NaCler family reunion with the MOUSE...

[kcarts]

Love the report. Especially the pictures! Looks like you had a great time. Then again I would be a bit concerned if it looked you didn't.

Looking forward to more.

[NaCler]

More topiary pics for Mouseoholic...

[boilerbabe]

Excellent pics. NaCler!! I love how they change the topiaries from year to year!!!

[Amy]

Love the campfire and marshmellow! I can't believe what they can do with some plants and imagination!

[mindflipper]

I dunno ... but does it look like Goofy is holiding a certain cowhide instrument that Jacca5560 & Mousekedude are obsessed about? Because looking at the expression on Donald Duck's face, he looks like he's feeling the sting of it! Crack! Crack! Are we seeing the darker side of Goofy?

[MmeLeota]

I dunno ... but does it look like Goofy is holiding a certain cowhide instrument that Jacca5560 & Mousekedude are obsessed about? Because looking at the expression on Donald Duck's face, he looks like he's feeling the sting of it! Crack! Crack! Are we seeing the darker side of Goofy?

Do you suppose there's a story there? Hmm...Donald, Daisy, Goofy with a "cowhide instrument" and Pluto looking on in the background?????

I love the campfire too! Who knew there would be marshmallow toasting going on in a topiary display?

(DH and I would for sure have to get a pic in front of Belle & Beast as well...)

[Mousekedude]

I dunno ... but does it look like Goofy is holiding a certain cowhide instrument that Jacca5560 & Mousekedude are obsessed about? Because looking at the expression on Donald Duck's face, he looks like he's feeling the sting of it! Crack! Crack! Are we seeing the darker side of Goofy?

I about split a gut laughing at this one!

[Amy]

Oh NaCler, more trip report coming soon?!

[NaCler]

If I must... I must.

Day 4:
Saturday, 5/15

Alarm clock again... grrr... but this time we gather outside of our rooms at the beautiful Port Orleans Riverside for a family picture. Now, the reason for this trip was for my mother's great accomplishments, but it was also to have another family vacation together. My father has terminal cancer and has been given the vague 6 months to 2 years to live speech. So, we'd like to make the most of our time as only God knows the future. Well, dad had not been in any of the parks the whole trip as he started to feel really weak, so my mom and dad were leaving this morning to go back to J-Ville. Before they did, we got a family pic:

Do we look like a BTG???


Probably have to explain the shirts... A favorite line of ours (me & my sister) growing up was from Robin Hood (no, not Men in Tights) with Kevin Costner. "It's dull you twit, it will hurt more!" plus we were fans of Monty Python and they use the word twit all the time. It has become a term of endearment for our family. We're a family of twits, I guess.

Now, on to the stuff that you guys come to this site to see... Off to EPCOT, my personal favorite! (Since you can't count MK)

Through the magical gates and... yep, you guessed it. Stroller rental, grrrr....

The first thing we do is Spaceship Earth! Again, my personal favorite. However, I was not impressed. I like the changes that they made in the ascension part of the ride. Except for the paperboy... why did they move him around? I liked the little annoying kid screaming, "Extra, Extra, New York Daily!" Now you can just barely hear him as he is facing away from you. I know, kind of picky, but change is tough. I also don't like the ending. It's cute once, but now every time you ride it you will see the same video about your future, blah, blah, blah... I just miss the "Emerald City" and the tomorrow's child song.

Then we went to get a fastpass for Soarin'. Now I've done it before but my wife and 2 boys haven't so I only got 3 fastpasses. It was then time to head to Norway where we were having some grub with the wonderful ladies of Disney, i.e. the Princesses. Since the boys had the "Pirate Makeover" the day before, of course we had our little princess in a Princess Aurora dress. Here's another pic:



When we first sat down the server told us to get our plates and enjoy the buffet. I went up with my boys and my mouth dropped open. No, it wasn't a GOOD drop. There was cold fish, a couple of cheeses (one was muenster so this wasn't so bad), cold bagels with dill cream cheese, dry cinnamon buns... yuck... I thought that was it. I went back to the table and was about to ask the wife if she wanted to sneak out before they made us pay $100 for cold fish! But, WAIT A SEC.... HOT Eggs... Cheesy Hash browns spotted on the table next to us! "WAITRESS!! WHERE IS THAT???" *pointing to the table nearby* "Oh, we will bring it to you..." AHHH.... Crisis averted. Decent breakfast, but not quite Crystal Palace worthy. A little more expensive though.

After breakfast we attempted to walk the countries with 3 kids... in the heat (it got to 92 that day). Bad idea dad... Then over to Soarin'. I got the report that when my 4yo got off of Soarin' the first thing he said was... "That was AWESOME"... I love Disney. We stood in line for about 30 minutes for NEMO, I know, a waste but my 4yo loves NEMO and it turned out to be his favorite ride at EPCOT. Then 25 minutes for Imagination...grrr... but at least after the ride we got to play and got this great shot of the family which is now a family tradition:



After this it was time to stand in line for the characters... grrr... this was the longest line of the weekend and of course, it was our last line. About a 45 minute wait, but we got pics of Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale all in one place, so I can't complain too much. Leaving the park I went to return the stroller and I overheard a guy asking his wife if they should get a double or a single. I told them that I had a double that they could have, so I felt good that I was able to help them out. I only charged them $20, so they made out like a bandit...... just kidding. I can't believe you thought I was serious. I must have a bad rep.

We got back relatively early (about 4pm) so we got our bathing suits on and took a walk over to the French Quarter as they have a big Sea Serpent slide we knew the kids would love. We were right... my boys rode that slide 100 times in 1 hour I would bet. After that, we went back to the room to change again so we could go to dinner. Nothing special tonight, just the food court.

Now it was the time we all dread... loading up the car. Since we were leaving early the next morning we went ahead and loaded up the van. After a few Landsharks in the room I was out cold, dreaming about all that we had just done.

Day 5... "the Deluge"... haha... (but it did rain a little)
Sunday, 5/16

Alarm clock even earlier... can't find the snooze button, so I did what all husbands do. I turned it off! Whoops. We got up an hour later than we wanted to. HOWEVER, when we got in the van we realized that the clock in the room was an hour ahead, so we were right on time! Crisis averted! I must have hit it accidentally when I was setting it.

Left at 7am... no problems on the ride. Pulled in to the house @ 11pm. Unloaded everything and got ready for bed as it was off to work the next day!


I hope you guys have enjoyed it as I know I did. Long driving for such a short time down there but it is worth every moment of tiredness. Until next time... (DECEMBER without the KIDS and FLYING AND a little MAYHEM!!!)

[Amy]

Yay ~ more pictures! I loved seeing your family one that you use as an avatar full size...cute tradition!
$100 for cold fish ~ holy mackerel! (sorry, I had to! )
It was nice seeing your whole family photo too, what a nice memory that will be for your children when they get older. The green does help with the BTG illusion
Thanks for taking the time to share your trip

[Len90]

It is always tough to handle the night before returning to reality. How far did you end up making it around WS?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report and looking at the pictures that you took of vacation.

[boilerbabe]

Awesome trip report NaCler!!! You have a lovely family, I truly enjoyed the pics. Can you explain the one that is your avatar?! It's really cute, where can you do that?

[NaCler]

Amy - Thank you and nice pun... I posted the avatar one bigger just so ya'll could see it better as it's kind of small and dark.

Len90 - Thank you sir. We were able to make it around the entire WS, well starting with Norway going through to Canada. We made it but we were worn out as we let the 2yo run around instead of pushing her in the stroller...grrr... Actually, it was the 7yo we pushed around the WS in that thing! There are WAY too many things for little kids to get into on the way around. Real glass blown ornaments in Germany is just one example...

Boilerbabe - Thank you. When you get off of Imagination there are several little things you can play with on the way out the door. There are many KODAK kiosks with a plain white backdrop that lets you take a picture, then you can add a lot of silly things to it like, different styles of ears, eyes, noses, hats, etc... When you are done you can enter your email address up to 4, I believe, so you can send it to friends. It doesn't cost a thing and it makes for a nice souvenir!(Hmmm.... different thread) When you get the email it lets you look at it, but if you want to save it then you need to create a Kodak account, which only takes a minute, so no big deal.

[boilerbabe]

That's so fun NaCler!!! We never really paid attention to those kiosks in the Imagination Pavilion, see what we missed?! We'll def. have to do that on our next trip! Thanks!!!

[Amy]

...Actually, it was the 7yo we pushed around the WS in that thing! There are WAY too many things for little kids to get into on the way around. Real glass blown ornaments in Germany is just one example...

Oh my! So it wasn't that the kids were too tired and hot to make it around but Mom and Dad were tired of pushing a big kid in the stroller and keeping the youngest one from breaking "you break it - you buy it not-so-free" souvenirs!