Surprise Trip, Sept 19-26

[Amy]

Yay! Great photos I really like the one of your children by the Tower of Terror ~ DS does not look happy!

[boilerbabe]

I love your pictures so far, keep em coming!!! You have a lovely family!

[jlpeaches255]

I love your pictures so far, keep em coming!!! You have a lovely family!

Thanks!

[jlpeaches255]

The resort pool was quiet at 6:45 am


Ready for a great day




I hope everyone knows what this is...


My girl, Aladdin, Jasmine and no Hubby


With the giant crane hanging around the castle this was the best shot I could come up with.


Hubby and son enjoying Space Mt.


I am not sure about how my friends would feel about me posting pics of their kids so I did a bit of editing...

[Amy]

Cute photos ~ always love to see the backside of H2O!!

[jlpeaches255]

This is taking me forever to write and I am starting to forget things! Oh no!

By day 4 we were pretty tired, but for my friends it was only the second day and they were ready to go! The rest of the group would be arriving today and they wanted to meet in Animal Kingdom. AK had extra magic evening hours that night so we were in no hurry to get there. We decided to start our morning at the Studios since we had not been able to ride Toy Story on our first day. We met up with our friends at the entrance and when the park opened made our way to the ride. We decided to skip fast pass and just ride using stand by. The wait was not too long at that time of day and the kids were patient. Everyone enjoyed the ride. We were going to go right to Animal Kingdom after that but we made a quick stop at the Tower of Terror first to satisfy my friend's son. My friend's husband does not like rides so he stayed with their daughter and my son while the rest of us rode. Next we were off to Animal Kingdom.

We wandered around Animal Kingdom for a bit. My mom and our other friends had landed and were now on their way to the resort and would meet us soon. We skipped “It's tough to be a Bug”. My kids are afraid of that show and I thought my friend's daughter would be too. We made our way up to Asia and the Maharajah Jungle Trek. This has to be one of my favorite parts of Animal Kingdom. We love the tigers. I also love to watch the cast members. I love the look in their eyes when they watch the animals or when they answer your questions. You can really see how much they love what they do. I remember once talking with a cast member who said that she was retired and now she has the best job just watching the tigers and answering guest's questions. I guess because I work with animals I can sort of relate (but my tigers are a bit smaller).

My mom called again, they were giving her the room right next to our room but it was not ready yet. The other group's room was ready so she left her carry ons in their room and they were on their way to meet us! We were on our way to see Finding Nemo: The Musical so we told them to meet us in Dinoland. After the show we found our group and now we were all together! 15 of us. 6 kids, 6 parents, and 3 Grandparents. My kids were happy to have Granny with us now. This was going to be interesting... I had been with large groups before but never with this many kids. On their way to meet up with us the new arrivals had ignored my advice and taken their little girls (5 and 3) to the Bug's Life show. The girls were terrified and cried through the whole show. They were very nervous about any show after that. We rode the Triceratops Spin to calm the girls nerves while my friend was kind enough to take my son and her son on the Primeval Whirl. The boys enjoyed it. We made our way over to see the Festival of the Lion King, stopping briefly to watch the parade. After the Lion King we made the journey over to Everest. ALL of the kids chickened out...including my son who has been on it before and even Roller Coaster Boy!! Fortunately we had two very nice Granny's with us (and one dad who hates rides), so they kept all of the kids happy while we rode. I wish I could show you our ride pics. My husband and I had our hands up and we were having a blast, the other moms were screaming, the other dad had his hands up too but the Grandfather looked like he was just relaxing and completely calm. It was pretty funny. Now as the day was winding down and some people were getting tired we decided it was time to get a little wet. Off to Kali! I must have done something that angered the Kali gods because on one drop a wall of water rose up behind me and my daughter and soaked us completely!!! The rest of our group ended up only mostly wet. The rest of the evening is kind of fuzzy, I think we rode Everest again, we ate at Flame Tree BBQ and we waited almost two hours for a bus back to our resort.

The next day was finally Epcot day. The other families each had a princess breakfast at Akershus booked for around 8 that morning so we were going to meet them when they were done. My mom, husband, kids and I enjoyed Spaceship Earth and headed over to The Seas. One family was already done with their breakfast and ready to come meet us. When they found us they told us that the other group had not even eaten yet. Apparently when they went to the buses that morning they were told that no bus was running to Epcot that early so they would have to go to the Magic Kingdom and take the monorail over. Then, I guess the monorail broke down. It took them over 2 hours just to get to Epcot!
While we waited for them we did all of the Seas. They caught up with us just before we headed over to the land so I grabbed everyone's tickets and ran to get fastpasses for Soarin. The later group wanted to do the Seas now but the rest of us headed for the Land. We wandered around The Land and rode the Living with the Land ride. Soon we were all back together and it was time for Soarin. I managed to talk everyone onto the ride, even those who didn't really like rides and the little girls who were afraid of most rides. One of the girls was very nervous to ride and she insisted that she would only ride if she could sit next to me and hold my hand the whole time. As soon as the ride started she let go of my hand and started screaming “This is awesome!” Everyone really loved it. It is hard to make everyone happy but Soarin sure did the trick!! It was even thrilling enough for Roller Coaster Boy.

I am having trouble remembering exactly what we did next but I do seem to remember doing the Journey into Imagination ride at some point. We did not see Captain EO. My daughter and her friends wanted to see characters so we stopped at the character spot and got some pictures. We also did Test Track but not Mission Space. I was kind of stressed out at this point in the day because we were not in the World Showcase yet and it was already well after 2pm. It was my husband's last day of the trip and World Showcase is by far is favorite part of Disney. The rest of our group was all getting pretty tired so they decided to leave and go swimming. We went on to Mexico and enjoyed the new counter service restaurant...yummy. Then we went in and rode the Grand Fiesta Tour. After that we decided to split up so that husband and I could spend some time alone. Granny was kind enough to take our kids and let my son complete several Kim Possible adventures. Hubby and I got some frozen margaritas. He was hoping it would calm me down but all it really did was raise my body temp! I don't really drink a lot but, how do people drink around the world in that heat?? I am sure some of you can explain it to me...
We continued rushing through all of the countries until hubby finally forbid me to look at my watch anymore. Then I did relax a little and we finished the showcase by about 7:30. We decided to find our Illuminations spot early and just relax. We found a table along the fence near Norway. The kids and Granny caught up with us and we left hubby behind holding on to our table so we could go ride Maelstrom. Our friends were returning to watch Illuminations with us. Epcot was not very crowded that day so we all had plenty of room in our spot to comfortably watch the show without other people on top of us. Of course everyone enjoyed the show. I have no idea what happened after that.....

Next time, you will finally know the answer to the question you have all, (Well ok maybe only Amy)
been asking....Did my boy finally get his Disney haircut?!

[Mousekedude]

Loving the trip report, peaches! You're a saint to be able to deal with all those kids like that!
Nice pics, too. You do have a beautiful family.
Eagerly awaiting the conclusion of the haircut saga!

[Amy]

Sounds like a crazy time! That is a lot of people But it sounds like you made it work and people got to go where they wanted to go. I like the meet up for a bit, do your own thing, get together later. And it worked out well that you had people who didn't want to ride attractions that could watch children that didn't want to ride.
Waiting patiently on the haircut........

[jlpeaches255]

You are so right Amy! This group was great because they were willing to do their own thing! All of us staying on Disney Property really helped. We could come and go as we pleased using Disney transportation.
We went a couple of years ago with my husbands family...17 people... and we stayed off property so we were all stuck together because we only had 3 vans. That trip was much more stressful!!

More pics for you....

In line for Toy Story Mania


Aren't they cute?

Arriving at Animal Kingdom....Hubby has the giant backpack on the right.
My friend and her kids are in the foreground...no need to edit their faces this time!



This is a shot I always seem to come home with.

This is what happens when you travel with a professional videographer...

Watching the parade

The moon rising over Everest

Pluto had way too much fun while we were away!!!

[Amy]

Your kids look very sweet ~ I like the photo of them sitting on the wall. If that is one you take every trip, you will be able to see how they grow!
Pluto was a bad dog! no biscuit!!
Any haircut news?!

[MmeLeota]

I've been behind in the adventures and finally was able to catch up with the rest of you! Whew!

Peaches, you have a beautiful family and I give you some serious props for staying in one piece with a group that large! The report is wonderful and you've got some fabulous pictures!

I, along with the rest of the crowd, am eagerly awaiting the answer to the age old question of whether or not your DS got his Disney haircut!

[Future Guy]

Really enjoying your trip report so far, although I feel like locking Roller Coaster Boy inside Small World until he learns to appreciate the finer things!

[jlpeaches255]

Really enjoying your trip report so far, although I feel like locking Roller Coaster Boy inside Small World until he learns to appreciate the finer things!

That would have been great! Unfortunately It was closed.

[Mousekedude]

Hmmmmm..... judging by the pics, it looks like DS may have indeed gotten his haircut. Hard to tell though. Patiently waiting for word....

[Amy]

Hmmmmm..... judging by the pics, it looks like DS may have indeed gotten his haircut. Hard to tell though. Patiently waiting for word....

You are sneaky smart! I didn't even think to look at his hair in the pictures - duh! I think you may be right!!