ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Today is Sunday which would normally be a green day to go to MK but TGM had somewhat advised against it due to increased crowds partially (or entirely?) due to the "red shirts" (the Gay Days participants) but I had decided we'd go ahead and keep our MK plans for this day. Family #2 was ready a couple of minutes before we were - much to my surprise - and we were off to the Boardwalk bus stop by 7:45 or so to catch the 8:00 bus. Got to MK at 8:20 and got in line. Kids were all cranky this morning after a late night and long day traveling the day before. The sun was getting hot and the kids impatient so I pulled out the best time passer of the week: bubbles! I bought the party pack of 24 small bottles of bubbles at Target before leaving because it's always something we use for Blake when he is getting antsy. It ended up being something all the kids liked doing as they waited and the other kids around us liked chasing the bubbles as well.


Blowing bubbles

Get through the turnstiles and wait for the opening ceremony and rope drop and we're all getting very excited. I never did find a CM selling the stroller vouchers and was told to just go to the counter once the rope dropped. I didn't want to have to do that but that's what we'd have to do. Rope drops and the enormous push of people separates our group as I head to the stroller rental line. BIL actually got pushed into the park and had to make his way back to us. Got the stroller vouchers after a little bit, took them to the rental area and got our double stroller. Unloading two 35 pound kids and a couple of backpacks does wonders! We were off and running to Dumbo!

Got to Dumbo and the line had already grown. We waited about 4 or 5 rotations for our turn on this ride. Isaac was very upset that we were doing baby rides and wouldn't even ride with his little brother. Payton, me and the two little ones rode while the others waited nearby. This was to be our longest line for a ride of the whole week. From here, we were off to the other attractions - Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow White and Philharmagic....all of which we loved and walked right on to.

Payton and Joey on Dumbo ride

Then it was off Toontown Fair. DH rode Barnstormer with the two little ones and they did ok (Blake got a little scared but survived. Joey will do anything.) Then caught the train to Frontierland which was a good thing to do coming off of Barnstormer for a scared Blake - "hey, now we get to go on the TRAIN!"

On the train

Grab FPs for Splash and BTMRR (since we did child swap, we could use half of our passes for one, the other half for the other ride so we often had two sets of FPs at once). Then off to lunch at Pecos Bills after Blake decided to throw a fit by the FP machines on BTMRR. Lots of looks as we let him sit and yell it out on the retaining wall right there but that's what we have to do with him. After lunch, we used our FPs and child swapped. BIL told me he felt bad walking by all the people in those LONG lines when we went right to the front. I think he eventually got over this but not sure I ever stopped asking "why are these people waiting so long?!"

Let me just say it worked out so well having another family with us! Neither of our kids would/could ride these bigger rides so it was nice to swap with the other family and DH and I got to ride some things together.


1/2 second after BIL and SIL went down Splash Mountain

Out of MK at 1:30, back to hotel about 2:15 and settled in for nap at 2:45. Had a 5:30 PS at Spoodles which was right in our hotel so no buses to wait around for beforehand. Still, it was tough waking the kids up at 4:45 and not being able to fit in an afternoon swim as they had hoped. Off to Spoodles which had great food but not an entertaining place for ansty/cranky kids. Isaac loves shrimp but was unhappy with the lemon sauce on his so they graciously agreed to get him a new one that had only been sauteed in olive oil. Great food but just tough with the kids that night.


At Spoodles

We had an Illuminations cruise booked and had to meet the boat at 8:15 which gave us some time to spend on the Boardwalk. The kids didn't know about the cruise but knew that there was a surprise that night. We had a lot of fun renting one of the triple bench surrey bikes and it will be one of the best memories of the whole week as we sped quickly around the water with all 8 of us. Blake was in charge of the bell and Andy said "more cow bell" to him (SNL reference if you knew that Will Ferrell character) and the rest of the trip the two little ones would scream "MORE COW BELL!!!" at every surrey bike they saw.


On the surrey bike


The fun mirrors right there by the boat dock were also really funny and SIL had tears in her eyes from laughing so hard at the kids in the mirror.


Fun mirrors

Illuminations cruise boat arrived right at 8:15 and we all got on and Isaac says "is this the surprise?!" He was definitely the most thrilled but we all loved it. Our driver, Ron, was fantastic telling us funny stories and interesting tidbits about the various things we saw. He had us sign a book he keeps with all of his passengers in it and we left a nice note for him there. Watching Illuminations was fantastic and couldn't believe how we could feel the heat of the fire. Great show and this cruise was one of the highlights of the whole trip.


Boat cruise