Princesses, Slushes, LEGOs, and a maxed CC - Sept 2009 1st Timer TR

[crocko]

Hello all.

Crocker Family has just recently gotten back from a 9 nights' stay in Disney World! :cool1: (September 17th thru 26th, 2009)

Some of you may remember me from my Pre-trip Report (see signature)
If not, then I'll make sure to tell a little bit about myself and the travelling party shortly.

For now, I just wanted to get this TR started, so I would have a place to come back to. I will at least give some basic info and some previews of what is to come in this TR.

Info:
Sep 17-26, 9 nights/10 days at Animal Kingdom Lodge - Kidani Village
Myself (John), my wife (Bridgette), my 5-year old son (Joshua), my 3-year old daughter (Samantha), plus my sister and parents. 7 total!
Celebration -- Joshua and Samantha's first ever trip to Disney World! :wizard:


Preview (fun things to see/hear reported as this TR progresses):
Princesses....and lots of them
Slushes....a report about the Disney Dining Plan (1st time to use it) and how we "slushed" the plan to its maximum
LEGOs....for my son, this trip was not only about Disney World, but also about playing with LEGOs.
a maxed CC -- I quickly had to make a credit card payment when we came home due to nearly maxing it out...How'd we manage that? Tune in...

Pictures! :3dglasses If you like pictures in your TR's, then you should enjoy this one. We looked at our Photopass pics last night and we had accumulated 209 during the trip...of which about 60% are ones that we really like. Next step is to add enhancements all over the place....so we can bump that 209 to 300..400...sky's the limit!!
Furthermore, between myself, my wife, and Joshua we came home with a total of about 3,800 pictures. I got them all imported to our computer yesterday, so now we have to go through and get them flipped the right direction and get rid of the bad pics.....

Also, along the way, I'll make sure to give insights into September weather and attendance...current updates on Disney service and quality...and any other helpful tidbits I can think of/remember.

[3princesses+aprince]

Hi, glad you had a nice time, can't wait to hear all about it.

[ComparedforMe]

That's very nice.. I want to visit Lego Land myself even though I'm not a kid anymore!

[mommyof2Pirates]

I am following along! I am interested to hear how you felt about the crowds and weather too. I have my own comments but I will let you read them in my report. Cant wait to read more.

[crocko]

Hi, glad you had a nice time, can't wait to hear all about it.

Woohoo!! You're the 1st to reply....here's some extra magic your way :wizard:

That's very nice.. I want to visit Lego Land myself even though I'm not a kid anymore!Yeah, Joshua would probably love LEGO Land....hopefully we'll get to head out west to it sometime in the next few years.

[crocko]

I am following along! I am interested to hear how you felt about the crowds and weather too. I have my own comments but I will let you read them in my report. Cant wait to read more.
LOL....sounds like we'll both be interested in hearing the other person's thoughts.

On the weather, just remember...I'm from Oklahoma, so the heat may impact me differently then someone farther north.

[chicagoshannon]

I can't wait to hear all about it and see all of your pictures!! :)

[longing2Batdisney]

waiting patiently to hear how the celebration went!!!

[WrightFamily06]

Good intro :thumbsup2 Can't wait to hear all about your trip so I'm subing !

[la_la]

Subbed :) Can't wait to hear all about your vacation and see all of those pics!

[crocko]

I can't wait to hear all about it and see all of your pictures!! :)Glad you're here!

waiting patiently to hear how the celebration went!!!Thanks for the patience...will try to update soon :rolleyes1

Good intro :thumbsup2 Can't wait to hear all about your trip so I'm subing !Thanks! Glad to have you on board!

Subbed :) Can't wait to hear all about your vacation and see all of those pics!Awesome...enhancing Photopass pictures today and tonight will be getting Day 1 pictures ready to go (that's the plan) :3dglasses

[deslynnpatterson]

i am joining in to read your TR:) you got my attention already:) I was in disney the same time you were from sept 10th-20th-- i just got back too:) I cannot wait to read more:) sounds like you have a exciting trip:)

[stacikristine]

Hi John! I'm here :thumbsup2 It was fun running into you...can't wait to read about your family's vacation!

[crocko]

i am joining in to read your TR:) you got my attention already:) I was in disney the same time you were from sept 10th-20th-- i just got back too:) I cannot wait to read more:) sounds like you have a exciting trip:)Awesome, glad to have you on board....from what I experienced and what I've heard....you were there at the perfect time from an attendance-standpoint.

Hi John! I'm here :thumbsup2 It was fun running into you...can't wait to read about your family's vacation!You too! :thumbsup2
Animal Kingdom Lodge rocks, doesn't it?!!





Update: spent some time this afternoon enhancing photopass pictures. Man! That's a lot of work....but it's fun and I hate not to take full advantage of the enhancement possibilities before ordering the CD.

[chicagoshannon]

oh enhancing those pictures takes a long time. The cd comes really quickly after you order it though. :)

[California Jenn]

I'm in. I'll have to go back and read your PTR, but sounds like fun so far! Can't wait to hear about your stay at Kidani Village and hear how the little ones loved their first trip. Isn't there something magical about Legos?:wizard:

[deslynnpatterson]

oh the crowds were so low when we were there it was incredible!! We were able to walk on mostly everything-- but towards the end of our stay, around the start of your stay it was getting busier and the last day we were there its a small world had a 25 min wait and the whole week it was a walk on-- it is a great time of the year to go though:) how were the crowds during your stay?

[crocko]

Character Introductions (and yes, I'm basically stealing the 2nd post of my PTR) :rolleyes1

--------------------
Above I have mentioned who the cast is but now to put a friendly (or something like that) face to the name and info. [All pictures are from BEFORE this trip]

First, me (John)...your author and my wife (Bridgette)

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These pics come from the 3-day trip my wife, my sister, and I went on back in December last year. (I've lost about 30 pounds since that trip, so I should look a little different in the September pics that I post) You can also see my wife and I posing for shots in Agrabah and in Japan.


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24266.jpg

And there's one of my beautiful wife with Pocahontas (was really cute how excited my wife was to get a picture with her)



Next, my sister (Mary)

http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2008-12-24088.jpg

We did MVMCP our first night and it rained off-and-on that night. Mary is very camera-phobic so this is one of the few I have of her, but I really like this one of Bridgette and her. You can tell that despite being wet we are having a good time.



Then, my parents (Jim and Linda)

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Picture of my dad during his birthday last year


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Not sure of the event, but picture of my mom sometime last year as well.



And now, for the kiddos....Joshua and Samantha

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Joshua with his new Cars bike
Samantha looking very mysterious and pretty at the zoo
and the two together laughing about something silly Bridgette said to try and get them to smile (I love that pic)

[crocko]

oh enhancing those pictures takes a long time. The cd comes really quickly after you order it though. :)Glad it comes quickly.....but yes, it is a lot of work....I managed to get through enhancing half of our pictures yesterday, though...so that's good. :thumbsup2

I'm in. I'll have to go back and read your PTR, but sounds like fun so far! Can't wait to hear about your stay at Kidani Village and hear how the little ones loved their first trip. Isn't there something magical about Legos?:wizard:Oh yes...LEGOs are mighty fun and since we've been back, we can hardly pry Joshua away from them.

oh the crowds were so low when we were there it was incredible!! We were able to walk on mostly everything-- but towards the end of our stay, around the start of your stay it was getting busier and the last day we were there its a small world had a 25 min wait and the whole week it was a walk on-- it is a great time of the year to go though:) how were the crowds during your stay?Sounds about right....without doing any math, in general, it felt like the parks were getting a little busier as our trip progressed. With good planning and FastPasses, we still managed to have very few lines. :yay:

[3princesses+aprince]

Woo Hoo, I'm very happy I got some extra pixie dust for replying first!!! And Now................. I'm impatiently waiting to hear about your trip :goodvibes

[stacikristine]

First of all, YES!!! Animal Kingdom Lodge is the GREATEST!!! :thumbsup2 We loved it. And secondly, love the pics--can't wait to read more! Oh--and I'm really curious about the maxed out CC story :rolleyes:

[crocko]

Woo Hoo, I'm very happy I got some extra pixie dust for replying first!!! And Now................. I'm impatiently waiting to hear about your trip :goodvibesYour patience may relax...I'm about to post my first update! :cool1:

First of all, YES!!! Animal Kingdom Lodge is the GREATEST!!! :thumbsup2 We loved it. And secondly, love the pics--can't wait to read more! Oh--and I'm really curious about the maxed out CC story :rolleyes:Yeah...great Lodge!
Oh and the CC story is coming......eventually.....at some point....... :laughing:

[crocko]

Day 1 (Departure Day)
Chapter 1 -- When is Grammy going to get here!?!

Well, as expected Wednesday night, Bridgette and I slept fitfully. It’s funny…I’m 28 years old and I still sleep fitfully the night before a Disney trip. LOL.

I woke up somewhere around 3:30 to take a shower and get dressed and ready. First picture of the trip was making sure I captured the haul that we were taking with us for our 9-night/10-day Disney trip. On the left and middle, we have 8 bags…2 carry-ons for each person. On the right, we have the 2 big bags that would get checked. Although, one of them was fairly empty with the job of carrying two more bags inside of it, so that we could bring back 4 checked bags when coming home. (Not seen: the two strollers that came with us as well)

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At about 4am, the kids were still snoozing….


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But Joshua was VERY QUICK to wake up and he surprised with how incredibly excited he was. He always gets excited to go on fun trips somewhere, but I’ve never seen him this bouncy and ecstatic.


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Samantha….she was more of the mindset that she had not received enough beauty sleep…


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At this point, we were dressed, packed, and ready to go. Just waiting on Bridgette’s mom to come pick us up.
And for Joshua, Grammy was taking way too long to get to our house:


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She arrived at about 4:30 and at about 5am, we were finally at the airport and it was time to say goodbye to Grammy for 10 days


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OKC (Will Rogers) Airport is pretty small, so not too much early morning traffic to get through as we took of our shows and stuffed our plentitude of bags through the scanning machines. Then, off to go sit and wait for our plane

Here’s a cool butterfly “statue” in the terminal


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While waiting, Samantha looked at her cool book about Airplanes and Joshua played with LEGOs (yeah…there’s a reason LEGOs is in the title)


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Finally…..ON THE PLANE!! First time on a plane and the kids did great. Samantha really got into it and was excited about the moment that we actually were in the air and flying.

Some plane pics:

Samantha playing a happy/sad game


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After awhile….Leapster Time!


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We had a good trip into Houston. At Houston, we had a 2.5 hour layover, so we were in no rush to hustle off the plane. Took our time and casually walked to our next gate. Kids played some games while waiting (we had brought some Pooh and Mickey stencil sets….)

Here, though, is Samantha working on some puzzles:


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And NOW………the first food pics of the trip. (Warning: I’m new to the realm of taking pictures of food, so I sometimes forgot to take pictures and when I remembered, I had usually already started eating….my apologies in advance)

At Houston, I had an egg & cheese biscuit from Wendy’s and Joshua had a big cinnamon roll (all cut up for him). Cinnamon roll was good. Egg & cheese biscuit was good, but as expected the biscuit was on the hard side.


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Then, after a lengthy wait, we’re finally called to get onto the plane headed to Orlando. Woohoo!!


On the plane:

Joshua having put together one of those move-around puzzle games and then…antsy to get out of his seat (while playing with LEGOs of course)


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Fortunately, here is what Samantha did during the Orlando flight


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(she needed it!)


The plane that brought us to Florida


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And everyone ready for our strollers to get brought up so we can get headed to MickeyLand!!


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Up next: Missed signs and Mickey buses….

[crocko]

Pictures fixed....ugh, stupid hyperlinks.

[California Jenn]

What a fun start! Isn't it amazing how much stuff is necessary to take along once kids enter the travel picture???

Love the pics of DD sleeping on the plane and DS playing with the puzzle. Super cute!

[jordanyosh]

Okay, I'm in.

[chicagoshannon]

Great start! Can't wait for the next installment!

[stacikristine]

I can't believe Joshua was so excited so early in the morning!

I'm hoping the missed signs just means that you forgot to look at the signs...not that the driver missed the signs! :eek:

[WrightFamily06]

Great introductions :thumbsup2 Cute pictures from departure day , looks like your trip has started off w/ no hitches , which is always a plus especially when traveling w/ kiddies :) Can't wait for the next update ! popcorn::

[crocko]

What a fun start! Isn't it amazing how much stuff is necessary to take along once kids enter the travel picture???

Love the pics of DD sleeping on the plane and DS playing with the puzzle. Super cute!Oh man...so much stuff. We plan on travelling MUCH lighter in November.

Okay, I'm in.Awesome! Glad to have you on board :thumbsup2

Great start! Can't wait for the next installment!Got busy this afternoon, but it should be coming tomorrow.

I can't believe Joshua was so excited so early in the morning! NO KIDDING! 4am and that boy was wired for Disney World....he wore down come evening b/c of it, but man he was ready to go.

I'm hoping the missed signs just means that you forgot to look at the signs...not that the driver missed the signs! :eek:Ding, ding, ding....we have a winner. Yeah, as you'll see...it references my horrible lack of focus and how I missed the oh-so crucial moments of entering WDW. :laughing:

Great introductions :thumbsup2 Cute pictures from departure day , looks like your trip has started off w/ no hitches , which is always a plus especially when traveling w/ kiddies :) Can't wait for the next update ! popcorn::Yes....1st day travel went very well. Kids did great on the plane. Flights left on time and arrived on time. Last year, our Houston-to-Orlando flight ended up with a 2-hour delay. :scared1:

[mommyof2Pirates]

Isnt it great when the kids fall asleep on the plane. The pics are great and I cant wait to hear more.

[crocko]

Isnt it great when the kids fall asleep on the plane. The pics are great and I cant wait to hear more.I don't mind if they are having fun, playing on the plane --- but sleeping is MUCH nicer than whininess. FOR SURE! :thumbsup2

[3princesses+aprince]

All right!!! :thumbsup2 !!!!! I love travel day. Even though, exhausting, it is so exciting.

The picture of Joshua waiting for his grammy at the door is so precious. It shows pure anticipation!!

Can't wait to hear about your first Disney Day!!!!

[crocko]

All right!!! :thumbsup2 !!!!! I love travel day. Even though, exhausting, it is so exciting.

The picture of Joshua waiting for his grammy at the door is so precious. It shows pure anticipation!!

He was cracking us up. He was so excited that he couldn't even say words....just weird grunts & squeaks kept coming out. :rotfl:

[crocko]

Hey all....sorry for no updates the past 2 days. I've focused my energy on getting all our PhotoPass enhancements done instead...and I am finally done.

Whew!!

There were 211 total PhotoPass pictures on our cards. I have managed to turn those 211 pictures in 1,106 photos that will be put onto our CD. :rotfl2:
My first time with PhotoPass and I went enhancement/editing crazy!

[chicagoshannon]

LOL! I can't remember how many we ended up with but I think I chose almost every border for each picture.

Can't wait for an update!

[crocko]

LOL! I can't remember how many we ended up with but I think I chose almost every border for each picture.

Can't wait for an update!Should get another update today.



Also, we took the kids to see the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 in 3D double-feature on Saturday. It was fun. Those movies are great and they look awesome in 3D!

[crocko]

Day 1 (Departure Day)
Chapter 2 -- An Illegal Bus Trip

Alright! We’ve made it to Orlando. Now let’s try and get through the terminal and down to the Magical Express area.

Yay! The airport Disney store

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Finally to the other end of the airport, down the elevator…and look! It’s Grandpa!


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And Grandma!


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Bridgette and Mary went to take care of ME check-in…..we didn’t wait too long before getting on a bus. Yay! Off to DisneyWorld!!


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Okay….now for my Missed Signage. Every trip report known to man…everyone gets a picture of the Walt Disney World sign upon entering. Well, we got there a little quicker than I was expecting and I totally missed the sign!!
Then, as we got close to Animal Kingdom Lodge there was a cool sign for the Lodge but it caught me off-guard and I missed it. Bridgette was upset, but I told her we’d be coming by that thing plenty of times. Plenty of chances to get a picture of it (eh?)
Well, finally focused…I did atleast get a picture of the Kidani Village sign



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Here’s the cool Kidani Village trash can. I discovered on this trip how cool the DisneyWorld trash cans are…in fact, I started a Disney Trash Cans photo collection. LOL


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We’re here! And the kids got their First Visit buttons. Cool!



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We quickly got settled into the room but then were ready to get over to the MK resort area (we’ve got ‘Ohana dinner tonight). Not too fast, though…need to get a few pictures before everything gets messed up:



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On the way out, though, we took a few minutes to relax on the savannah and watch some giraffes & zebras


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Okay….let’s get over to the bus stop and get on an MK bus.

Well – Maybe Not. Our first hiccup of the trip! As we’re waiting for our bus, we overhear that all bus transportation has been halted. They must all return “home” and then hopefully bus transportation can resume. Probably a 1-hour hiatus. Ach!!
Fortunately, though, there was a helpful cast member who was trying to get guests to their destinations as soon as possible. A couple minutes went by and an Epcot bus came by to drop people off. The cast member asked the bus driver if he was going back to Epcot. He said he was going back to Epcot and then to the “bus home”. We acted quickly and hopped on the bus.

No, we weren’t going to Epcot, but I knew that we’d at least be closer. From Epcot, we could get on a monorail to get over to the Polynesian and the other resorts. Before going to Epcot, though, the bus driver had to stop at Jambo House to let more guests out. The cast member at the Jambo House bus stop was less helpful and more by-the-books. When not everyone got off the bus, he asked the driver where he was going. He told the bus driver that he should not be transporting anymore and that he was to head “home”. Luckily, our bus driver played kinda dumb about it…so, the cast member just told him to go to Epcot and go straight to “home” after that.

Whew!! I was gonna be annoyed if they made us get off at Jambo House.
So, the bus driver shut the doors, and pulled out. We were now on a bus that shouldn’t be still carrying guests. Very against the rules…very dangerous. Yeah, that’s how we roll.


Made it to Epcot! We waited in the area between the gates and the monorail for a few minutes while my mom and sister went to get their official tickets for the trip.
This meant that to my surprise….Magic Kingdom was not the first park to be seen, but in fact Epcot and Spaceship Earth. We didn’t go inside, but we got to see the big ball.



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My mom and sis finished up and so now….the kids’ first ride on the monorail!


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Up Next: Many Monorail rides and a Packed Polynesian Paradise

[chicagoshannon]

Great update! I can't wait to hear about Ohana. :)

[stacikristine]

Great update! Our rooms look similar, but not exactly the same. I love the lion king headboard!! :goodvibes I forgot. Were you all in a one bedroom? Those wall circles are gorgeous. And that's great that you all broke the rules--I would have been all for that too! :thumbsup2 Can't wait to hear about 'Ohana!

[MagicShell]

I just found your report, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I love to read trip reports by dads. It is great to see men who love Disney.

[crocko]

Great update! I can't wait to hear about Ohana. :)Try to post it soon :thumbsup2

Great update! Our rooms look similar, but not exactly the same. I love the lion king headboard!! :goodvibes I forgot. Were you all in a one bedroom? Those wall circles are gorgeous. And that's great that you all broke the rules--I would have been all for that too! :thumbsup2 Can't wait to hear about 'Ohana!Yeah, the interior decorating in AKL rooms is great! We were actually in a 2-bedroom. My parents and sister took the room with 2 beds and then the 4 of us slept all together in a king-size bed. We wish we had a king-size at home.
The other morning, after sneaking into bed with us, Samantha told me that the bed wasn't big enough for me to sleep in it.... :rotfl2:

I just found your report, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I love to read trip reports by dads. It is great to see men who love Disney.I do love Disney!

[jordanyosh]

Cool. I am staying at Kidani for a portion of my trip in FEB. It will be nice to hear how your stay there went.

Sorry about the busses right off the bat. At least, you got to Epcot!:thumbsup2

[WrightFamily06]

Awesome update :thumbsup2 Cute pictures from the ME bus :) Your room was beautiful and the butterfly towel was adorable ! That was nice of your bus driver to bend the rules , so as not to ruin the smooth running of your trip so far :)Can't wait to read more !popcorn::popcorn::

[my2disneyboys]

I am all caught up and can't wait to see more pictures!! Sounds great so far. I love the pictures of your resort. It looks beautiful and of course i love how excited the kids look in all the pictures... too cute!

[crocko]

Cool. I am staying at Kidani for a portion of my trip in FEB. It will be nice to hear how your stay there went.

Sorry about the busses right off the bat. At least, you got to Epcot!:thumbsup2Yep...it was a case of we'd rather be moving then just sititng and waiting who knows how long.

Awesome update :thumbsup2 Cute pictures from the ME bus :) Your room was beautiful and the butterfly towel was adorable ! That was nice of your bus driver to bend the rules , so as not to ruin the smooth running of your trip so far :)Can't wait to read more !popcorn::popcorn::We didn't get the customary mickey head, but the butterfly was really cute

I am all caught up and can't wait to see more pictures!! Sounds great so far. I love the pictures of your resort. It looks beautiful and of course i love how excited the kids look in all the pictures... too cute!Better pictures we'll be coming once we get to parks and once Bridgette starts taking pictures. Up to this point, it was mostly all pictures by me.

[crocko]

Day 1 (Departure Day)
Chapter 3 -- Bread and Bananas...mmmm!


Left off chapter 2 with us having made a secret, nefarious, side trip to Epcot in our attempts to get over to the Polynesian/Magic Kingdom are and about to get on the monorail.

Joshua and Samantha’s 1st time on the monorail (they got plenty more opportunities and they always enjoyed it)


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Got off at TTC and then went over to the Resorts monorail….here it comes….


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We were over an hour early for our ‘Ohana reservation so we decided to go visit the Grand Floridian. Didn’t stay too long, but hung out for a little bit and played around on the stairs. Almost managed to get our first photopass picture here (CD will hopefully arrive this week)


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So, after visiting the prestigious and (somewhat stuffy) Grand Floridian, back to the monorail…
Here’s a couple pictures Joshua took while waiting…



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At this point, we were still way early for our reservation, so decided to get off at the Contemporary and check it out as well:


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Then, at about the 30-40 minute mark before our ressie, we got back on the monorail again and headed over to the Polynesian. Inside, the line to check-in was very long and the waiting area was jam-packed. Uh-oh…looks like we may have to wait awhile to have our first Disney meal….(and we’re all starving!)


While waiting, we checked out the gift shop (and Samantha made a pin trade – one of many to come…)



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To our surprise, we ended up getting buzzed to come sit down within 10 minutes of our reservation time. Not too shabby!

We sat down on the far west side of the dining room and there was just enough light to barely see the castle



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Okay, now for my ‘Ohana review (and again, I’m not always good about remembering to get food pics):

First thing was the bread and oh man…..this bread along with the butter was so amazingly good. I should have said, forget the other stuff, just bring me more bread



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Then, the “appetizers” (my family really enjoyed this portion…I’m a picky eater so I didn’t touch any)


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And then the meats – pork, steak, and shrimp (I could have sworn they used to serve chicken) To me the meats were just so-so. Not as good as I remembered from 2001. Oh well.
(Sorry, no pics)

And then, dessert – a banana bread pudding, I believe.

Everyone at the table enjoyed this. In 2001, the dessert was huge pineapple chunks with caramel sauce. We absolutely loved that. This was very good, too, and Bridgette pointed out that she liked the fact that it felt more like a dessert.



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Joshua had ice cream and as you can see…..it was good down to the last drop.


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Two final pictures on the way out
1) Another cool trash can
2) And an ‘Ohana statue that Joshua took a picture of.



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Day 1 wrap-up:
By the end of the day, everyone was tired. Joshua fell asleep for a little bit before dinner started and Samantha fell asleep during dinner. Going into the trip, we brought our strollers and decided we’d try to get a feel for whether we actually needed them. Well, this first night we definitely learned that we wanted them – a) for when Samantha falls asleep and b) because Joshua likes to be carried too much --- so, plan on seeing the stroller more the rest of the trip….

‘Ohana meal – it was good….satisfying and filling, but probably not one we’ll do again too soon. There’s plenty of options we haven’t tried yet. If giving it a grade, I’d probably stick it in the B-category. From a dining plan perspective, it definitely is a great value, though, since it is only 1 credit.

After dinner, we monorail’d to the Magic Kingdom and then trudged over to the bus stop to catch an AKL bus (note about AKL buses for those who don’t know – Park-bound buses stop at Kidani first and Jambo House second; Downtown Disney buses stop at Jambo first and Kidani second) Now you know!

Once back, we made our long walk to the room and settled in for the night.

Another note about Kidani Village. I’m not sure how Jambo House is setup, but Kidani Village (from above) looks kinda like an eagles’ wings. From the main lobby, one wing heads one direction and wraps around the savannah, while the other wing heads the other direction also wrapping around the savannah. Because of the savannah, there are no shortcuts at Kidani. Our room was #7973. The 7900’s are left of the lobby on floor 5 (the top floor). On the 5th floor, the wing starts at 7901…..and we were 7973 (out of like 7981 or something). So, we had a LONG walk from the lobby to our room and vice versa….and plenty of trips back-and-forth were made. For Bridgette and I, it wasn’t that big of a deal….we just had to factor in an extra 5-10 minutes when planning when to get to the bus stop.

BUT, if you are the type of person who would NOT enjoy a long walk to your room everytime, then if staying at Kidani Village, make sure to try and request a room close to the lobby.

That’s all for Day 1!


Up next: Maybe we’re not ready for characters……

[stacikristine]

Yeah, the interior decorating in AKL rooms is great! We were actually in a 2-bedroom. My parents and sister took the room with 2 beds and then the 4 of us slept all together in a king-size bed. We wish we had a king-size at home.
The other morning, after sneaking into bed with us, Samantha told me that the bed wasn't big enough for me to sleep in it.... :rotfl2:

I bet that worked really well! Did you take advantage of the kitchen or washer/dryer? :rotfl: How cute! I mean, come on. It's her bed. Right?! :laughing:

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Just joining in John. Enjoying your pix so far. Your children are quite adorable. I am from the midwest area also. East of Oklahoma.

I find it a lot of fun to go with many people in your party. We had 9 in ours and had a blast. We weren't so lucky as to get such a long stay tho.

Ginny

[chicagoshannon]

How did your kids like Ohana? Did they do any of the activities? Did they eat the adult food or did they get something else?

Also, are they letting people up front in the monorail these days?

[longing2Batdisney]

Great update!!! wow that seems like a good walk...esp when you are tired coming back from a park. How great that ya'll were able to visit all three resorts on the first day! FUN!!! Poly sounds and looks good! I think we are going to try it for the breakfast we when go! So thank you for the report!

Looking forward to more!
:wave2:

[WrightFamily06]

Cute pictures from your Monorail ride and the other resorts :) I find the Grand Floridian a little bit uppity myself ! LOL The pictures of you kiddos in the hats are adorable . Ohana's food looks very good , have never done the dinner there but the Breakfast has always been good . Sounds like you and your family did a lot of walking , I bet you were glad to have the strollers after you found out where your room was located !

[Sarahboo]

I love you TR so far! What a blessing that your daughter slept on the plane. We're hoping for that as well, it would make the trip out much easier!

[onelilspark]

Your kids are absolutely adorable, I love how excited they look!

Can't wait to read more!

[crocko]

I bet that worked really well! Did you take advantage of the kitchen or washer/dryer? :rotfl: How cute! I mean, come on. It's her bed. Right?! :laughing:We DID take advantage of both. The microwave, refrigerator, toaster, and dishwasher all were nice and useful for us. The washer/dryer also got used several different times. We knew we would have it and thus only brought 6 total outfits for our 10-day trip.

Just joining in John. Enjoying your pix so far. Your children are quite adorable. I am from the midwest area also. East of Oklahoma.

I find it a lot of fun to go with many people in your party. We had 9 in ours and had a blast. We weren't so lucky as to get such a long stay tho.

GinnyThanks for joining in! Nice to see another midwesterner :thumbsup2

How did your kids like Ohana? Did they do any of the activities? Did they eat the adult food or did they get something else?

Also, are they letting people up front in the monorail these days?They did walk around the restaurant during the little parade that took place during the meal. As for food, Samantha was just tired and fussy...for Joshua, we asked if they could make him some chicken nuggets and they did. He ate those up very well.

Great update!!! wow that seems like a good walk...esp when you are tired coming back from a park. How great that ya'll were able to visit all three resorts on the first day! FUN!!! Poly sounds and looks good! I think we are going to try it for the breakfast we when go! So thank you for the report!

Looking forward to more!
:wave2:We also managed to make it to 'Ohana on our final day for breakfast. I'll give my thoughts on it when we get there :rolleyes1

Cute pictures from your Monorail ride and the other resorts :) I find the Grand Floridian a little bit uppity myself ! LOL The pictures of you kiddos in the hats are adorable . Ohana's food looks very good , have never done the dinner there but the Breakfast has always been good . Sounds like you and your family did a lot of walking , I bet you were glad to have the strollers after you found out where your room was located !Yes! Strollers made that walk nice...although, half the time, the kids want to run around the halls instead. Not so bad, but I like to get places quickly....my patience was tested at times on the trip :rotfl:

I love you TR so far! What a blessing that your daughter slept on the plane. We're hoping for that as well, it would make the trip out much easier!It was very nice.....hope you have the same luck.

Your kids are absolutely adorable, I love how excited they look!

Can't wait to read more!Thanks! More is coming soon....

[crocko]

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 1 -- I Want to Bounce with Tigger!


Alrighty, time for day number 2. This will be a Magic Kingdom day, because we wanted to make sure it was the first park for the kids.

Wake up, kiddos! We’re going to see the castle today!!



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Alright, everyone’s awake (mostly) and now we’re waiting for our cab. We have a breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens, so we decided to get a cab to make sure we’d get there on time. The cab can’t go all the way to Magic Kingdom so it was going to drop us off at TTC. We managed to get him to drop us off at the Contemporary parking lot instead….that way we had a fairly short walk the rest of the way to the entrance.



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Alas! We’re here! Get through the baggage check…get through the ticket gate….and time to see the castle for the first time!



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It’s this big!!



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Here’s the castle from Joshua’s perspective:



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Also, with fall decorations out, there are some really cool pumpkin people at the front of Main Street, USA:



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Now time to get over to the Crystal Palace and wait for our name to be called……some more pictures while waiting



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Our reservation time was for 8:20 and according to my phone, we got called RIGHT on the dot! Awesome.

On our way in, we caught a glimpse of a couple characters and I could quickly tell that this was not quite what Samantha was prepared to see. These Disney friends were a little more real and a little bigger than I think she was expecting.

The first Pooh friend we got a visit from was Pooh himself!



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This was as close as Samantha was willing to get….



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Then Eeyore…Samantha made a little progress by at least letting Bridgette hold her. Per usual, Eeyore is sad that this little girl wants nothing to do with him.



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Next, we can see that Tigger is making the rounds…..Samantha’s interest has been piqued by the bounciness of Tigger.



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Tigger gets to our table. Samantha gets closer….



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She actually did some bouncing with him….



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And then decided to give him a kiss on the nose….Yay!! She’s finally warming up!! (Thank you Tigger!)



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And last, pink little Piglet made his way over.



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Here’s a small sampling of my favorite food items from the Crystal Palace buffet (bacon, eggs, and man-oh-man, those donut holes were addictive!)



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The cute “flower topiaries” that greet you when you walk into the restaurant:



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Our first character meal….things start out tense, but Samantha warmed up at the end. Joshua seemed to have fun the whole time.
The food was yummy….nothing special, but quite a bit of fruit….good bacon & eggs, and again…those donut holes were TOO good. My sister tried the stuffed French toast, but she honestly didn’t think it was anything special.

Now time to walk off that meal and get started with some attractions!



Next: A flying elephant and a real-live mermaid!! (Gasp!)

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Very cute pix. And those children are still cutie pies. I'm glad Samantha started warming up. How can anyone turn Tigger away?

[WrightFamily06]

Adorable pictures of the kiddos ! I love the one of them saying the castle is this big sooo cute ! Glad to see that Samantha warmed up to the characters , or it could have been a long painful trip for her and you guys :) Can't wait to read more :)

[Charlefours]

I'm in--subscribed to it! I enjoyed reading your PTR so I am looking forward to reading the actual TR. We are taking our DD for the first time next September to celebrate her 4th birthday!! We are so excited. Looking forward to reading on. :)

BTW--your children are adorable! I love the pictures from your PTR and day one's posting of the kids sleeping. Little angels!

Is CP worth the 1 TS credit on the DDP? I am considering doing it because I would LOVE to get some pictures of the castle without a lot of people. :)

[stacikristine]

Those last 2 updates were so great!! It's good to know that you didn't think 'Ohana was that great--you're the second person who's said this. I'll keep that in mind. I REALLY like the "the castle is THIS BIG" picture!!! SO cute! :thumbsup2 It looks like your family is really having a wonderful time!

Oh--and Jambo House is set up with the Lobby in the middle and 4 halls branching off (and curving) from that. The front two halls are very short, but the back two are longer. None of them seemed too extremely far, though. We were near the end of one of the front halls, and we could get down to the lobby in just a couple of minutes.

[crocko]

Very cute pix. And those children are still cutie pies. I'm glad Samantha started warming up. How can anyone turn Tigger away?No kidding. The rest of the trip, she got real excited anytime she saw Tigger somewhere.

Adorable pictures of the kiddos ! I love the one of them saying the castle is this big sooo cute ! Glad to see that Samantha warmed up to the characters , or it could have been a long painful trip for her and you guys :) Can't wait to read more :)Yeah...we were a little worried, but I also knew that it would just take some time for her to get used to them....luckily, she progressed quickly during that first meal. :rolleyes1

I'm in--subscribed to it! I enjoyed reading your PTR so I am looking forward to reading the actual TR. We are taking our DD for the first time next September to celebrate her 4th birthday!! We are so excited. Looking forward to reading on. :)

BTW--your children are adorable! I love the pictures from your PTR and day one's posting of the kids sleeping. Little angels!

Is CP worth the 1 TS credit on the DDP? I am considering doing it because I would LOVE to get some pictures of the castle without a lot of people. :)Awesome news about next year's trip....it's gonna be great! Is CP worth a TS credit? For me personally, the breakfast buffest are worth it, just because I love breakfast buffets and usually eat plenty. Plus, eating with characters running around is always cool. And yes, the best way to do CP is on a 9am opening day and try to get a ressie time before the park opens. Very cool!

Those last 2 updates were so great!! It's good to know that you didn't think 'Ohana was that great--you're the second person who's said this. I'll keep that in mind. I REALLY like the "the castle is THIS BIG" picture!!! SO cute! :thumbsup2 It looks like your family is really having a wonderful time!

Oh--and Jambo House is set up with the Lobby in the middle and 4 halls branching off (and curving) from that. The front two halls are very short, but the back two are longer. None of them seemed too extremely far, though. We were near the end of one of the front halls, and we could get down to the lobby in just a couple of minutes.Yeah...'Ohana was okay and for some probably better than others...I just didn't enjoy it as well this time around. Biggest problem is that the waits between skewers coming around takes too long.

Sounds like Jambo House isn't quite as "long" as Kidani Village...so that's nice. On the other hand, we were at Kidani's lobby often and Jambo's lobby a few times...and Jambo House lobby is definitely more "active" (and louder). At Kidani, I think you get a more quiet/peaceful atmosphere.

[crocko]

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 2 -- When can we go see Ariel?


Our bellies are full from the Crystal Palace and our bounce is in place thanks to Tigger. The park is now officially open, so let’s get on some rides. Where to? Fantasyland, of course – with a nice walk by the castle along the way.


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First ride? We had this planned in advance. We wanted the kids’ first Disney ride to be Peter Pan’s Flight. With the park already open for 20-30 minutes, I was worried that the line could have already gotten pretty long. I was pleased, though, to see that we only had about a 5-minute wait.


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I love this ride and so does Bridgette. The kids? I think Joshua liked it okay, but Samantha was not a big fan. We quickly found out with her that dark rides and villain rides were not in her repertoire this time around. So, the darkness of the Peter Pan ride + Capt. Hook was a little too much for her.

Next…Dumbo! Both kids were very excited about this ride. For their very first ride, we made them sit with us, but on Dumbo we let them sit with grandma and aunt Mary.



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With two rides done, Samantha was itching to get to see Ariel. Thus! Time to get on her Ariel dress:



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And then to get in line. On this day, I would say that the Ariel’s Grotto line was probably our longest line of the day….probably around 20-30 minutes or so (Dumbo was a little less). Luckily, there is a splash pad area right there, so while we waited in line the kids played around (Joshua is a huge fan of all the Disney splash pads)


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Once we got close, we called the kids back over and waited anxiously to see Ariel. Before I show the pics, let me just say….this was THE BEST Ariel I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen some before and we saw other Ariels during parades and at a character breakfast. The other ones are okay…..correct me if I’m wrong, though….the girl at Ariel’s Grotto this day was SPOT ON!



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That was fun! After a restroom break, we went over to get some FastPasses for Pooh’s ride. Then, how about a ride around Cinderella’s Carousel.


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Samantha enjoyed this ride a lot.
Next, on to Philharmagic and the kids’ first Disney parks 3D show. I did Philharmagic for the first time last December and thought it was really good. After seeing it for the 2nd time, I feel the exact same way. I absolutely love Donald and that Disney took him through scenes of several great Disney movies. Great 3D (or should I say 4D) effects. Joshua liked this show quite a bit.



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Next up was It’s A Small World….I’ve ridden this ride many times and still enjoy it, but from what I could tell, Joshua and Samantha were mesmerized by all the little dancing kids and animals. (Although, at the end of the ride, Samantha decided she would pose for me by sticking her finger up her nose)


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Note about IASW. When I was on this in December, it had undergone the new "Disney character" treatment, in which several famous Disney characters could be seen at different points in the ride. Halfway through the ride this time, it hit me....where are the Disney characters? I know I didn't just miss them because they were easily noticed. Interesting to know that Disney took them out...anyone have news on that?




Up next: Will Joshua survive a 50-foot drop?

[mommyof2Pirates]

just got caught up again on your reports. I am loving them. We cancelled our CP adr for dinner before we went and I do regret that. I remember from years ago the characters were so much fun. Maybe next time. I would agree that ariel looks amazing. So right on! I have seen others that really dont look as much like the "real" ariel. This one was perfect. Well it seems that you are having a wonderful time so far. I cant wait to read more.

[California Jenn]

Getting caught up. Sounds like a wonderful first day and first set of rides!

The picture of DD looking for Ariel is priceless. So magical :wizard:

Glad to hear you enjoyed both the food and character interaction at CP.

[SoonerGirl]

Hi John :wave2: I can't believe I missed the start of your trip report! What kind of a neighbor am I??? http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o265/SoonerGirl69/Smilies/thduh2.gif

I'm so glad that it didn't take Samantha long to warm up to the characters - I love the pictures of her with Tigger, really cute!

About IASW - I don't remember the Disney characters in it last summer, I thought they were just added to the one in Disneyland, but I could very well be wrong, my mind is slipping in my old age :laughing:

[jordanyosh]

It looks like you got alot done. I've heard the Ariel (isn't there only one..;)) at the Grotto is the best in many TRs. They must use the friendliest one at the Grotto. She ain't bad looking either.

I thought they only added the disney characters at the DL IASW as well....

[longing2Batdisney]

I love the picture of Samantha and Tigger!! and you are spot on Ariel is great and she is really beautiful!!! and I love the shot you did with Josh and Samantha with the castle great view!! :yay:

looks like a great morning so far!!!

as for IASW when we went in May I remember seeing Aladdin and Jasimine seems like I point out another character or two but just don't remember at the moment...it was very sublte the characters were set into their country as you would imagine...and I did not take any pictures...I am the worst about taking attractions pictures!

Hey Hey Shannon is going in a short time she will have to be vigilant and give a report!!!

enjoying traveling with your family....helping with my disney withdrawals
Thanks! :wave2: Connie

[crocko]

just got caught up again on your reports. I am loving them. We cancelled our CP adr for dinner before we went and I do regret that. I remember from years ago the characters were so much fun. Maybe next time. I would agree that ariel looks amazing. So right on! I have seen others that really dont look as much like the "real" ariel. This one was perfect. Well it seems that you are having a wonderful time so far. I cant wait to read more.We were having fun. We got a lot done before lunch, but things definitely go slower with two little ones then when it is just me and Bridgette.

Getting caught up. Sounds like a wonderful first day and first set of rides!

The picture of DD looking for Ariel is priceless. So magical :wizard:

Glad to hear you enjoyed both the food and character interaction at CP.Yeah, I love that picture, too. I wonder what goes through their minds sometimes when they see certain things at Disney World.

Hi John :wave2: I can't believe I missed the start of your trip report! What kind of a neighbor am I??? http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o265/SoonerGirl69/Smilies/thduh2.gif

I'm so glad that it didn't take Samantha long to warm up to the characters - I love the pictures of her with Tigger, really cute!

About IASW - I don't remember the Disney characters in it last summer, I thought they were just added to the one in Disneyland, but I could very well be wrong, my mind is slipping in my old age :laughing:My mind could be slipping, too, but I feel fairly sure I saw them last fall.

It looks like you got alot done. I've heard the Ariel (isn't there only one..;)) at the Grotto is the best in many TRs. They must use the friendliest one at the Grotto. She ain't bad looking either.

I thought they only added the disney characters at the DL IASW as well....:confused3

I love the picture of Samantha and Tigger!! and you are spot on Ariel is great and she is really beautiful!!! and I love the shot you did with Josh and Samantha with the castle great view!! :yay:

looks like a great morning so far!!!

as for IASW when we went in May I remember seeing Aladdin and Jasimine seems like I point out another character or two but just don't remember at the moment...it was very sublte the characters were set into their country as you would imagine...and I did not take any pictures...I am the worst about taking attractions pictures!

Hey Hey Shannon is going in a short time she will have to be vigilant and give a report!!!

enjoying traveling with your family....helping with my disney withdrawals
Thanks! :wave2: ConnieAh ha! You saw them, too! So, possible that they were added after the summer last year, but have been taken away sometime since May.....interesting!

[mommyof2Pirates]

yes I would agree with that. I felt like we wasted so much time with potty breaks (they seem to take forever with young kids) and just having to deal with them in general takes extra long. exp: parking the stroller/hopping out of the stroller/arguing about which ride to go on or what to do (they always seem to have a different idea in their minds then what the plan was). I think that is my biggest advice or comment to anyone going for the first time with kids that has been there as adults: Be prepared and understanding that this trip will move at a much slower pace!

[MagicShell]

I love Fantasyland. Philharmagic is my favorite. That Ariel is very pretty, I'm glad your daughter enjoyed meeting her.

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Absolutely love Samantha in her Ariel dress. And how good was your Ariel you had. She ws absolutely spot on for sure. I must admit I love Philarmagic. I think that is the best 3D show Disney has. Maybe because I love those characters the best. It is totally great.

I make my family do IASW and they all moan and groan (along with COP) but they do it for me anyway. Such team spirit we have. I was glad to see the little dollies with a fresh coat of paint. I thought the last time before the May visit they actually looked kinda scary.

BTW, it never pays to tell children to pose for a picture. See what you get? Quite priceless nonetheless.

Ginny

[stacikristine]

Samantha is such a cutie in her Ariel dress! :cutie: And the pic of you and Joshua (where he's wearing sunglasses) is great! I agree--that Ariel is right on! Very good pictures... The one of her looking down and hugging Samantha is my favorite :goodvibes

[Charlefours]

Thanks for the info about CP--I will definitely add it to our list. I really like the idea of doing one character breakfast buffet so it will either be CP or Akershus b/c DD loves the Princesses too. Have you eaten there before?

Ariel's Grotto is sure to be one of my DD's favorite spots. Ariel is her longstanding favorite. :love:

Oh--love the shot of the Dumbos flying with the castle in the background--just lovely!

[jenny105]

How did I NOT notice that you had started your TR?? I wandered over to your PTR earlier today, thinking you had disappeared...and then I read your signature. :rotfl: Great start!

[crocko]

yes I would agree with that. I felt like we wasted so much time with potty breaks (they seem to take forever with young kids) and just having to deal with them in general takes extra long. exp: parking the stroller/hopping out of the stroller/arguing about which ride to go on or what to do (they always seem to have a different idea in their minds then what the plan was). I think that is my biggest advice or comment to anyone going for the first time with kids that has been there as adults: Be prepared and understanding that this trip will move at a much slower pace!I definitely agree....be ready to adjust. Although, I will say, I was really impressed with the way Disney has their stroller parking setup.

I love Fantasyland. Philharmagic is my favorite. That Ariel is very pretty, I'm glad your daughter enjoyed meeting her.Fantasyland is jam-packed full of rides and fun!

Absolutely love Samantha in her Ariel dress. And how good was your Ariel you had. She ws absolutely spot on for sure. I must admit I love Philarmagic. I think that is the best 3D show Disney has. Maybe because I love those characters the best. It is totally great.

I make my family do IASW and they all moan and groan (along with COP) but they do it for me anyway. Such team spirit we have. I was glad to see the little dollies with a fresh coat of paint. I thought the last time before the May visit they actually looked kinda scary.

BTW, it never pays to tell children to pose for a picture. See what you get? Quite priceless nonetheless.

GinnyYes about kids and poses. We got some great pics of them, but in most of our Photopass pictures they are being "difficult" posers.

Samantha is such a cutie in her Ariel dress! :cutie: And the pic of you and Joshua (where he's wearing sunglasses) is great! I agree--that Ariel is right on! Very good pictures... The one of her looking down and hugging Samantha is my favorite :goodvibesWe definitely started our princess meets on a good note!

Thanks for the info about CP--I will definitely add it to our list. I really like the idea of doing one character breakfast buffet so it will either be CP or Akershus b/c DD loves the Princesses too. Have you eaten there before?

Ariel's Grotto is sure to be one of my DD's favorite spots. Ariel is her longstanding favorite. :love:

Oh--love the shot of the Dumbos flying with the castle in the background--just lovely!We ate at Akershus on Day 4. You will definitely want to hear the review of it. :rolleyes1

How did I NOT notice that you had started your TR?? I wandered over to your PTR earlier today, thinking you had disappeared...and then I read your signature. :rotfl: Great start!Partly my fault. When I got back, my PTR had been closed, so I wasn't able to make a post providing a TR link. Glad you had a good trip and got back safely.

[crocko]

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 3 -- Is this cake or some weird trick?


After It’s a Small World, Joshua wanted to go on one more ride before we stopped for lunch.
So, over to the other side of Fantasyland to ride on some tea cups….



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With the speed of this ride, we worried that Samantha might not like it, but both kids had a blast. Yay!

Then it was time for lunch….so sticking with Fantasyland, we ate at an old-favorite…Pinocchio’s. Now, I still prefer the days when this was a hot dog place, but oh well. I like pizza. The pizzas at Pinocchio’s are VERY saucy, though, which I didn’t really like. The crust, however, tasted almost like a pretzel and was very good.
The dessert? There weren’t many options and most of us chose the chocolate cake. Wow, that is a barely edible chocolate cake they serve there – actually, the cake tasted alright, but the icing/frosting was horrible….and you couldn’t get to the cake w/o going through the frosting.


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Once lunch was over, back out to the sunshine…..and by my count, we had one more Fantasyland attraction to hit (note: Snow White’s ride is not counted, because after Peter Pan, we didn’t think Samantha would like it at all). Time to use our Pooh FastPasses!


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She got a little scared toward the end of the Pooh ride, but seemed to enjoy it all-in-all.

Okay…in my original plans, we would spend the rest of our pre-parade time in either ToonTown or Tomorrowland. Joshua had different ideas…he really wanted to go get wet on Splash Mountain. Alrighty, then let’s go do that….

So, off to Frontierland we go. On the way, I did a double-take as I noticed Frontiersman Donald Duck was quacking about….so we took a pause to get some pictures.

Waiting in line…….(meanwhile, Bridgette took some photos…)



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And then our turn to see Donald (right before he had to go take a phone call from Daisy):


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See ya Donald….now we’re off to go see some Brer friends.

Here’s what Splash Mountain looks like to a 5-year old:



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At first, I thought we might have to get a FastPass and try after the parade, but the wait time was only 10-15 minutes



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On this first ride, Joshua didn’t pay too much attention to the characters, but focused on the drops and the water, which he was enjoying. Then we got to the 50-foot plummet…..after wiping the water from my eyes, I looked toward him and he had a smile on his face. Whew, looks like the saying is true….


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After Splash Mountain, time to give the other nearby mountain a try. Onward to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!
Again, we took the standby line and it was only a 10 minute wait. We got to the point where they line you into the stalls so that you can get into the next train and an announcement came over the speaker that due to technical difficulties, BTMRR would not be running for an undetermined amount of time. Ugh! The good news....for being so close, we were given FastPasses that were good for any ride in the Magic Kingdom for the rest of the month.

Here’s proof of how close we got:



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2317.jpg



So, we left BTMRR with our FP’s in hand and went to catch-up with my parents and Samantha. At this point, it was only 2:15ish, so we decided to go pop over to Pirates of the Caribbean to get a ride in. There was absolutely no wait. Total wait time once we finished walking through the queue was probably 30 seconds. Nice!

I think Joshua liked it okay, but Samantha was very nervous throughout the ride. Dark ride + scary looking pirates and sounds = “No Thanks!”

I was at least glad to see Capt. Jack….with POTC done, the clock was getting close enough to 3:00 that we decided to go stake out a parade spot.

While waiting, I got to hear some songs from these guys (they were really fun)



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Then, right about 3 o’clock, some Snow White characters came by, but we quickly noticed they were all that were coming by. Basically, we had just seen a pre-parade commercial for the fact that Snow White is coming out on Blu-ray in October. LOL!!


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On this particular day, the parade started in Main Street, so it wasn’t until 3:15 that the parade got over to our side (in Frontierland). Note: on Thursday, when we were at Magic Kingdom, the parade started in Frontierland…then on Friday, it started in Main Street again.

I’ll now provide some highlight pictures from the parade (Bridgette got most of the good ones):


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I put that last picture in there because Jafar was being entertaining. He turned around and stared at the dancers coming his way, until finally they were right on top of him.

Before the parade, Samantha had crashed, so she missed the whole thing. Joshua watched, but from our perspective, didn’t seem to get too into it. That’s okay.

Well, the MNSSHP was going to be starting in a few hours, so we decided that once the parade was over we would go ahead and head out of MK for the day. Our first park day, and though there’s a lot left to do, we had a lot of fun (and managed to wear out the kids efficiently)




Up next: Will we get time to check out the Kidani Village pool?

[chicagoshannon]

I love Samantha's Ariel dress. I haven't seen one like that before. :)

I'm gonna guess you didn't take Samantha on the Haunted Mansion. lol

I don't really remember too many Disney characters on IASW in May, maybe Aladin but that's all. I'll check for you next week. :)

[WrightFamily06]

Great details on MK day ! Love how you got a picture of every ride and attraction you did , I need to try and do more of that on our next trip . That Ariel was one of the best looking I've ever seen also and the pictures of her and Samantha turned out great :) My DS who was 2 at the time we went this year was also very scared of the dark rides , must be the age ? Your DS is very brave for wanting to do Splash Mountain , my DS who is also 5 wanted no parts of it and still doesn't ! LOL Can't wait to read more , your details are great !popcorn::popcorn::

[jenny105]

The Winnie the Pooh ride is great! I love the part with Tigger and the Heffalumps & Woozles song. :)

Alright for Joshua going on Splash! AWESOME ride!

[SoonerGirl]

Woo Hoo! Way to go, Joshua, braving the 50 foot plunge! :woohoo:

I gotta agree with you on the chocolate cake at most of the counter service restrauants - the icing is just too sweet or something, and there is way too much of it - yuck! I've recently learned that many of the CS places will allow you to substitue a bottle of water for the dessert on the DDP. I'm going to try that out in December because I'd much rather have a water for later than most of those desserts.

[longing2Batdisney]

GREAT PHOTOS! of it ALL!!!
great job Joshua on Splash mountain...I still have yet to conquer it!!! one day

[crocko]

I love Samantha's Ariel dress. I haven't seen one like that before. :)

I'm gonna guess you didn't take Samantha on the Haunted Mansion. lol

I don't really remember too many Disney characters on IASW in May, maybe Aladin but that's all. I'll check for you next week. :)Nope...we didn't do Haunted Mansion this trip....Samantha definitely wouldn't have liked it.

Great details on MK day ! Love how you got a picture of every ride and attraction you did , I need to try and do more of that on our next trip . That Ariel was one of the best looking I've ever seen also and the pictures of her and Samantha turned out great :) My DS who was 2 at the time we went this year was also very scared of the dark rides , must be the age ? Your DS is very brave for wanting to do Splash Mountain , my DS who is also 5 wanted no parts of it and still doesn't ! LOL Can't wait to read more , your details are great !popcorn::popcorn::Thanks...trying to get this done fast enough so that the details don't slip through....

The Winnie the Pooh ride is great! I love the part with Tigger and the Heffalumps & Woozles song. :)

Alright for Joshua going on Splash! AWESOME ride!Yeah, as a kid I loved watching the original Pooh movie, so I love seeing the scenes played out on that ride.

Woo Hoo! Way to go, Joshua, braving the 50 foot plunge! :woohoo:

I gotta agree with you on the chocolate cake at most of the counter service restrauants - the icing is just too sweet or something, and there is way too much of it - yuck! I've recently learned that many of the CS places will allow you to substitue a bottle of water for the dessert on the DDP. I'm going to try that out in December because I'd much rather have a water for later than most of those desserts.Great tip! May have to try that in November.

GREAT PHOTOS! of it ALL!!!
great job Joshua on Splash mountain...I still have yet to conquer it!!! one dayYou gotta give it a try. Very fun ride!

[crocko]

What do I need to do to get my "boo'ed" image to work?

[stacikristine]

What a fun update! It looks like it was a great MK afternoon! :thumbsup2 That stinks that Big Thunder was down, but awesome that you got FPs! That is really funny that Snow White was advertising her video :upsidedow I hope you got to try out the pool--I hear it's AWESOME!!! That's one thing we forgot to look at when we visited.

[longing2Batdisney]

What do I need to do to get my "boo'ed" image to work?

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s162/MNWDWmaniac/icon_mickey_halloween.gif

my img letters are captilazied; unlike yours don't see how that would make a difference but maybe also mine is not underlined...hmmmm!!!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s162/

MNWDWmaniac/icon_mickey_halloween.gif --broke it up so you can see how it appears on my siggie

give this one a try: I had problems when I tried to add it to my siggie, too!
Good luck!

[Charlefours]

Fun times at MK! Yay for making the 50 foot plunge--I have never done it, I am not one for big drops.

I think of all the parks, MK is the one I am looking forward the most to take DD to--I am just trying to figure if we are going to do it first. I know we will be there on Tuesday but perhaps we should brave the Sunday crowds? What do you think?

[jenny105]

What do I need to do to get my "boo'ed" image to work?

I think you may have posted as a link and not as an image...

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Yay Joshua. That is big of him to do Splash. Glad he liked it. Did he mind getting wet?

[MagicShell]

Your son is very brave to ride Splash Mountain. I am glad he liked it.

[jordanyosh]

Great line mojo even if BTMRR went down..you scored FPs...

It's always great to get pix of the Characters in other costumes....

Good parade pix.....

[chicagoshannon]

Crocko- I used the little mountain icon to insert the boo. Not sure how else to do it.

Hopeing to see another update before we leave. :)

[crocko]

What a fun update! It looks like it was a great MK afternoon! :thumbsup2 That stinks that Big Thunder was down, but awesome that you got FPs! That is really funny that Snow White was advertising her video :upsidedow I hope you got to try out the pool--I hear it's AWESOME!!! That's one thing we forgot to look at when we visited.Yeah...it was funny, first time I'd seen a parade that came with a pre-show commercial :rotfl:

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s162/MNWDWmaniac/icon_mickey_halloween.gif

my img letters are captilazied; unlike yours don't see how that would make a difference but maybe also mine is not underlined...hmmmm!!!

http://i152.photobucket.com/albums/s162/

MNWDWmaniac/icon_mickey_halloween.gif --broke it up so you can see how it appears on my siggie

give this one a try: I had problems when I tried to add it to my siggie, too!
Good luck!I'll keep trying....

Fun times at MK! Yay for making the 50 foot plunge--I have never done it, I am not one for big drops.

I think of all the parks, MK is the one I am looking forward the most to take DD to--I am just trying to figure if we are going to do it first. I know we will be there on Tuesday but perhaps we should brave the Sunday crowds? What do you think?How many days do you have? If you can make it to MK twice, even better!

I think you may have posted as a link and not as an image...yeah....that sounds like a problem I had previously.....

Yay Joshua. That is big of him to do Splash. Glad he liked it. Did he mind getting wet?Getting wet was his whole reason for going on the ride! He loved anything at Disney World that allowed him to get wet. :laughing:

Your son is very brave to ride Splash Mountain. I am glad he liked it.Me, too!

Great line mojo even if BTMRR went down..you scored FPs...

It's always great to get pix of the Characters in other costumes....

Good parade pix.....Yeah...seeing Frontier Donald was cool :thumbsup2

Crocko- I used the little mountain icon to insert the boo. Not sure how else to do it.

Hopeing to see another update before we leave. :)Hope to get Day 2 finished today....

[crocko]

Day 2 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 4 -- Where's the LEGO store?



With the parade over, we had decided it was time to go ahead and leave the park for the day. MNSSHP was that night and we wanted to get out before the party crowds jam-packed the place.


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See ya real soon? Definitely!!

Samantha woke up on the walk out and both kids were being silly on the bus ride back to AKL.



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The plan for the evening was to hit Downtown Disney, but we had a little bit of afternoon left, so before heading back to the room, we let the kids play around the splash pad area of the Kidani pool – Samawati Springs! Samantha chose only to get a little wet.


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Then, back up to the room to get everyone ready to head out to Downtown Disney.

Here’s what our 2-bedroom suite balcony looked like:



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Okapi-sighting


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Then! Off to Downtown Disney….
We got off at the Marketplace bus stop and quickly headed to the Earl of Sandwich to get some dinner. We at there twice during our 2008 trip and it was great both times. This night? Still very good! Sandwiches are hot & yummy and we all got a strawberry shortcake dessert that was nice & tasty.

After dinner, time to do some preliminary shopping….

At the Pin Traders, Samantha found some friends



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We made sure to get over to the World of Disney!


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Very important, in our opinion, to hit this store early in the trip so you can get a good feeling for what product is available. Then, if we see something unique at the parks, we know to buy there instead of waiting to get back to WOD.

Outside of WOD, Samantha found some more friends:



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http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2419.jpg



You may notice in those two pictures, that she has something new in her hands. Grandma was nice and bought her a baby Minnie this evening. You may notice in future pictures that baby Minnie got to do quite a bit of sight-seeing the rest of the trip.

Now, looks like we’re close to the LEGO store. Here’s a picture from Joshua (see if you can tell which person in the picture is real)



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/2420.jpg



Background story, before heading into the LEGO store. For his birthday in July, Joshua got a few LEGO pirate boxes. He has loved playing them and noticed at Target that there is a big LEGO pirate ship. He became completely fascinated with this item. One day while at Target, he just sat on the floor and stared at the pirate ship box. He eventually said to me, “I just like looking at it.” So, we decided that he could use some of his Disney vacation money to buy the pirate ship (I called in advance to make sure that the DTD store had the pirate ship in stock and that the cost was the same as in Oklahoma).
So, up to this point in the trip, Joshua has had fun, but he constantly would ask when we could go get his pirate ship. Well, here we are…the moment has come.



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That is one happy boy right there.

It was getting fairly late at this point, but before leaving we wanted to pop into Once Upon a Toy to give it a quick lookover.



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Well, the night went quickly, but we at least got some good “window-shopping” accomplished. Time to head back to Kidani and get settled in. Before bed, though, the kids were given some time to play….


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What a great Day 2 and first full day at Disney World!




Up next: What happens when 7 people get turned into toys?

[aaaateamsgrandma]

How sweet is Samantha and Baby Minnie? I know of no boys who don't love the Lego store. I have spent small and large fortunes in the past 15 years on Legos. The pic of Samantha with the Lego people is quite cute.

Darn those Disney people. They make everything so appealing to childlren and their grandmas.

[jenny105]

That lego bag is almost as big as he is!! Wow!
Great to read about DTD. We missed out on it this trip!

I see you got your Boo working! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

How sweet is Samantha and Baby Minnie? I know of no boys who don't love the Lego store. I have spent small and large fortunes in the past 15 years on Legos. The pic of Samantha with the Lego people is quite cute.

Darn those Disney people. They make everything so appealing to childlren and their grandmas.Oh, I should have mentioned...that's not actually Samantha with the LEGO family....just some random little girl. :laughing:

That lego bag is almost as big as he is!! Wow!
Great to read about DTD. We missed out on it this trip!

I see you got your Boo working! :thumbsup2Yeah, he wanted to carry it, but he quickly let me carry instead.

Yes! I got the Boo working!

[chicagoshannon]

That AK play area looks awesome! Thanks for updating!

I could spend hours in Once Upon a Toy. That place is HUGE!

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Oh, I should have mentioned...that's not actually Samantha with the LEGO family....just some random little girl.

That's hilarious. I even looked at the clothes and I thought her hair is different, maybe it is the coloring or lighting. I didn't remember any pic of Samantha with a paci.

[crocko]

Day 3 (Hollywood Studios Day)
Chapter 1 -- I don't like the Elevator Ride



It’s time for Day 3!
This would be a Hollywood Studios Day. The park had early 8am opening, so we made sure to get there for the EMH rope drop. Before coming on the trip, I had discovered Dom’s Stars Wars DISigns and he made some cool logos for Bridgette, myself, and the kids.

Here’s Joshua’s:



http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/3101.jpg




Alright, we got on the early bus and make our way to Studios.

Ah, Tower of Terror…..how I have waited to see you again……



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We got there very early and managed to get at the front of one of the entrance lines. Since we were early, some pictures while waiting



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Let’s get some lotion on!



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About 10 minutes early, they let everyone in and we hustle up to the rope line. The crowds behind us:



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In December, we got a fun pre-show before rope drop….but no show today. Right before drop, though, the Toy Story Mania walking crew came out to get ready to intercept us.



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Finally….rope drop, and we speedily walk amongst the crowd to get to TSMM – find stroller parking – park the strollers – everybody here? – Yes? – alright, let’s get in line
Being toward the front and going fairly quickly into the line, we didn’t have very much of a wait. 5-10 minutes maybe….so a fairly quick walk through the queue this time around.



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I would be riding in Slinky Dog with Joshua on our first ride



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Joshua had fun playing, but had a little trouble shooting AND holding the popper low enough to hit enough items. When the game was over, I had forgotten that I wanted to get a picture of the score and scrambledly managed to snap one


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142,400 for me……..16,300 for Joshua. Good showing for his first time around. Of my 142k, I was pleased. Hopefully I’ll get more opportunities and can improve….

On the way out, Joshua thought the huge crayons and Lincoln Logs were cool



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With one riding down, time to quickly grab some FP’s so we can come back and ride again later. Luckily, the FP times had only gotten to 10:10 at this point


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With Toy Story accomplished, the goal now was for the Brave Ones to go ride the Tower of Terror. The Brave Ones include myself, Bridgette, grandpa, and Joshua. Up to this point, we had been calling this the Elevator Ride to help keep Joshua interested and calm.

We got sidetracked on the way over, though



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Before getting up to ToT, we decided to stop at a Photopass photographer. Here’s a picture of The Braves Ones


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And a picture of Joshua….I think he has the appropriate facial expression for someone who is going on this ride for the first time


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While walking through the queue (our total wait time was probably only 10 minutes), Bridgette mentioned to Joshua that it sure is dusty in here. His response, “Maybe, they meant for it to be like that” Haha! 5 years old and he’s already figured out Disney theming.


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We all made it into the elevator without any chickening out. This ToT ride was one of the better ones I’ve been on. It seemed like we got a couple extra drops and I loved how instead of going up and stopping it would just fling us up and then immediately drop back down. Very fun!

As for Joshua? Well….he handled it just fine (grabbed onto both of our hands very tightly) and commented something to the effect that he would prefer not to do that ride again. LOL. Oh well. He was a trooper for trying….maybe next time to the World, he’ll be up for trying again.


Getting off the ride, Grandma, Mary, and Samantha were patiently waiting for us. Next, we decided to cross the park and go give Star Tours a try. This was the one ride I was sad that Samantha was not tall enough for. I tried to walk her on anyway, but the CM out front was quick to measure her and disallow her presence. Oh well.



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We pretty much walked straight onto this ride. Excellent! Afterward, Joshua seemed to have really enjoyed it….and of course, I figured he would be very excited upon exiting as I knew we’d have to walk straight through Tatooine Traders. We went ahead and let Joshua make a light saber at this point…and smart boy that he is, he chose a Darth Maul-esque two-sided saber. He also chose to get a cool toy that is a replica of the machine you travel in for Star Tours. (more on these toys later…..)


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While I finished the purchase, Joshua and Bridgette went over to Jedi Training Academy to try and get chosen to learn to become a Jedi. Joshua had a little trouble getting enthusiastic and didn’t wave or bounce around too much. In the end, he was not chosen. That’s okay…if he wants to later, we’ll try again.


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Up next: What’s big, purple, and really scary?

[crocko]

That AK play area looks awesome! Thanks for updating!

I could spend hours in Once Upon a Toy. That place is HUGE!Yes, it is a GREAT store. Love checking it out. In December, Bridgette and I went hog wild trying to stuff potato head pieces into one of the boxes. :3dglasses

That's hilarious. I even looked at the clothes and I thought her hair is different, maybe it is the coloring or lighting. I didn't remember any pic of Samantha with a paci.LOL -- yeah, the pacifier was the quick give away to me when I first saw the picture. :wizard:

[longing2Batdisney]

Fun update! the play area and splash area at AKL looks like a kids dream come true!!! Love the lego bag!!!! Ashton has not started with Lego's yet (only 3) but that Pirate ship looks awesome!!! Joshua is awesome for trying the ToT he is two up on me!!! I bet as this trip goes on he will put me to shame for sure!!!:thumbsup2 Great job to you and Bridgette for getting him on all these rides at least once...
glad you were able to get your boo on your siggie!!!

[jenny105]

That Jedi Academy instructor was the same one from two years ago! I have tons of pictures from the first time we saw it but sadly we missed out on it this trip! We were too busy with the Animation Academy and TSM! LOVED that ride!

Joshua is brave!!!!!

[mommyof2Pirates]

what a trooper joshua is to even have gone on the ride. What a brave boy! These are such great updates I am so excited to see what else you did.

[Charlefours]

You may notice in those two pictures, that she has something new in her hands. Grandma was nice and bought her a baby Minnie this evening. You may notice in future pictures that baby Minnie got to do quite a bit of sight-seeing the rest of the trip.

That Baby Minnie is adorable! Is it a new favorite now that you are home too?


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How happy he is--too cute! :)

Thanks for the tip about heading to WOD earlier in the trip. I think we may try that first night, especially if we decide not to head to a park that first day to rest up for MK the next day!

We are definitely going to try to make it to MK two days at least. Tentatively, I think two days in MK, two days in EP, 1 day in AK, 1 day in HS--though I am wondering if we might need at least another 1/2 day. That brings the total up to 6 to 6 1/2 days. I would like to leave our last day and perhaps the morning we are leaving to ride favorites if at all possible.

I am learning lots of interesting tidbits from your TR! I am looking forward to the next installment. :surfweb:

[MagicShell]

I loved your update. My seven year old son really loved Legos last year. He is in a Pokemon phase this year. We spent a lot of money in that Lego store last year. My husband was an encourager of my son because he really likes Legos too. That was a sweet story about your little boy "just looking" at the pirate ship.

[WrightFamily06]

Two very nice updates ! That splash pad looks really neat , I know my kiddies would really love it ! Cute :cutie: pictures of Samantha at Pen Traders.Great pictures of Joshua w/ the Pirate Lego Boat , you can def tell from his facial expressions how much he wanted it !

Glad to see you enjoyed TSM :) We really loved this ride too and the Pixar area is so cute ! Loved what Joshua had to say about TOT , can't say I blame him I feel the same way ! LOL My son made a star wars sword also , he did the red not sure which one that is but I like the colors of Joshua's better and the way it had a sword on each side .

Can't wait to hear more :)

[stacikristine]

What great updates!! Your family is just adorable. I love the kids' expressions in all of the pictures :cutie: WOW--the splash area at Kidani looks SO neat! We'll for sure have to check it out next time. And I'm pretty sure a huge "Awww!" came to mind when you said Joshua told you "I just like to look at it." :goodvibes I'm so glad he got his LEGO pirate ship!! It sounds like a fun end of the first full day and beginning of the second! :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Fun update! the play area and splash area at AKL looks like a kids dream come true!!! Love the lego bag!!!! Ashton has not started with Lego's yet (only 3) but that Pirate ship looks awesome!!! Joshua is awesome for trying the ToT he is two up on me!!! I bet as this trip goes on he will put me to shame for sure!!!:thumbsup2 Great job to you and Bridgette for getting him on all these rides at least once...
glad you were able to get your boo on your siggie!!!Yeah, I'm glad he was willing to give these rides a shot. Some worked out well, others didn't. That's okay!

That Jedi Academy instructor was the same one from two years ago! I have tons of pictures from the first time we saw it but sadly we missed out on it this trip! We were too busy with the Animation Academy and TSM! LOVED that ride!

Joshua is brave!!!!!Yeah, he is a fun instructor. In December, Bridgette and I saw a female instructor.
I'm hoping to get to spend some time in the Animation Academy this November.

what a trooper joshua is to even have gone on the ride. What a brave boy! These are such great updates I am so excited to see what else you did.Yes, he was great about giving new rides a try.


That Baby Minnie is adorable! Is it a new favorite now that you are home too?

How happy he is--too cute! :)

Thanks for the tip about heading to WOD earlier in the trip. I think we may try that first night, especially if we decide not to head to a park that first day to rest up for MK the next day!

We are definitely going to try to make it to MK two days at least. Tentatively, I think two days in MK, two days in EP, 1 day in AK, 1 day in HS--though I am wondering if we might need at least another 1/2 day. That brings the total up to 6 to 6 1/2 days. I would like to leave our last day and perhaps the morning we are leaving to ride favorites if at all possible.

I am learning lots of interesting tidbits from your TR! I am looking forward to the next installment. :surfweb:Baby Minnie -- hmm....I need to see if Samantha's playing with her much these days. She's been on a big Princess kick ever since we got home.

For 6 days, that sounds like a good breakdown....in my opinion, if you do use another halfday, I would say give it to Hollywood Studios, especially if you like shows....if shows aren't for your family, then you may be able to take care of HS in one day (except that you'll want to go back to Toy Story Mania, because it is awesome!)

I loved your update. My seven year old son really loved Legos last year. He is in a Pokemon phase this year. We spent a lot of money in that Lego store last year. My husband was an encourager of my son because he really likes Legos too. That was a sweet story about your little boy "just looking" at the pirate ship.Yeah...we're still strong in a LEGO phase right now...who knows what will be next :laughing:

Two very nice updates ! That splash pad looks really neat , I know my kiddies would really love it ! Cute :cutie: pictures of Samantha at Pen Traders.Great pictures of Joshua w/ the Pirate Lego Boat , you can def tell from his facial expressions how much he wanted it !

Glad to see you enjoyed TSM :) We really loved this ride too and the Pixar area is so cute ! Loved what Joshua had to say about TOT , can't say I blame him I feel the same way ! LOL My son made a star wars sword also , he did the red not sure which one that is but I like the colors of Joshua's better and the way it had a sword on each side .

Can't wait to hear more :)Yeah, TSM is really fun. I'm having withdrawals. Originally, our November 3-day trip had us only going to HS for an afternoon and evening. We've actually re-arranged our schedule so that we can get to HS at a rope drop and be able to hit TSM :3dglasses

What great updates!! Your family is just adorable. I love the kids' expressions in all of the pictures :cutie: WOW--the splash area at Kidani looks SO neat! We'll for sure have to check it out next time. And I'm pretty sure a huge "Awww!" came to mind when you said Joshua told you "I just like to look at it." :goodvibes I'm so glad he got his LEGO pirate ship!! It sounds like a fun end of the first full day and beginning of the second! :thumbsup2Yeah, he can be pretty sweet sometimes. Great first day and more great stuff from the next day to come....

[jordanyosh]

I like your idea of preliminary shopping! I don't think I've heard it called that before.

I also like your idea of checking out the World of Disney early before you go shopping at the Theme Parks. What great advice!

Here's some DTD advice. Try going to DTD early in the week, Mon or Tues, during the day, if at all possible. Most people are in the theme parks and it's usually very quiet earlier in the week.

[crocko]

I like your idea of preliminary shopping! I don't think I've heard it called that before.

I also like your idea of checking out the World of Disney early before you go shopping at the Theme Parks. What great advice!

Here's some DTD advice. Try going to DTD early in the week, Mon or Tues, during the day, if at all possible. Most people are in the theme parks and it's usually very quiet earlier in the week.That's good advice. We generally get there in the evening and things are pretty busy. In November, we are going to try and get over there on Sunday afternoon and possibly Monday afternoon....so, hopefully we'll see smaller crowds on Monday.

[crocko]

Day 3 (Hollywood Studios Day)
Chapter 2 -- 30 Pounds of Fury



Okay, we left off with having given Jedi Training Academy a try, but not getting selected.
At this point, a friends of ours met up with us. We have a friend from our church in Oklahoma that is currently working at Disney with the College Program and she had the day off on this Saturday and was able to come hang out with us. So, with an 8th member of the Vacation Squad on board, we decided to cross back over to the Animation side of the park.

On the way, a starving Joshua got his first Mickey ice cream bar



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We happened to be crossing the park while an HSM pep rally was going on. So, we stopped for a few minutes so Samantha could watch


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Before we cross into the Animation side of the park, we let Joshua finish his ice cream bar and get cleaned up


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Interesting note. I believe this was the last ice cream that Joshua had on the trip. For some reason, afterward, he would tell us that he didn’t want any more ice cream on the trip. Not sure what happened……..(after about a week back home, he finally started eating ice cream again) LOL

Our plan was to hit the Playhouse Disney show, but instead went ahead and got in line for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. A show had just recently started, so we got to be the first ones in to the waiting area for the next show. Some photos I took while we waited:



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And then finally, the doors opened. It has been awhile since I’ve seen this, but the show is still really good. I think Samantha enjoyed it, but she got pretty nervous/scared when the huge Ursula came out.

After VOTLM, we went back to TSMM to use our FP’s.



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This time, I was the odd man out….sitting by myself. That was fine by me. Here was my score for game 2


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Yay! Improvement!!

Upon coming out….we had to be careful because the military was patrolling



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By this time, we’re all getting hungry. So, let’s cross the park one more time and have lunch at Backlot Express. It has been a tradition for my family to eat here on our trips. I always enjoy getting a nice big cheeseburger from here.

As we walked up, we noticed that another Jedi Training Academy was about to start….and this time, Joshua was super-excited to try and get picked. So, Bridgette stayed out with him, while I went inside and helped my mom get our orders in. Once we’d ordered, I hustled back out to see if he’d been chosen and I saw this:



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Woohoo!!! He got chosen. This is gonna be awesome.

So, for the next 15-20 minutes, Bridgette and I stood at different areas taking tons of pictures of this particular and VERY important Jedi Training Academy.



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Uh oh…..


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According to the Jedi instructor, here comes “30 pounds of fury!”


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See ya later, stormtroopers!


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Three cheers for the newest Jedi!


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Up next: Are the Muppets still working?

[jenny105]

YAY! So glad Joshua got picked for the Jedi Academy! :)

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Ok, these last two reports were great. My grandson got to do the Jedi training too and he was beyond thrilled. Lucky Joshua. He looked like he did a good job and was super excited.

Loved your shirts by the way.

Joshua sure knows how to eat icecream.

[chicagoshannon]

Aw so glad he got picked! I'm so glad you included the picture of the lightsaber. Madeline wants to build one, a PINK one. I see that they actually have a pinkish one that she can have. We've been telling her that they might not have that color.

[Charlefours]

Yay for Joshua being picked for Jedi Training! :cool1: Was this his highlight of the trip?? Thanks for the head's up about Backlot Express.

[longing2Batdisney]

fun,,,too funny about the ice cream...I had one at WDW and it was more than enough for the rest of my trip...to big and messy I think!

GREAT JOB! JOSHUA...HE IS HAVING A AWESOME FIRST ADVENTURE TO WDW!!! :yay:

great pictures as always!

[crocko]

YAY! So glad Joshua got picked for the Jedi Academy! :)Yeah, after not making it the first time, he got himself pumped up to give it another try. He bounced around a lot more the 2nd time trying to get noticed.

Ok, these last two reports were great. My grandson got to do the Jedi training too and he was beyond thrilled. Lucky Joshua. He looked like he did a good job and was super excited.

Loved your shirts by the way.

Joshua sure knows how to eat icecream.Yes he does!

Aw so glad he got picked! I'm so glad you included the picture of the lightsaber. Madeline wants to build one, a PINK one. I see that they actually have a pinkish one that she can have. We've been telling her that they might not have that color.They've definitely got a variety of colors. She can make one either at Tatooine Traders or the Once Upon a Toy store at DTD.

Yay for Joshua being picked for Jedi Training! :cool1: Was this his highlight of the trip?? Thanks for the head's up about Backlot Express.It was definitely one of THE highlights of the trip. Although, when asked about the trip he's most likely to talk about Splash Mountain.

fun,,,too funny about the ice cream...I had one at WDW and it was more than enough for the rest of my trip...to big and messy I think!

GREAT JOB! JOSHUA...HE IS HAVING A AWESOME FIRST ADVENTURE TO WDW!!! :yay:

great pictures as always!Yeah, we we're doing great so far!

[crocko]

Day 3 (Hollywood Studios Day)
Chapter 3 -- That was a Bambi song?!?



Once Joshua had finished his Jedi Training, Bridgette, my mom, and I were finally able to go inside and catch-up on lunch at Backlot. As usual, my cheeseburger was very yummy!

Then, we decided to head over to the Muppets and catch a 3-D show (imagine I’m saying that with Kermit’s voice).
No line for this attraction and we were able to just walk right into the waiting area. I’ve always loved the pre-show that goes on while you wait.



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I don’t know the exact year this show started, but I want to say it’s been running for about 20 years. Even so, it is still funny and entertaining…BUT…it could use some work.
A) The quality of the film has gone downhill
B) The 3-D effects just aren’t as great as the were a decade ago. They are still fun, but with newer 3-D shows (specifically Philharmagic) the 3-D effects feel old and less cool.
I’m wanting to say I’ve heard the Muppets 3-D show is in fact getting a revamp in the next year or two.



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At this point, we decided we’d pretty much hit everything that we really wanted to for this day. Plus, the kids were getting tired


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So, we headed to the Photo area to get Joshua’s JTA pictures added to our Photopass card and then headed out to the bus stops and then back to Kidani.


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We finished the parks early enough today, that we decided we had plenty of time to get some swimsuits on and head down to the pool.


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While everyone was playing in the pool, there were some pool games going on as well…one of them was a Disney trivia game. Anyone could play. They would ask 15 questions and the highest score would get a prize. The theme for this day’s trivia was Disney songs. So, Bridgette and our CM friend sat at the edge of the pool and played. They would play a song and you would either have to know what movie it was from or be able to “fill in the blank”. Some were very easy, some were (easy to us) but not to the average Disney fan….and then there were a couple hard ones. The 2 toughest:
1) A love song that was not very familiar at all. I thought it sounded like it was from an old live-action movie, so I told Bridgette to guess So Dear To My Heart (Later, we found out that it was from Bambi! Haha…April Showers is the only Bambi song I ever remember)
2) The last question was what is the 6-word phrase the dwarves say in the Hi-Ho song….apparently no one ever got this one. Well, I was on the right track that they were actually singing about leaving work and not going to work, so I told Bridgette, “It’s off from work we go” That was close, but it is actually, “It’s home from work we go”
So, Bridgette got 13 out of 15 right which ended up being enough to tie for 1st. The prize was a 10-minute card to the arcade. She didn’t really think we’d use it, so instead they let her pick 2 tennis-ball sized bouncy balls. The kids had fun bouncing those down the hallways back to our room later.

During our walk back, the giraffes and zebras were out and active:



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After getting dried off and day clothes back on, we did a bit of a split-up. We knew the kids had plenty of stuff to play with in the room, so we left them with grandma and grandpa to play in the room for the evening. Meanwhile, Mary, Bridgette, our CM friend, and I headed to Downtown Disney again. Once there, we parted ways with our CM friend….but we’ll get to see her again later.

First task, dinner! We’d had Earl’s the night before, so we decided to try Wolfgang Puck Express this time.

I had a BBQ chicken pizza and Bridgette had a 4-cheese macaroni & cheese. We all ordered crème brulee as our dessert



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Wow! This dinner was awesome! The pizza was super good. Bridgette really liked her mac & cheese and come on….creme brulee….can’t go wrong there. For 3 of us, the total cost of this meal was $63 (OVER $20 A PERSON!!) and we were able to each use 1 QS credit. So, note to all Dining Plan users…IMO, Wolfgang Puck Express is not only the Best Value for a QS credit, but also some of the best food for a QS credit. (There is a WPE at the Marketplace and one apart of the Wolfgang Puck Café over at the West Side)

Then, some more shopping/browsing around for the rest of the evening:



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Finished with me grabbing a chocolate-eared Mickey rice krispy treat. Yummy!

We stopped off at Jambo House on the way back to look in the big store there and grab some postcards. We then thought we’d give a try to walking from Jambo House to Kidani Village. For those who might stay at AKL sometime, the walk is not as bad as I expected. The Jambo House walk to the buses takes long enough that you might as well just walk over to Kidani if that’s where you’re headed.

Well, that’s Day 3. Another great day in Disney World…..and we still haven’t even hit 2 of the parks yet!





Up next: Which Princesses will be in Norway today?

[jenny105]

I agree with you about Muppets 3D. I love it but I feel that it's very outdated. I hope they update it rather than do away with it completely to make room for another Pixar attraction. Not knocking Pixar because I love their movies but it seems like everything new is Pixar-related lately!

Sounds like another great day in the World!

[stacikristine]

YAY! What great updates! That is so awesome that Joshua got chosen to be then newest little Jedi! :thumbsup2 And I just love Samantha's swimsuit and goggles picture. Super cute :cutie: Isn't WPE just incredible?! It's by far our favorite counter service. Our total was around $30 for us to split a meal :eek: Looks like a really fun day!!

[crocko]

I agree with you about Muppets 3D. I love it but I feel that it's very outdated. I hope they update it rather than do away with it completely to make room for another Pixar attraction. Not knocking Pixar because I love their movies but it seems like everything new is Pixar-related lately!

Sounds like another great day in the World!I love all the new Pixar stuff, but love the Muppets as well. I would like to see them stay in the parks...I love that store right outside of the show, because it has a lot of fun Muppets merchandise.

YAY! What great updates! That is so awesome that Joshua got chosen to be then newest little Jedi! :thumbsup2 And I just love Samantha's swimsuit and goggles picture. Super cute :cutie: Isn't WPE just incredible?! It's by far our favorite counter service. Our total was around $30 for us to split a meal :eek: Looks like a really fun day!!Samantha called them her "gobbles" :rotfl2:

[crocko]

Day 4 (Epcot, World Showcase Day)
Chapter 1 -- A Casual Morning in Norway




Day 4 = Epcot Day. This was a very fun and very busy day. This was my biggest picture day, too….so, not sure how many chapters it will take me to get through this day.

Scheduled for this morning was a 9:30 buffet breakfast with Belle and friends at Akershus in Norway. So, we got a little extra sleep this morning and got our bus to Epcot at about 8:00am.

Getting ready – Samantha decided to wear her Alice dress for breakfast. And Joshua was being a super spy this morning:



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Here’s the bus….let’s go!



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Since the park didn’t open until 9:00am, we had managed to arrive before park opening, so we casually strolled over to the Character Breakfast entrance



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The line was really long over here and we were really early (8:45ish and our reservation wasn’t until 9:30). But, we went ahead and checked in with the guy at the front and to our surprise, he let us in! (I think the line was people just waiting for normal opening…hello, can’t you read the Character Breakfast Entrance sign? Sheesh!)

Being in the park before opening and being very early for breakfast, we were able to casually stroll through the park and take some pictures



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And then, we make it to Norway. The place was busy. We tried to check in but were too early. We noticed that there was a group there and one of the women tried to check in, but they weren’t listed. She spent the next 30 minutes+ talking to people on the phone trying to get her reservation fixed. We suspected it was a case of everyone thought the breakfast got booked and yet no one really did. Yikes!

In the end, not only did we wait about 30 minutes for our reservation time, but another 25-30 minutes past that since they were running behind. Oh well….no problem. It was a beautiful morning and we just took advantage of being in Norway!



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Then finally, our Royal Family was called in. First! Let’s get a picture with Belle



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Okay….now to see which Princesses/Disney girls we’ll get to see today. We were very surprised with our luck. Snow White was present along with Aurora (as we expected). Cinderella was there. Woohoo!! AND human-legs-Ariel! How awesome.
(by the way, just as the Ariel in MK was perfect, the Cinderella we saw this morning was straight out of the story as well)



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As you can see here and throughout the trip, Joshua didn’t seem to mind getting pictures with pretty princesses.

Now, what about the food? I had heard mixed reviews about Akershus food coming into the trip…but figured, oh well….at least we’ll see Princesses.

Here’s a few pics I took after I had already been stuffing my face for awhile:



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So, how did we feel about Akershus breakfast. It was unanimous amongst the family that this was the BEST buffet breakfast we’d ever had….anywhere, with or without characters. There is a buffet that serves breads and cold foods…and then you get the warm foods family-style (bacon, eggs, potatoes) The bacon and eggs were very warm and yummy. Lots of different fruits to choose from, cheeses, jams. There was a lingonberry muffin (didn’t know what a lingonberry was) but it was very good. Plus, a caramel-icing cinnamon roll.
WOW! Best….Cinnamon roll…..ever! First, it was an amazingly soft cinnamon roll…normally, at buffets cinnamon rolls are kinda crunchy. Not this one. Plus, it had caramel on top of it. How smart is that?!

I’m so glad that I have a little girl, because the next time we come to Disney we are definitely eating here again.

One last pic…Samantha with our waitress. She was from Norway and was very nice and helpful throughout the meal




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Up next: Will we ever see Alice? Is the Maelstrom too scary?

[SoonerGirl]

Great updates! Where do I start??

So cool that Joshua was chosen to be a Jedi in training - he looked super cute in his robe. And, Samantha was adorable in her googles too, I love silly pictures like that.

Yours in the 2nd raving review of WPE that I've read this week, I think we are definitely going to have to fit a lunch there into the plans for December.

I love Samatha's Alice dress, very pretty. :goodvibes It's too bad I'll never get a chance to try out the princess breakfast at Askershus, my boys won't go for it. :rolleyes:

[Gabes_mommy]

I love your TR! AKV looks so cool - now I want to stay there someday. :goodvibes

Your kids are so cute and they look so sweet and happy to be at WDW. I especially love the last picture of your DS with Ariel - you can tell he likes her. :cutie:

I can't wait to hear more. :flower3:

[MagicShell]

I love breakfast in Norway, it is one of my favorite things in all of WDW. I am glad you all enjoyed it too. My 6 yr. old son also enjoyed getting attention from the princesses.

[kkfinley]

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Where in DTD was this picture taken? I would like to get one for my husband on our next trip.

I am also really enjoying your TR. Can't wait to read the rest.

Thanks,
Krista

[Charlefours]

Day 4 (Epcot, World Showcase Day)

So, how did we feel about Akershus breakfast. It was unanimous amongst the family that this was the BEST buffet breakfast we’d ever had….anywhere, with or without characters. There is a buffet that serves breads and cold foods…and then you get the warm foods family-style (bacon, eggs, potatoes) The bacon and eggs were very warm and yummy. Lots of different fruits to choose from, cheeses, jams. There was a lingonberry muffin (didn’t know what a lingonberry was) but it was very good. Plus, a caramel-icing cinnamon roll.
WOW! Best….Cinnamon roll…..ever! First, it was an amazingly soft cinnamon roll…normally, at buffets cinnamon rolls are kinda crunchy. Not this one. Plus, it had caramel on top of it. How smart is that?!

I’m so glad that I have a little girl, because the next time we come to Disney we are definitely eating here again.





:cheer2:! I am so glad that Akershus was a hit! I have been waiting patiently for the TR to cover it. :banana: I am so excited to do it with my DD--she will be so excited and happy to meet the Princesses. :) Maybe we will luck out and Cinderella will be there too for us since we are not planning on doing the CRT.

[crocko]

Great updates! Where do I start??

So cool that Joshua was chosen to be a Jedi in training - he looked super cute in his robe. And, Samantha was adorable in her googles too, I love silly pictures like that.

Yours in the 2nd raving review of WPE that I've read this week, I think we are definitely going to have to fit a lunch there into the plans for December.

I love Samatha's Alice dress, very pretty. :goodvibes It's too bad I'll never get a chance to try out the princess breakfast at Askershus, my boys won't go for it. :rolleyes:Definitely give WPE a try. That pizza, though, really big for one person, was so delicious...every bite just melted in my mouth. Oh goodness, I can't wait to eat there again in just a little over 4 weeks... :3dglasses

I love your TR! AKV looks so cool - now I want to stay there someday. :goodvibes

Your kids are so cute and they look so sweet and happy to be at WDW. I especially love the last picture of your DS with Ariel - you can tell he likes her. :cutie:

I can't wait to hear more. :flower3:Kidani is very nice. A very relaxed atmosphere with a lot of stuff to do w/o leaving the resort.

I love breakfast in Norway, it is one of my favorite things in all of WDW. I am glad you all enjoyed it too. My 6 yr. old son also enjoyed getting attention from the princesses.It quickly made it to the high side of my list after that meal. :thumbsup2

Where in DTD was this picture taken? I would like to get one for my husband on our next trip.

I am also really enjoying your TR. Can't wait to read the rest.

Thanks,
KristaGoofy's Candy Co in the Marketplace. It is on the backside of the area where all the custom treats get made.

:cheer2:! I am so glad that Akershus was a hit! I have been waiting patiently for the TR to cover it. :banana: I am so excited to do it with my DD--she will be so excited and happy to meet the Princesses. :) Maybe we will luck out and Cinderella will be there too for us since we are not planning on doing the CRT.I've heard that Cinderella has been showing up there more often, so I hope that's still true come your trip.

[crocko]

Day 4 (Epcot, World Showcase Day)
Chapter 2 -- Big Trolls and Gingerbread Men




After our wonderful breakfast, it was just about right at 11:00am. Perfect! That meant that we could just go ahead and finish off the parts of Norway we hadn’t hit yet. So, we walked over to Maelstrom to take a voyage through NORVAY!

This picture does a good job of showing how Samantha felt about the ride



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She does not like dark rides! Joshua got a little nervous, but at least by the end could realize that we were telling him the truth when we said it wasn’t scary.

Things quickly got hostile in Norway, though, and Joshua fought hard to defend us all from an unnatural ending…..



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(Apparently after Darth Vader, the kid things he can take on anything!)

Norway is also where we started our Kidcot fun…and the kids got their masks made


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Then, it was on to Mexico!


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We did Kidcot, checked out the market a little bit, and then went over to do El Rio de Tiempo (Donald Duck version). When it comes to this ride, I am NOT a traditionalist. To me, the original ride was extremely boring. I much prefer the newer, zestier version that includes the Three Caballeros…..the kids liked trying to spot Donald a lot.

2 countries down….now off to China.

By the way, after breakfast, we asked Samantha if she wanted to take her dress off. She wanted it on to see Alice, but we wouldn’t be over to the U.K. for a couple hours. She wanted to keep it on, though!

At China, we got a fun surprise in that Mulan was out greeting guests!



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China pavilion is so beautiful! We quickly made our way through the big store and then back to the kidcot. Slowly walked out afterward, checking out the views.


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3 countries down….now for a long walk over to Germany. Thankfully, the Outpost is in between. We took advantage of the shade and chance to get refreshments.


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Cooled down a little bit….on to Germany! Walking up, we saw a good-sized land for Snow White. We had just seen Snow White at breakfast, so I thought we’d probably skip her since the line was long. When asked if she wanted to stop, though, Samantha most definitely did.

So, Bridgette, my mom, and Samantha went to get in line. I took Joshua toward the stores. My sister did the same thing, but ahead of us, and my dad just found a nice, shady spot.



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While walking through the chocolate store, Joshua saw a gingerbread cookie and said he wanted it. Well, we still had plenty of snack credits, so I didn’t mind…although, I didn’t know he liked gingerbread. So, I got him the cookie and he really liked it. It lasted several days, but he enjoyed it each time.


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Then, over to Kidcot


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The girls caught up with us at this point. We took a few minutes to just hang out and enjoy being in beautiful Germany


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On the far end of Germany, is Walt’s train city. Joshua and I had fun looking at this area (could spend a lot of time just watching)


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4 countries down…good place to stop for this chapter.





Up next: Anything else we forgot to do in Italy?

[we3are1]

Loving your TR.
Isn't getting your son in the Jedi training a magical moment? I just loved it!
Waiting to hear more...

[chicagoshannon]

I think we might have to try that breakfast next time! I think that is the prettiest Cinderella I've seen so far. Actually the Snow White was the best looking one too.

Madeline has that same dress and we're bringing it with. Did it make Samantha really hot? She looks really warm in some of those pictures.

[jordanyosh]

Great pix and report of the Princess Breakfast. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it.

If you were ever wondering if the China Pavilion looks anything like the original Temple of Heaven...Here you go. I went to Beijing this past Feb:

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[longing2Batdisney]

fun update!! looks like it was Samantha's day! I love how Joshua was happy to visit with all the pretty ladies, too! It is sad when boys think they can't visit the beauties of Disney... Dayne is just starting to like to revisit the princesses, again. And Danny would not let me take Ashton to meet Tink and the Princesses! he loved Snow White when he met her!!

Samantha's face is priceless in Norway!!
:wave2:

[mommyof2Pirates]

wow I just got caught up on your report. You have been busy updating. I feel so behind. Yeah for joshua getting picked at JTA. Its funny that the spot were we did JTA was different then the stage you were at. Do they do it at different areas of hollywood studio?

The epcot country pics were awesome too. I loved the pics of the princessess and am sad that I dont have a little girl to take there. It sounded great. I love samantha in her alice dress she looks so adorable. Cant wait to hear how the rest of the day at epcot was.

[WrightFamily06]

Wow I don't read over the weekend and I get several Chapters behind ! LOL Anyway awesome updates as usual ! The pictures of Joshua eating his Mickey bar for the first time are adorable . Glad to see that everyone got another spin on TSM again and that Joshua made it into the Jedi Training Academy :) The pool pictures are also adorable , the theming of that pool is so neat , would love for my kiddies to see it someday ! We loved the food at WGPE also , can't wait to eat there again .

Glad to hear that you really enjoyed the Akershus Princess Breakfast , this is a must do on our list every year too . The food is delicious and I love how you get your picture included w/ the meal,not to mention you can meet up w/ a good chunk of the princess at once . Cute pictures from all the countries so far and the one of Samantha's face after Maelstrom is priceless !

Can't wait to see if Samantha meets up with Alice over in the UK and how the pictures turn out !popcorn::popcorn::

[MagicShell]

It looks like you are having fun touring the World Showcase. I never saw the original Mexican boat ride, but my son loved the Donald Duck version. You got some really nice pictures in the World Showcase, very pretty.

[stacikristine]

Wow. Those princesses are some of the best I've seen! I really like the pics of both of your kiddos with them--I think the last one of Joshua was my favorite though! Oh--and that pic of Samantha walking with her baby Minnie is definitely frame-worthy! :thumbsup2 I love all of the pics of the countries. That's one of my favorite parts of Disney!

[crocko]

Loving your TR.
Isn't getting your son in the Jedi training a magical moment? I just loved it!
Waiting to hear more...Yes, it was definitely one of the great moments.

I think we might have to try that breakfast next time! I think that is the prettiest Cinderella I've seen so far. Actually the Snow White was the best looking one too.

Madeline has that same dress and we're bringing it with. Did it make Samantha really hot? She looks really warm in some of those pictures.She was probably hot, but she was determined to keep it on until she met Alice.

Great pix and report of the Princess Breakfast. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it.

If you were ever wondering if the China Pavilion looks anything like the original Temple of Heaven...Here you go. I went to Beijing this past Feb:

Wow! Awesome pic....and looks like Disney did a good job.

fun update!! looks like it was Samantha's day! I love how Joshua was happy to visit with all the pretty ladies, too! It is sad when boys think they can't visit the beauties of Disney... Dayne is just starting to like to revisit the princesses, again. And Danny would not let me take Ashton to meet Tink and the Princesses! he loved Snow White when he met her!!

Samantha's face is priceless in Norway!!
:wave2:Yeah, Samantha had more going on this day, but being able to stop at a Kidcot station with every country kept Joshua interested and excited about each new place.

wow I just got caught up on your report. You have been busy updating. I feel so behind. Yeah for joshua getting picked at JTA. Its funny that the spot were we did JTA was different then the stage you were at. Do they do it at different areas of hollywood studio?

The epcot country pics were awesome too. I loved the pics of the princessess and am sad that I dont have a little girl to take there. It sounded great. I love samantha in her alice dress she looks so adorable. Cant wait to hear how the rest of the day at epcot was.One nice thing is that you sometimes get the princes out at World Showcase. Aladdin, the Beast, and Prince Phillip occasionally make appearances, I believe...plus, Pooh & Friends in the UK.

Wow I don't read over the weekend and I get several Chapters behind ! LOL Anyway awesome updates as usual ! The pictures of Joshua eating his Mickey bar for the first time are adorable . Glad to see that everyone got another spin on TSM again and that Joshua made it into the Jedi Training Academy :) The pool pictures are also adorable , the theming of that pool is so neat , would love for my kiddies to see it someday ! We loved the food at WGPE also , can't wait to eat there again .

Glad to hear that you really enjoyed the Akershus Princess Breakfast , this is a must do on our list every year too . The food is delicious and I love how you get your picture included w/ the meal,not to mention you can meet up w/ a good chunk of the princess at once . Cute pictures from all the countries so far and the one of Samantha's face after Maelstrom is priceless !

Can't wait to see if Samantha meets up with Alice over in the UK and how the pictures turn out !popcorn::popcorn::I forgot to mention that in China, the "handler" helped us out by being able to tell us what times Alice was supposed to be out....so, we were keeping a good eye on the times as we made our way around. Would it help? We'll see....

It looks like you are having fun touring the World Showcase. I never saw the original Mexican boat ride, but my son loved the Donald Duck version. You got some really nice pictures in the World Showcase, very pretty.I'd say the country with my best pics is coming up next....

Wow. Those princesses are some of the best I've seen! I really like the pics of both of your kiddos with them--I think the last one of Joshua was my favorite though! Oh--and that pic of Samantha walking with her baby Minnie is definitely frame-worthy! :thumbsup2 I love all of the pics of the countries. That's one of my favorite parts of Disney!Yes...some countries I got some really good ones. In November, I'm going to try to get better pictures in the countries we had less time in.

[crocko]

Day 4 (Epcot, World Showcase Day)
Chapter 3 -- She said her name is Alice


After Germany, time to visit Italy (a place that apparently is very significant to those of you who are Twilighters…….puke)


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Well, halfway done with the “foreign” countries now….time to go get some refreshments at the good ol’ U.S.A. Kids got a slushy to work on together while at this spot.
Also, the fountain out front of American Adventure was very tempting as the temperatures were getting pretty high for the day.



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In the gift shop here, I bought my first shirt of the trip….a cool American Adventure shirt that has six old flags from our nation’s history on it. About this point, Bridgette realized that we didn’t get one of the kidcot items for one of the kids’ sticks while in Italy, so she ran back to get it added.
She made it back, and then I realized we didn’t get a stamp on that one either….so I went back to Italy to get our missing stamp.

Whew….I think we have everything now. Let’s start our foreign travels again.

On to Japan



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While sitting around here, Joshua discovered an area with a whole bunch of big rocks. At home, he loves to pick up any cool-looking rock when we’re out and about…..apparently this was a GOLD MINE!


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I walked up to the top of Mitsukoshi to take some pictures and had a tag-along behind me


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Bridgette managed to get a good picture from below of us


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Then, we did kidcot here. The kids liked this kidcot because it had some sharpie colors we had not seen yet!

When we came out, my sister was waiting on an item she was having made in the store (about 15-minute wait). We checked the time and noticed that Alice should have just come out. So, while they were waiting, Bridgette, Samantha, Joshua, and I hustled over to the UK to try and catch Alice.

On the way, we saw that Belle was in France and had changed to a more comfortable outfit:



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Her line was short, so we figured we’d make the detour. Now, continuing on to the UK. As we came up, we first spotted Mary Poppins…fun, but we’ve got a bigger agenda. Alice?
Alice?
Anywhere?
There she is!



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Not too long of a line, woohoo!

And then our turn!



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Alice asked Samantha what her name was. She mumbled something, so Bridgette and I both spoke up that her name is Samantha. Alice responded, “Well, she actually answered correctly. She said her name is Alice.” Hahahaha! So funny (Samantha had been called Alice by everyone all day, that I guess that’s what popped to her mind first)


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Yay! With Alice seen, we can scamper back over to Mary Poppins


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And with that done, Samantha is now MORE than ready to get out of her Alice dress. Haha, what a trooper for keeping it on for half the day.

On our way back, we noticed that my family had moved over to France. We still needed to hit Morocco, so the four of us backtracked to there. Good thing, because we saw some more Disney friends!



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In Morocco, the kids played around in Agrabah for awhile…


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And Joshua became a local….


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Up next: Could he BE blushing anymore?

[jenny105]

:rotfl2: at the Twilight comment. I read all the books but only because I got 3 of the 4 as gifts. I really don't get what all the hype is about. They're not that good and Bella & Edward are the two most annoying people in the history of literature.

/End rant

Love the pictures of Samantha and Alice! And Joshua with that hat on!

[crocko]

:rotfl2: at the Twilight comment. I read all the books but only because I got 3 of the 4 as gifts. I really don't get what all the hype is about. They're not that good and Bella & Edward are the two most annoying people in the history of literature.

/End rant

Love the pictures of Samantha and Alice! And Joshua with that hat on!Well, Bridgette won't like my comment. :rolleyes1

Yeah, I didn't know Bridgette had taken that picture of him with the fez. I cracked up the first time I saw it.

[crocko]

Day 4 (Epcot, World Showcase Day)
Chapter 4 -- A Sleeping Beauty and a Tiggerific Thief



We finished Morocco and then caught up with the rest of the family over at France. We all had some snacks and relaxed for a little while.


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While the “big kids” relaxed, Bridgette noticed that Aurora had come out over around the side of the pavilion, so the kids went to get more pictures.


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It is harder to tell with these pictures, but on the Photopass pics, you can see that Joshua was blushing very heavily in these pictures. LOL

Okay, now it is time to get back over to the United Kingdom to look around some. While crossing one of the bridges, we both took some pictures and then noticed that Samantha had disappeared. I walked up a little farther and saw this



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She had just found cozy little spot near the water to sit and look out…..


The United Kingdom (this is one of my favorite pavilions in overall design. I love that this pavilion was actually designed AROUND the walkway so that you feel like your taking a stroll through a provincial English village.



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In the United Kingdom, we got to see Tigger and Pooh again. Unfortunately, only one decent picture on our cameras…the rest our Photopass’d.

Tigger stole my cap and wouldn’t give it back. Joshua was rolling on the floor laughing about it.



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Some cool Mary Poppins props:


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I love the fact that the UK store has Charlie & Lola stuff to buy. Last year, we bought the kids a book and Charlie & Lola dolls, I believe. This year, Joshua bought a cool coloring/activity book that he had fun with.


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After a few purchases in the UK, on to our final country….Oh Canada!


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Last kidcot station!


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At this point, my parents and sister went ahead and headed back to AKL (it was about 5 o’clock, I believe). We stuck around with the kids to go ahead and get a few more things done, since the kids were still in a pretty good mood.

The kids and I sat down on a bench, while Bridgette went back to the UK to grab some fish ‘n’ chips (she wasn’t very impressed with the food, though)

While waiting, Joshua draws in his new Charlie & Lola book



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While gone, Bridgette also picked up an item in France that we had purchased. Samantha was allowed to get a little parasol with a Princess design on it. We had to give them time to customize it, so that’s why Bridgette had to backtrack. Here’s Samantha with her fun new purchase


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Now, we decided to head on into Future World for a little bit. I was hungry, so I went to the Electric Umbrella to get some food for Joshua and myself. The kids spotted a little splash pad area, so she stopped and stayed with them there while finishing her dinner.


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Up next: Figment – friend or foe?

[crocko]

Day 4 (Epcot, World Showcase Day)
Chapter 5 -- Photoshoot with Nemo and Friends



After I had the food, Bridgette and the kids caught up with me. A shivering and wet Joshua stood near our table and ate his dinner. Samantha twirled around with her parasol.

Then, time to see if we can get a couple rides in before heading back.

First, let’s try Nemo and Friends!



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We were able to walk straight on to this ride (well, the walk itself took a couple minutes….haha….but once we got up there, we went straight on)

It’s a cute ride and I’m glad they have updated to make this area Nemo-themed. The kids liked the ride, but the dark, scary fish with the lightbulb scared Samantha a little bit. This particular evening, we didn’t do much looking around at the rest of the area. We were short on time and wanted to get on over to Imagination and officially introduce the kids to Figment



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Pretty fun ride. The kids both liked it and Joshua thought the smelly part where you get skunked was funny.
With it getting late, we skipped through the fun area afterward, knowing that we’d back to this section in 2 days.

Now, let’s see if we can get out of here…..Samantha, can you help us?



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One last picture from Day 4. In case you were wondering, the gift shop at Kidani Village is called:


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Up next: What do you mean the Yeti has been invited to our breakfast?

[crocko's wife]

Well, Bridgette won't like my comment. :rolleyes1


Yeah, Bridgette didn't like it so much. So she decided to join this party and make sure that you don't say anything else that is just plain wrong :)

[longing2Batdisney]

Hello! Bridgette
welcome to the dis...I see it is your first post...
welcome to the fun!! :yay: your children are beautiful and the excitement of life and Disney just shines...:mickeyjum
:wave2:

you have world travelers on your hands!!! I love the shot of Samantha by the water, too cute for words!!! reminds me of something Gwendolyn would do...
looks like ya'll had a wonderful time traveling around the world showcase!

[SoonerGirl]

Yeah, Bridgette didn't like it so much. So she decided to join this party and make sure that you don't say anything else that is just plain wrong :)

:lmao:

Uh oh, John - you're in trouble now!!

Glad you decided to join in on the fun, Bridgette. So far it looks like you guys had a great trip!

[Charlefours]

Looks like your family had a great time in World Showcase! Did you plan a full day just for World Showcase? That is what I am anticipating. I like the idea of tying it together with Akershus--seems like a natural connection since you would begin your day there anyways.

I am really excited to take my DD to World Showcase and Epcot in general. I know some feel it is not child friendly but I think your TR and pictures of Joshua and Samantha smiling prove otherwise! You sure hit the character jackpot!! I am hoping we are as lucky as you were.

Looking forward to another chapter. popcorn::

[Kris74]

Looks like the kids really enjoyed the World Showcase and I just loves Samantha's Alice dress. Too precious!!

[Disneymoon09]

I just found your TR and read it all today. I love it! It makes me so much more excited for our upcoming trip!

[mommyof2Pirates]

what an amazing day. Your children seem so well behaved and just enjoying every minute of the trip. I am envious of you all doing so much in the countries. I didnt realize how much the kids would enjoy them until we get there. We went later in the evening so we didnt have much time to do everything and the characters were gone for the day. I will keep that in mind for next time after seeing all your great character pictures. oh and that picture of samantha looking out over the water is so beautiful and peaceful looking.

[onelilspark]

I'm just back from my trip, so I'm catching up now!

:rotfl: That Twilight comment cracked me up (sorry!) My boyfriend's Mom & Sister keep trying to get me to read them...I'm pretty adament about saying NO!

[WrightFamily06]

Nice Update :) Love all the pictures of the different countries and the kiddies w/ the characters ! Both Samantha and Joshua seems very photogenic . The splash pad pictures are also very cute , along w/ the Nemo & Friends pictures !

Can't wait to hear more about your trip !

[crocko]

Yeah, Bridgette didn't like it so much. So she decided to join this party and make sure that you don't say anything else that is just plain wrong :)"Hey Norm. Look who decided to show up."


you have world travelers on your hands!!! I love the shot of Samantha by the water, too cute for words!!! reminds me of something Gwendolyn would do...
looks like ya'll had a wonderful time traveling around the world showcase!It was a lot of fun....love the World Showcase!

:lmao:

Uh oh, John - you're in trouble now!!

Glad you decided to join in on the fun, Bridgette. So far it looks like you guys had a great trip!Yep...gonna have to be on good behavior the rest of the TR.

Looks like your family had a great time in World Showcase! Did you plan a full day just for World Showcase? That is what I am anticipating. I like the idea of tying it together with Akershus--seems like a natural connection since you would begin your day there anyways.

I am really excited to take my DD to World Showcase and Epcot in general. I know some feel it is not child friendly but I think your TR and pictures of Joshua and Samantha smiling prove otherwise! You sure hit the character jackpot!! I am hoping we are as lucky as you were.

Looking forward to another chapter. popcorn::Yep, we planned on this as simply a World Showcase day and tried not to worry about how long it took. All-in-all, we started with our Princess Breakfast (got in a little before 10am, and out almost right at 11am) and then did the World Showcase for the next 6 hours....it was right about 5pm when we finished Canada.

Looks like the kids really enjoyed the World Showcase and I just loves Samantha's Alice dress. Too precious!!Yeah, they had fun and actually did probably their least amount of complaining to leave on this day.....being able to stop and let them have fun at the kidcot stations with every country was really nice....plus all the characters around the World helped, too.

I just found your TR and read it all today. I love it! It makes me so much more excited for our upcoming trip!Glad you were able to catch up. When is your upcoming trip?

what an amazing day. Your children seem so well behaved and just enjoying every minute of the trip. I am envious of you all doing so much in the countries. I didnt realize how much the kids would enjoy them until we get there. We went later in the evening so we didnt have much time to do everything and the characters were gone for the day. I will keep that in mind for next time after seeing all your great character pictures. oh and that picture of samantha looking out over the water is so beautiful and peaceful looking.all-in-all, they are very well-behaved kids. I think anything at Disney can be fun....some tips: no where the fun kid areas are so that they can occasionally have fun kid time (playgrounds, splash areas, kidcots, characters)......and don't underestimate the value of a slushy. With our kids, we've found that any tired and foul mood is immediately uprighted with a cold ice cream or slushy! :wizard:

I'm just back from my trip, so I'm catching up now!

:rotfl: That Twilight comment cracked me up (sorry!) My boyfriend's Mom & Sister keep trying to get me to read them...I'm pretty adament about saying NO!Well.....I think I've made my stance clear. :rolleyes1 and Bridgette has made hers, too. :laughing:

Nice Update :) Love all the pictures of the different countries and the kiddies w/ the characters ! Both Samantha and Joshua seems very photogenic . The splash pad pictures are also very cute , along w/ the Nemo & Friends pictures !

Can't wait to hear more about your trip !Yes, when they are active we get some great pictures. What is hard is when we are trying to get family pics....their heads are either straight down or straight up. pirate:

[crocko]

Day 5 (Animal Kingdom Day)
Chapter 1 -- Dinoland...this place really is extinct...



Day 5 was an early start for us as we were headed to Animal Kingdom for 8am EMH (I don’t know if I’ve ever done this park without going to an EMH) ??

So, everybody got ready timely and down to the bus……and here we are!



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As they did last year, we were let in a few minutes early and got to see a fun pre-show.


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Uh….over here, Mickey……..


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Then, time to head off to attractions! I believe this was my first time to start a day at Animal Kingdom without heading straight to the Safaris. This time, we headed to Dinoland U.S.A. first, instead.


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And straight over to Triceratop Spin. We got to be the first people on the ride.


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It wasn’t busy at all yet in Dinoland, so we were allowed to stay in our seats for a 2nd ride. Then, Mary, Bridgette and I got off, while the kids stayed on for another ride with the grandparents.

We were headed to…..



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I LOVE this ride! I know that a majority of DISers don’t like this ride, but I think it is great…definitely one of my favorites and has me cracking up everytime I ride it. Plus, I love all the details and funny things that you can see throughout the ride.


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This was my sister’s first time on the ride. She got bumped around a ton, but she liked it. When we were done, they let us stay on for another go….except that they actually had us get out and quickly scoot up to an empty car ahead of ours. Take 2 was a blast, too! (Note: this ride was closed in December last year….my guess is to build a 2nd version of the ride. I guess during busy season, they can have both identical rides open at the same time to keep crowds moving quickly.)

Leaving Primeval Whirl….



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We got off to find that the kids were playing a few of the carnival-esque games. Since they were the only ones playing, one of them was guaranteed to win and get a prize each time. So, they each got to bring home 2 fun animals from the games.


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Taking a ride with some dinosaurs:



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Before leaving that car, Samantha (who was missing Wendy’s on this trip), asked the car to get her some Wendy’s nuggets. LOL

Uh, Dad……you’ve got something behind you….



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Next, Mary, my dad, Joshua, and I went over to brave the dangerous Dinosaur ride. The others went to look around in the shops.

We had virtually no wait to get on. Joshua was a little nervous before getting on, but he remained brave. Then, once the ride starts, things quickly get dark on the ride. And bumpy! I had forgotten how bumpy the ride is. Joshua held on tight and whimpered early on……I did my best to console him and try not to act like things were scary. (as my hand was getting squeezed tighter and tighter).

When we got off, I asked him what he thought and he just shook his head. We went over to look at the ride picture. It was a good one in which you could definitely see some traces of fear on Joshua’s face. Funny enough, he really liked the picture and was all about us getting one. So, we got the ride picture. My sister also bought something, so while we waited I took this picture. It perfectly describes how a little kid might feel after riding Dinosaur



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Oh, and here’s a gory poster. LOL


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We caught back up with the girls to find out that apparently you can find a lot of good princess and HSM product in the Dinoland store. Haha!

At this point, it was getting close to 9:30 and we had a 10:00am reservation at Tusker House for breakfast, so we decided to go on and head that way. We had a lot of fun in Dinoland….during that first hour, the place was very quiet…..a great start to the day.

On the walk over to Tusker House, we walked where we could see Mt. Everest. Samantha had learned about the Yeti before coming to Disney World and she did not like the Yeti. I told her that was the Yeti Mountain and she pretended to get all scared. The, we spent the rest of our walk with her telling jokes about how the Yeti was coming to our breakfast – and each time she said that, I’d get scared and tell her no way!



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Once over in Africa, we went to get FP’s for Kilimanjaro Safaris….and then we sat down to wait for breakfast. (We should have spent more time in Dinoland) Not only were we 30 minutes early to breakfast, had to wait almost exactly an extra 30 minutes before we were seated….so, quite a bit of just sitting around to do:


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Reading a book from Joshua’s perspective:


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Up next: Will the buzzer ever go off? AND….what happens when you put kids on a bumpy jeep?

[WrightFamily06]

Great update :thumbsup2 Nice pictures from the Dinoland area , how magical :wizard:that you got to ride the rides there more than once ! The picture of Joshua after Dinosaur is priceless ! :laughing: Can't wait to see how you like your Tusker House Breakfast , this is our new favorite breakfast at WDW .

[SoonerGirl]

Great idea going to dinoland for EMH, I guess everyone heads to Everest or the Safari, so you had the place all to yourselves! :thumbsup2

I'm looking forward to hearing about your Tusker House breakfast, we've got an ADR there for Christmas day.

[Disneymoon09]

we will be in WDW Dec.1-8th :)

[MagicShell]

Your kids did a great job making it all the way around the World Showcase. Did they walk or ride in a stoller? This trip will be my son's first trip without a stroller so I am kind of worried about how that will go.

I can't handle riding Primeval Whirl, it HURTS! I am glad you enjoy it though.

[stacikristine]

Yeah, Bridgette didn't like it so much. So she decided to join this party and make sure that you don't say anything else that is just plain wrong :)

Hi Bridgette! Welcome to the DIS :thumbsup2 Your family is adorable--I'm loving reading all about your adventures in Disney!



WOW! I can't believe you've updated so much over the past few days!!! :eek: There's so much to comment on! I love all of the WS pics--they're so pretty. Hm...I didn't know Twilight had connections to Germany (I'm obviously not a fan...) but I laughed at your comment! :laughing: I really like the pic of you and your kids at the Japan pavilion. Woo-Hoo for being in a nearly-empty Dinoland!! That's awesome that you were able to ride those so many times. I'm anxious to hear how you all like Tusker House. I've heard a lot of good reviews for it!

[crocko]

Great update :thumbsup2 Nice pictures from the Dinoland area , how magical :wizard:that you got to ride the rides there more than once ! The picture of Joshua after Dinosaur is priceless ! :laughing: Can't wait to see how you like your Tusker House Breakfast , this is our new favorite breakfast at WDW .Yep, it was a great time at Dinoland....if it were just me, I would have ridden Primeval Whirl several more times. :3dglasses

Great idea going to dinoland for EMH, I guess everyone heads to Everest or the Safari, so you had the place all to yourselves! :thumbsup2

I'm looking forward to hearing about your Tusker House breakfast, we've got an ADR there for Christmas day.Yep...we decided the kids would have more fun at Dinoland, so we managed to stay away from the two places that get busy early. Very nice! (Of all our time at the parks, that hour felt the MOST like..."Wow, I think we own this part of Disney World right now" LOL

we will be in WDW Dec.1-8th :)Excellent! Bridgette and I were there in early December last year. Crowds should be pretty low and the weather might be a little chilly, but pretty nice. Also, you'll get to see all the great Christmas decorations :thumbsup2

Your kids did a great job making it all the way around the World Showcase. Did they walk or ride in a stoller? This trip will be my son's first trip without a stroller so I am kind of worried about how that will go.

I can't handle riding Primeval Whirl, it HURTS! I am glad you enjoy it though.We had the strollers. Joshua likes being in a stroller whenever we're walking between places. Samantha is more of a walk on her own girl, though....except for when we made our mad dash to see Alice...I made her get in then.


WOW! I can't believe you've updated so much over the past few days!!! :eek: There's so much to comment on! I love all of the WS pics--they're so pretty. Hm...I didn't know Twilight had connections to Germany (I'm obviously not a fan...) but I laughed at your comment! :laughing: I really like the pic of you and your kids at the Japan pavilion. Woo-Hoo for being in a nearly-empty Dinoland!! That's awesome that you were able to ride those so many times. I'm anxious to hear how you all like Tusker House. I've heard a lot of good reviews for it!Actually, the picture with my Twilight comment was referring to Italy. If my second-hand information is correct, it is a reference that comes from New Moon.

[crocko]

Day 5 (Animal Kingdom Day)
Chapter 2 -- From under the sea to.....well, are we still under the sea?




So…would the buzzer ever ring for our Tusker House breakfast?

At 10:30am (30 minutes after reservation time) we finally got the buzz. Woohoo!!!
First thing, to get a family picture taken:



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At this breakfast, I did a bad job of getting any food pictures, although, Bridgette at least got one of the special juice they serve there


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The juice was pretty good….not cold enough, though. As you can see in the background, after my first cup of juice, I asked for some chocolate milk.

The food here was good, though. A very big buffet with a huge selection of foods. I was personally pleased with the donuts that they had available. A couple different desserts were available as well...Bridgette seemed to like the apple/berry cobbler thing. I didn't really eat much, but there was a good amount of meat available as well.

It took awhile before the characters started to come around, but once they did, they came pretty quickly. First up? Donald Duck!!!



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Compare this breakfast to the Crystal Palace breakfast three days earlier…you can tell that Samantha has warmed up!

2nd up – The Goofman!



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Who’s next?


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I see Mickey!!



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And after keeping a good eye on him, he finally came over:


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Then, finishing up the character train….Daisy Duck. Samantha was very excited that Daisy was here.


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Finished up our belly-stuffing breakfast and headed out (whew…no Yetis at breakfast). Overall, a very good breakfast food-wise. Also a great character breakfast, as it is always fun to see Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Daisy.

CHARACTER BREAKFAST ADVICE: In general, here's a suggestion I'd like to make regarding ADR's for character breakfasts. If you want a first-thing breakfast, then try to get as early as possible. If you'd like a later breakfast, I would suggest figuring out what time you would ideally like to start breakfast. Then, try to get an ADR for about 20-30 minutes earlier. At both Akershus and Tusker House, the ADR's Mary managed to get for us happened to be 30 minutes earlier than what she was trying for (oh well, we thought, at the time). Because we had to wait almost 30 minutes both places, things kinda worked out in the sense that we finished our breakfasts at the times we initially wanted to.

Now, it was time to use our FP’s for Kilimanjaro Safaris. I like that you use your strollers for half of the queue and then halfway through, they have a stroller dropoff.

With FP’s, our wait was only 5-10 minutes (while the standby was closer to 45 minutes, I believe).
Into our jeep and off we go!



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Just as with Dinosaur, I had forgotten how bumpy the Safaris jeeps can get (plus, we were in the back). We were getting bumped all over the place. Nevertheless, shortly after starting, here’s Samantha


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/5212.jpg



Joshua had his camera out for the Safaris and was doing his best to get some pictures snapped. He got a couple neat ones. Apparently the heat and the bumps were getting to him, too, though. Toward the end of the ride, I noticed this below me:


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/5213.jpg



We got to see quite a few animals this time around, but this was a much less lively Safaris ride versus some previous ones we’ve had. No giraffes, only a couple elephants, and that pesky sleeping lion. We normally go to KS first…..and that’s why. Just seems like, closer to noon, the animals aren’t out quite as much.

Oh well, we’ve got animals back at our resort!

Joshua was still very sleepy when we got off, but we decided to head over to Asia and see if a water ride might wake him up and get him perky again.

So, off to Kali River Rapids.



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We did the standby line, which was probably 20 minutes, but not too bad….constantly moving which is nice. Due to his stature, Joshua got the captain’s seat. That worked out well, because he got nice and soaked! Which is exactly what he wanted. I think he enjoyed this ride quite a bit….probably more had he not been half-asleep still.

After the Rapids, we found a nice shady spot to sit for a few minutes and have some slushies. Man…Disney slushies are so yummy.

Then, it was time to get in line to go watch Finding Nemo: The Musical (Bridgette and I were excited…we hadn’t seen this before)



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We got into the auditorium fairly early and got some pretty good seats in the bottom half. We had a bit of wait for showtime, but managed to keep the kids fairly entertained and awake (can’t say the same for my mom and sister, though) LOL

Then, the show began……I tried to get some good pictures with Bridgette’s camera. Here’s some of the better ones:



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That show was outstanding! Bridgette pointed out, that if that little 30-minute production came to town, she’d definitely be willing to pay just to see it. Well done, vibrant colors, and very creative. A must see!

Of course, when the show is over, the need to make room for the next crowd, so everyone is quickly ushered out of the building. In our case, we were ushered out of a nice building and straight into………..RAIN!

With hardly any covering. There’s a restroom nearby, so everyone hustled over to try and get under some of its covering. I went over there with the kids, while Bridgette booked it for the strollers. She came back looking fairly drenched and with our ponchos. So, we managed to get our ponchos and the kids on and tried to quickly head for the shops toward the middle of the park. Of course, now that we have our ponchos on…………….time for the rain to let up. Hahaha!!

Originally, we had planned to look at the Tree of Life and get over to Camp Minnie-Mickey after the show, but with the rain getting everyone wet, we just decided to call it an Animal Kingdom day and head on out after peeking at the stores.








Up next: Umm..excuse me, I have another dining plan question…..

[mommyof2Pirates]

boy joshua must be brave. I rode dinosaur for the first time when I was 18 and I was scared to death. I think I may have even cried a little :rotfl:. We also had the longest wait at tusker house. I dont want to give away anything for my next update since its our AK day but stay tuned to find out our troubles with tusker house.

[kate_wdw]

I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed reading your trip report. Your family is adorable!

[jordanyosh]

I was surprised that the kids went to sleep on KS. I thought that after a big breakfast that the bumpy ride would cause them to have breakfast twice..if you get my drift.....;)

It seems that the trick is to do what you did and go to Dinoland first. Everyone else is running to KS or Everest.

AK is a great park, but man is it hot.

[aaaateamsgrandma]

John, just wanted to catch up with you. Those last updates were great. Those darling children of yours sure were having a good '1st time' visit. It appears you all got to do a lot of things. I love Epcot. I always say it is my fav till I go to MK. AK is ok, I love the rides and that parade that is grand but not so much the rest of it. I know I'm a little off-kelter.

Love your little princess. Even tho Alice is not a princess, Samantha sure is. That Joshua is a real go getter. He doesn't appear to be afraid of anything.

Ginny

[crocko's wife]

So, when we left, the forecast called for rain everyday. Of course, we all know that in Florida, that is not unusual, but I was expecting to have to use our ponchos at least every day or two. The one time that we actually put them on, and honestly it was a waste of five minutes! Oh well, the kids were appeased.:confused3

Okay, concerning Dinosaur: I am terrified of this ride and if Joshua had not wanted to go on it, I would have been happy to keep him with me. I even have a shirt that says "I Survived Dinosaur" that I got on our honeymoon.:scared1:
I definitely recommend skipping the ride and shopping in the store there in Dinoland--it has some merchandise that I was sure I would find elsewhere on the trip, but never did. Good princess, HSM, and jewelry/keychains, plus there is a Build-a-Potato-Head station that was not busy and all crowded and mixed up.

[longing2Batdisney]

fun update!! sounds like a great start to the day at dinoland!!!
since I have not done ADR's yet and plan to add that next trip...I think I want to try the before park opens times....esp. after hearing how you had to wait after your ressie time :eek: I love the picture of Joshua after the dinosaur ride...says it all :lmao:
:wave2:

[crocko]

boy joshua must be brave. I rode dinosaur for the first time when I was 18 and I was scared to death. I think I may have even cried a little :rotfl:. We also had the longest wait at tusker house. I dont want to give away anything for my next update since its our AK day but stay tuned to find out our troubles with tusker house.Uh oh....now my interest is piqued!

I just wanted to say how much I've enjoyed reading your trip report. Your family is adorable!Thanks so much!

I was surprised that the kids went to sleep on KS. I thought that after a big breakfast that the bumpy ride would cause them to have breakfast twice..if you get my drift.....;)

It seems that the trick is to do what you did and go to Dinoland first. Everyone else is running to KS or Everest.

AK is a great park, but man is it hot.Yeah, I would have thought the same thing about the Safaris....I was flying all over the place with the bumps and yet they just nodded off. So silly.

John, just wanted to catch up with you. Those last updates were great. Those darling children of yours sure were having a good '1st time' visit. It appears you all got to do a lot of things. I love Epcot. I always say it is my fav till I go to MK. AK is ok, I love the rides and that parade that is grand but not so much the rest of it. I know I'm a little off-kelter.

Love your little princess. Even tho Alice is not a princess, Samantha sure is. That Joshua is a real go getter. He doesn't appear to be afraid of anything.

GinnyHis bravery surprised me. He didn't like everything necessarily, but he got on (helps when mom & dad don't tell him much about what he's getting on) :rotfl2:

fun update!! sounds like a great start to the day at dinoland!!!
since I have not done ADR's yet and plan to add that next trip...I think I want to try the before park opens times....esp. after hearing how you had to wait after your ressie time :eek: I love the picture of Joshua after the dinosaur ride...says it all :lmao:
:wave2:One thing nice about the 8am breakfasts. You get to have breakfast early (instead of starving come 10am) and you can generally get out right as the park is opening or shortly after (if it's a 9am day). Also, with those buffets, you get pretty full....so, then you can have a late lunch and either a light dinner or just some snacks at dinner time.

[crocko]

Day 5 (Animal Kingdom Day)
Chapter 3 -- Boma vs. Mara, Food Fight!




So…the rain kicked us out of Animal Kingdom park, so back to Animal Kingdom lodge….where we would spend the rest of the day.

When we got back, the kids were finally allowed to get a candy from the gift shop…they’d been wanting to since Day 1!



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We all relaxed in the room for awhile this afternoon. Then a little after 6pm, we headed over to Jambo House. Bridgette, Mary, and my dad had Boma reservations….and my mom, the kids, and I were going to head to the Mara.

So, first let’s fall the Boma group:



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Their reservation was for 7pm, but I believe they were seated a bit early. Boma is a buffet-style place, so they were allowed to go up and get whatever they wanted and as much as they wanted.

A couple food pics:



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From what I’ve been told, there would have been more pictures, but Bridgette was too busy enjoying the yummy food. She had several of the desserts, but they were too delicsious, apparently, too consider stopping for a picture. LOL
I believe this may have been Bridgette’s favorite meal of the entire trip. Hopefully, she’ll be able to respond with some more firsthand thoughts about Boma.

Now, let’s follow the Mara group (this sounds like Survivor):



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The Mara is AKL’s quick-service place (just like pretty much all the resorts have). My mom got a chicken dinner, I believe, while I (of course) had a double cheeseburger and Joshua had some cheese pizza. This was my first time to use the dining plan at a grab your own food type of place, so I had to ask the CM’s for “guidance” a couple times. LOL
For my dessert, I grabbed a thing of 5 zebra domes. The zebra domes are pretty tasty, but MAN are they rich. All I could eat was one of the 5. I learned later, that you could generally get fruit as a dessert trade-off if desired.

While eating, the Mara TV was showing some old Mickey and friends cartoons…the type that my kids have not been very exposed to. They’ve mostly seen Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. They thought these were Great! There was one where Mickey, Goofy, and Donald were firemen….doing a horrible job of putting out a fire. Joshua was cracking up at that one.

So, we finished our casual dinner and then walked around the pool to check out Jambo’s playground.



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After about 20 minutes on the playground, we decided to head on back over to Kidani. As it worked out, we finished playing about the same time that the Boma group finished their dinner, so we all made it back to the room at about the same time. It was a nice, peaceful evening…..being the middle of the trip, I think it was beneficial....we all got to slow-down our pace and recharge a little before starting the 2nd half of the trip.

Earlier in the evening, Bridgette took some pictures of the different carpet styles that you see as you walk down the hallways…..

(can you find the hidden Mickeys?)



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And then, here’s the carpet in the rooms……


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Some more Kidani decorations:


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Up Next: Will we be allowed to enter the guarded gates of Bay Lake Tower?

[jenny105]

So weird that it rained at AK. We left and when we got back to WL, it was cloudy and they closed the pool for a bit, but it never rained. :confused3

[WrightFamily06]

Very nice updates :) There buffet at the Tusker House is def huge , my favorite was the crepes they had yummy ! All the pictures w/ the gang at breakfast turned out so cute . Awesome Nemo pictures , that show proves very hard for me to photograph , even w/ my SLR , you did such a great job ! That's terrible about the rain and then for it to stop when you get your ponchos on , how rude , I guess that's Florida weather for you though . Sounds like everyone really enjoyed there dinner , I agree w/ you the Zebra domes are good but very rich . When you said about the kiddies really enjoying the older cartoons , I wanted to let you know they have DVD's out that you can buy w/ those on them Called- Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites and there's different volumes . I got most of my kids at Toys R Us and WDW .

Can't wait to read more !popcorn::popcorn::

[jordanyosh]

couple of questions about AKV/L since I'll be staying there in feb. How was Mara-food wise and how far of a walk was it to Jambo from Kidani?

[Charlefours]

Looks like you had a great time in AK! I am impressed Joshua survived Dinosaur--did you get him the same shirt (I survived Dinosaur)?

Bridgette--which shop in AK did you like? I know we have adults who would like to ride Dinosaur, and I think DD (and myself whom am I kidding? :rotfl:) would like the shop. I would love to make a note of it.

Tusker House Breakfast is slowly creeping up on my radar--seems like good food and mostly a good experience for other families I am reading about in their TR. I am definitely interested in reading Mommyof2Pirate's experience too!! :surfweb:

[stacikristine]

What a great, relaxing night! We were a little confused about ordering at the Mara too at first. I really enjoyed their food, though! :thumbsup2 Are those carpets in Kidani Village? Because we had the same ones in Jambo House!

[crocko]

So weird that it rained at AK. We left and when we got back to WL, it was cloudy and they closed the pool for a bit, but it never rained. :confused3Wow.....apparently it was a rain just for the "south side" of Disney World. :rotfl2:

Very nice updates :) There buffet at the Tusker House is def huge , my favorite was the crepes they had yummy ! All the pictures w/ the gang at breakfast turned out so cute . Awesome Nemo pictures , that show proves very hard for me to photograph , even w/ my SLR , you did such a great job ! That's terrible about the rain and then for it to stop when you get your ponchos on , how rude , I guess that's Florida weather for you though . Sounds like everyone really enjoyed there dinner , I agree w/ you the Zebra domes are good but very rich . When you said about the kiddies really enjoying the older cartoons , I wanted to let you know they have DVD's out that you can buy w/ those on them Called- Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites and there's different volumes . I got most of my kids at Toys R Us and WDW .

Can't wait to read more !popcorn::popcorn::Yeah, it was one of those typical Disney rains. But Bridgette and I weren't willing to trust it. On our honeymoon, we were back in Africa at Animal Kingdom one day when it started to rain. We decided we were ready to go ahead and leave the park and thought "Oh, it'll just be a quick 5-minute rain" like we'd been seeing on previous days. Well, it rained hard! And the entire jog from Africa to the front of the park and then to the bus stops (NOT a short distance) we got poured on. Then, while waiting on the bus, we actually got hailed on. The wind was so strong that the hail was blowing in sideways and slapping against our legs. Come on!!! We're wearing shorts on a hot day in Florida and getting hailed on!!!

:laughing: :laughing:

couple of questions about AKV/L since I'll be staying there in feb. How was Mara-food wise and how far of a walk was it to Jambo from Kidani?Mara food was pretty good. My mom really liked the chicken dinner. Several selections to choose from...don't be afraid to get creative on how to use side/dessert options either....they tend to be pretty flexible.

Walk from Kidani to Jambo isn't that bad.....I was expecting worse. (Plus, if you happen to be staying on the "right-hand" side of Kidani, the walk is even shorter.

Looks like you had a great time in AK! I am impressed Joshua survived Dinosaur--did you get him the same shirt (I survived Dinosaur)?

Bridgette--which shop in AK did you like? I know we have adults who would like to ride Dinosaur, and I think DD (and myself whom am I kidding? :rotfl:) would like the shop. I would love to make a note of it.

Tusker House Breakfast is slowly creeping up on my radar--seems like good food and mostly a good experience for other families I am reading about in their TR. I am definitely interested in reading Mommyof2Pirate's experience too!! :surfweb:
Nope, no Dinosaur shirt...just the picture :3dglasses


What a great, relaxing night! We were a little confused about ordering at the Mara too at first. I really enjoyed their food, though! :thumbsup2 Are those carpets in Kidani Village? Because we had the same ones in Jambo House!Yeah, that was Kidani....must use the same at both areas.

[crocko]

Day 6 (Epcot, Future World Day)
Chapter 1 -- Thwarted by Bay Lake Tower!



Day 6 – this was to be our 2nd Epcot day. And even though we’d already been to Epcot, this would be our first day to get to focus on Future World. Because of a late lunch and hopes to see Illuminations, we decided to sleep in a bit and get a slow start to this day. No rope drop (weird!)

One thing that we had been wanting to do on this trip was Characters in Flight. So, the night before, Bridgette called to find out the times and the CM gave her some advice that as a DVC member (which my sister is, so we all get to pretend we are), for free…we could go up to the Lookout Area at Bay Lake Tower. Supposedly you can see all 4 parks from that lookout. Well, free is cool and we won’t always be with my sister, so we went ahead and planned on doing that before we headed over to Epcot.

Also, today is the day that we wore our super-secret shirts (design by myself!) for us all to wear to Epcot. Hopefully they’ll show up in some of the pictures, but here is mine.


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We each had a different colored shirt and the word Epcot across the front. The cool part was that the letter “O” for each shirt had a different retro Epcot logo. Mine, had the old logo for Horizons.
Samantha = Imagination, Joshua = Spaceship Earth, Mary = The Land, Bridgette = The Living Seas, my Dad = World of Motion, and my Mom = Communicore.


So, getting up and around decently in the morning, we let the kids start the day by taking them down to Community Hall while the rest of the family got ready. This place was really fun. For a few dollars, they had cool crafts that you could make which is what the kids worked on this morning. Also, you could play board games, play computer games, pool, foosball, watch TV, play Wii…..lots of fun!



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Joshua bought a snake and worked on coloring it with a cool design


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Samantha (with Mommy’s help) was working on a cool box with an Ariel cover.


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Things you could make at Community Hall:


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Samantha’s finished product:


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/6107.jpg



By the way, on our trip down to Community Hall, Samantha had brought her baby Ariel doll with her. Well, somewhere along the way she apparently lost it. So, while they got started, I backtracked, hoping I’d see it on the carpet somewhere. Well, I made the very long trip all the way back to the room and never found it. So, I walked back toward the Community Hall, still sweeping my eyes across the floor in case I missed it the first time. Then, I get to the elevators (pretty much giving up on the toy at this point) and fortuitously, I decided to peak outside at the animals first, before getting on the elevators. Good thing, I did, because this is what I found:


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LOL. Some nice person had found Ariel and put her by the window. Whew!!


Now, time to head out for breakfast. I believe on this day, that we all went over to the Mara and had breakfast. Yummy!

Then, time to catch a bus to Magic Kingdom, so we can walk over to Bay Lake Tower. (while waiting for the bus to MK, I ran into DISer “Vladimir” Cool…my 2nd DIS-sighting)

Samantha was being very difficult about taking a picture in front of the mini palm trees



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And here’s Bay Lake Tower:


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For those of you who don’t know much about BLT, it is a highly-secure area in which apparently you have to use card-access to get just about anywhere. Well, we didn’t have a room key to even get through the front doors. Mary tried her card, since she’s DVC, but that didn’t work. Bleh! So, we walked over to the Contemporary to figure out how we get up to the lookout.


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Once there, we found out that the time for DVC members to go check out the lookout area is only from 2-4pm. Ugh! This was about 11am. Would have been nice if the CM we talked to the night before had mentioned that small, little detail. Oh well – guess we’re not meant to go up real high on this trip.

Let’s just get to Epcot.

One thing cool about starting out over near MK is that we got to take the monorail to Epcot this morning…and the one headed TO Epcot goes all the way through the park first.



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Once in the park, I took off quickly to Test Track to get some Fast Passes. Then, I headed back toward the front so we could all get on Spaceship Earth (5 minute wait only). It was fun to see some of the changes to this ride (with the technology). Joshua was semi-interested in the things we got to see on the ride . Our favorite part was at the end, when you get to put in your preferences and then see yourself doing cool future stuff. Joshua and I were cracking up at our pictures. I was having so much fun, I completely forgot to take any pictures. Oh well!

Then, let’s head over to Imagination! Time to see Figment again.

Afterward, we took time to play around some



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We also let the kids pick out a puzzle that they could get their own picture inserted into. Joshua took his picture and got a cool puzzle with him sitting in a car with Mickey on the way to the Magic Kingdom. Princess Samantha got a cute puzzle with herself and the princesses.

By the time we finished there, we decided to head on over to Innoventions and get in line to get our Disney Visa Epcot picture with Mickey and friends.

While waiting, the kids played in the nearby house (where you practice fire drills) and at the fire truck.



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This was one of our longest waits of the trip. Probably a good 30 minute wait. But then, it was finally our turn


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That was the only good picture we got with our cameras. Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy were all waiting inside for a private photo session. Soon, I’ll try to upload the Photopass pictures that show all of us.

This was fun, not only did we get to have a picture with all 3 at once, but we were able to get a free 8x10 photo as well.









Up next: Can we get a few more candles? I’m not sure what I’m eating…..

[SoonerGirl]

Love the Epcot shirts! :thumbsup2

This is totally OT, but was Bridgette at An Affair of the Heart yesterday afternoon? I could have sworn I saw her....

[jordanyosh]

Those Epcot shirts are awesome.

That's a bummer about BLT. I hope they ease the restrictions by February as my cousins are staying there. I'm staying at Pop then AKV. As a non-DVC member, it's a bummer that I'll have to have someone come and meet me at the door when I come and visit.

Thanks for the info about AKV.:thumbsup2

[crocko]

Love the Epcot shirts! :thumbsup2

This is totally OT, but was Bridgette at An Affair of the Heart yesterday afternoon? I could have sworn I saw her....
:laughing: You probably did see her. She was there all weekend as a vendor (Usborne Books)

Those Epcot shirts are awesome.

That's a bummer about BLT. I hope they ease the restrictions by February as my cousins are staying there. I'm staying at Pop then AKV. As a non-DVC member, it's a bummer that I'll have to have someone come and meet me at the door when I come and visit.

Thanks for the info about AKV.:thumbsup2Yeah, BLT is maximum security luxury. :laughing:

[crocko]

Day 6 (Epcot, Future World Day)
Chapter 2 -- Fast Cars & Flying




After our fun picture time with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy it was getting fairly close to our late lunch reservation at San Angel Inn in Mexico. I let the family walk ahead while I detoured over to Soarin’ to grab FP’s for later.

I caught up with them at the Splash pad area just south of the big fountain. The kids were playing and Bridgette was over chatting at the DVC kiosk. Afterward, she passed on the info shared with her that if we did a DVC “tour” we would receive $100 in Disney dollars. Awesome! We went to one on our honeymoon, so I know that they aren’t high-pressure.

Splash pad fun:



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After trying to get dried off a little bit, we continued our trek to Mexico. When we walked in, Mexican Donald was in the marketplace, but by the time we got over to him, he needed a break. The kids at least got to give him a five on the way out.


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We were still a bit early for our reservation, so we took another ride to go find Donald in Mexico with Jose and Panchito.


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Once we got off, we were able to check-in. We got our buzzer and went over near the fountain to wait.


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(Joshua was trying some backward tosses there in that last picture)

Right about reservation time, we got buzzed and were lucky enough to get seated right on the waterway.

Some notes about our lunch. The menu did not seem to be exactly what I was expecting (from wdwinfo.com) Plus, it was really dark in there so a) hard to take pictures and b) hard to even see what you were eating. We made several jokes about, “I hope this is good, because I’m not sure what it is.”

Quality-wise, the food was pretty good. I think everybody enjoyed their meal, but didn’t think it was necessarily special. The biggest thing that stood out was service. This meal was definitely the worst service we received on the trip. Pretty much none of the wait-staff seemed to be friendly or helpful.

Some pictures from the meal:



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(last picture – my sister had some glow sticks for the kids that they were playing with….since it was dark in there, they had fun playing with those while waiting)

With our late lunch complete, it was time to start doing some serious attraction-riding. Being at Mexico, we were close to Test Track, so time to go use our FP’s!

View of Test Track from over near The Odyssey



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The riders for Test Track = Me, Bridgette, Joshua, my sister, my mom
When entering the line, we were handed one of the Red Cards of Death! (j/k one of the cards they use to mark wait times)



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With our FP’s, the total wait for this was probably only 10 minutes. Some queue pics


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As it usually is, this ride was really fun and Joshua liked it a lot! (whew….he still likes rides despite us taking him on ToT and Dinosaur)

Cool cars on the way out



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Congratulations, Joshua. You just rode Test Track!!!


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Next, we all casually walked over to The Land to go ride Soarin’. While we walked, Bridgette hustled over to go pick up our Disney Visa picture. On her way to catch up, she noticed a rainbow over Spaceship Earth


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Alright, the five us are now ready to go to California!

Again, with our FP’s the line was quick…..only a 5-minute wait I would say.



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I love that ride! The sensation of flying is truly amazing. Plus, all the great images, sounds, and even smells!!

This was another one that Joshua enjoyed ….. even enough to join in on the clapping that took place at the end of the ride.



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Up next: Long-day + little kids + Illuminations = ?????

[longing2Batdisney]

great updates!!! looks like so much fun...great reports on all dining experiences
Thanks! for sharing!!! how awesome the Disney visa experience
:wave2:

[WrightFamily06]

Two great updates :thumbsup2 Love the Epcot shirts , I def have to make us shirts the next time , we go I never knew about those until a couple of months ago . Did you find it hard to make the shirts ? Community Hall looks like it had a lot of fun things for the kiddies to do . Good to know that the Mexico meal was not such a stand out , haven't heard much feed back on it until your TR .

[MagicShell]

I really like your Epcot shirts, that is a very cool idea. I would love to stay at Bay Lake Tower some day.

[Charlefours]

Thanks for another round of great updates! Love the photo Bridgette with the rainbow! Good to know about the TS restaurant in Mexico--have you done the CS before? Is it any better?

[stacikristine]

What great updates!! That really stinks that you weren't able to see the special look-out at BLT. I'm sure it would have been really cool! What a fun time in Epcot! Oh--and I love the shirts--very original! :thumbsup2 That restaurant looks really pretty, but I don't think I could handle it being so dark--and I'm pretty happy with the Mexican food here and in Texas, so I don't know if I'd like it there. I'm anxious to hear how your family liked Illuminations!

[chicagoshannon]

Phew, all caught up! I love those Epcot shirts! How fun that you got to be the first to ride on Triceratops spin.

I'm jealous of the puzzles you got at Epcot. I saw them but couldnt' convince DH to get one.

[crocko]

great updates!!! looks like so much fun...great reports on all dining experiences
Thanks! for sharing!!! how awesome the Disney visa experience
:wave2:Yeah, it was a fun experience. The CM at the front of the line pointed out that with the "normal" Epcot Character Greet, you get quantity (5 characters, I believe)...with the Visa Experience you get quality (3 at once and quite a bit of time devoted specifically to your family)

Two great updates :thumbsup2 Love the Epcot shirts , I def have to make us shirts the next time , we go I never knew about those until a couple of months ago . Did you find it hard to make the shirts ? Community Hall looks like it had a lot of fun things for the kiddies to do . Good to know that the Mexico meal was not such a stand out , haven't heard much feed back on it until your TR .Shirts -- not too hard, plus if you use the DISigns that are posted here on the boards, it is really easy.

Community Hall -- was definitely a lot of fun. So much time could have been spent there having a blast.....for older kids, it seems like it could have been even more exciting with all the games available.

San Angel Inn -- yeah, it's nothing special...glad we gave it a try, but won't be going back.

I really like your Epcot shirts, that is a very cool idea. I would love to stay at Bay Lake Tower some day.Thanks! and yeah, I agree it would be cool to stay there sometime.

Thanks for another round of great updates! Love the photo Bridgette with the rainbow! Good to know about the TS restaurant in Mexico--have you done the CS before? Is it any better?We did the CS a long time ago during a trip when I was a kid....my guess is that the food is just as good, but less expensive and your meal wouldn't take as long.

What great updates!! That really stinks that you weren't able to see the special look-out at BLT. I'm sure it would have been really cool! What a fun time in Epcot! Oh--and I love the shirts--very original! :thumbsup2 That restaurant looks really pretty, but I don't think I could handle it being so dark--and I'm pretty happy with the Mexican food here and in Texas, so I don't know if I'd like it there. I'm anxious to hear how your family liked Illuminations!Good point....in Oklahoma/Texas there are plenty of good Mexican restaurants. Well, Tex/Mex at least (which is what we actually prefer) :laughing:

Phew, all caught up! I love those Epcot shirts! How fun that you got to be the first to ride on Triceratops spin.

I'm jealous of the puzzles you got at Epcot. I saw them but couldnt' convince DH to get one.It's really fun. On our honeymoon, Bridgette and I got a big poster made with us having dinner with Belle and the Beast. :wizard:

[crocko]

Day 6 (Epcot, Future World Day)
Chapter 3 -- Illumi-NOT






After Soarin’ the group split up a little bit. My sister and dad went on back to AKL, while my mom, Bridgette, the kids, and I stayed to play longer. So, the next attraction to hit was The Living Seas with Nemo and Friends.

Once again, we had a no-wait entrance onto the Nemo ride and had fun on it again. This time, once we were done, we made plans to go see Turtle Talk with Crush



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We were some of the first ones to begin waiting for the upcoming show, so we got positioned up front near Mr. Ray’s tank


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Then, time for the show, so we headed on in. Luckily, we were able to get seated on the front row, while the kids went to sit up front.


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Yay….it’s Crush!!


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As you can see in this next picture, about halfway through, Samantha decided to come stand next to us…..so, just Joshua (who had made himself comfortable) up with the other kids


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As always, the show was very funny. I’m still amazed at this technology they use in both Turtle Talk and Laughing Floor. Crush handled the human interaction well and we even got to see Dory, although, she was having a bit of a rough time.


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And, toward the end of the show, Samantha decided to go sit by Joshua again


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After the show, it was time to go see Bruce! The kids had seen a picture of Bridgette inside Bruce’s mouth, so they knew they wanted their own pictures as well.


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Then, a few minutes were spent looking at the fish tanks. I love the effort they put into some of these tanks, filling them up with some of the “real-life” fish from Finding Nemo


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And then, to my surprise, we found a Kidcot Fun Stop! Apparently, in Future World there are two more Kidcots. One in The Seas and one in The Land. So, of course, we made sure to do this.


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Which meant that we better get back over to the Land so we can hit that Kidcot as well:


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Back outside, the kids wanted pictures in front of the cool Soarin’ sign


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Then, it was just a little after 8 o’clock, so we went over to MouseGears (which amazingly, we had not been in yet this trip….and it is our favorite of the big park stores). Joshua bought a Vinylmation here (he had been seeing my sister collecting these and decided they were pretty cool). Samantha bought a set of fun pens. I bought a cool dark green, retro Epcot shirt.


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After shopping, it was about 8:45, so we decided to head over to the Lagoon and try to find somewhere to watch Illuminations. (Note….8:45 would have been a PERFECT time to call it a night and head home). I was kinda hungry and so was my mom, so I took off after we found a decent spot to find a snack. Not too far off, I found a place that makes “McFlurry”-like desserts, but they come in HUGE cups. You could get a huge one of these along with a candy mix-in for only one snack credit. Awesome! Got back right as the show was starting. At this point, both kids are getting really tired. Neither one is at all interested in the fireworks (which were not very easy to see). So, at this point, everyone is getting a bit fussy and frustrated. Then, some more fireworks start and they are EXTREMELY loud and the kids start to cry a little bit because of the noise.

SO…..forget Illuminations, let’s just go home. No big deal….we gave it a shot. At least, by deciding to leave the show early, we beat the post-show traffic out to the bus stop.

So, headed back to AKL to get some rest and call it a night. What a busy and fun day we had.


Bonus pictures

First, here’s what was on the back of each of our shirts

Second, I found a group picture from our Disney Visa character greeting



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Up next: Is that the line for Voyage of the Little Mermaid? Uh….no, no it isn’t.

[jenny105]

I'm caught up! Love the shirts!

I agree with you about San Angel Inn. I've been there twice before and really enjoyed it. On this past trip, the food quality went downhill and our server was awful. I am in no hurry to go back.

Curse BLT for keeping you out! I didn't realize security was so tight there!

[jenny105]

Just as I posted that, you posted a new update! :) I'm not a big fan of Illuminations. I think it's outdated. Epcot should give it an overhaul, it's never a must see for us.

The group picture with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy is great!!

[WrightFamily06]

Awesome pictures of Turtle Talk w/ Crush , they turned out so clear ! Loved the back of your shirts also , I def need to use the design board next time we go to make shirts . Great Visa group picture , hope it made it in a frame on your wall . Sorry Illuminations didn't turn out well , but it sounds like you got a really good snack in the process :) Can't wait to read more !popcorn::

[chicagoshannon]

Glad the kids like turtle talk. Was that kidcot on the 1st or 2nd floor? I couldn't find it last week.

In May we left Illuminations early too. It wasn't nearly as neat as I remembered it. We had a hard time seeing anything.

[stacikristine]

Awesome pics of Turtle Talk! I'm upset that I didn't get a single picture of the sign, Crush, anything! :sad2: Oh well.... Sorry the kids were a no-go for Illuminations! But at least you missed the crowd! And there's always next time (if I had a dollar for every time I've said that since our trip...) Oh--and the Kidcot stations are such a great idea--they saved us when my sister was 5!

[mommyof2Pirates]

great updates. Dont ya just love the stuff you get for snack credits. The slushies and ice cream stuff is the best. I loved your shirts too what a great idea. It makes the group picture look great too. Glad to hear you had a wonderful time at epcot. Sorry illuminations didnt work out for you.

[crocko]

I'm caught up! Love the shirts!

I agree with you about San Angel Inn. I've been there twice before and really enjoyed it. On this past trip, the food quality went downhill and our server was awful. I am in no hurry to go back.

Curse BLT for keeping you out! I didn't realize security was so tight there!yeah, World Showcase seems like the one place where you kind of step out of Disney when it comes to CM's and simply get what that country provides. Now, we had some good CM experience in Mexico (a super-friendly guy who helped the kids play with a cool toy for quite awhile) they just didn't have the best waitstaff.

Just as I posted that, you posted a new update! :) I'm not a big fan of Illuminations. I think it's outdated. Epcot should give it an overhaul, it's never a must see for us.

The group picture with Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy is great!!Yeah...I'm just not too into Illuminations either.

Awesome pictures of Turtle Talk w/ Crush , they turned out so clear ! Loved the back of your shirts also , I def need to use the design board next time we go to make shirts . Great Visa group picture , hope it made it in a frame on your wall . Sorry Illuminations didn't turn out well , but it sounds like you got a really good snack in the process :) Can't wait to read more !popcorn::Yeah, making shirts is fun....but watch out! It can get addictive :3dglasses

Glad the kids like turtle talk. Was that kidcot on the 1st or 2nd floor? I couldn't find it last week.

In May we left Illuminations early too. It wasn't nearly as neat as I remembered it. We had a hard time seeing anything.I'm wanting to say that both kidcots were on the 2nd floors of the buildings....

Awesome pics of Turtle Talk! I'm upset that I didn't get a single picture of the sign, Crush, anything! :sad2: Oh well.... Sorry the kids were a no-go for Illuminations! But at least you missed the crowd! And there's always next time (if I had a dollar for every time I've said that since our trip...) Oh--and the Kidcot stations are such a great idea--they saved us when my sister was 5!Yeah, the kidcot stations were great.
And yeah, "there's always next time" which means you just GOTTA keep going back!

great updates. Dont ya just love the stuff you get for snack credits. The slushies and ice cream stuff is the best. I loved your shirts too what a great idea. It makes the group picture look great too. Glad to hear you had a wonderful time at epcot. Sorry illuminations didnt work out for you.Yeah, EPCOT is definitely one huge park with a ton of fun things to do....and we didn't even get to scratch the surface of the cool stuff in Innoventions. Next time we take the kids, we might want to plan some more time in there.

[crocko]

Day 7 (Hollywood Studios Day)
Chapter 1 -- Toys, Sorcerors, and Puppets!!



Time to start the Day 7 report. On this day, we were headed back to Hollywood Studios. They had normal 9am opening times this day and we decided not to rush too much. We still got there by rope drop, but only a few minutes before they started letting in.

After entering, I broke off from the group and tried to squeeze my way to as close to the front as I could. I had everyone’s tickets and was focused on getting to the Toy Story Mania fastpass line.

Back on Day 3, I mentioned that there was no pre-rope drop show. Well, there was one today….so, guess they do it occasionally still. ::shrug::


Rope dropped and I quick-stepped it with the masses. Managed to get in one of the lines for an individual FP machine (about 6/7 people back). Took 5-10 minutes to get to the front (I wasn’t the only one getting a handful of FP’s for their group). Got our FP’s and right about that time, the family had caught up with me. So, we went ahead and got in the standby line to ride TSM. I’m glad we did, because this morning, Luxo, Jr. decided to pop out and visit for a little bit.



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The standby line today was a little longer, but was probably only 15-20 minutes total….not too bad for such an awesome ride.


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Oh and you’ll notice in this next picture that Samantha decided early on that she wanted to wear her Ariel outfit today


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We finally made it to the ride and once again, in a group of 7, I was the one left to play by himself. Throughout the game, I felt like I could do better, but I still got a good score.


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Samantha even managed to score some points on her own while playing with Mommy.


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We got off the ride and headed back toward the center of the park and we got to see how long the FP line was. To quote Quincy from Little Einsteins, “I can not believe it!”
The line just to try and get FP’s for the day stretched all the way back to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. If you’ve been to Studios recently and know where TSM is located. That is one HUGE FastPass line. I could be wrong, but my guess is that FP’s were “sold out” by 10am this day. [Glad we already got ours!!]

For the morning, we decided to split up. Mary and the grandparents went off to do a couple “old people” attractions, while Bridgette, the kids, and I would do some fun stuff with the kids.

At this point, the time was about 9:45. Playhouse Disney first show was going to be at either 10:30 or 10:45 (somewhere around then) and the Animation area would open at 10am. We looked at a nearby store for a little while and then at 10am hopped in to see which characters were out to start. Only one at 10am, but it was none other than Sorcerer Mickey!!
And believe it or not, we actually got to walk straight up (no line!) to see him.



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Then, the kids discovered the little computers that let you color your own Disney pictures. They had a blast with these and didn’t want us to make them stop.


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While they were finishing up, I took a few shots of posters for movies that will be coming out in the next few years:


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(That Prep & Landing Christmas movie looks interesting. Also, there’s a nice shot of Rapunzel’s castle – if they ever build a new Magic Kingdom somewhere, maybe they could use her castle)


And now, off to see the Playhouse Disney show



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Samantha stood right next to me the entire show


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My thoughts on this show: Well, all-in-all it is a very fun show. You get to see Mickey and friends, Pooh and friends, the Little Einsteins, and Handy Manny + tools. There’s also some times where kids can get up and dance/jump around. The downside is that because they use puppets, the characters don’t come very far above the stage. Well, everyone is sitting on the ground, so it can be difficult to see the characters very well, especially for little kids.

But if you’ve got a toddler in your family who likes to watch PlayHouse Disney at home, then they will probably really like this show.








Up next: A beloved character takes time to give one of us a special hug.

[jenny105]

Yes, they still do the rope drop show. I was in it! :rotfl: Not on the day you were there, a couple days before.

Nice TSM score! Joe is determined to break 200K next time we're there.

[stacikristine]

We got to see Jenny and Joe in the show!! :thumbsup2 I can't believe the FP line was that long...I'm so glad we didn't experience that.... Woo-Hoo for getting to walk up to take your pic with Sorcerer Mickey!! :woohoo: And Playhouse Disney looks cute--When my sister was little, my mom took her, and it was when Bear in the Big Blue House was new. :)

[Jenvenza]

Great report! Cannot wait for the next installment!

[chicagoshannon]

Is there a separate entrance to the characters or do you have to go through the whole annimation tour? We haven't made it there yet. Madeline loves the playhouse disney show.

That is one long fastpass line!

[crocko]

Yes, they still do the rope drop show. I was in it! :rotfl: Not on the day you were there, a couple days before.

Nice TSM score! Joe is determined to break 200K next time we're there.Thanks! Yeah....200k is definitely a very good goal to shoot for. If you can get to the ride first thing and get a 200k, good chance you might show up as top 3 for the day.

We got to see Jenny and Joe in the show!! :thumbsup2 I can't believe the FP line was that long...I'm so glad we didn't experience that.... Woo-Hoo for getting to walk up to take your pic with Sorcerer Mickey!! :woohoo: And Playhouse Disney looks cute--When my sister was little, my mom took her, and it was when Bear in the Big Blue House was new. :)Awesome that you got to see them in the show.
And this was our only non-meal time to see Mickey so very cool that we had 0 wait time for him.

Great report! Cannot wait for the next installment!Thanks! :thumbsup2

Is there a separate entrance to the characters or do you have to go through the whole annimation tour? We haven't made it there yet. Madeline loves the playhouse disney show.

That is one long fastpass line!Yes....you may remember that typically you go see the show and then get to see the characters and then come out through the Animation store. Well, you can also go through the store and simply backtrack to the characters from there....bypassing the front entrance where you have to wait for the show.

[crocko]

Day 7 (Hollywood Studios Day)
Chapter 2 -- Magical Moments at Hollywood Studios



After the Playhouse Disney show, we went back into the Animation area to see how big the line was for the Up! Characters. Luckily, it wasn’t too bad.


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While Bridgette and the kids waited in line, I went around to where the characters were to practice some pictures. While out there, I noticed that Dug was being a pesky puppy. He took one man’s backpack and started going through it. He tossed a few things out of the bag until he finally found a snack!


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And then, I saw my family come around the corner….we were up next!


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Russell was out when we got in line, but apparently he had to go take a Wilderness break. So, we got to see Carl and Dug (with Kevin looming in the background).


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Yay….that was fun. We had been looking forward for quite awhile to getting to see the Up! friends. With that done, it was time to head to the other side of the park to meet my family for lunch. On our way out, some of the meet ‘n’ greet characters were “changing shifts”

Goliath and JoJo were on their way out to meet some kids.



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And June was on her way to go take a break.


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Note: June is Samantha’s favorite Einstein’s characters and just one of Samantha’s favorite Disney characters in general. Obviously, these Disney friends work hard out in the sun and like to quickly get inside to take a break….so, we just stood to the side and waved….
Well, instinctively June could tell that this little girl was a good friend of hers.
She paused on her trip back inside, to come over and give a special hello.



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In that 2nd picture you can see that Samantha is holding June’s hand….she did not want to let her go. So amazing, from the Pooh breakfast in which she was terrified……to a week later and she’s so happy that she just wants to keep holding on to June’s hand.

Obviously, June could have just waved to us and kept walking, but she took some extra time to come over and give a hug. For me, this was one of the most memorable highlights of the entire trip – a definite magical Disney moment!



After June walked off, we saw that Leo was coming out to take her spot.



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And then as we started walking out some more, here comes Handy Manny!


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I was unaware that Manny was out and about at the parks….so it was really cool to see him. We walked by him and waved….the kids may have even had an opportunity to give him a five.

LOL – who would have thought that some of the best character moments would come simply as they were passing by…to and from their meet’n’greets.


Now time to cross the park…….



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And meet up with my family at……..


PIZZA PLANET!!

Joshua had been waiting expectantly for when we would get to eat here.



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My dad found a little time to get in some pinball…..


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Some cool Pizza Planet decor…


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We all had pizzas here and to my surprise, they tasted different than the one’s over at Pinocchio’s. Fortunately, these pizzas were better….Very Tasty! And….at Pizza Planet, you can get Mickey Rice Krispy Treats as your dessert



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Okay…..now for the true highlight of lunch. Had nothing to do with the food or the cool atmosphere, but with a game that they had upstairs. It is called Jett Rider.


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While waiting for our food, the kids got in the seat for this game and just “played” with the game. Well, after eating, Bridgette decided to go ahead and let them have a real play.
What is the game? It has a big seat (big enough for both of them together) in which you simply sit back and watch the screen as you go on a “rollercoaster” Very cool. Kids didn’t have to steer or do anything, just sit back and enjoy. There are 3 different coasters, so we let them play all 3. (If you do that, you even get a bonus 4th coaster for free!)



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The kids absolutely LOVED this ride/game. For them, it felt like they were on a fun, exciting ‘coaster…plus, the back of the seat would vibrate helping them the riding sensation.
The 4th coaster (the bonus one) was extra fast and turbulent. It got quite the squeal out of Samantha:



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I normally wouldn’t let the kids do something like this, but I’m glad Bridgette insisted on letting them, because it was another one of the true Highlights of the trip. I can still hear Samantha’s voice saying “Ah….” While her whole body was vibrating in the seat….

Between June’s hug and Jett Rider….just proves that you can’t plan out the best moments of your trip….just have fun and let them happen.









Up next: Can I improve on my Toy Story Mania score on round #4? Or will I turn into a 3D bust?

[crocko]

Quick note about the upcoming trip.



ONLY 15 DAYS UNTIL BRIDGETTE AND I OUR HEADED BACK!!

:cool1: :woohoo: :wizard: :banana:



Sadly, though, my camera was broken on Wednesday. Bridgette took it back to Best Buy for fixing/replacement. It is one of those deals where apparently they have to send it on to Nikon. The expectation is that it will be back in 2 weeks. :scared1: That's definitely cutting things close!


Worst-case scenario, I think I could borrow my mom's camera and still get some good, quality pictures.

(Plus, we'll have Bridgette's camera which is the better one anyway)

[jenny105]

So sweet that June stopped to give a special hello to Samantha! :)

I hope your camera is fixed in time for your second trip. I can't believe you'll be there again in 2 weeks!!

[jordanyosh]

Remember when the characters just kind of roamed free.

Great memory made with June.

[WrightFamily06]

Two very nice updates ! That's awesome you got to ride TSM so many times . Love all the pictures from Animation studio , another place we have somehow missed on all our trips but is def on our list for next time . What a magical time the kiddies had w/ June & Jett Rider and your totally right the best moments can't be planned !

[SoonerGirl]

Awwww, thats so sweet that June stopped to give Samantha some special attention :goodvibes

Looks like you were having a fabulous morning!

[Charlefours]

Awe! What a special treat for Samantha to have June stop for her when she was heading for a break--truly a magical moment.

I cannot believe you are off again in 15 days! :cool1:

[crocko]

:cool1: 12 DAYS TO GO!! :banana:

So sweet that June stopped to give a special hello to Samantha! :)

I hope your camera is fixed in time for your second trip. I can't believe you'll be there again in 2 weeks!!Yeah, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed.

Remember when the characters just kind of roamed free.

Great memory made with June.Yeah....character greeting is a much more "planned" event these days it seems.

Two very nice updates ! That's awesome you got to ride TSM so many times . Love all the pictures from Animation studio , another place we have somehow missed on all our trips but is def on our list for next time . What a magical time the kiddies had w/ June & Jett Rider and your totally right the best moments can't be planned !Oh you gotta hit Animation Studio! One of my favorite areas.

Awwww, thats so sweet that June stopped to give Samantha some special attention :goodvibes

Looks like you were having a fabulous morning!Yep -- great morning! :3dglasses

Awe! What a special treat for Samantha to have June stop for her when she was heading for a break--truly a magical moment.

I cannot believe you are off again in 15 days! :cool1:It indeed was very nice of June....sneak peek --> what happens next time we see June?!?

[crocko]

Day 7 (Hollywood Studios Day)
Chapter 3 -- If the shoe fits...




After a yummy lunch at Pizza Planet…..we popped into the Muppets store and did a little shopping. One of the CM’s in there asked if the kids had seen Lightning and Mater yet. As a matter of fact, they had not, so she ushered them over to where the two cars were meeting fans.


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Next, Joshua and I were ready for another trip into space, so we plopped over to Star Tours (where there was another no-wait line) and took another exciting ride with Rex (it is still his first flight) LOL

Meanwhile, Bridgette made a couple returns. Remember those two toys we bought back on Day 3 at Tatooine Traders (dual light-saber and Star Tours vehicle). Well, the light-saber was not only not working correctly, but they also didn’t inform us that only one of the sides would actually light up. So, we just simply returned it. On the vehicle, Rex broke off just in the process of getting the vehicle out of the box. We managed to get it exchanged.

With that done, time to go use our Toy Story FP’s. On the walk across the park, a DVC kiosk CM gave Samantha some more stickers. LOL



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Joshua and Bridgette rode together this time.


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I once again was by myself. I was feeling better in the zone this time around…..and managed to set a new personal record!!


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Woohoo!!! Over 200K!!

On the way out, we decided to see if the Buzz & Woody line was very long and the CM said it was only about 15 minutes (which was pretty accurate…maybe only 10 minutes).



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And then, we figured we were about ready to head back to AKL…..grabbed a Woody-sized slushie on the way out, though.


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Back at AKL for the afternoon. Remember how on Day 6, Bridgette found out that if you did the DVC presentation you could get $100 in Disney cards? Well, she had managed to get us a time slot booked so this afternoon, we went ahead and did a quick tour at Kidani Village (since we were already there). Meanwhile, my mom played with the kids at Community Hall.


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While waiting for our guy to show up, I was looking around the Kidani lobby and noticed two individuals walking around that seemed very familiar. It was stacikristine and her husband!! We got to chat for a couple minutes, which was fun. They are from Oklahoma as well, so it is cool to think that we all traveled to Orlando to meet each other. LOL

Then, our DVC rep came by. He quickly showed us some rooms (which we knew what they looked like since we were staying in one) Haha. And then he gave us the fancy presentation showing us the numbers and what-not. At the end, as we were patiently expecting…..we received four $25 Disney cards. Woohoo!!

(Will they last very long?)

With that done, we went back up to the room, relaxed for a few minutes and then got ready to go shopping at Downtown Disney again. Tonight, we planned on being the “BIG” DTD shopping night. The kids were coming with us and we were ready to spend some money.



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Toward the end of our trip, they were doing work on the Marketplace bus stop, so we were let out instead over near Pleasure Island. We were hungry to start, so headed straight over to Earl’s.
(I stopped in McDonald’s to see if I could get some nuggets for Joshua. They are listed in the Dining Plan guide as a QS place, but according to the McDonald’s workers, that is a mistake). Oh well.

At Earl’s, we all had some very tasty sandwiches (per usual) and with our bellies settled, we were ready to start shopping.



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The highlights: Spent quite a bit at the Christmas store (several cool ornaments). We looked in Once Upon a Toy, but most of the items we wanted in there, we could get at WOD (with a 10% Visa discount). And at World of Disney, we definitely did some big shopping. Samantha’s shopping highlight came in this store, when she was allowed to pick out a princess dress. She checked out all of them carefully and decided on a Cinderella dress w/ slippers. The dress is a size too big, but that means it should last longer.

On our way out…LEGO store to get a few more fun LEGOs to play with.



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As soon as we got back to Kidani, Samantha wanted her slippers on. Luckily there was a prince nearby to help her out.


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Back in the room….time to get that sparkly dress on!!


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And then, time to wrap up the night. But not before Samantha managed to get a hold of a camera…..here’s apparently what I look like at Samantha-eye-level


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Day 7 over. Another fun and wonderful day!! (Oh and did the Disney gift cards last? No! Gone within 5 hours Haha!

Back to Magic Kingdom for day 8.











Up next: Costumes and a missing Mommy!

[stacikristine]

What great updates!! I love that June came over and gave Samantha a hug--I think I would love to be a character for times like that :goodvibes And I can just imagine the kiddos squealing on the coaster ride! Woo-Hoo this was the day we met you! :thumbsup2 And that is SO cool that you got gift cards for going on the DVC tour. I wish we would have known to stop by one of those kiosks... We'll be sure to next time! And Samantha looks adorable in her Cinderella dress. :cutie: What a fun day!

[crocko]

What great updates!! I love that June came over and gave Samantha a hug--I think I would love to be a character for times like that :goodvibes And I can just imagine the kiddos squealing on the coaster ride! Woo-Hoo this was the day we met you! :thumbsup2 And that is SO cool that you got gift cards for going on the DVC tour. I wish we would have known to stop by one of those kiosks... We'll be sure to next time! And Samantha looks adorable in her Cinderella dress. :cutie: What a fun day!Yeah...there would be tough parts about being a character, but would love the opportunity to real make the day for some family or little kid. :wizard:

[crocko]

Day 8 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 1 -- Can't we all just stay together?




Day 8 is here and amazingly, only our 2nd time to enter Magic Kingdom (we’re crazy!) EMH morning so we we’re up and ready to get off to an early start. Got to the bus stop in good time when Joshua said that he wanted to wear his Peter Pan costume today. Uh oh, we didn’t bring any costumes. I would have gone back, but Bridgette didn’t want to have to explain where all the pieces of the costume were, so she went.

The plan was to go ahead and get on a Magic Kingdom bus if one came around and she’d catch up. We waited several minutes when finally an MK bus came. I tried to stall as far as how quickly I got on…just in case she would appear at the last second. Shortly after sitting down, my phone rang AND the bus started to pull away. Bridgette was at the elevator….she missed the bus by about 2 minutes. Oh well.

I called to get an update when we pulled into MK and she had just got on a bus at that point. Ach! She’s not as close behind us as I was hoping.

Well, we went ahead and entered the park and found a cozy spot to sit while waiting for the pre-show.



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Then, the pre-show started…..during the pre-show, Bridgette called and said the bus was pulling in (it was hard to hear over all the noise)


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Once the show was over, they started to let everyone in the parks. I told my family to take the kids and head towards Dumbo, while I waited for Bridgette. Just a couple minutes later, she made her way through baggage check and into the park. With the kids, my family wasn’t moving too quickly, so we managed to catch up in the middle of Main Street.

Whew!! All together again.

So, plans to start the day……they would take the kids to Dumbo while I would head off to Splash Mountain and get some FastPasses.

Kids and Family:



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Meanwhile……I had to wait at a rope drop for Frontierland for about a minute. Then, the rope came down and we were all escorted forward into Liberty Square. Some broke off toward Haunted Mansion, while the rest of us were passed off to some other Frontierland escorts. After all the bridges, some broke off toward Thunder Mountain and the rest toward Splash. I quickly saw some FP machines right in front of me and raced over to get tickets (fast-forward a few hours later, and I would actually LOOK at the FP’s and realize that in going to the first FP’s I saw, I ended up getting BTMR FP’s not Splash FP’s) Doh!


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It’s really fun to be able to get park pictures when nobody is around yet.

After all that, I actually managed to make it back to Fantasy Land and to Dumbo before my family even got on…..so, I stood around…took some pictures and got ready to watch them.

After Dumbo, Samantha was ready to put her Alice dress on for the day! (Joshua was not quite ready for his Peter Pan costume) Haha



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Our next plans were to get on the Teacups when we noticed that a certain look-alike (Alice!) was in the area. So, we hustled over to get in line to see her


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Our turn!


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Yeah, it was fun to see Alice again (although, we thought the Alice in the UK was better) (just sayin’)

Now…let’s get in a no-wait line for Tea Cups!



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Up next: A once super-cool awesome ride that has unfortunately become quickly out-of-date and overshadowed.

[chicagoshannon]

So sweet that Samantha got to meet June. That's how we met all the characters when I was a kid. Standing in line for them just doesn't have the same magic. We've never had luck in that character area. JoJo is always out and Madeline has no idea who that is. I'm surprised they haven't retired her yet.

I have to agree with you on the Pizza Planet pizza. SO GOOD! We'll have to try out that roller coaster game when we're there in Feb. We didn't even go inside the seating area.

I love Samantha's new Cinderella dress.

[crocko]

So sweet that Samantha got to meet June. That's how we met all the characters when I was a kid. Standing in line for them just doesn't have the same magic. We've never had luck in that character area. JoJo is always out and Madeline has no idea who that is. I'm surprised they haven't retired her yet.

I have to agree with you on the Pizza Planet pizza. SO GOOD! We'll have to try out that roller coaster game when we're there in Feb. We didn't even go inside the seating area.

I love Samantha's new Cinderella dress.Yeah....it can be hard to see the characters some times. Luckiily, being there in September, we were able to find some short lines fairly often.

Definitely try to find Jett Rider....and remember, it is upstairs.

Samantha loves her new dress, too! That girl has worn one of her dresses probably every other day since we've been back. She's hilarious.

[longing2Batdisney]

Great updates!!! How fun on the DVC adventure and it really enhanced your shopping evening at DTD!! :yay: the kids look adorable and happy as always!!!
:wave2:

[crocko]

Great updates!!! How fun on the DVC adventure and it really enhanced your shopping evening at DTD!! :yay: the kids look adorable and happy as always!!!
:wave2:yeah....was definitely nice to have an extra $100 in our pocket that night. :thumbsup2

[crocko]

Day 8 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 2 -- To Infinity and Beyond!



Last update, we had just seen Alice and were about to ride on some Mad Cups….


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After our swirling….the kids were thirsty, SO….time to go get another slush (love snack credits! Plus, the slushes were big enough that normally we could get one for J & S to share together, using only one credit at a time)

During their snack break, we also found this a good, quiet time to visit Pooh’s Playful Spot



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While there, we were tipped off to a cool piece of Disney history hidden here. For those of you who remember, this part of the Magic Kingdom once was 10,000 Leagues Under the Sea. In the wood around the edge of the play area, Bridgette found this


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The kids finished playing up there and it was almost 9 o’clock. Time to go get in line for the Tomorrowland rope drop….we hadn’t hit any of TL yet.

The rope dropped and we hustled over to Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.



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I remember the first couple trips I was able to ride this and absolutely LOVED it. It is still fun, but definitely overshadowed by the new Toy Story Mania. Buzz’s ride is more difficult and the guns that you have to shoot can be difficult to control and quickly start to hurt your hands. That said…..both kids really enjoyed this ride (especially Samantha who could barely even reach the shooter)

My score….not too impressive



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Next on our TL agenda: Astro Orbiter!


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During our Disney letter of the week countdown to the trip, our first ride to learn about was Astro Orbiter (for the letter A). The kids had been talking about this ride for 26 weeks….and thus were excited to finally get on.


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All-in-all, I think they liked it…..Joshua liked the speed of the ride, but I don’t think he liked sitting “by himself”. I think he liked the Dumbo-style where you are sitting next to someone, not in front/behind.

After orbiting some astros we headed over to the Tomorrowland Speedway.



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Joshua had fun getting to drive. Apparently we were in a fast car, because we passed a car and hardly had anyone behind us after zooming off. Joshua did pretty good steering, but every once in awhile he sent us into some head-banging turns (ouch!) I believe Bridgette had a similar experience with speedster Samantha.


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Right after, I took Joshua to the restroom and upon coming out, he got goofy on me and decided he wanted his shirt tucked in (okay, Urkel)



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With Space Mountain closed, one more must-do item on the Tomorrowland list….Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor (I love this show)


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None of us got called on during the show, but my dad was put on the big screen once. They showed the kid in front of him and the screen said to watch out for the guy behind (my dad!)

Samantha did okay during the show….probably a little nervous about the monsters and didn’t get the jokes. There were several times though that Joshua laughed hard at some of the jokes.

Me? You would have thought I was an 8-year old. There was one corny joke that got told that I almost fell out of my seat from laughing. Oh man…..if people are nervous about the future of Disney World and the ability to create great new attractions….look no further than Laugh Floor (and Turtle Talk) and Toy Story Midway Mania to know that Disney innovation is putting out some fabulous stuff right now.

After Laugh Floor, it was time to head to the front of the park to catch our lunchtime reservation for the Whispering Canyon Café. We exited to the park and headed over to the dock to catch a boat over to Wilderness Lodge.



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For the record….it is really weird to take a boat OVER cars…..so crazy.

Over the cars…and then…..under the monorail



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Up next: How neither of our kids managed to show up for lunch…..

[chicagoshannon]

You take a boat OVER cars? I've never noticed that. hmm I'm sure I'll have a chance in Feb.

Your Buzz score is better then mine always is. I can't seem to aim those guns correctly. How much longer do you think Buzz will be there?

I never noticed that Sub in the Pooh playground. I'm definitely looking for that next time!

[stacikristine]

Right after, I took Joshua to the restroom and upon coming out, he got goofy on me and decided he wanted his shirt tucked in (okay, Urkel)



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This is hilarious--I literally laughed out loud at work! :rotfl2: My brother and I used to go Urkel all the time....

What a fun morning (even if you did get split up)! I love that Samantha got to meet Alice again, and that your kiddos got to ride the ride that started your countdown! :thumbsup2 I'm anxious to find out how neither kid showed up for lunch...

[crocko]

You take a boat OVER cars? I've never noticed that. hmm I'm sure I'll have a chance in Feb.

Your Buzz score is better then mine always is. I can't seem to aim those guns correctly. How much longer do you think Buzz will be there?

I never noticed that Sub in the Pooh playground. I'm definitely looking for that next time!
Yeah....was really weird to me about the boats....guess that's just crazy Disney ingenuity for ya.

Buzz score -- hint...wait'll you see my score on the 2nd round :laughing:
Not sure how long Buzz will stay....probably longer than most would like, I'm guessing. Would be nice if they could re-theme and update technology (Wall-E theme would be really cool and keep with Tomorrowland theme as well) :rolleyes1


This is hilarious--I literally laughed out loud at work! :rotfl2: My brother and I used to go Urkel all the time....

What a fun morning (even if you did get split up)! I love that Samantha got to meet Alice again, and that your kiddos got to ride the ride that started your countdown! :thumbsup2 I'm anxious to find out how neither kid showed up for lunch...Yeah, he's such a funny little guy sometimes.

Was fun to see Alice again....she was still acting shy some, but Alice helped get her playful a little bit.

[chicagoshannon]

I like your Wall-E idea. I usually don't like them to take out the classic attractions but I could live without Buzz. Now if they touch my COP or Snow White I'd have a problem!

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I must be the slowest reader ever. I had 4 pages to catch up on. I don't even remember where to begin. Oh yeah, Samantha is awesome. Meeting June like that was too much. Joshua doing Kali River Rapids and having such fun. He is quite the big boy. My fav pic is you putting on Cinderella's shoes. That would be a framer in my world.

This trip is about over. So you can start your new one in days.

Ginny

[jenny105]

I took the MK/WL boat a bunch of times and never noticed going under the monorail or over cars. I must be in my own world.

Did you ever notice in the Winnie the Pooh ride, the picture of Mr. Toad giving Owl the deed to the property? I love that Disney throws in little tributes to the old rides.

[mommyof2Pirates]

great updates. I laughed so hard in monsters Inc. too. They make such fun out of some people...in a nice way of course. Its such a crack up. I would agree that disney just keeps on maybe better attractions as the years go on. What will be next......

[crocko]

I like your Wall-E idea. I usually don't like them to take out the classic attractions but I could live without Buzz. Now if they touch my COP or Snow White I'd have a problem!yeah....in general, I'm cool with change....not sure if we'll see it very soon with Buzz, though.

I must be the slowest reader ever. I had 4 pages to catch up on. I don't even remember where to begin. Oh yeah, Samantha is awesome. Meeting June like that was too much. Joshua doing Kali River Rapids and having such fun. He is quite the big boy. My fav pic is you putting on Cinderella's shoes. That would be a framer in my world.

This trip is about over. So you can start your new one in days.

GinnyYep....about to finish up day 8 and then the final 2 days.....by the time I'm done, I'll be turning around to get on another plane :wizard:

I took the MK/WL boat a bunch of times and never noticed going under the monorail or over cars. I must be in my own world.

Did you ever notice in the Winnie the Pooh ride, the picture of Mr. Toad giving Owl the deed to the property? I love that Disney throws in little tributes to the old rides.Next time, make sure to look out for the cars driving undernearth you.

I did notice the Owl/Mr. Toad picture and even managed to snap a picture (hastily)

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great updates. I laughed so hard in monsters Inc. too. They make such fun out of some people...in a nice way of course. Its such a crack up. I would agree that disney just keeps on maybe better attractions as the years go on. What will be next......I don't know...but I'm expecting to see more and better 3D technology rides/shows and hopefully see them take the Laugh Floor/Crush technology to even newer heights.

[crocko]

Day 8 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 3 -- Peteropolis




Okay, continuing on….in which we had just arrived at Wilderness Lodge where had a noon reservation at the Whispering Canyon Café.

Joshua thought this place was really cool, because it looked like a big hotel made out of giant Lincoln Logs.



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While taking a look at the pool, I noticed this little guy thought the pool a nice place to swim as well


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Then on inside, to the beautiful interior of WL. We were a bit early to check-in, so we checked out the store for a bit


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Now, at the end of my last update, I mentioned that neither of our kids showed up for lunch.

Here’s why:



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Samantha snoozed through the whole meal, while Joshua left us and was replaced with none other than Peter Pan!


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Then, our turn to sit down and start our meal. 4 of us got the skillet, while Bridgette got a separate meal. I also ordered a bottomless shake for the meal as well (which our very kind waiter didn’t charge us extra for!)

Some of the food:



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As you may have noticed, Joshua’s chicken nugget meal came with not just 1 cookie, but 2 cookies!!

All-in-all, I would say the food was good. I had a lot of corn and quite a bit of chicken. If coming here again, I personally would probably just get a hamburger and a shake and hopefully be able to get my hands on some cornbread as well.

Desserts:



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I had a chocolate cake, it was okay…and Bridgette had the smores cheesecake.

After finishing dinner, Joshua found a table with some Lincoln Logs to play with (he thought that was cool)



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Oh…and did we get to do any fun WCC stuff? We did get to all shout really loud to the chef, “We want our food!” Fun!

With lunch over, time to head back to the Magic Kingdom!
(Samantha was awake for the ride back at least)



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Back inside the park, we were excited to see a recognizable boy hanging out on Main Street


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Toward the end of Main Street, we stopped at a Photopassographer to get a picture of Alice and Peter together (Samantha didn’t pose so great for these, because the castle show was going on and Maleficent had just popped out with all her cackling….Samantha does NOT like villains)


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Now on to Adventureland! (how about those gloomy skies overhead?)


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Our goal was to see if we could find Peter and Wendy. We found them, but the line had already been closed so that they could go get a break. The plan for the afternoon was to get pictures with them and then split-up (Joshua, Bridgette, me à the Mountains of Frontierland! Samantha and my family à Liberty Square)
Since Joshua was the one dressed as Peter Pan, we went ahead and split up…with my family heading out, and the 3 of us getting at the front of the line for Peter and Wendy’s return.

During the wait, Joshua and I played like a bazillion games of peaknuckle. (It also started to rain a little bit while waiting, but nothing ever worse than a hard sprinkle….and that was it for those gloomy skies)

Then, finally…..the return of the Neverland kids…..



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Up next: What will Samantha think of her first real roller coaster?

[jenny105]

I miss the Wilderness Lodge. Sigh.

[Charlefours]

Another batch of great updates! I wanted to say I am really enjoying your TR!!!

[stacikristine]

Aw! I love Joshua's Peter Pan outfit! What a cool outfit for a boy! :thumbsup2 I think the boys get left out in the outfit industry most of the time... My brother had some, but my mom had to make most of them. Lunch looks yummy! Is it something you'd recommend? YAY! I can't wait to see Samantha's reaction to her first coaster!

[crocko]

I miss the Wilderness Lodge. Sigh.I bet....I've always loved getting to visit it. I WILL stay there sometime...I WILL!!

Another batch of great updates! I wanted to say I am really enjoying your TR!!!Thanks...glad you're enjoying the ride! :wizard:

[crocko]

Aw! I love Joshua's Peter Pan outfit! What a cool outfit for a boy! :thumbsup2 I think the boys get left out in the outfit industry most of the time... My brother had some, but my mom had to make most of them. Lunch looks yummy! Is it something you'd recommend? YAY! I can't wait to see Samantha's reaction to her first coaster!We were very glad we had that one. The current Peter Pan costumes they are selling at MK are (well, in my opinion) BLEH! They look like big pieces of bright green felt in which someone has cut out some holes for a head and arms.

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Your Peter Pan is way cuter than that pretend Peter Pan standing by Wendy. Lunch looked good just lots of food. I would do the milkshake for sure.

[crocko]

Day 8 (Magic Kingdom Day)
Chapter 4 -- Toontown Time!




Continuing….I left off in which little Peter Pan had just met slightly bigger Peter Pan (and Wendy Darling)

Now, time to go hit the Mountains!

Off to Splash Mountain first. Remember…I was supposed to have FP’s for this ride, but I mistakingly got FP’s for Big Thunder instead. That’s okay. We still had our MK FP’s from Day 2 when BTMR broke down. We could use those anywhere in MK, so we used them for Splash this day (which was nice, b/c the standby was 20-30 minutes I believe).



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Rode Splash and Joshua loved it again. This time, we asked to be seated in the front row so that Joshua’s face wouldn’t be hidden behind someone for the picture. We all sat together in the front row and helped Joshua keep straight during the drop. The picture turned out great! (sorry I don’t have it to post). Joshua had a “I’m having fun, but wow this is a scary drop” look on his face. Whenever I do that drop, I don’t scream….but I have to make a big scream face – opening my mouth wide like that helps me cope with the drop. So, in the picture I look like I’m screaming for my life. Haha!

We bought the picture and then headed over to Big Thunder….hoping it would be working this time….with our FP’s. Pretty short wait and then we were on the train



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Joshua liked the ride. In reality, it isn’t that scary, but all the twists/turns help make it really fun. He still likes Splash better, though…..you get wet on Splash Mountain….you don’t on Big Thunder. LOL

Now, it was time to head over toward the Liberty Square meets Fantasyland area to meet up with the rest of the family. During our separation, they all went to the Hall of Presidents (Samantha has seen the new show and I haven’t….silly girl). My parents went to Haunted Mansion…Mary and Samantha just hung out together in the meanwhile….they had fun hanging out and each bought a drink with a cool straw.

After meeting up, my parents and sister decided to go their own way (Emporium then back to AKL) while we still had more attractions to visit.

While in Fantasyland, we hit the Carousels again.



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Samantha really liked that horse with the flowers on it….I had trouble getting her to say goodbye to it and exit with me.


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Next, it was time for our visit to Toontown!


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In Toontown, we started off by visiting Minnie’s House (a must-do on Samantha’s list)


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Followed by……..Mickey’s house
(of course)



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And then a quick trip to visit Donald’s boat (a Joshua favorite…..duh! It’s a splash pad!)


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Alright…..houses have been visited. Now, it is time to do some barn storming! By now, this would be a tame ride for Joshua, but the most thrilling ride yet for little Samantha.


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Afterward, Samantha said she liked the ride, but Bridgette cracked up during the ride, because apparently Samantha had a semi-terrified look on her face the whole time. LOL

After Toontown, we decided to take the train over to the front of the park. That was fun (cool to see the backside of the Indy Speedway….and weird to feel like you’re actually outside of the park for a little bit. Note: taking strollers on the train is painful.

At Main Street, Bridgette and I were getting hungry, so we went over to Casey’s where we love their corn dog nuggets. The kids sat on the bleachers and ate ice….



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Then, we crossed over Main Street to check out the bakery. While walking, we heard the Move It! Shake It! Celebrate It! Parade start. So we stopped and watched it pass (only parade Samantha got to see on this trip and she LOVED it)


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After the parade, we hit a few Main Street shops and then called it an evening and headed back to AKL. On the way in, Samantha put on Joshua’s Peter Pan hat and for a good 30 minutes sang a song about how “I am Peter….and nobody knows”


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Absolutely great Day 8. But come on….when your spending your day at the Magic Kingdom, pretty good chance it is going to be a great day.

Only one full day in Disney World left, though. Ach!!









Up next: Apparently the 3rd time is NOT the charm…….

[crocko]

Your Peter Pan is way cuter than that pretend Peter Pan standing by Wendy. Lunch looked good just lots of food. I would do the milkshake for sure.I'm biased, but I agree :rolleyes1

Yeah, the milkshake was good. And despite being semi-full after finishing it, I asked for more...come on! It's bottomless, you gotta go for the refill!

[chicagoshannon]

great update! I love your pictures of Toon Town. You got some great shots.

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I'm biased, but I agree :rolleyes1

Yeah, the milkshake was good. And despite being semi-full after finishing it, I asked for more...come on! It's bottomless, you gotta go for the refill!

I see how you are. You eat real food and make your chidlren eat ice. Tsk. Tsk.

That last pic of Samantha is cute. I've never been to toontown. I just remember then 20,000 Leagues used to be over that way. Looks like they did have lots of fun.

[jenny105]

Casey's has corn dog nuggets? I'll have to make a stop there next time I'm at MK!

We missed out on that parade. I've heard it's similar to Block Party Bash which I wasn't crazy about. I'll have to check it out next time.

[SoonerGirl]

Joshua makes one super cute Peter Pan! And I love the last picture of Samantha singing - I can just hear her. I bet that was crazy cute as well :goodvibes

[crocko]

great update! I love your pictures of Toon Town. You got some great shots.Thanks! :cool2:

I see how you are. You eat real food and make your chidlren eat ice. Tsk. Tsk.

That last pic of Samantha is cute. I've never been to toontown. I just remember then 20,000 Leagues used to be over that way. Looks like they did have lots of fun.About food. ugh.....if ONLY we could actually get them to eat decent food. They are so amazingly picky.

Casey's has corn dog nuggets? I'll have to make a stop there next time I'm at MK!

We missed out on that parade. I've heard it's similar to Block Party Bash which I wasn't crazy about. I'll have to check it out next time.Yes, those corn dog nuggets are very good. Plus! If you are on the dining plan, you can get Cracker Jacks as your dessert :cool1:

Haven't seen Block Party Bash yet. The quick one at MK is fun, because you get to see several characters and it doesn't take very long...plus some fun dance music that you can "move yo body" to.

Joshua makes one super cute Peter Pan! And I love the last picture of Samantha singing - I can just hear her. I bet that was crazy cute as well :goodvibesThanks...they can be pretty cute sometimes. :3dglasses

[longing2Batdisney]

Wonderful day 8!!! I love your descriptions of the facial expressions on the barnstommer, splash mtn, and the description of WL!

Whispering canyon is def on our list for next go round!!! that is too funny with the traffic and the ferry... I just wonder if I would have noticed if you had not pointed that out!! Peter Pan and Alice adorable as always!!! Looking forward to your next installment and wrap up...to start the new TR!!!

BTW: Just 9 days until your next visit...how exciting!!! :yay:

[crocko]

Wonderful day 8!!! I love your descriptions of the facial expressions on the barnstommer, splash mtn, and the description of WL!

Whispering canyon is def on our list for next go round!!! that is too funny with the traffic and the ferry... I just wonder if I would have noticed if you had not pointed that out!! Peter Pan and Alice adorable as always!!! Looking forward to your next installment and wrap up...to start the new TR!!!

BTW: Just 9 days until your next visit...how exciting!!! :yay:Whispering Canyon is fun. A Disney place that I think everyone should try at least once to see if it fits them or not.

Yay....now only 8 more days! :cool1: :banana:

[crocko]

Day 9 (Kids' Choice Day)
Chapter 1 -- The "First" Family of Hollywood Studios




Day 9. Our last full day in Disney World. I had been excited about this day, though, because we had decided to let this be kids’ choice day. Now, that said, the 4 of us had a character breakfast scheduled for 8:05am at Play’n’Dine at Hollywood Studios.

So, we got up nice and early to catch the first bus to the Studios and got there nice and early…we were the FIRST guests to arrive at Studios this day.



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A few minutes before 8:00 we were let in to go over to the Hollywood & Vine restaurant. Joshua got to be the very first guest through the Hollywood Studios gates on Friday, September 25th, 2009!


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Right at 8:05, we also managed to be the first guests seated at Play’n’Dine this today (we’re on a roll!) We got seated and got food for everybody and then waited for friends to come by. JoJo and Goliath were roaming around but didn’t start in our area. Then, I saw June come into the restaurant…..and believe it or not, she must have remembered her good friend Samantha from the other side of the park on Wednesday, because the first thing June did when she came out was to hustle over to Samantha and give her a hug.


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Soon after, Leo came by and visited as well.


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And then it was time for a break to do some dancing (they do dance breaks every 20-30 minutes I think)


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Then, we went back to our food…..we all pretty much finished up but still hadn’t been visited by JoJo or Goliath. Finally, Goliath came by.


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We were still waiting on JoJo. Bridgette mentioned it to a handler since we were already done with our meal. At this point, it was almost 9am, so I finished paying and went on out to get in line to rush to Toy Story Mania for FP’s. While waiting, JoJo finally came by


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Quick Play'n'Dine summary. Food-wise, this is a very basic breakfast buffet. Nothing too special, you get more "exciting" food at the other character breakfasts. Characters are fun, but I like seeing some of the others better (there was a middle-aged couple that got seated about 8:30am. Apparently, they didn't realize what they had "reserved" and left shortly after. Haha! If you're on the DDP, then this can be a fun meal and a little easier to get booked. If not on the DDP, it is too expensive for the value....pick a different character breakfast.

Now....time to leave and head into the park…..


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They all caught up with me shortly after I finished getting some early time FP’s.
We thought about getting in the standy line, riding and then getting back into the FP line afterward. We asked Joshua if we wanted to go ride Star Tours, though, and he said yes.

So….on over to Star Tours.



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Just after park opening, this side of the park is DEAD. Absolutely no line over at Star Tours. We headed in and waited for our vehicles’ doors to open. While waiting, Joshua decided he was scared of this ride.



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So, for whatever reason….on his 3rd time to ride it, he was nervous about Star Tours. I don’t know why…..for now, I’m just going to chalk it up to it still being pretty early on our 9th day of vacationing.....

Now, back through the Streets of New York to get over to Pixar Place.



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Still a few minutes early for our FP times, Joshua wanted to go play at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground (Samantha decided it was too scary for her).


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Next…..time for our 5th and final Toy Story Mania ride of the trip.

Joshua was in my vehicle this time. I didn’t quite reach my 200+ record, but still did very well. Joshua’s score wasn’t too shabby either.



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Bridgette did well at 115,700….and Samantha managed to get 6,500 (pretty solid at the 3-year old bracket)


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We decided that’s all that we wanted to get accomplished at Studios this day, so time to head out. Before leaving, though, I made sure to snatch this picture for my wife.


http://i696.photobucket.com/albums/vv330/crocko33/9120.jpg



Next up! Epcot. To get there, we decided to take a leisurely boat ride.


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On this boat….Epcot is the 4th stop. 1st = Swan/Dolphin. 2nd = Yacht/Beach Clubs. 3rd = Boardwalk. 4th = Epcot.

Well, Joshua decided he really needed to use the restroom. So…..we decided to go visit the YBC for a few minutes and got off at stop 2. That was okay, because that put us in close walking distance to Epcot’s International Gateway and gave us a chance to walk between the Stormalong Bay ship.

(Note: during this part of the day, Bridgette and I realized that with little kids…. a 10-day trip is about 2 days too long. We started getting fussy at each other over really silly stuff…..I blame it on the gloomy clouds. Once they went away everybody cheered up better)

After a bathroom break and a not-too-long walk, we entered Epcot. This happened to be the first official day of the Food & Wine Festival.



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Up next: Why are we walking this way? Oh!! Everybody hurry!!

[Clemson Fan]

Wow, these are some long threads.

[Charlefours]

Hmm...I have been looking at Play N Dine but for an early lunch. The food is suppose to be pretty decent. I LOVE that June remember Samantha--how sweet and what good memories for her. :goodvibes

[chicagoshannon]

Samantha got a great score! I think Madeline managed to get 600 on that ride. lol

I love the boat ride from MGM to Epcot.

[jenny105]

Impressive scores by everyone! Especially Samantha! :thumbsup2

So sweet that June remembered her. I don't know any of the Playhouse Disney characters. I learned all their names through you! :laughing: I do know Handy Manny though because my 3 year old nephew adores him.

[mommyof2Pirates]

great updates. Joshua looked so cute in his peter pan costume. I am glad you told me about a 10 day trip being a little too much. Next time we thought about going longer because we thought it would be less rushed but maybe 10days isnt the answer either.

I see you and your wifes trip is getting closer. How exciting. I am so jealous.

Cant wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

[WrightFamily06]

Wow ! I was several updates behind , you sure keep a steady pace ! LOL Samantha in the Cinderella Dress and Shoes , priceless ! Seems to me everyone had a very successful shopping TR at DTD , great pic's . Love all the early morning pictures of the empty Liberty Square . Priceless pictures of Samantha & Alice . Very cool Teacup and Astro Orbiter pictures ! Love the WL pictures . Joshua looked so adorable in his Peter Pan costume :) The food at WC looked so yummy , I love there milkshakes ! Toontown pictures were soo cute . How cool that Joshua got to be the 1st person through the turnstiles on the 25th . H&V pictures were too cute :) Your family should hold a record for riding TSM but I can't blame u it's so much fun !

[stacikristine]

Great updates! Tell Samantha that I like the horse with the flowers too :goodvibes And that's too funny that Joshua was nervous his third time riding Star Tours. You'd think he'd be a pro by then! ;) I'm glad the BTMRR and Splash FPs worked out. And isn't that boat ride wonderful?! I'm excited to see what else the kids pick!