11 Days of Fun for Disney First Timers

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Isn't it great to watch your kids dreams come true? I'm loving this trip report :banana:

Thank you!

All of you are too kind with your words. I have never enjoyed writing, but I decided to do this trip report to keep me from forgetting our trip. It's actually been nice to write it out. :)

Next up is our Hollywood Studios day.

[Just Whipperwhirl 24]

Great update! I didnt even know there was a trail you could walk to the MK - When did they finish that? How long did it take you?

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Great update! I didnt even know there was a trail you could walk to the MK - When did they finish that? How long did it take you?

It didn't take too long--maybe 10 minutes. It was definitely faster than waiting on the monorail. :)

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Thank you!

All of you are too kind with your words. I have never enjoyed writing, but I decided to do this trip report to keep me from forgetting our trip. It's actually been nice to write it out. :)

Next up is our Hollywood Studios day.

You are doing a good job with your writing, and you have discovered a secret. These trip reports are great for the author to go back and review. There are some that I wrote years ago that I go back and visit occasionally. It's fun to re-live those memories, and to see how your kids have changed. So, take your time and do a good job with your writing, you will be thankful that you did later!

Great update! I didnt even know there was a trail you could walk to the MK - When did they finish that? How long did it take you?

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that path has been there since 1971.

I know that I walked it often pushing my girls in a stroller. Back in their younger days, we had a family tradition of going to the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and staying the night in the Contemporary. We chose that resort specifically because we could walk back at the end of the night, and not worry about transportation.

TCD

[Just Whipperwhirl 24]

Is it the same trail where they have the bricks that have names on them and such? I didnt think that went all the way to the contemporary. It took my husband and I about 2 hours to find our brick.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Thanks TCD for the vote of confidence. I love reading about all things you do with your girls. They are pretty lucky to have you. Nate, my husband, loves to spend time with our kids and I am so thankful for that. Many of my friends have husbands that don't enjoy being with their family and that's really sad. They are missing out on so much but their children also lose out.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Is it the same trail where they have the bricks that have names on them and such? I didnt think that went all the way to the contemporary. It took my husband and I about 2 hours to find our brick.

Yes, it is. We were wondering how you get a brick.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Is it the same trail where they have the bricks that have names on them and such? I didnt think that went all the way to the contemporary. It took my husband and I about 2 hours to find our brick.

Yes, that's the path. The engraved bricks don't go all the way to the Contemporary, but the sidewalk does. This path is crucial to ensuring that you make rope drop, should you ever have the need to make rope drop.

Thanks TCD for the vote of confidence. I love reading about all things you do with your girls. They are pretty lucky to have you. Nate, my husband, loves to spend time with our kids and I am so thankful for that. Many of my friends have husbands that don't enjoy being with their family and that's really sad. They are missing out on so much but their children also lose out.

Tell Nate to enjoy every moment!

It goes fast!

It was hard when our oldest went off to college two year ago, although at least she's only a few hours away.

And you are right, it's a lose/lose situation for dads who ignore their kids.

Yes, it is. We were wondering how you get a brick.

I'd like to have one too. They stopped selling them quite a while back. Like before 1999. We got ourselves on the tombstones at Epcot for the Millennium, but I would have preferred a brick at the MK.

TCD

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Hollywood Studios was only suppose to be a 4.9 out of 10 on Friday, July 1st according to Touring Plans. It was also the only day that wouldn't be showing Fantasmic. My husband and I had talked about it before we left and decided we'd rather go on a low crowd day then watch Fantasmic. Plus, it would just give us something to look forward to the next time we came.

For people that normally sleep in late we sure were able to get up and moving on vacation. We made it to Hollywood Studios about 5 minutes before the park opened.

I ran to get Toy Story Mania fastpasses while my husband took the kids to see some characters.

Donald didn't like my son's mouse ears so he pushed them down off his head. :)

Then we went over and rode Star Tours. That was awesome! And the one thing I didn't know was that the story changed. We could have went on it again and saw a whole new Star Tours. We didn't learn about that until the park was closing. Darn!

My son bought himself a double sided light saber. It's a good thing he had a gift card so that I didn't think about how much it cost.

After that my dh went to ride on Rockin Roller Coaster. He went in the stand by line which ended up taking FOREVER. He left his phone in the stroller so the kids and I just had to wait and wait for him.

He finally got off and we high tailed it over to Phineas and Ferb. Thankfully, the line wasn't too long and we quickly saw them.

After that we continued to enjoy a nice day at the park. We rode TSM which was a lot of fun but no way would I wait an hour or more to ride it. Crazy people!

It rained again but we ducked into a meet and greet with Buzz and Woody.

The Incredibles were fun. We asked Mr. Incredible if he had been working out. He made some muscle moves, but Mrs. Incredible turned him around so that we could see his back fat. lol

lunch at Pizza Planet

By late afternoon I was exhausted. While watching Lights Motors Action I dozed off even through the loud noises. I think I needed a tiny nap to be able to keep going the rest of the evening.

The last thing we did was ride Tower of Terror. My dh had gotten fastpasses earlier in the day but he was the only one that was wanting to ride it. By the time we had gotten over to it Natalie decided she was going to try it.

Bryce wanted nothing to do with it and we were tired so sat on the curb and waited. Natalie Loved it! In fact, she wanted to do it again, but with me. I worked up the courage and we got on it.

That time the elevator dropped a lot. So much so that I thought she was going to throw up. Yeah, she didn't care for the ride after that. She was done and it was 7pm.

Here she is with 2 fingers up showing she rode it twice.

We went back to the fort, swam and went to bed early. Thank goodness Saturday was a rest day. We needed it.

We got a lot done at Hollywood Studios but we still missed so much stuff. We didn't get to see Little Mermaid, Muppets 3d, Backlot Tour and more. I really wish we could have had another half day there but we were just so tired that on our non park days we didn't go back.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Great update :banana:

[kampfirekim 260]

This report makes me smile :)

[PureTcrazy...rita 380]

I am really enjoying your TR. I think TCD is right about enjoying this trip report in the future, I wish I had done some tr's when my son was younger and before I lost my Daddy. I'm glad I am getting all these trips with my Mama recorded to have in the future!

Your kids are adorable and I'm so glad they had such a good time. I would not want to ride ToT once, much less twice!

[datgrt@fw .... Doug 1]

I would love to travel more than we do, but my husband has a shoulder injury from when he was in the marines and that limits us.

My dh was stationed in North Carolina so we made the trip to Oklahoma and back several times.

Hello okgirlie ......... I really have enjoyed reading your trip report!

Marines ..... Stationed in North Carolina, would that be at Camp Lejeune? We live about 25 miles south of Camp Lejeune and believe it or not we now have our daughter, son-in-law and two of our grandchildren living in OK. From our home to theirs is about 1,300 miles which is a very long drive so when we can go for a visit we always fly!

Based on your trip report it sounds like you and your family love WDW/ Fort Wilderness as much as our family does!

It truly is a great place to be and no better place to make lasting memories!

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Great update :banana:

This report makes me smile :)

I am really enjoying your TR. I think TCD is right about enjoying this trip report in the future, I wish I had done some tr's when my son was younger and before I lost my Daddy. I'm glad I am getting all these trips with my Mama recorded to have in the future!

Your kids are adorable and I'm so glad they had such a good time. I would not want to ride ToT once, much less twice!

Thank you all! Yes, I didn't want to ride it but if my 6 year old could then I guess I could, too. :) It wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be but once was enough.

Hello okgirlie ......... I really have enjoyed reading your trip report!

Marines ..... Stationed in North Carolina, would that be at Camp Lejeune? We live about 25 miles north of Camp Lejeune and believe it or not we now have our daughter, son-in-law and two of our grandchildren living in OK. From our home to theirs is about 1,300 miles which is a very long drive so when we can go for a visit we always fly!

Based on your trip report it sounds like you and your family love WDW/ Fort Wilderness as much as our family does!

It truly is a great place to be and no better place to make lasting memories!

He was at New River, but it's right there in Jacksonville, too. It's south of Camp Lejeune. He was an electrician for helicopters. We loved North Carolina and if my family didn't live here I'd consider moving back. I went to college in Wilmington. :) One day we'll go back for a visit. My son was born there so he is interested in what it looks like.

Yes, we loved everything about WDW and the Fort. We keep talking about how much we want to go back. However, it took us 2 years to save and we have other places we would like to visit as well. I think we are going to take the kids to Colorado next summer. We've never been there, either. I think we are going to try to get back to Disney before my daughter turns 10. She just turned 6 while we were there so maybe we can get back in 3-4 years.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

We got a lot done at Hollywood Studios but we still missed so much stuff. We didn't get to see Little Mermaid, Muppets 3d, Backlot Tour and more. I really wish we could have had another half day there but we were just so tired that on our non park days we didn't go back.

There you go kicking yourself again. Stop it. Despite what your App said, that crowd at rope drop makes it look like this was a pretty heavy attendance day to me.

You got a lot done at HS. It's hard to do everything in a park in one day.

Props to your DD for two trips on TOT. Not bad for a six year old!

TCD

[datgrt@fw .... Doug 1]

He was at New River, but it's right there in Jacksonville, too. It's south of Camp Lejeune. He was an electrician for helicopters. We loved North Carolina and if my family didn't live here I'd consider moving back. I went to college in Wilmington. :)

Hello Again okgirlie ........ I listed in my first response 'north' of Camp Lejeune but I should have said we live 'south'! I know New River very well, it is only about 20-minutes from our home. I agree with you about North Carolina, it really is a great state to live and raise your family in! Both of our daughters also attended part of their college days at UNCW in Wilmington. Very nice school and it is in a great location!

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

There you go kicking yourself again. Stop it. Despite what your App said, that crowd at rope drop makes it look like this was a pretty heavy attendance day to me.

You got a lot done at HS. It's hard to do everything in a park in one day.

Props to your DD for two trips on TOT. Not bad for a six year old!

TCD

I will quit kicking myself. We had a great time and that's all that matters. Natalie is my thrill seeker. She has been climbing things long before she could walk. Before we left on our trip I caught her outside walking on the middle board of our wooden fence. She was halfway up the fence just walking along it. The higher she is the better it is for her.

Hello Again okgirlie ........ I listed in my first response 'north' of Camp Lejeune but I should have said we live 'south'! I know New River very well, it is only about 20-minutes from our home. I agree with you about North Carolina, it really is a great state to live and raise your family in! Both of our daughters also attended part of their college days at UNCW in Wilmington. Very nice school and it is in a great location!

Aww so nice there. I do sometimes wish we were back there, but we have roots here in OK. My kids were dying to see their grandparents after our Florida trip and it had been only a couple of weeks. They are used to seeing them weekly during the school year and daily during the summer since we swim at my parents' house. My husband works for the FAA so he could easily transfer to whereever we want but I suppose we'll stay here.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Saturday, July 2nd brought a much needed rest day. We were tired.

But I was up early again. I woke up as soon as I heard the birds singing everyday. It was a perfect time for me to do some looping. I don't remember which loops I explored but I know I didn't see any fiends. I did check out the 2000 loop since we could have been placed over there. It was nice but I liked being close to the pool.

After I looped I took a walk around the pool. It was so beautiful and peaceful. I was the only one out except for one cast member and a few people by the Bike Barn.

When I got back it was still early so I just sat on the golf cart and looked at facebook on my phone and read from my kindle. I didn't want to wake up my family because they deserved to be able to sleep in late at least one day on their vacation.

While I was sitting there I saw a golf cart go by with 4 or 5 parrots on it. Does anyone know anything about this? They were blue parrots. I wish I had my camera ready so that I could have gotten a picture.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Around 9:30 they finally woke up. Again I had wanted to hang around the fort, but my son really wanted to go back to Downtown Disney so he could go to the magic shop so a couple of hours later we hopped on a bus to DD. I had actually wanted to get back over there as well. I wanted to take some pictures of my kids by the Christmas shop because I always do a cute photo Christmas card but I am out of ideas. I am going to try to make a card using these pictures. We took a whole bunch so surely a few of them will work.

We hung out at the Marketplace for a bit and then decided to eat lunch at Earl of Sandwich before heading over to the magic shop. Earl was good just like everyone had said. :)

We left and finally made our way over to the other side. My son bought a thumb tip magic trick.

He was a happy camper so we walked back to bus pickup and went back to the fort.

By then it was already late in the afternoon and I had very special plans starting at 6pm.

Taking a quick detour to give background info:

I had just turned 20 when my husband and I married. He moved me from Oklahoma to North Carolina where he was stationed with the marines. Two months after we married he had to go on deployment for 4.5 months in California. I couldn't go home because I had started college. I was lonely. I worked at Walmart in the shoe department to help pass the time. The next department over was fabric and a cute young girl worked over there. She was silly. She used to dance around when customers weren't looking and make funny faces and just be overall fun. We became good friends and she helped me survive those months when my husband was gone.

We became such good friends that when my son was born 2 years later she stayed in the delivery room with me the entire time.

Sadly, just 2 months after Bryce was born her husband left the marines and they moved to the other side of North Carolina so that her husband could go to college. I went to visit her about a month later but that was the last time we saw each other.

Until now!

She was originally from Orlando. After college she and her husband moved back. So of course, I couldn't go all the way to Orlando without seeing her.

She had us meet at Universal's City Walk. It was like we hadn't been away from each other for 9 years. She's just as silly and fun as always.

We didn't see anywhere we wanted to eat so we took a water taxi over to the other side. We ate at a little pizzeria and then had gelato next door to it. Then we snuck into the Loews Portofino Bay Hotel and hung out pool side for the evening. My kids played in the shallow part of the water, her husband and my husband talked and we sat on the lounge chairs and chatted the evening away. I loved my vacation but I think the best part was that night. I really miss her and am so glad I was able to see her again. She's one of those rare people that are just full of life and wonderful.

It was after 9pm when we finally left and took almost another hour just to get back since traffic was terrible. We had to get up early so we went straight to bed. It was going to be another full day at the Magic Kingdom.

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Great update and pictures. I'm so glad you were able to connect with your friend :banana:

[stefa70 205]

The face says it all! The first one she looks just a little unsure............

In the second one, she is SURE she's not gonna ride that again!

Good for her for doing it though, she has more guts than me.

Great pics of the Fort. Early mornings are the best time for photos, but there aren't very many early risers around this place (ahem Doodle )

How nice that you got to meet with an old friend, WHILE at Disney! It doesn't get much better than that.

You've really done a great job with this report!

[rm0530 5]

It's great your family was able to stay so long on your first visit! Everything can be overwhelming and it's nice to have rest days. Thanks for writing a report for us!

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

Great update and pictures. I'm so glad you were able to connect with your friend :banana:

The face says it all! The first one she looks just a little unsure............

In the second one, she is SURE she's not gonna ride that again!

Good for her for doing it though, she has more guts than me.

Great pics of the Fort. Early mornings are the best time for photos, but there aren't very many early risers around this place (ahem Doodle )

How nice that you got to meet with an old friend, WHILE at Disney! It doesn't get much better than that.

You've really done a great job with this report!

It's great your family was able to stay so long on your first visit! Everything can be overwhelming and it's nice to have rest days. Thanks for writing a report for us!

Thank you again. :)

I don't know how people can do 4 or 5 days back to back. I was exhausted after just one day and am so glad we were able to spread it all out.

[okgirlie...Brandy 6]

We were up early again on the 3rd of July. The first thing I noticed when we got up was that I had a present from TCD. He left me a spike. How nice of him to think of me. :) Thank you! (and I am pretty sure I got the day right--everything is running together now)

I had made reservations for breakfast at Crystal Palace at 8:20. My kids have never really watched Winnie the Pooh but it was my backup plan if we couldn't see Rapunzel and Flynn the first day.

I debated on whether or not to cancel since we had already seen them and it was going to be a late night, but I thought it would be nice to get to see Main Street before the park opened. I rushed through it the first time to get to Rapunzel and it was night when I walked back down it again so I hadn't really seen it.

Again, we boated over to the Contemporary but since we weren't in as big of a rush we took a few more pictures. This time we did ride the monorail over and still made it to the Magic Kingdom before they let the restaurant guests inside.

We saw these hot air balloons while on the boat.

We enjoyed Crystal Palace very much. Food was yummy and the kids still had fun with the characters even if they didn't really know anything about them.

We tried to spend the day doing things we didn't get to do the first day we were there along with some of our favorites. We met Aladdin and Jasmine, Prince Eric and Ariel, Chip and Dale and of course, Stitch again. We also met the Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle along with Mickey and Minnie.

My kids love Stitch so we met him whenever we saw him. My husband had one of his canned cold coffees so my son that it would be fun to give it to Stitch since he loves coffee.

Stitch was so happy to see it and spent a little extra time playing with my kids. :)

Ariel and Eric were fantastic. They kept us there for at least 5 minutes. I was starting to feel bad because there were still other people in line. They were arguing about how Ariel never cooks for Eric and so Eric asked me if I cook for Nate. I bake a lot so I said that I bake fresh bread, cookies, brownies, etc and that I cook dinner almost every night. That riled up Ariel. :) Somehow we got onto Flynn stealing all of Ariel's things and how she had to hide her things. Then she went over to the plant and pulled out her dinglehopper (fork). Then as we were leaving she called us back and asked my husband and I how we stay so happy. What was the secret to our success? We told them we never stop having a good time. No matter what we always try to be positive. :)

My son didn't much care for meeting princesses. They kept having him come over to stand next to them and he didn't like it one bit. :) My daughter on the other hand was in heaven. I loved seeing her face light up.

There was some dance party parade thing so we watched and danced in that.

We rode Space Mountain again and finally rode Splash Mountain. Then we got fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain and decided it was time to take a nap. Natalie was getting cranky and we were all just plain exhausted.

I think we were all asleep within seconds of laying down. I set my alarm to go off in an hour and that was the quickest hour ever. I didn't want to get up but someone had to fix dinner before we headed back to the park.

We had planned on getting back by 6pm but it was after 7pm before we finally made it back. We rode BTM and then picked up another fastpass for Splash Mountain. I wanted to ride BTM again but got outvoted for Splash Mountain. Oh well! :)

After that we made our way over close to Tomorrowland to watch the fireworks. We had to squeeze ourselves in behind the line. This is when I finally felt like the parks were definitely busy. We had been doing good about having short lines or using fast passes or just walking the other way when we saw tour groups. Being packed in like sardines was almost too much for me. I get panicky in large crowds sometimes. Thankfully, the fireworks were beautiful and it helped me to not think about how many people were around me. After they were over we did a few more rides and ended the night with a Jungle Cruise. We left around midnight. Despite having a nap we were worn out.

[MLM5.. aka Judy 97]

how cute are you kids??? Sooooooooo SWEET! I'm loving this TR, keep it coming!