How to Do Disney Really Fast...

I must admit that on this latest Disney adventure, I was too tired to blog our trip at the end of each day.  If you’ve ever followed one of our trips, you know we vacation long and hard, but with a little bit of rest to catch up.  We only had a week to work with this time, so we just never stopped running (although we did fall asleep on a few attractions, true story…)

 

I started out thinking I would give only the statistics… a real “just the facts” rundown of our trip, and that’s mostly what follows, but I guess I can’t post something entirely without narrative, so there are a few gems of moments detailed below.  It’s mostly just the facts, though…. The numbers in parentheses are the wait times, in minutes, because clearly every sane Disney loving vacationer should know exactly how long they waited for everything…

 

Travel Day

Phil drove to Disney from MA, and the kids and I dropped Theo off in MI and then flew.  After we almost missed the connecting flight, things were pretty smooth…. It was Ian’s first time flying, so that was fun.

 

 

Park Day 1: Hollywood Studios

7:30am-10:30pm

17,919 Steps, 7.3 miles

 

3 Shows: Walt Disney One Man’s Dream, Mickey’s Vacation Fun, Fantasmic

The films were both great, in different ways, of course.  The reimagination of Fantasmic is phenomenal!

 

7 Rides: Slinky Dog Dash (27) – So fun!  We started out with an elaborate plan to split up for Rockin’ Roller Coaster and lightsaber building, but by the time we reached the entrance, we were all on board to just rope drop Slinky Dog!  I’m glad we did:

 

 

Toy Story Mania (19) – Caleb destroyed us all with his high score!, Alien Swirling Saucers (78) – not worth that long a line, but a fun ride, Smuggler’s Run (70) – a simulator… I wasn’t overly impressed, but the kids loved it, Star Tours (26) – Caleb was the spy!, Mikey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (90) – I really loved it, but the wait was too long and our feet were so sore by that point!, Rockin’ Roller Coaster (18) – The ride had a long line and was down for part of the evening, we got on very shortly after it reopened (run, don’t walk). Ian loved it, Caleb thought it was better than he remembered, Miah did not like it, which is odd, because she tends to love coasters.

 

Food:

Breakfast: Riverside Mill (standard food court fare)

Lunch: Woody’s Lunchbox (grilled cheese, tomato soup, potato barrels, cuties oranges, lunchbox tarts) - The raspberry tarts were delicious!  The grilled cheese and tomato soup was average to good.  The potato barrels were not great, kind of stale.  I am convinced it is a better deal to buy kids meals at Disney counter service, if for nothing else but the drinks.

Drinks: Oga’s Cantina (Blue Bantha for me and Cay, Carbon Freeze for Ian and Miah – neither was too great) – weird “seating” as in no seats, just a hightop, shared with two other parties. 

 

9 lightsabers built (Even I got sucked right in…):

 

 

Funniest moments: A first order lady tried to recruit Caleb when he and Ian were lightsaber battling.  She offered him air conditioning.  Lol.  I wasn’t sure what this was all about, and I wanted to make sure they weren’t in trouble with their lightsabers, so I walked over and asked them if they were in real trouble or fake trouble.  This got a laugh out of a lady standing nearby.  They were in fake trouble.  A storm trooper told Phil he wasn’t worth the paperwork.  Another storm trooper made a “talks too much” hand gesture at me when I told him Miah was not the jedi he was looking for…    

 

Park Day 2: Epcot

8:00am-10:00pm

22,073 steps, 9.8 miles

 

7 Shows: Beauty and The Beast Sing Along, Reflections of China, Voices of Liberty (Astounding!), The American Adventure (I slept through this.), Canada Far and Wide (The song is still the best part.), Turtle Talk with Crush (Always hysterical, even when your own kids are too old to be part of the show anymore.), Harmonious (This was an excellent show, but it’s hard to make a case that it fully replaces Illuminations.)

 

7 Rides: Frozen Ever After (10) – Really fun!  I’m glad we rope dropped it, because the line gets crazy within minutes of park opening, Three Caballeros (12), The Seas with Nemo (31), Living with the Land (4) – Note to self, we’d like to do the tour of this… which is pretty funny, because it used to be one of those “boring” attractions the kids weren’t interested in, Soarin’ (41), Spaceship Earth (33), Imagination (walk on) – I could ride this multiple times for Figment, but the family thinks once per trip is enough.  Also, we did manage to cram ourselves into the photo booth afterward…

 

 

Food:

Breakfast: Miah and I had baklava and an almond cookie (Caleb and Ian tried it) from the Morocco stand, because the French bakery line was long.

Lunch: Biergarten (Some of the best food ever, amazing entertainment, the kids say we have to come back here every time we go to Disney.)

 

Funniest Moments: “I’m pretty sure we just toasted to sausage and meatballs” - Caleb (we did). Cast Member at Figment when Miah and I got behind, taking a picture, “Come on Disney Princesses!  Holy Cow!”

 

Maybe my favorite part of the entire trip was just exploring the World Showcase in the morning, when basically nobody else was there:

 

 

Park Day 3: Animal Kingdom/Epcot/Disney Springs

26,455 steps, 11.6 miles

 

7:00am-2:00pm AK

2 Shows: Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond (Good, but not as good as the old show.), Festival of the Lion King (We were the second to last family in for the 1:00 show, which saved us some time in the afternoon.  Again… running…)

 

8 Rides: Dinosaur - Ian mentioned that he had a dream to be the first person on a ride in the morning.  We made this happen by rope dropping Dinosaur, which was his absolute favorite when he was little.  It helps that Animal Kingdom has Pandora now, and that’s what everyone else in the park was rope dropping (walk on), Triceratops Spin (walk on), Expedition Everest (2, 5) - I rode the first time with the kids and they waited five minutes for a second ride.  We saw the Yeti!  What a great way to spend the morning in Animal Kingdom, Kilimanjaro Safari (21) – The best safari we have been on, to date.  Kwaherini – Go Well, Wildlife Express Train (8 there, 4 back) – We got a picture with the elephants, which is what really matters, Kali River Rapids (walk on)  

 

    

Food: Did we eat?  I don’t think we ate anything at Animal Kingdom.  We got coffee at Starbucks.  Maybe Caleb grabbed a breakfast sandwich.  This is a testament to the fact that we vacationed too quickly…

 

Funniest Moments:

Ian: “You shouldn’t have allowed me to get a venti coffee…”

Me: “It’s out of my hands at this point.”

Other children: “I’m pretty sure it’s not.”

 

 

After the mad dash to finish Animal Kingdom in under seven hours, Phil dropped the rest of us off at Epcot and went back to the hotel. 

 

2:30pm-7:00pm Epcot

 

No Shows

 

3 Rides: Mission Space Orange (CM) (2), Green (LI) (7), Test Track (LM) (18 – single rider line)

 

My main motivation for returning to Epcot was that I didn’t get to eat Fish and Chips at Yorkshire Co. Fish Shop the day before, because I was way too full to eat another thing, but the fish n chips stop is just about nonnegotiable for me, so it seemed like a pretty good time for it, since… see above… we had not yet eaten on this day… lol.  We had decided not to eat around the world on this trip, but as we entered the World Showcase and the snacking began with churros in Mexico, I knew this was a lie.  By the time Miah had added egg rolls and kakigori and Caleb had consumed a soft pretzel that was literally as big as his head, I knew we were in trouble for our late night dinner reservation.  We rounded it out with more pastries purchased in Morocco (which I didn’t even open until days later when we got home) and a stop by the French bakery for a chocolate croissant, strawberry tart (maybe the best dessert I’ve ever had), and a baguette… because Ian and Miah are obsessed with baguettes.  It was only then that we reached the UK and I finally got my fish n chips (which weren’t as good as I remember them, go figure).  At this point, it was clear to me that we should go ahead and finish out the rides we’d missed the day before, so Caleb and Miah got on the intense version of Mission Space, while Ian and I did the mild version.  None of us felt too good when we got off.  I am noting this here, so hopefully I’ll remember someday, that I should never ride Mission Space again, because it makes me sick, and I also had a panic attack (which I covered well) due to the tightly enclosed ride vehicle and the delayed ride start.  Neither Caleb nor Ian cared about Test Track, and the line was long, but Miah really wanted to ride it, so she and I waited in the single rider line and it worked out well, because I was in the car right behind her.  We were going to catch a bus back to the hotel, but we were staying at Port Orleans Riverside (which is close to Epcot), so Phil came back and picked us up.

 

We took short naps until it was time for our 10:40pm dinner reservation at Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’.  To be clear, I didn’t make a reservation for that time because I wanted to eat that late.  I made it because it was the only available time I could find that worked with our schedule!              

 

I cannot believe my children were hungry enough to order full meals and to eat extra sides.  I came back to the hotel with leftovers.  Homecomin’ was delicious, but survey says my mac and cheese is better…

 

Park Day 4: HS/Magic Kingdom

24,455 steps, 11 miles

 

7:30am-1:30pm HS

 

2 Shows: For the First Time in Forever Frozen Sing Along, Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage

 

3 Rides: Rise of the Resistance (26) – We roped dropped this, and I can’t imagine waiting for it any other way.  It was a great ride, but not three-hour wait great, Smuggler’s Run (15) – Caleb, Ian, and Miah enjoyed a second ride on this, with a short wait time, Star Tours (?) – I’m unsure on the wait time here, but it was a huge plus that we met up with our long-time (almost lifelong for Ian and actually lifelong for Miah) friends and fellow Disney enthusiasts, the Newmans, and Matt got to join Caleb, Ian, and Miah on this ride!

 

1 more Lightsaber built… because we needed an even 10, I guess…

 

 

Food:

I once again cannot remember if there was food involved.  Knowing that we had only so many specific reservations, I did make sure my children had Disney gift cards for snacks, and I think this is the day they ate ice cream.

 

Funniest moments: Caleb: “Mom, you’re going to meet Olaf by yourself?”  Yes… Yes I did…. Nobody else wanted to meet him, and I was on Star Wars overload…

 

We never made it on Tower of Terror.

 

2:30pm-11:00pm MK

 

1 Show: Enchantment (This show is fine, but it’s not Wishes…)

 

16 Rides: Magic Carpets (12), Jungle Cruise (10) – WHAT?  Turns out parade time is the time to go, Pirates of the Caribbean (23), Tom Sawyer Island Raft (x2) (walk on both ways), Big Thunder Mountain (75 – felt like three days), Carousel of Progress (1), Space Mountain (7), Tomorrowland Speedway (7), Teacups (walk on) – I do not know what possessed me to get in a teacup with Caleb, Ian, and Miah, who all love to spin things.  Heck, I can’t even believe we fit.  But we did, Dumbo (4), Goofy’s Barnstormer (1), The Little Mermaid (walk on), It’s a Small World (1), The Haunted Mansion (11) – I hate The Haunted Mansion… always have… (and it’s not that I hate haunted stuff…. See: trip to the Wizarding World last summer), but Miah insisted that she had to ride it.  When we got off, she was like, “That was awful!  I remember it being a roller coaster.”  It is safe to say we do not have to ride The Haunted Mansion again, Splash Mountain (walk on)  

 

We basically ran to everything with a five-minute wait time listed, because we knew it was going to be difficult to get on everything at The Magic Kingdom in a day and a half.  There were plusses and minuses to this.  It was pretty fun to run from ride to ride, but it was also so rushed I almost don’t feel like we were there!

 

Food:

Dinner: Cosmic Rays (It was just terrible, and Sonny Eclipse was missing!)

 

Great Quotes: Caleb (on Tom Sawyer’s Island): “I wish this was what life is like, exploring places you know are safe, but there’s lots of places to go…” Me… too…

Also Caleb: “I remember this being an infinite, dark abyss, but clearly there’s light in it.”

 

Park Day 5 Magic Kingdom

20,636 steps, 9.4 miles

8:00am-10:30pm

 

3 Shows: Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor (5) – How do you get to be “that guy,” that is the question…. Ian and I were the two-headed monster once, when he was a baby, Philharmagic (again with the sleeping), Enchantment

 

11 Rides: Seven Dwarves Mine Train (31) – Rope drop is the only way to do this, Prince Charming’s Carousel (walk on), Astro Orbiter (25) – WHY?  Why do we wait for this in the blazing sun, only to remember it is Dumbo after an elevator ride?  Why?, Walt Disney World Railroad (20-ish) – Whew… the railroad has been closed for years.  Thank goodness it came back up last week, Splash Mountain (109) – Is this an insane wait time?  Yes.  But, the final splash… and all those memories.  Did I cry through the ride?  Also yes, The Many Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh (47, ride broke down, got complimentary fast passes for later, waited 10), River Boat (18) – Caleb and I both fell asleep… like, really asleep, Space Ranger Spin (10), Peoplemover (10) – Forever a favorite… go ahead and judge me, Peter Pan (9) – Cast member insisted it was a 60-70 minute wait.  We were like, “OK… but there is no line,” Space Mountain (?) – Not sure on exact wait time, but Caleb and Ian ran and took turns carrying Miah to get there just barely before park close.  Phil and I missed a second ride on the Peoplemover by seconds…

  

Food:

Breakfast: The Crystal Palace – We have always loved breakfast at The Crystal Palace.  It is delicious, but I think it’s also nostalgic.

Dinner: Be Our Guest – How many years did it take me to get a reservation here?  Beautiful atmosphere, really good food, Beast runs through the dining room way too fast to make it a worthwhile character greeting, price tag is too big to make it a regular stop.  But the grey stuff?  It’s delicious… 

 

Best Quotes: “You can’t run away from trouble, ain’t no place that far.” -Splash Mountain

 

 

Travel Day

We finished out at Disney Springs with Gideon’s (cookies and cold brew) – never thought I’d wait 40 minutes for cookies, but…. Lego Store, World of Disney (where I finally snagged a Loungefly bag… here’s to the next trip), Wetzels, and a variety of other souvenir shopping.  Our flights and drives home were uneventful.  Theo was really happy to see us.

 

And that’s it for how to do almost everything we actually care about at the four main Disney World parks, in a week… 

 

 

           

Christmas Letter 2017

Dear Friends and Family,

It looks like it’s almost Christmas time again.  I’m not sure why I’m surprised every single year!

How about some stats since we last wrote:

Phil and Lisa celebrated 20 years of marriage in August.  Phil continues to work for USPS, which means we haven’t seen him in weeks, since everyone… everywhere… orders all of their Christmas presents online!    L accepted a new position as Director of Family Ministries at Asbury UMC in Portland, IN, in July.  So we moved to a house located in the middle of a pig and chicken farm.  Life is funny.  She has also enjoyed being a part of the editing team for the book, Uncontrolling Love, which was released this summer.  As part of the book launch tour, she traveled coast to coast and her feet touched both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans in the same week.  That was a highlight!  We are looking forward to “sacred days” between Christmas and New Year’s, when the whole family will go “missing” for awhile from everyone except each other…  

      

 Seth turned 17 in September.  He remains involved in teen Bible quizzing and continues to enjoy Lego, art, reading, and baking, which is a very good thing, because someone has to feed us in the midst of our busy schedules!  Seth is a Junior in high school, this year.  He is very helpful with generally keeping everyone on track from day to day, and he is looking forward to finishing up his school curriculum as quickly as possible! 

Grace, also a Junior, turned 16 in October.  She fills our house with piano music and teaches piano lessons, as well.  We have come to realize that it is a great asset that she learned to play guitar, because that means we have mobile live music and can throw her into all kinds of random and spontaneous predicaments.  She also continues to quiz and writes even more than her mom.

Caleb is in 8^th grade and launched us into the “families with three teenagers” category when he turned 13 in May.  Following in his siblings footsteps, he made two all star quiz teams this year.  He has recently developed an interest in drafting and architecture, which means Grandpa is bringing him all of his equipment, like drafting tables and such.  He is helpful with tech related stuff for children’s Sunday School, and he remains the “go to” guy when his younger siblings need anything (even in the middle of the night). 

At age 10 (almost 11), Ian continues to be the spice of life at our house!  He is in 5^th grade and has begun to tell people that he plans to be a theological paleontologist when he grows up, which apparently means he intends to discover the back-story of the history of the world.  If anyone can do it, it’s Ian.  He is thrilled to have his own room for the first time ever, and we have discovered that he has definitely always been the source of the mess.    

Miah turned 7 in March and is technically in 2^nd grade, although she likes to tell everyone about her third and fourth grade schoolwork.  She is so full of life and love and keeps us all on our toes!  We are continually amazed at just how much we needed this bringer of all things rainbows, glitter, and unicorns into our lives!  She loves Lego, wants to be an OBGYN when she grows up, and moonlights as “Pastor M Squared,” preparing sermons and worship services for which only my (L’s) mini-me #2 could be responsible.

We’ve had an incredible year of travel, heartache, blessing, tears (happy and sad), and decisions.  It’s the stuff real life is made of.  Somewhere along the line, I heard a quote about how, in this age of social media, we are all comparing our practice tapes to everyone else’s highlight reels.  Christmas letters are highlight reels, too, friends, but rest assured.  This year has been just as real for us as it has been for all of you.  Because of this, we ask that you continue to pray for us as we navigate life, day after day.

 

May love overwhelm you in the coming year.

Phil, Lisa, Seth, Grace, Caleb, Ian, and Miah Michaels

 

Ecclesiastes 3:12:

“I know that there is nothing better

for people

than to be happy and to do good while they live” (NIV).

Christmas Letter 2017

Rogue One Spoilers...

It seems that there is some interest regarding how I felt about Rogue One.  I have done very little movie reviewing as of late, and this is going to be relatively short and surely not comprehensive.  There are spoilers.  So, seriously, if you don't want to read any spoilers, close this tab right now.  I do not want to be responsible for anyone's ruined movie going experience...

SPOILERS COMING...  This is your last chance to turn back...

*I'll start with this, because it won't spoil the movie, just in case you're still accidentally reading.  Our biggest issue, as a family, was the voluminous number of inappropriate previews.  We almost always go to MJR, but this was an AMC.  We are incredibly careful about what our kids see, and the previews (22 full minutes of them) were worse than any movie they have ever seen.  Super frustrating.

*Apparently there was a ton of re-filming for this movie.  They did not even use the "I rebel" scene from the trailers, and I was incredibly disappointed about that.  I mean, I bought an "I rebel" t-shirt.  Seth says it is now obsolete...

*The story line was basically good, but it was a true war story.  They did a masterful job of connecting it to episode IV, but it had a much darker feel than most of Star Wars.  Along those lines, I did think it was an incredible testament to the cost of war, and that's something we don't always see in entertainment media.  So, I appreciated that.  

*Everybody dies.  Star Wars fans should have been prepared for this, but somehow I didn't consider that this would be necessary for the plot to be consistent with episode IV.  It threw me a little bit.  The story, itself, was not developed enough to create deep emotional attachment to the characters (you just can't do that in a couple of hours), but it was a little shocking by the end, when I realized no one was going to survive.  It took me awhile to process.

*It's definitely not a movie for small children.  Historically, I am conservative in my assessment of appropriate age levels, but I would not have been comfortable viewing this film with anyone younger than Caleb (age 12, and he was with us).  Even then, you have to know your kids.  My oldest two would not have been ready for this movie at twelve.

*Final scene with Princess Leia?  Well, yeah... awesome!

Alright, that's all for now...  May the Force be with you...

L.

Happy 6th Birthday, Miah!

It's like she's not even a baby anymore, but she will always be my baby...

Miah requested pasghetti (not a typo) and chicken for her birthday dinner, so I made Chicken Parmesan.  It is unusual for any of my kids to ask to eat at home, but this is what she wanted... along with a pink and purple, vanilla cake, which made it super hard for me to justify a Lion Guard Theme, but whatever...

It was a very "unicorny" day, and that's just the way Miah likes it...

Happy Birthday to the most beautiful girl in the whole wide world...

Love,

Mama

  

If I Die First...

Today I ran across a blog post titled, "10 Requests for My Husband Should I Die First".  I am 99% sure it was supposed to be (mostly) funny.  It was written by a popular "mommy blogger".  It has thousands of "likes" on Facebook.  I chuckled a couple of times, myself.  But then I thought to myself, if I could make ten requests of my husband, should I die first, I would not have to waste several of them on instructions for our children's personal hygiene.

I got in pretty deep a couple of months ago when I made a Facebook post confessing that I had told Phil who I thought he should marry if I died first.  My mother-in-law actually told me that she thought I should take it back.  I told her no.  I'm not taking it back.  Let's be real.  If I die first, Phil doesn't have to follow any of my preferences.  But, I think I'll put a few out there, anyway. 

1.  Do not spend a lot of money on my funeral/burial.  I don't want to be cremated, but seriously, bury me cheap.  If you really feel the need to add a little sparkle, glitter is cheap.  But please remember that under no circumstances should there be terrible music at the funeral.  Loud, angry, angsty music will do.  I own plenty of it.  There are no excuses here.

2.  The day after the funeral, throw the children in the van and go to Disney World.  Have fun.  Laugh.  Cry if you have to.  We did that at Disney, sometimes.  Do all of my favorite stuff, and talk about all of the good memories, but for goodness sake, don't lie!  It's OK to talk about the complete meltdown I had in New Fantasyland when I couldn't deal with all the changes or how mad I got that one time about the ice cream cone, and you should definitely point out all of the places we've vomited on Disney property.  Be real.  But, you know, be magical, too.  You might skip the Haunted Mansion on the first trip... Just sayin'...

3.  Use my name.  Keep pictures up.  Tell stories.  Watch videos.  Don't ever let these things become taboo.  This might be my most selfish request.  But, remember me. 

4.  Don't delete my many, many, many documents that are bits and pieces of things I've written, but don't try to read them all right away, either.  You may want them someday.  The kids may want them someday.  I may be famously published posthumously someday.  Just save it all somewhere.

5.  But don't save all my stuff.  Make sure you keep enough for the kids to all have things that remind them of me, but give a lot of it away to people who need it.  I think it's pretty obvious, though, that no one needs my purple flower pants.  Hang my purple flower pants in Grace's closet. 

6.  Your inclination to be alone will be strong.  Surround yourself with community, anyway.  The kids will desperately need this.  Our quiz family will almost assuredly be the greatest support after blood related relatives.  Go to every quiz, even if you really don't want to.  Go even if the kids can't focus to study.  Those people will hold your arms up.

7.  Make sure the kids call and/or email my parents on a fairly regular basis.  I know it's difficult to get in contact with them, but they are their grandparents.

8.  Date.  It wasn't too long ago that our oldest three children expressed that if I died first they thought you would basically never leave the house again.  They thought I would find someone to "go out to lunch with" if it was the other way around.  Remember that.  Go out to lunch.

9.  Get married again.  This would be so much easier than you think.  Do you have any idea how many people I have told how awesome you are?  Many of them would kill for a husband like you.  So, be careful (I hope that's not how we got to this point).  The kids are the deal breaker.  She must adore the children.  All five of them, even though Miah has always wanted an evil stepmother.  Some of the kids won't like it.  Show them this.  She must adore you, too.  When the kids grow up and move out, you'll still have to like each other.

10.  Remember that God is good, even when life sucks.  Remember when I said, "God has never failed us yet, I don't expect today to be the day he starts".  It's still true.  God is near. 

Well, crap, that was awful!  After writing it, I think I now understand why someone might want to write a humorous post instead... 

L.