A 2009 Magical Christmas Trip Report - Big Announcement!

[raider97]

I am finally getting around to starting my trip report. I do have a good excuse though. :rotfl: I came back from our Disney trip exhausted, a good kind of exhausted, but still exhausted and then we had a late Christmas and family come down so I am just now finally getting back into the swing of things. School starts tomorrow for the girls. :cool1: I am looking forward to a nice quiet day with Christopher.

Stephanie

[raider97]

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34870141&postcount=3)
The When and Where (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34870188&postcount=4)
Pre-Trip Crisis (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34872366&postcount=6)
S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E! We are going to Disney World (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34872944&postcount=7)
Arrival Day - Part 1 (12/16/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34899514&postcount=11)
Anwers to the questions - Arrival Day (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34927504&postcount=14)
Arrival Day - Part 2 (12/16/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34927678&postcount=15)
Answers to questions - Day 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=34992682&postcount=21)
Day 1 - Part 1 - Epcot (12/17/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35004182&postcount=25)
Answers to questions - Day 1 - Part 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35056143&postcount=35)
Day 1 - Part 2 - Epcot (12/17/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35057646&postcount=37)
Pearl Settings (12/17/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35169119&postcount=46)
Photo Pass Pictures Day 1 - Epcot (12/17/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35201163&postcount=54)
Day 2 - Part 1 - Magic Kingdom (12/18/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35201341&postcount=55)
Day 2 - Part 2- Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Magic Kingdom (12/18/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35264109&postcount=63)
Day 2 - Part 3 - Exposition Hall at Magic Kingdom (12/18/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35290017&postcount=72)
Day 2 - Part 4 - Cinderella's Royal Table (12/18/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35290885&postcount=74)
Day 2 - Part 5 - MVMCP (12/18/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35302718&postcount=81)
Day 3 -Part 1 - Animal Kingdom (12/19/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35344001&postcount=89)
Day 3 - Part 2 - Downtown Disney (12/19/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35592248&postcount=100)
Day 4 - Part 1 Rope Drop at Epcot (12/20/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=35933037&postcount=106)
Day 4 - Part 2 - Epcot (12/20/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=36169434&postcount=112)
Day 5 - Part 1 - Christopher's 4th Birthday (12/21/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=36433220&postcount=118)
Day 5 - Part 2- Christopher's 4th Birthday (12/21/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=36711282&postcount=124)
Day 6- Part 1 - Hollywood Studios (12/22/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=37176048&postcount=134)
Day 6 - Part 2 - Hollywood Studios (12/22/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=37511674&postcount=142)
Day 7 - Part 1 - Magic Kingdom (12/23/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38128523&postcount=151)
Day 7 - Part 2- Magic Kingdom (12/23/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=38795357&postcount=159)
Day 7 - Part 3 - Port Orleans Carriage Ride/Grand Floridian Cafe Birthday Dinner (12/23/09) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39769567&postcount=165)

[raider97]

Good morning! I am looking forward to writing this trip report. Right now I am suffering through a bit of the grumpies since our Disney trip and holidays have past. I am hoping writing our trip report and sharing it with all of you will make them disappear.

In case haven't caught up on my pre-trip report (there is a link in my signature in case you are interested), here is a cast of characters.

Cast

Me ~ Stephanie (35) I'm a stay-at-home mom to three wonderful children. I love everything disney.

DH ~ James (32) My high school sweetheart. Tries really hard, but doesn't love disney like me. He tolerates it. Crazy, I know!!

DD ~ Ashley (7) Shares my love of disney. Can't wait to go. She rode her first adult roller coaster this spring. She is very tall for her age and will be able to ride Rock-n-Roll roller coaster the next time she goes. I hope she will like it.

DD ~ Haley (5 1/2) She loves theme parks. She is constantly asking to go to Sea World (we live a couple hours from one) and she loves Tinkerbell. I am hoping we will get to visit with the fairies at Pixie Hollow this trip. She would love it!!

DS ~ Christopher (turned 4 on our trip) He is a scaredy-cat. I am hoping he outgrows some of it before our trip. He loves everything Star Wars, and I am hoping he will be able to reach the 40 inch mark so he can ride Star Tours at DHS. He is only at 38 inches, but he is due a growth spurt, so wish us luck!!

Nana ~ (60's) My mom. She is excited to be going with us this time.

Others that were there with us --

Cousin (Jason), his wife (Desi), DD 7 1/2 (Grace), DD 4 (Maddie), and DS 19 months (Will). They stayed at All Star Music Resort.

Aunt (Candy), Husband (Rene), Stepson (Rene), Stepson's wife (Deede), and DD 14 years old (Victoria). They stayed at All Star Music Resort.

Friend (Derrick), Friend's wife (Jennifer), DS 7 1/2 (Joey), DS 5 (Tyler), DS 20 months (Jacob). They stayed at Saratoga Springs Resort. They are DVC members.

[raider97]

We stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside Resort from December 16th - December 26th, 2009.

[creativeamanda]

Joining in! Can't wait to compare notes!

[raider97]

Where to begin....where to begin, that is the question. OK let’s start off the day before our trip is scheduled to begin.

December 15th, 2009 - I am running around crazily with Christopher trying to finish up my last minute errands. This morning, after breakfast, we head out to Kinkos (now FedEx office, when did this happen?) to get the kids itineraries laminated. I was hoping to just pop in and out of there with them done, but no such luck. I arrive at Kinkos with six pages of itineraries to laminate. I head to the counter with Mr. Bouncy, i.e. Christopher, and ask if they can laminate said pages for me. No such luck, the manager says now they have a machine where you do it yourself. So he takes me over, turns it on, and gives me the instructions. Nothing hard, just not something I planned on doing with Mr. Bouncy. I wait and wait for the machine to warm up, it seems to take forever, mainly because Christopher is bouncing all over the place driving everyone else working on their projects nuts! I am trying hard to isolate him near the laminating machine, but it isn't going well. I swear the kid did not have sugar for breakfast, even though he is acting like he had some straight off the plate this morning.

You know how a watched pot never boils, it was kind of that way with the laminating machine. After what seemed like an eternity the warm-up light finally went off and I got to work. I ran all the pages through the machine, and they all came out relatively straight. Good thing they were for the kids and not my perfectionist husband. I went to the counter to pay and asked to borrow their hole punch. This is where it turned hilarious. They let me borrow it and I am trying with all my might to punch holes in these newly laminated itineraries so I can put them together, but the whole punch just wouldn't go through. The guys behind the counter are dying laughing watching me attempt this feat; finally another FedEx guy comes up and says he has an oval hole punch that will work if I don't mind the shape. I was so thankful! I got them hole punched and put together on rings and was out of there! Yippee!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07340.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07339.jpg

Christopher and myself were headed to my car when I got a text message. I buckled Christopher in and jumped in the car before I checked it. It was James, DH. A little background is needed here. Originally, James was going to take a half day tomorrow. He would have gotten off in time to make it Ashley's Christmas concert and then we were going home to pack the car, throw out the Santa presents, and head to the airport. But after working at his new job for nearly a year, I had decided at the end of the summer, that it would actually be better if he took the full day off. He has a hard time leaving work once he gets there. So I figured if he took the entire day off there wouldn't be any worries about him running late.

Now for the text message.... it reads exactly "What time are we leaving tomorrow? I have a meeting tomorrow." I start to flip out. I calm myself a bit and call James. What do you mean you have a meeting tomorrow? OK in that short amount of time, one meeting had changed to two meetings.... I am really not happy at this point. I say you are scheduled to be off tomorrow and I told Ashley you would be coming to her choir concert. When exactly are your meetings? I find out one is scheduled for noon and the other is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. Crud!! I want to be on our way to the airport at 4:00 p.m. and it takes James 1/2 an hour to get home. Crud, crud, crud!! Plus he will miss Ashley's choir concert, which is scheduled for 1:45 p.m.

At this point, he says he will see what he can do and get back to me. As if I needed anything else to worry about. So Christopher and myself head on.... I have been checking the weather forecasts regularly and am worried about the chance of rain for our trip. So we head to Wal-Mart where we pick out three umbrellas, one for each of the kids. This works out well, because the girls have been asking for umbrellas for school so it kills two birds with one stone. :goodvibes While waiting in line, we decide we are starving so we head out to Chick-Fil-A for a quick lunch. I love Chick-Fil-A! We don't eat there very much because dd#2, Haley, has a severe allergy to peanuts and Chick-Fil-A cooks in peanut oil. Since Haley was safely at school we enjoyed a treat today.


Then I headed to the bank for some cash. I knew I needed some for face painting, tips, and other odds in ends. We get back to the house with some time to kill before we have to pick up the girls from school. I call James... crud, crud, and more crud!! He is going to have to go in tomorrow and he is going to miss Ashley's concert. And as an added bonus the earliest he would be home would be 4:30 p.m., which means we won't get to the airport until 5:00 p.m. at the earliest. Did I say crud yet? :rotfl: This poses a problem since we need to be at the airport to tell them about Haley's peanut allergy early, plus I had planned to eat dinner at the airport since we won't be getting in until late.

I got off the phone and headed to school to pick up Haley. I pick her up and we kill some time talking/singing in the car. Ashley had a choir party today so she will get out 30 minutes after Haley. Not enough time to go home and get anything done before we would have to come back and pick her up. And it is really cold today, so we just hang out in the car. Finally our time passes, and we pick up Ashley and head home.

We start homework and dinner. I call James and remind him he needs to come home early tonight so we can open the surprise boxes and he can pack. I am trying to remember what we had for dinner tonight... It must not have been great since I can't remember. :lmao: James made it home just as I put dinner on the table. :thumbsup2 After dinner, I asked the kids if they would like to open one present. They all agree that sounds like a great idea. And of course, they want to open the biggest one.......

[raider97]

So where was I.... oh yes the big surprise. Well, first you will need a little more background knowledge. First of all, I had been telling Ashley to take an AR test for weeks, but she hadn't gotten around to it. Well, she was under strict instructions that she was not to attend the choir party unless she had taken an AR test. So when I picked her up from the choir party, I asked her if she had taken one. She replied yes and then I asked her what she had gotten on it. So then she says she doesn't remember I quickly realize that she is lying and didn't take one. So after a while, she finally admits that and I come down hard on her about lying. She doesn't take it well, I tend to be an easy going parent so when I get upset with the kids they take it pretty hard so she started crying. I, in the back of my head, realize my big surprise day isn't going well, so after she promises to tell the truth from now on I tell her I will tell her what I bought her today, but that it is a secret and she can't tell the others. She agrees and I tell her I bought her an umbrella. Well, for some reason she thinks that umbrellas are what are in those giant surprise boxes....

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC06982.jpg

So when I left off the kids wanted to open the big boxes and we were trying to convince them to open a small one. So finally we agree to let them open the big ones. Once they get the wrapping paper off and start to open the big boxes Ashley declares that she knows what the present is and that they are umbrellas. Which turned out to be really funny, because then Haley announces hers doesn't have an umbrella in it as a Minnie balloon floats out! :banana:

So they all start digging in their boxes. The balloons are out and they are ripping into the gift bags I had placed in each one. Inside they each have a welcome letter from a character, some disney dollars, and a small stuffed Minnie/Mickey. The girls also have a Princess Tiana necklace and a Mickey ring. They are so excited! I finally calm them down enough to ask them if they want to know when we are going. They say yes and you should have heard the screams when I say tomorrow. To say they were extremely excited was an understatement. James takes the time to tell Ashley that he has to miss her choir concert to finish up some work so he can go on our trip with us. (Smooth move I must admit.... I thought she would be really upset, but she took it well since she was so excited about the trip!)

We finally got them in pajamas and off to bed and then we started on the packing. I had managed to pack most of the kids' stuff earlier in the week, but I hadn't managed to even start ours! We were in for a very late night! I don't think we managed to get to bed until after midnight!

Some thoughts about the surprise: Keeping this surprise was hard! I wanted to spill the beans every time Ashley asked me when we were going back to Disney World. But somehow I managed to keep this secret for 17 months. I had booked our trip in August 2008. For anyone considering surprising the kids, I highly recommend it. It was so much fun! Next time I will probably tell them when we book so they can help with the planning, well it depends, I might not since I really want to take my next trip alone with just my immediate family. So maybe we will keep it a secret from everyone next time. :lmao:

[creativeamanda]

Maybe I'm a little emotional or something, but I started tearing up about the telling the secret story--It was wonderful!

[raider97]

Joining in! Can't wait to compare notes!

Maybe I'm a little emotional or something, but I started tearing up about the telling the secret story--It was wonderful!

Glad you are here! I am enjoying your trip report as well! I wonder if we crossed paths.... guess I will have to double-check your photos. :) I am a little nervous about telling our story well. Thanks for the encouragement!

Stephanie

[heaven2dc]

What a cute surprise! I wish I had kept ours a surprise for this coming Nov/Dec trip but I had to make sure all my grown kids could make vacation plans that far in advance (plus my kids aren't little anymore but would have been fun to surprise them)

[raider97]

Arrival Day - December 16th, 2009

DH and myself were up way too late the night before, so when my alarm went off this morning it was way too early for me. I am not a morning person! But as soon as I realized what day it was I hopped out of bed! Yippee! We were going to Disney today. I forced a very tired DH out of bed to get ready to head in to work and I headed upstairs to wake up the girls. They had also relished in the excitement too long the night before and were rather difficult to wake up this morning. I finally got them moving by reminding them we were headed to Disney World after school today.

I had a busy morning. I got the kids dressed, breakfast eaten, and lunches made, backpacks ready, and Christopher and myself dropped the girls off at school. We got home about 8:00 a.m. Now I still needed to finish up packing, wrap all the Santa gifts, drop off the dog at the veterinarian’s office, pick up as asthma inhaler, and be back at school at 1:30 p.m. for Ashley’s choir concert. Luckily, we had gone to James’ work’s children’s Christmas party the weekend before and Christopher had picked out a Play Dough set. I got it out and started him playing with it at the kitchen table while I locked myself in my room. I had a ton of Santa wrapping to do! I quickly got started, wrapping, and hiding them as fast as I could. Christopher did interrupt a few times for help with his new set, but I managed to keep him out of my bedroom. Thankfully! DH was originally supposed to be home this morning to help occupy Christopher, but somehow I managed pretty well on my own.

By this time though we were close to lunchtime. I made Christopher a cheese roll-up and got to work on the rest of the packing. I still needed to back my makeup and medicine case plus James CPAP machine and the laptop. I had just finished packing my makeup and medicine case when my alarm went off. It was time to head to school. So I got Christopher ready to go, i.e. located his ever lost shoes, and got the dog and her leash so we could drop her off on the way to school. As we walked outside I realized it had started to rain, so back inside we went for umbrellas and raincoats. I started to pull out of the driveway when I realized I had left the teacher presents so back inside we went. This day was not starting out well at all! Finally, we have everything and we head to the vet’s office. We jump out and fill out all the paperwork for Raider to be boarded and we head back out quickly. I glance at the time and it is already 1:20 p.m. The school is nearby, but between unloading Christopher and the presents, and checking in I knew I would be cutting it close.

We pulled into the parking lot, and I grabbed the presents, umbrellas, and Chris and made a mad dash for the building. Luckily, check in was quiet. Sometimes there can be quite a line, but not today. I checked myself in and headed to Ashley’s classroom to drop off her teacher’s present. I talked to her teacher for a while about her homework and our trip and then headed off to Haley’s classroom. We pop in and drop off her teacher’s present and talk to her teacher about the trip. Her teacher asks again where we are going since apparently Haley has been telling everyone that she is going to Sea World. I smile and say Disney World. See Haley loves Sea World and she knows we are going to a theme park and she is excited, but the last time we went to Disney was over 2 ½ years ago so she doesn’t really remember too much about it so she keeps defaulting to Sea World, where we go pretty often. I tell Haley’s teacher I am not taking her now that I am planning to pick her up after school and I head to the cafeteria with Christopher to catch Ashley’s choir concert. It is amazing! I just love hearing the kids sing Christmas music. While at the concert, I get a text from DH saying his boss has rescheduled his 2nd meeting and is headed home. I am so excited since I still have so much to do! After the concert there are only a few minutes until the school bell rings so I wait outside for the girls.

When the girls come out, we take off to the car and head to the pharmacy. My asthma has been acting up the last few weeks, and I decided at the last minute that I should take a second inhaler with me, just in case. We manage to make it through the drive-thru relatively quickly and are headed home when DH calls and ask where we are. Ay y yi! We get home about 10 minutes later and I go into hyper drive. James still needs to get his CPAP packed, the laptop packed, the girls need to get changed out of their school clothes, we need to load the car, and put out the Santa presents. Yikes! And we have less than an hour before I want to leave for the airport. We all start running around trying to get everything done and in the chaos Christopher takes off his shoes (this will become very important later). James gets Christopher’s shoes back on, the car loaded and the kids buckled in and I start bringing out the Santa presents and placing them around the tree. We are already running late. :sad1: We end up pulling out of our driveway at 4:20 p.m. oh well; we should still have plenty of time. Of course, as soon as we enter the freeway I remember I forgot to mail the car payment. :scared1: Oh well, it is too late now. It will just have to wait until we get home. If I mail it as soon as we get home it should still get there within our grace period.

Now the question is did we have plenty of time? What happened on the car ride to the airport that made things more difficult when we arrive at the airport? Does James really get a speeding ticket at the airport before we leave?…… I’ll be back tomorrow with some more updates! I have got to get some laundry and dishes done before I pick up the girls from school. Hope everyone has a great day!

[QueenDoOver]

Hello! I am excited to read about your trip. We just decided to start planning our first family trip to the world. Either December 10 or maybe not until 2011. We'll see. Either way, I feel like I need a ton of time to plan.

[raider97]

What a cute surprise! I wish I had kept ours a surprise for this coming Nov/Dec trip but I had to make sure all my grown kids could make vacation plans that far in advance (plus my kids aren't little anymore but would have been fun to surprise them)

Hi! :wave2:Thanks for stopping by! It was a lot of fun to surprise the kids, but it was so hard in a way too. I was so excited about the trip I wanted to share it with them! I am glad we were able to keep the secret though. It ended up being a great memory! I'm not sure if we will surprise them next time or not. When are you all planning to go? The Christmas season is my favorite time to go!

Hello! I am excited to read about your trip. We just decided to start planning our first family trip to the world. Either December 10 or maybe not until 2011. We'll see. Either way, I feel like I need a ton of time to plan.

Hi! :wave2: You mentioned you are planning your first family trip. Is it your first trip as well? I booked our trip 18 months out and spent all that time reading and planning and I was very happy as to how it turned out. The more you read on the disboards the easier planning becomes (or at least it is less daunting.) Like I was saying above, Christmas is my favorite time of year to go to Disney. I just love all the Christmas decorations! I look forward to hearing about your planning!

Stephanie

[raider97]

Now the question is did we have plenty of time?

Yep, we did. We only live about 15/20 minutes from the airport. And since it was a Wednesday evening there wasn't a line at the Southwest counter. In fact, I was the only one in line!

What happened on the car ride to the airport that made things more difficult when we arrive at the airport?

Christopher fell asleep. So now I have a very tired and extremely grumpy little guy to add to the mix of the airport. Not fun! And when he is tired and grumpy he only wants Mommy to push the stroller, which was a complete impossibility when trying to deal with all our luggage and carryons.

Does James really get a speeding ticket at the airport before we leave?

Nope, but we thought he was going to. We pulled into the airport and the speed limit is 30 miles an hour and then it drops to 15 miles an hour. Well, when he hit that 2nd sign he was going between 15 and 20 miles an hour. Slowing down of course, but he didn't hit his brakes. Well there was a cop working radar...no worries right? He is only a couple of miles over? Wrong the cop pulls out behind us and follows us right up to the unloading area. Pulls in behind us for a bit, running our plates maybe and then finally pulls around and goes on. Crazy! Thankfully, it didn't end up in a ticket. That would have started the whole trip off on the wrong foot!

Hi! I'm offering up a big apology for not coming back yesterday for an update. I am really having a hard time getting back into the groove of school. But it is Friday, no homework tonight, so I am working on my update......

[raider97]

When I left off we were on the way to the airport. We live in Corpus Christi, a relatively small city on the Texas coast. We were running late, but luckily we only live a little over 15 minutes from the airport. On that day, it was cold and raining. James decides to drop us off in the drop off lane and then go park. So we start unloading, we ended up with five bags to check and seven carryons plus an umbrella stroller. As I jump out I turn to tell the kids to unbuckle, and I realize that Christopher has fallen asleep. Which I wouldn’t normally mind, but he is usually pretty grumpy when you wake him up after a short nap, and now I have to open up the stroller and get one of the girls to push him. Now, don’t get me wrong getting the girls to push him is no problem – they LOVE doing this. The problem is that Christopher hates having the girls push him when he is tired.

So I start wheeling the bags inside with the kids and James takes off to go park. We are flying out on a Wednesday evening, but I was still surprised that there was absolutely no line at the Southwest counter. I pull out my boarding passes (all A’s Yippee!) and realize that the bar codes have not printed on them so I pull up our reservation and have the boarding passes reprinted. I got a very nice Southwest CSM. She is extremely helpful and the kids are talking her ear off about the trip. James comes back in after parking the car and helps get all the luggage, kids, carryons to their appropriate places. At our airport, once you get all your luggage tagged, you then have to move it over to the security area to hand it off to the TSA people. We finally get all six bags to the TSA area and head for the security check point.

In advance, a big apology is owed to anyone behind us in line this evening at the security checkpoint. CC only has one security line, so when a family like ours with small kids who don’t fly very often goes through the line to say we bog it down is an understatement. We let everyone we can go in front of us and then start the arduous task of getting through the security screening.

Shoes off – check Pressed Penny Money out – check Pins out – check Epipens and asthma inhalers out for Haley – check My asthma inhalers out – check Cell phones out – check Hand Sanitizer out – check Video Camera out – check Laptop out – check CPAP out – check Umbrella Stroller closed up and put through scanner – check

I know it is for our safety, and I am happy to do it. But I did feel very sorry for everyone behind us that night. Once we retrieve everything from the bins and get it repacked and wait for the CPAP to be checked we are finally through to the gates. We quickly find our gates and I go off in search of some dinner. I picked up two grilled cheese sandwiches for the kids to split, along with some chips, cookies, and a coke. I grab two fajita tacos for myself. And head back, James has decided he isn’t hungry and will grab something later on (don’t ask me where I tried explaining it to him that the food court will be closed when we get to the hotel, but he isn’t listening). We all eat and then the kids break open their backpacks. I had taken the backpacks we got at baseball game this summer and packed one for each of the kids. They have coloring books, crayons, stickers, sticker books, books, tick-tac-toe boards, etc for them to do. They have a lot of fun with them and they keep them distracted and busy while we wait for our plane to arrive. Oh, I think I forgot to mention that when we checked in we were told our plane was running 30 minutes late and that it was a full flight. So instead of leaving at 6:35 p.m. we are now scheduled to leave at 7:00 p.m. I am worried about making our connection. We only have a hour between the flights, but they assure me we will make it.

The plane finally arrives and we start lining up to board. Luckily, we all are in the A boarding pass group. James and the girls take one row and Christopher and myself take the row in front of them. Haley picks the window, Ashley is in the middle, and James takes the aisle. I put Christopher in the window seat and I take the middle seat in our row. We have a nice older woman sit with us. The last time we flew Chris was only 16 months old and Haley was just three so they don’t really remember flying. We start to take off and Christopher is giving me a running commentary on what is going on outside his window. He is truly fascinated in it and talks non-stop on our 45 minute flight into Houston. I had hoped to catch a cat-nap, but every time I closed my eyes the bugger woke me up.

We land in Houston with no problems. I grab a new gate check tag for our stroller and go looking for my mom. My father is very over protective of her and since we weren’t there yet, and he couldn’t go past security with her they waited until we got there to go through security. I also have strict instructions not to come back without a soda for Haley. See we had told them that they would have drinks on the plane, well because of the weather they didn’t have drink service so my Miss Haley was very upset. Dying of thirst and simply wouldn’t make it a minute longer without a drink, granted we passed a water fountain when we were switching gates but she didn’t want water. Did I mention my middle child is highly dramatic?

So I find my mom, grab a soda for Haley and a hamburger and some fries for James and the kids and head back to our gate. We are supposed to be leaving Houston at 8:20 p.m. Our flight is delayed out of Houston, so we aren’t going to be leaving until after 9:00 p.m. putting us in after midnight in Orlando. We sit and catch up. The kids are thrilled to see Nana since we hadn’t told them she was coming and we wait for our plane. It finally arrives and we board. This time we again take two rows, one right behind the other. In the first row Christopher is in the window seat, I have the middle seat, and DH has the aisle seat. Behind us Haley has the aisle seat, Nana has the middle seat, and Ashley has the window seat. The flight is thankfully uneventful. Christopher falls asleep as soon as we are in the air and the girls crash out about 30 minutes outside of Orlando. The flight attendants on this flight are great! The best I have had in a long time….friendly and entertaining!

So we get in and make the long haul across the airport to get our luggage and then to the first floor to check into Magical Express. We get a lovely ME employee that gives the kids each a button. We are loaded on to a waiting bus that is almost full. We only have to wait another 10 minutes before we are off for Walt Disney World. We are told on the way we are making three stops, Contemporary/BLT, Wilderness Lodge, and Port Orleans. I was happy to find out that we were the first stop! We grabbed our bags and headed into the lobby to check in.

At check-in we find we have connecting rooms (requested!! :thumbsup2) on the 2nd floor (requested!! :thumbsup2) in Alligator Bayou, Building 38. They also hand me the box I had mailed down. I request baggage help to our room and she calls a very nice baggage person to come help us. He manages, somehow, to get all of us and all of our bags on to his golf cat and away we go. He was so nice and chatty which kind of surprised me since it was so late. The kids, my mother, and me head up the stairs with as much as we can carry, leaving the rest for James and the baggage helper. We find our room and rush in, thankful to finally be here. I am a little sad to find out they had granted me my finally request, a corner room, but had given it to my mother and not us. Oh well, we still loved our room and maybe next time we would get one. We got the kids in pajamas, teeth brushed and into bed. I glanced at the clock as I lay down 2:10 am. Yikes! Good thing we were planning to sleep in tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures of our room and location I took later in the week.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07264.jpg
Our building sign

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07266.jpg
Our rooms

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07268.jpg
Our room

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07274.jpg
The view from our room

Some more questions for the next update...... What park did we end up going to on our first full day at Disney? Did we make the trek to the South Depot every day or did we find the closest bus stop? Did we get rained on today?

[DisneyMom14]

Hey!!!! I just wanted to say I made it over here! I will catch up soon and I can't wait to hear all about your trip. Tomorrow is DS's bday and party and because of his peanut allergy, I'm making the cake. I still haven't ironed out the design details so I gotta' get crackin'. Be back soon!

[ladybugmom]

Hi Stephanie!! I just found your TR and I'm excited to read it as we're planning a December trip to WDW this year!! I think is sooo neat that you surprised your kiddos with the trip!! :goodvibes I can't WAIT to read more!!

[creativeamanda]

Now, you really had a long trek from there!

POR tries really hard to get us our requests, too. I want building 15 in June. Perhaps we need to go ahead and call. . .

[raider97]

Just ordered my photopass CD! Between my family, and the other two families that went with we ended up with a 1284 pictures after the edits! So hopefully, by this time next week I will have lots of new pictures to work into my trip report!

Yippee!

[DisneyMom14]

Just ordered my photopass CD! Betweeon my family, and the ohter two families that went with we ended up with a 1284 pictures after the edits! So hopefully, by this time next week I will have lots of new pictures to work into my trip report!

Yippee!

Yay!!!! Ooooh I need to hurry up with mine as well!

[raider97]

What park did we end up going to on our first full day at Disney?

Epcot

Did we make the trek to the South Depot every day or did we find the closest bus stop?

Nope, we didn't make the trek to the South Depot once this trip. All the advice I had read said to go there if you were going in the morning, but we found out that most of the time the drivers were skipping the South Depot and going straight to the West Depot and ending with the South. This worked out well for us since we were closest to the North depot. We rarely had full buses pass our stop and didn't have to stand on the way to the parks once during our trip! Now on the way home was a different matter, but even then most nights they skipped the South and started with the West depot.

Did we get rained on today?

Yes! It sprinkled on and off all day today. But it wasn't very heavily most of the time, so we got to tour as we wanted.

I promise to be back soon with our Day 1 update.

[raider97]

Hey!!!! I just wanted to say I made it over here! I will catch up soon and I can't wait to hear all about your trip. Tomorrow is DS's bday and party and because of his peanut allergy, I'm making the cake. I still haven't ironed out the design details so I gotta' get crackin'. Be back soon!

I have been reading your report... I just haven't found any time to post. Your son's Jedi training party sounds like fun. Can't wait to see a picture of his cake.


Hi Stephanie!! I just found your TR and I'm excited to read it as we're planning a December trip to WDW this year!! I think is sooo neat that you surprised your kiddos with the trip!! :goodvibes I can't WAIT to read more!!

Hi!:wave2: Thanks for stopping by! Love the picture strip in your signature block - so cute! December is by far my favorite time to visit Disney World. When are you guys planing to go?

Now, you really had a long trek from there!

POR tries really hard to get us our requests, too. I want building 15 in June. Perhaps we need to go ahead and call. . .

Yes, it was! Remind me to tell you about the night I got lost by myself. It was not fun! :)

I was so happy they met my requests, just kinda bummed my mom got the corner room since she didn't care about it at all. Know what I mean? Oh well, next time!

Yay!!!! Ooooh I need to hurry up with mine as well!

I pre-bought mine, did you? I knew I still had to pay shipping, but under special offers there was a code for 15 dollars off the CD so I figured I would try to apply it, and it worked. Took off my $2 shipping at least. You might try it, I think the code expires mid-month though.

I promise to be back soon with a full update. Hopefully, tomorrow! Hope everyone has a wonderful hump day!

Stephanie

[Sweet Pea UK]

Subscribing - can't wait to read all about your trip x

[creativeamanda]

Those corner rooms are awesome, they really are!

[raider97]

Day 1- December 17th, 2009

Well, when I left off we had just gone to bed, late, very late. Originally I had planned to sleep in today, but since we got in even later than I had anticipated it was even more important to try and get some sleep so we wouldn’t be tired for our entire trip.

So sleep in we did! I don’t think one of us stirred until around 10 a.m. So when we finally got up and dressed we starting unpacking our clothes. I also called guest services and asked them to bring up our garden grocer delivery. We finally got all our clothes unpacked and turned to the box I had mailed down to the resort prior to our arrival. It had lots of fun stuff in it. I had made some window clings for our window.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07013.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07014.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07017.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07016.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07015.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07018.jpg

I had also found some Disney magnets in the Target bins over the last year so I had mailed them as well. The kids really enjoyed arranging them on our doors. And the last thing we dug out this morning was a little table top Christmas tree for our room. I got it out and let the kids decorate it, while I hung their stockings up. As we were doing this, the kids happily realized that Timmy, our elf on the shelf, had decided to make the trip with us and was watching the activities happily from the top of the armoire.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07011.jpg

By the time we were finished decorating the room and getting our groceries it was almost 12:30 p.m. We had to get ready to head out since we had lunch reservations at Teppan Edo today at 2:00 p.m. So we got dressed, grabbed the umbrellas, in case it rained as predicted, and headed out for the nearest bus stop. We found out that the North Depot was the closest bus stop to our hotel room and headed that way. We didn’t have to wait long and were getting off the bus at Epcot before we knew it. We always take pictures of the kids on the buses. Here are the ones from this first bus trip. We were the only ones on the bus for the trip to Epcot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC06990.jpg
Christopher 2009 – Almost 4 years old
The last time we were here Chris was only 16 months old

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC06992.jpg
Haley (left) 2009 – 5 ½ years old
Ashley (right) 2009 – 7 ½ years old
The last time we were here Haley was almost 3 years old and Ashley was a couple months shy of 5 years old.

How quickly time passes!

We got through the gates and we stopped for some photo pass pictures. I had pre-purchased the CD and wanted to get as many pictures as possible. After a few pictures, I grabbed a map. I wanted James to take the kids and my mom and to start heading towards the Japanese Pavilion while I went to get Soarin’ fast passes for everyone. I got them on their way and headed off for the fast passes. I was happy to see that the fast pass machines we still on and the fast pass return time was 5:00 p.m. After grabbing these, I quickly made my way to Teppan Edo. I met up with my family just as they arrived in Japan.

We were still a little early for our ADR and I saw Miyuki, the candy artist, was in the middle of her show. So we stopped to watch for a little bit. We got to see her make a cute green frog and a blue monkey, before we have to leave so we can check in for our ADR.

We check in a couple of minutes before our 2:05 p.m. ADR. The nice lady who checks me in confirms that we are celebrating our anniversary and a birthday. I put our anniversary on today’s dinner reservation at Teppan Edo and tomorrow’s dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table. And since Christopher is turning 4 on our trip I added his birthday to all our reservations. We were given a pager and had to wait about 20 minutes before we were finally seated with a nice couple and their daughter who were visiting from Indiana.

We have a wonderful lunch here. The food was good and we enjoyed talking with the other family that was seated with us. I’m not sure if I have mentioned yet that we are on the basic dining plan. I ordered the steak and shrimp combination, which was very good. DH ordered the chicken and steak combination, which he said was good. Ashley and Christopher both ordered the children's shrimp, which must have been good because there was not a single shrimp left on either plate, and Haley ordered the children’s chicken, which she ends up eating two bites of. Haley is our food allergy baby, and she is very picky about her food. Hence the reason my 5 1/2 year old just passed the 30 lb mark this year. So the fact that she didn't eat here, or most places during our trip, doesn't have anything to do with the actual quality of the food. ;)

After we finish our entrees, our wonderful waitress brings out a chef’s hat for Christopher and some ice cream with a candle in it. He absolutely loves his hat and ice cream. We also get ice cream for our anniversary celebration which the girls quickly confiscate from us, which is fine since we are absolutely stuffed from dinner. We will eat here the next time we come. I highly recommend it. We had a great time here! I can’t believe it is already almost 4 p.m. when we finally leave Teppan Edo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC06996_edited.jpg

Up next our evening plans…….

What special activity do we do tonight? Do we stay for Illuminations? And is Christopher tall enough to ride Soarin’? His first 40 inch test!!

[ladybugmom]

Hi!:wave2: Thanks for stopping by! Love the picture strip in your signature block - so cute! December is by far my favorite time to visit Disney World. When are you guys planing to go?

Awww! Thanks!! :goodvibes We are looking at going right after Thanksgiving and into the 1st week of December!

Loved the update!! I have that same Tinkerbell shirt that you have on in the pic!! :goodvibes

[disneylovin24]

I love your trip report so far!!! Can't wait to read morepopcorn::

[Disney owl]

brill start

[Nancy for Disney]

Enjoyed reading. Teppan Edo was one of my kids favorites too. Can't wait to read more.

[happenin2you]

I've been trying to post on here since yesterday and the system was being crazy and not letting me. At any rate, I'm here.

You're off to a great start and I'm glad to see you had a great time and more importantly, you got home safely.

I look forward to hearing more!:cool1:

[raider97]

Subscribing - can't wait to read all about your trip x

Hi!:wave2: Thanks for stopping by! I hope to get another update up tomorrow.

Those corner rooms are awesome, they really are!

They really are! I think I saw them for the first time in your last trip report! The make the rooms look completely different and give them a much bigger feel. Next time for sure!;)

We are looking at going right after Thanksgiving and into the 1st week of December!

Loved the update!! I have that same Tinkerbell shirt that you have on in the pic!! :goodvibes

That would be a perfect time. Should be lower crowds and still decorated for the Christmas season! :thumbsup2 I wish we could go then. Texas public schools are crazy about taking the kids out during the school year. The girls missed two days this time. I really wish I could pull them out for a week, but we would be hearing from a truant officer. :eek:

I love that tinkerbell shirt! Great taste!!:goodvibes

I love your trip report so far!!! Can't wait to read morepopcorn::

Thanks! :wave2: I really hope to have one up tomorrow! Just make sure you hold my feet to the fire! :lmao:

Enjoyed reading. Teppan Edo was one of my kids favorites too. Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for stopping by! I'm glad you are enjoying it. I hope to get some updates done this week. We really liked Teppan Edo. It is just a lot of fun and the food is good too! Can't beat that!

I've been trying to post on here since yesterday and the system was being crazy and not letting me. At any rate, I'm here.

You're off to a great start and I'm glad to see you had a great time and more importantly, you got home safely.

I look forward to hearing more!:cool1:

So glad to see ya! A cruise huh? Sounds like fun! You will have to give me all the details! Hope you and dh had a wonderful Christmas. Looking forward to catching up with you. :)

Well, I've got to run.... we have dinner plans with some friends we haven't seen in forever. :goodvibes Should be fun! Hope everyone has a great night!

Stephanie

[raider97]

brill start

Thanks!:goodvibes I am hoping to get quite a bit done this week. Hopefully! Thanks for stopping by!

[lovegrumpy]

Subbing. We have thought about doing a stint in CC TX but i've been told its really small. So I tell dh no way. My hubby is in the CG.

[praisehisname]

I just found your report and am loving it!

[raider97]

What special activity do we do tonight?

Pick a Pearl!

Do we stay for Illuminations?

Nope, not tonight.:sad2:

And is Christopher tall enough to ride Soarin’? His first 40 inch test!!

No... and... Yes! You'll have to keep reading to find out more!

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Hi!!! It is taking me forever to get caught up and get my own report going!!! But, I'm in now! I read through your whole report and am waiting for more! I am going to try to start mine tonight!

[raider97]

Day 1- Part 2 - December 17th, 2009

Well, when I left off we had just finished dinner at Teppan Edo. I had hoped to make Miyuki’s, the candy artist, next show, but it started at 3:30 p.m. and seriously we didn’t leave Teppan Edo to almost 4 p.m. We still wanted to see one of her shows so we decided now would be the perfect time to surprise the kids with picking pearls. :goodvibes We went into the Japanese Pavilion and made our way to the oyster tanks. There were lots of people standing around and I was worried there was a long line, but it turned out everyone was just hanging around watching. So after paying for four pick pearl opportunities we made our way to the front of the tank to get started.


Haley picked first. She got a pretty white pearl that has a touch of pink to it. It measured 7 mm. Ashley picked next. She ended up with a HUGE white pearl. It measured 8 1/2 mm.:banana: Christopher picked next for me. He picked a pretty white pearl that measured 7 1/4 mm. My mom was the last to pick. She picked a pearl that had an almost identical pearl to Haley’s. It was white with a touch of pink that measured right at 7 mm.


We asked Haley if she would like to combine my mom’s pearl with hers and get earrings. She loves earrings. She said yes and picked out a pretty pair of earrings to have made. Ashley picked out a pretty dolphin pendant to have made. And James picked out a pretty silver heart necklace to have my pearl made into. Once we picked out our pearls we had to wait 30 minutes for they settings to be finished. So we walked outside to see Miyuki’s show. She had just started and again we were amazed at her creations. When her show was over it was time to pick up our settings. They turned out beautifully! I took some pictures of them this morning, but my battery in my camera has died so I will try and get them posted this evening once I get it charged.


We left the Japanese Pavilion and asked the kids if they wanted to try one last time for a candy design from Miyuki. They did so we waited around for the next show, which should be starting in about 20 minutes or so. We take this time to add long sleeve shirts under the kids t-shirts since it is starting to get chilly. We spend some time watching the Koi in the pond. From here, I can hear the first Candlelight Processional. It sounds beautiful and I really wish we would have gone, but the kids are already getting tired so I am glad that we decided to not go to the 8:45 p.m. showing tonight.


It starts to get close to the time Miyuki’s show is about to start so we line up next to the rope, on the right side so the kids can see her working on the designs, we were the first ones there. Yippee! From the front, it is hard for the kids to see past her cart so we are a little off to the side against the rope. She starts the show, mentioning to everyone that there is only one animal per family. She picks the family to the left of us. They tell her there are two of them and since they are cousins she goes ahead and makes them two designs. My kids are patiently raising their hands hoping to be called on. She starts around and a lady stops her and says her family wants one. Miyuki corrects her and says she does the picking, but then she goes ahead and makes one for her. Meanwhile, a family has now pushed in between my family and the people who were next to us. She starts back toward us and stops at the family that is now next to us. She asks what they want and they tell her. She makes it and then she heads towards us!! We are so excited, but the family next to us stops her and tells her they need a second one. She says only one per family, but they start saying that one kid is with one of them and the other is with the other adult. :confused3 So she makes them a second and the show is over. I am super disappointed for the kids, but they handle it well since they just loved watching her make her designs. We got to see her make a dragon, a dinosaur, a bald eagle, a dolphin, a turtle, a crocodile, and I can't remember the rest of them right now. But if you haven't seen her I highly recommend her show. She is truly talented!


My disappointment doesn’t last long though…. we are in Disney!! :woohoo:We decide to head back to Future World. We start towards the Friendship Dock and miss the boat leaving by a minute. It has started to drizzle again and I decide we should just wait for the next one rather than walk around the World Showcase. We spend the time listening to the Candlelight Processional music.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07008_edited.jpg

Here is a picture of the kids waiting for the boat. Notice I have their Life is Good Nemo shirts on! Also notice that Haley has some seriously crazy hair going on! She takes after me when ever there is humidity in the air our hair just goes wavy/curly crazy! :lmao:


The boat arrives and we ride it across the lagoon. It was a nice ride. We exit and head for The Land pavilion to use our Soarin’ fast passes I had collected on our way into the park. If you remember from my pre-trip report I was nervous about Christopher making the 40 inch cut-off mark. I had him measured at the doctor’s office in his new light-up Spiderman shoes a couple of weeks before we left when he was getting his H1N1 shot and he had measured 40 ½ inches tall! WooHoo! But now as we approach the fast pass entrance I look down and notice that he has on the wrong shoes!! :scared1: Remember when he had taken them off after school and before we left for the airport? Well, James had found his old tennis shoes and put them on him. They are almost a year old and are very, very worn. The soles are even worn thru in places. I was starting to freak out! So we get to the entrance and the cast member pulls Chris to the side to measure him and he hits the measuring stick. Score! But then the cast member pushes down his hair and Christopher is less than a cm short of 40 inches. I am disappointed that Christopher isn’t going to be able to ride.:sad1:


We head over to the desk to get a rider switch pass and DH sits down with Christopher in the food court area. So my mom, me, and the girls head back to the fast pass line. We get in and walk straight on in to the loading areas. We enter and are on the first row! It is Haley’s first time riding Soarin’! She loves it. She was a little nervous at first, but she warms right up to it. When we get off she tells us it was “awesome” and that she wants to ride again. She is also dying laughing about how the golf ball almost hit her, but she ducked. I love these moments! :cloud9: We leave my mom with Christopher and James, myself, and the girls head back through the fast pass line (we had an extra fast pass since Christopher couldn’t ride). We walk right back on. This time we are in the 2nd row, but we enjoy it just the same. I really love this ride! And the kids do too!:goodvibes


After Soarin’, we head for The Seas pavilion. We stop for a minute to enjoy the sea gulls in front of the pavilion and then head inside to the Finding Nemo ride. It is walk-on. Score!! :thumbsup2 The kids love it. They want to ride again, but I want to make sure we see Turtle Talk tonight since they are wearing their cool Nemo shirts. The next show is starting in about 5 minutes so we wait. Once we go in I am happy to see there are only about eight kids total in the show.:yay: I am sure my kids will get a chance to talk to Crush. The show starts and not one of my children raise their hands for the entire show. Ay y yi!! :sad2: All the cast members in the pavilion appreciated their shirts though.:love: I got a ton of compliments on them. A big thank-you again to Kari on the creative board for making the designs! We love them!:worship:


By this time, we are all hungry. We head out looking for some place nearby to eat. We settle on Electric Umbrella. The food was good, not great, but we were starving so it worked. The kids all ordered cheeseburgers, fries, grapes, and sodas. James and I each had the bacon double cheeseburger with fries, and sodas. And for dessert we get cheesecake with strawberry sauce.


Once we are done, we debate going back to the hotel and calling it a day and staying later and riding more rides. Future World was dead and it would have been nice to ride a few more rides on our first day, but we finally decide to go ahead and leave and beat the Illuminations crowd to the bus stop. We arrive at the bus stop and can see the fireworks from Magic Kingdom going off at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. The kids really enjoyed it and as our bus pulls up the Illuminations fireworks begin behind us.:cheer2:


We have had a wonderful 1st full day at Disney. We arrive quickly at our resort and the North Depot is the 2nd stop dropped off. We make our way to the hotel room. Once inside we find picture cards from Mickey and Minnie congratulating us on our anniversary and one from Mickey wishing Christopher a Happy Birthday! What wonderful surprises!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07012.jpg

We take baths/showers and head to bed. We have a full day ahead of us at Magic Kingdom to look forward to tomorrow.:woohoo:


I’m hoping to get another update up soon… Does it rain tomorrow on us as the weatherman is predicting? How late do we make it at MVMCP? What rookie mistake do I make tomorrow night?

[exwdwcm]

subbing and enjoying your report so far. We didn't get to see miyuki, she is on my list for next time though and I really want to try Teppan next time too.

your kids are so adorable!!

I am a fellow texan btw and have family in corpus- we got to check out the aquarium last summer when we visited during a beach trip to Port A.

Can't wait to hear the next adventure!:thumbsup2

we were there around the time- dec 10th-20th!

[disneycruising]

popcorn::

[raider97]

Subbing. We have thought about doing a stint in CC TX but i've been told its really small. So I tell dh no way. My hubby is in the CG.

Hi! The base is pretty small and Corpus has about 400,000 residents. We moved here from Houston about 3 1/2 years ago. We love it here. You should come visit sometime so you can get an idea of the city/base for yourself. Thanks for stopping by!!

I just found your report and am loving it!

Thanks! I hope to get my photo pass cd this week which will help me with my updates!

Hi!!! It is taking me forever to get caught up and get my own report going!!! But, I'm in now! I read through your whole report and am waiting for more! I am going to try to start mine tonight!

Hi Erin!! So happy to see you. Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

subbing and enjoying your report so far. We didn't get to see miyuki, she is on my list for next time though and I really want to try Teppan next time too.

your kids are so adorable!!

I am a fellow texan btw and have family in corpus- we got to check out the aquarium last summer when we visited during a beach trip to Port A.

Can't wait to hear the next adventure!:thumbsup2

we were there around the time- dec 10th-20th!

Fellow Texan!:cool1: So neat that you have family down here. We really love Corpus. We have been here for about 4 years. Thanks for the compliment on my kiddos. I think they are cuties, but I'm also pretty biased! :laughing: I had hoped to see Miyuki on our trip and was happy to see that she was there when we were at Epcot. Check the schedule though... I think she only has her shows Mon. - Thurs. She is really talented. I was amazed and I had read about her. And Teppan Edo was really good - we loved the atmosphere! We will be back here for sure!

popcorn::

Hi! Hope to get some more updates up this week. Thanks for stopping by!

Stephanie

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Great update! We have never taken advantage of the friendship boat...I always forget about that! And...we got stuck in pouring rain this trio in Epcot...could've used it! LOL
Too bad Christopher couldn't ride Soarin'!! Next time!! I love that ride! We were lucky...our kids are really tall, so our youngest was able to ride everything but RnRC and Primeval Whirl. He even rode TOT and Soarin last trip when he was 3. So, we lucked out without having to do too many child swaps. It is helpful, but becomes a bit annoying if you have to do it too often. Can't wait for more!

[ladybugmom]

YAY!! Sounds like a fun-filled day! I LOVE the kids Nemo shirts--sooo cute!! And Soarin'--my favorite!! How neat that you were able to pick pearls AND able to see Miyuki’s show!!!

[disneycruising]

I just had to stop in and tell you I also have 2 boys (14 & 11) with Nut Allergies. One of my DS (15) is "scared" to try new places to eat. Disney is the only place.. he feels (pretty) 'safe' eating at. ;)

We were at WDW Dec 26th-30th. While we were there, we ate at Ohana's & the chef made a wondeful dessert for my boys. It made them feel really special. :)

[*dreamit*doit*]

Hi! Joining in! We were there at the same time! :) We stayed at POR 12/16-21 I've been meaning to start my first TR...hopefully soon! :laughing:

[DisneyMom14]

Great updates! I'm sad that your little one JUST missed his 40 inches!!!! :sad2: I guess that'll be a good reason to go back soon!

We stopped in Japan after the Candlelight Processional wanting to do the pick a pearl and it was sooooo crowded!! We ended up skipping it. We also missed the candy artist and I really wanted to see her also. Both of those things move to the top of my list for next trip. :)

popcorn::

[raider97]

Finally some a minute of free time...

Here are the pictures from our pick-a-pearl adventure...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07402.jpg

Mine

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07401.jpg

Ashley's

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07399.jpg

Haley's

I just love how they turned out! And what a great keepsake from our vacation.

[raider97]

Great update! We have never taken advantage of the friendship boat...I always forget about that! And...we got stuck in pouring rain this trio in Epcot...could've used it! LOL
Too bad Christopher couldn't ride Soarin'!! Next time!! I love that ride! We were lucky...our kids are really tall, so our youngest was able to ride everything but RnRC and Primeval Whirl. He even rode TOT and Soarin last trip when he was 3. So, we lucked out without having to do too many child swaps. It is helpful, but becomes a bit annoying if you have to do it too often. Can't wait for more!

I was surprised I remembered the friendship boat. We had to wait, but I felt like it was worth it because the kids were starting to tire out. Wow, your little one is tall. My eldest is like that. My youngest two are not faring so well on the height genes so far... I'm hoping they are just going to take off late. The child swap worked really well. It was our first time using it since my mother-in-law came with us on our last trip and we just switched off with her.

YAY!! Sounds like a fun-filled day! I LOVE the kids Nemo shirts--sooo cute!! And Soarin'--my favorite!! How neat that you were able to pick pearls AND able to see Miyuki’s show!!!

Thanks! I love those shirts! I think they are my favorites of the ones I made. We didn't get to ride as many rides as we had hoped, but we really enjoyed all the time we spent that day stopping to smell the roses. :)

I just had to stop in and tell you I also have 2 boys (14 & 11) with Nut Allergies. One of my DS (15) is "scared" to try new places to eat. Disney is the only place.. he feels (pretty) 'safe' eating at. ;)

We were at WDW Dec 26th-30th. While we were there, we ate at Ohana's & the chef made a wondeful dessert for my boys. It made them feel really special. :)

I know what you mean! I love how much attention they give to those with food allergies! It is nice to be able to let them enjoy themselves. I'm trying to remember what Haley had at Ohanas. I actually think she told them she didn't want dessert. Yep, I have that kid. :lmao:

Great updates! I'm sad that your little one JUST missed his 40 inches!!!! :sad2: I guess that'll be a good reason to go back soon!

We stopped in Japan after the Candlelight Processional wanting to do the pick a pearl and it was sooooo crowded!! We ended up skipping it. We also missed the candy artist and I really wanted to see her also. Both of those things move to the top of my list for next trip. :)

popcorn::

I highly recommend both the pick a pearl and candy artist for your next trip! We really enjoyed both of them! I am kinda sad we canceled our CP pkg, but the kids wouldn't have made it that night anyways so it worked out well!

[DisneyMom14]

OOOH! Seeing pictures really makes me wanna' make sure we do this next time. DD is getting to the age that she is not finding toy souveniers so it would be a nice keepsake.

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

I LOVE those pick a pearl pix!! What nice settings!

[ladybugmom]

Beautiful choices for the pearls!!! :lovestruc

[exwdwcm]

love the pearls, especially the earrings

have you seen the cinderella carriage cage they sell on ebay to put the pearls in? I don't have hte link, but it is really cool

[happenin2you]

looking good! i want to do the pearl thing next time i go, i'd love some nice pearl earrings.:)

[raider97]

OOOH! Seeing pictures really makes me wanna' make sure we do this next time. DD is getting to the age that she is not finding toy souveniers so it would be a nice keepsake.

I LOVE those pick a pearl pix!! What nice settings!

Beautiful choices for the pearls!!! :lovestruc

Thanks! I was very happy with how they turned out.

love the pearls, especially the earrings

have you seen the cinderella carriage cage they sell on ebay to put the pearls in? I don't have hte link, but it is really cool

Thanks! I have seen the carriage cages. They are really adorable. I almost bought some of them, but in the end I decided I wanted to let the kids pick out their own settings.

looking good! i want to do the pearl thing next time i go, i'd love some nice pearl earrings.:)

Thanks! They have some gorgeous settings. I absolutely love mine. How is school going this semester?

Stephanie

[raider97]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0013.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0018.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0028.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0048.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0057.jpg

[raider97]

Day 2- Part 1 - December 18th, 2009

I had originally planned to sleep in today since we have tickets to Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party tonight, but then I went and added in a breakfast reservation so we didn’t get to sleep in too late this morning. Our alarm went off promptly at 9 a.m. It was wonderful to wake up on our 10th anniversary in my favorite place in the world. We had disneymooned here 10 years ago and it was nice to be back at Disney for our 10th anniversary. :cloud9:

Before going to bed the night before, I had taken out the kids clothes for today and packed our backpacks to help ease the morning routine a bit. The kids finally jumped out of bed and headed to their stack of clothes where they found new pins from Tinkerbell and letters inviting them to Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We all finished getting dressed and headed to the bus stop.

We only had a short wait before a bus to Magic Kingdom arrived. We arrived at Magic Kingdom quickly and then we went searching for the water taxi to the Grand Floridian resort. The boat was just leaving so we had a little wait before we got on. The boat ride was nice, a little chilly, but we really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures from our boat ride back.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07033.jpg

James and Ashley

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07035.jpg

Haley

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07037.jpg

Christopher


The Grand Floridian was the first stop and we got off to go search for 1900 Park Fare restaurant. We had breakfast reservations with Alice and the kids were besides themselves with excitement. We checked in at the podium and got in line for a picture by the Christmas tree. It turned out cute, but we didn’t purchase it. We were quickly seated. Our reservation was for 11 a.m. and we were seated right on time. We all enjoyed the breakfast food here, especially the large fresh strawberries!

Tigger came by first to sign autograph books and take pictures, followed closely by Pooh. They were friendly and spent a lot of time with us. Alice came by next. The kids simply love the movie Alice in Wonderland so they were excited to see her. She was so nice and talkative. She tried so hard to engage the kids, but they were very quiet. She told Christopher that he was a quiet as a dormouse. Next my girls spied Mary Poppins. Mary Poppins is the kids favorite movie right now so to say they were excited to see her here was a true understatement. :woohoo:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07020_edited.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07021_edited.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07022_edited.jpg


She finally made her way to our table and the kids just melted. She was so nice, friendly, and pretty. She gave out hugs and the girls told her how much Christopher loves her. She is tied with Ariel for his all-time favorite character so she knelt down to him and gave him a kiss on his cheek. He loved it! All day long people kept asking him if Snow White had given him the kiss and when he said Mary Poppins they told him he was very lucky because she doesn’t give them out very often. He was on :cloud9:.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07024_edited.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07025_edited.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07026_edited.jpg

The last character we met at breakfast was The Mad Hatter. He was very funny, but didn’t get to spend much time with us since they were calling him to take a group picture by the Christmas tree out front. I really liked the character interactions at this breakfast. It also was a hit because it has two of my children’s favorite characters here. I am sure we will eat here again. And the 11 a.m. seating time was great because the dining room was clearing out, the food was still fresh, and most of the characters made it around to our table more than once.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07023.jpg

After breakfast, we went to check out the Gingerbread house I had heard so much about. It is so impressive. We took some pictures in front of the house and headed back to the boat dock. It would have been faster to take the monorail back to Magic Kingdom, but we had really enjoyed the boat ride over so we decided to take it back. On the return trip it stops at the Polynesian resort before heading back to Magic Kingdom, but the ride was still fairly quick.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07027_edited.jpg


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07029.jpg

Walking through the gates of Magic Kingdom with my family I was extremely happy. This is my favorite park. I love that feeling that comes over me when I see the castle for the first time in a trip. We stopped on Main Street to take some photo pass pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0067.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0076.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0084.jpg

We headed towards Fantasyland. I sent the kids with my mom and James to go ride the carousel while I went to get fast passes for Peter Pan. While I was doing that I got a text from my cousin’s wife asking if we had arrived yet. I told them we had and asked where they were. They were waiting behind the castle so I met up with them and took Desi over to show her the fast pass machines and get them fast passes for Peter Pan to ride later. On the way back I stopped at the carousel to find my family and then we went to meet up with them. It was already 1 p.m. and we had reservations at 1:30 p.m. for Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. We checked in and they sent her girls to the back to get dressed while we waited in the front for the dressing rooms to open up.

And…. You will have to wait for my next update to see how the makeovers went. Hopefully, I will get another update done tomorrow. I’ve got to run now to get Christopher his H1N1 booster shot. Have a great day!

Stephanie

[creativeamanda]

Those pearls are beautiful!

Also, I love you girls' dresses. I think I did see ya'll on the 18th!

[DisneyMom14]

Awesome update! Love the pics! I see you got your photopass in. I got mine in today! Yay! I can't wait to see the girls with their make-overs!!!!popcorn::

[heaven2dc]

Aww....the pic of Christopher's cheek after Mary Poppins kissed him is priceless! Your kids are so adorable - loved the girls' dresses :lovestruc

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

1900 Park Fare was a new one for us this time also. We loved it...the food was great and the characters were awesome, especially the Mad Hatter! We agree that we will go back there too! Your photopass pix are great! Can't wait to see the make-overs!!!

[ladybugmom]

YAY!! Great update!! I just love the pics from 1900 Park Fare!! We're doing dinner in May so we might just have to do breakfast in Dec.!!! Your kids are absolutely precious!! Christopher looks like he is in awe of Mary Poppins!! :lovestruc Love the PP pics with the Christmas decorations up in MK!! Can't wait to hear all about the BBB!

[praisehisname]

I love the settings you got for your pearls! 1900 PF sounds really fun; I'd like to have dinner there to see the Step Sisters! Can't wait to hear about BBB!

Denise

[creativeamanda]

I'm excited about hearing about BBB, as well. We are thinking of doing this for the girls in June.

[raider97]

Day 2- Part 2 - December 18th, 2009

Well, when I left off we were waiting patiently for the dressing rooms to open up… well as patient as a 7 year old and 5 year old can. :lmao: The girls were called back and were excited to see what their dresses looked like. Somehow I had managed to keep the dresses a secret until we were in the dressing room! :goodvibes The girls were thrilled with Belle’s Christmas dresses I had picked up for them. Unfortunately, Ashley found her dress itchy so her black long sleeve shirt went back on under her dress.

When we came out Christopher was already in his chair picking out the colors he wanted for his cool dude makeover. He got to pick four colors for his hair. His Fairy Godmother was really sweet, trying to engage him, but he was pretty tired and you could tell as he quietly sat and let her work her magic. When she turned him around and he looked into the mirror he looked completely shocked. I am not sure he recognized himself. He looked really cute, but he didn’t love it right away. In fact, he climbed down and asked me to take it out. As the night wore on and he got lots of compliments he finally started to like his cool new hairdo.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0106.jpg

Christopher getting his colors put in.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0122.jpg

Christopher getting his sprinkles.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0135.jpg

His first shocked reaction. :rotfl:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0146.jpg

Here he is starting to come around.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0190.jpg

Family picture! :)

Ashley’s Fairy Godmother called her into the chair next to Chris to get started as soon as we came out of the dressing rooms. Let me take this time to tell you that I routinely pull the girls hair up into princess buns for them at home so I had figured they would pick one of the other hairstyles. But Ashley picked the fairy-tale princess hairstyle. Her Fairy Godmother was wonderful. She was attentive, talkative, and a sweetheart. And Ashley loved the whole process… I don’t think her smile ever left her face. She was so happy. When they turned her around to look in the mirror, the experience was so worth it. She was smiling from ear to ear and that smile lasted all night long.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0149.jpg

Ashley getting her hair done.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0151.jpg

She was so happy during her entire makeover!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0208.jpg

Finishing up her hair and makeup.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0225.jpg

Ashley getting her sprinkles.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0238.jpg

Her first glimpse in the mirror!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0246.jpg

What a wonderful experience!

Haley was called by Christopher’s Fairy Godmother as soon as he was done. She was so excited for her turn. She had been lurking around her brother and sister patiently waiting her turn. She was thrilled when she was asked to climb up into the magic chair. She took no more than a minute picking out the fairy-tale princess hairstyle too. However, she did pick pink nail polish, instead of the blue that Ashley had picked, no surprise here my Haley’s very favorite color is pink. She is a pink girl. She sat quietly as her Fairy Godmother worked her magic. And as she was turned around to see herself in the mirror for the first time a huge smile broke out over her face. She really was a princess.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0154.jpg

Haley patiently waiting her turn.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0158.jpg

Haley picking out her hairstyle.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0183.jpg

Haley getting her hair done.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0306.jpg

Haley's first glimpse in the mirror.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0314.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0316.jpg

Haley just loved how she looked!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0321.jpg

I just love this picture!

After Haley was done we left the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to head towards Exposition Hall to have pictures taken of the girls. We stopped on the way for a few photopass pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0358.jpg

I will have to leave you wanting more tonight. :goodvibes I got caught up working with Ashley on an extra credit project that came home tonight and is due on Thursday. She has to make a musical instrument, it has to look like an instrument and be playable. We ended up making a very cute and colorful tambourine, but it took up most of my night and I still have the dreaded laundry and dishes to do. So I will have to catch you all up on the rest of the day tomorrow.

Have a great night!

Stephanie

[creativeamanda]

Those pictures from BBB are awesome! How far in advance did you make the reservations? And do they do a cc guarantee?

This is what I want to do for my girls for their birthdays--perhaps at the castle before out CRT adr.

[praisehisname]

Aw, they all turned out adorable! :lovestruc How long does it take in BBB?

Denise

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Great pictures! Glad your girls enjoyed the BBB so much!!! Can't wait to see the pictures from Expo Hall!!!

[raider97]

Those pearls are beautiful!

Also, I love you girls' dresses. I think I did see ya'll on the 18th!

Thanks! I am so happy we did the pick-a-pearl this time. The settings turned out so pretty.

I love those dresses. I have to admit though my Haley hates those work dresses, it was all I could do that morning to convince her to wear it. I think they are just adorable and Ashley loves hers. I'm not sure why Haley has such a dislike for it?

You probably did see us! We probably crossed paths 100 times on the 18th! :)

Awesome update! Love the pics! I see you got your photopass in. I got mine in today! Yay! I can't wait to see the girls with their make-overs!!!!popcorn::

Thanks! Yep, got mine in. I saw some of your photopass pictures on your trip report! They look great! Sorry the update took so long.

Aww....the pic of Christopher's cheek after Mary Poppins kissed him is priceless! Your kids are so adorable - loved the girls' dresses :lovestruc

Chris is a huge fan of Mary Poppins. He simply adores her. He was very happy with his kiss. :love: Thanks for the compliment - I think they are cute, but I'm pretty biased. ;)

1900 Park Fare was a new one for us this time also. We loved it...the food was great and the characters were awesome, especially the Mad Hatter! We agree that we will go back there too! Your photopass pix are great! Can't wait to see the make-overs!!!

We loved it too! The interaction was good and so was the buffet. We loved our ADR time... I would pick it again in a heartbeat!


YAY!! Great update!! I just love the pics from 1900 Park Fare!! We're doing dinner in May so we might just have to do breakfast in Dec.!!! Your kids are absolutely precious!! Christopher looks like he is in awe of Mary Poppins!! :lovestruc Love the PP pics with the Christmas decorations up in MK!! Can't wait to hear all about the BBB!

Thanks! Sorry the update took so long! We really loved the 1900 Park Fare breakfast and if you do it at Christmastime it will give you a reason to get over to the Grand Floridian to see it all decked out for Christmas plus you have to see the Gingerbread House it is awesome!

[raider97]

I love the settings you got for your pearls! 1900 PF sounds really fun; I'd like to have dinner there to see the Step Sisters! Can't wait to hear about BBB!

Denise

Thanks! It really was a great breakfast! A big hit here. :) I would like to try dinner with the step-sisters sometime too. Our friends ate there before the party on the 18th and LOVED it! :love: Sorry the update took so long!!

I'm excited about hearing about BBB, as well. We are thinking of doing this for the girls in June.

Sorry the update took so long. DH has been working really long hours and now has two weeks of nights so real life has been seriously cutting into my DIS time. ;)

Aw, they all turned out adorable! :lovestruc How long does it take in BBB?

Denise

Thanks! The girls just loved their makeovers. I would say it takes between 30 - 45 minutes for an appt. It depends they are running on time and if more than one Fairy Godmother helps out. Also we had to wait longer since Haley had to wait for Christopher's chair to open up even though all 3 were booked for 1:30 p.m. :confused3 Ashley had two Fairy Godmothers... one primarily, but another one came over and did her nails and makeup. It sped things up some. Haley's Fairy Godmother did all of it herself so her appt was a little longer.

Great pictures! Glad your girls enjoyed the BBB so much!!! Can't wait to see the pictures from Expo Hall!!!

Thanks! Hopefully tonight. I have the update written up, I just didn't have time to fight with photobucket last night.

Those pictures from BBB are awesome! How far in advance did you make the reservations? And do they do a cc guarantee?

This is what I want to do for my girls for their birthdays--perhaps at the castle before out CRT adr.

Amanda - I made the ADR 90 days out (when I made my dining reservations). I did it right away since I had heard that the appts before the parties booked up quickly. Yes, they did take a credit card guarantee. I don't remember off hand what the cancellation policy was.

That's what we did. They had BBB appointments at 1:30 p.m., then we went down to Exposition Hall and had pictures made and then went back to dinner at CRT. It worked out great!

[creativeamanda]

Thanks! I called and made my reservation for BBB today! They'll be at Epcot that day, but they are going to love it!

[ladybugmom]

YAY for the BBB!! Ashley & Haley are absolutely GORGEOUS!! I love their matching Belle dresses!! And Christopher is just precious with his cool dude hairdo!! :goodvibes

[raider97]

Thanks! I called and made my reservation for BBB today! They'll be at Epcot that day, but they are going to love it!

How exciting! It was really a fun experience!

YAY for the BBB!! Ashley & Haley are absolutely GORGEOUS!! I love their matching Belle dresses!! And Christopher is just precious with his cool dude hairdo!! :goodvibes

Thanks! I am really glad we decided to make the reservations! It really was priceless. The had a great time! I think they will remember the experience for a long time. :)

[raider97]

Day 2- Part 3 - December 18th, 2009

We arrived at Exposition Hall to find quite a line of little girls waiting for their photo shoots. So we decided to visit with some characters first. We got to see Tigger and Pooh with only a short line. The girls even got sweet hugs from them.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0379.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0381.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0383.jpg

We also got to meet Donald and Uncle Scrooge with no wait at all! The characters really took their time with the kids since there was literally no one else waiting to meet them. We have never met characters here before, but will have to look in sometimes to see if anyone is there since it seems to be relatively unknown spot for character hunting. After pictures and autographs we headed back to the photo shoot line.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0394.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0539.jpg

We still had a few people in front of us, but the time passed by quickly. Each of the girls got their pictures done in their own photo shoot. They looked so adorable posing all dressed up. Here are a few of my favorites from the photo shoot.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0445.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0451.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0459.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0500.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0496.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0506.jpg

After the girls were all done, we headed back towards the castle for dinner. We stopped on the way to pick up our Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party wristbands and fast passes to use after dinner for Buzz Lightyear. We arrived a few minutes early for our dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table, but we were promptly taken in to meet Cinderella…

[BippityBoo]

HI!! Becky told me about your TR and the wonderful necklace for the pearl! Love it, thanks for the info!

I loved the update. The girls look precious and what a great tip about the characters! Who knew that they were there :confused3

I am wondering if you can let me know where you got the Christmas Costumes ( I am assuming it is Belle?) I really want to get my DD something like that for our Dec 2010 trip!!

Cant wait for more!

[raider97]

Day 2- Part 4 - December 18th, 2009

When I left off we had just been taken into to meet Cinderella. The kids just adored her. We got two picture packages since we were a party of six. The first one was Cinderella with the kids and the second one was my mom with the kids and Cinderella. After talking to the kids for a minute and signing autograph books we were taken upstairs to our table. We got a table on the outside ring of the main room.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0547.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0550.jpg

Our server quickly came over and we ordered our meals. My mom and I ordered the lavender chicken. James ordered the prime rib. Christopher and Haley had chicken nuggets and Ashley ordered a hot dog. Our food was really good. The only problem we had was that our server had not asked if Ashley wanted an condiments with her hot dog and we couldn’t catch him to ask for some mustard and she wouldn’t start eating until she had some. :eek: When we were finally able to catch him he apologized profusely and even brought her a fresh hot dog when he brought out the mustard for her.:) For dessert, Christopher received a birthday cupcake and the girls ordered sundaes. I had the chocolate cream cheese buckle for dessert, which was good, but it paled by far in comparison to the sorbet James got for dessert. It was wonderful!! :cloud9:I am a chocolate girl and I really wished I had ordered the seasonal sorbet, it was that good!

The show started shortly after we were seated. It was really cute, and the kids enjoyed it immensely. They asked about anniversaries and we said we were celebrating ten years. :love: Then the mice came around and we grabbed some cute pictures of them with the kids.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07076_edited.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07077_edited.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07078_edited.jpg

Well, I was going to update dinner along with Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, but my journaling of our night is getting extremely out of hand! So I figured I would post about dinner and leave you hanging about the party...

I hope to have another update done tomorrow. Hope everyone has a wonderful night!

Stephanie

[raider97]

HI!! Becky told me about your TR and the wonderful necklace for the pearl! Love it, thanks for the info!

I loved the update. The girls look precious and what a great tip about the characters! Who knew that they were there :confused3

I am wondering if you can let me know where you got the Christmas Costumes ( I am assuming it is Belle?) I really want to get my DD something like that for our Dec 2010 trip!!

Cant wait for more!

Hi Katie! :wave2: Thanks for stopping by! I loved the pick-a-pearl experience. If you have any questions about it let me know and I will attempt to answer them for you.

I was amazed at how few people were in Exposition Hall with the characters. I think I remember reading sometimes they had characters there, but it didn't really cross my mind until we were in there. The lines were really non-exisitant! The kids got to spend so much time with the characters. In fact, the characters were even coming to the kids and interacting with them some more after we had already seen them because it was that dead in there! My cousin's little girl even got to dance around with Scrooge. :)

I bought the dresses from the Little Dress Up Shop. Here is the link... http://www.littledressupshop.com/store/1608772/product/WBEL325. We ordered their Halloween costumes from them too (Princess Aurora and Princess Anniliese) and I was very happy with their quality. If you are looking to order more than one. They offer a discount of 15% if you order three or more. I needed four, but they didn't have the dresses I wanted packaged together online so I called them and they were happy to give me the 15% off the dresses I was looking for. Hope that helps!!

Stephanie

[praisehisname]

The photo shoot turned out great! Did they offer to do one for your son, or is it only for girls?

Someday I want to eat in the castle! :lovestruc

Denise

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Nice photoshoot pix!

We have never done dinner in the castle...we've done breakfast and lunch...but maybe worth trying!!!

Can't wait to hear how the party went!

[creativeamanda]

The photos from the photoshoot are adorable.

I rarely see a good review of CRT, so I am glad to finally see one--we ar ehaving lunch there in June.

[DisneyMom14]

Your little princesses are BEAUTIFUL!!!! I've never tried to visit the characters in Exposition Hall. How cool that you guys got pictures with Scrooge!!! Sounds like you guys had a wonderful day!

[raider97]

The photo shoot turned out great! Did they offer to do one for your son, or is it only for girls?

Someday I want to eat in the castle! :lovestruc

Denise

Thanks! The girls loved posing for all the shots. I think we ended up with nearly 20 shots of each of them. They would have taken pictures of Chris, but we had two girls and my cousin's two girls were having photo shoots done, and he was acting pretty tired and grumpy by then. He even refused to take pictures with the characters. He enjoyed some down sitting in Exposition Hall talking to my mom. Whatever she did must have worked because he was in a much better mood when we left. ;)

The castle is fun! We really enjoyed it. We had eaten breakfast there on our honeymoon so it was nice to be back for our 10th anniversary. :)


Nice photoshoot pix!

We have never done dinner in the castle...we've done breakfast and lunch...but maybe worth trying!!!

Can't wait to hear how the party went!


The photos from the photoshoot are adorable.

I rarely see a good review of CRT, so I am glad to finally see one--we ar ehaving lunch there in June.

Thanks! The kids loved the photo shoot!

We really enjoyed our dinner in the castle. With all my extended family there we actually had three different tables there that afternoon and we all really enjoyed our dinners.

Your little princesses are BEAUTIFUL!!!! I've never tried to visit the characters in Exposition Hall. How cool that you guys got pictures with Scrooge!!! Sounds like you guys had a wonderful day!

Thanks! Try Exposition Hall on your next visit. I don't think they are there all day, but it was so nice to find some characters without the long lines!!

We did have a wonderful day! :cloud9:

Stephanie

[raider97]

Day 2- Part 5 - December 18th, 2009

After dinner as we were leaving Fantasyland, James captured a few pictures of the castle from Fantasyland. I think they are really pretty.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07086.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07087.jpg

Next, we headed out to the front of the castle to see the castle lighting ceremony. By the time we got out there the hub was already packed with people so we found a place along the bridge into Fantasyland (the side that runs right by Storytime with Belle). We were right up against the railings; it wasn’t a great view, but we were able to see the ceremony and the castle lighting. For some reason, I don’t have any pictures from the castle lighting. :confused: James did get this picture of the kids waiting for the lighting ceremony though. I LOVE it!:love:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07082.jpg

We admired the castle for a little while before we headed to Buzz Lightyear with my cousin’s family to use the fast passes we had picked up earlier in the day. Just as we arrived at the entrance, our friends from Houston and their boys showed up. They had flown in that same day and had eaten at the Grand Floridian before coming over to the party so they didn’t have fast passes. We went through the fast pass line while they jumped in the amazingly short standby line. Afterwards, we headed towards Peter Pan to use our other fast passes from earlier in the afternoon. I love this ride! It is one of my favorites. When we got off Derrick and his family was there along with my aunt, her stepdaughter-in-law, and her step-granddaughter.

We stopped for a minute to discuss the plan. I knew we needed to get over to Toontown if we had any hopes of seeing the fairies without a long line, but James wanted to take the kids on It’s a Small World since it was literally walk-on. It had just turned 7 p.m. so the party had just started. I relented and we all rode It’s a Small World. My kids just love this ride! I think they would be happy if we only rode this one over and over. :lmao: After we got off, I herded everyone towards Toontown. We headed into the Judge’s Tent and were surprised to see Perla and Suzy. We stopped for a quick picture and autographs before heading into the Pixie Hollow line. We only had a few people in front of us; but that line moves really slow so I am sure it ended up taking us close to half an hour.

When we got up to the front we made the mistake of telling the CM working our whole party size. I think our interaction would have been a little better if we had broken up a bit. Don’t get me wrong, the interaction was great! But it is hard to interact on a one on one basis when there are 9 kids!! We met Silvermist, Tinkerbell, and Terrance. Unfortunately, I don’t have anything but group shots from Pixie Hollow and I don’t feel comfortable posting pictures of the other kids.

After we made it out of the fairies, we discussed what we wanted to do. Derrick and his family were looking to ride some rides since they had just made it into Magic Kingdom and my cousin’s wife and myself really wanted to meet the princesses with their princes. So we split up, they went and rode Goofy’s Barnstormer and we went and got into the princess line. This line was short and it only took about ten to fifteen minutes to get in. We got to meet Princess Aurora with Prince Phillip and Cinderella with Prince Charming!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0670.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0675.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0681.jpg

After we left the Judges Tent we met back up with Derrick and his family and here is where I made my rookie mistake. I let them talk me into riding Dumbo!! :scared1: I know during key party times a slow loading ride like Dumbo! What was I thinking!! Well, Derrick’s boys really wanted to ride it, and my cousin’s kids had ridden it earlier in the day and loved it so I gave in despite my better judgment. :eek: We had a lot of fun, but it killed a lot of our party time.

By the time we got off of Dumbo it was almost time for the fireworks to start. I really wanted to view them from in front of the castle, but as all my fellow disers know, by this time there was no way to get from Dumbo to the front of the castle! The routes around the castle had already been roped off and I knew that we wouldn’t make it through Tomorrowland or Liberty Square in time. So I backed our party back towards Dumbo and we got settled to watch the fireworks from Fantasyland.

The view was fantastic. The fireworks appeared to be right next to you, the only problem with our spot was you kind of felt like you were at a tennis match. Since the lower fireworks were to one side and the higher ones were to the other side. I love fireworks and our location didn’t bother me too much since I knew we would have more time next week to see Holiday Wishes from a location in front of the castle.

After the fireworks were over, we waited and waited for them to clear the area and drop the ropes. It seemed to take forever. This was the only time the crowds really bothered me! It was packed moving around in Fantasyland, wall to wall people. They finally dropped the ropes and we headed towards Tomorrowland and around the castle to find a spot on Main Street for the 2nd Christmas parade.

We ended up past the hub along the straight part of the street sitting behind the curb row. The nicest couple in front of us moved over a bit to make room for the kids on the curb. So three of the kids were sitting on the front row with them. The rest of us were behind them sitting with the Dad’s standing back a bit with the younger kids on their shoulders. We had to wait a bit for the parade to start so we went and got hot chocolate, cookies, and apples. The Cast Members also brought out hula-hoops for the kids. This made the time pass quickly. Here are the girls hula-hooping.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/HaleyHula-1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Ashleyhula.jpg

Before we knew it the parade was starting! Unfortunately, by this time it had really started to sprinkle so I don’t have any pictures! But the parade was marvelous! We really enjoyed it. I loved the Gingerbread Men and the Toy Soldiers! I really feel this parade lives up to the hype. After the parade ended, my cousin’s family and my aunt and her family headed back to their resort. I wasn’t anxious to join the mass of people headed towards the buses so we decided to stay for a bit. Derrick and his family decided to stay with us and we headed by Crystal Palace into Adventureland towards Pirates of the Caribbean.

On the way, I noticed a character spot so we decided to step in to see who was out. Low and behold it was Jasmine and Aladdin with only a short line. So of course we decided to stop. There couldn’t have been more than three families in front of us!:thumbsup2 After the short stop with Jasmine and Aladdin we continued on our way to Pirates of the Caribbean. We were disappointed when we got there and the cast members out front told us the ride was down for the night. :(

So we headed on to check out the line for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. The ride had a less than 10-minute wait; it actually ended up being almost walk-on. :thumbsup2 We left Christopher at the entrance with my mom and Jennifer stayed with their youngest (18 months). When we got to the top the boys were too frightened to get on. :( They have two older boys ages that are the same ages as our girls (7 and 5). They tend to be chicken hearts and just couldn’t do it. I am sure they will be thrill seekers before they know it! So they walked across the train and waited at the exit for us. James rode with Ashley and I rode with Haley. It was a lot of fun! This was Haley’s first big roller coaster. She really liked this one! I was happy. :) We headed down the ramp to those waiting and decided it was about time to head out. We made our way out of the park and to the buses. I couldn’t believe I had forgotten about the MVMCP merchandise. :( Oh, well there is always ebay right. :rotfl:

We got back to our room a little after midnight and headed straight to bed. The plan for tomorrow was to sleep in before heading to Animal Kingdom!:goodvibes

[ladybugmom]

What beautiful pictures of the girls!! And dinner at CRT looks very nice!! :goodvibes I loved reading all about MVMCP!! Glad you had a great time!

[praisehisname]

You were able to do a lot during the party! And I can't believe how many characters you got to meet; that's awesome! Isn't that parade amazing?!? :love:

Denise

[DisneyMom14]

You guys had some great character pics and interaction!!!! I'm glad y'all had a good time! :)

[happenin2you]

Just wanted to let you know i just booked my dec 10 stay at the wilderness lodge!!!

[creativeamanda]

I saw your girls at the party! I saw them doing the hula hoops across the street!

[raider97]

What beautiful pictures of the girls!! And dinner at CRT looks very nice!! :goodvibes I loved reading all about MVMCP!! Glad you had a great time!

Thanks! We really had a great time at the party. I'm glad we decided to go! And CRT proved to be a wonderful pick for our anniversary dinner - very festive.

You were able to do a lot during the party! And I can't believe how many characters you got to meet; that's awesome! Isn't that parade amazing?!? :love:

Denise

Thanks! It didn't seem like we did a lot, but once I started writing it all out I was surprised we did as much as we did, especially with a party of 19 that night. :)

I LOVED the parade!!:love:

You guys had some great character pics and interaction!!!! I'm glad y'all had a good time! :)

We really did! We didn't get to the Character Connection in Epcot. I really liked your pictures from there! Maybe next time. :)

Just wanted to let you know i just booked my dec 10 stay at the wilderness lodge!!!

WooHoo!! I hope you are planning to start a pre-trip report. I can't wait to hear all about it. :santa:

I saw your girls at the party! I saw them doing the hula hoops across the street!

Yea!! I wasn't sure if you would have seen us since I knew you hit the 1st parade and we hit the 2nd. Cool that you saw us! The kids loved the party - what a wonderful atmosphere! I'll have to pop in on your pre-trip report!

[raider97]

A side note: I'm not sure if I mentioned it yet, but on Thursday night on our trip my kidneys were really bothering me. I tried to drink a lot of water over the next few days, but the pain continued to get worse. It really hurt a lot to walk, but I determined not to miss out on this trip that I had planned for so long!

Stephanie

[raider97]

Day 3 - Part 1 - December 19th, 2009

Well, the plan was to sleep in this morning… and we really did! We didn’t roll out of bed until after 11 a.m. By the time we showered at the hit the buses we didn’t arrive at Animal Kingdom until 1 p.m. and we hadn’t eaten yet!
We stopped out front for some photo pass pictures. I wish they would have turned out better, but my children are all squinters when the light is too bright so they aren’t as good as they could have been.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0725.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0728.jpg


I was getting texts left and right by this point. Both our friends and family had made it to the parks much earlier than we had. My aunt and her family headed to NASA today. Derrick and his family had been up and to the parks pretty early today and my cousin’s family had made it there before lunch. I texted both of them and told them we were going to grab lunch and I would text them when we were done.


We headed to Flame Tree BBQ….yummmmm! My mom and I both got the chicken platter that came with baked beans and cole slaw with chocolate cake for dessert. The kids all got the chicken drumstick platter with grapes and a cookie. James got the sliced turkey breast sandwich that came with cole slaw and I picked up a key lime pie for him for dessert. I sat them all down and got them started and then ran to get fast passes for Safari. Unfortunately, I walked quickly all the way there to find out….


All the fast passes were gone and my friends and family had already texted me that all the fast passes for Everest were gone too. :sad2: It looked like it would be a challenging day and the park seemed really crowded especially for a TGM green day. :scared1:Oh well, I headed back to our table and quickly finished up my lunch. It was good and I was starving!:)


We decided we would try and make it to the next showing of the Nemo. We have never seen this show and really wanted to this trip. We texted our family and friends to let them know our plans. Desi, my cousin’s wife, decided since they were on the other side of the park already that they would use their Safari fast passes. Derrick and his family said they would meet us there. We arrived at the Nemo stadium to find them already seating people. We ended up in the middle section against the wall. The seats worked out well and we really loved the show. It is really cute! Derrick and his family had made it into the show, but weren’t able to sit with us so we made plans to meet up with them after the show.


We headed out the back door and they showed up quickly. They had extra fast passes for Everest and wanted to know if we wanted to use them.:thumbsup2 Remember Derrick’s boys do not like thrill rides and neither does his wife, Jennifer. So he had picked up four fast passes, but only needed one to ride. :hug: So we headed towards Everest when we got there we were about to get in line when Ashley decides she needs a potty break so we head off to find bathrooms. Meanwhile, James and Derrick jump in line and my mom stays with Chris and Haley and Jennifer stays with her boys. When we got back from the bathrooms, we checked in to make sure everyone was doing alright and then jumped in line. None of us riding, but Derrick had ridden Everest before… and we loved it. Derrick informed me my husband screamed like a little girl when it started going backwards. :rotfl:Too funny! And it was a huge hit with Ashley and myself. She asked if we could go again as soon as we got off. :yay:


When Ashley and myself got off, we found all of them snacking on ice cream. We sat and enjoyed the treats before deciding our next step. Jennifer and Derrick decided they needed to get the boys back for naps so they decided to head out. I wanted to let the kids get their faces painted so we headed from Everest towards Safari. We stopped for a few photo pass pictures on the way. I wish we had gotten a whole group shot here too. I'm not sure why we didn't. :confused: I think my group was in an anti-picture mood today.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0764.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0770.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0776.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0749.jpg


When we finally got to the face painting stand I was bummed to hear that we were too late for face painting. :( They had time for only one more person and since we had three we weren’t able to get in. :sad2: I had planned to find another location to get their faces painted during the week, but unfortunately it never happened. :rolleyes: A must-do on our next trip. We got a text from my cousin’s family that they were off the Safari and were wondering what our plans were. We mentioned we were headed towards the last Lion King Show and they said they would meet us there. While we were waiting for the theatre to open we decided to see Santa Goofy! :santa: All the other lines were really long, and the theatre was opening up so we skipped the rest. I wish we would have taken the time to see Minnie all dressed up for Christmas. She looked adorable!


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0793.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0798.jpg


We entered the theatre and headed towards some seats that ended up being the Lion Section. We had really good seats about 4 rows up. The show started out really cute, all the kids were enthralled and then I got the dreaded “Mommy, I need to use the bathroom”. :scared: The main floats with the animals had just come out so I asked if he could wait and he said “No” so we headed towards the Cast Member for our section. She directed us across our section to another Cast Member that directed us out. We headed to the bathrooms and then sat outside to wait for the show to end. While we were sitting there, I noticed my kidney pain was getting much worse. It was really starting to hurt when I walked. :sick:


But being the stubborn Disney person I am I refused to give in to the pain.:sad2: When the show let out we joined the rest of our group. My cousin’s family was headed back to our resort with us so we could take the boat downtown for dinner and shopping. It was right around 6 p.m. when we headed out. We managed to get on the first bus and got off at the South Depot. I left my family here and headed to the room to pick up jackets, our stroller, and to look for some pain medicine.


And then I got lost….

[exwdwcm]

What great photos! we did the cool dude for our son and he was the same way- sort of tired and not smiling, i think it was overwhelming- but he enjoyed it. over a month later, and we can still see the red spots from the hidden mickey on the back of his head, it won't come out! :rotfl: your girls were simply beautiful!

[ladybugmom]

Sounds like an exciting day!! I just LOVE both the Nemo and FOTLK shows!! :lovestruc So sorry to hear about your kidney pain. I hope it gets better for you!! :goodvibes My favorite picture is the one of Goofy all dressed in his Christmas outift and the kiddos!! Sooo cute!!

[happenin2you]

I just got all caught up! It looks you you've had an awesome time so far. The pictures are all so cute! You can really see their little personalities through their pictures, I love it. :wizard: I;m so sad you missed out on the Lion King show, it's one of my favorites. We were in the giraffe section. But the Nemo show is so awesome it makes up for it.

As for my own trip, we booked the Wilderness Lodge woods view, we're going to request the north side of the building which I hear sometimes has a partial Magic Kingdom view, for Dec 9 through the 16 and we're going to rent a car and spend two days at Universal studios to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'd love to do a trip report, and possibly a pre-trip report, but as you may have noticed, my current trip report is kind of at a stand still, and with school being so hectic and work, who knows if or when i'll have time to finish it. Here's hoping =)

I need to get back to my homework and head to bed, I have to work tomorrow. I'm continuing my French and Spanish classes, retaking an early American English literature class for a better grade to raise my GPA, and and education course in which I have to start making observations soon. I may have to scale back my work in order to be successful this semester... I hope I can make it through without cutting my work schedule so I can have plenty of spending money at Disney :rotfl:

[raider97]

What great photos! we did the cool dude for our son and he was the same way- sort of tired and not smiling, i think it was overwhelming- but he enjoyed it. over a month later, and we can still see the red spots from the hidden mickey on the back of his head, it won't come out! :rotfl: your girls were simply beautiful!

Thanks! They look so adorable with the Cool Dude hair. I just loved it! And I know what you mean... Chris had a slight hidden mickey in his hair for days! It just wouldn't seem to wash completely out!

[raider97]

Sounds like an exciting day!! I just LOVE both the Nemo and FOTLK shows!! :lovestruc So sorry to hear about your kidney pain. I hope it gets better for you!! :goodvibes My favorite picture is the one of Goofy all dressed in his Christmas outift and the kiddos!! Sooo cute!!

It was a fun day! Not quite how I had planned, but I was really good about not stressing out about it. We really liked the Nemo show and the rest of the family adored the FOTLK one too! Hopefully, Christopher and me will get to see the whole show next time. I LOVED Goofy dressed as Santa! I think he is my favorite holiday character!

I just got all caught up! It looks you you've had an awesome time so far. The pictures are all so cute! You can really see their little personalities through their pictures, I love it. :wizard: I;m so sad you missed out on the Lion King show, it's one of my favorites. We were in the giraffe section. But the Nemo show is so awesome it makes up for it.

As for my own trip, we booked the Wilderness Lodge woods view, we're going to request the north side of the building which I hear sometimes has a partial Magic Kingdom view, for Dec 9 through the 16 and we're going to rent a car and spend two days at Universal studios to see the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I'd love to do a trip report, and possibly a pre-trip report, but as you may have noticed, my current trip report is kind of at a stand still, and with school being so hectic and work, who knows if or when i'll have time to finish it. Here's hoping =)

I need to get back to my homework and head to bed, I have to work tomorrow. I'm continuing my French and Spanish classes, retaking an early American English literature class for a better grade to raise my GPA, and and education course in which I have to start making observations soon. I may have to scale back my work in order to be successful this semester... I hope I can make it through without cutting my work schedule so I can have plenty of spending money at Disney :rotfl:

Thanks! We did have a great trip! I really need to get going on this trip report! Life just seemd to keep getting in the way. :) I really liked Nemo! I hope that I can get to see all of FOTLK next time!

The Wilderness Lodge at Christmas how beautiful!! And romantic! Did you convince your friends to come with you? That time period should be great weather and crowd-wise! I can't wait to hear all your plans! And to hear all about the Harry Potter World! That park looks like it is going to be amazing! I noticed they moved your trip report to the finished sections. :( It wouldn't let me post on it since it was closed so I am glad you checked in here! :)

I hope school is going well! lol on the not cutting your work schedule so it won't cut into your Disney money! I completely understand!!

[DisneyMom14]

Kidney pain :scared1: Hope everything turned out all right.

[exwdwcm]

Thanks! They look so adorable with the Cool Dude hair. I just loved it! And I know what you mean... Chris had a slight hidden mickey in his hair for days! It just wouldn't seem to wash completely out!i swear i still see a faded red spot and it is two months later!

can't wait to read more!

[happenin2you]

The Wilderness Lodge at Christmas how beautiful!! And romantic! Did you convince your friends to come with you? That time period should be great weather and crowd-wise! I can't wait to hear all your plans! And to hear all about the Harry Potter World! That park looks like it is going to be amazing! I noticed they moved your trip report to the finished sections. :( It wouldn't let me post on it since it was closed so I am glad you checked in here! :)

I hope school is going well! lol on the not cutting your work schedule so it won't cut into your Disney money! I completely understand!!

Apparently I'm no so great at keeping up with the whole trip report thing..:confused3. Oh well.... Maybe next time. In the meantime, though, I am anxiously awaiting your next installment. :banana:

[praisehisname]

I'm glad you were able to score a ride on Everest after all! :thumbsup2 Hope the kidney pain got better. I've had kidney infections and stones, so I know the pain can be bad!

[raider97]

So sorry this update has taken me soooo long! We have been pretty busy. Both of the girls are in Girl Scouts this year (two different troops). Ashley is in brownies and Haley is a daisy scout. Well, we have spent the last few weeks selling and delivering Girl Scout cookies. Add to that we have all been sick and the last few weeks have flown by. Ashley is now completely over double ear infections, Haley is the in middle of pink eye medicine (yuck!!) and Christopher is coming off a lower bronchial infection. Not a fun month or so around here!

I'm working on an update right now! :)

Stephanie

[raider97]

So when I left off we had just arrived at Port Orleans and we were headed towards Downtown Disney... James was trying to convince me that we should take the evening off, but I was determined to make it to our dinner reservations.

So off I went in the dark to our room. I should have taken a map, but I was in a hurry. Let me step back a moment and tell you all that I had never been from our lobby to our room during the daytime, in fact I had never walked from the lobby to our room at all. The first night we had been taken to our room by bell services in a golf cart so even though I thought I knew where I was going I didn't. Port Orleans is pretty dark at night and even during the day the winding paths can get you lost if you aren't paying attention. Well, I got lost, turned around, add to that I wasn't feeling well and I was a mess! I ended up finding our building, but somehow I ended up on the back of it and where our room should have been it wasn't. I walked and walked and walked. I started second guessing our room number and finally stopped to call DH on my cell phone, crying none the less, about how I couldn't find the room and I wasn't sure about the number. He calmed me down and told me the same number I had been looking for, while I was on the phone with him I turned another corner, and there was our room! Thank goodness! I was spent!

I grabbed the jackets, stroller, and took one of the antibiotics I had thrown in on a whim at home. I had come down with a sinus infections back in October and then two days later the flu so they had me stop the antibiotics and start tamiflu so I had almost a whole precription of amoxcillian left. Thank goodness I had the foresight to throw the bottle in when I was packing.

I headed back towards the lobby and thankfully I didn't get lost on the way back. I grabbed the rest of our party and we walked down to the water taxi ramp. Having a stroke of good luck a boat was just pulling up as we were walking down. We really enjoyed the boat ride to Downtown Disney. It is such a relaxing ride.

When we got to Downtown Disney we quickly made our way to T-Rex for our 8 p.m. reservation. There was some confuion about our reservations, but they were quickly worked out and we were seated at one reall long table. It ended up being my family and my mom and Desi's family. Derrick and his family had gotten to T-Rex early and were already seated and eating. They finished up and went shopping. We had a nie dinner here, my mom had a hamburger, James had the chicken fried steak, and I had the fried shrimp. All the kids had cheese pizzas. We thought everything was good, not great, but I think you go here for the atmosphere most anyways. We were seated outside the ice room right near the t-rex. Christopher really loved dinosaurs and I had booked this reservation because I thought he would love it. I wasn't wrong he did love it!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07103_edit.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07104_edited.jpg

After dinner, Desi and her family decided to go shopping. I was feeling pretty miserable, in fact I had decided if I wasn't feeling much better soon I would be headed to an emergency clinic, but I toughed it out for a bit longer. My mom took the kids and let them Build a Dinosaur. Ashley picked out a Parasaurolophus. Haley picked out Apatosaurus Pink. And Christopher picked out a T-Rex. The kids loved picking out their dinosaurs!! While they were doing that I picked up a t-shirt from the gift shop that has all the dinosaur skeletons on it for Christopher's birthday.

After we finished up in T-Rex, James asked me what our plan was. I said we should go shopping, but James convinced me that since I wasn't feeling well, we should just go back to the room. I agreed with him and we headed to the bus stop. We took the bus back to Port Orleans and it was almost midnight before we fell into bed.

[harleyquinn]

Loving your report!! Keep it coming!!

I hope the antibiodic takes care of your pain!! What luck you had it!

[heaven2dc]

I felt so bad for you - for not feeling well plus getting lost! On my trip in Jan 2008 I started feeling sick (actually before I left) and I used a old home remedy to help ward off the sore throat by putting 3-4 drops of peroxide in my ears 3x's a day. It helped before I got there but the next morning I started feeling sick & had a horrible sore throat. BWV Mercantile didn't have any peroxide so I got lots of oj and cold meds and toughed it out for the rest of the trip. I actually felt better by the third day. I hope the antibiotics helped - that was super smart of you to go ahead and pack them, just in case.

[DisneyMom14]

AWWWW! I'm sad that you were sick on the trip. It's hard to be sick when you're the mom and trying to get everyone where they need to go, etc. The Trex restaurant looks AWESOME! I want to go there on one of our future trips. :-)

[praisehisname]

I'm sorry you were feeling so rotten! I hope you were feeling better soon!

[raider97]

Kidney pain :scared1: Hope everything turned out all right.

Thanks! I was feeling really bad. I was sure I was headed to the emergency clinic the next day!

i swear i still see a faded red spot and it is two months later!

can't wait to read more!

LOL! That cool dude hair-do really lasts! I was impressed with the staying power of that hair color!

Apparently I'm no so great at keeping up with the whole trip report thing..:confused3. Oh well.... Maybe next time. In the meantime, though, I am anxiously awaiting your next installment. :banana:

You can tell I'm not terribly great and getting this one finished up either. Working on an update this afternoon!

I'm glad you were able to score a ride on Everest after all! :thumbsup2 Hope the kidney pain got better. I've had kidney infections and stones, so I know the pain can be bad!

The pain was terrible and James couldn't understand why I couldn't rest. I had just put so much time and planning into this trip I didn't want to miss anything. So sorry to hear you have had kidney pain too... I didn't realize how painful it can be!

Loving your report!! Keep it coming!!

I hope the antibiodic takes care of your pain!! What luck you had it!

Thank goodness I threw it in!

I felt so bad for you - for not feeling well plus getting lost! On my trip in Jan 2008 I started feeling sick (actually before I left) and I used a old home remedy to help ward off the sore throat by putting 3-4 drops of peroxide in my ears 3x's a day. It helped before I got there but the next morning I started feeling sick & had a horrible sore throat. BWV Mercantile didn't have any peroxide so I got lots of oj and cold meds and toughed it out for the rest of the trip. I actually felt better by the third day. I hope the antibiotics helped - that was super smart of you to go ahead and pack them, just in case.

It is terrible to be sick on vacation! I'll have to keep your home remedy on file!

AWWWW! I'm sad that you were sick on the trip. It's hard to be sick when you're the mom and trying to get everyone where they need to go, etc. The Trex restaurant looks AWESOME! I want to go there on one of our future trips. :-)

Thanks! It is terrible to be sick on vacation!! T-Rex was awesome. Christopher just LOVED it!

I'm sorry you were feeling so rotten! I hope you were feeling better soon!

Thanks! I am working on an update this afternoon... hope to really get this trip report rolling. :)

Well, we are on Spring Break here... having fun with the kids, but really busy. I hope to get several updates up this week so please check back!!

Stephanie

[raider97]

Day 4 - Part 1 - December 20th, 2009

Well, the plan for today was to hit Epcot at rope drop, but as bad as I was feeling when I went to bed I was having serious doubts. I thought I might have to make a trip to an emergency clinic. But when my alarm went off at the crack of dawn I was feeling a tad better. I decided to take another antibiotic and see how the day went. I know crazy right, but I had been planning this trip since we got back from our last one in 2007 and didn’t want to miss a moment of it.

I quietly got dressed before waking up the rest of the gang. I knocked on my mom’s door to find out that she wasn’t feeling well. It seemed she had caught a stomach bug and was just exhausted from our trip already. She decided to stay in the room and I told her we would check back in on her.

After everyone was ready we headed to the bus stops and within a few short minutes an Epcot bus pulled up so we were off. The only problem was rope drop was at 9:00 a.m. and we were at the gates by 8:15 a.m. Talk about early! I made my way past the long line that was already forming at two of the gates and went searching for a gate with a green light on. Thanks to the disboards I knew that these would open too and I would then be at the front of the line. We ended up in a line behind one other family. Yippee!

At about 8:45 or so, they opened the gates and led us into the courtyard to wait. James had strict instructions to take the kids to Soarin’ and get fast passes. I was headed to rent a locker and dispose of our mountain of jackets. It had warmed up enough that I knew we wouldn’t need the heavy jackets we had brought until later in the day. Luckily, I was the first one at the locker counter and was in and out of there fast enough to catch up with the group at the rope drop area. I couldn’t get to my family, but I could see them from the back of the group. Once the rope drop I was able to catch up with my family just as they were entering the pavilion. We quickly headed downstairs with everyone else!

Here is a picture on the bus to Epcot that morning…
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07108.jpg

I told you we had our heavy jackets on. :rotfl: Can you tell we are from South Texas?

I had read that you wanted to get your fast pass and then get in the standby line, but the line to get fast passes was so long and moving so slowly we decided to jump in the standby line and get fast passes when we got off. I was worried since Christopher hadn’t made the cut when we were here on Thursday, but we headed to the front and the cast member working the measuring stick pulled Chris over and measured him and….. you won’t believe it but he passed! I was thrilled. We headed down to the loading areas without any wait. We ended up in the front row. When we got off Chris was so excited – a new Soarin’ fan was born – he just loved it!! :cloud9:

When we got off I went and got fast passes for all of us for later. The lines had cleared out a bit and I was able to quickly get them. But I was happy we did the opposite of what I had planned because when I checked out the standby time it was already up to 30 minutes! We decided to stop by Sunshine Seasons for some breakfast. We ended up using some snack credits for a couple of cinnamon rolls and drinks. While we were waiting my cousin’s wife, Desi came walking by. They were there early!! She called Jason and he brought the rest of the family down while she went to get fast passes and then we all rode Living with the Land walk-on.

When we got off the ride, it was time to head over Norway for our breakfast reservations. Desi and her family had a 10:30 a.m. reservation and we had an 10:40 a.m. one. They were called in to be seated almost as soon as they checked in. But we had our first long wait of our trip! We had an ADR for 11:00 a.m., but we weren’t called to be seated until 11:30 a.m. Almost an hour after our ADR time. :sad2:I hated it! It drives me nuts waiting when I can be doing other things. And I was sure as soon as I bolted to get fast passes for Test Track our name would be called so we just waited.

We were finally called for our seating and got in line for our pictures with Belle. :banana:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0811.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0816.jpg

After we were seated I headed to the buffet line to get some items for me and the kids. I loaded up a plate full of cheese, salami, and fresh fruit. I avoided the baked goods, since I knew that the last time we were there the chef had said to avoid them with a peanut allergy.

I headed back to the table just as Cinderella was leaving. Quickly after Cinderella we also saw Snow White and Aurora. We settled down to eat some breakfast for a while. Everything was good… we had eggs, bacon, sausage on the breakfast platter. And of course some of that wonderful, heavenly, potato casserole! I know my kids love princesses, but I’m pretty sure another reason I booked Akerhouse was because of their potato casserole. I love it! :lovestruc As we finished up, we were surprised to see Ariel. The kids were thrilled. The last time we came she wasn’t at Norway’s breakfast seating, so it was a surprise to see her. Christopher loves Ariel. Ariel and Mary Poppins are his absolute favorite Disney characters. He got his second kiss of this trip – a lovely kiss on the cheek from Ariel!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07109.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07110.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07111.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07112.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07113.jpg

After seeing Ariel, we headed out. I texted Desi to find out where they were and they were riding Soarin’ with my aunt. I also texted Derrick to find out if they had arrived at the park yet. They had! And they had already picked up Soarin’ fast passes and were riding the boat ride in the Mexico pavilion. We told them we would head that way and only had to wait a few minutes before they came out. Both of our times were up to get new fast passes so we decided to head towards Test Track to get fast passes.

When we arrived I was amazed to find the line to get fast passes was really long. :scared1: I jumped in line with all our tickets and spent the entire 15 minutes it took me to get fast passes talking to some boys all about touring strategies. They were there with their families and had no plan. :scared1:They had just gotten in the Test Track line because it looked line. I explained they needed to get a Soarin’ fast pass as soon as possible and then we discussed the must-fast pass rides in the other parks. It always makes me feel good when I can help those non-planners out. :woohoo: Their father even came over to thank me for all the information I had pumped into them. :hug: I headed back over to our group to see what the plan was.

Derrick and his family wanted to ride Spaceship Earth and I was game. I was looking forward to seeing how I liked the changes to the ride. It was nice. I think I could take or leave the changes. They didn’t seem to affect me much. When we got off I called my mom to check in with her. She said she was still feeling under the weather and wasn’t feeling up to the parks. :sick: So we agreed that we would stay and she would rest.

Derrick and his family headed off to Le Cellier. :thumbsup2 When we had booked our ADR’s they hadn’t been able to get Le Cellier for dinner so they had picked up a late lunch reservation. We decided to check out the Visa Character Spot. On our way, we ran into Desi and her family. They wanted to know where we were going so I explained to them. The problem was they don’t have a Disney Visa and I knew I wouldn’t be able to get everyone in with me. So I helped Desi locate Jasmine. Her oldest daughter’s favorite character is Jasmine and they had missed her when we saw her at Magic Kingdom at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. We found out where she was and I sent them on their way and we headed over to Innoventions….

And you will have to wait until my next update to see who we met since I have a pile of laundry calling my name. Hope everyone has a great day! :)

Stephanie

[happenin2you]

sounds like you were having a good time, even though you weren't feeling well. how has your spring break been?

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Hey...sorry I've been MIA...we got really busy and I had no time to Dis!!!

I'm back now and all caught up!

Everything looks great!

Now...off to try to revive my TR!!

[creativeamanda]

Okay, I've been away from over here, but I'm caught up. How cute that your ds got a kiss--Akershus is a great character meal!

[DisneyMom14]

Glad you guys enjoyed Akershus. I think it's so cute when the princesses pay attention to the little guys!

[raider97]

sounds like you were having a good time, even though you weren't feeling well. how has your spring break been?

I kept trying the put it out of my head. The antibiotics were starting to help a bit, and I was very determined to make the best of it. I didn't know when we were going to be back and was trying to enjoy every moment.

Spring Break was great! I love spending time with all three of the kids. They seem to be growing up so quickly! I am trying to take the time to enjoy every moment!

How is your trip planning coming?

Hey...sorry I've been MIA...we got really busy and I had no time to Dis!!!

I'm back now and all caught up!

Everything looks great!

Now...off to try to revive my TR!!

I have been the same way. The girls are playing kickball and Chris is in his first season of t-ball so we are at games 4 days a week. Makes it hard to get much else done! I'll be to check in soon, Erin!

Okay, I've been away from over here, but I'm caught up. How cute that your ds got a kiss--Akershus is a great character meal!

I've been in an out too... was just over on your trip report! Seems like those trips were just yesterday. I think I am going to start a shutterfly book. I need something I can flip through for a quick disney fix!

I love Akerhouse too! And we were happy to be surprised by Ariel!

Glad you guys enjoyed Akershus. I think it's so cute when the princesses pay attention to the little guys!

We really enjoyed it! He LOVES Ariel!:love: She did tell him she was sorry she couldn't marry him though since she is already married to Prince Eric so I guess he will have to settle for Mary Poppins. :)

[raider97]

Day 4 - Part 2 - December 20th, 2009

Well, when I left off we were in line at the Visa character connection spot. With just a few families in front of us, the line moved very quickly. Before we knew it we were at the front of the line. The cast member let us in to find………

Mickey and Pluto! I was thrilled. I was happy that we would be able to knock Mickey off our list since he was a must-do for us. I had heard about how good the character interaction here is and that is so true. The characters took a lot of time to interact with all of us, sign autographs, and take pictures.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0823.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0832.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0837.jpg


After we left there we headed out to do a little bit of shopping. I headed straight for Mouse Gears with everyone in town. The kids had received several gift cards for their Christmas gifts and were anxious to spend them and I needed to pick up a few things for Christopher’s birthday which was the following day. After browsing the store the kids settled on a few items. Haley picked out a Disney charm bracelet and a Marie stuffed animal. Ashley picked out a Princess Tiana pin and a Wizards of Waverly Place pin. She also got a Marie stuffed animal along with a cute shirt for her. Christopher picked out a Toy Story soccer ball and a Toy Story dart gun. We also picked up a little Minnie for one of the girls friends back home and some cute Minnie pens for their teachers. As for me, you will have to wait until my post about Christopher’s birthday to see what else I picked up for him. ;) I decided to have the bag sent to package pickup at the front of the park. I knew I could have it sent back to the room, but I wasn’t sure when it would arrive and I needed to have it so I could have Christopher’s presents ready in the morning.

After shopping we decided to make some use of those snack credits! We checked out the map to find the nearest ice cream shop. Low and behold, even on this chilly December day, there was a line out the door! We waited patiently and finally got to the front to order. James, myself, and the girls all ended up with the double scoops of ice cream in cups. Christopher opted for the smoothie, which of course they all then fought over. :lmao: It made for a nice break!

As we were eating we got a call from Derrick that they were finishing up lunch. We agreed to meet them in front of the ice cream shop. When they finally got there we decided to head over to The Land Pavilion to use the fast passes we all had from this morning. We had to break into two groups since their little one is not big enough for Soarin’. James, Derrick, myself, our three little ones, and their two boys headed towards the fast pass line. I was worried Christopher wouldn’t be allowed to ride, but after measuring him they waved him on through. :thumbsup2 There was little to no wait and we all truly enjoyed the ride. Afterwards, we all stayed with Derrick and their little one while Jennifer took her boys back on with a child swap pass. Once they were off, we headed back upstairs. A quick look at the clock told us that we needed to be on our way. We had dinner reservations at Le Cellier for 6:35 p.m. Yummmm!

We told Derrick and his family that we would call them when we were finished and then we headed back towards Canada. We arrived a few minutes early to find they were running behind. The cast members were great about trying to entertain the kids while we waited. The played several rounds of Disney trivia with the girls. Meanwhile, Christopher had curled up on my lap and had fallen asleep. When we were finally called, about twenty minutes past our ADR time, we tried to wake him. We didn’t get very far… he was out. James carried him to the dining room and we layed him down on his chair still sleeping.

To say I had been looking forward to this meal was an understatement… I love Le Cellier. :love: We have eaten here on both our prior trips and I was so happy that I was able to secure an ADR this time as well. Our waiter came out and told us about how the dining plan worked at Le Cellier and what our options were. We all quickly ordered speciality drinks! Ashley and Haley picked out chocolate milkshakes. James ordered a mango smoothie and I ordered the Chocolate Raspberry shake I had been dreaming about since we ate her two years ago! Our drink orders quickly came out and they were as yummy as I had remembered.:cloud9: I ordered a ceasar salad out of pocket. Our waiter then took our dinner orders. Ashley ordered the soup along with the children’s steak and french fries. Haley ordered the cheese soup along with the grilled chicken and french fries. Neither of the girls would touch their soup, so James ended up with two bowls of their yummy cheese soup. James ordered the New York strip steak as is and I of course ordered the New York strip steak and subbed out for the cream cheese mashed potatoes. Everything was wonderful! We had a great meal! Our waiter asked about desserts, but the girls were stuffed as were we. The girls passed on dessert, I took a chocolate mousse to go, and James got a refill of his smoothie as his dessert. I couldn’t believe Christopher slept through the whole thing… not even a murmur – he was out! Our waiter felt bad that Christopher had slept through dinner especially since I had noted his birthday on our ADR. So he comped my salad and then packed up a big bag of pretzel breadsticks for us to take with us for Christopher. He was truly a spectacular waiter and I made sure to add the cost of my salad on to his tip!

When we walked out it was pretty chilly which quickly woke all of us including my little guy. James called Derrick to tell him we were out, but we were headed to the locker to pick up our jackets. We swapped the take out containers, minus the breadsticks that Chris munched on while we were headed there, for our jackets and then headed towards Test Track to meet up with Derrick and his family. We had our fast passes from earlier and were excited to use them. Jennifer doesn’t ride fast rides so sat this one out with the baby while the rest of us jumped in line. The fast pass line moved quickly and again Christopher was measured and let on the ride. We were split up into two cars. James rode with Christopher and Ashley. Behind him was Derrick with his two boys. And the front of the next car I was with Haley. What fun! All of my three loved it! Joey, Derrick’s oldest, was pretty shaken up by it. :eek: Hopefully, the next time they go he will be past some of his ride fears, poor guy!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0852.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0855.jpg

We headed back to meet up with Jennifer and Jacob and then they decided they were going to head out for the night. The had two Mission Space fast passes and wanted to know if we wanted them. We went ahead and took them and headed over to Mission Space after saying our goodbyes. The last time we were here, James had ridden Mission Space with his mom. So this time I decided to take Ashley. We picked the green side and headed in. We didn’t really need to fast passes since they was no line. We were the last ones they let on and we just walked on to the ride. In fact, during our entire time on/in Mission Space we never saw anyone other than cast members. We enjoyed it! We exited and went to meet up with James and my other two little ones. We could hear Illuminations starting and we decided to call it a night and try to beat the crowds out.

We headed back to the locker to pick up our stuff, and then I headed in to turn in our locker key and get our free Visa picture. Once we were done, we headed to the front to pick up our packages… this is where the Illuminations crowd caught up to us. :scared1:

Oh well, we had a wonderful day and were happy to be there. The line for Port Orleans moved pretty quickly and before we knew it we were home.

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Great update!! Le Cellier was sooooo good!!! I loved it!!! Our waitress gave us some take-out pretzel bread also!!!

[happenin2you]

Le Cellier sounds so good! I'm hoping to get adr's there when i go in december. It was booked solid when I went on my honeymoon :sad1: I haven't done any planning except for booking the trip itself :scared1: I have us booked December 9 through the 16 at the Wilderness Lodge Resort in a woods view room (hoping for a "magic kingdom" view so I can see the fireworks ;) ) with the deluxe dining plan. We are planning to rent a car for one or two days so that we can visit the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal.:wizard: I have no plans for my days yet of any idea of what restaurants to pick. I know I'm going to have a ton of dining credits with the deluxe plan and spending two whole days off property, but we really treasure eating at nice sit-down restaurants together, so we will probably do mostly signature restaurants for lunches and dinners to use up all the credits. We are also thinking about going to Victoria and Alberts for one night. Might as well do it all and do it right before we have kids and can't afford to or don't have the extra time. I have been looking at tickets and was sold on the idea of going cheap on Southwest, but I have found some deals on Delta for $99 each way and that will work out cheaper most likely even with the cost of baggage. We only need to take one suitcase and one carry-on each. Southwest's schedule isn't up that far in advance, but i've been looking at similar times of the week in the months that are available and it's more expensive to fly with them for us. Which is nice since I LOVE Delta! :lovestruc I'll let you know when I finally do make some decisions :rotfl: Probably after school is out in a few more weeks. Until then, I am living vicariously through your awesome trip report, so keep it coming!

[praisehisname]

Great updates! I'm looking forward to trying LeCellier some day!

[raider97]

Great update!! Le Cellier was sooooo good!!! I loved it!!! Our waitress gave us some take-out pretzel bread also!!!

Thanks! I have got to get the ball rolling on this trip report!! We had great food and service at Le Cellier! I thought it was so nice to send some of that yummy pretzel bread with us for Chris!

Great updates! I'm looking forward to trying LeCellier some day!

Thanks! Le Cellier is great. Hard to get into, but one of our favorites! :lovestruc

[raider97]

Le Cellier sounds so good! I'm hoping to get adr's there when i go in december. It was booked solid when I went on my honeymoon :sad1: It is great! Very hard to get into, but totally worth it. Your ADR window will be here before you know it!


I haven't done any planning except for booking the trip itself :scared1: I have us booked December 9 through the 16 at the Wilderness Lodge Resort in a woods view room (hoping for a "magic kingdom" view so I can see the fireworks ;) ) with the deluxe dining plan.I love the Wilderness Lodge! So pretty! And at Christmas I bet it is gorgeous! We didn't make it there this year to see all the decorations. Guess we will just have to make another Christmas trip! :rotfl:


We are planning to rent a car for one or two days so that we can visit the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal.:wizard: It looks really neat! I can't wait to hear what you think of it!

I have no plans for my days yet of any idea of what restaurants to pick. I know I'm going to have a ton of dining credits with the deluxe plan and spending two whole days off property, but we really treasure eating at nice sit-down restaurants together, so we will probably do mostly signature restaurants for lunches and dinners to use up all the credits. We are also thinking about going to Victoria and Alberts for one night. Might as well do it all and do it right before we have kids and can't afford to or don't have the extra time. Sounds like a great plan! Yep, dinner before kids were much more relaxing that those post-kids. :rotfl2: But mine was finally getting to the ages where they can sit though dinner without getting into too much trouble. I can't wait to hear what you decide on!


I have been looking at tickets and was sold on the idea of going cheap on Southwest, but I have found some deals on Delta for $99 each way and that will work out cheaper most likely even with the cost of baggage. We only need to take one suitcase and one carry-on each. Southwest's schedule isn't up that far in advance, but i've been looking at similar times of the week in the months that are available and it's more expensive to fly with them for us. Which is nice since I LOVE Delta! :lovestruc That sounds like a great deal! We weren't nearly as lucky so close to Christmas. I think ours ended up being just under $300 each roundtrip.

I'll let you know when I finally do make some decisions :rotfl: Probably after school is out in a few more weeks. Can't wait to hear all about them!

Until then, I am living vicariously through your awesome trip report, so keep it coming!I have an update all typed up, just have to get my pictures loaded. But I probably should feed Chris lunch so it might have to wait until tomorrow. ;)

How is school going? How is your DH? Sister-in-law?

[raider97]

Day 5 - Part 1 - December 21th, 2009

I woke this morning wide awake when the wake-up call went off. Today was the day! It was Christopher’s 4th birthday!! So exciting. I woke up the troops and we got Christopher out his presents. He opened them all very quickly – flew through them in fact. :) His favorite present was the new t-shirt from T-Rex with all the dinosaurs on it. He is currently in a dinosaur phase.

We quickly got up and got dressed since we had before park opening breakfast reservations at Crystal Palace at 8:25 a.m. We were at the bus stop and at Magic Kingdom before 8:00 a.m. We slowly walked down to Crystal Palace enjoying Magic Kingdom for the first time without any crowds. We stopped to take a few pictures, and I quickly rented a stroller. We had forgotten ours today and I thought we might need one. I caught up with my family at the end of Main Street and we quickly had a few photopass pictures taken before we headed to check in for our reservation. Here are some of our pictures from that morning.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07115.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07118_edit.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07119_edit.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0866.jpg
I wish I wasn't squinting so badly in these!!

We headed over to Crystal Palace to find that Derrick and his family, and Desi and her family were already seated and eating. We weren’t called until about 10 minutes or so past our reservation. We were seated at a nice large round table near the buffet. The food here was great! Our service here was terrible! :confused:But we the kids got great character interaction here; I think the shirts I had made to wear here really helped. I don’t know how many of you read my pre-trip report where I posted pictures of the t-shirts I had made, but for this breakfast I had made Haley an I Love Piglet shirt, Ashley had an I Love Eeyore shirt, and Christopher had a shirt with Tigger on it. Eeyore and Piglet loved the girls shirts. Each got huge hugs and they both pointed out the girls shirts. I was thrilled!! We got to see everyone, but Tigger twice while we were there.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07129.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07130.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07131.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07132.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07133.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07134.jpg
I was so disappointed in this picture. It is a great picture, but Chris had a grape in his mouth. Oh well, next time I guess!

Our server forgot about us quickly after we arrived. It took forever to flag him down for our bills and then he had charged my mom’s tip to our room, she didn’t have her room key linked with a credit card since she had been paying cash for all her tips, and then informed me of what he had done. I was not happy. I don’t mind paying her tip at all, but to charge it to my room without asking and then to inform me really irked me. I told him that she had been paying for all her tips with cash and that he really shouldn’t have done that without asking. He told me he could have it taken off, but it had taken so long to get his attention and the bills and I was irritated enough that I said to just leave it. We signed our slips and headed out to the park. It was almost 10 a.m. and it was crowded already. Yikes! TGM had listed this park as a yellow for this day, but I had decided to go ahead and spend the day here since it was Christopher’s birthday. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a huge mistake.

We called Derrick and he said his family was in Fantasyland. That is where I wanted to head. I called Desi and she said they were in Tomorrowland, but her husband wasn’t up for Fantasyland that morning, so we agreed to meet up later. I sent James, my mom, and the kids to Fantasyland to meet up with Derrick and his family and I headed quickly over to Space Mountain for some fast passes. When I got to Fantasyland everyone was riding the Tea Cups.

After everyone was off, they saw Donald was out and wanted to go meet him, having met him earlier in the week, we opted to move on to something else. I wanted to ride Pooh, but the wait time was 40 minutes by this point and I didn’t have it in me to wait that long for Pooh, overall Fantasyland was packed!! I made an executive decision and we decided to move on to Liberty Square. We called Derrick to tell them where we were headed.

It was magical, right after we passed by Peter Pan and into Liberty Square it was like the crowds magically disappeared. Yippee!! They hadn’t made it here yet. We quickly got in the line for Haunted Mansion which was a walk-on at this point. I was a little nervous as to how the kids would react to the Haunted Mansion since this was our 1st time riding it this trip. But they managed to do great! They all really liked it, especially the hitchhiking ghosts at the end.

Just as we were walking out we got a text from Derrick saying they were waiting outside. Perfect timing! We joined them and decided to head over to Adventureland. We took the cut through and decided to try the Jungle Cruise. Walk-on again! We got a great skipper and the kids really enjoyed this ride. When we got off, we headed towards Pirates of the Caribbean. Another walk-on! I had been really worried when I saw the crowds in Fantasyland, but so far our morning was going really well. We all really enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean. This is one of my favorite rides! I was happy the kids enjoyed it as much as I did. They loved seeing Captain Jack Sparrow! They haven’t seen the movies in their entirety, but they have seen enough of them to recognize him. :cool1:

When we got off we took a quick potty break before heading over to Big Thunder Mountain. Since Derrick’s boys didn’t want to ride, he was going to share his fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with us and then we were going to share our Space Mountain fast passes with him. But this is where we hit the brick wall. Talk about crowds. Man, this area was packed!

Derrick and his family decided they were going to skip BTMRR and head to get some lunch before they headed out for naps. We decided to go ahead and ride BTMRR later and head out for lunch. We had our hearts set on Columbia House, but by the time we got there the line was practically out the door! We decided to leave our stroller there and head out and grab lunch at our resort. Of course, me being a good disboards follower couldn’t leave without securing another fast pass. :thumbsup2

We grabbed fast passes for Peter Pan on the way out. I stopped at the gate to pick up Christopher’s birthday gift card and then we were on our way home.

[DisneyMom14]

Cute pics from breakfast! Sorry the service was not good. I'm glad you guys were able to manuever around the crowds! :thumbsup2

[emum]

What a great trip to WDW so far ! I'm enjoying reading your TR - keep it up !

I too have a "nearly Christmas"-born Christopher - we're spending his birthday this year at Disneyland. His middle name is James, and my eldest daughter is Stephanie - kinda cool :thumbsup2

Look forward to the next instalment.

Cheers,
Sally :)

[LOVEMY3KIDDOS]

Great update!! Christopher's birthday seems like a hit so far!!!!

[praisehisname]

I love the shirts you made for the kids!

[raider97]

Cute pics from breakfast! Sorry the service was not good. I'm glad you guys were able to manuever around the crowds! :thumbsup2

Thanks! I just hate when bad service takes away from a great meal! I was surprised by the crowds this morning!

What a great trip to WDW so far ! I'm enjoying reading your TR - keep it up !

I too have a "nearly Christmas"-born Christopher - we're spending his birthday this year at Disneyland. His middle name is James, and my eldest daughter is Stephanie - kinda cool :thumbsup2

Look forward to the next instalment.

Cheers,
Sally :)

Thanks! Glad you are enjoying reading! I hope to get another installment up today. Just need to get the pictures uploaded.

Love the similiarities! Do you have a pre-trip going? Chris keeps telling me we are going to Disney World for his birthday again this year... I have the feeling he is going to be disappointed. :( But we might be back for his 6th birthday. :)

Great update!! Christopher's birthday seems like a hit so far!!!!

Thanks! It was a great day!

I love the shirts you made for the kids!

Thank you! They were a huge hit. I think they were my favorites!

[raider97]

Day 5 - Part 2 - December 21th, 2009

We were headed back to Port Orleans Riverside for lunch and naps. When our bus reached the resort we got off at the South Depot. We walked into Riverside Mill, not knowing what to expect. It was nice! We hit it at the right time, there were only a handful of other families in the dining area. We all browsed the sections trying to decide what we wanted. We ordered the pizza for the kids to split with two counter service credits. This included two drinks, and two desserts. The kids decided they would go back for ice cream when they were done. I used a snack credit to get a third drink for them. DH and I both ordered the muffaletta sandwich platter. It was good. After finishing up, Ashley and James went back to the bakery for dessert and Haley, Christopher, and myself headed back to the ice cream station. I can’t remember what my mom ordered at lunch today.

After lunch, we headed back to our room, we arrived there about 2:30 p.m. or so. We closed the darkening shade and all settled in for a nap. I set the alarm to go off about 5:00 p.m. We didn’t get up and going again until around 5:30 p.m. or so. By 6:00 p.m. we were headed back to Magic Kingdom. On the way we talked to Derrick, they were headed to their dinner ADR at the Grand Floridian Café so we agreed they would call us when they were done. I checked in with Desi and they were hoping we would meet up with them to ride Space Mountain together. We stopped to take a few photo pass pictures on the way in!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0922.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0928.jpg

When we arrived at the park we headed towards Space Mountain. We had fast passes from this morning. We agreed that me and Ashley and Desi and Grace would ride first. We headed into the fastpass queue and were quickly loaded in. The girls loved it! We headed out to meet up with the others. James decided he would wait and ride Space Mountain with Derrick when they got back from dinner. Desi was going to wait while Jason took Grace back on and we decided to head to dinner.

We went to Columbia Harbor House. We ordered two shrimp platters, and three kids chicken nugget plates. My mom ordered the tuna sandwich. Ashley and Chris shared the shrimp platter, my two shrimp babies! And James had their chicken nugget plates. Haley also had chicken nuggets, with her food allergies we have been advised to not allow her to eat shellfish. All the food was good, and we were again eating at an off time since the place was dead. We may have been the only family in here at this time.

After we finished up we headed towards the Main Street hub to see the fireworks. I wanted to see them from in front of the castle. We ended up near the hub, on one of the side spoke walkways. We had a pretty good view and didn’t have to wait very long until the fireworks started. I love Holiday Wishes! So pretty!

Once the fireworks were over, we headed towards Main Street. I wanted to be close to the beginning of the hub so we could grab some great spots for the Spectro Magic Parade. We got to where I wanted to be and just stood there, the mass crowds exiting the parks was simply amazing! Once the crowds started to thin, we sat down right on the curb! Score, perfect seats for the parade. While we were waiting we took advantage of our time and got a few photo pass pictures taken. Derrick and Jennifer called and said that dinner had run late, and that they had decided to just go ahead and head back to their resort. We told them we would see them in the morning.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0933.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0936.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0942.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0945.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0953.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0958.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07152.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07154.jpg

We took the kids for potty breaks and snacks and just enjoyed our time waiting and people watching. Before we knew it, the announcement came on about the parade beginning and the lights being dimmed. And the Spectro Magic began! This is one of my favorite parades! We all loved it! When it finished up we headed back to our resort to turn in. It had been a long, but fun day and we had plans to be at rope drop at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in the mornin

[GoofTroop]

Just found your trip report and have read it all the way through. I'm enjoying it, and your kids are adorable!

We're planning on Christmas of 2011.....

Elizabeth

[praisehisname]

Sounds like you had a great night!

[happenin2you]

Things are coming right along! I'm anxiously awaiting your next installment, but I know it must be chaotic at your house with the school year coming to a close and the kids having more free time. I hope they did well this year. My classes all ended better than I anticipated, which is good because I put a lot of pressure on myself.


On a brighter note, I made all my reservations for my December trip!!!

Here's my plans:

My plane gets in around 1145am so we will probably just grab lunch at Chick-Fil-A in the airport, because we love it and we don't have it here :rotfl:

12-9
Dinner: Tutto Italia Ristorante - Epcot 6:15 pm

12-10
Breakfast: Kona Café -Disney's Polynesian Resort
8:05 am

Lunch: The Wave- Disney's Contemporary Resort 1:55 pm

Dinner: Narcoossee's -Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa 8:40 pm

12-11
Breakfast: Tusker House Restaurant - Disney's Animal Kingdom 8:50 am

Lunch: Yak & Yeti Restaurant - Disney's Animal Kingdom 3:00 pm

Dinner: California Grill - Disney's Contemporary Resort 9:30 pm (Wishes is at 10pm!)

12-12
Brunch: 50's Prime Time Café -Disney's Hollywood Studios 11:10 am

Late Lunch: Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater - Disney's Hollywood Studios 4:15 pm

Dinner: Kouzzina by Cat Cora - Disney's BoardWalk Resort 9:15 pm

12-13 (all day at universal to see Harry Potter)

Breakfast and Lunch: somewhere in Universal

Dinner: Artist Point -Disney's Wilderness Lodge 9:25 pm

12-14 (Universal again)

Breakfast and Lunch: somewhere in universal

Dinner: Spirit of the Aloha -Disney's Polynesian Resort 8:00 pm

12-15
Breakfast: Olivia's Cafe -Disney's Old Key West Resort 8:00 am

Lunch: Le Cellier Steakhouse - Epcot 11:35 am

Dinner: Biergarten Restaurant - Epcot 5:50 pm

12-16
Breakfast: Whispering Canyon Café - Disney's Wilderness Lodge 7:30 am

Lunch: Rose & Crown Pub

Dinner: Hopefully a counter service or airport food depending on magical ecpress time (our flight leaves at 7:47 pm)

[raider97]

Just found your trip report and have read it all the way through. I'm enjoying it, and your kids are adorable!

We're planning on Christmas of 2011.....

Elizabeth

Welcome! Thanks! I hope to get my next update in very soon! It is crazy right now at our house with the kids home for the summer. All three are in VBS this week and we are going camping in the Texas heat tomorrow! Yikes!! Hopefully, I can get a post up before we head out. I think we are looking at going back in Dec. 2011 too. It will be here before we know it!!

Sounds like you had a great night!

It was a great night!! Chris keeps telling us he is having his birthday this year at WDW too. I keep trying to explain to him that we aren't going to be able to go this year. I'm hoping he isn't going to be too disappointed.

[raider97]

Things are coming right along! I'm anxiously awaiting your next installment, but I know it must be chaotic at your house with the school year coming to a close and the kids having more free time. I hope they did well this year. My classes all ended better than I anticipated, which is good because I put a lot of pressure on myself.


Yep, things are crazy here right now! The kids are in their second full week of summer and Iour schedule is crazy right now! We just got back last week from a quick trip to TN. The kids have VBS this week, the girls have gymnastics and swimming and we are going camping this weekend. I am hoping to get my next installment up very soon!

So glad to hear your semester went well! I'll be back very soon to chat about your ADRs. :cool1: Right now we have to go to the doctor's office. Ash is complaining about ear pain. :(

I'll be back soon!!

[raider97]

Here's my plans:

My plane gets in around 1145am so we will probably just grab lunch at Chick-Fil-A in the airport, because we love it and we don't have it here :rotfl: I L-O-V-E Chick-Fil-A!! We don't get to eat it very much since they cook in peanut oil and Haley is allergic to peanuts. :( I have been able to eat it a few times since she started school - I take Chris out on a lunch date when I am craving it. :)
12-9
Dinner: Tutto Italia Ristorante - Epcot 6:15 pm

This one looks really good!! I have been wanting to try it, so you will have to let me know how it is. My mom is really picky, or I probably would have tried in on our last trip. :)

12-10
Breakfast: Kona Café -Disney's Polynesian Resort
8:05 am

Yummmm! I have to try this one the next time we go!! I have to try that stuffed french toast!! I can't remember - did you guys eat here the last time you went?

Lunch: The Wave- Disney's Contemporary Resort 1:55 pm

Another one that looks good! Goodness, you got good ADRs!! I really want to try their sampler desserts!

Dinner: Narcoossee's -Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa 8:40 pm

:cool1: One day, when I can drop my three little ones off at a Neverland Club I am going to have a date night here!!

12-11
Breakfast: Tusker House Restaurant - Disney's Animal Kingdom 8:50 am

If I remember correctly, you ate here on your honeymoon trip right? I want to try this one too! I love Donald and Daisy!

Lunch: Yak & Yeti Restaurant - Disney's Animal Kingdom 3:00 pm

I really fought with this one on our December trip. The menu looks great!! We only did one day in AK and I knew we were going to get there late, so I didn't want to tie us down to a lunch ADR and it closed early that night so we ended up eating at T-Rex that night. Someday though, I want to try this one!

Dinner: California Grill - Disney's Contemporary Resort 9:30 pm (Wishes is at 10pm!)

:thumbsup2 So excited for you guys for this one! It looks like great food and you can't beat it when you score a wishes time slot!!

12-12
Brunch: 50's Prime Time Café -Disney's Hollywood Studios 11:10 am

This one sounds good! I haven't tried it yet, but the menu looks really yummy!

Late Lunch: Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater - Disney's Hollywood Studios 4:15 pm

I L-O-V-E Sci-Fi!!

Dinner: Kouzzina by Cat Cora - Disney's BoardWalk Resort 9:15 pm

This will be a nice romantic dinner. It should be late enough that it probably won't have too many kids. And the menu looks great!

12-13 (all day at universal to see Harry Potter)

Can't wait to hear what you think of HP!

Breakfast and Lunch: somewhere in Universal

Dinner: Artist Point -Disney's Wilderness Lodge 9:25 pm

I have heard great things about AP! It is on my one day list!

12-14 (Universal again)

Breakfast and Lunch: somewhere in universal

Dinner: Spirit of the Aloha -Disney's Polynesian Resort 8:00 pm

We saw this show on our honeymoon! It was a lot of fun!

12-15
Breakfast: Olivia's Cafe -Disney's Old Key West Resort 8:00 am

This one always gets great reviews! I want to try it sometime. I would have a hard time deciding between breakfast and dinner!

Lunch: Le Cellier Steakhouse - Epcot 11:35 am

All I can say is - Yummmmmmmmmmmm! Their food is great and love those Chocolate Rasberry Shakes!

Dinner: Biergarten Restaurant - Epcot 5:50 pm

We haven't tried Biergarten it, but it looks like it would be a lot of fun!

12-16
Breakfast: Whispering Canyon Café - Disney's Wilderness Lodge 7:30 am

We had dinner here on our '07 trip. It was good! I think I had forgotten they served breakfast. I love the WL! So pretty!

Lunch: Rose & Crown Pub

I want to try this one sometime too!

Dinner: Hopefully a counter service or airport food depending on magical ecpress time (our flight leaves at 7:47 pm)

That is a great flight out time! We have always been stuck with those noon or earlier flight times which I hate. I would love to actually get to spend my last day doing something rather than just getting ready to catch ME!



Looks like your plans are coming along great! I love your ADRs! It seems like a long time away still, but our last 6 months just flew by! I have tentative plans to go back December of 2011. As long as James gets his camper first he said we could go!!

[happenin2you]

Right now we have to go to the doctor's office. Ash is complaining about ear pain. :(

I'll be back soon!!

Oh no! I hope she's feeling better! (haha, it was kinda a while ago so if she's not by now then we might have a problem :scared1: )

[happenin2you]

Chick-Fil-A- such a bummer about the food allergies... poor girl, i'll pray for her to outgrow it, no one should be deprived of the delicious chick-fil-a. We went to California in May and we ate at Chick-fil-a in San Diego three times! Just could not get enough.
12-9
Tutto Italia Ristorante -I wanted to try this last time but I had already booked Mama Melrose's and Tony's and didn't want to wear my husband out of the Italian food. I could eat it indefinitely though :rotfl:
12-10
Breakfast: Kona Café -This is a first for us. I've heard that the Tonga Toast is a must, so we must try it :rotfl2:
Lunch: The Wave- I picked this one because it's close to MK and easy to access and return to the park.
Dinner: Narcoossee's -I'm really excited about our little date night here, should be amazing.
12-11
Breakfast: Tusker House Restaurant - We did eat here and Yak and Yeti on our honeymoon. They're repeats because there aren't many options for table service at AK.
Lunch: Yak & Yeti Restaurant - Ironically I wanted to get a ressie at T-Rex for my last day, but it wasn't available. This one was a must for us anyways, my husband has been talking about it since we left.
Dinner: California Grill - This place with fireworks was the only way I wanted it. :cheer2:I wanted to come here last time but I had no idea the planning that needed to go into a disney trip. I made my ressies much closer to my travel dates and although I had everything very well planned out, everything I requested was unavailable and I had to do some quick thinking with the CM on the phone.

12-12
Brunch: 50's Prime Time Café -Technically this is a lunch, as they don't have a breakfast or brunch menu, but we wanted this and sci-fi with only one day in this park.... so this is what we did. We'll probably grab a bagel or banana from our hotel in the am.
Late Lunch: Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater - I L-O-V-E Sci-Fi!! Me too!!:banana:

Dinner: Kouzzina by Cat Cora - Really late, but we are having a late lunch and want to be hungry for this one. We are big food network watchers and an Iron Chef restuarant is automatic for us. In January we ate a challengers place in Miami, which was amazing!
12-13 (all day at universal to see Harry Potter)

Breakfast and Lunch: somewhere in Universal - probably a meal at the 3 broomsticks :wizard:
Dinner: Artist Point - Not that I'm not excited about this one, but the main reason I picked it because it's at our hotel and we are trying to eat and sleep our way through the whole "world". Last time we ate at Jiko and Boma at AKL.
12-14 (Universal again)

Breakfast and Lunch: somewhere in universal

Dinner: Spirit of the Aloha -I'm really excited for this one, we did Hoop-Dee-Doo last time and we loved it. Also, I have absolutely no interest in going to Hawaii, not really sure why, just not into it, so I'm glad I can see a show like this off the island. The open beer and wine won't hurt either :laughing:

12-15
Breakfast: Olivia's Cafe -Totally random pick for me but I looked at the menu and the breakfast cuban sandwich is right up my hubby's alley.

Lunch: Le Cellier Steakhouse - Another one I tried to get last time, but was booked for my whole trip :sad2: just happy to get in this time, even if it's lunch.
Dinner: Biergarten Restaurant - It seems like Hofbrauhaus, which i hate, but my husband is a fan of, and we all know about marriage and compromise. He's not very into going to disney when there are so many other places we haven't been and we've been to disney already. So this ressie was one of my gifts to him, along with a promise to see the Beatles tribute band for all of their performances. A small price to pay for a trip to disney.
12-16
Breakfast: Whispering Canyon Café - Like I mentioned earlier, according to our own disney rules, we have to eat here because it's in our hotel. The breakfast menu looks delicious though and I'm sure Chris will like the response when he requests ketchup.
Lunch: Rose & Crown Pub- this one i just changed today to Liberty Tree Tavern in MK. R&C menu was really not for me and we decided we'd rather spend our last day in MK and we loved LTT so much last time we were there. It will be a nice way to end our vacation on a positive note. (Hopefully i won't get sick on the last day like I did last time, not sure if i got that far in my TR...)

Dinner: Hopefully a counter service or airport food depending on magical ecpress time (our flight leaves at 7:47 pm) Honestly, we'll probably have chick-fil-a on the way out regardless :rotfl:

Last time our flight out was at 11:45, so we had to get out early too, which was interesting and miserable considering I was sick. We had also had a late night the night before and hadn't packed so Chris had to pack everything while I layed in bed moaning and running back and forth to the restroom :sad2:


Looks like your plans are coming along great! I love your ADRs! It seems like a long time away still, but our last 6 months just flew by! I have tentative plans to go back December of 2011. As long as James gets his camper first he said we could go!!



We wanted to eat at as many new places as possible, but there were some that we just felt we needed to go back to. Honestly, as far as time ticking away, I want this summer to drag on forever. Once school starts back up my life will be miserable. I'm taking 6 classes, 3 of them educational psychology:scared1:.... crazy, I know. What is nice, though, is that my last final will be on a wednesday and that night we will board our plane for the red eye to MCO. Luckily, since my semester will be so full, I'm sure it will fly by.

You better start shopping for campers! There's that marriage and compromise thing again :lovestruc I'm sure that you guys will have plenty of fun camping vacations with that, and you could always convince him to camp at the wilderness campground :rotfl:

I don't think we'll make it back to the world until we have kids, and when we do, they'll have to be a few years old. We've already planned for May 2011 a Eurotrip. Then we have to squeeze in his family in Colorado and Mexico, my family in New York, and any other places we want to go for leisure before we have kids.

Sorry to hi-jack :) Can't wait to hear what happens next in your vacation!

[happenin2you]

By the way, in my previous post, where I quote you, I responded within the qoute, I just didn't change the colors.... Sorry :confused3 next time haha!

[raider97]

Day 6 - Part 1 - December 22th, 2009

Today was my mom’s birthday and we had plans to be at Hollywood Studios for rope drop. We were up, showered, and out of the room very early. Which was surprising since we had been up late the night before. We arrived about fifteen minutes before the scheduled opening time.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07170.jpg

We got in the shortest line and waited. Before we knew it we were headed in. James had strict instructions to take the kids and my mom and get in the standby line for Toy Story Mania. I was headed for fast passes. I figured if I had to catch up great, if not I wanted them to be able to ride.

We all made our way to Toy Story Mania. I jumped in the fast pass line which was moving surprisingly fast. Soon I found out they were just handing out the fast passes instead of making you put your tickets into the machine. Score, fast moving line and my tickets and not been swiped! I was able to easily catch up with James and the family before they hit the standby line (moving with three kids and a mother-in-law proved to be a slow process.)

We made our way through the standby line. This was our first time riding this ride and I was very impressed with how well they had themed it! We made it to the front of the line and loaded in. When we got off the consensus was that we all L-O-V-E-D it! What a great ride. When we got off I took the kids to the bathroom and sent James to get more fast passes. When we got back, James told me they were still not scanning passes and that Derrick and his family had called to say they were on their way and they wanted to know where to meet us and which fast pass they should try and get. James had told them to get some Toy Story Mania fast passes and then to meet us at The Little Mermaid.

James and my mother took the kids to see The Little Mermaid. It was a bit before the show so I headed off to secure Tower of Terror fast passes. I was quickly in and out of the fast pass line with TOT fast passes. I headed back to The Little Mermaid and entered the waiting area. They had just started letting people in and I was hopefully I would make it into the theatre. But alas, no luck, the line was stopped about 5 people in front of me. I quickly texted James that I would meet them after the show in the courtyard.

While I was waiting I decided to do some shopping. I bought Christopher a Mickey hat I had been eyeing earlier in the week at Epcot. And I found Disney Pirate Princess Ears for the girls. I arranged to have the package sent to the front of the park for pickup later and wandered back into the courtyard where I ran into Derrick and his family. We waited together for my family to get out of The Little Mermaid. When everyone was out Derrick and Jennifer decided to take Jacob and Tyler, their younger two boys, to go see The Playhouse Disney show, and we took Joey with us to use our fast passes from earlier. Since we were one fast pass short, James decided to sit it out. We were quickly through the fast pass line and on the ride. Yay! Did I mention I love this ride? I think it is one of my all-time favorites! It is just so much fun!

When we exited we found Derrick and his family had met up with James while we were on the ride. We decided to go ride The Great Movie ride. I’m not sure if we took the kids on this ride the last time we were at Disney World or not. Anyways, we had a short line since they only had one side working, but it moved fairly quickly. I really like this ride also. My kids loved the Wizard of Oz scene. It is currently one of their favorite movies.

After we exited The Great Movie Ride it was time for our lunch reservations at The Sci-Fi Diner. When we arrived we ran into Desi and her family. They had just made it to the park and had informed us that Rockin Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror were both out of fast passes for the day. Did I mention before this was not a recommended TGM day? And I can see why! It was packed! In some places it was wall-to-wall people. It was a Fantasmic night and even though we weren’t planning to see the show, since Desi and her family and Derrick and his family were all leaving the next day we were forced to brave the park today!

I have some really cute pictures from lunch today. I’ll be back for the 2nd part of our day tomorrow! Hope you are enjoying following along. I love telling you all about our trip!

[happenin2you]

That's so awesome that you were able to get so many fast passes without scaning your tickets! :banana: I wonder if it is always like that first thing in the morning or if you were just lucky. I hope I get some days like that, or all days like that :rotfl: Your trip sounds like so much fun, can't wait to hear more!

[praisehisname]

That's cool you were able to get so many fastpasses! We've never had that happen on our trips, but I read about it in someone else's TR.

[raider97]

We wanted to eat at as many new places as possible, but there were some that we just felt we needed to go back to. Honestly, as far as time ticking away, I want this summer to drag on forever. Once school starts back up my life will be miserable. I'm taking 6 classes, 3 of them educational psychology:scared1:.... crazy, I know. What is nice, though, is that my last final will be on a wednesday and that night we will board our plane for the red eye to MCO. Luckily, since my semester will be so full, I'm sure it will fly by.

You better start shopping for campers! There's that marriage and compromise thing again :lovestruc I'm sure that you guys will have plenty of fun camping vacations with that, and you could always convince him to camp at the wilderness campground :rotfl:

I don't think we'll make it back to the world until we have kids, and when we do, they'll have to be a few years old. We've already planned for May 2011 a Eurotrip. Then we have to squeeze in his family in Colorado and Mexico, my family in New York, and any other places we want to go for leisure before we have kids.

Sorry to hi-jack :) Can't wait to hear what happens next in your vacation!

Wow, you are going to be very busy this fall! But what a nice relaxing vacation to look forward too! I'm going to start back to school next fall, when Chris starts kinder.

I know, everyone keeps telling me that!! :) We just paid my Suburban off early so I don't want to jump right back into a payment, so I'm hoping to pay cash. Keeping my fingers crossed we will be able to swing it next summer! We may have to start eating ramen. ;)

James has decided he is willing to go every other year if we can swing it. Which works for me because that gives me enough planning time without being too long.

Hope you summer is going well!

[raider97]

By the way, in my previous post, where I quote you, I responded within the qoute, I just didn't change the colors.... Sorry :confused3 next time haha!

I had a lot of problems with mine. :lmao: So yours may be the only one I do. :)

That's so awesome that you were able to get so many fast passes without scaning your tickets! :banana: I wonder if it is always like that first thing in the morning or if you were just lucky. I hope I get some days like that, or all days like that :rotfl: Your trip sounds like so much fun, can't wait to hear more!

We were lucky that morning! It was the only day we had that happen to us. And DHS was packed that day. Granted since TSM wasn't scanning most of the morning it made all the fastpasses in the park go fast. I'll wish you lots of luck and many free fastpass days! :) Thanks, I'm trying to get it finished before Christmas. :)

That's cool you were able to get so many fastpasses! We've never had that happen on our trips, but I read about it in someone else's TR.

We were lucky. That day was the only day we had that happen on our trip.

[raider97]

Well we just got back on Sunday from our trip to VA. We drove to SA and flew out of there so we were gone a total of 11 days. 9 of which we were in Virginia Beach. We had a lot of fun, but it isn't disney. I know you guys will appreciate that, not that I didn't have fun. I just prefer to vacation in the world. :) And to make matter worse, we actually had a layover in Orlando on the way back. Me and the kids were so tempted to just go catch the ME to our favorite place.

I hope to get a new installment posted tomorrow. Thanks so much for bearing with me! Have a great night!!

[happenin2you]

Well we just got back on Sunday from our trip to VA. We drove to SA and flew out of there so we were gone a total of 11 days. 9 of which we were in Virginia Beach. We had a lot of fun, but it isn't disney. I know you guys will appreciate that, not that I didn't have fun. I just prefer to vacation in the world. :) And to make matter worse, we actually had a layover in Orlando on the way back. Me and the kids were so tempted to just go catch the ME to our favorite place.

I hope to get a new installment posted tomorrow. Thanks so much for bearing with me! Have a great night!!

How was VA? My family in NY goes there every summer, but since I did most of my growing up on the west coast, I've never been. We go to San Diego, which I have no comparison to Va, but i'm pretty sure it's one of the best places in the world =)

That's so tempting to be in MCO and not getting on the ME bus. Kudos to you for having self control :rotfl:

Looking forward to the next installment!

[vamassey1]

I'm here but I'm only on page 6. I'll comment once I get caught up.

Whew, I'm all caught up now.

I don't know if I can remember everything I wanted to say. I love that this was a surprise trip for your kids too. Of all the trips we've taken Danielle thinks our Feb trip was the best because of the surprise. Your kids are so cute! I loved the BBB makeovers. I can't believe how much y'all are doing with such a big group. We went with 15 in 2002 and if was so hard. Splitting up really helps.

Looking forward to the next update.

[raider97]

Day 6 - Part 2 - December 22th, 2009

When I left off, we were waiting to be seated for our ADR at Sci-Fi Diner. We didn’t have to wait long to be seated in our car. :thumbsup2 James and Haley sat in the front seat, followed by Christopher and myself in the middle seat, and my mom and Ashley sat in the last seat. My mom and Christopher were in the only ones using the dining plan here. My mom was on the deluxe dining plan, and Christopher had slept through our dinner at Le Cellier so he still had a credit to use.

My mom had a salad appetizer and then ordered the ribs for her dinner. I tried to talk the kids into hamburgers, but none of them would go for it. So all three ordered the cheese pizza with apples. James and I had already decided to order milkshakes to share with the kids, so we went ahead and ordered Ashley her own. She was in 7th heaven! That kid can take down a milkshake!:lmao: James and I both ordered the hamburger and fries along with chocolate milkshakes.

After ordering we settled in with our shakes to watch the shows. It was so much fun! We noticed another waitress taking some pictures of the car next to us, so when our waitress came back we asked her to take one of us. She got a few cute pictures of us!!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07171.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07173.jpg


I know this place gets really mixed reviews, but we really enjoyed it. Our food was really good and we loved watching the clips while we were eating. For dessert, the kids all had sundaes. I can’t remember what my mom had. She probably had fruit. She had that a lot during the trip for dessert. James and I skipped dessert since we were paying out-of-pocket.

Christopher was surprised here with a cool glow in the dark cup filled with caramel corn and a lightning McQueen glow clip for his birthday. He was thrilled with his gifts. We went ahead and bought the girls each a glow Tinkerbell clip. They loved them. In fact, they are still favorites here at home.:)

After lunch we checked in with the other families. They had all finished up lunch before us. I’m not sure I’ve mentioned it before, but mother is the slowest eater! Desi and Jason were taking their girls on Tower of Tower through the standby line while my aunt and uncle watched little Will. Derrick and Jennifer were just finishing up seeing Mater and Lightning McQueen. We told them we were headed over to get fast passes for Star Tours. Derrick and Jennifer said they would head our way. Did I mention this park was packed! I was amazed by the amount of people! Seriously, it was if people were everywhere. All of the walkways were just packed with people. In the future, I will take a non-recommended park by TGM very seriously! This was probably the busiest day we encountered! While we were waiting for them we took a few pictures outside of Star Tours. Christopher is a big Star Wars fan so he loved all the scenery!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07179_edit.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0992.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image0997.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image1001.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image1003.jpg

I'm not sure why I don't have any pictures of Haley here. Unless she was in one of her moods. :)

Christopher was very excited about riding Star Tours. This one also has a height requirement, but other than that first day we hadn’t had any problem with getting him on any of the rides. He was measured and re-measured at each ride, but he consistently made it on. Just barely. :cool1: After Derrick and his family showed up we went ahead and got Star Tours fast passes. After that we were looking for something to do. Our next fast pass set for Toy Story Mania wasn’t up for a few more hours. So we went to see Muppets 3D.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07182.jpg

We have seen this before, but I’m not sure the kids remembered it from our last visit. It was cute and the kids enjoyed it. After that we headed for the Backlot Tour. It had about a 30-minute wait, but we needed to kill some time before TSM and everything was swamped. We didn’t make it to this one on our ’07 trip. So this was the first time for the kids. We enjoyed it. Not a must-do, but something we enjoyed seeing. With all the shows here, I’m not sure if we will make it here next time. But with the terrible crowds today the waits for the shows and the rides were incredible!

When we got off the tour, it was time to use our fast passes. We made our way over to Toy Story Mania and made it through the fast pass queue. As always on this ride, we had a great time! Once we were off, we decided to grab some dinner. I had hoped to make it over to Fairfax Fare for dinner. I knew it was across the park, but I had hopes that the BBQ would be good. We have tried a lot of places at DHS and haven’t had much luck with the counter service places. We usually eat at Toy Story Pizza Planet, but with my mom’s lactose intolerance it was out for us today. Unfortunately, the kids were starving and I was out-voted! :(

We ended up stopping at the first place we saw. We ended up at Studio Catering Company. It looks like their menu has changed since we were there in December. Which has to be good, because the food we had was terrible! And that doesn’t do it justice. James and I had the hot dogs with chili and it was the worst tasting thing I have ever head. We only had a few bites, before we decided it inedible! I know all three of our kids had the macaroni and cheese and they didn’t make it through most of their meals either. They came with applesauce, that my kids don’t eat and a cookie. The other choice here for kids was peanut butter and jelly and since Haley has a peanut allergy that was an option for us.

After eating the minimal amount to hold us over, we headed off for the Osborne Lights. Wow! We had seen them before on our honeymoon, but I had forgotten just how beautiful they are. I wish we had spent more time here. We walked down the street and waiting for a few photo pass pictures, but I wish we had spent more time looking at all the details. It is so beautiful.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image1012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/Image1023.jpg

After leaving the lights, we headed towards Star Tours to use our fast passes. My mom gets motion sickness easily so she decided to wait this one out. Jennifer stayed with her and kept Jacob. The rest of us headed off for a trip to Endor. The fast pass line moved quickly! This was one of the few times during this trip and we got a lot of comments from the standby line on our “cutting” in the fast pass line. I just ignored it. The standby line was really long for it and I know that the fast passes for most of the rides had been used up early today, but I think the main problem is most people have know idea about how to use the fast pass system. We only had to stop for a minute for Christopher to be measured before we were loading into our ride vehicle. I think I’ve mentioned before that Derrick’s boys are chicken hearts; well Tyler thought it was fun, but Joey was visibly shaken by Star Tours. My three loved and would have gone again if the line had been shorter. We headed back to meet up with my mom and Jennifer.

After talking about it a bit, it was decided that James and Derrick would take my girls to Tower of Terror and use our fast passes. I knew there was no way my mom would ride it. Jennifer and the boys didn’t want to ride it. And I was worried it would scare my chicken heart Christopher too badly. Derrick had never ridden it before so he was excited to have someone to ride with.

Jennifer decided to take the boys shopping while my mom and I took Christopher to go get her birthday fun card. It took us a while and we had to go to several different places, before we ended up in the right place, but she was finally able to get her birthday gift card. We picked up my purchases from earlier in the day and headed back up the street towards TOT and sat down on a bench to wait for the rest of the group. As we were waiting, we heard an announcement that the park hours would be extended by an hour.

Pretty soon James and Derrick and the girls were headed back towards us. Ashley has ridden TOT before and she is our thrill ride girl so she enjoyed it. Haley had not been tall enough on our last trip and has a tendency to scare easily and I could tell she was shaken. She said she liked it, that she wouldn’t ride it again, and that Daddy had promised her ice cream for being so brave. :)James and Derrick had hopes of riding Rockin’ Rollercoaster, but the rest of the group was pretty tired so they decided to skip it. We said our goodbyes. Derrick and his family were flying home the next evening and were spending the day on their own. Desi and her family had already left the park. They had a very early flight the next morning and ME was scheduled to pick them up at ASM at 3 a.m. :scared1: and my aunt and uncle were headed out the next morning for the drive back to Texas.

We only had to wait a few minutes for a bus and we were on our way home. We all took quick showers and then fell into bed. The goal tomorrow was rope-drop at Magic Kingdom. Would we make it?

[raider97]

How was VA? My family in NY goes there every summer, but since I did most of my growing up on the west coast, I've never been. We go to San Diego, which I have no comparison to Va, but i'm pretty sure it's one of the best places in the world =)

That's so tempting to be in MCO and not getting on the ME bus. Kudos to you for having self control :rotfl:

Looking forward to the next installment!

It was fun. My mother-in-law took my oldest brother-in-law and his family on a trip a couple of years ago and had trying to get us to go somewhere with her so we finally decided on Virginia Beach. James wanted a laid back trip. It was nice, but we had thought we were getting a cottage on the beach and it turned out that it was a bay view, but in between oour cottage and the beach was about 50 yards of trees. I think we would have been happier if we had stayed on the boardwalk instead. But you live and learn. It was my first trip to VA. It is pretty.

I love San Diego! So pretty!!

It was hard. The girls really wanted to go. I think it helped that it was hot! And it been cooler, it would have been much harder to pass up!

I'm here but I'm only on page 6. I'll comment once I get caught up.

Whew, I'm all caught up now.

I don't know if I can remember everything I wanted to say. I love that this was a surprise trip for your kids too. Of all the trips we've taken Danielle thinks our Feb trip was the best because of the surprise. Your kids are so cute! I loved the BBB makeovers. I can't believe how much y'all are doing with such a big group. We went with 15 in 2002 and if was so hard. Splitting up really helps.

Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I am really enjoying your trip report!

The surprise was a lot of fun! When we came back in '07 Ashley had mentioned that she hoped the next time it would be a surprise. She was actually disappointed I told her the night before instead of the day of.:confused3 I'm not sure what we will do next time.

Thanks! I think they are cute, but I'm pretty biased. :) The girls loved the BBB makeovers. Chris did not like the Cool Dude. In fact, he still tells us all the time how he hated it. I wonder if he will be more interested the next time we go. :)

It was hard at times to get moving, but since I was really the only one who had any idea of tour planning most of the time they just went where we went. Occasionally, we split up too which helped!

I hope to get another one up on Monday. We have a busy weekend in store for us. Lots of people to meet up with from out of town and some camper window shopping to do. :)

[praisehisname]

Once again, I'm so impressed with everything you're getting done! :worship: Yikes about the horrible meal at Studio Catering! :eek: Your photopass pics at Osborne Lights are beautiful! :lovestruc

[vamassey1]

Very busy day! We haven't eaten at Sci Fi since 2002, we really need to do that one again. You got some great pictures in the car. Also I really like the Star Wars pictures of the kids. Sorry about diner, it is hard to find a good meal there. I want to try Staring Rolls after seeing Anita's food. Your group picture at the lights is very good. I used TGM for our last 2 trips. If you want to see Fantasmic, which we did, you don't have a choice but to go on a bad day.

Can't wait to see if you make rope drop. I love the morning show at the MK.

[DisneyMom14]

Great update!

[raider97]

Once again, I'm so impressed with everything you're getting done! :worship: Yikes about the horrible meal at Studio Catering! :eek: Your photopass pics at Osborne Lights are beautiful! :lovestruc

Thanks! It was a really fun day. The park was packed though. This is the first time I've had a really bad meal at Disney. Thankfully, it was the only one this trip! Thanks for the compliments on the picture of the lights. It was so pretty. I really regret not waiting in the line for the photopass picture from the other direction. Next time I guess. :)

Very busy day! We haven't eaten at Sci Fi since 2002, we really need to do that one again. You got some great pictures in the car. Also I really like the Star Wars pictures of the kids. Sorry about diner, it is hard to find a good meal there. I want to try Staring Rolls after seeing Anita's food. Your group picture at the lights is very good. I used TGM for our last 2 trips. If you want to see Fantasmic, which we did, you don't have a choice but to go on a bad day.

Can't wait to see if you make rope drop. I love the morning show at the MK.

We loved Sci Fi Diner! I think it has become one of our must-dos. It was so much fun! I think the Star Wars pictures came out well. I have some more from later in the week I think are great! Dinner was terrible, but one bad meal out of the entire trip wasn't bad. :) We tried Starring Rolls for breakfast and thought it was pretty good. I think we need to try them for lunch next time! I really liked TGM. I think we will probably use him again for our next trip.

I need to hop on over and check out your BBB post! :)

Great update!

Thanks!

[raider97]

I'm so sorry I haven't been able to get an update up, but I wanted to share something wonderful with you all. We have been very busy getting ready for back to school. I have telling the girls that I wanted to get their hair trimmed before school started. Well Ashley has had a couple of friends that have donated hair to Locks of Love and she decided she wanted to do that too. So instead of a little cut, she was planning to take 10+ inches off. Haley then decided she wanted to donate her hair too. So today we went to get it cut. Here is a before pictures and an after one.


http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC08611.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC08620.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC09589_edited.jpg

I am so proud of them! This was Haley's very 1st haircut. Can you believe it has taken 6 1/2 years to grow out her hair. Wow! I think they look adorable, and what a great cause!!

[buzz for boys]

wow wow wow this trippie has got me so excited for our xmas trip thsi year.
Cant wait to read the fanl few installements x

The girls look beautiful with short hair !!

[happenin2you]

The girls look so cute with their new haircuts! How exciting as a parent to have children with hearts so big and giving. You are so blessed!:goodvibes

You're last update was great too. I got so excited seeing pictures of Sci-Fi because it is a must do for us and I can't wait until we're back there :yay:

Hope everything is coming together nicely for the kids transition back to school. Looking forward to the next update!

[raider97]

Day 7 - Part 1 - December 23rd, 2009

We were up bright and early this morning! The plan was to make it to rope-drop this morning. This would be the first morning on our own. My aunt and uncle we driving home today and we wouldn’t see them before they left. My cousin and his family flew out this morning at 6 a.m. And Derrick and his family were flying out this evening, but spending their last day on their own. My mother decided she would take this day easy and spend the morning at the hotel.

We were up and at the bus stop right on time. We made it to Magic Kingdom in time to catch the rope-drop ceremonies! Yippee! We decided that James would take the kids to Dumbo and I would head over to Splash Mountain to pick up some fast passes. We headed off in different directions, and again I was impressed and how light the crowds were at rope drop. I am not a morning person and I’m not sure I would say my kids and husband are either when dealing with the loss of an hour in the morning, but all of us quickly realized the value in rope drops this trip. It is amazing how much you can get done in those first few hours. Makes it definitely worth while to get up and out on your vacation.

When I got to Splash Mountain I was amazed to hear the cast members telling people they better plan on using those fast passes during the allotted time because the return times were going to be strictly enforced. This is the only time I heard this on this trip. They get trying to get people to get in the non-existent standby line rather than going to get a fast pass. Most of us were ignoring them and heading straight for the fast pass machines regardless. I did take a mental note though to try and get back here and use these fast passes during our time slot. After securing the fast passes, I headed towards Fantasyland to catch up with the rest of my family.

I arrived at Dumbo just in time to see my family riding. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07186.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07187.jpg

After the touched back down, we headed off for Tomorrowland Speedway. The kids had been dying to ride this and I knew to avoid those horrendous lines it would have to be done first thing in the morning. We jumped in the standby line that was quickly moving and were set to drive away in a matter of minutes. I rode with Christopher and Haley and James loaded in with Ashley. It was a fun ride, despite the jolting of the car. :) And the kids were thrilled they had finally gotten to drive.

After climbing out of our respective cars, we headed back towards Fantasyland. Snow White’s Adventures had no line so we hopped into the standby line. After a few quick minutes we were headed into the dark forest. I was worried it might scare the kids, but they all enjoyed it this trip! We were headed back to ride Pooh, but the standby line was 40 minutes long. Too long of a wait for me, so I decided to just grab a set of fast passes to use later. With fast passes in hand, we headed towards Liberty Square. The Haunted Mansion was walk-on so in we went! I am happy to report that all three of my children loved this ride this trip! I was so happy! Despite the initial apprehension the first time we rode it, they ended up loving it. Their absolute favorite part is the hitchhiking ghosts. I love the Haunted Mansion, so I am very happy they are past their fear of this ride!:thumbsup2


After we left the Haunted Mansion, we stopped for some popcorn and cokes. I know great breakfast food, but we really were just in the mood for snacks and the popcorn smelled so good. We found a bench in Liberty Square to sit and enjoy them. The crowds in this park of the park were still really light. After we finished up, we headed towards Adventureland to check out the Pirates of the Caribbean. The line was really short so we hopped in. In less than fifteen minutes, we are off on our boat to see Captain Jack! Another one of my favorites! :thumbsup2

I had been keeping a close eye on my watch and we were now in the middle of our Splash Mountain fast pass return time. I was pretty sure I would have been able to use them late despite the warning, but I decided I didn’t want to take this chance. The fast pass line moved quickly and before we knew it we were off through the Briar Patch. This was Christopher and Haley’s first time on Splash Mountain. I think the drop scared both of them a bit, but said they would be willing to go on it again. This is Ashley’s favorite ride in Magic Kingdom so she was happy we had finally made it over for a ride. :banana:

As we got off of Splash Mountain, I noticed that we were now able to get another fast pass. I ran over and got fast passes for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to use later and then we headed up to the Railroad Platform to catch the train back to Toontown. When we got around to Toontown I spied a character in the teardrop that my family had been dying to see….. And I’ll leave you hanging!

Can you guess whom we stumbled upon in the teardrop area that made my children’s day?

[praisehisname]

Great update; another day of getting a lot done! :woohoo: I have no idea who the character is, though!

[vamassey1]

Wow you got lots done on this morning. We're rope drop people because it does make it easier to get more done.

Your kids are being so brave. Danielle is 11 and still fears HM.

I can't wait to find our who you saw.

[raider97]

wow wow wow this trippie has got me so excited for our xmas trip thsi year.
Cant wait to read the fanl few installements x

The girls look beautiful with short hair !!

Thanks! Is this your first Christmas trip? I love Disney World at Christmastime! It is so pretty!! It is my favorite time of the year to go. I wish we were going again this year, but my husband isn't a big Disney fan and he has agreed to go every two years if we can so we won't be back until next year. :) Are you writing a pre-trip report?

The girls look so cute with their new haircuts! How exciting as a parent to have children with hearts so big and giving. You are so blessed!:goodvibes

You're last update was great too. I got so excited seeing pictures of Sci-Fi because it is a must do for us and I can't wait until we're back there :yay:

Hope everything is coming together nicely for the kids transition back to school. Looking forward to the next update!

Thanks! I was so proud of them! Granted, I have been eyeing that new Rapunzel dress for Haley for Halloween... Guess I'll just have to spring for the hair piece to go along with the dress. :) I am really looking forward to seeing Tangled! It looks so cute!

How is your trip planning coming? Right around the corner now. :) How is school going?

We loved Sci-Fi Diner! It is a must-do for us now too. This was our 1st time there and it was so much fun!

Everything is going well with school. We are trying to get back into a schedule. Ashley started 3rd grade this fall and Haley is in 1st. Ashley tried out and made the swim team so she is swimming two times a week. She is also in Girl Scouts and doing Choir. Haley is playing soccer and in Girl Scouts. And Christopher is taking swim lessons and playing soccer. It is going to be a really busy fall for us. Haley's teacher also asked me to be room mom for her room and I had already agreed to help co-chair a committee for PTA. Yikes!! :)

[raider97]

I finally got the few pictures I took this morning loaded in. Photobucket was acting up the other day when I got this update up.

Great update; another day of getting a lot done! :woohoo: I have no idea who the character is, though!

Thanks! We did get a ton done this morning. Looking back I'm still surprised by it since it was already the 23rd. We didn't have as much luck the next day. I'm hoping to get an update posted tomorrow!!

Wow you got lots done on this morning. We're rope drop people because it does make it easier to get more done.

Your kids are being so brave. Danielle is 11 and still fears HM.

I can't wait to find our who you saw.

We did get a ton done this morning. The crowds today at Magic Kingdom were really light! I've finally convinced James that rope-drops are worth it! Makes it so much easier to get up and get going when your DH is on board. :)

I think the things they are scared of change from time to time so we may be back to being afraid of it the next time we go!

I need to catch up on your report! Hopefully very soon! I hope to get another installment up tomorrow!

Hope everyone has a happy hump day!

[happenin2you]

hey lady! how ya been?

[MickeyLover20]

Hi! Loving you TR so far! Can't wait to hear (read) more!:)

[DisneyMom14]

Your girls look adorable with their new haircuts! What a wonderful thing to do!
Rope drop is priceless especially when crowds are expected. We're not morning people either but my family knows I will be dragging their butts out of bed to make rope drop! I hate crowds and waitingin lines. 20 minutes is pretty much my limit. :)

[raider97]

Day 7 - Part 2 - December 23rd, 2009

When I left off I was telling you about who I spotted in the teardrop area as the train pulled into the Toontown station! We had been looking for her since our arrival day and I was thrilled to finally see her. I rushed the kids off the train and over to her line…

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07190.jpg

My kids absolutely love Marie! It was a great find for us. We were lucky we arrived when we did, because after we got her autograph and picture she was ushered off.

We decided to use our fastpasses to ride Pooh. So we quickly walked through Toontown to The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This ride is so fun! My kids especially love the bouncy part! After the ride, we headed towards Main Street for lunch.

We stopped in at The Main Street Bakery for a quick service lunch. The line wasn’t bad at all and we were quickly sitting inside enjoying ham sandwiches, cokes, and cinnamon rolls for dessert. After we finished eating we decided to head back to the resort for a little swimming. On the bus, we meet a family who loved Christopher’s shirt. He was wearing his “Will trade sister for fastpass” shirt. They offered Christopher a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fastpass which he happily took!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07198.jpg

[raider97]

hey lady! how ya been?


Great, just very, very busy! Christopher and Haley are playing soccer, on two different teams of course. :) Ashley made the swim team. Chris and Haley are both in swim lessons. Ashley and Haley are both in Girl Scout, two different troops. And Ashley is in choir at school. We are in the go, go, go mode right now. I'm ready for things to slow down!

How is your trip planning going? A little over a month now right? Details, please!! :) How is school going? You will appreciate this, Christopher read his 1st book to me last week. I'm super proud of him, the girls didn't read this early. I'm thrilled!

Hi! Loving you TR so far! Can't wait to hear (read) more!:)

Thank you! And welcome!! I'm so glad to have you. I'm really slow with new posts. I hope I can keep you interested. :)

Your girls look adorable with their new haircuts! What a wonderful thing to do!
Rope drop is priceless especially when crowds are expected. We're not morning people either but my family knows I will be dragging their butts out of bed to make rope drop! I hate crowds and waitingin lines. 20 minutes is pretty much my limit. :)

Thanks! I was super proud of them!

James really learned the value of rope drops this trip! I think I've converted him!! :) How are you doing? Do you have a new trip in the plans? I'm hoping to go back Christmas of next year. Crossing my fingers that it works out!!

[happenin2you]

Great, just very, very busy! Christopher and Haley are playing soccer, on two different teams of course. :) Ashley made the swim team. Chris and Haley are both in swim lessons. Ashley and Haley are both in Girl Scout, two different troops. And Ashley is in choir at school. We are in the go, go, go mode right now. I'm ready for things to slow down!

How is your trip planning going? A little over a month now right? Details, please!! :) How is school going? You will appreciate this, Christopher read his 1st book to me last week. I'm super proud of him, the girls didn't read this early. I'm thrilled!


Wow you really have a lot to keep up with! It sounds like everyone is doing really well. Congrats on Christopher's reading!!!:yay: You must have been ecstatic! I think I could cry the first time I hear my future child read to me. :hug:

My trip is pretty boring. I haven't done any planning in weeks. They just extended park hours so I need to take a look at those and see how they will affect me. I'm just waiting for it to get here now.

I saw the new Harry Potter with my husband on Friday. Loved it!!! Too bad it had to end before the book though.

I love Marie, by the way. She's my fav aristocat =) Can't wait to hear more about your trip and hear what's going on in your life! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

[raider97]

Wow you really have a lot to keep up with! It sounds like everyone is doing really well. Congrats on Christopher's reading!!!:yay: You must have been ecstatic! I think I could cry the first time I hear my future child read to me. :hug:

My trip is pretty boring. I haven't done any planning in weeks. They just extended park hours so I need to take a look at those and see how they will affect me. I'm just waiting for it to get here now.

I saw the new Harry Potter with my husband on Friday. Loved it!!! Too bad it had to end before the book though.

I love Marie, by the way. She's my fav aristocat =) Can't wait to hear more about your trip and hear what's going on in your life! Have a happy Thanksgiving!

We have been very busy! Thanks for the congrats on Chris' reading. I love hearing them read! Can't get enough of it!

By now, you are probably back from your trip! Please stop by and tell me everything!!

We just went to see the new HP movie last weekend. My parents were down so we actually we able to go out on our anniversary for a date. :)

Have a wonderful Christmas! I hope to get things moving here very, very soon!

[raider97]

Last year this time we were in Disney, next year this time I hope to be in Disney!

To all my fellow Disney lovers...

A Very Merry Christmas to you!!

[DisneyMom14]

Merry Christmas to you too! We all were a little down this year not being at Disney. How does ONE Christmas trip do that????? Anyway, we vow to go back for Christmas again one day as we had such a magical time! I think we will try to go back in October of 2011 (we've never seen the Halloween decorations) and maybe back for Christmas of 2012. Hope you guys enjoyed Christmas!:santa:

[raider97]

Once we got back to POR we decided to go swimming. We quickly changed into our bathing suits and headed down to the main pool. We found some lounge chairs and unloaded our towels and stuff before heading in. First we sat on the side with our feet hanging in and it was cold! We have been to Disney in December before and I remembered the water being a lot warmer. So I asked a lifeguard. Turns out someone had accidentally turned the heater off the night before and it hadn't been caught until the morning. So even though it had been on all morning the pool was still really cold!

The kids were dying to swim though so we thought we would try our luck at a quiet pool. No luck, we had gotten so cold at the main pool our bodies just couldn't warm up. So back to the room we went for warm showers/baths.

After getting warmed up and dressed it was time to head downstairs for my big surprise! I had scheduled a carriage ride for us and no one knew! WooHoo! We were there right at 5 p.m., I had wanted the first rides of the night since we had a special dinner planned. I had reserved two carriages. My mom and the girls rode in one carriage and James, Christopher, and I rode in the 2nd carriage. We decided to take the trip around the French Quarter. What a lovely ride it was. The French Quarter is such a pretty resort, we really enjoyed the ride. Christopher almost fell asleep in our carriage at one point. :)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07191.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07195.jpg

When we were finished we quickly made our way through the main lobby to the south bus stop. We didn't have to wait long until a bus to Magic Kingdom appeared. We jumped on and we were off. Once we arrived at Magic Kingdom we checked to see if the boat was on it's way in. We couldn't see it so we headed up the platform to the monorail. We were on our way to the Grand Floridian for dinner at the Grand Floridian Cafe.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07196.jpg

We arrived several minutes before our 7:30 p.m. ADR time so we were given a pager and asked to sit in the lobby area. We were quickly called and seated. I didn't love our waiter, he wasn't very friendly but our service was alright. Christopher and Ashley ordered the kids steak and Haley ordered the grilled chicken. My mother, James, and I all ordered the steak. I had a cup of french onion soup that was good. Overall our meals were fine, not great, but decent. I had mentioned that I had ordered a cake when we were seated to our waiter and he brought it out after dinner. Haley promptly fell asleep after dinner and slept through the cake. :)

He brought out the Mickey cake I had ordered. The guests around us were asked to help us sing. We sang Happy Birthday to Christopher and then he was presented with his cake. He was thrilled! And what an adorable cake! It was still a little frozen, but his reaction was worth every penny. We took the rest of the cake to go and had some in the room later in the week.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07203.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v739/raider97/DSC07202.jpg

After dinner we headed up to the monorail back to Magic Kingdom and then on to the buses to POR. I had planned to take Ashley to Magic Kingdom for a few hours just us two, but since Haley was asleep and Christopher was headed that way we decided to just call it a night. We were lucky that a bus was just unloading when we arrived and we were the only ones headed back to the resort so we had the whole bus to ourselfs. We got the kids tucked into bed while we watched a little bit of t.v. before heading to sleep. It was a wonderful day!

Up next, Christmas Eve at Magic Kingdom!

[raider97]

Merry Christmas to you too! We all were a little down this year not being at Disney. How does ONE Christmas trip do that????? Anyway, we vow to go back for Christmas again one day as we had such a magical time! I think we will try to go back in October of 2011 (we've never seen the Halloween decorations) and maybe back for Christmas of 2012. Hope you guys enjoyed Christmas!:santa:

I felt the same way! I missed being there for Christmas so much this year. It wasn't helped by the fact that Christopher wanted to celebrate his birthday there again this year too. I would love to go in October one year! However, it will have to be an adult only trip or wait until the kids are older since our school district is so strict with absences. :( Let me know when you start a pre-trip report! I would love to ehar about your planning!!

[happenin2you]

Hey stranger! Looks like things are coming right along =) I really wanted to swim when I was there this past Dec too, but I wound up getting sick the whole time I was there, so it just wasn't an option. That and it was absolutely freezing the whole time we were there. It was horrible. Thats another story for another day though. Glad to see everyone enjoyed their surprise ;) Looking forward to the next installment!

[happenin2you]

WAIT!!! Am I reading this right? You have a new ticker and you're going back for Christmas at the Poly?!?!? DETAILS, PLEASE!

[raider97]

Hey stranger! Looks like things are coming right along =) I really wanted to swim when I was there this past Dec too, but I wound up getting sick the whole time I was there, so it just wasn't an option. That and it was absolutely freezing the whole time we were there. It was horrible. Thats another story for another day though. Glad to see everyone enjoyed their surprise ;) Looking forward to the next installment!

Ugh! So sorry to hear you were sick!! I'm going to pm you. Got to hear everything :(

WAIT!!! Am I reading this right? You have a new ticker and you're going back for Christmas at the Poly?!?!? DETAILS, PLEASE!

Waiting for announcement eh? :thumbsup2

[raider97]

Well, my husband agreed to go back to Disney World after we bought a camper and... we just bought a new camper and I got a 40% off code so we are going back to my happy place!

:santa:We are booked at the Poly for Christmas!:santa:
:santa:December 16th - 24th:santa: