They are so cute!
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Thanks for the suggestion Davej. I think we will start with Tomorrowland speedway as he loves go cart rides. Then maybe Buzz. Hopefully that will get him into it. A little nervous but I guess the take away is low expectations and just roll with it!
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Day 3 MK â Continued: (Sorry for the delay in continuing my saga. I have 3 straight weeks of business travelâŠ)
We covered most of Fantasyland then headed over to Tomorrowland and my sons and husband rode Space Mountain while my DiL, the boys and I did Buzz. I had GS4 with me and of course he didnât really figure out how to aim, but he still enjoyed it. My DiL was not thrilled - really frustrated at not being able to see her red dot. I told her the trick of calibrating on the dark wall just before you enter the first shooting area, but she forgot. When the guys came back from Space, we all did the ride again. I was bummed because I only got to 489,000. Usually I max out but I guess I was out of practice. We just walked on each time (and the guys had a short wait for Space).
Most of us did HM next and GS4 liked it and didnât seem scared. I had bought him a really detailed book on the actual HM ride that I found on Amazon which had all the scenes from the ride. I wanted him prepared for it so I read it to him a lot and I always talked about the silly pretend ghosts. HM was also more or less a walk on. We just waited for the next stretching room to open.
We then had FPPs for Splash and Thunder and it was getting super hot. I had heard about the âplaygroundâ by Splash Mountain and the plan was to have the kids play there while waiting. Well, sorry guys, but that is a pretty lame âplaygroundâ. Just a small little playhouse area. The boys were not interested so my DiL and I just waited in the shade. (Splash isnât a must for me and I wanted to keep her company.) I am glad I did because it took the guys awhile â they were stuck shortly before the drop for about 10 minutes. We watched the Stand By line time jump from 20 minutes to 55 minutes so we knew something was up.
Next we were supposed to do Thunder but my older son and his family decided to head over to Swiss Family Robinson to let the boys get some activity, then meet up with us later for Jungle Cruise. Thunder has always been one of my favorite rides but this time I found it a little rougher and jerkier? Maybe I just noticed it more since SDD and 7DMT are really pretty smooth. We then found my son and his family eating Dole Whips! Happy kids!
Donât judge me but I had FPPs for Jungle Cruise. We thought the kids would really like it. I am glad we did because just as we got into the FPP line, they announced to the Stand By line people that their wait was going to be longer than anticipated. (I assume there was a problem with the ride?) Our wait still wasnât too bad. The kids enjoyed it. Our skipper was a young woman named Sammy and she was really good at delivering all those bad puns.
The plan was to next do Pirates but it was so HOT! My son and his family decided to head back to GF for either naps or the pool. My DH, younger son and I realized we were really hungry but I had no ADR planned â because â the night before I had cancelled the Tonyâs Lunch and Parade package. With the this 3rd bay predicted to be well into the 90âs, the hottest day so far, we decided eating a heavy Italian meal then sitting in the blazing son for the parade was not a good idea. (When I called to cancel, the guy promised I would get a refund but I havenât seen it on my card yetâŠ) Anyway, we got lucky and were able to walk into The Plaza. One of the simplest, nicest meals we had! Again, outstanding service, incredibly well air conditioned 
and the food was really good. The waiter readily let me switch out the dessert for a delicious side salad.
Check out GS4âs expression on the close-up pic. Thatâs how he started MK, but definitely got better.
We then decided just to head back to the GF. We all sort of chilled and napped for a while (really great having 2 private, quiet bedrooms) and then went to the pool. We discovered that our GS4 really is an adrenaline junkie. He LOVED the big water slide and did it a thousand times. My son had to stop him from trying to go down head first! He also would purposely stand under the large teacup at the kiddie Alice in Wonderland splash area and wait for the teacup to fill and then dump the huge amount of water on his head. GS2 steered way clear of that! Really nice family time.
Then â big treat! Patriots game at 4:30pm! My DH, younger son and I watched the game (and got delicious take out from Gaspirilla Grill) while my older son and his family went back to MK for MNSSHP. Here they are in their costumes. They were so adorable before leaving, running around the villa role playing. âBuzz, follow me. We have to find Jessie!â âIâm right here Woody â letâs go!â
Well, the only major bummer on this trip (besides my GS4âs slow start) was the party. My son said it was super crowded and really disappointing. (Also hot still.) They were back by 8:30! A lot of money for a bad experience.
Check out that beautiful VGF kitchen, btw.
Day 4: Sleep in day and Epcot â ended up being a low key day. We arenât big Epcot fans. When my now DS33 was 11 or so on one of our DW trips, he announced that Disney should call every park a âKingdomâ. There already was Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom and he thought HS should be renamed Movie Kingdom and EPCOT renamed BORING Kingdom!
Anyway, we took the mono-rail there which might have been a mistake â took almost an hour â but we had given ourselves plenty of time to get to our 11:45AM ADR for GG. And boy, you Liners are right about the mono-rail stink â always smelled like a dirty diaper. SO un-Disney like. Canât they do something about that?
We loved our lunch at GG â the food was DELICIOUS and the service was outstanding once again. I had never done this before and I was a little disappointed with the layout and ambiance. I sort of felt isolated not really seeing any other tables. And although we were slowly rotating, the backdrop was super boring. And we didnât think the characters were as interactive as those at Minnieâs Halloween Dine (those guys tried really hard to engage our kids). These guys were okay and got my GS4 to high 5 them. GS2 still wanted nothing to do with them. But honest - we did have a really nice time so I donât mean to sound too negative. Thank goodness the DP covered the outrageous bill! I would strongly recommend if you have the DP -food was excellent, otherwise, be prepared for the cost.
We next did Soarinâ â I forgot how great this ride is. We loved it. Then we headed to the Seas. Boys loved all the aquariums and got a kick out of the Crush show. We were then supposed to head over to WS as I had FPPs for Frozen and ADR at Via Napoli for dinner, but it was so freakinâ hot and the boys were cranky. Instead I and my sonâs family once again headed back to the resort. My DH and younger son decided to go to WS and they ended up having a good time trying multiple beers! (I bumped and dumped the Via Napoli ADR.)
Now at this point you may be thinking we were missing out on a lot by leaving the parks so early and not going back at night (except for the MNSSHP). Well, thatâs another realistic expectation thing. The boys would just have been miserable and I really think we made the right decision. As I mentioned earlier, I too struggled with the heat and was glad to get back to the cool villa or pool. I think it would have been very different if the adults had not all already done Disney many times so we didnât feel like it was the end of the world not to do a certain ride. And the kids were too little to know what they were missing. There was no doubt in our minds that they would have chosen to be at the pool instead of being pushed around WS. And truly â some of our best trip memories are watching the boys have a blast at the pool or them happily running around the villa role playing as Woody and Buzz. To be clear, all our past trips to Disney were long days â always rope dropping, back for pool time, then back out for the night. But our first family trip the boys were 5 and 10 so we could do a full court press from the start. We decided this trip, first time with a 2 year old - and my DH and I being a lot older - we had to tone it down. And of course, the unexpected record heat played a role in that too.
More to comeâŠ
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Iâm heading to WDW for my first trip this December and have been voraciously reading trip reports and forums - could you explain bump & dump re: ADRs? This is the first time Iâve seen that mentioned! Thanks so much for all this detail.
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Itâs when you reschedule an ADR to a new day that is more than 24hrs away so you can then cancel it without the $10 penalty.
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Gahhh how did I not realize before you could modify date in addition to time on an ADR? Thatâs amazingly helpful.
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Iâm enjoying reading about your trip. I canât wait to hear moreâŠ
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Thank you for this⊠For some reason, that would have never occurred to me.
I was nervous the first time I did it but it was really simple. Only slight complication was when I had to do it for a Chef Mickeyâs ADR. I had to go out about 2 months to find an opening - then had to remember to cancel it the next day!
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Day 4 â Back to MK
I know we were just at MK 2 days prior, but this day was a party night so the park was a CL 1 and we wanted to take advantage of that (again). I hate to admit it but I am starting to forget specifics as more time has passed so I think my report will start to be a bit less detailed going forward. That might be a good thing. 
This day was the start of my TPs more or less being thrown out the window. There are always plenty of Liner posts on how obsessed we can get in our planning so I am sure you can relate to how I had agonized over every dayâs plan, trying to anticipate what rides everyone would enjoy. But of course, after 4 days we had a better sense of what the boys liked so we adjusted considerably â the saddest thing for me was that my elaborate âbrochuresâ were no longer as relevant â and of course, the FPPs I had so gleefully grabbed were not necessarily the ones we now wanted and switching them didnât work out. In all my prior trips (without preschoolers) I was usually spot on with the TPs. But I guess I didnât have realistic expectations this trip. Oh wellâŠ
But hey â I am a Liner so I knew how to adjust on the fly as best as possible. For the entire trip there were only 2 times where our wait in line was more than 5 minutes â and those waits were less than 20 minutes â oh, except for an unplanned Smugglerâs Run wait that was 40 minutes. (Of course, the low CLs and rope dropping helped.)
We arrived at MK pre-RD again, Starbuck-ed up (using those DP snack credits!) and headed to Fantasyland and the Barnstormer of course (GS4 rode 3 times). Fortunately I had FPPs for 7DMT and my GS4 once again LOVED it. I was going to post that pic but his expression is exactly like the one I originally posted!
At one point, my younger son and I did Small World to kill time while waiting for others. I hadnât been on it in a long time and I forgot what a LONG boat ride that is! Just when I thought we were âfreeâ, weâd float into yet another room! It is really a cute theme, but seriously!
We had an ADR for 11am at BOG and this turned into a disappointing experience. Iâd had lunch and dinner there in the past and enjoyed it, but this time it seemed so much more crowded and cafeteria like. We had pre-ordered but the pre-order and non-pre-order lines were all smushed together and confusing. It took forever to get to the podium. We chose that green-ish room to the right of the main dining area since it was not very full, but it was also really boring. (On previous visits weâd sat in the West Wing where it thunders - kinda cool - but my DiL thought the boys would be scared.) Our food was actually good, but I had ordered the grey stuff cupcakes âwhich got delivered to our table at the same time our lunches did â do you think the boys wanted to eat their lunch or just go straight to the cupcakes? Not a fun meal.
Overall, we had a great day though, done by 1ish. The original plan for this night was for my DiL and me to go to HS to see Fantasmic with the Mama Melrose dinner package, while the guys went to the ESPN club and boardwalk. Unfortunately, my DiL was just too exhausted â she was about 18 weeks pregnant and the heat and all the walking was catching up to her. My husband said he would go with me instead. And then the guys (DH and both sons) said they really wanted to spend some time in GE so they drove over right after we got back to GF, while my DiL and I stayed at GF with the boys. The guys loved GE and were able to ride SR with only that 40 minute wait and my sons were both pilots! I was able to get them last minute RnR FPPs so they squeezed that in too. I then Ubered to HS at 4pm and met my husband at the Brown Derby for a drink before we went to Mama Melrose. (Ubering was super easy, btw â they drop you off right in front.) My sons had returned to GF and picked up the boys and gone to ESPN/boardwalk. DiL ended up resting and getting room service.
My DH and I really loved our meal at Mama Melroseâs. We werenât in the mood for steak unfortunately, (based on the raves it gets) but the pasta meals we had were delicious. Excellent service once again. I was able to pick up FPPs for ToT and we rode just before heading to Fantasmic. I so love that ride. Not just the fun drops, but the theming is so cool. I always get creeped out when the ghosts materialize in the hallway.
BTW, doesnât it feel good impressing your family with our knowledge and all the tips weâve learned from being a Liner? Several times one of them would ask an off the wall question and I always had the answer. They were amazed. Iâd often hear, âAsk Mom, sheâll know.â And I did! Just knowing how/being able to change things on the fly quite impressed them. I really appreciated the appreciation.
Fantasmic was even better than I remembered. At one part in the show I had this overwhelming feeling of how good life is â so happy. I savored the moment. I made sure we sat in a back row so we were out pretty easily. I ordered an Uber (too tired to wait for the bus) and the Uber was already waiting at the curb. So simple.
My sons said they had fun at ESPN and the boardwalk. The boys were actually well behaved and happy. All and all an excellent day for my family.
More to come⊠
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I had to laugh when my son would say something like âwhy are all of these people waiting in such a long line?â as we would walk past people in the standby line when we had a FPP. I just thought, if it werenât for me, youâd be waiting in this long line, sonâŠ
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Day 6 AK and MK
If you remember, on our first visit to AK we didnât even enter Pandora, but it was definitely in the plans for this day. We had FPPs at 8:30AM for FOP so we didnât even attempt rope drop. We ended up arriving around 8am and went first to Navi. The Standby wait was only ~15 minutes or so. It was just as I expected â a pleasant, interesting ride, but none of us felt the need to go again in the near future. It was nice for all of us to be able to go on a ride together though. We then used our FOP FPPs (DiL and boys walked around and had a snack). I understand the hype for this ride â it was excellent! As others have said, SOARINâ on steroids! We all loved it. And no motion sickness. Pandora is really cool.
I honestly am not sure of the exact sequence of the rides and activities we did after this because once again, my TP was irrelevant. We still had a great day â the safari was another good one with a lot of animals out. We hadnât seen any close up giraffes the first day, but luckily there were a bunch really close to the truck this time. Kids loved it. We also got really close (too close!) to a few ostriches which was fun since we hadnât seen any on the earlier safari. We also did EE again â what a ride! A real favorite. And we went back to Dinoland and the kids loved the Boneyard. It was just too hot to stay there long. We ended up heading to Rainforest CafĂ© again for lunch since we wanted a place to sit and cool down. Landryâs card for the win â once again. And again, the food was pretty good. The boys were well behaved too. We started to head to the Nemo show but the boys both fell asleep in the stroller so we decided to call it a day. Just so hot and we had done all we wanted to. We also had plans for all of us that evening to go to MK for the HEA dessert party so thought it would be good if the kids had a decent nap â and they did. Only a quick swim in the pool before we left for MK.
We had a 5:30pm ADR for Crystal Palace so we headed over to MK about 5pm. (Gotta love that mono-rail - stinky diaper smell and all .)
CP ended up being a really fun time and everyone enjoyed their food. All of us felt the quality was much better than at Hollywood and Vine. GGâs food was by far the best, but CP wins big time for atmosphere. You canât beat your formerly disengaged GS4 happily marching behind Tigger around the restaurant. It only took about a week for him to like the characters. 
His 2 year old brother remained lukewarm though. Here are a few pics I took. I am really glad we did this meal.
We next headed off to â of course- Barnstormer and did a few other Fantasyland rides while the big guys ran over to do Space Mountain. Then it was time to go to the HEA Dessert party. At this point my DH wasnât feeling well. We had both caught a slight cold the day before, but his was getting worse. He decided he would skip the party and fireworks and just head back to GF. I was so looking forward to seeing HEA so I was glad I was still feeling okay. The party was fine. Decent food. Boys loved it. A manager said he would refund my husbandâs ticket and I thanked him, acknowledging that I knew he was making an exception.
We were then walked over to the roped off section in the Garden area about 40 minutes before the show was to start. Of course, I took everyone directly to the back fence area and the boys played around and had a blast while we waited in the dark. If youâve never done this before, you should know that the grass is fake. I didnât know that and was worried we should have brought a blanket. I did bring glow sticks which added to their fun. Here is a pic of my GS2 laying on his tummy as happy as can be.
Of course, HEA was outstanding and everyone loved it. Fortunately, the boys did fine with the loud fireworks and were transfixed for the entire show. We were able to sit for most of it, until a few folks further ahead of us stood up and then we had to as well. I do have to admit that I was disappointed a bit by the overall view. There are still trees in your sightline and we couldnât see the projections at the base of the castle. To be clear though, I think it was worth it. I would not have wanted to try to find and hold down a good viewing spot on my own. And I am glad I chose the Garden party instead of the Terrace one because that view would be off center and I think it would really be affected by the trees.
When it was over, my younger son decided to stay around and do a few more Mountain rides so the rest of us headed back to GF. What a pain that was! They had us walk behind Main Street to get out so that wasnât so bad, but the crowds at the Mono-rail station were crazy. We decided to go the boat route and I am not sure if it saved us any time⊠LONG wait standing up. And still hot!!! Luckily the boys were asleep in their stroller for most of it. We were back in our villa by 10 or so I thinkâŠ
me there.
Last Day comin up next âŠ
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Those eyes 
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I really like your use of ârealistic expectationsâ here. I am taking my stepdaughters 5 and 8 year old boys to Disneyland next Summer and I am going to have to force myself to have that same attitude. I have always been able to drag my kids along and coerce them into having fun, I am not sure that these two will behave the same way. I will not allow it to ruin the trip though.
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krwatkins, I hope it goes well for you and they do indeed both behave and enjoy the trip.
I had a great trip last August, but I also found MNSSHP to be super crowded and disappointing. Iâm still dumbfounded by the irony that some how I paid significantly extra for the privilege of being stuck in a crowd. How did that happen? The low points of my families vacations are supposed to be when I cheap-out, not when I splurge!
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Follow Up - 6 months after the trip!
Not sure if anyone will actually read this last entry, but I know I have recently been reading through a lot of old trip reports as a way to manage the âsocial isolation bluesâ and thought maybe it was good timing to FINALLY finish my own.
So, I managed to report on everyday but our last. At this point, I will do my best to remember our departure day.
(This is a paste-in from the last day brochure I created - the only part of the brochure that was still relevant since by this point my original TP was totally useless.)
The plan on this last day was to get up early of course, leave all the bags at the GF, and then drive to HS and stay til about noon. (We were actually able to check the bags for our SW flight right at the Bell station at GF - that was a big plus.) We had a bit of a dilemma with what to do with the stroller. Iâve read in other trip reports where people left it it at the hotel that morning and just rented a park stroller for the day. Well, my DiL didnât want to do that (donât remember why now) so instead we actually ended up taking it with us to HS, then dropping it off at the GF after we left HS/on our way to the airport. It worked out fine.
Of course, at this point in time, I donât remember all the details of what we did on that last day. It was Halloween (which we downplayed with the GSs since they werenât going to be able to Trick or Treat). I do remember that it was again super hot. Our GS4 who by now had TOTALLY acclimated to the parks, REALLY loved Toy Story Land this time. I know we did SDD first thing with a short wait and he absolutely loved it. (If you remember, he refused to get out of the stroller at the beginning of our first day/first trip to Toy Story Land and never rode SDD.)
(Apologies to my son for posting this pic - not his best look, but you can see the smile on his sonâs face.)
We also did ASS twice - walk on. I just read a trip report from last year where the posterâs young son referred to that ride as âAlien Swirling Sausagesâ - I canât get it out of my head - so funny and cute!
We caught the first Indiana Jones show and everyone enjoyed it. The GSs got a little restless at times, but it was still fun. Then we walked through GE. It was my first time and it was pretty cool. I am not a huge fan of the movies so walking through was fine with me. What was really neat was when Kylo Ren (I think) walked by with some Storm Troopers and told us to move along. Creepy real! GSs were fascinated. They have since gotten into SWâs characters so next visit they will really be interested.
I love SciFi but hadnât been able to get an ADR even using the reservation finder tool and aggressively checking myself. I tried to convince everyone to head there for 10:45am to do a walk-in, but only my younger son and I ended up going. The others went back to TSL and ate at Woodyâs Lunchbox. (They had trouble finding seating and they said it wasnât a fun experience in the heat.) But my DS and I were able to get seated pretty quickly at SciFi and had wonderful, fast service and yummy burgers. Hereâs a pic of the two of us. It was also simple, sweet one-on one time with my son.
By then it was time for us all to meet up and head out (my husband had gone ahead and pulled the van up front for us). And here is the highlight of the trip - as we are walking toward the exit, I hear my GS4 ask his mom, âAre we going home now?â For a second of dread, I think he is asking because he WANTS to go home. But after he gets the yes response, he says, âI donât want to leave - I LOVE Disney World.â Mission Accomplished!
I will next post some final thoughts and (strong) opinions!
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Good work getting a Sci Fi walk up! If the others had been sensible theyâd have done the same. Woodyâs needs twice as much seating and 3 times as much shade!
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So true missoverexcited - of course I warned them of that before we parted. 
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