Originally Posted By momof4boys Last I left you,it was Monday Day 3 at 8:10am. I was letting the family sleep in, but enough was enough- Finally at 8:30 I woke them up. Like I said- it was 10:30 Oklahoma time. they need to get used to waking up early for school starting soon, right? They were finally ready to leave the hotel by 9:15 am. We decided it would be best to just go on into DCA. Nathan loves Toy Story- the line at closing had been about 40 minutes- not bad, but we decided to see what it was like first thing in the morning. I should clarify, when I say " we decided" I should say, "everyone except 13 year old William decided". He was not on board with our decision. I found out that the boys had found $10 on the sunwheel and William had found $5 in his pocket ( who knows whose money that was-nobody had worn those shorts in quite a while. It could have been any of the 3 oldest). I said, " Why don't we use that money for cream cheese pretzels today." What William heard was, " Why don't we walk directly to Coke Corner and buy cream chees filled pretzels for the poor, deprived starving teenager( have since found out that coke corner does not open first thing)." He fussed, he complained, he whined. He said, " Toy Story AGAIN! We've already been on it twice!" I reminded him of the time we rode Grizzly 24 times in one day! He said, " We're going to wait 10 minutes to get into DCA, 30 minutes for the rest of DCA to open and then wait in the queue for who knows how long when at closing the ride usually only has a 40 minute wait!" Okay, I really didn't have a good response to that one, but at that point, I didn't want his whining to pay off. But when we got to where they were lining up for Toy Story, the CM said that Toy Story was having difficulty and might not open immediately. We decided to go ride Soarin'. After that, William said, " Okay, now let's go to DL!" It was going to be a long day. We talked him into Mulholland- Nathan has decided he loves this ride. Luckily, while they were on, my sister and nephew called and were joining us at DCA. This changed William's mood-phew! We rode a couple of rides and decided to have an early lunch at White Water. The day seemed hotter than the other days so we wanted to cool off. After lunch we rode a few more rides at DCA and headed over to DL around 3:00. It certainly was more crowded than it had been the previous days. We had tickets for Riverside Fantamic seating. Our letter said to line up to check in at 7:00pm but the tickets said 8:00pm. We wanted to make sure that we had front row, so around 6:00pm Gwynn ( my sister) took the kids on some rides while David and I hung around the area. They put up the stand around 6:30 pm and David got in line. The boys were hungry- Gwynn and Dan didn't have seating with us. Gwynn was in a scooter so she went to stake out a seat for them and rest in her chair while I took the boys to Red Rockets for Chicken Fussili. It was very crowded but we've been there when you couldnt' find a table and it wasn't THAT bad. I have to say, Chicken Fussili isn't as magical now that I have started making it at home. We brought David and Gwynn some food. Finally at 8:00pm, David got to check in. David said there were only 3 people in line until about 7:30-then it got crowded. Yes, we realize that we were waiting in line longer ( or at least as long) than we would have for regular seating but I hate sitting on the ground and keeping people out of my space. Nathan usually waits with me and falls asleep in his stroller ( this was his first strollerless trip), then we have trouble waking him up. Finally at 8:30pm, they seated us. I have to say, this was the first time Nathan has really watched Fantasmic and he was mesmerized. He pointed things out and asked questions. He stated, " I think we have the best seats here!" and I agreed. He felt like royalty. The boys didn't care too much for the snacks, but they loved the experience. We stayed for the fireworks but they had to cut them short because of wind. We were disappointed but decided to head back to the hotel. We were going to try and make it for Magic Morning at 7:00am. As we were leaving, Nathan turned to me, wrapped his arms around me and said, " Mommy, thank-you so much for buying those tickets! I know it cost you a fortune! Thank you so, so much!" Would I do reserved seating every time? Definitely not. Would I do it again? Maybe in several years. Am I glad I did it-Definitely!!!!!!
Originally Posted By momof4boys I forgot to add, once we got to DL, we did go get those cream cheese filled pretzels!
Originally Posted By SoThisIsLove <<" Mommy, thank-you so much for buying those tickets! I know it cost you a fortune! Thank you so, so much!">> Sweet, heart-warming words, to be sure.
Originally Posted By liveforvacations Loving your trip reports! I wanted to do Fantasmic Premier Seating when were there in May but my husband thought it was ridiculous that not only do you have to pay all that money, but you have to wait in a line to make sure you get a good seat! I felt the same way as you that I would rather pay the money and stand for my tickets than sit on the ground for hours and keep people out of my space. So know what you are talking about! The good thing is that my husband only joins us for part of our trip so I did the special seating with my daughter and son! My son fell asleep but he was comfortable and my daughter and I absolutley loved it! I felt it was worth the money, as much as anything outrageously expensive is. It also enabled us to do the Electrical Light Parade in DCA, the Fireworks and Fantasmic all in the same night. Probably why my son fell asleep! I cannot wait to read the rest of your report!
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 >>> What William heard was, " Why don't we walk directly to Coke Corner and buy cream chees filled pretzels for the poor, deprived starving teenager( have since found out that coke corner does not open first thing)." He fussed, he complained, he whined.<<< and LOL! What a sweet ending to your evening though!
