did not go smoothly.
I was up early and after hot chocolate and Bible decided I’d tackle that power room door that was locked from the inside.  Of course it wasn’t a simple knob that locked by pushing in a center circle.  No.  This was the kind of lock you twist the lock to engage it.  Nice.  Now, I do have experience with this type lock, but I’ve always had an arsenal of do-dads to address it with.  Nary a bobby pin or screwdriver amongst our packed items.  I did try to MacGyver it with a paper clip, but the door knob was too smart for me.  Despite the fact we had gobs of stuff to do to get ready to leave we decided it would be best if John headed up to Walmart for some tools.  And an umbrella stroller for the ship. 

The rest of us went after eating as much as we could from the fridge and then starting the miserable work of throwing out food.  Ugh. 
John got back with a super-cute hippo stroller and a case of small screwdrivers.  While I was hoping for a tool designed precisely for unlocking this type of knob, I thankfully did get the stinking thing open.  I had been afraid the property management company would call a locksmith and keep all or some of our $300 security deposit.
Somehow we got 10 people and all their luggage into/onto the van, with certain items separated out because they weren’t going on the ship with us. 
Originally I had scheduled us 10:30 A.M. boarding times for the Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) Getaway.  I’m still chuckling about that. 
Our rental house was calculated to be 3.5 hours from the Port of Miami, but people had warned me it would take longer than that.  Of course it takes a lot longer if you have to travel northeast before you can travel southeast because you have to turn in the cooler and rain covers that you’d rented with your stroller but not returned with the stroller.  Nice, no?

At some point we left the rental house and programmed in the address for Kingdom Strollers and the Port of Miami.  GPS had us arriving around 1:40 P.M.  All aboard is 2:00 P.M.  Who doesn’t like to start vacation stressed?

The good news is the kids were supernaturally well-behaved in spite of the fact that four of them were crammed in the way back of the van together.  They watched Muppet’s Treasure Island on a 9 inch screen, followed by a few episodes of Andy Griffith. 

I prayed a LOT that we’d make it on time.  Mercifully, the roads were clear and we made no errors in following the GPS directions (and that is saying a LOT given the mess of roads in Miami!).  And we pulled into the port at 1:30 P.M.

We tried to drop Nan and Kelly off at Terminal B where they needed to check in, but the attendant told us we were not allowed to pull over, even though countless other vehicles were pulled over.  We went up a way and tried again, but were again told, “Nah, man, you can’t do that.  They will give you a ticket.”  We still aren’t sure WHY we couldn’t, nor do we know who might have given us a ticket, but we found the parking garage and unloaded.  Thankfully, our van fit, and thankfully, there were large open areas available to park and unload it.  Sadly, it was a bit of a walk for my mom and sister to get back to Terminal B, but the boys helped them with their luggage up to the luggage check.

We had to go in via Terminal C.  It moved along well enough, and John went with his three co-assigned kids and I went with my three co-assigned kids to the check in.  We had three questions we needed to ask on check in, yet I don’t remember them now.  What I DO remember is that he and I got different answers, or no answers.  It was sort of ridiculous, to be honest.  But we were checked in by 2 P.M. and let out a great sign of relief.  Surprisingly, we met smack dab up with Nan and Kelly and were able to board the ship together. 
It was absolutely not as pleasant as it was boarding the Disney Magic or Princess Caribbean Princess.
We were all hungry and dinner was scheduled for 5:30 P.M.  We asked a crew member what our options were for lunch at this time (2:15 P.M.) expecting we had missed our chance to eat in a Main Dining Room (MDR) and she concurred.  She added that we would have to hurry if we wanted anything, because mandatory life board drill was starting at 3 P.M.  Seeing as how we were on deck 6 at the time and the available buffet was on deck 15 and we still had all our carry-ons, we reasoned it wouldn’t make sense to try to get up there to food when we had to be back to deck 6 by 3 P.M.  Plus we wanted to dump our stuff. 

We were so late that staterooms were more than ready.
Stewart gasped when he saw how small it was.  I didn’t think it was too bad.  I showed him all the nooks and crannies for storage.  Our luggage was already in the hallway.  Yay.

The adjoining room was slightly larger and the bathroom had a tub.  There are only so many adjoining rooms for 4 on the ship, and it worked out nicely to have a tub for the little girls.  It also had a double sink.  We decided to sleep the older four kids in the first room and the little girls and John and I in the second.  This would allow the little girls to enjoy an earlier bedtime.
There was a letter in our stateroom addressed to Stewart stating they had his food allergies on record and if we needed assistance to contact them. 
The ship and elevators were painfully crowded and I wondered if it would be miserable all week (it was not).  There are two banks of 8 elevators on the ship, for the record.
We returned to deck 6 and worked on loading up the iConcierge app to allow us to text amongst ourselves.   I’d read it would cost $7.95 per device.  The crew member told me it would be $9.99 per device.  It charged us $12.99 device.  Ah – that NCL nickel and diming I’d heard about? 

The drill took For.Ev.Er.and was the least organized I’d been to.   But thankfully it was near a bar and we were all able to break in our soda packages.

Once the drill was over we ran to the buffet for small snacks.to hold us over for an hour. 

We went to the kids’ clubs and registered our kids for their appropriate age groups.  Marie and Tabitha were Dolphins in the 10-12 club, and Katriel and Johanna were turtles in the 3-5 club.  We took the boys up to Entourage and had them register there, too. 
When we booked our cruise back in March one of the perks was to have the dinner show Illusionarium free if you went on the first night.  They had since removed that (and a LOT of other things) since we had booked, but our travel agent went to bat for us and had it arranged.
It was okay.  I wasn’t too impressed, though. 

Although they gave you a menu, it was more or less to inform you what they would be bringing you as it is a set dish.  It was edible, but unimpressive.  The startling thing was how lackadaisically they approached food allergies.  I had read many reports saying how well NCL responds to dietary restrictions, so we were taken aback a bit by this.  We comforted ourselves by reasoning we could head up to the buffet afterward for more food. 
After dinner we poked around the deck a little and worked our way to deck 15 aft where the buffet was, and then up to deck 16 aft where the mini golf was.

So – as we found the soft-serve ice cream we also found those attendants to be just as uninterested in helping us navigate the buffet with food restrictions.  If things stayed the same, this was going to be a long, disappointing, and stressful week for Stewart.
We decided that maybe John and Stewart should head to the customer service and see if there was anyone they could talk to about Stewart’s dining.  I headed back to the room with the other kids.  Marie and Tab wanted to check out their kids’ club, and when Johanna saw the kids having fun, she asked to stay, too.  I took Katriel back to the room for bed. 
John and Stewart returned to the room triumphant.  Having stopped by the customer service desk they were quickly linked to an assistant maitre d, Cher Fuentes.  They were directed to a restaurant on deck 7 to meet with her.  She walked them through the menus for the next three nights and Stewart pre-ordered his dinners.  She was very helpful and informative.John went back to pick up the girls from the club.  Johanna was in tears.  She said she missed her mama.  I think she was kind of tired.
We had met our stateroom hostess, Anna, when we dropped off our bags earlier.  She informed us that tonight we needed to turn our clocks back an hour.  Nothing says vacation better than an extra hour of sleep!

Everyone was in bed by 10:30 ish, I believe. 

 

There was no alarm set for Saturday, and I actually slept past 8 A.M.  I literally shot out of bed when I woke up.  I’d scared myself sleeping so late!  Others started waking slightly afterward. 
The doorbell rang by 9 A.M. by a courier from Kingdom Strollers.  We had rented a VERY nice stroller for our trip and were extremely pleased with the product and service.  There were umbrella-style strollers in the garage we could use today if we needed it.  We did not have a stroller for the cruise. 

Nan made eggs and John made toast as I quickly gathered all the dirty laundry and loaded up a suitcase and laundry basket.  John helped me to the van and I headed to a Laundromat I’d scoped out from home months earlier.  It was clean, bright, and I had seven day’s worth of 8 people’s laundry clean and (mostly) folded in about 80-90 minutes. 

I was back in no time and joined them swimming.

We decided to go to Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) around 2 P.M.

Now – this is where I confess that I had NOT read up at all on what was going on there, except to know it had changed names and had some new restaurants.  I did NOT know it was a hot mess of construction.  Our visit two years ago had us enjoying the same adjoining parking lots we’d always found RIGHT near the stores we liked to visit.  I knew they had went to a parking garage in that area.  I did NOT know it wasn’t finished yet.  We had a frustrating walk from a temporary lot in a bank to the marketplace area.  The first store we walked into (Once Upon a Toy) had a gigantic Star Wars section.  HUGE.  So fun to look at.  We had a significant amount of money left of our Disney gift cards and so many souvenirs to chose from. 

Here’s that thing where they tell me how much they love the books they are looking at and Amazon is telling me wait til we get home.

I bought nothing.  Not one thing piqued my interest enough to take home! 

We shopped for quite a while and our intention was to find somewhere to have dessert.  We decided on T-Rex.  It was fun enough, but we were fools.  See – they advertised a dessert as “enough for 4” but we doubted whether or not they truly understood how much we liked chocolate and how much we could eat, so we ordered three of those dessert plates for six of us.  And, yup, we threw a lot of it out.  Who knew?  (psssst….. they did)

She couldn’t figure out how they knew her name.  We rewatched it a few times in the noisy T-Rex shop and figured out the bird’s name was Tabitha!

We absolutely ruined ourselves for dinner.  I had over packed food for the vacation house and we determined what we would toss out, what we could leave in the car for a week, and what we could leave for the housekeeper.  We packed up as much as we could for a smooth exit in the morning and headed to bed with sweet memories of Disney and great expectations for the cruise.

That’s when I saw the cooler and rain covers from Kingdom Strollers.  The ones we’d be charged $60 if we didn’t return.  I emailed them, and they quickly responded even though it was now around 10 P.M.  We could return them to their distribution center in the morning.  It was in the opposite direction of where we needed to go, of course.  And it was about that time that we realized the baby had pushed in the lock to the powder room door and shut it.  From the outside.

to be continued….

 

Another early morning.  I think we got 5½ hours of sleep.  Surprisingly, everyone got up easily and remained cheerful the entire day.  PTL.

We had another breakfast at Crystal Palace scheduled for 8 A.M.  We were anticipating a back up again at security, so we made sure we left a few minutes earlier than Thursday.

We were at MK parking before the attendants again today.  This marked five out of five days that we did not need to show proof of any on-property reservation for free parking.  We parked in essentially the same spot as yesterday, and interestingly, the same spot as when we visited 5 years ago.  Either they have preferred parking somewhere else altogether, or we were so early we ended up in what would later be preferred parking???

I packed a princess dress for each of the four girls and en route to MK we shared with the kids our plans for dining in the castle for dinner.  Eating at Cinderella’s Royal Table was something I never dreamt we would ever do.  But when I looked into it last November, we decided we were going to go all or nothing this trip.  With all of our dining paid for from credit card incentives, this would be the only meal we had to buy out of pocket.  All six kids were excited about the news.  Seeing what was inside the castle was of interest to us all.

We were delighted to see security was already fully operational and there was no line outside the bag check.  We moved right through quickly and waited just before the tapstiles with about 100 or so other people.  We were walking down Main Street by 7:45 A.M.  Splendid.

TIgger showed Nigel how to do his hair…

At RDRD we headed right over to 7 Dwarves Mine Train.  I really do like that ride.  I know it isn’t cool to admit it.  But I’ve never been cool.  We saw a cat in the exit route. 
They all headed to Adventureland as I went to get a second batch of FP+ with our extra Magic Bands. We already had rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain, and Peter Pan  I got an extra Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and an extra Splash Mountain.  I also got a Pooh ride.  We’ve always liked to re-ride our favorites.

I was only a few boats behind them for Pirates of the Caribbean.  I confess I was texting a friend as I rode in a boat with two strangers.  The boats before and after us were empty.

She asked how I felt about WDW.  She was a frequent visitor in the past, as we were.  Their last trip this past September had been their first in five years as well.  Their take home was that changes had ruined WDW.  While I agree with her on how miserable the changes are I was able to say that, in fact, we were having an amazing time.  The best I could liken it to was an athlete or performer training for a role.  I feel like I have been prepping for this trip, at least marginally, since 2013, and full-force since March 2015.  I’d read a ton and engaged the strategies I thought I needed to improve yield.  And it felt like it was paying off.  Would I like every vacation to require this much effort?  No way.  But for this particular trip, we were having a blast.

Then we did Jungle Cruise. Normally, I am not a big fan of JC, but we had a great pilot and laughed a lot.  Katriel was excited to see hippos and elephants. 

Next, we made all Johanna’s dreams come true.  We finally went on “the spitting camel ride.”  Since we had been talking about WDW, Hanny had remembered the ride from photos of her on it in 2011.  She was aghast yesterday when we left without riding it.  I kept explaining we’d go on it Friday.
Now all was right in the world. 
We rode it twice.

A bunch went up in Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.  Nan, Katriel and I did not.  We sought shade.  I was going to get a Dole whip, but I couldn’t figure out which one I wanted and then just passed.

John and Katriel walked back through the park to Storybook Circus, while the rest of went on the train from Frontierland to Storybook Circus.

 
Marie and Johanna went with Kelly to ride Under the Sea, which Kelly had missed Thursday.  The rest of us met Donald and Goofy.  Tab was able to get Donald’s autograph and Stewart got a selfie.

John and the kids did Stitch’s Great Escape with Kelly and then we headed back to Frontierland.  The park was definitely busier than it had been all week and seemed to be as busy as I’d ever personally had to deal with.  I don’t know how folks deal with 4th of July and Christmas crowds. 
We used the first of our BTMRR FP+.

Johanna loved it.  She is a coaster fan, big time.

Then we hurried back to the Hub for the Move It, Shake It Celebration.  We really only wanted to see Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde.

Then we headed back to see ride Splash Mountain.  Katriel wasn’t big enough so we grabbed a Rider Swap pass.  Then I didn’t want to take the time to do it as our Peter Pan FP+ window was open. 
We did Peter Pan and then checked out the Rapunzel bathrooms, and took in the Hall of Presidents.

And decided on another junk lunch of ice cream.
We went over to Tom Sawyer island and spent a good deal of time there.  They had a Memory Maker photographer over there who took a lot of nice images for us.  I took some, too.

It was getting close to dinner time, so we headed to the bathrooms so I could get the girls Princessed-Up for dinner.
We’d happened upon a photo area yesterday when Marie was in her Merida gown near the BBBoutique where they took photos of her.  So we stopped back in and asked them to take photos of all the girls. 

We checked in for our dinner and waited to be announced.

The service was meh, the portions were small, and the princesses were rushed.  But it was so fabulous.  I wish it weren’t so crazy-expensive.  I just kept thinking: “We are IN the castle!”
Dessert was the prettiest part.
Beer cheese soup and cheese sampler

Grapes and cheese for little ones   Castle salad

Nigel had the pork belly confit and Katriel played with her appetizer

Pan-seared chicken

Beef and Shrimp

Chicken nuggets with mashed potatoes and corn

Gus and Jaq’s favorites

Childen’s smore

The Clock Strikes Twelve.  Now THIS was super yummy.

It was getting to be MSEP time, so we stayed outside the parade route.  We went back to BTMRR and Splash Mountain.  We took a ride on the Carrousel and drifted back to Gaston’s Tavern just to look around. 


We stopped at the Tea Cups for a ride there and then moved to leave the park via Main Street shops while Celebrate the Magic was running. 

We shopped just until the fireworks started and then decided to get out of MK before the masses exited.  We saw snatches of the fireworks on the way out of the parks.  We weren’t even dragging out.

And to be completely transparent, I started to cry as we walked up the monorail ramp.  Not sad because we were leaving – THRILLED that I felt so totally satisfied with what we had accomplished.  There were only tiny little bits that we had not been able to do through the week: Beauty and the Beast, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Liberty Belle Steamboat.  But we had overwhelmingly covered what we had hoped to do and see, and had re-rides on our favorites. 
All in all.

Most excellent trip.

 

With the other three parks and excellent touring experiences behind us we had high hopes as we headed into this day.  Magic Kingdom (MK) has the most attractions, by far.  Trying to fit everything we were interested in into two days was going to be tough, especially with predicted crowd levels of 5/10 on Thursday and 7/10 on Friday.  We’d only had 3/10 and 5/10 thus far.

I was up at 5 AM, and the rest of the family followed. 
We had our three FP+ reserved, as well as PPO ADR at Crystal Palace to have us near the castle for rope drop (RDRD).  I also hoped to hit both the afternoon parade, as well as the evening entertainment today, if we could.

We were in the car by 6:45 A.M. and parked by 7:20 A.M.

Three of the girls were in princess gear today.

We were happy to hear the monorails were ready and were excited to have a Zootopia themed train.  We rode the resort monorail to the third stop.

We were UNhappy to see a huge swell of people waiting to go through bag check and security.  Everyone had to go through both and even as early as we were it was a mess.  Thankfully, that was the worst part of our day.
The Plan for today was to knock off as much of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland as possible. 

Breakfast was at the Crystal Palace.  We had last eaten there in 2007 and had fond memories. 

It was another great experience.

No sooner did we finish our meal and head out of the restaurant did we see the THRONGS of people streaming toward the castle for RDRD.  I grabbed my 4 girls, and took off toward Merida.  My mom came with us, got temporarily separated from us, and found us again.  John, Kelly, and the boys headed toward 7DMT and did a handful of rides before we saw them again.

We were queued for Merida by 9 A.M. for her 9:15 A.M. Meet and Greet.  My mom stayed in line with the girls when I went to secure more FP+ on our borrowed Magic Bands.  I grabbed Dumbo, and Speedway FP+ for everyone for later. I also grabbed 5 for Cinderella and Rapunzel for later in the day for five of us so that we could hopefully eliminate that as a RDRD goal for Friday morning.
We were the second family to meet Merida.

We then deviated from my touring plan as the line to meet Rapunzel and Cinderella was super short.  I would ditch those FP+ and grab others for I do not remember what.

She’s my favorite princess.

John met us and Marie changed out of her princess dress.  The boys and Kelly did a few more rides as we knocked out the Carrousel, the Winnie the Pooh ride, Under the Sea, and headed toward Storybook Circus.

We rode Barnstormer as Kelly, Stewart and Nigel caught up with us.  We then enjoyed Dumbo, and met Daisy and Minnie.  Both were HIGHLY interactive. 

Although we’d already met Donald and Goofy elsewhere, our Donald Meet and Greet in AK was before Tabitha wanted to collect autographs.  The line was long on their side, so we opted not to do that now and try again later. 

Lines me no likey.

We headed over for our FP+ of 7 Dwarves Mine Train (7DMT).  Despite reading many people saying it wasn’t worth the build up, we sincerely enjoyed it.  Maybe that was because it was a ride that worked for all of us, and the visuals really were pretty.  Our train car got stalled right in front of the dwarves’ cottage so we had a lot of time to inspect it. 

It was just a bit early for our Be Our Guest lunch.  This is a strange restaurant.  It is fast food for lunch and dinner, but it accepts/requires reservations.  You are encouraged to pre-order your meal, and when you arrive you find your own table and they trace your beacon (rose) to your seat and serve you your food. 
It is exceptionally expensive for what it is.  Thankfully, it does have free soda refills… because when you drop a couple of hundred dollars on lunch it is nice to have extra Coke.  (Note** we did not pay for these meals with real money!)

I was pretty unimpressed with this experience.  I’m not sorry we did it, but I wouldn’t do it again.  It was sort of pretty inside, and the food was pretty good, but I didn’t think it was worth the hype. 
We did try the grey stuff.
(It was delicious.)

We saw Gaston as we left.  We never got to meet him.

We headed over to Enchanted Tales with Belle.  This was one of our longest waits of the trip at about 20 minutes.


The little girls got to be a plate and a salt shaker.

We headed to the Hub in front of the castle and found spots for the 3:00 Festival of Fantasy parade. This was new since our trip in 2011 and we all enjoyed it.  I spent $18 on a mister.  Best.  Idea. Ever. 

We headed over to Tomorrowland and did Monster’s Laugh Floor where Johanna and Daddy were the two-headed guy.  Some did Space Mountain (I know, I know, I should have), and we all went onto Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Carousel of Progress, and Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.    




Then it was time.
Time to meet Anna and Elsa.  Otherwise known as the reason I booked a throwaway campsite.  The reason I got up at midnight 60 days before our trip.

It was over in 6 minutes. 

Anna was great.  Elsa was icy.  No.  Really.
Six minutes. 
BUT – LADIES AND GENTLEMEN… THIS MEET AND GREET EXPERIENCE MARKED A PRINCESS GRAND SLAM!!!!!!!!

yeah.  I think I was more excited than the girls. 
We went and watched Philharmagic, and rode It’s a Small World with FP+ I’d picked up on my phone.  I think I only cut the wait fro 10 minutes to 2 minutes, but they were my 8 minutes…

It was up in the air if we should eat at Columbia Harbour House, a long time favorite; or Pinocchio’s Village Haus, somewhere we’d never eaten before.  We went for Pinocchio’s.  Stewart was really interested in pasta.  My meal looked so good, but was not at all what I was expecting.  It was fun to eat somewhere new, and it wasn’t crowded, either.  Our family has long since LOVED Figaro, so it was sweet to sit amongst wall paintings of him, as well.

We also checked out the upper balcony overlooking Fantasyland to say that we did.

It was time for our Speedway FP+.  Tabitha and Kelly got two rides on it as Tab hadn’t lined her car up right as she went to park, so they had them drive through again.

Some went on to Astroorbiter as John, Nan, Katriel and I watched a bit of the Incredibles Dance Party. 

It was then past time to find seats for the parade and night time entertainment.  Kelly and the older four kids went to do Stitch’s Great Escape, the the other five of us went back to the hub.  No sooner did I get to the Hub did I realize we would not be able to adequately reserve those seats alone, so I texted them to abort their mission and head over to the Hub.  As it was, some guy showed up moments before the evening parade and got in Nan’s way.  She spoke up and went so far as to call over a CM.  The CM moved the dude.
We watched the Main Street Electrical Parade

Celebrate the Magic

And Wishes fireworks.
We were moved out of the hub via the alternative exit (behind Main Street shops).
We made it out to the car smoothly and got home right around midnight.  We had another early day ahead of us, and we all fell exhausted into bed.

 

We’d been looking forward to this day for years.  And I’d had it pegged for over a week as a day I would not have to be up at 5AM.  It couldn’t have come a moment too soon.
I still got up at 6AM and let everyone sleep as long as they could.   That didn’t end up being much later than 8 for most.  We had no rope drop to contend for and enjoyed a slow paced breakfast.
Nan and Kelly decided to take a day off touring and lounged by the pool and snoozed.  We headed to Gatorland a little before 10 AM and got there about 30 minutes later.  I don’t feel like I need to mention our touring plan piece by piece as this isn’t the kind of park you need a touring plan.  Just plan on spending at least half a day and you can see all the shows and attractions. 
Just before we arrived we encountered a man with a sign looking for cash.  As he approached our scripture-covered van we talked a moment and exchanged his name hand shake for a few dollars.  We’ve been praying for Tony ever since.  It was hot.  Gloriously hot or oppressively hot depending on who you asked.  John and the kids had a 1PM reservation for zip-lining, so we were able to see most of the shows before they did their thing. 
We had realized as we arrived that we had left the daily park bag (formerly known as diaper bag) at the rental, so I did not have my camera.  We were limited to cell phone cameras.  We did get some pretty great shots, just the same.

 

https://youtu.be/BW2xFkcwYrc

It was crazy hot as we watched them suit up.  The little girls knew we had a splash park for them to look forward to, and they were none too laid back waiting.  I wanted to watch my crew get started on their zip line experience that was estimated to take 60 – 90 minutes to complete.  I did what any experienced parent does to mitigate any mulling meltdowns; I bought them chips.  As they chomped on their Cheetos Lays (I said EXPERIENCED parent; I wasn’t up for any hot orange kids) and watched birds I watched my other babies march out to the starting tower where they would begin their adventure where they would dangle their precious selves over hungry alligators. 

Really.
After I saw each of my kids and John go from the first tower to the second tower I took the little girls to the splash pads.
 
When I had grown tired of watching everyone else have fun become too hot to think straight, I helped the girls into the stroller and headed out to the van with them in search of our packed lunch.  We quickly ate our sandwiches in the 91 degree parking lot and coincidently watched the family on their last launch  and then headed back in to meet them.  Everyone was hot, tired, exhilarated and done.  We wholeheartedly recommend Gatorland.  Watching the dude wrestle the gator and watching the gator jumping show are some of the most fun in Florida.  Good old hokey fun.  I will try to upload videos later.  I need internet access to do that. 
The entry price is low, and there is a good deal of nickel and diming going on.  But it really is just nickel and diming.  No $99 cupcake cruise packages to consider.  Do you want three sticks of birdseed for $5 or not?  (You do!)  It didn’t add up too much.
The zip lining does cost about $30-40 pp, if I remember correctly.  I purchased those passes months ago from Undercover Tourist.  We DID opt to pay for the photo DVD (which is where I got those awesome zip line shots) which was $12 pp.  But honestly, we didn’t even blink when the offered that upsell.  We just saw the first two images and knew the shots were ones we wanted to take home with us.  Photos from the ground don’t do the thrill justice. 
We headed back to the van where we found our day bag and camera.  Oy….  And proceeded home for swimming and a dinner of pulled pork sandwiches.

I think most were in bed by 9ish as we have two very late nights coming up.

 

Back in the later 1980’s, my dad and mom took us to WDW, which at that time consisted of Magic Kingdom and EPCOT Center.  EPCOT had been a long-time dream of Walt Disney and stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.  Disney envisioned a bright future filled with all the delights of modern technology.  EPCOT Center featured both real and imagined technological accomplishments, and offered an immersive look at some of the most cutting edge treats of modern inventors within the part of the park called Future World. In Future World, Disney partnered with corporate sponsors to highlight their products and their role in scientific advancements.

One of the pavilions was sponsored by Kodak and my dad was quite proud of that.  He was tickled to tinker with the all the hands-on technological treats and enjoyed investigating what all the pavilions had to offer.  He brought his camera and we still have many of the pictures and memories of that day.

Today we spent 12 hours touring the park.  This is not my father’s EPCOT.

My morning started at 5 A.M. again.  I still haven’t found a mug I like, so I continue to drink my morning hot chocolate in measuring cup.  If it ain’t broke…

We had 8:05 A.M. ADR for Akershus Princess Storybook Dining in the Norway pavilion in World Showcase.  We had originally planned this ADR in the hopes that the new Frozen Ever After ride would be open and we could easily get a ride on this new attraction; it is not open yet.  Johanna and Tabitha wore their princess dresses, but Katriel was having none of it.  We brought her dress just in case she changed her mind. 

Although we left the house right on time, we seemed to arrive later than we should have. 
Nan got picked for an enhanced security check.

It took us a while to check in our reservation as we were behind a large school group.  We also had not taken into consideration just how long a walk back it would be from the main tapstiles to the Norway Pavilion.  And our feet hurt.  A lot.  A whole lot. 

We were late to the castle, and had to wait a long while. 

This is the boys hamming it up after they were reminded this was a princess breakfast.  Since they were not interested in the princesses, and we had paid a great deal for the meal, we asked them to eat like it was their job.
We were called in as the Royal Butler family and were greeted by Belle.

We were finally seated and service was slow.  The food was mediocre.  Our server was polite, but that’s all.  And there were only three circulating princesses.  It wasn’t bad.  It just wasn’t great.

Breakfast is part buffet, part family style.  And, as always, WDW did a great job providing for food safe for Stewart.

I will say that although we only got to meet Ariel, Aurora, and Snow White, they were all fabulously chatty and did not make us feel rushed at all.  They interacted with the girls and my girls loved to play it up. 

We finished our “pre park opening” breakfast at 9:33 A.M.  So much for using PPO ADR to gain early access to park.

Tab had just gotten her ears pierced 4/23 and the earring had fallen out the night we arrived in Florida.  I had one post earring in my suitcase that I put in until we could buy her better ones at Animal Kingdom.  Well… her ear is infected.  So she and I went to First Aid for anapestic and bacitracin.  John and the kids headed over to The Living Seas pavilion.  We caught up to them after stopping for a magic shot, and rode the Nemo ride.  We next caught Turtle Talk with Crush and then the kids played in the Nemo inspired attractions before I encouraged everyone to move along.  We rode Journey Into the Imagination in the Imagination Pavilion, completely skipping over the lame The Land Pavilion.  Soarin’ is currently closed for refurbishment. 

After this ride it was painfully late.  John, Kelly, Stewart,and Nigel went to do… stuff? while Nan, the girls, and I headed to World Showcase to try to meet some princesses.  We had a brief stop at Club Cool and sampled some Coca~Cola products from around the world.

Nan decided to stop off at First Aid while the girls and I proceeded on to China to meet Mulan.  We got there just as she was heading back in.  Ugh.  It was high 80’s by this point and FW is massive.  Jasmine and Aladdin were scheduled to meet in Morocco in about 25 minutes so the girls and I hauled it over there to meet them.   This was the longest wait thus far and it was hot.  Have I mentioned it was hot?  And our feet hurt.  I have NEVER EVER had  my feet hurt in a park.  Ever. I always wondered what people were going on and on about “good shoes” for WDW.  I’ve only ever worn my Walmart sandals with no problem.  Well, now they hurt.  And what is more, the kids were reporting their feet hurt as well.  And, as I may have suggested, it was hot.

We made it through that meet and greet and Nan texted that she was in line for Mulan  Really?  So, we turned around and walked BACK around to the complete opposite side and met Mulan. 

At this point we ladies were all dying.  It was hot and those of us not in the stroller were all ready to call it a day at noon.  We thought about watching the China movie to get some A/C, but remembered it was a show you watch standing and said something like, “As if,” and headed for a food cart to buy drinks.  I saw the sign for Gran Fiesta in Mexico and remembered the ride.  I headed my family in there just as I received a text from John askng where to meet us.  My group rode the slow moving boat ride in the cool darkness.  We were the only people there.. Then we found a bench and sat in the beautifully cool darkness.  Then the girls all re-rode the ride with John and the boys as my mom and I sat in the beautifully cool darkness.  It was a good thing. 

We headed to the America Pavilion and listened to part of the Voices of Liberty ensemble and then watched the American Experience show.  Katriel fell asleep in my arms in yet more cool darkness.  All that sitting (and some Ibuprofen) helped out many sore feet and we got a second wind for the rest of the day.
We unanimously decided a “junk lunch” was in order and we sought out Mickey bars.  But we found none in World Showcase and had to make our way back to Future World to make it happen.

We found an ice cream vendor and as John waited in line to order, Johanna played a few minutes in a playground I failed to take photos in…

Kelly, and the four oldest rode Mission Space while Johanna played in the play area set up near the Mission Space exit.  Katriel was still asleep from way back at Voices of Liberty.  She woke up VERY hungry so we grabbed her something to eat.

We headed over to Test Track to find it down.  We decided to go ahead and visit the upstairs lounge for GM employees as a family.  John, the boys, and Kelly had had a chance to ride earlier using John’s GM badge and also visited the upper layer.

We all enjoyed the complimentary refreshments. 
Some of us enjoyed them even more than others.

We then all went in to visit mystery characters at Epcot Disney Pals meet and greet.  We got to meet Mickey, Minnie and Goofy.  They were so great.

We rode Spaceship Earth which had nicely been updated since our visit in 2011.

We decided to go the Sunshine Seasons in the Land Pavilion for dinner.  We’ve long enjoyed this food court-styled restaurant and had yummy expectations.

What a stinking disappointment. 
If a single meal had to stand out as a great big fail it would be this one.
Despite WDW offering us assistance in every other restaurant in the parks the folks here basically told us “too bad” about Stewart’s food allergies.  He had a brownie for dinner.  The rest of us shelled out a crazy amounts of money for the nastiest food we have ever eaten.  I don’t even know where to start.

Soggy, nasty, over-cooked pasta, with cold chewy meat. 
And a brownie…
Whatever.  I’m sort of over Epcot.
We had nothing left to do until Test Track (if Test Track) came back on line.
We had anytime FastPasses to use for missing our TT window.  My kids asked to go on Living with the Land.  Whah-say-whah?  You WANT to go on that?  Ok.  Cool lightness and darkness.
They saw plants and I sent up Instagram pics. 
We headed back to Test Track which WAS online.  Woo Hoo.  And we had a blast riding it a few times.  Once with our anytime FP+ and then some with John’s GM pass.

Here’s something interesting about that GM display.  John was talking with some of the CM there and learned that 6% of US sales are generated in Epcot.  That’s 6%!  Crazy.  Who goes on vacation, stops in a theme park, and buys a car?  Crazy!!!
Funny!
We did something??? until it was time to go set up seats for Illuminations.  We passed out glow sticks again, and just waited until 9PM show.  It isn’t my favorite show, but it was nice.  The crowds were definitely light and it was easy to get out of the park with our sore feet.  We had the kids in bed by 10PM.  It was a good day, but we are ready for a day off. 

 

We enjoyed another fabulous day of touring.  It is often said that HS is a “Half-day park” meaning there is not much to do there anymore.  We managed to fill every iota of our day, and still didn’t get quite EVERYTHING finished. But we didn’t leave frustrated over the bits that we didn’t get to do.  We left exhausted and happy.
I was up again at 5 A.M. 

We had a breakfast of pancakes (made at home and transported frozen) and sausage.  (Oops – I brought twice the sausage we needed.)
We were in the car by 7:20 A.M. and en route to Hollywood Studios.
We did our devotions in the car again today.  It actually is working out well.

We were some of the first folks in the parking lot, again, and hurried our way to the gates.  Security was still setting up some tables, and John managed to get selected for higher level screening.  (Because all terrorists travel with their six kids, MIL and SIL?)

We were second in line at the tapstiles.

We we allowed in past the tapstiles around 8:30.  John and Tabitha hurried down the street to the left to get her signed up for Star Tours.  The rest of us hurried down the right side to queue for Toy Story Movie Mania (TSMM).  Amazingly, John and Tab got signed up and met us in line for the running of the bulls. 
It was at the dot of 9 AM that the CM allowed us to start walking to TSMM.  We got there and got right onto the ride. 

Afterward I went to the FP+ kiosk with our second set of bands to get another three rides.  The CM attending the kiosk was from Rochester. We got talking about the area.  She asked what I was doing with the bands.  I had removed our current ones as I approached the kiosk.  I wonder if they are going to be cracking down on how folks use two sets to navigate around the ride rationing system…  I’m glad they are still allowing it for now.  I grabbed FP+ for three more rides per person and hurried to meet up with the rest of the family over at Rock –n- Roller Coaster. 
Here is where our touring plan died a quick death not even a half-hour into the day.
See, even though it took me a solid ten minutes to navigate my two sets of magic bands, I still managed to get to RNRC just moments after the rest of my party.  First there was the issue of not knowing where to head. Then there were those pesky Storm Troopers. 


We had a blast on that ride.  The launch is just so great.

After RnRC, most of us did Tower of Tower.  We didn’t ALL do Tower of Terror…  There were a few who were intimidated by the queue. 

We disembarked too late to enjoy the Beauty and the Beast stage show.  We ended up never getting to see it.  We didn’t lament this, but moved on. 

We met Kylo Ren.  And by we, I mean everyone but me and Johanna.  This isn’t because I didn’t want to meet Kylo Ren.  It was because being a good mom sometimes means forgoing a much desired Meet and Greet in order to take your timorous and trembling five year old away from the Dark Side. 

We did meet some Jawas on the way out of the Launch Bay.

From there we took our second ride on Toy Story.

And then decided to have a really early lunch.  This was not a plan from the start, but ended up being a huge blessing.  We ate before the crowds and everything rocked for the rest of the day.
We ate at Backlot Express, and was surprised by how good a meal it was. AND it is one of the restaurants with refillable fountain drinks. 

We had a Plan Of Attack at this point.
First was Muppets. 


Tab had to report for the Jedi Training Academy, so John took her to the Resistance Headquarters somewhere D’Qar.  Marie, Nigel and Stewart went to Star Tours, and Nan, Nene, Johanna, Katriel & I went to meet Olaf.  There was No… Line… 

We watched Tabitha defeat Darth Vadar.

She rocked it.
And we planned to use our FP for the Great Movie Ride and made a quick stop to the bathroom.  And that was when Kelly and Tabitha spotted the coup d’etat: BOLT
Extremely rare to find, we enjoyed meeting our favorite movie dog.  This.  Was.  HUGE.  I LOVE BOLT!

After that we did the Great Movie Ride, then split up.
We stopped frequently for photos during the day.  We have a lot of fun “Magic Shots.”

The older four kids went to Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular and the rest of us when to Frozen Sing-a-long.  Frozen Sing-a-long was in AIR CONDITIONING.  ‘Nuff said.

This is when we learned that technology has disadvantages.  Texts did not go through properly and the older kids ended up missing the end of Indy.
The older four did another run on Star Tours while they waited for us to get back from Arendelle, then we all went on together. 

When we got back from saving the galaxy we hurried out to the exit for the unadvertised Character Palooza that I’d learned about.
This was really fabulous!

Dopey was also there, but we were hot and tired. 
We headed in for some light shopping and dinner.
Dinner was outstanding.  We’d reserved dinner at Mama Melrose for a Fantasmic Package.  In retrospect, we didn’t really need the passes, but it worked out really, really well for us.

Our server, Angela, was fantastic.  We had the best meal.  It included appetizers, entrees, beverages and dessert.  Every morsel was scrumptious and the portions were enormous.  The steak was mouth watering.  And it was worth every minute out of our touring time to enjoy this meal. 
APPS
Nigel had calamari.  Stewart and Marie enjoyed mozzarella and tomatoes. I had tuna. Some had salads.


From there we headed over to meet Chewbacca, and take another visit into Kylo Ren.

Then we enjoyed another run through Rock N Roller Coaster.  MAN is that ride fun!
And we headed over for our spots in Fantasmic!  I don’t love Fantasmic. Parts are fun.  I’m glad we did it.  Not in a hurry to see it again.

We left just before the finale, and headed down to main street for Star Wars fireworks.  Those were AMAZING. 
Kids were tired.
We made it out by staying close together.
And we tucked the little girls in bed with their clothes on.

What.  A.  Day.

It started early for me as my alarm rang at 5 A.M.  Actually – I had two alarms set because I did NOT want to risk sleeping through either.  I had my Bible time and hot chocolate and got to the business of making breakfast.  We “dined” on ham, scrambled eggs and English muffins and were only a few minutes late of our goal of being in the car at 7:15 A.M.

We were among the first cars in the Animal Kingdom lot.  It wasn’t nearly as close to the entrance as visits past.  There is a new “preferred parking” zone available for $15 more.

Speaking of parking.  Our parking is free because of our Fort Wilderness Campsite reservation.  The man at the parking booth didn’t tap John’s band however.  He just confirmed that John had one. 

Right off the bat, a Cast Member (a/k/a employee) (CM) offered to take our photo.

We were first in line for the tapstiles and were there by 8:05 A.M.  We did hair, sunscreen, and took trips to the bathroom (which was not clean – ewwww) until about 8:35 A.M. when they let us in and through the Oasis where we queued up again by the tree of life.

Beautiful parrots flew overhead just before rope drop (RDRD) and that was not one minute before 9:00 A.M., surprisingly.

We booked it to Kilimanjaro Safari.  The kids joked I took off so fast with the stroller the little girls’ faces went taut and the guests nearby felt the breeze as I went off.  We got separated into three groups and entered KS that way.  It was a little off-putting, I think, to some members of my party; but I instructed via text just to get on and enjoy the ride despite being separated.
It was the most entertaining KS ride EVER.  The animals were SO active. 

From KS I separated from the group as John waited for everyone else to disembark.  I went to the FP+ kiosk to use our borrowed Magic Bands to secure three more rides a piece.  Yee. Haw.
There were plenty of choices and I was able to overlap the times from each 5-band group I had. 
We then rode Expedition Everest standby. 
We started toward Dinosaur when Nan reminded me we wanted to meet Pocahontas.

I had to come up with a system to keep track of so many FP+:
masking tape on our stroller.

We met back up with Kelly and the boys who had enjoyed Dinosaur.
Some of us rode Primeval Whirl with our new FP+ (lame and nauseating) while others rode Triceratops Spin.

The three younger girls got their faces painted.

From there we went to Disney Pals, which may have been our longest wait of the day despite our FP+

We grabbed an early lunch at Flametree BBQ.  It was excellent.

After lunch we headed out to Rafiki’s Planet Watch.  We met Rafiki and Chip and Dale and pet goats.  Because traveling 1100 miles and spending $$$ should result in ample goat petting time.

Then Expedition Everest.
Then Kali River Rapids.
Then the 3 P.M. Festival of the Lion King.
Back to Dinosaur to use our FP+.  We also used Child Swap on this so that John could stay with little girls while I rode with big kids, and then he went on Dinosaur with Marie and Stewart again.
From there we met Donald Duck and, sadly, missed Dug and Russell from UP.  We were sad about that. 
We decided to do It’s Tough to Be a Bug ahead of our FP+ times b/c the wait was so short.  Then the older kids did another spin on Everest while John took little ones to the Boneyard. 
We grabbed dinner at Restaurantosaurus around 5:50 P.M.  The park was closing at 6:30, but they did not make us feel rushed one iota.  The meat was down right wonderful.  I had EXTREMELY LOW EXPECTATIONS based on years of poor reviews.  Either I was hungry enough, or that self-serve soda was enough to confuse my senses.  I love a toppings bar, too.

We then started shopping around 6:40 P.M. and did not leave the park until 7:20 P.M.

It was SUCH a good day!

We headed home.  The kids swam.  I uploaded images from at least 3 devices with three more waiting for me to have more time.

 

Time to share some photos of our fantastic vacation rental in Davenport, FL. Nan and Kelly arrived a number of hours before we did and Kelly took a bunch of photos before we got in. AS soon as you enter, the living room is on the left. And it shares floor space with the dining room.  You can see the doorway into the kitchen, as well. Standing near the kitchen to the door way, looking back toward front door and large staircase. From kitchen doorway From in the kitchen looking toward the rear of the house to the kitchen table. From the sliding glass back door looking into the family room From the side of the family room you can see the kitchen table in the distance and the breakfast bar mid-depth. Downstairs king Downstairs master bath garage had some games There was a large, family-sized bathroom at the top of the stairs Upstairs king/master Upstairs master bath this room  has two sets of bunk beds, and two closets. Twin room Queen master Queen room bath.
Beautiful pool and whirlpool Lanai.  Door at end of photo is to a pool-side powder room. This house rocks.