The Disney princess audition, triple hurricane, fueding family, LONG drive , T.R.! [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 12:23 AM

UPDATED 5-28-09

Introductions http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29551526&postcount=59

A bit about us http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29552161&postcount=61

Hitting the road.. Are you coming or not?
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29554066&postcount=63

2nd day on the road and arrival at Windsor Hills
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30960506&postcount=85

Care to see what Florida does to your hair? http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30960806&postcount=86

1st day at MK with hurricane Hannah in tow! http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30961986&postcount=88

A day of rest at Windsor Hills and keeping our eyes on hurricane Gustav cat 5 !!!
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32018524&postcount=104

MGM here we come ! Part 1 http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32018595&postcount=105

Part 2 http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32018650&postcount=106

Part 3 http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32018688&postcount=107

What happened - is happening ? http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35123636&postcount=138

Epcot ( or a trip tp ER?) http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35124319&postcount=139

MGM / HS - Shes so happy she is dancing in the streets! Just a quick video http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35124561&postcount=140

****COMING SOON **** ( not listed in order)
MGM
Downtown Disney and Celebration ( Lego store and more)
Disney face character auditions
Breakfast at WL
more park days
and much much more....

Did I snag you with my snazzy title ? Well did I? No? ... Ok well it will get better. I am just getting started. Much to come.

Last time I tried doing a trip report it was a total failure. But I am determined to see this one through! I enjoy readings everyones reports so much. I hope I dont put any of you to sleep! If you are reading this and lurking , let me know! Otherwise I might turn chicken , feel unloved and run tail and hide! You wouldnt want that would you? Not when this trip will entail all the excitments of fueding family members, Disney princess tryouts and brushes with hurricanes! And of course oh so much more. But this is a pre trip and trip report in one so you will have to wait for the good stuff.:surfweb:

BEFORE we get started let me give you some basics. We leave next week. I am NOT packed. But I AM under budget! So many things came up in the last 2 weeks that drained my trip funds! We rented a beautiful home offsite ( I will share info on that later) . I will be adding lots of pics and video in the next couple days. Im going to try to figure out the whole posting links to my posts and how to upload pics that are not monster size thing. So bear with me . Any tech advice welcome. Oh and excuse the typos . Posting with one contact lense in at 1 am is not such a good thing ! lol

OKay lets start with the introductions:

Me~ 34 ( am I that old already?) I am the driving force behind this trip. I love all things Disney. I grew up a hour from WDW and visited there many times a year over the course of my childhood. As a kid who didnt have the easiest life ( no feelings of self pity here) WDW was a place for me to escape to. I was the little girl that really believed in fairytales and magic with all my heart , and I still do. I am the biggest kid . My kids like to tease me but they really think its cool. They just dont admit it to me to often. I think I am a pretty cool mom if I do say so myself! I am the mom that throws all out Indiana Jones partys , plays Halo on Xbox with my teen , and runs around playing lazer tag with my boys. I love to do things with my kids . I am also a homeschooling mom and in the process of trying to start up my own non profit food allergy education organazation ( that was a mouthful).

Hubby~ We have had a tough year. He is really excited and ready for this trip. He gets stressed out a LOT. He gets stressed over getting stressed. Needles to say I have taken over most of the planning. The budget part is what gets to him the most. I am hoping he will wind down quite a bit once we get down there. Oh did I mention he is NOT thrilled my mother and sister might be joining us? He is afraid she will drag us down and take advantage of us and then do nothing but complain anyway. Not to mention the drama my sister loves to induce. I hate to say it but hes right. But what can I do they are family right? Maybe they will behave.. maybe... If not I am sure this trip report will get pretty interesting. Oh I almost forgot something. It will be his birthday when we are down there. I want to do something special. He doesnt want a over the hill party. lol I told him fine then I will give him a Disney princess party. He is not amused... I dont think he believes me anyway!

DD14~ What can I say! She is 14! I had a epihiany the other day when my DD informed that me that she wanted to fix up her room. So ok I said let go reorganize it a bit. BUT NO! She meant lets get rid of all things princessy and all the dolls and pink girly stuff. She wanted a " cool" room now.So we went out and bought her new bedding and paint out of trip budget money. (can u say spoiled?) She informed me also that she has not like Disney princess stuff for like 3 years now, she did it just for me. WHAT? IS SHE CRAZY? What 14 year old does not love Disney princess stuff? I am 34 and I love it! Wait... you mean thats not normal ? Thanks! She did give me a hug and tell me that I could always put the dolls in my room. So my little girl packs up and thows out all her " baby" stuff and all of sudden I feel like crying. Not a bad kind of feeling but a " My little girl is growing up kind of crying". When you realize as a mom that the world is moving way to fast and it scares the heck out of you. Driving in as little as 2 years!!!! I think I will faint! But to be honest, I think she is still excited about Disney . I saw her myspace (she has to show me everything she does online!) and her blog was how she was all excited. She is already thinking of what to pack. But she is refusing BBB this year! Geez... she takes away all my fun! Maybe we can take hubby there for his princess party. heheh Oh and I did forget to mention I did get one princess back in her room... We picked out Disney paint at Home Depot.We got Sleeping Beauty pink paint! So Hah! I win! She has a sarcastic sense of humor and pretends that I "embarrass" her . She calls me a Disney dork. But she really loves it.

DS~ 7 He is a charmer. One look from him and I dare you to deny him anything. He's got a beautiful head of curly hair and eyes that just make warm your heart. He loves to play pranks on his sister! He is very creative and comes up with so many solutions to things. He has a little mischevious streak to him to. He keeps us entertained and always makes me laugh. We have been having a lot of bonding time lately. I love just listening to his thoughts and ideas. He has a silly goofy sense of humor and will always crack a joke .

DS~ 6 My little guy. He is the worlds pickiest eater! He truly gives me heart failure! Whoever said " They will eat when they are hungry" didnt know my son! Seriously he kicks my butt at super smash bros. at 6 years old! Thats scary! His smile just lights up my day and makes me forget everything . He has a witty sense of humor with a touch of sarcasm and all at 6. He is such a cutie. My only child that actually enjoys schoolwork! I am hoping this never changes, but I know better.

Now here is where it gets interesting....

My mom and sis might are coming along as I mentioned . You know that " If you cant say nothing nice dont say anything at all " thing? Well I can say a few nice things... I can...

My mom ( Lets just call her grandma, she would love that!)

My Mom/Grandma~ Just had gastric bypass. She is doing good now . Had it over a month back but is still not wanting to move or walk much. She likes to milk things a bit , she has always been that way . So much that no one ever takes her seriously. She is really wanting to go on the trip with us, but at the same time all she does is say how she hates everything we are doing. She has nothing good to say about Disney mind you ( or much else). Just mostly how dirty , crowded , and crappy it is in general. And dont get her started comparing how wonderful Universal is to Disney. ( Course last time we I took her on a trip with me we stayed at the Hard rock in orlando and had no waits for lines at Universal. We visited Disney one day during a holiday and arrived at 12 pm. So of course it was bad! I have tried to convince her September is different and we are going EARLY. Oh yeah and she thinks that Disney has some front of the line pass that they will give her because no one would ever expect her to actually stand in line 4 weeks after a gastric bypass .( Insert eye rolling smiley) ( My Grandmother btw had surgery for cancer recently ,has 2 knee implants and back surgery and walks everywhere, even she cant understand why my mom is acting like this! ) My mom and I are not really close. She has me when she was 21 and not really ready I think. Our relationship has always been strained. But I do try. She is not the mothering / grandmotherly type. But se does have a great relationship with my sister ( who she has when she was older and ready, so we have a huge age difference) . Even though I would venture to say its not the healthiest.

My sister~ 17 She has a huge heart and really wants to be a good person. She is very giving and loves kids. She does want to be happy but she has so many deep issues ( from living with my mom no doubt) and it seems like she can never just sit for 2 seconds and count her blessings. I want her to be happy . She thinks the world is out to get here and no one loves her etc etc... I try to help but it has always backfired. I have learned the hard way to only help when its really wanted and sometimes not even then. She is a bit difficult and gets into fits about things where there is NO reasoning with her. Anything my mom says she agrees with. She can be very negative and sometimes her and my mother can both be very mean and catty. I actually had to take them ( mother and sister) out of my life last year. I renewed my relationship with my sister BUT with "guidelines" and " rules" . I didnt want my kids being affected by their bad choices. They wanted us back in their lives so it was with certain caution that I allowed it. The thing is is you always want a relationship with your family right? I want it to work, so I try . But I do have lines drawn. I could list stuff here that would make Walt turn over but lets not ( that would make me a bad person!)! lol My sister also believes Disney will "stink". She is like a mini version of my mom. But maybe.. there is still hope. She is 17 and I will MAKE her have a good time. Because as crazy as she drives us all ( and herself) I want her to open her eyes to life outside the bubble .If it gets to the point where she is taking away from the kids by causing anyone to be upset I will back down and focus on the people that want to be there.I will not let one person ruin a trip for a bunch of people who want to be there and are happy. My sister I should mention attends theater schools and plans on being a actress.( runs in the family) Oh.. and she wants to try out to be a Disney face character. She wants me to take her to the auditions that will be going on when we are down there.OUR CONVERSATION: OK but you dont live there! No problem says my mom , we will move down. OKayyyy says I, how the heck will you do that so fast? Stay with friends of course.. What about your husband and dog back home? Oh their fine... what? Ok... Disney auditions it is... That you will want to check back up on for sure. Oh I had to sit and listen to them go on about which princess's were attractive and which were " OMG , so ugly"
( according to my sister). My mom was the worst! "Disney picked her! Your kidding. She looks 40 or she has wrinkles!" I could only roll my eyes. I must say in my sisters defense that she does love kids and would be a wonderful princess. I hope she gets this , it would be a good thing for her. I feel like I made her sound so bad but really... you have no idea! I am terrified how things will go.

So with the exception of my mother and sister which seem so set on going even though "Disney is terrible" ( I am warning them about complaining in front of us , I told them to talk about all their " problems" and "dislikes" in private with each other so the rest of us could be enjoy ourselves), we are all so excited. We are now facing the possibility according the the latest weather reports of encountering a hurricane as we arrive. Between the hurricane , my fueding family ( husband and mother, although my husband has promised to be good! ) , and the Disney princess auditions with my sister who will no doubt not be happy if she does not make it I am sure this will be a eventful trip!

So.. You still with me? Will my sister become a princess? Will my mom behave? Will my husband be able to tolerate my mother? Will a hurricane hit? Will my teen rebel at wearing matching family shirts? Will my boys learn you cant take "everything" home from the Lego store? Can I keep my husband from weaing socks with his crocs ?( no seriously he even grabbed dress socks last time....) Oh the plot thickens....

magicgirl

08-26-2008, 01:27 AM

I am eagerly waiting for more. Last year my sister and neice ( 20 year old spoilt princess ) came with us. We are going on our own this year.

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 11:58 AM

I am eagerly waiting for more. Last year my sister and neice ( 20 year old spoilt princess ) came with us. We are going on our own this year.

Woohoo my first official reader! :goodvibes Glad you are joining me. Yeah sisters are something in and of themselves. My sister is totally my mom's baby / spoiled little princess. I have a feeling that just like you , my next trip will be " minus" the add on's. ( sister and mother)

But everyone is getting into a excited mood now and upbeat. So we will see how it goes. I am hoping for the best.

william4192

08-26-2008, 02:00 PM

I'm on board and plugged in.

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 02:15 PM

I'm on board and plugged in.

Awesome! Thanks William! I was so worried no one would join up . Happy to have you along.

I am off to go take some pics to post up. I will update tonight.princess:

missj1975

08-26-2008, 02:21 PM

Lurker checking in :wave2:

YIPP-E

08-26-2008, 03:25 PM

I'm in too. It's sounding good so far.

inkedupmomma

08-26-2008, 04:28 PM

lurking :) what part of pa are you in?

Aurora410

08-26-2008, 05:10 PM

Sounds interesting! I am waiting for more. :)

vettechick99

08-26-2008, 05:13 PM

Great start so far! We are going in October for Strollin' & Boozin' so I'm getting excited by reading lots and lots of TRs. Can't wait to read all about your vacation.

BTW, is that you in the avatar? Whoever it is is beautiful! :)

zeni

08-26-2008, 06:01 PM

Enjoying your TR. Keep it comin'

Lan

08-26-2008, 06:31 PM

I will be in Disney next Friday. I can not wait to hear what happens on your trip. I like the fact that you will not let your mom and sister ruin the family vacation.

fortheloveofamouse

08-26-2008, 06:49 PM

Family feuds in the happiest place on earth sucks, my MIL ruined our trip last year! Hope you all can get along, and if not..... ditch them! :)

FreFam5

08-26-2008, 07:09 PM

Great report so far - I can't imagine how you fizzled on your last one! reading about your sister reminds me about why my sister and I would NEVER vacation together!!!!

Can't wait to read more!!!!

pinkteacup

08-26-2008, 07:37 PM

Waiting for your next post.:)

Nancy for Disney

08-26-2008, 07:53 PM

You have an audience popcorn::

Nancy for Disney

08-26-2008, 07:54 PM

:) Oh and look, you are on page 2.

nateryan

08-26-2008, 07:55 PM

Very interesting about your family. I do hope that everyone gets along and enjoys themselves in Disney. Looking forward to more. :thumbsup2

FairyGodmotherJen

08-26-2008, 08:11 PM

We leave next week, too (nine days, to be exact) - YEAHH!!!!

I'm with you on the hurricane watch thing! Looking to read the next installment....

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 08:32 PM

Okay I am back! I am sooo happy to see you all here! Last report I waited like 2 days and no one posted:sad2: . So having you all makes this so much more fun.

I didnt get any packing , LMGH , etc etc pics tonight like I planned. I ended up shamooing my carpets so I would come back to a clean house. Thats if it stays clean till we go. I am going to upload some more pics and videos tomorrow. But for now here are some pics to get you all more familiar with us.
Not sure if I have the sizing right so bear with me..

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/dbfb74a5.jpg

I dont like to post pics of the younger ones but I think will do. Its Police officers Vanilla and Frog Toffee... I have no idea! lol Kids come up with the craziest things. They just walked out into the living room and I had to get this pic. The next night they were captin underpants and poopoo head. They keep me entertained.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/b0cde443.jpg
This is my daughter and I at Animal Kingdom last year after Kali River Rapids. That was one hot miserable day.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/e65d57d7.jpg
This is my sister on the left with my daughter on the right. This pic is kind of backward because my sister usually wears makeup and my daughter doesnt. But that was a night when my sister took my daughter out for a makeover. It was a example of some of the sweet things that she does. Its kind of strange sometimes having a sister and a daughter close in age!

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/ba1358c1.jpg
Since you are all following along on my sisters audition I thought I would show you some of her nicer studio pics. This was a pic that was done last year before her sweet 16th. I threw her a Mad Hatter party and she came as the Queen of Hearts. You can see how pretty of a girl she is.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/3b9bfc96.jpg
This is the way she normally looks without all the makeup.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/1bd088ad.jpg
Here is my husband . This was taken at Ak last year. Every pic I see of us from that day we are miserably hot. I hope this year is cooler. I guess I should be saying I hope there is no hurricane as well!

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/b2cb0a7f.jpg
This was on the most precious moments our whole trip. This was such a big deal to my son and he was so shy. The cowgirl was so good to him and really had no idea how much it could have meant to him . This is him taking the cowboy oath. He saw Woody prior to the show and wanted to hug him but they were going inside. He just collapsed of a broken heart. I have never seen him act like that. I went over to the handler and she gave him a few special minutes with the characters and when they came out for the roundup a few minutes later they all knew he was waiting and gave him lots of attention. Much to my daughters amusement they pulled me in as well. I had to dance with a big cowboy hat on my head. There on the side was my smart alec daughter laughing and holding the video camera. This trip I promised her I will get her back. lol

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/12d6ef9c.jpg
This is my other son and he loved when we got to the park early and got to ride the rides with the characters. He wanted to make in on time to ride on Dumbo with Stitch buthe left before we got through that blasted long line. I had no idea the characters came out early and rode the rides. Now that we know it will be something we aim for everytime. Its our goal that we will make rope drops this time. Last time we made it in about 15 20 minutes after opening. Which was good for us. But this time we want to get in before opening.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/0ce0d7cf.jpg
This is a typical example of my house. Here I am trying to take a pic for my myspace and the little booger runs up behind me and scares the crap out of me. Lol I had no idea he was in the pic till after I uploaded it.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/62ca5de5.jpg
And the crowning touch! Dont we look like we like we get along? lol I have to tell you the story behind this pic. My mom and I were sooo close to being on the now soon to air season of Biggest Loser. We made it past a couple hundred thousand all the way to NBC executives . Past casting directors and everthing. We were waiting on pins and needles and told that any we might be asked to hop a plane and fly to LA at any time . Well we didnt make the cut because in the end they had a certain slot to fill and in our case they needed a hispanic mother daughter. We were also told we were top in line for the next season ( the one that starts filming in a couple weeks) . But my mom tired of the stress went ahead with her gastric bypass. Now the stress was pretty horrible. We worked so hard and had to submit video after video and give interviews and so on. We dont even get along so everything was a huge struggle for us. My friend Jen Widder was on season 5 ( she helped us through the casting process)and I went to go see her in NYC and got to meet Jillian Michaels. Wow is all I can say about the experience. I dont care of someone is a celebrity. I dont get nervous or impressed. But she was amazing and so so sweet. She gave me a big hug and told me that I didnt make it because God knew I didnt need the show. And that I was strong enough to do this on my own. I cried and she hugged me and we had a nice talk. She told me if I did get on the show she would kick my #$% . lol She lectured me against gastric bypass and gave me the best inspiration anyone ever could. I went out and got a trainer/ gym membership and havent looked back. I have a lot to lose so its really daunting. But I told myself I can eat what I want just a lot less. So far so good. Its not pouring off like it is with my mom . But its coming off at a pretty steady but slow rate.So at WDW I plan on ordering kids meals , getting fruit and that kind of stuff. All the walking will help to. Maybe my trip report name should be Disney on a diet? Sorry to get off topic but as you can imagine its a big part of my dynamic with my mother right now. Its like she wants to compete with me as to who can lose it faster. She is always asking me " So what are you down to now?" uggg

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/cbaa47eb.jpg
http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/901be3c0.jpg Thats Jen on the right.
http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/ff206ee8.jpg

GirTheGecko

08-26-2008, 08:45 PM

I'm joining the audience popcorn::

hushupu

08-26-2008, 08:59 PM

I'm ready for more

inkedupmomma

08-26-2008, 09:37 PM

i LOVEEEE biggest loser!! that show is soo motivating!! After disney I am def going back on a diet! BL always motivates me to lose! I'm sorry you didn't get chosen though :(

inkedupmomma

08-26-2008, 09:41 PM

oh and your family is gorgeous!!! loveee the pic of your sis! very cool!

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 09:55 PM

inkedupmomma ~ I am in NE PA. I have been up here for quite a few years now. We are originally from Florida and I do miss it. But when its hurricane season like it is right now I am more than glad to be here! lol Bucks county is in NE PA isnt it? Or are you guys near Lancaster more. Its so pretty out that way. I love the show (BL) as well. But I tell you getting caught up in the process was not helping me get healthy. So ultimatly I had to step back. I did get invited to try again with my friend and I might. The producer I worked with before said she would personally hand it in. Its a hard call though because I am doing good now and afraid that getting into it all over again would set me back. Thanks for the compliment. I think they are all the most beautiful bunch of kids in the world. My sister is so pretty and just doesnt see it. My daughter is the same way. Its a rough age. I sure dont miss it.

Aurora~ So glad to have you. And yes I do think it should get interesting. lol Probaly a little to much for me. :P

vettechick99~ Thank you for the compliment. I was not wanting to post pics of myself with the weight gain. That made my day.:>

Zeni~ Thanks for joining. I hope to be adding tons of video and pics.

Lan~ Hey maybe I will run across you? I have yet to meet another Dis'er and I would love to. You going to any of the Dis meets? I am going to get to work on my LGMH tonight. I will have it pinned on my lime green baggelini . If you see me come on over and say hi.

fortheloveofthemouse~ lol I know ! I mean wdw is my special place. I told my mom tonight that if she was going to keep acting like she was going to the dentist instead of Disney that I would just ignore her . I called her today to give her trip info and tell her about the storm and she was like " Yeah well its Florida so what?" lol I guess I have to laugh.. And yeah... I may ditch her. But she knows that. I think she wants to sit by the pool more than anything anyway. Works for me!

FreFam5~ Last time I didnt get started in time . I also tried writing things late at night when I was tired I could remember anyting. This year I am taking a notebook with me and going to make notes of things to share with everyone.

Pinkteacup~ I am so addicted to the Disboards its a sickness . lol There will lost of posting coming. In fact I am getting yelled at now for still being on the web. :P

Nancy for Disney~ I was so afraid I would talking to myself. Glad to have you. Pass the popcorn. Page 2 is much further than my last report got to.

Nateryan~ Yeah you could say my family is " interesting" . Never a dull moment around here. Thank goodness my kids keep us all grounded.

Fairygodmotherjen~ If you see me come say hi! we will be there for 2 weeks. I am on my way over now to see where the hurricane is at. Isnt there another not far off aside from Gustav? Pretty crazy stuff.

Girthegecko~ You have popcorn to? Dont you guys know I am on a diet? lol Glad to have you. :>

Hushupu~ Check back tomorrow for some updates. I may get some video up if I have time inbetween all the packing.

Well everyone I am off to go check up on my friend Gustave . I will post more updates tomorrow. Night :>

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 11:01 PM

Well I said I was done posting for the night. But look what I found. http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/b810434c.gif
Its getting pretty crazy. My driving weather is not going to be so good. I am getting really on edge about all of t his now. Even if I miss one hurricane apparently there are more brewing. All I can do is pray at this point.

cinderella73

08-26-2008, 11:17 PM

This video is from last year. My daughter has already told me that this wont be happenening again this year. While she did love it at the time. She is a full fledged teen now and does not want to go back. But if you have a preteen or young child and havent been to BBB I thought you might enjoy the video . She had the makeup and hair package. They even give you little jewels to put on your cheek , which I didnt care for but I guess little girls love and makeup in a little bag when you are done. Even though she saw a grandmother going in and getting it done she hated the attention she got from it and said she felt to old to be there. Oh well, lesson learned. At least she enjoyed it while she was there. I was in awe just sitting in the room. Its beautiful in there!

http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=29681154

missmun52

08-27-2008, 08:44 AM

Sounds good so far. I'm in! Cant wait for the next post.

inkedupmomma

08-27-2008, 01:00 PM

whogirl'smom

08-27-2008, 01:29 PM

Loriann70

08-27-2008, 02:25 PM

Count me in!:surfweb:

tinkerbell*Xo

08-27-2008, 03:12 PM

Im Subscribing,
can't wait to hear about the auditions :)

JenSop

08-27-2008, 03:30 PM

I'm also on board! Hope it goes well!

I just saw something on NBC10 showing the projected path of the storm and it looks like it's going to miss Florida and head into the Gulf.

To the other PA posters - I grew up in Bucks County! - Quakertown to be exact (near the very northern part of the county.) Now we live in Hellertown, just above Bucks, in Northampton County

I'll also be interested in hearing about the auditions. I'm a singer and am always interested in learning of other opportunities. Although, I'm a bit short to be one of the princesses (plus I think I'll be getting aged out of that range soon anyway!) But I've often wished that there would be auditions (the open calls they have regularly) lining up when I was in the world, but no luck so far!

nateryan

08-27-2008, 03:47 PM

Very nice video of BBB. I don't have any daughters so I won't get to have that experience - you have beautiful pictures of her from BBB. Oh, and I really liked the music you put to it.

GirTheGecko

08-27-2008, 04:00 PM

Girthegecko~ You have popcorn to? Dont you guys know I am on a diet? lol Glad to have you. :>

Virtual popcorn is the only kind I can have. I'm battling the bulge too.

Back to eagerly awaiting your next installment.

jen2207

08-27-2008, 05:41 PM

Oooohh sounds good... I'm in! popcorn::

katiebug86

08-27-2008, 07:53 PM

I'm here. It sounds interesting. I hope everything goes good. *Fingers Crossed*

cinderella73

08-28-2008, 10:21 AM

Missmun~ Its all kinda boring pretrip report stuff for now. But with the line of 4 hurricanes / potential hurricanes / tropicial storms it shouldnt stay that way long..lol

inkedupmomma~ Philly is not that far. Its about a hour and a half I think? My cousin is going to school out there to study archaeology ( something I always wanted to do). You guys have a Ikea to! We have nothing here. I miss city life. :< You know the Bl show pays you 700 every week while you are on the ranch. But before that you have 2 weeks of sequestering where you are in a hotel and cant talk to anyone and have to go through all kinda of physical tests and interviews. Its a very strenous process but mentally more than anything. Just the audition process which went on for months was very stressful on my whole family. But its worth it if you get on. If you dont and have to try again I guess it still is but I think I needed a break from this casting . They were telling me that Brittany and Dan were submitted for consideration 3 times and one guy ( one of the brothers) was 4 times before he got on and they encouraged me to keep going. I guess that should make me feel better but I was getting rough on my kids with all the trips into NYc and me being busy. I will give it a go next casting ( which isnt far off). But I am hoping to be to the point where I wont need it soon. As far as kids go yes that exactly what you have to do. Girls are so critical of themelves. Of course us women are to. The best I could do is stop talking bad about myself in front of my daughter. I didnt realize it but I read somewhere how they pick up on that. And it makes sense of course. So if I am having a ugly feeling day I just try to turn it around or hide it. That and telling her how beautiful she is every day. A few more years and you will notice how once they hit 11 or 12( its getting younger than when I was a kid) they start getting really critical. Girls are just so much fun anyway! lol Enjoy 8 while it lasts. And when they are 12 they start to think they are 21.

Whogirlsmom~ Its sooo funny you said that because I did! I was thinking that I could totally relate. My sister showers no problems but she also waits till its time to GO out the door. But thats not even a big deal. Its the snotty comments from her and my mom that get to me. My mom lets my sister talk however she wants to whoever she wants even her father ( she is polite to strangers but not family). They both treat my stepdad terrible. He is the sweetest guy in the world. Believe me I might have some competition for Marivaid in "the worst sister" catagory by the time we are done. lol I do love her though and she can be great... but she can be terrible when she is not happy so I am hoping for the best or it will get ugly.

Loriann~ Thanks for joing up! :>

Tinkerbell~ We have about a week to go till the audition. My sister is going out today to get her outfit and character shoes that she wants to wear. She has been instructed to wear loose fitting clothes for movement routines and being in theater she always wore characters shoes so she wants to get a new pair.( For those that dont know I dont mean with character's on them lol, I mean dance shoes with heels)

Jensop~ Yeah but did you see the line of 4 tropical storms and the other nearby pending hurricane? Its getting kind of scary . I cant believe how many are out there right now. I am saying my prayers.Being on the short side is not a bad thing! IN fact my sister commented how she was usually to short for most roles , so she was happy she fit the requirements this time. I will ask her what the specifics were when I talk to her. I will have lots of audition stuff to post because I love that stuff as well. I was working in entertainment before my wonderful weight gain and if I was skinnier right now I would sure as heck be joining her. Sounds like so much fun! I am getting to old to be a princess lol ( 34) but I would love to take on the evil queen or something to that effect. My husband would say I could fit that role well! You should really considering auditioning next time you are down. I will post all the info so anyone who wants to consider doing it will have the basics handy. I got advice from a veteran who has traveled all over working for Disney as face characters. I will post some of her advice later.

Nateryan~ Thanks it was fun to put together. I just used one of my video programs and added pics and it arranged it all in time to the music for me. The song is by Allison Brooke and you can find it on LimeWire as a download. The Cd that it came on is hard to find. I think imeem has it as well.

Girthegecko~ Thats ok.. Just dont start passing Mickey bars around or I will be in trouble ! :P

Jen2207~ Hi! Nice to have you. Looks like your vacation is not far out either. Hope the storms will be all gone for you by the time you get here.

Katiebug~ Thanks! I can use all the finger crossing you have. There is a line of tropical storms and potential hurricanes lined up . Between that and everything else that seems to keep happening this week I am a nervous wreck. I cant wait till I get to the happy , relaxing, its a vacation part.

inkedupmomma

08-28-2008, 04:23 PM

vettechick99

08-28-2008, 05:30 PM

Great start so far. :) Enjoyed the story about Woody and your son, and how you didn't make TBL. I agree - you can do it without the surgery!

hinodis

08-28-2008, 05:46 PM

HI! I hope its not too late to join the fun!! It sounds like an intereting trip for sure. Hey things could be worse...my DH has 10 sisters:scared1: and 4 brothers. Yea...that makes lots of in-laws for me. I went to WDW last October, we have no plans for a trip in the future. So I am going to live vicariously through you so make sure we have a really good time.:thumbsup2

BellaSoleil

08-28-2008, 06:52 PM

I really like your report so far. Can't wait to hear more!

popcorn::

Stephanator

08-29-2008, 03:03 PM

I'm loving your report so far! I just have to ask, um, have you read Marivaid's TR "Why I didn't speak to my sister for a week" ? :rotfl: If you haven't, read it now before you go, and surely NOTHING your sister pulls would be that bad! Go on, read it.... :rotfl2:

I'm subscribing. And I second the suggestion of reading Marivaid's TR. It was a very entertaining and good look on the family dynamic in DisneyWorld.

Joyciemc

08-29-2008, 07:04 PM

Count me in as part of your growing audience! Sounds like it is going to be an exciting trip!

MEK

08-30-2008, 10:37 AM

Hey - I'll read yours, if you read mine. You already have 10 times more subcribers than I do, but dysfunctional family dynamics tends to draw in the crowds. :surfweb:

Not that I don't have dysfunction in my family - I just didn't cover it in my trip report.

I will tell you that teenagers are a pain. The only way I could get my DS15 through a trip was to bring his best friend. It actually worked quite well. We kept track of him through our "text message gps" system, so I never worried when they were off on their own. Except when DS cell phone died. :scared1:

I saw them in the morning, at dinner, and at bedtime. It really cut down on the dysfunction!

Looking forward to more of your story....and I will view your pics when I get home from work.

2ScottishPrincesses

08-30-2008, 12:27 PM

Your TR title totally pulled me in...I'm a big fan of soap opera's;) :rotfl2: .

Can't wait to hear your plans for your DH's 40th Birthday in the World as I'll be "celebrating":scared: my 40th in the Heart of the Magic next year and I'm looking for ideas :surfweb:

lookingforward

08-30-2008, 06:58 PM

I'm in! And you are so beautiful! Losing slowly is better anyway, hang in!:thumbsup2

cinderella73

09-02-2008, 07:17 AM

I will have a update for everyone shortly. We are running over all the facts and trying to figure out the best plan. Reschedule or go ahead and get going and just throw the plans to the wind with safety being first. If we get down there I dont think Hannah will be to terrible . BUT Ike could be a pretty strong hurricane by the time it gets near and with Hannah headed north it could mean we would have to get out of Florida after being there a few days but would the weather from Hannah keep us trapped? Ugh! Its stressful!

I have a ton of pics and updates but I wont get them up till I know what the plan is. I had 3 heartbroken kids last night when I told them we might not go. They were all good and they knew I just wanted them safe. We decided we might just give it a try but that they would have to know that even after driving 19 hours there is a chance we would have to leave and go home and reschedule. If Ike didnt become a problem or Josephine or billy , bob, sally , or sue or anyone else that decides to crash the party then despite the rain there is a chance we could maybe save our vacation. Its tough because with my kids I just want to stay . But I promised everyone we would give it a try. Its bound to be fun! I will write updates from the road! Say your prayers for a safe trip/ vacation. I will update you all soon.:thumbsup2

cinderella73

09-02-2008, 08:14 AM

Lookingfoward ~ Thanks you so much! Thats sweet of you to say that. I was looking through some pics we took the other day ( that I wanted to post as part of my pretrip report) and I was shocked how heavy I had gotten. :< Its a wake up call for me to get my self back in check. But its been hard because I have so much to lose its overwhelming and depressing. I was hoping all the walking on vacation along with just being there would give me the boost I needed . But this trip with all the hurricanes and things that keep happening has so far been anything but relaxing! lol

2ScottishPrincesses~ Are you from Scotland? I have to say Scottish accents are my very fave. I have a friend from there and I just love hearing her talk. lol And yes the soap opera is in full swing... Will they leave? Will they stay? Will they be trapped by hurricanes? Stay tuned... lol Its insane right now. All packed and no idea what we are doing! We could be out the door in a hour or not at all....

Mek~ Hey I will def read your trip report! I love reading all the trip reports I can get my hands on. I will have more pics coming shortly. As you can see from my last post its hectic right now. I agree with the disfunctional thing. I put the func in the dis. Good idea bringing a friend. I was planning on doing the same thing. Helps their suffering a bit . You know how going to Disney with your family is such torture right? lol When it turned out we might not go though my teen actually admitted she was upset. So I guess shes not TO COOL for Disney yet. ;>

Joyciemc~ Glad to have you. Hurricane winds are a comin so hold on.

Stephanator~ I know! I loved her report.. It made me feel like it was "ok" to post a real trip report! lol It certainly makes for a more interesting read. She is a great writer to. I should invite her on over here as well. I dont think I ever introduced myself to her officially yet. Shame on me for lurking!

BellaSoleil~ Yeah! Glad to have you! :>

hinodis~ Never to late to join in. We are really just getting started. I am now not sure if my mom and sister will be going but I will know in a few minutes. I will post a update on my way out the door. Big family trips are always a hassle. But they also have their rewards. Disney without family and friends just wouldnt be the same to me.

vettechick99~ Thank you for the encouragment! I really need that, I have a long way to go . Everything happens for a reason and I know that in the end it will work out. Thank you for the encouragment. It means the world to me and helps keep me going. :>

inkedupmomma~ I know where King of Prussia is. I have tried to go out that way to the mall before but I got lost. lol Its a bit of a hike from here . I will pm you later a bunch of info about the show. It gets pretty involved. You have to be a certain percentage overweight of course but its so much more even. My friend who was on last season basically trained me and I was suprised at first to hear it but they have some crazy requirements. I know they photoshop you thin to see if you make for a good after apperance. In my interview they emphasized looking pretty and I had to get my hair and makeup done. They want interesting stories from what they call regular people etc etc... They have a list of specifics. They want a interesting relationship story with your partner whether it be family , friend , or coworker . You have to be like some well rehearsed play almost. KNow exactly what your selling point is and know your story. There is not much real in reality. lol I would suggest working on your bio and story first. You have to be able to tell your story in 2 lines and grab attention. Example , The EMT that couldnt run to help her patients, the overweight doctor whose patients didnt respect him ,etc. My friend Jen was a counselor at Camp Shane a camp for overweight kids but was overweight herself. You also have the ex beauty pagent queen that had kids and gained weight and felt that it was always just the bathing suit competetions that held her back. Its pretty interesting really. If you are serious about wanting to go for it let me know . The whole process once you get going kinda takes over your life for while. But its a lot of fun.

If anyone wants to see my mom and I's audition videos maybe I can post it here .

UPDATE" As I write this looks like my mom might not go. My sister was just diagnosed with mono. My mom is upset so I tried to console her. My sister got herself upset last week and er immune system just crashed. I get the same way and have something similar to lupus . My immune system can just attack my body and send my sed rates soaring. My mom knows that my sister needs to handle stress better ( dont we all) . I told her that I wont be leaving just yet and that I would promise that we would take care of my sister down there and she could take it easy and not even do the parks if she wanted. We rented a beautiful big 6 bedroom so she would have lots to do . My mom says she will think about it but so far she thinks no. I will just be keeping a eye on everything and update before I go out the door.

; We did make it ! I will be posting all the info as soon as I figure out how to activate this thread again... hmm
UPDATE

JenSop

09-02-2008, 09:27 AM

:hug: I feel so bad that you're having so many obstacles to your trip. It still just might work out. And as for your sister having mono - it's not always really bad. When I had mono in high school, I missed four days of school and just had a sore throat. No biggy.

I really hope every thing works out for you guys!

hinodis

09-02-2008, 09:40 AM

I just want you to know I hope everything works out for you and your family.:hug:

lookingforward

09-02-2008, 12:03 PM

Looks like Hanna is going to skirt the Florida coast Thursday and Friday. It is actually projected to make landfall in Charleston, SC. At least right now. It is only a Cat 1 storm. I live in south Florida and believe me...a Cat 1 is good news. Orlando is fairly inland so the storm might not be so bad there. Its a crap shoot for sure...but the news is looking better as the day goes on. :goodvibes

miksilver

09-02-2008, 12:22 PM

Ok, I'm in as well. :surfweb: Since I have a trip in Oct. I've been getting more and more into other's trip reports.

Mickey'sMainMami

09-02-2008, 12:34 PM

I'm along for the ride, can't wait to hear all about it when you get back!!!

Harters2WDW

09-02-2008, 12:44 PM

Looking forward to reading more! All the best to you on your trip!

Kaler131

09-02-2008, 12:53 PM

DD14~ What can I say! She is 14! I had a epihiany the other day when my DD informed that me that she wanted to fix up her room. So ok I said let go reorganize it a bit. BUT NO! She meant lets get rid of all things princessy and all the dolls and pink girly stuff. She wanted a " cool" room now.So we went out and bought her new bedding and paint out of trip budget money. (can u say spoiled?) She informed me also that she has not like Disney princess stuff for like 3 years now, she did it just for me. WHAT? IS SHE CRAZY? What 14 year old does not love Disney princess stuff? I am 34 and I love it! Wait... you mean thats not normal ? Thanks! She did give me a hug and tell me that I could always put the dolls in my room. So my little girl packs up and thows out all her " baby" stuff and all of sudden I feel like crying. Not a bad kind of feeling but a " My little girl is growing up kind of crying". When you realize as a mom that the world is moving way to fast and it scares the heck out of you. Driving in as little as 2 years!!!! I think I will faint! But to be honest, I think she is still excited about Disney . I saw her myspace (she has to show me everything she does online!) and her blog was how she was all excited. She is already thinking of what to pack. But she is refusing BBB this year! Geez... she takes away all my fun! Maybe we can take hubby there for his princess party. heheh Oh and I did forget to mention I did get one princess back in her room... We picked out Disney paint at Home Depot.We got Sleeping Beauty pink paint! So Hah! I win! She has a sarcastic sense of humor and pretends that I "embarrass" her . She calls me a Disney dork. But she really loves it.

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UGH! I have the exact opposite problem with my DD14....She is a MAJOR packrat and I can't even get her to throw out anything. We are getting ready to have a garage sale this weekend to give us more $$$$ for our trip next week and I can't even get her to put any of her old Barbies (that she hasn't touched in at least 6 years) into the sale! :confused3 She wants to be treated like she's "grown-up" but is not quite ready to let go of her little girl days.

2ScottishPrincesses

09-02-2008, 01:45 PM

2ScottishPrincesses~ Are you from Scotland? I have to say Scottish accents are my very fave. I have a friend from there and I just love hearing her talk. lol And yes the soap opera is in full swing... Will they leave? Will they stay? Will they be trapped by hurricanes? Stay tuned... lol Its insane right now. All packed and no idea what we are doing! We could be out the door in a hour or not at all....

Yep, I live half way between Glasgow and Loch Lomond:lovestruc . I was initially only joking about the soap opera bit but hey if the shoulder pads fit doll:rolleyes1

UPDATE" As I write this looks like my mom might not go. My sister was just diagnosed with mono. My mom is upset so I tried to console her. My sister got herself upset last week and er immune system just crashed. I get the same way and have something similar to lupus . My immune system can just attack my body and send my sed rates soaring. My mom knows that my sister needs to handle stress better ( dont we all) . I told her that I wont be leaving just yet and that I would promise that we would take care of my sister down there and she could take it easy and not even do the parks if she wanted. We rented a beautiful big 6 bedroom so she would have lots to do . My mom says she will think about it but so far she thinks no. I will just be keeping a eye on everything and update before I go out the door.

OMG :goodvibes that it all works out okay for you all:grouphug:

cinderella73

01-08-2009, 03:27 PM

Well some of you may remember me. I started my trip report back in September , just days before we were set to head out on a 2 week trip that almost never happened.

Well I had good intents of getting it done when I got back , but boy I came back to a lot of chaos. Now that the holidays are over and everything is somewhat calm I figured it was a good time to get it finally done.

My link for old report expired though and I cant figure out how to fix it . Below is the link to the old trip report . I am going to start from scratch and re-introduce everyone in case anyone missed the last TR . I already have all the pics and even some video clips uploaded so I promise not to lag to much between posts.

So welcome back to my very crazy trip report! I promise it will be interesting! :goodvibes

OLD trip report here http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1932165

cinderella73

01-08-2009, 03:50 PM

First let me start by reintroducing the cast.

* I just pasted and recopied this from old TR.
http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/dbfb74a5.jpg

Its Police officers Vanilla and Frog Toffee... I have no idea! lol Kids come up with the craziest things. They just walked out into the living room and I had to get this pic. The next night they were captin underpants and poopoo head. They keep me entertained.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/b0cde443.jpg
This is my daughter and I at Animal Kingdom Sept 07 after Kali River Rapids. That was one hot miserable day.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/e65d57d7.jpg
This is my sister on the left with my daughter on the right. This pic is kind of backward because my sister usually wears makeup and my daughter doesnt. But that was a night when my sister took my daughter out for a makeover. It was a example of some of the sweet things that she does. Its kind of strange sometimes having a sister and a daughter close in age!

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/ba1358c1.jpg
Since you are all following along on my sisters audition I thought I would show you some of her nicer studio pics. This was a pic that was done last year before her sweet 16th. I threw her a Mad Hatter party and she came as the Queen of Hearts. You can see how pretty of a girl she is.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/3b9bfc96.jpg
This is the way she normally looks without all the makeup.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/1bd088ad.jpg
Here is my husband . This was taken at Ak last year. Every pic I see of us from that day we are miserably hot. I hope this year is cooler. I guess I should be saying I hope there is no hurricane as well!

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/b2cb0a7f.jpg
This was on the most precious moments our whole trip. This was such a big deal to my son and he was so shy. The cowgirl was so good to him and really had no idea how much it could have meant to him . This is him taking the cowboy oath. He saw Woody prior to the show and wanted to hug him but they were going inside. He just collapsed of a broken heart. I have never seen him act like that. I went over to the handler and she gave him a few special minutes with the characters and when they came out for the roundup a few minutes later they all knew he was waiting and gave him lots of attention. Much to my daughters amusement they pulled me in as well. I had to dance with a big cowboy hat on my head. There on the side was my smart alec daughter laughing and holding the video camera. This trip I promised her I will get her back. lol

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/12d6ef9c.jpg
This is my other son and he loved when we got to the park early and got to ride the rides with the characters. He wanted to make in on time to ride on Dumbo with Stitch buthe left before we got through that blasted long line. I had no idea the characters came out early and rode the rides. Now that we know it will be something we aim for everytime. Its our goal that we will make rope drops this time. Last time we made it in about 15 20 minutes after opening. Which was good for us. But this time we want to get in before opening.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/0ce0d7cf.jpg
This is a typical example of my house. Here I am trying to take a pic for my myspace and the little booger runs up behind me and scares the crap out of me. Lol I had no idea he was in the pic till after I uploaded it.

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/62ca5de5.jpg
And the crowning touch! Dont we look like we like we get along? lol I have to tell you the story behind this pic. This was one we used on our Biggest Loser application. My mom and I were sooo close to being on the now soon to air season of Biggest Loser. We made it past a couple hundred thousand all the way to NBC executives . Past casting directors and everthing. We were waiting on pins and needles and told that any we might be asked to hop a plane and fly to LA at any time . Well we didnt make the cut because in the end they had a certain slot to fill and in our case they needed a hispanic mother daughter to even out the show. We were also told we were top in line for the next season ( the one that started filming in a couple weeks)(* UPDATE the one thats airing now) . But my mom tired of the stress went ahead with her gastric bypass. Now the stress was pretty horrible. We worked so hard and had to submit video after video and give interviews and so on. We dont even get along so everything was a huge struggle for us. My friend Jen Widder was on season 5 ( she helped us through the casting process)and I went to go see her in NYC and got to meet Jillian Michaels. Wow is all I can say about the experience. I dont care of someone is a celebrity. I dont get nervous or impressed. But she was amazing and so so sweet. She gave me a big hug and told me that I didnt make it because God knew I didnt need the show. And that I was strong enough to do this on my own. I cried and she hugged me and we had a nice talk. She told me if I did get on the show she would kick my #$% . lol She lectured me against gastric bypass and gave me the best inspiration anyone ever could. I went out and got a trainer/ gym membership and havent looked back. I have a lot to lose so its really daunting. But I told myself I can eat what I want just a lot less. So far so good. Its not pouring off like it is with my mom . But its coming off at a pretty steady but slow rate.So at WDW I plan on ordering kids meals , getting fruit and that kind of stuff. All the walking will help to. Maybe my trip report name should be Disney on a diet? Sorry to get off topic but as you can imagine its a big part of my dynamic with my mother right now. Its like she wants to compete with me as to who can lose it faster. She is always asking me " So what are you down to now?" uggg

UPDATE: My mom has since lost over 65 pounds with her gastric. I am down 20 since these pics. A long ways to go but I am feeling better about it. My new goal for my December trip is to be at my goal weight! 80 pounds less than I am now. Its a huge help to have something to look foward to. I told myself as my reward I would book my first ever visit to Cinderella's Royal table . But thats abnother trip report!

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/cbaa47eb.jpg
http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/901be3c0.jpg Thats Jen on the right.
http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/ff206ee8.jpg

NDM#1

01-08-2009, 04:02 PM

cinderella73

01-08-2009, 04:23 PM

OKay lets start with the introductions:

Me~ 35 ( am I that old already?) I am the driving force behind this trip. I love all things Disney. I grew up a hour from WDW and visited there many times a year over the course of my childhood. As a kid who didnt have the easiest /happiest childhood ( family issues) WDW was a place for me to escape to. I was the little girl that really believed in fairytales and magic with all my heart , and I still do. I am the biggest kid . My kids like to tease me but they really think its cool. They just dont admit it to me to often. I think I am a pretty cool mom if I do say so myself! I am the mom that plays Halo on Xbox with my daughter , and runs around playing lazer tag with my boys. I love to do things with my kids . I am also a homeschooling mom and in the process of trying to start up my non profit food allergy awareness organization. I guess I am the female version of Peter Pan.

Hubby~ We have had a tough year. He is really excited and ready for this trip. He gets stressed out a LOT. He gets stressed over getting stressed. Needles to say I have taken over most of the planning. The budget part is what gets to him the most. I am hoping he will wind down quite a bit once we get down there. Oh did I mention he is NOT thrilled my mother and sister might be joining us? He is afraid she will drag us down and take advantage of us and then do nothing but complain anyway. Not to mention the drama my sister loves to induce. I hate to say it but hes right. But what can I do they are family right? Maybe they will behave.. maybe... If not I am sure this trip report will get pretty interesting. Oh I almost forgot something. It will be his birthday when we are down there. I want to plan something special but I am not sure what the budget situation will be yet. So I have a few things in mind and am goingto see what I can add on as we get closer to the date. He will be turning 40 so I wanted to do something special. He doesnt want a over the hill party. lol I told him fine then I will give him a Disney princess party. He is not amused... I dont think he believes me anyway!

DD14~ What can I say! She is 14! I had a epiphany the other day when my DD informed that me that she wanted to fix up her room. So ok I said let go reorganize it a bit. BUT NO! She meant lets get rid of all things princessy and all the dolls and pink girly stuff. She wanted a " cool" room now.So we went out and bought her new bedding and paint out of trip budget money. (can u say spoiled?) She informed me also that she has not like Disney princess stuff for like 3 years now, she did it just for me. WHAT? IS SHE CRAZY? What 14 year old does not love Disney princess stuff? I am 34 and I love it! Wait... you mean thats not normal ? Thanks! She did give me a hug and tell me that I could always put the dolls in my room. So my little girl packs up and thows out all her " baby" stuff and all of sudden I feel like crying. Not a bad kind of feeling but a " My little girl is growing up kind of crying". When you realize as a mom that the world is moving way to fast and it scares the heck out of you. Driving in as little as 1 1/2 years!!!! I think I will faint! But to be honest, I think she is still excited about Disney . I saw her myspace (she has to show me everything she does online!) and her blog was how she was all excited. She is already thinking of what to pack. But she is refusing BBB this year! Geez... she takes away all my fun! Maybe we can take hubby there for his princess party. heheh Oh and I did forget to mention I did get one princess back in her room... We picked out Disney paint at Home Depot.We got Sleeping Beauty pink paint! So Hah! I win! She has a sarcastic sense of humor and pretends that I "embarrass" her . She calls me a Disney dork. But she really loves it.

DS~ 7 He is a charmer. One look from him and I dare you to deny him anything. He's got a beautiful head of curly hair and eyes that just make warm your heart. He loves to play pranks on his sister! He is very creative and comes up with so many solutions to things. He has a little mischevious streak to him to. He keeps us entertained and always makes me laugh. We have been having a lot of bonding time lately. I love just listening to his thoughts and ideas. He has a silly goofy sense of humor and will always crack a joke .

DS~ 6 My little guy. He is the worlds pickiest eater! He truly gives me heart failure! Whoever said " They will eat when they are hungry" didnt know my son! Seriously he kicks my butt at super smash bros. at 6 years old! Thats scary! His smile just lights up my day and makes me forget everything . He has a witty sense of humor with a touch of sarcasm and all at 6. He is such a cutie. My only child that actually enjoys schoolwork! I am hoping this never changes, but I know better.

Now here is where it gets interesting....

My mom and sis might are coming along as I mentioned . You know that " If you cant say nothing nice dont say anything at all " thing? Well I can say a few nice things... I can...

My mom ( Lets just call her grandma, she would love that!)

My Mom/Grandma~ Just had gastric bypass. She is doing good now . Had it over a month back but is still not wanting to move or walk much. She likes to milk things a bit , she has always been that way . So much that no one ever takes her seriously. She is really wanting to go on the trip with us, but at the same time all she does is say how she hates everything we are doing. She has nothing good to say about Disney mind you ( or much else). Just mostly how dirty , crowded , and crappy it is in general. And dont get her started comparing how wonderful Universal is to Disney. ( Course last time we I took her on a trip with me we stayed at the Hard rock in orlando and had no waits for lines at Universal. We visited Disney one day during a holiday and arrived at 12 pm. So of course it was bad! I have tried to convince her September is different and we are going EARLY. Oh yeah and she thinks that Disney has some front of the line pass that they will give her because no one would ever expect her to actually stand in line 4 weeks after a gastric bypass ( her words). My Grandmother btw had surgery for cancer recently ,has 2 knee implants and back surgery and walks everywhere, even she cant understand why my mom is acting like this! My mom and I are not really close.We have had problems since I was 7 . She has me when she was 21 and not really ready I think. Our relationship has always been strained. But I do try. She is not the mothering / grandmotherly type. But se does have a great relationship with my sister ( who she has when she was older and ready, so we have a huge age difference) . Even though I would venture to say its not the healthiest.Oh and just so you all know she is doing me a " great favor" by even going. Disney is not her kind of place.

My sister~ 17 She has a huge heart and really wants to be a good person. She is very giving and loves kids. She does want to be happy but she has so many deep issues ( from living with my mom no doubt) and it seems like she can never just sit for 2 seconds and count her blessings. I want her to be happy . She thinks the world is out to get here and no one loves her etc etc... I try to help but it has always backfired. I have learned the hard way to only help when its really wanted and sometimes not even then. She is a bit difficult and gets into fits about things where there is NO reasoning with her. Anything my mom says she agrees with. She can be very negative and sometimes her and my mother can both be very mean and catty. I actually had to take them ( mother and sister) out of my life last year. I renewed my relationship with my sister BUT with "guidelines" and " rules" . I didnt want my kids being affected by their bad choices. They wanted us back in their lives so it was with certain caution that I allowed it. The thing is is you always want a relationship with your family right? I want it to work, so I try . But I do have lines drawn. I could list stuff here that would make Walt turn over but lets not ( that would make me a bad person!)! lol My sister also believes Disney will "stink". She is like a mini version of my mom. But maybe.. there is still hope. She is 17 and I will MAKE her have a good time. Because as crazy as she drives us all ( and herself) I want her to open her eyes to life outside the bubble .If it gets to the point where she is taking away from the kids by causing anyone to be upset I will back down and focus on the people that want to be there.I will not let one person ruin a trip for a bunch of people who want to be there and are happy. My sister I should mention attends theater schools and plans on being a actress.( runs in the family) Oh.. and she wants to try out to be a Disney face character. She wants me to take her to the auditions that will be going on when we are down there.OUR CONVERSATION: OK but you dont live there! No problem says my mom , we will move down. OKayyyy says I, how the heck will you do that so fast? Stay with friends of course.. What about your husband and dog back home? Oh their fine... what? Ok... Disney auditions it is... That you will want to check back up on for sure. Oh I had to sit and listen to them go on about which princess's were attractive and which were " OMG , so ugly"
( according to my sister). My mom was the worst! "Disney picked her! Your kidding. She looks 40 or she has wrinkles!" I could only roll my eyes. I must say in my sisters defense that she does love kids and would be a wonderful princess. I hope she gets this , it would be a good thing for her. I feel like I made her sound so bad but really... you have no idea! I am terrified how things will go.

UPDATE: My sister now officially LOVES Disney and especially MGM. She was a great tropper the whole trip and I am sooo glad I brought her. She loved her experience with the Disney auditions . More on the auditions to come. My mom still thinks Disney is just okayyyy.. lol But thats better than before when it just stunk! lol

So.. You still with me? Will my sister become a princess? Will my mom behave? Will my husband be able to tolerate my mother? Will one of any of the 3 hurricanes hit? Will my teen rebel at wearing matching family shirts? Will my boys learn you cant take "everything" home from the Lego store? Can I keep my husband from weaing socks with his crocs ?( no seriously he even grabbed dress socks last time....) Oh the plot thickens....

cinderella73

01-08-2009, 04:27 PM

I'm a new reader and rather interested . . . waiting for more. If you need some laughs, my trip report is in my signature. And BTW, ya'll are gorgeous no matter what your weight is. I mean for real . . . your complexions and features are A+!:thumbsup2

Woohoo my first reader! I am going to check out your trip report while we all take a break and eat dinner. Thanks for the compliments. :goodvibes That really makes my night.

I will be posting more tonight so check back soon!
:)

cinderella73

01-08-2009, 06:00 PM

So back in March sometime I booked 2 weeks for September at Windsor Hills. We have food allergies to deal with so we really needed a big full kitchen. We ended up with a huge 6 bedroom , 3 bath , full size pool, washer / dryer , and gameroom house for 200 a night!

It is beautifully decorated with Buzz Lightyear furniture ( it even had a real Buzz bunk bed with slide) and decor and even a Disney princess room. I couldnt have gotten anything like this at Disney for that price. In fact I couldnt even have gotten anything like it at all. We were even closer than some of the Disney resorts at only 5 minutes away. It's really a great deal for those that need a bigger place or a full kitchen.

Windsor Hills also has great 3 bedroom , 3 bath townhomes that are a great deal and they also have kitchens and washer/ dryers . We have stayed in those as well before and they are great.

We also had a Disney princess audition scheduled for Sept 11 of all days for my sister. I have a few friends that have been past " friends of the characters" so I prepared her with all their advice. You will hear all about this soon.

About 2 weeks before the trip I started my packing. I found it worked best to pack clothes in laundry baskets so I could stack them in the back and they would b e easier to aort through. We also packed a tote for food , electronics , trip needs , etc etc etc... Its amazing WE could even fit into the van.

Having grew up in Florida I knew how Florida is around September. I know to expect hurricanes and tropical storms. They dont bother me to much being used to them. But a few days before the trip there was a LOT of activity going on in the Atlantic ocean. 3 hurricanes had just passed through in the last 2 weeks and 3 more were just off the east coast threating to come right through. One was a catagory 5 in fact.
http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/ad95cf89.gif UPDATE :This pic is of the hurricane situation a bit before we left. The hurricane moved directly east of central Florida ( I wanna say by 115 miles?) our second day there. But hey Disney was dead! And that rocked.

Something about packing my 3 kids in a car and driving right into 3 hurricanes doesnt exactly fill me with warm fuzzy feelings . Plus I knew we would be hitting bad weather going down pretty much from the Carolina's onward. I was not thrilled.

On top of that throw in my sister having mono , my mom having " bad " feelings about the trip , and everything else in creation go wrong.

The day we were supposed to leave ... we didnt. I was not sure if we would even actually be able to make it down with the weather the way it was. The kids were crushed. Here we are in a living room full of packed suitcases . Everyone ready to go and excited and then I had to tell them I wasnt sure we could do it.

My mom kept changing her mind. She would go , she wouldnt. She kept saying she had " bad , bad feelings" . Not exactly what I needed to hear! My daughter was over it. " Lets just go mom!" Enough worrying it will be fine!"
She was right.

My mom decided that she just didnt feel good feelings about going so she was going to stay behind with my sister. ( This changes as we are on the road!) NOTE The women in my family all have premonition's and future type dreams on rare occasions. Its not a everyday thing but enough that when we have a bad feeling we usually listen. However its easy to get things confused and I wasnt sure if it was just negativity or something else so I decided to go on ahead and just use common sense.

So rallying the family and lecturing to them all that we were driving down into hurricane weather and that we could arrive after 1,100 miles only to have to turn around and flee . And that if they would be okay with taking the chance and consider it a adventure that I was ready to go.

Well they all let out a cheer. We were all ready to give it a shot. So we tried to get a few hours sleep then at 2 am my husband and I start packing the van. here we are outside in the pitch black trying to cram everything in last minute . He is yelling nothing else will fit and I am yelling make it fit! We had stuff crammed in in every nook and cranny. Its amazing the van could roll foward . I am a chronic overpacker... I just cant help myself.

We wake the sleeping kiddos at a much later time than we planned because we were sooo exhausted ! Well that and we were watching the weather about the hurricanes to see when the best day to leave was.So instead of hitting the road at 4 am on a Thursday we hot the road on 10 am on a Friday. Big change in plans and thats just the start of it. But FINALLY we are on the road! It feels good and all my bad feelings start to drain away. We are now on our way to Disney!!!!

Now.... here we are all happy and excited in our very overfilled van with very underfilled stomachs . So we decide to hit Burger King for Coffee and a quick bite for the kids. When what happen's next but my cell phone rings.
Here is the conversation . My mom " Hey I think we might go. Where are you?" . Me " Umm we are getting ready to hit the turnpike . We are in town".
" Okay well can you come by I THINK we might go!" She sounds all happy. " We are not packed though so can you help me real quick?" Me " Okay I will be right there" .

My husband is about to explode. "Are you kidding me?" he yells. I kinda couldnt blame him though . Its 1030 am right now and we are hours after when we were supposed to leave. He is not happy. So we stop at her house and there is drama unfolding. She wants my older brother to drive but he has just decided since my last phone call 10 minutes ago that since his girlfriend cant come because she has work ( whom I didnt ever even invite in the first place) and that he wanted to drive a hour away to go say goodbye. Its already 11 am and he would be gone a few hours. Okay now I start to feel really tested. My kids are in the van getting restless . My sister is crying because she was just excited and packing and my brother and mom are fighting. I FLIP. My brother is 22 and I love him ( hes normally a good guy)but he was being a big jerk at that moment! In fact I dont think I have ever seen him as nasty as he was that day and I still have no idea why.

Well now my mom is crying and even though my mom and I dont get along I dont like to see her cry. My sister is all upset and my brother seemed to care less that he had everyone in tears. He said a few of the wrong things to me and the next thing you know I was FLIPPING OUT. Next thing I know my mom was going to kick my brother out yadda yadda... all sorts of drama .. But by around 1 pm finally the whole issue was resolved and now my mom and my sister were going to Florida . My brother and my mother had made up but my brother and I still were not talking. After that I helped them pack their entire car....

Off to a great start arent we? I can laugh now but then I was wondering if we would EVER get there. So now we had a 19 hour drive and were leaving at 1 pm. On top of it my mom wanted to husband to drive slow and stop every 2 hours. So shes complaining to me about my husband and hes complaining to me about her. I couldnt escape! I was thinking walking to Disney at this point might be better. Or better yet put the 2 of them in the same car and I would drive the van and turn the phone off! lol

So finally we all take a deep breath and buckle up and prepare to hit the road. Of course then I needed to take another deep breath then another because the fun ensued.

We had the traffic from Hades! In all my trips up and down the east coast we had never encountered anything like it. My mom kept calling on the cell phone anytime she thought we went to fast . And everytime the cell rang I thought my husband was going to lose his cool. The kids were so good and patient. The award goes to them for putting up with all the crazy adults.

I gotta say normally its not quite this dramatic around here. But if any of you ever consider a Disney trip with your extended family... 1 word .. DONT. Or at least make sure you are not caravaning down together!

I will relieve you all by saying it really does get better. Just not for a while yet! lol

We didnt even get halfway before we had to stop for the night. We all woke up the next day quite a bit refreshed and ready to leave the bad behind. Except my mom wanted to do that at 4 am and my husband wanted to do that at 7 am.. :lmao:

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/WDW08all005.jpg
You can almost hear him saying.. " No pics mom.... Now just turn around and get us to Disney and OUT of this car!"

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr116/73cinderella/WDW08all003.jpg
My teen is not thrilled about having her picture taken unawares. That makes it even more fun! ( After gleefully taping me having to dance at Woody's Roundup last Disney trip she knows she she owes me !:>)

NEXT: Coming up next we arrive at Windsor Hills . Can anything else go wrong? You bet!

Kate and Pete

01-08-2009, 06:17 PM

OKay lets start with the introductions:

Can I keep my husband from weaing socks with his crocs ?( no seriously he even grabbed dress socks last time....) Oh the plot thickens....

:scared1: :scared1: Okay, I'm now hooked - I have to keep up with your TR just to find out about THIS!!! :rotfl:

cinderella73

01-08-2009, 06:42 PM

Heh heh... You have no idea! Seriously black dress socks with a little hole in the heel even! He had all new clothes on and then that. I was mortified! Men really... what are they thinking? Needless to say I am doing all the packing from now on. That includes " other" peoples clothes. :lmao:

angeleigh

01-10-2009, 09:09 AM

Great report so far. Can't wait to read the rest.

bellaDisneydncr

01-10-2009, 05:16 PM

Can't wait to read about the audition!

pezheadmeg

01-10-2009, 06:28 PM

I'm in.

pamouselover

01-11-2009, 05:47 PM

Need
Where you at in Pa.?

PrincessDez

01-11-2009, 06:18 PM

This is fun! Keep up the good work! Can't wait to hear more..........

Disneyfan71

01-11-2009, 06:49 PM

Sounds like getting down there was very eventful. But I'm glad you all made it. I'll be keeping up with this.

mla1977

01-11-2009, 09:14 PM

Wow! And I thought traveling with my family was crazy. Can't wait to hear about the audition.

cinderella73

01-11-2009, 09:23 PM

Hi everyone! Glad to see you all joined in. I will be adding the next couple segments hopefully tonight after I get everyone settled. I came down with some horrible cold / virus thing and I cant wait to just make some hot tea and sit down and Dis! :goodvibes

Stacybaeasm

01-14-2009, 11:23 AM

popcorn:: popcorn:: Waiting to hear more. I have to believe it got better somehow as the trip went on. Pixie dust and disney magic and all that. Can't wait to find out.

bsusanmb

01-14-2009, 11:38 AM

Love your crazy family. Can't wait to read more!

pixiefairy

01-14-2009, 01:59 PM

You've got me hooked! Can't wait to read more! So sorry that you have drama llamas in the family...we have a few of those too. :hug:

TeaForTulips

01-14-2009, 03:52 PM

oh my goodness! that is CrAzY! subbing! popcorn::

Ashton

01-15-2009, 11:07 AM

Can't wait to hear more!! Hurry back!!

DWFan4Life

01-16-2009, 04:04 PM

I'm in here. Just finished reading the report and trying to catch up:lmao: I really love it, can't wait for more.

Have a nice day. :)

SIMMSMOUSE

01-16-2009, 04:37 PM

I can't wait to read more. We were also there during Gustav and came home to in-laws house flooded. They had to move in with us for 3.5 months. Six people in a 1600 sqft house is hard but we survived. They are back in their home now and I am glad. You sound like you have a crazy family like mine. We were so distracted for our trip last time because of the storms we are going back in May. My DH is a LA State Trooper and he said no more trips during hurricane season.

Twingle

01-16-2009, 04:52 PM

I remember you! So glad you started again - can't wait to hear about your trip!

And OT - but I'm SOO proud of you for not doing the gastric bypass. The dad on the brown team of this season's Biggest Loser had gastric, and his poor body. Slow and steady, and you'll get there!

quest4dl

01-17-2009, 08:51 PM

:hourglass Eagerly waiting for the next installment!

OhMari

02-12-2009, 12:18 PM

Bump to the front.
I merged your old TR with this one.

cinderella73

03-18-2009, 12:45 PM

Just posting to keep this thread alive.. I have 2 more updates posted and ready to go up tonight. I just need to get my photos uploaded to photobucket.

Anyway look for 2 updates tonight . And just in time as we will be going again in a few months . This time I want to post day by day so I dont get behind!

Thanks all for being so patient. I was going through some personal issues here and it made it hard to even want to post. I am glad to back and active on the boards again. I miss it!

cinderella73

03-23-2009, 05:23 PM

this is really bad of me! I think I wont have this done till my next September trip! This next one I am going to write at the end of everyday while on the trip.

Okay so where were we?....

When we stopped to get gas in Jacksonville we could feel the cool breezes coming in from one of the many hurricanes located closely offshore. But frankly it felt like heaven! I just breathed in that warm tropical air I missed so much and felt all the stress of the trip just wash away. (We used to live in Jacksonville among many other places in Florida and it felt great to be back.)

We started getting really excited when we started seeing the Orlando signs. My husband and I had just finished discussing how we better get into and through Orlando soon or we would hit the rush hour when who do you think decides to call us yet again on the cell. We had barely a 10 minute clearance to make it through before the traffic would pick up . My mom decides she needs to stop to rest... again. This was a every 2 hour thing. When we tried to do 3 hours she would get very dramatic and say she thought she had a blood clot or something.. Now I know you should walk every 3 to 4. But every 2? Ughhh We couldnt wait to get off the road!

We made our pit stop at some busy well frequented rest stop and walked around and grabbed some of those little travel magazines that have all those coupons in them. By this time after being on the road 2 days my legs were sore and I could barely walk. The pool was calling my name.

We get back on the road just in time to be stuck in Orlando traffic. We ended up losing my mom who promptly freaked out ( all she had to do was drive straight ) . My husband had to turn around and go back 2 exits to find her and he was ready to blow. I kept the kids distracted by pointing out all the cool billboards on the side of the road. At this point I was so happy knowing we were close that nothing could bother me.

We finally pull up to the front gate of Windsor Hills .... Woohoo we all yell.. Then as we wait to give our info and get our car tag we overhear a conversation happening right outside the main gate. Two guys ( looked like a older father and son) were talking to security. Apparently they had their rental broken into. I guess security had been searching for someone driving around in there that day ( How since its gated?!) . This was not not not a good way to pull up to your " vacation" home after the trip from hades.

So we pull up and instead of being excited I am worried.... I call our owner who just happened to be staying at another nearby townhome ( he was down to do some work on it) and he was super nice. I told him since he was there and had several properties he might want to know. He thanked me and said he would find out what he could. (To skip ahead a few days later he came and installed a special lock for the sliding door. He was really great about everything. )

My mom gets into the house and I have to let her know and of course she makes a HUGE deal out it . " I knew it! We shouldnt have come!" I have to stop her here and tell her that at this point we have to make a effort to stop the negativity and just MAKE this thing better. She reluctantly agree's but also lets me know she may go home on her own tomorrow in her " bad" car the whole 1,000 miles . I am wondering where the nearest liquor store is and I dont even drink. This seemed like a good time to start!

The kids are now running all over and soooo excited. They love the house. Here are some of the rooms in the HUGE house. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/1219209575buzzzz.jpg http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/princess.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/nemo.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/kitchen.jpg
My sister is starting to turn around a bit . My mom see's the pool and lights up a bit. Its one thing she misses the most about Florida. I can see her starting to relax a bit and I just decide to not unpack. After all we have 3 hurricanes offshore . Not a good idea to get comfy ... yet.

That night I gather everyone around and show them my notebook ( With a big group of us I HAD to plan everything out. My mom has to know how everything will go exactly! lol) I make sure they all know that all plans are now out the window. There is no MK Tuesday and MGM Wednesday plan.. Its the lets do as much as we can in case we have to evacuate plan. We planned on a day of rest but now realize that with hurricane number 2 ( Hurricane IKE) being a cat 5# and 2 days away we have to hit the parks first thing the next morning. Or we might not get to at all. Hurricane Hannah while not strong would be passing by us tomorrow . My kids affectionatly called it hurricane Hannah Montana. :P My mom kept saying she hoped it didnt rain and I was saying that rain or not we were going to MK period!

We decide to unwind a bit ( best we could) and hit the pool. Boysdidnt waste a second. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/16d1-1.jpg

We all hit the sack and got ready for our first day! I couldnt wait to see my castle!!! Nothing could ruin that for me. Unless Disney closed "I" would be there.
Here are some random pics of the resort.. I LOVE the giant chess set!
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/poolwindsor.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/untitledmmmmm.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/6767.jpg

cinderella73

03-23-2009, 05:38 PM

I was remembering a post I was reading here on the Dis a while back about hair and humidity. So to show u girls just how bad it is I took these 2 pics seconds apart from each other. I woke up early everymorning and went on the backporch to do makeup ( I like using natural sunlight when I can get it) . And within seconds my mirror was completly fogged up and mu hair soaked! Taking pictures in the morning can be a bit tricky as well with lenses fogging up. The ONLY thing I found I could use was a Royal hair straightner I bought at the mall. It is the same price as a CHI but works better IMO . My hair is down to the bottom of my back and the store bought ones did not work. But even all of that aside after a hour of straightening FORGET about it! lol It ends up a soggy wet mess piled on top of my head anyway. You can see the frizz just starting to kick in . http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/18d1.jpg
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/20d1.jpg
after cleaning off foggy lense wala! Frizzy hair commences... http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/19d1.jpg And you should have seen it by the END of the day... So in reference to the " What do I do with my hair in the humidity at WDW?" thread or the " Is it humid in September ?" thread.. The answer is forget about it and YES!
* Woops I reversed those pics.. The first time I cleaned the lense the second the fog came back on the lense. Eh u get the point. :P

cinderella73

03-23-2009, 06:16 PM

ACK! I just lost my whole 3rd post!!!!!:scared1:

cinderella73

03-23-2009, 06:33 PM

I dont believe I just had to retype all of this!!!

~~~ FIRST DAY AT MK ~~~~~

I ended up waking up around 8 am to the sound of howling wind. It didnt bother me though. Growing up aas a kid in Florida I used to think hurricanes were fun. Warped huh? Now as a mom they were not maybe fun but I was not exactly scared of the hurricane's as much as I was of a direct hit and having to leave. Anyway I realized that we completly overslept! So much for planning to be at rope drop on our first day. I realized that this trip was going to just go the way it was going to go and as soon as I let go I might actually be able to have some fun. But I tell you it hurt soooo bad to put away my perfectly planned notebook! I hd it all waorked out to perfection. Best parks on certain days , the best routes to take etc . The best laid plans....

So I got up in a bit of a panic.. Every minute we took to get ready was a minute we would lose! I was not a morning person but I really wanted us to take advantage of the morning hours. Note to self: In the event of a hurricane crowds will NOT be a problem! lol I worried for nothing!

So I wake up the kids and they were all sleepy eyed but so excited. My mom is and was up ( she gets up at 4 am every morning) and she was still deciding if she wanted to go or not( since 4 am). I am acting all calm but I am thinking " LETS GO NOW!" . I mean I drove this far to go to my favorite place and it was about to pour down rain and god knows what else.... I was losing patience. About 12 pm..... yes 12 pm I said " Okay I am going you can stay" . I was patient a very long time dont you think? lol Also know this was a MNSSHP day and the park closed at 7 pm that night.

My mom decides to go but makes sure to add she sure hopes she doesnt regret it and really hope's it wont rain. I mean cmon... It is going to rain! Look outside. The sky was black as night at 12 pm! It kind of seemed adventerous to the kids and I. We didnt mind getting wet . I think I secretly hoped it would.. heheh My mom could find her way back!

So we arrive! I always like to take a picture at the front on our first day. My mom shocked me by saying " C'mon already , lets get inside" . Oh no she didnt! I remember thinking .... Magic Kingdom is a big place it would be a shame to lose track of her. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/1d1.jpg I look all weird here.. MEH
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all013.jpg

So .. and I kid you not .. as soon as we walk under the pass through the gate the sky open's up. And I mean POUR'S down rain like bucket's being dumped on your head. Forget the poncho's it was not going to happen in time. We tried but we ended up just sealing our soaking wet clothes in plastic which made it much worse. I tore mind off with wild abandon and looked back at my mother's contorted and displeased face and with a smile said headed toward the castle. She was the only one that cared. I was over it... And as usual the sight of the castle with the stormy skies and rain coming down looked as beautiful as always and caused a lump to well up in my throat.

The very small small amount of people in attendance that day it seemd like all decided to hide in the castle . So that route was out. I could hear my mom yelling " Where are we going? We gotta get out of this! " My husband chuckled how the wicked witch melts in the rain. lol ( Not so she could hear of course)
I couldnt think.. I froze .. Where do we go? Think quick. I decided on small world. Why? I dont know . Turned out to be a bad idea. It made us really cold!

We ended up in a boat with a couple who were visiting from England. We asked them if they were staying through the hurricane and they replied that yes they felt safe at Disney and wouldnt dream of leaving. I loved their sense of adventure. They were also hardcore Disney'ers as well and its always nice to find a kindred soul in a world of non Disney tolerant people. I wanted them to adopt me.

Now as you would figure as soon as we got off the ride shivering terribly the sun was out. What?!!! How?!! It lasted long enough to soak us and freeze us. I hope the crowds didnt come back. Next up the carousel . Oh why oh why does the carousel ever have to stop. I could go around for hours just taking it all in. I immediatly locate Cinderella's horse. My daughter was so happy . It was something we just found out about and were looking foward to finding it. We actually were able to ride it many times that trip. Right next to it we saw the prince's . http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all014.jpg Now thats a handsome prince.

Next up was Snow White's scary adventure. It had been years since I rode this ride but I do remember it scaring me silly. I am soooo upset they took out the window with the evil queen looking out . They removed her during a remodel some years back and it was one of the best things about the ride. Does anyone remember her? Walking up to the ride if you looked up at the window with the curtain and waited patiently a few minutes the curtains would open and you would see the pretty version of the evil queen looking out. She looked so real it would freak me out because you didnt expect it.

Then we hit Winnie the Pooh. My mom and sister loved this ride and the effects really wowed them. My little guy didnt like the dream sequence because he thought Winnie the Pooh was hurt . Poor guy. She we had to tell him when to look and not look. Of course we had to stop by Pooh's thoughtful spot as we walked by . http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/2d1.jpg

Teacups were next and my mom skipped this one . We broke into groups . Non spinners with non spinner and spinners with me! http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/4d1.jpg I recorded the funniest video ever on this ride . I might post it at some point. In my teacup I have all 3 kids and my oldest boy who normally hates to spin decided he wanted to but only because his youngest said he didnt want to. You get me? In other words if it will annoy or upset my brother even though I dont even want to do it , bring it on! The video I got out of it was hysterical.

Bathroom break was next and as you can imagine bathroom breaks with a group of 7 people ( 2 of whom dont want to lose sight of u for a sec ( mom and sister))
is always a adventure. We headed over to the bathrooms in Toontown. We were now hot , soaking wet, and very uncomfortable. Boy that hurricane moved by us fast. I wished it would come back as I would rather be wet wet then humid and damp. The bathroom stop turned into a hour long stop because my mom wanted to sit and we had to dry the kids up a bit. We had this toilet that kept flushing over and over and wouldnt stop anytime my sister went near it. It was really funny.

Next order of business was to get our first Mickey bars of the trip. The heat was kicking in and with the humidity the chocolate just slide right off the moment you unwrapped it! As you can see in the pics! http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/5d1.jpg lol After the consumption of Mickey bars it was..... back to the bathroom to wash up. We were now soaking wet and covered in chocolate . lol But at this point we lost all care. My mom couldnt eat icecream and she wanted to get a bite so we headed over to Cosmic Ray's ( because she told me if we went to Columbia Harbor she was not walking back over to do the things we missed!) Umm okay.. Eat Cosmic Ray's then! http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/10d1.jpg

It was getting really late at this point and I was getting a bit anxious we had only done a few rides and not even completly covered any land and we had 3 hours left before MNSSHP. I was hoping we could get everyone fed and happy quickly.

I have to tell you I was not happy with our service or the management at Cosmic Rays . It was the ONLy place the whole trip I could complain about though. The food was terrible. But worse even still was the way management handled my very simple dietary request ( it was actually only a question) . I was really upset. But as it went thank goodness the rest of our dining experiences were great.

We sat outside and son preceeded to feed the birds more than himself. I would tell him to stop because but everytime I turned around he just couldnt help hmself and had to feed another one another fry! Then the teenager's tried to see if the bird was a cannibel and would eat his own kind so they offered a tiny piece of chicken. lol He did take it yes. But I think he only ate the breading. This stop was a big waste of our money and time . But as I was sitting there trying convince everyone to hurry and eat their unedible food I realized that it really didnt matter. I was so happy to be there and just take in the moment.

My son had reminded us that we hadnt donw his favorite yet , Indy Raceway. So off we go. My sister paired up with my oldest and she was a little nervous about his potential driving skills. Check out herface in the pic below! lol http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/11d1.jpg
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Now as you remember my sister has a Princess audition coming up in a few days . As long as the hurricane stays away that is. She decides that she would like to go meet them and learn a thing or two. On a side note I have a friend who is a " very good friend " of many princess's including Cinderella and has traveled globally and so on. So she gave me quite a bit of info to give to my aspiring princess sister.

So my boys decided that they would NOt be going in for this one. They didnt want girl marks. Girl marks are lipstick kisses that they leave on your face . They also had a crush on Belle but after being teased they now refused to see her and said that " Girls are stupid" . So they went off to shop with dad and grandma. I went in with the girls. We were second in line which gave my sister just enough time to study a bit. We were most impressed by Aurora's dainty laugh and beauty. She made the girls laugh by commenting how she was sure all the princes were chasing after them that day. Cinderella seemed most ackward with the teen's and a bit shy. Belle made nice flowing conversation with the girls. We took some wonderful pics. I have to tell you that stepping back in time that was a very special moment for me. I loved seeing the girls forget about being " teenager's" for a moment . Its like the little girls in all of us came out and I left in tears . I hid them! But they were there . I had to stop in the hall before we went out into the store and wipe them away.
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I came out into the store to find the boys hitting up the Mr Potato head section. My mom was filling a suprise box for the boys as well of misc items. The girls did some shopping and them we headed out into the bright sunlight again.

We headed over to the Buzz ride . My littlest guy is not in this pic because as soon as the ride ended he had to go check out the store at the end. He is a BIG Toy Story fan and so excited to see if they had a new Buzz and Woody . Which they didnt really. I wish they would update some of the merchandise more often. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/15d1.jpg

Then after that we went on a ride that set the tone for the rest of the short day we had left. Tomorrow land transit authority ( aka people mover) . We all love this ride . Its relaxing right? Well we get on and my mom is sitting facing backwards and you know how the ride speeds up a bit after you take off? Well my mom freaked out! lol!!! She is like "WHAT is this? Did you trick me? Is this scary?!" lol I cant tell you how hard I laughed. But it got even better. We entered the part where you go through space mountain and my mom starting yelling ( thank goodness we were the only ones on our train) . " YOU TOOK US ON SPACE MOUNTAIN!" I had to explain to her that no... I did not take you on space mountain this goes through a few different areas and that is one but we are NOT ON Space Mountain. Next thing you know we are about out of there when the ride stops. Inside the darkness still and still inside Space Mountain my sister starts to get upset. we were stuck for about 7 minutes. As we finally picked up again she said to me " I will NEVER ride that ride again!" lol ( Did she? You will find out) . Before we were off it did get suck again. Now to make things worse when we all loaded up into our 2 carts ( half of us in one half in another) we didnt see that out train was not part of the one they got in . So we ended up getting split up. Looking nehind me on a bend I see them in the other train stuck inside the dark tunnel behind us. I hear someone behind me is not happy. Ugh another 5 minutes stuck. Not sure I wanted to go on this again either!

We get off and it started sprinkling again a bit . My mom refused to wear sneakers and wore leather flip flops and they gave her a blister that resembled a ww2 wound. Our time was now very short and we had not hit haunted mansion yet. CMONNNNN MOM LETS GO! Mom is hobbeling behind me dramatically and I am walking ahead full force . I am NOt leaving without Haunted Mansion , Pirates , Thunder , and Jungle Cruise. NOT NOT NOT... The spoiled little kid in me came out. It was going to go my way now!

My sister who is old enough to know better was terrified of doing the haunted mansion. Kudos to my mom for making her. My mom loves it as well. So all of us girls went in and we had to hold my 17 year old sisters hand! lol She did like it though .

Next we hobbeled on over to Thunder Mountain. We knew better than to ask my mom or sister on this one. So my daughter and I went on . Well here is where the TTA came back to haunt us. We got stuck on the ride in of all place the part where you are in the cave going up toward the top. Now what makes this so bad is the fact that you cant see the opening and you are on a angle so you feel a bit closed in. You cant see the light at the end of the tunnel ( no pun intended) and it can be a bit much after 5 minutes or 10 . Also we got hit from behind by the next train coming in! Major whiplash. I was so shocked I looked beind me at the people to behind me to ask did that really just happen?! Before the ride ended we stopped again. I was so worried another train would hit us again I braced my daughters head. It didnt happen again but it sure had me scared. I meant to complain. I should have but its not something I really do. I dont know what happened but I will never forget it! My sister will now officially never ride it! lol

With less than a hour left and a horde of MNSSHP people coming in we had to hurry. We needed to hit Pirates and jungle cruise. Pirates will always be one of my favorites. I love looking up at the sky in there . Its one of the rides where the enviorment is totally submersive and you can really believe you are there. The smells , the mist , everything. I love it! ( On another side note as a kid growing up I remember my grandfather would sit me on his lap and tell me of our ancestors that were pirates and I never believed him but I loved the stories . I found out a few years back the stories were true and everytime I go in there I think of him and his stories.)

Jungle Cruise again one of my faves. I just wish I could live in this world all the time. Riding all these older rides reminds me of being a kid and how I would just dream of running away and live in the castle! lol hey they have a apartment now for me !

We decided to head out as it was officially 7 and our bodies had quite enough . We took our sore pathetic overtired not yet trip recovered selfs to publix and remembered yet another reason why we wanted to move back to Florida. Publix fried chicken.. Need I say more?

Next was home , pool , eat , and sleep. What would tomorrow hold? Would hurricane Ike a cat 5 turn away leaving us to enjoy our much needed vacation or would we be turning around and driving home 1000 miles after only 1 day at Disney?

ehstrojette

03-23-2009, 08:54 PM

popcorn:: Can't wait to read more of your trip report

bellaDisneydncr

03-23-2009, 09:29 PM

Glad to read the update!! I have met *this* Sleeping Beauty twice and absolutely LOVE her!!!

Tink_fanatic

03-23-2009, 09:43 PM

I can't wait to see what happens next! I am hooked!

Epcot luvr

03-23-2009, 09:59 PM

Bless your heart, what trials and tribulations. I hope your mom will start to relax and go with the flow. I think she needs to do some meditation.:rotfl2:
You look beautiful in your pictures, your hair looks great au natural!

MadiMouse

03-23-2009, 10:03 PM

My kind of TR...with family members! :)

2ScottishPrincesses

03-24-2009, 03:33 AM

:woohoo:So happy to see your TR back on track big time:cool1:....fabby job, thoroughly enjoying it:thumbsup2

saratogadreamin09

03-24-2009, 05:24 AM

didnt get to read the whole thing yet but it looks like its going to be a good report

mcz0714

03-24-2009, 07:18 PM

Read the whole report this evening - can't wait to hear more. Found your report when I read your response to someone wanting to loose weight - you sound like you know what you are talking about. How's the weight loss going?

cinderella73

04-13-2009, 05:48 PM

Bumping to keep this active. I will get some updates in either tonight or tomorrow night and some video and new pics up. Thanks everyone for staying with me!:goodvibes

smarsha4455

04-21-2009, 12:27 PM

Just found your trip report. Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip. popcorn:: We are going in Sept. with my mother. It will be the first trip for my DH and DS.

mkandjpsmom

04-22-2009, 08:30 AM

great TR so far. I can't wait to hear more. When my family went in 2004 we went w/ my mom and sis amd her DS, it was an adventure! They didn't like their hotel so we had to find them a room where we were staying and we almost missed our flight home for more pool time. Needless to say we didn't ask them to join us this time. LOL, I kinda wish my mom was going, but my husband is very happy with the decision. Keep posting I want to hear more!!!

SunnieRN

05-04-2009, 08:00 AM

Thought I would come out of lurkdom!! Looking forward to updates!!

jelloarms

05-10-2009, 05:30 AM

Can't wait for you to come back! Looks like you had a stressful start but things seem to be going better. I await your return!

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 12:00 AM

smarsha ~ Sounds like fun! It will be neat for you to watch them react to seeing everything for the first time. We are going again at the end of Sept. Maybe we will see u there!

mkandjpsmom~ I completly understand. Even though my sister drives me crazy I will miss her if she is not on the trip. Just because I know she loved it so much. My mom ,she just takes so much from everyone . But it was nice to see them "get" why I loved Disney so much. I think as long as you have plenty of time and patience extended family / friend trips can be great. But in certain situations they can be a nightmare. Its just a whole different ballgame when you bring other people along.

SunnieRN ~ Thank you so much for staying with me! I am going to be starting on my new trip report soon before this one is even done at this rate! I promise my next trip report will be done live. Since I am such a insominac I will update everynight when everyone is sleeping. Its getting hard to remember details . I am just glad I found my notebook with my notes!

jelloarms~ I am back! Finally ... lol Thanks for not giving up on me. I will try to get the next few days up a lot sooner. Maybe even get this done before the end of next week. Ahh that would be nice.

Okay so thanks to everyone for your patience. I just finished typing up the next 2 days and I am headed over to photobucket to upload the corresponding photos. As soon as they upload I sould have the next 2 days down.
Wow is it 1 am? lol

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 12:41 AM

Okay all my pics for the next 2 days are uploaded. I just need to do a test to make sure that they are ok size and that they rotated like they are supposed to have. Why is it on photobucket that when you rotate then hit the replace orginal it shows up as still not rotated?

Well lets see if this worked.. Test pic time..
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all099.jpg

* By the way this is the girl that used to hate Disney. lol Till I " forced" her to go with me.

Hmm okay so it SHOWS up still unrotated but it is.. okay whatever.. I will be back with the stuff. Now I have to go number them all! I think we took over 1000 pics the 2 weeks we were there. I just uploaded 30 for the one day alone and thats not even half! I will spare you all the pics. Your computer would hate me.

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 12:45 AM

Day 2 at Windsor Hills
( pics for this day are minimal and I will have them up later tonight)

Okay well where were we?
Second day at Windsor Hills we decided to rest in and recover a bit. My mom had her tragic blister from her " I told you not to wear those kind of flip flops" . My legs were sore as well after being cramped in the car for almost 2 days straight . My husband was just beat down exhausted . Kids were fine of course as kids always are but really couldnt wait to just hit the game room and swimming pool. So we all unanmiousaly ( spelling?) agreed to REST! Wow we all agreed on something! Although I admit I could have and really anted to hit a park anyway. Even if I had to hobble through it like a old lady with leg cramps. lol ( Honestly I have alked the parks 2 weeks straight and never been bothered , but that car ride down.... ugh)

We got up unpacked a bit and got a chance to really check out the house. I have to say it was huge and beautiful. As much as I love onsite Disney doesnt even have anything this nice even at its Deluxe resorts. It was awesome.

That night we sat down and made a game plan. Now my mom loves to have one but if you even think of trying to change anything later on .. Forget it! So I make sure to add " most likely" to everything I say. We decide to do MGM tomorrow. My sister and my mother are most excited about seeing MGM. My mom and sister have never been but have a idea of what its like. They love old Hollywood and my sister being a budding actress and my mom being a stage mom its perfect for them. Did I mention they are not ride people so its even more perfect.

My kids are excited about getting to ride the new Toy Story Mania ride for the first time. We make a plan to get up early and " try" for rope drope. Now I get up early on vacation. At home never happens.. I try but I am to nocturnal. People have tried to change me for years. Its who I am. But at Disney I am up before the sun. So its the joke of my sister and mother that I will be up early . They have never seen this in their life. My mom is always up at 4 am everyday and goes to bed at 7 pm. We are so different in every way. Boy will they be shocked. Lol

We also decide to turn on the news and keep a eye on the hurricane status . Hurricane Hannah passed (within 50 miles I believe) by by going directly up the east coast the day before . No its Gustav we were keeping a eye on at this time. He was MUCH stronger and a cat 5 . He was predicted to be within possible striking distance within 3 days. So if we were going to have to go we would have to decide by tomorrow. Not much we could do yet . Still just having only arrived it was looming over us like a black cloud.

My mom also informs me that my sister would need a bunch of stuff done to get ready for her face character audition at AK in a few days . "What do you mean a bunch of stuff?" My mom " Well she needs her resume retyped and copied . Her headshots updated . And We need to go buy a printer." Me " OMg are you serious? When are we going to do all this? " What she meant was my husband and I would be doing all this... Running all over town. At least it was the town of Celebration! lol More on that fun to come.

We get ready to head to bed but as usual my insomnia keeps me up all night. Dont know how I survive! I am secretly really excited for my normally jaded sister . I know she will love MGM . I dont know why it was so important to me but I really wanted to see her " get it" . After staying up ay past everyone packing everything from ponchos to glowsticks I finally sack out.

Tomorrow MGM!
~~~~~

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 01:02 AM

day 3 and our first day at MGM

Sunday morning~

My mom and I were the first ones up. She was shocked to see me up and about. Next we woke my sister while we let the kids sleep in a bit.
Everyone knows to get my sister and I first anytime we have to go anywhere because we both take well over a hour just to get ready to go out. That doesnt include getting stuff together . We had a awesome hair straightener because we washed and straightened our hair the night before to save time ( did that every night and it helped a LOT) and it actually stayed nice and smooth . With all the humidity it was a miracle. Of course we hadnt stepped outside yet.

All ready we get the kids up and dressed. Everyone came down the stairs with puffy sleepy eyes. I felt so bad waking them! But they were excited to ride Toy Story so they were far from grouchy with me "yet".

Our first rope drop of the trip. My first ever at MGM . I really loved the director guy they had. Cant remember his name but he was a lot of fun. More on him later. I knew from Dis'ing that our first stop would be the Toy Story Mania fast pass then stand by line.

And boy was there a panic for fastpass. Well at least to me . I was shocked how panicked people were to get their fastpass. Once I saw how fast the fastpasses were filled I understood. But at first I was a bit shocked. Well we got out fast passes and then hit the standby. We only waited maybe maybe 5 minutes . It was sooo much fun. I really loved the smoothness of the ride. It was kind of ( excuse my sophisticated language here) whooshy! I loved how they breeze caught you as you spun from one place to another. The 3d effect was great. And being a family that loves video games we loved challenging each other for high scores. Our fast pass was for a few hours from now and coming out of the ride we saw the standby was already at 45 minutes wait .And it had just literally opened! Crazy!

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Ready to go ... http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all064.jpg

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Okay it as our first go.. We did MUCH better next round. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all109.jpg

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We decided to see when Mc Queen would be out but we had a bit of a wait . e noticed they had a new area for Meet and greets with Woody and Buzz. So we got in line for that. I think we like 8th in line.

Now my little guy LOVES Woody and my older guy LOVES Mc Queen . So they were both totally excited about seeing there heros. We got my little guy into his Woody outfit ( just the shirt and vest and hat , it was so darn hot) .

It was one of those moments you remember you know? We were in line by the window and my little guy was all dressed to see Woody. I kept saying " Honey its to hot , lets take that off for now" But he would have nothing to do with that. Just was I was about to push the issue who comes walking by the window behind us but Woody. He saw my son all dressed up and tapped on the window. My son turns around and gives his shy smile. I wish I had my camera out!

I was able to get this pic right after Woody walked by. You can see him a tiny bit in the left corner. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all081.jpg

Now my son is really shy with the characters and you would never know how much he REALLY loved them. But this was his world. His hero. he literally has a box of like ( no lie) 50 plus types of Woody dolls) If its even the slightest different he has to have it. He will carry them everywhere. He doesnt get like that about any other characters .

We waited in the que and it was so adorable. I loved that it was indoors and cool . It was fun to take pictures along the way and kept the kids busy. For only having 8 people ahead of us the line moved really slow. But we didnt mind. Everyone was having fun.

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When we got up to Woody and Buzz I heard the boys saying how they characters would remember them from the last trip. I made sure when I ushered the boys foward to say " Buzz , Woody , you remember us!" lol They nodded excitedly and gave the boys big hugs. Woody pointed to my sons costume and then to himself. It was another special moment. Thats why I love this place. ;>

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Next up we still had about 20 minutes before MC Queen would roll out. Now they have Luigi's garage . But at that time Mater and Mc Queen were still rolling in from the gates by TSM. I havent seen them at Luigis garage yet but I think kids did like watching Mc Queen and Mater driving down the road. It just kind of made them more alive. KWIM?

Well at this point it was hot and humid and my mom was in meltdown mode. She snapped " what next?" " where are we going?" . I told her we had a 20 minute wait then we would see the Cars characters then we would use our fast passes for TSM again. " What ! Toys Story again?" " We have to go backwards then!"
Yes mom we have to go backwards sometime in the parks to get to places at certain times. My mom HATES that.

So while my mom got herself calmed back down ( which she did rather quickly as she spotted a bench" we waited for the Cars guys. We were second in line and it was HOT in that sun. I love watching my oldest sons face when he first spots Mc Queen. Those are always my favorire pics. He is also a shy guy and he gets that little shy smile . Its adorable.

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One thing that makes me a bit sad is the fact that my son cant really talk to his character. I mean he talks to mc Queen and even manages to give him a hug ( hugs the roof , lol) but he cant get MC Queen to talk. It would have been cool if Disney would have had the Cars a bit more interactive. They have the technology but I think it was a oversight. Or maybe they didnt understand how big of a deal it was to kids. Im not complaining . I think the cars are beyond cool. It just would have been the total Disney experience if they had gone all the way with it.

After that the kids spot a booth selling Cars stuff. Nothing good there. A recent thread on the Dis about park merchandise is right on. My son will buy anything Cars and didnt find anything cool. Oh well I got off cheap anyway.

(Continued in next post )

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 01:21 AM

(Continued from above post)

So we gather up my mom and sister and I hear them talking about how cool the entrance into the park is . I know they will love it once we get back into the park . The area we were in was kind of away from everything and I knew I needed to get them out into the center. Well next we do out TSM fastpasses . then with MC Queen and Woody out of the way we are free to just enjoy the park.

We stop by the Coke area and the kids get sprayed down to cool off . I hate those things . They seem to germy to me! But good luck keeping the kids out. And it was so hot I knew it would keep them cool.

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My mom having had her gastric needed to eat small amounts every so often. Dont think the kids ate to much that morning either and everyone was hungry for a early lunch. A early ( or late) lunch is always a good thing because it means avoiding the crowds. It makes a world of difference in how much you will enjoy your meal. We decide to head to Pizza Planet.

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We go in and its nice and cool and pretty quiet. Its about 11:20ish I think and we just beat lunch rush. We order and get settled. The kids immediatly eye the machines and games. What I love about here is its so easy to get them to eaty because I wont let them play till they do! They eat really well althought a bit fast. We finished eating just in time as the lunch crowd was coming in. But lucky for us they were mostly eating or ordering. So we had some time on the machines to ourselves.

My son goes to the same claw machine everytime . The one with the little Woody dolls in it. He thinks its one that he doesnthave in his collection. But this year again for the second time we get nothing out of it! It doesnt even grasp. I feel bad because its all he wanted that day and it was our second year trying! Well I go over to a different machine and win a dalmation stuffed animal. Its not Woody but he doesnt complain he just hugs it and agrees to share with his brother.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all415.jpg

We discover quickly that rather than waste time trying to win things we have more fun getting stuff out of the gumball style machine on the far end. They have those japanese keychain type Winnie the Poohs that have little outfits on. Kind of like the newer Polly POckets . Anyone know what I mean? They also have Disney figurines and keychains . The figures are so cute! They have Nemo , Monsters Inc , Princess characters , etc. . Some of them are even packed on little cards like action figures and the little Nemo came with a little fish food barrel. So cute ! They were a dollar's worth of quarters each.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all413.jpg Even a tiny mini Buzz action figure on a card!

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all092.jpg

But beware. We spent about 50 in those machine ( 30 my mom, 20 myself) and there were a few that were put in empty! After our 5th one we told the manager. If this happens to you there is a place you can go right across the street from the resturant ( right when you walk out the doors) and they will give you back your quarters. I am not cheap like that but after the 5th time we got wise to it. It did happen a few more times but we didnt go back for those. * My DD just informed me that its the store directly across from Pizza Planet. She said the guy said it happens a lot .

They had the same Toy Story mugs we had from the year before so we skipped on buying those. Pizza by the way is very good to me. Kids like it as well. My sister didnt care for it but didnt mind it either.

We decided to head over to Jedi Training which we knew would be starting soon. Coming out of Pizza Planet I saw the Dream Team standing under the archway waving me over. They were handing out " Year of a Million Dreams" ears. I called the kids over and we all got a pair. I thought they were really pretty. And you know what?......... I must pause here for this. My mom.... put them on!!!!! Everyone did ! OMG everyone actually got over being moody and wore them! Wow. I was shocked and very happy.
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all097.jpg

Full bellys and free Mickey ears we headed over to Jedi Training. It was full blast hot now. I was in awe of the Jedo training. I mean wow! We are all Star Wars nerds in this family. Even my sister is a fan. First of all we were lucky to have the guy that does all the Disney promotional work. He is one of the best Jedi knights. Its the first time we saw this show and I was wowed by Darth Vader . The boys could have been chosen easily. There were not even enough kids there. But they got all of a sudden insanely shy. My mom kept yelling at them to go up which I think is what made it so bad. They didnt want to. I think that even thought they wernt scared of Darth Vader ( in fact my boys think hes awesome not evil , lol) they were a bit suprised by the fact that this was a talking walking Darth Vader.I mean it was cool . The storm troopers also awesome. And they are not the kind of kids that like to get up on a stage. ( Although they almost did , and they did Woodys roundup before.)

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all094.jpg

Well in the short duration of the show everyone was feeling overheated .
We only just left Pizza Planet but the heat was making everyone thirsty and cranky again. We went over and sat down with my mom at some table by the Jedi show ( outside some resturant) .
So now it was decided we would get drinks which somehow also turned into icecream. Well of course they didnt see icecream by where my mom had settled down at. ( The tables over by the Star Wars training) So we have the bright idea ( ok I) to go get the ice cream from Dinosaur Gerties and bring it back to the tables. [Hahahaha... Stupid! Ice cream cannot survive 20 seconds in that weather! We order all 6 cups and before we even walk away its running down our arms! They guy working there was so nice. He tried to help us. But no... Its okay we did this to ourselves. Ready set , RUN!

Back at the table we set down our puddles of chocolate and vanilla soup. Now we had to go wash up. You know ot was one of those days were you just were not going to get a lot done no matter what so you had to resign yourself to it and be happy. I did that and I was ok. The parade had started so we sat and watched it go by. We had no choice we were kinda stuck. So we took some hat photos. No me... No pics of me in 1000 degree heat. I would be on the other end of that camera all day!
http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all100.jpg

After getting all cleaned up and getting situated I wanted to check out the INdiana Jones store. I love the Indy movies. I have a special room dedicated to Indiana Jones and Tomb Raider stuff. I picked up a cool Indiana Jones figure ( the big one with the broken pillar and artifact). He will go so well next to my Lara Crofts! :P

As we walk out of the store I see my mom sitting on a bench talking to some guy in a white vest. Could it be? OMG it is! A dream team member. Leave it to my mom ... Seriously. She just always has people walk up to her wherever we go . So she introduces me to Chris. He shakes my hand and tells me how he raced my mom down to Rocknrollercoaster and since she beat him she won some fastpasses for us. LMAO

We ended up talking to him for about a hour. I have to say that we really enjoy doing that on our trip just as much as any rides. He made our trip. Not because of the fastpasses but because of his personality and the fact he took time with us. We learned so much about him .

He told us how he used to be a parking lot attendant but the upper management noticed how he had a good attitude and promoted him to a dream team member. he also mentioned how he was one of the guys who handed out nights at the castle. We joked that he better be looking for us then at MK cuz we would be looking for him! lol he also mentioned how much fun it was the he was picked to be the one to give away the trip around the world to all of the Disney resorts . The one where you get a all expense trip to all the Disney parks including hotels , food , spending , airfare , etc. PLUS a check to cover taxes! Really neat.

We told him about my sisters upcoming audition and he told us all about the princesses . We spoke with him about moving down ourselves and working for Disney soon and he gave us lots of advice on what to do we even got a referral from him ( and someone else we met which I will tell you aboutlater). He told us the best areas to live in etc . .

He playfully joked a bit with my mom and told us how she told him we were thrill riders. I had to laugh at that one. " Mom I dont call Thunder Mountain a thrill ride!" . But he said " Oh cmon you are going to Ride Rocknroller coaster 2 times now and handed us another batch of fastpasses again! lol I was like OMG Noooo I cant ride that! Thanks but noooo.. lol Well my husband and daughter were very happy about getting to ride. None of us ever had but I dont do upside down coasters! And I didnt want my little 15year old baby on one! :O Well he said I have other fastpasses but you are going to go ride rocknrollercoaster! lol (EDIT- It seems like that day I was SUPPOSED to ride RNR. I even had a RNR employee offer to take me right to the front of the line on as I was waiting for my daughter and husband to come out! lol Someone up there just wanted me to do it!) I cant believe how many times they rode RNR in a row. They loved it!

So okay after chatting a long time with him I had wished I had those little cards made up ( I saw some here on the dis) that had the link to my trip report so Chris could have followed along. I did tell him about the Dis boards though.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all101.jpg

( This was one of the only time my mom let me take a pic of her. She had just had the gastric so she was not wanting any pics yet. She doesnt mind now! Must be nice! She is like less than half her former size. I just have to starve myself and kill myself at the gym! ( Sorry I am bitter.. On a diet and not such a nice person right now... Wait.. Do I smell chocolate? Seriously this stinks... ( Ok ok back on topic)

Cont below ( I gotta go find something gross and crunchy to eat.. carrots yeah... yum)

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 01:30 AM

Okay day 2 / 1st day at MGM continued

So we get over to Rocknrollercoaster. Everyone including my mom is yelling at me to ride the rollercoaster! I ride coasters people , just not inverted ones. I had a issue with blacking out a few years back for now reason and even though I was fine I didnt want to chance it. But I was no chicken.. I was tempted. My DD15 really wanted to ride. Noooo baby you cant. Its fasy and scary. She gives me that sardonic look. "Mom Im 15!" Okay so we make a deal. let your father go on it and if he comes out and says its ok I will ride with you. ( Hey I ride and love primevil whirl for the record!)

A big sigh and a eyeroll and she says ok. Kids are thirsty. ( I am telling you the heat was insane that day and I am a Florida native!) So her dad goes in and comes out with a dumb smile on his face. I ask " How was it ?" " Ohhh not so bad . Only went upside down 1 maybe 2 times. Let her go on." At this point the guy across from me smiles and says " Oh let her go" . So I laugh at him and say "Excuse me but you arent on it! lol he says "Yeah thats because I am waiting for my 7 year old to get off!" lmao!!!

Okay Okay.... Fine.. I guess. But the heat has me feeling not great and I made the mistake of having caffine so I decide to skip it "this time" . Whil I am waiting I notice its taking a really long time. I decide to go in and look around. As I am waiting I am talking to the guy behind the counter. Now that I am cooling down I am thinking maybe I will give it shot. So I ask him " Hey how scary is it?" . Oh its not bad it inverts 3 times and one time is a spiral. " What! 3 times , a spiral! Thats not what I was told!" . Anyway the guy was really nice and said that anytime I decided I wanted to ride to ask for him and he would cut me through the line. ( He was kinda cute to.. but ahem.. anyway) I go around the corner with my camera out and watch people coming off the ride. You know its the greatest thing to just sit and watch people get off those rides. The faces they make. Its funny! So as I have my camera out sure enough the limo with my baby pulls up and she is smiling so big. I got the pic but she had already stepped out. I dont normally buy ride photos but since this was her first inverted coaster I did. Oh little moments ... The first tooth , first step , first inverted coaster. They grow up so fast!

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all102.jpg

So my DD says to me... Mom I am going again and proceeds to walk off with her dad. Oh she says " Mom you wont like it!" and smiles.

Wait! I want a pic... MOM.... Geez .. Fine... I am not leaving alone till you smile though... Okay fine here you go.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all103.jpg

Oh teenagers. Really you would think I had been being a pain or something.
* No she asnt using her middle fingers! lol We had a good laugh after cuz it looks like she could have meant that. But thats so not her. She yells at me if I say dam. So its definatly not her style. And even though she tries to look like Eyore through the whole trip she was just messing with me. She loves to " not' smile for me when I take her pic. Its her way of antagonizing me. Isnt that sweet?

Okay thats it! I am going on.... about this time the mutiny starts . The boys have been good long enough . I being the mommy must get them out of here . I really wanted to go ... REALLY! This Sept I am so there! ( Watch for my next trip report!) Seriously...

My daughter also made some purchases whilst rollercoastering with her father. She picked up a little black leather looking purse with a guitar pick hanging off of it and I think it had a guitar and said rocknrollercoaster on it. ( I will post a pic later)

I took the boys shopping and my mom and sister really loved the scenery. In the stores we found these little foil pack's of mystery characters that were like 5.00 and they had themes like Halloween, Christmas , villians , princess , etc. They became a addiction. More on that later. We made plans to do so much more when we came back in a few days. If the hurricane stayed away that is!

We had about 3 hours till close but the heat had drained us. We almost stayed but then decided that we would need to get back and get ready for the next day. Kids were hungry and wanted to swim. As a family I gotta say we usually do open to close almost everyday. But when its hot like that to that extreme you gotta be open to just not getting it all done.

We were planning on doing Epcot. I had never been. Well there was once but it was a very bad bad memory from when I was a kid. Not something I want to even remember. I didnt see as much of the park as I did the parking lot that day. So it was to be our first official visit. My mom and sister decided they would skip this one. Thank the Lord! I mean... are you sure?

Day 3 coming up....
What drama will unfold next.. Cuz you know its coming right? Right? Yeah its coming....

cinderella73

05-28-2009, 02:02 AM

Okay thats it for now... I will work on some more stuff this week. I have to get my HS evaluation in so once thats finally done I can relax a bit again.

Sorry for the gazillion typos that I am seeing. I will go back and fix them all tomorrow. Its 3 am and I guess I should get ready for bed. lol

Update: I just added links to the first post to make things a bit easier .

duffy

05-28-2009, 09:25 PM

Interesting report. popcorn::

I've been reading this one, because you travelled with your sister, as I'm planning. Our group will be me, my 14-year old daughter, my sister and her 2 kids, both younger than my teen. I've been interested to see how you all get along!!

No way would I be putting up with your mom, though. (Sorry!) If she needs a printer, I'd be saying, well, you have a car, go get one! :rolleyes: Why would she expect you to run her errands?? :confused3 Sheesh. I can't wait to hear what happens. popcorn::

smarsha4455

05-29-2009, 10:00 AM

YAY! Your back! Great updates. I did not know that coaster was an inverted one! My husband and 13 year old son are now even more excited. I just keep my eyes closed and then I don't know that we are upside down.

nutz2notz

06-01-2009, 02:41 AM

I just found your report and finished reading the whole thing. I have really enjoyed your adventures with your family. Looking forward to reading more. :thumbsup2

NurseW2Kiddies

06-01-2009, 01:54 PM

Fun report!! Love it....Now chop chop!!! I'm hooked, to the end, and now I need MORE!!!!:rotfl:

MagicShell

06-01-2009, 04:22 PM

I just found your report. It is very entertaining. I love drama, unless I am involved. I can't wait to hear more.

jmskinner

06-01-2009, 05:05 PM

Just read your TR. You had posted on mine, so thought I would check yours out. I'm really enjoying it. The drama is cracking me up. First trip to WDW involved my DMIL. I love her, but :mad:.

Looking forward to more when you get a chance!

hlrababy

06-20-2009, 10:49 PM

Hey!! I just found your report and I can't wait to hear the rest of it!!

Malibelle

06-22-2009, 10:53 AM

Hi there, I just found your report. I am enjoying it so far, drama and everything. Thats cool about the mickey ears. I guess that $50 paid off!

jojo0612

06-22-2009, 02:11 PM

I am so loving your trip report!!! :goodvibes

I can sympathize with you and your mom's blister woes! Last Sept my mother refused to listen to me when I told her not to wear her sandals. Then she can't imagine why, oh why, she has a blister on not one, but BOTH feet!!! :confused3

cinderella73

06-22-2009, 02:26 PM

Hey guys! So glad you are all still here. :goodvibes

I am working on the next installment as we speak. I hope to have the next 2 days up by late tonight.

We were there 14 days so I have tons of stuff . But I think the last few days will ho up much faster as I didnt keep my notes as good toward the end. Good thing I have my pictures to even help me remember everything.

I am going for 17 days the end of Sept into October and there will be some more exciting things going on but I cant start my pre-trip report intill this is done because there would be spoilers. So I better step on it. :yay:

Opps forgot I was cooking. Think I ruined another pot by burning water! lol I will just say the Disboards made me do it!

Thanks to all of you that are hanging on! :hug: Look for more by tomorrow ( or very late tonight) .

Malibelle

06-22-2009, 02:33 PM

Wow, 17 days! I wish I could go for that long. We are going the same time as you end of sept/oct.

cinderella73

06-22-2009, 02:51 PM

Wow, 17 days! I wish I could go for that long. We are going the same time as you end of sept/oct.

And I see u are from PA as well. Have you ever gone at that time of year before? I have but it was over 10 years ago. I normally go in Sept or spring . Last year we were there early September. This will be almost a month later.

I have heard so many things about crowds in October that I dont know what to believe. I cant imagine it will be bad at all . In fact I know free dining lets you book even if you arrive from Oct 2nd or 3rd for the rest of your stay .But most people I talked to (non-Dis'ers) seem to think thats the last day you can get it period. So I am hoping that if everyone thinks that it might be a little quiet in early October. Because I hate crowds !
pirate:

Malibelle

06-22-2009, 03:14 PM

cinderella73

06-22-2009, 03:27 PM

Yes, I live in PA, out side of Philly but my roots are at the jersey shore. Where in PA are you?

We love to go the 1st week on October. We have been there 2 times during this time. Its our preffered time of year to go. Its definilty not as crowded. Yes the free dining brings in people and the restaurants mey be crowded but not nearly as bad as Spring and summer and CHristmas. The ride lines are not as bad either. Its the best time of year I think. Alot of kids are in school then so that helps.

Are most of the rides walk ons? I am use to it being that way in Sept so we are a bit spoiled now.

Im in NE PA. I am a Florida native myself.

I just noticed you have a pre-trip report going. I am going to go check it out now. Pretty bad I am still finishing up last years ! :goodvibes

Malibelle

06-22-2009, 09:03 PM

You usualy can walk right on. The parade and tahe fireworks are the highlights. Its cool how they transform the park iwth halloween decor and the kids an adults can trick or treat.

Where in NE PA? I actually am in Quakertown.

jen2207

06-30-2009, 11:48 PM

I'm in.... again! popcorn::

cinderella73

07-01-2009, 01:40 AM

Hey just sticking my head in. My computer went bad on me again so I had been working from my older computer. I am running at normal speed on here yet again and I will get those updates on quickly here. I have them all done in notepad just gotta add the photo links in there.

I will catch up with you all late tomorrow and thanks for not jumping ship!

StefnMike

07-01-2009, 01:57 PM

Awesome report. Waiting for the next installment. popcorn::

NurseW2Kiddies

07-10-2009, 09:56 AM

I'm a lurker.....but still reading. Patiently:goodvibes (YEAH RIGHT) waiting for updates.......:surfweb:

cinderella73

07-10-2009, 01:05 PM

I'm a lurker.....but still reading. Patiently:goodvibes (YEAH RIGHT) waiting for updates.......:surfweb:

Lol ... Free MIckey bars for everyone! :mickeybarYou guys are the best...
OK ok ok ... I am going to go upload the photos now... Photobucket and I are not friends. But this I promise to update.. really.... really :earsboy:

We will be back down in Sept/ Oct for a few weeks. Any of you guys visiting around then?

JOEYDIS

07-15-2009, 06:13 PM

I was there last Sept in between Hurricanes. I can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip. I am impatiently waiting

Plaid Princess

07-16-2009, 12:55 PM

So okay after chatting a long time with him I had wished I had those little cards made up ( I saw some here on the dis) that had the link to my trip report so Chris could have followed along. I did tell him about the Dis boards though.

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/WDW08all101.jpg

Hey Cindi73! I was on the Dream Squad with Chris... he's a great guy, I emailed him a link to your TR!

knieriem

10-28-2009, 03:03 PM

Love your trip report so far. I've never attempted one so when we go in a few weeks for my birthday I'm going to do one.

cinderella73

10-30-2009, 01:13 AM

Hi guys. Thanks for being so patient. I kind of stepped away from posting stuff on a personal level for a bit due to some issues I had with someone on the board. They started going through all my old posts and harrassing me.

I am ready to start posting again and glad you are guys are still here to help me keep this thing going. I really do want to finish it up.

We have had 2 scheduled trips that we had to reschedule since this trip report so its been hard at times to Dis when I am supposed to be at Disney ! lol We are rescheduled for BLT in May sometime and hopefully everything will work out this time. My kids have immune system issues and as heartbreaking as it was to have to reschedule the most important thing is their health. One of my kids has a thyroid autoimmune disorder, the other a general autoimmune issue , and one is asthmatic. So not a good mix. Maybe by May things will be looking better. Plus we will have a service dog which I am sure will make for a interesting trip.

Did I mention I had offsite 2 glorious weeks scheduled at WL and WH for the first 2 weeks of December? I have never been to Cinderella's Royal Table EVER. I always wanted to go there ever since I was a little girl. I was able to get a reservation on my birthday! I am so bummed... But reading on here about the Dis'ers that went down to vacation and ended up in hospitals made my mind up for me. I wish we were those kind of people that could lick a subway pole and not get sick. But that is so not us! Plus there is always May. I know a lot of people think CRT is no big deal. But to me it really is. Especially since its a childhood thing. My kids are really doing ok with the reschedule . Its helps that we have the holiday to distract us as well.

Also wanted to say thank you for for putting up with my typos and spelling errors. I type fast and didnt realize how badly I was doing till I just scrolled back to read a bit . I just am a rapid typer and never usually check things.

But to get back on topic I do plan on updating right after Halloween. We just discovered black mold and are preparing to move into a brand new house. We rent and plan on eventually moving back to Florida so we dont want to buy. Its been crazy here but I do have the report ready to go just havent uploaded all the tons of pics yet. This Monday I should get a chance to sit and have some quiet Dis time. And at least now I have May to plan.

PLAID PRINCESS- Thats really awesome! Thanks for that. I asked Chris is he knew about the boards and he said he didnt . But now of course with you sending him the link maybe he will sign up. He is really a great guy. Made really nice memories for us. I hope we run into him again when we are down. BTW what area do you work in ? ( If u dont mind my asking)

JOEYDIS- Hurricanes to me ( I dont mean to be insensitive) can be a bonus. So long as it tdoesnt actually hit land or hurt anyone of course. The crowds were way down it and gave us a few nice days. Were you there the same days as we were by any chance? I couldnt believe how dead MK was the day of hurricane Hannah. It was surreal.

KNIERIEM- You should! Its something great to have yourself to look back on and its nice to share all the great memories with everyone. I need to start a new trip report myself but I gotta finish this first. lol I will check yours out when you get it going. This is close to the time I would have been going so it will give me a idea for next December. I hope to make it in May, Oct, and December next year. Make sure to take and post lost of pics! Are you going late enough to see the castle lit up?

jmskinner

10-30-2009, 10:24 AM

Just thought I would say that I am still around. Sorry to hear about the harrassment from a fellow Dis'er. I don't understand some people.

And so sorry to here about the delay in going back to WDW, but fully understand your reasons. You have had your hands full.

Whenever you are able to get back to your TR, I'll be here.

Stacybaeasm

10-30-2009, 10:36 AM

Glad you are back! I have been waiting for this to continue but I know life can get in the way. I can't wait to finish it now!

Jenvenza

10-30-2009, 11:06 AM

Glad you are back!

Hope to hear more soon!

JOEYDIS

11-09-2009, 04:37 PM

No we were not there at the same time as you I don't think. We were there Aug 30 - Sept 6. It was great then for us at Disney. We went in May this year and you would have thought it was hurricane season. It rained every day were were there, but at least it was not as hot. I can't wait to read more about your trip. I agree that some people on these boards are really nasty and it is like they have no life, other than trying to make others feel stupid or bad. Don't let them get you down. The rest of us on here are normal people who love Disney. I have one more week until I am going to Disney again. I hope you get there soon.

tlcmommyx4

01-07-2010, 08:34 PM

I would love to see your live feed, but I'm not sure if this is where you want our user name or on the other thread. I will leave it in both places. Hope you have a wonderful time.:tink::tink::tink:

cinderella73

01-22-2010, 09:55 PM

Woohoo! I have a new and shiny computer. we are all settled after our move and I am ready to wrap this up and update you guys with some super exciting news.

I will ready everyones posts and catch up after. I just want to get something on here before I get locked out again. :<

First updates:

We had been renting a beautiful home that turned into a mold nightmare. The basement which had been open to the rest of the house had started growing black mold! We had been getting sick not knowing why.. Now we do!

Well it was a big mess.. Lost a lot of stuff but it all ended up well. We are living in a brand new beautiful home. The house is gorgous. We finally have granite , stainless , wood floors , etc... Its lovely. We are renting with the ability to buy it. But.... we may move back to Florida soon. I will give you a hint in saying that only touches on the coming excitement.

My computer was another bugger. My B and N keys were so messed up that I couldnt stand typing . I am fully operational now and much stuff will be coming!

-----------
News
-----------

There ares some possible exciting job opportunities we may take advantage of down at WDW. Soon... More details to follow but we would be living just a tiptoe off property! ( literally 2 minutes)

I cant tell u much about my sister and spoil the report but I do have something soon that I can tell that I know you all would find exciting. ( Disney related)
*See bottom

We will have 2 upcoming trip soon here in which we will be reporting live from the parks. Literally via a live webcast! My sister and I set up a live streaming channel and I will post dates and times you can tune in. I will intergrate this into the upcoming pretrip/trip reports. We will also record and upload video as well for when we are not live.

And soon we will have a new member joining our family! A service dog will be coming home with us soon and joining us on our Disney jaunts ( which will be weekly once we move down) . We went with a grown fully trained and certified dog . We do not have to do any training ( Embarrassed to say we made a mistake of thinking we could do it ourselves .) he will be fully prof trained and legal and will improve our lives in so many ways. I may share more on this later but due to past issues with certain people I will remain a bit private on this subject. Thanks again to those of you on here that guided me in the way of a fully trained dog! I could have made a huge mistake.

So jobs at Disney , dogs at Disney, and live casts from Disney all coming soon!

----------
Now let me go ahead and start posting up the next day at Epcot so I can get started on our pretrip report! BLT 2 weeks in May.

---------
* Disclaimer- I didnt know this till we actually attended the Disney audition but you are NOT allowed to tell anyone if you are a face / fur character at Disney. You can say you " work in entertainment at Disney" . Its rumored you can say that you " are friends with ( insert character) " but at they audition the discouraged this. You can get fired if you are not careful.

I can and will tell you about the auditions and if my sister was " happy " or not. I can tell you if she didnt get it but not if she did . I will try to elaborate as best as possible within legal limits. But I think you Dis'ers are a smart bunch. You will know what I mean.

And there will be something exciting to share at the close of that.

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

Sorry to type so much guys!
Just wanted to also say that since the trip report is sooo long overdue I wont continue to write in my usual fashion. I wont be as detailed. I have to get the next report started so the next few posts will be more brief but still with lots of pics and video!

cinderella73

01-22-2010, 11:08 PM

EPCOT
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Well the day started off pretty bad. Husband woke up grouchy from the start. Partially I would say with good reason. However he was complaining so much I was having a hard time trying to decide who it was I should have left home afterall! lol

Mom and sister decided that Epcot was boring with nothing but shops so they would just sit by the pool instead. My sister had never been but my mother convinced her she wouldnt like it at all. She in fact tried convincing my daughter she wouldnt like it either. But my DD was having no part of that. She was more excited about Epcot than anything . She loves chinese and japanese culture and wanted to see those area in particular. As well as do some major shopping. That part made me want to stay by the pool also! I knew she would bat her big blue eyes at me and empty my wallet. lol Well I have been known to do the same thing so at least I can say she comes honestly by it.

First off once we got past the arguing in the parking lot bit and got inside all our tempers had calmed down. Its hard to be angry when you are looking at some giantic sphere of wonder. Growing up near Disney I knew the Mk like the back of my hand. But this was new.... all new. Everyone now in a excited mood. We had no idea how big Epcot was really going to be or where anything was either. It was really uncrowded almost like a ghost town in areas. I think we missed a lot in future world. It was a HOt day though. Soon all the walking and the heat caught up with the boys. My DD was so excited that she wanted to explore everything. But the boys just wanted to go back the AC. In their credit though they were really pretty good. They didnt whine. But I felt bad seeing their little red cheeks. We stopped a lot for cool drinks . At the time we didnt know where things were or I would have kept them better entertained. We have learned so much since then and when we go back in May we hope to really check everything out. I think the boys will also enjoy the Kim Possible adventure as a added distraction.

In the future world area we did the living seas. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/105.jpg

The Nemo ride was cute . We did so "Turtle talk with Crush" . Amazing technology but I am so glad I didnt get called on. Some poor guy in front of me that didnt speak much english did though. Poor guy! lol We then walked around and checked out the aquarium areas. I could spend hours here. I loved watching the dolphins! My kids had to pull me away after 20 minutes. I would say we spent well over a hour and a half just exploring this area. We checked out the gift shop. I got a dolphin necklace and the kids bought stuffed beanies. This area reminded me a lot of Marineland which we used to visit a lot when I was growing up. http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/110.jpg

We didnt do a lot in world showcase but you wouldnt know it by how long we took completing the loop. . We missed the ride in Norway completly. We did see the drummers in Japan. We spent a lot of time in ( I cant spell the name correctly) the large japanese department style store. Mitso.. something its called. This was a big hit with all my kids. And it got us out of the heat.

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http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/137.jpg

http://i289.photobucket.com/albums/ll226/KH-UH-fan/DIS/145.jpg

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I think the only ride we did was the one in Mexico. I love Donald. Does anyone else remember having those little plastic Donald wallets that squeeked or the little orange juices with Donald on the can?

We had dietary needs and its much harder to get what we need at Epcot then any other Disney park. So we started to head out when my phone rings. Now my mom has always been prone to being a bit dramatic. ( See the connection ? We have lots of actors/ actress's in my family... My mom is not one but she could be!) When my mom complains "no one" really listens because everyone knows she is prone to being dramatic. Now 2 times today she had already called us to ask when we were coming back. She said she was making dinner and wanted to know when to have it ready by. But if that was the case she wouldnt have needed to keep calling she could have just let me call her like I said I would a hour before. So anyway back on topic . I answer the phone and I hear in a extremely muffled voice my name being called . I asked her what was wrong and she said she didnt feel well . Again she didnt just say it. She paused between words and spoke half muffled. "Can.. you.. bring.. me .. some .. adult.. liquid tylenol? You dont ... have to leave... the.. parks.. now.. I .. can.. wait...." She also managed to get in that she had been throwing up and things its a surgical complication ( she had gastric bypass 3 1/2 weeks ago) . I said well mom it sounds like you need a hospital! I told her I was on my way to the store now and she blurted out. " No.... dont leave.. the .parks..because of me.." Okay.. yeah. Im on my way.

My husband is now rolling his eyes and saying here she goes again. I sent him into 4 different store looking for adult strenth liquid tylenol. But apparently they didnt have it in Florida and she couldnt take pills after having gastric. I bring back jr strenth liquid Tylenol instead.

I walk into the house and my mom is laying across trhe couch with a rag on her head all listless with my sister standing over her with grave concern. I had to send my kids upstairs and not them into the kitchen or living room since this was the place she choose to collapse herself and I didnt want them to make to much noise. She gets up and staggers into the main bathroom and makes some choking noises and I go in and tell her I am taking her to Celebration hospital. She looks at me and says ... " Well ... I think I am feeling better."

Wow... thats all I can say.. In about 2 hours she is fully recovered and I am getting crap about how I didnt call her sooner to let her know when we would be back for dinner. She also took my spot I had been sleeping in and took over the tv and living room for the night. I am P.O. 'ed.

Now my husband was calming me down... It was my turn to go mental. I decided then that NOW it was my turn to call the shots. I wouldnt let her "plan" out our day anymore. We had planned the trip for months , paid for the trip , and were kind enough to let them come along at no cost to them ( except their own gas).

From here on out the trip does improve. But there is still much craziness ahead. The Disney face character auditions are looming. Its all my sister can talk about. But I cant blame her. And frankly I am just really happy she went from hating Disney to loving it. It makes the whole trip ( with my mom) worth it.