I’m not gonna lie…I was pretty nervous about our big trip to Disney. Everything went SO perfectly when we took Kye last year and I felt a little pressure (not from anyone else…totally self-inflicted) to have this trip go perfectly as well. I am a PLANNER with things but this was not my trip to plan. Mr. Rusty and Mrs. Charlotte were so sweet to take us all and we were just along for the ride. I didn’t want to overstep my boundaries so I let them know that I’d be happy to help in anyway I could. I sent everyone a link to my Disney Tips (SO glad I wrote these out!!!) and I also came up with an itinerary for the day. I used the Touring Plans site (let me know if you want to use my account!) and they have this awesome feature where you can tell them the type of people you’re traveling with and other info and they create an itinerary for you of which rides to ride in what order. I simply emailed everyone that and suggested we have it just in case it was super crowded so we’d have a plan of action.
I was, of course, excited about the trip but I was a bit nervous too. Disney is THE happiest place in the world to me and I wanted everyone to have an awesome experience. However. We were going on a weekend. During the summer. In the heat. With the high crowd levels (even though we went on the least crowded weekend of the summer…it was still a 6 out of 10 crowd level). And we had 13 people to try to please.
The ONE request I had was that we got there for the opening of the park. We missed it both times last trip and when we go back this fall with Kye we won’t be able to see it as they have a Magic Morning Hour so the park will already be opened by the time we’re allowed in. We didn’t care what we had to do, we were going to see that opening show!!! We all got up nice and early and got ready for our day!
When we woke up and were packing lunches and getting all of our book bags together (it seriously made me proud how hardcore everyone took my tips list…they all came STOCKED and ready!!!) we heard rain. Not just drizzle. Like legit rain. Not what you want on your day for Disney! However, we didn’t have any other options. It was our day and we were going to make the best of it! Luckily we were all stocked solid with rain gear. We threw in extra towels and stuff and just prepared ourselves to get wet. We also didn’t talk up any outdoor rides or character meetings since we knew the weather may prevent those from happening.
Since it was a Sunday we all had church services before heading out. I LOVE when we all worship together. It is always so awesome and the singing is great with that large of a group 🙂
The boys were so excited about matching 🙂
Had to have her coffee fix!
There was no question about it. We all put on ponchos when we stepped out of our cars. It would be an all-day poncho type day at the park. It was my first time ever experiencing that and it had it’s pros and cons. I was mostly worried about Kye with the rain. The little bit it rained on our last trip he hated it. He refused to wear his poncho…just like I knew he would. I’m SO thankful I grabbed his raincoat at the last minute!!! Also I have to add a new tip: buy GOOD quality ponchos. Our thin 88 cent ones did NOT do the job. Thankfully Mrs. Charlotte had her good quality ones from all of our football games back in the day. We will be investing in better ones for our next trip 🙂
It’s always smart to catch the first ferry of the morning…however with the weather they suggested we hop on the tram instead to get there quicker so that’s what we did. And we filled an entire cart UP!
Get crunk for DISNEY!!!
We got there in plenty of time…like we had a 30 minute wait. But it worked out great as Mrs. Charlotte and Courtney went ahead and got their medical passes (Mrs. Charlotte has rheumatoid arthritis and myasthenia gravis and Courtney has lupus. Theme parks are the ONLY time this is an advantage!) and also rented one wheel chair for the day. We all took turns getting pictures in front of the park. I wish Jordan would have told me to stand up so I wouldn’t look like some strange book bag hunch back!
Kye was not in the best of moods. The rain just made him grouchy. I went ahead and had the “let’s not judge our children’s behavior today” to everyone and begged Zach to just focus on making Kye happy and not deal with punishing him for any of his potential misbehaviors the day may bring. It would be a “grin and bear it” day! Thankfully, this was the worst of his behavior for the day!!! He cheered up and we didn’t have a SINGLE issue! Whew 😉
They still did the opening show…but a very shortened version due to the weather 🙁 So it’s still one of my goals to get there to see the full thing…here’s a video of what we saw.
waiting for the show!
I wanted a picture of Zach and I haha
Hello Castle!!!
When the gates opened we were on a mission. Dumbo, of course! One of the disadvantages of the rain is that you don’t get to fully experience Disney. You’re in a mad dash from ride to ride to get out of the rain as fast as possible. You don’t stop and enjoy the sights. You don’t get to soak in the true magic of the park. We all tried to be as happy and cheerful as possible to keep the kids in high spirits though!
Casey’s Diner
I said “Hurry get a pic in front of the castle” FAIL!
By the time we made it to Dumbo we were all soaked the whole way through. As I mentioned earlier…my concerns for the trip were the heat, the crowds and pleasing everyone. Well two of those were resolved right off the bat. It was NOT hot. In fact we were all chilly thanks to the rain. And it was NOT crowded. I told Zach that I think the rain was an answer to my prayers. I REALLY wanted Mr. Rusty to enjoy himself. It was SO sweet that he offered to bring all of us and him having a good time was the most important to me. And he’s not a theme park type guy…I KNEW he’d get super annoyed by long lines and a ton of heat. Thankfully we didn’t experience either one!!! Thank you mother nature for the rain!!!
Zach cannot sttttand Dumbo so he sat it out. They are remodeling a lot of Fantasyland and we did get to experience part of the new Dumbo area. We went through the circus tent for our line and were given little tickets to give to the ticket booth when it was our turn. And they had both Dumbo rides running even though there was no wait to ride it. Zach took pics of everyone since he didn’t ride!
Jolee’s hair…we were WET but she was pumped for her first ever Disney ride!
Colt and Payton’s first rides too
Kye did not want to wear his hood.
I let Kye do the steering and oh my goodness…I felt SICK afterwards. Up and down and up and down!
We all had the print off of the itineraries but we didn’t need them and even if we did…they would have been ruined within two seconds of taking them out. We just end from land to land the same way we did when we came last time. The crowds were low enough to where we could do that and we were just strategic in the order of which lands we hit up (Fantasy then Frontier then Adventure then Tomorrow). We also had the medical passes when needed…although we didn’t need them often and even if we hadn’t had them we never saw longer wait times on the boards than 30 min the entire day! I’m pretty proud of how I managed to still get a ton of pictures with the rain…waaaay less than I normally would have taken (we didn’t even get to stop and get any castle ones boo…) but I did my best. Literally I was one handed the whole day. I used my other hand to hold my camera under my poncho and kept it ready to snap a pic when needed! I think I did a pretty good job as the group photographer 😉
Winnie the Pooh was next…which we didn’t ride last time so it was Kye’s first time!
We’re not Pooh fans but it was a pretty neat ride!
I love Brad’s enthusiasm 😉
Another thing we didn’t do last time was have Kye try to get the sword out of the stone so we paused to do this 🙂
He tried!
“Riding the horses” was a MUST do! The rain died down for a min so it was good timing
I know this is RANDOM but I have a thing for guys in the rain. Is that strange?!?! I ALWAYS think guys look hot when they have that wet hair from the rain look. Zach looks SUPER hot in all these pics to me and I even told Jordan a bunch of times that he was having his best looking day ever haha. I remember one time years ago Mr. Rusty and Zach went golfing and it ended up raining them out and I told Mr Rusty it was a good look for him too. I’m keeping both of these pics b/c Zach looks so dang good in them!!!!
G-Mama was in Heaven seeing her grand babies so happy!
Up next was Phillarmagic. Hands down a crowd favorite. We all LOVED it. It was nice to sit down for a bit out of the rain and just relax. We got a random stranger to take a group glasses shot of us all. I LOVE THIS!!!
My favorite guys ready for some 3D action!
Kye wanted to wear his glasses the whole time and entertained us with his dance skills
It’s a Small World was next and I volunteered to sit with all the kids since I love that ride!
haha
I would NOT allow any bad talk about It’s a Small World! 😉
During It’s a Small World Mrs. Charlotte and I pulled out the itinerary and looked it over. I told her I wanted to make sure that Trey and Jolee and Jordan and Casey were having a good time because I didn’t want them feeling like they were stuck with the young kids all day. The itinerary I had printed out was a family friendly one…one where the older kids split off from the younger kids so they could enjoy the adult rides (basically the mountains…splash, thunder, and space). It was then that my third concern was taken care of. I was SO worried about everyone having a good time and getting to do everything they wanted to do. Um. NO one in our group had ANY Disney expectations. Trey and Jolee had never been. Colt and Payton had never been. Courtney, Brad, Casey and Jordan all hadn’t been since they were really young. No one had a favorite thing they had to do. No one knew what to expect at Disney so, therefore, there WAS no concern about making sure everyone was happy…they were naturally happy because for them it was their first time (or practically their first time) doing it all! Everyone agreed that it was all going so smoothly that we’d just continue to all stick together. We figured we’d probably finish up early enough for the older crew to come back to the park later in the day and do that stuff. With that decision, all three of my concerns were taken care of! No heat, No lines, Everyone was happy!!! It couldn’t have been better!!!
The park opens at 9 and when we finished up with Fantasyland it was 10:45. Um, pretty amazing timing! We were flying through that junk! I needed to pump at 11 but I didn’t want to hold everyone up. Thankfully they were all hungry so we decided to go ahead and break for lunch. Everyone took a bathroom break and I ran to see a good place for us to sit. One of the cast members at a restaurant told me you don’t have to buy the restaurant food to go in and sit down! A Disney secret I never knew! And he said they’d give all of us cups of ice water free of charge. Perfect! There was a HUGE empty room where we all fit perfectly. I set Kye and Zach up with their lunches then took mine with me to a nearby bathroom to pump. It couldn’t have worked out better…it gave us all a nice break from the rain and a chance for our ponchos to dry out a little!
Surprised and excited that I packed yogurt raisins 😉
What are Jordan and Trey doing?!?!
I hated it that Kye wouldn’t wear a poncho. I’m thankful I had the rain jacket and it was SO nice that the jacket was lined with fleece so it helped him stay warm. His shirt barely got wet the entire day. But his bottom half…was soaked through. I literally took breaks to ring out his shorts. Not good for a kid who had JUST gotten off of his strep antibiotics!!!
Ready to go back out in the rain!
Jordan got to ring the dinner bell!
Country Bear Jamboree time!
Mine and Zach’s favorite bear
We did decide to split off for one ride…Splash Mountain. Kye LOVES the Disney choo-choo and he wanted to ride it so I offered to take him on that while everyone else did Splash. Mrs. Charlotte didn’t care to ride Splash Mountain either so she came along with Payton. Colt was tall enough to ride so he went with the big kids! The choo choo entrance is close to the Splash Mountain one and it’s almost perfect timing. Splash is a rather long ride and the choo choo goes around the entire park so it takes like 20 min probably.
Pitiful face! He loved it I promise…he just remembered that he got snacks last time so he was ready for a snack this time too! My child LOVES some food…
We rested and enjoyed being out of the rain while the rest of our group enjoyed getting soaked! More from our fun filled rainy day is next!
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I'm glad you didn't let the rain ruin your trip. I'm so ready to get back! We have less than 3 months (not that I'm counting or anyting!) and we are all so excited. Damian asked this morning if we could drive down for a few days. I'm surprised Kye didn't insist on hitting Buzz first. Damian takes off for Buzz the second we get in the park. I loved looking at all your pictures. It is so nice that the whole family went. I know the cousins all had fun together. We are going in Dec. with my SIL's kids and both of mine can't wait to show them around.
Where was Britt?
I CAN NOT believe that the rain actually made your trip BETTER! Only the Parkers have that kind of luck!!