Monday Funday -
I’ll keep it brief.
I was up early to take Dsis to the airport to fly home.
When I got home, DD15 & DD6 were playing some pool.
We did a little laundry, then headed to Tampa to visit friends who were transferred there for the Navy 18 months ago.
She had a feast for us, and we got to spend about four wonderful hours catching up.
The pool was FREEZING. But the sun was warm and wonderful.
[!
We headed back around 4PM and it was an easy drive. We made tacos in a bag.
This would have brought on great sadness for me!!! She is my favorite!!
Baby is wonderful thanks for asking! I seriously love the newborn stage and all the cuddles.
Even though November is hunting season maybe I could take just the girls to WDW if they continue the November theme for the homeschool group.
Can you talk more about what you brought for lunch? I’m having trouble going beyond the sandwich + salty side + apple combo.
Of course we will read it…because we are Disney junkies!
I’ve actually never watched the whole movie. I couldn’t stay focused when my kids and DH watched it and they’ve never rewatched it! I am addicted to video game called Disney Emoji Blitz on my iPhone. I don’t get to play it as often as I’d like (because of all the adulting I have to do) but my favorite emoji to play with is Joy. Having my picture with her was a private joke between DD15 and I, because she is also addicted to the game (but gets to play it more because she’s not doing as much adulting).
OT: What will I do with these red pants now?? I paid $15 for them then $12 to have them shortened. (I am 5’9"… and they were too long… no wonder they were at Marshalls!)
I totally miss this. I am in that stage where it is extremely unlikely I will have more, but at least 4-5 years from having grandbabies. 
She’s been doing fall trips for a long while. I think they will be around. She’s occasionally done spring ones. There is a multiple week window that her fall trips cover, too. We were amongst the earliest travellers.
Absolutely.
In general I dread packing lunches IRL. It feels like a lot of work. But I knew that I’d have my Dmom, Dsis, and DDs 13 & 15 to help. I also really wanted to save the money for treats. We always have to say no to treats because DS19 has a host of food allergies and can barely eat treats away from home. This was a time I could say YES to the girls.
None of my girls have really been exposed to peanut butter (because that is one of DS’s allergies) so PB&J wasn’t an option.
My goal when planning was to have a variety for our sandwiches. So I had some sandwiches on those thin, round sandwich breads, some on croissants, some in pitas. I had a variety of cheeses, too: swiss, sharp cheddar and dill infused cheddar. I had shaved turkey and ham slices off the bat. After we decided to extend the lunch packing, I made another run to Walmart for more turkey and salami. We also had iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, and mayo and mustard. Additionally, I bought pre-cooked chicken chunks that I diced up and mixed with celery, cranberries, diced apple, cucumber, mayo and sour cream for chicken salad. With multiple adults working all of this prep took just 10-20 minutes a day. I don’t know if I would have bothered if I was doing it alone.
I also rotated through baby carrots, celery slices, grapes, whole apples, sliced cucumbers.
We entered the park each day with a lunch bag with sandwiches, a protein or cereal bar, chips or crackers, and a veggie/fruit. We had a second bag with one drink per person.
I had a stroller, but the lockers would have worked.
I totally get that packing a lunch is NOT for everyone. It also helped that my group was 7 and we could use up a whole bag or pouch of something in a day and not have to eat the same thing day after day to get through it. But it was perfect for us. Not only that it saved money - but it saved so much park time.
This was our starting point. I didn’t need to do the BOG breakfast, so I cancelled that. We more or less repeated the same meals for the second half.
meal template 2019.pdf (252.9 KB)
I thought that PDF would work.
I also remembered I had go-go squeezes for the younger girls.
Our last two trips to WDW had us at AK on our first Disney day. This time it was our last day. It has long been my favorite park, but I believe HS is a good tie now.
It is an 11 minute drive from our rental house to AK parking. So quick and easy via a western route – not the main WDW route.
7:40AM
7:59AM
They let us in at 8:20AM for the inner queue.
I had a FPP for Flight of Passage for 9:00-10:00AM.
Then we had Kilimanjaro Safari 10:05-11:05 and Dinosaur 11:05-12:05.
I warned my family that we were not heading to the same ride as 90% of the pack we were with, but we had congregated on the right and needed to safely navigate to the left.
We were heading to Navi and I was NOT going to rush.
As I was parking my stroller I watched someone dump their child-empty stroller as they were rushing for Navi. Then I saw a woman my age fall hard on the damp ground as she was full on RUNNING for Navi.
8:52AM
I took some poor photos on the ride – the last one I attempted is timed 9:01AM.
I’ve never seen the movie.
The ride was pretty.
But Good Grief it was SOOOOO dull.
We went to get in line for FOP
At 9:18AM we were to this part of the queue. Standby was already one hour.
It was a cool ride. Very awesome. But it takes so long to actually get ON the ride.
Oh look – Starbucks!
We went to meet Pocahontas on our way to Kilimanjaro Safari.
She was fabulous. The kids chatted with her a while.
When we got off KS, I was a little car sick. It was VERY rough. Since I don’t love Dinosaur anyway and find it somewhat terrifying AND it is on the other side of the park - DD15 and DD13 went to use all of the Dinosaur Fast Passes. We gave them all our bands and told them they didn’t HAVE to ride three times but they needed to tap our bands if nothing else.
These jewels had looked forward to this for two months.
I watched my app and saw the girls diminishing our Fast Passes. They did end up riding three times.
I grabbed these.
Then we went to meet Dug and Russell
DD15 and DD13 Tab met Scrooge McDuck after Dinosaur and got to Dug and Russell just in time to jump into the group.
It was 12:22PM so we decided to go eat lunch in Flame Tree BBQ out in an area that was almost completely empty.
We rode Expedition Everest. It used to be my favorite coaster, but it almost tore my head off this time.
We watched the UP bird show, but I missed a bunch communicating with the director for the spring musical as she was looking for DS17 to audition that afternoon. Then I had to contact him, give him directions, etc.
We went to queue for Festival of the Lion King when I scored these beauties.
At 3:45PM we checked in for our education piece of our trip.
In order to be part of the Traveling Homeschoolers group, we needed to attend an educational activity. I chose Caring for Giants and we were assigned 4PM group – which was perfect. We went backstage and then into vehicles to the back of the elephants’ quarters. We spoke with two different educators. It was really cool. It seemed to take five minutes! It sped by!
I wanted to eat at Flame Tree. We ate here. It was terrible.
Enough said.
I suddenly realized it was 6:05PM and I sent the four girls hurrying off toward Flight of Passage. Dmom and I cleaned up and then worked our way over that way.
Dmom went shopping and I went to the ride exit and waited forever for them to get off. The standby line was 210 minutes.
It was 6:59PM when they finally came out and 9 minutes past the end of the FPP window for Dmom’s and my FPP. I handed them our park tickets and told them it was worth a try.
I was a few steps behind them with the little girls as I watched them successfully tap in 11 minutes past the window.
I took the two youngers to find desserts and Dmom.
We watched some of the projections on the Tree of Life, having missed Rivers of Light PM show. We really failed at a lot of shows. If you are keeping track we missed HEA, left too early for Epcot Forever, and then missed ROL for re-rides on FOP.
DD9 took her treat home to eat at a table.
7:59PM
It was a really good day.
I had no idea all the characters were in the tiles! It shows that it pays to slow down and pay attention to the details.
I feel badly for everyone. You were so looking forward to warm weather.
Some of us well into our adults years, still struggle with that concept.
Such a good model of parenting!
Things didn’t go according to plan 
Very frustrating. But your family had some fabulous surprises and look at the smiles on everyone’s faces. I think they look genuine!
I dig those red pants! Wear them for Christmas… Save them for your next Disney trip. Adults don’t grow much! 
After reading how much time eating a packed lunch saved in the parks, I’ve added a few days of lunch meat and cheese rolls for our trip. They can easily be put together in a hotel room and eaten while waiting in lines. I’m not going to have bread or crackers because bought snacks will be full of starch and sugar. Thank you for that helpful tip!
On most trips, we do have 3-4 days of packed lunches and/or dinners. If we are driving, I’ve been known to make chicken salad from rotisserie chicken from Costco. We would eat that with prebagged salad and/or crackers. And our car would be full of water, juice, and soda (or pop as you call it!). Drinks are so expensive to buy! We also have full sized snacks in the car. I hardly ever buy serving sized snacks. If we fly and have a rental car, our first stop is usually Costco and/or a grocery store. We would buy water, juice, soda, fruit, milk, snacks, croissants, lunch meat, cheese, and bagged salads. There’s 4 of us and a box of 12 croissants makes sandwiches for 3 days. They don’t need mayo because the croissants are so buttery and moist. Sometimes, I would bring the packaged mayo and mustard we get at restaurants at home. Prewashed salads give us the needed greens during vacation. Some places don’t have much greens on their menus… For snacks on these vacations, I always let the kids pick. And we do get bought treats most days.
AK is our favorite park, too!
Love those faces!
More reason to rest up and plan another Disney trip! Plan a cruise, swing by WDW to use up some of your waterpark tickets with a couple of days of WDW tickets…
Thank you for sharing a detailed trip report and all the lovely pictures. I enjoyed following along! 
The pants are adorable and would look great paired with a cute sweater or top for Christmas (or whichever winter holiday you celebrate). I had a similar pair of Isaac Mizrahi for Target pants but in black years ago and DH referred to them as my band pants. Whatever DH - they were awesome.
Not totally caught up yet but I’d love to know your overall opinion on staying offsite. I too dislike cramming everyone in one room. I even have a hard time with some rentals as there just isn’t enough sound dampening to get proper rest.
I’m a die-hard house renter since 2002.
I’ve lost track of how many places I’ve rented across dozens of websites. (Way before Airbnb was a thing.) I’ve never had a terrible experience.
I’ve never stayed on property at WDW so I don’t know any different. I know that I actually felt myself relax when I went into Walmart after days of nothing but “bubble” and rental.
We’ve stayed in a few different communities now, but this one was my favorite for location. And the owner was really good at communication too. It wasn’t super modern, but it was clean and comfortable. The gas station and Walmart were en route and there were tons of restaurants we could have visited in the vicinity. (Black Agnus is usually a dinner we take in.)
I DID rent the campsite to have FPP and it also covers daily parking and fast passes.
I hope to do my last entry and a cost breakdown today, too, but the day is flying away from me?
And they are elastic waisted!!
Well then the pants are perfect!
And just like that …. It’s the end of the trip!
We spent the morning packing up and sorting out whose suitcase would carry what for the way home.
We had the private party at Animal Kingdom to look forward to at 8PM. While I wasn’t completely sure what to expect, I did know we were having chicken tenders, a build-your-own-tater-tot bar, mini cheesecake bites, and pop. We were also told there would be games and music and that Triceratops Spin and Expedition Everest would be open for us to ride. Originally the special add on was to be a Dessert Party for Epcot Forever one of two nights, however our group had grown so large Disney approached the director with this other plan. In any case, I didn’t pay anything above our park tickets, so it was “free” in my mind.
In the meantime Dmom still had about $80 on her Disney gift cards and offered us lunch at Disney Springs. I asked for suggestions here on the board I visit and decided Wolfgang Puck Express was the way to go. Thank you @PrincipalTinker!
We headed over around 11:00 AM. Just as I was crossing the pedestrian bridge I got a text from my clinical leader asking if I could come in 3P-7:30P. I took great delight in sending her this shot!
And NOW the sun comes out!
We had fun letting the girls browse. DD15 found a smorgasbord of Nightmare Before Christmas items in the Christmas store; it took her a while to find just the perfect mug.
We narrowly beat the lunch crowd.
I had the BBQ chicken salad.
Dmom went for the chicken Caesar.
Hmmmm – look who got mac and cheese.
As I am documenting this, DD9 is standing over my shoulder commenting on how Wolfgang Puck’s was the best meal of her vacation.
DD15 had the BBQ chicken pizza.
And DD13 had the Spinach and Mushroom.
Everyone had leftovers for dinner except for me.
We bought a little, and headed back to the house to relax; the girls swam for a little while.
And at 7:02PM DD9 reported to me that DD6 had fallen asleep.
We were supposed to check in for our party at 7:45PM.
It was only a 15 minute drive to AK, so I let her sleep til 7:25PM. It was HARD to wake her.
When we arrived, there were no CMs monitoring the parking lot, so parking was free. It was easy to find our group leader and as we waited for her to hand out our wrist bands I noticed this sign. I wondered why they closed the area before our party arrived.
Our group was probably around 500 or so… (I could be total off). We went quickly through security and were then led through the tapstiles just being asked to show our bands.
CMs led us past the Tree of Life over to Dinoland USA.
I wish I had taken better photos. It blew my minds. Somewhere around 70 tables were set up along the edges of the whole land. Table after table, with black tablecloths and candles.
The nugget and tater tot bar was actually very cool.
While I didn’t try the gravy, the chili was spicy and beanless, and the cheese tasted volumes better than I expected.
The D.J. in the “Jambo Jeep” was cheerful and had guests on their feet dancing.
DD15, and DD13 headed off to Everest.
We took a spin on Triceratops Spin
Then Dmom, DD9, DD6 and I tried our hands at a few games.
All the CMs were so great. They interacted with the kids and were so friendly and chatty.
The whole experience was incredible.
I won this game. Just sayin’. It doesn’t really matter that everyone else playing was 10 or younger, does it?
We headed over to where the big girls were. I wanted to walk around AK while it was almost empty.
Walk-on doesn’t begin to describe it. DD15 and DD13’s first ride through it was just them and one other passenger. They didn’t have their Magic Bands with them, so they didn’t get to keep that image.
I decided to go for it myself, even though it was so rough yesterday. DD9 had a surge of bravado as well, and we went for it.
We immediately boarded. There was no waiting to see how full they could make the cars. They just sent them out and then loaded another partial train with the folks still walking up.
This would have been a great photo… grrrrr.
We stopped for a little dancing, but were sore they put the food away.
It was only 9:48PM!
We decided to leave at 10PM. We had a full day of travel in the morning and a good night’s sleep would do us all good.
It took 11 minutes to drive back to our house.
And – just like that – it was over.
Me too!!
