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.

 

There is not a lot to say about the drive.  We did our normal thing where John drove til 9-something then we moved seats to allow him to sleep in the rear row.  Stewart rode shotgun and kept me away.  (The cup of coffee/cocoa helped to. Yowser, there is a reason I don’t drink it.  But it was good to be wired at that hour.)  John took back over around 2:30 A.M. and drove the balance.

Five of the kids were outstanding.  Katriel was calling for us to turn around and go home by about 9 P.M. Friday night.  She really was fit to be tied.  It was hardest on her, and by measure she was hardest for the rest of us.

We made it to our rental house.  It is the same lovely home we enjoyed in 2014.  We unpacked like professionals and the kids made use of the pool while Nan, Kelly, and I took Nan’s rental car back.  (Should I mention how they flew down in about 2 hours Saturday morning, got a rental car and were in the house within 10 hours of being awake today?)

It was an early night all around with big dreams for tomorrow.

Hanny is displaying signs of a cold.  Prayers for rapid healing and for it not to spread would be most appreciated .

Thank you for praying us down here.

 

THE HISTORY
Once upon a time we visited Walt Disney World (WDW) frequently. Our last trip to WDW was in 2011, and although we’d had many other lovely trips there, that particular trip was far-and-away the finest one. Just about everything was perfect and we left extremely gratified with our vacation.
We intended to visit WDW in 2014, as part of a trip which also included 4 night on Disney Cruise Line’s ship, the Magic. About a year before we planned to go, however, I started learning more about the changes coming to the much loved Fast Pass (FP) system previously available at WDW. As frequent visitors, we had long ago learned how to make that system best work for us. We were able to enjoy many rides and attractions without waiting, and we were able to secure re-rides on our favorite ones. The new system, Fast Pass Plus (FP+) was slated to replace FP by the time our trip rolled around. Guests would be expected to book three rides PRIOR to their trip through the My Disney Experience (MDE) website or app. At best this was called a ride reservation system, but many of us regarded it as a ride RATIONING system. Disney vacations are expensive and with lots of new rules and even more unknowns, John and I were just NOT comfortable throwing our vacation dollars toward WDW.
We shifted gears and instead used our vacation budget to purchase two-week passes to the SeaWorld family of parks. This was a GREAT experience for us. We spent two days at Busch Gardens, two days at SeaWorld, and one day at Aquatica. We also spent a day at Kennedy Space Center. We had a fabulous vacation and never regretted not visiting WDW. Oh – and we saved quite a bit of money, as well.
THE PLAN
In March 2015 we booked a seven-night cruise on Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) out of Miami, FL for May, 2016. Although we’d have a phenomenal time on DCL in 2014, the long and short of it is DCL is extremely costly. For connecting verandah cabins on NCL for the eight of us, we paid just less than $5,500. For the same week on the DCL Fantasy for similar ports of call, we were quoted $11,000 for connecting inside cabins. It was an incredible deal NCL was offering and we happily reserved our next adventure on the high seas.
Well, when you consider the route from NY to Miami, you can’t help but notice that you drive right by Kissimmee, Florida. And that little voice in my head said, “Well, look at that! We’re going to go right by Disney World. Why don’t we spend some time there?”
One thing led to another and we booked the same delightful rental house we’d used in 2014 for the week leading up to our NCL cruise. As the months went by and we began to dig deeper into WDW planning we learned a LOT more about changes at Disney World. I am a dedicated user of Disney-based message boards and blogs. Reading about the experiences visitors were having (even happy visitors) painted a picture of a much different place than we’d visited in the past. I won’t let this post get any longer than it has to be by miserably recounting all the changes in service and increases in prices. The question came up, however: Will we be satisfied with the return on our investment (ROI) that Disney World is currently offering?
We came to understand that in order to make any upcoming trip to WDW work we would have to lower our expectations. Could we do that?
THE COMMITMENT
We almost pulled the plug in June 2015. Nan and Kelly very much wanted to go to WDW; even more than they wanted to cruise. John and I decidedly preferred the cruise; however, I admit I did want to get my girls in to meet princesses again. But those dollar signs were daunting and the news out of the parks was discouraging.
School started, life moved on, and I just kept gathering information for both WDW and the cruise. I had to do a few crazy things to increase our chances of having a good time. We booked a campsite on WDW property that we have no intentions of staying at in order to secure our ride reservations 60 days before our vacation, as opposed to the 30 days offered off-site guests. I reserved pre-park opening dining at some of the parks 180 days before our vacation in order to put us in a better position deeper in the parks for when it opened (so that we have a better chance on getting on the most popular rides). Just before Christmas we went ahead and ordered our WDW tickets. Ouch. I didn’t link them in the MDE system just in case we decided to bail. And – we almost did bail at the end of January. Between the estimated costs of the meals, the costs of cruise excursions, and the cost of that unneeded campsite, I was starting to lose sleep over it. I itemized our expected expenses, and shared it with John; it was insane. We prayed about it and let it sit for a while. A few days later we decided to go ahead with it, but from that point on we told ourselves we had to completely buy into the package and proceed without doubting or looking back. While the news on message boards and blogs has steadily gotten worse (money grabs, cuts in service, etc.) we have continued to focus on the projected positives of two weeks of family vacationing, and our estimation that we will at least have a “very good time” if not an “excellent time.”
THE ITINERARY
5/6 – 5/7 Drive to Florida
5/8 Animal Kingdom
5/9 Hollywood Studios
5/10 Epcot
5/11 Gatorland (and Fort Wilderness?)
5/12 Magic Kingdom
5/13 Magic Kingdom
5/14 Laundry and rest day
Potential inclusion –
(Drive to Miami and embark on NCL Getaway
Day at Sea
Roatan, Honduras
Belize City, Belize
Costa Maya, Mexico
Cozumel, Mexico
Day at Sea
Disembark drive
Drive and return home)
THE CREW
John is most looking forward to the ports of call and ship activities
Stacy is most looking forward to sandy beaches and cruise dining.

Stewart is looking forward to ship activities and some of the more thrilling rides at WDW.
Nigel is looking forward to everything.

Marie is looking forward to meeting Merida and Pocahontas, and breakfast with Pooh characters.
Tabitha is looking forward to princess meals and ropes course on the ship.

Johanna wants to meet, “All the princesses.  All of them!”
Katriel wants to meet them all too.  We think.

Nancy and Kelly
Nancy (Nan) is looking forward to all of it.
Kelly (Nene) is looking forward to WDW attractions.

Please join us for our trip!