okgirlie...Brandy

Oh man, My daughter loves Marie.  She has been a crazy cat girl since about 5.  It's kind of scary.  I have a feeling she is going to have like 10 cats when she's an adult.  It's scary!

On top of that my oldest's favorite is Stitch--which is why I have Lilo and Stitch as my pic over there on the side.  He has loved Stitch since 18 months.  lol  

Are we kicked off this non trip report for liking those two characters?

I have a feeling my 13 year old will be the proud owner of a Hans Solo popcorn container on June 5th.

Those pictures of Anna meeting Elsa and Anna made my morning.  How sweet.   And the whole family picture is great.  :)   

3 months... We haven't been since July 2011 and now we are down to 3 months.  Even though you say you won't be back soon it does look like you all had a great time.  I hate to wish time away but I do kind of hope the next 3 months go by quickly.  I am ready.

I really laughed out loud while reading that. Too funny. :)

Wow, I'm the king!

 

Thanks!

 

For both of those parades- the key is to find a place in the shade.  It's going to be hot in May and June.

 

For FOF, just about anywhere on your left as you walk down Main Street toward the castle will be shaded by the Main Street buildings.  If you want spots on the curb, which is what we like, you will need to claim your spots at 2 pm.  If you've got others with you, you can take turns saving spots until about 2:30.  After that, everyone had better be in his or her seat, as the crowds will start pushing in.

 

For Star Wars, the shady spots are also along your left as you walk in towards the Great Movie Ride (the former location of the big hat).  Anywhere along there is good.  Depending on what celebrities are going to be in the parade, you may need more than an hour before the parade to claim your spot.  The Star Wars parades are tough because the parade route is so short.  In the past, the parade just went to the hat, and that was it.  When they did the Frozen parade for the Frozen Summer Fun this past year, they continued the parade past the hat all the way toward Star Tours.  If they extend the Star Wars parade like that, there are a lot of nice spots across from the Sounds Dangerous theater.  I'm not sure if they will have the Star Wars parade go longer like that, but it would be a good idea.

 

TCD

Well, you do seem to know all the important stuff for Star Wars weekend.  I know to get there way early and where to stand at rope drop thanks to you. :)  

Thanks for the parade tips.  I am going to print it out your info and stick it in my folder so I don't forget. 

Since we are talking parade.... Where should we sit and how early should we get there when we are there--going May 30th which is a Saturday and Wednesday June 3?  Don't have to watch it both days and most likely it would be the June 3rd date that we'd watch.  My parents are joining us for this trip but won't get in until the early hours of the 30th (like 1am) so they probably won't join us at Magic Kingdom until later in the day.

Also, since you are the king of Star Wars weekend where should we sit for that parade?  Going Friday June 5th. :)  Thank you, TCD.  

Following along... Love the Hollywood and Vine update and pictures.  Anna's face when she is looking at Sofia is precious.  

We are doing that breakfast at the same time you did.   I just showed my 2 year old the pictures and he smiled big. :)  He loves Jake, Sofia and Doc.  He hasn't watched Handy Manny, yet, but I guess maybe he should so that he knows who Manny is.    

I read through your whole blog.  Amazing.  Thank you for sharing your story with all of us.

Whew.... Took me a week of reading in the morning between my oldest leaving for school and waking my middle child for school to read this report.  

What an amazing trip you had.  Z is so adorable!  I remember when my older son loved dressing up in costumes.  He used to want to wear them every where we went.  

My kids are late Christmas risers, too.  This year was actually the earliest they have ever gotten up but it was still after 8am.   In all the past years it's always been after 9.  I'd get on facebook and all of my friends would have already posted that their kids opened gifts and everyone was wanting to nap and I was just waiting on mine to get up the first time.

I have been following along and enjoying your report.  The last picture of your younger daughter holding Anna's hand is precious.  

Finished!  I am always late to the show, but I got it read. 

I really want to go to DL now.  I was very much hoping for a road trip west summer of 2016 but my son's boy scout troop was just invited to a Northern Tier summer camp in Minnesota that summer.  This is a wonderful opportunity for him so I am pretty sure we are going to let him go.  We'll drive him up, hang out in Minnesota for a week and then come home.    We have never been north so it will be a new experience for all of us.  Not sure what we are going to do up there but after our Disney trip this summer it will give me something to research.  But it also means a trip out west probably won't happen unless we win the lottery or my husband gets a really good raise.  So maybe 2017 now...

Not a corn dog fan but that one looked good.  

I think it's great your daughters were able to do the college program and that it helped them to know that they want to work at Disney.  I went to school to be a teacher.  Had a very rough student teaching experience and a rougher 1st year of teaching.  As much as I love kids and working with them I realized teaching isn't really for me.

I wish I would have taken the time to figure out what else is out there instead of just focusing on being a teacher.    Now that I have 3 kids -all needing speech therapy  and all having something called Sensory Processing Disorder where they need an occupational therapist I realize there were other choices I could have made in college.  If I get a chance to go back to school I think I will consider speech pathology or occupational therapy.   I can't see that far into the future at the moment since I have a 2 year old that needs me at home right now.  

We have 114 days until we are in Florida.  Not that I am counting down or anything.

Love the HP pics. We will be visiting it in June and I can't wait! Your dogs are cute. :)

My goodness... I have to stop having a life so I can read trip reports.  Been reading this one for the past few days and am finally all caught up.

We have been talking about taking a trip out west for a while now -- big road trip so that the kids can see the Grand Canyon and other sights along the way to California.  It wouldn't be until summer of 2016 or 2017 but reading this report makes it something I really want to do now.  Disneyland is now a must do.

Everyone seems to hate on the Stitch ride but my kids loved it.  They rode it 3 times last time we were there.  I didn't find it all that bad, either.  When my oldest was 2 Lilo and Stitch was his favorite movie.  I guess the movie is kind of special to me since it reminds me of when he was so little.

Carsland looks amazing.  I am so excited to be staying in the Cars area of Art of Animation in a few months.  My littlest is going to love it. 

I was going to say more but now I can't remember anything so I guess I'll just say Thanks and am enjoying this report.

It's so cute. The best part is I just found out the popcorn is vegan so my food allergy child can eat it.

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As for the rest of Branson... We love it. My husband and I used to live 35 minutes south of there so going to Branson is almost like going home. To be honest we have never been to one show even though we go there at least once a year. We do two days at SIlver Dollar City and always go to the fish hatchery and then pick out something we haven't done before or something we haven't done in a while. We usually only go for 3 or 4 nights but we could easily stay longer. This last time besides SDC and the hatchery we did the Ride the Ducks tour, watched 4th of July fireworks at Branson landing and shopped at the outlet malls. The kids wanted to spend the rest of the time swimming at the campground pool. Traffic is a pain but there are tons of side roads to help with that.

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I have stayed at the wilderness campgrounds twice in the same spot. We only have a little pop up tent camper so ours was a smaller site right across from the bathrooms and park. Nice, clean restrooms and my kids enjoyed playing at the park. The big kids went swimming once but most our time was spent at Silver Dollar City. It's a decent campground. Not a whole lot of extras but nice.

We like the location near SDC and the price. I think we may try one of the cabins in the future. I may have some pictures. I will look later for them.

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Finally got to read this.... Enjoyed it as usual!  I am impressed with your Thanksgiving food. :D

I just noticed the Disney gift cards at Sams at the beginning of November. I go about 3-4 times a month so each time I go I buy the Disney gift cards and then apply it to my account. We have 6 months until we leave so even if I only go to Sams 15 times that's still over $100 I save. Plus, I use my Walmart MasterCard and get the cash back rewards.

I think I mentioned it last time the Osbourne lights were in a trip report but my husband grew up in Little Rock and saw the Osbourne lights there several times. I just asked him if he ever saw the cat and he said he remembers seeing it once. He mostly remembers the long line of traffic due to the lights.

Enjoying this report just like all the others. :)

Catching up....

Going back to Typhoon Lagoon.  We showed up right before a storm.  We grabbed lunch and waited it out.  45 minutes later we had the entire park basically to ourselves. It was great!   The only part we didn't like was the wave pool.  It was too strong for my daughter.  She fell and scraped up her leg.  Thank goodness we were about to leave because after that she was done. 

Love the London pics.  Can't wait to see more. 

Hey,

I am still reading along and I enjoyed all the Halloween costume pics.  I wish we could come visit during this time of the year but my biggest kid can't miss school.  He struggles enough when he's actually there.  We have a fall break but it's only 2 days long so that wouldn't work.  We will be there for Star Wars weekend, though.  Based on your reports it looks like there can been good people watching then, too. I just have to get brave and actually go to Hollywood Studios on the weekend.  It's so crowded! 

Beautiful rainbow. :)

Marty, I am way late to this party but I just sat and read through this report.  Looks like you guys had such a wonderful time.  Loved your older daughter's selfies with the characters and her disneybounding. :)   Looking at your pictures makes me that much more excited for our trip.  Unfortunately, we still have 8 months.  :/

Hey, if you flew out of Okc then we must be practically neighbors. I live in Moore (thankfully the tornado missed us by a mile). Bonnet creek looks lovely. Looking forward to hearing about the Europe part of your summer. :)

Love the hammock picture. My husband has one. He sleeps in it when he goes Boy Scout camping with our oldest. He says it's much better than sleeping on the ground in a tent.

I have mayo phobia, too. Yuck! My brother in law took a pic of him holding mayo and tagged me in it on Facebook. Just seeing him holding it grossed me out.