5 little boys, 2 parents and 2 grandparents, in the HOT, HOT World! Update Day 6

[Sheaboys]

Following along!

WELCOME!

 

[Sheaboys]

wow 50 mins for Maelstrom! I know it is closing and all but that really is an indication of some high crowd levels.

And major bummer about the issues with signing up for Jedi Training ... was it just that crowded or were there other issues going on?

At least you got on a lot of the big attractions at DHS

Onion rings and ice cream works for me! And bonus getting to see some of 2 sets for fireworks

Welcome!

I am assuming the problem at DHS was the whole Frozen thing. It did not feel busy in the park once through the gates, but for Jedi training, everyone must have had the same idea, I don't know. It did stink because ds4, who turned 8 on the trip, is not a big rider, and that was all he really wanted to do. However, even he said, I am done waiting, and they were not enjoying standing the in the hot hot sun.

 

[Goofy442]

Yes, Beaches and Cream is small and with a larger family it makes it a little tough. My kids love the kitchen sink, sadly they made it smaller.

 

[Sheaboys]

So today we headed back to Animal Kingdom for EMH. We managed to get up and at the bus stop by 8:15am or so. Through the gates around 8:45. The lines were long, too. We headed towards Dinosaur, as I had not done it, due to Ds4 deciding he was not riding it on Monday. So, Grandma took ds4 and headed towards the Triceratops spin area. Grandpa decided to follow. The rest of us got in line and we were on the ride in about 10 minutes. When we came out Grandpa was there, but no grandma. So we were texting her trying to locate her. Eventually we found her and we headed toward Expedition Everest. We had a fastpass for 9:25am. I got right on with ds1, ds2, ds3 and ds5. I was sitting with some guy who was on his Honeymoon, guess his bride does not like the Yeti! After this we decided to head to Lion King, which had a 10am show. We walked down and we were told it was standing room only. So we walked around a bit and made the decision to cancel the Safari fast pass, and we booked Lion King for the next show. Then because we had extra fastpasses for Expedition the older 3 and ds5 took the magic bands from the grandparents, dh and ds5 and off they went.

We sat in the seating at Tusker House and had some fruit and crackers and drinks. It was so hot already.
Kids managed to get back to us, with about 5 minutes to spare before our fastpasses. We got in line for the Lion King and had a great show. The inlaws were very impressed. We had a fastpass for Kali at 11:45-12:45. So we headed there. We left Grandma and ds4, as ds4 once again opted out, which surprised me, he liked this ride last time. Did we get wet...of course we did. I think the ones most wet were ds3 and grandpa. We got off the ride and tried to locate grandma. Not thinking..she had all our cell phones, so none of us could call her. It took us about 15 minutes to find her Grandpa was not happy. He got over it. This day was once again 97 degrees with a feels like of 108. Seriously hot. We decided to head out, usually we spend more time in this park but the heat was just well HOT!
I had two gift certificates for Landry Restaurants. I originally wanted to use these for Yak and Yeti, but I could never secure a reservation. And on Monday when we walked out Rainforest Cafe had a sign that said they had walkin available. So we decided to go there. We waited about 15 minutes and that was it. So not bad. I got these gift certificated off of MyPoints. One was for $25 the other for $50. So I told the server we had them, showed them to him, he said he would have to ask his manager if we could use both. We ordered our drinks, soda's and beer. He came back with drinks and big YES, to both certificates. We decided on ordering appetizer foods for all of us, except Ds1, who ordered a burger meal, he is a growing 16yr old after all. All I can recall is ds3 complaining about being cold and wet. We all enjoyed the apps, such as nachos, chicken fingers, casadias, thing like that. We had just enough food for all of us, it worked out perfectly. I can recall after using the $75 in certificates, the bill was $62 with tip. So we were happy with that. Kids headed outside to the heat while we settled the bill and took this.

Grandma got back!

Outside the Rainforest Cafe'
We were back at the resort around 1:30/2:00 I believe.
Yesterday since we had a nice relaxing day by the pool, I had done laundry. I would love it if magic bands worked for laundry, getting change was a pain.
Anyway, we had a great afternoon, by the pool once again. We packed our cooler and had a great time.
Tonight we had a 5:20 reservation at Kona Cafe' at the Poly. Grandpa decided he was not hungry. He stayed at the resort. I wanted to give us plenty of time, so we headed out around 4:15. WE took the bus to Magic Kingdom and hopped on the monorail to the Poly. Grandma had never been on the monorail so it was an experience for her. We were separated getting on the monorail, there were lots of people getting on it, and we just hopped in one car (grandma, ds4, dh and me) while ds1, ds2, ds3 and ds5 hopped in the next car. They got out and moved to our car at the Ticket and Transporation. We were at the Poly by 4:55. I walked up to the Kona and tried to checkin, they were not open yet. We got a pager, and sat around, we checked out the menu and walked around. We were paged around 5:20. We all thought this was a great meal. I mentioned Mickey Ravioli to ds4 and finally something he would eat. Well I knew better, I kept thinking he is not going to like this either and I was right. The rolls and butter were so yummy. We ordered Pot Stickers too for an appetizer. Grandma got Spiced Ahi tuna which she loved, loved, loved. Dh got Grilled NY strip Steak, he said it was cooked perfectly. Ds1 and ds3 got the Sushi Combo plate, ds2 got the Volcano Roll and I got the Spicy Tuna, ds4 got Mickey Ravioli and ds5 got Shrimp Skewers. We all moved our plates around and shared. The bill was about $240 with tax and tip. We had soda's for kids, wine for grandma and beer for dh and I. It was very good, we loved it.
We were back at the resort by around 7-7:30. Grandma went to food court and got either make your own pasta or mac n cheese, I don't remember. I do remember on Tuesday ds2 went to the food court to get some food, and his magic band did not work, the poor kid was hot mess, when he got back, he tried 3 different registers, no one could get it to work, they finally jsut let him go, he was there about 30 minutes, came back to the room with cold food. He as just besided himself. So if memory serves me correct this night we went to the consierge to fix it. The line was 3 people deep with 2 people at the counters. WE waited about 40 minutes, they could not figure out why it was not working. I do know it worked to get into the park no problem that day, but he could not get into the room. Weird, but whatever, it was fixed. Another early night tonight as it is EMH morning at Magic Kingdom tomorrow. Today, though, I changed our plans, which I then later regretted. They changed the hours a few weeks prior to our trip. Originally DHS had morning EMH on Saturday, so I scheduled fast passes for Saturday morning there. Then they moved them to Friday, Friday I had Epcot scheduled with fast passes to Test Track, which I got on Monday, originally we had Soarin, but grandma and grandpa did not want to do it, and I knew ds4 would not, and we had done it monday night. So I got Test Track instead. But like I said DHS switched EMH to Friday, so I switched our days. I got fastpasses all settled, just about the same times, just different days. This will prove to bite me in the butt tomorrow.

 

[Disneylover99]

Hi!

I just found you through the August thread. I love reading trip reports knowing I was there at the same time.

You look like you're having a great time so far!

 

[Goofy442]

Wow, you all had a busy day. I don't like when they change the EMH, that makes me crazy. I have everything planned and they have to go and change things on me.

 

[Sheaboys]

Hi!

I just found you through the August thread. I love reading trip reports knowing I was there at the same time.

You look like you're having a great time so far!

Welcome!!!

 

[SusieBea]

OK, you don't look old enough to have 5 boys! And fur baby doesn't appear to be havin' any of it! I'm in. Oh, and I love Gma's tail at the bar. Write on .....

 

[CaptainCook]

Ha ha! Love that Beverly shot!

 

[vleeth]

Joining!

You have a beautiful family.

Rainforest Cafe is so much fun.

 

[Sheaboys]

OK, you don't look old enough to have 5 boys! And fur baby doesn't appear to be havin' any of it! I'm in. Oh, and I love Gma's tail at the bar. Write on .....

Welcome! And thanks for the compliment, I am actually over 40 by 3 yrs, so is my husband. Glad I look younger in photos. The puppy, she is 6yrs young after all, is the best pup ever.

 

[Sheaboys]

Today is our EMH morning at Magic Kingdom. Once again, I was first one up and out the door for coffee, by this day ds1 was no longer even bothering to come with me. I did catch up with grandpa. I did see what at first I thought was giant rat on the walk way (and can you believe I was just like, um, a big rat) only to notice it was actually an armadillo. Very cool. I am sure grandpa got breakfast. I had ordered from garden grocer, but I know at this point he was out of cereal and we were out of beer and water. I placed our order for more on Wednesday, it will arrive tomorrow. Had I known that it would be a 2 day lag time, I would have ordered earlier, lesson learned. Anyway, we were out the door and at the park just after opening, so approximately 9:00, as we just missed the opening show and the lines were not super jammed up. On this day, for some reason the Mickey to Mickey was working but not the finger scan, they were just letter people walk through. I went to log onto MDE and it said I could not. I began to panic a bit, as I could not remember the exact times of our fastpasses. So I am wondering if the MDE and scan machines all work on the same type network. But within the next 30 minutes MDE was back up and running. I knew that our first fast pass was for 7 Dwarves Mine Train for 10:15am. So we headed right this time, towards Buzz.

We walked right on, I can't remember the next, but I know we hit People Mover, Tea Cups, Carousel, Dumbo, Barnstormer, then we went to our fast pass. Grandma sat it out with Ds4, because again, not his thing. Did we like it, it was good, faster than I thought it would be, and big jerk at the first hill, so put your hand or arm behind your little kids. DS5 hit his head good, so did ds2, who as you see from photos for a 14yr old pretty small. So keep that in mind. After this ds1 took ds5 on it again with grandma and ds4's magic bands. It broke down while they were in line, so it took them a good 25 minutes to finish up and get back to us. Then onto It's a Small World. We had an ADR for Liberty Tree Tavern for 11:30am. We headed that way, but went by way of Magic Carpets. We tried to get photos with Aladdin and Jasmin but they just left. I waited in line for about 15 minutes with ds4 and ds5. But they were tired of waiting and the handler said it would be another 5 minutes, so we hopped out of line. By now it was 11am, and hot, hot, hot... So ds2 tried to check us in at LLT, which he did, but they don't open until 11:30, so we sat inside, along with about 10 other families who had the thought as us, get the heck out of the heat. We were called promptly at 11:30am. Everyone, except me, enjoyed their meals. We had the Turkey feast, for many, and thank god a macaroni and cheese ds4 Loved! Which I was a bit surprised by, but heck it was orange and he was happy. He also ate some of turkey meals too. I had a bacon cheeseburger medium. It was raw. Now I can eat my burgers with a moo, but not cold. Yep it was cold and raw. So I ate around the burger and not the middle. Honestly I should have sent it back, but I know me and I would never had finished the entire burger anyway and the edges were cooked just fine. We enjoyed the time inside, the service was quick and efficient. WE were done and out of there in about an hour. Off to our Splash Mountain fast pass it was at 12:20-1:20.

As you can see, me and the older boys made our "camera" faces, where as Grandpa was truly scared (but loved it) and dh and ds5 made their regular faces as well. I knew that dh was going to get wet in his seat, especially at the end of the ride when it stops after the big hill, it stops where the water just splashes and splashes. This ride did stop while we were on it, they sent an empty car about 3 boats ahead of us, it took forever for it to click in and go up the big hill. Then it stopped again, at the end, all backed up. So the ride took quite along time. Grandma and ds4 sat at as usual. It did feel nice to get wet. Earlier in the day, I canceled our fast pass for Big Thunder as it was for like 2pm or something. I tried to get a Mickey fastpass, since as you can tell we did not have many character photos at all. Tried to get Space Mountain but nothing was available until 6:20pm or so. SO I just booked it to get it. Then after splash we decided I would come back with the older 3 after dinner. So we headed out of the park, it was about 1pm, and off to swim. This, as you notice, was how we did most of our days. It worked out great for us. On another note, ds5 is 5 but we went strollerless, it was awesome. He and ds4 did great the entire time, with walking. With the fastpass system we were able to take out time and relax more, same with them walking it forced us to slow down and just enjoy.

Dh decided to come with us back to Magic Kingdom, Grandma and Gramps stayed back with the 2 youngers, they ate at the food court, I know for a fact it was mac n cheese for ds4 and pizza for ds5. I know my entire family enjoyed the flat bread pizza options and the make your own pasta options alot at Port Orleans Riverside.
DH and I on Main Street.

Older 3 did their photo, but it was really bright looking.
headed to Space Mountain.

Hear No Evil, Speak no Evil, See no Evil

We went to Cosmic Rays for supper. It was pretty good. I don't remember the last time I ate here, I am thinking 1995 or possibly 1992, either way, along time ago. I got salad, dh a burger, and the other 3...no idea. But I know it was all gone.
This is when we encountered our first bout of rain since we got here. You could see it coming, hear it coming. It rained for maybe 20 minutes. After our fast pass on Space Mountain, I got one for the Speedway. But with the rain, it was canceled and we could do anything. So, once the rain slowed, we made our way to Space Mountain again.
I can't remember what happened after this, but I believe we decided to head out. We were back at the resort by about 9/9:30.
After how busy Magic Kingdom got in the morning and how busy Animal Kingdom was on Wednesday morning, I decided to switch back our days for Friday and Saturday back to our original plan. I did this when we were in the Magic Kingdom that morning. So we now have Epcot for Friday morning, and we would could not get a fastpass for Test Track, so we thought we would get there first thing and head straight there. And Saturday was changed back to DHS morning. But again, fast passes were not what we had before. But it worked out. You will see.

 

[vleeth]

I love your families ride photos!

 

[Disneylover99]

Yuck about your burger.

 

[Sheaboys]

So today we originally had planned for Epcot, but changed it to DHS on Wednesday, then after how busy MK was on Thursday morning switched it back to Epcot. The problem this caused was we could not get Test Track. So we headed out to EPCOT for rope drop, but we were about 10 minutes late. The line for Test Track was already 50 minutes. So... we hopped in the single rider line. We had never done this ride before. In 2012 it was closed for refurbishment and in 2005, dh thought the kids were too little. As you can, see the more kids you the less concerned you become about some things. . The downfall to single rider line, ds5 could not ride. I know he would not be able to actually get on a ride by himself with others at the age of 5. So we told him he was too small. I know, we lied, but it was not worth him being so upset about not riding. Thing is, is 2 of us got to ride together. Oh well. It was dh, myself, ds1, ds2, ds3 and grandpa. We all loved this ride. Ds1 and I rode together, but he was behind me. My car won. Not sure how everyone else did. Grandma had the 2 little guys. After this, ds1, ds2, ds3, and myself hit Mission Space. We decided to do Orange. DH, ds4, ds5 and the grandparents went into the nearby building. The wait was 15 minutes maybe. I had never done Orange, and I did enjoy it. We met up with the other. Went to Spaceship Earth. We had a fastpass for this. Nice relaxing ride. Ds4 went through his, "is it dark, is it fast, does it have hills, etc". Grandma was concerned too, but we assured them it was a nice slow mover. They liked it alot. This day was really hot. We headed to Imagination I believe. I know we had a fast pass, so walked right on, hit the bathrooms. On to Nemo, where we waited for our fast pass, we were early, so we had some drinks and chips. Rode the ride, and walked around a bit. Then it was time for the Showcase to open. So we headed that way.
Couple photos:

Grandma tried the Beverly.

Paris vacation.

Mexico



Of course this was done.

Heading out, Grandpa was feeling good. We had taken pictures of the Grandparents in every country. He was done, done, done.

Last one of the day.

It was so HOT! Walking around the World Showcase in the heat was exhausting. We were back at the hotel by 2. Our delivery arrived around that time. We headed to the pool to relax. This night we had no plans for dinner.
I changed our plans for Saturday nights dinner. We were scheduled to eat at EPCOT, but decided we would just do whatever, as we were just at EPCOT this day. So I cancelled it. I also cancelled our dinner for Monday night. Monday is ds4's 8th Birthday, the plan was to hit MK after a dinner Whispering Canyon Cafe. But we thought we would just doing something in MK. So I booked the Plaza at 4pm instead. We already had fastpasses scheduled for the evening to begin at 6, but I was able to move some up. And after riding 7 dwarves mine train on Thursday the kids decided they did not need to ride it again on Sunday, which we planned to go to MK on Sunday morning for EMH. So I cancelled that and booked Space Mountain I believe. Tomorrow we go to DHS in the morning, which no longer has EMH. And I took the older 3 to MK for EMH.

 

[vleeth]

Did they not like sdmt that much?

 

[Sheaboys]

Did they not like sdmt that much?

We liked, but to us, it was not worth a second go. It was cool, the que was ok since we had fast passes, ds1 and ds5 had gone on it twice, once seemed enough for all of us.

I would never tell anyone to skip it, as I think all rides should be ridden at least once for the experience.

They would rather do Space Mountain or Buzz, than 7 dwarves.

 

[Sheaboys]

Wow, it has been quite sometime since I did an update. I honestly can not remember what we did on friday night after we did Epcot. I know we ended up back at the resort for swimming. Maybe we just hung out, but I really can't recall.

I do know it is Day 7, Saturday, and we are headed to Studios. We got there after opening, I know we had fastpasses for a few things. Like Toy Story. I know we did Playhouse Disney, and right before we headed in we took a few photos.

We headed right for the Character building, next to Playhouse Disney, the name escapes me for some photos.


Minnie kissing our oldest.
We did hit Little Mermaid, the Pirates Show, The Great Movie Ride, Star Wars, and photos with frozen themes.


As you can see we lost one kid. Every once and while we loose a child to some sort of issue, like just being irritated or whatever. This is missing the 14 yr old.

Attitude from the 8yr old.
At this point, the grandparents bailed, it was really hot. We hit Pizza Planet for some food, after that we went to The Car Stunt Show, which the younger kids loved.
I think after this we hit the playground for a bit. Then made out way out. We ended up back at the hotel. I was taking the older 3 back to Magic Kingdom. It was about 3, when we go back and some nasty storms rolled through, it was quick, and by around 4 or 4:30 the trash cans around the resort were blown around, tree branches were down, just a mess. I think we made into the Magic Kingdom around 6. Again just me and the older 3. I was on a mission for character photos, since we have had barely any.



As you see we had light jackets on, since it felt cool and muggy. We went on a few rides, like BTMR and HM. We did not stay too late, although it was extra magic hours, I think we headed out and were back at the resort by 10ish. I do remember it was packed.
Sunday is Magic Kingdom day.