The four younger kids and I are driving to Florida and tomorrow Kyrie and Jacob will fly there since they have to work today. We had a very uneventful day of driving today. Since we've driven to Florida three years in a row, we've already stopped and seen all of the things we wanted to see, so we just drove straight through, only stopping for gas and dinner. We stopped in McDonough, GA for the night. We stayed at the Fairfield Inn there. It had a really nice layout so the 5 of us fit there pretty well. Our room was a little bit rundown, but not too bad. I was super tired, so I slept very well. The kids said I snored a lot.
In the morning we had the free breakfast at the hotel which didn't measure up to any of the other free breakfasts we've had over the years, but it was fine. We had 6 more hours of driving to get to Orlando. Our only stop was at Carrol's Country Store, somewhere in south Georgia. This is part gift shop, part butcher. We picked up some Italian Sausage for dinner and some smoked breakfast sausage.
Kyrie and Jacob landed about 20 minutes before we got to the airport, so the timing worked out quite well. We picked them up and headed to the house we are renting for this first part of our trip. We are quite happy with the place so far. It has five bedrooms and plenty of room for us to spread out. Zachary really likes that his bedroom and the game room both have a Star Wars theme.
Greg and Rita picked us up and drove us to O'Hare Airport. It was very nice of them to do that and it was nice to have good company too. There was no wait at security and our flight boarded and left on time and arrived early. It was a huge plane.
We didn't have any bags so we quickly and easily got out of the airport and Marc and the kids picked us up. Sure was great to see them! Their timing was perfect.
We drove straight to our VRBO rental. We originally had a Disney Cruise booked at the beginning of this trip but canceled it. Then we booked Cabana Bay, a cute hotel on Universal Orlando property. We ultimately decided that we prefer more space, kitchen and laundry, and being together in one unit over two rooms at Cabana Bay. This VRBO provides all of that and more. It cost a little more, but no doubt making some meals at home will make up for the extra cost.
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| Kyrie's Bedroom - Jacob and Marc also got King rooms |
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| Zach's and Max's Star Wars theme room |
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| And the best amenity is the private pool and hot tub |
The kids and I unpacked everything while Marc went to the store to pick up fresh grocery items that we wanted for the next few days including dinner tonight. Jacob grilled the Italian Sausage for us once Marc returned.
P.S.- 9/29/22 We really loved this vacation rental. The screened in private pool and hot tub was my favorite part. We spent EVERY evening relaxing here after dinner. It felt great after walking so much at Universal. We used the gas grill and/or kitchen to cook dinner four of our seven nights here. The other three nights, we brought food home to eat. It was super nice to save the time and money.
The house was clean and comfortable and also nicely decorated. The location was great, very close to Disney and as close to Universal as you can really get. A grocery store was very close. It was a super short walk to the community pool which is where we wanted to hang out during the day when we got a chance. The private pool doesn't get afternoon sun. The game room was a bust. The water pressure was too low in at least two of the bathrooms (only the girls with our long hair would really know and complain about this.) We'd definitely recommend this house.
Thursday 9/22/22 Day 3 - Islands of Adventure
This morning we went to Universal's Islands of Adventure. We had a lot of fun. Went on most everything except the two water rides (because they completely soak you) and Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. We didn't go on the Harry Potter ride because it was shut down the first time we tried and then later the line was really long and we figure that we have all week to get on it.
For breakfast we had Green Eggs and Ham and Who Hash. And lunch was excellent at Cowfish. The food their is basically Sushi and Hamburgers and they also make a combination of the two, which is pretty interesting. Everyone seemed to like lunch, even the picky eaters.
We decided not to wear ourselves out on the first real day of our trip, so we headed back to the house and spent some time at the clubhouse there which has a pool, lazy river and some water slides.
It's currently "Passholder Days" which means there a few perks for Annual Passholders. We bought APs last November which would have been a good deal just for that trip, but an even better deal using them again for this trip. Theme Park tickets x 7 people = big bucks! So it's really nice to pay $0 dollars this time. Any way, the perk we get during PH Days is early admission to a Islands of Adventure.  |
| Hogsmeade in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure |
We got to ride Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure with little wait. This is currently the most popular ride at Islands of Adventure. We saw wait times of up to 3 hours!!!
After Hagrid's we walked to Suess Landing and then proceeded around the IOA in order. The Suess High in the Sky Trolley Train Ride often has longer waits than it's worth too, so we did this next right when it opened at 9am with no wait.
There was no wait for anything in Seuss Landing since we did all of these rides early in the day and there were also lighter crowds this day.
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| Person about to be moved |
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People being moved
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| View of The Incredible Hulk Coaster from the High in the Sky Trolley Ride |
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| Caro-Suess-el |
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| Hi |
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| Green Eggs and Ham Cafe |
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| Who Hash and Green Eggs & Ham |
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| Dr Doom's Fear Fall in Super Hero Island |
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| Creature from King Kong Ride line |
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| Hogwarts Castle in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter |
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| Hogsmeade |
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| Sweet Shop |
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| Kids Bento Box at Cow Fish. Cute sushi dessert included! |
This was the perfect day for me. I love early entry, quick wait times with lots of rides. We did everything we wanted to then left in time to have a great lunch in Universal's City Walk. Then we even got some pool time/video game time for some.
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| Community Pool |
We made salad, spaghetti, and homemade garlic bread for dinner. It's super nice to make a dinner and eat it outside on our private pool deck. It costs MUCH less, is better food, faster and convenient. Then we swam and spent time in the hot tub time as the sun set.
Friday 9/23/22 Day 4 - Universal Studios
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| City Walk at Universal Orlando Resort |
Today we went to Universal Studios. We started at open again and got on most of the rides by 11:00am. We had lunch at The Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley (a Harry Potter thing). I had the Ploughman's Platter which was really good. Everyone else seemed to like their food as well. We decided to take the Hogwart's Express back over to Islands of Adventure in order to go on The Forbidden Journey which we missed yesterday. This turned out to be the only long line we were in today or yesterday. It was posted at 45 minutes and probably took about that. So, we didn't leave the park until close to 2:00. We stopped at some outlet mall to check out the Disney Character Warehouse. This is a Disney store that sells clearance items. They sell things like last years t-shirts and close out merchandise. We bought a Jungle Cruise board game. There was a big traffic jam on our way home, so we didn't end up getting back to the house until after 4:00. We ordered pizza for dinner.
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| Universal Studios |
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| Annual Passholder's "Hidden" Entrance |
We've been having a good time, but there really hasn't been anything exciting to write about. One thing that was funny was watching the ride video of Ella and Zoe on Rip, Ride, Rocket. It was mostly Ella singing at the top of her lungs.
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| London - Walk through a wall to Diagon Alley |
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| Escape from Gringott's |
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| Fizzlin' Whizzbees |
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Sugarplums in Diagon Alley
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| Men In Black: Alien Attack |
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Well Themed Simpson's Area
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| Marc and Zach on the Wirl and Hurl |
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| DONUT MAN |
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| E.T. saying "Goodbye" to us using our made up names |
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| Transformers |
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| Jimmy Fallon's Race through New York |
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| Rip Ride Rocket |
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| Spooky goose |
He ded lol
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| Ploughman's Platter for 2 |
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| Shepard's Pie |
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| Lamb and Beef something |
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| The Leaky Cauldron in Diagon Alley |
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| Bri*ish *barf emoji* |
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| Ride and Train to Island of Adventure |
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| hoo hoo |
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| Bri*ish |
This was probably the night that Marc picked up pizzas for dinner. There are tons of restaurants nearby, but we're really enjoying eating at "home,"
Saturday 9/24/22 Day 5 - Brunch at Trails End and Resort Hopping
Knowing how tiring theme park trips can be, we planned for today to be a sleep-in and rest day. Of course, I don't really ever sleep-in but it's nice to know it's an option. I get up before sunrise and enjoy watching day break. Jacob, Zach, Zoe, and Ella got up pretty early too and enjoyed coffee and the hot tub, t
We took a break from Universal today to have brunch at Trails End (in Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort) and do some resort hopping.
Everyone was up and ready so we left extra early for our brunch reservation. Good thing too! Although we did arrive in plenty of time, upon parking at Fort Wilderness we had to catch a Disney bus to the other side of the resort. It's interesting, but just being on Disney property gets all of us excited! There is a certain scent associated with Disney too that adds to the anticipation of fun.
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| Trails End Restaurant |
We had some time for Zach and Zoe to play on the playground while we waited to be seated at Trails End. 
Brunch here is a fixed menu served family style. Coffee, juice, iced sweet tea or soft drinks are included. The first course is assorted pastries which included croissants, blueberry mini muffins, and a cinnamon pastry with icing which was Zach's favorite for sure. He ate 5! It's served with strawberry butter. The next course is a strawberry yogurt parfait with strawberries, blueberries, granola, and raisins. Finally, skillets full of scrambled eggs with brisket, cheesy potatoes (Jacob's favorite), sausage, bacon, and Mickey Waffles. Everything was delicious!
The brunch was good and probably the best deal at Disney. With tax and tip it was about $150 for the seven of us. This price includes our DVC (Disney Vacation Club) discount.
The girls have been anxious to go shopping for Disney backpacks. They earned $77.50 each by making custom Disney Shirts for a big family visiting Disney World this week too. They've been dreaming about buying souvenirs ever since. We started our Disney shopping at the Trading Post at Fort Wilderness. We saw a lot of cute items but didn't make any purchases here.
After that we took the boat to Magic Kingdom to catch the resort monorail. Then we stopped at each of the monorail resorts and did some shopping.
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| Add caption |
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| Pump king |
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| Bay temporary |
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| long |
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| Walking goose |
cringe goose
We ended up only buying one t-shirt so we did pretty good as far as I'm concerned! We also took the boat to the Wilderness Lodge and had some afternoon snacks and drinks at Geyser Point Bar and Grille.
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| HI!! |
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| Charcuterie and drinks at Geyser Point |
It was a relaxed pace day. We lucked out never waiting long for transportation and we learned that we could take a bus from Wilderness Lodge directly to Fort Wilderness.
I've been reading about a tropical storm heading this way that might become a hurricane. It will be interesting to see how this affects our trip. Should get here in the middle of next week.
Jacob is grilling us dinner tonight, so I know it's going to be good!
Yes, Jacob grilled steak and sides of vegetables. We always appreciate his expertise and effort!
I'm pretty sure, Marc made mention of the surprise Rocket sighting while we were hanging out in the hot tub tonight at around 7:30pm, but I've rearranged pictures and text so much that it may have been deleted or I've missed it. anyway, we had no idea there was a rocket launch scheduled and feel very fortunate to have witnessed it. It was a SpaceX launch of satellites we found out after the fact.
It made us discuss taking a day trip to Kennedy Space Center possibly instead of our planned trip to St. Augustine and Daytona Beach.
Sunday 9/25/22 Day 6 - More Universal, Escape Room and Halloween Horror Nights
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| Diagon Alley in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios Orlando |
This morning we went back to Universal to redo a few of our favorite rides. I have had enough of Universal at this point, but Jacob and Mac especially want more. I'm anxious to see some parts of Florida that we haven't seen before.
After lunch we went to an escape room at American Escape Rooms.
We got Max a "gift certificate" (more like a homemade IOU) for the Great Movie Escape Room at Universal's City Walk for his birthday present in June. Unfortunately this place hasn't opened yet, so we found a different Escape Room to go to. We did drive through the city of Orlando which was a first for us. There were some skyscrapers and everything. We were looking for a quick and healthy enough lunch on our way. We settled for Five Guys. At least it's real food.
We did the Mind Boggler room and had a lot of fun. We ran out of time before figuring out the last couple of clues, but we were close.
It was fun but not very themed. It was very plain.
Marc made two "quick" grocery store stops before he and Jacob headed out for the night without the rest of us. We decided to make French toast for dinner tonight because it's easy and we hadn't used the breakfast sausage yet that they picked up on their drive to Florida. We forgot to get maple syrup on our first trip to the store.
Zach takes Marc place of reading the girls and me a bedtime story. Marc usually reads a Harry Potter book, but Zach brought along some Sandra Boynton books for his own bedtime reading pleasure. He read us one in the voice of Yoda. He added extra words into the book to make it a Star Wars themed story too. So cute and funny!
Tonight Jacob and I went to Halloween Horror Nights. Jacob had mentioned that he wanted to go to this months ago and I agreed to take him. I've been dreading it ever since. I really don't like being scared and Universal is known for having some of the best haunts.
It turned out to be a lot of fun and I'm glad we went. Yes, it was plenty scary, but it was so much fun that it was worth it. Since the crowds are so huge, everyone just goes through each house in one big line, so it's not as scary as being separated into small groups. Most of the haunts have sheets or dividers of some sort that kind of close behind each person as you go into different rooms, so there is still an element of surprise, but not as bad as I was expecting.
We started with The Weeknd, After Hours Nightmare haunt which was very strange. It featured the music of The Weeknd as well as him as a character throughout the haunt. I never really understood what the point of it was, but basically it was a bunch of gory stuff and some people scaring you every once in a while. Once we had this first haunt out of the way, I was able to relax a little since I had a better idea of what to expect.
We did the Universal Monsters haunt next which had Dracula, The Wolfman, and The Mummy, apparently in some battle with each other. It seemed to be mostly mummies trying to scare us.
The third haunt, Dead Man's Pier, was our favorite. It had a very elaborate and well themed set. It was much more what I was expecting from Universal. By this point we were getting the hang of it and were pretty well prepared for what to expect from the different houses.
We walked through Fiesta de Chupacabra next. I thought this one was the most disturbing and scary. It was very gory and featured an animatronic chupacabra in addition to the live actors.
We took a bit of a break after that. We had some food, watched the lagoon show and went on the Men in Black ride.
There were a lot of really unique Halloween themed food items available. Some were made to look completely disgusting. It was basically a Halloween version of Disney's Food and Wine Festival.
We finished the night with Bugs: Eaten alive and Spirits of the Coven. The bugs haunt was a really fun retro themed haunt and the coven was loosely themed to a prohibition era speakeasy. Bug's was the best one
The crowds were huge compared to anything else I have seen at Universal. We were able to get into each of the haunts in 30-45 minutes, but we skipped the most popular ones (Halloween and Blumhouse) which had wait times of 90 minutes.
Monday 9/26/22 Day 7 - More Universal/Pool Time
We
(They) slept in this morning and then some of us went to Universal for a few hours this afternoon.
They were in no hurry to get out of the house, and I had no more interest in going to Universal. My preference was to soak up some sun before Hurricane Ian moves in. First Jacob and I went to the community pool for a couple of hours. Then we returned for lunch at home and the rest of them went to Universal while Zach and I went to the pool. The clouds ended up taking longer than expected to move in, so we enjoyed a couple more hours at the pool.
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| Clouds are changing and moving in |
They picked up Olive Garden for dinner on their way back from Universal. It was about 7:30pm before they returned, which is closer to bedtime than dinner time for me.
Marc had tried calling Disney this morning to see if we could start our 10 day tickets tomorrow instead of the next day (Wednesday) when the Hurricane is forecast to arrive. We already moved Thursday's plans to Friday wanting to avoid terrible weather. The problem is, once you use a day of your tickets, the rest of the days have to be used within 14 days. That won't work for us because we have park plans with Marc's family on the 15th day. Anyway, Marc was being transferred to a second person but it got botched and he never got through. As the forecast for the Hurricane made it look like it was coming closer to Orlando than originally thought, it became more urgent and important for us to get a hold of Disney regarding this matter. Marc called again and once he got through to someone who said they couldn't help, he asked to remain on hold for the experts. He was informed the wait will be over two hours. I went to bed!
We are trying to rearrange our plans somewhat to avoid being in the parks on the worst days of the anticipated hurricane. Disney's 14 day limit on using tickets is causing us some issues, so I've been on hold with them for about an hour and a half seeing if we can get around it. At this point it's 10:15pm and I still don't know what our plans are for tomorrow!
Tuesday 9/27/22 Day 8 - Disney's Hollywood Studios!
Well, Disney came through for us and solved our ticket problem at about 11pm last night, so we were able to go to Hollywood Studios today. Hurricane Ian is not arriving until tomorrow, so we wanted to get to the park today before the weather gets bad. Of course, everyone else did as well, so the park was packed! We managed to hit most of the rides, though we had to stand in some pretty long lines throughout the day. We had a good time though.
Disney solved our problem by GIVING us each a one day ticket for today! (That's a value of about $800.) They couldn't just give us 15 days to use our tickets-so this was the only way they could handle it. I'm really glad they did. We didn't find out until we left Hollywood Studios, but Disney has officially closed all the parks for the next two days! Hurricane Ian is now projected to go straight through Orlando!
A good thing that came out of going to Hollywood Studios today without early entry or Genie+ is that Marc got to experience what this is like...on a day we at least did not pay for our tickets so I was extra chill about the long waits. I think/hope he's convinced we NEED to use early entry while we're on property and Genie+ every day that we are off property the last week of our trip.
Zach wasn't feeling well today. Just a mild cold. Still he was too tired to walk so much, so we rented a stroller which he could barely stuff himself into, but was glad he had. He even took a little nap in it at one point.
We left late in the afternoon, so that we could go home and pack and also pick up some supplies for the next couple days. Tomorrow is the day that we switch from our VRBO house (which we love by the way!) to Old Key West at Disney. I think it will be good to be on Disney property before the hurricane gets here, but it's kind of a pain to try to prepare for that as well as everything else. We picked up enough food and a couple games so that we can get through the next couple days in case we can't go to the on-site restaurant or whatever and to keep entertained. Glad we have a 2 bedroom unit!
I ended up making two trips to the store (which was super busy of course), but I think we are well prepared to get by for the next couple days.
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| Tornado on M&M Runaway Railway reminds me that a hurricane is coming! |
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| Starbucks |
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| War of stars |
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| Potato pose |
Wednesday 9/28/2022 Day 9 - Hurricane Ian
I went to Walmart this morning to pick up a couple more candles in case we lose power during the storm. While I was there, they announced that they were closing at 9am. The lines were quite long of course. It rained last night and was raining quite a bit this morning. Not too windy so far.
After I got back to the house we finished loading the van and headed to Disney's Old Key West resort. The rain subsided quite a bit at this point. We checked in and mostly just waited in the lobby since our room wasn't ready yet.
Ian
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| Pool was open this morning and early afternoon in the light rain |
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The bar and quick service restaurant were open too serving lots of people hanging around before they'd be confined to their rooms soon
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At 11:00 we had brunch at Olivia's (the on-site restaurant). Disney has closed their parks and transportation for today and tomorrow, so you can only eat at your own resort.
We initially had planned to dine at Olivia's this evening after going to Hollywood Studios before the closure. We decided to have brunch instead to kill some time and also we imagined Olivia's may close if the weather became severe.
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Mickey waffles make everything better
Breakfast pose |
We waited for a couple more hours and then Kyrie asked when our room would be ready. They were able to find us a room right away then, so we finally got settled in at about 2:00pm. It rained off and on, but nothing too serious so far. I'm sure the situation is much worse on the coasts. We feel well prepared with food and games.
How fortunate are we?! We have this comfortable space with a kitchen and living room and great view. So much better than if we were in two standard hotel rooms.
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| t v |
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| Third Story Balcony overlooking Golf Course |
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| Master Bedroom |
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Kids' Room. Zach slept on pull-out in Living room
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The hardest part so far is just not knowing at all what to expect. I really expected to wake up this morning to pouring rain and roads starting to flood. We were staying pretty close to Disney, so I figured we would still be able to get there. It definitely wasn't as bad as that this morning, but I was still definitely in a hurry to get over there. It turned out that we could have taken our time and not had to spend so much time sitting in the lobby, but we just didn't know. Now the hard part is not knowing what to expect from the hurricane itself since we've never been in one.
I'm so grateful that everything timed out the way it has. People say there is no safer place to be in a Hurricane than on Disney property. We settled in, played some games and made a cocktail. We made meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans for dinner.
Today, Jacob has a fever. He went straight to bed when we got into the room. At least he's not missing out on anything and will have plenty of time to rest and get well.
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Radar at 1:55pm
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Its about 9pm now. The rain and wind has become a lot stronger just now. The hurricane was a category 4 when it hit Florida, but has been downgraded to a three. The main part of the hurricane is currently scheduled to get here at 2am, but should be significantly weakened by then. Let's hope!
Thursday 9/29/22 Day 10 - Hurricane Ian Day 2
Well it REALLY looked scary when we went to bed last night. Looked like it was coming straight at us and even though it should be downgraded to a category 1 or tropical storm by the time it gets here,... having never been through anything like this, we just didn't know what to expect. I asked Marc to close all the blinds and curtains when he came to bed, just to reduce the chances of glass flying if the windows broke. He also brought in some of the metal chairs on our balcony and flipped the table upside down. We placed candles out and matches nearby. Made sure our portable phone chargers were filled up too. Then prayed and went to bed.
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| BEFORE |
When Marc's cell phone went off with a loud alarm this morning at 3:30am with a flash flood warning, I checked out the situation and even though it was looking good, I couldn't fall back to sleep. It was a category 1 hurricane at that point but was no longer coming straight at us. It was veering off to the East which is the opposite of where it was forecast for days ahead of time. and apparently the better side for Orlando Once the sun came up, I could see a couple of big limbs broken off of a nearby tree, but that's all. Best outcome I could imagine!
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| Tree limbs down AFTER |
It looks like clouds will clear by tomorrow so hopefully we'll be able to go to Epcot and get back to the fun! Marc and I did spend time rearranging park plans and dining reservations. We now have 10 park days to use over the next 12 days. Looks like our plans for St. Augustine and Kennedy Space Center are out. Just hoping for parks and pools now.
We enjoyed our comfortable surroundings and each others' company. The kids made cereal and eggs for breakfast. Zoe and I made soup and grilled cheese for lunch. Jacob stayed in bed most of the day with a fever but ate a bowl of tomato soup for lunch. Max wasn't feeling great either. At least the timing is good for them to rest. I checked and adjusted Jacob after lunch.
Kyrie summed it up about right. It was hard to fall asleep at first with all the wind blowing and knowing that the big part of the storm was still to come. Eventually I got used to the noise and fell asleep and everything was fine. I expected to wake up to see some trees down and a lot of broken branches, but there was only one downed tree that we could see and really not that many branches.
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| We took a walk in the late afternoon |
Lots of leaves and twigs though. It was a drizzly day mostly and obviously there was no where to go, so we just spent the day playing board games and eventually taking a couple walks. We had dinner in the resort restaurant, Olivia's. They had a limited menu, but it seemed to have most of the usual stuff.
Jacob and Zach made their own dinners in the room. Jacob felt well enough after dinner to join in a game of Disney Villains Clue. Max won.
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| "Why am I here?" -That Guy |
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Trailer filled with brush
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| Disney is always entertaining |
Finally, just before bed time for me, we found out that what time the Disney Parks open tomorrow. Magic Kingdom opens at 8am, Epcot at 9am, Hollywood Studios at 10 am and Animal Kingdom at 11am. The first TWO HOURS are for resort guests only! This is great news for us. For one thing Epcot, our planned destination, opens an hour later than usual, so people get to sleep a little later. But the best news is that only guests with park reservations can get in and 2 hours of resort guests only should make a very light attendance morning.
Friday 9/30/2022 Day 10 - EPCOT
We got to sleep in a little later today because Disney opened the parks later. They also had two hours of resort guest only, in order to keep the roads clear a little longer for emergency vehicles heading south. This kept wait times down quite a bit and we were able to get on most of the big rides during that first two hours.
We needed Jacob and Max awake by 6:50 to prepare to get a "boarding pass" for the Guardian of the Galaxy ride. This is currently the only way to ride it other than paying $17 each for "Individual Lightening Lane." The boarding passes are all claimed within seconds and many people don't get one. We were fortunate. Max had the quickest finger, and got boarding pass number 3! This meant we could get in line anytime before 10:59am.
Even though we arrived at the bus stop 75 minutes before the Epcot was opening, the bus arrived 45 minutes later and was full by the second stop of 4 at Old Key West. With research, we knew which stop would be first and were the second family to arrive so we'd be sure to get on. Still we only arrived at Epcot a few minutes before the 9:00am opening.
Nearly everyone headed to Remy: A Ratatouille Adventure all the way across the park from our park entrance. It took 11 minutes to walk there and we're pretty fast. The wait time ended up being 20 minutes and quickly built up to 55 minutes by the time we exited the ride. We had to buy some croissants while we were in "France."
Next we went on Frozen, another notoriously long wait later in the day. Our wait was about 30 minutes even though it was labeled 50 on our way in. This gave us just enough time to get to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride on time.
This was our first time at EPCOT since Ratatouille and Guardians of the Galaxy opened. We loved both rides. We had been on Ratatouille at Disneyland Paris and this version isn't any different, but it's such a fun ride!
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| Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind |
Guardians of the Galaxy was awesome as well. It had quite a bit of the humor from the movies and a really good roller coaster. I was concerned that it would make me nauseous because the ride vehicles sort of spin, but it wasn't a problem. The ride controls the spinning, so it's not out of control and works pretty well.
Both Zoe and I had the same thought upon exiting GotG, "This is what Space Mountain SHOULD be like." It was really great and I think a pretty tame roller coaster. It was fun and Zach and Ella especially enjoyed the music. We can't wait to ride it again.
We had lunch at Le Creperie. I didn't like it very much. These savory crepes were made with buckwheat which is apparently traditional. I liked the desert crepes that were made with white flour.
I liked Le Creperie likely because I expected the buckwheat savory crepes, whereas it was a surprise to Marc. I also enjoy whole grains more I think. It was a nice relaxed lunch. The salad was really good too. Overall, the experience was just okay.
Zach's priority after lunch was to get to the DVC Lounge. It's literally his FAVORITE attraction at Epcot. Even though I tried to distract him by going through the World Showcase. everyone just made it a quick walk only stopping in Mexico to ride Three Caballeros.
Other than that we just went on some more rides and had a good time.
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| Jacob bought cool Mickey shades |
I finally agreed to take Zach, Ella, and Jacob to the DVC lounge while three others went on Mission: Space. Zach enjoyed playing simple video games and spilled a whole glass of water. At least it was just water.
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| Club Cool |
Jacob and I skipped Test Track too. The rest did single rider to save time. Both of these rides are boring in my opinion. Soarin' was walk on when we arrived.
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| The $300 Coach ears are cute but too steep a price tag for me |
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| The Zs try not to get a pic of skipping |
Overall, Epcot was much busier than I expected considering a hurricane had just come through two days prior, but was certainly less busy than it would have been on a Friday during the Food and Wine Festival. Today's touring reminded of us of past visits during lighter times of the year which really don't exist anymore.
We tried to eat as many of our leftovers as possible for dinner tonight because tomorrow we switch to another hotel and we packed way
WAY too much stuff.
!!
It was a really beautiful day with cooler and less humid temperature than usual. It was around 80 degrees as the high.
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| Sunrise |
Today had some surprises in store for us. Max got sick around 3:30am. And then 4am. He didn't want to lie down, so I propped him up with pillows the best I could and gave him a hot towel to soothe his stomach pain. We were going to get up early, pack up the van, check in at Bay Lake Tower and then walk over to Magic Kingdom to be there before open (8:30am.) We decided to sleep in and see how Max was feeling later.
Around 8am Zoe and Zach were up and Max still wasn't feeling well. We decided that Kyrie should take the rest of the kids to Magic Kingdom while I stay back with Max. That way I could contact the hotel to see about getting a room sooner and get the van loaded up.
Marc drove over to Bay Lake Tower to drop us off to walk and ask in person about getting our room as early as possible. Missing early entry but not by much, we fast walked over to Frontierland to try to get on some big rides before the park got too busy.
We were literally about to get on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad when Zoe vomited right over the gate. She was feeling faint and then before they could move us out of there, she did it again. They let us use a wheelchair to get to the front of the park where they swapped it out for a different one to use to walk to Bay Lake.
It's nice that Jacob is nearly 18 and a responsible kid, He, Ella, and Zach stayed at the park.
I let Max sleep as long as possible before we had to check out of Old Key West at 11am and then we joined Kyrie and Zoe outside of Bay Lake Tower.
Thankfully, our room was ready at about 12:30, which is MUCH earlier than usual. When Kyrie checked, the cast member said there were only two families checking out today from the room type that we had booked. He tried to find us an upgrade, but couldn't. He did switch our room to the one that checked out first and got it cleaned right away.
Max and Zoe promptly took naps and Kyrie joined back up with the others at Magic Kingdom.
Zoe was already feeling better though and ate food before I even got back to the park. She was just tired. I unloaded the van and put everything away. Usually Kyrie is the one that unpacks everything so good luck finding anything!
The kids rode Splash Mountain right away then waited for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for an hour. They were just getting off when I returned to the park. I bobbed and weaved through the impending parade area to reach them behind the castle before I got trapped.
We ate Lunch at Sleepy Hollow which I had been craving since we FIRST entered the park hours ago. I skipped breakfast knowing I could get the fruit waffle after the first couple rides this morning. Hahaha. It ended up being perfect though because we had an unobstructed view of the parade while we waited in line to order.
The park was super busy and lines were long so we ended up only going on Under the Sea Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Dumbo and Mickey's PhilharMagic before the kids had had enough and we went "home."
We text messaged Marc pictures of small pieces of carpet or other clues for him to guess where we were at. This way he could virtually experience our day at least.
Everyone was feeling good again by dinner time. Let's hope that's the end of that! The bright spot of the day, is that we were able to walk into Steakhouse 71 without a reservation. We had been trying to get one for days with no luck. The day ended well and we love our "standard" view villa at Bay Lake Tower.
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| This view is one of the reasons we love Bay Lake Tower |
Sunday 10/02/2022 Day 12 - Second day at Disney's Hollywood Studios and dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe
Everyone was feeling better today - yay! We went back to Hollywood Studios and this time used Genie+. I hated to spend the money on it, but at this park it was definitely needed. This was our first time using Genie+ at Disney World.
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| Getting our 7am Lightening Lane for Slinky Dog |
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| Waiting to open |
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| Only a handful of faster walkers |
Our methods allowed us to get into the first boarding group on the most popular rise at Hollywood Studios. The line builds withing minutes to an hour or more. People buy individual lightening lane passes for this for $14-$17 each rider. Crazy times! So, I like our method of being here a little earlier than most which allows us to get onto the next few rides faster too. It worked fairly well. We rope-dropped Rise of Resistance with early entry and made it on all the rides by about 3pm. Yay! My favorite kind of day!! Lots of rides with little wait and leaving early.
We had to choose between Slinky Dog Coaster and Mickey's Runaway Railroad. Since we hadn't been on Slinky Dog on this trip we chose that. It would have been possible to choose Runaway Railroad, but the time would have been late in the day and we didn't want to stay that long. We ended up going on the ride anyway in the standby line and probably only stood in line for 30 minutes.
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| Pizza Rizzo's for lunch |
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| No one had pizza. Meatball sub |
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| Goofy took a selfie with us |
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| On our way out |
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| Zoe debated about buying this hat - often |
We had a really fun and good dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe and then spent the evening at the pool.
Monday 10/3/2022 Day 13 - Second day at EPCOT
Anxious to maximize our fun today, we actually ended up at the monorail station before it opened. We hung out near the windows in the Contemporary and watched the sun rise over Bay Lake before catching the first monorail to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then onto Epcot.
It took us ten minutes to walk to the Remy ride this morning, a minute faster than the first day we dashed to France from the Future World/Main Entrance. This means we had a relatively quick wait and then had a leisurely paced rest of our day.
The kids and Marc posed at a London telephone booth the way they did when we visited London in 2019. It's getting a little tougher for all the kids to fit inside. Haha.
Jacob and I decided to check out Epcot's 40th anniversary merch. We both bought a shirt. His is pretty fancy.
I also had to try this super cute Figment dessert available only for a few days to celebrate Epcot's anniversary as well.
We had another fun morning at EPCOT. We didn't go on all the rides because the adults wanted a break! What?! We went on nearly all the rides. Wrong! we didn't even go on Living with the Land
The older kids might go back tonight.
We had lunch from Captain Cook's at the Polynesian and then spent the afternoon at the pool.
It took a little while to get our carryout order of 'Ohana noodles, but it was worth the wait. Marc was not feeling well so he missed out.
Well, the pool wasn't as uneventful as I expected. Zoe got a seriously bloody nose at the top of the water slide
right in the midst of a pool party event. Kyrie had to go up and get her and then it took like an hour to get it to stop. I'm not even exaggerating. There is no description that would be sufficient to describe this nosebleed. Let's just say that many pool towels were destroyed that day.
People thought she got hit in the face, gobs of blood was coming out of her mouth, strangers asked me how she was doing, and the slide was closed for decontamination for at least 30 minutes. Two yellow contamination garbage bags were filled by the time it was over.
Zach has been begging to go to Bay Lake's "kids club." It's actually an activity center that is pretty boring and an adult must accompany the kids. Finally, Zach got an opportunity to enjoy this amenity.
Marc went to bed very early. Jacob and Ella went back to Epcot on their own and the rest of us had a chill evening. I spent mine on the balcony enjoying the Contemporary/Monorail/Magic Kingdom/Sunset view. Zach read Zoe and I a "bedtime" story on the balcony while we waited for Jacob and Ella to return. I finally stayed up long enough to view the fireworks from the balcony with the kids too.
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| Finally spotted the kids returning "home" |
Tuesday 10/4/2022 Day 14 - Second day at Magic Kingdom
We got another early start this morning. This time walking over to Magic Kingdom in the dark. It was a pretty morning.
We did Genie+, which I am definitely not a fan of, but unfortunately find it necessary at some of the parks. Genie+ slows down the regular line far more that Fastpass ever did. I think that since people are paying for Genie+, Disney feels obligated to let them go straight on the ride. With the old Fastpass system, they tried to keep the standby line moving and took turns with the fastpass line. This is causing some rides to have lines that almost never used to and making the standby lines move quite slowly. They also seem to be inflating some of the standby wait times
...by alot so that the Genie+ users feel they're getting a greater value. This is especially true for the individual ride purchases. Today we went on Big Thunder Mountain without having to wait at all, even though it had a posted time of 45 minutes!
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Anyway, we had a good time and got on every ride. We had lunch at Diamond Horseshoe.
Yesterday was Marc's day of not feeling well. He had not eaten for over 24 hours and didn't want to start eating again with a huge meal, so he just sat with us and watched us eat. If it wasn't a family style meal, he would have ordered a little something.
Tonight we start packing for our next move!
Wednesday 10/5/2022 Day 15 - Check into the Enchanted Villa and meet up with the rest of the family
Today we checked out of Bay Lake Tower and spent some time at the pool there until we could check into the house we are renting with my mom and stepdad and my sister and her family.
Zach and I especially soaked up our last chance to enjoy our monorail/Contemporary/Magic Kingdom view. We were in no rush this morning. We were already pretty packed up and just waited for the day to warm up to head to the pool not knowing how long we'd be "stuck" there. Actually, I very much looked forward to our pool times, knowing the weather is getting cooler and cooler at home and that this is our extension of summer.
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| Dole Whip Cupcake |
I have this weird indulgence at Disney. I really like to try their various cupcakes. I will occasionally buy one the day before and rather than eat it for dessert that night, I'll save it for breakfast the next day. Disney just does an excellent job of coming up with beautiful and creative cupcakes. They are fun to try, so I will miss this while we stay off property. I had one for lunch today instead of breakfast. And for the record, I do not eat them every day.
The house is called The Enchanted Villa (listed on VRBO and vacation2florida.) In the midafternoon we received notice that we could check in early, so we headed right over there.
We were all loaded in the van, when Zach remembered that he's left his tablet plugged in charging behind a chair in the living room of the villa we'd checked out of two hours ago. Thankfully, Marc was able to retrieve it from housekeeping without holding us up a terribly long time.
Upon arriving at The Enchanted Villa, I took pictures of course while everyone unloaded. I spent the first 75 minutes assembling gift baskets to elevates everyone's experience. The baskets included matching t-shirts and custom tumblers that Ella and Zoe made. We also brought some spa items for the ladies, snacks and drinks for the gentlemen, electrolyte powders to add to water to stay hydrated, and a special Mickey shaped rice crispy treat or something similar. Oh, we also added Disney H2O bath soap, lotion, etc. so everyone could smell like Disney if they chose to.
We are REALLY happy with the house! It is a 9 bedroom, who knows how many bathrooms (11) house with a cool game room, big pool and hot tub, movie theater and so much more. Plus, every one of those bedrooms is tastefully Disney themed! It's so much fun and will be great for our large group of 13!
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| Really fun game room. Skeeball and racing games were popular and often used. |
We got a little pool time before Rita and Greg arrived. Then Jacob grilled Italian sausages for dinner.
In addition to the huge kitchen, living room, dining room, game room and laundry closet, The Enchanted Villa has three ensuite bedrooms on the main floor. The bedrooms all have a subtle elegant Disney theme. Rita and Greg stayed in the Frozen themed room.  |
| Frozen bathroom with tub in shower |
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| Marc stayed in the Princess and the Frog suite |
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One of two laundry closets
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| I had the Aladdin suite |
Upstairs there are six more ensuite bedrooms, a movie theater, a pool table in a gathering space, the other gathering space, and another powder room.
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| Jacob's much anticipated Haunted Mansion suite |
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| Max's Dumbo Suite had a balcony |
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| Avery, Ella, and Zoe shared this Toy Story room |
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| Melissa and Jay had the Tangled suite |
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| Kyle's Beauty and the Beast suite had a cool chest of drawers |
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Zach got this Avengers room all to himself
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| Second floor community space |
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| Movie Theater |
Most of us went to bed when Marc headed out to pick up the Ochwats from the airport. Everyone was here by the end of the night, so we are looking forward to a fun day together tomorrow!
Thursday 10/6/2022 Day 16 - Animal Kingdom
The kids are all loving the house and enjoying time with their cousins. We went to Animal Kingdom today. We tried doing something different (for us) today. We went to the Safari first and just took our time going (mostly) clockwise around the park just going to each ride or show as we got to it. That worked pretty well.
The only ride that didn't work out very well was Pandora, Flight of Passage. It would have been fine (probably an hour wait or maybe even less), but about halfway through the line we noticed that the line had really started slowing down...barely moving at all. Eventually, they announced that the ride was operating at reduced capacity. We had been in line so long at that point that we had to just stick it out. Ended up being in line for 2 hours! We were definitely ready to go home after that. We would have probably been ready anyway. Without access to early entry and rope dropping this ride, going in the late afternoon was our best option. The posted standby time was 90 minutes when we entered the line and knowing how the most popular ride times have been inflated by 50 to 100%, we anticipated an hour wait at the longest. It was a painful wait for sure, but at least the ride is fantastic. It might even be my favorite ride from all parks. I would have been sad missing it altogether and likely would have skipped it if we knew the wait would be two hours.
We got back in time for some late afternoon swimming and then we had a hot dinner delivered that we had arranged for ahead of time. It was good, but not great. Agreed. the dinner was fine but not all we'd hoped it would be for the cost. Most of us had steak (filet) which was just okay; Avery had chicken; and Melissa had Salmon. Our sides were asparagus and risotto which were both very delicious. Overall, it was a little less expensive than going to a Disney restaurant and nice to relax at our house rather than going out. For the cost, we' would have been happier if it had included salad and dessert, I think.
We ended the day watching movies of our first vacation as a group from 15 years ago. It was great! So cute seeing the kids when they were so young! And all the adults were so young too! It was extra cool doing this in the theater. It was so funny hearing the kids make fun of the way they acted and the way the adults dressed/ and looked.
Friday 10/7/2022 Day 17 Hollywood Studios - "Crowd it, and screw it"
When parking at Hollywood Studios today, Greg and I pulled in a little close to each other. The passengers in my van couldn't open their doors wide enough to get out, so we asked Greg to move his car over since there was a walkway on his side. It took him a minute to figure out what we were asking and once he did, his response was, "Yeah, crowd it and screw it!" The phrase sounded funny to us, so we were laughing, and Jay suggested that we put it on matching t-shirts for our next trip. We will repeat the phrase over the next few days in various circumstances, solidifying it in history.
The crowds have definitely arrived. Even though we bought Genie+ we spent a lot of time in line. Since we have 13 people, we don't all fit in one group on Genie+. We immediately picked Slinky Dog for our 7am Genie+ pick. One of our groups got 9:30am which was good, but our other group got 12:30pm. We made the mistake of going to guest experience to get everyone to the same time. They did, but not until 12:30pm. If we would have just gone to the ride, they would have got us all on at 9:30am. Anyway, this meant that we couldn't even pick our next ride until 10:30. By then, the earliest times for the next rides were late in the afternoon. So, we didn't even get to start using lightning lanes until 12:30 and were only able to get a few. The interaction with the Cast Member was less than pleasant from the beginning. We can definitely tell how employee shortages are lowering standards or expectations or something. While Disney is still fun, it's just not as magical as it once was.
Luckily, we got on Tower of Terror and Rock n Roller Coaster right away in the morning. We had a good time throughout the day. Just could have been a little better. Mom, Greg, Melissa and Zach left early while the rest of us stood in line for Rise of Resistance. It didn't go so well for them. There was a wrong turn involved and they picked up groceries. It took them a long time when they were already exhausted from the park. Also, Greg rented a scooter that day and it was the slowest one I've ever seen. So he was irritated about that all day as well and Mom was irritated that they wouldn't refund or credit them any money.
On the other hand, those of who stayed at Hollywood Studios had a good time. I was able to get a last-minute reservation for 3 for Olga's Cantina, the Star Wars themed bar. Kyle seemed most interested in exploring this area, so I asked if he and Jacob, and Max wanted to take the reservation. They got to get interesting mocktails there while the rest of us got cocktails/mocktails nearby quick service stands. Refreshed, we got into the 110-minute line for Rise of the Resistance which moved relatively quickly and didn't take more than an hour. The Ochwats began playing a game similar to charades in line which was both entertaining to us and to everyone around us. Time passed quickly and of course this is a great ride.
Then we used our last reserved lightening lane pass on Toy Story Midway Mania and headed "home."
Everyone had relaxed a little in the pool/hot tub by the time we got there, so they were in much better improved moods too.
Rita had made spaghetti sauce last night which I popped into the slow cooker early this morning. Melissa made a nice salad and garlic bread while I boiled the spaghetti, and we had a nice dinner.
We watched a slide show of another past trip in the theater and then celebrated Avery's birthday (early) with cake.
Saturday 10/8/2022 Day 18 - Magic Kingdom: "That could be you, Jacob."
After two park days, the majority vote today was to sleep in and go to Magic Kingdom when everyone is ready. Marc still needed to pick up some groceries, so he did that, and it turned out everyone was ready even before he returned. I got up early of course and have been charged with buying Genie+ for everyone and getting our first Lightening Lane reservations at 7am. I was hoping Splash Mountain would not be running at open like has often been the case in the past week. I chose it as our LL hoping it would default to an any ride at any time pass. Unfortunately, it was running, and I had to cancel this pass so that it wouldn't time out and changes it to Jungle Cruise because that one runs out first. All this to say, we had just one Lightening Lane for the Speedway to use immediately and stacked up the Mountains and Jungle Cruise to use later.
We took some group pictures when we entered the park. In the past the photographers would always happily take pictures with our cameras/phones in addition to their professional cameras. They did take one picture for us but didn't center it well or try as much to get a good picture. Not a big deal, but another decline in service compared to the past.
Ever since Kyle heard that Jacob wants to do the Disney college program he has been pointing out various jobs around the parks and saying, "That could be you, Jacob." My mom joined in as well, but she keeps pointing out jobs that would never be in the college program and things that Jacob wouldn't want to do anyway - like act in the Finding Nemo show. It's really funny.
We had lunch reservations at Skipper's Canteen which is a Jungle Cruise themed restaurant. We were split into three parties in three very separate areas of the restaurant. I spent a good it of time at Rita, Greg, Jacob, and Max's table trying to be sure their server would apply our DVC discount which she did. Their server was very pleasant and spoke to them a lot about the Disney College program which she is a part of apparently. I'm not sure whether she contributed to the theme of the Jungle Cruise or not. Our server unfortunately did not, but we could hear a server near us who did a great job of it. Marc and I ate with Zoe and Zach and the Ochwats had Ella with them.
It was still very crowded, but things worked much better today. We alternated between rides and shows and had a very relaxed day even though most of us stayed until the park closed at 11pm.
I did the best I could to make use of Genie+ and serve our groups' desires at least until I left. Zach and I got dinner at Sleepy Hollow while the rest dined at Pecos Bill's. Zach and I were ready to go about an hour before Rita and Greg and Melissa. I just hate crowds and was glad I was through the already crowded Main Street two hours before the fireworks. I had even considered Ubering "home" earlier in order to get a little daylight time in the hot tub. Once dark, the bugs bother me too much. I was glad though to catch a ride home with Rita and Greg. I did some laundry and emptied dishwashers and went to bed long before the others returned.
It sounds like they enjoyed their evening time and took in several more attractions along with a last-minute spot to view the nighttime show and fireworks. Kyle and Jacob took a nice picture together in front of Haunted Mansion.
Sunday 10.9/2022 Day 19 - Rest Day, Miniature Golf, and 'Ohana style dinner
Today was our "day off."
I was excitedly anticipating this day. About 8 weeks ago, I fractured my heal and while it's much better than it was, I'm still in constant pain walking...and we've been doing a lot of walking! I savored the pool time today.
Jay took the kids to mini-golf that had alligators. They seemed to have a good time. The rest of us spent the day in the pool. Most of us really needed a break, so we enjoyed it.
For dinner tonight we hired a private chef who made us a dinner inspired by Disney's 'Ohana restaurant. It was excellent and we had plenty of leftovers. Our chef was Linda, from A Chef of Your Own.
We were pleased with the quality of the food especially the chicken wings, potstickers, steak kabobs, and the bread pudding with bananas foster sauce. I think the 'Ohana restaurant also has caramel in its sauce which would have made this taste exactly the same. The noodles were nothing like 'Ohana's though although she did make them gluten free using rice noodles so that was nice as we were especially trying to accommodate Melissa's needs.
Monday 10/10/2022 Day 20 - Epcot
After our rest day, everyone was up early again and ready to take on another Park. We spent the day at Epcot.
We were fortunate to get Guardians of the Galaxy virtual queue for all of us and also a Lightening Lane for Remy. Neither of these are guaranteed as they are both highly sought. Even though we tried withing seconds of each other, I got Remy at 12:30 for 12 of us and Jacob got 4:30. Imagine how many people are up at 7am trying for these.
At Epcot, Greg was able to rent his scooter, which was faster but not fast by any means, before the park opened for "regular" (not staying on property) guests. Rita and Greg with the scooter were actually able to start making their way toward the Frozen ride, our first priority, before they dropped the rope at open.
Using Genie+ today helped us reduce wait times and avoid retracing steps that we would have done without it. Still everyone skipped Test Track and we didn't go on the Nemo ride this whole trip. It's not a ride that's worth waiting for and it had standby lanes posted at 40 minutes often. Now perhaps it was really 15 or 20; we never checked it out. We didn't go on the Figment ride today either for the same reason. The whole wait time and Genie+ thing is irritating honestly, yet our group spent about $200/day the three days we used it. And it was better with it than without it.
We had a good time going on most of the rides. Lunch was at Chefs de France (since that was the only place we could get reservations even 60 days in advance!). It was good, but would have liked to have other restaurant options.
Upon entering the building to see the Disney and Pixar short films, the kids decided to wait to take a picture with Mickey Mouse. They all hugged him when they greeted him and took a nice group photo, then they acted like their previous little kid selves in a silly photo: Avery crying, Ella and Zoe acting sweet, Jacob over the top excited, Kyle carrying "the baby", and Max not looking at the camera. So funny!
To wrap up the day, Avery and Jay went for a second ride on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind using Melissa and Kyle's unused virtual queue passes. The rest of us headed home a little bit earlier but they were right on our tail.
Having had a large meal midday, anyone who was hungry ate leftovers from our 'Ohana style dinner. This was plenty and easy.
We watched the last of our prior trip's pictures as the Ochwats leave for home tomorrow afternoon.
Tuesday 10/11/2022 Day 21 - Magic Kingdom and Ochwats go home
Ella woke with an earache a couple of times last night. Marc did his best to soothe it. I encouraged Ella to stay home with me today, as I had decided to just because I wanted the vacation to end more restfully and my heal was killing me. Ella could not be dissuaded.
We went to Magic Kingdom this morning. Since they have the Halloween party tonight the park was very quiet for the first few hours. We made it on several rides (although Splash Mountain was closed - bummer), and watched the Philharmagic show.
After lunch at Cosmic Rays it was time for Melissa's family to head to the airport. We were all ready to leave by then anyway.
Marc drove the Ocwats to the airport while Rita and Greg brought Zach and Ella back to the house. The kids were feeling lousy. Zach had even fallen asleep face first on a table at lunch. He went to bed when they got home and only awoke briefly for maybe an hour after dinner before going back to bed for the night.
Wednesday 10/12/2022 Day 22 - Everyone departs
The rest of us left at 6:30am this morning. Kyrie and Jacob flew back to Chicago, Mom and Greg drove on to St Augustine and Georgia and the rest of us drove to Tennessee. Tomorrow we will get back home. Looking forward to it.
We had a really nice trip. The time when all the families are together always goes too fast, but I'm glad we got to do it again. Next time we will probably pick a beach vacation or something a little more relaxed. It gets a little too busy to try to spend time at the parks and still relax at the pool. I think this how we always feel. Melissa said, "Disney trips are like pregnancy. You forget how tiring and painful it is, so you do it again." (Or something like that.)
Zach has already called making a photobook for this trip. Jacob says he's going to make a slideshow, so I started taking some videos when he announced that. I hope they do, and I hope we get another group trip together to watch it!
For breakfast we had Green Eggs and Ham and Who Hash. And lunch was excellent at Cowfish. The food their is basically Sushi and Hamburgers and they also make a combination of the two, which is pretty interesting. Everyone seemed to like lunch, even the picky eaters.
It's currently "Passholder Days" which means there a few perks for Annual Passholders. We bought APs last November which would have been a good deal just for that trip, but an even better deal using them again for this trip. Theme Park tickets x 7 people = big bucks! So it's really nice to pay $0 dollars this time. Any way, the perk we get during PH Days is early admission to a Islands of Adventure. 
We got to ride Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure with little wait. This is currently the most popular ride at Islands of Adventure. We saw wait times of up to 3 hours!!! 
After lunch we went to an escape room at American Escape Rooms. We got Max a "gift certificate" (more like a homemade IOU) for the Great Movie Escape Room at Universal's City Walk for his birthday present in June. Unfortunately this place hasn't opened yet, so we found a different Escape Room to go to. We did drive through the city of Orlando which was a first for us. There were some skyscrapers and everything. We were looking for a quick and healthy enough lunch on our way. We settled for Five Guys. At least it's real food. 
We did the Mind Boggler room and had a lot of fun. We ran out of time before figuring out the last couple of clues, but we were close. It was fun but not very themed. It was very plain.
Zach takes Marc place of reading the girls and me a bedtime story. Marc usually reads a Harry Potter book, but Zach brought along some Sandra Boynton books for his own bedtime reading pleasure. He read us one in the voice of Yoda. He added extra words into the book to make it a Star Wars themed story too. So cute and funny!
We (They) slept in this morning and then some of us went to Universal for a few hours this afternoon. 
We waited for a couple more hours and then Kyrie asked when our room would be ready. They were able to find us a room right away then, so we finally got settled in at about 2:00pm. It rained off and on, but nothing too serious so far. I'm sure the situation is much worse on the coasts. We feel well prepared with food and games. 
The park was super busy and lines were long so we ended up only going on Under the Sea Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Dumbo and Mickey's PhilharMagic before the kids had had enough and we went "home." 
I also had to try this super cute Figment dessert available only for a few days to celebrate Epcot's anniversary as well.
Anyway, we had a good time and got on every ride. We had lunch at Diamond Horseshoe. Yesterday was Marc's day of not feeling well. He had not eaten for over 24 hours and didn't want to start eating again with a huge meal, so he just sat with us and watched us eat. If it wasn't a family style meal, he would have ordered a little something. 
We didn't have any bags so we quickly and easily got out of the airport and Marc and the kids picked us up. Sure was great to see them! Their timing was perfect. 
He ded lol
Knowing how tiring theme park trips can be, we planned for today to be a sleep-in and rest day. Of course, I don't really ever sleep-in but it's nice to know it's an option. I get up before sunrise and enjoy watching day break. Jacob, Zach, Zoe, and Ella got up pretty early too and enjoyed coffee and the hot tub, t
We took a break from Universal today to have brunch at Trails End (in Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort) and do some resort hopping. 
We had some time for Zach and Zoe to play on the playground while we waited to be seated at Trails End. 
The girls have been anxious to go shopping for Disney backpacks. They earned $77.50 each by making custom Disney Shirts for a big family visiting Disney World this week too. They've been dreaming about buying souvenirs ever since. We started our Disney shopping at the Trading Post at Fort Wilderness. We saw a lot of cute items but didn't make any purchases here.
We ended up only buying one t-shirt so we did pretty good as far as I'm concerned! We also took the boat to the Wilderness Lodge and had some afternoon snacks and drinks at Geyser Point Bar and Grille. 
Max and Zoe promptly took naps and Kyrie joined back up with the others at Magic Kingdom. Zoe was already feeling better though and ate food before I even got back to the park. She was just tired. I unloaded the van and put everything away. Usually Kyrie is the one that unpacks everything so good luck finding anything! 
The kids rode Splash Mountain right away then waited for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for an hour. They were just getting off when I returned to the park. I bobbed and weaved through the impending parade area to reach them behind the castle before I got trapped. 
Everyone was feeling better today - yay! We went back to Hollywood Studios and this time used Genie+. I hated to spend the money on it, but at this park it was definitely needed. This was our first time using Genie+ at Disney World. 
Our methods allowed us to get into the first boarding group on the most popular rise at Hollywood Studios. The line builds withing minutes to an hour or more. People buy individual lightening lane passes for this for $14-$17 each rider. Crazy times! So, I like our method of being here a little earlier than most which allows us to get onto the next few rides faster too. 
Marc went to bed very early. Jacob and Ella went back to Epcot on their own and the rest of us had a chill evening. I spent mine on the balcony enjoying the Contemporary/Monorail/Magic Kingdom/Sunset view. Zach read Zoe and I a "bedtime" story on the balcony while we waited for Jacob and Ella to return. I finally stayed up long enough to view the fireworks from the balcony with the kids too. 
Today we checked out of Bay Lake Tower and spent some time at the pool there until we could check into the house we are renting with my mom and stepdad and my sister and her family. Zach and I especially soaked up our last chance to enjoy our monorail/Contemporary/Magic Kingdom view. We were in no rush this morning. We were already pretty packed up and just waited for the day to warm up to head to the pool not knowing how long we'd be "stuck" there. Actually, I very much looked forward to our pool times, knowing the weather is getting cooler and cooler at home and that this is our extension of summer.
The house is called The Enchanted Villa (listed on VRBO and vacation2florida.) In the midafternoon we received notice that we could check in early, so we headed right over there. We were all loaded in the van, when Zach remembered that he's left his tablet plugged in charging behind a chair in the living room of the villa we'd checked out of two hours ago. Thankfully, Marc was able to retrieve it from housekeeping without holding us up a terribly long time.
Upon arriving at The Enchanted Villa, I took pictures of course while everyone unloaded. I spent the first 75 minutes assembling gift baskets to elevates everyone's experience. The baskets included matching t-shirts and custom tumblers that Ella and Zoe made. We also brought some spa items for the ladies, snacks and drinks for the gentlemen, electrolyte powders to add to water to stay hydrated, and a special Mickey shaped rice crispy treat or something similar. Oh, we also added Disney H2O bath soap, lotion, etc. so everyone could smell like Disney if they chose to.
We got a little pool time before Rita and Greg arrived. Then Jacob grilled Italian sausages for dinner. 
