Mortimer Walt! A Spring Break Success story...updated x2 7/20 (the perfect last day)

[Carable]

Subbing. You have a beautiful family. Can't wait to read along.

Thank you! Looks like you will be making your own memories pretty soon!

Excited to read your trip report, Cara!! Loved my solo trip in February, but need to start planning the Spring 2015 trip for the family!!

I am totally envious of the solo trip, it is definitely on my bucket list! It is never too early to plan a trip...and it will make the year go by faster. Where do you guys want to stay?

I love your pictures!

Thank you so much. I debated on whether to even take my Nikon this trip as it is so cumbersome. So the pictures are a combination from that camera, our little point and shoot and our cameras if we were really lazy.

 

[Carable]

Day 1 - Part 3 - Where's Donald?

As we left off, we were leaving the safety of the golf ball and heading off to dinner now that our fastpasses were done for the day. We wandered up to the World Showcase, wandered by some Flower & Garden kiosks and waved to Duffy Bear on our way to...

Mexico. Ole'

We were a tad early, so we tried on some cool hats

so we went to visit our favorite Duck and went to eat at our first ADR, San Angel.Chuck had mentioned going there on our last trip, so here we were. It definitely was a seafood Mexican fare, which we loved.

Best view in town, back in the corner by the railing. Thank you Pixie Dust.

Anyone who has been there knows that lighting is horrible, here's the only decent shot I kinda of got…

I got Tostados de Tinga - pulled chicken seasoned with roasted tomato and chipotle, served on tostadas with black refried beans, green tomatillo sauce, queso fresco and sour cream. It is an appetizer but it was the perfect size for my dinner! DH got Pescado a la Veracruzana - Catch of the day served prepared with capers, olives, bell peppers, Spanish onions, and tomatoes, seasoned with white wine and spices over poblano rice. He said it was fantastic, can't remember which fish off the top of my head. Two thumbs up for us!

Towards the end of the meal, Finn and I went to the bathroom...it took 20 minutes people. It was one of the longest lines we stood in all week.

Sufficiently stuffed, we made our way to the Kidcot station for a bit and made friends.

Then played around in the outside marketplace.

don't laugh, but I actually thought about buying this it was so cute on Pascal.

Hola, little chica!

Then we wandered, Maelstrom was too long but look at this cutie!

We ended up in China and caught the acrobats act. So beautiful.

We wanted into the store, got our names on our passports and colored another Duffy.

Then there was This Guy.

The sun was setting, so it was time for my big surprise…the Epcot Illuminations Dessert Party.

Luckily, with the DIS in my back pocket I knew exactly where to go. I had booked it the day it came out, read the so-so reviews, and decided to keep it just to do something special for the family. Was is nice, yes…would I do it again, no. The kids were super excited and loved that they could get any dessert they wanted. I loved the churros and cronuts. Sadly, I spent most of the evening in the smallest bathroom ever in Epcot….first Nolan, then Finley. So, honestly I missed most of the party waiting in the longest lines I would see all week! Get some more bathrooms, Epcot!

We watched Illuminations with a decent seat, I don’t know if the kids got all the symbolism, but it was fun. We herded out the gates with everyone else, but I loved that we had the car and didn't have to wait in those monorail or bus lines! Mortimer Walt to the rescue.

Then, we decided to get a few groceries for breakfast for the week, so we stopped at this sketchy 7-11…I was never so happy to get back in that bubble as I was that evening. The kids fell asleep immediately, DH watched the Master’s highlights while I organized for the next day.

Here's a picture of my pins and vinylmation for the day.

I had originally planned for us to get up early and rope drop HS to ride TSMM and Star Tours and then come back and rest before doing Magic Kingdom, but the rest of the crew wanted to have a lazy morning…would I get up to ride my beloved TSMM by myself? Continued in the next post... ​

 

[Carable]

I am suffering from Hard Drive-itis...yep, my computer and gone and died on me. Don't worry, though, it was all backed up along with all my pics and trip report. But, now that I am using my husband's computer, it won't let me upload to my photobucket account. So frustrating. I've got Day 2 ready to go, but need to find a work around for the pictures. Day 2 has a TON of great stuff going on and I can hopefully share it soon.

 

[DynamicDisney]

Bummer about the computer, Cara!! Hope you at able to figure out the pic issue soon!

We are not sure about where we are staying yet. With our fam of 6, we have to plan it out. 2 (hopefully connecting) rooms at a value, a cabin at Fort Wilderness, a suite again at AOA, or maybe rent DVC points, which would be a hard choice of where to stay!!

 

[hhockman]

Sorry your hard drive is being a pain, but excited to read about Day 2. I didn't even know EPCOT had a dessert party. We get to make FP+ ressies in a little over a month. I don't even want to think about it until baseball season is over...or at least June. Christian will STILL have baseball at that point, but at least Will will be done. Love the obligatory shark picture. There's no way my kids would eat at San Angel. Good on you for getting there.

 

[Carable]

Day 2 - Part 1 - A Magical Day

Computer issues solved with a new iMac and I am ready to cruise on this trip report...as I will have another trip to write about in less than 2 months and it is going to be a two week extravaganza.

I realized as I drifted off to sleep after a wonderful day at Epcot that I had better sleep in with everyone else that morning if I had any chance of staying up until 3am for Magic Hours. It was really our first time ever “sleeping in” at Disney and it was nice. We ate cereal and bananas that we scooped up at the World’s scariest 7/11 and headed to check out the arcade. A very important place to an 8 year old boy. It meet with 2 enthusiastic thumbs up from the kiddos, although I thought the one at Contemporary was bigger and nicer.

While they played I perused the store and I loved how it “spilled” out into the courtyard. Noted a few things I’d like to take home and joined the crew. Finn wanted to pin trade and noticed the CM showing all kinds of “special” pin treasure boxes and books to two obviously professional pin traders. We waited and then David (nicest CM we interacted with the whole trip) had some special kid books for Finn and even let her trade for 4 pins! He was very knowledgeable about the pins too, which was fun and educational. AND, if all that wasn’t pixie dusted enough, in our conversation Finn told him she liked to collected the vinylmation pins and he found two and just gave them to her while we were back in the arcade. She was so thrilled. He was the definition of a magical cast member, Thank You David.

We found a little place to play checkers. Somebody who shall remain nameless got ticked that they didn’t win.

Grabbed some fruit and yogurts and my favorite FUZE Peach Mango (aka nectar from the gods) from the market for our breakfasts. We spied some cool fish and turtles in the lake.

Then we wandered over to the island to the playground (a little too small for my kids) and swung on the cool swings. It was tropical and lush and full of lizards, we loved it.

Got a refill of soda and more snacks for the never-ending eating machines known as my kids.

When we got back to the room to get ready, our housekeeper Rebecca made the cutest scenarios up with the kids toys. We got surprises all week, which was so much better than BLT. Sheep with remote, mickey with ipod, towel squid.

We were headed to DTD, and we knew about the parking, so DH just dropped DD and I off and they parked over in cast parking. It wasn’t too far away.

We wandered around World of Disney waiting to check in at BBB. Yeah, the so not magical BBB. It was light years away from the one in Cindy’s Castle. Now, Finn was subdued and quiet (totally unlike her) when we went last year, but she loved it. I asked her if she wanted to do it again and she said yes. I was fine either way and I truly wanted it to be her decision and she was adamant about going. I couldn’t get into Cindy’s castle, although I tried over and over. Even a few days before leaving we couldn’t change it, so we confirmed when it was and that’s when we showed up. EXCEPT there was no record of our name. Our reservation number showed the name of some other little girl arriving in May! I hate that I couldn’t get a screen shot or email to back up my claims, everything BBB is done over the phone. UGH. They were NOT magical about it and they were already backed up 45 minutes. We should have just left, but we didn’t. So we waited an hour, they squeezed us in, and Finley was on edge from waiting in the crazy crowded loud area outside the Boutique. WE had a lovely godmother in training, but Finn started crying from the first hair tug and I forgot to take her nail polish off so we didn’t do that. And since she was fussy, nobody really interacted with her, and it was a nightmare. I would NEVER to BBB at DTD again, the one in MK is heads and tails above this one. Finn took apart the hairstyle before we even got to MK, which you’ll see soon enough.

We DID LOVE wandering around the store...look our favorite friend!

A cool "game" to do with your little princesses next to BBB:

The short-lived updo

The boys had been playing at the Lego store and we were hungry so we ate at Earl of Sandwich, yum, which had a very long line even at the random 2pm timeframe. Finn and Daddy rode the carousel, where Chuck preceded to get an upset tummy due to her furious turning of the cup.

Our favorite thing to do in Disney

Aaaargh

Note to self...do NOT do the merry-go-round with Finn right after lunch

We wandered in Tren-D but didn’t see anything and went to the Xmas store and got our Xmas ornament. Then it was time to find Mortimer Walt to get us back home, we had a very important date to get ready for. It turned into one of most favorite memories!

Continued in the next post...​

 

[hhockman]

YAY you're back! Fun stuff. Everything I read makes me want September to get here more. Except I really don't want the summer over yet. Poor Finley. It really stinks you had such a bad experience at the BBB. Has Nolan ever done the Pirate League? Looking forward to your surprise.

 

[Carable]

YAY you're back! Fun stuff. Everything I read makes me want September to get here more. Except I really don't want the summer over yet. Poor Finley. It really stinks you had such a bad experience at the BBB. Has Nolan ever done the Pirate League? Looking forward to your surprise.

Hey Heather! We did Pirate League last trip, and it was Finley's favorite. She got the mermaid makeover and she looked amazing and they didn't mess that much with her hair, which she liked. We signed Nolan up but he didn't end up doing it, face paint has never been his thing. I really liked the set up though and I always recommend it. Hope your summer is going well.

 

[Carable]

Day 2 - Part 2 - A Magical Day

So, things began a southernly turn as we headed towards our evening at the Magic Kingdom. My daughter promptly took her hair all apart, which is fine, except you can imagine the amount of hair spray and goop in it and she looked like a madwoman. She got all upset until I was able to smooth it all down into a pseudo ponytail, but she kept up the grumps all the way in the gates. She couldn’t even enjoy the lovely ferry ride. But somebody else did...

We had on the matching shirts, so we were going to do our annual picture. Which, by the way, has always consisted of one of our kids grumping about something. This year proved no different…

Thanks to FP+ we walked straight onto Buzz…and that seemed to chase all thoughts of the awful BBB out of her mind.

Then we did People Mover, TWICE, because the kids are in love with this ride. They won’t be happy it is down this summer.

It's Day 2 people...

We enjoyed a little dance party and then took the back way to Barnstormer. My hubby was super impressed about this back way as it was much less crowded. Barnstormer is all Finn talked about since the last trip, so we enjoyed this very short trip.

There is my happy girl

We went in to see Donald and Goofy, but the line for Minnie and Daisy was too long. My kids will stand in line for a ride, but not so much for a character.

We went in to see Donald and Goofy, but the line for Minnie and Daisy was too long. My kids will stand in line for a ride, but not so much for a character.

We took the train to Frontierland which was a nice change, so we could use our Pirates FP.

We did some shooting at the Corral afterwards...Guess who had the most hits?

We tried to take the train back to the front, but we just missed the last one. So we hoofed it to Main Street as everyone was converging for the show and fireworks, exactly what we were trying to avoid by using the train. We stopped at the new Starbucks and got a treat and I got a GIANT coffee. The kids were spent by then, so they headed home while I STAYED for EMH. My daughter was teary-eyed because she didn’t want me to stay and my son wanted to stay with me, but he just isn’t quite ready to stay up that late. I felt guilty, but I knew my DH had them and he was going to be happy back at the hotel watching the Master’s highlights and I really wanted this alone time again that I enjoyed last Mother's Day. Wait until you see what I did that night and how late did I really last?

Continued in next post...​

 

[hhockman]

Cool. I love that you stayed by yourself. I'm sure my kids and I will be doing EMH, even if Nolan and Christian are the same age. My brother and his family will go back, but I plan to stay. Looking forward to seeing what you rode.

 

[Carable]

Cool. I love that you stayed by yourself. I'm sure my kids and I will be doing EMH, even if Nolan and Christian are the same age. My brother and his family will go back, but I plan to stay. Looking forward to seeing what you rode.

I think Nolan would have made it to midnight, but not much past that I don't think. I'm sure your boys will make it no problem and I just love the parks at night, they just feel different.

 

[Carable]

Day 2 - Part 3 - Finally. A Magical Evening.

A photo disclaimer, my pictures this evening were not pretty and they got worse as I got more tired. LOL. I was basically documenting where I had been, so when I went to trip journal I'd remember because it is amazing how many things I forget I did, especially when I'm tired.

What I love about this time is that I can be as spontaneous as I want, which just doesn’t happen in my life much these days. I wanted to stay until 3am, but wasn’t sure if I could do it, I mean I go to bed by 9:30 every night in my normal life. I wandered through the crowd to Liberty Square and watched Wishes, then headed to my FAV ride, Haunted Mansion. I remember being so scared at DL the first time I was in line for it and then being head over heels in love with it as I got off the ride. The hitchhiking ghosts are my favorite.

Then I stopped by the beautiful Rapunzel bath on my way to the classic IASW, as I had to wish it a belated happy birthday.

I love the new dolls they have out at the Disney Store.

Then I backtracked to the Jungle Cruise, which I love doing at night, and I finally got a GREAT guide.

I saw this cute nook by Pirates on my way over to the Cruise, so spooky and cool.

Ate my yummy Dole Whip, even though I wasn’t very hungry, and got vanilla ice cream with the pineapple juice. Not as good imho, going back to the pineapple with pineapple next time.

I caught a little Electric Light Parade on my way up to Fantasyland.

I just love this shot!

We hadn’t done Winnie in several trips, so got in line and I loved the new interactive queue.

Then I decided to head over to Ariel, got a few photopass shots and a selfie to post on Facebook.

Then went to get the very yummy LeFou’s brew and sit and trip journal in a room full of antlers. Loved how dead it already was in the MK and EMH hadn’t even started yet.

Then I went to see Memories, but oops, missed the last show by an hour. How did I misread that? I thought about seeing the Princesses in their new digs, but felt weird without a child with me. So I went on my 1st ever trip in the Carousel of Progress…I thoroughly enjoyed it. Then I went on Buzz 3 TIMES trying to get this picture…

The photopass girls were laughing at me, but that third time I heard the people in front of me laughing at my picture so that was music to my ears. I thought about Stitch, but I’ve never heard anything good about it and I was hungry so I headed to my FAV place…

Sleepy Hollow to have my FAV food…Nutella Waffle. I was happy I went because I found out they are no longer open during EMH like they were last year. I had a great time chatting up the CM’s there while I waited.

Another favorite picture...

Now that EMH were upon me at 1am…I decided to do my 1st ever Thunder Mountain ride at DW. It is one of my favorite DL rides, where I loved to ride it at night during the fireworks and nighttime show over and over again. It was awesome, although probably not the best ride to do after downing all that sugar at Sleepy Hollow.

Then I went on Pirates again, because, well, it is Pirates! There was no rhyme or reason at this point in the evening. Peter Pan FINALLY had no wait, so I went there and then HM again because have I mentioned it is my favorite?

Then I succumbed to my curiousity and went to meet Rapunzel and Snow, and I’m glad I did because Finley didn’t want to go later in the week. They were super cute even though I was alone. They played hide and seek as I entered and spent tons of time in character talking to me.

She was so bubbly at 2 in the morning...amazing

Snow liked my Pirate of the Caribbean bow

I took some more pictures and shopped for a bit. I even took a proof of time shot to show I almost made it 3am.

Empty

proof

I had to run to catch the bus as it started driving off. I told the family already on board that missing that bus would have been physically painful. We talked about how we never thought we’d actually stay up until 3am, but here we were and it was so worth it. I trip journaled a bit and I was quickly back home at Trinidad South. I literally fell into bed and as deep a sleep as I could manage on those mattresses.

How could I possibly top this evening? Continued in next post... ​

 

[reelmom]

Joining in. I would love to have some solo time at WDW. What a wonderful time you had. I have always wondered what it would be like to sleep in and hit the evening EMH during the whole trip. It looks like it could work. We are so used to rope drop for lighter crowds, I am afraid to sleep in and change it up. Looking forward to your next update.

 

[SusieBea]

I'm in, Madam Librarian! (There's a song there someplace...) Write on!

 

[waltsdream]

Hello! Oh my gosh, I LOVE your Pascal pictures so much - they are so fun! Pascal is one of my favorite Disney characters and I actually acquired a Pascal of my own on our trip last month. Rapunzel had a blast playing with him when we met her, but I never thought to take pictures around the world with him. What an amazing idea, you have definitely inspired me for future trips

Also, congrats on staying awake so late at MK!! That waffle looks delicious.

 

[emmysmommy]

Oh my! I'm late here Cara. I'm subbing and will come back and catch up the rest of the way soon.

Love your photo proof and the empty park. That's a late night! I'd be pooped! (Yeah, I'd look like your Buzz photo for real!) Sounds like a great solo night.

 

[Carable]

Joining in. I would love to have some solo time at WDW. What a wonderful time you had. I have always wondered what it would be like to sleep in and hit the evening EMH during the whole trip. It looks like it could work. We are so used to rope drop for lighter crowds, I am afraid to sleep in and change it up. Looking forward to your next update.

Thank you for commenting! I, too, like the early rope drop scenario. Even in these crowds you'll see we got a lot done then, but if you ask my son what he wants to do next time, he'll say sleep in, swim and then go to the parks. He has a point, and at least with the FP+ we've got 3 guaranteed rides, but sadly not much else at peak times. I will say what I liked about late EMH is that I didn't rush, because it was only going to get more empty as in early hours I rush because I know the lines will be long before too long.

I'm in, Madam Librarian! (There's a song there someplace...) Write on!

I think I will! Thanks for the encouragement (and possible song title).

Hello! Oh my gosh, I LOVE your Pascal pictures so much - they are so fun! Pascal is one of my favorite Disney characters and I actually acquired a Pascal of my own on our trip last month. Rapunzel had a blast playing with him when we met her, but I never thought to take pictures around the world with him. What an amazing idea, you have definitely inspired me for future trips

Also, congrats on staying awake so late at MK!! That waffle looks delicious.

Thank you, although I cannot take credit for bring along a special stuffy to DW. Although Pascal is also a special favorite of our family, thus why he was the chosen one. I got the idea from Lia and her trip reports with Hula Timon. Honestly, my husband had the biggest kick of getting funny pictures of Pascal. I highly recommend Sleepy Hollow the next time you go. Thanks for reading AND commenting. It makes my day.

Oh my! I'm late here Cara. I'm subbing and will come back and catch up the rest of the way soon.

Love your photo proof and the empty park. That's a late night! I'd be pooped! (Yeah, I'd look like your Buzz photo for real!) Sounds like a great solo night.

Brenda!!! So glad you stopped by and commented. I didn't put it in the report because the picture is so bad, but I stopped by the secret Cinderella door and took a blurry 2am picture of it and thought of you and your surprise tour of the suite.

 

[Carable]

Day 3 - Part 1 - Breakfast of Champions

My DH was adamant that we take at least one day off from the parks to recuperate and as hard as that is, it was a brilliant idea. It allowed us to go to some new places that honestly without Mortimer Walt would have been too hard to get to using Disney transport.

Now, a little backstory, we had the dining plan last trip and it was a waste of food on us and my DH hated always having to be somewhere to eat. So, I had very few ADR’s this time, but a week before the trip, he kept saying…”Are we going to eat at that French place again?” “How about this or that…” Then he planted a “We are going to eat breakfast at Poly right?”….uhhh…could have used all these questions 60 days ago! Amazingly there were ADR’s to be had less than a week out. So, this morning started at

Kona Cafe', a favorite from last vacation

We accidentally slept in a bit too late and had to hustle out the door. We were 5 minutes late, but the CM’s were cool about it. We had Tom as our waiter and he was great.

Kona Pressed Pot

Lil'Koa juice

Macadamia Nut Pancakes...oh la la

Donald's Breakfast with a side of Lego Star Wars?

Where does Pascal think he's going today?

It was a delicious repeat of a breakfast. I’m trying to figure out how to make it happen on this trip without a car. As we finished up my DH spotted O’Hana and checked it out. He wanted to know why we hadn’t eaten there, he was so impressed with the breakfast foods there…so I think an O’Hana ADR will be in our future on our next full family trip. We pin-traded at the store and I found plenty of things to spend my money on…but I thankfully refrained.

I got some great pins...

We then wandered the grounds, past the pool and into the sand beach. Get ready for some Poly Picture Porn...

I miss already

DH and I swung of the little beach swing while the kids played in the sand and tried to get closer and closer to the water. We enjoyed see our BLT and Toaster hotels and the new construction of the Poly DVC. I’d love to buy into one of those.

Looky what we saw in the lobby...too bad we weren't telling the kids about the cruise yet.

Jamming with the Natives

After a relaxing, satisfying morning we headed back home although we hit some behavioral snags from the kiddos. Would it derail the rest of the day?

Continued in the next post...​

 

[FrozenOne16]

Hi! I am enjoying reading your trip report so far! It looks like yall had a ton of fun! I can't wait to read more!

 

[Carable]

Hi! I am enjoying reading your trip report so far! It looks like yall had a ton of fun! I can't wait to read more!

Thank you so much for taking the time to post!