Keenfamily

Here's a few pics from the day.  We got photo bombed by the Muppets.  Lots of rides, including a number of old favorites.

A magic kingdom day today.  We had reservations for Be Our Guest at 8:05, but number one son and I skipped out when we realised how long the line was, caught the morning show instead. We had a nice breakfast at 9 at an empty Gastons tavern.  The warm cinnamon roles were great.  Dinner was take out from P&Js.  Great use of quick service points.

Here's a few pics of the day.

And an unexpected first.  Our youngest borrowed a bike from a neighbor and began riding, without any adult help, for the first time.

On 11/2/2018 at 12:51 PM, Seals said:

This is a great sentence!  

Sounds like you're packing in the fun

Lol.  It could use some work.

Our smallest took on the Sith Lord.

Here's a quick snap of the Rockin Rollin Coaster.  It blew the old guys hair right off, and the little guy beside him screamed the entire time.  We had fun.

On 11/2/2018 at 3:21 PM, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Dis you stay at Coral Sands in Ormond Beach? 

One day we plan to visit Universal but just haven't gone that route yet.

We did.  Its nice being this close to the beach, and we have stayed the before.  Hopefully they'll give the place a refresh before we come again.

19 hours ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

Glad you were able to get the hitch fixed and on the road. Sounds like you have been going non stop. 

It's been busy. We got to do Hollywood Studios on Friday.  The Frozen sing along was hilarious, better than we remembered.  The Indiana Jones stunt show was as good as before, though we noticed the audience was down from 3 years ago.  Loved the mini movie they make for you on memory maker, with the tower of terror.  The storm trooper patrol was appropriately menacing.  We were rained out from the Jedi training, but the kids got a photo shoot with Darth Vader, which was cool.  We ended the day with Fantasmic, which still seems to be one of the best Disney shows. 

Looks like the new star wars land will have some sort of gondola based ride.

Today was a quiet day beginning at Disney Springs.  Grandpa Mike picked up a Greg McCullough limited edition print (number two in the series).  I checked out one of his originals, a bargain at $72,000, but when I looked in my wallet, realised I was $71,995 short.  Better buy that lottery ticket.

On 11/2/2018 at 11:29 AM, twiceblessed....nacole said:

Glad you were able to get a quick, temporary fix on the rig!

We’re in 711.  Hope to meet you!☺️

Thanks.  We are in 339.  Look for a family of six....

So good news - a quick trip into the body shop, and they were able to bash the bumper back into useable shape.  The odd angle on the hitch was sorted out by loosening and retightening the bolts.  There is some cosmetic damage to the hitch, but nothing our insurance won't sort out.  

We managed to get on the road, and we are now happily at the Fort - on the 300 loop if anyone wants to drop by.  I'll pass over the days of travel and 

We spent a night with relatives in Greenville Illinois, then a couple of days on Ormond Beach, combined with a trip to the Kennedy Space Center, before arriving here.  We got to do the Halloween Party, but missed the golf cart parade.  So far, lots of fun.  Next was a day at animal kingdom.  Na'avi river journey was great, and Flight of Passage was amazing.  If you have a choice between the two for a Fastpass - go for the flight.  Sanaa restaurant at the Animal Kingdom Lodge was excellent - if you go there, get the candy bar dessert - its fabulous.

Today was a rope drop day at Universal Studios courtesy of grandma Suzee and Grandpa Mike.  Kids loved Diagon Alley and Hogsmead - try the hot butterbeer - it's kind of like hot ice cream - nice but you only need one.  DD was dissapointed as she didn't get to ride one of the big coasters there (one broke down, the other she needed a couple of extra inches).  Our eldest DS and DD both got into Olivanders early enough to do a wand choosing ceremony.  Our youngest DS then promptly disappeared, prompting a few minutes of frantic searching.  He was returned by a Olivanders wizard, who advised us that he had snuck in the back way to the wand choosing room, and charmed the witch there into helping him choose a wand.  All very cool.  

Early night tonight, and tomorrow will be Hollywood Studios.  Hopefully the kids will get to fight Darth Vader....

So day one of our Disney vacation dawned, with a 1700 mile road trip ahead of us.  Camper packed.  Kids packed.  Tow Vehicle serviced.  Wheel bearings repacked.  Then off I went to drop the dogs off when.....CRASH.  A local kid hit the brakes a few seconds late.  Hopefully the body shop can do some sort of temporary repair, as our rear door won't close and the hitch seems to be at an odd angle.

I'll try to upload pics of the damage, but I just keep getting an error message.

It took me a few days to get this message up.  I finally just uninstalled tapatalk.

Hi,  Just checking back in - anyone know when the golf cart parade is this year?

Thanks.  Any idea when they'll announce the date?

Anyone know the date of the golf cart parade this year?  30th or 31st?  

We found the 2000 loop to be busy - lots of sites with lots of groups - so it was louder.  1500 had fewer party groups.

I'm a Sauna fan.  I'll be at the Fort next October/November.  Where can I take a Sauna on Disney property?

We'll be there for 10-12 days, so the offsite makes a fair bit of sense.

We just booked FW trip # 2.  Is Kenny from Tee TIme rentals still renting golf carts, and does it still make sense to rent from an off-site vendor?

Based on the advice here, we were planning on booking a site via fax, five days before we checked in.  When we went on to do some Disney Planning tonight, we were given the option of checking in on-line, with the option of selecting loops.  Has anyone used this on-line check in service, and how well does it work?  Should we still fax in information afterwards?

Hi,

We will be camping one night prior to arriving at Disney, somewhere near Daytona, or on the route from Jacksonville to Daytona.  My son wants to visit the ocean (he's never seen an ocean).  What campsites do you reccomend?  We don't need a beachfront campsite, but want to be close to the beach.

We were told that the current charges from Tee Time are $35 per day for a four seater, and $55 a day for a six seater, on a 10 day rental, and $10 per day thereafter.  We've booked with them - as others have said, seems like good customer service.

Anyone been to Reed Bingham Park in GA?

Honestly, we'll plug in our starting point and destination and follow Google Maps....that's pretty much the extent of our planning.

Lightbikes - that's nice to see someone 'local' doing essentially the same trip.  Google maps says you are an hour further away than us...

OK - So let's make this more specific.  We've now booked the vacation, and booked at FW.  We'll be looking for a campsite for Halloween, about 2-4 hours North of WDW that will be our target for October 31.  Worst comes to worst, we'll stay in a hotel.  Any suggestions?

I've always assumed that Memory Maker just works for a single vacation - are you saying it is like a permanent addition to my disney account?

We finally bit the bullet, and have made reservations for our first trip, for November 2015.  We were disappointed to read in several places that memory maker couldn't be purchased without a package - not true....we were able to buy it even before linking our tickets, and on the strength of a FW reservation.  There are a bunch of options on the Disney website to link memory maker to tickets - do we need to do that?   Or if we travel together (there are six of us going - 2 adults, and 4 kids), will these be linked automatically by Disney?

The ladder's holding it up.

Here's a video of one being set up.

https://youtu.be/hPVZ4S14ajQ