15 years, 3 kids, Radiator Springs and a Wizarding World

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Our story starts way back in late 2009.  (Bare with me I am a bit wordy here)

 

I had always wanted to go to Disney and finally we were in a place where we could save for a trip.  I found that other website and started reading.  I scrolled down and found the camping at Fort Wilderness board, stumbled onto one of TCD's trip reports and fell in love with the Fort. 

 

In 2011 we pulled our popup from Oklahoma to Florida and stayed 11 wonderful nights at Fort Wilderness.  My kids were 9 and 6 and it was perfect.    We knew when we left that we'd come back.  

 

Then later that year I got pregnant with my youngest and any plans to come back got put on hold.  

 

In 2014 I decided it was time to start thinking about getting back to Disney.  I knew I wanted to get back before our middle child turned 10 and our youngest turned 3 so May/June 2015 seemed like the best time.  

 

Problem was our popup is now getting to the point where it's too small for us.  It's fine for weekend trips but we would have had a less than magical time cramming all of us into it for 11 nights again.

 

So that led me to the Art of Animation.  The suites are the perfect size.  We decided on 8 nights there.  We are also big Harry Potter fans and knew we wanted to go to Universal for that.  We decided to stay onsite at Universal for 3 nights.  

 

Every single year my kids have gotten out of school before Memorial day.  Except this year.  I had planned on us leaving the Friday before Memorial day and getting there on Sunday.  Since school didn't get out until May 27th that didn't happen. 

 

So on Wednesday, May 27th at 4pm we set off.  I should mention that May 27th is also the date of our anniversary.  My husband and I spent our 15th anniversary packing the car and driving to Memphis.

 

 

The next day we drove from Memphis to Valdosta, Georgia.  

 

On Friday, we just had a 3 hour drive left and pulled into Art of Animation about 12:30.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got a text saying our Cars room wasn't ready so we decided to get some lunch.  At this point my 2 year old was about to have an epic meltdown.  1) He was starving. 2) He has Sensory Processing Disorder and he was having too much sensory overload.

 

I completely forgot that Disney is great with allergies.  I was just in what in the world can this kid eat mode and the restaurant was so crowded.  While I waited in line to get him french fries my husband tried to distract him but Chase (my 2 year old) was having none of that.  We finally got some fries into him and that helped but he was DONE.  I went to ask about a room and the only one they had available was in the last building on the top floor.  I took it.    The walk wasn't too much more than the closer building so it ended up being okay.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After a while Chase calmed down and we were off to Downtown Disney.  Because of fiends I made reservations at Raglan Road.  This was our official anniversary dinner. :)

 

We took pictures on our way out of the resort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We finally made our way to Downtown Disney.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally got to Raglan Road

 

 

 

I didn't take any pictures of food.  My 2 year old had actually fallen asleep by then and I was holding him. We had burgers and fries.  It was very good.  We also got the bread pudding.  I know we got a picture of that but I am not sure where it is.  We took pictures using our camera and 4 phone cameras.  We have pictures all over the place!  My oldest loved the bread pudding and my daughter hated it.  Oh well, can't please them all.

 

 

Sometime towards the end of dinner Chase woke up.  We went around the corner to Erin McKenna's bakery.  It's a vegan bakery and Chase could have anything in there!  He had a donut for the very first time ever.  I almost cried when we walked into there.  

 

 

 

I think after that we went back to AoA and swam for a bit.  But it was chilly and we didn't stay in the pool long.

 

 

 

In the middle of the night my parents flew into Orlando.  They stayed at Shades of Green and came with us on 3 of our park days.   :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

In and FIRST!!! :)

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Okay..... now I've had a chance to read it, so I'll just take up more room on page one by saying:

 

-super cute pictures!

-the suite looks great... not the Fort but hey, not too darn shabby!  The decorations are adorable!  It's a super cute resort :)

-we like their food court... our fall trip this year has us eating there at least once, if not twice :)  I LOVE the garlic bread at one of the stations :)

-I'm not a huge Universal fan, but we did spend one day there about 5 years ago and thought the Harry Potter stuff was well done.  Now... disclaimer as we don't actually know that much about HP (we've only seen a couple of the movies), but still we thought it looked pretty neat.  Oh... I did that HP ride there and was surprised at how scary it was (scary graphics); guess they edit out a good bit on the tv movies.  I did like the Curious George water area and the dog/animal show at Universal.  For us, that made the price of admissions worth it :)

 

Excited to read how your trip went!! :)

[momof3kids-Yvonne 594]

I am in.

Love your exploring the resort pictures.

[Travisma 1,317]

Great start!

 

PS, I've been to Moore OK a couple of times, and Norman quite a lot.

[ependydad...Doug 176]

I'm in. Your kids are adorable! I can't wait to see the Universal/HP pics. We're supposed to go there in the next 3 weeks for a day. :)

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Day 2

 

We decided to go to Animal Kingdom first.  My parents only had 4 days passes and knew that AK is not a full day park.  I also knew they needed to rest after arriving at 1am.  

 

So a little background:  Oklahoma has gotten more rain in May than ever before.  We were tired of rain.  As soon as we got to AK it started pouring.  Go figure.

 

We made the most of it and had a good time.  We all decided that next time we probably don't really need to go back to Animal Kingdom.  It was fun and we like Expedition Everest but not enough to go back.

 

We started off by finding a meet and greet for the Up characters.  We had just watched Up for the 2nd time ever right before we left so that was fun.

 

My son's eyes were closed but that's the only picture that the photographer took. Let me stop here for a second and say that I was not happy with most of the photographers this time.  We have a lot of pictures with eyes closed, off centered or just plain bad.  Plus, many of the photographers were grumpy. Not very magical.

 

 

We went on the safari ride next.  I have pictures but they didn't turn out very well.  

 

Chase loves The Jungle Book so we hunted down Baloo and King Louie.  Chase loved the characters from afar but kind of freaked out when we got close. But King Louie and Baloo made him smile.  That was huge.  Chase has severe sensory issues.  He doesn't like people around him. He's not social at all.  He just wants to be left alone so seeing him smile at a character was fantastic.

 

 

 

 

We went on Expedition Everest next.  Bryce and Natalie (my big kids) loved child swap.   :)

 

 

 

 

 

Bryce cracks me up on big rides.  He always leans forward.

 

 

 

After that we dodged a lot of rain, went on the river rapid ride, saw some animals and went to the Dinosaur area.  We didn't ride Dinosaur because the wait was too long. Chase loved the dinosaur play area.  He didn't want to leave and that was a fun little crying fit.  He fell asleep in his stroller right after and we left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chase stayed asleep the entire bus ride back to AoA, getting into our car and driving over to Shades of Green.  

 

Shades of Green is a very nice resort.  It's for military, retired military and some disabled vets.  My husband is disabled but not enough so we can't stay there.  Well, I think they open it up to all vets in January or September but we can't visit then.

 

 

Don't tell anyone but we went swimming there.  They have nice pool with a waterslide and a little kid area that Chase loved. 

 

 

 

 

 

We stayed there until dark and then went back to AoA and straight to bed.  We were going to try to make Magic Kingdom for rope drop.  

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

In and FIRST!!! :)

 Thank you for reading!

 

Okay..... now I've had a chance to read it, so I'll just take up more room on page one by saying:

 

-super cute pictures!

-the suite looks great... not the Fort but hey, not too darn shabby!  The decorations are adorable!  It's a super cute resort :)

-we like their food court... our fall trip this year has us eating there at least once, if not twice :)  I LOVE the garlic bread at one of the stations :)

-I'm not a huge Universal fan, but we did spend one day there about 5 years ago and thought the Harry Potter stuff was well done.  Now... disclaimer as we don't actually know that much about HP (we've only seen a couple of the movies), but still we thought it looked pretty neat.  Oh... I did that HP ride there and was surprised at how scary it was (scary graphics); guess they edit out a good bit on the tv movies.  I did like the Curious George water area and the dog/animal show at Universal.  For us, that made the price of admissions worth it :)

 

Excited to read how your trip went!! :)

Thank you again.  We only ended up eating at the food court that one time. Bryce had a create your own pasta.  He said it was fantastic.  I just ended up getting a kid's pizza because I didn't want to eat too much before Raglan Road.    

 

We loved parts of Universal but not all. I will tell you more when we get there.  

 

I am in.

Love your exploring the resort pictures.

 

Thank you :)

Great start!

 

PS, I've been to Moore OK a couple of times, and Norman quite a lot.

Thanks!   Moore and Norman are so close together now that pretty soon it will be hard to know when one ends and the other begins.  

 

I'm in. Your kids are adorable! I can't wait to see the Universal/HP pics. We're supposed to go there in the next 3 weeks for a day. :)

 I will try to get to Universal as quick as possible :)

[Travisma 1,317]

It's funny, you spend a gazillion $$ to take the kids to a fancy theme park, and they always gravitate to the play area/playgrounds and pitch a fit when it's time to leave.

 

My granddaughters do the same thing at LEGOLAND in the area where you can build stuff.  It's not like we don't have 10,000 Legos floating around the house!  They both liked the Dino Dig area also, and the Fort playgrounds are way up on their to do lists when we stay.

 

We stayed at Shades a few years ago.  My daughter and son in law were both Marines and we took my granddaughter (age 3) and stayed there.  She had a military dependent ID so that allowed "her" to bring us.

 

That was one of the nicest resorts we've ever stayed at, beautiful grounds, great amenities and large rooms. 

 

A bonus, well behaved military kids!  Not the typical ones you encounter in the other resorts and parks.

[ajcjmom 8]

Great report!

 

Can't wait to read more.

[DramaMama .......... Janet 75]

I'm in!  Great pics of the kids.  We stayed in a Cars suite at AoA a few years ago.  We loved it.  

WDW can be overwhelming to any kid; it must be insane to anyone with processing issues. However, you as a family, read his cues and know his triggers, so I am sure you helped him have an amazing time.  Can't wait to read more!

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

You're off to a great start.

 

Your photos of the Cars suite are better than the ones on Disney's website.  I almost pulled the trigger on one of those recently, but the on-line photos made it look cheap and tacky.  Your photos are much better.

 

I'm glad that your family finally made it back to WDW, and I hope that you had a great trip.  I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

TCD

[dvccamper 32]

Great report! The pictures of your Cars room are really cute. Your little boy must have loved it!

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

Loving the great pictures!  Looking forward to more.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

It's funny, you spend a gazillion $$ to take the kids to a fancy theme park, and they always gravitate to the play area/playgrounds and pitch a fit when it's time to leave.

 

My granddaughters do the same thing at LEGOLAND in the area where you can build stuff.  It's not like we don't have 10,000 Legos floating around the house!  They both liked the Dino Dig area also, and the Fort playgrounds are way up on their to do lists when we stay.

 

We stayed at Shades a few years ago.  My daughter and son in law were both Marines and we took my granddaughter (age 3) and stayed there.  She had a military dependent ID so that allowed "her" to bring us.

 

That was one of the nicest resorts we've ever stayed at, beautiful grounds, great amenities and large rooms. 

 

A bonus, well behaved military kids!  Not the typical ones you encounter in the other resorts and parks.

Yep, I hear you on spending lots of money just to play.  I think Chase's favorites were the pool and just playing Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.  Oh well!  

 

I would have loved to stay at Shades of Green. It was so peaceful.  :)

 

Great report!

 

Can't wait to read more.

 

Thank you!

I'm in!  Great pics of the kids.  We stayed in a Cars suite at AoA a few years ago.  We loved it.  

WDW can be overwhelming to any kid; it must be insane to anyone with processing issues. However, you as a family, read his cues and know his triggers, so I am sure you helped him have an amazing time.  Can't wait to read more!

 

Thank you!  And yes, I know his cues.  When we were at the parks and he'd get overwhelmed he'd pull his sun shade down.  That was our cue to put his blanket up and turn on his Ipad.  He would take an hour break by watching a movie and sometimes he'd fall asleep.   All I can say is thank goodness we live in the times of the Ipad.  It's my lifesaver sometimes. 

 

You're off to a great start.

 

Your photos of the Cars suite are better than the ones on Disney's website.  I almost pulled the trigger on one of those recently, but the on-line photos made it look cheap and tacky.  Your photos are much better.

 

I'm glad that your family finally made it back to WDW, and I hope that you had a great trip.  I'm looking forward to hearing all about it.

 

TCD

 

Thanks!  The rooms are nicely done.  I am really glad we chose to stay in the Cars section vs the other ones.  While they did a great job with all the themes I think they did the best with Cars.  I didn't feel like the room was over the top cheesy.  It was just right.  :)

 

Great report! The pictures of your Cars room are really cute. Your little boy must have loved it!

 

Thanks.  Actually, all 3 of my kids including the moody 13 year old loved it.  I almost think he liked it more than the younger one.

 

Loving the great pictures!  Looking forward to more.

 

Thank you 

 

 

I am going to work on our Magic Kingdom day now.  I may not be able to post until later-depends on how quickly I work.  My youngest starts occupational therapy today and we have to leave soon.  

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Day 3

                Sunday, May 31st

 

Our goal for that day was to get to the Magic Kingdom as early as possible.  It was closing early at 6pm tonight since it was rented out for private use.  I knew that when I picked Magic Kingdom for that day. 

 

Well, we didn’t make rope drop but we were pretty close!   This picture says it was taken at 9:07.

Eyes closed

 

 

Just a few minutes later we found my parents and got this picture

 

 

We made our way down the street to Fantasyland.

Merida had a little line so my mom, daughter and I hopped into it.  I am pretty sure that’s the only character my mom met.  She thought it was weird.

 

 

 

 

 

We spent a lot of time in Fantasyland.  I can’t remember the order we did things but I know we went on

It’s a Small World

Peter Pan

Winnie the Pooh

The carousel

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At some point my daughter and I got in line to see Cinderella and Rapunzel.  The rest of my family looked in the shops.  My dad bought Chase a crown and sword.  Chase loved that crown and wore it quite a bit.  My dad said he had to buy it because he never saw Chase so happy.  Chase doesn’t smile much so it really is a big deal when he smiles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s with Rapunzel’s smile?  She looks scared. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw lots of ducks.  Chase loved them. 

 

 

 

At some point we took this picture.  I think it’s right before we went to find lunch.

 

 

We went to Cosmic Rays for lunch.  They were fantastic with Chase’s allergies.  He’s a bit of a picky eater so he only had a hot dog and fries but he had a bun with his hot dog!  He hasn’t had bread in I don’t know how long.  

I think after that we had fast passes for Space Mountain.  Pretty sure that scared the heck out of my mom and dad.  Lol  

I just realized that our pictures from Space Mountain didn’t make it onto our photopass.  We emailed photopass last night because they missed the magic on a picture so I guess I’ll be emailing them again.

We saw the Incredible Party

 

 

At this point I am getting a little fuzzy about when we did things. I could go look at time stamps but we took 2800 pictures (not going to post them all) so it’s a lot to go through.

I know we went on Little Mermaid ride and rode Dumbo

 

 

 

We found a spot for the parade and Chase fell asleep.

 

 

 Oh and my son acquired this hat:

 

 

 

 

Then we got Mickey Bars.  Sadly, these are the only Mickey Bars we had on this trip.  I didn’t even get a Dole Whip. 

 

 

And I am going to stop there.  I have to leave for my son’s OT now. I want to go early because Tropical Storm Bill just rolled through and I am not sure if we have flooded streets.  We have had so much rain that everything is flooding easily. 

 

[Travisma 1,317]

We saw lots of ducks.  Chase loved them. 

 

What was with all of the ducks?

 

They were everywhere at the MK, HS and AK the weekends we went.

 

And they weren't just waddling around, they were flying down the walkways dodging the people.

 

I think there were more ducks than sea gulls.

 

I remember years ago we saw a rabbit sitting in the English Garden at EPCOT, and that was a big deal!

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

At first I was going to say why couldn't you go to Shades of Green as guests of your parents, but then I realized, the length of stay probably has to be the same, right?

[twiceblessed....nacole 433]

Hey... one Mickey Bar is better than none :)   Those things are sooo addictive!

 

Super cute pictures; really like the one of your husband and daughter on Dumbo.. and then the one of your son shaking hands with Goofy.   Very cute :)

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

 

 

What was with all of the ducks?

 

They were everywhere at the MK, HS and AK the weekends we went.

 

And they weren't just waddling around, they were flying down the walkways dodging the people.

 

I think there were more ducks than sea gulls.

 

I remember years ago we saw a rabbit sitting in the English Garden at EPCOT, and that was a big deal!

 

They were everywhere!  Chase is mostly nonverbal but he can say the word duck so it was nice to hear him talk so often. 

At first I was going to say why couldn't you go to Shades of Green as guests of your parents, but then I realized, the length of stay probably has to be the same, right?

We might have been able to stay there but I had already paid off our trip by the time my parents decided to go.  It worked out us being in two different resorts.  We were able to see each other but not so much that we got tired of each other.

 

Hey... one Mickey Bar is better than none :)   Those things are sooo addictive!

 

Super cute pictures; really like the one of your husband and daughter on Dumbo.. and then the one of your son shaking hands with Goofy.   Very cute :)

Yes, one is better than none.    My husband is the king of selfies. We joke that he needs a selfie stick and I almost bought him one for his birthday but he said no way.  The only proper way to take a selfie is to stick your arm out not a stick.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

What a great day y'all had at the MK!

 

It's nice that your little one found something that he liked, and that your dad bought it for him.  Very cute.

 

It looks like you daughter got to meet many princesses.  That's good.

 

I also liked seeing your older son in the Goofy hat.  It looks like he's at the age where it's important to be cool, but he still wanted a Goofy hat.  That's awesome.

 

TCD

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

We had just gotten Mickey bars and I think our fastpass time for Big Thunder Mountain was about to start so we headed that way.

 

My dad and son

 

 

 

 

 

My husband likes to take silly pictures of me and occasionally I act silly on purpose just for him.  He turned around to take a picture of me and when he did I made a scream face. 

 

 

After that my dad and son went on Splash mountain while the rest of us went in search of a snack and drink. 

 

 

We found this:

 

 

It was amazing!  

 

We took some pictures with the photopass person

 

 

 

Then we heard something going on at the castle and it sounded like Mickey Mouse.  About that time Chase had woken up so he wheeled him over and they saw the little show up there.

 

 

It was all good until this

 

Chase Hates fireworks.  But he survived. 

 

We only have a few pictures left from Magic Kingdom but it's time for my daughter's piano lessons so I will have to post them later.  

 

 

 

 

 

[DramaMama .......... Janet 75]

That is a great pic of Chase watching the show.  Pictures like that of our kids make me just want to know what is going on in their little minds!

[red...Susan 37]

I must be the only person who dislikes Shade of Green. I would rather stay anywhere else. Even off property.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

What a great day y'all had at the MK!

 

It's nice that your little one found something that he liked, and that your dad bought it for him.  Very cute.

 

It looks like you daughter got to meet many princesses.  That's good.

 

I also liked seeing your older son in the Goofy hat.  It looks like he's at the age where it's important to be cool, but he still wanted a Goofy hat.  That's awesome.

 

TCD

 

Yes, you nailed Bryce on the head.  He's trying to be grown up and cool but at the same time he can still be a little kid.  It was nice seeing him let loose and have fun.   

 

That is a great pic of Chase watching the show.  Pictures like that of our kids make me just want to know what is going on in their little minds!

 

I wonder all the time what he's thinking.  He doesn't talk much but he watches everything closely like he wants to know how it works.  

 

I must be the only person who dislikes Shade of Green. I would rather stay anywhere else. Even off property.

 

What bothers you about it?    The one thing I didn't like was how far my parents' room was from everything else.  It seemed like we walked a good 10 minutes just to go to the pool.