Doing Our Part to Stimulate the Economy – Sept ’09 [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

missj1975

08-13-2008, 10:19 AM

Thank you President Bush for sending us back to Walt Disney World. I would also like to thank my travel agent for emailing me about free dining. Thanks to Mr. Bush and Jessica at the magicforless.com we are going back to Disney in September. Yeah!!!

I keep saying “going back” because I did spend a week at WDW in January. Perhaps I should also thank my boss for giving me two weeks of vacation a year. Anyway, my boyfriend and I had a wonderful vacation in January but I never got around to writing a trip report. This time I am determined to write a report for the disboards because I love reading trip reports and so I would like to return the favor.

Let me introduce myself. I am Miss J, boring accountant by day, Disney fanatic by night. According to my grandfather I am an old maid but in reality I am a young 30 something who just recently found her prince charming. My DBF is in his 30’s too and practically perfect in every way. He is a keeper, especially since he likes Disney almost as much as I do and puts up with my obsessive compulsive planning.

We are spending 7 nights and 8 days at WDW September 20 through the 27th. I picked the last week in September because I wanted to be able to enjoy the Food & Wine Festival and a Halloween party during value season. Free Dining is just a nice bonus.

This is the fuzzy Disney math that we couldn’t resist.

My Stimulus Check $ 600.00
My DBF Stimulus Check $ 600.00
$ 1200.00
WDW Package Deal $ 1217.40
Total out of pocket *$ 17.40

This is where the fuzziness comes in. *I know we are going to have other expenses like gas, tips, MNSSHP tickets, etc. but we feel obligated to stimulate the economy so it is off to Disney we go*

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/image087.jpg

This is a picture from our January 2008 trip.

missj1975

08-13-2008, 04:06 PM

The Dining Plan is so worth it when it is free. Maybe not so much if you have to pay for it as two adults who are too busy to eat…

Time for a little back story.

I have a twin sister who is a bigger Disney fanatic then me. She honeymooned at WDW in 2003 and has pretty much returned to Disney every year since. I was a tag along on her December 2006 family trip and we had a great time with the DDP. My DBF has also honeymooned at Disney and has been several times as an adult. (In case anyone caught the honeymoon part, my DBF is a widower).

My boyfriend and I decided not to purchase the DDP for our January trip. This was our first trip together and we didn’t want to by tied down by ADR’s. My sister thought I was crazy for not purchasing the DDP so I decided to prove to her that the plan is not for everyone. And I did prove it. We ate at two nice sit-down restaurants, ate whatever we wanted at counter service places everyday and spent less then the total cost of the DDP. We really were too busy to eat most of the time (or maybe too tired). Our January trip was busy, busy, busy.

We have decided to stop and smell the roses on this trip. And eat tons of Free Food.

This is our schedule so far. The only thing set in stone are the dinner reservations. We will probably follow the schedule but I promised my DBF not to stress if we stray from the game plan.

Saturday 9/20/08
Arrive at Pop Century
Dinner at Ohana’s
MK for the night

Sunday 9/21/08
AK all day
Dinner at Boma
DTD for some shopping

Monday 9/22/08
HS all day
Break at DTD
Dinner at Mama Melrose
Stay at HS for late hours

Tuesday 9/23/08
Free Morning – check out the Mousesurplus warehouse
MNSSHP
Dinner at Tony’s

Wednesday 9/24/08
My birthday surprise
DBF is in charge of the day
So I have no idea what the plans are

Thursday 9/25/08
Epcot all Day
Break at Boardwalk
Dinner at Coral Reef
Stay for Illuminations

Friday 9/26/08
Free Morning
Food & Wine Festival
MNSSHP
Dinner at Crystal Palace

Saturday 9/27/08
Breakfast at 1900 Park Fare
Food & Wine Festival
Start the long drive home

These are my plans, out in the open for everyone to see. Feel free to comment, give suggestions, or just lurk. I know there are crazies in the world (I have met a few), but I’m not worried that someone will find me interesting enough to actually track me down. But just in case I am wrong and someone wishes to stalk me, gifts are always appreciated. Oh, and I prefer milk chocolate.

SmithFamily2003

08-13-2008, 08:21 PM

missj1975

08-14-2008, 10:20 AM

Everything looks great so far! I wish I was going for free dining in Sept., but I have to wait until Feb. I totally enjoy the dining plan and think it is well worth it! So do you think your boyfriend is going to surprise you with something special on your birthday?

Thanks for reading. My boyfriend has a full day of surprises planned for me and he is very good at keeping secrets. I'm very excited because I've never had a boyfriend so interested in making my birthday special. He is definitely a keeper. The only thing I do know is we are going somewhere very nice for dinner because he told me to pack a dress.

This is my favorite photo of my DBF from our last trip. Baloo is one of his favorite Disney characters. DBF really hates getting his picture taken but the Disney Magic took over and he allowed me to drag him through several character meet and greets.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/image123-1.jpg

Dr_Finkelstein

08-14-2008, 04:13 PM

I have to agree with you about free DDP! It's great ! :cool1: We paid for it last trip (2006), and would pay for it again, but free is even better!
I know some people have complained about it, saying too much food etc...not a problem for us!!! popcorn::
I like the fact you can eat anywhere in WDW - I love going to all the deluxe hotels for meals :cloud9:
It is a bit different from our last trip - no appetiser and no tip included now, but for us it's still really good value!
Keep on posting! Your plans look good so far :goodvibes
Diane x :donald:

missj1975

08-14-2008, 06:32 PM

I know some people have complained about it, saying too much food etc...not a problem for us!!! popcorn::
Diane x :donald:

Yeah I'm not worried about it being too much food either :thumbsup2 . We love trying different restaurants. My DBF enjoyed our two sit down dinners in January so I am very excited about our upcoming ADR's. This trip is going to be much more relaxed (hopefully).

We ate at Tony's Town Square in January the day after it opened from refurbishment. It was wonderful. I was a little worried because I read lots of bad reviews but we decided to give it a chance. We are so glad we did and we are eating there again in September. This time it will be even nice because the food is free. ;)

We also ate at Akershus for dinner. We loved all the different types of food. I thought about booking that restaurant again but I wanted to try some other restaurants too. I know this won't be our last visit to Disney so we will revisit it another time.

Thanks Diane for reading. I was beginning to worry that no one was reading my pre-trip report.:flower3:

missj1975

08-15-2008, 11:26 AM

We flew to WDW for our January trip. Flying is pretty easy since we both live in the St. Louis area and are close to an airport. We flew non-stop from St. Louis to Orlando with no major problems. I think it was a 2.5 hour flight. We parked in long term parking since I didn’t want to ask any friends or family to drive us to the airport at 3 am in the morning for a 6 am flight. The only issue we had was we didn’t realize there was more then one long term parking lot at the airport and of course we couldn’t remember the name of the parking lot after seven days in Florida. Luckily the shuttle bus driver was very nice and found our car but we did have some stressful moments wondering if we were going to be able to find our car in the freezing cold at midnight.

My dbf loves to fly, me not so much. I’ve always had luck with flights but I browse the internet a little too much and have read lots of horror stories about delayed flights, cancelled flights, rude uncaring airline employees, etc. I always feel like I am taking a gamble whenever I fly.

We did a cost comparison and decided driving would be cheaper then flying for this trip. Last trip we just used Disney transportation to get to the parks but we did rent a car for one morning for a trip to an orange grove. Renting a car for one day was a big hassle. We decided we really needed a car for this trip so with the cost of flights and the cost of a rental car; it will be cheaper to drive.

Time is also a consideration and we are giving up a day at the parks to drive since it takes around 18 hours to drive from St. Louis to Orlando. After some thought, we are ok with that. Both of us enjoy driving and have fond memories of road trips from our childhood so we are going to give driving a try. Plus I know we can get a long in the car for extended periods of time because we have done several weekend trips to Branson (4 hour drive).

I am actually excited about the road trip and have been brainstorming on ways to make the drive more enjoyable and less boring. I bought my DBF a Nintendo DS for his birthday a couple of weeks ago and he loved it. I was a little hesitant at first because my DBF does not like electronic games but I bought him Brain Age 1 & 2 and he loves them. Of course I had to buy myself one too so we could play the WiFi connect games. ;) I am also surprising my DBF with an activity clipboard full of puzzles, coloring pages, maps, etc. I remember my aunt making activity binders for all the kids for our childhood road trips so I thought it would be neat to make one for my DBF. Yes we really are in our thirties but we are just big kids at heart.:goodvibes

Dr_Finkelstein

08-15-2008, 11:43 AM

Hi Miss J,
It sounds like you'll have lots of fun driving, though hopefully won't lose the car in the car park! :rotfl: We had a problem with check-in our last trip :headache:
We love Akershus as well, had a great dinner there last trip and are going again this trip, though we have also managed to get a lunch ADR at CRT this time :cool1:
Keep posting, and if you get a chance check out my PTR!
Diane x :donald:

missj1975

08-17-2008, 06:53 PM

missj1975

08-19-2008, 09:26 AM

I am very excited about the MNSSHP. I went to one MNSSHP party in 2005 when I visited a friend who lived in Orlando. We had a great time collecting candy and posing for character pictures.

My boyfriend has never been to a MNSSHP but we did attend two Pirate & Princess Parties in January. We had a blast so we are looking forward to MNSSHP, so much so that we are attending two parties. The cost of the tickets put us over our “refund” budget but that is ok. We are both pretty frugal in our normal lives so we look forward to splurging at Disney.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/mnsshptickets-1.jpg

The only thing we have debated is whether to wear costumes or not. I didn’t dress up in 2005 and we didn’t dress up for the P&PP’s. I was surprised by how many adults were dressed up for the event. I loved everyone’s costumes and have been very tempted to dress up.

I am a big fan of Alice in Wonderland and have been collecting Alice memorabilia since childhood. I have managed to accumulate a nice collection thanks to eBay and disneyshopping.com. I found this new Queen of Hearts costume on eBay. I was planning on wearing this dress for the September trip until I tried it on. The dress fits perfectly but the underskirt is made of scratchy netting that would require me to wear either pants or thick tights. Neither of those sounds appealing in the hot Florida humidity.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/queendress-1.jpg

I went back to eBay and found this new Alice costume. I was very happy to find a normal dress. I say “normal” because anyone who has browsed costumes on eBay has probably noticed the trend of extremely revealing Alice (and other character) costumes that I like to refer to as the “slutty” Alice dresses. ***If I offend anyone with my observations, I do apologize but I am just shocked by the lack of decency on some of these costumes**** Anyway, I am happy with my Alice dress that comes just below my knees.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/alicedress-1.jpg

I really like the Alice dress. But then I was bored at work and found a thread showing a wonderful Giselle dress that a poster made for her daughter. Well that started me thinking that since I am going to two parties, I need two costumes. I emailed the poster and she has agreed to make me a Giselle dress at a very reasonable price. Well reasonable in my mind. My DBF thinks I have gone off the deep end but he tends to be a little cheaper then me.

Now my DBF is quite put out because he didn’t want to dress up but he thinks he has to because I am. He has decided to dress up as Indiana Jones. That could actually be a pretty cheap costume but my DBF has turned it into the most expensive costume ever and will probably end up costing him more then my three costumes put together. He isn’t happy with some cheap costume on eBay. Nope he has to find exact replicas on whatever Harrison Ford wore in the movie. He has spent hours on the internet researching shirts, hats, etc. I just shake my head at him and remind him that he is usually a cheapskate.

Dr_Finkelstein

08-19-2008, 01:38 PM

I went back to eBay and found this new Alice costume. I was very happy to find a normal dress. I say “normal” because anyone who has browsed costumes on eBay has probably noticed the trend of extremely revealing Alice (and other character) costumes that I like to refer to as the “slutty” Alice dresses. ***If I offend anyone with my observations, I do apologize but I am just shocked by the lack of decency on some of these costumes**** Anyway, I am happy with my Alice dress that comes just below my knees

I know exactly what you mean! I'm still in two minds whether to dress up or not - at this moment, probably not. Especially since I can't find any outfits that aren't X-rated! :eek:
Will keep looking, but the only decent ones are mega expensive - if i'm lucky I might get something before we go that won't get me thrown out WDW! :rotfl:

missj1975

08-22-2008, 03:28 PM

27 days more until we leave. We ordered and received our trip ticket from AAA. I am shocked on how nice it is. It is a really nice spiral bound book with tons of spots to keep track of everything. I love journals so I am very happy with this nice freebie.

My BDF is worried about the drive down because we don't have a hotel room booked for the first night. We aren't driving straight through to Orlando and plan on stopping after 12 hours. We might drive farther or even less, depending on how the drive goes so I didn't want to book a hotel room since we don't have a definite stopping point. I think we will find a hotel room no problem wherever we stop but my DBF is worried. I told him to relax but he is getting anxious. He asked if I had a problem sleeping in the car. I just laughed. He is such a worrywart.

ILuvCrush

08-22-2008, 03:50 PM

kathleen27

08-22-2008, 04:35 PM

My boyfriend has a full day of surprises planned for me and he is very good at keeping secrets. I'm very excited because I've never had a boyfriend so interested in making my birthday special. He is definitely a keeper. The only thing I do know is we are going somewhere very nice for dinner because he told me to pack a dress.

This is my favorite photo of my DBF from our last trip. Baloo is one of his favorite Disney characters.

Your BF sounds great. What a fun birthday you'll have at Disney!!

I love Baloo. We haven't met him. :sad2:
King Louie was alone at AK when we saw him.

I am very excited about the MNSSHP. I went to one MNSSHP party in 2005 when I visited a friend who lived in Orlando. We had a great time collecting candy and posing for character pictures.

My boyfriend has never been to a MNSSHP but we did attend two Pirate & Princess Parties in January. We had a blast so we are looking forward to MNSSHP, so much so that we are attending two parties. The cost of the tickets put us over our “refund” budget but that is ok. We are both pretty frugal in our normal lives so we look forward to splurging at Disney.

The only thing we have debated is whether to wear costumes or not. I didn’t dress up in 2005 and we didn’t dress up for the P&PP’s. I was surprised by how many adults were dressed up for the event. I loved everyone’s costumes and have been very tempted to dress up.

I went back to eBay and found this new Alice costume. I was very happy to find a normal dress. I say “normal” because anyone who has browsed costumes on eBay has probably noticed the trend of extremely revealing Alice (and other character) costumes that I like to refer to as the “slutty” Alice dresses. ***If I offend anyone with my observations, I do apologize but I am just shocked by the lack of decency on some of these costumes**** Anyway, I am happy with my Alice dress that comes just below my knees.

I really like the Alice dress. But then I was bored at work and found a thread showing a wonderful Giselle dress that a poster made for her daughter. Well that started me thinking that since I am going to two parties, I need two costumes. I emailed the poster and she has agreed to make me a Giselle dress at a very reasonable price. Well reasonable in my mind. My DBF thinks I have gone off the deep end but he tends to be a little cheaper then me.

Now my DBF is quite put out because he didn’t want to dress up but he thinks he has to because I am. He has decided to dress up as Indiana Jones. That could actually be a pretty cheap costume but my DBF has turned it into the most expensive costume ever and will probably end up costing him more then my three costumes put together. He isn’t happy with some cheap costume on eBay. Nope he has to find exact replicas on whatever Harrison Ford wore in the movie. He has spent hours on the internet researching shirts, hats, etc. I just shake my head at him and remind him that he is usually a cheapskate.

We are going to two MNSSHPs too!!! We arrive on Fri 9/26, and are heading to the party that night!!!
We're so excited, the parties are the reason we chose a fall trip.
My son will be dressing up as Indiana Jones on Sun 9/28. We have the hat from DHS last trip. He wears it all the time. I am keeping him to a budget on the rest. He is going to wear it to DHS that afternoon, and hopefully get his photo with the IJ stunt star. He is going to be some sort of skeleton pirate on Friday.

I agree with you on the costumes. I am having the same problem finding something. :headache: I am hoping to see something new soon, as Halloween approaches. I was at the store today, and they were starting to put out Halloween decoartions!!!

The Giselle dress sounds cool. When we went to P&Pparty I wished they had a dress like the one she makes from the curtains. That would be fun to wear.

missj1975

08-22-2008, 08:51 PM

Your PTR is great!!! i'm subbing in.

I'm still on the fence about the MNSSHP... I'm going solo, I don't want to go and look like some kind of stalker or something!!!!

I'd love to go though...just need to talk myself into it.
I saw pics from last year of cute jack-o-lantern mickey ears.... yeah that will be MY costume!!!

I'm so excited for you!!

I just read your trip report. You are a very brave mama.

You should definitely go to MNSSHP. If anyone starts giving you the "OMG there is a stalker, better call security look" just pretend you are looking for your husband or kids and then say "Ohh that's right, there not here since I locked them in my basement." Hmmm...maybe not...that might really get security called on you so it is just best to ignore people and enjoy the atmosphere.

The decorations at the party are awesome. Mainstreet is lighted up with different colored lights and they have shadow images playing off of the buildings, very neat.

The first thing I am buying is the Mickey Head Shaped Trick or Treat bucket because I heard they go pretty fast. The mickey ears sounds neat so I might have to pick up a pair of those too.

Thanks for reading my report.

missj1975

08-22-2008, 09:00 PM

We are going to two MNSSHPs too!!! We arrive on Fri 9/26, and are heading to the party that night!!!
We're so excited, the parties are the reason we chose a fall trip.
My son will be dressing up as Indiana Jones on Sun 9/28. We have the hat from DHS last trip. He wears it all the time. I am keeping him to a budget on the rest. He is going to wear it to DHS that afternoon, and hopefully get his photo with the IJ stunt star. He is going to be some sort of skeleton pirate on Friday.

I agree with you on the costumes. I am having the same problem finding something. :headache: I am hoping to see something new soon, as Halloween approaches. I was at the store today, and they were starting to put out Halloween decoartions!!!

The Giselle dress sounds cool. When we went to P&Pparty I wished they had a dress like the one she makes from the curtains. That would be fun to wear.

I can't wait for the MNSSHPs. I really can't wait to see my Giselle dress. The seamstress said I would have it the first week of September so I will post a pic as soon as I get it in.

If it wasn't for the Giselle dress, I probably would have just worn a Halloween shirt from Target. They usually have some pretty cool ones.

My favorite part of the parties are the parades. I love the gravediggers from the Haunted Mansion.

Are you planning on going to the Food & Wine Festival too? I went in 2005 for one day and loved it. It was so neat to sample all the different foods.

Dr_Finkelstein

08-23-2008, 05:43 AM

I saw pics from last year of cute jack-o-lantern mickey ears.... yeah that will be MY costume!!!

Ooh! I think I might go for those - they sound really cool! Do you get them in the WDW shops?

Di x

ILuvCrush

08-23-2008, 11:33 AM

Ooh! I think I might go for those - they sound really cool! Do you get them in the WDW shops?

Di x

I don't know!!! I hope so:lmao:
I just saw the pics and thought they were so cool!!

http://allears.net/tp/mk/mnss0629.jpg

Dr_Finkelstein

08-24-2008, 09:18 AM

They look really cute! Might get some orange and black stripe tights to wear with them.
My outfit tonight - a lunatic! :lmao:

missj1975

08-27-2008, 09:26 AM

We went shopping over the weekend to pickup some items for the trip. My main concern was finding a nice dress for my birthday dinner. I found the perfect dress right off the bat. Plus the dress was 60% off so I was happy with the savings. Well my DBF was happy because he decided to buy the dress for me because he is just sweet like that.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/DSC05125-1.jpg

I also bought a really cheap autograph book. Actually it is an index card book from Walmart for 88 cents. I then laminated some scrapbook paper on the cover.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/DSC05136.jpg

On past trips I have bought the Disney Autograph books but I wanted to do something different on this trip. I will have the characters sign the back of the card (the unlined side) and then remove the cards from the book and match them with the character pictures for my scrapbook. I have never made a scrapbook for a Disney vacation. I just usually put my photos in an album and stick all the little paper souviners in a folder. This time I am determined to make a scrapebook, especially since I found some great scrapebooking sheets at Michael's.

I also took my suitcases out of the closet and started packing. Is three weeks to earlier? ;) I bought all new socks and undergarmets for the trip. I thought if I packed them now I wouldn't be tempted to use them before vacation. I like to buy clothes just for vacation. I'm pretty good at finding great deals so I usually get by without spending too much money on my "vacation wardrobe."

kathleen27

08-27-2008, 11:26 AM

The dress looks beautiful!

It's never too early to pack! :lmao:

Dr_Finkelstein

08-27-2008, 01:45 PM

I also took my suitcases out of the closet and started packing.
Snap! me too!!!! :rotfl: Though my excuse is I was worried about how heavy the suitcases would be and needed to check....;)
You're dress looks fab - remember to post you Giselle dress when you get it!

Di x

ILuvCrush

08-27-2008, 02:34 PM

The dress is beautiful!!! I (well for my kiddos) did an autograph book similar to yours on each of our trips.. I took the cards out and mounted them on colored paper then put them next to the pics of the character and kid in their own little scrapbook album... It worked great!!

When's that Giselle dress coming??? I can't wait to see it either!!

Paula

teresajoy

09-01-2008, 12:27 PM

Hey Jenny, I found you!

missj1975

09-01-2008, 04:16 PM

Hey Jenny, I found you!

Yeah Teresa, I am glad you found my pre-trip report.

Teresajoy is the very talented disboarder who made my Giselle dress. The dress arrived Saturday and I am more then pleased. Teresajoy did an excellent job. The attention to detail is amazing. I am in love with the dress and plan on wearing it to both of the MNSSHP that I am attending. My twin sister came over to see the dress and is really hoping Disney has a Pirate & Princess Party during her February trip so she can get an opportunity to wear it too (I might be nice and rent it to her ;) )

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again to Teresajoy. The dress is amazing (and the price was excellent)!!!

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/giselledress.jpg

ILuvCrush

09-02-2008, 08:03 AM

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/giselledress.jpg

:flower3: :flower3: Its Beautiful!!!!!:flower3: :flower3:

teresajoy

09-02-2008, 08:07 AM

Yeah Teresa, I am glad you found my pre-trip report.

Teresajoy is the very talented disboarder who made my Giselle dress. The dress arrived Saturday and I am more then pleased. Teresajoy did an excellent job. The attention to detail is amazing. I am in love with the dress and plan on wearing it to both of the MNSSHP that I am attending. My twin sister came over to see the dress and is really hoping Disney has a Pirate & Princess Party during her February trip so she can get an opportunity to wear it too (I might be nice and rent it to her ;) )

Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks again to Teresajoy. The dress is amazing (and the price was excellent)!!!

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/giselledress.jpg

Awww, thanks Jenny. I'm just so glad you liked it!

Dr_Finkelstein

09-03-2008, 12:55 PM

Your Giselle dress is beautiful!! She did a really good job :thumbsup2
You'll have a great time at both MNSSHP's
I'm sure you could come up with a reasonable rent for your sister ;)
Not long to go now!!

missj1975

09-04-2008, 02:23 PM

16 more days until we leave for Florida. My dbf has now decided to worry about the weather. I on the otherhead am not worried, perhaps I'm just in denial. ;) Actually I just prefer not to worry about stuff that I have no control over, like the weather.

I bought two mini umbrellas that fit great in my purse. I also tried to find our WDW ponchos from our last trip but they seem to have been lost somewhere in my garage. Oh well, I will just buy more when we get there. (I'm not a fan of the dollar ponchos). I need to remember to put some ziplock bags in my purse to protect my camera and cellphone.

I ordered an extra camera battery from eBay. I hope it gets here in time. I always worry about buying electronics from powersellers because they are usually slow shippers. I didn't need an extra battery last trip but I think I will take more pictures this time since we are taking a more relaxed approach. I already have an extra memory card that I bought for last trip and never used. I download my pictures onto my laptop everynight at the hotel. I then burn the pics onto a cd and then copy the pics to a usb drive. Yeap, I'm a little compulsive.

I also bought Brain Age 2 for my Nintindo DS. I now have a total of 3 games, Brain Age, Meteos, and Pirates: at Worlds End. All three our totally different so I am not for sure which is my favorite yet. My DBF is addicted to Brain Age 2 and plays it around 45 minutes a day. He says it helps him relax when he is stressed out with work.

I think I have bought everything I need for the trip. Now it just boils down to waiting. I am going through my trading pins this weekend and decide which ones to take on this trip. How many pins is too many pins?

Dr_Finkelstein

09-04-2008, 03:19 PM

missj1975

09-04-2008, 03:27 PM

Hi,
You sound like you're all prepared! :thumbsup2
I usually leave all the photo stuff to DH - his camera is bigger than the Disney Photographers :rotfl:
He is planning on taking his laptop to download all the photos daily - he's paranoid about something happening to his memory cards! We've also pre ordered the Photopass CD - it'll be nice to get all of us in the photos for a change :laughing:
Will need to remember to buy us all ponchos!
I don't care even if it's raining - it's still warm - it's raining over here, but it's not nice rain :sad2:
16 days!!! :yay: :cheer2:

Yeah rain doesn't bother me. It rained all night during on of the P&PP's in January but we still had a blast. It is raining right now in St. Louis.

I also preordered the photopass cd for this trip too. I love it. It is nice to have pictures of me and my DBF together. I know all the photopass photographers are nice and will take pics with your personal camera but it is so nice just to let them take the pics and not worry about it. Plus I love all the added features that Disney offers, like the borders and the character autographs.

I have heard horror stories of peoples memory cards being wiped clean randomly so that is why I load to the laptop, then burn, and then transfer to usb drive. I have three back-ups, just in case. Personally I've never had a problem but I would be crushed if something happened to my pics.

Yep, I'm ready to go. The rain has made work slow so I'm amusing myself by reading tons of trip reports.

kathleen27

09-04-2008, 05:49 PM

missj1975

09-04-2008, 09:08 PM

The dress is amazing!!! :goodvibes

I see all the amazing creations of the disboutiquers and I really wish I could sew!

Which night are you planning on wearing it?
I think we were going to be at one of the same parties.
I have a lot of costume ideas, but haven't made any decisions or aquired anything yet. :rolleyes1

The photo back up is a great idea!
I always worry about my photos.
Last trip I had four SD cards. Used each for two days, that way if something happened to one, I wouldn't lose everything. I don't have a laptop though. If DH does not need his pda I may borrow that as I can load photos onto it.

I am planning on wearing the dress on the 23rd and again on the 26th if I don't get it all dirty & sweaty from the 23rd. The fabric is satiney so I will probably only have it dry cleaned because I am afraid of ruining it in a regular washer. I am also bringing a back up Halloween shirt if I don't wear it again on the 26th. My boyfriend has decided not to dress up, instead he is just going with a Halloween shirt.

I am very impressed by all the disboutiquers. I too wish I could sew but I can't. I can crochet and do pretty good at scrapebooking but that is about it with my creative talents.

kathleen27

09-06-2008, 04:00 PM

We will be there on the 26th. My son will be a skeleton pirate, and I have no idea what I wil be. :confused: I will dress up, but may bring a Halloween shirt in case I want to change later in the night.

missj1975

09-07-2008, 06:52 PM

I went to Disney On Ice yesterday with my DBF, Sister, and Niece. The show was really good. My sister managed to get us front row seats so the show was extra special nice. I couldn't believe how close we were to the ice rink. We were so close that several times I got nervous that the skaters were going to fall on me. ***the skaters seemed to fall alot in the show*** But minus the falling, the show was good and the plotline was interesting, it definitely got me more into the Disney spirit.

My three-year-old niece sat on my lap the whole show and I didn't mind because it was so awesome watching her reactions to the show. Plus she kept me warm since I was ill-prepared. Silly me didn't think of dressing warmly for an ice show. My bare toes were numb by the end of the show. She was enthralled and even got to touch Mickey's hand during one part of the show.

Disney Marketing loves me. I bought a $16 program with mouse ears, $10 snow cone in a collectible cup shaped like Jack Jack, and an $8.00 lemonade in a collectible sports bottle. Oh and I couldn't resist the $4.00 popcorn even though it wasn't in a plastic bucket. I stayed away from the toys but my sis did buy my niece a $12 light up toy, plus everything that I bought myself. (My niece isn't spoiled at all ;) ). Oh wait I forgot the $5.00 coloring books they sold during intermission. Yep I'm a sucker for anything that says Disney.

Here are a couple of pictures I took during the show. They aren't the best because it is hard talking pictures of moving skaters, plus my camera is only good for close-ups.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/MickeyMinnie.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Incredibles.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/BalooAlice.jpg

Dr_Finkelstein

09-10-2008, 01:30 PM

Disney Marketing loves me. I bought a $16 program with mouse ears, $10 snow cone in a collectible cup shaped like Jack Jack, and an $8.00 lemonade in a collectible sports bottle. Oh and I couldn't resist the $4.00 popcorn even though it wasn't in a plastic bucket. I stayed away from the toys but my sis did buy my niece a $12 light up toy, plus everything that I bought myself. (My niece isn't spoiled at all ). Oh wait I forgot the $5.00 coloring books they sold during intermission. Yep I'm a sucker for anything that says Disney.
:rotfl: :laughing: :rotfl: :laughing:

We went to see that Disney on Ice show last year! It was fab!! We're going to see HSM and HSM2 on ice just before Christmas this year (need my Disney fix!) and I think it will be great! It's just amazing what they can do wearing those costumes!

Di x

kathleen27

09-10-2008, 03:17 PM

missj1975

09-10-2008, 03:40 PM

The Disney on Ice show looks fun!!!:goodvibes
Glad you had a great time!

We are going to a different Disney on Ice show in a week and a half!!! :yay:
The Tinkerbell/Cars one is coming to our area!!! Can't wait!

Your seats sound amazing!!!
We have row CC on the aisle thanks to a presale code and a very helpful agent. Hopefully they will be good!

Did you bring a camera, or use a cell phone. I have been wondering if cameras were allowed. I should probably check the tickets to see what they say.

And you have reminded me to bring things that light up!
We will still spend plenty of money.
My kids seem to think half the reason of attending is to snack.
Wonder where they got such an idea. :rolleyes1

I'm jealous. My show was great but your Tinkerbell show sounds awesome. My sister used the presale code to get our tickets so hopefully your tickets will be good too.

You can bring cameras just not video-cameras or audio recording devices. There was a sign that said no cameras with detachable lenses. My sister was upset at first because the only camera she brought has a detachable lenses. She used it anyway and was prepared to put it away if an usher said something but no one ever did. I am glad she used her camera because my pictures didn't turn out that good and hers' are awesome. The show was very dark and my flash just wasn't good enough. There were tons of people taking pictures so you should be fine. I wouldn't bother with your camera phone unless you are close to the rink and the skaters are close to you. My pictures only turned out when the skater was close to me.

I think the reason there was a sign about cameras with detachables lenses is because Disney doesn't want people to take professional pictures and use them for profit. Before the show started there was a message about only using the pictures for personal use. I have never heard that announcement before and I was kind of leary of even posting my pictures here.

Hope your show is great. Please post about it on your trip report :thumbsup2

missj1975

09-10-2008, 03:45 PM

:rotfl: :laughing: :rotfl: :laughing:

We went to see that Disney on Ice show last year! It was fab!! We're going to see HSM and HSM2 on ice just before Christmas this year (need my Disney fix!) and I think it will be great! It's just amazing what they can do wearing those costumes!

Di x

Yes it was very neat to see Mickey and Minnie skating around. I don't know how the skaters do it in those thick outfits.

All of the skaters were really good but I did notice a lot of falls. We went to the second show of the day and that might have been a factor. I also think the ice might have been crappy because the skaters kept falling on very easy moves. But they all handled the falls gracefully and I am sure most of the audience didn't even notice.

I will have to check to see if HSM on ice is coming to St. Louis. That sounds like a neat show. Great, now I can add Disney on Ice to my many Disney addictions. ;)

Dr_Finkelstein

09-13-2008, 12:39 PM

Hi there,
Sorry not posted for a few days - had a bit of a drama over here (for full details see my PTR!)
Anyway, sounds like you're all organised!
Keep posting!
Di x

teresajoy

09-13-2008, 12:58 PM

I am planning on wearing the dress on the 23rd and again on the 26th if I don't get it all dirty & sweaty from the 23rd. The fabric is satiney so I will probably only have it dry cleaned because I am afraid of ruining it in a regular washer. I am also bringing a back up Halloween shirt if I don't wear it again on the 26th. My boyfriend has decided not to dress up, instead he is just going with a Halloween shirt.

I am very impressed by all the disboutiquers. I too wish I could sew but I can't. I can crochet and do pretty good at scrapebooking but that is about it with my creative talents.

I can't wait to see some pictures of you in the dress! Your trip is getting so close!

The Disney on Ice show looks like so much fun!!!

I can sew, but I stink at crochet!!! Everything I've ever tried to make turns into a circle! When I was on bedrest for our second baby, I did knit some, (hats and some scarves, nothing fancy) but I haven't done it since. I envy people who can crochet! I've always wanted to do that.

missj1975

09-13-2008, 04:43 PM

Hello Teresajoy & Dr. Finkelstein.

We leave in five days (next Friday morning). We have decided to upgrade our eight day tickets to annual passes once we get to Disney. Yep, I've got my DBF hooked. We are thinking of making an April trip to check out the Flower Festival.

SmithFamily2003

09-13-2008, 08:55 PM

The light up toy was $16 not $12. :)

Not to hijack your thread, but if anyone wants to see some of the Disney on Ice pictures with my "illegal" camera, here is the link.

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1944600

MickeyMomOfThree

09-13-2008, 09:12 PM

Just came across this and saw some of you talking about HSM the Ice Tour. We saw it in January and it was really good. Course, we see Disney on Ice every January and I have never not liked one, but the HSM one was really enjoyable. BUT-- be prepared, there are even more souvineers if that is possible!!!!! I buy 1 thing per kid, they chose the $15 light up cup snowcones. Worth it though, they use them all the time for movie nights. They each also bought themselves something else (one got a megaphone pillow, one a light up megaphone, and each they went in on a popcorn together that came with a megaphone.) There was a llot to buy, not that there normally isn't but it seemed like even more...

missj1975

09-16-2008, 09:41 AM

Three more days to go!!!:cool1:

kathleen27

09-19-2008, 12:24 PM

Just catching up on everyones trips and realized you left this morning!!!!:yay:

Hope you have an amazing time!!!!
Maybe we will see you there!
I've still got a week to go.

Dr_Finkelstein

09-19-2008, 12:49 PM

Just catching up on everyones trips and realized you left this morning!!!!:yay:

Hope you have an amazing time!!!!
Maybe we will see you there!
I've still got a week to go.

:scared1: Just done the same as Kathleen, sorry to have missed posting last couple of days!
But have a great trip, can't wait to hear all about it! :yay:
Di x

missj1975

09-19-2008, 06:18 PM

Hi Kathleen and Di. We left at 4:30 am this morning from St. Louis. We drove 12 uneventful hours to Valdosta, GA and stopped here for the night. Only three hours away from Orlando. We booked a room in Valdosta last month because we assumed we would be tired and would need to rest. We were so wrong. We could have totally made it all the way today but since it was too late to cancel the room without losing money, we just stopped for the night. Live and learn. We will definitely drive through next trip (if we don't fly). The drive wasn't too bad but my DBF is leaning towards flying next trip.

The drive was a little boring because neither of us were in the talking mood. Just listened to talk radio and worked on the activities packets that I made for us. Never really got stuck in any bad traffic. The only weird thing was we stopped at one gas station in GA that had over 30 pumps but only 6 had gas. Hurricane Ike has disrupted gas distribution and lots of the gas stations in GA haven't been filled yet. We still got gas with no lines or waits, prices ranged from $3.86 to $4.19. We have spent $120 on gas for 800 miles (counting the filled tank for tomorrow).

We are going to get up at 4 am and head to Orlando. We are thinking about making a detour to the closest beach for a couple of hours before we check into Pop Century.

I brought my laptop and will probably add some comments every other day while at Disney. I need to check my email for work so I thought I might as well pop over to the Dis :goodvibes

Karen, hope to see you at the party. I will be on the lookout for a skeleton pirate (or was it Indiana Jones?). I have a LGMH on my purple bagalini so please say hi if you notice me.

Bye for now!!!

OhMari

09-19-2008, 08:43 PM

Hi just read your pre-trip.

It is probably good you stopped. I know there are road signs in IL that warn semi drivers that they should stop driving after 10 hours. I've ready many trip reports where people report that they drive straight thru. I think if you share the driving and you can get a good nap in, then it is doable. But if there is only one driver, it can be dangerous.

Hope you have great weather, I hope you read this before you leave. Go to the gulf side for a beach, much nicer. But the ocean is still nice too.

missj1975

09-23-2008, 01:48 PM

Silly me thought I could do a live trip report. Too much fun stuff to do at Disney to worry about the computer.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and this is the first time I've felt like getting on the computer.

Quick notes: Magic Kingdom was very crowded Saturday night. The bus lines were extremely long. First time that I have had to wait for a bus, took three buses before we could get on from MK to Pop Century.

Even though it has been crowded, wait times have been minimal. haven't had to use Fast Pass except for Toy Story Mania.

Toy Story Mania...Wow! Wow! Wow! It is our new favorite ride (next to the Haunted Mansion).

It rained last night during Fantasmic.. It seems to always rain whenever we try to watch Fantasmic. The theater was packed, not an empty seat in the house for the 8 pm show. Show was awesome.

Having a great time. Only had one bad experrience with a CM while pin trading. I will describe it in my trip report when we get back. All the other cm's have been incredibly nice, lots of people (cm's and guests) wishing me Happy Birthday.

Tonight we are heading to the halloween party and tomorrow night we are heading to Discovery Cove. I am so excited. It is my birthday surprise from my DBP. He told me last night because he had me unwrap my first gift, an underwater camera. He wanted me to practice with it before tomorrow. I am so excited.

This trip is going by way to fast. Got to go!!!

ILuvCrush

09-23-2008, 03:16 PM

How fun!!! I hope the party is awesome!!! Great to hear from you 'live'! Don't worry... i wouldn't have even TRIED to do a report while still in WDW..WAY too much to do!!

Paula

kathleen27

09-23-2008, 07:28 PM

Sounds like a great time!

Glad to hear wait times are short.
Have fun at the party!!!
And Discovery Cove!
And Happy Birthday!

missj1975

09-24-2008, 12:23 AM

The party was excellent but very crowded, more crowded then I hoped for. Character lines were very long so I only waited for Mickey, Tweedles, Queen of Hearts, and Captain Hook. Parade and fireworks were awesome.

Lots and lots of adults were dressed up. I had a great time people watching while waiting for the parade. I got lots of compliments from the CM's on my Giselle dress.

We finally dragged ourselves out of the park around 12:30. I am just waiting for my pictures to download to my laptop and then I am off to bed.

My DBF is also taking me to Victoria and Albert's tomorrow night for my birthday so I have a big day tomorrow: Discover Cove and then V&A. Got to get some sleep. Bye.

Dr_Finkelstein

09-24-2008, 04:23 AM

Sounds like you're having a great time! Wow ,for the camera!!!
I'm not surprised everyone liked your dress - it looked fab, can't wait to see all the photos!
I now exactly what you mean - Slow Down Time!! It goes by sooo fast!
Have a fantastic holiday!!
Di x

SmithFamily2003

09-24-2008, 09:42 AM

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JENNY!!!!

ILuvCrush

09-24-2008, 02:40 PM

:bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday: :bday:

party: party: party: party: party: party: party:

westie22

09-25-2008, 10:40 AM

Just catching up on your report. Wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday and a fabulous time at Discovery Cove and V&A!
Can't wait to read the details in your trip report when you return.

Laura in Austin

missj1975

09-29-2008, 04:06 PM

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes.

We are back from an absolutely wonderful trip that was practically perfect in everyway.

I have tons of stuff to right about and I promise not to draw this report out too long, especially since we are already talking about going back in February. :woohoo:

I will post Day 1 in the next couple of days but I just wanted to warn anyone who is driving through Georgia to get gas before you reach Georgia. Oh my goodness, Georgia was the only bump in the road on our happy trip. We spent two hours Saturday night searching for gas and then waiting for gas. With lots of prayer and persistence we were able to get gas and then got the heck out of Georiga. Rumor is that it will be another 10 days before the state's gas distribution is back to normal. I have never been so nervous and scared in my life but luckily it all worked out and we did make it home to St Louis safe and sound with only a two hour delay.

Anyway, I have tons laundry to do and pictures to upload to my photobucket account before I start my trip report. But just a teaser: I am now a huge fan of Victoria and Albert's. The restaurant is simply amazing and the staff is awesome. I can't wait to write my review of that dining experience.

Bye for now,
Jenny

teresajoy

09-29-2008, 05:27 PM

missj1975

09-29-2008, 06:21 PM

:welcome: home Jenny!

Hi Teresajoy :flower3: You won't believe how many compliments I got on the Giselle dress. I lost count of how many cm's made wonderful comments on my dress. 99% of the people I encountered knew I was Giselle from Enchanted. 2 cm's thought I was Wendy from Peter Pan and 1 cm had no idea who Giselle was. I will go into more detail when I talk about the Halloween parties and I will post pictures of me wearing the dress. Anyway, I just want to say thanks again for making me such a wonderful dress.:worship:

I had so much fun dressing up. I have already come up with an idea for next year's Halloween party and if you don't mind I will send you a private email and see if you think my idea is possible.

ILuvCrush

09-29-2008, 08:25 PM

Welcome home Missi!!! I'm so happy you had a wonderful trip:banana:

I'm really excited to read your report AND see the Giselle dress ON!!!!

Paula

Dr_Finkelstein

10-01-2008, 01:59 PM

Welcome back!!!! :wave2:
Glad you had a great time, can't wait to hear all about it and see the photos!
Keep osting
Di x:flower3:

SunnieRN

10-01-2008, 02:37 PM

Wow! Happy belated birthday and I can't wait to read more! Glad you made it home safe and sound!

missj1975

10-01-2008, 02:59 PM

We left bright and early Friday morning (4:30) to be exact. We decided to drive my DBF's Ford Taurus since it gets much better gas mileage then my SUV. Way better, we only spent $128 on gas the first day and that was with a full tank for the next morning.

Donald (my DBF's Disney name) booked us a room in Valdosta, Georgia. The drive was pretty uneventful and we reached Valdosta at 5:30pm. At that point we were wishing we hadn't booked a hotel room and wanted to continue driving but it was too late to cancel the room. We stayed at a pretty clean Days Inn for $52.41.

After some brainstorming we decided to go to the beach in the morning before heading to Pop Century. Yeah we wanted to get to Disney but I like my room ready when I arrive at Pop so we decided to kill some time at the beach. That was one of the best spur of the moment decisions we have ever made. Donald hopped on the internet and decided on Clearwater Beach. We really wanted a beach on the gulf side because we both love sea shells.

We both went to bed at 9pm because we decided to get up at 3:30 so we could leave the room by 4 am and be at the beach by 8 am.

missj1975

10-01-2008, 03:27 PM

I have been to several beaches in Flordia. I went to New Smyrna beach as a child. Actually I almost became a Florida missing child statistic at that beach but that is story for a different thread. Only happy thoughts on this thread. Anyway, I have also been to Coco Beach. Both beaches are nice but nothing impressive with shells. My DBF knows I love shells so he was quite excited about taking me to this beach. One day he wants to take me to Sanibal Island but Clearwater Beach will do for now.

All I can say is Wow!!! I love Clearwater Beach. The drive into the city is great, very scenic bridges with a great view of the ocean. Clearwater is like a small island connected to Florida by several bridges. We went to Sand Key Park since it has a public park and inexpensive parking (parking meters).

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture017.jpg

We arrived at exactly 8 a.m. We practically had the beach to ourselves with only a few other people on the beach. We walked around for two hours taking pictures, picking up seashells, and playing in the water.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture011.jpg

The seashells were awesome, tons and tons of shells to choose from. Luckily Donald thought of bringing a shell bag and we filled it full. For some reason I never took a picture of our shells even though I took a picture of practically everything else. Oh well, I later cleaned them up in Pop Century and now they are sitting in a Disney bag waiting for me to think of some crafty idea for them.

I am now a huge fan of Clearwater beach and we will go back in future trips. After the beach we headed to Pop Century. It only took us an hour and a half to get to Pop Century from the beach so we are liking the closeness of the beach to Disney.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture006.jpg

teresajoy

10-01-2008, 04:39 PM

I love the beaches on the Gulf side! My Grandma use to live in Holiday. We went to Clearwater beach a few times. Caladesi Island is beautiful too. It sounds like a great way to start your trip! I love your pictures!

ILuvCrush

10-01-2008, 08:47 PM

Awesome Start to the official TR!!!! Love the beach pics... it was beautiful! I'm so glad you made the time to go:hippie:

Waiting for more.....

Paula

SmithFamily2003

10-02-2008, 05:55 AM

Great start to your trip report! Can't wait for more! I am glad you made it through Georgia!

missj1975

10-03-2008, 09:53 AM

Thank you for all the compliments on the pictures. I took over a 1000 pictures on this trip but don't worry I'm not going to post them all. ;)

SmithFamily2003

10-03-2008, 10:45 AM

For our upcoming Feb. trip, we decided we would spend a day at the beach before we check into Disney. But we had not picked a beach yet. After seeing your Clearwater Beach pictures, I thought that would be the perfect beach to go to! I spent over an hour on-line trying to find a hotel on the beach but they were all booked for the last weekend in Jan! I couldn't figure out what was going on until I looked at a map and realized Clearwater is close to Tampa. And that Sunday is Feb. 1. Superbowl!!! I guess all the hotels in the area are going to be booked because of the Superbowl. Oh well! Now I have to pick a different beach, because I really want a hotel with direct beach access.

Can't wait for your next installment!

Dr_Finkelstein

10-03-2008, 01:49 PM

Lovely photos of Clearwater beach! Will definately need to check that out - can't wait to hear more!
Di x

missj1975

10-03-2008, 04:10 PM

We left Clearwater beach around 10am and headed to Walt Disney World. It seemed like in no time at all, we were seeing everyone's favorite sign...

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture040.jpg

This personally is my favorite sign because it means I'm home.:banana: :banana: :banana:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture041.jpg

We arrived at Pop to a very long line but luckily the line moved very quickly. Check in was very smooth even though we had a newbie being trained. Our room was fourth floor in the bowling pin section. Fourth floor was a bit of a disappointment but I never make special requests so I was ok with it. I prefer playing room lotto, makes check-in much more interesting ;)

We loved our room by the end of vacation because it was the farthest away from the loud noisey pool. We could also see Wishes and Illuminations from our balcony. Yeah, loading and unloading our car was a pain but we needed the exercise after all the free food we consumed.

We wasted no time in using our free dining credits and had lunch at the Pop Century Food Court. We actually ate lunch there twice on the trip because I loved the Parmesan Crusted Chicken and Donald loved the Beef & Broccoli. Donald regretted eating the tye dyed cheesecake. Hmmm... all I will say is he was quite worried by the coloring of unmentionable stuff three days later until I reminded him that he ate the tye dyed cheesecake.

We then headed to our room. This was my favorite statue that we passed every morning and night.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008044.jpg

We managed to unload our car in only three trips. Thank goodness for elevators. We might have got a little carried away with bringing stuff on this trip (last trip we flew so we had much less stuff). We had 4 suitcases, a cooler, a rubbermaid container of road trip snacks, two laptop bags, my makeup bag, and two garment bags. Oh and we had a 5 pound bag of shells from the morning trip to the beach.

I mentioned being shocked by all our stuff and Donald said well one suitcase is just presents for you so I will have one less suitcase after you open your birthday presents. I just gave him the look and then he graciously offered to let me use his extra suitcase for my presents. Gee thanks honey.

JaxJags08

10-04-2008, 09:53 AM

I :love: Pop Century! I've heard that is a common problem with the tie-dye cheesecake! So I've heard...:lmao: But it's just the price you have to pay for something so yummy!

Wow - you both did pack a LOT of stuff! :eek:

Can't wait to read more!

missj1975

10-04-2008, 02:45 PM

We hopped the bus to Magic Kingdom and resisted the urge to go through the turnstyles. Instead we hopped on the monorail to the Polynesian Hotel. We were about two hours early for dinner but that was planned. Donald wanted to check out all the deluxe hotels just in case he ever wins the lotto and we actually can afford to stay at one. I'm not holding my breath. Besides, I do like Pop Century. I can't resist huge fiberglass statues. ;)

We had fun walking around the hotel, taking pictures, squishing pennies, and trading pins. I also bought a coconut postcard and mailed it to my niece. She received it before I got home from vacation and she absolutely loved it. My niece is only 3 1/2 years old but already is a Disney expert and has been to Disney twice. She immediately knew the coconut was from Disney without my sister saying anything. My sister did say my niece asked if she was supposed to eat it and how does it open. Yep, my niece is a genuis. (Both my nieces, I have two). I'm not being sarcastic. I'm constantly amazed at the things she thinks of saying. Anyway, one more funny comment. I called her during the week and was making small talk (which isn't easy to do with a 3-year-old) and told her I bought her a present. She immediately asked "Chocolate or Toy?" Ahhh, I teared up, she is so cute and I was getting a little homesick at that point.

Back to Ohanas, did I mention we pin traded? Donald and I pin traded a lot during vacation. Like a real lot, like so much that I am embarrassed to say exactly how many pins we traded. Polynesian even had a pin board that was brought out while we were there. Perfect timing and we actually got an "AP" pin from the board. For those non-pin experts, AP stands for Artist Proof. When Disney makes pins, some pins of the run are stamped AP and given to whoever is in charge of Disney Pins to review and decide how many are going to be ordered and for whatever other reasons, etc. AP pins are very desirable among the pin trading world and this is the first time I had actually traded for one, so I was very excited.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008051.jpg

Our little buzzer went off and we were seated pretty close to our reservation time. We were led to a great table with a wonderful view.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008055.jpg

I was very happy that we had a great view of the Castle. Our waitress Melly was wonderful and so was the waiter who brought the food and cleared the table. I don't remember his name but he was super nice too.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008056.jpg

The food was awesome. I do miss the cheesy pototoes that they served two years ago, but I found a new love with the pork dumplings. This was Donald's first time being to Ohanas and he was very impressed. We will definitely make Ohanas a tradition.

Melly noticed my birthday button and brought me this.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008057.jpg

I was stuffed at that point but I did manage to eat all the icing and most of the cake. Halfway through, I did remember to offer Donald a piece. ;) Luckily he was distracted by the Ohana bread pudding with ice cream.

I will have to say Ohana's was our favorite restaurant (besides V&A). Everything was perfect about the meal, the service, and the atmosphere. Our first day had been amazing so far and we decided to top it off at Magic Kingdom.

Yep, I should have known. Magic Kingdom on a Saturday? I completely disregarded any opinions I had read on the disboards and we headed over to Magic Kingdom.:scared1:

missj1975

10-04-2008, 02:47 PM

Wow - you both did pack a LOT of stuff! :eek:

Yeah you should have seen our stuff once we reloaded the car at the end of the trip. I think the reload took about five trips. I definitely went way over my souviner budget.

kathleen27

10-04-2008, 04:34 PM

The beach sounds and looks beautiful!

Glad you had a great dinner at O'hana's!

Sounds like lots of fun so far!

feet1

10-04-2008, 07:02 PM

sounds like you had a great time, I can't wait to hear more and to see some more pictures!!!

teresajoy

10-04-2008, 09:46 PM

Hi Teresajoy :flower3: You won't believe how many compliments I got on the Giselle dress. I lost count of how many cm's made wonderful comments on my dress. 99% of the people I encountered knew I was Giselle from Enchanted. 2 cm's thought I was Wendy from Peter Pan and 1 cm had no idea who Giselle was. I will go into more detail when I talk about the Halloween parties and I will post pictures of me wearing the dress. Anyway, I just want to say thanks again for making me such a wonderful dress.:worship:

I had so much fun dressing up. I have already come up with an idea for next year's Halloween party and if you don't mind I will send you a private email and see if you think my idea is possible.
I'm so glad you got so many compliments!!! That makes me so happy!!!

It sounds like you had a great trip! I need to try out Ohana's someday!

missj1975

10-06-2008, 11:10 AM

So after a wonderful dinner at Ohana, we took the monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. I think it was around 8 pm when we entered Magic Kingdom. The park didn't seem too busy so we pin traded our way through the gift shops before heading to our favorite rides Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion.

Pirates had no wait at all. My tip is if both lines are open, head to the right. People kept going to the left because they were following the pack. Not us, we walked through the right side twice in a row with no wait. It was nice strolling through the stockade with no one around.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture062.jpg

Both times we were in the front row. The second ride we had the boat all to ourselves which was so amazing. I was also happy to see that we had no annoying flash photographers around. My pet peeve is people taking photos on Pirates, it just totally ruins the magic. I love taking photos and do take photos on some rides but not on rides that require a flash or specifically prohibit it. I just think it is rude. I don't recall being annoyed by any photographers on this trip. Thank goodness. The Magic was very strong on this trip. :wizard:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008065.jpg

We then headed over to the Haunted Mansion. The wait was less then five minutes. I amazed Donald with my Haunted Mansion not so secret facts. We stood under the Ballerina portrait and avoided the mass throng of confusion and managed to be the first people through the second que and onto the doom buggies. We do this everytime. Try not to tell many people my "secret" ;)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008061.jpg

The ghosts decided to play havoc with the doom buggies and we got stuck right infront of the first piano played by the ghost. The scene where you only see the ghost as the shadow on the floor. Very creepy scene with very creepy music. It just got creepier and creepier the more we sat unmoving. No other guests were talking so Donald was really beginning to get freaked out. Donald is not a wuss by any means but the Haunted Mansion still spooks him (and me) occasionally. That is probably why we love riding it over and over again. :laughing: I managed to distract Donald :love: until the ride started again.

We were very happy to see Haunted Mansion tshirts when we excited the ride so we each bought one. Plus I bought some Haunted Mansion playing cards. The face suites are the stretching room portraits, very cool.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008067.jpg

We decided to find a spot for Wishes. We found two favorite spots on our last trip. We like to the right of the castle on the bridge closest to the castle. We also like the terrace at the Noodle Station. We chose the close spot for this night so I could be close to my buddy.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture075.jpg

Plus it was almost ten so we figured all the seats would have already been taken on the terrace. The fireworks were sceduled to start at 10. There was some firework convention going on so we could kind of see fireworks around 9:30 at the front of Magic Kingdom somewhere around the lagoon. I had earlier heard someone talking about a special firework show but I didn't know what they were talking about and really didn't care. I like fireworks but I don't love fireworks so I was happy with just watching Wishes. Wishes was delayed for whatever reason and finally started at 10:30. Excellent show as always.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture073.jpg

We joined the mass sea of humanity and worked our way to the gift shops on the right. We pin traded our way through the shops and made it to the front of the park around 11:15. This is when I almost cried and decided I would never got to Magic Kingdom on a Saturday again. The bus line was long, longer then I have ever seen before. Luckily I quickly realized the five mile line was for Allstars. We worked our way through the maze of people and found the Pop Century Bus Stop. That line was way shorter and we managed to get on the second bus. That was a very close call. Note to self: never stay at the Allstars Resort.

We reached our room by midnight and found this cutie on our bed.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008269.jpg

We also looked over the pins we traded for and then went to bed. The next day was Animal Kingdom Day.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture077.jpg

JaxJags08

10-06-2008, 01:12 PM

Thanks for the secret tip on HM! I'm going to do that when we go in December. I won't tell anyone else, though. ;)

What a cute towel animal! And holy cow - you have a lot of pins!

Yeah, I only stay at the AS resorts if I know I'm driving my own car to the parks. Pop has such a great bus system, but I still get discouraged when I see the line. But I just try to remind myself, especially at the MK, that the bus is more efficient than my own car.

SmithFamily2003

10-06-2008, 06:58 PM

Very cute towel animal! I never get towel animals. :( And you definetly have alot of pins!!!

missj1975

10-06-2008, 10:29 PM

Welcome home Missi!!! I'm so happy you had a wonderful trip:banana:

I'm really excited to read your report AND see the Giselle dress ON!!!!

Paula

Thanks for reading my trip report. The Giselle dress was awesome. I have several great pictures from the Halloween Parties that I will post as soon as possible (early next week).

missj1975

10-06-2008, 10:31 PM

Welcome back!!!! :wave2:
Glad you had a great time, can't wait to hear all about it and see the photos!
Keep osting
Di x:flower3:

Hi Di. Thanks for sticking with my report. I am having so much fun writing it, almost as much fun as I had at Disney ;) Well maybe not as much but it is fun reliving the memories.

missj1975

10-06-2008, 10:36 PM

The beach sounds and looks beautiful!

Glad you had a great dinner at O'hana's!

Sounds like lots of fun so far!

Hi Kathleen. Hope you had a great trip with your son. I can't believe how packed the party was on the 26th. I kept an eye out for Indiana Jones and Haunted Pirates but all I saw was a bunch of Incredibles. :laughing: The party was awesome, I just think my January trip spoiled me on crowd levels. The crowds were still manageable, just way more people then the January Pirate & Princess Parties.

missj1975

10-06-2008, 10:42 PM

Yeah, I only stay at the AS resorts if I know I'm driving my own car to the parks. Pop has such a great bus system, but I still get discouraged when I see the line. But I just try to remind myself, especially at the MK, that the bus is more efficient than my own car.

I think the bus is only more efficient when heading to the Magic Kingdom since the bus skips the Ticket and Transporation center and drops guests right of at the gates. We finally got sick of the crowded buses at the end of our vacation and drove the last two days of our trip. We were amazed by how quickly we got to the parks (Epcot and Hollywood Studios).

Yep, January definitely spoiled us. We never had a packed bus in January and this trip we had nothing but packed buses. I'm don't want to sound like I'm complaining, just mentioning an observation. Crowded buses at Disney are still better then sitting in St. Louis daily traffic. :rotfl:

missj1975

10-06-2008, 10:53 PM

Very cute towel animal! I never get towel animals. :( And you definetly have alot of pins!!!

Thank you for reading my trip report. The swan was the only towel animal I got this trip. Last trip I got a small puppy. I think it is just luck of the draw so hopefully towel animals are in your future ;) .

I will risk being flamed and mention that I did take my towel animal home. I have read conflicting opinions on whether the towel animals are meant as gifts to be taken home. My opinion is that they are meant as gifts, especially the swan because she is glued together and I couldn't reuse her as a towel even if I wanted to. My swan looks very cute in my "Disney" room.

If you all think I have a lot of pins so far, wait until you see my next nightly pictures of pins. The first night that I have posted was actually the least amount of pins we traded for in a day. Yep, we are addicted.

***writing this reply just made me realize that I actually got the towel animal on Sunday, not Saturday. Saturday doesn't make sense because it was our arrival day so our room would have already been cleaned when we checked in and I know it wasn't in the room when we arrived. Sorry, my trip report might be slightly out of order. I should have took better notes but I was too busy pin trading. ;)

teresajoy

10-07-2008, 10:47 PM

You "distracted" him, huh????;) :rotfl:

missj1975

10-08-2008, 09:36 AM

We woke up at seven am so we could leave the room by eight am. That was our standard wake up time everyday and we usually got to the parks right at opening.

The bus line for Animal Kingdom was longer then expected so we were unable to get on the first bus. We didn't make it to the opening ceremony but no biggie, I've seen the ceremony before and wasn't too impressed. The Magic Kingdom ceremony is our favorite.

We headed straight to Expedition Everest. The line was pretty much walk thru, which disappointed me because I wanted time to take pictures. I decided to take pictures anyway which probably annoyed people behind me but oh well, I was quick. I was just giving them the opportunity to stop and enjoy the que. ;)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture085.jpg

We then headed to Dinoland to ride Dinosaur. We passed by the Finding Nemo Musical theater with an usher yelling "Last Call." Perfect timing, we walking into Nemo and found pretty good seats. We both loved the show. Most of the musicals I am happy watching just once but this one I would definitely watch again. The actor playing Nemo was amazing and so was the one playing Bruce. Hmmm, actually all the actors were amazing. It is a must see show.

We then walked over to Dinosaur which had no wait either. We love Dinosaur. The ride picture turned out great so I bought it. I forgot to add the picture to my photopass cd so I will have to scan it in later and post it.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture109.jpg

We were getting hungry so we headed over to our favorite lunch spot Flame Tree Barbecue. I usually ask Donald to pick check out lanes because I having the unfortunate ability of picking the slowest lane possible. Donald was lagging so I picked a line, the line of 20 family members who just couldn't decide what to eat. :confused: I know Flame tree has so many choices: barbecue or more barbecue. ;) Yeah, I can get a little crabby when I'm hungry. I amused myself by irritating Donald until it was time for us to place our order.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture117.jpg

The food was awesome, so awesome that I ended up eating all my ribs and half of Donald's order. I think he was still feeling a little ill from the dinosaur ride. His loss, my gain. He did eat both corn muffins and dessert so he wasn't by all means starving himself.

I love all the birds at Animal Kingdom, I just don't love all the bird poo everywhere. :eek:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture118.jpg

Dr_Finkelstein

10-08-2008, 09:53 AM

Enjoying the updates!
WOW!!! You sure did trade a LOT of pins!!!!! I'm assuming you got even more!
Ohanas sounds great, I'll need to keep trying for an ADR.
We were getting hungry so we headed over to our favorite lunch spot Flame Tree Barbecue. I usually ask Donald to pick check out lanes because I having the unfortunate ability of picking the slowest lane possible. Donald was lagging so I picked a line, the line of 20 family members who just couldn't decide what to eat. I know Flame tree has so many choices: barbecue or more barbecue. Yeah, I can get a little crabby when I'm hungry. I amused myself by irritating Donald until it was time for us to place our order.
I'm glad to know it's not just me that has that problem. :rotfl:
PS, thanks for the HM tip ;) Shhh, need to know :thumbsup2
Di x

teresajoy

10-08-2008, 09:58 AM

missj1975

10-08-2008, 10:11 AM

After lunch we headed to the train station to Conservation Station or Rafiki's Planet Watch or whatever it is called. Sorry I'm at work and forgot my notes at home.

Anyway, on the way to the train station, we spotted Divine. :banana: Yeah, I have been lucky enough to spot Divine on each trip.

I know this isn't really important but just a sidenote, this trip I realized Divine isn't played by the same actress each time. For some reason, I thought Divine was just some artistic tree hugger who liked to hang out at Animal Kingdom. I have no idea where I came up with that idea but now I realize Divine is played by several different Disney employees, several different amazing Disney employees. I could stand and watch Divine all day but Donald on the other hand gets bored after two seconds. So I snapped tons of pictures and Donald dragged me off.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture129.jpg

We both enjoy Rafiki's Planet Watch. I like the short character lines, Donald loves the petting zoo. We posed for some pictures:

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture145.jpg

Donald ran out the door screaming like a little girl while I petted this baby.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture147.jpg

Oh, not really but I'm sure he wanted to. Donald is deathly afraid of snakes. The fear goes back to some childhood trauma inflicted by his bully older brothers.

Slightly OT story: Donald and I like to walk on hiking trails around St. Louis. On one of our many walks and before I found out about Donald's weakness, I came across a baby snake in the middle of the path. Well I bent down to pick him up and move him out of harms way when Donald freaked, freaked big time. He thought I was going to throw the snake on him. I was like no I'm just trying to help the snake across the road. Donald then told me different snake stories from his childhood. :scared1: Now I understand his fear of snakes. My weakness is spiders. We have a perfect arrangement, he kills spiders for me and I scare snakes away for him (I don't see the need to kill snakes).

Back to the topic at hand, Goats. We headed to the petting zoo. Donald loves the petting zoo. I am only mildly amused by the petting zoo and so I took tons of pictures while Donald petted the smelly animals.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008153.jpg

I much prefer the less smelly, more colorful goats.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008256.jpg

I don't mind goats. It is just that my sister had two pet pigmy goats that were just adorable until they head butted my niece. Now those goats have been relocated to a different home and I'm a little more cautious around those seemingly sweet and innocent animals. Actually I keep my camera ready just incase one decides to attack Donald. It would make a good photo. ;)

While leaving the petting zoo, I noticed Push the talking trash can and his handler coming out. Donald didn't know about Push so I was quite excited explaining the talking trash can to him. Kids were surrounding Push so I walked closer to get a good picture. Push noticed my birthday button and wished me a Happy Birthday. We then chit-chatted for a bit and then Push asked me to give him a Birthday hug. Only at Disney will I not even hesitate hugging a trash can. Donald was bummed that I was holding the camera because he thought I looked so cute hugging the trash can. Push tried to get other people to hug him but apparently I was the only one brave enough to approach him. My Push encounter was one of the highlights of my trip. I waved bye to Push and then we headed back to the train station.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture166.jpg

missj1975

10-08-2008, 10:43 AM

After Rafiki's Planet Watch, we just walked around the different trails looking at the animals and chatting with the CM's stationed throughout the trails.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture181.jpg

We headed back to the Tree of Life and debated what to do next. I got a whiff of the wonderful smell of buttery popcorn so we headed to a popcorn cart. I bought some popcorn and then decided to trade pins with the CM. Big Mistake, huge...The CM was a pin nazi who made up her own pin trading rules. My pin wasn't good enough for her, first she couldn't trade for it because it was a "resort pin." Well I have never heard of the rule so when I pointed out there was no such rule she then said my pin was in poor condition. I was like whatever but Donald was furious. The CM and him then proceeded to get into an argument about pin trading rules, the decline of the housing market, and the state of the world economy. Well probably not the last two but at that point all I heard was "Blah, Blah, Blah."

Donald requested to speak to her manager immediately and I tried to dig myself into a hole which isn't easy when the ground is concrete. A line for popcorn had begun to form so the CM finally admitted defeat and traded pins. Of course she couldn't resist the last word and made some comment on not understanding why I would want the Tink pin I traded for. :confused:

The whole situation was odd and upsetting but I'm at Disney so I shook off the weird situation and tried to move on. Not so easy with my Donald who doesn't let water roll of his back like he should. All of a sudden it was my fault that the cm was rude because I didn't stand up to her and wait for her manager. Whatever. Like I want to waste my valuble Disney time on some silly CM. There are more important things to do like eat popcorn and hold lions.

My DBF and I get along almost perfectly and don't fight, maybe argue occasionally but we don't fight. I am pretty good at diffusing the situation. I start practicing my ballet moves...in public...in front of everyone who would care to watch...and laugh...and point. The key to diffusing Donald's angry is making him laugh. And trust me, I can make anyone laugh at my pathetic attempts at ballet. If the ballet moves don't work, I start tap dancing. If the tap dancing doesn't work, I finish with my Irish Clogging routine. Luckily I have only had to bring out the Irish Jig once because I would probably end up on the evening news with that one. :happytv: I have no problem with public humiliation as long as it makes Donald take his crabby pants off.

Donald is happy again and so I decide to play with the king.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/image117.jpg

It is now around 3 pm and we are ready to move on to some air conditioning. We hope the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture216.jpg

We are a couple hours early for our dinner reservation but Donald hasn't been to the lodge before so we do some exploring and some pin trading before checking in. This was Donald's first time eating at Boma. He liked it but didn't love it. I was perfectly happy with my plate of prime rib, salad, and sweet potatoes.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/Picture227.jpg

So happy that I went back two more times, especially since the CM maning the meat station doled out the smallest slices of prime rib possible.

Of course I saved room for dessert.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008229.jpg

We both enjoyed the meal. The waitress was nice and everyone was friendly. It was nice to relax in air conditioning but the place started to get crowded so we decided to head to Magic Kingdom. We had park hoppers and I was making sure we were using them. Plus Magic Kingdom had evening Magic Hours. We also don't believe in returning to our room before Midnight. ;)

missj1975

10-08-2008, 10:58 AM

They have Photopass at the Dinosaur ride now? I didn't know that.

Sounds like you are having a great time. I love walk on rides like Expedition Everest, although the line is pretty neat!

I don't share your sentiments about the Nemo show. I still get mad because they took out Tarzan (my all time favorite Disney show) to put it in. I'll try it again next time we go, just to give it another chance.

No they don't technically have photopass at the Dinosaur ride. If you buy the picture, there is a code printed on the back that will pull up your picture if you enter in on the photopass website. I bought the cd so if I could have added the picture to my cd if I would have remembered to look at the code. Too late now because I have already ordered and received my cd. No biggie, it just would have saved me time by not having to scan the photo.

Tarzan was closed before I ever made it to Disney as an adult so I wasn't fortunate enough to see it. Which is too bad because I'm sure Tarzan was easy on the eyes.:lovestruc

missj1975

10-08-2008, 11:11 AM

Enjoying the updates!
WOW!!! You sure did trade a LOT of pins!!!!! I'm assuming you got even more!
Di x

Yep, we traded lots and lots of pins. I also bought a bunch of pins. I pulled out all the receipts last night to balance my checkbook and do a cost comparison spreadsheet and oh my goodness. :scared1: I went way over budget but I don't regret it. I'm pretty frugal in everyday life so it doesn't hurt when I go overboard on vacation and boy did I go overboard.

Just between us ;) , My souvenir budget was $250 and I spent $930 pins, t-shirts, pictures, etc. Yep, as my report title says, I am doing my best to stimulate the economy. And I am using fuzzy Disney math because I'm not even counting the cost of the pins that I took to trade. No regrets, I put my frugal pants back on and I'm already saving for our next trip. :dance3:

teresajoy

10-08-2008, 11:36 AM

GREAT update!!!! Ballet, tap dance irish jig???:rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: I would love to see that! If I ever meet you, I'll have to make Donald mad just to see you practicing your dance moves!

That pin CM was awful! It's not like they even pay for those pins! And then to question why you wanted the one you did???:confused3 I think you should have started your dancing ritht then and there!

I love Boma's. Your pictures are making me hungry!!!

I'm thinking when the kids are all grown up, Brian and I should do Disney alone again. You guys sound like you are having so much fun!

JaxJags08

10-08-2008, 02:44 PM

Mmm...corn muffins! I love them! But I can't figure out what makes them sweeter than regular corn bread. I guess I could experiment, but I get scared since I'm not a master chef.

What a crazy CM! I can't believe they would argue with you like that!

The food at Boma looks really yummy! Thanks for including a pic. I'm determined to try it soon.

SmithFamily2003

10-09-2008, 06:40 AM

Great update!! I am sorry about your experience with the crazy CM! I have only had a CM refuse my pin once. Looking at your food pics is making me hungry!!

missj1975

10-09-2008, 09:29 AM

After our great dinner at Boma, we headed back to Magic Kingdom for Evening Magic Hours. Magic Kingdom is our favorite park. Plus it has the best pin trading.:thumbsup2

We stopped to take some pics of the Halloween decorations and then pin traded our way to our favorite rides, Pirates and the Haunted Mansion. Yeah we pretty much repeated the night before but it was fun. We never get tired of those two rides.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008233.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008232.jpg

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008241.jpg

We did change it up a bit and rode Small World, Mickey's Philharmagic, Space Mountain, and Donald's favorite: Buzz Lightyear.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008251.jpg

All of the rides had no lines. I was shocked. The place was very packed but everyone was on main street watching Spectromagic and waiting for the fireworks. Neither of us were in the mood to sit for a parade and we had already seen Wishes the night before so we were quite happy moving from ride to ride. It was great.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008268.jpg

We finally agreed to call it a night around 11:30 pm and made it back to our room by midnight. The buses were crowded but we had a seat so we were happy. I even managed to take a quick nap on Donald's shoulder even though the bus was very loud. Everyone was very chitty-chat. I think they were high on Disney Magic. Donald was amazed that I fell asleep, I was just amazed that I didn't drool on him.

More pins. Yeap, I've got an addiction, I'm learning to live with it. ;)

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008271.jpg

missj1975

10-09-2008, 09:44 AM

I love Boma's. Your pictures are making me hungry!!!

The food at Boma looks really yummy! Thanks for including a pic. I'm determined to try it soon.

Looking at your food pics is making me hungry!!

Woohoo look at me. I figured out what that multiquote button was for. ;) I am glad you all are liking my pictures, especially since Donald cringed everytime I took pictures of food.

I regret to inform you that I do not have any pictures of food from Victoria and Alberts. I had every intention of taking photos. Donald even called the hostess at V&A to make sure it was ok. She said yes, as long as other guests didn't mind. :confused: What, now I have to ask other diner's permission to take pictures? I was like whatever, I will take pictures if I want to take pictures, yada, yada, yada.

Once I sat down at V&A's my opinion changed and I had no desire to take pictures. It is hard to explain but the atmosphere was so subdue, posh, :snooty: surreal, and five more adjectives that escape me at the moment. Anyway, I didn't want to ruin the moment with flash photography. So I didn't take pictures and I don't regret it. I do have a great personalized menu for a memento. Plus the memories, tons of great memories which I will share, just no pictures. Maybe next time because trust me I will be back.

teresajoy

10-09-2008, 10:13 AM

"Donald was amazed that I fell asleep, I was just amazed that I didn't drool on him."

:rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: Jenny, you are so funny!

Roxychica7

10-09-2008, 10:52 AM

Subscribing! Can't wait to here about the rest of your trip! (And the food of course!) :thumbsup2

missj1975

10-09-2008, 02:10 PM

We made it to the park by 8:30am and it was already crowded. We did get to see the opening ceremony...from a distance.

We staked our claim in the sea of humanity and promptly got lost on our way to Toy Story Mania. Silly me asked a CM the best way to get to TSM and she told us to take a right at Sunset Blvd and take a left before Rockin Roller Coaster. Donald is looking skeptical but agrees to follow me. Yeah I know, how dare I think a CM actually knows anything about the park she works at. After waundering around aimlessly for ten minutes, Donald takes charge and we make it to Toy Story Mania.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008006.jpg

Luckily not everyone headed straight to TSM. Apparently there are other popular rides at HS. ;) The wait was only ten minutes. Of course Donald was irriated with me so I started warming up for my tap dancing routine and all was right in the world again.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008040.jpg

I was glad for the ten minute wait because I got to enjoy the que. I even found a hidden mickey.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008021.jpg

The guy behind me heard me point out the hidden mickey to Donald. He then pointed it out to his girlfriend who was so excited that her boyfriend found a hidden mickey. Instead of taking credit, he graciously mentioned that I was the one who found it. I was impressed with his honesty but told him he could have lied, I wouldn't have told anyone (just everyone on the disboards). ;)

I love chatting with CM's and other guests. It really is Disney Magic :wizard: because I can be a pretty anti-social person outside of Disney. In St. Louis, I am famous for my death stares but inside Disney I am a tap dancing fool ready to turn your frown upside down. Hmmm, where was I? Ah yes...Donald was whipping me silly at TSM. Actually I let him win because as with any man I have ever known, he is a sore loser ;) I collected my rabbit and we hopped back in the line.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008046.jpg

This time the wait was 20 minutes but it was all good. Time for more pictures and more hidden mickey spotting.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008036.jpg

Well at least I think this is a hidden mickey, if you squint your eyes and turn your head just right.

I heard my other boyfriend was accepting visitors today so I decided to stop by and chat.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/image126.jpg

Donald contained his jealously and agreed to a photo. I waved goodbye to Prince Caspian and promised to find him a better wig maker. Ouch!!! I know but really can't costuming do a better job?

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/image130.jpg

We pin traded our way to our next favorite ride, Tower of Terror. The line was relatively short, no fastpass needed.

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008085.jpg

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I'm not much a fan of the Twilight Zone TV Show. I don't like black and white shows, they give me headaches for some odd reason. I did love the movie with John Lithgow. The gremlin was awesome. Anyway, Donald loves the black and white show and loves the episode featuring this creepy guy:

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I did watch that episode on youtube after our last trip for Donald's sake. It was pretty interesting.

We rode The Tower of Terror twice this day and the second time was very interesting. After leaving the waiting room with the tv, the ride broke down for a bit so we were stuck in the Freddie Krueger Boiler Room. Mary Poppin's nephews were behind us chatting away and leaning against the wall. Well one of them knocked a chain down and it banged against the wall very loud. So loud that everyone jumped and Donald screamed. :scared: He would have ran away in terror if there would have been anywhere to run to. I meanwhile was trying to hide my laughter from Donald. Turns out one of the elevators were broken (for real) so only two elevators were running. I personally didn't mind the wait because I totally enjoyed listening to Mary Poppin's nephews chat and boy did they chat. They were quite chatty and their accents were spot on. I love listening to people with accents.

We finally got on the elevator and it was one of the scarest sequences we have ever seen on the Tower of Terror. I am sure being stuck in the creepy boiler room helped but we were definitely scared on this one. We loved it.

We saw these guys walking around Hollywood Studios. I had never seen these guys before so I was quite excited.

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This was also the only time I had trouble with anyone in an EVC. My life flashed before my eyes as an EVC flew straight towards me. Apparently he was more excited to see the Green Army Guys then I was. Donald pulled me to safety and I stood in shock for a minute. Seriously the guy came very very close to running me over at the highest speed possible on those things and he didn't even pause or say sorry. I resisted the urge to give him the St. Louis single finger wave.

missj1975

10-09-2008, 03:03 PM

The near death experience left me hungry so we headed to the Backlot Express. This is the only counter service that we didn't really enjoy.

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Donald had a double cheeseburger and I had a turkeymelt. I took a bite of my turkeymelt, gave Donald a "this is the worst sandwich ever" look, and he promplty offered to trade. Ahhh, what a sweetie. We didn't linger over lunch too long because the place was quickly filling up and becoming a mad house.

We decided to take a break from Hollywood Studios and took a boat over to Boardwalk. Donald wanted to visit all the deluxes for future reference, ya know just incase he ever wins the lotto. :rolleyes1 Nothing too exciting at the Boardwalk, probably because the sky was starting to look scary.

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We decided to walk over to the Yacht club. It was quite a walk so we needed to stock up on energy first.

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Yacht club was very nice, Donald was very impressed. We stopped by the gift shop and did a little pin trading. One of the CM's handed me a phone and said I had a call. I was like :confused: but took the phone and listened. It was Goofy wishing me a Happy Birthday. I almost cried. The moment was so sweet. The CM had noticed my birthday button. :flower3:

We headed back to the lobby. Donald had to use the restroom so I started to chat with the greeter, a very nice man named Woody. We had a great conversation but kind of sad conversation too. I have a twin sister. He had a twin brother that died at birth so we were talking about the bond between twins, etc. As we were leaving, he gave me two Pixie Dust pins, one for me and one for my twin sister. Again, I almost started crying.

I was constantly amazed by the friendly CM's that I encountered this trip. Since we pin trade a lot, eat a lot, and shop a lot, we encountered a lot of CM's. I would say we probably interacted with at least 200 CM's (and that is a low estimate). Anyway, out of all those interactions we only had one rude CM. I was very impressed, especially since all I seem to read on the disboards is about crabby CM's.

We took the boat back to Hollywood Studios. I forgot to mention early that the captain on the first Friendship boat from earlier was so cute. He was feeding the ducks bread while the guests were boarding. :eek: While I started to sing Feed The Birds in my head, I'm sure some guests were silently reprimanding him. Actually probably not because I am pretty sure only in disboardland do people get upset at people for feeding the birds. Tuppence a bag, anyone?

It started to rain. I had bought us mini umbrellas for this trip so we were prepared. We walked around a bit before deciding to just sit and relax until dinner time.

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We had reservations for Mama Melrose's. The lobby was packed with people trying to avoid the rain. We squeezed in and luckily didn't have to wait long for our table.

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I had the spaghetti fra diavolo. Donald had the charred butcher tender steak. We had truffle cake and crema limone for dessert. I said "we" because we always share our desserts with each other unless it is creme brulee and then it is every man for himself.

The food was great, service was great, everything was great. After dinner we pin traded our way to Toy Story Mania. The line was way too long so we headed to Fantasmic an hour early. Thank goodness we did. By the time the show started, the place was packed with no empty seats.

We watched the show in January in the rain. I offered to buy Donald a poncho in January but he refused. Instead he sat in the ran miserable but he did enjoy the show. This time I didn't offer, I just bought him a poncho and said wear it. **umbrellas and metal seats don't mix so we put umbrella's away** We had fun people watching before the show. Last time we saw people get in a fight and escorted out over seats but this time, no such excitement. Just lots of improperly dressed people. :rolleyes1

Fantasmic was awesome, even better then last time. I didn't take pictures since it was raining (I take no chances with my camera). I was happy because Maleficent in dragon form was in the show. She wasn't in January so it was like a completely different show. After the show, we just sat a bit listening to the CM's yell at anyone walking on the benches, fun stuff. We eventually got up, pin traded our way to the buses, and went to bed. I think we actually made it back to the room by eleven which is way early for us.

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We spotted Stitch at Hollywood Studios. Did I mention that I am very unphotogenic? I have a really bad blinking problem which means my eyes are closed in 90% of my photos. Either that or I look like I am on drugs. See, I really do love public humiliation since I post all my great photos here. ;)

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missj1975

10-09-2008, 03:15 PM

"Donald was amazed that I fell asleep, I was just amazed that I didn't drool on him."

:rotfl2: :rotfl2: :rotfl2: Jenny, you are so funny!

You are too kind Teresajoy. :flower3: Glad you are enjoying the report.

Subscribing! Can't wait to here about the rest of your trip! (And the food of course!) :thumbsup2

Thanks for joining. I'm having a great time writing the report.

kathleen27

10-09-2008, 03:46 PM

Great updates!

Wow, you really did a lot of pin trading!

We met a ton of really nice, friendly, helpful CM's and one not very nice one as well.

ILuvCrush

10-09-2008, 03:53 PM

Great Update!!!

My DH always blinks/closes his eyes for pics too:goodvibes

Thats why all my DHs pics have his sunglasses on:lmao:

Paula

SmithFamily2003

10-09-2008, 06:51 PM

You are way too funny!!!

What's wrong with feeding the birds? I like to feed the birds. Isn't that why they hang out at Disney? To get free food!!

missj1975

10-10-2008, 09:22 AM

Great Update!!!

My DH always blinks/closes his eyes for pics too:goodvibes

Thats why all my DHs pics have his sunglasses on:lmao:

Paula

I tried the sunglasses trick several times but most times the photopass photographer told me to take my glasses off. I think I have one with my sunglasses on but since the lenses aren't dark, you can still see my closed eyes. I'm hopeless.

missj1975

10-10-2008, 09:50 AM

Donald put a lot of thought into my birthday on the 24th. No one has ever made a big deal out of my birthday before (especially a boyfriend) so I was quite thrilled with Donald.

When I booked the vacation in May, he told me not to plan anything on the 24th not even dinner reservations. The planner in me was worried but also excited that the 24th was going to be a complete surprise, mostly.

I say mostly because a month later Donald told me to pack a nice dress for our Florida trip. A nice dress...now I was stressing. First off, I no longer fit into any of my nice dresses (my other addiction is chocolate) and secondly I haven't had to dress up in forever. I'm not even for sure what a dress looks like anymore. :rolleyes1 As an accountant, I have had past jobs where I did wear dresses and nice suits to work but for the last three years I have dressed in "business casual." In otherwords, jean and free polo shirts from our vendors.

So I showed Donald my meager dress choices and he decided a shopping trip was in order. Yeah!!! He bought me a wonderful dress which I posted in the beginning of my trip report.

Did I mention I'm not use to surprises? And that I am pretty good at figuring out secrets. Yeap, I ruined my first surprise. I teased Donald that he was taking me to Victoria and Alberts and he gave me that "why don't you ever just shut up look." Oops, my bad. So after I finished my irish jig, Donald was ok with me spoiling the surprise. He still had plenty of surprises up his sleeve.

Back to the 22nd, Donald had me open a very sweet birthday card that brought tears to my eyes. (He is excellent at picking out sentimental cards). In the card was an itineray for Discover Cove. :woohoo: I was so excited and very surprised. You see, I didn't learn my lesson after learning about V&A and had spent the last two months trying to figure out what other surprises Donald had for me. I know, I'm like a little kid who secretly opens her christmas presents and then rewraps them before her parents notice. Thank goodness Donald and I don't live together because otherwise I would have snooped until every cat was out of the bag. Donald did his best to waylay my suspicions without outright lying to me. Long story short (too late) he gave me the impression that we were going on a manatee tour or maybe a boat tour.

I was thrilled with my surprise and even more thrilled when I opened my wrapped present, an underwater digital camera. An amazing underwater camera that worked perfectly, so perfectly that I ended up taking 350 pictures at Discovery cove. Donald gave me the present two days early because he knew I would want to practice with the camera. Good thing I opened it because the camera needed a memory card which Donald thought was included but of course it wasn't. No biggie, nothing a quick trip to Walgreens can't fix.

missj1975

10-10-2008, 10:23 AM

We decided to spend the morning at Downtown Disney instead of going to a park. On our last trip we had a great time at Downtown Disney and had some great pin trading experiences. This trip, not so much.

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Maybe it was because we got there when all the shops opened or because it was a Tuesday morning but DTD just wasn't happening.

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Sure it was nice that the shops weren't crowded but it was boring. Maybe because all the merchandise we had seen before on our January trip. Note to Disney, please change your merchandise selection more then every five years.

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We pin traded some. I bought an Alice in Wonderland teapot, Cheshire Cat plant stake, mickey shaped egg thingamajigs, and window decals for my car. I also bought Donald a Donald stuffed animal. He loved it. Oh and I bought some more pins because you know I don't already have enough. ;) We lasted about two hours at DTD and decided to head back to Pop Century. We had lunch at the food court. I had the chicken parmesian again. It is excellent. Donald loves the beef and broccoli.

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We had some time to kill but not enough to actually go to a park and get back in time to get ready for the party so I decided to do my favorite afternoon pasttime, take a nap. :banana: I love taking an afternoon nap. Donald on the otherhand doesn't so he decided to walk around Pop for awhile. Or so he said. He was secretly buying more presents and talking the front desk into sending me balloons and a card for my birthday.

ILuvCrush

10-10-2008, 10:32 AM

OOoohhhh the suspense of the birthday stuff is killing me!!!!:rotfl2:

It sounds like Donald is DEFINATELY a keeper:lovestruc

It was really neat that you got to go to Discovery Cove... I think that will be awesome (when i finally manage to go!!)

Please please please post lots of your DC pics... I can't wait to see them!!

Paula

missj1975

10-10-2008, 10:36 AM

After my refreshing nap, I got ready for the party. We headed to the bus stop by 3:30 and I think we reached the party by 4pm.

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We had an ADR at Tony's for 4:50pm. We pin traded some and then checked in early. I was hoping maybe they would seat us early because I was starving. I am pretty sure my stomach had started to eat itself out of desperation. We didn't get seated early. Instead I just watched all the neat costumes go buy as everyone else got seated early.

We finally got seated and I was happy to see our waiter was the same waiter from the last trip. He was great, food was great, yada, yada, yada. Unfortunately I was distracted by my growling stomach and forgot to take pictures of the food. I did remember to take pictures of my favorite dessert.

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The party was awesome. We pin traded our way to the Haunted Mansion. I got lots of compliments on my costume. Two more CM's gave me pixie dust pins because they loved my costume so much.

We had to make a quick stop for some squished pennies. Donald even joined in on the hunt.

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On our way to the Haunted Mansion, we spotted these singing guys. They were very funny.

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The Haunted Mansion is awesome during the party. They had a photopass photographer taking pictures with one of the hitchhiking ghosts. Plus they had a southern lady entertaining guests as they entered the mansion. She made funny comments to almost everyone as they passed by her.

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I saw her walking around the front of the mansion later. She loved my dress too.

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Sorry got to actually work today. Have to pick up lunch for my boss, really hard stuff. ;) I will post parade pictures after lunch.

missj1975

10-10-2008, 12:24 PM

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After riding the Haunted Mansion, we trick or treated some and then headed to our favorite parade spot in Frontierland. I loved the parade. My Headless Horseman picture did not come out but he was cool to see. I went to a MNSSHP in 2005 and I don't remember the headless horseman. Plus I had a terrible viewing spot in 2005, like five people back. My friend thought watching the parade on Main Street was a good idea. My tip, go to Frontierland. I have never had a problem getting a good spot. Front row spots make this parade so much better.

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Alice from my favorite Disney movie. I almost dressed as Alice for this party, even bought a costume but the Giselle dress won out.

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Character from the Haunted Mansion graveyard scene. Funny, I never noticed him on the ride until this trip, after the parade.

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After the parade we headed to my favorite Trick or Treating Spot.

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I just loved seeing all the Alice characters.

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Bye this time, I was limping pretty bad. Me being the silly girl I am thought it would be ok to wear sturdy dress clogs. They gave me a little height and looked pretty good with the dress. In my dressing up days I could wear them all day long without a problem. Well being as that was three years ago, my feet had considerably softened and disagreed with the constant arch of my foot. I was in pain but I kept quiet and just suffered in silence. Donald did notice I had slowed down the pace but I said I was fine.

We went back to our favorite spot to watch fireworks.

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Me by my buddy again. Don't I look like I am having so much fun? ;) Actually it was a great spot to throw up my feet. I did a pretty good job balancing myself on the iron rails. Donald did his best protecting our small piece of the world and we had a great time watching the fireworks. *Just in case you couldn't tell (because my sister couldn't), my topiary buddy is a swan.

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After the fireworks, we hit more trick or treating spots. I said enough was enough and spent $20 on flip flops. It was the best $20 I ever spent and now I have cute but impratical silver flip flops decorated with plastic jewels. Beggers can't be choosers so I am happy with my gaudy flip flops.

The most interesting trick or treat line is the one that goes down by the Liberty Bell in Frontierland. I was taking a picture of this neat display...

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when Donald pointed out this creepy guy. It was my turn to be scared. :scared1: The creepy guy was good, very good and he was at both parties. He just paced back and forth, back and forth and never cracked a smile. The people behind me were commenting on what a neat animatronic he was. :rotfl: Really, I bit my tongue and moved on.

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We both had a great time at the party and was very sad when it was time to leave. We prolonged our departure by pin trading our way through the gift shops. The line for the bus was long but we were use to the long lines by that point and just amused ourselves by checking out everyone else's costumes.

This is something you don't see too often...

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An empty Pop Century pool!!! Seriously, kids were even swimming at seven in the morning. Did I mention that I was glad we were out in the boonies, way away from the pool?

SmithFamily2003

10-10-2008, 12:32 PM

You have some seriously long hair!

Dr_Finkelstein

10-10-2008, 04:24 PM

I can't believe I'm so far behind! :scared1:
Anyway, all caught up now!
Fab TR so far, am really enjoying it! Really funny! :lmao: :lmao: The photos are great too, the MNSSHP looked so good - bah humbug! we missed it!:headache: Next time!
As for checking out the deluxe resorts - I'm glad to know I'm not alone! We have our photopass session booked at GF, and I plan to show the photos to very many people......."yes, our hotel was lovely - as you can see....." :rolleyes1
Creme brulee - of course it's every man for themselves when thats the dessert!
You sure do like your pins!!!!! :goodvibes
Di x

missj1975

10-14-2008, 09:51 AM

We managed to wake up at a decent time and reach Discovery Cove by 8:15am. The cove doesn't official open until 9 am but they open up for registration at 8 am. I am glad we got there early. We had plenty of time to explore the park, take pictures, and eat breakfast before our dolphin encounter.

This is just a pretty spot on the entrance path to the main area of Discovery Cove.

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The first picture is a dolphin pool. Anyone can view the pools but only guests who pay extra can enter the water (with their dolphin trainer of course). We watched the trainers give the dolpins breakfast, vitamins, etc before we walked around and explored the park some more. Not too many guests showed up early so we really felt like we had the park to ourselves for the first hour. The second pool is the lazy river entrance.

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We sat down for a nice breakfast. Food, snacks, and drinks are all included in the price of admission. The eating area is so nice and the staff are so friendly. Since the seating area is outside, there is a slight bird problem but I love birds so I didn't mind. As I scooted my tray to the side, a bird landed on the table and grabbed some food. A waitress quickly cleared the table and smiled, saying something about the birds. It was funny. Everytime we ate, a server was kind of hovering waiting to remove our empty plates.

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After breakfast, we picked up our water-vests. We could either get wetsuits or vests. We decided on vests but could always come back for the wetsuits if we changed our mind. Yeah right, like I was really going to attempt to squeeze myself into a wetsuit. The vest were very nice, comfortable, and helped with floating. I really don't need help with floating because I'm a professional floater ;) but Donald on the other hand sinks like a stone. We stowed our stuff in the complimentary lockers before we headed to our dolphin encounter.

Before the encounter, we all watched a short video on dolphins and then met our dolphin trainers. We were broken into small groups. My group had three couples and two individuals. Everyone was friendly and our trainer introduced us to our first dolphin Clipper. Clipper was a smaller female dolphin. We then met Capricon, a bigger older male dolphin. We spent the most time with Capricon, feeding and touching him. We posed for pictures and then took turns riding the dolphin.

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After the 30 minute encounter, we looked at pictures from the session. I of course am a sucker for pictures and bought the CD with pics for $150. The CD only had like 20 pictures on it but I figured since Donald had paid for everything else, I could splurge on the CD. I do love the CD and pictures so I don't regret the purchase.

After the dolphin encounter we decided to eat an early lunch. I didn't have my camera on me at that moment so no pictures of that lunch. ***Notice I say that lunch. Yep, we ate again later that afternoon. Snorkeling is very hard work ;) and requires lots of fuel. Anyway, for our first lunch we had lobster salad sandwiches, ceaser salad, and strawberries.

After lunch, we picked up our snorkels and mask. We then stopped by the lockers for my camera and headed to the coral reef. We saw this cutie on the way there. I love sloths. I wish I could have held her but I at least I got to pet her.

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I have been snorkeling before but that was a long, long time ago, before I developed a terrible gag reflex. It took me 30 minutes to get use to the snorkel but it was smooth sailing after that. There are lifeguards everywhere and there was an employee helping people in the coral reef. I asked for tips on snorkeling and he said "Just Relax." Gee thanks, now I'm all set. :rolleyes1

There are two main snorkeling pools, the coral reef and the lazy river. The coral reef is salt water and the lazy river is fresh water. The fresh water is a lot warmer so when we got too cold from the salt water we would hop in the lazy river for awhile. We rotated between the two pools all day long.

Coral Reef is full of amazing fish, stingrays, and mantarays. The Lazy river has no fish but it does have very nice floral vegetation. Plus there are sunken items through out the river which were interesting to spot. The lazy river also passes through a bird atrium. There is a walk up entrance to the bird atrium and a swim up entrance that we used. The bird atrium was very cool but we only visited it once. We spent the majority of our time swimming.

My underwater camera from Donald was awesome. I took 350 pictures throughout the day. I would have taken more but we ran out of time. The park closes at 5:30 pm. At closing they don't rush the guests out of the park, just out of the water. The staff gives the guests plenty of time to shower, shop, and look at pictures before leaving. I was talking to the staff and they mentioned that sometimes they don't get to leave until eight because of slow guests. We weren't that slow and were out of there by 6:30pm. I absolutely love Discovery Cove. We had so much fun!!!

missj1975

10-14-2008, 10:00 AM

The first picture is the waterful near the Bird Atrium entrance.

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In the afternoon, a photographer was stationed there taking pictures. I had already purchased the cd so of course I jumped at the opportunity to get more pictures taken for my cd.

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There are employees throughout the atrium who give food to the guests to feed the birds and to answer questions about the birds.

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The birds are very friendly to anyone who has food. At one point I had three birds on me at once. It was kind of freaky and I started singing "Feed the Birds." Ok not really but people did start pointing and saying "Look at the bird lady." :eek: Finally the birds moved on and we walked around the atrium for a bit.

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The lazy river goes through the atrium. You can see guests on this walking bridge that we swam under numerous times. It was a lot of fun swimming through the atrium. You can also see the backside of water ;-) in the background. That is the waterfall from my first picture. I think it helps keep the birds in the atrium.

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missj1975

10-14-2008, 10:07 AM

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missj1975

10-14-2008, 10:17 AM

:scared1: :scared1: :scared1: Did I scare anyone with the last picture?

Lifeguards are stationed everywhere throughout the park and the coral reef. We were resting in the water near one of the lifeguard stands when the guy noticed my camera. Donald started to give the lifeguard a thirty minute dissertation so I started to swim away. Donald said look below the lifeguard stand so I went underwater and about had a heart attack.

There is an aquarium underneath the lifeguard stand. We had swam by it numerous times but I just never noticed. Donald knew there were sharks somewhere in the park, he just never mentioned it to me. I have an insane fear of sharks so even though they were behind a thick sheet of glass, I was still a little nervous. And when I first went underwater for a split second I didn't realize there was glass there. :eek: Yeah, I was ticked because I thought Donald was trying to scare me. He knows I hate anyone trying to scare me so he had some major dancing to do :dance3: before I was happy again. In all fairness to Donald, he didn't realize it was the shark aquarium beneath the lifeguard stand. The lifeguard just asked if we had seen the fish beneath his stand. So I gave the lifeguard my death stare and moved on.

missj1975

10-14-2008, 10:19 AM

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missj1975

10-14-2008, 10:26 AM

This is a picture from the manta ray pool. Guests can wade through the pool to touch the manta rays. It was nice but we much preferred the coral reef.

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Our second lunch at 1 pm. Yep we ate two lunches but I didn't feel like a pig at all. We got quite the workout snorkeling and swimming.

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Before we know it, time is up and we have to leave. We drag ourselves to the awesome bathrooms to take showers. Shampoo, conditioner, and soap is all provided. Plus they have plastic bags to stick all our wet stuff in. Discovery Cove thinks of everything. We slowly drag our feet to the front of the park and sadly leave.

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We will definitely be returning in the future. My first birthday surprise was awesome. Donald was very happy that the weather turned out perfectly. He had been stressing for the last month, worrying that it would rain on my birthday. But it didn't. Everything was practically perfect in every way. I could have done without the shark scare but other than that two minute blip in the radar, we had an fun, fun, fun!!!

SmithFamily2003

10-14-2008, 09:35 PM

Great pictures of Discovery Cove. It looks awesome. Did a lot of people have kids with them or was it mainly adults?

missj1975

10-14-2008, 10:10 PM

Great pictures of Discovery Cove. It looks awesome. Did a lot of people have kids with them or was it mainly adults?

There were kids there because I remember seeing a stroller made for the sand. I do remember a couple of kids walking around the dolphin area because the lifeguards had to tell them to stay out of the water. Other than that, I don't remember many kids. The place is very kid friendly because there are tons of lifeguards everywhere and there are plenty of shallow spots in the pool area at the beginning of the lazy river. Plus there are some shallow spots in the coral reef that kids could see fish without having to go in the deep water.

Speaking of lifeguards, it was a bit annoying with so many lifeguards. I literally felt like I was always watched whenever I swam through the lazy river. I appreciate their concern for our safety but I didn't like the feeling of being constantly watched.

At one point, we did kind of need a lifeguard because Donald is not the best swimmer and he swallowed a bunch of water going under the waterfall. After the waterfall the water is deep with the only touching spot being a rock ledge that the lifeguard was standing on. She saw he was in distress, looked at me, and asked if he was ok. Excuse me, my lifeguard certificate expired 12years ago, do your job lady. It isn't like she was busy, there was no one else around. I wanted to knock the lifeguard off of her perch, especially when I asked if Donald could rest there for a minute and she said no because only lifeguards are allowed to stand on the rocky shoulders. Arghh, luckily there was a statue protruding from the water that I helped Donald to and he was able to get his bearing after a couple of minutes.

So to answer your question, yes there were kids there but it was mainly adults.

I didn't mean to sound crabby. The lifeguard incident really wasn't that big of a deal. I actually forgot about it until your question. I still love Discovery Cove and will definitely go back.

teresajoy

10-14-2008, 11:17 PM

You make a beautiful Giselle!

I would really like to do Discovery Cove someday! It looks like such fun! Sorry about the shark scare! :scared1:

JaxJags08

10-15-2008, 07:18 AM

Now I definitely want to go to DC! Thanks so much for posting those pics. I think I'll have to wait until DD is older, though. I want her to be able to swim with us. Oh - and the food there looks really yummy!

Your pics of MNSSHP were great, too! Did it seem really crowded? That's the one thing that I worry about with the party. Some people say it's crazy and some say it's great.

missj1975

10-15-2008, 07:57 AM

You make a beautiful Giselle!

Thank you Teresa. You made a beautiful dress and I so enjoyed wearing it. It made the party so much more fun!!!

missj1975

10-15-2008, 08:02 AM

Your pics of MNSSHP were great, too! Did it seem really crowded? That's the one thing that I worry about with the party. Some people say it's crazy and some say it's great.

I totally enjoyed the parties but I think the crowd levels are hit or miss. The Tuesday party was way more crowded then the Friday party. I thought it would have been the opposite. But anyway, that being said it wasn't so crowded that I didn't enjoy myself. The lines for the rides at most were five minutes long. I just didn't get as many character pictures as I would have liked because those lines were crazy.

My tip is just to stay for the entire party because most families don't last long and start leaving around 10pm. Between 10 and 12, the park was a lot less crowded. I would still go to a party even if it was sold out because it is still less people then a regular day at Magic Kingdom.

Good luck in whatever you decide. :thumbsup2

missj1975

10-17-2008, 10:00 AM

After staying as long as we could at Discovery Cove, we headed back to Pop Century.

A birthday card from Snow White and 3 balloons were waiting for me in my room. I was very happy by this nice surprise. Apparently, Donald had mentioned my birthday to a couple of Pop Century employees the day before and they were nice enough to have this sent to my room. The Pop Century staff was amazing. We got three different voicemails during the trip making sure our trip was going great, wishing me a Happy Birthday, and asking how our dinner at V&A was.

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Our dinner reservation was at 9:30 but we wanted to be there by 8:30 to check out the hotel. Donald hadn't been to the Grand Floridian before so he was looking forward to walking around a bit before dinner.

We both got dressed and headed to the car. As I was buckling in, Donald said he forgot the directions in the room. I was like we don't need directions but Donald insisted he didn't want to get lost or be late so I was like fine whatever, hurry up. So he ran back up to the room while I sat back in the car. Well a short time later he returns frustrated and says he couldn't find the directions. I was like no big deal, let's go. ***this seemingly insignificant encounter is important later***

We made it to the Grand Floridian with no problems and Valet parked, which is complimentary with the V&A dinner reservation. We walked around a bit, traded a couple of pins, and then headed to the V&A reservation desk. The V&A entrance is right next to the Citricos lobby. It is kind of confusing at first, especially if you are very tired after a long but wonderful day at Discovery Cove. Anyway, Donald started having a fit because he kept seeing adults with children not dressed appropriately for V&A's. He then chilled out when he realized they were heading to Citricos and not V&A's. V&A has a dress code and Donald was taking it very seriously. He looked great in a very nice suit. I wish I would have taken a picture of him but I completely forgot.

He did take a picture of me. Don't I just look excited to be there?

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Yeah, I was tired, very tired. Discovery Cove really wore me out, much more then our commando style park days.

But I perked up as we were seated at Victoria and Albert's. The restaurant is beautiful. I do wish I had pictures but I just didn't feel comfortable taking them that night. Actually I didn't even really think about it that night, too tired and too excited to be there. The restaurant is smaller, really just one big room with the tables placed far enough apart from each other that we hardly noticed the other guests. A lady playing the harp was our background music.

We had three different waiters throughout the night to bring us the courses, new silverware after each course, bread between the courses, and just basically hovering over us the whole time. At first it was a little uncomfortable but I quickly got used to it. I felt like a queen, or at least a very spoiled princess.

We were presented with personalized menus that had three different selections for each course. Donald and I browsed the menus for a while and then decided to have the same courses. Donald ordered for me. I loved it. Again, I felt like a spoiled princess.

We did not opt for wine on this dinner. Donald and I aren't big drinkers but we do like wine and love to visit wineries around the St. Louis area. But we were both tired and figured wine would just make us more sluggish.

First course: Tamarind-Ancho Marinated Gulf Shrimp with heirloom Tomato Vinaigrette

2nd course: Poached South Carolina Quail with Black Mission Figs and Fuji Apples

3rd course: Alaskan King Salmon with Pickled Onions and Demi-Tasse Cup of Smoked Salmon

4th course: Kurobuta Pork Tenderloin and Belly with Artichokes and Florida Corn

Dessert: Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee
We did have different desserts. Donald had Caramelized Banana Gateau

The hostess, manager, and all the waiters wished me a Happy Birthday throughtout the night. In the beginning of the meal we got an appetizer plate "compliments of the Chef." It was amazing and apparently not every guest gets this "honor." Donald was more excited then me because he at one time thought of being a chef and mentioned several times that is was an "honor" that the chef did this. The appetizer plate was amazing and was my second favorite dish. My first favorite dish was the pork tenderloin. It was simply amazing. My third favorite dish was the creme brulee. I was stuffed at that point but I forced it all down. I wasn't about to let any creme brulee go to waste.

As I am pleasantly zoned out from a food hangover, the waiter brings over a birthday cake and wished me a Happy Birthday again. Donald had arranged for this birthday cake and did pay for it beforehand. It was a chocolate cake filled with heavenly chocolate, iced in the best white icing ever and topped with a white chocolate castle. Of course I was too stuffed to eat it so the waiter boxed it up for me. I did remember to take a picture back at Pop Century.

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It did look a lot better at the restaurant because the plate had "Happy Birthday" written in dark chocolate and icing accents but unfortunately none of that was transferable to the box. We had the birthday cake for breakfast the next day. It was the best cake I ever had. The filling was wonderful. I forgot what Donald called it but is a creamy chocolate filling. I saved the white chocolate topper. It is in my fridge for now but I am sure I will eat it one night when I'm looking for a chocolate fix.

One of the waiters brought me a red stem rose in a long plastic box. All the ladies who dine at V&A are gifted with one of these. I left the rose in the box and it has dried quite nicely. I was also presented with a loaf of dessert bread as a birthday present from my waiters. It looked beautiful and they put in in a nice black bag with the V&A logo. I kept the bag but gave the dessert bread to Donald's mother when we got home from vacation. She said it was wonderful. I'm not a big fan of dessert breads so I am glad she enjoyed it.

What can I say about Victoria and Albert's. I love, love, love Victoria and Albert's. The night was practically perfect in everyway. Our only regret is that we were both tired from the long day at Discovery Cove. If we dine there again, we will make sure we reserve the first seating (5:30pm). The second sitting at 9:30 is just too late (for us anyway).

We headed back to Pop Century. I was still excited because I knew Donald still had a couple of presents for me to unwrap. Donald told me to open the door first and I was so excited when I walked in the room.

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Remember when I mentioned earlier that Donald ran back to the room to look for directions to the Grand Floridian. Well it was all a ruse so he could decorate the bed as a surprise. What a sweetie!:lovestruc :cloud9: :hug: Yep, he is a keeper. I really was surprised and never caught on about the whole direction story. Which I really should have because now that I think about it, he never prints directions for anything. Anyway, Donald felt really bad about lying to me. I was like I have no problems with you lying to me to surprise me like this.

Donald gave me three more presents. The first present was Sea Monkeys. :confused: You might be confused but it is one of those presents where it is the thought that counts. Donald and I have an ongoing joke about Sea Monkeys so it really touched my heart that he bought them for me. He also bought me a rock crystal kit, another inside joke but very sweet. The third present was a piece from the Hawthorne Village Disney Halloween Collection. My second favorite Disney movie is Sleeping Beauty. He bought me Maleficient's castle. Donald is an expert gift picker outer and I was in tears at that point. He made my birthday absolutely amazing and I will always cherish all the thought and effort he put into my birthday. It made turning 33 not as hard as I thought it was going to be.

kathleen27

10-17-2008, 11:03 AM

I love all your MNSSHP pictures!!!
It's just like being there again!
We loved the Riverboat Trick or Treat spot, it was very spooky!

Your dress looks amazing!!!!

On our way to the Haunted Mansion, we spotted these singing guys. They were very funny.

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Those guys were cool!
I saw them but I missed getting there picture!

Discover Cove sounds amazing! I would love to go there some day. Our trips are always too short to fit in everything I want to do.
Your report is really the first detailed info and photos I've seen of DC. You had a lot of great info and the pictures were amazing!

Sounds like you had a great birthday!
Donald is really thoughtful!
Too funny about the directions.
V&A sounds great!
That cake is beautiful!

Dr_Finkelstein

10-18-2008, 08:50 AM

WOW WOW and WOW again!
The photos of Discovery Cove look fanatastic! We definately need to go there, I think though our kids are just a bit too young to appreciate it fully just now, but probably in another 4 years we need to go!
I was quite happily scrolling through the photos till I got to the one with the shark and I was like....***!!! In a swim pool!! :scared1: :scared1: .
I too am terrified of sharks...literally terrified, I can't walk through the shark tunnel at SW, I don't even go in. If that had been me I would probbaly have exploded out of the water cursing and swearing! :rolleyes1
V&A looks lovely - what a great birthday for you! :lovestruc
Di x

missj1975

10-18-2008, 09:24 AM

I was quite happily scrolling through the photos till I got to the one with the shark and I was like....***!!! In a swim pool!! :scared1: :scared1: .
I too am terrified of sharks...literally terrified, I can't walk through the shark tunnel at SW, I don't even go in. If that had been me I would probbaly have exploded out of the water cursing and swearing! :rolleyes1
Di x

:ssst: Yeah, a couple of swear words might have escaped my lips. I quit swimming around that area after I realized there were sharks right there. They might have been behind glass but anyone remember Jaws 3 or Deep Blue Sea? Glass is nothing to sharks. ;) O.k. so maybe I am a little paranoid.

missj1975

10-20-2008, 12:37 PM

Today was our all day Epcot day. We were planning on returning to Epcot on the next day for the first day of the Food & Wine Festival. Imagine our delight when a CM informed us that the Food & Wine Festival was starting a day early. Yeah, we thought we would beat the crowds and get to sample some stuff. Yeah right.:rolleyes1 More on that later.

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We headed straight for Test Track because that is Donald's favorite ride.

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We also tried Mission Space since neither of us have ridden it before. :headache: Never again. I will keep my feet on Earth from now on. I did enjoy watching the other random couple who rode the ride with us. They took their job assignments very seriously.

We were happy to spot Tinkerbell on the way back over to Test Track.

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I post my test track photos only because I think my expressions are so funny, or should I say lack of expressions. Donald likes the ride way more then I do.

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It was getting close to 11 am so we headed over to the World Showcase. Since the World Showcase opens at 11 am we assumed the Food & Wine festival would open at 11 am too. We were wrong. After asking 12 different cluelss cm's, we finally found someone who said the food booths wouldn't open until 1 pm. Bummer.

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So instead of stuffing ourselves silly, we pin traded our way through the world instead. But that does require nourishment so we split a counterservice at the Mexican place to tide us over until 1 pm.

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Donald was happy to see his namesake. Did I mention how hard it is to get my Donald to pose for pictures? This is the only picture that didn't require some sort of bribery.

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missj1975

10-20-2008, 03:10 PM

We pin traded through several countries and enjoyed the scenery. I took lots of pictures but this is my favorite.

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Disney has frogs...real frogs...not everything is animatronic. Who knew. :confused3 ;)

We also spotted the candy lady, Miyuki, in Japan.

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***Disclaimer*** If you are easily offended or have a tendency to take everything personal on the disboards please do not read the following story and just skip down to the next batch of photos.

We happened upon Miyuki just as her show started. I knew of Miyuki because I read the disboards but Donald had no idea who she was. I quickly explained that she makes beautiful candy sculptures and gives them free to random children (and some times adults). Donald was instantly worried as soon as he heard the word "free". He knows how that word can bring out the worst in people. I was looking forward to the show that is Miyuki (and the audience ;) ).

Miyuki quickly whips out animal candy sculptures. While she is making these sculptures...she constantly talks...in a monotone voice. I personally love her accent but Donald quickly tired of Miyuki saying the same thing over and over again. I think I have her spiel memorized. Don't quote me on it because it was three weeks ago but her speech goes something like this "My name is Miyuki, I make sugar candy for you, rice candy for you, good candy for you. Watch me and I will show you, show you how easy candy is, I make animals, I make animals for you. You like, I make dragons, dolphins, tigers, eagles, birds, many kind of birds. Many people come to watch so only one candy per family. I chose, I chose family to give candy to. You chose what animal you like. I make many animal, many animals for you. You watch. I show you how to make. Sugar candy, rice candy, good candy. Many people love me, love my candy. I pick, people will cry, kids will cry, but I pick who gets my wonderful candy." Like I said don't quote me on it, I might be slightly off. ;)

Anyway, Miyuki makes an animal for a girl in the front row. The boy next to her (wearing the same shirt as her), raises his hand for the next piece of candy. Miyuki says only one per family but he insists he is a different family and a woman even chimes in that he is a different family. Miyuki asks the boy what animal he wants. The audience collectively sighs and curses under their breath because they all know Miyuki just got snowed by two siblings. I am laughing inside while Donald starts to fume. See I tend to not get worked up over strangers actions if it doesn't impact me but Donald on the otherhand
gets slighted very easily by perfect strangers.

I continue to enjoy watching Miyuki make the candy animals while watching the crowd out of the corner of my eye. Watching the crowd can be just as entertaining. Parents start edging their kids closer to the front, adults half raise their hand waiting for that moment when Miyuki looks their way so they can fervently shoot their hands up in the air. Yep good times.

For the third animal, Miyuki chooses an adult woman. I personally applaud Miyuki's choice while parents slightly curse the unfairness of an adult taking away a chance from their kid. Miyuki asks what would you like and the woman responds "A Rose." :eek: Miyuki quickly responds "No soup for you. I make candy animals, animals for you, I make dragon, panda, eagle, purple people-eater, hummingbird." The woman runs off in shame. Ok maybe not, she chose an eagle.

It is at that point that Donald has reached the end of his rope. Apparently Donald watched the first two kids who snowed Miyuki celebrating their ill-begotten gains with their parents. As Donald was considering teaching their parents a lesson in lying, I distracted him with the thoughts of more pin trading.

Side note. I never raised my hand for the candy and never even considered raising my hand. For one, I hate volunteering for anything and two, it wasn't chocolate. I might have reconsidered if she was sculpting rise crispy treats dipped in chocolate but nope, it was just plain old hard candy.

After more pin trading, we head to the nearest food booth, Athens.

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I can't rememeber the name of the dish but it was a spinach cheese pastry piece of carp. Yep, we weren't impressed. We then head to the next booth but the line is long. Ok fine, lets try another and come upon another long line. Apparently the cat is out of the bag and everyone in Orlando knows about the Food & Wine Festival's soft opening. Darn it.

We decide we aren't that hungry, especially since we have a 4 pm reservation for Coral Reef. We decide to head back to Future World and pin trade in the nice air-conditioned Innovations buildings.

We have fun playing some of the games like this one for Waste Management. It is actually a pretty cool game where we learned about how much garbage we are producing. Luckily neither of us are very wasteful so felt proud of ourselves by the end of the course.

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Donald then watches me make homemade paper.

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We enjoyed innovations but it didn't take us long to pin trade our way through the building so we decided to get fast passes for Soarin and ride the Living Land ride.

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We both love this ride. We did the Behind the Seeds tour in January and loved it (but not enough to pay for it again).

We then headed to Coral Reef.

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I will try to be nice because I feel like I was not so nice talking about Miyuki but anyway Coral Reef was loud and packed with kids. Lots of kids, lots of kids who kept running up to the Aquarium behind the guests who were lucky enough to get front row seats. I am so glad I wasn't that lucky. We got seats on the second tier which gave us a great view of the aquarium without having to worry about kids behind our chair, touching our backs, being annoying while we are trying to eat. Are me and Donald the only ones who find it rude that parents let their kids run up to the aquarium squeezing in behind the chairs of people trying to eat. It seemed to me that all tables had views of the aquarium so I didn't see the need of all the kids having to touch the glass. Just my opinion. Flame away, I've got my fireproof jacket on. ;)

The food was great but the atmosphere had a lot to be desired. Our waiter was really great. We enjoyed our food but won't be returning to the Coral Reef. Once was enough for us.

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After dinner, we rolled ourselves back to Soarin. Soarin was the only ride that we had to wait for even with fast passes. I think we ended up waiting 20 minutes. Yep, 20 minutes is a short wait but we were spoiled from our January trip of no waits.

We played around futureworld for awhile and then decided to call it a night. We were skipping Illuminations. Last trip, we got a special viewing as a prize for the dreams promotion. We loved it but really didn't want to see it again, at that moment. We were both tired. The long week was finally catching up with us.

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We made it back to our room around 9 pm. After hearing a loud noise Donald stepped outside on our balcony and discovered we could see portions of Illuminations. I was impressed for like two seconds and then I went back inside. Donald watched the show while I amused myself by looking at our pins from our great trading day.

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I think we finally went to bed around 11 pm. Every night, I downloaded my pictures to my laptop and then to my USB drive. I am paranoid about losing my pictures so I have two backup sources. Actually I had a third backup source (CD's) but I never took the time to burn my pictures to the cd's. The USB drive is so handy and takes up less space. Plus I wrote in my journal, talked to family, blah, blah, blah. We never made it to bed before 11 pm. We don't believe vacations are for relaxing. ;) I don't think Donald and I know how to relax. :rolleyes1

Dr_Finkelstein

10-20-2008, 03:55 PM

:ssst: Yeah, a couple of swear words might have escaped my lips. I quit swimming around that area after I realized there were sharks right there. They might have been behind glass but anyone remember Jaws 3 or Deep Blue Sea? Glass is nothing to sharks. ;) O.k. so maybe I am a little paranoid.

Not paranoid at all - my greatest fear is that sharks will one day evolve and be able to breathe and survive on land.......then, there will be no hiding place!!! :rolleyes1
Maybe I'm a lot paranoid!
Great photos from Epcot! We'll be there for the F&W festival as well - free food! :cloud9:
Di x

SmithFamily2003

10-22-2008, 09:53 AM

You are hilarious!!! I want to go see the candy lady now!!! Since you apparently have way too many pins, you can send some over my way! :woohoo:

teresajoy

10-22-2008, 11:02 AM

Yet another great update Jenny!! I like the picture of you with the two Donalds!! And, your expression on Test Track is priceless! :thumbsup2

The candy lady, I've never seen her, but I've heard of her. MMMM... chocolate dipped rice crispy treats! Now we're talkin!

We went to Coral Reef two years ago. We had a seat that was strategically placed so we couldn't see anything. I did let the kids go up to the aquarium, but I made sure that they were not standing behind someone! I waited for a table to clear and let them go up to that table. I was not impressed with Coral Reef, at all.

missj1975

10-22-2008, 11:10 AM

We went to Coral Reef two years ago. We had a seat that was strategically placed so we couldn't see anything. I did let the kids go up to the aquarium, but I made sure that they were not standing behind someone! I waited for a table to clear and let them go up to that table. I was not impressed with Coral Reef, at all.

I didn't realize there were bad seats at Coral Reef. It sounds like you were very considerate. I was just shocked by how many kids were running around between occupied seats. Yeah, I wasn't impressed with Coral Reef. The steak was good, just as good as Tony's which has much nicer atomosphere and less noise.

missj1975

10-27-2008, 10:58 AM

Wow, I can't believe it has been 7 days since I last updated. Sorry, life got busy. I'm in the middle of a home improvement project, trying to get done before the cold weather hits St. Louis.

Anyway, back to Disney. We woke up bright and early because today we were being daring and park hopping to three different parks. This was our last full day so we decided to make the most of it.

We woke up early and headed to Disney's Hollywood Studies with only one goal in mind, ride Toy Story Mania again. We drove. Donald had no more patience for the overcrowded buses.

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We were in time for rope drop but the crowds were already pretty crazy. We made it through the sea of humanity to our favorite ride.

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As usual, Donald kicked my butt but I was happy with my little furry rabbit prize.

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Donald wanted to get another picture taken with his namesake so we headed back to the front. Donald was not one of the characters in the front near the Hat Icon so we asked a nice cm who told us to be back at 10:20 and told us where to stand.

We had time to kill so you will never guess what we did...yeap...lucky guess ;) we pin traded... my loyal four readers are catching on ;) . Smithfamily2003, you want some pins?...I've got you covered. :rotfl:

We made it back to the Hat Icon and milled around for 10 minutes. There were a couple people standing around but no one in our area. All of a sudden Donald comes out of the back followed by tons of people. Apparently the tons of people saw him come out and decided to follow him up front. A photopass photographer started to form a line out of these tons of people completely not near where we were standing. Well, after 7 days of Disney, I could really careless what anyone thought and I pulled Donald to the front of the line. Yep, we technically cut in front of the line of people and were the first ones to get our picture taken with the real Donald. So yep now I'm a line cutter but I don't care. We were there first and no one seemed to care (I just ignored the mutters ;) ). We happily got our picture taken and were merrily on our way.

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We headed to Epcot and got a pretty good parking spot for being there two hours after park opening. We headed to the World Showcase to partake of the Food and Wine Festival. Well, the place was already crowded and we weren't in the mood for lines. We were hungry now so we had more Mexican. Donald loves Mexican. We split a counter service because I decided to save mine for sushi.

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We had saved our snack credits for the F&W festival. Silly us. We went to the first booth and apparently they were having computer problems and were only accepting cash. We did have cash but Donald is stubborn so we moved on. We finally found a booth that accepted snack credits so Donald tried a slice of pizza from Italy. He was very disappointed. We were both disappointed. We just weren't feeling the F&W festival. Oh well, we did have a great time exploring all the shows around the world.

We reached Japan so we had some sushi. It was ok. The sushi at the Sunshine Food Court is much better. Actually the sushi at my Schnucks deli is much better. But I was happy, afterall I was at Disney.

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We bought one more F&W festival item. We tried the chocolate creme brulee in France. It was awesome but I have yet to meet a bad creme brulee.

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My attempt at trying to impress my sister with my photographic ability. :rolleyes:

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Around 2 pm, we headed back to the room to get ready for our second Halloween Party. We made it to Magic Kingdom by 4 pm. We had dinner at the Crystal Palace.

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No pictures of food, just a typical Disney buffett. The food was good but nothing impressive. I did enjoy the prime rib. I doubt we eat at the Crystal Palace again. I mainly wanted Donald to meet Winnie the Pooh characters. We had fun with the characters and then moved on...to more pin trading. I traded for several great pins from the character handlers in the restaurant.

We headed to our favorite ride and as usual it did not disappoint.

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We walked around for awhile, enjoying the sites and collecting some candy.

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We contemplated getting our picture taken with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but the line was way too long. It was always way too long. Donald is not into meeting characters like I am so we have a compromise that we only wait if the line is short. Donald doesn't like to waste time. I can humor him. We humor each other. Really, he does whatever I want 99% of the time so I didn't pout about not being able to meet the dwarfs.

Our favorite trick or treat stations were the ones throughout the Mad Tea Party line. The CM's were the best. Especially this one.

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He was at both parties and talked to me a lot each time like I was the real Giselle. He warned me about the wicked witch pushing people in the well, etc. He really played my outfit up so I loved him. Plus he gave me tons of candy.

Since we had done pretty much everything we wanted to do at the first party, we took the time to ride more rides and just not rush around as much. It was nice and relaxing.

And maybe a little bit scary.

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The only goal that night was to watch the Villian Meet and Greet Show. We went to the last show at 11:15 (I think). Well lots of people were sitting around the front of the castle but no one was lined up next to the chains. Ok whatever people, I walked right up to the chains and got a front row spot. Hmmm, I might have been rude but really, snooze you loose. I think the people thought they could watch the show sitting down but I knew once it started everyone would be rushing up towards the stage and I was right.

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The show was great but a little more risque then I remembered from 2005. Maleficent was all over the Chippendale dancers. The male dancers were Chippendale dancers, right? Perhaps I was confused or maybe they were confused. I think Donald tried covering my eyes at one point. ;)

After the show the characters come out and stand in line for pictures. I was very excited because Cruella stood right in front of Donald and I. Yeah! Well the CM handler opened the chain link next to where we were standing so of course the line started forming next to us instead of behind us. Well I am having none of that so I pull Donald right to the front past the now forming line and we get our pictures with Cruella. Seriously, sometimes you have to take charge or opportunites will pass you by. Am I rude? Perhaps but no one yelled at me so it was all good.

We did get in line for Maleficent and you will be happy to know that I didn't cut anyone off. I did hear a couple of people grumble that Maleficent wasn't signing autographs. I knew that ahead of time so I wasn't upset. She did actually sign autographs in 2005 so I have one. Hmmm, does that make her autograph rare? Perhaps I should try selling it on ebay. ;)

Sorry I'm not posting the pictures with Cruella and Maleficent. They photographed great, me not so much. Good enough for my personal scrapebook but not good enough for a public forum. I've already reached my quota of humiliating photographs for this thread.

After the show, we pin traded away the last of our pins and headed back to the bus. We did take the bus to Magic Kingdom, so much easier then driving even if the buses were crowded.

Our last full day. We were sad. We didn't have much packing to do because we live out of our suitcases and pretty much pack as we go everyday. And we had lots of stuff. Lots more then what we came with. I might have went a little crazy. I will post my budget buster spreadsheet later. Yeap, I definitely stimulated the economy.

Hang in there, we have one more half day left and the fun drive home.

JaxJags08

10-27-2008, 03:20 PM

http://i261.photobucket.com/albums/ii48/jennyann1975/disney2008013-1.jpg

Hey - but you beat Donald in accuracy! So, technically he just took more shots than you - if you had taken more, maybe you would have won! :goodvibes

missj1975

10-27-2008, 03:27 PM

Hey - but you beat Donald in accuracy! So, technically he just took more shots than you - if you had taken more, maybe you would have won! :goodvibes

Ahhh, you are so sweet and so right. I can't wait to tell Donald. ;)

Dr_Finkelstein

10-28-2008, 04:08 PM

Enjoyed the update!
You line cutter you...tut, tut....:sad2: , there will be other threads starting up now talking about you! :rolleyes1
But, as I like to say - carpe diem, or you as you put it better - you snooze, you lose!
Di x

Dr_Finkelstein

10-29-2008, 02:16 PM

Hi,
Just popped in to say 'cheerio', we're off tomorrow....finally!
WDW here we come!! :cool1: :cool1:
Will catch up when I get back
Di x

missj1975

11-04-2008, 03:11 PM

We woke up early, packed the car, and headed to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Faire.

Perhaps we were just tired from lack of sleep or perhaps inattentive because we weren't ready to go home but for some reason we couldn't figure out the Grand Floridian parking lot. We were spoiled at V&A's because we had complimentary valet parking. Anyway, we drove around the front of the Grand Floridian for 20 minutes until we finally decided to read the signs and realized the Grand Floridian makes their guests park across the street unless they shell out $10 for valet parking. We were too cheap that morning so we parked in the west boonies and hiked back to the front of the Grand Floridian for breakfast with my favorite characters.

Breakfast was good but crowded, crowded with clueless people who took way too long to make food choices. I was hungry so I just weaved and darted around people and quickly filled my plate. Donald on the other hand wasn't as good at dodging clueless people. I am pretty sure I was done with my first plate by the time he made it back to the table. ;)

The character interaction was great. Awesome.

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You all know who this fellow is, right? I guess Alice in Wonderland is not a well know movie because the family next to us had no idea who he was. The mother happily admitted her cluelessness and asked the Mad Hatter what movie he was from and then proceeded to ask the Mad Hatter if he wanted to marry the girl running around in the blue dress. :confused: :scared1: Oh my goodness, all I could think was no the mad hatter is not a pedophile. Speechless for a moment, the Mad Hatter replied Alice and him were just good friends and then he quickly moved to my table where I inflated his ego back up. Poor guy.

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Hmmm...I'm pretty sure the clueless mother greeted this guy "Hi Tony." Ok maybe not but it wouldn't have surprised me.

After breakfast we took the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. :3dglasses
Yep, I'm on a roll with my flammable acts. Instead of driving the car to the Magic Kingdom parking lot, we took the monorail. And I am happy to report that our car did not get towed nor did we get banned for life from the parks.

We were on a quest for paint brushes. I made the mistake of telling Donald about the hidden paint brushes on Tom Sawyers Island. Or I should say the rumored hidden paint brushes. Anyway, Donald can't resist a treasure hunt so we were first in line for the first raft over to the island. Two teenagers tried to edge us out but I gave them the evil eye and they backed off.

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The raft quickly filled up and we were off to the island. The raft was strangly quiet. I'm sure all the families were divising game plans in their mind because as soon as the raft docked, everyone spread out in different directions. I followed Donald around as he searched every nook and cranny of that island.

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We had a lot of fun exploring the island but Donald started to think the supposed paint brushes were an urban legend. I told Donald my sister had found one on a past trip but I don't think he believed me. I was having too much fun watching Donald to throw a fit about him implying I'm a liar. He was like a kid in a candy store at the fort. Donald played with every gun and climbed every ladder. Even kids stopped to watch the crazy grown man run around the fort.

We scanned every group we passed to see if they had a paintbrush. Everyone was empty handed. After about 45 minutes, we decided ghost hunting would be more fun so we headed to the raft. Guess who else was on the raft. The two teenage girls empty handed. Donald can find a needle in a haystack. Yep, I'm quite sure there were no paint brushes on the island that day. Yeah, I know, I should have asked the cm to see if they had hid any that day. :headache: If only I would have thought of that then instead of now. We still had a great time on the island even if we didn't find a paint brush.

Pop Quiz. Which bird is real?

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We stopped by the frontierland trading post to trade in our snack credits for rice krispy treats and cookies. Yum, Yum. ***I actually still have one pumpkin shaped rice krispy treat left sitting in my work desk drawer. I've been meaning to eat it but all my co-workers have been bringing in great Halloween Candy.

We then headed for the last ride of our trip.

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We dragged our feet to the monorail and then headed back to the Grand Floridian. We stopped by their quick service area and used our last counter service credit for some sandwiches to take on the road. The sandwiches were awesome and the cm's were very helpful in making sure we got the most out of our credits.

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I think we finally left around 1pm. :sad1:
Our 15 hour drive turned into a 17 hour nightmare because of the whole gas shortage thing. I mentioned in the beginning of my trip report. Let's just say we won't be driving our next trip.

Next trip...Yep...Next trip.:cheer2: :cheer2: :cheer2:
Donald and I upgraded our tickets to an annual pass during this trip. Well I will have to say being an AP does have some great perks. We got a code for $49 room a night in February so now we are going back for the first week of February. And we are flying. Southwest has $200 round trip tickets at the moment so we are snapping those up and going back to Disney. Yeah!!!

ILuvCrush

11-04-2008, 03:29 PM

missj1975

11-04-2008, 03:45 PM

Horray for Missy and Donald!!

What a wonderful trip... I'm so glad you shared it with us! I'm excited for you about the AP:woohoo: AND the Feb trip.

Is it a birthday trip??? Or another 'celebration'??? I just got my AP Mickey Monitor today... I knew about the free ticket for your bday... but I didn't know that they were having special t-shirts, PINS, mickey ears, and photopass images for all kinds of other 'celebrations'

I hope you get to enjoy some of the extras...and maybe add a few really neat new pins to your collection too!

Paula

First off, Thank you Paula for reading my trip report. I am glad you enjoyed my report. It was fun sharing.

AP Mickey Monitor? What is that and how do I get it? I did register my AP online with Disney but haven't received anything in the mail.

My birthday is in September and Donald's is in August. We definitely won't go in August (because of the heat) but I might be able to talk Donald into another September trip.

Hmmm, what celebration can I think of for my February trip? Hmmm, will I jinx myself if I say I hope Donald proposes to me soon? We have talked about marriage and I know we are headed towards that goal but as usual life has a way of complicating things. As soon as Donald gets his life uncomplicated, perhaps an engagement celebration might be in order. Or maybe a honeymoon (we are old, we don't believe in long engagments ;) )

ILuvCrush

11-04-2008, 03:55 PM

Your welcome!!

Mickey Monitor is the AP quarterly(or so) newsletter. You'll probably get one soon. If not, there's a link to see the most recent and the back issues on the passholder site on waltdisneyworld.com

Maybe you can celebrate.. Yay I get to go to WDW, and not to work day!! Wonder if there's a pin for that:confused3

Donald seems to have a pretty romantic mind... he did a great job for your bday! Maybe a WDW valentine engagement is not such a crazy idea after all;)

Paula

Dr_Finkelstein

12-05-2008, 02:26 PM

missj1975

12-05-2008, 02:34 PM

Hi there,

Finally I'm getting all caught up now! Really enjoyed the last update - very funny with the Mad hatter at GF! Some people know nothing!!!

So, so far on this trip you've committed numerous infractions; to name just a few - queue jumping, parking in resort hotel car parks when going to parks, cutting in front in buffet lines.......the list is endless. Shocking really :sad2:

Though, I have to admit the buffet line people at GF were bad - who difficult can it be to choose your food?

Thanks for sharing your trip with us, it was really enjoyable. Hope to read all about the next one too! Will it be on the wedding thread?? :scratchin

Di x

I am glad you enjoyed my trip report. I am especially glad you didn't flame me for being a line-cutting, queue jumping, waits for no one type of person. ;)

I am looking forward to my February trip even though I am so bummed that I won't be able to enjoy any Pirate and Princess Parties. I should have tons to write on my next trip report because I am actually going at the same time as my twin sister and her family. We are staying at different hotels but plan on meeting up several times. That should be interesting. :scared1: Plus I plan on taking over 400 pins to trade. Yep, I have a problem.

There is a chance that something wonderful could happen before then. My Donald received very good news in "the saga of his life before me" so this might be a very Merry Christmas, indeed. :woohoo:

I have been slacking on reading trip reports. Life has just been so busy but I plan on getting all caught up on yours. I hope you had a great trip and can't wait to read about it.

JPFamilyMom

12-08-2008, 03:55 PM

missj1975

12-08-2008, 06:48 PM

Just popped over from Dr. Finkelsteins TR and just fast read through yours. Wow I'm so jealous of the fabulous trip you had. Discovery Cove looked wonderful. and all the food looked so tasty. You got some great pictures, like devine, wow. Looking forward to reading about your February report if you do one. :)

Thanks for reading my trip report. I am sure I will write a February Trip report, hopefully it will be just as magical as my last trip.

teresajoy

12-08-2008, 09:15 PM

First, I can't believe I got all behind on your TR!!! So sorry!

Jenny! I'm shocked! You are a LINE CUTTER!!! Good for you!!!!

I love all the pin trading you guys do!!! I just stand back and let my kids do it! They did buy me a lanyard two years ago. Someday I'll be brave and trade pins with someone other than my kids!

Don't you love a CM that really plays the part!! (what was he, the 6 of clubs?)

You cut again!! I love the way you stick up for yourself!!!

Love the Mad Hatter playing with your braids! You have LONG hair!

Seirouslsy?? Those people didn't know who the Mad Hatter was??? Or Alice??? Weird!

Ok, I am cough laughing about the "Hi Tony" comment to Tigger!

Jenny, Jenny Jenny!! You are SUCH a rebel!! Taking the MONORAIL to MK!!!

It looks like you guys had fun on Tom Sawyer's Island!!! We had fun there this year too! We played checkers!

Funny you say you won't be driving the next trip, we are thinking of driving again this next yeark if the gas prices stay low.

Hey, my sister will be there the first week of February too!!! You should crash the Disboutiquers meet!

missj1975

12-08-2008, 09:39 PM

First, I can't believe I got all behind on your TR!!! So sorry!

No biggie, I kind of let my report die after my last post. Life got busy, especially with the sudden decision to go back again so quickly.

Jenny! I'm shocked! You are a LINE CUTTER!!! Good for you!!!!

Yeah, I kind of felt guilty for like a second and then I realized I'm not a follower. I try to be polite but I have little patience for clueless people.

I love all the pin trading you guys do!!! I just stand back and let my kids do it! They did buy me a lanyard two years ago. Someday I'll be brave and trade pins with someone other than my kids!

Seriously, you have to pin trade. It is so much fun. My brother-in-law doesn't think Donald and I rode any rides because we were too busy pin trading. We pin traded a lot but still had tons of time to ride every ride that we wanted to. My obession has now rubbed off on my sister so her husband told her she can only take 100 pins to trade. I'm just glad Donald loves to pin trade too and definitely knows better then try to limit how many pins I trade. I've trained him well!!!

Don't you love a CM that really plays the part!! (what was he, the 6 of clubs?)

Yes the 6 of Clubs was great, both nights. He remembered me because of the great dress you made me. I just can't thank you enough for that wonderful dress.

Seirouslsy?? Those people didn't know who the Mad Hatter was??? Or Alice??? Weird!

I had to bite my tongue because I really wanted to interrupt their conversation and express my disbelief. Instead I just shamelessly eavesdropped and made fun of them on a public discussion forum. ;)

Funny you say you won't be driving the next trip, we are thinking of driving again this next yeark if the gas prices stay low.

I personally would prefer to drive again but I do have to give a little in this relationship. Donald wants to fly so we fly, this time. I enjoyed the drive, probably because Donald did most of the driving. :rotfl: We scored airline tickets round trip with no stops for $225 each. Since we got such a great deal on our hotel ($50 a night at Pop Century), I didn't mind spending a little extra for airline tickets. Flying just makes me nervous; security, arriving early, delayed flights, sitting around waiting, sitting next to hairpulling babies, etc. I just need to remind myself Donald wants to fly, he asks for so little so the least I can do is agree to it. Can you tell I am trying to convince myself?

Hey, my sister will be there the first week of February too!!! You should crash the Disboutiquers meet!

I haven't checked out your sewing thread forever. Everytime I read that thread, I have to resist the urge to go buy a sewing machine. Or resist to urge to have tons of babies so I can make matching outfits for them. I wouldn't mind the second part, I just need a ring around my finger first. ;) Which actually might be a possibility. I will be quiet now. I don't want to jinx myself but I think I might be having a very good Christmas or maybe at least a New Years surprise.

I can't decide if I should start another pre-trip report or just roll my next report into this one. Hmmm, it might be easier for my three subscribed fans ;) if I just stick with this thread.