Camping 2020! 8/25

Another early morning, but this time I had everyone up by 8AM. 

Breakfast was amazing.

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We drove an hour north to Fort Ticonderoga.  This was a dream come true for me.

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We left for lunch and grabbed some pizza.  The pizza was amazing; the service and cost was repulsive.

John dropped me and five of the kids off back at the fort, while he and Stewart went to the Star Trek museum.

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We checked out  a few more things (canon firing) and then looked around the gardens.

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We tried to do the corn maze, but it seemed to be closed.

We went back and joined a tour until John and Stewart met up with us again.

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Our admission to the Fort also allowed us access to Mt. Defiance.

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We went up the mountain as far as we could drive then hiked up the last little bit.  It was paved.  We then were able to look back down upon the Fort and see Lake Champlain for a good distance.

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We saw an extremely large cricket by the bathroom.  I’m glad it wasn’t in the middle of the night.

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Dinner and another nice campfire.

Camping! 2020 8/23 & 8/24

As soon as Stewart got home from work this morning, we headed out for camping near Lake George, NY.

We set up camp in the rain… and, as always, we realize that all campgrounds are not created equal.  But we figured it out and got on to eating.
I do love cooking over a campfire, and tonight’s dinner of hot roast beef sandwiches did not disappoint.  We made sugar cone “smores” and enjoyed the campfire.

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Morning comes early for us.

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After a chill breakfast of pancakes, etc., we headed to Lake George to peek around.  It was fun surprising the kids with a game of mini-golf.  What is normal to a lot of families is not normal to our “big” family.  I actually heard one of the older kids telling one of the younger kids they shouldn’t ask to play mini-golf, because it is so expensive.  It was with a tremendous amount of joy that we blew their minds pulling into the parking lot.

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Here is a photo of Johanna and Katriel with the winner of the mini-golf.

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(Yes; that’s me.)

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After golf, we parked the van and wandered around by the fort and the beach.  We tried to get ice cream there, but they were not interested in working with us to insure a peanut-free experience.

We headed back towards camp and stopped at the Stewart’s Shoppe, which provided us with amazing flavors and GREAT experience.

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Back at camp we had taco’s in a bag for lunch.

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And daddy found a way to set up a hammock.  I took a book to the pool so the girls could swim.

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We made friends with the ducks!

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And we had some sort of hot dog/croissant meal for dinner. 

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Last Day! Say it isn’t so!!

And just like that …. It’s the end of the trip!

We spent the morning packing up and sorting out whose suitcase would carry what for the way home.  

We had the private party at Animal Kingdom to look forward to at 8PM.  While I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, I did know we were having chicken tenders, a build-your-own-tater-tot bar, mini cheesecake bites, and pop.  We were also told there would be games and music and that Triceratops Spin and Expedition Everest would be open for us to ride.

In the mean time Nan still had about $80 on her Disney gift cards and offered us lunch at Disney Springs.  I asked for suggestions on the message board I visit and decided Wolfgang Puck Express was the way to go.

We headed over around 11:00 AM.  Just as I was crossing the pedestrian bridge I got a text from my clinical leader asking if I could come in 3P-7:30P.  I took great delight in sending her this shot!

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And NOW the sun comes out! 

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We had fun letting the girls browse.  Marie found a smorgasbord of Nightmare Before Christmas items in the Christmas store; it took her a while to find just the perfect mug.

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We narrowly beat the lunch crowd.

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I had the BBQ chicken salad.

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Nan went for the chicken Caesar.

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Hmmmm – look who got mac and cheese.   

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As I am documenting this, Johanna is standing over my shoulder commenting on how Wolfgang Puck’s was the best meal of her vacation.

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Marie had the BBQ chicken pizza. 

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And Tab had the Spinach and Mushroom.

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We headed back to the house to relax; the girls swam for a little while.

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And at 7:02PM Johanna reported to me that Katriel had fallen asleep. 

Oops.

We were supposed to check in for our party at 7:45PM.

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It was only a 15 minute drive to AK, so I let her sleep til 7:25PM.  It was HARD to wake her.

When we arrived, there were no CMs monitoring the parking lot, so parking was free.  It was easy to find our group leader and as we waited for her to hand out our wrist bands I noticed this sign.  I wondered why they closed the area before our party arrived.

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Our group was probably around 500 or so… (I could be total off).  We went quickly through security and were then led through the tapstiles just being asked to show our bands. 

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CMs led us past the Tree of Life over to Dinoland USA.

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I wish I had taken better photos.  It blew my minds.  Somewhere around 70 tables were set up along the edges of the whole land.  Table after table, with black tablecloths and candles.

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The nugget and tater tot bar was actually very cool.

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While I didn’t try the gravy, the chili was spicy and beanless, and the cheese tasted volumes better than I expected. 

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The D.J. in the “Jambo Jeep” was cheerful and had guests on their feet dancing.

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Marie and Tab headed off to Everest.

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We took a spin on Triceratops Spin

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Then Nan, Johanna, Katriel and I tried our hands at a few games.

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All the CMs were so great.  They interacted with the kids and were so friendly and chatty. 

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The whole experience was incredible.

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I won this game.  Just sayin’.  It doesn’t really matter that everyone else playing was 10 or younger, does it?

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We headed over to where the big girls were.  I wanted to walk around AK while it was almost empty.

Walk-on doesn’t begin to describe it.  Marie and Tab’s first ride through it was just them and one other passenger.   They didn’t have their Magic Bands with them, so they didn’t get to keep that image.

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I decided to go for it myself, even though it was so rough yesterday.  Johanna had a surge of bravado as well, and we went for it. 

We immediately boarded.  There was no waiting to see how full they could make the cars.  They just sent them out and then loaded another partial train with the folks still walking up.

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This would have been a great photo… grrrrr. Sad smile

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We stopped for a little dancing, but were sore they put the food away. 

It was only 9:48PM!

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We decided to leave at 10PM.  We had a full day of travel in the morning and a good night’s sleep would do us all good.

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It took 11 minutes to drive back to our house. 

And – just like that – it was over.

Animal Kingdom

Our last two trips to WDW had us at AK on our first Disney day.  This time it was our last day.  It has long been my favorite park, but I believe HS is a good tie.

It is an 11 minute drive from our rental house to AK parking.  So quick and easy via a western route – not the main WDW route.

7:40AM

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7:59AM

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They let us in at 8:20AM for the inner queue.

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I had a FPP for Flight of Passage for 9:00-10:00AM. 
Then we had Kilimanjaro Safari 10:05-11:05 and Dinosaur 11:05-12:05.

I warned my family that we were not heading to the same ride as 90% of the pack we were with, but we had congregated on the right and needed to safely navigate to the left.

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We were heading to Navi and I was NOT going to rush.

As I was parking my stroller I watched someone dump their child-empty stroller as they were rushing for Navi.  Then I saw a woman my age fall hard on the damp ground as she was full on RUNNING for Navi.

8:52AM

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I took some poor photos on the ride – the last one I attempted is timed 9:01AM.

We went to get in line for FOP.  

At 9:18AM we were to this part of the queue.  Standby was already one hour.

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It was a cool ride.  Very awesome.  But it takes so long to actually get ON the ride.

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Oh look – Starbucks!

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We went to meet Pocahontas on our way to Kilimanjaro Safari.

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She was fabulous.  The kids chatted with her a while.

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When we got off KS, Marie and Tab went to use the Dinosaur Fast Passes.  We gave them all our bands and told them they didn’t HAVE to ride three times but they needed to tap our bands if nothing else. 

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These jewels had looked forward to this for two months.

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I watched my app and saw the girls diminishing our Fast Passes.  They did end up riding three times.

I grabbed these.

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Then we went to meet Dug and Russell
Marie and Tab met Scrooge McDuck after Dinosaur and got to Dug and Russell just in time to jump into the group.

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It was 12:22PM so we decided to go eat lunch in Flame Tree BBQ out in an area that was almost completely empty.

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We rode Expedition Everest.  It used to be my favorite coaster, but it almost tore my head off this time. 

We watched the UP bird show, but I missed a bunch communicating with the director for the spring musical as she was looking for Nigel to audition that afternoon.  Then I had to contact him, give him directions, etc.

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We went to queue for Festival of the Lion King when I scored these beauties.

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At 3:45PM we checked in for our education piece of our trip.

In order to be part of the Traveling Homeschoolers group, we needed to attend an educational activity.  I chose Caring for Giants and we were assigned 4PM group – which was perfect.  We went backstage and then into vehicles to the back of the elephants’ quarters.  We spoke with two different educators.  It was really cool.  It seemed to take five minutes!  It sped by!

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I wanted to eat at Flame Tree.  We ate here.  It was terrible.

Enough said.

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I suddenly realized it was 6:05PM and I sent the four girls hurrying off toward Flight of Passage.  Nan and I cleaned up and then worked our way over that way. 

Nan went shopping and I went to the ride exit and waited forever for them to get off.  The standby line was 210 minutes. 

It was 6:59PM when they finally came out and 9 minutes past the end of the FPP window for Nan’s and my FPP.  I handed them our park tickets and told them it was worth a try. 

I was a few steps behind them with the little girls as I watched them successfully tap in 11 minutes past the window.

I took the two youngers to find desserts and Nan. 

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We watched some of the projections on the Tree of Life, having missed Rivers of Light PM show.  We really failed at a lot of shows. 

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Hanny took her treat home.

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7:59PM

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It was a really good day.

Monday Funday

I was up early to take Kelly to the airport to fly home.

When I got home, Marie and Katriel were playing some pool.

We did a little laundry, then headed to Tampa to visit the Fritzes.

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She had a feast for us, and we got to spend about four wonderful hours catching up. 

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The pool was FREEZING. But the sun was warm and wonderful.

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We headed back around 4PM and it was an easy drive.  We made tacos in a bag.

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Epcot visit

It was cold. 

Up at 5:00AM.
Kids up at 6:15AM.

And it was cold. Brrr.

High for the day was projected to be 56F.  That means for like 11 minutes at 3:30PM it is a whopping 56F.  All the time leading up to that moment and leading out of that moment would be LESS than 56F.

As soon as we decided to go, we talked about Disneybounding.  We planned to bound as the Fab Five this day because in 2016 we managed this photo at the Visa Character Spot.

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We hoped to meet these three together again

Well – the forecast didn’t lend itself to the clothes we planned to bound in.  We made the decision to wear our clothes until we met them, then change into something warmer.

Our plan was to Rope Drop Baymax, so I reasoned we didn’t need to be amongst the first people there.

We ended up getting there earlier than we ever needed to.

The Crowd Level was predicted to be a 3/10.

At 7:58AM we were on our way to security.

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We were pretty close to the tapstiles where they kept us until 8:30ish.

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8:38AM.  We were so cold.  There was a lot of wind there, too, with very little to break it up.

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Rope drop saw people RUNNING – full on RUNNING to Soarin’!  I was shocked.  It wasn’t supposed to be that busy today….

We accidently overshot the door to Baymax… because it was closed and I thought to look behind Innoventions West.

This door looked attractive, but was also shut.  Just as I was calling her back, they opened it.

We were the second family through the queue, because another group got in as I was parking the stroller, etc.

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The went wild for our costumes.  But we were sad they didn’t pose together anymore. 

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We got directions to Baymax and made dreams come true.

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And we delighted in meeting Joy.  (Sadness wasn’t there.)

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We headed into the Land Pavilion and most of us changed clothes.
Somewhere in there we got a notice that our Test Track Fast Pass had converted into an any time/any attraction (except Frozen Ever After) Fast Pass.

We were on Soarin’ by 9:50AM and only had a 10 minute wait.

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We rode Living with the Land, then Finding Nemo, then went to Turtle Talk with Crush.  That had a longer wait than I wanted.

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We started that at 11:15AM.

Crush signaled out Katriel to speak with, “That little dude with a tie dye shell and hair going in both directions.”

He asked if she had a question and she asked, “What do turtles eat?”

“Food,” he answered.  Then he cheerfully added that they eat sea grass and that is why they are green.  Then he asked her what her favorite food is.

“Mac and cheese,” she replied.  Yes.  Yes it is. ♥

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11:38AM

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We considered Journey into Imagination at this point, but it said a 20 minute wait and there was no way…

By 11:45AM we were sitting in the upstairs of the mostly empty Electric Umbrella to eat our lunches out of the wind. 

We went to Mission Space, some on Orange and some on Green. 

12:21PM

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Those of us on Green really enjoyed it.  Some of the Orange crowd were a little ~ um ~ green…  (irony!)

We then used our Fast Pass for Test Track.  We waxed poetic over the trips where John’s GM pass got us into the employee lounge and unlimited FP access.

12:47PM

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It was SO COLD as we rushed through the chilly air.

We went on Spaceship Earth and I was poised to grab some same day dropped FPP.

But I couldn’t get any for Frozen Ever After and that was all I wanted.  I tried small groups and overlapping times and kept modifying, and, and, and, I couldn’t get them.

One thing I had been noticing was that the wait times were longer than I had thought they would be AND that the walkways were super crowded.  It was both Dapper Days weekend AND the end of the Food and Wine Festival. 

We went and met Elsa and Anna without too much of a wait.

2:24PM

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Anna was pretty good.

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Elsa was fabulous.

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My kids really enjoyed asking the questions suggested by Kenny the Pirate.  They enjoyed their conversations, and I think the characters did as well, to be honest.

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I’d heard good things about Kringla Bakery.

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The treats were divine.  The coffee, not at all. 

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This picture of the family was 3:06PM.

The picture of Elsa below was 4:57PM.

Shoot me now.

We’d waited for Millennium Falcon twice, so we reasoned we could suck it up and wait for Frozen.  It said 60 minutes, so I figured it would be slightly less than that.

It wasn’t.  It was close to two hours.  I’ll say one hour and 40 minutes to be safe.

It was a beautiful ride.  And it was an indoor queue.  But our day fell apart right there on the streets of Arendelle.

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Some rode the ride in the Mexico Pavilion while I tried to come up with a game plan.  That dumb ride is normally walk on and they waited 20 minutes for it.

We were cold and hungry – that sounds so funny!

But we WERE cold and we WERE hungry and I had no dinner plan, so we at in China.  It was yummy-ish.

6:07PM

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We miserably walked around the countries not really doing anything but dodging crowds and popping in places to warm ourselves temporarily.  We had no energy to wait for Snow White, whom we had already met, and as we approached Aurora they were closing her queue. 

We got back to Future World and the Imagination Pavilion at 7:01PM.  Just that much too late to ride Figment ride. 

We were cold. 

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So we left.

Super Saturday!

When I was planning our days out and trying to make them fit I found the “best” day to visit each of the parks during our time there.  I still had one more park day and figured we would like multiple visits to MK and HS to do everything.  When it came to my FPP day in September, I was not able to get Slinky Dog Dash on our first HS day, so that left me looking for it for Saturday. 

I also had noted that if we skipped the parade on our MK day on 11/12, that would free up touring time while other guests were busy watching the parade. 

In the end I planned to visit MK during the day until the end of the 2PM parade, and then hop to DHS.

I was able to get FPP for Slinky Dog Dash at 7PM.  I also had FPP for Indiana Jones and Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.

I was up by 5AM and woke my family around 6:15AM.

It was our smoothest transit to the MK as everyone was now well acquainted with the process.  Winking smile

7:45AM

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We had our security system down pat with all the people and bags. 

7:58AM

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This time we meandered down Main Street having lots of Photo Pass pictures done.  We also paused to watch some of the morning entertainment.

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We positioned our crew at the Adventureland spoke on the Hub and then Kelly and I backtracked to Main Street Bakery.

For someone who never visits a Starbucks at home, I was developing quite a habit.

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The rope dropped happened at 8:50PM and our plan was to head to Big Thunder Mountain.  Pirates of the Caribbean was down, however, and everyone who was headed there also headed to Big Thunder Mountain. 

Marie made a split second decision (at the head of the pack) to head to Splash Mountain.  I had no desire to be wet and cold again, so Katriel, Tabitha and Marie went to Splash, while Stacy, Johanna and Johanna went to Big Thunder.  After the Splash crowd got off they rode on Big Thunder. 

Fun Fact – squirrels and ducks don’t eat mini M & M’s.

While Nan and I waited for them to get off Big Thunder, we watched squirrels investigate the contents of stroller after stroller.

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From there we headed over to meet Aladdin and Jasmine.

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The queue moved quickly, and dare I say Aladdin was dangerously close to falling out of character.  He might not be ready for Prime Time. 

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Everyone but I went into Philharmagic.  I just stood around Fantasyland!

We’d really done everything once that we cared to do in MK, but it was hours until the parade.

We decided to go see how the line was for Merida. 

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She was outstanding.  Totally engaging and had us laughing. 

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We consulted my Kenny the Pirate app and saw the Jack Sparrow should be meeting back by the exit from Splash.  There was no one there, though a queue was forming.  We were just about to ask another guest when Chip and Dale started walking out.  These two were a hoot!  They were so playful and Chip went and posed the girls in the places he wanted them, then he stood just in front of them!

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We decided to do a little shopping and look for desserts.  We went back to the Big Top where we’d seen beautiful treats days earlier.

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We wanted to watch the parade from Main Street to be closer to the exit and we found a spot we liked at 1:13PM.  The four girls sat side by side on the curb while Nan and Kelly did some shopping and I stood behind them.  We kind of all talked and zoned out and I deleted some photos, etc.

At 1:50PM a man loudly asked me to move my stroller.  I looked back.  My stroller was next to me and I was a long way from stroller parking of any kind.  I noticed he had a stroller with him.  I wasn’t sure what he wanted so I said, “Pardon me?”  He brusquely said, “Can you move the stroller; you’re taking up a lot of room.”

I clumsily turned my stroller 90 degrees, from a parallel position to a perpendicular position.  I didn’t move my body, nor did Nan or Kelly who had long since returned. 

From this point on I hear the guy and the woman he was with occasionally say things loudly about how we weren’t making room for his kid, etc.  Thousands of people on Main Street and he’s commenting on my family? Nan is known for defending her parade spots like a boss and I was hoping this guy wasn’t going to push her too far. 

At 2:00PM the crowd starts standing up in places and by 2:05PM my girls were also standing.  This is when the guy starts really talking trash about me and my girls and how rude we are to make it so his kid can’t see.  He went on and on for almost 10 minutes.  The parade was just coming into sight.  I calmly turned to him and asked him what he was talking about.  He suddenly became very deferential and mumbled that it was fine, everything was fine.   I didn’t stop.  I was now Mama Bear.  I politely pointed out that for the last ten minutes he was speaking harshly about my girls and saying how rude they were.  I explained that we’d been here for an hour to secure our positions and we weren’t going to move.  He guffawed, “Oh what?  You think I should wait here for an hour with my five year old?! That’s not gonna happen.”  I pointed out I was traveling with a six year old and that my kids have often waited an hour to enjoy the parade.

“Well, good for you.  You’re still rude.”

With every calm fiber I could muster I sweetly replied, “We are not rude, sir; we are wise.” 

Meanwhile my sister was giving his female travel companion her perspective.

And then we enjoyed the same exact parade – MINUS a fire-breathing Maleficent – that we watched 3½ years ago.

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Let me tell you – it was getting cold.  Not necessarily Rochester cold, but cold to spend the entire day outside not dressed for the weather. 

Somewhere over the last few weeks, I’d come to realize I had not scheduled a time to watch the regular night time fireworks, “Happily Ever After.”  Given that we’d accomplished so much at HS the other day, I reasoned that we could head to HS until after we rode Slinky Dog Dash and then come back to MK for the fireworks. 

Because it is such a hassle to get from the TTC parking lot and over to MK our best option seemed to be to catch the bus from MK to HS and then back again later.  Friends from the message board I visit helped me figure out the logistics.

Waiting for the bus was cold.  Then folding and loading the stroller was a headache.  But we got over to HS and through security in about an hour.  The only FPP we intended to use was the Slinky Dog one.

It was getting colder and colder so I suggested we head over to the Star Wars Launch Bay which was indoors.  As I went to park the stroller I realized something was happening.  Sure enough, I look over and Storm Troopers are marching over toward the entrance where I’d just left my family.  I started to grab my phone as I got closer and –boy- was I glad I did!  Johanna was protecting the Launch Bay!

As Rey arrived she thanked Johanna for helping!

https://youtu.be/4rztGbKIX6w

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3:45PM

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Johanna was then presented with a certificate.

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She was carrying it and we were congratulating her on what she’d done on our way in.  A CM saw her carrying it and informed us that we could show it to the CMs at the queue for Chewbacca and they’d let us right in.  They also said the CMs at Darth Vadar might also let us in there at the head of the line, too.

They did.

We met both in minutes.

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It was great for time… but we did end up back out in the cold!

We headed for a place to meet some surprise characters. 

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We hung around to see if anyone else came, but it was Jasmine again, so we decided to see about shopping.  I was thinking about buying something warmer for Katriel to wear.  Nothing jumped out at me, so we moved on to dinner.

We chose Backlot again, because it has refills on pop and it is indoor seating.

We ate until almost 6PM.

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We unanimously decided to take another run on the Millennium Falcon.

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From there we went to our ride on Slinky Dog Dash.

So fun.  Over so fast.

Then – our night fell apart.

We should have had time.

We would have had time.

But we had some who wanted to hunt for desserts.

And we waited too long for them.

Then our group got terribly separated.

And we had to wait in such a long line for the bus that we didn’t make it onto the first one and had to wait for another one.

And everyone was very cold and shivering!!

And we arrived at MK and cleared security JUST as the fireworks started and I knew that some members of my group would revolt if I pushed us into the park into a crowd and then had to fight a crowd to get back out to the monorail.

Instead we just proceeded to the monorail and back to our van and back to our rental.

Slower day–in the best kind of way!

Oh the weather outside….

Rainy, but thankfully warmish.

Kelly and I were up by 7AM so I could have her out the door early.  I dropped her at 8:40AM at Animal Kingdom.  I stopped at Walmart to buy some more lunch meat and protein bars and Coca~Cola.  We’d be enjoying our treats so much we decided we’d pack a lunch every day. 

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Marie did her apologetics homework.

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Katriel and Tab both took luxurious baths in the giant master bathtub.

Then three of them went for a swim.  It wasn’t hot-hot, but it was muggy and the pool came with free heat!

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Around 3:30PM we headed over to Animal Kingdom to pick up Kelly and we headed over to Wilderness Lodge for our dinner at Artist Point.

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I didn’t tell the girls until a few hours before; I didn’t know if we were going to keep it until the night before.

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The dinner was everything we hoped it would be.

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The food was delicious and the characters were delightful!!

When we lined up to meet the Evil Queen we met another Johanna.  She pronounces her name the same way as our Johanna, and they were both wearing purple glasses and had their hair up in buns.  Both of them beamed!

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The queen was excellent.  She was somewhat scary, to be honest!

Katriel asked her why she used an apple to poison Snow White and she said she didn’t know what Katriel was talking about, and that she’d never do such a thing.  How she stays in character is unbelievable!

Dessert was amazing. 
I ate the purple one first imagining it would be nasty-sweet.  It was not.  It was scrumptious. The little green one is Gooseberry Pie – like in the movie.  The little apple is a truffle.  And it was all so good.  Everyone got one of each.

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We had enough Disney reward dollars to pay for this.  If we hadn’t gone here, we could have five or six lunches in the parks, but it was worth the fun experience.

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We poked around Wilderness Lodge more, yet they didn’t have much out yet for decorations.

From there we headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge, but they had no decorations out yet.  We did visit with a docent (?) preparing to hold a teaching session.

MVMCP day!

Finally – the day of all days.  This is the day for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!

And I was feeling TERRIBLE.

Back track — I haven’t slept more than 4-5 broken hours since 11/4 and now it is 11/14.  I was so sleep deprived, so at bedtime last night I took a half of a Benadryl, and hoped I’d sleep.  And I didn’t.  This wonderful day that I have been looking forward to for months and I was dragging.  I reached out to a few praying friends and pressed on.

We made chicken salad in the morning and packed up a beautiful lunch.  At 10:15AM we were entering Orlando Vineyard Premium Outlets and found the Character Warehouse store, hoping for some wonderful finds.  As soon as we got there I grabbed a spot in line.  There were close to 40 people ahead of me.  The rest of the family took time shopping and after a while Marie came and took my spot so I could shop.  I didn’t really find anything I wanted, but Nan and Nene each found a few things.  From there we headed over to Disney Springs.

Disney Springs is much different than it used to be in terms of parking.  OY.  We parked our van, got out, and realized we weren’t in the Marketplace side.  We ventured on a little and I was rewarded with this beauty.

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Kids took turns trying on a gauntlet – two picked Thanos and two picked Ironman.  There’s a lot you could read into that…

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Me dropping into work for a bit.  Winking smile

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We found a map to determine how far we were from the Christmas Tree Trail and I said something like, “As if,” and we went back to the van and drove over.

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Somewhere about this point I sat on a wall and started to cry.  Here it was this day I’d looked forward to and paid dearly for and I felt terrible.  I usually roll with fatigue, but today it was daunting.  I dusted myself off and we proceeded. 

Disney Springs was so nicely decorated.

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Christmas Tree Trail did not disappoint.  It was beautiful.  And there was a roving PhotoPass photographer who helped me with the app a little, too.

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We went back to the van and pulled out our lunch and something wonderful happened.  I started to feel GREAT.  This is 1:36PM.

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We went back to the house for some people to change and for me to snap a photo of my fabulous touring plan. 

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AT 3:26PM we were on the ferry on the way to Magic Kingdom.  As we were waiting for the park to start admitting party guests my sister realized she’d left her phone in the car at the TTC.  If you’ve ever been to MK you know there is no quick “run to the car.”  She and Nan headed back to get her phone.  It took them almost 45 minutes.  Sad smile

We were in at 3:40PM and got our bracelets.  We had FPP for Peter Pan, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and the many adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

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We got our first treats as we used the bypass sidewalk behind main street.  We stopped for a few PhotoPass photos, too.

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We were keeping tabs with Mom and Kelly as they made their route.  We rode Peter Pan and watched Philharmagic and rode the Carrousel. 

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We regrouped in time to watch Belle together.

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Marie left us at 5:50 to go queue to meet Jack Skellington and Sally Ragdoll. 

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The rest of us went to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Tabitha changed her outfit.  We found three treat stations and had a PhotoPass taken.

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Next thing you know, Marie was catching up with us to ride Space Mountain with the Christmas overlay.

We hurried to see Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration arriving just as it started.  The four kids hurried to the front of the stage, while the three adults stayed back.

Then off to more treats.

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We hurried to Tomorrowland for the Christmas show.  It was SO SHORT!

We went to the Speedway at 8:45PM  with the Christmas overlay.  And I scooted to buy myself a shirt.

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We were off by 8:55PM

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We did the Monsters Christmas show at 9:40PM  which was essentially the same show with minor changes to the script. 

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Then the 10PM fireworks.  We walked right up to the hub.  I would say about  5-10% of my visibility was obscured because I didn’t queue earlier.  It was worth it to do more.  We were all EXTREMELY delighted by the show.  It was MUCH longer than we expected (maybe because the MMMC and TTCS were so short).  It was elegant and festive and so excellent.

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When the show was over it was raining lightly.  There really wasn’t much left to do.  We moved over to Frontierland for where we wanted to watch the parade.  On the way we saw Mary Poppins and Bert.

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We found a planter Nan could sit on and just waited for the parade.  We’d really done everything and we were getting tired.

The parade was excellent.  It was so pretty and fun.

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Imagine my horror the next day when I realized the settings on my camera were hosed up.  Honestly – I am way over camera issues (Grand Canyon 2018 – I’m looking at you).

We hurried over to 7DMT after the parade and had gotten almost to the front of the line when the stupid ride went down AGAIN.  Grrrrr.  So we hurried over to Peter Pan and everyone but I rode it.

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It was after midnight before we got on the monorail. 

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