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Ginamarie

12-26-2006, 08:19 PM

Pre Trip Report

Let me start by saying we love WDW- most of us love WDW. Well, -I- love WDW, and I’m in the process of recruiting everyone I know to share in the magic. I’ve been WDW too many times to keep track, thanks to my theme park loving mom. For me, Disney World is like a drug. You get a little piece of it and you can’t seem to get enough of it from there on in. You just keep thinking about the next time you can get there. As I write this, I’m HERE. Here in a corner room at POFQ, with my window facing the entrance to the Sassagoula Food Court. Before I go any further though, I have to key you into HOW I got here and WHO came along.

Like I said, I crave Disney. I have a large family, most of whom also crave Disney. Our Disney habit is facilitated by my DH, who works for (you guessed it) Disney, through it’s TV station, ABC. Now as much as I love vacations, and Disney, I have a habit of being--- well frugal with my funding. This happens when you live in one of the most expensive areas in the U S of A, and you’re a young couple trying to make ends meet. So for our honeymoon, a hotel room with a 50% discount was the way to go. That was in 2002, and we’ve been back at least once a year since then- sometimes alone and sometimes with various family members and/or friends. On our honeymoon, we stayed at POFQ, and really loved it, so I’d been hankering to go back.

Dateline, summer 2005. DH and I were trying to start our family. We had a heartbreaking miscarriage the previous year, and took some time off, but we had a feeling things were going to be better this time around. In my mind, having a baby is an excuse for a trip to WDW. I introduced this idea to the facilitator (DH), and he seemed to go alone with it. Once I was getting into my second trimester and ready to tell the family, we told all our family and friends about the idea. Baby’s first trip to WDW! You can’t truly have a new member of the family until they’ve been christened in Disney World. They have to walk down Main Street and see the castle; they have to sit through dinner at the Cape May Café; and they must make it around the World Showcase at least three times.

Surprisingly, a lot of people were onboard for the idea, and we started making reservations. Well, I started making reservations for everyone. So now, without further ado, I present to you our cast of characters. Like the rest of this trip report, it’s long, and most probably it will be verbose. Once I’ve written it.

Me- GM, fearless leader, and the heroine of this adventure. Age: 28 You’ll hear lots about me later, I’m sure.
DH- (aka “Joshpot”) the facilitator, the self-proclaimed “walking discount”. Age 28. Wants relaxation a good deal more than the fearless leader does. Now there’s a reason we call him “Joshpot”. I don’t remember exactly how it came about, except that we were playing a game with my little siblings. DH would do this ridiculous robot impression and we started referring to him as “Joshpot Robot.” The Joshpot part has stuck, and we’ve taken to adding “pot” to the end of everyone’s name. This will come up later, but we’re not there yet.
DD- Olivia, aka Livvie, aka the Livvie Monster. Age: 8 months. Favorite activities- nursing and playing with her aunts and uncles.

That was the easy part. Here’s where it gets interesting.

DM- my mom. I’ll leave off her age for posterities sake. She tours commando style and likes it.
DF- My dad. He says he’s 29, that’s been going on for several years now. I’ll be “older” than he is soon. He hates to travel.
DBro1- He’s two years younger than I am, but I like to call him my baby brother. Recently, we’ve taken to calling him “hairy mommy” because he looks JUST like me, but with stubble. We’ve been mistaken for twins a lot. Plus my high school photo id looks more like him in a wig than it looks like me. Seriously, I should post the photo, but he’d kill me.
DBro2- We call him “Grant,” because that’s actually his name. Age: 3. He’s obsessed with “DISNEY PIXAR CARS,” which must be said exactly like that, loudly. He’s been to WDW twice before (at 6 months and 18 months), but this should be a great trip with him.
DSis1- Gillian. Age 16. Official PitA, but we love her anyway. Kinda. She loves the thrills.
DSis2- Giuliette (yes, we all have “G” names). Age 8. This is going to sound bad, but I mean this in the nicest, most loving way possible. Giuliette is an evil genius. She’s planning future world domination. I’m not kidding, just ask her.
GFDM- My brother’s fiancé. We call her “George’s Fiancé Dawn-Marie.” No, we don’t say the whole thing every time. It’s not “DISNEY PIXAR CARS.” What kind of a family do you think we are? This is her first trip to WDW.
DMIL- DH’s mom. She’s been to WDW before, but not with us. She’s looking forwards to spending a lot of time with the Livvie Monster. The Livvie Monster is sweet and cuddly, especially for a monster. Kind of like cookie monster, but not.
DFIL- Also his first trip with our crew.
DBIL- Name: Jake. Age 7. Partner in crime with Giuliette. Together, they have the potential to cause some serious damage.
DSIL- DH’s sister, Mel. She was a last minute addition to our plans, and we couldn’t be happier. Mel is cool, and fun, and kids love her (even evil kids).

OK, so there’s the cast of characters, and hopefully it doesn’t get any longer. I can’t make any promises though. I like to talk to people in WDW. It’s pretty weird. In real life, back in NY, I hate people. I mean it. I just don’t like people. It’s different in WDW though. I listen to everyone’s stories, even the people who are having a bad time (but then I laugh at them because usually they’re ignorant or easily irritable).

Ginamarie

12-26-2006, 08:20 PM

Prior to leaving, I made a planned itinerary. I booked Hoop de Doo Review. I researched park hours and parade schedules. I made dining reservations 180 days in advance +10, and then I second guessed them and changed some of them. I read reviews. I spent WAY too much time on the Disboards, and finally, I typed up a detailed itinerary. The itinerary has pictures, and facts about WDW, and little quips from me. I have been teased mercilessly for the itinerary already.

Despite all the planning, admittedly, I packed the night before. Quickly, because I had no time and we had to load up the car. DD has outfits preplanned, and a list of each outfit with all components of the outfit, so nothing will be forgotten. Right down to the undershirt and socks. This is serious stuff. Me, I have a bunch of shirts and jeans thrown into a suitcase.

The car was packed, DH was asleep, and DD was laying in between us in bed trying to eat one of the blankets. So I decided it was about time I catch up on some movie watching, and watched the last 90 minutes of Mean Girls, because fearless leaders just don’t need sleep. Thereafter, I TRIED to sleep, but couldn’t stop worrying about the flight to FL. Normally I’m not even afraid of flying, but something got into me, and I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Fast-forward to 1:40 am Saturday morning. I’m in the bathroom feeling violently ill, except I’m not violently ill. I just feel like I might be, and that’s enough to leave me sitting in the bathroom pondering WHY I’m sitting in the bathroom at 1:40 am. So I started praying for strength and for piece of mind. Then I had a revelation of sorts. I’ve spent the last few weeks praying about finances, about job situations, about scheduling, but I’d been missing what was REALLY important in life- our family’s general health and well-being. Hearing DH and DD snoring in the next room, I knew I already had that, so then I finally had the piece of mind to sleep. Somehow, I didn’t feel so ill either.

Next up: Chapter 2, Our day of travel

Ginamarie

12-26-2006, 08:24 PM

Once again, I feel I must explain a few things before I progress any further with my story. I have always taken the first possible flight I could get to FL (with the best price, because I’m ch—frugal). DH has implored me to take later flights. He loves sleep, you see, but I’ve always said: “It’s never too early to get to Disney.”

When we first booked this vacation, DH and I were still living with my grandparents. I booked the first possible flight to Orlando, which happened to be around 7 am. We’ve taken this flight at least three previous times without any problems. A couple of months ago, Jetblue decided to bump up the time of our flight to 6:15 am. DH was incensed. 7 am was crappy, but 6:15 was simply deplorable. He wasn’t having any of that! (except he really was). Then, DH and I bought a house. It’s a wonderful thing with I love and take pride in. It also soaked up every dime we’ve ever made and not paid back to the Disney Company. It also is another 10 miles away from the airport.

It was about 9 pm on Friday night, the precise time “Mean Girls” was starting to play on television when I realized DH and I needed to wake up at 3:15 am in order to make our flight. Read that again, because I assure you, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. THREE AM.

At three fifteen AM on the dot, DH’s phone alarm went off. I hid under the covers while he want into the bathroom. I wanted to go back to bed. I wanted *gasp* to take a later flight to WDW. Of course I could never reveal that to DH. It’s just between me and all my close personal friends of the Disboards community, ok? Up we got. We packed the rest of our stuff, turned off the water valves in the house, and got moving. We made it to my parents’ house right on time, at 4:15 am, and left for the airport shortly thereafter.

The airport was relatively uneventful, aside from the men taking 40 minutes to park the cars. Literally, it took a subway train and a bus ride to get from the /jetblue terminal to the long term parking lot. For some reason, everyone could print out their boarding passes at the kiosks except DH and I, but it worked fine at the counter. We got through security and made it to the terminal about 15 minutes prior to our scheduled takeoff. We were one of the last groups to get onto the plane. I’ve never been that late to a flight before. I’ve also never left my house at 3 am for a flight before. In any case, our timing was good, but I had NO time to take the “preflight photos” I planned to get at the terminal. So you’ll have to wait another chapter before any pictures show up.

We got on the plane and lo and behold, sitting right behind my mom was one of my dad’s clients. It’s a small world you know! The flight was great. Little to no turbulence. Livvie wasn’t a monster aside from about 2 minutes of screaming and two sessions of nursing. Of course no one slept, because we were too excited. Upon landing, Grant had to show us the “I’m going to Disney dance”, which was adorable and consisted of a lot of twisting and butt shaking. We were finally in FL, moments from Disney. It felt like mid afternoon and it was still before 9 am.

We took the fabulous tram ride to the main airport building, and attempted to find the Magic Express. I seem to remember more guides around last time pointed people where to go. No such luck this time. We had to ask at the information desk.

We then walked three miles to the new location for the Magic Express. There were about three people on line. SCORE! We took care of checking in and were sent to a line for our resort. Just a couple of minutes later, we were loading into the bus. I think the bus was about 1/3 full before we took off. Of course, they have to play a WDW DVD while you’re traveling, which advertises the resorts. Grant was wide eyed and loving it!

Next thing we knew, we were pulling into POFQ, unloading the strollers and carry-ons and attempting to check in. I say attempting, because we needed to sign in for four rooms. I also had to make sure our request for a crib was taken care of, and that an extra person was added to one of the rooms, but only for three nights. Our cast member was very patient and got through the whole process with us, even though it took a long time. The little guys settled in to watch a DVD in the lobby. Oh, to be a kid without any worries in the world!

We were starting to get a care though. A care called hunger. After all, we’d been up for a long time now, and only had a bag of four mini chocolate chip cookies on the plane. The time had come to head over to the food court and become MUG people.

I know this topic is discussed on the boards all the time, but what is it with people who fill up these oddball mugs which CLEARLY aren’t the ones you’re supposed to be using. Now, DH and I had a POFQ mug at home that we purchased on our honeymoon, but I didn’t bring it along with us. First of all, it would have been something else to pack, and I had little space to play with. Second of all, I just knew I wouldn’t feel right. Even though it’s a mug for the right resort, and no one could know the difference. Am I a goody two-shoes? Perhaps. I just feel like it’s already a good deal to buy the cup and be able to use it a couple of times a day for the rest of my fee. So having been provided with a good deal, the least thing I could do is follow the rules! We bought a couple of mugs. One for my dad, one for my brother, and one for DH and I. We also bought a bunch of breakfast food. Waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse’s head, muffins and omelets. It was a good morning. Food was basic, but it all tasted good, which was the important part.

We took our time eating, since we still had all our carry-on bags, and weren’t in a rush. DH called periodically to see if the rooms were ready, but no luck. We were starting to drag. It was getting late (well late morning), and we needed some rest, but no rest was to be found. It was going to be a LONG day.

Up Next: The Dream Team Finds the Pot Family

nicolemarie

12-27-2006, 08:29 AM

CPer'sMom

12-27-2006, 11:19 AM

OhMari

12-27-2006, 11:52 AM

I had to re-read the ages of your brothers and sisters. I hope you post pictures, I'd love to see your family and your husbands family.

I hope you have a great time at WDW and thanks for posting a "Live Report".

Ginamarie

12-27-2006, 01:37 PM

My son is four and has a dance that I'm sure is similar. I always say he gets his moves from his Daddy. Read: neither have rhythm. But they both look cute trying!

Oh yeah, rhythm is not a part of the dance, but we don't mind!

Ginamarie

12-27-2006, 01:38 PM

I'm envious that you are still there!! We just got home from WDW last night and I'm already tentatively planning our next trip ~~ can't come too soon!

Looking forward to hearing about your Dream Team experience! :)

Actually, we've been back home for a week or so :scared: I just started writing the report while I was still there.

50 years Too!

12-27-2006, 08:39 PM

Looking forward to more!popcorn::

pumba

12-27-2006, 08:50 PM

fantastic report and I am loving your way...

We love FQ too ......will be there in April soon enough....but we just returned a week ago........

Oh Yah we are up at two thirty and out the door at three and at the airport for four and in the air for six.......I am STILL EXHUASTED
Thanks again

Ginamarie

12-27-2006, 08:53 PM

LAS

12-27-2006, 09:17 PM

Great report! Can't wait to hear more.

Ginamarie

12-28-2006, 03:27 PM

So in our last scene, we were hanging around the Sassagoula Food Court, tired, but now with our bellies full. Plus we had mugs, which we kept refilling. I was going to make sure we got good use out of that mug, even if it meant I had to keep drinking cokes and hot chocolates all afternoon.

As we were sitting there, we noticed a long table being set up with place settings, and then with plates of sugar cookies. We had no idea what was going on. It looked like a children’s birthday party. I was curious. Then one of the food court employees started to invite all the kids over to the table. Each child was dressed up in a chef’s coat and got to decorate their own cookie with vanilla icing and sprinkles. The cast member in charge of bringing kids to the table made sure that DH made a cookie for Olivia since she was sleeping. She also made sure we took a picture of DH making a cookie for Olivia.

My siblings in chef coats:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/IMG_0134.jpg
If you look closely in the background you can see the overly unenthused member of the dream team who had to write out the certificates. I assure you, this is as amused as he got. He was one of the unhappiest people I saw at WDW.

Decorating:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/IMG_0135.jpg
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/IMG_0138.jpg

Annnnd- the finished product:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/IMG_0140.jpg

We were all quite stuffed from breakfast at this point, so we left our cookies boxed up for future consumption. Then we checked out the playground. The playground at POFQ is small, with one main climbing/sliding/playing structure, but it’s usually pretty empty, and there are benches around for the parents to sit on while their kids run themselves silly. It also has a great location, since it’s right across from the food court and right next to the swimming pool area. I spent about 5 minutes chasing Grant around the play area before I was completely exhausted.

I knew I had to get moving, or I was going to wind up curled up in my hotel room for the rest of the night. Clearly, that was not within the itinerary, so I wasn’t going to do it. I had, however, left in some time for resort wandering at this point, in case the rooms weren’t ready. I also knew that Mousefest 2006 was winding up, and that the MegaMouse meet was taking place that afternoon. So I found a couple of people interested in going, and we decided to go to the Swan/Dolphin. Gillian, Giuliette, Mom and I went to the bus stop. I had such fond memories of that bus stop from my honeymoon- how we used to sneak up from the back of the stop through one of the parking lots. I was all dreamy about it.

This is where my brain went to silly putty. I knew that the Dolphin was in the boardwalk area between Epcot and Disney Studios, so I figured we could just take a bus to either Epcot or the Studios and then walk (completely forgetting that I didn’t get my park tickets for the day yet, and couldn’t get from the front gate of Epcot to the international gateway). This is Disney-speak, I know, and I apologize to anyone who has no idea what I’m talking about. For the rest of us though—HELLO, what was I thinking. So we get on the first bus headed towards Epcot.

There I am, babbling at mom and the girls. “This is PO-Riverside; it’s a lot bigger than our resorts, but we share buses. These are the mansions… Oh, CRUD!” That’s when I realized I was on the wrong bus. What was WRONG with me. I was supposed to be the fearless leader! So we got to Epcot and immediately got on line for a bus to the Studios. It came rather quickly. Waiting for buses wasn’t so bad. The weather was nice after all, and none of my clients could reach me. I was in WDW. Breathe in, breathe out—ok, I was back to my normal-self. The bus got to the Studios and then we boarded the BOAT to the Dolphin. Geez, this was taking a long time. I like the friendship boats though. The Captains are usually fun, and sometimes you get a really HANDSOME one. DH still teases me about one of the Captains from a couple of years ago. He made me swoooony. OK, enough of that.

Finding the conference room for Mousefest took FOREVER. Don’t get me wrong, there were a lot of people around to guide you in the right direction, but you needed to take something like two escalators and walk down 8 corridors. It was like finding the Magic Express again, but three times as bad.

I’m not going to write a lot about Mousefest. It was ok. I got a couple of nice lanyards and pens. I wound up using my Allears lanyard to hold my room key for the rest of the vacation, and plan on using it to hold some of my pin collection at home, since the two Disney lanyard I have are now full. There were a LOT of people there though, and it was hard to get to the most popular tables. One person in particular was ticking me off. He was driving around in a scooter. Now I don’t have a problem with people using scooters. My grandparents used them the last time they were in WDW because they never could have done all that walking. What I have a problem with is that this guy would pull up to a table and park his scooter (taking up the whole length of the table) and then he’d GET OUT of the scooter and walk around, just leaving the scooter in the way. I wanted to get on the scooter and drive it into a corner, but I didn’t. I just thought about it- a lot. Giuliette was really into finding Hidden Mickeys on this vacation, so I tried to get her to talk to the author of the books, but she was too nervous to say anything.

By the time we left Mousefest I was really dragging. We opted for the boat again instead of walking. Then we bussed back to POFQ. In the meantime DBro called to say our rooms were ready and becoming inhabited by some tired men we had left back at the resort. He kept saying that the rooms were in all different locations and nowhere near each other, but I know better than to believe him. DBro likes to say things just to get me riled up, because he thinks it’s funny. It’s not funny btw!

OK, I know I haven’t added much today, but that’s all I can do for now!
Up next: Pandemonium at the Studios, but Cape May Café makes everything better

justhat

01-01-2007, 01:47 PM

Your story about going to Epcot had me cracking up cause that's so something I'd do, Ginamarie!

Even though we were just in WDW last week, your trip report totally has me wanting to go back, I think cause I feel like I'm there with you. Can't wait for the next installment!

Ginamarie

01-01-2007, 10:00 PM

According to the itinerary, I should have had plenty of time to rest before leaving for our “nighttime” activity, but our trip to Mousefest took a good deal longer than planned. So I didn’t have much time to hang out in the room. I will say a few things about it though.

We had one of the best room locations I’ve ever had at WDW. We were in POFQ building 4, second floor. DH and I had the corner room, looking out over the hot tub area on one side and the Sassagoula Food Court on the other side. I could see the entrance to the food court from my desk window, which was nice when trying to spy on how busy it was down there. It was about a 10 second walk from my room to the drink refills station! I couldn’t believe we had such a good location, and we weren’t even paying for “preferred” rooms. Right below us I know another Dis member was staying, since they had their room all decorated up.. so if you were right next to the food court December 9-19, hi there… I liked all your decorations!

The rooms at POFQ still appeal to me. It was spacious enough for DH, myself, Olivia and DSis(16), and 16 year olds take up a LOT of room! It was also nice to have a fridge for storing Olivia’s milk. The plan for our first night was to go over to the Studios to see the Osbourne lights, and then to Cape May Café for a big dinner. DH and I had seen the lights a couple of years ago, and were looking forward to showing them to everyone else.

We got a late start, but it was just a short walk to the bus stop and the bus came pretty quickly (again). The Osbourne lights were scheduled to open at 6 pm and we got into the park about 10 minutes before that. Of course en route to New York Avenue we had to make a pit stop AND a water fountain stop. This is what happens with a large group!

Now, I know this is the beginning of my report, and I want to warn you ahead of time that I am NOT a complainer. We had a wonderful time on our vacation, but there were a couple of big disappointments. I shoot straight from the hip, so I won’t sugar coat it. The Osbourne Spectacle this year was a disaster!!!

Last time we were there they had a standard path laid out for people to enter and exit the lights. This time there were just people pushing and shoving. You could not move, much less get a good idea of what the lights looked like. I thought that if we made it passed the main entrance area, where people all stop to take pictures it would be ok. Not so much! We got around to the first place we could exit the street and pushed our way out. In all my trips to Disney, I have never seen so much pushing, shoving and mass humanity as I did that night. DH and I always complain about how crowded it was when we went to Disneyland in August 2005, and that was crowded (180 minute waits for space mountain, 45 minutes just to get to the lunch counter at a counter service location), but the Osbourne lights that night were actually worse. I don’t know if they’re just that bad on the weekends.

I was heartbroken though. I had been talking about the lights at the Studios since we started planning our trip the year before. I felt like this may be an omen for the rest of the trip, that my planning would fail everyone. I almost (and again this is between me and my friends at the Dis) ALMOST started tearing up. It didn’t help that I was getting very hungry and as you know had been awake for the last fifteen hours with no sign of sleep in sight.

So there we were, a hungry, tired, unhappy pot family. There was one saving grace staring us in the face though, The MUPPETS! Kermit, Gonzo and Fozzy have never let me down. The Muppets are the perfect family attraction. No one is afraid of them, it doesn’t make anyone ill, it’s air conditioned and you get to sit in comfy theater chairs. This is an attraction to satisfy the grumpiest members of my family, and make everyone else happy too. There also was no line. Score!

The Muppets also have a special place in my heart. I remember watching The Muppet Show as a kid. My parents would let me stay up until The Muppet Show was over each week, and most of the time we would watch it together as a family. The whole Muppet cast makes me laugh and gives me warm fuzzies at the same time. Thanks to the DVDs, we introduced my little siblings to the Muppets too.

I was glad we got to wait through the preshow, because this is one of my favorites. Mr. Grant got excited each time a new character would show up on the screen. He was especially fond of Gonzo’s tap routine. He was NOT fond of the fireworks at the end. Grant was terrified of fireworks before we left for FL, so we knew we might have an uphill battle ahead of us.

Waiting for the Muppets:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/IMG_0146.jpg

After the Muppets we headed to the Great Movie Ride. This was another ride with a short line where I knew everyone could ride. I also knew I could nurse on the ride if necessary. It wasn’t necessary though. Our only other challenge was to convince BIL that there was nothing to be afraid of.. a difficult task, because he’s afraid of –everything-. He changed his mind about four times before we got on line, but we just kind of wrangled him onto the line, like sheep or cattle. He tried to back out, but we pretended we didn’t hear him. So we were glad that he got on. He did hide under his hood for a good portion of the ride, but was pleased with the Wizard of Oz at the end. Olivia wasn’t phased by any of it. Not even the alien that jumped down right at us.

With everyone starving, we decided it was time to move towards dinner, so we started to walk out of the park when we saw our first photopass photographer. DH and I knew ahead of time that we were going to purchase the photopass CD, so we were determined to take all the photopass pictures we saw. I’m glad we stopped and took this one, because it happened to be the ONLY photo for the whole trip where we got everyone together at once.

(That's me in the Old Navy Sweatshirt and DH behind me.)

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/DisneyPhotoImage144.jpg

Seeing the long line for the friendship boats, we decided to walk to the Beach Club. Oh the sound of starving children walking that short hike is enough to make a mother turn off her hearing powers. By now Olivia was getting ready to nurse, so we had to employ alternative stroller pushing patterns. Run with the stroller, swerve the stroller, shove the strolled really quickly in front of you and hope it doesn’t veer into the man-made river—I used them all. I also got sick of listening to “are we there yet” from the older ones, so I kept asking them random Disney trivia questions.

We were so happy to get to the Beach Club! I looked enviously at Stormalong Bay, even though it was 50 someodd degrees outside. Someday I will make it into that pool! I found a big comfy chair in the beach club where we fed Olivia some babyfood and then she nursed. So she was a happy camper again. It was a short wait for our table, and then we were escorted to the very back of the restaurant.

The Cape May Café was recently expanded to include more tables in the back and side of the restaurant. That’s where we were seated, but no one minded being a short walk from the food. We were going to need some exercise after eating all that food. Olivia did another short nurse and then fell asleep, so I was able to have my hands free for buffet!

Cape May is a special place for my family. It all goes back to that infamous honeymoon DH and I took. On the night we arrived in WDW (after two long days of driving from NY) we were supposed to go to the CA Grill for dinner, but we got in late and were tired. So knowing that DH loved seafood, I switched our reservations last minute from the CA Grill to the Cape May Café for later in the evening. We still haven’t been to the CA Grill to this very day!! DH loved the buffet so much that we made it into one of our standby meals, and every time we go, we wind up introducing more people to the deliciousness. In 2005, we took my brother George there for his birthday. George is CRAZY about the mussels at Cape May Café. He always “instructs” the wait staff on his mussel eating system and which plates they can take and not take. Our 2005 waitress was awesome. At the end of the night she announced to the whole restaurant that it was snookiebear’s 80th birthday. We just laughed our heads off. It wasn’t as amusing this time around, but the food was as tasty as ever.

George and his seafood:
http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j290/lawchicky819/IMG_0976.jpg

On previous trip reports I could tell you exactly what everyone ate at each meal, but this time around it’s too tough with the large group we had. I can tell you what I had. A TON of peel and eat shrimp. The scrumptious cornbread dipped in the drawn butter for the seafood. It may clog your arteries, but it will taste SOOO good while clogging them. The surprise gem of the evening was the beef strips in brown sauce. I don’t remember them being there before, and they may never be there again, but I won’t forget how good they were. Of course I had mashed potatoes too. Everything was good and I had NO room for dessert. I did hear that the mini-cheesecake morsels were good though.

By the end of the meal everything became a daze. I could have fallen asleep right there in my dinner chair. It was too late to go back to the Studios for a bus, Epcot wasn’t admitting anyone else because the park was already closed, so we had to bus to downtown Disney and then back to POFQ. Luck was on our side though, because as soon as we got to Downtown Disney there was a POFQ bus pulling up.

It was somewhere around 11 pm when we pulled into the POFQ bus stop with a couple of sleeping babies, folded up strollers and very tired adults. When we got into the room I ALMOST told DH that there was such a thing as getting to WDW too early. I didn’t though, because I’m still not sure I believe that! Sad creature that I am, I checked out our internet connection (hooking my laptop to DH’s phone, which has unlimited internet) and went onto the Dis to check in and see how my WPASADI team was doing. I was up late--- late enough so that it was actually day two of our Disney vacation already.

Up Next: The Pot Family Goes to the Animal Kingdom

tinawv

01-01-2007, 10:47 PM

You have my attention. Can't wait to read more. :)

**eeyore**

01-01-2007, 11:35 PM

OMG! You're Osborne Lights experience is almost identical to mine from last year! DH and I went, just the 2 of us Dec 2001 - It was such a nice display, back where all the houses use to be. Now, they have it all crammed into one little space. I also had been hyping it up to my parents and siblings, who joined us last year on our trip. Unfortunately it was an absolute mob-scene and to top it off, we were trying to navigate a double stroller holding our 8-month old twins. I have to admit I was actually a little nervous while we were stuck in the crowd - at moments it seemed like we really would never get out! (That's just the worrier in me!:rotfl: )

Anywho, it's really to bad they had to change the "layout" of the lights - it is really difficult to enjoy them with it being so crowded.:confused3

Can't wait to read more of your trip report - you and your family seem so great! I can only imagine how much fun you must have had!:)

Ginamarie

01-02-2007, 10:16 AM

Strawberry Lemonade

01-02-2007, 02:40 PM

Great trip report so far! Sorry the Osborne Lights were chaos. I love the family photo!

gottalovethem

01-04-2007, 08:55 PM

Love the photos!! Thanks for sharing your story!

AnninIowa

01-04-2007, 11:46 PM

Can't wait to read more!!

mom2jcc

01-05-2007, 02:13 PM

Great report!!! :)

Ginamarie

01-05-2007, 08:05 PM

Our alarm went off around 6:20 am. I stared at it, thinking that might turn it off without requiring any further effort. It was a REALLY dirty look, but it didn’t work. So I resorted to plan “B” and yelled at Gillian to shut it off. That worked, and I was grateful, because you don’t want to know what plan “C” was.

It took us awhile to get ready in the morning. I’m not used to having my sister around with her “routines.” Apparently teenagers need skin regiments and hair regiments and teeth regiments, and when all that is done, there’s a whole decision making process for what she should wear.

I knew that mornings were going to be tough territory, so I planned out Olivia’s outfits before we left. Everything was labeled and put together in the suitcase. We were going to Animal Kingdom, so Olivia got to wear her Minnie Mouse safari outfit. I bought it a few months before vacation waiting for this day, and it was worth the wait. She looked PRECIOUS!

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We got everyone downstairs for breakfast at the food court. More waffles, muffins, danish, and eggs. I had a chocolate chip muffin, which was pretty good. DH had a Danish and he loved it, because he got a Danish every morning for breakfast then on in.

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After breakfast I was ready to go, but everyone wanted to go back to the rooms again. I thought we’d never leave, especially after my dad said he needed another HALF AN HOUR to read the paper on the toilet. At this point I said something I’d later regret. I said “of course you’re not ready, because you want to –ruin ---my ---LIFE!” I was kidding, but everyone seemed to thing there was some truth in the statement. Luckily, he didn’t actually take half an hour to get ready. We split up on our way to AK though, just in case.

I was on the first bus with my siblings and in laws, and my parents stayed back for the next one. While we were waiting by the entrance, we were approached by a talking potted palm tree, who seemed intrigued with DBro’s Hawaiian themed shirt (which was covered in palm trees). I wish I had a picture of DBro with the tree, but we were all too busy laughing at them. As the tree was moving onto another family my parents walked through the security line. Perfect timing!

We knew what we wanted to hit first, Expedition Everest!! I’d been looking forward to this for months. My dad, who hates rides, was staying behind with Olivia and Grant. It took a lot of convincing to get BIL on line with us though. As soon as he decided to go we walked onto the line so that he wouldn’t be able to change his mind again. After all, the line was 30 minutes and growing. The EE line queue is pretty entertaining. We moved too quickly to appreciate most of it though. I did like the giant Yeti footprint. There’s even a case with some animal “scat”, which made all the kids go “ewwwwwwww.”

BIL was really thinking about turning back when we got to the front of the line, but we pointed out how slow the coasted seemed to be going. Of course it goes slow when it’s pulling in and out! Giuliette insisted on sitting with me, and DH sat behind us with BIL. The coaster was REALLY great. I love how it pauses at the top before you start going backwards. I love the Yeti appearances. I love how smooth the track is! On our first time around though, I was worried about how scared the kids were. So I started pointing out mundane things to distract them from the Yeti (and the fact that we were getting up really high). I actually said “look, a waterfall, that’s not scary!!” So for the rest of the vacation (and probably for longer than that) every time we saw a waterfall we’d point out how NOT scary it was.

It was no use though, BIL spent the whole time asking “is it over?”, “where are we going?” “is backwards over?” “we’re not going backwards again right?” As we pulled towards the station he said “thank goodness that’s over!” Then the ride stopped, he threw his arms in the air and said “that was the best ride EVER!” It was the funniest thing. Just a few seconds before he was praying for it to be over. We all loved the ride except MIL and SIL who got a little sick. So we picked up a bunch of fastpasses for later in the day so we could ride again.

Dad was on a bench near the entrance with the little guys and Olivia was ready for some nursing, so I’m glad the line wasn’t any longer. Once the nursing was done, we had some pit stops and headed towards Dinoland USA. The kids were happily riding Primeval Whirl by the time I caught up. We took Olivia and Grant on Triceritops Spin, which they both loved. Olivia was just laughing and babbling as we spun around. I was so glad there was a ride we could take her on at that point. It was also getting rather warm and sunny, so we shed some layers of clothing and put on Livvie’s sunglasses.

Watch out—ATTACK OF THE CUTENESS!

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Things were going too smoothly, so I knew it was time for a breakdown. It was getting close to showtime for the Finding Nemo Musical, and we saw the line all the way from Dinoland. We started to get on line, but BIL was much more interested in playing at the boneyard. So we had to split up. Giuliette was torn, she wanted to play at the playground, but we were pretty insistent on taking her to the musical. So she was PISSED. We got our seats, and Olivia wanted (again) more nursing. Dad was happy because we were in an air conditioned pavilion again. Before the show started, Olivia was grumpy because she was tired and refused to fall asleep while nursing. DH picked her up and was ready to leave the theater with her when she just passed out in his arms. So he sat back down to enjoy the show with us.

This is what the stage looked like (very hard to get a good picture of)

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The musical was really cute. It was written by the same staff who wrote Avenue Q. I haven’t seen Avenue Q on Broadway yet, but I have the soundtrack, and the Nemo Musical has the same style music and lyrics. The puppets they put together look incredible. You feel as if you’re under the sea with them. I even got teary eyed a couple of times. (Who doesn’t want to bawl when Nemo’s mom is eaten?)

The down side was that it was too real for Grant. You should know, Grant LOVES Nemo. He’s had an obsession with Bruce and sharks since the movie came out (and then Shark Tale came out). Each time we take him to the library he has to go to the aisle with the shark books, so that he can look at the sharks. He even knows the difference between different types of sharks (hammerhead, brown shark, or great white, etc). BUT- he’d never seen a life sized shark before. So when the giant puppet of Bruce came into the crowd with his big teeth, coupled with Grant’s new fear of loud noises and “fireworks,” Grant FREAKED out! My mom had to take him out of the theater and miss the rest of the show. DH was disappointed, because he thought the lyrics were too cliché, but he did laugh out loud a couple of times, so it wasn’t all bad. As usual, there was a moment where he and I cracked up at a joke no one else seemed to enjoy. Just our off-center sense of humor!

Coming next: A typical Pot Family lunch and more of Animal Kingdom

icebrat001

01-06-2007, 12:42 PM

I love it! Can't wait to read more.

Ginamarie

01-09-2007, 10:05 AM

After leaving the theater it was time for a pit stop. For those of you who haven’t traveled with a large group, I’m going to let you in on a secret. You have to stop at every bathroom you see at least twice, sometimes three times. Often, as you’re about to leave the bathroom area, someone will pipe up that they forgot to go and you have to wait all over again. So I was not surprised when we met up with DH’s family near the bathrooms. It was just logical that we’d all wind up there at the same time sooner or later.

By now several members of the Pot Family were hungry. So we stopped at the Flame Tree BBQ for a quick lunch. The Flame Tree was very crowded. I’m glad to see that a new table service and counter service restaurant is going to be added at AK, because right now there are not enough locations for everyone, especially since EE has started adding more volume to the park. Anyway, DH took everyone’s order and got on line with Gillian to get the food while the rest of us looked for a table. We found a bunch of empty table space in the rear corner of one of the seating areas and made ourselves comfortable.

If you’ve been to AK you would know that the ducks that live there are very brazen, since people feed them table scraps all day long. I think they’re cute. Kind of like feathered puppies. So as we’re sitting there, along comes this duck.

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Grant takes one look at this animal and shouts out, in his SWEETEST possible voice:
“LOOOK A DUUUCK (at this point there was a brief pause. Everyone in the seating area smiled and the innocence of this little boy seeing a duck. I actually heard a couple of people audibly go “awwww”. This is because no one knew what was coming next.) ….. “KILLL HIM!!!!” The second part of the phrase was also said in the sweetest little voice possible. Clearly this is the happy activity you would do with this duck.

We all laughed. We felt guilty for laughing. We hid our faces in shame. I went to help carry the food to the table and to pretend I didn’t know the little duck killer.

The food at the Flame Tree, despite being quick service, is pretty good. DH and I split a BBQ pork sandwich. It was so good that I could have eaten one by myself, but we were at the beginning of the vacation and I was trying to save money and watch my weight. This would be the last time we’d split a meal. I enjoyed the baked beans, but DH wasn’t too enthused with them. There was also corn on the cob included with our meal, and it was surprisingly sweet (usually mass produced corn is soggy and flavorless). George and GFDM both had turkey sandwiches, which they finished, and the kids got the kids hot dog platters. Yes, Disney has tried to add healthy things to the menu along with the standbys, but I found the healthy options to be pretty mundane. With the hot dog came grapes and baby carrots. We love both of those things in my family, so it wasn’t a big deal. BIL didn’t want to eat them, so we ate them for him. Mom had the BBQ chicken salad and said it was very good. Dad had a diet coke. He was upset because we were scheduled to have BBQ for dinner, so he thought this was a poor choice.

Grant spent most of the meal periodically hopping up on his chair and shouting about the ducks getting too close to him. You would think the ducks looked terrifying. They just looked like ducks though. Small, fat, greedy little ducks.

I planned to write some more today, but this is all you’re getting!

MA pigletfan

01-09-2007, 11:15 AM

i am enjoying your reviews and pics...and yes that minnie safari vest was precious on your little girl..what a cute family! :)

Ginamarie

05-11-2007, 07:19 PM

I know it's been awhile, but I'm reviving our report!

The ducks were behind us as we walked to our next attraction. We decided it was best to leave Grant behind for the Bug’s Life ride. Giuliette was terrified of it on our last vacation and she was six at the time, so I knew better than to take a three year old on it, especially one who was so afraid of loud noises. I love the queue at Bug’s Life. I love walking around the tree and seeing all of the animals sculpted into it, and I love the movie posters with buggy names.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where was I? Oh yes, Grant threatened to kill a duck, and we all survived the Bug’s Life Ride, though some of us (not me) hid under their shirts from the stinkbug. With our bellies full of BBQ, we thought it best to return to Expedition Everest with our fastpasses. The younger kids decided not to ride again, so I found a party of two and handed them the extra fastpasses. I thought it might be good to earn some positive karma. Perhaps then the Dream Team would find us and decide we were deserving of an incredible prize… that didn’t happen.

We did, however, get to ride EE again. It was better the second time around, even with my belly full. It probably had something to do with the fact that I got to sit next to DH and didn’t have to keep assuring anyone how UNSCARY that waterfall was.

Speaking of the waterfall though, it reminded me of Kali River Rapids. Oh how I love that ride.. the round boat that turns and turns until someone gets drenched. Almost everyone decided to come along this time. Even Grant was able to ride, though he had to get a special seat with a lap bar. I think he felt secure. That’s because he had no idea what was about to happen! Before getting on the ride, I assured everyone that we wouldn’t get too wet because they lower the water level in the winter. That had been our experience in the past, but I should have known that WDW is always looking to provide you with NEW experiences. If that means surprising you with a barrage of ice cold water in the middle of the winter, so be it. We walk through the line queue almost without stopping at all. We were laughing. We were happy. We were warm! We had to wait a couple of minutes to get a raft with the lap bar, and then we were off.

Kali River Rapids is one of my favorite rafting rides of all time. It has so many fun features, and it’s not too short. So we start the ride, get to the point of the first dip, and we laugh, trying to figure out who’s going to get wet. It was me, mom and Grant. Poor Grant- he was wet and not too happy about it, but we’re spinning, so we start to smile. We turn, we twirl and we hit a GIANT wave: mom, Grant and I. We’re getting near the waterfall. Oh, this time it’s going to be George- it has to be Gillian- holy waterfall batman- it’s ME! It continued like that for the rest of the ride.

We exit, and I look like I’ve either gone wading in a pool waist high or somehow peed myself, done a handstand, and peed myself again for good measure. Grant was upset. He proceeded to tell everyone that he hated that ride and couldn’t believe mommy MADE him go on it. Luckily, we had a change of clothes waiting for him at the stroller. I had no change of clothes, but I did have a dry sweatshirt, and that would have to do.

With the day flying by, I decided it was time to get a spot for the parade. I’d never seen the Jingle Jangle Parade before, and I was really looking forward to it. So we found a great little spot along the route. It was narrow enough that we could sit behind the rope and not have to worry about people sneaking in behind us or between us, because there were bushes right there. We sat. Olivia nursed. The kids ate popcorn, and we waited.

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The parade was REALLY good. I don’t have any photos of it because I was busy taking some video. The best part though, was the Olivia learned to WAVE right then and there. She was so excited about seeing all the characters and performers, and she started waving at them. I do have a picture of Olivia watching the parade though.

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Once the parade ended, we booked it over to the Lion King show, because we had enough time to make the last show of the day. Even though I’ve seen the show several times, it still makes me smile. The singing is fantastic, the gymnastics are creative and entertaining, and when the kids get up to help at the end of the show I get all teary. Every time!

As the show ended, we did another round robin to the bathrooms, and posed for some pictures as the park was closing. We got some great shots! We weren’t in a rush, because our next stop was Fort Wilderness for the Hoop de Doo Review later that night. Here are a couple of pictures from that night at AK.

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Coming up next (and I promise I won’t wait 4 months for another chapter) the Hoop de Doo Review!

Ginamarie

05-12-2007, 09:04 PM

We took our time getting to Fort Wilderness, and walked around checking out the area. My grandparents owned a motorhome while I was growing up, and we spent a lot of vacations camping at Fort Wilderness. I always feel “at home” there. We checked in, and got ready for dinner. Everyone was starting to get hungry at this point. The kids were getting grumpy. My dad was starving.

When I made the reservation, I was scared we’d get a table in the back because we had a large group, but our location was great. We were a few rows back and in the center of the room. As soon as we walked in, I realized we were going to have an issue. DSIL HATES metal. She carries around plastic utensils most of the time so she doesn’t have to use metal. She’s petrified of metal sounds. Hoop de Doo has metal plates, serves food in metal buckets and – well the worst part is yet to come.

The show was fun! I was a little disappointed that we didn’t get picked for anything, but I love the campy humor and the fried chicken. I drank some sangria and soda. The corn was surprisingly good, though the dessert wasn’t as good as I remembered. Olivia was cranky right at the end, and I had to walk around with her a little. Mostly though, we just had FUN. At the end of the show, they pass out washboards to everyone to play along with the music. I thought SIL was going to pass out! She was sitting there, covering each of her ears while my brother’s fiancé played the washboard across the table. I’ll never forget how that looked, FSIL rubbing that spoon on the washboard while she looked apologetically across the table!

We left Fort Wilderness feeling REALLY exhausted. Our plan was to take the boat back to MK and then bus back to POFQ. Of course, at this point, DBIL decided that he HATES boats. He wasn’t going to get onto a boat—there had to be another way back to the resort. I told him he had two options- get on the boat or SWIM. He got on the boat. We worked our way back to the resort and got everyone in bed by 11- and then I got on the computer to work on WPASADI.

We were up bright and early the next morning. I may not have looked “bright” per se after working on the computer until some ungodly hour, but it was early. It was Epcot day! Epcot is my favorite theme park. I’m a sucker for a park where you can feel like you’ve traveled the world in one day. Plus, there’s incredible food there. I know I shouldn’t be ruled by my stomach, but ladies and gentlemen, my stomach is in its glory in Epcot.

I dragged the troops to an early breakfast at the Sassagoula food court again. The food court was consistently good, with fresh hot eggs, waffles, and bacon. I didn’t eat too much though. I’m not a breakfast person, and I knew what was to come at my beloved Epcot. My in-laws decided to split up with us, because Melanie only had one more day with us on vacation, and she didn’t want to miss the Magic Kingdom. No problem! We split up after breakfast and agreed to meet up for our dinner reservation.

The rest of us charged onto Epcot. We got into the park just after opening, and rode Soarin while we fastpassed Test Track. Smart move! Soarin gets MOBBED pretty early in the day, and runs out of fastpasses even when Epcot is seemingly empty. I’d been on the ride before, but mom, Gillian and Giuliette were first time riders. They loved it!

Then, we found a way to convince my dad to go on Test Track. The thing is- my dad doesn’t go on rides- ever. We’re lucky to get him on a monorail or a ferry. I’m not exactly sure how I convinced him to go on Test Track, but I did. It’s one of the few things law school may have helped me with. I can persuade people into doing things they never thought they wanted to do. It’s a skill that comes in pretty handy at times. This time, I used it to get dad on Test Track for the one and ONLY ride he’d go on that day. Thanks to the wonder of Photopass, I have the photo to prove it:

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After that ride, dad didn’t trust me about any other ventures for the rest of the day. It was worth it though! That moment when you’re flying around the track with the wind in your hair, being all together. It WAS worth it.

With Livvie needing to nurse and the kids ready for something more “kid” related, we decided to forego Mission Space. It’s a cool ride, but having done it before, we didn’t feel like we were missing anything. Instead, we headed over to the Living Seas to check out Crush and the new Nemo portion of the ride.

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The Nemo portion may be short, but it’s REALLY cool! Grant was loving it until one big fish with sharp teeth jumped out toward the end. Then I heard him screaming from him clam-mobile. Poor kid! We spend some time inside of the pavilion, watching the dolphin presentation, checking on the manatee and stingrays, and going to see Turtle Talk with Crush. I like that they change the crush presentation a little bit each time. He still makes me giggle with his very humanlike expressions.

The World Showcase was about to open, so we started going in that direction, stopping at the Imagination pavilion. That poor ride is so ill attended, and it used to be so popular when it first came out! We always walk right onto it. I should say, we got dad to go on this too, but for only one reason- we failed to tell him it was a ride at all. Muhahaha!

Once again, Grant was enjoying it until the room went dark and Figment blew skunk odor at us. He was NOT a fan of the skunk odor. He lightened up when the ride proceeded to Figment’s house though. I was so happy when we found Figment posing for pictures outside of the pavilion, I made Grant smile and get his autograph even though he was still upset about the skunk smell.

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Coming up- lunch at Alfredos, fish and chips, Illuminations and kidney stones!

Ginamarie

05-20-2007, 10:20 PM

While we took some pictures with Figment, the group decided it was time for another pit stop. So we stopped AGAIN! Grant found the dancing fountains, and went crazy trying to catch the water. I insisted on getting a picture of them with the water flying over their heads, so here it is!

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I have no idea who the kid on the left is- but he kept sneaking into the photos, so he’s forever a part of the moment. Bathroom stops behind us, we were running out of time before our lunchtime ADR at Alfredos, so we pressed our way through the World Showcase. As we rounded France we ran into Belle and Snow White. We had to stop for photos and autographs, because this is what we do best. Grant was in fine form. He told Belle “hi, my name is Grant and this is the baby. Olivia is a BABY! I’m the uncle, and this is the aunt. She’s Giuliette. She’s the aunt. Look at that BABY!!” Poor Belle couldn’t get a work in edgewise. We did, however, get a great photo.

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Then we stopped to see Snow White and Dopey. Grant was chatting her up again. “Hi I’m Grant, and these are the books. Can you sign these? This is Olivia, and she’s a baby!” He never stops. He’s like the mayor of wherever we happen to be at any given time. Both princesses were great. They were so friendly and seemed genuinely happy, and since they were happy, we were happy. . and hungry.

This is the bad point about skipping breakfast, as I did most mornings; by the time lunch arrived, I was ready to gorge myself.

We signed in at Alfredos just as they were opening, and got our regular table. I think they like putting large groups right in the front of the restaurant. Maybe they figure no one will hear us if we get too loud, or that if one of the kids gets pesty we’re that much closer to the door. I’m not sure. I do know that this was at least the third or fourth time we were seated immediately in front of the door. No worries- it was quiet and private.

I couldn’t wait for the waiter to take drink orders, because I knew what I was getting.. sangria! I’m not much of a wine drinker, but I do like sangria a LOT. I’ve tried many brands of sangria and house sangrias from restaurants, but the HANDS DOWN BEST sangria I’ve ever had is Alfredos. So I got my sangria and spent the rest of the meal drinking it slowly, savoring every drop of fruit and honey and cloves. Mom and dad decided to get a cheese platter to split amongst the table, and also a Caesar salad. Little did I know, that cheese platter would be one of the best things I’d ever eaten. There were three types of cheese, a hard, a medium and a soft. One was better than the next. We munched on bread with olive oil, and then the entrees. Yummo! I must admit, my favorite Alfredos dish was the chicken parm, which made its way off of the lunch menu awhile ago. They did have a fried chicken cutlet though, covered in fresh tomato, so that was my choice. It was a great choice though. Crunchy and juicy at the same time. Everyone loved their entrees, and we split some desserts with coffee and cappuccinos. We also shared a limencello that was incredible! DH and I had never tried it before, but decided we needed to buy some ASAP. I wish I had some pictures of our Alfredos food, but this is the closest we took.

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Then we posed for a statue with DH’s favorite statue. He calls this one “Little Bit O Patch” due to the cleverly placed cloth over that certain piece of male anatomy.

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Then we spent some time walking around the World Showcase shops for awhile before getting on line for the Candlelight Processional. Josh and I saw the Candlelight Processional back in 2004, and really enjoyed it. We got on line probably 90 minutes before showtime and got pretty good seats. I was expecting Grant to be bored silly, but instead, he thought it was too noisy, and kept covering his ears (as that’s his go-to maneuver anytime it’s “too loud”). The narrator was Stephen Curtis Chapman. He was ok, but surprisingly, I preferred Eartha Kitt from 2004.

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Olivia slept through the performance, which was probably for the best. As we watched, the sun set, creating a beautiful backdrop for the presentation. The skies now darker, we walked to Norway to ride the Maelstrom. I love that ride! Interestingly, Grant wasn’t too afraid of it. I think it had something to do with the fact he was snuggled up with my mom and that we brought Olivia on the ride. Afterwards, we took our requisite troll photo.

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Next up: Fish and chips at last!