Trip Report- The name of the game is stamina. And flexibility. The game has 2 names

Great trip report and I love all the pictures. Our girls loved playing in the water near Figment also and the backdrop is gorgeous at sunset. Thanks for sharing!

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Great report! We loved Frozen ride as well and that kind of surprised us. We rode it at ropedrop and immediately got back on to ride again. Iā€™m also a big fan of schoolbread so good call there as well. I avoided the Mexican qs because o had read a long time ago that it wasnā€™t good. I was dissaponted to read when we got home though that itā€™s getting better reviews these days and that you can get the premium margarita on the dp! I felt like I missed out.:blush:

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Early in the morning of our departure day my brother decided that he and his family had time to go do Dinosaur at AK. I wish we had talked about it the night before because AK had EMH that morning, and we totally couldā€™ve taken advantage of it. Oh well.

Around 8am we took our bags down to the lobby and did the airport check-in, with checking our bags as well. No one in my group had done this before, but we were all pleased with the way it went. My only hiccup was that I had used points to upgrade to first class, but the girl doing the weigh-ins wasnā€™t aware of the 70lb limit (rather than 50lb) for checked baggage. No biggie. Got that straightened out. My husband and I also left our carry-ons with the bell services. Our flight didnā€™t leave until about 5:30pm and we planned on spending the day at the parks. When we were at the parks in the spring of this year I left my carry-on in the car, with Toothsome chocolate in it, and it totally melted. I had purchased more chocolate this time, and I really didnā€™t want it to melt. Bell services to the rescue!!

We went downstairs to Sanaa to use up some QS meals. Again our order was met with ā€œthe guys in the kitchen are going to freak out.ā€ Okay. How many meals do they serve a morning? Is 9 really that many? Anyway.

Got to AK about 9:30, and went straight to Dinosaur. The line was super short, and so we wanted to ride it again, but the line was longer, so we bailed, deciding weā€™d rather ride PW again. Alas, that line was longer than we wanted to deal with also. So we found ourselves at EE. The standby was long-ish, but we talked the kids into doing single rider and we were able to ride a couple of times. Then all the kids got another snack (they intentionally left us 4 credits because they knew we were going to do some more park time), and then we all said goodby to the tree of life, and goodbye to each other. I hate that we live in different states, but Iā€™m glad that we are able to make a WDW trip work every now and then.

From there my hubby and I decided to drop our car at Kidani (since we would have to go back to get our carryons anyway). The valet guy was really helpful and accommodating when he heard that we just needed to leave the car for a couple of hours while we went to MK. I tried to order a minnievan to take us to MK, but it didnā€™t look like there were any around us. How can you guys see that there are close ones around? The Lyft app will tell me how close the other options are, but not the minnievans. We bailed on the minnievan idea since the bus to MK was just a couple of minutes away. My first time on a Disney bus. Nothing to write home aboutā€¦except that our driver was very cautious and conservative.

I decided to not take my scooter to the park this time, since we were going to be limited on how long we would be there. Iā€™m able to walk and get around without itā€¦not just WDW kind of walking for days on end. We had a 7DMT FPP that we hit right on time, and then we had lunch at Caseyā€™s corner, and it was a madhouse. We did the mobile order, but we still waited about 10 min after we hit the ā€œIā€™m here, prepare my orderā€ button. Those who ordered at the restaurant were waiting 20+ min, so we were ahead of that at least. I had been wondering what would happen if we hit the ā€œIā€™m hereā€ button before we were actually there, but I think I found out just by watching others while waiting for our food. If you mobile order they call your name when the food is ready, but when you order in-house they call a number. At one point they called a name, but no one collected the tray, so they set it on the back counter and tried again in a few minutes. Good to know. Eventually we got our lunch, and then we went across main street and found a table near the Plaza. It was much less crowded over there, and I had a nice view of the castle.

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After lunch we did Buzz one last time as well. Aaaaannnnndddd my husband maxed out again.

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My husband was really anxious about making it to the airport without rushing, so we decided to bail on our 1:20 HM FPP. We went to the confectionary on main street and converted a bunch of meal entitlements into snack credits, with which we purchased treats to give our house/dog sitter. We did end up zeroing out our snack credits after all, but we did have a couple of table service credits left over. We couldā€™ve converted those too, but really how many treats does the housesitter really want?

I had been wanting to try a minnievan on this trip, so we agreed to take one back to Kidani. It was not a smooth procedure. I tried to reserve it on the way out of the park, but the option to pick it up at the bus drop-off location does not pop up until you are close to the bus terminals. So itā€™s impossible to plan ahead and order it. And then when we got there, we were unable to tell where exactly to meet the minnievan. I pushed the button to request one, and the Lyft app worked on it for a few minutes with no success. Right when the request timed out we saw a minnievan pull up and drop someone off. We hurried** over to the minnievan as I hit the request button again. And bingo, he was ours. The driver was nice enough. Has lots of Disney experience, but I donā€™t think Iā€™d do a minnievan again. I donā€™t know exactly what I was expecting, but I didnā€™t get it. There was just nice chit-chat, with the CM, but it was the same as you could do with any uber/lift driver. There was no fun music, and no insider information. For that amount of money Iā€™ll take the monorail and meet an uber at the TTC. The CM driver was also a very cautious and courteous driver, which is great, but it meant the drive was a pretty long one.

**by this time it was really hard for me to hurry, and I realized that I shouldā€™ve taken my scooter with me, because my foot was REALLY hurting. I was trying to not let it show, but my husband asked me if I was hurting and told me I was walking differently. I figured I could do a couple of hours, but alas, no.

It was easy peasy getting our car and carryons at Kidani, and an easy drive to the airport. On one of our recent visits the rental car return line was SUPER long. (I think this is what was giving my husband anxiety while we were at MK.) This time it was a breeze and we were easily through security and to our gate about 2.5hrs before boarding. Way too long. But at least my husband initiated a talk about how long it actually took to get from Main Street to our gate, which means hopefully we can have just a little more park time next time. For your information, it took about 90 min to get from Main Street to our gate.

Our flight home was not awesome. Like I said, we had upgraded to first class. There was a family of 5 surrounding us (Mom and baby in the front row, just in front of me, with husband next to her. Grandma and 4yo little girl across the aisle from them, and Grandpa right behind me.) The baby cried on take off and landing (as they always do, and Iā€™m fine with thatā€¦ thereā€™s nothing to be done about it), but then he slept the rest of the time, which was awesome for everyone. While we were still taking off, the Grandpa got up out of his seat and went in the bathroom, ignoring the announcement telling him that itā€™s not safe to be out of his seat and please return. About 30 minutes later he came out of the bathroom, and we realized that we had totally forgotten that he was in there!! Apparently he wasnā€™t feeling very well, because he was in and out of the bathroom the entire flight, and anyone who went into the bathroom got a super nasty look on their face when they opened the door. The flight attendant mustā€™ve been new, cause she was really struggling. I donā€™t know what was going on, but at one point, 2 hrs into the flight, she had all the flight attendants from the plane up front helping her. It was just weird. Descent and landing were fine, but then when we were standing, waiting for them to open the door, I hear the little girl hurling!! Her dad was next to her at this point, and he just look dumbfounded, with his hands out, and his eyes glued to the retch all over his pants and shoes, and all over the walkway. And then she hurled again. Sigh. The mom was struggling with the baby who was still trying to settle down after the landing. And right about then the flight crew got the door open and passengers tried stepping over the mess. The flight attendant just grabbed some blankets and tossed them over the mess, and then let people walk right over it. Wow. I really donā€™t want to be the person that has to get that ground-in junk out of the carpet, but then I donā€™t know what else couldā€™ve been done. It was quick thinking, I suppose, and allowed the passengers to get off the plane. Bag retrieval wasnā€™t too bad, but Iā€™ve never been so grateful to have the airport be only 20 min away from home and a Clorox bath. And my dog.

Thatā€™s it! Our trip in several nutshells. Thanks for following along! Itā€™s been fun re-living it. :slight_smile:

Iā€™ll try to post a Universal report in that section of the forum when I get caught up on life.

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Thanks for sharing your trip! You managed plans for a lot of people and did an awesome job at it! Your dad sounds like an awesome husband; that canā€™t be an easy job to undertake. I love all the pictures. Great castle shots! Love the picture of your dog too. Iā€™m sure he (or she) missed you.

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Thank you!! I do well with all of the advance planning and organizing, and my brother excels with running things on the fly, so we balance each other out well. :slight_smile:

ā€œYour dad sounds like an awesome husband.ā€

He is so amazing. He has even learned to do her hair and he does it for her every morning.

Iā€™m sorry about the rest of this reply that I just deleted. It was braggy so I took it down.

Thanks for all of your kind words and for reading my report

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He sounds like an amazing guy! Those ER docs are a unique bunch. I know because I am married to one!
So glad you all got to enjoy your magical vacation together! And thanks for sharing it with us!

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This is actually my worst nightmare. I have a fear of waxworks so getting stuck anywhere in SE would be a huge problem for me. Iā€™m usually ok as long as the ride is moving but if it stops and I feel trapped? Iā€™ve had a small panic attack in the paris version of the Haunted Mansion for this very reason. And I had a bit of a heart racing moment on SE when one of the animatronics seemed to look right at me, if the ride had stopped then I would have lost it :flushed:. I absolutely loved the Indiana Jones ride in Anaheim but I now know not to sit in the front row because otherwise Iā€™m just too close to the hanging Indy for comfort. Never wished for a rolling boulder more in my life!!

Oh my goodness, I could see how that would be terrifying!! Luckily they rides donā€™t break down very often. :slight_smile:

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Great trip report! You are a good writer, and I wanted to keep reading. Iā€™m really looking forward to reading about your Universal days as well!

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Have enjoyed following along! And your pup is so cute!

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Iā€™m late to the party but just wanted to say I loved your trip report and have bookmarked some of your posts for the trip Iā€™m planning for 12 in May 2019.

I was wondering where you ordered your custom tshirts from - were they the quick dry athletic style of tshirts?

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I designed them and had a friend make them for me. Iā€™ll PM you his information. They were not quick dryā€¦just regular cotton. I do like that the Incredibles ones had the black cuffs and collars, and I loved the baseball-y stripes on the sleeves of the Mickey shirts.

You have an Incredible family! :wink:
I totally understand the Alz. My parents are the same age as yours and my dad has it. Except my mom isnā€™t as compassionate and it is hard on
Both of them. And my dad gets so frustrated sometimes, poor man. They went to Disney with us in March. I knew they would have a hard time keeping up so I too just had them join us mid morning, except for our BOG PPO day.

Question about the monorail on the EMM morningā€¦did they try to direct you to the ferry instead since only the resort loop was open? They did that with us once when we went for EMHā€¦we like driving too. But the ferry took forever and we barely made it in time!

Iā€™ve had that happen before also, but that was not the case this time. The only mode open was the monorail stopping at the resorts. I think we were just so early that day. The next time we went to MK we were just a little bit later, and at first they told us to take the resort monorail, but as soon as we got to the top of the ramp the express pulled into the station and the CM told us it was running also. So we bailed on the resort loop and went for the express.

Iā€™m so sorry about your parents. Itā€™s so hard!

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