How EMH saved our trip-Doing the World on West Coast Time! Completed. Stop by my PTR!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by KathyRN137

I'd so like to try this, but my kids are so darn picky!

Terrible about the long bus wait... I wonder if any of the drivers bothered to notify a supervisor?

I'm guessing you voted for Kali!! Time to get wet!

Kathy

I think we are spoiled, we assume they will find something on the menu wherever we go. All of them love asian food except for Tink but the Honey Chicken was a good fit. Wall-E is actually hysterical, he and I will go to a Teppan place to get takeout do eat during Goofy's baseball games. He makes this "alleluiah" sound with each bite of tempura or sushi, eggrolls or potsickers. Like the heavens have opened for him. he is rewarding to feed!

We do push them, Tink and Steven in particular but generally speaking they are adventurous eaters thank goodness! I think we will have issues on the next trip if I can't list DS8 as an adult on the DDP (he will miss the cut off by about 3 weeks) so I'll have to figure that out.

It was weird, the drivers would radio in and check to see if one was coming but I didn't get the impression at any time that supervisors were being notified

[eandesmom]

we had just finished lunch, EE FP's weren't for HOURS and the question was, what to do?

Kali?

Safari?

Kali?

Safari?

Kali?

Safari?


Kali = 60 minutes wait

Safari= 45


Safari wins!!!!!!!!!!!

As we were walking we were mesmerized by these two








and this guy





We had a gander at the Tree of Life





I need to get the kids closer to it next time, we didn't have time to really "do" the tree and they were surprisingly unimpressed.

As we were walking we were stopped by a family who had 4 FP's for safari that they couldn't use. Score!

The 3 younger kids and I took the FP's and Scrooge and Steven decided to brave the wait.

Getting to the entrance was a bit of a challenge.

it was, of course, as befitted the entire trip...

PARADE TIME!

Picture 6 people scrambling through AK, trying to avoid the parade route and get to the safari entry BEFORE they blocked it.

We were thirsty by the time we got there even though we'd just had lunch. It was pretty funny though mildly stressful. We took a moment to stand in the shade and take some bio breaks, checking out some of the wares nearby.

As we went through the line and got on our "jeep" I snapped some pictures of what we'd be looking for





Then, we were OFF on safari!


But this question came up.

Mom, can WE take the pictures this time?


Gulp.

Do I trust the kids enough to take pictures without dropping the camera in a bouncing jeep?

Am I selfish enough to let them and just enjoy the view instead of focusing on the pictures?

Will they be able to get ANY that aren't blurred?

Who is old enough?

Who can handle it?

(I'm very attached to my little camera lol)

[TarzansKat]

Yay for the random act of kindness that scored you the fastpasses!

And I so know how you feel about getting stuck with the parade. I've had that happen and it does not bring out the best in me. Long story. Glad you made it!

And I TOTALLY know how you feel about the camera. Ugh. DS and I went to the Dollar Tree today and I got him one of those dinos that grows to four times its size, takes like four days when you put it in water. So, I'm using it as a little science experiment type lesson, and I say, let's take a picture.

And he says, can I do it?

Do I really want to let my four year old hold my camera over a bowl of water? No.

Do I let him? Yes.

Do I still have a good working camera? Yes.

Thank god.

[Angies1274]

That's awesome that you were able to score fastpasses!! How nice of the other family to do that.

Wow!! I honestly don't know what I would do if one of my boys asked to take pictures on that ride.....hmmmm... that's a tough one.Like you, I'm pretty attached to my camera.

Can't wait to find out what you did????

[Happydog]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

But this question came up.

Mom, can WE take the pictures this time?


Gulp.

Do I trust the kids enough to take pictures without dropping the camera in a bouncing jeep?

Am I selfish enough to let them and just enjoy the view instead of focusing on the pictures?

Will they be able to get ANY that aren't blurred?

Who is old enough?

Who can handle it?

(I'm very attached to my little camera lol)

HA !!!! YOU sound like me on the exact same ride... my DS7 asked the same thing (I had bought him two disposables for this reason...) SO, I let him with me sort of hovering.... I was so worried the camera would end up outside!!!

can't wait for more.....

[GreatBiscuit]

Slowly Catching up - just read about the Main Street Barbershop. Now I'm kinda sad I didn't wait to get a cut while we were there.

[GreatBiscuit]

Well, I think I just finished Day 5 or 6, not really sure. ANYWHO - I'm glad to hear you finally made it on Toy Story Midway Mania! I LOVED me some EMH. It was the greatest part of our trip! I hear you on the whole "Don't toss snack credit snacks" thing. I wound up with a brain freeze after my girls decided they were done 1/2 way through their frozen concoctions.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by TarzansKat

Yay for the random act of kindness that scored you the fastpasses!

And I so know how you feel about getting stuck with the parade. I've had that happen and it does not bring out the best in me. Long story. Glad you made it!

And I TOTALLY know how you feel about the camera. Ugh. DS and I went to the Dollar Tree today and I got him one of those dinos that grows to four times its size, takes like four days when you put it in water. So, I'm using it as a little science experiment type lesson, and I say, let's take a picture.

And he says, can I do it?

Do I really want to let my four year old hold my camera over a bowl of water? No.

Do I let him? Yes.

Do I still have a good working camera? Yes.

Thank god.

brave soul!

We had a disposable that no one was interested in using, mine is "far" cooler. DS8 has a pretty cool FP kids camera that takes surprisingly good snaps but we forgot to 1) take the pics off and stick them on their puter, freeing up space and 2) it's kind of big to lug around and 3) it only holds 30 pics.

Originally Posted by Angies1274

That's awesome that you were able to score fastpasses!! How nice of the other family to do that.

Wow!! I honestly don't know what I would do if one of my boys asked to take pictures on that ride.....hmmmm... that's a tough one.Like you, I'm pretty attached to my camera.

Can't wait to find out what you did????

it was interesting to say the least! Steven actually brought his own camera. SUPPOSEDLY his pics are on photobucket but I've yet to see them!

That reminds me to hound him tonight or this weekend!!!!!!!!!!! He took a TON.

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Happydog

HA !!!! YOU sound like me on the exact same ride... my DS7 asked the same thing (I had bought him two disposables for this reason...) SO, I let him with me sort of hovering.... I was so worried the camera would end up outside!!!

can't wait for more.....

yeah somehow the disposables just aren't the same to the kids. We had that issue on our big road trip last summer as well. I tried a cheap digital for them (cheap= only works on XP, loses all your pics if the battery goes dead even though you swear you formatted the memory card per the instructions). So...that was a bust. They may all get a camera for xmas, it would solve everything.

Originally Posted by GreatBiscuit

Slowly Catching up - just read about the Main Street Barbershop. Now I'm kinda sad I didn't wait to get a cut while we were there.

next time! something to save for next time! I MSB. And...for your girls, they could get pixie dust without the scary prices of BBB (I think it's maybe $5?)

Originally Posted by GreatBiscuit

Well, I think I just finished Day 5 or 6, not really sure. ANYWHO - I'm glad to hear you finally made it on Toy Story Midway Mania! I LOVED me some EMH. It was the greatest part of our trip! I hear you on the whole "Don't toss snack credit snacks" thing. I wound up with a brain freeze after my girls decided they were done 1/2 way through their frozen concoctions.

I did mellow out on that quite a bit as the trip went on, using them up like they were candy but early on I was kind of militant. Not only don't toss them but don't use them on a soda or a bottle of water, find something close to $4!. I will say, the minutemaid frozen lemonade was kind of icky so I caved on that one.

[Porturican]

Have been reading your updates for a couple of days now Cant wait till you update again!

We are going to WDW for the 1st time in Sept. and when I saw your title about WDW on west coast time it caught my eye since we will be coming from the San Francisco area. I am sooo worried about the time difference and bedtimes! But we are so excited to go!

Keep up the great posts!

[cjackearl]

How gallant of DH and Steven to brave the line for the women and children in your party.

My girls have their own cameras and Ian thankfully never asked, but we're forever making sure that the wrist straps are secure. Yes, they LOVE that. Looking forward to hearing which voice won out.

Great close up of the Tree of Life. I could look at the carvings on that thing for hours.

[MEK]

I skimmed through your update last night, but didn't post because I was doing soccer preparation chores. I do really like your AK pics. Your tree of life pics made me remember that I am going to try to find as many animals as I can next time I visit. And, I am going to take pics of all of them! I finally started letting my kids take over the camera on safari because I am the proud owner of hundreds of digital safari pictures!

[lisalonglash]

Originally Posted by eandesmom

As we were walking we were mesmerized by these two

Aren't they adorable?! The baby is soooo sweet!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

We had a gander at the Tree of Life

Coolest tree ever!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

As we were walking we were stopped by a family who had 4 FP's for safari that they couldn't use. Score!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

The 3 younger kids and I took the FP's and Scrooge and Steven decided to brave the wait.

Aww, good guys you have there

Originally Posted by eandesmom

it was, of course, as befitted the entire trip...

PARADE TIME!

Originally Posted by eandesmom

But this question came up.

Mom, can WE take the pictures this time?


Gulp.

Been there, done that. Oh, for the record, I caved and let Mickey (6yo at the time) take the pictures - they were pretty good too

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by Porturican

Have been reading your updates for a couple of days now Cant wait till you update again!

We are going to WDW for the 1st time in Sept. and when I saw your title about WDW on west coast time it caught my eye since we will be coming from the San Francisco area. I am sooo worried about the time difference and bedtimes! But we are so excited to go!

Keep up the great posts!

Thanks! and Welcome! I think there were good, and bad, things about deliberately not adjusting to the time change. Had it been a less crowded week, it would have been brilliant and based on just how nuts it was, unless we made rope drop I am not sure it would have really changed much.

Originally Posted by cjackearl

How gallant of DH and Steven to brave the line for the women and children in your party.

My girls have their own cameras and Ian thankfully never asked, but we're forever making sure that the wrist straps are secure. Yes, they LOVE that. Looking forward to hearing which voice won out.

Great close up of the Tree of Life. I could look at the carvings on that thing for hours.

Yeah, that was great that they took the "other" line. In reality though they didn't end up more than 15 minutes behind us, the wait was definitely
overstated! Thanks for the pic comment. It is so funny what kids like and don't like (or think or don't, are they real, are they animitronics, etc. The kids weren't that into the tree of life b/c it was "fake". no one wanted to go explore it with me. Oh well!

Originally Posted by MEK

I skimmed through your update last night, but didn't post because I was doing soccer preparation chores. I do really like your AK pics. Your tree of life pics made me remember that I am going to try to find as many animals as I can next time I visit. And, I am going to take pics of all of them! I finally started letting my kids take over the camera on safari because I am the proud owner of hundreds of digital safari pictures!

I really wants to spend more time at the tree next time!

Soccer preparation chores

like these?



Tink is having a GREAT time at camp I'm happy to say (so far), she's been picked for one of the united teams, we'll see how the week plays out!

[eandesmom]

Originally Posted by lisalonglash

Aren't they adorable?! The baby is soooo sweet!


Aww, good guys you have there

Been there, done that. Oh, for the record, I caved and let Mickey (6yo at the time) take the pictures - they were pretty good too

Wasn't that baby adorable! We were there quite a while

They might take off and do big boy stuff a lot but....they are gentlemen!

6 years old

you are a brave brave woman!