Heidi Commerford - April 2005 - Fort Wilderness Cabins

Time of Year: Spring
Travel Method: Plane, Rental car
Resort: FWC
Accommodations: Standard
Ages Represented in Group: Elementary, Preteen, Adult
WDW Experience Represented in Group: Veteran
Comments: For frequent report writer Heidi and her family this was another great trip down to Disney World, made bittersweet for having been the last trip with her father. Our condolences to her and her family.

Heidi Commerford -- April 2005 -- Walt Disney World (FWC)

The Cast

Heidi Commerford-37-stay at home Mom, not happy unless I am planning a trip to Disney!
Jim Commerford-41-works hard to finance all our Disney trips, would rather vacation in Disney than anyplace else!
Jimmy Commerford-11-loves Disney, from all the rides to the atmosphere, loves to collect and trade pins.
Cameron Commerford-9-loves Disney so much he cries when a vacation is coming to an end (although we are hoping he doesn’t this trip!) also loves collecting and trading pins.
Grandpa Pratt-61- (my Dad) always ready for a good time, loves the Rock and Roller Coaster, has a knack for seeing the guests that don’t follow the rules at the campground.
Grammy Pratt-62- (my Mom) Favorite rides are the Tower of Terror, Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain, loves Dole Whips and enjoys pin trading.
DEDICATION: To Grandpa, the best Dad any daughter could ever ask for. When we went on the following trip we never could have imagined the tragedy that was waiting for our family in just a short two months. The unimaginable happened when Dad who has always been the picture of health, didn’t smoke, drink, ate right and exercised was given the shocking diagnosis of terminal Stage 4 lung cancer. Dad put up a courageous and positive fight but died a short three weeks after his diagnosis. To say our family is still in a state of shock is probably an understatement. It’s hard to believe that we wont have many, many more trips to Disney with Dad in our future. So Dad I say thanks for all the good times you have given me and my family, always being ready for a good time, working so hard to make life easier for the rest of us, being willing to drop anything at a moments notice to do anything that we asked, for attending EVERY (and I mean every) soccer game, football game, hockey game and baseball game that Jimmy and Cam participated in. I will miss you for the rest of my life but in missing you I will continue to do the things that you loved no matter how painful it is. Not a moment goes by that I wonder why this happened to such a good and honorable man who loved life and his family beyond words. I love you Dad, I miss you, thanks for everything you have given me, the good times, the life lessons, the love for my children, now you live with God and will be our angel forever.

Introduction—To say we are excited for this trip is an understatement! The boys and I feel like we have had a bit of a dry spell since we haven’t been to Disney in nine months!! Gasp!! Last year we went to Disney three times spending a combined five weeks in seven months. There are many new things we want to see that weren’t there last July. I have read on-line that there is a possibility that we may get to see Soarin at Epcot and the Motor Stunt show at MGM. Plus the new Stitch ride, not to excited about this one since the reviews seem to be so bad, but who knows. Looking forward to seeing the castle and the new additions on it, the pictures I have seen are very pretty! The boys are very excited to try and find some of the new lanyard pins to add to their collections. Even though we haven’t been to Disney since the new lanyard series have come out the boys have gotten a good start with their collection with help from cousin Kathy and family. They traded a staggering 25 pins for the boys when they were there in Feb. It was like Christmas morning when they were given all those pins!! In addition another trip report writer Stacey traded for five lanyard pins for the boys, how she managed this with a toddler and newborn is beyond me. I also purchased a couple on e-bay but considering that there are 80 pins in this new set I see lots of trading going on, on this trip!!

December 2004- We purchased our plane tickets for 175.00 on Southwest

February- I made a PS for O’hanas, and made reservations for the bass fishing trip on Bay Lake.

March- We had our annual Disney Party at Gram and Grandpas house with our cousins the Carters. This party is held in between their Feb. trip and our April trip and builds the excitement for our trip!!!

March 18th- Jimmy who is a very talented skier has a bad wipe out at the ski slope and hurts his wrist. It hurts but he can move it and after taking a break in the lodge he skies for another couple hours, there is NO WAY it can be broken, just a bad sprain!!!!

March 23rd- The wrist is better but Jimmy is not using it so we head to the Doctors, x-rays confirm the unimaginable, it is broken!!! He is put in a cast up to his armpit! (Anyone who knows me knows that for years one of my fears would be that someone would break a bone and be in a cast for a Disney trip) We have three weeks until we fly out, so the doctor tells us to come back the night before we leave for new x-rays. If it has healed enough she will put on a shorter cast up to the elbow, additionally if it has healed enough it can be a waterproof cast.

April 12th- We went to the doctors and the x-ray showed that although the bone hadn’t healed as much as the doctor anticipated, it was enough to put on a shorter cast, just up to the elbow, Yeah, it was a tremendous relief and we are all very happy! There was much discussion about whether Jimmy would get a waterproof cast or a traditional one. The waterproof one does not hold the wrist as secure so there is a risk he could injure it or it might not heal as quickly. It is a hard decision but we choose the waterproof one. Jimmy needs this one on for four weeks, hopefully no longer as he is already missing a few weeks of baseball, and spring hockey.

April 13th

The big day is here!!!! Jim went on the computer at 12:01 am and printed off our boarding passes, we got the A passes, Yahoo, thanks Jim! Unfortunately I woke up at 2:00am and with my excitement I couldn’t fall back to sleep until around 4:00, ugh! We all got up at 6:30 to get ready for school. The kids are so excited and wish they didn’t have to go to school. I wish they didn’t either and that we had an earlier flight. Our flight isn’t until 8:20 tonight. This was the best flight I could get because I wanted a direct flight and the only other direct flights were in the morning and since the kids will be missing three days of school they need to get a full day of school in today.

Jimmy mentioned that his new cast was bothering him between his thumb and index finger. Upon further inspection I could see that it was red and looked a bit raw. I called the doctor at 8:00 and asked to bring Jimmy in this afternoon to get it checked. Jimmy said he would get used to it and it was fine but it looked painful to me, hopefully they can do something for him! We will stop at the doctors on our way to the airport.

Grammy called at 9:30 and said they were all checked into Fort Wilderness, I couldn’t believe that they were able to check in so early. (Grammy and Grandpa left N.H. two weeks ago and have been vacationing along the East coast) Grammy said it was very quiet and that she could only see two other RVs in the loop. This is a good sign, I hope all the Easter crowds have left and it is a relatively quiet week.

Grammy called back a second time and said she had gone to the Trading Post and traded for two lanyard pins, both Tigger, good job Mom! We said good-bye knowing we would see each other at the airport tonight around 11:00pm.

I picked the kids up from school at 3:00 and hurried home where Jimmy worked on his homework for an hour. (This will be my first April Disney trip that we will be bringing no homework with us, yeah!!) The homework that Jimmy didn’t finish he will finish on the day we get home.

We leave at 4:00 to drive to the doctor’s office. The doctor agrees that the cast is no good, cuts it off and puts on a new one. The new one feels 100% better and we leave after many thank-you’s! We stopped by Kentucky Fried Chicken and get something to eat at the take-out window, we also stopped at Kohls for Jim to run in and get a badly needed pair of sneakers. We arrived at the airport and I cannot stress how great it was to already have our A boarding passes, since we weren’t checking any luggage we went right to security. After saying good-bye to Jim we headed through. Possibly because of Jimmy’s cast he is selected to go through extra security. They wand his cast and then give extra scrutiny to his fingers and toes!!! Apparently he isn’t deemed a risk because we are let on our way!

We get settled in the waiting area and the kids get out the portable DVD player and watch the Apple Dumpling Gang, a new movie that I had purchased for this trip. Before long we line up like cattle in the proper A-B-and C sections and I look at the poor suckers in the C section, hopefully that is not us on the way home when we don’t have access to a computer. It is very important to the kids and I to be able to sit together. The take off is smooth and the kids attempt to watch the other new DVD that I purchased for this trip, Blackbeard’s Ghost. Unfortunately I didn’t realize that in order to hear the DVD player on the plane you need headphones!! Even with the volume on high and it inches from our face you could not hear it. Oh well! An announcement went up welcoming the St. Mary’s College baseball team onto the plane and we all clapped for them, they were going to Florida for Spring Training. Cam said he was hungry but I could see the flight attendant handing out snacks and we were only seven rows back so I suggested we wait and get their snack instead of me digging out our food bag. Big mistake!!! The attendant ran out when she got to our row, she said she was out and the other attendant would give us our snack. (Apparently she didn’t bother to tell the other attendant this bit of info!!!) Our flight attendant returned and took our drink orders and then eventually returned with the drinks. I kept glancing in the aisle behind me to see if the snack was coming, but no snack! Meanwhile Cam mentions how hungry he is. I am somewhat shocked when I look up and see our attendant with a trash bag collecting trash! Huh!! We haven’t even gotten our snack yet and everyone in front of us are dumping their wrappers!!! When she got to me she asked if we’d like another drink. I said “sure, but what about the snack?” She gave me a shocked look and said “you didn’t get a snack yet?” Uh no!!!! She headed to the back and got some snacks and would you believe it, she handed them all out to the seats behind us and ran out at our seat and proceeded to ask me if we had gotten our snack yet!!!! Not to worry she was back in a few minutes and after flying for 1 ½ we finally had our snack box. Thanks for being so patient Cam! My mouth had been watering for honey- roasted peanuts like we had back in July but these were dry roasted, yuck! The box contained fruit snacks and kids were very happy about that so all is not lost!! After eating Cam fell right to sleep with his head in my lap. Jimmy and I were tired and would have loved to fall asleep but sleeping in a sitting up position is not an option for either one of us. The last 45 minutes were tough as we were so tired. We arrived ten minutes early at 11:00pm and quickly got off the plane.

We found Gram and Grandpa waiting for us and headed out to the car. As we were pulling out of the parking garage I made a quick call to Jim to let him know that we had safely arrived. Mom treated us to delicious ham and cheese sandwiches, which we ate on the way to Fort Wilderness. We happily talked the whole drive. As we pulled into Fort Wilderness I told the boys to “hold the moment” as I know how quickly our Disney vacations fly by!

Gram and Grandpa had our beds all made up and we settled right in, it felt wonderful to lay down. We talked some more and got a little silly recounting to Grammy about a game we had played the night before called The Worst Case Scenario. Lets just say we all know what to do if a polar bear attacks!!!!

Thursday April 14
I woke up at 5:45, darn, since I didn’t fall asleep until around 1:30 I was hoping I would sleep a little later, oh well! I worked on the trip report until I finally grabbed an orange and went outside to eat it. It was so nice to be back at Fort Wilderness our favorite place in the world. Everyone else was up around 7:30

The boys, Grandpa and I went for a bike ride. It was shocking to see our loop was almost empty, we biked all around seeing tons of empty sites. In fact in the Wagon Wheel Way loop there were only two sites occupied. This was a great sign as far as crowds go to see the place so empty! We noticed some trees down here and there, evidence of the four storms that pummeled Florida last summer and fall. We biked down to the dam to look around before heading to the Meadow Trading post. The kids did some pin trades before sitting down for a game of checkers. We then all sat down on the porch just enjoying the fact that we were here.

We biked back to the site for a quick breakfast before the boys got in their swimsuits and the three of us biked to the pool. As we were biking to the pool Cam said “This is my joy, being at Fort Wilderness” I said Cam “that is so sweet” and he replied “I just love Fort Wilderness” Jimmy and I agreed we are just so happy to be here! The temp. was in the 70s, a great temp. for us but a lot cooler than what we normally encounter in Florida in April. There was no one in the pool so the kids had the place to themselves for the entire time, what a treat! It took Jimmy a bit to get used to swimming with the cast but he adapted quickly. Grammy biked down and joined the boys in the pool, we ended up staying for well over an hour.

We biked back to the site where Grammy and I visited with our neighbor who was from Massachusetts. The kids got changed and we biked to the Wilderness Lodge. As always it was fun to bike over. We noticed the destruction more here as far as trees go. Not that we noticed a bunch of trees tipped over or fresh stumps just a vast emptiness in some areas, not near the trail but off to the left.

CM Sandra wasn’t at the pin cart and Grammy inquired as to her where a bouts. We were told that Sandra was on a mini vacation, horrors!!! Much to our relief the women told us that Sandra would be back on Monday, phew, we would see her then. The kids made some trades at the pin cart and in the Mercantile then we stopped at Roarin Forks for drinks before biking back to Fort Wilderness.

Once back at FW we stopped at the Settlement Trading Post where we noticed that the antlers were missing from the far end of the building. Grammy went inside and asked what happened to the animal heads. The two CMs said they didn’t even know they were missing and referred to them as “hammerheads” Huh!!! I thought a hammerhead was a shark not some antlers! We went on to talk to them about all the hurricanes last year, the two CMs told us all about the destruction at FW, it sounded like 100s and 100s of trees were knocked down. One CM said her trailer suffered extensive damage and she was getting a new one but was still waiting for her insurance claims to go through. We had a nice visit then collected the boys who had played a game of checkers. The kids played at a nearby playground before we biked back to the site for lunch.

Once lunch was finished we drove over to the Marketplace. Cousin David had sent me five coupons that could be redeemed for free pins at The World of Disney Store. He said Jimmy and Cam could each have one of the free pins. We went there first and got the free pins, I was expecting some sort of special pin like when Kellogg’s gave out certificates for free pins but they were just handing out random pins attached to a card, one of the pins was from the cruise line dated 2002 and another was a Stars War pin from MGM. We split up to pin trade, Cam and I, and Grammy and Jimmy. We usually come here first thing in the morning when no one is here so it seemed like a lot of people although it probably wasn’t for the mid afternoon. The kids got some great trades, even some lanyard pins, which we don’t usually find at the Marketplace. We headed to the Lego Store and were very impressed by the new Lego structures and the eye-popping window displays. As I have written before my boys LOVE Lego’s, Jimmy especially has an imagination beyond his years when building with Lego’s. Once he has finished college I am sure his dream would be snagging a job as a Lego creator out at Legoland!!! Inside there were small round windows to look through that were built for the height of a five year old, each window held an incredible display. There was a playground, pool party, cows in a pasture complete with cow patties and a hamburger, fries and a drink, and the list goes on and on. The whole wall behind the cash registers was filled with 100s of Lego people. As we looked around you could almost see Jimmy’s head working as he got new ideas and inspirations for his creations at home. (Sure enough on our first day home he and Cam spent a couple hours in his bedroom building with Lego’s) Next we went into Ghirardelli’s for the free sample, I had never done this before but had read so many trip reports of people that do so I figured we would check it out. The sample was a large chocolate square with caramel in it, it was delicious, so I say thank you to all the people that wrote about doing this in their trip reports! After this treat Grammy and the boys headed back to the World of Disney for a pin trading event at 2:30. Grandpa and I checked out a few shops and we returned to the World of Disney just as they made their trade off the board. It turned out to be a waste of time and their wasn’t anything on the board that they actually wanted but they made trades anyway!

We returned to Fort Wilderness around 3:30 and spent the next couple of hours swimming and biking. Around 7:00 we biked to the campfire program and spread out a towel to save seats. With that accomplished we biked down to the settlement and the boys went inside Trails End Restaurant. The workers were wearing lanyards with lanyard pins on so the kids did their two trades per person. They came out very excited and insisted that I go in and trade for some as well. I went in and did some trades too although there were still more lanyard pins left. We returned to the campfire program where Grammy and Grandpa were waiting for us. Jimmy offered to bike down with Grammy so she could get some lanyard pins but she was too tired. Soon CM Sundee came out singing up a storm. She did her usual routine but included a baseball song that we had never heard her do. Grammy biked back to the site to watch Survivor and we continued to watch. At one point Sundee was singing about a grandmother swallowing a fly and all sorts of things but was singing so rapidly and enthusiastically the words were just tumbling out of her mouth! Cam turned to me and said in a serious tone “Mom is she rapping, I can’t understand a word she is singing!” Sundee is probably in her fifties and I am sure her entertainment gigs are limited to Fort Wilderness. I almost fell off my seat when Cam wondered if she was rapping, but he was right I couldn’t understand her either!! At this point Cam had, had enough of the singing so he and I biked back to the site. Grandpa and Jimmy were going to stay for the cartoon but Sundee had such a delay after she finished singing that they got tired of waiting and returned to the site as well! It had been a full day on little sleep and we all crawled into bed. Another cool night we didn’t need the air conditioner, which is so unusual for April! Extra Magic Hour in the Magic Kingdom in the morning.

Friday April 15

I woke up at 5:30 and just laid in bed until 6:00 when I got up and had a shower right in the motor home. Jimmy was the next one up at 6:30 and I woke Cam up at 7:00. We left the site soon after at 7:15 and biked to the boat launch. We were the only people on the dock except for a boat captain who was driving the small boat to the Wilderness Lodge and the Contemporary. It was 58 degrees and windy and as I have already written before this cool weather is unlike anything we have ever experienced in Florida in April, usually its in the 90s and humid. I was wearing shorts and very comfortable, I had just left behind weather in N.H. in the 30s and 40s, in fact we still had a little snow left at home. The captain had on many long layers of clothing in addition to a plastic suit to cover everything and “to cut down the wind”. To make conversation I asked her “when is it suppose to warm up?” I had already heard that the cool spell was going to break by the end of the weekend. Her response was that she slowly turned to her side and points up to the sky and says “Well….. as soon as the sun comes up it will be warmer!!!!!” WOW really!!!! We did go on to have a pleasant conversation.

Our boat arrived and we were soon on our way to the Magic Kingdom. I could tell as soon as we docked that it didn’t look terribly crowded by the turnstiles, which was a great sign! By the time we went through the bag check and the ticket turnstile the park was officially open. As we walked down Main Street we could see the beautiful additions to the castle, we would get a closer look later, for now we speed walked to Space Mountain. We were all excited to ride when we were informed that it was broken down! Bummer!! I sent Grandpa to ride Buzz Lightyear with the kids while I got FPs for Space Mountain that were good between 10:10-11:10. Apparently Buzz also broke down right after they sat down but it was up and running in a couple minutes. (We didn’t know it at the time but this pattern would follow us all morning) Once they came out of Buzz we met up with Grammy and went to the Astro Orbitor. The CM working this ride was wearing some lanyard pins so the kids traded for those, which they were thrilled with. Jimmy and Cam rode together while Grandpa, Grammy and I all got in separate ships. We had a great ride and when we got off we could see that Space Mountain was open so we hustled right over. We only waited 2-3 minutes and we were on the ride. When we got off Grandpa went in search of coffee and the boys and I headed to the Teacups. There was no wait and the boys hopped right on a teacup. As I was watching them I noticed another teacup spinning faster than I have ever seen one go! There was a couple in the cup in their forties having a marvelous time spinning the handle as fast as they could. They made everyone else look like they were barely moving including Jimmy and Cam who were spinning and laughing like crazy! It was funny watching the couple try and get off the ride as they could barely walk they were so dizzy! The boys and I hurried over to Splash Mountain where we were able to walk right onto a log. Cam was a little nervous although he liked this ride back in July after he rode it for the first time. We noticed a “refurbished” hidden Mickey in the clouds by the riverboat, which made it much easier to spot. The ride broke down right near the exit so we sat for a good five minutes before it was up and running and we were able to exit. When we got out we met Gram and Grandpa and we all rode Thunder Mountain together getting the last seats. Next we returned to Splash Mountain except for Grandpa (he didn’t want to get wet!) I jokingly said to Grandpa (who is not a pin trader) that if he wasn’t going to ride he better pin trade and find a lanyard pin, Grammy handed him a pin and we were on our way! We again walked right on the ride, which was amazing since it is now 9:45. When we finished the ride no one is waiting so we stayed right on and went around again. I couldn’t believe it this was awesome! Considering how crowded it was two weeks ago with the Easter crowds I was really appreciating how nice this was! After our second ride we got off and met Grandpa who shocked us all with the news that he did indeed trade for a pin and it was a lanyard pin, pretty amazing since he doesn’t even know what the lanyard pins look like plus it was a lanyard pin that neither Jimmy or Cam had yet!! Good job Grandpa!!

We headed back to Thunder Mountain and right after we got in line an announcement came on that it was broken down! What are the odds that Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, Splash and now Thunder have all broken down while we were either trying to get on or were already on!!!! (Actually quiet good, read on to hear of mine, and Cams experience back in the Magic Kingdom on Wed.!) We hopped out of line, got FPs and moseyed on over to the Haunted Mansion. Jimmy rode with Grandpa and Cam rode with Grammy so they could show them the hidden Mickey in the sleeve of the grim reaper. This hidden Mickey is very, very difficult to spot and even with our hidden Mickey book telling us where it was located it took us five or six rides back in April and July before Cam finally spotted it! However before we got on the ride, you guessed it, it broke down, although not for long! Grandpa and I joked about “Pratt luck” which is our longstanding joke about the bad luck our family sometimes encounters. Once we got off the boys and I speed walked back to Space Mountain to use our FPs before they expired. However surprise, surprise Space Mountain was broken down again!!!! My Golly seems like the MK is having a difficult day! The CM assured me that we could use the FPs anytime today. I put them away with plans to use them tonight when we returned. The kids and I went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, they of course thought it was so cool to ride it inside Space Mountain and see all the lights on. We met Grammy and Grandpa and went into Toon Town with hopes of riding the Barnstormer. We quickly changed our minds when we saw a thirty-minute wait, Ugh!!! Instead we went into the Big Tent store to pin trade but the kids didn’t find anything too exciting. The boys and I replenished ourselves with hotdogs from the stand in Toontown then we all headed to Mickey’s Philamagic. It didn’t disappoint, we all loved it! We returned to Thunder Mountain which was up and running with our FPs. We were able to snag the last seats again and had a fabulous ride. We emerged from Thunder Mountain and Gram and Grandpa went to get some lunch while the boys and I went toward Main Street to pin trade on our way out of the park. The boys had a great time on Main Street trading for many lanyard pins. We did have one rude encounter, Jimmy had waited in line at least a couple minutes because he saw a pin he wanted when a grown man stepped in front of him and traded for the very pin that Jimmy had waited to trade for!!!

We went out to catch the boat and it was just pulling in, great timing. We had a nice ride back to Fort Wilderness. We all looked at the old River Country and wished it was still in operation. I have so many great memories there from when I was a kid right up through until when Cam was two years old. Of course it didn’t compare to Blizzard Beach or Typhoon Lagoon but in its day it was a great water park. Plus for us staying at Fort Wilderness it was so convenient to go to.

We biked back to our site and got our swimsuits, as we were leaving Grammy and Grandpa returned. We biked to the small pool by the cabins. Hardly anyone was there so the kids had a great time swimming and playing. I in turn had a great time sitting there watching them and relaxing. We stayed for over an hour, as we were leaving Jimmy said “this is the life” and I nodded in agreement. The kids just love to be here and really appreciate the fact that we get to go on so many vacations. Grandpa met us as we were biking out and joined us for a bike ride before we returned to the motor home to get ready to go to the Contemporary for the kid’s pin trading night.

We caught the boat over and once we arrived at the Contemporary we stopped in the food court to get drinks in our refillable mugs. (Thanks David and Kathy) We went upstairs and the kids were thrilled to be the second kids in line. We had over an hour before the event started so Cam and I got settled into a card game. Jimmy and Grammy took the extra lanyard pins to see if they could trade with any of the adult pin traders to get pins that Jimmy and Cam needed to complete their collections. One man was especially helpful offering Jimmy many pins he needed. Around 6:45 the CM in charge of the kid pin trading event wanted a volunteer and asked Cam if he would help. He shook his head “no” but I gave him a nudge and said I would stand right there and watch him. Cam is pretty shy and doesn’t want to be the center of attention and he didn’t know what he was going to have to do. He was nervous but he went and ended up having a great time! The CM asked Cam to pick his favorite pins out of a box and then display them on a board that said “Cameron’s favorite pins”. After he finished his display the CM presented him with a certificate with a pin attached to it. It was so neat to see one of my kids get picked for something, usually in our life, the loud obnoxious kids get picked and my kids are standing politely behind. It was a great moment and the kids had a great time trading off the board. Once the pins were put securely away we boarded the monorail to the Magic Kingdom.

Once in the MK we went straight to Tomorrowland and got FPs for Buzz that were good in 45 minutes. Jimmy also found three FPs laying around. (Wonder if someone was leaving us a magical moment!) The boys and I then headed for Space Mountain to use our FPs from this morning, while Gram and Grandpa went to the Carousel of Progress. We had no problem using them and were soon on the ride blasting off into outer space! I still had Gram and Grandpas two FPs so I gave them to Jimmy and Cam to get a second ride. I went in the building with them and walked all the way up to the ride, once they gave the CM their FPs I walked all the way back out and waited in the gift shop for them. I rarely let them out of my sight so this was a little nerve wracking for me, all was well though and they emerged from the ride in about ten minutes.

We went and met Gram and Grandpa in front of Buzz and with the extra FPs Jimmy found they were able to all go on twice. While they rode I went into Cosmic Rays and bought myself a cheeseburger that I smothered with onions and mushrooms from the topping bar, yummy!!! When they emerged from their second ride we all headed to our first (and last) ride on Stitch. I’d read on-line that it wasn’t very good and we all agreed it wasn’t! When we exited the building even Jimmy and Cam made comments about how bad it was. Considering how long the ride was shut down, between the closing of Alien Encounter and the opening of Stitch I can’t imagine what they did. It was basically the same except instead of Mr. Scary Alien in the tube there was Stitch! We always joke about the old Mission to Mars ride that was in that same building many years ago and how bad that was, well I guess now Stitch is the new joke!! After that boring ride the kids and Grammy had an exhilarating ride on the teacups. Jimmy and Cam in one cup with Grammy in another. It was fun watching Jimmy and Cam laughing and having fun.

I then led the gang into a deserted Toon Town. Jimmy and Cam did some pin trading and then the kids, Gram and myself walked onto the Barnstormer with no wait. The coaster was half empty and when we came back only two people were waiting to get on so we all stayed on for another ride. We could have stayed on for a third ride but decided to walk over to Winnie the Pooh, which we went on with a five-minute wait. We walked out of the ride at 9:45 and headed to Main Street to watch Wishes. As always it was an excellent show and we enjoyed every minute of it! We walked under the train station where Mickey was waving to everybody and out to the boat launch where a boat was just pulling up, unbelievable, perfect timing again! Cam was pretty tired and I felt bad that he had to bike back to the site but we all made it and quickly got into bed. It was another absolutely fantastic day!!

Sat. April 16

I was thrilled to sleep until 7:20, this is unheard of for me no matter how late I stay up the night before I usually wake up around 5:00. We laid around until 8:00 then the boys and I went for a bike ride. First we biked to the outpost to mail some post cards then we rode through a few loops before stopping at the Trading Post. We returned to the site where I had a shower while Grandpa brought the boys for a bike ride. When they returned we all biked to the Wilderness Lodge together. The boys pin traded before we went to Roarin Forks with plans to get a chocolate covered donut. The kids were disappointed to find that there were no donuts but they settled for blueberry muffins, which they said were very good.

We returned to the campground making a stop at the Settlement Trading Post before returning to the site. The kids played with some Lego’s in the motor home and I went for a bike ride and called Jim. It soon became clear that FW was packed with weekend visitors, there were tons of unsupervised kids, I don’t know what parents are thinking!!! I returned to our site where Grammy and the boys were playing Rummy and I laid down for thirty minutes to rest my head before we headed out.

We drove first to the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The kids pin traded inside the gift shop before we headed down to the food court the Mara. I had waited almost a year to try the Zebra Domes dessert after I had read in someone’s trip report that you could buy them in the Mara. No zebra domes were out and I had to ask for them, we also purchased a marinated chicken sandwich on pretzel bread that we shared three ways. The sandwich was great and the zebra domes were out of this world. I barely got a taste because the kids loved them so much!! Grammy purchased one more container, which we devoured while looking at the animals outside. We were thrilled to see the animals, usually when we come here the place is vacant but not today we saw tons of animals!

Next we drove to Coronado Springs. Cousin Kathy had told us that in Feb. they had good luck finding lanyard pins here. Well, she was right, the kids had fantastic luck, they traded for thirteen and Grammy traded for one for a grand total of fourteen, wow, that was exciting! At the DVC desk the CM gave Jimmy and Cam some stickers, which was very nice. We looked at all the pins then got ready to leave, as we were walking out I noticed that Grandpa had a sticker on the back of his shirt, I figured Jimmy had stuck it there and I giggled to myself. Then I noticed Cam also had one attached to the back of his shirt, I told Grammy to turn around and sure enough she had one also!! I was laughing out loud as I turned around and asked Grammy if I also had one stuck to the back of my shirt and sure enough I did. Well this struck us all funny that Jimmy was able to get each of us with not one of us feeling anything or noticing him do it. Pretty sneaky Jimmy!!!

Our last stop was Port Orleans French Quarter for dinner. We love the rib and pot roast dinners here. We weren’t disappointed, the meals were fantastic!! We left there stuffed and returned to Fort Wilderness.

Jimmy and Cam collected a bunch of pinecones and made a large Mickey head with them, it was very cute! When they finished the kids Grandpa and I went for a bike ride around the campground and then over to the Lodge. On the bike ride over Cam spotted a deer right in his path. By the time we caught up to him it had bounded into the trees. I got a quick glimpse of it but neither Jimmy or Grandpa saw it. Cam said “it shocked me when I saw it” We continued on to the Lodge where the kids looked at the pins but didn’t find anything to exciting. The Lodge was very crowded and busy probably the most I have ever seen it. We returned to FW which was also very busy, I love FW more than anyplace in the world but I don’t care too much for it on the weekends. I called Jim then we all settled in for the night going to bed early between 8:30-9:00. Blizzard Beach in the morning, if it is warm enough!

Sunday April 17

It was a bit of a long night. Jimmy was cold in the night so I had to find him another blanket. I was cold as well and ended up grabbing a couple beach towels for extra warmth. This weather is rather shocking considering that in 99% of all the nights we have spent at FW in April (every year for the last ten years) we have always used the air conditioner. On this trip no air conditioner and we are chilly in the night!!! Cam had a bad dream in the night (probably dreamed he was freezing to death!!!) so he got in bed with me. We woke up around 7:00 and it was around 50 degrees, all hopes of going to Blizzard Beach were dashed after watching the weather, high of 72 degrees and very windy. The 72 degrees was fine but I knew being wet in the wind wouldn’t be the most fun, Jimmy especially gets cold easily so we decided to postpone BB and go to Epcot instead.

Dad returned with McDonalds breakfast for everyone and we all got ready to go. We biked out to the Outpost where we waited ten minutes for the bus. Arrived at Epcot, quickly got through security, and only waited a couple minutes for the rope drop. We headed straight for Test Track, one of Cams favorite rides. I got FPs for later and we walked right in. As usual it was a great ride, Cam and Grammy got in line for a second ride while Grandpa, Jimmy and I went over to Mission Space. Jimmy loves this ride but it is not a favorite of mine, It doesn’t make me feel ill or anything I just don’t care for the pressure on my face and neck! We went back to TT where I got more FPs and we waited for Grammy and Cam. There was no sign of them so since Jimmy really wanted another ride on Mission Space I sent Grandpa and Jimmy back there while I waited. On the previous ride Jimmy had spotted two hidden Mickey’s on the ride, one was on the surface of Mars and the other was near the landing strip, good job Jimmy, I hadn’t seen either. Cam and Grammy emerged from the ride and Cam and I hurried on again with FPs, another great ride and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. When we exited the ride I sent Grandpa and the boys on with FPs while I walked over to The Land to see if Soarin was open. It was open but unfortunately it was only open to Annual pass Holders and DVC members, too bad it wasn’t last year when we were the proud owners of Annual Passes, oh well. (We did get to ride Soarin next Sat.) Once Grandpa and the boys arrived we strolled over to The Living Seas to see if we could see the new Turtle Talk with Crush show. I didn’t know what to expect but I had heard it was very cute. Well it was VERY cute and funny and we all enjoyed it immensely! It’s almost comical that all this hype has been given to the new Stitch ride and as far as I know no advertising at all for the new “Crush” show and hands down “Crush” is 100% better!!! After the show we walked around a bit before we returned to TT to use our last five FPs. I was thrilled that Cam was able to have five rides on TT since he loves it so much, and Jimmy got three on TT and two On Mission Space! We went into Ice Station Cool for drinks before heading out. We ended up leaving at 12:30 doing everything we planned. We waited about ten minutes for a bus and were on our way back. I think we saw the most destruction here as far as many, many trees down!

After lunch and a little down time the boys and I went for a long bike ride, we rode into one of the loops and there was only one site occupied, the weekend crowds have left, yeah!! While riding the boys and I talked about how happy we are too be here and how hard it is to believe we are already on day 4 of vacation. We biked to the pool by the cabins, as Jimmy was getting into the pool a man looked at him and asked him if his cast was waterproof, Jimmy replied “yes” and jumped in. I am so glad he was able to get the waterproof cast its definitely making his vacation more enjoyable! We biked back to the site and quickly got ready to go to the Magic Kingdom.

The boys and I left with plans to meet Grammy and Grandpa on Main Street for Wishes if we both were in that area. I thought Wishes was at 9:00 along with the park closing. We didn’t realize until later that Wishes was at 10:00 and the park was open until 11:00. We caught the boat over and as the castle came into sight I mentioned to the boys how beautiful the gold additions were glittering in the sun. The women sitting next to me said she could almost cry just looking at the castle. She went on to say that the last time she was at WDW she was twelve years old and now she is thirty-five. She said her trip was a gift from her Mom and Uncle who were still resting at the Lodge. She went on to say they had been in Epcot this morning and she had taken a great picture of her Mom and Figment she then showed me the picture on her digital camera. I told her to make sure she saw Wishes tonight before saying good-bye.

As we made our way into the park we spotted the CM collecting strollers with a lanyard on so we went over. Sure enough he had some lanyard pins along with a women he was working with. The kids made some great trades. We continued pin trading all the way down Main Street with the kids having fantastic luck. (In the end they left the Magic Kingdom with an astonishing 25 lanyard pins!!) I called my friend Carolyn on the way down Main Street. She and her kids came with us last July. We had such an amazing time with them, I wish they were with us now. We had a nice little visit before saying good-bye. We walked right up to the castle to get a closer look at the gold characters and to get some photos. We had fun looking at them all. Next we walked over to Frontierland to see about getting FPs for either Splash or Thunder Mountain. I wasn’t sure if there would be any left but there were for each (I love not being here for Easter when they would have all been gone hours ago!) the kids picked Splash Mountain so we go the passes for that. From there we went over to Tom Sawyers Island. We had a fantastic time here, since there was no place we had to be we weren’t rushed and spent well over an hour here. The kids played and had a ball at the playground and the Fort in addition to going into the caves and “scaring”me! When they finished playing in the fort they sat down and played a game of checkers. (Cam won the game) When they finally had enough of the Island we caught the raft back and went to Pecos Bills for dinner. We had a great meal and for dessert the three of us shared a piece of chocolate crème pie that was outstanding! An older couple next to us had an extra piece of pie that they offered to us but we were so stuffed we declined.

I gave Jim a quick call and told him we couldn’t wait for him to arrive tomorrow, and that we were heading to Splash Mountain one of his favorite rides!! Before getting on Splash we picked up FP’s for Thunder Mountain. We put on our disposable ponchos before getting on, the night air was getting chilly and I knew if we got damp we would probably be cold. This would never have been a problem on all our other April vacations!!! Another great ride, Cam held on tight as we went down the big drop! When we exited the ride we only had a five-minute wait until our FP’s was good so to use up the time we went into the gift shop nearby to check out the lanyards. One of the CMs had a mystery pin on her lanyard. That is when the pin is on backwards so you can’t see it, Jimmy did the trade and we almost fell over when the CM handed him a Stitch lanyard pin!!! The Stitch pin was the most rare, hardest to find pin in the lanyard two series, in fact I had bought each of the boys the Stitch pin for Christmas on e-bay spending about 20.00 per pin!!!! Jimmy said when he saw the pin his heart almost stopped!!! We put Stitch safely away and used our FP’s to go on Thunder Mountain. I love riding this ride at night, it just seems like a different ride then during the day. We had a great view of the burning cabin on Tom Sawyers Island.

We meandered over to the Haunted Mansion and when we saw no wait we decided to go on. As we were walking up to the mansion with no one around and it being dark it was almost spooky. The Butler held the doors open for us and we walked in with him closing the doors behind us. The stretch room was half empty and I could immediately tell that the Butler was really into his character. He got right behind a lady and was staring at her with an expressionless face. She had no clue that he was there but everyone else in the room noticed. When she finally glanced back and saw him she gave a startled jump. Jimmy got a real kick out of him and when we left the room he said “That man was just made for working at Disney”!

After the Mansion we headed over to Mickey’s Philharmagic since we love this show so much. We sat in the fourth row back to see if the effects seemed any different up front but it didn’t seem to be. Since there was no line for Snow Whites Scary Adventure we decided to hop on. A CM noticed Jimmy’s Red Sox hat and asked where we were from and told us he is from Mass. We talked to him for a minute before hopping on the ride. We continued on to the Teacups and it was here that I found out that the park was open to 11:00. I asked the kids if they wanted to watch the fireworks in Fantasyland then scoot over to Space Mountain. Cam was feeling tired and would have preferred to head out after Wishes but Jimmy REALLY wanted to stay so Cam agreed. I called Grandpa on the cell phone to let them know we wouldn’t be on Main Street for Wishes. They were actually in the Train Station to see them and make a quick exit. We ended up on a bench in Fantasyland practically by ourselves as we watched the fireworks burst over our heads, another great show!

We speed walked over to Space Mountain where a girl gave us two FP’s that were good right then so I sent Jimmy and Cam on while I waited at the exit. (I am getting better at this, not as nervous) They came out all smiles in about ten minutes. Next was the Asto-Orbitor (No wait again, I LOVE the low level of crowds!!!) we really enjoyed it at night seeing everything all lit up. From there we went over to Buzz Lightyear where we went for three rides in a row (no wait of course!) The inside of the building was empty and the CM inside tried to trick us by saying the ride was closed and she didn’t know why the people outside let us in!! Our second time through we saw her doing this to another family!! (Later in the week the same women was working the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and when she saw Jimmy’s Red Sox hat she said only Yankee fans could ride!!) Our third time through Jimmy scored 320,900 points a Space Ace!

At this point it is 11:00 and the rides are closed. We make our way down Main Street during the second showing of Spectro Magic. There are not many people watching and even though it has already started we could have grabbed a first row curb seat. We went down on the dock and waited less than five minutes for the boat to pull up. Cam fell asleep on the way back and I felt bad for him when I had to wake him up to bike back to our site. That was one cold ride and we practically dove under our covers when we got back to the motor home!!! I really can’t say enough about the drastic temp. difference between this trip and all our other April trips. I remember last year a boat ride back late at night when I had sweat dripping off of me and couldn’t seem to get any fresh air! So far the temp. has been in the mid 70s and either breezy or windy. It’s great, its nice not to be sweating buckets!!!! Tomorrow Jim flies down.

Monday April 18th

We didn’t wake up until 8:45, pretty unusual for us but great since we didn’t get in until midnight last night. We slowly got up and got ready and biked over to the Wilderness Lodge in hopes of seeing CM Sandra. Grammy had a nosebleed and stayed at the Motor Home. CM Sandra was at the pin cart and when she saw us she came right over and gave us all hugs. We have seen Sandra over the years at the pin cart but it wasn’t until last April that we really got to know her. She is such a nice lady and has really helped Jimmy and Cam with their pin collections. Still we hadn’t seen her since last July and considering she meets thousands and thousands of people its amazing that she recognized us right away! We chatted and got caught up a bit before saying good-bye knowing that we would see her again.

We biked back to FW stopping at the Settlement Trading Post. The kids played checkers while Grandpa and I sat in the chairs out front. When the kids were done we biked to the Meadow Trading Post. Grandpa continued onto the site while the boys bought the tubes to fill up with flavored sugar. I used my cell phone to call Jim to see where he was and he was just pulling into FW. I called Grandpa and he drove to the Outpost to pick him up since we can only have one car at the site. By the time we got back to the motor home Jim was there and we were so happy to see him. We quickly got our swimsuits and biked to the pool. It was warmer today around 80 degrees but still very breezy. The kids swam for quite awhile, at one point Jim and Jimmy used the restroom and apparently saw a HUGE lizard in there. (Jimmy couldn’t get over the enormity of it and for the rest of the vacation every time he used the restroom at that pool he would wear his sandals!) When we finished at the pool we went for a long bike ride before getting ready for our PS at O’hanas.

We left the site and drove to the Polynesian for our PS at 5:00. We checked in and waited for our beeper to go off. We were seated and our appetizers arrived quickly and we all dug in. The chicken wings are my absolute favorite and I ate more of those than anybody. I also love the wontons. The meat started coming and I felt that we were a bit rationed even though it is an all you can eat. Of course we could have all we wanted but you really had to speak up to get it. The waiter gave you one piece of each kind of meat and you had to tell him if you wanted two pieces or three pieces. This is our third time eating here and it was the first time we had to specify how many pieces we wanted on our plates. It was almost like our server was getting a commission on the least amount of food we ate! I even got a piece of steak that was so rare I don’t think it had been cooked at all! Overall it was a good meal and we will go back but next time I think I will just tell the waiter to load up my plate to begin with so I don’t have to keep calling him back to get one more piece at a time!

After dinner we drove over to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and bought a package of zebra domes and the kids pin traded in the gift shop. Back at FW we went for a bike ride before going to bed. Early morning tomorrow, the guys are going on the bass fishing trip on Bay Lake at 6:45.

Tuesday April 19

Grandpa woke us up at 6:30 to get ready for the fishing trip. Grandpa and the kids were out the door by 6:40 and Jim soon after. Once they left I picked up a bit then hopped on my bike for a wonderful ride around a very quite FW. I leisurely biked all around, at one point I stopped at the Meadow Trading Post which hadn’t opened up yet and just sat on the back porch thinking about how much I love it here! The music was softly playing and a lone bunny hopped within inches of my feet! I biked some more and eventually ended up at the Outpost getting some tickets checked to make sure I had used all the days up. (I had) More biking, this time I ended up at the Trails End where I bought Jimmy and Cam each a chocolate covered donut. It was now around 8:45 so I biked back to the site to get ready to go to Blizzard Beach.

The guys arrived back from the fishing trip without the rave reviews of last year! It was NOTHING like last year, they caught a fraction of the fish they caught last year and the guide wasn’t nearly as personable as the one they had last year. Apparently when they first got on the boat the guide asked them if they had ever gone fishing there before and the guys told them they had last year. The guide went on to say that it is “nothing like last year”, something about Disney putting different fish in the lake and they are in a transition period! The fishing was slow going and during the two hours they were fishing the guide reminded them several times that he told them it wouldn’t be as good as last year!! My complaint here is why didn’t somebody tell me this when I made the reservations months before??? Or at the very least contact me at home before we left or at the campground before the trip. His warning on the dock and in the boat was too late, I know from experience that Disney is very strict about reservations and their cancellation policy. In this case you must cancel 24 hours in advance or your credit card will be charged. Basically our hands were tied once we got the warning on the dock. It cost 220.00 plus bait for this two-hour trip. Although it is a lot of money we felt it was worth it last year because the kids caught so many fish, this year however it clearly wasn’t. I think it is unfair that they continue to charge the same prices while not offering the same experience. I understand fishing is controlled by nature and sometimes fish aren’t biting but this was more than that, Disney had affected the experience, were aware of it but didn’t let the guest know until it was too late!! Jimmy and Cam still had a great time so all was not lost just for that amount of money I could have perhaps given them a great time doing something else!!!!

The four of us drove to Blizzard Beach while Grammy and Grandpa opted not to go. We arrived a little before 10:00 so once we got through the ticket turnstiles the park was open. We found a spot for our stuff and headed right up to the Family Raft Ride. We walked right on our raft and had an exhilarating ride down. The water was freezing and every time we got splashed it almost took your breath away. I love this ride but it was almost too chilly to enjoy it! After the ride we went to the back of the park to the tube slides. We picked up double tubes and Cam and Jim went together and Jimmy and I went together. While Jimmy and I were sitting in our tube waiting to go the lifeguard asked Jimmy what happened to his arm, when Jimmy responded “skiing” the lifeguard said if you were going to break a bone then skiing was the best way to do it!!! We had a great ride, the water was much warmer and we didn’t cringe every time we were splashed! At the bottom we grabbed single tubes and hurried back up to ride in the enclosed tube. This ride is great, it really seems like your flying through the dark. We went another two times and on our last ride Jim overheard someone say they were going to River Country on Thursday!!!! We continued on to the Downhill Double Dipper where we had a bit of a wait but it was well worth it as it was quite a thrilling ride going down the drop! This was Cams first ride on this because the last time we were here he wasn’t tall enough. We all had a great time and we moved on to the Toboggan Racers, which we walked right onto. After this ride Jim went in search of a cup of coffee while the kids and I rode the storm slides and the Toboggan Racers a second time before heading back to our spot for a snack. After a quick snack we all went up to the Family Raft ride again. This time we waited about ten minutes and the water was just as frigid as the first time! The kids and I warmed up in the lazy river while Jim went to get us some lunch. As we went under every bridge we looked for a hidden Mickey that we had read in our book was made into the stones, we found it and it was perfect, made me wonder why we had never seen it before!! We went around twice, the kids had their goggles on looking for lost change, they had some success, finding a couple dimes, pennies and one quarter. We hopped out and met Jim and ate a great lunch and all four of us returned to the Lazy River. Cam found great joy in pulling Jim under all the waterfalls, which Jim was a good sport about! I was glad he picked Jim because the day wasn’t hot enough for me to want to go under the waterfalls!!! When we got out the kids were chilly and we couldn’t interest them in another trip around the lazy river or the wave pool so we headed out. We stopped in the gift shop because our hidden Mickey book said there was a hidden Mickey on the light near the changing room. We almost gave up but finally found it, it was pretty cool, one of my favorite hidden Mickey’s!

Back at FW Jim brought the boys to play catch and I laid down. Grandpa was puttering around and Grammy was reading. When the guys came back I made the kids dinner then we all went for a bike ride. At one point we passed a family of three on the sidewalk and when I passed I heard the lady mutter loud enough for me to hear that we shouldn’t be riding our bikes on the sidewalk. This irritated me as a couple years ago security drove by me and yelled at me to get on the sidewalk because I was on the side of the road!! I feel like the sidewalk issue is a no win one for bikers. The campground wants you on the sidewalk so the roads are open to the busses but the walkers on the sidewalk don’t always want to share with the bikers and feel as that women did. When I heard the women say that I turned around and told her that security had told us to ride on the sidewalk. She replied in a snotty tone that she wasn’t talking to me. Uh, ok well save your comments about me until I am out of earshot!!! We biked for a while before Grammy and Grandpa headed back and we went to the pool. Pool area was pretty quiet and the kids had a blast swimming around.

We all returned to the site and Jim and I grabbed a quick bite to eat before biking over to the Lodge. On the bike ride over we saw two deer grazing next to the bike path. We stopped to look at them and I took a picture while they continued eating. The boys did some pin trading before we went into the Roaring Fork to get a snack. We ended up eating it outside which was a first, usually it is so darn hot we want to stay in the air conditioning!!!

On the bike ride back Cam had an accident on his bike, going off the path and wiping out. It was Jims fault as he was doing a trick on his bike, which caused Cam to look at him instead of paying attention!!!! We stopped at Pioneer Hall and sat in the rocking chairs on the porch while the kids pin traded. They would have played on the nearby playground but it was too crowded. On the way back to our site we biked past the campfire program and Sundee was performing. We stopped for about five minutes before returning to the site. Relaxed a bit and were in bed by 9:00. MGM in the morning for Jim and Jimmy while, Cam and I go to the Magic Kingdom.

Wednesday April 20

I woke up at 6:30 and got ready for the day. The kids woke up around 7:00 and slowly got ready and had breakfast. We were all ready by 8:00. Jim, Jimmy, Grammy, and Grandpa all went to MGM while Cam and I biked down to the launch for the Magic Kingdom. Cam doesn’t care for the RRC or the TOT and he has seen all the other attractions at MGM numerous times so I told him he didn’t have to go to MGM this trip (unless we go over to see Fantasmic) So even though TOT is my all time favorite ride it wasn’t worth it to drag Cam over there and have him sitting around while we did the kid swap!

The boat arrived at 8:30 to pick us up and we had a pleasant ride over to the MK. At one point a bird flew up alongside us and landed on the boat where he perched getting a free ride! We went through the bag check but couldn’t get through the ticket turnstile because the roped off area was already full. This was a first for me we are always on the other side of the turnstile when the park opens, oh well! Once the park opened we went right through the turnstile but the gridlock was terrible and we could barely move! We were way over to the right and got caught up in the stroller rentals. We finally broke free and went straight to Space Mountain. The posted time said five minutes but we waited at least fifteen. My pet peeve here is that Space Mountain creates long lines right away by only opening up one track. I wish I knew why they do this, it was definitely crowded today and it would have been great if both sides were open! When we got out the posted wait time said thirty minutes but I am doubtful, I think it was much longer! We picked up FP’s for later and leisurely walked over to Frontierland pin trading along the way. Cam was thrilled to trade for a lanyard pin that neither he or Jimmy had. (Lilo on the monorail) We got to Thunder Mountain and almost walked right onto the ride. Since both sides were open you could walk right on the ride as opposed to the long line over at Space Mountain! On our train was a school class doing some type of experiment. They all had full glasses of water to hold onto during the ride. When the ride was over Cam and I looked back and all their cups were empty! Living in N.H. we can’t imagine being able to go to Disney for a field trip to do experiments!!!!

We were off to Splash Mountain with a five-minute wait. Cam has grown to love this ride but is still afraid of the drop, but not so afraid that he doesn’t want to ride!! After the ride we went back to Thunder Mountain and waited about ten minutes, when we were finally going down the final ramp the ride broke down. It soon became clear that it wasn’t going to be running anytime soon as workers were being dispatched to go out and get people off the trains. As we left the building I asked for a pass to come back later. As we left Thunder we noticed that Splash Mountain was broken down as well. Our FP’s were now good for Space Mountain so we started the long hike over stopping in Pinnochio Village Haus for some lunch. I bought Cam his own large container of chocolate milk and he was so excited, usually I make him and Jimmy share one and then have water if they are still thirsty! When we got to Space Mountain to use our FP’s surprise, surprise it was also broken down. This was like deja vue because on Sat. we did the same thing, hiked all the way over from Frontierland with our FP’s only to find it broken down! This time all the mountains were broken down for goodness sake! As much as it costs to get in this park I think these rides need to be breaking down a little less!!!! (We did read in the paper two days later that some water pipe burst causing 14 rides in the MK to all break down at the same time)

Cam pin traded our way out of the park where we caught the monorail to the Contemporary. Cam pin traded in all the gift shops finding a Tokyo calendar pin for Jimmy to add to his collection. Good job Cam! We purchased the Limited Edition Easter pins before catching the boat back to FW.

We stopped at the Trading Post and bought two Nestle ice cream sandwiches before biking back to the site. We quickly ate our ice cream before grabbing out pins and biking to the Lodge. Sandra let us look at her board, there was nothing that we needed, but we did trade for two monorail pins for cousin Keith. Sandra showed us a picture of her granddaughter who is adorable. We visited a bit before biking back to the site. Jim and Jimmy arrived back soon after and Jim and Cam laid down for a nap. Cam would have preferred not to nap. However I knew if he was going to have the energy to stay awake tonight for extra magic hours in the MK he would need some rest. I knew Jimmy wouldn’t sleep but I had him lay down for a half an hour to rest. Jim and Jimmy had a great time at MGM, they rode RRC three times, the TOT twice, rode the Great Movie Ride and saw the Millionaire Show.

I went for a thirty minutes bike ride around FW just soaking up the atmosphere and being so thankful that I am here. I returned to the site where Jim and Cam were sound asleep. I grabbed Jimmy and we went for a bike ride, eventually we stopped at the Trading Post where we bought a pint of chocolate Haagen-Dazs ice cream that we shared on the porch. We biked some more before returning to the motor home where we hung out until Jim and Cam woke up. As soon as they woke up we all biked to the pool. I saw an older boy at the pool who had an identical waterproof cast as Jimmy except that he had more of the cast up around his thumb, it was the same color and everything! The kids swam for about an hour before we returned to the site to get ready to go to the Magic Kingdom.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom a little after 6:00. It didn’t appear overly crowded as we made our way down Main Street but the tip board showed some pretty staggering wait times! We headed to Space Mountain with our six FP’s from this morning when the ride was broken down. Jim and the boys went on it twice while I picked up FP’s for Buzz Lightyear that were good in 30 minutes. I walked around a bit checking CM lanyards for the kids but didn’t find anything real exciting before I went into Cosmic Rays to get a couple sandwiches. We all met up, the guys had a great couple rides on Space Mountain, we ate then went on the TTA before using out FP’s for Buzz. After the ride we got our Extra Magic Hour bracelets and walked over to the Haunted Mansion. The three guys went on while I walked over to Thunder Mountain and picked up some FP’s. The wait for Haunted Mansion said 15 minutes but it was actually a walk on. Next we went over to Thunder Mountain and used our pass from this morning when the ride had broken down. While we were in line there was a man in front of me that had a t-shirt that said the following “I support two teams, the Red Sox and any team that beats the Yankees” It was a great shirt and I told the man so! He then commented on Jimmy and Cams Red Sox t-shirts. We had a great ride, I really love this ride at night. We went right on a second time with the FPs I had just gotten. I mentioned to the boys that we must be passing people in the stand by line a second time!!!

Surprisingly Splash Mountain only had a five-minute wait so we went on that twice in a row. I should have been paying attention to the time because Wishes began as we were beginning our second ride and I would have rather watched Wishes again then do Splash, oh well! (I had already rode Splash 7 times this trip I didn’t really need the 8th ride!) We walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean and that only had a five-minute wait so the three guys went on while I went to search for ice cream for everyone. When I got back with the ice cream they were just coming out so we sat down and ate before heading over to Fanastyland. I picked up FP’s for Peter Pan and we all went to see Mickey’s Philarmagic again. This was the third time the kids and I had seen this, this trip and we loved it as much as ever! After the show we used our FP’s for Peter Pan. I rode this ride with Jimmy and had a flood of wonderful memories. When Jimmy was ages four, five, and six Peter Pan was his hero and we rode this ride countless times sometimes three times in the row when the park first opened in the morning! We noticed that when we flew over London you couldn’t see the little cars moving below. Next stop was the Teacups and apparently Jimmy and Cam got a good cup because they were absolutely flying!!! When they got off they were both feeling a little dizzy! It was now mid-night and we walked over to Space Mountain, the wait said 45 minutes, which seemed high considering the late hour. I am not sure if it was accurate or not because we ended up skipping it. We walked over to Buzz and the sign said a 25-minute wait but we went in and waited maybe three minutes, the line never stopped moving! Jimmy wanted to go again but Cam was really tired so we caught the boat back to FW. It felt great to crawl into bed after such a busy day and so much walking.

Thursday April 21

We all woke up at 7:45, I was wishing we could have slept a little later considering we didn’t go to bed until 1:30am!! After we got ready the four of us went for a bike ride, when we rode by the pool we decided to stop. It was very inviting for the kids because no one was there! The kids were already in their swimsuits so I just biked back to the site and picked up the towels. The kids swam for about an hour (the standard time limit I guess!) before they changed and we biked to the Lodge. We wanted to see CM Sandra one more time (we were going to Typhoon Lagoon tomorrow and she doesn’t work on the weekends) Sandra was there and we visited for a bit, before saying our good-byes. Sandra is such a nice lady and we look forward to seeing her on our next trip.

Returned to the site and got ready to go to the Marketplace. Grammy and Grandpa drove over and we biked out to get our rent-a-car. When we arrived Jim dropped us off and went to park. The kids and I went directly to the Christmas scene so I could take their picture for our Christmas card. This is the fifth year that I have done this and it is fun to see how they have grown! I got some great photos and then we went to meet Jim, Grammy and Grandpa at the Earl of Sandwich. The line was rather long so Jim waited while I brought the kids pin trading. The line moved right along and Jim had our sandwiches in about 15 minutes. The sandwiches were awesome, we had roast beef and turkey and they were both great.

After we ate we wandered through the shops ending up at the Lego Store where I purchased some Birthday gifts for Jimmy. We drove back to FW and the guys biked directly to the pool and I went to the site to get towels. We stayed for a couple hours and even I went swimming this time, my first time in the pool at FW this year!! Usually I swim everyday in April but with the cool temperature I just haven’t had the desire although it was plenty warm enough for the kids or anyone else who really wanted to go. We went biking for a bit before returning to the site.

We drove over to the All-Star Sports for their kid pin trading night. We have never gone to their pin trading night as we had heard it wasn’t nearly as good as the one at the Contemporary. We figured we would give it a try since we had heard that Disney had just released the last twelve lanyard pins and the kids were on a mission to try and find some. On the drive over we made quick stops at the Pop Century along with the All Star Movies and Music before our final destination of the All Star Sports. We all ordered dinner first, I wasn’t feeling my best and was hoping that some food in my stomach would help me feel better. Even after eating I didn’t feel my best, Grandpa went and got me some Tums and those seemed to really help. The Pin Trading here is completely different than at the Contemporary (just like we heard it was) you wait in line to do one trade then get back at the end of the line again and wait to do your second trade, instead of getting to do all five trades at once and be done with it. The selection was no where near what the Contemporary offers but the kids did each get one pin they didn’t have and were thrilled with that. They got the Donald Duck Music lanyard pin. Jimmy and Grammy went around to the adult pin traders in hopes of getting some different lanyard pins but no one had any of the pins Jimmy and Cam needed. We had one exciting moment when Jimmy was able to trade for the Tigger baseball lanyard pin for cousin Jenny to complete her set. We had been looking for that pin all vacation with no luck. Jenny had been at Disney for two and a half weeks in Feb. and hadn’t found it either. Jimmy had to use one of his good trader pins to get it but was happy to do it since Jenny and her family had gotten the boys 25 lanyard pins on their vacation. Jimmy also traded for a lanyard pin from Disneyland but that was it for the trading!

Grammy and Grandpa headed back to FW and we made a quick stop at the Animal Kingdom Lodge and then on to the Boardwalk. Before we turned into the Boardwalk a Mother duck and her five babies crossed six lanes of traffic and right in front of us before getting safely to the other side, whew!!! We stayed at the Boardwalk for two nights last April and really enjoyed it. We caught the end of the juggling show, I wish we had seen the whole thing as the guy was quite good. We thought about getting an ice cream until we saw the line and changed our minds!

We drove back to FW and while the boys and I biked back to our site Jim biked to the Trading Post and bought us ice cream. We ate the ice cream (Mickey sandwich for Jimmy and Nestle cookie sandwich for Cam and I) and settled into bed between 9:30-10:00. Typhoon Lagoon tomorrow.

Friday April 22---Earth Day!

We woke up around 7:30 and ate breakfast outside while watching a baby Blue Jay who couldn’t fly and appeared to be having trouble. The Mother was in the area but not real close. The five of us headed out for a bike ride (Grammy opted to stay at the site) Jimmy was the “leader” first and we followed him wherever he went with Cam taking over being the leader for the second half of the ride. The kids love to go on bike rides and be the “leader” its always interesting to see where they are going to go. When they were younger sometimes we wouldn’t gain much ground as we would go in circles!!!!

We returned to the site, got packed up, and covered ourselves in sunscreen before driving to Typhoon Lagoon. We arrived around 9:30 and only waited in line about five minutes before the turnstiles opened. We went onto the bridge and waited for the rope drop at 10:00. Once it did we scrambled in to secure some chairs in front of the wave pool before heading off to the new water ride Crush N Gusher. Initially the line was going slow and we were informed that “Cheer America” was doing a photo shoot which was why the girls would get off the slide and not have to hand off their tubes creating a little wait! It was a little frustrating because we were anxious to ride the new ride too! We got two double tubes and by luck went up the banana blaster line while everyone else went to the other two lines. We got to the top and there was no line for our side while the lines were backed way up for the other two lines! Cam and I went first and we loved it, the first drop and climb were exhilarating. The force of the water pushing you upwards was unlike anything we had ever experienced. We all agreed it was a great new ride! We hurried around to go again and since the “Cheer” girls were done we quickly got our tubes. This time I went with Jimmy and Jim went with Cam. Jimmy and I got seated in our tube and the lifeguard told Jimmy that he couldn’t go down Humunga Kowabunga or the storm slides with his cast. I told her we had a special sleeve covering for it but she still said “no” he wouldn’t be able to ride. (I am pretty sure he could have with the sleeve, I doubt the CM had any idea what type of covering I was talking about. I think the fear is the cast may cause damage to the slides but the sleeve is a heavy, smooth plastic so it would have been impossible to damage their slides) I told Jimmy he could put the plastic sleeve on and we could go ask at the slides but he said “no”. We had a great second ride although Jim lost his sunglasses on the ride, which he wasn’t too happy about. (I always hold my sunglasses on water slides but I guess Jim thought they would be safe in his pocket, wrong!!) Cam said he wanted to go ride Humunga Kowabunga which, was surprising because the last time he rode it a year and a half ago he hated it. He and Jim headed over there and Jimmy and I went back up the Crush N Gusher. On our next trip up a different CM noticed Jimmy cast and called another CM over to make sure it was ok for him to go down. The CM said “Yes” because his fingers and thumb were free to grab the handles of the tube. After our fifth and final ride Jimmy and I hurried back to our spot to get goggles and we left a note to Jim and Jimmy so they would meet us at the wave pool. After a few waves Jim and Cam joined us. They had gone on Humunga Kowabunga two times and the storm slides two times. Cam, wasn’t afraid at all this time and had a great time. We all rode the waves together until they stopped at 11:30. At this point Jim went for some lunch for us, and the kids and I went to the Lazy River. We rode around the river two complete times, I overheard a women saying how much warmer the water was here than at Blizzard Beach and she was exactly right I had been thinking the same thing. We got out and met Jim on the way back. He was grumbling that he had waited 45 minutes for food and that the workers didn’t seem to know what they were doing! (Thanks Jim for always getting the food while I do the fun stuff with the kids!)

We had a great lunch before heading back into the wave pool. We think the wave pool is awesome, the kids love it, we could spend the whole day right in the wave pool. When the waves stopped the kids and I went for another two trips around the Lazy River while Jim took a break. When we returned Jim brought the kids back to the wave pool while I took a break. During this time a HUGE argument erupted behind me between a family of four and a large group of teenagers. It had something to do with the kids thinking that the family had taken one of their white towels. The family said over and over they hadn’t taken the towel. The situation was tense and ugly, finally the Father went and got a security guard who came over and talked to the parents and then one girl from the teen group separately. In the end the CM helped the family gather up their chairs and belongings and relocated them to another area. The whole thing was very unsettling and something that you don’t normally witness at Disney. Thank Goodness we didn’t have any white towels with us that the teens thought belonged to them!!!!!

I joined the guys for the last five waves then we got ready to leave. On the way out we bought a small container of dipping dots for the kids to share along with a slush and a bag of mini donuts.

Arrived back at the site around 3:30 where we all had showers. The kids found Earth Day buttons and treat bags that Grammy had gotten from the Trading Post. We had also left money with them to buy the Limited Edition Earth Day pins if they saw them and they had drove over to the Marketplace to purchase them. The baby Blue Jay was still at our site, Grandpa said that a couple times earlier in the day he had scared a couple larger birds away from it. Hopefully it will fly soon and be able to protect itself.

Jim brought the boys for a bike ride while I got things ready to go and the six of us left to go to the Contemporary for the kid’s pin trading night. We biked down to the boat launch. Grandpa was riding on the side of the road because the sidewalk was quite crowded and surprise, surprise, a Disney van went by and yelled at Grandpa to get back on the sidewalk!!!!! I wish the lady who was annoyed at us a few days ago because she had to share half of the sidewalk with us would have heard that!!! We just can’t win with this silly sidewalk issue!!!! Grandpa didn’t get on the sidewalk and told the women he wanted to talk to her but she didn’t stop. This whole sidewalk issue is my only pet peeve with Fort Wilderness. A simple solution would be to put up a couple signs stating that the sidewalks are for both walkers and bike riders then the walkers wouldn’t have to feel quite so possessive and the roads would be freed up for the busses!!

We caught the boat to the Contemporary and oddly enough I felt as terrible as I had last night! Grammy and the kids went right up to get a spot in line and I met them up there shortly after. While we waited we had a nice visit with a family from Florida who were at Disney for the weekend. I love N.H. but it sure would be fun to live near Disney and be able to come and visit anytime!! The Dad used to work at the Disney Store and he was telling us all about that. We also talked about pin trading and when the Disney Store sold a ton of pins on clearance for next to nothing. They went on to tell us that on their last trip about a month ago they were selected to be family of the day at the Magic Kingdom, it sounded like so much fun, I always thought it would be so neat to get picked! They were a very nice family and it passed the time visiting with them. Jimmy was picked to help set up the board like Cam had last Friday so that was really neat. He was also presented with a certificate with a lanyard pin attached. The kids traded and had a great time but were a little disappointed that none of the newly released lanyard pins were on the board. We grabbed a bite to eat and waited for the drawing at 8:00. The numbers were drawn but the kids weren’t winners, we didn’t wait until the 9:00 drawing though and headed out to the boat launch. The boat was waiting for us and we all got on and had yet another pleasant ride. We biked to the Meadow Trading Post in hopes that the checker board would be free but it wasn’t so we bought ice cream instead. It was the usual Mickey sandwich for Jimmy and the Nestle ice cream cookie sandwich for Cam and I. Lights out around 9:30, going to Epcot tomorrow. (85 degrees today)

Saturday April 23

We were up and out the door and biking to the outpost bus stop by 8:00. We rode the bus to Epcot with only six other people!!! Big difference using the bus here as opposed to the other resorts which often requires a lot of standing. The bus driver announced we were going to Epcot “Center”, even Cam picked up on that and said “Epcot Center, its not called that, its just Epcot” I remember when it used to be called Epcot Center!! On the ride over we pointed out all the trees that were down to Jim.

We got in line to enter the park around 8:35 and were just standing there talking when a CM came over and asked us how many people were in our family. We said “four” and he responded by saying “we have selected you to be the Epcot family of the day” WOW!!! I couldn’t believe it!!! He brought us over to an empty bag check and security checked my backpack. We put our tickets in the turnstile and were inside the park. Cam whispered to me that I should have said “no thank you”. Cam was nervous because he wasn’t sure what we would have to do, there would be no worse punishment for Cam than to be the center of attention and at this point we didn’t know what being the family of the day involved. The CM brought us behind Spaceship Earth where a Test Track car was waiting for us. We were introduced to another CM who would be our driver. We got in the car Jim, Cam and I in the back and Jimmy up front with the driver. We were told that when the character bus came out to stop in front of Spaceship Earth we would also drive in front of Spaceship Earth and that our duties involved lots of waving! We would then be driven to Test Track to ride the very first car of the day!!! That sounded cool!!! We were all pretty excited, things like this just don’t happen to our family, first both kids get picked to help out at the Contemporary kids pin trading night and now this!! (We joked that we should buy a lottery ticket!) The two CMs asked us all sorts of questions, where we were from, where we were staying, favorite rides, if our vacation was beginning or ending. It was neat sitting there and looking around with no other guests in sight just CMs standing around waiting for the park to open! Before we knew it we saw the character bus come out and we went around Spaceship Earth to the front, we stopped between the Double Decker bus and the crowd. We all waved and saw Stitch for the first time. All the characters looked down and waved at us. We then pulled away and began the drive to Test Track. CMs were standing along the route and they were all waving to us. We pulled up in front of Test Track where a CM was waiting for us. She welcomed us and escorted us inside the building, right through the pre-show and right out to the vehicles. (This was awesome as we have ridden TT so many times we know the Pre-show movie by heart!!) We hopped in our car, the three guys in front and me in the back. The CM told us to have a good time and that she would be waiting for us when we got back. We had a great ride and when we came around the CM asked if we would like to go around again. Would we like a second ride??? SURE!!!! Two rides without having to watch the pre-show was like a dream! We had another fantastic ride and when we came around this time the first group of people were just coming in. The CM was waiting for us and walked with us to the photo pick-up area where we were given a free photo of our first ride. That was nice, Cam has wanted to get a photo from TT the last few trips but we never have. After many thank-yous from us the CM told us to have a great day and we walked outside. What a neat experience, I know it is something the kids will always remember. (We now kid Cam that he thought we should have said “no thank-you” when we were picked!)

The three guys headed over to Mission Space, up until today Cam wanted no part of the ride but decided to try it. I told the kids I would go over to Pin Central and the gift shop to see if any CMs had the new lanyard pins on their lanyards (sadly I didn’t find any) and then we would meet over at the Land to see if we could get on Soarin.

We met at The Land and Cam said Mission Space was ok but definitely not a favorite, I agree it is not one of my favorites either! We went inside the Land and were thrilled to see that Soarin was indeed open to the public. Instead of waiting 25 minutes we grabbed FP’s and walked right on to the Living with the land boat ride. We loved all the Mickey shaped vegetables that were growing and I snapped a couple pictures. We also noticed that they were growing red and green lettuce leafs to form a Mickey head!

We walked over to the Living Seas to see Turtle Talk with Crush. It was another cute show but not as funny as the first time we saw it. We returned to see Soarin and all I can say is WOW!!!! Two thumbs up, it was awesome, the scenery, special effects, it was breath taking, and we all ducked when that golf ball was hit!!! I am pretty sure there was a Mickey head on the golf ball! We picked up more FP’s to come back and then headed over to World Showcase, one of Jim’s favorite places in Disney. We went on the Maelstrom with no wait, which was nice. Usually this ride has a wait every time we walk by. We stopped in Germany where Jim bought a hotdog with sauerkraut. In Italy I bought the kids a lemonade slush to share. Jim then walked up to England to get me fish and chips while I brought the kids into Japan to get some rice candy. We bought six boxes and the kids had polished off one box by the time we got to England. They love this candy, we bought one box in July and they have wished for more ever since! We met Jim who was just getting my fish and chips. I ate the fish, the kids ate the fries and we headed back to The Land to see Soarin one more time with our FP’s. We were hoping for the first row but were in the third row for a second time, didn’t matter we loved the show just as much the second time!

When we got out of The Land we saw Grammy and Grandpa. I had talked to Grandpa on the cell phone earlier to let them know that Soarin was open. At that point they were just entering the park so I suggested they meet us in World Showcase because we had just started around but Grammies legs were too tired. They told us about their morning at Animal Kingdom and how they had bumped into a couple of Jims friends from back home. (Cams hockey coach and the coach of the High School hockey team, both of which are Jim’s teammates in his hockey league) We told them all about being picked for family of the day and how much fun that was. They were heading into Soarin with their FP’s and we were leaving the park so we said good-bye and were on our way.

When we got near Spaceship Earth Jim spotted the governor of N.H. John Lynch and went over to say “hello” while we followed along. Jim has known John Lynch for a couple years because they both coach baseball. (John is not coaching this year because of his busy schedule being Governor and all!) It’s still hard to believe he is our governor! We all visited for a bit before saying good-bye and heading out to catch our bus.

We arrived to our bus stop just as the bus was pulling up, perfect timing! We were soon back at our site where we relaxed a bit before biking to the pool. The pool area was a little more busy, being a Saturday, but we found plenty of chairs with no problem.

At 5:30 we drove to MGM with the plan of seeing Fantasmic. We parked fairly close but took the tram right up to the entrance. Just as we got through the ticket turnstile it started POURING. We ran across the street and got under a covering to put on our ponchos. We walked through the shops and down to the TOT where we picked up FP’s that were good at 7:40. We then decided to see the Muppet Vision Movie since we hadn’t seen it in years and walked on over. Jimmy could barely remember the show and Cam couldn’t remember it at all. The show was fine but the 3-D effects seem kinda lame compared to Mickey’s Philharmagic. We wandered all around the N.Y. street area (or is it San Fransisco) and down to where the new stunt show is. Next we went into One Mans Dream before heading back to TOT. We went right into the pre-show and down into the boiler room trying to talk Cam into riding but he didn’t want to so we did the child swap which gave Jimmy two rides. Cam has been so brave this trip riding Mission Space and Humunga Cowabunga so sometime he will feel ready to ride TOT. I rode first with Jimmy then Jim rode with him. TOT is one of my favorite rides and I was glad to have the chance to ride it. Jimmy loved the ride as much as always and the picture at the end looked great with his hands high above his head. It was now 8:15 and we were cutting it close for the 8:30 Fantasmic show. When we went in we were told standing room only but we did get seats on the left hand side of the theater. Jim had never seen this show and the last time the kids and I were here was five years ago when Jimmy was in first grade. (Seems like a lifetime ago!) That year we had waited for an hour to see it and just as it was starting Cam fell asleep and slept through the entire show!!!! So this show was fairly new to us since Jimmy and I could barely remember it. After watching the show we were glad we hadn’t waited an hour to see it! While we enjoyed it, it didn’t “wow” us like it does some people. I could watch Wishes every night but Illuminations and Fantasmic just don’t have that effect on me! We SLOWLY made our way out of the theater and out of the park. Caught the tram to the car and then drove to the Crossroads where we went through the drive through of McDonalds where we all got something to eat.

Jim dropped us off at the site and then went out to the outpost to park the car and bike back in. When Jim drove off Jimmy thought he spotted an armadillo so I ran into the motor home to grab a flashlight. Sure enough it was an armadillo and we were very excited to see it. Went into the motor home, Grandpa came up to say good-night and we were soon fast asleep. Tomorrow is our last day, Boo-Hoo!!!!

Sunday April 24th

We woke up feeling a little sad that this is our last day! I feel like we haven’t had enough time to just hang out at Fort Wilderness, which is one of our favorite things! Jim has come down with a cold and is moving slowly this morning. The kids and I go for a long bike ride before going to the Trails End to buy come donuts and muffins. We sat down on the porch in the rocking chairs with no one else around and ate our breakfast. Afterwards the kids played on the playground while I bought a new park hopper for a future trip.

We biked back to the site and grabbed the swimsuits and biked to the pool with Jim joining us. Today was sunny but on the cool side I think the thermometer barely read 70 degrees! Grammy and Grandpa biked down and took some pictures and video of the kids swimming.

We returned to the site for lunch. (I can’t believe our vacation is almost over and we never once got the take out buffet at Trails End, its too bad because you can’t beat the value!) The four of us along with Grammy biked to the Wilderness Lodge one last time. On the way there I saw a “hidden Mickey” that had rusted on a grill at a campsite. It looked almost too perfect to be made with random rust!!! We had a nice bike ride over to the Lodge. The kids looked around the gift shop and checked out the pin cart one last time before we biked back.

Jim and the kids went to the Bike Barn to get a basketball and went to one of the hoops to play. This was something that Cam had wanted to do the whole vacation so I was glad he got to play. I met them at the basketball hoop and from there we biked to the pool for the kids to swim one last time. The pool area was pretty quiet, I think the cool temperature has scared people away!

We returned to the site and got ready to go eat dinner at Port Orleans French Quarter. We all drove over and had a wonderful dinner of ribs and pot roast. On the drive back to FW we spotted three armadillos!! It was surprising to see so many, its rare to see one let alone three, must be the cool weather!!!

We biked to the campfire program and after saving seats we walked over to the Trading Post for one last look around. The kids had hardly spent any money and they wanted to look around. Both boys ended up buying one of those tubes that you fill up with flavored sugar, then we returned to the campfire program. Grammy had biked over to join us and was waiting for us. The kids made s’mores then we waited for Chip to come by for a picture. Julie was the singer and she did a great job. When she sang the song about all 50 states we cheered when she got to N.H. When the singing ended we biked back to our site one last time.

Once in bed I thought about what a great vacation it was, only problem was it went by to quickly. We could have used a few more weeks!!!!!!

Monday April 25th

We got up at 4:00am, Ugh!!! The kids had gone to bed in their clothes and I had packed everything yesterday so we just rolled out of bed. We said “good-bye” to Grammy and Grandpa knowing we would see them in about two weeks and got in the car. We stopped at the Outpost and they printed off our boarding passes. We got the “A” passes again, whew!!! We drove to the airport, returned the car and went through security. Jimmy was once again selected for extra security because of his cast then we were on our way. We grabbed a bite to eat at McDonalds before it was time to board. The flight left on time and all went well. (Even got our drink and snack in a timely fashion!!!) We landed on time in Manchester at 10:00 and another Fantastic vacation was over.

Final Thoughts

First I want to thank Grammy and Grandpa for driving their motor home to Fort Wilderness and letting us stay with them. Fort Wilderness is our favorite place to stay and we are so lucky that we can all stay together right there. Fort Wilderness is so fun and relaxing, it has a totally different feel from the other resorts. When I am at home missing Disney it is Fort Wilderness that I miss the most. This trip seemed so short compared to last April when we stayed for almost three weeks but we made the most of every minute and had another fantastic vacation!

Highlights

1)Being family of the day at Epcot.
2)The kids being chosen to help out at the Contemporary pin trading night.
3)Just being at Fort Wilderness, our favorite place. The campground was as empty as we have ever seen it and we had the BEST campsite ever!
4)Spending time with Grammy and Grandpa
5)The kids and Grammy swimming in an empty pool the very first day of vacation.
6)The kids playing checkers at the Trading Post while Grandpa and I sat on the rocking chairs outside.
7)Finding lots of Lanyard pins.
8)Soarin, it was awesome, we all loved it!
9)One of my favorite times was when the kids and I went into the Magic Kingdom on Sunday night, they had a wonderful time on Tom Sawyers Island, it was nice to spend over an hour there doing things at their pace and not feeling rushed. I had thought that the Magic Kingdom closed at 9:00 and it was a fun surprise to find out it didn’t close until 11:00. Sometimes the spontaneous fun is more fun than the best laid out plans!
10) Zebra Domes (yummy!!)
11) Crush N Gusher, loved the new water ride!
12) Seeing four armadillos and two deer.
13) Jimmy getting the waterproof cast the day we flew out.
14)The new Stitch ride!!!! (JUST KIDDING!!!!!!)

Heidi Commerford