jjbescher

We are at the ticket and transportation center. Getting ready to catch a monorail to the MK.

Just entered Florida. DD finally fell asleep, 15 minutes before the rest area.

I will reply to all of the posts when I am on a computet, not the phone. We are about 45 minutes from the Florida Border. Having a 4 year old that drank a lot makes for some extra stops.

It is time to start a new trip report.

Our trip will start later on today, hopefully we will be on the road at 10.  I have no clue how long it is going to take us to get there from North Carolina.  Last two times that we went, we took our RV.  This time we are taking the Toyota Prius.

We are not staying at the Fort this trip.  I am a member of the DVC, no Fort DVC please, and decided to book at Bay Lake Tower (BLT) for this upcoming trip.  Somehow it worked out that I had enough points for a week at a 2-bedroom Lake view.  We will see what view I will actually get.  We do not check in to BLT till Sunday.

So where am I staying tonight, Saturday and Sunday?

Saturday and Sunday we booked a while through Jason to stay at Art of Animation in a Little Mermaid room.  I had to waste days of a weekend, we have an Annual Pass that expires at the end of the trip, so adding on days at the beginning is costing us hotel and food.

Our original plan was to leave Friday, try to hit the Magic Kingdom and then do some Girl stuff on Saturday.  I forgot to mention that my Sister-in-law, Brother-in-law and 3 Sons will be joining us.  That means that there will not be as much Girly stuff done when they are with us starting on Sunday.  Well, Disney had to add the Frozen stuff to DHS and we really did not have time or plans to do much at DHS.  I changed some of my schedule around and was able to pick up an extra day of vacation.  That means that we can leave Thursday, try to do some stuff at the Magic Kingdom Thursday night and hot DHS for Frozen stuff on Friday and still do Girly stuff on Saturday.

Thursday night(Tonight) we are staying at the Comfort Suites off of Palm Pkwy.  Decent price for the location and they have a big area for Breakfast.

For those that have my last two trip reports, I hope to finish this one much sooner than the others.  It all depends on how quickly I can get the pictures uploaded to Photobucket.

We pre-purchased the Memory Maker.  With two families going we should hopefully be able to get a lot of pictures with the Photopass Photographers.

We will be relying on Disney transportation for most of the trip since the In-laws are flying in from CT.  We will also be making a shopping trip to the grocery stores to make use of the Kitchen and Grills at BLT.  We have HDDR and Chef Mickey's and then my DW and I are going to Brown Derby and dining with an Imagineer.  We also got FP+ for BOG.

Hopefully this gives a little insight to the trip.   I will try to post throughout the trip.  Most likely no pictures involved.

Thanks for Joining.

jon

I am in.  Resort looks real nice.

Not all dogs are scared of Thunder and they all handle it a different way.  Service dogs need to be able to handle all situations.  What would happen if a person had a service dog that was scared of thunder.  That person would not be able to do things when it thunders, when a loud bang happens, when vehicles beep or an alarm goes off.

The people that have service dogs rely on their dog for help.  They can not have a dog that gets scared from sounds.  Bringing the dog to the MK is a perfect way to test the dog out one of the worst case situations for the dog.

If you see her, please don't distract her from work.  That is a busy place, and there are a lot of college program CM's there. She knows other DCP CM's who applied and were not accepted to work there, so she doesn't want to lose her gig. They are supposed to have fun with the guests, but no goofing off with each other, or interacting with guests unless they are selling them something. 

 

TCD

TCD thanks for the tip and I promise not to do anything that would harm your daughters work.  I think it is awesome that she loves Disney so much and is doing very well at her job.

It's that time of year where the TCD girls had a little bit of time between college semesters, so it was time to pay a visit to Twin #2 over this past weekend.

 

We found her working at Mickey's of Hollywood in Hollywood Studios on Saturday night:

 

 

As a part of this new era, I am now learning the official names of the retail locations in WDW.  I never knew the name of the big gift shop in Hollywood Studios.  Now I do.

 

Oh, and here's another news flash- the Olafs on a stick are now fans!

 

On Sunday (yesterday), we found Twin #2 hard at work renting ice skates at Wandering Oaken's Trading Post in Hollywood Studios.  This is an assignment that she volunteered for, and is her favorite assignment so far:

 

 

For the record, it was about 95 degrees outside when I took that photo.  Look at her costume.  She loves it.  Going to work in a hat and sweater in August. The skate rental is just one location in the area that she works.  She also worked on the main bank of registers in the insane gift shop next door.  She's going to be at the Wandering Oaken's location for the next week, at least.

 

TCD

Cool, I will look for her on Friday.  Hopefully she is working.

Enjoyed your report. Loved hearing your rope drop day especially. Glad to know you can still get a lot done on a holiday without FP+. I was worried about that! This trip for us will be a first with FP+. I sure hope those return lines are better in a few months. That is crazy ummm I mean MAGICAL!!

I think FP+ is allowing people to NOT have to go to Rope Drop.  They don't have to run all over the place to get FP they know they can get on certains rides.  It is for those that make late FP+ or people that did not make any at all.

With a bigger group you should like the Treehouses.  The extra bedroom makes a huge difference.  Also, since your children are older, those steps are not so bad.  Even though I hated those steps with strollers and carrying a little one up and down, I really enjoyed the treehouse.

That is great that you were able to get a balloon for them.  It shows traditions can continue on where you are, you may have to modify it.  The beach seemed to be a perfect place, however the Rose Garden at the MK would not have been a bad spot.

So it looks like they have split Anna and Elsa and kicked Aurora out.  When my DW and DD waited in line Anna and Elsa were together and you ot pictures of them together, then went to go see Aurora.

This will probably make the line go a little bit faster.

Great TR, don't worry about taking more pictures.  Enjoy the Fort and WDW.  If picture taking is something that you enjoy and have time to do, then do it.  I enjoy just reading about peoples adventures.  I know my TR are mainly pictures of my DD.  I try to take pictures that I think are interesting, but most of the time the camera is with my DW and I only have my phone with me.

Thanks for this report!  Thanks also for the flyball video - I've never seen that but it sure looks like fun!

 

Glad y'all had a good trip.  Beautiful family.

Thanks, it is fun.

Sweet deal on the  icemaker.  That's a big win.

 

I never heard of Flyball.  Wow.  Those dogs must be wiped out after that.

 

TCD

They sleep well on Saturday and Sunday night, but most dogs are back at being their energetic selves on Monday.

I guess I should finish off the rest of the trip report.

We left off on Thursday morning, the Thursday before Memorial Weekend and right before the 24 Hour Event.  I would have stayed for the 24 Hour event however I had to go to Winchester, Va.  That is a long drive from Walt Disney World, especially driving in an RV.  Luckily we do not have to drive through DC to get there, but there is no highway that is direct once you get into Virginia, unless you want to add on miles.  So we took 17 with the traffic lights.  We stayed overnight someplace in Virginia and finished the drive on Friday Morning.

I forgot to mention that the ice maker we got at Christmas decided to die.  Less than 6 months and it was no longer working.  So, the place we were going was right next to a Camping World and I decided to stop there first.  I brought the ice maker in and they normally do not take them back in, but I probably looked worse than I did in the Chef Mickeys picture.  They were going to exchange the Ice Maker, but did not have it in stock.  So they gave me a gift card for $260.  I bought it for $180.  Since I have a Camping World close to my house this was not an issue.  The Ice Maker always goes on sale and I knew I would be able to get it and have money left of the gift card.  It did go on sale and I was able to buy many more things with the remaining money.

Why would I be going to Winchester, Va on Memorial Weekend.  Well, my dogs play a sport called Flyball.  http://www.flyball.org/

Here is an example on youtube this was 6 years ago, but these two dogs that are featured are mine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olzKeiU--Z8

I am running Daisy and my wife is running Scamp.

Daisy no longer runs, she is 13.  Scamp is still running and Jewel has been running for just under a year. 

It is a relay race for dogs.  They go over 4 jumps, get a ball that triggers from the box and then have to go back over the 4 jumps with the ball in its mouth.  There are 4 dogs per team and the fastest to complete the race wins.

I am now a judge and my wife runs Scamp and Jewel.

So on Saturday and Sunday she ran our dogs and I judged the tournament.

That is it till next time.  Which my vacation starts on August 7th.  I hope to have my wallet and everything else I need without having to drive back anywhere.

Thanks everyone for reading and commenting and sorry it took so long to finish.

Excellent TR. Glad you are finishing it!

Thanks

Full, with pictures and INFO.  First Page.

Microwave Stouffer's.  

 

Oh c'mon, you've tasted the food.  I'm not far off.  

 

Also....pony rides are good.  I'm glad I still have one small enough to do it. 

Yep, that is why I only eat there because of the characters.  Beats spending in line at the parks.

Awesome on getting to ride the Mine Train later on for all three of you.  So it looks like the delay worked out in your favor.

Page 1!

Time to move on.

For Dinner we went to HDDR.  My DD loves this show.  It was a whole different cast.  There was only one person that was the same.  However, they all did a great job.  They even threw in some Frozen jokes.  Six Bits asked Jim Handy if he wanted to build a snowman, then when he got in trouble for asking that, told to just "Let It Go!"  It was nice seeing them being able to improvise and add that to the show.

No pictures from that night since we have been so many times.

The next day was departure day.  We had a LONG drive to Winchester, Va.  We were going to drive most of the way and finish it off the next day.

The DD and DW went to the park in the morning to go get a parasol.  While waiting they went to go see Aladdin and Jasmine

Unfortunately that ends the Disney part of the trip report.

Love this report.   Your DD is absolutely beautiful.  Looking forward to what is left of your trip!

Thanks.

Breakfast was done early and my DD wanted to ride the Ponies again.  Yes, I said again.  I know she rode earlier in the trip but forget which day.

Well, it was before 10 and we had some time to kill.  Walking around the area we heard some noises coming from the Blacksmith.  I have seen them before, but my DD has never seen them.

So we walk over there and there are 2 Blacksmiths working.

Here are some pictures.

It was hot, but they working hard.  Did not get a chance to see them actually put on a new shoe, because it was time to go ride a pony.

Well, we had to wait a couple months, but well worth the wait and we received 4 updates.  Nice.

Hope to finish today, if not definitely tomorrow.

Looks like y'all had a great time!  I know...the lines for the Frozen characters has been crazy!  We were there at the end of June and got in maybe 10 minutes after the gates opened and we walked straight back to Peter Pan (passing the characters on the way)...the wait time was (no joke) almost 6 hours for the Elsa and Anna!!  Like I said...crazy!

 

Your daughter is adorable.  Looks like she had a lot of fun :)

I have seen the lines that long.  That is why we are doing FP+.  Thanks for the comment on my DD, she had a blast, always does.

Looks like it is now Wednesday Morning.  Originally my Conference was only supposed to be through Tuesday, but they changed it around a litte. That meant I now had to go back to the hotel to pick up things around lunch time.

We had reservations for Chef Mickey's in the morning.  We try to do it at least once.  This guarantees that she can see Mickey, Minnie, Gooy and Pluto and Donald.

Family Picture

Big Cheese himself - while he is out, who is cooking the food?

Goofy

Donald

Minnie

Pluto

There you go, the Fab 5 in one sitting, no lines, plus I got to eat breakfast.

We will stop here for the morning, more of the coming...