The next morning we had 9AM reservations at Kona Cafe at the polynesian resort. We needed to check our luggage at the airport check in at the hotel before we left. I gave everyone the option of going into the park for a few hours (we had from 10:30 to 1:30 free) or going to the pool. The kids all wanted to play in the pool and on the slide, so we kept our swimsuits in our carryon luggage. We had a delicious breakfast at Kona. I got a big platter of food but my favorite thing was macademia nut butter pineapple pancakes. YUMMY!!! The kids got mickey pancakes and were very happy with that. We headed back to our resort and got into our swimsuits. It was sunny and no rain in the forecast. We had a great time swimming. The kids went up and down that slide so many times. Then they spent a long time just jumping into the pool. We dragged them out of the pool finally, had the last of our quick service meals for lunch, then got dressed. Matt spent the last of our snacks getting fudge, caramels, marshmellow pops and mickey rice krispy treats. We got on the DME back to the airport. Then we headed towards the security line. This was my first clue that we had left WDW behind. The line was atrociously long. There were 6 lines of security people all trying to funnel down to one line. It was like these 6 security guards had never done this before. No organization no efficiency. I was just astounded since this is something that happens all day everyday at this airport and they had not figured out a more efficient way to do it yet. Definitely not disney. I was looking for the fast pass line but alas there was none. We finally got to our gate and had about 1.5 hours to wait. The kids were pretty good about it. We had to turn in our security passes at the gate for the boarding passes. I told my parents to get out the piece of paper they had just used to get through security. I went to the bathroom and when I came back, my dad had his room key (Key to the world) in his hand and he was ready to give that to the lady. NO DAD :) I can just imagine her face when he tried to get on the plane with his room key.
WE got home with no major problems. The only issue was stacy and I trying to get all of the luggage for 10 people to the loading area while the boys went to get the car and mom rounded up the kids. But soon we were in the cars on they way home.
It was a great vacation. We were all very exhausted but I think it went smoothly. All the planning really paid off. The parks were crowded (many were 10 out of 10 days in terms of crowds) but we never really waited longer than 20 minutes for anything (except Toy Story mania). The parks were crowded but we just moved at a steady pace because we knew where we were going next. We had some great food. The table service usually took about 2 hours out of our touring day but it was nice to be forced to sit and relax for a little while in air conditioning.
Now for the stats:
We had planned on visiting 54 rides and 11 shows (including electric light parade, illuminations, wishes and fantasmic) in the 4 parks over 6 days. We had 6 table service meals (3 with characters), 6 quick service meals and 6 snacks for each person. We actually rode 45 rides (including some repeats) and saw 9 shows. We made it to all our table service, used all our quick service and with all the extra snacks we bought in the end, used all the snacks as well. I think for moving 10 people of all ages through the parks at a very crowded and hot and humid time of the year, we did a great job. And everyone left happy with some great memories. YEAH!!!
Now to start planning the next one. :)
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