If time and transportation were sports we'd never make the playoffs; 2018 spr. break TR *new TR!*

Love that Chris wore the Wonder Woman cape! Too cute!
He looks so happy to be out of 6th grade lol.

That is the best shirt ever on Steve!
 
Congrats to Chris! Looks like he had fun ways to celebrate!! Go Chris!

Steve must have felt special in that shirt! It is an awesome shirt!! I think paying a visit to Citrico's is a good idea in that shirt. :laughing:
 
Ricky’s WW cape is everything
:laughing: Every time his friends are over they've been taking turns wearing it :earboy2:

I love his spunk! I don't care what anyone thinks!
He doesn't care either, obviously! Same with his fluorescent yellow headband he wears everywhere........................

Is this the teacher that helped you convince him that it was ok to go to Disney and miss school?
lol no, that was another awesome teacher - every teacher both boys had in elementary school was great. The one in the picture just especially so. We have a lot in common and she moved by us a few years ago which is why I've watched her boys and she drives Chris home often, it works well. Her oldest is a year younger than Chris and into basketball so they get along good. Both my boys were her "classroom helper" their last year of elementary school so this past year for Chris, which means at the end of the day they go down and help get her 1st graders organized to go home and walk them to their buses; the teachers request who they want and she requested the DeVizio boys :goodvibes

Morgan starts 5th grade next year, and that is the last year in the grammar school for her. I can't believe it! I did have a bit of I am old feeling on Friday.
Our elementary schools went to 5th grade until 3 years ago when they added 6th, so Ricky was only there until 5th which I liked better. I didn't feel old until the Moving Up!

OMG!!!! I love this shirt! And Steve TOTALLY can pull it off! I am not sure if Andy could.
Sure he could! I got it off the Disney website. If you get it for Andy they can be twins next time we get together which I'm sure they'd love :laughing:

I love all the school pics! So sweet.
:thanks: Sweet isn't usually the word I used to describe Chris but when he isn't talking yes, he can be sweet!

Congrats on the end of the school year! We finished on May 31 here and that is a week later than we normally do because we had a statewide teacher walkout. Of course we always go back to school around August 15 or so
Oh wow that stinks about the walkout, unless of course it was successful :) My sisters kids in Ga. go back even earlier than you! I believe last year they started Aug. 8th.

Oh no! I will see it for the first time in August and know that I am NOT going to be happy!
I'm interested to see what you think!

Jack's grade 12 graduation is on Thursday! Where did the time go???
Aw, congratulations to you and Jack! I hope you all enjoyed the day and felt sad and happy at the same time :sad1: The time goes way too fast, that's where it goes...........

Happy Fathers Day to Steve! Hope you all had a great day. We spent most of the day at a local brewery, so Jason was a happy Dad!
I wouldn't have expected you to be anywhere else :drinking1

I haven't seen this yet, but so don't get it. Why something can be ok for 40+ years but suddenly not in 2018 is just beyond me.
:confused3 I think that's what many of us were asking. Same thing for when they made the ladies start chasing the pirates rather than vise-versa but now I'm probably going too far :D

This is great. Wonder if Jason would like something like that??? In of course similar theming Jason got RunDisney space mountain shoes for fathers day :-)
I can see him in it! I love all those RunDisney sneakers, I've seen lots that I'd want. To wear while I'm walking and sitting, of course.
 
So I realized I double posted because I thought my first response didn't post! So haha you have two posts of the same comments written in different ways, LOL.
 


Great pictures…he actually smiles when he's with his friends!
Yeah and that's about the only time :rolleyes:

Awww, bittersweet indeed! Congrats to Chris, though :goodvibes
:thanks:

School doesn’t finish up here until the end of this week, which is a week later than normal. They added 10 days to the school year but there’s no extra instruction days for students, it’s “professional development” days for teachers
That's weird. Our teachers do go one extra day after the kids get out, and the elementary kids had half days their last 3 days while the teachers stayed all day but that's it. You, ouar friends to the North, are just strange :P

My DD has admitted to watching “Coco” and “Annie” in class this past week so I have to wonder if the extra days were necessary
Our kids do that before holidays! For the last couple years Ricky has tried to get out of going to school by saying all they'll do is watch movies, but for instance in Italian class they watch Disney movies IN Italian so I make him go lol

He looks so much older than them! I didn’t believe it when you said he was just finishing elementary school!
It's so funny to see the size differences. He and a couple other kids are the same size, and the tallest in class. Then he has a couple friends who look like they're 7. He is one of the oldest, he is a late Oct. bday and the cutoff in NY is Dec. 1st so he turned 12 back in Oct. while many of his friends just turned 12 these past few months. I held him back because otherwise he would have started kindergarten at 4 (for the first almost 2 months) instead of 5, and I preferred him to be one of the oldest instead of youngest. He's just a big boy! Of all our 4 boys I think he'll either be the tallest or 2nd tallest with our oldest being the tallest, much to Ricky's chagrin.

So I have been enjoying reading your trip report.
Thank you, I appreciate you following along!

But let me just say, for some reason, I got all emotional reading your posts about Chris' gratuation from elementary school. For some reason it brought back a flood of memories of my son (who is now 24) moving from 8th grade to high school. How do they grow up so fast???!!!
I don't know, but if I think about it too much I'll tear up, too! I think it would have upset me more if 1. I wasn't returning to the elementary school to chair school pictures in Sept. and 2. we didn't have so much going on with Ricky's knee, and my DIL being pregnant. I was just too distracted to be upset about it. Until you reminded me lol!

We saw the new redhead scene and I'm not sure that it is an improvement.
I'll help you figure that out - it's not :sad2:. Just kidding! But it's not.

The boat back to WL is always the best way to go. We only stay for the fireworks when we are at the WL because of the boat. :)
That's the part I dread is going back to our resort after fireworks. Steve and I watched HEA (from a fantastic spot not in front of the castle) in May while staying at POP. It was EMH until 11 but we left around 11, however you still had some residual leftover from the 9pm close along with stragglers leaving from EMH and we got on the FOURTH bus. It was a nightmare and I don't think I could pay Steve to stay at POP again, he just kept looking at the boat launch as we walked to the buses and I think he was trying not to cry......

That is a really nice shirt. :)
Thanks! He's very picky with the Disney shirts he'll wear, nothing too "loud". When I saw @Jenny Sanders DH wearing this I knew it was right up Steve's alley.

I haven't been on pirates since the change but I agree it doesn't fit in with theme of the ride.
Exactly, plus there was no really good, justifiable reason to change it! I think the new scene sticks out too much, although like I said if you never saw the original scene and aren't aware it's been changed, you probably won't think twice about it :(

Love that Chris wore the Wonder Woman cape! Too cute!
He looks so happy to be out of 6th grade lol.
He's his own person, and I do love that about him!

That is the best shirt ever on Steve!
j
Thanks! Now he can be dressy for our signature dinners yet still be "Disney" ;)
 
That's the part I dread is going back to our resort after fireworks. Steve and I watched HEA (from a fantastic spot not in front of the castle) in May while staying at POP. It was EMH until 11 but we left around 11, however you still had some residual leftover from the 9pm close along with stragglers leaving from EMH and we got on the FOURTH bus. It was a nightmare and I don't think I could pay Steve to stay at POP again, he just kept looking at the boat launch as we walked to the buses and I think he was trying not to cry......

We had that problem at POR two years ago. I had booked a free dining bounceback for extended family and we saved a fortune on meals. But the buses back from DHS and Epcot were terrible. We had to wait for four buses at DHS and three buses at Epcot, and we were in line before Illuminations.
 


I know lots of you are like, in the middle of summer already which is TOTALLY weird to me, because us normal people know summer starts late June and goes until Labor Day :D

Right!?? (I can't complain, because in University summer starts in May! :thumbsup2:laughing:) But it was always the same for us. We'd finish school around now, and not go back in until Labour Day. I was always jealous of my cousins down south when they got out so much earlier than me, but then it felt pretty good to watch them go back in August and know I still had a couple of weeks left!

Some of his friends after the ceremony with a teacher photobombing:

img_8005-jpg.331945

:goodvibes He looks so grown up!

img_7986-jpg.331943


The pictures don't do it justice, it's a Tommy Bahama Mickey shirt! So he's all set for our next signature meal in WDW :thumbsup2

Oh my gosh, this is great!! I love that Steve is showing his #Disneystyle :cool1:
 
DAY 5 PART 1
BIG CATS SENSE BANG ISSUES
So I left off awhile ago with all of us minus Chris returning from an evening at MK. Chris had given up after AK, a rash creeping up his arms that was itchy, red, and bumpy. Ricky's knee was bothering him but he'd soldiered on.
Our plan for the next morning was a fairly early return to AK with FP's booked there, including another FOP for Ricky. Chris woke up with just a very faint resemblance of rash on the top of his hands and said it didn't itch, so he was fine to go. Ricky on the other hand was still feeling quite a bit of pain in his knee; remember, he'd had surgery back in Nov. for his torn ACL, and while he was doing excellent with his recovery, this was by far the most walking he'd done since. Ricky doesn't give in or give up easily, but when I woke him up and he started moving around, he admitted that he was in pain. Nevertheless he insisted he was coming to AK.

Our FOP FP was for 8:35 as the park opened at 8; at this point in the trip all parks but Epcot were opening at 8 each day. We had pretty good luck with the bus today so NOT a #transportationfail for once, and arrived at the bus stop 7:55 and walked into the park after bag check at 8:22. Since we had gotten there pretty much on time I made everyone stop for what is probably the worst PP picture ever:

akframe.jpg

We've never gotten a "frame" one. I call this, "what the ____is up with my bangs?" Which really could have been the name of this TR, because I'm not posting tons of pics where my bangs are totally wonky. Not sure what was going on but they were not behaving at all the whole week. Anyway, after I forced a few pictures on everyone we went to our FOP FP where we waited in the FP line for like, 30 minutes. Then, since we never rode the safari the day before, we checked the wait time which was 15 minutes, whoo! It WAS only about 9:20. However by the time we got over there the wait had jumped to 35 minutes, but Ricky wanted to wait.
The wait was close to 30 and moved S-L-O-W, but it was nothing like the horrific 70 minute wait I did with him for the night safari on our last trip.

IMG_8434.JPG

Waiting in line with Chris and my bangs........

We had a pretty good safari this time. I won't bore you with that many pictures. In case you aren't aware, the DISBoard rules have recently changed. We are no longer required to post obligatory safari pictures in our TR's, just an obligatory giraffe picture:

IMG_8442.JPG

And I'm throwing in an obligatory Baobob tree:

IMG_8444.JPG

One thing that was nice was that, as a cat lover, the cheetah was doing more than sleeping. He was looking up and around:

IMG_8446.JPG

Kind of like, "hey, is that Ariane? It is! But what's up with her bangs??"

Same goes for the king:

IMG_8449.JPG

The cheetah texted him that some weird old chick with messed up bangs was on the next truck and he had to check it out. Damn animals.

Since we'd snuck this in we barely had time to make our second FP which was for EE but we did. Ricky and I were going to try getting in two rides since Chris won't go on but we only had time for 1. Not only am I popular with real live animals, but fictional ones, too:

IMG_8450.JPG

Here is another awesome DeVizio ride photo for you all to giggle over:

ee.jpg

At least Ricky's doing something besides just sitting there!
Our 3rd FP was for KRR. Ricky's limp had been getting worse as the morning went on and unfortunately, after EE he decided he needed to go back to the room. We were going over to Epcot after Kali to enjoy some F&G goodness so at least he wasn't missing rides, but I felt really bad. We asked Chris if he wanted to do Kali since that FP was really for him and he declined. Steve and I were fine with this; we like the ride enough but not enough that missing it makes us sad lol. I did a bit of shop browsing and we went to the bus stop to catch a ride to Epcot!

So, remember how we got a bus quickly on our way to AK that morning and scored a #transportationwin? And, do you recall the name of this TR? And, have you ever taken the buses from park to park? For whatever reason they aren't as bad as resort to DS buses but are worse than resort to park buses. Therefore, we sat at the stop for the AK-Epcot bus for a loooooooong time. Another thing to note about the park to park bus stops is that they are fairly far out and offer no shade whatsoever. That means this was hot #transportationfail5. We were getting used to these now but that doesn't mean we were any happier about them. We saw like, 6 buses for HS come before ours :headache:
Eventually we made it

IMG_8473.JPG

And the boys needed some food! While we were waiting for the bus at AK I'd asked Chris if he wanted me to make any FP's for Epcot but he said no. I then asked what he wanted to do over there and he said "Eat! I'm only here for the food mom, that's why I'm not complaining." Hence my title, and go directly to WS.......................

IMG_8454.JPG

In case any of you aren't sure what they're eating, we hooked an immediate left when we hit WS for something on a skewer that Steve at in abundance last year and introduced Chris to earlier this trip.
The one negative about sitting there on this beautiful, sunny day is that Chris's rash started coming back on both arms again, but mainly his left. It was on his forearm and the top of his hand again, getting redder and bumpier every few minutes, and also itchier. We were convinced now it was the sun, poor kid. We went to first aid and got some ointment, the same ointment we'd gotten in August for his bug bites but he doesn't like it because it's rather greasy. Once his stomach was full the complaining commenced, but I can't say I blamed him.

*CONTINUED IN NEXT POST*










 
I call this, "what the ____is up with my bangs?" Which really could have been the name of this TR, because I'm not posting tons of pics where my bangs are totally wonky.

:rotfl:

In case you aren't aware, the DISBoard rules have recently changed. We are no longer required to post obligatory safari pictures in our TR's, just an obligatory giraffe picture:

I'm totally okay with this rule. Giraffe pictures are the ones that matter most anyway.

We saw like, 6 buses for HS come before ours :headache:
Eventually we made it

Uggh why does this always happen!!?? It's always the bus you don't need that comes a dozen times!

I then asked what he wanted to do over there and he said "Eat! I'm only here for the food mom, that's why I'm not complaining."

:laughing: Yes!! Chris knows what's up!! Poor kid with his rash coming back to bug him again though. :(
 
*CONTINUED FROM LAST POST*

Just a pretty shot I took while the boys were eating:

IMG_8456.JPG

I had a drink while they ate and we continued our trek around the world, getting a couple more snacks. I was texting with Ricky and he decided he was going to come in a bit and wanted me to make a FP for something so I checked his choices: Nemo or Pixar Shorts. Yup. Not even Living with the Land, Figment or Turtle Talk with Crush! He chose the Pixar Shorts even though we'd seen them back in August, I would have preferred a ride on Nemo but since he missed a part of the day I was going to do what he wanted. I believe I made it for 2:35ish? Chris wasn't thrilled but we told him we'd head out after that. We tried walking in shade as much as possible but that's hard in Epcot.

When we got to Morocco the band was about to go on and I always love the entertainment there, although I find they change it out often. Chris took a seat on a shaded bench while we stood directly under the sun to watch:

IMG_8465.JPG

Exactly none of the 4 band members are from Morocco lol, not sure if anyone IN Morocco is a musician, but this band is good and according to them they play Moroccan music. They really get the audience into their act; the girl all the way to the left of the picture was called up to dance along with about 10 others and they were all very happy to do so.

We walked on for more food and eventually made it back to FW where we met Ricky off the bus. He was limping but not too badly; he'd gotten ice from the machine when we got back from AK to ice it and then of course went to the gym :sad2: He hadn't eaten since breakfast though so before our FP he grabbed something from a booth - directly to the left when you enter WS lol. Then we watched some Pixar shorts, and let me take a moment as I always do to remind you all that in "Get a Horse" Minnie says "Where are we, POUGHKEEPSIE?" which is about 6 minutes from me! So every time we watch these shorts and she says it, I say Poughkeepsie out loud with a big smile on my face like a moron. I do the same thing when I'm watching TV and they say Poughkeepsie, which they actually do rather often because it's the biggest city between NYC and Albany (I'm 90 minutes North of NYC and 90 minutes South of Albany). And now you've had your geography lesson for today!

After that, we were done. Chris was in pain, Ricky was still in pain even though he'd joined us, and other than Nemo there were no FP's to be had and lines were crazy anyway. We went back to the resort to chill before our evening plans.

Upon getting back to the room we found this on the pillow again:

IMG_8481.JPG

Special is as special does! Chris got into bed and Ricky iced again, so Steve and I did some exploring. Remember we were a few days away from Easter, so this was posted down in the lobby:

IMG_8482.JPG

Pretty neat! It was Wed. by the way. After seeing this I started looking for similar signs at other resorts we visited but found none. we walked around by BRV, I didn't take any pictures of the pool because I took lots on our last visit but I did take this:

IMG_8483.JPG

Some of the props around the lodge since they redid it are from the Backlot tour at HS but I'm not sure about this water tower? I think it is..............
We finished up our exploring with these down at Geyser Point with what had and would become our usuals:


IMG_8484.JPG

We sat and enjoyed the view as we always do from GP until we were done, and then went back to the room. I'll explain our whole change of plans and why it came about next time; happy early 4th everyone!
 
Joe says Steve is a snappy dresser!!!!
He said right back at Joe :thumbsup2:thumbsup2

I was always jealous of my cousins down south when they got out so much earlier than me, but then it felt pretty good to watch them go back in August and know I still had a couple of weeks left!
Yup, my kids aren't so much jealous of their cousins in May when they're out and we still have a few weeks, but they're very happy when my nephews are back in early Aug. and we have a month left!

Oh my gosh, this is great!! I love that Steve is showing his #Disneystyle :cool1:
:laughing: He does it "his way" :cool2:

I'm totally okay with this rule. Giraffe pictures are the ones that matter most anyway.
I 100% thought of you when I posted the giraffe pic :hug:
 
I laughed so hard at the animals’ reactions to your bangs! :rotfl2: Bangs are so darn hard to do. I have no patience for it! I’ve had it maybe twice in my whole life and never again! So kudos to you for even having the patience to have them!
 
We've never gotten a "frame" one. I call this, "what the ____is up with my bangs?"

That's the new style all the kids are doing it :rotfl:

Which really could have been the name of this TR, because I'm not posting tons of pics where my bangs are totally wonky. Not sure what was going on but they were not behaving at all the whole week.

My hairdresser gave up on my full bangs because I always have a wonky piece of hair on one side, so now I have side bangs, but if I don't dry them right the edges get wonky in a different way on that side :laughing:

Same goes for the king:

img_8449-jpg.333762

It does look like he's staring at your bangs :lmao:
 
Then we watched some Pixar shorts, and let me take a moment as I always do to remind you all that in "Get a Horse" Minnie says "Where are we, POUGHKEEPSIE?" which is about 6 minutes from me! So every time we watch these shorts and she says it, I say Poughkeepsie out loud with a big smile on my face like a moron. I do the same thing when I'm watching TV and they say Poughkeepsie, which they actually do rather often because it's the biggest city between NYC and Albany (I'm 90 minutes North of NYC and 90 minutes South of Albany). And now you've had your geography lesson for today!
I've heard the name Poughkeepsie used in plenty of movies, especially really old comedies, and never knew anything about the city. But it is one of those words that is just fun to say. :)

Pixar Shorts is one of those attractions that you don't think you would like until you need to find a place to cool off, warm up, hide from the rain or kill some time. Then you discover that it is entertaining. It is nice that they have changed two of the films since they first opened. Disney has tons of good cartoons and needs to freshen things up much more often than it currently does.

Some of the props around the lodge since they redid it are from the Backlot tour at HS but I'm not sure about this water tower? I think it is..............
I had no idea that some of these props were from the Backlot Tour, but it makes sense. It looks like disaster canyon might have proved some of them.

We sat and enjoyed the view as we always do from GP until we were done, and then went back to the room.
We have always loved WL but now that they have Geyser Point, we love it even more. We will be spending a lot of time there in September. :)

Pretty neat! It was Wed. by the way. After seeing this I started looking for similar signs at other resorts we visited but found none.
We have stayed at the Beach Club during the Fourth of July holiday and there was a sign like this at the bus stop. We've been at POR just before Halloween and saw the signs just outside of the main pool and the area in front of the marina. BC made a big deal of 4th of July with tons of activities. And POR had a celebration with music and a barbecue that lasted a few days.
 
Still following along and enjoying all of your adventures. :) The limping doesn't sound very fun at all, nor the rash! :(

But the food sure does- lots of it too!

I love how you guys roll with the punches and can switch up the plan on the fly as needed. Good touring!
 
Great family pics
I must be oblivious had no idea they put names of guests on EE like RnRC very cool
Perfect way to end the day with drinks at Geyser Point :drinking1Wishing you and your family a Happy 4th pixiedust:
 
I feel your bang pains. I have curly hair and my bangs have a mind of there own! I tried once to grow them out and it was another kinda pain so no way!

It is so hard to get FP+ at Epcot when it is super busy. The Pixar shorts are cute but wish they would switch them up for us frequent flyers!
 
Since we had gotten there pretty much on time I made everyone stop for what is probably the worst PP picture ever:

Nah, it's not that bad. :rotfl2:

Ricky's limp had been getting worse as the morning went on and unfortunately, after EE he decided he needed to go back to the room.

Oh no! Poor Ricky :sad2:
I'm glad he was able to meet back up with y'all later.

We've still not done the Pixar Short Films. Maybe one day. Someone did tell us that it might be a little scary for G :confused3
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!











facebook twitter
Top