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Wow! Thanks for the quick and detailed answers. So now you know I will be posting more as I think of them! I will call to be certain our reservations are linked for dinner. Because we are not the most social people in the world (I'm pretty shy and I'm the most outgoing one in the family) it might be nice not to have dinner companions. There is a famous quote from my husband when we were going to eat at the German buffet at Epcot. When the waitress said it was family style, he said "I'm not paying that much money to eat with other people" and we left. I haven't actually explained that aspect of

A quick scouring of other websites hasn't given me the answers to these questions (except #4 and the opinions are all over the place). And I have a bunch of questions. We're going on a 3-day cruise at the end of November. First time ever cruising. 1. It says you dine with your stateroom members. We are getting two staterooms because it's less expensive and we will have 2 bathrooms. I made the reservation for one stateroom and then "add a stateroom" for the other. Will we be automatically be seated at the same table or do I have to request? 2. I booked the staterooms as 1 adult/2 kids and 1

What a fantastic TR. Looks like you did a lot. You should send it all to Disney for a commercial. Your children are adorable and I love the way they will pose as you tell them and wear various head gear. You have them well trained. Or maybe they are just really great kids. Or both. I am always fearful of the stomach virus on vacation. I'm glad yours turned out ok and that the rest of you didn't get it.

All 3 of my boys are in scouts although only the older one has an Eno. The other two will probably get them for Christmas. The Older one is determined to get Eagle and is going to Philmont next summer. I think at least one of the twins will also continue through to Eagle. We are lucky to be in a troop that has produced a lot of Eagle scouts..

We are going on the Dream at the end of Nov. (can't believe I can actually type that as I didn't think it would work out). I'll be reading your TR carefully. Although yesterday I was reading about what happened to the Fantasy during Sandy and I informed my family that if there was a hurricane in the area we were going to cancel. Told them to file that away in the back of their minds so they would be prepared. I'm already nervous about cruising since I've never been before.

As a mother of 3 boys, I love seeing pictures of your 5 girls having fun together. Looks like they had a blast.

Looks like a fun trip and beautiful scenery. We were at Dollywood the weekend before. Did you know you can bypass the PF strip with the road that goes by Dollywood? Takes you almost to Sevierville. We've been through GSMNP several times on our way to and from Dollywood but need to stop and enjoy the park more. Last weekend was the first time we'd driven through Gatlinburg in several years and I was surprised at how many new buildings there were.

Love the fall foliage photos. Looks like a nice campground. My son and many of the boys in his scout troop have Enos. They like to stack them too. He sleeps in his all night and says its comfortable. About 24 years ago my husband drove a U-Haul over Monteagle while I followed in the car. It is quite a mountain.

I'm quiet but I like to write. My niece writes a travel blog and I think that would be fun to do some day. I'll work on a scheme for "accidentally" running into Fiends on the next trip, whenever that turns out to be.

Thanks for reading. I found it's a lot more work to write a TR than I thought. Although I wrote most of it a while ago and it was just downloading and then linking the pictures that took a while. I now have a new camera since the battery compartment cover of the one I took on this trip broke at the beginning of this trip and I had to hold it together with duct tape, and then even the duct tape wasn't holding by the end so I had to hold it closed while shooting.

Saturday I decided I was going to explore the Fort before we left. Once again we hadn’t really seen much of the Fort because we’d been too busy at the parks. It’s hard to visit only every 12-18 months. We really need to live where I can say “and an hour later we were at the Fort.” I had a nice time walking around with my mug as my companion. Camera fog mug shot: Then I decided I’d go looping. I’m always reading in TRs about people looping. It sounded like so much fun. “And then we went looping.” However, I had no golf cart. Not even a bicycle or scooter. So I had to loop by foot

Friday Friday morning we headed for Typhoon Lagoon at the 9 am opening. We’d been to TL 2 times and Blizzard Beach once so for fairness we should have gone to BB again. But I like Crush and Gusher and the raft rides at TL. I don’t like slides or anything where I use my body to go on the ride. And my husband likes the shark tank at TL. We stayed until about 2. We mostly all wandered around on our own, although Twin N was willing to go on Crush and Gusher with me. I tried the shark tank for the first time and once I got over the initial panic at putting my face in the water and breathing th

Thursday Thursday was parks day. We got to the opening show at Magic Kingdom. First Space Mountain, then Buzz Lightyear and a visit with Stitch (TwinD’s favorite character). Stitch had a Buzz Lightyear doll that he wanted to hold and the CM said she’d hold it for him. Tomorrowland Speedway and then Barnstormer. I took a bunch of pictures of the newFantasyland construction site, but they’re out of date now so I’ll just post a few of what was open. Then Haunted Mansion. Picked up a FP for Big Thunder Mountain and rode Pirates of the Caribbean. Then picked up a FP for Jungle C

When I read other TRs I feel like I need to finish mine first, so let me get this thing going again. Wednesday (August 8th that is) A little more exploring and another swim at AofA before we checked out. When I first told my kids we were going to WDW their first question was “Can we go to Disney Quest?” When I told my husband we were going to WDW his first statement was “I don’t mind going to a water park, but I don’t want to go back to Disney Quest.” This is my life sometimes. The result, as it frequently is, is that we would go to Disney Quest for a while on Wednesday. We had non-expiratio

It is at first. But it's so much fun to walk around. You're going to love it!

Does anyone know what this plant is? I like the way it looks. And more photos from around the resort. I love these stickers. And a picture I just found of the table that with the folded Murphy bed over it. So we wandered around for a while and then had dinner at Landscape of Flavors (food court). I had the Tandoori Acorn Squash with Naan bread and choice of two sides. It looked like it would taste better than it did. The squash was small and it tasted like it sat out for a while. I was considering the pickled vegetables and the CM let me try a piece of squash. It was pretty

I really was impressed with AofA. I kept imagining being a 4 or 5 year old kid who loves Cars. How amazing it would be to see your friends life size. Although some parts of the Lion King section might be a little scary for that age group. You might not want to see some of those “friends” life size. I know a number of people have already posted pictures of AofA but I’m posting mine anyway. Some are from that evening (stormy) and some from the next day (sunny). The Lion King section wasn't open when we were there but it was opening a few days later. Come and play children,

Tuesday Packed up and loaded our bags in the car and got to Universal Studios gate a little before 9. For some reason I thought the early hours were 7-8 and we were in regular hours. Turned out 8-9 was for hotel guests so Older Son ran to Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, the only ride in that park that doesn’t have Express Pass. Using the single rider line he rode twice in about 20 minutes. That’s one ride I can’t even look at. I’m sure those cars are going to fall off the track. We moved on to The Simpsons Another round on Men in Black. View from near Men In Black. This is where they've taken o

Let me try to finish Monday. We were on our way to Universal Studios by bus. But first a couple of pictures I forgot to post from our morning. Lots of comic book characters walking around Universal. I don’t know much about Marvel characters. My childhood comic book reading leaned more toward Richie Rich and Archie and Jughead. They were pretty normal compared to some of these characters. But apparently a lot of people like them. Ok, now we’re back to our late afternoon at Universal Studios. Our first stop was the new Despicable Me attraction. Some views of the waiting area. I don’t reme

Thanks. Maybe more tomorrow. No, I wanted to last year but that has to be the slowest loading ride in the world. We waited and waited and hardly moved so we gave up. This year we didn't even try, and my kids may be too big now. Even though I'm not!.

Finally, a brief break in my overscheduled life and I want to get back to this trip report before it’s next year. Welcome to our Orlando theme park adventure of early August 2012. Myself, my husband W, Older Son (13), and twin sons (11) -- here named Twin N and Twin D . We arrived in Orlando Sunday evening. First stop was dinner at the Golden Corral near Universal Studios. At home my kids often ask to go to Golden Corral. Usually i say “no.” But I caved this time. Purple cotton candy and a chocolate fountain that diners can, and do, put everything in. I’ll say no more (and, sorry, no pictur

We rode the Auto Train to my childhood visits to WDW in 1974 and 1977 and I still remember how much fun it was. We carried all our camping equipment in our station wagon. I wish there were more Auto Trains around the country. Looking forward to more of your TR.

I've never been to the F&W Festival. After looking at these pictures I realize I now have yet another goal in life. Although I will probably be broke and unable to move by the time I leave. It's interesting seeing all the choices and prices.

Our town bakery when I was growing up in NJ sold Napoleons. They were my favorite. I had one at the French bakery in Epcot last year. Now I'm getting hungry.

Love this photo, of course! Also this one. I collect lighthouses (small replicas, not the real things unfortunately).