I want a redo!
I'll still have ds here for a bit longer, but gosh-my life has been so wrapped up in my kids. We're together all the time (we homeschool), so it's going to be such a shock to my system.
I was better last week than I am now.
I just want to go back NOW.
It doesn't help that it hit me this morning that just another year and a half and dd will be off at college.
So yeah, I'm dealing with a bit of depression today.
I guess reality's starting to sink in now. Uggghhh. So hard to come back home and get back in the groove with work and school and all. Was tough at first, but we got through last week so everything feels normal again. I'm behind on Christmas too. I lost 2 prime time shopping/tree getting/decorating weekends and that can put you really behind! I was almost on panic mode before this weekend, but we got our tree and I did some shopping, so I feel better about things now. So a question: Now that we've all gotten a little time and distance from our trips...What would you all say we're your couple favorite experiences/rides/foods/whatever that you definitely would do again and recommend to others??? I'll start! What really stands out to me was a couple of our "add on" experiences, that some people are hating so much! At least on a few threads on the Disboards! Our EMM at MK was amazing. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Riding 7DMT 10 times in an hour takes the cake. And the Christmas party was magical. Loved it. 
Well, been back a week and thought I'd check in on my favorite thread on the Disboards!
Once we were done at Epcot guest services, we headed over to Wilderness Lodge for an early dinner at Whispering Canyon. We had time after we arrived so we took a look around and took some pictures outside. What a beautiful resort! Dinner time came so we all sat down. Everyone had the AYCTE skillet and a milkshake (dd8 had a smoothie with hers). Food was good, but I wasn't feeling very hungry after a very short night of sleep (I think it was around midnight when we got to bed and I only ended up dozing a bit here and there while waiting for 3:00 to come) so I didn't eat much. I think everyone would return here again, but none of us thought it was super amazing. It was good though, just not outstanding. Anyway, after dinner we made our way back to Pop Century with a brief stop at Disney Springs to see the drone show and say hi to my TA who was there with her family. It was amazing we were able to find each other because the crowds were insane! Despite my best intentions, this was the only time we were at Disney Springs for the whole trip. 
) so they helped me take care of that. While I was standing there, the gal helping me said she wanted to take a look and see if they could get me a room. She asked if a Nemo suite would work and I said it would be great as long as it wasn't 1st floor. In fact, she said, it was on the 4th floor! Nemo is exactly what we were wanting, so it was fabulous! We were in room 5817 in building 5. The location was perfect! We were 2 doors down from the elevator on the wing that goes away from the pool. Nice and quiet, yet close to the elevator. Perfect!! Other than a couple sticky drawers, the room was nice. We spent the next couple hours getting beds set up and unpacking. I'm SOO glad we took the time to do that as it really made the rest of our stay much more comfortable and convenient. After we were done moving in, we were ready to head out to Epcot. The kids' FEA fastpasses were scheduled for 4:25-5:25. I don't recall exactly when we arrived, but I think we pretty much headed straight there. FEA was down when we got there, so we went into the bakery for school bread and a couple other treats. The school bread was yummy! After that, FEA came back online so we rode it. Then ds15 did TT single rider and ds9 and dh rode Mission Space green. They considered trying orange but I talked them out of it. While they were busy with those rides I took the girls and we did Colortopia. Dd8 LOVED it!! When we got to the end of it, I had a bit of a coughing fit (had developed a sore throat throughout the day and it got really bad right then) and I was feeling pretty much done at that point. We hit our Spaceship Earth fastpass on the way out and called it a day. We had a great time overall though and this felt like our first really good Disney day. 
DH said he needs a decade off. I think at times I could go again at any point and others the overwhelming planning and exhaustion makes me want to wait. It doesn't help that I got bronchitis and a sinus infection.
Seeing as this was the entire reason for our early arrival, we were pretty disappointed. After rope drop we scooted to EE right away but there was already a terrible line, which obviously wasn't moving since the ride was closed. We waited around a bit but eventually decided to head over to KS to see what the wait time was like there. We had a breakfast ADR at TH at 10:25, so we had to be careful what kind of line we ended up in. We got in line for KS, but had to leave when it was close to 10 and we hadn't gotten on the ride yet. We met dh and the girls at TH but were told we had to wait until closer to our ADR time, so we got ice water from the Kusafiri Bakery and chilled for a bit. By this time ds15 was pretty grumpy because we had done exactly NOTHING after our early arrival. 
Eventually we were able to eat our breakfast. The food was delicious and even better than I remembered! Our character interactions were fine, but that wasn't why we ate there. We were seated in a room called the "School Room", according to our server. It was a little quieter than some of the other seating areas and I would request it again if possible. It was also very close to the buffet, so that was handy. The bread pudding was a surprise as I didn't realize it would be on the menu. It was so yummy! We all ate our fill and were ready to head out for our touring plan after this. Dh took the girls and ds9 to Rafiki's Planet Watch while I went with ds15 so he could ride EE and then we headed over to Dinosaur. Wait times were pretty manageable all day, once EE and Dino opened up. I caught back up with dh and the other kids after they were back from Rafiki's and we all had a snack. After that, it was time to catch Flights of Wonder while ds15 headed back to the room for a much-needed break. Flights was really good! After that, Dh took dd16 and ds9 to ride Dinosaur with our fastpasses while dd8 and I hung out together. Ds came back from the room by 3:30 (with a much better attitude!) and he rode EE with Dh and Dd16. Then we ate a meal at Flame Tree, followed by our sunset safari ride on KS. That was AMAZING! So many animals out and about and the lighting was perfect! Another ride on Dinosaur for ds15 and me and a couple more rides on EE for ds and we were all ready to head home for the night. We did catch an awakening at the Tree of Life first. Beautiful! Oh, we had also seen one on Sunday night. It was another good Disney day.
Thankfully, we were the only ones on the bus AND we were just about to the bus stop. But seriously, UGH! He was just car sick, so that much was good. I won't go into all the details, but it took an hour of texting both dh and ds15 to get anyone to respond. By then, I had gotten ds' sweatshirt off and bagged up and his shorts had dried. We found some Dramamine for him at the gift shop and sat at the Mara drinking Sprite for a bit. By then, he was ready to try moving again, so we took a bus to DHS and then to AOA (figured that was the most direct route with the fewest turns). We were pretty much done for the day by then. I spent the afternoon working on laundry and everyone was just resting and recovering from the night before. By late afternoon some had gotten restless, so dh, dd16, ds9, and dd8 all headed out to Ft. Wilderness to look for animals. They did see 2 deer, but it ended up being too close to night for them to get much time there. They got back to AoA around 7 or so, we ate dinner at Landscape of Flavors (did that a lot during our trip - it did get old), and then went to bed to hope for better things on Saturday. I'm pretty sure this was the night we finally headed back over to Pop Century to eat because I was really tired of eating at AoA and we hadn't been spending our evenings at the parks so we were somewhat limited in our eating options. I had the pot roast w/ mashed potatoes and gravy. Oh, was it delicious!! Actually, I think we all enjoyed our food and certainly it was a nice change of pace. 
Canada at night was breathtaking though! I had no idea there was a waterfall back there! We never did see Illuminations this time. Sigh.
Now I wish I would've written a more detailed report!
Yeah, I'm sorry I'm adding so much! I know if I don't do it now, I never will. After I get it all written out, I'll copy/paste it into a Word document and get it printed for our keepsakes. I didn't expect to write this much!
Now I wish I would've written a more detailed report!
I JUST finished writing my trip report in my little notebook. Man, it's hard to recall everything 2 weeks out! I also did a little "what I want to do next time" section...want to stay at either an Epcot resort (like Boardwalk) or the Contemporary, want to do Animal Kingdom, DON'T want to bother with HS, want to eat at so many other places. Gives me a bit of something to look forward to.
...and makes me realize that I have to start saving now to afford these resorts. Argh!
