Worlds Collide: A Split Stay with The Grump, The Teen, The Tween, and Grandma

[CJsMom]

We met The Grump at NBA City. Although it's closed now, I'll still give a mini-review. I didn’t have high expectations for the food here after reading reviews, but I knew that The Teen would love the theming. Surprisingly, the food was some of the best that we had all week. I got a Garden Salad with Chicken that was huge, and not that expensive, and the house-made vinaigrette was very good! Grandma got Shanghai Chicken Salad that was also excellent, and so big that she couldn’t finish it. The Teen and The Grump got burgers and The Tween got pizza (skipping the fries and chocolate milk this time) – all good. We got the Chocolate Bomb dessert to share. It was small, but that was ok, as we only had room for a couple of bites apiece.



After dinner we shopped in the NBA City store. The Teen got himself a t-shirt and we picked one up for my nephew as well. Then we walked over to Royal Pacific to check it out. There were lots of fountains and vegetation, very relaxing, and I wouldn’t mind staying there in the future.





We decided to take the boat back to CityWalk, then went in a few more stores there. Then we took the boat back to the Hard Rock, just to enjoy the ride and give our feet a rest. It was a fun, but exhausting day!

Up next, Universal Studios, and we say goodbye to the Hard Rock Hotel!

 

[CJsMom]

Monday Dec. 1, 2014

Plan: check out of Hard Rock Hotel, Universal Studios until close, switch to Disney resort - Fort Wilderness Cabins!

Another “rope-drop” day for us, with early entry into Diagon Alley! I promised the boys I wouldn’t drag them to rope-drop for the rest of the week, but I really wanted to take advantage of our early entry to the Harry Potter areas of the parks. I had read that even on low crowd days, these areas get crowded quickly.

However, we were checking out of the hotel that day. We had to pack our bags and load everything into the car, so despite my best efforts to move everyone along, we did not make early entry at 8:00am. Luckily Universal Studios is the closest park to the Hard Rock, with only about a 5-minute walk. We entered the park around 9:15am, and headed straight for Diagon Alley.











Not too crowded yet.

Oh, the theming! I cannot even explain the feeling that I had when we walked in. I literally stopped in the middle of the street, mouth agape, with tears in my eyes. The boys were laughing at me, but I didn’t care. I always tell them at my age, I am not embarrassed by my own behavior in the least!






They pushed me towards the ride (come on Mom, we’re here to do rides, not stand there and stare all day!). There was already a 40-minute wait for Escape from Gringotts (which does not accept Express Pass). Grandma, the boys and I decided to wait anyway (The Grump was not going to attempt it). That queue is huge! As the boys were complaining about having to wait (now thoroughly spoiled by their Express Passes), I pointed out to them that we were only waiting in the very first part of the giant queue. Imagine if it were full?! There wasn’t much to look at in the beginning of the queue, but I took a few shots.





Then, after 20 minutes, there was an announcement made that the ride was down. The TM told us that someone had gotten sick, so they would have to evac and clean the ride, and it would take about 2 hours. So, we left the line and walked around Diagon Alley for a while, but by then it had gotten very crowded. We decided to leave and come back later.

 

[CJsMom]

We headed over to Men in Black – yay, a ride for The Grump!



Except it spun a couple of times, so although the rest of us hopped back on for another alien attack, The Grump sat out.

Next up was Simpsons USA. We are big fans of the show so we took our time going through this area and took lots of pictures.













I had heard that the Simpsons ride was very “motion-y”, so The Grump and Grandma sat that one out. The Teen and The Tween liked it, but they were not satisfied. They wanted something bigger and faster. So, Grandma joined us for Transformers – twice. We loved Transformers – hard to decide whether that or Spiderman is better.





Then the boys and I hit Rip Ride RockIt – twice.

 

[CJsMom]

Then The Mummy, which both The Grump and Grandma joined us on. Twice.



Despicable Me was next, and the standby line was 45 minutes for that one. Even with the Express Pass we waited 20 minutes for it. It was very cute! We checked out Terminator, but the show wasn’t for another hour (and we never made it back).

At this point it was lunchtime (1:30pm) and I had planned for us to eat in Springfield at Simpsons Fast Food Boulevard. Apparently so had everyone else in the park. I thought I was being smart with our later lunch, but it wasn’t late enough! Packed! And somewhat confusing, in that there are lots of different lines, and of course everyone wanted different things. TIP: If you have older kids, hand them a Universal Gift Card and send them off to get their own food! Once we all got our food and assembled back together, we got seated by a TM. This is great and eliminates having to walk around with trays of food trying to find a table. I didn’t write down what everyone got here, but I know I got the Chicken and Waffle Sandwich and it was delicious! My next goal was to get a Duff Beer, but I was too full from lunch, and I never made it back to get one later. Next trip!

We did the Simpsons ride again, then Men in Black again. One annoying thing about Universal is that you cannot bring bags on most of the rides, and you are forced to put them in lockers. Unlike Six Flags, which also has this policy, they do not charge for the lockers. However, in almost every case it was a big bottleneck of people trying to get stuff into and out of the lockers. This is when it comes in handy to have a Grump along with you, who can hold the bags when he skips rides! But when he did join us, we found the whole locker thing to be a real PIA. And the first time we went on The Mummy, I couldn’t get the locker open after the ride and we had to get a TM to help us get back in. Frustrating.

Next was ET (what the heck is going on at the end of that ride?) and Transformers (again and again), then left Grandma and The Grump on a bench and hit Mummy twice, and RRR three more times.

According to my TouringPlans Lines app, the wait time for Gringotts was now 50 minutes, which was the lowest it had been all day, so we decided to go back to DA and wait for it. Passed Kings Cross station along the way…



And guess what? After about 20 minutes in line, it went down AGAIN! At this point we were inside of the bank “lobby” so we decided to wait around and take some pictures.







The line started moving again, so we stayed in it as long as we could, which paid off, because it turned out that they were sending people out through the emergency exit and handing out one-time FOL passes. These were good for any ride, but useless to us for the other rides since we had Express Pass already. We decided to wait around in Diagon Alley, shopped and took (more) pictures.





I went to the Gringotts Money Exchange and got some Wizard Money, that I had intended to spend but never did, so it came home as a souvenir.



The Grump went out and got a loaded baked potato from a stand outside of DA, and said it was one of the best snacks he had at Universal, and very reasonably priced. I tried to get the kids to wait with me for the wand show at Ollivanders, but they do not like going to shows. Hmf! We took our time exploring KnockTurn Alley and the shops (most of my pictures came out too dark to post!), and finally around 6:00pm The Tween ran over to check on EG and came back yelling “it’s open!” We ran in with our FOL passes and got on in about 15 minutes.

To be honest, after all the hype and buildup, we were a little disappointed. When the ride ended, The Tween looked at me and said “That was it? We waited all that time for that?” In my opinion, it wasn’t bad, just shorter than I thought it would be. We didn’t get our pictures taken -that was apparently “down”. And I’m pretty sure that some of the special effects were not working. I was lucky enough to get back to DA in October 2015. I was at a conference for work in Orlando, and they did a private party in DA for about 600 people, similar to the one the DIS had for Dizapalooza. Seriously, I thought I died and went to heaven! I rode the ride about 6 times and it was a lot better than I remembered. We all agreed that FJ was better. But I really think it was all that build-up and expectation that caused our reaction.

I realized at the end of the day that I had missed the Tales of Beetle the Bard show, which I had really wanted to see. Oh well, another reason to come back!

At this point the park was closing. We walked through Springfield one more time because if I couldn’t get my Duff Beer, I was determined to get the giant pink donut!





I stood in line again to get our pictures checked/edited and our “free” picture printed (this came with the Connect package). I think it took about 20 minutes.

We were all still pretty full from our late lunch so we didn’t get anything to eat before heading back to the car and getting on the road to switch over to Fort Wilderness. I was giddy – let the Disney vacation begin!

 

[CJsMom]

So, just a thought...since the rest of my trip report is focused on Disney, does it belong here in the Universal Trip Reports? I think we need a separate section for split reports! I'm leaving it here, but if the mods decide to move it, that's fine with me.

 

[CJsMom]

It took about 20 minutes to drive over to Fort Wilderness, and it was easy to find. We checked in at the Outpost Depot at about 8:30pm, Fort Wilderness cabin 2658. Since we still had provisions from our grocery store stop, we made sandwiches for dinner and demolished the big pink donut for dessert. The cabin was perfect for us. Plenty of room, a kitchen to make some food, a little privacy for Grandma (she
took the Murphy bed in the living room) and us (bedroom with a door). Pictures below (but please note, this is a bit outdated as the cabins have been refurbished):









Grandma couldn’t say enough about how comfortable the Murphy bed was. With the refurbishment, a pull-out couch has replaced the Murphy bed. I can’t imagine that it’s as comfortable as the Murphy bed. The downside of the cabin was the bed size – just a full in the bedroom for The Grump and I. And The Teen was a bit tall for the bunk bed. But we were so tired by the time we went to bed that it just didn’t matter – we all slept like babies! I think that the full beds were replaced by queens when the cabins got refurbished.

Coming up: we hang out at the Fort, and MVMCP!

 

[macraven]

So, just a thought...since the rest of my trip report is focused on Disney, does it belong here in the Universal Trip Reports? I think we need a separate section for split reports! I'm leaving it here, but if the mods decide to move it, that's fine with me.

We are one big happy family at the darkside section

Share the motherland portion here also if you like

It won't be moved as I'll let it stay here

It is very nice to join in with you on your family vacation in Orlando

 

[CJsMom]

Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2014

Plan: Late breakfast at Trail’s End, hang out at The Fort, MVMCP

Tuesday was our day to sleep in until our Trails End reservation at 10:00. Of course, I didn’t sleep in. I’m at Disney for Walt’s sake, there’s plenty of time to sleep at home! I got up, showered, and put in some laundry. Our cabin was close to the end of the loop and near the “quiet pool”, which had a laundry room right next to it. It was only about a 2-minute walk, and I had no problem getting a washer or dryer. If you stay at Ft. Wilderness, request the end of the loop for this reason, and the proximity to the bus stop. Another tip – bring a hair dryer! There is a hair dryer in the cabin, but it’s attached to the wall in the bedroom. If Grandma had not brought her hair dryer, I would have been buying one at the gift shop rather than wake everyone else up in the bedroom so that I could dry my hair!

When I got back, Grandma was up, and The Grump got up soon after. It was great to have the boys behind a closed door so they could sleep in and we could sit on the couch or at the table and chat. We had to wake them up to go over to breakfast at Trails End.

At Fort Wilderness, you have to take an internal bus (or walk/bike ride) to travel around inside the resort. There are no parking spots at pools or restaurants. To get to the parks, you need to take an internal bus to either an external bus stop or the boat dock (depending on which park you are going to). I had read lots of complaints about the bus service at Fort Wilderness, but other than a snafu after MVMCP which I will explain later, I found the busses to be pretty convenient. We only waited a couple of minutes for an internal bus to take us to Trails End that morning, which is located at the Settlement Depot near the boat dock. We were seated at Trails End very quickly. It was fantastic! Our server was great, the food was really good, and my only regret is that I couldn’t eat anymore because I was stuffed! And the price of that buffet was only $17.99 – a bargain at Disney. The Teen must have had 6 plates of food. All of us agree that it was one of the best meals we had.

After eating at Trails End, The Grump took the boys over to the waterfront to hang out while Grandma and I headed back to the cabin. Our plan was to get gas and a few more groceries to last the week. We got gas at the Hess Express at the Car Care Center, then came the 3-hour tour. According to my research, the closest grocery store was a Winn-Dixie on Apopka-Vineland. But the rental car’s GPS took us to someplace on 192 that was not a Winn-Dixie, or even a grocery store for that matter. I switched over to the GPS that I had brought from home (with the Mousesavers POI), and it finally got us to the Winn-Dixie about an hour after we had left the cabin. We got all of our groceries and guess how long it took us to get back to Fort Wilderness? 10 minutes!! I have no idea why the rental car GPS was so screwed up.

In the meantime, The Grump and The Tween had rented a Sea Raycer and were jetting all around Bay Lake. Grandma and I hopped a bus to the waterfront to watch them, but on our way the skies opened up and it started pouring rain. The Grump called me and said they had brought the boat in because it was hard to see in the rain. The Tween had worn a bathing suit but The Grump had not, and he was pretty wet and grumpy when we saw them. The Teen was with them laughing – he’d opted not to ride in the boat and was nice and dry. The Grump and The Tween hopped a bus back to the cabin to change. Grandma, The Teen and I decided to visit the Settlement Trading Post and do some shopping. We bought a couple of little things (magnet, Christmas ornament), then went back to the cabin to get ready for MVMCP.

The rain had stopped, and no more was predicted for that day (HA!). We got the internal bus back to the Settlement Depot (only a couple of minutes wait) and took the boat over to the Magic Kingdom. The boat came shortly after we got to the dock, and got us over to MK in about 10 minutes. I really liked the ride.









We got to the gates at 4:00pm with our party tickets, and were able to get our party wristbands there. That was great, since the last time we attended MVMCP I remember that we had to stand in a huge line in the Rose Garden once the party started to get our wristbands, with squirmy 5 and 7 year-olds! We stopped on Main Street first for a Photopass picture. The Teen was annoyed, as he hates posing for pictures, but I had prepared him beforehand. I let him know that I wanted a lot of pictures because Grandma was with us and that I had pre-paid for them so he needed to cooperate. He wasn’t happy, but because of Grandma, he put up with it and usually smiled. I had a picture of them “holding” Tinkerbell from the last trip and I told the photographer that I wanted to recreate it, but it didn’t come out as great as I had hoped. My fault – I should have scanned the old picture in and brought it with me.







I had scheduled FP+ for Jungle Cruise, BTMR and Space Mtn. So we did JC first (first time doing that with the Christmas theme and the boys got a kick out of the “jokes”), then BTMR. We did the Hall of Presidents next, which the boys had not done before, and we all enjoyed. Then we headed over to Tomorrowland. We rode BL a couple of times, the Peoplemover, Stitch (which the boys were scared to do last time they were here), and then Space Mtn. a couple of times.





We walked through Fantasyland, stopping at Mickey’s Philharmagic on the way, then went to Pecos Bills for dinner. We all got burgers and fries. The toppings bar is great but for some reason we all felt that the meal was just ok. For dessert we picked up cocoa and cookies in Adventureland (and The Teen went back a couple of times), then rode PoC. Next we headed to Splash Mtn. and just the boys rode that, as the rest of us didn’t want to get wet. It was very close to Wishes time and we were still waiting for the boys to get off of Splash when it started to downpour. We donned ponchos and waited under the bridge for them. I was hoping that Wishes would be delayed, but no such luck. It started and we were still waiting for them. When they finally got off, The Teen fought my suggestion that he put on a poncho, then took so long to actually get it on that I was fuming! Why do they insist on being so stubborn about something so foolish? You want to get wet just to show me that you don’t need a poncho? It’s ridiculous! Anyway, about halfway through Wishes we were finally heading back towards the hub. We took the path by the river, and while we were walking I noticed that we had fireworks going off all around us, 360 degrees! We stopped there as it was an incredible view. If we hadn’t been delayed by the boys riding Splash, then The Teen fighting with me, I never would have thought to watch the fireworks from here, and we would have missed this. Sometimes things do happen for a reason!

I really wish I had noted exactly where we were standing, because I couldn’t figure out the spot when I was at the MK last fall. Looking at a map, I think it was on the bridge leading from Liberty Square to the hub. But when I tried to stand there last fall, the CM’s made me move, so I’m unsure whether that really was the spot.

The rain lightened up, so we headed back over to Frontierland and rode BTMR again. Then I dragged everyone on IASW. Nothing like torturing a Teen!



After that, with the song ringing in our ears, we walked over to Sleepy Hollow to get ice cream cookie sandwiches. Which didn’t happen, because the line was ridiculously long! We decided to stand there and wait for the parade. The rain started again. So much for the prediction of a clear evening! At 10:20pm, the parade was cancelled. Bummer! I had seen the Christmas parade before but I had really wanted Grandma to see it.

 

[CJsMom]

The boys were happy that they didn’t “have” to watch a parade now, and cheered for more rides. So we went back to Space Mtn. and they rode it about five times. I only joined them for one, as I do get tired of my head slamming around on that ride. It was almost 11:00pm, so we headed back to Fantasyland for 7DMT. The posted wait was 50 minutes, but we decided to get in line anyway. Good thing, because the actual wait time was more like 20 minutes. I loved it – the theming is great and it’s a really fun “small” coaster!



After that the boys talked us into doing Splash Mtn. with them, and since we were a bit damp from the rain anyway, we did it. Then they jumped into line and did it again since it was so short. By this time they had figured out that we were getting all of our ride photos on PhotoPass, so they had some fun with that.





That was the last ride of the night, and we took our time leaving Main St. and enjoying the “snow”. We did a little shopping at the Emporium on the way out, and I bought the MVMCP pin. And I made everyone stand for one more group picture! The Grump was thrilled.



At the docks, we got a boat fairly quickly since the lines were not long. Once we got back to the Fort however, we had an issue with the internal bus at the Settlement Depot (this is the internal stop at the back of the Fort, near the boat dock). The driver asked what loop we were staying in, and we told him. He said he had to stop at the Wilderness Lodge first, and we said that was fine. Other people got off at some stops, and the rest got off at Wilderness Lodge. Then he drove back to the campground, and after driving around for a while, we found ourselves at the Outpost Depot (where check-in and the external bus stop is). He asked what our loop was again, and when we told him, he said “you got on the wrong bus”. Umm, OK. Why not tell us that when we got on the bus and told him what our loop was? He said his route was ending for the night, and he’d have to let us off at the bus stop where we could wait for another bus. At this point it was 1:00am, and we actually contemplated walking back to our cabin because it didn’t seem that far from the front and we had no idea how long were we going to have to wait for another bus. But we waited, and it was about 10 minutes before the bus showed up. All we can assume is that they are very strict about their bus routes only going certain places, since it would have taken the original bus driver only about 5 minutes to get us back to our cabin. Very strange. So we ended our day at 1:30am, thoroughly exhausted! Obviously I was not getting anyone up for rope-drop the next day!!

Coming up, Hollywood Studios!

 

[CJsMom]

Wednesday Dec. 3, 2014

Plan: Sleep in! Hopefully get to HS by noon.

After our late night I actually slept in a little – 9:00am. I got up, showered and dressed, and brought the still-damp clothes/shoes from the Sea Raycer session over to the dryer. Little by little everyone got up, relaxing over cereal and coffee. We left for HS at 11:00am, and despite having to take an internal bus to the Outpost Depot, then waiting for an external bus to HS, we got there in plenty of time to take a PhotoPass picture in the front of the park, then get to the first FP+ that I had scheduled – TSM.



I had hoped to ride TSM at least twice that day, but the standby line for this was never shorter than 90 minutes and the FP+ were gone by mid-day. I absolutely loved this ride. The Teen got to ride by himself.



Next we did LMA, which the boys remembered liking a lot from our last trip. It’s a good show, but having seen it twice, I’m not sad to see it go. After that we used our FP+ for ST, then saw the Muppets. I think this was a touring plan fail on my part, since it seemed that everyone from the LMA show had gone over to the ST and Muppets area. Very crowded!

We ate a late lunch at the Backlot Express. I’m not sure what we all had, but I know we thought it was pretty good. After lunch, we saw IJ, then used our last FP+ at ToT. Grandma loves this ride! We tried to get a RnR FP after that, but they were gone for the day (this was at 3:00). I suggested to the boys that we use the single-rider line, but they said they didn’t mind waiting 30 minutes, so that’s what we did. The Tween was pretty excited to ride this, since he was too short on our last trip and had to watch The Teen and I go without him. While we waited they made it clear that in their opinion, Universal Express Passes are WAY better than FP+ at Disney!





Going back through all of my pictures now, I had forgotten about the little ride videos we got with Memory Maker. They are great! Memory Maker – not cheap – but worth every penny!

After our fast ride, we got ice cream cookie sandwiches at Hollywood Scoops. They were huge! Then we walked back over to the Streets of America to see the Osbourne Lights. We had seen them on our last trip, so the boys were not impressed. I love them though, and Grandma had never seen them before. Unfortunately, it was packed, which made The Grump and the boys very squirmy. The boys kept asking to leave, and finally I obliged them – after making them pose for a PhotoPass picture.



We headed back to Sunset Boulevard and did Tot and RnR twice each – at this point the lines were pretty short as everyone in the park must have been at the Osbourne Lights.

We decided to end the day with Fantasmic, walking in right at 8:00 when the show started, and got great seats! We all enjoyed the show, and took our time walking out of the park. By the time we got to the bus lines they were practically empty. After just a few minutes, a bus came and we were on our way. No internal bus issues tonight, so we got back to the cabin pretty quickly. We found lots of fun towel animals!







We made sandwiches for dinner and Grandma and I popped the cork on a bottle of wine. Another great day in the books!

Coming up...Epcot and the Candlelight Processional!

 

[CJsMom]

Thursday Dec. 4, 2014

Plan: Epcot, lunch at Via Napoli, CP!

I was really looking forward to this day. Epcot is my favorite park, and I could not wait to see the Candlelight Processional for the first time. Jonathan Groff (voice of Kristoff in Frozen) was the narrator that night. I had made reservations for lunch at Via Napoli with the Candlelight Processional dining package so that we wouldn’t need to stand in line for the show. Or so I thought.

The boys were dragging that morning. They weren’t looking forward to a whole lot at Epcot, so it was a little hard to get them going. I did not even try to make rope drop – in fact our first FP+ reservation was for SE at 11:00am and I was prepared to miss it. I scheduled Soarin at 1:00pm and lunch for 2:00pm, so as long as we got there for that I was ok. It goes against my grain not to get to the park at the crack of dawn. But I did not want to be dealing with cranky Teens and Tweens. They are much better night owls, so for them, closing the parks rather than opening them made a lot more sense. Even though I’d much rather open AND close them!

I actually left it up to them to make our first FP+ or not. And they chose to make it! Good boys! With time for this on the way in…



We got to SE right at 11:00 and hopped on. I rode with The Teen, and we had a nice conversation along the way. Next we did SOAT, where I somehow missed getting the upside-down part onto my coaster. It was neat to create the coaster and ride, although I wouldn’t wait 30 minutes for it again. (ETA: I believe it's closed now.) At that point it was time for our Soarin FP+, so we did that.



One of my faves! I got to ride the new version this fall, and it’s just as good, IMHO! After that we decided to cool off during Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Why I decided to waste 45 minutes on that, I have no idea, but it was a nice place to take a little snooze. Then our last FP+, Mission Space (Green side for The Grump). At that point I wanted to try to get TT FP+, but it was very close to our lunchtime and I didn’t want to make us late while hiking over to a FP+ kiosk, so I decided to wait.

We headed to Italy for our lunch. We had to wait about 5 minutes for our table. Overall, it was very good, although the dining package was expensive. We could have eaten there much cheaper off-package, since the boys only wanted pizza, but it was worth it to me to have a guaranteed seat for the show. And not have to wait in line. So I thought.

With the dining package everyone gets their choice of appetizer, entrée and dessert. For appetizers, we got mozzarella & tomato salad, fried calamari, and 2 orders of fried risotto balls (since there were 5 of us, we must have gotten something else as well but I don’t have it in my notes). For entrée, both The Grump and I got chicken parmesan. Grandma got white lasagna, and the boys got pizza. Everything was excellent. For dessert, we ordered Ugly Sundaes, gelato and lemon sorbet and shared them around the table. Yum. We were not rushed and the service was excellent.

After lunch I ran over to the FP kiosk near France to try to get the TT FP, but they were gone for the day. We noticed people already in line for the 5:00 CP show at 3:30. I congratulated myself for getting the package so that we didn’t have to do that. Then I noticed that the people had dining package tickets (they are stickers that go on your shirt). I commented to The Grump that they must not know that they didn’t have to wait in line. Silly, I thought.

So we shopped and walked around in Japan, Morocco and France for a while.





About 4:45, we headed over to the America Gardens theater for the show. At the entrance the CM gestured to the line that we had to get in. Which stretched all the way back to Morocco. I told him that we had tickets, and he explained that yes, this was the line for people with CP dining tickets. Ok. So we get in line, and I still can’t figure out why people were in line so early when they already had tickets and were guaranteed a seat.

Once we got into the theater, I got it. Only some of the seats are under cover. The rest are in the open air. And it was clouding up. Naturally people got into line early so they could get seats out of the rain. Grrr. I get so mad when I miss stuff like this. I consider myself a very detailed planner, but somehow I had missed this tidbit of information. So, consider this your PSA for the day – if it’s going to rain, make sure you get in line early even if you have paid an exorbitant amount of money for lunch so that you wouldn’t have to wait in line!

We sat under the cloudy skies and kept our fingers crossed. I had ponchos, at least I had remembered that! The show started and I forgot all about the threatening rain. It was beautiful. I was totally entranced by the music and the narrative. So worth it. Grandma loved it too. The Grump said it was “pretty good” and the boys said “ok”. And, luckily for us, the rain held off until the end of the show. Perfect timing really, as the skies opened up just after we left the theater and were passing the Karamell Kuch store in Germany. Oh look kids, here’s a great place to stop and hide from the rain!

We bought our caramels and happily munched them until the showers passed, then continued on our way to get the boys to more rides. We did take a side trip to China first. The boys both take Mandarin in school so I was hoping they would try to talk to the CM’s, but it was not to be.



The TT line was posted at 50 minutes. The actual wait was only about 20, so we did it twice.



Then the boys and I went on MS Orange (10 minute wait). After this we walked back to World Showcase where we toured Mexico and rode the Gran Fiesta Tour. It was about 9:10 at this point, so I planted myself in a spot on the railing between Norway and China for Illuminations. The Teen and The Tween wanted to take a walk so I let them take off by themselves for a while. They came back in time for the start of the show. This was probably the best viewing spot I’ve ever had for Illuminations, and I thoroughly enjoyed the holiday ending. I always get tears in my eyes when I watch Illuminations. I listen to the music in the car sometimes and tear up then too – silly!







We took our time leaving the park, letting the crowds flow ahead of us and doing a little shopping on the way out. Once we got to the busses, we only had to wait a few minutes, and we were on our way back to the Fort. We had snacks/sandwiches/wine (for Grandma and I) when we got back, then headed to bed.

Coming up, AK and Downtown Disney (yeah, that was still the name 2 years ago!)

 

[macraven]

Such a happy beautiful family!!

All the pics of them are sweet


Still reading about your fantastic vacation

 

[chs27]

Love your report! The pictures of tween & teen from younger years and now are so cute. I have a grump and a teen I'm planning to take in October. Wish I could plan a solo trip. Took the Grandma last time, instead of the grump. They are interchangeable, couldn't handle both on the same trip.

 

[CJsMom]

Love your report! The pictures of tween & teen from younger years and now are so cute. I have a grump and a teen I'm planning to take in October. Wish I could plan a solo trip. Took the Grandma last time, instead of the grump. They are interchangeable, couldn't handle both on the same trip.

Thanks! It's been fun to re-live this trip! You should definitely plan a solo trip. I did a quick one at the end of a work conference last year, and it was really nice having only myself to think about.

 

[CJsMom]

Such a happy beautiful family!!

All the pics of them are sweet


Still reading about your fantastic vacation

Thanks for sticking with me!

 

[CJsMom]

Friday Dec. 5, 2014

Last full day of vacation, waaahhh!

Plan: sleep in, cook a big breakfast, AK, Downtown Disney

I think the boys were pretty happy that I let them sleep in, awakened eventually by the invigorating smell of frying bacon. We made eggs and pancakes too. I had been told that in the cabins if you leave dishes out that Mousekeeping will clean up for you. This was true, although I couldn’t bring myself to leave a huge mess. I always rinsed off the dishes and left them in the sink, and put the food away. When we came back later the dishes had been run through the dishwasher and the sink was clean. Nice!

Once we polished off the food, we headed out to AK around 12:00pm. We waited the longest time on the trip for the AK bus – 15 minutes! In my mind, that’s not bad at all. Except for that late night bus, we didn’t mind the bus system at Fort Wilderness, and having to take the internal busses first was never a problem. If we wanted to, we could have driven ourselves to the parks, but it just never seemed that inconvenient to take the bus.

When we got to AK we strolled through the Discovery Trails and posed for a couple of PhotoPass pictures.









I was determined to “smell the roses” a bit at AK this trip, since I rushed us around a lot on our last family trip to Disney. If we missed something, oh well. I had my short list of “must-do’s”, and left us plenty of time to get to them. It was definitely more relaxing and I think everyone had a much better time because of it. We waited about 15 minutes for Dinosaur (no FP+), which the kids had not done on the last trip because they were scared. Literally, they freaked out in the preshow, twice, and I had to take them out. It was funny to talk to them about it now because neither of them could figure out what had scared them so much back then!



They wanted to do PW, which I told them was lame (The Teen and I had done it last trip but The Tween was too short at the time), but we did it anyway. They agreed afterwards that it was lame, but Grandma thought it was fun. After this we strolled over to Asia for the Maharaja Jungle Trek. Those tigers are beautiful and fascinating. When we passed by EE, I told the boys that I had FP+ for later that day, but they wanted to get on it, so Grandma and I waited the 30 minutes and joined them. Actual wait was 20, so much fun!







Then we headed to Africa for KS (FP+). It started off slow, but then we saw a lot of animals. Last family trip, the “Little Red” storyline had scared the crap out of The Teen – he was afraid of the poachers – and he remembered this, commenting to me afterwards that he was glad they had done away with “that stupid story”.

 

[CJsMom]

We walked through the Pangani Forest next, and the skies opened up, so we got under cover and waited it out, hanging with the gorillas.





Our next FP+ was for FOLK, and I was really excited for this! I wanted to see it on our last family trip, but for various reasons it didn’t happen. We all enjoyed it, even the boys who don’t usually like sitting for shows.





We got a late lunch at Pizzafari. Everyone except me got pizza, and everyone but me liked their food. I got a pasta salad that had way too much dressing on it. Not great.

After lunch we wanted to try another safari ride, but it was closing at 4:45. Should have checked the guide for that! Our FP+ time was coming up for EE, so we strolled back there. It had stopped raining, but apparently the rain cleared the park out, because the standby line was only 10 minutes, then 5. We saw this, and jumped back on, again and again. Grandma quit after three, I lasted five, but the boys literally went 12 times in a row! They were so excited for this short line! While they rode, we found a Photopass photographer and took a few pictures.

 

[CJsMom]

After The Teen declared that he had a headache from riding EE 12 times, we left. I think the park was closing at that point anyway, it was about 7:00. We took an AKL bus so that we could switch to a Disney Springs bus from there. Last family trip we stayed at AKL, and it is my favorite resort. I was going to run in and buy some Zebra Domes, but the bus to Disney Springs showed up right away, so I was denied. We sat in quite a bit of traffic getting over to Disney Springs, as the construction was still in full swing then. I was really glad I was not driving the rental car!

Our first stop was Goofy’s Candy Company, where the boys and I made custom rice krispy treats and pretzels. We shopped at Pin Traders, WoD, Once Upon a Toy, and the Marketplace Co-op. I soon noticed that Grandma and I were by ourselves, and when we came out, The Grump and the boys were sitting on a curb, eyes glazed over. It was about 10:30pm and they were done. Grandma and I could have killed a couple more hours there, but we decided to head back with them and get some rest. We got a bus right away and were back at our home-away-from-home in no time.

Up next, we squeeze in some Gingerbread House viewing before the sad drive to the airport...

 

[CJsMom]

Saturday Dec. 6, 2014

Departure Day, boo!

Plan: Pack up, check our bags, visit the Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian. Leave for MCO at 12:30pm, flight home leaves at 3:19, arrive Boston 6:05pm.

I really thought that after 10 days, I’d be ready to leave. That’s a long vacation, right? Nope, I was nowhere near ready to go. The Grump was more than ready, as usual, departure day is a good day in his eyes! Grandma was with me. Having thoroughly drunk the Disney KoolAid, she was not ready to go. The Teen declared that he couldn’t wait to sleep in his own bed after not being able to fully stretch out in the bunk without hanging his legs off the side. But I think The Tween, given the choice, would have stayed longer with Grandma and I.

We took our time having breakfast and packing up the minivan. We drove over to the Outpost Depot and dragged our bags over to the RAC desk. There were a couple of people ahead of us, and the RAC check-in took a long time. The Grump was convinced that we could have done it faster at the airport, but I was happy not to have to drag our bags around.

After this, we drove over to the Grand Floridian to see the Gingerbread House. PSA: there is not much parking available at the Grand Floridian for visitors to the resort. We drove around and around for at least 15 minutes before finding a spot. Once we finally got into the lobby, we were all impressed. We took lots of pictures of the house and bought some edible shingles to bring home.






Grandma and I went through a few of the shops, and I bought a small Vera Bradley change purse. We also got some snacks for the plane ride. Eventually, as much as I was fighting it, it was time to go.

We had an uneventful ride back to the airport, stopping at the Car Care Center to fill up the tank on the way. We already had our boarding passes, so we could head directly to the gate. First, we stopped at a food court to get some lunch. We got pizza and sandwiches at Sbarro, but unfortunately, there were no tables to sit at. We ended up on a bench trying to eat some very messy food. Not a fun experience. After cleaning ourselves up we went to the gate to wait for our flight. We left on time and arrived in Boston on time, our transportation was on time, and before we knew it, we were home.

 

[macraven]

Thanks for sharing with us
Such a delightful trip report!