she was thrilled! She only had a certain amount of money, and had been just short of getting the last pin she wanted. Since she didn't have to buy the lanyard, she could get the pin!
We headed back to the van, and just got there before the rain. A quick stop at McDonalds on the way, and we were home by 5:00.
Great finish Lisa Boy, you certainly had the "dream" magic that trip I've had one of those key lime pie desserts Thanks for sharing your trip with us I'm sure the next one is right around the corner
Once again, this was a different way to experience WDW. The thing I was most worried about (rain) didn't really affect us. Crowds were manageable. The heat was as bad as I feared though.
I do sincerely think the K family had a good time. I got an email yesterday (with the recipes from Boma) that again thanked us for playing tour guide. It just goes to show that there is something for everyone at WDW, since I don't think anyone else has the Hall of Presidents on their Top 5 list!
Camping is a lot of fun, but it definitely slows you down. Having personal transportation made this workable, but relying on Disney transportation from Ft. Wilderness would definitely add a complication factor.
I was extremely grateful that my friends travel trailer had air conditioning. That gave us a place to cool down when we needed it!
I'll be glad when Spaceship Earth is re-done. It should be a whole new ride (we saw them taking out major sections of track!).
It was good to catch up with old friends. And I was glad the kids got along well together.
And I'm looking forward to a more typical Sanders family trip in early September for free dining. Pre-trip report should be posted by early August!
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Pixie Dust
Boy, you certainly had the "dream" magic that trip 
I've had one of those key lime pie desserts 
Thanks for sharing your trip with us 
I'm sure the next one is right around the corner 
dreams!
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