Ok, so the report is finally finished and I can close this book for now. With that said, here are some finial thoughts and such:

Attraction Summary
We were pretty light on attractions this week and did the following:
MK
It's a Small World (x2), Train from Toontown to Main St., Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, Teacups, Dumbo, Minnie's Country Home, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's Flight, Cinderella's Carousel. Snow White's Scary Adventure, Pooh's Playful Spot, Toontown Princess Meet & Greet

AK
Triceratops Spin, Maharajah Jungle Trek, Safari, "the other walking path"

Epcot
The Seas with Little Nemo (x2), Journey into Imagination, Spaceship Earth, Gran Fiesta Tour, Innoventions

Hollywood Studios
Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, Muppetvision 3D

So, you see we missed a lot.

Dining.

Food was good for the most part:

Maya Grill - Sun and Fri
Everything here was great. The food, the service, the wait time, the atmosphere, everything. Steaks weren't exceptional, but were still very very good.

Chef Mickey's - Mon AM
Food was ok, not great, but not horrible. Character interaction was good and overall experience was good.

Crystal Palace - Mon PM
Food was pretty good (mashed potatoes were excellent), characters were good, and service was good. The 45 minute wait after our ADR time really tarnished the meal though.

Akershus - Wed AM
Excellent, all around. Service, characters, food. Everything was great. A bargain too as this would have been our 2nd cheapest meal of the week (had we paid out of pocket) and there were quite a bit of extras. A definite must-do for next time.

1900 Park Fare - Thu AM
Meh. Food was pretty bad and we had a bit of a wait to get in. Servers were good, but some of the characters seemed rushed. At least it was cheap

Hollywood & Vine - Fri Lun
Another Meh. The Characters were ok and the little celebration thing was different. The food was only so-so though.

Cinderella's Royal Table - Sat AM
Never again. Not anywhere near worth the hassle and money (or TS Credits). The food was fine, nothing special (Akershus was better) and the service was lousy. At least we did it once, but once is enough for me.

Le Cellier - Sat Lun
Completely made up for the CRT breakfast. Busy, but service and food were great. Another must-do for next time.

Overall, the trip went great. A lot of my expectations and planning was out the window by Monday afternoon, but overall things went real well. Emily was amazing all week and was VERY good at dealing with lines, waits, and characters with big funny heads. Beth also did amazing at keeping up with her, especially with all the walking in the heat that we had to do. I think I did pretty well at keeping the balance between the "plan" and what the girls wanted, I do also have to pat my own back at how I handled Emily for the week. I do have to say that given the chance of being a father for the week was a really great thing. I know Beth appreciated having someone around to back her up too.

A few pieces of advice for next time:
- Later breakfasts
- Cooler time of year (late Oct - March)
- More Rides (more rides means less walking and less time in the heat, would have helped a ton)
- More Pictures/Better Quality. This was the first time with my Digital Camera, thought I was used to it, but several pictures could have been much better, I did come out with a lot (373 "decent" ones), but I could have done far better.
- Consider resorts more. Monorail or Epcot resort would be great, otherwise consider driving or renting/borrowing a car.

Well, I've been really slacking at updating this, sorry. At least I'm on our last day now!

It started off alright, and we were out in the door in time for our 8:15am ADR at Cinderella's Royal Table. I had been looking forward to this all week. It was my special breakfast for Emily. She got a good night sleep the night before and was not nearly as grumpy this morning as she had been (of course, I was up at about 6:30 am....)

We got packed together and then headed for the bus stop where we waited, and waited. We saw the Animal Kingdom bus go by, twice, the Epcot one and two DHS busses, but still no Magic Kingdom. We were still on track to be there on time though, so I wasn't overly concerned.

A little bit later, a bus pulls up and I thought it said Magic Kingdom. We hop on with some people going to breakfast to see Donald Duck (since he's at Chef Mickeys as well as Tusker House, I didn't think much of it...) and proceeded to go to.. Animal Kingdom. Ok, I took us on the wrong bus... I was quite frustrated at myself now, as I had made great plans for this an really put them in jeopardy with my misreading (but seriously, I swear to this day that it said Magic Kingdom, not Animal Kingdom...)

Well, all is not lost and we hop on over to the TTC line to make our way to MK. We had a bit of a wait here, as I don't think AK to TTC is really that popular a route at 8am on a non-AK EMH day, but it eventually came and we got to the TTC around 8:30-8:45. We got to the TTC and hopped the express monorail to MK, only to get stuck in the Rope Drop crowds. We tried to make our way through to get in a couple minutes before them, since we DID have ADRs to get inside, but it was a lost cause.

We rushed in with the rope drop crowd and proceeded directly to the castle, only to get stuck by the Fantasyland rope drop inside the castle. A few minutes later we were parking the stroller and checking in for breakfast, at about 9:05am (50 minutes late). Luckily they still took us in with a fairly minimal wait time.

We had our picture with Cinderella, which didn't go quite as planned as Emily wouldn't stand with her alone, so we all hopped in, which frustrated both me and Beth, as neither of us were prepared for it (and it was hot out, so the faucet that is my sweaty body had already turned on...). At any rate, we got our picture taken and then went upstairs to be seated.



Our server came quickly and took our orders. Beth got the meat lovers meal (Sausage, Bacon, Eggs, and some other stuff) and I got the "sweet" meal which was some fried doughy stuff and fruit. Neither of which we were particularly expecting, since the menus I had previously looked at were very different.

At any rate, princesses soon began to come out. We had Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine (which was nice, since we hadn't seen her yet), and Belle (in her blue dress). The princesses were actually very good (and really, about the only thing there that was very good), so that was a plus. Our table had some real bad shine on Beth's side though, so some of the pictures came out pretty bad. We did manage to get a couple good pictures, and I especially love this one with Aurora.



We finished up breakfast and headed out.

Before I continue, I will say that for the price (roughly $85 out of pocket, would have been 2TS credits for each of us had I used the Dining Plan to pay for it) we really didn't enjoy it. Our server was only half paying attention to us and would always drip juice all over the table (and the stuff on it) and never even bothered to ask how everything was. The attitude that I felt we were given by the photographers and the servers (like I said, the princesses were great) made me feel as though we were being punished for being late. The food was ok, not exceptional, and we just didn't feel the "magic". It was something nice to do, but far from what I was expecting.

After breakfast, we walked around a little bit and took a last look at Fantasyland. It's likely that at least half of it will be changed by the next time we go (aiming for early 2011).



We then moseyed over to Adventureland by way of Frontierland. Once we crossed into Adventureland we spotted Peter Pan and Wendy with a very short line. These two were great (although Peter seemed a little detached, Wendy was very good) and Emily got her picture taken.



After a quick hug from Wendy

we parted ways and headed off to visit the Pirates of the Caribbean. This is my mom's all time favorite ride, and was one I had been hoping to get on since Monday. We managed the very quick line (left side) and pretty much walked right on. I knew there was a small drop near the beginning (which I used to be terrified of!) and warned Beth when it was coming. Emily did just fine there and for the rest of the ride was saying "Arrrrr" just like the pirates!

After PotC, we hopped on Jungle Cruise. The sign said 15 minute wait, but it seemed a lot longer. This was probably our longest wait all week, add in the heat, and it was pretty bad. (Plus, every time it looked like we were almost at the start, it would go around a corner for another large queuing area...)



After the Jungle Cruise, we headed back to Fantasyland for a ride on the Carousel before heading over to Epcot for our late lunch. We also used the FastPasses that we picked up after breakfast for Peter Pan. I hadn't been on that ride since I was very little and it scared the daylights out of me then. Looking back, I can certainly see why, the movement of the vehicle was quite different than most other rides, the swinging, the tilting down, etc, all would have scared me quite a bit back then.

We took the monorail from Magic Kingdom over to Epcot and made a bee-line for Le Cellier. We were a bit early (woot! Early!) for our 2:10 lunch, so we spent some time hanging around Canada. We checked in as soon as we could and then waited for our table. This wait for food was second only to the Crystal Palace mess on Monday. However, we waited inside and the CMs kept everyone entertained with trivia and all sorts of stuff.

We eventually got in and got seated and ordered our drinks. Our server, Heather, was great and very informative and attentive. We got our bread and soup (we both spent the extra for a cup of the Cheddar Cheese soup). The pretzel bread (as reported) was great, as was the sourdough (imo), the multi-grain was untouched. For entree's she ordered the Petite Filet Mignon, while I had a very nice NY Strip. Emily had a nice grilled hot dog. All were very good. Even Emily ate well here. Dessert time came and I already knew what I wanted:


Chocolate Moose ;).

We then went to The Seas with Nemo and friends again, but quickly headed out of the aquarium area. We headed toward Innoventions and spotted Chip and Dale.



We hung around the Innoventions buildings a bit and then made our way out, back to the resort for the last time there.

I've been slacking for the past few days and haven't updated this much, and I still have 2 days left to go!

So, without much further ado, on to our Hollywood Studios day!

After getting up early Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday (and a bit early on Tuesday), the girls wanted to sleep in today. I knew we were going to Hollywood Studios and that our planned meal was for lunch, so it would work (granted, getting there for lunch meant that we'd miss out on Toy Story Mania, but that wasn't a big deal to me).

So, I was up around 7ish as normal and walked around the resort a bit. I let the girls sleep in until around 9:30ish and then Beth woke Emily around 10. We got ready and headed for the bus stop.

While Emily was getting ready, she began to act a bit silly (which is normal for her of course!)

Emily wearing Al's shoes. She did attempt to put her shoes on me, but was quickly frustrated at the size of my feet in relation to her little shoes.

The bus came relatively quickly (though, probably one of the slowest all week) and we were soon heading out to the park. We entered around 11:30am and made our way to the "Echo Lake" area for our lunch at Hollywood and Vine.




This shot taken for Theresa, since I know she's a fan of American Idol


You know, for my least favorite park, there sure is a bunch to take pictures of!

Lunch went well, since Emily had her beauty rest, she wasn't nearly the grouch that she had been on the previous morning. The food itself was ok, nothing great, but not horrible. I even tried some chicken! I didn't like it :p.

We took a quick picture by the front board with one of Emily's favorite shows and then headed off to do something. We didn't quite know what, but something for sure! We ended up outside the Little Mermaid show and it would be starting soon, so we hopped in the short line and waited.

The show itself was pretty neat. The actress playing Ariel (well, I mean Ariel herself!) was decent and the theater has some really neat effects during the show (rainfall, bubbles, etc).

We spent some more time walking around after the show and headed all the way down Sunset Blvd to Rockin' Roller Coaster. We then headed back up toward the Pixar area (which is where I thought we were heading in the first place...oops)



On our way to Pixar Place, who'd we spot outside of the Playhouse Disney stage?


For those wondering, that's Handy Manny, another of Emily's favorite Playhouse Disney characters

We then meandered up through Pixar Place and let Emily blow off some steam at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. After the playground, we headed for the muppets area and caught the Muppetvision 3D show. The show itself was cute, but Emily would not keep her glasses on her face, thus limiting her enjoyment of it. Oh well, at least we know not to bother with other 3D shows for now.



After the show, and another wrong turn by me when looking for the stroller, we walked around a bit more and made our way out of the park.

We got back to the resort and were soon hungry again. I didn't feel like another Pepper Market night, but we didn't have reservations anywhere. We headed down to El Centro with the intention of seeing if we could get into Maya Grill with Pepper Market as a backup. I talked to the hostess and was given a wait time of 15minutes, not too shabby for a TS place during free dining! We were called in about 10 minutes later and had another dinner at Maya Grill. (We used the TS Credits that were "left over" from skipping Boma on Tuesday). This time, Beth has the Chipolte BBQ Chicken, while I had the Beef Tips in Penne. Both were excellent of course. For dessert, Beth had the chocolate cake while I repeated the churros that I had on Sunday night.

After dinner, we headed back to the room for another night of sleep.

Thursday morning we had 8:10 breakfast reservations for 1900 Park Fare. We were supposed to meet Derek and family again for breakfast, but they were running late (well, later than we were). If you've been keeping track, we've already been late for one 8ish breakfast, and this would become number two.

We arrived to the restaurant at around 8:45am, but only had to wait about 10 minutes or so until we were let in (so far, every place has been great even though we've showed up late!) We got situated and Beth and Emily got their breakfasts before I went up to get mine (we're starting to get the hang of buffets by now). Breakfast itself was ok, the food wasn't entirely good and Emily was acting up something fierce. We did manage to meet Mary Poppins, Alice, a very rushed Snow White, Pooh, and Tigger (Pooh and Tigger we good too, since we had forgotten Emily's book on Monday when we ate at Crystal Palace).



After breakfast, we walked around the resort a little and then headed over to the Magic Kingdom (after some confusion about how to get on the monorail)



Once inside the Magic Kingdom, we met up with Pinocchio who was smitten by the lovely Emily.



We headed over to Fantasyland (of course) and Emily and Beth took some rides on the Teacups and on Dumbo.



We also hit up Snow White's Scary Adventure and got Fastpasses for Peter Pan's Flight. By this time, Derek and I were texting to try and meet up again (remember the epic game of phone tag in Animal Kingdom? Yeah, texting seemed to work a hell of a lot better). We hopped on it's a small world as they were getting to the park and eventually met up with them (after they rode it's a small world as well).



The six of us hung around Toontown for a bit before heading to lunch at Cosmic Ray's. Lunch was pretty good and I scared Beth half to death when I grabbed Emily's shoe that she had taken off. We were leaving and she couldn't find it; it was right in my "Emily Pocket". I had forgotten to tell her ><. Doh.

At anyrate, after lunch we hopped on a ride of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority and then started walking around Tomorrowland a bit. Emily promptly fell asleep and Derek and family went off to do Peter Pan's flight. After the flight, Madison also was asleep, so they decided to call it a day and headed out.

The three of us walked (well, Emily rode) through Frontierland and Adventureland while Emily was napping and we decided to call it a day as well. We passed off our Peter Pan Fastpasses to a mother and son who hadn't ridden it yet and headed out of the park.

I've started the process of uploading all the images over to the photo gallery. These are basically raw images with minimal processing (I only resized them). Some will be good, some, not so much. The next step is to sort and process the images as needed (cropping, color issues, etc).

You can get there with the Images link above and then going to the Disney-Raw gallery.

Dawn broke on Wednesday after our not so great Animal Kingdom day. We were getting ready early for our 9:30 breakfast at Akershus in Epcot. Now, Epcot has always been my favorite park, so I was pretty excited to head there. We were actually out early for once and were in the park by 8:30ish. Emily was a little grumpy at being woken up, but she was all smiles by the middle of the bus ride there. We walked in the park and took the obligatory Spaceship Earth photo.



After meandering through Future World, we walked along the World Showcase area and saw the sights. I attempted to check to see if we could get in early, but it was a no-go, so we had to wait until 9:15 to check in for breakfast. We walked along and saw some sights in the meantime.



Once it was time to check in, we pretty much got seated right away. Emily met Belle (again) and got her picture taken (again) for the included photos with the breakfast. We sat down and got our food together and soon enough the princesses started appearing.

Now, for those keeping score at home. We have met the following princesses so far: Cinderella (Toontown), Belle (Toontown, Akershus), and Aurora (Toontown) (Note: for those who don't know, Aurora is the princess' name in Sleeping Beauty). Now, we got to meet Cinderella (again, but she's actually pretty rare at this breakfast), Snow White, Aurora (again), and Emily's favorite...

... Ariel.

The rest of the breakfast went great. The food was very good (especially the potatoes!) and the server was very attentive. We got our bellies stuffed and then headed out to see the fishies. ("The Fishies" being the Living Seas with Nemo). We took our ride in the clammobiles and helped Nemo's father find Nemo and then we headed out to check out the place.

The obligatory sharkhead shot (this was taken with Beth's camera, the one I got with mine had some really nasty red-eye that I couldn't photoshop out).


We then headed up to the tanks, and Emily's face absolutely lit up as we spotted the dolphins. Beth'
s face was much the same. They both absolutely love dolphins! This (as well as the breakfast) absolutely made my day. Just seeing how they reacted gave me such an incredible feeling.

We managed to pull ourselves away from the Seas and headed to the Imagination pavilion. I have to say, the new one is pretty bad :(. The old Journey into Imagination was pure win, but this new one is just meh. Emily did love the play area after it though (but the lack of the Rainbow Tunnel left a bit to be desired to me, there was also much less to do than I remember...). I did get some great video of her playing in there, which will get posted in awhile (video editing is harder than changing image size).

After Imagination, we headed to Spaceship Earth and Emily promptly fell asleep. Yipee! Midday nap in the park! We walked around a bit and hit up some of the shops while Emily wouldn't grab for everything. Beth bought a hat, and then we walked around the World Showcase a bit.


(A pic for Flawed and all the other Canadians!)

Emily woke up, and we got some ice (btw, you can get a free cup of ice if you ask any location that has fountain drinks. This little tip came in VERY handy in the hot sun). We then headed over to Mexico to take the boat ride. On our way we saw...


Before we met him though, he had to take a quick "Nacho Break". Emily and I took some pictures

Yes, we were being silly.

We walked right on to the boat ride and got a boat to ourselves. We must have had incredible luck as the boat before us was full, the one behind us was full, and as we came back to the entrance, there was a bit of a line. It was nice, not like it used to be (that's pretty much a theme here), but still nice.

We walked around a bit more and saw some more sights, but were starting to get tired. We headed back to the hotel after eating a quick late lunch (was around 3:30 or 4pm). We rested a bit and headed over to the playground so Emily could play.

(That's not dirt on the slide, just worn paint! - Beth wanted to make sure people knew this)

We did that for about half an hour, then headed to the quiet pool near our room for Emily's first time swimming in a real pool. Of course, if you've seen the fountain pic from Tuesday, you can see she loves water. She took to it great.

(I cropped Beth out of that pic so she wouldn't shoot me in the head.)

The pool closed in about 10 minutes (doh), so we headed back to the room for bed.