MLM5.. aka Judy

Gotta have my camera, binoculars, night vision scope, and BOILED PEANUTS. :parrot:

Night Vision Scope?  :popcorn:  No more half neked darts to the potty at 2am!!!!!

Burn it baby!  Love it!

My outdoor rugs, we are tent campers and hubby has given me such grief about bringing the carpets but I NEED THEM!!!!  I love being able to walk out onto a nice carpet in the morning instead of fiddling with shoes and such.. it takes me a moment to get started... and my K-cup coffee maker... without these things I would be a bear in the mornings!!

MLM5, Your family is just too much!  :D  Looked like one great trip. Thank you for sharing them with us.    :banana:

Thank you very much! We try to enjoy our life, they arent going to be young forever so as I have said before, I'm sucking all the time out of them i can while they still think mom is cool  :banana:

If mama get's her way (and I usually do) Oct 30 to Nov 5, whoohoo!

We're there Oct 31 thru Nov 6.  We arrive on the 30.  If they let us add the day on we will, no luck yet.  We'll have to meet up.  We are tent campers too.  Check out the GG thread.

That would be awesome, my 5, your 5, her 6.. that's a bunch of little bananas, we def deserve our own loop!!

:heart: :) :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

Wow!  I don't get the opportunity to be around other big families!  That would be cool!!!

I can see the kids line up picture now.  LOL!  Hoping for the 1500 Loop! and you?

We are also hoping for the 1500 loop.  Love being close enough to everything for my dh to limp over.  He's not sure he wants to be in a loop with that many kids using the same bathroom. LOL  I assured him it would be fine. :D

Tell him not to worry, there is 2 comfort stations per loops, we can surely work out a schedule   Can you imagine the looks on the faces of the campers during TOT if we all went together?? LOL  Priceless! 

The "green eyed devil" is ADORABLE!!  :heart:

Thanks to everyone for the kind words, I apologize that in parts it's jumbled and seemed to flow in a awkard manner, when I was cutting and pasting from the other place I tried not to include others comments

and yes, my little green eyed devil is rather adorable isnt he :)  he sure keeps his mama hopping but I wouldnt have it any other way 

check out the "I'd rather be naked shirT

Ok, well we sorta got side tracked from the trip report so I?m going to roll the ending all up into one.  The bottom line is, my almost 2 year old just really didn?t like the crowds associated with the parks.  He liked the characters a bunch, didn?t care much for the rides at all, liked the fireworks but the crowds associated with those things was more than he could handle.  At first I felt bad for my 3 big kids but I have been blessed with patient and loving children who instead of feeling ?cheated? wanted to do things that their baby brother enjoyed as well.  So we only used 1 more day of our 6 day tickets at the magic kingdom, skipped the rest and hung out at the Fort.  We did a lot of swimming and the big kids participated in all the activities and had a blast!  The life guards were awesome and before the week was over knew my kids by name.  Here?s some pic?s..

Here?s one of the green eyed devil outside of splash mountain..

My big girl dancing with the parade people..

My precious boys..

We were the only people on the ferry boat.. the captain was rather entertaining and wanted to take our pic..

Ready for the daily looping..

Playground by the dog park.. OUR FAV!!

More pool shots..

So as you can see, we enjoyed the Fort A LOT!  Even more so than the parks.  I am bringing the big kids back for a special trip in April because I really did feel bad that we didn?t get to do a lot of the things we had planned for.  My hubby was ready to kill me when I told him we weren?t using the rest of our tickets for the parks because as you all know they cost a fortune, but once he saw the pictures of the kids playing at the fort and how much they enjoyed it, he forgave me LOL:flower3:

I have only a few more things that'll share with you about this trip and we will be done, I'll post those up tomorrow, this posting is time consuming for sure!  Thank you to everyone for the nice comments, I'm working on planning our April trip now, we will be there from the 10th to the 16th, I'm hoping to meet some of you nice people! 

Here's the culprit.. look what he did to my camp kitchen!!

Bad bad squirrel!!

We were finally ready to head to the Magic Kingdom, we had been at FW for 3 days now and were getting a little more ?settled?.  My 2 year old was getting more comfortable with his surroundings which just generally makes life easier for all of us LOL.

After the awesome ferry ride over, we made it into the park without  to much drama.  For some odd reason my finger print scan didn?t want to work, after the issues I had the previous day with getting tickets I almost had a breakdown positive that I was about to get told to get out or something of that nature.  The CM was wonderful and let me through with no issues.  The park looked so pretty with all the fall decorations! It was crowded but not over whelming. 

We headed straight to Adventure land as I?m a huge fan of Pirates.  WE WALKED RIGHT ON PIRATES OF THE CARRIBIEAN!  I saw my future ex husband there.. LOL

We really enjoyed the ride, even my fussy baby boy thought it was cool.  He  really enjoyed the spitting totem poles..

We then were then able to walk straight onto the Jungle Cruise..

I was very disappointed that our guide was a real downer, I remember one of the things I enjoyed most about the jungle cruise was the humorous monologue from the guides but this lady wasn?t impressive at all.  Not one joke.  You can tell this is one of the older rides, it?s starting to show it?s age.  Kids enjoyed it however and that?s all that matters to me!

We spent some time walking around checking out shops, eating some Dole Whip and letting the little one play  in the fountains some more.  I had planned on going back to the campsite for lunch and a nap but we were having such a nice time decided to just snack and hang out a bit longer.  We stopped on the steps  of one of the shops and crowd watched for a while.  It was very cool.

Notice here my one socked child.. his shoes got wet from the fountains and he took it upon himself somewhere along the way to toss his shoes.. I mean literally.  I never did find those shoes.. I ended up buying a pair of crocs at one of the shops.  At least he?s cute right? LOL

We then went to the Haunted Mansion, it was about a 10 minutes wait time, not to bad.  We all really love that ride, even the baby was tickled.  At the end when your doom buggy faces the mirror and there is a ghost in your seat.. PRICELESS!!  Made all 4 of my kids mouth drop open, I?d give anything to get that on film.. I thought for sure there would be a photo booth there but I sure didn?t see it.  After this we strolled around and the kids started getting mouthy so I had to get tough on them..

I have to share my troll experience here.  There was a OLDER man here, probably in his late 40?s in line to get pictures.  There were probably 4 other kids besides my 3 in line.  A couple of stray kids would run in but still not overly crowded and no body waiting for more than a few minutes.  My kids were all in a row, this guys turns to me and says ?lady you need to hurry the hell up, people are waiting..?  I kid you not.  Now, I?m a sweet lil? southern lady with Red hair and blue eyes that turn green when I?m mad.. this guy pushed my buttons in all the wrong ways.  I couldn?t believe him!  I just told him that the seniors line was down the street a bit he might want to try that one.. waved at him with the special secret squirrel wave and moved on.  I have never in my  life had a incident like that at Disney.  I felt this was a good time to head back to camp I need a breather!    After a nap and some lunch we decided we were to pooped to go back to the park so we went looping and to the pool.  This was our first visit to the pool and the kids absolutely loved it!

More Magic Kingdom stories next post!

We chose to go to Hollywood studios fist because it was the only day that had EMH for this park during our stay.  I should tell you that I had my agenda all planned out for the week.  We had 6 day base tickets and I knew (in my mind) where we needed to be and when.  However, I threw it out the window after day one.. you?ll understand why as we go along.  We got up, cooked breakfast at the campsite (LOVE LOVE LOVE doing this) and we headed for the ferry.

My kids thought the ferry between the parks was the coolest thing since sliced bread, so did I for that matter.  I know your saying.. ?now why would that crazy lady be on the ferry if they are going to HS?..?  well this is where my bad luck kicked in.. I FORGOT TWO OF MY TICKETS AT HOME!!!!  I had to call AAA that morning and buy 2 more.  I had previously purchased paper tickets from MWR and sure as I?m breathing I ran off and left them.  AAA said for some reason they couldn?t leave them in will call they would have to email me the tickets and I could print them out at my resort.  Sounded easy right?  No one could help me on a Sunday on FW so I headed to the contemporary.  There is a business center there, printed my vouchers and then took a bus from the Contemporary to HS.  Now, this is just my humble opinion.. I?d rather chew my own arms off then use the bus system at Disney again.  I don?t know in what alternate universe it?s said that the buses run every 10 ? 20 minutes.  That was more like every 30 to 45 minutes.  I?m sure it?s a great system for people without young children and a lot of patience but this girl has lots of the first and none of the 2nd LOL.    WE FINALLY MADE IT TO HOLLY STUIDOS?.

We spend most of the day there, that place was sold out.  Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania were all gone by the time we got there.  I was bummed but what can ya do.  We did get to see the Little Mermaid Show, do the back lot tour, enjoy some of the street shows and for the first time in my life I got to see Fantasmic!! We stood in line for 1hr.. took 45 min?s once we dropped off the stroller to get seated, but the show didn?t disappoint.  I have been to Disneyland several times and never been able to see this show so hell or high water, we were getting in.. both came but we made it.  A note to people who rent strollers from Disney here, at Fantasmic, they make you empty your stroller before entering the pavilion, EVERYTHING comes out.  I know I would have been upset and you can believe they were plenty of people who were angry but the CM?s gave them the choice, empty the stroller and watch the show or do it again next time.    My big kids wanted to do Tower of Terror but they wouldn?t do it without mom? it was late by now and the little green eyed devil was getting beyond reasonable so we had to go..

My overall opinion of  Hollywood Studios.. ehh.. it was ok, but I don?t think I?ll do it again unless it?s just me and the big kids,  my little one got bored quite often through the day.  I would have loved to take him through Toy Story Mania but OH WELL!  Then we made the hellish trip back to camp.  The bus wait was just silly.. almost a hour.  I ask the driver if there was a reason the buses were taken so long ( I was nice.. he didn?t realize I wanted to run him over)  he said that this was a slow time of year and it was common for the bus schedule to be stretched out a little further than in the busy  months.    We slept like babies that night..

Stay tuned for Magic Kingdom day!

Holy Smokes!  that thing is huge and looks most awesome!  Please let me know how it is when you get it, what a deal!!!

Hello my fellow fiends, I'm working on cutting and pasting from the "other" place so it might not make sense in places as I'm learning that when I cut and paste, peoples comments and some of the tags are coming through weird but here's the first "redone" installment

Well, this isnt going to be a lengthy trip report, sadly I did run into some bad luck along the way and a few trolls, but I can tell you, I have been bitten by the FW bug and I'll be back!

It started by packing me, my DS-12, DD-10, DD-9 and DS-1 1/2 into my Armada.  No pop up, no travel trailer, just me, 4 kids, my coleman tent, and enough stuff to survive a cold war if necessary.

Here's the finshed set up..

not sure if this is gonna work so I'm going to post this first and then I'll continue with my story..  I cant believe I didnt get better pic's of the set up.. I was super proud but had a lot going on!!  Now that I have figured out the whole picture posting thing, I'll work on the rest this evening.. this is just a teaser  need to figure out how to change the signature to.. baby steps!

We left Alabama on Friday and decided to drive at least half way.  I made it a whooping  70 miles from home to Guntersville AL.  I was sitting at a stop light when BAM!!!!  Rear ended by a truck pulling a horse trailer.  Traffic was crazy, it was a young kid (probably shouldn?t have been pulling such a huge load) and he was nothing but apologetic, yet, who wants to start their vacation by getting smacked in the rear??  Err..well.. you know what I mean LOL.  The damage to my vehicle was minor, we exchanged numbers and I kept on trucking.  We made it to Macon GA before mama gave out and the baby boy was getting cranky beyond reason so we stopped at Super 8 somewhere along the way, small, clean, did the trick. 

I have to tell you I?m throwing my Garmin GPS out the freakin window next time I go to FW.  It lead me through every back road, into every sub division between GA and FL.  It kept telling me I was close but I seriously couldn?t believe I had come within 2 miles of Disney and not seen one sign, no I have no idea what road I was on.. so please don?t ask ?  ANYWHO, right when I was about to U turn and head back towards the LAST subdivision I drove through.. I saw a metal sign with mickey shaped ears.. I heard the halleluiah bells go off!! I was in a CM parking lot somewhere but heck I was at Disney.    We managed to find FW and got in line to go through the little guard shack thingy.  I was only a few cars deep and it was around noon time on a Saturday so not to bad.  When I got to the guard I mis interpreted his ?go this way? wave and took the first right that lead into the over flow parking area.. geeshhh.. took me 10 minutes to figure out how to get out of there, back around to the guard gate and THEN finally to check in.. seriously gentlemen, stop giggling.. I?m horrible with directions and my GPS was possessed by the devil..  (I think a lot of women can understand my dilemma..) 

Our site wasn?t ready but the CM was as sweet as pie and set us up for a text when our site was ready, she saw the disappointment in my face no doubt when she let me know it would be a while, she gave us all ?First Visit? buttons and it made it all better ?  She also reminded me that I had ask for something next to a comfort station and that they were working hard to accommodate me.  So we pulled out and was heading to the gate to find a walmart when the text came in.. yes seriously, less than 5 minutes.  So again I made the loop back  to the guard shack and the guy looked at me like I might be crazy.. this was my 3rd time through there.. LOL  in less than 15 minutes.

We managed to find site 2048 and low and behold it was right in front of the comfort station as I had requested.  I have learned my lesson on that, close is good, directly in front of not so much.  A lot of people keeping odd hours and I?m a light sleeper so I heard every body that went to potty at 2am every day of the week we were there.  I did like being able to let the kids go potty without me having to cart them on the golf cart however.  I could see them the whole time which was nice. 

Now about the golf cart.. here comes a HUGE Kenny and Tee Time plug.  So because we actually checked in a day earlier than I had golf cart reservations for I didn?t expect to have a cart til Sunday.  When we got to the site and I realized how far everything was from our loop I thought I would take the chance and see if I could get ahold of Kenny and have the cart dropped off that night.  Sure enough, not only did he get me a cart there within 2 hours, he delivered it my site because he knew it was me and 4 kids and I would have had to take a bus from my site to the front and he didn?t want me to have to deal with that.  What a wonder man!  We talked for quite a while, he was intrigued by my last name, he knew it was from the islands and he use to be a flight attendant for ATA and few the Maui route for along time.  I will not even try to deal with anyone other than him ever when I do FW.  Of less of course I get my own cart , that?s on my ?daddy mama wants wish list? to.. 

Ok, so I have already given you a snap shot of the set up, this is one of the pictures of the inside of the canopy with my ?kitchen? area.  As I said before, I took enough to survive a cold war if necessary.  Some things I can honestly say I wont ever camp without, but something?s I could have lived without and saved on space.  I?ll save that info for my ?lessons learned? post.  One thing that I did that I highly recommend for tent campers is lay down painters plastic under my tarps, this stuff saved my tent.  I?m pretty sure that I would have tossed the $300 coleman at the end of the week had I had to clean all that sand off it.  It wasn?t just sandy but almost like a padded mud.. it never rained while I was there so I can only assume it was condensation but ewwww.. what a mess!  I did actually toss one tarp because the plastic had came up and there was no getting that stuff off easily.  About the rain, I really liked my set up a lot, however I?m sure that if we had hard rain, I would have gotten soaked.  The canopy was sitting directly in front of the tent opening with a gap which basically would have been a gutter.. I?m exploring the idea of either  1. Finding a canopy that completely goes over the top of my 19 x 12 tent or 2. using a tarp somehow to ?redirect? the rain.  I just don?t like the look of all the tarps hanging around..    My honey gave me sooooo much grief about taking the outdoor carpets, but I can tell you it was so nice to walk out in the morning, I?m keeping those on my ?to keep? list for sure!  I had a rv type mat down in the tent so it didn?t really feel like it was on the ground.  I don?t mind camping but I need to be comfortable! LOL

I wanted to get some lime green undies for my clothes line but I ran out of time so I just used it as a clothes line was meant to.. I did have a touch of Mickey everywhere you looked though..  I didn?t want the kids to lose sight that we were at Disney!!

So that?s about enough about my site, me and my 12 year old son got everything up and organized in about 2 hours, not to bad for first timers..  my girls had the duty of keeping baby boy busy.. trust me, me and the big boy had the better end of that deal!! LOL

Tomorrow I'll give you the low down on the parks and such, I can tell you.. we didnt stick to a strict agenda, we let the little guy be our guide.  I didnt want to be that mom dragging a screaming kid around.. stay tuned!

Don't forget the Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets.  They are also available in an allergy free variety, if needed.  Either is a LOT easier than lugging boxes or bottles of laundry products, and a lot cheaper than buying the little boxes out of the machines.  And there is a closer WalMart than Turkey Lake...just down 535.  And the other way off 535 the closest store is a Winn Dixie.

I didnt know about those 3-in-1 things my last trip but they are numero uno on my list this year, and I actually did find that Winn Dixie and the other walmart on my last day.  Something went wrong with my GPS while I was down there, I've got that girl disability that can't follow a map or directions very well so I stuck with what I knew and it was a long haul for sure!!!  But now I know and I'm already planning for the October trip, so hopefully I can avoid all the little things that drove me nutty last trip

I have them on my list already too.    We have used the Meal Plan with all of visits in the last few years and this year we will be too.  This will probably be our last time since the quads are quickly coming "of age" in Disney standards.  No longer cost effective but we really wanted it this trip. 

I usually pack in bins too whenever we travel.  I like the differnt bags.  What do you think about packing everybody's outfits in a duffle.  One duffle for each day.    The bins get old quick, but made more convenient.

Duffles would definately take up less space than the bins, I'll probably go that route this year to.  I have been debating the DDP but I just dont know if I'll get my money's worth, my kids are now all considered adults (except for the babies of course) and they are picky eaters.  What kind of tent do you use?  I used a huge 19 x 12 last year and we all had plenty of room,  debating if I want to do something a little smaller this year for me, dad and babies and let the 3 older ones have their own tent.....

I so hope to be there! We missed this year. Aside from a business deal that kept us home we were teaching DD a lesson on disrespect. Halloween is my hands down favorite!

Where is the little respect arrows when you need them - you are my kind of parent.

Thank you it was sooo hard to do. Her thing is Halloween Horror Nights with Daddy. She thought for sure that we would give in. That taught her about mouthing off and underestimating Mama. We will hopefully be there this year!

Awesome parenting!  I've always admired parents that sacrafice their own happiness to teach kids a lesson, just shows how much you love her!

YEA!!  Lots of Fiends at Halloween, we were there last year a few weeks before and I didnt get to meet any "fiends".  We are booked for the 29th of October to the 5th of November, my son's 3rd bday is on the 4th and I'd love to celebrate it with some fiends.  My kids are already talking about TOT'ing at the fort, I use it against them quite often I'm bringing the lamp post and will work on some signs so we should  be easy to find!

I so agree with the shoe and sock comment, however my 2nd most precious item is a aluminum water bottle, there are several places to fill it up through out the parks.  We drink alot and those little drink mix packets for the kids saved me tons of money

The aluminum drink bottles work well. But you can get a 20 oz. coke off site and refill them through out WDW. They are cheap and if you do happen to loose one your not out anything. We been doing this for many years now. 

are you filling them with water or soda?  I have a diet pepsi addiction so that would please me very much to know I could refill a bottle at disney..   

If mama get's her way (and I usually do) Oct 30 to Nov 5, whoohoo!

We're there Oct 31 thru Nov 6.  We arrive on the 30.  If they let us add the day on we will, no luck yet.  We'll have to meet up.  We are tent campers too.  Check out the GG thread.

That would be awesome, my 5, your 5, her 6.. that's a bunch of little bananas, we def deserve our own loop!!

:)) :) :) :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana: :) :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

I so agree with the shoe and sock comment, however my 2nd most precious item is a aluminum water bottle, there are several places to fill it up through out the parks.  We drink alot and those little drink mix packets for the kids saved me tons of money  

We are really hoping to be there for Halloween this year.

Hey you know what would be awesome, if we were in the same loop, we are both tent campers and have lots of babies :) !  your kids + my kids = ALOT of kids, I think that's enough kids to fill the whole loop!!  :)) :) :) :banana: :banana: :banana: :banana:

Don't forget the Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets.  They are also available in an allergy free variety, if needed.  Either is a LOT easier than lugging boxes or bottles of laundry products, and a lot cheaper than buying the little boxes out of the machines.  And there is a closer WalMart than Turkey Lake...just down 535.  And the other way off 535 the closest store is a Winn Dixie.

I didnt know about those 3-in-1 things my last trip but they are numero uno on my list this year, and I actually did find that Winn Dixie and the other walmart on my last day.  Something went wrong with my GPS while I was down there, I've got that girl disability that can't follow a map or directions very well so I stuck with what I knew and it was a long haul for sure!!!  But now I know and I'm already planning for the October trip, so hopefully I can avoid all the little things that drove me nutty last trip :D

The biggest time/space saver for me is getting the kids clothes organized before hand.  Last year I took enough clothes for all of us for the entire trip (7days) in plastic bins.  We are tent campers, I can tell you it was not easy that way.  MomofsixinSC was telling me how easy it was to put her kids clothes in individual bags for the day and I do believe I will try that this year, and honestly, I will plan on doing laundry one day and cut the amount of clothes in half, dealing with all those clothes was mind boggling.  I like the idea of half the clothes and having a down evening doing laundry while the kids play around outside.  My kids are young still 12, 11, 10, 2 and 8 months so we don't spend the entire day at the parks, we go over in the morning, usually come back to swim, lunch and a nap and if everyone is happy, maybe go back to the parks.  My kids love the enviroment of FW and actually chose to hang around camp a few times, that I didnt expect!  Oh yea.. this trip I will buy everything I need food wise at home and plan that out a little better, I think I must have made 5 trips to Turkey Lake Walmart that week... that got REALLY old!

so far Undercover Tourist has beat AAA, MWR and my credit union, I havent used them yet but planning on it for this years trip.

I'm an obsessive planner too and do things like you. We've been buying Disney gifts cards for this trip. We had some money saved and had to use it to replace our hot water heater. While it was good we had the extra $$ put back, I hated getting into my Disney $$. At least with the gifts cards, we can't use them for anything else.  :rofl2:

I ordered the gifts cards from Disneyshopping.com and there was no charge for the shipping.  ;D

I've thought about that more than once, hubby and I have an agreement, we dont use credit to pay for our vacations, if we dont have the cash, we just dont do it.  We are a family of 7 so the expense for a week at disney can be high.  I did a week last year (tent) camping with my four kids (hubby and youngest baby stayed home) in October when rates were low for around $2800 dollars, and that was with a "special" meal at T REX in DTD (which next time I know to skip the entrees, didnt care for those but the dessert rocks).  We ate breakfast at the site, lunch at a QS at whatever park we were at, dinner back at the campground and a few random snacks here and there.    ANYWHO, the question I'm getting to, can you use the disney gift cards for accomodations, tickets, dining and souviners?  I like the idea of having dedicated Disney money.. I like it alot!  I love Disney but it's a little to easy to "dip" into my disney cash, for example when the circus comes to town..  I dont have a lot of restraint on fun activities :) 

and about the Disney Visa, yeah, hubby canked ours, he said the rates and I quote "chap my ......" you get the idea  :kickinass:

The greatest advice to live by when at Disney with the babies, BE FLEXIBLE!!  There is nothting worse than seeing a stressed out family, pulling/dragging a stressed out baby.  The crowds can be over whelming for the little guys.  I know sometimes it's hard for mom and dad's wallet to accept the fact that they will not get every minute of their 5 day park hopper dollars but take it from me ( 5 kids, smallest ones are 8 months and 2) it's not worth the drama and I'm sure fellow vacationers appreciate your willingness to remove yourself and your child from a negative situtation.  Last October I had plans to see all parks, had the 6 day base ticket, threw my agenda out the window the first day after I realized my little one had crowding issues, we did 3 days at MK, 20 minutes (literally) at Epoct, half a day at HS and skipped AK all together (dedicated the entire day to the fort which the little one LOVED!)  Yes, we missed out on some things, yes my big kids were a little bummed, but at the end of the day, we had a awesome vacation and planning for this years trip, I'm planning in down days to hang at the fort, skipping EPOCT all together (we'll hit that one when it's mom and dad's alone trip) and bascially playing it by ear, I probably will buy the 6 day ticket again, just "in case"  the babies are feeling froggy :banana: 

oh yea, snacks and drinks..  not alot of options at Disney for the little guys, and the few options they do have cost you a kidney..

JMHO :wiz:

OMG, I just drooled on my 'puter.. I'm STARVING!! :dance:

If mama get's her way (and I usually do) Oct 30 to Nov 5, whoohoo!