Hey guys/gals! Sorry I'm so late in getting this report up. Also, I apologize for the lack of pictures. I forgot to pack my camera and I'm still waiting for my brother to lend me his sims card from his. Here we go:
Day 1 - up at dark o'clock to head to the airport. The good...smooth ride down...the bad...they got the plane fully loaded (it was a sold out flight) and then proceeded to tell us that they couldn't take off because the plane couldn't figure out where it was. There was some problem with its GPS system and it would be over an hour before it was fixed and we could get on our way. So there we sat on a plane FULL of kids just waiting. We got cleared for take off about 65 minutes later, and we were finally off. No problems in the air. We arrived about a 1/2 hour late. We used the Magical Express so we didn't need to worry about our bags, we just headed for the bus. Just as we got in line the bus to POFQ pulled up and we hopped right on. We had a wonderful bus driver who made us laugh all the way to WDW. When we crossed under the sign, he made everybody yell and scream with excitement. Funny thing is, I was already screaming inside my own head, so it was nice to let it out. We stopped at Saratoga Springs first and then onto POFQ. When we got off the bus and headed to the check in counter (no wait), the kids were swept away over to a table where a cast member had a coloring station set up. So my mom, my brother, and I started the check in process and were told that all 3 of our rooms were ready and were right next to each other as requested. We got building 3 on the third floor. Nice short walk to the food court and lobby, and even better, we could see the Illuminations fireworks from the balcony outside of our room. Very cool. We put our stuff down and immediately headed to the MK. We waited about 15 minutes for the bus to come, and we were officially on our way. We arrived at the MK and my heart just started racing. I was so excited to be back. The entrance lines were low (it was around noon so we missed the morning backup) and we headed into the park. First stop...lunch. We were all starving. A few of us opted for Casey's while the others headed towards Peco Bills for burgers. Yum! After that, we headed over to the jungle cruise and then to Pirates. My nephew who is 5 did fine on the jungle cruise but got a little freaked out in Pirates. It was the drop in the dark that pushed him over the edge. He was in the row behind me and I kept hearing him say, "I want to get off, mommy". I felt so bad for him. After Pirates, we headed to Frontier Land to hit up BTMRR and Splash Mountain. So much fun!!! My niece went on everything and was having a blast! My nephew, still freaked out from Pirates sat those two rides out. Feeling bad for him, I decided maybe it was time to hit Storybook Circus in Fantasy Land to find some rides more his speed. It worked. He loved Goofy's barnstormer coaster, Dumbo, the tea cups and the Tomorrowland Speedway. From there we ventured over to hit Peter Pan and Its a Small World (which were also good for the 5 year old). We were so fortunate that day....the longest wait we had was 25 minutes (for Peter Pan of course).
By this point, exhaustion was setting in from the early morning flight, and we decided to hit a few more rides (Space Mountain included) and then head to our dinner reservation at the Kona Cafe over at the Poly. Dinner was delicious as usual, but I totally forgot to take pictures. In fact, I don't think I have one food picture from the entire trip. Sorry folks. I was a slacker on that front. We started with some sushi, and mom and my sister in-law went with the Lapu-Lapu's. I went with the Kona Longboard Lager. My dad and I had the tuna, my brother had the lamb, my mom had the noodles, and my sister in-law went with the famous teriyaki steak. All were delicious! I have never had a bad meal at the Kona Cafe. One thing I will put under the "bad" category was the service. It was very slow! I haven't experienced that before, but this was my first time traveling with a large party (7 to be exact) and Disney automatically adds and 18% gratuity to the bill for parties of 6 or more, so I have a feeling that a guaranteed tip may have had an impact on the service we received.
After dinner we headed back to POFQ to call it a night. It was just after 9:00 PM when we got to our rooms. Not bad considering we were up at 3:30 AM.
Kris is posting her trip report!
trip reports!!!!
