ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Off on our first adventure walking to the International Gateway at EPCOT. We had seen the walkway on our surrey bike a couple of days before so we were pretty sure we knew where we were going. We all met on the Boardwalk near the bakery and I saw that DH had given Blake his room key as he liked holding it and getting into the room by himself. I didn't want him holding $200 worth of tickets (which were on his room key) especially as we were about to go into a park. I took the card from him and told him he could have it back later but major tantrum began at that point. SIL knew we'd grown very frustrated with Blake by this point and she took him away from us and sat him in a chair and let him scream it out. It took him 30 minutes to calm down and his hair was soaked from working up quite a sweat screaming in the sun. I actually appreciated SIL doing this as DH and I do get so beaten down by Blake. We have him scream it out at home but it's tough in public knowing exactly what to do sometimes.

Breakfast on the Boardwalk

So we were off to EPCOT and Blake wouldn't have another episode like this for the rest of the trip. Get to the World Showcase shortly after 11 and proceed toward Canada to start the loop around. The plan was to spend a few hours at the World Showcase and then leave for Typhoon Lagoon for the rest of the day. Went to get Payton a passport so she could get it stamped in each country and then we're off looking for the Kidcot station in Canada. Isaac is very upset that we aren't doing any rides and it is sweltering hot and there is no entertainment until later in the day so I propose that we make our way to the USA, have some lunch somewhere along the way and then leave for Typhoon Lagoon. Payton and I would try to return later and finish her passport book - WS is something she and I are much more interested in seeing anyway.

The Dan family in EPCOT

Group ends up settling on food in USA much to my embarrassment (I'm big on trying a variety of foods and my daughter has even come around on this) but it makes everyone happy to get something to eat and be in the A/C. We head out from there back to BWV to change into swimsuits and get our beach bags together. Wait for 15-20 minutes for a TL bus and then we're off. We get there and it is PACKED. The wave pool is full of people and it's tough to find any empty chairs. I keep walking and finally find a spot to put our stuff and grab a few chairs. Then the group is off in different directions - Dan and Katrina have the older kids and Joey. Dan for some reason always wears his glasses even on waterslides and wave pools and lost his glasses in the wave pool. It was pointless looking for wire frame glasses amongst the huge amount of people. He did file a report that he'd lost them but he never did find them. He had trouble seeing the rest of the trip. Andy, Blake and I go for the lazy river as Blake was afraid of the wave pool. Lazy river is so much fun and so lengthy - very relaxing and a good introduction to the water for Blake. After that, Blake wanted to play in the sand and Andy stayed with him. I was off in a search for frozen lemonade and ended up walking around the whole park. I spotted the cute little Ketchakiddee Creek area and get the group together to start moving in that direction and find new seats. By this time, people had really started leaving the park and shortly after we'd relocated, it started to rain which really got people out of the park. We found a spot under a umbrella and the little ones didn't even seem to notice the rain as they dug in the sand and made many trips to the water with their buckets. After the rain cleared out, I suggested we go play in the Ketchakiddee Creek play area (Dan and Isaac had gone to the shark reef by this time but the rest of us headed for KC). The kids loved this and Payton spotted the little water slide type of thing in this area. The little ones were very excited and much to our surprise really loved it. They wanted to do it over and over and over again. Dan and Isaac return from shark reef and we want Dan to get pictures of the little ones on this water slide thing so they proceed to go again and again. It's about 1 hour until closing (why do they close SO early?!) so Katrina, me and Isaac head for the big waterslides. We walk right onto 3 of them and then we're packed up and headed out of the park. Everyone had a great time.


Back to the hotel and Payton and I were off to complete the World Showcase and catch another Illuminations. Dan and Isaac had also gone so they could get dinner in Mexico. We meet up with them in Mexico and eat together and order food to go for the others who are back at the hotel.

Eating with Dan and Isaac in the World Showcase

Payton and I stay there to tour the remaining countries and she gets them all to stamp her booklet. We make it to the bridge between France and the UK when Illuminations begins. We watch and walk quickly to catch a Friendship boat back to BWV. We were in our room at 9:24 p.m.

Walked to International Gateway about 30 minutes before opening. When we were finally let in (after 9:00 I might add!) our cards (me, DH, DD and DS) read as voided. Turned out that DH had requested an extra room key without any tickets on it to let Blake have. They had voided out all of the others. Luckily, the CM gave us a 1 day temporary ticket so we could get into the park. We were so mad that it had happened though but thankful we got into the park. I sent the group to spend time in Innoventions while I walked to get FPs for M:S and TT. Met up with them at Innoventions and we proceeded to The Land to ride Soarin'. Stand by was already 35 minutes and I couldn't get a FP for it yet since I'd just picked up some. Decide to head over for Journey into Imagination and HISTA. Afterward, I send the group to The Living Seas while I pickup FPs for Soarin'. Return time was 3 hours later. I go to The Living Seas and there is a line outside but my group isn't in it. I call them and they are already inside and didn't have any wait. It's now right around 11 and it takes me a good 15 minutes to get in and meet up with them. I hate the setup of this building and the hydrolators and the prison they hold you in before you can even get into a hydrolator. Ugh. I tell them that Turtle Talk with Crush is a must-see and a show had just gone in so I got into line. Everyone else joined me and we stood there for about 20 minutes (why doesn't this show have a FP?). This show is so incredibly cute - one of my favorites of the whole week. I'm still trying to figure out the technology behind it. Group explores The Living Seas while I wait with DH and Blake (I'm not big on observing animals).



Inside The Living Seas building

It's 12:20 now and we're all hungry. Future World eating options aren't too fantastic and everywhere is busy at this point. We end up at a hot dog cart and grab some hot dogs and sit in a shady spot near Test Track. Andy and I leave the group to go on TT and when we come out, we use the cell and find out the group was in Innoventions. Dan, Katrina and the two older kids head off to do TT and DH and I hang out with the little ones and make robots and just try to stay occupied and cool.

They come off TT and then it's time for M:S which I was so scared to do so SIL agrees that she will try it before I do and let me know how it is. Dan, Katrina and Isaac head off. DH and I and the other 3 kids head for the M:S play area. Dan and Katrina come off of M:S looking slightly bothered but say it's a cool ride. DH and I go get in line and my hands are sweating - the constant messages they show you and repeat over and over again didn't help the matters at all. I did fine on this ride and was the least bothered by it. Just remember to stare forward and don't close your eyes during this. Cool ride.

Off to Soarin' to use our last FPs of the day. SIL was still feeling a bit weird from M:S so she opted out of it and stayed with Isaac and the babies. The other 4 of us went into Soarin' (stand by at this time was 90 minutes) and it's a really nice ride although I'm definitely not as crazy about it as many people. To me, it's just like being at an IMAX film except you're elevated but oh well...nice ride nontheless. Come out of Soarin' and SIL is sitting with two toddlers asleep on her. We're ready to leave the park but it's 4:00 by this time. Can't believe this day has taken us so long!

Katrina and the sleepy kids wait for us to finish Soarin'

Have a 6:20 FDP at Hollywood and Vine and we get there early and get checked in. DH and I head over and get ToT FPs for after dinner. Come back and we are called to be seated. Food here was really good and everyone liked it. Me, DH and Dan head off to ToT as Katrina says she can't handle it so soon after dinner. Great ride, great theming. Then we're off to attend Fantasmic. We go in at 8:00 and sit for the hour before the show. If we'd waited, we wouldn't have gotten seats as it filled up quickly even in the FDP area where we were. Show was so amazing and everyone was just in awe. I thought that having the FDP would allow us to exit easier but we just got thrown in with the mass exodus and it didn't buy us anything. We all liked eating at H & V and loved Fantasmic but didn't feel the FDP was worth it.

Once again, got to bus stop by 8 a.m. and were headed for MK. Girls got to go in early today as we had 9:10 CRT PS courtesy of a fellow TGMer, Jane. I had left DH with instructions on what to do in Tomorrowland while they waited for us (FPs for Space, ride Speedway, go on TTA and Buzz). He did well and they followed the plan. Had Jane's number on my cell so I called and we met up in front of the castle. She and her family were very nice people and we were so thankful they allowed us to tag along on their PS. Jane went in to check in for our PS (we were about 1/2 hour or so early) and they told us that having an extra person wasn't going to work. Jane and I had both called Disney Dining previously to see if bringing 1 more than the PS would be ok and were told it was fine to do that. My SIL says Payton and I can just go in and she'll leave but I didn't want her to do that. Jane lets the front desk know that splitting us 8 and 3 was fine. We go into wait and Jane's sons are so cute posing with the Knight and Fairy Godmother.

Right at 9:10, our group is called to be seated and we are split 8 and 3 which worked out well. Orange juice is brought along with a basket of pastries. A little while later, our breakfast is brought and we like it all except for the French Toast which appears to be fried and topped with blueberries. Our waiter is fun and teases a lot. Our table got dripped on a lot from the ceiling and as we sat there, it kept getting worse but the waiter said they already knew about the issue and it was related to the A/C. It was fine...we were in the castle. :-) After eating, the princesses eventually make their way to us and my daughter is dressed in her Mulan costume and they all acknowlege that. They were all so nice and even my "big" girl who is supposedly past the princess phase really liked it. After getting pictures with all of the princesses, we are off to meet up with the boys in Tomorrowland and very thankful to Jane for allowing us to tag along.



Eating breakfast at the castle

Boys are in line for Buzz and about to get on. We decide to get in the short line as well and we go on it and meet up with them afterward. I get FPs for us to all ride it again later. Boys then proceed to use Space FPs while we grab some popcorn and settle in a shady spot. Boys come out and Katrina, me and Isaac go on Space while the dads and little ones go on TTA again (big hit with them apparently but I never did go on it). After this, we're all off to use our Buzz FPs and run into Jane in the gift shop there.


We are then headed off to ride It's a Small World as BIL had noticed we missed it on our first day. We are headed that way when we stop to watch one of the street performers near the Carousel. I'm in the nearby Tinkerbell shop looking for something for our niece who was just born right before we left for vacation. The rain begins to come down and it pours and it pours. We wait in the store for a while and then when it lets up, we head to IASW. This ride is so long and Payton said after a while of being on the ride "ok, now this is just getting silly." Oh well....guess you gotta do it once. ;-)

Then off to Haunted Mansion for the older kids and 3 adults. DH takes little ones over to PoC to see if there's a wait. We get off HM and call him and he says no wait. We all go on but Joey had fallen asleep at this point so he slept his way through the ride.

Time to eat now and we head over to Casey's Corner which we really liked for something fast but good. DH had gone to get Splash FPs for that evening and met up with us shortly after to eat. Downpour begins again and we wait for awhile under the covered porch area before leaving MK for the day.

Castle in the rain

It was only around 12:30 or so at this point and I had really wanted Isaac to go to Disney Quest since he's very into video games. All of us except DH and Blake head for DTD after a 10 minute break at the hotel to repack the backpacks and get our ponchos.

Dan and Isaac head for DQ while Katrina, me, Payton and Joey head for some shops. We walk to the west side so we can go to the Lego store and World of Disney. Lego statue thingies outside the store are really cool and we got pictures of the kids with the dragon and the family with the dogs.


Legos!

Then we were off to WoD store and could NOT believe the size of this place. We all got separated and although I had wanted to buy some things, I found myself completely overwhelmed at the size of this place and just ended up getting some postcards. We all eventually find each other and head out. Dan and Isaac are now finished playing at DQ and we catch a bus back to BWV. We decide to get off at the Swan/Dolphin bus stop and walk the short walk over to the Boardwalk as the bus still had a few more stops before getting to BWV. Dan and Isaac often run together so they started out with a "ready, set, go" and they were off. Dan slipped on the pavement and bruised his elbow and got himself muddy. He said it hurt quite a bit but he was ready to go again. So off they go again and this time Isaac slips and hits his head on the pavement. Katrina erupts into instant tears as she watches it happen and Isaac is just laying there. I take Joey so they can help Isaac and Payton and I stand away while some witnesses run into the Dolphin to find someone who can help. A man comes out and asks Isaac questions and examines his head and neck and he appears to be ok. The man says to wake Isaac up throughout the night to make sure he's ok. Whew. Very bad but he would end up being fine.

Just have about an hour or so before we need to leave to meet up with fellow TGMers at Pecos Bills for Spectro and Wishes and DH and Dan have disappeared while going to get our dinner. They had gone over to the Yacht Club to grab some hamburgers for us but it took a long time. When Dan finally did come back, he realized he'd left his and DH's room keys there and had to run back to get them. We take just a few minutes to eat part of our gigantic burgers and we're off to the bus stop. We arrived just as Spectro was about to start so we grabbed a spot near the front of the park. I didn't get to meet the other TGMers as a result but found our spot to be just fine and loved getting out of the park quickly and onto our bus right away. We were in our rooms by 10:40 p.m.


Blake getting ready for fireworks show

We're up early this morning getting everything packed up so we can go to the airport check-in desk. We all get our bags checked, receive our boarding passes and see that our flight had been moved to 9 minutes earlier. Not sure why they sometimes do that but oh well, it didn't really matter to us. By 8:30 or so, we were all finished with this and set to be picked up at 12:50 by the ME bus. Off to MGM we go via a Friendship boat.


On the Friendship boat

We get there slightly after opening, get our stroller and rent a locker as we had more stuff with us than normal so that we could take it on our flight. Load up the locker and we're off to the Playhouse Disney/Voyage of the Little Mermaid area while DH is off to get FPs for RnR. VoLM show is getting ready to start and they have 1 minute left to allow people in. DH makes it back just in time and we go in. When that is out, Playhouse Disney was starting within 10 or 15 minutes so we get in line for that. Get out of that and decide to start the walk down Sunset to use our FPs. FP return time was 11:15 and in order to do it with child swap and still make our boat back in time for ME bus, we'd have to be there right at 11:15. DH, me and Katrina go on while Dan waits with the 4 kids.


Dan got the kids treats while they waited

It takes us about 25 minutes to get through the ride and we decide that Dan can't miss this one so he and Katrina and Isaac go on it while DH and I take the little ones and Payton to turn in the stroller, unload our locker and proceed to the boat. Get on the boat right away and we're off toward BWV. Get a call from Dan and they are also on a boat right now and will get off at the Swan/Dolphin boat stop and walk the bridge over to save some time. We all meet on the Boardwalk as I frantically try to finish up some postcards and drop them in the mail slot. I realize the time and we're off to the ME pickup area except Payton has to use the bathroom so DH waits for her on the Boardwalk. They make it back just as our bus is pulling up and all 8 of us are off to the airport. The bus driver was very talkative during the trip and told us lots about real estate prices, showed us evidence of hurricane damage, etc. It amazed me how some bus drivers talked nonstop during our stay and others didn't speak at all.

Finally get to the airport and proceed to our gate and see that our flight has been delayed. We eat at Burger King nearby and Cinnabon for dessert and then go sit near our gate. Our layover in Chicago was only supposed to be 1/2 hour so we were pretty sure we'd miss that connection and wanted to be booked for another flight while we were in Orlando. Agent assured us we could just catch the next flight out and that there were plenty of seats available. I wasn't sure of this and asked for clarification from her again and was assured again. Finally get on flight out of Orlando and the flight takes longer than planned due to change in flight path due to weather.

We arrive in Chicago around 6 p.m. to complete mayhem as the terminal was packed full of people who had been delayed for hours due to Chicago weather. We try to get booked on another flight, we're given boarding passes and when we go to board, we are told we are on the wrong flight (even though the agent had written down this flight). We get booked on another flight and it's delayed until 11:30 p.m. We see there's an earlier flight than that so we get booked on that one - 4 sets of boarding passes since our time here. When we got the last set of passes, I asked the agent if there was anywhere for the little ones to run or climb as they were antsy. She said if we walked up a ways there was a climbing area that they could go to. It was quite a walk (15 minutes or so) but 100% worth it as it was actually a Children's museum right there and there was hardly anybody in that part of the airport and NObody was in the Children's museum play area. All 4 kids just loved this area and it helped keep tension down tremendously.

Playing in Children's museum area

After about an hour we make the walk back to our terminal and our flight is off at 10:30. Kids slept on the flight and when we land at DFW, our bags had arrived before us. DH went to get the car, we bid Family #2 farewell as they left for their house and we arrived home at 2:15 a.m.

Big delay getting this posted but here goes....

Thursday, May 25 - drove all night and got into my parents at 2 am.

Friday - I had my interview for 3 hours and it went well. Hope to hear from them to schedule a second interview soon. Lots of people over at Andy's mom's house (including all 8 of the grandkids!).

Saturday - Chatting w/my parents in the AM, swimming at Andy's mom's in the afternoon and then out for the night with my parents.

We went to BB's Lawnside BBQ in KCMO and Fast Johnny Ricker was the music for the night. Fun times. Some pics:


Fast Johnny Ricker.

Weirdest. Bass. Guitar. Player. Ever.

Sunday at noon was a picnic at a park in Lawrence with Andy's family. Beautiful park and the wind made it fairly easy to stay cool despite the high temps.





Baby Bree 1st Birthday cake.

Monday - long drive home complete with windshield wipers that flew off and then our A/C was broken when we got home! Found myself at Wal-mart at 11 pm buying a couple of box fans to keep us cooled down until the A/C started working again. Luckily, it did within a few hours.

Warning - this 24 hour trip report may end up as long as our Thailand trip report. :-)

So Amanda and I went to Austin on Saturday and had a great time. It started off slightly rough with some nausea but we were quickly on our way. We made good time, listened to a Mitch Hedberg CD that we hadn't heard before, and got there well ahead of schedule so we went and got checked into our hotel and grabbed some breakfast. Then, with 15 or 20 minutes to spare, we headed off for our Segway tour of Austin. The place was only about a mile away but the bridge we needed to cross was closed off! Turns out, President Clinton was in town for the UT commencement speech and some of the roads were closed for his motorcade. We were driving all over the place trying to figure out how to get there without that bridge. Took us about 25 minutes but we did finally get there! Good thing I had programmed the number in my cell so we could call and let them know we might be late!

So we get there and we're slightly anxious because we aren't sure we will do well on the Segways. Training took probably 45 minutes and we got comfortable quickly. Turns out, one of the girls that was also on the tour was a member of the Cherry Bomb rollergirl team in Austin. I had no idea roller derbies still existed and were so popular - learned something new!

So we're off on our tour and it was a lot of fun and we got a lot of pics.


Kind of toward the end, we were on a gravel trail near the river and Amanda was trying to scoot away from a cyclist and stepped off of her Segway and it ran into the little rock wall. No big deal as the Segways stay up pretty easily and she did the right thing by getting off. Pretty soon, I come off of mine as one of the tires slides into a rut. Of course, we were the only 2 in the group to come off of their Segways but it was fine and not a big deal.

At the end, we did an obstacle course and got good times on our second tries but of course rollergirl and her family beat us. :-)

So after the Segway tour, we were hot and sunburnt and headed off to our hotel to change into swimsuits and head to the rooftop pool at the Omni. Amanda asks the towel lady how we go about ordering drinks and she says we have to go down to the lobby. We have to go down 19 floors in our swimsuits to order drinks?! Turns out she was wrong and we ordered drinks which arrived 30 minutes later. View from the pool was great and it was very relaxing.....until a daycare showed up (ok, not really but it seemed like it) and there was splashing everywhere, including into our drinks.



Leave the pool and then we go to get showered and dresses for dinner. I get calls from work that something has to be fixed and luckily that was done in time for us to go to dinner. Dinner at the Iron Cactus on 6th Street. We sat on the rooftop patio and the food was really, really good.


Then we're off to see the bats on the Congress bridge. We park and walk quite awhile to get near the bridge to see the bats come out from the bridge at dusk. The bats are a big deal and draw quite a few people every night to watch them come out. We had visions of a Hitchcock movie with the sky being covered in big bats and making lots of noise. What we got was a small stream of little bird-looking bats that kind of made tweet noises. It could have been something from a Disney film! A little disappointing, I must say.


So then we're off to the Driskill Hotel with Amanda's vision of sipping lemon drop martinis and eating fancy desserts. We head to the Driskill which is located maybe 100 feet from our own hotel and Amanda wants us to valet park so she can avoid having to walk in her new shoes which are proving to be very painful to walk in. The hotel is very nice and we find a place to sit and place an order. They did in fact have lemon martinis and they did have fancy desserts - success! Amanda asks if the banana cake dessert is big enough for us to share and the waitress tells us that it's one of the bigger desserts so we just ordered the 1 dessert. We wait probably 20 or 25 minutes and out comes this behometh dessert......



Ok, so it wasn't so big. We looked at the waitress like she was a crazy person and opted to order another dessert right away since this one was so....um....diminutive. We got two forks to go with our mini dessert and just had 1 cloth napkin which, of course, we shared because we're just silly like that. We had much fun with the tiny banana cake and Amanda said she should have told the waitress "oh, you're not kiddin....that thing is huge!" which still makes me laugh. Second dessert comes and we contemplate telling the waitress that we are just too stuffed from the first dessert but we don't and we just pay and leave.

It's about 10:30 by now and I ask Amanda if we are going out tonight and she says "ummm....I thought we were out." So we go pick up the car at valet and drive it the whole way back to the hotel (very slowly I might add, to make the valet feel more worth it) and change into pajamas. Turn on SNL but mute it just in case they have Appalachian Emergency Room which is so hilarious. Amanda does a fantabulous Netti Bo Dance impression. Sadly, no Appalachian Emergency Room this episode but....we did watch a DVD that had us in hysterics. Good times.

Go to bed and apparently the guys next to us decide to have a party in their room. They had 10 guys in their room (despite signing a "no party" policy at check in stating that nobody was allowed in the hotel unless they were a paying hotel guest). Amanda called for security to come, then she called back to say things seemed to have calmed down, then called again to say they hadn't. Turns out that the police had come and removed 7 of the guys and 1 guy was left because he was passed out and unmovable. Sigh.

The hotel alarm goes off at 6 am and I can't figure out how to get it off. Amanda gets it unplugged and back to sleep until about 10. Guys next door are awake and LOUD again. We're not sure how much they actually slept.

Get checked out via video checkout and head for the elevators. Guys at the elevator waiting turned out to be our friendly party boys. We knew their voices but they didn't know who we were. They proceeded to tell us all about their night and how somebody called the police and broke up the party. One of the guys was still drunk and asking random people if he smelled like bourbon and he was a total jerk. What a coincidence we'd get stuck with them in the elevator.

We head for Las Manitas for breakfast/brunch and then to Zilker Park to possibly swim in the springs there. We enter Zilker Park through the wrong entrance and end up bypassing the ticket-taker. Feeling like fugitives, we scope the place out and finally end up in the area of the springs. The area looked neat but we decide to take the kiddie train instead and get the full tour. This area is like kid paradise with playgrounds, the train, the swimming area and soon, there will be a waterpark as well. Nice area.


We head out for the highway to make our way home but not before getting stopped by the police. I had crossed a solid white line on the highway in a moment of confusion about which lane I was supposed to be in. He reminded me about how dangerous it was and I ended up not getting a ticket for that but he did notice that I didn't have my inspection sticker on the car so he cited me for that instead.

On our way again, we passed time listening to random music from her ipod, much of which was 80s metal music and brought back lots of good memories from our teenage years. We stop at the outlets in Hillsboro but I only wanted to go to the Gap outlet. We thought it would be really funny to have the metal music playing at full blast and ask people for directions to the Gap or Ann Taylor or Liz Claiborne. Good times.

Picked up a few good buys at the Gap outlet and finally made our way home. Lots of fun and my stomach muscles still hurt from laughing so much the whole time! If we end up staying in Texas, need to make another trip down to Austin w/the family. They'd love it.