Can I convince DBF WDW is not just for kids in 2.5 days? A P&PP TR with pics!

[irky416]

So, I was writing a trip report up anyway for another purpose when I thought, why not add a few more details and pictures and post it on the DIS. I love reading through others trip reports so maybe I'll do one this time.

This is my first attempt, so bear with me here. As you will soon learn, when I actually start writing, I am very long winded. ;) I go into long, sometimes unnecessary details, about things. Sometimes, my family hates it when I start to tell a story. :confused:

I know this is very late, but I really just got around to getting this all typed up. I do have notes from the days, though and a pretty good memory.

So (I also tend to say so and anyway a lot, both when writing and in real life!), this is my trip report from February 1 - 3. A quick weekend trip down to WDW just for the Pirate and Princess Party!


Characters:

Me – 25. I love all things WDW and Disney, but haven’t spent that much time in the parks. I teach middle school – by choice - so yes, I am certifiably crazy. (That is always the first question I get asked when I tell people what grade I teach.) My students are constantly asking me if I have kids (they know I don’t!) because I am always talking about Disney movies and shows. :rotfl2: Most bonus questions on tests come from Disney movies and I use them to give them examples of stuff all the time. (Just the other day we were talking about old mines and I said, “Did you see Finding Nemo? You know the part with the mines….” And before that we were talking about being exiled. 5 points to you if you can guess what I referenced? “Have you seen Monsters, Inc? You know the part where Mike and Sully get kicked out to live with the Abominable Snowman?”)

DBF – Also 25. He’s a software engineer. When we first starting dating – which was ages ago – we would often watch Disney movies and TV shows together. The tradition continued and we have a substantial Disney movie collection for two 25 year olds with no kids! :laughing: The Disney parks, however, he could take or leave. He thinks they are for kids and has no desire really to go at all. :scared1: Hence, the title for my trip report.

Here's us at the chocolate festival last year:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253795943_Ma75C-S.jpg

Up Next: Chapter 1 - Background on DBF's stinky attitude about WDW and planning (or rather begging)!

Quick Links to chapters:

Chapter 1 - Stinky Attitudes and Begging and Pleading (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=23957613&postcount=4)
Chapter 2 – Will we make it to Orlando? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=23991613&postcount=16)
Chapter 3 - Pop Headaches (Part 1 - because of too many pictures) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24017458&postcount=20)
Chapter 3 - Pop Headaches (Part 2) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24017482&postcount=21)
Chapter 4 - More Pop Please (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24124398&postcount=25http://)
Chapter 5 - Downtown Disney and the mad dash to Poly (Part 1 - too many pics again!) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24178807&postcount=26)
Chapter 5 - Downtown Disney and the mad dash to Poly (Part 2) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24178842&postcount=27)
Chapter 6 - Breakfast at O'hana (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24310003&postcount=38)
Chapter 7 - Two Yummy Discoveries in One Day (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24434825&postcount=42)
Chapter 8 - The Attack at MK (Or what we did before the party started) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24499468&postcount=54)
Chapter 9 - Meeting Jack (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24627591&postcount=63)
Chapter 10 - All About Aladdin (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24677497&postcount=71)
Chapter 11 - Enchanted Adventures (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=24833339&postcount=79)
Chapter 12 - Magic, Music and Mayhem (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25023066&postcount=88)
Chapter 13 - An Empty MK (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25111693&postcount=104)
Chapter 14 - The Night Ends (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25372551&postcount=115)
Chapter 15 - Home Again, Home Again (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25427217&postcount=121)
Chapter 16 - So, Did I Do It? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25447123&postcount=123)

[jcc0621]

Ooooh, this is gonna be good..I can tell.popcorn::

Dh teaches middle school math:teacher: :thumbsup2

[irky416]

Ooooh, this is gonna be good..I can tell.popcorn::

Dh teaches middle school math:teacher: :thumbsup2

Yay! A reader. :goodvibes

Middle school is certainly it's own beast. Do you get tired of hearing your DH's stories as my family gets tired of mine?


Stupidly, I started pictures uploading from the trip we took to the zoo today and now my computer doesn't want to cooperate with me. :mad: The next update will have to wait until tomorrow, but it's almost ready. :woohoo:

[irky416]

Ok, I would have had the 2nd chapter up sooner, but we decided to go see Horton Hears A Who at the last minute.

So, without further ado... I left off talking about DBF's stinky attitude about WDW. I don't think he truly dislikes it, I think he has just had some bad experiences.

Let me elaborate...

His family had gone to WDW two years ago. They basically planned nothing and actually paid for 4 one day tickets. :scared1: They roamed around the parks with no aim and didn’t end up accomplishing much, and in fact, left after only about 5-6 hours. None of them are planners – at all. Of course, this wouldn’t have happened had I been with them, but the only time they could go was the first week of school, which is a big no-no for taking time off. While DBf is not a planner, he hates not having things planned – which is where I usually come in and why we make such a good pair. This trip was not something he particularly enjoyed, especially since they wasted so much money. :sad2:

So, that brings us to last summer. Their trip put the Disney bug in me. I hadn’t been in ages and knew there was a ton of new stuff. So, my whole family decided to go to Orlando for the first time in about 10 years. “We” decided (too bad majority rules in my family!) we were going to do Universal, but I couldn’t stay away from Disney. I talked my DBf, sister and step-brother into paying for a one day ticket to go to Magic Kingdom. One had never been and the other two hadn’t been in 10 years – my sister being too little at that time to even remember.

We spent a day “commandoing” Magic Kingdom. My sister and I loved every minute of it. :lovestruc We had grown up with a serious park “commandoing” father. And I mean serious. The kind that counted the number of rides we got on during a day and divided it all out to make sure we had gotten our money’s worth. :rolleyes1 (Did I also mention he’s a little crazy? It must run in the family! I could tell you a hundred stories about “commandoing” at parks the cheapest way possible and how my dad has it down to a science.) My step-brother and DBf were not used to this kind of day (obviously, you saw what his family did at WDW!). My step-brother was exhausted, hot, and miserable by about 6 and DBf wasn’t faring much better, while my sister and I were still going strong.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/251966845_ukaQX-S.jpg
Can you see how thrilled the boys look by later in the evening? (And I mean by about 5 pm!)

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/252302657_LxgNM-S.jpg
This happens to be at Sea World (he decided to wear all black in the middle of a Florida June! :confused: ), but he sat like this during much of the day at Magic Kingdom...especially when we waited to see characters.

Here are a couple of pictures from that day when they were still fairly happy...see, we didn't have a horrible time!

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/251962963_N8jVt-S.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/251963436_vTqGC-S.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/251968301_xsXKv-S.jpg


Later, DBF told me it was too much and he hated all the time we spent in Fantasyland and was upset he had spent $70 on a ticket when he would have rather gone back to Universal. I was sad. The boys hadn’t seen the Disney magic. :sad1:

As a side note, I have mostly stopped this “commandoing” trait my father instilled in me. DBf usually holds me back, and I must admit it is much nicer to take the time to enjoy a park, but when it comes to Disney, even though I tried, I just couldn’t help being a commando. Maybe it’s because it’s so far or so expensive or just not something I know I can just do next time, like our local amusement park. Does anyone else only become a commando at WDW? I find it hard to believe I am the only one. :rotfl:

Anyway, back to the present. While I was planning the summer trip I found the DIS. :banana: :woohoo: It’s a planners dream. As I was perusing the boards for information about our trip, I started seeing posts about the Pirate and Princess Party. I was intrigued. To say the Pirates of the Caribbean movies are an obsession of mine would be a HUGE understatement!

DBF and I got into an “argument” one time at the grocery store because I wanted to buy tissues and cereal for the sole reason it had PotC on the box! People were looking at us like we were crazy! :laughing:

The more I started reading about them the more I wanted to go.

I had my heart set on meeting Jack Sparrow during our summer trip to Orlando and then found out he didn’t do meet n’ greets outside of P&PP. :headache:

No P&PP’s during our summer trip. And no way could I go for the ones in August. School was starting and we already know it’s a no-no to take even a day off in the beginning of the year unless it’s an absolute emergency. And while I may have thought meeting Jack Sparrow was an emergency, I am certain my school would not feel the same way! ;) pirate:

And while my DBf is usually pretty agreeable about things, I didn’t think there was any way I could convince him to go back to WDW just two months after we had been there and he had not had such a fabulous time (not to say he didn’t have fun, it just wasn’t his cup of tea so to speak.).

I put Jack and the P&PP out of my mind for awhile. Then, rumors started appearing on the DIS about more P&PP in the winter. :listen: Now came the tricky part: convincing DBf that we needed to go back.

Of course, it’s during the school year, so it would only be for a weekend. I planned on putting all of my charm to work for this one. :angel: I started small and kept it up – I begged, I pleaded, I bargained, I begged some more. Eventually, he broke down (I think he probably got tired of hearing me talk about it!) and the day the news of dates was announced on the DIS we started making plans. :dance3: :love:

Of course, he was none too happy about going and let me know it every chance he got he would rather be going elsewhere. He was going for me though (because he’s a good guy and knew how important it was to me) and I knew I would have to do everything in my power to make this trip good for him or we wouldn’t be back to WDW for a very, very long time.

We got the tickets and booked the hotel room. It was going to be pretty cheap and that made him a little happier about it. :lmao: We were going to stay at Pop Century – the first time either of us had actually stayed on site – and I was way excited! We got the plane tickets and it became real. I was going to meet Jack Sparrow!!! :cloud9: I could barely contain my excitement and I had three months to wait. I spent some time figuring out ADR’s (another first!) and finding things we could do.

We only planned on getting the P&PP ticket and nothing else, so we would have to find something on Disney property to keep us busy all of Friday and then Saturday and Sunday afternoon. As February drew closer and closer, I was getting worried. Would I really be able to convince him that Disney wasn’t just for kids and could we have a nice mini-vacation at the most magical place on earth (as two adults)? :confused:

And as the day got even closer, I had another worry. Would we even make it to the airport to get to WDW and would the perfect week lead to a horrible trip!?

Coming soon: Chapter 2 - Will we make it to Orlando?

[byoung]

Nice report.

[OhMari]

I always wonder how people find the DIS. Did you do a google search, or see it published somewhere.

[irky416]

I always wonder how people find the DIS. Did you do a google search, or see it published somewhere.

I was doing google searches for questions.. What's the best day to go to Magic Kingdom? Can you bring food in the park? Can you bring in bags? That type of thing, and I wasn't finding much help in the Disney website. Some of the questions kept coming up with answers on this board.

I thought I might as well see what else I could find here. Little did I know at the time, I could find anything I possibly wanted here! :laughing:

I got addicted. Even DBF knows about it now. When we went to Ohana (coming up in a few installments!) he loved the juice and after we left, the first thing he said to me was, "Can you ask on that board what kind of juice that was and if we can get it anywhere?" :rotfl2:

Thanks for reading!

[zickig]

I'm reading and waiting for the next one too!!!!

[BrittBritt]

I'm here! Lovin it so far!
What did you guys think about Horton?
Also, what's the Chocolate Fest you spoke of in your first post? Yum! :goodvibes

[jcc0621]

THere is plenty of things to do without going to the parks....I just have a feeling you were able to turn him to the dark side:thumbsup2


Yay! A reader. :goodvibes

Middle school is certainly it's own beast. Do you get tired of hearing your DH's stories as my family gets tired of mine?

MOst of the time his stories about the kids amuse me, but when he starts with a couple of the other teachers and principal---they sound worse than the kids:rolleyes1

[irky416]

I'm here! Lovin it so far!
What did you guys think about Horton?
Also, what's the Chocolate Fest you spoke of in your first post? Yum! :goodvibes

Thanks for reading!

We thought Horton was really cute. Very funny. I'd recommend it. :thumbsup2

Every year, at Seven Springs Resort they have a chocolate festival. All kids of chocolate vendors from around the area come and have booths and stuff set up. You can get a lot of free samples and they have just about every thing chocolate you can think of to buy.

All kinds of different types of chocolate, every kind of thing you can imagine dipped in all different kinds of chocolate, a huge variety of chocolate ice cream, chocolate drinks, even chocolate beer. It was a lot of fun, and the resort area is really nice!

It is very hard to show restraint, though! :laughing:

[irky416]

THere is plenty of things to do without going to the parks....I just have a feeling you were able to turn him to the dark side:thumbsup2

I guess you'll just have to wait and see! :rolleyes1


MOst of the time his stories about the kids amuse me, but when he starts with a couple of the other teachers and principal---they sound worse than the kids:rolleyes1

I can definitely relate to that! It's like the teachers spend too much time around middle school mentality and start to behave that way themselves!

[kathleen27]

I'm hoping you convince him.

My DH won't go to Disney, so I end up taking the kids and leaving him home. Luckily my Dad is always willing to join us and help out. I'd like to convince DH to join us in a couple of years though so I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas.

Kathy

[Loriann70]

Count me in. Can't wait to read more!

[irky416]

Yay! More readers. :woohoo: Thanks for reading everyone.

I'm almost done with the 2nd chapter, but in the meantime I thought I would show you some pictures of my pirate thing collection, so you can see how bad my obsession truly is.

And DBF truly knows I'm crazy at this point, because he couldn't figure out why I was running around taking pictures of all this stuff last night! :rotfl2:

Here's the lovely tissue box we fought over in the grocery store:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269045365_USfhL-S.jpg

The pirate lanyard connected to my DS case: (:offtopic: Disney Meteos is pretty fun, if you're looking for an adult Disney-themed game!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269044936_QA6Jj-S.jpg

Here's the projection clock I sent away for and a picture of the projection:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269045107_3Xn73-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269045219_mvXTP-S.jpg

My Pirate Mickey ears, of course!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269045518_LWUfg-S.jpg

My light up key chain and the light it gives off: (I LOVE this!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269045698_jZusZ-S-1.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269045819_oa26r-S-1.jpg

Antennae Topper:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269046012_s6Mta-S.jpg

Window Cling:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269046243_zBpSd-S.jpg

The pirate Taz DBF won for me at our local Amusement park!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269046491_xvec7-S.jpg

The Jack Bobblehead:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269046947_7NHEi-S.jpg

The drawing my stepdad did for me last Christmas (it needs a new frame):
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269047140_PTFNQ-S.jpg

My favorite pirate tshirt:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269047679_mwW4f-S-1.jpg

Our couch pillow:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269047898_qrx2r-S-1.jpg

The night light DBF hates because it changes colors when it's on (I have to admit, it is kind of annoying, but it's pirates!):
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269322279_W5S54-S.jpg

A lovely video of the night light changing colors (I was bored taking this video, so unless you're currently VERY bored, you probably don't want to watch! ;) ):
Pretty Colors! (http://ksquared.smugmug.com/gallery/4484850_236uu#269325264_TWzwo-A-LB)

One of the three PotC puzzles I have:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269046682_AYbC9-S-1.jpg

And the lovely posters that grace our extra bedroom:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269047342_ThUnZ-Th.jpg http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/269047533_gMWdM-Th.jpg

I also have a Pirate Mickey pin I leave on my wallet at all times. I forgot to take a picture and now my camera is charging, so you'll have to imagine it!

I hope I haven't scared you away with my random update. I should have the next real update later today, unless I get back from my dad's really late, in which case, sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Happy Easter to those who celebrate! :goodvibes

[irky416]

Chapter 2 – Will we make it to Orlando? Day 1 -Part 1 (February 1)

The week before we left I could barely contain my excitement. I was compulsively checking the weather both here and in Orlando. I was concerned in the beginning of February we would have some trouble with the weather, but early in the week the weather reports were looking fabulous in both places.

As the week progressed, I started to get really worried. Why, you may ask? Because everything was going perfectly. It was the almost perfect week. On Sunday, I got pulled over for speeding (the first time I was ever pulled over in my almost 10 years of driving) and didn’t even have my license on me and got only a warning. My students were perfect all week, the weather was nice, I got to see some old friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. Why is this a problem? Things were too good. By about Wednesday I started getting this horrible feeling that if things were going so well now, it couldn’t continue. The end of the week would have to be bad to make up for the perfect beginning of the week. This is how my life usually goes.

Thursday afternoon I came home and started packing (which I love doing!). I was so excited because even the packing was going well. It was the best packing job I ever did and I was very upset I forgot to take a picture of it.

Let me tell you, rolling clothes is the way to go. I was a non-believer, but thought I would try it this time. So much fit and it was so neat and tidy. I actually put almost all my clothes rolled up into Ziploc bags. I was amazed by my own packing job. As soon as DBF came home I made him go upstairs to show off my lovely suitcase. He was impressed because usually I take way too much and shove it all in, but not this time! :lmao:

So, everything is going great and then I hear an updated weather forcast. :scared1: And sure enough, what do I see? A winter weather warning for our area. My biggest fear was coming true. We weren’t even going to make it to Orlando, because we’d get stuck at the airport. This is the only real thing I was worrying about. I figured if we made it to WDW then I could deal with whatever weather or undesirable things that happen because at least I’m there. But to not even be able to make it, we’d be out of luck.

Thursday night and Friday morning they are calling for freezing rain, snow, sleet, poor driving conditions, you name it, it was coming. :scared: I am basically freaking out at this point. After our last trip with airplanes (a horrible horrible experience!), I have become a little worried about delays and canceled flights. We decide to get up extra early (our flight was already at 8 AM and it takes an hour to get to the airport) and drive slowly and hope we would make it.

We got up at 4 AM (ugh! Too early!) and left our house. The roads by us were really bad. It was freezing rain and it was slick. We were driving at 10 mph. We slowly got to the parkway and it was a little better. And as soon as we got closer to the city, it stopped raining. The roads were fine, there was no traffic, and it continued all the way out past the city and to the airport. We actually made it to the airport in record time because there was absolutely no traffic! :woohoo: We got to the airport and surprisingly the boards still said our flight was on time. We got through security and ate breakfast, and headed toward our gate. We were still supposed to leave on time. It was our first experience with Southwest and we got on the plane so quickly. The nervousness about getting delayed or cancelled had not subsided yet. I knew until we’re in the air, we’re not safe. We got delayed for 5 minutes and the worry set in. We weren’t going to make it. My trip wasn’t going to happen. We then had to go wait in line to be de-iced. That took about a half an hour. I hate just sitting on planes and waiting. My claustrophobia kicks in and I start getting really antsy when we’re just sitting still. After de-icing, the pilot says we will be taking off and we just have to wait in line on the runway. I’m still not relaxed because I know we can be turned around at any time – or left to sit on the tarmac. Finally, about an hour later than we were originally supposed to leave, we were in the air. Finally, I could breathe a sigh of relief. I knew we would be in Orlando in 2 hours. The rest of the flight was uneventful and we arrived in Orlando around 11. :thumbsup2 Of course, I had about 5 messages on my phone from school telling me we had a 2 hour delay because of the weather. At that point, it was the farthest thing from my mind because I was somewhere warm and sunny.

We only brought carry-ons so we didn’t have to go collect any luggage. Somehow, we got lost in the airport :confused: but we made it down to the ME counter shortly before 11:30. Here was something else I was slightly nervous about. I couldn’t justify paying for a rental car if we were staying on site, but I hate waiting for buses. I was hoping the bus thing would turn out ok.

I was pleasantly surprised. So was DBF (yay, a positive experience!). We got to the counter and in less than 10 minutes we had walked the red carpet, and were on a bus headed to Pop Century!

Here's the gross weather we left. You can see the ice crystals on the plane window.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253868005_RZuce-S.jpg

I don't have any more pictures from this leg of the trip because I was too busy freaking out about making it to Orlando. I promise there will be some in the next update!

Coming up next, our first stay on site and the problem that threatened to ruin the whole day and keep WDW a bad experience for DBF!

[BrittBritt]

Great update. I love how you were assuming the trip would fall apart since your week had gone so well! :rotfl:

Now I just need to know what you said to get out of the ticket----especially since you didn't have your license! ::cop:

I can't wait to hear all about your experience/opinions about Pop!

[zickig]

Can't wait to hear more! :)

[irky416]

Now I just need to know what you said to get out of the ticket----especially since you didn't have your license! ::cop:


I have no idea. I couldn't believe it myself! I chalk it up to the perfect week. :thumbsup2

[irky416]

Chapter 3 – Pop Headaches. Day 1 - Part 2


I last left off on our ME journey to the resort.

I loved the video they showed on the bus. It was perfect to get in the right spirit for the trip. I was excited. We had never stayed on site before.

Seeing WDW property from the ME bus! (It was a little rainy at first, but it cleared up really fast!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/270502735_hxrBb-S.jpg


We got to Pop (yay for being the first stop!) and headed in the lobby to check in.

Pictures of the entrance to Pop (I took these the next day from a cab...I was on the wrong side of the bus to get a good pic and it was raining anyway)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253863073_AS3LF-S.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253862389_AJuUb-S.jpg

I had looked at a lot of pictures of Pop online, but it was still very exciting to see it for the first time. :yay: DBF was excited too by all the signs and stuff leading up to the entrance. He liked the retro look of the drive up. I couldn’t wait to get out and explore the property – after all we had plenty of time to kill.

We got checked in pretty quickly and even though it was only about 12:30 our room was ready. (More good things happening to show DBF WDW really IS a great place! :cheer2: ) I was glad because I didn’t know exactly what we’d be doing the rest of the day, so I was glad to be able to get situated first. It took us exactly one hour to get from the ME counter to the counter at Pop. I was impressed and so was DBF (this is always a good thing). I hate waiting for busses!

We decided to go to our room and settle in. We were in the 80's building, room http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253853036_aMygj-Th.jpg.


I was kind of surprised how small the room was. It was fine for the two of us, but I can’t imagine having more than one child in the cramped little room.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253852869_H3zwo-S.jpg

After we got “unpacked”, I say that loosely because we were only there for 2 and a half days so we pretty much just arranged our stuff in the room, we realized we were starving. But first, look what we spied from the landing outside our room:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253853288_HEK6X-S.jpg

We decided to go down to Everything Pop and eat at the food court.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253856376_ajePE-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253857154_uVnJv-S.jpg
(Grrrr, to that yellow cone. I didn't realize until we were home or I would have taken another picture!)

I was excited to get these refillable mugs everyone was talking about. (I am such a dork.) It wasn’t really that crowded, so we grabbed our food and our mug (yay!) and found a seat. I still use he mug almost everyday. DBF was annoyed I was spending $13 on it when we'd only be there for 2.5 days, but wee really got our money out of it. Even he agreed by the end of the trip, it was a good deal. :thumbsup2
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253856512_LLrQV-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253856706_f62zc-S.jpg

We both got chicken fingers and fries. DBF was more impressed with the food than I was (who cares what I thought the food tasted like as long as he liked it! :rolleyes1), but it wasn’t bad. I was so hungry, I forgot to take a picture. But you all know what chicken fingers and fries look like!

After the chicken, I decided I had to try the tie-dye cheesecake. We grabbed a piece of that and found another table.
DBF licking his lips in anticipation of the cheesecake
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253857013_tMF84-S.jpg

I’m not usually a big fan of cheesecake and I loved it. DBF, the cheesecake lover, did not really like it. He said it didn’t really taste like cheesecake and that was probably why I liked it. Maybe he was right or maybe we just got a bad piece. Either way, the whole piece disappeared pretty quickly and I only had about 3 bites. :rotfl:

We were going to head back to explore the resort, when I got sidetracked by the gift shop on the way out. I am a sucker for gift shops. I am usually pretty good at refraining from buying all the things I see in gift shops, but I love love love to wander around them. :love:

(:offtopic:This was actually a big problem on our trip the previous year. I wanted to stop in every gift shop I saw and I would buy a few things here and there – hey, I had saved up money just for this occasion! – but my step-brother was not happy about this at all. By the end of the trip, he was so angry about me shopping he refused to even go in gift shops anymore even though they were air conditioned and he was miserably hot.)

So back to the story, I was wandering around the gift shop (why don’t they have any Pop merchandise!?) and all of a sudden DBf asks me if I have any Tylenol. Uh-oh. The only time he ever asks me for medicine is when he is getting a migraine. He gets these occasionally and they can last from 20 minutes to a whole day. The only thing he can do when he gets one is to lay in a completely dark and quiet room. :sick:

Sure enough he said he was getting a migraine. I did not have any medicine on me (I know, I know, what kind of prepared DISer am I!?) but told him to head back to the room and take something and to lay down and I would wander around the shop and come back to check on him in a few minutes.

DBF heads back to the room and I am left alone in Everything Pop. Hmmm…. I could get used to this. No one following me around looking at their watch or rolling their eyes when I walk past the same display for the 5th time or saying “Why would you buy that!?” when I pick something up just to look at it closer! :cloud9:

I found a couple things that I had wanted to buy (small Mickey earrings for my second piercing and a penny collection book) and one thing I just couldn’t pass up (a Stitch stuffed animal keychain – I love Stitch and keychains!)

Penny book with some of my pennies inside: (I wondered what these looked like before my trip - maybe the pic will help someone out!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/270509984_LAFNX-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/270510223_SbDLj-S-1.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/270510457_oKxSw-S-1.jpg

Stitch Keychain!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/270510622_8kNGh-S.jpg

So, I buy them and have a very nice conversation with the lady at the register about it being my first time onsite and where she was from.

I left the shop and headed back over to our room, taking my good old time walking over there. All I kept thinking about was the lovely weather (I was wearing a skirt and sandals and had just come from 20 degrees!) and how if I was at home I would be teaching my 7th period. I had been gone for maybe 20 minutes when I got back to the room.

Too many pictures....continue on to the next post to find out what happened!

[irky416]

DBF was laying in the dark. Uh-oh. That means his head still hurt. :headache: We had a quick whispered conversation and he decided he needed to stay in the dark. Remember that perfect week I was having? I couldn’t help but think, here comes the bad stuff.

He is going to have one of his all day migraines and we won’t be able to do anything the whole day. Not too mention he'd remember WDW with a horrible migraine. Not what I wanted to happen! We only had two and half days. I really didn’t want to waste one of them because of a migraine. I told him to rest and that I would just wander around the property by myself for awhile. After all, it was really gorgeous out and there was nothing I could do in the room or nothing he could do with his migraine.

I took my camera and headed out. I walked around the entire property, covering every single inch. I saw all the buildings, walked to the main entrance, around the walkway with all the year signs, and headed halfway across the bridge on the lake until there were too many birds for me to continue (I despise birds!). It was actually fabulous. It was so relaxing and peaceful, and I barely saw another person the whole walk. I ended up being very thankful for that hour I spent by myself. It was great time to reflect on life and just enjoy the peace and wonderful weather. :cloud9:

Some of the pics I took while wandering around:
Goofy's Pop Jets
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253856255_QYTa4-S.jpg

Took this for DBF since he's a computer geek (He liked it when I showed him later!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253858019_typx9-S.jpg

70's Building from across the lake:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253858413_kWKqT-S.jpg

Took this since I'm a history teacher!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253858847_GcDjz-S.jpg

50's Yo-Yo's
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253859149_PgS2N-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253859468_Xhd6t-S.jpg

50's from across the lake
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253859604_MY6Hn-S.jpg

Hippy Dippy Pool
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253861031_kcyaU-S.jpg

Decade signs:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253860806_oMKTe-Th.jpg http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253860936_vNK3A-Th.jpg http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253861742_G4YWH-Th.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253861866_Sgwzp-Th.jpg http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253861592_Qn65V-Th.jpg

Bus Stop
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253862143_RB9Rn-S.jpg

More decade signs by front entrance
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253862018_tw4qJ-S.jpg

Flowers I liked
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253860654_oLjLM-S.jpg

Our stairwell
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253864023_rS9Zb-S.jpg

After about an hour, I headed back to the room. DBF said his headache was almost gone, but he wanted to lay for just a bit longer. It was around 3 at this point and I was just thankful he was starting to feel better. I took my iPod and told him I’d be at the pool and to come get me when he was ready.

The computer pool I sat by:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253857669_MZZDS-S.jpg

Again, I just sat and people watched and listened to some music, and it was wonderful. :goodvibes I thought it was going to ruin the trip, but things were looking up. He was feeling better and I got to spend some really wonderful time enjoying the resort, which probably wouldn’t have happened otherwise.

After only about 30 minutes, he came down and found me. We sat and decided what we wanted to do and then headed back to the room to get ready for the rest of the evening. :chat:

Up next: Goofing around at Pop Century.

[zickig]

I love reading this, and your pics are great! Love it, can't wait for more!

[kathleen27]

Great pics of pop!

I always get headaches when I travel, plane rides or long car rides. And once I get them they just will not go away. Now I take tylenol before I leave the house and I'm fine. When I remember that is. :sad2:

I always get so nervous my flight will be canceled in winter too. I just keep checking the weather over and over. I have gotten stranded at a connecting airport coming home from vacation but luckily no problems leaving for vacation.

I would have bought that box of tissues too!!!

We Love to squish pennies too!!! :goodvibes
I always bring as many quarters as I can find and I still run out.

Kathy

[irky416]

I love reading this, and your pics are great! Love it, can't wait for more!

Thanks!



I always get headaches when I travel, plane rides or long car rides. And once I get them they just will not go away. Now I take tylenol before I leave the house and I'm fine. When I remember that is. :sad2:

I always get so nervous my flight will be canceled in winter too. I just keep checking the weather over and over. I have gotten stranded at a connecting airport coming home from vacation but luckily no problems leaving for vacation.

I would have bought that box of tissues too!!!

We Love to squish pennies too!!! :goodvibes
I always bring as many quarters as I can find and I still run out.

Kathy

We got stranded in Dallas one time and it was the most horrible experience ever, and after a not so great trip, it made it even worse.

I never bring enough quarters or pennies either!


I should have the next set of pictures up soon. I haven't had any time in the last few days. Such is the life of a teacher at the end of the nine weeks when grades are due shortly. (It's always now that the students decide to start really caring about their grades and get mad when I don't have new grades for them everyday! :confused3 Don't they know they're keeping me from DISing! :rolleyes1 )

[irky416]

Chapter 4 – More Pop Please. Day 1 - Part 3

Quick picture update of us playing around at Pop Century. DBF’s migraine was gone! Now, we could have some fun! party:

Of course the computer engineer will stand on the keyboard:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253853799_PyP63-S.jpg

Pretending to listen to the huge walkman:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253853969_N54fi-S.jpg

We love the potato heads:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253854596_u2VYm-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253854816_o7evc-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253855217_8Pngh-S.jpg

And here's one I tried to put together with both of us in it...
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/272462415_RALAF-S.jpg

Me with the sign of the year we were both born
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253855440_TL6BG-S.jpg

Playing giant foosball
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253855831_SJHwU-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253855982_kFKbU-S.jpg

Again with the computer pics
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253862271_XFiyx-S.jpg

Lady and the Tramp
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253863540_7Fv9K-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253863713_7S32Q-S.jpg

Oh no! The giant Big Wheel is out of control!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253864592_LCF4n-S.jpg

Choosing our song
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253863878_uUVQo-S.jpg

I told you it would be a quick update. ;) Next chapter is almost done! :yay:

Up Next: Downtown Disney and will we make it to the one thing I really wanted to do today?

[irky416]

Chapter 5: Downtown Disney and the mad dash to Poly. Day 1 - Part 4


After we got done playing around at Pop, we decided to head to Downtown Disney. I really wanted to get some Mr. Potato Head parts so I could turn a potato head into a pirate. (I told you I had an obsession!) I think DBF was actually looking forward to this. He kept talking about it. I don’t think he believed me about all the different parts. I was also planning on getting some rice krispie treats from Goofy’s Candy Company. :goodvibes

We headed back out to the main entrance and caught a bus to DTD. It was only about a 5 minute wait. We got to DTD and we wandered around a bit. (We did a lot of that, if you hadn’t noticed yet!) We went to the Christmas store, the art store (DBF liked that and even though I was pretty bored, I let him look as long as he wanted!), stopped at Goofy’s Candy Company and decided to get some treats on the way out so we didn’t have to carry them with us, went into the Lego Store, and Once Upon A Toy. (Again, decided to come back for the potato parts.)

Then we had some prime photo opps. I love making DBF pose in front of things to get his picture taken. He used to hate it, but he puts up with it so much more now and sometimes even says, “Take my picture with the….” I think he secretly like sit now!

He always feels he has to make me stand in front of things too, though. Usually, I put up a little fight (I’m always the one behind the camera!) but as long as he was having fun in DTD I was willing to do anything to keep it up!

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253844771_roKZP-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253846569_vG9J5-S.jpg

We seem to have a tradition of getting our picture taken by all the Rainforest Cafe's we've seen. This is our 3rd so far!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253845175_SQ7xD-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253845362_YnAar-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253845528_7yxL8-S.jpg

Even a Captain Jack made of Lego's made me happy!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253845710_atjxH-S.jpg

Re-enacting the PotC scene
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253846252_tUkPH-S.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253846703_KihWW-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253847000_x2BsY-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253847326_CGNSz-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253847671_PgDc9-S.jpg

World of Disney (I loved it here!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253848526_6on4p-S.jpg

I had to take pictures of the Lego London and Paris because I had been to both of those places. I have this thing that whenever I see somewhere I've been - on movies, tv shows, posters, wherever, really - I always hit DBF's arm and say "I've been there!" It really excites me. He gets pretend annoyed at this, but if I don't say it, he always goes, "You didn't say I've been there!" ;) (When we were watching a Disney movie in school one day, I heard one of the kids do the same thing at the opening to the castle and I had to smile because I do it then too!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253846873_hk67Z-Th.jpg http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253847137_9wzCz-Th.jpg

We walked around a little more, and then decided to go back to the Potato head store.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253847875_r7Qq5-S.jpg

We spent probably a good hour playing around with all the parts and trying to decide what pieces to get. DBF is an engineer so he liked trying to get them all to fit in the box. It was fun. We decided on the complete pirate (what else!?) and the complete Incredibles potato head. DBF loves Incredibles… we have watched it on DVD at least 30 times.

Pirate Potato
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/273570923_SzWNL-S.jpg
Incredibles Potato
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/273579900_qt8w8-S.jpg

It’s now sitting on his desk at work to remind him of all the fun he had creating it at Disney World! (My evil plan… I bet he never thought he would have something Disney on his desk at work, and now every time he looks at it he thinks of WDW! And these are good memories he has because he loved going through these pieces!)

Even after these two complete sets (we had potato heads at home from WalMart) we had a ton of room left in the box. We then decided to just pick pieces we liked and shoved them in the box. We got a ton more accessories and stuffed the box to capacity. It was fun. Now, I don’t know what we’re going to do with them…but we have them none the less.

I would post a picture of all the extra pieces but I left my camera at school. :guilty: Maybe I'll remember tomorrow...

Too many pictures.... continue to next post for the rest of the story!

[irky416]

We had a lot of fun doing this. After we were at DTD, we had decided we were going to go to the Poly and watch Wishes from the beach. This was the one thing I really wanted to do. However, we had kind of lost track of time while playing with the Potato Heads. Oops. The problem was that we needed to go back to Pop first because we needed to change.

We had a little more than an hour to get from DTD to Pop to the Poly by 8 to see Wishes. In that time we had to change clothes, and catch two busses and a monorail and still make it to the Poly beach before 8 to get a good spot. I knew it might be close. :scared: I have read many a story on the DIS about busses taking ages upon ages to get from one place to another.

We hightailed it over to the bus station and crossed our fingers for a quick bus back to Pop. After posing for a quick picture, what do we see pull up but a Pop bus! Yay! That was fast.

DBF pointing out our stop
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253848839_2dTA4-S.jpg

We waited no more than 5 minutes and got on the bus and got back to Pop. (I have absolutely no idea how long this took!) Once there we almost ran back to our room and changed real quickly.

After we got back to our room, I realized I forgot to go back to Goofy's Candy Company for the rice krispie treats! :scared1: I guess we were making another trip to DTD tomorrow afternoon. I had to get me some of those treats! :laughing:

We were both wearing shorts and t-shirts. I had a hoodie with me, but DBF had nothing. While we were at DTD we could feel the temperature dropping and knew once the sun was down it would be cool. I HATE being cold, so not changing was not really an option here. And I knew if I started whining about being cold, DBF would not be happy and would NOT enjoy Wishes. We could not have this, so the mad dash had to occur.

After a quick change of clothes, we speed walked back over to the bus stop. Again, hoping for a quick bus to the MK, so we could make it over to the Poly. We were walking up to the bus stop and what do we see coming…A Magic Kingdom bus!! :woohoo: My perfect week was still perfect! This was working out wonderfully! We hopped on the bus to MK, and sat back and enjoyed the ride.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253848107_URNEe-S.jpg

Once at MK, we hopped on a quick Monorail over to the Poly. Again, the monorail was pretty much waiting for us. Wow, was all I could say when we got off the Monorail and into the Polynesian. We had a little less than 20 minutes until Wishes started. I have been listening to my CD of Wishes constantly at school since we got back from our last trip and I really wanted to see it again. Fireworks and the beach are two of my favorite things. Combining them = perfection! :love:

We didn’t take much time to explore the hotel because we wanted to get a spot and we’d be back there for our O’Hana reservation in the morning. We found the beach (WOW, at the pool!!!) and grabbed a lounge chair in a perfect spot. DBF seemed surprisingly relaxed and excited. I sent him in to get me some hot chocolate before the show started.

The hot chocolate wasn’t really all that good. We were a little disappointed. We have a 7-11 here that has the best hot chocolate I have ever tried and I think our expectations were too high. But it was warm, and more than half the time I get hot chocolate I get it just to hold in my hands to keep them warm.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253866230_zW7VH-S.jpg

Shortly thereafter, the show started. I had read conflicting reports as to whether you could hear the music or not from the beach, and I was pleased that they were piping in the music that night. :goodvibes We sat together on the beach and watched the show. It was very enjoyable. DBF even said he liked the show better this time than last time. I tried taking some pictures, but most of them didn’t turn out very well.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253866672_v2EGC-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253866934_Cbgzf-S.jpg

After the show, we went to Captain Cook’s inside the Poly for a quick dinner. We were pretty hungry again at this point. We were planning on eating before Wishes, but obviously that didn’t happen. DBF got the multi-grain turkey club. He said he didn’t really like it all that much. I got the flatbread and I thought it was very good. DBF said he wished he had gotten that after he tried some of mine.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253867094_Bq6ma-S.jpg

I was upset they had fruit punch at the Poly but not at Pop. I stopped drinking pop a while ago and now I don’t really even like the taste of it, and I hate the light lemonade, so drink selections at Pop was pretty much apple juice.

After we ate, we explored the resort a little bit. And by that, I mean we went in the gift shops. ;o) I love gift shops, as you may remember. DBF wasn’t complaining at all about being in them… hmmmmm, was the Disney magic beginning to set in? After I was done (I did resist buying anything that time!) we strolled back up to catch the monorail and headed back to Magic Kingdom to catch the bus back to Pop.

First, i took I picture of the garbage can. Why? I don't know. But I enjoyed it, so I snapped a picture. My camera pretty much doesn't leave my wrist when we go on vacation. You can probably tell that!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253867254_55rwT-S.jpg

At this point we were very tired. We had been up since about 4 AM. DBF had a nap, but I hadn’t slept at all with the exception of a 20 minute nap on the plane. At the entrance to MK we saw the Pirate and Princess topiaries and I had to stop and take pictures.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253869068_HKvSG-S.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253869207_sxo4r-S.jpg

We made our way slowly over to the busses. One had just left, but it was absolutely packed, so I didn’t mind too much. Another one came very shortly after, probably no more than 10 minutes.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253867383_QTuLt-S.jpg

We got on and waited for it to load. It wasn’t packed, but a mom got on with two very little girls, so DBF and I offered the girls our seats and we stood for the trip back to Pop. I was talking to some of the people on the bus and giving them some information I had learned from the DIS and had read in the room. They seemed very impressed, even though I thought I was giving them basic information available to anyone! They were very appreciative, however, and it made the time pass quickly. :thumbsup2

DBF was impressed by this. First, he was impressed I knew all the information and second, he was even more impressed I carried on a 15 minute conversation with strangers. I am usually a very shy person. I told him that’s what happens in Disney! We said goodbye when we got off the bus and we headed back to our room.

We were exhausted at that point. DBF wanted a snack, but we were both too tired to walk back over to the cafeteria, so we went to bed. I think we were both sound asleep before 11, which is very early for us. Right before we went to sleep, I asked DBF if he was having a good time so far, and he said, “I guess.” Haha. That was a big response, since all he had said before was how much he didn’t want to go. He had said it in that reluctant way that he does when he doesn’t really want to admit that he might have been wrong.

I went to sleep happy that he was having a good time. :cloud9:

Score: Disney magic – 1 DBF’s stinky attitude – 0

Up Next: Breakfast at Ohana!

[jcc0621]

I think you may be turning DBF to the dark side:thumbsup2

[irky416]

I think you may be turning DBF to the dark side:thumbsup2

:rolleyes1

[kathleen27]

Great updates.

Love all the posed pics at Pop and DTD. I have never stayed at any of the disney resorts and they look like fun.

My son is a big fan of Mr. Potato head. When he was three he wore a homemade mr. potato head Halloween costume. :rotfl:

The lego store is just amazing.

:woohoo: For all the fast buses!!!
Fireworks on the beach sounds nice.

Sounds like you are convincing him!

[irky416]

Great updates.

Love all the posed pics at Pop and DTD. I have never stayed at any of the disney resorts and they look like fun.

My son is a big fan of Mr. Potato head. When he was three he wore a homemade mr. potato head Halloween costume. :rotfl:

The lego store is just amazing.

:woohoo: For all the fast buses!!!
Fireworks on the beach sounds nice.

Sounds like you are convincing him!

The resort was fun, but if I was going for a longer trip, I don't know if I could stay there because of all the space and amenities a rental house or time share gives you.

The potato head costume sounds amazing! I would love to see a picture of that. I'm going to keep that in mind next time I need to dress up.

[BrittBritt]

I just love all of the pics you've been posting.
It does sound like you guys had fun finding all of the Mr. Potato Head pieces. (Don't forget to post pics of the other pieces you fit into your box!)

What did you think of the Wishes view from the Poly beach? We absolutely loved watching the fireworks from there. When we did that, it was in Jan., and we were the only people out on the beach. It was really wonderful.

[DizzneyDAnn]

popcorn::

[irky416]

I just love all of the pics you've been posting.
It does sound like you guys had fun finding all of the Mr. Potato Head pieces. (Don't forget to post pics of the other pieces you fit into your box!)

What did you think of the Wishes view from the Poly beach? We absolutely loved watching the fireworks from there. When we did that, it was in Jan., and we were the only people out on the beach. It was really wonderful.

Oh! I did forget. I'm going to do it right now. Thanks for reminding me!

I really enjoyed Wishes from the beach. It doesn't replace being in MK, but if I wasn't already there I would definitely watch from Poly again!


popcorn::

Thanks for reading! :yay:

[irky416]

Here's the rest of our Potato Head pieces...

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/274353306_z5JFs-S.jpg

Both sets of shoes and the pirate hat took up a lot of space. Honestly, we probably could have squeezed a few more things in, but there wasn't really anything else we wanted. We tried to get some holiday pieces so we could decorate accordingly.

Next chapter is almost ready!

[DaisyLynn]

I'm enjoying this!:goodvibes

Love your pictures. If we were taking a quick trip, I'd love to try out Pop. It looks like a fun resort!:banana:

Looking forward to the next chapter.... popcorn::

[irky416]

I'm enjoying this!:goodvibes

Love your pictures. If we were taking a quick trip, I'd love to try out Pop. It looks like a fun resort!:banana:



Thanks! :goodvibes

Pop was really fun!

[irky416]

Chapter 6: Breakfast at O'hana. Day 2 - Part 1

We had decided previously to get a taxi to take us to breakfast in the morning. Neither one of us really like to get up early, and even though our breakfast wasn’t until 10:30, by the time we got showered and ready to go and left enough time for busses and monorails, we figured it was worth the $20 to just take a cab. :car:

Our plan was to do the late breakfast ADR and then not eat again until we got into MK for the party. DBF was very hesitant about this breakfast. I think he didn’t really know what to expect since we didn’t have any kids with us. :confused3

“A character breakfast!? For what? You’re not 10!” Was the basic response I got from him when I first suggested it. I told him that we needed to eat and if we made it a late breakfast we could stuff ourselves and only eat twice that day and it would be just about the same price as if we had to eat three times. (Yes, I know this wasn’t the most logical argument, but I’m used to giving arguments to 12 year olds.) I repeated my love for Stitch many times, and finally by saying I’d pay for the whole breakfast I convinced him to at least come with me.

I got up first and let DBF sleep while I got showered and started to get ready. I got him up about 15 minutes before we had to call for the cab (lucky boys!) and he got showered and ready while I was finishing up.

The cab was waiting for us when we got to the lobby of Pop. The cab driver was a little weird and it was sort of an uncomfortable ride over to the Poly, but about 20 minutes later, we were there. :cool2: We went in and checked in to O’hana. We were early and they said it would be about 20 minutes, so we explored the upper level of the Poly a little more since we hadn’t had time last night. I think my new dream is to stay at the Poly. DBF was impressed with this hotel.

Poly Lobby
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253837606_Je6et-S-2.jpg

Very shortly after arriving, we were escorted into O’hana. We got lei’s which I was very excited about. I told DBF he had to wear his while at breakfast and surprisingly got no argument! More of that Disney magic at work!

Us waiting to be called with our leis
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253837385_pCk7p-S-2.jpg

Breakfast was amazing! We had a great waitress who started us off with a sample of the juice. Mmmm…the juice! :worship: I seriously think this juice gave DBF more Disney magic than anything else the whole weekend! He still talks about it!! :yay:

The juice went with the bread (pineapple and cinnamon raisin) that DBF also loved. I tend to fill up on bread and don’t really like raisins so I didn’t have much of it, but DBF asked for seconds so it must have been good. (I just had to text him about the kind of bread we had because I forgot and he texted back: mmmm. pineapple and cinnamon raisin, duh!)

DBF with his bread:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253837773_fTdFd-S-2.jpg

She brought us out our fruit plate and DBF was excited because they had pineapple. He loves pineapple, but we never get it. And it was good pineapple. I don’t normally like pineapple, but this stuff was amazingly good pineapple. We also got seconds of the fruit. :thumbsup2

After the fruit came the big pan of bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits, and potatoes. The food was so good and our waitress was great about bringing more of anything we wanted.

Our food:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253837926_UeDrs-S-2.jpg

Then came out the Mickey waffles. They were so good too. I wanted to have a third one so badly, but I was so stuffed at that point. I had to have DBF remove it from my sight because I was honestly afraid I would throw up if I ate it and afraid that if it was still in my vision I would be forced to eat it. I usually don’t stuff myself like that, but that’s just how much we enjoyed breakfast at O’hana. :cloud9:

The only thing I was annoyed about was that the characters were running behind or else we had just missed them come by our table. We had eaten all of our breakfast and were still waiting for the characters to come by. We weren’t really in any rush, but I could see how people would be annoyed by this if they were trying to make it somewhere by a certain time.

It was around this time I noticed I was sitting under a bird (even though it was fake, I was still freaked out! In case you couldn't tell, I HATE birds. They always attack me. Wait until you hear what happened with the birds later in the day at MK...). DBF made me have my picture taken looking scared of the bird. :sad2: (Anything to keep him happy! :rolleyes1 )
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253838117_bC2Cm-S-2.jpg

Lilo came first and we each had our picture taken with her.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253838397_CFLBL-S-2.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253838555_muu6S-S-2.jpg

There were no handlers around so we had to do individual pictures with some of the characters. That is until we started talking to this very nice family next to us and we agreed to take each others pictures with the characters so they could have a pic of the whole family and DBF and I could have us both in the pic. People at Disney were so nice on this trip.

As Pluto was coming around there was some chaos around where we were sitting and he missed our table. I was so bummed! I wanted to see all the characters. :o( At that time, the parade started, so I was hoping Pluto would come back over to us after the parade. The parade ended and Stitch came over. No Pluto.

But I love Stitch! DBF somehow missed having his picture with Stitch. I actually think this was before we had talked to the family next to us and there was all the chaos going on, so no DBF and Stitch.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253838685_Waki4-S-2.jpg

We saw Mickey, next.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253838879_V3BfR-S-2.jpg

After Mickey, our check came. DBF picked it up and paid for it! :love: I reminded him I was going to pay for the whole thing, but he said since he thought the breakfast was actually good, he would just put it on our joint credit card and we’d use vacation money for it! WOW! O’Hana was working the Disney magic this morning!! :cheer2:

When the waitress came to pick up the check, she asked if we had seen all of the characters. I told her we missed Pluto. She said she thought he’d missed some tables because of the chaos (kids and parents weren’t waiting for the characters to come to them!) and to stay put and she’d send him right back over. I told her it wassn’t necessary, but she insisted. Yay!

The family next to us had missed him too, but wasn’t going to mention it so they were happy I had spoken up. Pluto came around and we took a couple pictures with him and thanked him for coming back out.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253839392_343jW-S-2.jpg

We headed out. The lei’s were becoming itchy, so we took them off. DBF wanted to throw his away, but I told him he wasn’t allowed. (I’m a pack rat.) He told me that I had to carry it then, so I wrapped both of them around my bag. DBF was then amused by all the accoutrements I had on the bag at this point and made me get a picture taken of them all.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253839682_5bB8V-S-2.jpg
As you can tell by the blurriness, DBF is not the photographer in this relationship.

After that, we walked around Poly a little longer, enjoying the place we will probably never stay, and went in the gift shop one more time. (Even if I’ve been there already, I have to go in a gift shop when I see it! It’s a disease, I know! :lmao: )

We then decided we would head straight over to DTD to try to get back to Goofy’s Candy Company. :cake:

Up Next: Downtown Disney again and a yummy discovery at Pop!

[DaisyLynn]

Fun update! I've never tried 'Ohana, but after reading that I think we may have to on our trip next year!

Looking forward to more...

[irky416]

Fun update! I've never tried 'Ohana, but after reading that I think we may have to on our trip next year!


Mmmm...O'hana is great!





Next chapter should be ready soon. I was going to work on it today, but I picked up a book and got involved. Oops. :rolleyes1

[jcc0621]

Another great update. We did O'Hana last year and it is on out list again for this year. DS loves Stitch and the food is good:thumbsup2 We didn't get lei's though. I wonder if this is something new they started:confused3

[irky416]

A very short update. I got ridiculously busy the past week. :scared1:

Chapter 7 – Two Yummy Discoveries in one day. Day 2 - Part 2

So we exit Poly and head out to get a bus to DTD. We only waited about 10 minutes and a bus came and whisked us off to DTD for those yummy rice krispie treats I saw yesterday. :woohoo:

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253840134_9Tj3Z-S-2.jpg

We arrived and wandered around a little more, stopping in to a few stores we missed the day before, and taking a few more photo ops. We also went back into World of Disney…I couldn’t resist! :angel:

DBF and Donald being annoyed at always having to carry the girlfriend's belongings:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253848252_fAaD3-S-2.jpg

I matched Mickey and Minnie
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253848406_MnDZP-S-2.jpg

Finally, we hit Goofy’s Candy Company. :thumbsup2 We looked around and decided to just get the make your own treat. Eventually, we decided on rice krispie treats and after even more time we decided what we wanted on them.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253844965_LMcqN-S-2.jpg

The lady at the counter was teasing us for spending so long deciding what to get and then getting something so simple! I decided on a rice krispie dipped in milk chocolate and covered in Oreos (Oreos are my weakness!) and DBF went for the same thing but dipped in dark chocolate.


While we were waiting for our treats, we walked around the store and enjoyed the smell and the many different kinds of candy. We also took some pics of the sign DBF liked.

You can actually read it when it's the original size
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253848656_wNtNw-S-2.jpg

We got our treats to go and headed back to catch a bus back to Pop. It was only about 1:30 at this point and we still had some time to kill before heading to the P&PP.

When we got back to Pop we went to fill our refillable mug and saw they had the Frozen Coke machines on. I had read about this elusive machine and was excited to see it was working today. :banana: I filled up our cup with the blue raspberry. DBF wasn’t very happy because he doesn’t like frozen Cokes. As we left the food court, we decided to walk around and take some more pictures. (I wanted some pictures with sunny skies!) And DBF hadn’t seen much of the resort, so we wandered around Pop some more. Of course, it was warm so DBF was thirsty and decided to try some of the drink.

It started to grow on him and he drank it all! :rotfl2: He liked something else about Disney. (Every small thing he liked, I consider a small victory. Many small victories can win the war!) We actually ended up going back to fill up that mug about 3 more times before finally headed back to the room for good!:laughing: :laughing: We started calling it “blue.” DBF still sometimes talks about getting “blue!”

Mmmmm...Blue
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253863379_SyCNm-S-2.jpg

After we walked around the resort a little, we still had about an hour before we needed to leave for MK. We went back to the room and relaxed a little. :goodvibes We also tried the rice krispie treats. Wow. Best $3 I ever spent! It was so good. (We tried duplicating this at home, and while they were tasty, I think the Mickey shape must have given it a special taste or something, because they were nowhere near as good!)

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253868362_RMUtz-S-2.jpg

Very soon, it was time to change and head over to MK for the Pirate and Princess Party!! party:

Yay! I had been waiting forever it seemed and it was finally here. I had on my special shirt I made for the occasion. We walked over and caught a bus to MK (again almost no wait!).

Shortly we were arriving at MK. We took a couple pictures at the entrance and headed in. We arrived right at 4 PM. We were ready for a night of Enchanted Adventures and magic! pixiedust:

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253869751_NkM7z-S-2.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253869930_nhKjs-S-2.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253870110_mZdha-S-2.jpg

Coming up next: What we got done before the party even started!

[LaurenMic]

I just found your report and got caught up. Your stories are hilarious...can't wait for another update! I am also a teacher...and after reading your report, I'm glad to find I am not the only one who attempts to use the same logic on both their students and their DBF haha!

[irky416]

I just found your report and got caught up. Your stories are hilarious...can't wait for another update! I am also a teacher...and after reading your report, I'm glad to find I am not the only one who attempts to use the same logic on both their students and their DBF haha!

:wave2: Thanks for reading!

I'm glad it's not just me, however, do you find that many times it actually works!? :rolleyes1 ;)

[michellem1118]

I just found your report and got caught up. Your stories are hilarious...can't wait for another update! I am also a teacher...and after reading your report, I'm glad to find I am not the only one who attempts to use the same logic on both their students and their DBF haha!

:wave2: Thanks for reading!

I'm glad it's not just me, however, do you find that many times it actually works!? :rolleyes1 ;)

I do the same thing.... and yes, it does usually work! This is even funnier b/c DFi is also a teacher, and when he tries, it doesn't work as well... :confused3 :rolleyes1

[irky416]

I do the same thing.... and yes, it does usually work! This is even funnier b/c DFi is also a teacher, and when he tries, it doesn't work as well... :confused3 :rolleyes1

:lmao: :rotfl2:

That's hilarious. It usually works for me too, but on the rare occasion when my DBF realizes, he always says, "I'm not one of your students!"

[pezheadmeg]

I'm loving your report.

And you can tell from the avaitor, that I'm a potato head girl myself. It's become a running joke with friends from college, I don't buy pieces they find them and send them.

[Cass]

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253857154_uVnJv-S.jpg
(Grrrr, to that yellow cone. I didn't realize until we were home or I would have taken another picture!)

Fun trip report and great pics! Thanks.

Oh and I took the cone out for you :lmao:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Casshew/no-cone.jpg

[LaurenMic]

:wave2: Thanks for reading!

I'm glad it's not just me, however, do you find that many times it actually works!? :rolleyes1 ;)

Oh yes, it sure does work! And the sad thing is, I teach first grade :laughing:

[irky416]

I'm loving your report.

And you can tell from the avaitor, that I'm a potato head girl myself. It's become a running joke with friends from college, I don't buy pieces they find them and send them.

Thanks for reading!

It's nice that your friends buy you pieces! I bet you get a lot that way.

Fun trip report and great pics! Thanks.

Oh and I took the cone out for you :lmao:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v473/Casshew/no-cone.jpg

:worship: :thanks: Yay! No more cone! You're the best. :flower3:

Oh yes, it sure does work! And the sad thing is, I teach first grade :laughing:

:lmao: :rotfl2:

[ArmyWife3-4]

I'm all caught up and subbing in! :)

[kathleen27]

All caught up now

O'hana's looks like fun, Glad Pluto came back out to see you!

The poly looks gorgeous, I've always wanted to stay there.
Maybe someday:rolleyes1

The rice krispie treat looks good.

Can't wait to hear about the pirate & princess party!

[irky416]

I'm all caught up and subbing in! :)

:welcome: Thanks for reading!

All caught up now

O'hana's looks like fun, Glad Pluto came back out to see you!

The poly looks gorgeous, I've always wanted to stay there.
Maybe someday:rolleyes1

The rice krispie treat looks good.

Can't wait to hear about the pirate & princess party!

I wanna stay at The Poly too!

Maybe my next trip report could be Can I convince DBF to stay at the Poly! ;)

[irky416]

Chapter 8 - Attack at MK (or what we did before the party started) Day 2 - Part 3

From here on out it will probably be mostly pictures.

Anyway, we arrived right at 4 PM, (DBF was pleased we could get in early and had just about a full day in the park for about half the price of a full day ticket… hey, it’s the little things remember!) and headed in. We got our treasure bags and maps.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253870757_HpNeR-S-2.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253870902_JaWNz-S-3.jpg

(One thing I was very annoyed about was that when we went in we did not get a time schedule. I realized about a half hour later. I asked a CM and they said they would be out in all the stores. I went to a store and they said they wouldn’t be out until 7 when the party started. Ok, no big deal – we were far from the entrance and I didn’t want to walk all the way back over. I knew basic parade and fireworks time from the DIS anyway, and figured we had plans until 7 anyway.

However, at 7 none of the stores had them. A couple very nice guests let me look at theirs when they heard me complain, but we could not get one until almost 9. And we checked many stores and asked many CMs. I wondered if this was a freak occurrence or they always had a problem with the party time guides. Oh well, though. In the grand scheme of things it really wasn’t a big deal, just slightly annoying at the time. :confused3 )

So much for that mostly pictures thing….


Anyway, we walked in and took some pictures.

DBF at the sign
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253870260_xUAuP-S-2.jpg

DBF and Minnie
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253870440_b4bHx-S-2.jpg

I saw a PhotoPass person on Main St. and I really wanted our picture in front of the castle. Last trip we tried to have my sister take our picture but the one I liked was blurry and the one not blurry I hated of myself. I told DBF I wanted the PhotoPass photographer to take our picture. He said he didn’t want to because they wouldn’t take it with our camera and he wasn't paying for pictures. (I hadn’t yet explained Photo Pass to him because I wasn’t planning on getting it.)

We then got into a short argument.

Me – Yes, they will use our camera.
DBF – No, they won’t. They want you to pay for their pictures.
Me – Babe, they will use our camera, trust me.
DBF – Why would they use ours when they can make you pay for theirs?
Me – Because it’s Disney. Duh. (Yes, I am stuck in the 90’s with my use of Duh! It’s just the perfect word sometimes.)
DBF – Well, I’ll feel stupid when we ask and they say no.
Me – They won’t say no. Everyone on the DIS says they will use your camera if you ask. I will ask and that way you won’t feel dumb.
DBF - …..ok

So, of course, as all you smart DISsers know, she did take our picture with my camera and she didn’t even bother to use hers, which really freaked DBF out! So now we have a picture of us in front of the castle I don’t totally hate! DBF was once again impressed with the knowledge I had from the DIS!

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253871163_8eN7v-S-2.jpg

We continued down Main St. and took some more pictures of the Castle. (:offtopic: It seems on each trip I take I get stuck on one thing that I take a million pictures of. In London, it was Big Ben. In Paris, obviously, the Eiffel Tower. In DC, it was the Washington Monument and in Vegas the Luxor. I don’t know why, but I always come home with at least 50 pictures of the exact same thing and it always changes each trip. Last trip to Disney it was Splash Mountain but this time it was definitely the castle! Wait until you see the later installment of this report...)

You all know what the castle looks like, so I'll just give you one for now!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253871279_sGUCp-S-2.jpg

Our plan was to ride Haunted Mansion, get dinner, try to get on a few more rides and then get in line for Jack Sparrow by about 6:20ish. I had read people were allowed in at 6:30 and that the line could get long, so I wanted to get this one first as it was the reason we were there!

We got to Haunted Mansion and the line was about 30 minutes. Normally, we wouldn’t have waited, but it is DBF’s favorite ride and it was closed last summer when we were there. I wanted to make him happy, so we waited to ride Haunted Mansion. He loved it and it was a good way to start off the night because he was in a good mood now.

Neither of us had been on it in 10 years, so we didn’t really recognize any of the changes. We liked it though. And when I told him about some of the “secrets” of the ride, (when you go down backwards it’s 6 feet to show you died…) he liked it even more. I love impressing him with my knowledge! I love the DIS!

I don't think any of the pictures inside turned out very well.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253871656_gbPjX-S-2.jpg

After HM, I had my terrible bird experience. I almost forgot about this until I started remembering what we did between when we got there and when the party started! I try to block these horrible happenings out of my mind.

We were walking from Haunted Mansion over towards Frontierland. As we were walking, I started to see hundreds (well, that’s what it felt like to me! In reality, maybe 50) of seagulls flying along the path and sitting in the path. Yikes! :scared1: I didn’t want to keep walking. I think I mentioned I hate birds! And they hate me, so it evens itself out. I especially hate Seagulls. This deserves a bit of background…

Once, we were at OBX and me, my friend, and my sister were on the beach. A seagull flew by and my sister decided to try to hit it with the towel she was shaking out. It flew at her, but then flew away. She laughed, but I said it probably just went to get its friends. Well, wouldn’t you know, about two minutes later about 20 seagulls come flying back to us. :eek: They started dive bombing my sister and us. I was so scared! This was not the first time birds have attacked me! I ditched my sister and friend and ran all the way back to our house. Up over two huge sand dunes and probably at least a half a mile. (And I am not a runner!) I got back and was so out of breath but laughing and my mom couldn’t understand what had happened. She thought I was being attacked. And I was, just not how she thought! This event lives burned in my memory and I get flashbacks whenever I see more than about three seagulls together.

So, obviously, I didn’t want to walk by the birds. I was willing to either go the long way around or just wait until they disappeared. DBF was hungry, though and could see our destination. He said, “Don’t worry. I’ll protect you. And look at all these other people who they’re not bothering. You’ll be fine.” I didn’t want to get him annoyed, so I decided to walk through...

I put my hoodie on my head (I don’t know why, but I feel safer around birds if my head is covered!) and started walking, death gripping DBF’s arm the whole way. We were almost safe….

When all of a sudden the seagulls start flying like mad. One flew less than 2 inches from my face! I am not kidding!! I screamed. DBF was in shock. He saw how close it was. I let go of his arm and ran and screamed. DBF caught up to me after I passed the birds and then looked at me – still kind of in shock – and then proceeded to crack up.

I know I looked like an idiot. I can find the humor in my idiocracry, so I forgave DBF for cracking up after yelling at him for making me walk that way in the first place. I think while he was laughing he got a lot of "I told you so's!" I'm sure some person who witnessed this probably told this story to others, about the crazy girl wearing her hoodie over her head (I did not have my arms in it) who started screaming and running from the harmless seagulls. :rotfl: As long as someone gets enjoyment out of it, I can make an idiot of myself everyday! (And I do... I teach 7th grade remember! Anyone who teaches knows, you're pretty much an actor first and foremost!)

DBF never believes me about the birds hating me, until he sees it. He’s seen it more than once, though and you’d think he’d remember. I guess they’re not attacking him though. After DBF was done laughing, and was done freaking out, we had arrived at our dinner destination.

(Wow that was probably the longest story about birds ever! I did warn you I could get off topic and long-winded.)

Anyway, we had decided to go to Pecos Bill’s for dinner. We had eaten here last time and we both loved the chicken wraps. We were convinced MK had the best park food ever. There was no line and we didn’t have to wait at all.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253871784_9xUmw-S-2.jpg

We found a table and got to eating. We ended up being a little disappointed. The wraps weren’t as good as we had remembered. :sad1: I think it was because they changed the tortilla. I don’t know what the new one was but last time it was a white flour tortilla and it was GOOD. This time it was still good, but just not amazing.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253871922_2B6jB-S-2.jpg

After dinner, we decided to head over to Fantasyland to do Mickey’s Philharmagic. DBF liked this ride last time and we thought it was a good one to ride since it loads a lot of people at once. We got into the waiting room with little wait and only waited about 5 minutes to see the show. DBF loved the sign above the doors. So much so he made me take a picture.

Usually, I'm the one taking pictures of random signs!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253874229_Pzxah-S-2.jpg

Us in our special spectacles (AKA Opera glasses)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253874091_zfX7G-S-2.jpg

I love 3D movies and Philharmagic is no exception. After Philharmagic, we saw the stepsisters and stepmother and we went over to watch. We didn’t get in line for a picture because it was long and a CM was closing it anyway. But, I had read good things about their interactions so we stood and watched them for a bit. They were very funny. Even DBF liked them and he usually isn’t in to characters – especially face characters.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253873820_X4gUu-S-2.jpg

And one more pic of the castle for good measure:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253873939_7FT47-S-2.jpg

At this point it was getting close to 6. I wanted to be in Adventureland soon so we decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Yay. I love this ride. :love: Luckily, so does DBF. He’s not so into MK so I wanted to make sure we were only doing things he really wanted to do.

Here, I encountered my first and really only, annoying people at WDW. We were in the last row of the log and two boys and their mother and grandmother were in front of us. The boys were sitting on the ends and as we were traveling through, the boys were reaching into the water and trying to splash each other by throwing handfuls of water across the boat at each other. The mom and grandma didn’t seem to care. :mad:

Normally, I don’t care what other people do, but I was getting wet. And so was DBF, although I seemed to be getting it worse them him. The first time I let it go even though I got a pretty good splash. I was hoping the mom would notice and stop her kids. No such luck. I kept getting wet. I was not dressed for water and was starting to get really mad. Finally, the next time I got splashed, (at least the 6th time) I let out a scream of shock at getting wet on a non wet ride. Finally, the mom noticed that they were getting us wet too and yelled at them to stop.

I didn’t really enjoy this ride because of this incident. :( And I have no pictures form this time because of it. I was really annoyed that my jeans and hoodie were wet and it was starting to get chilly. When we got off and DBF realized how wet I was he was annoyed also. He tried to make me feel better though (and it worked!) by reminding me it was time to go meet Jack. :love2: Yay!

I let go of being wet and got excited about Jack. After all, this was what I was waiting for for so many months. party:

We ended up in line about 6:25. I was right in the middle of the walkway almost. Some girl came up to me and asked what I was waiting for and I told her Jack. She started jumping up and down and screaming so loudly, “This is it! Jack’s here! Jaaaaaaaaaaaaack!” It was so funny! :rotfl2:

This happened more than once, but no one screamed in my ear at least again! It was so funny to see people get so excited about meeting him. I myself was starting to get pretty excited. After only about 5 minutes of waiting outside the door opened up (we were only like the 10th group in line) and we started to go inside…but no Jack in sight. What’s inside the door you ask? Stay tuned!

Up next: Meeting Jack and the party starts!

(So much for mostly pictures! It really should be next time.)

[kathleen27]

Glad you got a nice picture of the two of you in front of the castle:goodvibes

The word Duh is used frequently by my children.:rolleyes1

:eek: Seagulls are so aggressive! On a Kindergarten field trip with 16 kids, and 7 adults, one flew right up to the group and grabbed a kids shoe! (off the sand, no one was wearing it at the time). It was too heavy for it to go far & luckily it dropped it.

Can't wait til you meet Jack!

[Artist]

I'm SO in. I hate birds too.
Can't wait to hear about Jack!
pirate:

[irky416]

Glad you got a nice picture of the two of you in front of the castle:goodvibes

The word Duh is used frequently by my children.:rolleyes1

:eek: Seagulls are so aggressive! On a Kindergarten field trip with 16 kids, and 7 adults, one flew right up to the group and grabbed a kids shoe! (off the sand, no one was wearing it at the time). It was too heavy for it to go far & luckily it dropped it.

Can't wait til you meet Jack!

I think I must use Duh now because we weren't allowed to use it as children. My mom hated that word.

I'm surprised the seagull could even lift the shoe at all!


I'm SO in. I hate birds too.
Can't wait to hear about Jack!
pirate:

Thanks for reading!

[Taja]

Thoroughly enjoying your TR.

Can't wait until you meet Captain Jack! :)

[irky416]

Thoroughly enjoying your TR.

Can't wait until you meet Captain Jack! :)

Thanks for reading!

[irky416]

Here's a few very short videos of the O'hana parade. I forgot about these before.

O'hana Parade1 (http://ksquared.smugmug.com/gallery/4328102_CKiZq#261046362_jC4YB-A-LB)

O'Hana Parade 2 (http://ksquared.smugmug.com/gallery/4328102_CKiZq#261048202_yc834-A-LB)

O'Hana Parade 3 (http://ksquared.smugmug.com/gallery/4328102_CKiZq#261049128_s99pC-A-LB)

[tinkerbell87512]

Loving your report! Looking forward to more! :goodvibes

[medicjch]

I'm in.

[irky416]

Chapter 9 – Meeting Jack. Day 2 - Part 4

So, we walked into the room and I was expecting to see Jack there, but it was just a room with some more lines. It was themed as a pirate area though. The line seemed to be moving fairly quickly and there weren’t that many people in front of us. It was about 6:45 when we got in the room, so the party hadn’t even officially started yet! We moved through the pirate themed area. You could really tell that everyone in the room was really excited about being there and anxiously awaiting to see Jack.

We took some pictures with the themed items.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253874429_miKSH-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253874835_Akip4-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253874966_ushPE-S-2.jpg

Very shortly, we got to the front of the line and they let us in to the curtained off room where Jack was. They were letting in about 6 groups at a time. We were the last group in so we got to watch Jack interact with all the other groups.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253875089_Xxaqh-S-2.jpg

This is one of the many who screamed in my ear! :laughing:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253875214_BpJJB-S-2.jpg

He did an amazing job!

He spent a lot of time with each group. I could see why the line ended up long later in the night. Finally, it was our turn. (A guy in the earlier rooms had handed us a special P&PP Photo Pass so we took it and gave it to the photographer.)

I got my picture taken with Jack alone with my camera and Photo Pass.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253875384_NkREb-S-2.jpg


I talked to Jack for a few minutes then DBF came over for pictures.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253875773_MQjmk-S-2.jpg

I asked Jack about his ship, and then he started telling us about it. Then he asked DBF if he had a ship too. DBF got totally into it!

DBF started telling Jack about his ship, The Dragon, and he and Jack had a lovely conversation about sailing the high seas!

DBF and Jack discussing ships!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253875553_6DQPA-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253893544_Us8qa-S-2.jpg

We said our goodbyes and headed out. I was jumping around and DBF was amazed at how good Jack was. He didn’t want to admit it, but later he said he really liked meeting Jack. He actually suggested coming back later to talk to Jack again! For someone who rolled his eyes at me every time I mentioned meeting Jack he seemed to like him even more than me!

Another point for the fabulous Disney Magic! Thanks Jack!

We actually got out of meeting Jack just around 7. The party had officially begun!

Up Next: The Party Starts – Characters and a Show

[jcc0621]

WHat a great character interaction. In August the line was huge all night so we didn't bother. IF they wind up having P & P Party again in August I will have to think about it:thumbsup2

[irky416]

I'm in.

:welcome: Thanks for reading!


WHat a great character interaction. In August the line was huge all night so we didn't bother. IF they wind up having P & P Party again in August I will have to think about it:thumbsup2

It was totally worth it. Jack was amazing. I would love to go back and meet him again! :love:

[nts4wdw]

What a great report! I know that Disney magic will win out in the end. Looking forward to more!!

[irky416]

What a great report! I know that Disney magic will win out in the end. Looking forward to more!!

:wave2: Thanks!

[LaurenMic]

Great update! I love all the pics...I'm jealous, I want to go to a P&PP!

[kathleen27]

Sounds like a great meeting:goodvibes

How fun that your BF was making up stories about his ship!:lmao:

Love that Disney Magic.

[irky416]

Great update! I love all the pics...I'm jealous, I want to go to a P&PP!

Thanks! It was a lot of fun. I would love to go to one of the other parties some day, but it's so hard to take a day off school in the beginning of the year!

Sounds like a great meeting:goodvibes

How fun that your BF was making up stories about his ship!:lmao:

Love that Disney Magic.

Every time I think of that moment I smile. :lovestruc I think it was one of the best parts of the trip for DBF.

[irky416]

Chapter 10 – All about Aladdin. Day 2 - Part 5


After meeting Jack I was still :cloud9:. We decided to head back into Adventureland to see what was going on. We knew we wanted to see Aladdin’s Royal Guard Recruitment and there were treasure spots over that way. (We didn’t know what time Aladdin’s Royal Guard was because we didn’t have a time schedule!)

We hit our first treasure spot and got some beads. I put them right around my neck and after a small amount of pleading convinced DBF he had to wear them around his neck too! Yet another thing I never thought he'd do! What is in the water in Orlando!? :rotfl:

X Marks the spot for treasure!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253875849_2SXN9-S-2.jpg

We passed the Royal Guard stage and saw a show was starting soon. But first, we saw Genie and Abu and decided to go get a picture. It was this point that I decided we might as well use the PhotoPass we were given and we could at least look at the pictures online if nothing else since we had Jack photos on it.

I had to give DBF a crash course on PhotoPass. He was actually intrigued by the idea and found it very interesting.

(He's convinced this is what they should do on cruises - and if you've been you'll probably agree. As do I. I would spend $100 to get all cruise pics but individually will only maybe spend $25 at most. We're going to suggest it on our cruise this summer! :thumbsup2 )

The line wasn’t long and we got our pictures taken.
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253876215_aEwa5-S-2.jpg

DBF loved the way Abu was dancing and decided it must have been a girl in the costume because no boy could dance like that. :confused3 (Don’t ask me… but he was enjoying himself so I just went with it!)

After pictures, we headed back to the stage for the Recruitment. We got “seats” right in the front behind a whole group of kids who were sitting at the very front edge. The stage was new since we had been there in June.

The stage show was really great. We both enjoyed it. DBF found himself laughing along. The kids were so cute when they tried to do the sword routine. The guards were very funny.

I took a lot of pictures, but it was about this time I started to notice I was having trouble taking pictures because of the light. :headache: Oh well, I moved on, but as the night progressed it was getting harder to take pictures that turned out well. Especially at the parade (you'll see!).

I wish I could remember the guards names. I'm pretty sure they were something dumb, like two of them had Arabic names and then one was like Joe, or something. Kind of like in The Lion King - Shenzi, Banzi, and Ed!

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253876320_qXbhw-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253876429_2oEom-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253876535_y5cWi-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253876638_gjA6v-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253876807_xnUVW-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253877075_VRgSY-S-2.jpg

I also took this video of the guards showing the kids how to do the sword routine.
Royal Guard (http://ksquared.smugmug.com/gallery/4294486_VGMsG#261052213_qX9p4-A-LB)
and the YouTube link in case the 1st doesn't work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cum0w85E-pY

After the show, we were going to try out Pirates of the Caribbean again, but saw Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. The line was pretty short so we went over to get in line.

The line was pretty slow moving because they were taking their time with the guests, but there was a great CM who kept us entertained. :goodvibes He was doing magic tricks and asking trivia questions (How many bricks were used to build Cinderella Castle?) and giving out prizes for the right answer.

As we got closer to the front of the line another CM mentioned that they were having problems with the fog machine. It was broken and letting too much fog out and it was getting harder to see by the minute! :scared1: You can tell in the picture how foggy it was!

When we got up there Mr. Smee kissed my hand and tried to run away with me and steal me from DBF. :eek: The CM yelled at Mr.Smee and DBF pretended to get angry and tried to get me back (I never would have guessed he’d get so into these character interactions!).

You can see Mr. Smee has my arm and is trying to pull me away from DBF but DBF keeps leaning closer and closer to me!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253877223_z5fbv-S-2.jpg

At this point we were very thirsty and wanted to head over to get a drink and try to find a spot on Main Street for the parade! :cool1:

We walked back over to Pecos Bill to get a glass of water. Oy. :headache: We waited in the wrong line. It took about 15 minutes just to get up to the cashier to order a drink. The other lines were flying right by us. But finally, we got our drinks and exited right onto them setting up the ropes for the parade.


Up Next: Enchanted Adventures

[LaurenMic]

I love how your DBF got so into the character interactions. He sounds a lot like mine. At home, he's a big tough guy. At Disney, he was bouncing up and down in his seat because he was that excited to see Eeyore at CP. The Disney magic works wonders!

[kathleen27]

Sounds like you are both having fun.

Aladdin's recruitment looks fun. I haven't seen that one yet.

Hook and Smee are a lot of fun.:lmao:
There really is a lot of fog in that picture.

[Artist]

I like hearing how your DBF keeps getting more and more into the magic. Hope the trend continues! :goodvibes
Thanks for posting all the cool pics of Capt. Jack :lovestruc and Aladdin's recruitment.
The fog in the Mr Smee/ Capt. Hook pictures reminds me of canon smoke from a pirate ship! Atmosphere!:pirate:

[koolcatshelby]

Great update! Keep it at it. We had a blast when we went to the P&PP Feb '07, they gave candy coins and raisins back then:banana:

[irky416]

I love how your DBF got so into the character interactions. He sounds a lot like mine. At home, he's a big tough guy. At Disney, he was bouncing up and down in his seat because he was that excited to see Eeyore at CP. The Disney magic works wonders!

The Disney magic sure does work wonders! :goodvibes

Sounds like you are both having fun.

Aladdin's recruitment looks fun. I haven't seen that one yet.

Hook and Smee are a lot of fun.:lmao:
There really is a lot of fog in that picture.

The picture doesn't even really do the fog justice!

I like hearing how your DBF keeps getting more and more into the magic. Hope the trend continues! :goodvibes
Thanks for posting all the cool pics of Capt. Jack :lovestruc and Aladdin's recruitment.
The fog in the Mr Smee/ Capt. Hook pictures reminds me of canon smoke from a pirate ship! Atmosphere!:pirate:

Ohhh... Atmosphere. That's totally what I'm going to tell people from now on when they ask about the picture! Great idea! :thumbsup2

Great update! Keep it at it. We had a blast when we went to the P&PP Feb '07, they gave candy coins and raisins back then:banana:

I was bummed we didn't get candy. I heard later this year they were giving out Ring Pops instead of the jewels. :sad1:

I actually used the jewels for a project, though, so it all worked out. Thanks for reading!

[BrittBritt]

Love the party pics! What a fun interaction you had.
Were the lines at the 'treasure spots' long?

[irky416]

Love the party pics! What a fun interaction you had.
Were the lines at the 'treasure spots' long?

We never waited at a treasure spot more than the 45 seconds it took them to separate the beads from each other. In fact, after about 9 pm, we walked through many spots with not one person in the line.

[irky416]

Ugh - it has been one crazy week over here. And of course, it is progress report time and my students just don't seem to think finishing my trip report is as important as knowing their grades on a daily basis! ;)

Anyway...

Chapter 11 – Enchanted Adventures Parade. Day 2 - Part 6


We decided just to watch the parade from Frontierland since we were basically right at the front of the rope and it would start there. That way we could circle around after the parade and try and get something else done before the fireworks.

We barely had to wait at all, as the parade started in Frontierland. :yay:

We really enjoyed the parade. We were actually going to skip it to get some other stuff done and I am glad we decided not to. I had trouble getting good pictures because of the weird light.

Here’s some pics and a few videos.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253877389_b4M6C-S-2.jpg

Yes, I took a picture of the big pooper scoopers!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253877525_b99cV-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253877845_TCVqX-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253878197_DtYGP-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253878349_inzxi-S-2.jpg

The stepsisters were even funny during the parade!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253878503_o48V2-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253878788_LrQjz-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253879079_UYCs8-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253879223_K9r9B-S-2.jpg

If you look carefully, you can see Barbossa and Jack
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253879509_WpA8i-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253879650_6S56Y-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880044_FvD4u-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880183_vnJ6e-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880326_E6jc3-S-2.jpg
The end!!

And the very short videos:
Princess Floats (http://www.vimeo.com/933981)

Pirate Float (http://www.vimeo.com/934215)

Barbossa and Sparrow Float (http://www.vimeo.com/934253)

Tink Float (http://www.vimeo.com/934370)

Fab Five Float (http://www.vimeo.com/934404)

After the parade, we headed over towards Toon Town to collect some more treasure. We hit a couple more spots. There were never any lines for the treasure. It was nice. :thumbsup2 We were getting a big collection of beads at this point and DBF was still wearing them and not complaining! :goodvibes

We stopped shortly at Sebastian’s dance party and watched the kids dancing. It looked like they were having fun. I would have loved to get my picture taken with Sebastian and Flounder. They are my favorite characters from my favorite movie. They weren’t posing, though. :sad1:

We saw Belle in her princess dress on our way and were going to get in line but the CM said she was going to be taking a 10 minute break soon and we didn’t feel like waiting. DBF didn’t even want to pose with Belle. He’s not so into the face characters, especially the princesses. Oh well. No Belle.

After walking over there, we decided we better head back for the fireworks. I really wanted to watch them from Main Street because last year we watched them from the bridge by Frontierland and I think we missed out on a lot. DBF was also not very impressed by Wishes last year. :scared1: Our city has fireworks for every occasion all the time and they are GOOD fireworks. I knew we’d need the best vantage point for him to even be able to consider Disney fireworks ever again. I didn’t know how busy it would be over there, so I wanted to get there fairly early.

We had been to most of the treasure spots at this time and happily headed back over towards Main Street. We saw one of these cool projections on the way. There were a lot more of hearts and crowns and skulls on the ground everywhere, but again I couldn’t get a good picture especially because they were pretty big.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880421_gJC4C-S-2.jpg

Up Next: Is the view of the fireworks from Main Street able to convince DBF Disney fireworks aren’t that bad?

[koolcatshelby]

Thanks for the new post. Great pics. Keep at it:thumbsup2

[jcc0621]

I think everyone attend P & P Party takes a picture of the pooper scoopers:rotfl2:

We went in August ans absolutely loved.:thumbsup2

[Taja]

Love that you DBF really got into the character interaction. You're really going to have to work on him a bit for the other characters--another time! He did very well this time!

Looks like you have the same issue with food/cashier queues I do. If you ever see me in one, look for another one! The one I'm in always grinds to a halt well before I ever reach the station! *LOL*

[irky416]

Thanks for the new post. Great pics. Keep at it:thumbsup2

Thanks for sticking around!

I think everyone attend P & P Party takes a picture of the pooper scoopers:rotfl2:

We went in August ans absolutely loved.:thumbsup2

I knew I couldn't be the only one, but DBF was teasing me about it! I am going to have to show him this.

Love that you DBF really got into the character interaction. You're really going to have to work on him a bit for the other characters--another time! He did very well this time!

Looks like you have the same issue with food/cashier queues I do. If you ever see me in one, look for another one! The one I'm in always grinds to a halt well before I ever reach the station! *LOL*


I'm not that into princesses either, so I didn't really push him for those. If I did, he probably would have enjoyed it just as much as Captain Jack! (Especially Jasmine and Ariel with their "outfits" ;) )

Let's make sure we're never in the same food place then, because it might just shut down because that always happens to me too!

[kathleen27]

Love the parade pictures, they look great. (much better than mine:sad2: )
But even better is seeing the videos!!!

I'm glad your bf was happily collecting and wearing beads.

I hope you got a good view of the fireworks!

[LMO429]

Nice TR subscribing

[LaurenMic]

The suspense is killing me, I want to know if your DBF is a fan of Wishes now! I hope so!

[irky416]

I'm in Buffalo for the weekend and probably won't have time to write an update, but I should have the next one by Monday!

Love the parade pictures, they look great. (much better than mine:sad2: )
But even better is seeing the videos!!!

I'm glad your bf was happily collecting and wearing beads.

I hope you got a good view of the fireworks!

I'm glad you liked the pictures! I wished they turned out a little better but, oh well.

Also glad you liked the videos.

Fireworks story coming up soon!

Nice TR subscribing

Thanks and welcome!:wave2:

The suspense is killing me, I want to know if your DBF is a fan of Wishes now! I hope so!

Next update should be soon! :goodvibes

[irky416]

Chapter 12 – Magic, Music and Mayhem

We got to Main Street with about 15 minutes to spare. :thumbsup2 I took some more pictures of the castle and we took some pictures of ourselves. None of them turned out particularly well.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880504_BBYcH-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880587_dun4Y-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253880687_FY9eW-S-2.jpg

Then we were just were standing around, enjoying the atmosphere and people watching. We were right behind the Partners statue. I was excited. :yay: I love fireworks and had read on the boards that these ones were great. :love:

They finally started and we had a great view! (Actually, in the future, I think it might be better to be a little farther back for a wider view of things.)

Here are some pictures. They are really grainy because I took them on a high ISO and have yet to get around to de-noiseifying them (wow, that’s totally not a word!), but they do look pretty good when they have the noise removed and then are sharpened a little in PSP. I’ve done one or two.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253881257_FfdyH-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253881513_Xxqyd-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253882130_xyXkE-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253883188_DzgMZ-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253884224_E2SJS-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253885114_9FZMU-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253885307_XAPDB-S-2.jpg

And the crazy finale:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253885812_V55Qx-S-2.jpg


After the show, we hung around a little and waited for the crowds to clear out. I asked DBF what he thought and he said he liked them! Yay. :goodvibes He enjoyed the castle effects and the music. He said he thought they were much better than Wishes and he liked having an unobstructed view.

More things he liked! After the fireworks, it seemed like a lot of people were heading toward the exit. :confused3 It was only 10 and there were still 2 hours left. Oh well. More room for me! ;)

Here's some video of the fireworks:
Magic, Music and Mayhem (http://www.vimeo.com/934469)

I still wanted to see Pirate Mickey. We decided that was our next mission. We headed over towards Tomorrowland because I had read that’s where he’d be. Not to mention, we hadn’t been over there at all and we still needed to collect some treasure.

On the way over we passed a shop and I decided I wanted to buy the CD of the party music. Good decision! :woohoo: I have listened to it a lot. I also put it on my iPod and listen to it while DBF and I walk in the evenings. It's nice background music. I have also forced my students to listen to it because I'm evil like that! Some of them moan and groan but some of them have actually enjoyed it. Again, very good background music!

While I was there, I also bought the special P&PP pin. I don't have a huge collection of pins, and I don't have much interest in trading, but I have about 4 that were special for some reason. I got the Mickey and Minnie pin over the Tinkerbell one.

I think DBF would have killed me if I got the Tink one. He hates Tink!

I have to say, I don't really understand why they gave Mickey a mustache in this pin. :scared1: I would love it 100 times more if he didn't have it! Oh well.

The park was definitely emptying out. It was obvious there were a lot fewer people in the park. We stopped off at two more treasure spots. One more set of jewels (:mad:) and one more set of beads (:cool1:). We were getting quite the collection!

We got to Tomorrowland and found Pirate Mickey along with Pirate Pluto, Pirate Donald, and Pirate Goofy…. Yay! :cheer2:

But, one look in that direction and we got a little worried… :eek: :eek:

Next up: Is the wait worth it?

[kathleen27]

Great fireworks photos!!!
I loved the fireworks at the party.
Glad your BF liked them! :goodvibes

I had planned to get a pin, but we never even made it into a shop the night we went. I hope they continue the parties, because I'd love to go back in a couple of years.

There were some long character lines! Can't wait to see if you wait, and if so, who you see!

[irky416]

Great fireworks photos!!!
I loved the fireworks at the party.
Glad your BF liked them! :goodvibes

I had planned to get a pin, but we never even made it into a shop the night we went. I hope they continue the parties, because I'd love to go back in a couple of years.

There were some long character lines! Can't wait to see if you wait, and if so, who you see!

Thanks! I would love to go back for another some time!

[LaurenMic]

Loved the video and all your pics! I'm so glad that your DBF enjoyed it. Lol about the mustache on Mickey thing :rotfl:

[RachelNinja]

Me – 25. I love all things WDW and Disney, but haven’t spent that much time in the parks. I teach middle school – by choice - so yes, I am certifiably crazy. (That is always the first question I get asked when I tell people what grade I teach.) My students are constantly asking me if I have kids (they know I don’t!) because I am always talking about Disney movies and shows. :rotfl2: Most bonus questions on tests come from Disney movies and I use them to give them examples of stuff all the time. (Just the other day we were talking about old mines and I said, “Did you see Finding Nemo? You know the part with the mines….” And before that we were talking about being exiled. 5 points to you if you can guess what I referenced? “Have you seen Monsters, Inc? You know the part where Mike and Sully get kicked out to live with the Abominable Snowman?”)

I didn't even get into the part of your actual trip report, but I knew I would love it just by reading your description! I'm also a middle school teacher (ELA and Math, what subject do you teach?)! I absolutely love how you use Disney for examples! I recently put a sentence for the vocabulary test using Beauty and the Beast. Then today I gave a POTD (problem of the day) in math, and I changed the name of the person to Giselle. I had a bunch of girls start singing, "How do you know that he loves you?" Haha. LOVE IT.

Teaching middle school is the best. They're still fairly young, but not elementary school young ... best audience to have when you're/I'm a talkative teacher who loves bringing in interests into the daily classroom experience! (I also talk about penguins ... a LOT because I love them!)

[irky416]

Loved the video and all your pics! I'm so glad that your DBF enjoyed it. Lol about the mustache on Mickey thing :rotfl:

Thanks!

Seriously, it's disturbing! ;) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/irky416/Online%20Pics/10975033.jpg

I didn't even get into the part of your actual trip report, but I knew I would love it just by reading your description! I'm also a middle school teacher (ELA and Math, what subject do you teach?)! I absolutely love how you use Disney for examples! I recently put a sentence for the vocabulary test using Beauty and the Beast. Then today I gave a POTD (problem of the day) in math, and I changed the name of the person to Giselle. I had a bunch of girls start singing, "How do you know that he loves you?" Haha. LOVE IT.

Teaching middle school is the best. They're still fairly young, but not elementary school young ... best audience to have when you're/I'm a talkative teacher who loves bringing in interests into the daily classroom experience! (I also talk about penguins ... a LOT because I love them!)

I teach world history. Just today, one of my kids asked "Why do we have to learn history? We'll never use it!" I told her to learn about the past so we don't repeat mistakes. She seemed confused, and I had a light bulb! Can you guess!?

I told her about the scene in The Lion King (she hasn't seen it) where Rafiki hits Simba and then does it again but he ducks because he learned from his past! I saw the "look" on her face that she got it and other kids were like, "oh yeah!" It was awesome. I think I might show that scene on the first day next year!

lol at the girls singing! Yes, I love middle school, too. They are crazy sometimes with hormones and such, but they, to me, are the perfect mix of still being a kid while not yet being a teenager with an attitude. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves them.

[smphbear]

Thanks!

Seriously, it's disturbing! ;) http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/irky416/Online%20Pics/10975033.jpg



I teach world history. Just today, one of my kids asked "Why do we have to learn history? We'll never use it!" I told her to learn about the past so we don't repeat mistakes. She seemed confused, and I had a light bulb! Can you guess!?

I told her about the scene in The Lion King (she hasn't seen it) where Rafiki hits Simba and then does it again but he ducks because he learned from his past! I saw the "look" on her face that she got it and other kids were like, "oh yeah!" It was awesome. I think I might show that scene on the first day next year!

lol at the girls singing! Yes, I love middle school, too. They are crazy sometimes with hormones and such, but they, to me, are the perfect mix of still being a kid while not yet being a teenager with an attitude. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves them.

Hi! I am a lurker on your thread. Came by to read about Pirate and Princess Party since we are going to the June 4th one.

I teach middle school - American History. I too have answered the why do we need this because I don't think I'll ever use it. You have to love them to teach them at this age. I am sad to see our current 8th grade go. They are one of those great classes that truly care about each other!

Great report. I'll go back to lurking and following along.

Marcie

[irky416]

Hi! I am a lurker on your thread. Came by to read about Pirate and Princess Party since we are going to the June 4th one.

I teach middle school - American History. I too have answered the why do we need this because I don't think I'll ever use it. You have to love them to teach them at this age. I am sad to see our current 8th grade go. They are one of those great classes that truly care about each other!

Great report. I'll go back to lurking and following along.

Marcie

Thanks for coming out of lurkdom to say hi!

May I ask your answer to the why do we have to learn this? (Yay for another history teacher!)

You'll have fun at the party! It was a great time!

[LaurenMic]

Oh good lord, that pin needs to be changed! It would be so cute if they just took off the horrible facial hair :lmao: At least you have a souvenir! I would have made the same choice because I personally don't understand the draw of Tinkerbell (don't hate me Tink lovers!)

[RachelNinja]

lol at the girls singing! Yes, I love middle school, too. They are crazy sometimes with hormones and such, but they, to me, are the perfect mix of still being a kid while not yet being a teenager with an attitude. I'm glad I'm not the only one who loves them.

The Rafiki/Simba reference was great! Do you just come up with these things on the spot? This is just my first year so in the beginning of the year, I had to have almost everything written down in terms of examples or references. Now my lesson plans get smaller and smaller because I just need the basics down and can just be weird the rest of the time. But your references are amazing! Haha, unless you just watch the Disney movies an awful lot ;)

You have to love them to teach them at this age.

Totally agree with smphbear! When people hear that I'm with middle school, I always get the same kind of look! I was actually placed in the middle school without a choice, but after subbing for every single grade in the school, I can't imagine being anywhere else. They do have that whole hormones thing going on (especially now that it's spring ... oh gosh, the stories I hear!), but they're also "kids" in that they really want to be accepted and loved. They want someone to listen to them, show them that their opinion counts. They still do want the respect and admiration of the teacher. I think that's what makes them so great :)

[smphbear]

Thanks for coming out of lurkdom to say hi!

May I ask your answer to the why do we have to learn this? (Yay for another history teacher!)

You'll have fun at the party! It was a great time!

It really depends on what I'm teaching at the moment. I try to relate to something from the past and how the events of the past link to something going on today. I also like to remind them that they will be in charge of this country when I am an old lady in my rocking chair!;)

I also like to use current events with them. For example, I played the song Dear Mr. President by Pink. We looked at what she meant by the various things she said. We talked about how in many other places you can't criticize the leader without fear of death. This was something the kids got, and it helped make it real to them. (At the time, they were researching each of the major candidates for President. Then, they had to create a PowerPoint telling what they learned. After that each student turned in on paper who they were assigned, how they felt about them, and who they would vote for.)

Though I am thinking that idea using the Lion King clip would be a great introduction next year:thumbsup2 .

[irky416]

The Rafiki/Simba reference was great! Do you just come up with these things on the spot? This is just my first year so in the beginning of the year, I had to have almost everything written down in terms of examples or references. Now my lesson plans get smaller and smaller because I just need the basics down and can just be weird the rest of the time. But your references are amazing! Haha, unless you just watch the Disney movies an awful lot ;)

Believe me, I did not have these references my first year. Like you, I had everything written out word for word almost, examples and all. It's my third year now and I've been teaching mostly the same stuff.

Mostly it's a combination of being more comfortable with the material, so I can ad-lib, knowing what questions the kids have year after year to prepare better for to answer them and a lot of times when I watch something, I think, "Oh, I teach this. I could use this as an example."

But mostly, I just watch Disney movies a lot! ;) Like when I used Finding Nemo for mines, that was a totally random conversation we were having and I just happened to be watching it the night before.

[chiefdragon]

Loving your TR. My DH was the same way at first when we went to WDW....but now after 13 years of marriage and 4 trips to WDW, he agreed to purchase DVC (which we did in January), now we have a trip planned for the next 3 years.

[kathleen27]

Mickey just does not look right with that mustache! :scared1:

[irky416]

Oh good lord, that pin needs to be changed! It would be so cute if they just took off the horrible facial hair :lmao:

Thank you!

Loving your TR. My DH was the same way at first when we went to WDW....but now after 13 years of marriage and 4 trips to WDW, he agreed to purchase DVC (which we did in January), now we have a trip planned for the next 3 years.

Thanks for reading! Hmmm...DVC...if only! :lmao:

Mickey just does not look right with that mustache! :scared1:

I'm so glad it's not just me who thinks that!

[irky416]

I forgot to add this picture to my last installment. I had taken a tube of glow sticks with us and I cracked them all and wore them all around my bag. :thumbsup2 Many of the CM's commented about all the glow sticks.

They were probably thinking what a huge dork I am. :rolleyes: DBF was making fun of me for wearing so many. But, I had fun! :goodvibes I think I added more later. But this is the only picture we took of them actually glowing. And it was with the phone, that's why it's so bad.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/irky416/Online%20Pics/attachment.jpg

[irky416]

Chapter 13 – An Empty MK

When I left off we were in Tomorrowland searching for Pirate Mickey. We found him along with Donald, Goofy, and Pluto all dressed as pirates too. The line, however, was really long.

We hadn’t really waited in a line for anything all night. Character lines take forever. I didn’t want DBF to get annoyed at this point in the night after he had been having such a good time. I looked over at him as if to say, “Is it ok if we wait?” And without me even saying a word, he said, “Come on, we gotta get in the line for the pirates before it gets any longer!” :rotfl:

Yay! Not only did he want to wait, but it was his idea (or at least I made him think it was his idea! ;) ). So, we got in line. We amused ourselves by watching the dance party taking place. It was a little hard to see from where we were in line, but we could kind of see and hear the music, so we enjoyed what we could.

The cutest family got in line behind us. It was a mom and dad totally decked out in pirate gear and a little baby in a stroller all dressed up, too. pirate: They were so adorable.

I really enjoyed looking at people’s costumes. Some people did an excellent job of dressing up and really got into it. If you’re going to a party, trust me when I say a lot of people do dress up! You won’t feel weird doing it.

The line was moving slowly. I just kept reminding myself that we were meeting FOUR characters and on a normal day the line for that many would probably be twice as long.

They had it set up so first you saw Pirate Mickey and Pirate Pluto together. Then, you went right over to Pirate Goofy and Pirate Donald, also together. They did a pretty good job of keeping people moving so that when you were done with Mickey and Pluto it would be your turn with Goofy and Donald.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253885927_JVfkH-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253886351_gpzHg-S-2.jpg

The line took us about – are you ready for this – 20 minutes to get through! :rolleyes1 I bet you thought I was going to say an hour! Believe me, though, on this night, 20 minutes seemed like a long time.

There were no lines! It was awesome. :thumbsup2

So, we waited in line and got to see Pirate Mickey and Pirate Pluto first. We didn’t have any really interesting character interaction here. They were trying to keep the line moving since it was a little long. We did get a nice picture. I framed it in the special frame I made with our “treasures” from the night.

Our picture:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253886093_sBojn-S-2.jpg

My special made frame to hold this picture: (I had to use the jewels for something!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/263826074_bDMRW-S.jpg

Then we went over to see Pirate Goofy and Pirate Donald. Pirate Goofy was in a playful mood and was dancing to the dance party music. While we were in line he took one of the people in front of us and ran over to the dance party with them and started dancing over there. His handler had to go track him down and drag him back. :lmao:

Pirate Goofy and Pirate Donald danced with us briefly and then we got a picture. These pictures didn’t turn out very well. Again, the lighting was a problem. Grrrrr…..

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253893696_heZii-S-2.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253893711_G6sDe-S-2.jpg

After meeting the pirates we decided to ride Buzz Lightyear. I kind of had to drag DBF on this. After riding MIB in Universal, Buzz just can’t compare. It’s still fun, though. We rode twice in a row (no wait!) and DBF beat me both times. We took a “redneck” photo of us! ;)

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253886678_v8gbq-S-2.jpg

At this point we had about an hour left. We decided we were going to ride our favorite rides again and get as many rides in as we could. :woohoo:There weren’t any other characters I wanted to meet and there wasn’t much of the party activities going on anymore. Since we hadn’t ridden much since the party started we decided to ride as much as we could in the last hour.

We headed over to ride Haunted Mansion again. On the way, I got some more pictures of the castle.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253887041_Y6E8g-S-2.jpg
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253887209_WZco3-S-2.jpg

We barely saw anyone on the walk over. It was strange. Very empty. We got right on Haunted Mansion. First, I had to take a couple pictures of Leota’s headstone.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253887794_yvh4H-S-2.jpg

DBF and I always say to each other randomly, “Mom, Leoda won’t shut up!” from the Haunted Mansion movie. I really don’t know why. :confused3 We’ll just be sitting in the living room and one of us will say that. We had to honor it and take a picture of the headstone. :laughing:

We rode Haunted Mansion twice in a row. At that point, I was kind of sorry we waited in line a half hour for it earlier that afternoon. But, it made DBF happy so it’s all good.

After HM we decided to do Big Thunder Mountain. I was pretty much letting DBF pick whatever he wanted to ride.

We hightailed it over to Frontierland. It took us longer to get through the line than it did to get on the ride. We got to sit in the front row. We took some pictures while waiting in line and then we took one while on the ride. (Yes, I used my flash on the ride at night. If you were the person sitting behind us, I’m sorry! I didn’t really think about it until it was too late.)

Here you can see all the treasure I collected!
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253887909_sY2RE-S-2.jpg

Here's us on the ride, even though I hate this picture of me! (Again, I'm sorry to the people behind us!)
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253888179_LSSvf-S-2.jpg

We got off and ran through the line again. We decided after we got off, we probably only had time for one more ride by the time we walked over to it. DBF really wanted to do Monsters, Inc. again. He loves that ride. (I think I forgot to mention that we rode that one earlier!) He was wavering, though.

There were so few people in the park that he was afraid there would be nobody in there and they would pick on him for everything. Both of us are pretty shy when it comes to stuff like that and it wouldn’t be our favorite thing if we got picked on in the laugh floor. So, he decided against that in the end. He also didn’t think it would be as enjoyable if there weren’t a lot of people in the theater.

Instead, we decided to head back and do Philharmagic one more time. We both like that one so it seemed like a good final ride. :goodvibes

We walked the whole way from Frontierland to Fantasyland and saw maybe one or two other groups of people. It was creepy. It seemed like we had the whole park to ourselves. On the way over, we ran into Pirate Mickey by himself (in Liberty Square maybe? I don’t really remember!). There was no one waiting to see him, so we went over and got a picture with him real quick.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253888445_WVsYK-S-2.jpg

I like the picture. It turned out pretty well. We got to Philharmagic and walked right in. We had to wait maybe five minutes for the last show to let out. We got in the theatre and it was really empty. We enjoyed the show again.

Another picture of our bling:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253888578_Cx8hS-S-2.jpg

When we got out, it was almost exactly midnight. They were closing down all the ride lines. We had used up our absolute last minute. My dad would have been proud (as he would say, We got our money’s worth!).

We weren't quite ready to leave yet, though...

Coming up next: The night wind’s down…

[kathleen27]

Sounds like fun!!!:goodvibes

Glad you got to meet all the characters!!!
What a great idea with the gems & beads on the frame.
It looks great.

We saw tons of people dressed up in all sorts of costumes & it really added to the atmosphere of the party!

Wow you have lots of necklaces!!!
I am adding glowsticks to my packing list now!
I have a permanent list in excel with everything imaginable.
Just copy, delete what I dont need, add new stuff, & print for each trip. :rolleyes1

Glad you got to do so many rides with no wait!

I'm interested to see what there is after midnight!

[irky416]

Sounds like fun!!!:goodvibes

Glad you got to meet all the characters!!!
What a great idea with the gems & beads on the frame.
It looks great.

We saw tons of people dressed up in all sorts of costumes & it really added to the atmosphere of the party!

Wow you have lots of necklaces!!!
I am adding glowsticks to my packing list now!
I have a permanent list in excel with everything imaginable.
Just copy, delete what I dont need, add new stuff, & print for each trip. :rolleyes1

Glad you got to do so many rides with no wait!

I'm interested to see what there is after midnight!

Thanks!

I have one of those lists, too!

The glowsticks were totally worth the $1. Next time I go, I'm bringing more!

[smphbear]

The glowsticks were totally worth the $1. Next time I go, I'm bringing more!

For those of you who buy your glowsticks at Dollar Tree, I found glow pendants. It is a round glowing pendant to wear. I got one for each of my boys to wear for the P&PP.

[irky416]

For those of you who buy your glowsticks at Dollar Tree, I found glow pendants. It is a round glowing pendant to wear. I got one for each of my boys to wear for the P&PP.

Oooohh.... glow pendants.... I'm going to have to go look for some of those!! :cool1:

[kathleen27]

I have one of those lists, too!

The glowsticks were totally worth the $1. Next time I go, I'm bringing more!

:yay: I'm so glad I'm not the only one.

For those of you who buy your glowsticks at Dollar Tree, I found glow pendants. It is a round glowing pendant to wear. I got one for each of my boys to wear for the P&PP.

They just opened a Dollar Tree near us, have not been in yet, now I will have to check it out! Thanks!

[irky416]

I really want to get this finished! You'll see why soon... ;)

However, this week has not been kind to me.

This weekend I was on a field trip out of town with school getting only 12 hours of sleep in 3 nights, in an accident, and then I got the flu and was in bed for 48 hours straight. I am just now starting to feel better. Now, my students want their grades as we only have about 8 days of school left. Hopefully, I will get back to this and get it finished up with the long weekend.

I can usually get an update done while the hockey games are on, so hopefully I'll get the next one done by Saturday night.

GO PENS! :cheer2:

[smphbear]

Wow! It has definitely been a hectic end of the school year for you!

I hope things get better.

I can feel some of your pain. My students take their last exams tomorrow. Teachers only have to report on Monday if we aren't finished the paperwork. I WILL be finished. Tuesday, we go to Mass and then have 1 hour to hand out their report cards and awards. Then, the teachers have a nice luncheon.

[kathleen27]

Hope you are feeling better soon! Sounds like a rough week.

We still have four more weeks of school here. :headache:
Last day is June 19th.

Enjoy the long weekend.

[irky416]

Wow! It has definitely been a hectic end of the school year for you!

I hope things get better.

I can feel some of your pain. My students take their last exams tomorrow. Teachers only have to report on Monday if we aren't finished the paperwork. I WILL be finished. Tuesday, we go to Mass and then have 1 hour to hand out their report cards and awards. Then, the teachers have a nice luncheon.

Thanks.

I'm so jealous that you're done Tuesday! Enjoy your summer!


Hope you are feeling better soon! Sounds like a rough week.

We still have four more weeks of school here. :headache:
Last day is June 19th.

Enjoy the long weekend.

Thanks!

I hope June 19th comes quickly for you!

[LaurenMic]

Sounds like you've had a rough week, I'm so sorry! But I am jealous that you are almost done with school...our last day is June 23rd thanks to tons of snow days this winter :sad2:

[irky416]

Chapter 14 – The night ends

After getting off Philharmagic, it was just about midnight. We headed to the front of the park. I asked DBF if we could just hang around for awhile to enjoy the atmosphere and maybe look at some of the shops. I also said the bus lines would probably be shorter if we waited for a bit. To my surprise, he agreed without a fuss! :love:

So we headed up to the castle. We stood and watched it changed colors for a few minutes. While we were watching they started playing Ever After from Enchanted. I forgot how much I had liked that song and when I heard it there it just seemed perfect. We had had a great night, DBF was enjoying Disney and now we were just standing in front of the castle, taking it all in. DBF put his arm around me and we just stood there and had a perfect moment. :cloud9:

Even now, when I hear that song it takes me back to that moment and I remember how great of a weekend we had. I have a feeling that hearing that song for the next couple years will take me back to that time.

After a few minutes, we found a couple Photopass people. They were having some trouble with the cameras. The one girl could not get it to focus and we stood there for like 5 minutes waiting for her to try and it didn’t turn out in the end anyway.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253889614_9qdgs-S-2.jpg

The next guy had some trouble at first, but was determined to get us a good picture. And he did! It's not the best picture ever, but it reminds me of the perfect moment we shared.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253893824_gG7ZH-S-2.jpg

I love this picture. We had it printed from the Photopass and it’s hanging as an 8x10 in our living room. Everyone who comes in comments on how nice it is. I was happy we got a good picture. :)

Anyway, we headed back towards the castle and sat on a bench and just relaxed. We took some pictures and texted one to my sister we took just for her. I said, “We miss you and are thinking of you!” (She loves making everyone make this face…I think it’s a teenage thing because many of my students do it!) She texted me back immediately and said, “I love you guys!”

"The face":
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253890652_8GkYV-S-2.jpg

I was glad we could spread some Disney magic to people who weren’t even there! We took some more pictures of the castle. Here is where I got a little out of control. :rolleyes1 I wanted one picture of every color the castle turned.

Here’s an example of just some of the pictures I took. I made this page as one of my pages in the photobook I made to document our trip. Every picture is a different unique photograph.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v460/irky416/Online%20Pics/Image1.jpg

Here's one that I liked the best:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253891782_svSXw-S-2.jpg

There were very few people left in the park again. It was pretty much like we had the Magic Kingdom to ourselves again. It was amazing. :goodvibes

We reluctantly got up and headed toward the gift shops. We just browsed a little as there was nothing I really wanted to buy. I just didn’t want to leave. I felt bad being in the gift shops after the park was “closed” even though there were a fair number of people in there so we left.

We took a couple more pictures.

You can tell there was really no one there:
http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253892191_HDBfB-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253891940_uuDM4-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253892487_tLaSH-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253892813_JuNBp-S-2.jpg

Then we headed out. One picture of the red carpet and the P&PP sign since it wasn’t up when we went in early.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253892994_NMqsF-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253893255_ZjLjz-S-2.jpg

We walked over to the bus stop. There wasn’t much of a line and a bus came within 5 minutes. We got to sit down and we were back at Pop in no time at all. :yay:

We kind of wanted a snack and to refill our mug but the cafeteria was closed, so we just went back to our room and had a snack there. We were exhausted and we asleep within 20 minutes of getting back to our room.

Again, before we went to sleep, I asked DBF if he had a good time. This time his answer was, “Yes, it was actually pretty fun.”

I fell asleep again with a big smile on my face. pixiedust:


Up next: We leave Orlando and the wrap up

[RachelNinja]

So we headed up to the castle. We stood and watched it changed colors for a few minutes. While we were watching they started playing Ever After from Enchanted. I forgot how much I had liked that song and when I heard it there it just seemed perfect. We had had a great night, DBF was enjoying Disney and now we were just standing in front of the castle, taking it all in. DBF put his arm around me and we just stood there and had a perfect moment. :cloud9:

I love that Enchanted song! It doesn't sound at all like Carrie Underwood when I sing it myself but that's a different story, hehe. That was a very "Awwww" moment, and I hope to have some of those in the future! I mean, at WDW? Is there really any better place?!

"The face"

Haha, is that the "Blue Steel" face from Zoolander? Or is it the wannabe-cutesy/sexy-teenager-face that all girls tend to like doing in pictures?

I was glad we could spread some Disney magic to people who weren’t even there! We took some more pictures of the castle. Here is where I got a little out of control. :rolleyes1 I wanted one picture of every color the castle turned.

That picture was definitely NOT out of control. The last time I stayed in any park until closing was when I was maybe 6 years old. I don't remember anything or know anything so it was so cool to see that collage picture you put together.

Again, before we went to sleep, I asked DBF if he had a good time. This time his answer was, “Yes, it was actually pretty fun.”

YAYYY! Happy ending? Very fitting for your thread title :)

Up next: We leave Orlando and the wrap up

Nooo! I want more :(

[kathleen27]

Sounds like a successful night.
Great song! That's great you have something to remind you of your night.

I love the Magic Kingdom all lit up at night, the castle and the lights on main st and the train station.

I love the design you made with all the castle pictures. The great thing about digital photography is you can take as many photos as you want!

I'm sad your tr is almost over.

[irky416]

Haha, is that the "Blue Steel" face from Zoolander? Or is it the wannabe-cutesy/sexy-teenager-face that all girls tend to like doing in pictures?

Nooo! I want more :(

It's supposed to be the wannabe cutesy/sexy teenager face. Obviously, I am horrible at it! (Something makes me not too upset at that fact! ;) )

Stay tuned...... :rolleyes1


Sounds like a successful night.
Great song! That's great you have something to remind you of your night.

I love the Magic Kingdom all lit up at night, the castle and the lights on main st and the train station.

I love the design you made with all the castle pictures. The great thing about digital photography is you can take as many photos as you want!

I'm sad your tr is almost over.

I love that song and I'm glad to see I'm not alone!

I love digital photography. It saved me so much money on printing pictures.

Stay tuned! There's a surprise ahead! ;)

[LaurenMic]

It's supposed to be the wannabe cutesy/sexy teenager face. Obviously, I am horrible at it! (Something makes me not too upset at that fact! ;) )

Stay tuned...... :rolleyes1




I love that song and I'm glad to see I'm not alone!

I love digital photography. It saved me so much money on printing pictures.

Stay tuned! There's a surprise ahead! ;)

Please tell me the surprise is that you are going back because your DBF had the realization that he loves Disney!! It better be because that will make me less sad when your TR is over!

[irky416]

Please tell me the surprise is that you are going back because your DBF had the realization that he loves Disney!! It better be because that will make me less sad when your TR is over!

I promise the surprise will be posted very soon! Another hockey game tomorrow night after all!

[irky416]

Chapter 15 – Home Again, Home Again

We woke up the next day around 7:30. We had good intentions of getting up early, leaving our luggage and at the front desk and exploring something for the couple hours we had before we had to leave.

That didn’t happen. :laughing: We both were still exhausted so we went back to sleep for about 2 hours. We didn’t have a lot of time at this point, so after we got showered and ready and packed up, we didn’t have time to do much else. :confused3

We had to catch the ME 3 hours before our flight. (3 hours? :eek: That seemed so early!) We had a little time so we went down to see if we could get breakfast. We took one look at the cafeteria and turned right back around. It was so busy! I don’t think we had seen that many people all weekend! :scared1:

We just relaxed in the room a little and took a nice walk around the Pop property again. It’s a lovely place to walk and chat. We finally took our luggage and headed up to the ME bus stop.

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253867637_ZMmyQ-S-2.jpg

Again, I saw more people standing in line for the park buses than I had seen all weekend. Where did all these people come from all of a sudden!? It *almost* made me glad to be leaving… :(

We got on the ME and got to the airport with no trouble. We got lunch there since we hadn’t eaten breakfast. After we headed to the line for security I saw why you needed to catch the ME 3 hours early.

The security line was crazy! I guess that’s what happens when you travel out of Orlando on a Sunday afternoon. It took us about an hour just to get through security.

We made it to the plane with no problem and started boarding almost immediately. I was sad to be leaving. I didn’t want to go back to school! :rolleyes1

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253867770_BQzqV-S-2.jpg

The flight was uneventful and 2 hours later, we were back home. Back to the cold and the rain, and away from all things magical. :o(

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253867893_4AaAP-S-2.jpg

http://ksquared.smugmug.com/photos/253868077_vj8jG-S-2.jpg

When we got back, DBF admitted he had a good time. :banana: And not just to me, which was important. I heard him telling other people that he had a good trip and he enjoyed everything we did. This was a far cry from the person who kept saying, “I don’t know. Ask her. I don’t even want to go,” in response to the Where are you going and What’s the Pirate and Princess Party questions we were getting before we left.

It was an amazing time and I would love to take another weekend trip to Disney sometime in the future. :cloud9:


Up Next: Last installment…. So, Did I Do It? (And the surprise!)

[kathleen27]

Leaving is always so hard!

Waiting to hear about the surprise!!!

[irky416]

Chapter 16 – Did I do it?

So, my title was Can I convince DBF WDW isn’t just for kids in 2.5 days? If I ask a question, I need to answer it!

I don’t know that in those days I convinced him it wasn’t just for kids. Especially MK. He made it rather clear that there wasn’t much that he was interested in doing at MK until we have kids. He did say he liked many of the rides better this time than the last time we were there, and he wouldn’t mind doing those ones again. :goodvibes

He also said his view of Disney was a little different than before. He saw the magic and admitted he had fun. He said he now realized two adults could have a good time in Disney without kids. :banana: Again, he especially focused on not going to MK but rather being at DTD and the other parks he could see having fun at again, and those few rides at MK.

So, in a way I did convince him. He now thinks only most of MK is for kids.

But that’s what he says... ;)

How I know he really feels differently is because…..





We’re going back!!!!!!!!!!!!! :yay: :yay: :banana: :yay:

In 18 days!

Yes, this "Disney hater" decided to go back less than 6 months after we had just been there. :love: That will make almost 3 times in a little more than a year! And he was there the year before without me. I’m going to be spoiled now.

Thank you Disney magic at the P&PP for letting me convince DBF to go back! :worship:

As I enjoyed writing this trip report and I have nothing else to do in the summer (school's done in 3 days!!!!! :woohoo: ), I think I may write another trip report for this coming trip. Maybe a quick pre-trip, too?

It should be an interesting trip. If you remember the reason DBF didn’t enjoy his first experience, the parents who bought 4 one day passes and wander aimlessly, they’re coming with us. :eek: :scared1:

I’m also am almost done with a video from this trip, and I will post it here when it’s done.

Thanks for reading! :thanks: I really loved all your comments and that you all took the time to read about my trip! :disrocks:

I hope to see you for my next report if I decide to write another one.

[RachelNinja]

In 18 days!

As I enjoyed writing this trip report and I have nothing else to do in the summer (school's done in 3 days!!!!! :woohoo: ), I think I may write another trip report for this coming trip. Maybe a quick pre-trip, too?

I hope to see you for my next report if I decide to write another one.

WOWWWWWWWW! So lucky! Oh please please please write another one! That'd be great :)

You're also lucky that you only have 3 more days left! I have 8.5 days left of classes and then 1 day for graduation. So I still have to wake up in the morning for 10 more days!

[koolcatshelby]

Great report.:thumbsup2 Thanks for sharing. Will look for the new report. Have a great next trip:moped:

[jcc0621]

I finally had 10 minutes to catch back up and now it's over:( .

:banana: That you are going back in 17 days :yay: :yay:

Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

[irky416]

WOWWWWWWWW! So lucky! Oh please please please write another one! That'd be great :)

You're also lucky that you only have 3 more days left! I have 8.5 days left of classes and then 1 day for graduation. So I still have to wake up in the morning for 10 more days!

Thanks for reading!

I actually think I might start my pre-trip tomorrow at school while the kids are watching a movie.... ;) I get bored watching the same movie 6 times a day!

I hope your last 8.5 days go by quickly!


Great report.:thumbsup2 Thanks for sharing. Will look for the new report. Have a great next trip:moped:

Thanks!

I finally had 10 minutes to catch back up and now it's over:( .

:banana: That you are going back in 17 days :yay: :yay:

Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

Thanks for reading! I'm so excited about our new trip! :cool1:

[kathleen27]

:yay: :yay: :yay:
That's so wonderful that your going back in a couple of weeks!!!

Can't wait to hear what you have planned!
I've really enjoyed your trip report, so I hope you do write another!

:yay: For school ending too!

[irky416]

OK, I did it. I started a pre-trip report. I got a lot typed while the kids were watching a movie yesterday. (Do you know how boring it is to watch the same movie 6 times in a row!?) And since today was the last student day, I have pretty much nothing to do for the next 15 days but to finish stuff for Disney. :thumbsup2


Anyway, here's the link if you're interested in following.

What are the Dates Again? A June PTR w/pics!! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1846682)

Now, I am out to dinner to celebrate making it through another year! :woohoo:

[wdwgirl03]

I just found your TR (saw your new PTR and followed the link in your signature) and enjoyed it! I loved your pictures of the Pirate and Princess Party...we went on May 16 and had an awesome time. It's kind of funny because I have a video very similar to the one you took of the princess float. You're so lucky you're going back so soon after your last trip! I will be reading your new TR too!

[irky416]

I just found your TR (saw your new PTR and followed the link in your signature) and enjoyed it! I loved your pictures of the Pirate and Princess Party...we went on May 16 and had an awesome time. It's kind of funny because I have a video very similar to the one you took of the princess float. You're so lucky you're going back so soon after your last trip! I will be reading your new TR too!

Thanks for reading! I wonder how many other people have the same video!? ;)

[Pixiedust904]

Loved every bit of your TR!!!!
in the process of reading your current TR as well!!
You have some excellent photos of the castle!!!
You can never have too many castle photos!!!:hyper: :hyper: :hyper:

I have yet to meet the step sisters!! Hoping that they will be there for MNSSHP this Oct!!!!

[irky416]

Loved every bit of your TR!!!!
in the process of reading your current TR as well!!
You have some excellent photos of the castle!!!
You can never have too many castle photos!!!:hyper: :hyper: :hyper:

I have yet to meet the step sisters!! Hoping that they will be there for MNSSHP this Oct!!!!

Thanks for reading and thanks for the compliments!

I agree about never having too many pictures of the castle! ;) I hope to get some more on my next trip! :rotfl2:

I hope you get to meet the step sisters!

[PrincessNewsie]

I only made it to page 2 so far, but I'm in :) Very cute writing style. I love Tink like you love Pirates!!!

Why in the love of Mickey would your DBF buy 4 one day tickets?

[irky416]

I only made it to page 2 so far, but I'm in :) Very cute writing style. I love Tink like you love Pirates!!!

Why in the love of Mickey would your DBF buy 4 one day tickets?

:wave2: Thanks for reading!

DBF and his family are not really advance planners, or at least not more than a basic outline of what they think they want to do. I don't know if they even realized they could save so much more by buying multi-day tickets! DBF was actually annoyed about it afterwards. He said they didn't really decide what they were going to do that day until they woke up. :eek: He likes having things planned, but he doesn't like to do the planning. Therefore, I tell him, we make the perfect pair! :rotfl2:

[PrincessNewsie]

This is a dumb question, but how come in the first couple posts sometimes DBF is in a white tshirt and sometimes he's in a black tshirt?

Cute. I'm sorry you had to work so hard to convert DBF. Mine is a crazy planner. He made a Disney binder and ordered the maps and made reservations and looked up all kinds of stuff. This was for his first trip. I think he converted himself, before we even went!

[irky416]

This is a dumb question, but how come in the first couple posts sometimes DBF is in a white tshirt and sometimes he's in a black tshirt?

Cute. I'm sorry you had to work so hard to convert DBF. Mine is a crazy planner. He made a Disney binder and ordered the maps and made reservations and looked up all kinds of stuff. This was for his first trip. I think he converted himself, before we even went!

Haha. Good catch! :thumbsup2 We actually took some pictures one day and some the next. I just combined them because of the way I did the chapters (more by topic than days, since it was such a short trip!).

Wow, I'm impressed your DBF did all that for his first trip. I hope he thought it was worth it!

[PrincessNewsie]

Haha. Good catch! :thumbsup2 We actually took some pictures one day and some the next. I just combined them because of the way I did the chapters (more by topic than days, since it was such a short trip!).

Wow, I'm impressed your DBF did all that for his first trip. I hope he thought it was worth it!

And it looked very CUTE. I like you being on my TR and me being over here. Maybe I should work some more on it.

You'll see how DBF felt by the end (or even the second day!) :love:

[PrincessNewsie]

OMG I am so excited for you. I thought i WAS ALL DONE AND NOW I HAVE TO KEEP READING! Oh well. I'm going to have to read it now.

Any advice on how to convince DBF to go back? How do you budget for this?
How did you get a school day off? I just started a nursing job and I'm so nervous about when I will find out which weekend is "mine" and hwo to plan vacations around it... I dont' want to be like "Hi I'm new here. When Can I take off and go visit the mouse?"

LOVED your TR. So jealous of you. Now I have to read the PTR
OK, I did it. I started a pre-trip report. I got a lot typed while the kids were watching a movie yesterday. (Do you know how boring it is to watch the same movie 6 times in a row!?) And since today was the last student day, I have pretty much nothing to do for the next 15 days but to finish stuff for Disney. :thumbsup2


Anyway, here's the link if you're interested in following.

What are the Dates Again? A June PTR w/pics!! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1846682)

Now, I am out to dinner to celebrate making it through another year! :woohoo:

[irky416]

OMG I am so excited for you. I thought i WAS ALL DONE AND NOW I HAVE TO KEEP READING! Oh well. I'm going to have to read it now.

Any advice on how to convince DBF to go back? How do you budget for this?
How did you get a school day off? I just started a nursing job and I'm so nervous about when I will find out which weekend is "mine" and hwo to plan vacations around it... I dont' want to be like "Hi I'm new here. When Can I take off and go visit the mouse?"

LOVED your TR. So jealous of you. Now I have to read the PTR

It all just worked out perfectly to get DBF to go back. I doubt I will get him back for a while after this trip. I just kind of let him think he was in charge and let him pick the stuff he wanted to do.

We get 3 personal days a year, so I was able to take one on a Friday to give myself a long weekend. We can pretty much take them whenever we want except before or after any official school days off. Good luck getting time off! How far in advance will you know what times you have off?

Again, thanks for reading! I loved your comments!