Cast: Me, DH (Andrew), 2 kids, the birthday boy Paul (turning 9) and the non-birthday girl, Lila (almost 5)

Day 1:

Backtracking a bit, my daughter graduated from preschool on thursday night 5/24. There is nothing cuter than a preschool graduation, and since here in Palm Beach County our schools don't have either a 5th grade or an 8th grade graduation, this was her last graduation until high school.

Being such a big deal my Mom and Andrew's Dad both flew down from NY for the occaision, the plan was to drop them at the airport around noon and head north after that.

Well thanks to JetBlue we didn't get on the road until after 3pm. We hit horrible traffic and what is usually a 2.5 hour trip door to door took about 4 hours. Having missed our ADR at the Brown Derby we decided to drive directly to Epcot, have some CS dinner and watch Illuminations.

We parked at The Boardwalk and took the boat over to Epcot, and decided to eat at Tangerine Cafe. We all really enjoyed it and after we went back to France, got a table by the crepe stand and some mousse and a napolean and settled in for Illuminations.

Walking back to The Boadwalk, Andrew and Paul decided they would die if they didn't get to see the end of the Mets-Marlins game so we grabbed a bar table at the ESPN Zone and watched the Mets win.

Drove to the All-Star Music, checked in with no line and found our room (Calypso 10) to be much larger than we expected, AND the main pool was open. We had a towels arranged in a Mickey SHape and some balloons and a card for the b-day boy.

Everyone collapsed as soon as their heads hit the pillows.

Day 2
I got up early (since having kids I can't sleep in anymore) showered, dressed, and headed to the food court to buy some coffee and muffins for breakfast. I load up a tray, go to pay and of course my card isn't working. I have no cash or credit cards but the nice manager says she will take my cards to the front desk and replace them. I leave, assuming that the b-fast charge will show up eventually, return to the room, wake, shower, dress, feed the family and we head off to the Animal Kingdom (with a pit-stop at the front desk for new cards)

After looking at the bus lines we decide to drive (we actually drove all weekend) and park so close that there's no need for a tram. We're through the gates about 9:20 and head for the Festival of the Lion King. Paul is wearing his birthday button and is picked to give the elephant noise and march around in the parade. After FOTLK, we hit the safari, take the train to Conservation Station with the hope of meeting PIPA (the talking recyling bin) again. My kids love her (? him?)

Well as soon as we walk up to the building there she is. We spend a good 15 minutes there, everyone sings Happy Birthday to Paul and he is thrilled. After that we go inside and see Pocohauntes and Rafiki just walking around, they place was almost empty.

We grab lunch at Tusker House, so sad that they are taking it away.

Now we head over to Everest, Andre and Paul ride twice (thanks to child swap and Lila's refusal to ride or to let me ride). We try to see the 1:00 show of Finding Nemo but no luck. One quick game of wack-a-mole and we own another spotted dinosaur. We ride Primevil Whirl and Dinosaur and by that time it's hot and we're realsy for a nap and a swim.

(next MGM/Fantasmic and day 3)

keep it comin!:)

So we have a great swim, the pool at ASMu is huge and deeper than others that we've seen, my kids love it. We shower, change, grab sweatshirts for the kids (the weather was great this weekend, not too hot at all), take one look at the bus line and jump in the car and head to MGM.

We arrive, Andrew finds a spot right at the front again (he's good at that) and arrive a Mama Melrose's in time for our ADR. Dinner was good, not great. The problem is that with the new "improved" kids menus, I now need to order for my kids from the adult menu. Andrew and Paul have the chicken parm, Lila has the adult flatbread (pizza), and I have the salmon. All the food disappears, I think the portions have gotten smaller ;)

We decide to skip dessert and get some treats for Fantasmic instead, but they bring the b-day boy a huge cupcake and who turns down a cupcake?

We get the check, give in the room card and the DDE card, about 10 minutes pass, it's getting late, finally a manager comes over and says our room charges aren't working, but they managed to work something out. We say OK, sign the bill and run.

Even with a stop for Mickey Pops, (with my complaining all the way about how late it is) we get good seats in the arena-- between Jafar and Malefacent (sp?) about 12 rows up. We are sitting by 8:30. We happen to be surrounded by the nicest group of HS graduates, they see Paul's b-day button and have half the arena singing Happy Birthday to him. Famtasmic is great as usual, we're back in the room by 10:30, asleep by 11.

Day 3 (Epcot AM/MK PM)

Again I'm up early, go to get b-fast, get new room cards (again), but when I get back they are 3/4 dressed and Andrew is in the shower. Again we drive, parking so close that there's no need for a tram. First ride is always Spaceship Earth, then we head to the Seas with Nemo (while DH gets the Fast Passes for Soarin) and do Turtle Talk, where Lila gets so upset that Crush doesn't pick her that nothing lifts her bad mood until we get onto Soarin'. After a quick trip to see Figment, we decide not to wait for HISTA, we take a nice stroll to China (looking at all the cool character topiaries along the way). After a cs lunch (again nothing on the kids menus for my kids) we ride Maelstrom and the newly redone boat ride in Mexico.

Time for my kids favorites, Test Track and Mission Space. We go to ride TT, having picked up FPs earlier. On our way out it's about 2:00 or so and I see that all the FP machines are covered and there's a big sign that says that all the FPs are gone for the day. Epcot is really crowded now. We shop in MouseGears (my favorite store) and head over to try the Green (less-intense) Mission Space. We all ride, and I think that it's still pretty intense, although no comparison to the Orange Team. Even with our FPs, it takes an hour to get through the ride, by the time we're done it's after 3 and time for our swim/nap.

After rest hour, we're ready to head to the MK. Now Andrew hates driving to the MK, he hates the whole TTC thing, the bus lines are again horribly long. So he decides we're going to drive to the Contemporary and take the monorail. I say they won't let us park, he says they will, we argue the whole drive and it turns out he was right, they let us in, no questions asked. We grab the monorail (waiting 1 extra train for the front) and make it to the Crystal Palace in time for our 6:30 ADR. We still have to wait about 1/2 hour. I like the CP, but we had a horribly overwhelmed waiter, no pixie dust, no drink refills, no sign of the custom mickey ears cake I ordered. Eventually he shows up with the plain cake that you don't need to order (which is OK because we saved about $15). And my kids love the character parade.

After dinner we have some time before SpectroMagic, we grab a quick Jungle Cruise and then stake out some spots in Frontierland (near the shooting gallery/checkers tables). My kids (the true disney veterans they are) drag the stools from the checkers table up to the rope and secure themselves some prime seats. Sprectro is great as usual, after we head towards the castle (along with a zillion other people) to grab a spot for Wishes. We get OK spots, Wishes is great as usual, and after we head into Tomorowland to try to get intp the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. We do (with almost no wait) and text in a joke. The show is really cute, the kids love it even though they don't use our jokes.

One quick ride on Buzz, one ride on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and it's almost midnight. We leave, grab the monorail back to the Contemporary and drive back to ASMu. Sleep.

Next, Chef Mickey's for b-day b-fast and kids choice for park

Wonderful! Looking forward to the next installment.

Day 4

We all sleep a little later today, we have an 8:50 ADR at Chef Mickey's and we didn't get back to the room until after midnight.

When we do get up, I retrieve the bill from the door and get a pleasant surprise-- our 2 meals that had room/credit card issues (food court b-fast and Mama Melrose's) aren't on it. Now I assume that they will show up on our credit card statement soon, but if they don't, it's quite a nice "gift" from WDW.

We shower, dress, pack and head back to the Contemporary. This time they check our names against a list of ADR's and we are given a parking pass. We head up to Chef Mickey's and check in, we take our family portrait and are seated almost immediately.

What a contrast to the Crystal Palace, we have a great waitress, she sees Paul's b-day placemat and comes rushing over with a cupcake (really a muffin with frosting) and a card signed by all the characters.

Before we get any food, we are hit by a rush of characters, Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, and Donald.

After b-fast we let the kids decide where to go, I assume they are going to choose MGM, we really didn't have a chance to ride many rides there the other night, but no they pick the MK.

After another argument about moving the car (I'm pro, Andrew is con) we leave the car and hit the monorail. It's starting to get hot, Monday was the warmest day of our entire trip. We start in Tomorrowland, again no wait for the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor and again they don't use our jokes. Andrew and Paul decide to ride Space Mountain while Lila and I ride the TTA for 2 loops.

We skip the Indy Speedway (yeah! I hate that ride) and head into Fantasyland. We run into some friends who's son also "graduated" preschool with Lila. They're a big group, having brought 6 grandparents with them. On the plus side, they have lots of fastpasses and nothing would please them more then letting the little friends ride together. I sit with my friend and her sleeping 2 yo while the dads and kids ride. What a nice break.

By the time they finish, it's almost 2:00 and my family is starting to get hungry. We leave our friends and head to Columbia Harbor House for lunch. Why don't they offer a kids chicken finger meal? Again 4 adult meals for us. After lunch we ride the Haunted Mansion and head up towards Splash and BTMRR. We ride them both (it's parade time and the lines really thinned out). Time for the last ride of the trip-- Pirates. Again no lines at all. After the ride, I run ahead to buy a dole whip float (which my family proceedes to spit out in disgust. OK, more for me) We stop at an ice cream cart and get them all mickey pops to take the taste of dole whip away. ;) By now it's after 5 pm and we have a 2-3 hour drive ahead so it's time to go.:(

One more trip on the momorail back to the Contemporary (where our car is fine, no one says anything about our parking pass at all) and we hit the Osceola Parkway and the FL Turnpike.

That's it. Now I can start planning our next trip-- August 16-19.

Thanks for reading.

Hi neighbor! We live in PB County also. Thanks for posting your trip report - sounds like a great long weekend trip. :)

hi ! i was there 5/24-5/27 for flower & garden show
weather was perfect for this time of year. also live in fl duval county. saw THE GUESS WHO 3 times . they were great.

Thanks for the great trip report. My DBF & I were there May 17th thru May 22nd and we enjoyed it very much and your trip report made us miss it even more. I'm hoping if I read him parts of trip reports I'll get him back down to "the happiest place in the world" sooner then later. Thanks again for sharing.

Thanks for taking the time to tell us about your trip.

Ellen