Day 7 Downtown Disney/Gatorland Part 2

We arrived at Gatorland and were amazed at all the gators!! I have never seen SO many gators in one place before! We were able to get a pic of us holding a gator and a snake. We then headed off to see a show. As soon as we sat down they informed us it would probably be cut short because a storm was coming in... Of course one last parting shot before we left

Sure enough the sky was lighting up! It was hard to concentrate on the show right in front of us when the sky was putting on an impressive show of its own. The winds started picking up and the flood gates opened up... Torrential downpours. Again! You have to be kidding me!?! The show was cut short. We made our way into the gift shop hoping to wait it out. But we should know better by now that doesn't happen around here... We eventually gave away our train tickets and decided to just head to the airport where it was DRY!!! There was no relief from the rain and if it were possible it seemed to be raining HARDER!!! I took some video of all the rain because I didn't think people back home would believe me how hard it rains in Florida... We just do not see that kind of rain here! It is hard to believe we get less rain than Florida. I guess the difference being is that our rain is light and drizzly and lasts ALL day so it seems like it rains FOREVER!! I am not going to complain about it our rain for A LONG time!!

It was very hard driving in the rain to the airport. The streets were flooded and you could not see out the windshield. At one point we had to pull over and try and wait it out. Of course it went on and on and on.... Once again we were SO glad to be leaving Florida and leaving all this rain behind us! I have a feeling we will not be back anytime soon nor the desire to come back anytime soon. Next time it will be to sunny California and I will stick with DL

It took us SO long to drive to the airport because of the rain and getting through security took A LONG time that we did not have time to eat dinner. It was chips and cereal for dinner. Our plane was delayed because of the stormy weather. It was still thundering/lightening/torrential downpours outside. It had been raining for HOURS! By this time I was questioning everyone who said that it rained for about 20-30 minutes each afternoon and you would be glad it did. I think it was dry for about 20-30 minutes each day We are very thankful though that Trev's wish day was dry and hot.

Once again Trev got to meet the captain and sit in the cockpit. This time he got to speak on the intercom. He didn't want to so I did first then he followed We taxied for awhile then we were finally off! So glad to be going home to escape all the rain... Never thought I'd be saying that! The kids once again were AMAZING on the plane! We were comped movie players and Trev was comped a kids food pack. So of course we had to buy one for each of the girls... Couldn't have one kid have one and not the others

On the way home we hit some VERY rough turbulence. I already am not a great flyer and this only made it worse. I was white knuckling it while Allie loudly exclaims " This is FUN when the plane dips and rocks!!!" with an excitement only a child has

For the most part it was a noisy plane ride. The kids in front of us kept fighting. I wanted to tell the parent to sit in between his kids so I did not have to listen to them! We had to separate ours a couple times. But the only words we really heard from them were if we were ready to land yet... It was a LONG 6 hour flight! But they did great overall! We chased the sun all the way home and that was fun. We arrived home about 9:45 and the sun had just set so you could see all the lights in the city. Kara exclaims "City lights! City lights! I see city lights!!! You could see some fireworks going off in the distance too.

We had a greeter from MAW meet us at baggage claim welcoming us back home. We were SO glad to be home! It was warm and DRY! In fact it did not rain for over a month when we got back! And when it did it was a little drizzle that lasted for about 10 minutes. It felt so good to be home.

We were super bummed it rained so much on Trev's MAW trip. However, we are very grateful for the opportunity to have gone to WDW and SWW. But for now we have no desire to go back. Thank you to everyone who helped make our trip magical. From those of you who gave us advice to the Big Give. The kids have LOVED wearing all their "Mickey Mail" clothes! I know you could not see all of them in the photos but we wore our ponchos A LOT!! So those cute outfits were under those most of the time. They still fit in most of the clothes and wear them constantly. Every time they use their crayons, water bottles, blankets etc. they comment that these are their Mickey Mail items and they love using all their goodies and wearing their clothes!

Day 7 Downtown Disney/Gatorland Part 1

We slept in this morning because of our late night last night. We had a hard time getting the kids out of bed but eventually they were out of bed playing with their new toys. It was a BEAUTIFUL morning! The sun was shining... But our lizard friends were gone... Did they know something we didn't???

My Dad and I went to get breakfast while Scott was *trying* to get the kiddos packed up. After breakfast I took the girls for horseback riding. They LOVED it! Trev was in the villa playing with his new toys from the night before. After the horse back riding I went to check out while the others were loading up our van to leave. Of course now that the sun was shining and it was beautiful outside it was time to leave! We found a couple little lizards and said good bye to them. The kids said they would see them in the pet store when we got home

After checking out we went to see Trev's star. We had not had a chance all week as it was raining so much all week all events were in the same area as the stars. (The kids did not get tucked in by mayor clayton either as that was cancelled because of all the rain). It was pretty emotional knowing his star was there with all the other wish kiddos. We took lots of pictures. We then headed to the ice cream parlor for one last ice cream sundae. After saying goodbye to GKTW and buying some souvenirs from there we headed off to DTD as we had not gone yet.

We went to the Disney store and Lego store to look around. It was HOT and muggy. The kids (and my Dad) really wanted to go to Gatorland. So we headed off to Gatorland for a few hours before our plane left... Or so we thought...



His star is on the bottom circle 2nd row from the bottom in the middle part of the circle.


We had ice cream at least twice a day!!

Day 6 Hollywood Studios (Trev's wish comes true!!)

Trev's Wish Day!! Star Wars Weekend!! We woke up early and had breakfast on the go. For the first time in days the sun was shining bright, white fluffy clouds in the sky and our little lizard friends were out to greet us again! NO sight of rain today! Low 90's forecasted!! I was SO happy that after days of rain it was GONE!! We got to HS at 9:45am and met our tour guide, Rachel, at 10:30. We were expecting to be in a large group but we had her to ourselves!! Only one other wish kid had asked for SWW for that day so we both had our own tour guides!! How cool is that!?!

Trev was asked to be in the motorcade parade so we checked with our tour guide and she said "yes" he can be in the parade. He was SO excited to be a Jedi in the parade rather than sitting on the sidelines watching it! The smile on Trev's face was PRICELESS! He had on his Jedi robe and walked the parade. Luckily it was still morning so the heat hadn't started bothering him too much at this point. The rest of us got reserved seating while Scott walked in the parade with Trev. I wasn't able to get any pics as I had both girls on my lap and sitting down it was hard to get pics. We were told that the professionals would be taking pics and we would get a copy... Later that night we realized they did not get any good shots of Trev. SUPER bummed about that! Same thing happened when the girls met Ariel. We took a little video of the girls thinking we could get pics from the photopass but somehow all our Ariel pics were lost!

After the parade we got Mickey Ice Cream sandwiches then we were off to a private meet and greet. The other wish kiddo was there too. We met Chewbacca, Queen Amadalla and Chip and Dale. The characters were with the kids for about 5 minutes or so before they headed off. We had to wait about a half hour before going to our lunch reservations. In the meantime Trev was presented with a Star Wars gift basket. It was pretty cool! It had pins, buttons, shirt, hat, poster, calendar, magnet, a couple star wars figures and a couple little cars.

Then it was off to lunch at the Sci-Fi dine in movie theater. Our wonderful tour guide was able to get us last minute reservations. This was the first time we actually sat in a restaurant our whole trip. Before this we either had counter service or ate the sack lunches we had packed each morning. We then were off and got to see Darth Vader, Jedi Mickey, storm troopers and Phinneas. Even with a private tour guide we did not have time to take in half of what SWW had to offer let alone the rest of HS. So if any wish kiddos out there want SWW as their wish make sure to ask for ALL 3 days!!

The only ride we had time for was Star Tours. Allie and Trev backed out at the last minute so they stayed with the tour guide while the rest of us went on it. Of course they wanted to later in the day but there was NO time! It was SUPER hot outside! Lots of sunscreen and water today! It felt WONDERFUL. We sure preferred this over all the rain we had the days before!

We were then off to see Stars of the Saga. Trev and the girls were not impressed. Knowing now what it was about I would have declined this and met some of the other characters Trev wanted to see. Then we raced over to Jedi training. Trev was SO excited!! This is what he had been waiting for!!
While Trev was preparing for Jedi training the girls and I had another Mickey ice cream treat

Trev battled Darth Vader and won!! He then used the force on the storm troopers! After Jedi training it was off to watch the voices show. It was pretty cool how one guy can do SO many voices! The kids thought it was cool at first but not really there thing overall.

We then stopped and got pretzels and R2-D2 snack packs. We were able to get reserved seating for Hyperspace Hoopla but the only bad thing is we were behind so many rows of people the kids (or I ) couldn't see very well. We then headed off to Fantasmic. It was a GREAT show!! FINALLY we were able to watch a show since it was DRY!!!! At 9pm we finally ate dinner as the show was starting. The kids had a blast!

Today went by SO fast! But it was still an AMAZING day!! I really think that if you want to really experience SWW you need to go all 3 days. We felt rushed at times and felt we missed a lot. But we still had a great day! Our tour guide was AMAZING!! Now that the sun has finally come out we are wanting to stay longer. But of course our flight leaves tomorrow evening. The kids have been AMAZING all week even though we have been staying out late each night and getting up early. At least we have the whole day tomorrow and now that the sun is out maybe we can get some more adventures in....






Trev during the parade. He is in the red shirt and blue hat.

Day 5 Universal Part 3

We got back to the village about 7:30. Tonight was Christmas so the kids got pics with Santa. Since it was raining (the theme for the whole trip...) they had a dance party inside. It was a little too crowded for the kiddos so we went swimming in the rain and then ate pizza for dinner. The rain hadn't really let up all day. At least the tornado warnings were coming to an end this evening. We then were off to bed as Trev's Star Wars Day is tomorrow!! Praying for sun!!

Day 5 Universal Part 2

We got a quick lunch at Katie's kitchen. I asked if silverware and napkins were in the bag as we were eating it in the car... They assured us they were... When we were on the road we got the food out and there were no utensils or napkins... Eating mac and cheese and mashed potatoes were interesting

We arrived at Universal about 2pm and sure enough it was a downpour! We got on our ponchos and headed for the gates. We went straight to Harry Potter! but when we got there the hippograf ride was closed due to the excess rain... As were a few other rides... It was a real bummer. This was the one park I was really looking forward to as I have dreamt about going to HP world since I first heard they were opening it! We did take a walking tour inside the castle. The kids were not tall enough to go on this ride but at least we got to look inside a little bit. When we were done we were hoping the skies would have cleared a little... NOPE! It was raining even HARDER!!

We headed over to the wand shop. Trev was picked to have a wand pick him. He thought it was pretty fun and of course we ended up buying the wand because he wanted it so badly... And now it sits in a box... One of these days we will have to get something to put it on display. The magic tricks scared the girls and they were crying!

It was STILL raining (At this point it shouldn't be such a big surprise but one can hope... right!?!) so we went and bought chocolate frogs and every flavor beans. (They are not joking when they say every flavor!) We ate lunch at Suess Landing and it the rain FINALLY let up! We were able to go on two rides, one of which was red fish blue fish that gets you WET! Which was fine because we were getting wet on OUR terms! Then the rains started again... This time only for a few minutes. Yay!! We then headed over to Spiderman ride. Kara LOVED it! The other two were scared. Kara went on it twice! We left shortly after that because it was pouring again!


A wand picking Trev

Day 5 Universal Part 1

We slept in as we new that TS Andrea was on its way and going to be a rain maker! The rain was coming down SO hard! The front area of our house has been one HUGE puddle since Monday morning. We went to breakfast and took our time as we had NO plans to go out in it. It was so rainy and miserable... The kids just wanted to go back to the villa and play with their toys and watch movies. The pool was closed, the carasoul, mini golf. We did go see Pluto in the morning then went and had ice cream for our after breakfast treat

The rain was still coming down super hard and tornado warnings/watches were in effect until 10pm that night. Throughout the day there had been a couple warnings which was SUPER scary! Especially to someone who never experienced one before. We decided to stay at the village and met up with Joe, Michelle and JJ. The kids hit it off right away! They played for awhile at our villa then headed off for another round of ice cream before lunch They left right after ice cream. They couldn't stay long but it was still fun for the short time we got to visit. Thank you SO much for meeting up with us and it was great meeting you guys! The kids STILL talk about their new friend JJ!

Around 1pm the rain started slowing down a bit and we were getting bored and restless so we decided we would go to Universal and try it out...


Trev and JJ

Day 4 Animal Kingdom Part 2

It started raining again right before 3pm and did.not.stop.for.the.rest.of.the.night. Now we found out where all this rain was coming from and SHE had a name! Tropical Storm Andrea! This was a REAL rainmaker! Not that having a name made us feel any better... It was actually a little scary as we do not have these kind of events and they were even talking about the chance of tornadoes! Another thing we do not get... I think that is what made it the worst as it had shaken us a little and it was hard to have a good time over the next day or so knowing that tornadoes were a possibility. We drove back in the pouring rain and it was SO hard to see! We finally made it to Walmart so the kids could pick out "souveniers". The girls picked out an Ariel playset and Trev a Mickey Mouse. That was all they wanted so that was pretty easy on the wallet!

As of now the kids do not want to go back to the parks because they are SO wet! They want to stay in the villa until it stops raining... Uh it looks like that could be a few more days... It is sad that this is their first vacation and first Disney experience. And Trev's Make A Wish trip.  I was hoping for SO much more!

After Walmart we arrived "home" ate dinner had some ice cream and went swimming in the rain. The thunder would come later and shut it down. But since we were already wet from the rain why not enjoy ourselves in the pool! Tomorrow will most likely be a stay at indoors day as TS Andrea is suppose to be right over our area. And with possible tornadoes I don't want to be caught out in one!