Surprise Trip with all the kids
Just finally getting around to writing this trip report. Yes the kids were surprised with this one again although it was a lot harder since we were pulling a trailer, sort of hard to hide it. But Marc Jr was here for his last week of summer vacation and we had the girls this weekend too so Kriss and I decided to plan a surprise trip for the kids. We booked a room on Expedia (link in the right column) and got an awesome rate on a 2 bedroom at FantasyWorld Club Villas that was a few miles from Disney. I am the first to admit that we are WAAAY spoiled by staying on Disney property all these years and yes our first impressions were not of excitement, but we probably wouldn’t have been able to do this trip if it weren’t for Expedia. The room was a little small for 6 of us but fortunately my parents decided to go with us and were able to get the same rate and Marc stayed with them right next door. It was a 2 story room that seems to have been partially refurbished recently (it looks like they have been doing it gradually based on reports on Expedia) with a kitchen, living room, and complete bathroom downstairs and two bedrooms, bathroom, and washer/dryer upstairs.We drove down Thursday afternoon and checked in, dad and Lynn had already gotten there so it was a surprise to the kids that grandma and Pepa were there waiting for us although they were a bit confused when we turned off the interstate at the correct exit but went the opposite way from Disney.After we got checked in, unloaded, and freshend up, we headed to City Walk since my parents hadn’t been there and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. Its a great place to take four noisy kids and they always have fun too.
Friday we really didn’t make any plans but it was spent hanging out at the pool until the afternoon showers and we also drove over to Downtown Disney after the rains and ate dinner at the Rainforest and then walked around shopping a little bit. I did finally find Kriss a Braves replica jersey that I had hoped to get her in May at the Team Mickey store.
Saturday was the big day though. We knew that seeing Toy Story Midway Mania was what the kids wanted to do so we started off at Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) for rope drop and I made a beeline for the Fastpass machines while they parked the stroller and got in the standby line. Dad and Lynn had never been to this park either so I wanted them to do as much as possible even though we wanted to hit other parks. Kriss, Erin, Alyssa and I took dad to Rockin’ Rollercoaster while Lynn, Marc, and Kellie went and got a drink. Lyssa doesn’t like Tower of Terror so she went with the others to see Little Mermaid while we rode ToT twice. I had made us lunch reservations at the Sci Fi Cafe too, I knew they would all like eating there and I think dad even knew some of the old B movies they show clips of there.
Then Dad and Lynn headed back to the room for a rest while we headed to Animal Kingdom, the kids love Expedition Everest and Kellie loves Triceratops Spin so we split up and I took the big ones to EE where we did single rider to get through the line quicker and then headed to meet them in Dinoland. After a quick ride on Dinosaur and a long wait with a breakdown for Primeval Whirl we drove over to EPCOT and parked and rode a few rides like Spaceship Earth, it was closed when we took the kids in May, and Nemo. Lynn texted me and said they were on the way to Magic Kingdom so we made our way to the monorail and got all the way to the top pushing the stroller when I realized that something was just not right with the stroller but I couldn’t figure out what it was, almost like it was bent. We got on the monorail headed to Magic Kingdom when I finally realized that the screwed up stroller wasn’t even ours but was the exact same brand. We got to the Ticket and Transportation Center and stayed on the monorail to ride it back to EPCOT not knowing where we had swapped at but when we got to the Seas where Nemo is, sure enough there was our stroller sitting there, Alyssa had grabbed the wrong one when we got off the ride. It was identical other than it was bent and fabric torn and much more worn than ours. Back to the monorail and Magic Kingdom.
We got to ride a few things but we were starving so we met up at the Columbia Harbor House for dinner. Afterward we headed over to Space Mountain where the kids could ride while we waited but it was getting late and we were all tired and not looking forward to the longer drive home Sunday so we went back to the room and passed out.
Sunday we loaded all up and went our separate ways. I had to get Marc back to Macon so made a huge triangle. We went up I-75, after the stupid toll roads, to Macon and then came back down I-16 to home on the coast, I think it was over 500 miles that day pulling the Little Guy.
