"One Step Ahead of the Slowpokes!"- A Dec '10/Jan '11 Trip Report! FINISHED 3/9 pg 38 [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

therussells08

01-04-2011, 07:51 PM

Hello everyone and :welcome: to my first ever trip report! :wave2:

This is following my first ever PTR, which, if you are interested in 65 pages of my neurotic ramblings, I encourage you to read! Some of you are probably followers of my PTR, meaning you suffered through all 65 pages of said ramblings. Thank you all for sticking by me through thick and thin and joining me here now to read all about my trip! :worship: As far as my new readers go, I'm so excited to have you along on this wonderful/crazy/glorious journey! :hug:

Well, let's not waste any time! You're here to read about a trip, right? Right! So here we gooooo! :wizard:

Who?
My husband, John and me, Joni! :lovestruc

What?
A 6 night (was supposed to be 7...more on that later) 7 day Disney trip with the DELUXE dining plan, and a side day trip to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!:cloud9:

Where?
Disney's POP Century Resort

When?
December 25, 2010-January 1, 2011

Why?
It was the first time we both had vacation at the same time in a year, and we were celebrating our two and a half year anniversary!

Okay, so there are the basics! Now, I will go into a little more detail about the cast of this trip!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/100_0351.jpg

Me: Joni! A 23 year old high school English teacher from beautiful NC! :teacher: I am the Disney planner of the family and I am totally obsessed with any and everything Disney! :lovestruc I took my first trip to the World with John in 2007 and I have been addicted ever since. I've been a total of seven times, counting this trip! Here is my Disney inventory:
Favorite Movie: Tie between Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin
Favorite Character: Pluto before the trip, but now I'm saying Woody and Goofy (you'll find out why later! ;))
Favorite Ride: Rock'n Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/100_0509.jpg

DH: A 24 year old soldier in the US Army! John and I met when he was a sophomore in high school and I was a freshman. He joined the Army right out of high school and has been in ever since. He has served in Iraq as an Airborne Infantryman and is now finishing up Special Forces training. This summer he will officially be a Green Beret! I am so proud of him, and he is absolutely my Prince Charming! :lovestruc Here is John's Disney inventory:
Favorite Movie: Swiss Family Robinson and Disney Earth
Favorite Character: King Louie
Favorite Ride: Tower of Terror and Mission: Space

If you'd like to read a little more about us or about the planning for this trip you can check out my PTR! A lot changed during our trip planning. When I started the PTR in May it was going to be John and me with my cousin, Josh and his girlfriend, Wendy. However, Josh and Wendy had to back out so it ended up just being John and me. This turned out to be fine, because we had a wonderful trip!

So, now that we have the basics covered, let me tell you a little bit of what you can expect in this TR!

A whole lot of surprises!
A ton of laughs!
A few really difficult decisions!
Some amazing first time experiences!
Over 1,000 pics, including food and PP!

My very first actual update will be about Christmas morning, because that's really when this whole adventure began. If you read my PTR, you know I had a very specific Christmas wish list. If you didn't read it, I was desperately hoping to get a Disney Dooney & Bourke sketch wristlet, a Disney shirt for my trip, Toy Story 3 and Beauty and the Beast on DVD, Disney Sing It! Family Hits for the Wii, and a Disney Jim Shore figurine. So...do you think I got what I wished for? Well, I'll tell you this much: I was in for some very big surprises when I woke up Christmas morning! Stay tuned! ;)

Up Next: What exactly did I get for Christmas? You won't believe it! :woohoo:

therussells08

01-04-2011, 07:55 PM

12/25/10-12/26/10 Departure Day/Arrival Morning

Christmas Morning: Part One (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39423208&postcount=30)

Christmas Morning: Part Two (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39437739&postcount=52)

I love you, Bill and Sookie, but are we there yet?! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39471847&postcount=76)

I'll sleep in a dumpster as long as I'm at Disney! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39486771&postcount=94)

12/26/10- Magic Kingdom

Smile, Honey! Oh, and pretend you're holding a fairy! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39543471&postcount=114)

Sheesh Dude, let me finish my danish! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39691685&postcount=130)

Yay! Robot Spiders! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39845829&postcount=158)

To Ride Splash Mountain or Not to Ride? That is the Question! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40131052&postcount=174)

Holy Cow, Two Kinds of Fried Cheese! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40161447&postcount=193) **Dining Review

Adventures in Fantasyland! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40241598&postcount=207)

It's a World of Laughter, a World of John's Tears! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40306110&postcount=224)

Beautiful Lights and Freezing Cold Sights! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40397643&postcount=237)

Nothing Warms me up Like Disney Fireworks! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40475278&postcount=250)

12/27/10- Disney's Hollywood Studios

Hurray for Hollywood! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40492220&postcount=256)

FUN in an Elevator! Livin' it up When I'm Going Down! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40533827&postcount=262)

Let's Go to the Movies! Let's Go See the Stars! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40631953&postcount=274)

Cover Your Mouth, if You Please! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40707689&postcount=286) **Dining Review

Walking in a Winter Wonderland! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40763060&postcount=293)

Just Like Mama Makes It! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40782022&postcount=299) **Dining Review

I've Always Had a Thing for Cowboys! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40850888&postcount=309)

Sweet Dreams of Gingerbread and Prince Charming! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40857686&postcount=320)

12/28/10- Epcot

Hello, Golf Ball! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40890708&postcount=337)

Get Out of my Personal Space! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40951834&postcount=347)

A Christmas Miracle! It's Warm! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=40991946&postcount=355)

J'ai Tres Faim! Let's Eat! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41031171&postcount=366) **Dining Review

Find the Diamond (or Pearl) in the Rough! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41062624&postcount=376)

Decisions, Decisions! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41103563&postcount=384)

Decision Made! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41121966&postcount=394)

12/29/10- WWoHP, Downtown Disney and More!

Wizards, Wands, and Waiting: Part One (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41161731&postcount=409)

Wizards, Wands, and Waiting: Part Two (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41161788&postcount=410)

Roughing it in the Wilderness! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41203936&postcount=431)

Best. Dinner. EVER. (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41234141&postcount=440) **Dining Review

Sleigh Bells Ring, Are You Listening? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41278354&postcount=453)

12/30/10- Resort Hopping and Downtown Disney!

Eating Breakfast With the Paparazzi (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41286644&postcount=458) **Dining Review

Shopping, Shopping, and MORE Shopping! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41311876&postcount=470)

Ho, Ho, Ho...Hyuck! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41360196&postcount=482) ** Dining Review

Asante Sana Squash Banana! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=41380072&postcount=488) **Dining Review

12/31/10- Animal Kingdom and Resort Hopping

Best. Decision. EVER! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43219798&postcount=512)

Safaris Make Me Hungry! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43245007&postcount=521)**Dining Review

Monkey Tattoos and Elephant Butts (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43365120&postcount=529)

Did I Just See That Gorilla Evolve? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43365835&postcount=533)

The Best Safari is a Pizzafari! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43373574&postcount=538)

T.T.F.N, Animal Kingdom! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43435296&postcount=549)

'Ohana Means DIS Meets! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44253244#post44253244)**Dining Review

1/1/11- Magic Kingdom and Heading Home

One Last Celebrashun! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44257549&postcount=559) **Dining Review

Doesn't "Aloha" Mean Hello and Goodbye? (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44262413&postcount=563)

A Trail of Bread Crumbs from Disney to NC (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44268765&postcount=564)

T.T.F.N, Readers! Trip Report Wrap-Up! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44276625&postcount=568)

DisneyFirefly

01-04-2011, 07:56 PM

Yay, I'm first!

Nermel9

01-04-2011, 07:58 PM

Ugh I was hoping I would be first! :rotfl:

Going back to read now...

stephielela

01-04-2011, 08:06 PM

Yay I'm 3rd!! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

RachelNinja

01-04-2011, 08:13 PM

I would get so excited every time you posted a PTR update. Now that you're posting the actual TR updates, I'm over the moon excited! YAY!!! Can't wait to hear all your stories!

TanzUnited99

01-04-2011, 08:17 PM

Ooh a new TR :yay:...looking forward to reading more. Am staying at Pop in September so look forward to hearing your reviews on the place. In the meantime I am going to go and read your PTR.

TanzUnited99

TinkerbellLuvr7

01-04-2011, 08:18 PM

CW4DW

01-04-2011, 08:23 PM

Just found your report - gonna go back and read your pre trip report.

ChildAtHeart82

01-04-2011, 08:38 PM

I'm here!! :banana: You built up so much supense with your first post. I hope I don't have to wait too long to hear what happens. :)

rootbeer momma

01-04-2011, 09:07 PM

We love Pop! Joining the ranks and headed back to read your PTR

Tracy161

01-04-2011, 09:10 PM

I'm in! Can't wait to read all about it! And I'm so anxious to see what you got for Christmas! popcorn::

wangmichelle

01-04-2011, 09:17 PM

wow, baby, it is so wonderful , I am just joined, and many things all don't understand, hope one day I can also like you,:lmao:

shelbys mommy

01-04-2011, 10:38 PM

I am here!!!!!!! I can NOT wait to read more! I know SOME of the secrets, but it is safe with me lol I loved getting the texts & pics on my phone while you were gone, so I am definitely in!!!!

mom2mek

01-04-2011, 10:39 PM

I can't wait to read all about your trip! I'm excited to hear about what you got for Christmas so don't leave us hanging too long!!:goodvibes

Sara

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-04-2011, 10:45 PM

I'm here! Great start - I'm dying for the next update! Don't make us wait too long! :goodvibes

LisaKeys

01-04-2011, 10:58 PM

OK - so I'm not the top 3, but 15 "ain't" so bad!

This TR looks like it will be fun! I love the way you're setting it up. :flower3:

We leave on Monday for our 2 week Disney adventure - so I'll have to try to keep up while there.

Read you soon! :surfweb:

therussells08

01-05-2011, 05:32 AM

Yay, I'm first!

Yay! You were first on my PTR too! Thank you! :hug:

Ugh I was hoping I would be first! :rotfl:

Going back to read now...

:rotfl: You crack me up! I want you to know that you were the inspiration that got my butt into gear with writing this thing!

Yay I'm 3rd!! Can't wait to hear all about your adventures!

Yay! :welcome: I'm so glad you're here too!

I would get so excited every time you posted a PTR update. Now that you're posting the actual TR updates, I'm over the moon excited! YAY!!! Can't wait to hear all your stories!

Thank you Rachel! You always make me feel so great! :goodvibes I hope you enjoy my TR! Your name will definitely pop up several times because a lot at Disney reminded me of you and your TR!

Ooh a new TR :yay:...looking forward to reading more. Am staying at Pop in September so look forward to hearing your reviews on the place. In the meantime I am going to go and read your PTR.

TanzUnited99

:welcome: Thank you for joining in! I think you will love POP...I sure did!

therussells08

01-05-2011, 05:35 AM

I'm here!!!! Can't wait to hear about the trip! Hopefully you guys didn't have bed buggies at POP like we did!!

I had a hard time figuring out Chapter links too!

All you have to do is click on the number that's in the right corner of your thread post..
IE: Your chapter page is #2.

When you click on the number it should pop up another page that is just of that posting.

Go up to the box where it has the httpwww. whatever, highlight it, right click copy, and close that box.

Go to your post of chapters and click to edit it.

At the top where you have the fonts, colors, and icons..click on the icon that looks like an earth. Erase what's in the box and right click paste and it will put the info that you copied from the page you just copied.

Click OKAY and it will highlight in the message box, you can type in the title of that chapter then!

When you click post reply, it will automagically put it the link there!

This is what it will look like:

Chapters:

Chaper Page (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=39411461&postcount=2)

There, I hope I helped!!

Yay! I'm so glad you're here! Thankfully we had no bed bugs at POP, but I was super paranoid about them and I spent about an hour checking out sheets! :rotfl:

Thank you so much for explaining that to me! I should be able to figure it out with your instructions! :)

Just found your report - gonna go back and read your pre trip report.

:welcome: Thanks for joining in! I hope that you enjoy both reports! :)

I'm here!! :banana: You built up so much supense with your first post. I hope I don't have to wait too long to hear what happens. :)

Yay! :welcome: I should be posting another update tonight! ;)

We love Pop! Joining the ranks and headed back to read your PTR

:welcome: Thank you for joining me! We loved POP too! It was definitely our favorite of the value resorts!

I'm in! Can't wait to read all about it! And I'm so anxious to see what you got for Christmas! popcorn::

Yay! I'm so glad you're here! Thank you for joining in! :)

therussells08

01-05-2011, 05:38 AM

wow, baby, it is so wonderful , I am just joined, and many things all don't understand, hope one day I can also like you,:lmao:

Thank you so much! :) :welcome: to the DIS! We are so happy to have you here! If you have any questions I will be more than happy to help, or I'm sure one of my more experienced DIS friends would too!

I am here!!!!!!! I can NOT wait to read more! I know SOME of the secrets, but it is safe with me lol I loved getting the texts & pics on my phone while you were gone, so I am definitely in!!!!

Yay! Both Jonis are here now! :hug: I'm so glad you enjoyed my crazy texts! Thanks for joining in girl!

I can't wait to read all about your trip! I'm excited to hear about what you got for Christmas so don't leave us hanging too long!!:goodvibes

Sara

:welcome: Thank you so much for reading along! I loved your TR so much, so I hope mine can be as exciting as yours! :)

I'm here! Great start - I'm dying for the next update! Don't make us wait too long! :goodvibes

Yay! I'm so glad you're here! Don't worry, there should be another update tonight! :)

OK - so I'm not the top 3, but 15 "ain't" so bad!

This TR looks like it will be fun! I love the way you're setting it up. :flower3:

We leave on Monday for our 2 week Disney adventure - so I'll have to try to keep up while there.

Read you soon! :surfweb:

:welcome: Thank you so much for joining in! :) I can't believe you're leaving on Monday for two weeks! That is amazing! I hope that you have a wonderful time! :)

therussells08

01-05-2011, 05:41 AM

Wow! You guys are so awesome! I can't believe I'm already up to two pages. Thank you all so much for joining me! :grouphug:

I will definitely be back tonight to post an update. Also, I ordered my PhotoPass CD on Sunday and I got express shipping, so hopefully it will be in soon! :thumbsup2

I have to go to work right now, but check in this evening for my update about Christmas morning! Also, I still need to explain the reasoning for my title! This is so much fun! :goodvibes

See ya real soon! :earsboy:

Tracy161

01-05-2011, 06:00 AM

Can't wait! Also, I have to point out that every time I see your title I get the Aladdin song in my head! :laughing:

lauren_elizabeth

01-05-2011, 06:30 AM

Joining in on this trip report! Can't wait to hear how much fun yall had! :goodvibes

Shannon84

01-05-2011, 08:22 AM

I am here to read along...excited to hear about your trip :goodvibes:

ChildAtHeart82

01-05-2011, 08:31 AM

Can't wait! Also, I have to point out that every time I see your title I get the Aladdin song in my head! :laughing:

Well now that song's stuck in my head and probably will be every time I read this TR. :lmao: It's a good song at least.

eecteacher82

01-05-2011, 11:09 AM

I'm here!!! Can't wait to read and see what you thought of the DxDP!!!

therussells08

01-05-2011, 05:24 PM

Can't wait! Also, I have to point out that every time I see your title I get the Aladdin song in my head! :laughing:

That's partially why I gave my TR this title...John and I listened to that song about a million times on this trip! I don't think I'll ever get it out of my head! :rotfl:

Joining in on this trip report! Can't wait to hear how much fun yall had! :goodvibes

:welcome: Thanks so much for joining in! :)

I am here to read along...excited to hear about your trip :goodvibes:

:welcome: I'm so glad you're here! I hope you enjoy! :)

Well now that song's stuck in my head and probably will be every time I read this TR. :lmao: It's a good song at least.

:laughing: My TR will probably have that effect on everyone! But it is a great song!

I'm here!!! Can't wait to read and see what you thought of the DxDP!!!

Yay! :welcome: I'm so glad you're here!

stich626

01-05-2011, 05:48 PM

Cannot wait to hear about your christmas gifts!

Disneyfreak616

01-05-2011, 05:51 PM

Can't wait for the rest of this TR! Subscribing for sure! :goodvibes

Love the title, by the way! :thumbsup2

therussells08

01-05-2011, 06:57 PM

As you can imagine, I woke up on Christmas morning BEYOND excited. Not only was it Christmas, my favorite day of the year, but it was our departure day for Disney! :santa: I had been waiting nine long months for this day, and it was finally here! I couldn't believe it. We always stay at my parents' house on Christmas Eve, so waking up on Christmas morning has just as much magic as it did when I was a kid. Understandably, I had some trouble sleeping the night before, so I ended up getting up around 8:30. John had already been up for several hours by this point. John is like a four year old on Christmas morning- he wakes up before dawn and tromps around the house being as loud as possible in the hopes that he will wake everyone up to open presents. :laughing: He's a nut, but you can't help but love him. Anyway, I woke up and headed downstairs with my two dogs, Vida and Bella. I had to check out the presents that Santa had brought. My mom and dad still play Santa with us, even though we are 23, 24, and 26. They wait until Christmas Eve after we are in bed to put our gifts under the tree so we can't shake them. I just love my family!

Bella was having a hard time waking up, so I put her in the chair next to the Christmas tree and took a funny picture of her sleepy face.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250002.jpg

How cute is that?! :lovestruc And don't you just love her PJs? Yes, I'm a freak, but my dogs wear PJs to bed every single night when it's cold out. They love them, and I love looking at their adorableness!

We had a quick but delicious breakfast (it's a Christmas tradition- my sister makes AMAZING apple muffins with honey butter spread and my mom yummy makes sausage quiche) and my dad started a fire so we would be cozy. Of course, we also turned on the 24 hour Christmas Story marathon and turned it down really low, to add to the ambiance. ;) After all of this, it was finally time to open presents! Yippeeee! :woohoo:

*Note: Please excuse my ghastly hair and overall appearance in the following pictures. I had just woken up and I tend to look a little like a zombie in the mornings. You have been warned.

As we started opening gifts my other baby girl Vida just had to sit in mommy's lap and help out. My first gift was a real winner!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250003.jpg

Just Dance 2 for the Wii! Yay! :thumbsup2 I love the first Just Dance game, so I was so excited to get this! I feel like Just Dance is the best way to exercise. It's so much fun you don't even realize how much work it is, until you wake up the next morning and you can't lift your arms!

My sister opened up her first gift and was super happy to see that she got a new Willow Tree figurine from my mom. She collects those and loves them about as much as I love Jim Shore, so this was a great surprise. It was really beautiful, too. It was a mother hugging her daughter. I could have cried!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250004.jpg

I decided I just couldn't get into tearing open Christmas presents properly with Vida on my lap, so I made her go sit on the couch and grabbed my next present. What could it be?

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250005.jpg

Woo hoo! My first Disney item! I wanted this DVD so badly, and I was really excited that I got the fancy copy. Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies but I only had it on VHS before this. Also, my best friend got me a portable DVD player for Christmas, so I was thrilled that I could take this on my trip with me!

Next, my mom opened up a gift from John and me. She loves all of my Jim Shore figurines and mentioned she wouldn't mind having some, so we got her a pretty Santa.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250006.jpg

She really seemed to love it!

One gift I opened that I don't have a picture of was one of my favorites: a Jim Shore figurine from my mom! It was the teacher Minnie Mouse that I wanted, and I was so excited! Unfortunately, her hand had broken off during shipment. It was not a big deal at all to me because I know that Jim Shore collectibles will break if you look at them funny and they are easily fixed. My mom, on the other hand, felt terrible and was really upset. I assured her it would be fine and I could easily fix it. I am happy to report that Minnie Mouse now has both of her hands firmly attached and is living happily on my shelf.

Alright folks, next up is a biggie. If I had to list my Christmas wishlist in order of importance, I probably would have listed to Dooney and Bourke sketch wristlet first. I first saw the white ones on a fellow DISers TR and I was so jealous! I fell in love with the colorful ones when I first laid eyes on them and I've wanted one for ages. I really wanted the crossbody bag, but I thought it was too expensive. I figured the wristlet would be more than enough, and then I would get to carry my stuff in style while we were in the parks.

Well, I opened my next gift and I could not believe what was inside! :eek:

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250007.jpg

AHHH! I GOT THE CROSSBODY BAG! :banana:

I was beyond ecstatic at this point. My mom told me she originally bought me the wristlet, but it was so small she decided to send it back and get this instead. Thank you, momma!

I missed out on taking a few pictures of gifts at this point because I was so obssessed with my new bag, and I can't really remember what my family opened. Sorry! :confused3 I know that John opened several of his gifts, because he was tearing through them like a tornado! He got some movies he wanted and some clothes, and a camo snuggie!

Next, John opened up his favorite gift. John loves any and everything Star Wars and he also loves his XBox 360. Therefore, the new Star Wars Force Unleashed 2 game was perfect for him!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250008.jpg

My dad got a few nice new henley shirts that he was really happy about. He loves those things, and they look really nice on him!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250009.jpg

I opened up my next gift and was on cloud 9 when I saw what was inside!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250010.jpg

A new Disney shirt! A really cute new Disney shirt, actually! I was so excited to have this for my trip! It was already turning out to be a very Disney Christmas and we were not even halfway through the mound of gifts!

Next my mom opened up a pretty new sweater and some CDs and her dog, Duke, opened up some Puperonis and a new toy. I love this picture!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250011.jpg

Then, my dad got some new wool socks from John! (By the way, I'm sorry for boring you with all of my family pictures, but I want to include every aspect of our trip, including Christmas morning! It's a total immersion TR experience!)

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250012.jpg

My sister opened up her next gift and got an Old Navy gift card and a gift certificate to our local movie theater! She was thrilled!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250013.jpg

Then it was my turn to open up another gift! (Side note: you can see poor Minnie Mouse and her amputated appendage in this picture!)

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250014.jpg

What could it be? Was it another Disney gift? Also, what gift was an even BIGGER surprise than the Dooney and Bourke bag? Stay tuned to find out!

therussells08

01-05-2011, 06:58 PM

Cannot wait to hear about your christmas gifts!

Thank you! And thank you for joining in! I just posted an update! :)

Can't wait for the rest of this TR! Subscribing for sure! :goodvibes

Love the title, by the way! :thumbsup2

:welcome: And thank you! I'm glad you're here! :)

rootbeer momma

01-05-2011, 07:04 PM

TinkerbellLuvr7

01-05-2011, 07:24 PM

omg great update!!!

You can't possibly be leaving us hanging like this!!!!!

Love the gifts :) I got the beauty and the beast DVD too! My parents also play santa for us as well. We still get jammies on Xmas eve like always. We open gifts and listen to xmas music on the radio and then turn on A Christmas Story which is also what we watch the night before too!

Can't wait to see what else there is..

and I'm glad you didn't have bed buggies!

eecteacher82

01-05-2011, 07:35 PM

Great update! But seriously....are you really going to leave us hanging like that?! :scared1::scared1: If so, you better update soon!

TanzUnited99

01-05-2011, 07:59 PM

Love the update and hooray on getting the D & B cross body bag :thumbsup2 I soo want one. On a seperate note how could you leave at such a crucial point? I want to know what is in that box! Did it send you even further on :cloud9:?

TanzUnited99

RachelNinja

01-05-2011, 08:21 PM

What a cliffhanger! I mean, did you even leave any foreshadowing? Haha!

I am a huge fan of this "total immersion TR experience"! That's the only way they should be written, I think. I'm really looking forward to more! It excites me to see what you'll write about Disney since your Christmas morning is already so so so much fun!

Hmm ... I should update my TR ... I'm slacking so much! Chances are that you'll finish yours before I finish mine!

ChildAtHeart82

01-05-2011, 08:42 PM

Great update! :) You got a lot of great gifts up to this point.

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-05-2011, 08:59 PM

Christmas morning looked like so much fun! I can't wait to see what this other gift was!

I think it's so sweet that you spend Christmas Eve night at your parent's house and that you still have Santa gifts. We live next door to my grandparents and I still go over Christmas morning to see what Santa left. :santa:

Nermel9

01-05-2011, 09:28 PM

Great update! Christmas morning looked like so much fun! Looks like you got everything you wanted on your Christmas list! Love the Dooney sketch, I'm so happy you got one! :) Can't wait to see what your next presents are!!:hug:

dancin_princess

01-05-2011, 11:03 PM

I'm here! :cool1: Now I'm going back to see what I missed. Happy I made it within the first 5 pages. woot woot :cool1:

dancin_princess

01-05-2011, 11:15 PM

oooooo I love love love your D&B bag!! I cant wait to see what you opened next!

luckylady

01-06-2011, 12:34 AM

Tracy161

01-06-2011, 06:06 AM

Don't ya just love Christmas morning?! Especially when it means a very Disney Christmas morning! :rotfl: Your gifts are great and I'm so happy that you got the D&B bag, it's beautiful!!! :goodvibes Can't wait to see what the even bigger surprise is!!!

Shannon84

01-06-2011, 08:54 AM

I love Christmas time!! I was so excited to get the fancy Beauty and the Beast dvd too, that is my favorite Disney movie

mom2mek

01-06-2011, 06:58 PM

Ack...cliffhangers....:scared1:

Sara

therussells08

01-06-2011, 07:06 PM

I Want a D&B Disney sketch bag so bad!!! I kept going back to them when we were there in nov/dec but restrained myself. I just hate to spend that much on a purse.

Looks like you guys had a nice Christmas

I know they are so beautiful but so expensive! I would never spend that much on a purse either, so I was SO glad my mom would! :laughing:

omg great update!!!

You can't possibly be leaving us hanging like this!!!!!

Love the gifts :) I got the beauty and the beast DVD too! My parents also play santa for us as well. We still get jammies on Xmas eve like always. We open gifts and listen to xmas music on the radio and then turn on A Christmas Story which is also what we watch the night before too!

Can't wait to see what else there is..

and I'm glad you didn't have bed buggies!

Yay for getting the Beauty and the Beast DVD too! :thumbsup2 I love your Christmas traditions! They sound a lot like ours!

YES I am so glad we didn't have bed bugs too! Blech!

Great update! But seriously....are you really going to leave us hanging like that?! :scared1::scared1: If so, you better update soon!

Thank you! :) I'm sorry about leaving you hanging! I am going to fill this TR with cliffhangers to keep everyone interested! ;)

Love the update and hooray on getting the D & B cross body bag :thumbsup2 I soo want one. On a seperate note how could you leave at such a crucial point? I want to know what is in that box! Did it send you even further on :cloud9:?

TanzUnited99

Thank you! :) Oh trust me, the rest of the morning had me on :cloud9: for sure!

What a cliffhanger! I mean, did you even leave any foreshadowing? Haha!

I am a huge fan of this "total immersion TR experience"! That's the only way they should be written, I think. I'm really looking forward to more! It excites me to see what you'll write about Disney since your Christmas morning is already so so so much fun!

Hmm ... I should update my TR ... I'm slacking so much! Chances are that you'll finish yours before I finish mine!

Haha nope, no foreshadowing! Sorry! ;)

I am trying to model my TR after yours! I love how much detail you put into everthing you write, so I'm trying to do that too! I don't want to rush through my TR because if it's finished before I can start my next PTR I will be so sad!

I just read your TR updates and I loved them!

therussells08

01-06-2011, 07:09 PM

Great update! :) You got a lot of great gifts up to this point.

Thank you! :) I was so excited!

Christmas morning looked like so much fun! I can't wait to see what this other gift was!

I think it's so sweet that you spend Christmas Eve night at your parent's house and that you still have Santa gifts. We live next door to my grandparents and I still go over Christmas morning to see what Santa left. :santa:

Thank you! :) I don't think I'll be able to stop staying with my parents on Christmas Eve until I have kids of my own. I just can't tear myself away from them! It's such a special time.

Great update! Christmas morning looked like so much fun! Looks like you got everything you wanted on your Christmas list! Love the Dooney sketch, I'm so happy you got one! :) Can't wait to see what your next presents are!!:hug:

Thank you! :) I was SO excited when I got the Dooney bag! I just couldn't believe it, because I never expected it! I am trying to post an update now but Photobucket is being difficult! :headache:

I'm here! :cool1: Now I'm going back to see what I missed. Happy I made it within the first 5 pages. woot woot :cool1:

YAY! :welcome: I am so glad you're here because you are important to this TR! ;)

oooooo I love love love your D&B bag!! I cant wait to see what you opened next!

Thank you!! :) I love it too! It's my baby, haha! :rotfl:

therussells08

01-06-2011, 07:13 PM

They say it's a small world and now I do believe it is. If my guess is right we live in the same town(as long as your in the big on and not the small one on the side of the base.) Love the presents you got. I think my 23 y/o DD would be green if she saw your D&G bag, so I won't show her. Did you drive or fly down? We usually drive but I"m thinking of flying next time. I hate that 9 hour drive. Can't wait to see more.

That is so cool that you live near me! Actually, I currently live about two hours from the base. I work near there, so John and I only see each other on the weekends! But still, we are close! That's so cool! Are you a military family?

Your DD is my age and it sounds like if we both like Disney and Dooney we have similar interests! :)

We drove down! We usually do, except for a few times when we were pinched for time. It is a rough drive, but it's just so much cheaper than flying! I would definitely prefer to fly, though.

Don't ya just love Christmas morning?! Especially when it means a very Disney Christmas morning! :rotfl: Your gifts are great and I'm so happy that you got the D&B bag, it's beautiful!!! :goodvibes Can't wait to see what the even bigger surprise is!!!

Yes! Christmas morning is THE BEST! :santa: Thank you so much!

I love Christmas time!! I was so excited to get the fancy Beauty and the Beast dvd too, that is my favorite Disney movie

Yay! I'm so glad you got it too! I'm really excited because if I ever get around to getting a Blu Ray player it has the Blu Ray disc too!

Ack...cliffhangers....:scared1:

Sara

I'm sorry! Don't worry, an update is coming very soon! ;)

luckylady

01-06-2011, 07:22 PM

Are you a military family?

Your DD is my age and it sounds like if we both like Disney and Dooney we have similar interests! :)

No we aren't. We both did our time as kids an he was Navy before we were married. DH works out on the base tho. Yes DD loves DIsney and is not happy I don't want to go agin this year, well maybe if I can fly. She graduated last month from UNC-W and is getting ready to take the GRE. Better her then me.

Tinkermom76

01-06-2011, 07:41 PM

OK I am joining in! I would love to go to WDW on Christmas morning (good way to get out of cooking :rotfl:)

I can't believe you left us hangin like that :scared1:

saralexander97

01-06-2011, 07:59 PM

I'm excited to hear about Disney during Christmas. We will be taking the kids in December. I can't wait to read more.

therussells08

01-06-2011, 08:09 PM

When we left off I was just getting ready to open my next gift! I won’t make you wait any longer to find out what was inside!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250016.jpg

It was another Disney shirt! Don’t worry, while it was wonderful, it wasn’t the real doosy of a gift I was talking about! Still, I really loved it. I am a huge Winnie the Pooh fan, and Eeyore is my favorite. Also, purple is my favorite color! I was thrilled to have another shirt for my trip.

Next, my sister opened another gift. She's a big reader, so she was excited about this one.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250017.jpg

She got Stephen King's book, Under the Dome. Now, you know I love to read because I'm an English teacher. However, this thing just looked a little too thick for me! I usually love thick books, but I think my brain was fried because I read the back of it and that was more than enough for me!

Let's see what else I opened up...

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250021.jpg

The next two gifts I got were from my sister and they were both total surprises!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250019.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250022.jpg

I got a Jim Shore figurine of Peg from Lady and the Tramp and Nana from Peter Pan! These still weren‘t the doosy gifts, but they were still great! Both of these movies were some of my favorites from my childhood. Also, when I was a little girl we had two dogs named Minnie and Mickey. Oddly enough they were both girls, but we loved Disney so much even then we had to give them those names. Mickey was a big golden retriever and she always reminded me of Nana because she was so gentle and caring. She loved to take care of my sister and me. Minnie, on the other hand, always reminded me of Peg. She was a little Pomeranian and she was really sassy and frisky. I was so excited that Stacy bought me these figurines because they will always remind me not only of Disney but of my first pets! :goodvibes

*Note: Please don't think that I'm the only person in my family who got Christmas presents. It's just that John took control of my camera because he knew I wanted Christmas morning in my TR (I picked a winner, didn't I? :lovestruc) and he wanted to make sure he got pictures of all of my stuff. I just didn't want you to think I was like the evil stepsister! ;)

The next gift I opened from my sister was a TOTAL shock, but it still wasn't as surprising as what I got later! If you read my PTR you know that I am an avid Disney pin collector. I got hooked on my first Disney trip and I have been addicted ever since. I even got to go to a weekend pin trading event at Disney in 2008. Anyway, ever since I started collecting I have had a "holy grail" pin. This is the pin I have always wanted but couldn't find anywhere. It is a Tower of Terror pin with Goofy on the front in black and white as the host. It says "Going Down" and has the elevator behind it. I saw it on the pin pics website once and I instantly wanted it but I could never find it! Well, guess what I got!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250023.jpg

I was so surprised and so happy, as you can see by my huge crazy smile! My sister said she found it on Ebay and won it in a bidding war, so I was really grateful! Stacy bought me some truly amazing gifts, and it was so special to me because she put a ton of thought into them!

Alright, let's check out some more gift pictures!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250024.jpg

John got a t-shirt for some video game he is obsessed with. Don't ask me what it is, because I have no idea! :laughing:

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250025.jpg

My mom got a Harry Potter desk calendar! We are all big Harry Potter fans (except for my dad) so this was a cool gift! She looks so happy, and I love how she is surrounded by cozy dogs in this picture.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250026.jpg

Stacy got a perfume set from John and me. We also got her and my dad tickets to a Penguins hockey game but we don't have any pictures of them opening those. I wish we did, though, because they are huge Pens fans (my dad is from Pittsburgh) and they were SO excited!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250027.jpg

Stacy also got a really pretty blanket with Ariel and her name on it! She loves The Little Mermaid, so she was super happy!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250028.jpg

John got a Space Mountain shirt for our trip! That's another one of his favorite rides, and it was a great idea because he didn't have many Disney shirts for the trip!

After all of this we were finally done opening presents! Everyone got a ton of stuff that I don't have pictures of, but as you can see just from the pictures, it was an amazing Christmas! I got True Blood Season 1 on DVD, a calendar, a reed diffuser, and some really pretty clothes for work and probably more stuff I can't remember.

Before we finished up we had to open stockings! Each year we all draw names for stockings, so everyone is only responsible for one person. My dad drew my name, and he did a great job!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250029.jpg

Toy Story 3 on DVD!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250030.jpg

Disney Sing It! Family Hits for the Wii! I also got a few gift cards and some candy! It was an excellent stocking!

This was definitely a VERY DISNEY CHRISTMAS! :santa: Now it was time to get ready and head to John's parents' house. They only live about twenty minutes away, so we showered and dressed and were on our way at about 11:30.

I took a picture of my Christmas gloves my best friend gave me in the car. I was so jazzed I just had to do something to keep myself busy!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250031.jpg

This is about the time that I got the most surprising Christmas gift of all. Are you ready for it?

...

It started to SNOW! :eek: That might not seem like a big deal to anyone but me, but I have NEVER EVER EVER had a white Christmas! Now don't get me wrong, we've had some leftover black sludge that used to be snow on Christmas before, but never fresh falling snow! I was so shocked I almost cried! It's really hard to see it in this picture, but I promise it's there!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250032.jpg

This might not seem like that big of deal right now, but just wait for it! We got to my in laws' home and did our Christmas with them. I don't have any pictures, but we had a great time. I got a really awesome gift: Kodak's version of a FlipCam! This bad boy is the best camera I've ever gotten. Not only does it take HD videos, but it also takes really nice quality pictures. Plus, it's purple! :woohoo: It ended up saving my tail on our trip too, since the camera I usually use ran out of memory one day into the trip! It was also really fun watching my niece open up her gifts. She is six and so fun to buy for! I live vicariously through her, so I bought her stuff I would have loved. We got her Beauty and the Beast on DVD and a Belle doll that sings a song from the movie. We also got her Disney Princess earrings, since she just got her ears pierced. She loved everything!

When we left my in laws' house at about 1:00 the snow got really surprising! When we entered the house it was a nice flurry melting on the windshield and our tongues. When we left an hour later, we saw this:

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250035.jpg

Everything was white! :scared1: It had piled up so quickly! It was gorgeous, but instantly my stomach did a little flip flop. What would happen if it kept coming down? Already the roads were getting a little slippery, and we weren't planning on leaving for Disney until several hours later. Would we get snowed in?

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250036.jpg

We drove back to my parents' house at a snail's pace. It was getting deeper and deeper by the second, and my nerves were getting worse and worse!

Up Next: Did my surprise Christmas gift from Jack Frost put a freeze on our departure? Stay tuned to find out!

therussells08

01-06-2011, 08:12 PM

No we aren't. We both did our time as kids an he was Navy before we were married. DH works out on the base tho. Yes DD loves DIsney and is not happy I don't want to go agin this year, well maybe if I can fly. She graduated last month from UNC-W and is getting ready to take the GRE. Better her then me.

Congrats to your DD for graduating! :thumbsup2 I graduated from Appalachian in 2009, and John's cousin is currently enrolled at UNC-W!

OK I am joining in! I would love to go to WDW on Christmas morning (good way to get out of cooking :rotfl:)

I can't believe you left us hangin like that :scared1:

:welcome: Thanks for joining in! :)

Don't worry, new update posted! Although, it's another cliffhanger!

I'm excited to hear about Disney during Christmas. We will be taking the kids in December. I can't wait to read more.

:welcome: You will love it during Christmas! The decorations are AMAZING! :)

Nermel9

01-06-2011, 08:30 PM

ChildAtHeart82

01-06-2011, 08:53 PM

Yay for getting a white Christmas! :) DW is a big fan of Eeyore too. He's probably her second favorite Disney character after Belle.

TanzUnited99

01-07-2011, 06:03 AM

Glad to find out what was in that box. Sounds like you had a great Xmas and you got snow to top it all! :) We had a snowy Christmas and it has started to snow again today.

I know what you mean about the enjoyment that comes with younger ones opening gifts. I have a sister half my age and love her face when she opens presents!

Look forward to reading more...hopefully the snow doesn't affect your travel to the happiest place on earth!

TanzUnited99

RachelNinja

01-07-2011, 06:36 AM

WOW, what a Disney Christmas! I hope to one day have a Disney Christmas too! I did get a Mickey and Minnie 2010 snowglobe (the mistletoe one), but I ended up returning it to the store. I think I'm going to use the money to get a t-shirt instead!

How do you guys do Christmas gifts? You all just get a bunch of gifts for each person? I think that's really fun. I meet with my extended family, and we get a gift from each family (so I'll get 3 actual gifts). I'm not that big of a fan because it's usually something that matches what the other girls get (ex. an aunt will find an item and just buy it for all the girl cousins). That means that there wasn't as much thought involved like the gifts you guys get!

I told Howard that I'm very excited for us to have our own Christmas (even if it's with my immediate family). Howard and I know each other. AND my mom gets us good gifts too! This past Christmas, she got both of us the fancy memory foam neck pillows because we'll need them for our Amtrak ride!

lauren_elizabeth

01-07-2011, 06:59 AM

You definitely got some awesome Christmas presents! The D&B bag is adorable :goodvibes I've been looking at the totes for months now!

Yay for having a WHITE Christmas! That's so exciting!!

Shannon84

01-07-2011, 08:09 AM

ChildAtHeart82

01-07-2011, 08:30 AM

So, I've had that same Stephen King book your sister got for awhile and haven't gotten around to reading it yet. It is definitely a thick one! :)

chunkymonkey

01-07-2011, 12:26 PM

I'm here and I am all caught up! Loving the TR so far, your Christmas morning looked like so much fun!! I love how everything is so traditional. And the gifts you got were awesome! I got the Toy Story 3 DVD too! :lovestruc

And I'm sooo happy you got the D&B crossbody bag. The perfect bag for the parks!

I can't wait to see how your drive down is going to be...I'm in anticipation of what's to come!!

DisneyFirefly

01-07-2011, 07:10 PM

You got some really good gifts! :yay: I hope the snow wasn't too bad and didn't keep you guys from leaving on time :(

stephielela

01-07-2011, 07:41 PM

That looks like a great Christmas morning! Congrats on the great stuff!

jillianml

01-07-2011, 07:55 PM

I am so excited to read about your adventure!

Tracy161

01-07-2011, 08:14 PM

Ahh! I hope the snow didn't slow you down! I can't imagine not having snow around Christmas time, but I'd love to know how that feels! :rotfl: I'm sick of snow already and where I live in New York, we've barely had any this year!

I'm so excited to read more! :cutie:

shelbys mommy

01-07-2011, 09:09 PM

I am here & all caught up! I love all the Christmas pics! You got some awesome gifts!!!! White Christmas! How lucky are you????

saralexander97

01-07-2011, 10:06 PM

First off, LOVE THE D&B PURSE =) I'm really glad to see your totally Disney Christmas because I bought my daughter all Disney themed gifts. I was telling my coworkers about it and they laughed because I'm passing down the addiction. Disney is like crack, we are on :cloud9: when around and crave it when we are away from it to long. I have to watch a Disney princess movie once a week. I cannot wait to read more you have me captivated.

laashley

01-08-2011, 09:39 AM

Here now and all caught up! What a great start. Such a lucky girl to get that D & B bag! Looks like you had a merry christmas and with the snow coming down:yay: and :eek:. Hope your drive wasn't postponed! For now I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for an update!:goodvibes

Reiana

01-08-2011, 03:30 PM

What a wonderful way to start a trip report. Love it. :goodvibes
Can't wait to read more.

CW4DW

01-08-2011, 04:25 PM

I hope the snow doesn't delay your departure. What an awesome Christmas you and your family had ~ I love that!

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-08-2011, 04:48 PM

It looks like you had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! Your family seems so sweet. :cloud9: And I love how everything was Disney-themed!

We had a white Christmas here, too! It was a complete surprise. I sure hope it didn't delay your trip, though!

therussells08

01-09-2011, 10:38 AM

OMG I love the Peg figurine! :lovestruc She is so cute, she's one of those random Disney characters that I just love! Nana is adorable too!

Yay for your pin, that's amazing that your sister went through all that trouble to get that for you! :goodvibes I sometimes think about getting into collecting pins, but I just can't do it for some reason! I'm starting to collect snow globes and ornaments from my trips instead.

I can't believe you got your White Christmas you were hoping for, that's fantastic! :banana: You had such a great Christmas morning, and after all that, you still got to leave for your Disney trip, what a fun day! :woohoo:

I love Peg and Nana too! It always made me so sad in Peter Pan when the Darling children are flying away and Nana tries to fly with them by flapping her little ears. :lovestruc

I love pin collecting! I like I like it so much because they are all so different and unique, but since they're so small it's really easy to have a lot of them. I love snow globes and ornaments too, so I think those are great things to collect!

I couldn't believe the white Christmas either! It was so pretty! :goodvibes

Yay for getting a white Christmas! :) DW is a big fan of Eeyore too. He's probably her second favorite Disney character after Belle.

Eeyore is so adorable! I like Belle a lot too. Belle and Jasmine are my favorite princesses! :)

Glad to find out what was in that box. Sounds like you had a great Xmas and you got snow to top it all! :) We had a snowy Christmas and it has started to snow again today.

I know what you mean about the enjoyment that comes with younger ones opening gifts. I have a sister half my age and love her face when she opens presents!

Look forward to reading more...hopefully the snow doesn't affect your travel to the happiest place on earth!

TanzUnited99

I did have a great Christmas! We haven't had any snow since Christmas, but it looks like we are going to get some tomorrow!

Watching kids open gifts is the greatest! They get so excited. John is pretty much the same way when he opens gifts! :rotfl:

WOW, what a Disney Christmas! I hope to one day have a Disney Christmas too! I did get a Mickey and Minnie 2010 snowglobe (the mistletoe one), but I ended up returning it to the store. I think I'm going to use the money to get a t-shirt instead!

How do you guys do Christmas gifts? You all just get a bunch of gifts for each person? I think that's really fun. I meet with my extended family, and we get a gift from each family (so I'll get 3 actual gifts). I'm not that big of a fan because it's usually something that matches what the other girls get (ex. an aunt will find an item and just buy it for all the girl cousins). That means that there wasn't as much thought involved like the gifts you guys get!

I told Howard that I'm very excited for us to have our own Christmas (even if it's with my immediate family). Howard and I know each other. AND my mom gets us good gifts too! This past Christmas, she got both of us the fancy memory foam neck pillows because we'll need them for our Amtrak ride!

It was so cool getting so many Disney things for Christmas! I was able to take so much of it on my trip, which worked out perfectly!

Usually we do just buy a bunch of gifts for everyone because we keep things pretty much within my immediate family. My mom's side of the family is very small and my dad's side of the family lives in Pennsylvania, so Christmas is usually just between the five of us. We usually set a limit and spend right up to it, but I always stress out if I get one person more gifts than another, even if the gifts are less expensive so it evens out!

I am so excited for you and Howard to be married and have Christmas together! Even though we go to my parents' house Christmas Eve John and I still decorate our apartment and set up our Christmas tree and everything, and it's really nice to do all of those fun things with him! :) Those neck pillows sound like perfect gifts for you guys!

You definitely got some awesome Christmas presents! The D&B bag is adorable :goodvibes I've been looking at the totes for months now!

Yay for having a WHITE Christmas! That's so exciting!!

Thank you! I love my D&B bag! I don't want to carry it anytime other than when I'm on vacation though, because I don't want to mess it up!

therussells08

01-09-2011, 10:42 AM

That is awesome that you had a white christmas!! I grew up in the Northeast with snow all the time so I always take for granted that some people have never experienced the white Christmas!!

It looks like you had an amazing Christmas! We actually got DBF's sister the same Ariel blanket this year :rotfl: I love to get people personalized gifts

A white Christmas was definitely a first for me! I loved it! I know that a lot of people from up north are used to it though! My aunt lives in Ohio and she came to stay with my cousin in Georgia for Christmas this year and she kept saying it didn't even feel like Christmas because there was no snow!

I love personalized gifts too! They are so special!

So, I've had that same Stephen King book your sister got for awhile and haven't gotten around to reading it yet. It is definitely a thick one! :)

:rotfl: I like Stephen King books but they are kind of difficult to get into. I don't think she's even cracked the cover yet!

I'm here and I am all caught up! Loving the TR so far, your Christmas morning looked like so much fun!! I love how everything is so traditional. And the gifts you got were awesome! I got the Toy Story 3 DVD too! :lovestruc

And I'm sooo happy you got the D&B crossbody bag. The perfect bag for the parks!

I can't wait to see how your drive down is going to be...I'm in anticipation of what's to come!!

Yay! :welcome:

It really was the perfect bag for the parks! I didn't have to worry about losing it since it was a crossbody bag, and it held all of my essentials without being too heavy or bulky!

I will be posting an update later today about the drive down! Stay tuned! :)

You got some really good gifts! :yay: I hope the snow wasn't too bad and didn't keep you guys from leaving on time :(

Thank you! Stay tuned to find out if we had to delay our trip... ;)

That looks like a great Christmas morning! Congrats on the great stuff!

Thanks! :)

therussells08

01-09-2011, 10:45 AM

I am so excited to read about your adventure!

Thank you! I'm so excited to have you reading it! :)

Ahh! I hope the snow didn't slow you down! I can't imagine not having snow around Christmas time, but I'd love to know how that feels! :rotfl: I'm sick of snow already and where I live in New York, we've barely had any this year!

I'm so excited to read more! :cutie:

I know what you mean. I love snow sometimes, but anytime that we get it more than once a winter I get SO sick of it! We don't get a lot of snow where I live, but I went to college in the mountains and we got it all the time. Ugh, I hated it! :headache:

I am here & all caught up! I love all the Christmas pics! You got some awesome gifts!!!! White Christmas! How lucky are you????

Thanks girl! :hug: It was a great Christmas!

First off, LOVE THE D&B PURSE =) I'm really glad to see your totally Disney Christmas because I bought my daughter all Disney themed gifts. I was telling my coworkers about it and they laughed because I'm passing down the addiction. Disney is like crack, we are on :cloud9: when around and crave it when we are away from it to long. I have to watch a Disney princess movie once a week. I cannot wait to read more you have me captivated.

Thank you! :) I bet your daughter loved her Disney Christmas! You are so right about Disney, too! Some people just don't get it!

Here now and all caught up! What a great start. Such a lucky girl to get that D & B bag! Looks like you had a merry christmas and with the snow coming down:yay: and :eek:. Hope your drive wasn't postponed! For now I'll be on the edge of my seat waiting for an update!:goodvibes

Thank you! :) I was very lucky this Christmas! I wasn't expecting that bag at all, and I definitely wasn't expecting snow! :cloud9:

I will be posting an update later today, so you won't have to wait too long! ;)

therussells08

01-09-2011, 10:47 AM

What a wonderful way to start a trip report. Love it. :goodvibes
Can't wait to read more.

Thank you! :) There will be an update very soon, I promise!

I hope the snow doesn't delay your departure. What an awesome Christmas you and your family had ~ I love that!

Thank you so much! :)

It looks like you had an absolutely wonderful Christmas! Your family seems so sweet. :cloud9: And I love how everything was Disney-themed!

We had a white Christmas here, too! It was a complete surprise. I sure hope it didn't delay your trip, though!

Thank you! My family is really great! I am very lucky to have them! :lovestruc

That's so awesome that you had a white Christmas too!

therussells08

01-09-2011, 03:40 PM

Our original plan had been to hang out at my parents' house until 6 or 7-ish and then hit the road for Disney. We were going to drive until around midnight, stop for the night, and finish the drive the next morning. However, by 2 o'clock there was already several inches of snow on the ground and it was starting to stick to the road pretty good too. This left us with two choices: leave for Disney early and get out of the snow before it got much worse, or wait around and leave the next day. However, the forecast was calling for 6 to 7 inches of snow, so waiting around would probably have meant leaving in three or four days, not the next morning. Therefore, John and I decided to leave earlier than planned. We hung out for a little while, packing all of the new stuff we got for Christmas into our luggage, and eating some leftover Christmas feast. We have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, and I refused to leave without having one more helping of my mom's ham and my dad's delicious spicy cheeseball. :cloud9:

John took a quick nap so he would be good to drive and I sat around anxiously. It was a conundrum, because I was eager to leave for Disney, but I was dragging my feet because I was sad to leave my family on Christmas. :sad1: I have traveled around Christmas a few times, and it's always hard. One year when John was stationed in Alaska I went to visit him the day after Christmas. As much as I wanted to see him, I almost didn't go because I am such a homebody at Christmas and I just couldn't stand leaving my family. I ended up going and of course I was glad I did, but saying goodbye was hard.

Speaking of goodbyes, it was finally that time. I was dreading saying goodbye to my dogs because I haven't spent more than one night away from them in over a year. However, I felt pretty good about it because I wasn't leaving them at a kennel. They stay with my mom during the day while I'm working all week, so they are completely used to being at my parents' house. It's like a second home to them, so I knew they would be happy. I was feeling sorry for myself, not Bella and Vida, because I'm so used to being with them every night. I decided to treat it like ripping off a bandaid, so I gave them a quick hug and kiss and didn't drag things out. My family saw us off and we hit the road at exactly 3:55pm.

I tried to take a picture of the time in the car, but my camera refused to cooperate so I settled for a picture of the snow instead. Sorry about the windshield wipers, but you can see the snow starting to stick to the road pretty good. We got out of there just in time!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250039.jpg

Right after logging our departure time into my trip journal I got out my GPS and set it up. John knows exactly how to get to Disney (which he reminded me of grumpily several times as I set the GPS up) but I wanted to have it going the whole trip so I could see our arrival time. I get this weird joy from shaving a minute or two off of our estimated arrival time when we travel, and it was going to take more than John's surliness to deny me this pleasure! The voice on my GPS is set to an Australian man, and his name is Lee. So when I say "Lee said blah blah blah" or something like that during this TR please don't think we had an extra passenger I forgot to mention! ;) Lee said our estimated arrival time was 1:30am. :eek: That was way earlier than I expected! I immediately couldn't help but think, "Hmm...should we go all the way tonight?" :rolleyes: I didn't say anything to John just yet, but the seed was definitely planted...

After setting Lee up I immediately settled in and got comfortable for the long car ride. I have a 2010 Honda CR-V, so it's nice a roomy. I hate traveling in small cars, I just get so restless! One of the gifts I had gotten for Christmas that came along on the trip was an amazingly soft blanket from Bath and Body Works. I curled up in my blanket and looked through my travel bag for something to keep me busy. Before we even reached the highway I realized the first thing I had forgotten. I forgot to bring my Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World book by Susan Veness! :headache: I had been wanting to look for all of the secret stuff she talks about during our trip, but I totally forgot it. John asked me if I wanted to go back since we were only ten minutes or so from our apartment, but I said no. I didn't want to lose any time with the snow coming down the way it was.

Another thing that happened before we even reached the highway was my mom called twice. :lovestruc She is so sweet and she worries like any mom, so she wanted to tell us a few more times to be careful and call her as soon as we were out of the snow.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250040.jpg

When we reached I-77 South I decided to watch an episode of True Blood Season 2 on my new portable DVD player. John and I had agreed not to get each other Christmas gifts since we were going to Disney, but we did buy each other an "I love you" gift before Christmas, and mine was True Blood. I had already seen season 1 thanks to Netflix (that was before my sister got it for me for Christmas), but all of season 2 was new to me except the first few episodes. If any of you watch True Blood, you know why I was immediately drawn into the crazy fantasy world of Sookie and Bill and lost all track of time. When I finished the episode I looked up and realized that we were completely out of the snow! Of course, I called my mom and let her know.

We got to Charlotte, NC at about 5:30. I am not a big fan of Charlotte at all, so I was eager to get through it. It was starting to get dark at this point, and I realized for the first time that when it gets dark outside the GPS turns to nighttime too! Haha, who knew?

Anyway, as we were driving through Charlotte I was surprised by the number of cars on the road. I had expected the roads to be dead on Christmas, but there was a pretty decent amount of traffic. We passed Carowinds, which is the amusement park that is closest to our home. I don't like Carowinds at all, and I blame it for my ill feelings towards amusement parks before I discovered Disney. I feel like Carowinds is pretty much the complete opposite of Disney. Everytime I've ever been it's dirty, the lines are ridiculously long, and I feel like I'm melting under the hot sun on all of the black asphalt. I have fainted several times at Carowinds because of the heat, but oddly enough I have never fainted from heat at Disney World, which is in FLORIDA. Carowinds has no way of managing crowds or controlling the heat like Disney does, so going there is pretty much misery, but I digress.

I started seeing signs for fireworks stores, which told me we were getting close to SC because fireworks that go up into the air are illegal in NC. Sure enough, we got to SC at 5:42pm. After seeing that we were in SC I settled in with another episode of True Blood.

We stopped at about 6:20 at a gas station in SC. We used the restroom, filled the car up, and bought a few things for the road. I was still battling the head cold I had been dealing with all week, so I picked up a single packet of Nyquil for later. We got some sodas and John got a snack and we headed back to the car. I took a few pictures of the gas station before we left!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250045.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250048.jpg

We got on I-26 East at 7:05pm, right as I was finishing up my second episode of True Blood. I tried to take a picture of the sign once and it didn't work out, but it looked so cool I decided to keep it.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250049.jpg

When I tried the second time it worked a little better.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250052.jpg

We weren't on I-26 very long. At about 7:45pm we got on I-95. I didn't get a picture of the sign because, you guessed it: I was totally immersed in True Blood!

We stopped again at 8:10pm to use the bathroom. By now I had finished up my third episode and was ready to stretch my legs. This gas station wasn't as inviting as the first, so we hurried up and hit the road.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250054.jpg

As we were leaving the gas station John asked me to remind him to send a thank you letter to my best friend, Jessy, for buying me the portable DVD player for Christmas. I can admit it, usually I am a nightmare to travel with. I get bored and restless so easily, and I can get pretty whiny and annoying. So far on this trip I had been completely quiet thanks to my portable DVD player and vampire drama. John was so relieved! :laughing:

We left SC and went into GA at 9:05pm. We were making pretty good time, and Lee's ETA still hovered around 1:30am. We stopped again at 9:30-ish, and I took one more picture of a gas station. I was getting pretty bored with that by this point, so it's the last you'll see before we head home, I promise!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC250058.jpg

I watched more True Blood after this, and before I knew it, it was 10:41pm and we were in Florida! :banana: I was so excited, but now we had to decide what we were going to do about stopping for the night. John really didn't want to stay in Jacksonville, so we decided to keep driving for awhile.

At about 11:15pm John started to lose it a little bit. He was acting so silly because he was ready to get out of the car and he had me cracking up. But my head cold was starting to get the best of me and I was feeling pretty bad. We stopped again at a gas station at 11:45 and I wrote in my trip journal that I was feeling "totally crappy". We were pretty hungry by this point, but since it was Christmas there were no fast food restaurants open.

This was about the moment when John and I started discussing the possibility of going all the way to Disney tonight. We weren't thrilled about the idea of stopping somewhere for just one night and having to repack all of our stuff in the morning just to drive an hour or so. However, our reservations weren't until the 26th! I decided to call Disney and see if they had anything open at POP. It turned out that they did, but they said it would not be the king room we requested. Therefore, we would probably have to switch rooms the next day if we wanted a king room. I told them we would think it over and call them back.

At 12:30am we got on I-4. We were both exhausted and sick of being in the car. I had watched five episodes of True Blood at this time and I was sick of it. We had to make a decision: keep going until we got to Disney, or stop somewhere nearby and finish the drive in the morning.

What to do? What to do?!

Up Next: What did we end up deciding? Stay tuned to find out! :earsboy:

stephielela

01-09-2011, 04:17 PM

Ooooh that is a dilemma! Can't wait to see what you decided!

Nermel9

01-09-2011, 04:17 PM

Love the update!!!

I just got a GPS for Christmas, which I haven't even used yet, but I can't wait to hear it's voice options! :rotfl: I'll probably end up giving it a name too. I always used Brandon's for trips that we knew where we were going just to see the arrival time, I love losing 3 or 4 minutes here and there! :banana:

I'm so jealous you have a Honda CR-V, I want one of those! I have a 2008 Honda Civic, which I love, but when I bought the car a couple of years ago, my dad tried talking me into buying a CR-V and I said no, and now I kind of regret it! :confused3

Ugh that Carowinds place sounds awful! :upsidedow I don't know how I'm going to feel about a different amusement park after being so used to Disney, I really want to get to Six Flags this summer, but I think it's going to be a little boring! Well, except for Kingda Ka (or however you spell it!)

I really have to get a portable DVD player, even on 2 and half hour plane trips I get SO bored! And I have to get the True Blood seasons too, I love Season 1! Season 2 is ok, but I'm not a fan of Mary Ann...and I don't like how Eric had to cut his hair off! :sad1:

Can't wait to see what you guys decided to do! I'm guessing you went with an extra night at Pop! :thumbsup2

Cat0727

01-09-2011, 04:36 PM

I'm here and all caught up! :)

I love True Blood. I don't have any of the seasons yet, but they are definitely on my wishlist! I've started reading the books, and they are pretty good.

I wonder what you guys decided? I bet you kept on goin to Pop! :)

TinkerbellLuvr7

01-09-2011, 04:38 PM

great update!!

I can't believe you are going to leave us hanging! At least you got out of the snow! Ours right now is melting but I guess we are supposed to get hit tomorrow night-Tues with more snow and multiple inches :( I'd rather be in FL, even if it is 50 degrees!!!

Tinkermom76

01-09-2011, 04:41 PM

I love my GPS. Mine is a guy with a British accent and I call him William. Anytime I talk about William all my friends know I am talking about my GPS :rotfl2:

TanzUnited99

01-09-2011, 05:03 PM

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-09-2011, 07:23 PM

I know exactly what you mean about the sillyness that comes with being in a car for hours! It happens to me too. Normally around 6 hours in to a trip I become "dilerious". :lmao:

I can't wait to see what you decide to do!

RachelNinja

01-09-2011, 07:25 PM

Look at you updating regularly! I should follow your example!

I'm glad that you were able to get out of the snow safely! I don't like driving even when there are flurries! Lately, all we've been getting is snow. I'm thinking we might get another snow day on Wednesday if we're really hit bad again (although it won't be as bad as the 23 inches we got during Christmas break!).

It's so good that you can watch DVDs in the car and not have any issues. I get a little motion sickness when I look down too long. I'm hoping there won't be any issues on Amtrak as I intend on watching DVDs, reading my nook, and maybe grading papers (haha, we'll see if that actually happens).

OoO, to the fainting at the amusement park! Do you know when you're going to faint or do you just collapse without warning? I've fainted many times in my life, but after that first time of fainting in the 7th grade, I'm usually aware that it's going to happen and can tell someone.

Curious to know what you end up doing!

RachelNinja

01-09-2011, 07:32 PM

Sorry, double post! I'll leave a double comment then!

I love how your mom had to call to make sure you guys were a-okay. That's how my mom is too! I still call her in the morning when I get to work. I've been calling her when I arrive at my destination since I started borrowing her cell in college, haha. I did it when I went to the city for worship team practice at church or coffeehouse practice. And like I said, I still do it now!

ChildAtHeart82

01-09-2011, 07:44 PM

Glad you made it out of the snow! :) We do the same thing with our GPS. We have it set to the female Australian voice, named Karen. We talk to her as we go and I definitely enjoy seeing our estimated arrival time tick down.

Waiting eagerly to see what you all decided!

Tracy161

01-09-2011, 09:29 PM

saralexander97

01-09-2011, 10:47 PM

WHOO HOOO your almost to Disney! I am an avid True Blood Fan, you just cant help but love Sookie. The second season did get a little silly but I still love it. You will love the third season, maybe save it for your next Disney trip. Thank you for updating and taking me to a happy place after a bad day at work.

Shannon84

01-10-2011, 08:20 AM

I think I would have a hard time staying somewhere else and being so close to POP! and WDW all together...I am a very restless traveler too!!

therussells08

01-10-2011, 03:18 PM

Ooooh that is a dilemma! Can't wait to see what you decided!

Stay tuned! I am getting ready to post another update! ;)

Love the update!!!

I just got a GPS for Christmas, which I haven't even used yet, but I can't wait to hear it's voice options! :rotfl: I'll probably end up giving it a name too. I always used Brandon's for trips that we knew where we were going just to see the arrival time, I love losing 3 or 4 minutes here and there! :banana:

I'm so jealous you have a Honda CR-V, I want one of those! I have a 2008 Honda Civic, which I love, but when I bought the car a couple of years ago, my dad tried talking me into buying a CR-V and I said no, and now I kind of regret it! :confused3

Ugh that Carowinds place sounds awful! :upsidedow I don't know how I'm going to feel about a different amusement park after being so used to Disney, I really want to get to Six Flags this summer, but I think it's going to be a little boring! Well, except for Kingda Ka (or however you spell it!)

I really have to get a portable DVD player, even on 2 and half hour plane trips I get SO bored! And I have to get the True Blood seasons too, I love Season 1! Season 2 is ok, but I'm not a fan of Mary Ann...and I don't like how Eric had to cut his hair off! :sad1:

Can't wait to see what you guys decided to do! I'm guessing you went with an extra night at Pop! :thumbsup2

The different voices on the GPS are so fun! Plus, I think you can download more from the internet if you want. My best friend's brother has a Darth Vader voice for his! :laughing:

I LOVE my Honda CR-V! :lovestruc Before I got it last year I was still driving my 2000 Kia Sephia that was my first car. John told me I could get a new car and as long as it was within reason I could get whatever I wanted. I had been wanting a CR-V for ages so I got it and I definitely don't regret it! I love having a bigger car, but it's not too big, ya know?

Carowinds, Disney, and Hershey Park are the only amusement parks I've ever been too. I love Disney (of course), hate Carowinds, and could take Hershey park or leave it. I've never been to Six Flags, so hopefully you will enjoy it!

OMG, I LOVE Eric with short hair! I think he is so handsome! :lovestruc

I'm here and all caught up! :)

I love True Blood. I don't have any of the seasons yet, but they are definitely on my wishlist! I've started reading the books, and they are pretty good.

I wonder what you guys decided? I bet you kept on goin to Pop! :)

I want to start reading the books too! I got the first one at Target yesterday. A lady I work with has read all of them and she says they are totally different from the show.

Stay tuned! Another update is coming soon! :)

great update!!

I can't believe you are going to leave us hanging! At least you got out of the snow! Ours right now is melting but I guess we are supposed to get hit tomorrow night-Tues with more snow and multiple inches :( I'd rather be in FL, even if it is 50 degrees!!!

Ugh, we are getting snow all across NC right now. Today was an optional teacher workday so I stayed home and now I regret it because it didn't hit until lunch time, but it's pretty bad now!

I love my GPS. Mine is a guy with a British accent and I call him William. Anytime I talk about William all my friends know I am talking about my GPS :rotfl2:

:rotfl: That sounds like me! I couldn't survive without Lee! I use it all the time!

therussells08

01-10-2011, 03:28 PM

Great new update! :thumbsup2

First off the food at the beginning sounds delish...it is making me hungry popcorn::

:sad1: on leaving family and your lovely dogs but at least you knew they were in safe hands with your mum...like you said they feel like it's their second home. Hope you didn't miss them too much.

I love TomTom as well...am rotten with directions so it is my saviour :worship: First time I have heard someone give it a name though...will have to keep that in mind :rotfl:

Am not a fan of true blood but know plenty of people that are...may have to give it a second chance and try watching it again at some point.

Also glad you kept that sign pic that did not work out as it looks super cool.

Looking forward to hearing what you guys decide to do...as usual you leave us on another cliffhanger! Think I am getting used to them...am not as :scared1: as the first one lol. I am going to guess that you continued to :car: but I could be wrong...will wait and see.

TanzUnited99 :love:

I love Christmas dinner! It's definitely my favorite meal of the year! :lovestruc

It was hard leaving everyone, but I was okay once I called and checked in a few times! My dogs love their Grandma, so they were happy to spend the week with her!

I am horrible with any kind of directions! I think a lot of people only use their GPS when they travel long distances but I am definitely one who uses it practically everyday!

It took me awhile to greally get into True Blood. I had to get over the initial shock that it was SO intense, but now I am addicted. If you can sort through all of the raunchiness, it has pretty interesting story lines!

Stay tuned! I will be updating very soon! :)

I know exactly what you mean about the sillyness that comes with being in a car for hours! It happens to me too. Normally around 6 hours in to a trip I become "dilerious". :lmao:

I can't wait to see what you decide to do!

:rotfl: That's a good way to describe it! Everything becomes so hilarious and you find yourself giggling uncontrollably!

Look at you updating regularly! I should follow your example!

I'm glad that you were able to get out of the snow safely! I don't like driving even when there are flurries! Lately, all we've been getting is snow. I'm thinking we might get another snow day on Wednesday if we're really hit bad again (although it won't be as bad as the 23 inches we got during Christmas break!).

It's so good that you can watch DVDs in the car and not have any issues. I get a little motion sickness when I look down too long. I'm hoping there won't be any issues on Amtrak as I intend on watching DVDs, reading my nook, and maybe grading papers (haha, we'll see if that actually happens).

OoO, to the fainting at the amusement park! Do you know when you're going to faint or do you just collapse without warning? I've fainted many times in my life, but after that first time of fainting in the 7th grade, I'm usually aware that it's going to happen and can tell someone.

Curious to know what you end up doing!

I know, I'm so proud of myself! I'm hoping I can keep these daily updates going for awhile, but work makes it hard!

23 INCHES OF SNOW?! :scared1: I can't even imagine that! If we get one or two inches down here the entire world shuts down. School was cancelled today and the snow didn't even really start until after lunchtime!

I love watching DVDs and reading in the car; usually the only problems I have are neck pains from looking down for so long! I bet you would be able to handle it on Amtrack because I would imagine it would be a smoother ride than in the car.

I can definitely tell when I'm about to faint. I get tunnel vision and I can hear my heart pounding in my ears. I usually can stop myself if I sit down immediately, but sometimes I can't. Once I fainted getting out of the shower, and that was really scary. John was home and he was in the other room, and I yelled for him right before I blacked out. I woke up lying on the bed with him standing over me looking terrified. I don't know what would have happened if he hadn't been there, because I don't think there are many soft places to land in the bathroom!

Sorry, double post! I'll leave a double comment then!

I love how your mom had to call to make sure you guys were a-okay. That's how my mom is too! I still call her in the morning when I get to work. I've been calling her when I arrive at my destination since I started borrowing her cell in college, haha. I did it when I went to the city for worship team practice at church or coffeehouse practice. And like I said, I still do it now!

That's okay, I like double comments! :)

That is so cool, I call my mom every single morning when I get to work! I'm glad I'm not the only person who does that!

Glad you made it out of the snow! :) We do the same thing with our GPS. We have it set to the female Australian voice, named Karen. We talk to her as we go and I definitely enjoy seeing our estimated arrival time tick down.

Waiting eagerly to see what you all decided!

I haven't tried the female Australian voice...anything is better than the American female! She is so annoying.

Stay tuned! There is an update coming soon! :)

therussells08

01-10-2011, 03:30 PM

What a great distraction to have the portable DVD player! I'm glad that you were able to make it out of the snow before things got worse. I can't wait to hear what you decided to do and I'm even more excited to read about your arrival to Disney!!! :thumbsup2

Yes, the portable DVD player was definitely a life saver...for me and John! :rotfl:

WHOO HOOO your almost to Disney! I am an avid True Blood Fan, you just cant help but love Sookie. The second season did get a little silly but I still love it. You will love the third season, maybe save it for your next Disney trip. Thank you for updating and taking me to a happy place after a bad day at work.

I love Sookie too! Although I feel like she needs to tone down the Southern accent a little bit sometimes. I am so glad my updates help make your day better! :hug:

I think I would have a hard time staying somewhere else and being so close to POP! and WDW all together...I am a very restless traveler too!!

I'm glad I'm not the only restless traveler out there! I need to tell John this, because I drive him nuts in the car! :rotfl:

rootbeer momma

01-10-2011, 04:43 PM

therussells08

01-10-2011, 04:45 PM

Well, John and I had an important decision looming over our heads: do we stop now, or keep going to Disney? Neither one of us could really stand the thought of being in the car for even five more minutes, and the lady at Disney said it would be $174.99 for ONE NIGHT at POP (:scared1:), so we decided to stop somewhere cheaper near Orlando. Honestly, we probably would have paid the money for POP if we knew we were going to be able to stay in the room we checked into, but since we would have to move our stuff anyway we decided it wasn't worth the extra cash.

We ended up stopping at a SpringHill Suites that was less than thirty minutes from WDW. With John's military discount the room was only $80, which is a lot less than $174.99! It was after 1am by the time we checked in and got to our room, so I took a few pictures for my TR, got a quick bath, and went straight to bed.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260059.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260060.jpg

We had originally planned on waking up around 5:30 or 6, but the human body can only take so much and I guess we'd reached our limit. We woke up at 7 the next morning. I hopped in the shower while John packed the car. Everything was fine and dandy while he had something to keep him busy, but then when he finished and I was still getting ready idle hands took over, because he started looking at my iPhone wait time app and reporting to me that there was ALREADY a pretty long wait for rides at Magic Kingdom. He wasn't trying to stress me out, but that's what he ended up accomplishing. I knew that MK was opening at 7 that morning because of EMH so we were already late. We still had to get to POP and check in, and it was already after 7:30! :eek:

We hurried up and checked out of the hotel as fast as possible. We were pulling out of the parking lot at 7:45 and were back on 1-4 at 7:47. I took a picture of the sky as we were driving because the clouds looked very ominous. However, I had checked the weather on my phone and it was supposed to clear up later, so I wasn't really worried about it.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260062.jpg

In what seemed like a matter of seconds I started seeing the exit signs for WDW! We knew that POP was in the Epcot resort area, so we took the exit toward Epcot. I started to worry because I knew that some entrances to the World came through the big signa and some didn't. Then, before I knew what had hit me, I saw THE SIGN! :hyper:

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260065.jpg

I know the GPS dock kind of wrecks the ambiance, but still, what a gorgeous sight! :lovestruc I literally could not believe that after a looooong year and a half I was finally pulling into the greatest place on Earth! I was still feeling a little cruddy from my head cold and I was tired from my short night's sleep, but all of that instantly melted away when we drove under that beautiful arch!

We were on a mission at this point: get to POP as fast as possible, check in, and get to MK before it filled to capacity! I resisted the urge to take a million pictures of random trees and signs in WDW and didn't start taking more pictures until we were sitting at the red light waiting to turn left into POP.

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I was so excited to stay here for the first time! The only value resort I had ever stayed at before this trip was ASMo, and while it was pretty nice, it definitely wasn't my favorite. I had heard so many great things about POP and I couldn't wait to check it out for myself!As we pulled into the parking lot I immediately fell in love with the larger than life Disney look that seems to dominate the value resorts. We parked our car and hopped out and while we walked to the lobby I snapped a few more pictures.

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When we entered the lobby I had a "duh!" moment: I had completely forgotten there would be Christmas decorations everywhere! :rolleyes: The first thing I saw when we walked in was the huge Christmas tree. It was gorgeous! I had to take a picture of that and the giant wreath on the wall before we headed over to the online check in line.

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Okay, I'm not sure if I will use online check in again. This was my first time using it, and I was not very happy with it. I did it because I've heard it's way faster, but I ended up waiting for what seemed like FOREVER. I was the only person in the online check in line, but the CMs kept taking the regular registration people before me. I stood there for about ten minutes before it was finally my turn.

The CM who helped me was named Melissa and she did not seem very happy. I can't really blame her because I don't think I'd be too happy about working early in the morning the day after Christmas either. Regardless, it did make my first experience with a CM a little disappointing. The check in process started pretty quickly, but then Melissa spent about ten minutes staring at her computer screen and not saying a word. :confused3 I think she could tell I was getting a little restless because she finally told me she was trying to get us into a king room. After another few minutes she told us we couldn't have a king bed unless we downgraded from a preferred room! :sad2: I was so upset. Even though I knew it wasn't a guarantee, I figured since I had requested a king room EIGHT MONTHS AGO I would kind of be at the top of the list to get one. I asked her if she was completely sure there were none available and she went back to clicking away on her computer. I stood there and thought it over for a minute or two and finally told her not to worry about it, two double beds would be fine. As much as I wanted a king bed I wasn't willing to waste anymore of my Disney time trying to get one.

Once we got over that hurtle the rest of the check in process went quickly. We weren't surprised to learn that our room wasn't ready yet, since it wasn't even 9am. We gave her my cell phone number so they could text us the room number later and grabbed our welcome packet and said "au revoir" to ol' Melissa. Determined not to let this mess up my morning, I rushed with John to the food court to get our resort mugs that were free with the deluxe dining plan.

As soon as our mugs were filled with caffeinated goodness we hit the road for Magic Kingdom! We had a date with some amazing rides, lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern, and the Wishes Dessert Party!

Up Next: Would we make it to Magic Kingdom before it reached capacity? Stay tuned to find out!

therussells08

01-10-2011, 04:55 PM

I am envious of how short your drive to Disney is!! It takes us 17 hours and with a 2 year old and a 1 year old it is a very long 17 hours. I am also a huge True Blood fan!!! I can't wait til season 3 comes to Netflix.
And as for the snow... Yuck, yuck, yuck

Yikes! I can't imagine being in the car for that long, especially with young children! How do you usually break up your drive down? I would need at least two days I think!

Yay! Another True Blood fan! I think there are way more Truebies out there than I originally realized! :)

No kidding about the snow...I'm sick of it!

Nermel9

01-10-2011, 05:09 PM

TanzUnited99

01-10-2011, 06:09 PM

I guessed wrong but sounds like you made the right decision to stop off outside of Orlando...means you could spend more money in the happiest place on earth!

Great first few pics of Pop. :sad2: on not getting the king room and the amount of time you had to wait at check in - have heard mixed reviews of this v check in on arrival.

Hoping you managed to get into MK, the weather cleared and you enjoyed your meal and wishes :)

TanzUnited99

01-10-2011, 06:10 PM

Oops double posted. Sorry.

Cat0727

01-10-2011, 06:40 PM

First, before I comment on your update, let me just say that I LOVE Eric on True Blood, long hair or not! He's my favorite character on the show! I was just so upset watching Pam cut his hair off that first episode of Season 2! :sad1: I got used to it, though!

Oh gosh, who else died laughing when Eric was getting his highlights done? I just love him! :lovestruc

Yikes, $179? :scared1: You guys made a good decision! But horray for finally checking into Pop and being at Disney! Pop is our favorite, it's our home away from home :)

Looking forward to hearing what you thought of LTT! I've been wanting to go there for lunch.

luckylady

01-10-2011, 06:52 PM

It is a long drive from NC. Great price for one night. Been to Carowinds, it's not to bad as long as you keep reminding yourself this is not disney. I had to do that 2 years ago. They do have some great rollercoasters if your into them(I'm not but DD is.) Can't wait to hear about your first day. Oh we got 8 inches of snow that storm. Todays brought 4 1/2

ChildAtHeart82

01-10-2011, 06:52 PM

I guessed you drove through to Disney too, but it sound like you made the right decision. It seems like online check-in is hit or miss for shorter wait times. It also seems like the more of a hurry you're in, the more likely you'll have a longer wait. :)

The clouds did look ominous that morning. I hope y'all made it in. I'm looking forward to seeing if we crossed paths that day without realizing it.

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-10-2011, 07:29 PM

Nermel9

01-10-2011, 07:42 PM

Oh gosh, who else died laughing when Eric was getting his highlights done? I just love him!

LOL of course, that was great! I also loved when he was talking to Arlene's kids and said "goodbye tiny humans" (or something like that!) and flew away! :rotfl: I can't wait for that show to come back on! :cool1:

TinkerbellLuvr7

01-10-2011, 08:32 PM

That doesn't seem very magical to me :( I would have checked back in the lobby about the room when you returned but I guess if you don't mind 2 beds, that's fine. I wonder where the non-preferred room would have been? I've been in standard rooms and have been in building 10 and 6 with standard rooms which are in the same building as preferred so that would have been curious to see where it was!

Hopefully you make it to MK before it closes!!

lauren_elizabeth

01-11-2011, 06:41 AM

YAYYYY! Yall made it to Pop! :goodvibes Seeing all of your pictures makes me so happy. We've stayed at Pop the last 3 trips to Disney and it just feels like "home" to me! Love it!

Shannon84

01-11-2011, 07:31 AM

POP! is my home away from home...but that online check in got me in September as well....it seemed like it took forever before it was my turn :confused:

I can't wait to see how MK was for you guys...I love all the Christmas decorations down there, but have never been so close to Christmas itself...so I am interested to see how it was!!

therussells08

01-11-2011, 12:37 PM

First, before I comment on your update, let me just say that I LOVE Eric on True Blood, long hair or not! He's my favorite character on the show! I was just so upset watching Pam cut his hair off that first episode of Season 2! :sad1: I got used to it, though!

Anyway, great update! I'm surprised you didn't stay at Pop your first night, but then again, paying $80 for a room is a lot different than $179! I can't believe that's what they charge for values in peak season, that's just crazy! :eek:

Pop looks like so much fun! If I ever go back to a value again, it will be Pop, or the new Animation resort! I have only stayed in ASMu and like you said, it was nice, but nothing special. And I didn't like the location, which is actually making me nervous about AKL, since it's even farther away than the AS resorts...

I can't believe they were taking regular check in people in the online check in line! I've used it twice now and really liked it, it's too bad you didn't have a good experience! :goodvibes

Hope you made it to MK in time!:upsidedow

I love Eric too! Lafayette is my favorite character, but Eric is definitely my second favorite!

Yeah I was pretty shocked by the price for one night at POP too. Although I was also frustrated when I found out we weren't getting a king room, because that was the main reason we didn't stay at POP the first night, since we thought we would be changing rooms the next day. Oh well!

I definitely want to stay at the new Animation resort when it opens. I wonder when that will be? That sounds like a good place to stay with my children when I have them...someday! :rotfl:

I think our next trip I will go back to regular registration and see how I feel about it. I don't want to complete write off online check in because of one bad experience, so I will probably try it again someday! :)

I guessed wrong but sounds like you made the right decision to stop off outside of Orlando...means you could spend more money in the happiest place on earth!

Great first few pics of Pop. :sad2: on not getting the king room and the amount of time you had to wait at check in - have heard mixed reviews of this v check in on arrival.

Hoping you managed to get into MK, the weather cleared and you enjoyed your meal and wishes :)

Thank you! The money was definitely a big issue...I wasn't too keen on paying that much money just to sleep at POP for five hours!

Thank you! I was bummed about the king room, but I got over it pretty quickly! As long as I'm in Disney I will sleep anywhere!

Thanks for your good wishes! Stay tuned to find out what happened! :)

Oh gosh, who else died laughing when Eric was getting his highlights done? I just love him! :lovestruc

Yikes, $179? :scared1: You guys made a good decision! But horray for finally checking into Pop and being at Disney! Pop is our favorite, it's our home away from home :)

Looking forward to hearing what you thought of LTT! I've been wanting to go there for lunch.

That was hilarious! Eric cracks me up, and so does Jason! Jason is such an idiot, you have to laugh at him! :rotfl:

Thank you! :) We definitely loved POP! I can't wait to show you guys our room!

It is a long drive from NC. Great price for one night. Been to Carowinds, it's not to bad as long as you keep reminding yourself this is not disney. I had to do that 2 years ago. They do have some great rollercoasters if your into them(I'm not but DD is.) Can't wait to hear about your first day. Oh we got 8 inches of snow that storm. Todays brought 4 1/2

Maybe that's my problem- I always compare Carowinds to Disney! I'm not a big fan of the huge roller coasters, but the Hurler is pretty fun. My dad loves the traditional roller coasters with the big drop but that don't go upside down or anything, so the Hurler and Thunder Road are his favorites!

John called me from Fort Bragg yesterday and said post closed at about 9:30 because of the weather. It's closed today too! I have been off work for two days, and now I have to work on Saturday because of it!

I guessed you drove through to Disney too, but it sound like you made the right decision. It seems like online check-in is hit or miss for shorter wait times. It also seems like the more of a hurry you're in, the more likely you'll have a longer wait. :)

The clouds did look ominous that morning. I hope y'all made it in. I'm looking forward to seeing if we crossed paths that day without realizing it.

Haha, I think you're right about being in a hurry and having to wait! I think I may have exaggerated a little, too. I'm sure the wait wasn't really that long, it just seemed that way to me! ;)

therussells08

01-11-2011, 12:41 PM

Wow - I can't believe that price for Pop! I think you definitely made the right choice. :thumbsup2 I'm sorry you didn't get the king bed you requested. After two stays at mods with double beds, I think we'll be requesting a king on our next stay, too. The doubles work just fine, but a king would be so nice.

I hope MK isn't too crowded by the time you get there! :goodvibes

Thank you! :) We usually stay in a king room on vacation because it's such a nice extra treat to have that huge bed to sleep in at night! John is so huge he takes up the majority of any size bed smaller than a king, so I look forward to being able to stretch out a little on vacation. But it's okay, I think I could sleep good on a plank of wood at Disney because I'm always so tired when I got to bed! :rotfl:

LOL of course, that was great! I also loved when he was talking to Arlene's kids and said "goodbye tiny humans" (or something like that!) and flew away! :rotfl: I can't wait for that show to come back on! :cool1:

:rotfl: That was hilarious! His delivery of his lines is great!

That doesn't seem very magical to me :( I would have checked back in the lobby about the room when you returned but I guess if you don't mind 2 beds, that's fine. I wonder where the non-preferred room would have been? I've been in standard rooms and have been in building 10 and 6 with standard rooms which are in the same building as preferred so that would have been curious to see where it was!

Hopefully you make it to MK before it closes!!

I should have checked again, but by the time we got back I was so tired I didn't even care!

We ended up having a great room, so I couldn't complain too much. The location was excellent!

YAYYYY! Yall made it to Pop! :goodvibes Seeing all of your pictures makes me so happy. We've stayed at Pop the last 3 trips to Disney and it just feels like "home" to me! Love it!

I can definitely see why so many people love POP...we really enjoyed staying there! :thumbsup2

POP! is my home away from home...but that online check in got me in September as well....it seemed like it took forever before it was my turn :confused:

I can't wait to see how MK was for you guys...I love all the Christmas decorations down there, but have never been so close to Christmas itself...so I am interested to see how it was!!

I guess like ChildAtHeart82 said, online check in is definitely a hit or miss. I guess it was a miss for both of us! :confused3

Stay tuned for tons of Christmas decoration pictures! :thumbsup2

therussells08

01-11-2011, 09:10 PM

Hi everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I am STILL waiting on my Photo Pass CD, even though I ordered it on the 2nd and paid for express shipping! I didn't post an update today because I was hoping it would come in today, but I was hoping in vain. I am keeping my fingers crossed for tomorrow, but even if it doesn't come I will just update and add the PP pictures later. I'm going back to work tomorrow on a 2 hour delay, so my update will be a little later! See you then! :)

stephielela

01-11-2011, 09:14 PM

chunkymonkey

01-12-2011, 10:17 AM

Just finished catching up and am so excited you guys made it down there past the snowstorm! I cannot believe how expensive POP was! But I guess during the holidays, everything is like that. Sorry your first CM experience getting there wasn't so magical, but it can only get better I hope!

shelbys mommy

01-13-2011, 11:36 PM

Ok as I was reading I started sobbing. I can't believe we are not going back this year, but anyway....I am so anxious to read more!!!!

dancin_princess

01-14-2011, 12:12 AM

I need to go back and play catch up but I just wanted to know if I can add our picture from our meet up.

therussells08

01-14-2011, 06:45 PM

In our last update, we were racing to Magic Kingdom, desperate to get into the park before it reached capacity. It was already about 9am, and the park had been open since 7 for EMH! I had heard so many horror stories about the insane crowds during the holidays, so I was panicking big time. As it turns out, I had no reason to worry. We pulled into the MK parking lot and I thought to myself, "Surely they wouldn't let us park here if we weren't allowed to go in..."

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As we drove in I snapped a picture of a really cute sign with Santa Claus on it that I had seen on the DIS before.

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Wow! The parking lot wasn't crowded at all! I can't remember where we parked, but I do remember it wasn't very far back. I'm always a really bad judge of
distance in the MK parking lot, so I felt like we were way further back than we actually were. We waited around for about five minutes for a tram, and once we were on and it was moving it took us less than a minute to reach the monorail and ferry entrance. I always love that tram ride because they are welcoming you to Magic Kingdom, and I always sit back and soak in the fact that I'm actually at Disney World! However, this tram ride wasn't the most pleasant I've had, because it was FREEZING. I mean, it was seriously cold, ya'll. John checked the weather on his phone and it was only in the 30s, and the wind was blowing like 20mph.

Because of the cold I said "No way, Jose!" to riding the ferry. So, we joined the herd heading to the monorail and hopped in line.

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I can't for the life of me remember if we got seats or if we had to stand, but I'm pretty sure we got seats. On our way to MK I enjoyed the familiar sounds and smells of the monorail and snapped a few pictures.

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Ahh, Space Mountain! One of our absolute favorites! This was definitely on the top of our "Must-Do" list, since it was closed for refurb on our last trip.

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The Grand Floridian! Full House is my absolute favorite TV show, and I've watched the episodes where they go to WDW so many times I have them completely memorized. We'd never been there, so we would be eating at the Grand Floridian Cafe for breakfast on our departure day so I could take the obligatory Full House pictures and tour the "historic" filming sites. (Or would we? Psst, Rachel: foreshadowing! ;))

As you can see, it was still pretty cloudy out, but that didn't put a damper on my overwhelming joy!

As we approached the station, I was immediately blown away by the beautiful Christmas decorations. This was also about the time that John had to pry my death grip from his arm because I was so excited I was about to squeeze it in half. I could NOT believe I was finally back at Disney World! Usually we start our trips with DHS, but starting this trip with MK was definitely a good idea. It just felt so magical, being at WDW for the first time in so long and starting out at the park where it all started.

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As we got off the monorail I snapped a quick picture of the train station and headed through bag check. Usually I don't carry bags into the parks, I just stuff John's pockets with all my junk, but I had my new beautiful Dooney and Bourke bag to show off!

After we got through back check and a turnstile (it felt so good to use that brand new Key to the World) I stopped immediately to "ooh" and "ahh" over the gorgeous Christmas Tree and take a picture. I then proceeded to "ooh" and "ahh" some more over the Christmas decorations hanging over Main Street USA. *Note: Please excuse the poor quality of these pictures. My camera does
terrible in low lighting, but they get a lot better as the day goes on, I promise! :)

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It was during my "ooh"ing and "ahh"ing that I saw a PhotoPass photographer standing around with no one waiting for a picture. I grabbed John and dragged him over as quickly as possible. I was determined to get as many PP pictures as we could on this trip, since I had preordered the CD!

The photographer was really nice and super funny, and he took several pictures of us together in front of the castle.

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As you can probably tell from my rigid stance in these pictures, I was SO stinking cold. I had not prepared for this weather at all, and all I had on was a Disney t-shirt and a very thin hoodie. I found myself hoping desperately that the weather would warm up very soon.

Now, here's a little factoid about John: he isn't really a smiley person. Don't get me wrong, he's a really happy guy and he smiles all the time normally, just not in pictures. I'm so used to it I don't even notice, but usually photographers (especially at Disney) will try to get him to show some teeth in pictures. I guess they think I will be disappointed if he doesn't "smile pretty". Like I said, I really don't mind, but I do appreciate their effort. This PP photographer just couldn't stand that John wasn't smiling big, so he started picking on him a little. First, he told me to tickle him right before he took the picture. As you can see, this
made me laugh more than John. (Ugh, I look so tired in the pictures! Forgive me, I had on NO eye makeup!)

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Then, he decided to really let John have it. He pulled him aside, and made him do the Tinkerbell pose all by himself. At first he told him to look at his hand and look surprised, which John did, but you could tell he was a little uncomfortable. Still, he was a good sport about it.

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Next, the PP guy started joking around with him and he FINALLY got John to laugh. This ended up being one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!

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I was so thrilled with our first PhotoPass experience of the trip. I already couldn't wait to see our shots, and we were less than five minutes in! We thanked the photographer, grabbed our card, and headed off.

As we headed further up Main Street USA, I walked slowly so I could take in all of the sights, sounds, and smells. It was such an amazing feeling, being back and knowing I had a whole week of fun in front of me. Surprisingly, the crowds were not that bad at all. I stopped to snap one more picture of the castle, but my camera still didn't want to cooperate. Don't worry, the pictures I took later were much better!

Up Next: With an entire day at MK in front of us, what did we ride first? Also, would I be able to stand the cold?! Stay tuned to find out! :earsboy:

therussells08

01-14-2011, 06:51 PM

I would have stopped too if i was you. $174 is over twice as much as the room you got!

Online check in is definitely a hit or a miss. In September, there was no line, I walked right up and was ready to go in under 5 minutes, except my room wasn't ready (but I attribute that to my very specific requests, which were granted!) In December, we waited probably 10 minutes, and then check in took another 5 at least. I think it depends on crows levels, how many people working etc. I will continue to do it, just because it is fun and makes me feel like I'm almost there!

I'm sorry you couldn't get a king preferred room. I would have asked where the kings you could get were located, since some non-preferred rooms are just as close, but she didn't sound like the sharpest (or friendliest) tool in the shed so it might not have helped.

Can't wait to hear about your first day!!

You have a point about online check in! It is definitely fun to do, and it helps you pass the time before your trip because you know it's so close!

I feel like I should have tried harder for the king room, but I was so desperate to get to MK I really didn't care at the time. I ended up regretting it, though, because I really love the king rooms. Next time I will make sure I try my hardest to get one!

Just finished catching up and am so excited you guys made it down there past the snowstorm! I cannot believe how expensive POP was! But I guess during the holidays, everything is like that. Sorry your first CM experience getting there wasn't so magical, but it can only get better I hope!

Yeah, the resort prices for the holidays are insane! I couldn't believe how much a value cost! :eek:

The CM interactions got much better, thank goodness! :)

Ok as I was reading I started sobbing. I can't believe we are not going back this year, but anyway....I am so anxious to read more!!!!

I'm so sorry girl! :hug: I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for a Disney miracle!

I need to go back and play catch up but I just wanted to know if I can add our picture from our meet up.

Yes, please feel free to post the picture anytime! It will probably be ages before I am to that point in the TR, but you can add it whenever you want and I will refer back to it later! Thank you! :)

TinkerbellLuvr7

01-14-2011, 06:53 PM

Great update!!!

Love the PP Pics!! Ours at Mk NEVER seem to turn out. I think out of the last few years, we might have had one or two okay..good enough to buy type of pics but that's about it!

TanzUnited99

01-14-2011, 11:50 PM

:yay: on being able to get in to MK for your 1st day! Felt your excitement when you were 'oohing' and 'aahing' over the Christmas tree and decorations.

:eek: on it being so cold but if there is one place to grin and bear it then Disney World is it! :woohoo: on PP photographer getting John to look surprised and then laugh!

Am going to guess that your first ride was Space Mountain. Looking forward to finding out if I am right or not :)

Nermel9

01-15-2011, 07:45 AM

Yay, you're finally in the Magic Kingdom! :woohoo:

It must be so strange to be in Disney when it's that cold! :eek: No way would have take the ferry either...especially on the first trip into MK, you gotta ride the monorail!

Ooh, can't wait to see if you got your Full House pictures or not! :laughing: We didn't have a chance to visit the GF on our trip, I really wanted to, but somehow, in 8 days, we didn't have a chance to fit it in. :confused3

My camera is the same way, it's fine during the day, but forget about good pics when there is no light! I REALLY want a new one before my October trip...I wanted a new one for this past trip, but Brandon said no, because we bought it right before our November 09 trip! I don't think your pictures were bad though, you can see what you're taking a picture of! I love the MK tree, it's never up when we go because we always go before the parade taping, so I haven't seen it yet! Someday! :)

I love your PP pics! I was laughing when you were describing how John isn't a smiley person, Brandon is the same way with pictures, which is why he looks so awkward in all of our pictures, his smile is so forced and it doesn't even look like him! He smiles enough in real life, he's the funniest person I know, but get him in front of a camera and literally forgets how to smile! :rotfl:

Your pics are so cute though! I don't think you look tired at all, you look great! :goodvibes And I love the pics of John with Tinkerbell alone, those are definitely frame worthy! :thumbsup2

Can't wait to see what attraction you did first! I'm pretty sure you told me when we were texting that morning but I forgot, so I'm excited to find out again! :woohoo: That seems like it was so long ago already and it was just a couple of weeks! :eek:

Cat0727

01-15-2011, 10:23 AM

Yay for getting to Magic Kingdom :woohoo: Your PP pictures came out cute! Although I hear ya on the eye makeup- I forgot my concealer last time we went to Disney and what a mistake that was! I'll never do that again LOL. My bf is the same way as John in pictures, he doesn't really smile so he looks kind of like a grump sometimes :laughing: John's picture holding Tinkerbell really is great though :thumbsup2

laashley

01-15-2011, 10:33 AM

Tracy161

01-16-2011, 08:59 AM

Brrrrr!!! I can't believe how cold it was! I remember going to Disney over Christmas on year and we had to buy gloves when we were down there! Who would have thought?! :confused3 I hope it warmed up for you! :goodvibes

Cute pictures! :thumbsup2

shelbys mommy

01-16-2011, 11:03 PM

I love the PP pics!!! I can't believe it was so cold!!! Remember my mini TR? We bought t-shirts cause it was in the 70's!!!!

therussells08

01-17-2011, 11:30 AM

Great update!!!

Love the PP Pics!! Ours at Mk NEVER seem to turn out. I think out of the last few years, we might have had one or two okay..good enough to buy type of pics but that's about it!

Thank you! :) Our MK pics turned out pretty nice this trip, but I was not happy at all with our Epcot pics. You'll see why later!

:yay: on being able to get in to MK for your 1st day! Felt your excitement when you were 'oohing' and 'aahing' over the Christmas tree and decorations.

:eek: on it being so cold but if there is one place to grin and bear it then Disney World is it! :woohoo: on PP photographer getting John to look surprised and then laugh!

Am going to guess that your first ride was Space Mountain. Looking forward to finding out if I am right or not :)

I was so relieved when I realized the crowd at MK really wasn't that bad! I was sure we wouldn't be able to get it!

Yeah, the cold wasn't very fun, but considering we had eight inches of snow on the ground back home I would definitely take Disney World anyday!

I was so happy with John's PP pics! The photographer did a great job!

Yay, you're finally in the Magic Kingdom! :woohoo:

It must be so strange to be in Disney when it's that cold! :eek: No way would have take the ferry either...especially on the first trip into MK, you gotta ride the monorail!

Ooh, can't wait to see if you got your Full House pictures or not! :laughing: We didn't have a chance to visit the GF on our trip, I really wanted to, but somehow, in 8 days, we didn't have a chance to fit it in. :confused3

My camera is the same way, it's fine during the day, but forget about good pics when there is no light! I REALLY want a new one before my October trip...I wanted a new one for this past trip, but Brandon said no, because we bought it right before our November 09 trip! I don't think your pictures were bad though, you can see what you're taking a picture of! I love the MK tree, it's never up when we go because we always go before the parade taping, so I haven't seen it yet! Someday! :)

I love your PP pics! I was laughing when you were describing how John isn't a smiley person, Brandon is the same way with pictures, which is why he looks so awkward in all of our pictures, his smile is so forced and it doesn't even look like him! He smiles enough in real life, he's the funniest person I know, but get him in front of a camera and literally forgets how to smile! :rotfl:

Your pics are so cute though! I don't think you look tired at all, you look great! :goodvibes And I love the pics of John with Tinkerbell alone, those are definitely frame worthy! :thumbsup2

Can't wait to see what attraction you did first! I'm pretty sure you told me when we were texting that morning but I forgot, so I'm excited to find out again! :woohoo: That seems like it was so long ago already and it was just a couple of weeks! :eek:

It was definitely strange being in Disney when it's cold! I never thought I'd say this, but I would take the heat a million times over the cold. It was just so uncomfortable!

I am really frustrated with my camera. I ended up using the video camera my MIL got me for Christmas starting on day 2 to take all of my still pictures too. It worked way better.

What is it with these boys and not smiling?! :confused3 John always claims it's because he's in the Army, but I dunno. But that's okay, because when he does smile the picture is like x1000 more special!

Thank you for saying that! I felt like I looked exhausted most of the trip, because I don't bother with makeup at Disney and because everyday we were running on very little sleep! :laughing:

It really does seem like forever ago! We came home two weeks ago yesterday...I still can't believe it's only been two weeks!

Yay for getting to Magic Kingdom :woohoo: Your PP pictures came out cute! Although I hear ya on the eye makeup- I forgot my concealer last time we went to Disney and what a mistake that was! I'll never do that again LOL. My bf is the same way as John in pictures, he doesn't really smile so he looks kind of like a grump sometimes :laughing: John's picture holding Tinkerbell really is great though :thumbsup2

Thank you! :) I hardly ever bother with makeup when I'm at Disney, but then I always regret it when I see the pictures later! :rotfl: I love John's picture with Tinkerbell, although I think he'd divorce me if I ever showed it to his Army buddies! :laughing:

therussells08

01-17-2011, 11:33 AM

I really can't believe Pop is that much on Christmas! Good decision on staying off-site!

Sorry you weren't able to get a king bed in a preferred room. I think all the preferred rooms are in the 50's and all the rest of the decades are non-preferred.

Yay on getting into MK! Great pp pics! Looking forward to the rest of the day!

Thanks! I couldn't believe that price either!

I was bummed about the king room, but it ended up being okay. Being in the preferred room was super nice. I think preffered might be 50s and 60s, because we were in 60s!

Thank you! I'm glad you like the pics! :)

Brrrrr!!! I can't believe how cold it was! I remember going to Disney over Christmas on year and we had to buy gloves when we were down there! Who would have thought?! :confused3 I hope it warmed up for you! :goodvibes

Cute pictures! :thumbsup2

I never expected it to be that cold in Florida! I was definitely not equipped for it, and I don't think anyone else was either!

Thanks! :)

I love the PP pics!!! I can't believe it was so cold!!! Remember my mini TR? We bought t-shirts cause it was in the 70's!!!!

Thanks girl! Yeah I was definitely hoping for some of that 70s weather on our trip, but it never happened! :rotfl:

stephielela

01-17-2011, 03:16 PM

Yay I'm glad you made it in!! Great PP pics!

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-17-2011, 09:36 PM

I can definitely sympathize with the cold weather! When we went last January it was in the 30's, too. :eek: I wasn't prepared with a large coat either - I never thought I would have needed one in Florida!

Your PP pictures turned out great! It sounds like the photographer was awesome. Miguel doesn't like smiling for pictures, either. It must be a man thing, because I read about that a lot on here. Normally after saying "smile!" three times he'll finally do it, but his first look is always his serious face. :lmao:

Missyrose

01-17-2011, 10:27 PM

Just caught up. I'm glad you got out ahead of that snowstorm! And you're off to a great start to your trip. Love the photos so far :thumbsup2

mom2mek

01-18-2011, 08:40 AM

I'm all caught up! What a great way to spend the day after Christmas - in the most magical place in the world! I love the photopass pics - the tink/hubby one is too funny! He was a good sport! :thumbsup2

Sara

therussells08

01-25-2011, 04:41 PM

Yay I'm glad you made it in!! Great PP pics!

Thank you! There's plenty more to come! :)

I can definitely sympathize with the cold weather! When we went last January it was in the 30's, too. :eek: I wasn't prepared with a large coat either - I never thought I would have needed one in Florida!

Your PP pictures turned out great! It sounds like the photographer was awesome. Miguel doesn't like smiling for pictures, either. It must be a man thing, because I read about that a lot on here. Normally after saying "smile!" three times he'll finally do it, but his first look is always his serious face. :lmao:

I was SO not prepared for that weather! I will never complain about being hot at Disney again! :laughing:

Thank you! I guess it really is just a guy thing- they're not big on expressing their happiness on camera! :confused3 Boys are so silly!

Just caught up. I'm glad you got out ahead of that snowstorm! And you're off to a great start to your trip. Love the photos so far :thumbsup2

Thank you so much for reading along! I'm glad you're here! :thumbsup2

I'm all caught up! What a great way to spend the day after Christmas - in the most magical place in the world! I love the photopass pics - the tink/hubby one is too funny! He was a good sport! :thumbsup2

Sara

Thank you! It really was a magical end to our Christmas! But really, with all the Christmas stuff going on in Disney, it was like it had just began! :goodvibes

therussells08

01-25-2011, 05:17 PM

Hi everyone! I’m so sorry I haven’t updated in so long. Work has really been wearing me out lately and I feel like I haven’t had two seconds free! Thanks for bearing with me!

When we left off, we were heading to our first attraction in MK. When John and I came to WDW in June 2009 (our last trip before this trip) we were so disappointed when we found out Space Mountain was closed for renovations. Therefore, there was no doubt in our minds where we were heading first!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260090.jpg

We couldn’t wait to ride and see the changes they had made! John rushed ahead of me a little bit and got us fast passes, but there was no line so we got straight into the standby line too. It was basically walk on, so I completely missed all of the changes they have made to the queue. Actually, it wasn’t until our last day at Disney that I realized they have games you can play in line now!

We rode Space Mountain and LOVED it, of course! I was hoping to ride in the very front of a car, because I feel like that always gives you the most realistic experience, but we didn’t get the front. I had read on the DIS that one of the changes they made was taking the reflective stickers off of the cars so you can’t see other vehicles while you’re on the ride. I guess I was looking for that little change, so I felt like it really added to the illusion of being in outer space.

We were really excited about them taking our picture on the ride too, because that had never happened before. As soon as the ride was over we went to check out our photo. We laughed at our expressions but didn’t buy it. I had a PhotoPass CD preordered, so there was no way I was paying more money for pictures!

After checking out our picture we walked around the gift shop a little. It was so cold outside, so I was kind of putting off going back out there. Every time we go to Disney it’s John’s tradition to pick out a special shirt for himself. He really liked this one:

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260091.jpg

However, he didn’t want to get his shirt so early in the trip, so he decided to hold off.

When we left the gift shop next to Space Mountain and stepped back outside it was almost as if I had forgotten how cold it was. It hit me like a slap in the face, and I immediately told John, “I’m not going to be able to stand this.” We walked over to the smoking area so he could take a cigarette break and I stood there freezing my buns off. When John was finished smoking we started heading away from Space Mountain and I spotted a stand selling gloves and scarves and stuff.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260092.jpg

The stuff with cupcakes on them were for kids, but the purple gloves were for adults. I cringed when I saw the price tag ($14) but they were nice and thick, so I decided to get them. I snapped a picture of John while he waited in line to pay for them.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260093.jpg

Then, I snapped a picture of the still-ominous cloudy sky. It was not exactly cheerful looking, but it wasn’t raining, so I wasn’t complaining!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260094.jpg

The cashier at the kiosk knew my intentions with the gloves, so he cut the tags off of them for me and I put them on right away. I was so happy to have warm hands, so John took a picture of my joy.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260095.jpg

I loved that the gloves had the mittens you could fold back, because I have an iPhone and you can’t use the touch screen with gloves on your fingers. However, I was confused as to why there was no covering on the thumb. Even with the mitten part on, my thumb was still exposed! I feel like whoever designed these gloves didn’t think this through very carefully. Oh well!

Now that my hands were no longer blocks of ice, it was time to enjoy more of Tomorrowland! The next thing we decided to hit was Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. I like this ride, but I definitely don’t like it as much as TSM. I think that’s because I NEVER win on Buzz Lightyear. I will say, however, that I really like the way the queue is decorated. I took a few pictures on our way in.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260096.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260097.jpg

I remember the first time I came to Disney I was so impressed with how realistic Buzz’s face looks. It still impresses me!

We had a great ride, and I tried my usual strategy, which is spinning the vehicle in random directions so John can’t aim. As usual, my plan failed and John stomped me.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260098.jpg

It’s difficult to read the numbers, but I think John had 111,400 and I had 27,400! Haha, oh well! Maybe I’ll get him next time.

After Buzz we decided to head to Stitch’s Great Escape.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260099.jpg

I’m not sure why we always ride this one, because I don’t really like it. I feel like that “burp” smell stays in my hair all day. It was warm in there though, so I wasn’t complaining. When I sat in my seat I made sure to raise myself up a little so the bars wouldn’t hurt my shoulders. The first time I rode this I didn’t know to do that, and when Stitch “jumped” on me I almost cried it hurt my shoulders so bad.

I got kind of annoyed on the ride because there was a lady next to me who kept taking her phone out and texting during the part where Stitch is loose and it’s all dark. The CM working the ride kept yelling at her, but she just wouldn’t put it away. It made me feeling uncomfortable because I though people would think I was doing it. I just don’t understand why you would take the time getting on the ride if you’re just going to text while it’s going on. Some people blow my mind!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260100.jpg

After Stitch it was time to use our Fast Passes for Space Mountain. We went back and had another great ride, but I still didn’t get to ride in the front. It was wonderful, nonetheless!

When this was over John and I were both getting pretty hungry. We still had quite awhile before our 2:00 lunch reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern, so we decided to go to the Main Street Bakery and use some snack credits.

When we got to the bakery, the line was out the door! I couldn’t believe how long it was, but we were really hungry so we decided to wait. The line moved pretty quickly, and before long it was almost our turn to order. John didn’t really know how to use the snack credits for the DxDP yet, so he went to find us a table while I got the snacks and drinks. When I finished paying I found him in the corner of the seating area at a bar they have running along the wall. It was a tight squeeze, but it was warm and we were sitting down so we were happy. John got the apple turnover for his snack and I got the chocolate danish.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260102.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260103.jpg

We also got a bottled Diet Coke for me and a bottled Coke for John. We used four snack credits, which I thought was a pretty good deal.

The snacks were delicious and they really hit the spot. I loved the chocolate danish! It reminded me of the chocolate turnovers at Arbys, which I love. We decided after we finished eating to sit for a few minutes and relax. We enjoyed our sodas and talked about our plans for the day for a minute or two, but then we decided to move so other people could sit down.

As we were standing up to leave, this man and his wife were waiting to sit in our seats. Instead of waiting like civilized people, the man literally shoved me out of the way before I could even finish gathering my trash so that no one else could take our spot. I couldn’t believe how rude he was! I usually don’t speak up about stuff like that, but I was so shocked I had to say something. All I said was, “You could wait until I’m finished at least!” I was still proud of myself, though. John said something a little less tame, but I am glad to report he didn’t cuss or punch the guy out, so I was pleased with his reaction. That was our first run in with rude people, but I was determined not to let it bother me!

After we had semi-full bellies it was time to get back to business! So, where did we go next? Stay tuned to find out!

TanzUnited99

01-25-2011, 05:56 PM

Tracy161

01-25-2011, 05:56 PM

What is with rude people?! :confused3 Especially at Disney when everyone should be happy and polite!!!

Great update! And don't feel bad, I am the absolute worst on Buzz, so no matter what your score, it'll always beat mine! :rotfl: Your chocolate danish looks so yummy... I want one!

TinkerbellLuvr7

01-25-2011, 06:25 PM

Great Update!!

Can you believe rude people?! I mean it's okay to table stalk but to sit down before you ask them to sit or fully leave the table is nuts! You'd think with it being the day after Xmas people we be kind but I guess not!

Where do you go next?!

dancin_princess

01-26-2011, 12:38 AM

:cool1:I've never been called "important to a TR". That made my night.

You really had a DISNEY Christmas! All beyond awesome gifts. and yay for a white Christmas its definitely something special to us Southerners. In my boyfriend's family - we have Christmas dinner on Christmas eve too.

I love the Full House Disney episode. Heck, I loved all TGIF episodes that did Disney episodes.

However, I was confused as to why there was no covering on the thumb. Even with the mitten part on, my thumb was still exposed! I feel like whoever designed these gloves didn’t think this through very carefully. Oh well!

When I read this, I thought of Meet the Robinsons. :rotfl:

That lady was rude to be texting during Stitch, especially since the CM was yelling at her.

Shannon84

01-26-2011, 08:54 AM

So weird that the mittens did not cover the thumbs :confused3 but I know how frustrating it is to try and use a touch phone when its cold out and you have gloves on!!

DisneyFirefly

01-26-2011, 11:51 AM

tinawv

01-26-2011, 12:16 PM

You and John are an adorable couple. Can't wait to read more. :):)

Nermel9

01-26-2011, 01:02 PM

I know what you mean about Space Mountain and riding in the front, it's so much better than the back! :thumbsup2

Those gloves are so cute! Except I don't get the thumb cut off thing...weird! :confused3

I'm not a big fan of Buzz, I'm SO bad at it! I don't know where I'm supposed to be aiming! I mean, I know at the targets, but I can never seem to hit them! :laughing:

I can't believe that rude jerk at the bakery! :eek: People are so ridiculous in Disney, I have this fantasy that everyone should be nice and courteous when in Disney World, but it seems like 50% of the people are rude, selfish jerks! I always make comments to rude people, but they never hear me. Ever. I don't know if I'm too quiet or if they just choose to ignore me, but it's just not even worth it to get worked up about it, since they obviously just don't care! :rotfl:

Cat0727

01-26-2011, 03:32 PM

Your gloves are cute, I like the colors! Although I agree with you, it's weird they have the thumbs open like that. Usually mittens like that don't, how strange.

Your danish looked so good! I need to try new things at MSB instead of getting a cinnamon roll every time. I can't believe how rude that guy was to you! I don't understand some people! :sad2:

rootbeer momma

01-26-2011, 03:34 PM

NMW

01-26-2011, 03:51 PM

Subscribing

laashley

01-26-2011, 05:37 PM

Yay for an update. Very cute gloves! I guess thumbs aren't supposed to get cold?:confused3. Just the other day I was trying to use the phone with gloves on. Nope didn't work!:laughing:

Really hoping to grab breakfast at Main St. Bakery. I will try not to push anyone out of their seat.:goodvibes

BelleTinkMom

01-27-2011, 10:06 AM

Don't know how I missed that you started your TR. But I'm here going back to catch up.

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

01-28-2011, 11:24 AM

We always go on Space Mountain first, too. Although I am the opposite - I pray I'm not the front seat (and make Miguel change with me if I am)! :lmao: It's a little too realistic for me. I feel so exposed! :laughing:

Ugh, sorry about your run in with the man at MSB. Why do people have to be so rude?! :sad2:

stephielela

01-29-2011, 10:46 PM

saralexander97

01-31-2011, 07:51 AM

Space Mountain was closed for renovations last time we were there also =(
I love the gloves! I cannot wait to here more about your adventures. I really despise rude people, awesome job holding them accountable for their actions!

therussells08

02-01-2011, 06:54 PM

:yay: on getting another update posted! Hope work eases up for you though know how tough it can be working in a school environment.

My guess was right...you did go to Space Mountain! Am glad you enjoyed the updated version.

Agree with you on the gloves...the person who designed them sure didn't think about keeping the thumb warm as well...even though they do look cute.

Thanks for the :thumbsup2 on stitch...will make sure I raise myself when I ride it.

You sure came across some wierd/rude people on your day at MK...first the woman on stitch and then the people at the Main Street Bakery...can't believe people would behave in such a way. By the way the choc danish and apple turnover look delish!

Thank you for your support! :) Unfortunately, work has only gotten tougher so my updates are even more scarce. About half of our school has the flu, so the other half seems to be working twice as hard to keep things running. I'm ready for Spring!

Great guess! :thumbsup2 The updated version was awesome!

I hope my Stitch advice is helpful! I just think it can be really painful if you don't give yourself a little room to move around!

What is with rude people?! :confused3 Especially at Disney when everyone should be happy and polite!!!

Great update! And don't feel bad, I am the absolute worst on Buzz, so no matter what your score, it'll always beat mine! :rotfl: Your chocolate danish looks so yummy... I want one!

Seriously?! I don't know why anyone would be rude at Disney!

:rotfl: Thanks, that makes me feel better! I feel like I never hit anything on Buzz!

That chocolate danish was sooo good! :cloud9: As a matter of fact, I stopped at Arbys for dinner tonight and had a chocolate turnover for dessert, and it made me think of those yummy danishes!

Great Update!!

Can you believe rude people?! I mean it's okay to table stalk but to sit down before you ask them to sit or fully leave the table is nuts! You'd think with it being the day after Xmas people we be kind but I guess not!

Where do you go next?!

Thank you! :)

You're right, I totally understand table stalking, because I am definitely guilty of that. These people were just a little to desperate, I think! :confused3

:cool1:I've never been called "important to a TR". That made my night.

You really had a DISNEY Christmas! All beyond awesome gifts. and yay for a white Christmas its definitely something special to us Southerners. In my boyfriend's family - we have Christmas dinner on Christmas eve too.

I love the Full House Disney episode. Heck, I loved all TGIF episodes that did Disney episodes.

When I read this, I thought of Meet the Robinsons. :rotfl:

That lady was rude to be texting during Stitch, especially since the CM was yelling at her.

You are very important to my TR! :hug:

It was a great Christmas for sure! I really enjoy doing Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve...I guess it's because that's how we've always done it!

I have not seen any other TGIF Disney episodes except for the Full House one but I want to! I am obsessed with Full House!

So weird that the mittens did not cover the thumbs :confused3 but I know how frustrating it is to try and use a touch phone when its cold out and you have gloves on!!

I am so glad that you guys can all relate to my glove troubles! I'm happy I'm not alone! :laughing:

therussells08

02-01-2011, 06:59 PM

Yeah, I have an iPod Touch and actually just bought a cheap pair of stretch gloves and snipped off the fingertips :lmao: I didn't feel like spending extra money on the flip top gloves. The picture of you with your gloves is cute!

That's a great idea! I need to do that with some cheap gloves!

Thank you so much! :) I always tilt my head back in pictures. It's a bad habit I picked up because I think it makes me feel taller. :rotfl:

You and John are an adorable couple. Can't wait to read more. :):)

Thank you so much! You are too sweet! :hug:

I know what you mean about Space Mountain and riding in the front, it's so much better than the back! :thumbsup2

Those gloves are so cute! Except I don't get the thumb cut off thing...weird! :confused3

I'm not a big fan of Buzz, I'm SO bad at it! I don't know where I'm supposed to be aiming! I mean, I know at the targets, but I can never seem to hit them! :laughing:

I can't believe that rude jerk at the bakery! :eek: People are so ridiculous in Disney, I have this fantasy that everyone should be nice and courteous when in Disney World, but it seems like 50% of the people are rude, selfish jerks! I always make comments to rude people, but they never hear me. Ever. I don't know if I'm too quiet or if they just choose to ignore me, but it's just not even worth it to get worked up about it, since they obviously just don't care! :rotfl:

Space Mountain in the front is AMAZING! I feel like I'm really flying in outerspace!

I am the exact same with Buzz...I just don't know what to aim at! I usually just shoot randomly and try to sabotage John!

I don't understand why so many people seem to angry at Disney. I mean, they act like it's there job! I don't know about others, but I'm sure as heck not going to drop several thousand dollars so I can go somewhere and be in a bad mood! That's insane!

Your gloves are cute, I like the colors! Although I agree with you, it's weird they have the thumbs open like that. Usually mittens like that don't, how strange.

Your danish looked so good! I need to try new things at MSB instead of getting a cinnamon roll every time. I can't believe how rude that guy was to you! I don't understand some people! :sad2:

Thank you! I like the colors too. Purple is my favorite! :)

I would definitely recommend the danish. It must be pretty new because they didn't have it on my last trip, but this time I saw them just about everywhere. Let me know what you think if you try one next time!

therussells08

02-01-2011, 07:02 PM

Yay for an update! Looking at the pics is making me excited, I leave in 3 days for POP!

It was pretty cold when were down there during nov/dec, only in the 50's. You look sooo happy to have warm fingers! I am confused by the no thumb thing...are your thumbs not supposed to get cold?!

The best seat on Space Mountain is the front!! I have only rode in the front seat once but it was definitely the best.

Main Street Bakery=love! Those goodies look so yummy, I can't wait to get there!

Great update!! Can't wait for the next one!

I hope you are having a blast on your trip! I'm sorry I didn't reply before you left! :hug:

I was beyond ecstatic to have warm fingers! :rotfl: I guess they think your thumbs should warm themselves?! :confused3

I hope you got to ride in the front seat this trip! ;)

I can't wait to hear what you had to eat at MSB!

Subscribing

:welcome: Thanks for joining in!

Yay for an update. Very cute gloves! I guess thumbs aren't supposed to get cold?:confused3. Just the other day I was trying to use the phone with gloves on. Nope didn't work!:laughing:

Really hoping to grab breakfast at Main St. Bakery. I will try not to push anyone out of their seat.:goodvibes

I saw in the mall a pair of gloves that apparently allowed you to use your touch screen, but they were like thirty dollars!

:rotfl: I can't imagine you pushing anyone out of their seat! You're too nice!

Don't know how I missed that you started your TR. But I'm here going back to catch up.

:welcome: Thanks for joining in! I'm so glad you're here!

We always go on Space Mountain first, too. Although I am the opposite - I pray I'm not the front seat (and make Miguel change with me if I am)! :lmao: It's a little too realistic for me. I feel so exposed! :laughing:

Ugh, sorry about your run in with the man at MSB. Why do people have to be so rude?! :sad2:

I LOVE the front seat! But I understand what you mean, it can be a little scary!

Thanks! :) He was a jerk, but I didn't let him ruin my day!

therussells08

02-01-2011, 07:07 PM

I love Space Mountain, and that shirt was really neat. I like riding in the front too, but I don't ask for it. This past trip I got the front once and the back once. I liked the front better, but the back wasn't bad either!

I can't believe that guy at the bakery was that rude. Well, I can believe it, but it still makes me sad. I noticed a lot more grumpy people onour trip as well, and I am trying to find an explanation for it. My current theory is that the crowd level is so much higher, so while the percentage of jerks might be the same, there are more of them. :lmao: It's good you said something, and it's even better that John didn't get into a fight with him. After all, it's still Disney World!

I don't ask to ride in the front either. I'm not sure why I don't, because the CMs are always really nice to anyone who does...I guess I like to wait and see if I'm going to get lucky!

I like your jerk theory, it makes sense! I was proud of John for not knocking his lights out. He doesn't put up with stuff like that like I do. I guess it's from spending so much time with teenagers- I have a higher tolerance!

Space Mountain was closed for renovations last time we were there also =(
I love the gloves! I cannot wait to here more about your adventures. I really despise rude people, awesome job holding them accountable for their actions!

We were so bummed in 09 when Space Mountain was closed!

Thank you so much! You are so sweet! :)

therussells08

02-01-2011, 07:20 PM

Hi everyone! I hope you all are doing well. To all of my friends up north, I hope you're staying warm and out of this horrible weather!

I am so sorry I haven't updated much lately. Like I said in my last update, work is really wearing me out. To top things off, the flu is spreading around my school like wildfire. Half of our staff (we are a small school- only seven teachers) have been out this week with the flu, and a huge number of our students are ill as well.

In other news, if everything goes according to plan we will be buying John a new truck this weekend. We have been looking at several slightly used models, and we found a nice 2010 Toyota Tacoma with only 14,000 miles that I think we're going to go with. He needs a dependable vehicle, so this is good news. Also, it's good news because the next thing on my list to save for after we make the down payment on his truck is our next Disney trip! :thumbsup2

Anyway, I just wanted to let everyone know what is going on with me. I am going to post an update tomorrow night for sure. I have uploaded the pics to Photo Bucket, but I still need to resize them and that takes ages. Thank you all for hanging in there while I am so busy and my updates are sparse. Ya'll are the best! :grouphug:

Tracy161

02-02-2011, 06:03 AM

Nermel9

02-02-2011, 07:24 AM

Yay for John getting a new truck, which means you can start saving for Disney after! :rotfl: :dance3: Any idea when you're going, are you still thinking June? I hear the first week of October is nice! :rolleyes1 :rotfl2:

shelbys mommy

02-02-2011, 07:51 AM

I am back caught up! I can't believe how rude he was to you! I would have said something too! I am super proud of John, I can't say that I would have done the same thing lol

mom2mek

02-02-2011, 08:21 AM

Stay well. We will be here when you can post again...no worries!! :thumbsup2

Sara

shelby101301

02-02-2011, 12:32 PM

Enjoying your TR.

Btw, love your D&B! I was surprised with the wristlet for Christmas and want to get full size bag too! Love them! Used my Xmas money znd sold my Kindle to surprise family with mini- trip this month(kidani) so i can't afford now. But will save up to buy in Oct(Saratoga springs)

RachelNinja

02-02-2011, 06:02 PM

Hi Joni! Finally back to catch up on your TR! I can't believe I haven't been on it for almost a month. I've been neglecting DIS because I've been spending time crafting instead.

That was a crazy price for just one night at Pop! I sent that price to my group now because we're all kinda dealing with the cost of our upcoming vacation, but it's $170 for each of us for the week. I can't believe that it would've been that much just for one night. Even so, I still can't wait to stay on property!!!

I'd be so nervous if I were trying to make sure I got to MK before it reached full capacity! I know going during any holiday is hectic, but just like you, I've heard the Christmas horror stories.

HAHA, I love the foreshadowing hint! Keep it up, English teacher!

I think all the pics of you and John in front of the castle are great! I love that there's a story/memory that goes along with it with the PP photographer trying to get him to smile.

AHHH, your new gloves are just awesome! As I was reading, I was waiting for you to post a pic of you and the gloves in MK!

Oh man, I laughed out loud when I read the following: "... and I tried my usual strategy, which is spinning the vehicle in random directions so John can’t aim." HAHA.

YAY, I'm proud of you too for saying something to the rude person at the bakery. I wouldn't say much either, even though I'd be upset about it and talk about what I could've said. I would've regretted not saying anything at that time. Did they have a reaction to what you or John said?

Hope this helps, but when you upload to Photobucket, you can set it up so that it always loads at a certain size. I realized that after the fact, so now when I get to a new day on the TR, I delete everything and upload it again with the new setting. I'd rather do that and wait (I walk away from the computer) instead of sit there and resize each one like I used to. You can find the "Customize your upload options" near the buttom of the upload part of the screen.

therussells08

02-05-2011, 06:51 PM

Hi everyone! So, I know I promised an update last week, but an unwelcome visitor paid me a visit in the last few days: the flu. Today is the first day I have gathered enough strength to sit in front of the computer to type this, so I'm just not getting around to the update! Thanks for hanging in there with me!

When we left of John and I were leaving Main Street Bakery and heading to our next destination. Having already conquered Tomorrowland, it was time to hit some of the other MK hotspots!

On our way I snapped a really pretty picture of Crystal Palace. I think that is one of the prettiest restaurants.

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As we were walking in front of the castle I noticed there was some kind of dance party going on. It was really cute, so we stopped to check it out.

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My sister loves The Little Mermaid, and Sebastian is one of her favorite characters, so I had to take a picture of him!

While we were watching the dance party I was happy to see that the sky was finally looking a little less-ominous. I took a picture of the castle that turned out better than any I had taken so far.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260110.jpg

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Then I snapped one more picture of Sebastian sitting on top of his huge present and we headed for...

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Adventureland! Haha, look at all of the freezing cold people in that picture!

If you read my PTR, you will know that there are a lot of attractions at WDW that John and I have continued to miss on every trip. We were determined this time around to try some of those, and our first was Jungle Cruise!

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I know, I can't believe I'd never ridden it before this trip either! It was just one of those that we always skipped because we were in such a hurry to get to Pirates of the Caribbean.

I took a picture of another sign in front of Jungle Cruise because I loved the colors on it. I told John I wish we could have that to hang in our apartment!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260113.jpg

There was hardly any wait, and almost immediately it was time to board our boat, Senegal Sal.

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I can't for the life of me remember our driver's name, but she was great. We were seated in the very front of the boat on the right side. Across from us was a man and his little boy. This little boy was HILARIOUS. He was really really loud and outspoken, and he had us cracking up the entire ride. When we first got on he started telling the driver that he was scared of spiders and asking her if there were going to be any on the ride. She assured him that the spiders weren't anything to be afraid of, because they were "robot spiders." Well apparently this thrilled the little boy, because he kept screaming "YAY! ROBOT SPIDERS!" It was really cute, but his poor dad looked so embarrassed.

I really enjoyed all of the puns in the dialogue on this ride. I had just finished teaching my freshmen about puns in Romeo and Juliet before we left for Christmas break, so I wish I had a video of our ride to share with them. I also thought our guide had really great delivery of her lines- she was very witty.
I hope you don't mind, but since it was our first time riding I took a ton of pics. I will share them with you now! Feel free to scroll through if you've seen it all before!

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(This picture reminded me of the beginning of the Lion King when all the animals come to pay homage to Simba!)

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John got all excited over this...he couldn't believe they added in that little bit of "the circle of life" to the show.

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John and I agreed that this was really a great ride! We couldn't believe we had skipped it so many times before. We definitely won't skip it again!

Up Next: Where did we head next, and what was our next never-done-before adventure? Stay tuned to find out!

therussells08

02-05-2011, 07:04 PM

Great news about the truck! And even better... now you can start saving for that next trip!!! :goodvibes Stay healthy! And yes, I'm lucky enough to be in upstate New York and the weather here is miserable right now! :headache:

No worries about the update delay... we'll be here! :hug:

Thank you! I am happy to report we bought the truck on Wednesday! John is loving it, and I am already planning how to start putting money away for Disney! :thumbsup2

Unfortunately, the staying healthy part didn't really work out for me! Oh well!

I hope the weather is a little better up there! I hope you're staying warm!

Thank you for your support! You're so sweet! :hug:

Yay for John getting a new truck, which means you can start saving for Disney after! :rotfl: :dance3: Any idea when you're going, are you still thinking June? I hear the first week of October is nice! :rolleyes1 :rotfl2:

The truck has officially been purchased! :thumbsup2 June is definitely still a possibility. I'm still not quite sure about John's next leave, so it will probably be awhile before we find out. We have been looking into Disney Cruises too, but I'm thinking that's going to be a little risky to plan since we don't know his exact leave dates.

I would LOVE to go when you are going! That's the only bad thing about our jobs...we pretty much only get time off when Disney is the most crowded! :confused3

I am back caught up! I can't believe how rude he was to you! I would have said something too! I am super proud of John, I can't say that I would have done the same thing lol

Haha, I'm proud of John too! I definitely thought that guy was going to get punched in the nose! :rotfl:

Stay well. We will be here when you can post again...no worries!! :thumbsup2

Sara

Thank you! I didn't manage to stay well, but I'm doing a little better now! Thanks for hanging in there with me! :hug:

Enjoying your TR.

Btw, love your D&B! I was surprised with the wristlet for Christmas and want to get full size bag too! Love them! Used my Xmas money znd sold my Kindle to surprise family with mini- trip this month(kidani) so i can't afford now. But will save up to buy in Oct(Saratoga springs)

Thank you so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it! :hug:

Which wristlet did you get? Did you get one of the colors or a white one! They are all so gorgeous!

That was so nice of you to surprise your family with a trip! I hope you have a blast! :)

Hi Joni! Finally back to catch up on your TR! I can't believe I haven't been on it for almost a month. I've been neglecting DIS because I've been spending time crafting instead.

That was a crazy price for just one night at Pop! I sent that price to my group now because we're all kinda dealing with the cost of our upcoming vacation, but it's $170 for each of us for the week. I can't believe that it would've been that much just for one night. Even so, I still can't wait to stay on property!!!

I'd be so nervous if I were trying to make sure I got to MK before it reached full capacity! I know going during any holiday is hectic, but just like you, I've heard the Christmas horror stories.

HAHA, I love the foreshadowing hint! Keep it up, English teacher!

I think all the pics of you and John in front of the castle are great! I love that there's a story/memory that goes along with it with the PP photographer trying to get him to smile.

AHHH, your new gloves are just awesome! As I was reading, I was waiting for you to post a pic of you and the gloves in MK!

Oh man, I laughed out loud when I read the following: "... and I tried my usual strategy, which is spinning the vehicle in random directions so John can’t aim." HAHA.

YAY, I'm proud of you too for saying something to the rude person at the bakery. I wouldn't say much either, even though I'd be upset about it and talk about what I could've said. I would've regretted not saying anything at that time. Did they have a reaction to what you or John said?

Hope this helps, but when you upload to Photobucket, you can set it up so that it always loads at a certain size. I realized that after the fact, so now when I get to a new day on the TR, I delete everything and upload it again with the new setting. I'd rather do that and wait (I walk away from the computer) instead of sit there and resize each one like I used to. You can find the "Customize your upload options" near the buttom of the upload part of the screen.

Hi Rachel! I have been looking at your crafts on Facebook and I LOVE them! :lovestruc I was showing them to my mom the other day. You are really talented! I went to buy a friend of mine a get well card the other day and I was not very happy with the card selection. All I could think about was how pretty your cards are!

Staying on property is so amazing, and it's usually nowhere near that pricey. I guess it was because it was Christmas night and we were calling at the last minute, but I couldn't believe that price either!

I was SO stressed out about getting into MK! Once we were through the gate I was able to relax a little bit. I had myself completely convinced that the park would be closed and our first day of vacation would be ruined!

I'm so glad you liked the PP pictures! Some of the PP pics from this trip are amazing, and some I was not very happy with. My absolute favorites came from our DHS day, so stay tuned for those! ;)

:rotfl: That is pretty much the only chance I have of beating John at Buzz, but no matter how much I spin the car he still wins everytime! Oh well, I always win at TSM so it's okay!

After the issue at the bakery I thought about it for awhile and came up with about twenty things I could have said that would've sounded way cooler than what I chose to say, but I was still proud of myself for saying anything. I'm usually really passive agressive so that was a huge leap for me. The people didn't respond to us at all. In fact, they acted like we didn't exist. Which I guess would explain why the guy almost sat on me! :laughing:

AHHHH, that helps SO much! Thank you thank you thank you! I have spent I have no idea how long resizing pictures! You are the best! :hug:

Tracy161

02-05-2011, 07:47 PM

So happy you finally experienced Jungle Crusie! I have a really corny sense of humor, so JC and all its puns and bad jokes really appeals to someone like me! :lmao:

TinkerbellLuvr7

02-05-2011, 08:09 PM

I'm glad you loved the JC!!! It is a must for us every trip but we always have to make sure of the ride times because they aren't always open for EMH or parties and since we seem to be there only at night, we have to ride it before it closes!

You'll have to ride it at night sometime..it's even better!

saralexander97

02-05-2011, 11:03 PM

That sucks you got the flu, that makes for a miserable few days =( I hope you feel better soon and I bet John took good care of you.
I love the Jungle Cruise, its one of my favorites. That would be such a fun job, wouldn't it? So I have an idea, I'll throw in my stethoscope and you throw in your Expo markers and we will get a job at Disney World =)

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

02-05-2011, 11:11 PM

I agree about the JC - I couldn't believe we had never ridden it either. It's a must-do now. It is so fun, and funny! :laughing:

That picture of CP is so pretty! :goodvibes

Nermel9

02-06-2011, 08:01 AM

Ugh, so sorry you have the flu, hope you feel better soon! :hug:

Loved the update! It's so funny seeing everyone all bundled up at Disney World! I like the cooler weather down there, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to going during a warmer part of the year for this trip, so we can use the pool more! :thumbsup2

We always skip the Jungle Cruise too, it looks like so much fun, such a classic! I know I've done it once or twice with my family, but I have no memory of it so I'd like to do it again! We just never really had time on our last trip, even though it was one of my must do's!

I love those pictures of Sebastian! He would be so cute to have a meet and greet with! :cool1:

TanzUnited99

02-06-2011, 10:45 AM

Hope you are feeling better after having the horrible flu.

Love all the pictures of Jungle Cruise especially the 'circle of life' one. That little boy sounds hilarious!

janeybabydee

02-06-2011, 01:28 PM

Subscribing! Loving your TR, it's making me so excited for my next trip :yay:

mom2mek

02-09-2011, 08:05 AM

Glad you finally made it on the Jungle Cruise. I love it - especially when you have a great skipper!!

Glad you are feeling better! :goodvibes

Sara

rootbeer momma

02-11-2011, 06:56 AM

It is always so sad to leave Disney!

My oldest loves the jungle cruise. We rode it about 3 times this past trip. I think I could give the tour myself now! It is definitely better with a great tour guide, we had one that was not so great and it made for a very long ride.

Have you ever eaten at The Crystal Palace? We had breakfast there this past trip and the food was great but we have had lunch there before and I did not enjoy it. Which is unusual since almost all food in Disney is awesome. It does make for a beautiful picture!

We danced in the parade right beside Sebastian...that song was in my head the whole time we were there. It was quite catchy

Your photo pass photographer did a great job! The pictures are great...even if John isn't smiling all the time.

saralexander97

02-11-2011, 11:01 PM

Hope to hear more you John and your adventures through Magic Kingdom :tigger:

jpmandan

02-12-2011, 10:39 AM

Subscribing! :thumbsup2

therussells08

02-22-2011, 05:01 PM

Oh my, it has been SO long since I updated! :eek: I'm so sorry to all of my loyal followers! Time has really gotten away from me since my trip. I definitely owe all of you an update, so I promise I will get right to work on that! Please bear with me! :hug:

therussells08

02-22-2011, 05:06 PM

So happy you finally experienced Jungle Crusie! I have a really corny sense of humor, so JC and all its puns and bad jokes really appeals to someone like me! :lmao:

I have a corny sense of humor too! I loved the puns. I have tons of lame English jokes I use on my students, and they drive them crazy but I can't help it! For example: "An appositive renames a noun. Are you sure? I'm APPOSITIVE!" :rotfl: Wow, that's bad.

I'm glad you loved the JC!!! It is a must for us every trip but we always have to make sure of the ride times because they aren't always open for EMH or parties and since we seem to be there only at night, we have to ride it before it closes!

You'll have to ride it at night sometime..it's even better!

I would love to ride it at night! I bet that's so much fun!

That sucks you got the flu, that makes for a miserable few days =( I hope you feel better soon and I bet John took good care of you.
I love the Jungle Cruise, its one of my favorites. That would be such a fun job, wouldn't it? So I have an idea, I'll throw in my stethoscope and you throw in your Expo markers and we will get a job at Disney World =)

Thank you so much! John was a great nurse! I got better really quickly!

I think the Jungle Cruise would be a great place to work! I'm in for your plan- let's do it! ;)

I agree about the JC - I couldn't believe we had never ridden it either. It's a must-do now. It is so fun, and funny! :laughing:

That picture of CP is so pretty! :goodvibes

It was great! We will definitely do it again!

Thank you! My pictures got steadily better, thank goodness! :)

Ugh, so sorry you have the flu, hope you feel better soon! :hug:

Loved the update! It's so funny seeing everyone all bundled up at Disney World! I like the cooler weather down there, but I'm actually kind of looking forward to going during a warmer part of the year for this trip, so we can use the pool more! :thumbsup2

We always skip the Jungle Cruise too, it looks like so much fun, such a classic! I know I've done it once or twice with my family, but I have no memory of it so I'd like to do it again! We just never really had time on our last trip, even though it was one of my must do's!

I love those pictures of Sebastian! He would be so cute to have a meet and greet with! :cool1:

Thank you! I got better really quickly! :)

I definitely HATED the cold weather at Disney. I don't think I'll ever complain about the heat there again. Well...maybe. :rolleyes1

You should definitely do it! We were glad we did!

I would love to meet Sebastian! I've never seen him anywhere except in that parade!

Hope you are feeling better after having the horrible flu.

Love all the pictures of Jungle Cruise especially the 'circle of life' one. That little boy sounds hilarious!

I feel so much better, thank you!

He is hilarious! He cracks me up everyday! :)

therussells08

02-22-2011, 05:10 PM

Subscribing! Loving your TR, it's making me so excited for my next trip :yay:

:welcome: I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

Glad you finally made it on the Jungle Cruise. I love it - especially when you have a great skipper!!

Glad you are feeling better! :goodvibes

Sara

Thank you! :)

Yes, our skipper definitely made it a great trip!

It is always so sad to leave Disney!

My oldest loves the jungle cruise. We rode it about 3 times this past trip. I think I could give the tour myself now! It is definitely better with a great tour guide, we had one that was not so great and it made for a very long ride.

Have you ever eaten at The Crystal Palace? We had breakfast there this past trip and the food was great but we have had lunch there before and I did not enjoy it. Which is unusual since almost all food in Disney is awesome. It does make for a beautiful picture!

We danced in the parade right beside Sebastian...that song was in my head the whole time we were there. It was quite catchy

Your photo pass photographer did a great job! The pictures are great...even if John isn't smiling all the time.

I can imagine that poor skipper would make for a boring Jungle Cruise. I guess we got lucky!

We had dinner at Crystal Palace in 2009 and I didn't like it at all. However, when we had breakfast there on this trip it was great! I guess they just have better breakfasts!

That is so cool! It was a very catchy song! I was tempted to dance but I was in a hurry to ride more rides!

Thank you! I love the pictures too! :)

Hope to hear more you John and your adventures through Magic Kingdom :tigger:

I will be updating soon, I promise! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

Subscribing! :thumbsup2

:welcome: I'm so glad you're here!

therussells08

02-28-2011, 05:38 PM

Hi everyone! I am FINALLY here to do an update after almost four weeks! I am making it my goal
to start paying more attention to my poor little TR, because it was a great trip that I want to share with all of you! Also, I need to clear up my schedule for a possible upcoming PTR...*ahem* :rolleyes1

I won't say anymore about that right now...

When we left off (ages and ages ago) we had just finished our first ride ever on Jungle Cruise! Since we were in the area, we decided it was time for one of our favorites: Pirates of the Caribbean! I don't think I'll ever get tired of this ride. On our way there, we caught a glimpse of the Cap'n himself! How is it even the "fake" Jack Sparrow at Disney World is dreamy? :lovestruc

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We headed into the "line" for Pirates and soon realized it was going to be a walk on! We headed to the right instead of the left, and when we loaded into our boat we sat in the very back and a few people sat in the very front. That was it! It was so cool to ride in an almost empty boat.

We enjoyed our trip to the Caribbean (of course!) and I enjoyed spotting Jack Sparrow!

After riding Pirates we were feeling really adventurous, so we decided to try another new experience: The Enchanted Tiki Room!

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This is another one of those Disney classics like Jungle Cruise that I had heard so much about but had never tried. We went in not knowing what to expect, and as it turned out we weren't that impressed. It was nice to be in the warmth for a bit and I enjoyed the music, but John was so bored.

I realize now that neither one of us appreciated the Tiki Room as much as we should have. Last weekened we took my niece to see Gnomeo and Juliet, and there is a part in the movie when they play that song; when I heard it I almost cried!

After our second new adventure for the day, we decided to check out Frontierland! It was still really cold, so we went into the pin trading gift shop in Frontierland for a few minutes to warm up. When we came out, you'll never guess who I saw!

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SANTA! I just so happened to come out at the very end of the parade, and I had a great view of the jolly guy! It was so cool. I had to snap another picture! Plus, he waved!

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After our run in with Saint Nick we went over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad to grab Fast Passes.

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I feel like the little area in front of BTMR is always SO crowded. I decided to hang back while John grabbed the Fast Passes. After they were secured, we discussed a dilemma; should we ride Splash Mountain? Splash Mountain is one of my all time favorite rides, and there was hardly any wait, but it was because it was FREEZING. We finally agreed that one good ride wasn't worth being miserable all day, especially since I had a cold, so we skipped it.

After just a few minutes I already needed another break from the cold, so we went back into a gift shop to look around some. I took some pictures of a few things I thought were really cute.

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What a cute apron! The small one for little girls said "Domestic Princess,"which I thought was adorable.

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I don't drink tea, but I thought this would be such a beautiful decorative item! I loved the colorful pictures painted on it.

After warming up for a few more minutes, we headed out of the shop. On the way out I took a picture of a cute sign I'd never noticed before.

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Next we decided to go to my favorite part of Magic Kingdom: Liberty Square! I don't know what it is about that land, but I love it! There's something about the decorations and the music they play. I feel like I should have been born in that time period, because it makes me feel at home! Although, I do enjoy running water and electricity! :rotfl:

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I read in my Disney secrets book that the thirteen lanterns on this tree represent the thirteen original colonies! How cool!

Since we were already on a roll with trying new things, we decided to check out the Hall of Presidents!

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Honestly, this was an attraction we had avoided on past trips because it didn't sound that appealing. But today, with the freezing weather outside, it sounded perfect! I actually really enjoyed the show, and John enjoyed taking a nice power nap. :laughing:

After the Hall of Presidents it was time to use our Fast Passes for BTMR.

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As we headed back to Frontierland I snapped a picture of the Ferry. Look at those poor cold people!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260153.jpg

While we waited in a very short line for our ride on the railroad, I attempted to take a one handed shot. I have been trying to get better at this ever since I saw how great RachelNinja is at it, but I still need some work!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260155.jpg

We had a great ride, even though it was freezing! Afterward we realized we only had about 25 minutes before our 2 o'clock lunch reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern. That was just enough time to ride one of my all time favorites: The Haunted Mansion!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260158.jpg

We hurried that way and jumped in line. I was nervous because the wait time said 30 minutes, but it never takes as long as it says it's going to. Sure enough, we were on the ride in about 10 minutes.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260159.jpg

I always love Haunted Mansion SO much! This is going to sound weird because it's supposed to be a haunted house, but I always feel so cozy riding in my "doom buggy" with John! I made the same comment I always make, which is "Madam Leota really shouldn't end a sentence with a preposition!" Then John proceeded to tell me to stop being a grammar psycho. That conversation has become a Haunted Mansion tradition for us, ever since I first heard Madam Leota "...call up the spirits, wherever they're at." :headache:

As we were leaving Haunted Mansion I snapped a picture of the pet cemetary. To me, this a classic example of Disney's amazing attention to detail. I love it!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260161.jpg

At about five minutes until 2, we headed over to Liberty Tree Tavern for our very first ADR on the Deluxe Dining Plan!

Up Next: Our very first meal on the DxDP (and our first time at Liberty Tree Tavern ever)! Stay tuned for some yummy food pics and reviews! popcorn::

luckylady

02-28-2011, 05:46 PM

Ahhh the Tiki Room is a great place for a nap. I have never noticed the pet cemetery will have to look for t in June. Great update.

Nermel9

02-28-2011, 05:51 PM

Yay, finally an update!! :woohoo:

Can't wait to find out where/when your next trip is...if you would just get around to answering your texts! :rolleyes1 :rotfl:

I haven't been in the Tiki room since I was a kid, Brandon always wants to avoid it. It doesn't sound all that great! :laughing:

How cool that you saw Santa, good timing! :thumbsup2

Good decision, skipping Splash! It wasn't cold when I was there, it was probably 80, and I thought that was too cool to be walking around soaked all day!

I love that Alice tea kettle, I always think about buying it, but never do! Maybe I'll just buy it in October and be done with it!

I know exactly what you mean about Liberty Square!! :eek: I always say I wish I lived during that time period!

Yay, Haunted Mansion! I've never seen that pet cemetery, how is that possible??? :rotfl2:

DisneyFirefly

02-28-2011, 06:00 PM

Did you notice Mr Toad in the pet cemetary? :teeth:

RachelNinja

02-28-2011, 06:24 PM

Catching up on your TR! Boo to having the flu! That's terrible! Do you get the flu shot? I got it one year, I think. The doctor recommended it due to being a teacher. I was going to get it the following year, but I was sick with a cold and was told I could go back to get it, but I just never did.

Yay for a great ride on Jungle Cruise! The CM really makes all the difference, but the people on the boat itself contribute to a better ride. I personally don't like it when there are a lot of little kids on the boat because the parents and the kids are pointing to all the animals ignoring what the CM says. This happened last week, and it was hard to hear what the CM was saying since we sat all the way at the back! I'm so used to being at the front and hearing EVERYTHING.

WHAT??? PTR?!?

I so so so wanted to catch a show of the fake Captain Jack Sparrow! I wanted to see him myself and also show my cousins just how good he could be! We purposely watched POTC the night before too in anticipation of the ride!

You took a GREAT one-handed shot at Thunder Mountain! It has to be harder for you because John is much taller. Howard and I are so close in height! It's funny that I thought he and I would get more pics this past trip since we had 3 other people with us. Haha, that didn't happen at all! I think we actually had fewer pics because we took pics of them!

AHAHAHHAHAHAH, I love the comment about Madame Leota and the preposition! I never noticed it because I'm ALWAYS so scared on the ride. I have take everything lightly and just look at the technical aspects of it. BTW, I hate that nowadays the ending-a-sentence-with-a-preposition-no-no isn't stressed as much. It bugs me so much! I've gotten so used to rephrasing sentences entirely to avoid it even though I'm sure some slip through ;)

Look at lonely Mr. Toad at the back of that pet cemetery! He looks happy, but I'd like to experience his ride again at my age now. I used to squint when I was a kid!

Oooo, I can't wait to see what you ate at Liberty Tree Tavern! I REALLY want to try that!

TinkerbellLuvr7

02-28-2011, 06:41 PM

Can't wait to hear what you thought of LTT. We used to eat there all the time for dinner when they had characters. We haven't been back since because we always thought the food was just eh and at least at Chef Mickeys you could have a huge selection of food but we always did love LTT and they used to carry sweet tea but not anymore!

BookTrout

02-28-2011, 06:44 PM

Oh, this trip report is so much fun.:yay: Please, don't leave us hanging too long now that you're back. :sulley:
Sharon

TanzUnited99

02-28-2011, 07:26 PM

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

02-28-2011, 07:30 PM

Yay! I was so excited to see an update! I've missed reading about your trip. :goodvibes

We were underwhelmed by the Tiki Room, too. In fact, I might even call it annoyed. It's definitely not an attraction I've got on my "must-do" list. And you are so right about the area around BTMRR and Splash - it does get so crowded!

I can't wait to hear about LTT. I am so excited to try it for the first time in June. :woohoo:

saralexander97

02-28-2011, 08:29 PM

YEAH! An update :flower1: We went to the Tiki Room in 09 and I fell asleep also. It was a nice place to cool off on a hot June day, but the show is not a must see. I have not been to the hall of Presidents since I was six, so I feel it is time to go this year. Liberty Tree Tavern is on our dinning maybe list, maybe your review will seal the deal :banana:

ChildAtHeart82

02-28-2011, 08:32 PM

Yay for an update and for a mysterious new trip to plan! :yay:

For me, Tiki Room is one of those classic Disney attractions that's corny now but brings back memories of my Disney trips as a kid. I'm looking forward to your review of Liberty Tree Tavern. By the time we read it, we will have eaten there for the first time. :)

Your Haunted Mansion discussion is hilarious. I'm definitely going to remember that the next time we ride it.

Cat0727

02-28-2011, 09:21 PM

Yay for an update and a possible new trip! ;D

Hahah I love the Madame Leota observation! I've never noticed that before. John's comment to you was so funny lol.

Ooh can't wait to hear about your LTT lunch! I've only been there for dinner. I want to buy one their mugs next time I'm there.

AGPrincess

03-01-2011, 12:10 AM

mom2mek

03-01-2011, 08:35 AM

Great update! Love fake Jack Sparrow - heck, I'll even take animatronic Jack Sparrow - he would go great in my living room! :lmao:

Glad you got on Thunder Mountain despite the cold! Such a fun ride! We rode it last February at night and it was about 35 degrees out! Brrr...

I have to say I hate that she ends that phrase with "at" as well! Bugs me on the CD with the Halloween music too! :headache: :laughing:

Looking forward to hearing all about LTT! :goodvibes

Sara

laashley

03-01-2011, 02:13 PM

Yay for an update! Sounds like a good day, even with the cold. Good idea not riding Splash, cold is one thing, cold and wet are another! Ready for the LTT update, I have one in 4 weeks and can't wait to hear what you thought.:goodvibes

So another trip, do tell.:flower3:

stephielela

03-01-2011, 03:30 PM

All caught up!!!

I thought the exact same thing when I saw Gnomeo and Juliet!!

Jack Sparrow is ALWAYS dreamy. I don't know how they do that!

I would have skipped Splash too.

I also love Haunted Mansion but I hadn't noticed the grammatical error... but I'm not a teacher, so I don't pick up on those things unless they are REALLY obvious!

A PTR? Hmmm, intriguing!

therussells08

03-01-2011, 06:41 PM

Ahhh the Tiki Room is a great place for a nap. I have never noticed the pet cemetery will have to look for t in June. Great update.

Thank you!! When you are exiting Haunted Mansion, look directly to your left and you will see the cemetery up on the hill there! It's really cool! :)

Yay, finally an update!! :woohoo:

Can't wait to find out where/when your next trip is...if you would just get around to answering your texts! :rolleyes1 :rotfl:

I haven't been in the Tiki room since I was a kid, Brandon always wants to avoid it. It doesn't sound all that great! :laughing:

How cool that you saw Santa, good timing! :thumbsup2

Good decision, skipping Splash! It wasn't cold when I was there, it was probably 80, and I thought that was too cool to be walking around soaked all day!

I love that Alice tea kettle, I always think about buying it, but never do! Maybe I'll just buy it in October and be done with it!

I know exactly what you mean about Liberty Square!! :eek: I always say I wish I lived during that time period!

Yay, Haunted Mansion! I've never seen that pet cemetery, how is that possible??? :rotfl2:

You're really not missing much with the Tiki room! I just like the song they play!

I got so excited about santa. I was like Buddy the Elf. I kept saying to John, "SANTA! I KNOW him!" :rotfl:

As much as I love Splash I just couldn't stand the thought of being any colder. Anyone riding it that day had to be crazy!

I think you should buy the tea kettle! It would be great to gradually get the whole set on your various trips!

I'm so glad you feel that way too about Liberty Square! I feel like it gets the least attention of all the lands, but I love it so much! :lovestruc

You have to check out the pet cemetery! It's so cool!

Did you notice Mr Toad in the pet cemetary? :teeth:

I didn't until you said that! That is so cool! :eek:

Catching up on your TR! Boo to having the flu! That's terrible! Do you get the flu shot? I got it one year, I think. The doctor recommended it due to being a teacher. I was going to get it the following year, but I was sick with a cold and was told I could go back to get it, but I just never did.

Yay for a great ride on Jungle Cruise! The CM really makes all the difference, but the people on the boat itself contribute to a better ride. I personally don't like it when there are a lot of little kids on the boat because the parents and the kids are pointing to all the animals ignoring what the CM says. This happened last week, and it was hard to hear what the CM was saying since we sat all the way at the back! I'm so used to being at the front and hearing EVERYTHING.

WHAT??? PTR?!?

I so so so wanted to catch a show of the fake Captain Jack Sparrow! I wanted to see him myself and also show my cousins just how good he could be! We purposely watched POTC the night before too in anticipation of the ride!

You took a GREAT one-handed shot at Thunder Mountain! It has to be harder for you because John is much taller. Howard and I are so close in height! It's funny that I thought he and I would get more pics this past trip since we had 3 other people with us. Haha, that didn't happen at all! I think we actually had fewer pics because we took pics of them!

AHAHAHHAHAHAH, I love the comment about Madame Leota and the preposition! I never noticed it because I'm ALWAYS so scared on the ride. I have take everything lightly and just look at the technical aspects of it. BTW, I hate that nowadays the ending-a-sentence-with-a-preposition-no-no isn't stressed as much. It bugs me so much! I've gotten so used to rephrasing sentences entirely to avoid it even though I'm sure some slip through ;)

Look at lonely Mr. Toad at the back of that pet cemetery! He looks happy, but I'd like to experience his ride again at my age now. I used to squint when I was a kid!

Oooo, I can't wait to see what you ate at Liberty Tree Tavern! I REALLY want to try that!

I did get a flu shot, but I guess it didn't do me any good! :confused3 Although, I didn't get nearly as sick as I usually do with the flu, so maybe it helped some!

I can see how that would be really annoying on Jungle Cruise. We were lucky enough to be in the front right next to the skipper. If we hadn't there's no way we would have been able to hear over the "robot spiders" kid! :rotfl:

Stay tuned to find out more about the PTR... ;)

I'm sorry you missed Jack Sparrow! We always seem to be lucky enough to happen upon his shows, but I've never seen a full one. He always looks so much like the "real" thing! :lovestruc

Thank you for your one hand shot compliment! :) You're right, the height difference does make it really hard. Usually I get the top of my head and John's chin!

I LOVE Haunted Mansion! It scares me just enough to be exciting, but at the same time I'm comforted by it because it's so Disney. You're right about the preposition thing...I find myself making that mistake way more than I'd like to admit! :headache:

I never got to ride Mr. Toad's ride! I wish I could have!

I am working on the LTT update right now! :)

Can't wait to hear what you thought of LTT. We used to eat there all the time for dinner when they had characters. We haven't been back since because we always thought the food was just eh and at least at Chef Mickeys you could have a huge selection of food but we always did love LTT and they used to carry sweet tea but not anymore!

This was our first time at LTT! I am working on that update now! :) I didn't notice that they didn't have sweet tea! I guess it's because I drink so much sweet tea at home, I don't usually order it on vacation!

Oh, this trip report is so much fun.:yay: Please, don't leave us hanging too long now that you're back. :sulley:
Sharon

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you're enjoying it! Don't worry, I am determined to update a lot more regularly! :)

therussells08

03-01-2011, 06:50 PM

Wow you sure know how to drop a bomb!! Mentioning a possible PTR and leaving us hanging...we want more details!

Think I will be lusting after the 'fake' Jack Sparrow - he will be real to me! :laughing: Woohoo on getting on a nearly empty POTC boat and it being a walk on!

Did not realise the music played at The Tiki Room is in Gnomeo and Juliet - went to see it last week and am now looking forward to hearing it at Disney :thumbsup2

:yay: on meeting Santa - did you make sure to ask for what you wanted? Was it another trip to Disney? If so, he sure listened!!

I have seen the Alice tea set on here quite a bit and :love: it! Wouldn't mind that in my kitchen.

That one handed shot turned out pretty good - not blurry like mine. Think I need to practice some more :lmao:

Ooh...have not heard that about Madam Leota before - will definitely listen out and see if I can spot the grammatical error! Looking forward to reading your LTT review and seeing yummy food pics!

Stay tuned for more information about the PTR...I'm working on the details! ;)

Haha, Jack Sparrow is definitely real enough! He's always so cute!

Yeah, the music that plays when Juliet presses that button on her fountain is from the Tiki Room! I love it!

I think another trip to Disney is what I always ask Santa for! It's all I ever want! :)

That tea set would be a beautiful addition to anyone's kitchen! I was scared to even peek at the price, since it's so intricate and obviously carefully made!

Thank you! I have been doing tons of one hand shot practice!

I am bad about picking out grammatical errors! I guess it's just an English teacher thing. It drives John nuts! :rotfl:

Yay! I was so excited to see an update! I've missed reading about your trip. :goodvibes

We were underwhelmed by the Tiki Room, too. In fact, I might even call it annoyed. It's definitely not an attraction I've got on my "must-do" list. And you are so right about the area around BTMRR and Splash - it does get so crowded!

I can't wait to hear about LTT. I am so excited to try it for the first time in June. :woohoo:

You're so sweet! It makes me feel great that you look forward to my updates! :hug:

Yeah, I don't think we will be running to get into the Tiki Room on our next trip! :rotfl:

I am going to try to be very detailed with my dining reviews, so hopefully it will be helpful for your upcoming trip! :)

YEAH! An update :flower1: We went to the Tiki Room in 09 and I fell asleep also. It was a nice place to cool off on a hot June day, but the show is not a must see. I have not been to the hall of Presidents since I was six, so I feel it is time to go this year. Liberty Tree Tavern is on our dinning maybe list, maybe your review will seal the deal :banana:

I guess pretty much everyone uses the Tiki Room to cool off (or warm up, in my case)! The Hall of Presidents was fun, but it was a little slow also. I hope my review will be helpful! I plan on making it very detailed! :)

Yay for an update and for a mysterious new trip to plan! :yay:

For me, Tiki Room is one of those classic Disney attractions that's corny now but brings back memories of my Disney trips as a kid. I'm looking forward to your review of Liberty Tree Tavern. By the time we read it, we will have eaten there for the first time. :)

Your Haunted Mansion discussion is hilarious. I'm definitely going to remember that the next time we ride it.

I think you're right about the Tiki Room. It's not that exciting, but it's a Disney staple!

I am so excited for your trip! I hope you have a wonderful time! :hug:

Listen for Madame Leota and that misused preposition! ;)

Yay for an update and a possible new trip! ;D

Hahah I love the Madame Leota observation! I've never noticed that before. John's comment to you was so funny lol.

Ooh can't wait to hear about your LTT lunch! I've only been there for dinner. I want to buy one their mugs next time I'm there.

John likes to bring me back to reality when I start obsessing over grammar! :rotfl:

It's so funny you say that about their mugs, because that's going to be part of my report! I loved them!

therussells08

03-01-2011, 06:57 PM

Subbing! I'm not all caught up yet, but love your trippie so far! Sounds like a super fun Disney Christmas. lol...I loved your pic of your hand with the glove in the car, I'm exactly the same way when we embark on a Disney trip, so excited I take pics of anything and everything! :goodvibes

:welcome: Thanks for joining in! :) Haha, I am definitely random when I get excited and there's a camera in my hand!

Great update! Love fake Jack Sparrow - heck, I'll even take animatronic Jack Sparrow - he would go great in my living room! :lmao:

Glad you got on Thunder Mountain despite the cold! Such a fun ride! We rode it last February at night and it was about 35 degrees out! Brrr...

I have to say I hate that she ends that phrase with "at" as well! Bugs me on the CD with the Halloween music too! :headache: :laughing:

Looking forward to hearing all about LTT! :goodvibes

Sara

I totally agree about Jack Sparrow...they need to sell cardboard cutouts! :rotfl:

YIKES! I bet you were freezing when you rode! It was about 40 when we had our ride, so I know what you mean!

I am so glad I'm not the only one who is bugged by that! :laughing:

Yay for an update! Sounds like a good day, even with the cold. Good idea not riding Splash, cold is one thing, cold and wet are another! Ready for the LTT update, I have one in 4 weeks and can't wait to hear what you thought.:goodvibes

So another trip, do tell.:flower3:

Yeah I'm definitely glad we didn't ride Splash..I was sick enough!

I hope my LTT update is helpful! I'm trying to make it really detailed for everyone! :)

All caught up!!!

I thought the exact same thing when I saw Gnomeo and Juliet!!

Jack Sparrow is ALWAYS dreamy. I don't know how they do that!

I would have skipped Splash too.

I also love Haunted Mansion but I hadn't noticed the grammatical error... but I'm not a teacher, so I don't pick up on those things unless they are REALLY obvious!

A PTR? Hmmm, intriguing!

I hate to say it, but that was pretty much the only part of Gnomeo and Juliet I enjoyed!

I'm so glad I skipped Splash! It was just TOO cold!

:rotfl: I'm a stickler about stuff like that, so I usually notice it. I tend to use poor grammar and catch myself! It drives John nuts! :rotfl:

therussells08

03-02-2011, 06:37 PM

It seemed like it had been ages since our tiny little breakfast, so John and I were both more than ready to try Liberty Tree Tavern for the first time! I took a picture as we were walking up because I thought the outside of the building was gorgeous!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260164.jpg

We checked in and I headed upstairs to go to the bathroom. Upstairs where the restrooms are located there is a little balcony where you can look down over the restaurant. I thought this was really cool, so I took a picture. You can see John standing at the bottom with his hands in his pockets.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260165.jpg

When I got back from the bathroom John decided he needed to go. While I waited for him I took a picture of the balcony where I had just been standing. I loved the chandelier!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260166.jpg

Next, I decided to take a picture of the Christmas tree they had in the waiting area. It was so cute! I love how is was definitely themed to the time period, because it was covered in different types of fruit!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260167.jpg

When John got back from the restroom we sat on a bench and waited, and after just a few more minutes we were called back. We were seated in the Jefferson room, so I had John take a picture of me with Thomas Jefferson in the background.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260170.jpg

Next to our tables was a really cute old-timey fireplace. The mantel had pretty decorations, so John snapped a picture.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260169.jpg

As we were waiting on our server I looked over and noticed that there was an entire family sitting near us wearing Appalachian State University hoodies. This is where I went to college! I got really excited, because ASU is a pretty small college in the mountains of North Carolina, and I didn’t expect to see anyone wearing App gear! I wanted to talk to them, but I didn’t want to interrupt their meal. I also wanted to take a picture of them sneakily, but John said that would be creepy. :rotfl:

It was about this time that our waiter arrived. His name was Michael and he was very pleasant. He left our menus and took our drink orders. John ordered a soda and I ordered a diet soda. I took a picture of the menu because I was so excited to be there!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260172.jpg

When Michael brought our drinks back I almost died over my mug. I loved it! It had a picture of Mickey and the gang in Revolutionary times, and it was so cool! I want to buy a set of these someday!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260171.jpg

Since we were on the Deluxe Dining Plan, Michael had to check our Keys to the World before we ordered. We got used to this as the trip progressed and started taking them out immediately after being seated.

Once he confirmed we were on the DxDP Michael took our orders. For an appetizer John and I both ordered the Tavern Fried Cheese. It only took a few minutes before Michael brought it out.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260173.jpg

Holy cow! What is this? Two kinds of fried cheese?! :eek: I must be in Heaven! John and I are both huge fried cheese fans, so we were so excited. I was used to the traditional “cheese sticks” on the left, but I had never seen those little cheese nuggets on the right before.

We were both very impressed with the Tavern Fried Cheese. I loved the traditional cheese sticks, but I wasn’t too impressed with the cheese nuggets. I didn’t like their breading nearly as much. The marinara sauce was great though, so I ate quite a bit. Whatever I didn’t eat John gobbled it up for me!

After we finished our appetizers Michael brought our entrees. Now, I know for a fact I took a picture of both our entrees, but for some reason I can only find the picture of mine. I’m sorry! If I come across John’s picture I will be sure to upload it!

Anyway, John ordered the Angus Chuck Cheeseburger with bacon, cheddar cheese, and mushrooms. He got French fries as his side. He said it was really good burger, and I guess he was telling the truth because he at the entire thing!

I decided to order the Tri-Corner Sandwich, which had roast beef, swiss cheese, Liberty slaw, horseradish cream sauce and arugula. I also got fries as my side.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260176.jpg

My sandwich was really tasty, but the bread was REALLY dense so I could barely eat half of it. I enjoyed the piping hot French fries. By the time I had eaten half the sandwich and most of the fries I was almost too full for dessert. But hey, it was included, so I was definitely going to eat it!

For dessert John ordered the Decadent Chocolate Terrine! I can't remember the description for it that well, except it was described as a "slice of liberation." :laughing:

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260177.jpg

He said it was pretty good, but I don’t think it was what he expected. I think it was a little too “fancy” for him. He said the chocolate was really hard, but nice and rich so he ate most of it.

For my dessert I decided to go with the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260178.jpg

Man oh man, that thing was GOOD! It was a vanilla cake with a toffee filling, caramel sauce, and vanilla ice cream. I’m pretty sure John wished he had ordered that too, because he ate about half of it when I got full.

After we finished eating we sat for a little while and drank our sodas while we planned where we would go next. It was nice to sit in the warmth with full bellies and relax, planning out the rest of our fun day! Michael brought us our check and we went through the painless process that makes the Disney Dining Plan so wonderful! We left a tip, finished our drinks, and headed out!

Overall John and I really enjoyed Liberty Tree Tavern! It was a great first experience, and a wonderful meal to start our vacation. However, it did not make it into my absolute favorite restaurant list. I think I was more impressed with my appetizer and dessert than I was with the entrée itself. Still, it was really yummy and we definitely recommend it! :thumbsup2

Up Next: Will the crowds and the cold get the best of me? Stay tuned to find out!

Nermel9

03-02-2011, 06:50 PM

TinkerbellLuvr7

03-02-2011, 07:08 PM

looks like a good meal! Those desserts look so yummy, I could/would eat both right now! We've only gone for dinner so it's nice to see pics of the non dinner food!

saralexander97

03-02-2011, 07:25 PM

Those fried cheese sticks look so good!!! What type of cheese is in the nuggets, was it mozzarella or another type of cheese? I could live off cheese sticks, I am not a big fried food eater, but when it comes to cheese I definitely have a weakness. Are the colonial mugs that you love so much sold in the parks? Can't wait to hear more :cheer2:

Tracy161

03-02-2011, 09:06 PM

Great updates! I also absolutely LOVE Haunted Mansion and... as grammatically incorrect as Madame Leota might be... I'm not sure I can picture that line said any differently! :laughing:

I've never been to Liberty Tree Tavern, but it's always been a place I'd love to check out, especially after having seen that picture of the fried cheese two ways! :cloud9:

So excited to hear about a potential PTR in the works!!!

TanzUnited99

03-03-2011, 01:39 PM

LTT looks great - I love the chandelier and the balcony!

How cool to meet people wearing hoodies of the college you went to at Disney World!

The fried cheese plate and both desserts look so good popcorn::

Cat0727

03-03-2011, 06:15 PM

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

03-03-2011, 08:52 PM

You had exactly what I'm planning on ordering at LTT for all courses! :laughing: I am so excited to eat there after your update - it looks like such a cute, quaint place. That first picture you took from the outside is beautiful! :cloud9: I like the description of the other fried cheese - cheese nuggets! :lmao:

DisneyFirefly

03-03-2011, 10:59 PM

I'm so glad you guys liked LTT! I loved it, and will probably go there again :)

SheaBear

03-04-2011, 01:14 AM

Your TR is so cute so far. I'm in for the rest of the trip! Hope to hear the rest soon! :cool1:

mom2mek

03-04-2011, 08:05 AM

Great review of Liberty Tree! I want those mug glasses too - how adorable! It's such a cute place - we were lucky enough to eat there for breakfast last February when the Crystal Palace was closed. It was really neat and I wish they would open for breakfast all the time! The food was delicious and they brought the characters back (again, due to the CP closure) and we had some of our best character interaction there! :thumbsup2

Looking forward to your next installment! :goodvibes

Sara

laashley

03-05-2011, 07:05 AM

LTT looks delicious! Can't wait to try it out. That toffee dessert looked so good. Yum!

therussells08

03-08-2011, 03:15 PM

Look at you, with the updates this week! :banana:

I LOVED LTT! Your review was so great, I think it's such a pretty restaurant too! You got some great pictures! :)

That fried cheese looks yummy! Your sandwich looks good too, but I'm kind of obsessed with pot roast...if pot roast is ever on any menu, I'm ordering it, so that's what I had when I was there! :rotfl:

That cup is so cute! :lovestruc

Isn't the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake great? I loved it! I want to have lunch there again just for that! :laughing:

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed my review! :)

I know what you mean about pot roast- that's how I am with anything buffalo chicken. If I eat anywhere with buffalo chicken on the menu, whether it be a wrap, sandwich, etc., I always have to get it!

I LOVED the toffee cake! :lovestruc I wish I had some right now!

looks like a good meal! Those desserts look so yummy, I could/would eat both right now! We've only gone for dinner so it's nice to see pics of the non dinner food!

I would like to try LTT for dinner. It sounds like a lot of "home style" food, which I love!

Those fried cheese sticks look so good!!! What type of cheese is in the nuggets, was it mozzarella or another type of cheese? I could live off cheese sticks, I am not a big fried food eater, but when it comes to cheese I definitely have a weakness. Are the colonial mugs that you love so much sold in the parks? Can't wait to hear more :cheer2:

It was mozzarella in both, they just had different breadings. I'm not sure if the mugs are sold in the parks, but if they are I definitely want to get them! :)

Great updates! I also absolutely LOVE Haunted Mansion and... as grammatically incorrect as Madame Leota might be... I'm not sure I can picture that line said any differently! :laughing:

I've never been to Liberty Tree Tavern, but it's always been a place I'd love to check out, especially after having seen that picture of the fried cheese two ways! :cloud9:

So excited to hear about a potential PTR in the works!!!

You're right, it wouldn't be the same if Madame Leota corrected her grammar! Besides, it wouldn't rhyme! :laughing:

I would definitely recommend LTT! :thumbsup2

Stay tuned for more information about the PTR! I'm really excited!

LTT looks great - I love the chandelier and the balcony!

How cool to meet people wearing hoodies of the college you went to at Disney World!

The fried cheese plate and both desserts look so good popcorn::

I was so excited when I saw the people in ASU hoodies. I never expected that!

Ohhh yeah, the appetizers and desserts there were great! :lovestruc

therussells08

03-08-2011, 03:17 PM

Great review of LTT; you got so many good pictures! :) Everything looks so yummy! Especially the toffee cake and fried cheese, mmm! Oh my gosh I've never seen the other side of the mug before (this is what was on the other side right? http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8ce07b3127ccec521b7a22ba200000040O10Abs3LZk3aOG IPbz4M/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D1/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/) That's soo cute!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the review! :)

Yep, that was the other side! They are so cute!

You had exactly what I'm planning on ordering at LTT for all courses! :laughing: I am so excited to eat there after your update - it looks like such a cute, quaint place. That first picture you took from the outside is beautiful! :cloud9: I like the description of the other fried cheese - cheese nuggets! :lmao:

I'm glad my update made you excited to eat there! I think you will really enjoy it! :)

I'm so glad you guys liked LTT! I loved it, and will probably go there again :)

It was a great first experience! I definitely want to go there again! :)

Your TR is so cute so far. I'm in for the rest of the trip! Hope to hear the rest soon! :cool1:

:welcome: Thanks for joining in! I'm glad you're enjoying it! :)

Great review of Liberty Tree! I want those mug glasses too - how adorable! It's such a cute place - we were lucky enough to eat there for breakfast last February when the Crystal Palace was closed. It was really neat and I wish they would open for breakfast all the time! The food was delicious and they brought the characters back (again, due to the CP closure) and we had some of our best character interaction there! :thumbsup2

Looking forward to your next installment! :goodvibes

Sara

That sounds like such an awesome experience! I bet their breakfast food was awesome. I would love to see the characters in Colonial outfits, too! :goodvibes

LTT looks delicious! Can't wait to try it out. That toffee dessert looked so good. Yum!

Yes, the dessert was AMAZING! I definitely recommend it! :thumbsup2

therussells08

03-08-2011, 03:56 PM

After our super delicious and super filling meal, we headed back outside into the cold. I snapped a quick picture of the flags of the thirteen original colonies blowing in the breeze. I thought this picture was pretty neat.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260179.jpg

John decided he needed a cigarette break, so I went into the Christmas shop in Liberty Square to browse around while I waited for him.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260180.jpg

It was not a great idea to come into the shop the day after Christmas, because I instantly wanted to buy everything! I decided I didn't want to spend all of my souvenir money on the first day, so I settled for browsing and taking pictures.

I loved these old fashioned blown glass ornaments. I have a family friend whose entire Christmas tree is blown glass Disney ornaments. I would love to have a tree like that one day! One of my favorite characters is Pluto, so I had to take his picture!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260181.jpg

Next I found a really cool Sorcerer Mickey blown glass ornament. It was really cute, but it looked like something that I would accidently break within an hour of getting it home.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260183.jpg

As I looked around I spotted these really cute ornaments that I thought were a neat twist on the classic bulb ornament.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260184.jpg

On our honeymoon, John bought me a set of four blown glass ornaments that were the symbols for each of the parks: the giant sorcerer hat, Cinderella castle, the Tree of Life, and Spaceship Earth. I love that set so much! Ironically, my sister bought me the exact same set for Christmas this year! She realized before she wrapped them up that I already had them when she saw the set hanging on my Christmas tree! I saw this four pack of ornaments that reminded me of that and made me smile.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260186.jpg

Next I saw a gorgeous Lady and the Tramp ornament that I desperately wanted. I would have purchased it, but I knew it would be too heavy to fit on my little Charlie Brown Christmas tree. I settled instead on trying to take a good picture of it. This was surprisingly hard, because my camera likes to be extremely difficult in certain lighting. After about a dozen attempts, this was the best I could come up with.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260190.jpg

John came in the store looking for me while I was trying to capture the perfect picture of the ornament, so when I was satisfied that this picture was the best I was going to get we headed outside.
The next stop on our journey through Magic Kingdom was Fantasyland!

I had heard about the changes to the queue for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, so we decided to stop and get Fast Passes so we could ride later. Our return time wasn't until 5:05, so we had plenty of time to do other stuff.

I mentioned in my PTR that one attraction I had never tried but desperately wanted to was Philharmagic. John and I almost saw the show on our last trip, but there were technical difficulties that we ended up deciding not to wait through. So, I was determined to check it out this trip!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260200.jpg

There wasn't a very long wait, and while we were going through the line I enjoyed all of the musical posters on the wall.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260196.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260197.jpg

I really enjoyed the show! I loved the music from all of the classic Disney movies. John seemed to enjoy it too, but not quite as much as me.

On our way out I took a picture of poor Donald!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260199.jpg

We wandered around Fantasyland a little more and I took a really cool picture of the castle.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260201.jpg

Next we decided to try another first: Snow White's Scary Adventures!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260202.jpg

The line for this was pretty long, which would have been fine, except there was this family in front of us with two small children who were driving me crazy! Now, I am not a parent, so I am not going to pass judgment on these poor people because I can't imagine what it must be like have two very small children at Disney World, but I am going to say what I saw. These people were not watching their kids! They had a little boy who obviously had a pretty bad cold. His nose was running so bad it was dripping down the front of his coat, and he had a horrible cough. He was crying nonstop and kept laying down on the ground and not moving forward, and his parents would just move forward in line and leave him lying there! The line was getting really impatient behind us, but I wasn't about to step on the poor little kid or tell him to get out of the way. Then, they had a little girl who kept wandering off. She couldn't have been more than three years old, and she would get completely out of sight before one of the parents would flip out and SCREAM at her until she came back. It really stressed me out being in line behind them, because I was terrified something would happen to one of their kids. I feel bad for talking bad about them, but I really couldn't believe how oblivious they were to their own children.

Anyway, enough venting! We road Snow White and thought it was really cute, but I think it's definitely something we will skip until we have kids of our own.

Next we decided to take one last journey to Toontown. I wasn't too keen on going in all the drafty "houses" but I really wanted to see it one more time while we had the chance. It took about ten minutes to get a good picture of the sign at the entrance, because people kept walking in front of my camera. If you read my PTR and my other ramblings here on the DIS you know that photobombers drive me bananas. I finally got my picture, and we headed into the Toontown Fair!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260203.jpg

We were going to go in Minnie's house first, but the line was all the way out the door so we headed to Mickey's instead. Pay attention to the bottom left of the picture. When I saw this poor frozen soul when I got home I almost fell out of my chair laughing!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260206.jpg

I want a Mickey Mouse mailbox!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260207.jpg

I ended up only taking one picture in Mickey's house because it was so crowded. I was fine with that, though, because it was the super cute stockings!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260208.jpg

Next we went to Minnie's house. The line was still out the door, but I knew this would be our last chance to go inside so we went for it.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260204.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260209.jpg

I really enjoyed all of Minnie's Christmas decorations. They were so girly!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260211.jpg

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260213.jpg

I loved Minnie's bulletin board, too. It reminded me of mine at work!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260215.jpg

It took us forever to get through Minnie's house because it was completely packed with people. By the time we finished I was a little bit grumpy and more than a little bit cold. We finally decided that there was no way I was going to be able to make it through the rest of the evening without a better jacket. We started going into every gift shop we could find, but I had no luck. We went back to Tomorrowland to try the shops there, and I had to take a picture of this shop sign before we went in.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260216.jpg

I loved the Shakespeare reference! I pointed this out to John, and he in turn pointed out to me that I had made one too many nerdy English teacher comments for the day. :rotfl:

Unfortunately, we had no luck in Merchant of Venus either. By this point I was getting really frustrated and uncomfortably cold. We discussed our options, and started to head back to Mainstreet USA.

Up Next: WHY did we go back to Mainstreet USA? Did we find a jacket, or did we give up and cut our first day short? Stay tuned to find out!

eecteacher82

03-08-2011, 04:19 PM

KCSherri

03-08-2011, 04:29 PM

Just found your TR today, and I've been enjoying it! Your photos are great - I love the fact that you capture the smallest details; I never think of doing that! It looks like you're having a great time, even as cold as it was...can't wait to read more!

Nermel9

03-08-2011, 04:37 PM

Great update! I love that Christmas store in MK, I could probably spend all of my souvenir money on ornaments! I have a problem with Disney ornaments! :rotfl:

Isn't Philharmagic amazing??? :lovestruc I could seriously watch it over and over! I don't know why we only do it once on every trip, I think on this next trip I'm going to try to see it every time we are in MK! :banana:

Wow, I can't believe the line for Minnie's house! :eek: I probably would have waited too, knowing they were closing soon. :( So sad, I love those houses, especially Minnie's!

Hope you found something warm to wear on Main Street! Because I'm guessing there's no way you left! :rotfl2:

stephielela

03-08-2011, 06:17 PM

I'm glad you enjoyed LTT! I really want to try it, but I don't think it's going to happen this year either.

I'm sorry it was so cold for you guys! I hope you found a way to keep warm!

As far as the kids in line for Snow White, I honestly don't understand why people can't control their children better. I am a mom, so I can safely say that if my child was wandering off, I wouldn't be screaming at them, I would be wondering what I was doing that was so important I hadn't noticed my child was missing!! I am not a perfect parent, but I don't let my son act like that, especially not in a way that would affect strangers!

TinkerbellLuvr7

03-08-2011, 06:23 PM

nice update! Gotta love parents who shouldn't be parents hm..

I love the castle pic! I have a similar one that's my wallpaper on my phone!

TanzUnited99

03-09-2011, 10:28 AM

mom2mek

03-09-2011, 12:17 PM

Great pictures!! I especially love all the ones of the ornaments! I see an ornament purchase in my future....:goodvibes

Ugh on the parents at Snow White. I just don't get it. :confused:

Hope you found a jacket! Brrr..

Sara

Busymom85

03-09-2011, 03:40 PM

I'm enjoying your trip report. Thanks for posting.

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

03-09-2011, 05:58 PM

How have I never seen the flags at in Liberty Square?! Your picture is beautiful - so patriotic! :cloud9: I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed Philharmagic - it's one of my favorites.

I can definitely sympathize to being so cold at Disney. After our freezing trip last January and some chilly times on our recent November trip and our one day trip to Epcot, I'm actually excited about going to Disney in June when it's HOT. I will probably regret that, though! :lmao:

ChildAtHeart82

03-10-2011, 04:02 PM

All caught up again! :) We enjoyed LTT, especially the fried cheese and the toffee cake. I think we'd kind of hit our completely full point for Deluxe Dining when we went so it wasn't our best lunch.

We rode Snow White this last trip too. I agree that there's not a whole lot to it. Still, it's sad that they're closing it. I hope the new mine ride will be better.

Tracy161

03-11-2011, 06:05 AM

laashley

03-11-2011, 10:07 AM

I'll have to make a point to look up in Liberty Square. I sure have never seen the flags of the colonies before.:confused3

Wow, on the family at Snow White. I'm sure it was a rough day, but good or bad, buck up and be a parent. It does remind me that my neighbors were in MK that same day and they left early because the crowds were heavy and their two boys weren't having such a magical time. I guess more people should have taken the cue to leave.:confused3

I'm sad we didn't take the time to look at the holiday decor in Mickey and Minnie's houses, but it did look pretty crowded.

Hope you found a heavier jacket and were able to stay in MK.:goodvibes

shelbys mommy

03-11-2011, 11:07 PM

Caught up on your TR! I have been reading on my phone, but can't see the pics. I can't believe you didn't like the Enchanted Tiki Room! We love it! But I love Iago & Zazu! When Brady was 5, we would walk the mall & he would sing LOUDLY "In the tiki tiki tiki room". People would look at us like we were nuts!!!

I still can't believe that Toontown is gone :(

As for the parents, good thing I wasn't there! I would have made some comment about the sick child. Now if Koby pulls his 'tude, and wants to stay behind, we leave him & show him we are not playing around. This happened alot at Disney when we went. No more than 3 & running around on her own? Um no! That is neglect (and I should know lol) & I definitely would have made a comment about that one. That makes it more clear to me that some people should not have children. If they are that tired, cranky, sick, go back to the resort for a bit & NAP TIME!!! We did it, even though I wanted to spend every second on the parks that I could, I much rather skip 2 hours of park time than be miserable & my child be miserable. When we went in 07, it was raining & Brady's lips were turning blue. He wanted to meet Ariel soooooooo bad. We tried to stick it out, but when we saw blue lips, we went back to the resort. It broke his heart, but he got to meet "Drag" Ariel when we went in June. Ok, sorry long post...off my soapbox now lol

therussells08

03-12-2011, 09:33 AM

Ok, I'm coming back out of lurkdom to start commenting again! Love the last update! Glad you finally got to see Philharmagic! We love that show! Although every time we leave DH says he is hungry from the smells they pump in!

Oh my goodness! As a parent, I can't believe the parents just let their kids act that way! I know they were probably tired and frustrated, but come on!

Ok, I'm guessing you are going to Main Street to get a warmer jacket!

Welcome back! I really enjoyed Philharmagic! I think that is definitely going to be one of our "must dos" that we simply...must do! (:rotfl: Sorry, gotta throw in the Stacey reference!)

Just found your TR today, and I've been enjoying it! Your photos are great - I love the fact that you capture the smallest details; I never think of doing that! It looks like you're having a great time, even as cold as it was...can't wait to read more!

:welcome: Thank you so much for joining in! I am really glad you are enjoying it! I will be posting another update later today! :)

Great update! I love that Christmas store in MK, I could probably spend all of my souvenir money on ornaments! I have a problem with Disney ornaments! :rotfl:

Isn't Philharmagic amazing??? :lovestruc I could seriously watch it over and over! I don't know why we only do it once on every trip, I think on this next trip I'm going to try to see it every time we are in MK! :banana:

Wow, I can't believe the line for Minnie's house! :eek: I probably would have waited too, knowing they were closing soon. :( So sad, I love those houses, especially Minnie's!

Hope you found something warm to wear on Main Street! Because I'm guessing there's no way you left! :rotfl2:

That store is SO great, but so dangerous. I am usually not tempted to buy much because we are there in the summer months, but being there right after Christmas made me want to buy everything!

Philharmagic was GREAT! I can't believe it took me 3 1/2 years to go see it!

Honestly, that entire experience in Toontown going in Mickey and Minnie's houses was pretty miserable. It was so cold and crowded, but I knew that if I didn't go one last time I would regret it. At least now I won't miss it, since my last memory there wasn't very pleasant!

Stay tuned to find out what happened! ;) (Although, I think I texted you that night, so I'm pretty sure you already know! :rotfl:)

I'm glad you enjoyed LTT! I really want to try it, but I don't think it's going to happen this year either.

I'm sorry it was so cold for you guys! I hope you found a way to keep warm!

As far as the kids in line for Snow White, I honestly don't understand why people can't control their children better. I am a mom, so I can safely say that if my child was wandering off, I wouldn't be screaming at them, I would be wondering what I was doing that was so important I hadn't noticed my child was missing!! I am not a perfect parent, but I don't let my son act like that, especially not in a way that would affect strangers!

LTT was great, I would definitely recommend it at some point! It didn't make it into our list of favorites, though. We still have our few restaurants that we have to eat at EVERY trip!

I'm glad to hear some input from parents who don't think that I was being a jerk by being shocked by this behavior! I couldn't believe how little attention they were paying to their children! :confused3

nice update! Gotta love parents who shouldn't be parents hm..

I love the castle pic! I have a similar one that's my wallpaper on my phone!

:rotfl: You crack me up!

Thank you! I was pretty proud of my castle pics this trip. Stay tuned for my favorite! :)

therussells08

03-12-2011, 09:38 AM

That picture of the flags is cool :thumbsup2

All the ornaments sure do look cute. Don't think I would have managed to leave the shop without making a purchase!

I love that you took pictures of the musical posters at Philharmagic - don't think I've seen them before. Yay on seeing Mickey's and Minnie's house before they disappeared.

Am hoping you did find a jacket and decided to stay!

Thank you! :)

It was definitely tough leaving the shop without buying anything. Don't worry, I made up for my lack of purchases then ten fold later! :rotfl:

I'm glad I got to see Mickey and Minnie's house one more time!

Stay tuned to find out! ;)

Great pictures!! I especially love all the ones of the ornaments! I see an ornament purchase in my future....:goodvibes

Ugh on the parents at Snow White. I just don't get it. :confused:

Hope you found a jacket! Brrr..

Sara

Thank you! I was frustrated with my camera because it didn't do a very good job taking ornament pictures, but you get the general idea of how pretty they were!

"Ugh" is right. That was something to see. :sad2:

I'm enjoying your trip report. Thanks for posting.

Thank you! :) I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

How have I never seen the flags at in Liberty Square?! Your picture is beautiful - so patriotic! :cloud9: I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed Philharmagic - it's one of my favorites.

I can definitely sympathize to being so cold at Disney. After our freezing trip last January and some chilly times on our recent November trip and our one day trip to Epcot, I'm actually excited about going to Disney in June when it's HOT. I will probably regret that, though! :lmao:

Thank you! I really loved that picture too.

Philharmagic was so much fun! I will definitely do that again!

I understand what you mean completely. I am desperately hoping that our next trip will be in the warm months, because I don't think I can do cold in Florida again! :scared1:

All caught up again! :) We enjoyed LTT, especially the fried cheese and the toffee cake. I think we'd kind of hit our completely full point for Deluxe Dining when we went so it wasn't our best lunch.

We rode Snow White this last trip too. I agree that there's not a whole lot to it. Still, it's sad that they're closing it. I hope the new mine ride will be better.

Welcome back! I can't wait to hear all about your trip! I'm glad you liked the fried cheese and toffee cake! Those were my favorite parts of the meal too. I know that completely full point well...John and I hit it quite a few times on our DxDP adventures!

Yeah, it wasn't very exciting, but I'm glad we did it just for the experience. I didn't know they were closing it! Now I feel even better about having ridden it. :)

therussells08

03-12-2011, 09:43 AM

:goodvibesBrr! I hope you found a warmer jacket! I enjoyed your pictures of Toontown... the last few trips, I haven't bothered going over there, and now I'm regretting it! So I enjoyed a trip down memory lane! :goodvibes

I'm glad you enjoyed the pictures! It really wasn't a very pleasant experience with all the crowds, but I'm glad we went just to see it one last time!

I'll have to make a point to look up in Liberty Square. I sure have never seen the flags of the colonies before.:confused3

Wow, on the family at Snow White. I'm sure it was a rough day, but good or bad, buck up and be a parent. It does remind me that my neighbors were in MK that same day and they left early because the crowds were heavy and their two boys weren't having such a magical time. I guess more people should have taken the cue to leave.:confused3

I'm sad we didn't take the time to look at the holiday decor in Mickey and Minnie's houses, but it did look pretty crowded.

Hope you found a heavier jacket and were able to stay in MK.:goodvibes

:rotfl: Don't feel bad, it sounds like a lot of people haven't noticed the flags before!

I think you are right about taking the cue to leave. I don't see the point in staying if your children are miserably sick. :confused3

Oh yeah, Minnie and Mickey's houses were REALLY crowded. I'm glad we went through them, but I don't think we'd do it again! :laughing:

Caught up on your TR! I have been reading on my phone, but can't see the pics. I can't believe you didn't like the Enchanted Tiki Room! We love it! But I love Iago & Zazu! When Brady was 5, we would walk the mall & he would sing LOUDLY "In the tiki tiki tiki room". People would look at us like we were nuts!!!

I still can't believe that Toontown is gone :(

As for the parents, good thing I wasn't there! I would have made some comment about the sick child. Now if Koby pulls his 'tude, and wants to stay behind, we leave him & show him we are not playing around. This happened alot at Disney when we went. No more than 3 & running around on her own? Um no! That is neglect (and I should know lol) & I definitely would have made a comment about that one. That makes it more clear to me that some people should not have children. If they are that tired, cranky, sick, go back to the resort for a bit & NAP TIME!!! We did it, even though I wanted to spend every second on the parks that I could, I much rather skip 2 hours of park time than be miserable & my child be miserable. When we went in 07, it was raining & Brady's lips were turning blue. He wanted to meet Ariel soooooooo bad. We tried to stick it out, but when we saw blue lips, we went back to the resort. It broke his heart, but he got to meet "Drag" Ariel when we went in June. Ok, sorry long post...off my soapbox now lol

I will say, the song from the Tiki Room was my favorite part! I get it stuck in my head at random times and have a tendency to sing it like Brady! :rotfl:

I enjoyed your soapbox girl, because you are so right! Sometimes being a parent means you have to do what's best for your child, even if he/she doesn't like it. You knew it was in Brady's best interest to go back to the resort, so that's what you did. Just like on your last trip, when you missed seeing the fireworks at MK. I'm sure that's something you really wanted to do, but you knew it was better for Shelby to get in the bed early. I guess some people just don't think like that, although I don't know why! :confused3

therussells08

03-13-2011, 04:58 PM

John and I decided to head back on over to Mainstreet USA to see if we could have any luck finding a jacket there. I was SO miserably cold, but I really didn't want to leave because we had reservations for the Wishes Dessert Party that night! AS we were heading down Mainstreet I took a picture of the Christmas tree at the entrance to Magic Kingdom.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/PC260217.jpg

We figured if we were going to have luck anywhere it would be in the biggest shop on Mainstreet USA, the Emporium. We went inside, and it seemed like everyone had the exact same idea we had! The shelves were practically empty of jackets and other warm articles of clothing. Still, they had a pretty big selection, so I was feeling hopeful. We spent about half an hour in the store, but I was struggling to find anything I liked. I found a lot of really cute jackets, but they were all very thin and VERY expensive. Finally, all alone and abandoned on a random rack, I found the perfect jacket! It was nice and thick, with a warm lining on the inside. Plus, it was only around $50. Now, I know what you're thinking. ONLY $50?! Trust me, I usually wouldn't dare spend $50 on a hoodie/jacket, but at Disney this wasn't a bad price. I justified the purchase by telling myself I would definitely wear it at home as well, because it was really cute. It was dark brown, with white lettering outlined in pink. I loved the color combination, and I REALLY loved the fuzzy lining!

We went to pay for my jacket, and it was obvious that I wasn't the first person to drop an obscene amount of money on something warm that day. The cashier asked me if I wanted the tag removed so I could wear it out, and I said, "YES PLEASE!" A few minutes later we left the store and I was feeling much better in my toasty new coat.

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On our way out we caught a little bit of the same dance party/parade we had seen earlier. I was feeling so great, I decided to capitalize on my new warmth and spend a few minutes watching the show.

I saw my good buddy Sebastian again!

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Yay! Woody and Jessy! I love them so much!

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I was really excited to see the Genie! Aladdin is one of my favorite Disney movies.

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After watching a bit of the parade we decided to go back to Fantasyland and use our Fast Passes for Winnie the Pooh.

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We cut through Tomorrowland, I called my mom to tell her how our trip was going so far. While I was talking to her John texted her a picture of my new jacket so she could see. I love my mom so much, and I call her several times a day, so I wanted her to know exactly how things were going!

As soon as we got into the pretty long Fast Pass line for Winnie the Pooh, I looked over my shoulder and saw a familiar face walking by.

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I felt like I was spotting a celebrity, and I got all excited and waved like a crazy person at Tigger.

John and I had never ridden Winnie the Pooh before, so we were pretty excited. I took a picture of John while we waited in line.

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I had heard about the new additions to the queue with the interactive honey pots that you could play with. Since we were in the Fast Pass line we bypassed these, which was fine with me. From the little bit I saw, there was a whole lot of touching all over those screens going on. I could see the smudged finger prints, and I wanted nothing to do with that germy mess! I still took a picture of one of the screens, just for memories. You can see it a little bit over the people's heads.

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Before long we were boarding Winnie the Pooh! I enjoyed this ride, and even John said it was pretty cute. I have always loved Winnie the Pooh, so it was a nice trip down memory lane for me.

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After we finished our journey through the Hundred Acre Wood we thought about riding Peter Pan. No way, Jose! The wait was around an hour and a half. John and I looked at each other and just said "Um...no." We like that ride, but it was definitely not worth that wait. Instead, we decided to ride John's least favorite ride on earth:

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It's a Small World! I'm not the biggest fan of this ride, but I don't hate it. I insist on riding it every trip, just because it's soooo Disney! John, on the other hand, hates it with the burning passion of a thousand suns (hence the title of this update). He always moans and groans when I want to ride it, but he goes along with it anyway!

The wait for IASM said 30 minutes, but it only took about 20. Before long we were seated in the very back of a boat, heading out on "the happiest cruise that ever sailed!"

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As we were getting off the ride, the clock struck 6:30.

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What a great day so far, and we still had so much to do!

Up Next: I get my first glimpse of one the most beautiful things I've ever seen! Stay tuned to find out what it was!

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

03-13-2011, 05:48 PM

Cute jacket! I bet that made the cold much easier to handle! The Winnie the Pooh ride looks so cute. I've never been on it! I must do it next time - Pooh is my favorite! :cloud9:

Tracy161

03-13-2011, 06:33 PM

Great update! So glad that you were able to find a jacket! :goodvibes I also absolutely have to ride iasw every single trip for the exact same reason: it's just SO Disney! :cloud9:

TanzUnited99

03-13-2011, 07:22 PM

Love the new jacket :thumbsup2 Am so glad you managed to find it - especially as it was abandoned on a random rack!

Love the Winnie the Pooh ride pictures and yay on meeting Tigger - I would have been the same as you as love everything to do with Winnie the Pooh! Can't wait to watch the movie.

'It's a small world after all!!' :rotfl:

TinkerbellLuvr7

03-13-2011, 07:49 PM

nice hoodie!!!! Did you get any type of discount with it?! Are you wearing it at home a lot?!!! :)

Nermel9

03-14-2011, 07:04 PM

I love the hoodie! I love brown and pink together! My luggage is brown and pink! I love it because so far I haven't seen anyone else with the same luggage! :rotfl:

The Winnie the Pooh ride is so cute! I missed the new queue, though, it looks adorable! Although, there's no way I'd touch anything either! :laughing:

I was laughing when I read the part about you and John going on IASW...Brandon and I are the same way! I always want to go on, just because it's such a Disney classic, and he can't stand it! Usually he will give in and ride it, and whine the whole time, but this past trip, he refused! So in October, we're going on it twice, to make up for it! :rolleyes1

Can't wait to read more!

Cat0727

03-14-2011, 07:44 PM

Cute hoodie! I bet it made the rest of your day much more enjoyable now that you had an extra layer :) Wow an hour and a half for Peter Pan :eek: I can't believe people wait that long!

MickeyLover20

03-14-2011, 09:08 PM

Loving your TR!!! It sounds like you guys hare having a great time so far minus the cold. I love all of your Disney Christmas presents...it sounds like it is still a lot of fun at your parents house on Christmas morning. Can't wait to read the rest of your TR.

laashley

03-15-2011, 04:41 PM

Yay for finding a jacket and continuing to play in the MK!

saralexander97

03-18-2011, 10:15 PM

Love the jacket!
Its amazing how energizing it can be to get warm and refocus on the magic of Disney. Ill make sure we bring extra jackets for our trip in December. I so not do well being cold.

Parla

03-20-2011, 03:04 PM

We are planning a Christmas Break trip in 2013. Everyone thinks we are completely insane for planning to actually be there on Christmas. Can't wait to read all of this. Going back to read your entire PTR before I start. :goodvibes

therussells08

03-20-2011, 04:20 PM

Cute jacket! I bet that made the cold much easier to handle! The Winnie the Pooh ride looks so cute. I've never been on it! I must do it next time - Pooh is my favorite! :cloud9:

Thank you! :) It definitely made the cold a lot easier to deal with. Winnie the Pooh was really fun! It was so sweet, and it reminded me so much of my childhood! :lovestruc

Great update! So glad that you were able to find a jacket! :goodvibes I also absolutely have to ride iasw every single trip for the exact same reason: it's just SO Disney! :cloud9:

Thank you! :) I was so glad I got my jacket. I'm glad I'm not the only one who MUST ride IASM! I feel like I'm betraying WDW if I don't! :rotfl:

Love the new jacket :thumbsup2 Am so glad you managed to find it - especially as it was abandoned on a random rack!

Love the Winnie the Pooh ride pictures and yay on meeting Tigger - I would have been the same as you as love everything to do with Winnie the Pooh! Can't wait to watch the movie.

'It's a small world after all!!' :rotfl:

Thank you! :) I definitely got lucky finding it. It was the thickest jacket they had for the best price, and I actually liked the way it looked!

Everything about the Pooh ride was so nostalgic! I really enjoyed it!

:rotfl: Sometimes I sing that song just to bug John! It drives him nuts! It used to be my ringtone, but I got rid of it because I was afraid he was going to jump up and down on my phone everytime someone called me!

nice hoodie!!!! Did you get any type of discount with it?! Are you wearing it at home a lot?!!! :)

Thank you! :) I didn't get a discount, unfortunately. :sad1: However, I did wear it at home a lot once we got back, and it ended up being a life saver on the rest of our freezing cold trip! :thumbsup2

I love the hoodie! I love brown and pink together! My luggage is brown and pink! I love it because so far I haven't seen anyone else with the same luggage! :rotfl:

The Winnie the Pooh ride is so cute! I missed the new queue, though, it looks adorable! Although, there's no way I'd touch anything either! :laughing:

I was laughing when I read the part about you and John going on IASW...Brandon and I are the same way! I always want to go on, just because it's such a Disney classic, and he can't stand it! Usually he will give in and ride it, and whine the whole time, but this past trip, he refused! So in October, we're going on it twice, to make up for it! :rolleyes1

Can't wait to read more!

Thank you! :) I really liked that color combination too! It's so pretty!

Yeah, the new queue was great, but those screens just looked like the ultimate germ hangout! :rotfl:

:laughing: What do all these guys have against IASM?! John says it's "creepy". :confused3 I'm sure Brandon is just going to loooove riding it twice in October! :rotfl:

therussells08

03-20-2011, 04:23 PM

Cute hoodie! I bet it made the rest of your day much more enjoyable now that you had an extra layer :) Wow an hour and a half for Peter Pan :eek: I can't believe people wait that long!

Thank you! :) It definitely made the day SO much better! I know, I couldn't believe people were willing to wait that long either! :confused3

Loving your TR!!! It sounds like you guys hare having a great time so far minus the cold. I love all of your Disney Christmas presents...it sounds like it is still a lot of fun at your parents house on Christmas morning. Can't wait to read the rest of your TR.

Thank you! :) The cold made it a little harder to have a great time, but we still managed to! Christmas morning at my parents' house is so much fun! It's just like when I was a kid! I'm so glad you're enjoying my TR! Thanks for reading along! :goodvibes

Yay for finding a jacket and continuing to play in the MK!

Thank you! :) I was so happy!

Love the jacket!
Its amazing how energizing it can be to get warm and refocus on the magic of Disney. Ill make sure we bring extra jackets for our trip in December. I so not do well being cold.

Thank you! :) The warmth really did energize me! I felt so much better! I would definitely recommend bringing extra jackets. I will never make the mistake of coming unprepared again!

We are planning a Christmas Break trip in 2013. Everyone thinks we are completely insane for planning to actually be there on Christmas. Can't wait to read all of this. Going back to read your entire PTR before I start. :goodvibes

:welcome: Thank you for reading along! I am so excited to hear about your Christmas trip. Don't worry, everyone thought we were insane too! ;) They just don't get it until they see those beautiful Christmas decorations and all that Disney magic! :goodvibes

therussells08

03-20-2011, 04:52 PM

As John and I were getting off It's a Small World it was just starting to get dark. John really wanted to stop for a cigarette break, so we headed over to the one smoking area in Fantasyland. As we turned a corner to approach the spot, my eyes beheld one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen: the Christmas lights on the castle!

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Jen (Nermel9) had told me they were going to be beautiful, but I was SO not prepared for just how gorgeous they would be! I immediately y began snapping pictures on my cell phone and proceeded to text them to everyone I know.

After John finished his break we headed back to the hub so I could take more pictures. I just couldn't get enough pictures of that beautiful castle! I had never seen anything like it.

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Suddenly, I was on a mission: get as many Photo Pass pictures as we possibly could! We started going to different spots along Main Street to try and get the best shots of the castle.

Unfortunately, even after four or five different stops, I was not happy at all with how these pictures came out. The long day and lingering head cold was starting to show on my haggard looking face, and half of the pictures came out blurry. I was really hoping to use one of these pictures for our Christmas card next year, but I'm really not happy with any of them. Here's just a few, so you can see for yourself.

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We walked up to near the entrance for this one so we could get all of the hanging decorations on Main Street in the picture.

After we finished with the PP Photographers I attempted to get my own shot of the decorations on Main Street. My camera, unfortunately, didn't cooperate.

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Now, our original plan had been to eat our big lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern and then to skip dinner so we would be nice and hungry for the Wishes Dessert Party at 9pm. However, our tummies had another plan altogether! There's something about Disney that makes me eat more than I ever want to eat at home. I guess it's just because the food it so good, but I always get SO hungry there! John and I both decided that we needed to use one of our meal credits on the DxDP for a quick service meal. We agreed on heading over to our absolute favorite quick service spot: Columbia Harbor House.

When we got there the place was almost empty, so we got our food and headed to a really nice secluded room upstairs. There was only a few other families in there, and we grabbed a really cozy table for two in the corner. It was so warm and peaceful, I really felt like I was in a colonial era home eating dinner.

John and I both ordered one of our favorite Disney meals: the fried fish basket. We both got fries as our side, and had the apple crisp for dessert. Our only meal difference was that I had a diet soda and John had a regular soda.

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Sorry, the picture came out pretty dark because the lighting in the room was so low. This meal was really tasty, but I didn't eat as much as I normally would because I wanted to save my appetite for the dessert party. I barely even touched my apple crisp. I'm sure I would have devoured it any other time, but I knew there were far more delicious desserts in my near future.

We took our time eating our dinner because it was so wonderfully cozy and warm in the restaurant.

There was a really nice family of adults next to us and we talked to them a little. One of the ladies complimented me on my Dooney & Bourke bag, and then one of the men realized that he had lost his bag somewhere. They started searching frantically and left in a rush. I felt really bad for them, because I know how stressful it is when you realize you've lost something. That is one reason why I love the crossbody D&B bag so much. I never have to take it off, so I always know it's right there with me. Plus the bag zips up, so I don't have to worry about anything falling out on a ride.

Anyway, after we finished our dinner we decided to hang out in Liberty Square a little longer and take another ride in our beloved "doom" buggy.

I took a picture of Haunted Mansion as we were walking over because it looks so cool at night. The picture didn't come out like I hoped it would, but I kind of like it. It makes the mansion look so creepy!

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We had a great time riding the Haunted Mansion, but after we got off it felt like the temperature had dropped ten more degrees. I was SO cold again! Suddenly my new jacket didn't feel very warm at all.

John and I decided since we got two snack credits each per day with the Deluxe Dining Plan that we would use a few to get something warm to drink. We went back into Columbia Harbor House to order a hot chocolate for me and a coffee for John.

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I was so happy to have my warm beverage!

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We still had some more time to kill before the dessert party, so we wandered back over to Tomorrowland. The line for Space Mountain was a little too long, so we decided to try something we had never tried before.

We're going to call this segment of my TR, "Joni and John make their first stupid decision of the trip." Sound good? Okay, here we go.

We decided to ride Astro Orbiter.

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As soon as I realized you had to take an elevator to get to it, I knew riding this thing was against my better judgement. However, my curiosity got the best of me and I agreed. We rode our little elevator to the top, and almost immediately it was time to load into our torture device...I mean ride vehicle.

Somehow, I honestly don't know how we managed it, John and I crammed ourselves into one of the little space ships together. At this point I still didn't know what was in store, so I was pretty happy. I snapped a very cruddy one armed picture of John and me getting ready to ride.

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And then, we were off. OH. MY. GOSH. It was SOOOO cold! We were flying around in circles about a mile over Magic Kingdom, and I felt like I was going to freeze to death. The cold air literally felt like needles stabbing me all over my face. Within seconds I was chanting, "I want to get off, I want to get off..." It would have been really pretty, seeing all of Magic Kingdom lit up at night like that, if it wasn't for the fact that I felt like I was riding full speed on the back of a champion dogsled team in the Iditarod.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, our space ship descended back to planet earth and we were allowed to get off.

As we rode the elevator down, John and I looked at each other and simultaneously said, "NEVER again."

Up Next: The Wishes Dessert Party and the end of our first fabulous day at Disney! Which room will we get at POP? Stay tuned to find out!

SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE

03-20-2011, 05:27 PM

TanzUnited99

03-21-2011, 10:16 AM

Love the castle pics!! They look soo good! :cool1:

Think the Photopass pics came out ok considering how cold you were...my fav is the one with the hanging decorations :thumbsup2

Am glad you managed to warm up at CHH - hope that person found his bag :eek:

Have just read another Astro Orbitor horror story recently on these boards so after reading yours as well think we will stay away from that ride :scared1:

Parla

03-21-2011, 02:28 PM

Just finished reading your PTR. Didn't want to post there (always amazed how long those things are left open) so here goes.

I love Ratatouille. But only when I'm watching it. It's a really good movie and I don't understand why it isn't one everyone thinks of as a good movie. But even I don't remember how much I like it until the kids put it in or it comes on the Disney Channel.

Love that you went with DxDP. We also love to sit and relax for our dinners rather than fight for tables and condiments. Plus, so many great restaurants to choose from.

That Abu is an ugly little squishy. Can't wait to see pictures of him around the world though. Love that you re-discovered him while going through your sister's DVDs looking for DMR codes. :lmao: Shhhh... I use to put movies on hold at the library to get them but then they changed their policy and you couldn't put movies on hold in advance anymore.

Also, thanks for the idea to do all of your posts in a different color of ink. It was much easier to go through and skip all the guesses on the waiting game. ;)

Now on the the TR.

mom2mek

03-21-2011, 02:47 PM

Brrr....oh man, that sounds cold! Thunder Mountain in the cold air is enough for me, thank you very much. I could never do Astro Orbiter! You poor thing!

I can't wait to hear about the dessert party! :goodvibes

Sara

Tracy161

03-21-2011, 03:35 PM

Your castle pictures are amazing!!! :goodvibes I'm cold just thinking about you and John up there on the Astro Orbiter though, brrr! I've never done that ride myself but will definitely try for the first time when the temperature is 80 or above! :rotfl:

Can't wait to hear about the Wishes dessert party! :cloud9:

Nermel9

03-21-2011, 04:23 PM

I love your castle pics! And your photopass pictures are beautiful, I don't know what you're talking about, you look great in all of them, you don't look tired at all! :goodvibes I really like the one with the decorations on Main Street, we did that picture too, and it's one of the ones that I actually like from the trip!

OMG, we had the same experience on the Astro Orbiter! :rotfl: Isn't it the worst ride ever!!!! :scared1: I was cold too, when I went on it, and it was pretty nice the night I went on it, I can only imagine how frozen you guys were! :eek:

Can't wait to hear about the Wishes dessert party! It seems like so long ago that I went to mine. :sad1:

Cat0727

03-21-2011, 05:39 PM

Parla

03-22-2011, 04:20 AM

Woohoo! Caught up.

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Love the Patrick Swayze reference in your shirt! ;)

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I love that picture. Glad John was a good sport. Most people that don't like to smile for pictures get annoyed easily when you try to make them.:goodvibes

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As soon as I saw that picture I was wondering where the thumbs were. What a bad design. Glad you were able to find something. I wonder if Disney makes more selling ponchos all year or selling jackets, gloves, scarves and such during the winter months.

I saw in the mall a pair of gloves that apparently allowed you to use your touch screen, but they were like thirty dollars!

When I was thinking of getting an iphone I read about those. I thought about ordering them. I ended up deciding not to switch to AT&T and forgot about them. We got droids with Verizon. Of course they have iphones now. Only regret is some companies only have iphone apps and not both iphone and droid apps.

I always love Haunted Mansion SO much! This is going to sound weird because it's supposed to be a haunted house, but I always feel so cozy riding in my "doom buggy" with John!

I don't think that sounds weird. I remember feeling that way when we rode on our Honeymoon. Unfortunately the kids have never gotten to ride it. DS was too scared on his first trip and it was closed for refurbishment on our last trip. I plan on riding it as much as possible in October.

I got so excited about santa. I was like Buddy the Elf. I kept saying to John, "SANTA! I KNOW him!" :rotfl:

That's one of our favorite movies! TMI but we also love to yell, "Did you hear that?" if someone burps. :lmao:

They had a little boy who obviously had a pretty bad cold. His nose was running so bad it was dripping down the front of his coat, and he had a horrible cough. He was crying nonstop and kept laying down on the ground and not moving forward, and his parents would just move forward in line and leave him lying there!

That makes me so sad. That little boy was obviously sick and would have had a much better day with some chicken soup while cuddled up at the hotel watching the Disney Channel.

On a side note (excluded all the Toon Town stuff from your quote already) I've never been to Toon Town. We meant to stop by on our last two trips but we had so much character dining on the first one that we didn't want to take the time. Now I'm sad. Glad I never had to deal with the crowds there though. :thumbsup2

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/Photo0048FourBySix.jpg

Let me start by saying there is nothing wrong with John's jacket. I wouldn't have a problem with my son or husband wearing the same thing. But... am I the only one that finds it absolutely hilarious that he is wearing that in front of the castle on a picture that says Happy Holidays? :rotfl:

There was a really nice family of adults next to us and we talked to them a little. One of the ladies complimented me on my Dooney & Bourke bag, and then one of the men realized that he had lost his bag somewhere. They started searching frantically and left in a rush. I felt really bad for them, because I know how stressful it is when you realize you've lost something. That is one reason why I love the crossbody D&B bag so much. I never have to take it off, so I always know it's right there with me. Plus the bag zips up, so I don't have to worry about anything falling out on a ride.

I know that lost something feeling entirely too well.

Can't wait for more. You're still on day one!!! Nice detail work, gotta commend you on that. :goodvibes

saralexander97

03-23-2011, 09:06 PM

The castle looks so amazing all light up. I cannot wait to see that in December, WOW what an experience. I sure hope the dessert party is inside, because you look soooooooo cold. What was the temperature? I sure hope you had some warm days. Cant wait to hear more, you have me hooked.:surfweb:

laashley

03-24-2011, 10:57 PM

Oh, no to Astrorbitor. No fun in the cold.

Yum! Columbia Harbour House. Good idea not getting too stuffed. Gotta enjoy those treats at the dessert party.

therussells08

03-26-2011, 09:36 AM

I completely agree about the castle! You just really can't describe or capture how beautiful it is. :cloud9: Everyone should see it once!

I think everyone has an Astro Orbiter horror story! :lmao: I just hate how uncomfortable the thing is. There really should be more room in the "spaceships". Sadly, Miguel loves this attraction. I was successful of steering him away from it on our recent trip but I have a feeling we'll be riding on the Disneymoon. :sad2:

I can't wait to hear about the dessert party! I just made our reservation for one today! :woohoo:

Yes, everyone definitely needs to see the castle at Christmas at least once! It's gorgeous!

Astro Orbiter was not my favorite ride of this trip, to say the least! I'm glad to hear you avoided it on your last trip! I hope you can avoid it on your Disneymoon as well!

Love the castle pics!! They look soo good! :cool1:

Think the Photopass pics came out ok considering how cold you were...my fav is the one with the hanging decorations :thumbsup2

Am glad you managed to warm up at CHH - hope that person found his bag :eek:

Have just read another Astro Orbitor horror story recently on these boards so after reading yours as well think we will stay away from that ride :scared1:

Thank you! I really loved those pictures too, especially the one where I was looking up at the castle.

Thanks! I really didn't like this set of pics, but there are some that more than make up for these later in the trip!

CHH was so nice! That was such a relaxing part of the day. I hope he found his bag too! I felt really bad for him.

I think Astro Orbiter wouldn't be that bad if we had ridden it when it was warmer out. If you do choose to ride it make sure you ride it at night, because the rest of the park looks really pretty.

Just finished reading your PTR. Didn't want to post there (always amazed how long those things are left open) so here goes.

I love Ratatouille. But only when I'm watching it. It's a really good movie and I don't understand why it isn't one everyone thinks of as a good movie. But even I don't remember how much I like it until the kids put it in or it comes on the Disney Channel.

Love that you went with DxDP. We also love to sit and relax for our dinners rather than fight for tables and condiments. Plus, so many great restaurants to choose from.

That Abu is an ugly little squishy. Can't wait to see pictures of him around the world though. Love that you re-discovered him while going through your sister's DVDs looking for DMR codes. :lmao: Shhhh... I use to put movies on hold at the library to get them but then they changed their policy and you couldn't put movies on hold in advance anymore.

Also, thanks for the idea to do all of your posts in a different color of ink. It was much easier to go through and skip all the guesses on the waiting game. ;)

Now on the the TR.

:eek: I can't believe you read me entire PTR! That is so cool! Thank you!!

I'm not sure why I don't love Ratatouille. It has all the makings of a movie I should really like, but it's just never been one of my favorites. I would still pick it over any non-Disney movie, though!

We were so happy with the DxDP! I don't think it's something we will do every trip, but it was perfect for this trip because it gave us so many nice breaks from the hustle and bustle of the holiday crowds...and the cold!

Abu ended up missing out on quite a bit of this trip. I think I left him the car most of the time! I was at the video store last night, and I realized that all of the Disney movies for rent there still had their DMC codes in them! :eek: I really wanted to take them all, but I was scared I might get in trouble!

I'm glad you like the different color posts! Now I've started adding the table of contents with this TR, which makes it even easier! :)

Brrr....oh man, that sounds cold! Thunder Mountain in the cold air is enough for me, thank you very much. I could never do Astro Orbiter! You poor thing!

I can't wait to hear about the dessert party! :goodvibes

Sara

Astro Orbiter + cold air = misery. That is a formula I will remember the rest of my life!

Dessert Party update coming VERY soon! Stay tuned!

Your castle pictures are amazing!!! :goodvibes I'm cold just thinking about you and John up there on the Astro Orbiter though, brrr! I've never done that ride myself but will definitely try for the first time when the temperature is 80 or above! :rotfl:

Can't wait to hear about the Wishes dessert party! :cloud9:

Thank you! I'm glad you liked them! :) I don't think Astro Orbiter will be bad at all as long as you try it in warm weather. The view was actually really pretty!

I'm getting ready to post the Dessert Party update!

I love your castle pics! And your photopass pictures are beautiful, I don't know what you're talking about, you look great in all of them, you don't look tired at all! :goodvibes I really like the one with the decorations on Main Street, we did that picture too, and it's one of the ones that I actually like from the trip!

OMG, we had the same experience on the Astro Orbiter! :rotfl: Isn't it the worst ride ever!!!! :scared1: I was cold too, when I went on it, and it was pretty nice the night I went on it, I can only imagine how frozen you guys were! :eek:

Can't wait to hear about the Wishes dessert party! It seems like so long ago that I went to mine. :sad1:

Thank you! Your comments made me feel better. I felt like I looked so haggard in those pictures. I have a lot more PP pictures from the rest of the trip that I like waaaaay more!

:rotfl: I cracked up when I read your post about the astro orbiter, because we really did have the exact same experience!

I was reminiscing about the Dessert Party this morning and it seems like an eternity since ours too! :sad1:

therussells08

03-26-2011, 09:49 AM

Your castle pictures came out so lovely!

Haha omg :lmao: at you calling Astro Orbiter's ride vehicle a torture device! I totally agree. I didn't know prior to riding that the rocket ships were built to tilt at an angle. For some reason I thought my boyfriend was making it tilt over by moving the stick and I was screaming at him the whole time to stop and that if he didn't I was going to kill him :rotfl: I can't imagine how frozen you guys were afterward...do you guys laugh about your experience now?

Thank you! :)

:rotfl: You story about your experience on the ride had me cracking up! That is definitely something I could see myself doing! It is a lot easier to laugh about that experience now, especially that I can feel my fingers and toes again! :laughing:

Woohoo! Caught up.

Love the Patrick Swayze reference in your shirt! ;)

I love that picture. Glad John was a good sport. Most people that don't like to smile for pictures get annoyed easily when you try to make them.:goodvibes

As soon as I saw that picture I was wondering where the thumbs were. What a bad design. Glad you were able to find something. I wonder if Disney makes more selling ponchos all year or selling jackets, gloves, scarves and such during the winter months.

When I was thinking of getting an iphone I read about those. I thought about ordering them. I ended up deciding not to switch to AT&T and forgot about them. We got droids with Verizon. Of course they have iphones now. Only regret is some companies only have iphone apps and not both iphone and droid apps.

I don't think that sounds weird. I remember feeling that way when we rode on our Honeymoon. Unfortunately the kids have never gotten to ride it. DS was too scared on his first trip and it was closed for refurbishment on our last trip. I plan on riding it as much as possible in October.

That's one of our favorite movies! TMI but we also love to yell, "Did you hear that?" if someone burps. :lmao:

That makes me so sad. That little boy was obviously sick and would have had a much better day with some chicken soup while cuddled up at the hotel watching the Disney Channel.

On a side note (excluded all the Toon Town stuff from your quote already) I've never been to Toon Town. We meant to stop by on our last two trips but we had so much character dining on the first one that we didn't want to take the time. Now I'm sad. Glad I never had to deal with the crowds there though. :thumbsup2

Let me start by saying there is nothing wrong with John's jacket. I wouldn't have a problem with my son or husband wearing the same thing. But... am I the only one that finds it absolutely hilarious that he is wearing that in front of the castle on a picture that says Happy Holidays? :rotfl:

I know that lost something feeling entirely too well.

Can't wait for more. You're still on day one!!! Nice detail work, gotta commend you on that. :goodvibes

You are so awesome! Thank you so much for reading all of my ramblings! :hug:

Yay! You noticed my shirt! We actually live about an hour and a half away from Lake Lure, which is where they filmed the lake scene of Dirty Dancing, along with the scenes in the employees cabins and the employee club. They had this Dirty Dancing festival there last year and John took me. The festival itself was not very great, but I loved going around and seeing the spots where Patrick Swayze filmed!

John was such a great sport in that picture! I'm so lucky to have him, because he truly loves Disney and has a blast on all of our vacations there! I always send a little thanks up when I hear others complaining that their DHs don't want to go to Disney. I can't imagine that!

Yeah, I definitely didn't like the thumbless design. I bet that usually Disney makes more money selling ponchos, but definitely not last year with that FREEZING cold winter! I think I could have bought about twenty ponchos with what I spent on that jacket and those gloves!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has felt that way about HM! I love it so much! I hope you get to ride it a whole bunch in October! :)

AHHH! We do the "Did you HEAR that?" thing when we burp too! :rotfl: That is so funny!

I felt really bad for that little boy too. What's the point in being at Disney if your child is miserable?

I'm glad we went to Toon Town for that one last look, but the crowds there made it pretty unpleasant. I am sad it's gone, but I can't wait to see the new Fantasyland additions!

:rotfl: Trust me, you are not the only one who finds John's jacket in these pictures hilarious. Let me tell you the background story: I wanted John and I to BOTH get cute Disney clothes for Christmas that we could wear on the trip. Well, I got a lot of great stuff, and John got a really nice Space Mountain shirt, but he also got THAT hoodie. I wanted to shake my mom and say "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!" Because, just as I expected, he wore that thing the ENTIRE trip. So almost everyone of my beautiful PP pictures have that giant gleaming skull from some video game in them! :sad2:

I am definitely taking a loooong time with this TR! I need to hurry up, because I need to start a PTR soon! :rolleyes1

The castle looks so amazing all light up. I cannot wait to see that in December, WOW what an experience. I sure hope the dessert party is inside, because you look soooooooo cold. What was the temperature? I sure hope you had some warm days. Cant wait to hear more, you have me hooked.:surfweb:

You are going to love the castle! Unfortunately, the Dessert Party was not inside. I think it was hovering around 30 that night. We had a few warm days, but they waited until the end of the trip!

I'm so glad you are enjoying my TR! Thank you! :hug:

Oh, no to Astrorbitor. No fun in the cold.

Yum! Columbia Harbour House. Good idea not getting too stuffed. Gotta enjoy those treats at the dessert party.

DEFINITELY no fun in the cold! :rotfl:

Ohhh yes, had to save some room, and I was glad I did! :thumbsup2

therussells08

03-26-2011, 10:37 AM

After our fabulous (yeah right) experience on Astro Orbiter, it was finally almost 9 o'clock and time to head over to the Wishes Dessert Party! I was so excited about this experience! I have never really had a great view of Wishes in our past trips, so I was really glad that we would have VIP seating, and some tasty treats to go along with it!

We headed over to Tomorrowland Terrace to check in. There was a line of about twenty people. Before we knew it a few guys started coming around and checking our names off. They gave us a wristband and we were on our way!

Here is a picture of the check in podium.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010201.jpg

A nice lady lead us to our reserved table, which was in the VERY front! We were so excited! Our view of the castle was absolutely perfect!

Here is the view from our table.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010202.jpg

As soon as we were seated it was time to go get that dessert! The buffet was set up behind us, and there was several rows of delicious looking treats. John and I headed over together and commenced to filling our plates. I was REALLY excited when I saw that they had giant containers of piping hot coffee and hot chocolate! After we sat down with our plates John went back and got us both a hot chocolate.

Here is my plate.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010204.jpg

I tried to make that picture pretty, with our place card and the napkin placed just so. ;) Then I tried to take a really artsy picture, with the castle behind my plate.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010205.jpg

I'm not really good with artistic shots, but it shows you how close we were to the castle!

Okay, I am going to try to list everything on my plate, and then give a little rating of whether or not I liked it. I'm sorry, I can't remember the "real" name for everything.

Mango Shooter (bottom left, yellow cup)- This was really yummy! It was almost like a mini-smoothie.

Chocolate pudding thing with chocolate crumbs (bottom front)- This was chocolate on chocolate, so of course I loved it!

Cannoli (next to pudding cup)- I thought this was okay, but it wasn't my favorite. John loved it, and finished mine and his.

Strawberry Berry Tart (under the cannoli)- This was pretty good. I ended up picking the fresh fruit out and eating that and leaving the sticky glazed cup it was in. I really love blackberries though, so I was happy with it.

Tiramisu- (behind the pudding cup with the striped wafer)- I don't know why I got this, because I hate tiramisu. I think it was just because it was so pretty. I tasted a little bit, but John ate the rest for me.

Banana Cream Tartlet (behind the tiramisu)- This was really good! It was like a little banana pudding cup. I loved it, and so did John!

Kiwi Mandarin Orange Tartlet (next to the banana tartlet)- This was kind of like the berry tart. I ate the kiwi and the orange, but left the stuff it was sitting in.

Chocolate Covered Strawberry (behind the mango shooter)- Delicious, of course! I mean, it was a chocolate covered strawberry! :)

Pistachio Creme Brulee (tiny cup next to the hot chocolate)- This was something I had never tried before, and I actually liked it. I only ate a little bit, but it was pretty good!

That was all the desserts I tried. Overall I was really happy with the selection. I'm glad they had some things I had never tried before, but they also had a few favorites that I knew I would love. It was a great dessert experience!

While we were eating our desserts I got really excited when I saw that we had a pretty good view of the Electrical Parade! I snapped a picture of the beginning.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010206.jpg

The picture didn't come out great, but we could see the parade perfectly. We sat and enjoyed that while I drank about five cups of hot chocolate to keep warm.

After the parade we still had about twenty five minutes before Holiday Wishes started. The desserts had been eaten, so there was nothing left to do but wait. This was when the cold really started to set in. :sad2: I had been pretty cold the entire day, but nothing compared to how cold I was now. I just sat there shivering and shivering, and the wait seemed like an eternity. I took my old jacket that I had warn into the park out of the bag and stuck it down the front of my new jacket so I could use the hood to cover my face. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, but it helped me warm up some!

I was really starting to stress out at this point because I remembered reading Jen's (Nermel9) TR about the Wishes Dessert Party and how everyone stood up before the fireworks started. I really didn't want anyone to stand up, because we had a perfect view and I was trying to stay warm by sitting down in my little jacket cocoon. Luckily I guess I wasn't the only one who felt that way, because when the show started everyone stayed seated. It was great! :cloud9:

Finally, it was time for Wishes to start! I am really excited about the treat I have for you all. I videotaped the show on my brand new HD video camera that my mother -in-law had gotten me for Christmas. I hope you enjoy the video. It is pretty long, but I got the ENTIRE Holiday Wishes, including a great shot of Tink flying over the crowd! I posted it on YouTube, so I will post the link below!

Holiday Wishes in High Definition! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5V-0peAseQ&hd=1)

The show really gets going around 2:05 in the video.

Once that show started all of my feelings of cold melted away! :goodvibes It was so magical, as you can see by the video! I absolutely loved it. I still think that the MNSSHP fireworks show is my favorite, but this one was a close second!

When the show ended it was time to head out of the park and get some sleep. I was so exhausted and freezing cold, all I wanted to do was collapse into bed. We started heading with the masses toward the exit. On our way, however, we started noticing that a lot of people were covering themselves up with these really pretty throw blankets that had a huge pictures on them of the castle with the Christmas lights on. I really wanted one, so John and I went into the Emporium to see if we could sniff them out.

It only took us a few minutes to find them, and I got really upset when I realized they were one of those promotional items that you can get for a really cheap price (I think they were $15) if you spent $40 in the store. I hadn't seen these earlier when I bought my $50 jacket! :headache:

I convinced John to go show our receipt from earlier to the cashier to see if we could get the blanket. The cashier was really nice and she understood exactly what we wanted to do before we even asked. She let us have the blanket for the promotional price, and we left happy!

On our way out of the park I noticed a little area that I hadn't noticed earlier that day. I think it was called the Candy Cane Village. I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess this is where you could go to meet Santa Claus. I took a picture because it was really cute and there was a sign that said "365 days til Christmas".

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010208.jpg

After a seemingly long monorail journey, tram ride back to our car, and drive to the resort, we finally made it to POP. We had been texted our room number earlier in the day, and when we had checked in that morning we were told which building we would be in, so we knew exactly where we needed to go.

I think I was half asleep as we dragged our luggage to the room. We had a pool view room, so I had to take a second to look at the Hippy Dippy pool with steam rising off it in the cold air. Our room was on the top floor of the 60s building, in the very corner next to the giant Mowgli and Baloo.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010211.jpg

This turned out to be a perfect room location. We loved it! More on that later.

I was excited to discover that we had a flat screen TV in our room. I guess all of the preferred rooms at POP have been refurbished now, but I was still happy to get a refurb room.

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010210.jpg

I didn't manage to get a picture of the room before we had dumped all of our stuff on the beds, so excuse the mess!

http://i953.photobucket.com/albums/ae20/therussells08/DisneyChristmasTrip2010209.jpg

We got settled in as quickly as possible, and the first thing I did was take a scalding hot bath! It was so nice to finally be warm. After my bath I crawled into bed and turned the TV to Stacey. I think I was asleep before I heard her say "must do" three times.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the end of our first WONDERFUL day at Disney World! :wizard:

Up Next: John and I head to Disney's Hollywood Studios!