Originally Posted By iamsally On our drive home from our February trip we decided to return in March to surprise our daughter and her family. Since we were only going for 3 days we got a room in the same hotel as them. This was an undertaking as the son who usually watches our animals was housesitting for our daughter. Luckily, the son who lives next door agreed to the extra chores. To add to our anxiety; we had two pregnant goats. Star was nice enough to have hers the day before we left and we were certain everything was okay. Angel did not look like she would have hers while we were gone. So, after dropping our son off we headed straight down the I5. It seemed strange going by car instead of RV. Much faster too. On a whim we decided to swing by the RV park and look for L&P. (Remember the friends from the February trip?) We did not expect them to be there; but they were! And they still had not been to the Parks. We told them we had to go together. On the way we had perused many different plans for surprising them. When we got there they had not checked in yet but their car was there. We decided to wait until 6PM cuz we figured they would come back to check in before the fireworks. Well, just before 6 our SIL showed up alone to check in and unload the car. Carissa and the kids were holding a spot for Fantasmic! Low and behold, they had the room next to ours. (I was tempted to just wait there and then turn our TV on really loud and stomp around and see how long it would take for them to complain. LOL) Instead, we went back with him. On our way in we ran into Poohbear14. We wanted to chat with her so we sent Kevin on his way and told him to keep our secret. When we finally got on our way it was dark. We found the family easily and I yelled, “Hey, thanks for saving us such good seats!!!!!” The reaction could not have been better. My granddaughter squealed with delight, my grandson ran over to hug us and my daughter started to cry. Every time someone would ask where we were staying we managed to avoid the topic. We watched F! with a great seat and then saw the fireworks. Not the best view but we could see Tinkerbell through the trees and that was a pretty cool effect. They were all starving so headed to Bengal BBQ and when my daughter asked us where we were staying I said, “With you, we couldn’t get a room.” I thought she was going to faint. She said, “We only have 3 beds!” I told her it was okay, we brought sleeping bags. I finally had to tell her the truth. We left so we could get a good night’s sleep for a long day Monday. My daughter was insistent that we try to get FP’s for Raceway. I kept telling her that we should just get in line. We got in the Park right at 9. The line for FP’s was all the way to the Hyperion. When I showed her that they agreed to head on over. The CM said it was about 90 minutes from where we joined. I got into full on Mom mode and said, “It isn’t gonna get any better; let’s do this.” Well, we were off by 10:30 so it did not even take that long. And the kids loved it, of course. Even the 13 yo and his 13yo companion, both of whom are terminally cool, came off with huge smiles. We spent the rest of the morning in DCA taking in Screamin’ and Mermaid and Soarin’. We went back for a rest and lunch and spent the evening with L&P in their RV. Tuesday they had MM and went in early and we slept in. We made sure they rode the other rides in Carsland. I absolutely love Mater and the kids loved Louigi’s flying tires. We made use of the single rider line for Racers. We also did the slow motion bumper cars in Bugsland and saw Tough to Be a Bug. I love seeing that with people who have not done it before. (Each of the teenage grandkids had a friend along.) Wednesday we did Minnie and Friends character breakfast. It was really great. Better than last time when there was little character interaction. (If you have celiac; you can order gluten free Mickey waffles, sausage and fruit.) After a fun time with the family we met up with S&P. What fun we had. I gave him a First Visit button. Then she wanted to do Thunder Mountain. I told her it would be a good idea to get a FP. She did not really know how they work so we took them. Then we did Pirates, Mansion and Pooh. We caught the train to Tomorrowland and did Buzz. P got the highest score. Beginner’s luck I say. By then it was time for Big Thunder and they were really pleased when we whizzed past the regular line. They needed to leave to pick their dog up from the groomer and we needed to get on the road. (Boy did we miss having the motorhome.) All in all a very successful trip despite the lack of attractions visited. Oh yeah, on the way home we called to see how things had gone. When Rod asked if we still had two baby goats Dana said, “No, you have four baby goats!” Angel decided not to wait. Mothers and babies are all doing fine.
Originally Posted By CuriousConstance Sounds like fun! Was it a first spending DL time with your grandkids?
Originally Posted By iamsally Oh no, my kids are just as big a junkies as we are. First time with Maile was when she was 10 months. But I was worried it could be the last since we may not get AP's again for a while and the older ones are 13 and 15. It was the very first for our friend that we met up with on Wednesday though. Love being with a newbie.
Originally Posted By rtjl72 wow!! what an awesome surprise!! i hope you renew your ap's!! i only get to cp once every 2 years, but enjoyed meeting you last december!!
