lklasing

Wednesday: Thankfully, I slept a little later than usual at home, and Ray slept a lot later than me, so we both woke up feeling refreshed despite our long travel and Epcot day yesterday. We debated whether to go on a run around the resort. The angels on our shoulders reminded us how much we like doing that to get our bearings in a resort and just be able to check everything out, while the devils said that we should go straight to eat breakfast instead. The angels won out, but not by much! We went for a short run which was lots of fun, especially when we stumbled upon the bridge to DTD,

Yay! I didn't lose y'all between trips! Dave! So glad you're back. It was really great getting to see you and the whole family last month. And it's good to know that we're not the only ones who aren't big TT fans any more. I can totally see that. Despite all my complaining about the spread out nature of POR, I really loved walking from POR to POFQ. How's that for inconsistent? SSR was where we bought our first contract and I haven't regretted it, especially since it was the contract we could afford at the time we were deciding to buy. The great thing is that you can u

Well, I have to say that I'm distressed. It does sound like they are tightening up on loopholes. And I just love a good loophole. That's true, of course. And the rope drop option is generally available to anyone. But it's the time of year thing that gets me. While I was lucky enough to go late January this year, I'm usually stuck with going to the world only on major holiday/summer/etc. times, at least if I'm taking my girls. But thankfully rope drop does still exist to help us poor souls get a leg up.

Glad this is turning into a real TR! Love the new wheels.

Glad to see this report continuing on, though I'm worried about a FP hack not working. I know that every time we tried a hack on our last trip just a week prior, it worked. Guess I'll have to wait and see.

I'm totally in. I saw what happened that led to the f-bombs and totally agree with your feelings. But, I have to say that I'm glad to see you back here and that you're doing a report, unconventional though it may be. Hope you and all those girls of yours are doing great. And, page one! :dance:

Tuesday, January 23: Like I think mentioned earlier in this report, Ray and I had initially planned to do this trip on our own and leave Jodi at home for most of the week. But we wound up deciding to bring her along after all, which I’m glad we did as we had such a great time. But the addition of Jodi plus her friend Susan meant that we would not fit into the studio at BLT that we originally booked (at least we wouldn’t comfortably fit), so I wound up rebooking fairly late in the game, resulting in us having to switch to SSR for a one-bedroom. We had stayed at SSR before and, while it’s n

It really was a wonderful trip. Getting to spend that time with Danielle before she went back to school was just wonderful. Dad and sons ski trips sound super too! Girls trips really are fun. I did miss Ray and Jodi, though. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long to get to go with them! That's coming up very shortly. Yup on the Sanaa bra! We just couldn't go and not do it. Thanks for reading and commenting!! I definitely will try to stay at POFQ. That was what I had initially booked rather than POR. But, Danielle looked around at the pictures and decided POR looked better

Sometimes there was a pretty big difference. Sometimes not. But it mainly just made me more comfortable choosing to get in a line with a higher level of confidence that we had a real idea of how long it would be.

I'm in! Page 1! And now that I've read what you've posted so far, I'll say that I also had a great experience with Kenny and his carts years ago, but don't think I would be willing to go offsite to pick it up now that they've changed all that. In fact, I know I wouldn't do that as we almost always fly and therefore don't have a cart. I hate renting from Disney as it's so expensive but I think that's what I'll have to do next time. Great report so far! Your family is adorable!

I somehow missed that it was a thing that Josh's info went down while we were there. I thought it was just me or my app that was wrong. I really hate that they cut that off - it was very helpful in early January but just dead later in the month. That's too funny that you got busted with Starbucks. Again.

A few final thoughts for Trip #1: Port Orleans Riverside – Loved it! I would stay there again in a heartbeat. Like I said earlier, the only downside I can say is the fact that it is so spread out. That made going to get breakfast in the mornings, refills on drinks, etc. a little burdensome and time consuming. But other than that, I had absolutely no complaints. The room was a good size and very quiet, we were close to a quiet pool, and I loved the décor of the room and the resort as a whole. Kidani – Loved it too! Having a Savannah view was awesome. And on DVC with a studio, I didn’

Megan was so much fun! And her smile really was great. You're right about the lack of references to runs - I did exactly zero runs this trip. :o We were all just having so much fun, and also pretty much all on the same schedule, so I never carved any time to break away from the girls for a run. Happily, I got to run several times on trip #2, but I was just a happy slug on trip #1! That's so funny that you took those pictures! I remember the segway discussion, which is why I got down low to take the wheel pictures. I think Danielle thought I had lost my mind at that point. I

Wheels under those dresses! Those women remind me of the women in this video. It popped up on my facebook page a few days ago. Skip to about 1:25 to see what I’m talking about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQkmqK5U5Uo&index=2&list=PLaOpQAE8kDPwSS9L-zJ-BTauELFEvb2VA I’m wondering whether DIT may have any insight into this. They are Russian Folk Dancers. Maybe the Godmother women in the parade are Russian? This is for Dave: I vow that this will be my next job. It’s not too late for me to do this, I think: The big finale: Bus ride sillines

Monday, January 5: What an awesome last day we had! It was our big MK day even though we had already had a couple of visits there earlier this trip. This was our day to try to do as much as we could while we were still lucky enough to be in the World. And that’s what we did! Of course, I got up early and zipped next door to the CS place at Jambo for breakfast, which we ate out on the balcony waiting on the various animals arrive. We learned that while we’re not sure where they go overnight, they definitely don’t stay on the Savannah all the time. They were parceled out slowly, coming

Thanks! The funniest part about the squirrel (at least to me, at least once it was over) was when, after the crowd had finally settled down from the falling squirrel incident and we were just waiting for the show to start, that same squirrel (or maybe a friend of his) ran right behind my feet! Like actually right behind my feet!!! I'm surprised I didn't feel his tail on my sandal'd foot as he went by! So, now that everything was quiet and calm, there he goes and what happens? I SCREAM! Like, really scream! Which of course had everyone all around me in hysterics as they knew immediately

Ok, now I'm totally bummed. On the day you and Aaron met for coffee, I was up early too, and was at the MK for rope drop for the sole purpose of implementing (for the second time this trip) a stellar FP hack. I totally could have met up with y'all! Now I know better - that I've got to check out who is in the world for all future trips! Fiend meet ups are the best and I hate to miss out on any! :) By the way, I saw that amazing sunrise too!

This thread just caught my eye and I thought I'd chime in too. As much as we really love Sanaa, I think for your group I'd agree with the others and say Boma. A buffet seems easier for everyone to find a few things that suit them and with the big group with a wide variety of ages, that seems like a good idea. But make sure to do like TCD said and try to check out some of the resort activities while you're there. AKL is just gorgeous! Watching the savannah is fun too, especially if you can get some of those night vision goggles. The kids will love it but the adults will too!

Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to read the blog and see all the pictures! The one you posted from the airport was precious.

A post for all Danielle’s and Megan’s friends out west: After all that, we drug ourselves from the park and hopped the bus for our new home for the tail end of this trip – Kidani Village at the AKL. :) It was already dark when we arrived so we couldn’t see much of the savannah that night, but we sure liked the room. The building as a whole is beautiful and our room was awesome. Be aware in case you ever stay there that the shower head was no mild-mannered shower head. It dang near took your skin right off, which felt amazing at the end of a big fun day. Even the tile

Sunday morning I woke up before my alarm, which surprised me given how hard we had been going and how much we needed sleep. But, it was a good thing in that it gave me time to go to the front desk, check out the procedure for changing resorts and transferring bags, etc., check my POR bill and, of course, get some breakfast! With another pile of Mickey waffles (the BIG ones again!), I returned to the room. Megan was up and getting ready but Danielle needed some prompting to get moving. Thankfully the waffles helped the cause. We finished packing up everything and then lugged it to the fro

Neat that they have a Basin at the GF too! I'm sure it's the same place. It's definitely a dangerous place for our family to be - too many fun things to buy! It really was! My girls never really went through the sullen time at least when getting pictures taken, but I've definitely traveled to WDW with teenage boys who did, so I feel your pain! Thanks, Ray! It was a big fun day. We were absolutely dead at the end! Thanks! The weather was absolutely perfect that trip and we took full advantage of it. Yes about the Chacos! Danielle loves them. I've worn my Tevas fo

Next we were off to Primeval Whirl, which appeared to have little to no line, so we rode standby first and then again with FPs. When we were done with that, it wasn’t time yet for our next FP (back to EE again), so we rode EE standby, which was right at the predicted 30 minutes, followed by our last EE with FP. If you’re counting, that was 4 trips on EE this morning! EE is in my top 3 attractions, but even I was fine with being done with EE by then. Stolen from someone’s snapchat – I figured that the only way for me to make it into very many pictures was to start photobombing them:

Saturday morning – This morning, we skipped breakfast at POR as we had ADRs at Tusker House for 8:35. I had planned for us to just go straight to breakfast but we got moving in enough time that we decided a ride on EE might be possible beforehand, so off we went. We got to AK right at 8:00 which was opening time that day, so we went straight to EE and managed to get 2 back-to-back rides in on standby before breakfast. There was no wait at all – just the amount of time it took us to walk back to get on. Note to self – EE is a lot more pleasant when I haven’t just eaten lunch and beignets ri

I know. Especially given the awesome risotto I had. I really thought about taking Ray back there on Trip #2 but we ran out of time. But we'll definitely go again. Yup - my bad. I do a little better on Trip #2, though. I think it was the suitcase that was the tipping point for me. It seemed forever to get to the front with it. Interesting that it's the same .31 miles from 2700/2800 to the Outpost. And you're right, when we were in a cabin in 2700 a few years ago, we walked to the Outpost exactly zero times. Ha! That shirt is so old and was so cheap to begin with (Old