My 20th Trip to the "People Trap Set by a Mouse"!!! - UPDATE 12/8

Oh thanks kindly for the quick reply!
Sounds good, I like your advice. I'm trying to gather up my beauty "arsenal" as we speak, ha ha. I don't want to bring too many products, but still want to look good for pictures, etc.
Thanks for your help Ashley, love your TR!!!

I completely understand! I always start a day saying I want to look cute for photos and then pictures by the end of the day after ponytails and sweating seems to be crazy!

Same. I especially love that bread pudding

I don't think I had any bread pudding there! I hate that I missed it.

That Bloody Mary looks good!!!

It was SO good! I'm a bit Bloody Mary crazed. It won't be the last one on the trip! We are going to New Orleans for our 10th anniversary in October and I've already mapped out all the best Bloody Mary's in the quarter.

Aaaah I love your trip report. Can't wait to read more

Thanks so much! I'm glad you are enjoying it! More to come soon...including Pandora and Rivers of Light!
 
I've been enjoying your TR, but guess I never posted to let you know. Your family is so cute. I love your pics. Awesome that dh brought you on a trip for a final Wishes.
That Bloody Mary looks delish.

You may like this video of Daisy I'm in love with her since seeing this and have to finally meet her on my next trip.
 
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I have to apologize that I am just now making it back to your report. Usually my iPad gives me tons of trouble with the boards so I have to respond on a computer and I'm too lazy to pull out my laptop most of the time. So sorry.

Fortunately it seems my iPad is doing better this weekend so I figured I'd do some catching up on everyone's reports. Just read your planning post. I remember you posting about your upgrade in the FB group. So exciting! My mom and I really wanted to stay at OKW in a one bedroom in 2016 bc it is HUGE! But it never showed availability for our dates so we did SSR instead. In any case, I'm excited to read more about your stay.

And I think I've mentioned this but I'm super envious of your final Wishes trip. Glad you got to see it one last time!

ETA: love the MB skins! Like you, we got tons of compliments on ours as well. I figured the CMs would've seen a lot of them but maybe not because they really seemed to notice them and say really nice things!

Okay, going back to read more!
 
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So I spoke too soon! Apparently the multi quote feature isn't working at all and I wanted to multi quote, darn it. Anyway, you guys did so well with leaving. You may remember that 6am was my plan as well, but we were an hour late. We are about 1:15 closer than you are but we definitely made more stops. Most were quick except lunch, but I think we arrived around 3 or so. Anyway, I'm glad the trip was quick. My DH is definitely the same as you in the fact that he did not enjoy our journey to Disney at all, which probably led to the issues that first day. Hopefully we will get better at it.

I like the nap trick. I think both boys probably did nap on our drive but I will keep that trick in case they don't in the future. They actually did very well, as well.

We were lucky and got our room text around 12 or 1 I think. Sorry you guys had to wait a bit.

ETA: I did not do well with taking resort photos either.
 
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I'm okn my phone and am not about to try to figure out quoting, hopefully this is in order haha

I'm glad you got that mini trip to see Wishes one final time. I remember you talkng about that.

That resort upgrade though, girl that is the pixie dust of dreams So nice! It looks like a lovely resort. I hope you guys really liked it!

Your magic bands are fun! We had decals on ours too and got stopped by so many people asking about them I honestly expect there to be more people with them in the parks but apparently my Disney knowledge from these boards and the internet is not reflective of the real world.

That is awesone your boys do so well in the car. I personally hate car trips so being 16 hours away made flying a must. DH hates flying and on the way home said if we ever go back we are renting an RV :rolleyes2
I said the exact same thing about the MB decals! Btw, if I ever go to Disneyland, I'm hoping to rent an RV and drive!
 


Love all the PP photos. We did not get very many in Epcot, except character spot. I think the weather was bad there for us.

I got the fish tacos in 2016. I thought they were good but a tad spicy. We skipped Sunshine Seasons this trip. It's always crowded and the ordering portion can be a bit much for this indecisive gal.

Glad Jackson was tall enough. Will is now 38.5 so I'm really hoping he hits 40 by June!
 
I've totally messed up on the FP thing before. I was supposed to use my mom's band for Splash in 2016 bc i had scheduled myself for Aladdin to ride with Will and we were supposed to do rider swap, but we skipped Aladdin and mom didn't want to ride a Splash but I forgot to switch bands. She and Will were holding our spot for MSEP in Liberty Square and there was no way I was going all the way back but since AJ and Dad had them scheduled, the CM let me in, too.

So cool about your student. One of my students was at WDW the same time we were, at BLT right by WL where we were. We even went to MK on the same day one day but I never saw her. I was disappointed. She was like my "teacher assistant" all year...lol. But they only did the 4 day 4 parks ticket so they weren't there that long.

Oh and no stroller judgement. I'm sure I'll be renting one for a few years to come for the boys...for the very reasons you mentioned.

I can relate on the waiting for the bus at Epcot. It was the same for us. And then again that night after the SW fireworks, so we drove after that, except to MK, where we mostly took the boat.

Oh, and I think it's probably good the rain came to suggest you guys head back to the resort. Otherwise you might have done too much for the first day. I only say that because I did that in 2016 and learned the hard way that arrival evening needs to be a little bit relaxing and/or early.
 
8am RD is fairly impressive! We did okay as far as getting to the parks...much better than 2016 when the boys and I went with my parents, but we never made it by 8am except maybe our first day at MK. We did try for 8am EMH at MK later in the week but the bus derailed our plans. Speaking of, did you take the bus this AK morning? If so, you guys are truly excellent at getting ready fast!

Looks like a good start to the day! And yes, RS passes are very nice, though having to go through some attractions twice can be time-eaters! And for us, we often had to ride alone bc AJ refused a lot. But, still, I'm glad they offer that!
 
I finally got on my laptop so I could multi quote!

Here's his pitiful picture from the ride.
Oh no! But I have one of those as well. Not from Dinosaur but from 7DMT. This year it was Splash. No photos but he was so scared the whole time. I think we all do it though. We think they will be fine if they just try it. And sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't. LOL

On a separate note, I think the kid behind me fell asleep. Lol!
Now this is hilarious!

Once the ride was over, he was shaking and so scared. On the plus side, he didn't wet himself (like my little brother did when he was little) because we were smart and took a bathroom break first.
Oh my! Yes, I am so glad he didn't wet himself! Yep, smart move to the bathroom before!

So ultimately, I think we left with not toys at that point and still diverted his attention. SCORE!
Nice!

We first rode Triceratop Spin, which is just a different Dumbo, but the boys enjoyed riding with their dad.

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I think out of all of these type rides, my boys like this one best!

Brody then wanted to ride Primeval Whirl.
Ugh, Primeval Hurl! I just can't do it. I did the one at DLR in 2002 and it was horrid! So never again for me. I'm glad you guys all enjoyed it though!
 
I forgot to take pictures of the food!
I did this often myself.

Lucas and I thought it would be a good time to get a Bloody Mary but they were still working on opening up the Dawa Bar. They were willing to make it but said they had no garnishes and let's be honest...what's a Bloody Mary without garnishes?! So we decided to wait. After about 20 minutes, we still hadn't been called back to sit yet and Lucas went to see if they were ready with garnishes at Dawa but they still hadn't been delivered to the cast members. Bummer. Oh well, within a few minutes our party was called and we were on our way to sit and eat.
My Dh got one from Dawa Bar and claimed it the best he has ever had! I didn't get one but I suppose I should have!

We purposefully planned our meal so that we could get both breakfast and lunch.
We did this in 2016 though not purposefully...so we never actually ate any of the lunch food!

It's definitely the best breakfast buffet I've had at Disney.
We really enjoyed it. I still say Cape May is the best but this one comes close. I'd really like to do it again but this trip we did Sanaa on our one AK day and DH has requested a visit back so I don't think I will be able to fit it in on our next full parks trip in 2019.

He ate it though, so I was happy that he ate food!
I can so relate to this. My boys never did eat much at the buffets or really any meal...we brought those peanut butter to go cups and they ate those at almost every meal.
It turned out that the "ice cream" he had seen was really a bowl full of butter for bread! :rotfl2:
:rotfl:

The character interaction was really great.
Totally agree.

Here's a better one of the boys with Goofy that wasn't so funny.

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Jackson is really into it! I love it!

We got lots of pictures with her but my favorites are when she started flirting with the boys.

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So so cute!

I hate having to pay so much for a buffet but the interactions really make it worth it...even if a breakfast for 4 ends up being $120ish.
Again, agreed on both accounts.
 
I filmed some little videos but don't really know how to load them.
When I took some last year, I had to upload them to You Tube and paste the link.

Brody, as you can tell, was really enjoying himself and thought the show was very funny.

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He truly was having a great time!

We made our way to the bus stop and waited and waited and waited. It felt like about 30 minutes.
That stinks! This is totally why we started driving. The buses put us off our schedule!

While at the hotel it started to rain, and that's when we realized we left my poor mom in the park without the ponchos because they were in our bag. Oops!
Oh no! Hopefully she found a way to stay dry.
 
I've been enjoying your TR, but guess I never posted to let you know. Your family is so cute. I love your pics. Awesome that dh brought you on a trip for a final Wishes.
That Bloody Mary looks delish.

Thanks for joining in and thanks for the kind words. My DH really does get a gold star for that trip. If I could just do a little weekend trip with him like that every year, I'd be a very happy girl.

The Bloody Mary was so good! There will be more to come!

I have to apologize that I am just now making it back to your report. Usually my iPad gives me tons of trouble with the boards so I have to respond on a computer and I'm too lazy to pull out my laptop most of the time. So sorry

No need to apologize. I totally get it. I'm about to get pretty bad myself with keeping up to date. Our first teacher workday is tomorrow. Back to the regular grind. I do have a student teacher this semester though so that will be nice.

My iPad gives me the same problem with the boards. It's really weird.

I did not do well with taking resort photos either.

I really think that being hungry and the drink spilling got me off track and by the time I thought about it we had folded out the couch bed and it always looked to messy to take pictures. There was no need to fold up the bed back in to the couch every day since we weren't hanging out in the room. It was a HUGE space though. The whole 2-BR villa was only 300 sq. feet less than the house we moved out of last year!

Will is now 38.5 so I'm really hoping he hits 40 by June!

Fingers crossed! I'm sure he can do it! He seems like he'll love the rides and you need a riding buddy. Maybe once he starts riding more it'll convince the other to ride too.

So cool about your student. One of my students was at WDW the same time we were, at BLT right by WL where we were. We even went to MK on the same day one day but I never saw her. I was disappointed.

I hate that you didn't run in to your student. It was pretty awesome running into mine. Another former co-worker was at MK the same day we were. I had even helped her to plan her trip and yet we never ran into each other.

8am RD is fairly impressive!

I'm so committed to RDs but it is easy with my kids because they wake up so early on their own. I don't think we had to wake them up on any day that we were there. They are very early risers. That also means they don't last long into the night that much though.

Oh no! Hopefully she found a way to stay dry.

Luckily, it was just a small amount of rain and wasn't really ever very heavy so she was able to just duck into a gift shop for a few minutes.
 
Entry 9 - We have a VERY important flight to catch!!

Sorry that it's been a little while since my last update. I tried to get on one day last week and my computer was acting weird. Let's get back on track though! Last we left, everyone but my mom had gone back to the hotel for a break. By the time we got there it ended up being just a 45 minute break but it got us in AC for a bit during the rain. After our little break, we boarded a bus back to AK because we had a very important FP to use.

Our FP was for 5:15 but we took some time to snap some pictures and look around first. The rain had let up for the most part but it was still spitting a little so my boys were determined to keep their jackets on. I will warn that I have a ton of photos and narrowed it down as best I could to fit it all on one post. There will be more Pandora pictures in the future, including ones at night.

We ran into a PP guy as soon as we walked in and got an OK group shot.

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We then were in awe of everything that surrounded us. If you are reading this and haven't experienced Pandora yet, you've got to get there ASAP! It is so beautiful! It was amazing at how well they used real plants with fake ones to make it all look so authentic.

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I wish this were a real plant because it is so pretty and I want it in my backyard.

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I could stare at the floating mountains for hours.

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I tried to catch a selfie with them but the rain had my hair in a ponytail and it just didn't turn out well. Once we were done snapping some pictures and taking it all in, we went over to Flights of Passage. I was so excited about riding this ride and just couldn't wait any longer to get on it. We went up and got a rider swap pass so that my husband wouldn't have to ride alone when he went and so that we could score a second ride for a couple others since it is good for up to 3 people. He stayed off and looked around at more stuff with Jackson and the rest of us got in line with our FP around 5:45. Our FP was from 5:15 to 6:15 so we needed to get off and return by 6:15 so that Lucas could use his FP in conjunction with the rider swap which would allow 4 people to ride. As I'm typing this I'm realizing that Jackson also had a FP and could've swapped magic bands with someone and another person could've ridden! Oh well! So we all got in line and it moved pretty quickly. The whole experience was great. I wish I could've seen more of the queue but I wasn't waiting in the 180+ minute line to do so. Brody was very excited as you can see from this picture. He was ready to go!

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Once we rode, I was even more in awe of everything that Pandora had to offer. This is the most amazing ride that I have ever been on! It used to be the Forbidden Journey Harry Potter ride at Hogwarts, and I am a HUGE Potter fan (Jackson's middle name is actually Potter), so for me to change favorite rides was a big deal. When we got off the ride, we were about 5 minutes from the end of our FP time so we high tailed it over to Lucas and my mom and I decided all the boys could ride together again so we stayed off with Jackson.

During this time we found another PP photographer but the pictures didn't really turn out great. Jackson wasn't really in the mood for a photo. AK8.jpg

To be honest I don't blame him. We had been at the park for a little while now and he hadn't done anything. He obviously didn't know to be impressed by Pandora because it's just another area for him. It didn't help that we had been talking about getting banshees since they were announced as gifts but they were sold out on our trip. They had received special gift cards from my dad just to buy them but alas there were none.

While waiting for the guys to come out, we decided to grab a couple beers from Pongu Pongu. Lucas and I had been eager to try both beers and I thought what better way to celebrate Father's Day than having him walk off a ride and have one beer in each hand. :)

Pongu Pongu itself is a pretty cool looking place, as seen below but I unfortunately didn't remember to take pictures of the beer. The green beer was good and refreshing but we are both amber drinkers and preferred it to the grog.

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We then let Jackson climb around a bit while we waited for them to get off the ride because two beers and him in a gift shop seemed like a recipe for disaster. Lol! He was happy to explore a bit and there was a kid with a bubble gun close by so that entertained him as well. I swear, I'll never buy one because everyone else does so we still get to enjoy them all too often. :)

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That'll be all for now. I start back at school with teacher workdays tomorrow so my updates might be a bit more sporadic but I should have time to update again before the end of the week.

NEXT UP: We will close out AK with good food and ROL!
 
Sorry that it's been a little while since my last update.
At this point it will be about 3 weeks between updates for me...if I can get one done on Sunday night.

We then were in awe of everything that surrounded us. If you are reading this and haven't experienced Pandora yet, you've got to get there ASAP! It is so beautiful! It was amazing at how well they used real plants with fake ones to make it all look so authentic.
This is where I am a bit disappointed in our trip. When we were in Pandora, it poured down rain! Chad went to ride FoP and I stayed with the boys but we had to stay up under covering so I never got to look around. We were supposed to come back at night but AK turned out to be all the boys' least favorite so we skipped it in favor of another night at MK. Something to look forward to next time.

This is the most amazing ride that I have ever been on!
My DH agrees. I didn't ride it for fear of motion sickness (as I am a terrible sufferer) but I may chance it next trip with some sea bands.

They had received special gift cards from my dad just to buy them but alas there were none.
That stinks!

I start back at school with teacher workdays tomorrow so my updates might be a bit more sporadic but I should have time to update again before the end of the week.
This is my problem. I've been back for 3 weeks now and haven't done an update since. I am going to try to make Sunday nights my update night but it hasn't worked out for various reasons, thus far, this school year.
 
We will get to experience Pandora in just over two weeks!!!! We had an Avatar movie night last weekend to get the kids excited. They actually really liked the movie.
 
When we were in Pandora, it poured down rain!

That stinks so much! It really is beautiful. Like you said though, you've got something to look forward to next time. I was happy to see that you got to do an update. It's so hard once the school year starts to keep it up.

We will get to experience Pandora in just over two weeks!!!! We had an Avatar movie night last weekend to get the kids excited. They actually really liked the movie.

I'm so jealous! You are going to love it. We tried to watch the movie before we went but the boys weren't into it and even I wanted it turned off after about half way through. I've never been a big fan of the movie but I do love the land.
 
I'm going to try to put together an update tomorrow night because I'm going to run out of time now but I wanted to share a bit of fun news with people that I knew would appreciate it.

I'm FINALLY getting to go to Food and Wine in a few weeks!!! My ticker still says that it is a year away but I was able to arrange a quick little one day trip to go to EPCOT for just one day!! My mom is taking my grandmother for her 74th birthday, which is October 1st. I was playing around with flights on Sunday morning and found a ROUND TRIP flight from Charlotte to Orlando for only $112 after taxes and fees and everything!!! My actual ticket into EPCOT cost more than the flight! My sister is going to drive down from Tallahassee and pick me up from the airport, then we are going to surprise my grandmother, spend the next day with her at EPCOT (on her actual birthday), and then I fly back the following morning. It's going to be a whirl wind of a trip but it'll be so worth it! I'm so excited for time with family (this will likely be my grandmother's last trip) and for good food and booze with NO KIDS!!!! :banana::banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

Just wanted to share my joy! I'll do an update soon...I promise!!!
 
Entry 10 - Let's FINALLY see what this Rivers of Light thing is all about!

Sorry it's been a bit...I feel like I start every entry by saying this now! I totally had plans to post earlier this week and then forgot that I had my open house on one night and then my son's open house on another. I'm finally here to bring our AK day to a close though.

Once we were finished exploring Pandora, it was time to get some good food but we took a potty break and took a couple cute pictures on the way.

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We then traveled to one of my favorite places to eat, Flame Tree BBQ! I love love love this restaurant and end up loving it even more after this trip. I eat something new on another day that is sooo good but that'll come later. For now, I got what had been my favorite meal there. The pulled pork french fries!!! Nom nom nom!!!

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I could seriously eat these every day! It consists of fries, pulled pork (which is delicious but as a North Carolinian I'm a bit partial), BBQ sauce, and the best part of all PLASTIC CHEESE! I know that not everyone is a fan of it but I LOVE plastic cheese! My husband got his go-to favorite, the ribs, which were as good as always.

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He loves the ribs but I believe that he may love the jalapeno cornbread more!

Our Tusker House meal from the morning was a RoL package but it was still way too early to head that way when we were done with dinner. We decided to head back over to Dino Land again because the boys wanted to ride some of the rides from earlier in the day. This was my first time being in AK since they started staying open in the evening. I have to say that I really enjoyed it. Being in the park at dusk and then at night was awesome! I didn't take any pictures but we rode a couple rides in Dino Land and then Jackson and I danced together with the DJ played Justin Timberlake's "Can't Stop the Feeling," which is a favorite in our home. It was a really cool experience. We then hopped into a gift shop and bought a couple of the unicorn horn suckers too keep the boys occupied during RoL. We arrived at the time on the ticket but apparently, everyone else had gotten there way before us. The seats were all filled but a great cast member was able to move a couple people down and put us all in the same area. I didn't take many pictures because I wanted to focus on the show since it was my first time seeing it. If I'm being completely honest it may be my last time seeing it. I didn't think it was awful it was just ok in my opinion. I think that after all the hype for so long that I expected a lot more. I know I wouldn't do another dinner package for it just due to cost and I also don't think it's worth waiting an hour in a seat for. It was cute. Dawson was the only one out of the group to really enjoy it but Jackson liked the first half. He and Brody were very tired though and ready to go about half way through. I wouldn't say that anyone should totally skip it. It's definitely worth seeing once.
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After the show was over we left the park, hopped on a bus, and made our way back to the hotel. Everyone was totally spent and I think we were all out within minutes once we laid down.

UP NEXT: We make it to the MK for Brody's Bday!
 

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